Along with most of you, I watched (and continue to watch) the NBC network’s late night troubles. You can’t miss it. Untill the Olympics or a national emergency it remains the most entertaining drama in the country. And it’s implications go much further than a popularity contest. The American public convincingly showed the entertainment world that they wanted drama, sitcoms or some other polished form of entertainment at 10p.m. The numbers for Leno were weak. And the American public also showed that they wanted more sophisticated hosting in post eleven p.m. televisions shows. Conan lost half of Leno’s Tonight Show audience.
Now as a writer, I applaud the idea that the viewing public wants scripted plots, where stories are acted out. Network and Cable television will take home a valuable lesson. Don’t mess with success.
I also notice that home movie viewing is up. While retail giants like Hollywood Video movie rental chain are in Chapter 11, Netflix and Redbox are showing record profits with cheap rentals and streaming videos. So not everyone is watching the reality shows (or the Leno show or Tonight show.) People are actually watching movies with dialogue, characters and plot.
And the power of movies may be stronger than ever. Avatar is getting rave reviews and record box office business, but being blamed for glamorizing smoking? Yep.
In case you didn’t notice, Sigourney Weaver’s character, an ecologist, smokes. Now alarmists are claiming that the smoking trend among young people might start going up.
Remeber that I Tunes was supposed to do away with CD sales? Lady Antebellum’s second album, Need You Now, sold 481,000 CDs last week. Come from nowhere Susan Boyle sold 701,000 in November and of course Taylor Swift sold twohundred billion trillion records. I don’t get her, but that’s for another time.
Finally, I Pad looks like it might be something worth exploring.
Just when we are told that no one reads anymore, we are introduced to a tablet with the capabilities of reintroducing reading to the young tech crowd.
Finally, they say that traditional books are almost a thing of the past. Don’t tell the people I met while signing last week.
I sold more books than I’ve ever sold. And yes, one lady at a Barnes and Nobel walked up, pulled out her Kindle and bought my book online. Pretty cool!