Four men and a sports bar

SANTA MONICA, Calif. -- They were gone. Now they're back. Or are they? According to a Nielsen Media Research report a year ago, droves of men aged 18 to 34, one of the most coveted demographic groups by advertisers, had stopped watching prime-time TV.

But this summer, the boys started to return, with an average of 25.8 percent of them watching prime-time television, according to Nielsen. That's up from 24.7 percent a year earlier. Mostly the guys were tuning in to reality shows, sports and repeats of Comedy Central's hit "Chappelle's Show." Now the networks have a new fall crop of scripted series featuring young men. But will the guys really watch "Jack & Bobby"? The Associated Press needed to know, so it commissioned an unabashedly unscientific survey of four guys in a bar. Not just any bar. We're talking Yankee Doodle's, a popular sports bar on Santa Monica's Third Street Promenade.

And while this study fell far short of the AP's demanding polling standards, we did make a serious effort to find a diverse bunch of young men for our faux focus group.

Meet business consultant Damon Hawkins, 30, commercial artist Tariq Kamal, 26, aerospace engineer Marcus Reason, 25, and audio engineer Jason Roberson, 30, all patrons of Yankee Doodle's and all card-carrying members of TV's most elusive demo.

Each agreed to watch pilot tapes provided by the networks of four new shows targeted at them: ABC's "life as we know it" and "Complete Savages," the WB's "Jack & Bobby," and "Clubhouse" on CBS.

First we need to put a few things out on our round table:

All of the guys admitted up front they spent three times more time surfing the Net or watching rented movies than they did in front of the TV.

When they do watch the tube, they said it's usually tuned to ESPN, Comedy Central, the History Channel or UPN.

No alcohol was consumed during the survey discussion. Only the opinions flowed.

In a candid exchange over nachos and sandwiches in a quiet -- or more accurately, less noisy -- corner of Yankee Doodle's, our guys analyzed the prime-time landscape and talked about why they believe television has abandoned them ...

AP: Which of the shows you were asked to watch really caught your attention?

Jason: "Jack & Bobby." "Clubhouse" was good.

Marcus: It's a toss up between those two.

Damon: "Complete Savages" and "Clubhouse."

Tariq: "Savages" was funny and "Clubhouse."

AP: So why is "Clubhouse" the unanimous favorite?

Damon: It's sports.

Jason: It's behind the scenes of baseball, the American dream.

Marcus: And a dream job.

Tariq: Probably for all of us.

AP: Only two of you liked "Jack & Bobby?"

Jason: I would watch it again. It set up a lot of questions and it was cleverly done. It had potential to go further.

Marcus: It was classy, more intellectually based. I liked it for that.

Damon: That one didn't grab me -- that whole looking-back-at-a-president-as-a-kid thing.

Tariq: I thought it was going to be (about) Jack and Bobby Kennedy. To find out that it's a drama that's supposed to make you think of that turned me off. I'm not a big Camelot freak, but history for me has always been interesting.

AP: Did 'life as we know it' bring back high school memories for any of you?

Damon: It had no resemblance to any experiences I had in high school.

Tariq: Me neither. We had like two girls that looked like (those actresses) in all four years.

(Laughter.)

Marcus: I could see being a teenager and probably watching that show, but for me now, watching all these high schoolers go goo-goo over all these high school girls wasn't something I was into.

Jason: I could barely get through it.

(At this point, the bar crowd cheers loudly and our focus fellows briefly turn their attention to a football game on a nearby big screen.)

AP: Bet you all would rather be watching the game, huh? (Laughter, nodding). Well, a Nielsen report revealed guys 18-34 would rather watch sports and DVDs than scripted TV. Why?

Damon: I come from an African-American perspective and I don't think that there are many shows that cater to what I'm interested in. Plus, the shows I do like don't last. Maybe if you're lucky you get two seasons.

Marcus: So much of it seems to be the same. Honestly my least favorite show was "Complete Savages." It seemed like another one of those half-hour sitcoms.

Tariq: Same writers, same characters, same jokes.

Jason: Same set design.

AP: If you could, what kind of program would you develop?

Tariq: Already have it. It's called "SportsCenter." (All laugh and agree.) If someone were coming out with the next "Seinfeld," I'd give it a shot, but they're not putting anything good out there.

Jason: The point is, there's no formula that's going to catch our attention.

Marcus: We're done with the sitcoms and the reality shows, we need something ...

Damon: Outside of the box.

Marcus: Exactly, but something geared toward guys our age and ideally, it would involve sports somehow.

AP: But what's so great about watching sports on TV?

Jason: I have no clue. I don't like sports that much, but I'll go to a game. It's something about watching a game live, or if I'm in a bar with a bunch of friends, then it's fun.

Damon: There's not too many reasons men shout and scream, but you can do that with sports. It's like freedom.

Marcus: That's it for me, the camaraderie, to get together with all of your friends and root for your team. It's just great.

Tariq: It's easier to take a personal interest in sports. You have a team, or players, that you follow and it's a complete surprise every time.

AP: But there are competitive reality shows, right?

Tariq: That doesn't grab me the way sports does. Reality shows set up the situations, the people all hate each other, nobody's cooperating.

Jason: Andy Dick's new reality show ("The Assistant") is hysterical because he's making fun of all these reality shows.

Damon: In the beginning, I did not embrace reality shows. Now I watch them because my wife is into that. (They all laugh.) I'm watching "America's Next Top Model," believe it or not. I've actually gotten into the show. It's a way my wife and I have our camaraderie. A mild sport.

Marcus: I'll be checking that out. I watched the last one here and there. The girls are pretty good-looking.