Needed: Network bailout?

Already smarting from a writers strike-impacted season, the broadcast television networks haven't had much more to celebrate this fall. Collectively, the Big Five (including the CW) are down 13% among adults 18-49 vs. last year. How low can they go? And at what point can the networks no longer monetize ratings that don't look much better than cable? Among the possible scenarios: One of the traditional major nets -- ABC, NBC or CBS -- could mirror the Fox sked and drop an hour of primetime and return that extra hour to the affiliates. The networks have so far resisted; there's danger in giving up real estate, as you'll probably never get it back. But cutting out seven hours would level the playing field, and save in program costs (not to mention bolster what's left by cutting out the dead programming weight). The nets might also start looking to emulate the cable programming model: Fewer originals, more runs of those originals, and even some off-net fare. Why should the cablers capitalize on "CSI" repeats, when CBS could strip them instead? Also, the nets may look at farming out more low-rated programming blocks (Saturday or Friday night, for example) to outside entities, be they production companies or advertisers.