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Part of a series that takes an analytical look at the current broadcast pilot season and some of its trends and heroes.
Maybe it’s the Tom Selleck/Kathy Bates effect, but the broadcast networks seem more open than ever to shows fronted by older leads this pilot season. Until recently, actors in their 60s and late 50s were relegated to supporting parts as parents or grandparents of TV shows’ main characters. Now they’re the main attraction. Michael Patrick King’s NBC drama pilot A Mann’s World stars 62-year-old Don Johnson. CBS’ pilot The Doctor is toplined by 61-year-old Christine Lahti. ABC has an untitled comedy pilot written for and starring 57-year-old Tim Allen. And ABC’s drama pilot Grace is headlined by 55-year-old Eric Roberts.
The trend started last year with several pilots going older with their leads than the characters had been originally written. Blue Bloods (then Reagan’s Law) whose lead was supposed to be 50-59 year-old, cast 66-year-old Tom Selleck. David E. Kelley’s Harry’s Law (then Kindreds) was written for a male lead aged 53-57. It ended up casting 62-year-old Oscar winner Kathy Bates and tweaking the character. The most dramatic “aging up” in the casting process happened on the ABC procedural Body of Proof (then Body of Evidence) whose lead Megan was conceived as 35-40 years-old. The producers met several actresses in that age range before they thought of Dana Delany (55) who was eventually cast in the role. Additionally, CBS last summer replaced departing CSI:NY star Melina Kanakaredes, 43, with 54-year-old Sela Ward.
All 5 pilots headlined by 50something or 60something stars last season, Blue Bloods, Harry’s Law, Body of Proof as well as CBS’ $#*! My Dad Says starring 69-year-old William Shatner and NBC’s Outlaw toplined by Jimmy Smits, went to series. There was trepidation. “We know it’s going to be tough sledding,” Kelley said about the prospects of Harry’s Law at TCA in January. “I mean, for one thing, we have a 60-year-old lead. Not many networks said to me, ‘Hey, give me a show with a 60-year-old lead. I have to believe that even given the 500-channel universe, there’s room in the TV landscape for one or two or three shows that can have an older lead and indulge topical content.” Both Blue Bloods and Harry’s Law have exceeded ratings expectation, drawing massive audiences and logging very respectable 18-49 numbers for their time slots/lead-ins. ($#*! had a strong start too before losing steam in the second half of the season.) Meanwhile, ABC is putting a lot of marketing muscle behind the upcoming Body of Proof, which is the network’s best and only hope for a breakout new drama series this season.
Is it a question of acting chops, charisma and star power, something some of the older actors have in spades? Or the broadcast networks are looking to relive their glory days with some of their signature stars of the past (Allen, Johnson and Lahti are all returning to the networks where they became household names with hits Home Improvement, Miami Vice and Chicago Hope, respectively.) Or the baby boomers are turning out in droves to support shows fronted by actors of their generation? Or maybe the broadcast networks are simply taking a page out of the cable playbook. HBO’s biggest new show, Boardwalk Empire, stars the 53-year-old Steve Buscemi. And the biggest comedy star on TV at the moment, broadcast or cable, is Hot in Cleveland‘s Betty White, 89.
TV Editor Nellie Andreeva - tip her here.
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This is for all you people spurting out things like “old people have a lot of money and watch more TV.” Yes, that’s true, which is the exact reason why advertisers do not want to pay for shows that appeal largely to old people. It is not hard to get a large number of old people watching a show. Getting 10 million viewers aged 50+ is easy. Getting even 5 million viewers aged 18-49 is a difficult task.
If old people are dirt (not quality wise!) and young people are diamonds (again, not quality wise, but in terms of rarity), which one are you going to want to pay for? Dirt, which can be found anywhere quite easily, or diamonds, which are significantly rarer and much harder to find?
And another thing, “networks taking notice”? It is not the network’s job to pamper to the viewers. The viewers are not the consumers in this situation. With all these tens of millions of old people watching their programs, don’t you think that the networks WOULD capitalise on them and make money from them if they could? They would do it in an instant.
The advertisers are the consumers, the networks are the suppliers, and the viewers are simply the product. Don’t blame the networks if the advertisers don’t want a certain product. The advertisers are the ones who set the ad rates and the networks, whether you like it or not, are in the money-making business. They have to go with what the advertisers want.
Sorry, but I get tired of people complaining about a system that they know nothing about, largely because they just don’t bother to think logically about it.
I heard arguments for and against when and where to advertise every night at the dinner table from my businessman father. Here’s one of the best:
Back in the day, when newspaper advertising was actually viable, the advice went: You know your customer needs shoes, but you don’t know *when* your customer needs shoes, which is why you run shoe ads in the paper every day. Thus, yes, you know 50+ is watching, but you don’t know when they need what you’re advertising, so you need to keep advertising to them every day. Ignore them, and you not only lose the 18-49 you never had in the first place, but you lose the people you actually did have.
“The End of Ageism”?
Nonsense! It’s money.
For pilots, and shows in general,it’s just a matter of attracting the prime demo of 18-40. This demo spends money foolishly and has access to social media to spread the word of the shows they like among friends and their group. This offers a multiplier effect for advertisements and yields a higher rate of ad revenue return.
Whereas old people 40+ are cheap and wouldn’t know social media if they stepped in it.
The ONLY exception for employing old actors 50+ is to attract really old demo 55+, who watch huge amounts of daily TV, sit through commercial breaks, are ill and angry, and are most susceptible to insurance/medical/legal ads that target this old folks demo.
That bunch of nice old folks in new TV pilots- Tom Selleck, Don Johnson, Christine Lahti, Tim Allen, Eric Roberts, Dana Delany, Jimmy Smits-don’t support the claim “The End of Ageism”.
Rather, it may just be the new beginning of ad revenue chasing after old 55+ people-the sickeningly named “Baby Boomers”.
Nothing noble about it, just a gamble by nets and their advertisers.
Unless the nets can sell enough ads for old 50+ folks, who the hell is going to watch these old people anyway-besides old people?
I’m sorry, but just looking at the old mugshots in the article above has me thinking about Stairmaster, The Clapper, my Social Security benefits, viagra, updating my insurance, denture cleaners, and arthritis pain relief. None of which I’ve ever needed, though looking at Tim Allen’s mug makes me wonder.
Look, the rules of TV and movies are immutable: Youth sells to everyone, old folks only sell to old folks.
TV is a fantasy. I don’t want to see drama, I want funny.
I’ll make a drama exception if, and ONLY if, the lead actress is in her 20′s-35 and a knockout.
But sure as hell, I’m not going to watch a dinosaur from a distant era like Don Johnson or Jimmy Smits try to act.
And as for older women…
While I may be in their generation, I’d no sooner watch the dramatic doings of a 50+ lady then I would dive head first into my TV set. And I don’t care of she’s teamed up with a knockout 25 year old who plays her daughter.
On TV, 50+ women only attract 50+ men and women-myself excluded.
Giving TV jobs to 50+ actors isn’t the “end of ageism”.
It’s more a desperate cry for help from the nets and their advertisers. Facing a rapid loss of younger demos, nets are desperate to retain their ad revenues.
Last TV rule: Hiring old 50+ actors to star in a bunch of new pilots smacks of Charley Sheen-like levels of desperation and lunacy. Good luck with that.
In fact, Charley has a better chance of success then most (if not all) of these old people pilots.
Wow, Phil, you might wanna work on the self-hatred, ’cause you ain’t getting any younger!
As for your sweeping assumptions about social media, it seems a lot of the people using Twitter are 40+ showrunners!
True, I may not be getting any younger, but my girlfriends are!
And THAT makes all the difference.
Showrunners do NOT represent the 40+ demo. Sure, a small percentage of 40+ folks use Twitter. Hell, even they can handle 140 character messages.
However, the REAL users of social media-those under 40+-use Facebook, Myspace, Linkedin far more than Twitter. And they are NOT going to watch old people on TV and chat up their friends on Facebook about it.
50+ don’t do Facebook-even your glorified “showrunners”.
LOL! You’re trying so damn hard to appear hip to your younger girlfriends that you’ve completely lost touch with what other people in your generation are actually doing. I personally know two boomer showrunners who use(d) FB ( one left for privacy), as well as several on Twitter.
The entire dotcom generation, those hip cutting edge kids from the 90s, are now in their 40s, and yes, 50s! It ain’t Ozzie ‘n’ Harriet out there, dude.
So a few social media lessons:
Myspace is seriously over, don’t mention it if you don’t want your younger girlfriends to roll their eyes while they wait for you to pick up the check.
FB is used by all age groups, one of the fastest growing being baby boomers, according to Forrester Research:
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/02/20/baby-boomers-luddites-not-so-fast/
LinkedIn is used by professionals, who are…whoa, big surprise coming…baby boomers! And GenXs, who are also edging close to 50.
And *that’s* what you’re missing. Somehow, you’ve decided that your entire generation is still listening to transistor radios and lamenting that the Beatles broke up. Sorry, they’ve all grown up. Maybe some day you will too.
Sheesh, you’re all right.
My comment, “Whereas old people 40+ are cheap and wouldn’t know social media if they stepped in it” is apparently factually incorrect. I knew it when I stated it, but let it stand for dramatic impact.
As to me “trying so damn hard to appear hip to (my) younger girlfriends”, again, you’re correct: Dating MUCH younger takes a hell of a lot of time & energy. Upside: Tantric sex (I’m a Yoga expert) that’s out of this world. Downside: Relationship shelf life literally May to December. Used to look for “One Good Year”, now content with “One Good Season”.
You say, “…you’ve completely lost touch with what other people in your generation are actually doing.” Not true. I know EXACTLY what they’re doing-and I’m happy they’re discovering the second-hand delights of social networking.
Re your last comment,”Sorry, they’ve all grown up. Maybe some day you will too.” God bless them and their grown-upness! I just enjoy traveling in the opposite direction.
(The threading won’t allow me to reply directly under Phil’s post below.)
Phil’s says, “Sheesh, you’re all right.”
Thanks, Phil. Here’s something that may blow your mind more than tantric sex:
I’m also a woman. And 53 years old.
I learned back in my thirties that the best sex was in a long-term, loving relationship. Hope you find one someday too.
Phil,
You sound like a hysterical, irrational, grotesquely shallow idiot(“I don’t want drama. I want funny.”) Your stereotyped view of people over 40 and worse your ugly characterization of people over 50 betrays your ignorance. You’ll make an exception for drama if the lead is a 20-35 year old female who’s a knockout? I don’t know how old you are, Phil, but psychologically your about 14 and emotionally about 6.
“You sound like a hysterical, irrational, grotesquely shallow idiot…” Not quite sure if I’ve earned all three of your accolades, or at least two of them.
Re my “stereotyping” and “ugly caracterizations”:
The focus of my comments concerned TV viewership and network ad strategies, NOT a sociological critique of 50+ people.
As to being “psychologically 14″ and “emotionally 6″…
On my best days! Though usually I’ve got to settle for double these two numbers.
Im rather shocked that forest whittaker a recent Oscar winner is doing a tv series that is a spinoff. Are roles really that scarce?
I LOVE Harry’s Law.I would pay to have Kathy Bates read last years IRS guidelines!
Enough with the ageism. Sally Field, the old guy on Brothers and Sisters, William Shatner, Candace Bergin, Hugh Lurie, Ed O’Neil, Betty White, Matthew Perry (we know you’re 50) all have been working before this year because they’re talented, not because TV is finally being sensitive to older actors. Nobody is taking on ageism as a cause, nobody decided to “wake up” to older actors. Kathy Bates rules.
I am of the babyboomer generation and it is great to see actors of a certain age coming back. Yes, babyboomers are the people who actually have the time and attention span to sit and enjoy television, as long as it is quality television. Yes, we still work and pay bills and we want to come home at night after a hard days work and be entertained by a wide age range of actors in shows.
There is room for everybody. Age discrimination is rampant. Foreign actors are brought in to film Pilots and that is OK as a balance to have American actors compliment the show, therein.
Babyboomers have joined the information society and have kept up with the changing media, to include social media. We are the wise and experienced age demo and know quality when we see it.
Remember everyone ages and gets older by the day.
I am for a broad range of age demos in shows. Shows that have the over 50 characters and go to the younger age demos. Modern Family has a good blend. Everybody Loves Raymond is a standard bearer for age blending in characters to appeal to the mass audience bases of all age ranges. A show should have something for everyone. Even Star Trek had a good blend during its run. Drama’s such as Dallas and Dynasty had its great age blends in characters.
Two and A Half Men has a good age blend with Holland Taylor, the mother, Charlie Sheen and Jon Cryer with Marin Hinkle being the mid age range, and then Angus T. Jones being the younger age to attract viewers to all the age ranges. There is something for everyone.
There is race discrimination running rampant with NO nominations of African-Americans in Oscars this year in the major categories. Very few nominations for Emmys too. Asians as well as Hispanics being neglected too. So Hollywood is filled with race discrimination as far as casting and hiring of actors of color for shows.
Ageism carries prejudice and limits.
end of ageism. Continuation of nepotism. Beat those dead horses.
One of the things I find funniest in all of this is that people keep forgetting to shift their idea of what age means. We keep hearing that “people over 50″ don’t know anything about the Internet or computer games, when both of those technologies have been around in geek circles since the 1970s and in popular circles since the 90s. Meaning a lot of gamers and Internet users are now 50 and beyond.
Perhaps it’s time to stop worrying about younger viewers and start wondering how many people over 50 have learned–on their own, not from their kids–how to torrent shows…
I think what’s most important is to be part of a society in which both sides can get behind the other. We don’t need young people snidely dismissing people over 40 or 50 as “ancient” or “irrelevant,” nor do we need those people over 40 or 50 simply looking down on these “snot-nosed kids.” It’s up to a society to embrace people across the age spectrum and really see where there’s value instead of blindly taking one’s own side.
The world is full of kids and grownups, young and old, and all of them are somewhere in each of our lives. The only person who can’t relate to a TV show about older adults would be, I don’t know, Peter Pan? And on the flip side, maybe, Ebenezer Scrooge? It diminishes us all to intuit that people won’t look to find the value.
The end of agism is long overdue. I think in general if we are too youth-centric then we voluntarily give up a wealth of valuable insight and experience from a large group of our population. I am glad that our entertainment choices are starting to reflect this as well!
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I think the end of agism is long overdue. In general, if our culture becomes too youth-centric then we voluntarily forfeit a wealth of information and experience from one of the largest demographics of our population. I am glad Hollywood is starting to reflect this in our choices of entertainment.
Over 70 still working and watch everything with good writing and acting