Brain dead from another long day, I settled in this evening with a rotisserie grilled chicken to a mindless night of TV consumption. I'm not proud of it, but in the 8pm hour I settled on ABC News's "Peter Jennings Report: The UFO Phenomenon — Seeing Is Believing."

The show was engaging enough for what it was. During one of the commercial breaks, an ad caught my attention for Ab Lounge. I'm trying to get in shape these days, so I paid a bit of attention, figuring I was fine with normal crunches. I did, however, think it was a bit odd to see a direct-response TV ad during prime time on one of the "Big Three" networks, but I didn't really dwell on it.

Later in the hour, I saw an ad for Grip 'n' Flip, a neat-looking combination spatula and tong kind of thing. This time, however, I really took notice. This was the kind of ad you're supposed to see after midnight or on some far-flung channel less established than one of the major networks.

During subsequent commercial breaks, the two-hour show also featured direct-response ads for Willie Nelson Songs, a 20-greatest hits album, the ColdHeat cordless soldering tool, and the NuFit shoe stretcher to alleviate bunions.

What's going on here? Was it just that a show about UFOs was so dubious that mainstream advertisers were skittish? Is this a phenomenon that's been growing recently — DR TV in primetime — that I somehow just never noticed before? Does DR TV just work so great that they can afford to pay top dollar for primetime ads? Or is broadcast TV sucking so much wind that brand advertisers aren't willing to pay the big bucks anymore for 8-10pm on a major network, and these ads are the best ABC can do?

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