‘The Morton Downey Show’ . . . The Rest Is Silence

“The Morton Downey Jr. Show,” which lived for controversy and was propelled by shouts and face-reddening confrontations, now will do what its bellowing star often ordered his guests to do--zip it.

“It’s definitely being canceled,” a spokeswoman for the show said Wednesday. Downey, whose series had been expected to get the ax, is making a movie in Toronto and was unavailable for comment.

The show’s demise was expected. It was announced by Quantum Media Inc., which produced the show; MCA Television Inc., its syndicator; and WWOR-TV in Secaucus, N.J., where it was taped. The station and 66 others still carrying “Downey” will air its last original episode on Sept. 15.

The show “introduced a new generation to talk TV and forever changed the genre,” the companies’ statement said. The statement didn’t say why the program had been given the boot.

Industry sources and executives attributed the show’s death to low ratings, few renewals for next season, and reluctance by advertisers to back a program whose chain-smoking host on occasion abused his guests, shouting at them--and sometimes at his boisterous studio audience--to “zip it!”

Downey enjoyed a flurry of publicity for all this, and at its peak, his show was on 85 stations. But in April, with ratings declining and advertisers exiting, he sent letters to station managers, vowing to cease using “excessively harsh language” and to avoid “stunts that detract from our mission.”

It was to no avail. A majority of stations including KABC-TV in Los Angeles dropped the show (it still is seen on cable in some parts of Los Angeles) and, according to one industry executive, only about 15 renewed it for next season.

What proved the last episode of his show was taped on June 30 at WWOR-TV, which first aired the much-criticized weeknight series in October, 1987. The show went into national syndication in May a year later.

“There’s certainly no reason to continue it,” said Richard Kurlander, programming vice president of Petry Television, a company that sells air time for stations and advises them on what syndicated programming to buy.

“Advertisers have rejected the program,” Kurlander said, and “most importantly, the audience has rejected the program.”

During the key May ratings sweeps, he said, it averaged a 1.5 rating and a minuscule 5% share of the audience on the 67 stations carrying it. Each ratings point represents 904,000 homes.

Karen Corbin, program director for independent Philadelphia station WPHL-TV, which had renewed the series, said Wednesday the show’s “ratings were not as strong here as they were last season. But they were better than the program we had replaced, ‘Hill Street Blues.’ ”

Downey had talked of making his series a once-a-week program. But the three companies that collaborated on what they have now canceled weren’t interested, a source working with them said.