NBC has yet to label itself the network that drives families apart, but in a strategic sense that is exactly what it has become-- to its significant profit.
The network has made some big gains this TV season by grabbing young adult viewers away from ABC, the leading network in prime time, and has even put a dent in what has always been a stronghold for ABC: 7 p.m. programs.With shows like "Wings" on Tuesday at 7 and "Mad About You" on Thursday at 7, NBC is succeeding in stealing a lot of parents while leaving their children behind to watch ABC's more youth-oriented shows.
And advertising revenue is following the parents. "At (7) p.m. advertisers want to reach the adults between 18 and 49, rather than just kids between 12 and 17," said Paul Schulman, president of his own media buying agency.
"That's where the big-time money is for a network." He added, "It's bad for ABC to become the network of the very young, just as it's bad for CBS to be the network of the very old."
CBS generally aims its shows at older adults in the 25-to-54 age group, while Fox, for most of its history, has been the network for teen-agers and very young adults, appealing to viewers between the ages of 12 and 24.
In the last two years, ABC has continued to reinforce its image as the all-family network, offering more and more programs aimed at both children and parents.
"I take very seriously our reputation as the family network," Ted Harbert, president of ABC Entertainment, said.
The focus of ABC's program development has been shows that the whole family can watch, like "Full House," "Family Matters" and "Home Improvement."
Advertisers are thrilled when shows like that become hits because the makeup of the audience is ideal: both kids and parents.
But some industry analysts say ABC overplayed that hand this season, glutting the market with shows centering on some form of family unit that invariably includes at least three children.
"It may be time for ABC to do something more than those babysitter shows," Schulman said.
The reason: NBC's success with no-kids-allowed comdies. For example, in the Tuesday night confrontation between the long-running ABC hit "Full House," which features five children, and NBC's "Wings," which mainly concerns the romantic escapades of young singles, the tide has shifted heavily toward the adults.
"Full House" has seen its overall ratings decline, but has taken its most serious hit among adults. Last year's 7.7 rating with viewers between the ages of 18 and 49 has shrunk to a 5 rating this season. (Each raging point represents 954,000 homes.)
Harbert pointed out that "Full House" was in its eighth season, so a falloff was to be expected. But he conceded tha tNBC had come up with a good counterstrategy.
"It's partly due to the proliferation of the multi-set household," he said. "Parents are saying, 'OK, the kids will watch "Full House" and I'll go watch "Wings."' You have to give NBC credit. If you start splitting the pie that way, and you get a show that's really attractive to adults, that's not going to be bery attractive to advertisers. Just kids and young teens is not a satisfactory audience."
NBC clearly believes it has found a way to turn the 7 p.m. time slot into one of the network's biggest profit centers. Indeed, Warren Littlefield, president of NBC Entertainment, said he planned to make a similar move on Friday nights, as soon as he had the right adult-oriented comedy to place there.
Friday is the centerpiece of ABC's family-driven strategy. For years the network has broadcast a block of four comedies there and labeled it "TGIF." The idea is to attract a horde of young viewers; each week the network tapes special introductions for each comedy featuring a group of children actors from one of the shows.
No other network has challenged the TGIF shows in the '90s. Littlefield says he now believes he can do so, based on NBC's success on Tuesday and Thursday nights.
The NBC strategy was born of desperation. Littlefield said that in 1992, when confronted in midseason by the news that "Cheers" would be ending its run as NBC's 8 p.m. fortress on Thursday, which had become an impossible hole for him to fill.
The result? Adults seemed quite happy to watch "Cheers" --even an old "Cheers" --at at time period supposedly reserved for children's shows. Buoyed by that evidence, Littlefield took the daring step of moving a new comedy called "Mad About You," which was entirely based on the interaction of a young married couple, to Thursdays at 7 at the start of the 1993-94 season.
The move was widely criticized because it seemed NBC might be dooming a sophisticated comedy by showing it so early in the evening. But "Mad About You" became a hit.
Thus emboldened, Littlefield made a similar move at the start of this season with "Wings." The same sort of criticism attended this change, but again the move proved to be astute.
Now Littlefield is a true believer, and he's not alone.
"With what NBC has done, ABC's strength at (7) just isn't there anymore," Schulman said, reciting a litan of ABC failures with shows at that hour this year.
"'Thunder Alley' on Wednesday was a total bomb. 'Coach' does nothing on Mondya. 'My So-Called Life' plays like a test pattern on Thursday."
Harbert said that what ABC was trying to do-- find shows that will appeal to an entire family-- find shows that will appeal to an entire family-- was an enormous challenge.
"This is much harder to do," he said. "And we'll continue to develop shows to try to bring in the whole family." He did not rule out looking at shows that might be mainly for grown-ups, however.
Harbert said ABC always builds its family shows around an adult star who will appeal to adult viewers, then populates it with children to bring in younger viewers as well. He cited "Home Improvement" as the ideal example, and indeed that show could be a smash hit at 7 p.m. just as easily as it is at 8.
But fewer viewers watch television at 7 p.m., Harbert said, so he would be loath to allow television's most popular show to lose a ratings point or so each week by slotting it an hour earlier.
While acknowledging that "NBC has found itself a niche," Harbert said ABC would not blink: "All ABC needs to do is regenerate the family strategy. It works."
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