Videogames are going Prime Time, or at least to cable TV. Despite the quick fade of UPN's "Game Over," which itself was over after an episode, TV executives are desperate to lure males ages 8 to 34 to the boob tube. For those of you calculating, that's the exact same group of people (most likely you) who's been spending all your free time playing Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Pandora Tomorrow and Ninja Gaiden.

You see, the execs have been reading the reports from Nielsen, which recently released a study through its Nielsen Interactive Entertainment division called Video Game Habits: A Comprehensive Examination of Gamer Demographics and Behavior in U.S. Television Households. What this study, which surveyed 1,000 males aged 8 to 34 across the nation, found is that male gamers spend an average of 9.8 hours watching TV compared to 12.5 hours playing games during the course of a week.

When you consider that 75 percent of households with an 8 to 34 year old male have at least one videogame system, it's pretty easy to do the math. And when you factor in the best programming that money can buy results in shows like "Who Wants To Marry My Dad?" "The Bachelor" and "Average Joe," it's no wonder gamers are turning off network TV in droves. Prime time numbers for males were down 12 percent and more. But those TVs are staying on, just not for viewing the crap that passes as TV these days. Most gamers will take a game of Halo or Madden 2004 over "Friends" or "Frasier" any day.

Now executives at cable channels are turning to videogames to try to lure back some of these viewers. You see, advertisers love males 18 to 34 years old, who happen to have a lot of disposable cash to spend on products. Without these advertisers, networks won't be able to continue creating such original programming. And can you imagine how bad TV will become if they lose that cash?

So videogame programming is coming in all different shapes and sizes. One of the biggest networks out there now is G4TechTV, which is owned by Comcast. Comcast first created G4, which reached roughly 10 million homes, and then recently purchased TechTV, which reached over 40 million homes. Combined, the videogame network that nobody watched suddenly has a large presence with cable and satellite TV subscribers. This network will introduce new shows to the mix, but currently has a lot of half-hour videogame news format shows like "X-Play" and "Electric Playground."

There's also a lot of activity with big cable channels. Spike TV, the network for men, is very active in this space. The network will do its second annual videogame awards show this December, the "VGAs." "Game Blast," which debuts July 8, is a new weekly, half-hour videogame show from SpikeTV that will cover the game industry.

"We want to plant the flag with male gamers with the VGAs," said Kevin Kay, Executive Vice President of Programming and Production, SpikeTV. "If you want to see programming about videogames, come to SpikeTV."

GSN (formerly Game Show Network) is also getting into the videogame space. They already aired shows from London-based Gamer.tv last year and are currently exploring new videogame programming. GSN aired a two-hour documentary on the history of videogames recently. MTV has also been active in the game space with its series "Making the Game" and has several other shows in the pipeline.

Even the "educational" channels have games on their minds. Discovery Channel has aired two Microsoft videogame documentaries and has original game programming in the works. The History Channel debuts its "Decisive Battles" series beginning July 17, which will use footage from The Creative Assembly's Rome: Total War PC game to recreate great battles from Roman history. The 13-episode, half-hour TV series will give viewers a brand new perspective of the battlefield.

"Decisive Battles" is just the beginning of The History Channel's foray into infusing videogames with programming, according to Margaret Kim, Director of Programming and Executive Producer for the History Channel. "The mission of The History Channel is to make the past come alive and videogames are a great way to demonstrate the power and the excitement of history."

And on the gaming side, Mike Simpson, Development Director, the Creative Assembly believes technology like that developed over eight years for Rome: Total War will usher in a new way for TV production to compete with blockbuster, CGI movies like Troy.

"As games inevitably move towards more complex simulations with photorealistic graphics, they can provide sets to use as backdrops for a much wider variety of productions--not just historical military re-enactment," said Simpson. "Many of the things that only the highest budget films can currently afford will become available to any TV production company with a small budget."

Simpson said that the possibilities are endless, and the technology is not that far away. The Rome: Total War engine was previously used for a separate show called "Time Commanders" that the BBC ran last year. And Simpson is currently in negotiations with other TV production companies to utilize this technology in additional TV series.

It's only a matter of years before you'll see videogame programming on the likes of NBC, Fox or ABC. While it's not going to replace the thrill of playing Halo 2 online, it should give us something more entertaining than "The Swan 2" (yes, they're doing another one!).