Prestige TV Is Fleeting, but Procedurals and Sitcoms Are Forever

Television has hit a bit of a rough patch.

We have left the peak of Peak TV in the dust, and with cancellations being frisbeed into the throats of fledgling shows as soon as they poke their heads out of the nest, the lull ahead is sure to be a long one. It seems like everything Hollywood tries to throw at us is getting shorter and shorter, and with the shrinking screentime goes the familiar structural elements of TV that we all know and (mostly) love. It is rare that any series pushed out to a streaming service is given enough episodes to justify the thrill of a midseason break or the subtleties of whatever character or world building comes along with a filler episode, and even when a season manages to exceed the death-grip of an eight-episode limit, those aspects are still passed over. 

The binge model is not conducive to any sort of long-term narrative suspense within the bounds of so little screentime, and unless a series is a spinoff or rehashing of previously existing IP, audiences have to do more with less when it comes to forming an emotional bond with the characters on our screens. Even then, more and more people are reluctant to even start the shows that streaming services put forward after many well-loved shows have gotten the boot before they have a chance to truly thrive.

Away from the ridiculousness of the streaming bubble folding in on itself (and refusing to pop) is broadcast television. Though viewership continues to decline—as it always has—anyone with a TV and an antenna is able to tune in to a broad offering of procedural dramas and sitcoms that have continued to make it past the invisible barrier that is squeezing shows like Dead Boy Detectives, A League of Their Own, and My Lady Jane to death.

There are, of course, the classics. First responders and doctors will always have a place on primetime, with Law and Order: SVU entering its 26th season this October and Grey’s Anatomy eking out its 21st just over three weeks from now. One Chicago’s Fire, PD, and Med are returning for Seasons 13, 12, and 10 respectively, and CBS’s S.W.A.T. has managed to make it to an eighth season despite being canceled twice over the span of its run. Even Station 19 got seven seasons before its untimely cancellation post-strikes, and while many—including myself—consider that cancellation premature, we still got to spend over 100 episodes with these characters and did not have to suffer multi-year hiatuses in the meantime. Sitcoms are less sturdy when it comes to these statistics, but both Abbott Elementary and Ghosts are entering their fourth seasons this fall, and with that many outings already in the bag, the least we can hope for is some solid longevity and both shows being able to end on their own terms. Outside of The Bear, Only Murders in the Building, and Heartstopper—all shows with 30-minute runtimes—you will be hard pressed to find a show on a streaming service that makes a point to come back the next calendar year after a new season drops.

Outside of the regularity and the sheer volume of episodes that come along with traditional TV, there is a sense of stability in the creative process that cannot be found anywhere else. Part of this is certainly due to the stronger union protections that come with working in these spaces, but beyond that, broadcast is the home base for all of television history. Shows like I Love Lucy and Dragnet paved the way for The Brady Bunch and Miami Vice, who paved the way for Everybody Loves Raymond and Homicide: Life On The Street, and so on. Are these sitcoms and procedural dramas formulaic? Of course they are, but those formulas are compelling enough to keep people’s eyes glued to their TVs at the same time every week for almost nine months. The baseline structure of half-hour comedy and hour-long drama are the perfect place to experiment with new formats of storytelling. Simply put, there would be no prestige television or era of Peak TV for us to reminisce about without the deeply rooted building blocks that we still see on the regular today.

While there is much to be said about the waning quality of a series as it ages—especially when it comes to procedural dramas—even the most shenanigan-filled series can still have the chance to be full of heart (or, at least, keep you invested in the lives of the characters). 9-1-1 will be returning for its eighth season this fall on the back of a bee-filled tornado, and as unhinged as that is, there are over 100 episodes of the show that did enough work to get fans hooked into the story and the characters, and that is enough to keep people coming back for more. 

This is not to say that every scripted series a broadcast network tries to feed us is good or worth anyone’s time. No matter how a show is delivered to us, if there are not enough people watching it, it will eventually be canceled and the fanbase, however small, will have to move on. Still, there is much more to hang onto when a show dies after 30 episodes instead of just eight. The more episodes there are, the more room there is for a show to breathe, and that is the true advantage of procedural programming. Every case-of-the-week solved and lesson-of-the-week learned are perfect vehicles for complex character development. Maybe the action of a show will become more detached from reality as time goes on, but as long as the characters stay themselves throughout (or they change somewhat realistically), the show will remain decent enough to go on. 

Broadcast TV has been shut out of the awards circuit for a while now in favor of the younger and more beautiful (and expensive) shows that streamers have pumped out over the last decade, but as that style of delivery begins to collapse, there is a chance for the tried and true formats of TV to make a comeback. Award-worthy or not, procedurals and sitcoms will be around until the last TV signal is broadcast, and that longevity is the one advantage that other forms of television will never have.

Kathryn Porter is a freelance writer who will talk endlessly about anything entertainment given the chance. You can find her @kaechops on Twitter.

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