SoulHonky

CBS has announced that on Sunday, February 17th they will start running the first season of the Showtime series Dexter.  Word is that the show has been ADRing clean lines to use over the swears and also shooting some alternate scenes to place the more violent moments of the show. While I can't say that A&E's cleaned up version of The Sopranos wowed me, this is the logical step for the networks.

I wouldn't be stunned if Fox soon started replaying the early seasons of their stalwart FX shows (The Shield, Nip/Tuck, Rescue Me, and even Damages). NBC has already moved Law & Order:Criminal Intent back to the Peacock (it had been shuttled over to USA this year) and they also have other shows like Monk, Psych, and Burn Notice ready to be moved over as well. Should networks be relaxed knowing that they have these aces in the hole waiting to be aired? Should programming departments be nervous, knowing that these higher quality shows are about to hit the air?  

As odd as it sounds, the one group that should probably root for these shows to succeed is writers. These shows are better than 99% of the current television fodder and if higher caliber shows can attract a wide audience, perhaps networks (when the strike is over) will be more willing to take a chance on headier material.  While I can't imagine that something like "The Wire" will ever cross over, shows like Monk, Burn Notice, and Dexter seem like they could definitely catch the general public's attention. Yes, the WGA would prefer to see all network ratings to crumble, but they also have to be afraid of the worst case scenario: these shows struggle to find audiences while reality reaches like "Dance War" or "When Women Rule the World" stack up the ratings.

The WGA may be fighting for better treatment behind the scenes but their efforts could also impact the television landscape on the screen as well. As Hollywood would have it, it seems like both the writers and the networks could now be rooting for a serial killer to save the day.