Company Town : Things Are Coming Up ‘Rosie’

The casts of “Friends” and “Mad About You” were here to promote their reruns. King World, the distributor of talk shows by Oprah Winfrey and now Geraldo Rivera, threw a bash for more than 1,000 clients at a local nightclub, and invited Kool and the Gang and the Village People to entertain.

And no one had bigger billing than Rosie O’Donnell, the comedian and movie actress whom Warner Bros. is trying to cast as a modern-day Mike Douglas in a variety show of her own. Her name covered the huge marquee outside Caesars Palace--in perfect eyeshot of the Sands convention hall next door, where TV buyers from all over the world congregated this week to place their orders for the new crop of programs and for network reruns.

Robert Daly, the head of Warner Bros., who took about 400 clients to see O’Donnell’s stand-up routine Monday night, said it was just a lucky coincidence that O’Donnell was booked at the same time station owners were flooding this gambling mecca for the biggest TV show bazaar in the world.

Though the days of decadent buffets and bountiful time slots for buyers to fill are gone, this annual fair is still a selling extravaganza. Known as NATPE, for the National Assn. of Television Programming Executives, it is where production houses recoup years of investment in network shows such as “Frasier” by selling their reruns to TV stations and international buyers. It is also where shows never intended for network distribution--such as “Ricki Lake,” “Hercules” and “Star Trek: The Next Generation”--get their starts.

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Buyers come to fill holes in their schedules, and sellers hope to write enough orders to justify putting new shows into production. The risks for both are big: Nine out of 10 shows launched into “first-run syndication,” without a network run, fail. The ones such as “Oprah” that endure make money galore because of advertising revenues and the relative low cost of these shows.

Copycat shows were pervasive this year, with several “Baywatch” and “Ricki Lake” wannabes. There was also a notable comeback in game shows, with Columbia TriStar Television enjoying a strong response to the remakes of “The Newlywed Game” and “The Dating Game.”

Although sitcom reruns have fetched high prices, there was a dearth of sizzling new fare. Sales executives said that is partly because of the uncertainty over changes in federal rules that threaten to reduce the time slots available for these shows.

The changes mean that for the first time in decades, networks can own the programs they air. That means buying less from the studios. Another new rule allows their affiliates to schedule reruns of network sitcoms in the daytime hours before prime time. These hours had become a gravy train for studios with such programs as Paramount’s “Entertainment Tonight.”

The effects have only begun to surface. Days before the convention, Fox’s Twentieth Television pulled the plug on long-running “A Current Affair” in part because the company’s key New York station had knocked it off when it didn’t pair well with higher-rated sitcom reruns of “Mad About You,” which it had recently purchased.

Warner Bros.’ “Extra” magazine show faced a similar fate, but bought time for the tabloid at least on NBC stations by giving up an equity stake to the network in exchange for continued air time.

The time slot crunch is one reason why MCA Television on Monday canceled its proposed new talk show, “He Says, She Says,” even before the convention got underway. The bigger reason: The well-publicized backlash against talk shows such as “Jenny Jones” and “Jerry Springer,” which Washington has called tawdry and advertisers have begun to reject.

None of the dozen or so new talkers trying to compete against the 20 or so already on the air have generated much buzz. That makes O’Donnell’s near-talk show, picked up by stations reaching more than 80% of all television viewers, all the more noteworthy.

(Under the circumstances, some station executives were incredulous that Warner Bros. had closed off its booth to anyone who did not have a prior appointment. “Are they so successful they can act like the Gestapo?” complained one.)

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Television executives said Warner Bros.’ cancellation of “Carnie,” another of the talk-glut victims, left stations with a need for O’Donnell as a replacement.

“There’s not much choice,” said one station owner. “Rosie is the only one of the new talk hosts with any name recognition. But I don’t give her much chance for survival. No actor has made it as a talk show host.”

They remember how Whoopi Goldberg and Chevy Chase bombed. And they doubt O’Donnell will have the extra time for her family she has hoped a TV career would give her. “It’s harder than it looks,” said one station executive. “I give her three months.”

With O’Donnell, some station owners worry not so much about the tawdriness factor as the variety format. Daytime audiences tend not to like multitopic shows, music or interviews with celebrities other than those on the A list, which are hard to book.

The general slim pickings gave “Viper,” an action-adventure show from Paramount Television, a surprise lift. Paramount reintroduced the show this year after German buyers agreed to finance half the production costs, so eager were they to have it for their audiences.

Columbia TriStar Television also broke records with its two game shows. Within a brief two days, Columbia had signed 12 Fox stations and enough others to reach 50% of the country for the one-hour game show block.

Columbia said games were a good alternative to talk and the newsmagazines and that they paired well with sitcom reruns such as “Seinfeld” and “Home Improvement,” which stations are airing in evening hours before prime time.