SUMMER ISN'T RERUN TIME ANYMORE
The quest for the young demographic has networks airing new episodes year-round.
By DAVID ZURAWIK
BALTIMORE SUN
T TOOK A WHILE, BUT THE NET-works finally got the message: Build a summer schedule on new programs, and they will come.
Viewers came in the summer of 1999 for "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" on ABC. In 2000, as many as 28 million a week showed up for "Survivor" on CBS. In each of the next three years, the summertime hits included "Fear Factor" (NBC), "American Idol" (Fox) and "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy" (Bravo) -- series that went on to become some of the most successful year-round franchises on television.
And, yet, the TV industry resisted abandoning a programming model of summer schedules dominated by reruns that dates back more than 50 years -- until now.
With the debut of original series on Fox, Bravo and WB, a new summer season begins that promises more original programming than ever -- with some networks heralding it as the start of an unprecedented 52-week television season of new series. Fox is leading the charge and, not surprisingly, the force behind much of the movement is a search for younger demographics, the very audience of 18- to 34-year-old viewers that Fox has courted since its debut in the early 1980s.
"This is a big change, especially for viewers of a certain age for whom the paradigm has been watching network television from September to May and then getting involved in other activities as the networks air reruns all summer long," said David Blum, senior vice president at Baltimore-based Eisner Communications, one of the largest media buying groups in the mid-Atlantic area. "That mindset is going to be extremely hard to change for older viewers, but not for 18- to 34-year-olds who grew up with more viewing options since the emergence of cable in the 1980s."
Target audience
Last summer, Fox launched "The O.C.," a California teen drama created by 27-year-old Josh Schwartz. It's now one of the hottest series on TV with an audience of teen and young adult viewers that has advertisers standing in line.
Now, Fox introduces "The Jury," a courtroom drama from Barry Levinson and Tom Fontana ("Homicide: Life on the Street"). It is guaranteed a weekly run through November. "Casino" is a reality series set in a Las Vegas casino from Mark Burnett, executive producer of "Survivor" and "The Apprentice" (NBC).
Also joining the Fox schedule are "North Shore," a teen drama set in Hawaii, and "The Simple Life 2: Road Trip," which features the return of Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie, naughty socialites on the slum among us simple folk. Two new sitcoms -- one starring Andy Richter ("Quintuplets") and the other featuring rappers Method Man and Redman ("Method & amp; Red") -- also debuted this week.
"We need the business to catch up with what the audience is telling us," Gail Berman, president of Fox Entertainment, said in announcing the summer schedule to critics at a news conference earlier this year.
Othernetworks
Nor is Fox alone in its pursuit of summer viewers. All the networks and major cable channels are offering original series or starting new seasons of returning series this summer.
Bravo premieres "Blow Out," a new reality series about the opening of a Beverly Hills salon by Hollywood hairstylist Jonathan Antin. It's from the producers of "The Restaurant" and "Big Brother." Meanwhile, on the WB network, "Summerland," a new California youth drama starring Lori Laughlin, moves into the Tuesday night time slot it will hold for the next few months.
As for returning series, "Six Feet Under" rejoins the HBO schedule Sunday for its fourth season, while "Monk" returns to USA June 18 for the start of its third season. Along with HBO's "The Sopranos" and "The Wire," "Six Feet Under" is one of the three best dramas on television; "Monk" is TV's finest sitcom.
While not in that same league, Dick Wolf's reality courtroom series "Crime and Punishment" starts its third season on NBC. And there's more reality yet from the cutting-edge ABC News crew that took viewers inside the Johns Hopkins Hospital on "Hopkins 24/7" two years ago.
Starting June 22, "NYPD Blue 24/7" will offer a seven-night documentary series on the world of New York City cops. Dennis Franz, of the NYPD Blue cop drama, narrates.
Reality series
Many of the series -- new and old -- are of the reality genre. NBC starts a new season of "Who Wants to Marry My Dad" on June 21, while cable channel TBS the next night debuts "Outback Jack," featuring 12 pampered young women dropped into the Australian outback. What the producers are hoping for with this series (not yet available for preview) is "The Simple Life" meets "Survivor."
But as bad as some of the new reality TV sounds, the business behind it is about as good as it gets for network and cable television companies.
"The business formula that makes this work is that a lot of these shows are less expensive to produce," said Blum.
"And then dovetailing with that is the fact that the folks to whom these shows are most appealing are the very 18 to 34 year olds that the network and cable channels are trying to reach," he said.
That's the combination that defines the new reality of summer programming.
"There's no question that we're in a time where very few of the old rules apply," Jeff Zucker, the president of NBC entertainment, said in announcing his network's summer scheduling plans. "If we play by the old rules, we are all going to be left behind."