• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, September 8, 2016

Plummeting broadcast TV ratings are a fact -- and likely to continue for a long time.

Jennifer Salke, NBC’s president of entertainment, told the New York Times  that, when it comes to developing comedy shows, the new aim isn’t to be well liked by everyone: “Not a broad and soft, trying-to-please-the-whole-world kind of show.”

Instead, new broadcast comedy shows will try to mimic programs that run on ad-supported premium cable TV networks: that is, quirkier, niche-like shows.

New shows now include Fox’s “Son of Zorn,” a mash-up of animation and live-action, about an animated warrior from the island of Zephyria, who returns to Orange County, Calif. to reconnect with his live-action ex-wife and teenage son.

Then there’s NBC’s “The Good Place,” starring Kristen Bell and Ted Danson, which takes place -- for the most part -- in heaven. It’s about a dead woman who shows up there by mistake.

CBS’ “Life in Pieces,” returning for a second season, looks at the lives of three generations of a family from the point of view of each character, with each episode told as four short stories.

All this is a departure from high-rated TV comedies like CBS’ “The Big Bang Theory,” still one of the top five of all scripted TV shows on broadcast networks.

The new comedy push isn’t about waving the white flag. Broadcast networks still have the broadest reach of viewers -- around 75% to 80% -- versus typically much lower reach levels for ad-supported cable networks.

Which means  single original episodes for successful broadcast shows will still be ranked high, versus other TV platforms. This will mean relatively higher TV advertising revenues.

Top comedies of a year ago for each network: CBS’s “Big Bang Theory” averaged a Nielsen 16.14 million viewers last year, and its “Life in Pieces,” 8.7 million. ABC’s “Modern Family,” 7.9 million; NBC’s “Superstore,” 5.1 million; and Fox’s “The Simpsons,” 4.0 million.

The new style of comedy, says NBC’s Salke, is about finding a “core” audience who will come back again and again. That kind of engagement will reap big benefits.

Cable networks have been selling this concept to TV advertisers for some time. It seems now that most veteran broadcast programming executives are saying -- more than ever -- if we can’t beat ‘em (content-wise), we’ll join them.

And then they’ll probably beat them anyway, using the measure that matters most: money.