"[...]ratings indicate that the American public prefer hillbillies, cowboys, and spies." This kind of correlation has always seemed specious to me. It's the s

"[...]ratings indicate that the American public prefer hillbillies, cowboys, and spies." This kind of correlation has always seemed specious to me. It's the streetlight effect—it's hard to quantify why a show is popular we'll just assume it's because of the genre, since that's easy to identify. I remember when Desperate Housewives took off in 2004, and studio execs assumed that viewers suddenly wanted prime time soaps. And they released a bunch more prime time soaps that were lousy and flopped. I think viewers want quality content, regardless of genre. Genre is just a heuristic device.