Writers strike damages "Damages"

"Damages"' second-season return - fueled by Glenn Close's Emmy win and a bewildering promotional campaign featuring Rose Byrne planting a stiletto heel on Glen Close's throat on billboards and the two of them elegantly playing peek-a-boo on an escalator on TV commercials - pretty much tanked on Wednesday, losing 44% of its audience from its debut two years ago and getting somewhere fewer than 1 million viewers.

Too bad; it's a terrific show fraught with widespread sinister behavior. But it's also yet another casualty of the writers strike - any recent show that was left twisting in the wind for nine months (think "Pushing Daisies," "Chuck," "Life," "Dirty Sexy Money," "Private Practice," "Heroes") has tanked or struggled mightily, and "Damages" has been off the air for more than a year. Well, and that promotional campaign didn't give you any idea of what the show's really about.