Summer Heat

The networks are betting viewers will tune in for original programming
Summer isn't just for repeats anymore. That seems to be the message the broadcast networks are sending to viewers this year. Traditionally, the networks have written off the summer months by programming a mix of reruns, busted pilots and leftover original telecasts of canceled series. For
every Northern Exposure and Melrose Place, which launched in the summer and became hits, the history of television is littered with long-forgotten duds like South Beach, Street Match, Raven and The Simple Life. The emergence of prime-time newsmagazines in the early '90s bucked the trend.
"Networks quickly learned that in a sea of repeat summer programming, viewers made it a point of finding these hours," says Bill Carroll, vp/director of programming at Katz Television. "What they also soon realized, however, is that the impact of so many newsmagazines was far less significant outside of the summer."
Last August's debut of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?? on ABC produced more than just a monster hit. It made the networks think differently about the summer-programming wasteland.
Now, with ABC's taste of Millionaire? success and programmers more attuned to a 52-week mind-set, summer has assumed greater importance at the networks. CBS is programming more aggressively than its competitors, including the debut of two reality series intended to attract young viewers: Survivor and Big Brother.
Hosted by Rock'n'Roll Jeopardy's Jeff Probst and inspired by a similar show in Sweden, Survivor features 16 people marooned on a jungle island in the South China Sea, competing for a grand prize of $1 million. At the end of each episode the group votes to eject one person from the island. At summer's end, a single person will "survive" and claim the grand prize.
In just two weeks, Survivor grabbed the spotlight from Millionaire? with an advantage of 63 percent among adults 18-49 (7.5/25 vs. 4.6/15) in the second and most recent head-to-head battle with the game show on June 7. Comparatively, Survivor gave CBS its best Wednesday 8-9 p.m. household performance with regularly scheduled programming since May 13, 1998, and ended its second week in prime time first among adults 18-34 and second with adults 18-49.
CBS hopes to strike a similar chord with Big Brother, which premieres on July 6. The series, adapted from a European show, revolves around 10 strangers who are thrown together in a California house, where they must live together. The network believes the show, running five times per week, will attract the same kind of young audience that enjoys MTV's Real World.
"Big Brother is clearly the type of series that we hope can bring younger viewers to CBS," says CBS president Leslie Moonves.
CBS also relaunched the mob drama Falcone, which struggled last season, at 10 p.m. on Saturdays. While Falcone may look like just another summer repeat, a more concerted promotional effort by CBS and a more suitable weekly time period could potentially earn a renewal for midseason. "If the return of Falcone delivers, we have the actors under option to return to the series," Moonves says.
"To many, Falcone will be a new series," says Kelly Kahl, senior vp of program planning and scheduling at CBS. "We will do everything we can to make this work the second time around."
Scheduling Falcone in a miniseries format was "one of the biggest programming blunders" of the just-ended season, says Jim Romanovich, senior vp of Associated Television International. "In a better weekly time period, viewers--particularly men--who missed the original run in April may find this hour appealing."
Also aggressive following the middling success of last summer's Movie Stars sitcom (as well as the failure of another comedy, Katie Joplin) is the WB, which has scheduled a July 12 launch of the new Coca-Cola-sponsored Young Americans, a spinoff drama of Dawson's Creek.
"You must remember that in the summer months it's difficult, if not impossible, financially, to keep original, scripted programming on the air," says Jordan Levin, executive vp of programming at the WB. Much like the early days of network television, Coca-Cola is the exclusive sponsor of the show. WB execs hope it will strike a chord with young viewers the way that demographic was attracted to new episodes of Beverly Hills, 90210 in the summer of 1991.
Also look for an upcoming animated series on the WB called Baby Blues (day and time to be determined), as well as unaired episodes of last fall's animated Mission Hill, which was yanked from the fall schedule after just two telecasts. "If either Young Americans or Baby Blues clicks, we could have new episodes ready in time for midseason," Levin says. "Although a series like Movie Stars worked in the summer but not in midseason opposite heavier competition, we have faith in both upcoming series as potential long-term franchises."
NBC execs estimate they will offer in the vicinity of 150 hours of original programming from the recent conclusion of the May sweeps through the opening ceremonies of the 2000 Olympic Games in September.
"We intend to be as aggressive as possible this summer with a wide range of entertainment, news and sports," says Garth Ancier, president of NBC Entertainment.
In addition to original episodes of canceled clinkers Suddenly Susan, Veronica's Closet and World's Most Amazing Videos, other fresh-programming options at NBC include the already launched sitcom M.Y.O.B. (Tuesday, June 6, at 9:30 p.m., behind Will & Grace) and the upcoming debut of David Spade's animated Sammy on Tuesday, July 25, at 8:30 p.m. NBC will also offer new telecasts of Dateline five nights per week, Major League Baseball's All-Star Game on Tuesday, July 11, and the U.S. Gymnastics Championships and Olympic Team Trials for Gymnastics in July and August. Also of note: three previously unaired episodes of canceled dramedy Freaks and Geeks, set to air on Saturday, July 8, from 8-11 p.m.
"If the network really had faith in M.Y.O.B. and Sammy, they would have scheduled them before the traditional season ended," says Brad Adgate, senior vp of corporate research at Horizon Media. "While CBS' Survivor and Big Brother are tailor-made for the summer--and beyond if the ratings click--series like M.Y.O.B., Sammy and Clerks seem like just leftovers."
M.Y.O.B. co-star Lauren Graham is already committed to new WB fall drama The Gilmore Girls, which is reminiscent of actress Park Overall (Empty Nest) joining the cast of CBS sitcom Ladies Man before her 1999 WB summer vehicle Katie Joplin premiered. Although NBC president Garth Ancier promises to hold Graham to her M.Y.O.B. contract should the show be picked up for additional episodes, others attribute the delay in scheduling some of these series to a lack of faith in them. "More often than not, the networks save the worst for last," asserts Adgate. "Considering NBC made room in midseason for sitcoms in the caliber of Daddio, God, the Devil & Bob and Battery Park, I would not expect too much from M.Y.O.B. or Sammy."
Fox is banking on the one-hour game show It's Your Chance of a Lifetime. Hosted by talk show veteran Gordon Elliott, the show, which bowed at 8 p.m. on Monday, June 5, gives contestants the chance to wipe out their credit card debts with one correct answer, and then move on to play for--you guessed it--$1 million. Following its five-episode-in-one-week debut, Lifetime settled into the Wednesday 8 p.m. slot on June 14 as the lead-in to the original episodes of Jennifer Love Hewitt's Time of Your Life.
"If Time of Your Life suddenly clicks, there is always the possibility it can return in midseason," says Katz's Carroll. "Although success the second time around is unlikely, anything is possible in the summer, and Fox's new game show could provide the lead-in support the show originally failed to have."
Also, look for another new game show, Krypton Factor, and two new reality/dramas--American High and The Opposite Sex--on Fox in July in yet-to-be-determined time periods. Krypton Factor, from the producers of Guinness World Records, will mix challenging obstacles (physical fitness and endurance, speed of thought and reflexes, hand-eye coordination, general knowledge, etc.) in a pursuit of cash and prizes.
The half-hour series American High followed a group of teenage students as they deal with real-life conflicts at home and in school during the 1999-2000 school year. Considering that those involved in the show are not actors, this could be classified as a reality drama. Ditto for Opposite Sex, which focuses on three boys enrolled in an all-girls school.
"American High and Opposite Sex are two inexpensive ways to provide original programming with a dramatic flavor," says Carroll. "Given the low cost, it's a way to test the waters for other midseason programming that gives the viewers more fresh summer series options."
Fox will also pepper its summer slate with original episodes of The PJs, which moves to the WB in the fall.
Added to the summer mix of 11 new summer series will be original episodes of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, UPN's WWF Smackdown! and the return of ABC's Friday-night reality series Making the Band. The show, which chronicles the lives of the members of an aspiring rock boy band, made its debut with plenty of hype at midseason. It already had 22 episodes in the can before ABC unceremoniously pulled it prior to the May sweeps. Two back-to-back episodes of Making the Band will air in the Friday 9 p.m. time period.
In addition, look for potential new installments of canceled series Then Came You (ABC), Wasteland (ABC), Work With Me (CBS), Love or Money (CBS) and UPN's Shasta, Dilbert, The Strip, Secret Agent Man. And Fox game show Greed will remain in production despite not being on the fall schedule. And keep your eye out for an occasional first-run special, including The Source Hip-Hop Music Awards on UPN, Tuesday, Aug. 29, from 8-10 p.m.
"In the world of summer programming, it's not always about quality," says Horizon Media's Adgate. "It's often about burning off original episodes of canceled series while providing a potpourri of inexpensive reality-type programming. If CBS' Survivor and Big Brother click--I would keep your eye on both these series --we'll see more of the same type of formula in the future." n
Marc Berman is a Mediaweek contributing writer. He is based in New York.