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Fox Executives See Limits to Reality Show Success
« on: Jul 18th, 2003, 9:31am » |
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Fox Executives See Limits to Reality Show Success
Thu Jul 17, 6:56 PM ET Add Entertainment - Reuters to My Yahoo!
By Ben Berkowitz
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Fox, the network that has struck ratings gold with reality shows like "American Idol," is looking to balance such shows with more traditional comedies and dramas during what were historically the summer doldrums, network executives said on Thursday.
In a presentation to television critics at their annual summer tour in Hollywood, Sandy Grushow, the chairman of Fox Television Entertainment Group, said the networks should look at the summer as an original programming season, rather than a wasteland for throwaways and repeats.
"As an industry we've got to be moving to strike a better balance in the summer between scripted and unscripted programming," he said.
Pressed on the network's reality lineup, which is heavy with relationship shows like "Paradise Hotel" and a revived "Temptation Island (news - Y! TV)," Grushow said "I think there is a limit to how many of them we can do."
Grushow and Gail Berman, president of entertainment for Fox Broadcasting, said they felt like the network's success in the ratings, plus critical acclaim for some of its shows like "24," showed how the network, once given little chance of survival, had matured.
"Three years ago when I first appeared before you this network was in a very different state than it is now," Berman told a packed audience of newspaper, magazine and TV critics.
EMMY SUCCESS
Earlier on Thursday, the network received 37 Emmy nominations for TV's annual awards show, which the executives said marked the first time ever Fox had garnered more Emmy nods than one of the big three networks. (ABC had 33).
One of the new shows Fox is counting on to bolster this season's lineup is "The O.C.," a drama from "Charlie's Angels" and music video director McG centered on the lives of teenagers and their families in a rich, beachside area of southern California's Orange County.
The show will have an early premiere in August, then be pre-empted during October, when Fox shows the professional baseball playoffs, before returning in a new timeslot in November.
To promote the show, Fox announced a deal Thursday with AOL to promote and sell music and music videos featured during the show. After its October hiatus, the show will move into a regular slot on Thursdays at 9 p.m., one of the most competitive slots on the schedule.
"We're getting back into the game on Thursday nights, not with any delusions of grandeur," Berman said, later adding that the network hoped to stick with the show and build its audience, partly with the early launch.
But at the same time Grushow admitted that the network faces a challenge in trying to build a fall schedule with a significant interruption in the middle of the fall.
"None of us have any illusions about the challenges we face in the fourth quarter (of the year) due to the interruption of post-season baseball," he said.
Fox is a unit of News Corp. Ltd.
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