Ratings Plunge for Network Reruns

By BILL CARTER --- This summer, there is a good news and bad news joke in network programming. Reality television shows have been the good-news part of the joke. Here's the bad-news part: Viewers don't seem to be watching anything else.

The joke isn't getting any laughs inside network executive offices, where a sharp falloff in advertising dollars for this fall's programs had already wiped the smiles off everybody's faces.

Those executives find themselves wringing their hands this summer, looking at ratings for repeats that are mostly in free fall.

They are also wondering whether the demise of the summer rerun means that the economic model for network television, which has always been based on getting two runs of every series episode, is facing collapse.

Jeff Zucker, the president of NBC Entertainment, called the plunge in ratings for repeats the story of the summer.

"We have to address it," he said. "We may have to go to an economic model where second runs of some of these programs, particularly dramas, are on cable or elsewhere and not on network television in the summer. I think this is going to force a lot of thinking like that."

The summer statistics are uniformly grim: Fox is down 8 percent in total viewers and 7 percent in the group that it mainly keeps score by — viewers 18 to 49 years old. CBS, which had "Survivor" setting records last summer, is down 14 percent in viewers and 23 percent among those younger adults. ABC, which was still riding the wave of "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" last year, is down 21 percent in both categories.

Even NBC, the network with the reality hit of the summer, "Fear Factor," is down about 6 percent in total viewers and is just breaking even among young adults.

"The audience has caught on," said Alan Wurztel, the president of research for NBC. "They know the season ends in May. And they know there are alternatives to watching repeats in the summer."

Lloyd Braun, the co-chairman of ABC Entertainment, said that with the hit reality shows of the past three summers, "We've created an expectation that didn't exist before, and it has made the job of getting the audience to watch reruns much more difficult."

The flight from the networks has been especially intense for dramatic shows that have been on the air a number of years. "The Practice" on ABC is down 35 percent in viewers; "Judging Amy" on CBS is down 29 percent; "Ally McBeal" on Fox is down 20 percent.

"ER," the most popular and expensive show in network television, is seeing its repeats hit all- time lows. The show is down 16 percent.

What "ER" has in common with a lot of the other dramas falling off the ratings cliff is its serialized format, an emphasis on a continuing story line. Shows that tell complete stories in an episode, like NBC's "Law and Order," are not having nearly as much trouble. That series is down only 2 percent.

Mr. Zucker said, "We've clearly seen the ramifications. Internally we don't want so many serialized dramas on our air. It's a conscious decision on our part."

That may be one answer. Sandy Grushow, the chairman of Fox Entertainment, who spoke about the issue at a news conference last month, said, "The goal is to develop new one-hour dramas that are less expensive, that don't kill your business if you can't repeat them on your air."

The solution most network executives are pointing to is what they call "repurposing" shows. This is a new word for repeats, a bit like saying "previously owned" when you mean "used car." It translates to finding a cable network that will pay for a second run of a network series.

Mr. Braun pointed to the series "Once and Again," a serialized family drama, which ABC isn't even bothering to try repeating this summer. Normally that would mean a financial loss because few shows, no matter how well-rated, do much better than break even on their first runs.

But Mr. Braun said the economic model for "Once and Again" was working well because from the start ABC was repurposing the show, selling it to the Lifetime Channel, which scheduled each episode several days after its run on ABC. That allowed ABC to realize the full value of two runs, even though only one appeared on ABC.

The show also happens to be owned by ABC, which sold it to a cable network it partly owns. More shows appear headed to this formula, with ABC probably relying on the recently purchased Family Channel for repurposing, Fox using the FX Channel, CBS looking to TNN and NBC turning to the Pax Network. In each case, the major network has an interest in the secondary outlet.

"Over time, repurposing is going to become an important part of the business," Mr. Braun said, though he added, "It's not an answer; it's an avenue."

Indeed, Mr. Grushow said no one should expect that by next summer the networks will be able to eliminate reruns. "Right now the economics suggest we have to amortize our costs," he said. "We have to take our second run on our network. There may be a time down the road where we make a different decision. But as of now, we really don't have a choice."

(Aug 06, 2001) Copyright 2001 The New York Times Company