Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, June 13, 1990 TAG: 9006130098
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: E-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Tom Shales
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
"Nightly News," with Tom Brokaw, ranks third among the big three evening newscasts. "ABC World News Tonight" with Peter Jennings is first, and "The CBS Evening News" with Dan Rather is second.
Friedman took over as executive producer as of the Monday, June 4, broadcast. One of the ripest rumors in broadcasting is that his schemes to improve the show's ratings include making Jane Pauley co-anchor with Brokaw.
"There are no plans right now to do it," Friedman says. "When Tom is in New York, Tom is the anchor, period. But you can't have somebody in the wheat fields doing intro's to the stories." He means that when Brokaw goes on the road to report news, Pauley will be at the anchor desk in New York.
He also says that if he were producing the show when Brokaw went to Berlin and the Wall didn't fall, Brokaw would not have appeared on the show that night. Just Pauley, whose title is "sub-anchor," Friedman says.
"You will see a lot more of Jane Pauley on the show. She's a big television star now," says Friedman. Pauley, who got a standing ovation from NBC affiliates at their recent convention here, increased in luminance when butterfingered executives let her slip away from the "Today" show and ratings subsequently nosedived.
Friedman was executive producer of "Today" in its heyday, and brought it from low ratings to high. Then he made a career move right off a cliff. He produced the syndicated "USA Today" TV show, a $50 million failure.
It was a swan dive but not a swan song. Since leaving that show in November of 1988, Friedman has spent months losing weight, as if preparing for a title fight. He went from a high of 262 pounds to a show-offy 190. He loves gloating about it to those who've been less successful at weight loss than him.
He returns to TV, leaner if not meaner. At the "Today" show, Friedman was notorious for throwing things around the control room when people or equipment flubbed up. So far, there are no reports of whizzing projectiles on "Nightly News."
"I don't know if I'm kinder or gentler, but I'm a lot smarter," Friedman says. "I learn from my mistakes. I made a very serious mistake on `USA Today' and I won't make it again. I thought that form mattered more than substance. The show was beautifully mounted; it just didn't have anything in it."
Friedman is able to joke about "USA Today." When he spoke to the NBC affiliates, he told them he knew what they were thinking: "Which Steve Friedman have you got - the genius who helped put the `Today' show back on top in the early '80s, or the Bozo who produced `USA Today'?"
Resurrecting "Nightly News" won't be easy. Friedman's plans include the usual first resorts: changing the set, changing the graphics, changing the look. But like he says, content counts for something, even in television.
So he plans to give intrepid investigative reporter Brian Ross more prominence on the program. He wants Brokaw to do occasional live interviews like Ted Koppel on "Nightline." And he's going to have a different featured segment each night, along the lines of "American Agenda" and "Person of the Week" on ABC's "World News Tonight."
That doesn't mean "Nightly News" will become more of a magazine and less of a newspaper, Friedman says. "Most people think I've been brought in to soften the show. In fact, I'm going to harden it up."
Friedman is operating on the optimistic assumption that it's possible to lure viewers back to "Nightly News" just by making it less dull and boring. The sad fact is that fewer people than ever are watching network newscasts. Many of those who do watch are over 50, not the most desirable demographic for advertisers.
"Maybe this is a lot about nothing," Friedman concedes. "But network newscasts have dropped less than network viewing in general. One thing we're not going to do is try to be the program-of-record any more. We're going to be a program-of-interest."
Some of those in the TV business thought "USA Today" would end Friedman's career. He's bounced back, even if he doesn't bounce quite as high as he used to. Those who've known him for years (among them Brokaw, who's known him since 1968) know that anybody with Friedman's energy and imagination cannot be counted out.
Steve Friedman was born to work in television. Of course, that's not entirely a compliment.
Washington Post Writers Group
by CNB