From his office on the 38th floor of the ABC building in Manhattan, Fred Silverman can peer into the office of CBS President Robert Wussler, just across 53rd Street. Occasionally the two men wave at each other from the heights, like rival aviators saluting before a dogfight. But sometimes—when he is trying to woo a star away from another network or plan a secret strategy—Silverman, head of ABC's programming, draws his drapes: if he can look into Wussler's office, Wussler can look into his, and Silverman does not want anyone, especially anyone at CBS, to know where the Red Baron will strike next.
Invigorated by Silverman's frenzied aggressiveness and unorthodox tactics, ABC—television's perennial also-ran in ratings, revenues and prestige—has all but obliterated its competitors in evening prime time. Last spring, at the end of the 1976-77 season, the network had the nation's four top-rated shows and seven of the top ten. CBS, which had been the premier network since television came of age in the '50s, managed to squeeze only two into the top ten. NBC, the granddaddy of all the networks, was able to place only one on those elevated rungs.
Translated into Nielsen points, the language TV people are most fluent in, ABC had a Nielsen average of 21.5, compared with 18.7 for CBS and 18.0 for NBC. Since each Nielsen point means a million viewers and is worth about $36 million in advertising revenue on a full-season basis, ABC'S lead was equal to $100.8 million —and that is a language anyone can understand.
There is no parallel in the history of broadcasting—and few in any well-established industries—to ABC's sudden rise. It is as if, in the space of two years, Chrysler had surged past General Motors and sent Ford reeling back to Dearborn. Or —to stretch the truth only a bit—as if China had discovered some mysterious, all-powerful Z-bomb and in victorious glee ordered both the White House and the Kremlin dismantled and shipped, boards and nails, to Peking.
ABC has raided the other networks for affiliated stations, convincing station owners that they will be able to ask more money from local advertisers if they are connected with ABC hits. One month the NBC affiliate in San Diego or Charlotte, N.C., makes the switch. Another month it is the CBS station in Providence or Albany, N.Y. In the past two years ABC has added 15 stations to its web, for a total of 195. CBS and NBC are still ahead in the number of stations, with 204 and 208 respectively, but no one will guess how long traditional loyalties will survive the siren lure of ABC's Nielsens.