CBS Announces its 2005-2006 Prime Time Schedule
(source: CBS via thefutoncritic)

The CBS Television Network, riding a wave of momentum in all ratings categories, introduced six new series today designed to strengthen an already dominant primetime line-up and continue its ratings leadership.
The six new series feature a unique mixture of concepts and genres, including a sci-fi adventure, a suspense thriller, a paranormal drama with an emotional twist, a Jerry Bruckheimer crime drama set in the suburbs and two ensemble comedies. The freshmen series are THRESHOLD, CRIMINAL MINDS, GHOST WHISPERER, CLOSE TO HOME, HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER and OUT OF PRACTICE.

They will join a line-up featuring more top 20 hits than any other network and a leadership position in every program genre. CBS will return television's #1 drama and scripted series, CSI: CRIME SCENE INVESTIGATION; the #1 returning comedy, TWO AND A HALF MEN; the #1 news magazine, 60 MINUTES; and the premiere reality series SURVIVOR and the two-time Emmy Award-winning THE AMAZING RACE.

CBS will win the 2004-2005 season by nearly three million viewers ahead of second place ABC -- the largest margin any network has held in 16 years. The Network is also #1 in adults 25-54 for the second consecutive year and is #1 in adults 18-49 with regularly scheduled programming for the first time in 30 years. CBS is also in a virtual tie with Fox for first in adults 18-49 with all programming.

Overall, the Network will return 16 primetime programs, including 13 entertainment series (THE KING OF QUEENS; TWO AND A HALF MEN; CSI: MIAMI; NCIS; THE AMAZING RACE; STILL STANDING; YES, DEAR; CSI: NY; SURVIVOR; CSI: CRIME SCENE INVESTIGATION; WITHOUT A TRACE; NUMB3RS and COLD CASE) as well as 60 MINUTES, 48 HOURS MYSTERY, the CBS SUNDAY MOVIE and CRIMETIME SATURDAY.

CBS's powerful Thursday night line-up of SURVIVOR, CSI: CRIME SCENE INVESTIGATION and WITHOUT A TRACE returns intact. The Network is #1 on Thursday in viewers for the third consecutive season, with an 8 million viewer lead over NBC, and is first in both adults 18-49 and adults 25-54 for the first time in 20 years.

On Monday, CBS made two key scheduling moves to sustain the Network's leadership position in the post-"Everybody Loves Raymond" era. THE KING OF QUEENS returns to Monday at 8:00 PM, where it previously dominated the time period, and TWO AND A HALF MEN, which is the first show ever to build on "Everybody Loves Raymond's" demos, moves to 9:00 PM, establishing protected time periods to introduce two promising new comedies. At 8:30 PM, CBS is scheduling the unique comedy HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER, which is told through flashbacks from the future, and at 9:30 PM CBS will premiere the ensemble comedy OUT OF PRACTICE about a family of doctors. The night's #1 show in all key categories, CSI: MIAMI, caps the line-up at 10:00 PM.

On Tuesday, CBS is introducing one new show to its growing Tuesday line-up. Designed to capitalize on the momentum of NCIS and the strong demo lead-in from THE AMAZING RACE at 9:00 PM, the new suburban crime drama CLOSE TO HOME is being scheduled at 10:00 PM.

One new drama is also being added to CBS's revitalized Wednesday. The suspense thriller CRIMINAL MINDS will be broadcast at 9:00 PM, forming a compelling and compatible two-hour block of drama with CSI: NY at 10:00 PM. CSI: NY dethroned "Law & Order" as the time period winner last season.

The newly modeled Friday night line-up introduces a diverse and compelling blend of dramas starting at 8:00 PM with the emotional paranormal drama GHOST WHISPERER, followed by the alien invasion adventure THRESHOLD at 9:00 PM, and culminating with NUMB3RS, which finished its freshmen season as the night's #1 show in all key categories, at 10:00 PM.

CBS also announced that it has ordered two new midseason series -- EVERYTHING I KNOW ABOUT MEN, starring Jenna Elfman, and THE UNIT, from acclaimed writer David Mamet and Shawn Ryan, executive producer of "The Shield."

The new dramas are (all times ET/PT):


GHOST WHISPERER (Friday, 8:00 PM) stars Jennifer Love Hewitt ("Party of Five") in a drama, inspired by the work of famed medium James Van Praagh, about Melinda Gordon (Hewitt), a young newlywed with the unique ability to communicate with the earthbound spirits of people who have died and who seek her help. Melinda uses her gift to relay significant messages and important information to the living, but sometimes the messages she receives are intense and confusing. As a result, she is often met with questions and skepticism by the survivors. But when Melinda is able to help both the lost souls who contact her and those who are still alive, she knows that her unique talent is an asset and not a liability. David Conrad ("Profiler") and Aisha Tyler ("CSI: Crime Scene Investigation") also star. John Gray ("Helter Skelter," "Martin & Lewis"), Ian Sander and Kim Moses ("Profiler") are executive producers for Touchstone Television in association with Paramount Network Television.

THRESHOLD (Friday, 9:00 PM) stars Carla Gugino ("Sin City"), Charles S. Dutton ("Something the Lord Made"), Brian Van Holt ("House of Wax"), Robert Patrick Benedict ("Felicity") and Brent Spiner ("The Aviator") in a suspenseful drama about a team of experts who are assembled when the U.S. Navy makes a chilling discovery: an extra terrestrial craft has landed in the mid-Atlantic Ocean. Dr. Molly Anne Caffrey (Gugino) is a government contingency analyst whose job is to devise response plans for worst-case scenarios. When her plan called THRESHOLD is activated upon the news of the UFO, she and her hand-picked team of eclectic specialists get to work deciphering the intention of the craft and preparing for the possibility of a crisis situation -- an alien invasion. Brannon Braga ("Enterprise"), David Heyman ("Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban") and David Goyer ("Blade: Trinity") are executive producers for Paramount Network Television.

CLOSE TO HOME (Tuesday, 10:00 PM) stars Jennifer Finnigan ("The Bold and the Beautiful") in a legal drama that tears away the facade of suburbia to reveal that sometimes quiet and tranquil streets can hide the darkest of crimes. Annabeth Chase (Finnigan) is a young, aggressive prosecutor with a perfect conviction record who tries the cases that take place in her own backyard. Returning to work after having her first child, Annabeth is ready to take on the most difficult cases, fueled by her passion to protect her community and her family. Kimberly Elise ("Diary of a Mad Black Woman"), John Carroll Lynch ("The Drew Carey Show") and Christian Kane ("Friday Night Lights") also star. Jerry Bruckheimer ("CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," "Without A Trace"), Jonathan Littman ("Cold Case," "The Amazing Race"), Jim Leonard ("Thieves") and Simon West ("Lara Croft: Tomb Raider") are executive producers for Jerry Bruckheimer Television in association with Warner Bros. Television.

CRIMINAL MINDS (Wednesday, 9:00 PM) stars Emmy and Tony Award winner Mandy Patinkin ("Chicago Hope"), Thomas Gibson ("Dharma & Greg") and Daytime Emmy Award winner Shemar Moore ("The Young and the Restless") in a suspense thriller about an elite squad of FBI profilers who analyze the country's most twisted criminal minds, anticipating their next move before they strike again. Each member of the team brings their own area of expertise to the table as they pinpoint predators' motivations and identify their emotional triggers in order to stop them. Matthew Gubler ("The Life Aquatic") and Lola Glaudini ("The Sopranos") also star. Mark Gordon ("The Day After Tomorrow," "Grey's Anatomy") and Ed Bernero ("Third Watch") are executive producers, and Jeff Davis and Deborah Spera ("Fathers and Sons") are co-executive producers for Touchstone Television in association with Paramount Network Television.

The new comedies are (all times ET/PT):

HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER (Monday, 8:30 PM) is a comedy about Ted (Josh Radnor) and how he fell in love. It all started when Ted's best friend, Marshall (Jason Segel, "Freaks and Geeks"), drops the bombshell that he's going to propose to his long-time girlfriend, Lily (Alyson Hannigan, "American Pie"), a kindergarten teacher. At that moment, Ted realizes that he had better get a move on if he hopes to find true love, too. Helping him in his quest is Barney (Neil Patrick Harris, "Doogie Howser, M.D."), a friend with endless, sometimes outrageous, opinions, a penchant for suits and a fool-proof way to meet women. When Ted meets Robin (Cobie Smulders, "Veritas: The Quest"), he's sure it's love at first sight, but destiny may have something else in store. With voice-over by Bob Saget ("Full House"), the show is told through flashbacks from the future. Carter Bays & Craig Thomas ("Late Show with David Letterman") are executive producers for Twentieth Century Fox Television.

OUT OF PRACTICE (Monday, 9:30 PM) is a comedy about a family of physicians who share the same profession but have little else in common. Ben Chase (Christopher Gorham, "Felicity") is an earnest young couples' counselor whose family doesn't consider him to be a "real" doctor because he doesn't have "M.D." after his name. But despite their lofty credentials, Ben might be the best prescription for the future of this family. Stockard Channing ("The West Wing"), Henry Winkler ("Happy Days"), Ty Burrell, ("In Good Company") and Paula Marshall ("Spin City") also star. Joe Keenan ("Frasier") and Christopher Lloyd ("Frasier") are executive producers for Paramount Network Television. Multiple Emmy Award winner Kelsey Grammer ("Frasier") directed the pilot.

The midseason series are:

EVERYTHING I KNOW ABOUT MEN stars Jenna Elfman ("Dharma & Greg") in a comedy about Bex Atwell (Elfman), an attractive secretary with simple goals: find true love, have an exciting career and a normal relationship with her father. But in a world where men behave like, well…men, she realizes that she may be overly ambitious. Now, Bex is determined to figure out what men are all about while wondering why women even bother to try to understand them in the first place. Brady Smith ("Just Pray"), Hugh Bonneville ("Doctor Zhivago"), Rhea Seehorn ("Romy and Michele: In the Beginning"), Lauren Tom ("Friends") and Dabney Coleman ("Nine to Five") also star. Fred Barron ("According to Bex," "Caroline in the City") is the executive producer for Touchstone Television in association with Paramount Network Television. Multiple Emmy Award winner James Burrows directed the pilot.

THE UNIT stars Dennis Haysbert ("24"), Scott Foley ("Felicity"), Robert Patrick ("The X-Files") and Golden Globe Award winner Regina Taylor ("I'll Fly Away") in an action drama that follows a covert team of special forces operatives as they risk their lives on undercover missions around the globe, while their families maintain the homefront, protecting their husbands' secrets. Max Martini ("Saving Private Ryan"), Michael Irby ("Piñero"), Demore Barnes ("The Associates"), Abby Brammell ("Revenge of The Middle-Aged Woman") and Amy Acker ("Catch Me If You Can") also star. Pulitzer Prize-winning and two-time Academy Award-nominated writer David Mamet ("Glengarry Glen Ross") and Emmy Award-nominated writer Shawn Ryan ("The Shield") are executive producers for Twentieth Century Fox Television.

New Season: CBS Picks Up Sixpack
By John Eggerton Broadcasting & Cable

CBS has added six new shows--four dramas and two ensemble comedies--but went out of its way to point out that its "powerful Thursday night" remains intact when it released its new season schedule Wednesday.

That appeared to be a response to both ABC and The WB, which vowed in their schedule announcements to make that night more competitive.

CBS will do some remaking on Monday to retain its strength there, moving its top sitcom, Two and a Half Men, which has flourished as the lead-out to Everybody Loves Raymond, to Raymond's 9 p.m. slot now that Raymond has ended its run.

CBS is also slating two new comedies at 8:30--after King of Queens--and at 9:30 after Two and a Half Men, sheltering both with strong lead-ins.

The 8:30 show is How I met Your Mother, "told through flashbacks from the future," and at 9:30, Out of Practice "about a family of doctors."

The new series include yet another drama from Jerry Bruckheimer, the busiest man on TV, though no new reality shows.

The newcomers, in addition to the two comedies above, are Threshold, Criminal Minds, Ghost Whisperer, and Close to Home.

Among the shows not returning are the low-rated 60 Minutes Wednesday, sitcom Listen Up as well as Raymond and JAG, which both ended their network runs this year.

For midseason are comedies Everything I Know About Men, starring Jenna Elfman, and drama, The Unit.

Upfront and center

Network executives and celebrities gather in Manhattan this week, making their best pitch to advertisers about the new 2005-06 season in an annual ritual known as the “upfront.” Los Angeles Times reporters are filing the latest updates about prime-time shows, flashy presentations and parties here.

By Shawn Hubler, The Los Angeles Times with a dispatch from Matea Gold in New York . Day 3 .

So long, "60 Minutes Wednesday." And "Joan." And "Amy." And Jason, too

May 18, 10 a.m. EDT

CBS is cancelling the newsmagazine that generated so much controversy, but the reason is not what you think, says the network: It's on a mission to young-up its audience, and so is canceling four out of five of its oldest-skewing shows.

Gone are "Joan of Arcadia," "Judging Amy," the Jason Alexander sitcom "Listen Up" and Wednesday's edition of "60 Minutes." Yes, the one that spawned "Rathergate." And one of the venues that was supposed to be Dan Rather's post-anchorman home.

CBS Chairman and Viacom Co-President Leslie Moonves said this morning that the show's cancellation wasn't linked to the controversy over its infamous Sept. 8 segment on President Bush's Air National Guard service.

Moonves said Rather would continue to work for "60 Minutes" on Sundays.

"Unfortunately, '60 Minutes Wednesday' was down in every single category," Moonves told reporters gathered in a studio on the 19th floor of CBS headquarters. No matter that Rather just won a prestigious Peabody Award for CBS' Abu Ghraib prison story, which aired on the same newsmagazine last year.

People weren't watching.

Moonves said the newsmagazine was down 14% "across the board in every single demo."

"It was the oldest skewing show on the schedule," Moonves added. "This was a ratings call, not a content call."

UPFRONTS JOURNAL
By Virginia Heffernan Television Critic of The New York Times at the Television Upfronts

ABC, THE MORNING AFTER | 05.18 10:58 AM

Let the Healing Begin

What I realized about ABC yesterday is that there’s genius in Stephen McPherson’s emphasis on what Mr. McPherson, the president of ABC Entertainment, calls "the shared experience, the guilty pleasure, the thrill ride."

Prime-time network television is about just that: sharing, caring, pleasure, thrills, feeling good. It’s not about the divisive, wiseacre NBC concepts, "upscale" and "redneck."

Especially not now. Network television has got to address — and, sure, I’m under the sentimental spell of these upfronts — America’s desire to be whole again. At, literally, the end of the day, in primetime, Americans want to feel better, to calm the bipolar jumpiness that came with the presidential election, to heal the red/blue stress fractures and to settle the values battles that make neighbors seem like aliens.

So Mr. McPherson, who called "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" (and not "Lost" or "Desperate Housewives") exemplary of the network’s aesthetic, knew there was no percentage in claiming that ABC is some kind of arts foundation. NBC had gone this route, harping on upscaleness and shows it considered ironic ("My Name Is Earl") or bold ("The Office"). In taking this approach at the upfront, NBC just make television seem. . .well, not very relaxing. Kind of threatening, actually.

But when you turn to ABC — after a day spent wondering, say, whether you’re nuts for still being an atheist in our evangelical nation or whether your neighbor’s the lunatic for studying all the extras on the "Passion of the Christ" DVD — you find out you’re not crazy. And neither is he. Both of you could be candidates for ABC’s new reality show "Welcome to the Neighborhood" (which puts diverse families together and teaches them to get along), and you’d learn a lot from each other. Though tears might be shed, you’d both be better people, better Americans, for it.

Television. Making American whole again. Nice work, ABC.

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

For CBS, departing from tried and true
Fall lineup of four new dramas and two comedies
medialifemagazine.com

CBS’s schedule has been very predictable the past few years as it became more competitive among adults 18-49: introduce new shows that mirror its biggest drama hit, “CSI,” and its biggest comedy hit, “Everybody Loves Raymond,” in those demos.

To that end, there were many new police procedurals and sitcoms about bumbling husbands and beautiful wives.

Now that CBS is challenging for the season title in 18-49s, it finally seems ready to take more chances. And its new schedule, unveiled early this morning, reflects that. Of the six new shows on the fall schedule, four dramas and two comedies, none fit the “CSI” or “Raymond” mold.

Of course a few do resemble shows on other networks that are very popular among 18-49s. Jennifer Love Hewitt’s psychic drama “Ghost Whisperer” sounds a lot like NBC’s “Medium.” “Close to Home” sounds like a cross between ABC’s “Desperate Housewives” and “Boston Legal.” And “Threshold” is the fourth drama introduced thus far in the upfront to deal with supernatural phenomena.

In a further nod to its new focus on 18-49s, CBS also has shed long-running “Judging Amy,” along with low-rated “Joan of Arcadia,” “Listen Up” and Wednesday’s “60 Minutes II,” considered endangered since last fall’s botched report on President Bush.

The new schedule features lots of new shows but few big changes among returning shows. All the shuffles came among the returning comedies, moved around to accommodate “Raymond’s” exit.

“King of Queens” moves back to Monday at 8 after two years on Wednesday. It’s followed at 8:30 by “How I Met Your Mother,” a sitcom starring Neil Patrick Harris and Alyson Hannigan told via flashback.

As expected, “Two and a Half Men” moves into “Raymond’s” 9 p.m. slot. New comedy “Out of Practice,” about a family of doctors including Henry Winkler and Stockard Channing, takes “Men’s” old 9:30 slot. “CSI: Miami” remains at 10.

“NCIS” and “Amazing Race” return at 8 and 9 on Tuesday. The new legal drama “Close” takes “Amy’s” 10 p.m. spot.

Wednesday gets a new look with former Monday leadoff “Still Standing” at 8 and “Yes Dear” at 8:30, bumping “60 Minutes II.” New drama “Criminal Minds,” about FBI profilers, takes the 9 p.m. slot, followed by the returning “CSI: NY.”

Thursday remains the same with “Survivor,” “CSI” and “Without a Trace.”

Friday gets a big makeover with “Whisperer” leading off the night at 8 and “Threshold,” about a spacecraft that lands in the Atlantic Ocean, at 9. Mild midseason hit “Numb3rs” returns at 10.

CBS did not change Saturday or Sunday. Saturday features crime drama repeats at 8 and 9, followed by “48 Hours” at 10. Sunday’s lineup is “60 Minutes” at 7, “Cold Case” at 8 and the two-hour “Sunday Night Movie” at 9.

CBS also ordered two series for midseason: The comedy “Everything I Know About Men” starring Jenna Elfman and the special forces drama “The Unit” with Dennis Haysbert (“24).

For Fox, expect a big push in dramas
Imprint of new chief Peter Liguori for next season
By Toni Fitzgerald medialifemagazine.com

As president of FX, Fox’s cable sister, new Fox entertainment president Peter Liguori revived the network with high-rated and critically adored dramas like “Nip/Tuck” and “The Shield.” Liguori's knack for picking smart dramas should be very much in evidence when Fox announces its new fall season Thursday morning.

The network reportedly has ordered four new dramas, one of them among the most ambitious pilots attempted in the past few years, chronicling a group of friends as they age over 20 years.

Those dramas will help patch a Fox schedule that has the biggest primetime franchise in "American Idol" but very few consistent timeslot winners in the fall when “Idol” is off.

Outgoing Fox entertainment president Gail Berman’s fingerprints will still be seen on some of the schedule.

Low-rated Berman favorites “Arrested Development” and “Bernie Mac” will be back, for example. But Liguori seems determined to put his FX-like imprint on the schedule that he inherited just two months ago, hence the ambitious slate of dramas.

What follows is a look at Fox’s likely schedule for the coming season, based on a variety of sources, from analyses by the big media agencies to what the network has said to snippets of speculation by media buyers. The network formally announces it schedule tomorrow at 8:30 a.m.

Wednesday, Thursday and Friday need the most help. On Tuesdays, “House,” which got a tremendous boost airing after "Idol" this spring, should be capable of decent ratings on its own. But Fox needs a strong show in the 8 p.m. slot until "Idol" returns in January.

The network has already given a pick-up to “Prison Break,” a drama about a man trying to free his brother from death row. Other dramas rumored to be getting orders include the intriguing “Reunion,” which follows friends from high school graduation to their 20-year reunion, “Bones,” about a forensic anthropologist, and “Head Cases,” with Chris O’Donnell as an attorney recovering from a nervous breakdown.

Fox will have four new comedies: “Kitchen Confidential,” about a bad boy chef, “The War at Home,” about raising two teenagers, “The Loop,” about a Chicagoan taking his first real job, and “Freebirds,” about a college grad who returns home to the Midwest. The latter two will likely debut at midseason.

“24” will remain on Monday, though it may not debut until midseason once again. “Trading Spouses” could pair with one of the new dramas on that night.

On Tuesday “Bones” seems like a good match for “House.” Fox will likely have all comedies on Wednesday, where “That ‘70s Show” returns, as does, in somewhat of a surprise, the Pamela Anderson sitcom “Stacked.”

“Kitchen Confidential” and “The War at Home” could fill out the night.

After “The O.C.” Thursday at 8, Fox will likely put one of the dramas. “Reunion” or “Head Cases” seem most likely.

Friday needs major help. Fox has tried dramas and comedy here the past three seasons and nothing has worked. “Prison Break” may land here, along with incumbent “Bernie Mac.”

Saturday will stay the same with “Cops” and “America’s Most Wanted.”

“King of the Hill” and “Malcolm and the Middle” should both return at 7 and 7:30 on Sundays, with “The Simpsons” following. “Arrested” could stay at 8:30 or perhaps move to Wednesday or Friday.

“Family Guy” should stay at 9, with “American Dad’s” fate less certain. "Mac" could certainly relocate here, though its production may depend on star Bernie Mac's health. He was ill earlier this year.

Of course, Fox also has an ambitious summer reality slate. If any of those shows do well, they could extend into the fall. More so than any other network, Fox has a history of playing around with its schedule before fall, meaning anything promised this week may change by mid-July.

I'm going to predict doom for any show up against a stalwart with the same demographic:

- Criminal Minds is as good as sunk against Lost. The demo isn't identical, but Lost is a juggernaught.
- The Night Stalker is doomed against CSI. (Thanks NBC, you took MY idea and screwed it up with the schedule, just like the first time around!)
- Emily's Reason Why Not won't get off the ground in January against Two And A Half Men.
- Close To Home won't find any more viewers for a legal drama against Boston Legal and L&O:SVU
- Alias would have done well against Survivor and Joey/Will & Grace, except Jennifer Garner's pregnancy will sink it before the fall.
- Friday wasn't kind to Enterprise (admittedly on less watched UPN), but I suspect Threshold won't have the sci-fi viewers to draw from either.

+ Fathom has a chance against MNF/The Bachelor and King Of Queens/How I Met Your Mother.
+ How I Met Your Mother has a chance against MNF/The Bachelor and Fathom.
+ Out of Practice could blow away Jake In Progress if it's even mediocre, and with a head start against MNF.
+ What About Brian doesn't cross demographics with CSI: Miami, so it might have a shot.
+ If Ghost Whisperer is the least bit compelling (and not solving crimes could shove it either way), there will be a lot of people watching just to avoid Supernanny and Three Wishes.

? Freddie may get a shot against Yes, Dear, but the demo might be different enough to support both.
? Invasion could struggle against CSI:NY, but if they start it early with hype, and it's decent, it could strike at the heart of the weak CSI little brother.

Xesdeeni

I rarely post stories about cast changes here (especially changes as inconsequential as the one I am about to post) but I still miss "Ed" and so...

Julie Bowen Bounces to 'Boston'

By Rick Porter

(zap2it.com)--With appearances on two ABC series under her belt this season, Julie Bowen will make the network her full time home come fall.

The former "Ed" star will join the cast of "Boston Legal" for its second season, ABC Entertainment president Steve McPherson told reporters Tuesday (May 17) at a press conference announcing the network's 2005-06 schedule. Meanwhile, Rhona Mitra and Monica Potter are leaving the show.

"Boston Legal" will begin its second season on a new night (10 p.m. ET Tuesdays) with five episodes left over from this year, thanks to the success of "Grey's Anatomy" in its former Sunday timeslot. McPherson says it's possible some scenes from those five shows will be reshot to include Bowen.

Details on her character are scant thus far. McPherson says that creator David E. Kelley is hoping to add a stronger female perspective to the show through her and Candice Bergen, who joined the series midway through this season and will also return. "I think he wants to get some of that 'Ally McBeal' voice out," McPherson says.

Bowen had a recurring part on ABC's comedy "Jake in Progress" this year, playing a woman who won a "Swan"-like TV makeover contest and became involved with the title character (John Stamos). She also guest-starred on an episode of "Lost," playing Jack's (Matthew Fox) bride-to-be.

Nets Put a Hit on Joey
Fall slates for ABC and the WB target NBC on Thursday
(From Stephen Battaglio’s “The Biz” column at TVGuide.com)

Look out, NBC: Everyone is coming after a piece of Thursday.

ABC and WB, which both presented their 2005-06 fall lineups to advertisers on Tuesday, are moving established shows to the night once owned by the Peacock.

Alias is being parked at 8 pm by ABC. WB is moving Smallville into the hour, followed by Everwood at 9. Neither network can be expecting to take a chunk out of CBS, which is now No. 1 on Thursday with the resilient Survivor, CSI and Without a Trace. But after the ratings tumble Joey, Will & Grace and The Apprentice took in the past year, new competitors are smelling blood, just as Fox did last year when it moved The O.C. to the night.

Why are so many big shows moving to Thursday? Even a modest ratings success with young viewers can mean an ad-revenue bonanza to the network. Movie studios drive up the demand for Thursday ad time because they want to promote new releases to the audience that will be making their dates for that weekend. And retailers want viewers before weekend shopping begins.

Originally posted by fredfa
Why are so many big shows moving to Thursday? Even a modest ratings success with young viewers can mean an ad-revenue bonanza to the network. Movie studios drive up the demand for Thursday ad time because they want to promote new releases to the audience that will be making their dates for that weekend. And retailers want viewers before weekend shopping begins.

More proof that TiVo and TiVo-like devices and accessories are rapidly becoming "must have" devices for watching TV.

I guess people older than 49 don't go to stores on weekends.

(And that philosophy about reaching young viewers to get them to go to the movies has been doing really well this year, hasn't it?)

UPFRONTS JOURNAL
By Virginia Heffernan Television Critic of The New York Times at the Television Upfronts
CBS HEADQUARTERS | 05.18 12:20 PM

Hey-yo

Leslie Moonves, the great-nephew of David Ben-Gurion, a founder and the first prime minister of the state of Israel, showed his family grit over bagels at Black Rock, the CBS headquarters, this morning.

The co-president of Viacom is known for his charm with the press, for whom this meeting is arranged annually. He should also be known for his contempt for NBC. Having joked about the macabre overtones of the word "unveiling," Mr. Moonves said that it might have been the mot juste to describe the television schedule announced on Monday — at NBC's upfront.

The jocky journalists in the room cried "Hey yo!" in mock disapproval for the slam on the competition. But, really, they couldn't get enough of this guy.

"We're happy to give Jeff Zucker his only hit this year," Mr. Moonves continued, referring to the president of NBC Universal and "Medium," a successful drama for that network that was produced by Paramount, which is owned by Viacom.

Hey-yo! The room's turning ugly!

This must be how real men, people who work at a place called Black Rock, talk.

And it did seem like the big leagues, this place, the No. 1 network with adults, and the home of "Survivor" and "CSI."

The CBS upfront starts at 3 p.m at Carnegie Hall. I can hardly wait for more of this belligerence and adrenaline and Zucker-bashing.

But the upfront won't tell the whole story, apparently. Mr. Moonves exhorted us to watch the new pilots in their entirety. And not just the "seven-minute cut-downs," he added. Because they are strong, bold, brilliant, courageous, victorious television shows.

"There's no hiding-the-weenie here," Mr. Moonves said.

Evidently not.

Frank Gorshin Dies at 72
Actor played The Riddler in "Batman" television series
From Associated Press

The Los Angeles Times May 18, 2005

Actor Frank Gorshin, the impressionist with 100 faces best known for his Emmy-nominated role as The Riddler on the old "Batman" television series, has died. He was 72.

Gorshin's wife of 48 years, Christina, was at his side when he died Tuesday at Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center, his agent and longtime friend, Fred Wostbrock, said today.

"He put up a valiant fight with lung cancer, emphysema and pneumonia," Mrs. Gorshin said in a statement.

Despite dozens of television and movie credits, Gorshin will be forever remembered for his role as The Riddler, Adam West's villainous foil in the question mark-pocked green suit and bowler hat on "Batman" from 1966-69.

"It really was a catalyst for me," Gorshin recalled in a 2002 Associated Press interview. "I was nobody. I had done some guest shots here and there. But after I did that, I became a headliner in Vegas, so I can't put it down."

West said the death of his longtime friend was a big loss.

"Frank will be missed," West said in a statement. "He was a friend and fascinating character."

Gorshin earned another Emmy nominations one for a guest shot on "Star Trek."

In 2002, Gorshin portrayed George Burns on Broadway in the one-man show "Say Goodnight Gracie." He used only a little makeup and no prosthetics.

"I don't know how to explain it. It just comes," he said. "I wish I could say, 'This is step A, B and C.' But I can't do that. I do it, you know. The ironic thing is I've done impressions all my life -- I never did George Burns."

Gorshin's final performance will be broadcast on Thursday's CBS-TV series "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation."

Born in Pittsburgh, Gorshin broke into show business in New York. He did more than 40 impressions, including Al Jolson, Kirk Douglas, Bobby Darin, Dean Martin and James Cagney.

Later, he took his impressions to "The Ed Sullivan Show" on a memorable evening -- the same night the Beatles were featured. He did impressions in Las Vegas showrooms, opening for Bobby Darin, paving the way for other impressionists like Rich Little.

Sammy Davis Jr. said it was Gorshin who taught him to do impressions, Wostbrock said.

"He said you had to look like them and walk like them. Once you get that down, the voice comes easy," he said.

Gorshin's movie roles included "Bells are Ringing" (1960) with his idol Dean Martin and a batch of fun B-movies such as "Hot Rod Girl" (1956), "Dragstrip Girl" (1957) and "Invasion of the Saucer Men" (1957).

"He was fun, fascinating, wild and always a class act," Wostbrock said. "Here's a guy who always wore great clothes, stood up when a woman walked into the room -- he was a gentleman. We did all our deals with a handshake. There was never a signed contract."

His other TV credits included roles on "General Hospital, "The Edge of Night" and "The Munsters" as well as guest appearances on "Donny & Marie," "The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson," "Late Night with Conan O'Brien," "Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman," "Murder, She Wrote," "The Fall Guy," "Buck Rogers in the 25th Century," "Wonder Woman," "Charlie's Angels" and "Police Woman."

Besides his wife, Gorshin leaves his son Mitchell Gorshin of Orlando, Fla., and sister Dottie Roland of Pittsburgh.

Wostbrock said the funeral would be private and Gorshin would be buried in the family plot in Pittsburgh.

"paving the way for other impressionists like Rich Little." not to mention Jim Carrey who seems to not only follow in his foot steps as the Riddler but also got his start as a comedian doing impressions. Gorshin was also an excellent actor as well who never feared working close to the edge of over the top. As a fan I was always impressed by his work on Batman and Star Trek maybe one day we will get our Batman DVD's.

You are right.
Frank Gorshin was a very, very influential talent, adash66.
(And welcome to the thread!)

Without Grace, Kutcher, `'70s' should be 86'd

By Maureen Ryan Chicago Tribune staff reporter May 18, 2005

"That '70s Show" isn't ending its run on Wednesday (7 p.m., WFLD-Ch. 32). But it should.

Not that it's in anyone's interest to shove such an amiable comedy off the airwaves, but stars Topher Grace and Ashton Kutcher are leaving the show after the seventh season ends Wednes-day. The "'70s" won't be the same without them.

Kutcher may be back for occasional appearances in Season 8, but since his comically stupid Michael Kelso is such an integral part of the show, it makes little sense to soldier on with-out him as a major player. Grace, whose Eric Forman has been such a worthy Wisconsin everyman for all these years, won't be coming back at all; in the finale, his character goes off to take a humanitarian job in Africa.

The rest of the "That '70s Show" ensemble is talented and obviously very comfortable working together, but these two actors were the heart and soul of the show. It's hard to imagine that a show centered on Steven Hyde (Danny Masterson) or Fez (Wilmer Valderrama) would have the same drawing power.

Still, at least Forman and Kelso get a worthy sendoff in Wednesday's one-hour episode. For-man's girlfriend, Donna (Laura Prepon), gives him a comical "Star Wars"-related going-away gift, and Kelso, is, well, Kelso (suffice to say his behind is exposed more than once). Meanwhile, Hyde wrestles with an ultimatum from Jackie (Mila Kunis), who wants to get married. Hyde's not so keen on it.

"Love is for losers who are afraid to be alone," Hyde fumes.

"Ah, no, you're thinking of kittens," Forman answers. And as always, Grace's comic timing is perfect.

Though there's an extended scene of parental rage when Forman's parents discover exactly what has been going on in the basement all these years -- "And here I thought it was my dryer that made our clothes smell funny," Forman's mom fumes.

"That '70s Show" has never really been merely a chronicle of '70s-era Midwestern pot dabblers.

It is about finding your way into adulthood with your friends gathered around you, preferably in your parents' basement, and having some laughs along the way.

It has always been gently funny stuff, but quite probably less funny next year.

'60 Minutes' spin-off canceled

CBS chief says that the Wednesday installment of the popular newsmagazine was not dropped because of its controversial report on George W. Bush's Vietnam-era service in the National Guard
By Matea Gold Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

NEW YORK -- CBS announced today that it is canceling "60 Minutes Wednesday," a spin-off of its venerable Sunday night newsmagazine that ignited a crisis at the network after relying on unsubstantiated documents for a story last fall about President Bush's service in the National Guard.

CBS Chairman Leslie Moonves said the decision to drop the program had nothing to do with the political storm surrounding the Sept. 8 report by Dan Rather alleging that Bush got preferential treatment during his Vietnam-era stint with the Texas Air National Guard. The network later apologized for the story, saying it could not authenticate the documents it had cited.

But Moonves said he was more concerned that the newsmagazine had older viewers — a undesirable demographic for advertisers — and had dropped 14% in its overall ratings compared to the same period last year.

"It was the oldest-skewing show on the schedule," Moonves told reporters at an early morning breakfast briefing at CBS' Manhattan headquarters. He announced the show's cancellation while unveiling the network's prime-time line-up for the fall.

"If '60 Minutes Wednesday' was a 10 rating, it would be on the air," he said. "It was a ratings issue and not a content issue at all, not even in the slightest."

Rather, who has reported for both "60 Minutes" shows since departing as the network's top anchor, will remain a contributor to the Sunday night program, Moonves said.

"Exactly what his role is going to be, how much he's going to do, it's really premature," he added.

The decision to drop the program comes as CBS seeks to shake its reputation as the grayest network among the broadcasters.

Moonves noted that CBS is losing four of the five programs that do the best among older viewers — including dramas "Judging Amy," "Joan of Arcadia" and "JAG"-leaving only the original "60 Minutes" as the standard-bearer for viewers over 55.

"I think we're definitely a different network than we were five years ago," he said, referring to more popular shows, such as "Survivor" and the "CSI" franchise. "...We're younger. We're certainly hipper."

For the news division, the cancellation of "60 Minutes Wednesday" caps a tumultuous eight months that threatened to tarnish the network's historic reputation as a news leader and taint Rather's legacy after the National Guard story aired, and bloggers and other critics alleged the network relied on forged documents in its report.

An independent panel commissioned by CBS did not determine the veracity of the letters — purportedly written by Bush's former commander about preferential treatment given to the young pilot — but concluded in a report made public in January that the reporting did not meet the network's standards.

In the searing fallout last fall, the segment's producer, Mary Mapes, was fired and three executives were forced to resign. Rather also stepped down as anchor of the "CBS Evening News" in March, a year short of his 25th anniversary on the broadcast.

The network chairman said today that he did not know if the cancellation of the newsmagazine would cause any layoffs among those left at the show, saying that he hopes to reassign many of the correspondents and crew to the Sunday night program and other parts of the news division.

"We're seeing who on-camera, behind the camera, fits into either '60 Minutes' Sunday or the rest of the news organization," he said. "We're hoping to incorporate as many people as we can."

"60 Minutes Wednesday" will be replaced with two comedies — "Still Standing" and "Yes, Dear" — a move Mooves said would help build an audience for a new 9 p.m. drama called "Criminal Minds" about FBI profilers.

It looks like Fox has the (18-49) season
CBS's strong gains will likely be wiped out by 'Idol'
By Abigail Azote medialifemagazine.com

CBS has given an impressive performance so far this season and through sweeps, winning last week in adults 18-49 by a considerable margin. But with most of CBS's major series finales behind it, it looks like the season and sweeps win in that demo will still go to Fox, with its super-sized two-hour “American Idol” finale set to air next week.

In the week ended May 15, CBS came out on top among 18-49s with a 4.8 rating and 13 share, up 20 percent from the week before. The jump was powered largely by the strong Tuesday finale of “Amazing Race” and Sunday's “Survivor: Palau” finale.

The “Survivor” finale was down from last year’s average but still delivered a considerable 7.8 18-49 rating, enough to propel CBS past Fox in that demo.

Yet even with CBS’s strong performance for the week, it was not able to pass Fox, only narrow its lead for the season. Through May 15, Fox remained the leader among 18-49s with a 4.1 to CBS’s 4.0.

This week's “Everybody Loves Raymond” series finale on Monday and tomorrow night's “CSI” season finale will certainly help CBS's numbers.

It will also get a boost from next week's season-enders for “CSI: Miami” and “NCIS, ” as well as from the “Rob and Amber Get Married” special on Tuesday and the Janel Maloney-starrer TV movie “Amber Frey: Witness for the Prosecution” on Wednesday.

But those gains will most likely be wiped out when Fox's “American Idol” season finale airs next Wednesday night.

This season “Idol” has averaged an 11.5 18-49 rating on Tuesday and a 10.8 Wednesday, up 4 percent and 2 percent over last year. The Wednesday finale should average at least a 12.0 among 18-49s. Anywhere near that rating will secure the network a first place among 18-49s for the season, its first ever.

Though CBS is ahead, Fox appears likely to win sweeps, too. Through Monday, including the “Everybody Loves Raymond” finale, CBS was at a 4.4 average for sweeps. Fox followed with a 3.9. ABC was third at 3.7 and NBC fourth at 3.2. "Idol" will give Fox a major boost there.

In other broadcast ratings news for the week ended May 15:

Among adults 18-49, CBS came in first with a sizable lead at a 4.8 rating and 13 share. Fox followed at 4.0/11. ABC was third at 3.4/10, NBC fourth at 3.2/9, UPN fifth at 1.6/4 and WB sixth at 1.4/4.

Bottom five (18-49s): 108. WB’s “Jack and Bobby” 0.9; 109. WB’s “What I Like About You” 0.9; 110. NBC’s “Crossing Jordan” (Saturday repeat) 0.9; 111. UPN’s “All of Us” 0.8; 112. WB’s “Charmed” 0.7.

Bottom five (total viewers): 108. UPN’s “Eve” 2.3 million; 109. WB’s “Jack and Bobby” 2.0 million; 110. UPN’s “All of Us” 1.99 million; 111. WB’s “What I Like About You” 1.9 million; 112. WB’s “Charmed” 1.6 million.

Show on the rise: “Veronica Mars,” UPN, Tuesday 9 p.m. The season finale attracted 240,000 more viewers 18-49 than in the previous week, an 18 percent increase. The episode averaged a 1.2 that demo and 2.99 million total viewers.

Show on the decline: “The OC,” Fox, Thursday 8 p.m. Even with rare a George Lucas TV cameo, the drama with all the beautiful people fell week to week, with 650,000 less total viewers. Among 18-49s, the show averaged a 2.8 rating, down 10 percent from the previous week.

Fox's laugh track
Net goes for 12 comedies on fall sked

By JOSEF ADALIAN Variety.com
Don't tell Fox execs comedy is dead: Net is planning to unveil a fall sked today boasting a whopping 12 comedies -- and not a single new reality show.

While some things could change by the time Fox Entertainment prexy Peter Liguori presents his first lineup to advertisers, industry insiders expect the net to spread its dozen laffers over four nights, with a three-hour Sunday sked and hourlong blocks at 8 p.m. on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

Overall, Fox will have more comedies than NBC (four) and CBS (six) combined, as well as far more than any other network.

Unlike last year's experimental (and ultimately confusing) three-part sked, Fox will keep things relatively simple this year, briefing ad buyers on a late summer/fall lineup and a January sked that includes reality powerhouse "American Idol." Overall, net seems to be looking to keep its schedule as consistent as possible throughout the season, making as few changes as possible post-"Idol."

And though Fox isn't planning as much scripted programming this summer as last year, net has made it clear it plans to debut some of its shows as early as August, hoping to revisit its successful launch of "The OC" two years ago.

In another switch from recent years, "We're going to try to be as consistent as we can and bring on as much of our schedule as possible prior to baseball," Fox scheduling guru Preston Beckman told Daily Variety last week in a discussion about the net's summer strategy.

According to insiders familiar with the Fox gameplan, the net isn't giving up on reality. Net has renewed frosh successes "Nanny 911" and "Trading Spouses" for next season and will have both shows available in case any fall efforts stumble. Fox's reality division is also working on a slate of other projects that could be ready for midseason, while some of the net's summer reality skeins could be continued if they break out.

As for the sked itself, it's believed that critical darling "Arrested Development" will lead off Fox's Monday comedy block at 8 p.m. in the fall, likely followed by Sony/New Line's new Darren Star half-hour "Kitchen Confidential."

Fox is likely to slate buzzworthy serialized hour "Prison Break" at 9 p.m., probably launching it in late summer so it can wrap its first season by earlier January. That's when Fox is expected to duplicate this season's successful strategy of airing "24" from January until May without any repeats.
No repeat zone

Indeed, if "Prison Break" works out, Fox will be able to claim Mondays at 9 as a "no repeat zone," with original product in the timeslot virtually year-round.

On Tuesdays in the fall, look for new crime drama "Bones" at 8 p.m. followed by the second season of medical smash "House" at 9.

Come January, "Idol" will almost certainly return to its normal 8 p.m. Tuesday slot, with "Bones" sliding to 9. Fox used this strategy last year to turn "House" into a hit, and the net no doubt hopes the same play will work for the Barry Josephson-produced "Bones." It's expected "House" will then shift to Mondays at 8 p.m. in January.

As for Wednesdays, "That '70s Show" begins its final season in its longtime 8 p.m. slot and will be followed this fall by the Pam Anderson laffer "Stacked," insiders said. Comedic drama "Head Cases," also from Josephson, will have the unenviable task of facing ABC's mighty "Lost" at 9 p.m., at least until January, when "American Idol" reclaims the timeslot. Fox will probably sked laffer "The Loop" in the post-"Idol" slot.
Soap night

Fox has made it clear that "The OC" is staying put Thursdays at 8 p.m. It will likely be followed at 9 by another soapy drama, the innovative "Reunion," in which each episode reps a single year in the life of a group of high school grads.

With ABC abandoning comedy on Friday nights, it seems a no-brainer for Fox to at least try a pair of established (if aging) comedies from 8-9 p.m., which explains the relocation of "Bernie Mac" and "Malcolm in the Middle" to 8 and 8:30, respectively. Laffer duo will likely be followed by the tentatively titled "Deviant Behavior," a "CSI"-like drama created by "CSI" vet Josh Berman.

If Fox goes with this scenario, it will mean the net's entire Friday block with be produced or co-produced by Regency Television.

As for Saturdays, TV's longest-running two-hour block of programming -- "Cops" and "America's Most Wanted" -- will return, with "Mad TV" back in latenight.

Toon time

Fox should also stay relatively stable on Sundays, with a couple of twists. Rather than announce a program for the 7 p.m. slot and then never actually air it -- a longtime Fox tradition -- Liguori and his team seem to have decided it's much better to just air repeats of its various animated laffers. NFL overruns generally prevent Fox from airing entertainment programming at 7 in the fall anyway.

"King of the Hill" will return for what will likely be its final season at 7:30, followed by "The Simpsons" at 8. Industry sources believe family laffer "The War at Home" will inherit the 8:30 p.m. timeslot, while resurrected hit "Family Guy" and solidly performing newbie "American Dad" will remain from 9-10 p.m.

Experimental laffer "Freebirds" has also been ordered and will premiere sometime next season.

Fox execs declined comment Wednesday.

Upfront and center

Network executives and celebrities gather in Manhattan this week, making their best pitch to advertisers about the new 2005-06 season in an annual ritual known as the “upfront.” Los Angeles Times reporters are filing the latest updates about prime-time shows, flashy presentations and parties here.

By Shawn Hubler, The Los Angeles Times contributions from Scott Collins in Los Angeles.
Day 4: The Final, Piteous Cry for Ad Dollars .
May 19, 1:30 a.m. EDT

The last two of the Big Six broadcast networks make their case to the ad-buying community today. UPN (best known, perhaps, as the home of "America's Top Model") goes first, presumably with claims that will give the rival WB a run for its money.

Then, the grand finale: Fox.

The hoopla tends to imply that unprecedented amounts of money will change hands when all this is over. In fact, advertisers aren't expected to commit much more to the networks than the $9 billion and pocket change they promised last year.

Cable and the Internet have inexorably chipped away at mainstream television's appeal to advertisers. So has Spanish language TV. So has TiVo. The banter this week has been all "CSI" vs. "Medium" and "Law & Order: Criminal Intent" vs. "Desperate Housewives," but the elephant in the room has been network shows vs. "Nip/Tuck" and "Entourage" and "Project Runway" and "Showdog Moms & Dads." Or all of the above, with the commercials zapped out.

The truth is, behind all the corporate trash talk and glitzy show tunes and self-congratulatory statistics, the networks are locked in a cutthroat battle for a shrinking audience.

But we're sounding like Debbie the Downer. And that's a Saturday Night Live reference! From a network! And from the standpoint of a couch tater — or more accurately, a youthful couch tater - the news today is expected to be good.

Fox is expected to introduce at least a half-dozen new shows aimed at — yes — further seducing that beloved 18-to-49-year-old demographic, which is already drawn, like moths to a porch light, to its "American Idol", "House", "The O.C." and "24."

There are reportedly new shows about young adults who are rebellious attorneys ("Head Cases"), young adults who are crime-solving scientists ("Bones"), young adults who are back in the ole' hometown ("Freebirds"), young adults working their first jobs ("The Loop"), and dysfunctional baby boomer families ("The War at Home").

Fox's goal is to beat back CBS' come-from-behind grab at their demographic.

UPN, meanwhile, wants to best WB for the really young adolescents. Early buzz is centering on "Everybody Hates Chris," a comedy inspired by comedian Chris Rock's childhood in Brooklyn, and a dramedy with Denise Richards about twentysomethings in Silver Lake.
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Party Watch: You're-Only-As-Old-As-You-Feel Edition
By Shawn Hubler, The Los Angeles Times with dispatches from Matea Gold and Amy Wallace .
May 18, 9:10 p.m. EDT

The CBS party at the Village Green in lush Central Park was like some flashback to the '80s - the guy who played Doogie Howser posing with fawning admirers. The Fonz.

Or maybe it was the '90s. Because, look! There was Dharma!

Whatever, the feeling wasn't that we were now getting down with the new young-skewing CBS. It was more like we were killing a cocktail hour with the network of the formerly young.

But, frankly, here on Day 3 of this nonstop spin-fest, in the wrong time zone, with jet lag, we were feeling a little formerly young, too. Not to whine, but it's a good 10 blocks and one long avenue between Carnegie Hall, the site of CBS' earlier upfront extravaganza — which began with a bunch of Jeff Zucker jokes and ended with Aretha Franklin (who, by the way, was making hit records during the Johnson administration) — and Tavern on the Green, the site of the CBS party.

Sure, there were buses on hand to ferry the partygoers, but who wants to sit in rush hour traffic on a balmy spring evening in Manhattan?

And so we were lured into . . .

The upfront walk

Yes, there we were, trapped in a herd of hundreds upon hundreds of black-suited, stiletto-heel-clad, mostly twenty- and thirtysomething ad types, wending their way through the streets of Manhattan and the walkways of Central Park.

They were the embodiments of youthful multi-tasking, these foot soldiers of media age capitalism, a cell phone-talking, lip gloss-applying, BlackBerrying horde. Cyclists screeched to a halt. Couples in horse-drawn carriages gaped. The column marched on, seemingly unending. And then when everyone got to the party, and past the scent of Central Park carriage horse manure, and finally had their mitts around their free pina coladas, what?

Some "Survivor" people? The aforementioned Neil Patrick Harris and Henry Winkler and Jenna Elfman to pose for pictures?

CBS Chairman and Viacom Co-President Les Moonves and his immaculate new wife and his immaculate new wife's diamond were all doing their best to dazzle, but it felt - well, you know that Hillary Duff song, "So Yesterday"?

No?

See, this is our point exactly.

Is being middle-aged really so wrong?
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The CBS Upfront.
By Shawn Hubler, The Los Angeles Times with dispatches from Matea Gold, Maria Elena Fernandez and Meg James in New York.

May 18, 4:35 p.m. EDT

CBS goes upfront: Ooooh. Dis! CBS is at Carnegie Hall, just wrapping up its official presentation with a rousing round of "Respect" from Aretha Franklin, who isn't having much success with this weary audience of ad buyers, who are mostly white guys in suits.

CBS seems, we don't know, a little too interested in this respect thing. Moments into the presentation, Viacom Co-President Les Moonves was already doing what he does best. Namely, whipping out his Bruckheimers and showing everybody what wussy boys he has for competition.

Like, in the show's first segment, the cast of "Avenue Q" came out with cute puppets depicting Jeff Zucker, Bob Iger and Rupert Murdoch (respective heads of NBC, ABC's parent Walt Disney Co. and Fox), and had them sing a song that went, "It sucks to be me . . ."

"Once we had Seinfeld and Must-See TV/But now our Thursday is a pile of debris/ . . .," the Zucker puppet sang sadly. After which a Moonves puppet warbled: "It's great to be me!"

And then there was this bit where Moonves is digitally inserted into clips from "Million Dollar Baby," and he hit a bag with Zucker's face on it. "That's what I call a Zucker punch," he smirked.

Trendwatch: Patterns are starting to emerge, here on Day 3 of the upfronts. (And not just because we've spent the past 72 hours being hypnotized by TV pitchmen with huge electronic screens.)

Kid stuff: Nobody wants you if you're over 50. Not even CBS. Well, OK, they still have a soft spot for you. (See? There's a half-hour sitcom with Stockard Channing and Henry Winkler, right there, at the tail end of Monday night.) But it's a really, really little soft spot. And it's almost gone.

Advertisers want young people, presumably because they're less set in their ways. It's all about that 18-to-49-year-old demographic. So even at the network that once was the grayest, it's in with Jennifer Love Hewitt and out with Jason Alexander, who, as any geezer remembers, once played George on "Seinfeld."

Monsters. Hey, kids love 'em. "Lost" is gonna be cloned within an inch of its life next year. ABC's new "Invasion" is featuring aliens. NBC's new "Fathom" has sea monsters. CBS' new "Threshold" has a UFO in the mid-Atlantic — hey! alien sea monsters. And WB's "Supernatural" has dead hitchhikers. (But they're young!)

Bruckheimer! Hey, kids love him, too. They love him so much, we're giving him his own exclamation point. We're just going to give in and name our big screen "Jerry."

"What's on Jerry tonight?" our kids will say. And the answer will always be reassuring: "The Amazing Race," cops and explosions. The guy at this point has 10 shows on the air next year (six of them on CBS). Not even Aaron Spelling had that many in one season. How many pensive, nonverbal anti-heroes can one nation support?

Español: Univision unleashed its own impressive display of firepower this morning. The massive L.A.-based Spanish-language network made its upfront presentation today, too.

At Lincoln Center, with Broadway-style show tunes. Big production numbers, with big panels of the New York skyline that fell away to reveal big, neon signs that said UNIVISION. There were cigars for all the male ad buyers. And a long-stemmed rose for every woman. With every single thorn removed.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is a little thing we like to call entertainment. But the numbers were no song and dance.

It's one thing to know that the youth demographic is increasingly a Latino demographic in this country. But did you know that Univision is now the fifth-largest network in any language? And that 56 times last season, they ranked fourth among all networks among that most coveted audience, 18- to 34-year-old primetime viewers?

And that 43 times last season, they ranked third in that group? And that 26 times last season, they ranked second?

And that 21 times, they ranked first?

At CBS, it's out with the old, in with the young

For the network's fall season, older-skewing shows, such as "Judging Amy," are gone in favor of an appeal to the youth demographic
CRITIC'S NOTEBOOK By Paul Brownfield [B]Los Angeles Times [B]Staff Writer May 19, 2005

Welcome to CBS, where the viewers are only getting more 18-49. So 18-49 that the network is poised to become No. 1 in the key demographic, were it not for Fox and that ace in the hole, "American Idol."

As steward of the most-watched network in prime time, Viacom Co-President Leslie Moonves couldn't stress the youth-skewing enough Wednesday from the stage at Carnegie Hall (where, I'm obligated to point out, my brother was in the audience as one of the network's executives). The network has taken the machete to the more earnest or older-skewing shows "Joan of Arcadia," "Judging Amy," "JAG" and "60 Minutes Wednesday." But CBS' presentation, stalled by a stiff paean to its sports department and Moonves' own penchant for annual vaudeville, made the show seem like something best experienced at a large table where the question is, "Chicken or fish?"

None of those canceled shows, by the way, feature disfigured corpses. In contrast, "Criminal Minds," one of the new shows, stars Mandy Patinkin and Thomas Gibson ("Dharma & Greg") as members of the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit. Translation: people who deal on a regular basis with serial killers and psychos. CBS keeps discovering new levels of sub-departments and quasi-elite units that regularly come face-to-face with this population. In addition to "Criminal Minds," it also has a horrible-looking show, "Threshold," about a government contingency analyst (don't ask me) leading a team investigating an apparent extraterrestrial invasion. It stars Carla Gugino and our collective fear about the unseen enemy, post-9/11.

"Threshold" is among three new dramas that present their stars as complex thirtysomething women. Jennifer Love Hewitt will get the most attention as a woman who communicates with people's dead loved ones in "Ghost Whisperer," which seems like "Touched by a Medium," because it's creepy but offers hope, and like "Medium" it features its lead actress in bed with an understanding husband.

On CBS, the new show to watch is probably "Close to Home," starring Jennifer Finnigan (last seen a few months ago on NBC, over-acting in the sitcom "Committed") as an assistant district attorney who delves into, yes, violent domestic crimes. "Close to Home" is like Nancy Grace's show on CNN Headline News, although it's hard to believe that, lacking Grace, it will be as well-acted.

"In suburbs across America, behind white picket fences, lie the darkest of secrets," the tagline to the show goes. Over at ABC they've discovered that tired concept as comedy, thanks to "Desperate Housewives," but CBS can't seem to see past all the evil on our nation's Wisteria Lanes.

For its Monday night block of comedy, CBS has ordered two new sitcoms that look like placeholders for the night's popular shows, "King of Queens" and "Two and a Half Men."

The premise for "How I Met Your Mother" is better than the execution looks — a twist on the domestic sitcom in which a father is telling his kids how he courted their mother. Look for Neal Patrick Harris, in a third-banana role, to get most of the laugh lines. "Out of Practice," the other new Monday night comedy, looks god awful, from "Frasier" writers Joe Keenan and Christopher Lloyd, about a family of doctors, the parents played by Henry Winkler and Stockard Channing. Think big jokes about liposuction.

CBS Promotes Fall Lineup and Takes Shots at Rivals

By VIRGINIA HEFFERNAN The New York Times May 19, 2005

Though a Broadway parody opened the show and a performance by Aretha Franklin closed it, CBS's "upfront" presentation of its fall program schedule yesterday at Carnegie Hall was a restrained affair. But, at some moments, it was also angry.

Leslie Moonves, a co-president of Viacom, which owns CBS, mercilessly baited Jeff Zucker, the president of the NBC Universal Television Group and Mr. Moonves's archrival. In a film promoting CBS's dominion over the other networks (CBS is now the top-rated network among adults), Mr. Moonves was shown smashing a stand-in for Mr. Zucker through a brick wall.

Puppets intended to look like the rival network executives Robert A. Iger of ABC, Mr. Zucker and Peter Liguori of Fox were operated by cast members from "Avenue Q," the musical. As a monitor showed what CBS characterized as its competitors' recent failures, the puppets lamented their loser status.

On stage, Nina Tassler, the president of CBS Entertainment, recalled advice she said she had received from Mr. Moonves about how to make her presentation strong: "Jokes about Jeff Zucker are always funny." Later, Mr. Moonves acknowledged that he had a problem. No less than Dr. Phil, he said, had put him on a 12-step program to "cut down on bashing" NBC and Mr. Zucker.

But the CBS team couldn't resist one more joke. "A priest, a rabbi and Jeff Zucker go into a bar," Ms. Tassler said. The crowd roared.

Ms. Tassler talked the audience through every prime-time hour from Monday to Sunday.

She geared her remarks to the industry, speaking of "protected time slots," and how "NCIS" - a moderately successful military drama - "is the unsung hero of Tuesday."

The presentation included appearances by the stars of the network's new shows - Jennifer Love Hewitt from "Ghost Whisperer," Stockard Channing from "Out of Practice" and Carla Gugino from "Threshold." Ms. Hewitt said her series, about a woman who can talk to ghosts, might suggest to viewers that they could see dead loved ones again.

After Mr. Moonves summarized the schedule one more time, Aretha Franklin took the stage.

Ms. Franklin's performance suited Carnegie Hall, as well as the air of indomitability that Mr. Moonves clearly wanted to project. Accompanied by a big band, Ms. Franklin sang "Respect."

UPFRONTS JOURNAL
By Virginia Heffernan Television Critic of The New York Times at the Television Upfronts

CBS FROM CARNEGIE HALL | 05.18 4:22 PM

Look on My Works, Ye Mighty

Aretha Franklin, jeez.

She's in white, a fur collar, and pearls. A huge band plays with her. She's singing "Respect."

Oh so this is why I'm at Carnegie Hall. But does Aretha really skew younger?

Maybe it doesn't matter. CBS's new shows look like so many of their old ones — self-assured, safe, blue chip.

It's a conservative shop, CBS. Does Leslie Moonves even need any more respect?

CBS FROM CARNEGIE HALL | 05.18 4:55 PM

Cold Front

This is an extremely clinical presentation. One for the accountants.

The new shows — "How I Met Your Mother," "Out of Practice" and "Close to Home" — have a muted, withholding palette, heavy on light green and tan. None of the rousing montages of the network's sensibility have been rousing. And the executives evince their greatest excitement for ratings and demographics.

There's a lot of talk about "protected timeslots" and how "NCIS" is the unsung hero of Tuesday. Even the child from the network's confounding hit, "Two and a Half Men," says to the room, "We want your money."

CBS isn't dour like NBC or maudlin like ABC, but they sure are cold.

CBS FROM CARNEGIE HALL | 05.18 4:47 PM

There Was a 'Zucker-Punch' Joke Too

"Jokes about Jeff Zucker are always funny," or so says Nina Tassler, the president of CBS Entertainment. Apparently, this was part of the advice Mr. Moonves gave her before she took the stage today.
"A priest, a rabbi and Jeff Zucker walk into a bar," she begins, gamely. The crowd roars.

CBS FROM CARNEGIE HALL | 05.18 4:22 PM

Rich Means Old

To Mr. Moonves, upscale — the NBC shibboleth — means old, a theme he's been sounding throughout the upfront. Earlier today, at his press breakfast at CBS headquarters, he said, "there are no 18 to 34 upscale," meaning there are no young, rich people.

He did modify this comment, however. "The only people 18 to 34 upscale I know are my own children."
Presumably, they watch CBS.

Mr. Moonves did mention casually at the breakfast that his network is No. 1 in households with incomes of $100,000 or more. But he didn't stress this, because to him rich means old. And he's determined this year to show that the geezer network is "skewing younger and younger."

It sounded like a form of leering, and if not that then at least protesting too much. He's better at attack than spin.

CBS FROM CARNEGIE HALL | 05.18 4:16 PM

Moonves Enters the Ring

No way. The cast of "Avenue Q," the Broadway show, just appeared with puppets of Bob Iger, Jeff Zucker and Peter Liguori — of ABC, NBC, and FOX — and had them lament their own problems in a rousing chorus of, "It Sucks to Be Me!"

And now Leslie Moonves has managed to interpolate himself into film from "Million Dollar Baby." As Clint Eastwood beams ringside, Mr. Moonves K.O.s every show the other networks throw up.
Except "Desperate Housewives," which, in the person of a slim brunette, socks him below the belt.
"We're winning in a dominant fashion," Mr. Moonves says, when he appears on stage. Bam.

CBS FROM CARNEGIE HALL | 05.18 4:00 PM

Let's Get It Started, Again

I'm far above sea level, stranded at seats that seem dangerously far from the stage at Carnegie Hall. At this cheap-seats altitude, I should be here for Maria Callas or Itzhak Perlman or someone, but instead it's the CBS upfront.

Distorted CBS eyes stretch across the august stage, part of a purply light show. That eye is unnerving, always has been. "Let's Get it Started" is playing, as it has at all the big-three networks presentations this week. Jock jams. They're fun. That's something we all can agree on.

Surprise: Fox and UPN Aim for Young Viewers

By JACQUES STEINBERG and BILL CARTER The New York Times May 19, 2005

This week's presentations by the six main broadcast networks to advertisers attending the so-called upfront market in Manhattan will conclude today, when Fox and UPN detail their fall schedules.

Fox, seeking to prove that it can create hit shows beyond "American Idol," "24," and "House," will introduce four new dramas and four comedies, according to interviews with a talent agent, a studio executive and a network official, each of whom had been told about at least part of the schedule but none of whom would agree to be identified.

The dramas include "Prison Break," which, as previously announced by the network, is a drama about two incarcerated brothers making various efforts to escape. Another drama, "Bones," is about a forensic anthropologist (played by David Boreanz, formerly of "Angel") who solves crimes. A third, "Reunion," watches a high school graduating class as it ages by 20 years.

The new comedies from Fox, a unit of the News Corporation, include "The Loop," about a young executive and his friends living in downtown Chicago, and "The War at Home," about parents who were unruly as teenagers but are now trying to raise teenagers of their own. That program stars Michael Rapaport, formerly of the Fox program "Boston Public," and will have characters making side comments to the camera, known as confessionals.

Each of the Fox shows appears intended to raise the network's standing among its target audience - young viewers, including those aged 18 to 49, a Nielsen category that the network is likely to win in the current season, but by a narrow margin.

UPN, which is owned by Viacom, will finish the current season behind Fox, CBS and NBC in the same category, but in a tight battle over such viewers with WB. It is expected to announce today that it has picked up two new comedies and two new dramas also aimed at young audiences.

One of the comedies, "Everybody Hates Chris," is based on the childhood of the comedian Chris Rock, who narrates the story of a teenager growing up in Brooklyn in the early 1980's. One of the dramas, "Sex, Lies and Secrets," is about a group of twenty-somethings living on the outskirts of Hollywood.

Originally posted by fredfa
Indeed, if "Prison Break" works out, Fox will be able to claim Mondays at 9 as a "no repeat zone," with original product in the timeslot virtually year-round.
Pity those without a DVR.

I appologize if this has been asked and answered but do you know
why Ed Green(Jesse Martin) is not on Law & Order any more.
I really like him and his charactor?

*LITTLE UPFRONT CHEER; AD BUYERS SHOW SCANT ENTHUSIASM FOR BROADCASTERS' ANNUAL PEP RALLY
By John M. Higgins, Broadcasting & Cable, 5/16/2005


Network upfront presentations are designed to be gigantic cheerleading sessions. But when NBC kicks off the annual week of broadcast presentations at New York's Radio City Music Hall this week, expect bombastic NBC Universal Television Group President Jeff Zucker to express something uncharacteristic: a bit of humility.

This is the same stage where, last year, Zucker unveiled a fall slate that almost completely bombed, sending NBC's prime time ratings from first place all the way down to fourth.

Lots of networks attempt to gloss over their blemishes, but NBC's shortcomings are too massive for even a showman like Zucker to skirt gracefully. ¿I will acknowledge up top the reality of the situation,¿ he says of his presentation this week. ¿We're not going to run from that; we're not going to hide from that. We're not going to let the elephant sit in the room.¿

Zucker's modesty isn't the only change in this year's upfront market. Buyers are much quieter, the economy is slowing, and advertisers in a few major categories may not buy as much. As a result, the latest upfront forecasts are expected to show little growth¿if any at all.

It is easy to see the lack of enthusiasm. A year ago, the prime time upfront market was so energized that ad buyers didn't even wait until broadcast networks finalized their fall slates. They rushed to cable's Turner networks. After years of watching giant buying agencies spend their money on broadcast first, Turner's TNT, TBS and CNN found buyers pulling them to the head of the line.

By the end of upfront week last year, Turner Broadcasting's cable networks had written more than 75% of their upfront business. It took weeks for ABC to hit that level. This year at the same time, Turner has signed hardly any business.

Meanwhile, the $1 billion children's upfront market is sluggish. Usually, it is all wrapped up when the prime time cocktail parties commence. This year, advertisers and networks targeting kids are likely to see that sales process roll beyond the closing of upfront week. As of late last week, buyers had committed just 50% of the money that networks expect them to spend.

What has changed? First, look to the broad economy. Lehman Bros. economists predict economic growth will slow during the second half (that is, the fall TV season) to 5.3%, down from 6.1%. Since advertising spending usually moves in sync with gross domestic product, those tenths of a point can have significant ripple effects.

Second, some of the biggest advertisers are simply sitting out this year. Rising gas prices have frozen high-margin SUV sales. Ford and GM are having such dramatic problems that bond-ratings agencies have just downgraded them to ¿junk¿ status. (Foreign-car sales are better.)

Movie studios are also seeing tough times. And pharmaceutical companies, beset by new regulatory scrutiny over advertising of prescription drugs (see page 24), are anxious about stepping up their ad-spending campaigns.

Another change: ratings parity. Although NBC may have fallen to last place, the four major networks are in a tight pack. NBC is not all that far behind CBS in the key 18-49 demo¿just a few hundred thousand shy. A year ago, the gap between first and fourth was 1.3 million viewers.

NBC's loss dilutes its power to charge high prices but doesn't necessarily give it all to CBS. Where does the leverage go? Back to the advertisers.

And despite big hits like ABC's Desperate Housewives and Lost , cable continues to drain the audience from broadcasters. But, of course, that is an old story.

The message: bad news for the broadcast sector as a whole. Two forecasts, from Goldman Sachs analyst Anthony Noto and Lehman Bros. Vijay Jayant, are negative on broadcast.

Noto forecasts that the Big Four broadcast networks' upfront take might fall 5%, from $8.5 billion last year to $8.1 billion. He sees average CPMs (the cost per thousand viewers) increasing 5% and audience guarantees falling 3%. Networks unhappy with prices will hold out more inventory, he says, and pray that the scatter market is stronger next fall and winter.

Jayant is negative in one way, predicting CPM growth of just 4%. But he sees audience guarantees down only 2% and expects networks to sell about as much inventory as they did last year (83%). Net result: upfront volume up 2.7% to $9.6 billion.

In February, B&C predicted that broadcast volume would be flat. We'll stick with that.

Of course, individual broadcast networks will do far better than those averages. ABC's audience is up 16% this season, and analysts predict that its upfront take will jump by 10%-18%. CBS, the new, undisputed No. 1, could also do well. Jayant sees CBS increasing 8%, but Noto expects a soft market to prompt the network to hold back a bigger portion of its inventory.

Neither analyst published a forecast for cable. (Hello!!! Remember cable?) But B&C estimates that cable's take could rise as much as 10% to $7.2 billion, most of that coming at the expense of broadcast.

As he prepares for the NBC upfront presentation on Monday, Zucker notes that, at last year's upfront, ABC was a dog, mired in fourth place. Days earlier, it had fired its two top programming executives.

A turnaround was only one desperate housewife and some lost souls away. Says Zucker: ¿One or two moves got them back to parity this year.¿

trich:
Jesse was given four episodes off (the last four this season) so he could work in the movie movie version of "Rent".
(When "Rent" first opened off Broadway, Martin he received an Obie Award for his performance.)
He will be back next season on L&O.

Fox : The Stable and Balanced Net
By Staff Broadcasting & Cable

Projecting that it will win its first adults 18-49 season crown ever, Fox will defend its title with a comedy-heavy fall schedule that also features five new dramas, two new sitcoms, but not a single new unscripted series.

While preaching "stability and balance" at a Thursday morning media conference call--in contrast to last year's three-separate-seasons approach--Fox Entertainment President Peter Liguori unveiled a lineup featuring a dozen comedies, with the venerable Saturday night block of Cops and Americas Most Wanted representing the lone reality offerings (it has several sitting on the bench, however).

As B&C reported last Sunday, Fox picked up new dramas are Prison Break, Bones (yet another forensic drama, TV's newest rage), dramedy Head Cases, and Reunion (a look at the lives of six friends over 20 years in only one season), plus another drama, The Gate (working title).

The new comedies, also as reported in B&C, are Kitchen Confidential and The War at Home, as well as The Loop, which will launch in January. On the bench for midseason is comedy Free Birds, plus returning reality shows Nanny 911 and Trading Spouses.

Still on the rather patriotic-sounding schedule for fall are American Dad, American Idol, America's Most Wanted, Arrested Development, The Bernie Mac Show, Cops, Family Guy, House, King of the Hill, MadTV, Malcolm in the Middle, The O.C., The Simpsons, Stacked and That ‘70s Show.

Of its 18-49 victory (CBS claims the crown if Fox's Super Bowl and baseball playoff ratings are excluded) Liguori says: "We don't know what it's like to be number one, but we certainly know that people are gunning. It is exciting and daunting all at the same time."

As usual, Fox's fall sked is a bit complex, tap-dancing around the MLB playoffs and then reshaping itself when hits American Idol and 24 return in January.

One of the most talked-about moves is the return of critical darling Arrested Development, slated to lead off Mondays at 8 p.m., giving way in January, when returning breakout star House moves from Tuesday at 9 to Monday at 8.

"The decision was based on this: quality, quality, quality," Liguori said of Arrested Development that was long-rumored to be on the chopping block. "I recognize that putting it on at eight o'clock is pretty much a bold, bodacious move."

As for the new fare, the most buzz has seemed to surround Prison Break, a drama in which a man gets arrested on purpose to help his brother, a death-row inmate, break out of jail.

Set for Mondays at 9, Fox will air seven hours of the show before the baseball hiatus, with the full run ending in time for 24 to reclaim its usual timeslot.

Monday

8:00-8:30 PM ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT
8:30-9:00 PM KITCHEN CONFIDENTIAL
9:00-10:00 PM PRISON BREAK

Tuesday

8:00-9:00 PM BONES
9:00-10:00 PM HOUSE

Wednesday

8:00-8:30 PM THAT ‘70s SHOW
8:30-9:00 PM STACKED
9:00-10:00 PM HEAD CASES

Thursday

8:00-9:00 PM THE O.C.
9:00-10:00 PM REUNION

Friday

8:00-8:30 PM THE BERNIE MAC SHOW
8:30-9:00 PM MALCOLM IN THE MIDDLE
9:00-10:00 THE GATE (working title)

Saturday

8:00-8:30 PM COPS
8:30-9:00 PM COPS
9:00-10:00 PM AMERICA’S MOST WANTED
11:00 PM-MIDNIGHT MADtv

Sunday
7:00-7:30 PM Animated Encores
7:30-8:00 PM KING OF THE HILL
8:00-8:30 PM THE SIMPSONS
8:30-9:00 PM THE WAR AT HOME
9:00-9:30 PM FAMILY GUY
9:30-10:00 PM AMERICAN DAD

BEGINNING JANUARY 2006
(All Times ET/PT)
Monday

8:00-9:00 PM HOUSE
9:00-10:00 PM 24

Tuesday

8:00-9:00 PM AMERICAN IDOL
9:00-10:00 PM BONES

Wednesday

8:00-8:30 PM THAT ‘70s SHOW
8:30-9:00 PM STACKED
9:00-9:30 PM AMERICAN IDOL
9:30-10:00 PM THE LOOP

Thursday
8:00-9:00 PM THE O.C.
9:00-10:00 PM REUNION

Friday

8:00-8:30 PM THE BERNIE MAC SHOW
8:30-9:00 PM MALCOLM IN THE MIDDLE
9:00-10:00 THE GATE (working title)

Saturday

8:00-8:30 PM COPS
8:30-9:00 PM COPS
9:00-10:00 PM AMERICA’S MOST WANTED
11:00 PM-MIDNIGHT MADtv

Sunday

7:00-7:30 PM Animated Encores
7:30-8:00 PM KING OF THE HILL
8:00-8:30 PM THE SIMPSONS
8:30-9:00 PM THE WAR AT HOME
9:00-9:30 PM FAMILY GUY
9:30-10:00 PM AMERICAN DAD

UPN Launches Thursday Comedy Block
By John Eggerton Broadcasting & Cable

UPN has added three new series, two comedies and one drama--to its fall lineup, plus one drama on the bench for midseason.

UPN joins ABC and The WB in gunning for Thursday nights with a new comedy block, its first regularly scheduled lineup of episodic programming on the night, where the network is looking to counterprogram dramas on the other nets.

It will move WWE Smackdown to Friday nights to make room for the block.

The new series are comedies Everybody Hates Chris, a semi-autobiographical look at the childhood of Chris Rock, and Love, Inc., starring Shannen Doherty (Beverly Hills 90210) and Holly Robinson Peete; and dramas Sex, Lies & Secrets and midseason South Beach from Jennifer Lopez.

Nine series will return: America's Next Top Model, Veronica Mars, Girlfriends, Eve, One on One, Cuts, All of US, Half & Half, and WWE Smackdown.

Not returning is drama Kevin Hill, which is being replaced with Sex, Lies & Secrets, and Enterprise.

UPN Prime-Time Schedule for 2005-2006 Season

Monday
8 PM ET/PT: ONE ON ONE
8:30 PM ET/PT: ALL OF US
9 PM ET/PT: GIRLFRIENDS
9:30 PM ET/PT: HALF & HALF

Tuesday
8 PM ET/PT: AMERICA’S NEXT TOP MODEL (R)
9 PM ET/PT: SEX, LIES & SECRETS (New Series)

Wednesday
8 PM ET/PT: AMERICA’S NEXT TOP MODEL
9 PM ET/PT: VERONICA MARS

Thursday
8 PM ET/PT: EVERYBODY HATES CHRIS (New Series)
8:30 PM ET/PT: EVE
9 PM ET/PT: CUTS
9:30 PM ET/PT: LOVE, INC. (New Series)

Friday
8 PM ET/PT: WWE SMACKDOWN! (two hours)

Upfront and center

Network executives and celebrities gather in Manhattan this week, making their best pitch to advertisers about the new 2005-06 season in an annual ritual known as the “upfront.” Los Angeles Times reporters are filing the latest updates about prime-time shows, flashy presentations and parties here.

By Shawn Hubler, The Los Angeles Times with dispatches from Maria Elena Fernandez in New York.

Fox maxes out on reality. Plus, no Monday night reruns! .
May 19, 10:40 a.m. EDT

Peter Liguori, the new Fox entertainment chief who came out of FX (home of "The Shield," "Nip/Tuck," "Rescue Me" — basically, the hot cable shows last season), met the press this morning and said Fox will launch seven new shows this year. With scripts.

Last fall, Fox aired more hours of reality than any other network, with not-so-great results. Liguori said he is not exactly moving away from reality, and there'll be a lot of it on the Saturday night lineup; it's just that these scripted shows were his best stuff.

Which is good news, because he also said he couldn't say when that investigation into Paula Abdul and her alleged diddling of that dewy-cheeked "American Idol" contestant would end.

Also, consider yourself warned. And so far only Fox has claimed it will do this, but there will be no repeats aired of any show on its big Monday night schedule, Liguori said.

The funny-yet-under-watched "Arrested Development" will be back (why, oh why, won't you watch it?!) — at a new time slot, 8 p.m. — out from under "The Simpsons." Then the new "Kitchen Confidential," a comedy about a debauched chef, based on the tell-all memoir of Anthony Bourdain. Then Fox's new drama "Prison Break," about brothers behind bars who'll keep trying to make a break for it, will run uninterrupted from August to January.

Then "24," which increased in ratings by 16% by running uninterrupted (and letting the villainous Habib Marwan escape again and again and again! Like morons!) will debut its fifth season, once again posing the question, can anyone in this government besides Jack Bauer do anything?

Liguori, whose official upfront presentation to advertisers will come later today, made it short and sweet, covering his new shows (see programming chart) quickly. There was frisson of excitement among the craven, underpaid press corps — Fight! Fight! — when someone mentioned that CBS Chairman Leslie Moonves, master of the "mine's-bigger-than-yours" dis, had made a crack about how even his "Yes, Dear" had more viewers than "Arrested Development."

Moonves on Wednesday had thanked Liguori for renewing a show that no one watches.

But Liguori just deadpanned, "I aim to please Les."

UPFRONTS JOURNAL
By Virginia Heffernan Television Critic of The New York Times at the Television Upfronts
ABC CBS, THE MORNING AFTER | 05.19 9:23 PM
Cold Case

The governing principle of CBS's fall line-up is sang-froid. Correct, analytical, letter-perfect shows — machines for attracting ratings.

The network's tightly engineered, functional-looking shows make gods of characters who take a logical approach to life's chaos. It's worth saying again: the number of programs on CBS about the rational solving of crime is staggering.

Consider "Cold Case," "Without a Trace," "Numb3rs," fully three editions of "C.S.I.," and now "Criminal Minds" and "Close to Home" — eight dramas about detectives or their surrogates (a prosecutor in "Close to Home," FBI profilers in "Criminal Minds") cracking cases.

At the upfront yesterday, even "Ghost Whisperer," the New Agey confection about a girl who speaks to ghosts, and "Threshold," the sci-fi effort about alien invasion, came across like souped-up detective stories. The ghost-talking girl in "Ghost Whisperer" is an old-school private eye; her posthumous clients want to reunite with living loved ones.

And in "Threshold," Carla Gugino plays "a government contingency analyst whose job is to devise response plans for worst-case scenarios." Her job involves "deciphering the intention" of an alien spacecraft. Sounds like detective work to me.

Before yesterday's upfront, at a breakfast press conference, Leslie Moonves, the chairman of CBS, was asked how many crime shows are too many. He answered that he'd keep putting crime on the air as long as people keep watching it.

Around the same time, someone kidded him about "Yes, Dear," CBS's critically scorned sitcom that continues to draw viewers.

Mr. Moonves refused to buckle. "You guys have dumped on 'Yes, Dear,'" he shot back, flashing a big smile. "And you couldn't kill it with a stick."

He had his scientifically processed lineup, his dead-on numbers, his winning ratings and his techno-perfect fall schedule, and he couldn't have cared less about the snobbery or whims of critics.

"Keep praising 'Arrested Development,'" he added, referring to the Fox sitcom that has become a pet project with some critics who have struggled, mostly in vain, to call public attention to it.

Beaming at his own joke, he returned to his master schedule.

Turner's Wakshlag: Cable Beat Broadcast in 2004-05
By Anthony Crupi Mediaweek.com

As the broadcast networks continue banging their respective upfront drums, cable has once again won both the 2004-05 TV season ratings war, as well as the May sweeps.

According to Jack Wakshlag, chief research officer at Turner Broadcasting, who used Nielsen Media Research data, cable’s share of prime-time household viewing is a 52.1, up from a 49.8 in 2003-04, versus a 45.4 for the seven broadcast networks, which dropped from a 47.2 a year ago.

As far as the sweeps are concerned, cable’s prime-time share through May 16 is a 51.1, compared with broadcast’s 46.2. Should those numbers hold--and there is no reason to believe they will not--basic cable will continue its streak of taking every sweeps since February 2004.

Both the current season and May sweeps come to a close on May 25.

While cable’s ad share is disproportionately small when the Nielsen numbers are taken into account, the dollars are gradually beginning to follow the eyeballs, Wakshlag said. Year-to-date, cable now takes 30 percent of prime-time ad dollars, vs the 22 percent it gleaned in 2000-01. When viewing share is taken into account, however, the numbers are still out of whack. Through Monday, ad-supported cable accounted for 52 percent of all prime-time viewing, while the broadcast networks rated 45 percent.

Meanwhile, the bleeding continues at the seven broadcast networks, which lost a total of 1.5 million viewers in the adults 18-49 demo over the past two seasons. Since last year, NBC has suffered the most attrition, dropping 17 percent in average prime-time ratings, while the WB lost the second-most number of viewers, dipping 7 percent in prime. ABC was the sole big mover, up 15 percent.

Big cable winners in the adults 18-49 demo were Spike TV, up 39 percent from last season; FX (+12 percent) and Comedy Central (+10 percent). Only two of the top 10 ad-supported cable networks saw prime-time ratings in the demo dip: Discovery Channel, down 12 percent and ESPN, off 2 percent.

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

Originally posted by fredfa
Fox : The Stable and Balanced Net

Stinks that House and Arrested will only be running till January :(

I guess they're getting ready to kill Malcolm by moving it to Friday.

Stacked will have another season, some witty humor there :)

'NCIS' Ends With a Death

By Kate O'Hare (zap2it.com)

The producers of ABC's "Lost" recently followed through with a threat to kill one of the major characters (and they may kill another), and now CBS' "NCIS" looks to be following suit. Although "NCIS" will be back next season, the cast may look a bit different after the second-season finale, airing Tuesday, May 24.

"Twilight" features the return of terrorist/double-agent Ari (Rudolf Martin), who previously appeared in the episodes "Bete Noire" and "Reveille," the first-season finale, which ended with Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs (Mark Harmon) shooting Ari, but apparently not killing him.

Now Ari has come back and has Gibbs in his sights. According to series creator Don Bellisario ("JAG," "Quantum Leap"), by the end of the episode, a member of the NCIS team goes down, but he's not saying which one.

"I can't really comment on it," Bellisario says in an interview conducted on May 11, the day after the last original episode aired. "Somebody's going to go. That's the thing. The ending is going to be rather shocking. I haven't even let the network see the end of the show. They know what's going on, but I don't want it to get out. So we have shot two endings of the show."

Like many producers, Bellisario fears his secret will leak onto the Internet.

"Every time we put a script out," he says, "the minute it gets to the network and to Paramount Studios, it is online. So someone at our companies, at Paramount or the network, is feeding the information online. God help them if they're ever caught, because their asses will be fired."

Unlike "Lost," which had 14 principal characters, "NCIS" has a small core group. Under Gibbs are Special Agents Kate Todd (Sasha Alexander) and Tony DiNozzo (Michael Weatherly), probationary agent Timothy McGee (Sean Murray), and forensics specialist Abby Sciuto (Pauley Perrette). Assisting Gibbs' team is medical examiner Dr. Donald "Ducky" Mallard (David McCallum). He's had a couple of assistants, the most recent being Jimmy Palmer (Brian Dietzen).

In "SWAK," the last new episode, which aired Tuesday, May 10, Tony was exposed to a potentially deadly virus, leaving him with only a 50/50 chance to live. He survived until the end of the episode, but ...

"Tony almost went last night," Bellisario says. "He came very close to going, and he may go next week as a result of that."

"Tony's still sick," Harmon says, also in a May 11 interview. "This is not over. What happened last night continues into episode 23, the finale. They're lined up, these two shows. You've got to listen to all the clues, and there are a lot of clues. I'm being honest with you. All principal characters are, in one way or another, potential. That's how Don set it up."

This situation is not new for acting veteran Harmon. "I joked about it last month. People were asking me about this, and I said, 'We're all personally hoping it's us, because we're all so tired, we're hoping we're going to get killed.'

"It was something that happened to me on 'St. Elsewhere.' Everybody thinks I wanted to leave that show. I didn't want to leave that show. Basically I said to them, 'Look, if I'm going to be walking down a hospital corridor saying hello to doctors, for seven years, knock yourselves out. Go ahead and put this character on his ear. Do what you want to do.'

"When I joined that cast, there were 14 principals. When I left, there were six. It's about invigorating the writers at the same time as you invigorate the cast. It's healthy for a cast to think that they might be expendable. I think it's good for the fan base, too."

Bellisario says he came up with this idea back in March, after returning from a trip to Australia.

"Nobody knew who was going," he says. "I didn't give them the last pages until we shot it. That's when they were informed. It had nothing to do with lack of performance or malfeasance at all. That's the furthest thing from it. Everybody on that show is very passionate about the show, and everybody works very hard.

"You'll be surprised who's going down. You may be wanting to kill me when this is all over."

"House" moves to Mondays at 8 in January.
"Arrested Development" has been given another chance to find some viewers.
It'll continue next year if its ratings spike (or if Fox's other shows do poorly).

TV advertisers place their bets

By Phil Rosenthal Chicago Tribune staff reporter Published May 19, 2005
NEW YORK -- As part of its lavish 2005-06 television season presentation to advertisers Wednesday at Carnegie Hall, CBS had Aretha Franklin belt out her old hit, "Respect."

Along with more than $9 billion in advance advertising commitments for the fall, that's what the major broadcast television networks hope to score from the Madison Avenue crowd during this annual weeklong pageant of showmanship, booze and canapes.

They're no longer the powerhouses they were when Franklin's song first charted, but they want recognition that network TV still delivers millions of viewers for even its least-watched programs.

Weary of hearing the whole world isn't watching, or that this revolution will be streamed online, network executives have become painfully aware that consumers can be entertained by cable, the Internet, DVDs, even cell phones. Their networks no longer compete just with themselves.

Part of their sales pitch is that broadcast networks still can draw a sizable crowd, and though it may prove an anomaly rather than an actual leveling off, ABC's resurgence this past season, with shows such as "Desperate Housewives" and "Lost," has floated all their boats.

"The fact is, this has actually been a terrific year for network television," NBC Universal Television Group President Jeff Zucker told advertisers and media buyers. "Viewers have truly responded to big shows and big ideas. Programs like `Desperate Housewives' ... have demonstrated that network television has once again generated tremendous audiences and real buzz, and that is good for all of us."

So NBC, ABC, CBS and Fox may not be so desperate and lost themselves this time around as they set about schmoozing ad buyers in this annual money-shaking ritual known in the industry as "upfronts."

"The viewership for the four major networks is not down, it's flat and in some cases up," said John Muszynski, CEO of Chicago-based media buying giant Starcom USA.

"The numbers stabilized because they put better content on the air. ... I don't think viewers [care] that TV, cable or the computer is providing it, they like good content. There's good content this year."

At this time last year, no one knew, just as no one knows this year.

This is still the system implemented when the TV networks had the audience to themselves and carmakers needed the fall TV season because the new model year traditionally began. The automobile industry broke from the pattern. TV didn't. Billions of dollars still change hands between the networks and marketers on the basis of these glitzy presentations the networks make this week and a screening of the shows.

But it's an imperfect, expensive ritual.

These are the series the networks have picked up after commissioning dozens of scripts, producing the best 25 produced as pilots, focus-group testing them, and yet, despite the optimism of the hard sell, there's still a failure rate of around 80 percent.

And no one knows for sure which 80 percent will fail, which 20 percent will survive and which shows will become huge hits four months later.

"The week is kind of a silly week when you think about it," ABC Entertainment President Stephen McPherson said. "[The networks] should almost all just exchange schedules and talk about it because you know for sure there are going to be changes in the schedule by one or all of us."

Here's how imprecise the system is: Ad buyers last spring banked heavily on the "Friends" spinoff "Joey," now routinely beaten in its time slot, paying more than $300,000 for 30-second spots. Ads on future hits "Lost" and "Desperate Housewives" were going for less than half that--and about a third of the price they now command.

A year ago, "Desperate Housewives" creator Marc Cherry was a long-unemployed former "Golden Girls" writer who caught a break when ABC took a flyer on his show. Today, he's all but worshiped, encouraged to serenade his cast on stage at Lincoln Center on Tuesday with a rendition of Stephen Sondheim`s "Beautiful Girls" to amuse the ad buyers.

"One of the things that surprised me [this season] was that there weren't 27 `Desperate Housewives' rip-offs, because that's normally the case," CBS CEO Leslie Moonves said. "What we do and we do the same thing every year is we develop about 20 pilots and the best shows get on the air no matter what the genre is. `Desperate Housewives' is a success not because of its genre, but because of its quality. It's a good show."

Instead there are at least two dramas--one on ABC and one on CBS--about alien invasions.

Everyone acknowledges the days--and nights--when millions stayed home on Saturdays just to watch hits such as "All in the Family," "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" and "The Carol Burnett Show" on network television are as outdated as shag carpeting, mood rings and avocado-colored appliances.

People may still be staying home. They're just not watching network TV the way they used to, and the networks have responded by all but shutting down for the night.

Only Fox, with "Cops" and "America's Most Wanted," airs a full slate of original entertainment series.

"It's a sad state of affairs, but Saturday night is no longer a big night," said Moonves, whose network's research says it's losing Saturday viewers to DVDs and movies on cable. "Everybody is putting on repeats. Saturday night has become the loneliest night of the week."

Thursday, the single richest night on television thanks to movie studios eager to market their weekend releases, has become an increasingly competitive landscape.

The pressure to make the most of the viewership the networks can attract has only increased the emphasis on demographics, putting a premium on the viewers ages 18 to 49 most prized by advertisers.

The irony of Franklin, who's 63 and out of the prime demo, performing to win over the ad buyers may have been lost on Moonves, who cut four of his five oldest-skewing shows from next season's schedule, including "Joan of Arcadia," which was less than a year removed from earning Emmy Award nominations both as a top television drama series and for its lead actress.

Taking over the 7 p.m. Friday time slot in the fall on CBS, where Amber Tamblyn played a teen who talked to God, will be a program called "Ghost Whisperer," which stars Jennifer Love Hewitt as a 25-year-old who talks to dead people.

"I think talking to ghosts may skew younger than talking to God," Moonves said, but he stressed that the real factor in the cancellations were declining ratings.

With all the competition, there's very little margin for error. You either entertain the audience or you lose it.

"In the past, the networks began to lose sight of what consumers want," Starcom's Muszynski said. "The consumer has total control now. If they find it on cable, that's where they will go. If they find it on the Internet, that's where they will go. That's what's changed.

"When I started in 1981, there were three networks. You did a share estimate and then figured out how you were going to divide the money up. Now look what you have. Broadband, all the video usage, all of the DVR time changing. It's all in control of the consumer. I've got four teenagers at home. They're doing their homework while the TV is on at the same time they're [instant messaging] their friends. And that's not the exception. It's a lot tougher."

Many viewers tune out, but ad execs stick with networks

In 1965, advertisers could capture half of all viewers on the No. 1 show but would get only one quarter in today's fractured market.
1965-66 SEASON----------------2004-05 SEASON
1. Bonanza (NBC) 48% SHARE ---1. CSI (CBS) 25% SHARE
Households: 17.1 million -----Households: 17.9 million
2. Gomer Pyle (CBS) 46% SHARE 2. American Idol Tue. (FOX) 24% SHARE
Households: 15 million -------Households: 17.3 million
3. Lucy Show (CBS) 42% SHARE -3. American Idol Wed. (FOX) 22% SHARE
Households: 14.9 million -----Households: 16.4 million

Fox's got big plans for a fall offensive

New schedule looks to dramas to jumpstart season
By Toni Fitzgerald medialifemagazine.com

No matter how dismal Fox’s fall performance, and the past few years have been pretty dismal, the network has been able to count on “American Idol” for a midseason pick-me-up. And that was fine enough when the network's expectations were modest--finishing the season without too much egg on its face.

Now, with the network poised to take its first-ever season win in viewers 18-49, Fox's entire attention is on next fall. If it can beef up its fall lineup, it stands next year to again win the season but without having to hang everything on "Idol" in a down-to-the-last-minute finish.

And for Fox, as it focuses on the fall, the focus is on new dramas.

This morning Fox presented its 2005-‘06 schedule, which as usual will be in two parts, pre- and post-“American Idol” when it returns in January. The fall lineup includes five new dramas, two new comedies and in an unusual move for Fox, no new reality shows. The ambitious drama slate shows the influence of new Fox entertainment head Peter Liguori, who previously turned around cable network FX with strong drama offerings.

The network will launch several of its fall shows in August to give them two months to establish themselves before baseball interrupts the Fox schedule in October. It’s a strategy that worked well for “The O.C.” two years ago.

The fall schedule also shows something else that has been missing in the past at Fox, some good synergy each night.

Whereas last year dissimilar shows like “The Rebel Billionaire” and “House” shared a night, with disastrous results, this year it paired off shows that should have more common audiences.

For the second year, “24” won’t return until midseason. Though “Arrested Development” does return this fall, it’s not on the midseason schedule.

Mondays this fall lead off with “Development” at 8, followed by new comedy “Kitchen Confidential,” about a bad boy chef from producer Darren Star (“Sex and the City”). At 9 is “Prison Break,” a new drama about a man trying to save his brother from death row.

Tuesday starts with “Bones,” about a forensic anthropologist. The drama’s supposed dark humor could make it a good mate for “House,” which follows at 9. At midseason, when "American Idol" takes over at 8, “Bones” will get the post-“Idol” slot at 9 p.m.

“House” and “24,” two previously low-rated dramas revived by “Idol,” will pair on Monday at 8 and 9, respectively.

Wednesdays in the fall will start with “That ‘70s Show” at 8, followed by the returning Pam Anderson sitcom “Stacked” at 8:30. At 9 is another new drama, “Head Cases,” starring Chris O’Donnell as an attorney recovering from a nervous breakdown. At midseason the first hour will stay the same, but the “Idol” results show will air at 9 and new comedy “The Loop,” about twentysomethings in Chicago, premieres.

Thursdays will remain the same during the fall and midseason, with “The O.C.” returning at 8 followed by new drama “Reunion,” chronicling a group of friends from high school to their 20-year reunion.

Friday “The Bernie Mac Show” returns at 8, followed by “Malcolm in the Middle” at 8:30, which moves from Sunday. New drama “The Gate,” about San Francisco detectives investigating odd cases, premieres at 9. The schedule will stay the same at midseason.

Saturday is the only night without changes; “Cops” at 8 and “America’s Most Wanted” at 9 will stay the entire season.

On Sundays Fox has dropped original programming at 7 since football overrun usually bumps it anyway. Animation reruns will air come midseason.

The rest of the Sunday schedule stays the same for fall and midseason. “King of the Hill” moves to 7:30, followed by “The Simpsons” at 8 and new sitcom “The War at Home” at 8:30, about parents raising teenagers. At 9 and 9:30, “Family Guy” and “American Dad” will air.

Comedy “Free Birds,” a partially improvised show about post-college life, has been ordered for midseason. Reality shows “Nanny 911” and “Trading Spouses” could also be plugged in at midseason.

CBS's fall lineup shows signs of weakness

By MELANIE MCFARLAND SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER TELEVISION CRITIC Thursday, May 19, 2005

No television network can count on remaining in first place forever. ABC and NBC both learned that lesson the hard way. History tells us CBS, which has finished No. 1 for many seasons and likely will do so again in total viewers and adults ages 25 to 54, is overdue for a tumble.

Having lost its most powerful comedy and several long-running dramas, the Eye is adding two comedies and four dramas to its fall lineup, keeping two others in reserve for midseason.

Technically, it cannot be accused of looking weak. CBS maintains the most powerful core schedule on network television, with more series in Nielsen's top 20, a reality franchise that looks unstoppable, "Survivor," and another, "The Amazing Race," that did nothing but gain steam in 2004-2005.

More telling is what it has lost. Following a year of scandal and low ratings, Wednesday's "60 Minutes" got the ax, although the embattled Dan Rather may land safely on the Sunday edition. Gone too, along with "JAG," are the critically beloved "Joan of Arcadia," killed by its sophomore slump, and "Judging Amy."

Monday night anchor "Everybody Loves Raymond" retired this week, replaced next season by "Two and Half Men," the only other sitcom in the top 20.

"King of Queens" is the new Monday lead-off. The show has a steady following, but not enough to achieve better than the No. 47 position in the season-to-date household ranking. To put this in plainer terms, CBS's chances for continued comedy success now rest in the hands of Charlie Sheen and Kevin James. Not good.

Then there may be the earliest of signs that crime TV, CBS's bread and butter, may not be the belle of the ball it once was. "CSI" is still king, and cops and murders remain prime-time mainstays, but on the other three networks, fall looks less grim, and more girlie, ghostly and ghastly, than it has in a very long time.

So, how is CBS filling the gaps? With younger-skewing additions that sound a lot like series airing on the competition.

You don't have to be that guy on "Numb3rs" to put together the equations used to come up with these dramas.

Observe:
NBC's "Medium" -- Patricia Arquette + Jennifer Love Hewitt, divided by "Crossing Over With John Edward" = "Ghost Whisperer." In the Friday 8 p.m. slot during which Joan held conferences with God, Hewitt portrays a newlywed who yaks with the dead and passes along their messages to the living. The show is inspired by medium James Van Praagh.

ABC's "Invasion" + NBC's "Fathom = "Threshold." Fridays at 9, a team of experts led by Dr. Caffrey (Carla Gugino) will discover an alien craft has landed in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. (Alert: This is executive-produced in part by "Star Trek's" Brannon Braga.)

ABC's "Desperate Housewives" + "Law & Order's" Assistant District Attorney Serena Southerlyn -- "Is this because I'm a lesbian?" (well, at least until sweeps) = "Close to Home." A tough prosecutor (Jennifer Finnigan) returns to work after having her baby to find out that her suburban neighbors have been committing very naughty crimes.

Fox's "The Inside" + CBS's "Numb3rs" -- the math = "Criminal Minds." An ensemble procedural about FBI profilers who go into their quarry's twisted minds, starring Mandy Patinkin, Thomas Gibson and Shemar Moore.

Couch potatoes know to expect a certain degree of imitation whenever a show hits, but to call these worrisome demonstrations of an imagination deficit is being charitable.

Besides, the network's new comedies stand as much of a chance of hitting as any of the other stunted laugh-track ponies weaving around out in the network petting zoo. TV Guide soon may be singing love songs to Neil Patrick Harris, the designated scene stealer of "How I Met Your Mother." The new sitcom tells the story of how a guy named Ted (Josh Radnor) fell in love, with the help of his friend Barney (Harris), and is told in flashbacks from the future voiced by Bob Saget.

"Out of Practice" is about a family of physicians, including a therapist (Christopher Gorham) who none of them respect because his professional title lacks an "M." and a "D." Stockard Channing and Henry Winkler also are in the cast. If it sounds a lot like that "Cheers" spinoff, that's because "Frasier's" Joe Keenan and Christopher Lloyd are executive producers, and Kelsey Grammer directed the pilot.

One of the shows bubbling on the back burner sounds like it has potential. "The Unit" is an action drama about special forces operatives starring "24's" Dennis Haysbert, Scott Foley, Regina Taylor and Robert Patrick, executive-produced by David Mamet and "The Shield's" Shawn Ryan.

But then, there's "Everything I Know About Men," a comedy about a secretary named Bex (Jenna Elfman) searching for true romance and trying to have a normal relationship with her father. Sometime in the future we'll be able to see whether such a premise, like everything else on CBS, equals victory or cancellation.

'Kimmel' is ABC's real hurt in late night
By Abigail Azote medialifemagazine.com

Even before Ted Koppel announced he was retiring in December, all the talk at ABC has been about “Nightline” in discussions about its struggling late night lineup. Far less is said about the struggling “Jimmy Kimmel Live,” and that's surely not a good sign for the show.

In some ways, "Kimmel” may be ABC’s bigger worry. The show’s ratings have remained largely flat and it continues to come in last week after week. With the network’s late-night lineup due for a makeover, the talk show would seem especially vulnerable. In the week ended May 8, “Kimmel” averaged a 0.6 18-49 rating, down 14 percent from its 0.7 average last year for the comparable week.

Over the first quarter the show maintained its 0.6 in 18-49s from the same period last year but declined in total viewers. The show averaged 1.5 million total viewers, down 6 percent from first quarter in 2004.

Adding to its ratings ills, “Kimmel's” odd timeslot, at midnight, puts it in contest with four shows, overlapping as it does with longtime leaders “The Tonight Show” and “Late Night with Conan O’Brien” on NBC and CBS’s “Late Show with David Letterman.” All handily beat it.

But “Kimmel Live” also struggles against lesser competitors like the “Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson.” Since Ferguson signed in January as its new host, that show has dipped even more in ratings, yet it still manages to beat “Kimmel” by a small margin. In his first three months, Ferguson delivered a 0.7 rating among 18-49s, over Kimmel’s 0.6. The “Late Late Show” averaged 400,000 more total viewers than “Kimmel” during the first quarter.

Even NBC’s “Last Call with Carson Daly” which airs at the ungodly hour of 1:35 a.m., routinely outperforms “Kimmel," rating a tenth of a point higher in the week ended May 8.

What's wrong with “Jimmy Kimmel Live?"

He was a great wit on Comedy Central, which is why ABC signed him, but critics say none of that spark came over with him. The show has been called everything from unfunny to boring, and after two years there's little reason to believe it will improve. Its chances of disappearing from the ABC lineup as part of a pending late-night makeover seem far stronger.

Kopppel's "Nightline," for the the bad press it has gotten, has at least held its ratings the past year, and those ratings are not exactly in the toilet. Also, with the 11:30 "Nightline" timeslot, ABC has a lot more options when it comes time for a late-night makeover, as the opening timeslot for late-night programming.

In other dayparts ratings for the week ended May 8:

ABC’s “Good Morning America” was the only morning show to post gains among total viewers during the week ended May 8, growing its audience by 4 percent to 5.6 million. NBC’s “Today” still ranked No. 1 but remained unchanged from the previous week. CBS’s “Early Show” showed a 4 percent decline, to an average 2.7 million total viewers.

On the other hand, ABC’s “World News Tonight with Peter Jennings” fell steeply among total viewers with a 7.9 million average last week, 500,000 fewer than the week before. NBC’s “Nightly News with Brian Williams” was the top evening newscast again and the only one to post gains in total viewers. CBS’s “Evening News with Bob Schieffer” came in third, down slightly among total viewers.

In syndication, the top game show for the week was “Wheel of Fortune;” the top talk show, “Oprah Winfrey Show;” the top comedy, “Everybody Loves Raymond.”

In daytime dramas, ABC finished first in full day, breaking the previous week’s tie with NBC.

Originally posted by fredfa
"House" moves to Mondays at 8 in January.
"Arrested Development" has been given another chance to find some viewers.
It'll continue next year if its ratings spike (or if Fox's other shows do poorly).

Why would they do that? One of the three successful shows they have and they're going to move it around mid-season? Stupid, IMO...

Yeah they should move that bones show and keep house at it's spot

So let's see. UPN, who have succeeded in getting rid of 50% of the shows I watch on their network has placed the remaining 50% against LOST. Gee, thanks.

Xesdeeni

You watched something on UPN? wow...

Originally posted by bgall
You watched something on UPN? wow... Veronica Mars really does live up to all the critical praise that's been lavished upon it. My personal favorite show of the season.

Fox obviously believes "House" is now strong enough to stand on its own, and will use "American Idol" to nurture another show.
I think they are right about "House".

UPFRONTS JOURNAL
By Virginia Heffernan Television Critic of The New York Times at the Television Upfronts
UPN AT MADISON SQUARE GARDEN | 05.19 12:08 PM
If You've Got It, Flaunt It
Tyra Banks, in a tight gray minidress, seems to get it. "America's Next Top Model," her show, is UPN's pride and joy. "It's a fantasy," she says. A series of rags-to-riches, K mart-to-couture stories.

I'm for it. And lovely also-ran Tiffany (that skank just got beer on my weave!) just strutted across the stage. She's the one Tyra savaged for not crying when she got cut.

Was I the only one clapping?

UPFRONTS JOURNAL
By Virginia Heffernan Television Critic of The New York Times at the Television Upfronts
UPN AT MADISON SQUARE GARDEN | 05.19 12:05 PM
Girlfight

For the ladies, there's UPN.
As Dawn Ostroff says, "It's where the girls are, and where the boys want to be."
She gives all kinds of girl-positive numbers, and the monitors show hourglass figures in silhouette. For good measure, she bashes WB, which she says is losing female viewers.
Cute. A mini version of Mr. Moonves's NBC-bashing. A girlfight.


UPFRONTS JOURNAL
By Virginia Heffernan Television Critic of The New York Times at the Television Upfronts
UPN AT MADISON SQUARE GARDEN | 05.19 11:55 AM
An Executive's New Look: Britney-Style

A colleague — someone who writes about culture, even — recently asked me, point-blank, "What is UPN?" I got the sense he thought it might be an affliction like OCD or maybe an airline.

UPN is a television network. It is home to shows like "America's Next Top Model," "Veronica Mars," and, once, "Kevin Hill."

I say "once" because my first discovery, as I open the press packet before the UPN upfront at Madison Square Garden, is that "Kevin Hill," the not-bad Taye Diggs show, has been canceled.

Big daddy Leslie Moonves, who is co-president of the network's parent company, Viacom, is booming about "leadership, programming, and stability." He's also talking about women, and how UPN pulls them in.

The evidence? Dawn Ostroff, the president of UPN, just appeared with a big yellow snake that she's wearing like a stole. Britney-style.

This is a weird week.

Upfront and center

Network executives and celebrities gather in Manhattan this week, making their best pitch to advertisers about the new 2005-06 season in an annual ritual known as the “upfront.” Los Angeles Times reporters are filing the latest updates about prime-time shows, flashy presentations and parties here.

By Shawn Hubler, The Los Angeles Times with dispatches from Matea Gold and Maria Elena Fernandez in New York
Chris Rock at UPN upfront: "White man out, black man in. See how it works?"
May 19, 1:35 p.m. EDT

Be afraid, "Joey." Be very afraid. UPN will be getting up in NBC's face on Thursdays with a pretty funny new Chris Rock sitcom, "Everybody Hates Chris."

The clips they showed at their upfront presentation today at Madison Square Garden had advertisers splitting their sides with laughter. (Well, all except Jude Law's cousin, who was in the third row — kidding! Made ya look, though!)

Actually, UPN is touting Rock's show like the second coming (or maybe it's the third now, we haven't been following "Revelations"). "It's hard to grasp the importance of this night and the bold step we're about to take," said UPN President Dawn Ostroff, saying the show could do for UPN what "The Cosby Show" did for NBC.

Or, as Rock — who came onstage to tout the show — put it: " 'Everybody Loves Raymond', 'Everybody Hates Chris.' White man out, black man in. See how it works?"

Where the Girls Are: Actually, UPN's sub-gig — after being a youth network — is being the network that young girls like to watch. It's the home of Britney Spears' new reality show and "America's Next Top Model"; Ostroff came onstage with a big yellow snake draped around her neck like a Britney boa. (And if that's not being a corporate team player, people, we don't know what is.)

But UPN's mission this week is to let advertisers know it isn't just sitting on its assets. And who better to send that message, it appeared, than ... 13 models and Tyra Banks!

Actually, this is the second year in a row now that Tyra has been in the house. Last year, admen were lined up around the block to get her autograph. Spears was not on hand. Neither was Denise Richards, who'll be in UPN's new "Sex, Lies & Secrets" a twentysomething drama. (Both are pregnant; Richards is known in the tabloid world as Charlie Sheen's ex.) By the way, Richards' new show is "set in the small, hip neighborhood of Silver Lake," according to the UPN press packet. (This is how you know the Silver Lake scene is officially over.)

But wait! Here was J-Lo! Promoting "South Beach," the first pilot of her new production company. It's a show about Miami's hot neighborhood, Ostroff said, and "who knows that world better than executive producer Jennifer Lopez?"

Um, isn't she from the Bronx?

Canceled: The Taye Diggs show, "Kevin Hill," which Ostroff said struggled creatively.

Overheard: "I watched Britney's new show the other night and I feel dumber for it." — Media buyer dishing in the audience to her friend.

FOX Chief Discusses 'Development' Expectations

By Daniel Fienberg (zap2it.com)

In its first season, FOX's "Arrested Development" averaged just under 6.2 million viewers per week. Against all odds, FOX renewed the show, citing the precedent of classic sitcoms like "Cheers" and "Seinfeld," which didn't immediately find audiences. "Development" won an Emmy for outstanding comedy series and FOX gave the show its best available comedy time period, following "The Simpsons." Even with the corporate vote of confidence and continued adulation, the second season of "Arrested Development" only averaged 5.9 million viewers.

On Thursday (May 19) FOX Entertainment President Peter Liguori talked with reporters about his network's fall schedule which, breaking with conventional business wisdom, features "Arrested Development" once again, now entrusted with leading off on Monday nights.

"I'd like to think there's something unique about FOX," says Liguori, who made "Development" his first official pick-up late Monday. "We have a long tradition of breaking the form, with shows like "The Simpsons" in animation, sketch shows like "In Living Color," it used to be "Married with Children." We are known for taking some daring, courageous swings at the comedy plate."

There had been rumors that FOX wasn't going to stick with the show, or that it would return with a reduced cast or a lower licensing fee. Instead, Liguori maintains that "Development" will be back this fall entirely unchanged, with its crack comic cast in place, a choice he claims was entirely related to the show's DVD sales or the prospect of future DVD opportunities.

"The thinking was really clear," he says. "It's a terrific show. We love it. We love the creative team. We think by putting it on a new time period, the show has potential to grow. We also just looked at past history."
For the second year in a row, a FOX executive is referencing the usual suspects -- "Seinfeld" and "Cheers" again -- regarding "Arrested Development," though it's unclear how long those comparisons can be justified before the adored cult favorite has to actually generate a mainstream audience. Not only is FOX giving "Development" pole position for its entire week, but the series will have to serve as a lead-in to buzzworthy new offerings "Kitchen Confidential" and "Prison Break," a hefty responsibility.

"What's our measure of success?" Liguori asks. "We'd like to put it in in that 8:00 hour and see some growth. I recognize that putting it on at 8:00 is pretty much a bold, audacious move, but we have confidence in the show."

I wish I knew enough about formating so I could do it here :(

But TV Guide has posted the complete schedules for all six networks here:

http://tvguide.com/tv/showguide/grid.asp

Upfront and center

Network executives and celebrities gather in Manhattan this week, making their best pitch to advertisers about the new 2005-06 season in an annual ritual known as the “upfront.” Los Angeles Times reporters are filing the latest updates about prime-time shows, flashy presentations and parties here.

By Shawn Hubler, The Los Angeles Times with dispatches from Matea Gold in New York
Ballistic — yet restrained .
May 19, 6:35 p.m. EDT

Fox's presentation opened with a clap of thunder and cloud of smoke and shooting green lasers. Could it be . . . yet another Bruckheimer!?

No. Just the show's "Star Wars" theme, which involved a video spoof featuring a Fox exec taking on the evil Darth Moonves. (Oooh. Corporate dis.)

A cavalcade of Fox stars, gathered at the New York City Center Theater, then paraded onstage, led by Kiefer Sutherland of "24" (aka the hardest workin' man in the federal government, Jack Bauer), and lined up under a big screen.

"May the Fox be with you," it said.

But the message from new Fox Entertainment President Peter Liguori - who came from FX and has had the job for about two weeks - was not quite the word on which Fox has built its empire: "restraint."

"Clearly, Idol is the most popular family television event in over a decade," he said, paying ultimate showbiz homage to, yes, "American Idol," by using only one part of the show's name. And, he noted, Fox was No. 1 last year among 18-to-49-year-old viewers for the first time in the network's 19-year history.

But Fox had a lot of reality last year and Liguori said he didn't want to load this year's schedule with several cycles of one show. Then last year's Idol, Fantasia, took the stage and belted out a tune with a gospel choir. The crowd went wild.

Ba-da-bing: Ryan Seacrest and the Idol judges then came onstage for a little "Idol" banter.

Seacrest to Paula Abdul: "Paula, as you look at this year, what has been unique in your mind?"

Tittering in the crowd. Long pause. Awkward smile from Abdul.

"Moving swiftly on," Simon Cowell suggested.

"Things have been pretty much boring," Abdul tried.

Bottom line: A spoof video of Liguori's first day in his new job had Tom Arnold stalking him with bad show pitches and Peter Gallagher (Sandy Cohen on "The O.C.") giving him eyebrow grooming tips.

"I'm the new network president - can I get my own parking space?" Liguori asks the guard at the gate.

Replies the guard: "We'll see after November sweeps."

Upfront and center

UPFRONTS JOURNAL
By Virginia Heffernan Television Critic of The New York Times at the Television Upfronts

FOX FROM CITY CENTER THEATER | 05.19 6:04 PM

Overplaying a Victory

"Reunion," a drama that covers twenty years — one per episode — in the lives of a star-crossed group of friends may be good. Or is the concept too high, a la "Jack and Bobby"? I liked what I saw, anyhow. But then, I liked "Jack and Bobby" too, and it's dead.
Fox is giving itself props for sports coverage and replaying the Red Sox World Series. There's something sleepy about this. Don't overplay a victory; everyone in television needs to know this.
Although who knows what appeals to these ad folk in their pin stripes? And as they head out into Manhattan to party, they're the ones making the final decisions.

FOX FROM CITY CENTER THEATER | 05.19 5:36 PM

Out of the Loop

If you close your eyes, President Peter Liguori sounds a lot like Alan Alda.
A new Fox show, "The Loop," is about "trying to have a first-class life when your friends are stuck in coach."
Does anyone really have this problem?

FOX FROM CITY CENTER THEATER | 05.19 5:35 PM M

Fantasia

Fantasia is here!

The "reigning American Idol," as Mr. Liguori called her, mindful that the show is Fox's ace, is the best part of this week. Her ragged phrasing, her strange rage, her slightly hunched gait, her VOICE — I love Fantasia.

"That's pretty awesome," Mr. Liguori says as Fantasia finishes a thrilling and blown-out performance.

In other news, "Bones," the network's new drama about a forensic anthropologist who assembles skeletons and doesn't like to talk about her personal life, looks like a downer.

FOX FROM CITY CENTER THEATER | 05.19 5:14 PM

Original Means Big Bucks


Fox, which ABC accused earlier this week of ripping off programming ideas, is emphasizing its originality. It's especially pleased with its decision to resurrect "Family Guy," which is hugely popular with college kids and others who turn cult shows into money hits.

Peter Liguori, the president of Fox Entertainment, is also stressing stability and the online fan base of Hugh Laurie, the "House" hero.

In clips, Laurie is definitely good. It's amazing how much of good acting is a good voice, however.

FOX FROM CITY CENTER THEATER | 05.19 4:51 PM

Use the Force

After a montage showcasing violence and yuks — Fox's strong suits — Kiefer Sutherland leads a parade of network stars onto the stage. The gang's all here, including Hugh Laurie from "House," Pamela Anderson and Paula Abdul.

It's a huge crowd, standing in formation like a school choir.

Peter Gallagher of "The O.C." says that the evening has a Star Wars theme. A boring joke video did pit Fox's Jedi sales force against Darth Moonves. I couldn't follow it.

Fox wastes no time in telling us that it's number one-among viewers 18 to 34, even without the Super Bowl. I wish there was just a clear number one network, not so much extenuation.

But Fox is still impressive.

FOX FROM CITY CENTER THEATER | 05.19 4:48 PM

Pinstripes Are Everywhere

Maybe Fox should not seat the press so stupidly high up and far away for the network's upfront at New York's City Center theater. We're the only people who watch "Arrested Development," aren't we?

In the good seats, down in front, are the men in pinstripes. Pinstripes, really, are everywhere. And the ad dudes in their stripes all look like the pharmaceutical-rep suitors on "The Bachelorette." I keep meaning to tell you that.

Stewie from "The Family Guy" — the twisted, haughty baby on the recently uncanceled and beloved animated sitcom — just appeared on the screen to tell us to take our seats. The stripes aren't listening. They don't like to be bossed around.

UPN AT MADISON SQUARE GARDEN | 05.19 12:30 PM

Chris Rock as a Boy

"Everybody Hates Chris," Chris Rock's show, had people boisterous and amused before the excerpt even starts in the Garden. A comedy set in Bedford-Stuyvesant, the show sort of tells the story of Mr. Rock's childhood.

He was a nerd, it turns out.

The boy who plays little Rock is pretty charming. And the pilot looks terrific. People around me are roaring with laughter, squealing, can't catch their breath. Wow. The best reaction to a comedy — any show — all week. By far.

UPN sked looks for laffs on Thursday

Net slots Chris Rock-produced laffer
By JOSEF ADALIAN, MICHAEL LEARMONTH [/B]variety.com[/B]

UPN is stepping into the ring on Thursday nights, slotting a buzzworthy Chris Rock-produced laffer to lead off a new comedy block that will push "WWE Smackdown" to Fridays.

It's the first time the net has tried series on Thursdays since it started programming the night in 1998.

Wrestling has done a good job of keeping UPN in the game on Thursdays, but it also made it tough for execs to establish any sense of schedule flow throughout the week.

UPN Entertainment prexy Dawn Ostroff admitted the new sked was a big roll of the dice for the weblet.

"This is a game-changing move for UPN," she said Thursday during the net's upfront presentation to advertisers. "We believe Chris Rock will have a huge impact on UPN (and that) the coming season will be a turning point in our competition with the WB."

Rock provides narration (but does not star in) "Everybody Hates Chris," a semi-autobiographical single-camera laffer about a teenager growing up in early 1980s Brooklyn. It will air Thursdays at 8, followed by returning UPN comedies "Eve" and "Cuts." New Shannen Doherty/Holly Robinson Peete laffer "Love, Inc." will wrap up the night at 9:30.

UPN is taking a page out of the Fox playbook with its Thursday comedy strategy. During the early 1990s, net was able to successfully counterprogram with urban-tinged laffers like "Living Single" and "Martin" that had crossover appeal.

Making UPN's move more logical is the fact that the other nets have all but abandoned comedy on Thursdays. The WB is switching to dramas on the night next season, while NBC has just one low-rated comedy hour from 8 to 9.

As for shifting the sure thing of "WWE Smackdown" to Friday, a night when there are fewer eyeballs watching TV, Ostroff doesn't think it'll be a problem. Wrestling, she said, "has a hugely loyal audience, and they will follow the show to Friday."

Rest of UPN's lineup is relatively stable, but not without change.

Net's Monday comedy block returns virtually intact, with returning laffer "All of Us" moving to 8:30 p.m. (relocating from its current Tuesday slot).

On Tuesdays, UPN is replacing comedy with a repeat of "America's Next Top Model." Move is somewhat puzzling, since it doesn't supply much of a lead-in for new 9 p.m. drama "Sex, Lies & Secrets."

Still, UPN probably figures it can only promote so much new product in the fall. Net has been airing "Model" encores on Friday nights.

Original segs of "Model" remain Wednesdays at 8, with low-rated cult drama "Veronica Mars" inheriting UPN's best lead-in at 9. The bad news: It'll now face ABC's mighty "Lost."

Viacom co-prexy Leslie Moonves, who oversees UPN, called the net's overall sked "one of the boldest strategies of any network."

"In just a few short years, UPN has integrated itself and become an important part of our company," Moonves said. "You can feel the difference."

UPN's upfront bash was a star-studded affair. Rock did some standup, while Tyra Banks brought out some of her "Top Model" finalists.

Jennifer Lopez also stopped by to promote her midseason drama "South Beach," which stars Vanessa L. Williams.

Net also pumped up its association with Britney Spears, teasing the audience into thinking the singer was about to make an appearance. Instead, Ostroff emerged from behind a curtain "wearing" Bubbles, the snake Spears made famous during an appearance at the MTV Music Video Awards.

Ostroff said UPN was well on its way to transforming itself into a net for young women.

"We have the youngest median age of any network and we're up in all female demos," she said. And, less than a year after unveiling its new game plan, "We're beating WB in homes, viewers and teens. And we're two-tenths of a point away in women 18-34 and women 18-49."

All Six network schedule have (finally) been posted at the top of Latest News the first item in this thread.

Fred, I just noticed there is no season finale end date for "24" under the FOX listings, not that anybody who watches it has any doubt when it ends...:p

Fred, how in the world do you keep up with all the broadcast news?

It's been hard to keep up with this thread lately :) Great job!

Yikes, keenan!
An inexcusable oversight.
It's been corrected, thanks!

Thanks for the kind words, slocko.
I think upfront weeks is fascinating, and have just been trying to get a lot of the information out.
The blogs by the LA` Times and NY Times have been really interesting.
But most of all, I've been trying to put a lot of different opinions out for all to read so you can make up your own mind.
Overall, I think it is clear to anyone who has been reading these posts the past few days that, sadly, the networks aren't really programming for viewers. Rather they are programming to advertisers. It doesn't matter that much what we want to see; what really matters is what advertisers want to pay for.
And again, thanks for the kind words!

Upfront and center

By Shawn Hubler, The Los Angeles Times with dispatches from Amy Wallace and Meg James in New York
Arresting one's development
May 19, 9:20 p.m. EDT

There were chocolate martinis and something with vodka and blue curacao called a "Blue Fox" at the Fox party, and the mood was giddy and ebullient and overheated - literally.

"It's about 600 degrees in here," joked the president and chief operating officer of Fox parent News Corp., Peter Chernin, as he mingled in the big white tent near the Central Park Boathouse where ad buyers had lined up for their requisite celebrity pictures.

No matter. The line to get a picture with the cast of "Arrested Development" - the cult comedy about the dysfunctional real estate people with the frozen banana stand in Orange County - was, no kidding, about 30 deep.

At one point, so many star-struck, sweat-soaked, twentysomething ad buyers were stacked on the platform with the seven cast members that one (of the ad buyers) stumbled on the platform.

"Somebody needs to be cut off," joked Will Arnett, who plays George 'Gob' Bluth II. "I hope you're not driving."

Off to one side, Jessica Walter, who plays the cheerily corrupt mother, checked her watch.

But make no mistake. They were all glad to be there. Everyone was. This was a big year for Fox, which hit No. 1 in the key demographics for the first time in the history of the network and, with "American Idol," also scored the nation's No. 1 show.

Earlier in the day, at the network's presentation to advertisers, both the network and the people who bought the commercials received a long and clearly heartfelt thank you from "24" star Kiefer Sutherland.

Later, outside the party, four high-ranking executive ad buyers were overheard saying, "Let's go see Kiefer!" Whereupon they took a deep breath and entered the sweltering tent in search of their new best friend.

Sightings: John Walsh, host of Fox stalwart "America's Most Wanted," making conversation in a leather jacket . . . Jane Kaczmarek, the mom from "Malcolm in the Middle," schmoozing with fans . . . Jason Bateman of "Arrested Development" playfully whacking his co-star Arnett in a delicate part of his anatomy just as a fan snapped a cast picture, so that Arnett's mouth flew open and his eyes popped.

Revived 'Shield' will return sans its big ratings pull
medialifemagazine.com

FX’s “The Shield” will be back for a fifth season, although Glenn Close, who helped revive the series, will not. With Close a part of the cast this season, the show has averaged 3.2 million total viewers, up from a 2.5 million average for season three. She decided last week not to return, but FX nonetheless made a 13-episode commitment for next year.

In other programming news, NBC will debut David E. Kelley’s reality show “The Law Firm” on Thursday, July 28, at 9 p.m. The program will feature 12 young lawyers trying real cases with real clients, real judges and real consequences for a $250,000 grand prize.

Terror at the upfronts
A theme runs through the TV networks' new drama series for fall: Something, somewhere, is out to get us
CRITIC'S NOTEBOOK By Paul Brownfield Los Angeles Times Staff Writer May 20, 2005

NEW YORK -- Ashton Kutcher is going to save TV comedy with a reality show, Jennifer Love Hewitt communicates with the dead, and Geena Davis is going to take over as president of the United States.

Other news from the annual upfront presentations in New York: Practically every drama has something to do, however dimly, with the war on terror.

It's at the upfronts that advertising buyers, herded into venerable buildings like Madison Square Garden and Carnegie Hall, get a sneak preview of next fall's new series. Over four days I can recall them laughing — collectively, hard — once. That was when Kutcher, executive producer of the WB reality series "Beauty and the Geek," came onstage at the Garden and showed clips. Airing in June, it has five nerds put in a house with five attractive airhead women, one of whom says with certainty: "1942 is when Columbus sailed the ocean blue."

Other than Kutcher, the only other reality star to emerge this week was already a star, Martha Stewart, whom NBC trotted out at Radio City Music Hall to say a few cold words about "The Apprentice: Martha Stewart." She was dressed in a crème-colored pantsuit that nicely accentuated her coloring while coolly obscuring her court-mandated ankle bracelet. "America is in for a surprise," she said. She did not seem as tremendously excited as the other stars who came onstage all week to say how tremendously excited they were.

Most of the new dramas the networks unveiled, it seemed, have to do with the fact that nobody knows what the war on terror means, although they remain terrified by it, whether the fear resides in a Red state or a Blue one. The paradigm for the new network drama apes Americans' airborne paranoia, brought on by a terrorist attack followed by a war that has failed to bring the enemy into focus.

The new shows are following a successful show that struck this nerve first, ABC's "Lost," but the sudden accumulation of them signals a dimly held collective consciousness that something — we can't see it — is out to get us. "Invasion," on ABC, is about an extraterrestrial run amok in an otherwise tranquil Florida hamlet. On CBS' "Threshold," another extraterrestrial threat brings out a crack team of social misfits. "E-Ring," on NBC, places our national security in the hands of an idealistic Benjamin Bratt and hawkish Dennis Hopper in a top-secret wing at the Pentagon.

Buried deep in NBC's upfront presentation was a plug for an eight-hour miniseries about the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks from Imagine Entertainment's Brian Grazer and Ron Howard, based on "The 9/11 Commission Report's" voluminous, bestselling book.

It was presented as a kind of important public service event. But the network knows its fortunes are more tied to "Fathom," a new doomsday drama set at sea.

Who can remember the last great dramas about people and families? On TV, community and human connection are something you find while you're running out the door to address a threat alert or standing with your cop colleague over a rotting corpse.

Notably, the new incarnations of cold-hearted procedurals, an apparently still-ascending genre that in another way speaks to a constant state of dread, feature women in lead roles. TV is now chasing not just the CBS "CSI" franchise but also the texture of NBC's hit show "Medium." And so you get the frozen face of Love Hewitt in "Ghost Whisperer," whose "Medium"-like qualities extend not only to Love Hewitt's gift for communicating with the dead but to the understanding husband with whom she speaks wearily in bed at the end of the day.

With all the doom, gloom and unexplained gore, three dramas that stuck out were "Inconceivable" on NBC, "Just Legal" on the WB and "Commander-in-Chief" on ABC. It's not that these shows look so good, it's that they exhibit a quaint faith in the idea that viewers still like their dramas once over lightly. Yes, TV can also be about people trying to get pregnant or the comedic relationship between a flawed sage and his innocent student.

That's "Just Legal," which stars Don Johnson as an aging alcoholic fleabag lawyer, and which counts as a light comedy from mega-producer Jerry Bruckheimer, who's running tally of TV shows, most much darker than this one, is at 10. In the trailer for the show, Johnson schools an 18-year-old kid (Jay Baruchel) in the ways of lawyering and living.

"Inconceivable," meanwhile, is a "Nip/Tuck"-ish drama-comedy set at a fertility clinic, NBC gambling on the idea that misadventures in the sperm and egg donor business is ripe for the kind of treatment the F/X series gives cosmetic surgeries. An ad buyer sitting next to me at Madison Square Garden found it offensive. It isn't good to be NBC right now. Their presentation, at Radio City Music Hall, was easily the most dour, not good considering that they're in fourth, where they used to be in first.

ABC's "Commander-in-Chief," in which Geena Davis becomes president of the United States after the sitting one suffers a massive stroke, is going for the kind of retro populist appeal that TV shows used to win Emmys for: an awareness of social issues, a little manageable family crisis, a certain theatrical aplomb. In the clip ABC showed, Davis is seen, on one of her first days, telling her mutinous administration that anyone who wants to resign is free to do so — today. It's a Rumsfeld-ian moment in a series that looks a little soft focus but, for this, is also a welcome counterbalance to what's brewing elsewhere on the drama front.

In comedy, NBC's got "My Name Is Earl," about a drifter-loser (Jason Lee) who vows to change his karma by going back over the sins of his past. The show, ultimately, looks like "Raising Arizona," without the part about it being from the Coen brothers.

At press time, there was excitement about Chris Rock's UPN series "Everybody Hates Chris," in which Rock narrates tales of youth from his old neighborhood. But unlike the dramas, the comedies were presented quietly, without too much fanfare. In a setting where everybody's trying to bet on what shows will pop, the comedies, until further notice, remain the long shots.

Now it's the daze of our 'Wives'
On Television Noel Holston Newsday Television Writer May 20, 2005

Let's hear it for TV's real desperate housewife.

That would be Carmela Soprano. The beautiful, endearing, exasperating, funny, painfully real Carmela, who is truly, tragically conflicted in her devil's-bargain dream home with her murderous, anxiety-prone meal ticket and their spoiled, ungrateful children she tried so hard to bring up right. Without her and the HBO series that bears his and her name, there wouldn't be an ABC series called "Desperate Housewives" heading toward a first-season finale Sunday night at 9 that's likely to chalk up the biggest prime-time Nielsen numbers since Super Bowl XXXIX.

I know, I know. "Desperate Housewives" creator Marc Cherry didn't get the idea for his network-resurrecting hit from watching Carmela and Tony spar. He got it from his own mother's confessions of "little nervous breakdowns" and dark fantasies when she was raising him and his siblings single-handedly. But it's impossible to imagine the success of "Housewives" in a context that doesn't include "The Sopranos."

With "The Sopranos," HBO pioneered a new, darker strain of dramatic series that has become its defining style, not to mention the unholy grail of broadcast networks determined to replicate the morally ambiguous formula as closely as a watchdogging FCC will permit.

What ABC got from Cherry last year was an ingenious compromise of a series. On the one hand, "Housewives" offered enough unpredictability and perversity to intrigue some of the viewers whose notion of worthwhile viewing is now embodied as "The Sopranos," "Six Feet Under" or the randy comedy "Sex and the City." On the other hand, it didn't offer so much of those ingredients that it would scare off viewers, who, though they might be willing to dip a toe into darker waters, weren't yet up for a headlong plunge.

As much for emotional cushioning as for satiric contrast, Cherry didn't set his tales of blackmail, brownie-baking, infidelity and murder in a suburb as realistic as the Sopranos' New Jersey woodlands - or the "Knots Landing" cul-de-sac, for that matter - but in a pastel fantasy of a neighborhood where you wouldn't be shocked to see June Cleaver or Fred Rogers out walking the dog.

If ABC demonstrated unexpected savvy choosing the show, the network's greater masterstroke was the scheduling. "Housewives" was launched last October in the Sunday 9 p.m. slot, where millions of viewers were accustomed to seeing "The Sopranos," "Six Feet" and "Sex." Moreover, HBO at the time was showing "The Wire," which, for all its brilliance, is one of the premium cable channel's less-viewed drama series and perhaps its least female friendly.

Timing is everything, and you know what the real estate agents say about location. That ABC had both goes a long way toward explaining why "Desperate Housewives" is a hit. It could hardly be otherwise. What continues to mystify me is why it's such a huge hit, a pop phenomenon even. It's so much part of the vernacular now that first lady Laura Bush can joke about it at the White House correspondents dinner and know it will resonate in morally upright red states as surely as it will in the heathen blues.

I liked the "Housewives" pilot. I liked it so much, in fact, that I named it my favorite new drama series in Newsday's fall TV preview. Within a matter of weeks, however, my interest sagged.

The mystery of beyond-the-grave narrator Mary Alice Young's suicide, complicated by her husband's murder of the nosy, blackmailing neighbor Mrs. Huber, grew tedious. The comedy elements, so sly at the outset, became as obvious and heavy-handed as the ironically perky musical underscoring. And the main characters, the housewives, not only didn't begin to acquire the complexity of the aforementioned Mrs. Soprano, but they became more caricatured.

Through Sunday's episode, Cherry and his writing staff were still riffing on the same broad traits that defined the upper-middle-class heroines - or antiheroines - at the outset: the obsessive perfectionism of Bree Van De Kamp (Marcia Cross); the brazen, scheming hussiness of divorcee Edie Britt (Nicollette Sheridan); the vindictive petulance of bored trophy wife Gabrielle Solis (Eva Longoria); the flighty klutziness of single mom Susan Mayer (Teri Hatcher); and the wacky hysteria of Lynette Scavo (Felicity Huffman), a once-successful business executive who can't manage four unruly kids. Among the show's coffee-klatch quartet, Lynette's the only one whose "plight" seems remotely real, let alone worthy of our sympathy.

Watching them wander in and out of one another's gingerbread houses, I find myself wondering, "Is this the best TV can do by way of representing the concerns of stay-at-home wives and mothers? The most interesting?" Except for the occasional blender bludgeoning or semi-kinky sexual escapade, this could be "Green Acres" or "Bewitched."

It occurs to me that this may well be the appeal: the safe and familiar spiked with an occasional shot of the edgy and decadent.

Or it may be that the appeal is seeing men suffer. In Sunday's season finale, we'll presumably be finding out if Lynette's resentment and jealousy has cost her husband, Tom, his job; if Gabrielle's cuckolded husband, Carlos, is really going to jail; if Bree's husband, Paul, is going to die from an apparent heart attack; and if murderer Paul Young is going to be turned over to the cops, blackmailed or killed.

Title notwithstanding, it's the guys in this show who are most often in dire straits, not the gals. But I guess "Desperate Breadwinners" doesn't have quite the same ring to it. Or the same demographic potential.

NBA Finals Pose Challenge for ABC
With Series Lacking Teams Of Biggest Markets, Network Seeks to Lure Casual Fans
By BRIAN STEINBERG Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL May 20, 2005; Page B2

A skilled professional basketball player can always try to power a team out of a difficult situation. But can Walt Disney's ABC, which is showing the NBA Finals this year, advertise itself out of one?

This year, the long-mighty Los Angeles Lakers are out -- and thus so is the nation's second-largest TV market. So simply promoting the games and the players isn't enough. ABC will try to tempt casual sports fans with an ad campaign that aims to turn the National Basketball Association Finals into an event.

"The NBA is going out of its way to make sure that they are getting the word out to some pretty diverse audiences," says David Carter of Sports Business Group, a Los Angeles sports-marketing consultant. The Miami Heat and Shaquille O'Neal remain in the hunt, but even so, "the ratings might be down," he says. The other teams still in contention include Detroit, San Antonio, Phoenix, Dallas and Seattle.

Helped by independent Wieden + Kennedy, the longtime agency for sister ESPN, ABC will target the "championship viewer" -- an aficionado of high-profile sporting events, if not the ins and outs of an entire season. Ads tell how players such as Larry Bird grew up to make it to the Finals, which is "where legends are born."

Driving to this particular hoop might be tough. In 2004, when the Lakers played the Detroit Pistons, the games reached an average of 17.9 million people, says Nielsen Media Research. In 2002, an average of 15.7 million tuned in to watch the Lakers play the New Jersey Nets. The Lakerless finals of 2003 between the San Antonio Spurs and the Nets garnered an average of just 9.9 million.

"We know that we will be challenged to deliver a rating that we had last year with the Lakers," says Cindy Vannoy, vice president of advertising and promotion for ABC Sports. The solution, she says, is ads that play on the potential for sports drama and historic moments. The value of the promotions is estimated to be more than $20 million, according to a person familiar with the situation. Ms. Vannoy declined to comment on spending.

Ads for the Finals, which are scheduled to start on June 9, will turn up in places where general audiences roam -- including the Disney theme parks owned by ABC's parent and the season finales of such popular ABC programs as "Desperate Housewives." New ads should start to appear today in an ABC movie starring the Muppets.

Some interesting executions involve coasters at bars at Disney resorts and "do not disturb" cards at Disney hotels. Some even involve the "watermark" that identifies ABC in the lower corner of a television screen.
One media buyer has counseled some clients not to buy ads during the event, in the belief that the championship match-up will not be able to deliver the ratings advertisers want. This buyer also says the NBA's image may have been tarnished by the November brawl that took place at a Detroit Pistons game against the Indiana Pacers. "I think we had a difficult period last November. We've come out of it well," says Gregg Winik, executive vice president of NBA Entertainment. The NBA has been encouraged by attendance and TV ratings, he says.

One advertiser doesn't see much call for a fuss. Wendy's International is buying ads during the event, says Michelle Fedurek, the company's vice president of media strategy and resources. Even if the audience is broader, core sports fans are people Wendy's wants to reach, she says.

In a world in which advertisers continue to demand ads that produce measurable results, Wieden's spots can be easily tracked. Just watch the ratings, says Buz Sawyer, managing director of Wieden's New York office. "For the network, everything we do is judged based on that."

Nets reaching out to extended family
Webs look elsewhere for new series

By MICHAEL SCHNEIDER, JOSEF ADALIAN Variety.com

More than 10 years after the networks first got the OK to own their own programming, they're finally starting to show some restraint. Rather than simply load up on fare from their sister studios, the webs appear to have made a concerted effort to look outside their own corporate walls for next fall's new skeins.

As a result, the 2005 upfronts may be remembered most for ushering in TV's vertical disintegration.

"This is recognition of the importance of the quality of execution of the pilots," said Warner Bros. TV prexy Peter Roth. "What's most important to the public -- and what should be most important to the networks -- is where can we find the next great hit. What you're seeing here is that no matter where the show is produced, that matters most."

Warner Bros. TV will produce 32 series for primetime next season -- easily dominating all rivals.

As impressive as that number sounds, Roth and many of his studio peers have long acknowledged that having a whole bunch of shows in production doesn't necessarily equal success. Out of habit, some studios still keep a scorecard of who's doing how much, but almost all view such a tally as worthless.

Instead, studio execs now prefer to emphasize returning shows headed for syndication (read: profitability) and maximizing their pilot-to-series ratio, so money isn't wasted on pilots that never go anywhere.

By those standards, WBTV had an amazing development season. It scored 15 new series (11 for fall, four for midseason) out of 26 pilots -- a 58% success rate. The studio also landed 17 returning skeins -- another record for the company.

WBTV's deal with Jerry Bruckheimer also continues to yield dividends, with Bruckheimer-produced skeins repping one-third of the studio's overall roster.

"It's been a very good year," Roth said. "It'll be a great year when these well-crafted pilots turn into great series."

Warner Bros. TV will now produce at least three series at each network and 22.5 hours of primetime overall. The willingness by nets ABC and NBC to tap outside studios was a boon to Roth in particular.

"In this world of vertical integration, every network has an affiliation with a studio, and every studio has an affiliation with a network," Roth said. "It's difficult to be demanding when those same demands can be made of you in another part of the company."

Of course, the week didn't go by without a few tense moments. The WB and 20th Century Fox TV, in particular, tussled over the renewal of "Reba" and pickup of "Pepper Dennis" and "Misconceptions." The spat was eventually resolved
.
20th Century Fox TV presidents Gary Newman and Dana Walden said they, too, benefited from more open doors at the networks, scoring pickups at NBC, CBS and the WB -- in addition to sister Fox. Studio also successfully launched low-cost indie shingle Fox 21, which now has a reality show ("Beauty and the Geek") and a comedy series ("Free Birds") to its credit.

"Every network realized that their health is dependent on scheduling the best shows in the right time periods," said Newman, who said 20th had "an exceptional selling season" and "hit all the goals we set for ourselves last summer."

Overall, just 33% of NBC's new series are produced by NBC Universal TV Studio; 45% of ABC's frosh fare comes from Touchstone; 57% of Fox's from 20th Century Fox TV; and 63% of CBS' entries from Paramount.
On the flip side, the weblets -- which were born after the repeal of fin-syn rules and created for the explicit purpose of vertical integration -- are staying true to their charter. A full 100% of UPN's new series come from Par, while 75% of the WB's frosh entries are produced by Warner Bros. TV.

Meanwhile, boutique operations like Regency TV are hungry to expand their presence at the webs now that they see a few more open doors.

"This season we're going to make a huge effort to make sure we have pilots outside of the family," said Regency TV topper Robin Schwartz, whose production company produces or co-produces all of News Corp. sib Fox's Friday night lineup. "We have the ability to do it and would love to take more shots."

Past season saw several big changes on the studio scene, including new leaders at Paramount, Touchstone Television and the newly minted NBC Universal Television Studio.

After years of sparring with Par management, Viacom co-prexy Leslie Moonves sought to integrate Par into the CBS fold as quickly as possible by tapping a trusted aide -- CBS and Warner Bros. TV vet David Stapf -- to take over as prexy of Paramount Network Television.

Though he got into the game late in the development season, Stapf had a fine rookie year, landing nine new series orders vs. five last year under the old regime.

"To me it's never about the numbers and how many, it's about how many do you return," he said. "To that end, 'Numbers' is a show that, as a company, I'm the most proud of."

And while all of Stapf's new shows will be on Viacom nets, exec said he remains committed to finding projects for other nets as well, such as Par-produced NBC hit "Medium."

Over at Touchstone, business affairs vet Mark Pedowitz took over from Steve McPherson when latter exec became ABC Entertainment prexy. Big breakthrough for the studio: Setting up major projects at CBS and NBC, thus expanding its reach beyond ABC.

"Touchstone established itself as third-party supplier to outside networks," Pedowitz said. "The old bugaboo is gone."

Picture was a bit fuzzier over at NUTS. Studio focused its efforts on the Peacock, but the network ultimately chose to pick most of its new fare from outside suppliers. On the plus side, NUTS-produced "House" has emerged as a major hit for Fox, and if that success continues next season, the studio is looking at a very lucrative syndie backend for the medical drama.

"Given the needs of the network, we would have loved 100 percent of their pickups, but that's not possible," said NUTS prexy Angela Bromstad. "We feel good about what we do have."

Bromstad was particularly pleased about the return of "The Office" on the Peacock, and has high hopes for "Fathom."

Development season saw some clear-cut disappointments as well.

Sony Pictures Television took a big hit when CBS killed "Joan of Arcadia," denying the studio a signature network drama, while fall newbie "Clubhouse" quickly struck out. And a plan to skirt the network development process by developing a pilot inhouse -- the comedy "Uncommon Sense" -- didn't seem to work. Not only did NBC pass, but no other nets seem interested, leaving the studio holding the bag for most of the production costs.

On the positive tip, Sony has a piece of Gavin Polone's Pariah TV-produced "Emily's Reasons Why Not," an ABC midseason entry that seemed to play well at the upfronts.

Prime objective: to topple 'Idol'
As broadcasters unfurl their fall schedules at the "upfront" ad market, the highly rated reality show's time slot turns into a key battleground
TELEVISION & RADIO By Scott Collins and Matea Gold Los Angeles Times Staff Writers
May 20, 2005

Crack teams of FBI profilers and Pentagon analysts are arming for battle in coming months.

Their high-stakes mission? To combat threats to the American way of life and, they hope, loosen the stranglehold of "American Idol."

As broadcasters unfurled their 2005-06 schedules at the "upfront" ad market in New York this week, Wednesdays at 9 p.m. has turned into a key battleground.

That's where NBC's "E-Ring," the highly promoted Pentagon thriller from producer Jerry Bruckheimer, will stare down "Criminal Minds," CBS' new FBI procedural starring Mandy Patinkin. Both entries will face formidable competition from "Lost," ABC's deserted-island ensemble that turned into a major hit this season and is moving from its current 8 p.m. Wednesday slot.

But network executives are still facing a force far scarier than serial killers, terrorists or tropical beasts: Simon Cowell. As expected, Fox said Thursday that the half-hour "results show" for "Idol" will return to the 9 p.m. Wednesday slot in January — and rivals don't want to spend a fourth straight winter gaping helplessly as Fox's hugely popular talent contest, featuring the tart-tongued judge Cowell, savages their midweek schedules.

" 'Idol' is a complete hammer," ABC prime-time entertainment chief Stephen McPherson lamented to reporters this week.

Case in point: "Idol" has wreaked havoc with ABC's once-healthy midweek comedy block; partly as a result, the network this week axed Damon Wayans' Tuesday sitcom "My Wife & Kids." The "Idol" effect, in fact, has helped keep ABC scrambling to stay out of third place among the young-adult viewers sought by advertisers, despite big hits like "Desperate Housewives" and "Grey's Anatomy."

Viacom co-chief operating officer Leslie Moonves, who oversees CBS, sees a storm gathering as he and other network bosses race to beat back "Idol." "Wednesday at 9 o'clock is going to be very hard," Moonves admitted to reporters. " 'Lost' is tough. 'E-Ring' is obviously one of NBC's big guns."

NBC, which has slipped from first to fourth among young-adult viewers this season, says they're finally ready to take on "Idol." The network has suffered considerably as its once-hot White House drama, "The West Wing," has faded in the ratings (it moves to Sundays in the fall), and the midseason drama "Revelations," about a professor and nun investigating signs of a looming Apocalypse, has stalled with viewers. "E-Ring" is the perfect antidote, NBC entertainment boss Kevin Reilly says.

"This is like a Bruckheimer movie," Reilly said this week. "It's big, it's glossy. It's got two big stars at the center [Benjamin Bratt and Dennis Hopper] …. Frankly, we also think [that] as 'American Idol' counter-programming, we finally have a show we can glue to the schedule. It's got a different audience base."

Advertisers couldn't be more thrilled by such a hard-fought match-up. They like the idea of big hits spread across multiple networks because that keeps any one player from becoming too dominant and dictating the price of 30-second spots.

Wednesday's "Idol" fetches the highest ad prices of any regularly scheduled TV program this season, more than $658,000 per spot, according to Advertising Age, a trade magazine. That is far higher than NBC's "ER," which at $479,250 per spot has been the most expensive scripted series to buy into. At the same time, viewers are obviously more engaged with hit shows than mediocre performers — and, ad buyers hope, more likely to spring for products they see advertised during breaks.

"You want [the programming] to be competitive," explained Lisa Sangalli, associate broadcast director at the ad firm Optimedia. "Everybody has been saying this whole 'Desperate Housewives' and 'Lost' [phenomenon] has been really good for TV, and it's really true. It's brought people back to TV, back to dramas, back to watching."

Whether viewers will enjoy all the schedule posturing is another matter. Another fierce brawl is on tap for 8 p.m. Thursdays, when CBS' "Survivor 11: Guatemala" will try to fend off three existing dramas with strong fan bases: ABC's "Alias," Fox's "The O.C." and the WB's "Smallville."

At the same time, NBC's struggling sitcom "Joey" will likely face a surprisingly strong challenge from UPN's "Everybody Hates Chris," comic Chris Rock's take on his Brooklyn childhood in the early 1980s, which had buyers and reporters buzzing after video clips brought down the house at UPN's presentation Thursday morning.

Referring to the heavy competition at 8 p.m. Thursday in the fall, Brad Adgate, senior vice president at Horizon Media in New York, joked: "You're gonna need two or three TiVos for that time period."

A little late, but interesting nonetheless.....

Upfronts–And This Time It’s Personal

by Jake Brooks, Sara Vilkomerson, Jessica Bruder and Rebecca Dana The New York Observer

At the Monday afternoon presentation of NBC’s prime-time line-up at Radio City Music Hall, ad buyers were treated to a rare sight: a solemn Jeff Zucker.

By his somber expression, the head of the NBC Universal Television Group seemed to be carrying the abysmal performance of Father of the Pride, LAX and Hawaii, and the lackluster ratings of Joey, on his back.

Jeff Zucker had heard the reports: Analysts predict that NBC will lose a half a billion dollars in ad revenue this year. So at the NBC upfronts at Radio City Music Hall, where the network presents its prime-time line-up to advertisers, there was no reprise of the shticky vaudeville act the NBC Universal Television Group head did with Apprentice superstar Donald Trump last year.

"Let’s be entirely candid," said Mr. Zucker, his large, pudgy face looming over his small frame from the Jumbotron screen that had been mounted in the center of the stage. "We’re not where we want to be. We’re not where you expect us to be. We get it. We totally get it."

As Seinfeld’s Elaine Benes might have said, "Get out!"

"Prime time this year, we did not have the season that we wanted to have or that we said we would," he continued. "If you had told me a year ago that NBC would have this kind of year, I would have told you, ‘Yeah, and the New York Yankees would be in next-to-last place; the L.A. Lakers won’t even be in the N.B.A. Playoffs; and Tiger Woods would probably miss his first cut in seven years.’ Oh, well …. "

But there was no commiserating chuckle to indicate that the advertisers were willing to cut him the slack that Mr. Woods has gotten.

So the rest of the NBC presentation was a giant bout of self-flagellation.

Tina Fey and Amy Poehler jumpstarted the punishment from an SNL "Weekend Update" set, which rose out of the floor of the Radio City stage.

Some tidbits:

Fey: "In TV news, the NBC executives who last year picked LAX, Hawaii and Father of the Pride have completed rehab."

Poehler: "There’s a rumor that NBC passed on Desperate Housewives. Not true. They passed on Lost—and Desperate Housewives."

Fey: "NBC is broadcasting more and more of its programs in high-def. The picture is so clear that last week on Joey, you could actually see Matt LeBlanc’s panic."

Poehler: "NBC did take some risks last year with shows like Father of the Pride, or what Roy Horn called the most painful experience of his life."

Now the crowd was loving it. Until Keith Turner, the head of NBC Universal sales and marketing, took the stage.

"Tina and Amy really are amazing on ‘Weekend Update’: all that great SNL humor combined with the accuracy of CBS Evening News."

Anyone? CBS Evening News?

O.K., next gag.

Kevin Reilly, president of NBC Entertainment, fared far better with a video that purported to document his first year in office.

What starts off as a parody of The Office—which, incidentally, NBC picked up for a second season—quickly descends, as shows begin to flop, into an homage to Apocalypse Now. To the tune of the Doors’ "The End," Mr. Reilly starts having hallucinations. A ceiling fan whirls in the background and fiery explosions overlay his face. Mr. Reilly is heard saying in a voiceover, "I was the king of cable, a hero. All I needed was five loyal viewers and a good quote from [Washington Post TV critic] Tom Shales."

This, of course, is when Martin Sheen shows up, bearing gifts.

"I heard you were down, so I thought I’d come by and cheer you up with this gift basket. Look what I got here for you—all kinds of scented candles and oils," he said. "I know someone who uses this and still has their job."

Big laugh.

Afterward, at the Rockefeller Plaza reception, Mr. Zucker was also making the rounds. Like a tornado, he made his way through the crowd, sucking people into his orbit and then spitting them out.

Mr. Reilly was working hard for the money, too. He could be overheard convincing a suited gentleman that Fathom, the new underwater science-fiction drama slated for Monday nights, is suitable for kids.

"Too intense?" he balked in response to a query. "My 6-year-old watches it." He added, "It’s very Spielberg in tone."

In the background, a long queue had formed to take photos with the cast of The Office as Mr. Reilly continued pitching. "Amy Grant is so delightful," he told a gaggle of women, referring to the country singer who hosts NBC’s new Friday-night reality-TV series, Three Wishes. "So delightful."

Ms. Grant was in earshot.

UPFRONTS JOURNAL
By Virginia Heffernan Television Critic of The New York Times at the Television Upfronts

FOX, THE MORNING AFTER | 05.20 9:58 AM

Explosive Disorder

FOX’s Peter Liguori ¬with his lankiness, his mannerly Alan Alda voice and his advertising background — does not have the sacred rage of the sparkplug network bosses, NBC’s Jeff Zucker or CBS’s Les Moonves. He doesn’t seem psychologically unpredictable, either, like Stephen McPherson of ABC.

Instead, Mr. Liguori seems like a sports fan. Yesterday at City Center Theater, at the last upfront of this hectic week, he told the crowd that he had proposed to his wife at Shea Stadium. He’s one of those kind of guys. Regular. Likes to watch “American Idol” with his kids. Likes Mets games. Maybe not, if you get right down to it, a huge fan of “24.” (He and Peter Gallagher, the “O.C.” dad, appeared in a comic bit in yesterday’s film together ¬— both men have heavy eyebrows, and they did a strange duet of eyebrow manipulation ¬ and seem like they might genuinely hit it off.)

But this nice guy has delegated well to the hotter heads who in Mr. Liguori’s former profession are called creatives. His network has come up with lively iterations of powerful television concepts. The new shows are punchy, full of flavor, like advertising, and like Fox itself. This network likes gags, violence, quick-cuts, one-liners, frame-breaking, satire, caricatures, visual punchlines.

Think of “The Simpsons,” “Cops,” “Family Guy,” “Bernie Mac,” “Arrested Development,” “House,” “That 70’s Show,” even Simon Cowell’s put-downs on “American Idol.” “The O.C.,” Fox’s soap, also thrives on self-reference. Punch punch punch.

In “Head Cases,” one of Fox’s new dramas, Schultz (Adam Goldberg) suffers from something called “explosive disorder.” This is the perfect pathology for a Fox hero.

“Reunion,” a seemingly mellow, nostalgic show about “love and loss” from 1986 to 2006, seems to employ a fair number of guns. And before the excerpt was over yesterday, one of them had already gone off. “1987 started with a bang,” we were told.

The defining principle of “The Gate” (working title), a drama about bizarre criminals in San Francisco, is that “in each of us, a monster may lurk just beneath the surface.”

This belief seems like a central tenet of Fox philosophy.

Fox. The monster-inside-us network.

(from Cynthia Turner’s Cynopsis)
May Sweeps to Date: 3 weeks – Through May 18:

Adults 18-49
CBS 4.3/12 (+13% vs. first three weeks in May 2004)
Fox 4.2/12 (+5%)
ABC 3.7/10 (+23%)
NBC 3.2/9 (-36%)
UPN 1.6/4 (+33%)
WB 1.5/4 (-12%)

Total Viewers
CBS 14.1m (+13%)
Fox 9.9m (+8%)
ABC 9.7m (+19%)
NBC 9.3m (-28%)
UPN 3.6m (+21%)
WB 3.5m (-8%)

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

Uncertain fate for Fox's 'Simple Life'
Ratings tumble among teens for the season finale
By Abigail Azote medialifemagazine.com

When news broke that best friends for life Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie were no longer chums, it sounded a warning bell for “The Simple Life.” Chatter about its future reached a peak when Hilton pronounced last month that Richie was being replaced by fellow socialite Kimberly Stewart, which Fox then denied.

But in fact the reality series’ problems had started way before all the personal drama. The third-season show was already in a steep decline among teen viewers compared to its first two years. And with no mention of a timeslot for “The Simple Life” at Fox's unveiling of its 2005-2006 schedule yesterday, there are doubts whether the show will see a fourth season.

For its finale last Thursday, “Simple Life 3: Interns” fetched a disappointing 2.7 rating in 12-17s, losing much of the “The O.C.” lead-in, which earned a 3.6 in that demo for its second-to-the-last episode of the season.

That's a considerable falloff from "Simple Life's" season premiere in January, when it averaged a 7.9 in the 12-17 demo, though granted that came with an "American Idol" lead-in. But last week's 2.7 was not only down 65 percent from that premiere rating but also 50 percent from the 5.4 rating the season two finale earned.

It's not hard to figure out why. The great fun of the show was in watching the two glamour pusses navigate the world outside Manhattan and Beverly Hills. But that's the world in which the vast majority of viewers live, and after two seasons the novelty factor was pretty much exhausted.

Also contributing was the stars' saturation presence on the entertainment shows and in the celebrity tabs. America came to learn far more about the two than they needed to know. Why watch them screw up in the Fox series when you can catch up on their off-camera hi-jinks every night on "Entertainment Tonight?"

“Simple Life 3: Interns” also wasn't helped by being hop-scotched around the Fox primetime schedule, making it difficult for all but devout fans to remember when it aired. By the end it no longer had the "Idol" lead-out, either, but last summer it stood on its own quite fine without it.

Season three premiered Wednesday at 9 p.m. after "American Idol" in January, bumping to 8:30 shortly thereafter. There it stayed until mid-April, when it moved, this time to the 8 p.m. Wednesday timeslot. Then in late April it was moved yet again, this time to a different night, to Thursday at 9 p.m., where it stayed until last week’s finale.

Will “Simple Life" return for season four? Fox said yesterday that it has plans for a midseason show but didn't give any specifics. And that doesn't mean it will return. Fox is keeping its options open, as the saying goes. But if its fall shows do well, leaving few holes to fill, it will have even less reason to consider bringing the show back.

Some upfront thoughts from Lisa de Moraes:

UPN to NBC: We Will Rock You

By Lisa de Moraes The Washington Post
NEW YORK, May 19
Chris Rock ought to kill "Joey" this fall.

UPN has moved "Smackdown!" from Thursday to Friday night to put four sitcoms on Thursday from 8 to 10 p.m. Most notably, a new comedy series from Chris Rock.

One way or the other, Leslie Moonves is going to wipe out NBC's Thursday night
.
As co-president and co-COO of Viacom and chairman of CBS, Moonves oversees both CBS and UPN broadcast networks, which gives him two avenues of attack. And going after NBC's Thursday is not just a hobby for Moonves; it's a mission.

He can't stop talking about NBC, even when it is going to finish the television season in fourth place among the 18- to 49-year-olds it targets, while CBS will finish first among regular programs.

On Wednesday, advertisers sat through an hour of CBS's new-schedule presentation at Carnegie Hall before anyone on stage even mentioned one of the network's new series, because it took Moonves that long to get through all his prepared bits bashing NBC and NBC Universal Television Group President Jeff Zucker. (See the cast member of Broadway hit "Avenue Q" on stage with a Zucker puppet, singing "It Sucks to Be Me"; see Moonves digitally inserted into the flick "Million Dollar Baby," socking a punching bag that looks like Zucker, then deadpanning, "now I know what a Zucker punch is.")

As head of CBS, Moonves already brought NBC's Thursday to its knees with a lineup of hour-long series that includes "Survivor," "CSI" and "Without a Trace."

Now, he has Chris Rock, one of the country's hottest comics, locked and loaded on UPN's Thursday night. The single-camera show, created by Rock, looks back at his childhood. There's no laugh track and Rock does a voiceover. Clips got a gut-busting reaction Thursday morning from hundreds of advertising execs during UPN's announcement of its prime-time slate at Madison Square Garden.

(This week each of the broadcast networks rolled out its fall prime-time plans for advertisers during what's commonly referred to as Upfront Week, when advertisers commit to buying time "upfront" on series.)

Rock came out to sell the show, called "Everybody Hates Chris," which he acknowledged is a kind of middle-finger homage to CBS's outgoing "Everybody Loves Raymond" -- this season's most watched comedy series.

"White man out -- black man in!" Rock quipped, getting a huge laugh from the virtually all-white, mostly male Madison Avenue audience. He introduced the cast, ending with the only white member, an adorable boy who plays young Rock's school chum.

"We got white people in this show!" Rock shouted, putting his arm around the boy and mussing his hair. "Smile!" Rock told the child. "Show them the whiteness!"

They loved it.

Advertisers also seemed to really enjoy the Parade of Models that has become a UPN upfront presentation tradition. The models are contestants from UPN's popular, Tyra Banks-hosted reality series, "America's Next Top Model." Tyra was there, too.

So was Vanessa Williams, who's starring -- as a mom -- in a new prime-time soap set in Florida called "South Beach." It's being produced by Jennifer Lopez, who showed up to hawk the midseason replacement.
For sheer star power on stage, UPN wins this year's upfront contest.

Returning sitcoms "Eve" and "Cuts" join "Everybody Hates Chris" on Thursday, along with a new comedy, "Love, Inc.," marking the latest return of Shannen Doherty.

To make way for Rock and the other comedies, UPN will move World Wrestling Entertainment's "Smackdown!" to Friday, where UPN has not been a real player.

One reporter sitting next to us thought it was a great programming move, noting that all those "35-year-old guys with 'I-can't-be-mad-at-my-boss' issues by the end of the week" will probably enjoy watching big sweaty men body slam each other on Friday nights.

It's been a long week.

UPN's Monday comedy lineup is back.

So is "America's Next Top Model," Wednesdays at 8, but its lead-out, "Kevin Hill," starring Taye Diggs is not, which is going to make a lot of women very sad.

"Veronica Mars," which struggled on Tuesday nights this season, has been given that hour -- the best slot on UPN's schedule.

"America's Next Top Model" reruns won't continue to air on Friday nights; you'll have to wait until the following Tuesday to catch up. After which, you can watch UPN's new drama "Sex, Lies & Secrets," which is set in Los Angeles and is about sex, lies and secrets.

Not only did Fox suits not cancel the barely watched "Arrested Development, " but this fall the network will kick off its prime-time lineup with it Mondays at 8. It is one of a whopping 11 sitcoms on the network's new schedule.

Fox will start four nights -- Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday -- with two comedies each. The network will have more comedies than NBC and CBS combined.

The trade papers credit Fox with having 12 comedies on its new schedule, but they're counting the one-hour series "Head Cases," which will air Wednesdays after "That '70s Show" and "Stacked." "Head Cases" stars Chris O'Donnell as a hotshot attorney who has a nervous breakdown, spends three months in a "rest home," then is assigned as his outpatient "buddy" a twitchy low-rent lawyer played by Adam Goldberg.

If you count that as a comedy, then you have to count ABC's "Desperate Housewives" and CBS's new "Ghost Whisperer," except that one's unintentionally funny thanks to Jennifer Love Hewitt, who stars as a woman who talks to dead people.

Anyway, during its upfront presentation Thursday afternoon, Fox called "Head Cases" a "dramedy." We prefer to call it a "coma."

So, Fox is kicking off Monday with "Arrested Development," followed by a new sitcom "Kitchen Confidential," which is about a formerly hot chef given a second chance after rehab. It's from Darren Star of "Sex and the City" fame.

Also bound for Monday, a new drama called "Prison Break," about an engineer who robs a bank so that he can get into prison with the floor plan to break out his brother, who's on death row for a murder he did not commit. Apparently hiring a good lawyer was not an option.

"House" is back, Tuesday at 9. Preceding it is a new drama, "Bones," inspired by real-life forensic anthropologist and novelist Kathy Reichs.

"The O.C." is back on Thursday, followed by new drama "Reunion," which is a mystery that reverses the "24" formula. Instead of 24 episodes, each of which covers one hour of the same day, in "Reunion," 20 episodes will span two decades in the life of the ensemble cast, with each episode encompassing one year. Pretty clever.

Friday nights "Bernie Mac" and "Malcolm in the Middle" return, followed by new drama "The Gate," about specialists solving extremely kinky murders in San Francisco -- think "CSI" sweeps episode every single week. Whoohoo!

Fox's Saturday lineup will never change: "Cops," "Cops" and "America's Most Wanted." And just one new comedy is being added to its Sunday night, "The War at Home," about two parents and their teenage kids.

Here's another attempt at a Fall 2005 schedule (http://www.geocities.com/xesdeeni2001/TVFall2005.html).

Xesdeeni

Originally posted by Xesdeeni
Here's another attempt at a Fall 2005 schedule (http://www.geocities.com/xesdeeni2001/TVFall2005.html).

Xesdeeni

This is very good, did you do this? If so, great job.:)

Desperate' questions: The ABC prime-time soap owes us more than lather

By Sarah Rodman [The Boston Globe[/B] Friday, May 20, 2005

The whooshing sound you'll hear at 10 on Sunday night will be a nation of ``Desperate Housewives'' fans exhaling.

After weeks of holding our collective breath to see what mischief the denizens of Wisteria Lane will be up to next, the first season finale still has a lot of 'splainin' to do.

Though we know a few tantalizing details - one character won't make it to the end credits and a new ``Housewife'' stirs up trouble - there remain many burning questions creator Marc Cherry and his cast must answer Sunday night at 9 on WCVB (Ch. 5).

Who is the father of Gabrielle Solis' (Eva Longoria) baby? Is it her pill-tampering, jailbird hubby Carlos (Ricardo Antonio Chavira) or sexy teen gardener John (Jesse Metcalfe)?

Either way, that's going to be one good-looking kid.

Is hunky plumber Mike Delfino (Jamie Denton) Zach's (Cody Kasch) real father? Sinister Paul Young (Mark Moses) claims he killed and buried a female ``private detective'' who came looking for Zach (born Dana). But we know the woman in the toy chest was Mike's ex-girlfriend Deidre. Hmm . . . Also, who kills a cop - even a corrupt one - in self-defense and is in favor of the death penalty?

What is Tom's (Doug Savant) secret? We're not convinced that the betrayal he is keeping from Lynette (Felicity Huffman) is simply that his old flame Annabelle (Melinda McGraw) was back on the scene. We're guessing that there's another Mrs. Scavo and a whole pack of little Scavos terrorizing another neighborhood somewhere on his sales route.

Now that Tom knows he lost the promotion because of Lynette, will he high-tail it off Wisteria Lane? And will we ever learn the name of the baby? Prudence, perhaps?

When will Rex Van De Kamp (Steven Culp) wise up and get a new pharmacist? For a doctor, he doesn't seem very bright in the whole ``heal thyself'' area. George (Roger Bart) doesn't have Rex's best interests at heart because he's carrying a twisted torch for Bree (Marcia Cross). We're betting this is going to be a fatal oversight on his part. And when will son Andrew (Shawn Pyfrom) begin his campaign of revenge against Bree?

Where is Fairview? We got one hint last week when we learned it's not in a death penalty state - which narrows it down to 12, including Massachusetts.

Of course, there are less-serious but no less-pressing questions, such as: Will Edie (Nicollette Sheridan) ever wear a turtleneck or have more than one or two scenes a week? When Carlos is sprung, will he learn to ask questions before beating up gay men he suspects of sleeping with his wife? Will the Mary Alice voice-over return next year after her story line is tied up? When exactly does Susan work on illustrating those kids' books? And how will she, Mike and Julie eat since her kitchen burned up?

And most importantly, which ``Housewife'' will be recognized by Emmy? Our pick is Marcia Cross.

With respect to the other ladies, our Marlboro homegal has stood out from the pack, playing one of the most difficult characters on the show, balancing comedy and drama effortlessly.

Finally, is there any way the finale can live up to the hype?

We'll just have to hold our breath and see.

Wily Fox cuts reality from its steady diet
Tim Goodman San Francisco Chronicle Friday, May 20, 2005

The final two networks to present their new fall shows to advertisers and media in New York -- Fox and UPN -- have each in their own way had an epiphany about the future. They have got, in short, the vision thing going.

Having already announced its biggest news -- renewing "Arrested Development" -- Fox decided to show, not tell, an even bigger decision: It has no reality programs on its fall schedule.

Now there's a stunning reversal of course. (The network did renew two reality shows, but still...)

UPN has pretensions about being a network and to prove it's worthy has, over a decade, scribbled master plan after revolutionary revamp with crayon on paper year after year, only to tear them up in search of self improvement. Who knew UPN was so zen? But now, having struck a certain kind of nirvana with women on a runway ("America's Next Top Model"), UPN has made it official that females are the target demographic. To be clear, the network's new slogan is: "Where the Girls Are."

Except it's still got WWE wrestling. But let's not quibble with details. UPN has an identity! It also has three new fall show and one midseason show but until this eager little learning network gets a whole lot better with its actual content rather than its slogans, we start with Fox.

Stymied by playoff baseball in September -- which means new shows air, then get pre-empted by America's pastime, then come back to a confused viewership -- Fox has perpetually stumbled out of the gate, then rallied in the last half of the season when normalcy returns. This year it finished No. 1 in the 18-49 demo, its first victory ever in that advertiser-friendly race.

But it almost never happened because the strategy had been to litter the schedule with reality, then start scripted series later -- disaster.

Turns out the 2004-05 TV season was when viewers decided they didn't necessarily hate reality, they just hated Fox's particular brand of it. Feel- good reality was in, sleaze and mean were out. (Fox is bringing back at some future time both "Nanny 911" and "Trading Spouses." No matter what you think of the latter, conventional wisdom is these are the lesser-evils of reality –

ABC has mirrored shows in "Supernanny" and "Wife Swap.").

New Fox entertainment president Peter Liguori has decided that less is more. He is returning Fox to a primarily scripted schedule with seven new series for fall -- five dramas and two comedies -- and significantly shifting the schedule to create a "balanced and stable" line-up. Backing up his confidence, Liguori has stated that there will be no reruns on Monday nights -- which just happens to be where he's shifted "Arrested Development, " so that series should run continuously and be done by January, in theory.

There weren't too many surprises other than the lack of reality (which was clear by April when pilot season was under way). "Bernie Mac" -- which is being shifted to Friday nights along with "Malcolm In the Middle" -- survived the knife, as did Pamela Anderson's "Stacked," but "Life on a Stick," "The Sketch Show," "Tru Calling" and "Quintuplets" did not, though the world is expected to keep turning.

"24" was picked up for two more seasons and will air without repeats.

Over at girl-power UPN, the surprise was that girl-magnet Taye Diggs lost his series, "Kevin Hill," while "All Of Us" -- ostensibly about the lives of producers Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith -- was miraculously renewed. "Kevin Hill" was the stunner buzz show at the beginning of the season but never built on its promise.

UPN is now launching three new series (a fourth produced by Jennifer Lopez will air in midseason), with the Chis Rock produced sitcom, "Everybody Hates Chris" getting the most attention. (Rock narrates, but does not appear in this coming-of-age story). Cult hit "Veronica Mars" moves to Wednesday night and UPN for the first time puts sitcoms on Thursday (next fall's biggest battleground).

Now that we have been through this year’s upfronts and we know what shows got picked up by the networks, what about those which didn’t make the cut?
Upfronts 2005: The Pilots that Didn't Make the Cut

By Daniel Fienberg

(zap2it.com)--It was only weeks ago that industry insiders were buzzing about Alicia Silverstone's FOX pilot "Queen Bee," while NBC looked ready to walk the beat with a 1970s-set cop drama based on the same real-life drug bust as "The French Connection." ABC was stoked to have the "thirtysomething" team of Ed Zwick and Marshall Herskovitz chronicling twentysomethings with "1/4life," while Bill Lawrence's ("Scrubs") "Nobody's Watching" was going to revolutionize The WB's comedy line-up.

William Goldman's classic Hollywood maxim that nobody knows anything goes moreso for pilot season buzz, where nearly every available actor, writer and director in town is attached to something and every show is a potential classic until schedules are announced.

There's no way of knowing why pilots don't get picked up. The easiest explanation would just be that an idea that sounded great in a pitch meeting became an repugnant waste of time on tape. But sometimes a network might blanche at the potentially high cost of series production. Sometimes a network's relationship with a certain production studio might sour because of negotiations over an existing series.

No amount of star power can save a doomed pilot. At CBS alone, established film and television stars like John Leguizamo, Sally Field and Eric La Salle ("Conviction"), Dylan McDermott ("3 Lbs."), Jeri Ryan and David Arquette ("Commuters") and James Van Der Beek ("Three") couldn't stick.

Some discarded pilots may be reconsidered, reimagined or recast and still find homes as midseason replacements. (NBC Entertainment President Kevin Reilly admitted that "The Book of Daniel," for example, contained many elements that the network really liked.) Others are probably dead forever. (Reilly glibly noted that nobody will hear from the Janeane Garofalo poker comedy "All In" ever again.)

One of the most entertaining subplots of this pilot season was monitoring the attempt by former "Beverly Hills, 90210" stars and featured players from "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Angel" (commonly known as the Whedon-verse) to make it back on the small screen. Now that the dust has settled, it's clear that the Whedon-verse won big. While "90210" vets like Brian Austin Green (ABC's "Freddie"), Lindsey Price (The WB's "Pepper Dennis") and Shannen Doherty (UPN's "Love, Inc.") found network homes, some of seminal FOX soap's biggest stars -- Jason Priestley (CBS' "Love Monkey"), Luke Perry (FOX's "Ticket to Ride") and Tiffani Thiessen (CBS' "Stroller Wars") -- are looking for work again. Meanwhile, networks landed placements for such "Buffy" vets as Nicholas Brendon (FOX's "Kitchen Confidential"), Alyson Hannigan (CBS' "How I Met Your Mother") and Seth Green (NBC's "Four Kings") and for "Angel" favorites David Boreanaz (FOX's "Bones"), Amy Acker (CBS' "The Unit") and Christian Kane (CBS' "Close to Home").

Here's a glance at some of the other higher-profile rejections from this pilot season:

"Pros and Cons" and "The Catch" (ABC, dramas): "Lost" and "Alias" will be back again next fall and ABC has ordered "What About Brian" for midseason, but rumors that J.J. Abrams was prepared to take over the network appear to have been greatly exaggerated. Given the number of different permutations that "The Catch," a bounty hunter drama starring Abrams' buddy Greg Grunberg, has already taken, it wouldn't be surprising to see it resurface some day, but for now, Abrams will have to be satisfied with mini-domination at ABC.

"The Prince" (The WB, drama): Did Greg Berlanti do something mean to WB Entertainment President David Janollari? "Jack & Bobby" is gone. "Everwood" has been shipped off to face "CSI" on Thursday. And "The Prince," a buzzworthy pilot (also executive produced by Matt LeBlanc) starring Tim Matheson and Mariel Hemingway, didn't make the cut.

"Halley's Comet" (The WB, drama): It used to be that if David E. Kelley told your network he wanted to do a show, he didn't even need to shoot a pilot. Then again, that's how CBS ended up with "The Brotherhood of Poland, NH." The trades suggested that this medical drama was still in the running until the last minute, but Kelley's name couldn't put it over the top.

"Hitched" (FOX, drama): This Aaron Spelling-produced drama set in a full-service Las Vegas wedding chapel may not have necessarily sounded like a great idea, but with co-stars Mark-Paul Gosselaar ("Saved by the Bell") and Tara Reid ("Saved by the Bell: The New Class") it was going to be fun to eternally call this one "Saved by the Wedding Bell." In other pilot news, Lark Voorhees remains unemployed.

"New Car Smell" (FOX, comedy): The cast -- Brooke Shields, Christopher McDonald and Dave Attell -- was intriguing. The creative team -- "Lucky" brothers Robb and Mark Cullen and "Friends" star David Schwimmer -- was reliable. Who knows what went wrong?

"Goody's" (NBC, comedy): The idea of Dick Wolf producing a comedy for the network must have seemed like a good idea at some point. However, it probably sounded less good when star Vincent Pastore ("The Sopranos") was charged with allegedly assaulting his girlfriend.

"Early Bird" (NBC, comedy): Everybody kept describing this series, about a young man who gets fired from his dream job as a TV writer and moves into a retirement community, as "Golden Girls"-esque. When did you last hear a comedy called "Golden Girls"-esque? And when did any network last attempt to program to viewers outside of the 18-49 age range? Well, it won't happen this fall either.

"Crazy" and "The Studio" (UPN, dramas): Yes, UPN is trying to be all about women these days, but high profile pilots starring Lara Flynn Boyle and Gina Gershon probably became less viable when the netlet decided to stand by "Veronica Mars."

Fox: New “American Dad” episodes begin June 5

And (aside from one post-Super Bowl episode) the show didn’t even begin airing until May 1.

So, it aired February 6, May 1, 8 and15, then got “rested” so Fox could try to wrest the 18-49 ratings crown from CBS, and now “new episodes” are coming back June 5. (There are apparently 19 in the can altogether.)

Sometimes network PR people don’t seem to think.

Upfront Notebook
By Broadcasting & Cable Staff

They Said It

“We might not be the coolest kid in the classroom, but we're trying.”
—Anne Sweeney, co-chairman, Media Networks, The Walt Disney Co., on ABC's turnaround.

“Remember: Jokes about Jeff Zucker are always funny. So a priest, a rabbi and Zucker walk into a bathroom...”
—CBS President Nina Tassler, on the advice her boss Les Moonves supplied for her first upfront presentation.

“We learned the Olympics are a good launching pad. All the shows [last fall] launched. They just weren't very good.”
—NBC Universal Television Group President Jeff Zucker, on the promotional value of the Olympics. During last fall's Athens Olympics, NBC tirelessly plugged new shows Father of the Pride, LAX and Hawaii. All flopped.

“The days of this network suffering from multiple-personality disorder are over.”
—UPN President Dawn Ostroff, on her network's attempts to deliver compatible programming across its schedule.

No, Really. We're No. 1!

An essential element of any upfront presentation is reminding advertisers you are first—in something. At last week's schmoozefests in New York, each broadcast network found a Nielsen stat that shows it coming out on top.

NBC, having tumbled from first place to fourth in the 18-49 demographic, now hyped its status as the top-rated broadcaster with young viewers making more than $75,000.

CBS could top that one. It boasted that it leads in total viewers and adults 25-54 making more than $100,000. It was even first in 18-49s—if you drop out the Super Bowl that tipped that stat to Fox.

Sometimes it was what the networks didn't tell you. Fox didn't point out that, despite the Super Bowl, it ranked fourth in 18-49s until American Idol returned in January.

Though rejuvenated, ABC was still running third in 18-49s, and that doesn't sound too tempting to advertisers. So instead, ABC execs trumpeted Nielsen marks for their dramas, crowing that freshman sensations Lost, Grey's Anatomy and Desperate Housewives are the most watched new dramas. (Of course, a little show called CSI, which draws about 26 million viewers weekly, is TV's most-watched drama.)

Even The WB and UPN got in on the act. The WB reminded advertisers it is the home for viewers 12 to 34 years old. But UPN says it is catching up and surpassing The WB; it says it is the top destination for women 18-34 on Wednesday night at 8. Well, on some weeks, UPN execs admit, it is No. 2, behind Lost, but that still beats The WB.

PBS didn't present, but we're pretty sure but it still leads in programs that are underwritten by “viewers like you.”

Applause-o-Meter

Who earned the loudest applause at last week's upfront festivities? We didn't have a decibel meter handy, but a few performances shook the rooms. CBS, after stressing it keeps getting younger and younger, treated advertisers to a live performance of ageless Aretha Franklin. She earned loud cheers, as did as did Jamie Foxx, who in his best Ray Charles style, sang “America the Beautiful” at NBC's presentation.

Who got the loudest upfront welcome? It must have been Uchenna and Joyce, the affable winners of the last edition of The Amazing Race on CBS, who came out to cheers just seconds after the introduction of Race runners-up Amber and Rob drew a relatively muted welcome.

First runner-up was comedian Chris Rock. His childhood in Brooklyn is the inspiration for a new UPN comedy, Everybody Hates Chris. Rock told advertisers to note the timing of his sitcom: “Everybody Loves Raymond and Everybody Hates Chris. White man out— black man in.”

The week's only standing ovation went to Desperate Housewives creator Marc Cherry. Decked out in tails and a top hat, Cherry serenaded advertisers with “Beautiful Girls” as the ladies of Desperate Housewives glided across the stage in evening gowns and furs (see photo, page 33). ABC felt the need to share Cherry's act with the rest of the country. The next day, Good Morning America aired clips from the upfront presentation, taking self-promotion to an entirely new level.

In a different venue, the most heartfelt standing ovation of the week went to former MTM and NBC chief Grant Tinker, who received a special Peabody Award at a three-hour luncheon also held last week.

Standing By

Two shows that you won't see on any 2005-06 network schedule now but that still stand good chances of receiving series orders are The Book of Daniel at NBC and the sitcom Old Christine on CBS. Book of Daniel centers on a minister who gets help from a “cool, contemporary Jesus,” per NBC's description, as he navigates the challenges of life. CBS' comedy is Julia Louis-Dreyfus' latest stab at a return to network TV. She plays a divorced mom who owns a health club. Network executives say both shows are still in contention.

Latin Without the Flavor

Univision's upfront was noticeably less caliente this year without appearances by novela actors who star in shows from its Mexican program supplier Grupo Televisa. Were they forbidden to attend or disinvited?
The spicy stars have always been a presence at Univision's show but were rumored to be a no-show this year due to the recent legal squabbling between the network and Televisa, which provides Univision about 85% of its prime time content.

Insiders say Televisa instructed its stars to boycott the upfront, prompting Univision to retract its invitation for them to join. They were ... missed.

Counter-programming 'Housewives'

If you can't beat them, at least attempt to be No. 2 in the time slot. That is the attitude toward broadcast TV's two hottest shows, ABC's Desperate Housewives and Fox's American Idol, which have stumped rival network schedulers desperately searching for ways to counteract the monster hits.

Next season, they'll try again. Trying to offset Desperate Housewives, The WB is installing its bawdy male comedy Blue Collar TV at 9 p.m. Sunday. “It is the quintessential counterprogramming,” said The WB President of Entertainment David Janollari.

The ladies of Wisteria Lane have forced CBS to abandon its usual Sunday-night women-in-peril movies. Instead, CBS is focusing on movies with more male appeal, in the vein of recent Locust and anything starring Tom Selleck.

NBC, meanwhile, is preoccupied with Fox's midseason monster American Idol. On Tuesday nights at 8, NBC plans to run weight-loss competition The Biggest Loser and, later in the year, bring in gross-out reality competition Fear Factor.

Melanie, Watch Animal Planet

Will & Grace creators David Kohan and Max Mutchnick, who have new comedy Twins on The WB next fall, suspect the network recruited them for another job: to make the WB a little “gayer.” At The WB's upfront last week in New York, the duo offered up a few suggestions: Among their ideas:

Change the network mascot from a frog to a lesbian

Next fall on The WB: Ryan Seacrest and Clay Aiken are the Gilmore Girls.

Jack and Bobby: A love story.

Take sitcoms Reba and Living With Fran and combine them into Reba's Living With Fran.

Mutchnick quipped: “Smallville?” I don't think so. How about Hung-like-a-Horseville?”

That last one grabbed Twins star Melanie Griffith's attention. When Griffith drifted on stage to plug her sitcom, she giggled, “I would totally watch Hung-like-a-Horse-Ville.”

Wow! Thursday at 8 indeed. I could envision Tivo-ing 5 programs, at least to check 'em out and have filler for weaker nights. And I can't imagine any of those shows will be Joey

I think Sunday at 9 (especially when "The Sopranos" returns), is going to tax our TiVo.

News Delivers for NBC Friday
(Saturday, May 21 09:15 AM)
LOS ANGELES (Zap2it.com) Fast National ratings for Friday, May 20, 2005
"Dateline" trumped the Daytme Emmys and the Muppets Friday night to help NBC score a ratings win.

NBC averaged a 6.7 rating/12 share in primetime to lead by a comfortable margin over CBS, 5.4/10. ABC was third at 4.7/9, and FOX took fourth with a 2.7/5. The WB, 2.3/4, edged out UPN, 2.1/4, for fifth.

Among adults 18-49, NBC's 2.7 rating was good for the top spot. ABC finished second in the demographid with a 2.2, beating CBS' 2.1. FOX averaged 1.6, and The WB and UPN tied for fifth at 1.2.
The first half of a two-hour "Dateline," 5.9/12, put NBC on top at 8 p.m. CBS finished second with a prime-time "Dr. Phil" special, 5.2/10. ABC's movie "The Muppets Wizard of Oz" was third, while FOX got a 2.6/5 from its showing of "Shallow Hal." The season finale of "What I Like About You" and a "Reba" repeat averaged 2.0/4 for The WB, just beating "America's Next Top Model" on UPN.

"Dateline" improved to 7.9/14 at 9 p.m. to keep NBC in front. The 32nd annual Daytime Emmys averaged 5.4/9 for CBS. ABC's movie held onto third with a 4.5/8, and FOX stayed in fourth with its flick. The season finale of "Reba," 2.8/5, and another repeat of the show, 2.5/4, were fifth for The WB. UPN aired another hour of "Top Model."

At 10 p.m., "Law & Order: Trial by Jury" completed NBC's sweep of the night with a 6.4/11. The Daytime Emmys posted a 5.7/10 for CBS, and ABC's "20/20" came in at 5.1/9.


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

Thanks j_buckingham80...I've been away from the computer.

The good folks at zap2it.com have summed up the new season for each of the networks.
They look at the new shows and what their chances seem to be.
If you have been following this week's upfront news, it makes pretty good reading and is a nice précis of each network’s scheduled programming.
So check out your favorite network – or all six at:

A B C
http://tv.zap2it.com/tveditorial/tve_main/1,1002,802|95249|1|,00.html

C B S
http://tv.zap2it.com/tveditorial/tve_main/1,1002,802|95248|1|,00.html

Fox
http://tv.zap2it.com/tveditorial/tve_main/1,1002,802|95251|1|,00.html

N B C
http://tv.zap2it.com/tveditorial/tve_main/1,1002,802|95250|1|,00.html

UPN
http://tv.zap2it.com/tveditorial/tve_main/1,1002,802|95253|1|,00.html

The WB
http://tv.zap2it.com/tveditorial/tve_main/1,1002,802|95252|1|,00.html

NOTE: You can't just click on the above addresses. You must copy the entire address (including 00. html) to your browser to reach the proper zap2it page.

In case anyone is interested, Boomtown is premiering on HDNET next week, even though I couldnt' find it on the Tivo guide.

That's great news.
It looks fine on DVD, but full HD will be a lot better - especially the first season, when the show had more of an edge.

Daniel Dae Kim Relishes Complex Role on 'Lost'
The Subtleties Behind the Subtitles

By Amy Amatangelo Special to The Washington Post Sunday, May 22, 2005

Oh, the mysteries of ABC's hit series "Lost." Where are the doomed passengers of Oceanic Flight 815? How did they survive the plane crash? And why are they all so darn good-looking?

On an island full intriguing characters, Daniel Dae Kim's Jin Kwon has been almost as confounding as the show's cursed lottery numbers. Already one of the few Asian characters on prime-time television, Jin has not spoken a word of English all season. A risky decision, even for a show as smart as "Lost."

"I am so grateful to [executive producers] J.J. Abrams and Damon Lindelof for taking the chance on having a character who doesn't speak the language for an entire season," Kim, 36, said. "I think it's really doing a lot for what we deem acceptable on television and what we can expect the viewer to follow."

The idea to have characters who don't speak English occurred to the producers when Yunjin Kim (no relation), who plays Jin's wife Sun, auditioned for the role of Kate.

"She was phenomenal," Lindelof said. "It wasn't like she was wrong for Kate, but we thought: How interesting would it be to have a character who doesn't speak English? You would really have this opportunity to do something that doesn't really exist on network television."

So they cast Yunjin as Sun (the role of Kate went to Evangeline Lilly) and gave Sun a husband. Kim auditioned for the role -- and suddenly found himself relocating with his wife and two children to Hawaii, where the show films. As the season unfolded, Sun and Jin's heartbreaking back-story was revealed: A tale of two innocent young people passionately in love before Jin is corrupted by Sun's criminal father. Eventually, viewers discovered that Sun speaks English -- but Jin remains confined to subtitles.

This meant Kim, who was born in Busan, South Korea, but raised in New York and Pennsylvania, had to seriously brush up on his Korean. "It was one of the biggest challenges of my career," he said. "I wasn't fluent."

He relied on Yunjin and the show's translator to help him capture the cadence of the language. "For me, it wasn't so much that I wasn't pronouncing the word correctly, but the melody of the lines was different," he said. "So it was just a matter of trying to get the tonality of speech down."

Like many viewers, Kim was worried that Jin could be perceived as a cliched stoic and inscrutable Asian man.
"That was actually one of my biggest questions when I started," Kim said. "The character wasn't a sympathetic character by any means, so I was a little bit concerned that he might come off as one-dimensional or somewhat stereotypical -- and sure enough, after the pilot, I did receive some criticism for exactly that.

"There will always be a small minority of people who always want my character to be nothing but a hero who speaks fluent Korean and saves the day," Kim said. "I think there's much more value in a character that's complex and can really hold your interest for the long term."

Kim said he's aware that his role comes with a somewhat heavy burden.

"This is really the first opportunity I've had to play someone who is a Korean national, so I want to be as sensitive as possible with regard to representing that," he said.

"It's important that if I am in a position of visibility that I use that position to not only help myself and my career but [also to] continue to help the image of Asian portrayals in the media."

A recent study by the National Asian Pacific American Legal Consortium found that Asians make up 5 percent of the U.S. population and play 2.7 percent of the regular roles on TV.

Before landing the role on "Lost," Kim played an FBI agent on "24," a social worker on "ER," and a really evil lawyer on "Angel."

"Most of the roles that I've done have been written for non-Asian people, so it has been a conscious choice to try to expand the notion of what's acceptable for an Asian person to play," Kim said.

Kim grew up thinking he would become a doctor, like his father, or a lawyer. But once a friend at Haverford College asked him to be in a play, he was hooked. So he went to New York University and earned a master's degree in acting. During his summer hiatus, Kim will return to his theater roots and New York to star in the off-Broadway production of the Chekhov play "Ivanov," where he looks forward to performing before a live audience.

Being in New York also puts him closer to his parents. They love watching their son on TV every week, but Kim's mother has one small request.

"My mom can't stand to see me get hit on the show," Kim said. "She asks me to tell her whenever I'm going to be involved in violence. When I got killed off on 'Angel,' my mom literally couldn't sleep that night."

Kim couldn't offer many hints about what viewers can expect to see in Wednesday's two-hour finale or answer any questions about the puzzling hints the series has been dropping all season.

"The party line happens to be the truth: I really don't know," Kim said. "I have my own theories. That's how bad it is.

"I like to parallel the character's journey and the character doesn't know and the character is trying to sort it out, so I like to walk along with him," Kim said. "One thing that I do believe is that all the characters are on the island for a reason. I don't think it's a coincidence that they just happen to be there and survive."

I snipped them for you at www.snipurl.com

http://snipurl.com/abcupfront
http://snipurl.com/cbsupfront
http://snipurl.com/foxupfront
http://snipurl.com/nbcupfront
http://snipurl.com/upnupfront
http://snipurl.com/wbupfront

Thanks for the original links. It was exactly what I was looking for in terms of summary and organization.

Originally posted by fredfa
The good folks at zap2it.com have summed up the new season for each of the networks.
They look at the new shows and what their chances seem to be.
If you have been following this week's upfront news, it makes pretty good reading and is a nice précis of each network’s scheduled programming.
So check out your favorite network – or all six at:

A B C
http://tv.zap2it.com/tveditorial/tve_main/1,1002,802|95249|1|,00.html

C B S
http://tv.zap2it.com/tveditorial/tve_main/1,1002,802|95248|1|,00.html

Fox
http://tv.zap2it.com/tveditorial/tve_main/1,1002,802|95251|1|,00.html

N B C
http://tv.zap2it.com/tveditorial/tve_main/1,1002,802|95250|1|,00.html

UPN
http://tv.zap2it.com/tveditorial/tve_main/1,1002,802|95253|1|,00.html

The WB
http://tv.zap2it.com/tveditorial/tve_main/1,1002,802|95252|1|,00.html

NOTE: You can't just click on the above addresses. You must copy the entire address (including 00. html) to your browser to reach the proper zap2it page.

Thanks, slocko.
I've made your edits to the listings in the Latest News thread.
As is often painfully obvious, my computer skills are negligible.
I am always happy for help. :)

Sunday Night’s Season Finales

CBS Cold Case 8 PM ET/PT
ABC Desperate Housewives 9 PM ET/PT
ABC Grey’s Anatomy 10 PM ET/PT

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

To add to the season finale list, Sue Thomas F.B.Eye has its series finale on PAX at 9pm ET.

I just want to thank fredfa (and his helpers) for maintaining the first post in this thread. I had missed the final episode of Enterprise and thanks to finding this thread (again), I see that it will be repeated next Friday. I used to have several sites bookmarked to keep up with the info in this single post, I now am subscribed and that's all I'll need. :)

LOS ANGELES (Zap2it.com) Fast National ratings for Sunday, May 22, 2005
"Desperate Housewives" ended its breakout first season on a high note, scoring its best ratings yet in leading ABC to a dominating ratings win Sunday.

ABC averaged a 12.3 rating/20 share for the night, finishing way ahead of second-place CBS, 7.7/13. FOX took third at 5.3/9, while NBC managed only a 4.3/7 with a lineup that included a couple of reruns. The WB trailed with a 1.7/3.


Among adults 18-49, ABC's 8.5 rating was more than double that of No. 2 FOX, 3.6. CBS, 2.9, was third, while NBC, 2.1, finished fourth, while The WB came in at 1.1.
CBS started the night on top with "60 Minutes," 6.6/13, at 7 p.m. It edged out ABC's "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition," 6.2/12, in households, although ABC grabbed more total viewers. "Dateline" was third for NBC, while FOX aired the movie "Star Wars: Episode II -- Attack of the Clones," 3.9/7. The WB went with a "Charmed" rerun.

ABC took over the lead at 8 p.m. with the second hour of "Home Edition," 10.3/17. "Cold Case" ended its season with a 9.3/16, while "Episode II" moved FOX up to third. "The Contender" averaged 3.7/6 for NBC, beating the season finale of "Charmed," 2.2/4, on The WB.

At 9 p.m., "Desperate Housewives" posted a huge 18.5/28, nearly beating the combined total of the other four networks. CBS stayed in second with a "CSI" repeat, 7.5/11, while FOX's movie was third at 6.4/10. NBC's "Crossing Jordan" repeat was fourth, ahead of "Steve Harvey's Big Time" on The WB.

ABC's momentum continued at 10 p.m. with the season finale of "Grey's Anatomy," 14.1/23. CBS got a 7.3/12 from a "CSI: Miami" rerun, while a repeat of "Law & Order: Criminal Intent" averaged 5.3/9 for NBC.


I want to agree with DoubleDAZ, I've been amazed at the amount of work you put in here Fredfa, and I greatly appreciate it!

I've been out of contact with the internet for more than a day, so thanks to j_buckingham80 for posting Sunday's ratings.
And many thanks to him and to Dave for the kind words.
They are most appreciated.

Marc Berman's analysis of the sweeps ratings so far has been posted at the top of Latest News the first item in this thread.

Sweeps isn't over and correct me if I wrong (as is certainly possible), but for all cable's crowing,

CBS: 9.0/15 (+11)
ABC: 6.3/10 (+19)
NBC: 6.3/10 (-25)
Fox: 6.1/10 (+ 7)
UPN: 2.4/ 4 (+14)
WB: 2.4/ 4 (- 8)

Don't those numbers suggest that broadcasters are at 53% share this May? Doesn't look half bad for the Nets anymore.

Yeah, sure, 6 networks against all those cable channels, plus the fact that the networks are still free for a lot of folks and available via OTA, Sat, and Cable. I'd like to see how Deadwood, for example, fares in it's timeslot among just those who have HBO and where Deadwood is on at 9pm like here in Phoenix, IMHO that's the only true comparison. Then too, I'd really like to know just how they account for DVRs for foks like me who probably watch 3-4 network programs from the same timeslot, just not live.

Here is how some advertisers are reacting to the new TV schedules announced last week:

On Fall TV, the Networks Are Planning Something Borrowed


By STUART ELLIOTT The New York Times

For the six big broadcast television networks, imitation is the sincerest form of desperation.

As they try to keep viewers from defecting to cable and other media, the networks are aggressively shaking up their prime-time lineups for the 2005-6 season, according to advertising executives, stuffing the schedules with eye candy centered on subjects - like the supernatural, crime and sexuality - that dominated this past season.

"There are some really promising shows on the schedules, but it's disheartening in a way that the themes of the fall will be alien invasion, infertility and psychic crime-solvers," said Stacey Lynn Koerner, executive vice president at Initiative in New York, a media agency owned by the Interpublic Group of Companies. "That makes it harder for those shows to stand out."

Indeed, the series cited most often by advertising executives as a potential hit is seemingly like none now on the air: "Everybody Hates Chris," a sitcom to appear on UPN, owned by Viacom, at 8 p.m. Thursday. It is based on the Brooklyn childhood of the comedian Chris Rock, who will narrate each episode.

"An off-the-charts hit, the best comedy of the season, hands down, no contest, the show to watch," raved Shari Ann Brill, vice president at Carat USA in New York, a media buying and planning agency that is owned by the Aegis Group. Ms. Brill is rarely so effusive.

The networks' strategies are being dissected based on the schedules they presented to agencies and advertisers last Monday through Thursday during what is known as upfront week. The week raises the curtain for the decisions the executives will make in coming months about buying what could be as much as $9.5 billion worth of commercial time before the season starts.

Two Web sites, Adage.com and Mediaweek.com, reported Friday that some deals were already being made.
The agency executives who help determine which shows advertisers embrace or shun say the networks' game plan is simple: try to maintain the momentum that broadcast TV generated during the 2004-5 season in its battle against cable TV and the Internet for advertising dollars. During the current season, which is to conclude Wednesday, viewers and sponsors warmed to new series like "C.S.I.: New York," "Desperate Housewives," "Lost" and "Medium."

But beware "the copycat phenomenon," warns Ms. Koerner. Of the 31 new series scheduled to appear in the coming season on the 6 networks - ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC, UPN and WB - more than a dozen can be categorized as inspired by, or, more cynically, derived from, current hits. Among them: "Bones," "Criminal Minds," "Ghost Whisperer," "Hot Properties," "Inconceivable," "Invasion" and "Night Stalker."

"The networks seem to think viewers are looking for genres, but nobody's looking for suburban drama or science fiction per se," said Steve Sternberg, executive vice president at Magna Global in New York, another Interpublic media agency.

"The shows that were successful this year - 'Desperate Housewives,' 'Lost' - there's nothing like them on TV," he added.

As for the series most likely to fail first, the executives declared a tie between two other newcomers on UPN, "Love Inc.," a sitcom at 9:30 Thursday, and "Sex, Lies and Secrets," an ensemble drama at 9 p.m. Tuesday.

Each year after the upfront week ends, the executives begin to assess, or guess, which new series may show staying power and which may be canceled before the stars have a chance to appear on a cover of TV Guide. Here is a look, by network:

ABC: After a ratings revival stoked by new hits like "Desperate Housewives," "Grey's Anatomy" and "Lost," ABC, part of the Walt Disney Company, showed last week that "it has a lot of momentum left," said Laura Caraccioli-Davis, senior vice president and director for Starcom Entertainment at Starcom Worldwide in Chicago.

Ms. Caraccioli-Davis said she liked "Hot Properties," a sitcom about female real-estate brokers, at 9:30 p.m. Friday, but found "Freddie," a family sitcom with Freddie Prinze Jr. at 8:30 p.m. Wednesday, "a little disappointing."

Ray Warren, managing director at OMD USA in New York, said he believed "Commander in Chief" at 9 p.m. Tuesday, featuring Geena Davis as the first female president, would have "the same look and feel of 'The West Wing' " on NBC.

CBS: CBS, owned by Viacom, improved its ratings performance during the 2004-5 season, particularly with a skein of crime shows like the three "C.S.I." dramas.

"The network has a significant dependence on crime now," said John Rash, senior vice president at Campbell Mithun in Minneapolis. "Six of the seven nights on CBS will end with a police procedural."

Still, Ms. Caraccioli-Davis said she believed two new crime shows looked promising: "Close to Home," at 10 p.m. Tuesday and "Criminal Minds," at 9 p.m. Wednesday.

CBS's decision to schedule two hourlong series about the paranormal and aliens, "Ghost Whisperer" and "Threshold," from 8 to 10 p.m. Friday, met with less enthusiasm.

"It will be interesting to see if the sci-fi genre plays on Friday night," said Harry Keeshan, executive vice president at PHD U.S. in New York, part of the PHD media agency owned by Omnicom.

Fox: The executives thanked Fox Broadcasting, part of the News Corporation, for simplifying its schedule from last season, when it had several sets of staggered premieres.

Ms. Koerner and Ms. Caraccioli-Davis praised "Prison Break," a drama at 9 p.m. Monday, and "Reunion," an ensemble drama at 9 p.m. Thursday. Ms. Brill questioned whether "The Gate," a drama at 9 p.m. Friday about bizarre crimes, was "too dark."

Mr. Warren said that with "The War at Home," a family sitcom at 8:30 p.m. Sunday, Fox "has a hit on its hands."

NBC: The 2004-5 season was a flop for NBC, part of the NBC Universal division of General Electric, which fell to fourth from first in the ratings among the viewers most coveted by advertisers, ages 18 to 49.

So Mr. Warren said it was "shocking" that NBC was leaving intact its sagging lineup on Thursday, the biggest night of the week for advertising, particularly when ABC, UPN and WB are seeking to capitalize on NBC's woes by scheduling series that night like "Alias," "Everybody Hates Chris" and "Smallville."

The executives had the most praise for "My Name Is Earl," an offbeat sitcom at 9 p.m. Tuesday; Ms. Caraccioli-Davis called it "strong." But Ms. Koerner said it had "a peculiar feel."

Several executives wondered whether scheduling two consecutive nights of "The Apprentice," with Martha Stewart at 8 p.m. Wednesday and Donald Trump at 9 p.m. Thursday, might be overkill. And Ms. Brill turned thumbs down on "Inconceivable," a drama at 10 p.m. Friday about a fertility clinic, asking, "How many sperm stories can you tell?"

UPN: The executives praised UPN for pursuing the audience of younger women that has been the mainstay of its principal rival, WB, and for stepping up its pursuit of ad dollars on Thursday.

"You've got to hand it to them for putting 'Everybody Hates Chris' on Thursday," Mr. Keeshan said, "because it could be anywhere on the schedule." Mr. Warren predicts that Mr. Rock's sitcom "may be the first show that migrates from UPN to CBS," its bigger corporate sibling.

WB: After a tough season, WB, owned by Time Warner and the Tribune Company, is hoping for hits by signing deals with executive producers of popular series on other networks like Jerry Bruckheimer of the "C.S.I." franchise on CBS and McG of "The O.C." on Fox.

The Bruckheimer series for WB, "Just Legal," an offbeat drama at 9 p.m. Monday, "could break through," Ms. Caraccioli-Davis said, and Ms. Koerner praised its "quirky" appeal.

Mr. Rash singled out the McG series for WB, "Supernatural," a drama at 9 p.m. Tuesday about brothers who chase monsters. "If executed properly," he said, "it has the opportunity to transition the values of big-screen horror films to the small screen."

My apologies, but I will be out of contact with the net for about 24 hours.
Hopefully j_buckingham80 or some other helpful soul will be able to post Monday's overnights.
I will post the weekly ratings as soon as I am able, but it won't be before early Wednesday.
Thanks.

http://www.cnn.com/2005/SHOWBIZ/TV/05/23/apontv.newseason.ap/index.html

Emphasis on supernatural in new shows

Monday, May 23, 2005 Posted: 2:07 PM EDT (1807 GMT)

NEW YORK (AP) -- Here's some advice to television viewers who want to know what next fall's season will be like: Be afraid, be very afraid.

Be afraid of poisonous spiders crawling over your face while you sleep; of aliens invading human bodies or landing in a spaceship in the Atlantic Ocean; of a ghostly woman in white who kills; of sickos who kidnap women and keep them in cages.

There's plenty to give you the creeps, both from the ever-replicating cop shows and the upcoming season's biggest trend -- the supernatural.

CBS is introducing a two-hour block on Friday nights, with Jennifer Love Hewitt talking to dead people in one, and the government massing against an alien invasion in another. ABC's "Invasion" takes another form: The aliens inhabit dead bodies. NBC's new "Fathom" is about a terrifying new form of life found in the ocean's depths. The WB's "Supernatural" traces two young, good-looking brothers who fight evil ghosts.

As always, the glut comes from network executives seeing what's been successful lately and trying to duplicate it. In this case, it's NBC's "Medium," the USA Network's "The 4400" and especially ABC's "Lost," with that malevolent monster out there somewhere.

It's interesting that "Lost," rather than "Desperate Housewives," was the one to draw the most copycats.

"One of the things that surprised me this year is there weren't 27 'Desperate Housewives' rip-offs," said CBS Chairman Leslie Moonves. " 'Desperate Housewives' is a success not because of its genre. It's because it's a terrific show."

That's not for lack of trying: Pilots for shows called "Commuters" and "Soccer Moms" were both made, but must have been really bad not to surface. And there may be "Desperate" traces in "Close to Home," CBS' new drama about a suburban prosecutor, or ABC's "Hot Properties," a comedy about four women in real estate.

Maybe it's just easier for special effects departments to manufacture ghosts and aliens than to duplicate the cast and intricate plot lines of "Desperate Housewives," said Steve Sternberg, a television analyst for the media buying firm Magna Global.

"It always strikes me that the networks and studios think that viewers are looking for something and they're never looking for something," he said. "They are not looking for sci-fi. They're not looking for suburbia because of 'Desperate Housewives.' ... They're looking for a good show that is different."
'Situation comedy is in a sad state'

The fall schedules unveiled for advertisers last week laid bare the emptiness of network comedy development.

Altogether, ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox promised only seven new comedies in the fall. There will be six new police procedural dramas alone, seven if you count NBC's Pentagon drama "E-Ring," which has similar elements.

NBC, which has repeatedly failed to develop strong new comedies as the golden era of "Seinfeld," "Friends" and "Frasier" ended, only bothered to schedule one.

"It's no secret that situation comedy is in a sad state on network television," said NBC Entertainment President Kevin Reilly. "We believe in the genre, but mediocrity is not going to fly."

The most popular returning comedy next fall is CBS's "Two and a Half Men," the Rodney Dangerfield of sitcoms.

"Know why they call it 'Two and a Half Men'?" joked Amy Poehler of "Saturday Night Live." "That's how many people it will take to hold me down to watch it."

Networks have been trying to find the next "Friends" because they think the love lives of people in their 20s will attract viewers in their 20s, Sternberg said. They forget that many of the most popular comedies of the last two decades, like the just-departed "Everybody Loves Raymond," were centered on families, he said.

The most telling sign that the comedy tank is empty came in the renewals of series that are either out of gas or never caught on in the first place: "Will & Grace," "George Lopez," "Jake in Progress," "That '70s Show," "The Office," "Hope & Faith."

The flat-out funniest new comedy appears to be UPN's Chris Rock-narrated tale of growing up in Brooklyn, "Everybody Hates Chris." The title alone drew more laughs from advertisers than highlight clips of other new comedies. It will be a fascinating test case for whether UPN, which usually draws a third of the audience of the Big Four, can join the majors.

The most dependable new genre on television now appears to be Jerry Bruckheimer. Five years ago the producer got his first show on television, "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation." This fall he'll have 10 shows, which the Hollywood Reporter says will break Aaron Spelling's record of eight.

Only UPN isn't in business with him. Yet.

Other buzzworthy new shows, based on three or four minutes of highlights, include ABC's "Commander-in-Chief," with Geena Davis playing the president; Fox's "Reunion"; NBC's Amy Grant reality series "Three Wishes"; and the cute CBS comedy "How I Met Your Mother."

Last spring, some people -- OK, me -- looked at the clips from "Lost" and dismissed it as a derivative cross between "Survivor" and "Cast Away." And no one anticipated that "Desperate Housewives" would be the season's new sensation.

"There's always something with breakout potential," Sternberg said. "But you never see it until it breaks out."

Marc Berman's Programming Insider

Primetime Monday Ratings:
CBS and Fox Share the No. 1 Spot

Monday 5/23/05

Metered Market Ratings

Household Rating/Share
CBS: 10.3/15, Fox: 8.4/12, NBC: 7.9/12, WB: 4.8/ 7, ABC: 4.5/ 7, UPN: 3.0/ 4

-Percent Change From the Comparable Year-Ago Evening (Monday 5/24/04):
WB: +60, NBC: +52, Fox: +14, ABC and CBS: -12 each, UPN: -14

-----

Fast Affiliate Ratings

-Total Viewers:
CBS: 14.65 million, Fox: 12.03, NBC: 10.38, ABC: 6.14, WB: 4.94, UPN: 3.81

-Adults 18-49:
Fox: 5.1/13, CBS: 4.8/12, NBC: 3.9/10, ABC: 2.3/ 6, WB: 1.8/ 5, UPN: 1.6/ 4

-----

-Yesterday’s Winners:
7th Heaven (WB), Two and a Half Men (CBS), 24 (Fox), CSI: Miami (CBS)

-Honorable Mention:
Las Vegas (NBC), Medium (NBC)

-Yesterday’s Losers:
Nick and Jessica’s Tour of Duty (ABC)

-----

-Ratings Breakdown:
In a night of season finales, the strength of CBS’ CSI: Miami (Overnights: #1, 14.8/22; Viewers: #1, 20.52 million; A18-49: #1, 7.1/18 at 10 p.m.) led the Eye net to Monday victory in households and total viewers. Two episodes of Still Standing, which moves to Wednesday at 8 p.m. next fall (in place of the returning King Of Queens), followed by two episodes of Two and Half Men, which inherits Everybody Loves Raymond’s 9 p.m. time period, scored as follows:

CBS/Monday
8:00 p.m. Still Standing
Overnights: 6.0/ 9 (#2), Total Viewers: 8.42 million (#2), A18-49: 2.4/ 7 (#3)

8:30 p.m. Still Standing (season finale)
Overnights: 6.5/10 (#2), Total Viewers: 9.48 million (#2), A18-49: 3.0/ 8 (#3)

9:00 p.m. Two and a Half Men (season finale)
Overnights: 9.8/14 (#1), Total Viewers: 14.17 million (#1), A18-49: 4.4/11 (#2)

9:30 p.m. Two and a Half Men (repeat)
Overnights: 9.9/14 (#1), Total Viewers: 14.81 million (#1), A18-49: 4.8/12 (#2)

Although there is no reason to believe that Still Standing will break out on Wednesday next season, the one advantage it does have is a younger skew than former canceled time period occupant 60 Minutes. As for Two and a Half Men stepping in for Everybody Loves Raymond, I predict erosion of 10 to 15 percent. While that’s nothing to be overly concerned about, the bigger problem CBS will face is lead-out sitcom Out Of Practice, with Henry Winkler and Stockard Channing, at 9:30 p.m. It’s truly awful. For more on the fall season, don’t forget to log-onto http://www.accelacast.com/programs/berman_on_tv1/ for Berman On TV, your free webcast guide.

As a reminder, total viewers and adults 18-49 are based on the fast affiliate ratings.

On Fox, the two-hour season finale of 24, which was more than able to stand on its own this season without support from American Idol, closed with a solid 8.4/12 in the overnights (#2), 12.03 million viewers (#2), and a first-place 5.1/13 among adults 18-49 from 8-10 p.m. In place of 24 next fall, which returns to the 9 p.m. hour in midseason, is new drama Prison Break.

On the WB, the season finale of 7th Heaven clearly did not disappoint with a 5.3/ 8 in the overnights (#3t), 5.23 million viewers (#5), and a 1.9/ 5 among adults 18-49 (#5) at 8 p.m. Entering season 10 next fall, expect this ageless family drama to remain the network’s most watched show. How do you like that Mary? She hasn’t been on the show in years and is still creating turmoil!

Also on the WB, and in season finale news, Everwood closed the season at a healthy 4.3/ 6 in the overnights (#5), 4.64 million viewers (#2), and a 1.7/ 4 among adults 18-49 (#5) at 9 p.m. Although the WB is shipping Everwood to Thursday at 9 p.m. out of the also relocated Smallville, a better option would be to move Everwood to Tuesday at 9 p.m. out of the compatible Gilmore Girls, and new drama Supernatural (which is scheduled Tuesday at 9 p.m.) to Thursday at 9 p.m. out of Smallville. It’s all about compatibility, my friends.

On a night of season finales on NBC, hiatus bound Fear Factor opened with a depressed 5.3/ 8 in the overnights (#3t), 8.31 million viewers (#3), and a 3.4/10 among adults 18-49 (#2), followed by the more reliable Las Vegas (Overnights: #3, 8.7/13; Viewers: #3, 10.93 million; A18-49: #3, 3.9/10), and Medium (Overnights: #2, 9.6/15; Viewers: #2, 11.92 million; A18-49: #2, 4.5/12). Fear Factor will return with original episodes next season in the Tuesday 8 p.m. hour after the next edition of The Biggest Loser concludes.

On a night of season finales on UPN, it was business as usual with One On One (Overnights: #6, 2.5/ 4; Viewers: #6, 3.36 million; A18-49: #6, 1.4/ 4), Cuts (Overnights: #6, 2.7/ 4; Viewers: #6, 3.54 million; A18-49: #6, 1.4/ 4), Girlfriends (Overnights: #6, 3.6/ 5; Viewers: #6, 4.39 million; A18-49: #5, 1.9/ 5), and Half and Half (Overnights: #6, 3.1/ 4; Viewers: #6, 3.92 million; A18-49: #5t, 1.7/ 4). As a reminder, next season Cuts moves to Thursday at 9 p.m. in place of the returning All Of Us. Good luck!

Over at ABC, Extreme Makeover Home Edition: How’d They Do That? (Overnights: #5, 5.2/ 8; Viewers: #4, 6.13 million; A18-49: #4, 2.0/ 6) kicked off the evening in typically bland fashion, followed by two-hour special, Nick and Jessica’s Tour of Duty at a lackluster 4.2/ 6 in the overnights, 6.15 million viewers and a 2.4/ 6 among adults 18-49 from 9-11 p.m.

Source: Nielsen Media Research data

Door Open (Very Slightly) For 7th Sopranos Season
By J. Max Robins Broadcasting & Cable

Sopranos creator David Chase has left the door open a small crack for a possible seventh season for the hit HBO series. In doing so, he seemed to indicate the show’s protagonist, Tony Soprano, will survive season six.
In a dialog with the New Yorker’s Ken Auletta at a media breakfast for the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications Tuesday, Chase was asked by Auletta whether the sixth season would be his last.

Chase said he believed it would be and that the show had run its creative course, but when further pressed he did allow there could be a seventh season without having to alter the outcome of the sixth, which he’s already charted.

That was the clue that Tony would still be standing by the last episode of season six. It also raises the possibility for a Sopranos movie.

Post Sopranos, Chase indicated he wants to leave series television for features films.

HBO is currently in production for a season six, which is set to make its long-awaited return first or second quarter 2006.

Thanks j_buckingham! It turns out I did have internet available this a.m., but will be out of contact for a bit now.

(From Marc Berman’s Programming Insider column Tuesday, May 24th, 2005 at Mediaweek.com)

TV Tidbits: Notes of Interest

Ken Jennings on Comedy Central:
Who Wants to Be a Millionaire producer Michael Davies will develop a new game show for Comedy Central featuring Jeopardy! champ Ken Jennings. Jennings will parlay his encyclopedic knowledge of the world-at-large in this still-in-development half-hour.

Annabella Sciorra Joins Law & Order: Criminal Intent:
Former Sopranos star Annabella Sciorra will join the cast of NBC’s Law & Order: Criminal Intent. Sciorra will play Detective Carolyn Barek, partner of Chris Noth’s Mike Logan.

I'm happy to help out when I'm here.

Hey Fredfa,

I was curious on your take about this May Sweeps for the Nets compared to say last time around.

I'll be happy to give some quick thoughts -- though I'd like to wait until the end of the sweeps to really think things through.
Overall, Fox has had a fabulous sweep and season, but I suspect the Sunday night animated block is pretty weak overall. And, of course, without the Super Bowl and World Series they don't beat CBS in the young demo.
CBS looks very strong for next year. It's strength, as it has been for a few seasons now, is its regular scripted programs which it nurtures and leaves in a relatively stable schedule.
If ABC can build one or two more solid performers (personally, I think "Eyes" could have been a great 10 p.m. show) it will be very tough. (But how long will the "Desperate Housewives" fad last -- and for how many years can those folks stay "Lost"?)
NBC is a disaster, pure and simple, and now even the cash cow "Today" show is about to slip behind "Good Morning America and Letterman seems to showing some slight signs of catching up the Leno.
Reportedly in the week before the upfronts, NBC's Jeff Zucker spent his mornings in the "Today" control room. Perhaps he could have spent his time more wisely?
For one example, I think a few relatively minor tweaks could have saved "Law & Order: Trial By Jury" and at least turned it into a serviceable top 30 show for a few years.
CBS was able to rescue "CSI:NY" from a downward spiral rather easily. NBC seems to have totally lost its feel.

That doesn't totally address your question, but I'll take a fuller look, if you'd like, after the numbers are in.

Five Secrets of the New Fall Season Revealed
Deciphering prime time in a tough upfront ad market
By Jim Benson and Allison Romano Broadcasting & Cable (Additional reporting by Ben Grossman)

Sometime between Jamie Foxx's crooning “America the Beautiful” for NBC's Winter Olympics coverage and UPN President Dawn Ostroff's sashaying onstage at the Theater at Madison Square Garden with a boa—constrictor—around her neck, the 2005-06 television season started to take shape.

After a week of pomp and pageantry, the broadcast-networks' upfront week concluded with heavy doses of justification of the choices for the coming season. Facing a flat year with more than $9 billion in upfront ad commitments, the networks are taking some leaps of faith with some shows while relying on trusted formulas with others.

Some networks are making daring scheduling moves, pitting unknown shows against bona fide hits in the hope that audiences are ready for fresh material. Thursday nights, in particular, are no longer sacred. Sitcoms are all but dead to the networks, with a paucity of potential A-list sitcoms coming out of this season's crop. And wish-fulfillment shows—those formulaic tear-jerkers in which network producers make a game of helping the needy—are filling the gaps.

As network execs try to predict what shows will fly, viewers will decide with their remotes. Already, several veteran shows, such as CBS' Judging Amy, have been whacked. To better decipher what the networks have to offer, consider five essential trends unfolding this fall.

1.Rookies vs. Veterans

Some unknown new series are going up against heavyweights. CBS, for instance, will air its new 10 p.m. Tuesday-night drama Close to Home against Law & Order: SVU on NBC and Boston Legal on ABC.

CBS' 9 p.m. Wednesday procedural drama Criminal Minds faces the monster ABC hit Lost and Bruckheimer's new buzz-worthy NBC military drama E-Ring.

In fact, all the networks face some tough sledding at certain times, says Bill Carroll, VP of programming for station rep firm Katz and a 20-year veteran of network upfronts. “New shows on all the networks are going against really established shows.”

On Thursday nights—considered TV's biggest night because it accounts for 40% of all network advertising revenue—networks have traditionally rolled over, fearful about going up against, at first, NBC's Friends and, then, CBS' Survivor.

“Hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars are at stake” on Thursday, says Viacom Co-President/Co-COO and CBS Chairman Les Moonves. He was the first to take on NBC, which had long owned the night. With Friends gone, though, CBS' challenge turned into a romp on the strength of Survivor, CSI and Without a Trace. Now others want a piece of the Thursday-night action.

The WB will air its hits Smallville and Everwood on Thursday night, while Fox is keeping The O.C. in its 8 p.m. perch and adding The Reunion, about six high school friends. ABC has sent super-spy Sydney Bristow (Jennifer Garner) on what could be a suicide mission, with Alias moving to 8 p.m. Thursdays. It will lead into a new version of The Night Stalker, whose mission will be to help prop up Primetime Live at 10. ABC Entertainment President Stephen McPherson calls the move “scary and exciting.”

Fox audaciously scheduled critically acclaimed Arrested Development, which was in danger of being cancelled, at 8 p.m. Monday. Others weren't so lucky. NBC whacked Law & Order: Trial by Jury. CBS jettisoned its oldest-skewing shows, Joan of Arcadia and Judging Amy. And ABC bid farewell to the comedies My Wife & Kids and 8 Simple Rules.

2. I want my B(ruckheimer)-TV

Jerry Bruckheimer, the creator/executive producer of CSI is the king of network-television production these days. Next season, he will be broadcast TV's most influential and prolific producer, generating 9½ hours of programming, including four new series, the most of any producer. In contrast, his crime rival, Law & Order's Dick Wolf, will have three hours now that NBC cancelled spin-off Law & Order: Trial by Jury.

The Jerry Bruckheimer TV machine already churns out TV's most-watched drama CSI and spin-offs CSI: Miami and CSI: New York, as well as dependable dramas Without a Trace and Cold Case and the Emmy-winning reality hit The Amazing Race. Now Bruckheimer is branching out.

With The WB's upcoming Just Legal, he injects a lighter, comedic tone, pairing Miami Vice alum Don Johnson, a down-on-his-luck lawyer with an idealistic teenage partner. CBS' upcoming Close to Home is centered on a beautiful young prosecutor tackling dark crimes in her seemingly peaceful community.

Having conquered crime shows, Bruckheimer is now attempting a sitcom. Sometime midseason, The WB will debut his Modern Men, but the show already needs some tweaking. The pilot stars Just Shoot Me's Wendie Malick as a life coach trying to teach three twentysomething guys to relate to women. When ABC surprisingly renewed ratings-starved comedy Jake in Progress, which co-stars Malick, it meant her role in Modern Men must be recast.

NBC, struggling to find new hit dramas, is hoping for a little Bruckheimer magic with the upcoming drama E-Ring, about the inner-workings of the Pentagon. In usual Bruckheimer fashion, it boasts big-name actors in Dennis Hopper and Benjamin Bratt. NBC is so bullish on E-Ring that it pushed The West Wing out of its 9 p.m. Wednesday berth to make room for this hopeful.

With 10 shows on his slate, is Bruckheimer spread too thin? Says The WB President of Entertainment David Janollari, “Jerry has never failed to put his hands all over every single show he does. I'm not expecting him to start now.”

3. Light on Laughter

Comedies, once a staple of prime time on the networks, stayed scarce again. For fall, only two comedies appear on the ABC schedule, two each at CBS, Fox, and UPN and one, for the moment, at The WB.

Of the sitcoms showcased last week, only two created enough real buzz to potentially make the A-list: NBC's single-camera comedy My Name Is Earl, about a low-rent crook, airing at 9 p.m. Tuesdays, and UPN's Everyone Hates Chris, narrated and co-executive-produced by comic Chris Rock, at 8 p.m. Thursdays (though being on a mini-network and having a tough time slot could hurt its chances).

CBS' Two and a Half Men proved to be strong with Everybody Loves Raymond as a lead-in; now the sitcom takes the 9 p.m. Raymond slot and becomes the anchor of CBS' Monday comedy franchise. Critics say it must prove itself there to be a stand-alone hit.

At CBS, the 8:30 Monday sitcom How I Met Your Mother has picked up some buzz; ABC has Crumbs, a dysfunctional family in a midseason comedy starring The Wonder Years' kid-turned-adult Fred Savage, from Disney's Touchstone Television.

But judging a sitcom's chances is tough at this point, since few in the industry have seen full pilots, only cut-downs. Often, ad buyers are persuaded by a combination of factors: the clips used, how well the network articulates its strategy, and where networks put the shows.

For example, CBS put the high-concept sitcom Out of Practice at 9:30 Monday in probably the best hammock on TV, between Two and a Half Men and CSI: Miami. The network is likely betting that it can easily promote stars like Henry Winkler and Stockard Channing, as well as the concept of a dysfunctional family of doctors.

CBS, meanwhile, has moved King of Queens back to Monday nights at 8 from Wednesday at 9, which may help make Mother into a franchise show. Queens star Kevin James has signed for one more year at a reported $500,000-plus per episode. That fee could drastically climb next year if James decides to leave to pursue a full-time movie career and CBS has nothing strong enough to lead off the night.

4. More Episodes to the Rescue

Vowing to attract viewer loyalty, the networks made a promise to viewers: More episodes are on the way.
Many believe ABC risked alienating its audience with a long midseason hiatus for Desperate Housewives, but viewers were patient. Even so, the networks—like The WB, which ordered 26 episodes of returning drama One Tree Hill—promised to go into next season with larger episode orders.

Other motives besides public service are at work, however. During the network run of shows, the studios deficit-finance them. Their goal is to get to 100 episodes, then sell the programs in syndication for a hefty profit.

When the shows were under separate ownership, the networks had no vested interest in seeing them succeed. Now, with vertical integration putting all the networks under the same roof as the production units, it is in the networks' best interest to rack up the episodes as fast as possible. They can get there in four years with 26 episodes versus five years with 22 episodes.

Having more episodes is important for another key reason. With ratings races tighter now than ever and ad dollars harder for the networks to come by, it's important for them to come to the upfronts and claim victory in any ratings category.

The only way to accomplish that is to have more episodes ordered, so they can go into the May sweeps with their best shows and fewer reruns. “It's all about bragging rights,” one industry observer noted.

5. Tear-Jerkers

Worried that the reality craze is slowing down? It's not. It's just morphing. The networks sprinkled unscripted tear-jerkers liberally around their fall lineups. Can anyone unseat reigning champ Extreme Makeover: Home Edition in the race to make women sob and men get called SOBs for being so insensitive? The early money might actually be on Ashton Kutcher's Beauty and the Geek (debuting June 1 on The WB), which had people talking well after the network presented it to advertisers. The show is about a bunch of geeky men pairing up with a bevy of intellectually challenged babes, with the idea that the couples teach each other to be better people—and hope not to be eliminated each week.

Competition for the Tear-Jerker Tiara will also come this fall from NBC's Three Wishes, in which former country star Amy Grant saunters into a small town with her crew and makes the wishes of three needy residents come true. From a little girl who gets a much needed operation to a young boy getting adopted by his beloved stepfather, prepare for an all-out and shameless assault on your heartstrings.

And while neither Beauty nor Three Wishes showed much in the way of product placement in the clips, these shows are obviously prime vehicles to sell, well, anything. If reality shows have taught us anything, it is that our emotions are for sale. Although ABC has only the one hour of Home Edition slated for fall (gone are the original Extreme Makeover and Extreme Makeover: How'd They Do That?), other shows returning from the feel-good movement include NBC's The Biggest Loser and ABC's Wife Swap.

Jerry Bruckheimer has brought a mega-movie mentality to the small screen
He's thinking inside the box -- and the concept has caught on big time
By Scott Collins and Maria Elena Fernandez Los Angeles Times Staff Writers

Jerry Bruckheimer grew rich churning out fast-paced, thumping action films aimed squarely at the teenage boys who rule the multiplex: "Top Gun," "The Rock," "Con Air." But the 59-year-old super-producer has spent much of the past five years wooing a much different crowd — the older and far more female-skewing audience that stays home. And now the results are shaking up prime-time TV.

In an astonishing blitz at the advertising "upfronts" in New York last week, network executives picked up four of Bruckheimer's five pilots as new fall series, including NBC's Pentagon thriller "E-Ring" and CBS' legal drama "Close to Home." When added to his existing shows — including the three "CSI" series, "Without a Trace" and "The Amazing Race" — Bruckheimer will oversee 10 prime-time series in the 2005-06 season, the most ever for an individual producer, eclipsing "Charlie's Angels" impresario Aaron Spelling, who had seven shows on the air for two seasons in the mid-'80s, and "All in the Family's" Norman Lear, who had seven network shows plus the syndicated "Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman" in 1975.

Asked his reaction, Bruckheimer was characteristically reserved. "Can't complain," he said, fresh from being feted Wednesday evening at the CBS bash at Central Park's Tavern on the Green. At the end of the week, he jetted off to the Bahamas to work on the two "Pirates of the Caribbean" sequels shooting simultaneously there.

Bruckheimer might not be known for stirring oratory (as "Amazing Race" executive producer Bertram Van Munster explained: "He's not a man of many words, but what he does say is really on the money"). But it's clear that he and his top TV lieutenant, ex-Fox executive Jonathan Littman, have succeeded in bringing relatively sophisticated, feature-style storytelling and production values into episodic television — a format that a couple of seasons ago was seen as creatively and financially bereft, with tens of millions of viewers flocking to "reality" shows.

Now millions flock to Bruckheimer shows, a fact not lost on network executives. His original "CSI" series is TV's most-watched drama, and "Cold Case," "Without a Trace," "The Amazing Race" and the "CSI" spinoffs are usually in the top 20.

Bruckheimer "said in the past that his approach is that he makes 'feature television,' " said David Janollari, entertainment president at the WB, which last week ordered "Modern Men," Bruckheimer's first sitcom, about single guys navigating the dating scene, and "Just Legal," a wry drama. "He approaches everything like a movie, even the comedy. [It's] a showman perspective: 'How can we put the best look and the best values up on the screen?' "

A key part to Bruckheimer's success, in fact, may be that he's kept his film-producer ambitions, even in a business where the harried demands of grinding out 22 or more episodes per year often mean cutting creative corners and where studios are forever pushing to trim costs.

Ann Donahue, executive producer of CBS' "CSI: Miami," recalled that after the show's first-season finale was edited, Bruckheimer praised the episode overall but detected something missing from the climactic chase: "You needed more cops in that last scene," Donahue recalled him saying.

"He notices everything," she said. "Making television shows used to be about recording conversations; now it really is filmmaking.... One of the first things Jerry said to me was, 'When people are flipping through channels, I want them to know there's a unique look and feel to a show.' "

TV veterans are stunned by how quickly Bruckheimer has conquered the medium. Before CBS bought "CSI" in 2000, he was known as a purveyor of unapologetically escapist theatrical fare, including "Flashdance," "Beverly Hills Cop" and "Bad Boys." His relentless cinematic populism — and occasional promotional excesses with his flamboyant producing partner, the late Don Simpson — made him as suspect among some film fans as he was beloved by studio executives. When the Simpson-Bruckheimer partnership was at its zenith in the late 1980s, director Steven Soderbergh famously dismissed the pair in a Rolling Stone interview as "slime, barely passing for human" (Soderbergh later apologized).

Shortly after Simpson's death in 1996, Bruckheimer began the push into TV, hiring Littman to start a television production division the following year. Colleagues say both men manage to offer writers helpful suggestions without becoming overbearing.

"At the end of the day, they say, 'It's your show,' and allow you to do what you like and want to do," said Hank Steinberg, executive producer of "Without a Trace," a missing-persons procedural that's grown into a hit for CBS in the crucial 10 p.m. Thursday slot opposite NBC's powerhouse "ER." Another selling point for writers: Thanks largely to their track record, Bruckheimer and Littman have the clout to stand up to network execs. "They're willing to play bad cop so you don't have to get your hands dirty," Steinberg said.

CBS, for example, was initially tepid to the notion of casting Jennifer Finnigan as the lead in the new courtroom drama "Close to Home." But Bruckheimer fought hard for Finnigan, who he believed was perfect for the role. "Jerry was in her corner from day one, and for me that's important," said Leslie Moonves, Viacom co-chief operating officer and the executive who oversees CBS.

Similarly, Bruckheimer pushed to hire Danny Cannon to direct the pilot for "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation." The network balked because executives believed Cannon didn't have enough mainstream feature or TV experience.

"Jerry said, 'Trust me, this guy has an unbelievable vision,' " Moonves recalled. Cannon got the job and has been with the series ever since.

When a pilot Bruckheimer had pitched to NBC last season didn't come together, he and Kevin Reilly, the network's entertainment president, agreed to find something that would work. This season, Bruckheimer and his team approached NBC with the "E-Ring" idea with Ken Robinson, a 20-year veteran of the Pentagon, and writer David McKenna attached to create the show.

"Those two really clicked," Reilly said. "When we sat down and Robinson started telling his story, we just could see it. We could see the show."

When NBC agreed to make the pilot, Bruckheimer attached "Ray" director Taylor Hackford.

"One of the assets of being in business with Jerry is that he gets the highest caliber of people to be in front of and behind the camera," Reilly said. "So it gave Taylor the comfort to come and do a television pilot, which I don't believe he had done before. That combination attracted Ben Bratt, who everybody in town was wooing to do a series."

Bruckheimer downplayed his involvement, saying, "It's about working with really talented people." But then he added: "I'll read every script, I'll look at every episode. I'll be involved in the casting for the pilots."

Littman, closer to the day-to-day mechanics of production, came up with the initial concepts for two series, "Without a Trace," which Littman said was inspired by his fascination with the mystery surrounding Washington intern Chandra Levy, and the new "Close to Home," a courtroom drama centered on a suburban female prosecutor that was inspired by the Laci Peterson murder case. Both fit squarely in the genre that stirs Littman most: "When we sold 'CSI,' everyone said, 'Mystery can't be done, [the audience will] skew too old, no network is going to buy it,' " Littman recalled. But "I've never known anyone to put down a good" mystery.

By all accounts, though, it's Bruckheimer's sharp commercial instincts that set the tone.

"Jerry is the architect; Jonathan is the contractor," said Peter Roth, president of Warner Bros. Television, where Bruckheimer has had an overall producing deal since 2001.

Since "CSI" took off, they have carefully plotted their current prime-time ramp-up. At one time Littman ran the TV division pretty much by himself, but in recent years the company has hired a trio of executives to help manage details on the shows: Mike Azzolino, Kimberly Metcalf and KristieAnne Reed.

Bruckheimer said he isn't setting out to get a show on every network — at the moment, he doesn't have anything on ABC, Fox or UPN. But he sounds as if he's just getting started making television.

"When somebody comes up with a great idea that we want to do, we're going to do it," he said. "I love working." CBS, which until last week had Bruckheimer all to itself, will have to get used to sharing.

Joked Moonves: "I'm a little jealous. It's like the girl you're dating who wants to try dating someone else."

I snipped them for you at www.snipurl.com

Thanks for the original links. It was exactly what I was looking for in terms of summary and organization.

Exactly! I was interested in Kitchen Confidential since Bradley Cooper (Alias) is in it, but now I find out that Nicholas Brendon (Buffy: The Vampire Slayer) is in it, along with the attractive Bonnie Somerville and Jaime King too!

Add in the fact that I didn't pay much attention to the name of the chef that the show is loosely based on (Anthony Bourdain) who is, as viewers of the old Food Network show "A Cook's Tour" already know, an interesting character.

~Alan<~~~~~~Who is glad to see some "Buffy" actors/actresses have jobs this Fall!

“House” Season Finale
Fox to Start New Season in August

By David Hiltbrand Philadelphia Inquirer Staff Writer

It's hard to imagine a more disagreeable TV doctor than the title character of Fox's quirky medical drama, House. Gregory House is brusque, cynical and misanthropic. And that's when he's in a generous mood.
Hugh Laurie, who plays this toxic New Jersey infectious-diseases specialist, describes House's bedside manner as "nonexistent."

"A large part of his day is spent avoiding being bedside at all. There have been a couple of shows where he hasn't even spoken to his patient."

Certainly, no one would accuse House of being a workhorse. "He's just plain lazy," Laurie says. "There is a streak in him, a rather adolescent avoidance of responsibility."

The show wasn't much of a self-starter, either, languishing after its November debut. But since acquiring American Idol as a lead-in in January, House's average viewership has vaulted from 6.5 million to 16.2 million per week, an increase of 149 percent. That audience will probably increase for tonight's 9 p.m. season finale, preceded by the performance half of Idol's two-part season-ender.

With the series now a consistent Top 10 Nielsen performer, Greg House has become one of prime time's favorite antiheroes. In each episode, he and his team try to cheat death by curing fast-developing illnesses that defy diagnosis.

What makes the brilliant but brackish House so compelling, despite his many flaws?

"I think the audience senses his unhappiness and can tell he is tormented by various demons," Laurie says. "That mitigates his cruelty. He dislikes himself as much as he dislikes his fellow man."

Laurie, 45, spoke last week from a hotel suite in Manhattan where he is about to take part in the network's unveiling of its fall schedule. "I do the beauty parade this afternoon. I see there's a half-hour allotted to grooming. That's intriguing."

With his mellifluous Oxbridge accent, the urbane Englishman is an unlikely choice to play an abrasive American, especially since his forte has always been light comedy, such as Jeeves and Wooster and Blackadder.

He was in Africa making the film Flight of the Phoenix when he got the audition pages for House. "When pilot season comes around, all the actors on the set are getting scripts sent to them," says Laurie, who enlisted a castmate to help him tape his House scene.

"I held the camera for him while he did his audition for something else, then he held the camera for me."

He wouldn't have gotten the part if his American accent weren't so convincing. The show's executive producers, creator David Shore and director Bryan Singer, had already seen an army of actors.

"It attracted a lot of people, and, oddly, we saw a lot of English actors," Shore recalls. "Bryan got tired of it, because they couldn't sustain the accent. 'I can't see any more foreign actors,' he finally said. The next day we got Laurie's tape in the mail and Singer said, 'Why can't we see more actors like this?'

"I waited a few days before pointing out that Hugh is English."

Laurie picked up his Yankee diction from the telly.

"In England we get a huge amount of American TV shows," he says. "It's pretty grim but that was my schooling. I still have good days and bad days. On the bad days, I'm really struggling with the accent. Anything with an R is a big problem. Federal court order is very difficult. Coronary artery is almost impossible."

American TV is far more demanding because the season is three times as long.

"It's a similar work schedule on British TV, but we only make six shows," he notes. "Being on a show that goes on for nine months - that is a strange concept for an English actor. I've never worked this hard, but the fact is I love it. Of course, there have been some days where the thought of taking off for Rio has become very appealing."

In fact, Laurie is about to head home to visit his wife, Jo, and children, Charlie, 16; Bill, 14; and Rebecca, 11. He has had little time off because he recently finished tonight's finale. And Fox wants an early August start for the series' second season.

"This doesn't qualify as the term hiatus itself," Laurie says of his break. "It's more of a hi."

"House" info is *always* welcome! Thanks!

Paul

STRONG THURSDAY FINALES HIGHLIGHT NBC'S FINAL FULL WEEK OF THE '04-05 SEASON
( May 24, 2005 )

STRONG THURSDAY FINALES HIGHLIGHT NBC'S FINAL FULL WEEK OF THE '04-05 SEASON

'ER' SEWS UP ITS HIGHEST 18-49 RATING SINCE FEB. 3 AND ITS TOP TOTAL VIEWERSHIP SINCE JAN. 27

'APPRENTICE' SURGES 80 PERCENT ABOVE ITS LEAD-IN AGAINST COMPETITION FROM A SPECIAL 'IDOL' AND EXPANDED 'CSI' FINALE

'LAW & ORDER: SVU' DOMINATES ITS HOUR IN 18-49 AND OTHER MEASURES, BEATING THE ABC-CBS COMPETITION COMBINED IN ADULTS, MEN AND WOMEN 18-34

FRIDAY'S 'DATELINE' IS #1 BY ALL KEY MEASURES, REPORTING NBC'S HIGHEST SLOT RATINGS IN 11 WEEKS AND PACING NBC TO ITS 17TH FRIDAY WIN OF THE SEASON IN 18-49

NBC APPROACHES THE '04-05 FINISH WITHIN 0.6 OF A POINT OF FIRST IN 18-49 AND 0.4 IN 18-49 NON-SPORTS


BURBANK, Calif. – May 24, 2005 – Strong numbers from the season finales of Thursday stalwarts "ER," "The Apprentice" and "Will & Grace" paced NBC's week of May 16-22, the last full measured week of the regular 2004-05 broadcast season, according to in-home viewing figures from Nielsen Media Research.

Through 35 full weeks (and with three nights remaining to be measured in the 2004-05 season), NBC is within 0.6 of a rating point of first place among adults 18-49 for all programs and is within 0.4 of a rating point of the primetime lead, excluding sports.

Primetime averages for all programs for the 2004-05 season in adults 18-49 are Fox (4.1/11), CBS (4.0/11), ABC (3.7/10), NBC (3.5/9), UPN (1.4/4) and WB (1.4/4). In total viewers, the 2004-05 season averages for all programs are CBS (12.9 million), ABC (10.1 million), Fox (9.9 million), NBC (9.8 million), UPN (3.4 million) and WB (3.4 million

Excluding sports, the 2004-05 season-to-date primetime averages in adults 18-49 are: CBS (3.9 rating), ABC (3.6), NBC (3.5), Fox (3.5), WB (1.4), UPN (1.3). Total viewer averages, excluding sports are: CBS (12.7 million), NBC (9.8 million), ABC (9.7 million), Fox (8.3 million), WB (3.3 million) and UPN (2.9 million).

NBC remains the industry leader in key upscale categories measured by Nielsen's National Audience Demographics (NAD) data, including ranking #1 for the season in adults 18-49 living in homes with $100,000+ annual incomes. Regular-series averages through May 8 for adults 18-49 living in homes with 100,000+ annual incomes are: NBC, 4.4 rating, ABC, 4.1; CBS, 4.1; Fox, 3.2; WB, 1.1; UPN, 0.6. NBC's concentration of 18-49 viewers living in $75,000+ homes is the network's highest ever in the nine seasons Nielsen has regularly measured this category.

Other 2004-05 Season Highlights:

* "Las Vegas" is the #1-ranked sophomore drama of the season in adults 18-49.

* The freshman series "Medium" is NBC's top-rated Monday drama in 15 seasons in adults 18-49. "Medium" has improved NBC's Monday 10 p.m. ET time period performance by 90 percent in adults 18-49 (versus NBC's regular program average for the slot prior to the debut of "Medium" on Jan. 3).

* "The Biggest Loser" was the #1 new unscripted series of the 2004-05 season in adults 18-49. Its 18-49 rating was up 116 percent versus NBC's regular program performance in the time period this season before and after "Biggest Loser."

* Freshman comedy "The Office" was television's most upscale comedy of the 2004-05 season, delivering the highest concentration of 18-49 viewers in upscale homes by several key measures, including adults 18-49 living in homes with incomes of $75,000+. "The Office" retained 93 percent of its lead-in from "Scrubs" in its Tuesday time period in which NBC this season previously averaged 84 percent retention with regular programs.

* "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" dominated its drama competition and delivered its highest-rated season ever in adults 18-49.

* "The West Wing" was television's most upscale drama of the 2004-05 season, delivering the highest concentration of 18-49 viewers in upscale homes by numerous key measures, including adults 18-49 living in homes with incomes of $75,000+.

* "The Apprentice" was television's most upscale unscripted series of the 2004-05 season, delivering the highest concentration of 18-49 viewers in upscale homes by several key measures, including adults 18-49 living in homes with incomes of $75,000+.

* "ER" was NBC's top-rated drama in adults 18-49, a distinction this series has earned in each of its 11 seasons.

* "Dateline NBC" won its Friday hour in adults 18-49 versus regular competition for the eighth season in a row (including a tie).

NBC is wrapping up the 2004-05 regular broadcast season ranked #1 in key demographics in late night, daytime (tie), morning news, evening news and Sunday morning public affairs.

Primetime averages for the week of May 16-22 in adults 18-49 were CBS (4.4/12), Fox (4.3/12), ABC (3.8/11), NBC (3.0/9), UPN (1.6/4) and WB (1.5/4). In total viewers, the weekly averages were CBS (14.1 million), Fox (10.2 million), ABC (9.9 million), NBC (8.8 million), UPN (3.7 million) and WB (3.5 million).

NBC highlights for the week of May 16-22 include:

* On Tuesday, "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" dominated its hour against special competition from CBS' "Academy of Country Music Awards," delivering its highest ratings in more than two months and beating the ABC-CBS competition combined in adults, men and women 18-34.

* On Wednesday, "Law & Order" built on its lead-in by 30 percent in 18-49 and 49 percent in total viewers, winning its hour in the latter category.

* On Thursday, the third-cycle finale of "The Apprentice" built on its lead-in by 80 percent in adults 18-49 to rank a strong #2 in 18-49 and all other key ratings measures in head-to-head competition with an "American Idol" special on Fox and a special expanded "CSI" finale on CBS.

* Also on Thursday, the 11th-season finale of "ER" sewed up its best 18-49 rating since Feb. 3 and its largest total viewership since Jan. 27, ranking #1 in most key demographics and matching the ABC-CBS competition in the hour combined in adults 18-34.

* On Friday, a special two-hour "Dateline NBC" reported NBC's best numbers in the time period in 11 weeks and ranked #1 in adults 18-49, adults 25-54 and total viewers. "Dateline" was the night's #1 telecast in 18-49 and total viewers, pacing NBC to its 17th Friday win of the season in adults 18-49 and 14th in total viewers.

* On Saturday, an encore "Law & Order" was primetime's highest-rated show in 18-49 and total viewers.

May 2005 sweep averages in adults 18-49 through Sunday, 25 nights into the 28-night period, are: CBS (4.2/12), Fox (4.0/12), ABC (3.7/11), NBC (3.2/9), UPN (1.5/4) and WB (1.4/4). In total viewers, the 25-night May sweep averages are CBS (13.9 million), ABC (9.8 million), Fox (9.4 million), NBC (9.2 million), UPN (3.5 million) and WB (3.4 million).


MONDAY

From 8-11 p.m. ET, on Monday, May 16, "Hercules" averaged a 2.6 rating, 6 share in 18-49 and 7.2 million viewers overall.


TUESDAY

At 8 p.m. ET, an encore telecast of "The Most Outrageous Live TV Moments 3" (1.8/5 in 18-49, 5.5 million viewers overall) matched NBC's highest 18-49 rating in this time period in more than two months (since Feb. 1).

At 9 p.m. ET, a special encore "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" built on its 18-49 lead-in by 61 percent to average a 2.9/7 in 18-49 and 9.7 million total viewers overall.

At 10 p.m. ET, "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" (5.7/15 in 18-49, 16.2 million viewers overall) dominated the hour against special competition from CBS' "Academy of Country Music Awards." "SVU" won the time period in adults 18-49 by a 25 percent margin of victory (5.5 vs. 4.4 for CBS' awards special) and beat the ABC-CBS competition combined in adults, men and women 18-34. This was the highest-rated episode of "SVU" since March 8 in the key demographic of adults 18-49.


WEDNESDAY

At 8 p.m. ET, "Dateline NBC" averaged a 1.7/5 in 18-49 and 6.4 million viewers overall. "Dateline" beat rival newsmagazine "60 Minutes Wednesday" in adults 18-49, adults 25-54 and most other key demos.

At 9 p.m. ET, the conclusion of "Revelations" (3.0/8 in 18-49, 8.1 million viewers overall) built on its 18-49 lead-in by 76 percent. From half-hour to half-hour, "Revelations" grew by 31 percent in 18-49 (to a 3.4 from a 2.6).

At 10 p.m. ET, "Law & Order" (3.9/10 in 18-49, 12.1 million viewers overall) improved on its 18-49 lead-in from the previous hour by 30 percent in adults 18-49. "Law & Order" won the hour in total viewers.


THURSDAY

NBC matched its highest Thursday nightlong 18-49 rating since Feb. 17.

From 8-9 p.m. ET, the hour-long seventh-season finale of "Will & Grace" (3.5/10 in 18-49, 7.9 million viewers overall) matched that series' highest 18-49 rating since March 17. "Will & Grace" ranked #2 in the time period in 18-49 (tied with Fox's "The O.C."), total viewers and other key ratings categories and grew by 39 percent in 18-49 from its first half-hour to its second (to a 3.9 from a 2.8).

From 9-9:59 p.m. ET, the third-cycle finale of "The Apprentice" (6.3/15 in 18-49, 14.0 million viewers overall) built on its lead-in by 80 percent in adults 18-49 to rank #2 in 18-49 and all other key ratings measures while facing head-to-head competition from an "American Idol" special on Fox and a special expanded "CSI" finale on CBS. "The Apprentice" beat the slot's #3 program, Fox's "Idol" special, by a 53 percent margin in adults 18-49 (6.1 vs. 4.0 for the "American Idol" special).

From 9:59-11 p.m. ET, the 11th-season finale of "ER" (8.6/21 in adults 18-49, 18.8 million viewers overall) sewed up its best 18-49 rating since Feb. 3 and its largest total viewership since Jan. 27. "ER" was #1 in most key demographics and matched the ABC-CBS competition in the hour combined in adults 18-34. In the key demographic of adults 18-49, "ER" won the hour by a comfortable 26 percent margin (8.6 vs. 6.8) despite CBS' "Without a Trace" having inherited a 95 percent lead-in advantage from "CSI" (12.3 vs. 6.3 in the 9-10 p.m. hour). In its second half-hour, "ER" stretched its lead over the second-place "Without a Trace" to 35 percent in adults 18-49 (8.8 vs. 6.5) from 17 percent in the first half-hour (8.3 vs. 7.1).


FRIDAY

From 8-10 p.m. ET, "Dateline NBC" (2.8/10 in 18-49, 9.5 million viewers overall) reported NBC's highest 18-49 rating in this time period in 11 weeks (since March 4) and ranked #1 in adults 18-49, adults 25-54 and total viewers. From its first half-hour to its fourth, "Dateline" grew in 18-49 rating by 62 percent (to a 3.4 from a 2.1).

At 10 p.m. ET, an encore "Law & Order: Trial by Jury" (2.5/8 in 18-49, 8.7 million viewers overall) ranked #1, beating its first-run competition in adults 18-49, total viewers and other key measures.


SATURDAY

At 8 p.m. ET, an encore "Crossing Jordan" averaged a 1.0/4 in 18-49 and 3.9 million viewers overall.

At 9 p.m. ET, a rebroadcast "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" (1.8/6 in 18-49, 6.3 million viewers overall) built on its 18-49 lead by 80 percent to lift NBC to a strong #2 finish in the hour in 18-49 and other key ratings categories. "SVU" was #1 or tied for #1 in all key adult female demographics.

At 10 p.m. ET, an encore "Law & Order" (2.5/8 in 18-49, 8.8 million viewers overall) was the top-rated program in primetime on Saturday in adults 18-49 and total viewers. "Law & Order" won the hour in 18-49 and other key ratings measures.


SUNDAY

From 7-8 p.m. ET, "Dateline NBC" averaged a 1.7/6 in 18-49 and 6.7 million viewers overall.

At 8 p.m. ET, "The Contender" (2.6/7 in 18-49, 5.9 million viewers overall) built on its lead-in by 53 percent in 18-49 and by 142 percent in adults 18-34 (2.9 vs. 1.2). As it has with all 11 telecasts in this time period, "Contender" bulked up significantly from its first half-hour to its second, this week increasing its 18-49 rating by 30 percent (to a 3.0 from a 2.3).

At 9 p.m. ET, a special encore "Crossing Jordan" averaged a 1.5/3 in 18-49 and 4.9 million viewers overall.

At 10 p.m. ET, a special rebroadcast of "Law & Order: Criminal Intent" built on its 18-49 lead-in by 67 percent to deliver a 2.5/6 in 18-49 and 8.0 million viewers overall.


WEEKLY AVERAGES
Average rating, share and audience in each category

ADULTS 18-49

CBS 4.4/12, 5.7 million
Fox 4.3/12, 5.6 million
ABC 3.8/11, 5.0 million
NBC 3.0/9, 4.0 million
UPN 1.6/4, 2.0 million
WB 1.5/4, 2.0 million

Each rating point equals 1.30 million viewers

ADULTS 25-54

CBS 5.3/14, 6.5 million
Fox 4.6/12, 5.6 million
ABC 4.3/11, 5.3 million
NBC 3.7/9, 4.5 million
WB 1.5/4, 1.8 million
WB 1.4/4, 1.7 million

Each rating point equals 1.22 million viewers

TOTAL VIEWERS

CBS 5.1/14, 14.1 million
Fox 3.7/10, 10.2 million
ABC 3.6/10, 9.9 million
NBC 3.2/8, 8.8 million
WB 1.3/3, 3.7 million
WB 1.3/3, 3.5 million

Each rating point equals 2.78 million viewers


SEASON-TO-DATE AVERAGES
Average rating, share and audience in each category

ADULTS 18-49

Fox 4.1/11, 5.3 million
CBS 4.0/11, 5.2 million
ABC 3.7/10, 4.9 million
NBC 3.5/9, 4.6 million
WB 1.4/4, 1.8 million
UPN 1.4 /4, 1.8 million

Each rating point equals 1.30 million viewers

ADULTS 25-54

CBS 4.9/12, 6.0 million
ABC 4.3/10, 5.2 million
Fox 4.3/10, 5.2 million
NBC 4.2/10, 5.1 million
UPN 1.4/3, 1.7 million
WB 1.3/3, 1.7 million

Each rating point equals 1.22 million viewers

TOTAL VIEWERS

CBS 4.7/12, 12.9 million
ABC 3.6/9, 10.1 million
Fox 3.6/9, 9.9 million
NBC 3.5/9, 9.8 million
UPN 1.2/3, 3.4 million
WB 1.2/3, 3.4 million

Each rating point equals 2.78 million viewers

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

George:
I will always love 30 Rock and the folks who work there.

But that Peacock press release contains some amazing stuff.

It almost makes the stories of the band playing while the Titanic sank pale by comparison!

(And do we think that next season, when NBC carries the Winter Olympics in the February sweep, that its end-of-season press release will talk about ratings "excluding sports"?)

:)

A note:

During much of the season I have posted weekly lists of each network's top-five rated programs as well as each network's bottom-five rated programs.

The lists were designed to give you a more concise idea of which shows were doing exceptionally well, and which were doing poorly.

Since there is no longer any (well, much) doubt about next year's network schedules, I've stopped posting those listings.

I hope to resume them in the fall.

Fox and CBS sharing wealth
Nets neck and neck as biz has a banner year

By JOSEF ADALIAN, MICHAEL SCHNEIDER Variety.com (Rick Kissell contributed to this report.)

It'll be a photo finish, but the 2004-05 season will end tonight with two clear-cut winners: Fox and CBS.

For the first time in its 19-year history, Fox will end a season as the No. 1 network among the advertiser-coveted demo of adults 18-49 (as well as adults 18-34 and teens). The Eye, meanwhile, can claim near-parity with Fox in young adults, an outright win among adults 25-54, and the most dominant total viewer victory by any network in 16 years.

Good news also extends to ABC: The season's comeback kid soared 16% above last year's adult 18-49 average and rose from a distant fourth in the demo to a solid third.

Overall, despite troubling long-term trends for broadcasters, the network biz had a banner year, with the six-net average dipping just a tenth of a rating point year-to-year, compared with annual drops of at least half a rating point since the start of the century. If it hadn't been for NBC's swan dive from first to worst, broadcasters would have actually reversed their slide.

"It was a good year for broadcast TV," said ABC Entertainment prexy Steve McPherson. "The idea that you can have a Sunday night like a few weeks ago, where 'Survivor' does well, and we do phenomenal numbers and Fox does well with its animation means that you've got all these people coming to broadcast television. It shows there's just a thirst for appointment television."

Critics hail season


Indeed, this season saw several smashes ("Desperate Housewives," "Grey's Anatomy," "Lost," "House") in addition to some more modest hits ("CSI: NY," "Medium," "Numbers"). Critical acclaim has also accompanied the ratings success, with several national critics already hailing the 2004-05 season as one of the medium's best in years.

Nina Tassler, wrapping up her first year as president of CBS Entertainment, said the Eye's victories this season repped the culmination of Viacom co-prexy Leslie Moonves' "master plan" for the net.

"Slow and steady wins the race," Tassler said. "Referring back to Leslie's agenda, it was to build our schedule night-by-night and never turn away from our core audience. You want your viewers and households, and as a bonus you'll get 18-49 as well."

CBS has plenty of reasons to crow at season's end.

Image makeover

Ten years after Moonves took control of CBS, the net has once and for all shaken its image as the "geezer" net. Indeed, had CBS broadcast the Super Bowl in January, it might have claimed outright victory in adults 18-49.

In addition to longtime power centers such as "CSI" and "Survivor," net made inroads elsewhere, with "CSI: NY" displacing "Law & Order" as the 10 p.m. Wednesday leader, "Amazing Race" turning into a bonafide hit and "Two and a Half Men" emerging as a credible successor to "Everybody Loves Raymond." Latter laffer ranked as TV's No. 1 sitcom in its final season.

"One of the most exciting opportunities for us has been the arrival of 'Two and a Half Men' to Monday nights," Tassler said.

From a revenue standpoint, Eye's biggest accomplishment was its emergence as the No. 1 on Thursdays among adults 18-49. Ending NBC's longtime dominance of the night should pay off handsomely in the upfront ad market, with the Eye capturing an even bigger percentage of the lucrative film marketing money.

Fox Entertainment prexy Peter Liguori, on the job for barely two months, didn't try to claim any personal credit for the victory-- but he also didn't downplay its historic significance.

"We've outlined a seven-night-a-week strong schedule," he said. "With growth in returning shows, growth in new shows, strong moves to improve nights, this is a broad, four-corner foundation we've created for the network," he said.

There's no denying "American Idol" played a big part in Fox's win, but the fact that Fox was actually able to grow the ratings for a four-year-old show ranks as a huge accomplishment in itself.

Net also gets points for nurturing "House" into a hit, and successfully re-launching "Family Guy," thus shoring up its Sunday animation block. Fox also made the year's gutsiest scheduling moves by shifting "24" to Mondays and "The OC" to Thursdays -- and both paid off
.
Reality unit delivers


And despite some fall failures, Fox's reality division delivered with returning successes "Trading Spouses" and "Nanny 911."

"The bar is set high, and the goal of everyone here is not to limbo underneath it, but high-hurdle over it," Liguori said. "I do feel the target on our back is bigger and fatter than any other network. People are coming to work with their game faces on."

When called by Daily Variety for comment, Par prexy Gail Berman, who ankled the web earlier this month after five years as head of the net's entertainment division, said she was "proud of the team" that delivered Fox its victory.

"It was a brilliant season to be a part of," she said, adding that she wished Liguori "and the team all the best going forward."

With Fox laying a solid foundation for next season, it seems unikely to suffer from its usual fall collapse come September -- a fact that could make next year's ratings race even tighter.

'Comeback in progress'

Though McPherson has labeled the net's performance a "comeback in progress," no network had better luck developing and marketing new shows this year.

The hit parade started with "DH" (the year's No. 1 scripted show on any net) and "Lost" and ended this spring with "Grey's Anatomy" -- the latter skein displacing "ER" as TV's top-rated medical drama. In between, ABC also hatched some solid reality players ("Wife Swap," "Supernanny") and turned second-year unscripted skein "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" into a blockbuster.

McPherson said his exec team "put their heads down and did the work" to help create the net's revival.
"I don't think there's any magic formula to this," he said. "We just tried to prioritize our marketing campaigns and be in business with the right people so that shows would stay good beyond the pilots."

As for NBC, the Peacock's slide --17% by season's end -- got worse as the year wore on.

Net has ranked fourth in demos for eight of the last 10 weeks, with every single returning NBC show (save "Law & Order: SVU") down year-to-year.

Bright side? Midseason drama "Medium" is a keeper Mondays at 10 p.m., one of several strong shows the Peacock has throughout the week in that hour.

'Core sked still performs'

"Ultimately there is a core schedule there still performing," said NBC Entertainment prexy Kevin Reilly. "The 10 p.m. strength remains pretty extraordinary given the complete weakness early in the evening."

As for the weblets, both the WB and UPN stumbled out of the gate, with both nets' big bets -- WB's "Jack and Bobby" and UPN's "Kevin Hill" -- failing to gain traction. Still, the two networks recovered by the end of the season and are counting on big gains for the fall.

UPN saw its Monday night perf grow after Nielsen realized the comedy block had been undercounted, while "Veronica Mars" earned critical notice and "America's Next Top Model" continued to score big for the net.

"It was a big year of transition," UPN Entertainment prexy Dawn Ostroff said. "We've been gaining momentum. Look at the May numbers and we have some great growth stories."

WB, meanwhile, watched "One Tree Hill" turn into a signature show for the Frog, while network stalwarts like "7th Heaven" and "Gilmore Girls" had stellar years. Network was hampered, however, by the lack of any frosh series success.

"The returning shows came back by and large in really strong force," Frog entertainment topper David Janollari said. "The bad news was self-evident, we didn't have a giant hit out of the gate from the new shows. The good news is 'One Tree Hill' ignited in a huge way."

Edited for accuracy


SAVED BY THE BELL: NBC HITS THE CANVAS, BUT THE ROUND IS MERCIFULLY OVER
(No, this is not about 'The Contender'.... Please, we beg of you, don't make us talk about 'The Contender'... At least we didn't air 'The Benefactor' or that crazy Virgin guy's show)
( May 24, 2005 )

ONCE UNSTOPPABLE 'ER' SEWS UP ITS LOWEST-RATED SEASON EVER

DECLINING 'APPRENTICE' NOT EXACTLY GOING TO HAVE THE STAYING POWER OF 'FRIENDS'

'LAW & ORDER: SVU' IS WHAT WE CALL A STRONG SHOW THESE DAYS... PRETTY IMPRESSIVE, HUH?

THINGS ARE SO GOOD, WE'RE GOING TO BRAG ABOUT RATINGS FOR FRIDAY SHOWINGS OF JOURNALISTIC GIANT 'DATELINE'

NBC GOES FROM FIRST TO WORST ALMOST AS FAST AS ABC DID WITH THE MILLIONAIRE MESS... TOUTS LONG, SLOW DECLINE


BURBANK, Calif. – May 24, 2005 – Declining Thursday troika of "ER," "The Apprentice" and "Will & Grace" paced NBC's week of May 16-22, the last full measured week of the regular 2004-05 broadcast season, according to in-home viewing figures from Nielsen Media Research.

Through 35 full weeks (and with three nights remaining to be measured in the 2004-05 season), NBC could only be doing worse if the WB becomes a major network.

Primetime averages for all programs for the 2004-05 season in adults 18-49 are Fox (4.1/11), CBS (4.0/11), ABC (3.7/10), NBC (3.5/9), UPN (1.4/4) and WB (1.4/4). In total viewers, the 2004-05 season averages for all programs are CBS (12.9 million), ABC (10.1 million), Fox (9.9 million), NBC (9.8 million), UPN (3.4 million) and WB (3.4 million). NBC notes that UPN + WB is no match for the Peacock and that falling behind ABC is no big deal given how much of an alphabetical-order advantage ABC has over NBC -- first letter vs. 14th!

NBC remains the industry leader in key upscale categories measured by Nielsen's National Audience Demographics (NAD) data, including ranking #1 for the season in adults 18-49 living in homes with $100,000+ annual incomes. These people like to watch Donald Trump abuse people the way they abuse their underlings at the office.

Other 2004-05 Season Highlights:

* "Las Vegas" is the #1-ranked sophomore drama of the season in adults 18-49. Sin defeats God as CBS had to cancel Joan of Arcadia. Please don't let lightning strike us down. Pop quiz: Can anyone name the competition for this irrelevant honor?

* The freshman series "Medium" is NBC's top-rated Monday drama in 15 seasons in adults 18-49. The fact that it steadily lost viewers shouldn't change the fact that compared to the typical junk we've put on Mondays, this is big for us. Never mind that Monday is not exactly an important night for us -- or anyone.

* "The Biggest Loser" was the #1 new unscripted series of the 2004-05 season in adults 18-49. Its 18-49 rating was up 116 percent versus NBC's regular program performance in the time period this season before and after "Biggest Loser." NBC is proud that it helped some Americans lose a few pounds. Nearly 2/3 of American adults are overweight and / or obese. Thanks to NBC, that total has been reduced .00000001%. You're welcome.

* Freshman comedy "The Office" was television's most upscale comedy of the 2004-05 season, delivering the highest concentration of 18-49 viewers in upscale homes by several key measures, including adults 18-49 living in homes with incomes of $75,000+. "The Office" retained 93 percent of its lead-in from "Scrubs" in its Tuesday time period in which NBC this season previously averaged 84 percent retention with regular programs. Scrubs, too, is in decline and we would've canceled The Office if we had anything else to put on. And, besides, our version pales in comparison to the original BBC version. But, hey, we didn't butcher it nearly as bad as "Coupling", so cut us some slack.

* "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" dominated its drama competition and delivered its highest-rated season ever in adults 18-49.

* "The West Wing" was television's most upscale drama of the 2004-05 season, delivering the highest concentration of 18-49 viewers in upscale homes by numerous key measures, including adults 18-49 living in homes with incomes of $75,000+. Supposedly rich people are conservatives, yet the show's president is liberal. This is unimportant as the show is in decline and will probably be canceled after this year, along with Will & Grace, Scrubs and perhaps even The Apprentice, because Donald's act is wearing thin a lot faster than President Bartlet's did.

* "ER" was NBC's top-rated drama in adults 18-49, a distinction this series has earned in each of its 11 seasons. Yeah, it had its smallest audience ever and Noah Wyle is gone. But c'mon, this is about as good as it gets for The Peacock, and we are damn proud of this show. Besides, we were doing gore way before CSI made it cool.

NBC is wrapping up the 2004-05 regular broadcast season ranked #1 in key demographics in late night, daytime (tie), morning news, evening news and Sunday morning public affairs. Yeah, Jay is down a big. Yeah. Today is down a ton. Yeah, Brian Williams is no Tom Brokaw, but at least he doesn't make up news like Rather. And, c'mon, Tim Russert is an ass kicker. Admit you'd bet on him vs. Stephanopolous in a steel-cage match anyday.

Fredfa,
Sort of balances out the other extreme I see here lately.

Rogo,
Can't take a joke?

This is all hype from one extreme to the other. Two hits and the ranking changes for the season. This too will pass.
GT

We are very upset about the cancellation of Blind Justice. It's a very well written show, and we feel the network hasn't given it a chance. ABC could have at least tried a different time slot other than putting it up against Judging Amy and Law and Order SVU.

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

angeline:
It seems to me that ABC has problems nurturing shows in recent years.
"Karen Sisco" and "Eyes" are other examples of programs which, if carefully promoted, could have been stable top 30 hits for years.
Personally I enjoyed "Blind Justice" the few times I saw it, but felt the premise made for very, very narrow story arcs. I am not really sure where the story could have gone.
But I share your frustration with ABC.

Next (Last?) 'Sopranos' Season Goes for the Green

(zap2it.com)--David Chase, creator of "The Sopranos," is prone to expressing the theme of each season of his show in bite-sized pieces. Last season, for instance, was partly about "the limitations of family and friendship," while the previous one had the disintegrating marriage of Tony and Carmela at its center.

The next season, which is most likely -- but not entirely certain to be -- the final one for the hugely successful HBO series, will be about money, Chase says. The cast and crew have been in production on season six for several weeks now, and it's currently scheduled to premiere early next year.

"I started thinking about what are these people really about, what are they really after. It's going to be about money and about materialism, buying stuff, consumerism," Chase told an audience in New York Tuesday (May 24) about the coming season, according to Reuters.

"That's all they care about. All that stuff helps them not to think about larger issues."

The series' last original episode aired in June 2004, and, mirroring the amount of time it was off the air, will pick up roughly two years after the death of Adriana (Drea de Matteo) and the arrest of New York mob boss Johnny Sack (Vincent Curatola). Chase didn't offer up many other details on the fates of Tony (James Gandolfini), Carmela (Edie Falco) or the rest of the cast.

Chase also won't be pinned down on whether season six will be the last for "The Sopranos." Although it's widely assumed that's the case -- and Chase at one point Tuesday said "No. No more," -- he won't close the door for sure yet.

"I really enjoy it, so why leave something like that?" he says. "It's just a question of whether the story works out creatively in six seasons, which I think it will. Then we probably shouldn't do a seventh."

Pressed on the issue, though, he admits that "It is possible."

Marc Berman’s analysis of last week’s prime-time ratings have been posted at the top of Latest News the first item in this thread.

Fox ends season as no. 1 in TV's key demographic
By Scott Collins Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

More than 30 million viewers are expected to tune in tonight to see whether Alabama rocker Bo Bice or country crooner Carrie Underwood wins the fourth-season finale of "American Idol."

But there's little suspense surrounding which network will win the TV ratings race for the 2004-05 season, which officially ends tonight.

Defying wide predictions of cooling viewership, "Idol" has helped give Fox Broadcasting — the 19-year-old network controlled by billionaire Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. — its first-ever September-to-May victory among young adults, the viewers advertisers crave most.

The network's triumph comes despite a miserable start to the season, plagued by bombs such as the sitcom "Quintuplets" and reality series such as "The Next Great Champ" and "Rebel Billionaire: Branson's Quest for the Best." As Fox Entertainment President Peter Liguori said Tuesday, sounding more like a dogged football coach than a network boss on the job for all of six weeks: "It ain't where you start that matters, it's where you finish."

The race in the crucial 18-to-49-year-old demographic — or "demo," in the parlance of TV programmers — was exceptionally tight.

Early projections show Fox ahead of CBS in that group by one-tenth of a demo rating point (4.1 versus 4.0), according to data from Nielsen Media Research. (Each point represents approximately 1.3 million viewers; final numbers will not be available until Thursday). Just how crucial Viacom Inc.-owned CBS considers the demo came into sharp focus during last week's upfronts when the network announced it was canceling four older-skewing shows.

Third-place ABC (3.7), surging on hit new dramas such as "Desperate Housewives" and "Grey's Anatomy," is likely to finish just two-tenths of a point ahead of NBC (3.5).

The numbers are critical for the networks, which in the coming days will begin negotiating bulk sales of ad inventory for the 2005-06 season.

For years the undisputed king of the affluent young-adult audience, General Electric Co.'s NBC hemorrhaged 19% of its 18-to-49 viewership this year, thanks to the loss of "Friends" last May and several high-profile new series that failed to deliver, including "Father of the Pride," "The Contender" and "Revelations." Yet despite all of its tribulations, NBC's "ER" and "The Apprentice" still finished in the top 10.

Among total viewers, CBS easily cruised to No. 1, with an average of 13.1 million viewers, trailed by NBC (11 million), Fox (9.6 million) and Walt Disney Co.'s ABC (9 million). Among the smaller networks, UPN was flat in its core 18-to-34-year-old demographic — which could be seen as good news considering that entertainment president Dawn Ostroff was striving for more of the "Sex and the City" young female audience than UPN has attracted in the past.

"It's very hard to stay afloat while changing directions," Ostroff said. Meanwhile, the WB was down 12% in the 18-to-34 demo, with new dramas such as "Jack & Bobby" and "The Mountain" failing to connect.

In addition to "Idol," Fox was bolstered by its telecasts of major sporting events, including the Super Bowl and the World Series. If sports programming is removed from the equation, CBS wins the demo race.

"Idol" remained the core asset for Fox's lineup, however. Although Liguori's predecessor, Gail Berman, predicted in January that the show might lose some viewers this season, that didn't happen. The program's long coattails helped make a bona fide hit of Fox's new medical drama "House"; meanwhile, ABC's midweek comedy blocks suffered such steep losses that the network canceled "My Wife and Kids."

"Opposite 'American Idol,' everyone would fizzle," said Shari Ann Brill, vice president at Carat, a New York-based ad firm. "The show has that certain je ne sais quoi."

For the fall, Liguori thinks seeding each night with returning series, which come with a core audience, will help the network build on its success next season. Moreover, airing "Idol" only during winter and spring "keeps the show fresh and vital," he said.

Having revitalized Sundays with "Housewives," ABC prime time chief Stephen McPherson, like his rivals at other networks, is trying to figure out what ails the TV sitcom. None of the top 10 series this season was a comedy; some sitcoms that registered big declines, such as ABC's "8 Simple Rules," have already been canceled.

"Comedies across the board were a tougher assignment this year," McPherson said, adding that he and his programmers were trying to determine whether the genre's problems were due more to creative problems or scheduling issues.

An equally formidable issue for programmers next season, though, will be combating the annual "Idol" onslaught that starts every January. Rivals are throwing some of their biggest firepower against the talent contest next season: NBC will debut its high-profile Pentagon thriller "E-Ring" at 9 p.m. Wednesdays; ABC is moving this season's hit drama "Lost" into that slot as well.

CBS Executive Vice President Kelly Kahl acknowledged the challenges in competing against "Idol," but added: "You can't run away forever."

Liguori at Fox sounded ready for the battle. Reminded of his competitors' scheduling plans, he said, "Bring it on."


Prime-time winners and losers

Fox's 'American Idol' continued its prime-time dominance, helping hand the network its first-ever victory among young adults this season. But long-struggling ABC found two major new hits with the Sunday dramas 'Desperate Housewives' and 'Grey's Anatomy.'


Top 10 shows in 18-to-49 demographic for 2004-05 season
Rank Show Day Network
1 'American Idol' Tuesday Fox
2 'American Idol' Wednesday Fox
3 'Desperate Housewives' Sunday ABC
4 'CSI: Crime Scene Investigation' Thursday CBS
5 'Grey's Anatomy' Sunday ABC
6 (tie) 'The Apprentice 2' Thursday NBC
6 (tie) 'Survivor: Palau' Thursday CBS
8 'Survivor: Vanuatu' Thursday CBS
9 'ER' Thursday NBC
10 'CSI: Miami' Monday CBS



Network series losing most viewership in the 18-to-49 demographic

Declines on ABC's sitcoms prevented the network from fully enjoying the 'Desperate Housewives' boost. NBC's 'Will & Grace' and 'Apprentice' suffered because of the loss of 'Friends' as lead-in, while Fox's 'That '70s Show' struggled against ABC's island thriller 'Lost.'

-43%: '8 Simple Rules' (ABC)
-41%: 'The Bachelor' (ABC)
-38%: 'Will & Grace' (NBC)
-38%: 'America's Next Top Model' (UPN)*
-38%: 'Less Than Perfect' (ABC)
-37%: 'The Apprentice 3' (NBC)**
-36%: 'Scrubs' (NBC)
-35%: 'Bernie Mac' (Fox)
-33%: 'That '70s Show' (Fox)
-32%: 'Extreme Makeover' (ABC)


* Comparing Season 4 to Season 2.

** Compared with first 'Apprentice' that aired in spring 2004.
All information is through Sunday, May 22. The season officially ends today.

angeline:
It seems to me that ABC has problems nurturing shows in recent years.
"Karen Sisco" and "Eyes" are other examples of programs which, if carefully promoted, could have been stable top 30 hits for years.
Personally I enjoyed "Blind Justice" the few times I saw it, but felt the premise made for very, very narrow story arcs. I am not really sure where the story could have gone.
But I share your frustration with ABC.


Whom has had more problem nurturing shows, Fox or ABC? I would say Fox.

Except that Fox has had, over the years, far fewer hit programs to help nurture their rookie shows than ABC.
Although, since Fox only programs 15 hours a week to ABC's 22, you might have a point.

Don't toss the sod on 'ER' quite yet
Talk is that 'Without a Trace' is close to toppling it
By Abigail Azote medialifemagazine.com

After watching its new shows flop and its returning ones sink this season, NBC has many problems heading into next season. But “ER” is not one of them.

When final remaining original cast member Noah Wyle left the show last week, people began speculating that CBS’s competing “Without a Trace” will finally pass “ER” among adults 18-49 next season at 10 p.m. Thursday. That’s not going to happen.

Yes, “Trace” has grown considerably over the last three years, passing “ER” among total viewers. But it also seems to have hit a saturation point, where it’s not really retaining much more of its “CSI” lead-in week to week.

And “ER” is quite far ahead among 18-49s, farther than most people think. Last week’s season finale averaged an 8.6 rating among 18-49s, easily bettering “Without a Trace,” which averaged a 6.8 rating, 21 percent less than “ER.”

And "Trace" got a boost from a 10.6 "CSI" lead-in compared with a 6.3 for "ER" from "Apprentice." If "Trace" can't beat "ER" when "CSI" is at its peak, it may never do it.

"ER" averaged a 7.3 18-49 rating this year. That's down 20 percent from last year, but it's also about 20 percent ahead of "Trace."

For the two weeks leading up to the season finale, “ER” averaged an 8.0 and a 7.1 18-49 rating, versus “Trace’s” 5.9 and 5.2, respectively.

It seems every season there’s talk of when “ER” will fail. It may fail some day, but there’s no reason to believe it will be next season. The show has weathered many cast departures over the years, and Wyle will actually return for several episodes next year.

In other broadcast ratings for the week ended May 22:

Bottom five shows (18-49s): 94. WB’s “Reba” 0.9; 95. WB’s “What I Like About You” 0.9; 96. UPN’s “America’s Next Top Model” (Encore) 0.8; 97. WB’s “Charmed” 0.7; 98. UPN’s “America’s Next Top Model” (Encore) 0.6

Bottom five shows (total viewers): 94. WB’s “Reba” 2.5 million; 95. WB’s “What I Like About You” 1.9 million; 96. WB’s “Charmed” 1.7 million; 97. UPN’s “America’s Next Top Model” (Encore) 1.7 million; 98. UPN’s “America’s Next Top Model” (Encore) 1.3 million

Show on the rise: “America’s Next Top Model,” UPN, Wednesday 8 p.m. Last week’s season finale scored a 3.0 18-49 rating, the highest in that time period for the network since Oct. 2002. That rating earned the show the No. 3 spot for that time period, ahead of “Smallville,” “60 Minutes” and “Dateline.” The fourth season finished up 2 percent in total viewers and 4 percent in 18-49s compared with last season.

Show on the decline: “Will & Grace,” NBC, Thursday 8 p.m. The show’s seventh season finale averaged a 3.5 among adults 18-49, 65 percent less than last season’s 10.0 average. It drew 7.9 million total viewers, down 52 percent from last year’s 16.4 million finale average. The finale was also down 23 percent from the 10.3 million viewers it’s averaged so far this season.

NBC News Chief Being Bounced?

With ABC’s “Good Morning America” apparently about to topple a ten-year run of ratings wins by NBC’s “Today”, there seems to be some bad news for the nead of NBC News.

He’s out.

Matt Drudge at drudgereport.com is reporting that:

SOURCES: Neal Shapiro soon to be moved out as head of NBCNEWS, top insiders tell DRUDGE... Shapiro found out last night and has told people he isn't coming back...

NBC News May Get New Chief
By JACQUES STEINBERG The New York Times

Neal Shapiro, the president of NBC News since 2001, has told his superiors at the network in recent days that he would like to leave his post, two senior executives at NBC Universal said yesterday.

Though the request was characterized as coming at Mr. Shapiro's initiative, it comes just weeks after Jeff Zucker, president of the NBC Universal Television Group, helped engineer the dismissal of Tom Touchet, the executive producer of the "Today" show, in response to that program's rapidly falling ratings lead over its principal rival, "Good Morning America" on ABC.

In an interview two weeks ago in his office at NBC headquarters, Mr. Zucker was asked if Mr. Shapiro, who oversees "Today," bore at least some responsibility for the decline in the program's fortunes in recent weeks and months. Mr. Zucker responded: "At the end of the day, each of us is responsible for the units we run. We're all responsible for the successes and failures in our particular units."

In informing Mr. Zucker and Robert C. Wright, chairman of NBC Universal, of his desire to leave his job, Mr. Shapiro appeared to be seeking to jump before being pushed, said one senior network executive, who, like the other, insisted on anonymity because the network had not authorized them to discuss the matter.

Mr. Shapiro did not reply to several messages left for him last night, including on his electronic pager.

It did not appear yesterday that NBC had lined up anyone to serve as a successor or even temporary replacement for Mr. Shapiro, nor was it clear when he planned to step down. The columnist Lloyd Grove reported in The Daily News of New York yesterday that Mr. Zucker had been sounding out potential candidates for Mr. Shapiro's job.

In one sense, Mr. Shapiro, who was named to his current position in spring 2001, has presided over an immensely successful and profitable division of NBC. On his watch, "Today," "NBC Nightly News" and "Meet the Press" have all been consistently rated No. 1 in their respective time slots. Also on his watch, NBC executed the first anchor transition on any evening newscast in more than two decades, as Tom Brokaw yielded the anchor desk to Brian Williams in December. Mr. Williams's broadcast has yet to lose a week in the overall ratings since.

In the interview two weeks ago, Mr. Zucker praised Mr. Shapiro for smoothing Mr. Williams's path to the anchor chair.

And yet, the once-commanding lead that "Today" had over "Good Morning America" - a total of as many as two million viewers just a few years ago - had dwindled to an estimated 40,000 viewers during one week earlier this month, according to Nielsen Media Research. And that low point - the tightest one-week difference between the two programs in nearly a decade - came after Mr. Touchet's firing, and after Mr. Zucker, a former executive producer of "Today," had spent a week in late April in the control room of the program helping to produce it.

Perhaps just as important a factor as the morning show ratings in Mr. Shapiro's waning fortunes, however, was the disconnect between his management style and Mr. Zucker's. Behind the scenes, Mr. Shapiro can be as easygoing as Mr. Zucker is intense, and those familiar with Mr. Zucker's thinking say he had come to the conclusion that a stronger personality was needed atop the news division.

It certainly did not help Mr. Shapiro that the work that helped win him the news division presidency, his leadership of the "Dateline" newsmagazine franchise, has become increasingly irrelevant. In his previous position, as executive producer of "Dateline," Mr. Shapiro oversaw as many as four hours of regular prime-time programming a week. Next season, "Dateline" is scheduled to be broadcast just two hours a week.

Over the last few years, the public appetite for such shows - on CBS and ABC, as well as on NBC - has waned. Last week, the chairman of CBS, Leslie Moonves, announced that he was canceling the Wednesday spinoff of "60 Minutes" because of low ratings. On NBC, the Friday edition of "Dateline" has drawn an estimated 8.9 million viewers each week since September, a loss of nearly one million viewers when compared with the same period during the last television season. The Sunday edition of "Dateline," broadcast opposite the highly rated main broadcast of "60 Minutes," has also lost ground this year.

Mr. Zucker would probably choose a successor to Mr. Shapiro in close consultation with Mr. Wright, and the choice could play a critical role in Mr. Zucker's own future. The ratings instability at "Today" - which, by generating an estimated $250 million in profits, is among the most lucrative programs on television - has only added to NBC's current troubles.

The performance of its prime-time schedule, including its entertainment programming, has slumped to the point that in the category of viewers ages 18 to 49, who are considered most desirable by advertisers, NBC is projected to finish the current season ranked fourth among the four main broadcast networks. Last season, it finished first.

Triumph for Fox, but Pain for NBC

By BILL CARTER The New York Times May 26, 2005

One of the most competitive and volatile network television seasons ever recorded ended officially last night with three networks, Fox, CBS and ABC, celebrating and one network, NBC, decelerating.

For the first time in its two-decade history, Fox, once the upstart outsider, will win the network competition in the category of viewers between the ages of 18 and 49, which every network but CBS defines as the yardstick of prime-time supremacy, because so many advertisers pay a premium to reach that group.

CBS has its own claims to victory, however, across even wider audience categories. That network once again dominated in terms of the total number of viewers, still led by "CSI," as well as among the slightly older audience segment, those between the ages of 25 and 54, that CBS claims as its primary selling point to advertisers.

CBS executives had thought during much of the season that they would also take the 18-to-49 crown for a clean sweep of prime-time leadership, only to be nosed out by Fox. But they still noted that CBS would win with those 18-to-49 viewers in terms of regularly scheduled programs, marking the first time that CBS had won that category in 30 years. Regularly scheduled programs would not include, for example, Fox's broadcast of the Super Bowl, which by itself was enough to boost the network's seasonal average above CBS's.

The other positive network rating story came at ABC, which posted the most significant growth of any network. ABC was up 12 percent in the 18-to-49 audience category, thanks largely to the injection of three enormous hits: "Desperate Housewives," "Lost" and "Grey's Anatomy."

NBC, meanwhile, is headed in the other direction, suffering an ignominious fall from first place to fourth in the network ratings, the first time any network has plunged that far in one season. NBC executives pointed out that the margin between first place and fourth was the closest of any network ratings competition ever. But NBC is, nevertheless, the only network whose momentum was conspicuously negative as the season ended.

For the season, NBC plunged 19 percent in the 18-to-49 competition, finishing at a 3.5 rating, down from a 4.3 last season. Fox's winning rating was a 4.1, while CBS finished with a 4 rating and ABC had a 3.7. Among total viewers, NBC was also dead last, down 11 percent, to an average nightly audience of 9.8 million. Last year NBC averaged more than 11 million viewers a night. Each rating point in the 18-to-49 category is worth 1.3 million viewers.

CBS had just under 13 million total viewers for its seasonal average, with ABC at just over 10 million and Fox at 9.9 million.

Peter Liguori, newly installed as president of entertainment for Fox, credited the Fox program department for what he called "a lot of great moves" that turned around what had been an abysmal performance in the fall into a winning performance since January.

Mr. Liguori cited the decision to keep Fox's powerhouse series, "American Idol," to just one contest a season; the strategy of holding off the hit drama "24" until winter so it could run straight through without repeats; the shift of the soap opera cult hit "The O.C." to Thursday night, where it established a beachhead for Fox on television's most competitive night; and the return of the animated series "Family Guy," which, though once canceled, had become a hit on DVD and was successfully revived by Fox this spring.

Mr. Liguori dismissed CBS's argument that Fox squeezed into first place only with the help of sports shows like the Super Bowl, which are not regular parts of the entertainment schedule. "There is no reason for an asterisk on this victory," Mr. Liguori said. "The Super Bowl is always included in the overall ratings."

Kelly Kahl, the executive vice president for program planning at CBS, said, "While we may be a little disappointed not to get the 18-to-49 win, we're certainly happy about hitting on some of these other things, like winning in 25-to-54 viewers two years in a row for the first time in 30 years."

Mr. Kahl noted that the margin between Fox and CBS in the 18-to-49 race was so tiny it amounted to an average of just 60,000 viewers.

NBC's top program executives, Kevin Reilly and Jeff Zucker, conceded that the fall all the way from first place to last was psychologically and financially damaging to a network that had been routinely the network leader since the mid-1980's.

"Going from first to fourth, that's ugly," said Mr. Reilly, the president of entertainment for NBC. "We're a sexy hook for a story. People can't resist that. But the distance between first and fourth was six-tenths of a rating point. It's never been that close before."

Mr. Zucker, president of the NBC Universal Television Group, noted that NBC knew it was facing a challenging season because of the departure of the longtime comedy hits "Friends" and "Frasier" but that the network simply had not come up with much in the way of successful replacements. Only one new scripted NBC series, "Medium," could be called a success.

"The first thing we have to do is stop the bleeding," Mr. Reilly said. "This is really a momentum story. We do not come out of the spring with any momentum. We just didn't have any events, not even any artificial events, to build on. Next year we'll have the Winter Olympics and we have a handful of mini-series. But I don't think we have anything like an 'American Idol.' "

Perhaps most painful for NBC was the loss of its two-decade-long pre-eminence on Thursdays, the nights that generates the most advertising revenue in network television. CBS took complete command of the night this season, a development that its chairman, Leslie Moonves, predicted would lead to a transfer of hundreds of millions of dollars in revenues to CBS from NBC.

Given its surge this season, ABC is widely being cited as the network to watch in the next few years. Stephen McPherson, the president of entertainment for ABC, said he did not want to become complacent about ABC's strong turnaround this season. "I still think we're the underdogs," he said. "The networks are pretty darn close. We're getting into these roundings to determine who's ahead."

Mr. Kahl said that the closeness of the competition this season meant "we'll be going into next season ready for some real gun battles." He added: "We're not taking anything for granted. Hundredths of ratings points matter."

Blame it on 'Who Shot J.R?'
Following "Dallas'" lead, this year's TV season finales are filled with murder and mayhem
By Susan King Los Angeles Times Staff Writer May 27, 2005

++++CAUTION DVR OWNERS: SPOILERS AHEAD!! ++++

Ever since the CBS prime-time soap "Dallas" shocked its fans back in the spring of 1980 with corker of a season finale, television producers have relied on murder, mayhem and other nasty behaviors to keep audiences buzzing with anticipation. When it was revealed in the fall that Kristen was the unknown assailant who pulled the trigger on J.R. Ewing (the nefarious villain, of course, survived) on "Dallas," 76 percent of the viewing audience that Friday night was tuned to CBS.

But the television landscape has changed dramatically in 25 years. As cable shows chip away at their prime-time viewers, broadcast networks are seeking new twists to keep people watching - or lure them back. These last several days, many series seem to be dealing the death card, as cast members, guest stars and anonymous victims meet a gruesome ending.

It's hard to keep up with the body count, but here's a start:

Desperate Housewives (ABC)

Body Count: 2

Surprises abound as fans learn that it was Mary Alice — not her husband, Paul — who killed Zach's birthmother, Deirdre, after Deirdre showed up at their house, demanding that they return her son. Bree's "perfect" world disintegrates with a phone call from the doctor saying that her husband, Rex, died from his heart condition. Bree is devastated, though not enough to keep her from finishing the task at hand: polishing the silver. The death count could turn out higher in Season 2. Paul is left stranded in an isolated canyon. Zach, with Susan as his hostage, lays wait with a gun in Mike's house. The last scene: Mike walking through the door.
________________________________________

CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (CBS)

Body Count: 3 people (two dogs)

Blood and body parts flowed freely in this Quentin Tarantino two-hour special, in which Nick is kidnapped and buried alive by a revenge-seeking father. The father blows himself up. And in one of the more memorable scenes, Nick has a dream about his own autopsy. Meanwhile, a voracious army of ants invade Nick's coffin. Grissom and Co. save him just as he is about to shoot himself in the head because his air was running out. Almost as a side note, two young women (identical twins) are seen killed by a single shot — a reference early in the episode to a murder case the CSI crew was investigating.
________________________________________

CSI: Miami (CBS)

Body Count: 1

Horatio's brother, Ray, returns, having worked undercover with the feds on drug cases. He looks dead after taking several bullets in the chest during a shootout, but miraculously reappears in the final scenes (he had a bulletproof vest) as Horatio reunites him with his police-detective wife, Yalina (Horatio's unrequited love) and son, Ray Jr. During an investigation, Calleigh gets spooked when she hears a gun cocked against her head. Later, the triggerman is revealed to be troubled Det. John Hagen. He commits suicide, with her in the same room, which sends her on an even bigger emotional bender.
________________________________________

Deadwood (HBO)

Body Count: 6

George Hearst, the new tycoon in town, seems to have folks tied up in knots. But Swearingen makes it clear to Hearst that he's not bowing to anyone. He has Wu lead a band of men to kill Lee, settling a score in the Chinese camp. At least four other men die there during the power struggle, including one who gets an ax in the back. Wolcott - who is confronted by Hearst about his penchant for killing prostitutes - is shown swinging in a noose, having apparently committed suicide. And in a nod to the cliffhanger genre, the new town minister, Andy, stabs Tolliver in the middle of a wedding celebration. We have to wait till next season to learn if he lives or dies.
________________________________________

NCIS (CBS)

Body Count: 7

Gibbs finds himself the target of Ari, a terrorist who's been allowed back into the U.S. by the FBI. He also realizes that the convertible, where two dead naval officers were found shot to death, was rigged with a bomb that could have killed the NCIS crew. He almost gets blown up while meeting with Ari at an outdoor cafe, and only reluctantly agrees to round-the-clock security. The team discovers that Ari and his terrorist cell have made off with a poor man's cruise missile. NCIS locates the launch area — the roof of a warehouse — and quickly dispense with four terrorist guards, including one who takes a shot at Kate. Fortunately, she is wearing a bulletproof vest, but while brushing herself off and joking with Gibbs and Tony, takes one in the forehead — from Ari, who is zeroing in on them through a scope from another building. The finale leaves viewers wondering whether Gibbs is next.
________________________________________

House (Fox)

Body Count: 0

When his ex-lover, Stacy, turns up, asking him to help save her husband, House not only has trouble solving the puzzle (mood swings and abdominal pain), he realizes that there's a part of him that wants Mark to die. But, he tells his buddy Wilson, does he want Mark to die so he can get Stacy back, or does he want him to die so she'll suffer? The better part of him, of course, comes through -- and reaffirms House's TV track record with dying patients. He diagnoses the disease and saves Mark's life.
________________________________________

The O.C. (Fox)

Body Count: 1

With her drinking problem growing alarmingly worse (in one scene, she's clutching a vodka bottle like a purse), Kirsten gets checked into a cushy treatment center. Brewing tension between Ryan and Trey turns into a fistfight after Ryan learns his half-brother tried to force himself on his girlfriend. Ryan's friends head to Trey's apartment, knowing something bad is going down. Marissa walks in and sees Trey, with his hands gripped around Ryan's neck on the floor. She spots his gun, and shoots him in the back.
________________________________________

24 (Fox)

Body Count: 6

Within the first half-hour, three people die as Jack tries to rescue Tony from the clutches of a femme-fatale assassin. She nonchalantly shoots a neighbor in the head (after carefully putting on lipstick) and sends his two roommates to a parked car, where they die in an explosion. Terrorist Habib Marwan falls to his death after Jack corners him on a helipad. But two CTU agents are eliminated when Chinese government officials kidnap Howard Bern. Even after Jack helps save a million Angelenos from a nuclear explosion, the president's security chief conspires to have him murdered. Jack is declared dead after a Secret Service agent shoots him. But it was all a ruse. Tony, Michelle and Chloe revive him with a shot of epinephrine. Jack has just enough downtime to make a cell phone call, put on his sunglasses and head for Mexico.
________________________________________

ER (NBC)

Body Count: Several partygoers

Noah Wyle's (Dr. Carter's) departure from the hospital drama after 11 seasons made news. But in the finale, his decision to move to Africa was overshadowed by a freak accident. At a party attended by Drs. Barnett and Morris, several balconies collapsed, leading to numerous casualties, including a good friend of Dr. Barnett.
________________________________________

Medium (NBC)

Body Count: 4

Capt. Kenneth Push, the Texas Ranger who gave Allison so much guff in the pilot, returns to the season finale as he and the psychic mother try to stop a killer who's been surgically removing the hearts of victims, all redheads. Allison begins having visions, where Push gives her clues. As his heart condition worsens, Push lands in the hospital, in need of a pacemaker. The closing scene: the Ranger laying on his hospital bed, snipping the wires attached to his chest, hoping that his hastened death will allow him to tell Allison the name of the killer.

Fox Reality Debuts
Multichannel.com

Fox Reality is a reality, having launched Tuesday on DirecTV.

The network bowed on the direct-broadcast satellite leader’s channel 250, available to some 14.4 million households, as well as around 600,000 homes served by Insight Communications Co. Inc., according to a network spokesman.

Fox Reality -- which also has distribution agreements with EchoStar Communications Corp.’s Dish Network, Cox Communications Inc. and Adelphia Communications Corp. -- is expected to roll on to those carriers over the next couple of months, according to the spokesman.

The network is offering such U.S. genre shows as Joe Millionaire, Last Comic Standing, The Swan and Extreme Dating, augmented by outtakes, interviews and never-before-seen footage.

Fox Reality is also importing international versions of Temptation Island and introducing American audience to such series Great Britain's The Villa.

Great news more bandwidth wasted on stupid shows

The May sweep is (finally) over, and Wednesday’s fast national prime-time ratings have been posted at the top of Latest News the first item in this thread.

Those are some nice numbers for Fox and ABC, my word, just blew the competition away. Now we just wait for the final numbers right? Been a wild sweeps!

In 18-49 demo, Fox wins May sweeps race and season

Fox's 'Idol' breaks tie with CBS on final night
By Toni Fitzgerald medialifemagazine.com

It will be close, even closer than Fox may have expected a week ago, but after last night’s “American Idol” finale the network will finish No. 1 in adults 18-49 for the May sweeps and the entire season.

It marks the first time Fox can claim a full-season win, but CBS was right behind it. Through Tuesday night, the second-to-last of the season, Fox led for the season with a 4.1 average to CBS’s 4.0. The two were tied for the May sweeps with a 4.2 average rating.

But last night, CBS averaged a dismal 1.7 among 18-49s to Fox’s 12.2, so CBS’s sweeps average should dip a tenth of a point while Fox rises one or two, putting it at a 4.3 or 4.4 to CBS’s 4.1. Final numbers will be out later today.

CBS had already conceded both races. But perhaps more than anything, this extremely close competition sets up an intriguing 2005-’06 season.

Fox got a huge boost this season from the February Super Bowl. Without it, CBS claims it would have won the season among adults 18-49. Counting only regularly scheduled programming and no sporting events, CBS would have averaged a 4.1 18-49 season rating to Fox’s 3.8. ABC would have tied with Fox for second, while NBC would have finished fourth with a 3.6.

Come next season, Fox will still have the World Series, which will give it a boost in the fall. But without the Super Bowl, which will air on ABC, it will have a far tougher time winning the February sweeps and the season, even with "Idol."

ABC will finish third in the May sweeps. It had a 3.6 average through Tuesday. That could jump a tenth after last night’s solid finale for “Lost.” ABC had the biggest sweeps gains among the big four, up at least 24 percent versus last year.

NBC will finish fourth with a 3.3, down 27 percent from last year. CBS will be up 7 to 10 percent while Fox should boast gains of up to 10 percent.

CBS will also win among viewers 25-54, with Fox probably edging ABC for second, although the two were extremely close at a 4.3 and 4.2 through Monday. NBC will be last, losing nearly 30 percent from last May’s average.

CBS will win its eighth sweeps title in the past three years among total viewers, a streak interrupted only by Fox’s Super Bowl-enhanced win in February.

Among total viewers CBS is way out ahead with a 13.91 million average. ABC follows with 9.77 million and Fox with 9.42 million, though those two will switch positions after last night.

NBC will also finish fourth in total viewers with an average 9.17 million through Monday, down a quarter versus last year.

It might be a worry for ABC that "L&O:CI" whacked the final of "Alias" so badly.

There was an interesting article on MSNBC about Lost and Alias (mainly Lost), voicing some frusteration with Lost's finale, noting how Abrams has the ability to start a story, but not really finish it (paraphrased).

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7985414/

Also, for what it's worth, (forgive the political nature of the rest of the commentary) http://www.nationalreview.com/thecorner/05_05_22_corner-archive.asp#064448, John Podhoretz was voicing his frusteration with Lost. Which made me think back to the MSNBC article.

In any event the season is over, I just think it will be interesting to see if any of this bears out. I know for myself I got tired of Lost's mysteries mid-season, (of course I stuck with 24 but maybe that's because it's more suspense than mystery). Of course, anecdotes are worth little, especially personal ones.

Here is one critic’s preview of the upcoming TV season.

THE FALL SEASON: A TiVo-exploding lineup

By VERNE GAY Newsday May 26, 2005

Blah, blah and more blah.

There in three words (Or is it just one? You decide.) is the essence of last week's round of "upfront" schedule presentations by six TV networks. Characterized by hype, hustle and hyperbole, these affairs aren't engineered for viewers but for advertisers, who will shortly decide how/where/with whom to spend their bucks.

But a schedule's a schedule, and four months or so from now, these will be your schedules, too. Here's our night-by-night take:

Monday: CBS moves "King of Queens" to 8 p.m. to set up the money hour, 9-10 p.m., where "Everybody Loves Raymond" held court. But will everybody love newcomer "How I Met Your Mother" (8:30) or "Two and a Half Men" (9)? Meanwhile, Don Johnson's a lawyer (!!) in yet another Jerry Bruckheimer hour - "Just Legal" (9) on the WB.

The Big Matchup: At 8, where NBC launches "Fathom" (deep-sea cuties who aren't so cute after all) and Fox tries to re-establish "Arrested Development"; "House" then moves in next January.

My Big Spin: Check out new Fox sitcom "Kitchen Confidential" (8:30), if only because this is Darren Star's first since "Sex and the City" ended. "Arrested" at 8? Not a chance, and, no, life's not always fair, either.

Tuesday: Because this is a two-show night ("American Idol" and, all of a sudden, "Amazing Race"), everyone else is just trying to find daylight.

The Big Matchup: At 10 p.m., where ABC's "Boston Legal" has a new perch opposite NBC's "Law & Order: SVU" and CBS' "Judging Amy" replacement, "Close to Home," from Jerry Guess-Who, about a prosecutor-mom who has to solve shocking crimes and change the diapers.

My Big Spin: ABC would like to convince everyone that "Commander-in-Chief" (9), starring Geena Davis as the president, is the next "West Wing." But it will have a harder time convincing everyone that producer Rod Lurie ("Line of Fire") is Aaron Sorkin. Meanwhile, NBC's brilliant "The Office" (9:30) will finally gain traction - we hope.

Wednesday: In the biggest, gutsiest and maybe smartest move of week, ABC puts "Lost" at 9 while NBC tries its Martha Stewart version of "The Apprentice" at 8.

The Big Matchup: At 9 p.m., of course, where "Lost," "Idol" (which returns in January), CBS newcomer "Criminal Minds" (Mandy Patinkin-as-Holmes in FBI behavioral analysis unit), NBC newcomer "E-Ring," from Jerry Last-Name-Almost-Sounds-Like-Wisenheimer, new WB drama "Related" (about wacky sisters), and UPN hit "Veronica Mars" all go at it. Believe me: Your TiVo will explode.

My Big Spin: Love the premise of ABC 10 p.m. newcomer, "Invasion" - that we haven't been able to find signs of intelligent life in outer space because aliens are already among us. (Explains a lot of things, doesn't it?) Anyway, this could be the companion "Lost" has been searching for.

Thursday: Clearly, one of the great sea changes in recent network TV history will be on display this fall, where some networks try to corner the 18-to-49 viewers as NBC recedes. And the show that everybody seems to be talking about? "Everybody Hates Chris" on UPN, from Chris Rock (he narrates the coming-of-age comedy, but doesn't appear in it). Amazing if this one actually beats "Joey."

The Big Matchup: At 8, where ABC's newly moved "Alias," CBS' "Survivor," Fox's "The O.C.," the WB's "Smallville," NBC's "Joey" and aforementioned "Chris" all want to bag Mr. and Ms. 18-49.

My Big Spin: ABC's "Night Stalker" (at 9) - remake of the '70s "Kolchak: The Nightstalker" that many of the younger Mr. or Ms. 18-49s won't remember - is the most intriguing new show on network TV. The original was great; can ABC recapture the magic?

Friday: The riddle that the networks just can't unravel. Wholesale changes on six networks with the new CBS 8 p.m. drama "Ghost Whisperer" replacing "Joan of Arcadia," a move that prompted CBS chief Leslie Moonves' amusing comment that "ghosts skew younger than God."

The Big Matchup: At 8, where "Whisperer" (Jennifer Love Hewitt chats with ghosts), NBC's "Three Wishes" (Amy Grant as Ty Pennington in NBC makeover show that grants wishes) and ABC's "Supernanny" try to get something - anything - going.

My Big Spin: Complete schedule overhauls by November - except UPN ("Smackdown!").

Saturday: Zzzzzz. Nothing but reruns, movies, "Cops," "America's Most Wanted" and "48 Hours Mystery."

The Big Matchup: Ha. You've got to be kidding.

My Big Spin: Someday someone will realize that not everyone in America goes out to the movies on Saturday nights, and that some people actually sit in front of the tube. But by the looks of this schedule, this epiphany will not occur in calendar 2005-06.

Sunday: The other whoop-dee-do move of the season takes place here - specifically at 8, where "The West Wing" ends up. This NBC decision won't mollify aggrieved "American Dreams" fans, but it does take "Wing" away from airing against "Idol."

The Big Matchup: At 8, where NBC's "Wing," CBS' "Cold Case," WB's "Charmed," Fox's "The Simpsons" and ABC's "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" meet on the field of network battle.

My Big Spin: Pay close attention to Fox at 8:30. Newcomer "The War at Home" - about teens at home - has one of the network's best time periods, and Fox isn't about to squander this on moldy bread (one hopes). Could "Home" be the next "Malcolm in the Middle"?

j_buckingham80:

Anecdotal evidence may be worth little (especially when as so often happens, people extrapolate their own preferences to encompass everyone else) but thoughtful anecdotes and analysis can be very valuable.

I, too "Lost" interest some months ago, and found myself even more surprised that our household didn't find "Alias" anywhere near as riveting as it had been. Sometimes it seemed that the more episodic trend made it feel like a warmed-over "Mission:Impossible".

But, as you note, it is all anecdotal.

Once Wary, Networks Now Hurry Hit Shows to DVD
Faster Move Into Stores Runs Risk Of Overexposing Popular Series
THE SMALL SCREEN By JOE FLINT The Wall Street Journal May 26, 2005

Things happen fast on "Desperate Housewives'" Wisteria Lane, but for years, the tempo behind the scenes in network television has been slower.

That's about to change, as Walt Disney Co.'s ABC Entertainment gets ready to release the first season of the popular, soapy drama on DVD this September. The decision to put the DVD on the market so soon after the series went on the air underscores how much the television business is changing.

Networks and producers usually hurry series to DVD to raise the profile of shows that are struggling to find an audience. "Arrested Development" and "The O.C." were rushed onto DVD after their debut seasons for that reason. Fox's "24" also made the move to DVD very fast after a poor start in the ratings. This summer, NBC will use the same strategy for "The Office," a well-reviewed show that has been a near-flop so far with viewers.

Obviously, "Desperate Housewives" needs no such boost. It averaged over 23 million viewers this season, according to Nielsen Media Research, making it the third-most-watched show on television. Its season finale alone drew 30 million viewers, a level reached by only a handful of TV shows each year. ABC also is hurrying freshman hit "Lost" into video stores before its second season.

Until recently, most television executives viewed alternative means of distribution for their programs with great suspicion. They reasoned that the more options viewers had to see shows, the less time they would spend watching the networks or seeing the advertising that underpins broadcast television. While selling reruns to local stations was necessary to recoup production costs, they made sure those shows didn't air at the same time the networks were running their original programming. That changed when cable emerged as a big buyer of reruns.

While the networks still don't like competing against themselves, TNT pays a lot of money for "Law & Order. " The Time Warner Inc.-owned cable channel, not surprisingly, feels its hefty fees warrant a berth for the reruns in prime time, even if they compete against the broadcast network's first-run shows.

The landscape changed yet again with the advent of DVDs, as the prospect of substantial revenue has softened some of the networks' concerns about competing with their own product.

According to Adams Research, a consulting firm that tracks the video and DVD business, studio revenue from television shows on DVD doubled each year from 2001 through 2003. Last year, growth slowed to a slightly less blistering 55% over 2003, to $2.3 billion. Part of the increase is being fueled by consumers who want to amass DVD libraries of their favorite shows, which suggests that growth will continue to slow in the coming years. Limited shelf space in stores (and in viewers' homes) also could crimp the DVD expansion as more shows become available.

There are several factors pushing ABC to get "Desperate Housewives" and "Lost" out on DVD. For starters, neither show is expected to have the rerun potential of dramas such as "Law & Order," whose episodes are self-contained. Serialized dramas, where plot lines continue for a season or more, generally don't do nearly as well in reruns. That means that while networks such as Lifetime or Oxygen will be more than happy to buy "Desperate Housewives," they won't necessarily pony up a lot of cash.

Secondly, it is no longer a three-channel world. Networks that used to have a captive audience to whom they could publicize their shows now have to compete fiercely for viewers' attention. A DVD release is basically free promotion, which is why most shows time the DVD launch of a previous year to the start of the new season.

"It is an extremely valuable promotion for franchises that have to make splash year after year," says Bruce Gersh, ABC Entertainment's senior vice president of business development.

And although serial dramas don't do well in rerun sales, they do sell well on DVD. According to Adams Research, "The O.C." has sold $30 million in DVDs; "Alias" has sold $20 million; and "24" has sold $30 million. Fans of serial dramas tend to be more obsessive about their shows and are more likely to gobble up the product as soon as it hits the shelf. They also tend to be younger, and spend more on DVDs.

Conversely, criminal dramas that wrap everything up nice and neat after one hour aren't big DVD sellers. Those shows also attract older audiences, who are less likely to buy DVDs. "CSI" has only taken in $15 million to date in DVD sales, while "Law & Order" has netted just $5 million. Of course, knowing that those shows have an older appeal, they are often priced higher than shows that lure young viewers and can be just as profitable if not more so, even if they sell fewer units. The first season of "CSI," for example, was priced at $90 when it came out on DVD a few years ago. Today, Amazon.com is listing it at around $67. In comparison, Amazon is pre-selling the first season of "Desperate Housewives" for $38.99.

The DVD also seems to be a better bet for dramas. While "Seinfeld" DVDs have sold well, as have "Sex and the City," "Friends" has only been a so-so performer. Warner Bros., which produces hit CBS comedy "Two and a Half Men," has no plans to put the show out on DVD anytime soon. Perhaps like fine wine, mediocre comedies need to age before they can be fully appreciated.

For now, it appears that the growth of DVDs hasn't had a negative effect on the rerun business. But it might be too early to know for certain. Fox drama "24" will be premiering on A&E soon, and while it might not be a strong performer because of its serial format, if its ratings are especially low, some might point to early DVD sales as the culprit.

"There is no question that we now take into consideration the exposure levels when acquiring series," says Jonathan Katz, senior vice president of program planning and acquisitions for Turner Entertainment Group.

It's hard not to admire the networks for deciding to aggressively go after DVD dollars instead of playing defense. If they are lucky, timely DVD releases, and, at some point, video-on-demand, will enhance their shows' popularity, or least grab more of the revenue that is increasingly tough to come by in prime time. But as the networks know, they also are running the risk of overexposing their best shows and sapping them of their novelty. For ABC in particular, which is enjoying a ratings rebound after years in the slow lane, striking the right balance won't be easy.

From thefutoncritic.com, here is a list of some cast changes in returning network programs:

Development Update Special: Who's In and Who's Out
By The Futon Critic Staff

BOSTON LEGAL (ABC) - Julie Bowen, who played teacher Carol Vessey in the NBC series “Ed”, is joining the cast at "Boston Legal," next season. In addition, both Monica Potter and Rhona Mitra will not return next season. With five episodes from its first season yet to air however, it may be several weeks before the exit of Potter and Mitra and the addition of Bowen are addressed. No details on either character's exit or Bowen's character were specified. The producers are also understood to be looking to add another female character to help balance out the loss of both Potter and Mitra. "Boston Legal" moves to Tuesdays at 10:00/9:00c on ABC beginning this fall.

N.C.I.S. (CBS) - The death of Sasha Alexander's character in the show's season finale has not surprisingly lead to a search for a new female lead on the drama series. Executive producer Donald Bellisario told USA Today that he's looking for a foreign-born actress for the still unannounced character. As for why Alexander exited the series, Bellisario said she decided she didn't want to stay for what will likely be a run of many seasons, adding: "She worked like a trouper to the very end."

NUMB3RS (CBS) - Sabrina Lloyd will not be returning for the show's second season after not appearing in the show's final installments this season. The producers released a statement to TV Guide which said: "Sabrina Lloyd will not be returning for the 2005/2006 season of Numbers. Her contract allowed her the option of leaving following the first season. Everyone at Numbers obviously wishes her well. In addition, her character of Terry Lake will not be recast. However, new principal cast members will be added to the FBI world."

Sources: Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, Reuters

From thefutoncritic.com, here is a list of some cast changes in returning network programs:

Development Update Special: Who's In and Who's Out
By The Futon Critic Staff

BOSTON LEGAL (ABC) - In addition, both [B]Monica Potter and Rhona Mitra will not return next season.

I am seriously bummed out about this, putting aside the fact that they are both beautiful, the interplay between Spader and Mitra's character was good stuff, sort of dark and forbidden in a way...

Hopefully, Julie Bowen will bring a little more spark to "Boston Legal" than she brought to "Ed".

I, too "Lost" interest some months ago, and found myself even more surprised that our household didn't find "Alias" anywhere near as riveting as it had been. Sometimes it seemed that the more episodic trend made it feel like a warmed-over "Mission:Impossible".

My theory is that everybody is trying to pull off another Babylon5 multi-year story arc. The problem is "everybody" ain't JMS. I don't know if JMS could even do it again. :)

Rogo,
Can't take a joke?

GT

My entire post was a tongue-in-cheek edit of NBC's press release.

Was that not obvious?

I guess it wasn't very funny, alas.

Or did you mean NBC's press release was a joke? Because it might as well have been.

'Lost' in endless mystery
It takes a long time to get to the bottom of things in ABC’s series
Where’s David Lynch when you need him?
CRITIC'S NOTEBOOK: By Paul Brownfield Los Angeles Times Staff Writer May 27, 2005

What's down that hole?

On ABC's "Lost" — a fun series that at the close of its first season has become a tyrannical tease — "What's down that hole?" was preceded by "What's in that hatch?"

Well, as we discovered Wednesday night, what's in that hatch is the same as what's down that hole — another three episodes wrapped around a mystery that doesn't reveal anything so much as another new mystery.

It was fitting that "Lost," at the close of its two-hour finale, left viewers looking into a very long, dark space. Series co-creator Damon Lindelof, blurbing himself, was quoted as calling the ending "a cliffhanger that is emotionally satisfying but that demands that people talk about it all summer. It's a 'Who Shot J.R.?' moment."

Four characters poised over a hole as a summer talker? I mean, it's a mysterious hole, well constructed and darkly suggestive, but here's a safe bet: When "Lost" resumes after the long summer months, someone — or some party of someones — will go down that hole after an interval of deliberation about whose life journey has brought them to this moment. This will take an episode or two or three. Then, sometime during November sweeps, the person or persons who go down that hole will discover another strange creature/human being/vortex/the most amazing entry point to a shopping mall the modern world has ever known.

Perhaps, alternatively, whoever goes down the hole will never come back. I'm rooting for the shopping mall, because "Lost" needs to go David Lynch already; as things stand, the gimmicky horror movie gyrations and thriller buildups don't produce either exhalations or, as in Lynch, newer, richer mysteries that deepen the storytelling and add to an overall mood or texture.

On "Lost," the mysteries-upon-mysteries are more of a tic; a winning formula that is producing a certain viewer fatigue with every new turn. What's in that tree? Who's making that sound? Where are those voices coming from? The movie-quality execution of the show helps condition us to fall for each setup, even if the resolutions underwhelm while other, less dreamlike questions start to enter in too, including: Why hasn't the large guy, Hurley, shown any weight loss after all these months? Who's the stylist on the island who keeps Kate's eyebrows in such fetching shape, and how have she and Jack been able to hold off from the romance that's so clearly in the cards for them?

And now, this hole thing. Because it could be anything, really, that's down there, the producers have left viewers stranded in a way that isn't nearly as inclusive and potentially satisfying as the "Who Shot J.R.?" season-ending episode of "Dallas" in 1980 — a cliffhanger that flattered and titillated the informed viewer and that became a sensation largely because the mystery had various attainable resolutions. All that summer, you could as reasonably have pinned the shooting on Cliff Barnes, J.R.'s arch-enemy/brother-in-law, and Sue Ellen, his alcoholic and psychically bruised wife, as on the actual trigger person, Kristin Shepard.

"Dallas," when it resumed, was going to deliver a perpetrator, and we would know them; our involvement was due for a reward: "Lost," when it starts again, is more likely to resume teasing us with new holes to replace the existing ones.

In the finale, the sorts of things that happen on "Lost" happened on "Lost": A party of four — the heroic doctor Jack, the beautiful criminal Kate, the intrepid jungle nomad Locke and the overweight slacker Hurley — took sticks of dynamite to the mysterious hatch door found episodes ago in the jungle and blew it up, revealing the hole. Meanwhile, out at sea, another party of four — the lovable scamp Sawyer, the stoic Jin, the father-and-son team of Michael and Walt — got 15 miles offshore in the makeshift sailboat that took off in the penultimate episode of season one. As men tend to do when on a boat, there was a good bit of male bonding (a recurring theme on the night, if you include Sayid's journey with Charlie and Jack's interaction with Locke), followed by this: The guys on the boat encounter another boat, a sketchier boat ("Lost's" version of the wrong side of the tracks), with sketchy men aboard, who abduct the young Walt.

On "Lost," kidnapping is a favorite pastime, as is running through the jungle, panting, sweating, and the deep, meaningful exchange, seen in tight close-up. Kate (insisting on carrying the backpack of explosives): "I need to do this." Jack: "Kate, no one here owes anyone anything."

The finale teased the idea that the castaways are in some sort of metaphysical limbo state. "Do you think we're being punished?" one asks, for "things we did before, secrets we kept, lies we told?"

Is it destiny that got them here? Fate? "Each one of us was brought here for a reason," Locke tells Jack.

Maybe the reason's in the hole. When "Lost" began, discovery was in the air, peril, possible death. The setup — survivors of a plane crash find themselves stranded on a mysterious island that is or isn't of this known world — was pleasingly basic, as was the conceit to spend each episode looking into a character's pre-crash life.

It sucked you into the show, knowing the colorful back stories that brought each of them to that plane flight.

But with its good ratings, it's as if the show has become too protective of its own mystery, holding on to cards that were always somehow too valuable to play. Now it can all seem to me like an awful lot of schlepping to one side of the island and back again.

"Lost" began, rivetingly, with Jack (Matthew Fox), staring up at the sky, post-plane crash. The first season ended with him looking down a hole. Whatever is down that hole, it needs to make us feel that we're finally getting somewhere.

Season Is a Success for Everyone Except NBC
By Lisa de Moraes The Washington Post Friday, May 27, 2005; C07

Ahumdinger TV season wrapped Wednesday night, with Fox claiming its first-ever No. 1 finish among the 18- to 49-year-olds advertisers covet, CBS clocking the biggest win in 16 years among viewers of all ages, and ABC rising like a phoenix on the success of three freshman series -- and scripted ones at that.

Only the peacock network had nothing to crow about, having plunged from first place to fourth in the key age bracket that is the basis for sales of all its ad time.

And all that talk about scripted series getting trampled to death in the stampede to find the next reality series hit?

Never mind.

The 2004-05 TV season went out with a bang when the two-hour season finales of Fox's "American Idol" and ABC's "Lost" drew a collective average of 51 million viewers to broadcast television.

The fourth-season "Idol" conclusion, in which Carrie Underwood was named winner of the singing competition, averaged more than 30 million viewers -- up about 1.5 million viewers over last spring's finale.

In the same 8-to-10 p.m. time period, the season's last "Lost" episode logged nearly 21 million viewers. That nearly matched the new hit drama's best number of the season, which it scored for an episode that aired before "Idol" returned to Wednesday nights.

Interestingly, the two highly hyped finales did not cannibalize each other, as some industry navel-gazers had feared. Among all the broadcast networks, viewer levels were up 5 percent Wednesday night week to week.

"We're at the point in the business where on any given night about half of the audience isn't watching [broadcast] network television," Fox's scheduling chief Preston Beckman told The TV Column. "It's not about fighting each other, it's about bringing back that audience with great programming."

Beckman's network slogged through the first half of the TV season in fourth place in the demographic it targets with a slew of failed reality series, including "The Rebel Billionaire," "My Big Fat Obnoxious Boss" and "The Next Great Champ." But it rebounded when "American Idol" came back for its fourth season and "24," which had become a hit following "American Idol" on Tuesdays, returned on Monday night for an all-original run.

In addition to the audience increase for "24" compared with the previous season, thanks in some measure to the non-rerun policy, Fox resuscitated its new drama "House" and turned it into a bona fide hit with a post-"Idol" time slot. "The O.C.," which also enjoyed a post-"Idol" run last season on Wednesday nights, this season moved out to establish a toehold for Fox on Thursday -- "a night where we typically got slammed," said the network's new entertainment chief, Peter Liguori.

And, thanks to a post-"Idol" run, "Stacked," starring Pamela Anderson as a bookstore salesclerk whose clothes have all shrunk, is the No. 1 new sitcom of the season among young adults, bumping NBC's "Joey."

"The Number 1 finish [among 18- to 49-year-olds] was bred from a number of shows doing incredibly well," Liguori said.

CBS, the geezer network that was, also had a great season attracting those younger viewers. It finished first in the demographic group in regular programming for the first time in three decades, fueled by two editions of "Survivor," its Jerry Bruckheimer crime dramas and outgoing "Everybody Loves Raymond."

Among viewers of all ages, CBS was the most watched network for the fourth time in the past five seasons, winning by a margin of nearly 3 million viewers over second-place ABC -- the widest margin for any network in 16 years.

But perhaps the most talked-about story of the season -- other than NBC diving from first place to fourth with the collapse of its Thursday night empire -- is the return of ABC.

ABC has been so out of business for so long that it verged on irrelevant. But this season it's climbed from fourth place to second among viewers of all ages, and fourth to a solid third in that key 18-49 group, causing the Hollywood Reporter to write that "even in a town that thrives on schadenfreude, industry insiders are cheering the network's revival as a good thing for the business."

ABC revived and blossomed on the strength of three new shows: "Desperate Housewives," "Grey's Anatomy" and "Lost."

Last season, there were no freshman scripted series among the 15 most watched TV shows. This year, there are three: "Desperate Housewives," "Grey's Anatomy" and "Lost."

Last season, there was just one freshman scripted series among the 15 programs most watched by 18- to 49-year-olds: NBC's "Coupling" (which was canceled after just four episodes because its drop-off from its Must-See-TV lead-in was too great).

This season, there are three: "Desperate Housewives," "Grey's Anatomy," and "Lost."

Push those lists out to include the top 25 series and you add two more freshman scripted series: NBC's "Medium" and Fox's "House."

And, not a procedural crime drama in the bunch.

"We certainly felt like we had to take chances," ABC Entertainment division chief Steve McPherson says of his network's three freshman hits. "What was appealing to us when we saw those shows was that they were different, and from a marketing standpoint that allowed us to craft campaigns that set them apart.

"I also think there was a departure from the kind of sameness that was on the air," McPherson said. "Shows as different as . . . 'Lost,' 'Desperate Housewives,' 'House,' 'Medium' -- they were all very different shows than what was represented on the air with all the crime dramas. The audience responded."

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

+ + + DVR/TiVo Spoiler Alert ! ! + + +

One finale look as the season sails away
All good things must come to an end

This week, that good-thing-going rule includes the 2004-05 TV season, which ended with a flourish of finales. Some finales, of course, were more final than others: Many of the networks' top series once again left us cliffhanging. And as always happens, some were better than others.
So who made the final grade and who didn't? USA TODAY's Robert Bianco leads you through the last episodes of some of TV's best series — with an emphasis, on the scripted side, on those shows that had old questions to answer and new what-happens-next questions to pose.

24 (Fox)
Rating: * * * 1/2

What happened: Once again, Jack saved the day, finding the missile before it could hit its target, which turned out to be L.A. (Good thing Marwan hadn't targeted the closer-to-the-launch-site Chicago, huh?) And what thanks does Jack get? His own government tries to kill him, forcing him to fake his death and walk off into the sunrise as a man with no name.

Critical report: Here's how you end a great season, with a fast-paced two-hour special that included one of the series' biggest shockers: Tony didn't bite it. (Admit it, you thought he was a goner the minute Michelle told him she loved him.) His survival was a welcome surprise, as was the clever setup for 24's next day, with our hero a presumed-dead man walking. But tell me, who broke the news to Kim? Drawbacks? As often happens when you build this long to a climax, the destruction of the missile was, well, anticlimactic. And, uh, guys — Behrooz? The show just seemed to forget about our poor little teenage terrorist.

Next year, why not: Give Jack a viable romantic relationship. I'm thinking "hot secret agent partner," but I'll settle for anyone who isn't a whiny, ungrateful pain in the tuchis.

Alias (ABC)
Rating: * * * 1/2

What happened: Sydney destroyed the Rambaldi device, a big red ball that made humans rabid, but not before her sister Nadia was infected and shot. Safely back home, Syd and Vaughn were in a car planning their wedding, which led to the season's most heart-stopping cliffhanger. As Vaughn started to reveal some dark secret about his life — and his name — another car blindsided them and us.


Critical report: So this is what Rambaldi invented: a device that would drive the whole world nuts. It's only fitting, because the entire prophecy plotline has always been a little nuts, and the show knows it. But as that shocker of an ending indicates, Alias doesn't want you to stand outside its story at a safe, ironic distance. It expects you to plunge on in, craziness and all. The reason fans are willing to do so is because the often fanciful plots are tied to an identifiable family dynamic. Alias is a shifting web of lies and secrets, loyalty and betrayal. In the finale, soapier elements — a husband letting go of his wife, a mother saying goodbye to her daughter, a bride-to-be being told the truth by her groom — comfortably coincide with the darker strains of Greek tragedy. Not many shows would have a sister kill her sister and a father shoot his daughter all in the same hour.

Next year, why not: Spread the "mythology" episodes out. They all came at us in a Rambaldi rush over the last half of the season.

The Amazing Race (CBS)
Rating: * * * *

What happened: Uchenna and Joyce won, Rob and Amber didn't. That's four stars right there.

Critical report: The happy ending was just the topper to a near-ideal reality final. Forced to beg for cash from some remarkably uncharitable folks, Uchenna and Joyce Agu rallied from third to first, thanks to a cooperative pilot and a cab driver who asked for directions in Little Havana in Spanish. (Take that, English-only advocates.) Then the same cab driver seemed set to cost them the race, as a short-of-cash Uchenna refused to leave for the finish line before he paid his bill. Rob and Amber were last heard complaining that Uchenna and Joyce got outside help to get on that departing plane — because neither Rob nor Amber is bright enough to make the obvious pot-meet-kettle logical leap.

Next year, why not: Stage a gimmick-free race, without reality castoffs. Rule tweaking also is in order to ban outside interference and internal partner-abuse.

America's Next Top Model (UPN)
Rating: * * *

What happened: Naima won a three-way contest, easily topping Keenyah and then edging out Kahlen in what Tyra Banks called the closet Model dash yet.

Critical report: My choice didn't win and I still enjoyed the show, which is a testament to Model's ability to maintain goodwill. Indeed, the editors did such a good job of slanting the episode toward Naima, they almost had me rooting for her. Though Model's judges may not be as famous as their Idol counterparts, their comments are almost invariably more honest, intelligent and useful. Still, they could learn one lesson from Idol: to stop acting as if Model has to be a winner-take-all contest. If Idol can get record contracts for both Ruben and Clay, surely Model can find jobs for Kahlen as well as Naima.

Next year, why not: Give a plus-size girl a real shot at the prize. Oh, and Tyra, could you please stop running through the list of prizes before every elimination?

American Idol (Fox)
Rating: *

What happened: Country Carrie won in a 10-second "Here's your American Idol" announcement stretched over two hours.

Critical report: Surely America's top-rated series can find a way to crown a winner without torturing its fans. We expect the show to be padded. We don't expect it to be so cheesy and phony it makes us ashamed of ourselves for caring who wins. You knew you were in trouble from the moment the show opened, with the off-key castoffs butchering one of those jive variety show medleys of which Idol is so fond. From there, it was two hours of near unendurable filler, from the constant recaps and idiotic banter with the judges, to that witless dig at ABC's Paula expose. The capper was another round of painful performances from the runners-up, this time backed up by stars. The memory of Mikalah singing with Babyface is enough to make you want to tear your eardrums out. As for the result, while some producer may someday turn Carrie into a decent country recording artist, for the moment she is indisputably the weakest Idol yet.

Next year, why not: Hire arrangers who won't turn every other song into over-orchestrated mush. And the show might want to shift its audition focus to finding more-talented singers, rather than mocking bad ones.

Desperate Housewives (ABC)
Rating: * * *

What happened: What didn't? Desperate used up more plots in an hour than Dynasty used to use in a year. Start with the answer to the big season-long mystery: It was Mary Alice, not Paul, who murdered Deirdre to stop her from taking back Zach. Note to Mary Alice: You probably could have sold the police on self-defense if you hadn't chopped the body up and stuffed it in a toy chest. It's always the coverup that gets you. Elsewhere, Tom quit his job and ordered Lynette back to work; Gaby lied for Carlos on the witness stand, which did no good because Carlos snapped immediately afterwards and attacked John in court; Mike was set to kill Paul, and then relented when Paul told him Mary Alice killed Deirdre; new neighbors made a brief appearance looking suitably next-season mysterious, and Zach held Susan and Mike at gunpoint. Oh, and Rex died — or so Bree thinks.

Critical report: While I'm grateful to Desperate for delivering on its promise to solve the Mary Alice mystery, it still tried to pack an awful lot of plot into one hour — too much, I fear. As usual on Housewives, the cast was great and the hour had a host of terrific, over-the-top moments. (Zach whacking Huber's sister on the head; didn't see that coming.) But it felt rushed, and Rex's death was too perfunctory to register. The show needs to learn how to stop and let a moment land. As for the speculation that Rex isn't dead and the hospital lied to Bree: It's possible, I suppose, because on this show, anything's possible. But it would be a stretch, even for Desperate, and something of a cheat.

Next year, why not: Catch your breath. Desperate was one of the season's great joys, but it does sometimes tend to mistake frantic for funny. The race, as they say, is not always unto the swift.

Lost (ABC)
Rating: * * * *

What happened: The island's mad Frenchwoman stole Claire's baby, but Charlie and Sayid got him back; Locke survived the monster and blew the lid off the hatch, though we didn't really get to see what's inside; and the raft was attacked by the "others," who kidnapped Walt and left the rest to drown.

Critical report: Ending the year as impressively as it began, Lost produced a gorgeously shot, brilliantly structured stunner that propelled the plot forward while expanding our understanding of the castaways. Exciting, moving, humorous and horrifying in turn, it may just have been the best two hours of series TV this year. And may I just add that if sitcoms could come up with a few more characters as funny and endearing as Hurley, that troubled genre would be in a lot better shape. No, the show didn't provide any answers to any of the island's big questions. But it did attach us even more strongly to these people and their fate. Like Alias, Lost uses action-adventure conventions to take us out of our everyday lives while using its characters to navigate deeper emotional waters — Claire's grief over her stolen baby, Sun's fear that they're all being punished; Walt and Michael's terror as Walt is kidnapped. When a series is this good, you should stop worrying about where it's going next and just enjoy where it is now.

Next year, why not: Just keep doing what you're doing.

Survivor (CBS)
Rating: * * 1/2

What happened: Tom won, but not before making us sorry that we were rooting for him.

Critical report: Everything went right for Race, including the things the producers couldn't control. On Survivor, everything went south, as a fine season collapsed into off-putting acrimony. Some of the blame goes to Katie, who had no room to complain about anything, considering she just lounged her way into the finals. But the big problem was the out-of-character tantrum from Tom, who accused Ian of lacking "honor" and went into a childish rant about their need to "duke it out like men." In the end, Tom was still far and away the right choice, and he can be forgiven for letting time and pressure get to him. Still, his behavior did make for a surprisingly sour finale, nearly undoing a season that had been one of the show's better efforts.

Next year, why not: Lighten up, people. You're not lifelong friends joining to find a cancer cure. You're strangers playing a game. What's required is less emotion, more sportsmanship.

Some Summer TV series news
I am not going to spend a lot of time or space here detailing summer TV fare, but here is a summary of some of the top network programs courtesy of Cynthia Turner’s Cynopsis:

Fox: Hell's Kitchen debuts May 30 with head chef Gordon Ramsay and a team of apprentices
WB: Beauty & the Geek premieres June 1 where one geek and one beauty team up to win $250k
ABC: Dancing with Stars begins June 1 and features celebs taking on ballroom dancing
ABC: The Scholar where really smart kids compete for a college scholarship, starts June 6
CBS: Fire Me ... Please begins June 7 where two people work to get fired by 3pm, the closest wins the cash
CBS: The Cut from Tommy Hilfigier features clothing designer wannabes, starts June 9
NBC: Average Joe - The Joe Strikes Back is sked to return on June 21
NBC: I Want to be a Hilton with Mrs. Hilton overseeing the living-large wannabes, where one gets to live as a Hilton for one year, starts June 21
Fox: Princes of Malibu chronicles the daily lives of music producer David Foster and family, starts July 10
CBS: Rock Star: INXS is Mark Burnett's latest with contestants looking to win a 1 yr gig with the band, begins July 11
ABC: Brat Camp kicks off on July 13 from a troubled teen wilderness camp in Oregon
Fox: So You Think You Can Dance is American Idol for dancers, or those who think they're dancers - premieres July 20
NBC: The Law Firm from David E. Kelley where a young lawyer tries real cases in hopes of winning a spot at a top lawfirm, starts July 28
NBC: Meet Mister Mom begins on August 2, puts unwitting dads in charge of the house and kids
NBC: Tommy Lee Goes to College follows Tommy Lee at Univ of Nebraska doing what students do, studying and goofing off, begins August 16
ABC: Welcome to the Neighborhood where the winning family gets a new home in a neighborhood cul-de-sac which has its own ideas of what good neighbors should be - no start date yet
UPN: Are You the Girl features the two remaining members of the music group TLC looking for a new third - no start date set yet
NBC: The Biggest Loser premieres this fall on September 13 at 8p with a special 90m premiere ep.

New scripted (limited) series starting this summer include
Fox: The Inside, a procedural cop drama, starts June 8
ABC: Empire - six parts - set in Ancient Rome, begins June 28
NBC: Psychic Detectives (off Court TV) begins in June, airing on Wednesday nights as a 1 hour lead-in to L&O. The show continues on Court TV on Wednesdays at 10p.

Discovery, ESPN Reach 90 Million Subs

By James Hibberd TVWeek.com May 27, 2005

Discovery Channel and ESPN are the first cable networks to cross the 90-million subscriber threshold, according to estimates by Nielsen Media Research for June 2005.

Discovery Channel, which launched in 1985, will have 90.1 million U.S. households; ESPN, which launched in 1977, did not provide an exact figure. Both channels touted the event as crossing a major milestone.

"In 1985, Discovery Channel launched in just 156,000 homes, with affiliate partners who believed in John Hendricks' vision for a factual documentary channel," said Bill Goodwyn, president of Discovery Channel's affiliate sales and marketing. "Today, built on the early trust of our distributors and our continued focus on high-quality programming, we have created a network with brand affinity that spans the globe and continues to earn high marks among viewers and business partners alike."

""""The funny-yet-under-watched "Arrested Development" will be back (why, oh why, won't you watch it?!)""""

because i don't find it particulaly funny.

Actor Eddie Albert Dies at Age 99

By Dennis McLellan Los Angeles Times Staff Writer May 27, 2005

Eddie Albert, the versatile stage, screen and television actor who co-starred as the Park Avenue lawyer who sought happiness down on the farm in the popular 1960s' sitcom "Green Acres," has died. He was 99.

Albert, an outspoken environmentalist and humanitarian activist, died Thursday night at his home in Pacific Palisades of pneumonia, according to his son Edward Laurence Albert.

According to his son, Albert was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease about 10 years ago, but still lived an active and happy life and remained at his home throughout.

In an acting career that spanned more than six decades, the blond, blue-eyed Albert was initially typecast as what has been described as an amiable fellow with a "corn-fed grin."

As Gregory Peck's news photographer pal in "Roman Holiday" (1953), Albert earned the first of his two Academy Award nominations for best supporting actor.

His second Oscar nomination came two decades later playing Cybill Shepherd's wealthy, exasperated father in "The Heartbreak Kid," the 1972 Neil Simon-Elaine May comedy.

Among Albert's nearly 100 film credits — a mix of comedies, dramas and musicals — are "Oklahoma!," "I'll Cry Tomorrow," "Teahouse of the August Moon," "The Sun Also Rises," "The Joker Is Wild," "Beloved Infidel," "The Young Doctors," "The Longest Day," "Captain Newman, M.D." and "Escape to Witch Mountain."

Albert, who scored critically acclaimed dramatic performances on live television in the 1950s, was particularly memorable when he turned his good-guy screen image on its head — as he did playing the sadistic warden in director Robert Aldrich's 1974 comedy-drama "The Longest Yard," starring Burt Reynolds.

"There's no actor working today who can be as truly malignant as Eddie Albert," Aldrich told TV Guide in 1975. "He plays heavies exactly the way they are in real life. Slick and sophisticated."

At the time, Albert was co-starring as a retired bunco cop opposite Robert Wagner as his former con man son in "Switch," a private-eye drama that ran for three seasons on CBS.

But Albert is best remembered for "Green Acres," which aired on CBS from 1965 to 1971 and continues to have an afterlife on cable TV. In it, Albert played Oliver Wendell Douglas, the successful Manhattan lawyer who satisfies his longing to get closer to nature by giving up his law practice and buying — sight-unseen — a rundown 160-acre farm near the fictional town of Hooterville. Eva Gabor co-starred as his malaprop-dropping socialite wife, Lisa.

A spin-off of "Petticoat Junction," "Green Acres" featured a zany cast of hayseed characters, including Mr. Haney (Pat Buttram), the con man who sold the tumbledown farm to the big-city couple.

Albert previously had turned down series offers, including "My Three Sons" and "Mister Ed," unwilling to forgo his movie career for a medium he felt was "geared to mediocrity."

But then his agent told him the concept of the proposed CBS comedy series: a city slicker comes to the country to escape the aggravations of city living.

"I said, 'Swell. That's me. Everyone gets tired of the rat race. Everyone would like to chuck it all and grow some carrots. It's basic. Sign me,'" Albert told TV Guide. "I knew it would be successful. Had to be. It's about the atavistic urge, and people have been getting a charge out of that ever since Aristophanes wrote about the plebs and the city folk."

Of course, the ancient Greek playwright didn't create characters like pig farmer Fred Ziffel (Hank Patterson), whose scene-stealing pet pig, Arnold, watched television.

"Eddie Albert had an easy-going, friendly, guy-next-door appeal, and it translated perfectly to television," said Ron Simon, curator of television at the Museum of Radio and Television in New York. "His personalty was exactly the sort of laid-back charm that is necessary to succeed in television for a long time."

Indeed, Albert not only starred in his own TV series in three different decades — the `50s, `60s and `70s — he hosted two variety shows and a game show in the early `50s and frequently showed up through the years as a guest star in comedy and drama series, as well as variety shows. At the close of the 1960s, Albert even appeared on "The Ed Sullivan Show," reading legendary radio writer Norman Corwin's "Prayer for the `70s."

"His versatility and likability," Simon said, "were his major emblems on television."

The son of a real estate agent, Albert was born Edward Albert Heimberger on April 22, 1906, in Rock Island, Ill. When he was a year old, his family moved to Minneapolis, where he developed an early interest in show business.

To pay his way through the University of Minnesota, where he studied drama, Albert washed dishes and worked nights managing a movie theater, where he served as master of ceremonies for a weekly magic show.

Albert, who also sang at amateur nights, left the university in his junior year and joined a musical trio that performed on a local radio station. After the announcers kept referring to him on the air as Eddie Hamburger, he dropped Heimberger and adopted his middle name for his last.

The singing trio performed in Chicago, St. Louis and Cincinnati, but broke up after playing small clubs in New York. Albert eventually teamed with a singer named Grace Bradt and they spent a year as the singing stars of "The Honeymooners," an NBC morning radio show.

After working in summer stock, Albert landed his first Broadway role in "O Evening Star" in 1935. The play closed in less than a week, but Albert was back on Broadway in 1936, co-starring in producer-director George Abbott's production of "Brother Rat," a hit comedy about three friends at a Virginia military academy.

The now-established Albert appeared in another Abbott comedy production, "Room Service," in 1937 and, in 1938, co-starred in the Rodgers and Hart musical "The Boys from Syracuse."

The same year, he made his movie debut re-creating his stage role in the Warner Bros. film version of "Brother Rat." While signed to the studio, the restless Albert would take long sailing trips down the California coast in a ketch.

In 1939, while sailing off the coast of Baja California, he heard rumors of secret submarine fueling stations, and when he returned home he reported to Army intelligence that Japanese "fishermen" were making hydrographic surveys of the coast.

On later sailing trips, he made reports of German Nazi activities in Mexico. Prior to Pearl Harbor, he joined a Mexican circus owned by his friends, the Escalante Brothers. And while touring Mexico as the "flyer" in a six-man trapeze act, Albert gathered even more intelligence.

"Between shows, I'd be able to wander around and pick up information," he said in a 1947 interview. "I had the perfect disguise, of course. It was a very profitable trip. Despite the Rover Boy overtones, I got solid satisfaction whenever I sent a tip in."

Seven months after the war began, Albert joined the Navy. After graduating from officers training school, he was assigned to an amphibious transport ship and saw action in the South Pacific. Later, he was assigned to the Navy's training films branch.

After the war, Albert returned to Hollywood "utterly forgotten, and rightly so," he told the Toronto Star in 1988. "What had I ever done? I took everything they could throw at me. Pictures like 'The Dude Goes West' and 'The Fuller Brush Girl.' I worked myself back up, but I never wanted to be a star. I was aiming to play the star's best friend."

Inspired by his experience with military training films, he launched Eddie Albert Productions in 1946. The company made 16-millimeter industrial films and educational films for schoolchildren, including two then-controversial sex-education films.

Albert also returned to Broadway in 1949, singing and dancing as the leading man in the musical "Miss Liberty." It ran for 308 performances before Albert returned to a Hollywood that was being transformed by a new thing called television.

Albert, who had made his television debut in 1948, appeared in numerous live dramatic showcases throughout the 1950s such as "Playhouse 90," "Studio One" and "General Electric Theater."

In 1952, he starred in a short-lived family situation comedy for CBS-TV, "Leave It to Larry." He later hosted a live musical variety series ("Nothing But the Best"), hosted and sang, danced and acted in another live NBC variety series ("Saturday Night Revue") and hosted a CBS game show ("On Your Account").

In 1954, Albert and his former actress-singer wife, Margo, whom he married after his Navy discharge in 1945, had a successful nightclub act that played New York and other cities around the country. In 1960, Albert returned to Broadway, replacing Robert Preston in the title role in "The Music Man."

Over the years, Albert explored remote parts of the world. In the 1930s, he spent time on a tiny, deserted island in Nova Scotia as well as in the Mexican wilderness. In the 1950s, he visited the Congo to discuss malnutrition with Albert Schweitzer. He stayed with Schweitzer for several months and later wrote about the experience. And in 1969, Albert flew to the Klondike with an expedition trying to find the arctic cabin where Jack London searched for gold and did some of his writing. They found the cabin, which was dismantled and reassembled in Oakland's Jack London Square.

In the late 1960s, Albert's attention turned to ecology. He did extensive reading on the subject as well as talking to experts in the field.

In 1969, he accompanied a molecular biologist from UC Berkeley to Anacapa Island off the California coast to observe the nesting of pelicans. What they found were thousands of collapsed pelican eggs

"The run-off of DDT had been consumed by the fish, the fish had been eaten by the pelicans, whose metabolism had in turn been disturbed so that the lady pelican could no longer manufacture a sturdy shell," Albert told TV Guide in 1970.

After learning more about the effects of DDT, he said, "I stopped being a conservationist I became terrified. The more I studied, the more terrified I got."

Sharing his ecological concerns on the "Tonight" and "Today" shows, he became, in the words of a TV Guide reporter, "a kind of ecological Paul Revere." The TV appearances led to speaking engagement requests from high schools, universities and industrial and religious groups.

Albert formed a new company to produce films to aid in "international campaigns against environmental pollution."

Home base for the actor-activist was an unpretentious Spanish-style house on an acre of land in Pacific Palisades, where Albert turned the front yard into a cornfield. He also installed a giant greenhouse in the backyard, where he grew organic vegetables.

But a reporter learned better than to call Albert an ecologist.

"Ecologist, hell!," he scoffed in the 1970 TV Guide interview. "Too mild a word. Check the Department of Agriculture; 60% of the world is hungry already. With our soil impoverished, our air poisoned, our wildlife crippled by DDT, our rivers and lakes turning into giant cesspools, and mass starvation an apparent inevitability by 1976, I call myself a Human Survivalist!"

Albert, who in 1963 served as special world envoy for Meals for Millions — a philanthropic project providing nutritious, low-cost meals to the underprivileged around the world — helped launch the first Earth Day in 1970 and served as a special consultant at the World Hunger Conference in Rome in 1974.

He also served stints as director to the U.S. Commission on Refugees, national conservation chairman for the Boy Scouts of America and chairman of the Eddie Albert World Trees Foundation. He was a trustee of the National Recreation and Parks Assn. and a consumer advisory board member of the U.S. Department of Energy.

Margo, Albert's wife of 39 years, died in 1985.

In addition to his son, Albert is survived by a daughter, Maria Zucht; and two granddaughters. Services will be private.

Private to MyGrain:
(I'm with you on AD.)

TV's Gender Gap

The Wall Street Journal---Men might still rule the universe, but the X chromosome holds sway on network TV. Adult women watch an average of 5 hours 33 minutes of TV a day, according to Nielsen Media Research, while men clock in at 4 hours 44 minutes. It's no surprise, then, that broadcast offerings skew female, whether it is ABC's "Desperate Housewives" or "Supernanny."

Only some 10% of the 150 or so shows this season drew more male viewers.

What are men watching?
Fox's Sunday night line-up.
Counterprogrammed against ABCs' femme powerhouses "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" (64% female viewers) "Desperate Housewives" (63%), and "Grey's Anatomy" (63%), Fox's Sunday offerings, including "Arrested Development" and several animated series, are a veritable fraternity party.

While none of these shows can challenge ABC, their preponderance of less-accessible male viewers make them appealing to advertisers. "If you have found a way to reach a very-difficult-to-reach audience, you stay with it." says Aaron Cohen, director of broadcast at media buyer Horizon Media.

Program/Net/% Male Viewers/Overall Ratings Rank
Monday Night Football ABC 67% 12
WWF Smackdown! UPN 67% 129
American Dad FOX 61% 67
Family Guy FOX 60% 81
Simpsons FOX 59% 52
Sketch Show FOX 58% 139
Enterprise UPN 57% 178
King of the Hill FOX 56% 133
Malcolm in the Middle FOX 56% 118
Arrested Development FOX 56% 112
Source: Nielsen Media Research

2004-05 Season Roundup
BroadcastingCable.com May 30, 2005
What Worked

ABC’s Sunday night: With Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, Desperate Housewives and Grey’s Anatomy, “ABC became the hot place to be on Sunday nights,” says Shari Ann Brill, VP/director of programming for Carat.

Blue-chip reality: Of Nielsen’s top 20 for the season, five were established reality franchises: American Idol, Survivor, The Apprentice and Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, along with flourishing The Amazing Race.

Psychic and thriller dramas: ABC’s island thriller Lost, NBC’s psychic drama Medium and Fox’s House riveted viewers. Success breeds imitators: Next fall’s schedule includes seven new dramas with supernatural twists.

What Didn’t

New sitcoms: The networks failed to produce even one breakout comedy hit and had some notorious failures, including CBS’ Listen Up! and NBC’s animated stab Father of the Pride. Two high-concept but ratings-challenged shows, Fox’s Arrested Development and NBC’s The Office, managed to survive.

Humiliation TV: Viewers were turned off by mean-spirited reality shows and anything that smelled cynical, such as CBS’ short-lived The Will and even ABC’s The Bachelor, which was particularly catty this season.

Boxing shows: Punches starting flying last year after NBC unveiled its Mark Burnett-produced The Contender and Fox followed suit with its version, The Next Great Champ. Nielsen’s decision: They both lost. The Next Great Champ posted dismal ratings, and The Contender managed a small though loyal following. Asked what went wrong, NBC Universal Television Group President Jeff Zucker offered, “At the end of the day, it was about boxing.”

Mixed Results

Spin-offs: Despite decent ratings, NBC cancelled Law & Order: Trial by Jury, its fourth Dick Wolf drama. Friends offspring Joey steadily lost ratings throughout the season. It is getting a tune-up for this fall. CBS had better luck with its CSI: NY, which out-rated NBC’s original Law & Order on Wednesday nights. ABC’s follow-up to The Practice, David E. Kelley’s Boston Legal, performed well, but it will be tested this fall when it moves to Tuesdays at 10 without Desperate Housewives as a lead-in.

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

Why 'Grey’ Seems So Bright
Creator Shonda Rhimes never meant to be a TV writer
By Paige Albiniak Broadcasting & Cable

The most amazing thing about ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy is not that a serial medical drama managed to break out and become one of this season’s biggest hits. It is that its creator, head writer and showrunner is a 34-year-old woman who, prior to this, had never written, run or even worked on a television series in her life.

Shonda Rhimes already had several feature films under her belt. She penned Crossroads, starring Britney Spears; The Princess Diaries 2; and HBO’s Introducing Dorothy Dandridge, starring Halle Berry. But working in series television never occurred to her.

“I always thought I would write movies. But I adopted a baby, and you can never leave the house again when you have a baby. So I was home in the evening, and I was falling in love with shows like Felicity and Buffy the Vampire Slayer.”

Rhimes’ first shot at a TV pilot revolved around female war correspondents—a bunch of feisty women covering an imaginary war while having a lot of sex and fun along the way. “But then the real war broke out,” she says, “and that wasn’t such a good idea anymore.”

Her next attempt kept the intensity but changed the setting: surgical interns making their first rounds in a teaching hospital. “My sisters and I had always been addicted to surgeries. I’d be watching one on Discovery Health, and inevitably the phone would ring. It would be one of my sisters saying, 'Are you watching this?’” The inadvertent research paid off. Grey’s Anatomy was born.

“SOMETHING SEXY ABOUT SURGERY”

“There’s something very sexy about surgery,” Rhimes says. “You actually have your hands in someone else’s body. That’s a rare and amazing job. And it is like war correspondents: They are both groups of people who work and play together in an unbelievably competitive and intense environment.”

Part of what works so well about Grey’s is the show’s sex appeal. The cast members are individually charismatic, but they have great chemistry. The show was written as cast-colorblind, so Sandra Oh’s hyper-competitive Christina Wang initially had no last name, and “the Nazi,” played to gruff perfection by African-American Chandra Wilson, was first conceived as a petite blonde.

“It never occurred to me to do it in any other way,” Rhimes says. “My age group is post-civil-rights, post-feminist babies, and we accept that we live in a diverse and interesting world. We don’t sit around talking about race, so Grey’s doesn’t feel particularly fresh or special to me. It feels like the world.”

Actor Isaiah Washington initially auditioned to play Dr. Derrick Shephard, love interest of title character Meredith Grey (played by Ellen Pompeo). When Patrick Dempsey won the role, there was no part for Washington. It left him “sick,” he says. But Rhimes kept Washington in mind, and when the actor originally cast as surgeon Preston Burke fell out, Washington got a callback. “I knew I could never be wrong in my heart about something so good and so genuine,” he says. “Her writing just seemed very complex, very honest.”

BIG NUMBERS OUT OF THE GATE

Steve McPherson, president of ABC Entertainment, discovered Rhimes early, giving her a deal at Touchstone when he was still running the studio. And he championed Grey’s Anatomy from the beginning, purposely holding it to midseason so the pilot could be perfected and ABC could launch the show with the network’s full marketing arsenal behind it.

In March, Grey’s posted big numbers in its first outing, airing after mega-hit Desperate Housewives; it finished the season bigger than ABC’s other hot show, Lost. “Grey’s was similar to Desperate Housewives,” McPherson says. “Both shows are about the human condition, and they are accessible. They also both appeal to female viewers, and research shows that women respond earliest and then bring other audiences with them.”

“SHE UNDERSTANDS STORY”

Adds Debra Chase, producer of Princess Diaries 2 and other films, for whom Rhimes interned while getting her master’s degree at USC Film School, “She understands story. She understands how to handle emotion, action and humor and how to meld all of those pieces into one. She understands structure, which is critical to development, and she’s good with dialogue. Most writers can’t do all of that. But Shonda just gets it.”

The success of Grey’s has changed much for Rhimes, who just signed a two-year development deal with Touchstone and is penning two movies for Disney. “I went from sitting at home and writing in my pajamas to going into an office every day and working with a team of writers.” Besides writing and editing Grey’s scripts, she makes decisions in all areas of the show, from costumes and hairstyles to editing and music.

“When some writers come out of features, they are blindsided by the pace of TV,” says James Parriott, a TV vet who shares show-running responsibilities with Rhimes. “Shonda thrives on it.”

This Is the Way the Season Ends: Bang!

By ANITA GATES The New York Times May 28, 2005

It's over.

Bree's husband, Rex, is dead, and Susan is being held hostage by a teenage boy. Little Walt has been kidnapped, and the castaways' raft trip has failed to bring about a rescue. Dr. Derek Shepherd is married (the cad!). Jack Bauer has saved the world from nuclear disaster but now has to disappear. Lorelai has proposed to Luke, and Rory is dropping out of Yale.

On Wednesday night, sweeps month and the network television season ended pretty much simultaneously.

The big season finales over the last month did their job, garnering high ratings and leaving viewers slightly on edge until fall. If the ratings of Fox's monster hit "American Idol" are any indication, though, the announcement of a big real-life winner trumps the death of a lead character or any cliffhangers that the writers of fictional shows can devise.

On Wednesday night, an average of 30.3 million viewers watched Carrie Underwood defeat Bo Bice on "American Idol," compared with the 20.7 million who tuned in to see what would happen to the brave plane crash survivors on ABC's hit drama "Lost." Not that 20.7 million is anything to sneeze at.

A look at Internet message boards shows few fans complaining about final episodes. Instead, viewers are debating about who killed Rex (Steven Culp) on ABC's "Desperate Housewives," whether Rory (Alexis Bledel) on WB's "Gilmore Girls" is a rich brat or just coming into her own, just how married the dreamy Derek (Patrick Dempsey) is on ABC's new medical drama "Grey's Anatomy" and whether the deranged Frenchwoman (Mira Furlan) who took Claire's baby on "Lost" is really French.

Television writers appear to have succeeded at a challenging task: concocting finales that satisfy without giving away too much.

"People go into them with such high expectations," said Carlton Cuse, an executive producer of "Lost." "There's always going to be a segment of the audience that will be frustrated" by not being told everything.

Like, for instance, where that broken ladder inside the mysterious hatch goes and who broke it.

"The thing about narrative television - you make incremental progress," Mr. Cuse said. "Maybe you go from A to B in a typical episode. In a finale, maybe you go from B to G. You're never going to go to Z, but you get a big chunk of narrative."

"Desperate Housewives" fans were rewarded with an enormous chunk. In the last episode, viewers learned the answer to the first season's overwhelming question: why Mary Alice (Brenda Strong) committed suicide. It seems she murdered Deidre (Jolie Jenkins), the drug-addicted biological mother of her son, Zack (Cody Kasch), and past lover of Mike (James Denton), the handsome plumber who is now the lover of Susan (Teri Hatcher), who is being held at gunpoint by Zack just as Mike is about to walk in the front door and possibly have his head blown off.

The finale left the other major characters' lives turned upside down. Gabrielle (Eva Longoria) is unwillingly pregnant, Lynette (Felicity Huffman) is faced with the prospect of going back to her high-powered job, and Bree (Marcia Cross) is suddenly a widow. And to top it off, a strong-willed new neighbor (Alfre Woodard) - forceful enough to tell Edie (Nicollette Sheridan) where to go - has just moved into the neighborhood.

In number of cliffhangers, "Desperate Housewives" may have been topped only by "One Tree Hill," a WB drama series popular with (and mostly about) teenagers. Mark Schwahn, the show's creator, says he counts at least seven. Among them, there is a rift between Chad Michael Murray and James Lafferty, the half-brother lead characters ("We're not brothers," Nathan, played by Mr. Lafferty, said. "We're not even friends."); a supposed journalist's announcement to young Peyton (Hilarie Burton) that she is her long-lost mother; and a raging fire set by some shadowy figure, threatening to consume the detestable Dan (Paul Johansson), the boys' father, who has also just been poisoned. Almost everybody in the show has a motive.

"It's very 'Who Shot J. R.?,' " Mr. Schwahn said, referring, of course, to the mother of all cliffhanger episodes, the attempted murder of the back-stabbing oil tycoon J. R. Ewing (Larry Hagman) on "Dallas" in 1980.

"We have so many story lines in play that I feel like rather than putting all of our eggs into one basket, it's only reasonable to honor all of those story lines," Mr. Schwahn said.

Some series, on the other hand, deliberately kept things low-key. CBS's "Everybody Loves Raymond," the season's most anticipated series finale, did a one-hour cast-and-crew retrospective but ended its nine-year run with a regular half-hour episode that had only a moment of big drama: a doctor announced that the title character (Ray Romano) was having trouble coming out of anesthesia after minor surgery. But everything worked out fine, and the other characters loved Raymond anew.

Fox's "24" kept things quiet too.

"We have a tradition of ending with explosive events," said Evan Katz, a consulting producer for "24," which stars Kiefer Sutherland as Jack Bauer, sensitive terrorist hunter. "But we couldn't keep topping ourselves. How do you top a nuclear bomb and a virus?"

So the show went for a "softer end," Mr. Katz said. A foreign government demanded Jack's execution, but his death was faked and he walked off into the sunset, his future unclear. Mr. Katz said he believed this semi-cliffhanger sat well with viewers who are just as interested in Jack's emotional development as his adventures.

"You really want to know how this is going to work out for him, where's he's going to go in his life," Mr. Katz said.

Fans of WB's "Gilmore Girls" share that feeling about its characters, who staged the ultimate nonviolent cliffhanger.

In the last moment of the last scene of the last episode, Lorelai (Lauren Graham), listening to her boyfriend, Luke (Scott Patterson), enthusiastically express his devotion to her daughter, blurted out, "Luke, will you marry me?" The end.

A TV Hit Parade
Celebrating a season with character
By Matt Roush TVGuide.com

Bree. Lynette. Gabrielle. Susan and Mike. Kate, Jack and Sawyer. Locke and Boone. Sun and Jin. Dr. House. Meredith, Izzie, George and "the Nazi." Allison DuBois. Veronica Mars. Just to name a few.

When you make this many new friends in a single TV season — and you could add 24's ill-fated Dina Araz and Boston Legal's sleek Shirley Schmidt to the list — you know something has gone right.

In our Fall Preview issue last September, I wondered if the days of instant hits were over. "The next smash could be a touch of the remote away," I speculated. "And I have no doubt that we'll know it when you see it."

You saw it, we knew it, and the rest is future TV-classic history. The remarkable 2004-05 season got off to a roaring start and was largely defined by ABC's two-fisted breakthrough with Desperate Housewives and Lost — one redefining the prime-time soap with satirical humor, the other refining the castaway thriller with psychological depth.

And then came two unexpected medical hits: Fox's sardonic House and ABC's sudsy Grey's Anatomy (a steadily improving companion to Housewives). Throw in NBC's offbeat Medium, with its psychic twist on crime procedurals and refreshingly authentic at-home scenes. Plus the first genuine post-Buffy cult item in UPN's edgy teen mystery Veronica Mars.

These shows share critical elements of character, chemistry and originality (in execution if not always in premise). They became must-sees, joined by faves like 24 and Gilmore Girls, which kicked back into high gear this year.

All that was lacking: a great new sitcom. Is that too much to ask?

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

The May sweep results - from a cable programmer's point of view:

SHARE SQUABBLE

By R. Thomas Umstead Multichannel.com 5/30/2005

Carrie Underwood may be America’s new idol, but cable remained the top choice among American viewers during the May sweeps and the 2004-05 TV season overall.

The broadcast industry, though, is not ready to concede defeat. Far from it, in fact.

Household Hubbub

Factoring in results from Spanish-language broadcasters like Univision and Telemundo, the Television Bureau of Advertising claims that ad-supported broadcast topped basic-cable in terms of household viewership during the just completed 2004-05 TV season.

Stations--03-04 Rating/Share 04-05 Rating/Share
ABC-------5.92 9.71 6.52 10.58
CBS-------8.43 13.83 8.33 13.51
NBC-------7.29 11.96 6.55 10.63
Fox-------5.49 9.00 5.50 8.91
UPN-------1.73 2.85 1.77 2.86
WB--------2.09 3.42 1.90 3.08
Pax-------0.65 1.06 0.42 0.68
Independent*-2.92 4.79 3.79 6.14
4 Nets---27.13 44.50 26.90 43.63
7 Nets---31.60 51.83 30.99 50.25
Total Bcast-34.52 56.62 34.78 56.39
Ad-Supported Cable 30.38 49.83 32.09 52.04

* Includes Spanish language network affiliates.
Source: Television Bureau of Advertising analysis of Nielsen Media Research, Galaxy Explorer, Primetime Viewing Source Report data.

Cable racked up a 52.0 primetime household share during the recently completed season, which spanned Sept. 20, 2004 through May 25, topping the seven broadcast networks by 6.5 points, according to a Turner Research analysis of Nielsen Media Research data. The win marks the second consecutive year cable has bested the seven broadcast networks during a full TV season — and that’s as the two media vie for advertisers’ dollars in the upfront marketplace.

But a broadcast-industry organization says Turner’s research doesn’t tell the whole story. Calling Turner’s broadcast methodology flawed, the Television Bureau of Advertising says that broadcast beat cable when local station programming and “independent broadcast affiliates,” which include Spanish-language networks like Univision and Telemundo, are factored into the calculations.

Bolstered by a 6.14 household share from those independent stations, which was up 28% from the 2003-04 season, the broadcast networks’ collective household share jumps to 56.3, according to TVB’s analysis of Nielsen data. That number, however, was slightly down from 2003-04, according to the TVB.

Since Turner’s data incorporates results from local programming like regional sports networks and regional cable-news networks like New York 1 News, TVB spokesman Gary Belis said the inclusion of “independent” numbers provide for a more accurate comparison between the media.

“The Hispanic numbers in particular are such a growth story that [Turner] has to start acknowledging them before the 'Don’t Count Us Out’ people will be at his door,” he said. (Don’t Count Us Out is a coalition of minority, community and industry groups who’ve lobbied against Nielsen’s Local People Meter system as one that undercounts minority viewers.)

But Turner Broadcasting System Inc. chief research officer Jack Wakshlag said Turner compares the national broadcast networks with ad-supported cable based on the computations that Nielsen provides, noting that local and regional cable networks only represent about 10% of the total cable figure. He also said the Spanish-language networks do not use the national Nielsen system to measure viewing, but instead use the National Hispanic Television Index.

“We look at what Nielsen calls national broadcast networks and the hours that the networks are on, because that’s what [the networks] are responsible for,” he said. “The 90% of [national] ad-supported cable networks are not competing with the local Fox affiliate [from 10 p.m. to 11 p.m]. Fox [network] is not responsible for that programming and does not sell that content, so it doesn’t matter.”

Cable also proved superior during the May sweeps period, according to the Turner analysis. Despite strong ratings from the finales of Fox’s American Idol and 24; ABC’s Desperate Housewives and Lost; and CBS’s CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, basic cable’s 50.7 primetime share for the April 28 through May 25 period outpaced broadcast’s 46.8 share, according to Turner.

Cable has now beaten the seven broadcast networks in every sweeps period since Feb. 2004, according to Turner.

The TVB analysis, however, finds a different outcome. In TVB’s definition of total ad-supported broadcast figures, that medium comes out ahead with a 57.9 share.

But Wakshlag said no matter how you slice the numbers, cable will continue to increase its viewership at the expense of the broadcast networks.

“A year from now, no matter how they calculate, cable will continue to outdeliver the broadcast networks,” he said. “Broadcast numbers are still worse than they were a year ago, while cable continues to grow.”

More importantly for cable, the industry continued to made strides over the broadcast networks in attracting more 18-to-49-year-old viewers. Turner reports that cable gained 1.17 million subscribers during the 2004-05 season, while the seven broadcast networks lost 264,000 viewers within the advertiser-coveted demo.

Even TVB’s numbers show that among the 18-to-49 demo, the collective rating for the seven networks fell to 17.1 from a 17.3 a year ago. With all of broadcast combined, though, the medium scored a 19.5 rating against the demo in the May 2005 sweeps period, compared to a 18.6 during the same period last year.

Wakshlag also said cable’s share of primetime ad dollars continue to grow, from 22% in 2000-01, to 30% for the 2004-05 season. But those outlays still remain out of balance compared to overall viewing patterns, he said.

In other trends, Wakshlag said overall TV viewing has never been higher. Despite an increase in Internet usage, viewers tuned in an average of 32.4 hours per week during the 2004-05 season, versus 30.3 hours spent in the 2000-01 campaign.

And a contrary view

Nets back in the game
B'casters broke rules and grabbed viewers
as cable stumbled through a ho-hum season

By JOSEF ADALIAN, MICHAEL SCHNEIDER Variety.com

Network TV elbowed its way back to the water cooler last season -- and it paid off in the ratings.
The big four networks finished the 2004-05 year -- which officially wrapped May 25 -- up vs. the previous season, an almost unheard-of feat in this age of viewer erosion.

And they did it thanks to new and returning megahits like "Desperate Housewives," "American Idol," "Lost" and "Survivor."

People were talking about broadcast TV again -- just as they weren't talking about cable. After several years making most of the noise, cable is facing a dud of a year.

"The Sopranos" won't return for another year; "The Shield" saw its viewership decline, even with the addition of Glenn Close; "Sex and the City" is long gone; and Showtime didn't get much traction with hugely hyped series like "Fat Actress."

Then, to add insult to injury, cable's big comedy hope -- "Chappelle Show" star David Chappelle -- went AWOL.

Now, as they head into summer, network execs -- with a few exceptions -- are feeling more optimistic than they have in a long time.

"I believe there's a great hope that there's another 'Idol' or 'Desperate Housewives' out there," says Fox Entertainment prexy Peter Liguori. "History does repeat itself -- and recent history does say you can deliver breakout hits, you can deliver huge audience numbers."

That's not the only lesson webheads gleaned from the just-completed season. Other messages that came through:

Sudsers can still sizzle. Not long ago, webheads had all but declared serialized skeins dead. The thinking: Viewers had too many choices and not enough time to keep up with continuing storylines. Much better to fill up on self-contained procedural dramas like "CSI" that viewers could pop in and out of throughout the season.

Not so this year.

Season's biggest drama hits all contained soapy elements, cementing a trend that began two seasons ago with Fox's "The OC." Even shows that weren't immediate smashes (think UPN's "Veronica Mars") were able to generate some buzz with their ongoing plots.

ABC topper Steve McPherson says auds are simply looking to bond with the shows they watch.

"There's such a thirst for appointment television, and that's what serialized shows become," he says. "You want that shared experience, that show everyone can talk about the next day."

Stars don't make TV shows; TV shows make stars. It's the TV biz equivalent of "2 plus 2 equals 4," and yet it's a lesson execs never seem to get. Nets pay big bucks for big names and always seem shocked when viewers don't respond.

Among thesps humbled last season: Jason Alexander ("Listen Up"), Heather Locklear ("LAX"), Taye Diggs ("Kevin Hill"), Sylvester Stallone ("The Contender"), Rob Lowe ("Dr. Vegas") and Matt LeBlanc ("Joey").

Poor John Goodman actually struck out with two shows: "Center of the Universe" and "Father of the Pride."
By contrast, when this season started, few people knew who Eva Longoria, Evangeline Lilly or Ellen Pompeo were. Now all three have hit shows to their names.

Being bold pays off. ABC's comeback was engineered by a team of execs who had nothing to lose. That made it easier for the net to try supposedly "crazy" ideas like launching a Sunday night suburban sudser or spending most of their fall marketing budget on just two shows.

Likewise, Fox stuck by early underperformer "House," only to watch it blossom into a hit once "American Idol" brought in auds to sample it.

Liguori says the lesson of this season is, "in a strange way, the only thing you have to fear is fear itself. This is a business of managing failures more than managing successes," he says. "But you can't let the failures wear you down. You've got to display a little bit of bravado, a little bit of swagger. And the people who did that this year were rewarded."

TV 101 still applies. For all the talk of a changing marketplace and the impending revolution about to hit network TV, some basic rules still apply.

Lead-outs, for example, are still valuable, even in the era of TiVo and 500 channels. It turned "Grey's Anatomy" into a hit and helped "House" take off.

Another obvious pointer: Marketing -- sometimes the first thing to go in belt-tightening eras -- can still make or break a show; witness how strategic promotion helped turn around ABC.

And, in a sea of testosterone-led procedural dramas, Alphabet web found a hunger for shows that hadn't been seen in several years on a mainstream web.

Don't believe the hype. As much as they'd like to, network execs can't will hits. Buzz was loud on new skeins such as UPN's "Kevin Hill," WB's "Jack & Bobby," NBC's "Father of the Pride" and even the Peacock's "Joey."

Yet, for a variety of reasons, viewers mostly took a pass. ("Joey" squeaked by with a soph pickup, but both NBC and Warner Bros. TV admit the show needs an overhaul.)

The "Desperate Housewives" and "Lost" axiom is clear: If the show lives up to the hype, then the viewers will come.

"You've got to have the most distinct, original and best quality shows," says WB Entertainment prexy David Janollari. "The lesson duly noted is from ABC. They had original, fresh and incredible voices behind them that connected with an audience.

"Now, what's the next show that will not just get buzz or good reviews, but will connect with an audience?"

Hmmm, who to believe, Cable booster or Variety.com?

I think Networks did very well this sweeps, at least from my casual review. And it seems like to me, much as the Variety article pointed out, people are talking about Network television much more than say this time last year. If Network HD starts to be adopted as well, I think Network television has probably troughed.

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

Fall skeds ripe for slot shifts
Sked-swaps likely before season starts

By RICK KISSELL Variety.com

HOLLYWOOD -- The nets have trotted out their fall skeds for advertisers, but they're hardly etched it stone.
With the ratings races tighter than ever, and each network looking to give its new shows their best chance to shine, we may see some sked-shifting in the next few weeks.

Under particular scrutiny are hours loaded with dramas like Wednesday at 9 (including ABC's "Lost" and NBC's promising new "E-Ring") and Thursday at 8 (with "Alias" and "Smallville" moving in).

Here are some early thoughts on the fall skeds:

NBC must not have thought much of its comedy development or it would have gone with a four-pack on Tuesday and shaken the cobwebs out of its tired Thursday twosome of "Joey" and "Will & Grace."
Outside of maybe Saturday, Tuesday from 8 to 9 in the fall (before "American Idol") is the only logical place for the Peacock to give new laffers a shot.

With CBS and Fox shifting from comedy to drama, all six broadcast nets will air dramas in Wednesday's middle hour. ABC's "Lost" is at the head of the class, meaning newbies "Criminal Minds" on CBS and "E-Ring" on NBC will battle it out for second.

NBC has probably looked at moving its high-profile "E-Ring" out of the slot, but this remains the best spot for it, and it figures to get the strongest lead-in (from the Martha Stewart "Apprentice"). But how about a name change?

Most likely shift would come at Fox, where "Head Cases" might best be replaced by a reality skein like "Trading Spouses" or "Nanny 911."

While there's a drama glut on Wednesday, there's also a rare sitcom surplus on the night. Of the 27 comedies the Big Four have skedded for fall, six of them (two apiece on ABC, CBS and Fox) air in the night's opening hour.

CBS seems to be the odd net out at 8 with "Still Standing" and "Yes, Dear." But since there's no other logical slot on the Eye sked for them, and CBS is asking them to merely improve upon the numbers for "60 Minutes" in the slot, they could stick around awhile.

UPN's decision to slot a repeat of "America's Next Top Model" had some insiders scratching their head, but it figures to provide the best lead-in possible for new drama "Sex, Lies and Secrets" (another lame title).

Net can always shift the "Model" repeat to Thursday if its revamped comedy lineup there fails to click, but if "Sex" bombs, the net could be in real Tuesday trouble.

NBC's best hope for the fall may be Monday sea-monster drama "Fathom," which slides in the "Fear Factor" slot and could do decent biz with young adults and families. If it can click and provide a more compatible lead-in for "Las Vegas," the Peacock could be very competitive on the night.

Three dramas with loyal but small overall audiences -- Fox's "The OC," ABC's "Alias" and the WB's "Smallville" -- will do battle in a tough Thursday 8 o'clock showdown. Don't expect any bailouts here, as each smells blood with NBC's laffers struggling in the hour and CBS' "Survivor" past its peak (though still a top-10 hit).

"Alias," more of a 25-54 show, would seem to be new competish for "Survivor," while "Smallville" will cross paths more with the "OC" aud.

At the WB, the return of "Charmed" to its Sunday-at-8 slot was a mild surprise, but it still performs well enough and deserves a sendoff season.

Still, with "Reba" repeats at 7, "Blue Collar TV" at 9 and the Frog's comedy development looking better than recent years, a switch to femme-focused laffers at 8 sometime soon is definitely a possibility.

Ace in the hole for the Frog, though, might be unscripted skein "Beauty and the Geek," a delightful entry that bows this week. Net may at long last have the reality show it needs to boost a troubled timeslot.

Must-Flee TV

By Marc Berman Mediaweek.com May 30, 2005

Now that the frenzied network upfront presentation week is over, and we have 31 new prime-time series to look forward to—or not look forward to—I am already wistful for the traditional programming season. Although not every scripted series is a must-see, I'm counting the days

Until Lost, Desperate Housewives, Two and a Half Men, CSI, Gilmore Girls, The King of Queens and countless other series return. As much as I do like reality (you can add Survivor, American Idol and The Apprentice to the shows I will be pining for all summer), as the heat rises, so will the number of new nonscripted programs in June, July and August.

All of which means you can take off your thinking caps for the summer. Although the networks would like you to believe they aggressively program on a year-round basis, let's be honest. They don't.

Aside from burn-off episodes of canceled series (like the WB's Summerland and ABC's Complete Savages); new scripted series that were so bad they did not make it on the traditional season schedule (Fox drama The Inside, UPN sitcom The Bad Girls Guide); as well as repeats, repeats and more repeats, reality will dominate the broadcast networks. You could call that the reality of summer TV, and it is certainly not subject to change anytime soon.

Last year, Fox boldly claimed it was beginning the new fall season in the summer, but the failure of the network's Method & Red, Quintuplets, The Jury, The Casino and North Shore quickly changed its strategy. No matter how aggressive any network is toward the end of the traditional season once the May sweeps is over and the networks announce their new fall lineups, viewers are programmed to believe that the "Gone Fishing" sign is up until September. Lower HUT levels in the summer mean fewer viewers tune into network TV. And the networks are not about to waste their A-list product when there is a limited audience available.

Some of the worst original series in the history of television have aired in the summer. As a kid, I remember The Ken Berry "Wow" Show (with a young Teri Garr and Steve Martin), The Hudson Brothers Show (hosted by three brothers who seemed to think they were the Marx Brothers) and Shields and Yarnell (mimes hosting a variety show). As an adult, I am still horrified that the multitalented Cloris Leachman donned a Pilgrim outfit for a stint in the August 1999 CBS sitcom Thanks. Phyllis, how could you?

Though cable has been known to use these low HUT-level months to its advantage, that hasn't stopped some quality network series from finding their footing in the summer (think Sonny and Cher and Northern Exposure). But giving viewers' brains a rest in the summer has been a network strategy since the early days of television. No matter how the networks spin it (nice try last year, Fox), that ain't gonna change.

As evidence, look at this summer's network lineup. Including new seasons of CBS' Big Brother and NBC's Average Joe: The Joe Strikes Back and new episodes of ABC's Wife Swap and Supernanny, we will see at least two dozen new nonscripted series within the next three months.

Kicking in this week are ABC's Dancing With the Stars (if you can call someone like former Bachelorette Trista Rehn a star) and The Scholar; NBC's Hit Me Baby One More Time; Fox's Hell's Kitchen; and the WB's relationship-oriented Beauty and the Beast. In subsequent weeks look for CBS' Fire Me…Please, The Cut (hosted by fashion's Tommy Hilfiger) and Rock Star INXS from reality guru Mark Burnett; NBC's I Want to Be a Hilton (with Paris' mama, Kathy), Tommy Lee Goes to College (yecch!), Meet Mr. Mom and The Law Firm (from Boston Legal creator David E. Kelley); and Welcome to the Neighborhood and Brat Camp on ABC.

Fox will also introduce Idol wanna-be (but not gonna-be) So You Think You Can Dance as well as The Princes of Malibu, about two adult brothers (Brandon and Brody Jenner, sons of Olympian Bruce Jenner) who live at home with their mother and stepfather. UPN's abysmal (and career-killing) Britney & Kevin: Chaotic is, of course, also underway.

(If you plan on watching Britney & Kevin, by the way, here's a word of warning: You'll need a Dramamine or two and a bucket to barf into. This is what you would call "must-flee" reality TV.)

Although the couch potato inside of me will always find something worthwhile to watch, even in the summer, I am particularly thankful that some of my favorite old shows are now on DVD.

A TV Duel at Sunrise

By JACQUES STEINBERG The New York Times May 30, 2005

As soon as the digital clock in the control room of "Good Morning America" struck 7:20 last Wednesday, signaling the first commercial break of the day, Ben Sherwood bolted out the door.

Mr. Sherwood, the executive producer of the ABC program, was heading for the anchor desk occupied by Charles Gibson, Diane Sawyer and Robin Roberts. In his hand was a printed form with three columns - one each for ABC, NBC and CBS - that he used to chart the story selection on the competing morning programs, as gleaned from monitors overhead.

"What'd they do?" Mr. Gibson asked, referring specifically to "Today" on NBC. Mr. Sherwood told Mr. Gibson that unlike "Good Morning America," which had led its main news segment with rising home prices, "Today" had brought on Tim Russert for a sober discussion of the Congressional fight over judges and stem cell research. Mr. Sherwood then said that "Today," like "Good Morning America," had done a segment on Jennifer Wilbanks, the so-called runaway bride in Georgia.

"They have the stuff Mike had?" Mr. Gibson asked, in reference to the ABC reporter, Mike Von Fremd. No, Mr. Sherwood said. Mr. Von Fremd had reported that Ms. Wilbanks's family was prepared to offer as much as $14,000 to reimburse the authorities for some of what they had spent looking for her.

Mr. Gibson, peering at Mr. Sherwood through reading glasses, allowed himself a small smile.

For decades now, "Today" and "Good Morning America" have gone at each other like the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox, tracking each other's performance in the Nielsen ratings as if they were morning box scores (CBS's "The Early Show," the Cleveland Indians of the network morning shows, remains a distant third). But lately, "Good Morning America" has been displaying an aggressive feistiness - both on camera and, judging by a visit last Wednesday, backstage as well -drawn at least partly from a recent rise in its fortunes.

More than just bragging rights are at stake. The two programs routinely square off over interviews with the biggest newsmakers and Hollywood stars; concerts by the biggest acts and, ultimately, advertising dollars. Generating an estimated $250 million in profits, "Today" is believed to be the most lucrative program on television

Over the last decade, "Today" has always won, not only on an annual basis (by an average of nearly two million viewers a week in 2000-01), but week-to-week. As of the week of May 16, the last week for which final figures were available from Nielsen Media Research, "Today's" winning streak stood at 493 consecutive weeks.

And while the ABC program has yet to win that elusive week, and has drawn an average of 592,000 fewer viewers than "Today" on a weekly basis this television season (5.4 million to 6 million), it has gained sufficient momentum to force some changes at its rival's headquarters, just five blocks uptown.

In recent months, the margin separating the two programs during a given week has narrowed considerably, so much so - at one point this month to just 40,000 viewers - that Jeff Zucker, a former "Today" producer who is now president of NBC Universal Television Group, helped broker the firing in April of the NBC program's executive producer, Tom Touchet.

By the accounts of several executives last week, Mr. Zucker's disappointment with "Today" was also a factor in the recent decision by the president of NBC News, Neal Shapiro, to tell his bosses that he wished to leave his job.

In expressing his displeasure with "Today" under Mr. Touchet, Mr. Zucker characterized the program (led on camera by Katie Couric and Matt Lauer) as needing "a jolt." Others at NBC News have lamented that ABC's reinvigorated prime-time schedule - "Desperate Housewives" and "Grey's Anatomy" on Sunday, and "Lost" on Wednesday - has given "Good Morning America" a residual lift that NBC's suddenly low-rated evening lineup (for which Mr. Zucker is ultimately responsible) could not match.

But lost in such analyses is any suggestion that "Good Morning America" has helped make its own luck, which some veterans of the morning show wars believe it has.

"It isn't all about what gets put on the night before," said Steve Friedman, a former executive producer of "Today" (1979-87; 1993-4) and the CBS "Early Show" (1999-02). "If it was, CBS would be No. 1 in the morning." (CBS is currently ranked first in total prime-time viewers.)

"You've got to be good enough to hold them," Mr. Friedman added. "For whatever reason, after six years of being together, Charlie and Diane are now clicking."

As an example of how he has tried to stimulate that clicking, Mr. Sherwood, who became executive producer a year ago, said that he had seized on an existing effort to make segments shorter - and had made them shorter still, particularly in the first half hour. An interview that might have stretched to seven minutes a year ago, he said, might now end after three and a half minutes.

"People live their lives at warp speed in the morning," said Mr. Sherwood, 41, who was previously the second-ranking producer on "NBC Nightly News" before taking a two-year break to write novels. "They're brushing their teeth, making a school lunch, changing a diaper. The program is pitched now to the way people live."

Like a fast-paced cable news channel, Mr. Sherwood has been decorating the screen with colorful graphics in which practical information (like how to sell your house) is pulled from segments in easy-to-digest bites.

The program has also moved aggressively, particularly on the last few Mondays, to retain the enormous audience of "Desperate Housewives" by offering so-called secret scenes, cut from the episode shown the previous night. After the May 22 season finale, "Good Morning America" drew an estimated 600,000 more viewers than "Today," according to preliminary figures provided to the networks by Nielsen. (The next day, without that "Desperate" lift, the ABC program lost by more than 800,000 viewers, according to early estimates.)

Asked last week how he reconciled the use of such material on a program operated by the news division, David Westin, president of ABC News, said he had no qualms.

"It's always been the case in the morning programs that there is an entertainment element," he said. "I have no doubt our audience is very happy to see those 'Desperate' outtakes."

Meanwhile, in the battle over "gets" - those interviews or concerts that each program seeks exclusively - "Good Morning America" can point to several in recent weeks that might not have come its way a year ago. Early this month, for example, it broadcast exclusive concert footage from a U2 performance in Chicago that the program's entertainment producer, Mark Bracco, had been pursuing for more than three years.

Mr. Bracco also landed a longtime "Today" guest, the singer Mariah Carey, who introduced her new album with a concert outside the "Good Morning America" studios in Times Square. Ms. Carey was so pleased - she credits the concert with helping her single reach No. 1 on the pop chart - that last Wednesday night her representatives called Mr. Bracco to seek a walk-on during the next day's program to say thank you. She got her wish.

The ABC program has also made gains in securing access to those less famous. Last Wednesday's program featured a live interview from the neonatal unit of a Texas hospital with the mother of a rare set of identical quadruplets. Asked why the mother had chosen to go with "Good Morning America," Kris Muller, a spokeswoman for The Woman's Hospital of Texas in Houston, said the reason was simple: a "Good Morning America" producer had called the hospital five hours before a "Today" producer had.

"The people from 'Today' were very nice about it," she said. "They weren't rude. They didn't say, 'That's not fair.' "

Which is not to say that the principals are not sniping at each other.

Asked to size up the recent performance of "Good Morning America," Jim Bell, the new executive producer of "Today," said in a statement: "The 'Today' show is still the gold standard in morning television, and despite all the noise, the competition still follows us."

In an interview, Anne Sweeney, president of Disney-ABC Television, made a veiled reference to what some reviewers have called an on-camera awkwardness between Ms. Couric and Mr. Lauer on "Today."

Of the chemistry between Mr. Gibson and Ms. Sawyer, as well as Ms. Roberts (recently elevated to co-anchor), and Tony Perkins, the program's weatherman, Ms. Sweeney said: "They bring a real humanity to television in the morning. I don't see that elsewhere."

For now, the immediate goal at "Good Morning America" remains to break the nearly decade-long ratings winning streak of "Today," and to capture a week. It is a prospect so tantalizing that Ms. Sawyer, in an interview, would not even allow herself to muse about how it might feel. "You'll have to ask me if it happens," she said. "Call me if it happens."

This is CNN ... still settling on its voice

Rivals, led by Fox, have forced the 25-year-old channel
to find new ways of luring -- and keeping – viewers
By Matea Gold Los Angeles Times Staff Writer May 30, 2005

NEW YORK -- When 22-year-old Jim Walton began at CNN as a lowly video journalist in 1981, a year after its inception, he got a lot of blank stares when he mentioned his employer.

"Most people didn't know what CNN was," Walton recalled. "'They said, 'CNN — what's that? A bank?' "

The few who did derided the new cable channel as the "Chicken Noodle Network" because of its cash-strapped beginnings and scoffed at founder Ted Turner's notion that viewers would tune into a 24-hour news network.

CNN celebrates its 25th birthday Wednesday in a decidedly different landscape.

Walton is now president of the CNN News Group, an international news organization that distributes stories in seven languages through 14 cable and satellite television networks, six websites, two radio networks and a syndication service.

But for all of its success in hitting on a new formula for a 24-hour television network, the original CNN channel has struggled to maintain its standing in the very niche it pioneered. A slew of rivals — most notably Fox News, another upstart channel that was initially disregarded — has substantially eroded CNN's viewership.

"It used to do huge ratings, but now it's facing not just competition from Fox News but regional news networks and the Internet," said Brad Adgate, a former CNN sales researcher who now directs corporate research at Horizon Media. "The concept of around-the-clock, all-day news that CNN invented in this country — they're not the only source for it anymore."

Meanwhile, two turbulent mergers and a succession of corporate executives created a sense of constant upheaval at the network in the last decade.

More change is in the works as CNN enters its 26th year. Six months into the job, Jonathan Klein, CNN/U.S. president, is undertaking a wide-ranging evaluation of programming.

He has added an hour of international news from CNN's sister channel to the midday schedule, beginning next week. Klein is also revamping the 3 to 6 p.m. hours, canceling afternoon staples such as "Crossfire" and "Inside Politics" in favor of a three-hour block of news anchored by veteran correspondent Wolf Blitzer in Washington.

The new format won't begin until midsummer, but Friday is the last day for both "Crossfire" and for "Inside Politics" host Judy Woodruff, who is leaving the cable network as a full-time anchor.

Despite Klein's assurances that hard news remains CNN's mainstay, the latest shake-up there has ushered in a familiar sense of wariness among CNN veterans, according to current and former editorial staffers.

"It's safe to say there is at least a component of CNN employees, particularly those of long duration, who are still wondering what the sense of direction is," said Charles Bierbauer, dean of the University of South Carolina's College of Mass Communications and Information Studies, who worked as a CNN correspondent for 20 years.

"The challenge is to get back to the things they have learned to do so well and in some way distance themselves from what Fox and other followers are doing," Bierbauer said. "They need to stand out as unique again."

CNN made its mark with its coverage of major news stories in the late 1980s and throughout the 1990s. In 1986, it was the only network airing live coverage of the Challenger launch when the space shuttle exploded. Five years later, the world tuned in to watch CNN correspondents Bernard Shaw, Peter Arnett and John Holliman as they reported live from Baghdad on the first night of the Gulf War. In 1995, the network's ratings soared when it devoted massive coverage to the O.J. Simpson trial.

Flush with success, the news channel's executives paid little mind when Fox launched in October 1996. But in 2002, Rupert Murdoch's network — with its fresh brand of personality-driven programming — pulled past CNN in the ratings and has regularly beaten the competition ever since.

Walton maintains that he's pleased with CNN's performance, adding that the overall news group had record profit growth in 2004. (According to Kagan Research, CNN remains more profitable than Fox News, although the margin has shrunk in recent years.) The news group president insists that the CNN name is unparalleled and draws the kind of affluent viewers that advertisers want to target.

"There's a brand promise recognized the world over," he said.

Still, while Walton noted that CNN continues to pull in a higher number of cumulative viewers a month, Fox's viewers watch longer.

Fox has pulled an average prime-time audience of more than 1.5 million viewers this year, while CNN has drawn an average viewership of 789,000, according to Nielsen Media Research. Across the entire day, Fox has averaged 831,000 viewers, compared to CNN's 449,000.

While both networks are faring about the same in their overall daytime numbers compared to last year, Fox has seen a spike this year in its average prime-time viewership, which has increased 15% over the same period last year.

Meanwhile, CNN's average prime-time viewing has risen about 1%. CNN noted that it made gains in prime time among 25- to 54-year-olds, the key demographic for advertisers.

"I would like to see the numbers on CNN/U.S. go up, and I'm confident that Jon and his team are working really, really hard," Walton said of the network's new president.

Klein's challenge is a perennial one for CNN executives: getting viewers who flock to the channel for breaking stories to stick around afterward.

"That's a problem," admitted Walter Isaacson, a former CNN chairman who is now president of the Aspen Institute in Washington, D.C. "When you're basically a hard-news reported network, there are going to be periods when the news isn't as compelling."

Isaacson believes the answer is filling those hours with "good storytelling," and Klein agrees.

Rather than ape Fox's successful talk formula, the CNN/U.S. president said he is focusing the staff's energy on generating pieces about topics essential to people's daily lives: their security, health, employment and families.

"It's terrific that Americans know to run to CNN whenever there is breaking news," Klein said. "But we want to create a new habit, which is to turn to us every night before they go to sleep to find out what's going on in their world."

Some observers are skeptical, noting last week's "Survivor Week" theme, in which the network's prime-time shows featured a spate of stories about people who survived the likes of plane crashes, chimp maulings and storms at sea. (The week before, CNN promoted "Crime Scene Week," with similarly themed programming.)

On "Anderson Cooper 360," correspondent Rick Sanchez sought to demonstrate survival techniques for viewers, allowing himself to be submerged underwater in a car, dumped out at sea with only a life vest and trapped in a smoke-filled room.

"What we learned is that there's a common thread through all of these and that is simply this: If you practice ... it's not going to guarantee that you're going to survive, but what it certainly will do is, it will increase your odds," Sanchez reported.

CNN spokeswoman Christa Robinson said the survivor stories made up a small portion of the week's programming.

Still, Deborah Potter, a former Washington correspondent for CNN who now runs NewsLab, a nonprofit journalism training and research center in the nation's capital, said the promotional gimmicks indicate that the network is still searching for its identity.

"They're basically trying to get their ratings up in any way possible," Potter said. "If you watch what they're doing on the air, it seems softer, rather than harder. It seems to me they're casting about."

Cable girds for summer battle
Scripted series are where execs are placing their bets

By DENISE MARTIN Variety.com

This summer boasts more original programming on cable than ever before -- and many of them will compete head to head. Events will be plentiful, among them TNT's heavily marketed oater "Into the West," from exec producer Steven Spielberg, and Discovery Channel's "Greatest American," a four-part countdown that culminates in the viewer-chosen No. 1 American icon.

USA programming chief Jeff Wachtel says, "We all just have to take our shots and know that everyone will be counterprogramming."

But scripted series programming is where most execs are placing their bets.

For the first time since "Witchblade," TNT will debut a pair of original hours, "The Closer" and "Wanted." FX is premiering "Over There," an Iraqi war hour from Steven Bochco. Reality hasn't gone anywhere -- Bravo promises "Being Bobby Brown," while FX offers up doc-series "30 Days" from Morgan Spurlock -- but with the plethora of scripted comedy and drama about to hit, cable execs say this summer is as close to a broadcaster's "fall season" as ever.

"We used to be able to find a completely clear week to premiere a show and pretty much lock in the lion's share of buzz and attention," FX president-general manager John Landgraf says. "That's not possible anymore. Also, our competitors, in some cases, are spending significant more dollars than we are. So it's definitely tough."

A few cablers are counting on creating buzz by being different -- and for some, that means diving into comedy.

While the nets have struggled with laffers, so too has cable, with the exception of animated staple "South Park." Still this year, heavy-hitters HBO, FX and Showtime are all debuting comedy blocks in hopes of bucking the trend.

"I think we all want to try and do things the networks aren't doing," Landgraf says. "That said, any network that wants to be the best can't not be in the comedy game."

HBO will devote its Sundays to new laffer "The Comeback," starring Lisa Kudrow as a has-been sitcom star who's documenting -- via a reality show, natch -- her path back to fame.

Meanwhile, Showtime is launching "Weeds," about a pot-selling suburban mom, alongside the small-screen version of "Barbershop."

Then there's FX, which will make its first comedy foray since "Lucky" crapped out with "Starved," revolving around urban-types with eating disorders, and "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia," about four friends who own a bar.

Dick Wolf Lays Down the Law, Keeps Order

By Alex Ben Block TVWeek.com May 30, 2005

A little more than a year ago, the union of NBC and Universal had to wait until one producer renegotiated his contract, which tied him to both partners in the merger. Of course, he wasn't just any producer. For two decades, Dick Wolf had been a mainstay of both Universal Studios and the Peacock Network. His "Law & Order" franchise was and still is central to the success of both companies.

A year later, Mr. Wolf isn't pleased. Though he will have three "Law & Order" shows on NBC in the fall, the network's new schedule does not include his latest spinoff, "Law & Order: Trial by Jury," which has been on only one season. "I don't understand the decision. I've made that clear to anybody who has asked," Mr. Wolf said, his anger still smoldering more than a week after NBC announced its fall schedule in New York.

Mr. Wolf would like to remind NBC of its own history. In 1990, when the late, legendary Brandon Tartikoff, then head of the network, put the first "Law & Order" on the air, it wasn't an instant success. Mr. Tartikoff kept it on and nurtured it into a hit. That spawned a television empire. The most successful of the "Law & Order" shows at present is "Special Victims Unit." "To have the history they [NBC] have to draw on," he mused last week, "this is the exact profile all the shows have had in their first year, and then they grow. ['Trial by Jury'] would have settled into that time slot very comfortably, I am quite certain."

Mr. Wolf says that by his count Kevin Reilly is the 31st head of programming with whom he has dealt. His count may be questionable, but there is no question Mr. Wolf has been a key to the success of NBC for two decades. For the most part he has great creative freedom. He has earned that trust. That is why it seems likely NBC will eventually find a way to make him happy once again.

Already there are rumors. Though it isn't on the fall schedule, Mr. Wolf has heard through back-channel network sources that "Trial by Jury" may not be dead. "I keep hearing tangentially the door is open," he said late last week, "but nobody's called me."

Mr. Wolf's logic is that the "Law & Order" shows make the company a lot of money, not just on the network, where they remain profitable even if the ratings have been down on two of the three remaining shows (the original and "Criminal Intent"), but also because they have proved extremely strong in reruns and on cable channels such as A&E (which lost the rights), TNT and the USA Network.

After his deal was renegotiated last year by NBC and Universal, he said it became more of a "partnership."

Mr. Wolf thought the parties were in agreement. "Since everybody's in the same company and eating out of the same bowl, we should work together," he said. "The long-term planning is much more in agreement, which is to keep the shows on as long as possible."

Due to its Wolf-designed economic model, "Law & Order" doesn't have as big a problem with soaring star salaries as the show ages. Over time, star salaries soar and production costs mount. On "Law & Order," the show is the star. While there may be recognizable performers, none stay on forever. "In its 16th year, 'Law & Order' on a cost basis is still less than most third- or fourth-year shows, because of the ensemble nature and the fact that we do things much more efficiently than most production companies. We know how to control costs," he said. "You're also dealing with stuff that was billed years ago. A lot of costs on new shows, in terms of getting it up and running, has all been taken care of."

Mr. Wolf likes to freshen up his casts, and by doing so keeps salaries under control. "The fact is on a revenue basis these shows are making more money than they ever have," Mr. Wolf said. "This is not a secret. In 2004 the three shows on the air generated more than a billion dollars in advertising revenue. Not many groups of shows that are part of network schedules generate that kind of revenue."

Mr. Wolf grew up around show business. His mother worked in TV publicity. His father was head of production at two ad agencies in the days when agencies produced many of the shows. He found his first success in advertising, where he authored lines like "Scope fights bad breath without medicine breath."

He learned about branding by observing companies such as Procter & Gamble. Just as P&G can sell numerous versions of Crest toothpaste, his vision was to extend the brand of his franchise shows and sell it on multiple platforms on a global scale.

He moved west in 1977 and started writing for "Hill Street Blues" and "Miami Vice," which led him into producing. He has had flops, but Mr. Wolf has been able to build on his successes, spinning off more shows. He is currently developing an untitled comedy for NBC, to be directed by the legendary James Burrows, whose touch has helped launch shows such as "Cheers" and "Two and a Half Men." It could be for midseason on NBC.

"When you come out of advertising you understand the programming," Mr. Wolf said. "Television is free because of advertising. Commercial television is merely a life-support system for commercials."

That is cause for concern these days, Mr. Wolf added, because of new technology such as TiVo: "It affects everything. It's one of those things that is an increase in technology that may not accrue to the benefit of the people who are pushing for it right now."

That doesn't mean Mr. Wolf is ready to give up on network TV. He said the success of "Desperate Housewives" proves broadcast remains vital. "The thing I found exhilarating about this season is that it shows once again that the imminent demise of network television has been overreported," he said. "There are troublesome things on the horizon, from TiVo to video-on-demand. How do you monetize this? What are advertisers going to do? But it's still out there. There's still no other way to consistently reach 20 [million] or 30 million people at a pop."

"And the good news," he added, "is when good shows are on, even at the same time, people will come. It's still the 800-pound gorilla, and on some nights it can be the 900-pound gorilla again."

Among producers, Mr. Wolf remains one of TV's 900-pound gorillas. Whoever is on screen in his ensemble shows, the real star is Mr. Wolf himself.

Cable girds for summer battle
Scripted series are where execs are placing their bets

By DENISE MARTIN Variety.com

FX is premiering "Over There," an Iraqi war hour from Steven Bochco.

Still this year, heavy-hitters HBO, FX and Showtime are all debuting comedy blocks in hopes of bucking the trend.



When, oh when, will FX go HD? FX is easily my second favorite cable channel after HBO.

Ruminations on a Bygone Season

By Tom Shales TVWeek.com May 30, 2005

Here we all are-another TV season older. Time flies even when you're not having fun, though the 2004 TV season did have a higher excitement quotient than many a recent previous season had. A few showy shows, new to the airwaves, made the networks resurgently prominent in American conversation; network TV seemed "hot" again, and 'round the water coolers there was beaucoup buzz over the intricate intricacies of "Desperate Housewives" and the myriad mysteries of "Lost."

I wish I'd had the perspicacity to predict, at the season's start, that ABC would use those two beautifully produced series to make the most fantastic comeback since any of Judy Garland's. I did write back in September that ABC "had the most to prove"-and the network proved it-and that it had "the largest number of good if not great new shows" on the roster.

NBC's fall from first to fourth, meanwhile, may have been God's way of punishing those peacocky programmers for "Fear Factor." After so many years of NBC at the top, the slip was not the kind of thing to elicit tears of sympathy. Network executives appeared to have grown smugly superior, and they flogged that "No. 1" status to bits. They hit everybody over the head with it; now it's bounced back and hit them.

Clearly some of what happens in the competitive arena of the broadcast networks is the result of sheer luck, good or bad. But you didn't have to be a programming genius to see early on that the producers of "Joey" were trying to coast on fond memories of "Friends" rather than risk anything resembling a new or innovative idea. The show wasn't quite an outright flop but could hardly propel the juggernaut that NBC's Thursday nights used to be.

And "The Contender"? Come on, there's no way to dress up boxing in prime time without it looking exactly like boxing, and however bloodthirsty viewers may be, they don't want that in their homes any more than they yearn for more exposure to arena football. That one of the fighters died by suicide during production of the series was very sad, but also served as an omen. And Sylvester Stallone's star has faded to the point where he may be ready for the sitcom circuit but isn't enough of a draw as a host and entrepreneur.

Is he really making another "Rocky" picture? What, "Rest-Home Rocky"? "Rocky Goes 'Wrestlemania'"? "Rocky Buys a Walker"?

CBS won the season in total viewers, and with no asterisks about failing to dominate one demographic group or another. Some in the industry insist on ranking shows primarily according to how well they do with that infernal 18 to 49 demographic, as if nobody outside those boundaries mattered (or ever bought anything). That's such crap. As a wise critic emeritus said to me the other day, "Never mind all that 18 to 49 nonsense. The networks are grateful for anybody they can get." First-place CBS had a season average of just 13 million viewers and Fox won in the 18 to 49 race with a seasonal rating of only 4.1.

Somehow a 4.1 just doesn't sound like it merits busting out the Dom Perignon or even the Grey Goose-except that it meant Fox was in first place. Ah yes, first place. Every week, when newspapers and "Entertainment Tonight" report on weekend movie grosses, some picture has to come in first, even if it only grossed, like, 5 million bucks and cost 20 times that to make. The studio can still run newspaper ads calling it "The No. 1 movie in America!" Numero Uno mania can lend itself to inane absurdities.

Rankings in such a competitive business are, of course, as inevitable as a scoreboard at a basketball game. One thing that the season's rankings, top 10 and top 20, support this year is a pet notion of mine, which is that the tastes of the public and critics are not very far apart, even though network executives love to fall back on the myth that critics are out of touch with the common person (then the execs get in their S600s or Aston Martins and drive away). Critics for the most part looked very favorably and lavished loads of praise on such populist hits as "Desperate Housewives," "Lost," the "CSI" shows on CBS and most of the 46 or 47 "Law & Order" shows on NBC.

The disconnect, to use a currently inescapable term, comes with such shows as Fox's "Arrested Development." Critics have loved it, adored it, swooned over it, mooned over it, done everything but put a dress on it and taken it home to mother. But the public still snores. The suspicion hovers, since Fox seems to sacrificially slaughter one critical success each season, that some shows are just "too good" for that network, that they can't co-exist with pulpy pap like "Cops" and tabloid tattlers like "America's Most Wanted."

On the other hand, "House" is pretty esoteric stuff for Fox, and it has managed to hang in there. Two caveats: It did OK riding a wave of critical raves, but its numbers improved markedly when it got "American Idol" for a lead-in. So viewers aren't seeking it out so much as failing to turn it off. And as the season ended, there were signs that the producers were really hoking it up to make "House" more secure, compromising the misanthropic lead character and even perhaps turning him cute. This victory could turn out to be pretty Pyrrhic.

Not only last season but the upfronts for next season are behind us now. Among the less-savory developments was the cancellation by CBS of "60 Minutes II," or "60 Minutes Wednesday" as it was occasionally called in promos. That series came out of the gate with great ratings and then leveled off. Its ratings ebb and flow depending on how promotable the stories were on each episode, how much juice and buzz they generated in advance. I think CBS executives, one in particular, canceled it out of spite and as a rebuke to the news division itself. Pretty damn shoddy.

Nevertheless, while the ABC comeback is the hot story of the moment, the continuing CBS comeback remains an admirable achievement. When something like that happens, one always has to ask, "How low did they have to stoop?" to turn things around. Some episodes of "CSI" and "Cold Case" get pretty gamy and sordid, but at least it's well-acted, well-shot and well-produced gaminess and sordidness. One trick to being a successful network programmer is to be able to take pride in the numbers (even a 4.1), while not having to be ashamed of the shows that earned them.

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

(From Marc Berman’s Programming Insider column of Tuesday, May 31st, 2005 at Mediaweek.com)
Final Traditional 2004-2005 Season Ratings
CBS and Fox Win; ABC Up; NBC Sinks

Based on the traditional September through May season, which always ends on the final night of the May sweep, stable CBS scored a hefty victory in households, total viewers and adults 25-54, while Fox won its first season ever among adults 18-49. The home of American Idol and The Super Bowl also ranked first in adults 18-34, and both CBS and Fox were close to year-ago levels.

In a season of momentum courtesy of Desperate Housewives, Lost, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition and, more recently, Grey’s Anatomy (which I predict will all grow even stronger next year), ABC ended the traditional season on the double-digit percent plus side. Comparably, growth for ABC was 10 to 16 percent in the five below surveyed categories. On the flipside was NBC, which finished third in households and fourth in the remaining categories (including key adults 18-49). Year-to-year, the failing Peacock net was down by as much as 19 percent.

UPN and the WB, meanwhile, were neck-and-neck, with UPN flat in four of the five categories, and the WB down by 6 to 8 percent.

What follows are the final ratings for the traditional Sept. 20, 2004 to May 25, 2005 season (with change versus the comparable year-ago period in parentheses):

Households:
CBS: 8.4/14 (no change)
ABC: 6.5/11 (+10)
NBC: 6.5/11 (-11)
Fox: 6.1/10 (no change)
UPN: 2.3/ 4 (no change)
WB: 2.2/ 4 (- 8)

Total Viewers:
CBS: 12.92 million (- 1)
ABC: 10.05 (+11)
Fox: 10.04 (+ 3)
NBC: 9.78 (-12)
UPN: 3.35 (- 1)
WB: 3.35 (- 8)

Adults 18-49:
Fox: 4.1/11 (no change)
CBS: 4.0/11 (+ 3)
ABC: 3.7/10 (+16)
NBC: 3.5/ 9 (-17)
UPN: 1.4/ 4 (no change)
WB: 1.4/ 4 (- 7)

Adults 18-34:
Fox: 3.8/12 (- 5)
ABC: 3.0/ 9 (+15)
CBS: 2.9/ 9 (+ 7)
NBC: 2.9/ 9 (-19)
WB: 1.5/ 4 (- 6)
UPN: 1.4/ 4 (no change)

Adults 25-54:
CBS: 4.9/12 (no change)
ABC: 4.3/10 (+13)
Fox: 4.3/10 (+ 2)
NBC: 4.2/10 (-12)
UPN: 1.4/ 3 (no change)
WB: 1.4/ 3 (- 7)

Source: Nielsen Media Research data

In all reality, it's 'Beauty and the Geek'
Buzz is over WB's competition of unlikely pairs
By Abigail Azote medialifemagazine.com

With the coming of summer comes another deluge of reality TV shows, some 15 new series and such returning shows as "Big Brother," leaving America very much at risk of reality burnout.

It's become almost impossible to handicap the performance of such shows the past few years. Dumb ideas often catch, but the next year viewers pay them little attention, as in the case of NBC’s “For Love or Money.”

But amid the soon-to-arrive muck of reality, the WB's "Beauty and the Geek" could be the most promising. That's certainly the early buzz. The show's also getting a huge bluster of promotional noise from the WB, which ought to get at least initial tune-ins.

"Beauty and the Geek" pairs seven brilliant but socially-inept guys with a like number of beautiful but dim-witted girls to compete for $250,000 in a mix of brain-buster and social skills tests. In episode one, airing tomorrow night at 8, contestants face their first two challenges: a spelling bee for the ladies and a dance contest for the guys.

If nothing else, the series, which is billed as the ultimate social experiment, ought to deliver laughs. As with all reality shows, it's about the characters, and here they look to be a hoot. There's the geek who is too busy with the "Dukes of Hazzard" fan club to meet women teamed up with a beauty who says she's so smart that her IQ is 500.

The gimmick? In an experiment in stereotype busting, the mismatched pairs help each other to win, the geeks pitching in as the beauties tussle with the brain-busters and the beauties guiding the geeks in the social skills exams.

Critics are surprisingly amused.

"The show is offensive on many levels, of course. The clips looked lowbrow, crass and stereotypical. They were also hilarious, good-natured and surprisingly sweet. I'm putting the show on my TiVo list first chance I get," writes Time magazine's James Poniewozik.

This early buzz certainly has to please the WB. The youth-skewing network traditionally has not done well with reality series, with the forgettable "High School Reunion" and "Superstar USA." It also doesn't do all that well during summers anyhow, presumably because its target viewers are spending that many more hours outside and active.

"Geek" is produced by Ashton Kutcher, the man behind "Punk'd" and former star of "That '70s Show," as well as the notoriously younger squeeze of Demi Moore.

Rising to the top of the reality pile this summer may not be all that hard. The many mediocre network offerings include "Tommy Lee Goes to College," "Dancing With the Stars," "Scholar," "I Want to Be a Hilton" and the disturbingly titled "Hit Me Baby," featuring musical has-beens attempting a comeback.

Against such likely stinkers, "Geek" should do well, perhaps attracting 3.5 million viewers to its premiere. That would put it in the league of "Summerland," last summer's hit on the WB.

(In case you missed it over the long holiday weekend. This story was reported first by the Los Angeles Times on Saturday.)

ESPN ices $60M option on hockey for next year
medialifemagazine.com

Hockey may be back next season, but it probably won’t be on ESPN.

The network has refused the $60 million option to carry the NHL next season, after seeing better ratings for its replacement programming during this season’s lockout. Though the NHL may try to change ESPN’s mind before tomorrow, when a new deal would need to be reached, it probably wouldn’t be a lucrative one for the NHL.

ESPN gained a major bargaining chip when NBC secured hockey rights via a deal where it pays nothing in fees and splits ad revenue after production costs have been paid.

Ever since the lockout began last year, ESPN has hinted that it was not interested in extending its deal.

NHL ratings have fallen the past few years, and a deal between the league and the labor union remains on hold. Until one is reached, few networks will be interested in succeeding ESPN.

Steep ratings slide for 'Miss Universe'
Off 14 percent: To spectacle from the spectacular
medialifemagazine.com

There was a time when beauty pageants like "Miss America" and "Miss Universe" drew 20 million or more viewers and people planned their schedules around them.

That time has long since passed. The latest example of how far beauty pageants have slipped came last night when "Miss Universe" hit its lowest viewership in at least four years and was off 14 percent from last year.

According to Nielsen overnights, Miss Canada’s victory on NBC averaged a 6.0 overnight household rating, down 13 percent versus last year’s 6.9, while it averaged 8.97 million total viewers, down 14 percent from last year’s 10.48 million.

If the numbers hold, both will be the event’s lowest since 2001’s pageant earned a 5.8 rating and averaged 8.27 million viewers. Just 15 years ago, it attracted more than 13 million.

The drop in ratings is the latest in a long string of declining ratings for pageants, and it begs the question of how much longer they'll stay on broadcast TV.

In April, the “Miss USA” pageant was down almost 40 percent from the previous year, to some 8 million viewers.

Last year’s "Miss America" slipped to an all-time low 6.4 household rating and 9.82 million viewers, the first time it attracted fewer than 10 million since Nielsen began tracking the event in 1954. That prompted ABC to drop the pageant after eight years on the network, and it has yet to latch onto another network.

The very idea of a beauty pageant is antiquated, a throwback to the days when resorts like Atlantic City promoted to draw day tourists. They were daring then. They're no longer daring in any sense. After all, fans of the female form can find much more revealing pictures online than a parade of bikini-clad women in the swimsuit competition.

What to watch Tuesday
Critic’s Corner
By Robert Bianco USA Today

• Did you miss the surprise at the very end of the Gilmore Girls season finale because the show ran long? WB is giving you another chance by repeating the series' last two episodes back-to-back (Tuesday, 8 ET/PT). This time, either watch it live or let that recorder run long.

• Speaking of surprises, fans of NCIS (CBS, 8 p.m. ET/PT) still seem to be buzzing over the bullet-to-the-head death of Sasha Alexander's Kate Todd. CBS isn't rerunning the finale, at least not yet, but it is running two episodes of the series tonight for those of you who want to spend as much time with Kate as you can.

• House (Fox, 9 p.m. ET/PT) has an entertaining repeat as Dr. House violates a DNR order to save a jazz musician. In the process, he proves why it's useless to argue with him: "You can't do this." "Fine, I'll never do this again." "Yes, you will." "All the more reason this debate is pointless."

• ABC offers a new episode of Blind Justice (10 p.m. ET/PT), a well-acted, well-written, but somewhat depressing series that never caught on. I thought people might have a hard time buying the blind-cop-with-a-gun premise, but my guess now is that they did buy it. They just didn't like it.

(In case you missed it over the long holiday weekend. This story was reported first by the Los Angeles Times on Saturday.)

ESPN ices $60M option on hockey for next year
medialifemagazine.com

Sad news, considering hockey was one of the best HD sports out there ...

In case you want more of Rob & Amber, caustic Sue, or the rest of the lovable Survivor gang…..
Outdoor Life Net Snaps Up “Survivor”

By Anthony Crupi mediaweek.com May 31, 2005

Outdoor Life Network has wrapped up syndication rights to the CBS warhorse Survivor.

While OLN did not confirm an earlier report that it finalized a deal to carry the long-running reality show, a spokesperson said the network would make a joint announcement with Survivor creator Mark Burnett tomorrow.

While the show is a logical fit for OLN, which offers a programming slate that includes everything from Tour de France coverage to rodeo, early speculation had Survivor finding a cable home at the new Fox Reality Channel.

OLN is owned by Comcast.

OK, Lowry's tongue is planteds firmly in his cheek -- but his column is a fun read.

A handy guide to Bruckheimer's America

By BRIAN LOWRY Variety.com

International TV buyers have been in L.A. in recent weeks deciding which U.S. programs to export home, sifting through a crop of shows that, based on the upfront presentations, are all being produced by Jerry Bruckheimer.

OK, that's an exaggeration, but Bruckheimer's shingle has become near ubiquitous, having adapted his slick feature techniques to primetime with remarkable precision and striking commercial success. Led by the "CSI" troika, the producer now has seven programs on CBS' schedule alone, plus the new NBC drama "E-Ring" and a pair of series for the WB, which doesn't account for sundry imitators.

So what conclusions might an overseas TV viewer -- or even space aliens tired of "I Love Lucy" reruns -- draw from a trip through Jerry Bruckheimer's America -- a place where people regularly disappear without a trace, and forensic criminologists vastly outnumber retail clerks and postal employees?

Granted, nobody should get carried away extrapolating from TV to real life (a cautionary advisory that never seems to dissuade most advocacy groups, especially around fund-raising time), but there's nevertheless something fascinating about the cumulative image this body of work reveals. Here, then, based on a sampling of series under the producer's aegis, are some patterns that emerge regarding residents of Bruckheimer-land:

** Those living in Las Vegas, Miami and New York have a one in four chance of being the victim of a violent crime, although their deaths will at least be interesting and wildly creative.

** Any crime, however heinous or complex, is solved in approximately 42 minutes.

** The only people likely to die of old age or natural causes are those who oversee forensic crime-solving units.

** Roughly 70% of residents are white, and all the minorities are smokin' hot.

** The average woman is a size 2 and weighs no more than 120 pounds dripping wet, which is significant, because they are dripping wet or provocatively sweaty approximately 23% of the time. The average male, meanwhile, has body fat of 6%, unless he heads a forensic crime-solving unit.


** Intercourse is usually followed by a grisly death, which makes you wonder how the population replenishes itself.

** Although occupations for women generally fall into starkly divided camps -- criminologist/detective/FBI agent or model/stripper/kept mistress -- the visual distinctions between the two are negligible.

** Roughly 60% of adults work in law enforcement. They are committed to their jobs -- so much so that their private lives appear nonexistent -- and generally speak in sentences steeped in technical jargon that consist of a dozen words or less.

** The average attorney is under 30 and could moonlight as a triathlete or model, depending on his or her gender.

** The children are still our future, but in the interim, they make for adorable and extra compelling kidnapping victims and hostages.

thefutoncritic.com is reporting that during promos surrounding "Empire Falls" over the weekend, HBO said the next season of "The Sopranos" will begin in March of 2006 (which would be after the Winter Olympics).

The 'Beauty' is how sweet it often seems
Producer Ashton Kutcher's latest reality show is surprisingly sincere

TELEVISION REVIEW: By Shawn Hubler Los Angeles Times Staff Writer June 1, 2005

Good summer TV is like good summer romance — fun and a bit of a departure, but most of all nice, so there are no regrets when it's through.

This is why "Beauty and the Geek," the reality show created by "Sopranos" writer Nick Santora and produced by the "Punk'd" team of Ashton Kutcher and Jason Goldberg, has buzz going as it begins tonight on the WB.

The concept is sexy — seven smart, nerdy guys thrust into a mansion with seven lovely, not-so-smart women to compete in boy-girl teams for $250,000.

The contests are easy to relate to (fifth-grade spelling for the women, salsa dancing for the men, for example).

And it makes a departure that is not just surprising, but almost uplifting, considering the sourness of the reality genre by now: Rather than making freaks out of ordinary humans, as most unscripted shows do, "Beauty and the Geek" gently teases out the humanity in people whose gifts and insecurities tend to set them apart from the masses.

The result is all the fun of an unscripted show and almost none of the usual humiliation. In fact, it wouldn't be going overboard to call it sincere.

Meet, for example, Krystal from Philadelphia, who introduces herself to the seven "geeks" by announcing, "I'm a dancer for the 76ers. You guys know the Sixers?" At which point there's a moment of silence while the men just gaze speechlessly.

Then there's Cheryl the cocktail waitress, who thinks Herbert Hoover presided over the Civil War and believes that "1942 is when Columbus sailed the ocean blue," but nonetheless is accurately described by Eric the computer programmer as "a really beautiful chick."

There's Bill, vice president of the "Dukes of Hazzard" fan club, and Joe, a short, sweet-tempered filmmaker who confides: "Yeah, I'm a virgin. No, I'm not saving myself for anybody."

"Beauty and the Geek" could have stopped there. But instead everyone keeps undercutting the premise. The "geeks" turn out to be fairly quick studies, and surprisingly graceful when it comes to the interactions that matter. The "beauties" turn out to be less stupid than they are insecure under intellectual pressure.

The rules turn out to favor not the biggest nerd-bimbo combo but the pair who best manage to drop their guards and transform each another. Aside from a few irresistible jabs ("Every guy had their bathing suit up to their belly buttons!" says Lauren the lingerie model after a foray into the hot tub), the contestants assiduously refrain from making fun of each other.

"Erika's not the smartest girl, but I kind of have low self-esteem when it comes to dating and she has low self-esteem when it comes to how smart she is. We could both do well to raise each other's self-esteem in those different areas," the earnest Joe suggests as he and his partner, a "life-size Barbie model," prepare for Round 1.

"I know how Joe feels now because standing up there in front of all those people was just, like, so intimidating," Erika reciprocates after muffing a trick question about "the capital of New England." "That's probably how Joe feels every day, just, like, going to the mall."

The show even seems to be sending up the by-now-mandatory reality show conventions — the sweeping staircase, the roommate tension, the night-goggle footage of clandestine hookups, the Ryan Seacrest-y host banishing losers "ee-mediately" to the tune of dire music, the prize that sounds huge but is actually peanuts.

And whatever conventions get challenged, they don't include the big ones — the beauties are all female, the brains are all men, "common sense" is generally treated as a better thing to have than depth and intellect, and everybody's white.

But, as one eliminated contestant puts it, "This show isn't what I was expecting."

That's its summer beauty, and its genius.

'Beauty and the Geek'

Where: WB

When: 8-9PM ET/PTR Wednesday

Ratings: TV-PG-D (unsuitable for young children, with an advisory for suggestive dialogue)

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

TV's six summer sizzlers
By Ann Oldenburg USA TODAY

Summer TV tends to be like summer beach reading — light 'n' fluffy, nothing too heavy for long sunny days when viewership usually drops.

Collectively, the six networks lost 7% of their audience last summer, compared with the summer before, and 38% of their regular-season audience, according to Nielsen data through mid-August 2004. Cable channels usually see the season as a time to lure viewers.

Now, it's another mixed bag. A wave of reality shows is on the horizon, but the next few months also offer some big-event dramas, starting tonight and continuing through August on cable and broadcast. USA TODAY scoured the schedules and found six particularly noteworthy TV series airing this summer.

Over There

July 27, 10 p.m. ET/PT, FX,13 episodes

Concept: Gritty, intense drama focusing on a platoon of soldiers assigned to duty in Iraq.

Why it'll be hot: It's from screenwriter Chris Gerolmo and TV drama veteran Steven Bochco. It's the first drama with the Iraq war as its backdrop.

Expect graphic and bloody scenes from combat and some profane language. Already, the question of how the portrayal of the war will manifest itself politically has come up.

"This is a show about soldiers, and I think one of the things we were able to capture is the chaos of it. This isn't about politics or policy," Bochco says.

FX president John Landgraf says, "Each episode is an intense, highly contained and highly dramatic vignette that is a mission that this platoon of people go on."

No individual episode attempts to portray the epic canvas of the war, political decisions or the breadth of feelings about the war in this country, he says. But, "as you aggregate them, you have these fascinating deep arcs of the unfolding experience of how it's impacting them and the family.

"War is such a deeply complex topic. It has complex meanings; it can't be reduced to one thing. It is not all bad; it is not all good. It is a deeply complex human artifact. And the series needs to examine it in all its complexities. People will be affected by it in different ways," Landgraf says.
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Bochco says he couldn't "begin to approximate the level of reality that I think a show like this requires" if it were on network television. "There's nothing celebratory or gratuitous. I'm sorry not to be on network TV. But this is a show that belongs on cable, and it's a privilege to be there."

Beauty and the Geek

Wednesday, 8, WB, six episodes

Concept: Seven smart but dorky guys are paired up with seven not-so-bright but beautiful women. Couples must work together, sharing their abilities and intellect to complete tasks and challenges to win $250,000. For example, one of the beauties is stumped when asked to name the man who was president during the Civil War. And one of the geeks gets a bloody nose during a dance contest.

Why it'll be hot: Ashton Kutcher is behind it. He and producing partner Jason Goldberg have made a name for themselves with MTV's Punk'd. This show is their first foray into network television.

Kutcher and Goldberg "are two of the smartest producers I've ever worked with," says WB's president of entertainment, David Janollari. Kutcher is "a giant star but down to earth, completely in touch with what makes an audience react."

This isn't Joe Schmo stuff. Instead, the show is billed as a "social experiment, not a dating show." Says Goldberg: "The most important thing to know: We're not making fun. Our job is making funny."

Into the West

June 10, 8 p.m. ET/PT, TNT, six two-hour episodes

Concept: It's the broad story of the opening of the American West, focusing on the struggle between Native Americans and pioneer culture while also exploring the Gold Rush, the transcontinental railroad and the wars leading to the massacre at Wounded Knee.

Why it'll be hot: It's big and bold, more in the vein of old-fashioned Westerns, not edgy like HBO's Deadwood. Making the six "small films," producer David Rosemont says, required more than 1,000 cast and crew, 1,500 extras, 20,000 costumes, 150 locations, 176 shooting days and six directors. In the first episode alone, 1,600 head of buffalo were used.

Says Matthew Settle, who plays main character Jacob Wheeler: "It was fun. Anytime you put on moccasins and leather and chaps, it's like revisiting your youth."

The stories are serious, though. "I like the series because it looks into less of what we did and more of why it was done."

And the project has Steven Spielberg as executive producer. "He does not lend his name lightly to television or features," producer Rosemont says. "There was a certain story that we told that he wanted to tell — the real story of settling the West and how we came to who we are. This is not a Western; it's a film about the West. His presence was felt."

Empire

June 28, 9 p.m. ET/PT, ABC, six hours (two-hour premiere, four one-hour episodes)

Concept: The sweeping drama filmed entirely in Rome and south-central Italy focuses on Julius Caesar's nephew Octavius, who is destined to become the Emperor Augustus and inherit the throne.

Why it'll be hot: It's epic and features intense gladiator battles, along with a lot of Roman intrigue and backstabbing, and a young new actor, Santiago Cabrera, 27, in the role of Octavius. A soccer player through college, Cabrera is fluent in Spanish, English, French and Italian. He considers Santiago, Chile, his hometown, and he lives in London. This is his American television debut.

"I was happy from the word 'Go,' from the moment I got the part," he says from London, where he will soon start shooting a romantic comedy called Love and Other Disasters with Brittany Murphy. Audiences will like Empire, he says, because "I guarantee it gets better and better. The more it goes on, the more you care."

Also look for Sting's wife, Trudie Styler, as Servilia, mother of Brutus; Dennis Hays-bert (former president on 24) in the role of fictional retired general Magonius; and James Frain (Paul Raines on 24) as Brutus.

The 4400

Sunday, 9 p.m. ET/PT as a two-hour special, followed by 13 one-hour weekly episodes starting June 12, 9 p.m. ET/PT, USA Network

Concept: An exploration into 4,400 people who, after being reported as missing or dead, reappear in a ball of light. They have not aged physically, and many of them have returned with dramatic abilities ranging from enhanced reflexes to precognition. A government agency is tracking all the returnees.

Why it'll be hot: Alien shows are the newest trend, and plenty are coming in the fall, but this one is ahead of the game. It started as a miniseries last summer, and its premiere drew 7.4 million viewers, a record for basic cable.

Billy Campbell is back as Jordan Collier, the self-proclaimed figurehead of the 4,400 returnees. Peter Coyote, who headed the original investigation, is gone.

Jacqueline McKenzie plays Diana Skouris, one of the agents investigating the returnees. She now has adopted Maia, a little girl who was one of the returnees. This season, expect a further exploration into the characters and their powers.

"If you really sit back and look at it, it is deeply terrifying," McKenzie says. "I think, 'OK, what am I saying here in this scene?' We're dealing with things that are so unknown. The stakes are very high."

The returnees, she says, are "people like you and me, but have just so by chance been in the wrong place at the wrong time. Or were they chosen specifically — we don't even know that."

Scott Peters, one of the creators of the series, has high hopes for this season. Last season, he says, there wasn't as much time.

"One of the greatest gifts is that we have 13 hours to tell the story and not rush through it. We're able to weave in larger themes, such as religion and the role of government in our lives. We'll be able to deepen the characters and flesh them out." He also says to expect the same "grand scale and scope" of the show. "We look at each episode as a chapter in a novel."

As for whether there will be contact this season with aliens, "you never know. Anything's possible in a world where people appeared in a ball of light."

Barbershop

Aug. 10, 10 p.m. ET/PT, Showtime, 10 episodes

Concept: The comedy series begins where the movie franchise left off, with most of the same characters and a few new ones. It's set in a gradually gentrifying neighborhood in Chicago.

It is part of a new comedy block of programming paired with the more daring Weeds, about a pot-dealing soccer mom, airing at 10:30 p.m.

"One's suburban and one's urban," says Robert Greenblatt, president of Showtime.

Why it'll be hot: It's based on the popular 2002 movie starring Ice Cube and will feature Omar Gooding from ESPN's Playmakers in the lead role. Greenblatt says the show went right into production, with no traditional pilot made, because he was so sure the show would be good because of the movies that preceded it. "There's a captive audience there already," he says. "We'll try to be as funny as those movies are."

He hopes fans who love Showtime's black family drama Soul Food, canceled last year, will tune in. "When (Soul Food) was finished after five years, there was a huge audience out there. I think there is an audience for a show like this. The Barbershop movies have more female appeal than male. I would love nothing more for that audience that liked Food to find this."

None of the actors from the film was available, Greenblatt says. But "we have a really great group of people. Most are unknown; there won't be baggage."

FOX Dominates Season's Final Days

(zap2it.com)--The final week of the 2004-05 television season produced some funny-looking ratings numbers, owing to the fact that the Nielsen-sanctioned season actually ended in the middle of the week and viewing plummeted going into the Memorial Day weekend.

Unsurprisingly, though, FOX scored a big win in the weekly ratings, thanks to "American Idol," solid performances from some other season finales and a prime-time NASCAR race over the weekend. FOX averaged a 7.5 rating/13 share in households and 12.51 million viewers per night for the week ending Sunday, May 29. That easily topped second-place CBS, 6.4/11 and 9.42 million viewers. NBC (5.2/9, 7.78 million) finished third, and ABC (4.7/8, 7.21 million) was fourth. UPN's 1.9/3 and 2.82 million viewers were good enough to top The WB's 1.7/3 and 2.51 million.

Among adults 18-49, FOX routed the competition with a 5.1 rating. NBC finished a distant second at 2.8, and ABC and CBS tied for third at 2.6. UPN averaged 1.2 and The WB 1.0.

The two-hour "American Idol" finale was the week's top-rated show, scoring a 17.5/27 and close to 30.3 million viewers. The final Tuesday "Idol" of the season finished second with a 16.2/25, and the season finale of "House," 11.9/18, came in fifth overall.

The season finale of "24," 7.2/11, and the NASCAR Coca-Cola 600, 6.1/13, also made the top 20 for FOX, finishing 15th and 20th.

CBS ended the week with the most shows in the top 20, led by the "CSI: Miami" season finale, third overall at 13.5/22. A "CSI" repeat, 10.9/19, tied for sixth place, and "NCIS" was 10th at 9.5/15. "Without a Trace," 9.2/16, tied for 11th, and a Thursday "Cold Case" repeat (6.9/13) was 16th. The special "Rob & Amber Get Married" came in 17th with a 6.7/11, and a "Still Standing" episode was one spot back with a 6.2/10.

Then there's the curious case of "Two and a Half Men." The sitcom's season finale, which aired in the 9 p.m. ET Monday spot it will occupy next season, tied for 11th with a 9.2/14 -- well below its season average. A rerun of the show at 9:30 actually did better, posting a 9.7/15 and finishing ninth overall.

NBC was led by the season finale of "Law & Order: SVU," which finished its strong year with a 10.9/18, tied for sixth overall. "L&O" sibling "Criminal Intent" was right behind in eighth, drawing a 9.9/16 for its season-ender, which aired on Wednesday. The finales of "Medium" (7.9/13, 13th) and "Las Vegas" (7.3/11, 14th) also cracked the top 20.

With its powerhouse Sunday lineup already done for the year, ABC placed only two shows in the top 20. The two-hour "Lost" finale came in fourth with a 12.0/18, but "Alias" (6.2/10) failed to hang on to much of that audience and finished in a tie for 18th.

The WB's top show was "7th Heaven," which ended its season with a 3.7/6, good for 53rd overall. "Girlfriends" and "WWE Smackdown!" paced UPN, tying for 59th at 3.0/5.

Nascar Telecasts Drive Fox Ratings

By John Consoli Mediaweek.com June 01, 2005

Season-to-date, Nascar regular telecasts on Fox, excluding the Daytona 500, are averaging a 6.1 rating and 14 share, up 5 percent over the same period last year, which was a 5.8/14.

The telecasts are also averaging 10 million viewers, up 6 percent from the 9.4 million they averaged last season. Fox is crowing that the Nascar telecasts is currently the highest-rated sport currently being televised, including the NBA postseason games.

The past Sunday's telecast of the Coca-Cola 600, which aired in prime time, produced a 6.1/13 national rating, up 22 percent over the same race telecast last season. The race also posted double-digit ratings increases among men 18-34 (up 10 percent to a 3.3), men 18-49 (up 11 percent to a 4.9) and among men 25-54 (up 12 percent to a 5.8.) The race earned an overall 4.2 among all adults 18-49, beating out NBC (2.3), ABC (2.2) and CBS (1.9) for the night (7-11 p.m.).

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

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

Monday's holiday delayed last week's numbers, but the complete prime-time program ratings have now been posted at the top of Latest News the first item in this thread.

TELEVISION CRITICS ASSOCIATION ANNOUNCES 2005 AWARD NOMINEES
HOUSEWIVES CLEAN UP; ABC LEADS WITH ELEVEN NOMINATIONS
(Via press release from TV Critics Association)

June 2, 2005, Los Angeles, CA -- The Television Critics Association today unveiled its 2005 TCA Award nominations.

ABC’s smash hit “Desperate Housewives” had the most nominations, five. ABC’s “Lost” and Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show With Jon Stewart” were next with 4 nominations each.

The 21st annual TCA Awards honor the finest work of the 2004-05 season as selected by the association's 200-plus member critics and journalists. The winners will be announced at a July 23rd ceremony at Beverly Hilton Hotel.

Craig Ferguson, host of CBS’s “The Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson,” will open the awards show.

This year, ABC leads the list with eleven nominations. Fox programs received eight nominations and HBO received seven nods.

In addition to “Desperate Housewives,” ABC received accolades for another first-year series, “Lost.” Another newcomer gaining the critics’ praise is Fox’s “House.”

Past winners up for honors this year include Jon Stewart (“The Daily Show with Jon Stewart”), Ian McShane (“Deadwood”), Fox’s “24,” Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart,” Fox’s “Arrested Development,” PBS’s “Frontline,” ABC’s “Nightline” and Nickelodeon’s “Nick News.”

For the fourth year in a row, the TCA chose candidates for its Heritage Award, which recognizes a long-standing program that made a lasting cultural or social impact. PBS has two shows nominated in this legacy category: “Sesame Street” and “Frontline.”

The TCA also voted for Outstanding Achievement in Children's programming with Nickelodeon series receiving three of the five nominations.

Below is a complete list of this year’s TCA Award nominations. Please note, career achievement nominees are not listed, but a winner in that category will be chosen by TCA members.

PROGRAM OF THE YEAR

“Arrested Development” (Fox)
“The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” (Comedy Central)
“Deadwood” (HBO)
“Desperate Housewives” (ABC)
“Lost” (ABC)

OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN COMEDY

“Arrested Development” (Fox)
“The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” (Comedy Central)
“Desperate Housewives” (ABC)
“Everybody Loves Raymond” (CBS)
“Gilmore Girls” (The WB)

OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN DRAMA

“24” (Fox)
“Deadwood” (HBO)
“House” (Fox)
“Lost” (ABC)
“Rescue Me” (FX)

OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT MOVIES, MINI-SERIES AND SPECIALS

“Lackawanna Blues” (HBO)
“The Life And Death Of Peter Sellers” (HBO)
“The Office Special” (BBC America)
“Something The Lord Made” (HBO)
“Sometimes In April” (HBO)

OUTSTANDING NEW PROGRAM OF THE YEAR

“Desperate Housewives” (ABC)
“House” (Fox)
“Lost” (ABC)
“Rescue Me” (FX)
“Veronica Mars” (UPN)

INDIVIDUAL ACHIEVEMENT IN COMEDY

Jason Bateman (“Arrested Development”)
Marcia Cross (“Desperate Housewives”)
Teri Hatcher (“Desperate Housewives”)
Ray Romano (“Everybody Loves Raymond”)
Jon Stewart (“The Daily Show With Jon Stewart”)

INDIVIDUAL ACHIEVEMENT IN DRAMA

Kristen Bell (“Veronica Mars”)
Matthew Fox (“Lost”)
Hugh Laurie (“House”)
Ian McShane (“Deadwood”)
Kiefer Sutherland (“24”)

OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN CHILDREN’S PROGRAMMING

“DeGrassi: The Next Generation” (The N)
“Dora The Explorer” (Nickelodeon)
“Nick News” (Nickelodeon)
“Postcards From Buster” (PBS)
“SpongeBob SquarePants” (Nickelodeon)

OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN NEWS & INFORMATION

“60 Minutes” Sunday edition (CBS)
“The Daily Show” (Comedy Central)
“Frontline” (PBS)
“Meet the Press” (NBC)
“The News Hour With Jim Lehrer” (PBS)
“Nightline” (ABC)

HERITAGE AWARD

“Frontline” (PBS)
“M*A*S*H” (CBS)
“Nightline” (ABC)
“Saturday Night Live” (NBC)
“Sesame Street” (PBS)

Source: http://tvcritics.org/press/

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

NBC Cutting Upfront Prices

By John M. Higgins -- Broadcasting & Cable, 6/3/2005 3:34:00 PM

Beleaguered network NBC is cutting prices to get business done in the upfront ad market.

The network has secured commitments from advertisers for about one-half of the inventory it intends to sell, worth more than $1 billion.

The network is reducing the CPMs (cost per thousand homes) of some deals by around 2% compared with last year, while others are essentially flat.

Negotiations are expected to run into next week.

Some advertisers have been seeking even bigger reductions, so it will be important to see whether NBC holds back a substantial amount of inventory for sale in the scatter market next fall and winter.

Between the price cuts and falling ratings, NBC’s upfront sales are expected to drop from $2.9 billion last year to as low as $2.2 billion this time around.

ABC, CBS and Fox have already wrapped their negotiations, posting CPM gains of around 5%.

Cable networks were just getting started on their dealmaking Friday.

http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA606186.html?display=Breaking+News&referral=SUPP
Broadcasting & Cable: The Business of Television

CBS Says It Will Lead in Sales

By STUART ELLIOTT The New York Times

CBS said yesterday that it expected to become the leader in the sale of commercial time ahead of the coming fall season, surpassing NBC, when final tallies are completed, perhaps as soon as early next week. CBS, owned by Viacom, said that it was almost finished selling commercial time in the yearly bazaar known as the upfront market that occurs before the fall season.

CBS executives estimated they would end up with commitments from advertisers and agencies to buy $2.6 billion worth of spots in prime-time programs, compared with an estimated $2.3 billion agreed to in the upfront market last year.
"We had great feedback coming off our presentation" of the 2005-6 schedule on May 18, said JoAnn Ross, president for sales in New York at the CBS television network unit of CBS. "We're seeing as we anticipated, based on the strength of our schedule, some share shift."

For years, NBC, part of the NBC Universal division of General Electric, has led the six big broadcast networks in upfront sales by the power of its lead in the ratings among the viewers advertisers desire most, ages 18 to 49. In the upfront market last spring before the 2004-5 season started, NBC was first again, taking in an estimated $2.9 billion.

But when the 2004-5 season ended last month, NBC fell to fourth in that desirable ratings category from first. That has spurred advertisers seeking to reach the younger audience to divert dollars to CBS and ABC, which improved its ratings significantly in the 2004-5 season.

ABC, part of the Walt Disney Company, finished its upfront sales Tuesday, taking in an estimated $2.1 billion, its best showing in five years, compared with about $1.6 billion last spring.

CBS made gains among advertisers that seek youthful viewers, Ms. Ross said, listing entertainment (movies and DVD's), fast food, online travel services and telecommunications.

When CBS completes its tallies, Ms. Ross said, it expects to have sold more than 80 percent of the total number of spots it will run in prime time during the coming season, about even with last year, Ms. Ross said.

NBC is still talking to many advertisers and agencies and is not making deals because it is seeking an increase in rates that they are so far unwilling to pay.

More details on the March start date reported here last week----

HBO Sets 'Sopranos' Return for March '06

(zap2it.com)--Monday (June 6) will mark one year since the last original episode of "The Sopranos" premiered. Now all fans have to do is wait nine more months for the next new episode.

HBO says the sixth, and probably last, season of the Emmy-winning mob drama will debut in March 2006, two years after season five debuted and 21 months after that season's finale, which aired June 6, 2004. The new season has been in production for a little over a month.

Creator David Chase has said the gap between episodes will be mirrored in the show, with action picking up about two years after the death of Adriana (Drea de Matteo) and the raid on New York mob boss Johnny Sack's (Vincent Curatola) home that nearly ensnared Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini) as well.

HBO ran teasers for the new season during its broadcast of the miniseries "Empire Falls" last weekend and has since confirmed "The Sopranos'" return to several media outlets. A specific premiere date has yet to be set.

The network will rerun season five of the series starting Sunday (June 5). The DVD package for the most recent season, which won the show's first Emmy for outstanding drama series, hits stores next week.

There is (at least!) one more season finale I have neglected.

"Blind Justice" ABC, June 21.

Thanks to ASubPi for pointing it out to me.

The folks over at thefutoncritic.com apparently have too much time on their hands between prime time seasons.

So they have compiled a list of the longest time between the end of a show's season and the beginning of its next season. (No, "The Sopranos" is not first on the list.)

If that sort of TV programming minutiae interests you, check out the results of their work at:

http://www.thefutoncritic.com/cgi/newswire.cgi?id=6919

NBC Signing Ad Deals at Reduced Rates

By Jon Lafayette TVWeek.com June 3, 2005

After some initial resistance, NBC has begun writing upfront advertising deals charging less than last year, according to sources. Long the dominant network among viewers 18 to 49, NBC this season sank to fourth place with its ratings off 17 percent. Ad buyers are taking advantage of NBC's woes and a generally weak market by holding out for deals calling for CPMs 3 percent to 4 percent lower than last year.

Once source said NBC had completed about half of its deals, and that those were in the flat to minus-2 percent range. With its ratings and prices down, one buyer calculated that NBC could see its upfront sales drop 20 percent to 30 percent from last year's $2.9 billion, which was tops among all networks.

NBC had no comment.

The wake begins for 'Six Feet Under'
As the show's amazing and disturbing final season gets going,
the entire cast has been freed from some protective buffer
By Choire Sicha Special to The Los Angeles Times June 5, 2005

At some point — the middle of season three? — I gave up on "Six Feet Under." It wasn't just that it sometimes felt like a muddle of hyperrealism and false, rushed melodrama. It was the dead people talking that really got to me. They're dead! Don't they ever shut up?

Every time the wise dead family patriarch, Nathaniel Fisher, appeared to give sensible if embittered advice to his kids, I was reminded of that awful dancing baby and the other excesses of "Ally McBeal." And the dream sequences of imagined behavior — little snippets of people saying what they would never dare or imagining hyperbolic actions of people around them — weren't just grating, they were frustrating. I wanted to throttle Claire or David, to tell them "Spit it out! This is a soap opera! Slap somebody!" It was hard to not feel cheated by the writers, who made the characters utter these thoughts just for us. It doesn't matter if we, the audience, hear these things. Action doesn't happen without interaction, and we're all the way out here, beyond the fourth wall.

The final season of "Six Feet Under," which begins airing Monday, starts out pacing fairly calmly through plot movements. The first few episodes have a surfeit of these incredibly annoying conversations with dead people and internal thought processes made visual for the viewer, sometimes even in the form of reality TV shows. The first episode, in a new low for the stylish show, even struggles with awkward, needless flashbacks, catching us up on elapsed months and the growth of matriarch Ruth's husband's craziness, the family re-gelling between alpha-son Nate and the magnificent, nearly tamed Brenda.

Things begin humdrum, though funeral home den mother Ruth Fisher Sibley is given plenty to do, which is super news. (Frances Conroy could read from an embalming manual for a full episode and I'd never complain.) But "Six Feet Under" at its worst has been a particularly dreary Brontë-meets-Harlequin novel, and the beginning of this season likewise revolves around couples and their dynamics. With everyone paired off — though there may not be much permanence to any of these matches — the available plotlines are about as captivating as, well, NBC's 2003 sitcom bomb "Coupling."

So it seems, at first, as if the most notable addition to the last season is a bar or two of new theme music, actually. Apparently a few more producer credits have extended the opening sequence by a few seconds — ah, the bloat of success.

But then, almost midway through the season, the show becomes stellar, amazing and disturbing. It would be unfair to give anything away, but the mood is this: There's a reason that dogs wear those silly cones around their necks after surgery. As this final season gets going, the entire cast has been freed from some protective buffer, and they immediately begin to rip out their itchy stitches, blood flying everywhere.

And nothing they say is imagined or just for the viewer. Finally, everything is said out loud.

It turns out that through the first few episodes, situations have carefully been concocted; the narrative has been tended like a garden. Realism insists that eruptions must be preceded by motivation, thought and the brewing of turmoil. Brenda, for example, has lived every female archetype in the Big Book of Goddesses: She's been scary Kali, licentious Cleopatra, and begins this season as is an unlikely earth mother, Gaea. At last, uncomfortably but realistically, her roles are forced to cohere. Her therapized upbringing is both a torment and a solace as she fights with her complex nature: maternal, slatternly, harsh and empathetic.

If creator and head chef Alan Ball wanted this final season to leave us with a hole in our hearts after his show is departed, all signs are indicating that we'll be utterly bereft.

That Small but Critical Demographic
By Lisa de Moraes The Washington Post

You know what TV critics really hate?

NBC.

Not that they think much of CBS. But they spit on NBC.

We learned this looking over the list of nominees for the 2005 Television Critics Association Awards.
Out of 51 nominations in 10 categories, NBC snagged a pathetic two and one is for a program that's nearly 60 years old, for goodness sake -- "Meet the Press" -- while the other is for the creaky old, formerly funny "Saturday Night Live."

CBS, on the other hand, received four nominations, including two for "Everybody Loves Raymond" because it's that show's last chance, one for "60 Minutes," the Sunday edition, and one for "M*A*S*H," which is nominated for the Heritage Award. "Heritage" is the critics association's euphemism for "really old."

"Saturday Night Live" old. PBS's "Frontline" and "Sesame Street" old. ABC's "Nightline" old.

Know what critics hate even more than NBC?

Reality TV.

Reality got bupkis in this year's TCA Awards nominations.

Last year they at least gave NBC's "The Apprentice" a single nomination for program of the year. The year before that they actually crowned "American Idol" program of the year, but they pretty much had to or their editors would have hauled them into their offices and demanded to know what rock they'd been sleeping under.

On the other hand, TV critics love "Desperate Housewives," which is unusual because this awards ceremony is about critics giving awards to shows that they love and hardly anybody else watches. Like "Arrested Development." Or "Deadwood." Or "The Daily Show."

This year, for reasons we cannot explain, the critics have showered nominations on "Desperate Housewives." And "Lost." Both freshman ABC series were out-of-the-gate hits this season. They're both nominated for program of the year -- along with "Arrested Development," "Deadwood" and "The Daily Show."

"Desperate Housewives" also is up for best comedy, new program of the year and twice for "individual achievement in comedy." In that category actresses Teri Hatcher and Marcia Cross are nominated, which is exciting because, according to Vanity Fair, don't they hate each other?

This year's awards dinner is going to be way more fun than last year's. Last year the dinner didn't get lively until critics realized the word "television" had been misspelled on the programs and on the awards that were being given to the winners.

"Lost," meanwhile, also is nominated for best drama, new program of the year and individual achievement in a drama (Matthew Fox), though we all know Hugh Laurie, who stars in Fox's doc drama "House," is going to win that derby.

Unless, of course, it goes to Ian McShane of "Deadwood" again. It's so unfair that actors can cuss on HBO but not on Fox; it gives them an unfair advantage when it comes to winning awards from critics. Critics love cussing. Did you know that an episode of "Deadwood" contains about seven minutes of cussing? I read that on the Internet; some enterprising person put all the cussing in one episode together and then clocked it.

Once again "The Daily Show" is nominated for best comedy and best news-and-information program. Last year the Jon Stewart-anchored show was named best news-and-info program, which seemed nuts at the time but we now know it was genius.

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

The Season of Second Chances

By ALESSANDRA STANLEY The New York Times June 5, 2005
Summer reruns, like forest fires, are a calamity with a good side - nature's way of balancing the ecosystem of television. Repeats allow viewers to see that "House," on Fox, was a success not just because it followed "American Idol," but also because it is smarter and better written than ABC's "Grey's Anatomy."

And to discover that "Lost" got better as it went and "24" got worse. "Hope and Faith" turned out to be funnier than "Joey," while "Desperate Housewives" did not live up to its refreshingly saucy start. And at long last, it turns out that there actually is a limit to the human appetite for"Law & Order" franchises, and it was "Trial by Jury."

Unlike a book or a movie, a television series is a mercurial work in progress; each episode varies in quality and impact. In other words, critics are never wrong, it's the shows that get better - or worse - over a season.

The pilot of "House" relied too much on gimmicks from other networks' hits. It crammed the repellent "CSI"-style close-ups of cells and internal organs alongside both the melodrama of "E.R." and the clowning of "Scrubs." But the series calmed down and quickly found its footing, mainly by focusing on the maimed foot of the hero, Dr. Gregory House. Played by the English actor Hugh Laurie, House is bitter, wickedly irreverent and lame - a damaged romantic hero in the tradition of Lord Byron, Cyrano de Bergerac, James Mason in the 1946 movie "The Seventh Veil" and the soul-battered Philip Marlowe (though Raymond Chandler's P.I. also took more than his fair share of kicks and punches).

House is bracingly rude and sarcastic as he seeks a cure for patients' mysterious symptoms, which is entertaining in itself - a Mad Magazine take on Dr. Marcus Welby. But the archetype of the wounded male is most appealing to women for its romance: masculinity tempered by need or perhaps just crankiness with a justifiable cause.

Dr. House is television's limping beau ideal: his corrosive wit masks a deep inner wound, a disappointed heart unrelieved by the crippling power of addiction. (He swallows a lot of Vicodin.)

His pill-popping doesn't ease his pain or cloud his facility for Sherlock Holmes-style deductions. In one episode he breezily explains that the stain on the blouse of an impeccably dressed female patient could only have been caused by either her daughter or her husband wearing it behind her back. The woman stares at him and replies slowly, "I don't have a daughter."

He mercilessly needles Dr. Lisa Cuddy, the head of the hospital, for her low-cut necklines and torments his three trainees - in particular Dr. Allison Cameron (Jennifer Morrison), who loves him despite or because of his frequent rebuffs. When an old girlfriend appears at the hospital, Cameron is jealous, sorrowfully identifying the newcomer as "the woman you used to live with." House replies: "That is her Indian name. On her driver's license it says Stacy."

Delayed gratification is a lost art on television - there is no patience anymore for the kind of suppressed sexual tension that kept Miss Kitty and Matt Dillon apart on "Gunsmoke" for 20 years. Laura and her suave sidekick on "Remington Steele" remained chaste from 1982 to 1986, but finally consummated their relationship in a 1987 two-hour television movie. Even Mork and Mindy got married. "The West Wing" is just about the only place left where characters with crushes on co-workers keep it to themselves.

"Grey's Anatomy," on ABC, got off to a mischievous start by reversing the conceit. In the pilot, the heroine, Meredith Grey (Ellen Pompeo), has a one-night stand with a stranger, only to discover the next morning that he is a fellow surgeon and her immediate supervisor, Dr. Derek Shepherd (Patrick Dempsey). But even that sexual harassment taboo was too easily overcome: not only did they get back into bed together, but an affair that should at least have remained clandestine became public and quickly accepted.

Even the most promising character on the show, Cristina Yang, a blunt, fiercely ambitious intern, played by Sandra Oh ("Sideways"), has sex with her supervisor, becomes pregnant and has conflicting feelings about how a baby could ruin her surgical career - the same dilemma that faced another fiercely ambitious Asian-American doctor, Jing-Mei (Deb) Chen, (Ming-Na) on "E.R." She, too, had an affair and a pregnancy with an African-American co-worker.

So credit must be paid to writers of "House" for gracefully, if ungallantly, avoiding commitment. Just as House and Cameron seem headed for a clinch, the woman from his past reappears to elbow Cameron aside and reopen House's old wounds. The season finale left the question open but the bedroom door shut.

"Lost" on ABC began with a preposterous premise: plane-wreck survivors marooned on a spooky tropical island. It ended with a tantalizing finale that proved that the series has finally nailed down narrative discipline after some flagging of energy midway through the season. Unlike the cartoonish housewives of Wisteria Lane, each castaway on "Lost" is growing, becoming less of a caricature and more of a richly drawn character, and there are many unexpected grace notes in the script, music and cinematography. "Lost" is one of the few television dramas filmed mostly on location, and the additional cost pays off because it looks like a well-made movie.

Action-adventure dramas rarely allow characters to grow, change or reveal shifting dimensions, particularly when the supernatural is involved. ("Medium" on NBC is also a rare exception to the rule.) "Lost" keeps pace with more than a dozen central characters and almost as many plot twists and side steps - from a mysterious hatch to unseen, man-eating jungle creatures, and it also weaves in flashbacks that slowly fill in each castaway's back story, layer by layer.

Fox's "24" worked in the opposite direction: the characters grew less and less interesting as Day 4 progressed. The fourth season began with a fresh slate. Jack Bauer's annoying daughter was gone, a new president was in the Oval Office, Jack had a new job working for the Secretary of Defense and a new girlfriend who happened to be his boss's daughter. But soon enough, the series began to strain under its self-imposed limitations: 24 hours in a day are too many to sustain the series' conceit of real-time action, and the same plot twists that weighed down previous seasons kept coming back. Audrey was kidnapped and rescued by Jack, then Tony was kidnapped and rescued by Jack. Last time Tony jeopardized national security to save his wife Michelle's life; this time Michelle jeopardized Tony's life to save national security. President Palmer returned to the White House when the sitting president realized he didn't have the right stuff to lead the country through a nuclear attack by terrorists.

And even that peril palled. Chekhov's rule about a gun in the first act should also apply to nuclear warheads. After raising the threat level so high so early, it would have been better if at least one terrorist missile could have hit its target. The season's only innovation was the Ann Coulterish sensibility veining the plot: that nice middle-class Muslim family turned out to be a sleeper cell of terrorist moles, and torture was a post-Sept. 11 necessity that only pantywaist Washington bureaucrats found objectionable.

"Joey" didn't get worse, but it started out badly. Matt LeBlanc is not much fun without his "Friends," and the sitcom's writing is so mundane that even the talented character actresses Drea de Matteo and Jennifer Coolidge fall flat. The dialogue on "Hope and Faith" is not any wittier, but Kelly Ripa as Faith and Faith Ford as Hope bring a "Laverne and Shirley" twinkle to the sitcom.

"Desperate Housewives" is, fittingly enough, a series that has injected too much Botox: the show is sexy but its expression unnaturally frozen and static. Even as the veils of mystery over Mary Alice's suicide are lifted, the characters and plotlines remain thin and unvaried. The show began with an original voice; the blend of satirical black humor and 80's "Dynasty" soap-opera camp was fresh and arresting. But it didn't mature gracefully. It's a youthful series about aging suburban housewives that doesn't get better with age, or really age at all.

Movies cannot be remade once they have opened in theaters, and books cannot be rewritten once they reach the bookstore shelves. Television series have the luxury of fixing mistakes and getting things right. And viewers have all summer to give them a second chance.

The Season of Second Chances

By ALESSANDRA STANLEY [B]Repeats allow viewers to see that "House," on Fox, was a success not just because it followed "American Idol," but also because it is smarter and better written than ABC's "Grey's Anatomy."

Are you serious? The House character is certainly a breath of fresh air on TV but they've used the same plot in every episode so far: keep trying random treatments that "will kill the patient if you're wrong" but never do until House finally picks up on a little detail that was mentioned in the 2nd act and save the patient.

Again, the character is great but the stories need to be fleshed out a bit in season two before it can be compared to GA.

That's why I like to post as wide a range of commentary here as possible, dturturro.
Food for thought.
(I personally agree with you, although I think GA is a tad predictable too -- and both shows are on my favorites list.)

Monday is the beginning of the end for 'Six Feet Under'

By Gail Shister Philadelphia Inquirer Columnist

Unlike most of us,Alan Poul likes Mondays.

That's why the coexecutive producer of HBO's acclaimed Six Feet Under says he doesn't mind being "a guinea pig" for the premium network as it tries to establish a beachhead on Mondays.

Creator Alan Ball's funereal drama launches its fifth - and final - season at 9 p.m. Monday. It's the first HBO original series to run on that night instead of the traditional Sunday. (Repeats, however, are set for 10 p.m. Sundays.)

"We have a loyal audience, and they will find us whenever we air," says Poul, 51. "Being on Mondays doesn't faze me. "HBO needs to start branching out to other nights for their original programming. Because we're an established show, we made a logical guinea pig."

There's no downside for Six Feet, in Poul's view. "We have nothing hanging in the balance. It's not like we're worried about getting picked up for a sixth season. There won't be a sixth season."

Overall theme for this season's 12 episodes: children, and how their presence "creates issues that affect everybody."

Last season ended with Nate (Peter Krause) and Brenda (Rachel Griffiths) deciding to get married and have a baby, and David (Michael C. Hall) and Keith (Mathew St. Patrick) longing for kids of their own.

In real life, Griffiths is eight months pregnant. Production has been physically demanding, "but she's a trouper," Poul says. "We've tried to be very sensitive with scheduling her."

As production begins today on the series finale, the reality of Six Feet's impending last rites is starting to sink in.

"There's a huge sadness beginning to surface. You can feel it bubbling up. We've been repressing our sadness all season. The work is so hard, you don't have time to feel sad."

Viewers expecting Six Feet's complex story lines to be wrapped up in a neat bow will be disappointed. Each character's story "will have some kind of final moment, but it's not neat and not necessarily pretty."

Does that mean one character (or more) will die?
"It's safe to say some of them will come up against life-and-death situations," Poul says coyly. "Because our show is about life and death, and life in the midst of death, any proper finish will involve those issues."

Next up for Poul: He'll direct an episode of Tom Hanks' Big Love, a new HBO series about a Utah polygamist (Bill Paxton) and his three wives - Chloë Sevigny, Jeanne Tripplehorn and Ginnifer Goodwin. No debut date yet.

Laying the Funeral Home to Rest

By MICHAEL JOSEPH GROSS The New York Times June 5, 2005

From the beginning, the writing style on "Six Feet Under" has been unlike any other on TV: dark, comic, Christian, Freudian, mythological, often all at once. This eclecticism is natural for the show's creator and executive producer, Alan Ball, 48, a gay Georgia native who was raised Baptist and now practices Buddhist meditation. But how have he and the other writers balanced such openness with the demands for closure that a final season brings? In late April, during a break from writing the last episode of "Six Feet Under" - whose final season starts on June 6 on HBO - Mr. Ball discussed the end of television's dearly beloved, death-obsessed drama with Michael Joseph Gross.

MICHAEL JOSEPH GROSS: What was your strategy for bringing "Six Feet Under" to a close?

ALAN BALL: I wanted to feel like this was the final chapter of a novel. At the same time I didn't want to tie everything up in a nice little bow and send everybody off into the horizon.
I knew there was one specific event that I felt like needed to happen. There was a lot of disagreement in the writers' room. A compromise was reached, which I believe is better than my original idea, which is very often the case. And I have to say I am very happy with the way the series wraps up. It's expected, and at the same time it's completely unexpected. I feel like it's a sense of finality and a sense of new beginning.

Q: Were there any big surprises in planning the season?

A: We came back to work and Rachel Griffiths was pregnant, and I was like, oh, I guess Brenda's going to be pregnant this season. Or else she's going to be sitting behind the couch a lot or holding a coat in front of her. And that went against a whole story line that we had plotted out involving a series of miscarriages. She did not know that we had plotted that out, and we did not know that she was pregnant. So there was a mad scramble at the beginning of the season about how to change her story to incorporate her pregnancy. It ended up being better.

Q: "Six Feet Under's" tone has varied wildly over the past few seasons, from its kitschy flirtation with Hollywood in-jokes to the unnerving violence that marked last season. How did you settle on the tone for the final season?

A: The show has its own life force. There are times when something will find its way into a script and turn into something that becomes something much bigger. Last season the book that Nate's niece gives to him, which ended up having the clue [to the mystery of Lisa's death] was just a random moment in that script. We were like, this little girl's interesting. She seems like she knows something. George's daughter, Maggie, plays a big part this season. Originally she was just a day player. She has a pretty profound effect on things in a way that you don't see coming.

Q: Has the writers' collective will ever prevailed over something you've wanted to do?

A: Sometimes I exercise veto power. For the longest time there was a lot of energy behind splitting David and Keith up and letting David move on because there was concern that Keith was not a good partner for him. I fought that. I just felt that, this is what these characters are going through, this is what will solidify them as a couple. A lot of times writers get bored. "I want a new doll to play with." "It would be so great if we could see David dating." I think what's more interesting is trying to maintain a relationship with somebody who's so different. What I'm interested in is seeing these two men who are basically good people with different pathologies trying to make this work. I didn't want to jettison our only African-American character. They were like, "But David could have a new boyfriend who's African-American!"

It's not just David and Keith, it's Rico and Vanessa. Its like, "split 'em up! Just start something new." Jill [Soloway, a writer on the show] refers to the characters as the dolls. Move the dolls around! No. This show is not about moving on and getting the next new exciting thing to happen. This show is about, what is it like to remain in a relationship. This show is about what it is like to remain alive. While other people die. You stick it out. You don't just jettison and move on.

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

An Unsettled Frontier

Steven Spielberg's Six-Part Epic Chronicles Clashing Cultures and the Rush to Riches
By Kathy Blumenstock Washington Post Staff Writer Sunday, June 5, 2005; Y06

For Jacob Wheeler, the lure of unknown adventure spurs a journey from his Virginia home to the open spaces of the unsettled West. The six-part series begins Friday on TNT and is presented in HD.

"He's a young fellow whose imagination has been captured by Lewis and Clark, by Daniel Boone and the outdoors," said Matthew Settle, who portrays the fictitious Wheeler in "Into the West," a six-part mini-series executive-produced by Steven Spielberg. "Jacob has ideas, and he wants to make history."

Wheeler does make a bit of history with his rescue of and marriage to a Native American named Thunder Heart Woman, linking his family with her heritage. The chapters of their lives, and of those around them, unfold during the series from the dual perspectives of settlers and a Lakota family. Marriages, migration to new territory, individual hardships, failures and success map Spielberg's vision of the rugged, sometimes violent, West.

"You know that with anything under Steven's name, he wants to make a contribution to our understanding of it," Settle said. "It's not just a black-hat, white-hat story about the West."

Filmed in 180 days in Santa Fe, N.M., and Calgary, Alberta, the series "allows people to reflect on our origins as a country," said Darryl Frank, co-head of DreamWorks Television, which produced the project. "For good or bad, this is where we all came from," said Frank, also an executive producer of the series. Spielberg "is a history buff, so this was something he knew a ton about but had not really explored before," Frank said. "And the key to it for everyone involved from the beginning was authenticity."

For Settle, that authentic touch included learning to make wagon wheels because his character is a wheelwright. He and Skeet Ulrich, who plays Jacob's brother Jethro, went to school to study the trade. "We learned just how the process works, how the wheel is shaped," Settle said. "It helps you develop the character if you know what he does and how he does it."

Settle is just one member of a substantial cast that includes newcomers, veteran actors and familiar names: Beau Bridges, Gary Busey, Jessica Capshaw, Keith Carradine, Rachael Leigh Cook, Matthew Modine, Judge Reinhold, Keri Russell -- and what seems to be countless head of buffalo.

"There were literally thousands of buffaloes," said Justin Falvey, co-head of DreamWorks Television and an executive producer.

"We had a whole separate buffalo unit. On those sequences, they decided how many real ones we'd have and which ones would be CGI [computer-generated images] buffaloes."

Falvey said he and Frank found the series was "a reeducation for us, in diving back into the history books."
"From both the Native American and pioneer sides, this really is a look into our past and how this country was defined," he said.

Irene Bedard, who plays Jacob Wheeler's daughter Margaret, called the story a personal journey for her character: "She's not certain of her station in life, and even after she makes the decision to marry and live in the Anglo world, she is unsure she can fit in and feels something is missing."

When Margaret is captured by the Cheyenne, she chooses to remain in the Native American world and is then called by her Lakota name, Light Shines. Bedard described the scale of the series, which spans 1825 to 1890, as "simply huge, with 300 speaking roles and 15,000 extras."

"With the railroad being built, the gold rush, there is so much struggle, so much happiness over that time," she said. And working together on the set was "like a family reunion of all the Native American actors." Bedard said to get ready for her role, the big thing was putting on all those corsets. "You can't imagine what it feels like."

She also read Lakota history, "but just being on the set, there are also those bits of history that you absorb by osmosis, things that make you say, 'I didn't know that,' " she said.

Sean Astin, who portrays prospector Martin Jarrett, said the series picks up where documentaries leave off.
"You're showing a more complete story than what we read about in the sixth grade," he said. Astin's character is an "example of those thousands of American dreamers and adventurers who were seeking a life that was more exciting than living in St. Louis," he said. "And you could see how difficult that life was. Beau Bridges plays the manager of a wagon train who's responsible for hundreds of people -- does he have enough people who are armed and can do battle? He has to worry about the women and the children. He's part P.T. Barnum, part padrone, and you see how everything is all happening around him, as it did to those travelers.”

The shifting viewpoint of the series "lets you feel the complete story," he said. "In one scene, you're identifying with the settlers, then in another, you feel the pain of the Native American."

Because of the size of the cast, "it was never going to be star-driven," said Frank, another of the project's executive producers. "Certain roles are bigger than others, but at the same time, we wanted someone who embodied the character."

Some characters span the duration of the series, requiring multiple actors to fill the roles.

"That was one of the toughest things creatively," Frank said. "What we were going for was more the essence of the person, as opposed to the look of the person."

Settle's character ages from 17 years old, when he tells the first part of the story, to 42, but Settle portrays him at every stage.

"In his later years, he has so much weight on his shoulders, the weight of life experience, and his walk is different," Settle said. "It helped me to delve into the character, to see how he changes from those younger years."

Each Friday episode repeats on Saturday and Sunday at 8 p.m.

Story Guide

All episodes air at 8 p.m.

1) "Wheel to the Stars" (June 10): In 1827, Virginia wheelwright Jacob Wheeler seeks adventure, trekking west to California. A young Lakota, named Loved by the Buffalo after he is spared in a bison stampede, sees visions of the buffalo vanishing. His sister, Thunder Heart Woman, is saved by Wheeler, who marries her and brings the two families together.

2) "Manifest Destiny" (June 17): As the western frontier changes, some Native Americans adopt the ways of the white settlers. Jacob Wheeler takes Thunder Heart Woman back to Virginia. But the prospect of a new life in California again leads them, and his brother Jethro, to head west.

3) "Dreams and Schemes" (June 24): Thousands of prospectors race to California in their race to find gold, destroying sacred Lakota land in the process. Jethro Wheeler is among the greedy, while Loved by the Buffalo still seeks the prophet who can save his tribe. And President Lincoln's election divides the nation.

4) "Hell on Wheels" (July 8): The railroad's rise bridges the geographic gap between East and West. One of Jacob Wheeler's sons works for the railroad, the other is an Army scout, and his daughter Margaret is captured by the Cheyenne. Horrified at how her brethren are treated by soldiers, Margaret stays with the Cheyenne, where she is known by her Lakota name, Light Shines.

5) "Casualties of War" (July 15): The discovery of gold in the Black Hills prompts the Army to take over the land. But Chief Sitting Bull will not yield, and his vision of a defeat of the Army comes to life in Crazy Horse's triumph over Custer's troops at Little Big Horn.

6) "Ghost Dance" (July 22): When Sitting Bull is killed by soldiers, whether by accident or design, a rebellion by the Lakota escalates as brutality toward Indians grows. After many years, Loved by the Buffalo and Jacob Wheeler meet again, and Loved by the Buffalo resolves to pass along the traditions of the Lakota to future generations.

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

`Joan of Arcadia' fans are true believers

By Maureen Ryan The Chicago Tribune

Fans of "Joan of Arcadia" are mad. Very mad.

First, CBS canceled the show, partly because the show had more older viewers than the network apparently wants. Then CBS head Leslie Moonves commented on the network's decision to replace "Joan" with "Ghost Whisperer," a Jennifer Love Hewitt vehicle. "I think talking to ghosts may skew younger than talking to God," Moonves said.

Those two developments sparked a fan campaign to save the show and express outrage at CBS; here's a sample of the 100-plus pro-"Joan" e-mails I've received this week:

"God's first message to Joan told her to `do better, be better.' I urge [CBS] to consider that message."

"I have never written to a network complaining about `my show' being canceled. This one, though . . . is worth the trouble. . . . [`Joan'] finally gave God some real airtime!"

"CBS is making a stupid mistake canceling a well-written production like `Joan of Arcadia.' God is more powerful than CBS."

Well, Moonves may dispute that last sentiment, but CBS' decision to cancel "Joan" appears final. As for another network picking up the show, chances of that seem small (though NBC could do worse than snagging 8 million "Joan" viewers), and these days the bigger cable networks want to make a splash with their own original series.

But I wish "Joan" campaigners good luck with their quest. There's only a tiny chance it'll work, but you have to have faith, right?

Some shows so bad you can't be paid to watch

Tim Goodman San Francisco Chronicle Monday, June 6, 2005

Before any more summer television sucks the life out of me, perhaps we should revisit our relationship, or at least my interpretation of it.

I take the bullet for you. All the time.

Isn't that about it? You know, the idea that I watch TV so you don't have to. I absorb deep and painful blows to my mind and soul while watching the WB or yet another home-invasion makeover series. Some woman named Miranda is telling all the world about wicker while I vomit. And you never have to see it. You are busy people with important things to do. You heed my warnings and -- presto -- an hour here, six over there, 22 minutes on a Monday; you don't lose them. You spend time with your family. Or read. Or catch up on the good shows you've TiVo'd.

And, in turn, The Chronicle gives me bird feed and Buffalo nickels and pays for a satellite dish that mars my roofline.

Whatever. Bygones. We have what appears to be, over these many years, a lovely working relationship. But sometimes a State of the Union address is necessary. Like now. Because with the end of May comes the end of the official TV season and the beginning of the summer season, also known as Reality Hell. And we should be clear on this:

I'm not going to be diving into that pool, cess or no.

I did not review UPN's "Britney & Kevin: Chaotic," because, well, I have some standards. Plus, despite my many attempts to cloak it behind nonsense and stupidity, I actually know what I'm doing. That show had stink on it before UPN put it on the air (the network has announced a "series finale" on June 14, though by itself this does not prove the existence of God).

I did not review "Beauty and the Geek" on the WB, even though my peers with considerably more time on their hands found it surprisingly sweet, and the few remaining friends I have at the WB assured me it was good. (Then again, they stand by "Reba.")

I didn't review "Hit Me Baby One More Time" on NBC, even though I have a fondness for one-hit wonders, having been a pop music critic in the beloved 1980s. I also didn't review "Dancing With the Stars" on ABC because not just my life, but all lives, are too short to watch D-list celebrities dance. I will not watch Fox's "So You Think You Can Dance?" in July, unless I'm heavily medicated.

Only because I loved "Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares" on BBC America did I review "Hell's Kitchen" on Fox. It was regrettable. And it taught me a lesson: Just don't.

So, barring any last-minute brain fires or outright panic for subject matter, I will not be reviewing "The Scholar" on ABC tonight; CBS' "Rock Star: INXS" (an overrated band even when Michael Hutchence was alive); "Fight for Fame" on E!; "The Real Gilligan's Island" on TBS; "Fire Me, Please" or "Big Brother 6," both on CBS; "Average Joe: The Joes Strike Back," "I Want to Be a Hilton," "Meet Mr. Mom" or "Tommy Lee Goes to College," all on NBC (and you wonder why they finished last this year?).

I will be gleefully skipping "Brat Camp" on ABC in July; "The Cut" on CBS (we've already seen his daughter, must we also see Tommy Hilfiger?); "Celebrity Fit Club" on VH1; "Super Agent" on Spike TV; "Renovate My Family" on Fox; "The Law Firm" on NBC; "Situation: Comedy" on Bravo; "R U the Girl With T-Boz & Chilli" on UPN; "Welcome to the Neighborhood" on ABC; "Battle of the Network Reality Stars" or "Celebrity Poker Showdown," both on Bravo; or "Princes of Malibu" on Fox.

I think, given that lineup, you may find it in your heart to forgive me.

It's not that I don't like reality shows. I do. But summer reality shows are like ugly distant cousins. They do the family genes a disservice. If a reality series is really good, we'll see it in the fall. I'll wait.

I will, however, be reviewing scripted series (you were wondering whether I was going to do nothing, thus truly making this the best and easiest job in the world). Cable, which has traditionally gone full force in the summer with quality fare, will get the bulk of my attention. Unless, like Bravo -- the artless, witless wonder -- it's a channel that has completely lost its way.

Summer, despite essentially being a period where networks torture television critics for fun, still has great offerings. They are, almost exclusively, on cable. So I will remind you again that you should learn what you're paying for on your monthly bill by taking a stroll around the dial and familiarizing yourself with channels I may be discussing (or disgusted with) in the near future.

In the meantime, I pray that you never hear the shots ring out ("Fight for Fame," "Fire Me, Please," "I Want to Be a Hilton" -- pop! pop! pop!) or witness me diving valiantly in front of you.

Go hug your family. Visit Nantucket. Read. Never mind my bloody mess. Just doing my job. You folks move along -- nothing to see here. Until I say so.

Viacom's Moonves to Cable Operators: Get Your Checkbooks Ready

By Anthony Crupi Mediaweek.com June 07, 2005

Viacom co-COO Les Moonves reiterated that he believes the company’s proposed split will go through as planned, and when it does, CBS is likely to ask cable operators for cash for retransmission consent.

At the Deutsche Bank Securities Media & Telecommunications conference Monday, Moonves said if and when the split does go through, Moonves said cable operators should get their checkbooks ready. “We’re tired of not getting paid, or not getting paid properly, for the CBS programming,” he said. “Cash for retransmission consent is not far off.”

(Satellite broadcasters already pay for retransmission rights.)

Moonves added that most of CBS’ carriage deals aren’t set to expire for another three to five years.

The Viacom exec also shared his thoughts on time-shifting elements such as digital video recorders and video on-demand. Although he cautioned that he’s coming to the table from a broadcaster’s perspective, he noted that digital video recorder use was still not a major threat to advertisers as overall “penetration is rather small.”

“For those home that do have DVR, they watch 70 percent more television, and what they’re watching are the top 20 shows,” Moonves said, adding that this only serves as a benefit to the broadcast networks. He also cited a study that suggested that viewers who zap through commercials actually retain stronger impressions of the brand or product, especially toward the end of a given spot.

As for VOD, Moonves said that the application could take off in about “two or three years.” He also noted that CBS’ experiment with ceding VOD content to Comcast was “inconclusive,” primarily because the programming CBS offered wasn’t an optimal fit. “We gave them 48 Hours. That’s not the kind of thing you run home to catch on VOD. So we haven’t done it in a really serious way. We have to put the top shows on VOD, the 24s, the Desperate Housewives, the CSIs.”

Moonves suggested a model wherein viewers would pay $1 to watch top-tier network programming on-demand.

Moonves: CBS to Seek Cash for Retrans

By Mike Farrell Multichannel.com

Viacom Inc. co-chief operating officer Les Moonves said the company’s CBS broadcast network would seek cash for carriage in the future if the planned split of Viacom’s cable and broadcast networks goes ahead as planned.

At the Deutsche Bank Securities Media & Telecommunications conference Monday, Moonves said that if the split does happen -- and he added that it is likely -- CBS will likely ask cable operators for cash for retransmission consent.

“We’re tired of not getting paid, or not getting paid properly, for the CBS programming,” Moonves said. While Moonves added that most of CBS’ carriage deals with major operators won’t expire for another three to five years, he said MSOs should expect to pay cash to carry the network after that.

Moonves said he has already been talking with CBS affiliates about such a move -- he said the affiliate stations want assurances that if they are having trouble with cable operators, CBS will “back them up and not dump the signal into a different market.”

Moonves acknowledged that cash for retrans is a controversial issue with MSOs, but he said it will happen nonetheless.

“If the split happens, we would be a stand-alone and in a unique position that no other network has been in for quite awhile,” Moonves said. “The future of that looks pretty bright for us. Needless to say, the cable operators are not happy with me stating this, but it’s a new day and I want to get paid for my good programming.”

NBC's Marketplace Miscues

By John Consoli and Steve McClellan Mediaweek.com June 06, 2005

In what is being portrayed by media buyers as a major miscalculation in the upfront marketplace, NBC appears to have hampered its ability to bring in more prime-time upfront ad dollars for the 2005-06 season by initially taking a hardline against dropping its cost-per-thousand viewer ad rates, but finally relenting after no agency was willing to pay the network’s CPM increases.

NBC, coming off its poorest season in decades in terms of ratings, was initially adamant about not rolling back its ad rates, based on the assumption that its status as the leading network among viewers 18-49 with $100,000-plus incomes would guarantee CPM increases. So while NBC watched, ABC and CBS, which both averaged a 4.1 rating in 18-49/$100K viewers this season, compared to NBC’s 4.4, made effective arguments to the various media agencies to shift upfront dollars away from NBC and into their coffers.

Both ABC and CBS pointed out that while NBC is still the leader in delivery of 18-49/$100K viewers, virtually all its shows declined, while most of the CBS shows are up, and ABC has four first-year shows among the leaders in the demo. According to media agencies and network executives, ABC took away about $400 million in ad business from NBC, CBS took another $150 million, while Fox and the WB together may have taken away another $50 million.

With NBC having to write business at negative CPMs, it appears that when its upfront sales are completed, the GE-owned network may take in as little as $2 billion, down more than 30 percent from last year’s $2.8 billion total. One buyer who bought NBC at a lower price this year said the network got off to such a late start because its executives were stunned that ABC and CBS came into the market with lower-than-expected prices. “They had to go back and rethink their model,” the buyer said, adding the execs were “accepting the reality” of lower prices by week’s end.

While ABC, CBS, Fox and the WB had completed their upfront selling last week, and UPN close to being wrapped, NBC was said by sources familiar with its dealings to be only about 50 percent done. NBC didn’t write its first upfront business until June 1, five days after ABC was essentially wrapped. Sources said NBC was writing it prime-time upfront business at negative 3 percent CPM decreases. NBC officials would not comment.

The other problem NBC faces is the dwindling supply of remaining broadcast network dollars in the marketplace, and how much inventory it can sell, even if it wants to. Some media agencies projected that NBC might only be able to sell 65 percent of its available prime-time ad time, leaving it with far more scatter inventory than its rival nets. “NBC is the last one standing, and they are not giving up the store so easily,” said one media agency executive, “but they’re still going to take a big financial hit.” Added another buyer: “A lot of people are bringing a lot less volume to NBC, and it has to deal with that.”

ABC was the last network to finalize business last year, but cut a lot of late deals at higher-than-expected CPMs because the network was, and still is, priced so much lower than NBC (about 15 percent), one media buyer said. “It was easy for buyers to spend on ABC [last year] because it lowered their cumulative CPM percentage,” the buyer said. “The more NBC you buy now, the more it will increase your overall CPM percentage.”

Yet another buyer said NBC could still salvage a chunk of dollar volume by writing deals at negatives. “The lower NBC is willing to go on its rates, the more advertising it will sell.”

CBS had nearly completed its upfront selling by June 2, just as NBC was beginning. Mediaweek initially learned from Viacom insiders that CBS had sold about $2.3 million in prime-time inventory at 4-5 percent CPM increases, but CBS sales president JoAnn Ross later announced that CBS’ take came in between $2.5 billion and $2.6 billion. Ross used a higher CPM increase (up 6 percent over ’04-’05 rates) and vowed she had sold 85 percent of available inventory in the upfront, on the highest end of all networks. Several media buyers took issue with the $2.6 billion total, based on the amount of business they had done with the network.

Fox wrapped its prime-time upfront, taking in $1.55 billion, based on CPM increases of 3 percent. That total included post-season Major League Baseball telecasts in prime time in October (not including the World Series) sold as part of entertainment packages, rather than as sports inventory.

The WB also completed its upfront sales, taking in $675 million, essentially flat with last year, at CPM increases averaging 3 percent. Despite having ratings declines this season like NBC, the WB was able to average CPM gains primarily because it reaches a more targeted group of younger viewers. Buyers also spent more money on the WB’s Thursday lineup because the network moved two of its higher rated dramas, Smallville and Everwood, to the night, making it more attractive for movie and retail advertisers, which are willing to pay premium rates.

In total, the WB brought in about 15 new advertisers, particularly in the auto, wireless, credit card and technology categories.

Other than NBC, UPN was still doing some business at 3 percent to 5 percent increases, according to buyers, but wasn’t prepared to discuss details last Friday.

CBS to Seek Cash for Retrans
“We’re tired of not getting paid, or not getting paid properly, for the CBS programming...”HELLO!!! McFLY!!!

No commercial network should be allowed to charge for re-transmission. Since you are commercial, you benefit by being viewed by more people, which increases ad revenue. Hence, YOU GET PAID.

You get no sympathy from me.

Xesdeeni

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

Good luck, CBS. You're gonna need it. :rolleyes:

Moonves: CBS to Seek Cash for Retrans
By Mike Farrell Multichannel.com

Moonves acknowledged that cash for retrans is a controversial issue with MSOs, but he said it will happen nonetheless.

I wonder what would happen if MSO's collectivelly grew a pair and staged a "lockout." Would CBS (et al) fall back on "must carry," start filing lawsuits or put their money where their mouth is and wait for the cable companies to "collapse from lack of the all important local broadcasts?"

Probably won't happen but it would be interesting to see (as long as you're not an effected employee. ;) )

The problem is that almost half the prime time viewing is of network programming.

It would be pretty difficult to get away with not providing that.

And if the MSOs did try it, I am sure the networks would have some way to get it to customers who wanted it.

HELLO!!! McFLY!!!

No commercial network should be allowed to charge for re-transmission. Since you are commercial, you benefit by being viewed by more people, which increases ad revenue. Hence, YOU GET PAID.

You get no sympathy from me.

Xesdeeni
The last time I checked, WGN, ESPN, TNT, Fox News, etc. are all commercial -- and they all charge for retransmission.

What's more, you could argue that "being viewed by more people" also makes networks like CBS worth even more to the cable companies than the above cable networks.

The last time I checked, WGN, ESPN, TNT, Fox News, etc. are all commercial -- and they all charge for retransmission.Yup, and none of them should be allowed to charge the carriers. Just like CBS, they get extra $$$ by getting more viewers.What's more, you could argue that "being viewed by more people" also makes networks like CBS worth even more to the cable companies than the above cable networks.Perhaps. But that pays the channel anyway, because it encourages the carriers to be sure to carry that channel, hence more viewers. And if a channel is that valuable to viewers, the advertisers will pay more as well. But this crap of getting to milk advertisers and then carriers (of course, it's not carriers, but we customers who pay) is ridiculous.

Besides, the reverse opens up the other can of worms: when a channel isn't worth as much as another one, the carrier charges the channel to be carried. Now, I think that one is a bit less clear. There are channels that would never get off the ground if they didn't get carried, and by definition, a new channel has no viewers. Plus, the carrier is actually losing something of worth by carrying the channel, namely bandwidth. But that's a different story.

Xesdeeni

Summer dances in with some kinder reality shows

By MELANIE MCFARLAND SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER Television Critic Tuesday, June 7, 2005

Few of those doing television divination would have considered ABC's "Dancing With the Stars" (9 p.m. Wednesdays on KOMO/4) to be a slam dunk. We haven't shown many signs of falling head over heels with ballroom dancing. As for the "stars" referred to in the title, let's just say we wouldn't try toasting marshmallows on the heat of John O'Hurley, Joey McIntyre or Rachel Hunter's careers.

That thinking simply proves that you can't judge a hoofer by the names on his dance card. More than 13 million viewers tuned in last Wednesday to watch marginal stars waltz or cha cha cha with ballroom champions. That makes "Dancing" the biggest summer television bow since "Survivor" made Richard Hatch the poster child for Summer 2K.

"Dancing's" victory owes much to what it liberally borrowed from Fox's "American Idol": Like "Idol," the show airs live on the East Coast and viewers vote for their favorite performers, giving the public power over the outcome. But many shows have tried to steal "Idol's" magic and failed. (CBS, which attempted to fight back by resurrecting "Star Search," plans to give it another go with Mark Burnett's "Rock Star: INXS," a show that clones the "Idol" format with the addition of a weekly relationship episode on Mondays.)

But it makes us wonder if, five summers after "Survivor" first celebrated backstabbing on national television, summer reality has spun full circle. Not quite.

Mean thrills still win the day in some quarters. Last Monday Fox scored with "Hell's Kitchen" (9 p.m. KCPQ/13) starring Gordon Ramsay, a five-star chef with anger-management issues.

Tonight, CBS premieres "Fire Me ... Please" (9 p.m. KIRO/7), best described as a severely malfunctioning "Candid Camera."

Summertime viewing is slim, with reruns and burn-offs, and filled with lazy filler, and networks rarely can tell what may win us over.

Still, "Dancing's" success is an indication that summer reality has gotten a bit kinder and maybe as retro as five-and-dime milkshakes. It, and NBC's Thursday night special "Hit Me Baby One More Time" (9 p.m. KING/5), an Americanized Brit-pop competition pitting one-hit wonders against one another, cater to our perennial weakness for nostalgia around June and July.

Elucidating the magic behind NBC's "Hit Me Baby's" success in the 18-49 age demographic doesn't take much. We love those songs enough to sing them in smoky bars after a few tumblers of liquid courage. And VH1 has shown us that you don't have to wait four or five decades to get audiences to look back with misty eyes.

"Dancing" lends support to the theory that we're swooning back to a 1950s, "Lawrence Welk Show" mind-set, although we probably have faint, happy memories of "Dance Fever" and "Battle of the Network Stars" twirling in our heads. (Why else would we tune in to watch Evander Holyfield dip and slide?)

A more obvious take is that the network's success with "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" hit on a hunger for feel-good appeal as opposed to "Fear Factor's" rubbernecking shock. Between "Dancing" and the network's philanthropically themed "The Scholar," which airs 8 p.m. Mondays, ABC looks like it's taking on a winning summertime personality.

CBS's "Fire Me" could hold its own, though. An American version of a U.K. competition ("Sack Race") challenges two people to begin new jobs with the goal of seeing who can be fired closest to 3 p.m. The winner gets $25,000, but every worker who had to suffer through a day with that person clearly loses.

You could say "Fire Me" qualifies as feel-good TV, because the contestants aren't stingy with the comedy. Contestants cannot break the law, ask to be fired or reveal that they're on television, but one riles up the co-workers so much that the police are called. And, as it turns out, getting fired on your first and only day of work takes skill. The key to winning is time-released obnoxiousness, capitalizing on one's ability to drive other people up the wall, but not before 2 p.m.

"The Scholar," in contrast, gives 10 top academically ranked kids without the financial means to attend college a shot at a full-ride scholarship, with boatloads of cash for those smart enough to take a runner-up spot (courtesy of Wal-Mart, but that's another story). In last night's premiere, a quiet, cheerful lass won over a smarmy WASP who was too arrogant to memorize the author of "Gone With the Wind."

By mixing aspects of "The Real World" with "Jeopardy!" "The Scholar" could end up being a bit more magnetic than NBC's glorified karaoke fest, which this week pits Vanilla "Rob Van Winkle" Ice performing "Ice Ice Baby" against Tommy Tutone doing "867-5309/Jenny," among others.

Knowledge is power, while "Hit Me" shows us bands that provided the soundtracks of our youth sound a lot raspier in person, and in Mr. Ice's case, perhaps deranged and embittered.

Foolishness like this and the arrival in a matter of weeks of processed-cheese food such as another "Average Joe" and "I Want To Be A Hilton" means we cannot say that reality has, at last, evolved.

For now, be content with a little song, a little dance, and a reality as pleasant as fuzz on a peach.

"And if the MSOs did try it, I am sure the networks would have some way to get it to customers who wanted it. "

I'm so sure your right, I'll up you one, you (and everyone) could get it on D* should this happen....... ROFLOL...... ;-) You got's to love this.

Many stations in retrans disputes have used satellite as a bargaining chip with cable companies in the past.

The fact is, mikey p, it seems to me the old way network TV programs have been distributed (since the first radio networks 75+ years ago) is really antiquated.

The only reason we can't buy whatever network O&O property we want is local stations.

I used to be firmly against relaxing the ownership rules, but now I believe Disney, NewsCorp, GE, and Disney should be able to buy every station in the country if they like. Let's face there are very few remaining which are truly locally owned and operated.

Once they have them, we'll be able to get network content a lot more easily -- like many of us in O&O markets now do with DirecTV, or Dish owners do with CBS.

I'm afraid that's not going to happen, fredfa.

For every AVS poster who would love the idea of every station being O&O so they could get HD feeds from the coasts, there are thousands -- perhaps millions -- of other Americans who are scared to death of Big Media as it is.

There will be ways to get those signals.
(There's a guy in NY who regularly watches programs from Moscow via his apartment there (and it's cable connection) and an internet connection. I posted a NY Times story about him some months ago.)
There is no way to keep this local-station-only genie in a bottle for too much longer. The networks are looking hungrily at the cable model -- where providers get advertising revenue and cash from MSOs and satellite companies for carriage.
And while I agree with you that the public distrusts Big Media, it doesn't have that much choice.
The chances are its local TV stations, even in the smaller markets, are owned and operated by a company which is base out of town. (Just like the radio stations which used to have so much local content back in the days before Clear Channel, Infinity and the rest of the giants bought them all up.)

Maybe the threat of MSOs dropping the nets will light a fire under the nets to complete the digital transition?!

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

The fact is, mikey p, it seems to me the old way network TV programs have been distributed (since the first radio networks 75+ years ago) is really antiquated. ....

I used to be firmly against relaxing the ownership rules, but now I believe Disney, NewsCorp, GE, and Disney should be able to buy every station in the country if they like. Let's face there are very few remaining which are truly locally owned and operated.

I agree with the first statement above, but I'd rather see the current "affiliation" system thrown out and have networks become true national feeds. This would allow broadcast TV to move back toward being a truely local (and possibly locally owned) service. ;) Of course, there could be some shrinkage involved :D

Heck, I might finally be able to actually watch CBS programming instead some SEC basketball game that I don't care about. :D :D

CBS --> Charge a fair price, keep your customers happy vis a vis advertising.

NBC --> Take an increasingly lousy product and try to overcharge for it.

Moonves up, Zucker down. Again.

Weekly Ratings Notes

ABC puts on its dancing shoes
By Gary Levin USA TODAY

•Singing and dancing. Two reality series had promising starts: ABC's Dancing with the Stars opened Wednesday with 13.5 million viewers, the biggest turnout for an unscripted summer debut since Survivor surfaced in 2000. And NBC's Hit Me Baby One More Time on Thursday was the week's top program among young adults, although it ranked just 17th in total viewers with a relatively modest 8.9 million.

•Out of the frying pan. Fox's Hell's Kitchen started the summer-series parade Monday but managed only 6.8 million viewers.

•Tony is teeny. CBS' Tony Awards Sunday essentially matched last year's record low, when 6.5 million viewers tuned in to see Broadway's best honored.

•Comeback it's not. HBO's second-season Entourage premiere averaged 1.6 million viewers Sunday, shy of the 1.9 million for the series opener last July. Lisa Kudrow's new series The Comeback managed a similarly low 1.5 million.

•The missing return again. USA's The 4400, which set basic-cable records with last summer's debut, also fell short in Season 2. Sunday's premiere had a healthy 5.3 million viewers but couldn't match the eye-popping (for cable) 7.4 million who tuned in last July.

•Universe shrinks. NBC's Miss Universe beauty pageant drew 9.2 million viewers Monday, its lowest turnout since the special aired on low-rated Friday in 2001.

•Ratings mystery. CBS' 48 Hours Mystery had its first top-10 finish since June 2003, against weak competition, with a Tuesday special that drew 10.7 million.

•Three-way repeat.CSI: NY won the first round in a close three-way battle against Law & Order and new time-slot entry Lost.

•Take it to the limit. The Eagles Farewell Tour on NBC Wednesday lured 8.4 million California-rock fans, a surprisingly decent showing for typically low-rated concert specials. Older boomers represented the largest audience segment.

•Greatest? Matt Lauer unveiled Discovery's candidates for the 25 Greatest Americans Sunday (ranging from Abe Lincoln to Oprah). Only 949,000 watched.

I agree with the first statement above, but I'd rather see the current "affiliation" system thrown out and have networks become true national feeds. This would allow broadcast TV to move back toward being a truely local (and possibly locally owned) service. ;) Of course, there could be some shrinkage involved :D

Heck, I might finally be able to actually watch CBS programming instead some SEC basketball game that I don't care about. :D :D

Then we will have what Canada has. About 10 channels nationally OTA and cable and lots of foreign channels on cable. If you are not a fan of the networks owning all of the stations, that is EXACTLY the model you will have just more of them. Imagine a Sinclair that programmings EVERY station they own with EXACTLY the same thing at EXACTLY the same time. The only difference in programming occurs when each station breaks away from the net to do local news. I don't think the American TV appetite would be satisfied with that paultry number of stations and the limited choices. We have grown too use to the "500 Channel Universe." It works in Canada, but then most of their programming comes from the USA in the form of "Canadized" channels or the Canadian networks outright buying the USA programming and running it on their channels with HEAVY government regulation.

Based on that, you might want to rethink that approach.

Based on that, you might want to rethink that approach.

Nope don't think I want to re-think. I could care less about "local" TV (other than news and weather,) my goal is to free (primetime) network programming from the arbitrary whims of the "local" affiliate.

Oh well, we digress from the intent of this thread - I'm stopin' now. :)

PS: In the "Clear Channel" age, you didn't have to go to Canada for your counterpoint . ;)

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

(From Marc Berman’s Programming Insider column of Wednesday June 8, 2005 at Mediaweek.com)
Remembering Anne Bancroft

Academy Award winning actress Anne Bancroft, who was also honored with two Emmys, two Tonys and two Golden Globe Awards in a career that spanned over 50 years, passed away Monday of uterine cancer at New York’s Mount Sinai Hospital. She was 73.

Remembered as seductress Mrs. Robinson in 1967 theatrical The Graduate, Bancroft achieved even greater fame five years earlier in her Academy Award winning performance as Annie Sullivan in The Miracle Worker. She was also nominated for a Best Actress Oscar for The Pumpkin Eater, The Turning Point, Agnes of God and, of course, The Graduate. Recent roles on television included her Emmy nominated turn in 2003 made-for The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone, and as herself in an episode of HBO’s Curb Your Enthusiasm. She had also begun filming the role of the grandmother in recent James L. Brooks theatrical Spanglish before being replaced by Cloris Leachman.

Bancroft, who married comedian and producer Mel Brooks in 1964, made her theatrical debut in 1952 in Don’t Bother to Knock.

NBC, Touchstone Chiefs: All 6 Nets Won't Survive

By Ben Grossman Broadcasting & Cable

NBC Universal Entertainment President Kevin Reilly and Touchstone Television President and ABC Entertainment EVP Mark Pedowitz predict that there will be fewer than the current six broadcast networks on the air five years from now.

Those comments came during a a joint Hollywood Radio & Television Society and Academy of Television Arts & Sciences panel discussion in L.A. about the role of the cell phone as a content delivery channel, specifically whether Americans will watch television and video on a handheld-size screen.

On an equally ominous note, five of the six panelists predicted that the total dollar figure for next year’s network upfronts will be flat or down from this year - with only NBC U’s Reilly abstaining from the question. Most of the responses were in the down 1-2% range, while The Firm Chairman and former Disney Television President Rich Frank ventured it could drop 10%.

A high-ranking SBC Communications executive on the panel, acknowledged having numerous discussions about "more strategic relationships" with content providers, though he declined to say whether the telco would consider acquiring a television network.

Dan York, executive VP of programming for SBC, said when asked the question, "I'm not going to answer that straight out." Citing the "competitive landscape," he said, "It obviously makes sense to be a little more vertical and not just be a downstream provider."

Half-jokingly renamed “The Coming Television Apocalypse” by moderator film and TV producer Gavin Polone, the panel of industry executives debated the state of the television industry. Polone took the position that increasing penetration of DVRs is going to lead to a “painful” restructuring of the TV business. Even so, the panelists predictably were ready to refute the end of the model as we know it.

“Frankly, network television is here to stay,” said Magna Global Worldwide Chairman and CEO Bill Cella. “But the reality is that more and more of our clients’ dollars are being spread out and that’s not a good thing for the networks.”

While the viability of the 30-second spot was a constant topic of conversation, Rich Frank said that DVRs will lead to new innovations in advertising.

Reilly said networks, including his own, are not doing enough in the product integration realm. “I think we all should be doing a little more experimentation in that area,” he said. “It becomes creatively a little challenging in the scripted arena. Somehow we have crafted the unscripted side to communicate the product a little better. Producers are able to do the dance better, but we’re not doing enough of it.”

Polone also questioned whether Touchstone producing shows for a competing network devalues ABC. ABC’s Pedowitz: “It’s a good thing to have content that flows through many distribution channels…I don’t know if it devalues ABC, it may not…It allows us as a studio to attract better talent, which may help ABC at a later point.”

After the event, NBC U's Reilly told B&C that while the event was entertaining, “It’s not just a black and white issue and we just scratched the surface. But Gavin did a good job getting all of us to react to some very real and topical issues.”

Disney’s Iger: Digital is 'most important'

By Paul Bond and Kathleen Anderson The Hollywood Reporter June 08, 2005

Robert Iger, who becomes CEO of the Walt Disney Co. on Oct. 1, amid telling analysts Tuesday that he has begun renogotiations with Pixar Animation Studios, said that shepherding a further embrace of digital technologies is one of the "most important things I need to do" for the company.

Speaking to Wall Street analysts at the Deutsche Bank Securities Media Telecom Conference, Iger said he will "not allow management of traditional businesses get in the way of very, very important migration to new-media platforms."

He specifically mentioned video-on-demand and beefing up the rich-media offerings at Disney's various Internet sites, including full-motion video and ABC.com and ESPN.com, and making the content easily portable.

"The competition will get the best of us if we don't move in that direction," he said.

He spoke of possible initiatives like a "Desperate Housewives Plus," whereby consumers would buy an episode a day after it airs, though the purchased episode would include omitted scenes and "a few more bells and whistles."

He said that he's having "good talks" with Comcast and Time Warner Cable that will put some of his new-media ideas in the marketplace next year.

(Paul Bond reported from Los Angeles; Kathleen Anderson reported from New York.)

CNN overdid Jackson trial coverage, its president says

By Gail Shister Philadelphia Inquirer Columnist

CNN has given too much play to Michael Jackson's 31/2-month child-molestation trial, says its president.

"If I had one decision to take back, it would be the extent of our coverage," says CNN/U.S. chief Jon Klein, six months on the job. "Looking back, we should have just covered the beginning and the end."

The jury was in its third day of deliberations yesterday in Santa Maria, Calif. CNN, like virtually every media outlet in the known world, has covered the case daily since jury selection began Jan. 31.

"We committed to a reporter and crew there every single day," Klein says. "I have not found it to be a very satisfying meal. CNN ought to do stories nobody else has. We did what everybody else did. It was the safe thing to do."

In terms of news value, the case "wasn't even close to being the biggest priority," Klein says. In the future, "we will be a lot more careful about committing to ongoing coverage."

That said, the Jackson verdict "is a big story on its own merits," Klein acknowledges. "We're prepared to do as much as we need to to convey the story."

NBC, Touchstone Chiefs: All 6 Nets Won't Survive

By Ben Grossman Broadcasting & Cable

NBC Universal Entertainment President Kevin Reilly and Touchstone Television President and ABC Entertainment EVP Mark Pedowitz predict that there will be fewer than the current six broadcast networks on the air five years from now.

Didn't we hear that 10 years ago when there was only 4 networks and looked like ABC would be the odd man out?

FOX Did really well as a smaller network last season.

Is there ever a chance fox could expand soon like ABC/CBS/NBC?

Have primetime programming until 11PM

They already have a well ranked news department, so they could easly do an evening and morning news show on the network. The only thing that would have to pair is some daytime and latenight programming

Does anyone know when the dance show from the produces of Idol premiers?

bgall: In two words -- no chance.

Fox makes more money (literally) from its O&O 10 o'clock news and the syndicated shows that it runs against the Big 3 O&O local news than it does from its entire network.

Aside from that, it would require another 7 hours of programming a week, and that is very expensive -- and whatever Fox did, the "American Idol" (and now "House") average ratings would be diluted.

slocko:

(This information is in the Latest News section, under "Some Summer News")

Fox: So You Think You Can Dance is American Idol for dancers, or those who think they're dancers - premieres July 20

Sorry! Thanks for the info.

No problem slocko, it is always a pleasure to help out.

Though I personally have very little interest in summer network programming, I was just pointing out where a lot of info on summer shows is kept and updated.

Bob Costas Joins CNN as Substitute Host of 'Larry King Live'

By Michele Greppi TVWeek.com

CNN announced Wednesday that longtime NBC Sports commentator Bob Costas is joining the CNN roster as a substitute host on "Larry King Live." Since 2001 Mr. Costas has hosted "On the Record With Bob Costas" for HBO, a corporate stablemate of CNN.