US network ratings slide as writers strike drags on (Dinosaur Media DeathWatch™)

LOS ANGELES, Jan 30 (Reuters) - The 12-week-old Hollywood writers strike is taking a heavy toll on prime-time viewership with television production largely stopped and the major networks airing more repeats, game shows and reality shows.

The five top broadcast networks were down a collective 17 percent for the week ended Jan. 27 in ratings among viewers aged 18 to 49, the audience most prized by advertisers compared with the same week last year, according to Nielsen Media Research.

That is a sharp drop from earlier this season, before networks' supply of original sitcom and drama episodes ran dry and year-to-year ratings declines were running closer to 10 percent, network executives said.

Within weeks of the start of the Writers Guild of America (WGA) strike against major studios, work on most scripted prime-time shows ground to a halt.

The effects were largely unnoticed by viewers at first, as networks burned off a stockpile of original series programming, then filled their schedules with highly rated holiday specials and sports events through December and much of January.

Except for a handful of series the networks had saved for a winter "mid-season" launch, the cupboard of fresh episodes of scripted hits is bare.

News Corp's (NWSa.N: Quote, Profile, Research) Fox led network rivals again in the latest weekly ratings race due to the smash hit talent contest "American Idol" and a strong debut of its lie-detector reality show, "The Moment of Truth." But Fox still saw a drop of 13 percent among viewers 18 to 49 years of age from the same week last year.

Walt Disney Co's (DIS.N: Quote, Profile, Research) ABC posted a 21 percent year-to-year slide in its 18-49 score, without fresh episodes for hit shows like "Grey's Anatomy" and "Desperate Housewives." Its most popular program was "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition."

CBS, a unit of CBS Corp (CBS.N: Quote, Profile, Research), saw a 23 percent drop in the 18-49 age group after exhausting fresh episodes for most of its popular "CSI" franchise earlier this month.

Both ABC and CBS are looking forward to an upturn with midseason premieres of new seasons of ABC's "Lost" on Jan. 31 and CBS's "Survivor" on Feb. 7.

Viewership for NBC, majority-owned by General Electric (GE.N: Quote, Profile, Research), was flat for the week compared with a year ago.

NBC, which had the fewest scripted hits among the networks to begin with, has been the most aggressive in rolling out new reality programming. It was helped by the popularity of the new "American Gladiators" series and an original episode of "Law &

The 18-49 ratings for the fledgling network CW, a joint venture between CBS Corp and Time Warner Inc (TWX.N: Quote, Profile, Research), fell about 46 percent year to year, according to Nielsen.

Efforts to end the writers strike got a boost last Wednesday as the WGA and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), which represents the studios, began informal talks aimed at laying the groundwork for official bargaining to resume.

The new discussions marked their first face-to-face talks since contract negotiations collapsed on Dec. 7.

But even if a settlement was reached immediately, network executives say it would take weeks for the studios to ramp up production on new episodes of shows thrown off the air by the writers strike.

Viewers turned off by Hollywood writers strike 'may never switch TV on again'

American TV networks have lost almost a quarter of their audiences because of the Hollywood writers' strike, according to new figures, and executives fear that “orphaned” viewers may never return.

The Nielsen ratings organisation found that US viewership for last week's opening of the 2008 TV season was down 21 per cent compared with the same week last year, when new episodes of hit shows such as Desperate Housewives and Grey's Anatomy were aired.

Because the strike has shut down production of all scripted shows, the networks are now almost completely out of fresh material to broadcast, instead relying on reality TV franchises such as American Idol.

The channel CW - home of Gossip Girl and America's Next Top Model - lost 50 per cent of viewers in the 18 to 49-year-old bracket sampled by Nielsen. “It's hard to ignore the declines,” the Hollywood trade magazine Variety said. It said that last week's figures were the first real evidence of the damage from the strike because previous weeks had been skewed by sporting events and Christmas holiday programming.

Not everyone lost out. Perhaps because of the controversy over her pregnancy, Jamie Lynn Spears, the 16-year-old sister of Britney Spears, saw her sitcom, Zoey 101, on the Nickelodeon children's channel attract a record six million viewers.

The show was filmed last summer - before the strike and before Spears revealed that she was pregnant.

The Hollywood stoppage is costing the Los Angeles economy an estimated $20 million (£11 million) a day. Thousands are out of work. Small businesses, such as the props suppliers along Hollywood Boulevard, are struggling to stay afloat. The organisers of the Golden Globes lost $6 million in one night when their event was turned into a press conference because actors refused to cross writers' picket lines to attend the awards.

There is some hope, since talks between the Writers Guild of America and Hollywood studio bosses resumed last week after a long and acrimonious stand-off over the Christmas holidays.

“I'm hopeful,” said Devon Shepherd, a writer for Weeds and Chris Rock's Everybody Hates Chris. “We're all just hoping that with time passing, cooler heads will prevail.”

The biggest issue remains the royalties paid to writers for TV shows and films streamed over the internet, as well as content downloaded on iTunes. So far, the writers have had the support of the Screen Actors Guild, which will face the same issues when its contract runs out in June.

Writers as well as studios are worried that lost viewers may never return to TV, instead finding new ways to entertainment themselves, such as YouTube, Facebook or video games. The most recent figures show that YouTube has had an 18 per cent surge in traffic, while visitor numbers to other websites, such as Crackle, have seen doubled, albeit from small bases.

During the last writers' strike of 20 years ago, about 10 per cent of network TV viewers never returned, most of them going to subscription cable channels such as HBO.

All the principals in this strike have forgotten the consumer...except as a pawn. Yet I, the consumer, am paying for entertainment from broadcast television. And I, the consumer, am not receiving what I am paying for. Well, actions provoke reactions.

This is my consumer reaction. First; Program my own television entertainment using my extensive LaserDisc/VHS/DVD library. Second; Use the DVR to capture what little entertainment remains on broadcast TV. Third; Take advantage of PPV offerings. Fourth; Purchase DVD copies of series I have never seen and add it to the personal programming mix. Fifth; Return Old Time Radio shows to my evenings. Sixth; READ BOOKS. Seventh; Patronize local theater/events.

This will entertain me.

But my outrage at this extortionate “strike” also requires response. So, my satellite television provider will soon find me cutting back on subscription services. And the more I look at what I am paying for and not receiving, the more services will be cut.

My outrage doesn’t end there. This strike is focusing my attention on programming. I conclude that I am heartily sick & tired of the feces the entertainment industry now produces. It is neither entertaining nor informative. Most is agenda-driven propaganda. I don’t like it. So as far as I am concerned, the whole industry can crash & burn.

Entertainment industry, your monopoly on content is just about over. You’ve abused your trust just as the news media did. Now you can die just as Old Media is dying.

Welcome to the backlash.

FWIW I'm just now finishing Gates of Fire with literally dozens more books, fiction and nonfiction, waiting in the wings. A big nod from me for local theater where actors actually act and classical concerts where musicians actually make music. Only outstanding peer reviewed DVDs get deemed worthy of joining the hundreds in my collection waiting for viewing. Entertainment time gets spent on new media streams: podcasts, shows, Coral Ridge Ministries, YouTube, CSPAN, Nasa TV, Nova, SciFi, ... as well as MITOpenCourseWare, arXiv.org, ... dozens of boards, dozens of usenet groups, dozens of RSS feeds, ... and of course FReeping, always FReeping ... Virtually infinite degrees of entertainment freedom within finite time. :)

Coral Ridge Ministries: Proclaiming truths that transform the world.

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