Are DVRs, procedurals serial killers?

There's a schism between procedural and serialized dramas -- and potentially the rift separating broadcasting and cable as the digital video recorder's impact on TV consumption steadily grows. Several factors appear to be lining up behind broadcast series that are more episodically self-contained, leaving the heavily serialized format to the less-demanding confines of cable. The nagging problem with a show like "FlashForward" is the fear that every viewer who drifts away will be irrevocably lost, in the same way that those who abandoned "Lost" likely deemed the series too impenetrable to rejoin. Fox's "24" has skirted this issue partly by essentially rebooting each season, though even that franchise has experienced inevitable erosion. While these programs generate intense loyalty, they're also seemingly more vulnerable to ratings dives -- and not incidentally, more apt to be time-shifted, with audiences blasting past the commercials. A recent study by TiVo underscores the challenge that serialized programs face, indicating that 83% of the audience time-shifting "Mad Men" zapped through the ads -- markedly higher than the drama-category average of 73%.