End of experiments. Divacs want endless series, they don’t have to think about it

In the nineties it was Beverly Hills 90210, Dallas, Coast Guard or various soap operas of South American origin. Commercial TV stations bought TV rights to series from the 70s, 80s and 90s for cheap money and broadcast them from morning to night. An infinite number of parts. And they made decent money from advertising.

It was a time of plenty and big money in commercial television. All you had to do was intersperse these TV “cans” with the flamboyant decoration of an entertaining program or TV discussion – and the program was practically complete. It was enough. Compared to the ossified Czech Television of the time, Nova was a showcase, poor Premiéra and later Prima was a poorer relative.

But this stopped working after 2002. Claims were mounting. And Prima, in particular, really stepped into it. Until then, its program was deliberately built as the “B” and “C” of Nova, which featured reruns of German series from the 90s such as Komisař Rex, Big Ben, Doktor z hor or socialist sagas such as The Woman Behind the Counter.

And now let’s imagine that at the time when Nova was changing owners again and Vladimír Železný was leaving with finality to try a political career, Prima was headed by Martin Dvořák. Then a thirty-year-old who drove Prima between 2000 and 2006.

He had the drive and experienced TV manager Kateřina Fričová, who started with Železný na Nová after 1994, and replaced her with a new concept.

The management of Prima at the time approached several creators to create a proposal for a new Czech series. The idea was for it to be for the whole family and aired two days a week. The winners were then twenty-eight-year-old twins – screenwriters Kateřina and Jitko Bártů.

“It was a challenge for us at the time. We were young and nothing was impossible. We didn’t get scared and went for it,” recalls the beginnings of Kateřina Bártů, who wrote all the parts with her sister Jitka. They didn’t do anything else then, there was no time for anything else.

“We had it in such a way that no one knew what they were getting into. There was a tradition of thirteen-part serials, and no one could imagine what a long-term project would look like. We approached unknown actors, they were all young and enthusiastic,” describes Kateřina Bártů

“We always prepared the series for a year, it was about 100 episodes, and then it was always about another continuation. Finally, after six years, we said it was best to stop, and the series ended after 550 episodes.

Nova, which was the market leader, had to respond to the success of Family Bonds, which was renamed Very Fragile Relationships after two years. But suddenly, two days a week, on weekdays, Prima occupied the television screen in the evening prime time. Not only was she suddenly able to create new TV faces, but thanks to them she also strengthened PR, which at the time was practically the only possibility for her to draw attention to herself. Nova’s dominance was huge…

And so Nova quickly devised a counter move.

Nova put on the screen in 2005 the Office in the Rose Garden and tried again with another novelty, the endless daytime series Ulice, launched in the same year. Both series belong to the soap opera genre, just like Family Ties.

In the Czech Republic, a new television business known from developed television markets such as the USA or Germany suddenly emerged. Studio production, endless stories built on a relationship plot line, several main characters and then many supporting roles.

An ideal environment for creative teams, famous faces and completely unknown regional actors, and for people on the street looking for various casting agencies. And to top it all off, various PR people are also getting work, churning out entertaining content for newspapers, magazines and websites. Advertisers are also satisfied.

It was a relatively cheap, fast, efficient TV factory, which was suddenly a “gold mine” for both Prima and Nova.

Suddenly, the era of endless studio soap operas began. But Very Fragile Relationships ended after 550 episodes, i.e. after six years. Nova Ordinaci aired on main Nova until 2021, while Ulice is still running. Next year it will be 20 years in one piece.

Prima then tried other series in which she had already invested more. Whether for exteriors or interiors. They were not classic studio series. But while their production became more expensive, viewership was no longer high enough to become a new phenomenon.

Especially in the period after 2010, she tried serials such as Obchoďák (only 32 episodes), Weddings in Venice (72 episodes), Harbor (106 episodes), Fire Chicken (204 episodes), Krejzo (114 episodes), Sunny (160 episodes) and finally ZOO (attacks the 200th volume so far).

With the launch of the Prima+ video platform, it seemed that other Czech series than the endless ones from the studio would be heading to the Prima screen. But it doesn’t seem to work.

Prima wanted to end ZOO a long time ago, it’s already “stretched out”, but the series continues in the spring schedule. After the debacles of Good News or Eliška and Damián, and after the unconvincing viewing figures for news such as Call Your Agent, he can only rely on Polda and quickly return a soap opera of at least ZOO quality to the program.

It turns out that the typical viewer of Prima, who still watches TV in a linear way, that he actually watches it at the time when the premiere episode is running, is a bit of a “lazy” viewer. He wants his certainties, he doesn’t want to think too much, he wants to have something as a backdrop. He must identify with the heroes of the series, be close to him.

And so it is certain that TV series or acting agencies do not work. Audiences want a familiar environment where they have a chance to really get to know it. Whether it’s a pub, a zoo, a hospital or something similar.

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