HOLLYWOOD — This fall's freshman class of prime-time network shows is shaping up to be the most expensive ever. A full season of a television drama now costs as much to make as an average feature film.

More than half of the 14 new drama pilots produced this fall for the major networks — CBS, ABC, NBC and Fox — cost $6 million or more. That's up a whopping 50 percent from just two years ago.

The price tag for a full season is more than $62 million, on average, a jump from about $45 million in 2004, according to three industry executives who declined to be named because studios don't like to publicize these figures.

"Each year, the costs have been creeping higher and higher," said Nancy Tellem, president of the CBS Paramount Network Television Entertainment Group. "Although this year, it feels crazier than most."

The big budgets could be a boon for viewers, considering the level of art, talent, and special effects this money can buy. Cinematic strokes once reserved for the movies have come en masse to the small screen.

Unfortunately for the television industry, however, viewers so far this fall have given a warmer embrace to familiar shows such as "CSI: New York," "ER" and "Dancing With the Stars" than to the big-budget newcomers, including NBC's "Kidnapped," and ABC's "Six Degrees."

That makes TV executives nervous. The networks are not paying the program suppliers much more than in previous years for the rights to air these shows.

Advertising dollars that underwrite networks' costs for these programs are slowing, not growing. And new media outlets, such as Internet downloads, may not pay big dividends for years to come.

"The business just doesn't sustain this kind of growth in production costs," said Gary Newman, president of Twentieth Century Fox Television, which produces "24" for Fox and CBS' new legal drama "Shark."

THE 'LOST' EXPERIENCE

Television's soaring inflation has been caused by a "perfect storm" of factors, executives said. One is the "Lost" effect.

The ABC drama set a record two years ago for how much a company would spend in the race for ratings. Shot in Hawai'i with an ensemble cast, the two-hour pilot cost more than $14 million to make.

In search of the next hit, super-competitive TV executives this year set out to trump their rivals by duplicating the "Lost" experience.

After all, it was "Lost" that helped snap ABC out of its funk. And the networks, particularly fourth-place NBC, could use a jolt.

"It's not only competition that driving this," Tellem said. "There's a little bit of desperation out there."

Viewing habits have also changed the nature of the game. As consumers have erected home theaters complete with surround sound and 50-inch plasma high-definition screens, TV shows are forced to compete head-to-head in the living room with DVDs.

That's why network television is chock full of special effects, and producers, writers, directors and actors who made names for themselves in the movies.

BIG PAYCHECKS TO ISSUE

While there used to be only a handful of actors who earned more than $100,000 an episode to appear in a show two years ago, television is now teeming with high-rollers.

This year's batch includes Matthew Perry, James Woods, Sally Field, Calista Flockhart and John Lithgow, who stars in NBC's new comedy, "Twenty Good Years."

"Smith," the new CBS drama about a gang of sophisticated thieves, stars screen actors Ray Liotta and Virginia Madsen. While "CSI" has its close-up of a speeding bullet and "24" has its heart-thumping chases, "Smith" has featured a museum heist, a boat chase and fiery explosions.

"Television used to be the Cinderella," Tellem said. "But television is by no means an inferior medium any more."

But TV is a wacky business. Three-quarters of all new programs fail. So far, several of the networks' biggest bets this season, including "Kidnapped" and Aaron Sorkin's drama, "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip," have opened to disappointing ratings. Their pilots each came in at close to $7 million.

Other new programs that haven't produced the hoped for results include ABC's "Six Degrees," a mystery about chance encounters among strangers; "Shark," a legal drama for CBS about an ethically challenged prosecutor starring Woods; and Fox's courthouse drama, "Justice," the latest from Jerry Bruckheimer Productions.

In the past, TV studios could produce plenty of profit because a program like "The Simpsons," "Law & Order" or "Friends" would eventually come along and more than make up the costs of the forgettable failures.

But these days, the big pay-off is less certain. So-called serialized dramas such as "24" or "Lost" in which the story advances from one week to the next, are some of the priciest on television.

The trouble is, they don't repeat well, limiting the advertising dollars networks can squeeze from them — and reduce their value in syndication.

TOUGH AD MARKET

The other big revenue engine, advertising, is also under siege. As more consumers acquire digital video recorders that can speed through the commercials, advertisers are increasingly questioning the wisdom of paying $200,000 or more for a 30-second prime-time spot.

This year, advertisers refused to pay hefty increases for network ad time and steered more dollars to popular Internet sites that draw younger consumers.

"If the ad market was more robust they could probably justify those production costs," said Bill Cella, chairman of Magna Global, one of television's top ad buyers. "But it's a pretty tough environment out there."

"We have become more like the feature film business, and the expectation that we score right out of the box is intense," said Peter Roth, president of Warner Bros. Television, which produces such ratings stalwarts as "ER," as well as this year's new "Studio 60," "Smith" and "Justice."

To be sure, the networks have scored some winners, including NBC's "Heroes," a show about ordinary people with extraordinary powers, CBS' "Jericho," about life in a small Kansas town after a nuclear explosion, and ABC's "Ugly Betty," an adaptation of a popular telenovela about a plain Jane in a poncho trying to break into the snooty world of fashion.

But so-called "star vehicles" such as "Studio 60," which showcases Sorkin's writing , "Smith," "Shark" and ABC's "Brothers and Sisters," starring Field and Flockhart, have not worked as well as new programs such as "Heroes" with little-known actors.

"At some point, this out-of-control arms race has got to stop because it makes no sense economically," said Marc Graboff, president of NBC Universal Television, West Coast.

But as Tellem observed, "Right now, there is no sense of containment."