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Tough competition: Burn Notice is among the shows that is putting pressure on the leftovers networks most frequently schedule in the summer.
 

by Linda Holmes

There is "network television is on the decline," and then there is "networks had their worst week among viewers 18-49 that they have ever had, ever."

Last week, it was the latter.

Before you get too excited about the notion that maybe we are throwing away our televisions entirely, keep in mind that cable isn't sharing in the networks' misery. USA is humming along with Burn Notice and Royal Pains, TNT is getting good numbers for things like The Closer, and you've probably heard that HBO got its best ratings since The Sopranos when it brought back True Blood for a second season.

And of course, this week, there's been you-know-who and you-know-who plus you-know-what, but as we've discussed in the past, that tends to be a fairly transitory thing.

But for the networks, this week has to have been downright alarming.

Bad strategy and simple freedom of choice, after the jump...

Not necessarily every network and every show has reason to worry: take note, in light of yesterday's post about Univision: five out of the top twenty broadcast shows among the 18-49 demographic last week were episodes of the telenovela Mañana Para Siempre. And among total viewers, 15 of the top 20 spots went to various CBS reruns.

Among other problems, the networks have taken to burning off things in the summer that are already canceled, which is utterly insane -- viewers already hate committing to shows that they fear are going to be canceled; it's ridiculous to think they're going to invest in shows that they know are already canceled. As the New York Times notes, ABC has done this with several dramas, but NBC is doing it with The Chopping Block and Kings, and ABC is also doing it to comedies including the quite good Samantha Who? and the quite bad In The Motherhood.

It's not clear just how bad it's going to get for the networks, and every summer gets tougher in terms of the fact that it's the time when they dump all their trash and the time when cable often shows off its best stuff. There's a sense in which this is all very encouraging -- most of what the networks are showing right now should be losing to, for instance, Burn Notice. Part of this is just a splinter effect, but part of it is that people are exploring just how discerning they can choose to be, even in the summer.

categories: Television

11:01 - June 24, 2009

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