TELEVISION WB network plans makeover for fall

The network wants to reach a more diverse group of viewers.
By MIKE DUFFY
KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
LOS ANGELES -- Same old, same old WB.
And that was precisely the problem, says WB chairman Garth Ancier. The clever network carved out a successful niche as a channel-surfing clubhouse for younger viewers over the past decade, built on such shows as "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," "Dawson's Creek" and "Gilmore Girls."
Then came last season. Ratings stalled and there were eye-candy miscalculations, with the embarrassing flop of a hunky, clunky new "Tarzan" chief among them.
"I think we probably got a little stale as a network, we got a little derivative," said Ancier, talking with TV critics in Los Angeles on Wednesday about WB's offbeat efforts to "try and create a network that doesn't look the same every hour you turn it on."
The plan
Call it a bit of the hectic eclectic, an effort to reach beyond WB's teen audience for new viewers, different viewers and maybe even some -- horrors! -- older viewers.
"We knew we did well with teenagers, we knew we did well with [ages] 18-to-34," said Ancier of WB's traditional viewing audience. But? "We wanted to invite more people into the tent."
WB is rolling out a fall season that features a game show ("Studio 7"), a sketch comedy with down home stand-up Jeff Foxworthy ("Blue Collar TV") and an improvisational comedy with Drew Carey ("Drew Carey's Green Screen Show") that channels the same ad-lib spirit and some personalities as Carey's old ABC effort "Whose Line Is It Anyway?"
But WB hasn't exactly forsaken drama. The network's most promising new show, "Jack and Bobby," an imaginative family drama for viewers of any age, stars Christine Lahti ("Chicago Hope") as the mother of two adolescent sons, one of whom grows up to be president.
Pssst, it's not the Kennedys. This is Jack and Bobby McCallister. And the intriguing series, which mixes politics, social issues and emotionally rich family stories, is produced by "Everwood" creator Greg Berlanti and Emmy Award-winning "West Wing" producer Thomas Schlamme, Lahti's husband.
The disappointments of last season -- which also saw "Gilmore Girls" flounder creatively -- eventually cost WB entertainment boss Jordan Levin his job. Levin's been replaced by veteran producer David Janollari ("Six Feet Under"), who only recently took over as WB's chief of programming.
"I think it's going to be more romantic this year," Janollari noted of the upcoming "Gilmore" season. "It will take people into surprising places."