Why More TV Viewers Love to Have the Life Scared Out of Them

By R. Thomas Umstead -- Multichannel News, 12/7/2008

As a young woman walks alone in the damp, dark woods, a hand suddenly comes up from the ground and grabs her ankles. She frantically tries to escape before realizing that the nemesis is actually her vampire love interest, who eventually seals the loving reunion by sinking his fangs into her shoulder.

Romantic, eh? The scene is straight from HBO’s hit drama series True Blood, one of several cable shows that is pushing its own twist on the horror genre to bring in the eyeballs.

Besides HBO’s True Blood series — a love story between a strong but vulnerable young woman and a 100-year-old vampire, which has averaged 7 million cumulative weekly viewers during its just-ended freshman run — even general-entertainment networks are finding that hair-raising shows can sell.

AMC posted double-digit viewership increases this year for its annual eight-day October “Fearfest” horror-movie marathon, formerly “Monsterfest.”

VH1 is currently airing Scream Queens, a reality-show competition in which 10 actresses vie for a role in next year’s Saw VI horror flick. And NBC Universal’s Chiller channel is gaining traction with more than 20 million subscribers.

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