TV’s ‘Reality Trash Pits’

I doubt that I am the only writer in town who is secretly chuckling at the major networks’ foolishness (“To Reclaim Power, Creative Types Need to Be Just That,” by Brian Lowry, Aug. 22). Not chuckling at the short-term hardship on sitcom and drama writers, but at the long-term suicide-by-programming.

The present state of affairs is that the networks are becoming reality trash pits that are gradually losing viewers to the cable channels, especially premium channels that are making many of the award-winning and increasingly popular dramas and sitcoms. The easiest examples to cite are “The Sopranos” on HBO and “Beggars and Choosers” on Showtime. That’s where you go for quality now.

The pattern is that the networks are saving money and losing viewers year by year. Cable channels are spending money and gaining viewers. You would think that advertisers would be the most worried. When most of the good shows are on pay-to-see TV, advertisers will be wrestling over which of the 30 or 40 reality brain sinks they want to sling some copy at, hoping it sticks.

DONNIE DALE

Los Angeles

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Concerning the conflicts between the writers and actors unions and the studios, I was sorry to see Lowry write, “Rightly or wrongly, most people see the dispute--assuming they pay any attention at all--as a battle between millionaires and billionaires and couldn’t care less.”

Rightly or wrongly? Why doesn’t Lowry use his reporter’s skills to tell us which view would be right? As a writer, I know the average income last year for my colleagues was $84,000. This means that for the 200 or 300 writers whose incomes are in the six- and seven-digit range, thousands of writers work for far less than that average. Far from a millionaire-billionaire conflict.

BRIAN NELSON

Woodland Hills