Is Showtime in trouble?
Healthy state of denial is one thing. Saying that week-old fish is the catch-of-the-day ... that's another matter. Such was the situation on Friday when I asked the longtime CEO of Showtime Networks, Matt Blank, about a recent comment his new boss, Leslie Moonves, had made about Showtime's shows being way too "off-off-Broadway" and "more interested in pleasing critics than viewers." Now, I had expected Blank to take a little edge off Moonves's remarks. Instead, he denied that what had been said had even been said.
First of all, we always try to please you. But I think Leslie was taken out of context in the -- you know, was talking about his view of Showtime in the past. And you know, we made a significant change three years ago. I think we had -- Bob (Greenblatt) did his first TCA for Showtime. Was that three years ago? Oh, no, he didn't come, but he started this week three years ago. And that was a recognition of our belief that, you know, we've done a lot of good things, but we wanted to do things that might be a little more commercial, might attract a bigger audience, might get more attention. And we think we've been very successful in doing that, particularly this year. And I think Leslie would agree with that. As he said, he's a big fan of "Weeds." I believe he likes "Sleeper Cell." He was delighted with the response to "Brotherhood." And he's been extremely, extremely supportive, even to the point of allowing "Brotherhood" to appear (in a repeat) on CBS tomorrow night. So I think that was an unfortunate representation of something he really wasn't saying.
OK, OK. First, Showtime hasn't been "very successful" in growing its audience, because it just cancelled "Huff," its highest-profile and most-nominated series. Second, here is what Moonves actually said at the Morgan Stanley media conference. Judge for yourself whether he was taken out of context:
Look, HBO has done a terrific job and obviously it is the goal of Showtime. HBO is more than three times as profitable as Showtime. Having said that, Showtime is very profitable and having brought it into our fold about eight months ago, we have been able to incorporate it into our system and make it more a part of the CBS system. ...
One of the things we're going to do with Showtime is take (our) television production facility and make Showtime more commercial. There is no reason Showtime can't have the next Sopranos. HBO has made their bones with Sopranos, Sex in the City. Showtime was a little bit too much of an off-off Broadway play. They were interested in critics more than audiences. Anybody who knows me knows that audiences are the thing. I am a populist and you can take your reviews and stick them. Just give me big audiences.
But this does raise the issue of how big a shakeup of Showtime is ahead. I think their current development slate is dreadful: a complete bummer of a show about a creepy, sexless forensic pathologist who stalks serial killers at night and a sketch comedy show with Damon Wayans that is, as my colleague Rob Salem succinctly put it, "nasty." Two words should suffice for now: talking vagina.
Who knows, maybe none of us really knows what "commercial" is in the alternative-pay-cable universe. Talking vaginas may be commercial. Moonves may have been taken out of context. Showtime may soon be standing smack in the middle of Broadway, flagging down traffic. But I'm guessing .... not.
