Tv Programming: Crime-Time TV Expands

The success this season of CBS' CSI: Miami and Without a Trace, combined with the continued strength of NBC's Law & Order franchise, has made crime shows the dominant drama genre on network TV. And following the failures this season of courtroom series Girls Club and Queens Supreme and the medical shows MDs and Presidio Med, the roster of crime shows on the networks is likely to grow this fall.

"Telling relationship and character stories just isn't enough to get the audience's juices flowing for an hour," said Tom Sherman, senior vp of drama series at ABC. "Crime shows give TV a compelling structure on which to hang those characters and relationships."

Six of ABC's 12 drama pilots are crime shows, including 10-8, about rookie cops in the Los Angeles sheriff's department; Alaska, about state troopers investigating crime; and Karen Sisco, based on Jennifer Lopez' character from the 1998 film Out of Sight. Nine of CBS' 10 drama pilots are crime-themed, including Cold Cases (from Jerry Bruckheimer). And four of NBC's eight drama pilots are crime shows, including an untitled Crossing Jordan spinoff.

For the networks, crime shows' procedural elements offer close-ended stories that have proven to repeat well. What's more, if viewers skip an episode, they can return the following week without having missed a crucial element in a serialized storyline.

Producers and network executives note that crime shows also offer audiences a black-and-white view of the world that pits heroes against villains and that serves up a weekly dose of justice that can seem comforting in troubled times. But with most crime show plots hinging on murder and sex, some suppliers say that viewers also have exhibited an appetite for sensationalism.

"We're a tabloid society, and people are interested in other people's dirty laundry," said Jonathan Littman, executive producer of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and CSI: Miami. Littman traces the origins of the crime genre's prime-time proliferation back to the O..J. Simpson murder trial in 1994. "That blew the top off" this subject matter, Littman said.

Theoretically, a glut of new crime shows next season could dampen viewer interest. But several advertisers said the genre is so varied that the odds of a down cycle setting in are slim.

Steve Sternberg, senior vp/director of audience analysis at Magna Global USA, said rather than cannibalizing itself, the genre's proliferation has improved the performance of other crime shows. "People have different viewing habits, so if someone sees CSI: Miami or Law & Order: Criminal Intent, it can lead those viewers back to the originals," Sternberg said.