• Los Angeles Times, Monday, January 12, 2009 9:15 AM

The television business may be rediscovering Americans older than 49. For the last 20 years, network executives have driven themselves to distraction struggling to find programs with appeal for viewers in their 20s and 30s. Meanwhile, people of other ages drifted away to niche shows on cable TV or other media.

In an age of DVRs, multichannel systems and increasingly tiny ratings, the demo obsession may be exacerbating the industry's problems and excluding from consideration too many programs that could have broad appeal. This season, CBS has zoomed to first place in both mass audience and youth-skewing demographics by sticking to a "big tent" strategy of crowd-pleasing, familiar shows.

"While demos are still important, the industry needs to move beyond them," says Steve Sternberg, Magna executive vice president. Networks often forget that, even in an era of multiple television sets per home, about 80% of homes have only one set on during prime time, he says.

Read the whole story at Los Angeles Times »