Hewitt plans PBS show, NPR courts Koppel

Originally published in Current, May 31, 2005
By Mike Janssen

Several network-news vets have announced departures from longtime gigs in recent months, and pubcasters are angling to welcome two of them: Don Hewitt and Ted Koppel.

When Koppel announced in March his plans to leave ABC’s Nightline by the end of the year, NPR was first in line to talk with the longtime host and correspondent. Hewitt’s plans are more concrete. In fall 2006 PBS will air Don Hewitt Presents, a series of documentary digests curated by the mastermind behind 60 Minutes.

Hewitt created and launched 60 Minutes, television’s top-rated newsmagazine, in 1968 and served as its executive producer until June 2004, when — not wholly willingly, according to media reports — he stepped down to become a roving e.p. for CBS News.

About two months ago, Hewitt and Harry Moses, his longtime collaborator at CBS, approached South Carolina ETV about producing for pubTV. Moses had a longtime working relationship with Polly Kosko, SCETV’s v.p. of national programming. Hewitt has never collaborated with PBS but was the subject of an American Masters profile [PBS website].

Conceived as six hourlong episodes to start, the show they’re working up sounds much like 60 Minutes, with several short-form stories in each installment. But John Wilson, PBS’s senior v.p. ofprogramming, emphasizes that it will focus more on human-interest stories and less on the public affairs that is 60 Minutes’ trademark fare.

“We don’t want to add more public affairs per se to the primetime schedule,” Wilson says, “but we’re always open to good storytelling and human drama.... If anyone can deliver a good story and characters in the real world, it’s Don Hewitt.”

“His genius is he knows how to tell a story,” says SCETV’s Kosko. (Hewitt declined to comment on the new show, deferring to PBS.)

Earlier this month Hewitt, Moses, Kosko and Wilson met at PBS to view a half-hour mockup of Don Hewitt Presents that featured pared-down versions of documentaries to which Hewitt already owned rights. Stories dealt with Italian conductor Riccardo Muti at war with the tastes of his audience, a survivor of a World War II death march recounting her experiences, and two foster children who were reunited after many years apart.

Kosko expects the show to rely mostly on freelance contributions from established documentarians, young up-and-comers and those working in digital media. “There’s a great opportunity for affiliates to work with us on this, as well as independent producers,” she adds.

Kosko and the show’s producers are developing a budget and funding plan, with plans to finance the show without help from PBS.

Neither Ted Koppel nor NPR has announced specific plans for a project, but early signs are promising. Jay Kernis, NPR’s senior v.p. of programming, believes he was the first to call Koppel after the newsman announced March 31 that he would leave Nightline and ABC News by the end of the year. [His last show will be Nov. 22, 2005. As of early November, a spokesperson for NPR said the network was not expecting Koppel to make a decision until after leaving ABC.]

Koppel, host of Nightline for 25 years, told reporters he was unwilling to stick with the new format ABC is planning: a live show five nights a week, expanded from its current half-hour to an hour.

Kernis first courted Koppel in 2002, when ABC unsuccessfully attempted to replace Nightline with David Letterman’s talk show. In April, Kernis and Koppel talked by phone, and Kernis asked for the newsman to come on board in whatever way he felt comfortable. Koppel said he was “very interested,” Kernis says, and the two expect to talk again in a few months.

Tom Bettag, Koppel’s longtime producer and a producer of pubTV’s departed Life 360, told the Washington Post he and Koppel were planning an “aggressive” proposal for a new venture.

PBS’s Wilson says he believes network President Pat Mitchell has also talked with Koppel.