A(bsolutely) B(ad) C(hoices) network's fundamental problem BY ALLAN JOHNSON
ABC's fall from grace, now highlighted by its David Letterman/"Nightline" public-relations debacle, actually started when it was at its zenith almost two years ago as the top-rated network.
Entertainment heads Lloyd Braun and Stu Bloomberg told advertisers and journalists then that the hit game show "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire," which had made ABC No. 1 in the ratings for the 1999-00 season, would air four times a week for the 2000-01 season.
From that day in May 2000, through the past two weeks, when the New York Times reported ABC's parent company, Disney Co., was trying to pry Letterman from CBS for a talk show that would replace the widely respected "Nightline," ABC has made missteps and miscalculations that sometimes make it seem like the gang that couldn't point a remote straight.
"They took the show ('Millionaire'), and they burned it out," says Mediaweek magazine TV analyst Marc Berman.
Not only is "Millionaire" struggling on Thursday, the only night of the week it's on, but overall, ABC is barely in third place behind NBC and CBS, with Fox right on its heels.
In that 1999-2000 season, the network averaged 14.2 million viewers; that average has shrunk to around 10 million. The network has also slipped to fourth place behind CBS in the advertiser-coveted 18-to-49 age demographic after being solidly in second place last year.
"I did expect ABC to take steps that would increase their hold on the market and that would help in their recapturing of a primary position," says Marvin Kalb, director of the Shorenstein Center on Press and Politics at Harvard University. "I did not believe that they would begin with 'Nightline.' "
"They've made a lot of bad moves," says Carl Gottlieb of watchdog Project for Excellence in Journalism, "and they have to do something."
The Letterman incident is indicative of ABC's questionable business practices of late (ABC and Disney weren't talking about their problems).
"ABC has been on a string of really bad business decisions," adds Robert Thompson of Syracuse University. "This is show business, it's not science. Some of that you can't predict. But a lot of these things they should have seen coming for a mile."
Before the "Nightline" flap there was:
• The over-reliance on "Millionaire," which was on as many as six or seven nights a week during sweeps.
• The missed opportunity to develop new shows with "Millionaire" (in its heyday) leading the way. Unlike CBS, whose "Survivor" nurtured crime drama "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" into a hit on Thursdays, ABC never developed a new show to ride the ratings heat of "Millionaire." To the network's credit, "Millionaire's" Sunday placement a season ago did allow viewers to find "The Practice," now one of ABC's few hit dramas.
• High-profile series flops ranging from "The Geena Davis Show" to "Bob Patterson." ABC doesn't have one series that made it beyond the 2000-01 season, when the network was using "Millionaire" as a club.
• High-profile personality gaffes, including moving "20/20" from Friday to Wednesday in favor of "Once and Again," which reportedly angered "20/20" host Barbara Walters; and Braun and Bloomberg telling reporters "Millionaire" might not return next season, which was news to host Regis Philbin.
And it doesn't seem to get any better. Last week, there were two more ABC incidents:
• The network refuted a USA Today story that the Sunday news show "This Week" would bump hosts Sam Donaldson and Cokie Roberts in favor of George Stephanopoulos and Claire Shipman; Roberts later said she was leaving anyway in November, and Donaldson did everything but grind his teeth in public.
• The star of "The Drew Carey Show" said censors threatened to toss the script for an upcoming episode if changes weren't made to a story line that had co-stars of the series getting jobs in airport security.
Some of these decisions can be written off as bad programming moves; predicting what TV series will be a hit is as elusive as grabbing fog. Some of the personality issues were the result of comments that seemed innocent enough, although executives dealing with egocentric stars should know to watch what they say.
There's also the issue of Disney Co., with its hands-on leader in chairman Michael Eisner, having direct involvement in the running of ABC. Too many cooks may have had the usual effect, and that also could be applied to the network having two entertainment co-chairmen in Braun and Bloomberg.
Thompson and others even think the motivation behind the Letterman overture — trying to get a younger audience — isn't as sound a business move as it might appear. Letterman, after all, is 54.
"When I walk about the college campus and I say the words 'David Letterman,' people talk about him like the person that their parents watch," Thompson says. "Conan (O'Brien of NBC's 'Late Night') is who they're talking about, and Jon Stewart (of Comedy Central's 'The Daily Show')."
A network's fortunes can change on a dime... or a hit. ABC has made some moves, including subtracting Bloomberg and adding Susan Lyne, network head of movies and mini-series, as entertainment president. Gottlieb notes how "the whole thing with networks is cyclical," so it could be ABC today, and NBC next season.
A strong news division "provides legitimacy and respect-ability to a network," says Kalb, a 30-year veteran of NBC and CBS operations.
However, "the ABC News department is simply the pimple on the backside of an elephant," Kalb says of a division that he notes is demoralized by the notion that "Nightline" could be easily replaced by an entertainment program.
(An ABC News spokesman says that, despite published reports, ABC News head David Westin was told of Disney's making a run at Letterman before the story broke.)
Still, "if you have one show, you can turn around your entire fortunes. But boy, they're going to need a miracle," Berman says. "For a network that's having such a bad season, it's going to take them many years to dig themselves out of this."
ABC could have the beginning of that strong component with the Wednesday-night comedy "My Wife and Kids," a midseason replacement from last year starring comic actor Damon Wayans that has delivered strong numbers this season.
But ABC is airing reruns of the comedy on Mondays, with new episodes on Wednesdays.
Running a successful ABC show more than once a week. Sound familiar?__Chicago Tribune (reprinted in the St. Paul Pioneer Press, March 13, 2002)
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