Liguori to Replace Berman at Fox; His Cable Strategy Will Undergo Network Test

When Peter Liguori inherited News Corp.’s FX cable channel seven years ago, it was adrift with a hodgepodge of programming. Slowly and methodically, Liguori built FX into the poor man’s HBO, with such in-your-face shows as “The Shield,” “Nip/Tuck” and the post-9/11 firefighter drama “Rescue Me.”

On Thursday, Liguori was named president of entertainment at Fox Broadcasting Co., replacing Gail Berman, who is expected to become president of Viacom Inc.’s Paramount Pictures. News Corp. moved quickly to name a successor because Fox is in the middle of its pilot season and must present its new lineup to advertisers in less than two months.

“Peter has had a stunning track record at FX,” said Peter Chernin, president and chief operating officer of News Corp., which owns both Fox and FX Networks. “He’s taken a sleepy, backwater channel and created some of the most distinctive programming on all of television.”

In his new job, Liguori will see whether the producing and marketing model he developed for cable can work in the far more rigid world of network TV.

“Welcome to the jungle,” said Kevin Reilly, NBC’s president of entertainment who worked with Liguori for three years at FX. The duo plotted out FX’s strategy of creating original programming with a sharp edge, but “the network game is more of a high-volume game, with public ramifications to every decision that you make,” Reilly said.

Liguori said in an interview that at Fox he hoped to be “the best advocate for the best possible programming with the best possible talent.”

The 44-year-old Liguori has proved to be particularly adept at establishing relationships with talent. When producer Ryan Murphy wanted to develop his racy drama to pull the surgical mask off the plastic surgery industry, he told executives at Warner Bros. Television that he would develop the show only for FX. Murphy said FX’s success with an avant-garde show like “The Shield,” a drama about a corrupt Los Angeles cop, was what drew him to a cable channel even though a broadcast network deal would have yielded more money.

“In many ways, he is the network,” Murphy said of Liguori. “Peter’s incredibly supportive, very stern, and ultimately you trust that he’s going to do the right thing.... He always has.”

Liguori, who has a five-year contract, will oversee all of Fox’s development, program scheduling, marketing, business affairs and promotion.

Chernin said Liguori’s replacement at FX hadn’t been decided. Berman’s start date at Paramount is still up in the air, and until she departs she will work with Liguori.

Although Fox is on track to end the season in first place in the 18- to 49-year-old demographic, the network is not without its challenges.

Last year, it launched an ambitious year-round programming schedule, a strategy to which both Liguori and Chernin said they remained committed. The schedule sought to blunt the effect of the Summer Olympics on NBC in August and work around the problem Fox faces every October because of its baseball contract.

Fox must air Major League Baseball playoffs and the World Series throughout October, which makes it difficult to roll out the new season in late September. Last fall, the network faltered when it aired reality shows such as “My Big Fat Obnoxious Boss” during months that rivals like ABC were gaining traction with new shows such as “Lost” and “Desperate Housewives.”

“Baseball does present a terrific promotional platform and it is a part of Fox’s schedule ... and it’s going to be embraced,” Liguori said.

Critics complain that Fox has become overly dependent on “American Idol,” whose fourth-season ratings have soared. But Liguori said the success of “Idol,” and the creative pedigree of “24” and “Arrested Development,” made it more exciting for him to accept the job. Still, Liguori “has got to figure out how to program all of the hours in the week that ‘American Idol,’ ‘24’ and ‘House’ are not on,” said Shari Anne Brill, director of programming for ad-buying firm Carat USA.

Liguori is used to tough times. When the former top marketing executive at Time Warner Inc.’s HBO took over FX in August 1998, it was little more than the NASCAR channel. With a programming budget of $100 million a year, it was making about $19 million in profit. Now, FX’s programming budget tops $300 million a year and the network has a profit of about $175 million, said Derek Baine, an analyst with Kagan World Media.

“Their programming expenses have gone through the roof, but it’s paid off,” Baine said.

These days, he said, FX is spending about $2 million an episode for an hourlong drama -- the same price that major broadcast networks pay. Chernin declined to discuss numbers.

The decision to tap Liguori is “well-earned recognition of all that Peter has accomplished at FX,” said Peter Roth, president of Warner Bros. Television, which produces “Nip/Tuck.” “He’s a great, enthusiastic, creative cheerleader.”

Liguori will have to navigate the uncertain waters over federal rules on indecency. Cable channels like FX are not bound by the same government standards as broadcast networks.

At Fox, Brill said, Liguori “won’t have as much of the freedom, or the poetic license, that he’s had before ... but if he can bring that edge sensibility, although a little toned down, he’ll do a great job for Fox.”