Trio's hardly a renegade: It's owned by USA Cable and Universal Television, which brings you the likes of Jerry Springer, Maury Povich, the dozen Law & Order series and such, ahem, shows as Blind Date and Crossing Over with John Edward. It's also responsible for the Randy Quaid white-trash "comedy" The Grubbs, which Fox mercy-killed before it ever aired this season--it's canceled, yeah, but the opposite of brilliant. Maybe that's why Zalaznick bristles when someone says Trio feels like the anti-network; she's wise not to bite off the hand that feeds her, especially when it wears a gold pinkie ring. Still, she's quick to point out her network is an oasis in the TV desert. I tell her that as soon as one switches off Trio and heads back to CBS or NBC or ABC or Fox, well, you're back in the wasteland. She laughs.
"Yup," she adds. "Back in the morass."
