THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, April 1, 1996 TAG: 9603300051
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: Larry Bonko
LENGTH: Medium: 94 lines
THE FOLKS at The Family Channel in Virginia Beach first asked Cristina Ferrare to host a live two-hour magazine show Monday through Friday all by herself.
Now, they have decided to lighten the load on the mother of four.
Regis has Kathie Lee. Mike has Maty. George has Alana.
Cristina will have Chuck.
In an interview last week, Ferrare said she expects Chuck Woolery of ``Love Connection'' to join her today when ``Home & Family'' signs on at 1 p.m. - from a house built just for this show at Universal Studios in California.
Last Friday, The Family Channel brass confirmed that Woolery has, indeed, signed on as co-host.
Was anyone better suited for a family show? Woolery is the father of seven with an eighth child on the way in May. (Triviata: Woolery in 1975 was the first host of ``Wheel of Fortune.'')
While there will be no studio audience for ``Home & Family,'' drop-ins are welcome. The Family Channel is inviting people who sign on for the Universal Studios tour to watch Ferrare and Woolery at work.
The ``Home & Family'' house was built not far from a famous Universal Studios' landmark - the frightening house on the hill near the Bates Motel where Norman Bates looked after Mother in ``Psycho.''
Expect nothing scarier than mushy homemade pasta on ``Home & Family.''
The Family Channel is launching the show, Ferrare said, because daytime television needs a breath of fresh air. ``It's time to take out the trash,'' she said. It was a slap at the syndicated talk shows that traffic in sleaze.
You won't see any cross-dressing long-haul truck drivers or tattooed lesbian nuns, Ferrare said.
``Our show will concentrate on real life and its issues from the difficult to the joyous,'' she said. ``We want the viewers to take something good away from the show every day. They'll learn about buying and selling a house and what to do when the garbage disposal breaks.''
There's nepotism at work here in that Ferrare is the wife of Tony Thomopoulos, chief executive officer of MTM Entertainment Inc. and The Family Channel's chief programmer. That is not to say that she is not qualified to host 10 hours of live TV every week.
Ferrare is a pro at this sort of programming. She co-hosted ``The Home Show'' with Rob Weller on ABC, stepped in at times for Kathie Lee Gifford on ``Live With Regis & Kathie Lee'' and has been before the cameras since she signed, at age 14, with the Nina Blanchard modeling agency.
If Thomopoulos wanted to put his whole family on, including the in-laws, I doubt if anyone at FAM headquarters in Virginia Beach would object. Since he came aboard a year ago, ratings are up as much as 51 percent in some day parts. More women 25 to 54, the darlings of advertisers, are watching than ever before.
FAM's overall ratings in the last quarter of 1995 were the best in 10 years. A recent Sunday-night film, ``The Night of the Twisters,'' pulled a 5.6 rating, the highest ever for an original movie on FAM.
Revenues are up by 35.1 percent for the channel seen in 65 million cable homes.
With FAM on a roll, here comes Ferrare and her ``Home & Family,'' which vice president of programming Steve Leon refers to as the network's ``signature show.''
A mini-profile of Ferrare: She's the mother of four children, 6 to 21, from two marriages. One of her hobbies - an obsession, she calls it - is ceramics. Another is cooking. Her favorite meal is pasta broccoli with fresh tomatoes and chicken.
She likes to eat, and at times eats too much, Ferrare admitted in a frank interview in Los Angeles not long ago. ``I eat when I'm happy. I eat when I'm upset. In times of anxiety, I go for the food. The urge is strong,'' she said.
So, how has she lost 15 to 20 pounds of late? By exercising - she's in the gym three or four times a week at 5:30 a.m. And by watching her munchies - pretzels instead of chocolate-chip cookies.
Ferrare plans to share all of this with viewers. Producer Woody Fraser, who for five years did the ``Home'' program on ABC, will break up the ``Home & Family'' two hours into 15-minute segments to cover subjects from health and fitness to new inventions.
And a bit of the offbeat.
Ferrare said: ``We'll show our audience what it's like to suddenly be the parents of quints and be living in a home with two bedrooms and one bath.'' Ferrare is threatening to do a segment on how best to clean out and organize your closets. And maybe another on how to put your yard to bed in October.
There will be remote reports from correspondents in the field. And breaking news will be covered. Now that ``Home & Family'' is included in the Universal Studios' tour, it's become part of the Universal family. There are plans to visit Universal Studios in Orlando, Fla.
It's a TV show that sounds almost too good to be true. ILLUSTRATION: Cristina Ferrare will co-host "Home & Family."
by CNB