Alphabet soup hard to swallow from ABC execs

By Joanne Ostrow

While NBC and CBS both claim to be No. 1 (NBC wins in demographics, CBS wins for total audience), ABC these days is all about admitting failure.

The alphabet network is tanking in the ratings.

"We are in the midst of a very disappointing season," ABC Entertainment Television Group Chairman Lloyd Braun allowed. "We made our share of mistakes."

The network has a new executive and a new focus on "commercially successful" shows, as opposed to ones the critics like. For starters, that means "Once and Again" is probably doomed.

They've given "Once and Again" lots of chances in lots of time slots, Braun said. (Maybe if they hadn't bounced it around so much, it would be getting higher numbers.)

Last week the network bumped Stu Bloomberg from the top programming post and replaced him with Susan Lyne, ABC's former head of movies and miniseries and the founding editor of "Premiere" magazine. With four days on the job, Lyne joined Braun in a sea of mea culpas.

Braun admitted the network over-played "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire." They failed to take advantage of the hit as a launching pad for new series. Further, they goofed when they replaced ordinary people with celebrity players.

"Susan is going to fix it," Braun said.

Lyne acknowledged failing to anticipate the upcoming anniversary of "Roots." ABC rejected an outside producer's pitch for a 25th anniversary tribute to "Roots," its own landmark TV miniseries. NBC jumped in and will broadcast the "Roots" retrospective. Amazingly, ABC will make do with a nod to "Roots" on "Good Morning America."

If ABC could be any kind of tree . . . they'd be a sequoia. ABC needs to build a solid winning night the way NBC has Thursday and CBS has Monday. "We've got some seedlings for some possible future sequoias," Braun said, "but we don't have any sequoias right now."

This is where the network stands at midseason 2002: talking about hardy seedlings but growing moss. They're dredging up more "reality" fare while preparing to ax the brilliantly crafted "Once and Again." ABC is throwing "The Chair" on the air tonight in the wake of Fox's similar "The Chamber." Both "reality" ick-fests test how much heat, cold, wind and water the contestant can withstand. And they're concocting more clip shows because CBS had good ratings luck with the Carol Burnett reunion. (ABC already did "Growing Pains and "The Facts of Life" reunions; the archives are running low.)

Expect more replays of ABC series on sister cable channel ABC Family. The "Alias" marathon on ABC Family was "the first sign of how ABC Family could be used in a really effective way to cross-promote," Braun said.

After ABC premieres them, ABC Family will carry "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" and the sequel, "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets." That should come as distressing news to ABC Family Channel fixture Pat Robertson, who has railed against Harry Potter as a corrupting popularizer of black magic, devil worship and all that is unholy.

Ultimately, ABC desperately needs to find a new generation of comedies. Easy mainstream shows like "My Wife and Kids" and "According to Jim," both given pickups for the whole season, seem to be the network's direction. Expect more middle-of-the road family shows. As always, there are exceptions: thank goodness the edgy tragi-comedy "The Job" starring Denis Leary returns Wednesday night.__ Denver Post (January 15, 2002)

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