'Hell’s Kitchen' is one of the hot Fox shows profiting from an early start this summer on the coattails of the 'American Idol' finale.
Liguori
Two months after Taylor Hicks hit his last high note, Fox continues to bask in the afterglow of "American Idol."
Fox is the clear leader midway through the summer season, with ratings in adults 18-49 up a sharp 14% vs. year-ago figures through July 16. Net's won 21 of this year's 29 weeks, and it finishes first every night of the week but Friday in adults 18-34.
All this sizzle stems from Fox's summer scheduling strategy, which relies heavily on the promo power of "Idol" and a push to erase the traditional boundaries designating when seasons start and end.
Instead of turning the lights off on the final night of May sweeps, Fox sought to extend its 2005-06 season into the summer by relentlessly hyping its summer shows during the final weeks of "Idol" and then immediately launching them after the singing competish's finale.
"We wanted to make sure we kept the momentum going," Fox Entertainment prexy Peter Liguori said.
That meant premiering "So You Think You Can Dance" -- a series from the producers of "Idol" -- within 24 hours of the latter skein's wrap-up. "Hell's Kitchen" began its second season just a few days later.
The result? Both shows are in Nielsen's top five in key demos, and both are up in overall ratings vs. last year.
Emboldened by this year's success, Liguori says he is now "looking to make some aggressive moves" next summer in going beyond reality skeins.
"We're trying to figure out how we introduce some scripted shows in the summer, be it a (soap) or somewhat more alternative comedies," he said.
Toward that end, Fox has signed a deal with Shed, the Blighty shingle behind hit sudser "Footballer$ Wives," to produce what he calls "some frothy programming" for the net.
Fox has also pacted with sister outlet Fox TV Studios to develop serial "The Secret Lives of Working Wives." Deborah Joy Levine ("Beautiful People") and brother Dan Levine are writing the pilot, with the former scribe also exec producing.
As for the other soap projects in the works, "We're starting to get some series bibles and first scripts in now," he said.
Reality programming is still key for the summer, with Liguori noting that alternative chief Mike Darnell is "brewing up" a host of potential players for next summer -- including the already announced "On the Lot," from Steven Spielberg and Mark Burnett.
One unscripted project that's dead, however: "X-Quest," the big-budget space-themed show from Imagine TV (
Daily Variety, July 28).
All the nets, Liguori argues, "need to put good shows on to reassure the audience that broadcast networks put on quality" during the summer. He said nets can no longer program what he calls "concession programming" -- i.e., failed series and longshot reality skeins.
"You have to go forward with shows that have proven success or that you feel have a real shot," he said. "If we don't, then we're basically driving people away from broadcast and toward cable."
Depending on how Fox's new fall fare performs -- and how close the 2006-07 horse race is running next spring -- net may decide to extend the run of some existing skeins well past May. A second batch of "Prison Break" or "Vanished" episodes, for example, could return in late April and run through July.
It's part of what Liguori calls a "bimodal" scheduling strategy of extending one season into the summer and kicking off another much earlier than usual.
Plan, executed by Fox scheduling supremo Preston Beckman, will be in evidence next month. While most nets are expected to be in repeats, Fox will begin rolling out a big chunk of its 2006-07 lineup by the time August is over.
Early launch is key to Fox's desire to do better in the fall, when baseball playoffs have in the past interrupted the net's rollout plans. The early premieres paid off last year, and Liguori is hoping it works again.
"What we have to work on is the fourth quarter," he said, noting increased circulation in the summer exposes more people to promos for new fall shows. "We have to do better."
And while Fox's summer lineup has also received a boost from repeatable hits such as "House" (the summer's No. 1 drama, tied with "CSI: Miami") and "Family Guy" (the top comedy), net's signature serialized skeins remain a repeat problem. Encore showings of "24" on Friday have been a disaster and will soon disappear.
Fox also has to deal with rivals plotting similar strategies.
NBC has been vocal about the need for year-round programming, and it too has had success with early launches.
Peacock brought back "Last Comic Standing" a week after the season ended, and it's a clear summer success story. And "America's Got Talent," which bowed the first day of summer, currently ranks as the No. 1 show of the summer (though its numbers are going in the wrong direction).
Overall, NBC is a solid second for the summer and is up by 10% vs. last year. An experiment with scripted fare (the drama "Windfall") hasn't worked, but the net has boosted circulation in advance of its key fall launches.
CBS is doing fine thanks to its repeat-friendly lineup of crime dramas. Returning players "Big Brother" and "Rock Star" aren't on fire, but they sure look good compared with some of the summer's many failed reality newcomers (including the Eye's own "Tuesday Night Book Club").
And while ABC has the best fall buzz of any net, it's had a regrettable summer. Its serialized skeins don't draw an aud, and none of its new reality shows worked.
Latest effort, "The One," drew a mere 1.0 demo rating in its second outing Wednesday. As of Thursday evening, its fate was still up in the air.
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