Flash

Programming is Lifetime's biggest problem, and it's what owners of the women's network intend to shore up when they hire a new CEO this spring.

That's the assessment of industry executives both inside and outside Lifetime in the wake of Carole Black's recent decision to leave the network March 30. Though Lifetime was run by men for a decade before Black was hired, network owners Disney and Hearst are seen as wanting to keep a woman in charge of the “Television for Women” channel.

Black leaves after six years, having succeeded in making Lifetime the highest-rated cable network, only to watch its ratings plunge as audiences drifted away from its original dramas and women-in-peril movies.

Though her departure is still five months away, plenty of names are already cropping up as possible replacements.

Two candidates are in the Disney family, at Buena Vista Television, which syndicates Disney's TV series, made-for-TV movies and first-run talk shows. President Janice Marinelli's background is primarily in sales. Her boss Laurie Younger has a more rounded résumé, including CFO of ABC and director of business affairs at 20th Century Fox.

Another likely candidate is former Lifetime executive Bonnie Hammer. Though she already has big turf as president of NBC's USA Network and Sci Fi channel, one associate believes she could be lured by (and escape her contract with) the CEO title. “That's tempting even to someone running a bigger network,” says the president of another cable network.

A candidate from outside the Lifetime orbit: Cara Stein, co-COO of William Morris Agency's New York office, who has already been chatting with the network about its top programming job. Another option: Nina Tassler, president of CBS Entertainment, previously head of drama development.

Having recently shuttered its CNNfn financial-news channel, CNN resolved to beef up its business programming on the main network. That news heartened the stable of seasoned business reporters at CNN—until they glimpsed what it means. Kwame Jackson—former stockbroker, first-season runner-up on The Apprentice, and non-journalist—has been recruited by the news network for the pilot of a show that CNNers refer to as “Inside the Actor's Studio for CEOs.” It will feature Jackson interviewing business leaders and pop-culture figures about the arc of their careers.

Jackson's appearance at CNN is not playing too well with experienced hands. But the journalistic world isn't completely foreign to the Harvard MBA: Jackson was Greta Van Susteren's guest at the White House Correspondents Dinner last May. Maybe Van Susteren, the lawyer-turned-Fox News Channel-host, could give him some pointers on making the jump into cable news.

Most network presidents, when they get the inevitable pink-slip, trundle off to a similar network or studio job or get the obligatory “independent production deal.” Not Jordan Levin. Since leaving the top slot at The WB last June, Levin has turned out to be that rare axed exec who actually does “pursue other interests.”

One pursuit: trying his hand at directing TV instead of commissioning it. Levin was behind the camera for the Nov. 15 episode of the WB hit Everwood. The once all-powerful network chieftain might have been brought down several pegs to rookie-director status, but the novice was working with a cast that other first-timers would kill for. In addition to series star Treat Williams, the cast included James Earl Jones and Anne Heche.

“It was like taking the wheel of a high-performance sports car—not some used clunker,” says Levin. “You ask any of them to try something in a scene and, man, they just take off. It was great.” Does this mean a career shift? “Oh, I'd like to do it again,” says Levin. “But I'm not looking to make it a full-time thing.”