mat nao aeveloped the concept in the ttrst place-which should have been a warning to the news executives. But note well: Yesterday, Today and To- morrow "was not a failed program," as an NBC spokesperson put it. She said the show in its four outings had more robust ratings, on average (10.6/20), than Prime- time: Live and Chung. In its last airing, at 10 p.m. on Nov. 28, Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow had a 12.7 rating and 22 share, less than ABC's thirtysomething but better than the movie on CBS. o ABC News's Primetime: Live has also been criticized as being infected with the glitz virus. Its stars are powerhouses -Sam Don- aldson, who for more than a decade was a hard -nosed White House correspondent, demanding that the President, of whatever party, respond to his questions, and the cooly elegant Diane Sawyer, who has an earned reputation as a first -rate journalist. The show's set reeks of money. And the publicity binge promoting the show proba- ABC's 'Primetime Live' (I -r): Sam Donaldson, Richard Kaplan and Diane Sawyer bly did more harm than good, focusing a hot spotlight on the effort, exposing every syndicated Inside Edition, one of a grow- of scenes of the stories being aired. It, too, flaw. And there were many. Hardly a week ing number of reality -based programs that was subjected to heavy criticism. And final- goes by without a story in the trade or cause many in broadcast journalism to ly, after reviewing reactions to the first consumer press about the show's difficul- gnash their teeth because of what they per- three shows aired last summer and ponder- ties and the likely scrapping of one or an- ceive to be a blurring of the line between ing the results of focus groups -the mem- other of its features: the audience participa- news and entertainment, shows like Ameri- bers said they were confused as to what was tion is the one most often marked for ca's Most Wanted (STF Productions) and A real and what wasn't -NBC News Presi- extinction. Current Affair (20th Century Fox TV), dent Gartner decided to abandon the con- But beneath the glitz, Primetime is seen both seen on Fox Broadcasting Co. stations; cept, and allow it to be taken over by the by some observers as having important fac- Unsolved Mysteries (Cosgrove -Meurer), on entertainment division. It was that division tors working in its behalf. One, simply, is NBC; Rescue: 911 (CBS Entertainment), on CBS, and Hard Copy (Paramount Commu- nications), which is in syndication. To some like Westin, the audiences those shows attract demonstrate that "informa- tion is selling." o But there is a danger that network news executives learn too much from such shows. For instance, Saturday Night with Connie Chung relies heavily, though not entirely, on recreations (sometimes, it must be added, with impressive results. The (N- opening show of the season, in September, featured James Earl Jones as Vernon Johns, in a portrait of the pastor who preceded Martin Luther King Jr. at the Dexter Ave- nue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Ala., and served as a powerful role model for the civil rights leaders who followed him. A REUEION puzzled Tom Shales, in The Washington Post, wrote, "It wasn't journalism. But it was good TV. "). And it has taken a critical pounding in the press. Some critics say the show is too star- oriented, with an opening montage of shots of Chung and nothing in the title to reveal its relationship to journalism..Some ENTERTAINMENT traditionalists thought the show Chung re- BLAIR placed, West 57th, was too glitzy. Then they saw Chung. (For the record, Çhung's ratings through Nov. 25 were better than the average achieved by West 57th in the last quarter of 1988 -7.4/14 to 7.1/13.) Then there was NBC's experience with Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow. It, too, relied on recreations and dazzling graphics, with anchors appearing to walk into and out

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