Can you believe that Survivor has already been on for 16 seasons? Jeff Probst can't, especially since it's taken him nearly that long to win an Emmy for his work as host. But if the ratings year's award ceremonies featuring the reality-television stars are any indication, viewer interest in watching contestants eat bugs and create alliances is waning.

Though Survivor is still #1 in its time slot on CBS Thursdays, viewership has decreased over 50%, and with the economy being what it is, there is little chance that advertisers will be willing to invest the big money they used to.

"After eight years, you’ve got to wonder what’s left to come up with,” said David C. Joyce, a media equity analyst at Miller Tabak & Company who follows CBS."

Is the decline in Survivor interest a sign of the upcoming hard times ahead? Will the new Depression really be heralded in by the dearth of reality television as the ubiquitous canary in a coalmine?

The pop culture end of days is upon us! Repent, and check out three other recent examples of penny-pinching in pop, after the jump:

• Madonna's acidic divorce: Sure, a lot of very public celebratory marriages end messily. But not since Elizabeth Taylor went through her first round of husbands has the public been so interested in seeing who makes out with what after the dust clears. Why? Because Madonna has the cash and Guy, while not a pauper, could stand to make a couple (100 million) bucks…as long as he gets his share before Madge's millions dissipate faster than you can say, "Don't cry for me Argentina."

• Tween/Tabloid Mags Fold: No surer sign of the recession has there been than the bankruptcy/closing of major print journalism publication. But while we all might shed a tear over The New York Sun (or not), who is left to pour one out for the Heart publication, ComsoGIRL!? Teen People? Gone. Ellegirl? Kaput. TV Guide, while not exactly a girl zine? Sold for a dollar. One Buck. And Harvey Levin's TMZ juggernaut? Well, things aren't going so great over there, either.

 

• The objectively best TV shows constantly on the verge of cancellation: Both Mad Men and 30 Rock won Best Show during the Emmys for their respective categories, but Tina Fey's NBC comedy garners such low ratings that even Lorne Michaels jokes about it, and the cast and crew of Mad Men are still engaged in treacherous contact negotiations. Now, maybe this just means that viewers have bad taste in what they watch, or maybe NBC/AMC's ability to promote their front-running shows has dwindled as the companies hemorrhaging money out the wazoo just to keep single-camera friendly shows like The Office afloat.

Either way, the sign of the upcoming apocalypse has never been more prominent than with the amount of other countries' comedies being imported into the U.S. for a retooling. It's (easier and cheaper!) to just buy the rights than create an entirely new show. Thus: Kath and Kim, Little Britain U.S., and the new Australian Summer Heights High on ABC.

 

• Best Week Ever goes down to single-host format: In what might be the biggest sign of pop culture's demise is the mascot of the genre cutting all the dead weight from its program and banking on comedian Paul F. Thompkins to carry the entire weight of the Viacom staple.The value of snark decreased as rapidly as the dollar. Who knew?