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TCA press tour: CBS chief takes potshots at NBC in late-night ratings war

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With the late-night ratings battle heating up, CBS’ entertainment president on Monday took a few public swipes at NBC, the longtime leader in after-hours programming.

CBS executives are gloating that ‘The Late Show with David Letterman’ has been closing in on NBC’s ‘Tonight Show’ since Conan O’Brien took over the franchise in June. The rival networks have since been engaged in a PR war, with NBC choosing to emphasize O’Brien’s strength among young viewers even as his overall viewership declines.

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‘Whatever ratings they get, they’re going to declare victory, so it really doesn’t matter what I say,’ Nina Tassler, who oversees CBS’ entertainment programming, told reporters at the TV press tour in Pasadena.

‘It seemed a little bit premature’ when NBC crowned O’Brien the king of late night just after he took the reins from Jay Leno, she added.

Privately, CBS executives expect O’Brien’s ratings to tumble further once Leno resurfaces in a new 10 p.m. talk show on NBC in the fall. CBS, meanwhile, is sticking with a strategy of airing expensive scripted dramas in that time slot, such as ‘CSI: Miami’ and the new Julianna Margulies vehicle ‘The Good Wife.’ (CBS talent seems to be following the management playbook: At a panel for ‘Good Wife,’ Margulies suggested that NBC is scheduling too many nightly talk shows.)

‘We feel pretty confident. Ten o’clock has been a great time period for us,’ Tassler said. ‘Ten o’clock is a great business and it’s going to boost Dave as well.’

Tassler drew laughter when asked to comment on the recent departure of NBC’s Ben Silverman, the brash former agent and producer hired two years ago in what proved a mostly unsuccessful bid to overhaul that network’s programming. ‘I’m really just a D-girl, so I wouldn’t comment,’ Tassler said. The line was a reference to a 2007 Esquire article in which Silverman ridiculed rival programmers as ‘D-girls,’ a disparaging industry term used to describe low-level creative executives.

Meanwhile, Tassler waded into the controversy over a plan to trim this fall’s Emmys telecast with pre-edited award segments, most likely in the movies and miniseries categories. The proposal has been bitterly opposed by some in the TV industry, especially HBO, which typically does well in the long-form awards.

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Tassler insisted the trims will be done ‘in a very respectful way.

‘It will have no impact on the integrity of the program,’ she said. ‘This is about producing an exciting and entertaining program.’


-- Scott Collins

--Photo: Nina Tassler/Credit: CBS

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