There was a time when Thursday nights were 'must see TV' nights. Friends, Seinfeld and ER made a pretty compelling night of 'must see TV' as the slogan went. A significant portion of the nation would be sharing the same experience Thursday nights. I remember getting up early on a Saturday, even though it wasn't a school day because that's when the good cartoons where on. I doubt my kids will ever have that notion or experience. Between DVR/TiVo, On Demand broadcasts, Web delivery and AppleTV there's not as big a driver to sit down at a scheduled day and time and watch.
For the past few years we only had terrestrial broadcast TV and an AppleTV in the house. One time, while watching Arthur on PBS, Renee had to go to the bathroom and was jumping up and down demanding we 'pause it!', not understanding that not all TV shows were like the AppleTV version. A few months back we added Cable to the house and a DVR unit, so now we can pause live TV, further blurring the distinction between the on demand vs on schedule showings. She doesn't understand why she can't watch Zula Patrol any time she wants and has to wait until 7:30 to see it. She's convinced its something that I'm not doing for her, and not a case of it not being available On Demand or via AppleTV. Further there's only one episode to watch and when it's done it's done. With all her other shows there's always another episode, so she asks to watch another Zula Patrol, and i have to tell her no. From her perspective it's no different then saying she can only watch one Super Why. We have more, I'm just not allowing her to watch them. Except in this case, we legitimately don't have more to watch. Kind of works in my favor I guess, there's no chance I'll cave in and let her watch a 2nd one.
As more and more entertainment options become less tied to the providers schedule and less tied to the TV as the only way to watch it, the notion of a good night for TV will wither away. There will still be some notion of scheduling, but it'll be the date and time it's put on the distribution network. It probably won't be the same though. Even for me it's not quite the same. I love CBS's monday line-up, but I don't think I've watched any of them at there actual broadcast time in 2 or 3 years. I don't think TV's dead or going away. As Randall Hounsell put it, TV is still "a lean back experience." People will still want to get someplace comfy and be immersed in a world that isn't there own.
Back when CD's were the norm, but vinyl records were still around, my over-used joke used to be that my kids were going to be asking me "Dad, how do we get this big black disc into the CD player?" Now I'm not so sure they'll even remember what a CD is. Never thought the same would happen for TV. The Qwest commercial from the late-90's is finally coming true.
A tired man goes into a cheap motel in the middle of nowhere and asks about amenities. When he asks about entertainment, the girl responds "all rooms have every movie ever made in any language anytime day or night." It'll probably be 20 years after the fact, but it's coming.
