The Big Picture: Taking the Heat

Taking the Heat

Superstar execs find down cycles a tough road

By Andy Grossman

The best read of the holidays has to be Vanity Fair’s dissection of Geraldine Laybourne in its January 2000 issue. Everyone who ever had an ax to grind against the Oxygen chief gets revenge in the piece, although Laybourne returns plenty of shots herself.

In the article, Laybourne insists she’ll get the last laugh and that it’s unfair to judge the success of a new network so soon. Critics contend the network’s programming hasn’t met the expectations involved with a Carsey-Werner, Oprah Winfrey, Laybourne production. Laybourne’s response: How could such a superstar team not be subject to the hyper-hot lights of media glare? Few networks succeed spectacularly right out of the box.

Good point, but Laybourne has been courting the media for years and is now getting payback. Everyone in the spotlight knows the media builds you up only in hopes of taking you down later. Laybourne has enjoyed excellent press since she kickstarted Nickelodeon in the early 1980s. Now, after her inability to navigate the Disney bureaucracy, she’s having a tough time continuing to deal with the downside of corporate life.

She should take lessons from John Malone and Gerald Levin in how to deal with bad press. They’ve managed it well — in different ways — for years. For all the knocks he takes as "Darth Vader," Malone is actually an articulate and candid interviewee. Levin understands the ups and downs of his fishbowl-like business life in the media.

The cable programming industry is rife with executives who have enjoyed a free ride for years, while MSOs get slaughtered in the media.

If programmers such as Laybourne, Winfrey and Carsey-Werner want to be treated like celebrities, they have to take the knocks with the kudos. Oxygen may well turn around, and if it does, the same reporters who are slamming Laybourne today will be first in line to talk about what a genius she is. That’s unfair but it’s the way the media operates.

Certainly the media’s expectations were overblown. Carsey-Werner has had their share of flops, and, according to Vanity Fair, Winfrey wants as much to do with the network as Calista Flockheart wants with a sandwich. Oprah can’t stomach failure, and she’s a canny judge of what’s working on television.

Still, Paul Allen is confident enough to inject $100 million. Good money after bad? Who knows? But it is a vote of confidence and a commitment to keep the original programming coming.

And it is refreshing to see a network launch with so many original shows. Anyone who thinks it is easy to have success producing quality television shows just hasn’t tried.

We’ll know the deck chairs are moving on the Titanic when Oxygen starts buying rights to shows such as Murphy Brown, Designing Women or Mary Tyler Moore.

As we head into the holidays — isn’t it great when Christmas and Chanukah overlap — here are some nominations for who’s been naughty and nice.

Naughty: Verizon (formerly Bell Atlantic and GTE). How does the phone company get off so scot-free while cable operators continue to get raked? On my New Rochelle, N.Y., block, dial-up modem speeds are capped at a tortoise-like 28.8 Kbps due to the poor quality of the lines. When I called Verizon, I was told my line is for telephone service only, and that DSL technology will not be available in my area for at least six months. So why is the line capped at 28 Kbps? The rep couldn’t say.

Naughty: The commentators and interviewers on the all-news cable networks who most got on my nerves during my marathon viewing of the presidential post-election. These include Larry King, who’s long been proud of the lack of preparation he does for his show. King, of course, gets the best guests because he won’t have the temerity to disrespect them on the air with tough questions. Then there’s CNBC and MSNBC’s Hardball with Chris Matthews. Next to Sean Hannity on Fox News Channel, the obnoxious Matthews is the man you most want to hit with a pie in the face while yelling, "Just let them finish their sentence!"

Nice: NUE-TV and MBC, a pair of much-needed startup networks targeting African-American viewers. Why are there a handful of networks (including the over-the-air broadcasters Telemundo and Univision) geared toward Hispanics but only one, BET, for African Americans? We hope NUE and MBC will produce quality programming, including documentaries and news programming, that will focus on the black experience in America. We urge operators to take a close look at these services as well.

Nice: Direct TV spokesman Bob Marsocci for being so gracious about my misspelling his name last week and violating that old tenant, "Say anything you want about me as long as you spell my name right."

Happy holidays to all — see you in the New Year (you know, the real millennium).

Read past Big Picture columns at www.cableworld.com.