THE BIG BANG THEORY - TV CASE STUDY

 

 The Big Bang Theory is an American sitcom created by Chuck Lorre and Bill Prady which has been running from 2007 to present. It is based around the everyday lives of 4 scientists and their neighbour who is a ‘girl next door.’ The programme follows a basic structure, similar to Two And A Half Men, How I Met Your Mother, Friends and The IT Crowd, where the audience follow the lives of a small group of people, normally based in a few places every time, such as their living room, work place, and the same restaurant etc.

Channel and Brand Identity

The Big Bang Theory is aired on CBS (Columbia Broadcasting System) which is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, and is the second largest broadcaster behind the BBC.  CBS broadcast daytime and evening time TV programmes such as The Price is Right, soaps such as The Young and the Restless, and they also provide programmes such as CBS Morning News and a 2 and a half hour Sunday political talk show called Face The Nation.

In the UK, The Big Bang Theory first aired on Channel 4, in 2004, averaging audiences of 1 million viewers. After the first and second seasons, season 3 started airing on Channel 4’s sister channel E4, bringing in some of the highest ratings the channel has ever received, with the first episode of season 6 bringing in 2.31 million viewers.

The Big Bang theory was commissioned by CBS and Channel 4 from Chuck Lorre Productions and Warner Bros. Television who made the programme in 2007. Chuck Lorre Productions has produced successful TV sitcoms such as Two And A Half Men - which aired in 2003, and has become the highest-rated sitcom in America- and he also created Dharma and Greg and Mike & Molly. Two And A Half Men and Mike & Molly draw in similar audiences to The Big Bang Theory, which means that Chuck Lorre Productions are likely to have audiences for all of their TV programmes based on previous ones they have made, ensuring that they will always have a decent viewing figures.

The sitcom has been nominated and won People’s Choice Awards, Golden Globe Awards and Primetime Emmy awards.

Target Audience and Scheduling

Due to the intellectual language used throughout The Big Bang theory, this could mean that the target audience gets changed from the average sitcom. According to the socio-economic grouping, the audience are more likely to be A, B, C1 and possibly C2. The audience is very wide for this sitcom because although the characters are have genius IQs and use a lot of technical terminology and clever language, the sitcom is also a comedy, and the audience do not necessarily have to understand the terminology to realise the humour of the programme.  It is likely that the audience of The Big Bang Theory are generally a younger audience of 16-25 due to the demographics of E4 being younger than channels such as BBC and ITV, and also the cast of the programme are in their 20s – making it more appealing to this age range.

The show made its UK debut on Channel 4 on February 14, 2008 bringing in an average audience of 1.0 million viewers. The second episode, shown the following week, also received 1.0 million. For the third episode an average of 1.1 million tuned in. The show is also shown as a 'first-look' on Channel 4's digital offshoot E4, and brings in 400,000 viewers on average. The fifth episode received 880,000 viewers. After the first five episodes, the average number of viewers continues to hover around the 1 million mark. Episode 13 was watched by 1.3 million viewers and was the most watched episode.In the UK, new episodes of The Big Bang Theory are shown on Thursdays at 8:30pm for half an hour. This is primetime TV, especially for teens and young adults, as families are more likely to watch TV before 8pm. Reruns of this TV show are very regularly on Channel 4 and E4, normally showing back to back episodes, around the same time as similar TV shows such as The Rules of Engagement and How I Met Your Mother, which appeal to the same audience. Episodes are also available on 4oD online and on YouTube, opening the programme up to a wider audience as it is available for people to watch whenever they like, instead of being tied to a TV slot.

The Big Bang Theory is filmed in front of a live studio audience and has no laughter soundtrack. Although the laughter we hear in each episode is real, it still leads the audience into understanding the jokes said by the characters as they are made aware of where they are supposed to laugh, in order to comprehend the humour.

This programme could be considered to follow the three-act narrative structure, taking, for example, the episode ‘The Ornithophobia Diffusion.’ At the beginning of the episode we are introduced to the characters, specifically Sheldon, who has a fear of the bird who refuses to leave their window ledge. Sheldon takes steps to get rid of the bird, which only leads to the bird flying into their apartment, doubling the fear. Sheldon then calls for his friends to help him, and in the end they come over and help Sheldon to remove his fear of birds, but also to remove the bird from his apartment. Although this is an extremely simple structure, it could be seen to follow the three-act structure.

The audience of The Big Bang Theory are an active audience as they need to decode the social and personal context of the programme, and this could be effected by things such as family background, education, culture and interests; instead of passive audiences where information could be seen to have an intended message which is directly received and accepted by the audience. Applying Blumler and Katz’s Uses and Gratifications theory, The Big Bang Theory could be watched for diversion – as this programme is a comedy, it is likely that the audience will watch this in order to escape everyday problems and routines – and personal identity – young students or graduates may watch the programme in order to recognise their lifestyles and friendships from the programme and for self-understanding.

Format and Technology

The Big Bang Theory seasons 1-5 are available on DVD and Blu Ray, and can also be downloaded through iTunes which has links on the Official the Big Bang Theory website. Extra clips and footage are also available on the Channel 4 website for the audience to access, as well as 123 full episodes. On the DVDs, at the end of each season there is an extras option, which includes lots of different extras such as gag reels, deleted scenes and interviews with the cast. By including these extra options, it is more likely that the audience will purchase the DVDs as they will be getting something else that they can’t watch anywhere else, making the idea of spending the money instead of illegally downloading more appealing.