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On my Viewers Voice show in January, my co-host, Deb Schroeder and I did a phone interview from Santa Moncia, California, from the set of 7th Heaven, with Stephen Collins, who plays Rev. Camden on the show. Since 7th Heaven aired in 1996 Mr. Collins has been a real friend of Viewers Voice and I personally have found him to be one of the sweetest and most sincere men in the entertainment industry. The interview was done before there was any hint of The WB and UPN becoming the new CW Network. I thought you might be interested in what Mr. Collins had to say about the cancellation of 7th Heaven.
Sharon: Mr. Collins I wanted to discuss with you about the cancellation of 7th Heaven and kind of get your feelings on this situation. I’ve talked to a couple production people from the show and they were surprised by the cancellation to say the least, since 7th Heaven is still doing so well in the ratings for The WB.
Stephen: It continues to be a little bit of a mystery to just about everyone. Certainly there was something odd about the timing. I think there’s a sense right now actually at the network that they may have jumped the gun and a feeling that they would like if they possibly can, to bring the show back. I don’t know that’s going to be possible because they want to do it for a wildly low figure. They’ve spun a lot about how the show has become very expensive, but in fact 7th Heaven cost less to produce this season than it cost last season and last season it cost less than the year before. So I think The WB is the victim of a kind of overall slump which is resulting in less add revenue. I don’t quite understand how they spend the numbers, but everybody spends numbers differently, but I sort of sense that the decision not to go on with the show was made in maybe a little bit of a peak between a couple of the parties. I know they never really got involved in a serious negotiation. The talks which you might have expected to go through say five or six layers didn’t get to the first layer before someone threw there arms up and said oh there’s no way we’re going to continue this thing. So something’s odd and hopefully maybe there’s a chance that can be addressed and people with cooler heads can sort of sit back and say how would we do this if we really wanted to do it.
Deb: I know in the past good shows have been dumped by other networks when a new executive comes along on the network and we heard it’s kind of an ego thing where they don’t want somebody else’s success they want to build their own successes. Do you think that could be a play at all?
Stephen: Well it could possibly, I don’t know. It’s certainly possible that David Janollari, you know, like a lot of people before him wants to put his own stamp on the network. There’s a couple of complicating factors and one of the other ones is and it’s a real oddity in to days show business world, it wasn’t so odd when we started ten years ago, but 7th Heaven airs on The WB Network which is own by Time Warner, but is produced by Spelling Television which is owned by Paramount. So you have this odd situation where The WB does not own what’s called the back end of the show. They don’t own all the subsidiary rights, they don’t own the syndication rights, Paramount owns that stat. So our show unlike Everwood, or Smallville, or One Tree Hill, all which are owned by Time Warner, our show has to make its money for the network up front. The network has to make more money in add revenue than it pays to make the show. So that’s a complicated thing which ten years ago when 7th Heaven started was a non issue because the networks could not then own the shows that they aired, it’s a relatively new thing. Now they all want to own the shows that they air because they want to keep the money in house. Which makes sense given the way the law has changed, but when 7th Heaven began most shows on television were produced by third parties for a network. Now most shows are produced by a subsidiary of the network for the network. So we’re kind of in a grey, we’re in more than a grey area then we’re actually owned by a competitor of Time Warner and aired on a network owned by Time Warner, so it’s tricky. That as much as anything else, I think, could be an obstacle for the show going on. Somewhere along the line someone’s going to have to make a deal to cut Time Warner into some of the profits on the show.
Deb: Yes and so much is made now on rerunning shows
Stephen: Yea, you know and a show like 7th Heaven has already had a considerable life in syndication and it may have one for many years to come, plus it’s very big in Europe. All of those profits go to Paramount, not to Warner Brothers. So you know, I don’t know. In addition to the fact that 7th Heaven is actually cheaper to make this year than it was last year. The other thing that I think maybe The WB is starting to take into consideration is that we’re still either highest rated or second highest rated show. That means we’re a show that they can use to launch other new shows and a network always needs those eyeballs, as they say in the business. It would cost them millions of dollars to create a viewing market for new shows elsewhere. So there’s a real value to the show like 7th Heaven has even if it’s only marginally profitable or actually losing a little bit of money. It depends on how much it’s losing because it cost a network a lot of money to promote and they can use 7th Heaven to promote. So that’s another thing that I think maybe wasn’t taken into consideration when the decision came down. Now they’re sitting there looking at our high ratings and thinking ah gee that’s a lot of people we’re reaching every week. We can use that power of television to advertise our new shows. So we’ll see I don’t know. I do know that they are making more than just passing noises about trying to figure out a way to bring 7th Heaven back, I just don’t know what there game plan will be.
Sharon: One of the shows they were so high on was Unrelated and it flopped, haven’t they already canceled it? I heard they were doing really badly in the ratings.
Stephen: I don’t think they canceled Related yet. It’s not doing well, but on the other hand it is growing ever so slightly. So I think Related has a chance, a good chance to come back. I actually think it’s a pretty good show.
Sharon: Yes it is, it’s not a bad show, but when has that made a difference to the network?
Stephen: The WB’s not having a great year and they didn’t have a great year last year so you know I can understand how at a certain point you want to wipe the slate clean and have new shows. No sooner did they announce that this was going to be the last season for 7th Heaven then the last three weeks of came up and we were again their highest rated show and they were shaking their heads and saying mmm maybe we jumped the gun. I wish I knew. I wish I had a crystal ball. When you hear these stories, which we hear a lot about how expensive the show is and that actors are making so much money. I can only tell you that we’re making a bout 20% what people would be making if the show were on NBC or CBS. We’re not a wildly expensive show. I find it virtually impossible to believe that Smallville doesn’t cost more to make per episode than 7th Heaven. Although it’s shot in Canada so it might be slightly less inexpensive on the production side but with all the special effects and constant action sequences, none of which we have on 7th Heaven, if there’s a difference in the cost it’s minimal. We still have six plus episodes to shoot which is another forty-five days or so of shooting, so we got a lot of work left to do. It’s really not a question of being optimistic I’d love the show to go on if it can. I don’t think it’s realistic to expect a show to cost what a first year show cost and I think given the number of viewers we delivered in the audience that I can’t imagine that they would expect that. We’ll see what they come up with if indeed they come up with anything, otherwise we may just be in the in game.
Sharon: We do have our members writing letters.
Stephen: Which is great and I’m sure not lost on them. I think one of the things that network executives really respond to is genuine mail. When someone bothers to put a stamp on a letter and send it in I think those really count in a big way. Plus Viewers Voice over the years has established itself as a serious watcher of TV and viewer of the scene. I think you may have more of a voice than you even know. It’s a pleasure talking to you and I appreciate all your support. Viewers Voice has been so great to 7th Heaven and to me and I just want to thank you all personally for your interest and support.
Mr. Collins is very kind and maybe Viewers Voice may have more of a voice than we know but the bottom line is that money speaks louder than our voices. I know the networks read our letters and it’s more important to write a personal letter than to work with campaigns on the internet. If there is even a hint of hope of saving a show with letters then it’s worth our time. I know the networks do appreciate our input. So until my next column let your voice be heard. |
In a
previous article I had told you that The WB canceled 7th Heaven
after ten years on the air and still one of their top watched shows.
Viewers Voice still held out hope that maybe with UPN and The WB becoming the
new CW Network in September that maybe they would re-consider canceling this
excellent family show that was so loved by so many viewers. Dawn Ostroff,
currently President of UPN, will become President of Entertainment and feels the
show has run its course. So May 8 we have to say goodbye to 7th
Heaven, the longest running family drama in television history.