LOS ANGELES, Jan. 28 (UPI) -- Michael Lafavore, the editor-in-chief of TV Guide, says, "It's become very hard to find a prime-time television star," to put on his magazine's cover.
So TV Guide has published covers featuring movies, NASCAR, and the NFL, according to Fortune magazine.
When their series end shortly, Jennifer Aniston, Kelsey Grammer, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Ray Romano will no longer be front-cover options.
In the 1980s and 90s Jerry Seinfeld, Tim Allen, Roseanne, Ted Danson, Michael J. Fox, Bruce Willis, George Clooney, and Tom Selleck were all prime time stars, earning stratospheric incomes. Top shows now feature unknowns or, on reality TV, real people.
Today's audience is so fragmented, hit shows today achieve only about a 25 percent share of the viewing audience. Ten years ago, top-rated Home Improvement captured 33 percent, and a decade before that The Cosby Show reached 50 percent.
"Lower numbers are more acceptable now," says Gail Berman, president of Fox Entertainment.
