MESSAGE FROM SPONSORS: THEY LIKE CBS LINEUP

The nation’s television critics are months away from reviewing the new fall shows, but CBS got an enthusiastic nod Thursday from the group whose criticism counts most: the sponsors.

The men and women of the advertising agencies that buy the commercial time that pays all the bills at the three networks convened Thursday in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles to watch CBS’ seven new shows scheduled for 1986-87. Judging from the response in Los Angeles, the fall prime-time lineup is “a major, major improvement over last year.

“From what I’ve seen here today . . . CBS will definitely erode a portion of NBC’s dominance,” continued Bill Formeca of the Evans Weinberg agency, echoing the sentiments of many of the 100 or so sponsor representatives gathered at CBS Television City in the Fairfax district. The CBS presentation originated in New York and was made here via tape-delay.

Advertisers stopped short of making too many predictions about next season, however, since ABC and NBC had not yet announced their new shows. (ABC is scheduled to unveil its fall lineup Tuesday and NBC on Thursday.)

Reaction from the L.A. crowd also suggested how undependable preseason research and guesswork is in determining a new series’ chances for survival.

Though CBS Entertainment President B. Donald (Bud) Grant saved his greatest praise for “Together We Stand”--CBS’ closest thing to a “Cosby” clone--the advertisers gave their biggest laughs to “Better Days,” a teen-oriented show cast with unknowns.

A close second was “Designing Women,” which resembles the NBC hit “Golden Girls” in its focus on four women and their fast-flying one-liners.

Success of a sleeper like “Better Days,” which has a white student trying to fit in with the blacks at his new inner city high school, would certainly fit CBS’ strategy. As outlined by Grant from New York, the network is firmly addressing its need for a younger, more urban audience. That’s the group of consumers that made NBC No. 1 with advertisers a year or two prior to receiving that designation from the A. C. Nielsen ratings service.

“Right now, our clients want young ,” said Darlene Levine, a vice president with Gumpertz/Bentley/Fried. “Movies, fast food, a lot of retail” are after consumers 18 to 49 years old, she explained. CBS, as its own statistics show, is stronger in the 25-to-54 bracket.

Thus, CBS is attempting to broaden the age and geographic range of its target audience while keeping its stronghold in older, more rural viewers.

Saturday, for example, will be an “urban night,” Grant said. The new series “Downtown” will be followed by “Mickey Spillane’s Mike Hammer” and “The Twilight Zone,” which, Grant said, attracted a desirable young, urban audience when it was on Friday nights.

“Downtown” was well-received by advertisers. It is a relatively lighthearted cop show starring Michael Nouri and four appealing co-stars (including Jayne Mansfield’s daughter, Mariska Hargitay).

Another new series, “Kay O’Brien, Surgeon,” was well-liked and intelligently performed and was described by some as fitting into the “Cagney & Lacey” mold.

Not quite as warmly welcomed was “The Wizard of Elm Street,” about a whimsical inventor who occasionally works for the Pentagon. That show, nonetheless, could have the family appeal that CBS needs at 8 p.m.

The first series of the day and the most quickly forgotten was “Taking the Town,” a sitcom starring Pam Dawber.

Earl (Kim) LeMasters acknowledged that some of the new series could be made even stronger before they hit the air. LeMasters was making his debut as keeper of the CBS lineup following the departure of Grant’s former right-hand man, Harvey Shephard.

The advertisers’ generally upbeat and objective reaction--they owe no allegiance to any one network--gives a good indication of what CBS can expect from its affiliates, the next group to sit in judgment of the network’s fall plans. The owners and managers of CBS’ nationwide affiliate stations will gather in Los Angeles on Sunday for a three-day annual meeting.

Perhaps more importantly, the advertisers’ response foreshadows an optimistic financial outlook at CBS, which only last Tuesday announced that hundreds of jobs will be cut at the broadcast group, mostly in publicity, personnel and research positions. The network has been recovering from its financial wounds since fighting the takeover attempt by media mogul and new MGM-owner Ted Turner.

CBS sales executives present at Thursday’s presentation declined to be quoted, but they said that prime-time development funds had not, as rumored, been cut as it is the network’s bread and butter.