Trial Viewing Levels On Downhill Slide

The O.J. Simpson case may well have produced the Preliminary Hearing of the Century, but television viewers apparently regard the trial itself as the trial of the … um … well, maybe the trial of the new year.

Last July, viewership of the fastpaced preliminary hearing soared to stratospheric heights on all the networks and on CNN and Court TV. With six and sometimes seven channels providing gavel-to-gavel coverage, the nation watched transfixed.

Not so last week. CNN’s ratings were up considerably, as usually happens at the start of breaking news stories, and Court TV, which does not routinely release ratings, probably saw increases as well.

But, more significantly, ratings indicate that viewers found network coverage of last week’s opening statements no more compelling than the soap operas pre-empted by them.

Given the viewing levels of last summer, the networks couldn’t very well ignore the start of the trial. But the enormous investments they’ve made in planning time, personnel, equipment and facilities to cover the Simpson trial seem pretty silly today.

The networks have returned to their regular daily schedules and their usual commercial load, although they’ve promised news updates or program interruptions as warranted.

But with the public already having gorged for months on Simpson material and with the trial settling into the tedium typical of most legal proceedings, most viewers seem to be getting on with their lives and leaving Simpson behind.

If viewing levels continue to slide, it will be hard for even CNN to justify continuing coverage, much less a Johnny-come-lately like the E! channel.

Myers quits SNL

Mike Myers gave “Saturday Night Live” the heave-ho the other day, but he’ll be back for some guest shots in March or April.

Marc Gurvitz, Myers’ Los Angelesbased manager, also said Thursday that Myers will return for an anniversary show and will do more skits on Judge Lance Ito.

Nevertheless, Myers’ departure is a curious affair, given that this is the beginning of the February sweeps and one of “SNL’s” biggest shows of the season (with Deion Sanders) airs in a couple of weeks.

But Gurvitz says the commute between Los Angeles (where Myers lives) and New York has been killing: “The fact that he wanted to start a family, and it’s a tough, tough, tough grind, and that he was going to leave anyway” were deciding factors.