CBS Unveils Late-Night Television Lineup

In an attempt to compete in the crowded late-night TV landscape, CBS on Thursday announced a late-night lineup that will combine a new comedy from Norman Lear with five new action adventure series that will air over five different nights of the week. CBS executives said the new schedule will provide effective counter-programming to the talk show format that dominates late-night TV.

The lineup, announced in Los Angeles at the annual meeting of CBS affiliated stations, will face tough competition from “Arsenio Hall” and other syndicated late-night talk shows, even on some of CBS’ own stations. Since the demise of Pat Sajak’s talk show a number of CBS stations have chosen Arsenio Hall’s show and other programs over CBS’ current late-night lineup of “Wiseguy” and “21 Jump Street.”

“We’re now developing programming for late night the way we were developing for prime time,” Jeff Sagansky, the new CBS entertainment chief, told the affiliates. “We need your station clearances to make this viable.” Clearance by an affiliate means it carries the network’s offerings rather than those of other suppliers.

The new Norman Lear series, “Jody Gordon and the News,” will divide its half hour between two related segments. The first will focus on the life of the young TV news producer. When she comes home from work at night, she relaxes by watching her favorite TV show, the “Storyteller,” whose fantasy stories she enjoys.

“Jody Gordon” will premiere in October and will be broadcast at 12:40 a.m. This fall the show will be preceded each night by rebroadcasts of “Wiseguy” and “Mission Impossible.” It will be combined with the new action adventures beginning in January.

The new action adventure series are “Judgment Night” from Lorimar Television, “Paris Steele” from Louis B. Chesler Productions, “Sweating Bullets” from Kushner-Locke Productions, “Slick” from Alliance Productions and “Scene of the Crime” from Stephen J. Cannell Productions.

CBS also announced that it will showcase several new talk show hosts in late night this summer, including comedian Joy Behar and Chicago radio talk show hosts Steve Dahl and Gary Meier. They will alternate on a nightly series beginning at 12:40 a.m. called “The Midnight Hour.”

CBS, which was negotiating its numerous late-night deals right up until this week, was not able to show pilots from the new shows to the affiliates. “CBS is going to have to behave like a syndicator selling these shows to the stations,” said Jeffrey Epstein, chief financial officer for King World, the syndicators of Oprah Winfrey’s talk show. “They made a mistake in not having another show ready when Sajak ended,” he said.

“We weren’t making a decision to move away from CBS when we decided to carry Arsenio,” said Hank Yaggi, the general manager of WUSA-TV, a Washington affiliate. The station had signed up to carry the Hall talk show beginning in January before CBS made its new late-night plans. “Arsenio changed the face of late-night,” said Yaggi, “and anybody would have to look at carrying him.”