• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, June 4, 2007

Fresh, high-rated summer cable programming is at it again -- this time with a limited series from USA Network called "The Starter Wife" with Debra Messing.

The two-hour premiere pulled in 5.4 million total viewers, which beat USA sister network NBC's entire Thursday night line of reruns -- "My Name is Earl," "30 Rock," "The Office," "Scrubs," "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip" - along with an ABC "Grey's Anatomy" rerun, and CW reruns of  "Smallville" and "Supernatural."

Of the 15 English-language shows aired on network television on Thursday night, "Starter" came in seventh place -- not bad considering it competes with the mostly higher-brand-awareness network programs.

Daily Variety says USA had a "$20 million marketing campaign" for the show -- which seems a bit misleading. USA did not pay $20 million in media time for the show. A lot went on using the network's own airwaves. A heavy outdoor campaign, and no doubt, some radio, were major paid pieces of the effort. By way of comparison, any broadcast network may spend perhaps $5 million to $10 million to launch one show.

In 2007, even with the maturity of cable, and the rise of other digital TV competitors, we are still told, not so delicately, that this is "just" a cable show - meaning, we should never expect the performance of a network show.

Surely, if a broadcast network show had launched in the summer and debuted in seventh place -- virtually in the middle of the pack -- it would never have been called a success, and would be sent packing.

By USA Network's criteria, however, it was a success, performing better in 25-54 and 18-49 demos than any other original episodes on ad-supported cable networks this year.

Cable networks can always excel in the summer, but it's only in the last few years that broadcast networks have found summer gold like "Dancing With the Stars." A little further back, you could point to "American Idol" and "Survivor."

The question is, how long can even cable keep this up?  Long-established cable networks seemingly have fewer and fewer opportunities to gain ground on broadcast networks, as alternative digital TV platforms such as the Internet take hold.

Better still, one wonders if cable will get into the broadcasters' unique position of increasing efforts for decreasing results -- spending more marketing dollars, only to get lower ratings. 

Networks can make that formula work, because of the still increasing desire of marketers to spend more on broadcast TV. But is the same true for cable, with its seemingly unlimited amounts of advertising inventory? When will there be a level playing field?