Fortysomething housewives cavort on Wisteria Lane. Middle-aged crime scene investigators solve gruesome mysteries. TV's "The Office" looks like ... well, an actual office.
Even the primetime repositories for young characters -- the WB and UPN -- are closing up shop.
Sorry, Dawson and Buffy: Grown-ups are back. The broadcast networks are looking for -- how do we put this gently? -- slightly older folk these days.
After a decade of chasing in vain for the next "Friends"-style twentysomething sensation, the webs have decided to embrace their core audience. The median age for the six nets is 46.2 -- and on the air, those middle-agers are scoring more screen time.
The popularity of procedurals and serials has accelerated the trend. Lawyers, forensic scientists and FBI agents aren't believable unless they're being played by older actors. And serials aren't fun when they're just populated with young characters, who don't carry the same amount of baggage that their parents do (even "The OC" relies heavily on its older characters).
The webs' decision to finally start acting their age shouldn't come as a big surprise. Having already ceded kids to cable, the networks are now losing teens and young adults to the Internet (like MySpace.com) and new technologies (video iPod, anyone?).
That still leaves a sizable audience, including a healthy dose of viewers who are on the older side of the 18-49 demo that advertisers crave. What's more, these viewers are more affluent than the fresh-out-of-college kid too busy downloading ringtones on his cell phone to catch an episode of "CSI."
These viewers want to see characters at a slightly advanced stage in life. As a result, these days the scripted series topping the 18-49 charts aren't populated by teenybopper characters, but rather by boomers and Gen X'ers.
The nets are walking a fine line: They're hoping to broaden out their audience but are still gaga over those young adults whom advertisers crave most. Go too old and advertisers will cry foul (even if your total viewers number grows). In other words, "Dancing With the Stars" is great -- but it better still be sexy enough for the young'ins to tune in.
"They're finding that they can get the broadest audience by programming in the middle," says Steve Sternberg, exec VP of audience analysis at MAGNA Global. "Program to 18-year-olds and you get 18-year-olds. Program to 35-year-olds, and you get 25- to 35-year-olds and 35- to 49-year-olds."
For ABC, that meant going from "8 Simple Rules" and "Alias" to "Housewives" and "Lost," not to mention the stylishly mature "Commander in Chief" Geena Davis. A recent episode of "Boston Legal" was an AARP buffet: Guest star Tom Selleck romancing Candice Bergen, and stars James Spader and William Shatner defending an old man who helped euthanize his Alzheimer's-stricken wife.
At Fox, the network once made up of "Beverly Hills, 90210" and "Party of Five" now boasts middle-aged heroes in "24" and "House." One of the net's last teen showcases, "That '70s Show" is going off the air this year.
As for CBS ... OK, so CBS was a little ahead of the trend. (Actually, if anything, the Eye has aged down a bit, meeting ABC, NBC and Fox halfway).
The trend will be even more pronounced next season. Dramas and comedies about characters with midlife crises dominate the development rosters. Fall 2006 pilots are heavy on conspiracy-laden thrillers, mysteries about missing people and political dramas -- and they're all going to require characters with a few gray hairs.
Don't misunderstand -- the Golden Girls aren't making a comeback, and "aging up" means eschewing characters just out of college for characters paying down their first mortgage.
But for a town that is known for celebrating youth at the expense of older talent, it's a surprising turn of events. And it's giving writers -- accustomed to receiving notes demanding youth, youth, youth -- reason for pause.
Scribe Rob Long, who managed to wade through the industry's appetite for youth while working on not-so-young shows like "Cheers," was taken aback enough to make it the centerpiece of a recent one of his commentaries on L.A. NPR outfit KCRW.
Long recounted a recent phone conversation with a network exec, who wanted to make the main character in his script (gulp) older.
"Can't it be about older people in their 40s working at their last jobs?" the network suits said, tongue not planted in cheek. "Advertisers really want to capture the 35-to-50 demographic. Apparently, older people are now experimenting more with brands and fashion and personal appearance. Forty is 30 with money."
As you might expect, network execs aren't anxious to publicly comment on issues regarding age -- particularly this time of year, as they're prepping pilots and making casting decisions. No one wants to tip their hand on strategy.
But forget timing -- the concept of ageism remains one of Hollywood's hot-button topics, right beside the perceived lack of diversity on the small screen. And that may be the real reason execs don't want to elaborate.
At least on the diversity front, a coalition of minority groups signed letters of intent with the networks to improve the representation of people of color both in front of and behind the camera.
The same hasn't happened in the age game, even as older actors and writers complain of being shut out at the webs.
Still, a shift was bound to happen. The first set of baby boomers hits 60 this year. And while adults 18-49 remains the top measurement among nets, those webs' sales teams covet the wealthier, adults 18-49 with an income of at least $75,000 even more.
And naturally, those wealthier young adults fall more in the latter half of the 18-49 demo.
"You need to program shows with characters that people can recognize," Sternberg says. "And the 35s to 49s watch a lot more TV than the 18-to-34s."
ENDS
Contact Michael Schneider at
mike.schneider@variety.com