Dec 28, 2014 5 min read

Remember the golden age of television?

It’s dead.

No longer are families bathed in a blueish glow as they gather around the TV set to watch a favorite sitcom. No longer are TV sets – and who refers to them as TV sets, anymore? – even necessary. No longer do “prime time,” “the family hour,” “TV Guide,” “networks,” “cable” and “must-see TV,” even have meaning.

And, with all due apologies to fans of “Breaking Bad,” “How I Met Your Mother” or “Sons of Anarchy,” this year’s demise of those shows did not seal TV’s fate. In fact, no one series is responsible for the end of television as we know it.

My epiphany came a few months ago when the networks did what they’ve done for more than half a century – unveil their new fall season. After that, though, everything changed. Networks didn’t begin canceling shows a few weeks later, and when they did finally ax a few low-rated series, the shows stayed on the air. The highest-rated sitcom moved to another night, and unlike such brash network moves in the past, the show’s ratings didn’t collapse. A second-year sitcom was pulled from the schedule and no-one even noticed. Sunday’s most-watched series is now on cable. And the top 18 – and 23 of the top 25 – telecasts this fall were NFL games. Broadcast live.

Our home life has been affected, too. We used to gather around the big screen to watch movies on weekends only, as during the week we had favorite series we preferred. The scheduling of shows don’t matter, anymore. Our older sons asked for TV series DVDs for Christmas. With the exception of sports, neither watches prime time TV; mostly, they binge watch series their friends have recommended.

Even holiday parties were affected by the end of television as we know it. If someone happened to mention a series they were watching, the response was uniformly blank stares from around the room. One was much more likely to find two people with identical recipes for mushroom-cream cheese meatballs than two people that watched any of the same TV shows.

Blame this upheaval, or perhaps, more rationally, this absence of a conversation starter, on technology. To be sure, we’re still watching our 20- or- 30-some weekly hours of television, but we’re doing it on our own time, and on a device of our own choosing. We make our own TV schedules and we don’t need a TV to watch the shows.

Because of new technology, network and cable stations no longer control our viewing habits. And they no longer can make decisions on programming until gathering statistics from a variety of sources. As a result, television reviewers can’t write relevant year-end “best of” columns because many readers have yet to watch the programs.

As you may have gathered, this was intended as that year-end column. I was going to suggest that “How To Get Away with Murder,” “Madam Secretary” and “blackish” were the best of the new season but realized many people haven’t seen them yet.

I was going to reiterate that ABC has the best sitcom lineup with “The Middle,” “The Goldbergs,” “Modern Family” and “blackish,” but now understand that few watch those series as a grouping, or in that order or on any given Wednesday night.

I was going to mention shows that bit the dust, from “Mulaneys,” “Manhattan Love Story” and “selfie” to “A to Z,” “Bad Judge” and “Constantine,” but determined some readers wouldn’t believe me as most of those shows are still airing (networks no longer will toss replacement shows on the schedule without months of promotion). I was going to joke that it took two years for CBS to realize that “The Millers” wasn’t worthy of a slot on its schedule until it occurred to me that it wasn’t a joke – it’s the way networks now do business.

Nielsen ratings aside, the year-end lists that matter most to networks and cable programmers are those from multiple sources such as Xfinity on Demand which offer insight on what viewers who have abandoned the rigid demands of prime time are really watching. For example, Xfinity’s most viewed delayed-viewed series of the year was “Game of Thrones,” followed by “Big Bang Theory,” “True Blood,” “Modern Family” and “The Walking Dead.” Significantly, it listed “The Good Wife” at No. 11 and “Resurrection” at No. 20. “The Good Wife” has never been a hit in prime time, but, consistently it’s among the most delayed-viewing series. And that’s the only reason it’s still on CBS’s schedule. “Resurrection,” on the other hand, was a prime-time hit this spring, but its live ratings have deteriorated significantly. Evidently, though, its fans still like it – just not at the time assigned to it by ABC. Although Nielsen ratings suggest the series is doomed, it may well be, uh, resurrected by these new statistics.

The challenge for television is how to make money from shows that are delayed-viewing hits. Somehow, they need to assure advertisers that viewers will, indeed, see commercials as opposed to fast-forwarding past them or not having to deal with them at all on DVD.

That new blueish glow is from brainstorming of beleaguered television programmers. And, given that eye-opening statistic that 23 of the top 25 fall shows were football games – aired in real time – the quick-fix solution might well be the touting of “Live from New York” every night of the week.

Terry Hazlett can be reached at snowballrizzo@aol.com