PBS in talks to create crisis series for Friday nights Originally published in Current, Oct. 22, 2001 By Karen Everhart Bedford Shifting direction in its response to the terrorism crisis, PBS was developing plans last week for a major new collaborative series to air Friday nights. WETA in Washington, WGBH in Boston, and WNET in New York are talking with PBS about forming a consortium to produce the series in collaboration with NPR and the New York Times. Bill Moyers and Public Affairs Television also have been asked to contribute to the series. PBS and a station-based production executive used the phrase "connect the dots" to describe the show's objective of analyzing the international response to terrorism and what it means for Americans. The show would not be confined to commentary by in-studio talking heads but would include documentary and graphic elements. "CPB and PBS have been able to identify enough funds that we feel confident we'll be able to begin this weekly series and have it on the air for the better part of a year, if not a full year," said John Wilson, co-chief program executive for PBS. "We don't want to start something like this and know that it will run out of gas in 20 weeks." PBS hopes to launch the show as soon as next month, but many details were under discussion at Current's deadline, including the roles of the various consortium partners and who would produce and host the show. "This has got a lot of moving parts, and everyone is trying to figure out their role and how to make it successful," Wilson commented. "At the end of the day, this has to be produced by someone." "The collaboration brings the best talent and resources of public broadcasting together, but it can't be done by a committee," he added. Members of the new producing consortium will have to figure out how to make the collaboration work "operationally and not in name only," said Dalton Delan, executive v.p. for WETA. "How do you do that? Do you have an editorial board? How do you free the executive producer to call upon these resources and not be called by these resources?" More moving parts Already on the table at PBS were various proposals for public affairs series, including a recent plan for a weekly Moyers interviews series and older proposals for a major PBS initiative called Public Square and a WNET series with Moyers with the working title of PBS Worldwide. PBS has received a proposal for Public Square, which was to debut next year, but the network is looking at it — and all future programming — in light of its changing program plans. Meanwhile, the producer that PBS selected to start Public Square, Mike Sullivan, is back at Frontline covering the war for the rest of the year. It's also unclear what will happen with the proposed revival of the Moyers in Conversation interviews that aired during the first weeks of the crisis. Early this month, PBS proposed to continue the series, and Moyers' Public Affairs Television has identified funders for the program. The series is on hold for now. The half-hour interview-based programs drew what Moyers characterized as an "intense response" in letters and calls from viewers. "His conversations during the past week with . . . people from all walks of life have been the only thing to help me wrap my brain around all these events with some sort of context and acknowledgement of our emotions," said a caller in a voice mail message. An audience response summary compiled by Public Affairs Television included feedback from potential funders as well. "I hope PBS will give you a timeslot with predictable frequency because I am sure that, if they do, you can raise the money to keep it going," wrote Eli Evans, president of the Charles Revson Foundation, in a Sept. 26 letter to Moyers. "I predict that these conversations will also be considered a gift to the American people that will pay off for public broadcasting in membership and support for years to come." In a strongly worded letter to station execs early this month, PBS President Pat Mitchell asked them to weigh the mission-related benefits of scheduling the Moyers interviews. PBS proposed to air the program Thursday nights after Frontline. "The connections between in-depth investigative reports that help explain the how, who, where, what, with Moyers turning to the WHY, will provide something uniquely important to our viewers," she wrote. "We stand at a critical intersection, as our country and indeed our world does, and never has it been more important to do the right thing, to put our values front and center," she continued. "I recognize that this means taking some risks with new programming, new kinds of programming perhaps, too, and dedicating more of our schedule to timely, relevant information and perspective. We must do that in a way that also signals . . . that we can respond in a timely manner, that we can put aside territorial interests, that we can work together, and that we can rally around our assets." Moyers also wrote to general managers to say that he stood ready to launch the new production "if they can find the air time," he recalled in an interview with Current. Moyers has since resumed work on seven hours of documentaries that his company will deliver to PBS for broadcast next winter and spring. "NAFTA's Powerful Little Secret," produced by Sherry Jones, will air in January, and a four-hour series on the Hudson River is set for spring broadcast. Two additional one-hour documentary reports by Moyers, "Global Report Card" (working title) and "Kids and the Environment," will highlight a special month of environmental programming that PBS plans for April. In the fall, Public Affairs Television will deliver the series Becoming American: The Chinese Experience. Both Moyers' interview series and his contributions to the Friday night show are possibilities for PBS's near-term schedule, according to Wilson. Having "either one would be terrific." But he acknowledged that PBS has to determine whether stations could accommodate two new weekly primetime series. "What we have to figure out collectively is how much programming we can bring to the schedule, and, if the appetite [for new programs] is there, is the plate big enough for it all?" WNET's earlier proposal PBS also enthusiastically entertained a WNET proposal with the working title PBS Worldwide, according to Wilson. The series, hosted by Moyers, would present "timely, topical international" one-hour documentaries that will be "about the rest of the world on its own terms — the way the rest of the world sees itself and the way it sees us," said Stephen Segaller, executive producer. WNET would commission, coproduce and acquire films to deliver a 10-week series. "Somewhere in the program there will be a reasonably substantive eight- to ten-minute interview in which Bill talks with someone who connects the dots — why does this program matter to us," Segaller said. Segaller has been discussing PBS Worldwide with PBS executives since summer, but after Sept. 11 "it became all the more obvious why we should be doing it," he said. "As of today, I'm optimistic that this will become part of the forthcoming public affairs menu of PBS, but we await a definite decision." PBS and CPB agreed early on with WNET production execs that PBS would "fill a void in American television" with a series devoted to international reporting, Wilson said. "Now this seems even more justified," he said. WNET is seeking support from the PBS/CPB Challenge Fund. Unlike the quarterly World programs that PBS recently commissioned from Frontline, WNET's international series would examine a "single topic per hour in full-length documentaries," Segaller explained. In its hour-long quarterly World specials Frontline proposed to present shorter documentary segments on a single theme. As originally proposed, the programs were to deal with issues related to globalization, but executive producer David Fanning now also plans to address issues related to the "exercise of American power abroad and where the points of friction are."

‘What we have to figure out collectively is how much programming we can bring to the schedule, and, if the appetite [for new programs] is there, is the plate big enough for it all?’ Wilson asked.

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