'Sweeps' give hope to networks

NEW YORK -- If Ronald Reagan, Jessica Lynch, Elizabeth Smart, Britney Spears and Andy Griffith can't save the television networks this season, maybe nothing can.\nThe November "sweeps" get under way Thursday, offering the major broadcast networks a chance to start again. The season opening felt like a false start.\nABC, CBS, NBC, the WB and UPN -- five of the six biggest networks -- have lost audience this season compared to 2002 and, what is more important, lost the younger viewers that advertisers crave. The one gainer is Fox, due entirely to a stellar baseball postseason.\n"The November sweeps can't get here a minute too soon, given the lackluster performance of much of the networks' programming this season," said Ed Martin, programming editor for The Myers Report, a media economy newsletter. "Nothing has caught on and the only hope now is some terrific sweeps programming to turn the lights back on and get people interested in television."\nSweeps are the industry name for the three separate months during the season when ratings are monitored closely to set local advertising rates. Networks concentrate much of their best programming in these months.\nBecause nobody has started strongly, it's one of the most important sweeps in years, said Steve Sternberg, an analyst for the media buying firm Magna Global USA.\n"It's hard to figure out what's going on when you have the World Series and baseball postseason going so well combined with the fact that there's been nothing major coming out of the networks to get your attention," he said.\nCBS, like NBC probably hurt the most by baseball's strength, is cutting the highest profile over the next month.\nThe network's four-hour miniseries, "The Reagans," set for Nov. 16 and 18, already has fans of the former president nervous about how he will be portrayed. A conservative group has called for an advertiser boycott.\nIt doesn't help that actor James Brolin (outspoken liberal Barbra Streisand's husband) is cast as Ronald Reagan.\nIn further nostalgic appeals, CBS airs a three-hour 75th anniversary special on Sunday and welcomes Andy Griffith, Ron Howard, Don Knotts and Jim Nabors back to Mayberry for a reunion special Nov. 11. A similar reunion for Carol Burnett stunned the industry with its high ratings in November 2001.\nCBS and NBC engage in one of the most unusual, and perhaps destructive, ratings battles on Nov. 9 when they present television movies about kidnap victim Smart (CBS) and former POW Lynch (NBC) at exactly the same time.\nIt's one of Sternberg's pet peeves: networks programming as much to hurt rivals as to build audiences for themselves.\nBesides the Lynch movie and music specials with Justin Timberlake and Shania Twain on Thanksgiving week, NBC is relatively stunt-free. Instead, the network hopes to draw viewers with its original programming, with twists like Bob Newhart on "ER."\nNBC has suffered this season because some old reliables, like "Friends," have lost popularity. Although "Frasier" has rebounded in quality, if not in ratings, Martin said many of the critics he's talked to across the country are surprised at how the quality of writing has slipped for many returning shows on all networks.\n"People are scratching their heads," he said. "What's with all this dead air?"\nAfter methodically boosting its appeal among younger viewers, traditionally older-skewing CBS has been hurt more than any other network by a puzzling viewership decline among young people, particularly men. Networks have grumbled that it's the fault of the messenger, Nielsen Media Research.\nSternberg suggests they look in the mirror instead. Few of the new programs appeal to young men, he said.\nABC is slowly rebuilding with family-pleasing comedies, but its schedule contains enough holes that November is packed with special events. Many are generated by the news division: Diane Sawyer interviews Lynch and Spears, Barbara Walters talks to Martha Stewart, Peter Jennings investigates the Kennedy assassination and Elizabeth Vargas explores the life of Jesus Christ.\nThe comedy, "8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter" returns with its first post-John Ritter episode and -- perhaps inevitably -- Regis Philbin appears on Kelly Ripa's "Hope & Faith."\nBaseball did so well for Fox that the network topped the prime-time ratings race for three weeks in a row -- the first time that's ever happened. While waiting for baseball to end, Fox kept most of its new shows on the shelf, and they're only now starting.\nThere are ominous signs, though, that baseball won't help the rest of its lineup. Two shows heavily promoted on baseball -- "Joe Millionaire" and "Skin" -- badly tanked in their first two weeks and the network's new Friday night is already D.O.A.\nFox is airing an "American Idol" holiday special on Nov. 25, and bringing special guests to some of its regular shows, like Ellen DeGeneres on "Bernie Mac" and Liza Minnelli on "Arrested Development"