ATG Ends Deals With Some Writers

Artist Television Group, Michael Ovitz’s beleaguered television production company, has notified its roster of writer/producers with long-term development deals that they should immediately find work elsewhere.

As part of the dismantling of the company’s assets, ATG also has informed major networks it will not continue to finance three shows slated for production.

To keep ATG’s most promising show on schedule for the fall prime-time lineup, CBS has agreed to step in to manage the production of “The Ellen Show” starring comedian Ellen DeGeneres. CBS plans to produce the full order of 13 episodes of the sitcom.

“We’re taking over the production,” CBS President and Chief Executive Leslie Moonves said. “It was a simple decision to keep the show going.”

In the last two weeks, ATG has laid off all but a handful of its 38 executives and staff. Their job is to wind down the operations as quickly as possible, executives said.

The bigger challenge for ATG is the dissolution of its writer/producer deals.

Ovitz stunned the industry two years ago when, in a bid to jump-start his production company, he agreed to pay a group of star writers a total of $60 million in long-term development deals. The deals put Ovitz immediately in the business of prime-time television production. But those deals were the beginning of ATG’s financial problems.

Agents estimate that Ovitz’s company still owes those writers a total of $8 million. ATG declined to discuss the financial commitment.

“The people on our talent rosters [through] their representatives have been encouraged to secure other opportunities for their clients,” said James Ellis, an attorney for ATG. “We continue to be helpful in that process. We want to wrap this thing up as expeditiously as possible.”

In a bid to smooth things over with their writers, ATG is giving them the projects they developed at the company so they can sell them elsewhere.

Agents for some of these writers said they do not expect their clients to be paid in full on their contracts.

Complicating that process is a general wait-and-see attitude throughout Hollywood. Unwilling to pick up the high-priced deals Ovitz signed, other production companies are waiting for Ovitz to default on the deals, TV industry executives said. The other companies then plan to step in to pick up the most attractive writers at bargain prices.

ATG officials said the company continues to shop a package of key executives and writers to other Hollywood production companies, hoping to help at least a few of them find a new home.

Negotiations continue on the disposal of current ATG shows.

CBS Productions and ATG each own half of “The Ellen Show.” ATG would like to sell its interest in the show, executives with the television company said. CBS is looking for a partner to pick up ATG’s share, but is considering making the show itself and owning it outright.

WB Television Network announced Monday that it will pull the plug on “Lost in the USA,” the ATG-produced unscripted show it had ordered for the fall season. ATG owns 100% of the show. Without another production company stepping up to finance it, the network could not begin production on the 13-episode show. Co-producers of “Lost,” Bunim-Murray Productions, did not return calls.

WB plans to replace the show with “Ripley’s Believe It Or Not!” produced by Columbia Tristar Television Distribution.

WB has not yet decided whether it will move forward with two other ATG shows it has ordered--”Cedric the Coach” and “No Ordinary Girl.” Neither show is in production.