Originally posted by Reefgirl
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As for the minds of TV Execs, they are notorious for making the wrong call. Their main problem is that they don't dare to take real risks because they're afraid to lose money, so they look around and when they see that Reality show MMVII gets better ratings they'll copy that show in the hope of also getting those ratings.
This mindset of "money and ratings are all that matter, and damn originality" is what plagues the commercial stations since it eventually leads to uniformity. Because public broadcasters, such as the BBC, produce their own shows and in general are less governed by this principle, they are capable of creating quality television (We produce, thus when a concept/show is good we'll make money selling it to other channels). Even in a country with a very complex public broadcasting system, the Netherlands, this difference in philosophies between public and commercial broadcasters is quite apparant.
And then there is another thing; the per season renewal. How can a PTB write decent arcs when every year there is a fear of cancellation? It's idiotic to renew a show for its first few years on a per season basis, how can you expect a show to gain a good following in one to three seasons especially for shows that are arc-based (B5)? I think it's time for the PTBs of shows to stand up against this tiranny of the ratings and demand multiple season contracts from the stations. That way they can write plan their stories ahead, multiple season arc, and end their shows properly and when their shows get renewed for a few more seasons that can create a whole arcs for those seasons, it would seriously improve the quality of a lot of shows when they no longer fear extermination every season.
Ah well, I guess that such a thing is too much to ask these days since everything is ratings based.
I think it wouldn't be fair to say yeh it's really popular all over the world. 
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