Understanding Today's Audience

First of all, I believe we need to emphasize a few hard facts. Today's audience has an extremely short attention span. The dopamine loops of the modern brain have shifted. Moreover, this audience is completely allergic to artificiality. The moment they sense or perceive even the slightest hint of pretense, they will abandon the show entirely. This is because, through alternative entertainment platforms like social media, they have grown accustomed to a level of naturalness like never before, and they know very well that they have the power to change content instantly. Therefore, for linear television to draw back the audiences who have migrated to social media and stopped watching TV altogether, it must act very, very smartly.

So, how can this be achieved? What needs to be done?

First of all, we must abandon expired formats that have been reheated and put back on the air for the past 20 years. Sticking 15 celebrities into an old format and achieving ratings above the channel average is entirely normal.

But is that real success?

If you lock 15 celebrities in a random room and tell them, "You are going to tell each other the biggest lies of your lives" you would likely see ratings close to that figure anyway.

That is not what needs to be done. Because when you bring that 20-year-old format to the screen with 20 celebrities, you aren't drawing the millions of viewers who no longer watch TV and instead hang out on social media back to linear television.

You are simply trying to reach the exact same pool of viewers. Whereas the goal should be to protect the existing audience while bringing social media audiences back to television.

So what kind of content do we need for this?

Today, we are practically experiencing an explosion of scripted content. Quantity is high, but quality is low. Viewers often realize that even heavily hyped films or series are actually poor, and unfortunately, a negative perception settles over the entire industry. Scripted content is not the solution to restore linear television to its former strength. The solution lies in unscripted formats. Because social media does not offer scripted content either; it presents unscripted material in its most natural form amidst a multitude of choices.

Returning to the definition of today's audience: character mystery is no longer enough for today's viewer; you must also provide behavioral mystery. Today's audience is smart; they have memorized the contestant reactions and emotions they've already seen 30 times in any given reality show. Therefore, the content and direction of a contestant's reaction must change as well. Consequently, creative mechanics and mysterious behaviors are now indispensable key elements in reality formats. Sometimes, however, the most important aspect is pure entertainment. Format mechanics must create a natural comedy, so that instead of turning to social media for a laugh, viewers turn on the TV and eagerly wait for that show to begin...

In short: Today's audience wants content they have never seen before; today's audience wants fast-paced action; today's audience wants to wonder and speculate more; today's audience wants to see the rawest emotions of human nature in the most realistic way, rather than artificiality; today's audience wants a format they can talk about and critique; and—putting this in a separate category—sometimes they just want to laugh over and over again.

The TV world's global broadcasters must now focus more heavily on unscripted and brand-new, original content.

What will restore television to its former glory is not clinging to the past, but finding original, creative, and brand-new ideas that respond to the expectations of the modern audience.