ABC Gets Triple Vision for Newsmagazine ‘20/20’

Taking a page from NBC’s playbook, ABC will combine its “20/20” and “PrimeTime Live” newsmagazines into one new program next fall that will have three editions each week, all called “20/20.”

ABC News Chairman Roone Arledge and ABC News President David Westin made the announcement Tuesday during the network’s unveiling of its fall prime-time schedule before advertisers and media representatives in New York.

Network executives had been considering going to a single “brand identity” for its newsmagazines for several months, spurred by the success its rival has had with multiple editions of “Dateline NBC.” The new “20/20” will air Wednesdays and Fridays at 10 p.m. and Sundays at 9 p.m.

Unlike “Dateline,” however, each “20/20” will sport different anchor teams--to be selected from current “20/20” hosts Barbara Walters and Hugh Downs, “PrimeTime Live” hosts Diane Sawyer and Sam Donaldson, and Connie Chung (who recently joined ABC after previously hosting her own newsmagazine on CBS) and Charles Gibson (former co-host of the network’s “Good Morning America”).

The specific anchor teams and other details about the newsmagazine will be announced this summer.

“The purpose of merging our prime-time news programs was to create one program with a unified staff that would combine the best attributes of both of our highly successful existing programs,” Arledge said.

Westin also made reference to the competitiveness between the old “20/20” and “PrimeTime Live,” which resulted in occasional friction between Walters and Sawyer over getting dominant stories and interviews.

“By eliminating internal competition and by putting everyone on the same team, we are certain that this new program will be an even better one than either of its predecessors,” he said.

Also unveiled was ABC’s new entertainment schedule, which includes five new comedies and three new dramas. The network is hoping for a reversal of fortune from this season, when nine of its 11 new fall shows flopped and the audience declined by 9%.

Key elements in ABC’s strategy include moving some of its established hits to do battle with rival networks. “Home Improvement” will shift from 9 p.m. Tuesday to 8 p.m. Tuesday for a face-off with NBC’s “Mad About You.” The 2-year-old “Spin City,” with Michael J. Fox, will move from 8 p.m. Tuesday to 9 p.m. Tuesday to go up against NBC’s “Just Shoot Me.”

The network had wanted to move its hit comedy “The Drew Carey Show” against “Just Shoot Me,” but Carey adamantly protested the shift, sources said. His show will remain at 9 p.m. Wednesday.

Among the new series is “Two of a Kind,” a comedy with former “Full House” stars Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, and “Mr. Chapel,” a drama starring Michael Madsen about a man who helps crime victims without using a gun.

Malcolm McDowell will play Mr. Roarke in a new version of “Fantasy Island,” this time with three assistants--none of them, however, a short fellow named Tattoo.

Chris Rock is one of the executive producers of “The Hughleys,” a sitcom about a man (D.L. Hughley) who moves his family to the suburbs but worries about losing touch with his African American roots. It will follow “Home Improvement” on Tuesdays.

ABC announced two shows that have been ordered for midseason: “It’s Like, You Know . . . ,” a comedy from former “Seinfeld” co-executive producer Peter Mehlman and former ABC Entertainment President Ted Harbert about a dedicated New Yorker battling life in Los Angeles; and “Strange Days,” about a futuristic world where “big business” funds “big science.”

Here is ABC’s fall schedule, with new shows in bold:

Sunday: “The Wonderful World of Disney,” “20/20,” “The Practice.”

Monday: “Monday Night Football.”

Tuesday: “Home Improvement, “The Hughleys,” “Spin City,” “Sports Night,” “NYPD Blue.”

Wednesday: “Dharma & Greg,” “Two Guys, a Girl and a Pizza Place,” “The Drew Carey Show,” “The Secret Lives of Men,” “20/20.”

Thursday: “Mr. Chapel,” “ABC Thursday Night Movie.”

Friday: “Two of a Kind,” “Boy Meets World,” “Sabrina, the Teenage Witch,” “Brother’s Keeper,” “20/20.”

Saturday: “America’s Funniest Home Videos,” “Fantasy Island,” “Cupid.”