It's an exciting — and also frightening — time to be in network TV

by Rick Kushman

McClatchy Newspapers (MCT)

21 July 2008

Kevin Reilly

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. - There’s a constant, if subtle drumbeat running through the press sessions here. Network execs keep saying that despite the hinky fall season coming at us with fewer new shows and a bunch of re-launches, broadcast TV is doing great.

“This business is incredibly vibrant,” ABC entertainment president Stephen McPherson told critics the other day

“We’re actually in a pretty exciting place,” Fox entertainment president,” Fox Kevin Reilly said a couple days earlier.

This is not exactly a case of doth protesting too loudly, but it’s close. The networks are all still solid, they’ve sold plenty of ads for the coming season, and they still have the most popular shows in the country.

But they’re about to start a new fall season with 16 new shows instead of the usual 30-plus. Cable series are drawing tons of attention, not to mention Emmy nominations. People everywhere are getting entertainment - that’s not network TV - from every device in the house with a power outlet.

So, there’s a second, and less subtle message we’re getting. It’s also a frightening time in TV.

And to be fair to McPherson, Reilly and the rest, they’ve been straight up on the difficulties facing them, too.

“There is a tremendous amount of anxiety in this business,” Reilly said, “and there tends to be a doomsday scenario that digital media is the poison that is invading (the industry).”

The truth about that “poison,” however, is more complicated. In short, network ratings were damaged more by the writers strike and their own mistakes than by the digital world. And that digital world is, mostly, a tangle of not-yet-profitable possibilities.

For the TV industry, the problem is that few people in any corner of the business know how to plan or manage for all the digital recorders, DVD sales and online activity.

“It’s all under the heading of ‘experiment,” Reilly said.

What that means for viewers this fall is also complicated. The nets have pretty much decided that the more chances people have to watch their shows, the better, so if you miss a scheduled airing, there will be Web sites and on-demand options everywhere.

It also means the nets will be promoting and handling their shows all kinds of ways. Besides the usual on-screen promos, don’t be surprised to see text messages, e-mail alerts, previews on Web sites, or even good old fashioned ads on park benches.

CBS is taking more of an old school tack. They’re betting on five new series, which Nina Tassler, the CBS entertainment president, believes are still the most important thing to viewers.

“It’s really important to give them something to look forward to,” Tassler told critics.

Bill Lawrence, the creator of “Scrubs,” knows all about the shifting sands of the TV biz. His show is moving to ABC from NBC this season.

“It’s both a great time and a scary time,” he told TV critics. “Scary because who can predict where we’re going to be five or ten years from now. It’s also an exciting time because ... so many young people are watching our shows on phones and computers.”

And what about his more immediate change of going to ABC?

“It was weird to have people come visit the set. We haven’t seen that in eight years,” Lawrence said. “But it turned out it was just because (guest star) Courtney Cox was there.”

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One of the oddities of this coming season is the re-launching of a handful of shows that have been off the air for a while because of the writers strike, including NBC’s hit “Heroes.”

But most were rookie series last season that viewers were just getting to know, like NBC’s “Life” and “Chuck” or ABC’s “Pushing Daisies,” “Dirty Sexy Money” and “Private Practice.”

Network execs and show producers said that act of re-introducing a series is a high-wire act. Shonda Rhimes, for instance, the creator of “Private Practice,” told critics she wrote the first episode of the new season very carefully.

“I wanted people who had never seen the show to be able to step right into it,” Rhimes said, “And if someone has seen the show, they would see layers to it.”

Or you can take the approach of ABC’s “Eli Stone,” which sort of falls into the re-launch category. The clever, good-hearted series was renewed after a spring run that drew only OK ratings but created some devoted fans.

That series gets a plum time slot - right after “Dancing with the Stars” - when it returns mid-October, and producers Greg Berlanti and Marc Guggenheim said they’ll be keeping up their string of musical bits, partly in the hope of luring “Dancing” holdovers.

“We’re shameless that way,” Guggenheim said. “Scary shameless.”

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One of the biggest programming announcements during this press tour came from CBS, which confirmed reports that William Peterson plans to leave “CSI” after 10 episodes next season.

Tassler, the CBS entertainment president, said it’s Peterson’s choice to leave, though fans haven’t seen the last of him. Peterson plays Gil Grissom, the head of the unit, and Grissom’s love interest, Sara Sidle (Jorja Fox), will return this season before Grissom leaves.

Tassler also said Gary Dourdan will return in the season opener in October to finish last spring’s season-ending cliffhanger.