TV'S BLACK FLIGHT

By CHRISTOPHER JOHN FARLEY

There's a standard explanation that white-run companies employ when they are taken to task for having homogeneous work forces. "Hey," upper-level management types will say, "we looked for qualified folks. There just were no black candidates." It's the old "N.B.C." answer, and in the face of a historic turnabout, the National Broadcasting Co. happens to be using said answer to defend its just-announced fall season. NBC, the network that broadcast the pioneering Cosby Show in the '80s, the network that carried the Nat King Cole Show in the 1950s when virtually no advertisers were willing to sponsor a variety show hosted by a black man, will not have a single minority-themed series in its fall lineup. A fluke? Don Ohlmeyer, president of NBC West Coast, says the simple fact is none of the ethnic shows they had in development were good enough to air. "To look deeper," he adds, "is an attempt to attribute false cause and effect."

Indeed, failed pilots are hardly news. But is there a more complicated explanation than NBC's N.B.C. answer? Perhaps. TV seems to be undergoing a racial restructuring, a kind of ethnic perestroika. The four biggest networks, ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox, which finished announcing their prime-time fall lineups last week, appear to be turning away from minority programming. CBS will have only one black-themed show next fall, a new Bill Cosby sitcom. ABC will have only the aging sitcom Family Matters and the new sitcom Common Law, with Latino stand-up Greg Giraldo. Fox, once a bastion of black comedy, is down to Martin, Living Single and the multiracial drama New York Undercover. All told, that's six minority-themed shows on the Big Four networks. Three years ago, there were 12.

Today the networks are scheduling either all-white shows (the sitcoms Friends, Seinfeld, Ellen and Mad About You are set in urban centers, but the only thing black on them is the coffee) or, increasingly, shows with multiethnic ensemble casts, like the NBC dramas ER and Homicide or Fox's new sitcom Lush Life, which stars two female friends, one white and one black, as does ABC 's new Clueless. A significant number of minorities still appear on TV, but they are only intermittently at the center of the action.

However, the two newer, smaller networks, the upstart United Paramount Network and the Warner Bros. channel, are embracing minority-themed programming as a way of differentiating themselves from the bigger, established players in the TV game. In a classic case of counterprogramming, the two mininetworks will between them air 11 ethnic-themed shows in the fall--nearly twice the big-network total. Some of them star familiar names like Sherman Hemsley, Malcolm-Jamal Warner and Robin Givens. One, UPN's Homeboys in Outer Space, is a must-see for the high-concept title alone. Some are refugees from the Big Four: Moesha, an urban sitcom starring teen singer Brandy Norwood, was developed for CBS, but after the network passed, UPN put it on the air in January and saw it blossom into a moderate hit.

The newer, scrappier networks say their programming is a natural result of their efforts to establish themselves. Building a distribution system is a key challenge for start-up networks, and it begins by serving stations in the top 50 cities, which, as urban centers, are characteristically more ethnic than the rest of the country. Minority shows can also appeal to demographically desirable younger audiences. According to this year's Special Report: Black Television Viewing, an annual production of the BBDO ad agency, younger viewers are more willing to cross racial boundaries. Of the 20 most popular shows for black households and for white ones last fall, only two appeared on both lists--Monday Night Football and ER. But blacks and whites ages 18 to 24 have six shows in common on their respective Top 20 lists. The smaller networks hope ethnic shows will hook young blacks and whites--and eventually their families too. Says Garth Ancier, programming chief for the WB: "The networks have largely abandoned the family audience at 8 p.m. Our formula is to reach families who watch TV together."

Yet another factor in the rise of black shows on the WB and UPN is the competition for on-camera talent. "If I'm looking for a white leading man from 30 to 35 years old, I'm fifth in the food chain," says Michael Sullivan, UPN's president of entertainment, referring to his network competition. "But there is an underutilized pool of younger black actors."

The big networks argue that it is their very size that prevents them from catering to niche audiences. Says Janice Gretemeyer, vice president of media relations for ABC: "We can't afford to program for one segment, whether age-based or race-based. As a broadcast network, we must develop programs that appeal to the largest segment of viewers in the country. We want to bring in viewers from every age, gender, religious and ethnic group." But critics charge that networks are shying away from minority shows not because of economics but in spite of it. Says Lisa Navarrete, spokeswoman for the National Council of La Raza: "Minorities, particularly Hispanics, watch more TV than other people do, and Latinos are a $200 billion annual market and growing. There is money to be made by being responsive to this community."

So why would network suits turn down good money if in fact there is money to be made in ethnic programming? One answer: success is relative. Says NBC's Ohlmeyer: "Moesha might be a big hit for UPN, but we can't live on a five share." Another possible answer: network-TV programmers, who are mostly white, are out of touch with minority communities. "It's not a conspiracy of exclusion," says Brett King, director of current programming for Twentieth Century Fox Television and an African American. "But nobody wants to bring up the issue of race, which is still an incredible tinderbox. We suffer from the politics of disinterest and denial." TV shows that do deal with race are often self-conscious and clumsy. One of the first jokes on the interracial sitcom Buddies, a short-lived ABC show, involved a white mother-in-law mistaking a black man for a prowler; when Grace Under Fire added a black couple to the cast recently, one of the first jokes was--yes--a white mother-in-law mistaking one of the new neighbors for a prowler.

And while UPN and the WB are showing an interest in ethnic programming now, some wonder whether the interest will last much longer than a commercial break. "Just as Fox was edgy when it started, these smaller networks are creating a name brand for themselves," says King. "It's a way to build a network. Unfortunately, once that reputation has been built and the network has been established, it is a safe bet that edgy black shows will give way to more mainstream programming."

--Reported by Sylvester Monroe and Jacqueline Savaiano/Los Angeles and William Tynan/New York

With reporting by SYLVESTER MONROE AND JACQUELINE SAVAIANO/LOS ANGELES AND WILLIAM TYNAN/NEW YORK