SoulManX
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http://www.usatoday.com/life/television/news/2009-03-31-network-squeeze_N.htm
CBS wanted Candice Bergen to star in its potential new comedy Big D, one of several pilots being considered for next fall's lineup. She'd play a difficult mother who makes like complicated for her son and his wife, new East Coast transplants to Dallas.
An early meeting was promising. Bergen is a bankable TV star, a five-time Emmy winner for the network's own Murphy Brown and, more recently, a feisty fixture of ABC's Boston Legal.
But when it came time to negotiate her salary, the two sides were worlds apart. In past years, the network and its studio supplier would have coughed up the dough to make the deal happen, and Bergen's mere presence would increase the odds that Big D would secure a spot on CBS' schedule.
Instead, CBS passed, the network confirmed. It instead cast Deanna Dunagan, a well-regarded but largely unknown Broadway actress, for a fraction of Bergen's asking price.
That's the math in the new Hollywood, where a combination of declining network ratings, sharply lower ad revenue and escalating production costs have forced cutbacks. The new austerity is being felt most keenly during the spring "development season," when networks groom a new crop of shows they'll consider for fall lineups.
CBS wanted Candice Bergen to star in its potential new comedy Big D, one of several pilots being considered for next fall's lineup. She'd play a difficult mother who makes like complicated for her son and his wife, new East Coast transplants to Dallas.
An early meeting was promising. Bergen is a bankable TV star, a five-time Emmy winner for the network's own Murphy Brown and, more recently, a feisty fixture of ABC's Boston Legal.
But when it came time to negotiate her salary, the two sides were worlds apart. In past years, the network and its studio supplier would have coughed up the dough to make the deal happen, and Bergen's mere presence would increase the odds that Big D would secure a spot on CBS' schedule.
Instead, CBS passed, the network confirmed. It instead cast Deanna Dunagan, a well-regarded but largely unknown Broadway actress, for a fraction of Bergen's asking price.
That's the math in the new Hollywood, where a combination of declining network ratings, sharply lower ad revenue and escalating production costs have forced cutbacks. The new austerity is being felt most keenly during the spring "development season," when networks groom a new crop of shows they'll consider for fall lineups.
