Where have all the TV Viewers Gone?

http://www.cnn.com/2007/SHOWBIZ/TV/05/09/tv.missingviewers.ap/index.html

NEW YORK (AP) -- Maybe they're outside in the garden. They could be playing softball. Or perhaps they're just plain bored.

In TV's worst spring in recent memory, a startling number of Americans drifted away from television the past two months: More than 2.5 million fewer people were watching ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox than at the same time last year, statistics show.


Television has made billions based on how many people watch a show at its regular time. That idea may already be obsolete. So should the industry use DVR viewing when setting ad rates? If so, how quickly must people watch the shows -- within two days? A week? What about people who watch shows on their cell phones or on network Web sites, which Nielsen doesn't measure yet? Later this month Nielsen will begin measuring how many people watch commercials. Should those be used to compute advertising costs?

Right now, none of those questions have answers.

However, "if we continue to do business assuming people will watch television as they always have," said NBC's Wurtzel, "it's a dead-end game."



Project X Banana Blue successful. Masses of Americans have foregone lump status on couch in favor of doing something else. Millions no longer entertained by commercial after commercial about erectile dysfunction, vaginal itching, painful irregularity or breaking news about some celebutante's legal woes.

Our household pre-records virtually every show we watch and we fast forward through the commercials. Sniff. Who will tell the TV and ad executives about this new phenomenon?

If I wanted to read about Paris Hilton, I'd buy The National Enquirer. I expect my news to be, well, news.

perhaps the execs have heard of them....

Truth be told, TV is a wasteland and now that profit ain't there, we may see some chage

that authors with a new book out try to get on The Daily Show because a significant part of the viewership reads and buys books. I'm sure you're shocked, shocked, shocked to hear this.

That's how bad it is.

spongebob squarepants! can't wait the next new episode.

Then maybe Nova or Frontline. Always catch Moyers and Real Time. Amy Goodman on DemocracyNow. A very occasional college FB/BB game. Else we do internet, read or do something active.

I watch more DVDs and nature shows on Discovery HD than anything else.

I think there are other entertainment mediums and the rise of the internets. With the exception of Olbermann, we rarely watch cable news programs. We - and I suspect my husband and I are like many others - get our news from other sources.

episodes a year to maybe 13 if you are lucky. Seems like you get a month of new shows during sweeps and then repeats the rest of the time. On top of that they can't leave them in the same time slot more than a couple weeks so you have to hunt them down if you want to watch certain shows. They seem to do whatever it takes to keep you from getting really interested in a series and are making easier and easier to just turn the tv off, all while there are more sources of entertainment. Then there are the so called reality shows. Thanks but no thanks network execs. I'll watch a reality show when Survivor consist of leaving the people on an island and who ever is left alive wins.

Or shows that are cancelled. A show that makes it through an entire season on Network Television. Normally has at least 22 episodes and sometimes more. The problem I see is putting a show on Hiatus, such as Lost. Lost was put on hiatus for about 2-3 months. It lost more than 2 million viewers when it came back. IT still will get 23 episodes though. American Idol is also killing other shows on Wednesday and Tuesday because so many people watch Fox that day, leaving not that much of the TV watching public left to check out new or old series at the same time.

new episodes that make it seem like so much less. They have lost this house as far as regular tv goes. Countdown is my only must see show for the last few years and I always know when and where to find it. It is warmer now with more hours of daylight so I know I can stay outside and catch Countdown's rerun if I want or record it. The few shows that peaked my interest just moved around and repeated too much to bother with. Too many other things I could be doing that are much healthier for me anyway.


Edit- I lied, The Daily Show and Colbert Report are must see too. But again I know where to find them all the time.

Not even my kids are interested in tv any longer.

and pass up the trash and "erectile dysfunction" ads.

Watch lots of documentaries, BBC mini-series, and mysteries. From a time when there were intelligent writers and producers and an audience that had the mental capacity to appreciate well produced and written entertainment.

Via Youtube, BitTorrent and other such programs, people can watch as much TV as they want from the safety of their own computer screen. No cable bills required.

Maybe Star Trek was right and TV will be obsolete in 30 years. One can only hope.

You can also watch shows on NBC.com, ABC.com and Myspace.com/FOX.