In an attempt to lure viewers back to prime time, McPherson and his team are betting big on a genre the network's had scant success with of late: the situationcomedy.
What makes the stakes particularly high in the Viacom situation is the popularity of its channels among them Comedy Central, Nickelodeon and MTV and the ability of DirecTV subscribers to view some of this programming via such Internet-streaming services as Amazon Prime, Hulu and Netflix.