Fox's Summer Non-Vacation

Tired of striking out, Fox is stepping up to the plate early.

The ratings-challenged network has announced plans to premiere its new shows in the summer, instead of waiting until the traditional early fall dates. Net execs want to outfox their rivals--and also avoid putting a series on almost instant hiatus when its baseball playoff and World Series coverage swings in during October.

Well aware that cable channels have capitalized by airing original programming during the lengthy rerun season (think USA's Monk), all the networks have paid much lip service to the notion of completely revamping traditional scheduling and recently, most have successfully launched reality shows in the summertime--including Fox's own current hit American Idol. But the latest tactic, revealed by Fox Television Entertainment Chairman Sandy Grushow over the weekend, is much more aggressive than any previous strategy.

"One of the lessons that reality television has taught us is that summer is a really good time to launch big franchises," Grushow told the Television Critics Association Saturday. "It's a better time than all six networks launching within the same week or two in late September."

Last September was a dud for Fox, which is owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. The network began part of its new season in September, interrupted the schedule after two weeks to air ball games and was then way behind the curve when it rolled out its full slate in November.

Viewers failed to tune in to two major new series, created by producers with sterling track records--David E. Kelly's lawyer-babes drama girls club and Joss Whedon's outer-space "western" Firefly--and both were swiftly canceled.

Fox's overall ratings are down more than five percent this season, compared to the previous year, and the network is running a dismal fourth in the 18-49 demographic, the viewers that advertisers pay the most to reach. Compared to two years ago, the situation looks even bleaker, as ratings are down nearly 30 percent in the coveted 18-34 age group.

"Clearly, the strategy this past season was not a successful one," Grushow admitted. He described his network as being "in a state of transition," willing to gamble in order to rebuild.

One bright spot has been American Idol. Like CBS' Survivor and ABC's Who Wants to Be a Millionaire before it, Idol was a big summertime hit and will now be used as a building block to, Fox suits hope, help revive its network. As the craze and craving for unscripted reality programming reaches an all-time high, the Simon Cowell-fueled talent show is the lodestar Grushow will follow.

However, summer programming is not an entirely new deal for the network. A decade ago, Beverly Hills, 90210 and Melrose Place were summer launches. Now, Fox also plans launches for new comedies and dramas possibly as early as July, enabling the network to hold back the new season of established hits, like Malcolm in the Middle and 24, until the final baseball score is in.

Word has gone to producers of possible summer shows to start hiring writing staff early, even though an accelerated schedule will be more expensive for the Joe Millionaire network. "It's a risk, I think, worth taking," said Fox Entertainment President Gail Berman.

The risks involve fierce competition in the reality field from other networks. NBC's summer offerings will include The Restaurant, while ABC will continue its heavy addiction to the genre fueled by the success of The Bachelor and The Bachelorette, and CBS will likely roll out another Survivor and/or Big Brother. One hitch: No matter how high the summer ratings are, they won't count as part of the traditional September-May Nielsen season that sets the costs for advertisers. Furthermore, the new shows will cut into rerun programming, which has long been a way for networks to recoup dollars on comedies and dramas which are much more expensive to produce than reality shows.

But, hey, Fox has to try something because it's a Dog Eat Dog world out there. Oops, that's the title of an NBC summertime reality offering.