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Fox Network Proclaims Year-Round Programming
Friday January 16 6:45 PM ET

The new top executive of Fox television said on Friday the struggling network is moving to a year-round programming cycle, marking the latest bid by a major broadcaster to break from the traditional September-to-May TV season.

"When May is over, our new season will begin in June," Fox Entertainment President Gail Berman said during a presentation to a gathering of television critics. "We are not seasonal programmers. We are 12-month-a-year programmers."

She said the shift was dictated by changing imperatives in the television business, including growing competition from the proliferation of popular shows year-round on cable channels.

But the move also is driven by Fox's own coverage of the major league baseball playoffs in the fall, a fact of life that has made it hard for the News Corp. Ltd.-owned network to stick with a conventional timetable for season premieres.

NBC's top executive, Jeff Zucker, announced on Wednesday that his network will start its 2004-2005 TV season in late August and early September, using the strength of Summer Olympics telecasts to help promote its new lineup.

While a number of networks, including Fox, have begun in recent years to launch reality shows like "American Idol" and "Survivor" during the once-fallow months of summer, few new scripted dramas or comedies are rolled out before the time-honored start of the new season in September.

One notable exception was "Northern Exposure," which debuted on CBS in July 1990 and went on to become a hit. And Fox launched the second season of "Beverly Hills 90210" in mid-July 1991, giving the then-fledgling series a big boost against a host of summer reruns.

MOVE ALREADY UNDERWAY

More recently, Fox reaped success with last summer's launch of its steamy new drama "The O.C.," which has become one of the few bright spots on its current schedule.

Berman said Fox has been veering away from a traditional programming cycle for the past two years, initiating development and production of new shows sooner in the calendar than was once the norm.

Starting this year, Fox will roll out scripted new shows as early as June that are on par with the prime-time fare normally premiering in September, Berman said. "That is a huge change in the way business is done in Hollywood, and I believe the audience will come around to it," she said.

One candidate for a June launch is the courtroom drama "The Jury," whose producers include Oscar-winning director Barry Levinson and Tom Fontana (Homicide: Life on the Street").

But for now, veteran Fox comedies and dramas such as "The Simpsons," espionage thriller "24" and "That '70s Show" will probably continue to make their returns after baseball in late autumn, Berman said.

Fox is banking much of its immediate future on an upcoming third edition of the talent show sensation "American Idol," which helped transform the network's ratings from mediocre to marvelous in the second half of last season.

Since then, Fox has found itself faltering in the ratings again, with misfires by several promising new shows, including the porn-themed drama "Skin," the new sitcom "Luis" and a second installment of "Joe Millionaire."

Fox still has a few mid-season offerings up its sleeve for March, including the new comedy "Cracking Up," starring "Saturday Night Live" alumna Molly Shannon , and an hour-long supernatural dramedy called "Wonderfalls," about a young tourist shop clerk who talks with inanimate objects.

The success of those shows, and Fox's new programming strategy, is especially important to Berman, who became the network's top executive with the recently announced departure of Fox Television Entertainment Group Chairman Sandy Grushow.

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NBC's top executive, Jeff Zucker, announced on Wednesday that his network will start its 2004-2005 TV season in late August and early September, using the strength of Summer Olympics telecasts to help promote its new lineup.

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But for now, veteran Fox comedies and dramas such as "The Simpsons," espionage thriller "24" and "That '70s Show" will probably continue to make their returns after baseball in late autumn, Berman said.

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Originally posted by DRG
Fox is banking much of its immediate future on an upcoming third edition of the talent show sensation "American Idol," which helped transform the network's ratings from mediocre to marvelous in the second half of last season.

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Originally posted by DRG
The networks would be smart to follow CBS's strategy with Survivor. They've kept it alive by treating it like any other show: they put it in a weekly time slot, they don't air it three times a week and try to build everything around it.

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