Bolting Out of the Gate

Cable World, June 30, 2003

Byline: SHIRLEY BRADY

Cable's summer TV season is off to a blazing start. Ad-supported cable networks began the 2003 summer viewing period with their highest share of the 2002/03 season, nabbing an average prime-time share of 54.3 according to a Cabletelevision Advertising Bureau analysis of Nielsen data for May 26 to June 1. Broadcasters, meanwhile, continued to slip, recording an aggregate prime-time share of 38.8 for the period - their lowest for the TV season to date.

Cable's upper hand continued through last week, when the CAB reported a 54.0 average prime-time share for June 16 to 22 for ad-supported cable, versus a 36.9 for ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, UPN, WB and PAX collectively. Cable also topped the seven broadcast nets by almost 10 million homes - a season high - and 9.3 rating points.

Those viewers who do watch broadcast nets are sticking with repeats: 15 of the top 16 most-watched programs in prime time for June 16 to 22 were reruns.

And of the new reality shows being trotted out by broadcasters this summer, only NBC's Last Comic Standing finished in the week's top 20.

Cable is winning more loyal viewers thanks to its original programming this summer. Monk drew a record 5.4 million viewers for its sophomore season debut on June 20. Not only was the telecast the highest-rated season-two premiere for an original scripted series on basic cable ever, it was Monk's strongest household rating to date.

The nation held its breath as James Gandolfini's salary demands this spring threatened the future of The Sopranos - and the collective sigh of relief was deafening when HBO chairman Chris Albrecht negotiated a settlement and even convinced David Chase to stick around for a sixth season. Factor in the national frenzy this month over the return of Sex and the City for its final season, and NBC chairman Bob Wright must be once again urging his troops (as he did in the now-famous memo that was leaked two years ago) to put the NBC peacock in Manolo Blahnik shoes - and make the bird pack some heat for good measure.

NBC's new great hope is in fact a seasoned cable programmer. The network's entertainment president Jeff Zucker earlier this month poached Kevin Reilly from FX to help save the broadcaster from an almost guaranteed post-Friends slump.

Cable's programming strategists are determined to keep vexing Wright and his broadcast brethren this summer.

"Summer has traditionally been a great time for cable networks to make gains, and this summer it's getting more competitive," says Game Show Network president and CEO Rich Cronin, who on June 15 launched two new series - Chuck Woolery: Naturally Stoned and National Lampoon's Funny Money - and brought back Cram, featuring a reunion/face-off between former Brady Bunch costars Susan "Cindy" Olsen and Christopher "Peter" Knight, and the Woolery-hosted Lingo. "July is a sweeps month, although it's the least important of them, and we try to avoid September too because of all the traffic there, so that still leaves summer as an important time for us," Cronin says of his series' timing. "We're already off to a great start with our June 15 Sunday Night Buzz [block debut] and we're hopeful that it will just build from here."

E! Networks EVP of entertainment Mark Sonnenberg knows that summer is no longer a single-occupancy berth for cable brought about by broadcast going on hiatus.

"We have moved to more of a 52-week year programming philosophy," he says. "I think in the past you tend to look at non-sweep months, and for cable the summer has always been a great place to try and get sampling for new shows. And while that predominantly is still true, it's no longer the only strategy that's out there because every programmer is using the summer now."

Historically, cable programmers were able to draw attention to their new series and originals while broadcast networks took the summer off. "The broadcast networks are now aggressively scheduling in the summer, so to just think that the summer is the only or best time to launch new shows for cable may or may not be true," says Sonnenberg. "There might still be merits to using the summer because it's still not as competitive as a broadcast sweep month."

The hope is that constantly refreshing the lineup will keep bringing viewers back for more. "We're introducing new shows throughout the year. Last year we introduced shows in January, March, April, June, July, August - pretty much every month - and on Style we've been introducing a new show virtually every month since the beginning of '03. But we do still tend to take advantage of the summer, and we look to be opportunistic wherever we can in introducing new shows, wherever we think we can get the best sampling."

Stephen Schwartz, Style's SVP of programming, feels the lighthearted, fun feeling that people associate with summer makes it a perfect time to introduce his new shows. "We're not really coming out with 'summer' programming, but we're taking the opportunity this summer to premiere a number of programs and do some new things that are setting the network off in a new direction," he says. "We've got four shows premiering this summer including the Modern Girls' Guide to Life, which is a sassy, informational show for women. It's packed full of information you can use with really fun regular characters."