Definition of a Hit Changes With the Times

摘要

This week's fall premieres kick off an anxious season of ratings spin and recalibration for the Big Five broadcast nets. Stability remains a popular concept among network schedulers. If a show delivered a number last season on Thursdays at 8, odds are still good it will return in that time slot. Last year, the itchy trigger fingers of yore grew more still, sparing us the spectacle of shows being yanked after an episode or two. All of that being said, though, staying the course in a landscape of massive change is a lot easier said than done. Broadcast networks used to worry primarily about each other, along with whether or not Nielsen was accurately measuring viewership. But toss in those heat-seeking cable dramas, then the dreaded DVR and, more recently, buzzy series debuting on the cool-kid OTTs, and stability risks seeming like sandy-headed ostrich behavior.