CAN TITANS SAVE NBC
FROM A ROCKY FALL?
Exec’s Future May Ride On Success Of West Wing And The Aaron Spelling Soap
Talk to virtually anybody in the business—agents or studio and network executives—and they will say, generally not for attribution, of course, that NBC Entertainment president Garth Ancier has a target on his back. The consensus is the same for his boss, NBC West Coast president Scott Sassa. "This season is do-or-die for those guys," says a senior studio executive. "If they don’t pull out a hit, at least one of [them] is likely to take a fall."
     Sassa and Ancier have learned to live with the specter of their own cancellations. After word leaked out at July’s TV Critics Association press tour that he and Ancier had been lambasted not only by NBC president Bob Wright but also by Jack Welch, chairman of corporate parent General Electric, for missing the Reality-TV boat, Sassa sarcastically thanked "the 20 people who didn’t print the rumor that I was being fired." The gallows humor continues among NBC’s programming brass. "If you need to find me in November, try reaching me in the unemployment line," Ancier told TV GUIDE with a laugh.
     However, if NBC’s premiere week is any indication of things to come, Ancier and Sassa may have bought some time. The over-ripe Aaron Spelling soap opera Titans had a strong debut, followed by the smash two-hour season premiere of Emmy award-winning The West Wing. "[Titans] is a costly, cheesy show and Bob Wright didn’t want to put it on the schedule, but Garth drew a line in the sand," says one NBC executive. " [Ancier] really bet the farm on the draw of Yasmine Bleeth’s cleavage."
     Ancier admits that his corporate masters resisted Titans. "I knew it would be a big hit or a complete miss, but I’m paid to trust my gut," Ancier says. "You can’t program a network based on the opinions of 60-year-old white guys who live in Manhattan and Connecticut."
     Associates of Ancier say he was emboldened by his West Wing experience. "Garth and Scott fought to put West Wing on last year, when a lot of people in New York were saying, ‘It’s too liberal. A show about politics will alienate advertisers,’" says a former NBC executive. "But it worked, and now everybody says they were always behind it." ’
     Still, Sassa and Ancier are not home free. Dateline NBC executive producer Neal Shapiro has been told he may have a fourth night of the magazine on before the end of the year, according to NBC News sources. One new comedy, Tucker, fizzled its first time out. Other new comedies, such as The Michael Richards Show and the ominously titled Cursed, had to be overhauled. And DAG has had its premiere delayed till mid November.
     There’s been a bit more enthusiasm for NBC’s dramas, most notably Ed, but the industry consensus is that overall, NBC has lost its way. The disappointing ratings for the Sydney Olympics only underscored that view.
     "NBC used to stand for quality, and [the network] certainly has that with a lot of their returning shows," says Laura Caraccioli, vice president of Starcom Entertainment, a major media-buying firm. "It just seems like what has been put on got on because the network had a commitment to a Michael Richards or a [Law & Order executive producer] Dick Wolf. Too much seems deal-driven."
     A Starcom new-season report is even more blunt: "Oh, how the mighty have fallen. NBC is like a ship without a captain, or more accurately, the captain doesn’t know where he is going."
     That industry view has fueled a persistent buzz that several seasoned veterans are being sized up to replace the current team if the fall turns into a bust.
     Among those talked about is Ted Harbert. A 20-year veteran of ABC, Harbert rose to chairman of ABC Entertainment in the Home Improvement era. He is now president of NBC’s production arm, NBC Studios. "Let’s just say Ted behaves as if it’s only a matter of time before he assumes a bigger role," says a senior studio executive. "He did both [Sassa’s and Ancier’s] jobs at ABC."
     Another prince-in-waiting is Jeff Sagansky, president and CEO of the fledgling Pax network, in which NBC has a 32 percent stake. Before joining Pax in 1998, Sagansky was president of CBS Entertainment in the Murphy Brown era. "It’s funny how often you go into [NBC headquarters] and run into Sagansky [near] Wright’s office. Jeff knows how to run a major media operation. Hey, he could even do Wright’s job," says a former NBC executive, noting that, in July, Wright was named vice chairman of GE’s board in addition to keeping the reins of NBC. "The only constant at NBC right now is change."
     No one knows that better than Ancier. "It comes with the territory," says Ancier, who started out at NBC and later held senior programming positions at Fox and WB. "I worked for [former NBC Entertainment president] Brandon Tartikoff for six years. Each of those years he was always about to be fired, and he survived. In the end he was one of the most successful executives in the history of the business."