TELEVISION: IS ANYONE WATCHING?

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A single dad. An odd couple--she's the daughter of aging hippies, he's the son of rich conservatives. A wacky alien. An incorruptible prosecutor. Another single dad. A precinct full of hotheaded urban cops. As the new shows suggest, the broadcast networks are not exactly venturing into unexplored territory this season; in fact, they aren't even leaving the hotel. That's neither surprising nor necessarily bad. Lots of successful shows have followed the conventions of the sitcom or the police drama. If a series about a divorced father and his wiseacre kids is truly funny, does anyone care that it's been done a dozen times before?

More and more, the answer seems to be yes. The new shows this fall aren't particularly terrible, and some are reasonably good, but despite an extravagant effort to promote them, they are not bringing in the viewers. During the first week of the 1993-94 season, 75% of all TV sets in use were tuned to one of the Big Four networks--NBC, CBS, ABC and Fox. By last fall, that figure was down to 65%. During last month's premiere week, the network share took another startling drop--to 61% of the viewing audience. The measure of success has fallen accordingly: Dharma & Greg is considered a "hit" this season with a rating of 10.5 last week; 10 years ago it would have been 57th out of 68 shows and a target for quick cancellation.

The reason is no mystery: the networks have far more competition than they once had. Not only has Fox muscled in on the traditional Big Three, but two smaller networks, UPN and the WB, are also vying for viewers. So are dozens of increasingly potent cable channels. Cable made more inroads this summer, when the networks slipped into their usual rerun torpor. The cable industry delights in pointing out that for the first time ever, in the 2 1/2-month period from July through mid-September, the prime-time audience for all basic-cable networks combined exactly matched that of the Big Three.

Broadcast executives insist that their plight has been overplayed, that it's too early to tell which of the 38 shows debuting on the six networks this fall will be hits. Ad sales for this season, after all, are at record levels. And yet there's a sense among many in the industry that the networks are not facing up to the fact that times have changed for good. "They are operating in a way that is old-fashioned, outdated and self-destructive," says Peter Roth, president of Fox Entertainment Group. "The networks have to change the way they do business."

Of course, the best way to win viewers is to discover shows they want to watch. And each network has some bright spots to point to this fall. ABC's Dharma & Greg, the flower-child-marries-lawyer sitcom, has justified its favorable preseason press and is winning its time period. Veronica's Closet, starring Kirstie Alley, has a fail-safe time slot on NBC between Seinfeld and ER, and it has kept more of Seinfeld's audience than many other shows similarly blessed. Ally McBeal, Fox's Monday-night comedy-drama, looks like another success.