It is a breakthrough day for basic cable shows in terms of Emmy nominations, but many of these shows have a fraction of the network audience, which could dampen ratings for the show on Sept. 21

By Alex Ben Block

HOLLYWOOD (Hollywood Today) 7/17/2008 – With AMC’s “Mad Men” and FX’s “Damages” becoming the first shows distributed via basic cable television to be nominated for Outstanding Drama Series, the myth that over the air TV networks and pay TV services HBO and Showtime have a lock on the best shows has taken another blow. However, the Emmy ratings may also take a hit because not as many people see most cable shows as watch over the air broadcast programming.

The overall ratings for basic cable now are greater than for broadcast TV. This past February, for instance, almost 30 million people on average were watching the big seven networks shows while almost 40 million tuned to cable. However because there are many more cable networks and shows, the individual ratings for each show, with a few exceptions, don’t reach the broadcast network level. As a result, fewer viewers have access and watch those shows, which have been shown in the past to have the effect of dampening ratings for the awards shows that feature lots of niche programming.

AMC’s acclaimed show “Mad Men,” for instance, attracts an audience of about 900,000 viewers, which would be very low by network standards. By contrast, the top show on broadcast during February attracted about 12 million viewers. So while basic cable’s share of viewership is rising, and network TV’s share has been falling, the gap among individual hit shows is still huge.

“This recognition is an acknowledgement of AMC’s dedication to excellence and high-quality programming, and we look forward to upholding this standard,” says AMC General Manager and Executive Vice President Charlie Collier. “In the words of Mad Men’s Don Draper, “Who couldn’t be happy with all this?”

Of course, there are many network shows in competition as well, so that should help attract Emmy viewers. However the omission of such popular shows as “Desperate Housewives” and “Grey’s Anatomy” isn’t going to help with the ratings for the primetime Emmy show on September 21.

That is bad news for TV’s most prestigious awards program, which saw its share of the key 18 to 49 year old audience drop 17 percent last year, compared to 2006. Last year’s Emmy show on Fox was also the lowest rated since 1990. The ratings for that show were also depressed because it was up against a football game on NBC between two popular teams, the New England Patriots and San Diego Chargers.

The success of basic cable in winning Emmy nominations is more bad news for the broadcast networks, who have had one of the worst years possible as it is. Rocked by the 100 day writers strike, the major networks had to cut back on the number of original episodes of scripted shows and increase the number of hours of often dreadful reality shows, driving more viewers to seek alternatives.

The past year the networks also went through a painful transition in the way the audience is measured (from tracking how many watch shows to how many watch commercials) and the impact of the digital video recorder, which also began to be counted in a kind of extended 3-day ratings for the first time. Although the overall impact hasn’t been as bad as feared, as shown by the big increases advertisers paid in the recent upfront, it has added to the pressure on all the broadcasters to perform at a time their audience size has continued to erode.

However, it isn’t just the strike impact. Basic cable has been investing more into programming as its audience and advertising have risen over the past decade. That has been paying off in ratings and now awards. And there are so many basic channels that it has given rise to a whole new level of competition for broadcast, even as the biggest shows on the biggest networks still have the largest audiences. Think of it as mythical Gulliver traveling to a new land. He may be a giant, but that doesn’t mean an army of smaller guys can’t tie him up in knots; which is what is happening on TV in terms of ratings.

Where basic cable has really made progress is in the summer, when the big seven go into hibernation in terms of new scripted programming. Cable for years now has used the summer to showcase its hottest, best and newest scripted shows. As a result in the summer of 2007 for the first time, basic cable about doubled the viewership of broadcast TV with a 52 percent share of the audience, compared to about 24 percent for English language broadcast TV networks.

Basic cable networks tend to have fewer shows to showcase and those they do get repeated a lot more than on broadcast, which allows them to sell advertisers cumulative ratings on all those showings. As shows and ratings have improved, that has allowed basic cable to plow even more into original shows. And the ever bigger amount of marketing money they spend not only benefits their shows but also their brand; which is crucial for a retail product.

Unlike broadcast, which comes over the air for free,, viewers still have to choose to buy cable channels. They buy either individually or in tiers of basic programming, so marketing money on a show is also a boost to the overall network. That is not true for broadcasters, who depend on each show to become a franchise that can be built and sold against to advertisers.

Each year the list of basic cable outlets getting Emmy attention seems to grow. This year A&E had nine nominations compared to two last year. AMC had 20 compared to 18 last year. Bravo had 11 compared to 9 last year. FX had 11 this year compared to three nominations last year. Sci Fi Channel had 15 compared to 7 last year.

To be fair, some basic cablers actually had fewer this year including TNT (10 this year, 11 last), Discovery (from 16 to 6) and the highest rated of all basic cable services USA (4 this year, 12 last year). However other basic cablers who had none last year scored at least one or more this year, including MTV, ESPN, Starz, Biography and TLC.

Overall, the growth of basic cable shows, which are also often delivered over satellite and by telephone company systems, continues to grow in number of viewers. As proven by these Emmy results, basic cable shows are also growing in quality. Many of these shows are also now viewable online, but their identity is shaped by the original outlets that distributes them, just as network shows are always identified by the network that aired them first.

Basic cable still has not broken the broadcast monopoly on comedies but it has also had an impact in the major acting categories. For instance among nominees for lead actor in a drama, four of the five nominees were stars of cable shows. Among dramatic actresses, three were from cable series, including Glenn Close in “Damages.”

The bottom line is that viewers, especially younger TV watchers, increasingly don’t care where on the cable dial they have to migrate to find shows. With a remote in hand, all of broadcast, basic cable and pay TV are just a click away, and what matters is the appeal and quality of the show, not its outlet.

So as this year’s Emmys are handed out, expect to see this mix of distribution platforms represented across the board. Whether this will make Emmy viewers bored because they don’t have access to all these shows is also likely to continue as a trend. So while viewers win because there are more choices, the good news for basic cable means the Emmys will continue to be ratings challenged.