Off the Media: TV as Weekend Box Office?

On the Media this week makes us wait until almost the bitter end for the sweetest morsels. In the middle of the final segment, about TV in the TiVO age, co-host Bob Garfield suggests that with TV shows distributed in so many ways (iPod, DVD, OnDemand, etc.) maybe the first airing on broadcast networks is becoming the equivalent of weekend box office for Hollywood studios. So, the first airing(s) and the audience and “buzz” it attracts tells you how well the show will do in all its other markets.