TV Newsrooms Will Be Watching `Wiou' Closely

When CBS announced plans to air a one-hour dramatic series about a struggling broadcast news station, CBS affiliate stations took note. When they learned that the new show ``WIOU'' would reveal behind-the-camera drama and parody real-life news people, some affiliates grew nervous.

But when the affiliates were told that ``WIOU,'' which debuts either Wednesday or Oct. 31 (it depends whether there will be a World Series Game 7) , would lead into their local night-time newscasts, a few were downright alarmed.

``The concern a number of affiliates have is the motivation of the reporters on `WIOU,' '' said Johnathan Rodgers, president of CBS Television Stations Division. ``One reporter wants to cover stories to become a star, one wants to cover stories for money, one wants to cover stories to go to bed with someone. That's not the motivation of our reporters, and that's not what we're about.''

``Some affiliates are concerned that we will trivialize what they do, which is local news,'' said former NBC president Grant Tinker, whose GTG Entertainment is co-producing ``WIOU.''

``They're afraid that we'll take viewers backstage and expose the trick, if you will. It got to the point that I was asked to get up and talk to them at one of their affiliate meetings. I assured them that was not our intention. I spent my life in this business and I'm not about to trash it.''

``WIOU,'' pegged by many critics as a potential hit, does flash pretty solid news credentials. Tinker used the newsroom as a backdrop in his long-running CBS series ``The Mary Tyler Moore Show'' and ``Lou Grant.'' And the creators of ``WIOU,'' Kathryn Pratt and John Eisendrath, worked together on the news staff of WBBM-TV, the CBS-owned station in Chicago.

``Is this show going to hurt the credibility of journalism?'' said Pratt, 38, a health reporter at WBBM. ``Well, `St. Elsewhere' didn't hurt doctors and `Hill St. Blues' didn't hurt cops. In fact, it made them more human and accessible. We think this will do the same for TV journalists.''

Pratt and Eisendrath first visited Los Angeles with their series idea in 1987, about the same time the hit film ``Broadcast News'' was in theaters. ``What we learned then was that a lot of people had the same idea,'' Eisendrath, 33, said.

Still, they quit their jobs, moved west and started collaborating on TV scripts. Their first job came in 1988, on Tinker's dramatic high school series ``TV 101.'' When that show folded after a season, Pratt and Eisendrath polished up their ``WIOU'' pitch.

At first, CBS hesitated. There was a good reason why a TV newsroom drama did not emerge after ``Broadcast News.'' Eisendrath and Pratt explained that ``WIOU'' isn't the normal network franchise show in which doctors, cops or lawyers get involved in life-or-death situations.

``The feeling at the networks is that reporters are detached observers, so how dramatic can that be?'' she said.

The two experienced journalists shattered that myth. ``Imagine having to ask people how they feel now that their parents or brother or sister or loved one died in a fire,'' said Eisendrath, who wrote and produced commentaries for long-time WBBM anchor Walter Jacobsen.

``There are moments of high drama and the macabre,'' Eisendrath said. ``A guy killing his friend because the vertical hold on his TV set didn't work during a football game, or someone killing his wife because he didn't like the way she made pork chops. Those are things a journalist sees that the public doesn't.''

``For me, I ended up being in a puddle over many of the things I reported,'' Pratt said. ``But that can be what makes a reporter special - sensitivity. We want to show those little moments, when there's a little child in the oncology ward who wants a Cabbage Patch doll but the Cabbage Patch dolls are all sold out, and we all end up bawling at the end.''

Eisendrath and Pratt also pointed out the personal, and frequently amusing, drama in the newsroom - reporters jockeying for key positions, the dogged reliance on ratings, sexual intimidation and the issue of style vs. substance.

``The very first news package I ever did on air,'' Pratt said, ``I sweated and worked, writing for hours. I waited for the news director's comments after it aired, and finally he came up to me. The only thing he said was, `Did you ever think about wearing bangs?' . . .

You enter the field of journalism thinking you're going to be a reporter, and you're really an entertainer.''

``There's not a local news station that doesn't have all of these creatures and dysfunctional families,'' said Mariette Hartley, who plays a tough, smart executive producer on `WIOU.' ``When I hosted `Today' for three weeks, I couldn't wait to get back into Hollywood. You think these reporters are sages, but they're as egotistical and back-biting as actors. I find it very interesting and very black.''

Right now, the CBS affiliates seem to be taking ``WIOU'' in stride and just hope the show draws strong ratings.