A year ago, ABC began "PrimeTime Live" with a duo some called Fire & Ice - Sam Donaldson and Diane Sawyer. Their first show got more publicity than the first man to go over Niagara Falls in a barrel.
Part of the hoopla was because the cool Sawyer had recently joined ABC to do the show with the brash Donaldson, it was summer, and TV writers hadn't much to write about, said ABC News President Roone Arledge."It was such an easy hype that (ABC) people got carried away," he wryly admitted as the one-hour newsmagazine series began its second season of Thursday broadcasts.
If he could do it all over again, "I would try to sneak it on the air," he said - noting that despite all the hoopla, the show got only a 20 percent share of the audience in its time period when it premiered.
But things haven't much improved in the Nielsen department. It generally has been third in ratings, even last week, when Donaldson was dispatched to Saudi Arabia for a Persian Gulf crisis report.
There have been a few changes since last year's premiere.
Donaldson originally was teamed in a studio here with Sawyer in hope the live atmosphere might result in crackling chemistry and snappy patter. The chemistry proved uneasy, the patter often forced.
With Arledge's blessings, Donaldson now usually does his part of the show in Washington, to which he returned in May.
"How to use Sam and Diane has been an ongoing venture," Arledge said. "And whether this is the proper way or not, we'll see."
But so far, he said, "It's worked out very well. Sam feels comfortable in Washington. He has done some of his best work there," and "it seems to work well. So we're going to keep it for the time being."
The studio audience is no more, save for special occasions. It was found too intrusive for use on a regular basis, Arledge said.
And there are more taped reports, although Arledge says all hands - they include correspondents Chris Wallace, Judd Rose, and Jay Schadler - are on alert for live "targets of opportunity."
But the "live" part of the show now usually consists of Sam and Diane in their respective studios.
In his frank assessment of what went wrong the first year, Arledge said that "somewhere we have an image problem" caused in part by too much emphasis on the "live" of "PrimeTime Live."
"Somehow, in the original explanation of the program - and I think we have to bear the blame for that - the idea of liveness was distorted, so that everything had to be live," he said.
"That never really was the intention," he said. The idea was to go live only when there was a sound reason to do so.
Although he says "PrimeTime" is starting to hit its stride and "I think the program will define itself when people realize it's a serious program," he wishes it were not on ABC's Thursday roster.
Arledge was not happy when ABC's "20-20," which starts its 12th season this fall, was shifted to Friday from Thursday nights in 1987.
As events proved, though, that show did much better in its new home, averaging a 24 percent share of audience last season, compared to a 17 percent share in its final season of Thursday nights.
But Arledge is not happy that "PrimeTime" is on Thursdays opposite CBS' "Knots Landing" and NBC's "L.A. Law." If he had his druthers, he said, the show would air on Tuesday nights, where NBC's "Real Life With Jane Pauley" specials have had success. Or even on Wednesday nights.