O.J. Trial Creates New Stars

One sure bit of fallout from the massive TV coverage of the O.J. Simpson trial is the making of new TV stars. ABC legal analyst Leslie Abramson has signed a deal with Twentieth Television for a half-hour talk show to debut in national syndication in 1996, presumably when she completes her defense of Erik Menendez in his retrial on murder charges.

NBC trial analyst Gerry Spence, the folksy, buckskin-clad Wyoming trial lawyer who defended Imelda Marcos and handled the Karen Silkwood case, started his own weekly talk show on the CNBC cable.

CNN trial analysts Greta Van Susteren and Roger Cossack will launch their own half-hour CNN legal talk show, “Burden of Proof,” as soon as the Simpson trial goes to the jury.

Executives of E! Entertainment cable network say they are trying to develop a new show for Kathleen Sullivan, anchor of their gavel-to-gavel Simpson coverage, to keep her on the network when the trial ends.