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HOT NEWS! Dennis Rodman Featured in Wall Street Journal Article about new reality TV Show in development for ESPN. ARTICLE TEXT - Wall Street Journal, Thursday November 13, 2003: "Now, ESPN Gets Under NBA's Skin" Show on Bad-Boy Legend, Dennis Rodman, Picks Up Where NFL Series Left Off By Joe Flint and Stefan Fatsis No sooner had ESPN's football drama "Playmakers" finished its run this week than the cable sports channel risked angering the sports establishment again. ESPN, majority-owned by Walt Disney Co., said it was developing a reality show with former National Basketball Association bad-boy Dennis Rodman. Just a few weeks ago, the channel had denied it was working on such a program. A spokesman for ESPN now says the show won't be "salacious or bombastic." Just as "Playmakers" has riled the National Football League with its depiction of pro football, a show about the notorious Mr. Rodman doesn't delight the NBA. Commissioner David Stern already has expressed concern about the idea. While Mr. Stern declined to comment yesterday on the Rodman show, he told The Wall Street Journal last month that he was "puzzled" by ESPN's recent moves into entertainment programming and its decision to hire conservative radio personality Rush Limbaugh for its NFL pregame program. "'Playmakers,' Limbaugh and the Rodman scenario are not ESPN's strongest moments," he said. ESPN said the show wouldn't dwell on some aspects of Mr. Rodman's biography the league didn't find amusing, such as multiple suspensions and generally flamboyant behavior. "The tone we're going to take is a very serious look at his desire to return to the NBA," the ESPN spokesman said. ESPN is likely to schedule the show for late night to blunt criticism, people familiar with the project said. Mr. Rodman, 42 years old, has been out of the NBA since 2000. According to published reports, in recent months he has crashed a motorcycle, been jailed briefly for public drinking and begun seeing an alcohol counselor. Mr. Rodman's agent, Darren Prince, said an independant producer who once worked for the NBA's entertainment division has been following "Dennis and myself and his little entourage of assistants and bodyguards" for four months. Mr. Prince said the program is tentatively titled "Rodman on the Rebound" and is scheduled to be shown in two one-hour episodes, the first on Dec. 4. The show will focus on Mr. Rodman's "comeback in the NBA and his comeback in life. It's going to be one of the hottest shows on TV." "Playmakers," which aired on ESPN in prime time, concluded an 11-episode run Tuesday with 2.6 million viewers and an average audience of 2.1 million over the length of the series, according to Nielson Media Research. That's a fivefold improvement over what ESPN was running in the Tuesday 9-10p.m. slot in 2002. But with plots that included one player's battle with drugs and another for being arrested for hitting his wife, NFL owners railed against it and the league asked ESPN not to promote "Playmakers" during its pro football coverage. Although ESPN says it hasn't made a decision to renew the show - which normally would be a certainty with such ratings - people close to the show says it is unlikely ESPN will order a second season. "Playmakers" creator John Eisendrath said: "They have a show of great value in 'Playmakers.' and obviously a partner of great value in the NFL. For the life of me, I don't understand why they can't co-exist." The ESPN spokesman said there is no timetable for a decision, adding that the network has a very heavy load of sports and 25th anniversary programming that will occupy much of the schedule next year. "There are a lot of other internal considerations that go beyond external pressures."
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