• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, January 13, 2005

TBS' sister cable news networks, CNN and Headline News, are trying something different - the old switcheroo - all this to compete with industry leader Fox News.

Now Headline News will be called "Headline Prime" in primetime and have talk shows and programs similar to what CNN currently has. When this happens CNN will run hard news.

What's not clear from press reports is how much of the hard news will be on CNN and how many talk shows will be on Headline Prime.

The CNN primetime change is a drastic move to compete with Fox. CNN executives didn't exactly say, but the move seems to position CNN, the main rival of Fox, as a counter-programming news network to Fox's strong talk and news magazine shows. Going back to its original roots in news, the hope is that CNN can draw Fox viewers who have tired of the talk blather.

CNN News Group President Jim Walton said the two TBS cable news networks will act more as one. Of course, this is really not TBS' intention. Surely it doesn't want to merge into one -- each network writes up $300 million to $500 million in annual advertising revenue for parent Time Warner.

Viewers might be confused now -- especially in that CNN and Headline News have spent almost a decade and a half separating the two networks into two clear brands. Now Headline Prime will have at least two shows, "Showbiz Tonight" at 7 p.m. and "Nancy Grace," a one-hour legal affairs program starring the Court TV host, at 8 p.m.

The closer marketing and editorial of the two networks is predicated on viewers being able to easily switch between the two networks - hopefully on channel positions that are adjacent to each other. That is not always the case on some of the nation's 12,000 different cable systems.

CNN primetime shows regularly get trounced by Fox's "The O'Reilly Factor," which averages 2.6 million viewers, and "The Fox Report With Shepard Smith," which earns 1.4 million viewers. CNN's two primetime shows "Anderson Cooper 360" and "Paula Zahn Now" each only average 400,000 to 500,000 viewers.

CNN executives get an "A" for effort -- and a "D" for desperate.