Is network TV dead? After this week’s Golden Globe and SAG nominations, it really looks like it’s pretty much at death’s door in terms of industry recognition. In a time where streaming and premium cable is king and network TV ratings dwindle, the latter’s impact is becoming a bit of a distant memory.
The Hollywood Foreign Press didn’t nominate a single network show when the Golden Globe nominations were announced this week. I thought it was alarming but not all that surprising since a lot of network shows don’t really break the pop culture barrier much anymore. The last network show to really do that was This Is Us on NBC when it premiered in 2016. Even though that series isn’t the ratings juggernaut it once was, it’s still a part of the conversation and is one of the better performing shows in the 18-49 demo.
Speaking of This Is Us, the NBC drama is the lone representative for network TV for the SAG Awards. The series scored ONE nomination today for Sterling K. Brown in the Best Actor-Television Drama category. This is extremely surprising because SAG has been more kind to network TV in the past and especially to This Is Us. The one nomination for Brown is down from two broadcast nominations last year, which both went to This Is Us. The This Is Us cast, which won the drama ensemble award for the past two years, was left out this year.
SAG also tends to support network comedies but that wasn’t the case this year. Three years ago, broadcast series dominated the comedy ensemble field with three out of five nominations. There have been zero SAG Award nominations for broadcast half-hours the past two years amid the rise of streaming comedies such as The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Grace and Frankie, The Kominsky Method and Fleabag. Premium cable would also be left out of this arena if not for HBO and their hit Bill Hader series, Barry.
Honestly, a lot of this comes down to the creative freedom that streaming and premium cable gives their series. Network TV feels like a breed going extinct because they can’t really take the same chances. Sometimes networks will try to offer more prestige cable/streaming fare. ABC’s anthology drama series American Crime was a prime example of this and although it ran for three seasons, the ratings were never great. The show did garner the same critical praise and awards attention that has been heaped upon the current flock of streaming and premium cable series but that wasn’t enough to sustain its existence.
Sterling K. Brown should be proud of his nomination though. To stand out as the lone network TV powerhouse is a testament to his talent and performance on that show but it’s sad that he has to carry that torch alone. I don’t want network TV to die off but at this rate, I imagine it’s beginning to be put on life support.
