Time Runs Out for LeMasters’ Difficult Mission : Television: Ex-CBS Entertainment chief failed to build a sitcom base. He scheduled poorly, leaving the third-place network in the ratings cellar.

The title was nice, but when Kim LeMasters was named president of CBS Entertainment two years ago, he was, in effect, being sent on a kamikaze mission.

His assignment was clear: Save CBS’ prime-time schedule, which in turn would pull up the rest of the network, restore its once-proud reputation and assure its future. No small task. CBS, once unbeatable in the ratings and the home of “I Love Lucy,” “All in the Family,” “MASH” and “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” had become an industry joke--the gang that couldn’t shoot straight.

Unfortunately, except for a few notable triumphs--among them, the Candice Bergen sitcom “Murphy Brown” and the Western miniseries “Lonesome Dove”--LeMasters was no sharpshooter, either, as boss of CBS Entertainment.

And that’s what led, in part, to his long-expected resignation Thursday.

He was, for one thing, up against two of the best quick-draw artists in TV--NBC’s Brandon Tartikoff, whose arsenal included “The Cosby Show,” “Cheers” and “L.A. Law,” and ABC’s Brandon Stoddard, the former network chieftain who had helped bring forth “Roseanne,” “The Wonder Years” and “thirtysomething.”

LeMasters actually had at his command some of the finer new series on TV--”Beauty and the Beast,” “Frank’s Place,” “Wiseguy,” “Tour of Duty” and “Designing Women”--plus such longtime successes as “Murder, She Wrote,” “Dallas,” “Knots Landing” and “Newhart.” It may be the best lineup of network shows ever to go down in flames.

But if LeMasters had an eye for at least developing some worthy series, he didn’t seem to know what to do with them as a programmer, a highly specialized skill that involves such talents as scheduling and is often the difference in creating a hit.

He also faced other formidable obstacles. Young urban viewers, most desirable to sponsors, already were tuning out CBS’ older-oriented, grass-roots programming, especially since the network has not come up with a truly major prime-time hit since “Murder, She Wrote” five years ago--an astonishing, possibly suicidal lapse of creative and corporate efficiency in the new age of television alternatives.

Then there was the 8 p.m. nightmare--CBS’ inability for years to come up with hits to lead off prime time and carry an entire evening. The nightmare haunted LeMasters, as it had his predecessors. He had “Murder, She Wrote” at 8 p.m. on Sundays, and that was it.

And, while LeMasters had some defenders, such as “Murphy Brown” producer Diane English, many members of Hollywood’s creative community said privately that CBS was the last network they went to with projects because they felt it was the least receptive to unique ideas and showmanship. That was widely believed to be the reason that Barbara Corday, co-creator of “Cagney & Lacey,” was hired by CBS last year to take over prime time--a move that seemed to indicate LeMasters’ days were numbered.

But LeMasters was still boss. And the roof seemed to cave in a little further each day. On Thursday, the final tally of the November ratings sweeps showed how far CBS had fallen. Already last among the networks for two consecutive seasons, CBS recorded the lowest ratings in its history for a November sweeps period.

The CBS prime-time collapse was vividly illustrated in statistical breakdowns. It had only two of the top 20 series during the sweeps, “60 Minutes” and “Murder, She Wrote.” It won only one night of the week--Sundays, when “60 Minutes” and “Murder, She Wrote” are broadcast back-to-back. It’s a familiar pattern, but it gets worse. Among adults 18 to 49, front-runner NBC had a 44% tune-in advantage over CBS during the sweeps. Among adults 25 to 54, NBC’s advantage was 35%.

CBS President Laurence Tisch indicated little commitment to LeMasters from the start. Before LeMasters got the job, producer Steven Bochco (“Hill Street Blues,” “L.A. Law”) turned it down, and several other major Hollywood figures reportedly were interviewed for the post. And, say some close to LeMasters, his creative decisions once he got the job often ran into roadblocks from Tisch, who had just assumed his own post and was conducting his education in public. “It was amateur night,” said one CBS executive.

And the string of CBS’ eyebrow-raising entertainment problems in the last few years was almost breathtaking. LeMasters said he loved “Frank’s Place,” a notable comedy, but then admitted he helped wreck it by moving it around the schedule. “Beauty and the Beast,” widely praised and winner of more Emmy nominations than any other CBS show last year, was dropped from this fall’s starting lineup and finally will return Dec. 12.

So vulnerable has CBS become that Tisch and LeMasters had to woo Angela Lansbury of “Murder, She Wrote” publicly--and then give in to her expensive terms--to get her to come back this season. What’s more, two of the biggest stars in CBS history, Alan Alda and Carol Burnett, have agreed to return in television series after lengthy absences--but with an opposing network, NBC.

Furthermore, with comedies known to be essential to network ratings success, LeMasters this fall scheduled all six of his on Mondays--without a single other sitcom to help any of his remaining nights. The Monday six-pack failed as a marketing stunt, getting mediocre ratings, and the overall CBS lineup was left high and dry.

Though only 38 when he became president of CBS Entertainment, LeMasters seemed to think older than Tartikoff and Stoddard, both his senior. While they were heavily contemporary and experimental, LeMasters told an interviewer that he felt close to the type of shows that drew CBS’ traditional audience and had once given the network ratings dominance--series such as “Dallas” and “Magnum, P.I.”

NBC failed with its new series this season, too, but has a ratings cushion. CBS has none, and thus the collapse of Lindsay Wagner’s “Peaceable Kingdom” and Richard Chamberlain’s “Island Son” was critical. A new CBS comedy, “The People Next Door,” was canceled. A new drama, “Top of the Hill,” about a young congressman, was yanked.

In late-night, Pat Sajak’s series, which debuted in January, has slipped sharply in the ratings, been cut from 90 to 60 minutes, enlisted new producing help--but, above all, has been upstaged by Arsenio Hall’s new show, which took a much more contemporary approach.

It took Tartikoff and Stoddard time to turn around their networks, and CBS Broadcast Group President Howard Stringer noted Thursday that LeMasters had helped develop a number of hits over the years. But these are crisis years now for CBS, with its future in doubt. When Dan Rather’s “CBS Evening News”--the network’s crown jewel--loses first place to ABC, as it has the last two months, part of the blame inevitably goes to a weak prime-time lineup that allows viewers to slip away to competitors.

Not much seems to be working at CBS these days, except daytime shows. But a prime-time turnabout can cause wonders. Time for a change.