Networks are out to get you

NETWORKS ARE OUT TO GET YOU
[SOURCE: USAToday, AUTHOR: Gary Levin]
Major TV networks are springing into fall-style schedule rollouts, with heavy on-air promotion urging viewers to return for post-strike episodes of many sitcoms and dramas. All the networks have reason to worry: Most saw double-digit declines last fall. Several shows hit series lows with their final pre-strike episodes. "There are some viewers who are just waiting anxiously for their favorite series to return," says TV research director Sam Armando of ad buyer Starcom USA. "But the networks have legitimate fears that people may have fallen into different patterns if the shows they usually watch haven't been on for a few months." So network marketing departments are busy churning out reminders that all is not lost to repeats and a glut of reality shows. ABC began running a promo immediately after the Oscars that laments the "long winter" and celebrates that "spring is almost here (and) your favorite shows are returning to ABC." But it carefully avoided any mention of the strike. Nor did networks tout their final early-winter episodes as finales.
http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/life/20080305/d_lede05_tv.art.htm