News from the Trades - For Week of September 25, 2009
Breaking news on cable television and the media industry.

USA Network's Clean Up Hitter

September 25, 2009

As the broadcast networks' premiere week comes to an end, some hits no doubt were born.

Perhaps "Modern Family" "Cougar Town," "NCIS Los Angles" and "The Good Wife" will keep their high ratings a qualify as hits. Other broadcast shows will surely wither and die (CW's "The Beautiful Life" appears to be in the most peril).

But its a sure thing that none of the broadcast networks will enjoy the kind of batting average USA Network has put up over the last few seasons.

Bonnie Hammer and team have given us "Monk," "Dead Zone," "The 4400," "Burn Notice," "In Plain Sight" and this summer's rookie of the year, "Royal Pains." All successful, all molded in the image of USA's slogan "Characters Welcome."

And perhaps, the best is yet to come.

Next month, after the broadcasters have sorted things out, USA will launch another original series, one that's got a chance to be its biggest hit yet.

It's called "White Collar." You may have already seen the promos on USA.

The series stars dark haired, blue eye hung Matt Bomer from "Chuck" as white collar super criminal Neal Caffrey. As the pilot opens, he's calmly walking out of jail. He's escaping to keep his girl friend from leaving him and disappearing.

Peter Burke, the FBI agent who tracked down Caffrey finds him at his girlfriends and locks him up again.

This time, Caffrey has a proposition. Get me out of jail and Ill help you find another master criminal, the Dutchman, who has been counterfeiting some historic bonds.

The two form a "48Hours" type relationship. And Caffrey is so slick he manages a couture wardrobe and a room in a Manhattan mansion on $700 a month, charming a older widow as well as Burke's wife. You can follow Neal on Twitter if you'd like.

The pilot goes down so easy one can almost forget its a two-hour special.

"White Collar" launches Oct. 23. By then, most of the broadcast primetime shows will have established whether they'll succeed or fail. But its a pretty good bet that this cable show will attract more viewers than at least one of its broadcast rivals: The Jay Leno Show on NBC, once USA Network's big brother in terms of ratings and profitability.

It just goes to show that it's possible to put a scripted drama on at 10 p.m. ET that people will watch, if you know what you're doing.

MultiChannel News, Posted by Jon Lafayette on September 25, 2009