Site Columns
By KristineJuly 9, 2004 - 6:03 PM
Hello World!
Reality TV is in, right? It's the new big thing and every network has jumped on the bandwagon. CBS has Survivor, NBC has Average Joe, ABC's got The Bachelor, Fox boasts American Idol...you can see where I'm going with this. Every network has at least one--but usually many more than that--reality television shows on its schedule. And reality television is a major component of this year's summer schedule, which is made up of quite a bit first-run programming.
So why are reruns of CSI and CSI: Miami trouncing all of these first run programs, from the second incarnation of The Simple Life to For Love or Money 3 to Last Comic Standing 2 to...need I go on? Repeats of the CSI shows are thriving this summer. The rerun shown on Thursday, July 1st drew 15.9 million viewers, which is more viewers than most shows get on their first airing. It was also only about 10 million viewers less the finale of CSI attracted. Over 60% viewer retention in reruns isn't bad, especially when there are first-run programs to compete with.
One might ask why repeats of a mystery show are thriving against first-run television. After all, once someone has seen who the killer is and how the CSIs catch him or her, why watch again? Sure, some of those 15.9 million viewers are probably people who missed the first telecast, but not all of them. The answer lies in the details: even once viewers have see the episode, it's fun to go back and watch the evidence being collected and see how it all adds up. And it's easy to miss clues the first time around. I also think it's sending a message to the programming people at the networks: people would rather examine a CSI case again rather than find out which conniving woman is kicked off this week's For Love or Money 3.
I hope the network executives are taking note. It's time to scale back on the reality shows. It's time to go back to developing intelligent, entertaining dramas like CSI. We could use a few more sitcoms of the calibre of Friends, Scrubs, Will & Grace and Everybody Loves Raymond, too. But ease up on the reality television. It's enough already!
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-The CSI: Miami soundtrack
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Happy Birthday!
Happy Birthday to Jorja Fox (Sara Sidle), who turned 36 on July 7th!
Today's Television Listings
On Monday, July 12th, CBS will air the CSI: Miami episode "Wannabe". Here is TV Guide's description of the episode:
This crime drama and the original Las Vegas-set series make working in forensics look pretty cool. After all, CSIs get to collect evidence at crime scenes, piece together clues in the lab and track down bad guys in the field. What's not to like? Well, in this first-rate story, an amateur sleuth finds out the job isn't all fun and games after he unwittingly becomes part of the murder investigation he wants to help solve. The CSI wannabe (Billy Kay) goes to the site of the homicide and steals a key piece of evidence that compromises the case and dramatically alters his life.
On Thursday, July 15th, CBS will show CSI: Crime Scene Investigation's episode "Bad Words". TV Guide describes the episode:
Catherine and Warrick suspect a serial arsonist is at work after a house fire kills a teenage girl in a neighborhood where there was a previous blaze a few days earlier; a champion at a popular word-game tournament is found dead of asphyxiation in a men's room and several tile letters are found in his throat and stomach.
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