LOS ANGELES — The rallying cry for America’s most-watched network is a defensive one. Listen closely, and you’ll hear the sound of nervous TV executives weakly cheering in the face of adversity: “Network television still works!” CBS Entertainment president Nina Tassler proclaimed.
We’re still functioning!
Not a proud claim, but it will do. It’s lightyears ahead of what the creatively bankrupt NBC has to say at the moment.
NBC executives find themselves in the position of disagreeing with press questions by declaring, “We’re not a disaster.”
Much of the talk at the TV critics’ winter tour here concerned the effects of the economic downturn on the entertainment industry.
The best evidence CBS can summon to prove the continuing vitality of network TV comes from other networks. This week’s season premiere of “American Idol” on Fox was watched by 30 million people. Last summer’s Olympics on NBC were watched by 28 million people.
“You don’t find these kinds of numbers on cable or any other medium,” Tassler said.
Ad dollars are still flowing into network TV even in a recession, she noted, because advertisers find it the most efficient way to reach a mass audience. For all the talk of YouTube and Hulu, there’s yet to be major money made on those Web destinations.
Reinvention is the order of the day. Deals are going to be constructed more cleverly going forward, Tassler said.
“There is a shift in the way deals are being brokered in town right now.”
Everything is suddenly negotiable. “Quotes (on salaries and fees) don’t hold any more.” From actors to writers, she said, “People realize they have to adjust.”
The CBS honcho went further, indulging in a bit of NBC-bashing. Speaking of NBC’s cost-cutting decision to strip Jay Leno across the last hour of prime time on all five weeknights in the near future, Tassler asked, “Why should one network’s failure in development redirect an entire schedule strategy?” She called the hour (9 p.m. in Denver) a “real target” for CBS.
She said the Hollywood creative community was “shocked” by NBC’s move of Leno to prime time, noting that “top-tier talent vie for that hour.” With one network effectively out of drama development for that hour, the options for writers, agents, actors, directors and producers are limited.
The consensus is that NBC acted defensively, taking Leno off the market for competitors when he steps down from “The Tonight Show” this summer.
If Leno fails, he’s damaged goods going forward. If he succeeds, NBC doesn’t have to pay a $45 million penalty to Conan O’Brien for keeping him waiting for “The Tonight Show” past 2009. Either way, NBC wins — on paper. In reality, NBC has dismantled its business model.
While CBS’s Tassler maintains the business is not broken — “We continue to believe good content and good storytelling make great business. That has to be the compass to point all entertainment companies through good times and bad” — NBC seems to have lost its compass.
Angela Bromstad, incoming president of prime-time entertainment for NBC and Universal Media Studios, dodged questions about the Leno move. She noted NBC signed a two-year, first-look development deal with former Denverite Don Cheadle (“Hotel Rwanda”). Another ex-Denver resident, John Wells, will debut a new series about the Los Angeles Police Department, “Southland,” on April 9, after his long-running “ER” signs off April 2.
Bromstad allowed that “Fall was challenging,” but, hey, “Lipstick Jungle” isn’t officially canceled yet. “We definitely have holes to fill,” she understated.
She promised no decline in the amount of pilots developed.
Bromstad, still an unknown quantity, proclaimed a love of smart dramas like “Damages.”
“We have to pay attention to what’s going on in cable.”
While praising complex, challenging dramas, she wouldn’t say anything negative about the network’s not- yet-canceled bombs “Knight Rider” and “Kath & Kim.”
If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything quotable at all.
Joanne Ostrow: 303-954-1830 or jostrow@denverpost.com
