[inquest]

Do you really believe 'the most perverted junk possible' would draw an audience that is attractive to sponsors?

It would draw a segment of an audience, and with deregulation, such fare would be interspersed with the more "decent" shows whose viewers sponsors try to attract. This contamination would turn off the more normal crowd from TV altogether.

[StupidQuestions]

I don't agree. Television viewing has not diminished. It has increased but now there are a hundred channels. The major network's prime time audience is falling because people are going to HBO and Discovery and Fox and a zillion other channels. But guess what? I just scanned the listings and do you know what is currently playing on the History Channel?

HISTORY The XY Factor : Sex in the 20th Century: The Politics of Pleasure (Doc) Sexual experimentation; herpes; AIDS; Viagra; Monica Lewinsky. TV14 CC

I going to watch it! :)