Strike could be the catalyst for the end of television as we know it.

Publication: South Florida Sun-Sentinel (via Knight-Ridder/Tribune News Service)

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COPYRIGHT 2001 South Florida Sun-Sentinal

Byline: Tom Jicha

The May sweeps period traditionally marks the end of the TV season. The four-week national ratings survey, which begins Thursday and continues through May 23, is TV's final fling before the summer doldrums.

This year, the May sweeps might signal not just the end of another season. They could signal the end of TV as we know it. With strikes by writers and actors looming this summer, there is no telling when the fall season, which traditionally begins in late September, will get underway.

A network executive confided that the industry is girding for a work stoppage of as long as a year. (Commercial actors went out for more than five months last summer.) One reason for pessimism is the go-to-the-mattress attitude both sides seem to have adopted. The unions have been...

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