Ellen Gray: Want to be a reader-reviewer? Apply now

THE LETTERS and e-mails began trickling in months ago.

Some Daily News readers, eager to get a head start on the process of becoming one of our Reader Reviewers for the fall TV season, started sending me copies of last year's entry form.

I admire their enthusiasm - and only wished I planned that far ahead myself - but fair is fair.

No one gets to cut the line.

Starting today, every one of you has a shot at becoming one of the lucky few chosen to spend an evening here at 400 N. Broad St. screening some of the new fall shows and sharing your opinions with your fellow readers.

I can promise the usual homemade cookies and maybe a few TV-related T-shirts and trinkets from the couch I call The Island of Misfit Press Kits (surely someone wants my "Househusbands of Hollywood" lunchbox or that "Shark Week" T-shirt).

My editor says we'll spring for dinner, too.

But the biggest prize here is the opportunity to spend a few hours with people who care about TV as much as you do.

I've been running these Everybody's a Critic sessions since 1995 and I've never failed to learn something from the people who participate. They're smart, they're well-informed and they watch an awful lot of television, including some of the very best stuff the medium has to offer.

They're the people I'm thinking about when I'm talking to producers and network executives, some of whom tend to forget that their customers aren't faceless demographic groups - and that there are plenty of people on the other side of the screen who don't just watch shows because they've forgotten how to change the channel.

They're also the people whose opinions get included with mine when I review some shows. They may not change what I think about a particular pilot, but at least readers get the benefit of more than one opinion.

Sound like something you'd like to be part of?

Entry forms will be running in the Yo! section of the Daily News - not online - for the next couple of weeks. Just fill one out and mail it in.

Every fall, I hear from people who'd hoped to be chosen and didn't make it, so I'm offering a few guidelines for contestants this year in the hope that those who really want to participate will have a better chance:

* Please make sure your daytime phone number is one where you can actually be reached before 6 p.m. I'll leave one message, but if it's not returned in a reasonable time, I'll probably move on.

* Photocopies are permitted, but only one entry per envelope, please.

* No faxed entries.

* No e-mailed entries.

* Your chances will not be improved by submitting separate entries for your spouse, child, parent or cat, because the one whose name is on the entry chosen is the one invited, and you could be left out in the cold. (This happens to someone just about every year.) Your cat may watch TV, but is unlikely to answer questions about it. If you absolutely must enter other people's names, at least check with them first.

* If you're one of those people who can't resist filling out a contest entry but aren't really interested in spending an evening at the paper watching TV pilots, please skip this one. The Daily News has plenty of giveaways - there'll be another one along any minute.

* Feel free to include personal pleas along with your entry. They won't improve your chances, but I always enjoy reading them.

Hope to see some of you here in a few weeks. *

Send e-mail to graye@phillynews.com.