Variety August 15, 1994 - August 21, 1994

NEWS MEDIA BANKING
ON SIMPSON'S STAYING POWER;
NEW SEASON SERVING UP O.J.
BY J. MAX ROBINS

DATELINE: NEW YORK

A raft of fledgling TV news shows and even an entire cable network is gambling that O.J. Simpson's murder trial will do for them what the hostage crisis in Iran did for "Nightline" 15 years ago.

From the thrice weekly primetime newsmag "Dateline: NBC" to the rookie tabmag "Premier Story" and the cable web Court TV, the Simpson case represents the ultimate serendipity.

"This isn't a one- or two-day blowout like the World Trade Center bombing," says Peter Brennan, executive producer of "Premier Story," which currently airs in a handful of markets and is banking on the Simpson trial propelling a national rollout. "This has all the drama needed to build a franchise."

Even Fox's struggling effort in the TV movie game, the "Fox Tuesday Night Movie," is using the sensational murder saga to jumpstart its chances of solidifying a franchise with "The O.J. Simpson Story" (see story), which is slated for telecast Sept. 13, less than a week before the start of jury selection.

Meanwhile, Warner Bros.'$ 40 million syndicated newsmag "Extra," which has been touted as a younger, hipper "Entertainment Tonight," has already been setting up its own O.J. exclusives.

"One of our crews was out trying to get a soundbite from a woman who was close to Nicole Simpson the other day and she said she couldn't do it," says a producer at "Hard Copy.""'Extra' already had her for an exclusive the show has planned for September."

According to Court TV supremo Steven Brill, the blanket O.J. coverage is like a crash course in selling viewers on his cable network. "In the polling that cable systems do to determine what new cable networks subscribers want added, Court TV always comes out at the bottom," says Brill.

Try it, you'll like it

"They think trials, lawyers, that's going to be boring. But then they get exposed to what a trial is really like and that all changes. People have to see it to know they want it."

Brill says that Court TV will add about 500,000 subscribers this fall to the 15.5 million the network already reaches, a gain he attributes largely to the Simpson murder case. In addition, Brill expects Court TV's alliance with "Dateline," in which the two operations will team up on aspects of the Simpson case, will help raise the web's profile.

The new players aren't the only ones trying to turn the O.J. trial into ratings gold.

"I was part of 'Nightline' in 1980 with the hostage crisis and saw how that unfolded," says David Boreman, who now heads NBC News' special events unit. "I saw how people fell into the habit of checking in with us for a daily update on the hostage situation. To a certain extent that's what we hope will happen with 'Dateline' being on in primetime three times a week."

"The big advantage of all being one staff is that we're not competing with the other news magazines on our network for pieces of the story," adds Neal Shapiro, executive producer of "Dateline." He says the Simpson case "is also one way for us to put the news, as in news of the day, back into the news magazine."

All the network news divisions are scrambling to put special units together for their respective O.J. coverage.

CBS web spinning

CBS is discussing using a good chunk of the staff of its defunct newsmag "America Tonight" for its Simpson brigade. All three CBS newsmags --"48 Hours,""Eye to Eye with Connie Chung" and "60 Minutes"-- are plotting out how they will put their respective spins on the story.

Meanwhile, ABC News president Roone Arledge, who has been dissatisfied with his division's breaking news coverage, is bringing in Terry O'Neil, a former protege and late of NBC Sports, in time to head the Alphabet web's team, according to network sources. And Cynthia McFadden, whom Arledge plucked away from Court TV to be an ABC News legal correspondent, is already talked up in the industry as "being to the Simpson case what Ted Koppel was to the hostages in Iran."

NBC is also busy plotting its strategy, including possibly using its affiliate newsfeed to go gavel to gavel, so NBC stations can preempt their regularly scheduled programming if they see fit. The other networks will probably do likewise.

"It's essentially like plotting out a new daily series," says Boreman. "The logistics, how you deploy your staff, putting together new graphics -- all those elements are there."

Of course veteran syndicated newsmags --"A Current Affair,""Hard Copy" and the sister shows "Inside Edition" and "American Journal"-- are all working the O.J. story overtime.

The "Inside Edition"/"American Journal" axis has a special O.J. unit, as does "Hard Copy." All the shows are planning to do multiple satellite feeds to update their coverage.

"We have all the networks coming down to our playing field," says Bob Young, executive producer of "Inside Edition" and "American Journal.""We're all going to get scratched up on this one."

Indeed, the O.J. blitz will take its toll. Show runners on the various newsmags are already talking about when viewers will reach, as one puts it, "the O.J. saturation point."

Importance relative

Court TV's Brill imagines the network news divisions, going full blast on the O.J. trial for 10 to 12 weeks, trying to explain with straight faces that it was valid to give it more time and expense than anything "since the Kennedy assassination."

Meanwhile, the rookies are prepping to do battle. They know only too well that their ability, or lack thereof, to distinguish themselves from the morass of O.J. coverage may well determine whether they flourish or get the boot. For those involved, not only O.J. is on trial.