By Lisa de Moraes
Tuesday, October 7, 2008

Turns out, when a network puts fewer, and shorter, ad breaks in a TV series, you like it, and tend to be more inclined to sit through those commercials.

This revolutionary discovery was made by media buyer Magna in looking at early returns on Fox's new genre drama "Fringe."

Back in May, when Fox execs unveiled their 2008-09 season plans to advertisers in New York, they promised to slash ad time on J.J. Abrams's "Fringe" and Joss Whedon's midseason "Dollhouse."

"We're going to have less commercials, less promotional time and less reason for viewers to use the remote," Fox entertainment division Chairman Peter Liguori said. "We're going to have more character, more content, more value."

The network even gave it a name: Remote-Free TV.

According to Magna, "Fringe" so far has contained less than half the commercial load of the typical Fox drama. The average Fox drama is 70 percent drama, 27 percent ads. When you're watching "Fringe" you're getting 84 percent drama, 13 percent ads.

Even more pleasant, the average "Fringe" commercial break is 1 minute 18 seconds. The average commercial break in those other dramas is a hair-tearingly long 3 minutes 16 seconds. (As usual, the more successful the drama, the longer the ad breaks. Watch an episode of "House," for instance, and you're sitting through ad breaks that last 3 minutes 30 seconds, but if you suffer through "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles," Fox rewards you by shaving the ad break to a mere 3 minutes 9 seconds.)

According to Magna, Remote-Free TV already is paying dividends. About 88 percent of people watching Fox's other dramas sit through the ad breaks, but 92 percent of people watching "Fringe" stay tuned. The ad agency pronounced this "a major improvement in audience retention."

The pep talk Fox gives at the start of many "Fringe" ad breaks also helps, Magna theorized. You know, the nice voice that comes on and says " 'Fringe' will return in 70 seconds" or whatevs.

* * *

HBO has picked up a sixth season of bromance comedy "Entourage" just five episodes into its fifth season.

Even the show's executive producers admitted in the announcement's Canned Comments Section they "never imagined" being able to squeeze a sixth season out of this one. And last season they looked on track to be right. But now the series is, according to critics, bouncing back with a sort of art-imitating-life story line in which Adrian Grenier/Vince tries to figure out how to resuscitate his flat-lining career.

Also helping this ship stay afloat, Jeremy Piven keeps on winning the Emmy for best supporting actor, and while the Emmy audience ain't what it used to be, it's a heap o' viewers more than "Entourage" enjoys.

Plus, this year Piven stole Emmy viewers' hearts when, picking up his third consec best-supporting-actor trophy, he drew himself up to his full height, such as it is, and let the TV Academy have it in the neck for its decision to let the show's five-headed-zero-brained host open the show with no prepared material for 11 minutes or so.

* * *

"The Victoria's Secret Fashion Show" is returning Dec. 3 to CBS in another gloriously tacky holiday special, and -- file this under "why didn't they think of it before": This year, the "fashion show" will be held in the soon-to-reopen-and-looking-for-publicity [Fancy-Schmancy] Miami Beach hotel, renovated for $1 billion. Ka-ching!

The past two years, the skivvies show was at the Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles -- home of the Academy Awards. Before that, it was held for several years at the Lexington Avenue Armory in Manhattan.