CBS’ ‘48 Hours’ Hopes to Break Down Barriers

CBS Entertainment President Kim LeMasters raised some eyebrows the other day when he told visiting TV critics that his network had taken steps in “breaking down the corroded barriers” between the entertainment and news divisions.

But CBS News President Howard Stringer and “CBS Evening News” anchor Dan Rather insist that, although CBS has made progress recently in getting news programming considered for prime time, the line between reporting and entertainment is in no danger of being blurred at CBS.

“There used to be a sense that we were a stepchild--that we had no business being in prime time and were a handicap to the entertainment business,” Stringer said. “That’s the barrier that’s gone. But I’m not going to get into an agreement with entertainment to go into co-production or anything ridiculous like that.”

The question of whether CBS News might be wandering into the controversial turf of “infotainment” was raised at a Redondo Beach news conference regarding “48 Hours,” CBS’ prime-time news series that premieres at 8 tonight (Channels 2 and 8), with Rather as host.

Unlike CBS’ other two prime-time news series, “60 Minutes” and “West 57th,” each hourlong installment of “48 Hours” will focus on a single subject, beginning with two days in the life of a Dallas hospital.

Executive producer Andrew Heyward acknowledged that LeMasters had offered suggestions for possible “48 Hours” subjects, but said he was under no obligation to follow them. He added that although “48 Hours” might be as likely to focus on pop superstar Michael Jackson as a major world event, that was not a result of pressure from the network’s entertainment brass.

“I happen to believe that news is interesting, and I think we’ll be covering all over the world and all over the spectrum,” Heyward said. “I happen to be very interested in the arts myself.

“We expect to be doing stories which range from the Persian Gulf to Broadway to Hollywood, for which I have no apologies,” he continued, adding that he will include show-biz topics because they represent a certain slice of life, “not because I think we have to have a quota of sexy programs.”

Rather also refuted suggestions that the show’s prime-time slot would tempt producers to go for the glitz. “Prime time is an area where they shoot to kill, and we welcome that,” he said, “but style is not going to overwhelm substance.

“If you don’t know anything else about me, I hope you know--I trust you know--that I’m all news, all the time. That’s what I care about. That’s my life. This program is for us a chance to break new ground.”

Heyward said in addition to focusing on a single subject, “48 Hours” will differ from other TV news magazines in that it relies “more on action and less on narration than traditional news programs,” as a CBS News team spends 48 hours on a given story.

The program is an offshoot of the 1986 CBS News special “48 Hours on Crack Street,” which spent two days on the streets of New York exploring the drug epidemic and became one of the network’s highest-rated documentary programs.

The series will follow the same format by having reporters and camera crews spend two days and two nights focusing on the subject of the week. After tonight’s visit to Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas, reports will include an exploration of the City of Miami, including its drug trade, and a hectic New Year’s weekend at Denver’s Stapleton Airport.

Stringer, asked whether “breaking new ground” stylistically with this cinema verite style might be unfavorably compared with the hyper-emotional reporting of Geraldo Rivera’s syndicated series of live news specials, said he believes that CBS can go for the on-the-scene excitement without losing objectivity.

As proof of his theory, Stringer proudly cited CBS’ fast but probing “Crack Street” coverage (“There, cinema verite became cinema realite --we didn’t influence the story”). He also pointed to the network’s blanket coverage of the execution of killer Gary Gilmore in January, 1977--which, he told the assembly of print reporters, “beat the (expletive deleted) out of all of you, including the networks” with its exclusive interviews with Gilmore family members and visits to Gilmore’s prison cell.

“Every day we went past (news) cameras . . . including Geraldo Rivera, whose camera was always pointed the wrong way,” Stringer gloated.

In response to suggestions that “48 Hours” might better spend its time in political hotspots such as the Gaza Strip rather than on tired documentary venues such as hospitals and the Miami drug trade, Stringer said though the program will strive for topicality, it will not necessarily compete with “CBS Evening News” to follow the biggest story of the week.

However, about the Gaza Strip, he added: “We’re on our way (there).”

Rather said he would not allow his participation in “48 Hours” to interfere with his commitment to the “CBS Evening News” program, and denied that he had involved himself in “48 Hours” to soften his image.

“My first priority is the evening news, and my second priority is the evening news,” he said. “But on ’48 Hours’ I’m all in; this is total immersion for me. I’m confident that I can do quite a lot with ’48 Hours.’ ”