Syndicators

After a dismal 1999 for freshman and sophomore shows, distributors order more court shows, but also seek new vistas

By Joe Schlosser -- Broadcasting & Cable, 8/14/2000

Outside of the court show realm, the 1999-2000 season was nearly a wash for first-run syndicated shows.

Every new and returning sophomore talk and variety show (with one exception) tanked in the national ratings and was canceled. Roseanne, Martin Short, Richard Simmons, Donny & Marie, Dr. Joy Browne, Ainsley Harriott. The exception was Warner Bros.' Latifah, which was granted a second season by the distributor despite less-than-stellar ratings.

A number of action hours went south. Off-network sitcoms struggled to get traction, and game shows and relationship series tried to hang on. It was ugly everywhere, but the daily daytime race was by far the most brutal battleground.

"It was a very disconcerting year," says Tribune Entertainment President Dick Askin. "It seems with all of television, be it network or syndication, every year the fragmentation takes a little more of a piece out.

"You would certainly hate to see a repeat this fall of what transpired last year, where you had shows debuting at the low-one rating level and really not climbing much beyond that. If that happens for a second year in a row, where we have this dismal failure rate, then I think most distributors are going to have to reassess the whole daytime marketplace."

"If you produce shows that are similar to other shows, and the rationale to doing that particular show is that it's no worse than what's already on the air, then the probability of success is very limited," says Dan Greenblatt, Executive Vice President, Warner Bros Domestic Television Distribution. "And unfortunately, for the most part, the shows this past season were very similar to shows that already existed."

Welcome to fall 2000, where, with the exception of the Great Court Show Rush, syndicators are looking in new directions.

Debuting this fall are shows that include: a therapist who goes (with camera crew in tow) into a patient's house; a weekly wrestling series starring only women and a weekly boxing series that will feature animation and music; a daily talk show based on the book Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus; a late-night series set on Miami's South Beach and starring Cindy Margolis; and a weekly reality series that uses unused footage collected for veteran syndicated series Real TV.

Then there's former Hercules star Kevin Sorbo, who is coming back to syndication in a different format. This time Sorbo is the captain of Gene Roddenberry's sci-fi series Andromeda.

"It's difficult to categorize the new batch of shows. They are a very divergent group," says Bill Carroll, vice president and director of programming at Katz Television. "I think everybody is looking for that niche. They are all looking for something that is going to differentiate themselves not only from the shows in syndication, but from the offerings that are out there on both network and cable."

Carroll says there is no doubt which of the new syndicated shows is going to get the most sampling this fall: Paramount Domestic Television's talk show with Dr. Laura Schlessinger.

Dr. Laura, which will debut Sept. 11, has created quite a stir. Gay-rights activists and other protesters have been battling Paramount executives and stations signed on for the show since it was first announced last year, and the national media has been keeping tabs on the production on almost a daily basis.

"I think the whole world might be guilty of trusting everything they read in the press, which is very biased against [Schlessinger]," says Paramount Domestic Television Co-President Joel Berman. "Dr. Laura has millions and millions of fans who love what she does."

Paramount has built a new studio for Schlessinger close to her Los Angeles home and radio studio. The daily TV show will have guests, experts, a studio audience, an Internet component and everyday people discussing the day's topic. "The show is coming along really well," says Berman. "[Schlessinger] is proving to be as compelling a host as we thought she would be.

Paramount, which is the home of three of the top court shows in syndication (Judge Judy, Judge Joe Brown and Judge Mills Lane), is going in another direction with its new shows.

Maximum Exposure is a weekly hour reality show that came out of Paramount's growing library of video footage compiled for Real TV. Each week, Maximum Exposure will feature themed episodes: examples include video of wild weather, sports and animals. There will be no host, Paramount executives say, but there will be voiceovers and lots of music. "We have this great library with Real TV, probably the biggest library in the world of video footage," says Berman. "We looked at the ongoing success of video shows in terms of generating ratings, and we thought for the weekend this would be a perfect opportunity to provide some real counterprogramming."

Paramount is also distributing action-hour Queen of Swords, produced by Canadian-based Fireworks Entertainment. The weekly debuts Oct. 2 and stars newcomer Tessie Santiago as a "Spanish beauty" avenging her father's death in 19th-century California.

Columbia TriStar Television Distribution also has a pair of non-court shows for fall including Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus. Earlier this summer, CTTD signed Cybill Shepherd as host of the hour daily, based on the best-selling book. The series will pit men against women in a format similar to Politically Incorrect. It, too, debuts Oct. 2. "A lot of people ask me is this the book on TV and is it a bunch of seminars," says Charles Cook, an executive producer on the show. "No, it's not. It's a talk show that brings men and women together."

The studio's other first-run fall debut takes another Baywatch beauty off the beach and into her own action series. CTTD, which has had success with Pamela Anderson Lee's series, V.I.P., is giving Gena Lee Nolin her shot. Nolin is the star of Sheena, a modern version of the comic book and former TV series about a female version of Tarzan.

"It's a show that's very much grounded in a sense of reality," says CTTD Vice President of Prama and Comedy Ron Taylor. "It's set in a mythical African country where the conditions are certainly reflective of what you might see in modern-day Africa. Sheena is in the midst of this pristine forest that is threatened by outside forces, be they politically or commercially motivated. She's there trying to protect it."

Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda is based on a manuscript left by the late Star Trek creator and stars Sorbo as the captain of an advanced fleet of starships attempting to defend the Commonwealth.

"Kevin [Sorbo] is an international star who is helping us sell this show both domestically and abroad," says Tribune's Askin. "But I think, most importantly, he is really stepping into this role perfectly. Andromeda is cleared in 180 markets covering 97% of the country, Askin says.

Also making a transition into syndication is model/Internet queen Cindy Margolis. Margolis is hosting her own late-night weekend series for King World, The Cindy Margolis Show. The hour series is set on the beach at Miami's famed South Beach and is designed to resemble a late-night club scene. "I would say if you are a male who likes to see sexy bodies on women with a lot of skin, dancing up a storm and having a good time, then you are probably going to like this," says Burt Dubrow, the show's executive producer.

On the game-show front is Telepictures' new series Street Smarts. The half-hour series was created by Scott St. John, the producer of the studio's 1999 relationship series Change of Heart and pits contestants against each other, betting to see if everyday people will be able to answer pop trivia questions.

Pearson Television is following its 1999 remake of Family Feud with another classic game show from the studio's library, To Tell The Truth. John O'Hurley, who played J. Peterman on NBC's Seinfeld, is hostof the game, which features four celebrities trying to find the truth-teller among imposters. Comedian Paula Poundstone and actor Meshach Taylor are regulars.

Chris-Craft/United Television and Buena Vista Television are teaming up on House Calls, featuring psychiatrist Dr. Irvin Wolkoff attempting to help couples and families with everyday problems. Wolkoff goes into people's homes for unrehearsed meetings. Says Chris-Craft Executive Vice President Laurey Barnett, "It allows viewers to peek into the lives of real people struggling with very real issues."

Studios USA is giving its new relationship/talk/game show Lover or Loser wide play. The syndicated series will also air weekdays at 5:30 p.m. on co-owned USA Network.

The show gives two men the opportunity to pitch their dating prowess to an audience composed entirely of women, with friends and family invited on to vouch for them or set the women straight. The show debuts on cable and in syndication Aug. 21 and is hosted by newcomer Meredyth Hunt.

"It's kind of a hybrid; a talk show and relationship show rolled into one," says Studios USA Domestic Television President Steve Rosenberg.

Also on the relationship/game-show front is MGM Television's Sex Wars. The half-hour daily will pit three men against three women to determine who knows more about the opposite sex. Veteran relationship show producer Howard Schultz (Studs!) is the executive producer, and J.D. Roth and Jennifer Cole handle the hosting chores. The series debuts Oct. 2.

Thanks to Litton Syndication and Big Content, boxing is coming to weekly syndication. Thunderbox, an hour block that combines a six-round heavyweight fight, two songs from a top Sony recording artist and animation and digital graphics from videogame makers EA Sports, debuts Oct. 2. The fighters will be battling for a year-end belt and prizes.

MG Perin has a pair of first-run series coming out this fall, including another attempt at female wrestling. The distributor, which first brought out GLOW (Gorgeous Ladies Of Wrestling) 15 years ago, is back with WOW (Women of Wrestling). Dick Perin, the president of MG Perin, says there will be 48 episodes of WOW produced this season from the 6,000-seat Star of the Desert Arena in Nevada.

Perin is also bringing animal expert Jim Fowler back to weekly television with an FCC-friendly series entitled Jim Fowler's Life in the Wild. The half-hour weekly will travel the globe to bring viewers video of rare animals.