It’s Out With the Old as CBS Cancels 4 Shows

Providing clear evidence that viewers under 50 are most important to TV networks, CBS on Wednesday announced that it had canceled four shows -- including one critics’ favorite -- whose audiences are among the oldest in network television.

“They called us the geezer network,” CBS Chairman and Viacom Inc. Co-President Leslie Moonves told more than 2,000 advertising buyers and their clients gathered in Carnegie Hall.

Departing from a years-old “big tent” strategy that embraced viewers of all ages, Moonves vowed the network was determined to be “stronger, better and younger.”

To that end, CBS canceled three dramas, “Joan of Arcadia,” “Judging Amy” and “JAG,” whose viewers had a median age of 53.9, 54 and 58, respectively. CBS also pulled from its schedule the oldest-skewing show on network television, “60 Minutes Wednesday.” The median age of its audience: 59.

Speaking at the network’s annual “upfront” presentation, where Moonves and his team unveiled the new season’s prime-time programming, the CBS chief touted the progress his network had made in attracting younger viewers during the television season that ends this month.

In the past, CBS’ audience has been older than those of the other networks.

But this season, Moonves reported, it was CBS that would not only finish No. 1 in total viewers but also in the coveted 18-to-49-year-old demographic in the category of regularly scheduled programming. Advertisers pay more to reach this age group.

By one estimate, CBS’ newfound strength among younger viewers could mean it will fetch at least $100 million more than a year ago in ad-buying commitments during the next few weeks. In 2004, the network booked $2.4 billion in prime-time ad sales.

CBS’ riskiest move was its Friday night shake-up. This season’s schedule included “JAG” and “Joan of Arcadia” -- the latter a critically acclaimed show about a young woman who speaks to God.

Beginning this fall, those shows will be replaced by “Threshold,” a sci-fi thriller, and “The Ghost Whisperer,” a supernatural drama starring former teen queen Jennifer Love Hewitt as a woman who communicates with the spirit world.

“I think talking to ghosts will skew younger than talking to God,” Moonves said at a breakfast news conference with reporters Wednesday.

But advertisers had mixed views on whether that strategy would work.

Stacey Lynn Koerner, an executive vice president at ad-buying firm Initiative, said that the advertising community had largely embraced “Joan of Arcadia,” despite its precipitous ratings drop in its second and now-final season.

“It was a high-quality drama that people thought was going to be on the schedule for years to come,” Koerner said. Another ad buyer, however, said he thought CBS had made the right call on “Joan of Arcadia.”

“It had lost its steam,” said Jason Maltby, co-executive director for national TV buying for MindShare, an ad agency.

As each of the four major networks are trotting out their new fall shows here this week, the 18-to-49 “demo” is getting a lot of attention.

Fox Broadcasting Co. is expected to win the overall prime-time season by a whisker in the 18-to-49 age group.

But Moonves said that the Super Bowl, which Fox aired in February, was the only reason why. “Take out the Super Bowl and we win it all,” he said.

Still, for CBS to claim a victory, even with a caveat, in the under-50 crowd is a seismic shift.

“CBS is now the leader in ‘the demo’ for the first time in 30 years,” Moonves said during the presentation. “Thirty years ago was when ‘All in the Family,’ ‘MASH,’ ‘Mary Tyler Moore’ and Carol Burnett were [on CBS].”

That, he observed wryly, was back when Robert Blake was on “Baretta,” not “Court TV.”

CBS didn’t give up all its older-skewing shows.

The venerable “60 Minutes” on Sunday, which is heading into its 38th season, will stay on the air. Its viewers’ median age is 58.5.

And two other dramas that each draw viewers with a median age of 56, “Cold Case” and “NCIS,” will remain in their current time slots.

In these cases, the total audiences are much larger than those for the canceled dramas, meaning they have greater numbers of younger viewers.

As its rival networks have done all week, CBS pulled out all the stops Wednesday, featuring Moonves himself in a film spoof of the Oscar-winning “Million Dollar Baby.”

Moonves, whose image was superimposed in scenes from the actual movie, at one point beseeched Clint Eastwood, who played the gritty boxing coach: “I want you to train me to be the 18-to-49 champ.”

In the film clip’s climax, Moonves entered a ring before a prize fight. As he shadowboxed, a group of gray-haired female fans cheering him at ringside morphed suddenly into attractive 20-somethings. Gloated Moonves: “Look who’s the champ now.”