CBS finally has gotten some younger eyeballs.
It looks as if the network has a hit on its hands with the new Friday night drama, “Now and Again” especially with 18- to 49-year-old viewers, the ones most coveted by advertisers and the ones CBS has desperately tried to add to its aging schedule.
“It looks like a winner,” said Bill Croasdale, a media buyer for Western Initiative Media, “and it is a much stronger lead-in for ‘Nash Bridges’ than ‘Buddy Faro’ was last season.”
The new drama stars Eric Close as a young Robert Redford lookalike whose buffed body is fined-tuned by the government to be a kind of superman. The brain for this human machine comes from a pudgy middle-aged man, played by John Goodman, who exited in the premiere episode.
The new series has been pulling better than 50 percent more 18- to 49-year-old viewers than its time slot did last year. “Nash Bridges” is also up in total viewers and in 18- to 49-year-olds over last year. Indeed, CBS, which historically has drawn older viewers to its series, was No. 1 in these coveted demos from 9 p.m. to 11 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 1. “Now and Again” also was No. 1 in its 10 p.m. time period for the second week in a row.
“It’s turned us around in demos,” a CBS spokesman said.
The man behind the series is Glen Gordon Caron, who produced “Moonlighting” for ABC, but had all but dropped out of network television to direct feature films. Les Moonves, president of CBS Television, wooed Caron back to the small screen by giving the producer a free hand to do any show he wanted. What he came up with was mix of comedy, tragedy and science fiction.
“The whole writing thing is a gift,” Caron said. “I have no idea where it comes from. You go into a room and you stare at a blank piece of paper and stuff comes out, and people want to do it. I wish I could tell you it was the product of a lot of hard work.”
Hollywood has another first. Lili Zanuck will be the first woman to produce an Oscar telecast. She will be joined by her husband, Richard Zanuck, as producer of the 2000 telecast, March 26 on ABC. Ten years ago, the two producers won the best picture award for their film, “Driving Miss Daisy.”
“It’s a tough job,” Dick Zanuck said, “but when you get the call you have to do it.”
Zanuck, son of 20th Century Fox chief Daryl F. Zanuck, admitted that he and his wife have had little experience at live television. “But most producers (of the Oscars) are not steeped in TV,” he said. “It’s all about giving the awards and what’s in between.”
Zanuck said he and his wife wouldn’t focus on the event for a couple more months. Meanwhile, he and Lili will be finishing up production on “Rules of Engagement,” a courtroom drama for Paramount that stars Tommy Lee Jones and Samuel F. Jackson. William Friedkin is directing the tale about Jones’ character, who is called to defend his old Vietnam War buddy (Jackson) charged with botching an embassy evacuation in Yemen. Having Jones as the star may be fortuitous. The Texas-born, Harvard-educated actor has a current hit on his hands in “Double Jeopardy.”
“He’s a great actor and not a pretty boy,” Zanuck said. “People believe him.”
Kathy Morgan, recently elected chairwoman of the American Film Marketing Association, said one of the biggest concerns of the 142-member trade organization is the Internet and how it affects the international marketplace.
“Companies are now asking for Internet rights and we don’t know what the impact of this will be,” Morgan said about the newly emerging delivery system. “You could push a button and simultaneously all over the world a film could go out to people. We need to know what this means legally and contractually.”
AFMA runs the annual American Film Market in Santa Monica. It represents the largest group of independent film and TV companies in the entertainment industry.
Entertainment reporter Frank Swertlow can be reached at 323-549-5225, ext. 233.
