Par greenlights Rhea yakker
Project being developed for fall 2001
Buzz on the Rhea project has been positive since it went into development at BTT, home of "Judge Judy" and "Judge Joe Brown," with an eye toward a fall 2001 launch in firstrun syndication (Daily Variety, June 19).
Rumors were circulating last week that the Rhea project was expected to be ready to go into production early, in case Par needs a replacement to offer stations if it pulls the plug on embattled freshman yakker "Dr. Laura."
Par Domestic TV co-prexy Joel Berman said otherwise Friday. "This is being developed for fall '01," Berman said. "We're working hard on 'Dr. Laura' and have made some changes to it, but we're really not looking at Caroline other than as a separate entity for fall '01."
Big Ticket declined to comment on the possibility that the Rhea show would replace "Dr. Laura," as did reps for the William Morris Agency, which packaged the Rhea project.
Replacement strategy
For Par, offering a strong, new show to replace a canceled "Dr. Laura" may enable the studio to hold onto the key timeslots now occupied by "Dr. Laura" before low ratings prompt stations to downgrade the show.
(For the week ended Oct. 15, "Dr. Laura" earned a 1.5 national household rating, according to Nielsen.)
In April 1994 Paramount made a maneuver that allowed it to hold onto some of "Arsenio Hall's" time periods when the latenight talker's ratings began slipping. After "Arsenio" was canceled, Par started offering "The Jon Stewart Show," which had been airing on sister company MTV.
At the time, however, industry insiders maintained that Par could have held onto more "Arsenio" time periods if it had been quicker in offering a ready replacement (Daily Variety, April 24, 1994).
Meanwhile, Par is beginning preliminary discussions with stations about two other projects, a dating show-meets-"Politically Incorrect" skein called "Rendez View," as well as the Ryan Seacrest project (Daily Variety, Sept. 20).
While the Caroline Rhea show is said to have general appeal for a wide range of stations, the theoretically young-skewing Seacrest project is being aimed specifically at Fox, WB and UPN affils, Berman said. "Rendez View" is aimed at latenight.
Yakker hybrid
A departure from the traditional yakker format, the Rhea project has been described as a chat show-service show, with a heavy dose of comedy.
"It's like hanging out with a great girlfriend," said WMA's Mark Itkin, the show's packaging agent.
Berman said it's "the greatest show we've ever done."
The Rhea pilot will be a compilation reel from three full episodes that have been shot. The footage includes a range of segs and topics, including celeb appearances by Jason Alexander and Camryn Manheim as well as a cooking bit with chef Bob Blumer. Non-celeb segs include bits on vintage clothing and on how important sex is to a committed relationship.
Rhea co-stars on "Sabrina, the Teenage Witch," which moved from ABC to the WB this year. She is also a regular on King World's syndie gamer "Hollywood Squares." Recently, she hosted Fox's "Sexiest Bachelor in America" pageant.
