Saunders: Death, controversy caught television's lens

Published December 24, 2005 at midnight

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It's a sign of our violent times when a look back at the 2005 broadcasting year concentrates on death.

Television, particularly cable, continued to concentrate on the bloody war in Iraq.

But even that controversial conflict was relegated to secondary status in August when Hurricane Katrina ravaged New Orleans and other southeastern gulf areas.

The death of Pope John Paul in April, while not unexpected, produced several days of ongoing coverage.

Death also was the major headline in stories about two notable personalities - Johnny Carson, 79, who died of complications from emphysema in January, and ABC News anchor Peter Jennings, who succumbed to lung cancer in August.

Jennings' death headlined a year of changes at the network anchor desks, with CBS News' Dan Rather departing in March and Ted Koppel leaving ABC News' Nightline after 25 years in November.

In the entertainment arena, NBC, for the first time in 20 years, finished fourth behind CBS, ABC and Fox in key audience ratings.

CBS became the most- watched network, based, to a major degree, on the popularity of cadaver-cutting CSI-type series.

ABC bounced out of the doldrums with the continuing popularity of major hits Lost, Desperate Housewives and Grey's Anatomy.

When American Idol was aired, the Fox talent show was the most-watched program on all the networks.

Reality programming chugged along without a major new hit. Survivor remained the most popular of the genre.

The year brought the end of two long-running series, ABC's NYPD Blue (12 seasons) and CBS' Everybody Loves Raymond (nine).

HBO again dominated the Emmy awards (27), with films like Warm Springs, The Life and Death Peter Sellers and Lackawanna Blues producing statues to go along with strong audience support.

On basic cable, FX became the most-talked-about network with push-the-envelope drama series The Shield, Rescue Me, Nip/ Tuck and Over There.

The major news on the crowded sports scene was the decision to move Monday Night Football, an ABC staple since 1970, to ESPN, starting next September.

NBC, out of the NFL picture for eight seasons, will produce Sunday Night Football, beginning in the fall.

Behind the scenes, the "family values" debate, started in early 2004 with the Janet Jackson fiasco during the Super Bowl, continued with various groups pushing for more federal policing of TV content.

Among the numerous proposals: an a la carte cable-TV schedule for households not wanting violent or sexually-oriented programming.

Radio made national headlines this year with Howard Stern's decision to leave the nationwide Infinity network and join Sirius, the fast-growing satellite service, beginning next month.

This will not have a local impact since Stern has not been heard on Denver radio since 1999, after his controversial remarks about the Columbine school shootings.

Locally, Roger Ogden, the successful president of 9News, moved on to run Gannett Broadcasting's nationwide TV operation.

One of his first major moves: Gannett's purchase of KTVD- Channel 20 (subject to government approval) from the Chicago owner. The sale will give Denver its first duopoly TV ownership.

Larry Green, CBS 4 News' longtime weatherman and program host, announced he'd retire next spring.

Two longtime KOA-AM (850) personalities moved to television.

Scott Hastings joined Altitude Sports & Entertainment while Steve Kelley became a morning news anchor on Fox31.

9News again led its rivals in audience news ratings and in HDTV programming.

The only major local news anchor change occurred at WB2 when Asha Blake, who has had wide experience on the national level, became co-anchor of the 9 p.m. weeknight show. The major story in local radio was the growing popularity of Spanish-speaking stations, particularly KBNO- AM (1280) and KXPK-FM (96.5).

There was little change in local Arbitron audience ratings leadership, with KYGO-FM (98.5), KOA, KQKS-FM (107.5), KOSI-FM (101.1), KBCO-FM (97.3) and KXKL-FM (105.1) leading the pack.

KKZN-AM (760), an affiliate of the liberal-leaning Air America network, found an audience foothold while adding a local personality, Jay Marvin.

Bill O'Reilly lost his Denver radio voice on KHOW-AM (630) because of low audience ratings and was replaced by another syndicated talk host, Glenn Beck.

Anchors away

Who's the "dean" of network news anchors? Brian Williams of the NBC Nightly News, who holds that distinction after having the job slightly more than a year. After two decades of stability, network news underwent major changes in 2005.

• CBS' Dan Rather, under heavy criticism for a 60 Minutes II report about President Bush's national guard service during the Vietnam War, was replaced in March after 24 years. His temporary replacement: Bob Schieffer. A rumored full-time replacement: Today's Katie Couric.

• ABC's Peter Jennings, a victim of lung cancer in August, will be replaced in early January by the weeknight duo of Elizabeth Vargas and Bob Woodruff.

• ABC's Ted Koppel signed off on Nightline in November after 25 years as the main anchor of the late-night news half-hour. His future: Probably as a news documentary anchor with HBO. His replacements: the trio of Cynthia McFadden, Terry Moran and Martin Bashir.

• NBC's Williams replaced Tom Brokaw in December 2004.

Dusty Saunders is the broadcasting critic. Saunders@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-892-5137

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