There are family friendly shows on other networks that have done quite nicely in the past few years, including current shows like "7th Heaven," "Joan of Arcadia" and "Gilmore Girls." The fact that Pax achieved its greatest success when running reruns of shows like "Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman" and "Touched by an Angel" is a clear indication that it wasn't the idea behind family programming that was flawed.

Pax's original series — including shows like "Twice in a Lifetime" and "Doc"— were done on the cheap, and it showed. TV viewers are smart enough to see where the money isn't being spent, and Pax didn't have much to spend in the first place.

And its distribution system — a string of mostly UHF stations (60 owned by Paxson itself) may reach 87 percent of American homes in theory, but in practice that reach is considerably less.

If there's a lesson to be learned here, it's that you can't just declare yourself family-friendly and expect families to flock to your network. You've got to deliver the goods — shows that they want to watch.

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E-mail: pierce@desnews.com