• by Mike Bloxham , Op-Ed Contributor, April 2, 2008

My DVR is a shadow of its former self. In the halcyon days before the writers' strike, it was fat and happy -- overflowing with a wealth of our favorite programs just oozing with promise and ready to deliver on the cherished mantra of "what you want, when you want it." Now, alas, it sits emaciated and nearly empty -- the hard drive like nothing so much as a luxury goods store with stocks now depleted after post-war rationing. It holds a fine line of echoes and substitute content, but the glory days when it held my personal who's who (or what's what) of programming are a thing of the past.

I know the writer's strike is over, but from my yardstick of the rate at which programs are returning -- my DVR -- you really wouldn't know it.

Admittedly there are a few things making a welcome return to my hard drive -- "Two and a Half Men" and "Medium," to name a couple of household favorites -- and I know this week sees more coming back into our lives (something to look forward to on my return home from New York on Friday evening), but things have been a long time returning to normal.

Interestingly, during this period of denial, the amount of exploration across the programming guide has increased, with the net result that there are a few newbies in my DVR mix these days. Of course this points to the challenges broadcasters face in promoting new programs to DVR users who spend so much of their time off-schedule with the predefined favorites. Without the strike it's possible that some of the programs that would otherwise have remained secondary have, by default, become primary in the absence of tried and trusted favorites.

For my part, there is a small handful of things like "Newsnight" (BBC America, Friday 10 p.m., with Jeremy Paxman verbally eviscerating any public figure who chooses to offer up evasive answers to difficult questions); "Last Restaurant Standing" (BBC America again), in which teams compete on who will ultimately win their own restaurant in partnership with a leading chef; first-run series "Eli Stone"; "Gordon Ramsey's F Word" (again, BBC America) and the U.K. series "MI-5." All of these sit alongside the three lovable hooligans who present the new series of "Top Gear" (yet again, BBC America).

The prevalence of U.K.imports on this list is less a reflection of my background than the obvious fact that imports have not been affected by the strike. As such they have pretty much had an open field in my household.

One thing that will be interesting to track will be the extent to which any previously un-recorded programs that have made it onto your hard drive during the strike and its aftermath remain there, as previously recorded programs return to the mix. Will they be shunted aside like a retailers' distressed inventory, unwanted and unloved, or will they remain -- possibly replacing a pre-strike fave? Will we have developed new loyalties among programs discovered as a direct result of the strike, or will we return gleefully to the tried and trusted behaviors evolved during the good old days of a full schedule?

Personally, I suspect in my household we'll see a combination of the two (though there's little doubt BBC America has gained ground). I'd love to see some data on this in a few months' time, though.