CBS chief faces nation's critics

PASADENA, Calif. — Like all network executives, CBS Entertainment president Nina Tassler was briefed and prepped before she faced the nation's television critics. And then she was bombarded with an issue she couldn't possibly have seen coming.

Over and over and over again, Tassler was hit with queries about serialized dramas in prime-time television . . . even though her network has fewer of them than any other. Hey, this is the network with all the closed-ended crime dramas.

Which may explain why she didn't quite get it when she tried to address the concerns critics expressed — concerns that have been expressed to us by readers. Basically, TV fans tell us they're somewhat reluctant to commit to a serialized show when they're not sure the show will survive long enough to give them a payoff before getting canceled.

When asked about CBS's forthcoming series "Jericho" — about a small town where they've survived what seems to be a nuclear war — Tassler's initial, facile answer was, "Well, hopefully the show will get to the end of the season."

That's very nice, but, again, it doesn't always happen. Last season alone, "Reunion," "Surface," "Threshold," "Invasion" and "Heist" got things rolling and then were suddenly cut off, leaving viewers hanging.

And yet Tassler saw no problem with that.

"Those shows, they were valiant attempts, but they were not successful," she said. "If the show is successful, it will continue to run, and people will continue to watch. I don't think you'll have those kinds of questions if you're successful."

And she rejected, out of hand, the idea that viewers would be reluctant to watch a new serial because they'd been burned by the cancellation of other shows in that genre.

"I don't think audiences approach their programming that way," Tassler insisted. "If they're invested and they continue to watch, the show will do well. . . . I think it's purely about the quality of the programming. And if they like it and the show is good, they'll continue to watch."

She not only rejected the idea that audiences could feel burned, she rejected the question itself. "I'm saying that I don't think the average audience sits at home and says, 'Gee, this is a closed-ended episode. I'll watch this,' versus, 'Oh, this is a serialized show. I'm going to watch that.' It doesn't happen that way.

"You watch a program because it's good, you're invested, and you like it. That's it."