Flip on prime-time television and the message is obvious. Advertisers aim all of their ammunition at that highly prized 18-to-49-year-old group known for spending money and being wooed by flashy commercials. Thus has been the way of television advertising since the very beginning when some public relations guru in a shiny suit decided that the spendable money was in the hands of this select age group.

Well, wake up, folks. The Old Farts are here.

The median age in all U.S. households is 38. But there is a different dynamic at work in the world of television. And that trend may well change the face of television in the future.

For the first time since records have been maintained, the median age of television viewers has topped the 50-year-old mark, which highlights the move toward internet for the younger generation in search of news and entertainment.

That leaves us in the less-prized category -- 50 years to death -- as the new target audience for those billions of television advertising dollars.

Now don't misunderstand. The younger crowd has not entirely abandoned the tube for their Blackberry addiction. Younger-trending programs such as "Family Guy," "Scrubs," "Kid Nation" and "One Tree Hill" still attract a younger audience. But the median age for the "60 Minutes" audience now tops 60, and "Monk" follows with a majority in the Social Security range. Even "The Tonight Show With Jay Leno" has a majority audience well over 50.

So what does that mean? It may well mean more television programming in the future that is geared for the graying-haired generation. And advertisers may well start targeting their dollars toward those receiving their Social Security checks instead of those still trying to pay off their college loans.

Here's another shocker. Fox News -- in both daytime and prime time -- had a median age audience of 65. Maybe Fox isn't conservative. Maybe its audience is. Just a thought.

The experts on what we watch and just who is watching know what is happening. They acknowledge that, for many members of the younger set, television is no longer their first screen of choice. That now belongs to the Internet. The prospects that the trend will somehow reverse itself are slim. Which opens a big window for the rest of us who have bid farewell to our 40s and 50s and even 60s in some cases.

Those who make the decisions on how to target the advertising dollar appear poised to aim their guns at Social Security checks instead of those first job paychecks. Those of us less Internet-savvy have overnight become the new target audience. By any definition, it's new territory for the Geritol crowd. (By the way, is Geritol even still around?)

So will Victoria's Secret now give way to Viagra ads? Will wheelchair commercials replace fancy car commercials? Taken to the extreme, is there a rebirth of the television Western in the future? Will "M*A*S*H" and "Gunsmoke" reruns continue forever? Will the new prime-time hit be centered on a nursing home?

Stay tuned!

Michael Jensen is a Southeast Missourian columnist and publisher of the Standard Democrat in Sikeston, Mo.