Recently the business of television was on full display as the networks spent tons of money trying to convince advertisers, investors, and audiences that their new slate of programming is the most profitable. Now with the “upfront” season over, all attention turns to the summer where the networks will look to keep their momentum going into the all-important fall season. Here’s a look at how each of the broadcast (ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, The CW), cable and pay cable networks are approaching TV’s summer vacation.

Back in the summer of 2002, Fox (NASDAQ: FOXA) launched American Idol and in the years since it and its broadcast rivals have seen the reality genre pay off for them with viewers, analysts and investors. Now as audience tastes are changing Fox has begun to alter its “off-season” plans, which this year for the first time in years includes two top-tier dramas.

Start the clock
Earlier this month Fox re-started the clock on 24 with 24: Live Another Day and fans were again hooked on the world of Jack Bauer. From a business standpoint the timing was genius as the network would get to capitalize on the all-important May sweeps period while promoting the promise of more “event series” to its advertisers during its annual upfront presentation.

As you may remember, along with its decision to axe the pilot process, investing in “limited run event programming” were the two big moves Fox made over the last season. In turn 24’s return represents the first of the network’s movement into this space and it still has Broadchurch adaptation Gracepoint and M. Night Shyamalan’s Wayward Pines on tap for the 2014-2015 season…so to put it bluntly Day had to play.

In actuality while 24’s numbers were solid, they were nowhere near the double-digit success it had back during the peak of its run around 2006-2007. While that spooked analysts and advertisers, the good news is that 24 is about to see an easier road ahead as now that the summer is here and all of the network’s competition has wrapped more eyes could return to the groundbreaking series as it plows towards its mid-July finale date.

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Roving ‘Gangs’
The other series looking to bolster Fox’s summer is Gang Related, a gritty new drama fronted by Ramon Rodriguez (The Wire) and Emmy winner Terry O’Quinn (Lost). Gang centers on Detective Ryan Lopez, a rising star in the Los Angeles elite Gang Task Force, but what his superiors don’t know is that Ryan was raised by and is still loyal to the Los Angelicos, a powerful Latino gang his unit is charged with dismantling.

Like a lot of series debuting this summer across all the major broadcasters, Gang Related was picked up by Fox last May and held on its bench. Executives believe the timing is now right to launch the series and use it as an end of week anchor to help gain ground on a big ratings night. It’s also important to emphasis this was not picked up as a summer series, it was picked up under that “elusive” midseason moniker and is being placed in the summer…there is a difference.

Like 24, this isn’t a burn-off run, it’s been strategically slotted to help change the way Fox designs its summer plans. The network believes in year-round programming and this is one of the steps it’s taken to back up those beliefs.

I Want My Reality TV
Now of course just because 24 and Gang Related are priorities, that doesn’t mean the network is shying around from its reality fare. In fact, it’s far from it as Fox has 4 reality programs on it summer schedule including what it hopes will be the next big genre sensation.

Remember a few years back when Fox convinced a group of women they were vying for a millionaire when in reality he was actually a working class construction worker? Well imagine that on a great scale with I Wanna Marry Harry, in which producers will try to make a new group of women think they are competing for the hand of Prince Harry.

In fact, executives were so excited with the advanced buzz they even moved the premiere date up a week to cash in on the word of mouth. From the first trailer you can see it’s every bit as ridiculous as you could ever imagine, but if history holds it just may also work…but based on this week’s debut numbers it may take some time.

In the meantime Fox has a pair of reality staples that are proven winners to help take some of the pressure off Harry. Aside from Gordon Ramsey raising some cane in Hotel Hell, the network will be bringing back So You Think You Can Dance. While executives have tried to turn Dance into a major force during the fall season, audiences have told them this is a summer series and Fox has since listened.

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Originally debuting in the summer of 2005, the series is now hosted by Emmy nominee Cat Deeley and its judging panel includes former American Idol producer Nigel Lythgoe and noted choreographer Mary Murphy. Dance usually thrives during the summer and like America’s Got Talent, Fox can build around its presence, even if that meant shrinking its order in half back in 2011 and only running the show once a week verses the usual two.

It was a risky move to make but it worked and it helped extend the life of the show. In fact ABC took a page out of that playbook this year for Dancing With The Stars and one Fox will employ the same technique next year with American Idol. What’s interesting is that was a summer strategy that had further reaching effects on TV in general.

You can never doubt the impact of summer TV and as Fox has proven over the years you can’t doubt its ability to find a buzzworthy summer series.

 

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