Johnny Carson and Bill Cosby may be gone, but who says network television will never be the same again? Every spring the familiar rituals are repeated: the well-hyped fall-season announcements; another batch of new shows competing for attention (a record-high 35 this season, when Fox is added to the Big Three); a fresh onslaught of optimistic projections from chipper network executives.
It's a tougher game than it used to be, however. The three networks' share of the TV audience showed a slight gain this past season, but the long-term trend has been down, down, down. To compete for a smaller pool...