CBS’ LeMasters Has Hope, Faith

At the moment, Kim LeMasters is a man on the spot. He is the 38-year-old president of CBS Entertainment, responsible for all the network’s programming except news and sports. Before he replaced B. Donald (Bud) Grant last October, LeMasters had been vice president of programs at the network since April, 1986.

As the ratings fell and it became apparent that CBS was going to land in the cellar at season’s end, LeMasters refused to talk about the situation, saying he was busy with next season. But last week he agreed to be interviewed and talked about his network’s programming problems, the other networks and his job.

MISTAKES AND HOPE: “In a sense, last year we broke a fundamental rule in TV: We replaced eight hours of programming. Usually the maximum you can get away with is five hours. The fact that we have 4 1/2 still left of the original crop (“Tour of Duty,” “Beauty and the Beast,” “Frank’s Place,” “Jake and the Fatman,” “Wiseguy”) is a fairly good statement.”

“We still have a lot of hope and faith and belief the shows we have out now--the new crop that came out this year--will form the backbone of a very strong schedule in the future. If development this year is as successful creatively as it was last year, we’ll get there.”

ABC: “I think they have two good shows that have quality to them that will attract good headlines (“thirtysomething” and “The Wonder Years”). The difference (between ABC and CBS) is that they have had the ratings power to get those shows sampled. Those shows have been given more accolades than the ones we’ve put on. If you believe in the quality of the show, that’s your core judgment.”

SPECIAL PROGRAMMING: “I wouldn’t mind if sports and news took over the whole schedule. I’d love to have the next Olympics, all the figure skating and whatever else is out there. But they’ve (ABC) admittedly suffered a $65-million loss (on the Winter Olympics), and this is only one season; they’ll be feeling that loss for many seasons to come. I’d rather take that $65 million and invest it in new programming.”

He was asked if the Olympics and sports programming gave ABC the ratings edge this season. “In the law of ratings, sure. You just look at last week’s ratings, when there was really nothing unusual on the air--when it’s just series versus series by and large (CBS tied NBC for first place, with ABC well back in third). But I don’t think CBS can use that as a crutch. When you’re talking about the Olympics or the Academy Awards, event programming or special programming is part and parcel of what a network does, and you’ve got to be able to weather those storms.”

THE KEY PROBLEM: “We are not helping our 9 o’clock shows (with strong 8 o’clock lead-ins). We’ve got to take a smart pill to figure out what 8 to 9 is about. It’s historically been comedy that has worked in that time slot. But it’s also been a lot of different kinds of shows: ‘Little House on the Prairie’ has worked there, ‘The Waltons’ worked there, and comedy has worked there.

“We tried something like ‘Beauty and the Beast,’ which has done a very, very good job for us on Fridays. We are going to try to attract more kids and teens and young adults to our schedule, but at the same time try not to alienate our core audience, which tends to be older. You cannot succeed on just adults or just kids; you need both.”

“FRANK’S PLACE”: “We’ve already renewed it. We’re not giving up on that show. It may eventually be Kim’s Folly, but I just like that show too much not to give it a chance.”

THE WRITERS’ STRIKE: “I think that it would have been nicer without a writers’ strike, but I don’t think we’re really getting hurt. The most crippling thing that happened was having to bow out of ‘The Dictator’ (a mid-season comedy that was yanked). It was the whole linchpin to Tuesday night. It put us into a scramble.”

MOVIES: “If we can, we would prefer to remain with series. I don’t think two movie nights is the answer for us.”

PRESS CRITICISM OF CBS: “I’ll take the high road on that--everyone is entitled to an opinion. I suppose if the Foote, Cone & Belding (ad agency) report conveyed an attitude of an upbeat smugness on the part of CBS, I’d like to repair that right away; that is not the way we’d like to be viewed. I would hope that when everybody sits back and takes stock, when they say who was inventive last year, who took some risks, it’s CBS.”

IS YOUR JOB IN DANGER?: (joking) “I’m willing to raffle my job. Actually, I’m very fortunate in that I am enjoying an enormous amount of support from management. They are sophisticated enough to realize this isn’t a quick process. You’re going to suffer some short-term losses for long-term gains. They have a lot of patience. It doesn’t mean they (management) are not ambitious. It’s very clear that my job is to try to turn this network around, but they do it with the right kind of support, not always asking the question: ‘Are you sure?’ ”