The rerun: been there, prefer that

Score round one to the reruns in the summer ratings contest.

It wasn’t supposed to be such an uneven matchup. NBC, Fox and, to a lesser extent, ABC all announced that they would fight seasonal viewer apathy with original programming. They insisted they’d heard viewers’ complaints and learned the lesson of their cable rivals.

But if this is the revolution being televised, not nearly enough people are tuning in.

Fox’s “The Simple Life 2” is a bona fide smash, particularly with younger viewers, and NBC has had a surprise hit with “Last Comic Standing 2.” But otherwise, it’s reruns that rule.

“North Shore,” which Fox clearly hoped would break out like “The O.C.” last summer, is getting trounced by repeats of NBC’s “Fear Factor.” NBC’s “Next Action Star” lags far behind repeats of the ABC sitcom “8 Simple Rules.” And ABC’s “Weddings” specials haven’t even been close to CBS’ “CSI: Miami.”

Repeat episodes of “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation,” “Without a Trace,” “Two and a Half Men” and “Everybody Loves Raymond” -- all on CBS -- and NBC’s “Law & Order” are also ratings winners this summer.

Cable continues to make life tough for the networks too. The season premiere of FX’s “Nip/Tuck” was up more than 20% from its debut last summer, and USA’s “Monk” has shown no signs of slowing down as it launches its third season. But in cable too there are some worrisome signs, particularly a dip in viewers of about 10%, season to season, for HBO’s “Six Feet Under.”

Everyone accepts that fewer people tune in during the summer, in general. So no one is pushing the panic button yet -- although the inter-network sniping has begun.

“Despite what anyone says, the No. 1 choice for a summer program is a repeat of a successful regular-season program,” said David Poltrack, executive vice president of research and planning at CBS, which, not incidentally, has sneered at the must-have-new-shows mantra.

Ratings from the week ending June 27 back him up. Nine of the 10 most-watched shows that week were repeats; the only original was the “AFI’s 100 Years ... 100 Songs” special. The most-watched original episode was “Simple Life 2,” which finished in 12th place.

“What do you do when you don’t have a lot of successful regular-season programs?” Poltrack said. “One tactic to use when you’re losing the game is to change the rules of the game. These are strategies that are born out of desperation.”

That’s what you say when your network finished first in total viewers -- though a distant third among the 18-to-49-year-old crowd.

Among that younger audience, the target of all broadcast networks except for CBS, new episodes of unscripted fare are performing a bit better. “Simple Life 2” was the top-rated show for that demographic and “Last Comic Standing 2” was No. 3 (behind “CSI”). The season premiere of NBC’s “Who Wants to Marry My Dad?” finished in 10th place. NBC’s “For Love or Money 3” tied with NBC’s “Law & Order: SVU” for 13th place. Also tied with them: the Fox sitcom “Method and Red,” the only scripted show anywhere in the top 20.

But there’s more than one way to interpret the reams of ratings data -- as NBC and Fox are quick to point out. NBC won three of the first four weeks this summer in the 18-to-49 demographic, and lost the fourth to ABC’s NBA Finals coverage.

NBC’s “Law & Order” franchise is still unstoppable, and most of its returning reality series have performed well. They’ve also gotten a bump from the strong performance of “Fear Factor,” one of the few unscripted series to do well in repeats.

“We introduced four new series, ‘Last Comic,’ which is a hit, and two that have done pretty well: ‘For Love or Money’ and ‘Who Wants to Marry My Dad?’ ... And one new series which performed poorly, ‘Action Star,’ ” said Jeff Zucker, president of the NBC Universal Television Group. “We feel pretty good that three of ours have worked pretty well. We’re having a pretty dominant summer. In 18-to-49 ... we’re winning.

“The bottom line,” Zucker continued, “is there are two networks, NBC and CBS ... that are in the game. During the season it’s a two-network game and during summer it’s a two-network game.”

Fox doesn’t buy that argument. “Everybody has to play their own game and work to their own strength,” said Fox Entertainment President Gail Berman. “We had to look at another way of structuring summer for ourselves. I have to play the hand that I’m dealt here, with a schedule that is a bit different.”

Specifically, Fox has to program around the major league baseball playoffs in October, which would disrupt traditional fall show launches. The network is also trying to get its series up and running before the Olympics, a potential ratings juggernaut, starts in August on NBC.

“We’re doing more programming so there’s more opportunity for failure,” said Berman, who learned from the slow-build success of “The O.C.” last summer that it’s possible to create a hit during the supposed off-season. “Right now, we’re feeling good that we have several shows that can return and be brought back in November.”

Fox is particularly encouraged by its Wednesday lineup featuring original episodes of “The Simple Life 2,” “Quintuplets” and “Method and Red.” Berman even expressed faith in “North Shore,” which isn’t in the top 50 shows.

But she made no mention of “The Casino,” a reality show set in Las Vegas from the usually reliable producer Mark Burnett. It’s drawing about 5 million viewers and is in 56th place -- indicating that audiences are willing to take a vacation even from the hot reality genre.

Poltrack says his research shows that even if viewers bemoan the proliferation of reality shows, they’re still watching them. But with the “increasing number on air, we are seeing a law of diminishing returns and a lower percentage of these shows being successful.”