Prime time network television has changed in the past five years. In addition to all the crappy and forgettable reality shows like The Apprentice, The Simple Life and Celebrity Mole, we have the standard stupid-dad-smart-mom-sassy-kid sitcoms and TV dramas.
TV’s most surprising change since the advent of reality television isn’t the increasingly exploitative methods of deceiving people to attract viewers as in Average Joe, My Big Fat Obnoxious Fianc or Joe Millionaire.
What has happened to the prime time dramas?
The normal one-hour drama series is being absolutely dominated by themes of criminal justice as in Law and Order, CSI and NYPD Blue, the legal system in shows like The Practice and Judging Amy and national security as in Alias and 24.
There are currently 23 drama series with these themes on ABC, FOX, NBC, and CBS. That makes up approximately 27 percent of prime time television on those networks. The justice-themed series that air on CBS provides over 50 percent of all prime time programming for that network.
Every prime time drama on CBS is centered around good guys catching bad guys, with the exception of Joan of Arcadia (and even then, Joan’s father is a small town sheriff!).
One might think that with all these similarly themed shows, that viewers would run into redundancy and easily get bored.
But despite the similarities, several of these shows are actually intriguing to watch.
The networks are utterly obsessed with the themes of justice and safety, but they wouldn’t be so eager to stack their programming blocks with these shows unless viewers were willing to watch them every week.
In order to understand why people are so willing to watch three different series of Law & Order, we must take a look at ourselves.
1. America is a very nosy society.
We really can’t help being so inquisitive, it’s in our nature.
Our curiosity is exemplified by our love of tabloids, celebrity gossip, driving slowly by car accidents, or looking out the window when the police come to a neighbor’s house. Everything is our business.
Criminal investigations pry into every private part of a person’s life to get to the truth and that can be appealing to watch.
2. We need to feel protected and that justice is being served.
That’s why we like to see police in action when they’re giving sobriety tests by the side of the road or responding to an accident.
Watching it on TV reinforces our personal feelings of safety and security by knowing that the real deal is out there patrolling the streets and highways.
3. We need to feel informed because we’ve been made to be afraid.
The news media does a great job of informing us of everything, and I mean EVERYTHING that confirms our wildest fears.
Whether it’s the newest kidnapping, the threat level rising to the next color of Life Savers, the McMadCow panic or the next killer plague, we are told about it by every facet of the media.
Our recent obsession with crime dramas began with O.J. Simpson’s “trial of the century”, when the lines between criminal justice and entertainment, between reality and television were completely blurred.
The networks even pre-empted soap opera programming to show the trial proceedings live.
CNN carried round-the-clock coverage of the O.J. case as it caused a spectacle that could rival Operation Desert Storm in ratings.
The effects from the “trial of the century” can be seen on CourtTV which now televises court cases and commentary year round, and CSI: Crime Scene Investigation which revolutionized crime drama by making forensic science the star of the show five years after the DNA evidence used in the O.J. case fascinated the American public who were largely unfamiliar with it. To further confound the difference between entertainment and reality, prime time dramas run episodes “straight out of the headlines.” They make special episodes that run parallel story lines to real-life events.
Since 9/11 the three Law & Order series have run episodes revolving around suicide bombers, hate crimes against Muslims, anthrax attacks and serial snipers.
It remains unclear if the trend of mass-producing crime dramas and secret agent shows will continue after this year. However, CBS announced last week that it is adding a third series of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation to be set in New York City. The other two are already set in Las Vegas and Miami. NBC, not to be outdone, is rumored to be working on a fourth Law & Order series.
Meanwhile, I’ll be hoping that ABC brings back the ultimate secret agent/crime fighter: MacGyver!

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