Innovations, er, "Innovations" from broadcast networks -- An introduction

Though I have been using it for more, this blog was primarily constituted for a course about the changes in what we refer to as "television." Along with this blog, I am also working on a presentation/paper about the content and format innovations from "traditional" (read: broadcast) networks in this dynamic time.

Over the past few weeks, I've been doing some fairly in-depth research into not only what series the four majors -- ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC -- have aired, but also what "kind" of series. Thanks to The Futon Critic's fantastic DevWatch and ShowWatch archives, I was able to go back five years to the 2005-2006 television season and determine every single series the broadcast networks have aired. From there, I researched each series to determine both the format and the "type" of characters the series (if scripted) showcased. After hours upon hours of scrolling, reading and entering into a five-tabbed, color-coded Excel sheet, I am both surprised and not surprised at what I found. Thus, I thought it would be nice to share some of my findings in this space with anyone who wants to read them.

But first, let me clarify a few of the statements or choices I mentioned above as a way to introduce the posts I'll be writing in the next week or so about each network, because I know you're asking the following questions. I'll ask them for you.

'Lost' signifies the end of an era

Today, the publication that I edit WEEKEND ran a Lost-centric issue, most of which I penned. You can check out everything here, but I wanted to re-post the piece I thought was most important to a discussion about television formats and genres moving forward. Here it is.

With Lost at the beginning of the end, emotions are high for us fans who have spent too many hours watching, debating online and staring at paused DVR images in hopes of finding hidden clues. But even for non-fanatics, this should be a sad time because there is no way that we will ever see a television phenomenon quite like Lost ever again. And here’s why.