ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, April 25, 1997 TAG: 9704250019
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 2 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: NEW YORK
SOURCE: DAVID BAUDER ASSOCIATED PRESS
Just like one of the network news big boys, the syndicated newsmagazine ``Inside Edition'' recently won prestigious George Polk and Sigma Delta Chi journalism awards for an investigation into an insurance scam.
And, just like one of the network news big boys, the show and many of its brethren also are struggling with sagging ratings and the suspicion that the television format is past its peak.
The most recent Nielsen Media Research ratings sweep found ``Inside Edition's'' ratings had slipped 16 percent from a year ago, with ``Hard Copy,'' ``Extra'' and ``American Journal'' also pulling fewer viewers.
Only ``Entertainment Tonight,'' relatively secure in its niche, has held its own.
Although derided by many as ``tabloid TV,'' the genre thrived through the early part of this decade, with new shows constantly sprouting. ``A Current Affair'' and others stretched the boundaries of what had been considered news, bringing to television the same celebrity obsessions and scandals that fill the supermarket newspaper racks.
The seemingly unending O.J. Simpson saga provided the shows with a font of stories that viewers never seemed to tire of. But when the Simpson trial went away, so did much of the audience. Subsequent scandals, like the JonBenet Ramsey murder investigation, haven't drawn as much interest.
Syndicated shows also lost some of what made them unique when network news organizations, particularly through their own newsmagazines, began following many of the same stories.
If the JonBenet slaying had taken place a few years ago, only local television stations would have competed with ``Hard Copy'' for the story, says Frank Kelly, creative affairs director at Paramount, which distributes the show.
``Now, when we went there, we were among 25 news organizations,'' Kelly says.
The newsmagazines also were caught in the same backlash against ``trash TV'' that was directed mainly against salacious talk shows. Some of them made a big point about cleaning up - ``A Current Affair'' even ran a trade advertisement showing a garbage truck going over a cliff.
Trashy shows may have drawn high ratings, but advertisers wanted nothing to do with them, says Bill Carroll, a media buyer for the Katz Television Group.
``After awhile, the outrageousness of what they covered and the approach to what they covered backed them into a corner,'' Carroll says.
The programs, which always have to scratch and claw for time slots, found themselves at another disadvantage when ``Seinfeld'' and ``Home Improvement'' came onto the syndication market and began drawing big audiences.
The troubles have led to whispers - heatedly denied by Kelly - that ``Hard Copy'' won't return after taking a summer hiatus.
Certainly, most experts expect a shakedown in the market over the next couple of years. ``American Journal'' and ``Access Hollywood'' are most frequently cited as shows on the bubble.
``There's too many of them,'' says Richard Kurlander of Petry Television, a media buying firm. ``When you split the pie so many ways, everybody suffers. There's too many of these programs chasing the same audience.''
Even worse, the competition for air time promises to become even fiercer.
Two shows in the works for next year are expected to attract real interest - ``Povich and Chung'' features Maury Povich and his former CBS anchor wife, Connie Chung, and a revived ``PM Magazine'' will have the novelty of spots for local stories.
You can't blame Marc Rosenweig for feeling frustrated when he watches network evening news programs that have subtly shifted focus from breaking news to more magazine stories.
His job for the syndicators King World is to think of ways shows such as ``American Journal'' can broaden their audience. One way is to feature adventurous topics such as skydiving in an attempt to go after the young viewers who have been tuning in to ``Seinfeld'' reruns.
King World's ``Inside Edition'' seems intent on taking a harder news high road and has been heavily touting its recent awards.
Kelly also is planning some changes for ``Hard Copy.'' He isn't ready to concede that the genre's better days may be in the past. He talks about ``Entertainment Tonight'' as an example of a show that periodically revamps itself to keep going strong.
``I think we have to go back to what made us unique four or five years ago,'' he says, ``and that is storytelling.''
LENGTH: Medium: 83 linesby CNB