In case you don't remember, prestige TV is the term used to talk about TV that became more cinematic and that includes TV that brought film stars to television. Starting with The Sopranos and The Wire on HBO, prestige TV has enjoyed nearly twenty-five years of dominance that has changed the TV landscape.
A lot of those changes came in TV nudity! Once thought to be something to enjoy after hours on Cinemax, these shows ushered TV nudity into living rooms across America as something that enhances the show, character development, and plot. And, boy, did these scenes enhance.
These shows were monumental for TV dudity specifically. Prior to shows like Oz, The Wire, Mad Men, Girls, Looking, Insecure, and so many more, male nudity was rarely seen on television. Now a boy butt on the boob tube is welcome!
So why would all of that go away? It's because the TV executives are freaking out over the industry itself. There are a few factors affecting this freak-out: mergers, strikes, and declining ratings. Let's break these down.
The mergers resulted in cancelations. The recent HBO merger in 2023, for example, canceled a lot of shows. When you combine that with the finales of popular shows like Barry and Succession, then we simply have fewer groundbreaking TV shows than we had a year ago.
The strikes resulted in fewer new shows being made. Some shows were canceled during the strike and while some of those canceled shows have been renewed (thank god Severance was!), others have disappeared completely. Mergers have even taken shows off of the streaming services, never to be found again. That's something that none of us anticipated!
The strikes have also demanded more money for writers - and writers were an area that TV executives had been cutting corners on. While some TV creators like The White Lotus' Mike White enjoy writing full series by themselves, most don't. That is especially true in comedy writing rooms. Comedy writers need one another to bounce jokes off of each other.
That's why series like Girls, The Righteous Gemstones, Succession, Atlanta, and Barry have been so beloved. Now that the TV executives can no longer shrink the writers' rooms, they are retaliating by making fewer rooms. That means there are fewer TV shows period.
And that part is true. The networks and streamers have greenlit fewer original pilots than ever before. When you combine that with the amount of recently canceled shows, there are fewer new TV shows than anyone anticipated. Less original content means fewer creative prestige shows pushing boundaries. Even wildly popular shows like Euphoria are delaying their next season.
Finally, the low ratings are playing a part in TV executives' fears. Traditional TV ratings have been down for years - especially post-pandemic - and streamers haven't figured out how to make as much revenue as traditional TV. That is why many industry experts think that commercials are about to be everywhere, including on our commercial-free streaming channels.
The lower ratings can also be blamed on generational shifts. For example, Gen Alpha and Gen Z do not watch TV the way that executives are used to. Honestly, they barely watch traditional TV at all. They'd rather watch TikTok! So how do TV shows grab the attention of entire generations that aren't bothering to pick up a remote?
The obvious answer is sex and nudity. I mean, right?! I know that I am biased, but we all know that sex sells. So this is another problem. I don't know if you've heard this, but younger generations are actually opposed to sex and nudity in TV shows.
Entire movements have taken hold on TikTok calling for no more sex and for something called "no-mance" because they don't even want romantic relationships on TV. They only want platonic ones. I don't understand...does that mean platonic friends will just get naked together? No? What is going on?!
That would make me freak out as a TV creator. If we can't grab the attention of audiences with sex or nudity or great and inventive plots...then what is left? Procedurals. That is the answer that the networks have come up with and several networks and production companies are hustling to greenlight new procedurals.
So is this problem forever? Are we doomed to see fewer original shows and shows with "no-mance" in them? I highly doubt it. I predict that this is just a brief slump in the TV landscape. After all, prestige TV has literally changed the expectations of what TV can do. We want cool stories, complex characters, and lots of cock. I don't think that we will stop demanding that anytime soon.
