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Network TV 101 (Excerpt)
Variety - December 29, 1999
By Michael Schneider and Josef Adalian
HOLLYWOOD (Variety) - Enough already with the almost-daily treatises on "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire."
It's become an exhaustively examined phenomenon: TV's viewing masses flocking to the Church of
"Millionaire" and worshipping with Father Regis, quickly turning it into network TV's salvation. The quiz
show's effect will be even more obvious by midseason, when the Big 4 start to look more like the Game Show Network.
But the success of "Millionaire" wasn't the only event that taught the networks a lesson or two this fall.
So get out your notebooks. Here are a few of the other realities the networks have absorbed in the closing months of
1999:
2. TV: Not just for teenage girls anymore: The young-adult, WB-style drama was supposed to be this fall's hot trend.
But most of that youth-targeted fare has been pulled or continues to perform without distinction.
Instead, it has been the quieter, older-skewing dramas that have led the way this fall.
"This was the year of traditional, solid storytelling," said CBS Television CEO Leslie Moonves.
"People want more relatability in their dramas."
The surprise success of NBC's "Providence" last midseason wasn't just a fluke. Viewers sampled NBC's
"The West Wing," CBS' "Family Law" and ABC's "Once and Again" in respectable numbers.
But the real story was CBS' "Judging Amy," top candidate for surprise hit of the fall honors.
"Since we were the Cinderella project, the last pilot ordered, no one was looking at us the be the hit,"
said "Judging Amy" executive producer Barbara Hall.
Copyright © 1999 Variety. All rights reserved.
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