Where have the TV viewers gone?
Some have been watching less and enjoying the early Daylight Savings Time, like Phil Morrical III of Liberty Township.
And many are time-shifting their favorite TV shows on digital video recorders (DVR), which aren't counted by Nielsen Media Reseach.
Whatever the reason, a startling number of Americans have drifted away from TV the past two months: More than 2.5 million fewer people were watching ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox than at the same time last year, statistics show.
In Cincinnati, viewing for all but ABC's prime-time shows on Channel 9 has dropped in May sweeps compared to a year ago.
Bad news abounds. NBC set a record last month for its least-watched week during the past 20 years, and then broke it a week later. This is the least popular season for CBS' "Survivor.
" ABC's "Lost" has lost nearly half its live audience - more than 10 million people - from its peak.
Scariest of all for the networks is the idea that many people are now making their own TV schedules, and watching on DVRs or computers. The industry isn't fully equipped to keep track of them, and so networks are scrambling to hold on to their combined $8 billion in advertising revenues.
"This may be the spring where we see a radical shift in the way the culture thinks of watching TV," said Sarah Bunting of the Web site Television Without Pity.
The networks argue that viewership is changing, not necessarily declining.
"People are not consuming less television, they're watching it in different ways, and the measurements haven't caught up," said Alan Wurtzel, NBC researcher.
TV viewing may be dropping nationally - but not in area households with digital video recorders.
"I'm watching a few more shows now, especially the new ones - 'Brothers Sisters,' 'Jericho' and 'Friday Night Lights.' But I'm using my DVR to record them so I can watch them later," says Diann Schuman, an Enquirer TV readers panel member from Miami Heights, in Hamilton County's Miami Township.
Mary Youtsey of Wilder calls her TiVo digital recorder the best invention ever.
"You never miss a show, and you can watch it at your convenience," she says. "I watch about as much TV as before - but on my own schedule, and can skip through the commercials so it doesn't take an hour to watch an hour.
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Up at 5 a.m., and in bed by 10 p.
m., Bill and Linda Lack of Liberty Township rely on their DirecTV DVR to capture favorite programs for viewing on their terms - not the TV networks.
"The only thing we watch live is 'The Sopranos' on Sunday night, and sports," he says.
This personalized shift in how viewers consume TV cannot be adequately tracked by Nielsen Media Research, say national and local TV executives. For the first time this year, Nielsen is measuring viewership in the estimated 17 percent of homes with DVRs - but only if the show is watched within 24 hours of the network broadcast.
For Schuman, who works at Cincinnati Financial, most of her DVR viewing comes days later, "during my free time on the weekend.
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DVR viewing can make a significant difference nationally. When "The Office" aired on NBC on April 5, Nielsen said there were 5.8 million people watching.
Add the people who recorded and watched it within the next week, and viewership swelled to 7.6 million, a 32 percent increase, Nielsen said.
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