Wrestling to the top
Diller dilemma: how to address 'Springer' success
Jerry Springer hosts the hottest talkshow on the wrestling ... er, daytime TV circuit right now, and he's about to get a new boss: Barry Diller.
Diller's HSN Inc. is buying the show, as part of its $4 billion buyout of Universal TV, just as "Jerry Springer" is going into overdrive, in more ways than one.
Riding the wave of a ratings surge that began over the summer, "Jerry Springer" is now giving the long-dominant "Oprah Winfrey" a serious challenge, particularly in bellwether TV markets like Atlanta.
At the same time, "Springer" is averaging one wrestling match, catfight and/or burlesque seg per hour, making the show a mixed bag of a ratings smash that can be a tough sell to advertisers. Top-dog national spot buyers like Procter & Gamble won't go near it.
HSN execs weren't available to comment on the Springer phenomenon last week. Insiders at the company haven't paid as much attention to the peculiarities of Springer's brand of entertainment as they have to the Nielsen numbers his show produces on weak UHF stations in major markets like Boston, Minneapolis, New Orleans and Milwaukee.
Slot spike
"Jerry Springer" has managed to win its timeslot against heavy-hitting competition including "Oprah" and "Rosie O'Donnell," shows that air on stronger VHF network affiliates. That's good news to the broadcasting arm of Diller's HSN, soon to be renamed USA Networks Inc.
Diller's company is looking to transform a group of major-market UHF stations next year from 24-hour Home Shopping Network barkers to news and entertainment outlets with an emphasis on live, locally oriented programming.
" 'Jerry Springer's' ratings prove that if you give people something they really want to watch, they'll find any station on the dial and make it competitive," says an HSN exec.
Other observers note that Springer's show has a lot of impulse-watching appeal in the era of channel surfing. When the chairs and fists start flying, the unpredictability grabs viewers in the same way Fox makes hay in sweep months with "When Animals Attack" and "World's Scariest Police Chases" specs.
Homevideo synergy
Springer's notoriety also has benefited from boffo sales over the past year of the "Jerry Springer: Too Hot for TV" homevideo line of outtakes and uncensored clips.
So far, the programming plans Diller's lieutenants have unveiled for the first HSN switch-market, WHYS Miami, haven't resembled the Springer format: A weekly true-crime series hosted by famed Miami cop reporter Edna Buchanan; a variety show with up-and-coming actress-comedian Monique Marvez; and an afternoon cartoon block.
Springer's success on TV stations that afford him little advertising and promotion ups the ante for Diller's transition team by proving that, with the right show, ratings spikes are possible on stations that typically pull in 5% or less of the available audience.
