Why is TV "bombing" so bad? Particularly TV series?

It's not the genre that distinguishes hits from flops, not country of origin, nor even the network. The one element that differentiates one from the other is that the hit shows can be passively absorbed; the flops require a little more effort.

The West Wing was always, of course, notoriously difficult to follow. You had to pay attention. You had to get your ear in. But once you did, you were so richly rewarded. The Sopranos was always strong medicine: violent, unpredictable, but compelling. The Circuit, Rainshadow, Tripping Over all challenged stereotypes in their own ways.

Or is TV really bombing at all? Surely TV shows have sucked for centuries. How is this new?

I like to compare TV with radio. The comparison is bad as it's easy to listen to a three minute song to wait for something good but view would sit through an hour show with ads to do the same. But still...

I'm always stunned when I hear how many people listen to the radio, particularly the horrifically popular "talk shows" which usually involve a lot of annoying voices with equally annoying laughs being sexist, racist and generally opinionated.

You could argue that "fluff" shows like Big Brother, Dancing With The Stars that seem to do really well are the equivalent of those talk-shows. They're mostly rubbish, with a bit of opinion and a tiny amount of viewer/listener input.

Fill your TV station with shows like that and throw in a popular "song" every now and then (read "The Simpsons" or "Futurama") and you have the TV equivalent of commercial radio.

People that actually want to listen to music buy a CD and listen to that, they don't listen to the radio. People that want to actually actively watch a TV series get frustrated with the TV format almost immediately and buy/borrow the series on DVD and stop watching TV.

People that "just watch" TV aren't watching shows that take too much thinking simply due to the disruptive format. Shows like "Border Patrol" or "The Force" or "How Bloody Fat Is My Dog? Guh!" are a great little half hour snippet of entertainment you might accidentally watch. They're not "Heroes" or "West Wing".

"Futurama" and "Family Guy" have both been cancelled over time, I presume due to a lack of viewers, only to be resurrected again due to strong DVD sales. Only to bomb again on TV.

To me, this points to the fact there is a market for these shows, but TV isn't presenting it in the format they want.

And I'm not sure they ever will.