Thursday

Fox's grand scheme
for another sweeps win

Can it whup NBC a second time? Enter Monica.

By Alison Gaylin

        Fox, the network that invented trash TV, delivered perhaps its greatest sweeps stunt of all back in February by winning sweeps, slipping in ahead of NBC with a 5.7 rating in the 18-49 demographic, led by breakout hits “American Idol” and “Joe Millionaire” and a heavily hyped Michael Jackson special.
Going into May sweeps, just two weeks off, Fox is hoping to roust NBC a second time in 18-49s with a lot of what worked the first time, down to another Michael Jackson special.
   The network being Fox, there will be the expected titillation--"Michael Jackson’s Private Home Movies" airs on April 24 and and ex-Clinton sex toy Monica Lewinsky will be hosting a reality dating series, “Mr. Personality.”
   The network being Fox, there will be the spoofy Fox stunt show, this one “The Miss Dog America Pageant” (yes, a beauty pageant for canines).
But much of Fox's sweeps energy will come from its regular programming, led by “American Idol 2,” which airs its series finale May 21 and 22.
“We came up with a schedule in January, and it seems to be working,” says Preston Beckman, Fox’s executive vice president for strategic program planning.
“As we go on to setting a fall schedule and the upfront, what the advertiser sees now is what they’re going to get next year, in some variation.”
      But that by no means ensures another sweeps win against NBC.
    Hard to believe, at least for those with short memories, but not every Fox special or reality series is a hit, and some are real disasters. Case in point: “Married by America.” The show drew respectable ratings for its final episode on April 14 (a 3.9 18-49 average, jumping up to 5.4 in its last half-hour), but it was no “Joe Millionaire.”
   “Hopefully, ‘Mr. Personality’ will be a bump up from ‘Married by America,’” says Beckman of the new, Lewinsky-hosted reality show, which features masked bachelors competing for the affections of an attractive female.
     To bolster its chances, Fox is scrubbing the ‘Boston Public’ lead-in for the show’s April 21 debut and substituting an hour-long, ‘greatest hits’-style ‘American Idol’ special.
   "That can only help the network,” says Jordan Breslow, manager for national broadcast research for MediaCom. “The new Wednesday night ‘American Idol’ lead-in was some of the reason that ‘Wanda at Large’ got off to such a great start.
    “In fact, American Idol has had an amazing impact on the Fox lineup overall on Tuesday and Wednesday nights,” says Breslow. “‘24’ has seen tremendous growth because of ‘American Idol’ as a lead-in. And ‘That 70s Show,’ which appears before ‘American Idol’ on Wednesdays has also seen a nice boost in ratings.”
   Helped by the ‘Idol’ lead-in and Lewinsky’s buzz-appeal, ‘Mr. Personality’s’ debut could score impressive numbers. But will they stick?
   “I don’t anticipate ‘Joe Millionaire’ numbers,” says Breslow. “Monica Lewinsky will draw people for the premiere episode. And then they’ll say, ‘It’s okay I see her. I know what she’s up to. I don’t have to watch this every week.’”
   Fox has other concerns, and those it has no control over, and one certainly is the finales of long-running series on the other networks, including “Dawson’s Creek,” “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” “Touched by an Angel” and, quite possibly “The Practice.” Viewers will be drawn away.
But Fox's far bigger concern is NBC, which is expected to mount a vigorous counter-offensive, lest it be defeated by Fox a second time.
     As Fox’s Beckman notes, “It looks like now NBC isn’t really running their schedule in May. A lot of their series are going to be gone before the sweep even starts, so they’re going to be doing a lot of stunting.
"It’s going to make it tougher for us to win, but at least we’re trying to win with a schedule that we can take into the new season.”
    Could Fox -- the onetime home of stunt programming -- be going straight?
“I wouldn’t exactly call ‘Mr. Personality’ hosted by Monica Lewinsky taking the safe path,” Beckman replies. “And I wouldn’t consider us being the network with the Michael Jackson jones, taking the safe path.”
   And then there’s that dog beauty pageant….

-Alison Gaylin is a New York writer.

Printer-Friendly Version | Send to a Friend
Cover Page | Contact Us