Now that original programming is resurfacing at the major TV networks, industry executives are asking one another the $64,000 question. Will viewers come back?

The industry is rife with speculation that the forced hiatus from favorite shows during the 100-day writers’ strike earlier this season, could have a dampening effect on the crucial next few months leading into the summer season.

“I think there’s going to be some audience falloff,” predicts Brad Adgate, senior vice president and director of research at Horizon Media, a media services company.

“You have to look at the strike as a summer,” says Adgate—in other words, see it as a downtime in the TV business when networks traditionally rely on reruns or reality shows to fill up hours. “Viewing patterns may change because people have started to watch cable channels and other shows they never watched before.”

NBC’s Thursday-night comedies The Office, 30 Rock, and Scrubs all boasted new episodes for the first time on April 10, and the network capped the night off with a brand-new ER.

The new episode of The Office helped NBC’s 9 to 9:30 p.m. time slot jump to a 5.4 percent household rating, a significant improvement over the 3.4 percent rating a week before, when an Office rerun had aired.

But the first new episode of 30 Rock, which debuted before The Office in the 8:30 to 9 p.m. time slot, didn't fare as well, receiving a 3.7 percent household rating its first night back. That is substantially down from the 4.9 percent rating recorded a week earlier during the 8 to 9 p.m. broadcast of My Name Is Earl.

The two new episodes of Earl that have run so far have brought good news for NBC. On April 3, the show’s first night back, it was No. 1 among the desirable viewing group of adults aged 18 to 34. And a week later the show delivered NBC’s highest 18-to-49 rating in the time slot in over three months, according to the network.

Still, that first full Thursday night of original comedy, which was heavily hyped by NBC, didn’t do much to move the needle for the network’s overall ratings that week. NBC claimed 6.6 million viewers from April 7 to April 13, up just 300,000 from the week before (the strike ended about two months ago, on February 12).

One bright spot for NBC: the upcoming Olympic Games in Beijing, which are likely to lift ratings during the slow summer period.

Over at ABC, the news is better. Ratings winners Ugly Betty and Grey’s Anatomy will return April 24 (comedies generally take less time to make than dramas because they're shorter in length and easier to shoot). Both series have five original episodes planned before the summer, which should help them to perform well.

Desperate Housewives, one of ABC’s top dramas, has already proven itself to be strike-proof. During its first return episode on April 13 at 9 p.m., the hourlong show garnered a whopping 10.3 percent household rating, compared with the 5.9 percent for Oprah’s Big Give a week before.

The real winner in the post-strike ratings war, however, may be Fox, which, according to Horizon Media, is poised to steal the mantle of "most-watched network" from CBS—the first time in six years that CBS will lose the position.

This year’s N.F.C. Championship—the most-watched conference title match since 1995—helped Fox weather the writers' strike, as did a record Super Bowl audience.

American Idol, a strike-impervious reality program and the most-watched show on TV, has continued to be Fox’s ratings leader. The network will get an added boost on April 28, when House, the network’s hit medical drama, returns with new episodes.