NEW YORK – As the battle for celebrity interviews intensifies, NBC and ABC’s news divisions are turning to entertainment news programs for help landing stars.
That was why “Access Hollywood” correspondent Pat O’Brien was asking the questions when Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez cooed about their relationship on “Dateline NBC.”
Concerned about NBC News’ relationship with the NBC-owned “Access Hollywood,” ABC News quickly moved to reach an agreement to share celebrity chats with another syndicated program, “Entertainment Tonight.”
“It was important just to level the competitive playing field,” ABC News spokesman Jeffrey Schneider said. “If there was even a perception that the “Access Hollywood’ and NBC deal gave them an advantage, we needed to counter that.”
ABC’s success may have gotten this whole game started in the first place.
In Barbara Walters and Diane Sawyer, ABC News has two legendarily successful seekers of celebrity “gets.” Over the past year, prime-time chats with stars such as Whitney Houston and Sharon Osbourne did unexpectedly well in the ratings.
NBC, which is positioning Katie Couric to be its in-house Barbara Walters, has aggressively sought to get into the game.
The competition increases the leverage of the big stars.
“The celebrities who are “big gets,’ who know that everyone is after them, want the most they can get from their interviews,” said Andrew Tyndall, a news consultant and president of ADT Research. “They want to be everywhere on the week of the release of their big movie.”
Increasingly, a big interview receives exposure on morning shows as well as prime time.
“Access Hollywood” and “Entertainment Tonight” are additional bargaining chips; networks can also entice the stars with airtime during the period between the evening news and prime time.
“It’s easier for them,” said Rob Silverstein, executive producer of “Access Hollywood.” “They don’t have to do hair and makeup three separate times. It’s a simpler way of doing business.”
Owned by the same company, it was easy for “Access Hollywood” and NBC News to work together. O’Brien and David Corvo, executive producer of “Dateline NBC,” are old friends and colleagues.
With O’Brien, NBC gets another reporter with extensive contacts with stars and publicists. His exclusive interview with Eminem was also played on NBC News programs.
The arrangement paid off for the Affleck and Lopez interview, which was among Nielsen Media Research’s top 10 programs two weeks ago.
There’s nothing particularly new about networks blurring the line between news and entertainment. But the assignment of O’Brien to a full hour under the NBC News banner drew implicit, if not explicit, criticism from rivals.
ABC News has said that its correspondents, not anyone from “Entertainment Tonight,” would conduct their celebrity interviews. “Obviously, we have a different approach than NBC,” Schneider said.
CBS President Leslie Moonves last week brought up the O’Brien interview in trying to deflect his network’s own controversy over booking practices. CBS News drew criticism last month for seeking an interview with former prisoner of war Jessica Lynch by raising the possibility of TV movies, books or other entertainment options through its sister companies.
“It was Pat O’Brien from “Access Hollywood’ doing … the J.Lo and Ben Affleck interview,” Moonves said. “I had no problem with it, but they were calling it a “Dateline.”
Corvo said O’Brien’s interview met all NBC News standards.
Tyndall independently stood up for O’Brien, too.
“I see no evidence that the J.Lo and Ben Affleck interview was handled any differently than if a network news division reporter had done it,” Tyndall said.
ABC’s stance that no one from “Entertainment Tonight” would do its celebrity interviews angers Silverstein.
“That stuff about “we have different standards’ is an insult to Pat,” he said. “We don’t say anything when we see some of the morning shows do cooking segments, and they’re journalists.”
ABC made the deal with “Entertainment Tonight” even though the syndicated program is owned by Viacom, which also owns CBS News.
CBS hasn’t made similar arrangements for a couple reasons. Its executives privately aren’t convinced a deal with an entertainment show is much of an advantage for one thing. And CBS is less of a player in the celebrity interview game; they’re a poor fit for the network’s newsmagazines and its low-rated morning show, “The Early Show,” has little booking juice.
Still smarting from the Lynch controversy, the network may also be stepping lightly.
“The whole booking process is one that I think – as they used to say in my pompous college – cries out for analysis,” CBS News President Andrew Heyward said. “To go from the relationship of kind of seducer to journalist is difficult.”
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On the Net:
https://abcnews.go.com/
http://www.msnbc.com/
http://entertainment.msn.com/accesshollywood/
http://www.etonline.com/
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EDITOR’S NOTE – David Bauder can be reached at dbauder”at”ap.org
AP-ES-07-28-03 1344EDT
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