What's Hot In the Market
While court and talk score big, games and relationship shows flag
By Paige Albiniak -- Broadcasting & Cable, 12/12/2004 7:00:00 PM
We need something noisy and loud in syndication, says Mark Itkin, EVP and worldwide head of syndication, cable and nonfiction programming at the William Morris talent agency. “What Desperate Housewives and Lost did for prime time, we need in syndication.”
Court continues its winning streak, although relationship shows suffer from fickle audiences. Here's a quick look at how the top six syndication genres stack up:
Talk
Oprah, Ellen and Phil make it look easy, but it's tough to find talent that can score in an ultra-competitive daytime market. With TV stations cutting local production, executives say it's unlikely a homegrown Oprah Winfrey will ever grace the landscape again.
One new talk entry for fall comes courtesy of cable and public TV: Twentieth Television is developing a financially oriented talk show with Suze Orman, former Wall Street whiz. Orman fits the mold of a new breed of talk-show host: a good communicator with expertise. One sure bet: Warner Bros. is bringing Tyra Banks to market. Telepictures has Mo'Nique in its back pocket, and Paramount likes its pilot with style maven Steven Cojocaru. NBC Universal is considering a Vanessa Williams show. Meantime, new entry The Tony Danza Show is doing well in New York and Philadelphia and is expected to be renewed for next year in better time slots.
Court
Court remains a tried-and-true genre, with Paramount's Judge Judy (4.6 national rating) on top. Paramount's Judge Joe Brown runs a strong second (3.1), while the rest hover around a 2.0. The category welcomes a new entrant this fall: Twentieth's Judge Alex. “If you look over the last few years, court is the only genre whose entire ratings are up,” says Twentieth's Dalton. “People like it, and advertisers are supportive. It's your highest value for your production dollars.”
Court shows also combine the best of soap operas, talk shows and crime procedurals in one. While the entire genre holds up well, Judy and Joe are far ahead of the pack, which comprises Warner Bros.' People's Court and Judge Mathis, Sony's Judge Hatchett, and Twentieth's Texas Justice and Divorce Court.
“When it's done right with a dynamic personality, it's a model that has a lot of longevity,” says Terry Wood, executive vice president of programming at Paramount Domestic Television.
Relationship
Once a hot format in syndication, scandalous relationship shows have lost steam. Just a few remain: the long-time leader, NBC Universal's Blind Date; Warner Bros.' ElimiDate; and Cheaters, from independent producer Bobby Goldstein and distributor MG/Perin Inc.
While producers like to appeal to young audiences, they also need to play broad to keep their shows alive for years. Dating shows tend to skew young, and their audiences are fickle. Youth-oriented cable channels such as MTV and Comedy Central can do dating shows younger and edgier, and they can change them out more quickly.
And advertisers don't like the risqué format, which usually features busty bachelorettes in hot tubs trying to win the man of the day. And given indecency, stations are more nervous than ever. “I don't know if anyone is even looking for shows like that right now,” says Itkin. “Stations have trouble selling the time.”
Game
Ken Jennings' 75-game run on King World's Jeopardy! gave the stodgy game-show genre a shot in the arm.
Letting contestants play until they lose was the brainchild of executive producer Harry Friedman, Hollywood's game-show whiz, who also oversees King World's Wheel of Fortune. Both shows often top the day's household ratings in the country's biggest markets, though the majority of the show's viewers are 50-plus, not the group most coveted by advertisers.
“Ken Jennings has been fantastic for the genre,” says Michael Davies, executive producer of Buena Vista's Who Wants To Be a Millionaire, one of the few shows to launch in the past three years that's still on air. But he admits the niche has always been a tough sell. “Game shows have been one of the least cool, least hot, most frowned-upon formats,” he says. That may explain why, even with Jennings' recent triumph, no one is developing new game shows.
Magazine
What Paramount has done with The Insider is a syndicator's dream: lock up access time slots for years to come. By seizing an opportunity early, Paramount managed to lay claim to a rare piece of access real estate on top stations. Says Terry Wood, EVP of programming for Paramount Domestic Television, the company that produces Insider parent ET, “We had always been paired with things that didn't fit. We wanted to control our destiny, our demos and our time periods.”
To date, The Insider is beating NBC Universal's Access Hollywood in the national ratings just three months out (3.3. to 2.5 last week). But unless another access show goes away, there will be no space in the lucrative post-news, pre-prime hour for years to come.
That's not stopping Twentieth, which confirmed it is developing a revival of A Current Affair, the tabloid magazine show that changed the face of news. Where it will go is unclear, but Twentieth expects to launch on its own Fox stations, which cover nearly half the country.
Off-Net
While Everybody Loves Raymond, Friends and Seinfeld are still going strong, broadcast executives lay awake at night wondering what new sitcom will line their coffers, too.
Friends replacement Joey is turning in a mediocre performance at best, and Two and a Half Men is hailed as the next big syndicated bonanza while lacking the real buzz of its forefathers. With consolidation, there are fewer buyers, which means studios don't necessarily have market-by-market bidding wars to look forward to when the next big hit shows up.
Giving studios hope are the monster sales of shows to cable. The three-show CSI franchise has garnered a collective $3.8 million an episode, while Frasier went to Lifetime for $640,000 an episode.
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