One of my favorite TV shows has been Longmire, an extremely well-done mystery series centering around a modern-day sheriff on the high plains of Wyoming. It’s critically-acclaimed and one of the A&E Networks’ top-rated shows. So the network is cancelling it. The reason why–even though it is said that we are in a new “Golden Age” of TV drama–tells us much about network TV. And why TV funded by subscription rather than advertising, such as Netflix and HBO, is coming into its own.
From John Hayward, Why a TV Network Would Cancel Its Highest-Rated Drama:
A&E’s “Longmire,” which recently wrapped up its third season, is the second highest-rated program on the network (second only to “Duck Dynasty”) and the most popular original dramatic production the network has ever aired. It’s an unassuming police procedural that breathes new life into cop and mystery cliches with a unique setting, the big sky country of Wyoming, and a terrific lead character, gruff old cowboy sheriff Walt Longmire. Indian characters and the local reservation add some interesting twists as well. The cast has an easy chemistry that makes watching the show like catching up with old friends at a weekly poker game.
So of course, A&E just canceled “Longmire,” after a cliffhanger season ending that teased big reveals in the stories of the main characters, and left the survival of one in doubt.
That seems like a very odd decision, but as Deadline Hollywood explains, there are some cold business calculations behind it. For one thing, the sizable audience for “Longmire” skewed older, and advertisers are evidently more desperate than ever to rope in young viewers with lots of disposable income. Demographics have always been a factor in programming decisions, but it wasn’t so long ago that shows catering far more explicitly to an older audience – “Matlock,” “Diagnosis Murder,” etc. – could do good business and run for many years. Now we’ve got a network literally throwing such an audience away. . . .
It is also noted by Deadline that A&E is basically getting out of the scripted-drama business altogether, with only one veteran program (“Bates Motel”) and one new show (a remake of the superb French walking-dead-but-not-quite-zombies show “The Returned”) on their schedule. The economics of the reality show – cheap to produce, brings in younger viewers, easily replaced with a churn of new reality programming on fairly short notice – are chipping away at scripted drama, even as the art form undergoes a much-touted Golden Age.
But Longmire fans, take heart. Now you can read the books by Craig Johnson, which are even better than the TV show. Start with Cold Dish.
Books don’t worry about skewing old.
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