English Entertainment
Sitcoms, crime shows waning in the US
MUMBAI: With Friends and Frasier coming to a close earlier this year the share of sitcoms in primetime programming in the US has gone down. However the amount of content devoted to teen shows is on the up.
A study was conducted by the Chicano Studies Research Center at the University of California, Los Angeles. In 2002 sitcoms occupied 21.8 per cent of prime-time
hours and in 2003, 21.7 per cent. This year the share dropped sharply to 15.5 per cent. Last year, crime shows constituted 22.7 per cent of prime-time hours. This year they occupy just 15.5 per cent.
More teen shows fill the mediascape this year. This trend that might be attributed to the economic benefits received by the US networks when they create shows that appeal to youth audiences. Five per cent of primetime hours are dedicated to the teen scene. Even CBS, a network known for its persistent courting of the 25-54 yearold age group, has programmed a teen series this year, Clubhouse..
The rise of reality programming this year has come at the expense of sitcoms and crime shows. Reality series now dominate prime-time, occupying 21 hours of programming time and making up 20 per cent of prime-time hours. They are money-savers for the networks because they are cheap to produce, but they also maintain high viewership and promote viewer feedback, particularly vis-à-vis the internet.
Both NBC and UPN are also saving money with their wildly popular reality shows The Apprentice and Americas Next Top Model by airing the same episode twice in one week.
Another study conducted by the same organisation found that the US networks are giving short shrift to minority characters. Television series feature largely white casts even when the setting is an ethnically diverse city such as Los Angeles or New York. While Los Angeles County’s population is nearly 45 per cent Hispanic, Hispanics accounted for only 14 per cent of characters seen regularly on the eight 2004 primetime series set in Los Angeles.
There were no Asian-American regular characters, the study found, although this ethnic group makes up 12 per cent of Los Angeles County’s population. One of the show that is set in an ethnically diverse city but has an all-white cast is the sitcom Joey.
On reality shows, white male hosts are the standard, the study found. The Next Great Champ, which aired on Fox before moving to Fox Sports due to disappointing ratings had the sole Hispanic host with boxer Oscar De La Hoya. ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, UPN and WB fell short of demographic representation, although ABC “shows promise” with its roster of Hispanic characters, according to the study.
English Entertainment
Ellison takes his Paramount-Warner Bros case straight to theater owners
The Skydance chief goes to CinemaCon with promises and a skeptical crowd waiting
CALIFORNIA: David Ellison strode into a room packed with thousands of cinema owners and executives at CinemaCon in Las Vegas on Thursday and did something rather bold: he looked them in the eye and asked them to trust him.
The chief executive of Paramount Skydance vowed that his company would release a minimum of 30 films a year if regulators greenlight its proposed $110 billion acquisition of Warner Bros Discovery, a deal that has made theater owners deeply, and loudly, nervous.
“I wanted to look every single one of you in the eye and give you my word,” Ellison told the crowd. “Once we combine with Warner Bros, we are going to make a minimum of 30 films annually across both studios.”
It was a confident pitch. Whether it landed is another matter. Cinema operators have already called on regulators to block the deal, and scepticism in the room was hardly concealed.
Ellison pushed back by pointing to recent form. Paramount, born from the merger of Paramount Global and Skydance Media last August, plans to release 15 films this year, nearly double the eight it put out in 2025. Progress, he argued, was already underway.
He also threw theater owners a bone they have long been chasing: all films, he pledged, would run exclusively in cinemas for a minimum of 45 days, drawing applause from a crowd that has spent years fighting for exactly that commitment across the industry.
“People can speculate all they want,” Ellison said, “but I am standing here today telling you personally that you can count on our complete commitment. And we’ll show you we mean it.”
Fine words. The regulators, however, will have the last one.
