On February 28, 1983, CBS aired “Goodbye, Farewell and Amen,” the two-and-a-half hour sequence finale of the beloved Korean War drama M*A*S*H.
With its 11-season run, M*A*S*H lasted almost 4 instances so long as the navy battle it depicted, however the present by no means skilled the viewership erosion so widespread to growing older sequence nowadays.
Far from it, in reality.
In an astonishing feat that is nonetheless a supply of awe almost 41 years later, the M*A*S*H finale pulled in a whopping 106 million viewers.
To put that in perspective, solely about 99 million Americans tuned in to observe Super Bowl LVI on NBC in 2022.
And that was up from the earlier 12 months when a paltry — by Super Bowl requirements — 92 million viewers tuned in to observe CBS’ dwell broadcast of the large sport.
The large sport rebounded final 12 months, as 112 million folks noticed Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs edge out Jalen Hurts and the Philadelphia Eagles, making it the most-watched Super Bowl in historical past.
The NFL is probably going hopeful that this 12 months’s contest will beat these numbers as the Chiefs return to the sports activities world’s largest stage, this time with Travis Kelce’s girlfriend, Taylor Swift, in tow.
But it is a testomony to how a lot our viewing habits have modified that it takes a mixture of the largest sporting occasion of the 12 months and the most well-known entertainer on the planet to ship scores which may hope to compete with the sequence finale of a community drama in the early ’80s.
Now, clearly, the M*A*S*H finale was a monumental occasion and not the type of factor that occurred each week, and even yearly.
And viewers have way more leisure choices now than they’d throughout the Reagan period.
But it is also price noting that the US inhabitants was smaller by about 100 million folks again then, and but, no scripted drama has come inside shouting distance of delivering “Goodbye, Farewell and Amen” numbers in the a long time since.
In latest years, the closest factor we have seen to that kind of occasion TV was Game of Thrones, which grew to become the uncommon premium cable sequence to drag in eight-digit viewership.
The Game of Thrones sequence finale drew an astonishing 19.3 million viewers, a determine that HBO execs are little question reflecting upon with misty eyes nowadays.
The community’s largest hit over the previous two years was the GoT spinoff House of the Dragon, which averaged a comparatively paltry 2.7 million viewers.
The state of affairs is just barely higher at the main networks, the place CBS’ Fire Country delivered the most-watched single episode of a scripted sequence with an viewers 12.2 million.
Meanwhile, the streaming providers and primary cable channels are being stored afloat by defunct sequence of yesteryear (Suits, Grey’s Anatomy, Friends, The Big Bang Theory) and a dwindling pack of authentic exhibits, a number of of which both simply got here to an finish or are about to.
Last 12 months’s most-streamed present, Ted Lasso, has already wrapped up its run on AppleTV+, and primary cable’s reigning king Yellowstone is about to come back to an finish later this 12 months.
Over at Netflix, execs are possible in a panic over the information that Stranger Things will likely be airing its ultimate eight episodes in 2025.
No English-language present has yielded extra streaming hours, and in a reversal of latest industry-wide traits, Stranger Things most up-to-date season was its hottest.
There was a time, not all that way back, when a particular person in the place of Netflix’s chief content material officer Bela Bajaria may need felt assured that the subsequent large, buzzworthy hit was proper round the nook.
Shows come and go, in spite of everything, and whereas the occasional droop is inevitable, a platform with the improvement finances of Netflix is certain to hit paydirt finally, proper?
Sadly, we won’t be so certain anymore, as the present TV panorama is troublesome to navigate and much less possible than ever to reward dangerous ventures.
As audiences proceed to show away from authentic scripted content material, it simply does not make sense for execs to greenlight costly, experimental tales like the saga of a group of teenagers from Hawkins, Indiana.
In whole, 93 of final 12 months’s high TV broadcasts had been soccer video games.
And whereas it is nice that Americans can nonetheless discover widespread floor at the 50-yard line, present viewing traits is likely to be unhealthy information for the future of tv particularly and popular culture on the whole.
When soccer is the solely factor that may ship the same-size viewers that tuned in for a midseason episode of Seinfeld circa 1996, you might be sure that community execs will stay extra targeted on locking down a take care of Roger Goodell than on discovering the subsequent nice sitcom.
And streaming providers at the moment are jockeying for elbow room at that already-crowded desk, with Amazon Prime Video and Peacock each shelling out large bucks for the unique rights to NFL video games.
The shrinking viewers for scripted fare has made Netflix and different platforms extra cancel-happy and risk-averse than ever, which is why exhibits which may have as soon as been given a likelihood to seek out their footing at the moment are axed after a single season.
The state of affairs has us pondering a future through which Americans haven’t any shared cultural touchstones, no exhibits or films that they’ll quote to place a smile on the face of the fellow drone in the subsequent cubicle.
In that world, will sports activities and the climate be our solely acceptable small-talk subjects?
What will we do throughout these desolate months between the Super Bowl and the begin of coaching camp?
And what about people who aren’t soccer followers? Will they be pressured to restrict their discussions to issues meteorological?
More than some other medium, tv has all the time had the energy to unite, and scripted sequence are distinctive of their potential to make us really feel as if we’re sharing an expertise — taking part in an ongoing dialog with people with whom we have now little else in widespread.
In a nation that is divided on nearly each different problem, TV is one of the few issues that may bridge the hole between reverse ends of the political spectrum.
Wee shudder to think about a world the place these water cooler conversations do not run any deeper than assessments of this 12 months’s Super Bowl commercials.
Tyler Johnson is an Associate Editor for TV Fanatic and the different Mediavine O&O websites. In his spare time, he enjoys studying, cooking, and, of course, watching TV. You can Follow him on X and electronic mail him right here at TV Fanatic.
Discussion about this post