Linking industrial and creative change in 21st-century US television

Abstract

The US television industry began experiencing profound change in the early 21st century, change that likewise manifest in the programs of the era. This article explores how and why scripted US television series evolved so profoundly at the dawn of the 21st century and what this might tell us about the continued disruption introduced by Internet-distributed television. The article identifies the industrial practices that propelled and challenged this change and examines how the conditions of creative workers adjusted alongside textual possibilities. Drawn from interviews and archival research, the article relies on case studies of the production histories of milestone series in this evolution to assess the shifting competitive norms and the consequences of textual innovation for creative workers, commercial media industries, and audiences.