Buzz, buzz, who’s got the buzz?
Believe it or not, it’s UPN, the 98-pound weakling of network television.
Well, weak no more. Fresh off the success of Tyra Banks’ “Next Top Model” last season, UPN heads into fall almost giddy about its prospects for doing an extreme quality makeover on itself.
“UPN is emerging as a real player on the back of quality content,” boasted Les Moonves, the Viacom bossman who oversees the company’s TV networks, CBS and UPN. “Good content finds [viewers] and makes money.”
Moonves, who spoke to reporters at the recent TV critics press tour along with UPN Entertainment chief Dawn Ostroff, isn’t just blowing smoke.
With the appealing, smart and offbeat new dramas “Kevin Hill” and “Veronica Mars,” UPN owns what ad buyers and critics are calling two of the very best new shows of the fall season.
“Kevin Hill” stars handsome, talented Taye Diggs (“Chicago”) in a hip, heartwarming drama about a hot-shot bachelor attorney who finds himself trying to raise his late cousin’s baby daughter. The cast is one of TV’s most diverse, featuring black, white, Hispanic and gay characters.
“Veronica Mars,” starring Kristen Bell (“Deadwood”), is a stylish, captivating tale of a fearless 17-year-old high school student in a California beach community who works as an apprentice private investigator for her father. It’s sort of Nancy Drew meets “The O.C.”
For much of the first decade of its low-rated, struggling life, UPN aimed for young male viewers with everything from awful sitcoms like “Homeboys in Outer Space” to the lowbrow pro wrestling high jinks of “WWE Smackdown!” The latter is still a success for UPN, though it may not last much longer as the network changes its viewership focus.
“Our target audience is 18- to 34-year-olds. We’re focusing on women,” Ostroff said. “That’s where we want to be No. 1.”
“America’s Top Model” was a surprise hit and brought many white female viewers to UPN, which had previously appealed largely to African-Americans. Now–with momentum from “Top Model” and the buzz from its new shows–UPN is aiming to become a truly multicultural network attractive to everyone.
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Edited by Cara DiPasquale (cdipasquale@tribune.com) and Kris Karnopp (kkarnopp@tribune.com)
