When should American television stop vying for #1 ratings spots?

So many networks.

So many crap programs all vying to be #1.

Otherwise witty or sharp programs like Family Guy, Sliders, Firefly, and Andy Richter get cancelled because they didn't meet some ridiculous quota or the network execs felt they knew better so they changed the program format.

Ok network execs, you nutjobs, why not just create a show, let it be made as the production team wants it to be made and without YOUR involvement because history has shown us time and again that when you network execs meddle with television programs, they all turn to shit and fail...

Forget ratings. Forget advertisers. Just make programs that don't cater to everybody and let the individuals decide what they want to watch, instead of trying to make bland, all-encompasing nonsense that appeals to the lowest-common-denominator; for appealing to the LCD ususally appeals to nobody, but "Mr. Personality" and such made me re-think how bad America has become thanks to network execs and the boob-toob(tm).