By: Unknown
From: Augusta Chronicle, The
NEW YORK - Television heads into its biggest week with the hangover from a 100-day writers strike persisting.
Viewership is down, although it's hard to tell how much the strike is to blame. This week's "upfront" presentations by broadcasters outlining their fall schedules, which annually precedes a multibillion-dollar ad-buying binge, promises to be much different than before.
"The strike had a number of impacts," said Alan Wurtzel, NBC Universal research chief, "but as with everything, it's never very clear or direct or black and white."
ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC had nearly 9 percent fewer viewers in April and May so far than during the same period a year ago, according to Nielsen Media Research.
Yet viewership declines are sadly typical for the big networks. Take the same period a year earlier, and the drop was more than 5 percent over 2006. People didn't watch less TV while the strike was on, they just watched cable more, said Steve Sternberg, an analyst for Magna Global.
Shows with ongoing stories seemed to lose the most momentum from the strike; ABC's Grey's Anatomy on May 1 had its smallest audience since moving to Thursday night. Decisions by NBC to keep Heroes for next fall and Fox to delay 24 until next season might prove prescient, unless people forget about the characters altogether.
Comedies were hurt least by the strike. CBS was so buoyed by their Monday night comedies that the network is considering adding comedies on another night.
CBS' rack of procedural dramas had done relatively well, at least until a week ago: CSI: Crime Scene Investigation had its second least-watched episode for a Thursday original, and CSI: Miami hit a series low for an original.
"There's no question that it could have been a lot worse," said David Poltrack, CBS' top researcher. CBS' strategy was to make as many new episodes of existing shows as possible until the season ends later this month so people got back in the habit of watching again.
The growth of digital video recorders, now available in 25 million homes, means more people are setting their own schedules.
Originally published by Associated Press.
(c) 2008 Augusta Chronicle, The. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.
