CBS: Not Resting on Its Ratings Laurels

TV or not TV. . . .

GAME PLAN: CBS may be television’s runaway ratings leader, but there’s still some fixing to do, says network honcho Howard Stringer.

Stringer, president of the CBS Broadcast Group, pinpoints Thursdays, for instance, acknowledging the impact of NBC’s “Seinfeld” on its new night.

“NBC made a smart move,” Stringer says. “Thursdays are going to be tough.”

The CBS Thursday entries “Top Cops” and “Street Stories” are having a rough time against such series as “Seinfeld” and Fox’s “The Simpsons”--which shows viewers have good sense. And CBS’ Thursday hit “Knots Landing” ends this season.

Then there’s the CBS Friday lineup of “The Golden Palace,” “Major Dad,” “Designing Women,” “Bob” and “Picket Fences.” While it has given the network a presence where it formerly had a void, Stringer says: “It has rescued us from disaster, but it hasn’t brought us triumph.”

Stringer affirms that “Bob,” which stars Bob Newhart, will get a six-week tryout this spring as part of CBS’ strong Monday lineup, replacing the new sitcom “Hearts Afire” at 8:30 p.m.

He maintains, however, that he’d be “surprised” if CBS’ two heralded new Monday sitcoms, “Hearts Afire” and “Love & War,” were not back next season, although many expected them to be bigger hits.

Stringer was a supporter of David Letterman’s decision to keep his program in New York rather than moving it to Los Angeles when he switches from NBC to CBS this summer.

“I think the show’s sensibility comes from New York,” the executive says. “L.A. has enough talk shows to sink the Queen Mary. We own the East Coast with the Letterman show.”

Regarding CBS’ policy of aiming for a wide age spectrum rather than catering to the young viewers favored by advertisers, Stringer points out that baby-boomers are still major spenders:

“It’s so logical, it makes me scream. They’re still revolutionizing spending. They’re the ones buying 38-inch television sets. This is where the money is, not with teen-agers.”

PATCHWORK: ABC has a lot riding on the Delta Burke series, “Delta,” when it moves the sitcom into the Tuesday slot following “Roseanne,” starting April 6. Although “Roseanne” is television’s top entertainment show, CBS has been dominating Tuesdays with “Rescue 911” and two-hour movies.

“Delta” did extremely well in the ratings when it was paired with “Roseanne” in an outing earlier this season, but it flopped when returned to its regular Thursday time slot. In its switch to Tuesday nights, “Delta” will take over for “The Jackie Thomas Show” after that series completes its season run.

PENDULUM: A year ago, Ted Koppel’s “Nightline” lost to Johnny Carson’s “Tonight Show” in the February ratings sweeps. This February, Koppel beat Jay Leno’s “Tonight Show.”

Koppel’s share of the audience was up 23% from a year ago. “Tonight’s” share was down 13%. “Nightline” also was a hair ahead of “Tonight” for the first 10 weeks of this year.

PROGRAM NOTE: Maybe it’s just a coincidence, but no reality series are being honored at the current Los Angeles festival of the New York Museum of Television & Radio.

DRAWING BOARD: It’s about time that NBC is finally planning to expel “I Witness Video” from its news division and move it to the entertainment department. A better idea would be to show it at 3 in the morning--in Greenland.

FIRST LADIES: Hillary Rodham Clinton has been compared to Eleanor Roosevelt for her significant tasks and independence. Clinton’s more of a TV natural. But Roosevelt also did some TV pioneering: From 1950-51, in her post-White House days, she had a panel-discussion show on NBC, “Mrs. Roosevelt Meets the Public.” Originally titled “Today With Mrs. Roosevelt,” it ran on Sunday afternoons.

CHOICES: Last Wednesday, the second day of Rodney G. King’s testimony, KABC-TV Channel 7 led its 11 p.m. news with a story on the Super Lotto jackpot.

OVER THERE: Eddie Constantine, who died recently in Germany, had a sense of humor about the fact that he found fame in Europe as a movie tough guy, but couldn’t get arrested in his native Los Angeles.

Disappointed? Sure. But as we stood with him after a big Hollywood banquet some years ago, and major film and TV stars walked by without recognizing him, he shrugged, smiled gamely and said: “How can I complain? They know me in Paris.”

WAITING GAME: The folks over at ABC’s “The Wonder Years” sure would like to take their young hero through his senior year in high school next season, but there’s pessimism about getting renewed. So much, in fact, that the last episode this season is being set up flexibly--to either end the series or, with luck, adjust the finale for a fall return.

BOTTOM LINE: They may not be as all-powerful as in the past, but networks still have appeal as properties, Ken Auletta writes in the March 15 issue of the New Yorker.

“Despite the proliferation of channel choices and the fact that network growth has stalled,” he notes, “a surprising number of competitors would love to own a network. If government were to change the rules and allow a network to merge with cable, John Malone, the CEO of the country’s largest cable company (Denver-based Tele-Communications Inc.) would leap at the opportunity. ‘The networks still represent an enormous economic force for program creation,’ he says. ‘It’s only the networks that have the economic clout to create entertainment programs.’ ”

GOLDEN AGE: A reader writes to remind us that it was 40 years ago next month that the “Hallmark Hall of Fame” and NBC gave long-form TV drama a considerable boost with a live two-hour production of “Hamlet,” starring Maurice Evans, on a Sunday afternoon.

NO FLUKE: The two-hour “Morning News” series on KTLA-TV Channel 5 hammered all the network competition--ABC’s “Good Morning America,” NBC’s “Today” and “CBS This Morning”--again in the February sweeps.

SPRING FEVER: The numbers on their uniforms are etched in my memory forever--and there they were again in an old Dodger-Yankee showdown on Prime Ticket: No. 42, Jackie Robinson, and No. 39, Roy Campanella.

BEING THERE: “I got nothin’ against mankind. It’s people I don’t trust.”--Archie Bunker (Carroll O’Connor) in “All in the Family.”

Say good night, Gracie. . . .