‘Current Affair’ Putting All Its Chips On O.J. In Ratings Gamble

Mon., April 24, 1995

From Wire Reports

Looking to shake things up some, third-ranked syndicated tabloid series “A Current Affair” is going all O.J. all the time.

While the program has covered the trial of O.J. Simpson from the start, producers are now shifting gears to offer viewers nothing but Simpson stories. Each half-hour of the nightly series will be devoted only to the Simpson trial (unless a story pops up so big that it demands coverage). That means no more tawdry tales of strip clubs doubling as restaurants - that is, unless O.J. or any of the lawyers in the case have eaten there.

According to a show spokeswoman, producers have hired 50 new staffers on the West Coast just to work on the Simpson story.

The announcement of the allSimpson switch of format follows a six-week relocation of the program from New York to Los Angeles.

In the ratings war amongst the evening syndicated tab shows, “Hard Copy” ranks No. 1, while “Inside Edition” is No. 2.

Morning news shows travel

The network morning shows are all swept up in travel plans. Next month, NBC’s “Today” and ABC’s “Good Morning America” are going abroad to kick off the sweeps period, a quarterly ratings session used by local stations to set future ad rates.

“Today” will broadcast from the French Riviera May 1-5, with Bryant Gumbel and Katie Couric moving around the region for each day’s telecast.

“GMA” is going on the longest jaunt, which will start on May 1 with Joan Lunden and Charlie Gibson in Vienna and end with the show in Paris on May 12.

“CBS This Morning” is actually going on the shortest trip in May - all the way from its West 57th Street digs to the Ed Sullivan theater on Broadway. The week of May 15-19, the program will occupy David Letterman’s “Late Show” home, while the show is doing its thing in London.

All of the morning shows are expected to focus on the 50th anniversary of V-E Day, on May 8.

Nick top cable channel

With the help of O.J. Simpson - and savvy programming decisions - Nickelodeon is the highest-rated channel among basic cable-TV programming for the first time.

The cable-TV network for kids had a 1.4 total-day rating during the first three months of the year - about 853,000 households tuning in at any given time - just ahead of former front-runners such as TBS and USA Network. At 8 p.m. each day, the network begins airing reruns of sitcoms under the Nick at Nite banner.

Nickelodeon’s programming proved to be a welcome alternative for kids and families to extensive coverage of the O.J. Simpson murder trial on other broadcast and cable networks, media analysts said.

On the other hand, O.J. coverage contributed significantly to what amounted to basic cable’s best quarter yet. CNN, which ranked second behind Nickelodeon, and Court TV racked up big audience gains because of the Simpson trial.

Nickelodeon executives attributed their network’s improvement to the strategic bolstering of Nickelodeon’s lineup with new programs.

Nickelodeon posted some of its biggest audience gains during its revamped preschool block, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. The number of viewers aged 2 to 5 increased from 250,000 to 560,000 during that period.

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