PRODUCER WANTS MODERN FAMILY YANKED FROM HULU

Despite numerous studies indicating that putting TV shows on the Internet does not cannibalize their audience, Modern Family creator-producer Steve Levitan says he thinks it does and has asked Disney-ABC TV Group president Anne Sweeney to yank it off Hulu and ABC.com. As reported by the Hollywood Reporter, Levitan told the Television Critics Association that he has asked Sweeney to use his show as a “test market.” Claiming that Modern Family attracts two million viewers on the web, Levitan said, “The idea isn’t to remove ways for viewers to find the show,” he added, “but to see what [would happen to the ratings].” Recent reports have indicated that there are currently no reliable measurement devices able to determine the actual number of people who watch television shows online — a fact highlighted by the fact that Hulu’s total audience for the month of June appeared to plummet to 24 million from 43.5 million when the ComScore measurement service changed its methodology.