The Rise of the TV-Cinemaniac. New Audiences for New TV Series

In the last decade, tv series have become a more and more popular tv genre, not only among tv viewers. Their audience is nowadays composed above all by cinema lovers and scholars, who do not often consider their tv values and prefer to underline their film and literary components. This essay tries to analyze this phenomenon in the perspective of television studies. First of all, it is necessary to retrace the correct definitions of the tv serial forms, which are often used in an uncorrect way, in academic as well as in common language. Then, the relationship among tv, cinema and literature and their narrative forms are analyzed, together with the relevance of technological development in influencing tv production values and audience practices. As a consequence, the portrait of a new viewer can be identified: the “Tv-Cinemaniac” comes out of a mix of viewing practices, technological skills, media knowledge and common sense whose pros and cons should be considered in the framework of Italian television and film studies