LOS ANGELES — The start of a new television season is akin to a meteor shower.
Shows come flying out of nowhere, lighting up the sky
and screaming for attention. Most crash to earth or simply
disintegrate, causing mass confusion among viewers, many of whom flee
for more stable ground.
Traditionally, dinosaurs haven’t fared well with
meteors. But Fox is betting that “Terra Nova,” its highly anticipated
new program about a family that travels from the year 2149 to
prehistoric times as part of a group trying to save the planet, can
survive the craziness that is the fall television season.
The show, which counts Steven Spielberg and former
News Corp. President Peter Chernin as executive producers, is scheduled
for a two-hour premiere Monday, Sept. 26, right in the thick of the
opening of the new season. The following week it’s slated to settle into
its hourlong time slot beginning at 8 p.m. EDT and will serve as a
lead-in to the medical drama “House.”
Given that it has been delayed twice and is shaping
up to be very expensive — it shoots in Australia, is loaded with special
effects and the first episode alone cost more than $15 million — it is
an understatement to say Fox has a lot riding on “Terra Nova.”
“This is definitely one of our highest priorities for the fall,” acknowledged Joe Earley, the network’s president of marketing.
While hoping to attract the sci-fi crowd and young
males, Fox is really gambling that “Terra Nova” can be that rarest of
television shows: a broad-based hit that families will watch together.
Internally, the show has been dubbed “Little House on the Prairie With
Dinosaurs.”
Fox doesn’t even like it referred to as a
science-fiction show, preferring instead to call it an “epic family
drama.” Family shows are increasingly rare on television as audiences
have become progressively more fragmented in the digital age.
“If we can get people to buy into this family, then
we have a shot,” said Preston Beckman, Fox’s head of scheduling. “If
it’s dinosaur of the week, we’ll never have a shot.”
Because the casualty rate for new shows is so high,
networks often try to protect ambitious projects until after the smoke
has cleared and the early fatalities of the season have been carted off.
Fox, however, is eschewing a safe approach, marching right into the
thick of battle — a bold move that warns other networks to get out of
the way.
“We don’t close our eyes and roll the dice,” said
Beckman when asked whether it might be better to delay the launch of
“Terra Nova.” “We think we’re doing it the right way.”
Beckman wouldn’t say what kind of audience “Terra
Nova” needs for Fox to consider it a success, but he predicted that “a
good 40 percent will watch on some sort of delayed basis.”
Fox will use a double-header of NFL football on Sept.
25 (assuming the lockout has been resolved) and the premiere of its
Sunday-night animated lineup to hype “Terra Nova’s” first episode.
Fox is trying to build excitement about the show
without giving too much away. It has screened the first hour for a
handful of critics but won’t release pictures from the show that include
the dinosaurs yet. “Terra Nova” will be screened at Comic-Con, the
fanboy convention that is often used by networks and movie producers to
generate buzz for new shows and films.
Besides the road trip to Comic-Con and constant
commercials for “Terra Nova” on the network, Fox is also targeting
families and kids by promoting the show in museums, zoos and theme parks
across the country. Trailers for the show have appeared at screenings
of “X-Men: First Class” and “Super 8” and will also be screened before
the next “Harry Potter” movie this summer. There will also be an
onslaught of ads during Fox’s coverage of baseball’s All-Star game this
month.
“We can sell dinosaurs to one audience, time travel to another and a family drama to another,” Earley said.
One challenge for Earley and Fox is the actual use of dinosaur images in promotional materials versus what will be on the show.
“The T. rex we all know and grew up with may not be correct. … We don’t want to market with the wrong dinosaurs,” Earley said.
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