‘Peak of Slump Reached,’ Says CBS Exec

Amid CBS’ continued reign as the third-place network following a year of its worst ratings ever, CBS Broadcast Group President Howard Stringer declared Wednesday that “the peak of our slump has been reached” and that the network is on the slow road to recovery.

Stringer, addressing national television writers and critics gathered at the Universal Registry Hotel for the network’s annual winter press tour, said CBS’ recent commitment to better promotion, its rally from last summer’s devastating Writers Guild of America strike and its recently announced $1.1 billion deal for exclusive rights to cover major league baseball all indicate CBS’ resolve to muscling back to the top.

“We’re doing it night by night. We’re making no promises about being home by Christmas,” Stringer said, alluding to an ill-fated prediction that then-NBC President Fred Silverman once made about moving his network from third to first in time for the holidays.

“I’m in no rush to say we’ve solved our problem,” said Stringer, who was promoted six months ago from his position as president of CBS News. “It’s that rush that causes the problem. . . . (But) the peak of our slump has been reached.”

Stringer blamed the network’s hard times on a variety of factors, including management changes, delays in fall programming caused by the writers’ strike, and even CBS-bashing by the print media. “In that climate, there is barely room for creativity,” he said.

He charged that press gloating over CBS’ third-place status was a self-fulfilling prophecy. “I read the headlines that called CBS the Titanic--’CBS Goes Under The Waves Giggling,’ ” Stringer said. “I watched those headlines come zinging in out of the mist.”

Stringer responded to NBC President Robert Wright’s charges last weekend that CBS had acted out of desperation in shelling out $1.1 billion for baseball by saying CBS wanted baseball for baseball’s sake, rather than simply as a vehicle for promoting its anemic prime-time schedule.

“Baseball wasn’t purchased just to punch up prime time,” insisted Stringer, who noted dryly that NBC stands for “No Baseball Contract.” He added that the expenditure evidenced a strong commitment on the part of CBS president and chief executive officer Laurence Tisch to spend money when needed to improve the network.

“It’s Larry Tisch’s commitment to the network. Six months ago, nobody was calling Larry a big spender,” he noted, referring to Tisch’s reputation as excessively frugal.

Although refusing to launch a direct attack on NBC, Stringer also made clear his distaste for NBC’s recent decision to diversify its interests by buying into the cable television business.

“We don’t believe the dinosaur theory” about the bleak future of network television, Stringer said. “In many ways, our toughest competition is from the independent stations--not cable--(which are) competing by re-running our own programming.”

“We’re still the dominant species in the jungle,” Stringer said.

Stringer took another veiled jab at NBC when the topic of “trash television” came up. Stringer, who called the current tabloid-TV trend “the dark at the end of the tunnel,” made reference to a program on “another network” which he found “absolutely diabolical”--Geraldo Rivera’s “Satan’s Underground” special on NBC.

Following the broadcast of that critically blasted but high-rated program last October, Stringer said, a representative for Rivera approached CBS to offer the network other investigative specials that Rivera would host. Stringer said he turned him down flat.