It's 10 O'Clock ... Do You Know What's on TV?

Viewpoint: Horizon Media's Brad Adgate on the Demise of Broadcast's Finest Hour

by Brad Adgate
Published: November 02, 2009

TV trends and patterns continue to evolve. Not long ago, situation comedies dominated as the most-watched programs on TV. Each network had at least one night a week (and sometimes more) for a "made for TV movie," you could count on a blockbuster miniseries or two to air during sweeps, and you could watch a top-rated show on either a Friday or Saturday night.

Of course today, none of these facts are true. Another soon-to-be-fond network TV memory will be a top-rated and cutting edge drama running at 10 o'clock to anchor that evening's program lineup.

Between 1979 and 2009, many high-profile and critically acclaimed dramas could be counted on to run at 10 p.m. For 21 consecutive years beginning in 1979, the Emmy Award for best drama went to a program airing at 10 p.m. on one of the three networks. In the past decade, however, not one 10 p.m. program on broadcast TV was an Emmy winner. With "ER" and "Boston Legal" stopping production in 2009, it appears that, after three decades, the Golden Age of 10 p.m. dramas has, at last, come to an end on network TV.

Since it fell outside of the so-called family hour, the broadcast networks could focus on more adult-themed content at 10 p.m. "Hill Street Blues" was noted for its grittiness in working in a seedy, inner-city police precinct. "Cagney & Lacey," another police drama, was critically acclaimed for depicting the difficulties women confronted in the workforce and their home life. "NYPD Blue" broke barriers for having partial nudity and using language not typically heard on broadcast.