When failure is in the script

Since the start of the year, the networks have rolled out all kinds of new sitcoms and dramas, from a futuristic legal show to traditional family comedies to a computer-generated cartoon.

And millions of viewers have responded with a collective yawn.

In the past, TV’s midseason -- the period between January and April -- yielded such long-running favorites as “Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman,” “Malcolm in the Middle,” “My Wife & Kids” and “The Practice.”

Not this year. The networks are suffering one of the most brutal midseasons in memory. Virtually every new scripted series introduced since January has fizzled in the ratings.

CBS last week axed “Century City” -- a legal drama set during the 2030s -- after just four airings, and its domestic sitcom “The Stones” looks vulnerable. Fox has so far struck out with “Cracking Up” and “Wonderfalls.” The producers of UPN’s comedy “Game Over” -- a struggling computer-generated animated series -- hope the title does not prove prophetic.

Plenty of viewers turned out for ABC’s heavily promoted thriller “Stephen King’s Kingdom Hospital,” but ratings have since crumbled. ABC’s crime drama “The D.A.” seems set to join the network’s long list of failed one-hours, including last fall’s “Karen Sisco” and “Line of Fire.” One ABC series that hopes to defy the trend is “The Big House,” a sitcom that debuted Friday to generally strong reviews and encouraging ratings, retaining 95% of its lead-in from “The George Lopez Show.”

Instead of the new sitcoms and dramas, viewers are engrossed in so-called reality series such as Fox’s “American Idol” and NBC’s “The Apprentice.”

“What the networks are delivering, in terms of scripted dramas particularly, audiences aren’t responding to,” says Susan Lyne, president of ABC Entertainment. Indeed, ABC is far more pleased with the performance of “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” -- a midseason reality show in which houses are radically renovated for the benefit of homeowners -- than that of any new drama this year.

The misfires could not come at a worse time for broadcasters. Next month, networks will present their fall schedules to advertisers in New York, and the ad community is already militant about stemming price increases for spots on network shows. While posturing about ad prices is typical in the media business, advertisers are more restive than usual because the networks have in recent years pressed for higher rates even as they continue to lose market share to cable channels. The networks argue that whatever its problems, broadcast television can still deliver the biggest audiences, as even the networks’ middling performers draw larger audiences than nearly anything on cable. And then there are the ratings juggernauts such as “Idol” and “The Apprentice.”

“Idol” already clobbered at least one of the midseason offerings. The producers of “Century City” were initially happy with their premiere date of March 16, according to an executive close to the show. But they subsequently learned that Fox was planning a two-hour version of “Idol” that night. That meant “Century City” would run up against the second half of TV’s highest-rated show. The CBS premiere drew a mediocre 8.9 million viewers and tumbled in subsequent airings.

But more than just the reality craze is killing the midseason shows, according to network executives, agents and ad buyers.

With networks locked in increasingly tight ratings races, programmers are constantly tinkering with schedules in hopes of getting some small advantage over rivals. For example, ABC, realizing the troubles plaguing “Kingdom Hospital,” last week essentially buried the show by moving it from Wednesdays to Thursdays, where it will swap places with “Extreme Makeover.” Even network officials say they have trouble keeping up with rivals’ scheduling moves.

“With the exception of CBS, networks have been moving around schedules where most viewers don’t know where to find their favorite programs,” says Jay Sures, a partner at United Talent Agency, whose clients are primarily in television.

“Most of the networks are scheduling week to week.”

Some critics also say that this year, more so than in the past, the networks used midseason slots to burn off series that were considered not strong enough to start back in September. For example, CBS back-pocketed “The Stones,” which had originally been developed as a fall show. NBC delayed the premiere of “Come to Papa,” its midseason sitcom, until summer.

“Some of these shows are not ready to launch in the fall, and they’re not ready for a reason,” says Stacy Lynn Koerner, director of global research at the New York ad firm Initiative.

In any case, advertisers and network executives agree that scripted series need a new blast of creativity, new shows that redefine the medium in the way that NBC’s “The Cosby Show” did during the 1980s and CBS’ “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” did four years ago.

“Maybe the issue is that broadcast TV is just too pat at this point,” Koerner says.

ABC’s Lyne believes that programmers need to isolate the qualities that make hit reality shows work and then apply those lessons to scripted fare. For instance, the stakes on reality series are often high because one contestant is voted off the show during each episode. Lyne wonders if similar mechanics can be applied to dramas. “We just have to do some experimenting now,” she says.

In the meantime, the producers behind the midseason shows are hoping they can hang on long enough to find some sort of audience. Kevin Hart, the comic who created and stars in “The Big House,” says he’s aware of the tough odds facing the new scripted contenders. But “I’m not even thinking about it right now,” he says. “It’s kind of out of my hands.”

Television fads are cyclical, he adds, and scripted shows will come back. “Everything comes in spurts,” Hart says. “Right now, [reality is] what’s hot. I’m a fan of ‘American Idol’ myself.”