3 May Be a Crowd for Warner

Most television studios would be thrilled to land a show in the lucrative Thursday night at 8 o’clock time slot.

Unless, of course, you’re Warner Bros. Television, which this fall could have three of its hottest prospects pitted against one another in that prime slot on competing networks.

Slugging it out may be: “Joey,” the much touted spinoff of “Friends,” on NBC; “The O.C.,” this season’s hit with teenagers, on Fox Broadcasting Co.; and “The Mountain,” a soap opera-styled drama that unfolds at a ski resort, on the WB network.

With the other networks opting for so-called reality fare or wrestling, Warner Bros. finds itself in the unusual situation of producing the only scripted programs on network television during that crucial time slot.

The Thursday night competition underscores the scramble underway to claim the 8 p.m. gap left by the departure of “Friends,” which consistently delivered big ratings for NBC and served as its anchor for the rest of the evening’s lineup.

The head-to-head combat also illustrates the effect of media consolidation, some industry experts say.

These days, five companies -- News Corp., NBC Universal, Walt Disney Co., Viacom Inc. and Time Warner Inc., through its Warner Bros. Television studio -- supply most of the scripted shows for the major networks.

“There are fewer and fewer studios producing shows anymore, so it has become inevitable that some of their shows will be placed in the same time slots on different networks,” said Jay Sures, a partner and co-head of television at United Talent Agency.

Warner Bros. Television President Peter Roth declined to comment. But network sources said Roth tried, but failed, to persuade Fox executives to find a different time for “The O.C.” so it would not have to compete against “Joey,” a show vying for much of the same young adult audience.

Fox Entertainment President Gail Berman also declined to comment. But during a conference call with reporters Thursday, Berman said the network last year had planned to put “The O.C.” on Thursday nights, but ended up placing the teen soap in a safer slot Wednesday.

But now all bets are off, she said.

“We’re talking about a show that has a fantastic young adult following....We think that there is an opening and we’d like to seize that and stake our claim there with this tremendous asset,” Berman said.

One network in the high-stakes competition, however, might blink.

The WB is considering abandoning its plan to roll out “The Mountain” at 8 p.m. Thursday rather than competing against “The O.C.,” sources said. The two shows share such similar themes that some have jokingly referred to “The Mountain” as “The Snow C.”

WB executives declined to comment. WB is owned by Time Warner and Tribune Co., which also publishes the Los Angeles Times.

Thursday night has become TV’s most lucrative, in part because movie studios pay top dollar to advertise their weekend film releases. Carmakers and retailers also pay big for commercial time to influence weekend spending. Some network executives estimate that as much as $2 million a week in ad revenue will be up for grabs -- money that otherwise would have gone to “Friends.”

NBC is banking that much of the same crowd that tuned in for “Friends” will embrace “Joey” in the fall, despite new offerings.

“We’re not worried at all,” NBC Universal Television Group President Jeff Zucker said.

That’s not the view of Fox executives. They think “The O.C.” gives them a good shot at poaching viewers. In fact, last week Fox sweetened its deal with Warner Bros. to move “The O.C.” to Thursday nights when it premieres for the season in November, sources said.

This isn’t the first time that Warner Bros. Television has produced multiple shows that have ended up in the same time slot -- and successfully coexisted.

The studio, which will have up to 25 series on the major networks next season, has two highly rated shows that have been slugging it out at 10 p.m. Thursdays: “Without a Trace” on CBS and “ER” on NBC. Warner Bros. also will have three shows competing on Wednesdays: NBC’s “West Wing” and ABC’s “The Bachelor,” under its Telepictures Production, at 9 p.m., as well as a new John Goodman sitcom for CBS, “Center of the Universe,” scheduled for 9:30 p.m.

Disney’s Touchstone Television will have competing sitcoms at 9:30 p.m. Tuesdays: “Scrubs” on NBC and “Rodney” on ABC. 20th Century Fox Television has “NYPD Blue” for ABC and “Judging Amy” on CBS at 10 p.m. Tuesdays.

There’s one man who isn’t losing sleep over the looming battle among Warner Bros. shows Thursday nights -- producer Mark Burnett, reigning king of “reality” programming.

“Those shows will eat each other up,” predicted Burnett, whose unscripted hit show “Survivor” has aired for several seasons at 8 p.m. Thursdays on CBS. If “Survivor” can hold its own against “Friends,” he said, “then I don’t think we’ll have a problem.”