Fabled Finish

For CBS, slow and steady wins

Though readers of Aesop's Fables might have been able to predict it, the outcome of this year's race for prime-time supremacy was, by most accounts, a stunning upset. CBS, which began the season last fall in third place among the three major networks, plodded along to a victory in the ratings over four-year champion ABC, whose jackrabbit programming shuffles fell flat. Final score: CBS, 19.6 Nielsen points for the seven-month period; ABC, 19.5; and NBC, in its first full season under Programming Whiz Fred Silverman, an embarrassing 17.4. "The victory went to the network with armchair, baggy-suits stability," says Alan Horn, president of Norman Lear's Tandem Productions. "CBS makes careful decisions and sticks by them. Slow and steady wins the race."

Indeed, the programming strategy at CBS might have been counseled by Aesop's tortoise. "Our philosophy is consistency," says the network's entertainment president, Robert Daly. Following the pattern that made it the No. 1 network for two decades until 1976, CBS tended to keep this season's programs in the same time slots, despite fluctuating ratings, until they built a loyal audience. ABC, by contrast, tried to spread its strength around and pick up new viewers by splintering the solid blocks of sitcoms that had allowed it to dominate Tuesday and Thursday nights and seeking comedy beachheads on nights when other networks were strong. Mork & Mindy, last year's Thursday-night hit, was shifted to Sunday, where, because of late-running football games, it often faced CBS's invincible 60 Minutes. ABC's Fantasy Island and Laverne and Shirley were similarly moved from positions of strength. The result: all three shows dropped precipitously, Laverne and Shirley from first place to 39th. Eight CBS shows, including such staples as The Jeffersons and M*A*S*H, as well as Dallas and the new The Dukes of Hazzard, captured Top Ten slots. Desperate ABC officials later compounded their mistake by juggling a few shows back to their original slots. "People don't walk around with TV Guides in their heads," observes TV Industry Analyst Anthony Hoffman. "So each change loses more of the audience." Concludes Lorimar Productions President Lee Rich: "In this business, you don't mess around with success."

Even if ABC had left well enough alone, its series roster was vulnerable. With Fantasy Island, Love Boat, Charlie 's Angels and other decorative but childish froth, the network exploited what Hoffman calls "an era of escapism." Now, he says, "real life is once again the focus, and people want programs that reflect social problems and realistic human relationships." CBS had them: 60 Minutes, Lou Grant, Dallas, Archie Bunker's Place.

CBS's narrow victory can also be credited to its successful development of strategically placed miniseries, made-for-TV movies and other specials. While ABC failed to repeat the triumphs of last season's Roots: The Next Generations and Elvis, CBS scored with Kenny Rogers As the Gambler, Scruples, Nurse and, in the ultimate and decisive week of the season, Guyana Tragedy, a $1.8 million, two-part blockbuster based on the career of the Rev. Jim Jones. Guyana drew 46% of the national audience the first night and 50% the second, wiping out the success of ABC's Academy Awards pageant earlier in the week. "It was all over after Guyana," says Consultant Michael Dann, a former programming chief at both CBS and NBC. "It was the first time in broadcasting history that a single program determined who won the season."

Statistically, a mere .1 percentage point edge in the season's Nielsen ratings is negligible. It means that in an average week, only 76,000 TV set-owning households, out of 76 million in the U.S., have chosen to watch CBS over ABC. But as politicians know, it's not simply the margin of victory that counts, but also the psychological advantage of momentum. "What matters is that CBS came from behind, and it's now ABC that must battle the champ," says Robert Buchanan, executive vice president of the J. Walter Thompson agency. "This season was like the 1976 Olympic marathon. The first-and second-place runners were separated by less than a minute after running more than two hours. You can't really say which one is the better runner. But whom do you bet on in the next race?" Ask Aesop.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.