Feature: Networks rethink 'reality' TV

LOS ANGELES, April 21 (UPI) -- Reality TV has been hailed as a new prime-time profit center, but the Los Angeles Times reports the genre has also posed unanticipated challenges for networks.

Advertisers are shying away from reality shows that focus on "feuding or vulgar families, pseudo-celebrities roughing it in the wild or the on-air equivalent of a bawdy singles bar," the paper reported Monday. Tom DeCabia, executive vice president of the ad-buying firm PHD USA, told the Times that advertisers are not exactly "beating down the door" to sponsor sensationalistic reality shows.

"Anything that ends up in a hot tub, you don't want to be around," said DeCabia.

According to the report, network executives plan to include few, if any, reality shows on the fall schedules they will introduce to advertisers in New York beginning next month at the annual "upfront" market. That's when networks hope advertisers will commit now to spending up to $8.5 billion on the 2003-04 prime-time season.

Advertisers get a somewhat better rate for air time if they commit early. Last year, they ordered a record $8 billion of commercial time during the "upfronts."

Disney CEO and Chairman Michael Eisner recently announced that Disney-owned ABC would go easy on unscripted shows this fall, and rely more heavily on conventional scripted comedies. The network had a negative experience during the 2002-03 season, when it programmed more than one-fifth of its prime-time hours with reality-based shows -- most of which failed to generate much in the way or ratings.

CBS, Fox and NBC have also said they will place more emphasis on scripted shows this fall. NBC Entertainment President Jeff Zucker told the Times his network will try to strike a balance between scripted and unscripted shows. NBC will feature six reality shows this summer, then return to more comedies and drama in the fall.

John Wells -- creator-producer of such hit NBC TV dramas as "ER," "Third Watch" and "The West Wing" -- said ABC's experience with "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" was instructive for all the networks.

"There was success, so people rush to it," said Wells in an interview. "The majority ... end up being not nearly as good (as the originals)."

As a rule, something like 70 percent of new network shows fail, almost without regard to genre. The current reality craze got its first real boost when "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" was a smash as a replacement on ABC's schedule.

Network programmers will have reality shows waiting in the wings, in case they are needed to plug scheduling holes created by failed series on the fall schedule.

"The better of those shows will survive," said Wells.

Meantime, with renewed reliance on scripted shows, networks still need to solve a problem that contributed to the emergence of reality TV -- viewer impatience with conventional storytelling. Wells said the narrative form that is used on most prime-time dramas has been in use for close to 25 years, and the time has come to replace it with something new.

"We're going to have to tell stories a little differently and invent different ways of doing it," he said. "I'm not sure how we'll do that. Normally these things turn sort of by degrees, 10 degrees, 20 degrees, rather than 180 degrees."

Despite DeCabia's admonition about advertisers shying away from reality shows, networks will remain in the hunt, for now, for shows that can have the kind of ratings and revenue impact that "American Idol," "Joe Millionaire" and "Survivor" have had.

The Times reported that "Joe Millionaire" -- which cost a fraction of what it costs NBC to put "Friends" on the air -- turned into such a huge hit that Fox was charging more for ads on its racy reality show than NBC was getting for its racy half-hour comedy.

But such hits have proved the exception, rather than the rule. The 2002-03 season provided another reminder for network programmers that it's a lot easier to lay an egg -- such as "Are You Hot? The Search for America's Sexiest People" or "I'm a Celebrity ... Get Me Out of Here" -- than it is to hatch a golden goose.