| Ed Bark: Winners and losers Prime-time report card: For every sparkling 'CSI,' there's a bad 'Bette' 03/05/2001 By / The Dallas Morning News All of the great big bets, including Bette, have failed to pay off.
But Survivor II, Temptation Island and even The Mole have made their respective investors happy. Which opens the door even more for cost-efficient "reality" TV as a hedge against likely writers and actors strikes in the next several months.
This leaves the four major broadcast networks marching warily toward spring, licking self-inflicted wounds and back-patting themselves whenever possible. Yes, they've had some bright spots.
Unfortunately for the many TV critics who panned it, this even includes CBS' new sitcom Yes, Dear. It's managed to snuggle in on Monday nights between King of Queens and Everybody Loves Raymond. CBS president Leslie Moonves crows that only Raymond draws a younger audience for his network than Yes, Dear.
Still, three of the four networks have fewer total viewers than at this time last year. And in the continuing slavish pursuit of "impressionable" 18- to 49-year-olds, only CBS and Fox are making even minimal headway, while ABC veers toward Forest Lawn with its over-reliance on increasingly "old-skewing" editions of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire.
The number of 18- to 49-year-olds watching ABC this season is down a significant one million from a year ago. Maybe this is the network's just deserts. ABC started this obsession in the late 1970s, gradually convincing its rivals that the only viewers really worth having are too young to remember Tony Orlando and Dawn.
CBS has had the weirdest season so far. Its two big-ticket series, Bette Midler's Bette and a new version of The Fugitive starring Tim Daly, have receded to afterthoughts. Surprisingly dismal ratings have all but doomed both shows. Ms. Midler is bringing in Robert Hays to play her husband in a last-gasp effort to keep Bette breathing. But Mr. Moonves isn't hyperventilating at the prospect.
"People aren't knocking down the doors saying, 'Wow, they've got Robert Hays. I'm gonna watch,'" he says.
On the plus side, though, two drama sleepers, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and Craig T. Nelson's The District, have been ratings hits from Day One. Kate Brasher, which premiered late last month, looks like it could be another keeper. And Survivor II has supplanted NBC's ER as prime time's top show.
NBC mercy-killed its big star vehicle, The Michael Richards Show, after a bare handful of episodes. Now the XFL, which also got reams of promotion, is soiling the network's entire Saturday night schedule with wrestling magnate Vince McMahon's unwatchable brand of sub-football.
"I will candidly tell you that all of us are disappointed," says NBC West Coast president Scott Sassa. But the network will honor its two-year "arrangement" with the league, he adds.
Of NBC's new fall series, only the acclaimed Ed has a firm pickup for next season. The network is hoping against hope that Steven Weber's ridiculed, retooled The Weber Show somehow will thrive in its second coming on Thursdays.
Fox's star-propelled clinker, John Goodman's gay-themed Normal, Ohio, has been offset by strong first-year performances from Boston Public, Dark Angel and lately, Grounded for Life. The network has a better roster of quality scripted series than at any time in its history. But then came Temptation Island to reinstate the tawdry image that Fox could and should have left behind with last season's Who Wants to Marry a Multi-Millionaire?
"It's fair to say that it's been a little frustrating that the noise [over Temptation Island] has overshadowed the other successes," Fox president Sandy Grushow acknowledges. He also says there might well be a sequel.
ABC's The Mole lacked the big buzz of other reality shows, but did well enough for the network to order another one. The Geena Davis Show, ABC's contribution to the big-star bomb factory, is on fumes after a halfway decent start in the ratings. ABC's lone, critically praised new fall show – it only added four – is the medical drama Gideon's Crossing. It's at a crossroads, with odds increasing against its return next fall. BARK'S PICKS
HITS
1. CSI (CBS)
2. Survivor (CBS)
3. Boston Public (Fox)
4. Ed (NBC)
5. The District (CBS)
MISSES
1. Bette (CBS)
2. The Fugitive (CBS)
3. The Geena Davis Show (ABC)
4. XFL games (NBC)
5. The Weber Show (NBC)
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