If I had to pinpoint an exact moment in my history of watching television where I realized that it was the beginning of the end, it would probably be my first experience with The Jerry Springer Show. I found it to be a mixture of the two things commonly on TV in my home at the time: my mother's soap operas and my nighttime viewings of the World Wrestling Federation. You had all of the horrible acting and fake fighting you could dream of, blended with a drop of sass and infidelity.

I was obsessed with watching Jerry Springer, even though I knew it was having the same effect that alcohol tends to have on a typical college student. That is, the destruction of brain cells and the ability to persuade someone that everyone and anyone is asking for a fight. I also realized that TV had come a long way from the days of TGIF and was only going to get worse.

And it turns out that this spring was apparently the tipping point. But don't let me be the one to tell you that. Instead, ask the 2.5 million or so people who weren't watching the major networks this spring, causing such a large decline in national viewership that network execs are searching frantically to find out what went wrong.

According to statistics from Nielsen Media Research, the viewership of the four biggest networks has fallen from 40.3 million to 37.6 million viewers since the beginning of March. That means that a lot less people watched Sanjaya go down in a blaze of glory or witnessed Jack Bauer's ability to go a whole day without eating, sleeping or going to the bathroom.

So where were these people when Heather Mills toppled over her dance partner in Dancing With the Stars? Some have speculated that this large group of people was possibly outside doing some other activity, like socializing or planting a tree. Others have guessed that these millions were too busy doing family activities, like playing Scrabble. I prayed that these people were reading, but then I remembered that no one ever really reads anymore unless the book is by Dan Brown or was suddenly discovered by Oprah.

The big guys in TV land are having panic attacks over the sudden loss of viewers, which is losing them millions in advertisements. They have already thrown out the excuses that it was from the sudden increase in recording technology or the early arrival of Daylight Savings Time.

I have my own theory: The majority of the shows that are airing these days are old or just plain horrible. We live in a society that asks for two very simple things when it comes to our entertainment. First, that it's good, and second, that it's original and not a direct copy of something that's already well done.

Americans are impatient people, prone to completely switching our attention to something new and flashy. It should come as no surprise that older shows are no longer as interesting as when they first come out. Although the execs try hard to do something new and interesting, like moving the Apprentice from New York to Los Angeles, I think people are beginning to realize that no matter what climate the show is moved to, the Trump's hair is always going to be the same.

Whatever the reason may be for the decline, I like to believe that it's a sign of change in our addiction to watching TV. Nielsen Media Research states that the average person watches TV for four hours a day. It seems that this spring, two and a half million people wanted some of those hours back, to do something different in their lives. Like watch YouTube clips.

Reach columnist Eric Uthus at opinion@thedaily.washington.edu.