A Bit of ‘Hercules,’ a Little ‘Xena’ . . .

Don’t look now, but a parade of strange characters is trying to battle their way into your living room.

With “Xena: Warrior Princess” and “Hercules: The Legendary Journeys” delivering smashing ratings, weekends are now crammed chock-full of superheroes, mythological figures, aliens and cool cars, all seeking to become the next action franchise.

Competition has grown increasingly fierce, not only for viewers but also for time slots. “Hercules,” “Xena” and their younger brethren are syndicated, meaning that the distributor sells a show market by market to TV stations, which then decide where to schedule it.

Though it’s a more arduous process than network television, syndication nevertheless offers huge potential returns. Distributed by Universal Television, “Hercules” and “Xena” air on more than 220 TV stations, reaching nearly every U.S. home. The two have been sold around the world and have forged lucrative merchandising deals, with estimates that they could generate as much as $1 billion in revenue over a 10-year span.

*

Small wonder, then, that the response has been a horde of imitators. Tonight alone, the local list of syndicated viewing options between 5 p.m. and 2 a.m. includes “Night Man,” “Gene Roddenberry’s Earth: Final Conflict,” “Conan,” “Tarzan,” “Soldier of Fortune, Inc.,” “Pensacola: Wings of Gold,” “F/X: The Series,” “Honey, I Shrunk the Kids,” “Team Knight Rider,” “Mike Hammer, Private Eye,” “Viper” and “Highlander.”

Most of those programs were introduced in the last two years, and more than a dozen like them have been launched this season alone. Yet although a few have demonstrated ratings promise, several factors inhibit their chances of rivaling the epic duo that helped inspire them.

Landing good time periods is the biggest challenge. “Hercules” and “Xena” “got in under the wire,” said Peter Sussman, president of U.S. operations for Canada’s Atlantis Films, by premiering when syndicated action fare consisted of little more than “Star Trek: The Next Generation” and “Baywatch.”

New series today face a more crowded environment, with many relying on overseas sales to cover most of their production costs.

For that reason, most of the shows are produced for considerably less than comparable network fare. Indeed, the Universal shows also started that way (“Hercules” was one of four series introduced as the “Action Pack,” and “Xena” was spun off from it), funneling money back into the production once they became popular, which in turn increased their appeal.

“We did step up when we realized we could do it,” said Dan Filie, senior vice president at Universal Television Enterprises, who also attributes the improved production values to advancements in special-effects technology.

*

Sussman, whose company produces such shows as “Earth: Final Conflict” (conceived by the late creator of “Star Trek”), “The Adventures of Sinbad” and the superhero “Night Man,” said proceeding cautiously in terms of budgets makes sense given the high failure rate of new series.

“When you go into the first season, you have to assume the worst so you don’t blow your brains out,” he said, adding that “to get put on at 2 in the morning” doesn’t provide much opportunity for success.

Moreover, where series are scheduled can have a lot to do with the company behind them. “Pensacola,” starring James Brolin, airs on all the stations CBS owns in prominent weekend slots because it’s distributed by--you guessed it--CBS. The show was designed to expand the network’s Saturday night franchise and precedes “Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman” in more than 60% of the country.

Thus far, “Earth: Final Conflict” opened with the strongest ratings, attracting more than 5 million homes for its premiere last month. Disney’s “Honey, I Shrunk the Kids” and “Pensacola” are next up, averaging nearly 3.4 million homes a week.

Many other new programs are struggling, with shows like “Conan,” “Due South” (which formerly aired on CBS), “Fame L.A.” and “Mike Hammer” reaching fewer than 2 million homes per weekend; by way of comparison, “Xena,” which tops the rankings of syndicated dramas, is averaging 6.2 million.

Desirable time periods have become even more scarce thanks to the popularity of network series whose repeats have been sold to stations.

In Los Angeles, for example, Channels 2 and 7 offer reruns of “NYPD Blue” and “Walker, Texas Ranger,” respectively, at 11:30 p.m., opposite NBC’s “Saturday Night Live”--a coveted window for new programs. Channel 11 also has weekend rights to “The X-Files,” which has quickly emerged as the top-rated weekly program in syndication. Most stations have committed to run each show twice each weekend.

“That’s six hours of quality time slots on the weekend gone,” Sussman noted.

Rick Jacobson, president of Fox’s Twentieth Television, which sells rights to “X-Files” and “NYPD Blue,” said there’s a comfort level in offering known franchises as opposed to a new property.

“If I’m a station, I can take a chance on a show [when] nobody knows what it is until I spend a lot of money promoting it, or I can buy a program that has already proven successful,” Jacobson said.

That dynamic explains why so many of syndication’s original series are based on established movies or TV shows, among them MGM’s revival of “The Outer Limits” and “Poltergeist: The Legacy.”

“A lot of times, when you have name recognition you have one foot up, there’s no question about it,” said MGM Domestic TV Distribution President Sid Cohen, whose company also introduced “Fame L.A.”--inspired by that film-turned-1980s TV show--hoping to provide an alternative to the glut in other genres.

“We said everybody’s going with action and sci-fi. Why not give the audience something that’s different?” Cohen noted.

*

Although few shows have had much impact yet, executives say they’ll know more after November, since the Major League Baseball playoffs (which, like most of these dramas, appeal principally to men) disrupted scheduling.

In addition, though the next mega-hit may be elusive, even moderate U.S. success can justify producing a series because of the appetite for action shows abroad.

“Because of the strength of the international market, you can hit a double and feel pretty good about it,” said Ed Wilson, president of CBS’ Eyemark Entertainment, which distributes the second-year series “Psi Factor: Chronicles of the Paranormal” in addition to “Pensacola.”

Based on market saturation, distributors want to wait and see how many new programs look as if they’ll survive before deciding on whether to roll out new ones for next season. At this point, only a handful are expected, in part because repeats of another major off-network attraction, “ER,” will premiere in syndication next fall.

“Our conceit is there’s always room for a good show,” said Universal’s Filie, who conceded, “It is a little crowded out there.”