| MUMBAI:
"We're coming off a great year," US broadcaster CBS' Entertainment president
Nina Tassler told critics during the network's executive session at the Television
Critics Awards (TCA). "And
everybody knows the stats: we grew our audience in every key ratings category,
the only network to do so." She went on to tout the freshman success of The
Mentalist as well as the continued emergence of The Big Bang Theory
and NCIS as heavy hitters in their time periods. Tassler
also took the time to address various issues in primetime.
On one of its rivals NBC moving Jay Leno to primetime, she took a jab saying that
whatever numbers, whatever ratings they get they're going to declare victory anyway.
"So it really doesn't matter."
On NBC declaring Conan the new king of late night she says, "We said really?
Really? It seemed a little premature but as [I said] whatever numbers come in,
whatever the ratings are I think they'll be happy with... We're not really looking
to what NBC is doing. For us we see Leno moving as a great opportunity, it's a
sea change in our business."
On CBS' lack of gay and lesbian characters, she admits that it is a sort of concern
for her personally and for the people at the network. "We have a fundamental
commitment to the philosophy of diversity across the schedule and representation
of gay, lesbian [characters] falls into that division as well. The interesting
thing is I think we do have good representation in our non-scripted programming
but we certainly have to make room in our scripted content. "And
much of what I'm hearing... going into development have gay and lesbian characters
already hitched into the shows themselves. So it's an area we need to work on
and hopefully we do improve there next year."
On the changes to the Emmy broadcast this year she denies being unfair to the
creative community. "I think coming out of the telecast last year everybody
knew we had to make a change. Change is not easy. The bottom line is the Emmys
are about the celebration of the television business. We're all in this business
together. This is about creating and producing an exciting and entertaining programme."
On why CBS picked up Medium she says, "When we did know that we had
an opportunity we jumped at it. We're thrilled with the show. I think that NBC
really [didn't treat] the show the way it should be treated... to get Emmy winner
Patricia Arquette on Friday night for us is a home run." Tassler also confirmed
that the Medium pickup was made after the decision to keep Flashpoint.
On CSI's stumbles last season she noted trhat itt wasn't just about Grissom,
it wasn't just about losing Billy. "That show had some monumental changes
last year. We lost Warrick, Sara and we're introducing a new character to the
show. For those of you that know, George Eads was having back issues at the end
of last season so he wasn't as present in the show... I think fans were a little
unsure as to where the show was going." In
india CSI airs on AXN. Looking at what is ahead for CSI this year
she says, "Nick is going to get promoted, Catherine Willows promotes him.
Sara is coming back for the first five episodes of the show. You're going to see
Fishbourne basically have, he's much more settled in his role, he's in a more
leadership capacity. He's well versed or more versed in the language of CSI.
He's had a little bit of a wardrobe makeover." The
broadcaster also cancelled Without a Trace. Tassler says that this was
a really tough choice. "We had a very strong development season, we have
a very strong schedule, so it allowed us to make those tough decisions. Obviously
we feel it was better to go out with the show at its creative high point in its
career versus then having any kind of downturn. It was a very tough decision." | 
