Strike may change network landscape

The strike by the Writers Guild of America is starting to reshape the broadcast TV schedule, as broadcast networks consider importing fare from their cable brethren.

CBS Corp. Chief Executive Officer Leslie Moonves said last week that the programs from the cable network Showtime, including the critically acclaimed "Dexter," could air on CBS "in the near future." Showtime and CBS are corporate siblings.

"Dexter," in which Michael C. Hall plays a serial killer in Miami, would have to be edited to conform to broadcast standards.

CBS spokesman Chris Ender said that "as a matter of course," Showtime creates cleaner versions of its original series for syndication and other purposes. Hence it would not be difficult to arrive at a version of "Dexter" that could air on CBS. The same goes for other Showtime programs such as "Weeds" and "The Tudors," which are also under consideration for possible CBS airings.

"Our first hope is that the strike is resolved. If it's not, we have to fulfill our obligations to audiences and advertisers," Ender said.

The compelling "Dexter," which has a place on my end-of-year Top 10 list, has been on a roll lately: It brought in 1.2 million viewers on a recent Sunday, the biggest-ever Nielsen rating for a Showtime series.

Showtime's gangster drama "Brotherhood" might do well on broadcast TV. CBS already aired the show's pilot in 2006 in order to drum up interest in the drama, which just ended its second season. As for HBO's fare making the jump to the broadcast networks, don't count on it. Time Warner, which owns the cable network, does not own a broadcast network.

John Solberg, a spokesman for FX, said he knew of "no current plans" for any FX shows to make the leap to the Fox network. Fox will be sitting pretty in the new year, and it doesn't need help from cable. "American Idol" will once again destroy everything in its path, and the singing contest will have even less competition in 2008, due to the other networks' dwindling reserves of fresh programming.

NBC is making at least one cable import. The network has already announced that it will bring "Law & Order: Criminal Intent" back from sister network USA Jan. 9. (By the way, if you've been wondering where it's been, the flagship "Law & Order" is also set to return to NBC Jan. 2.)

NBC spokesman Curt King declined to comment about other cable imports, but sources suggest that the network may bring over shows from NBC Universal's cable channels (which include Sci Fi, USA and Bravo), especially if a long strike necessitates that move. But the discussion of any such transfers are at a very preliminary stage.

If NBC were to present cable fare, it would be more likely to air properties that NBC Universal owns, such as Sci Fi's "Battlestar Galactica" and USA's "Psych" and "Monk."

Though it doesn't own "Burn Notice," a USA series, I wish NBC would consider putting it in prime time. The cable spy show, starring Jeffrey Donovan and Bruce Campbell, is much better than many shows on the broadcast networks.

ABC has not announced its plans for the new year, which is when most of this importing will probably take place. But it is widely speculated that the network may air more sports programming from corporate sibling ESPN if the strike drags on well into 2008.

Even if the strike ends tomorrow, there will be a lot of third-rate reality programming and cheesy game shows on the big networks in the first few months of 2008. That's too depressing to think about, so I'm not going into detail about those offerings. We'll have to endure them soon enough.