THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, January 19, 1996 TAG: 9601190144
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: Larry Bonko
DATELINE: PASADENA, CALIF. LENGTH: Medium: 69 lines
NOW IT'S AS obvious as the smog over downtown Los Angeles.
CBS news canceled summer vacations for the correspondents and crew of ``60 Minutes,'' hinted that it would go after CNN's classy foreign correspondent Christiana Amanpour to join Mike, Morley, Andy and the others because it is feeling heat from NBC.
Why would CBS forgo summer reruns on ``60 Minutes,'' start up expensive live shows in the hot weather months when fewer people watch TV, and try to hire away Amanpour from Turner Broad-casting?
Because the competition for viewers at 7 p.m. Sunday just got hotter.
NBC will soon challenge ``60 Minutes'' at 7 p.m. Sundays with its own popular newsmagazine, ``Dateline NBC.'' It debuts in its Sunday timeslot on March 17.
The midweek buzz around the semiannual Television Critics Association gathering here is that ``60 Minutes'' is old and tired and ready to be taken.
It's no longer a Top 10 show. Last week, it was No. 34 in the ratings.
Waiting in ambush are ``Dateline NBC'' producer Neal Shapiro and co-anchors Jane Pauley and Stone Phillips.
This team is already responsible for three ``Dateline NBC'' shows a week, and now here comes a fourth to challenge ``60 Minutes.''
Said Phillips, ``Don't tell me that they're not worried at CBS. If they're not concerned that we're a formidable news magazine, why are they looking to inject new elements, a new freshness into `60 Minutes'? Why are they planning to work over the summer?''
The man is gung-ho for ``Dateline NBC.'' It would be fine with him, said Phillips, if NBC News stripped in ``Dateline NBC'' across the board - scheduled it seven nights a week.
``It could happen,'' said Phillips. ``It's evolving in that direction because `Dateline' is such a hybrid, being part news magazine, part nightly news broadcast.''
Four magazine shows in one week! When will Phillips and Pauley, a mother of three, see their families?
When she met with the TV writers by satellite from Manhattan, Pauley made it clear that she will not trample her family life for another hour of prime time.
``I will not do this show at my family's expense,'' said Pauley, who is in her 20th year with NBC. Seems like only yesterday she was a kid from Indiana picked by NBC to replace Barbara Walters on ``Today.''
Could one team of 250 put out seven ``Dateline'' programs per week without compromising quality? ``It would take an awful lot of energy,'' said Shapiro.
The NBC news division must be spilling over with energy because the network bosses of late have taken on three more newsy products. There's the fourth ``Dateline,'' the summer launch of a 24-hour cable news channel in concert with Microsoft and in the spring, a new daytime talk-magazine hour, ``Real Life.'' It will lift viewers from the sludge that one sees on syndicated daytime talk shows, says NBC. ``Real Life'' will originate in Boston with Ken Taylor and Lu Hanessian co-hosting.
It's a show for women, said producer Joel Cheatwood. The hour will feature several topics per day and will have an attitude. ``A point of view,'' said the producer, without elaborating.
He expects ``Real Life'' to compete against the well-established ``Live! with Regis & Kathie Lee'' in some markets. And the folks on ``Dateline'' thought they had it rough going up against ``60 Minutes.'' MEMO: Larry Bonko is in Los Angeles for the twice-yearly Television Critics'
Association press tour.
by CNB