SevenSlave
01-13-2004, 01:21 PM
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=638&ncid=762&e=2&u=/nm/20040113/en_nm/leisure_wb_dc
WB Network Goes for Made-For-TV Movies
By Steve Gorman
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - As it struggles to reverse a sharp ratings decline in its target audience, the youth-oriented WB network is moving into an area largely forsaken by the bigger broadcasters -- made-for-TV movies.
The 9-year-old network, owned by Time Warner Inc. and Tribune Co., announced the appointment of its first executive in charge of original movie programming, cable veteran Tana Nugent Jamieson.
As a senior vice president for programming and made-for-TV movies, she will report to WB's executive vice president for drama development, Carolyn Bernstein.
Jamieson comes from Time Warner-owned cable movie and sports channel TBS, where she served as vice president of original programming and movies. She is credited with developing the successful TBS thriller, "Red Water," one of the highest-rated original movies on basic cable last year.
The first film on Jamieson's slate will be an adaptation of the Samantha character from the "American Girls" books series, a project seen as appealing to one of WB's chief constituencies, young female viewers.
By venturing into the realm of TV films the network home to such shows as "7th Heaven," "Everwood," "Reba" and "Smallville" is hoping to occupy a programming niche left by its bigger competitors.
In recent years, ABC, CBS and NBC have increasingly moved away from original movies, finding them to be costly enterprises that often fail to deliver high enough ratings to justify the one-time expense of making them.
"Broadcast television has largely abandoned the long-form genre to cable, particularly with content directed at young viewers," said WB's co-CEO Jordan Levin in a statement. "We have had success with theatrical presentations and have decided that this would be a great time to expand into original production."
WB's move toward original movies also comes as the network is dealing with a marked decline in its ratings, particularly among the 12- to-34-year-old viewers it has long considered its core audience.
Like other networks, the WB has blamed much of the decline in younger demographics on recent changes in the way ratings tracker Nielsen Media Research collects its data.
WB Network Goes for Made-For-TV Movies
By Steve Gorman
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - As it struggles to reverse a sharp ratings decline in its target audience, the youth-oriented WB network is moving into an area largely forsaken by the bigger broadcasters -- made-for-TV movies.
The 9-year-old network, owned by Time Warner Inc. and Tribune Co., announced the appointment of its first executive in charge of original movie programming, cable veteran Tana Nugent Jamieson.
As a senior vice president for programming and made-for-TV movies, she will report to WB's executive vice president for drama development, Carolyn Bernstein.
Jamieson comes from Time Warner-owned cable movie and sports channel TBS, where she served as vice president of original programming and movies. She is credited with developing the successful TBS thriller, "Red Water," one of the highest-rated original movies on basic cable last year.
The first film on Jamieson's slate will be an adaptation of the Samantha character from the "American Girls" books series, a project seen as appealing to one of WB's chief constituencies, young female viewers.
By venturing into the realm of TV films the network home to such shows as "7th Heaven," "Everwood," "Reba" and "Smallville" is hoping to occupy a programming niche left by its bigger competitors.
In recent years, ABC, CBS and NBC have increasingly moved away from original movies, finding them to be costly enterprises that often fail to deliver high enough ratings to justify the one-time expense of making them.
"Broadcast television has largely abandoned the long-form genre to cable, particularly with content directed at young viewers," said WB's co-CEO Jordan Levin in a statement. "We have had success with theatrical presentations and have decided that this would be a great time to expand into original production."
WB's move toward original movies also comes as the network is dealing with a marked decline in its ratings, particularly among the 12- to-34-year-old viewers it has long considered its core audience.
Like other networks, the WB has blamed much of the decline in younger demographics on recent changes in the way ratings tracker Nielsen Media Research collects its data.