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Geraldo Rivera, a veteran of the news wars, has never shied away from the camera. He returns to the syndication world Oct. 31 with a half-hour show from Twentieth Television, Geraldo at Large, which replaces A Current Affair. He spoke with B&C's Ben Grossman.

What news program sets you off?

I used to work at Dateline, and they do award-winning work, but tell me the difference between a Dateline crime story and an Inside Edition crime story. There is this quasi-reenactment, high drama in how they are shot and lit. The tabloid aspects are laid bare. When they do something special, like with Katie Couric, it can be quality stuff, but they do too much schlocky stuff.

How does your new show fit into the TV news landscape and Fox News' expansion plans?

There is a real appetite for news of the day and analysis and investigative stories if done in a way that doesn't put people to sleep. People have intense interest since 9/11 in what is going on around them. There is a sense that there is a lot out of people's control, whether it is bad weather or bad hombres.

[The show] is still in formation, but I'll play an ongoing and important role on Channel 5 [WNYW] here in New York, and I see the same thing emerging in Chicago and L.A. as well. Our O&Os will be central to our success; it's part of the evolution of Fox News. The hype about a Fox Evening News is missing the point. If the new show has success, it is a major step into another arena for this expanding brand and the whole “Ailesian” concept. We are in a bullish expansive mode; everyone else is thinking about contracting. Roger [Ailes] is the wolf at their door.

You mentioned Katie Couric. Do you think she will leave Today?

Her [late] husband Jay Monahan was my best friend. Our kids go to school together. I can't see her leaving ever. All the talk is negotiation on her agent's part.

What are your thoughts on the new Nightline?

I think the triple anchor is a mistake. I lived through World News Tonight with three guys sharing 22 minutes. I don't think it will work. To tinker with it and reinvent it, they should go play around with some other daypart. When you have triple anchors, how much time do you waste with tossing it back and forth? The device itself, the production aspect, becomes the tail that wags the dog.

What would you do with the news chairs at CBS and ABC?

I'd give the job to [CBS'] John Roberts in a heartbeat. I don't know what they are waiting for. And the same with Elizabeth Vargas [at ABC]. What do they want, do they want them to age in the job before they give them the job? To play this game with Roberts and Bob Schieffer? They don't pay me to advise Les Moonves, and Bob Schieffer is a wonderful guy, but if they want him to do it, let him do it. Don't play with the so-called kid. John Roberts is going to be the oldest kid in the business; the guy already has gray hair.

By Jim Benson

Members concerned about "open" pitches

The Syndicated Network Television Association may scrap an expensive series of pitch meetings with media buyers and planners held in advance of the annual upfront selling season.

The debate over the future of the elaborate sessions heats up as syndicator Tribune Entertainment Co. is considering leaving the association to cut costs, says one source familiar with the situation. Tribune officials weren't available to comment last week.

The SNTA board, comprising high-level ad-sales reps from most of the major syndicators, wants to find a new ad forum next year so it can hold longer one-on-one sessions with prospective and existing clients. The pitch meetings have been held each spring with media buyers and planners in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago. The existing format consists of a breakfast presentation followed by a series of short, rotating sessions between advertisers and individual program suppliers, as well as a condensed summit for planners. But some SNTA members believe that ad agencies are reluctant to discuss specific business strategies with syndicators under the current round-robin arrangement, which involves sitting in a room alongside competitors. The association is under pressure to improve ad sales after only a 3% rise in the syndication upfront this year.

“It's been challenging,” complains one member. Board members think individual, private sessions would be more effective. The other studios all intend to remain with SNTA for now, despite the increased financial burden if Tribune leaves. SNTA is also hammering out a new multi-year contract with President Mitch Burg, who joined in 2004.

NBC Universal Domestic Television Distribution has sold its new syndicated talk show hosted by Will & Grace star Megan Mullally for fall 2006 in the top three markets. The show, being sold for daytime time periods, will be aired on WNBC New York, KNBC Los Angeles and WMAQ Chicago.

The sales represent the first for any new syndicated show for 2006, and NBC Universal expects to announce additional deals for the one-hour show in coming weeks. However, clearances may not all be on NBC O&Os, as the talk/variety show, which will feature celebrity guests, is being sold market-by-market to stations.—Ben Grossman

By a vote of 19-3, the Senate Commerce Committee last week passed a bill to set April 7, 2009, as the hard date for the switch to digital and return of analog spectrum. An amendment, offered by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) to move the date up to April 7, 2007, was soundly defeated.

He had argued that Hurricane Katrina communications problems had only put a finer point on his years-long post-9/11 push to get broadcasters' analog spectrum back for police, fire and other emergency communications.

The bill sets aside $1.25 billion from the auction for interoperable emergency communications, but committee Chairman Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) says he and Co-Chairman Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii) will introduce an amendment on the floor to borrow the money now so police and fire departments could get the equipment and be ready when the spectrum is returned.

But he also argued that McCain's 2007 date would strip funding from first responders because, according to Congressional Budget Office estimates, the auctions would not raise enough money to leave any after the committee met its $4.8 billion obligation toward the general treasury fund.

Of the $10 billion from auctions, $3 billion will go to subsidize an analog-to-digital converter box, enough to cover everyone who still has an analog-only set in 2009.

The bill also includes an amendment that says deficit reduction gets whatever is left over from the spectrum-auction proceeds after the $5 billion to the treasury, $3 billion for the subsidy, $1.25 billion for first responders, $250 million for enhanced 911, and unrelated expenses.

A House version of the hard-date bill, whose give-back date is currently Dec. 31, 2008, will be marked up next week. Discussions on a second Commerce DTV bill also begin then. That bill will include such issues as mandatory cable carriage of broadcasters' multicast signals and unlicensed spectrum for new technologies, which could not be included on last week's bill because of Senate rules.—John Eggerton

Small-market TV-station group Nexstar Broadcasting and cable operator Cox Communications have settled a 10-month-long retransmission-consent fight. Nexstar has taken a hard line in negotiations with operators, demanding that they pay cash for the right to retransmit its broadcast stations. Because Cox balked, Nexstar stripped its stations off Cox systems in Texas, Arkansas, Kansas, Louisiana and Missouri.

The new long-term deal, which applies to 12 Nexstar stations and nine Mission Broadcasting-owned outlets, provides carriage of the TV stations' analog and digital signals, including some digital broadcast channels that could be launched in the future.

Nexstar pulled its stations off Cox last January and turned the dispute into a public fight. At some Nexstar stations, staffers handed out rabbit ears so consumers could receive their broadcast stations over-the-air. —Allison Romano/John M. Higgins

The National Association of Broadcasters last week officially named National Beer Wholesalers Association President David K. Rehr as its new president. Rehr, who has signed a multi-year deal, will take over Dec. 5. Eddie Fritts remains as a consultant through April 2008.

Rehr, a Republican, has been with the beer association since 2000. In the mid '90s, he was named one of Washington's top lobbyists.—J.E.

The Association of National Advertisers (ANA) has told the FCC that, like Viacom, it is withdrawing its petition criticizing the digital kids-TV rules and will join Viacom in its court challenge to those regulations.

ANA initially raised concerns with the rules in a joint filing with the American Association of Advertising Agencies (AAAA) and the American Advertising Federation (AAF). AAAA will keep its challenge at the FCC, says Senior VP/Counsel Adonis Hoffman. No word from AAF, whose petition is still at the commission.

The rules treat show promos the same as commercials when counting how many ads networks can aim at kids each hour and also cover Web links for products pitched.

Viacom argues that the rules should be vacated because they exceed the commission's authority. It sought review from the Washington, D.C., circuit.

ANA Executive VP Dan Jaffe says the rules could “undermine the economic foundations of children's programming.”

Disney has taken a separate tack to its rules challenge, asking the D.C. Circuit to force the FCC's hand on the various petitions before it. The court gave the FCC until Oct. 25 to respond to the Disney petition, then gave Disney until Nov. 1 to reply.—J.E.

Comedy Central's Colbert Report, starring Stephen Colbert, debuted to a 1 household rating, representing 1.13 million viewers. The Daily Show spinoff follows its parent at 11:30 p.m. ET, replacing Tough Crowd With Colin Quinn. Ratings were up 103% over the year-ago week.—J.E.

Jesus Bracamontes and Pablo Ramirez will call the action for the 2006 World Cup for Univision. A photo caption on page 16A of a Hispanic-programming supplement in the Oct. 17 issue misidentified the network.

The Walt Disney Co.'s failed broadcast video-on-demand business was called Movie­Beam. It was misidentified in The Robins Report (10/17, page 5).

Reporters in Iraq are putting new meaning into the phrase “duck and cover.”

According to the Committee to Protect Journalists Executive Director Ann Cooper, there is a “serious and relatively new” threat. Several of the journalists it is trying to protect have been fired on, or at least above and around, at the only media checkpoint for access to the International Zone in Baghdad.

In a letter to Commanding General George Casey, Cooper detailed two incidents this month in which reporters for NPR and The Wall Street Journal had warning shots fired over their heads, with threats of worse.

NPR senior producer J.J. Sutherland said he came came under fire Oct. 3 after his driver dropped him off 100 meters or so from the checkpoint. He says in the letter that shots were “close enough that I could hear the snap of the bullets as they passed by,” adding American forces did nothing to prevent it.

Cooper says the problem is confusion over how journalists are supposed to approach the checkpoint as they try to enter the zone to cover press conferences, conduct interviews with U.S. and Iraqi officials, and embed with units. “You can't just drive right up and let people out,” says Cooper. “There is confusion over at what distance they are supposed to get out, 100 yards, 200 yards? There are no signs. Different people are doing different things and getting shot as a result.”—J.E.