Media Credit: Photobucket.com, podbean.com/ Photos [Click to enlarge]

Media Credit: Photobucket.com, podbean.com/ Photos [Click to enlarge]

Once upon a time, television was ruled by such channels as HBO and ABC. Their shows dominated what viewers watched, and what was nominated for awards. But that was the past.

Television as we once knew it is changing as networks are moving aside to make room for some new competition: basic cable.

Basic cable shows are pretty much all those shows that are not on HBO, Showtime, etc… or on broadcast networks such as NBC or ABC. In recent years, basic cable has upped their standards for programming and in turn, garnered more recognition from not only viewers, but from critics as well.

Cable has had a long road in gaining the respect it now has. Cable shows weren't even allowed to compete at the Emmys until 1987, and it wasn't until 1993 that a cable show was nominated for best drama series. Since then, cable has prospered significantly.

At the 60th annual Emmy Awards, "Mad Men" won the award for best drama series. This win was not only monumental for the show, but also for television as it became the first basic cable show to ever win a top series award.

Even before the win, the nominated basic cable shows made history. AMC's "Mad Men" along with FX's "Damages" became the first basic cable shows to ever be nominated for a top series award. Although "Mad Men" took home the honor for best drama, "Damages" saw winners as well for outstanding actress in a drama series and outstanding supporting actor in a drama series. Another basic cable show, "Breaking Bad" also won for best actor in a drama series.

This year also reflected the decline in HBO shows. While "John Adams" took home a total of thirteen trophies, the ratings for "Adams" have not carried out to HBO's other shows.

"Entertainment Weekly" reports, vampire drama "True Blood" debuted on Sept. 7 to a paltry 1.4 million viewers. Ratings for the premiere of "Entourage" declined 27 percent from the year before to just 1.6 million viewers; and series like "In Treatment" and "Flight of the Conchords" charmed the critics but won tiny audiences. Also, expectations are low for upcoming shows like "The Life & Times of Tim and Little Britain USA."

In other words, HBO's television reign of power may be losing its grip. The network no longer has the television titan of shows like it used to with "The Sopranos" and "Sex and the City". Those shows set the bar for HBO shows, and now that they're gone, critics are taking notice that many of the shows are no longer living up to that standard.

Other networks have also noticed a drop in their ratings. The season premiere of NBC's "Heroes" was down 29 percent from last year's season two premiere. Season premieres of ABC's shows were also down from last year. "Grey's Anatomy" premiere was down 18 percent from last year while "Ugly Betty" was down 15 percent, according to usmagazine.com.

This doesn't mean the ratings will not increase for these shows. What this does mean, however, is that as more and more people look to basic cable shows, they will be taking with them the coveted viewer's ratings for channels such as HBO and ABC.

In a way, this is sort of a wakeup call to those television titans out there to watch out for the underdogs of television. Like the tortoise, they're slowly winning the race.

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