I watch too much TV. I admit it freely. The truth is, I have a chronic illness and it affects my eyes, so I can’t read the way I used to. So, now I watch way too much TV. In my effort to make this mean something to the rest of the world, since generally, television is a wasteland, I decided to actually sort of watchdog the shows. I started about two years ago.

I bought the USAToday simply for the 110 Nielsen ratings listed every Wednesday. That way, I could check to see if my favorite shows were shows that had high ratings and thus would be renewed. I have followed these ratings religiously every week for almost two years and along the way, I learned something pretty astounding. We are slowing, but surely, losing quality TV. I know, , for a lot of you who might not care much for TV. But for a person who grew up watching television for entertainment, it has been quite an astonishing revelation.

I will start with The Unit. Which is actually where my passion about the over 50 demographics not counting and making it right began. I always read the little blurbs beside the ratings every Wednesday in USAToday and over time, I began to notice something interesting. Certain shows were ALWAYS mentioned and certain shows were NEVER mentioned. For example, I know a lot of you watch and like NCIS. Guess what? The ratings for NCIS are very high. In fact, even in reruns during the writer’s strike, the ratings have stayed in the top ten (until the double-whammy, American Idol and Dancing With the Stars took over). Even then, it stayed in the top 15. It has always beat out CSI NY and sometimes CSI Miami. Even, on rare ocassions, CSI.  So, one would think it would be a show we would be reading about in all entertainment periodicals, right? Not so! In fact, NCIS is rarely mentioned in the sidebar in USAToday unless it dips (on that rare ocassion) and it is never referred to in a positive light. This is true of all entertainment venues out of Hollywood. And why, do you ask, is that so? Because....we are OLD. And NCIS seems only to appeal to us OLD folks. And we no longer count!

Again, do I have your attention? Because this is very important. Over the last couple of years, the executives in Hollywood have gotten younger and younger and as this has happened, slowly and sneakily, they are more and more discounting the over 50 crowd and coveting the 18 - 39 crowd. They say they want the 18 - 49 crowd but that is just a ruse. They are no more interested in the over 40 crowd than they are in the one-year-old crowd. And so, we are becoming invisible. For those of you who eschew television, that probably doesn’t mean anything. But for those of you who like watching TV as a form of entertainment - be very aware of what is slowly happening.

Back to The Unit. I knew this was happening. I think that is why I jumped in to try and save Journeyman two months ago, because it was such a wonderful show and I was getting sick of my favorite shows getting canceled. (Firefly, Invasion, Heartland and now Jericho just to name a very few - there have been more). Now, Journeyman wasn’t doing spectacularly in the ratings. But it also wasn’t doing terrible. It was around 40 on a week to week basis. Forty isn’t too bad  for a new show. And, since they brought back Men in Trees and Medium, both of which usually land above 50 in the ratings, I thought it had a good chance. But no, it was outright NOT brought back. Just for your information, it has not been outright canceled yet, it appears to be in limbo. Evidently FOX has bought the rights to the show, so we fans are waiting as patiently as possible for good news.

When the writers went back to work, I scoured the entertainment news sections online and in newspapers for news of my favorite shows. There will be new shows for NCIS and it has been renewed for next season(good), only four shows for Moonlight and it has yet to be renewed next season, even though it’s ratings were par with Ghost Whisperer which has already been renewed, and of course, CSI up the you-know-what - all renewed along with Law & Orders. Three cheers? Not! So, then I went looking for The Unit, because we even bought the first season because my son wanted to watch it. Guess what, folks? I hasn’t yet been renewed.

Do you know why The Unit has not been renewed, even though it has, for two years, been in the teens and 20’s consistently all along? Because the demographics are all wrong. From what I can gather, somewhere between 60 - 70 percent of the people watching The Unit are over 50. And, we don’t count. So, The Unit might get canceled.

There’s another show I’d like to mention here. The Women’s Murder Club. This is a wonderful show about four intelligent, imperfect career women who are solving crimes. They are not hopping from bed to bed, not wearing lot-cut sexy blouses with their breasts ready to spill out at any moment, and the women who plays the ME - Paula Newsome - is a rather robust and beautiful black woman. This show is one of the first forensics shows that is for women, about women that even men can identify with. And, yes, the ratings were quite good. About the same as Ghost Whisperer - in the 30’s. Not bad. But, it, too, is on the bubble.

Now for some shows that have already been renewed: Dirty, Sexy, Money - abysmal ratings, but never mind, it’s dirty and sexy so it must come back. Life - a rather weird show that, of course, had the main character going home with two beautiful women on his arm every single night - and ratings in the 60’s.Supernatural - please, the ratings were so low, in the 90’s and 100’s it’s not funny, 30 Rock - a show the audience didn’t care for but the networks obviously fell in love with,  These shows are done deals - besides all the others like Grey’s Anatomy, Private Practice (which I stopped watching because I got tired of the bed hopping), House, Brothers and Sisters (ratings in the 40’s), Cold Case (sorry, not the BEST crime show on TV and certainly NOT as good as Women’s Murder Club IMHO), Desperate Housewives (sans Nathan Fillian - serious error as far as I’m concerned), Ugly Betty (sigh, ratings in the 40’s and 50’s), Shark (ratings in the 20’s and NOT renewed for next year yet and guess why? Demographics again!). ER (ratings in the 30’s). Anyway, you get my idea, right? All the bubble shows are on the bubble because WE over the age of 50 make up the majority of the demographics watching them.

So, OK, this isn’t life or death or war or famine, I get that. But, it does speak to something, I think, very insidious. The loss of power of people over 50 to have any say in what goes on TV and what doesn’t. Personally, I think that is very important. It is ageist at the least and extremely prejudicial at the most. What amazes me the most is that we baby boomers GREW UP on Television. We still watch it and we have the discretionary income to support the advertisers. So what is the justification for targeting the under 40’s as the only power group for television shows? This is not a rhetorical question. In all of my research, I can find no answer to that question.

Now we can stand mute and allow our power slip away, or we can stand up and DO something about it.

This is me, standing up and doing something about it. And I am tired and lonely here. Please come and join me?