• by Paul Gough , May 10, 2004

When Pax TV holds its upfront presentation tonight, it will bring forth a lineup of programming that marks the highest amount of original content --perhaps ever--while retaining the solid family values that have guided the network since it began six years ago.

Even as broadcast--and certainly cable--television have become racier, at least until the controversy over decency, Pax has stood as a beacon for family-friendly programming. While other networks have been stressing this upfront season how family-friendly they are, Pax has been going the other way ever so slightly. The idea: Make Pax edgier without doing dishonor to the standards of the network. Pax doesn't air gratuitous sex, violence, or foul language.

"We are not getting out of or away from the basic credentials that Bud Paxson originally launched the network with," said Stephen P. Appel, president of sales and marketing for the Pax Television Network. "We're not getting away from that, but we're doing is broadening it. I guess the word 'edgy' is where that comes from. The idea is for us to broaden our audience. That's our agenda."

Pax offers about 46 hours of network and local television a week, which includes about 16 hours of original programming. That includes "Doc," starring Billy Ray Cyrus, "Sue Thomas: FB Eye," and "Candid Camera." But a lot of other prime-time shows this season have been such former network favorites as "America's Funniest Home Videos," "Early Edition," and "Diagnosis Murder."

That's going to change soon, according to the results of a recently announced consulting agreement that gives Pax the expertise of top executives there at NBC. NBC is guiding Pax on an initiative to rebrand and reposition the channel as well as planning tonight's upfront presentation, which will be held at Rockefeller Center and will be attended by NBC top brass as well as Pax executives and the buying community.

To that end, Pax will roll out an aggressive slate of prime-time programs: Two game shows, four unscripted series, and at least three scripted series.

While Pax executives wouldn't discuss the fate of specific prime-time shows ahead of tonight's upfront presentation, it's nearly certain that a number of spots will be filled by the new shows.

At least two of the programs--game shows "On the Cover" and "Balderdash"--will begin sooner than the fall. "On the Cover" will begin Monday, May 17, as a half-hour strip. Pax has ordered 26 weeks of the show, which will eventually be paired in the first hour of prime with "Balderdash."

Appel said the game shows are a key part of Pax's attempts to broaden the network's audience, which has up until this point skewed female and older.

Pax's new look is all about today's family. It isn't the "Ozzie and Harriet" style of the 1950s. And Pax's programming is going to reflect it.

"We're trying to address that. Our programming is gearing toward that," Appel said. "We're keeping to the same values we have always had, but we're broadening in a very today, hipper format."

Planners and buyers will still see Pax as a place for safer programming.

That's not going to change, Pax executives say.

"You will never have to worry about that with Pax," Appel said. "There's a great comfort zone where the commercial environment will always be protected."