Fox Hopes World Series Can Boost Fall Batting Average

Fox executives hope their broadcast of this year’s Fall Classic will help halt a less than classic fall for the troubled network.

Despite a disastrous start to the month-old season, punctuated by the yanking of all its new series to date, a nearly 10% drop in household ratings from last season and some question marks surrounding upcoming programs, Fox TV President David Hill expressed confidence that the network’s telecast of the World Series starting Saturday would mark the beginning of a huge turnaround.

Hill said Fox will use the baseball championship to aggressively promote its lineup of veteran series, such as “Melrose Place,” “Beverly Hills, 90210” and “The Simpsons,” and the premiere of its one remaining fall newcomer, “Millennium,” the highly anticipated project from “X-Files” creator Chris Carter.

“We see the World Series as very important,” Hill said. “It will bring eyes to the network that have never seen it. We’ll promote our newer shows and showcase our existing ones. We will not make the assumption that everyone knows what’s on our schedule.”

Hill, who became president of Fox TV in July, added that he and newly seated programming chief Peter Roth are aggressively pursuing talent for new programming, and are determined to restore a clear identity and vision for the network.

The two executives already have made several quick moves in their quest to revive Fox--ousting two of its new comedies, “Lush Life” and “Love and Marriage,” benching two other new shows, “Party Girl” and “Big Deal,” returning “America’s Most Wanted” to the lineup and moving “Married . . . With Children” from Saturdays to Sunday nights, where it has aired most of its 10 previous seasons.

“What Peter and I had to face is that we had to move quickly,” said Hill, who laughed and quipped easily during an interview Monday as he talked how he planned to combat the network’s poor start.

Hill, who was previously president of Fox Sports, said, “Peter and I have come to the team while it’s in training camp. There were a couple of rookies that didn’t make it and had to be cut. But we’ve got some great free agents coming in at the end of the month. We’ve got the season premiere of ‘The Simpsons,’ ‘Millennium,’ ‘Ned and Stacey.’ ”

Hill and other industry insiders say many of the network’s hopes depend on the launch of “Millennium,” which on Oct. 25 will assume “The X-Files’ ” time period on Fridays at 9 p.m. But some critics believe the new series, about an underground group of agents fighting the forces of evil, may be too intense and dark to appeal immediately to a large audience.

“We’re not expecting ‘Millennium’ to be a huge hit right off the bat,” Hill said. “But it’s like a brilliantly made film every week; it transcends TV drama. It really is a tour de force. It’s not going to start through the roof, but it will build and be a monster.”

He added: “Yes, there is pressure across the board. There’s no doubt that Fox hasn’t had the clarity of voice in speaking to its audience that it had in its initial burst. Now Peter and I are determined to prove that Fox is back, that we are young, and that we are fresh. It will show in the way we look and the way our shows are positioned. We’re rediscovering our roots.”

Fox will move “The X-Files” to Sundays at 9 p.m. starting Oct. 27 (unless there is a seventh game of the World Series, which would delay the move one week).

Neither Roth nor Hill is being blamed for the chinks in Fox’s armor. The current prime-time schedule was put together by former entertainment President John Matoian, who resigned last month.

“I really don’t know what happened or why things went wrong,” Hill said.

But others said the network was hit by several negatives, including the lack of a breakout comedy hit the last two seasons and competition for the youthful urban audience, which used to gravitate toward Fox but is now being wooed by the upstart UPN and WB networks--plus the cyclical nature of the television business.

“This is part of the cycle that every network goes through,” said Garth Ancier, a former Fox programming chief who now holds that job at WB. “All their returning programs have suffered erosion, and having more competitors in the marketplace makes it tougher. I don’t think we can take credit for it. They just have to experience the replenishing of the crop, just like NBC did and like CBS is doing now. All is not lost. The Fox network is a very major force.”

Added Paul Schulman, president of Paul Schulman Co., a media buying firm: “Yes, Fox has severe ratings problems, but that doesn’t mean the season is over. ‘X-Files’ has already hit the ground running, and the promotion on ‘Millennium’ has been tremendous.”

Hill said he was also particularly high on Fox’s bench strength: the animated “King of the Hill” from “Beavis & Butt-head” creator Mike Judge; “Pauly,” starring Pauly Shore; and “Secret Service Guy,” starring Judge Reinhold.

With Roth and the recent addition of Greg Nathanson as a programming executive for the Fox station group, Hill said, “We’re soon going to be zinging just like the old Fox.”