Why There’s No Tomorrow for ‘USA Today’ : Television: The cancellation marks another setback for GTG Entertainment, which had three programs dropped last year.

“USA Today on TV,” which once billed itself as TV of the future, is now a thing of the past.

GTG Entertainment, the production company created by former NBC Chairman Grant Tinker and the Gannett Co., pulled the plug on Thanksgiving Eve after a rocky year and two months that saw the syndicated program lambasted by critics, ignored by viewers and dropped by stations. The last segment is scheduled for Jan. 8.

The magazine-format program, originally titled “USA Today: The Television Show,” debuted in September, 1988, on 156 stations, many of them running it in the coveted slot just before prime time. But now, the number of stations has dwindled to 84, with many airing the 30-minute show during hours only insomniacs could appreciate.

Executive producer Jack Hurley called the staff together in their Rosslyn, Va., headquarters minutes before Wednesday’s taping and told them the end had arrived. Though the cancellation was not completely unexpected, the timing caught employees off guard. There was speculation among staffers that the announcement was made just before Thanksgiving as a way to avoid extensive news coverage.

Miriam Hernandez, the program’s Washington correspondent, said Hurley told his staff that he was “very upset with the timing” of the announcement as well as the decision to ax the show.

Tinker and Gannett Chairman John Curley issued a joint statement saying they were proud of the show but “obviously disappointed” in the ratings. The program garnered an 8.1 rating during its first week. The show received a rating of 2.9 for the week of Nov. 12, the most recent available. Each ratings point equals 921,000 homes.

Sources familiar with the program’s operations said several factors prompted the midseason cancellation.

The ratings had dropped to a point where recovery was deemed impossible. And although a great many stations were contractually committed to airing “USA Today” for the rest of the season, it was not something they wanted to do. “So it was a case of forcing them to live up to a contract, not giving them something they were enthusiastic about,” said a source. “The alternative to holding their feet to the fire was canceling the show midseason.”

Not unrelated was the fact that GTG is readying other syndicated programs for sale to individual stations--stations that would include those now obligated to run “USA Today.” Freeing them from a show they would drop soon anyway, rather than leaving them embittered, seemed like a good idea, said the source.

The show, which cost $40 million to launch, premiered amid a flurry of self-generated fanfare, much of it from executive producer Steve Friedman, who is credited with boosting NBC’s “Today” show to the top morning slot.

But the critics hated it. Loathed it. Like its newspaper namesake, the TV show was chock-full of snappy graphics and short-short stories. Fluffy news blips, the critics said.

Within two weeks, the show was being overhauled to slow down the pace a little and add some substance to the stories. It underwent several more makeovers during its short life. Friedman was replaced by Jim Bellows, who is credited with turning “Entertainment Tonight” into a winner. Bellows apparently was forced out soon after his arrival; he filed a lawsuit over his dismissal that was settled recently. Tom Kirby, a Gannett broadcasting executive was brought in next, only to be followed by Hurley, another Gannett man.

Reporter Hernandez, who joined the show only six weeks ago, said the program had evolved into a solid news operation. “It was not sleazy. It was not ‘Hard Copy,’ ” she said, referring to one of the latest and glitziest entries in the world of tabloid TV.

In its most recent incarnation, “USA Today” was reporting on education issues, airport problems and pollution, said Hernandez.

“Significant changes were made,” she said. “It became substantive, there was more meat on it. It wasn’t just a video picture book. It had information.”

The cancellation marks another setback for Tinker and GTG. During the 1988-89 season, the company saw all three of its network programs canceled by CBS. This season, the production company is making “Baywatch” for NBC, producing a sitcom pilot for CBS and is readying three syndicated programs--an infotainment show called “Celebrity Update,” a game show called “Love Thy Neighbor” and a talk show hosted by Diahann Carroll and her daughter.