Katerina Serafeim

As we have reached the end of 2017, I thought it would be a good idea to
do a recap on the programmes that were broadcast by Greek television, a
detailed review of the typology and quality of the televised product
that was "served" to the Greek audience. As I was thinking what kind of
entertainment programmes, TV series, reality shows, talent shows etc. I
watched, what was new that caught my interest, what I would like to see
vanished in a magical way, I realized that in 2017 Greek television
really went backwards by decades! To be accurate, the typology of the TV
programmes resembled that of the 1990s and the 2000s.

##### [Type No 1: Cooking Shows]{.underline}

[![](https://cstonline.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/serafeim_blog_image-1-300x169.jpg){.alignleft
.size-medium .wp-image-5314 loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="300"
height="169"
srcset="https://cstonline.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/serafeim_blog_image-1-300x169.jpg.webp 300w, https://cstonline.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/serafeim_blog_image-1-450x253.jpg.webp 450w, https://cstonline.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/serafeim_blog_image-1-140x79.jpg.webp 140w, https://cstonline.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/serafeim_blog_image-1-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cstonline.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/serafeim_blog_image-1.jpg 800w"
sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px"}](https://cstonline.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/serafeim_blog_image-1.jpg)During
the year of 2017, there was an overflow of cooking programmes (2 or 3 on
some TV channels) even of cooking TV games which attracted the viewers'
interest so much that the viewer ratings reached very high levels. The
question is: How many programmes of such a format can really fit on
Greek TV?  The cooking show is a trend that started at the end of the
2000's, having as a pioneer the first edition of the well-known *Master*
*Chef*, which became a television "hit".  Seven years later, having
suffered from the severe economic crisis and the lack of original
concepts, there is no Greek TV channel without a cooking show or a show
without a cook! And the highlight is: many TV channels choose to fill
their after-lunch slots with episodes full of pots and pans and, even
more, some others are about to re-launch the project of *Master Chef*.

##### [Type No 2: Music and Talent Shows]{.underline}

[![](https://cstonline.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/serafeim_blog_image-2-300x122.jpg){.alignleft
.size-medium .wp-image-5315 loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="300"
height="122"
srcset="https://cstonline.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/serafeim_blog_image-2-300x122.jpg.webp 300w, https://cstonline.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/serafeim_blog_image-2-450x184.jpg.webp 450w, https://cstonline.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/serafeim_blog_image-2-140x57.jpg.webp 140w, https://cstonline.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/serafeim_blog_image-2-768x313.jpg 768w, https://cstonline.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/serafeim_blog_image-2.jpg 980w"
sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px"}](https://cstonline.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/serafeim_blog_image-2.jpg)How
many talents can Greece and the "small screen" afford? It was in 2002
when the private TV channel "Antenna" started broadcasting the first
season of the wannabe singers' talent show entitled *Fame Story*. At
that time, no one could have imagined what the sequel would be: *Fame
Story 2,3,4*, *Super Idol*, *Dream Show the music*, *X Factor*... And if
you think that this was the end of such shows, you are completely wrong!
Since 2015, this kind of talent shows has reappeared on Greek TV. But
the most remarkable fact is that these shows seem to be "contagious" and
they are spread from one channel to the next. *The Voice of Greece*,
*Rising Star*, *X Factor* are back in order to fill the gaps in the
entertainment slot (that derived from the 7-year financial crisis in
Greece) as a low-cost programme in an attempt to gain high audience
ratings.

##### [Type No 3: TV Game Show]{.underline}

[![](https://cstonline.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/serafeim_blog_image-3-300x169.jpg){.alignleft
.wp-image-5316 loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="190" height="107"
srcset="https://cstonline.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/serafeim_blog_image-3-300x169.jpg.webp 300w, https://cstonline.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/serafeim_blog_image-3-450x253.jpg.webp 450w, https://cstonline.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/serafeim_blog_image-3-140x79.jpg.webp 140w, https://cstonline.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/serafeim_blog_image-3.jpg 682w"
sizes="(max-width: 190px) 100vw, 190px"}](https://cstonline.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/serafeim_blog_image-3.jpg)The
"re-invasion" of "refurbished" TV game shows that culminated during the
90s is a characteristic of a "tired" television format. Old concepts
that flourished 20 or 25 years ago are back on the TV sets. Why is that?
Why do the TV channels' programme makers not find new attractive formats
that can really appeal to the viewers and can give a notion of freshness
in Greek television? Why don't they try new recipes for the
entertainment section?

##### [Type No 4: Re-runs of previous TV series]{.underline}

[![](https://cstonline.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/serafeim_blog_image-4-300x154.jpg){.alignleft
.size-medium .wp-image-5317 loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="300"
height="154"
srcset="https://cstonline.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/serafeim_blog_image-4-300x154.jpg.webp 300w, https://cstonline.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/serafeim_blog_image-4-450x231.jpg.webp 450w, https://cstonline.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/serafeim_blog_image-4-140x72.jpg.webp 140w, https://cstonline.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/serafeim_blog_image-4-768x394.jpg 768w, https://cstonline.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/serafeim_blog_image-4.jpg 841w"
sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px"}](https://cstonline.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/serafeim_blog_image-4.jpg)What
happened with the production of new TV series? Although during the last
years directors and script writers have been engaged in the production
of Greek and Greek-Cypriot (of origin) TV series, the TV landscape is
full of repetitions of previous series that had made big splash at the
time of their first showing. The impressive thing is that these
repetitions gain higher shares in the audiovisual measurements charts
than the shares of the "new entries". This proves that there is a
poverty of imaginative ideas, lack of inspiration and "smart" dialogues.

##### [Type No 5: The come-back of low-quality entertainment programmes and "gossip TV shows"]{.underline}

[![](https://cstonline.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/serafeim_blog_image-5-300x169.png){.alignleft
.size-medium .wp-image-5319 loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="300"
height="169"
srcset="https://cstonline.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/serafeim_blog_image-5-300x169.png.webp 300w, https://cstonline.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/serafeim_blog_image-5-450x253.png.webp 450w, https://cstonline.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/serafeim_blog_image-5-140x79.png.webp 140w, https://cstonline.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/serafeim_blog_image-5-768x432.png 768w, https://cstonline.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/serafeim_blog_image-5.png 845w"
sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px"}](https://cstonline.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/serafeim_blog_image-5.png)It
seemed that the golden era of gossip TV (or the "social comment TV
shows" as they are widely known in Greece) had disappeared for good. 
Gossip programmes that focused on the private lives of the celebrities
(their marriages, pregnancies, separations, other family matters,
paparazzi photos and other events) had been put aside until 2016 when
they made an impressive come back. From the early morning slot until
late night, the majority of the nationwide private TV stations dedicate
much of their time to programmes dealing with Greek showbiz news.
Between commercials about various heterogeneous products that pop-up
during these programmes, there are panels of discussants commenting on
unsavoury issues regarding details of the lives of the "rich and famous"
of Greece.

##### [Type No 6: Reality Shows]{.underline}

[![](https://cstonline.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/serafeim_blog_image-6-300x180.jpg){.alignleft
.size-medium .wp-image-5318 loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="300"
height="180"
srcset="https://cstonline.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/serafeim_blog_image-6-300x180.jpg.webp 300w, https://cstonline.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/serafeim_blog_image-6-450x269.jpg.webp 450w, https://cstonline.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/serafeim_blog_image-6-140x84.jpg.webp 140w, https://cstonline.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/serafeim_blog_image-6-627x376.jpg.webp 627w, https://cstonline.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/serafeim_blog_image-6-440x264.jpg.webp 440w, https://cstonline.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/serafeim_blog_image-6.jpg 650w"
sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px"}](https://cstonline.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/serafeim_blog_image-6.jpg)And
last but not least, the phenomenon of Greek TV, the "ultimate success of
the year", a television phenomenon, which not only has no historical
precedent in our country but tends to be an international case study,
the so-called *The Survivor* (a reality show where a group of
contestants are stranded in a remote location with no facilities, trying
to survive).

The *Survivor* project is not just "the success of the year 2017", but
there is no programme in the history of private television in Greece
(which was launched in November 1989) that managed to reach such a peak
of the audiovisual ratings and be the first on the list of top-rated
programmes for the last 28 years.

Although this is the second version of *Survivor* appearing on Greek TV,
the production company (of Turkish origin) and the private TV station
SKAI succeeded in creating a "super weapon" that broke all the ratings
of the audiovisual measurement climax, making even the production
company not believe this unexpected triumph. Representative of that is
the fact that an average of 2.5 million viewers (in a country of 10.75
million inhabitants) watched *The Survivor* every night for almost a
period of 6 months, from February 2017 until July 2017. Such high
audience TV shares are very rare on Greek TV and are marked once or
twice a year i.e. when the National Football Team play or during the
final of the Eurovision contest. And it is worth to mention that *The
Survivor* occupied 3 hours of every night's prime time slot.

What makes this reality show an international case study is the fact
that the same project did not reach similar ratings anywhere in the
world, where it was broadcast, even in the United States when it was
first launched in 2000.  Believe it or not, there is no other example
worldwide of a TV product having been watched by the 2/3 of the viewers
on a daily basis. And that is a world record for Greek TV!

In order to realize the magnitude of the success, even the parent
production company assigned its staff to find the component of the
"Greek *Survivor* Success" that turned out to be the TV phenomenon of
the year.

Many explanations arose:

1.  One of them is that Greek Television is characterized by a lack of
    interesting programmes. As a result, the audience does not have any
    other choice, so it ends up watching that kind of reality shows.
2.  Others support that as *The Survivor* had been absent from Greek
    television for 15 years, the 2^nd^ incarnation reached high ratings
    due to the fact that many young people -- new viewers -- were
    addicted to this "new entry" as they found themselves having common
    characteristics with the contestants, considering them as if they
    were their next-door neighbors.
3.  Other people believe that the survival tests the contestants go
    through during the game appeal to the viewers. And due to the fact
    that they are obliged to go through these tests, which have a small
    degree of difficulty, the majority of the viewers identifies with
    the contestants and imagine themselves being in the contestants'
    shoes. And the main thought that comes to viewers' minds is that
    this procedure is a very easy way to reach the coveted trophy.
4.  Finally, others claim that they are attracted to the programme
    because they enjoy the gossip that finds a fertile ground on the
    programme. As the contestants reveal their real characters, they
    like or dislike one another, are divided into smaller groups
    according to their interests. This aspect of the reality show is
    what catapults *The Survivor* high into the audience measurement
    ratings.

No matter what from the aforementioned arguments is valid (maybe all of
them), the conclusion is that the "*Survivor* phenomenon" cannot be
explained through simple television terms. All the people who are
engaged in the audiovisual field agree on the following argument: that
the unprecedented resonance of the show in a paradoxical way is related
to the economic crisis and, in particular, to our collective mentality
in Greece.

I personally believe that the unexpected success of this type of reality
programme derives from the severe economic situation in Greece and the
bad psychological condition of the Greek people. If we lived in times of
prosperity and economic growth, it would seem paranoid to watch a group
of young contestants every night, fighting until the final fall to eat a
croissant and not just break out in laughter. Might the Greek audience
potentially feel unconsciously satisfied with the fact that, unlike the
survivors, it does not have to roll in the mud and it does not (yet)
face the threat of eating coconuts only? Does that make us (viewers)
feel better, seeing on our TV sets other people living in worse
conditions than our everyday life situation? And does this phenomenon
make it easier for the television programme producers and makers to
stick to old-fashioned projects instead of moving forward?

------------------------------------------------------------------------

**Katerina Serafeim** holds a PhD in Journalism and Mass Media,
Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, and is a journalist in the Press
Office of the Regional Local Government of Central Macedonia,Greece. She
can be reached on katseraf@gmail.com


As we have reached the end of 2017, I thought it would be a good idea to do a recap on the programmes that were broadcast by Greek television, a detailed review of the typology and quality of the televised product that was “served” to the Greek audience. As I was thinking what kind of entertainment programmes, TV series, reality shows, talent shows etc.

Messaggi di Rogue Scholar

GREEK TELEVISION: MOVING FORWARD OR GOING BACK?