The Arbitrary ChuckJerry

Who was the fucking genius who decided that people don't watch TV in the summer? Up until Beverly Hills 90210 scored a ratings coup in the early '90s by actually airing new episodes in the summer, there simply was no new programming in the summer. This sucked.

Now, however, there is a ton of new programming over the summer and it's great because a lot of it is sortof experimental type stuff that wouldn't ever get on in the "real" season. The combination of the summer season and the popularity of reality TV has made the past few summers a great time for TV programming. If you have a sitcom, then you have to give your actors the summers off so they can shoot movies or just sit around and do cocaine or something, so you can't really have new shows. Reality TV can be filmed at any time and aired in the summer and it works well.

Some great shows have debuted in the summer. Survivor was the show that really got the summer season going. Even though it wasn't the originator (see 90210, 1st paragraph) it was the show that made the summer season viable. Since then shows like The Amazing Race and Last Comic Standing have debuted in the summer to positive ratings. Also shows that aren't as good as those, but are guilty pleasures started their runs in the summer like Joe Millionaire or The Bachelor or the one I watched last night, Hit Me Baby One More Time, that brings back bands who had a hit or two years ago to perform again. Last night they had Loverboy, Flock of Seagulls, Arrested Development, Tiffany, and Cece Peniston sing their hits. Arrested Development was voted the winner by the audience.

Now TV stations don't have to run the "If you haven't seen it, it's new to you." type commercials for their corny sitcom reruns that I didn't even want to watch the first time. Usually in the summer there's a baseball game or two on that I'm interested in, and then I can switch to the fun reality show that's on that night also. Quality. Give it up for the summer season.