Like we talked
about in lecture, many networks are owned by parent companies that may have a
different feel or target demographic. ABC is owned by Disney, which also owns
ABC News, ABC family, ESPN and the SOAP network [1]. Since they are all owned
by Disney and ABC is geared toward being family friendly, you would think the
majority of their lineup would in turn be kid friendly, even adolescent
friendly. Yet the truth of the matter is, besides special programming, which I
will talk about later, this channel is not one that caters to the needs of
younger adolescents.
To
begin this process, let us go back almost a decade (does that scare anyone
else?) to 2004 when an article was written about the decline and failure of
ABC. “ABC has fallen fourth place among viewers aged 18 to 49, those most
highly valued by advertisers.” [2]. Although adolescents are not the first
demographic targeted, they make up a large number of viewers. ABC is promoted
as being family friendly; they host the Olympics, and special broadcast, as
well as classic movies such as Charlie Brown (which airs December 7). Yet the
majority of the shows are not appropriate for adolescents or even some immature
adults for that matter. Present day, ABC has become very successful in their
target demographic yet this still does not include adolescents or young adults
that ABC is supposed to be family friendly towards. “ABC is No. 1 on Monday
Across All Key Women Demographics for the 15th Consecutive Week –
Every Week of the summer” [3]. A company owned by Disney knows and understands
how important the younger demographic is and yet still does not cater to their
wants or needs. In my opinion, ABC needs to either be centered on the friendly
family aspect of their programming (Charlie Brown’s Christmas and Dr. Seuss) or
the older demographic of adults (Scandal and Revenge)
As
I take a look at their home page, a list of their shows comes up and Scandal is
the first one promoted. Scandal is based on the Bush administration and
revolves around political tactics to preserve their public view. As Alan
Sepinwall writes, “To be perfectly honest, after watching four episodes of “Scandal”,
I’m not 100 percent clear on what it is that Olivia and her team … do, nor on
exactly what the show is” [4]. If a full grown adult does not even know that
the show is about, then how do they expect anyone younger than him to get the
plotline? In the first season alone, they talk about sexual relationships,
there is an abduction and murder. I don’t know about you, but this does not
sound appropriate for all audiences who may be watching this network.
Another
successful series of shows that the network airs are the Bachelor and
Bachelorette. The concept alone is not appropriate for young adults nor is it
appropriate for anyone trying to have a normal relationship with another human.
Although I am obviously not a viewer of this program, I know what it is about;
a group of a gender living in a house together competing to win the “love” of
the main character of opposite gender. They are manipulative people who never
even stay together with the person whom they are competing for. How is this in
any way appropriate for young adults? If anything I believe this is the worst
program available to young adults because it gives them a skewed vision of what
love is and what a true relationship looks like. The contestant for whom the
others are competing for goes on a date with a different person every night.
Not only is this program showing kids how to be promiscuous but also gives them
the impression that this is a normal way to go about dating. This should be a television show that
is on after ten at night and should not be on the “family friendly” network.
This
is not to say that ABC does not have friendly family programming however. It airs
the shows Wipeout and America’s Funniest Home Videos as well. Yet after looking
at both of these shows, it is clear that these shows do not rake in a lot of
the younger demographics. The first show, Wipeout, is about less than
intelligent contestants who must go through the most outrageous obstacle course
only to get pummeled by the obvious man-controlled objects. This program is
family friendly in that it does not have any swearing or obscene nudity or any
negative backing. Yet I believe that some could take this program as promoting
violence as the contestants are thrown around the whole time as well as the
fact that to even watch the show you have to put up with the two most obnoxious
hosts of all time. The second show is just a live audience that watches silly
clips of people doing funny things. This show is probably the most family
friendly out of all of their shows yet it hardly airs (does not even air once
this week). So how is it catering to the younger audience if they cannot even
watch it on television once a week?
This
blog is not written to bash ABC as a network; I love a lot of the shows that
are on it. I am simply stating that if they want to be viewed as a friendly
family network then they should not have the majority of their shows be about
inappropriate people and actions. They should not air both G and R rated
programming whenever they want with only a few being G rated. ABC network needs
to get their programming figured out before they fall again in ratings like
they did a decade ago. Good luck, ABC.
References:
1. "Television Shows &
Programming - ABC.com." ABC. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Nov. 2013.
2. Yeager, Holly. "The ABC of Making Profitable
Television: MEDIA: The Chequered Fortunes of Walk Disney Are Just One of the US
Network's Problem as It Battles for Market Share." ABI/INFORM Global.
Business And Economics--Banking And Finance, Political Science, 12 Apr. 2004.
Web. 21 Nov. 2013.
3. "Ratings - ABC Is No. 1 on Monday Across All Key Women
Demographics for the 15th Consecutive Week - Every Week of the Summer |
TheFutonCritic.com." Ratings - ABC Is No. 1 on Monday Across All Key
Women Demographics for the 15th Consecutive Week - Every Week of the Summer |
TheFutonCritic.com. Nielsen Media Research, 31 Aug. 2010. Web. 21 Nov.
2013.
4. Sepinwall, Alan. "Review: Kerry Washington Is Strong in
ABC's 'Scandal'" HitFix. N.p., 04 Apr. 2012. Web. 21 Nov. 2013.
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