By Kevin Downey

     Boredom, where is thy sting? Perhaps in love and afternoon chatter about--what else?--relationships.
     Forget that Cybill Shepherd just yesterday got booted from the bottom-feeding syndicated show "Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus." Forget that the show, based on the best-selling advice book of the same name, was expected to challenge the great Oprah herself when it debuted at the beginning of the season.
     Syndicated television is turning with all its heart to relationship shows in its latest attempt to combat viewer boredom.
    This is the definitive early word coming out of this week’s National Association of Television Program Executives conference in Las Vegas, where the industry presents all its latest ideas.
     What's definitely on the way out is gavel-whacking, the programming rage of recent seasons.  Judge shows, where more and more black-robes vied for a less and less interested audience, have run their cycle.
   The return to relationships as the next hot breakout programming concept comes after several years of declining ratings and no real hits. In all, it's been an anxious time for syndicators, with none of the old rules working and rising complaints of copycatting and a general lack of imagination.
    The new relationship shows being offered at this year’s NATPE, a four-day convention when most of the coming year’s syndication deals are made, come in a variety of formats, from classic advice chatter of the Oprah kind to game shows with a twist of reality programming.
   The shows include "Talk or Walk," in which the audience votes on whether a relationship should continue or not, "Fifth Wheel," in which four potential dates are eliminated one-by-one, and "Elimidate."
    "Every year is a regroup because most programming goes through cycles," says Bill Carroll, vice president and director of programming at Katz Television Group.
   "We went through game shows, then talk, then last year it was court shows. Now we’re back to talk shows, in the broadest sense, about relationships. It’s more diverse than celebrity talk."
    It’s something of a gamble for syndicators to rest much of the coming year on relationships, though.
    "Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus" pulled a dismal 0.8 household rating, and many feel that axing Shepherd won't pull the show off the bottom. 
    At the same time, though, the genre is showing some signs of life, if not quite a pulse.
    In November, when 70 out of 82 shows in syndication fell in the ratings, shows like "Blind Date" managed an uptick of 28 percent to a 2.0 household rating.
    The move to relationships, however, is more a sign of the waning draw of court shows and talk shows.
    Syndicators managed to get 10 court shows on the air.
    But while the shows "Divorce Court" and "Power of Attorney" have been picked up again for next year, as announced yesterday, a third of the court shows now airing are not expected to be renewed.
   "We reached a point of saturation. In the most positive terms, it’s too much of a good thing. Shows like ‘Judge Judy’ rise to the top and the others plateau," says Carroll.
   And the day of the talk show, at least the conventional talk show, is also well past its prime.
    This year’s biggest new entry in that genre, "Dr. Laura," has stumbled so badly in the ratings that the web site Stopdrlaura.com has closed down, its mission accomplished. The site led much of the protest over the host's negative comments about gays.
    Perhaps the most anticipated of the shows is "Crossing Over," which is already airing on the Sci-Fi network. John Edward, who talks to the dead friends and family members of the studio audience, hosts the show, which has commitments in 70 percent of the country.
    Another show generating a good deal of attention at NATPE is "Ananda," which is a traditional talker hosted by Ananda Lewis of MTV.
   A talk show with a variety format with Caroline Rhea from "Hollywood Squares" and "Sabrina, the Teenage Witch" is in the works.
    "The Other Half" is a male version of "The View," and is produced, like that show, by Barbara Walters.
   And "Iyanla" is a talk show with a focus on relationships.
   Other shows in the works include "Mutant X," a science fiction hour from Tribune Entertainment, which also distributes "Andromeda," this year’s most successful new syndicated hour-long series.
   Andrew "Dice" Clay has a series in which his character is transported back to the days of the gladiators.
  "The Larry Sanders Show," which was on HBO and stars Garry Shandling, is being sold in syndication as an hour-long show made up of two of the sitcom’s half-hour episodes. The show already has a cable deal with the Bravo network.
   In total there are about 25 major shows that are up for grabs at this year’s NATPE. A few of them have firm orders for the fall but more will be made this week.
   "'Ananda' is a firm go, 'Talk or Walk' is, 'Iyanla,' and 'Mutant X' is a firm go. 'The Other Half' is a likely go and 'Rendeview' is a firm go. By Thursday we’ll be winnowing out the shows. If you got this far, it usually goes forward," says Carroll.
    He says that 20 or so of the shows should be picked up for next year, based on the average from previous years.
   Also announced at NATPE, following a weekend Fox affiliate meeting, is that the network has given permission to its affiliates to open up the 4:00-5:00 p.m. hour for syndicated programs.
    The hour is now part of the Fox Kids block, which is being moved back to 2:00-4:00 p.m. The move comes after eight months of negotiations in which affiliates asked for the move to better pair early evening news with adult programs.
    The new hour is being made available even though affiliates are less than three years into a ten-year contract that called for them to air the kids block from 3:00-5:00 p.m.

-Kevin Downey is a staff writer for Media Life.

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