ABC Bets Heavily on Fall Show

ABC’s hopes for the fall TV season, and for reversing its programming slide, come down to a “push.”

In blackjack, a push is a game that ends in a tie and the gambler doesn’t lose his money on the table. Likewise, ABC is gambling big by placing one of its hottest prospects -- a mystery-drama called “Push, Nevada” -- on Thursdays at 9 p.m., one of the most competitive time slots in network television.

ABC executives concede that it’s risky to put a quirky new show about an IRS agent probing a casino embezzlement scheme against two established, Emmy-nominated hits: CBS’ “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” and NBC’s comedy “Will & Grace.”

“We expect there’s a lot of people sitting around going, ‘What are we going to watch on television on Thursday nights?’ ” joked Ben Affleck, executive producer and co-creator of “Push, Nevada,” last week at the Television Critics Assn. conference in Pasadena.

But ABC Entertainment Television Group Chairman Lloyd Braun told Affleck the network is not expecting “Push, Nevada” to finish first or even second in the ratings for that time period. “We just told them to produce a show of great quality in which you can maintain or grow a loyal audience,” Braun said.

After last year’s dismal showing, ABC’s strategy for the fall season is to stop the ratings decline and regain momentum. The network lost 20% of its prime-time audience last year and fell to fourth place among viewers aged 18 to 49, the group advertisers pay the most to reach.

The network realizes that it will take more than a year to rebuild its prime-time lineup, Braun said. So, ABC is positioning itself by offering new shows that executives hope will grab viewers who might be getting tired of aging Thursday night hits, such as NBC’s “Friends” and “ER” or CBS’ “Survivor.”

Walt Disney Co., which owns ABC, plans to heavily promote “Push, Nevada” on ABC and at Disney’s theme parks and on its cable channels such as ESPN. The company is betting the show will make a splash among viewers aged 18 to 34 and spawn a cadre of loyal fans who will be obsessed with “Push, Nevada’s” side show--an interactive Internet treasure hunt offering more than $1 million.

At the end of the 13th episode, the person or team that finds the “stolen money” wins the $1-million-plus prize. Said Affleck, “There’s nothing like a cheap gimmick to get people to watch your show.”

Treasure hunt clues will be revealed during each episode that follows an IRS agent who travels to a strange and corrupt Nevada town. Clues will take the form of room numbers, Web site addresses or fax numbers that flash on the screen. “Push, Nevada” is being pitched as “Twin Peaks” meets “Blair Witch Project.”

“It’s definitely a risk,” Braun said Thursday. “But hits do come from the fringes.”

So far, “Push, Nevada” has been the network’s most popular new show among advertisers. ABC has signed up two companies as program sponsors to get their products incorporated into background scenes and as part of the clues for the treasure hunt. A deal for a third corporate sponsor is in the works, said Alex Wallau, president of the ABC Television Network.

ABC could have placed the show in a less competitive time period to slowly build a fan base. Instead, the network is hoping to quickly cash in on the big ad money that movie studios spend for commercials on Thursday nights to promote their films for the weekend. “Push, Nevada” probably will appeal to the same young crowd that flocks to cinema megaplexes on weekends and to Internet chat rooms.

The show will cost nearly $2 million an episode to produce, the industry average for an hourlong drama. Disney executives say they expect to make money on the show, but it could bomb if the treasure hunt clues are too difficult, if viewers who miss a few episodes feel they can’t keep up with the unfolding story or if the show’s creative team devotes too much time to the treasure hunt rather than creating intriguing stories.

“The story has to be engaging. It has to be a compelling show,” agreed another executive producer of the show, Sean Bailey.

ABC had little to lose by putting “Push, Nevada” in a key time slot, said media analyst David W. Miller of investment banking firm Sanders Morris Harris.

“If the show works and it gets down to the wire, then Disney will have that much more [advertising] inventory to sell via the interactive portion on the Internet,” Miller said. “If the show hits, it will be huge for ABC on Thursday nights, which is the most important night for advertisers.”

Early on, the show’s producers worried that viewers might not sympathize with an IRS agent. “But nowadays with all these corruption and accounting scandals we actually were kind of precognitive in a way,” said Affleck, who has written two episodes but does not plan to appear on the show. “And we thought, they’re going to put us on against ‘CSI’ and ‘Will & Grace’ anyway, what does it really matter, we might as well make him an IRS agent.”