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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION
Smarter viewers getting smarter TV: ABC boss
THE CANADIAN PRESS Lee says smart shows are no longer the exception. (CP)
BANFF, Alta. -- TV viewers are more clever than they were a few decades ago and their savvy is reflected in the shows that are being made, the president of ABC Entertainment Group told a session at the Banff World Media Festival on Monday.
"Thirty years ago smart shows were the exception and now they are the rule, especially for scripted. New Girl is a smart show, Big Bang is a smart show and Modern Family is now the smartest show on television," Paul Lee said.
"I do think we're in a world now where our audience is Wikipedia-fuelled and knows everything. We have an exchange going on where people predict which shows are going to do well and literally the audience is generally saying which shows are going to work or not and they really seem to pick better than the executives."
Lee said when he calls viewers "smart" he is referring not to intelligence but to worldliness.
He pointed out that TV shows are the most common conversation subject around the globe and were the subject of more than a billion tweets last year.
"Television shows, television viewers and television writers have become smarter," he added. "In the echo chamber of the digital world, the not-so-smart shows are reduced and the smart shows are multiplied," he said.
Lee said he is particularly proud of top-rated Modern Family, Once Upon a Time, Revenge and other comedies such as Don't Trust the B in Apt. 23 and Surburgatory.
ABC has six of its freshman series returning for a second season.
Other than Charlie's Angels, which Lee said he couldn't even bring himself to talk about anymore, the reviews of others have been good.
Twenty or 30 years ago the idea was to find shows that were the least objectionable programs, but now the choices for views are virtually "limitless," he said, adding there were smart shows in the past -- singling out All in the Family, The Office and 30 Rock, but believes there are more of them now.
Still, Lee said that despite the sophisticated audience, the final deciding factor is the story itself and how well it is written.
"The message of today should be never underestimate the intelligence of the public," he said.
"We're still all kids wanting desperately to lie back and be spun a timeless story of fear and hope, of good and evil and vengeance and love."
-- The Canadian Press
Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition June 12, 2012 C3
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