It's A Lean Sweep This May

The war is over. Sweeps have begun.

One sign: As a ratings stunt on May 12, "Tonight" host Jay Leno switches jobs with Katie Couric to be guest on NBC's morning news show "Today." A squeaky-voiced comic in Katie's anchor chair? The producers must expect a slow news day.

More evidence that things are back to normal: On Thursday, Fox kicked off the latest sweeps with a two-hour special on Michael Jackson, bridging a gap back to February sweeps, when tell-all Jackson specials were aired by Fox, ABC and NBC. "Michael Jackson's Private Home Movies" - it was as if nothing, least of all a war, had happened in between.

Now here we are a week into May rating sweeps, one of three months chosen by the networks each year for intensive audience measurement - and for artificially boosting the audience by cramming as much stunt fare into the schedule as they can.

But how come this sweeps period seems so much like rerun season?

Even brand-new episodes of the "Law & Order" trio have a certain time-honored familiarity, and NBC has filled roughly one-fourth of its schedule with "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" and "Law & Order: Criminal Intent," as well as the old original, which airs its 300th installment May 21 (which happens to be the sweeps' final day).

On May 8, NBC airs the 200th episode of "ER," but this will be nothing new. So repetitive its actors seem to play their roles from muscle memory, "ER" seems stuck in perpetual reruns.

After a 12-year series run that ended in 1996, it's hard to believe Jessica Fletcher can find any mysteries worth solving, but on May 9 CBS brings back Angela Lansbury in "Murder, She Wrote" for "The Celtic Riddle," a two-hour who-cares-whodunit.

During sweeps, skanky "reality" shows will keep a high profile, and towering above them all is likely to be "Mr. Personality" (9 p.m. Mondays on Fox).

"Mr. Personality" features an attractive young woman wooed by 20 suitors - specifically, 20 masked suitors who look like tryouts for a summer stock production of "Phantom of the Opera."

Plus Monica Lewinsky as host! Talk about an embarrassing rerun!

The day "Mr. Personality" debuted, Lewinsky - beaming and giggly - appeared on ABC's "The View," where she was greeted by Barbara Walters, her star-making interrogator at the height of the scandal that forever linked her with President Clinton.

"You have been described as a bimbo, a stalker and a seductress," Walters had begun that "20-20" interview four years ago.

Lewinsky, who insisted she wanted to put all that behind her ("I'd like to make a contribution to society"), has since spoken yearningly of escaping the public eye.

Of course, some people never learn - that is, people who believe anything an attention hog like Monica says.

As usual during sweeps, the networks give a high priority to history - especially their own.

On May 12 NBC airs "Behind the Camera: The Unauthorized Story of `Three's Company,"' which is recommended only for fans of the 1977-84 sitcom who haven't come to their senses in the meantime.

Airing 8 p.m. Sunday on CBS, "Lucy" is a much better effort thanks to Rachel York, the brilliant young actress who portrays Lucille Ball. Still, we might ask ourselves how these TV biopics can hope to measure up, when the stars and shows they're aping not only are second-nature to every viewer but also, thanks to networks like Nick at Nite, remain on the air as constant reminders.

To its credit, CBS has scheduled a four-hour miniseries about a historical figure who never had a TV show - Adolf Hitler.

Airing May 18 and 20, "Hitler: The Rise of Evil" is surely the sweeps month's riskiest, most nervous-making project. Any doubts about that were settled when CBS went to great lengths to distance itself from remarks by Ed Gernon, one of the film's executive producers who resigned soon afterward.

Quoted in a recent issue of TV Guide, Gernon had said fear was behind the German public's acceptance of Hitler's policies, and, while not likening President Bush to Hitler, he spoke of similar fears in America as it headed into war with Iraq.

If any response were called for by the network, CBS might have simply stated, "We believe 'Hitler: The Rise of Evil' speaks for itself." Which it does.

Instead, the network blasted Gernon's "insensitive and outright wrong" comments, adding they "misrepresent the network's motivation for broadcasting this film."

That may be. But it's not hard to read between the lines of CBS' statement. There we can find the sort of fearful submission that Gernon and his film are cautioning against.

By Frazier Moore