Television is probably America's most fiercely competitive industry.
Very slight changes in the audience can shift profits by millions of dollars. It is an industry constantly in metamorphosis, looking for some new game or gimmick that will entice a few more people away from the competition. If the audience wants a little more sex, a little more violence, that's what it gets. Every producer of TV programming is constantly trying to guess next season's fad or fashion, hoping to invent a show or character or situation that will play to the appetite of that fleeting, fickle audience. Once a show becomes a success, there is a stampede to copy and clone it, hoping to squeeze every penny of profit out of the idea before it gets stale and the audience moves on to whatever turns them on.