Why Replacement "Hit Shows" Always Fail

Remember when "Friends" ended and they tried to make "Coupling" happen? Audiences had just said goodbye to their favorite TV buddies. No one was ready for a new batch of friends and the show lasted only a few episodes before the networks realized what audiences had already known: it just isn't the same. Lightning rarely strikes twice.

It's the equivalent of replacing your dearly departed family pet with one just like it. You can try but chances are your new puppy won't have the same personality and charm as the original. And ultimately, it sullies the memory of the original. But that doesn't stop the networks from cranking out complete garbage just because it vaguely resembles a show that was once a hit.

Networks need to appreciate the shows that do become hits and let them go while they're still fresh instead of beating them to death and then creating a carbon copy as if audiences wouldn't know the difference.

ABC is falling for this temptation now that their show "Lost" is rounding out its last season. At the very least they brought their potential replacement a season early. When "Flashforward" was in its marketing stages, everyone was convinced that the show would fill the void that the Losties were leaving behind. But it didn't take very long for audiences to realize that the show was a convoluted mess and that it was trying so very hard to be "Lost" and failing.

Other networks lag in their recycled plots. Six years after "The X Files" went off the air, Fox jumped on the J.J. Abrams train and brought us "Fringe." The show was picked up for a third season but it's only a matter of time before the slowly dwindling ratings lead to its cancellation. Despite the fact that it's limping along, it doesn't stop people from drawing the likely comparison.

NBC is also guilty of this. But their most recent attempt was at least a little more unique at face value. When "ER" ended, they went scrambling for a suitable replacement and they came up with "Southland" which was the brainchild of "ER" showrunner, John Wells. But if you replace doctors with cops, you get the same gritty drama. TNT picked up the show after NBC cancelled it, because in the end, it couldn't hack it on network TV. Like a John Grisham novel, the scenery might have changed, but deep down it's the same story and no one wanted another "ER."

Until networks learn that copying their own shows is not a good way to earn viewership, we're doomed to get mediocre repeats of shows that worked in the past. To stay fresh and viewer-friendly, they need to resist the temptation to transmit echoes of past hits and take a chance on something completely different.