Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, March 30, 1991 TAG: 9103300398
SECTION: SPECTATOR PAGE: S-17 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JERRY BUCK/ ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
NBC is crying all the way to the ratings bank. Its romantic tearjerkers opposite the World Series and the baseball playoffs last fall delivered a huge audience of women.
On Monday, it offers "Danielle Steel's `Changes'" against the NCAA basketball championship game on CBS at 9 p.m.
"Last year was the first time we didn't have baseball," says Ruth Slawson, NBC's senior vice president for miniseries and motion pictures. "A very conscious effort was made to offer the audience a real choice against a sports event."
Slawson says what she looks for is the dramatic equivalent of a big sports event.
"We want a recognizable title and name," she says. "I think we look for pieces that obviously will interest women. Women do look at sports, but they're not as passionate about sports as men. We also look for a piece that will attract men because it may be a sport or a team that doesn't interest them.
"We look for a good story, a good yarn. A good story as opposed to an issue-oriented or fact-based piece. Sports is escapism and so are our pieces. You don't counterprogram by giving them hard reality. You counterprogram by giving them another choice in the same venue."
"In the past, all networks have put female appeal movies against sports. It's Programming 101. On New Year's night when NBC and ABC air bowl games, CBS runs a female-appeal movie and does very well," says Preston Beckman, the network's vice president for audience research.
"It doesn't take a rocket scientist to know that sports attracts a large male audience, and therefore if you offer women viewers something appealing they're going to watch. It's common sense that in Danielle Steel and Jackie Collins you have pre-sold commodities."
by CNB