Politics of Clout and Fear Hijack Prime Time

If the entertainment industry is built on relationships, then it perhaps logically follows that, in setting the networks’ prime-time schedules, who you know--and what they may owe you--often precedes how good your show is.

Television industry insiders maintain that commitments made to stars and studios even before prototypes for their series were produced had as much to do with what was scheduled for September as the goal of putting on the best programs.

In fact, the networks now juggle their lineups amid a growing list of factors that aren’t specifically related to program quality, including internal politics and outside pressure from sources like Washington and special-interest groups.

“There’s a lot going on, and it isn’t always about the quality of the shows,” said one producer.

Network programmers, not surprisingly, prefer to convey the idea that they assemble the best lineup they can, scheduling the finest programs and not just the biggest deals. They also want to resist saddling series with the stigma of having been scheduled based on such considerations.

Even so, industry insiders say the most influential factors in this year’s schedule setting were the deals struck to bring stars such as Bill Cosby, Ted Danson and Michael J. Fox back to prime time in new series. In those cases, network officials concede, the financial commitments made to the performers virtually guaranteed each show a fall slot even before it was produced.

“If you don’t [order those shows], you’re severely penalized financially,” noted NBC Entertainment President Warren Littlefield. “If you put all development in the ‘roll of the dice’ category, then you have to ask, ‘How expensive are the dice?’ ”

Danson and Fox received 22-episode commitments from CBS and ABC, respectively, while CBS extended Cosby a two-year, 44-episode deal as well as commitments on additional series that the star would produce. Networks usually buy 13 episodes or less on new programs for starters, expanding those orders as dictated by success.

A network can walk away from such commitments, but only if it pays a financial penalty, often equivalent to the star’s weekly salary times the number of episodes to which they’ve committed.

As a result, series pilots with multiple-episode guarantees have a significant advantage getting on the air. Otherwise, the networks could wind up shelling out millions and have nothing to show for it.

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CBS Entertainment President Leslie Moonves acknowledged that his network was essentially obligated before it began setting its lineup to schedule the Danson and Cosby comedies as well as a new sitcom, “Public Morals,” produced by Steven Bochco, with whom CBS has a long-term production deal.

Still, in trying to rebuild CBS’ lineup, making such deals is “one of the ways you have to lure those people in” to the network, Moonves said, adding that the track record of the talent involved reduces the risk.

NBC executives have expressed a desire to avoid such commitments, feeling they helped bring about its ratings slide of the early 1990s. Riding high at the time thanks to “The Cosby Show” and “Cheers,” NBC locked shows like “Wings” and “A Different World” into adjacent time periods to reward the producers. That, in turn, limited the network’s ability to use those popular shows as launching pads to establish new hits.

“I learned that lesson the hard way,” Littlefield said, referring to the network’s stretch in the ratings cellar. “We gave away the most important thing a network has, which is the ability to control our schedule.”

NBC now says that no time period is sacred, noting that the network even contemplated moving the top-rated drama “ER” during this year’s schedule-setting discussions.

Nevertheless, NBC has joined the fray to some respect with two 22-episode commitments for 1997: Tony Danza’s next show and a comedy from the producers of “Friends” starring Kirstie Alley. In addition, CBS has announced yet another deal of that magnitude with Tom Selleck.

“One can argue that, by buying proven stars, the awareness of the show is greater, so you can ‘open’ the show, the way a movie opens,” said Brandon Tartikoff, chairman of New World Entertainment and a former head of NBC Entertainment.

On the flip side, Tartikoff pointed out that you can “count on one hand” the number of performers who have had more than one or two successful series, and that it would be disheartening if, in the desire to bet on proven commodities, promising newcomers were frozen out. “Television is driven by selling things that are new,” he said. “That’s the excitement of television.”

Among the series Moonves puts in that category is the new sitcom “Everybody Loves Raymond,” which is produced by late-night host David Letterman’s company, Worldwide Pants. Despite some arched eyebrows in Hollywood, Moonves said the decision to order that show had nothing to do with its production auspices.

“The best thing in this job is not to be beholden to anybody, but, as they say in ‘The Godfather,’ ‘Respect has to be paid,’ ” he said, adding, however, that most shows “earn their place on the schedule.”

Network schedulers can nevertheless be swayed by their relationships with high-powered producers. As an example, DreamWorks SKG principals Steven Spielberg and Jeffrey Katzenberg personally lobbied ABC to give their marginally rated first-year drama “High Incident” a second chance, presenting a preview of where the show would go next season.

ABC also ordered more episodes of “Muppets Tonight!,” despite low ratings, and renewed Bochco’s “Murder One,” which observers see as being at least in part due to broader agreements with those production entities.

In addition, ABC may have felt some sense of urgency to program a series featuring Latinos after interest groups picketed the network regarding a perceived dearth of minority representation in prime time. ABC has scheduled a new sitcom on Saturdays, “Common Law,” which stars Latino stand-up comic Greg Giraldo and features an ethnically mixed cast.

Tartikoff himself waged an aggressive and ultimately successful lobbying campaign on behalf of New World’s “Second Noah,” tapping into political pressure on the networks to air more family-oriented programs. New World enlisted the aid of church groups by contacting more than 30,000 priests, ministers and rabbis asking them to watch the show.

Still, Tartikoff said he wouldn’t have pushed so hard if he didn’t feel “Second Noah” could build an audience in its new Saturday time period. There’s little to gain in terms of goodwill, he noted, by renewing a show that lacks the potential to develop a following, because the network will eventually have to drop the series and then “becomes known as the network that canceled that warm, fuzzy show.”

As for internal politics, ABC couldn’t find a desirable time period in September for the latest drama series from “Chicago Hope” producer David E. Kelley, “The Practice”--Kelley’s first show under a multiple-series deal with ABC and Fox.

There was talk of putting the show on at 10 p.m. Wednesdays, but the network’s news division and anchor Diane Sawyer didn’t want to relinquish that berth, which is occupied by “PrimeTime Live.” Faced with what appeared to be a suicide mission airing on Thursday night against “ER,” Kelley’s production company reportedly pressed the network to hold the show (which itself had a 13-episode commitment) for later in the season, which ABC did. It then revived the news series “Turning Point” to take on NBC’s hit medical drama.