I generally don't bother to watch anything on the monster channels, and very little else on other channels. There are a few shows here and there on the big channels that impress me enough to make me want to watch them (House, The Office, ect.), but the problem is I can get them so easily somewhere else that there's even less reason to even bother flipping the channel to FOX or NBC.
Lets name the assassins:
DVD
If you can get the show on DVD or even Blu-ray, why watch it on TV? Other than supporting the great show to make sure they continue to make the show, there's very little incentive. To add to this factor, consider that a show that sells well enough on DVD can sometimes convince studios/execs with the big companies to continue the show a while after they've cancelled it (Family Guy anyone?) and it seems almost pointless to lose sleep over a cancelled show -- if it's good enough, it won't be gone for too long.
Age
Considering most shows lose their glamour and writers start to get lazy around the 5th or 6th season, there's even less incentive to do anything to support the show after a certain point.
Syndication
When a show becomes as highly syndicated as The Simpsons (or even House in recent years), that's even less incentive to see the show on the original channel.
Digital Downloads/Streaming Video
With cheap digital downloads, but even easier to access free, streaming video on sites like Netflix or Hulu or even the site of the company that produces the show, the ease of seeing even new episodes whenever you want to, almost WHEREVER you want to, and HOWEVER you want to with all of these examples in play, this just nails the coffin shut on anyone ever bothering to watch TV and be tethered to the time frames they want us to be tethered to.
We live in a world where freedom of choice in entertainment is becoming more and more available everywhere you look -- you don't have to follow the rules anymore.
Prime Time is a thing of the past. Now Prime Time can be whenever you want it to be, wherever you want it to be, and however you want it to be. I think the real problem here is the business model of these companies. They rely heavily on advertisement, and that's fine and good, but I think the advertisement companies are still under the assumption that people are going to keep watching TV the way they always have -- when it's clear to me that the way people watch TV is about to DRASTICALLY change, and if they want to make any money, they're going to have to take that into consideration, and just follow the quality wherever it goes.
Basically, I'm not afraid of any great shows being lost, because even if they are there's every chance if they're good enough that they'll be back in production soon enough.
To be honest, I haven't been impressed with much since the 90's when it comes to sitcoms and dramas and whatnot -- the age of GOOD sitcoms is pretty much dead...I haven't seen a really good one for over ten years, and I really don't count shows like The Office among sitcoms, because I'm talking in general more about the specific formula for sitcoms that had been around for at least two decades prior to the millennium. Shows like the Office follow their own different and specific formula, and as such are original enough to blaze their own path. In terms of classic sitcoms, I don't think it's impossible to make a good new one that follows the classic formula, I just think that writers of these shows have been bombing left and right. The chemistry between actors has also been horribly wrong. As for Drama, I have to count myself among the minority in saying that CSI and all it's iterations were simply not all that entertaining to me. Why would I bother with shows like that when A&E and Discovery had shows on PRIOR to CSI that showed the actual reality behind that type of Drama? How exactly is it entertaining to see someone whose idea of dramatic acting is talking and walking around like the frickin Fonz on acid? That's about as good as Hayden Christiansen's idea of dramatic acting being "slur my words like I'm drunk". Oh yes, VERY dramatic, Hayden. I'm so tense I'm literally on the edge of my seat.....and leaning towards the bathroom in the event of a more than possible need to toss my cookies.
BUT I DIGRESS! I just realized how big of a tangent I just went off on.....my bad! ^_^;
I guess the point I'm really trying to make is that the virtual landscape of television as we once knew it is rapidly changing in a variety of ways, and neither the television companies nor the advertisers involved have yet to catch on or catch up to that fact. As a result, it's more than likely that a few good shows will fall by the wayside...
HOWEVER...just make sure to support it as much as you can, even just by buying the DVDs, and if enough people love it that much, there's every chance even a canceled show can make a comeback.
Don't worry about this stuff, there's not much to be truly concerned over, and so long as you're doing your part to support the show, you're doing all you can in a day and age in which the changes of television are becoming more and more apparent with each passing day.
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Networks seem to cancel good shows to soon in their lives.
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