Commentary : CAN VIEWER FAXES BE MIGHTIER THAN NETWORK AXES?

Time to save your faves!

The networks are making prime-time series renewal decisions, with their fall schedules due to be announced in mid-May.

If you know your favorite shows are on the endangered list with anemic ratings, speak up now and let the programmers know what you think. It might not help, but hey, it can’t hurt.

“If it comes right down to the wire, it just might be the deciding factor,” says Dorothy Swanson, founder of Viewers for Quality Television, the activist organization that takes credit for having made enough noise over the past 10 seasons to help win renewals for such marginal ratings performers as “Cagney & Lacey,” “Homefront,” “Picket Fences” and “Homicide: Life on the Street.”

“You never know,” Swanson says, “if a programmer just can’t make up his mind one way or the other on a show, if we show enough support, maybe he sees the opportunity to re-premiere the show, knowing he can talk up and write up the viewer passion.”

And viewer passion is hot this season for a record number of “quality” series that just haven’t made the Nielsen ratings grade.

VQT is rallying its 3,000 national members in support of ABC’s “My So-Called Life” (tied for 114th out of 138 prime-time network series and now in repeatson MTV), CBS’ “Under Suspicion” (tied for 79th), Fox’s “Party of Five” (ranked 124th) and, again, NBC’s “Homicide” (tied for 92nd).

TV Guide’s fourth annual Save Our Shows campaign spotlighted the first three of those, along with NBC’s “Earth 2” (tied for 74th).

The lowest-rated shows on the three major networks are still seen in at least 5 million homes, and some may find it hard to believe a network these days could blow off even 1 million viewers. Especially if those viewers are as die-hard as fans of, say, “My So-Called Life.”

VQT’s Swanson notes in frustration that no matter what her organization has done, the ratings for that ABC drama just won’t nudge upward. But the core audience isn’t going away, either.

VQT and TV publications pick their spots to really crusade. Nobody’s getting worked up to bring back “Wild Oats,” for instance. (That was a fall show on Fox. How quickly we forget.)

VQT targets a handful of member favorites so it can be more focused in urging fans to individually write the networks and sponsors, for whom the organization provides addresses.

Swanson also tries to touch base with producers, noting that once she learned from “Under Suspicion” creator Jacqueline Zambrano that CBS had ordered three additional scripts prepared for future use, she was able to tell fans there was enough hope that they should keep on pushing.

“We’re not ready to put our pens away, because it might not be effective,” Swanson says.

And how often is it effective?

“Truly? Rarely,” admits Swanson. “But we’ve never said we’re here to save shows. Our purpose is to give voice to those who otherwise wouldn’t have a voice.”

So speak up now. You never know who might listen.