New ‘Reality-Based’ News Series Coming to ABC-TV

Next week, says new ABC President John B. Sias, ABC programming chief Brandon Stoddard will start deciding which of 26 comedy and drama pilots now before him will wind up as new series on the network’s fall prime-time schedule.

But Sias says there probably also will be a second prime-time ABC News series on the roster--although not one with a hard-news look or a traditional news-magazine format. ABC’s other news series is “20/20,” begun in June, 1978.

News series, regardless of their look, can cost a third of entertainment series and, if moderately successful, turn a profit. That would please the new team running ABC, taken over in January by cost-and-profit-conscious Capital Cities Communications.

“We think there’s an enormous amount of interest in news and news-related things,” says Sias, an ebullient ex-paratrooper who previously headed Capital Cities’ publishing division but before that worked for 15 years in broadcasting.

“All you have to do is look at ’60 Minutes,’ ” he says, referring to the high-rated CBS News series. “That’s not a bad rating it gets. There aren’t too many entertainment shows doing better than it does.”

Sias says that Stoddard and ABC News President Roone Arledge have been discussing a second news-division program, and “there probably will be another hour of--I call it reality-based programming--in the schedule next fall, based on what Arledge and Stoddard are talking about. And they’ve come up with a few things which sound quite intriguing.”

However, he adds, it wouldn’t be accurate to call the new project a news-magazine series. “It would only be accurate to say it would be reality-based, or news-derived. But just let your imagination soar. Ever seen a National Geographic special? Well, I would call that a reality-based program.”

The project’s format hasn’t been decided yet, Sias emphasizes: “All I would say is that it won’t be (a) hard news, or (b) another newsmagazine.” Were it to be just another news-magazine, he adds, “we wouldn’t bother to do it. Might as well throw in another entertainment show.”

ABC’s chief, who repeatedly has expressed confidence in Stoddard, reiterated that when interviewed by phone Monday from New York, regarding both the ABC News project and the entertainment programs whose fate Stoddard will decide next week.

The network was third in prime-time ratings last season and expected to be there again when this season ends on Sunday. ABC is hoping that Stoddard, respected in the Hollywood community and named head of ABC Entertainment last November, can restore ABC’s fortunes.

Despite reports that Capital Cities/ABC is going to emphasize family-oriented programs, it never has told Stoddard what kinds of programs it wants, Sias says. That is being left up to Stoddard, he adds, citing the former’s call last January for programs that have “more respect for the audience.”

All Stoddard has been told, Sias says, is that “we have great confidence in your taste level.” But Sias makes no predictions on whether ABC will halt its slide and get out of the Nielsen-ratings cellar next season with Stoddard making the program decisions.

“We think he will come up with a program schedule this fall that will be an improvement over what we had in the past,” he says, “and next year’s schedule will be even more of an improvement.”