• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, November 3, 2010

  

Mid-term elections are much like the TV broadcast network business these days, with a nod to U2 (and E.J. Dionne on NPR's "All Things Considered" on election night): Viewers and voters still haven't found what they're looking for.

TV critics not only guessed dramatically wrong with Fox's "Lone Star," many are now turning even more negative, saying that this TV broadcast season for new shows has been pretty lame.

Viewers and voters have been tuning in and voting in rebellion -- not for any plans they like, more for what they don't like. Two years ago voters did the same thing in the Presidential election. What will two years from now be like? Maybe, like some TV brands, candidates will get collateral benefits from the least-expected quarters.

Some TV properties have popped up on the charts -- almost out of the blue.

1. San Francisco Giants -- sans Mays, Marichal, Bonds (Bobby and Barry), Perry, Cepeda, Krukow, and Kent -- won the World Series with virtually all no-name players. Yet, TV viewership was murky. One of the World Series games was beaten for the first time ever in head-to-head competition with a regular season NFL game.

2. CBS has been doing great this fall -- up a bit versus its numbers of a year ago, and, so far, leading all networks in the numbers that matter most. But senior CBS executive Kelly Kahl, says it's all about "ball-control offense." No doubt the right approach in these trying times -- but anything controlled seems somewhat defensive.

3. Local TV stations are back -- for the moment, anyway -- swimming in crazy amounts of political advertising revenues, and a whipsaw of now-higher automotive ad dollars. All good -- but where do they go in 2011?

4. Google TV (and maybe Apple TV) seems like the big new TV brand thing. But haven't we been down this road before? In a vacuum of other ideas, are we just looking for something, anything? Some big network needs to be game and make the big leap. Put in enough financial/advertising protections to steer sizable digital dimes, quarters, dollars, and other big currencies into a network's pockets, and maybe you have something.

If voters are in a whipsaw mood, I'm guessing the entropy of TV viewers and their programming choices can't be far behind.