I’ve literally been following Marc Berman for the majority of my life. As regular readers might know, we go back more than half a century, when I was reassigned to his Hebrew school class and forced to sit behind him for several weeks while the overly rigid teacher tried to sort out his seating chart. Considering Berman’s more than a foot taller than me on a bad day, my already struggling report card didn’t benefit from the change. But it did foster the beginning of parallel careers where he’s carved out a pretty significant following as a fellow research-driven student of media who is unafraid to share his blunt and typically spot on observations of how and why so many who believe they’re reinventing the wheel didn’t even know how to spin one in the first place. His PROGRAMMING INSIDER has been must reading for a quarter-century–long before Substack and paywall-protected gossip mongers even thought of venturing into that area–and I’m especially proud to occasionally be a part of that feed.
Berman’s vast experience also gives him access and cred to even wider distribution outlets and earlier this week he penned one for INC. magazine where he was especially sharp-edged about the apparent demise of what was once as predictable a fall event as Halloween, Thanksgiving and especially Black Friday:
For decades, November sweeps was an annual event that commanded the attention of the broadcast television industry. ABC, CBS and NBC, followed eventually by Fox and The CW (as well as former networks The WB and UPN), scheduled major episodes, high-profile guest appearances, dramatic storylines, made-for-TV movies, and specials designed to attract viewers and boost ratings.
It was more than a programming exercise. Ratings gathered during designated measurement periods helped local television stations establish advertising rates, making November particularly valuable financially. Today, that once-dominant tradition has lost much of its significance. And its decline is another indication of how much ground traditional broadcast television has lost…
The biggest reason November sweeps has lost its former importance, of course, is that television no longer revolves around the same viewing habits or measurement priorities… Networks now evaluate success across multiple platforms, while advertisers increasingly seek consumers beyond traditional television. The old sweeps mentality reflects an era when broadcast networks had considerably more control over the national entertainment conversation. That control has weakened, and increasingly conservative programming strategies and cost-cutting measures raise additional questions about the networks’ ability to regain their former influence.
Are they even trying? More importantly, do they even care anymore?
I think the answer is obvious: Clearly, they don’t. But in light of what their corporate breathren are still being held responsible for, the fact that they do makes this devolution especially galling.
Bear in mind that the main reason November sweeps even emerged in the first place was for local stations–the profit centers of their multimedia companies then and now–to establish baselines to negotiate year-round advertising rates that aligned with a heavy-up period known as the “Hard Eight”–the period between October 20th and December 20th where the greatest proportion of holiday-centered flights begin and end. That also aligns with the commencement of Daylight Savings Time and the onset of cooler weather, when viewing levels to all screens rise considerably. Judging by the displays at my current place of employment, the ramp up period to that peak advertiser demand has only bled far earlier–Halloween displays go up in what we lovingly call Augtober. In spite of best efforts to the contrary by our feckless leadership to change or deny their existence it still gets darker and colder this time of year. And Christmas is still in place at the finish line, along with Hanukkah and now Kwanzaa and Diwali for good measure.
I condede that the old practice of miniseries and “special events” may not be a cost-effective game plan these days. But streaming services ARE premiering new shows and new seasons of returning favorites given the way their production calendars are–most original series’ orders these days are for 8-10 episodes, and November is the turn-around point. Could a two-episode arc that reprised the season one finale and teased the season two launch of a buzzy ratings success like, say, ALL’S FAIR perhaps have done a better job for ABC than, say, a burnoff cycle of WHO WANTS TO BE A MILLIONAIRE? Maybe brought a few holdouts to actually want to subscribe to Hulu for a month? Linear and streaming ratings are now sold in aggregate for programs since the majority of viewership occurs outside the live window. Maybe adding a few hundred eyeballs to that equation couldn’t hurt Hulu’s justification to even maintain a tile going forward?
And for local stations news flash: there are still a handful of actual human beings working for your news departments. November sweeps also once featured promotable multi-part series focusing on crucial local issues or revisiting unsolved crimes. There’s zero reason why those best practices are no longer being utilized. For conglomerates that liberally share content these can be produced across several stations and shared across them all. Heaven forbid they may bring a few more viewers to your struggling late night daypart.
I still believe they are competent, intelligent people on the staffs of both national and local media companies that if empowered to do so could do a pretty decent job proactively attacking these concerns. I blame their disinterested management for not even willing to give them the respect to try. Especially when their “cooler kid” peers are cleaning their clocks by trying to emulate what they used to do with a lot less relative impact and success.
As he typically does, Berman touched a nerve, and it got my ire up as well. What can I say? I learned from the best.
Until next time…