Networks Look To Lighter Drama

By Ben Grossman

Feb 5, 2007

After years of dramas dominated by dead bodies and angst-ridden detectives, the networks may lighten things up this fall.

With light-hearted dramas like Grey’s Anatomy and rookie Ugly Betty boosting ABC on lucrative Thursday nights, the networks are lining up, as they always do, to chase the latest genre to succeed in primetime. An analysis of the 45 drama-pilot pickups from the five networks indicates that this fall’s new crop of dramas may bring more laughs and less serialization than in years past.

While gloomy hits 24 and the CSI franchise still deliver huge ratings, the networks may have reached maximum capacity in that arena: Viewers collectively shunned a batch of decidedly dark fare last fall. Audiences, it seems, may have had enough. Moreover, with the networks’ inability to resuscitate the 30-minute comedy, lightening up dramas is one way to remedy the problem.

“You look at what’s out there, and it’s hard to imagine another strict procedural with dark storylines could fit anywhere,” says CW drama chief Thom Sherman. “You have three CSIs and three Law & Orders, and you see what happened with a show like The Nine, which was a terrific show. Maybe it is time for a change, hopefully.”

Last season, such shows as ABC’s gritty The Nine and NBC’s parental nightmare Kidnapped attracted strong buzz, but when the season started, they and many like them fizzled while lighter dramas like Ugly Betty prospered.

With Betty a hit, Grey’s still strong after moving to Thursdays, and even shows like NBC’s Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip playing up comedy and romance in a nod to ratings, network executives say lighter dramas are taking hold.

“It certainly feels like it’s in the ether and it’s working,” says ABC Senior VP of Drama Development Suzanne Patmore-Gibbs. “People may be ready for more-uplifting shows at the end of the day.”

She is happy that audiences are looking for something more than melancholy crime and courtroom dramas: “I think it’s liberating for a lot of us because it expands the range of what we can do. When everyone was trying to replicate those, it felt very limiting.”

NBC development chief Katharine Pope says a lack of comedic elements in dramas in recent years “was a mistake, and we are course-correcting.” Injecting more comedy into dramas, she observes, gives them a real-life feel: “Nobody’s lives are just constant dead bodies and saving the world.”

Pope adds that having more comedy in dramas is a natural evolution as a result of sitcoms’ drying up on network TV in recent years: “More comedy writers moved into the one-hour form because they couldn’t get jobs.”

An added benefit: Fewer dark, violent images may help keep the violence-vigilant FCC at bay.

But the networks aren’t likely to forgo crime and courtroom dramas, which remain the backbone of what works in the drama genre.

“For as much as people put into figuring out new workplaces or new franchises, [police and court dramas] stand the test of time for a reason: There are automatic stakes,” says Fox Executive VP Craig Erwich. “Those stories are hard to beat.”

So while police, court and medical dramas aren’t going anywhere, network executives do say they need to back off the heavy serialization.

“That is something we learned this year,” says ABC’s Patmore-Gibbs. “Obviously, serials have worked, but we can’t rely so heavily on things you need to do a lot of homework to watch.”

More closed-ended hits would be good news for studios, as they command higher prices from off-network buyers. For instance, the Law & Order and CSI franchises can fetch $1 million-$2 million per episode, while a serialized hit like Desperate Housewives last year brought in just $500,000 per episode from Lifetime.

And Fox’s Erwich says his network, like the others, is conscious of what happened last fall, when audiences for the most part greeted a batch of dark, serialized dramas with a collective shrug.

“You can’t rely on concepts alone,” he says. “The audience is very wise when it comes to the networks’ trying to rip themselves off or go to territory they’ve ventured to before. It was a very hard year.”