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JON LAFAYETTE
A murder. A football player on trial. It's high times for Court TV.
This time around, the football player is Rae Carruth, not O.J. Simpson. And this time around, Court TV has more working for it than its live trial coverage.
In primetime, the network has had success with a mix of cop dramas and documentaries, a genre nearly extinct on broadcast but enjoying a rebirth on cable.
"Documentaries are ultimately what's going to make Court TV's reputation," says Art Bell, EVP-programming and marketing at the network, which last week hired a new executive, Ed Hersh, previously with A&E, as VP-documentaries and specials.
This week, Court TV will run an instant primetime documentary on the Carruth case. Bell says Court TV's live coverage of the case gave it a leg up in getting the documentary, airing Jan. 16 at 10 p.m., completed so quickly.
"I don't think you're going to see this kind of turnaround anywhere else," he says.
Court TV has been undergoing its own turnaround.
After getting a boost from the O.J. case, the network hit hard times. A three-way ownership situation left it paralyzed, ratings plummeted, often landing at 0.1, and operators were dropping it from their systems.
Two years ago, Time Warner Entertainment and Liberty Media took control and put in new management. Since then, ratings climbed and distribution grew from 30 to 50 million. Cox Communications, to name one operator that dropped the channel because of low ratings, plans to return the channel on nearly all of systems this year, a spokeswoman says.
The network has turned away somewhat from its original mission. Under founder Steven Brill (now the chairman/CEO of Cable World's new parent company Media Central) Court TV was a hard-core legal channel. Since Brill surrendered control, the new owners have turned it into more of a general entertainment service with a justice theme, especially in primetime. The network doesn't always enjoy the critical acclaim it received when it launched (Its experimental documentary series Confessions was pummeled in the press and quickly cancelled.) but documentaries - such as Brooklyn North - as well as acquired shows have led a ratings rebound.
Advertisers are buying in, too.
"They've gotten away from the image of O.J. Simpson," says Bill Miller, SVP-national broadcast media director at CIA Media Network. "It's certainly a viable network that reaches adults 25-54, including females. Surprisingly, females seem to like those kind of programs."
Court TV's 10 p.m. documentaries drew a 0.6 rating representing 309,000 households in December, up 50% and 93% respectively, according to Nielsen Media Research. Ratings in key demos doubled.
The network has struck a careful balance between fiction and non-fiction.
"In the long term, the documentaries are going to be more important and more dominant for us. In the short term, bringing in great shows like Homicide: Life on the Street and Profiler are ways to attract audience and connect that audience to the documentaries," Bell says.
Hersh replaces Doc Jarden, who left the network. Bell says he was attracted by Hersh's work on Investigative Reports and American Justice at A&E, as well as his work previously at ABC News.
"One of Ed's first challenges here is to figure out how to best take that franchise and go forward with it," Bell says.
"Court TV is a pretty exciting place to be right now," Hersh says. "They realize that making their own documentaries is a way to control your own destiny."
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