Will ABC Stick With ‘Elvis’ After Getting Rocked by Ratings?

The epitaphs for ABC’s struggling new “Elvis” series, if they eventually are needed, are easy enough to come by: Don’t Be Cruel. Heartbreak Hotel. All Shook Up. Hound Dog.

But ABC and co-executive producer Priscilla Presley, the former wife of the late singer whose early years are portrayed in the show, are hoping that a more agreeable expression marks the program’s future with TV audiences: Love Me Tender.

Alas, that relationship has not developed thus far. Despite huge expectations, a big media buildup, splendid production qualities, an attractive star (Michael St. Gerard), impressive reviews--plus lead-ins from ABC’s most popular series, “Roseanne” and “America’s Funniest Home Videos”--”Elvis” has turned in astonishingly mediocre ratings in its first two broadcasts.

What happened? Why have viewers made an apparently conscious decision to tune out “Elvis”--as indicated by its 29% audience drop-off after “Roseanne” in a special preview, and then its 41% plunge after “America’s Funniest Home Videos” last Sunday in the regular time slot for the rock star’s biography? And what is ABC going to do now with “Elvis,” which many figured would draw a tremendous audience at least for its premiere, if only out of curiosity?

Well, both ABC and New World Entertainment, which produces “Elvis,” disclose that they’re going the extra mile with the series, riding it out and even adding extra episodes this spring--unless, as one spokesman acknowledges, its ratings should suddenly drop so precipitously that the network might bail out. The next test comes Sunday at 8:30 p.m.

And for the moment, anyway, ABC Entertainment President Robert Iger says of the series: “No, it won’t be canceled, and it will not be moved.” According to both ABC and New World, an agreement was reached this week for four more episodes to go into production in March, in addition to the original order for nine.

But will “Elvis” hold out? Will it find an audience to assure that it continues? Does it have the potential to carry over for another season or more, especially since Priscilla Presley says that it will concentrate only on the years 1954-58, a relatively more innocent period of the singer’s career as he rose to fame?

“Everyone’s optimistic,” Presley maintains. “We’re waiting to see if we find that audience by word-of-mouth. All I can say is, we’ve done our job. It looks like a film. The quality is there. The story line is there. The kid (St. Gerard) is wonderful. We’ve had the greatest press. So I don’t know what else to do. But we’re not going to lose hope. Maybe, again, the show’s searching for that audience.

“If the public thinks (the show) is slow, we’re going into a buildup. Once we get into the concerts and show some problems on the road and the conflicts, maybe the public will change.”

Jon Feltheimer, the president of New World Entertainment, concedes that he has been “absolutely” disappointed at the early ratings of the series: “Expectations were extremely high, and I think we did that to ourselves. When we sold the show, we sold it on Elvis hype. But now we’ve discovered that we’ve created something special, and I hope the audience will discover it.

“We’re doing a story about a young kid trying to make it, changing relationships with friends and family. We’re not going to sugarcoat this. You’re going to see a lot of the brashness and the cockiness and the enticements of the road.”

New World also produces the highly praised ABC series “The Wonder Years,” and Feltheimer suggests that “Elvis” bears comparison in terms of style and quality.

All well and good--but still the question remains: What happened that turned off the vast audiences expected for the launching of “Elvis”? One answer may well be that the timing for its arrival was simply not right. Or, to put it another way, is the public simply Elvis-ed out, saturated to the gills with every manner and scrap of detail about The King?

In an era of TV and supermarket tabloids, for instance, is “Elvis”--the show--simply too gentle and tame for viewers who have been exposed and overexposed to sensational material about Presley, especially the sad events leading to his death at age 42?

“Yeah, that’s totally a possibility,” says Priscilla Presley. “I tell you, you don’t know what the public is looking for. I mean, first of all, ‘Elvis’ is not cops and robbers. It’s not violence. Maybe it’s too soft. Maybe they’re just tuned in to that hard-core violence.”

This is also a video age. According to “The Phantom’s Ultimate Video Guide,” about 30 of the singer’s motion pictures--showing him doing his own performing--are available on cassettes. In addition, the guide lists no fewer than 22 other videos with Presley under the category of “documentaries, compilations and concert cassettes.” There are also videos of the notable 1979 TV film, “Elvis--The Movie,” starring Kurt Russell; “Elvis and Me,” originally a miniseries based on Priscilla Presley’s biography; and a fictional feature, “Heartbreak Hotel.”

In addition, of course, there have been all of those Elvis impersonators.

And now, besides the Elvis saturation, the new series must also cope with the hard facts of TV life. In its nervy and worthwhile attempt to stretch the limits of TV storytelling, it is challenging viewing habits with an old and dormant prime-time format--the half-hour drama--and adding music. And even if it should find its audience, “Elvis” will probably never be a breakout hit, one TV executive predicts, “because it’s really a moody film that unfolds like a motion picture. People thought there’d be more action. Guys have seemed less interested than women.”

The most formidable TV obstacle for “Elvis,” says Feltheimer, is being scheduled at 8:30 p.m. Sundays--”certainly the toughest time slot in prime time.” The competition includes CBS’ “Murder, She Wrote” and, perhaps more importantly, Fox’s hip new animated series, “The Simpsons”--an instant success for the smaller “fourth network.” While “Murder, She Wrote” draws older viewers, “The Simpsons,” says Feltheimer, attracts “a lot of our audience, young and male, that we would otherwise have.”

Indicating the fierce competition between 8:30 and 9 p.m., Feltheimer notes that ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox drew more than 80% of the TV audience in that time period last Sunday--and “The Simpsons” got 20% of the total, compared to 19% for “Elvis” and 25% for “Murder, She Wrote.” NBC weighed in with an hour of “Unsolved Mysteries,” but landed only 18% of the audience.

Clearly, the odds are that “Elvis,” as a ratings entry, will probably never come close to matching the giant shadow of its real-life central character. But Feltheimer is betting that “if we stay with quality, the audience will find the show.” Adds Priscilla Presley: “That’s what we’re hoping for.”

So don’t be cruel. At least until you’ve given “Elvis” a real look. And you’d better look fast.