Tired of seeing the same familiar faces on your TV? We'll explore the networks' latest tricks to keep you tied to the tube this fall.
TONY COX, host: From NPR News, this is NEWS AND NOTES. I'm Tony Cox, in for Ed Gordon.</s>TONY COX, host: A new group of superheroes, an ugly duckling navigating the fashion industry, and Spanish telenovelas in English - not to mention a new broadcast network. This fall promises to be an interesting and perhaps exciting season for television.</s>TONY COX, host: And joining us now from NPR's arts desk is Nova Safo who - if I can put it this way - watches television for us. Nova, nice to have you.</s>NOVA SAFO: Indeed. It's a tough job. Somebody's got to do the time.</s>TONY COX, host: Somebody's got to do it.</s>TONY COX, host: Listen, so what's the big deal about this new season? If the television promos are to be believed, there's a lot.</s>NOVA SAFO: TV this fall is at a crossroads. It has never faced the amount of competition that there is right now out there - not just from all the channels that are on TV and that are producing original programming, but also from the Internet, from DVD-Rs that are taking away commercial viewing audiences. The Video-on-Demand, streaming online - there's just so many avenues - the audience is so fractured that everything that is happening on television now, all the shows that are coming up, they all exist in that context.</s>NOVA SAFO: For example, the idea of appointment television is a big buzzword right now in broadcast television, especially - and the idea is provide shows that are so compelling that draw an audience in such a way that you can't afford to miss an episode, that you want to make time to sit down and see the episode live along with the commercials. You don't want to tape it on your DVR to watch it later and skip the commercials. So everything that they're putting on right now is focused towards getting the audience, getting them hooked, getting them talking about their shows.</s>TONY COX, host: So what's an example of a show that is expected or hoped to do that?</s>NOVA SAFO: Well, they're all trying to copy Lost and Desperate Housewives, because they've done it in a way that nobody else has been able to do so far.</s>TONY COX, host: All right.</s>NOVA SAFO: And Gray's Anatomy as well. You have Heroes on - that's coming up on NBC, an NBC Network that has nowhere to go but up. They're building themselves back up from the ruins, really. And here's a show that's kind of very much in the serialized series vein, the same way that Lost is, Desperate Housewives is. They're all kind of have this over-arching stories that can last a season, that can last the entire run of the show. With Lost, it's the mystery of where they are. Desperate Housewives, it's various intrigues. And with Heroes, it's - you have a bunch of characters. They're somehow interconnected in mysterious ways, and they're also discovering that they have these strange, mysterious powers. And we have a clip from Heroes, and we can listen to…</s>TONY COX, host: Yeah, let's listen to it.</s>NOVA SAFO: …one of the characters talking about finding out his powers.</s>NOVA SAFO: Unidentified Man #1: (as Nathan) I'm late. I've got a fundraiser and a drinks (unintelligible)</s>NOVA SAFO: Unidentified Man #2: Two more times. Sometimes I'm falling, sometimes I'm flying. But sometimes you're in them.</s>NOVA SAFO: Unidentified Man #1: (as Nathan) I don't have time for this now.</s>NOVA SAFO: Unidentified Man #2: They're not just dreams, Nathan.</s>NOVA SAFO: Unidentified Man #1: (as Nathan) Hold this.</s>NOVA SAFO: Unidentified Man #2: I thought they'd go away, but they're not.</s>NOVA SAFO: Unidentified Man #1: (as Nathan) Jim, I need this back by six. Just (unintelligible).</s>NOVA SAFO: Unidentified Man #2: This morning, when I got out of bed, my foot hovered before it hit the ground. Hovered for a split second, like I was - like I was floating. I'm telling you, I think I can fly.</s>NOVA SAFO: High concept, Tony. Really high concept.</s>TONY COX, host: Yeah, I think I can fly.</s>NOVA SAFO: That's the idea.</s>TONY COX, host: I heard of that before.</s>TONY COX, host: Now, I understood that these telenovelas, they're serialized, aren't they, as well? And isn't there a new one - and one or two of those coming out?</s>NOVA SAFO: Ah, indeed. And this is again the idea: appointment television. Get people hooked. And the - how this has come about is very interesting. It's kind of sprung up from the ashes of two other networks. You had WB, UPN - both under-performing networks for the past decade. They've lost about a billion dollars each for their parent companies. They went out of business. They've joined forces to create a new network called CW.</s>TONY COX, host: Right.</s>NOVA SAFO: Which we'll talk about.</s>TONY COX, host: Right.</s>NOVA SAFO: But there were a bunch of stations that were left out. They didn't join the CW and they were left out. And News Corp, which runs Fox, in its wisdom -and they are whiz kids over there in making money. They've realized that they watch Univision and they've seen it get incredible ratings with Spanish-language telenovelas.</s>NOVA SAFO: So they basically said can we get that kind of excitement for English language telenovelas? So they've been already developing that. They had already been doing that. So they said here's an opportunity - of all these stations that need a network - we'll create one. So…</s>TONY COX, host: All right.</s>NOVA SAFO: In a matter of a few months, they came out with MyNetwork TV, and now they're running two telenovelas in primetime. They start tonight. They will be Desire and Fashion House. And they're very kind of over the top. And we do have a clip from Fashion House.</s>TONY COX, host: All right.</s>NOVA SAFO: We're going to give you an example of how over the top they are.</s>TONY COX, host: All right let's listen.</s>TONY COX, host: Unidentified Woman #1: I made it clear you were not to see my son.</s>TONY COX, host: Unidentified Woman #2: Paul pursued me.</s>TONY COX, host: Unidentified Woman #1: Which conveniently started the instant you were hired at Zioni(ph).</s>TONY COX, host: Unidentified Woman #2: What is that supposed to mean?</s>TONY COX, host: Unidentified Woman #1: Well, let's face facts. You have a modicum of talent and even less of an education.</s>TONY COX, host: Unidentified Woman #2: How dare you.</s>TONY COX, host: Unidentified Woman #1: You're a gold digger.</s>TONY COX, host: Okay.</s>NOVA SAFO: You know, it sounds - it sounds really lame, but I have to tell you, Tony.</s>TONY COX, host: It does sound lame.</s>NOVA SAFO: It's more sophisticated than Slick than your typical daytime soap opera. It's - the production values are much higher. They've discovered how to tape these all at once. It's a limited run - 13 weeks. And I think they're going to do pretty well. They're target audience is 18 to 49 women. And that's a pretty coveted audience. So I think they're going to do well.</s>TONY COX, host: All right, who's targeting, you know, the black folks?</s>NOVA SAFO: Well…</s>TONY COX, host: Where are we on the fall TV schedule?</s>NOVA SAFO: Tony, I have to tell you - no one, really.</s>NOVA SAFO: You have BET with…</s>TONY COX, host: Well, what a surprise that is.</s>NOVA SAFO: Right, exactly. Well, you know, it's funny. I talked to Dawn Ostroff, who had been running UPN. She's now the new president of CW. That's the other network.</s>TONY COX, host: Right.</s>NOVA SAFO: They're combining a bunch of programs from UPN and WB. Now, these UPN shows that survived, only a few of those, you know, kind of black sitcoms that were on UPN survived…</s>TONY COX, host: Girlfriends.</s>NOVA SAFO: Girlfriends survived.</s>TONY COX, host: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.</s>NOVA SAFO: All of Us survived. And the single-camera comedy, Everybody Hates Chris -which everyone loves, actually - survived. But here's the interesting thing, right? They put all these comedies Sunday night, all in a block. And when - in the original press release when they sent out touting their new schedule - guess what they called their Sunday night block?</s>TONY COX, host: They'll say Black Sunday.</s>NOVA SAFO: No, no, no.</s>TONY COX, host: Okay, good.</s>NOVA SAFO: They called it, euphemistically, the urban comedies on Sunday night.</s>TONY COX, host: Oh, it's the same thing.</s>TONY COX, host: Okay.</s>NOVA SAFO: And when I talked to Dawn Ostroff, I said why kind of - if you pardon or ghetto-ise that, you know, the block of shows. And she basically told me it made business sense. And we have a little bit of which she told me.</s>Ms. DAWN OSTROFF (President of Entertainment, CW Television Network): So we literally take in our Monday night block and move it onto Sunday night. It's going to have the same competition now that Monday Night Football has moved to Sunday night. And we will be a great alternative. It's also a great night for family viewing. And when you look at our 7 to 8 hour and you look at Everybody Hates Chris and All of Us, it's fantastic shows to sit down with the whole family and laugh and have a good time. And it's very hard to find that kind of programming on the air right now. So I think it's going to be a successful night for us.</s>TONY COX, host: All right, we'll see.</s>NOVA SAFO: Well, indeed we will. But, you know, I did ask her - I said, you know, it's okay. It makes business sense, but you have the most representation of minorities of anybody. At least you did when you were UPN. Don't you have some kind of social responsibility here as well, not just a business responsibility?</s>NOVA SAFO: And she kind of stuttered with that answer. I mean, she basically said, you know, we haven't had any real complaints. Whether that's true or not, I do not know. But she said, you know, we a lot more coming up. We promise we'll have a commitment to diversity, where part of the shows that are coming - and one of them we'll be a project they're developing with Alicia Keys. Where - talking about creating a show about what it's like to be a mixed - a person of mixed background. And she said that's going to be very relevant, especially for our younger audience. And the CW does kind of target the younger crowd.</s>TONY COX, host: Seems to me one of the things - several things have changed. for one, you don't really have all these shows ruling out in September as you used to, and that they're sort of staggered over the year. Talk about that briefly. But also it seems as if places like YouTube have been - have had an influence on how these new shows are rolled out. Is that right?</s>NOVA SAFO: Oh, Tony, you just hit upon two things that are just earthquakes, both for the TV industry. I mean, first of all, this - the reason you're seeing shows rolling out the entire year is because there's a glut of competition. There are more shows, more new programs coming up this year and being rolled out throughout the year than ever before on TV, just flat out. And that is a concern for some network executives because they're saying how is the audience ever going to be able to decipher what's good? What's bad? What they should watch? What they shouldn't watch? How will we get our message out?</s>NOVA SAFO: And some of the networks have realized you can do it with inventive marketing such as YouTube. NBC made a deal to join up with YouTube to market its programs. And in fact, there was a show called Nobody's Watching, a sitcom pilot that was produced in 2005…</s>TONY COX, host: What an appropriate name, huh?</s>NOVA SAFO: And nobody did in terms of - none of the networks were interested. It died a horrible death. And guess what? The pilot made it somehow onto YouTube, and it was huge. That first segment, the first nine-minute segment of the pilot got some half million hits this June. And then all of the sudden, NBC said wait a minute, everybody is watching. Let's do something with this. So they optioned the pilot that was dead because of YouTube.</s>NOVA SAFO: And in fact, somebody asked Kevin Reilly during the Television Critics Association conference over the summer…</s>TONY COX, host: And he is?</s>NOVA SAFO: Kevin Reilly is the president of NBC.</s>TONY COX, host: Okay.</s>NOVA SAFO: And they asked him, did you have something to do with this? Were you the brilliant mind that said let's put this on YouTube and see if it'll work? And he said, no. We were completely surprised with this. Let's hear what he had to say to one of the critics.</s>Mr. KEVIN REILLY (President, NBC): Initially, we attempted to clamp down on YouTube. We now, in fact, have gone into business with them for promotional efforts for our fall. That video, like everything else on YouTube at this point, none of it has official clearance. But we allowed it to happen.</s>Mr. KEVIN REILLY (President, NBC): Unidentified Man: So NBC Universal had nothing to do with putting it there or allowing it to be there in the first place?</s>Mr. KEVIN REILLY (President, NBC): Absolutely not. I didn't even know about it until I started getting e-mails while I was operating a sailboat in Mexico.</s>NOVA SAFO: Isn't that the best image?</s>TONY COX, host: Well, that tells you everything you need to know, doesn't it?</s>NOVA SAFO: You know?</s>TONY COX, host: Let's bring this to a close with this, because there's so much to consider all of these new shows. Just very briefly, Nova, how long does a show have to survive? Do you now have to do it on your debut night or else?</s>NOVA SAFO: Well, you know, in fact, the opening night of a show is becoming a lot like the opening weekend for a movie. Because there is so much competition out there, audiences are getting bombarded with messages - that the feeling and the thought is that pretty much if on the opening night you can't get those ratings, a high enough audience has given your show a chance, then they're less likely to come back. And there's less likely to be word of mouth, there's less likely to be buzz to give that show legs, to give that show room to grow.</s>NOVA SAFO: So broadcast networks, especially are finding it - finding themselves under a lot of pressure to get that show out on its opening night with a big bang. And if they don't get that, expect a bloodbath, as one of the executives from one of the networks - FX, John Landgraf at FX told me - he said expect a bloodbath because there will be a lot of shows that will not make it, good or bad. Because there's so much competition, they're just not going to get the audience.</s>TONY COX, host: There are going to be an awful lot of nervous people in Hollywood during the month of September…</s>NOVA SAFO: Mm hmm. Much more than usual.</s>TONY COX, host: That's for sure. Nova Safo covers the arts and television for NPR. Nova, thanks.</s>NOVA SAFO: You're welcome.</s>TONY COX, host: Coming up, the official start of the fall campaign season, but is the president and asset or a liability for Republican candidates? We'll discuss this and other topics on our Roundtable, next.