• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, February 6, 2008

With the writers' strike seemingly coming to an end, will networks now offer up a TV branded campaign that includes the words "Welcome Back"?

Perhaps they should. Ratings have indeed drifted lower. On the downside, it would be admitting that TV viewers left in the first place.

Through the long writers' strike, TV networks have proceeded as if nothing has changed -- even with the understanding TV consumers well cognizant of those poorly paid writers looking for a piece of the new digital age.

Now, here comes the Academy Awards at the end of this month. ABC has already started its advertising campaign with a theme that looks to again claim its glossy TV patina : "The Oscars. The One. The Only."

With negotiations between writers and producers possibly concluding by the end of the week, neither ABC, nor the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, seem to have that big $120 million problem on their hands - the approximate TV national advertising take for ABC for the big award show.

The biggest question:  How will TV viewers respond now to the Oscars?  

There aren't any clear signs.  Viewers didn't show up at smaller TV-aired award functions -- The People's Choice Awards and the Golden Globes -- because they were virtually deprogrammed due to the lack of live talent.  The writer-sanctioned Screen Actors Guild Awards on TNT witnessed little change in the ratings from last year's ceremony. Next up is the writers' union-sanctioned Grammy Awards on CBS.

Looking at the example of other big TV events, the prospects are good the Oscars will succeed. Fox pulled in a record-breaking number of viewers for this year's Super Bowl -- 97.5 million, the most ever.

But it's not over yet for the Oscars. Unexpected U-turns are everywhere in this TV season's road trip. The event might not happen. This could resurrect an issue television executives have been concerned about during this long strike period: What happens to TV viewers for the rest of the broadcast year?

In a couple of weeks, we'll know -- and whether any award was won for best-performing alternative media in a strike situation .