The Secret of Eye's Success Just how is CBS breaking ratings records this season?
Pauley Perrette and Michael Bellisario, NCIS
For the second year in a row, ABC has the most talked-about shows:
Desperate Housewives,
Lost and
Grey's Anatomy. But guess what? CBS has been No. 1 in viewers every week. It's the first time since 1988 that a network has opened with 11 consecutive weekly ratings wins. CBS has been on ABC's tail in the race for advertiser-coveted viewers in the 18-to-49 age group, too. (They were tied for first place during November sweeps). One CBS show after another has been scoring
all-time highs this season. The Biz talked with
Kelly Kahl, senior executive vice president of programming operations for CBS, to get some insight on why the Eye has it this year.
TVGuide.com: You have two shows that are in their third season and scoring their best ratings ever. How do you explain that?
Kelly Kahl: [Yes,] Cold Case and NCIS. I think some shows benefit from simply being on. It's a highly fragmented TV audience, and it takes time, in some cases three years, for people to check out shows. By virtue of being on, you increase the odds of people coming across it who might not otherwise be attracted to a show like that.
TVGuide.com: But at the other networks, hit shows seem to burn bright right away.
Kahl: Part of it is the quality of the shows. A lot of shows get a lot of promos thrown at them. They burn very brightly to begin with, but then the quality doesn't sustain. Good shows get better and evolve, and I do think we manage that very well.... I think CSI: NY is an excellent example of us staying with a show. The commitment to making it work doesn't stop the minute the show goes on. CSI: NY never disappeared from the face of the earth. We all felt it could be doing better.
TVGuide.com: What do you think made it more successful this year?
Kahl: Something we saw last year, which led us to the scheduling of Criminal Minds in front of it — we saw that putting a drama in front of CSI: NY always helped it in the ratings. As [executive producer] Anthony Zuiker said, there were certainly requests from the network to lighten it up a little bit. I think that's helped.
TVGuide.com: Is there anything different about the CBS shows that have brought younger viewers in?
Kahl: How I Met Your Mother is a younger show on its face. Ghost Whisperer might not have a younger star than Joan of Arcadia had, but it still has wildly popular young talent in it. Even Criminal Minds can be viewed as a traditional CBS show but is actually pretty edgy and racy. It's clearly not Murder, She Wrote. If you look at the overall age of the cast on something like a Criminal Minds or a NCIS, it's younger-looking than a lot of our shows have been in the past.
TVGuide.com: Why do you think NCIS is breaking out?
Kahl: There are elements of the show that appeal to a bimodal audience. You don't have a well-known star in the lead. You have an older character, and then you've got a Goth criminologist. That's another one of those home-run shows for us that play on a lot of different levels. There's a lot of humor in it, which I don't think you get from watching a promo or two, but then you watch the show. It's an entertaining hour no matter what your age.
TVGuide.com: How are you feeling about the new competition on Thursday night with NBC's move of My Name Is Earl to 9 pm?
Kahl: We've got the No. 1 show in TV in the time period with CSI. There's not much we're going to do. We like the fight as much as anybody, and we'll come to play.
TVGuide.com: Threshold was obviously a disappointment. Are you concerned that there is only a certain type of CBS show that works, and you're prevented from doing something different, like a sci-fi show?
Kahl: Not at all. Ghost Whisperer is clearly working. How I Met Your Mother is a pretty different kind of comedy for us. We got that off the ground nicely. I look at those as two examples of different shows for us that are doing quite well. Threshold got lost in a three-show sci-fi logjam with NBC's Surface and ABC's Invasion. I'm not sure whether any of them did a great job of breaking out... in the public's mind. I think that has less to do with us.
TVGuide.com: Put on your UPN hat for a minute. A lot of TV Guide readers are passionate about Everybody Hates Chris. Clearly, it's not the breakout hit a lot of us thought it would be, but is it sustainable at its current ratings level?
Kahl: Oh, yeah. It's a critically important show for UPN on several levels. Creatively, I think it means a lot to show that UPN can do an unbelievably well-received show. It's kind of the comedy equivalent of Veronica Mars. It lets people know inside and outside the creative community that UPN can really do quality programming. It got advertisers to sit up and take notice of UPN. Advertisers who weren't talking to UPN before are coming to UPN now.
TVGuide.com: Those are all positives, but will that be enough to keep it on the air?
Kahl: Yes. I think the key is to build some stronger programming around it. Then we'll have a truly successful night. It's a beachhead on a very important night. Taking a page out of the CBS playbook, it's something that we still hope to build.
