CBS Assembles Schedule That’s a Contender

In the annals of television, it’s a minor miracle. But with major implications.

CBS, the gang that couldn’t shoot straight, has suddenly started firing bull’s-eyes. It actually bolted to the top of the ratings this week for the first time in two years and, amazingly, is running neck-and-neck with long-time network leader NBC in the May sweeps.

It may be over quicker than a one-night stand. CBS still has no blockbuster entertainment series. “Murphy Brown” and “Designing Women” are merely hits. But the last-place network seems to have made contact with the supernatural.

What’s going on here? It can’t all be done with mirrors and rubber bands.

No. What’s happening is that the CBS entertainment division is doing something it hasn’t done for years.

It’s called thinking.

And it comes at just the right time--as the networks start announcing their new fall lineups next week. CBS’ message is clear and significant: Viewers will go where something is happening. Make things pop and the ratings will show it.

Given a less-than-zero chance, new CBS Entertainment President Jeff Sagansky and his second-in-command, Peter Tortorici, have made the most of what little programming they had for the May sweeps, cutting down on reruns and offering viewers specials instead.

An hour special about the 1951 pilot of “I Love Lucy” was a stupendous hit--No. 1 in the ratings. “Caroline?,” a beautifully haunting mystery, triumphed over highly trumpeted TV movies about Jim and Tammy Bakker and the Beach Boys.

Motion pictures are supposed to be dead on networks because they’ve already been on cable--but CBS scored big with “The Untouchables” and did well with “Beverly Hills Cop II.” CBS’ TV movie “Shattered Dreams” was another big winner. An hour “Designing Women” special was also a hit.

And Connie Chung finally became the ratings factor CBS expected her to be when her newsmagazine was switched from Saturdays and got two tryouts on Mondays after “Murphy Brown” and “Designing Women,” where the lead-ins and vibes were clearly better.

It is true, of course, ABC was experimenting with offbeat new series such as “Twin Peaks” and Oprah Winfrey’s “Brewster Place” before deciding on its fall lineup, which is scheduled for release Monday.

And NBC used the May sweeps to try out its own new series--among them “Down Home,” “Working Girl,” “Carol & Company” and “Wings.”

But there, out of nowhere, with some clever strategy while playing for time to build new series, was CBS. And lo and behold, when the ratings came in for the week of April 30-May 6, CBS had finished just one-tenth of a point behind heavy favorite NBC, the network champion for five consecutive seasons.

Eyebrows were raised. A fluke, surely. But then came the ratings for the week of May 7-13, and CBS, to the astonishment of many, was No. 1--beating NBC by two-tenths of a point.

What was just as startling was that ABC, not CBS, had the three top series that week--”America’s Funniest Home Videos,” “Roseanne” and “America’s Funniest . . . Part II.” CBS didn’t have a single series in the Top 10, but it was more solid top-to-bottom as it thought well and used specials to cover its weak spots.

With the sweeps nearing their end Wednesday, with the fall lineups coming, with sponsors to be wooed and with the CBS affiliates meeting on tap soon, the timing of the ratings was enough to bring a few smiles at a network that has been in a state of severe depression for three consecutive losing seasons.

What’s more, CBS not only had won a big week, but was actually in a horse race with NBC in the sweeps, which help determine advertising rates at TV stations across the country. That was last Sunday.

On Monday, the news got better. CBS’ comedy lineup, the cornerstone of its hopes, produced a whopping triumph as “Major Dad,” “Newhart,” “Murphy Brown” and “Designing Women” delivered unusually big audiences. CBS took the lead in the sweeps.

On Tuesday, CBS’ “Rescue 911” joined the party with its best ratings of the season. It was against reruns, true--but nonetheless, people were tuning to CBS. That’s how things start.

On Friday, NBC had edged ahead again by two-tenths of a point in the sweeps, but CBS, win or lose, was still making a solid showing for the important ratings month. Most significant was that, during the same period last year, NBC led CBS by a wide margin of nearly three ratings points--or roughly 2.5 million television homes.

No one, of course--including CBS’ long-suffering brigade--expects Sagansky to suddenly start leaping buildings in a single bound. CBS may be in the basement for some time. But the network’s image improvement has been achieved in a remarkably short period: It’s just five months since Sagansky and Tortorici moved into their jobs.

And the decisions--except for a few clinkers like canceling “Beauty and the Beast”--have shown direction, a sense of strategy, clear thinking and an aggressiveness typified by a purchase of 10 films from MCA before cable got them, with the package including “Born on the Fourth of July,” “Field of Dreams” and “Do the Right Thing.”

The major and healthy implication of CBS’ strong showing in the sweeps is that the battle for network leadership is wide open again, and that cautious programming is a sure way to lose next season. The race has broken open because NBC, once impregnable, now is highly vulnerable on three nights of the week--Sunday, Monday and Friday--and would be soft on Wednesday, too, except for the impact of its potent lead-off series, “Unsolved Mysteries.”

In addition, NBC’s long reign is threatened by the aging of key series that have carried the network on its two big nights--”The Cosby Show” and “Cheers” on Thursday and “The Golden Girls” on Saturday.

Into this newly open competitive atmosphere, where ABC already has made inroads with such shows as “Roseanne” and “The Wonder Years,” comes a hungry young CBS management team in search of a few knockout hits to turn the tide.

Remember, this is a network that started the current season with a lineup of severely retarded creativity--”Island Son,” “A Peaceable Kingdom,” “Top of the Hill,” “Wolf” and other such gems. It was as close to stillbirth as a network can get. CBS executives could not explain the strategy because there was none. There was no concept, no nothing.

Sagansky illustrated the network’s new, tough thinking when, instead of merely canceling the late-night “Pat Sajak Show,” he replaced it with full-week (and longer) storylines of “Wiseguy” reruns--attractive packaging of outstanding TV.

The general setup at CBS now, says Tortorici, is that Sagansky, as boss, is focusing on the network’s principal need--new shows--while he, as No. 2 man, is responsible for current programs. According to Tortorici, senior vice president of program planning, CBS may replace at least seven hours of its current shows--about one-third of its prime-time schedule--with new series come fall.

Plugging holes and making do, Tortorici says the MCA film package will be a major weapon for CBS next season because motion pictures usually are more reliable in the ratings than TV movies. But most of all, he says, shows for youngsters--who can bring entire families to the set--are pivotal to CBS, known for its older audience. In addition, CBS, with huge sports buys like baseball, will try to play off that image with promotion to attract young male viewers to series geared for them.

The die is cast. Old warhorse “Falcon Crest” was sent to the glue factory this week. And Tortorici says that series from the new CBS Entertainment team will have a strong presence immediately on the fall schedule even though Sagansky and he have been on the job just a short time.

A pocketful of miracles?

More like high hopes.