Cbs Will Limit Shows For Kids

Fri., Dec. 6, 1996

Lawrie Mifflin New York Times

If you can’t beat ‘em, run a different race, CBS has decided.

The network announced Tuesday that it would drop the traditional children’s animated shows from its Saturday morning schedule next fall, replace them with a two-hour news program, and restrict its remaining children’s lineup to the three hours of educational programs it must show under Federal Communications Commission regulations.

CBS’ children’s ratings have plummeted in recent years. In last month’s sweeps period, CBS averaged a 1.9 rating, compared with Fox’s 5.3 and ABC’s 2.5 among children ages 2 to 11.

“CBS News Saturday Morning” will resemble “CBS News Sunday Morning” and compete with the weekend “Today” show, which has been successful for NBC. NBC dropped children’s programming in 1992, switching to a weekend “Today” followed by four half-hour shows aimed at teen-agers.

When it bought CBS last year, Westinghouse Electric Corp. said it would make sure the network was offering affiliates three hours of educational shows for children each week, by the fall of 1997, whether the FCC passed such a rule or not. (It did, last summer.)

CBS carries two hours of educational fare now - “Beakman’s World,” “CBS Storybreak,” “Bailey Kipper’s P.O.V.” and “Secrets of the Cryptkeeper’s Haunted House.”

The shows CBS will drop next year are cartoons - “The Mask,” “Ace Ventura, Pet Detective,” “Timon and Pumbaa,” “Project Geeker” and “Teen-Age Mutant Ninja Turtles.”

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