ABC Divides Entertainment Unit in Bid to Revive Ratings

ABC split its entertainment division in two Thursday and named CBS executive Michael Brockman to the newly created position of president of daytime, children’s and late-night entertainment.

At CBS and NBC, and heretofore at ABC, those programming areas have been contained within the same entertainment division that was responsible for prime-time programming. Under ABC’s new structure, Brockman is independent of ABC Entertainment and, like the presidents of such other divisions as ABC News and ABC Sports, will report to John B. Sias, president of the ABC Television Network Group.

In a telephone interview from New York, Sias said that the move was undertaken to focus more attention on daytime, which traditionally has been the networks’ most profitable area of programming but whose ratings have been declining in recent years. The movement of women into the workplace, he said, has left advertisers less enthusiastic about daytime TV because their target audience is no longer at home.

Brockman, who had been presiding over the top-rated daytime schedule as vice president of daytime, children’s and late-night programs at CBS, said that he believes a separate daytime programming chief is necessary to help make sense of an increasingly complex TV marketplace, as well as to sift through the greater volume of programming now available through syndication.

“To have a person who is singularly focused on all areas of daytime, its product performance, cost analysis, its revenues--if all of that sits on one desk, hopefully that is something that the affiliated stations can look forward to,” Brockman said.

Sias said that the network’s decision to give daytime its own division had been under consideration for 18 months and had nothing to do with the appointment two weeks ago of Robert A. Iger as president of ABC Entertainment. Iger, who took over after Brandon Stoddard resigned, will now be responsible for all prime-time entertainment programs, including series, movies and miniseries.

“This is not a decision that was occasioned by the change out there in Los Angeles,” he said. “Frankly, we had had discussions with Brandon about it, and he had a mixed reaction to the idea.”

Sias said that while Brockman’s primary focus will be daytime, ABC is eager to have him develop new late-night programming to pair with “Nightline.” Brockman helped develop “The Pat Sajak Show” at CBS.

Seven ABC stations are already testing a new late-night effort called “Day’s End,” a news digest show hosted by Spencer Christian and Ross Schafer (who hosted Fox Broadcasting’s “The Late Show With Ross Schafer,” the last incarnation of Fox’s failed late-night series that went off the air last October). The show will join KABC Channel 7’s lineup on Monday, replacing “The Morton Downey Jr. Show” at midnight.