Viewers tuned to CBS last Friday night may have caught something that made their jaws drop. I know my jaw did...
It was the CBS on-air promo for next week's Moonlight, which warned that there were only two first-run episodes left in the season -- and basically threatened viewers with the show's impending absence.
"You'll miss them when they're gone," CBS warned of these last remaining romantic vampire dramas. "So don't miss them when they're on."
What colossal nerve.
First, I won't miss Moonlight, thanks. It's not that good a show. But what this ad is doing is saying, basically, that these shows presented on broadcast TV are precious jewels. If we don't watch them, it's our fault.
Sorry, but in a strike-crippled season, especially, that's not the way it works. Moonlight won its time slot last week, but overall prime-time broadcast viewership is down since the writers' strike began in November. Millions of people, literally millions, went elsewhere for their entertainment. In a few weeks, when the May sweeps end and summer programming begins, they'll repeat, and probably increase, that driven-by-boredom migration.
The question now becomes, or ought to: Can the broadcast networks field a compelling enough lineup in the fall, and promote it properly enough, to woo those lost viewers back to the fold? Here's a hint, networks. To do so, make better programs than Moonlight -- and promote them better than by scoldng viewers that they have a duty to watch.
If watching TV is a duty, not a pleasure, the networks are the ones at fault.
"You'll miss them when they're gone" is a harsh, threatening line that can be repeated right back to the networks -- referring to their viewers.