Anecdotally I too have observed the pendulum swing back. Unfortunately it’s swung back too far in certain places, to the point where policing one’s language still exists but the rules have changed. Very confusing and discouraging.
Savage’s piece has an odd feeling to it, a set of assumptions that are unquestioned about natural distribution of jobs, or equilibrium positions.
I don’t debate “Woke” or DEI. But the real mystery in the numbers may be in the other end of the writing pipeline, what is being made.
For Broadcast TV,
2004-2024 comedy collapsed
2004: ~30-35 shows
2024: ~12-14 shows
Non-police drama collapsed
2004: ~18-22 shows
2024: ~2-4 shows
2004-2024 Police procedure
2004: ~10-12 shows
2024: ~12-14 shows
Even stranger, many procedurals were redundant - NCIS x 4, FBI x 4, the old CSI x 4
In a “Defund the police world” why did police procedural survive when sitcom and family drama evaporated? It’s counter-intuitive if you believe Woke and DEI reflect consumption shift.
This year is even stranger - if I were to watch network TV in the fall, what I remember was that fall was the big deal.
Yet, there were nights when there were no shows at all, weeks with no new scripted shows. Nothing. You don’t have just reruns, you have nights where the same show has 4 rerun slots, repeating monthly.
If I look at WGA (writers guild) entry and mid-level TV writing jobs dropped almost by half from 2019 to 2024. Some strange dynamic is going on and it doesn’t feel like Woke.
It reminds me of academia, like sociology - recirculating confirmation of ideas of which 90% non-replicable.
People are going into these jobs in fields which are not entirely relevant, and staffing isn’t about relevance in content, its relevance to rules.
The most rules-based work products are surviving, the ones with most creative constraint.
Anecdotally I too have observed the pendulum swing back. Unfortunately it’s swung back too far in certain places, to the point where policing one’s language still exists but the rules have changed. Very confusing and discouraging.
Yep, agreed. I sometimes worry that we’re constitutionally unable to spot an error without overcorrecting and making the opposite error in its place.
Savage’s piece has an odd feeling to it, a set of assumptions that are unquestioned about natural distribution of jobs, or equilibrium positions.
I don’t debate “Woke” or DEI. But the real mystery in the numbers may be in the other end of the writing pipeline, what is being made.
For Broadcast TV,
2004-2024 comedy collapsed
2004: ~30-35 shows
2024: ~12-14 shows
Non-police drama collapsed
2004: ~18-22 shows
2024: ~2-4 shows
2004-2024 Police procedure
2004: ~10-12 shows
2024: ~12-14 shows
Even stranger, many procedurals were redundant - NCIS x 4, FBI x 4, the old CSI x 4
In a “Defund the police world” why did police procedural survive when sitcom and family drama evaporated? It’s counter-intuitive if you believe Woke and DEI reflect consumption shift.
This year is even stranger - if I were to watch network TV in the fall, what I remember was that fall was the big deal.
Yet, there were nights when there were no shows at all, weeks with no new scripted shows. Nothing. You don’t have just reruns, you have nights where the same show has 4 rerun slots, repeating monthly.
If I look at WGA (writers guild) entry and mid-level TV writing jobs dropped almost by half from 2019 to 2024. Some strange dynamic is going on and it doesn’t feel like Woke.
It reminds me of academia, like sociology - recirculating confirmation of ideas of which 90% non-replicable.
People are going into these jobs in fields which are not entirely relevant, and staffing isn’t about relevance in content, its relevance to rules.
The most rules-based work products are surviving, the ones with most creative constraint.
I have a feeling my story will wrinkle any potential wrinkling of Jacob’s piece. It’s worth a forthcoming essay.