In his pithy way, Fox Stations chairman Roger Ailes summed up the spirit behind News Corp.'s decision to greenlight a sixth national TV net: "Losing is highly over-rated as a learning experience. We expect to win."
If corporate determination were all it took to succeed, My Network TV would be an instant hit.
My Network TV is a response to the merger of the WB and UPN netlets, and cynics already are questioning whether the amalgamated WB-UPN fifth net, now called CW, can make a go of it. Why should one net made up of two struggling ones (which jointly lost $2 billion over 10 years) be any more likely to succeed?
As for a sixth net, both the business model and the creative choices had better work. On the first score, Fox deserves kudos for cutting out the flab in the development and production cycle.
In practical terms, nine of Fox's owned stations -- in the top three markets and in six others of considerable size -- were, at the stroke of Leslie Moonves' pen, left without their UPN affiliation, and hence without primetime shows like "Smallville" or "Gilmore Girls." So, too, were 150-odd other stations in midsize and smaller markets, outlets that haven't had to flex an independent muscle in 10 years.
Fox's My Network TV may be just what the doctor ordered, since apparently the stations that come aboard will not have to pay any compensation for the service and the ad splits are favorable to them. The Fox syndication sales team began fanning out last week to sign up affils.
So what have Ailes & Co. come up with programwise? Not what you might expect. They're taking two Latin-originated telenovelas, transliterating them into English and putting them on at 8 and 9 p.m. five nights a week.
These scripted dramas, "Secrets" and "Desire," will run for 13 weeks each and then be replaced by two more dramas of similar provenance. Backup shows include a supermodel reality series called "Catwalk" and an investigative crime show called "On Scene."
Ailes said stripped programming is the backbone of TV around the world, informing all dayparts Stateside except primetime, so there's no reason the approach can't work for auds in the evening.
There's no disputing that telenovelas have taken the rest of the world by storm, so why not here?
Fox's "24" costs $2 million an episode, but "Desire" and "Secrets" are going to cost one-sixth that sum. "There will be no huge bloated network overhead," in News Corp. prexy-chief operating officer Peter Chernin's words.
But the shows also have to be good, engaging and addictive -- not just cost-effective.
The plotlines, however, did not instantly inspire confidence. As read out by Fox chieftains last week in Gotham, they sounded ludicrous. Even the sexy actors paraded onstage had to hold back their giggles when their characters were described.
The temptress in "Fashion House" is "every homemaker's worst nightmare"; another main character "loses her baby after a suspicious fall down the stairs."
Is this what young auds in Des Moines and Daytona want? Rather than "The OC" on Fox, or "Gilmore Girls" on the CW? (Advertisers pay more for those shows because they're known quantities, whereas the newcomers are likely to go for a much lower cost-per-thousand.)
Fox execs say they expect to pull better ratings than the defunct UPN or WB -- presumably better than a 2.
They'll have their work cut out for them.
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