Down To The Wire For `Seattle Today'

For "Seattle Today," it's crunch time.

A new spot on the schedule and a revamped roster of hosts may amount to the last chance for Seattle's only local morning TV talk show to avert cancellation.

"We'd sure like to find a way to keep it going," said KING-TV program director Craig Smith. "But it's got two strikes on it."

For the past year and beyond, "Seattle Today" has failed to plug a hole leaking viewers and advertisers. The show is losing about $250,000 a year, Smith said.

Next Thursday signals the start of another ratings "sweep," when viewership figures help local stations set their advertising rates. Smith called the monthlong period "critical" to the show's survival.

On Monday, "Seattle Today" will abandon its 9 a.m. time period, move to 10 a.m. and say goodbye to co-host Colby Chester. An actor best-known for his roles on a soap opera and in Ford commercials, Chester departs after less than seven months as co-host.

Since premiering in its current time slot in 1974, "Seattle Today" has also been called "Northwest Today" and "Good Company." Time brought other, more important, changes.

The success of "Donahue" bred a slew of slick nationally syndicated talk shows in the 1980s, squeezing out home-grown chat programs in many cities.

The move to 10 a.m. takes "Seattle Today" out of the steamroller path of "Live with Regis & Kathie Lee" on Channel 4 and "Geraldo" on Channel 7.

In the February sweeps, "Seattle Today" was the least popular of the shows. On average it attracted fewer than half as many viewers as the most-watched, "Regis."

"To be the third talker in a time period splits the audience that much further," said Smith.

KING-TV will shift Graham Kerr's cooking show and NBC's "Trialwatch" to the slot formerly filled by "Seattle Today"; it will now go head-to-head with "The Price is Right" on KIRO-TV and "The Home Show," an ABC talk show on KOMO-TV.

Other schedule changes seem likely to shuffle Channel 5's daytime lineup even further in the next six months.

Next fall, NBC plans to free an additional hour during daytime for affiliates to program. Already bought by KING and waiting in the wings: a new syndicated show hosted by Maury Povich.

Yesterday's announcement punctuated months of turbulence at "Seattle Today."

The show underwent a major facelift last fall. New senior producer Anne Boa hired Chester and Pat Finley to join Cliff Lenz as co-hosts. Boa also redid the show's set, its opening and its theme music. After Boa left in April, Lenz took over her job; "Seattle Today" kept fiddling with content and the roles of its three hosts.

KING pulled Chester because three hosts were too "cumbersome," Smith said.