Is Jeff Zucker the smartest man in television after all? While that sentence probably just made some people spit out their coffee, it crossed my mind while we were all busy questioning our entrenched beliefs about the industry last week. Now, to even get to that thought, you have to get past some serious hurdles. First you have to make one major assumption that many are unwilling or unable to make: that the network television model as we know it is gradually, fundamentally breaking down. That is no fault of NBC. Obviously network TV is still big business, as Les Moonves pointed out last week. But it just ain't what it used to be. Look at where the numbers are heading. The Mentalist, this year's breakout hit, is on my Season Pass list (I'm not normally a crime drama guy) and will be on the air for years on CBS. It is averaging a 4.0 in the demo. That's a huge hit, circa 2008.
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