One cannot determine the impact that a certain creation or invention will have on its generation or on future generations. Newspapers, radio, and television have all been successful mediums for communication and getting what is popular or noteworthy to the public. Our generation’s television is of course YouTube. One cannot deny that it is the site of choice among many demographics in America and throughout the world. So it is not surprising that many television networks, to stay with the current times, are conforming to the interests of our generation.
Television clip-shows are indeed making a comeback, in previous shows, like America’s Funniest Home videos, the host shows a funny video, makes a joke, and the audience laughs. Shows like The Soup and Tosh.0, as well as several others in the making, are taking these YouTube videos and turning it into television that is structured much like that of these already tried shows. The host stands in front of a green screen, and shows homemade Internet videos, gathered by researchers who comb the Internet for the most popular or the most peculiar videos out there. Now the idea that these shows deliver to their audiences what is occurring in popular culture seems quite apparent, however it does not seem like the most important of tasks.
Despite thoughts that these shows wouldn’t be popular, because they merely report what is going on in the media and what is popular amongst various Internet groups, the fact is that they are indeed being watched, and by multitudes of people. Tosh.0 has always had a steady following in terms of viewers, however through the first five episodes of its third season, the show never dipped below three million viewers. The Soup is also popular as over one million viewers regularly watched the new episodes. So one can see that millions of people are actually tuning in to watch these shows and they continue to come back for more.
There are several reasons why these shows are popular amongst viewers and also amongst television networks. For starters, they are extremely cheap to make. The pilot of a normal television show costs around one million dollars to produce. Some even cost upwards of ten million dollars for major dramas. These clip-shows run at about one-fifth of the cost that normal television programming runs. Their sets are extremely cheap, only a green screen and a few cameras are necessary. They also assert fair use laws to show almost all video clips for free. Television executives have taken notice and as a result they have put forth the effort to create them as cheap ways to entertain and make money.
For viewers these shows act as mediums that communicate to audiences things that are happening in popular culture. But that is not the reason why these shows are extremely popular. Tosh.0 in particular not only aims to entertain their viewers, but they also aim to make people feel connected. The witty host Daniel Tosh not only launches commentary and jokes at the videos, he also tweets with his followers throughout the show. This is only one way in which he interacts with his audience. He has a Facebook page with over four million Likes and his Twitter stream is followed by almost a million and a half people. These are huge numbers that are following him and it does not stop there. He also plays a role in updating the blog for his show, in case people cannot get enough of his show various viral videos and pictures are posted so people can comment. These are all smart, and successful attempts at making people feel connected to the show and to him as well.
It is apparent that shows like Tosh.0 are popular, the question most would ask is, is this just a fad? Or is this going to be an established genre that will continue to hold the attention of viewers? If you look at television ratings now and the overall following of these shows it seems as if they would. However as technology changes and advancements are made no one can really tell if these shows will continue to be popular. Only time will tell if these shows will last but for our generation, it seems like these shows will stick around for quite some time.
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