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Location: That star on your map in the middle of the East Coast, DMV
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Yea this is becoming one of the more obsolete data metrics for cities/regions that I can think of in 2020. By 2050 I wouldn’t be surprised if they don’t even count this stuff anymore.
It certainly is because the shows are garbage and young people don't watch it.
Did young people ever really watch much TV? Even in the 70's & 80's, anyone with a life was busy doing other things. Happy Days and Cheers were for older people.
Did young people ever really watch much TV? Even in the 70's & 80's, anyone with a life was busy doing other things. Happy Days and Cheers were for older people.
Yea this is becoming one of the more obsolete data metrics for cities/regions that I can think of in 2020. By 2050 I wouldn’t be surprised if they don’t even count this stuff anymore.
You know future generations of boosters are still going to use this metric if it makes their city look better. Even if they don’t realize there’s stuff to watch on TV lmao
I'd say "peak MTV" was roughly 1983 (after Michael Jackson's "Thriller") until around 1995 (Headbangers' Ball cancelled, the alt.mtv-sucks group on Google Groups active, and Beavis & Butthead/The Real World now the channel's most popular shows). MTV as a brand was still popular for awhile afterwards into the TRL era, but it just wasn't the same as Gen X's MTV that was music-focused.
Still, the Internet boom (especially the Web 2.0 boom of the mid-aughts) was a big blow to traditional TV's relevance.
And TV was absolutely dominant in the '70s and '80s, especially outside of the summer. The Cosby Show in 1986-87 had over 36% of all homes with a TV tuned in, and the rating/share ratio was a lot smaller back then, meaning that likely around 80% were tuned into something during primetime hours, whether it was another network, cable channel, or later on when VCRs came popular, watching something they taped previously. Older people back then would watch PBS for their big band/documentary/fine art fix, as well as hit syndicated reruns of older shows and movies.
But generally speaking in terms of TV eras:
Golden Age: 1951 (I Love Lucy premieres)-1975 (the first VCR hits the market and cable TV like HBO starts to show early signs of popularity)
Silver Age: 1976 (Dawn of the VCR/cable age)-1999 (Digital cable and the Internet starts to become ubiquitous)
Bronze Age: 2000 (Survivor kickstarts reality TV craze along with HD taking off)-c. 2010 (Hulu and Netflix Launch, ER ends, smartphones become popular, and cord cutters start to take off)
Copper Age: 2011-present (Streaming and smartphone use as well as Internet services dominant, traditional TV tends to turn nostalgic with reboots and live performance specials).
Another big one that hurt TV's power: video games. Since Boomers and early Gen Xers didn't grow up with them, they're more act to just stick to the tube since that's what they're familiar with the most. There are just too many options in life, dominated by smartphone activity of course that have really diminished TV's power. I still watch Wheel of Fortune, Jeopardy!, and The Price Is Right religiously since I have been doing when I a little kid in the late 1980s though. People also want to be more frugal by not needing to shell out hundreds and hundreds a year just to have TV and would feel that the Internet/phone is good enough for them.
Did young people ever really watch much TV? Even in the 70's & 80's, anyone with a life was busy doing other things. Happy Days and Cheers were for older people.
Yes! TGIF Was huge in the 90's. Boy meets world, step by step, family matters. Also the simpsons was basically for the youth for better or worse at inception.
Did young people ever really watch much TV? Even in the 70's & 80's, anyone with a life was busy doing other things. Happy Days and Cheers were for older people.
Back then streaming/internet didn't exist and video games weren't as advanced or popular. So yes young people were much more likely to watch TV back then.
Who here doesn't have a Netflix/Hulu/Amazon Prime/Disney+/whatever streaming service nowadays?
Some broadcast TV is still good. I admit I watch a lot of Rick and Morty. Outside of sports and news though, its hard to watch most stuff on TV especially since the production value on shows available on a streaming service has only gone better.
When Game of Thrones was out, who actually watched it on HBO compared to those who watched it on HBO Go? Yeah.....
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