ABC rushing out Friday newsmagazine

ABC rushing out
Friday newsmagazine

Focus: America and its war against terrorism

By Elizabeth White

    In case viewers couldn’t find enough information on TV about Sept. 11 and its aftermath, ABC is launching a new series on Nov. 2, titled "America 24/7," that will focus exclusively on America’s response to current events.
   The show will take "The Mole 2’s" old slot on Fridays at 8 p.m. and hopefully provide some traction on an otherwise dismal night for ABC.
   The network has been finishing in fourth place in households with its lineup of "The Mole 2," "Thieves" and "Once and Again."
   To some media buyers, the new show makes sense.
   "The other network newsmagazines have been doing really well. There’s a renewed interest in those shows, and given the events that have taken place, there’s a lot of public interest," says Doug Seay, senior vice president at Publicis & Hal Riney.
   "The show solves two problems for ABC. They need more newsmagazines, and they need to work on Friday."
    Yet indicative of how quickly the idea has been put together, none of the talent has been named and the show doesn't really even have a name yet. "America 24/7" is a working title.
   Also unclear is the exact format of the show.
   According to a spokesman at ABC, "America 24/7" will have stories from every front in the war against terrorism, potentially including military bases, the Pentagon, Afghanistan, Ground Zero, the Centers for Disease Control, and other sites of the domestic investigation.
   ABC is expecting to run the series for at least a couple of months, with tentative plans to move the show to another night when "20/20" returns to its 10 p.m. Friday slot in December.
But the question some media buyers raise is whether a show focusing exclusively on Sept. 11 and its aftermath will generate sufficient viewer interest when the topic is already so widely covered by news shows and existing newsmagazine programs.
   Certainly, as some point out, viewers are more interested in news than in the past, as evidenced by increased ratings for news shows in general since Sept. 11.
   "There is an appetite for it," says Lisa Weisman, national broadcast supervisor at GSD&M.
   "With as much as it’s hitting us, it may be too much, but ‘Dateline’ is doing well on the night. Right now, "America 24/7" will do solid numbers. It will do better than ‘The Mole.’"
   But others say the new show faces the risk of over-saturation.
   "Not to minimize the tragedy, but at some point it will get excruciating to watch. It is possible to get overexposed to this," says Shari Anne Brill, director of programming services at Carat.
    "Everyone is already doing this with their newsmagazines. I would rather have them put 'Who Wants to be a Millionaire' back on Friday. It would work better."
    Still, says Brill, at the least the show will help ABC through the November sweeps, serving as a placeholder until "20/20" returns to Friday as the night’s newsmagazine.
    "It could be to fill time through November until they figure out what to do," says Brill.
    "I don’t know if it could do any worse than what’s there now. I see it as a short-term patch, something that will get them through November. It’s not a long-term solution."

-Elizabeth White is a staff writer for Media Life.

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