TV Tubenotes

Steven Bochco says CBS didn't give his "Brooklyn South" enough of a chance

By Gail Shister
Knight Ridder Newspapers
(KRT)

"Brooklyn" went "South" because CBS "has zero patience", says uber-producer Steven Bochco.

In a rare interview, Bochco says his new cop drama, "Brooklyn South", wasn't renewed last week for the fall because CBS "is so concerned with getting a rating THIS SECOND that any sort of long-term commitment to quality, or even to existing relationships, pales in significance to the need to win now."

After a huge promotional push last fall and during the Winter Olympics, "Brooklyn" finished the season tied for 90th place with Fox's "World's Wildest Police Videos." That's many precincts from Bochco's ABC hit, "NYPD Blue," which grabbed 17th place among 177 shows on Nielsen's lineup.

CBS President Les Moonves, the only network suit Bochco says he dealt with, "acknowledged that CBS believes in me, that the show had gotten on track and that all the things I wanted to do in the second season were positive. And they canceled it anyway."

Officially, a CBS spokesman says: "Nobody wanted this show to work more than we did. We certainly believe we gave it our best shot." Unofficially, network sources call it sour grapes. "Brooklyn" go CBS' best timeslot (10 p.m. ET Mondays), more promos than any freshman series and a full season's run.

Bochco acknowledges that he lobbied hard for "Chicago Hope's" 10 p.m. Monday home. He did pretty well there until he had to face David E. Kelley's "The Practice" on ABC, rescued from the Saturday graveyard. "Brooklyn's" ratings took a nosedive. Bochco says he pushed for a new slot.

"It would have been really nice to at least try to relaunch somewhere else. The history of successful shows is dotted with situations like that. Look at "The Practice." Before ABC moved it, David was making a good show that nobody watched." Bochco owes CBS two more series in his exclusive four-year contract, which has two years remaining. (Last season's dismal sitcom, "Public Morals," was not part of Bochco's CBS deal. Produced for ABC, the Eye picked it up after ABC passed.)

The fact that none of CBS' new shows made the fall cut "is almost a self-fulfilling prophecy of failure," Bochco says. "I don't think you can keep changing your schedule every year and expect to build audience loyalty. The truth is, there is no audience loyalty to networks anymore. All you can hope for is that your shows build loyalty."

For a guy with a strong slugging percentage ("L.A. Law," "Doogie Howser M.D.," "NYPD Blue") Bochco admits that "everybody bitches when they lost their shows. It's human nature. I'm loathe to be a whiner, but I'm trying to be as candid as I can about the nature of my disappointment.

"Is Les a bad guy? No. Is he doing something to hurt me? No. Does he have his own particular concerns that have nothing to do with me? Yes. I certainly understand his reasoning. I just don't agree with it at all. It's short sighted."

At the end of the day, does Bochco feel he got a fair shot?

"I'm not going to answer that. I know what I can do, creatively and professionally. I know how to make a good show. If a show starts off life not 100 per cent there, I know I can get it there. I'm not worried about that.

"What I worry about...is that I'm partnered with somebody who clearly has zero patience in a climate that required patience for shows to emerge."

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