Word: cbs
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...affiliate losses have contributed to CBS's ratings woes, but so have some overly aggressive scheduling moves. The network launched an unusually large slate of 11 new shows this fall, tried to attract younger viewers and made a risky schedule shift by moving Murder, She Wrote from its longtime Sunday-night time slot and replacing it with two sitcoms. Nearly every move backfired. Murder, She Wrote (now on Thursdays) has dropped from ninth in the ratings to 59th; Sunday-night viewership has fallen 25% (60 Minutes has dropped from sixth place in the ratings to 13th); and not a single...
...Moonves, the highly regarded former head of Warner Bros. Television who became president of CBS Entertainment in July, admits the network made some programming mistakes--among them, trying "to change the demographic profile of the network too much, too fast." CBS's traditionally older audience simply did not go for hip young shows like the much hyped Central Park West. "It should have been aimed a little more middle-of-the-road," says Moonves. Yet he is predictably upbeat about the chances for a CBS turnaround: "There's a change in attitude and morale. Everybody is feeling like this...
...network business, of course, is a cyclical one, and CBS, like every other network, has bounced back from bad times before. Yet in the new, crowded TV landscape, with network audience shares continuing to drop (and CBS facing the extra handicap of a depleted affiliate lineup), the question is whether this time a network has sunk so deep it can't rise to the surface again. "I'm not so sure the cyclical nature of the network business will operate the same way again and again and again for CBS," says Alan Bell, president of Freedom Broadcasting, which owns three...
...weeks), chairman Michael Jordan and other company officials have declined to give any details of their plans for the network. But Westinghouse, a veteran broadcaster that owns five TV and 16 radio stations, is known in the business as an aggressive cost cutter. Observers both inside and outside CBS think that doesn't bode well. "Larry Tisch has cut costs considerably over the years," says Dennis McAlpine, media analyst at Josephthal, Lyon & Ross. "The headquarters at Black Rock is decimated. There isn't that much [left] to get rid of. And this is at a time when they're supposedly...
...says, adding that if the company doesn't get its act together fast, he will think about switching affiliations. "I have a responsibility to the family that owns these stations to do the very best that I can for them. And it's difficult with what is happening. CBS is like a giraffe with a sore throat: you've got a lot of sore throat." And a lot of people watching to see if the patient regains its voice...