Prime Time

Lively Magazine news shows are among the networks' hottest drawing cards. But are they more show than news?

A group of TV executives from Eastern Europe confessed at a CNN conference last month that the newly freed TV channels in their countries have left viewers bored. The problem: too much news and not enough entertainment. Just another case where the former Soviet empire has a lot of catching up to do & with the West. In the jaded U.S., viewers are bored with entertainment and can't seem to get enough news.

At least, they can't get enough of the networks' prime-time news programs. CBS's venerable 60 Minutes, the closest thing to a perpetual-motion machine yet developed by network TV,...

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