• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, October 10, 2008

The warning bells must be ringing at ABC -- and soon, perhaps at NBC. Can those long-term-looking TV ratings, which include seven day of DVR playback, save the day?

All three of ABC's highly promoted trio of dramas on Wednesday are fast becoming a big yawn to prime-time viewers. "Private Practice" and "Dirty Sexy Money" had significant 20% declines this Wednesday versus a week ago, on top of losses that previous week.

"Practice" is now down to a 2.5 rating among 18-49 viewers, while "Money" is at a 2.0. Only "Pushing Daisies" has found room for growth, up 5% to a still nominal 2.0 rating. All this landed ABC in a dismal fourth place on Wednesday behind NBC.

NBC already hasn't had much luck with its new, highly-touted "Knight Rider," now at a 2.1 rating as of Wednesday night. Its struggling sophomore show, "Lipstick Jungle," is behind "Rider" at a 1.9.  Not only that, but NBC has already lost steam for one of its main launching pads: "Heroes."

TV viewers are sometimes in a transitional TV mode in late September/early October -- especially this year, what with the baseball playoffs, Presidential debates, and major troubling financial/economic news. Who has time for distraction?

That's just the point: Viewers should be looking for distraction. With the exception of CBS' head-scratchingly persistently high-rated procedural crime shows, and even more puzzlingly high-rated comedies -- as well as CBS' sister network, the CW, with its revived and new shows -- it seems as if viewers aren't really getting it.  

Major League Baseball isn't even getting its share. Ratings on TBS through 15 divisional series games are down 22%, to 4.2 million, versus a 5.4 million average a year ago.

The first batch of live plus seven days of DVR ratings (L7) arrive in a few days. You can bet network executives will be frantically searching for any grain of positive evidence that the world has changed. NBC Universal has already sent around a release about how well viewers "engaged" with their cable shows.

I can see the big headline: "Fewer - but happier viewers." Now sell that meal to TV advertisers and see if they bite. It better be more than just a snack.