Comments on: Television and the 2000s: Notes on Cable Drama http://blog.commarts.wisc.edu/2009/12/15/television-and-the-2000s-notes-on-cable-drama/ Responses to Media and Culture Fri, 12 Feb 2016 19:35:04 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=4.7.5 By: Kyra Glass http://blog.commarts.wisc.edu/2009/12/15/television-and-the-2000s-notes-on-cable-drama/comment-page-1/#comment-119 Thu, 24 Dec 2009 21:27:41 +0000 http://blog.commarts.wisc.edu/?p=715#comment-119 Great post indeed! I think this is fascinating to think about when summing up a decade of television. I think much of what I remember this decade of television for, particularly the drastically changing representation of homosexuality and women on TV, is directly influenced by what not only cable but also premium cable had to offer. I couldn’t imagine Saving Grace on network TV, or The Secret Life of the American Teenager, (which in its first season got very strong ratings among teen girls). Would either of these shows make my top ten shows of the decade? Maybe not, but both represented women, families, and religious faith in new and important ways. I agree that the growth of cable and niche programming has affected television in profound ways, thanks for taking a moment to remind us to reflect on this as the decade ends.

]]> By: Jonathan Gray http://blog.commarts.wisc.edu/2009/12/15/television-and-the-2000s-notes-on-cable-drama/comment-page-1/#comment-112 Wed, 23 Dec 2009 15:20:33 +0000 http://blog.commarts.wisc.edu/?p=715#comment-112 While you focus on storytelling, and hence mostly on fiction, cable’s also become fantastic at delivering all sorts of other options too. When I bought my HDTV, I thought that the nature shows’d be attracting me more often, but it’s The Food Network, with glorious HD food porn, that’s won out. For a while, too, in New York, the only show almost everyone in my class watched regularly was Project Runway. And other shows such as Mythbusters, the Flip This House kinda things, and Whale Wars rose to prominence at various times in a way that few things on cable other than MTV managed pre-2000. Of course, there’s also The Daily Show and The Colbert Report.

]]> By: Lindsay H. Garrison http://blog.commarts.wisc.edu/2009/12/15/television-and-the-2000s-notes-on-cable-drama/comment-page-1/#comment-109 Tue, 15 Dec 2009 22:51:14 +0000 http://blog.commarts.wisc.edu/?p=715#comment-109 Great post, Amanda – welcome to Antenna! I tend to agree with you that the ‘aughts’ might be the decade of the original cable drama. (I myself am certainly watching more dramas on cable than network). While it’s not totally indicative of successful original scripted fare, TVbytheNumbers.com has a great chart illustrating ad-supported cable v. broadcast ratings in this decade. The gist: cable’s share of Adults 18-49 viewing overtook the broadcast networks’ in 2002 and hasn’t looked back.

Here’s the link: http://tvbythenumbers.com/2009/12/11/the-internet-didnt-kill-tv-viewing-but-cable-crushed-broadcast-nets-in-the-2000s/35998

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