Originally posted by fredfa
But today, FX is viewed as basic cable's answer to HBO. Racy shows such as "The Shield," Nip/Tuck" and "Rescue Me" have become critical and commercial successes. The network's next big gamble is a drama it is developing from Steven Bochco about the Iraq war.



I couldn't agree more, FX has really come up with some good stuff, Thief with Andre Braugher looks like it might a good one as well. I just wish they would go HD.

Weekly Ratings Notes
'Idol' gets a right number
By Gary Levin USA TODAY

•Idol redux. An American Idol voting snafu in which incorrect phone numbers were displayed for some contestants led Fox to repeat Tuesday's performances on Wednesday, when 20.9 million viewers watched. Not bad, considering 27.6 million saw it the first time. On Thursday's delayed results show, 20.2 million saw Mikalah Gordon's exit.

•Dueling premieres. NBC's The Office (11.2 million viewers) edged out Fox's Life on a Stick (9.2 million) at 9:30 ET/PT Thursday, despite Fox's much bigger Idol lead-in. But the night wasn't all good for NBC, which had record lows for original episodes of Joey, The Apprentice and ER.

•Hoop it up. CBS' coverage of the NCAA basketball tournament Saturday and Sunday averaged 13.7 million viewers, up 44% from last year, and marked the most-watched regional finals since 1993. The tournament to date is averaging 9.7 million viewers, up 15% from 2004 and the most-watched since 1994. The ratings, helped by three overtime games, helped CBS break Fox's eight-week winning streak among young-adult viewers.

•Grey matter. ABC's new drama Grey's Anatomy averaged 16.2 million viewers Sunday, topping every episode of Boston Legal and ranking fourth among series premieres this season, behind Desperate Housewives, CSI: NY and Lost. Lead-in Housewives returned with just a slight dip in viewers from its last original episode Feb. 20.

•Who loves ya? Ving Rhames' Kojak remake managed a solid 4.5 million viewers for its premiere Friday, but the bald detective fell short of other recent USA openers for The 4400 and Dead Zone.

•Shield's yield FX's The Shield fell to 3.3 million viewers Tuesday, down 15% from the fourth-season premiere March 15, but the police drama, with new co-star Glenn Close, is still pacing above last year's third season. Bravo's Project Greenlight lost half its March 15 premiere audience, dropping Tuesday to a low of 154,000. And Chasing Farrah, TV Land's reality show starring Farrah Fawcett, averaged a decent 824,000 viewers for two premiere episodes Wednesday.

Originally posted by keenan
Dude!! That "bug" is HUGE!!! Is that the normal network on screen bug? Does it fade off after a few minutes?

You can barely even see the one we have here in SF... Nope, that bug is there all the time. Worse (or possibly better), it's pushed to the extreme right and bottom, so on most TVs, it's only partially visible (my TV shows most of the F and O, but none of the X).

Xesdeeni

Crap! Somehow I screwed up my HD The Office recording last night. And then I noticed it's getting moved back and hour next week!

Xesdeeni

If the bug is so far off to the right and bottom, are you sure you have your set configured correctly?
I have seen such a configuration here in LA, but only at retail stores where sets are not set up for a 16x9 ratio correctly.

I'm not sure what you mean. The bug is in the extreme corner of the image. The samples above are the full 1280x720 from the stream, and don't reflect my on-screen image. The bug is clearly outside of the "safe" regions, which are typically defined as 5% and 10% for action and title, respectively.

Plasma, LCD, DLP, LCoS, etc. TVs, that use discrete pixel display devices, can show every single pixel. The entire bug would be visible on these TVs (but then so would other garbage, such as the closed caption line, SMPTE VBI data, time base correction artifacts, VCR flyback, etc.). However, CRT TVs, particularly as shipped with factory defaults, will cut off varying amounts of this bug. I've adjusted my RP CRT HDTV for minimal overscan, but it still cuts off almost all the X, and just the bare bottom of the letters. This isn't an issue for any of the other channels (NBC, ABC, CBS, WB, or UPN), since they pay attention to the "safe" regions.

Xesdeeni

Clearly you have gotten way beyond my limited areas of knowledge here.

Xesdeeni - looks like you local fox affiliate is putting their own bug in - in Cincinnati our FOX bug is the nasty network blue bug thats half off the screen anyway even when overscan is set to 0%

Yeah, I've been tempted to complain. But I'm afraid they'd just move it into the safe region, but leave it that size. As it is, it doesn't interfere with my picture as much as it would if it were moved. Be careful what you ask for.... :)

Xesdeeni

strange thing is - I think it was last week they added a small transparent FOX to american idol that looked fine (didn't watch last night so dont know if they are still doing it) but all the other shows, including 24 have the blue thing - which is fine by me if they leave it because most of it is off the screen - I am at 5% overscan

Tuesday’s network prime-time ratings have been posted at the top of Latest News, the first item in this thread.

For those debating the Fox bug, there's actually an AVS thread entitled, "Is Local Fox Affiliate Bug In The Correct Location?"

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=525083

Stunning tumble for NBC's 'The Office'
Loses half its audience moving from Thursday

medialifemagazine.com---NBC obviously has a strategy for “The Office.” Just what that strategy is may be impossible to figure out. Yesterday the well-reviewed new comedy made its 9:30 p.m. Tuesday debut, five days after premiering to a decent 5.0 18-49 rating last Thursday. Tuesdays have been very unkind to NBC comedies this year, and it’s a mystery why NBC would put a show that seemed to have smarts, prestige and reasonable buzz in such a slot.

According to Nielsen overnights, the show floundered in its new timeslot. Badly.

Last night’s episode managed just a 2.7 rating among 18-49s, slipping 10 percent from already weak lead-in “Scrubs,” which posted just a 3.0. “Office” also slipped 10 percent versus the 3.0 “Committed” had averaged in that exact timeslot, and was down 46 percent versus last week’s premiere episode. It averaged a mere 5.9 million total viewers.

Of course the show went head-to-head against Fox’s suddenly hot medical drama “House,” which averaged a 7.2 18-49 rating, thanks largely to its “American Idol” lead-in. “Idol” was the night’s highest-rated show in the demo with an 11.0 average rating.

Perhaps the bigger question isn’t so much why NBC sentenced “The Office” to that horrible Tuesday timeslot but why it commissioned the show at all. Though it’s certainly the best comedy NBC has introduced all year, such high-concept sitcoms do not do well on broadcast; “Scrubs” and Fox’s “Arrested Development” have proven that.

NBC would have been better off searching for another broad-appeal show like “Friends” or “Frasier” to patch up Tuesday nights.

Now that “The Office” is here, though, the network may want to consider a switch to Thursday night. The show mustered some promise there, and if it traded nights with “Will & Grace,” the latter’s audience would surely follow.

ABC's Tuesday is nothing to laugh at
Which is the problem. Sitcoms in a heap of hurt.
By Toni Fitzgerald medialifemagazine.com

ABC finally has two mega-hits in place, “Lost” on Wednesday and “Desperate Housewives” on Sunday, putting it in the competition for the season lead among adults 18-49. Now its most pressing matter is the week's other five nights.

Of those, Tuesday will be one of ABC’s main concerns going into this spring's upfront ad market. The network used to have a decent lineup with its four-comedy block leading into “NYPD Blue.”

No longer. “Blue” is gone and several of the sitcoms may be following it. All four half-hour timeslots from 8 to 10 have seen declines compared with last year among adults 18-49.

When ABC’s entire schedule was hurting, it could afford to have a few underperforming shows. But now that the network has revived, it is feeling far greater urgency to weed out its losers.

“Rodney” seems to be the most endangered, followed by “My Wife and Kids.” “Rodney,” a first-year show, is losing 10 percent of “According to Jim’s” lead-in 18-49 rating at 9 p.m., averaging a 3.7 season to date. That doesn’t sound too bad, but last week’s show averaged a 3.0. “Rodney” has lost audience as the year went on, and it’s 0.1 behind what “Less than Perfect,” last year’s “Jim” lead-out, averaged.

“Kids” moved from Wednesdays at 8 to Tuesdays at 8, and its audience did not follow. It’s had trouble competing against Fox’s “American Idol.” Its season average is 2.9, a full point behind last year. Among total viewers, “Kids” is down 25 percent year to year, to 7.8 million viewers.

“George Lopez,” which moved from Fridays at 8 to Tuesdays at 8:30, is outperforming its “Kids” lead-in by 0.2. Its 3.1 18-49 average is up 15 percent over last year, though the comparison is deceiving since it aired on little-watched Friday. More alarming for “George” is that former timeslot occupant “I’m With Her” averaged a 3.4 last year, and that show was canceled.

The night’s one stalwart, “Jim,” is also down year to year despite facing lesser competition from NBC with “Frasier” gone. “Jim” is averaging a 4.1, a 7 percent decrease compared with last year.

ABC will most likely stay with “Jim” for at least another year and perhaps “George,” since the comedian is popular and it’s one of the rare shows featuring Hispanics on broadcast. “Rodney” probably won’t return, and “Kids” may be back at midseason or perhaps move to Friday night, where ABC could be replacing up to three shows.

FCC SHVERA update

The FCC posted new rules on its website implementing more of the Satellite Home Viewer Extension and Reauthorization Act, a.k.a. SHVERA:

One of the new sections pertains to allowing out-of-market "significantly viewed" signals.

Another section abolishes signal tests for viewers in "local-into-local" (LIL) areas, since they are not eligible for distant analog signals if they weren't getting them as of December 1, 2004.

http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/FCC-05-81A1.pdf
http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/FCC-05-81A1.doc
http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/FCC-05-81A1.txt

___

dline posts this for information only and does not necessarily agree with any point of view expressed in this post.

Originally posted by Xesdeeni
Crap! Somehow I screwed up my HD The Office recording last night. And then I noticed it's getting moved back and hour next week!

Xesdeeni

It'll have to be SD, but CNBC, Bravo, and USA are rerunning the first two episodes of The Office this week.

fredfa,

For the mid-season replacements list, remove "The Bachelor Spring" under ABC; it already premiered.

dline:
good information, thanks for posting it.

From Marc Berman’s Programming Insider column Wednesday March 30th, 2005 at Mediaweek.com)
On the Air Tonight: Primetime Programming Options

Wednesday 3/30/05

ABC:
Lost HD
Alias HD
Eyes (premiere) HD

CBS:
60 Minutes
The King of Queens HD
Yes, Dear HD
CSI: NY (R) HD

NBC:
American Dreams (season, and probably series finale) HD
The West Wing HD
Law & Order HD

Fox:
That ‘70s Show
The Simple Life: Interns
American Idol HD
Life on a Stick HD

UPN:
America’s Next Top Model
Kevin Hill (R) HD

WB:
Smallville (R) HD
Smallville (R) HD

The Scoop on Eyes:
Considering just last year ABC’s hottest drama was the fading NYPD Blue, this edge-on-your-seat look at a staff of brilliantly skilled and ambitious individuals (headlined by former Wings star Tim Daly) who handle cases that even the police and FBI can’t deal with is another notch on ABC’s comeback belt.

According to The WB (www.thewb.com) both episodes of Smallville are repeats tonight.

HBO Grants More Life for 'Deadwood'

(zap2it.com)--The outside world has begun to impinge on "Deadwood" this season, but apparently the camp's characters aren't willing to give up control of their little lawless kingdom just yet. HBO says it has renewed the gritty, profane western series for a third season. Production on a dozen new episodes will begin later this year, with the third season slated to premiere in 2006.

"'Deadwood' is a dazzling and unpredictable show that has connected with both subscribers and critics," says Carolyn Strauss, president of HBO Entertainment. "I'm thrilled that [creator] David Milch will bring us more episodes of this intriguing series next year."

The show, which follows life in the notorious Deadwood camp in the late 1870s, garnered 11 Emmy nominations following its first season, winning two (for director Walter Hill and for best sound editing). Star Ian McShane won a Golden Globe earlier this year for his performance as saloon owner Al Swearengen.
"Deadwood" also draws a steady audience for the premium-cable channel. Through four Sunday-night airings this season, the series is averaging about 2.9 million viewers.

Next year is shaping up as an eventful one for HBO. In addition to "Deadwood," the network will also debut the fourth season of its critically adored crime series "The Wire" and the sixth and likely final year of "The Sopranos."

Excellent. Now I hope they bring Carnivale back as well...

Fred, CSI: NY is a repeat tonight. According to Yahoo.com's tv schedule, the episode is from Jan 26, 2005. You may want to put an "R" next to CSI:NY on the schedule you posted for tonight's shows.

thanks PJO1966 and AFH

TiVo's most-recorded shows of the week
Rank Show Net % of TiVo owners
1. American Idol (Tuesday) Fox 30.7 %
2. The Apprentice NBC 20.3 %
3. Survivor: Palau CBS 20.0 %
4. 24 Fox 17.4 %
5. American Idol (Wednesday) Fox 16.6 %
6. ER NBC 15.0 %
7. The Amazing Race 7 CBS 14.9 %
8. CSI: Miami CBS 14.4 %
9. Medium NBC 12.8 %
10. The Office NBC 11.6 %
(Based on 20,000 TiVo owners)
Source: USA Today and TiVo

Phillip Swann: “60 Minutes” to go HD
The network will also give the high-def treatment to other news magazines, such as 48 Hours
By Phillip Swann http://www.tvpredictions.com/cbshdtv033005.html

Washington, D.C. (March 30) -- Earlier this week, I predicted that CNN will launch a High-Definition TV channel in the next year. Today, I have a new prediction for HDTV and the news business: I predict that CBS will launch a high-def version of its popular news magazines, 60 Minutes and 48 Hours, in the next year.

However, I also predict that the network will not do the CBS Evening News in high-def anytime soon. With the resignation of anchor Dan Rather over the Bush National Guard story, the network will focus exclusively on restoring the nightly newscast's credibility and ratings. It simply doesn't have the time -- nor the inclination -- to worry about HDTV.

However, the network is looking closely at producing the nightly news magazines in high-def. In this crystal ball, it's unclear exactly when CBS will launch 60 Minutes and 48 Hours in HDTV, but it should happen by the 2006 Fall season, if not much sooner. The network believes it's the right move, considering the steady growth of HDTV sales and interest from advertisers to air their spots in high-def.

ugh geez when will he stop with these "predictions" what a l00ser. Every "prediction" he makes is a result of him finding either an announcement or an interview about said prediction

Actually his record isn't all that bad.
And he makes a pretty good living giving speeches (and selling his expertise) to those in the TV business. And, every once in a while, he predicts something I find interesting enough to include here.
You could be right, bgall, he could be way off base on this one.
I am not vouching for any of his predictions, but at least he has the courage to make them in public, and to admit when he is wrong.
The political pundits on the Sunday talk shows should be so up front about their screw ups! :)

None of these are in HD, but they make for fun reading anyhow.

Cable News Ratings
(from drudgereport,com)
Tuesday, March 29, Viewership

FNC 8 PM Bill O’Reilly 2,428,000
FNC 9 PM Sean Hannity/Alan Colmes 2,121,000
FNC 10 PM Greta Van Susteren 1,700,000
CNN 9 PM Larry King 1,529,000
FNC 7 PM Shepherd Smith 1,402,000
CNN 10 PM Aaron Brown 1,160,000
CNN 7 PM Anderson Cooper 748,000
CNN 8 PM Paula Zahn 664,000
MSNBC 8 PM Keith Olbermann 490,000
CNNHN 8 PM Nancy Grace 420,000
MSNBC 6 PM Dan Abrams 412,000
MSNBC 7 PM Hardball: Chris Matthews 396,000
MSNBC 10 PM Joe Scarborough 386,000
CNBC 9 PM Dennis Miller 110,000

I'm not saying he's wrong.
I'm saying he doesn't make predictions. This story about 60 Minutes going HD has already been posted on here a while ago when it was either a director or producer was interviewed and they asked about what factor HD would play on their show...

Ahh, I missed that post.

After 11 years, Dr. Carter takes leave from 'ER'
By Bill Keveney USA TODAY

It's the end of an ERa. Noah Wyle, the only ER lead to stay with the hit NBC drama for its 11-year run, will depart as a cast regular in May and return for four episodes in each of the next two seasons.

Wyle's character, Dr. John Carter, will say his goodbye to colleagues at Chicago's County General Hospital in the season finale May 19. One week earlier, Carter will reunite with his true love, Kem (Thandie Newton), in Paris, producers say. ER (tonight, 9:59 ET/PT) will shoot in the French capital in early April.

Executive producer John Wells says he'll feel the loss personally as well as professionally; he and Wyle, 33, are among just a few people still with the show who worked on the 1994 pilot. Sherry Stringfield, another original, returned as Dr. Susan Lewis in 2001 after a five-year absence.

"It's very sad for me. Noah and I have a lot of history together," Wells says. "He's a wonderful actor and a wonderful man, and it's been great to watch him grow up and get married and have a family."

Wyle, who has received five Emmy nominations for his portrayal of Carter, said last fall that he planned to leave ER when his contract expired at the end of this TV season. But he left the door ajar on whether he would return in some capacity.

Wells says it came down to the actor being interested in other career opportunities and the writers having difficulty finding new story ideas for Carter on a series so focused on character relationships.

ER, which has been renewed through 2007-08, is no longer the ratings juggernaut of Wyle's earlier years, but it remains NBC's most-watched scripted series and performs strongly with advertiser-coveted young adults. CBS' Without a Trace now beats ER in viewers (18.9 million viewers to 16.1 million for the 2004-05 season), but ER leads among ages 18 to 49 (9.8 million to just under 8 million).

Wyle's Carter will be leaving to work with a Doctors Without Borders-type organization, Wells says. In an earlier plotline, Carter and Dr. Luka Kovac (Goran Visnjic) provided medical services in Africa, which is where Carter met Kem, a health administrator who works with AIDS patients. Kem left for Africa early this season, after the couple had a baby boy who died.

Wyle, part of an original cast that included George Clooney, Anthony Edwards and Eriq La Salle, took a six-episode break in fall 2003 to spend time with his wife, Tracy, and baby, Owen.

In December, Wyle starred in an action-adventure film, TNT's The Librarian: Quest for the Spear, which received good reviews and attracted a robust 7 million viewers. It was ad-supported cable's highest-rated movie in households for 2004; a sequel is in development.

Tom Weeks of media buyer Starcom Entertainment says Wyle developed Carter into a strong lead character over the years, but his departure shouldn't significantly harm the ensemble show. "No one wants to see him go, but I think the hospital is what people tune in to watch.

Koppel to Leave ABC
Network Announces Planned Departure of the Face of 'Nightline'

(ABC.com) March 31, 2005 — Ted Koppel, the "Nightline" anchor and a 42-year veteran of ABC News, will leave the network in December.

"Ted and I have discussed a number of options under which he might have remained at 'Nightline' or in some other capacity at ABC News, but Ted believes this is the right time for him to leave," ABC News President David Westin said today in an e-mail announcement to the network's news division. "As much as I will regret his leaving, he is firm in his conviction, and I respect his decision."

Koppel's contract expires Dec. 4. His long-time executive producer, Tom Bettag, also will be leaving ABC.
Koppel's first job in journalism was as a desk assistant with WMCA Radio in New York City. In 1963, he joined ABC News as a general assignment reporter. From 1971 to 1980, he was ABC News' chief diplomatic correspondent, and for two years, beginning in 1975, he anchored "The ABC Saturday Night News."

Koppel is best known for his work as the anchor and principal reporter for "Nightline," a late-night news program launched in 1980 as a nightly update on the Iran hostage crisis. During the past 25 years, Koppel has become synonymous with the show's format of background reports on current events, followed by interviews with newsmakers.

Koppel has won 41 Emmy Awards, 11 George Foster Peabody Awards, 12 duPont-Columbia Awards, 10 Overseas Press Club Awards, two George Polk Awards and two Sigma Delta Chi Awards from the Society of Professional Journalists.

Wednesday’s network prime-time ratings have been posted at the top of Latest News, the first item in this thread.

Originally posted by Xesdeeni
Crap! Somehow I screwed up my HD The Office recording last night. And then I noticed it's getting moved back and hour next week!

Xesdeeni

Don't forget that Daylight Savings Time starts this weekend (where applicable) so your currently displayed start times for next week's programs may be an hour off :) I know all mine are on my HDTivo.

“24” (Times Three)
(Zap2it.com) FOX says next week's episode of "24" is "riveting," "pivotal" and "gripping" -- all in the first two sentences of its press release. It's so all those things, in fact, that the network will give viewers more than one chance to watch it.

Oh, and it's also airing opposite what will likely be a highly rated sporting event. That might have something to do with it too.

Monday's (April 4) "24" will run against CBS's telecast of the NCAA men's basketball final in most of the country. The game may siphon some viewers from FOX, particularly men who make up a key part of "24's" audience, so the network has scheduled encore showings of the episode for 9 p.m. ET Friday, April 8 and Sunday, April 10.

Wow! Thanks for reminding me. I guess it's not moved back, it's just that my clock hasn't moved up yet...gotta change it back....thanks!

Xesdeeni

'CSI' Creator Goes for a Finale Doubleheader

By Kate O'Hare (zap2it.com)--Anthony Zuiker, the former Las Vegas tram operator whose brainstorm about forensic detectives launched CBS' "CSI" franchise in 2000, hasn't had the easiest year.

The newest installment, "CSI: NY" -- the first for which the 36-year-old Zuiker was the show-runner, the name for the executive producer who oversees the production and writing staff -- suffered in the ratings early on in its first year, requiring a mid-course correction in look and tone.

"I started out to do a much more character-driven show," Zuiker says, "put the mystery in the back, a much darker show, lit very edgy, just telling darker, more brooding stories. What I very quickly learned is even though Anthony Zuiker likes to tell those kind of stories, that doesn't mean America likes them."

With the advice of mentors Carol Mendelsohn and Ann Donahue -- show-runners of "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" and "CSI: Miami," respectively -- and a supportive phone call from CBS Entertainment president Nina Tassler, Zuiker threw more light, figuratively and literally, on "CSI: NY" and helped to bring it out of the ratings shadows.

Zuiker's feeling a little battered and bruised from the experience -- while retaining his characteristic bounce and enthusiasm -- but any year that ends with Quentin Tarantino can't be all-bad. Zuiker has just finished penning, with Mendelsohn and Naren Shankar, the finale script for the flagship "CSI." The episode airs Thursday, May 19, with the "Pulp Fiction" director behind the camera.

Mendelsohn has hinted in published reports that the storyline involves one of the members of the "CSI" team, led by Gil Grissom (William Petersen), being put in jeopardy.

Zuiker recalls being at a fundraiser a few years ago at the home of producer Lawrence Bender, who worked with Tarantino on the 1992 cult hit "Reservoir Dogs" and many subsequent projects.

"I got the courage to walk up to Quentin Tarantino," Zuiker recalls, "and say, 'Hey, my name's Anthony Zuiker. I'm the creator of "CSI," and when I was a bellman at the Mirage Hotel in Las Vegas, I checked you in, and you gave me 20 bucks.' He started laughing. He's like, 'I love that show. I watch them all.' He stated rattling off dialogue, and he knew all the characters. It was a shock.

"I told him, 'I got into the business because I saw "Pulp Fiction."' He was all flattered, this and that. Anyway, cut to, he runs into one of our technical advisors in Las Vegas during a shoot, and they get to talking. Carol Mendelsohn spears it up and talks to his people, 'Hey, would you ever consider directing a "CSI" episode?' He had a lot of interest in doing that."

Mendelsohn then called Zuiker in to work in the finale teleplay, and he says, "The rest is history. I was so inspired. It's funny, because there's Anthony Zuiker and then there's Quentin Tarantino, who's two levels above anything I've ever tried. To write for him, it's easily the highlight -- besides Billy Petersen saying yes to 'CSI' -- of my career."

According to Zuiker, Tarantino is currently prepping the episode, which will shoot at least partly in Las Vegas, where the series is set. "They're looking at the Golden Nugget," Zuiker says, "and also possibly the Strip."

Although Zuiker doesn't plan to jettison the "CSI" formula for Tarantino, he is making a few adjustments. "We felt a little looser in the dialogue," he says, "and a little looser in the storytelling. We felt we could really push. I remember just writing a cheap defense lawyer who's wearing cowboy boots and says, 'You'd better watch it, this man here's slicker than a snake in the curly green grass.' It just feels like something Michael Parks would say in a Quentin Tarantino movie."

The night before this airs, on Wednesday, May 18, "CSI: NY" ends its first season.

"We've had a very trying year," Zuiker says. "I'm making my show-runner debut. I've quickly learned that show-running is very difficult. I've made some rookie mistakes throughout the year. Nina Tassler literally called me up halfway through the season and said, 'OK, don't panic. We're in a crisis, but don't panic.'

"It's that one Nina phone call that says, 'I love you, I believe in you, just hang in there and let's figure this out,' which gave me the chance to get everybody off my back, so I could hear my own voice."

Unlike "CSI," Zuiker isn't planning a big, splashy finish for "CSI: NY," which stars Gary Sinise as NYPD Det. Mac Taylor, a former Marine who lost his wife in the 9/11 attack. The show hasn't gotten its formal renewal notice yet from CBS (which may not come until the fall schedule is announced to advertisers in May), but Zuiker is optimistic.

"Our finale is about setting all the characters in motion for season two," Zuiker days. "This has been a scrimmage for us in season one."

Zuiker also gives a lot of credit to Sinise, who left a steady film career for this TV role. "He was very patient with me," Zuiker says. "He wasn't calling people saying, 'Who'd I sign up with?' He didn't have buyer's remorse.

"So even though there's another key person in the show that could have made my life very difficult, he really believed in me, like Nina. He's the class act."

Just a reminder ...

Since April 2004, the FCC has required stations to run their digital transmitters 75% of the time their analog transmitters are on the air.

Beginning this Friday, that becomes 100%.

What power restrictions are there?
(Can they run their transmitters at, say 5%?)

Since the VOOM Doomsday site is closed, and we await word on what, if anything, Cablevision is going to do as its March 31 deadline is at hand, here is the latest in another of Cablevision’s fights:

MTA Likes Jets Proposal; Sacks Cablevision
(1010 WINS) (NEW YORK) The New York Jets' plan for a $1.9 billion Manhattan stadium that could also serve as the centerpiece of the 2012 Olympics cleared a major hurdle Thursday with approval of the team's bid by the state agency that owns the proposed site.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority board voted unanimously in favor of the team's $720 million offer for rights to develop the site over a remote railyard next to the Hudson River. The board rejected competing proposals from Cablevision Systems Corp., owner of Madison Square Garden, and TransGas Energy Systems LLC.
--------
The stadium proposal is crucial to New York's attempt to host the 2012 Olympics and is expected to be a factor in Mayor Michael Bloomberg's bid for re-election this fall. The organizers of the city's bid, NYC2012, quickly praised the MTA vote.
------------
Cablevision, the most vociferous opponent of the Jets' plan, was expected to mount a legal challenge to the MTA vote -- although a company spokesman said there was no immediate comment.

"We expect litigation," said MTA Chairman Peter Kalikow. "We expect there to be debate about this. But we have to look out for our agency, and we voted accordingly."

http://1010wins.com/topstories/local_story_089163711.html

(And please, from now on, (at least in this thread) no posts here about whether you think VOOM is good or not, or whether you have scheduled installation or not, just any information on the status of VOOM. And when the VOOM Doomsday site reopens, the VOOM stuff can return to its natural home.)

MSG’s Reaction

In a prepared statement , MSG said:

“It is obvious that the [New York Mayor Michael] Bloomberg fix was in. It’s no wonder that the MTA is in financial crisis when its own board declares that $210 million is worth more than $400 million in cash. Today’s decision will only serve to galvanize the two-thirds of New Yorkers who are bitterly opposed to spending more than $1 billion in taxpayer money for a football stadium that they do not want.”

Cable Ratings News

(From thefutoncritic.com)

THE SHIELD (FX) - 3.3 million viewers watched the second installment of the show's new season last week. Said numbers were off a noticeable 16% from its stellar debut on March 15 (3.93 million).

CARNIVALE (HBO) - With "Deadwood" getting an early season three nod earlier this week, the fate of fellow sophomore drama "Carnivale" remains in limbo. An above-average 2.4 million viewers tuned into the show's second season finale on Sunday, helping raise its season average to 1.7 million viewers. While that's behind "Deadwood's" average so far this season (2.9 million through four airings), it's slightly above "The Wire's" season three numbers (1.6 million on average). That series got the green light for a fourth season last month despite its lackluster ratings.

“American Idol” Finalist has a past

The website thesmokinggun.com has info on a felony domestic violence arrest in the past of AI finalist Scott Savol. And the incident took place on Valentine’s Day!
More of the salacious details are here:
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/0331051_american_idol_scott_1.html

I guess Committed must be done if Jennifer Finnigan is off doing pilots for CBS:

(from futon critic)

AMERICAN CRIME (CBS) - David Starzyk ("A Boyfriend for Christmas") and Christian Kane ("Angel") have both been cast in the drama pilot, about a female prosecutor (Jennifer Finnigan) who juggles the world of suburban crime with the challenges of being a new mother. Starzyk will play Thom in the Warner Bros. Television/Bruckheimer Television-based project, while no details were available about Kane's character. John Carroll Lynch also stars while Jim Leonard, Jerry Bruckheimer and Jonathan Littman are the executive producers.

Originally posted by fredfa
What power restrictions are there?
(Can they run their transmitters at, say 5%?)

What ever the FCC has them authorized for.

Is there a minimum, foxeng?

Cablevision Proposes Reducing Board

WASHINGTON, Mar 31, 2005 3/31/2005 7:37:00 PM ET (AP Online via COMTEX) –In a move to solidify his control of the board, Cablevision Systems Corp. Chairman Charles Dolan said he plans to propose that the board reduce its size to 12 members from 15. In a letter to the board attached to a filing Thursday with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Dolan said he plans to raise the proposal at the April 18 board meeting.

Dolan, who controls a majority of Class B shares of the entertainment, media and telecommunications company, has the right to name 75 percent of the board members at the next annual meeting. The rest will be elected by holders of the publicly traded Class A shares.

If the board size is reduced, the nine directors appointed by Dolan will constitute 75 percent of the board.
Dolan lost a boardroom showdown earlier this year, when directors sided with his son James in opposing the satellite venture Voom, which Charles had championed.

New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority on Thursday cleared the New York Jets' plan for a $1.7 billion Manhattan stadium, rejecting a competing proposal from Cablevision.

Cablevision's Class A shares fell 10 cents, or 0.4 percent, to close at $28.05 Thursday on the New York Stock Exchange. The company is based in Bethpage, N.Y

Just to clarify, while we wait for foxeng ...

Friday is the 100% simulcasting deadline. It has nothing to do with power; they just have to put out what they're authorized for.


The full power deadlines are:

- July 1 of this year for ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC affiliates in the top 100 markets.

- July 1, 2006 for all other commercial stations and all noncommercial stations.

Both of the power deadlines are "use it or lose it." Stations not replicating or maximizing their service areas by these deadlines won't be able to do so.

Thanks dline (you make this stuff so understandable).
Now we'll have to see how many stations apply to the FCC for waivers.

Originally posted by fredfa
Is there a minimum, foxeng?

If the FCC has authorized a station with an STA of 1.1 kw, then that is what they operate at 100% of the time the analog is operting. They can of course operate at their CP power limit if they have it built, but again which ever power level they operate at, it has to be 100% of the time that the analog is on the air.

Originally posted by fredfa
Now we'll have to see how many stations apply to the FCC for waivers.

There will be some and they will be granted, but if a station isn't well on its way to being finished when they ask for it, the FCC has said they will put some harsh parameters to get it finished and the FCC has said there will be no additional time given to this one time waiver unless a station had a tower finished and then it fell (like that 2000 footer in GA 3 weeks ago and that will be your first waiver request right there because it will take 3 months to get it all cleaned up and by the time the insurance people get done that is another 3 to 6 months and then the new tower has to be built and shipped and erected, I would guess it will be late 2006 before that tower is in operation) some catastrophic thing like that.

thanks for the information, foxeng.

(If entertainment replaces news at 11:35 on ABC, can HD replacing SD be far behind?)

ABC Must Decide Not Just Who but Also What for Late Night
By BILL CARTER The New York Times April 1, 2005


With Ted Koppel's official decision yesterday to leave ABC News and his longtime program "Nightline," ABC faces the prospect of more than a changing of the guard in its late-night programming. It has an opportunity for a full-scale change of direction.

So far, network executives are deflecting any question of shifting from news to entertainment in the 11:35 p.m. time period. Yesterday, network executives offered nothing but assurances that even if "Nightline" ceases to exist as a program after Mr. Koppel departs in December, the 11:35 time slot will still belong to the news division.

But almost no one in the entertainment industry believes them.

They argue that ABC is simply leaving too much potential money on the table - $100 million a year or more - by not joining NBC and CBS in providing a regular late-night entertainment show. The network, they say, has to be thinking of finding some star or stars who could compete with Jay Leno and David Letterman.

And it's not as though ABC has not made its inclinations clear already. Three years ago, ABC made an all-out effort to woo Mr. Letterman away from CBS during negotiations that were kept secret not only from Mr. Koppel but also from David Westin, the president of ABC News.

Robert A. Iger, who will be the next chairman of ABC's parent company, Walt Disney, was overtly involved in the effort to secure Mr. Letterman. At the time, he and other ABC executives gave Mr. Letterman's representatives assurances that plans were in place to make a change at 11:35 even if Mr. Letterman did not sign on.

"They told us, 'We are getting someone else for the time slot,' " Rob Burnett, Mr. Letterman's executive producer, said at the time. "I heard that myself."

Then, as recently as last year, ABC made discreet overtures to representatives of Conan O'Brien to indicate the network might be interested in offering him the 11:35 position, should he not extend his contract at NBC. That option was foreclosed when NBC made Mr. O'Brien an offer he couldn't refuse: the "Tonight" show, starting in 2009 at the end of Jay Leno's latest deal.

The issue for ABC, several television executives and talent agents said yesterday, is that with Mr. O'Brien out of the running, no obvious host is available who would have the stature to take on the two late-night stars at CBS and NBC.

The next most logical name is Jon Stewart, host of the widely acclaimed "Daily Show" on the Comedy Central cable channel. But Mr. Stewart signed a new four-year deal with that channel a year ago. Because both Comedy Central and CBS are owned by Viacom, Mr. Stewart is already in line to be an 11:35 host at some point if Mr. Letterman were to step down. When Mr. Letterman was close to jumping to ABC, Leslie Moonves, the chairman of CBS, was prepared to name Mr. Stewart his new host instantly.

Mr. Moonves and the other Viacom executives would have no incentive to allow Mr. Stewart out of his contract to become a late-night competitor on ABC, even if he were inclined to take the job. Close associates of Mr. Stewart said yesterday that they believed that he would not be, because he enjoys his current job so much.

Mr. Stewart was also passed over by ABC three years ago when the network selected Jimmy Kimmel as host of a late-night entertainment show for the midnight hour. Mr. Kimmel himself could be a potential selection for an 11:35 show, if ABC began to feel more confident he could grow in the ratings. His show has been producing steady but unspectacular audiences, and continues to lose money for ABC.

A possible course for the network could be to try a news show for a time and see if Mr. Kimmel makes enough progress to slide up to 11:35 at some later point.

Another alternative, and possibly the best one for ABC, is Ellen DeGeneres, who has impressed viewers and critics with her daytime talk show, which has as its format a comedy monologue followed by guest interviews, like most late-night shows. A woman might be the ideal way to compete against the two male stars in late night, and Ms. DeGeneres is considered clearly the best female comic working in television.

She is also under contract, to Warner Brothers television studio, at least through next year, according to a Warner spokesman. But whether she could - or would - make a jump to a network after that is uncertain. Without a star who has handled the traditional late-night format, ABC would be groping in the dark for a host, an approach that has failed far more times than it has worked, most famously with Chevy Chase on the Fox network.

Few stars have proved able to handle the demands of the five-night-a-week format.

But several executives noted that in one way ABC's timing is not bad. It may find itself looking for a late-night comedy star at the same time few comedies are working anywhere on television.
As one longtime late-night producer put it: "Sitcoms are not occupying very many stars anymore. Lots of them are available."

The late-night option has already piqued the interest of several less obvious potential hosts. When CBS was looking last year for someone to star in the show that follows Mr. Letterman's, producers approached Matthew Perry, one of the stars of "Friends."

He was genuinely interested, they reported, though he was concerned about how it might affect his film career. Of course, it would end that. Being a late-night host leaves no time for almost anything else.

The same issue was a stumbling block for David Duchovny, the star of "The X-Files" who has been a consistently funny guest on late-night shows and made a strong impression filling in for CBS last year on the network's 12:35 show. He also expressed serious interest in a late-night assignment.

Whether either of those stars, or some other suddenly free sit-com star, like Ray Romano, would want to try his hand at 11:35 stardom, is likely to be grist for ABC's long-term strategizing.

But any choice the network makes to replace Mr. Koppel, in news or entertainment, entails risk. The wrong choice could be disastrous for ABC. A failing show at 11:35 might leave the network vulnerable to losing the time to affiliated stations, which could make more money with syndicated programming in that hour.

ABC has no interest in that possibility.

Ted Koppel To Leave ABC As 'Nightline' Changes Format
By Howard Kurtz Washington Post Staff Writer Friday, April 1, 2005; Page C01

Ted Koppel said yesterday he is leaving ABC News, ending a 42-year career and a quarter-century run as anchor of "Nightline," because he does not want to do it in the live hour-long format the network is planning.

"I really don't think there's anything else at ABC I would find as interesting or as challenging," Koppel said in an interview, adding: "Of course it's difficult. . . . It will be very hard to leave friends and colleagues behind. But in the words of an old song, you've gotta know when to hold 'em and know when to fold 'em."

The 65-year-old Koppel was offered the opportunity to become host of ABC's "This Week," the Sunday morning program that has struggled in the ratings under George Stephanopoulos, but was not enthusiastic about joining the crowded Sunday field and turned it down. Koppel is expected to stay on the air until his contract expires Dec. 4.

ABC News President David Westin said his "first choice" was for Koppel to remain at "Nightline." "Ted ultimately concluded it was time for him to leave," Westin said. "I respect him for that decision, and I admire him for being willing to leave."

Asked about Westin's plans for the award-winning program, which over the years has evolved from always live to generally taped, Koppel said: "David offered me the opportunity to continue on 'Nightline,' but it would have to have been on the basis of a one-hour program, doing it live five days a week. I've been doing it for 25 years. I'm now at a stage of life where it's not something I feel I can do anymore."

Westin said he feels strongly that "the program has to be live more often than it's taped" because it has shown "a tendency to go off the news" with features and documentaries. "If you have a program in the can, already taped, it puts a higher bar on when you'll open the program up" to go live, even when news develops in the evening, he said.

Asked if officials at the Disney-owned network, who tried to replace his show in 2002 with comedian David Letterman, were insisting on a format they knew he would reject, Koppel said: "I can't entirely disagree with that interpretation." He said of Westin: "I think David knew when he cited those conditions that they would not be exciting to me." But Koppel said he did not feel he was being forced out.

Koppel's impending departure accelerates a generational passing of superstar anchors in which NBC's Tom Brokaw, 64, and CBS's Dan Rather, 73, have stepped down in the past four months.

Tom Bettag, Koppel's longtime producer, who will quit at the same time, said he is "very bullish" on the future of "Nightline": "Ted and I leave saying that this team is perfectly capable of doing a great broadcast and keeping the tradition going after us." Bettag said that anchoring five live broadcasts a week "is a staggering task, physically demanding, that didn't work for Ted" and that they would make an "aggressive" proposal for a new journalistic venture outside ABC.

"We may crash and burn, but we're at a stage in life where we can take that chance," Bettag said.
Westin said he is "confident," after speaking with Anne Sweeney, co-chairman of Disney's Media Networks division, that "Nightline" will retain the 11:35 p.m. time slot, rather than forfeit it to an entertainment or sports show, as the company had been contemplating. But the shape of the new "Nightline" remains up for grabs.

Widely considered one of the most serious and far-ranging programs in television news, "Nightline" draws 3.7 million viewers -- down about 4 percent since last year -- compared with 5.8 million for NBC's "Tonight Show With Jay Leno" and 4.6 million for CBS's "Late Show With David Letterman."

"Nightline" will need a new host, or more likely, an ensemble of hosts. These could include Chris Bury, who has long been Koppel's principal substitute, or Stephanopoulos, the former Clinton White House aide whose show has slid to third in the Sunday morning ratings since he succeeded Sam Donaldson and Cokie Roberts three years ago. Stephanopoulos declined to comment. Westin, for his part, said Stephanopoulos "has grown enormously" and will continue to fill in at "Nightline." "I have complete confidence in him," Westin said.

One ABC executive, who declined to be identified while discussing sensitive personnel matters, said: "If George was pushed aside for Ted, that doesn't say George isn't good. It says there was a huge heavyweight they wanted to keep at the network."
After Westin solicited proposals for revamping "Nightline," several videotapes were made as prototypes of a faster-paced program. One from the existing staff, dubbed the "Washington proposal," featured Bury, John Donvan, Michel Martin, Jake Tapper and Laura Marquez as a rotating corps of correspondents in the "60 Minutes" mold. It mixed hard news with features, including a profile of the pop singer Beck, along with a brief look at "what's on your iPod."

Two other videotapes, made in New York, were called the "Times Square proposal." One paired Tapper, a former Salon.com correspondent, with Bill Weir, co-host of the weekend "Good Morning America." The other, as reported by Broadcasting & Cable, used a nightclub set with a live audience, jazz quintet and smoke machine, and was hosted by reporters John Berman and Jessica Yellin.

Koppel said he has long been working on a smooth transition, which he signaled five years ago by cutting back to anchoring three nights a week. "I'm confident, if given the opportunity, they can make a go of it," he said, although the conditions for a retooled "Nightline" are "clearly not under my control."

Westin said the show will likely stay in Washington and "remain a program of substance" based on reporting. "The key DNA will remain," he said. Westin added that the half-hour show could not expand to an hour until ABC affiliates are persuaded to carry the second half.

Bury said he and the staff have been "working through a number of ideas" that would take the show "in a new direction" while "keeping the basic faith that Ted has laid out." He described his longtime boss as "extremely fair and nuanced and smart."

Launched in 1979 as "America Held Hostage" during the Iranian hostage crisis, "Nightline" under Koppel scored interviews with the likes of Nelson Mandela and Muhammad Ali, Larry Flynt and Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker, and a bevy of presidential and vice presidential candidates. Koppel pressed Gary Hart about adultery, told Michael Dukakis he didn't understand why his campaign was failing, and hit the road last year with John Kerry. The onetime Vietnam War and State Department correspondent loved to parachute into hot spots around the country and the world, tackling difficult subjects from AIDS in Zimbabwe to prison violence to race relations, and covered the Iraq war as an embedded correspondent in 2003.

Koppel has won 41 Emmy awards, 11 George Foster Peabody awards, 12 duPont-Columbia awards, 10 Overseas Press Club awards and two George Polk awards, mostly for his "Nightline" work.

" 'Nightline' invented a lot of what the cable model is," said CNN anchor Aaron Brown, who occasionally hosted the program while at ABC. Koppel "did it for 25 years better than any of us can do it. . . . He blended his incredible confidence -- he's the most confident person I've ever known in my life -- to conduct a live interview program with his reportorial talents."

Former "Nightline" producer Leroy Sievers recalled being "in the field with him in Iraq, Somalia, Kosovo. He could write on the fly. What Ted liked to do most is head out, and whatever happened that day is what we'd report, which is a little scary because there's no safety net."

Koppel rejected criticism that "Nightline" became less unique as the rise of the 24-hour cable networks made the live satellite interviews he helped pioneer a television staple. "Tell me a program out there that does one subject for a half-hour a night," he said.

But he understands that the economics of television have been working against him. "My salary has been going up for 25 years," Koppel said. "I'm an expensive commodity. It is in the nature of all news programs . . . and whether you look at Letterman's numbers, the 'Tonight Show's' numbers, 'Nightline's' numbers -- all have been going down because television has become fragmented. . . . In the last few years, we have been hurt by the fact that ABC's prime-time ratings have been in the tank."

Another possible factor in the decline, Koppel said, is that "perhaps people are getting tired of the program."

Fox is milking 'Malcolm'
Show eyes final year

From Variety.com

"Malcolm's" still in the middle of Fox's lineup -- at least for one more year. Fox has ordered a seventh season of long-running laffer hit "Malcolm in the Middle," which creator-exec producer Linwood Boomer said will likely be the show's last.

Thursday’s network prime-time ratings have been posted at the top of Latest News, the first item in this thread.

O'Brien Will Return to 'Insider'

(zap2it.com)--"The Insider" anchor Pat O'Brien will likely be back in front of the camera by May.

The 57-year-old O'Brien, who checked himself into an alcohol rehab program in late March, is set to complete the program and return to the syndicated showbiz-news program in time for May sweeps, the New York Post reports. He's also likely to be the subject of a sit-down interview upon his return.

A number of would-be interviewers are angling for the get, but the paper reports that talk-show host Dr. Phil McGraw is the favorite. Both McGraw's show and "The Insider" are distributed by divisions of megia giant Viacom.

Ken Sunshine, O'Brien's spokesman, tells the Post that nothing's been settled yet.

O'Brien checked into rehab on March 20, saying that getting past the problem "is a top priority in my life." At the same time, he was facing the revelation of voice-mail recordings, reportedly left by O'Brien for a female acquaintance, that graphically describe a number of sex acts.

"Insider" co-anchor Lara Spencer has been hosting the show solo for the past couple of weeks.

Payback: 'CSI' trumping 'Apprentice'
CBS drama returns with a vengeance, taking night
By Diego Vasquez medialifemagazine.com

Last year, all the talk was over how NBC’s “Apprentice” was beating “CSI” week after week among adults 18-49, something no other show had ever managed.

This year, all that talk has been silenced. “CSI” has regained its dominant position and then some as “Apprentice” continues its very fast fade.

Last night “CSI” returned to the CBS lineup after two weeks off because of the network’s NCAA men’s basketball tournament coverage. The original episode delivered strong ratings, according to Nielsen overnights, averaging a 9.8 among 18-49s, 6.5 percent higher than its season average of 9.2 and easily the night’s highest-rated show in the demo.

By comparison, “Apprentice” averaged a 6.0, 4.1 points behind last year’s 10.1 average.

Last season “CSI” averaged an 8.1 rating among viewers 18-49, tied for No. 5 for the season on broadcast with CBS’s own “Survivor: All-Stars.” “Apprentice” ranked No. 3 behind both “American Idol” editions.

Season-to-date this year, “CSI” has averaged a 9.2 rating, up 13.6 percent versus last season. “The Apprentice” is down 31 percent to a 7.0 average and dropping.

Friday’s network prime-time ratings have been delayed. I’ll post them when they are available.

Friday’s network prime-time ratings have been posted at the top of Latest News, the first item in this thread.

How “Cold Case” Evolved Into a Top 20 Show
Bringing Back the Dead for Some Detective Work
By JOE RHODES The New York Times April 3, 2005

It was the kind of pitch that Jonathan Littman, point man for the producer Jerry Bruckheimer's ever-expanding television empire, had heard - and rejected - a dozen times before.

"Everyone's pitched the cold-case idea - it's a perennial," he was saying, describing his state of mind in 2002, before his first meeting about what would become the show "Cold Case." The writer, Meredith Stiehm, was then 33 years old; she had written for "ER," "Beverly Hills 90210" and "NYPD Blue," but had never created her own show.

"I had no idea that they get this pitch every year," she said in an interview at the "Cold Case" production office. "And their response is always the same: 'What's the urgency? Why should we care about something that happened 20 years ago? Why would we want to take on that case now and solve it immediately?' And it's a very good question."

But Ms. Stiehm, unlike her predecessors, had an answer. She had been fascinated by the coverage of the Martha Moxley case in Connecticut, in which a 41-year-old nephew of Ethel Kennedy, Michael C. Skakel, was convicted in 2002 for a murder that had occurred in 1975, when he and the victim were only 15.

"The images fascinated me," she said. "The idea that we're all so different than we were in our past, yet we're accountable for our actions," she continued. "It was all about what time has done to people, how it changes them."

"So my answer to the urgency question was: 'Let's go meet this person who died 20 years ago, or 30 years ago. Let's see them at their best emotional moments so that we care about them.' "

It was that flashback idea that caught Mr. Littman's attention: the notion that every episode would start with a cold-case file, a forgotten victim brought back to life through a series of flashbacks, with period music and time-specific visual cues - clothes, cars, magazine covers - recreating the crime and the witnesses, then revealing, ultimately, the killer. As the story moves present to past and back again, characters (usually played by two actors) morph from their present-day to their flashback selves.

"I knew immediately that we had a hook," he said, "a way to connect the present to the past."

"Cold Case," approaching the end of its second season , has been a consistent Sunday-night hit for CBS since its premiere in September 2003 with an episode that closely paralleled the Skakel case. The show, starring Kathryn Morris as Lilly Rush, the only female detective on the Philadelphia homicide squad, hasn't had the splashy, heavily promoted visibility of the other Bruckheimer-produced CBS dramas - the three "CSI" blockbusters and "Without a Trace" - but it has averaged more than 15 million viewers a week, steadily ranks in the Nielsen Top 20 and has climbed into the Top 10 on more than a few occasions.

"There's something universal about the idea that we all have to deal with our past," Mr. Littman said, explaining why "Cold Case" seems to have such a loyal audience. It's also one of the most musically distinctive shows on television, with bursts of instantly recognizable period music permeating the episodes - everything from "I Wanna Be Sedated" to "Total Eclipse of the Heart." These tunes are matched with often-gimmicky flashback cinematography, like supersaturated Ektachrome to represent the 70's, blurry psychedelia for the 60's and sepia tones for the 40's.

Like "Without a Trace" and the "CSI" franchises, "Cold Case" is an amped-up version of a nuts-and-bolts, just-the-facts-ma'am cop show. Only louder and with brighter colors. "We put a lot of emphasis on visual storytelling," Mr. Littman said. "One of the things Jerry says is that this is not radio. He wants the audience to have a reason to watch the show, not just listen to it."

Mr. Bruckheimer said that it is no accident that his most successful dramas are, essentially, straight-ahead mysteries. "If you look at the New York Times best-seller list on any given week, 8 of the top 15 are mysteries of some sort. So it's a genre that audiences respond to."

When putting together "Cold Case," Ms. Stiehm soon learned that, beyond the necessity for visual fireworks, there was one other inviolable mantra for producing a Bruckheimer show: no loose ends.

"The one mandate I did get was that they needed to be stand-alone episodes," she said, admitting that her writing style, honed at "NYPD Blue," where story arcs often stretched multiple episodes and hinged as much on character and dialogue as they did on plot, required some adjustments.

"After you come home from a long day's work, you want resolution," Mr. Bruckheimer said. "All our lives are ongoing, never-ending dramas. So we want something that, at the end of the hour, justice is served. Nobody wants to be left hanging."

Still, Ms. Stiehm has begun stretching the format as much as she can. She has slowly worked in more subplots involving the detectives' personal lives, and the shows have started taking on more ambitious subject matter, including tonight's episode "Strange Fruit," which centers on the 1963 civil rights march on Washington. Also on tap are episodes that change the musical formula, including a show using songs only by John Mellencamp and another built around the soundtrack of "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" and featuring Barry Bostwick, who starred in that 1975 film.

"I'm thrilled with the parameters we're working in," said Nina Tassler, the CBS Entertainment president, when asked if the network's successful, process-heavy dramas - including non-Bruckheimer productions like "Numbers" and "NCIS" - were relying too heavily on a basic formula.

"that the fact that the audience is growing for these shows certainly indicates that they haven't grown tired of them," she said. "On 'Cold Case,' in particular, the writers have been dabbling with very gradually peeling back the layers of some of the characters, and I think that's exciting. But the show is, first and foremost, about the cases. That's the signature of the show and what it will always be."

Saturday’s network prime-time ratings have been posted at the top of Latest News, the first item in this thread.

Pope Had Message for Media

By John Eggerton Broadcasting & Cable

According to Archbishop John Foley, president of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, one of the last official documents issued by the Pope was an Apostolic Letter "to those responsible for communications."

The Pontiff offered to issue the letter, which he did between hospital stays in late January, after talking with Archbishop Foley about the appropriate commemoration of the Feast of Saint Francis DeSales. Saint Francis is the Patron Saint of journalists. The Pope offered to draw up some guiding principles for a world of rapidly advancing media technology, which he did in a letter issued Jan. 24.

It seemed a fitting farewell from the Pope who, like the first Catholic President, John F. Kennedy, was the first to bring his high office fully into the TV age.

Following are a couple of particularly telling passages from the Pope's letter.

The first is a general statement of principle, and the second a passage on media ownership that could have been drafted by Andrew Schwartzman of Media Access Project:

"The mass media can and must promote justice and solidarity according to an organic and correct vision of human development by reporting events accurately and truthfully, analyzing situations and problems completely, and providing a forum for different opinions. An authentically ethical approach to using the powerful communication media must be situated within the context of a mature exercise of freedom and responsibility, founded upon the supreme criteria of truth and justice."

And this on ownership:

"I would like to recall our attention to the subject of media access, and of co-responsible participation in their administration. If the communications media are a good destined for all humanity, then ever-new means must be found – including recourse to opportune legislative measures – to make possible a true participation in their management by all. The culture of co-responsibility must be nurtured."

CNN, where Foley talked of the appropriateness of the media-friendly Pontiff's letter, also managed to raise the level of its coverage through the commentary of Monsignor Lorenzo Albacete, a New York Times columnist and friend of the Pope.

Monsignor Albacete, asked about the Pope's sense of humor, said that he had one time discussed with the Pontiff CNN's standing invitation to Albacete to talk about the Pope's legacy after he passed away. The Pontiff had asked how Albacete could be so sure he wouldn't die first. Albacete replied that if he went first, the Pope should go on CNN and talk about him.

Albacete also talked of the Pope's love of drama and poetry--the Pontiff was a former actor--and his belief that it was the purest way to communicate the love of God. "Now," Albacete said, the curtain is down and we wait for the reviews. But all I can say is 'Great Show, Great Show,' and 'thanks.'

The full text of the letter can be found at :
http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/apost_letters/documents/hf_jp-ii_apl_20050124_il-rapido-sviluppo_en.html

Midseason malaise
Series start fast, skid into soph slump

By JOSEF ADALIAN variety.com

First impressions don't mean much when it comes to TV's latest crop of midseason comedies and dramas.

Consider NBC's critically admired remake of "The Office." Strong sampling on March 24 for a special Thursday night preview had the Peacock crowing on air that the show was "the surprise comedy hit of the season." Five days later, when the show bowed in its regular Tuesday slot, it lost half its audience and finished in fourth place.

Webheads wowed by early ratings for a number of other newcomers have seen that initial optimism dashed as audiences have decided to bail on the spring tryouts:

Steven Bochco's ABC drama "Blind Justice" had a solid debut the week after "NYPD Blue" left the air. As soon as NBC's "Law & Order: SVU" returned with original episodes last week, however, the skein took a nosedive.

Fox's "Point Pleasant" started strong after "American Idol" and even did OK when it first followed "The OC" Within a few weeks, viewers gave up on the confusing plotline. It's already been canceled.

The latest "Law & Order" series, "Trial by Jury," gave NBC some of its best Friday numbers in years when it premiered. By its second week, it was losing to CBS' own midseason crime drama, "Numb3rs." (Latter skein also has lost steam since its premiere but is doing fine).

One reason for the spate of false-positives is that many nets are previewing shows in primo timeslots, then moving them to more difficult slots. Such a strategy gets shows sampled, but it risks confusing viewers.
In any event, even though network PR and promo units are quick to tout early numbers, web insiders say it's all a front.

"There's a difference between what we put out to the press and what we think inside," says one network wag. "We don't do any (celebrating) until at least week two. It's not a hit unless you know it has legs."

Streaming through the television clutter
To build a buzz and get new fans, networks are allowing access to full episodes of shows for online viewing
By Maureen Ryan Chicago TribuneApril 4, 2005

It looks as if television networks have embraced an idea that record companies still find difficult to accept: Giving away your product — temporarily, anyway — can be a great promotional tool.

In recent weeks, the season premieres of Showtime's "Fat Actress" and Bravo's "Project Greenlight" were made available for online viewing on the day of their television premieres and for a week thereafter.

In the month that the season premiere of Sci Fi's "Battlestar Galactica" has been available for online streaming (i.e., viewing without permanently downloading), the episode has been accessed more than 150,000 times. "Fat Actress" was streamed by Yahoo users more than 175,000 times in the first two days that it was available, according to the market research firm comScore.

Last year, AOL kick-started the trend by putting entire episodes of "Everwood" and "Jack & Bobby" online; the latter debuted on AOL several weeks before it premiered on the WB and was streamed 700,000 times in one week by AOL members.

"Networks are more and more excited to take part in these types of promotions," says Patricia Karpas, vice president and general manager of AOL Television, which gave "Project Greenlight" its online premiere March 15.

"They see it as a way to break out and break through the clutter."

"People are getting used to watching longer things on their computers," says Bob Greenblatt, president of entertainment at Showtime, which debuted "Fat Actress" on the network and on Yahoo on March 7. As a pay-cable network, Greenblatt says, Showtime wasn't too concerned about online viewership cutting into ratings. Besides, the exposure the show got from being promoted on the site was invaluable.

"It doesn't cost you the money it takes to put a DVD in a magazine," which Showtime did last fall with "Huff," Greenblatt says. "But we needed people to be able to see this show, to get a sense of what it was, in order to get them to a much more exhaustive process, which is making a purchase" of a subscription to Showtime.

"You don't get a show's content in a 30-second [commercial] spot," says Jason Klarman, senior vice president of marketing at Bravo, which streamed an episode of "Queer Eye for the Straight Girl" on AOL in January. "If you believe the content is good, and we believe it is, there's no better marketing vehicle" than the show itself.

But putting a program online should be part of a larger online strategy and marketing plan, executives say.

"What you really try to do when you create these experiences is not only air the full episode, you give people the opportunity to write a review or go on the message boards or sign up for alerts," AOL's Karpas says.

Building online buzz by putting full episodes online has become such a hot marketing tool that there's speculation the BBC was behind the recent "unauthorized" online release of an episode of its new "Dr. Who" series. But the BBC denied to Wired News that an in-house "viral marketing" plan was responsible for the show's premature online debut.

Sunday’s network prime-time ratings have been posted at the top of Latest News, the first item in this thread.

ABC Could Still Score NFL

By John Consoli mediaweek.com April 04, 2005

Don't count ABC out just yet as an NFL telecaster under the new TV rights agreement beginning with the 2006 season (Mediaweek, March 28). While sister network ESPN wants--and is the frontrunner to get--the NFL's Monday-night games through 2011, word from sources close to the negotiations is that ABC, the current Monday-night incumbent, wants the NFL Sunday-night games under the new rights agreement.

What is stalling the conclusion of a deal with ABC/ESPN parent Walt Disney Co. is how much each network should pay, although the NFL is amenable to working out a deal with ABC for several reasons. The NFL would prefer to spread its coverage around the various networks. That would preclude Fox and CBS from getting the Sunday-night games, since each will continue to televise Sunday-afternoon games under their new contracts. And NBC is not expected to bid close to the amount the NFL is seeking for Sunday night. Also, the NFL and ABC have been partners on Monday Night Football since 1970, making it the longest-running prime-time show in TV history, a fact that NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue stressed when asked about the negotiations.

According to sources close to the negotiations, the NFL wants to move the Sunday-night cable window to Monday night, meaning it could be sold either as one package or two half-season packages. ESPN is currently paying $600 million for both halves on Sunday, and the NFL wants $900 million for both halves under the new Monday scenario. Disney seems willing to pay the $900 million for ESPN to carry Monday nights, if the NFL is willing to take $400 million for the new Sunday-night broadcast window.

That would be $150 million less than the $550 million per year ABC is now paying for its Monday-night rights (and the amount ABC is reportedly losing each year on its current contract). That means the NFL would receive only an additional $150 million per year for the combined packages under the new agreement, but it wants more. CBS is paying $122 million more per year under its new contract with the NFL, while Fox is paying $162 million a year more.

But a source familiar with the negotiations said, &ldquoThe likelihood of the NFL doing a deal with ABC is better than a lot of people are predicting.” Were ABC to offer $450 million per year, it would mean the NFL would take in $200 million more per season for both packages, or $1.2 billion over the six years of the new contract.

No one from Disney or ABC Sports would comment for attribution, but one ABC Sports insider confirmed that negotiations with the NFL are ongoing for both ABC and ESPN. “There are a lot of rumors and scenarios out there right now,” he said. “The only ones who really know what’s going on are Paul Tagliabue and [Disney CEO] Bob Iger.”

ABC has a new hit in 'Grey's Anatomy'
Even stronger second outing following 'Housewives'
medialifemagazine.com---Going into last night’s second episode of ABC’s “Grey’s Anatomy,” the question was whether it could hold the promising audience it earned as the lead-out to “Desperate Housewives” last week.

Not only did the show hold its 18-49 audience, it built on it --and with no improvement from its “Housewives” lead-in -- “Anatomy” boosted its total viewers from 16.2 million last week to 18.2 million last night, as well as its rating among 18-49s from 7.2 to 7.9. Making that feat more impressive is that fact that “Desperate Housewives” averaged a 10.7 among 18-49s both nights.

Further, last night’s 7.9 average for “Grey’s Anatomy” was a 61.2 percent increase on what “Boston Legal” had averaged season-to-date in the same 10 p.m. timeslot.

The show had received decent reviews but nothing really to suggest that it could put up numbers comparable to another ABC first-year show, “Lost,” which averages a 6.0 on Wednesdays.

Barring a total collapse in the next two weeks of its limited run, “Grey’s” will certainly return next season, perhaps bumping “Boston” to another night.

Taps for JAG
By John Eggerton Broadcasting & Cable
CBS will muster out drama JAG after 10 seasons.

Only nine were on CBS, though. The series, about military attorneys with the Judge Advocate General's office, debuted on NBC, which didn't pick it up. CBS saw a potential fit with its older-skewing audience and the move paid off. CBS says the Friday, April 29, episode will be its last.

The series has always had a strong following with older viewers, but has not made similar inroads with the key 18-49 demo.

"In my opening days at CBS, we needed to rebuild; we needed compelling, well-produced shows that would appeal to a wide audience," said CBS Chairman Leslie Moonves. "JAG was one of the first series to fill that void, making an immediate impact on Friday nights."

JAG, which is produced by Paramount (co-owned with CBS), airs in syndication on Hallmark Channel and USA Network.

It'll be interesting to see what CBS places in the JAG Friday timeslot.

TV's Latest Obsession Seems to Be Television
By DAVID CARR The New York Times April 5, 2005


For decades, Hollywood enticed audiences by creating television shows that promised them a clear view into the inner workings of police stations, hospitals and law offices. But after dozens of shows pulled back the curtains on those professions, their mystery and allure began to fade. So, locked in the writing room, sitting through endless pitch meetings, Hollywood found gold, or at least dramatic fodder, in its own bellybutton.

Now all kinds of Hollywood procedurals are sprouting on television, offering shows that render the entertainment business in all of its tawdry glory. HBO's "Entourage" pivots around an entitled posse trailing in the wake of the industry's next bright young thing. "Fat Actress," which began recently on Showtime, follows the corpulent arc of a barely fictionalized Kirstie Alley as she tries to revive her career. Lisa Kudrow will try a thinner version of the same premise on "Comeback," which will be on HBO this spring.

Earlier this season, HBO weighed in with "Unscripted"; while the dialogue in the series, produced by Steven Soderbergh and George Clooney, may have been unscripted, the story lines about young actors trying to claw their way into the business were carefully wrought critiques of some of show business's more mundanely brutal aspects.

And the trend is not restricted to cable television. Last month, ABC trotted out "Jake in Progress," a weekly portrait of a press agent who specializes in repairing the train wrecks celebrities often make of their lives.

These shows-about-shows are distinct from productions that merely perform lurid taxonomy on celebrities. "The Osbournes" is a show about a highly dysfunctional family that happens to be led by a onetime rock god now gone to seed, while "The Simple Life" is about celebrities-in-training behaving badly. But there is a group of shows that take an anthropological approach, examining celebrities or people playing celebrities in a cultural context that is meant to critique and send up modern show business.

While "Fat Actress" may be nominally about Kirstie Alley, it has the larger ambition of showing how shallow and objectifying television and film executives can be. Though that could hardly rate as an epiphany - the Beautiful People will always be beautiful - the show, along with "Jake in Progress" and "Entourage," presumes a public interest in the folkways of show business. It is a gamble - watching a show that happens to be about a comic or a television writer is a fundamentally different experience from spending time staring at the inner workings of a business that makes its living by creating illusion. The realities of any business - whether rendered as reality, faux-reality or drama - are not necessarily intrinsically interesting.

Like most things on television, the shows are hardly without precedent. In the 1990's HBO delivered "The Larry Sanders Show," a dark look at the bright lights of a television talk show, which was a huge industry favorite but met with indifference from audiences. More recently "Curb Your Enthusiasm" has found a significant cult of viewers for Larry David's daily adventures in modern Los Angeles living.

And those who would suggest that shows about show business are one more sign of the bankruptcy of the entertainment industry would do well to recall that "The Dick Van Dyke Show," "I Love Lucy" and "The Mary Tyler Moore Show," the holy trinity of the modern sitcom, all had their roots in the media-entertainment complex. And let's not forget that "Seinfeld," which may have been less about the entertainment business than nothing in particular, still used the life of a comic as its chief framing device. But the newer crop of shows are more apt to head right into the entrails of the entertainment business in search of laughs. And part of their appeal is that they go a long way toward life-sizing celebrities and their daily lives.

"Larry shows that people actually live in Hollywood, and those people can be just as ordinary in their eccentricities," Chris Albrecht, the chairman of HBO, said in a reference to Mr. David's show. After a decade of intense celebrity coverage in magazines like Us Weekly and Entertainment Weekly, and nightly doses of industrial-strength news on "Access Hollywood" and "Entertainment Tonight," producers are betting that audiences are in on the joke and ready to laugh about it.

"A generation ago, the sum total of what people knew about show business was what they heard discussed on the Johnny Carson show every night," said Robert J. Thompson, a professor of media and popular culture at Syracuse University. "Now there are 24-hour television channels dedicated to entertainment news."

The ubiquity of the coverage may have those being covered wondering why they should not have a piece of the pie.

"Kirstie Alley has already been starring in a show called 'Fat Actress' for the past four years," Mr. Thompson said, pointing to the relentless coverage of her ballooning figure and shrinking prospects. "It is just now she is the one who should be writing the story and getting a piece of the action."

But just because increasing numbers of Hollywood writers are adhering to the dictum "write what you know" does not mean that people will tune in by the millions. The ratings of "Fat Actress" dropped significantly after its first episode, "Entourage" is still looking for its own audience on HBO, and "Jake in Progress" has not been piling up big numbers either.

In the first episode of "Fat Actress," Ms. Alley (playing herself) tries to talk John Travolta (playing himself) into making "Look Whose Talking 4" before meeting with the NBC executive Jeffrey Zucker (playing himself), who plays a video game under his desk while Ms. Alley prattles on.

In "Jake in Progress," two competing press agents taunt each other about who has the better items on Page Six, the celebrity-obsessed gossip column of The New York Post. "Entourage" features a heavy-lidded star who is more interested in car shopping with his buddies from back home than reading the scripts that are sent to him. This may convulse industry insiders with laughter, but questions remain about whether viewers are interested in watching the show business sausage get made.

Austin Winsberg, an executive producer of "Jake in Progress," said that like many popular shows, "Jake" gains contemporary resonance by feeding off current events. " 'Law & Order' always takes these ripped-from-the-headlines news stories and uses them for dramatic effect," he said. "I thought it would be interesting to do the same thing for our show as well, but the headlines would be ripped from Entertainment Weekly or Us Weekly."

In that spirit, this season the show has done or will do a take on "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy," the December-May romance between Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher and the teen-queen throwdown between Hilary Duff and Lindsay Lohan.

"There is a very high interest in the mundane aspects of celebrity life," said Bonnie Fuller, editorial director of American Media, which publishes Star magazine. "Magazines like The Star have created interest not just in the glamorous parts of their life, but every other aspect as well."

Kurt Andersen, who wrote a very insiderish novel about the entertainment industry called "Turn of the Century," said that what had grown was not so much the public's appetite as the ability to segment and reach niche audiences. "There is always going to be a million or two million people who are sufficiently versed in the ins and outs of Hollywood, and the economics of cable allows you to reach those people and make a business of it," he said.

Robert Greenblatt, president of entertainment for Showtime Networks, said shows like "Fat Actress" needed to walk a fine line. "There is much more interest in the inner workings of the business, but we try to stay away from too much of that," he said. " 'Fat Actress' is about a comeback, which is pretty universal. More than that, I think that cable offers a more sophisticated audience that is tuned into this stuff."

But it is tough to swim in those waters without leaving the audience feeling it might need a shower afterward. "We are pretty careful of getting too inside," said Michael Hirschorn, an executive vice president at VH1, which has found success with "Celebrity Fit Club," "Celebrity Couples" and "The Surreal Life." "Viewers want to see the artist or celebrity go through the annealing, ennobling process of being a pop culture product. They aren't that hip to, or interested in, the business part of that."

Tom Hill, creative director of TV Land, a cable channel that features reruns, is not so sure there are many of the uninitiated left.

"When I talk to viewers, they know what acquisitions are, they know what a promo schedule is," he said. "We don't get as many innocent questions about why shows go away anymore. They know it's ratings."

"We're all insiders now," he said.

ABC's 'Grey' area
'Anatomy' adds muscle in second week

By RICK KISSELL Variety.com

ABC may have a scheduling dilemma on its hands after new medical drama "Grey's Anatomy" looked even stronger in its second Sunday outing.

The net is skedded to return "Boston Legal" to the 10 o'clock hour April 24, but Alphabet programmers must be considering an extension of the Sunday stay for "Grey's Anatomy," which is delivering the time period's best numbers in years.

On Sunday, according to preliminary nationals from Nielsen, ABC swept every half-hour in primetime among young adults, paced by another boffo score for "Desperate Housewives" and more big numbers for "Grey's," which became the first drama of the season -- new or returning -- to build its ratings from premiere week to its second telecast.

"Grey's Anatomy" registered an impressive 7.9 rating/19 share in adults 18-49 and 18.2 million viewers overall to dominate its time period. Even if it declines a tad in nationals -- likely since "Desperate Housewives" spilled over into the 10 o'clock hour by a couple of minutes -- "Grey's" will have grown by 7%-8% from its already strong bow.

ABC hasn't done better Sunday at 10 with a regular program since "The Practice" in May 2001.
"Desperate Housewives" matched its week-ago score to dominate at 9 (prelim 10.7/24 in 18-49, 24.4 million viewers overall), meaning "Grey's" held onto an even bigger chunk of its lead-in than last week's 67% retention. Previous slot occupant "Boston Legal" averaged roughly a 50% hold.

ABC execs soon must make a decision regarding "Grey's," which has long wrapped its 13-episode order. The show could either remain on Sunday, shift to another night for the May sweep (a dicey prospect for a new show) or end its run as planned after four episodes and return in the summer or fall with a surplus of fresh segs.

For its part, "Boston Legal" could return as planned to Sunday, play out its final episodes on another night (perhaps Tuesday at 10) or roll over any unaired episodes to its presumed second season.

Transition to Digital - Digital Tutorial
http://broadcastengineering.com/newsletters/t2d/20050404/#

Monday’s network prime-time ratings have been posted at the top of Latest News, the first item in this thread.

Peter Jennings Has Lung Cancer
By Allison Romano Broadcasting & Cable

ABC News said Tuesday that World News Tonight anchor Peter Jennings has been diagnosed with lung cancer. Jennings will begin out-patient chemotherapy treatment in New York next week and plans to continue broadcasting through his treatment, subject to his health.

Jennings told the World News Tonight staff of his condition before Monday’s broadcast.

“There will be good days and bad, which means that some days I may be cranky and some days really cranky!,” Jennings said in an email to colleagues. “Almost 10 million Americans are living with cancer. I am sure I will learn from them how to cope with the facts of life that none of us anticipated.”

ABC News says that Charlie Gibson, Elizabeth Vargas and others will substitute for Jennings when he does not feel well enough to anchor. In an email to staffers, division President David Westin said ABC News will support Jennings’ through his treatment and recovery.

“All of us at ABC News have watched over the years as Peter has led us on various assignments with strength and with courage. We’ve done our best to support him in these endeavors,” Westin sad. “Now, Peter’s been given a tough assignment.”

Jennings did not anchor several days last week and canceled an appearance at a TV industry event last Thursday. The network said he had a cold.

Jennings did not anchor ABC’s coverage of the death of Pope John Paul II Saturday. Bob Woodruff anchored instead with George Stephanopoulos in Rome.

Fred I would once again like to commend you for the articles you bring to this thread. They are a good read for me when I'm trying to eat my lunch in the middle of the workday.

Originally posted by AFH
It'll be interesting to see what CBS places in the JAG Friday timeslot.

They have a couple of supernatural shows in development(one with j.love hewitt, which is a ripoff of medium and one about the government and aliens - threshold starring carla gugino). CBS and supernatural generally don't go together, but everybody and their brother are trying to capitalize on the success of Lost.

I suspect that one of those shows will be in that timeslot at the start of next season and will be canceled within a few weeks. Friday night slots are the worst slots for scifi/fantasy television, yet networks continue to schedule good shows in those slots only to cancel them a few weeks later.

Originally posted by Rakesh.S
They have a couple of supernatural shows in development(one with j.love hewitt, which is a ripoff of medium and one about the government and aliens - threshold starring carla gugino).

As long as J Love Hewitt is wearing a tight shirt throughout each ep I'll be tuning in. :)


Originally posted by Rakesh.S
I suspect that one of those shows will be in that timeslot at the start of next season and will be canceled within a few weeks. Friday night slots are the worst slots for scifi/fantasy television, yet networks continue to schedule good shows in those slots only to cancel them a few weeks later.


Sometimes, especially in the case of Fox, I think they do this just to cancel a show. Maybe they don't want to order more eps or the net is pissed off at the developers, but some shows are setup to be canceled.

Thanks, AFH, it is good to hear a kind word now and again!

ABC Picks Up Foursome for Fall
By John Eggerton Broadcasting & Cable
ABC has picked up four dramas for fall: Hit freshmen shows Desperate Housewives and Lost, plus solid performers freshman Boston Legal and veteran Alias (now in its fourth year).

Housewives and Lost are effectively no-brainers in the pick-up department. They are the network's biggest hits--Housewives is the season's biggest new hit, period--while Practice spin-off Boston Legal has been number one in its Sunday 10 p.m. time period, helped by the audience delivered by Housewives, though in its two outings, new drama Grey's Anatomy has been scoring even bigger numbers.

If medical show Grey continues in that same vein, look for it to get an early pickup as well.

A story detailing last week's prime time ratings has been posted at the top of Latest News, the first item in this thread. The complete list will be posted later today.

Last week’s network prime-time ratings have been posted at the top of Latest News, the first item in this thread.

Each network’s top-five and bottom-five programs in last week’s prime-time ratings have been posted in Latest News, the first item in this thread.

CBS Scores Best NCAA Viewership Since 1998

(zap2it.com)--This spring's NCAA Tournament began with talk of a wide open field and general parity, but ended with a showdown between the Top Two teams in the final rankings. As North Carolina put the finishing touches on a championship season, CBS closed its most watched tournament since 1998.

An estimated 45.6 million viewers watched all or part of Monday (April 4) night's championship game, which saw the Tar Heels hold off Illinois for the crown. The 15.0 rating/23 share for the game was up by 36 percent over last season's title and that overall part-or-all audience was the largest since some 48 million tuned in to Kentucky's '98 tournament win over Utah.

In total, Nielsen figures guess that around 141.7 million viewers watched at least some portion of CBS' NCAA telecasts this spring, well above the 120.2 million who tuned in last season. The '98 tournament, apparently the benchmark for recent NCAA viewership, drew around 153.7 million.

In all, CBS averaged a 6.9/15 for tournament games through all rounds and all dayparts. That heavenly '98 postseason averaged a 7.3/17.

Brokaw quits.

Rather has a scandal and quits.

Jennings has lung cancer and -- sadly -- is very likely to be dead within 5 years (5-year survival is 14% and his cancer appears to have been caught a bit later than is desirable.)

The network evening news' big three were important. And while Brian Williams is apparently doing all right -- don't know personally as I last watched one of these shows in the early 1990s -- I'd say the era of the evening news on the networks is very, very much over.

(More details on ABC's announcements Tuesday -- and the outlook for some other on-the-bubble ABC programs.)

Dramatic gesture
'Desperate,' 'Lost' among four ABC renewals

By JOSEF ADALIAN variety.com

ABC is getting a head start on its 2005-06 scheduling, giving early renewals to four dramas. Frosh hours "Desperate Housewives," "Lost" and "Boston Legal" will all be back next season, while "Alias" has been given the go-ahead for its fifth season, the network said Tuesday. While not entirely unexpected, the advance thumbs-up will allow producers to begin planning and casting for next season.

While nothing's official yet, "Grey's Anatomy" also seems a shoo-in for renewal, barring an unexpected collapse. That would give ABC the distinction of returning four frosh hours -- the best development record of any net this season.

Renewals of "DH" and "Lost" were slam-dunks: Skeins are the two top drama frosh to emerge from the season and have played a key role in ABC's remarkable return from Nielsen hell.

David E. Kelley-produced "Boston Legal" also seemed likely to return, even though the recent boffo perf of "Grey's Anatomy" in "Legal's" 10 p.m. Sunday slot has presented Alphabet schedulers with something of a dilemma.

The "Alias" pickup, while expected, may have been less of a sure thing. Despite a strong re-launch and a boost from new lead-in "Lost," skein has come down to earth opposite competish from "American Idol," while series star Jennifer Garner might welcome the chance to focus on her burgeoning film career.

Ratings-wise, "DH" -- Golden Globe winner for comedy this year -- is the season's No. 1 new series of the season, with an average adults 18-49 rating of 10.0/22 share. Latter stat also makes the Sunday sudser TV's top-rated scripted series in the key demo.

"Legal," which followed "DH" for most of the season, is averaging a 4.9/12 in adults 18-49 and regularly wins its timeslot with aud gains of 49% vs. what "The Practice" averaged last year.

"Lost," with a 5.8/16 average in the young-adults demo, has boosted ABC's 8 p.m. Wednesday ratings by a staggering 61% vs. year-ago numbers and regularly demolishes its competish. "Alias" is averaging a 4.7/11 in the demo, a 34% gain from last year, and the show's best season-long ratings ever.

Still on the bubble at the Alphabet: Midseason hours "Blind Justice" and "Eyes," which have struggled.

Net also hasn't made any decisions yet on comedies. Both "8 Simple Rules" and "Less Than Perfect" remain question marks, as does Tuesday frosh "Rodney." ABC seems to have given up on "Savages," having failed to return the show to the sked following a February sweeps hiatus. Midseason laffer "Jake in Progress" has good buzz, but its performance on Thursday nights has been uneven.

Originally posted by fredfa


"Eyes," which have struggled.



Struggled?!?! For cripe's sakes, it's only been on once...wow, the TV business is brutal...

I think ABC expected almost a slam dunk with "Eyes".
It got good press (and lots of it) and then the premiere just tanked (finishing 50th for the week -- in the "Joan of Arcadia" and "Blind Justice" neighborhood..
So much of all this is like political primaries: it is simply exceeding expectations.

Originally posted by keenan
Struggled?!?! For cripe's sakes, it's only been on once...wow, the TV business is brutal...

That's just exactly what I was thinking.

Rogo,

Say it ain't so!

"Good night Chet.", "Good night David."

Paul

Tonight's episode of "The West Wing" is the season finale.
Although NBC has already announced it will be back next year, USA Today critic Robert Bianco thinks the series has outlived its story arc:

White House drama in need of term limits
By Robert Bianco USA TODAY

And the winner is � oh, who cares?

Viewers weren't wild about watching President Bartlet run for office � and they liked him. Why stick around to see his successor get elected?

For those who do, NBC's The West Wing picks a Democratic presidential nominee tonight in a sixth-season finale that has the odd distinction of being both too early and too late. Early, because it's only the first week in April; late, because the show should have ended two years ago when it lost its creator, its soul and its purpose.

Granted, this season, which split focus between Alan Alda's Republican candidate and Jimmy Smits' Democrat, is an improvement on the last, which had no focus at all. But the show is still only a patch on what it was when the now-banished Aaron Sorkin created it, and the prospects ahead look even bleaker. Couple a new fictional administration with new real-life budget cuts, and you have to figure we're going to see much less of the original stars than we'd like.

Other long-running shows have gone through drastic cast changes and survived, sometimes even prospered. But The West Wing is different from most ensemble dramas in that it isn't built around a workplace or crime-solving procedures. It may be set in the White House, but it is the story of one group of occupants, all of whom are connected to the Bartlet administration. Without them, you have the West Wing but not The West And this housecleaning is what NBC is trying to sell as a "creative revitalization"?

The truth is, under the guidance of ER producer John Wells, a show that was once TV's best drama has morphed into a second-rate White House version of ER. What made West Wing distinctive was not just Sorkin's gift for dialogue, it was also his vision. His show was a romance, a modern Three Musketeers hymn to the glory of civic service in which all the staffers were willing to sacrifice personal ambition for a common, greater good.

That vision is gone, and in its place is a perhaps more realistic but far less novel and involving story of a staff divided by internal and external politics. The show even made us endure a fight between Toby and Josh that has to rank as the last thing any fan ever wanted to see � unless that spot of dishonor is claimed by poor Leo's ludicrous weekend in Havana.

But the whole notion that people wanted to see West Wing elect a new president is simply beyond me. Viewers weren't wild about watching President Bartlet run for office � and they liked him. There was never any reason to think they'd be eager to watch his replacement be chosen.

None of this is to blame Smits or Alda, who have done their best to breathe life into roles that strain credibility. Nor is it to fault the remaining original cast members, who provide the only flashes of brilliance the show has left. But not every series is able to support an unlimited run.

West Wing began its life with an expiration date stamped on its electronic forehead: the end of the Bartlet administration. Creatively, it didn't even last that long.

For heaven's sake, NBC, stop trying to make it last longer.

Tuesday’s network prime-time program ratings have been posted in Latest News, the first item in this thread.

fredfa on the Shows "On Hiatus" list update Six Feet Under HBO HD to start June 6th 9pm per an email I got today from HBO. :D

Thanks for the heads up, cdp1276

FOX Makes Friday Movie Night

(zap2it.com)--The increasingly diminished returns on FOX's Friday schedule have led the network to abandon original programming on the night for the rest of the season. Starting April 15, FOX will air movies, including a couple of broadcast-net premieres, on Friday nights through the end of the season. "The Bernie Mac Show," currently the only first-run show in the Friday lineup, will end its season this week (April 8) after an abbreviated run of 12 episodes.

The shortened season was necessitated in part by Mac's bout with pneumonia last fall. The comic also suffers from sarcoidosis, a condition that can affect the lungs and other organs.

Fridays have long been a trouble spot for FOX for several seasons. "Bernie Mac" has averaged only about 5 million viewers so far this season, with recent episodes typically drawing only around 4 million people. Drama "Jonny Zero" also tanked this season, averaging only 3.6 million people per week before being cancelled.

The network's movie night will kick off on April 15 with the Adam Sandler comedy "Mr. Deeds." Broadcast premieres in the coming weeks include "Maid in Manhattan" on April 22 and "Shallow Hal" on May 20.

Disney May Switch N.F.L. Shows
SPORTS MEDIA AND BUSINESS
By RICHARD SANDOMIR The New York Times April 7, 2005

The National Football League usually announces its gaudy television deals in one cymbal-crashing day. Last Nov. 8, it completed deals with CBS and Fox to renew their Sunday afternoon packages through 2011. The total value was $8 billion. At the same time, the league increased its annual take from DirecTV by 75 percent when they extended their deal for $3.5 billion over five years.

Since then, nothing has happened - no Monday night or Sunday night deals, nothing on a possible late-season, eight-game Thursday-Saturday night slate. Right now, the league is biding its time with the slow-to-decide Disney, which chose not to renew its ABC and ESPN deals when CBS and Fox completed their pacts, and is undergoing a shift in chief executive to Robert A. Iger from Michael D. Eisner.

Disney's uncertainty is realistic: ABC has lost about $150 million annually on a "Monday Night Football" deal that pays the league $550 million a year. Disney may have erred in deferring a deal, because the N.F.L.'s demands go up, not down. But if ABC pulls out, does Iger want one of his first major decisions to be the network's parting with "Monday Night" after 35 years? Or will he risk being castigated for continuing to pay a fee that is guaranteed to maintain hefty losses?

The rampant speculation is that in talks with the league, Disney wants to shift ABC to Sunday night and ESPN to Monday night, giving its cable behemoth the marquee property it craves, a prime-time game on a day with no other games. For this, it appears that ESPN, because of revenues it gets from advertisers and subscribers, is willing to pay $900 million or even $1 billion annually through 2011.

ABC would like to snare Sunday night for as little as $450 million, which might displease the league, which hasn't reduced what it charges to a network since a small rollback in 1993. But if ESPN's bid keeps rising, the league might not be so hasty to dismiss ABC's lowball offer; it shouldn't care how the Disney money is allocated.

At $1.45 billion a year, Disney would pay 26 percent more than it pays now.

One factor that Iger must consider is whether it is worth replacing ABC's "Desperate Housewives"-led Sunday night schedule to accommodate football for six more years. The ladies of Wisteria Lane star in the No. 4-ranked prime-time show this year, the new "Grey's Anatomy" is No. 12 and "Extreme Makeover" is No. 22.
"Monday Night" ranks ninth.

By losing oodles of cash, ABC might have inadvertently created a bargaining chip as a bulwark against the pressure to pay an increase of 25 percent or 30 percent, as CBS and Fox have. "Monday Night" is financially diminished. A prime-time game on broadcast TV is not the magnet it was, on Monday or Sunday night, the latter after a day of afternoon football. So if ABC can't afford the overpriced package, why would it be any more valuable to others who know the financials?

The league has floated the notion of Fox and CBS splitting Sunday nights if ESPN takes over on Mondays. So far, the idea is still wafting about; but if Fox and CBS are willing, why would they want anything but discounted deals after paying a lot more to keep what they have in the afternoons. NBC, another Sunday night floatee, never does anything without a guarantee that it will not lose a cent. So if no one else wants to pay more than ABC, why drop ABC?

The notion of shifting "Monday Night" to ESPN rankles Al Michaels, its announcer since 1986 whose role, and John Madden's, might be imperiled if ABC does not continue with the N.F.L.

"Why put it on a sports cable network that says, 'Sports fans, this is heaven,' and the rest of you, 'Whatever,' " Michaels said from Los Angeles. "Our research says if people watch one game a week, it's 'Monday Night Football.' Women watch it. If I'm the N.F.L., I want the broadest audience."

If Disney puts $1 billion behind moving "Monday Night" to ESPN, it makes sense that it would demand protection against an established cable network, like TNT or USA, grabbing the proposed Thursday-Saturday package. That would open the door to putting games on the NFL Network, which would vastly increase its cable distribution and let it charge subscribers and advertisers considerably more.

The money wouldn't be guaranteed, as it is in a straight-rights fee, but the future profits, and the equity it builds, should satisfy the league. Whether the NFL Network morphs into an all-sports channel, in combination with News Corporation, the parent of Fox, or Comcast, depends on how much Commissioner Paul Tagliabue's suggestions in February about such a possibility constituted a real strategy or leverage to squeeze more money out of ESPN.

Yanks, Sox Opener Breaks Record For ESPN2
By John Consoli mediaweek.com

ESPN2's telecast of the Sunday night Major League Baseball opening game between the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox recorded a 2.7 household rating, and was viewed by an average 2.3 million households, making it that network's highest rated and most viewed regular season MLB telecast ever.

HD Technology Update from BE
http://broadcastengineering.com/newsletters/hd_tech/20050406/#

Wednesday’s network prime-time program ratings have been posted in Latest News, the first item in this thread.

Networks to Cover Pope's Funeral Starting in Early Hours

The Washington Post Thursday, April 7, 2005; Page C07
The major broadcast and cable news networks will provide as much as four hours of live coverage of Pope John Paul II's funeral early tomorrow. The Mass in St. Peter's Basilica is scheduled to start at 4 a.m. Eastern time.

• Charles Gibson will anchor coverage on ABC (Channel 7) beginning at 3:30 a.m., with colleagues Terry Moran, Kate Snow and Cokie Roberts. The coverage includes additional reports from Krakow, Poland.

• On NBC (Channel 4), Brian Williams and Katie Couric will handle anchoring duties from Rome beginning at 3:50 a.m. Tim Russert will report from Washington.

• Harry Smith and John Roberts will oversee coverage on CBS (Channel 9) starting at 4 a.m., with additional reports from Allen Pizzey, Sheila MacVicar, Richard Roth and Jim Axelrod.

• CNN will begin its telecast at 3 a.m. with Anderson Cooper, Christiane Amanpour and Bill Hemmer in Rome and Soledad O'Brien in New York. The network also will report from Krakow and locations throughout the United States.

• MSNBC will air the funeral live at 4 a.m. with Chris Matthews anchoring and Chris Jansing reporting from Rome.

• Fox News Channel's Shepard Smith will anchor live from Rome at 3 a.m. Martha MacCallum will anchor from New York.

• C-SPAN plans to rebroadcast the funeral in its entirety tomorrow night at 8.

-- John Maynard

As is noted elsewhere, HDNet will be broadcasting HD coverage of the Pope's fuineral on Sunday:

"On Sunday during the regular HDNet World Report time slot, HDNet presents "The Funeral of Pope John Paul II." World Report cameras are in Vatican City as Pope John Paul II is laid to rest in St. Peter's Basilica.
Sunday, April 10 - 8:00 p.m. and 11:00 p.m. ET Monday, April 11 - 11:30 a.m. and 7:00 p.m. ET"

Fred, do you know if the daytime schedule for ABC and CBS will be altered b/c of the funeral coverage? There are items that I record on my Tivo and I didn't know if the nets were going to do all day coverage.

fredfa,

Extreme Makeover: Home Edition is renewed for next year (thefutoncritic.com).

No word yet on EM: How'd They Do That?

AFH: I see no mention of pre-emptions on either the ABC or CBS website.
The funeral begins, as I understand it, at 4 a.m. ET.
I don't know when it will end.

'Late Late Show' is up in ratings with its new host

Rise in wee-hour yuks for Craig Ferguson
By Abigail Azote medialifemagazine.com

It’s been pretty much hit-or-miss when Craig Ferguson delivers comedy bits on “The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson.” Too often jokes are met with strained laughter, if not outright cringes. The first person to admit this is Ferguson himself, who calls his show a work in progress. Still, in what may be a surprise to many, Ferguson is anything but a late-night bomb, certainly not with viewers.

“The Late Late Show” on CBS still lags well behind NBC's timeslot competitor "Late Night with Conan O'Brien," and it will continue to do so for some time. Yet "Late Late" is seeing its best numbers in years. Ferguson's February sweeps numbers were the show's best in households for the 12:35 a.m. timeslot since 1997, and the best viewer delivery ever for February sweeps.

There's no longer a question of whether "Late Late" will survive in its current format, as there was when Craig Kilborn announced his exit. And CBS is certainly better off than a year ago, even if it's still not all that competitive. Over the first quarter, "Late Late" averaged 1.9 million viewers, a 5 percent increase from the same period last year, or about 100,000 new viewers. It earned a 1.5 household rating, the best rating ever for that timeslot. It averaged a 0.7 among 18-49s.

By comparison, "Conan" averaged a 1.2 rating among 18-49s and 2.6 million total viewers.

What makes Ferguson's performance all the more impressive is that the show is only three months old, and he was a relative unknown when he took over. He had played boss Nigel Wick in “The Drew Carey Show. Style may have a lot to do with it. Unlike the sometimes chilly and oddly detached Kilborn, whom he replaced, Ferguson is unabashedly outgoing, delivering witty repartee with a curious Scottish accent.

He actually shares a few qualities with O'Brien that make him ideal for the very late shift. His humor is not as broad as a Jay Leno; he's subtler, he's riskier and he's different, much like Conan. The question is how much more he can grow his audience, and that may not be known for months more.

AFH:
The funeral is expected to take 2 1/2 to three hours.
It begins at 4 AM ET, 1 AM in Arizona. I wouldn't expect too many pre-emptions of Friday daytime programming. I could be wrong, but that is a lot of advertising money to throw away.

Thursday’s network prime-time program ratings have been posted in Latest News, the first item in this thread.

Originally posted by fredfa
AFH:
The funeral is expected to take 2 1/2 to three hours.
It begins at 4 AM ET, 1 AM in Arizona. I wouldn't expect too many pre-emptions of Friday daytime programming. I could be wrong, but that is a lot of advertising money to throw away.

Thanks Fred. The reason I even asked is b/c the local ABC affil here in the Phoenix metro showed a schedule for ABC's pope coverage and it appeared that ABC was going to be providing some additional talking-head shows later in the day after GMA (Good Morning America) ended.

fredfa,

your HTML brackets need to be closed for "HD" for The West Wing on the renewed list. And where did you read that it is renewed?

F44: I posted the “West Wing” renewal story back on March 17th. Here is a different version:

NBC Keeps "Wing," "Joey," "Jordan"

By Bridget Byrne E! Online Thu Mar 17, 6:14 PM ET

It's not a shocker of Dewey-defeats-Truman proportions, but The West Wing has just been reelected for a seventh term.

A day after the Hollywood trades suggested a deal was imminent to bring the Emmy-winning political potboiler back for a swan-song season without longtime President Josiah Barlet (Martin Sheen) in the Oval Office, NBC confirmed as much Thursday, announcing The West Wing had been reupped for the 2005-06 season, along with Joey, Crossing Jordan, Las Vegas and, as previously reported, ER, which was picked up through 2008.

Of that group, The West Wing has the lowest ratings, averaging 11.3 million viewers in its Wednesday, 9 p.m. slot. Impacted by Fox's American Idol and the failure of NBC to establish a good lead-in, the White House drama is down from 11.7 million viewers last year. In its glory days back in season three, The West Wing averaged 17.1 million and was a top 10 fixture.

But with NBC struggling in the Nielsens after losing Friends and Frasier last year, the Peacock is holding on to proven properties, especially ones like The West Wing, which still appeals to upscale viewers and is therefore advertiser-friendly.

"We can do better," NBC Entertainment President Kevin Reilly told advertisers Thursday as he announced the renewals, according to Broadcasting and Cable. "I am acutely aware that we need the next generation of hits."

Under its current deal, which includes price rates tied to ratings fluctuation, NBC pays about $6 million per episode for The West Wing. Inside sources suggest next season's episodes will only cost about half that, but it's not known whether the deal is pegged to Nielsens. If so, the fee could rise if audience interest picks up as the race for the presidency gathers momentum. With Bartlet terming out, the leading contenders include Republican Senator Arnold Vinick (Alan Alda) and Democratic Congressman Matt Santos (Jimmy Smits). This year's season finale on Apr. 6 will decide the Democratic candidate, but our money's on Smits edging out rivals Vice President Robert "Bingo Bob" Russell (Gary Cole ) and former Vice President John Hoynes (Tim Matheson).

Speaking to TV critics in January, Reilly and NBC Universal Television Group President Jeff Zucker were asked who they would like to see take over for Sheen's Bartlet. Reilly joked that Zucker "likes [Alan] Alda" and "I like [Jimmy] Smits." Zucker added, "I like whomever [executive producer] John Wells likes."

Wells has refused to divulge plot points or future timeline for the election episodes, but he and Sheen have both indicated that Bartlet will maintain a presence on the show. Sheen said he "will be present up until the inauguration of the new president, whoever that might be" and that Barlet will have "a Jimmy Carter type of ex-presidency" role.

With Sheen and his high-salaried White House staffers likely only around part time, Wells & Co. would be able to trim costs and keep the show profitable for NBC and Warner Bros., the show's production base. And while Variety reported Wednesday that next season would be Wing's last, NBC declined to confirm.

As for the other pick-ups Thursday, the Jill medical drama Crossing Jordan, which averages 12.1 million viewers, will be back for its fifth season; Las Vegas, starring James Caan and a bunch of good-looking young cohorts keeping a casino free from crime, will be back for a third season after averaging 11.7 million viewers this year; and Matt LeBlanc's Friends spinoff Joey, which hasn't been the huge hit NBC anticipated but still manages to draw a solid 11.6 million viewers, will be back for season two. ER has been extended for two more seasons, even though Noah Wyle might not return, at least on a full-time basis. The network had previously announced that The Apprentice, Medium and three of its Law & Orders--the mothership, Criminal Intent and Special Victims Unit--would return next season.

NBC will unveil its full fall schedule in May at the advertiser upfront meetings.

Miss America Seeks Comeback in Reality TV Era

By IVER PETERSON The New York Times April 9, 2005


ATLANTIC CITY - Miss America has lost her TV show, and now has to decide how much of her famous modesty she's willing to shed to get it back on the air.

Organizers of the pageant are considering a number of plans to resuscitate the 85-year-old contest and bring it back to television this September. The mildest plans include tweaking the broadcast program slightly by eliminating the talent portion, which the ABC network had complained about before dropping the show in the aftermath of last year's disappointing ratings.

A bolder plan is being shopped by national pageant officials among network executives: turning the event into a multinight elimination, complete with appeals for audience sympathy and votes, something like "American Idol" on Fox. It would include behind-the-scenes segments and, perhaps, some of the plotting that has made shows like "The Apprentice" on NBC so popular.

Even the pageant's executives say that Miss America has to face the realities of reality television, although state and local organizers say they would rather see their program stay off the air than have contestants get down in the mud and the bugs like the competitors on "Fear Factor."

"I'll tell you one thing, I am not going to have my contestants eating bugs," said Joe P. Sanders 3rd, president of the Miss South Carolina Organization. "That's just not something that's going to happen in this state."
Short of that, though, organizers say that something needs to change to catch up with an audience whose tastes have wandered far beyond the Miss America pageant's mild tone.

"The television audience today has a coliseum mentality, and they are not cheering for the gladiator, they're cheering for the lion," said Robert W. Arnhym, director of California Miss America, the group that runs the state-level pageant. "I'll tell you this: We're going to have to cross the line somewhere or we're not going to appeal to those folks."

Other state and national officials agree that the pageant has to do more to grab the public's attention.

"Television is a very competitive game, we all get that," said Kevin McAleese, executive director of the Miss Philadelphia Scholarship Pageant. "The question is, how do we adapt to that and bend the rules a little, but not give up all the values that we've stood for 85 years? We've got to be realistic, because we've got to be visible, and if you're not on television, you're not visible."

The Miss America pageant was born in 1921 as a stunt to keep summer visitors at the Jersey Shore after Labor Day, and it has felt the pressure to change before. After feminists protested on the Boardwalk in Atlantic City in 1968, pageant officials shifted the emphasis from beauty to scholarship, and stressed the talent portion of the contest over the famous runway parade in swimsuit and four-inch heels.

These days the challenge is not to move away from female exploitation, but to make it work for the pageant - without giving up too much of the core values of a show that did not even allow two-piece bathing suits until 1997.

The pressure is coming from a television industry that now embraces shows like Pamela Anderson's "Stacked." Despite polls showing that Americans deplore the values being beamed or cabled into their family rooms, the ratings say otherwise, and in its 50 years on the air, the pageant's audience has eroded.

Last year, when its audience fell to fewer than 10 million viewers, ABC decided to drop the pageant. At stake is the pageant's long-term viability: Miss America relies on the $3.2 million broadcast contract to help stay afloat as a national organization.

Broadcasters show data proving that the talent show and the interviews, the pageant's answers to feminist criticism, were the least popular portions of the pageant, while the swimsuit part still had the power to bring viewers back from the kitchen. So pageant officials - who still require chaperones for contestants when they are in Atlantic City - are thinking about showing a little more.

"What we are proposing out in L.A. is that we open up the sacred doors of Miss America," said Art McMaster, executive director of the national organization, who said he was negotiating with several networks and producers to find a perch for the pageant on television. He said the organization was proposing to "offer up to the networks the entire group of young individuals who have been out there competing, so they can see them backstage, rehearsing or getting ready - to see their strengths and their fears."

People close to the negotiations say Mr. McMaster is pitching a multinight competition that allows viewers to develop a connection with individual contestants, perhaps capped by a national phone or Internet vote for the winner.

"The only way Miss America is going to get a piece of the competitive craziness out there is for Miss America to be chosen by Americans themselves," said Mr. McAleese of the Philadelphia pageant. Late last month, Broadcasting and Cable Magazine, a trade publication, reported that the pageant was close to reaching a deal, but the pageant refused to discuss the report.

"We are still in negotiations in Los Angeles, and there are still several people who are interested in this thing," Mr. McMaster said. "Where we end up is up to our board of directors, but we still believe strongly that we can be on live network television this fall."

Ronica Licciardello, who as the newly crowned Miss Philadelphia is in line for the state and then the national competition, said she liked the idea of giving viewers a look backstage. But she was sure that what the sacred curtain conceals is only more of what goes on in front of it: women who are positive, supportive and cheerful.

"Seeing the real side of these contestants could be a real experience for people," she said, "because I think they would go into this with the expectation of cattiness and meanness, and they don't realize the sense of camaraderie and the sense of support that we feel for each other."

But Jessica Eddins, 25, a former Miss South Carolina and now a graduate student in Southern California, insisted that Miss America's values were more durable than the cheap thrills of reality television. "Everybody has expressed to me the moral value of retaining this positive tradition, one that shows traditional values and personal achievement," she said.

The organization's chief rival, Miss USA and its subsidiary, Miss Universe, are beyond these concerns. Both show more skin than Miss America shows, and both are annual broadcasting successes.

While Miss America is a nonprofit, volunteer-run organization whose pageant is the culmination of a network of separate local contests, Miss USA is a show business venture - with no local competitions - owned by Donald Trump and NBC. And where Miss America insists that it is all about the millions in scholarships its contestants win each year, Miss USA, as its Web site points out, is simply "the search for the most beautiful girl in the U.S."

NBC has even combined Miss USA with "Fear Factor." It is staging "Miss USA Fear Factor" as the lead-in for the national telecast of the beauty pageant on Monday. With the broadcast possibilities limited for Miss America, though, organizers say a potential reality television savior has come knocking: Mr. Trump.

"He has reached out to us, no question about it," Mr. McMaster said. "He has made no proposal to us, and we're not sure where this thing is going to wind up, and as we continue down the road with the networks, we are going to be interested in seeing what kind of proposals Donald is willing to bring to the Miss America Organization."

ABC's Grey's Stays

By Jim Finkle Broadcasting & Cable
Boston Legal fans won't be able to watch any new episodes of the ABC drama until next fall, when the network plans to run an unprecedented 27 hours. The culprit is Grey's Anatomy, a midseason entry that's been declared a hit after just two weeks on the air.

When Grey's debuted on March 27, ABC put it in Boston Legal's regular Sunday 10 p.m.slot, which follows the mega hit Desperate Housewives.

The network planned to keep Grey's in that time period for just four weeks (during which it would have otherwise run repeats of Boston Legal), then move the medical show to another night. After just two episodes, though, Grey's has averaged an audience of 17 million viewers, well above Legal's 12.5 million average for the full season.

Grey's is doing so well that ABC Entertainment President Steve McPherson decided to keep it in the post-Desperate hour. "We're in the enviable position of having two shows that have each performed extremely well for us Sundays at 10," says McPherson. "Ultimately we decided that, without having adequate lead time or marketing dollars to devote to moving either show so late in the season, we'd continue to let Grey's build on its tremendous momentum through May."

New episodes of Boston Legal are already in the can since they were originally scheduled to run this spring.
When added to what ABC has already ordered for next season, the network will be able to run 27 new episodes of the show next season.

Among the key 18-49 demo, Grey's has chalked up a lofty 7.4 average rating, ranking it No. 7 among 189 prime time shows that Nielsen has tracked this season. Legal has an average season rating of 4.9 rating, which puts it in 23rd place, tied with Fox's The Simple Life.

CBS's suddenly struggling 'Survivor'


Reality show tumbles after basketball interlude
medialifemagazine.com

When CBS’s “Survivor: Palau” debuted to nearly 24 million total viewers in February, it seemed as if the show was on its way to a monster season. Producers had instituted a buzz-generating new “no help” policy, and the characters looked promising.

But since then, ratings have been on the decline. Last night the show dipped to what may be a season-low once final ratings are released, indicating that people have either gotten sick of seeing the same tribe win week after week or tired of hearing people—who signed up voluntarily for the show—complain about the conditions.

The show averaged a 6.7 rating among 18-49s last night, down 13 percent week-to-week, according to Nielsen overnight ratings.

Another problem may be that, after CBS moved “Survivor” to Wednesday for two weeks to accommodate the NCAA men’s basketball tournament, viewers never returned.

Though March 13, “Survivor: Palau” averaged an 8.4 rating among viewers 18-49. After that, when show moved to Wednesdays, it struggled. On March 16 the show pulled a 6.9 among 18-49s, a 17.9 percent drop from its then season-to-date average. The next week it jumped to a 7.3. Last week, back on Thursdays, the show rated a more comfortable 7.7 as the sad-sack Ulong tribe lost yet another challenge.

But Thursday night ratings fell off once again. They haven’t approached the 9.0 overnight the show earned in its season premiere.

And that’s against decreased competition. With NBC’s “Friends” off the air, and once it was clear spinoff “Joey” would not meet expectations, most people understandably thought CBS’s “Survivor” would soar in the Thursday 8 p.m. timeslot.

True, it’s in no danger of falling behind NBC, Fox or anyone else. But “Survivor” should be capable of much more.

Friday’s network prime-time program ratings have been posted in Latest News, the first item in this thread.

Rob Thomas reported via Television without Pity (http://www.televisionwithoutpity.com/) that Veronica Mars has been renewed for a second season....that news really made my day.

Originally posted by fredfa
Miss America Seeks Comeback in Reality TV Era
A bolder plan is being shopped by national pageant officials among network executives: turning the event into a multinight elimination, complete with appeals for audience sympathy and votes, something like "American Idol" on Fox. It would include behind-the-scenes segments and, perhaps, some of the plotting that has made shows like "The Apprentice" on NBC so popular.


That is exactly what ABC tried doing a couple of years ago with its reality show All American Girl, which flopped so badly that its final episodes were dumped to ABC Family.

fredfa,

"The Inside HD (unknown)"---now starting in the fall

CBS Has Less-Than-'Spectacular' Sunday Win

Fast National ratings for Saturday, April 9, 2005.

On a typically slow Saturday night, CBS started strong with "The Price Is Right Million Dollar Spectacular" and didn't let up, winning each of the night's three hours.

Overall, CBS averaged a 5.5 rating/10 share for the night, comfortably ahead of the 4.2/8 for second place FOX. ABC was third with a 3.4/6, edging the 3.2/6 for NBC.

FOX moved into first among adults 18-49, posting a 2.4 rating in the all-important demographic. CBS dropped to second with a 2.2 rating, followed by the 1.5 rating for ABC. NBC trailed again with a 1.4 rating.

At 8 p.m., CBS got a 5.0/10 from the primetime "Price Is Right" episode to win the hour. FOX was second with the 3.7/8 averaged by two episodes of "COPS." ABC's presentation of "Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House on the Prairie" had a 3.6/7 for third, leaving NBC in fourth with the first hour of the movie "Bowfinger."

CBS stayed in front at 9 p.m. with the 6.0/11 for HD "CSI: Miami." FOX's "America's Most Wanted" remained in second with a 4.7/9. ABC was third with the first of two HD encores of "Grey's Anatomy." The final hour of "Bowfinger" had a 2.5/5 on NBC.

With "48 Hours Mystery" doing a 5.5/11, CBS capped off its sweep in the 10 p.m. hour. NBC moved up to second with HD "Law & Order: Criminal Intent," keeping ABC in third with the 3.5/7 for a second HD "Anatomy" repeat.

# Ratings information is taken from fast national data. All numbers are preliminary and subject to change.

Sunday’s network prime-time program ratings have been posted in Latest News, the first item in this thread.

Originally posted by Adam Tyner
Rob Thomas reported via Television without Pity (http://www.televisionwithoutpity.com/) that Veronica Mars has been renewed for a second season....that news really made my day.

Yep! I was glad to hear that! I hope to start watching the show soon!

Also, Fredfa, while you are making changes to the "renewed" list, last I heard (I don't get WB analog, I SURE as heck don't get digital) "7th Heaven" is NOT broadcasting in HD. Someone correct me if I'm wrong!

~Alan

Originally posted by Alan Gordon
Also, Fredfa, while you are making changes to the "renewed" list, last I heard (I don't get WB analog, I SURE as heck don't get digital) "7th Heaven" is NOT broadcasting in HD. Someone correct me if I'm wrong!

~Alan

I believe that it is. At least from the 60 seconds that I saw.

Originally posted by AFH
I believe that it is. At least from the 60 seconds that I saw.

I know that last season it wasn't being broadcast in HD. The WB's website does not list it as being in HD. However, like I said, I have no way to find out for sure since I have to watch reruns of "7th Heaven" on ABC Family.

~Alan

it's not in HD

Originally posted by Adam Tyner
Rob Thomas reported via Television without Pity (http://www.televisionwithoutpity.com/) that Veronica Mars has been renewed for a second season....that news really made my day.

I read a release this morning at work that confirmed it. I have a feeling it will take Kevin Hill's spot next season.

UPN Wants More 'Mars'

(zap2it.com)--UPN's "Veronica Mars" is the second lowest rated scripted drama to air on any network this season (Sorry, "The Mountain"). But every once in a while, a network decides that there are things more important than ratings. UPN is bringing "Veronica Mars" back for a second season.

"With its terrific ensemble cast, sharp writing and high production values, we're tremendously proud of the level of quality that 'Veronica Mars' brings to UPN," says UPN Entertainment President Dawn Ostroff.

"Headlined by the brilliant Kristen Bell, this intriguing, youthful series continues to garner tremendous buzz and critical acclaim, and this is the type of smart, compelling show we want viewers to expect from UPN."

The news of the "Mars" renewal spread through the Internet over the weekend with many fan sites celebrating the decision as if their site in particular forced UPN's hand. Several of them may have had a point, given that despite critical adulation and low-level cult buzz, the show's audience has remained almost entirely low and stable since its premiere.

"Mars" stars Bell as a teenage girl who has to balance high school, moonlighting as a private eye and a variety of mysteries and tragedies from her past. Creator Rob Thomas ("Cupid") has promised that many of the show's central puzzles will be wrapped up by its first season finale.

Back in late September, "Veronica Mars" premiered to an audience of just under 2.21 million viewers. The show's most recent episodes have been in line with its season average of 2.4 million, with only minimal signs of growth. Airing on Tuesday nights at 9 p.m. -- one of television's most competitive time slots, particularly now that "American Idol" has transformed "House" into a hit -- "Veronica Mars" has only rarely risen above sixth place for the hour.

In the absence of any breakout hits this year, though, UPN seems willing to take a chance on one of the most original and praised shows the network has ever produced. The jury is still out on "Kevin Hill," which launched with "Mars" this fall and has also failed to find a substantial audience despite warm reviews. The industry trade papers speculate that the fate of "Hill" will be tied to the netlet's development season.

'Cops' Collars 18th Season

(zap2it.com)--"Cops," which has been around for almost as long as its parent network, will be back for an 18th season in 2005-06.

FOX is also gearing up for the show's 600th original episode, which it will celebrate with two hours of arrests, domestic disputes and belligerent suspects on Saturday, April 30. The episode, true to the show's roots, will feature officers chasing a fleeing suspect and mediating an incident involving a feuding couple.

The rest of the evening will consist of repeats of fan-favorite specials "Caught in the Act" and "Coast to Coast."

With the pickup for next season, "Cops," which premiered March 11, 1989, cements its place as the longest continuously running series in the history of FOX. Its current Saturday-night companion, "America's Most Wanted," actually debuted a year earlier, but it was briefly cancelled in 1996 before the network changed its mind and brought it back.

FOX's hour-long "Cops" block -- usually one new episode and one repeat -- averages about 7 million viewers per week on Saturday nights, where it's aired for virtually its entire run. The show leads its time period in the ad-friendly demographics of adults 18-34 and adults 18-49.

fredfa,

Another Mid-Season Replacement to add:

Hell's Kitchen, Mondays 9pm ET, FOX, starts May 30, NOT HD (reality show).

f44:
Despite all the talk about "year-around" seasons, I have pretty much stayed away from summer programming.
I hope you don't mind, but I have trouble enough keeping track of the "regular" TV season shows.
The summer programs I'll monitor and post news of interest, but I don't really want to have to keep track of them in any organized way (aside from the weekly ratings, of course.)
I'm perfcetly happy for you (or any reader of the thread) to post information regarding summer series here. Just please don't expect me to keep as up-to-date with such doings as I like to do for the regular season.

CBS Announces Season Finale Dates
By John Consoli Mediaweek.com

CBS will begin airing its season finales on Friday, April 22, when its 8 p.m. drama Joan of Arcadia ends its season. On Monday, April 25, freshman sitcom Listen Up will end its season at 8:30 p.m., and on Friday, April 29, as previously announced, JAG will end its 10-year run. On Tuesday, May 3, Judging Amy will air its season finale at 10 p.m.

When shows end their season either prior to May sweeps or so early in May sweeps, it is sometimes an indicator that those shows will not return next season.

Other CBS season finale dates include:
Amazing Race (May 10);
Numbers (May 13);
Survivor; Palau (May 15);
Everybody Loves Raymond , series finale (May 16);
The King of Queens (May 18);
Yes, Dear (May 18);
CSI: NY (May 18)
CSI (May 19);
Without a Trace (May 19);
Cold Case (May 22);
Still Standing (May 23);
Two and a Half Men (May 23);
CSI: Miami (May 23);
NCIS (May 24).

Monday’s network prime-time program ratings have been posted in Latest News, the first item in this thread.

CBS Tars and Feathers Weekly Ratings Competition

(zap2it.com)-- For CBS, the week ending Sunday, April 10, began with strong ratings for the North Carolina Tar Heel's first NCAA title of the Roy Williams Era. It ended with yet another overall and demographic sweep for CBS.

Overall, CBS averaged an 8.1 rating/13 share, drawing 12.42 million viewers per night in primetime. ABC had television's most watched program for the week, but was still a distant second with a 5.9/10 and 9.02 million viewers. In a tight race for third, NBC had a 5.7/9 and 8.34 million viewers, while FOX had a 5.3/9 and 8.38 million viewers. On the netlet side, UPN had a 2.1/3 and 3.06 million viewers, edging the 2.0/3 and 2.91 million for The WB.

Among adults 18-49, CBS pulled a 3.8 rating, topping FOX's 3.5 rating in the key demographic. ABC had a 3.3 rating to take third, followed by NBC's 3.0 rating. The WB and UPN posted identical 1.2 ratings to tie for fifth.

The college hoops showdown between North Carolina and Illinois was CBS' top show for the week, doing a 15.0/23 to rank at No. 2 for the frame. The pre-game "Prelude to a Championship" was No. 11 with a 9.9/16.
CBS got good returns from its Thursday line-up of "Survivor: Palau" (11.8/19, 6th), "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" (14.3/22, 5th) and "Without a Trace" (10.3/17, 9th), even though both procedural dramas were in repeats. Meanwhile, Tiger Woods' sudden death triumph in the Masters helped push Sunday's "60 Minutes" (10.3/17, 9th) and "Cold Case" (7.8/12, 15th) into solid positions. Also making the Top 20 for CBS were Tuesday's "Amazing Race" (7.6/12, 17th) and "Judging Amy" (7.4/12, 20th).

"Desperate Housewives" drew 25.55 million viewers to ABC on Sunday night, doing a 15.9/24 to reign as television's top show for the week. Fellow first year dramas "Grey's Anatomy" (11.7/19, 7th) and "Lost" (10.6/17, 8th) also aired new episodes and produced strong ratings. Sunday's "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" was No. 15 with a 7.8/13.

NBC's top show for the week was Thursday's installment of "The Apprentice," which had a 9.1/14 for No. 13. Episodes of procedural siblings "Law & Order" (7.9/13, 14th) and "Law & Order: Trial by Jury" (7.5/13, 19th) made the Top 20, as did the season finale of "The West Wing" (7.6/11, 17th).

Nobody should be surprised that FOX's week was paced by two episodes of "American Idol." Tuesday's performance episode was No. 3 with a 14.7/24 and Wednesdays results show was No. 4 with a 14.4/22. Enough viewers missed Tuesday's "House" repeat in its first airing for the show to score a 9.6/15 for No. 12.

UPN's best was "WWE Smackdown!" at No. 81 with a 3.4/5, while "Reba" led the way for The WB with a 3.1/5 for No. 85.

The premiere of The WB's "Living with Fran" was No. 100 with a 2.1/4, but when a second episode aired an hour later, it did a 2.9/5 for No. 89.

(Last week's complete network prime-time program ratings will be posted in Latest News, the first item in this thread, later in the day.)

It's fine. Just posting news.

just a minor thing Fred but I think you have some html formatting gaffs in that last big post.

Thanks GregF.
And f44, continue posting -- it is appreciated!

I don't know if this is an appropriate place for posting this news so feel free to delete. If we have a list of HD shows on the forum I don't remember where it is. I was just checking Universal HD and they are now listing Battlestar Galactica airing on Sundays at 8 & 11:

BSG on UHD (http://www.universalhd.com/Series/index.shtml#BATTLESTAR_GALACTICA)

I did notice when you click on "upcoming episodes" on any show on this page, it goes to a mess of broken links. Hopefully it's merely because they're re-designing the webpages at this very moment.

The link didn't work for me, GregF

Greg: UniversalHD.com's site has some severe load-balancing problems. Especially when accessing the schedule, it frequently tries to load content for Bravo instead. Just keeping whacking reload over and over and it'll eventually work.

maybe it works now... link was too long and got truncated

I found in the directv online programming guide they are indeed airing episode 2 of the series next weekend, following up from the mini-series and airing of season 1 episode 1 last weekend.

works great now, thanks GregF

Look, I firmly believe "American Dreams" is dead.
(Though I desperately hope I am wrong.)
So, grasping at whatever straws I can find, here's today's Gail Shister column from the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Philly-born star says 'American Dreams' not dead yet

By Gail Shister Philadelphia Inquirer TV Columnist

Odds are slim, but it may not be over for American Dreams, says Philly-born star Tom Verica. The fact that NBC chose to run Dreams' season-finale episode March 30 instead of a quickly produced alternative ending for the whole series bodes well for the struggling third-year drama, he says.

"I view it as a positive sign," says Verica, who plays patriarch Jack Pryor. "Our executive producer [Jonathan Prince] didn't want the alternate ending. He felt it would be the final nail in our coffin."

As the cast began production on the season finale in late February, NBC asked the producers to shoot an alternative ending that would tie up the story lines, according to Verica, 40, a Haverford High alum.

The acclaimed Dreams, set in Philly during the 1960s, revolves around the Pryor family. Dick Clark's American Bandstand serves as a backdrop, and Clark is an exec producer.

In the season cliffhanger, viewers saw Meg Pryor (Brittany Snow) defy her father by riding off to California with her draft-dodger boyfriend on his motorcycle.

The 12-minute alternative ending takes place three years later. On the day of Neil Armstrong's walk on the moon, Meg returns home and faces her family. That segment "felt thrown together, not really thought out," Verica says. "I'm glad it didn't air."

After production wrapped, "we all left not knowing which one would run. It was very strange not to know. Everything was so abrupt." About a week before broadcast, the cast was told.

Meanwhile, Dreams' fate won't be known until NBC announces its fall schedule to advertisers next month. The show "has a shot, but it's a long shot," says a high-ranking NBC executive.

As for fan reaction, Verica is surprised by the e-mail campaign to save Dreams. "A lot of times, people say they love a show, but for someone to actually sit down at the computer and put something into action is a different thing.

"A family show like this, as a period piece, hits a chord with a lot of people who care about quality TV. You can't watch CSI with your 6-year-old. You can watch our show with anybody in your family." Verica and the cast are under contract for three more years, but if NBC whacks Dreams, they can do other projects.

Gail O'Grady, who plays Pryor's wife, Helen, shot an ABC pilot about women selling real estate called Hot Properties. (See rip-off, Desperate Housewives.)

Verica plans to direct an independent film in the fall - possibly in our town. Tentatively titled All This Falling, it's about a young writer who returns to his hometown of Easton, Pa., for his mother's funeral, hoping to figure out his own life.

More "Anatomy." Sunny news for Grey's Anatomy.

Originally set for a four-episode tryout on ABC, the freshman medical drama will continue through the rest of the season. Instead of returning to its 10 p.m. Sunday slot, as planned, Boston Legal is off the docket until fall. Five unaired episodes will run next season, for a total of 27.

Anatomy stars Ellen Pompeo, Sandra Oh, T.R. Knight, Katherine Heigl and Justin Chambers as first-year surgical interns at a Seattle hospital.

In the plum post-Desperate Housewives slot, Anatomy has averaged more than 17 million viewers since its March 27 launch, compared with 12.5 million for Boston, with James Spader and William Shatner. Anatomy has scored ABC's strongest series numbers at 10 p.m. Sunday in four years - since the 2000-01 season of The Practice. More important, it's big with advertiser-friendly 18-to-49-year-olds, particularly women.

Shonda Rhimes, Anatomy's creator-exec producer, says she knew ABC would keep the show on the air, but she didn't expect to stay in her Rolls-Royce time slot. "I did a little dance of joy," she says. Having Housewives as a lead-in "is wildly important. It gave us a platform we never would have had, otherwise."

Last week's prime-time program ratings have been posted in Latest News, the first item in this thread.
The network top and bottom five lists will be added later tonight.

'Sopranos' Set to Resume Filming
By Daniel Fienberg (zap2it.com)--

Ask any true "Sopranos" fan and they'll be able to tell you that the last episode of their favorite mob drama aired back on June 6, 2004. It's a drought that hasn't gotten any easier to bear as it approaches the one-year point. Fortunately, relief is on the way. In a call with reporters on Tuesday (April 12), "Sopranos" co-star Michael Imperioli revealed that production on the show's sixth season is set to begin on Friday, April 29.

Before he returns to his Emmy-winning role as Christopher Moltisanti on the HBO drama, Imperioli is squeezing in a four-episode arc on NBC's "Law & Order," filling in for Jesse L. Martin as Nick Falco, a young detective partnered with Dennis Farina's Joe Fontana. Imperioli's first "L&O" appearance is scheduled for two days before lensing starts on "The Sopranos."

Unfortunately for rabid "Sopranos" aficionados, Imperioli only knows what day he'll be reporting for duty. He hasn't seen a single script and he doesn't know when new episodes will premiere, though he hazards a guess of either January or March of next year. All information about the fate of Johnny Sack or blowback from the Adriana's death remains locked in creator David Chase's head, at least for the time being. Imperioli says that while he's looking forward to rejoining the cast, he's never gotten antsy during the show's extra-long hiatus.

"For me, the idea that we're going back is enough security," he notes. "It's a luxury to have a sure thing in this business and have so much time in between to do other things. I knew it was coming back, so I knew I had time to do other stuff, like 'Law & Order.'"

Given that Chase only decided to extend "The Sopranos" to six seasons after deciding he was juggling too many storylines to do justice to all of them in the fifth season, the show's admirers are resigned to the idea that the end is approaching. Although Chase has been pretty adamant about ending "The Sopranos" after its next limited run, Imperioli remains a tiny bit skeptical that it's about to be over.

"He said that about the fifth season as well," he says. "They were saying the sixth would be the last and then I heard, a month ago, that we're gonna do a seventh. Then I heard we're not gonna do a seventh. I don't really know what's happening to be honest... Until I heard it out of his mouth as an official statement, I don't know."

It certainly sounds as if Imperioli would be open to the idea of doing a seventh season, provided his character can avoid getting clipped and Chase can keep thinking of plot twists.

"He's the one who comes up with storylines and has the end in sight and see how much space there is between now and then," he says. "Would I like it to go on? Yeah. As long as the stories are good, I could do it for another few years."

In addition to his acting duties, Imperioli has been a steady contributor to the show's writing team. Although he has yet to receive a scripting assignment for the year to come, he's pretty sure he has some idea of how things are going to conclude.

"I've always thought the story's going to end tragically -- for all of us," says Imperioli. "I don't think it's gonna be pretty."

The top five network prime-time program ratings for each of the four major networks have been posted in Latest News, the first item in this thread.
Keen-eyed readers will note I have stopped posting the top and bottom rankings for UPN and the WB. That's because they are all clustered so close to the bottom of the list and if you are curious about them they are easily found.

Unhappy 'Housewives' Pose Problems for ABC

By Joe Flint The Wall Street Journal April 13, 2005

It has been years since Vanity Fair put a television show on its cover, so the May issue featuring the stars of ABC's "Desperate Housewives" should have been cause for celebration at the television network. Instead, it only caused headaches. As the article details in painstaking fashion, there is just as much off-camera drama at the hit series as there is on the air. Wisteria Lane might as well be renamed Hysteria Lane.

According to the article, which ABC executives acknowledge is largely accurate, tempers flared over where Teri Hatcher would be positioned in the cover photo and what clothes she would wear, exacerbating tensions over how much media attention Ms. Hatcher has been getting lately. The end result: Instead of a piece talking about a hit show and its stars, much of it ended up focusing on a bickering cast, salary squabbles and trivial grievances.

In Hollywood, there is a saying that any publicity is good publicity. And a show that revolves around infighting probably can endure some soap-opera behavior behind the scenes, too. But if the off-camera antics start to detract from the show, viewers could get turned off. That could pose problems for Walt Disney Co.'s ABC, whose ratings recovery this year has depended greatly on the phenomenal success of "Housewives." With vital syndication revenue still years away for the young show, ABC needs to make sure that there is relative peace on the set.

After all, the hit show has yet to become a money maker for the network and its sister production studio, Disney's Touchstone Television. That's because television series typically are produced at a loss -- it isn't until reruns are sold in the syndication market a few years into a show's run that the studio can start to recoup its investment.

When a show becomes a monster hit right out of the box, the attention it generates can be a lot for the cast to handle. The stars suddenly become tabloid fodder, heads swell and personalities clash. In the case of "Desperate Housewives," it probably doesn't help that when the show was conceived, none of the cast members was seen as occupying a lead role. Indeed, several actors with smaller parts on the show, including Nicollette Sheridan, who plays a vindictive neighbor, and James Denton, the handsome plumber with a past, have managed to achieve celebrity status. Ms. Sheridan, whose isn't featured in the show's opening credits, had her own "Entertainment Weekly" cover. And in the Vanity Cover, she is dead center, surrounded by Ms. Hatcher, Ms. Cross, Felicity Huffman and Eva Longoria.

"None of this serves the show or the talent well," says Jordan Levin, former president of The WB Network, who has dealt with his fair share of cast conflicts with such dramas as "Charmed," "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "7th Heaven."

Off-camera turmoil has been the undoing of several high-flying series. Others have been seriously wounded by set conflicts and prima donna stars, at times taking years to recover. When "Moonlighting" went on the air in 1985, it was an immediate sensation for ABC. But before long, a bitter rivalry erupted between stars Cybil Shepherd and then-unknown Bruce Willis. Production often was delayed, and creator Glenn Gordon Caron eventually left his own show. The production holdups shrank the number of new episodes, alienating viewers. Within a few years, "Moonlighting" fizzled.

When casts feud or stars' egos swell, networks and studios can suddenly find that their hot property is getting the cold shoulder in Hollywood. Writers avoid working on sets with bad reputations, and tabloids and entertainment news magazines, which have multiplied in number and influence in the past decade, smell blood in the water and pounce on every rumor.

Carsey-Werner, the production company behind such hits as "Roseanne" and "The Cosby Show," has had its share of troubled sets. "Roseanne" suffered from the star's constant mood swings, as writers and producers fell in and out of favor on a near-daily basis. "Roseanne was always firing people. She once made all the writers wear numbered t-shirts so she'd know who was who," recalls Alan Sternfeld, who worked at ABC during the show's heyday. ABC's "Grace Under Fire" had an equally combustive set, and went through five executive producers in five years before being canceled in 1998.

Another hit drama, ABC's "NYPD Blue," was nearly derailed after its first season when actor David Caruso decided he wanted out of the show that had put him on the map. An intense presence on the set, Mr. Caruso was tempted by movie offers, and pressed the producers for a new contract. In their book "True Blue," "NYPD Blue" co-creator David Milch and creative consultant Bill Clark described how Mr. Caruso's behavior hobbled production. During a contentious contract negotiation with the star, co-creator Steven Bochco proposed a clause that would reward the actor for good conduct. Ultimately, the producers weren't able to reach a deal with Mr. Caruso, and hired Jimmy Smits, their original choice for the role, as a replacement.

The recent photo-shoot tantrums hardly put "Desperate Housewives," one of the most popular shows on television, in imminent jeopardy. But ABC should recognize the warning signs. The next time Ms. Sheridan decides to go on "Access Hollywood" and whine about her paycheck and the Porsche she covets, as she did in December, someone needs to pull her aside for a reality check.

In fact, the whole cast might benefit from a cooling off -- the lead actors are said to be seeking big raises. The show is certainly succeeding well beyond most people's expectations, and ABC should do what it can to retain its talent. But it is a little early for the "Housewives" stars to start comparing themselves to the cast of "Friends." And the bigger the cast salaries get, the longer it will be before "Housewives" contributes to the bottom line. Even the cast of "Friends" didn't start demanding colossal salaries until Warner Bros., which produced the show, sold the reruns.

"There is a long way to go for that show to actually be successful in terms of earning its backend," says Mr. Levin, who warns that while bad behavior on the set may generate publicity, it also can scare off potential buyers. And, he adds having seen it firsthand, "there are more examples of misbehavior resulting in the deterioration of an actor's career than there are examples of that type of behavior leading to a bigger success." Unless, of course, we're talking about Paris Hilton.

Lisa de Moraes: The Week’s Winners and Losers

Hoops and Golf Score Big for CBS
By Lisa de Moraes The Washington Post Wednesday, April 13, 2005; Page C07

Tiger Woods and hoops put CBS out front last week. Here's a look at the week's birdies and bogies.

WINNERS

Pope John Paul II's funeral. More than 9 million people got up at the ungodly hour of 4 a.m. Eastern time, 1 a.m. Pacific on Friday to watch coverage of the pope's funeral from Rome on ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, Fox News Channel, MSNBC, WGN, Telemundo, Azteca America or Univision. The Associated Press reported that Nielsen had no immediate numbers on normal television viewing at that hour. Which raises the question, "Why the heck not?" Isn't Nielsen supposed to be the final word in TV viewing stats? The only comparison we can make with certainty is that a whole lot more people watched the funeral than had watched NBC's "Mork & Mindy" movie or "Fear Factor," Fox's "Nanny 911," ABC's "The Bachelor" or "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition -- How'd They Do That?" or anything on WB or UPN the night before in prime time. Which is pretty impressive.

"Desperate Housewives." News of a catfight among the "DH" women during a Vanity Fair cover shoot sent nearly 26 million viewers scurrying to the ABC drama series Sunday, making it the week's most watched program and the first series to top both editions of "American Idol" in any given week among the 18-to-49-year-olds advertisers crave. It's enough to drive a gal to suspect the whole thing was ginned up as a publicity stunt.

Tiger Woods. Nearly 15 million golf fans and non- were glued to their TVs Sunday to see Tiger Woods's sudden-death win over Chris DiMarco at the Masters tournament. That's the franchise's biggest audience since 2001 -- when Woods won in front of a TV audience of more than 19 million.

"Supervolcano." Yellowstone National Park sits atop what is arguably one of the largest active volcanoes in the world, Discovery Channel says on its Web site. It also notes that hundreds of thousands of years pass between eruptions and that before it erupts again -- tens if not hundreds of thousands of years from now -- we will have decades if not centuries of warning signs. Fortunately, Discovery did not let these facts stand in the way of its production or telecast of its special-effects natural disaster extravaganza "Supervolcano" in which thousands of people were seen running for their lives as Yellowstone blows its lid, nor did it give the network pause when it ran promos that went something like this: "This is a true story -- it just hasn't happened yet" and "based on the latest predictions of leading scientists." For which the 5.1 million of us who tuned in are grateful. "Supervolcano" was Discovery's most watched program since the special-effects natural disaster extravaganza "Pompeii: The Last Day" clocked nearly 5 million viewers in February, making it the channel's most watched program since its special-effects dead Egyptian extravaganza "Nefertiti Resurrected" drew nearly 5.5 million in August '03. A real win-win.

LOSERS

"Miss USA." The annual chick pageant experienced viewer shrinkage of nearly 40 percent this past Monday compared with a year ago, coming in at 8.1 million viewers. Among the 18-to-49-year-olds NBC targets, the pageant fell 35 percent. Not coincidentally, its lead-in, the annual Miss USA edition of "Fear Factor," in which the ladies do hard things in bikinis and which last year did so much to drive viewers into the pageant, dropped 37 percent. "FF" got clobbered by competing reality series "Nanny 911" and "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition -- How'd They Do That?" And the pageant got clobbered by, among other things, an original "CSI: Miami"; last year it faced a rerun. Maybe they shouldn't have set Miss USA in Baltimore after all.

"Starlet." The season finale of Faye Dunaway's worst career mistake yet logged 2.6 million viewers last Tuesday night; overall the reality series, in which actress wannabes competed for a cameo on a WB drama series, averaged 2.1 million viewers, putting it ahead of only 10 other shows this season -- eight of which are encore presentations of series, like the second broadcast of "America's Next Top Model" and even "Starlet."

"Simple Life." Paris Hilton continues her slow slide into who-cares-dom, last week averaging 5.1 million viewers. It was the Fox reality series's smallest audience ever except for that one-time "lost" episode last November.

Former Has Been Diva Actresses Whining On Set of 'Housewives....'


Yawn!

That DH story which has been out for a while now, is likely a fake..The whole thing has been fabricated by ABC to attract more viewers to the show..

Like the article says, "In Hollywood, there is a saying that any publicity is good publicity"...so don't take it too seriously

Tuesday’s network prime-time program ratings have been posted in Latest News, the first item in this thread.

Marc Berman’s analysis of last weeks network prime-time program ratings have been posted in Latest News, the first item in this thread.

The story just can't stop getting more and more bizarre ----

Filing alleges Dolan's ally is fake

BY HARRY BERKOWITZ NEWSDAY STAFF WRITER
April 13, 2005, 4:21 PM EDT

Even though the story of Voom is all but ended, a 43-page filing that became public Wednesday provides more evidence of how bizarre the battle over the satellite TV service has been between Cablevision and its own chairman, Charles Dolan.

The joint filing to the Federal Communications Commission by Cablevision and satellite TV rival EchoStar Communications claims that a consumer group that sided with Dolan in trying to block the sale of Voom's sole satellite does not really exist.

Dolan and the purported group, the Association of Consumers to Preserve and Promote DBS (direct-broadcast satellite) Competition," told the FCC in a March 28 joint filing that Cablevision's deal to sell the satellite to EchoStar for $200 million would reduce competition and hurt consumers. Instead, they argued, Dolan should be able to buy the satellite to keep Voom alive.

Last week, the 15-member Cablevision board reconfirmed its decision to shut Voom rather than hand it over to Dolan, and this time the vote was unanimous, including Dolan.

But that still left the requirement for Cablevision, which on March 29 disavowed Dolan's FCC filing, to elaborate on its argument that the filing should be ignored. Otherwise, Cablevision could face a lawsuit from EchoStar, which has called Dolan's filing perplexing.

Not only is Dolan's contention now moot, given the Voom shutdown, Cablevision and EchoStar claim in the filing, but "all available evidence strongly suggests that the association is a mere fiction, created by a single individual, Dr. Jerome Sandler, for the sole purpose of filing the petition."

A voicemail message left yesterday at Sandler's home in Rockville, Md., was not returned.

The new filing also expands on the argument that EchoStar -- whose service Cablevision, the nation's sixth biggest cable operator, has mocked in advertisements -- should be strengthened to benefit consumers, especially in rural areas, which have been slower to gain access to HDTV channels.

The unusual battle pitted Dolan against his chief executive son James, a longtime opponent of Voom who signed the contract to sell the satellite.

According to the new filing, over the past six years, Cablevision invested $1 billion in Jericho-based Voom, which stressed high-definition channels. But it only attracted 40,000 customers, mainly in urban areas, and had less than $15 million in revenue.

EchoStar was gaining customers at the rate of 40,000 customers every 10 days. Voom suffered "astoundingly high" customer dropout rates, suggesting a low likelihood of viability," the filing states.

On Monday, Dolan, who last month ousted three directors who had condoned the deal to sell the satellite, plans to drop three more, cutting the size of the board to 12, including nine who do not require approval by non-Dolan shareholders.

A Cablevision spokesman did not immediately return a call seeking comment from the company or Dolan.

'Blind Justice' takes a headlong tumble
As curiosity wears off over sightless cop saga

medialifemagazine.com--ABC’s “Blind Justice” debuted last month to a decent audience, with viewers curious how ABC could pull off the ridiculous-sounding concept of a blind cop with a gun roaming around the streets. That curiosity was apparently sated quite quickly. Since its debut, “Blind” has lost nearly one-third of its audience, and it was down once again last night.

Last night’s episode averaged a 3.0 average, according to Nielsen overnights. That’s 33.3 percent lower than its premiere average of 4.5 on March 8 and, maybe more importantly, down 19 percent from the 3.7 “NYPD Blue” averaged this season in the same 10 p.m. timeslot. Whereas four weeks ago it looked as if “Blind” had a chance to make the fall schedule, it’s now just a placefiller until ABC finds something better next year.

“Blind” fell to a series low 2.6 two weeks ago and a 3.0 last week. The show has averaged a 3.2 rating since its debut, but that continues to fall each week. Even head-to-head against a rerun of NBC’s “Law & Order: SVU,” “Blind” struggled. The show finished third in its timeslot behind “SVU” and CBS’s “Judging Amy.”

Bad reviews for “Blind” didn’t seem to hurt its initial tune-in, but audiences evidently agreed with the reviewers. The show will finish out the season in the time slot.

Thus Tuesday looks like an increasingly troubled night for ABC with “Blind’s” falloff. The network has also seen decreases for its block of sitcoms from 8 to 10 p.m., with at least one or two likely to be canceled or rescheduled.

Late vote of confidence for 'West Wing'
Season finale sees a boost over last year's ender
By Abigail Azote medialifemagazine.com

It’s widely accepted that NBC’s “The West Wing” is a shadow of its former self, suffering from steep viewer decline these past two seasons. And that remains so even after a revamp earlier this season that won praise from critics for improved storylines. The revamp did not revive ratings.

Or so it seemed. Then came last week's finale. At the least it should build hopes for the show as it goes into its seventh and perhaps final season. “Wing” outdelivered last season’s finale after a season of decreased viewership.

The Wednesday 9 p.m. episode averaged a 3.5 rating and 9 share in the adults 18-49 demo, up 13 percent from last season’s 3.1/7 finale.

Yes, it landed the show in fourth place for the timeslot, behind the 3.6 average of “King of Queens” and “Yes, Dear,” “Alias’” 3.7, and the 7.4 average for “American Idol” and “Life on a Stick.” But it was also up several tenths of a point over “Wing’s” season average.

The once top-flight show has suffered since creator Aaron Sorkin’s departure in 2003 after peaking at an average of 17 million viewers and winning more Emmys than anyone but the show’s producers cared to count. By 2004 it was averaging 11.8 million viewers, a 31 percent drop, and this season it slipped even further, averaging 11.1 million viewers.

That slide could well be reversed next season with the revived storyline that closes out the administration of Josiah Bartlet (Martin Sheen) to turn to the presidential race between two distinctly different characters, Democrat Matt Santos (Jimmy Smits) and Republican Arnold Vinick (Alan Alda). This time, Republicans aren’t simply the bad guys, reflecting a shift in politics for the long left-leaning series.

The challenge 'Wing" faces is that of bringing back viewers who drifted way. Will an election storyline with a Republican in serious contention be enough?

Originally posted by fredfa
'Blind Justice' takes a headlong tumble
As curiosity wears off over sightless cop saga



Thus Tuesday looks like an increasingly troubled night for ABC with �Blind�s� falloff.

Boston Legal maybe?

The production values for Blind Justice make it nice to watch, but really, a blind cop...:rolleyes:

Marc Berman has already talked about BL going to Tuesday at 10.
It seems to be the perfect slot (although perhaps that makes it very doubtful ABC would put it there.)

ABC would have to move BL to Wednesday night @ 10pm est if they want it to survive, which I'm sure they do. After Alias is done, BL can take that time slot. If they pick up Eyes for next season, it can be moved to Tuesday or Thursday night.

I think Eyes is already on life-support.

Originally posted by fredfa
I think Eyes is already on life-support.

From what the three eps I've watched it seems pretty decent. It's different in a good way b/c there aren't many shows on tv that goes about its plot the way Eyes does. It does seem kind of early to be on life support. Maybe ABC ought to run some new eps over the summer the way that Fox introduced the O.C. to us. I don't understand why more nets don't use that idea the way Fox did. The summer is a good time to introduce shows you're unsure about and you can pull in people who maybe looking for something to watch on a Wednesday night in June.

I agree entirely.
But networks don't seem to think that way.
I'd blow away a couple of the Tuesday night comedies and do Eyes/BL there starting at 9 PM (leaving Alias on Wednesday.)
I'd especially do that if CBS sticks with Judging Amy Tuesdays at 10.
And remember, ABC will have 27 (not the usual 22) BL episodes to program next season, and fewer repeats should be helpful.

Originally posted by fredfa
The challenge 'Wing" faces is that of bringing back viewers who drifted way. Will an election storyline with a Republican in serious contention be enough?

I've never been able to watch this show. Don't we get enough political drama in real life? Spend that hour reading the paper instead. ...

I've never been able to watch this show. Don't we get enough political drama in real life?

Thank you. Same here. [This show is] garbage.


[MOD EDIT]

Originally posted by maxman
Thank you. Same here. [This show is] garbage.

{sniffs at the bait and walks on by} :D

Yeah I'm sorry, re: "Blind Justice", a blind cop on the street, complete with all the cliches of being blind, like seemingly superhuman hearing and smell, it was just lame.

There was a British mini-series about a blind cop but it had a more interesting premise, the cop and his partner are hiding his mysterious blindness in the hopes he regains his site.

Originally posted by AFH
From what the three eps I've watched it seems pretty decent. It's different in a good way b/c there aren't many shows on tv that goes about its plot the way Eyes does.

Translation: Americans won't get it. Consider it cancelled.

Originally posted by AFH
From what the three eps I've watched it seems pretty decent. It's different in a good way b/c there aren't many shows on tv that goes about its plot the way Eyes does. It does seem kind of early to be on life support. Maybe ABC ought to run some new eps over the summer the way that Fox introduced the O.C. to us. I don't understand why more nets don't use that idea the way Fox did. The summer is a good time to introduce shows you're unsure about and you can pull in people who maybe looking for something to watch on a Wednesday night in June.

The O.C. worked, but The Jury, Method & Red, North Shore, and The Casino flopped with summer premieres. The Jury and The Casino didn't even make it to the fall.

It tends to work better with shows that have been on (and thus are familiar) such as Without A Trace and Cold Case.
People were aware of them, hadn't seen the original episodes and tuned in during the summer to (finally) see them.
But CBS had a specific, definite, and long-range strategy for those shows and others.
Long-range, for other networks, seems to be two or three weeks ahead--if that.
And, as f44 notes, it has been, so far at least, very difficult for totally new series to get traction during the summer.

Thriving Ratings for a New Patient on ABC

By JOE RHODES The New York Times April 14, 2005


Even before this week's announcement that the medical drama "Grey's Anatomy," originally scheduled for only a four-week run, would remain in ABC's Sunday-night lineup through the May ratings sweeps period and for the rest of the season - bumping David E. Kelley's "Boston Legal" off the air until fall - Shonda Rhimes, the show's creator and an executive producer, was getting the feeling that her life was about to change.

"I started hearing from people I haven't spoken to since fifth grade," she said, asked if there had been any early indicators that "Grey's Anatomy," her first television series, would become such an out-of-nowhere ratings phenomenon. The program averages more than 17 million viewers a week, according to Nielsen Media Research, and the audience is increasing with each episode. That is 5 million more than "Boston Legal" drew in the same 10 p.m. time slot, following "Desperate Housewives."

"And then my mom in Columbus, Ohio, got a call from her congressman," Ms. Rhimes said. "So I knew there was something going on."

In the announcement that "Grey's Anatomy" would stay on the air, Steve McPherson, ABC Entertainment president, also said that "Boston Legal," a drama about lawyers starring James Spader and William Shatner, which is finishing its first year as a successful spinoff from "The Practice," would return next season with 27 new episodes, including five that were to be broadcast this spring. "Grey's Anatomy" had been in development at ABC since September.

Asked why the network would risk an unproven show like "Grey's Anatomy" in such a sought-after time slot, Francie Calfo, executive vice president for development at ABC Entertainment, said, " 'Boston Legal' had obviously caught on, the growing pains were behind it and we felt like it was a safe time to play around with the schedule a little bit."

"One thing Steve and I talk about every time we find a show we love is, 'Let's not blow it,' " she said. "Let's put it somewhere where we feel we can really launch it. And we thought this was the best opportunity."

Ms. Rhimes said that the large female audience for "Desperate Housewives" provided the perfect lead-in for her relationship-heavy show, focusing on a group of five struggling surgical interns at a Seattle hospital, three of them women, including the female title character, Dr. Meredith Grey (played by Ellen Pompeo).

Ms. Calfo said: "I think there was a need for this kind of show on our air, specifically a medical show. And Shonda found a twist on it that made it perfect for where we're at right now. Medical shows are hard, and it was hard trying to figure out where ours could be different. But where everybody else is speeding up their medical shows, she found a way to slow it down, so you get to know the characters. There's definitely a strong female appeal to it."

Ms. Rimes explained that "the idea of having a show about smart women who compete against one another was interesting to me." Commenting on the healthy ratings for "Grey's Anatomy," Steve Sternberg, a media analyst with Magna Global USA, said: "Roughly 80 percent of households during prime time only have one TV set on. People are looking for shows they can watch with other household members. And just as 'Desperate Housewives' reaches a broad audience - younger, older, male, female - so does 'Grey's Anatomy.' "

Officially, "Grey's Anatomy" has not been renewed for next season, although that announcement could come soon. ABC executives also emphasized that they had not decided which show would follow "Housewives" next season.

"Grey's Anatomy" and "Boston Legal" could also appear elsewhere on the schedule and ABC could use the slot, and its accompanying audience, to introduce another show.

"There's no way you can predict what will work best," Ms. Calfo said. "But we know we have at least two strong pieces, which is a great place to start."

Originally posted by GregF
Yeah I'm sorry, re: "Blind Justice", a blind cop on the street, complete with all the cliches of being blind, like seemingly superhuman hearing and smell, it was just lame. I can hardly wait until Marlee Matlin makes a guest appearance. Then Marcel Marceau...

Lopez on 'Lopez':
We'll be back

Thursday, April 14th, 2005

ABC officials haven't said anything official, but George Lopez said yesterday he's been given the word that his self-named comedy will be back next season.
"I don't see the show not being on the air," Lopez said. "We've already gotten the unofficial word."

Lopez, who will become the first person to say "Gentleman, start your engines" in Spanish at a NASCAR race this Sunday on Fox, next season will also bring a change in the "George Lopez Show" - namely more of him.

"The first year was our best year," he said. "That's when I invested most of my time writing the show. I'm going back in the writing room this summer."

Lopez admits the program lost a step creatively when he stopped being active in the writing process.

"In the first season, the stories were about my real life, about the things that happened to me, and there was a lot of peril, and a lot of real situations between a mother, and a son, and a father," he said.

Not being so involved was a byproduct of the show's success. As it has grown, he's been in more demand to do other things.

So far this season, "The George Lopez" show is averaging 7.6 million viewers, up a tick from the 7.4 million average last season. While the ratings aren't spectacular, "George Lopez" airs against Fox's juggernaut "American Idol."

An ABC spokeswoman did not return a call for comment on the show's future yesterday.

But Lopez, having starred in 80 episodes and needing another eight or so for reruns to be sold to stations around the country, is rededicating himself to the series.

"There's no other show that's had a Mexican-American lead that's so successful," he said. "I realize I have something so special."

http://www.nydailynews.com/entertai...9p-256486c.html

Wednesday’s network prime-time program ratings have been posted in Latest News, the first item in this thread.

Drama-wise, it's 'Lost' and 'Housewives'
Knockoffs of two ABC hits are next year's big thing
By Toni Fitzgerald medialifemagazine.com

The broadcast networks aren’t known for their originality. So when one gets a hit show, it's no wonder that going into the following season the others roll out a raft of imitations. Forensics, anyone?

That tells us one sure thing for the coming fall season. We'll be seeing a slew of “Lost” and “Desperate Housewives” imitators.

Indeed. Of the new dramas being previewed to advertisers by the networks last month, four are based on aliens or supernatural phenomenon as in “Lost.” Another three examine the home lives of hip, modern women who sound like the “Housewives” bunch.

Three shows, including two comedies, will even lift a device directly from ABC and use a narrator to drive the plot, as Mary Alice does on “Housewives.”

The most promising of the “Housewives” knockoffs, "Soccer Moms," is actually being developed by ABC and sounds like a good companion for “Housewives” on Sundays, says Magna Global executive vice president and director of audience analysis Steve Sternberg in his new program development report issued this week.

But he also points out that ABC and other networks shouldn’t think that cloning current hits will attract viewers. It’s the quality of the shows, and not necessarily their themes, that are important.

“What the networks and studios think viewers want and what viewers actually want are often dramatically different,” writes Sternberg. “Nobody ever seems to learn from the continual mistake of thinking viewers are looking for a particular genre or an edgy concept.

“The success of ‘Desperate Housewives’ does not mean people are looking for another soap opera or any more shows set in suburbia. The success of ‘Medium’ does not mean anyone wants another supernatural or ‘talking to the dead’ show.”

Tell that to the networks. Here's what they have in mind for viewers:

UPN’s pilot “Wild Life” sounds like “Housewives” 10 years earlier, following a group of Hollywood suburbanites.

Another, CBS’s “Commuters,” deals with couples commuting from suburbia to the city. With a cast of somewhat known actors, including David Arquette and Jeri Ryan, it could have some promising characters and mysterious storylines much like on Wisteria Lane.

Fox’s “Reunion” will also chronicle the loves and lives of a group of friends, though this gives the “Housewives” concept a twist by relating the events of 20 years in one season.

ABC also has one of the “Lost”-like shows, a drama about aliens in a Florida town. CBS and NBC both have dramas about mysterious underwater phenomenon, and “Supernatural” on the WB follows two brothers going cross-country on a search for aliens and the like.

As for the voiceover shows, “Wild Life” also uses the plot device, as do two comedy hopefuls, Fox’s “Peep Show” and UPN’s “Everybody Hates Chris,” which is based on comedian Chris Rock’s life.

Of course, as always, there’s also a fair number of cops and robbers shows. ABC, CBS and NBC all have pilots about the FBI in development.

And in keeping with the recent pop culture obsession with religion most recently demonstrated by NBC’s miniseries “Revelations,” Fox and NBC are both considering dramas with a priest or minister in the lead role.

Perhaps the oddest trend in drama development is two drama pilots about infertility. When was the last time there was even one pilot with that theme? NBC’s “Inconceivable” and Fox’s “Born and Bred” are both set at fertility clinics.

Tonight on 'CSI,' a Vegas four-pack
Four stories, four completely separate vignettes

medialifemagazine.com--Nobody ever said being a crime scene investigator was easy, as CBS’s “CSI” crew will find out yet again in an episode called “4 x 4” tonight at 9 PM ET.

At the beginning of the episode, four scenes are introduced: a hit-and-run, a dead 12-year-old on a city bench, a dead muscle head and a murdered auto show model.

“CSI” has a reputation for being innovative TV, but don’t expect a lot of Tarantino-style cutting back and forth between stories. After the opening sequence, each crime is investigated uninterrupted.

The show catches flack for being all visuals and no substance, which may be true from time to time, but it at least doesn’t stick to the same old tired way of formulaic storytelling. Plus, those visuals are pretty cool.

Originally posted by fredfa
Tonight on 'CSI,' a Vegas four-pack
Four stories, four completely separate vignettes

medialifemagazine.com--Plus, those visuals are pretty cool.

Especially in hd! ;)

Note:
The futoncritic website is off line until at least tomorrow morning.

Say It Ain’t So! (A Potential Tragedy for Fox)
FOX Looking for New Paris Pal

(zap2it.com)--If Paris Hilton keeps living "The Simple Life" for FOX, she may be doing it with a new friend.

The hotel heiress and her current partner-in-staged-TV-crime, Nicole Richie, are reportedly on the outs, which would throw a wrench into plans for a fourth season of the not-entirely-scripted series that takes the two socialites and red-carpet regulars out of their element and into the workaday world.

With Richie possibly out of the picture, the network and the show's producers are looking to team someone else with Hilton for a fourth installment. The showbiz-news program The Insider says the show is hoping to pair one of the Olsen twins with Hilton -- whose own sister, Nicky, opted not to take part in the show. That's considered a long shot.

Richie, too, is reportedly angling to stay with FOX and film a "Newlyweds"-style show with her fiance, Adam "DJ AM" Goldstein.

Whether FOX even brings the show back is still an open question. "The Simple Life 3," which premiered in January, is averaging a little over 10 million viewers per week, but it hasn't been a consistent draw for audiences.

In the four episodes in which it followed "American Idol," "The Simple Life" has averaged 13 million viewers (a little more than half of "Idol's" Wednesday average). The eight installments not helped by an "Idol" lead-in, however, have drawn fewer than 8 million viewers, dipping to a low of 6.15 million last week.

Some thoughts on this TV Season – and the next
Awww, look at all the little baby pilots
Tim Goodman San Francisco Chronicle

Maybe it's some leftover euphoria from the start of the baseball season, but there's something in the air right now about the state of television. And no, it's not a stench. It's ... take a whiff ... optimism.

Things will get progressively darker soon enough. In May, the networks will announce their new fall shows, which means they're going to kill a whole bunch of others. And you're going to come whining about the loss of "American Dreams" or "Committed" or "Jake in Progress" or some such nonsense, and there will be, right here, nary a care. We're about the future. As the Replacements once sang so philosophically, everybody on this bus is looking forward.

Unless Fox kills "Arrested Development." And then there will be an unholy hell unleashed in this space, plus lots of pathetic, sorry-ass whining. Like you care. You don't even watch the show.

Anyway, that's digression. OK, so we know that in May there's this weird aura of hope among the six broadcast networks -- 40 or so new shows coming up in September! -- and then, following historical protocol, there's no announcement of any kind about the dead shows. You read in the paper that some sitcom about five siblings in their 20s moving back in with their drunken troll parents is going to air Monday nights at 10 p.m. on ABC and then you suddenly -- gasp! -- remember that's the "Supernanny" slot, and you weep into your now-opened honey pot of Percocet.

It's a cruel business.

But on the other hand, this is April, and they're making pilots in Hollywood. Lots of pilots. Tons of them. And when a new show goes into production, God help our jaded souls, it's like baseball's thrill of the grass all over again. Spring! Renewal! Shows that may not suck! Our job made easier!

Right now, they are filming all kinds of premises. Lame ones, familiar ones, lame and familiar ones. But also interesting ones. And some that may become the next "Desperate Housewives" or "Lost." Perhaps the best news of all is that, checking over what each of the six networks is developing, there are precious few new reality shows. There are some spin-offs and some copies, but all told, the numbers are small.

You there, rejoice. That is good news. (Fox, by the way, seems to be really, really off the reality jones.)

Part of the optimism, which is almost always misplaced but resurfaces every year without fail, is that the current season isn't all that bad. In fact, it has yielded two hits (the aforementioned "Desperate Housewives" and "Lost" on ABC), which, in addition to being popular, are also good. It's one of those glorious rarities.

Other shows will survive that have their own merit. "House," on Fox, is a fantastic vehicle for the acting lesson that Hugh Laurie puts on every week, even though it's not an entirely perfect hospital drama. But neither is "Grey's Anatomy," and yet it has turned into ABC's other drama hit, creating wonderful scheduling problems for a network that was sinking fast just one season ago (and let's not forget that "Eyes," another entertaining drama about private detectives, is rallying hard to be a hit).

Now, remember, we're not even taking into consideration cable here. HBO and Showtime have some swell stuff coming (not only this summer but next fall, too), and FX -- ostensibly this country's fifth network because it trounces both the WB and UPN in quality shows -- is launching four new series.

This is healthy. This is positive. TV is good.

Well, wait. It's good on paper. Maybe when we all get to see it later on, it will have morphed into something sublimely stupid and annoying, but right now everything is a glittering jewel. Barry Levinson and Tom Fontana ("Homicide: Life on the Street") are making a pilot for NBC about brain surgeons ("3 lbs."); Robb and Mark Cullen, who made the hysterically brilliant "Lucky" for FX, are making a sitcom pilot for Fox set at a car dealership ("New Car Smell"). David Mamet and Shawn Ryan ("The Shield") are making a military drama for Fox (about special forces). Frank Spotnitz, who was instrumental in "The X-Files," is updating "The Night Stalker" for ABC.

There are a lot of intriguing actors coming to television: Heather Graham, John Leguizamo, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Jenna Elfman, Chris Rock, Bernadette Peters, Geena Davis and Brenda Blethyn. Plus a host of others (like Julie Bowen and Tom Cavanaugh from "Ed" and Alyson Hannigan and Nicholas Brendon from "Buffy the Vampire Slayer") we'd like to see again.

Aliens are making a huge comeback next fall. Huge. There are going to be some old-fashioned variety shows, too. And yes, the schedule will continue to be littered with crime-and-punishment series, this time with an emphasis on government forces, not just forensic detectives.

Every day this month, a new pilot is getting made. In May, a good deal of them will be swept away forever. Lost. Never seen. Others will be held for midseason. It's part of television's cycle of life. April is a birth month. Joy is in the air.

Of course, there's also a whole bunch of repellent sausages being made right now. But we can wait until May to get negative.

Originally posted by fredfa
Some thoughts on this TV Season � and the next
Awww, look at all the little baby pilots
Tim Goodman San Francisco Chronicle

and FX -- ostensibly this country's fifth network because it trounces both the WB and UPN in quality shows -- is launching four new series.



Has there been any scuttlebut about taking FX HD?

With Fox announcing Thursday the first new program order for the 2005-1006 season ("Prison Break") I've added a category at the bottom of the Latest News listings at the top of this thread for new shows for next season.

I finally figured out what's so idiotically annoying about the title of "Eyes" (which seems decent)....

It's on the same network as the idiotically titled "Blind Justice".

It further connotes the body part, which is not what Eyes is about.

Again, the Rogo Title Consultancy is open for business for TV and film producers that want their titles analyzed for marketability, suggested alternatives, etc. Fees are reasonable given returns.

Originally posted by keenan
Has there been any scuttlebut about taking FX HD?

It was posted several months ago that FX would not be HD for a while because of the infrastructure. At that time, the poster said that it looked like NGC would be the first to go HD but no time had been set then. I personally have heard nothing on either channel.

The National Geographic Channel has been stockpiling HD content for some time so it will be able to make a relatively fast switch to HD when the big moment arrives.

“Arrested Development” Finale?

By ADAM BUCKMAN New York Post

NOBODY likes "Arrested Develop ment" anymore — it's too good.
That's an awkward paraphrasing of the famous quote attributed to Yogi Berra, who supposedly said about a restaurant: "Nobody goes there anymore — it's too crowded!" It's a clumsy way of illustrating the situation facing "Arrested Development" as its season finale approaches on Sunday.

It came out of its first season with a surprise Emmy award last September for best comedy. And yet, the show has never been able to parlay the award, along with near-unanimous rave reviews, into ratings. Last season, it averaged about 6.2 million viewers an episode, according to Nielsen. And this season, it's averaging about 5.9 million — lowly by network TV standards.

Fox hasn't made any decisions yet, according to a spokeswoman, but based on those numbers, the odds don't favor "Arrested Development" returning next fall. And that means Sunday's episode could be its last. And true to form, as it tanks in the ratings week after week and now stands on the brink of oblivion, "Arrested Development" comes out with one of its richest episodes yet.

How does the season end? Without revealing too much, let's just say that the house of Bluth is in danger of collapsing — literally.

The episode — titled "Righteous Brothers" — deals principally with the relationships between brothers Michael Bluth (Jason Bateman) and Gob (pronounced "Jobe," Will Arnett), and George Sr. (Jeffrey Tambor) and his twin brother, Oscar (also Tambor). But that's only the tip of the iceberg. Among other things, Tobias (David Cross) gets a chance to audition for Blue Man Group in Las Vegas, and cousins George-Michael (Michael Cera) and Maeby (Alia Shawkat) may take their relationship to a whole new level.

Along the way, look for a cameo appearance by Marc Cherry, executive producer of "Desperate Housewives," and a sampling of "Peanuts" Christmas music inserted into a scene for no apparent reason. It all adds up to a TV show that's too weird for most people. Or, to put it another way: This show is so good that nobody will watch it.

Originally posted by fredfa
With Fox announcing Thursday the first new program order for the 2005-1006 season ("Prison Break") I've added a category at the bottom of the Latest News listings at the top of this thread for new shows for next season.

I'm waiting to see what's replacing Raymond, not that anything really can replace it :(

Thursday’s network prime-time program ratings have been posted in Latest News, the first item in this thread.

fredfa,

Two midseason replacements (one you have listed, but you dont have the date):

Both UPN:

Bad Girl's Guide, Tuesdays 9:30pm ET, starts Tuesday 5/24 @ 9:30pm ET

Britney and Kevin, Tuesdays 9:00pm ET, starts Tuesday 5/17 @ 9:00pm ET with a one-hour premiere.

Fox Prison Pilot Gets Big 'Break'
Fri Apr 15, 2005 3:45 AM ET

By Nellie Andreeva

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - In the first series pickup for the 2005 crop of network pilots, Fox has greenlighted 12 episodes of the drama "Prison Break," bringing the total order to 13, including the pilot.

After a year of gestation, the 20th Century Fox TV project got a head start this development season when Fox gave it an early pilot order in October.

The script, written by Paul Scheuring, received an additional boost a month later when Brett Ratner signed on to direct.

"Prison Break" chronicles an elaborate prison break that plays out over 22 episodes. It centers on an engineer (Wentworth Miller) who inserts himself into a prison he designed to help his brother (Dominic Purcell), a death row inmate who insists he is innocent, escape. Co-starring in the project are Robin Tunney and Sarah Wayne Callies.

Fox has made no decision yet whether to launch the series in late summer or the fall.

Reuters/Hollywood Reporter

fredfa,

According to thefutoncritic, "Paul Scheuring's prison break drama pilot has been shortened to just The Break."

Thanks f44, changes made

Originally posted by foxeng
It was posted several months ago that FX would not be HD for a while because of the infrastructure. At that time, the poster said that it looked like NGC would be the first to go HD but no time had been set then. I personally have heard nothing on either channel.

That's a bummer, along with The Shield, FX looks like they are going to have some really good programming coming soon.

NGC in HD would great, maybe after DirecTV gets their new birds up...:)

Fine acting, writing less than likely to save sitcom

'LESS THAN PERFECT' HD

April 14, 2005

BY PAIGE WISER Staff Reporter

No, it's not perfect, but "Less Than Perfect" does not deserve to die.

This week's episode of the office sitcom ([9:30pm ET on ABC]) may be its last. For three seasons, redheaded Sara Rue has played Claude, the less-than-perfect beauty of the title ("I have 3 percent more body fat than other people in this area," she admits). We've watched her move up, from working as a temp on the fourth floor to a position as an executive assistant on the famed 22nd floor, right outside the office of network anchor Will Butler (the historically nasty Eric Roberts).

Oh, maybe we missed an episode or two. This year the show switched from Tuesdays to Fridays, and the occasional happy hour does cut into our viewing schedule. But "cancellation" is such a strong word. It seems so unfair, when even "The Bachelor" is alive and necking.

"Less Than Perfect" pits Claude and her dorky friends against their cutthroat, comely colleagues. And Claude is starting to win. "If you don't focus," advises office-supplies clerk Owen (Andy Dick), "Baby will never get out of that corner, you know what I'm saying? I think you do."

The writing is sharp and original. The actors are funny. There's even a fabulous wedding in the works. Then again, the best moments on the show are little ones -- while Claude is talking, for instance, Owen might be in the background scratching his eye with a stalk of celery.

But the chances for a fourth season are not good. "They are slim," says Patrick Warburton, who plays on-air pundit Jeb Denton. "The network has shown no love for the show."

This is an actor who knows heartbreak. He famously dated Elaine as Puddy on "Seinfeld," and starred on such critically-acclaimed-but-doomed series as "NewsRadio" and "The Tick." He is braced for bad news. "It's really hard to disappoint me at this point," he says, on the phone from a Carl's Jr. drive-through.

Executive producer Gene Stein is more optimistic. "Cautiously optimistic," he says. "I think we have a real shot at coming back." He'd like to see Claude get more responsibilities at work, and what Jeb's married life will be like, and whether there might be plots that incorporate Owen's lesbian mothers (Joanna Kerns and Valerie Harper).

But for now, "We just want to get our fourth season," he says.

Here are three reasons why he should get one:

1. The casting

Some of the finest television actors alive are on "Less Than Perfect." And Eric Roberts, of course, is B-movie royalty ("The Prophecy II").

Andrea Parker was a cold, stiletto-heeled operative on "The Pretender" with her own cult following. Sassy Sherri Shepherd, whose chest is a supporting character on the sitcom, also can be seen in "Beauty Shop."

Will Sasso recently was added to the cast, along with Warburton, and is probably proudest of his role in Christopher Guest's "Best in Show." But some of us have a soft spot in our hearts for his mentally challenged pageant judge in "Drop Dead Gorgeous."

Maybe you tune in for Andy Dick. But you stay for the guest stars: Martin Mull, Cindy Williams, Jenny McCarthy, Barry Bostwick, Trista Rehn, Tori Spelling, Danny Bonaduce, David Cassidy; look for Christopher Knight ("The Brady Bunch," "The Surreal Life") in this week's very special episode.

2. The camaraderie

"I've been on sets that are not happy," says producer Stein. "But this happens to be a happy set." The actors even spend time with each other off the set. Rue and Dick, for instance, lobbied to be on an episode of "Trading Spaces" where Dick's home office was redecorated. (He hated it.)

3. The cattiness

Yes, Claude is the show's sweet-hearted center, but there's more than enough mean-spiritedness to satisfy cynical viewers. Some characters are self-centered; others are sincerely cruel.

Everyone is petty -- and that's what we like to see.

Copyright © The Sun-Times Company

TV's bubble troubles
By Gary Levin, USA TODAY

Arrested Development is adored by most critics, has won an Emmy as TV's best comedy, and yet hasn't managed to attract more than 6 million viewers. While Arrested Development has had two seasons to prove itself, other iffy series have had far less time in their quest for renewal.
Fox

It's not the first time a much-praised series has struggled to find a mass audience. But it's why Arrested is one of 19 shows hovering "on the bubble" between renewal and cancellation in USA TODAY's eighth annual Save Our Shows survey, even as its own network is lobbying to save it.

A new Web site, www.getarrested.com, urges viewers to aid its return by circulating "pledges" to watch Sunday's season finale (Fox, 8:30 p.m. ET/PT).

Fox has "always been pulling for us," says creator Mitchell Hurwitz. But "everything on this show has always been such a long shot. That's why I'm not too panicked. It's just been the karma of the show."

While Arrested has had two seasons to prove itself, other iffy series this year have had far less time to gain traction in their quest for renewal.

ABC's Grey's Anatomy is an exception — an instant hit that virtually guaranteed a second season with its strong premiere. But futures of ABC's Eyes, Fox's Life on a Stick and NBC's The Office are less certain.

In an effort to avoid crowded rollouts, networks increasingly are staggering their premieres. This season, that has meant several dramas and sitcoms started in late March and April, sometimes in time slots that once would have gone to short-run reality shows.

These newcomers have just a few weeks to prove their mettle before networks decide their fate when they unveil their fall lineups to advertisers in mid-May.

Some shows are too new to make the list. Fran Drescher's sitcom Living with Fran premiered on WB just Friday, and Wednesday night brings two more late starters: NBC thriller Revelations (9 p.m. ET/PT) and Pamela Anderson's sitcom Stacked (Fox, 8:30 p.m. ET/PT). Fox's animated Family Guy and American Dad return May 1.

"It's tough to get a bead on how these shows are really performing because a number of them are coming on opposite repeats," says Magna Global USA analyst Steve Sternberg. "It makes it more difficult to set (networks') schedules for next season."

Also included on the list are promising series that failed to deliver enough viewers (Joan of Arcadia, Kevin Hill, Jack & Bobby) and aging warhorses that have slipped (Judging Amy, Less than Perfect).

Viewers can vote for which of these should be saved or shelved in USA TODAY's survey.

The fantasy is gone

Absent from this year's survey are sci-fi and fantasy series, which reliably draw the biggest fan outcry in the survey; in years past the list included The X-Files, Angel and Roswell.

Star Trek: Enterprise, which cheated death last spring and finished tops in the 2004 survey, has already been canceled.

Last season, CBS accounted for four of 10 new shows that won a second season. This year, ABC has the best record, boasting four of nine renewed to date, including the season's top hits: Desperate Housewives, Lost and Grey's Anatomy.

Network programmers consider several factors when weighing the fate of shows on the bubble.

Business concerns. Foremost is ratings progress — is the show steady or slowly building an audience, or do more viewers flee each week? Profit is also a big consideration: Do ad revenues more than offset the show's price tag?

•Subjective factors. A show is helped if it fits a network's "brand" or reflects a new direction. Among questions asked by NBC Entertainment president Kevin Reilly: "Does it pull the right audience? Does it have critical support or buzz? Where's the show in its life cycle: Does it have years of growth ahead of it, or is it waning?"

•Replacement potential. Sometimes shows stick around simply because pilots vying to supplant them aren't very good. "A lot of times what decides the fate of these shows is we need another comedy to put a certain night together," Reilly says. "Or it becomes a marketing challenge: You can't launch 10 new shows, so there's a point where sometimes sticking with a known product is better than launching a new one."

On the other hand, "If they think they have something that's better that can do better in our place, that show will go on," says producer Barbara Hall, whose Joan of Arcadia has plummeted in the ratings after early promise and Emmy nominations last season. (Hall also created Judging Amy.)

•Lobbying. Producers of wavering series often pitch changes in casts, stories or focus in bids to save their show — and their jobs. Though Fox has been "very generous in giving us a post-Simpsons time slot," Hurwitz says he'll appeal for another chance, hoping to be paired with a more specifically adult series.

Fans also make their views known, circulating petitions and e-mails and sending show-specific tokens of support — Tabasco sauce bottles to save WB's Roswell, bananas on behalf of Arrested— aimed at tipping the scales.

Sci-fi fans tend to be unusually obsessive: Backers of Enterprise said they've raised $3 million toward funding another season. But producer Paramount has no plans to revive the series, and such efforts often prove fruitless.

"They're effective only if you're inclined to do it in the first place," as a further testament to rabid support, Reilly says.

Once trigger-happy networks have become more patient with struggling shows that show potential. One Tree Hill appeared DOA last season before blossoming into a WB hit. Reilly is a fan of Committed, a romantic comedy that he thinks could flourish given the right time slot. And WB has shown unusual faith in Jack & Bobby, which has struggled mightily in two tough time slots, averaging 2.3 million viewers — low even by that network's modest standards.

The drama centers on a single mom and two boys, one of whom becomes president, and delves into more thoughtful subject matter than WB's typical teen fare.

"The show wasn't what people expected," says executive producer Greg Berlanti. "It mixes politics and teenagers, and those are two things that don't usually go together."

Still, "the fans we do have are rabid," Berlanti says. "We get fan letters from Harvard Law School."

While this season's final episodes "notch up" subject matter with episodes on abortion, a drunken-driving accident and the introduction of the boys' mysterious father, Berlanti hasn't sold the show's soul in a bid for renewal.

"I don't want it to be a show that changes so much to find an audience that you make the audience you do have angry," Berlanti says. "We're just going to try to do more of what we think we do well."

Shoo-in or shoo-out, their fates are sealed

These are the series whose futures havebeen assured: the obvious hits (Desperate Housewives, Lost), the long-forgotten misses (Clubhouse, Father of the Pride) and the long-running shows that simply reached the end of their line (Everybody Loves Raymond, NYPD Blue and JAG.)

High ad rates, low cost and, of course, strong ratings all sway networks to renew series. So does critical acclaim and potential for growth. At least nine of this year's new series will be back next season, while 17 more are goners.The rest, listed at right, hover "on the bubble" between renewal and cancellation. Weigh in on which should be spared the ax and which should join the annual heap of TV failures in USA TODAY's annual Save Our Shows survey. (Related survey: Cast your vote on which shows should stay and which should go: http://www.usatoday.com/life/television/save-our-shows.htm)

Here's USA Today's opinion:

Nearly Dead:

(Note: I only included the ones that have not yet been officialy cancelled)

Complete Savages HD
Jake in Progress HD (fredfa, add to Ratings Questions Marks list)
Rodney HD
American Dreams HD
Medical Investigation HD
Second Time Around

On The Bubble

NBC: Will & Grace HD, Committed HD, The Office HD
CBS: Listen Up HD, Joan of Arcadia HD, Judging Amy HD, Yes, Dear HD
ABC: Blind Justice HD, Less Than Perfect HD, 8 Simple Rules HD, Eyes HD
FOX: Life on a Stick HD, The Bernie Mac Show HD, Arrested Development HD, Quintuplets HD
WB: Jack & Bobby HD, Summerland HD
UPN: Kevin Hill HD, All of Us HD

Shoo-Ins

(Note: I only included shows that have not been officially renewed)

ABC: According to Jim HD, George Lopez HD, Grey's Anatomy HD, Hope & Faith HD
CBS: CSI HD, CSI: Miami HD, CSI: NY HD, Cold Case HD, King of Queens HD, Numb3rs HD, Still Standing HD, Two and a Half Men HD, Without a Trace HD
FOX: The Simpsons, 24 HD
NBC: Nothing that isn't already renewed
UPN: Cuts HD, Eve, Girlfriends HD, Half & Half HD, One on One HD
WB: Charmed, Everwood HD, Gilmore Girls HD, One Tree Hill HD, Reba HD, 7th Heaven, Smallville HD, What I Like About You HD

Friday’s network prime-time program ratings have been posted in Latest News, the first item in this thread.

Hmmm, Fox just showed their promo for "Animation Domination", i.e., Sunday nights coming soon when "Family Guy" and "American Dad" will join "The Simpsons" and "King of the Hill". But as part of that promo they advertised "A whole new look for Malcolm in the Middle" and showed an animated version of Malcolm's family.

Was it just a joke? A one-shot event perhaps?

Anyone have an organized listing for the finale dates for the other networks? I see you have CBS...

Also can we get a list of network shows on during the summer :)

Re: Animated Malcolm

Well, they do seem to drop the HD a little to get help shelter some possible Acne issues (rumor). Maybe they'll just animate that away.

bgall:
I'll try to get the rest of the finale dates.
CBS has just been the first to announce all of theirs.
What shows do you mean in the summer...the regular shows being rerun, or the summer replacements?
(The summer schedules haven't been announced yet, by the way.)

On further examination, bgall, ABC has announced many finale dates:

Hope & Faith May 6
America’s Funniest Home Videos (two hours) May 13 8 PM ET
The Bachelor May 16 8 PM ET
My Wife and Kids (40 minutes) May 17 8 PM ET
George Lopez (40 minutes) May 17 8:40 PM ET
According to Jim (40 minutes) May 17 9:20 PM ET
Desperate Housewives May 22 9 PM ET
Grey’s Anatomy May 22 9 PM ET
Lost (two hours) May 25 8 PM ET
Alias May 25 10 PM ET

I'll try to put together lists from Fox and NBC as well in the next day or two.

Thanks fred!

I know one Fox finale and that's Arrested Development tomorrow night :(

I found most of them at thefutoncritic myself but if you still wanna make the list that would look nice.

As for summer shows, I guess the summer schedule like you mentioned is what I'm looking for. Thanks for the updates!

Fox is calling Malcolm “...the most animated live-action comedy on TV”. It’s not really going to be animated, that shot was just an exaggeration.

bgall-

In good news, if you go on Fox's site, they are now referring to the AD finale! as the Season Finale. That's better than the former reference. I've also heard rumors that the plan is for a short 13 episode order for next season, but I have no idea how accurate those rumors are.

Saturday’s network prime-time program ratings have been posted in Latest News, the first item in this thread.

UPN Season Finales

Stark Trek:Enterprise UPN (Two-Hours, Two-Episodes) Friday, May 13 8:00 PM, ET
Kevin Hill Wednesday, May 18 9:00 PM ET
One on One Monday, May 23 8:00 PM ET
Cuts Monday, May 23 8:30 PM ET
Girlfriends Monday, May 23 9:00 PM ET
Half & Half Monday, May 23 9:30 PM ET
All Of Us Tuesday, May 24 8:00 PM ET
Eve Tuesday, May 24 8:30 PM ET

Fox Appeals to Fans, Hoping to Salvage a Comedy Series
By NAT IVES The New York Times April 18, 2005

Fans often conduct grass-roots campaigns to persuade television networks to spare their favorite programs from cancellation. Die-hard "Roswell" viewers, for example, won a reprieve for the series by sending petitions and countless bottles of Tabasco sauce - a favorite of the aliens on the program - to network executives.

Now a campaign seeks to save "Arrested Development," the Fox comedy, which has low ratings despite winning three Emmy Awards last September. But, in an example of a corporation co-opting the power of protest, the campaign is being run by Fox itself. (Fox is owned by the News Corporation.)

The network set up a site at www.getarrested.com where visitors are urged to sign an "Arrested Development Loyalty Oath." Signatory fans pledge their "never-ending loyalty and allegiance to the best comedy on television today." They promise, moreover, to invite all their friends and family members to join the "Arrested Nation." As of last Friday, a counter on the site said that more than 42,000 people had electronically signed.

Some fans might think the power to save "Arrested Development," whose season finale was scheduled to run last night, may lie with the Fox executives themselves.

Not so, said Joe Earley, a spokesman at the Fox broadcast network. "Everyone is accustomed to fans rallying to save a show," he said. "We thought, what if we could find a way to take that energy and say to fans, 'instead of complaining to us, find someone else to watch the show.' "

Fox will announce its new schedule, which may or may not include "Arrested Development," next month.

Working URL: www.getarrested.com (http://www.getarrested.com)

Three-way demo derby
Fall ratings race could be the Alphabet's to lose

By MICHAEL SCHNEIDER, JOSEF ADALIAN Variety.com

ABC's Steve McPherson won't even entertain the notion, but there's a growing consensus that next year's ratings race may be his to lose. Already flush from the success of "Desperate Housewives" and "Lost," the comeback kids over at the Alphabet have just added another hit to their roster with "Grey's Anatomy." Even more importantly, the net will broadcast both the Super Bowl and the Oscars next year -- a combo that arguably makes ABC the odds-on favorite to finish first come May 2006.

That doesn't mean ABC has a clear path to the top.

As tight as this year's ratings race has been -- CBS and Fox are in a down-to-wire race for first among adults 18-49 -- next year's campaign could be the tightest in Nielsen history, with three webs waging war in a bid to capture the seasonal crown. (Then there's NBC, hoping to play spoiler with the Winter Olympics.)

While CBS is losing "Everybody Loves Raymond," the net still has a forest of tentpoles, not to mention a reputation for strong development and sharp scheduling. Fox may have also learned from the mistakes of last year's wobbly three-season strategy, while "House," "The OC" and "Nanny 911" could be solid players in fall.

Here's a look at how the three nets in contention for first place might plot their season:

ABC

Having been left for dead, ABC roared back to life this year, and is the only net to post gains among adults 18-49 this season (up 15%). It's become almost an embarrassment of drama riches at the net: Besides "Lost" and "Housewives," newcomer "Grey's Anatomy" is a bonafide hit. And frosh shows like "Boston Legal" and "Eyes" would have been standouts in an ordinary year. But this has been no ordinary year for ABC.

Now that they know drama at the net, if it really wants to be No. 1 next season the Alphabet's programmers must figure out a comedy strategy. The net's roster of sitcom families, after all, no longer mesh with its new image as the home of buzz dramas.

That's why McPherson and team are developing a wider swath of pilots, many of which are more daring in concept. "Red & Blue" tackles the country's political divide through the microcosm of one household, while "love life" is a single-camera take on relationships in the new millennium. There are also the fractured families of the Freddie Prinze Jr.-led "Freddie," and Brenda Blethyn entry "Carol Potter Gets a Life."

On the drama side, potential entries which could make waves include Touchstone's Geena Davis-as-the-president entry "Commander-in-Chief," as well as the Florida-set Warner Bros. thriller "Invasion."

Fox
For the first time, Fox will claim at least a share of the adults 18-49 crown. Holding on won't be easy, but the net has the goods to make a run at it.

At the very least, Fox scheduling guru Preston Beckman believes the net will kick off the season in better shape than last fall. "House" has emerged as a solid hit, while "Nanny 911" and "Trading Spouses" mean Fox doesn't need to try as many untested reality hours come fall, Beckman says. If "Family Guy" returns big, the net adds another weapon.

"Our operating rule in the fourth quarter is stability and not trying to overreach," he adds. "We should be able to go into the season and, on every night of week, have something returning, so there's less uncertainty." Net's challenges including deciding whether to stick with its weakened Sunday comedy block or chart a new path; finding a companion for "The OC"; and, as always, figuring out a winning formula for Fridays (comedies did OK this winter).

As for development, hot comedies include star vehicles for Brooke Shields and Alicia Silverstone, along with "The War at Home" (about the young parents of unruly teenagers) and "Peep Show" (two young men share an apartment). On the drama side, besides "Prison Break" -- which has already scored an early pickup -- look out for decade-spanning "Reunion," procedural crime drama "Bones" and "Amy Coyne," about a woman who inherits a sports agency.

CBS

Now that they've taken a sip of the 18-49 nectar, CBS execs are hungrier than ever for younger demos. The net that once refused to quote young-adult demos is aggressively looking at projects that will attract that crowd without alienating core viewers. Not only is the net looking to air more comedies that appeal to those youthful eyeballs, but it is casting those projects with younger stars.

CBS Entertainment prexy Nina Tassler told advertisers last month that one of the net's priorities is expanding its laffer presence.

CBS is especially looking at comedies with a female p.o.v., in the vein of the strong single women that once dominated the net's lineup. This time around, that includes vehicles for Jenna Elfman and Susie Essman.

On the drama side, Tassler said the net was looking to develop proven franchises (cops, doctors) but give them a twist. "3 Lbs." stars Dylan McDermott and Mark Feuerstein as brain surgeons. "American Crime" focuses on the suburbs. And the Eye tries on sci-fi with "Threshold."

Sunday’s network prime-time program ratings have been posted in Latest News, the first item in this thread.

Tom Snyder Diagnosed With Leukemia
By BILL HOFFMANN The New York Post
April 18, 2005 – Talk show legend Tom Snyder, who suc cessfully battled heart disease four years ago, now has leukemia.

The onetime host of NBC's "Tomorrow" — predecessor of David Letterman's late night show — got the bad news after bouts of "uncontrollable sweating" and "general lack of stamina."

"I have been diagnosed with something called chronic lymphocytic leukemia. Jesus H. Christ!" the 68-year-old wrote on his Web site. "My doctors say its treatable. “

"They say . . . people can live with it for 30 years," said Snyder, whose outspokenness and brusque style made him one of the nation's top-rated interviewers in the 1970s.

"Notice, they don't say people will live 30 years but they can live up to 30 years . . . I will be 69 next month; I ain't looking for 30 years — but 15 more would be nice!"

Snyder's younger brother, John, has been diagnosed with the same disease.

Off the topic, he remains as acerbic as ever.

"Early-morning network TV is not news anymore; it's a joke!" he offered. "I miss Dan Rather and Tom Brokaw. And I pray, in my own stupid way, for Peter Jennings to get well soon."

(From Tom Snyder’s website)

ITS APRIL 15TH ALREADY--BUT IN MY LIFE THERE IS A LOT MORE GOING ON THAN TAXES!

So I think I mentioned last time I was facing a bunch of tests to find out what was going on with me. I don't eat that much but I have gained weight--about fifty pounds since I quit smoking more than five years ago. Almost uncontrollable sweating in the middle of the night. Bloat like my gut is gonna explode. And just a general lack of stamina as the day wears on.

Wellsir, I had a colonoscopy and everything is fine there. But a cat scan turned up some interesting stuff. My spleen is enlarged, which the doctors say might be crowding my stomach in my abdomen, thereby causing some of the bloating I am experiencing. And judging by my white cell count and a variety of other factors including what was shown on the cat scan, I have been diagnosed with something called chronic lymphocytic leukemia. Jesus H. Christ!

When I was a kid leukemia was a death sentence. Now, my doctors say its treatable! With pills or chemotherapy or a combination of both. Lemme pause here on this word treatable. Four years ago they stuck a defibrillator/pacemaker in my chest because my heart disease was treatable!

A year and a half ago a nearly torn tendon in my left leg was diagnosed as treatable. Then I came down with atrial fibrillation, but was told not to worry about that because it is treatable! I don't know how much more room I have in my aging carcass for this treatable ****!

Anyway, my doctors assure me this is nothing to worry about, and I have to accept that, I guess. They say this kind of leukemia is not fatal, that people can live with it for thirty years. Notice, they don't say people will live thirty years. But they "can" live up to thirty years. Considering I will be sixty nine years old next month I ain't looking for thirty years, but fifteen more would be nice!

I looked up chronic lymphocytic leukemia on the Internet and found a source that predicted people who are diagnosed early can live up to twelve years. Those who are not diagnosed early--and the website does not define "early"-- have a survival rate of about two years. I don't know if my diagnosis was early or late.

My doctors say this disease (which I'll refer to as CLL from now on) has a very slow rate of progression. I had more blood work done today to make certain this diagnosis is correct. The doctors will have the results of this in a week or so and then we will see what treatment they recommend. I am going to Northern California for about two weeks and I am not taking my leukemia with me. The doctors say that's okay with them. The next visit to the medicos is scheduled for May 4th.

I think I mentioned last week that my young brother was facing a health issue. I can tell you now what it is. CLL! We both have the same thing, or so we have been told. I mentioned this to my doctors and they all said, "Isn't that something!" There's a reason doctors call what they do a practice!

Brother John and I share some symptoms and not others. But as we both know, human beings are not like Fords. Every Ford engine responds to repair or treatment the same way. We mortal beings are all different. What may work for me may not work for my brother. And vice versa. But I have made one decision today: I am now actively spending my heir's inheritence!

As my brother and I were finishing our conversation today about whose CLL was worse, he mentioned that he was seeking another opinion. I told him he was funny looking!

http://www.colortini.com/index2.htmlck soon,

Crash diet for audience of 'Fat Actress
'Alley oops! Show loses two thirds of its viewers
By Abigail Azote medialifemagazine.com

When “Fat Actress” debuted last month, Showtime made sure everyone noticed, creating a huge promotional rackets. But now, as the season comes to a close, there is hardly a whimper.

“Fat Actress” has seen a steep decline in buzz and viewership over the six weeks that it has been on air. Tonight, when the season finale airs on Showtime at 10 p.m., expect even less interest as the show quietly ends its first, and quite likely last, season. After debuting to an audience of more than 900,000 viewers, the Kirstie Alley show may not crack 300,000 during its 10 p.m. farewell.

The idea for a comedy show featuring an out-of-work and overweight Hollywood has-been was extremely promising. After all, “Fat” star and co-creator Kirstie Alley was still tabloid fodder 10 years after “Cheers,” her only big hit, had gone off the air. Showtime did a great job promoting the show with ads in Vanity Fair and Rolling Stones, billboards in major cities, plus a special tie-in with Yahoo TV to carry streaming video of the show’s premiere.

And in its March 7 premiere, “Fat” averaged 942,000 viewers, delivering a 4.16 household rating, the network’s highest-rated series premiere since “Queer As Folk” in 2000.

But “Fat” flamed out, with viewership dropping 70 percent to a disastrous 285,000 by week two. Evidently those fat jokes got old, and gross, very quickly. In the second episode, Alley was accused of being pregnant with Kid Rock’s baby and then suffered from diarrhea after overdosing on laxatives, proving that there’s such a thing as too much information about celebrities.

Built on Alley’s let-me-at-‘em attitude, her tongue-in-cheek comedic style and of course, her absolute willingness to be the butt of even her own jokes, “Fat Actress” seemed too delicious to resist. Who wouldn’t welcome a chance to laugh right along with Alley?

Reviewers, for one. The show got lukewarm to cold reviews, and viewers obviously agreed. “With virtually every joke hinging on the title's one-note gag, it's less about laughing with or at the star than feeling slightly embarrassed,” said Variety’s Brian Lowry.

The Washington Post’s Tom Shales called Alley, “vulgar, silly, and shrill.”

The National Eating Disorder Association panned the show, too, saying in a statement that there is “nothing funny about eating disorders. . . . To make comedic references to anorexia, bulimia or binge eating disorder is dangerous.”

“Fat Actress” never got past the look-here-she’s-fat jokes to something smarter and more substantial. And that failure to flesh out such a promising premise will likely lead to “Fat’s” early demise.

Showtime representatives could not be reached for comment about the show’s future. But things do not look good. In comparison, the Showtime series “Dead Like Me” averaged less than 200,000 viewers over two seasons and was canceled last year.

fredfa for the Canceled (or Not Returning) Shows under NBC why is LAX no longer showing? Did something change I'm unaware of? I know they just finished burning off the remaining episodes.

Originally posted by keenan
That's a bummer, along with The Shield, FX looks like they are going to have some really good programming coming soon.

NGC in HD would great, maybe after DirecTV gets their new birds up...:)

What is NGC?

National Geographic Channel.

It looks like ABC will have plenty of room for Boston Legal at least by January 2006:

Double switch: Sunday Night Football to NBC


ESPN.com—Monday Night Football is coming to ESPN in 2006. Sunday Night Football is moving to NBC that same year. And ABC, after 36 seasons, will no longer carry NFL games.

ESPN, NBC and the NFL announced the changes Monday afternoon. ESPN and the league reached an eight-year deal for moving MNF, while NBC and the NFL reached a six-year deal. Starting with the 2006 season, ABC will not televise NFL games as part of these new agreements.

Monday Night Football first aired on Sept. 21, 1970, with the New York Jets visiting Cleveland. It has been a network institution ever since. The highest-rated game was a 29.6, with a 46 share, for a 1985 game between then-unbeaten Chicago and Miami. The Dolphins won, ending Chicago's hopes of a perfect season.

It is the second-longest running prime time network series, trailing 60 Minutes on CBS by two years.

Al Michaels has been the play-by-play voice of Monday Night Football since 1986. Frank Gifford held the job from 1971 through 1985. Keith Jackson called the first season's games.

Among the analysts were Don Meredith, Alex Karras, Fred (The Hammer) Williamson, Frank Tarkenton, O.J. Simpson, Dan Dierdorf, Boomer Esiason, Dan Fouts, Dennis Miller and Howard Cosell. Current analyst John Madden joined Michaels for the 2002 season.

None of those articles that talk about Fat Actress mention that the premiere was during a Free Preview Weekend on Showtime.

Monday nights would be a good spot for Boston Legal and Eyes.

Perhaps it's partly subjective, having lost interest in the NFL, that I fail to understand why networks allow the NFL to charge them tens of millions more than they will make. The benefits seem arguable especially when you factor in the many-fold scheduling difficulties games create. In most business situations, the laws of economics would drive the asking price of the NFL down until the product is profitable. That's either bound to happen soon or I'm completely missing something. It would seem that ABC is making a smart move.

Originally posted by GregF
Perhaps it's partly subjective, having lost interest in the NFL, that I fail to understand why networks allow the NFL to charge them tens of millions more than they will make. The benefits seem arguable especially when you factor in the many-fold scheduling difficulties games create. In most business situations, the laws of economics would drive the asking price of the NFL down until the product is profitable. That's either bound to happen soon or I'm completely missing something. It would seem that ABC is making a smart move.

ABC is making a smart move. I think that the NFL has reached the point where it knows that the days of mega increases in rights fees is over. The NFL is about getting what it can get now and they better b/c the nets are have shown that it's getting tougher for them to pay what the NFL wants. NBC's move isn't surprising to me b/c they didn't have anything on Sunday night that could compete with the other nets. We'll see how Sunday football on NBC does against DH and Grey's on ABC.

It is a macho thing, GregF, I believe.
It can have a lot of promotional value yet Fox famously wasted it in this year's Super Bowl by programming a "Simpsons" and an "American Dad" right after the Super Bowl. (American Dad isn't scheduled to reappear until May 1. One would have thought scheduling "Arrested Development" after the Super Bowl might have made more sense.)
But most media buyers for ad agencies are male, most are young, and to get the chance to go to a Super Bowl or be treated to a network's NFL hospitality is quite a perk.
But you do have a point -- and I wonder how long until the first shareholder suit hits the networks who they have written off more than a billion dollars in losses during the current NFL contract -- and the next contracts clearly will cost them lots more red ink since they call for substantially higher rights fees.

Remember, ABC still has MNF this year, so unless they start midseason, Boston Legal and Eyes won't be on Mondays. BL also has 27 episodes, so there's a very very very small chance it would be a midseason show, and the show it spun-off of, The Practice, bombed on Mondays. Eyes might not have Season 2.

I wonder if The Simpsons will have to leave its long-held Sundays 8pm spot.

I think the future of "Eyes" will lie in what pilots ABC has that it really likes.
The fact is that starting in eight months, the network will have an extra three hours to fill a week -- for at least the next six years.
And so it might be inclined to bring back a marginal series it sees as promising as a January NFL replacement rather than try an entirely new show.
But you are right - Boston Legal wouldn't fit that NFL fill-in slot since there are only about 21 weeks between the start of the year and the end of sweeps.

I know the reality shows aren't in HD...but maybe the wedding will be?

Rob and Amber Say “I Do”
nuptials kept quiet by network
Scott Tady – Beaver County Times (PA) Entertainment Writer 04/15/2005
Amber Brkich and Rob Mariano will tie the knot Saturday (May 16).

The "Survivor" sweeties are set to say "I do" in a wedding ceremony in the Bahamas.

CBS will tape the ceremony for broadcast on May 24.

CBS is carefully guarding details of the wedding. As required by the network, Brkich and her Brighton Township family have refused to comment on wedding details.

And wedding guests have been required to sign confidentiality contracts, promising not to divulge any secrets.

But it's hard to keep a secret in a community as small as Beaver County, especially when local residents reportedly spotted a CBS camera crew at Brkich's wedding shower March 5 at Seven Oaks Country Club in Ohioville, and while gown-gazing at Skye's the Limit bridal shop in Rochester.

Through people acquainted with wedding guests, The Times has learned that much of the wedding party left Wednesday for the Bahamas. Reportedly bridesmaids will wear teal. In a prior CBS interview, Brkich revealed she wanted males at the wedding to wear summery white linen.

The TV couple certainly has honeymoon options, having won trips to London and the French Riviera on the current season of CBS's "The Amazing Race."

Brkich, 26, and Mariano, 29, already have acquired a home near Pensacola, Fla., where Mariano's family has real estate.

thanks, cdp1276.
(I accidentally erased LAX when its final episode played the other night.)

NBC, ESPN Snap Up Sunday Night, Monday NFL Packages; ABC Passes
By John Consoli mediaweek.com April 18, 2005

The National Football League ended speculation Monday about the fate of its Sunday night and Monday night television rights.

In an eight-year, $1.1 billion deal ESPN will carry Monday Night Football beginning with the start of the 2006 season, and NBC will carry Sunday Night Football in a six-year deal valued at $600 million per year.

The only package left to negotiate rights for is the new Thursday-Saturday package, which is up for grabs by any of the networks, including Turner, and the NFL's own NFL Network.

In order to move its television coverage from the current Sunday night package to Monday, ESPN was asked to pony up $500 million a year more than it is now paying for Sunday night TV rights, and also $550 million more than sister broadcast network ABC is currently paying for Monday Night rights. There was speculation that ABC might want to swap nights with ESPN, and take the Sunday night games, but the cost that the NFL was seeking for the combined packages was too rich for ESPN/ABC parent Walt Disney Co.

ESPN, under the new deal which runs from 2006 through 2013, will be paying about the same amount in rights fees annually that ESPN and ABC are now paying combined. ABC decided to pass.

With ESPN paying the huge amount for the Monday night cable rights, the NFL was able to give NBC the Sunday night broadcast rights for close to the same amount ABC is now paying for the Monday night broadcast rights.

As part of its deal, NBC has also agreed to air a one-hour, pre-game show. The pre-game show will air from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m., with the kickoff of the game being at 8:15 p.m. And NBC gets to telecast two Super Bowls. ESPN will not air a Super Bowl as part of its deal.

Monday Night Football will conclude its 36-year run on ABC this December at the end of the upcoming regular NFL season.

The new ESPN agreement calls for 17 regular Monday night games per season with a new 8:30 p.m. telecast time and an 8:40 p.m. kickoff, plus four pre-season games. It also includes rights across a wide variety of ESPN television, including the NFL PrimeTime pre-game program, the NFL Draft, which ESPN has covered since 1980; NFL Live; NFL HD; NFL Deportes; NFL Films programming; ESPN Mobile; video game and other platforms.

Walt Disney Co. president and COO Bob Iger, who negotiated the deal, said, "Securing an American television institution well into the future will strengthen our core sports asset."

Iger added that despite the hefty price tag of $1.1 billion annually---ESPN and ABC are reportedly losing a combined $350 million under their current rights contracts-Disney "will continue to see ESPN deliver strong profits and contribute to the growth of the Walt Disney Co."

NBC clearly wanted to get back into the major professional sports telecast game, but has said throughout that it would do so only if it was a deal that makes financial sense. While the $600 million per year it will pay under the new deal, plus the pre-game and Super Bowl rights, is steep, peripheral benefits also need to be considered.

When CBS added the Sunday afternoon NFL telecasts to its schedule, it enabled the network to drive more male viewers to its week night primetime shows. NBC, whose prime-time schedule has been ratings challenged over the past few seasons, could get a viewer infusion through promotion on the NFL telecasts. Also, by airing the pre-game show and the game on Sunday nights, it takes one entire night of prime-time programming out of the mix. It also gives NBC powerful programming against Fox's Sunday night audience, which is largely made up of young men, and against CBS' movie, which has produced erratic ratings over the past few seasons.

Under the deal, NBC will air the 2009 and 2012 Super Bowls, and the Pro Bowls in those same years. Also under the deal, NBC will get a flexible schedule over the last seven weeks of the season, meaning the NFL can move a more competitive game to Sunday night from the Sunday afternoon games on Fox and CBS. The latter two networks agreed to giving up those games as part of their new deals which were announced late last year.

"Sunday is the most watched night in television," said Jeff Zucker, president of NBC Universal Television Group. "We acquired a Top 10 show without negatively impacting our Monday through Saturday dominance in late night, and we did it with four hours in prime, as opposed to the traditional two hours on Monday nights. This is an incredible opportunity for both the NFL and NBC."

Randy Falco, president of NBC Universal Televsion Networks Group, said the price of the agreement "is right" and that it "will be a profitable one for us."

Dick Ebersole, chairman of NBC Universal Sports & Olympics, was instrumental in negotiating the deal with the NFL.

The NFL was happy with the financial aspects of the deals. In a release, the NFL pointed out that the average yearly NFL rights of $3.7 billion for the four packages so far, is more than the yearly average of the TV rights of the NBA, Major League Baseball, Nascar, NHL, PGA Golf, NCAA basketball, and Summer Olympics combined.

lazy to find an official press release link or post a fox link, but according to tvtome, Tru Calling's "finale" will not air.

Obviously, it was supposed to be an xmas episode, and fox does not want it airing at the end of april..

This week's episode is still a go.

Nets face sked shifts as pigskin is passed
The agony and the ecstasy

By JOSEF ADALIAN variety.com


If the primetime ratings race remains tight, Monday's NFL deals could turn out to be a crucial field goal that determines the winner of the 2006-07 season.

While a lot can change in TV over the course of 18 months (two words: "Desperate Housewives"), NBC's new Sunday Night Football package will automatically add at least one-tenth (and possibly two-tenths) of a ratings point to the Peacock's bottom line ratings average in 2006-07. And assuming NBC has a couple of good years developing entertainment shows, it's conceivable the NFL deal could put the net over the top in the ratings game come May 2007.

"Having four hours a week (of football) will have a nice effect throughout our schedule," NBC U TV Group topper Jeff Zucker said Monday.

Likewise, ABC now finds itself the only net without in-season broadcast rights to a major sports championship series. What's more, the Alphabet now faces the loss of 30 hours of high-rated primetime programming on the first 15 Mondays of the season.

But the winners and losers in the great NFL primetime shakeup of 2005 aren't as clear-cut as they might seem.
For one thing, NBC schedulers are about to discover the joy -- and pain -- of having a major sports franchise as part of the primetime mix.

ABC has been unable to get any kind of real traction on Monday nights for years, since entertainment shows that launch on Mondays can only air January through May. While "MNF" has been a big boost in the fall, its absence come January has been painful.

NBC's post-football funk could be even more pronounced. That's because, once football ends, a slew of awards shows -- the Oscars, Grammys, People's Choice and NBC's own Golden Globes -- will make it tough to launch a new lineup on Sunday nights.

Zucker said the Peacock won't even get serious about new Sunday programming until March. "We'll use this to launch more year-round programming, beginning in March," he said.

Zucker also has been vocal recently in saying sports ratings shouldn't count in primetime averages. It's a safe bet he'll be singing a different tune once the NFL returns to NBC.

Meanwhile, as NBC figures out how to program Sundays post-football, ABC suddenly will have the chance to build a year-round Monday block of primetime fare for the first time in 35 years. Timing couldn't be better, since ABC's success this season means the net might have some assets worth moving to Monday -- emerging midseason smash "Grey's Anatomy," for example.

"This announcement gives us time to strategically develop content for and schedule our new approach to Monday night," ABC Entertainment prexy Steve McPherson said.

'Monday Night Football' Changes the Channel
After 35 Years on ABC, ESPN Will Take Over Beginning in 2006
By Leonard Shapiro and Mark Maske Washington Post Staff Writers Tuesday, April 19, 2005; Page A01

ABC's "Monday Night Football," which revolutionized broadcasting of the National Football League when it was launched 35 years ago, will end its unprecedented run on network television after the 2005 season and move to the ESPN cable network.

Under terms of a new agreement reached with the NFL yesterday, ESPN will pay $1.1 billion per year over the length of an eight-year contract to replace ABC -- both ABC and ESPN are owned by the Disney Company -- in televising the Monday night package of games. ABC reportedly had been losing about $150 million a year on Monday nights in its eight-year deal with the NFL that expires after the 2005 season, and ratings for the telecast have been trending downward in recent seasons.

In addition, NBC Sports will return as an NFL partner in 2006 after an eight-year absence, taking over the Sunday evening games that previously aired on ESPN, the NFL and the network announced. With CBS and Fox broadcasting Sunday afternoon games, ABC, beginning in 2006, will be the only network not to televise the NFL.

The shift of "Monday Night Football" from network to cable television marks the end of an era in television sports broadcasting and reflects a broader transformation of how NFL games are televised as the league seeks to maintain its core viewers while attracting a new generation of fans. While the Super Bowl routinely ranks among the top-rated shows each year, ratings for regular season games have been declining.

CBS and Fox have been discussing the possibility of shifting the starting times, set for years at 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. Eastern time each Sunday, to a later hour. The NFL has been heavily promoting its two-year-old NFL Network, providing blanket coverage of the annual college draft, which will be held this weekend, and such once-obscure events as the annual college scouting combine. Some in the industry believe the league is positioning itself to someday begin televising games of its own.

ESPN officials spoke excitedly about the shift of "Monday Night Football" to the 25-year-old all-sports cable network. "It's a huge day for ESPN," said George Bodenheimer, president of ESPN and ABC. "Who would have thought 25 years ago we'd have 'Monday Night Football,' an American institution, on ESPN?"
Retaining the show "did not make sense" for ABC, Bodenheimer said. The average audience for "Monday Night Football" fell to 16.4 million viewers last season from 16.8 million a year earlier, making the show's ratings the lowest ever. The broadcast attracted an average of 11 percent of the 109.6 million U.S. homes with television sets.

For millions of sports fans, "Monday Night Football" on ABC was an American institution, and a generation of TV viewers has never known life without it. The program was the brainchild of the late Roone Arledge, who in the 1960s and 1970s pioneered sports broadcasting as the head of ABC Sports, and Pete Rozelle, then the NFL commissioner, who was the first to see the role that television would come to play in his sport. The show broke the Sunday monopoly of the NFL and showcased the sport on prime-time television, before then the exclusive domain of sitcoms, dramas and variety shows.

Both men took a huge risk in airing professional football in prime time, but it quickly became a rousing success, in part because of a three-man announcing booth that included Howard Cosell, who used Monday nights as a podium to pontificate on an array of sports issues, and "Dandy Don" Meredith, the onetime Dallas Cowboys quarterback. Keith Jackson handled the play-by-play in the inaugural 1970 season; Frank Gifford took over that role for the second season.

In recent years, ABC had attempted to increase its audience any way it could, including a two-year experiment with comedian Dennis Miller in the booth that did little to improve its ratings. Two years ago, popular football analyst John Madden left Fox to join play-by-play announcer Al Michaels in the booth, but ratings still did not pick up.

It was not immediately known whether Madden and Michaels would move to the ESPN games. Network officials said no decision on announcers had been made.

"We felt the over-the-air [network] package would do much better on Sunday night," said Denver Broncos owner Pat Bowlen, chairman of the league's television committee. "Ratings were declining. The consensus of the committee was that Sunday night was a better fit for the over-the-air package because people are already home. They're not at the office or driving home. We had informed Disney we wanted to change nights, and that didn't fit in with their ideas because of the entertainment programming they have on Sunday nights."

ABC's highest rated show this season, "Desperate Housewives," has been airing at 9 p.m. on Sunday nights. NBC had no interest in Monday nights because it would force a delay in its popular late night franchise of Jay Leno and "The Tonight Show" airing at 11:30 p.m.

The ESPN Monday night package also will have an earlier kickoff, with games starting at 8:40 p.m. instead of 9 p.m., the starting time on ABC since the series' inception. The ESPN games also will be made available on regular over-the-air television stations in each participating team's local market so that households without cable television can still see the telecast.

"The league felt strongly that Sunday night football was the only place for prime time network television to grow," said Dick Ebersol, chairman of NBC Sports. "A great deal with the NFL is as good as you can get in television."

NBC's parent corporation, General Electric, also was involved in the new deal. GE Chairman and CEO Bob Wright said the company will provide electronic, security and health care equipment as well as financial services for the league, and the contract gives GE "its own bond with the NFL."

"It's the right time for this," he said. "We've worked out an arrangement that's attractive to us economically. This will be a profitable transaction."

The NFL negotiated separate six-year deals with CBS and Fox last November that totaled $8 billion, as well as a five-year, $3.5 billion extension of its deal with DirecTV, also starting in 2006, in which fans can buy a package of games through the satellite system. Starting that season, the NFL will average $3.74 billion a year in television revenue, and that figure likely will go higher.

The league still is shopping a new Thursday night/Saturday night package of games to several cable companies that would provide added revenues. TNT, USA and Fox Sports Network all have expressed interest in the package of games, which would be shown in the second half of the season. The NFL may eventually decide to carry those games on the NFL Network.

NFL's New TV Deals
(From The Washington Post)

ESPN (announced yesterday)
Monday night
• 8 years, 2006-13
• $1.1 billion per year
• No Super Bowls

NBC (announced yesterday)
Sunday night
• 6 years, 2006-11
• $600 million per year
• Super Bowls in 2009 and 2012

Fox (announced Nov. 8)
Sunday afternoon NFC
• 6 years, 2006-11
• $712.5 million per year
• Super Bowls in 2008 and one other year during deal

CBS (announced Nov. 8)
Sunday afternoon AFC
• 6 years, 2006-11
• $622.5 million per year
• Super Bowls in 2007 and one other year during deal

DirecTV (announced Nov. 8)
Sunday Ticket satellite
• 5 years, 2006-10
• $700 million per year
• No Super Bowls

NBC Season/Series Finale Dates

Third Watch Friday May 6 9 PM ET (Series Finale)
Law & Order: Trial By Jury Friday May 6 10 PM ET
Scrubs Tuesday May 10 9 PM ET
Crossing Jordan Sunday May 15 10 PM ET
Revelations Wednesday May 18 9 PM ET
Law & Order Wednesday May 18 10 PM ET
Will & Grace Thursday, May 19 8 PM ET
The Apprentice Thursday May 19 9 PM ET
ER Thursday May 19 10 PM
Fear Factor Monday May 23 8 PM ET
Las Vegas Monday May 23 9 PM ET
Medium Monday May 23 10 PM
The Contender Tuesday May 24 8 PM (two-hour live finale)
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit Tuesday May 24 10 PM ET
Law & Order: Criminal Intent Wednesday May 25 10 PM ET

What a ridiculous amount of money for ESPN to pay....

Winners: Rich NFL owners and players.

Losers: Us. ESPN will start charging cable cos. and sat cos. more than its already riduculous fees and we'll be forced to pay every month for this.

--------------

And this cracked me up:

"Having four hours a week (of football) will have a nice effect throughout our schedule," NBC U TV Group topper Jeff Zucker said Monday.

Or in English, "We've developed something like 2-3 hours of hits in the past half decade. Thank heaven for the NFL. Now we are freed from having to even try on one of the six nights we still program, given our decision to stop caring about Saturdays a long, long time ago. Our job is now 16% easier. And given what we've got in development, well at least that's a start."

Apparently, Law and Order: The Bailiffs Eat Lunch will be postponed another season or two.

Fox Season/Series Finale Dates

King Of The Hill Sunday May 8 7 PM ET
Malcolm In The Middle Sunday May 15 7:30 PM ET
The Simpsons Sunday May 15 8-9 PM ET (two episodes)
American Dad Sunday May 15 9:30 PM ET
That 70s Show Wednesday May 18 8-9 PM (one hour)
The O.C. Thursday May 19 8 PM ET
House Tuesday May 24 9 PM ET
American Idol Wednesday May 25 8 PM ET (two hours)

more details to come from Fox

(What no Spike, Home Shopping or MTV? Who could have guessed?)

Study: NBC, Bravo Most Upscale Nets in Prime Time

By Jon Lafayette TVWeek.com April 18, 2005
NBC is the most upscale broadcast network in prime time, according to a report released Monday by Steve Sternberg, executive VP and director of audience analysis at Magna Global. The report is based on adults 25 to 54 in the new category of households with incomes greater than $125,000 per year.

ABC was second. Bravo was the highest-ranked cable network, and was more upscale than NBC and ABC in prime time.

In his report, Mr. Sternberg indexed the ratings to the general population to rank individual sows. The most upscale shows, using his formula, were NBC's "Apprentice 2," NBC's "Will & Grace," NBC's "Apprentice 3," ABC's "Desperate Housewives" and NBC's West Wing."

Monday’s network prime-time program ratings have been posted in Latest News, the first item in this thread.

A whole new NFL game in primetime
Football deal promises to upend network rankings
medialifemagazine.com--For months people have been speculating whether ABC would renew “Monday Night Football,” a network staple for 35 years. It hasn’t. Yesterday the NFL reached a deal that will dramatically alter the television landscape, with effects reaching far beyond the football season.

Disney sister network ESPN will get “Monday Night Football” for $1.1 billion per year for eight years starting in 2006, while former ESPN property “Sunday Night Football” moves to NBC in a six-year, $600 million deal.

The effect of this deal, which cuts ABC out of the football business entirely, is to upend two broadcast networks’ primetime schedules and potentially alter the standings of all Big Four networks. Here’s what it means for everyone involved:

** ABC took a horrible beating with “Monday Night Football,” losing an estimated $150 annually on the highly rated but expensive show. Yet with “MNF’s” exit, ABC now has to worry about the problematic Monday night schedule for a full year instead of a half.
The network has not programmed a successful new show there in years.
“MNF” averaged a 6.5 adults 18-49 rating this season, down 2 percent versus the previous year, and a 10.8 household rating, its lowest average ever. Yet “MNF” is still ABC’s third-highest-rated show among 18-49s, behind “Desperate Housewives” and “Grey’s Anatomy.”
Its Monday night replacements, the “Bachelor” franchise and “Supernanny,” have averaged just a 3.8. Thus ABC, which still sits in third place for the season among 18-49s, despite the three highest-rated new series of the year, will suffer a major decline in its 18-49 fall average when NFL football departs.
ABC will also lose the Super Bowl after next year, with NBC taking rights to the 2009 and 2012 games. Beyond the big dollars charged for ad spots--ABC’s reportedly asking $2.6 million per 30 seconds for 2006--the game also ensures a sweeps win now that it airs in February.

** NBC has gotten back into big sports and radically strengthened its weakening Sunday lineup. The network began divesting itself of large sports contracts in 1998 when it dropped the NFL. It later gave up rights to the NBA, saying big sports contracts no longer made sense.
But then suddenly they began to again this season after NBC slid from first to fourth among the Big Four in 18-49s. “Sunday Night Football,” which will start with a pregame show at 7 and an 8:15 kickoff, will give NBC four hours of guaranteed high ratings on Sunday.
It also threatens ABC’s most successful night of the week. “Housewives” is actually surprisingly popular among young men, who might prefer to tape the drama and watch games live.
In years past, NBC had been way too proud to essentially pay for eyeballs. It still is. The network insists that this is not a big shift in strategy. It reasons that it can make “SNF” profitable where “MNF” was not. If nothing else, it may ensure that NBC chooses higher-quality shows for its schedule, as the network will have only 18 hours to program instead of 22.

** ESPN, which has aired “Sunday Night Football” since 1998, will see the least change from this deal. “SNF” is the network’s highest-rated franchise, and “MNF” fans will surely consider switching to cable, especially with next year’s Monday competition getting weaker with the exit of CBS’s “Everybody Loves Raymond.”
“MNF” ratings will definitely be lower than on ABC. “SNF” usually averages 9 million to 10 million total viewers, and ESPN is available in some 20 million fewer homes than ABC.
Probably the biggest question for ESPN, and also a concern for NBC, is who will be announcing. NBC will surely go after current “MNF” hosts Al Michaels and John Madden, perhaps the most respected announcers in the game. The allure of a Super Bowl gig will probably prompt them to jump.
But Disney may try to keep the pair and replace its current, less-heralded announcing team of Mike Patrick, Joe Theismann and Paul Maguire, giving the new “MNF” some strong publicity to start off.
Probably most hurt will be the highly rated “SNF” pre-game “NFL Primetime” hosted by Chris Berman. Fans may now look to NBC’s pregame for a wrap-up of all the day’s action.

** The NFL Network is still in the running for a separate cable package the NFL is shopping for eight late-season games on Thursday or Saturday. USA, an NBC Universal network, and TNT were also rumored to be interested, but the NFL has not made a deal yet.

** Fox and CBS, which signed separate six-year, billion-dollar deals last year, will face increased competition on Sundays, which could really hurt Fox’s already eroding lineup. The two usually get a boost from football runover Sunday nights, but NBC could also eat into that with its pregame show.

NBC hurts but it's still got the bucks
Leads in shows with highest share of moneyed folk
By Toni Fitzgerald medialifemagazine.com

With NBC’s ratings eroding faster than Donald Trump’s hairline, you might expect that forecasters would be predicting that the ever-faltering network would be eclipsed by the ever-gaining CBS at this May’s upfront.
Not so.

Though NBC will suffer it will remain the top-grossing network of the Big Three because it still best delivers what advertisers care most about: viewers with money. That's still so even with a season-to-date dip of 14 percent among 18-49s and 8 percent decline among households.

According to Magna Global USA’s primetime upscale update released yesterday, NBC has eight of the top 10 shows most likely to attract adults 25-54 from households with an income of $125,000 or more.

For example, “ER” has an index of 164 on this scale, meaning its 25-54 audience is 64 percent more upscale than the general population. By comparison, ABC’s “20/20” has a 96 index, meaning its audience is 4 percent less upscale than the general population.

But a high index doesn’t necessarily mean “Scrubs,” the sixth-ranked program on the index, draws more upscale viewers than “CSI” (44th). It just means “Scrubs” viewers are more likely to be upscale.

“Some series, such as ‘CSI’ and ‘American Idol,’ attract so many total viewers that they invariably rank highly among most demos, including upscale viewers. Other series, such as ‘American Dreams,’ ‘NYPD Blue’ and ‘Scrubs,’ do not attract the highest raw number of upscale viewers, but rank among the top 20 based on upscale audience skew,” explains Steve Sternberg, Magna Global executive vice president and director of audience analysis.

“A handful of shows—‘The Apprentice,’ ‘Desperate Housewives,’ ‘Will & Grace,’ ‘West Wing,’ ‘ER,’ ‘Boston Legal,’ ‘Law & Order,’ ‘24,’ and ‘Two and a Half Men’—are among the top 20 in terms of both upscale audience composition and size.”

Even a dog like “Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Model Search” on NBC still indexes higher than major hits like ABC’s “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition,” with viewers 14 percent more upscale than the general population to “Makeover’s” 10 percent.

Two shows that have lost a lot of momentum this season, both editions of “The Apprentice” and “Will & Grace,” top the index at spots one through three.

ABC’s “Desperate Housewives” is fourth, along with the recently renewed “West Wing” on NBC, both at 191.

The top-rated show among 25-54s in upscale households is “Housewives” with a 15.6 rating. Fox’s Tuesday edition of “American Idol” is second at a 12.8, though its index is only 26th-best, a 123.

NBC still ranks tops on the index and upscale viewer average rating. Its index average is 127, 12 points higher than second-place ABC, 32 ahead of Fox and 33 above CBS. The WB averages a 70 and UPN a 30.

For average rating among 25-54s in households making $125,000 or more, NBC also ranks No. 1 with a 4.7 average, but by just 0.3 rating points ahead of CBS. ABC is third at 4.3, followed by Fox at 2.9, UPN at 0.8 and the WB at 0.4.

NBC’s “American Dreams” and Fox’s “Arrested Development,” two low-rated but critically praised shows that are on the fence for next season, ranked No. 16 and 17 on the index, respectively, out of 180 primetime shows.

UPN’s “WWE Smackdown” was 180th with an index of 12.

Among cable networks, BBC America was the most upscale with an audience 73 percent more upscale than the general population. Bravo, Golf Channel, Biography and ESPN filled out the top five.

“A number of cable networks with minuscule ratings among upscale viewers have a strong upscale skew,” Sternberg says. “Only three cable networks—ESPN, TLC, and Fox News—are among the top 10 in terms of upscale composition and size.”

Upscale Viewers
Ranked by Adults 25-54 in Households Earning $125,000 or more
1 Apprentice 3 NBC
2 Will & Grace NBC
3 Apprentice 2 NBC
4 Desperate Housewives ABC
5 West Wing NBC
6 Scrubs NBC
7 Committed NBC
8 Grey’s Anatomy ABC
9 Joey NBC
10 ER NBC
11 Boston Legal ABC
12 Contender NBC
13 Law & Order NBC
14 24 Fox
15 The Bachelorette ABC
16 American Dreams NBC
17 Arrested Development Fox
18 NYPD Blue ABC
19 Two and a Half Men CBS
20 Law & Order: SVU NBC

On The Network Bubble
MANY NETWORK SHOWS WAITING TO BE RENEWED -- OR CUT
By Charlie McCollum San Jose Mercury News Tuesday, Apr. 19, 2005

When the current television season began in September, there were 80 scripted series on the networks' schedule, including 25 new shows. As of this week, 45 of those shows -- seven of them fall newbies -- are guaranteed another season come September. A handful of series that began later in the season, including such hits as ``Grey's Anatomy'' on ABC and ``Medium'' on NBC, have also been renewed.

But this spring, the fates of an unusually large number of shows are still up in the air.

Some of the so-called ``bubble'' series have gotten the ax in recent weeks: CBS's ``JAG,'' ``Third Watch'' on NBC and UPN's ``Star Trek: Enterprise.'' (Word to ``Enterprise'' fans: It's dead; let it be.) Others (NBC's ``Medical Investigation,'' ABC's ``Blind Justice'') haven't officially been canceled, but it's only a matter of the formal announcement.

On the flip side, there was a pleasant surprise when UPN unexpectedly renewed the very good but ratings-challenged ``Veronica Mars'' for a second season.

Still, there are two dozen dramas and comedies -- some high-quality, some with devoted followings -- whose status will be decided between now and mid-May when the networks announce their fall 2005 lineups. Here's a quick look at where the most prominent of those series stand.

`Arrested Development'
8:30 P.M. SUNDAYS, FOX
Condition:
The best half-hour sitcom on network TV makes the bubble list for the second straight year and, if anything, its chances are worse than last spring. Despite Emmy awards, critical acclaim and heavy promotion from Fox, this brilliant comedy simply hasn't moved beyond cult status.
Jason Bateman and guest star Julia Louis-Dreyfus in ``Arrested Development.''
Prognosis:
The show lost its life preserver when Gail Berman -- president of Fox Entertainment and a big fan of the comedy -- left the network last month. Its only chance for revival is on cable, possibly Comedy Central.

'Joan of Arcadia',
8 P.M. FRIDAYS, CBS
Condition:
Has a top show ever fallen so far so fast? After a freshman season in which it garnered Emmy nominees and a decent-sized audience, this girl-talks-to-God drama has had all kinds of problems creatively and watched its audience dwindle.
Prognosis:
``Joan'' needs all the prayers it can get, especially since the creators resisted the network suggestion to lighten up what had become a very dark show.

'Jack & Bobby'
9 P.M. WEDNESDAYS, WB
Condition:
A smart, well-made family drama that spent the season at the very bottom of the Nielsen ratings. Biggest problem: The WB didn't really have a spot in its lineup where the show might have found an audience.
Prognosis:
Don't get the crash cart just yet. The WB has a reputation for sticking with shows that it believes in even if first-year ratings aren't great.

'American Dreams'
8 P.M. WEDNESDAYS, NBC
Condition:
Talk about mixed signals. On one hand, NBC decided not to air a hastily filmed ending to last month's ``season'' finale that would have essentially killed the series. On the other hand, key members of the cast were allowed to film the pilots of new series under consideration for next September.
Prognosis:
A case that would stump any TV doctor. Some insiders think the network will keep ``Dreams'' as its token family drama. Others think the dream is dead.

'Kevin Hill'
9 P.M. WEDNESDAYS, UPN
Condition:
This Taye Diggs comedy-drama was supposed to be UPN's shot at having a true breakout hit. Didn't happen. The show, which has gone through all kinds of changes in its production and writing staffs, never jelled, and viewers stayed away.
Prognosis:
The charming Diggs should be a star, but that probably isn't enough to keep ``Kevin Hill'' on the air. The network's decision to renew ``Veronica Mars'' may have been the last nail in the coffin.

'Eyes, '
10 P.M. WEDNESDAYS, ABC
Condition:
This fun, stylish private eye drama was thrown in against ``Law & Order'' and ``CSI: N.Y.'' late in the season with predictably ugly results. The show's audience dropped to 6.5 million viewers last week.
Prognosis:
ABC has a fistful of high profile new dramas in the pipeline, including two from producer J.J. Abrams (``Lost,'' ``Alias''). In face of the competition, ``Eyes'' probably doesn't have it.

'8 Simple Rules'
8 p.m. Fridays, ABC
'Less Than Perfect'
9:30 p.m. Fridays, ABC
Condition:
In a year when ABC rose from the ratings dead, its family sitcoms took a turn for the worse, which is why the network is looking at the pilots of 14 new sitcoms. Only the excruciatingly bad ``According to Jim'' is assured of a spot come September.
Prognosis:
There's a limit to how many new series a network can launch in the fall, which means comedies such as ``George Lopez,'' ``My Wife & Kids'' and ``Hope & Faith'' will return. But you can write the obits for ``Rules'' and ``Perfect.''

'Judging Amy'
10 p.m. Tuesdays, CBS
Condition:
Now in its sixth season, this soapy court show hasn't aged well, and it's the weak link among the network's 10 p.m. dramas, particularly with younger viewers.
Prognosis:
Say goodbye, Amy. CBS has new series in the pipeline -- Jerry Bruckheimer's ``American Crime'' and ``The Unit'' from Shawn Ryan (``The Shield'') and playwright David Mamet -- that could play a lot better in the time period.

'Listen Up'
8:30 p.m. Mondays, CBS
Condition:
A really bad sitcom. The audience just melted away even though the show aired in front of ``Everybody Loves Raymond.''
Prognosis:
It's dead.

'The Bernie Mac Show'
8:30 p.m. Fridays, Fox
Condition:
This comedy, once viewed as a worthy successor to ``Cosby,'' has gone from the penthouse to the outhouse in four years. Artistically, it became erratic, and when it moved to Fridays, viewership dropped significantly.
Prognosis:
Star Bernie Mac suffers from a rare respiratory illness, sarcoidosis, which limits the amount of work he can take on. That by itself probably spells the end of the series.

'The Office'
9:30 p.m. Tuesdays, NBC
Condition:
This remake of a great British comedy got surprisingly good reviews but has done only so-so in the ratings. Of course, it's also been airing opposite some pretty tough competition.
Prognosis:
NBC executives like the show and think it could flourish if they can find the right time period. It could get another shot.

I don't agree with a lot of that guy's predictions. There's a reason he's writing for the San Jose Mercury News.

If I were NBC, I'd make Dateline NBC a permanent fixture on Wednesdays at 8pm ET due to the decent ratings it gets there and the fact that the show is losing Sunday nights in a year.

Originally posted by f44
I don't agree with a lot of that guy's predictions. There's a reason he's writing for the San Jose Mercury News.

The San Jose Mercury News is actually a very well respected newspaper often going against the establishment grain, breaking new stories before anyone else and is often quoted and linked to worldwide.

That doesn't mean this writer knows what he talking about, but the fact he is writing for the SJMN would indicate that there is some credence in what he has written.

Ok, just hadn't heard of the paper. I wasn't trying to insult the paper, just saying it wasn't coming from somewhere like Variety.

:)

I don't agree with a lot of the stories I post here.
But I try to give a good cross section to give us all some perspective.
In this particular case, though I don't agree with all of McCollum's comments about the shows, I think his prognosis for each is probably pretty much right on.

Originally posted by fredfa
I don't agree with a lot of the stories I post here.
But I try to give a good cross section to give us all some perspective.
In this particular case, though I don't agree with all of McCollum's comments about the shows, I think his prognosis for each is probably pretty much right on.

Ah yes, the "Fair and Balanced" "Hot Off The Press! The Latest Television News and Info" thread.....:p :D

Not at all necessarily "fair and balanced" keenan.
I readily admit to having my own pet programs and beliefs, but I do try to keep things interesting and hopefully somewhat unpredictable here :)

CBS: Martha Out, Amber In.

(zap2it.com)--CBS, which had planned to air two movies about blonde women involved in famous recent criminal cases during May sweeps, has cut that number in half, at least for now.

The network has for the time being pulled its Martha Stewart biopic, the subtly titled "Martha: Behind Bars," from its previously announced berth on Wednesday, May 25 -- the final day of the 2004-05 season. In its place will go the true-crime story "Amber Frey: Witness for the Prosecution," about Scott Peterson's former girlfriend and her involvement in his murder case.

The Stewart movie, which stars Cybill Shepherd as the recently sprung lifestyle guru (a role she played previously in a 2003 NBC movie), doesn't have a new airdate. CBS says it will announce one "at a later time."

CBS isn't saying much about the scheduling moves. It's worth noting, though, that "Martha" didn't begin production until late March, giving its cast and crew only two months to complete the film by its original airdate. Even with the sped-up production pace of the average TV movie, that would have been a tough deadline to meet.

Meanwhile the Frey movie, which stars "The West Wing's" Janel Moloney, now faces a frying pan-fire situation. It was first scheduled to air Sunday, May 22, opposite the season finales of ABC's ratings monsters "Desperate Housewives" and "Grey's Anatomy." In its new home, the movie's first hour will air opposite the season-ending hours of FOX's "American Idol" and ABC's "Lost."

CBS says it will plug in repeats of "CSI" and "CSI: NY" on May 22.

Originally posted by fredfa
Not at all necessarily "fair and balanced" keenan.
I readily admit to having my own pet programs and beliefs, but I do try to keep things interesting and hopefully somewhat unpredictable here :)

Just messing with you...:p