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Brian Lowry, CNN
Entertainment
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(CNN) – Two major hits, "Game of Thrones" and "The Big Bang Theory", are being signed a few days apart. That these shared listening experiences represent a celebration or wake is once again the subject of debate in the circles of the television industry.
When it comes to bringing together millions of people, television executives like to say that pipes always work. This was certainly true when preparing the finals of "Thrones" – which broke records for the pay-TV network – and the comedy CBS, which ended Thursday over 12 years with about 18 million viewers the same day. According to Nielsen data, this figure is expected to increase to 25 million with delayed display.
The mythical drama of HBO reached an unprecedented peak with its penultimate episode – with 18.4 million viewers in the US – and despite many criticisms and showers on Twitter, it seems likely to overshadow this brand with the Sunday final.
The question that arises is whether, at the age of watching-it-your-view, it is possible to reproduce this type of emission or if each successive generation of "hits" will inevitably be narrower and quieter than the one that preceded it.
This discussion is hardly new. Whenever a big hit comes out of the show – "The Cosby Show" in 1992, "Seinfeld" in 1998, "Friends" in 2004, "The Sopranos" in 2007 – there seems to be a new round of speculation about whether television has crossed a bridge in what amounts to a smaller, more dispersed world.
At the end of "Seinfeld", the late Larry Gelbart – who had developed "M * A * S * H", remains the last episode of the most-watched series to date – has highlighted the interest of to be able to share something as benign as a television comedy, in language that seems even more true today than at the time.
"All that brings us together – God knows that there are enough things separating us – is good for the family we are as a nation," he told the Los Angeles Times.
Nevertheless, it is clear that these experiences of viewing in common are increasingly rare, the Super Bowl being the only annual event to have resisted serious erosion. Awards, in particular, are among the events that have declined sharply.
In addition, Thursday's Big Bang is not as big as the sitcom giants. In comparison, the aforementioned Seinfeld finale attracted about 76 million viewers, while "Friends" 15 years ago delivered more than 52 million people.
While studios and networks are launching their own streaming services, the entertainment industry seems to be increasingly engaging in a world of à la carte media consumption. What this means for linear television – that is, viewing on networks like CBS and HBO – is a very open question.
In a recent interview, Chuck Lorre, producer and co-creator of "The Big Bang Theory", said that it would be "foolish" to declare the sitcom dead, having heard and witnessed such statements and to recriminations in the past.
The eagerness of the studios to create streaming content suggests that there is a business model for niche programming. Even so, the double loss of these series, however different, suggests less "Big Bangs" and, when it comes to using the term "hit", a decreasing number of "Big Bangs". programs legitimately claiming this title.
"The Big Bang Theory" is produced by Warner Bros., which, like HBO and CNN, is a unit of WarnerMedia.
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