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staying at CBS
Letterman: Executives are morons, Koppel's cool
By Gabriel Spitzer
CBS is the network late-night talk show host David Letterman most enjoys harpooning, and it will remain the object of his word jabs.
Letterman is not jumping to ABC.
Letterman late yesterday confirmed that he was staying with CBS, having accepted a sweetened contract that both puts more money in his pockets and gains him much wider exposure on that network and across other networks within the Viacom family, such as MTV.
Unclear is the destiny of serious news talker Ted Koppel, whose "Nightline" on ABC at 11:35 would have been axed to make way for Letterman.
Letterman, in announcing his decision to stay with CBS at the taping of his show late yesterday afternoon, went out of his way to praise Koppel and to say he hoped ABC would keep his show.
But, in classic Letterman fashion, he also joked about his often testy relationship with CBS brass, calling its executives morons and assuring viewers, "There will be fistfights, and that's too bad."
ABC executives, clearly disappointed by Letterman's decision and with much egg on their face over the public humiliation of Koppel, said that "Nightline" would remain in its time slot but did not say for how long, despite a public demand from Koppel for a commitment.
The presumption now is that Koppel, who has cut back his schedule to three days a week, will leave the network for a cable news network like CNN.
It's anyone guess just what ABC would put in that time slot.
But the network has a far more pressing concern, and that is the need to repair the damage the whole Letterman imbroglio has caused within the network, especially within its news division.
The run at Letterman was led by executives of ABC parent Disney, and that they would make it should have come as no surprise.
Letterman's contract was up and he was clearly unhappy with CBS brass, ridiculing them on air for, among other things, failing to come up with primetime shows that would create a a better lead-in audience for his show.
ABC had also long been unhappy with "Nightline," which despite winning praise for its in-depth news analysis, lacked the profits Letterman delivered for CBS, in addition to skewing older.
But Disney executives, in an effort, to win over Letterman, were put in an awkward position of having to negotiate in secrecy, keeping their talks with Letterman within a small circle that did not include ABC news chief David Westin.
But it was nonetheless a three-way waltz in which both of the other dancers, Letterman and CBS, had a lot to gain by seeing that secrecy blown.
Blow it did in a March 1 New York Times story, leaving ABC in the awkward position of having to manage the Koppel ado while pushing to win Letterman.
The effect, though perhaps unintended, was to make them negotiate all the harder, upping the amount of the offer to match or exceed the $30 million CBS was paying Letterman and promising a more nurturing venue to enlarge Letterman's audience, including the addition of John Madden to "Monday Night Football."
But one of Letterman's many beefs with CBS has been over delays and preemptions, and a deal with ABC would have meant broadcast delays during the NFL season.
CBS, as part of it sweetened offer, limited the delays and preemptions that would affect the Letterman show.
In the end, Letterman, returning from a week's vacation, decided to stick with CBS.
The question no one knows the answer to is whether he ever really gave serious thought to leaving.
March 12, 2002 © 2002 Media Life
-Gabriel Spitzer is a staff writer for Media Life.
