Frank Ockenfels

If it’s summer on network television, somebody is probably being humiliated.

That usually means a reality show contestant, but considering the ratings that scripted shows are pulling in this summer on broadcast television, sometimes it seems as if the networks themselves are falling face down in the muck.

Two Thursdays ago, for example, ABC offered repeats of two hit shows, Ugly Betty and Grey’s Anatomy, and brought in only a bit more than 3 million viewers for each. Contrast that with cable dramas such as In Plain Sight, on the USA Network, which attracted 5.25 million viewers for its series premiere, and Army Wives on Lifetime, which drew 4.5 million to its season premiere.

After a regular season eviscerated by a writers’ strike and with a potential actors’ strike looming, the broadcast networks don’t need another summer of dissed content while cable channels make further advances (and money) with fresh scripted shows.

Starting July 14, for example, TNT will begin new seasons of The Closer, which had close to 9 million viewers last year, and Saving Grace, which had more than 6 million. Cable already can boast of one standout performance for scripted material this summer: The Disney Channel movie special Camp Rock pulled in almost 9 million viewers for the premiere on June 20.

And in the category of cultural noise, AMC has drawn the most attention, for the coming second season of its award-winning drama Mad Men.

Among the networks so far this summer, only NBC, with its anthology Fear Itself, and CBS, with the drama Swingtown, have even tried original scripted shows. Neither has stirred much talk or audience interest; their viewer totals have shrunk each week, with Fear Itself down to 4.6 million viewers and Swingtown at just over 6 million.

Network executives, however, say they can still compete — especially if real people, and not actors, are doing the competing.

David F. Poltrack, chief research officer for CBS, said, “You can’t really judge summer ratings until after July 4. Right now the schedules are more driven by economic considerations: We need to make money off some repeats.” He said bigger reality shows would appear later, like Big Brother on CBS and the ABC competition High School Musical: Summer Session, based on Disney’s hugely popular High School Musical franchise.

Last Tuesday night, ABC introduced two more fall-on-your-face reality entries, Wipeout and I Survived a Japanese Game Show, with positive results. Wipeout, which had been heavily promoted, did especially well, with 9.8 million viewers and strong appeal in the advertiser-friendly young-adult audience. Survived drew 8 million viewers. Other reality shows, including America’s Got Talent on NBC and Hell’s Kitchen on Fox, also had strong numbers.

“Some of these cable dramas are showing impressive results,” said Mitch Metcalf, the executive vice president for program scheduling for NBC. “But cable and networks have two completely different strategies for summer. There are a couple of different yardsticks being used.”

By at least one yardstick, the networks aren’t doing that badly. The big four networks’ aggregate audience (their average audience each minute) has grown to 23.1 million viewers, from 22 million last summer. Only CBS has shown a decline, while ABC has had the biggest gain, at 20 percent. But the bulk of that gain came via the NBA finals, not a regular program.

Sports has also helped NBC: The ratings for the NHL finals were up, and Tiger Woods’ triumph in the U.S. Open was a hit in prime time.

Preston Beckman, the chief scheduler for Fox, said his network has posted solid ratings with a standard summer lineup of a few shows that repeat well, such as House, and reality hits, like So You Think You Can Dance.

“We shouldn’t be lumped in with the other networks,” Beckman said, citing ABC in particular. That network faces the biggest challenge because it has no hit comedies (like CBS’ reliable repeat performer Two and a Half Men), and its dramas are serials (Grey’s and Lost, for example) that don’t repeat well — or at all.

The growth of the serialized drama has had a significant effect on network television, NBC’s Metcalf said. “Serialized shows benefit from their event status in originals,” he said. “But viewers don’t watch them again.”

The result is that split in strategy that Metcalf talked about: reality shows on the broadcast networks, original dramas on cable.

Liz Mahaffey, senior vice president for strategic planning for USA, says, “What we hear in viewer studies is that people who like dramas will go where they are.” Over time, this pattern has set up expectations among viewers, Metcalf said.

“Going back years ago, summer was a kind of dumping ground for shows we had no confidence in,” he said. So when a drama like Swingtown is introduced, fairly or not, viewers consider it a show that wasn’t good enough for the regular season.

But reality shows have a different summer history, Beckman noted. “The biggest reality shows started out in the summer,” he said, pointing to American Idol, Survivor and Dancing With the Stars. Audiences, he said, have no prejudice against reality shows supplanting repeats.

Andrea Wong has experienced both sides of the dichotomy, running ABC’s reality department before taking over as president of Lifetime. She noted that cable networks can do things with their summer dramas that broadcast networks don’t even consider trying.

“When we launched Army Wives last year, we ran it 10 times in its first week,” Wong said. “That absolutely gives a show a greater chance to catch on.”

Army Wives averages about 4 million viewers, what Wong called a “huge hit for us.” But broadcast executives say they face a higher bar.

“If most of these cable shows were on broadcast TV, people would say we’re totally striking out,” Beckman said. “With 6 million viewers, Swingtown would be considered a monster on cable.”

Would the broadcast networks ever try the cable route, with a strategy for original drama in summer?

“I don’t see it,” Metcalf said. “We’re talking about behavior that’s built up over decades.”