NBC Screws Up Again! NBC wanted Ghost Whisperer but didn't get it (and lost Medium)

[Brian Damage]

Two networks faced off this week over extending the life of a show about dead people.


Patricia Arquette and Jake Weber of the show “Medium,” which will switch to CBS next fall. NBC offered “Medium” a shortened season after it failed to lure “Ghost Whisperer” from CBS.

“Medium,” which has been successful, if not quite a hit show, on NBC for the last five seasons, got less love from that network than it expected when its contract came up for renewal. CBS, the network that owns the studio that produces “Medium,” stepped in, first to defend the show from what CBS executives considered some disrespect by NBC, and then to appropriate the show itself.

The conflict over “Medium” was emblematic of what transpired at every network this week, when money and ownership were major factors in scheduling decisions. CBS had no trouble committing to ordering a full season of “Medium,” which NBC had resisted, because as owner of the show it will benefit financially from the future sale of the episodes of the show produced for the coming season.

That surely factored into the decision by ABC to again renew the now low-rated comedy “Scrubs” (which NBC walked away from last year) because ABC’s studio produces it and will reap the benefits from sales of reruns and DVDs.

NBC also passed on one of its former hit comedies, “My Name Is Earl,” after seeking a sharp cut in its budget, because the show’s ratings had dipped; the fact that NBC did not own the show surely did not help its cause. “Earl” is produced by 20th Century Fox Television, but its network, Fox, has expressed no interest in adding it to its schedule.

Other shows faced cloudy forecasts this month because of costs and owners that were not in-house. The CBS comedy “The New Adventures of Old Christine” had to line up a prospective deal with ABC before CBS would consent to a full 22-episode offer. Less fortunate was the CBS drama “Without a Trace,” which was canceled this season rather than being renewed at a high cost. Warner Brothers owns that series.

The change in networks for “Medium” may have been the most unexpected turn of events in a week dominated by program turnover.

Two series that had been marginally successful for NBC, “Medium” and the comedy-drama “Chuck,” seemed to be in a duel for the last available hour in the network’s lineup. One senior executive at NBC wondered if the newer show, “Chuck,” which had younger, more impassioned fans, had more opportunity to increase its audience than the slightly older but steadier performer, “Medium.”

“We probably know what we have in ‘Medium’ — it’s going to stay within a certain ratings range,” said the executive, who asked not to be identified because the negotiating process was private. “But with ‘Chuck,’ there’s still a chance we could do better.”

Other issues also emerged. NBC executives had heard that a CBS drama seen on Fridays, “Ghost Whisperer,” was also at the end of its contract and that the network was looking to hold down costs on that series. If CBS decided not to renew “Ghost Whisperer,” NBC was going to bid on the show and pair it with “Medium” on Fridays.

At the same time, executives from the sandwich chain Subway had approached NBC with an offer to back “Chuck” with a special sponsorship likely to include prominent placement of a Subway store and Subway items in the mall where some of the show’s characters work.

In the end, NBC made the deal with Subway and renewed “Chuck,” but only after winning a concession worth several hundred thousand dollars an episode from the show’s studio, Warner Brothers. (NBC had asked for even deeper cuts, which the studio refused, according to two studio executives who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the negotiations).

NBC wound up making a limited offer to retain “Medium” — 13 episodes instead of a full-season order of 22. That negotiation became fractious, and both sides traded charges, mostly in private through e-mail messages, about how valuable the show really was. In a press release CBS noted that several shows that NBC renewed had far fewer viewers than “Medium.” (Only six NBC series have more.)

Completing a perfect circle, CBS scheduled “Medium” on Fridays after “Ghost Whisperer”— just as NBC had intended to. “They are literally the perfect companion to each other,” said Kelly Kahl, the chief scheduler for CBS.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/21/bu...1&ref=business