Will TV Turnoff Week be cancelled due to redundancy?

The Center for Screen-Time Awareness, a U.S. advocacy group, has declared April 21-27 to be TV Turnoff Week for 2008.

Normally, that would be a perfect time for families to take a break from television (as well as over-consumption of videos, electronic games and computer screens). Except for NHL hockey playoff fans, the week before the May sweeps is usually a dead zone on TV, with wall-to-wall reruns before things ramp back up for the May sweeps.

This year, of course, things are different. The 100-day writers strike knocked many TV favourites off the air for months. Network promos have been begging viewers to hang in there until next month when shows like "CSI" (April 3), "Desperate Housewives" (April 13), "Brothers & Sisters" (April 20), "Grey's Anatomy" (April 24), and "House" (April 28) all come back with anywhere from four to seven new episodes.

The return of scripted shows can't happen soon enough. This past Tuesday night, nearly 75 per cent of the U.S. network prime-time schedule was made up of reality shows (including "American Idol," "Dancing With the Stars," "Big Brother," "The Biggest Loser" and "Beauty and the Geek").

Aside from "Idol" and Dancing," reality ratings are down, even for old reliables like "Survivor." Meanwhile, that show's producer, Mark Burnett, has lost his golden touch with reality duds "Amne$ia" and "My Dad Is Better Than Your Dad."

Without the usual March promotional push for new episodes of hits like "CSI" and "House," the networks are having very little luck launching the few mid-season replacement shows they do have.

Fox's "The Return of Jezebel James" was cancelled after three episodes and "Canterbury's Law" got banished to Fridays after two low-rated outings. CBS's return of "Jericho" was a bust and won't be resurrected again. Other hour-long dramas, such as the "Sex and the City" clones "Lipstick Jungle" and "Cashmere Mafia," rose from obscurity and are headed for oblivion.

A look at the past week's U.S. and Canadian top-20 lists demonstrates how far the hit threshold has dropped. Last July, CBS CEO Les Moonves was pointing out how you only needed 16 million viewers to have a hit show in America. Last week, only two shows exceeded that mark: "Idol" and "Dancing." The show at No. 20, a new episode of the CBS comedy "How I Met Your Mother," drew 9.61 million viewers.

In Canada, a top-20 show like CTV's "Two and a Half Men" (No. 20 nationally the week of March 10-16) is under the million mark at 929,000. The Canadian ranking this winter saw news shows and early prime fringe shows like "Jeopardy" take top spots in the absence of the usual heavy hitters.

The question programmers in Canada and the U.S. are nervously asking is, once the shows return, will viewers? Historically, viewing levels have dropped around 10 per cent following an extended work stoppage.

According to Mediaweek analyst Marc Berman, "there is no reason to believe every returning show will be back where they were before the strike at the get-go."

Results so far are mixed. The Fox comedy "'Til Death" returned this week and squandered most of its "American Idol" lead-in. CBS's Monday comedies, such as "Two and a Half Men" and "The Big Bang Theory," have come back strong - although "Men," like everything else, is down year-to-year.

"CSI: Miami" returned this week with a new episode and 15.75 million U.S. viewers tuned in, making it the second-highest rated episode of the season. Clearly, some viewers are starved for their favourites and ready to rush back.

Compounding the problem is that the returning shows don't just have each other to contend with. As Berman pointed out recently in his "Programming Insider" column, more and more people store shows in digital devices such as PVRs and watch them later. Almost a quarter of all homes in the U.S. now have that option, up from 13 per cent a year ago. The shift to store now, view later has had a big impact on the weekly ratings.

Still, a quick look at what the networks have coming up next likely won't make a lot of people run out and buy a box to store it in.

NBC announced this week it will revive the '70s game show "Family Feud" in a new celebrity format, perhaps inviting the Baldwins or the Lohans on to seek new levels of embarrassment.

NBC has already announced a summer slate of "American Gladiators"-style reality fare and is ready to announce its fall slate next week, six weeks earlier than usual. Will there be more makeovers of old shows like "The Bionic Woman" or "Knight Rider"?

CBS, meanwhile, is ready to say "Come on down!" to more weeks of "The Price Is Right" in prime time, and TBS has commissioned a pilot for a new version of "Match Game."

TV Turnoff Week? They may soon have to change that to Turn TV Back On Week.

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Bill Brioux is a freelance TV columnist based in Brampton, Ont.