UPN tries another remake

NEW YORK -- UPN and its weblet rival, the WB, have competed on generally equal footing among viewers since both started broadcasting in 1995. But the WB has what UPN has always lacked: an identity.

With the help of Will Smith, Eve and two dimwitted guys with mullet haircuts, UPN will try to change that this fall.

It may be the network's last chance.

What has made the WB the more successful startup of the two is a unified program lineup more consistent with a cable network than a broadcaster. Not every WB show is designed specifically for teenage girls, but that target group won't find anything repellent.

UPN's three most successful franchises couldn't seem more dissimilar: "Enterprise" for the "Star Trek" fanatics, WWE wrestling's "Smackdown!" and a Monday lineup of comedies with largely black casts.

UPN's new president, Dawn Ostroff, is trying to create an image for the network while enhancing, not abandoning, its few strengths.

If UPN is ever going to make it, now would seem the time. CBS' management, including Leslie Moonves, arguably the industry's leading executive, has been in charge for a year now.

There's a sense the adults are in charge now, and UPN's presentation of its fall schedule to advertisers this spring was its most impressive in memory. The performance of "America's Top Model" this summer also provided reason for optimism.

Still, with The Wall Street Journal estimating the network has lost more than $1 billion since it started, questions about its viability never go away.

"I know there's been rumors that if they don't turn this around, (Viacom president) Mel Karmazin is going to pull the plug," Adgate said. "They have to rebound. They have to show some kind of identity with viewers -- soon."

The difficulty in going after an 18-to-34-year-old age group is that so many other networks are trying the same thing, including some of UPN's corporate cousins at Viacom, like MTV and Spike.

Ostroff said on any given evening, only one-third of Americans aged 18 to 34 are watching TV.

"It feels to me like it's an age group where there is a lot of growth potential," she said. "They'll come to television when there is something they want to watch. They aren't necessarily the generation that will plant themselves in front of the television every night."

Ostroff left the security of Lifetime for this?

She said she likes being an underdog. Indeed, if she can turn around UPN, she'll turn some heads.

"It's hard to make a network successful, but if it is a success, it will be a very important asset to Viacom," she said.

------

On the Net:

http://www.upn.com/

------

EDITOR'S NOTE -- David Bauder can be reached at dbauder"at"ap.org