The Network Chiefs Summit 2007
(l-r) Barry Sonnenfeld, Stephen McPherson, Nina Tassler, Kevin Reilly, Ben Silverman, Dawn Ostroff

by Chris Davison, davison@intellcap.com
When Satan himself opens an event, you know something big is about to happen and sure enough, there he was in The CW’s promo video, welcoming “friends, broadcasters, scum of the Earth” to the inaugural event of the 2007-8 HRTS season, the Network Chief's luncheon, for the third year presented with Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.   An all-time attendance record of over 1000 souls willingly entered the Beverly Hilton to hear from the five network chiefs, seated on the dais in alphabetical order by network: ABC’s Stephen McPherson, CBS’s Nina Tassler, FOX’s Kevin Reilly, NBC’s Ben Silverman and The CW’s Dawn Ostroff.

With the hall rented and the orchestra engaged, it was time to bring on the conductor: Barry Sonnenfeld strode onstage wearing a very respectable business suit, anchored at the bottom by hybrid anaconda-sheep skin boots; no word if the former ate the latter. With Sonnenfeld being known for offbeat film and television, it was immediately clear that his approach to the discussion panel would be along these same lines: in his opening remarks he shared with the crowd that his wife recently compared his penis to the City of Philadelphia - no longer the third largest in the country but still pretty huge.

With the tone appropriately set, Sonnenfeld said that he enjoys the freedom of television, that in feature films no one wants to do anything new or different whereas right now in television he’s doing interesting, quirky things that would never have been picked up by any film studio.  Conversation quickly shifted into talk about the pending strike, with Sonnenfeld saying that getting residuals to writers should be transparent. Nina Tassler responded that the industry still doesn’t know what is going to happen with new media, that right now everybody is experimenting, leading to Sonnenfeld’s retort that he doesn’t buy the ‘wait-and-see’ approach, that he thinks creators should be paid in any medium.

In response to a question on his weekend work habits, Ben Silverman gestured toward his fellow panelists and joked “when I’m not dating their kids….” thus prompting Kevin Reilly to interject “I have three boys”; Steve McPherson laughed so hard that consideration was given to supplemental oxygen though it turned out not to be necessary.

Sonnenfeld later asked why all of the networks have the same pilot season, pointing out that the timing means that everyone is competing for the same limited pool of writers, actors and directors. Kevin Reilly pointed out that the business has been run the same way for the last 50 years, and if there is a strike then perhaps one good thing will be the shaking up of the status quo. Dawn Ostroff concurred, adding that the current scheduling was determined by Detroit automakers during the 1950s, timing new TV shows to coincide with the launch of the new model years in September.

Discussion shifted to testing, with Steve McPherson saying that he’s been frustrated by testing, offering for example that “Desperate Housewives” did not test great, and “Ugly Betty” tested almost the worst of all 17 pilots in its group. Ben Silverman said that he finds the research to be very valuable in terms of determining the marketing of a show. Silverman also pointed out that the ad agencies have large research divisions and so networks are compelled to do their own due diligence. This exchange of opinions provided for an interesting interplay although it fell short of the expected fireworks between McPherson and Silverman over the former’s “be a man” comment from earlier this year.

Everyone knew going in that this day would be all about show business and when the curtains fell some in the audience felt it was a bit too much show and not enough business but the general feeling was that a candid, informative and occasionally risqué discussion had taken place. As for new media, strikes and general uncertainty, all present agreed that creators deserve to be compensated but the devil, as they say, is in the details.

Seen and Scene around the luncheon:
 
Just a sampling of the high-level schmoozing going on during the 2007 HRTS Network Chiefs Luncheon.