'Under The Dome', '24' and Broadcast's Push Into The Summer

Tonight marks the return of CBS's monster summer hit, Under The Dome (based on the Stephen King novel of the same name). Originally intended as a limited-series event, the ratings monster wasn't about to be let go by the broadcast giant, and was thus renewed for a second season. This, in addition to series including 24: Live Another Day, Extant and the upcoming Heroes Reborn are all signs of a now in full swing trend of broadcast television's first ever serious push into summer programming.

Before now, broadcast summers were home to three things: burn-off series that didn't make the fall or springs cuts, cheap reality television and foreign imports. That last one being the game changer. Series such as Flashpoint and Rookie Blue taught American broadcasters there was a legitimate audience hanging around during the summer, a fact even more proven by basic cable television that, up until now, had full run of the season with the likes of Burn Notice, Rescue Me and Breaking Bad. But now, especially in the wake of a year with some of the worst domestic box-office numbers on record, it appears broadcast's ready to stake its claim in the normally content light television season.

Regardless of how Under The Dome performs tonight, or 24 in the final episodes of its season for that matter, this summer trend of programming isn't going to stop. If for no other reason, one of the biggest things that will keep broadcast summers alive is the ability to experiment with typically riskier ideas (in both content and business) without risking lucrative time-slots in the fall. What makes Under The Dome the massive money maker that it is has not just to do with its ratings, but also its off network deals, the one CBS has with Amazon in particular; $700,000 per episode is nothing to sneeze at after all.

24's been a steady performer for Fox. Good thing, as the network had trouble gaining major traction with most of its programming in the last season, which is another advantage to summer tent-pole series. They can make-up for the failures of the fall and spring where demand for fresh concepts and franchises is high. It's debatable whether something like The Blacklist would have worked in the summer, but you can bet next year's Heroes Reborn will more than make up for this past season's failure of Dracula.

When the biggest summer film, Transformers: Age of Extinction, barely crosses $100 million domestically, it's a fair bet audiences might be skipping the highly expensive theatrical scene in favor of the much cheaper television option that delivers content they want to see in a presentation they can feel comfortable in, that of a user controlled experience. It's all win, no loss on the part of the audience to check out a series that, if they like even on a minute level, will be more than enough to be deemed successful on summer broadcast television where ratings expectations are typically lower.

Of course, it doesn't hurt that Under The Dome scored an average of four million viewers in adults 18-49 last year, but considering the revenue it generates in its exclusive streaming deal with Amazon, its ratings only matter so much. 24 may be performing at an average level for Nielsen, but the inclusion of a new season's what spawned a very lucrative exclusive deal, again, with Amazon, thus making the limited-series event worth it. With so many options open to them now, the big four will continue producing content for the summer because, in the age of lower ratings, they'll take the wins wherever they can get them.

Lokasi:

Share :