Commentary

TV Viewers' Summer Siren Call: When Is -- You Know -- TV Coming Back?

Just moments after the Memorial Day weekend is over, my wife always asks me a telling entertainment question:

"When will TV come back?"

Well, I tell her, there are these cable networks with shows like "The Closer," "In Plain Sight," and "Drop Dead Diva" -- shows that you love so much, running this summer.

"Yes, but when will TV come back?"

I know what she is talking about: TV is shorthand for for network television. Then I tell her a not-so-good answer: about three and a half months from now, in the fall.

For many people, network broadcast programming is "television." They know vaguely about local TV, syndicated and cable programming. But that's not "TV."

Apparently the frustration for a Bronx, N.Y. man ran a bit deeper: He threatened to blow up WPIX-TV New York recently if the station aired one more rerun of "Two and a Half Men." No motive was disclosed. But I'm guessing that he hasn't seen a new episode of the show on the CBS network, since around the time of the Super Bowl. The man probably was confused by a plethora of reruns all over the place: WPIX's syndicated reruns of the show, and those on CBS -- all because of "Two and a Half Men" actor Charlie Sheen's strange but entertaining journey into a confusing TV netherworld.

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Here's the deal: When it comes to television programming, TV viewers can be sophisticated and ignorant all at the same time.

A couple of weeks ago, about 15 or so protesters with placards marched and chanted across the street from Lincoln Center in New York City -- all to get ABC executives' attention and demand the protesters' "soaps" back.

ABC was holding its annual upfront presentation for advertisers there, and some cracked that the number of protesters seems to be a metaphor -- if not closer to the reality -- of the actual viewership those shows got, which got them canceled in the first place.

And then there's the usual viewers who are silently pissed this time of year -- mad that Fox' "Lie to Me" went off the air as well, or NBC's "The Event," or ABC's "Brothers & Sisters."

To many those are good shows, and questions may arise sounding similar to my wife's pleadings, but in fact mean something else entirely: "When is TV coming back?"

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