• by Mitch Oscar , Op-Ed Contributor, March 13, 2007

If memory serves me well, ABC introduced a new season's promotional campaign -- I think referred to by the code name "Yellow" -- at the turning of the 21th Century, that played something like this: you (the viewer) love television, we (the broadcast network) love television, therefore we share something in common. We both love television and therefore you (the viewer) should watch ABC shows.

Around the same time -- give or take a season or two -- NBC introduced a summer promotional campaign, whose mission was to encourage viewers to watch their summer fare; and thereby, hopefully stem the loss of broadcast viewers to cable's original programming premieres in the summer - a cable strategy that had been successfully causing significant migration of broadcast viewing to their channels throughout the '90s. The NBC programming strategy that summer season seemed to be built around the concept of re-introducing "broken" series -- a term used to describe a series that had a limited number of episodes produced or aired prior to its being yanked from the schedule. The promotional campaign played something like this: since you (the viewer) probably didn't see the show when it first aired, it is original to you (the viewer) now.

Last week NBC announced plans to air two previously seen half-hour episodes of its hit prime-time series, "The Office," that have been re-edited into a new hour-long show, including some unaired footage and excluding some previously viewed material. NBC has named these episodes "newpeats."

Who's zooming whom.