“Dr. Laura” is a wrap.
    Paramount Television, producer of Dr. Laura Schlessinger’s long-troubled syndicated television talk show, announced Friday that it has pulled the plug on the controversial TV show.
   The studio taped “Dr. Laura’s” final show on Thursday but affiliates are likely to continue airing reruns of the program through the fall.
     "While the daily taping schedule for this season has concluded, original episodes will continue to be edited and will be available for broadcast by stations through September 2001," a spokesperson for Paramount told reporters.
   The show was done in by several factors: poor ratings and a dearth of advertising, largely in response to protests from various gay and lesbian groups over Schlessinger’s anti-gay tirades.
    Perhaps its biggest failing, though, was in conception: Despite promises that the famed radio host was going to offer viewers a similar version of her no-nonsense advice, the TV show that eventually aired seemed a vapid imitation.
   "We commend Dr. Laura, her producers and staff, for their desire to create an alternative program for daytime," Paramount said in a release after the show was canceled.
     Although the show’s been in trouble since its September 2000 premiere, with ratings well below what Paramount had expected, things took a serious turn for the worse in February when the show went on a supposedly planned hiatus.
    The scheduled two-week vacation from taping turned into a five-week break from production, indicating Paramount’s weakening faith in the show.
    Since the show began taping again last month, production has been sporadic, sparking rumors of a cancellation, according to the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD), a group which has carefully tracked the progress of the show.
    From the onset of Schlessinger's television show, GLAAD has been one of her biggest foes.
    Angered and troubled by anti-homosexual remarks made by Schlessinger, including calling gays “sexual deviants” and “biological mistakes,” the organization successfully pressured major advertisers, such as Procter & Gamble and American Airlines, to stop buying time during the talk show.
     In fact, in a statement following the announcement of the show’s cancellation, Schlessinger blamed the lack of national advertisers for “Dr. Laura’s” demise.
     "I believe it could have earned a substantial audience in time, but the television advertiser boycott precluded that," Schlessinger said.
      Not surprisingly, GLAAD applauds the cancellation.
     "Paramount Domestic Television justified its decision to air 'Dr. Laura' by saying that it would 'let the people decide,'" said GLAAD Executive Director Joan M. Garry. "Well, the people have decided. Viewers and advertisers alike have decided that, when given a choice, they will choose to reject those who advocate intolerance and advance an agenda of exclusion."
     The show premiered to lukewarm ratings in September, with several major advertisers dropping out early on due to bad publicity.
     Schlessinger’s radio fans were also disillusioned by the usually loudmouthed personality’s toned-down TV image.
      Media Life’s own television critic Andrew Wallenstein predicted Paramount would make over the boring “Dr. Laura.”
     "Take heart, diehard ‘Dr. Laura’ fans,” he wrote. “As long as the ratings continue to droop, there's always hope that Schlessinger will return to her vicious self."
     In fact, in late September production was halted in an effort to put a harder edge on the show.
     Only three weeks after its premiere, Paramount promised the show would return with a more outspoken Schlessinger, similar to her radio persona.
     "Keep tuning in, in the next few weeks, and you will see more of the Dr. Laura that people have come to know through her radio programming," the show’s publicist told Media Life in late September.
     However, following a halfhearted apology regarding past anti-gay comments, the show appeared fairly unchanged after the break, and ratings continued to plummet.
     Schlessinger, who is heard on more than 400 U.S. and Canadian radio stations and who attracts about 18 million radio listeners, scored the second-worst-rated new syndicated talk show this season, behind the newly retooled "Men are From Mars, Women are From Venus."

April 2, 2001 © 2001 Media Life

-Jennifer Cox is a staff writer for Media Life.

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