Bad Blood Grows Between Combative TV Networks

In May, when NBC picked up ABC’s “The Jeff Foxworthy Show” for next season, television insiders muttered about an ulterior motive. This week, after NBC raided its rival again to steal away “The Naked Truth,” a year-old comedy starring Tea Leoni, pundits began wondering whether the TV networks are turning into the Hatfields and McCoys.

Long characterized by what was deemed friendly (or at least collegial) competition, the TV industry has been abuzz over what are seen as increasingly hostile relationships among the networks.

The feud between NBC and ABC appears to have the highest profile feud and is favorite discussion topic. Insiders attribute the bad blood in part to circumstances behind the departure of Jamie Tarses, who left NBC and was recently named president of ABC Entertainment.

Because of that acrimony, many executives see NBC’s appetite for two marginally rated ABC series as evidence of a more subtle aim than just bolstering its schedule. An added incentive, they say, is that NBC could embarrass ABC by making hits out of shows it developed.

Yet icy relations there are hardly the only tension within the business. Having emerged as the prime-time leader, NBC has nettled competitors with what they perceive as a smug attitude and programming stunts designed specifically to cripple rivals’ new shows.

As a result, there is little love lost between certain top NBC and CBS executives. NBC and Fox also have gone at it on more than one occasion, while the fledgling UPN and WB networks have frequently sniped at each other in the 18 months since their launches.

“There was an honor among thieves that existed before, where you played hard but you didn’t try to hurt your opponent,” said one network executive who spoke on condition of anonymity. “Now it’s gotten ugly.”

The larger question is whether any of this ill will has an effect on programming decisions. Network officials maintain that they can’t afford to make multimillion-dollar commitments--as ordering a prime-time series entails--just to carry out vendettas.

Still, sources say competition for those deals has become increasingly personal. Asked if the business is more rancorous than in the past, one veteran television agent said, “There’s no question about it. I don’t remember it being this bad in the last 10 years.”

One possible reason for that atmosphere involves the high stakes and diminishing audience for network programs. Since broadcast networks have to do more scraping and clawing for viewers as cable nibbles their share of the pie, they may feel more pressure and be less charitable toward the competition.

Industry consolidation into a few major players has also set them against each other on a variety of fronts, not just in the weekly ratings battle.

“In the ‘70s and up until the ‘80s, three networks carved up 90% of the audience. It was a good business for everyone,” said Grant Tinker, who served as chairman of NBC from 1981 to 1986. “It’s more difficult to make money now. I don’t remember the battles ever being so personal.”

Certainly, the rhetoric has taken a more acerbic turn. NBC President Bob Wright, for example, called ABC “the Disney network” at a news conference in January, alluding to the studio’s acquisition of and influence over the network.

Disney Chairman Michael Eisner then said at ABC’s affiliates meeting that NBC parent General Electric wasn’t as much a part of the entertainment industry, observing that they “do well with engines.”

Perhaps more than anyone, outspoken NBC West Coast President Don Ohlmeyer has found himself at the fray’s center.

The NBC executive called Disney President Michael Ovitz “the antichrist” in Time magazine a few months ago, citing what he considered to be Disney’s underhanded dealings over Tarses. He vowed to do everything he could to make Disney’s $19-billion acquisition of ABC parent Capital Cities “as worthless as possible.”

Ohlmeyer has also publicly questioned why the government has been so lax in monitoring the activities of News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch, the Australian magnate who owns Fox Broadcasting.

More recently, NBC threatened to pull advertising from TV Guide, which is owned by Murdoch, after it trumpeted a Fox show (“Party of Five”) on its cover. The other networks have frequently complained that the publication favors Fox, which studio and TV Guide officials have denied.

Murdoch also owns the New York Post, which printed at least two unflattering items about Ohlmeyer earlier this year, causing some executives to wonder if those stories amounted to payback for the executive’s earlier remarks.

In an interview, Ohlmeyer acknowledged that there are “clearly one or two situations” of enmity in the business, but downplayed the ABC-NBC matter and stated his respect for Murdoch. While he did not back away from his previous statements, Ohlmeyer said that if there is any ill will, “that’s between me and Ovitz,” not between the two networks. (A Disney spokesman said Ovitz had no comment on the matter.)

NBC officials also say they’re constantly cautioning employees against being cocky about their success, because of how quickly fortunes can turn in television. As for his desire to beat ABC or any other network, Ohlmeyer stressed that there is nothing personal or mean-spirited about it.

“That’s what my job is,” he said. “That’s what I get paid to do. We get paid to win.” According to Ohlmeyer, network television is now a zero-sum game, where gains by one network will probably come out of the audience controlled by another. As a result, it makes business sense to prevent rivals from establishing a toehold with new programs.

That logic hasn’t always sat well with competitors, who cite moves seemingly devised solely to undermine their new programs. A recent case saw NBC repeat the big-budget theatrical movie “Backdraft” against the premiere of Fox’s “L.A. Firefighters,” a similarly themed new series.

To be fair, Fox did the same last year when CBS introduced its heavily promoted prime-time soap “Central Park West,” by airing a two-hour “Beverly Hills 90210” opposite the debut and a special “Melrose Place” opposite its second airing. Some executives, in fact, suggest that such maneuvers have gradually escalated into one-upmanship over time that ultimately hurts all broadcasters, making it increasingly difficult to launch new shows.

ABC is still smarting over “3rd Rock From the Sun,” which the network developed. After ABC didn’t put “3rd Rock” on its prime-time schedule last fall, the show’s producer, the Carsey-Werner Co., sold the series to NBC. The program immediately scored strong ratings and became a sore point among hit-starved ABC officials.

Because there is a sense that NBC has at times thumbed its nose at competitors, CBS took some glee in making a deal with Ted Danson on a new sitcom for next season, since NBC pursued that project as well.

NBC maintained that CBS overpaid for the deal with Danson and for an upcoming series featuring another former NBC star, Bill Cosby. CBS officials have written that off as sour grapes, and observers expect NBC to do all it can to blunt the premieres of those shows.

Similarly, there is an expectation that NBC may throw an inordinate amount of promotional weight behind “Foxworthy”--promos are already airing on the network--and “The Naked Truth,” which has been ordered as a backup show but could premiere as early as the fall.

Ohlmeyer stressed that all the deals are unrelated, with NBC seeing Leoni as a budding star and Foxworthy as an underutilized asset. “It’s not like we went and tried to steal [‘Home Improvement’ star] Tim Allen from them,” he said. “They passed on ‘Jeff Foxworthy,’ and we picked it up.”

“The Naked Truth” may be harder for ABC to swallow, since the network made an offer on the program and the show’s production company, Brillstein-Grey Communications (which also produces “Jeff Foxworthy”), chose instead to go with NBC.

Even now, there are friendships among rivals. Ohlmeyer and CBS Entertainment President Leslie Moonves remain close, and Moonves has long-standing ties to ABC Entertainment Chairman Ted Harbert.

Although most executives preferred not to be interviewed, fearing that they may get caught in the cross-fire, Ohlmeyer insisted that the gossip and press accounts and even some of his own feistier comments have made the state of network relations sound more overheated than it is. “I wouldn’t presuppose that whether I was gunning for ABC or not would cause them to lose any sleep,” he said. “It’s much more an issue of amusement than anything else.”

Times staff writer Sallie Hofmeister contributed to this story.