TVSquad

It is an interesting time for television that we live in. This is not your grandfather's TV, where they had three channels ... and they liked it! And when changing the channel involved telling you to take your Toughskins covered butt over there and turn the big dial. Grandpa's version of TV is being challenged on all fronts by cable, and it's really not fairing well.

Yet another article, this time from the L.A. Times, takes a look at the damage that has been done. Some highlights: For the just concluded sweeps period, NBC was down 27% in adults 18-49. 27%! ABC lost over 20% of young adults. The other networks also posted double digit losses. The scary bit though, for the traditional networks, is that the number of people watching television is up 2%, and for the season the ad supported cable networks are up 7%.

Maybe it's because they work on such a dark show. Maybe it's because many of the actors on the show have at least some comedy in their backgrounds. But the folks from Criminal Minds really like to yuk it up. At least that's what I got from the "informal" (again, that means "jammed in a far-too-small conference room") session for the procedural. The panel consisted of executive producers Edward Allen Bernero and Mark Gordon, and stars Thomas Gibson, Paget Brewster and Shemar Moore.

Gibson started off the comedy by lifting a jar of candy from the table and offering them to the gathered crowd. "They're wah-fer thin," referring to a classic bit from Monty Python's The Meaning of Life.