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1 article from 2005

18 January 2005 | From Studio Briefing | See recent Studio Briefing news

The chief executive of the Fox network admitted Monday that the network had "drifted too much" toward reality shows this season and said she doubted that American Idol would improve the network's situation. In fact, she said, she expected ratings for the talent contest to decline. "We can expect to see audience dispersion and some declines. I think that is only natural," she told critics at their annual winter tour in Los Angeles. Idol's fourth season launches tonight (Tuesday). Berman refused to accept the verdict that her plan to launch new shows during the summer months was a failure, suggesting that the reason why the shows that launched last June tanked had more to do with the audience's reaction to the content than to the timing. "There's no question that the audience, in our mind, is ready, willing and able to accept new programming in the summer," she told the television critics. This year, however, some of the new shows will debut in May rather than in June, she said, including the new animated American Dad from Seth MacFarlane, who created Family Guy. (The new series revolves around a CIA agent and his family "trying to find a way to love and trust each other during these increasingly stressful times.") Berman also told the writers that Fox had recently blurred out the naked butt of a character on a rerun of Family Guy because it was worried that it might generate complaints to the FCC. Given the current political climate, she indicated, "We have to be checking and second-guessing ourselves now." The same episode had aired uncensored five years ago on Fox.

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1 article from 2005