Lee Masters Is Running the Show Again

MTV’s most popular executive caused a bit of a stir when he abruptly quit last fall.

Lee Masters, adored by the music industry and credited with making the cable network solvent, walked out because, he said, “the new structure didn’t give me much room for growth or authority.”

Translation: MTV’s new owners wouldn’t let Masters run the show.

Now he does, for a different, brand-new cable network that he predicts will become MTV for adults.

On Friday, the E! entertainment network will become the first 24-hour, all-entertainment cable channel. Bankrolled for the most part by Home Box Office, E! will transmit celebrity news, interviews, movie picks, fashion tips and just about anything and everything related to Hollywood.

“People watch this kind of stuff,” Masters said. “They’re certainly not going to watch it every day, but the idea is to have something for adults to watch the way youngsters and kids watch MTV.”

E! already has interviews with Mel Gibson, Michelle Pfeiffer and Darryl Hannah in the can. The round-the-clock programming will be divided into two-hour segments hosted by a male and female “anchor.”

E!, which replaces the Movietime Channel, will be part of basic cable service. Thus far, Masters says E! has spent $10 million to get the network up and running and has signed on cable operators representing 14.5 million viewers.

By the end of the year, Masters estimated, that number will be 20 million. But to do battle with the big cable networks such as ESPN and the USA Network, he’ll need more like 50 million viewers.

“The real key to us,” Masters said, “is that when we did our research, we found there were two segments--the celebrity, personality-driven viewers and the solid information segment.

“What we’re trying to do is meld the two.”