Thank you Elyse, for typing this!

From: Elyse.Dickenson @ eisd.com

November 8, 1996

CBS's Early Edition a surprise ratings winner

By NEAL WATSON

Edmonton Sun (Canada)

Extra, extra read all about it, a good news show is the highest-rated new drama of the season.

This story deserves banner headlines because it is a bit of a shocker. The show is CBS's fantasy-drama Early Edition and it is rating higher than Annie Potts' Dangerous Minds, the alien escapades of Dark Skies -- and on a Saturday night, no less, when the viewing audience is supposed to be the smallest of the week. (Chris Carter's new show Millennium looks like it will rate much higher than Early Edition, but it has only been on the air for two weeks.)

 Yesterday, Variety reported that CBS has ordered nine new episodes of Early Edition. The show's success is surprising for a number of reasons.  

The cast members can't be considered stars, unless you are one of the two or three people on the planet who have posters of Kyle Chandler (Homefront) or Fisher Stevens (ex-Mr. Michelle Pfeiffer) on their bedroom walls.

Its time-slot competition is The Pretender, an NBC drama that at least started the season as a bit of a critic's favorite. And the premise, a young guy discovers tomorrow's newspaper on his doorstep each morning, could have bee n a rather limiting storytelling device.

 Most of us would take that newspaper, flip to the lottery numbers or the sports scores and retire the next day. Not so, the young hero of Early Edition. But executive producer Bob Brush believes that greedy, selfish viewpoint is under-estimating most people.

 "After your first binge, you would suddenly find yourself one day looking down at your paper and seeing that there were probably 25 stories of people really in trouble and that you could make a change,'' said Brush. "And I think that's the point that we're trying to get at.''

 CBS's point, and one well taken, is that a nicer, family-friendly lineup of shows on Saturday night would be of more interest than NBC's creepy triple-bill of aliens, oddballs and serial killers. CBS appears to be right. Its lineup of Dr. Quinn, Early Edition and Walker, Texas Ranger (OK, high kicks to the head don't appear to qualify this show as family fare but Chuck Norris always provides a nice message) is beating NBC's Dark Skies, Pretender and Profiler.

 "I think in terms of that night being the feel-good night on CBS, we fit into that mode,'' said Brush.

 While CBS signalled its early support of Early Edition, NBC has yet to decide the fate of its Saturday night lineup.

 ABC is also facing a tough decision concerning its Saturday night schedule. While it moved quickly to cancel the low-rated drama Second Noah and the freshman sitcom, Common Law, and again placed the venerable Coach on hiatus, the network has yet to decide the fate of the highly praised Relativity.

The romantic drama, from the team that created thirtysomething and My So-Called Life, won glowing reviews and was intended for the same audience that made NBC's Sisters a sizable hit for a half-dozen years. So far, the show has yet to really catch on with that audience and while ABC has gone to the mat before with shows like this, its current third-place position in the ratings doesn't afford it the luxury of too much patience.

Too bad, Relativity is the Saturday-night show that should be making the news this season. Relativity airs tonight at 11 on RDTV (Cable 19, 22) and tomorrow at 11p.m. on ABC (Cable 7); Early Edition is on tomorrow at 10 p.m. on CBS (Cable 6).