Studio report card: Fox

Roth resignation, 'Hill' move, 'Ally' success summarize season

By VARIETY STAFF

SPECIAL REPORT
After finishing last season with a historic second-place ranking among its target adults 18-49 demo, Fox Broadcasting Co. stumbled this fall launching new shows, which led to the resignation of Fox Entertainment prexy Peter Roth.

The web made a bold gamble this season in moving "King of the Hill" to Tuesday nights to open up timeslots for live-action comedies, but the show is struggling on Tuesdays, and nearly all the web's live-action comedies have failed.

Still, led by sophomore sensation "Ally McBeal" and lots of eye-popping reality specials, Fox managed to stop the bleeding during the November sweeps and nearly unseated longtime ratings champ NBC, which is suffering through its own hard times without "Seinfeld."

With the World Series, the Super Bowl and some highly anticipated midseason animated comedies, including 20th Century Fox's "Family Guy" and "Futurama" (the latter from "Simpsons" creator Matt Groening), Roth may be vindicated in the end. But newly installed president Doug Herzog has a tough task ahead: cutting costs and finding new hits to replace aging soaps "Melrose Place" and "Beverly Hills, 90210."

HIGH POINTS: On the TV studio side, 20th Century Fox TV has emerged as one of the top suppliers in town this year under the helm of president Sandy Grushow. With the launch of the current season, 20th became the first studio in more than a decade to tie Warner Bros. TV in getting the most shows on the fall schedule.

In terms of the sheer number of hits, 20th may be unmatched. On Fox alone, 20th has "The X-Files," "King of the Hill," "The Simpsons" and "Ally McBeal." News Corp. in fact, works the TV synergy angle far better than rivals Disney, Warner Bros. and Paramount.

"Much to News Corp.'s pleasure, FBC's biggest successes come from our studio," Grushow said.

But 20th also has managed to create some key shows for other webs, including ABC's "Dharma & Greg" and "The Practice" and the WB's "Buffy the Vampire Slayer."

"We're coming off an extraordinary year led by 'The Practice' winning the outstanding drama Emmy, 'Buffy' scoring in the cable and syndication markets after helping to establish the WB, 'King of the Hill' setting records in syndication, and last year's most promising new series, 'Dharma and Greg' and 'Ally McBeal,' becoming bona fide hits," Grushow said.

LOOKING AHEAD: With one of the biggest and most expensive writer rosters in town featuring players like David E. Kelley ("Ally McBeal," "The Practice"), Chris Carter ("The X-Files"), Chuck Lorre ("Dharma & Greg"), Joss Whedon ("Buffy the Vampire Slayer") and Steve Levitan ("Just Shoot Me"), the pressure is on to keep the hit machine churning.

Indeed, most of 20th's key writers have shows in the pipeline for next season.

And Fox's biggest challenge remains the same challenge for 20th: helping the network get a hit live-action comedy. This year's comedies that 20th produced for the Fox net -- "Living in Captivity," "Holding the Baby" and "Getting Personal" -- didn't make the grade.

"There's no question that remains high on the corporate agenda," Grushow said.

-- Jenny Hontz

SYNDICATION

HIGH POINTS: For Fox's Twentieth Television syndication arm, headed by prexy and chief operating officer Rick Jacobson, 1998 was a king-sized year.

The division racked up megabucks off-network sales for the hit animated sitcom "King of the Hill," set for a fall 2001 bow. The "King" syndie sales process closed the loop on a high-priority synergy project for the Fox TV empire: The 22 Fox owned-and-operated stations bought the Monday-Friday rerun rights to the Twentieth Century Fox TV-produced sitcom that airs in primetime on the Fox web.

All told, "King of the Hill" is projected to generate upwards of $500 million for News Corp. in the first decade of its syndie afterlife. But "King" wasn't the only hit series Twentieth ushered through the off-net sales process last year. Sibling cabler FX ponied up an estimated $65 million for the rights to "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," the Twentieth Century Fox TV-produced WB Network drama, beginning in 2001.

And with Fox's network TV arm on a roll in primetime, Twentieth can look forward to several more years of hot off-net sales. Among the titles ripe for syndication over the next two years are the acclaimed David E. Kelley skeins "The Practice" and "Ally McBeal," Chris Carter's "Millennium," the ABC sitcom "Dharma & Greg" and the NBC actioner "The Pretender."

LOW POINTS: As strong as the off-net sales were, 1998 also saw Twentieth deliver a king-sized firstrun flop: "The Magic Hour." The much-lambasted latenight talkshow strip, hosted by NBA great Earvin "Magic" Johnson, was yanked within eight weeks of its premiere last June.

It wasn't just that the reviews were scathing: "The Magic Hour" was ridiculed by showbizzers, critics and viewers alike as a symbol of everything that's wrong with Hollywood's TV development machine. The debacle, which came on the heels of costly latenight syndie failures from Columbia TriStar ("Vibe") and Disney's Buena Vista TV ("The Keenen Ivory Wayans Show"), cost Twentieth an estimated $15 million.

LOOKING AHEAD: By year's end, Twentieth had new hope for success in the firstrun strip arena with the slow but steady ratings growth of the aptly named "Forgive or Forget," which bowed the same week as "The Magic Hour." "Forgive" has beaten the odds against all frosh series, network or syndie, by getting a second-year pickup.

The show, hosted by the likable former radio personality Mother Love, has clicked in large part because it offers a new twist on the talkshow format. Guests 'fess up to past misdeeds, then gamble to see if the injured party (or parties) will come out on stage at the end to -- what else? -- forgive or at least forget the transgression.

"In an era with so many high-profile personality shows, it's gratifying to see with 'Forgive' that it's still about concepts. People like the format of our show. It's different, and it's got that bit of suspense to it," said Jacobson. "You can't always buy your way to success with big-name talents. We learned that with 'Magic.' "

In addition to "Forgive," Twentieth's firstrun slate for 1999 includes a revival of the chestnut "Divorce Court," to capitalize on the current courtshow boom in daytime. Unlike previous incarnations, however, the new-model "Divorce Court" will feature a real judge presiding over actual cases.

-- Cynthia Littleton

CABLE

Rupert Murdoch came somewhat late to the business of owning cable networks, so he's still playing catch-up in cable with his main global media rivals Time Warner, Disney and Viacom.

HIGH POINTS: The most valuable cable network in Murdoch's News Corp. portfolio is the Fox Family Channel, which the Fox Entertainment Group owns jointly with Saban Entertainment.

Fox Family Channel is one of the top 10 most widely distributed cable networks in the U.S., harvesting -- at last count -- 73 million subscribers through cable TV and satellite dishes.

The network, which almost totally revamped its lineup in August, has tapped into the 20th Century Fox theatrical-movie inventory for some of its primetime programming and come up with a successful nightly firstrun comedy series "The New Addams Family." For calendar 1998, Fox Family is up 9% in primetime Nielsen ratings from the previous year, and up by 25% year to year in the total-day schedule.

Fox Family's cash flow will hover in the neighborhood of $140 million in 1998, with a projected $160 million for 1999, according to Paul Kagan Associates.

MIDDLING TO LOW POINTS: News Corp.'s other highly visible general-entertainment network, FX, is a joint venture with John Malone's Liberty Media. The main reason FX will chalk up only about $47 million in cash flow in 1998 is that it's not growing fast enough in circulation to offset huge programming expenses for rerun hours such as "The X-Files" and "NYPD Blue." Kagan forecast FX spent $107.6 million for programming in 1998 and will spend $125.1 million this year.

At a subscriber count of 37.6 million, FX reaches only about half the homes of its general-entertainment competitors USA, TNT, TBS and Lifetime.

The biggest money loser in Murdoch's cable-network empire is still the FNC (Fox News Channel), which Kagan says will stagger to a negative cash flow of $29 million in 1998 and another $20 million in 1999. But Murdoch amortizes the cost of FNC by tapping into his global news resources to supplement the domestic operation. FNC also saves money by filling its primetime schedule with talking-heads interviews.

LOOKING AHEAD: FNC has added more subscribers in the last year than any other cable network in the U.S. except Animal Planet and the Disney Channel. Nielsen says FNC is now in 36.4 million households.

Murdoch and Malone's Liberty Media are also partners in a group of 21 RSNs (regional sports networks), plus a national service -- Fox Sports Net -- that feeds programming to the regionals. Fox/Liberty has also reached affiliation deals with five additional RSNs, so the combined operation reaches 61 million households with cable or satellite hookups, who can watch the games of 71 professional-sports teams.

To produce programming inhouse for all of these cable holdings, Murdoch has created a division called the Fox TV Studios. David Grant, president of Fox TV Studios, says his goal is to supply all of the firstrun-programming needs of Fox Family, FX and Fox Sports Net, and even produce non-fiction series and specials for the Fox News Channel.

-- John Dempsey

STATION GROUP

News Corp.'s collection of 22 Fox-owned stations remained stable in 1998, with ownership caps preventing the conglom from expanding much further.

On the plus side, outlets in Chicago, Phoenix and Tampa grew solidly in ratings and profits. Stations in Detroit and Denver finished the November sweeps number one among adults 18-49 in primetime.

The group's flagship station, WNYW, got a new general manager in the form of broadcast vet Michael Wach. Working with Fox Stations topper Mitch Stern, Wach has moved aggressively to address some of the outlet's most serious problems, including fading morning and primetime newscasts and the lack of strong syndie programming in daytime and fringe.

While morning warhorse "Good Day New York" is still in a ratings funk, the station's 10 p.m. news has bounced back. Acquiring the second cycle of "Seinfeld" repeats will be a big boost in 2001. A deal for local broadcast rights to the Yankees will help WNYW reinforce its Gotham roots starting this spring.

There was far less turbulence at Fox's West Coast flagship, KTTV, which remained in solid shape throughout the year. The station's 10 p.m. news again finished as the timeslot leader, while in the ayem, "Good Day L.A." scored a ratings triumph by finishing first among adults 18-49 during the November book. KTTV frequently finished first in primetime as well, notching a sweeps-long win in November.

FOX SPORTS: News Corp. shelled out billions to keep the NFL on Fox well into the next century. Some question whether the web will be able to make money on pigskin, but there's no question Fox is better with football than without. In addition, following some very tense negotiations, the web hammered out a new agreement with affiliates to get the stations to chip in on the huge cost of the deal.

After a couple of lackluster seasons, Fox's baseball ratings shot up in 1998 thanks to the heroics of Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa, boosting numbers for local stations and helping take the edge off of the web's early fall primetime woes. A short four-game World Series, however, prevented Fox from making any coin off the game this season.

Fox was unable to reach a deal with the NHL to extend its hockey deal when Disney/ABC stepped up with a megabuck offer. But with hockey struggling in the ratings despite Fox's best efforts to appeal to a younger crowd, many observers think the web won't miss the puck.

FOX KIDS: The network hammered out a complicated new deal with its affils in which it assumed full ownership of the Fox Kids Network, giving affils a cut of the profits. Rumors persist that Fox will begin moving some of its weekday kiddie fare to Fox Family Channel as early as 1999 to assuage affils anxious to add more lucrative talkshows to afternoon lineups.

The web's long-dominant Saturday ayem sked suffered a setback when ABC's Disney-produced skein passed Fox to become the top-rated broadcast net among tots 2-11.

FOX NEWS: While the Roger Ailes-led division devotes most of its energy to building a cable presence through Fox News Channel, Fox News Edge continues to aggressively supply affils with coverage of national and global events. Fox News also expanded into radio, partnering with Westwood One on a syndicated radio news web.

As for network product, an early incarnation of the primetime newsmag "Fox Files" flopped and was replaced with a grittier version in late fall that's been somewhat more successful in its first few outings. "Fox News Sunday," the web's contender in the D.C-based public affairs war, has shown ratings growth and, perhaps more importantly, is generating an increasing number of mentions in the Monday morning newspapers.

-- Josef Adalian