CBS Hopes for No. 1 Spot as Its Audience Gains

NEW YORK —  CBS Television affiliates, after four years of finishing third in the prime-time ratings and watching the network fail in every attempt to revive its fortunes, appeared to be in an unusually upbeat mood Thursday at their annual meeting with CBS management.

Despite an industrywide advertising recession that has severely hurt the profits of local stations, many CBS affiliates were optimistic about the future of the network. Until recently, optimism about anything at CBS has been as rare as a hit show.

“Everybody is focusing on what the network is doing in prime time,” said Benjamin Tucker, president of KJEO-TV in Fresno. “With the major sports franchises, plus the improvement in prime time, there’s the definite possibility that we can be No. 1” next year.

Network affiliate meetings are traditionally three-day cheerleading sessions in which company management tries to get the affiliates pumped up about the new fall programs. But this year, all three networks, under pressure from weak advertising and mounting costs, have drastically curtailed these normally lavish affairs.

In the volatile business of network television, optimism can evaporate with the slightest down tick in the ratings. But that didn’t stop CBS executives from brashly predicting that the network would win the all-consuming prime-time ratings race next season.

“I’d be disappointed if we were not No. 1 next season,” said Jeff Sagansky, president of CBS Entertainment and the network’s chief programmer. Despite the virtual tie in prime time among the three major networks this past season, CBS was the only one to post gains in audience.

CBS has made measurable progress in the past year. The network attracts a majority of the highly desirable young-adult audience on Monday nights for programs such as “Murphy Brown” and “Designing Women,” and ratings have shot up 25% on Tuesday nights because of such shows as “Rescue 911” and theatrical movies.

These improvements, however, will not do much to dent the network’s losses. Thanks to inflated fees paid for broadcast rights to professional football and baseball, the network lost money last year and is expected to do so again this year--perhaps even wiping out any profits at the parent company, executives privately warn.

In addition, CBS has fallen firmly into third place with the “CBS Evening News,” and last week the program had one of its lowest ratings in history. The newscast recently was given a new executive producer, Erik Sorenson, although anchor Dan Rather continues to be controversial among many affiliates.

Eric Ober, president of CBS News, told affiliates in a private meeting that the network had no plans to replace Rather or give him a co-anchor, as has been widely rumored for several months. “The newscast needs to be more relevant,” Ober admitted, explaining that most viewers already get the day’s headlines from local news airing before the “Evening News.”

CBS, like the other major networks, is still trying to define its role in a world increasingly challenged by cable TV networks and Fox’s emerging fourth network. Several weeks ago, CBS started showing new action/adventure series at 11:30 p.m., dubbed “crime time” by network executives. The shows, which feature a level of violence and sex not normally seen in prime time, have attracted viewers to a time period in which CBS has been a perennial loser.

Johnny Carson is “obviously still the leader in late night,” said Rod Perth, head of late-night programming at CBS. “But he’s graying . . . and (the audience) is up for grabs in 1992.”