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MIKE REYNOLDS
Buoyed by success on Fridays, Sci Fi is boldly venturing where it hasn't gone before - to a second night of original programming on Mondays.
Sci Fi, now in 67 million homes, is moving three of its proven series to Monday - First Wave, Invisible Man and Lexx. The network's genre hit, Farscape, is joined on Fridays by one-hour newcomers Black Scorpion and The Secret Adventures of Jules Verne.
"Since we debuted `Friday Prime' [in March 1999], we've wanted to do a second night of originals," says Bonnie Hammer, Sci Fi's EVP/GM. "While science fiction television has always been rooted on Friday nights, Monday has been our second-best performer. With the football season over and the broadcast networks featuring a lot of sitcoms that appeal to women, we thought there would be less competition there than on other nights. Monday night felt right."
The first returns on this exploration were right with the Nielsens. The new Monday night lineup Jan. 8 averaged a 1.2, up 20% from the fourth- and first-quarter 2000 averages for the time period that housed Outer Limits. First Wave tied its previous highest rating (1.2) and had its best HH delivery (817,000 HHs).
The premiere of the new Friday night lineup from 8-11 p.m. Jan. 5 averaged a 1.3, 44% higher than the comparable time period in the fourth quarter 2000, when Sci Fi ran movies, and 18% better than the first-run originals it aired during the initial period of 2000. Individually, Jules Verne's 1.3 from 10-11 p.m. was up 30% over Lexx's first-run average in the time period, while Black Scorpion pinched a 1.2 from 8-9 p.m.
The original maneuvering is drawing a favorable response from TV industry observers.
"Sci Fi has maxed out with originals on Fridays. The network has established loyal followings for series like Farscape and First Wave," says Mike Goodman, senior analyst at The Yankee Group. "This is a slightly different version on the classic programming strategy NBC has been deploying for years from its Thursday night lineup, where you take an established brand and form a beachhead for a new night."
Branding is key to a cable channel's long-term success, according to Bill Carroll, VP/director-programming, Katz Television Group.
"Like most cable channels, Sci Fi started out by running films and existing programming. But to truly distinguish itself, a network needs its own voice and brand," he says. "Over the last couple of years, Sci Fi has done that with original series like Farscape, First Wave, Lexx and Invisible Man. Black Scorpion and The Secret Adventures of Jules Verne are further attempts to underline a position that is uniquely Sci Fi's."
Operators have their antennae up as well.
"Sci Fi grew its ratings during each quarter last year," says Jerry McKenna VP-strategic marketing at CableOne. "That they are expanding their audience consistently tells us that viewers are responding to their primetime programming."
For the year, Sci Fi scored a 13% increase to a 0.9 overall average in primetime, a performance that vaulted it into cable's top 10 for the first time.
The high-water mark for the network was Frank Herbert's Dune, the three-night miniseries in December that doubled all previous audience delivery records, peaking with 3.06 million households (a 4.6 rating) for the first installment.
"Dune was a huge success for Sci Fi," states Goodman. "It created a lot of buzz and sampling for the network, not to mention cross-promotional opportunities for its other shows. You can't create that kind of awareness with re-runs."
The ongoing commitment to originals - Sci Fi claims it has more original dramatic series in primetime than any other basic cable network - and acquisitions is kicking up the channel's programming budget significantly.
According to estimates from Paul Kagan Associates, Sci Fi earmarked $86 million for programming in 1999 and $120 million in 2000. This year, that total is expected to hit the $150 million plateau.
Kagan estimates Sci Fi will garner about 13 cents per subscriber per month in 2001, up a penny from 2000.
Do the increased outlays for programming overall and for originals in particular translate into higher sub fees?
Kagan analyst Derek Baine doesn't believe so.
"I don't think more original programming helps them raise subscriber fees. Cable operators are very resistant to any increases in subscriber fees in excess of inflation," he says. "Still, most cable networks are moving toward original programming. They get unlimited runs and can sell international rights. If successful, they own the programming in perpetuity, or they can syndicate it."
Goodman holds a different view about the persuasive fiscal power of original series.
"I think original series present a more compelling argument for a programmer when it talks to operators about gaining increases in subscriber fees," he says. "They not only help a network develop its own voice and positioning and generate higher ratings, but demonstrate that the channel is investing in itself." CableOne's McKenna, meanwhile, points to ratings and market place realities as the over-riding cost governors.
"Original programming is part of every negotiation, as are acquired series and films. We look at what a programmer offers overall and how it is performing in the ratings," he says. "We tell programmers we can only pass on a 5% rate increase to our customers, that they need to look to advertising to draw other revenues."
What viewers are looking at with Black Scorpion is a comic book-style action series, created by B-film master Roger Corman, starring former Miss Kansas Michelle Lintel as a straight-laced cop by day who transforms into a curvaceous, crime-fighting superhero by night.
"It's fun, sexy, campy. It should have adult and kid appeal. Males will obviously like it, but women may see it as a guilty pleasure. In a way, Black Scorpion is an empowering kind of character," says Hammer, who underlines the camp quotient by noting villainous appearances by Adam West (Batman), Lou Ferrigno (The Incredible Hulk) and Soupy Sales.
Jules Verne sets Phileas Fogg, his cousin, Rebecca and the young aspiring writer against the evil plans of the "league of darkness," which wants to steal Verne's inventions.
"This series is more rooted in adventure. It's a traditional space opera with familial overtones," explains Hammer.
Other original Sci Fi programming on tap: the second season of Crossing Over with John Edward bows Jan. 21; in March, new, original episodes of The Outer Limits, the anthology series that is expected to spawn pilots for three more original series in 2002; and News From The Edge (working title), a series NBC was considering as a midseason replacement, focusing on a journalist who takes a job at a tabloid newspaper and finds out that the crazy stories it publishes are real.
Hammer says Sci Fi will ramp up production on News before the potential writers/actors strike, with an eye toward airing it this summer.
She notes Sci Fi plans to reenact its "Summer of Sci Fi" stunt during the warm-weather months. Last year, the network aired 7.5 hours of original programming each week, sans repeats, a gambit that generated its highest-ever seasonal ratings performance
"Stanley Kubrick knew it then, but we're saying it now: 2001 is the year of Sci Fi," says Hammer.
We wonder if HAL would agree.
DIVISION DIVIDENDS Lifetime Television got off to a fast start with the series premiere of The Division. The police drama, which debuted Jan. 7, garnered a 3.1 household rating (2.4M homes) at 9 p.m., delivering the largest audience of any basic cable series premiere over the past year and the highest in the network's 16-year history. The skein's second episode, which followed immediately thereafter, notched a 2.4 household rating (1.87M homes).
TNT's MONDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL TNT will take a behind-the-scenes look at pro football's most renowned sportscasting team with the original movie Monday Night Mayhem. Production on the two-hour TNT original, slated to air in 2002, begins Jan. 29, with Golden Globe-nominated actor John Turturro starring as the late Howard Cosell.
THE REAL GRAPPLING MTV will air 13 half-hour episodes of WWF Tough Enough, a new reality-based series that will document the discovery and creation of the next male and female WWF combatants from a group of 12 athletes. The group, for which MTV Productions and WWFE are holding a casting call, will live, train, play and ultimately compete against each other for a WWF contract.
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