Programmers Look for the Next Big Hit

Courtrooms, cozy couches, resolutions, Rosie and Roseanne will all take center stage starting Monday in New Orleans in front of almost 20,000 TV station managers, syndicators and executives looking for the next hit in syndicated programming.

The 35th annual convention of the National Assn. of Television Programming Executives--a huge supermarket of TV programs and services--will feature the unveiling of several new celebrity-based talk shows hoping to catch the spark ignited by the success of Rosie O’Donnell’s daily chat fest.

Among the show-business veterans dipping their feet into the talk waters are Roseanne, Magic Johnson, Howie Mandel, Robert Urich and Donny and Marie Osmond. Johnson’s late-night entry will bow in June, but the others are slated for the fall.

Other high-profile offerings for sale at the four-day program bazaar include a new version of “The Hollywood Squares” game show; “Forgive or Forget,” a relationship show with a twist in which guests apologize to relatives or loved ones, who then have the option of accepting or rejecting the pleas; new dramas based on the hit movies “The Crow” and “Mortal Kombat”; and “V.I.P.,” an action hour starring Pamela Lee as a sexy bodyguard.

The popularity of the “Judge Judy” show has resulted in more courtroom-based shows featuring charismatic judges at the center of the action. The two legal newcomers are headed up by Judge Joe Brown and Judge Mills Lane.

Most of the new talk-oriented offerings are continuing the trend of “user-friendly” programs that followed a backlash in 1995 against daytime talk shows centered on dysfunctional relationships and confrontations between guests. Advertisers and viewers turned against the shows after a shower of criticism from legislators and a shooting death involving guests on “The Jenny Jones Show.”

Ironically, the new attitude surrounding syndicated talk shows and the kinder, gentler approach of hosts are being spotlighted at the convention just when the most outrageous survivor of the tabloid-based talk programs, “The Jerry Springer Show,” is reaching new heights of popularity. Springer’s series, which regularly features a mix of in-studio brawls, shoving matches and guests with extreme weight problems or physical disabilities, is challenging the perennial front-runner Oprah Winfrey for the syndicated talk-show ratings crown.

“Going into this convention, Jerry Springer is the true hit,” said Greg Meidel, NATPE’s chairman as well as chairman of Universal Television Group, which is marketing “Springer.” “We don’t apologize for it. It is what it is. The fact is, audiences love a big entertainment show. This show is fun. Aren’t we allowed to have a laugh?”

TV executives said that despite Springer’s recent success, there are reasons not to leap on the bandwagon.

“Yes, we can’t ignore that Springer is the No. 1 talk show right now,” said Rick Jacobson, president of Twentieth Television, which is marketing “Forgive or Forget” as well as “The Magic Hour” with Magic Johnson.

“But as great as he’s going, advertisers and stations really don’t want to deal with all the baggage he brings,” Jacobson said. “He’s a difficult national advertiser sell.”

Larry Lyttle, president of Big Ticket Television, which produces “Judge Judy” and the new “Judge Joe Brown,” added, “People want to see resolution, rather than just conflict.” He added that the courtroom setting allows people who “are in pain to find that kind of resolution. Viewers want and can relate to that. They’re talk shows with resolutions.”

The new celebrity-driven talk shows, mainly throwbacks to the talk-variety format popularized in the 1960s by Mike Douglas and Merv Griffin, will also try to score a more meaningful connection with viewers.

Said Frank Kelly, co-president of Paramount Domestic Television, which is marketing the Mandel show, “There was just basically one type of talk show before Rosie O’Donnell, but she opened up a whole new way to go with the talk-show genre. It now doesn’t matter what the story behind the show is, it’s how big a connection a host can make with an audience.”

The most prominent name entering the daytime arena is Roseanne, although details about the format and style of her show remained vague. The comedian, who ended her groundbreaking blue-collar comedy last season after nine years, is also scheduled to be the keynote speaker on Tuesday at the convention.

Michael King, vice chairman of King World, which is marketing “Roseanne,” said he agrees with reports that the show could earn $200 million in revenue over the next two years. King World is also the producer of “The Oprah Winfrey Show.”

“This show will be unique and different,” King said. “Roseanne has been a trailblazer in everything she’s done. The show will have incredible comedy, of course, but there will also be a lot of relevance. It will have celebrities, but the show will be coming from a different point of view.”

He said there will be no similarities between “Roseanne” and “Rosie”: “Rosie O’Donnell is basically doing Merv Griffin. If we did that, we wouldn’t be reaching Roseanne’s potential.”

Mandel will be doing a more conventional talk show, said Paramount’s Kelly: “We’re not going to reinvent the wheel in terms of format. But we’re going to take Howie’s cleverness and turn that into a show that wears well inside and out.”

Barry Thurston, president of Columbia TriStar Television Distribution, said he was confident that the reunion of Donny and Marie Osmond will attract large audiences. “They look great and sound great,” said Thurston, who said there would be a lot of musical numbers of the show. “I think the audience will catch on to their freshness and enthusiasm.”