Predictions for 2012
ATV Today looks ahead for 2012 and, as is our tradition, casts some predictions for the world of television. Will they come true? Only time will tell….
General Hospital
By mid-January medical soap General Hospital will be the last remaining daytime soap on ABC after One Life to Live comes off-air. The future of General Hospital isn’t bright; in fact the soap opera is on the critical list. It is the lowest rated ABC soap (axed One Life to Live rates higher) and it’s ratings often put it below Days of our Lives though admittedly the two series’ do tend to swap places at the bottom on a regular basis.
It is quite obvious that ABC intends to move away from the daytime soap opera towards cheaper programming such as talk shows and life style programmes. That makes General Hospital vulnerable and the fact that Katie Couric’s brand new chat-show is scheduled to launch in GH‘s time-slot, in September 2012, makes the soap look doomed to be axed. ABC may decided to shift GH to elsewhere in its schedules but the real danger is it will merely decide to axe the series and do away with soap operas all together. 2012 will be make or break for the soap and at this present point in time we don’t see it surviving. *
* This is not to say that we want to see GH axed, far from it, but this is our prediction.
CSI
The CSI franchise is no longer top-dog and it has fallen from grace to such a level where there is a serious possibility that one of its shows will be axed. In fact that possibility has been around for a while now and it was widely speculated earlier this year that CBS would axe one of the CSI shows because of ratings; it didn’t and instead renewed all three.
However, NBC has dispatched Law and Order and struggling spin-off Los Angeles to the graveyard clearly showing that the age of big franchises is over and the brand name means nothing when ratings are low. CSI has perhaps, up till now, survived on its brand name and previous excellent performance. But its loyal fanbase isn’t delivering the big ratings the franchise once did and so CBS will be looking to introduce new shows to bring in audiences.
Which CSI show will fall? CSI, CSI: New York to CSI: Miami? We won’t call that one what we will say is, at this present point, we think at least one will fall.
Blue Peter
The BBC‘s flagship magazine programme for children has a long and rich history but its golden days are long behind it. The series is notorious for its catch phrase “here’s one I made earlier’ and for teaching children how to make things out of washing-up liquid bottles. It’s various charity appeals over the years has raised hundreds of thousands of pounds for good causes around the world. It has had more presenters than Pat Butcher has had husbands and some of them are more memorable than others.
Sadly though it seems that Blue Peter is on its way out. The modern age has caught up with the magazine show and its been given a ghastly make-over. It’s theme tune has been criminally modernised, it’s been shunted off to Salford and given a bland and cold studio and it has presenters no one could name if asked to on the street. The BBC has now announced Blue Peter will be cut down to one edition a week and soon it will be cut down to none. The BBC seems to want rid of Blue Peter perhaps because it isn’t trendy enough. Or perhaps because the BBC is run by pen-pushers who have no idea about making good television and care only about ratings and not quality.
Fringe
It’s the quirky sci-fi series that refuses to die despite being written-off as dead several times. Fringe has been on the death list for some time now because of its ratings and yet, at the time of writing, it is still going strong. It is an example of a series where critically acclaim matters and not ratings – at least not overnight ratings.
When Fringe was moved to the Friday evening slot – the so-called graveyard slot – fans cried out that Fox were trying to kill off their beloved series. You can’t blame them for such thoughts as Firefly, Dollhouse and The Sarah Connor Chronicles all died in the graveyard slot so the evidence was against Fringe surviving.
Fox surprised everyone by ordering a fourth season – the nay-sayers were proved wrong. Will Fox order a fifth series? Critical acclaim and good DVR figures are not enough to save Fringe another time. The sci-fi needs a series boost in overnight ratings to survive the axe again. Ratings are the driving force of broadcast television and if a show doesn’t have them it won’t survive for long.
Fringe has had one miracle saving; another one seems increasingly unlikely.
90210/Gossip Girl
The teen dramas on The CW haven’t had, ratings rise, a very good season so far. They both still have the second half of their seasons to go so perhaps they can yet turn around their flagging fortunes. They are not the only CW dramas to be struggling in the ratings with only The Vampire Diaries and The Secret Circle looking certain to survive thanks to strong ratings.
The CW will have to make some very tough choices about which shows it renews and which it casts aside and both 90210 and Gossip Girl look to be on the danger list. Will the broadcaster axe both? Quite possibly. A big clear out of under-performing shows would allow it to make way for new shows which it has in development. If we’re honest Nikita is likely to fall as well.
