Sen. John McCain, Gov. George W. Bush and Alan Keyes are teaming up against Amy Gray-- but they're sure to lose. Never heard of Amy Gray? She's the main character in CBS's hit drama "Judging Amy."

The three Republican candidates are on a special edition of CNN's Larry King Live for the second-to-last primary debate this week -- during the same time slot that Judge Amy hears a case about a judge accused of propositioning a prostitute.

Will cable viewers root for Amy or the White House? CBS is betting on Amy. The major networks agreed early on to pass on all primary debates that would interrupt prime time programming. The problem is there is no big money in primary debates. No big Nielsen ratings. No big advertisers.

No Cable, No Debates

Many news cable channels have created a forum for primary candidates to debate town hall issues in front of a national audience. Never in the history of a presidential primary contest have candidates had so many debates back-to-back. But if you don't have cable, you missed them all.

Yes, it is true that given a choice, more people watched WWF Smackdown! And, yes, it is true the race is no match for Buffy the Vampire Slayer. But flip the switch and there are plenty of folks who choose not to own cable and rely on networks to inform. A survey released last week by the Pew Research Center shows 75 percent of American voters cite television as a primary source for election news.

"The most learning takes place in the early primary debates," writes Dr. Janet McMullen, professor of Communications at University of North Alabama. "It gives us access to personalities, policies, viewpoints and ideologies."

For cable TV, prime time primaries have been a ratings success. But for the 40 percent of American households that do not have cable, the primary debate season is no more than ten second sound bites on the evening news and one sentence newspaper quotes.

"It compromises the sense of the democratic process," says Dr. McMullen about having to pay to hear unedited access to a candidate. "Some may not have the income to be able to afford cable. And many rural and sparsely dense areas still don't have cable access. A television satellite dish is not a cheap buy."

Come October the process will be free again when three of the networks begin airing national debates of the two major presidential contenders during prime time. To understand the change of heart, take a look at the Nielsen ratings. In previous years, networks have attracted from 50- to nearly 100-million viewers during the non-primary election debates.

"We approached the networks two years before the debates," says John Scardino of the Commission on Presidential Debates that will sponsor and produce the debates for $550,000 paid for by the networks, "to discuss black out dates in the fall schedule. We try to work within that schedule."

Scardino says the Commission has received a growing number of voter complaints about the lack of access to primary debates because they don't subscribe to cable. One possible solution is broadcasting the debates over the internet, says Scardino.