If the A. C. Nielsen Co. had...

If the A. C. Nielsen Co. had phoned me on March 12 to ask what TV program I was watching, I would have been too embarrassed to admit it was “The People’s Choice Awards.” And yet I sat--benumbed by its self-serving pomposity--through two hours of pre-announced and pre-taped winners; interminable thank-you speeches (at one point there were 11 “acceptees” on stage); and, of course, the usual endless program plugs and commercials. The only interesting sidelight to the entire fiasco was that CBS had the guts to present what turned out to be a running promo for ABC’s “Roseanne” and NBC’s “The Cosby Show.”

Tom Lester, West Los Angeles