We were reading a promo in People — “Kirstie Alley sets a new fitness goal: getting into a bikini on national television” — when it occurred to us that the once impressive term has pretty much lost its meaning.

Used to be, “national television” meant one of the three broadcast networks — which guaranteed that whatever was on “national television” got a huge audience.

Now, some “national television” shows on cable get a smaller audience than the nightly news in Des Moines (that one’s for you, Mike.)

What’s more, anything of national import — such as Kirstie Alley in a bikini — could simply be loaded on YouTube and it would spread to “national television” whether Kirstie originally “got into the bikini on national television” or not.

Capiche?

On a side note: We’d love for Britney to read the passage above aloud, just to watch her do all the air quotes that the task would require.

(Photo illustration by Joe Darrow for New York Magazine)

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