The Wall Street Journal-20080111-For Networks- -New- Is the Word- With Writers Still Striking- TV Touts Its Fresh Content- A Different Story in March-
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For Networks, 'New' Is the Word; With Writers Still Striking, TV Touts Its Fresh Content; A Different Story in March?
Earlier this week, NBC Universal aired the following promotion: "All new tonight with all new 'American Gladiators,' followed by an all new 'Deal or No Deal' and the premiere of 'Medium.'"
In case you got lost in the subtlety of the message -- "all new" only appears three times -- the network is trying to convey that it has some new programming.
Promotional blitzes for shows are nothing new for the networks. But this year, they're going into verbiage overdrive to combat the perception among some viewers that the writers' strike, now in its 10th week, is diluting the quality of their TV shows.
General Electric's NBC isn't the only one billing itself as the king of new. News Corp.'s Fox has been airing promotions for new episodes of "Prison Break" and for the launch of its (new) series "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles." Spots for the "new season" of ABC's "Lost" have been on heavy rotation. Disney's ABC has also been running promotions for lower-rated shows such as "Carpoolers," which it recently hawked with this line: "Carpoolers is back. All new time. All new episodes. All new funny."
"We don't want people to think we're just running repeat programming," says George Schweitzer, head of marketing at CBS, which is running new episodes of "Jericho" and "Big Brother" as well as a full season of "Dexter," which is airing originally on CBS's cable network Showtime.
The broadcast networks are approaching spring with just a fraction of their usual store of new scripted material. Many of the returning fall shows have only one or two episodes left. Others are in better shape, including NBC's "Law and Order" and "Friday Night Lights," but even in the best cases, the networks have only a handful or fewer of unseen episodes in the can.
The networks will supplement the returning shows with new midseason fare, including CBS's "The New Adventures of Old Christine" and "Welcome to the Captain"; NBC's "Lipstick Jungle"; and ABC's "Cashmere Mafia" and "October Road." Although the quantities of new episodes of these shows vary widely, the networks estimate they could last through February with new episodes. But by March, their coffers likely will have run dry. The shows already in rerun mode include some that have traditionally had the highest ratings, including NBC's "Heroes."
It is still too early to gauge how the strike has affected this season's ratings because it is just gearing up again after the December holidays. But the networks fear that the disappearance of new scripted material from primetime could spark a steep drop in viewership.
Many of the network marketing chiefs say that their midseason promotion plans had to reflect the impact of the writers' strike in some form. "You have to address the strike," says NBC marketing chief John Miller, who adds that the network decided to do that by focusing on the amount of new programming rather than mentioning the strike.
On Monday, NBC's Web site promoted new programming with this message: "Strike? What Strike? NBC is all-new all week!"
The difference reflects the varying marketing strategies of the two units, says Mr. Miller. "Those are not words that we have given them to say nor would we say that on-air," he says.
The reliance on the phrase "all new," which is ubiquitous in the current round of promotions, even extends to Fox, which in recent years has dominated midseason ratings with its hit "American Idol."
"We definitely have to combat any perceived apathy," says Joe Earley, executive vice president of marketing and communications at Fox. "In December, a lot of viewers thought, 'Oh, there's nothing on,'" he says. "We wanted to make sure that people know that we are alive and well."
Even as the TV industry continues negotiations to end the writers' work stoppage, CBS's Mr. Schweitzer is convinced that viewers don't want to hear about the strike. "It's too inside baseball," he says. Even when "The Late Show with David Letterman" returned to the network live last week, he says, "we didn't do it. We said, 'Dave is back and he's all new.' We didn't say he's back because he did a deal with the Writers Guild. That's too much information."
