Bornstein Resigns as President, ABC TV

[mattjs]

Reuters

Somebody please turn this network around. I wanna watch it. I really do. It's just got no hook for me right now.

 

[OnWithTheShow]

He sure didn't last long...

 

[Cris]

Isn't that the truth, it is sad but I don;t even turn ABC on anymore -Cris

 

[disney4us2002]

I don't follow the 'political' aspects of the networks but I watch ABC. I guess I'm in the minority but I never miss The Practice and I am disappointed that Sela Ward's show was cancelled. This year my favorite new ABC show is Alias on Sundays. Oh yeah, and I just finished watching Dharma and Greg so I really watch it quite a bit.

When a new president comes in are the lineups changed around much?

 

[Sarangel]

The saddest thing about this is that Bornestein had been with Disney (in various capacaties) for 22 years. It does bring to mind rats leaving a sinking ship...

 

[Galahad]

So which shows on ABC should go first?

This is from NY Daily News:

ABC Looking to Rebound


By RICHARD HUFF
Daily News TV Editor

aving watched their once-dominant network fall to the Nielsen cellar, ABC executives will gather in Burbank, Calif., today to begin the arduous task of putting together a prime-time schedule for next season.


On the Spot: Susan Lyne, president of ABC Entertainment
At stake are billions of advertising dollars that will come in on the basis of a schedule revealed later this month.

"We need to give the advertising community some confidence that our fall schedule will be stronger than our current schedule," said Susan Lyne, president of ABC Entertainment.

Indeed, industry observers have labeled ABC's current schedule dismal, an opinion backed up by the network's Nielsen performance.

With just a few weeks left in the 2001-02 season, ABC is third in total viewers, down 23% from this point a year ago, when the network was No. 1. More importantly, the network is fourth with its target audience of 18- to 49-year-old viewers.

It's also cost some jobs. ABC Entertainment co-chairman Stu Bloomberg left earlier this year and was replaced by Lyne. And ABC Television President Steve Bornstein yesterday said he was leaving the network after less than a year in the job.

"We are not going into this in a position of strength," Lyne admitted.


Once a popular show, ABC’s 'The Practice' (with Kelli Williams, r.) has lost viewers over the season.
ABC's prime-time troubles started late last season and continued this season, when programmers scheduled multiple telecasts of "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire," which quickly faded. In the process, "Millionaire" masked declining ratings of the network's returning series such as "The Practice" and took attention away from the strong start and rapid dropoff of the new show "Alias."

Now, after several years of ABC programmers creating critically acclaimed series that attracted small audiences — think "Once and Again" — Lyne wants to broaden ABC's appeal, specifically in the early-evening hours. There, the network will target families with programs that appeal to adults but also have some draw for teens, Lyne said.

That sounds fine on paper, but pulling it off is difficult. ABC dumped its family-friendly "TGIF" programming block a couple seasons ago, and those viewers have moved on to other networks, having become used to looking elsewhere for such fare.

Likewise, ABC may have to launch five hours of new programming this fall, which can be tough. Starting so many new shows spreads a network's promotions efforts thin, making it hard for any of the shows to get much attention.

"We know we've got to get a lot of new shows onto our schedule," Lyne said. "We have looked at shows that could be self-starters for us. … We've also talked about staggering our launches."

Getting the network turned around could take years — and it depends on Lyne finding a couple hits. Based on early development presentations, some advertisers think ABC is headed in the right direction, although they've yet to see a completed program.

"Coming out of the development meetings, we had a better feeling than we did going in," said Steve Sternberg, senior partner at ad-buyer Magna Global USA. "That's all they could ask for."

The network doesn't really have much choice but to launch a lot of shows, according to Roy Rothstein, vice president and director of national broadcast research at ad-buyer Zenith Media. "They really need to make a major effort," he said.

ABC's performance this season will mean less money in the network's coffers. Last spring, the network sold $1.68 billion in advance advertising for this season. Next month, ABC is projected to sell $1.4 billion, third overall, according to the Myers Report, an industry newsletter.

To rebound, ABC needs a couple new shows that hit with viewers while its returning series remain stable, Sternberg said.

"Nobody expects me to turn the entire network around and move us from third or fourth place to first in a season," Lyne said. "This is a process to get some strong shows on the air and create a consistent schedule. And to make progress in the ratings."


Original Publication Date: 5/1/02

 

[Panthius]

May be off topic, may not be, but it is in reference to the Nielsen ratings for the show The Practice.





My fiance and I are watchers of this show...when it is on. It seems that every other week the Practice is pre-empted for whatever else ABC can play during its time slot. This is definitely one of the causes to the shows lower ratings in my opinion. There is no continuity and a LOT of frustration when you turn to watch a show, only to always see some movie that you could care less about on in its place. You can not get involved and attached to the characters, or the show, and this would create complete frustration and lack of any urge to even try to watch the show any longer. What it seems they are doing to the Practice is the complete opposite of what they did to WWTBAM.





Panthius

 

[raidermatt]

The only primetime ABC shows I watch with any real consistency are My Wife and Kids, According to Jim, and Monday Night Football. My Wife and Kids was particularly a surprise to me since I generally am not a big fan of Damon Wayons.

I occasionally watch Spin City, but of course its not as strong without Michael J. Fox. Also, the lead-ins have no appeal to me, so I sometimes forget its even on.

I also try to watch Wonderful World of Disney, depending on what they are showing.

That's about it for ABC.

As a point of reference, the other shows I watch pretty regularly are Friends, King of Queens, Everybody Loves Raymond, and Yes Dear (only because its on between KoQ and ELR). I like Frasier, but again, the lead-ins have no appeal. When it was on the same night as Friends, I watched it pretty regularly.

Otherwise, its mostly sports, and sometimes Animal Planet and The History Channel. So I guess I don't watch ABC mcuh less than the other networks, but I can say that I'm more likely to miss the ABC shows (My Wife and According) than my favorites that are on NBC and CBS.

I think ABC has the right goals in mind (return to family sitcoms and dramas with a broader appeal). Its just going to be a question of execution. We just won't know until the new shows hit the air.

 

[Another Voice]

Looking at the rating for ABC last week…

As the article mentioned, ABC used ‘Millionaire’ to cover-up the failure of their regular prime time schedule. This week, they’re using the same tactic.

The highest rated show on ABC was the finale of ‘The Bachelor’. It came in sixth and was seen by 18.2 million people. ABC also had two other programs in the top thirty, another episode of ‘The Bachelor’ at 19th (13.1 million) and ‘Primetime Thursday’ at 28th (11.3 million). To put this in perspective, the top rated show for the week was ‘E.R.’ with 23.8 million viewers.

The next highest rated ABC shows were also specials – ‘The Bachelor: Women Tell All’ at 32nd and a showing of ‘The Sixth Sense’ at 36th. The highest junk series was ‘America’s Funniest Home Videos” down at 48th. And the highest rated real series was ‘My Wife and Kids’ down at 57th (8.5 million viewers).

At the bottom end of the scale, ‘Before They were Stars’ ended up as ABC’s lowest rated show in 86th place (5.3 million), losing out to ‘WWF Smackdown’ on UPN and ‘When Animals Invade Your Home’ on Fox.

Like the article said – this is going to take years to fix.

 

[Peter Pirate]

How can it take years to "fix" a tv network? We're talking tv here. This isn't rocket science or even movie making. ABC turned it around overnight with 'Millionaire' so I'd say all it really needs is a lucky mega hit or two and a couple of decent suports...Look at what's on any network and you mostly see varying degrees of crap programmed to the lowest common denominator, sprinkled with a few programs aimed at a specifc demographic. Occasionally a truly great show like Seifeld, MASH or even this years hit du jour '24' will sneak under the crap radar and fly into history but for the most part it's just gutless programmng by untalented or very afraid executives filling the airwaves with material that isn't even mediocre.

For the record, aside from the Disney Channel, I watch Seinfeld reruns, 24, Alias, Boton Public & lots of the Travel Channel.

 

[Galahad]

I think a network can be fixed, I just think the way it's done probably changes over time. I found this quote from an on-line bio of Eisner:

Making the network rounds, Eisner worked for a short time at CBS in TV programming, before moving to ABC in 1966, where he made many changes and received a large part of the experience that would help him later on in his career.

Eisner was largely responsible for the success of ABC, as a production executive in children's programming. He motivated children to tune in to ABC on Saturday mornings thanks to the lineup, by choosing to run cartoons featuring The Jackson Five and the Osmonds.

In addition to his work as head of children's programming, Eisner also worked as president of program planning and development. His move up the ABC ranks was a testament to his programming genius, such as his work with the successful soap operas All My Children and One Life to Live, and the popular primetime sitcoms Welcome Back, Kotter, Happy Days and Barney Miller.

Eisner's work in television was done. He had taken the No. 3 network -- at a time when ABC, NBC and CBS were the three major networks -- and brought it up to No. 1. Eisner moved on to film in 1976, as president and chief operating officer of Paramount Pictures. By focusing on the creative aspect of movies rather than strictly business, Eisner and his magic touch were felt at Paramount by making it the most successful movie studio, a far cry from the days when it was No. 6.

I seem to remember that one of his big accomplishments was to "save" shows by giving them a home in the schedule and not moving them around all the time (Exactly what ABC is doing today).

As far as shows are concerned, we're not big TV watchers either. Most everything in the line-up is a ratings disapointment. I think that if they have a "critically aclaimed" series, even with low ratings they should hang onto it to give them some credibility (Once and Again....not my cup of tea...but...). I don't see how "According to Jim" can last. The wife in the show would be so incredibly unpleasant to live with that I can't watch it at all (and I'm sure Bilushi's character might strike women the same way). It's true that "Who's Line" is cheap to make but I think it is well done and is just over saturating the airwaves right now (too many re-runs on ABC Family or the old ones on Comedy Central). They should cut it back. I'm not a huge fan of the "Drew Carey" show so since we don't see it much I can't comment on it other than to say that if they are anchoring thier sit-com strategy on him they need to make a change. Now I know I will be in the minority here, but we really enjoy "Dharma and Greg". It's one of the very few network shows we make a point to watch (Edward Montgomery is my hero.... ) I'm not sure what would have to be done to "save" it. The rating are so low that I'm sure it's not salvagable. Spin City just doesn't work without Michael Fox. That pretty much accounts for the ABC shows I'm at all familiar with. Have never seen Alias, and the other Dramas.....the TV is usually on the Disney Channel after homework time.

 

[Another Voice]

Mr. Pirate – if it’s so easy to fix the network, why hasn’t Disney done it yet?

One hit program doesn’t fill all 22 hours of prime time programming. As the article said, the success of ‘Millionaire’ didn’t fix ABC – it simply covered-up the gapping holes in the rest of the programming. And this season they literally did try to use the show to fill in the gaps with disastrous results.

Getting 25 million people to put their rears on to their couch all at the same time is not an easy task. And with the money involved it’s not good enough to wait for a “lucky mega hit”. Disney probably dropped $25+ million on the lucky mega hit ‘The Bob Paterson Show’ plus untold millions on ‘Philly’, ‘Alias’, ‘The Chair’ and all the other lucky mega hits they’ve had this season. And ‘24’ is considered one of the season’s biggest disappointments, hardly a hit at all. In fact, try to find all the lucky mega hits from any network on this year’s rating chart. And look at all those lucky mega hits from last year – that list starts and ends with ‘CSI’.

The simple fact of the matter is that the days of Bigtime Network Broadcast Television are over and done with. They are a dying business and even GE wants out of its #1 rated NBC network. Look at your own viewing patterns Mr. Pirate – no one sits down in front of the tube and leaves it on one network all night. At least since ‘The Dukes of Hazard’ left prime time.

Eisner bought ABC because of his “expertise” in the field. He thought it was a sure thing and he would spin out profits without effort. So far the only “synergy” I’ve discovered on ABC is the music from Epcot’s Millennium Celebration that’s used to score all the sporting events and news programming. Beyond that the purchase has perfectly positioned Disney to be a major media player for the 1973-1974 season.

However, it’s been a disaster trying to make Disney work for the 21st century. It’s time to cut the losses and sell ABC to Barry Diller. Lord knows the French will buy anything….

 

[Tannerman]

ABC turned it around overnight with 'Millionaire' so I'd say all it really needs is a lucky mega hit or two and a couple of decent suports

This really isn't the solution. The key is finding a hit show and then using that show to launch other shows. ABC totally failed to do that with Millionaire. It had nothing in the pipeline to promote, so Millionaire was forced to ride alone, rather that support other programming.

Look at what CBS did for Survivor. It coupled CSI on the backend of that, given the common demographics (not theme)... CSI is now the second (sometimes first) highest rated show on network TV. The key here was not how popular Survivor was... CBS has known that it's popularity would fade (especially after a rejunvinated Friends), but it also had other shows in the pipeline that it wanted to promote and could hold on their own. ABC's production pipeline looks like crap, right about now. I just got the fall pilot scheudule from my lated Electronic Media industry pub... some of the stuff they are developing for fall just looks bad reading a 2 sentence description.

If I might chime on on Alias... this show has been doing well for ABC as far as fan following, but they are mishandling the franchise greatly. It could be a great breakout show... but I feel it will probably fail due to inept scheduling and promotion.

 

[airlarry!]

Beyond that the purchase has perfectly positioned Disney to be a major media player for the 1973-1974 season. However, it’s been a disaster trying to make Disney work for the 21st century. It’s time to cut the losses and sell ABC to Barry Diller. Lord knows the French will buy anything….

Yes! Yes! Yes!

We have a joke at our Roto leagues that follows what AV said -- With Eisner on board, 1974 will be a great year for Disney!

Come on, all of us warring factions and posters. Let us all agree that the ABC purchase is similar to investing in 8 track tapes right around the time REO Speedwagon sang "Keep on Loving You." Might have looked good at the time. But the future is not so bright.

Sell. Move on to creation not broadcast.

 

[Peter Pirate]

Voice asks "why hasn't Disney done it yet?" And I reply (uncharacteristically) because they're incompetent? ... You read right...Peter Pirate suggesting Eisner fallability. 'Millionaire' GAVE them a huge opportunity to build around and what did they do? Followed the other bonehead networks and gave us more reality shows. Something is amiss with ABC and it makes me angry. I still contend tht ABC was a good risk, but I admit they're blowing it...I just hate to see a huge write off for an area that so easily could be profitable. Eisner & Iger are both supposed to be good in this area...

I think the next network breakthrough will go to the network with brass (you know what)...The network not afraid to give us what we deserve, and I hope this is quality. Fox came in and pushed the envelope taste wise and rode the trailer park mentality to the top perhaps ABC could give us quality and I believe in the end it would pay off (financed by sports revenues, of course)...

 

[larworth]

I assume having access to good writers and the ability to identify and cultivate good content makes the difference. Being more open to outside product, funding more pilots, and bringing in new overseers seem like reasonable steps.

What amazes me is how long they've waited to act. For as many times as someone asked them how long Millionaire would last I can’t believe they didn’t have data on their desk each week showing what ratings were without it. They had to know how bad the rest of their line-up was. They were given a golden opportunity to fix something before everyone knew it was broken. Millionaire was the perfect cover, and provided ample resources to reinvest some into correcting the core problem (whatever it is?). Could they really have been this myopic? or has the attempted turn-around really been going on behind the scenes for some time with little results so far?

I assume predictions about the inevitable decline of the major networks were around when they bought this property. It would be interesting to see what valuations they would get today, even if ratings were better. Thank god for ESPN.

The positive synergies of the acquisition appear to be lower advertising rates, and the promotional opportunities to have Rosie/Regis occasionally broadcast shows from the parks. The negatives seems to be an increased diversion of money and senior management attention away from the parks, and the infusion of a cost control culture they said they learned so much about from ABC.

Well, according to !Newman! all this media-monopolization is really misdirected, because

When you control the mail, you control……….information

 

[Bstanley]

Although in addition it also needs to make Cents...

Having a broadcast network as a part of Disney Corp makes perfect sense. The inter-relationships between: advertising and advertisers, creating content and providing content, developing talent and using talent, etc. are all right there to use and benefit from when you own both ends of the pipe. And even though the world loves it's cable - a broadcast network is still a honking great pipe (more than 10 Million viewers on average every primetime hour of every night).

They just need to fix what's broke. Don't fall victim to the 'not invented here syndrome' - ie put shows on the schedule that are good, not just because they were produced inside the corporation. It doesn't take more than a handful of hit shows to turn a last place network into a first place network. A possible big problem may be that the big ME thinks he can personally pick the shows that will be a hit this season and turn ABC around - like he did in the '70s...Hopefully somebody else is doing the lineup this time.