Backchannelmedia

Buffalo News

Movie studios wondering where filmgoers went this summer can rest assured of one thing: For the most part, those missing Americans weren't glued to the broadcast networks.

With the notable exception of ABC's "Dancing With the Stars" -- by far the summer's biggest new hit, with an average of 16.8 million viewers -- the six major broadcast networks have slogged through a disappointing summer, with household viewing down about 6 percent compared with the same period last year. Among the advertiser- friendly demographic of adults ages 18 to 49, the slide was even worse, off 10 percent according to figures from Nielsen Media Research.

A number of heavily promoted reality series tanked, including CBS' "Rock Star: INXS" and NBC's "I Want to Be a Hilton," and David E. Kelley's first venture into reality TV, "The Law Firm," which moved to Bravo after two low-rated episodes.

But scripted series failed to deliver as well. ABC watched its Roman epic "Empire" decline and fall. And viewers showed little interest in repeats of hits like "Desperate Housewives" or "Lost."

The network losses were good news for basic cable, which increased its share of the prime-time audience to a record high of 61 percent, up four percentage points from last year. (Broadcast share slipped four points, to an all-time low of 32 percent; the remaining share consisted of pay cable networks and independent broadcasters.)

As in recent years, basic cable took advantage of broadcasters' summertime slowdown and unleashed a blitz of original scripted series. TNT's crime drama "The Closer" was a sleeper hit, averaging 5.3 million viewers -- an impressive number for ad-supported cable - - and the network also drew strong numbers with its series "Wanted" and the miniseries "Into the West." FX's Iraq drama "Over There" started out powerfully, although it dropped in subsequent airings.

"The fall is the time when broadcast comes out with new scripted stuff, but summertime is when cable does it," said Jack Wakshlag, chief research officer at Turner Broadcasting, which includes TNT.

Spanish-language network Univision, meanwhile, dominated the rapidly growing young Hispanic audience with the telenovelas "La Madrastra" and "Apuesta Por Un Amor." Univision, in fact, was probably the summer's greatest success story; the Spanish-language network is up 23 percent among adults 18 to 49 compared with last summer.

"It's not that the broadcasters struck out," said Steve Sternberg, executive vice president at New York-based ad firm Magna Global. "There was just so much reality that there were more flops than successes."

Agreed Preston Beckman, executive vice president of Fox Broadcasting Co.: "There were just a lot of mediocre -- at best -- reality shows" this summer.