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This year the TV networks are riding high, with sponsors bidding feverishly for prime time—those magic evening hours between 7:30 and 10:30. In this sellers' market, CBS and NBC are in the fortunate position of wartime butchers. At times the steak offered is obviously horsemeat, but if the man in the white apron says it's steak, steak it is.
But while the triumphant networks lord it over admen and sponsors, a celluloid cloud looms threateningly in the West. If TV's entertainment remains mostly live, Manhattan will be its source and Broad way its inspiration. Should TV go to film, the bulk of the industry will shift to Hollywood—as radio did before it. Some pessimists see the day not far off when 70% of TV shows will be movies (currently, about 35% is filmed).
Bad Spot. Each network firmly believes it has a host of loyal followers who sit before the glowing tube and never tune to another channel all evening long. Therefore what precedes and follows each program becomes terribly important. A show that has a small audience, even if it has a contented sponsor, is a network liability. NBC last year dropped the veteran Voice of Firestone, despite the advertiser's willingness to pay its way, because the network thought the show's low rating ruined all the programs that followed it. Explains an executive: "A bad show in an evening line-up is like a bad spot in an apple. Cut out the spot—or the firm meat around the spot is infected too."
Similarly, a network tries desperately to undermine its rival's strong shows. Ed Sullivan's show, since it begins at 8 o'clock, has long been the key to Sunday evening dominance. In succession, NBC has challenged it with the Philco TV Playhouse, the Lambs Club Show and the Comedy Hour. NBC's Weaver is as baffled as everyone else by the riddle of Sullivan's popularity. Currently, he subscribes to the theory that Ed has never lost his appeal because he didn't have any to start with. Says Weaver: "He doesn't do anything on a stage. He's not a performer. Ed just knows the trick of putting together a variety show and it's a good staple. We were after him to switch to NBC, and twice I thought we had him. We knocked him galley-west for a while with the Colgate comedy show, but we've been lousy opposite him the last two years. This season we've got Martin & Lewis. He can be taken."
Burning Issue. Ed agrees that he has a fight on his hands. In his last 75 shows, according to Trendex ratings, he has beaten the NBC opposition 66 times and lost nine decisions. Seven of those nine defeats were administered by Martin & Lewis. "But we've handled big names before," says Ed confidently. "They threw Jimmy Durante at us first and when I overhauled him, they threw in Frank Sinatra and Milton Berle. We've always had tough competition."
The network way of doing things is often frustrating to viewers who would like to watch both Ed Sullivan's show and Martin & Lewis. But that is the way competitive TV works. If NBC has a top-rated show, CBS will put an equal attraction opposite it and vice versa. Since the networks believe that once a viewer tunes to another channel he may never tune back, the moral is: don't let him get away.