Dearth of sweeps promos seen tough on syndies

Usually, November sweeps is syndication's proving ground, but things could be quieter this year.

It's true that Sept. 11's tragedy, like last year's Olympics/presidential-election goings-on, have put a lot of pressure on shows because they were heavily preempted or just seemed out of sync with the somber national mood, which was fueled by fast-breaking news. The majority of programs, including high-profile The Ananda Lewis Show, The Other Half and Iyanla are at the 1.0 level on the national Nielsen chart, suggesting that it could be make or break for them this sweeps month.

But post-Sept. 11, there isn't the usual money to pump into November sweeps for promotion.

As far as the normal bells and whistles are concerned, "the stations just don't have the budgets to do this kind of stuff," notes Mary Beth MacAdaragh, vice president of marketing at NBC Enterprises.

Besides cutting back on on-air promotions, stations aren't "doing the blitz on radio stations" like they might under rosier circumstances, says Virginia Hunt, KCAL-TV Los Angeles' programming director. "Discretionary spending is one of the things that fall by the wayside."

One exception is Twentieth Television's cross-promotion giveaway campaign, valued at $10 million, featuring several of its series. Twentieth chief Bob Cook calls it "smart and innovative," as the studio reaches out to advertisers, among them Honda, which will give away a car as a part of a World's Wildest Police Videos series.

Since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks made the sluggish economy even worse, even a strong performance in November may not save most shows. "You do hear a lot of speculation that, in tough economic times, people aren't going to have a lot of patience with shows," says Marc Shacher, head of programming at the Tribune station group, which is a big carrier of Ananda. "We'll see what happens."

KCAL's Hunt points out that many of the low-rated rookie dating shows, including The 5th Wheel and Rendez-View, were straight barter deals. Syndicators, then, are likely in the red on some of these efforts.

Art Moore, programming director at WABC-TV New York, which runs Iyanla in late night, thinks that viewers settled back to their pre-Sept. 11 routines in October, for the most part. So, if a show is currently on the rocks, it "would be throwing good money after bad."

—Susanne Ault

September events dominate November local offerings

The date may be November, but local news stories for the sweeps are likely to be dominated by Sept. 11, or at least significantly changed in the wake of it.

The excesses of sweeps past, says KSTP-TV Minneapolis News Director Scott Libin, "have earned some ridicule. But the last couple of months have changed all of us—not completely but permanently."

Stories for the next ratings book "are not going to be 'all war or all terrorism all the time,' but some stories that might have seemed appropriate last May or last February would feel frivolous right now."

"If dieting was important to people before Sept 11," says WJLA-TV Washington News Director Steve Hammel, "it is less important now."

WJLA-TV will be sending a crew to Israel to speak with Muslims, Christians and Jews, including some who've lived in Washington, about living with terrorism.

KSTP-TV will be running a story on air force personnel from the United Arab Emirates training at a private American facility.

"Soldiers from the Middle East training in the Midwest," Libin summarizes. "That story might have had some novelty value a while ago," he says, "but now is much more relevant."

"The instructions to our stations from me," says CBS Stations' Vice President for News Joel Cheatwood, "are to make sure it has weight, measures up as an issue and doesn't come across as silly. Entertaining is not our role right now."

Sweeps promotion, he predicts, will favor Sept. 11-related stories over sweeps packages.

Even a serious story might not make the cut.

"We had planned a multipart series on the homeless problem in the Bay Area," says KPIX-TV San Francisco News Director Dan Rosenheim. "We're not going to do that now," although the station will likely revisit the issue later.

The station will be sending a producer and photographer to the Middle East for stories there.

The station will also be looking at how the war has affected Bay Area economics. And, given the current fear of flying, a sweeps series on weekend or weeklong getaways becomes a series on places within driving distance.

There may still be some contests, says Audience Research & Development consultant Jim Willi. "I've recommended to some clients that have done 'watch-and-win' contests in the past that they put it in the commercial break, separate it from the news content.

"The traditional news sweeps series will not be valued by viewers," observes Willi. "Stations are not going to do a story on which nylon stocking holds up the best."

—Dan Trigoboff