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fredfa

06-09-05, 11:14 PM

Olbermann uses gimmicks that work

By MIKE M C DANIEL Houston Chronicle
When you're No. 3 in cable news, you have to try much harder. You have to set yourself apart. You have to do something original.

May I direct you to Countdown With Keith Olbermann, an hour-long MSNBC show that rivals Jon Stewart's Daily Show in entertainment value while also serving up smart takes on the news of the day. Heck, some days it even makes news.

Each edition of the weeknight show uses gimmicks, but they are gimmicks that work, from its central "countdown" theme to "Keeping Tabs," tracking celebrity news, to a hilarious daily segment called "Oddball," a video News of the Weird.

The show is helmed and largely written by a guy once famous for being an ESPN SportsCenter anchor, which might give the unfamiliar some pause. It shouldn't. Countdown is as smart as anything on TV, including its time-slot rival, Fox News' O'Reilly Report, and Olbermann's the reason.

There's no reason to expect he will ever approach the reach of O'Reilly, which has nine times Countdown's audience, but Olbermann can take solace knowing his is the most popular show on MSNBC. On occasion it beats CNN's Paula Zahn Now among the target news audience, viewers 25-54.

Ratings are important in the television business, but they're not Olbermann's overwhelming concern.

"It's always been much more useful to me to consider my audience as one person, a person who is not necessarily turning to me for brand new information but is looking for some sort of amplification or context," he said. "We do very well among 25-54 viewers — 40, 50, sometimes 60 percent in that demo. And the late-night show (Countdown is repeated at 11) has had 100 percent in that group. It means the bosses are sanguine and we have succeeded in holding back the tide somewhat and gotten young people to watch television news."
He writes the way he talks: crisp, clear, with a hint of clever — a hint that turns broad and obvious when the moment calls for it.

Each show begins with the same question: "Which of these stories will you be talking about tomorrow?"

Olbermann then outlines five candidates, introducing them so toothsomely that you're tempted to stick around.
A month ago, for example, he headlined some of the choices this way: "They don't make terrorists like they used to," about two punchless grenades going off in New York; "Is it a good day to be Tom Delay?" and "The big American Idol exposé: Not exactly the fixing of the 1919 World Series, was it?"

But the show is more than five topics. It is like a newscast in that the anchor introduces tangents to the main story. He can also then go hunting for news himself. For example, when the identity of Deep Throat was revealed last Tuesday, Olbermann had Watergate figure John Dean as guest. Dean was dubious that Deep Throat could be one man, and recent revelations suggest he may be right.

The best thing about Countdown is that it's tightly paced, but in an unrushed way. The hour is broken up by Oddball. ("Ladies and gentlemen," the anchor says as introduction, "let's play Oddball.") It is one of the few parts of the show Olbermann doesn't write himself. Instead, he relies on longtime co-worker Denis Horgan to find the video and write the copy.

Olbermann gets his comedic revenge with a segment called Top 3 Newsmakers. That one can be all-Olbermann because it relies only on copy, no video. On Tuesday's show, the top newsmaker was Thomas Stefanelli, a pizza delivery guy who made four deliveries after being shot in the leg. "If he hadn't gotten the pizzas there, he would have been in real trouble," Olbermann remarked.

There's also a popular segment called Michael Jackson Puppet Theatre, a takeoff of E! channel's Jackson trial re-creations, only much, much cheaper to produce. It makes use of ice cream sticks and magazine cutouts of the principle characters. (The pieces were recently auctioned for charity on eBay, where they went for $15,099.99. )

Asked about the show's mix of soberness and humor, Olbermann says, "Life is not one tone. You do not get up and your entire day is political or crime news. Even in a deadly serious night, we make sure we do the Oddball segment. It's a reflection of reality, and it's a break if you're sitting there trying to watch an hour-long newscast."

Is he liberal or conservative?

"A lot of my personal world view is unmistakably sympathetic to things in a liberal play book," he said, "but honest to God, I have been called a reactionary by some on the far left, a liberal by some on the far right and I'm insulted by both terms. My point of view is about delivering information and context. It has nothing to do with a political point of view."

And he's not afraid to give it, when necessary.

"Only if it serves to illuminate would I do it. I don't look for opportunities to be critical of a particular party. I look for opportunities to be critical."

fredfa

06-10-05, 12:28 AM

Panel Would Cut Public Broadcasting Aid

By STEPHEN LABATON The New York Times June 10, 2005

WASHINGTON, June 9 - A House Appropriations panel on Thursday approved a spending bill that would cut the budget for public television and radio nearly in half and eliminate a $23 million federal program that has provided some money for producing children's shows that include "Sesame Street," "Clifford the Big Red Dog," "Between the Lions" and "Dragon Tales."

By a voice vote, the House Appropriations subcommittee adopted a measure that would reduce the financing of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the organization that directs taxpayer dollars to public television and radio, to $300 million from $400 million. The subcommittee also eliminated $39 million that stations say they need to convert to digital programming and $50 million for upgrading aging satellite technology that is the backbone of the PBS network.

The cuts in financing went significantly beyond those requested by the White House and are likely to be approved next week by the full Appropriations Committee and then by the House. Lobbyists for public television and radio say they hope to have the money restored in the version of the bill prepared by the Senate, where they have support from several senior Republican members. The final legislation will be the product of negotiations between the House and Senate.

rcman2

06-10-05, 04:39 AM

In reply to the article on CPB possible funding cuts, may I ask if I have missed something?

In an age of where the PTC has flooded the FCC with complaints about offensive (sex, language, violence) content of shows and with that same FCC wanting to crack down on this content, how in the world can the house vote against CPB at any time?

I mean we spend billions on war but we prefer to cut instead of increase funds toward the keeping and possibly increasing of shows that the FCC wants more of.

I read the whole article so I know that not all the money goes toward what I am ranting about. This part just stood out and put the fire in my eyes.

:(

fredfa

06-10-05, 10:22 AM

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

HDTVChallenged

06-10-05, 11:21 AM

In an age of where the PTC has flooded the FCC with complaints about offensive (sex, language, violence) content of shows and with that same FCC wanting to crack down on this content, how in the world can the house vote against CPB at any time?

Humm .... could it be because the CPB and the NEA are considered by many (hint the majority in congress) to be (insert derisive terms of choice) here. Not to mention they detract from (insert term of choice) based "educational" programs.

I would agree that there is a "war" on, but, forum rules prevent us from talking about it. So I'll stop now.

fredfa

06-10-05, 12:05 PM

I agree, HDTV Challenged, and I only posted the first few paragraphs of the story -- the rest contained the normal comments you would expect (and we have heard endlessly) from both sides.

But since PBS does do some of the nicest HD programing (albeit repeated endlessly) I thought the story of its looming funds crisis was worth posting here.

I also agree about not getting into a political discussion here -- whichever side we may agree with.

fredfa

06-10-05, 12:10 PM

An Old West Saga, Told From Both Sides

By ALESSANDRA STANLEY The New York Times

The first Indian massacre on "Into the West" is committed by a herd of stampeding buffalo, not by vigilantes or the United States cavalry.

The first scalping of a frontiersman is the work of a grizzly bear, not of an Indian brave on the warpath. Nature is the most fearsome enemy - and coveted prize - in TNT's six-part miniseries about Western expansion, which begins tonight. And that is not a bad canvas for an epic that seeks to sidestep cowboy-and-Indian clichés and deliver a richer portrait of Manifest Destiny. The taming of the wilderness is the nation's founding paradox; the pioneers' struggle forged the nation's character but their ethnic cleansing of American Indians indelibly stained it. "Into the West" tries to weave that dissonance into an otherwise fairly conventional multigenerational family saga.

The Western landscape is depicted in all its complexity on "Into the West." Characters, and there are scores of them, are more one-dimensional. The mini-series is a sprawling, rollicking tale that spans 1825 to 1891, including wagon trains, the gold rush, the Transcontinental railroad and the Battle of Wounded Knee. And along the way, the film's protagonists encounter every possible adversity: amputation, smallpox, cholera, massacre, rape, murder, alcoholism and Indian reservations.

There are some stunning visual effects, none more arresting than an early scene in which Lakota hunters trick a herd of buffalo into tumbling off a cliff. But "Into the West" falls short of both "Deadwood" on HBO and CBS's legendary 1989 mini-series "Lonesome Dove." The TNT western works so hard at compressing history into a family melodrama that it forgets to fill out the family members.

There are lots of cameos, but no characters anywhere near as compelling as Ian McShane's Al Swearengen on "Deadwood" or Robert Duvall's Gus McCrae in "Lonesome Dove." TNT forgot to heed the warning of one of the series's protagonists, Jedediah Smith (Josh Brolin): "The West is a place on the map; it's not a way to be."

The mini-series is not dead, but it is a risky enterprise in the age of shrunken attention spans and boundless television choices. ABC chose the sleepy summer season to broadcast its six-part series "Empire," set in Julius Caesar's Rome and beginning later this month, and its episodes are only one hour long. (HBO's 12-part take on antiquity, "Rome," begins in the fall.)

The two-hour episodes of "Into The West," to be shown over six consecutive weekends, make up perhaps the most ambitious mini-series in the TNT repertory of successful westerns. Steven Spielberg is the executive producer, and each episode has different guest stars and a different director, from Simon Wincer, who directed "Lonesome Dove," to Timothy Van Patten, whose credits include "The Sopranos" and "The Wire."

The story was created by one author, William Mastrosimone ("Sinatra"), but three other writers worked on three of the scripts. The mini-series has so many credits that it is a bit reminiscent of "Naked Came the Stranger," a soft-core 1969 novel famous for having a different author for each chapter.

Every episode of "Into The West" tries to keep a fair balance between the Indians and the white settlers. The series begins with Loved by the Buffalo (Simon R. Baker), a young hunter with a gift for prophecy, and his siblings in a Lakota village in 1825, a time when tribes still hunted buffalo across prairies unmolested by pioneers or ranchers.

Their story is told in juxtaposition with that of Jacob Wheeler (Matthew Settle), the dreamy son in a large family of a Virginia wheelwright. When a rough-looking mountain man, James Fletcher (Will Patton), arrives at the family workshop, talking of peril and high adventure out West. (He wears an Indian scalp on his belt as a trophy.) Jacob is beguiled and runs away to seek his fortune. From then on, the fate of Jacob and his clan unfold on a parallel track with the Lakota dynasty.

The parity is more conscientious than creative: Indian brothers fall out over how to resist the white invaders; frontier brothers fall out over how to resist gold-rush greed. Jacob rescues a young Lakota, Thunder Heart Woman (Tonantzin Carmelo), from sexual slavery; his cousin Naomi (Keri Russell) is rescued from sexual slavery by Prairie Fire (Jay Tavare), a handsome Lakota tribesman.

Throughout, there is a studied effort to flip television western clichés: The first alcoholic beverage served is not a jug of "firewater" whiskey, but an Indian drink that a tribe in the Montana Territory offers a gang of quickly intoxicated pelt traders. (Later, of course, the treacherous hospitality is reversed: white traders pay Lakota hunters in whiskey, not guns.)

"Into The West," is deeply respectful of the Indian experience - the characters speak in indigenous languages, which are translated in subtitles - but the tribute to the Lakota turns out to be mostly stifling. Most of the tribal conversation consists of dire predictions of doom at the hands of the white invaders; the individual personalities remain as noble and static as the chief in the 1971 anti-pollution ad featuring the "crying Indian."

The meatier drama revolves around Jacob and his family, and even he is not a richly-imagined protagonist - he has hair-raising adventures, but his personality (decent, adventurous) stays fixed.

"Into the West" has all the elements of a good western, without the deeper texture that would make it great.

fredfa

06-10-05, 12:13 PM

Gotta dance, gotta watch

The Chicago Tribune June 10, 2005

Marking the largest summer launch ever, "Dancing With the Stars" premiered last week with impressive ratings--13.5 million viewers--and that swelled to 14.9 million viewers Wednesday night, making it the top-rated show in all of prime time that night, according to Nielsen Media Research.

The variety-style talent competition pairs celebrities such as boxer Evander Holyfield and actor John O'Hurley with professional ballroom dancers who prepare the stars to battle it out on the dance floor. It was the top show of the night across all demographic categories, including the advertiser-coveted 18- to 49-year-olds. Of the total audience, 6.1 million were in that category, 74 percent of whom were women.

"The celebrities are all having a wonderful time," executive producer Conrad Green said. "They're not being picked on. They're not eating bugs. You don't feel sullied after watching it. You feel like you've got a smile on your face.

tall1

06-10-05, 12:38 PM

dline

06-10-05, 12:57 PM

tall1

06-10-05, 01:04 PM

Wow. Just the other day I saw one of those "quality" cable news channels spend two hours straight on an L.A. high-speed chase, which quite frankly means absolutely nothing to most of the country.

Forget Nightline being "irrelevent"; that word better describes what's on cable all too often.

I'll take Tucker Carlson Unfiltered or Now over that any day.

(BTW, Bill Moyers has retired from public broadcasting. David Bronchaccio is doing Now these days.)Sorry, poor sentence structure. I meant there is quality family TV on cable IMO but I made no such claim for the cable news channels (although I did refer to it as "junk"). I know about Bill Moyers, hard to miss his embarrasing departure.

Xesdeeni

06-10-05, 02:07 PM

I wish they cut all the federal funding for PT. This dubious experiment has run it's course. If I want to see quality family TV or political programming there are dozens of channels funded privately that I can tune in through cable/satellite/OTA. Sorry, but paying tax dollars to watch Tucker Carlson, Bill Moyers, Barney and Big Bird makes no sense when you can watch that same junk on Fox News, CNN and Nickelodeon. I say let the members and private corporations fund it 100% and if the programming has an audience it will survive.Spoken like someone without children.

I won't speak about the political shows, but the educational shows are not duplicated anywhere else. Sure, there are kids shows, but they are 1) not educational, and 2) chock full of commericals. The other shows are entertainment. And in most cases, their goal is to introduce characters for merchandising. Yes, there is merchandise for Barney and Sesame Street. But take a look at the difference between their educational content and the severe lack of such from SpongeBob toys. Also, do you know how difficult it is to explain to a four-year-old why they don't need every POS toy that shows up on screen with an excited kid hocking it!? That's all we need in our life, another reason for conflict in our home. Someone always ends up in tears...

I think rcman2 is spot on. While I agree with the war, I don't see why they can't drum up a piddly few million for PBS. My guess is because there isn't any pork barrel behind the scenes, since PBS doesn't actually make money for a big company.

Xesdeeni

keenan

06-10-05, 02:11 PM

Wow. Just the other day I saw one of those "quality" cable news channels spend two hours straight on an L.A. high-speed chase, which quite frankly means absolutely nothing to most of the country.

Not to mention, high-speed chases, statistically are more damaging to life and property than the original infraction would ever have been. And showing them on TV just encourages people.

Sorry Fred, high-speed chases are a pet peeve on mine.. :)

PJO1966

06-10-05, 02:25 PM

Speaking from personal experience... Sesame Street is heads and shoulders above other children's programming. When I was little, I didn't have access to pre-school. When I started Kindergarten I was able to read because I watched SS. There aren't any other children's programs out there that do was SS does.

tall1

06-10-05, 02:28 PM

Spoken like someone without children.

SNIP.. Also, do you know how difficult it is to explain to a four-year-old why they don't need every POS toy that shows up on screen with an excited kid hocking it!? That's all we need in our life, another reason for conflict in our home. Someone always ends up in tears...

Xesdeeni Yes I do, I have had that discussion three times with each of my children when they were 4 years old. My boys were bored so quickly with the children's programming on PBS. We told them they could only watch PBS after school. It somewhat worked, they preferred to do homework but when they finished, they usually went over to a friend's house and watched TV over there. PBS is a dinosaur...a relic from a simplier time before cable/satellite.

tall1

06-10-05, 03:45 PM

Sesame Street is heads and shoulders above other children's programming. Of course it is. I am certain even if they cut all federal funding which is 15% of the PBS budget, folks who are truly committed to Sesame Street will rally to the cause and it will remain on the air. I just can't get behind paying taxes for a bunch of political and social commentary programming along with HBO movie reruns.

fredfa

06-10-05, 04:06 PM

'NCIS': Kate Out, Aussie In?

By Kate O'Hare

(zap2it.com)--In the closing seconds of the second-season finale of CBS' Tuesday-night drama "NCIS," Special Agent Caitlin "Kate" Todd (Sasha Alexander) took a fatal bullet between the eyes from the sniper rifle of terrorist and double agent Ari (Rudolf Martin).

She fell dead before the eyes of her boss, Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs (Mark Harmon), and her frequent verbal sparring partner, Special Agent Tony DiNozzo (Michael Weatherly). This came moments after Kate had jumped in front of another bullet to save Gibbs and was hit squarely in the bulletproof vest.

Despite weeks of fan speculation after hearing that a core character from "NCIS" (short for Naval Criminal Investigative Service) was going to die, the actual identity of the to-be-deceased never leaked onto the Internet. According to series creator Don Bellisario, that's because no one at the studio or the network got to see that final bullet.

"We wrote the ending," he says, "that she was hit, and she went down, and she had the flak vest. That was the ending that went out, including to Paramount and CBS. We shot the actual ending with a page and swore everybody to secrecy, so the ending was never published. That was the only way to keep it off the Internet. "Then when the show was going on the air, we added the real ending. It was very shocking and stunning, and people couldn't believe it."

Along with shock and disbelief, Bellisario says the "NCIS" online fan community just boiled over.

"The Internet was just inundated with traffic," he says, "mostly screaming at me for being such an idiot for killing off a cast member on a show they loved, and who was important to the show and had the banter with Tony ... how could I do such a thing? It was really pretty violent towards me in particular. "Then as word got out that Sasha wanted to leave, then suddenly it was, 'Oh, that's OK, if she wanted to leave.'"

According to Bellisario, Alexander came to him just as he was preparing to write the finale and asked to be written out of the show. "She said the work was much harder and more intensive than she had ever thought it would be. She'd done seven series, but most of them were a few shows and out, a year and out. This was the first time she went over a year on a show, and she just didn't think she had the stamina to work this hard. Plus, she has a lot of family in Europe, and she likes to go to Europe a lot. She just wanted more freedom and more time and just the ability to do other things."

As one might expect, CBS didn't jump with joy at the news. "I had to do a little talking to get Sasha out of her contract," Bellisario says. "They were going, 'You got a show that's a hit, that's just climbing, it's starting to really move, why mess with it?' I said, 'You can't work an actor that tells you, "I can't do this. I don't want to do this."' So they finally went along with me."

Bellisario is currently casting for a replacement, which will be a character very different from Kate Todd.

"I'm looking for a foreign girl to replace her with," Bellisario says, "European or Australian. I'm basically looking for an agent to come in who works for Interpol or from Australia. She will be an agent who is also after Ari, and that's how she comes into the picture. Then she'll stay on them as an exchange agent. All agencies do that; all military does it. You always have people from your allies serving in your unit, and you send your people to visit theirs."

Bellisario would also like the new character's personality to be different from Kate's. "Sasha's character was basically well-educated, American, Roman Catholic-raised, kind of uptight sexually, and I want to go the other way. I want to go for a European or Australian girl who is very comfortable with her femininity and sexuality and can come at Tony from a totally different direction than Kate did."

Of course, this means that Bellisario must spend his days looking at beautiful actresses. "It's really tough," he says. "My wife looks at me a little bit askance when I come home every night."

Since this new agent is also chasing Ari, one can assume he'll be back. "Oh, yes," Bellisario says. "Ari will be back. Gibbs is not the type to let Ari even go to trial."

fredfa

06-10-05, 04:09 PM

Dana Elcar, 77; Veteran Actor
Lost His Sight But Kept His Focus on Performing
By Valerie J. Nelson Los Angeles Times Staff Writer June 10, 2005

Dana Elcar, whose struggle with glaucoma and blindness was written into the character he was best known for portraying — Peter Thornton on ABC's "MacGyver" — has died. He was 77.

Elcar died of complications from pneumonia Monday at Community Memorial Hospital in Ventura, his family announced.

Four seasons into playing a character on the adventure series that debuted in 1985, Elcar told producers he was going blind.

They told him, "The fact that you are losing your eyesight does not mean you have forgotten how to act," Elcar recounted in a 1991 speech to the National Federation of the Blind.

Elcar played the role of the think tank director on "MacGyver" until the series ended in 1992.

Richard Dean Anderson, who starred as MacGyver, recalled that there "were no bumpy roads with Dana."

"At a time when I had very little business being called an actor, he made things so easy for me," he told The Times on Thursday. "It was a learning experience that was very warm and loving for all seven years."

Elcar appeared in many off-Broadway plays, including the first American productions of Harold Pinter's "The Dumb Waiter" and "The Caretaker," Dylan Thomas' "Under Milk Wood" and Samuel Beckett's "Waiting for Godot."

He appeared in at least 40 films, including "The Sting" (1973), "2010" (1984), "All of Me" (1984) and "The Learning Tree" (1969).

" 'The Learning Tree' was a big turning point for him, and a good performance in his mind," said his son, Dane Elcar. "He played a really bad guy really well."

Elcar was a mainstay in television drama for 50 years, often playing good, solid guys you could count on. He starred in three other series, including as the problem-solving boss in the late 1970s Robert Blake series "Baretta" on ABC and the Robert Conrad series "Black Sheep Squadron" on NBC, and as Judge Hart in the 1978 miniseries "Centennial." He guest-starred on dozens of TV shows from 1959 through 2002.

Ibson Dana Elcar was born Oct. 10, 1927, to Danish immigrants who lived on a farm in Ferndale, Mich. His father was a butcher and his mother a nanny.

At 13, he unsuccessfully ran away from home, which he liked to say led to his becoming an actor.

When he and a friend tried to hop a train to Detroit, Elcar couldn't run fast enough and missed it. Stuck in a town far from home, he called his father and asked him to wire money so he could get back home. He had to spend the night in an all-night theater that was showing "Citizen Kane."

"That kind of sparked him to be an actor. He watched it four or five times in one night," said his son.

At age 18, Elcar joined the Navy and was stationed in Newfoundland.

While a student at the University of Michigan, he founded the Ann Arbor Theatre, but he "got kicked out" of school for appearing in off-campus professional productions, his son said.

Elcar moved to Los Angeles in 1968.

With actor friends, he founded the L.A. Actors' Theatre in the mid-1970s, which later became the Los Angeles Theatre Center and closed in 1991. He also founded the Santa Paula Theatre Center in 1987 after he moved to that town.

After he went blind from glaucoma, Elcar acted mainly on stage, including in one of his favorite plays, "Waiting for Godot," at the Santa Paula Theatre Center.

"You could barely tell he couldn't see," his son said. "I heard someone in the front row say, 'I thought he was blind.' "

Elcar married and divorced three times.

In addition to his son, he is survived by three daughters, Nora Elcar Verdon, Chandra Elcar and Marin Elcar; a stepdaughter, Emily Prager; a sister, Marie E. Hewitt; a half-sister, Janet K. Melville; longtime companion Thelma M. Garcia; and a granddaughter.

fredfa

06-10-05, 09:08 PM

David W. Tebet, 91
NBC Executive Recruited Johnny Carson for 'The Tonight Show'
By Myrna OliverLos Angeles Times Staff Writer

David W. Tebet, a television talent executive who recruited Johnny Carson for NBC's "The Tonight Show" and went on to become vice president of Carson's production company has died at 91.

Tebet died at the Coronado, Calif., home of his nephew, Dr. Ralph Greenspan, of complications from a stroke.

A former theater publicist in New York, Tebet in 1959 became NBC's vice president for talent — or as comedian George Burns liked to call him, "the vice president in charge of caring."

It was Tebet's job to spot and recruit stars for the network and to keep them happy so they would stay, building ratings and profits. He passed out perks, stroked egos and made problems go away.

Among the entertainers he lured to and kept at NBC were Michael Landon, James Garner and Dean Martin.

When Jack Paar was about to leave "The Tonight Show" in 1962, Tebet happened to be watching daytime television.

"On ABC, I saw a young man with a sidekick," he told CNN in 1992, "and I didn't even know the name of the show, and I watched it, and it turns out to be Johnny Carson."

Impressed, Tebet lobbied hard to bring Carson to NBC, where the subtle comedian made "The Tonight Show" his own for 30 years. Throughout that tenure, Tebet became one of Carson's closest confidants.

When Carson set up his Johnny Carson Productions and bought "The Tonight Show," Tebet resigned from NBC and became executive vice president of the new company.

An unabashed booster, Tebet told a United Press International newsman in 1987, after Carson had negotiated his extraordinary contract to be the host of "The Tonight Show" only three nights a week: "He's indispensable, I would say. Absolutely indispensable…. In those first years alone he generated maybe 15 or 16% of NBC's profit. And I'm not just talking NBC network. I'm talking the entire company."

Born Dec. 27, 1913, in Atlanta, Tebet grew up in Philadelphia, where he began his entertainment career as a theater usher. After studying journalism at Temple University, he began doing publicity for plays and soon moved to New York to publicize Broadway shows.

His entree to television came through a client, Max Liebman Productions, which produced Sid Caesar's "Your Show of Shows."

After moving to Los Angeles with "The Tonight Show," Tebet moved into the Beverly Hills Hotel, where he lived for more than 15 years.

Tebet was a governor-for-life of the New York Friars Club, where he organized many annual dinners honoring such celebrities as Carson, Frank Sinatra and Cary Grant.

In 2001, the club established the David Tebet Award for outstanding contributions to the entertainment industry.

He was married to actress Nanette Fabray from 1947 until their divorce four years later. In addition to Greenspan, he is survived by another nephew and a niece.

fredfa

06-10-05, 09:12 PM

Where the Skies Are Cloudy All Day
Hardship Stars in 'Into the West' – Again
By Tom Shales Washington Post Staff Writer Friday, June 10, 2005; C01

One of the most discouraging aspects of "Into the West," a new historical miniseries executive-produced for cable's TNT by Steven Spielberg, is the bleakness of the durn thing. There are tiny moments of joy here and there along the trail, and glistening vistas that appear to be enhanced by computer effects, but for the most part, this is "How the West Was Wan," a pallid and stolid downer.

Obviously this is a big undertaking and a whopper of a production, especially for basic cable, and since TNT has probably sunk a bundle into it, the channel will make all six two-hour episodes as accessible as possible. The first of six "three-play weekends" begins tonight-- the first episode airs at 8, then also tomorrow and Sunday at the same time, plus additional repeats on Sunday at 10 p.m. and midnight and at other times.
It'll be hard to miss -- but not if you keep trying. The show is probably worth making a special effort to avoid -- unless your life has been unconscionably gay and carefree lately and you feel the need for a nice big glass of ipecac.

The 12 hours cover the years 1825 through 1890, encompassing epochal occurrences such as the Gold Rush, the opening of the West to the railroad and telegraph, and myriad conflicts between Native Americans who grew up on the land and the itinerant invaders who aimed to conquer and, shall we say, gentrify it. In keeping with movie tradition, the noble Indians are portrayed as having sensibilities so mystical and spiritual that they can practically see the freeways, theme parks and fast-food joints rising up where the buffalo roam. And the skies are not cloudy all day.

Except that in "Into the West," the skies often do seem cloudy all day, and it's so cold you can see the actors' breath in many scenes. Again and again we are reminded, with the subtlety of a conk on the bean, that in those long-ago days, hardships were really hard and misfortune could be horribly unfortunate. In case you haven't heard (and hold on for a shock now), the Indians' land was taken by "the white man," as the settlers are called, and progress could be heartless and ruthless where Native Americans were concerned.

According to TNT production notes, attempts were made to keep "Into the West" from becoming just another screed of grievances and another opportunity for the rest of us to feel guilty and rotten about the way Indians were treated (there are scenes depicting vicious bigotry toward African Americans as well). Nevertheless, the Indian wars depicted throughout the miniseries will build to a wrenching massacre in Episode 6, the Battle at Wounded Knee.

Oh heavens, not that again.

The saga, which tends to sprawl as all sagas should, also bounces back and forth between two main story lines: the westward incursions of the Wheelers, a Virginia family that, appropriately enough, had been very big in the wheel business for generations before that big Wal-Mart known as The West opened up. Leading the Wheeler way is strapping son Jacob, played strappingly enough, but rather antiseptically, by Matthew Settle. "I dreamed of a better life beyond the Mississippi," we hear him say in narration, and soon he's out West pondering such vexing questions as "How much can a man make off a beaver?
"
Sometimes cultures don't clash but rather merge and meld nicely. Jacob, for instance, marries a beautiful Indian named Thunder Heart Woman, played by the striking Tonantzin Carmelo. She's living a rough life yet staying in remarkably fine fettle. In fact, there is a squeaky-cleanness about the production -- the sets, the little towns, the farms and ranches -- that looks ludicrous in the wake of such rough and rugged new-age westerns as "Deadwood," the foulmouthed triumph produced for HBO by David Milch.

"Into the West" does boast a colorful array of Indian names, of which Thunder Heart Woman is only a tame example. There's Dog Star, Growling Bear, Soaring Eagle, Drinks Water (I guess I would be Drinks Coke -- or maybe Eats Too Much Ben & Jerry's), Dark Star, Running Fox, Fire Hoses (Oops. I think that's Five Horses. It's hard to read my notes sometimes), High Wolf and White Feather, a young man who is renamed Loved by the Buffalo after a fantastic encounter with a single buffalo during the middle of a stampede.

In what may be a vision rather than actually happening, the buffalo are enticed to do the lemming thing and go plummeting over a cliff and into a waiting abyss.

Occasionally there are other arresting sorts of imagery -- as when a settler gets shot while lying on his back with a canteen perched on his chest and it's the canteen that spouts liquid from bullet holes, not the settler. The episodes, which have different writers and directors, are 98 percent prosaic and only about 2 percent poetic, however.

Jacob, meanwhile, becomes so infatuated with the legend of a mountain man named Jedediah Smith (Josh Brolin) that he abandons his family and runs off to tag along with Smith and his scroungy cronies. "I was riding with a legend," Jacob declares. "Mr. Smith was like no man I ever knew, and I would never be the same." We're not shown anything to justify this mad adulation except perhaps when Smith gets into a wrestling match with a bear. In one quick shot, the bear gets Smith's entire face in his mouth. But instead of biting his face off, the bear is content to scratch off a large portion of Smith's scalp, which the worshipful Jacob has to sew back on.

On and on tread the trekkers, pausing for such cliches as the obligatory amputation of a limb (a leg in this case), a buffalo stampede, and a vicious rape by a wayward soldier. When one girl dies, an Indian cries, a single tear dribbling down his cheek just the way it happened in the famous "Keep America Beautiful" commercial featuring a weeping Indian many years ago.

Much of the film is similarly familiar, and so many of the episodes and events have been depicted in such other movies as "Dances With Wolves" and "Lonesome Dove" that "Into the West -- Again" would have been a more honest title. The Old West is a nice place to visit but obviously you wouldn't want to live there -- and you probably wouldn't want to keep visiting there, either. "Into the West" fails to make a convincing case for going back yet again.

fredfa

06-11-05, 12:18 AM

TNT’s “The Closer”
An Outsider Creates Another Outsider

By MARGY ROCHLIN The New York Times

HOLLYWOOD, June 10 - Before James Duff began writing the pilot script for TNT's new police drama, "The Closer," he sought out Mark Burnett, creator of the unscripted scheming-in-the-jungle series "Survivor," a show that Mr. Duff has religiously watched for 10 seasons.

"I wanted to figure out why I get so involved," Mr. Duff said, recalling how his conversation with Mr. Burnett reinforced his idea that regardless of genre and setting - whether it is a competition on a luxury-free tropical island or detective work in a special unit of the Los Angeles Police Department - "character is plot." "Season after season, 16 or 18 people in the same set of circumstances are forced to do the same things, yet it's fascinating each time because it's how these individuals react that makes the story."

That Mr. Duff admits to drawing some inspiration from a reality series is, in fact, not the only thing that distinguishes "The Closer," which will have its premiere on Monday night, from the current crop of hit procedurals. What also makes it stand out is the behavior of the chief protagonist of "The Closer," Deputy Police Chief Brenda Leigh Johnson (Kyra Sedgwick), who arrives at a brutal murder scene two minutes into the first episode quietly firing off questions in a sugar-coated Southern accent and politely holding her own in the midst of a crowd of brawny, trash-talking police officers who respond only with eye rolling when ordered around by a short, fragile-boned blonde.

Because of this interplay, Ms. Sedgwick has taken to comparing "The Closer" to the British series "Prime Suspect," where Helen Mirren's Jane Tennison grimly endures emotional hazing. Though women abound on American crime shows, Mr. Duff pointed out that aside from Angie Harmon's stint as a prosecutor on NBC's "Law & Order," female characters are for all intents and purposes just guys in dresses, lipstick and high heels.

"There's nothing intrinsically female about them - they succeed because they act like men," Mr. Duff said. "That's not my experience. Women succeed a lot of times in the workplace because they're doing what women can do and men can't."

The girliest parts of Mr. Duff's Brenda, however, don't always work in her favor. Wooed from her home in Atlanta to the Los Angeles Police Department by a former boss (played by J. K. Simmons), Brenda feels off balance in Los Angeles, where the model-pretty civilians make her self-conscious about her weight and low-end department store wardrobe, and where she's unable to navigate the city streets without getting lost or mired in traffic.

Mr. Duff knows a few things about the gnawing loneliness of being an outsider. His father's executive position at Sears, Roebuck & Company meant that the family moved frequently. By the time Mr. Duff graduated from high school, he'd been the new kid at 11 different schools in Texas.

"I grew up in a Southern Baptist household, went to church four times a week, played piano competitively and didn't like to go outside," said Mr. Duff, who was an actor and playwright (his "Home Front" ran on Broadway in 1985) before moving to Los Angeles from New York in 1989. "Can you imagine how geeky I was in most of these Texas places?" His film and television career began shortly thereafter when he was commissioned to write a serious, pre-"Ace Ventura" Jim Carrey television movie called "Doing Time on Maple Drive," broadcast in 1992 on Fox.

Though Mr. Duff's professional résumé includes stints on WB fare like "Popular" and "Felicity," he is best known for grit. He was a staff writer on the CBS spy-thriller series "The Agency."

Last year he created "The D.A.," which was also about a Los Angeles crime fighter - in this case a self-centered, nakedly ambitious prosecutor - hated by his underlings. When "The D.A." was canceled by ABC after four episodes, Mr. Duff called the show's consulting producer - a former Los Angeles district attorney, Gil Garcetti - and mapped out an idea for a show about a talented Central Intelligence Agency-trained interrogator who is brought in to help the Los Angeles Police Department solve high-profile murder cases.

"He said: 'Can we do this? Is it realistic? What would be the dynamics within L.A.P.D. and the city for someone to come in at this level?'" Mr. Garcetti recalled by telephone. "He said, 'I wanted you to keep the writers and me on the path that says, 'This is real.' "

If Mr. Duff's choice of artwork at his Hollywood office - wall-to-wall framed "Lord of the Rings" posters - is any indication, his tastes veer toward the fantastical when entertaining himself. On his desk, he pointed to tickets to the then-upcoming "Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith." "I've had them for a month," Mr. Duff said. "I don't expect much, but I'm so looking forward to it. Then there's nothing for me until the new 'Harry Potter.' "

He said he finds it soothing to work on scripts while a DVD of "Beauty and the Beast," "Aladdin" or one of the movies based on J. K. Rowling's boy wizard burbles from his television. "Even though I write really gross, suspenseful stuff, sometimes I just can't look at it," Mr. Duff said. "I go like -- " He brought his hand to his face, spread his fingers wide and peeped timidly through them in a funny demonstration of audience fright.

Sitting there in his faded jeans, striped button down shirt and blue tennis shoes, Mr. Duff, who is 49, seemed much more like the Lone Star nonconformist of his youth than a jaded Hollywood player. "My own life is very different from most of the lives of the executives I work with," Mr. Duff said. "Yet I've still somehow or another remained myself. I have that in common with Brenda."

fredfa

06-11-05, 12:22 AM

TELEVISION REVIEW
Feast for the eyes, famine for the ears

TNT’s "Into the West" is lovely to behold, and it captures the Old West, but there’s a cacophony of corn and clichés
By Robert Lloyd Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

The first and possibly most important thing to say about "Into the West," the Steven Spielberg-produced six-part dramatic Critique of Manifest Destiny (beginning tonight on TNT) is that it is extraordinarily beautiful to behold.

Expanses of unspoiled scenery — Canada, mostly, standing in for what we are pleased to call "America" — of grassy plains and snowy mountains and green woods and wide rivers, all under a multicolored performing sky, have been filmed in a way that lets the viewer apprehend something of their real proportions and grandeur. (With television so full of indifferent video images — wide-angled, over-bright and full of information but lacking art — this is no small gift.)

Even indoors, the impression is always of natural light and authentic space. As shot by William Wages and Alan Caso, it's a show that makes owning one of them there big-screen televisions seem like a right fine idea.

On the other hand, nothing else in the production is as good as it looks. (At least not in the three episodes available for review.) Watch with the sound down and you'll miss nothing of substance — and you'll avoid the score, which is a field of old Hollywood corn of the sort the executive producer famously finds tasty. This is due in part to its visual sophistication but also to scripts that stick fairly close to the surface: Forced to illustrate history, the characters are converted to cliches. (William Mastrosimone wrote the story, and three of the six screenplays.) It's a sort of checklist drama — everything that could possibly happen on a wagon train, for example (accident fording a river, child killed by rampaging bison, cholera, storm, Indian attack, leg crushed by runaway wagon), will happen, one incident following almost comically close upon another. The whole series has that feel: Some well-written, well-played scenes come by now and again — a prairie proposal, a disastrous parlay between Indians and cavalry over an escaped cow — but they come on all of a sudden, do their quick business and just as suddenly depart.

Wearing its obviously thorough research on its buckskin sleeve — this is a show, one might say, ripped from the pages of history — and as scrupulous as it can be within its small-screen means, the series is a victim of its own ambitions. In rushing around to cover the many bases of life on the frontier, over a period of 65 years — we are continually being kicked two years, six years into the future, by narration or title card — neither the characters nor the pieces of history they represent are deeply explored. Earnest without being terribly enlightening, full of action but dramatically inert, it's like a very long, expensive, semi-star-studded educational film.

The story divides its attention between the Wheelers (formerly) of Virginia, specifically the conveniently peripatetic Jacob (Matthew Settle to begin with, John Terry later), who goes wherever the writers need him to, and the Lakota tribe who will become his in-laws. (The Lakota fare better, dramatically if not historically, as they get to pretty much stay in the same place.) It's "How the West Was Won, or Lost, Depending on Your Point of View." We meet mountain men and trappers, abolitionists, prospectors, runaway slaves and free men of color, Pony Express riders, preachers, soldiers and impresarios.

For their part, the Indians demonstrate their bison-based lifestyle, their oneness with nature, their medicine wheel and vision quest and sun dance, and also their interest in obtaining rifles and whiskey. Unpreviewed episodes will involve the building of the railroads, the rise of the merchant class, the discovery of gold in the Black Hills — the milieu of "Deadwood" — the meeting of Crazy Horse and Custer at Little Bighorn and the 1890 massacre at Wounded Knee that effectively ended the Indian Wars. To cover all this territory requires a degree of narrative coincidence that would make Dickens blush.

Another problem is that while the film aims to communicate historical truths, to tell what's usually not told, to straighten the record, it's also a Western, which is to say, it's invested in the myths the movies have helped make. This, in part, is what makes it so easy to read. Indeed, the history of film is bound up with the West, from "The Great Train Robbery" to "Stagecoach" to "The Wild Bunch" to "Unforgiven" and "Dead Man." (So is the history of television, for that matter, though in recent years TNT has been more or less the sole keeper of the flame — until "Deadwood.") Indeed, you can divine the story of any generation in the westerns it makes, in the degree to which it celebrates or punctures the myths of the frontier.

These warring impulses — to tell history and to make a movie, to honor the past and sentimentalize it at the same time — keep "Into the West" from really getting a hold of either sort of truth, actual or invented. The film has also been written from the point of view of a time when the dismal record of the white men in the Old West, as regards the people who were there first, is commonly acknowledged, and it creates its heroes and villains according to what a modern audience would approve or disapprove, not according to the prevailing attitudes of the time, a time in which people of otherwise goodwill were happy to regard the Indian nations as something less than human.

When the film does address that attitude it cheats: When beautiful Keri Russell (TV's "Felicity"), who has earlier expressed such a sentiment, is captured by the Cheyenne, she is lucky enough to be given to handsome Prairie Fire (Jay Tavare) as a wife and not, say, Weak Flame That Will Not Catch. And though she resists him at first, reciting nursery rhymes as a charm against him — one of the screenplay's best inspirations — it's a union we can approve, as a movie audience, as she eventually does herself.

Still, it is something to see. (A trip to Calgary might be better, though less convenient and more expensive than basic cable.) For if the story feels forced, the production is convincing — I can't swear to its accuracy, but as an illusion, at least, it works.

Notwithstanding some computer-animated bison that have more in them of "Jurassic Park" than of Yellowstone National, even the digital additions contribute to the sense that one is getting a real glimpse of another place and another time: The world before there were so many of us in it. And that's a trip worth taking.

fredfa

06-11-05, 12:29 AM

Nielsen: TV viewership is way up with LPMs

(medialifemagazine.com---)During the months of protest over the local people meter, when opponents complained that the new system undercounts minority viewers and has higher fault rates, Nielsen steadfastly insisted that the new data was more accurate. Now the ratings measurement company is rolling out yet more numbers to support that.

Yesterday Nielsen released numbers showing that May television viewership was up from May 2004 in the four LPM markets launched last year, San Francisco, New York, Chicago and Los Angeles. Nielsen has argued that the LPM measures viewership more accurate than the old paper diary system, which often failed to reflect short bursts of TV watching on lower-rated channels.

According to Nielsen, viewership in San Francisco was up 18.6 percent, followed by New York at 9.1 percent, Chicago at 1.4 percent and LA at 0.5 percent. Among men 18-34, a group that saw a steep decrease in viewership last year on broadcast, all four markets were up at least 11 percent, with LA up the most at 15 percent. Men 18-49 showed the biggest percentage increase among any demographic, with viewership up 31.3 percent in San Francisco, 16.3 percent in Chicago, 12.7 percent in New York and 7.5 percent in LA.

Nielsen also found that viewers are watching more channels than previously thought, mirroring results for African American and Hispanic viewers in Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia released earlier this week. The number of channels viewed was up 67 percent in San Francisco, 28 percent in New York, 24 percent in LA and 19 percent in Chicago.

fredfa

06-11-05, 10:51 AM

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

fredfa

06-11-05, 06:18 PM

(This study might be expected from a cable company which takes in many hundreds of millions of dollars annually from selling commercials, but it is still interesting.)

DVRs Not So Hot? ESPN study shows they aren’t for everybody
By Ken Kerschbaumer[/B]Broadcasting & Cable[/B]

In a six-month study, ESPN gave viewers digital video recorders. At the end, the sports network came to this realization: Many people couldn’t care less about DVRs.

ESPN picked 100 households for its DVR experiment and periodically had trained researchers drop in to observe how using the device changed family viewing habits.

The murky verdict: Ultimately, 75% want to keep the DVR, but ESPN had trouble keeping the group intact. Over time, 90 of the 100 New York-area households dropped out and were replaced by others, and by the end, only 68 homes remained.

“The findings of this study certainly contradict the prevailing wisdom that DVRs will become the norm [in] U.S. households and that the 30-second spot will be rendered obsolete,” wrote ESPN’s Artie Bulgin, senior VP of research and sales development, and Rachel Mueller-Lust, ABC research VP. (Right now, about 7% of the nation has DVRs.)

The study found that, for most users, “commercial avoidance” is not the main attribute of having a DVR. Although 66% skipped commercials occasionally, that doesn’t appear much different from viewers who change channels or leave the room.

Mainly, the study concludes, viewers liked being able to watch TV more efficiently by watching what they wanted when they wanted to see it.

Bulgrin says the study, conducted for ESPN by Horowitz Associates, suggests that “the sky is not falling” on the current 30-second advertising model. “Generally speaking, commercial avoidance is a secondary outcome of watching television with a DVR,” the study says.

And viewers may not want the things. “There are millions and millions of Luddites in this country,” says Bulgrin. “The majority of homes in the country don’t intend to use either VOD or DVR technologies.”

Indeed, the test had so much churn because some people had trouble working the TiVo technology and many concluded they just didn’t care. (Personal issues were another factor.)

ESPN identified DVR viewer types but—except for the warrior—B&C came up with the names:

The Skippers
These viewers purposely record a program so they can miss the first 20 minutes or so and then catch up by fast-forwarding through the commercial breaks. ESPN found the skipper to be in the minority of DVR users.
Fans of: Possibly anything
Odds they skip commercials: High

The Addicts
They record the programs as initially aired to ensure they don’t miss them. Most of their DVR viewing is done the day the program aired, and they’re most likely to have been the first on the block to record programs with a VCR.
Fans of: Soaps, talk shows, reality programs
Odds they skip commercials: Low

The Warriors
Watching over the weekend, these viewers catch up with TV they missed during the week. The warriors want to be current, at their own pace.
Fans of: Prime time dramas
Odds they skip commercials: Even

The Marathoners
These are the viewers most feared by advertisers. They gather large numbers of programs and then blast through them in blocks, often in fast-forward mode.
Fans of: Talk shows, cooking shows
Odds they skip commercials: High—and they skip dull parts of shows, too.

The Squirrels
These viewers record favorite programs and movies and save them for a rainy day.
Fans of: Movies, children’s programming Odds they skip commercials: Low

The Time-Travelers
Busy traveling executives use DVRs to catch up on their favorite programs once they’re back home.
Fans of: Anything
Odds they skip commercials: Depends on how backlogged they are.

fredfa

06-11-05, 06:40 PM

Kyra Sedgwick, in Full Command
TV's Newest 'Columbo' Opens Up on Her Role In TNT's 'The Closer'
By John Maynard Washington Post Staff Writer Sunday, June 12, 2005; Page Y07

Forget "Law & Order" or any of those other "Law & Orders." For Kyra Sedgwick, star of TNT's new crime drama series "The Closer," the best cop shows came from the '70s.

"I like 'Columbo,' 'Baretta' and 'The Rockford Files' because I was totally into them," she said. "So much of those shows are about those characters."

That's exactly what attracted Sedgwick, the 39-year-old actress whose breakout role in the 1992 Seattle grunge-scene flick "Singles" made Hollywood take notice, to the lead role in "The Closer." She plays Brenda Johnson, a top-notch interrogator who's been brought to Los Angeles to head up something called the Priority Murder Squad under the auspices of the Los Angeles Police Department.

Unlike "Law & Order," which she said she doesn't get half the time, Sedgwick's show shines the spotlight on Brenda's day-to-day life.

"I think it centers more around this one character," she said. "It has so much to do with her personal life. She approaches her job very personally. Her job is her personal life."

Make no mistake, Brenda is something of a mess. As Sedgwick describes her: "She is deeply flawed personally. She's not great socially. I think she's a terrible dresser and she's a compulsive eater. She's out of step with L.A., and she's a fish out of water. She's very much a loner." And Sedgwick didn't even mention that Brenda is divorced and once had an affair with her new boss.

Brenda's quirks are brought front and center on the "The Closer," much like her mentors from those '70s shows: the bedraggled Columbo with his trench coat and cigar who tools around in a beat-up car; the ex-con Jim Rockford living in his trailer and always getting into fights; and the funky Tony Baretta with his pet cockatoo.

Of course, this show is about more than her fashion issues and eating habits. In the first episode she's got a murder to solve -- and a fairly important one, at that. A woman is found dead in the home of a software executive who had just come up with a new program destined to revolutionize the computer industry.

But, as is true with many mystery shows, all is not what it appears, and it takes Brenda's unique and effective interrogation style to get the truth from the woman's assailant.

"Closer" consulting producer Gil Garcetti, the former Los Angeles district attorney who became a household name during the O.J. Simpson murder trial, said police interrogation can be one of the toughest jobs in the squad room.

"You have to be born with some of those attributes. If you don't have the attributes, forget it," he said. "But once you have those attributes, then you have to learn something."

Segdwick's character has the smarts and the innate ability to size people up, Garcetti said, but there's one other important factor. "She's often unintentionally sexy and appealing, but there are times when she is intentionally so," he said.

Viewers quickly learn from the first episode that the grunts of the LAPD are less than thrilled to be working for Brenda, a CIA-trained Atlanta detective with a Southern accent. Garcetti compares the fictional situation to the real-life circumstances when Willie Williams became the chief of police in Los Angeles in 1992 in the wake of the city's riots. "Willie Williams came from the outside," Garcetti recalled. "That simply wasn't done at LAPD. When he came in, the institution just rebelled against him."

Brenda's staff rebels on her first day on the job as a united front of officers presents her with requests to be transferred out of the unit.

"It would be almost easier if she were a black-and-white bitch," Sedgwick said. "But instead she's like [in her best Southern accent], 'Good mornin' and 'How y'all?' It's disarming. You don't want to like her, but you can't help but like her."

Although Sedgwick did not follow a real-life interrogator for the role, she did draw inspiration from husband Kevin Bacon's memorable role as a homicide detective in the 2003 film "Mystic River." "I think about him," she said. "He had a couple of interrogations where he loses his cool, and I hearken upon him often."

Sedgwick joins a growing list of movie stars who are returning to the small screen to take on a weekly series, such as Glenn Close, who played a captain this season on FX's gritty "The Shield."

Sedgwick is not a complete stranger to television. She had an unmemorable (and short) run in 2000 on CBS playing a bouncy radio talk-show host in "Talk to Me." But she likes to mix it up between film, theater and the telly. "I've always gone where the characters are, and that's just what I'm doing here," Sedgwick said.

THE CLOSER Mondays 9 PM ET/PT on TNT

CPanther95

06-11-05, 07:36 PM

DVRs Not So Hot? ESPN study shows they aren’t for everybody
By Ken Kerschbaumer Broadcasting & Cable

Somebody has balls the size of bowling balls to try to seriously pass this off as legit. :rolleyes:

j_buckingham80

06-11-05, 07:48 PM

Somebody has balls the size of bowling balls to try to seriously pass this off as legit. :rolleyes:

I don't know Cpanther...DVRs are nice for some, but I actually think the study is about what I would have expected. I have an HDTV Wonder for timeshifting and DVR stuff, and I just don't find it all that compelling to do, I mainly just end up using it like a VCR, if I'm missing something being out of town or to archive favorite programs. Then again, maybe I would feel differently if it was a TiVo. Then again, I have no interest in getting a TiVo.

CPanther95

06-11-05, 07:51 PM

But even the categories they list of people that actually use a DVR, to claim that people infrequently skip commercials makes no sense.

keenan

06-11-05, 07:54 PM

Somebody has balls the size of bowling balls to try to seriously pass this off as legit. :rolleyes:
Being that ESPN is the one that did the study I would have to think that the group that was observed were probably ESPN fans, which tells me, overall, they would not be a group that utilizes DVRs as much as say a CBS fan, how many people DVR live sports and sports program?...my guess is a very low amount, so that may have skewed their findings. I would be more interested in a study done by CBS or ABC for example.

BTW, I would be classified as a "Skipper" although I'll do it for a whole evening's worth of shows, starting at 8:45 and finishing the last show right about realtime skipping every commercial.

keenan

06-11-05, 08:01 PM

j_buckingham80

06-11-05, 09:21 PM

But even the categories they list of people that actually use a DVR, to claim that people infrequently skip commercials makes no sense.

I can easily agree with you there, and I do.

dturturro

06-11-05, 09:35 PM

I can easily agree with you there, and I do.

A study done by people who rely on the 30 second ad revenue concludes that DVR users rarely skip those 30 second ads...

Yeah, that's objective! :rolleyes:

fredfa

06-11-05, 09:39 PM

So the ESPN-funded study not only concluded that ads don't get skipped as much as commonly believed but that relevant commercials actually got watched with more intensity.

Can anyone say watermelon-sized cajones?

fredfa

06-11-05, 09:46 PM

Just Where Did You Say You Were From?
How the sleeper hit "The 4400" started an invasion of aliens and monsters into American living rooms
By KATE AURTHUR The New York Times June 12, 2005

One of the most unexpected television successes of the past year is a show with a science-fiction backdrop, an unfolding and complicated mythology and a gigantic ensemble cast. No, not "Lost" - the same description applies to "The 4400," which began its 13-episode second season last Sunday.

"The 4400" - in which 4,400 people who had gone missing over the course of 60 years suddenly reappear in a ball of light, unable to remember where they have been - made its debut last summer as a mini-series on USA Network. Without any big stars, its five episodes over six hours brought in an average of 6.2 million viewers, making it the most watched original series, scripted or reality, on basic cable last year. It was more popular than FX's "Nip/Tuck," MTV's "Newlyweds" and "The Real World" and other USA series like "Monk" and "The Dead Zone." And when you include pay-cable channels, it even outdrew HBO's "Deadwood" and "Six Feet Under," coming in second only to "The Sopranos." All this was accomplished with a fraction of the publicity, and of the subsequent critical praise, heaped upon those shows. (The second season's premiere continued the winning streak, drawing 5.3 million viewers.)

David Stapf, the president of Paramount Network Television, the studio that produces "The 4400," said in a recent interview from Los Angeles that there was only one way to proceed after the initial ratings: "Let's keep going." There was, however, no agreement in place for subsequent seasons; in October, Paramount and USA struck a deal to continue "The 4400" as a series.

The mini-series's under-the-radar success was also a harbinger: six weeks after its end, the otherworldly plane-crash drama "Lost" began on ABC. Bill Koenigsberg, the chief executive of Horizon Media, a media planning and buying agency, said in a telephone interview that the huge success of "The 4400" on cable, which has lower budgets and more scheduling flexibility than network television, showed that science fiction was ready to make a comeback on the networks as well.

"One of the biggest challenges broadcasters have is getting people to the set in the first place to sample the show," Mr. Koenigsberg said. "Because of the success that '4400' had on cable, I do think that spilled over to more people sampling 'Lost' on broadcast."

Together, the two hits have begotten more science fiction for this fall than audiences have seen on the networks in years. In three new series, the abstruse menace of "Lost" has been joined by more concrete threats: alien conquerors on ABC's "Invasion" and CBS's "Threshold," and monstrous sea creatures in NBC's "Fathom." (One-word titles also appear to be an essential element of the genre.)

But in the meantime, there's "The 4400." The new season picks up 18 months after the 4,400 reappeared. In the final moments of the first season's conclusion, Tom (Joel Gretsch), a Homeland Security agent whose nephew was among the returnees, found out that they had been taken by people from the human race's apparently disastrous future. The kidnappers gave their quarry 4,400 different special abilities - unnatural strength, the power to control minds, and so on - that would allow them, when returned, to change the hopeless course of mankind.

That revelation raised more questions than it answered. Scott Peters, the show's creator along with René Echevarria, said that when he sold the show to Fox as a potential pilot in 2002, he intended the returnees' origins to be revealed in the fifth season, not the fifth episode.

"That was the big secret," Mr. Peters said by phone from Los Angeles. But executives at USA Network, where the series landed after Fox dropped it, felt differently. They wanted him to wrap up an important part of the mystery - who took the 4,400, and why - so that the mini-series would have a satisfying but open-ended finale.

Now that a second season has begun, Mr. Peters has adjusted to the change. "Yes, we've given you a very big piece of the puzzle, but it's opened up a whole new realm of stories," he said. "Because even though we've given you who it was, you didn't necessarily get a lot of information on why, or the particulars, or how to stop the catastrophe that's coming."

Mr. Peters said he had established a structure to serialize the show now that the season is stretched over 13 episodes. Tom and his agency partner, Diana (Jacqueline McKenzie), are leading the government's investigation into the activities of the 4,400. The audience will also follow the most important returnees - a creepy, psychic girl whom Diana has adopted and a teenage boy who can heal the sick, among others - as they try to adjust to their lives. Through Tom and Diana, new members of the 4,400 will be introduced each week as they try to figure out how to affect the future.

Bonnie Hammer, the president of USA Network and Sci Fi Channel, said Mr. Peters has created a formula that could serve the show for a long time. "There really isn't an end in sight," she said recently by telephone. "Are these people good or bad? Were the abductions for a higher promise, something better than life as we know it? Or can it be dark or evil? You have to keep intriguing people to come back with the hope there will be answers."

Mr. Peters doesn't want so many twists in "The 4400" that the audience becomes frustrated. He has seen other science-fiction series become unholy messes, bogged down in their own mythologies - most glaringly, "The X-Files," to which his show is most often compared.

"If we just tried to figure it out on the run," he explained, "we'd be in trouble. I think shows like 'Lost,' for instance, that have a big mystery..." He hesitated. "You know, I assume that they have their answer - whatever their answer is, I hope that they have one. The audiences, especially on this kind of show, are very loyal, very meticulous, and they analyze everything. I think if you have fans that are that devoted and loyal, you owe them a proper explanation."

Mr. Stapf agreed on the importance of appealing to hard-core fans and casual viewers alike. "Each episode has to be somewhat self-contained," he said. "One of the reasons 'The 4400' works so well is there's definitely a supernatural, mystical element to it, but it's also grounded in reality."

Ms. Hammer said she had the same impression from the pilot. "There wasn't too much ooga-booga and sci-fi," she said. "It dealt with what happens if you walk away from your life and have to come back into it, when everyone else has gone on, but you haven't."

As the president of Sci Fi Channel since April 2001 - she took control of USA along with Sci Fi when NBC and Universal merged last May - Ms. Hammer has a knowledge of the science-fiction constituency that may come in handy for the networks. "They are unbelievably positive, exciting, passionate and loving fans," she said. "When you hit a winner in the sci-fi world, they just follow."

But there's a downside. "When you cancel something, oh my Lord," she moaned. "They can be your best friends. And they can be a nightmare if they think you did them bad."

keenan

06-12-05, 12:05 AM

keenan

06-12-05, 12:14 AM

Just Where Did You Say You Were From?
How the sleeper hit "The 4400" started an invasion of aliens and monsters into American living rooms
By KATE AURTHUR The New York Times June 12, 2005

As the president of Sci Fi Channel since April 2001 - she took control of USA along with Sci Fi when NBC and Universal merged last May - Ms. Hammer has a knowledge of the science-fiction constituency that may come in handy for the networks. "They are unbelievably positive, exciting, passionate and loving fans," she said. "When you hit a winner in the sci-fi world, they just follow."

But there's a downside. "When you cancel something, oh my Lord," she moaned. "They can be your best friends. And they can be a nightmare if they think you did them bad."

It's refreshing to see a net prez who apparently really knows their audience. HBO should take note... :rolleyes:

HDTVChallenged

06-12-05, 12:30 AM

It's refreshing to see a net prez who apparently really knows their audience. HBO should take note... :rolleyes:

Eh ... then again she was the one who killed "Farscape" then tried to make amends with the 'fix the ending miniseries.' Perhaps she learned her lesson though ;)

rogo

06-12-05, 04:32 AM

ESPN Designs Pointless Study That Proves Badly Designed Study Can Prove Anything

In a stunning development, White House aides today are reporting that ESPN has found weapons of mass destruction in many sites throughout Iraq. The sports network has done this by handing these weapons to Iraqis in 12 cities....

dturturro

06-12-05, 07:51 AM

fredfa

06-12-05, 11:19 AM

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

fredfa

06-12-05, 05:01 PM

A Different look at Demographics and VCR usage
Some background on how “demos” got so important, and how VCR usuage really impacts TV networks and advertisers

By Shirley Brady CableWORLD

Forget 25 to 54 year olds: That's been the common theme during this upfront season, during which networks have been attempting to skew younger and target the 18-to-49 demo. Tim Brooks, cable's resident TV historian (the co-author with Earle F. Marsh of the series of books “The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows: 1946-Present” and Executive VP of research for Lifetime, critiques the reliance on these categories and the obsession with youth.

CableWorld: Are 18 to 49 and 25 to 54 artificial demographic categories given today's fragmented media landscape?

Tim Brooks: They are artificial. The 18-to-49 demo--which is an age range that's not used, I believe, by any other country in the world--is an artifact of when Nielsen introduced demographics for the first time, around the end of the '50s and early '60s. They had to figure out some place to start, so they discussed it with their advertisers and subscribers at the time and said, "Well, why don't we take a wide chunk?"

CABLEWORLD: Why that particular demo?

Tim Brooks: They were very focused in those days, in the family era, on homemakers who would buy products. They even had a demographic break called "woman of the house." Shows you how far we've come. So 18 to 49 was meant to be anybody who might have a kid, meaning the broad swath of middle-class America. And somehow this all got locked in over the years, and it makes no sense at all anymore. Especially today, with so much fragmentation where an 18 year old and a 49 year old have absolutely nothing in common. They probably had something in common back then, but they have nothing in common today.

CABLEWORLD: Are we stuck with this?

Tim Brooks: Unfortunately, we've been stuck with this break for sales purposes. There's a lot of pressure against changing it because, in part, it's a big break and therefore you get big numbers out of it. If you happen to be very strong in the 30s and 40s, it may make up for your underperformance in the 20s, for example, and vice versa. So it covers a multitude of sins.

CABLEWORLD: What's the future of demos?

Tim Brooks: We've been very slow in doing what other countries have done and really adapting demos to be more pinpointed. What's going to happen is rather than refine what we define the demographic breaks as, we may wind up moving away from demographics entirely into something that is more tied to places where your message gets through, where you actually sell products, where the environment matches your product.

CABLEWORLD: Meaning more platform- and lifestyle-specific?

Tim Brooks: We do a lot of that now. Most of the branded cable networks have a lot of information on their viewers, not just on their ages but on their psychographics. We just did a big study on that for Lifetime and women. So yeah, I think it's probably going to go there instead of, say, let's make it 21 to 49.

CABLEWORLD: How are viewers tracked outside the U.S.?

Tim Brooks: First of all, they have no household measures, they don't even report that, it's all persons. And within persons, you will have breaks like 16 to 21 and 21 to 30 in England or France or Germany, and they will basically conform to lifestyle groups. We find for example in our research that even in the U.S., there's a major change in women's lifestyles and attitudes in the early 20s. And that makes sense.

CABLEWORLD: What did your own research find?

Tim Brooks: If you're 18 to 20 years old as a woman, you're either still in college or you're living on your own; you're dating; you're probably not settled down yet or having kids yet, because women are having children later. When you get to 22 to 24 is when you get a major change in attitudes. A woman is typically getting her first job around that time, she's taking on responsibilities, entering her first big relationship or marriage, perhaps having her first child.

So years different from who she was at 18 or 19, just three years earlier. On the other hand, the difference between a 22 or 23 year old and a 29 year old is pretty narrow. There are some differences, but not very great, and then very gradual after that. So a logical break in a woman's area, and I suspect in the men's area too, is something like 23 or 24 to 39.

CABLEWORLD: What do you think of TV networks, broadcast and cable alike, chasing younger demos, who are spending more time online and watching less TV? Are older viewers, which TV is overlooking and ignoring, a potentially more rewarding target group to pursue?

Tim Brooks: This has been the case for a long time. There are ample studies showing that it makes no sense at all to advertise only to people under 50. The money is with the older consumers. For a long time advertisers and agencies, particularly, held to the notion, well, maybe that's true but brand preferences are set early in life so we need to reach them in their 20s and 30s, because by the time they're 50 or 60 they're not changing their brand any more.

CABLEWORLD: Any studies to the contrary?

Tim Brooks: Yes, there has been a ton of research to show that that's not true any more. [According to a recent RoperASW study], 50 and 60 year olds are just as likely to change their brands and try new products today as younger people are. And they're just as media savvy.

A 50 year old today is not the 50 year old of 1945 or 1950 or 1960. So all of the science indicates that you're absolutely right--somebody parachuting in from Mars and observing how we track viewers would say that we're absolutely crazy. That we ought to be going where the money is and where people are buying products, not on some artificial basis of youth that has no basis in fact. As much as many networks have tried to change that--Dave Poltrack at CBS argued that case for years--and have put out presentations and very thorough studies and these little wheels you could turn that would show the payoff from each demographic, it didn't matter. The advertising world--and buyers are all young anyway--wasn't listening.

CABLEWORLD: So if advertisers and agencies won't change, the system won't change?

Tim Brooks: I think it's all going to become moot because of a move away from traditional demographics entirely to more environment-based, return-on-investment-based approaches to [measuring] television.

CABLEWORLD: And what happens when you throw DVRs and VOD, and other platforms that TV programming is migrating to, into the mix?

Tim Brooks We just finished a major study on DVRs, which we will have out shortly. There is an enormous amount of misinformation and assumptions out there about the effect of DVRs. It's not at all what it seems. The initial wave of the sky is falling is going to turn out to be practically the opposite.

What we're finding is that when people actually get these devices, they pay more attention to commercial pods because they're skipping them. In order to skip them, they have to watch them. And what you're seeing as you fast-forward on a DVR is much clearer than what you saw on a VCR, for example, it's crystal clear. And when they see something flashing by that interests them, that looks entertaining, they stop. They also stop for products that they're in the market for at that time. So if you're not in the market for a car, you're probably going to keep skipping past all the car ads. People stop a lot for movies ads, ads about entertainment, also promos for TV shows, because those are things they're making decisions about now.

The people you're going to lose in ad-skipping are the people who weren't in the marketplace anyway. And the people you're going to keep are more interested. So DVRs may wind up increasing attention to advertising and viewing selectively of ads that are very well crafted or right on target for what the person is in the market for.

CABLEWORLD What is the impact of time-shifted viewing on linear TV network brands?

Tim Brooks There's a lot of interest in that and we've had a lot of meetings with Nielsen trying to tease out data on that. They did develop a data set with TiVo where they had set-top box data on how people were recording, and how long it took them to watch the shows they'd recorded. It's all in the very early stages now, but it does seem clear that most of the viewing is done within 24 hours of recording, and that almost all of it is done within the week after recording.

Depending on what it is you're advertising, then a week might be too long say if you're advertising a movie that's opening this weekend. But if you're selling cars or financial products, then that might be fine. So based on that, we have worked out a plan with Nielsen where starting next January they will be releasing three streams of data: One will live, one will be live plus same-day playback and the third will be live plus seven-day playback. It's meant to quantify the difference between those three.

Chances are, in the early going at least, because there are still so few DVRS out there, that there won't be any discernible difference between them. But as time goes along and DVRs get deeper into the population, you'll start to see the difference between those who actually watched at the time of the telecast and those who watched a day or a week later.

keenan

06-13-05, 12:46 AM

Nielsen Dumped
Turned off by high fees and faulty service, TV-station owners in small markets are going without ratings
By Allison Romano -- Broadcasting & Cable, 6/13/2005

http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA607737.html?display=Feature
Nielsen Dumped - 6/13/2005 - Broadcasting & Cable - CA607737

In this story:
An Archaic System?
Getting Nielsen's Attention
Life Without Nielsen

KNWA, the NBC affiliate in Fayetteville, Ark., has a lot to offer advertisers: a booming population, a thriving local economy and hot syndicated fare like Seinfeld and Fear Factor. But when it comes to the most fundamental question in the TV business—how many people are watching?—KNWA salespeople can't answer. The Nexstar Broadcasting-owned station does not subscribe to Nielsen Media Research's ratings. Last fall, KNWA made a radical move: It dumped Nielsen.

“People don't think the world can exist without Nielsen, but it can,” says General Manager Blake Russell. “We live in a world of estimates now. Why should I pay for something that is flawed?”

Spurning Nielsen seems almost unthinkable in an industry for which the company's ratings are the universal currency. Every company in the TV business relies on Nielsen data to set rates for the $60 billion in advertising revenue the medium generates each year. Ratings determine which shows stay on or get canceled. And local stations stake their reputations on the market positions that Nielsen reports.
An Archaic System?

But as the media world becomes less dependent on traditional advertising, stations feel more emboldened to drop what they feel is an archaic system. Now a small band of stations, including KNWA, has had enough. Upset over the price and quality of the Nielsen ratings, at least three dozen stations in cities from Little Rock, Ark., the No. 59 market, to Wichita Falls, Texas, the No. 143 market, are canceling their Nielsen subscriptions. “Their methodology is fraught with significant problems,” says KVAL Eugene, Ore., General Manager Dave Weinkauf. “The media community is so inextricably tied to a faulted methodology that the only way not to deal with it is to come up with some new tools.”

The stations say new technology—such as the data gleaned from digital cable boxes—promises to one day complement or replace Nielsen ratings. For the moment, though, they are content to resort to cheaper methods they say are just as efficient, from compiling local survey data to polling viewers. In Anchorage, Alaska, a few years ago, CBS affiliate KTVA contracted a local research company to devise a Nielsen alternative that comprised 1,000 Alaskan viewers. “Advertisers bought into it,” says station consultant Scott Tallal. “It seemed to be much more reflective of what was happening in the market.” (KTVA has since been sold and again subscribes to Nielsen.)

The big problem for stations is that Nielsen has no competition. One of the most high-profile attempts to compete was Statistical Research Inc.'s SMART system. Networks and advertising agencies put up $60 million to get the system, which featured advanced measurement technology, off the ground. But when the project needed more investment, both sides walked away. More recently, radio-ratings company Arbitron, which once measured local-TV ratings, has re-entered the scene and, with some support from Nielsen, is testing a portable ratings device in Houston. But its viability remains to be seen. “Everyone wants there to be another player,” says TV-station consultant Seth Geiger, of SmithGeiger, “but no one wants to step up and pay the freight.”

Still, high-profile defections could be costly for Nielsen. Several large stations' dumping the service could undermine confidence in the company and create a public-relations nightmare. The ratings giant has come under increasing fire from TV stations and their corporate parents protesting its methodology and results. Nielsen's new electronic system, the local people meter (LPM), undercounts minorities and younger viewers, say its toughest critics, and the older system of paper logs, or “diaries,” is simply inadequate for a nation of 109 million TV homes. For its part, Nielsen stands by its products and has said it is making improvements by investing in new and better technologies.

So far, the lost customers have hardly affected Nielsen's bottom line. The division of Dutch media company VNU takes in an estimated $274 million selling its local ratings data to more than 1,000 stations in 210 markets. In 2003, Nielsen Media Research logged an estimated $637 million in sales, according to Independent Minds, a European financial-research company. Of that, 43% came from Nielsen's local-ratings measurements. Since small-market stations pay the lowest fees to Nielsen, the defection of three dozen would result in only about $2 million in lost revenue for Nielsen per year.

Nielsen says that, while some stations have severed relations, there has been no mass desertion. “It is the normal course of business,” says a company spokesperson. “Sometimes they decide to cancel their contract, and, down the line, they may decide to sign back up.”

The latest wave of protest is led by Nexstar Broadcasting, which owns and operates 46 stations in 27 small and midsize markets. Over the past several years, the company has been whittling down its Nielsen accounts. Only three Nexstar markets—Springfield, Mo., Lubbock, Texas, and Hagerstown, Md.—still buy Nielsen data, and, when their deals expire, they will not renew, says Senior VP Brian Jones. That will make Nexstar the only major station group to spurn Nielsen altogether. Jones cites Nielsen's high prices and rate increases as the reasons for the defections: “They placed a value on the product that we are not willing to pay.”

To get their hands on Nielsen data, stations pay handsomely—and unevenly. A small-market station might plunk down $50,000 a year, while broadcasters in the largest cities pay upwards of $1 million per year. To attract new clients, such as local cable systems and advertising agencies, Nielsen often offers discounted rates. Even within a market, stations pay different fees. For years, UHF stations received a discount because their reach was less than that of VHF stations. With cable and satellite penetration now at 80%, most stations have blanket coverage throughout their market despite signal strength, but the price differences remain. Large broadcast groups negotiate discounted fees.

Small-market outlets are hardly alone in their Nielsen gripes. In the top markets, such as New York and Los Angeles, stations are coping with the debut of the LPM. Under the new system, ratings for younger viewers, minorities and large families have dropped, and overall viewing of broadcast stations is down. Earlier this month, 17 groups banded together to pressure Nielsen to delay rolling it out to new markets until the results are approved by the Media Ratings Council, an independent overseer that audits Nielsen's ratings. The ratings giant announced a 30-day stay in launching LPMs in Philadelphia and Washington, originally slated for June 2. Nielsen plans to expand LPMs to Detroit, Dallas-Fort Worth and Atlanta by the end of next year.
Getting Nielsen's Attention

By canceling their subscriptions, stations get Nielsen's attention—and changes often get made. Univision's largest stations—New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco—went without ratings for at least six months before the Spanish-language broadcaster finally signed a new deal with Nielsen last week that includes LPM measurement in top markets and improvements in the sample (see related story on page 10).

In the remaining 200 markets, Nielsen's diary system will continue, and stations must wait for demographic data until “sweeps” months—February, May, July and November—when Nielsen mails out diaries for its participants to record their individual viewing.

With diaries, many station executives complain, the samples are too small to glean accurate measurements. A midsize market might rely on 500 diaries. Denver, the 18th-largest market with 1.4 million TV homes, uses about 1,100. Another problem, industry executives say, is that response rates are often low, skewing the data. In a small market, a handful of diaries are used to determine ratings for an entire demographic. To increase the sample, though, stations would have to pay even more to Nielsen.

John Tupper, owner of KXND Minot-Bismarck, N.D., canceled his Nielsen service mid-contract five years ago. He says youth-oriented networks like Fox are hindered because younger viewers are less likely to fill out their logs. Ratings in metered and LPM markets, he notes, are better. If Nielsen improved the sample, Tupper says, he would consider subscribing again. “Now it works against me and devalues the product I have to sell.”

The latest assault on the diary system came after the February sweeps. Some Nielsen participants in Anchorage, Alaska, Palm Springs, Calif., and Tucson, Ariz., did not receive their weekly diaries in the mail—the usual procedure—and others got them late. The confusion resulted in lower-than-normal responses. In Tucson, for example, top-rated CBS affiliate KOLD's average prime time mark dropped 25%, to a 5.4 rating in adults 25-54, compared with the year-ago period. NBC affiliate KVOA and ABC outlet KGUN saw similar declines. Irate, some stations demanded Nielsen retract the ratings book or send letters to advertisers. In a letter to clients, Nielsen said the problems did not affect the overall month and should not be thrown out. The company blamed a postal subcontractor for the missing diaries and said it would switch carriers and send out more diaries for the May sweeps.

In Anchorage, KIMO General Manager Sean Bradley was so frustrated that he now plans to drop Nielsen when the station's contract expires next year. He says Nielsen has fallen short of its contracted sample in Anchorage several times before. “If we grossly underperform, our clients seek restitution,” he says. “But if Nielsen grossly underperforms, they blame it on a postal vendor.”

Bradley is accustomed to life without Nielsen. His company also owns stations in Fairbanks and Juneau, Alaska, that no longer receive ratings. The Fox affiliate in Anchorage, where he previously worked, was also Nielsen-free for a time. Alaska stations can survive without Nielsen, he says, because their advertiser base is mostly local businesses, as much as 85%, whereas most stations in the lower 48 have a more even split between local and national advertising. With so many advertisers nearby, he says, KIMO salespeople can spend time presenting alternate data.

But most media buyers still want to use ratings to negotiate price and hold stations to delivery estimates. In lieu of Nielsen, stations try to base price on supply and demand. For example, if they have the marquee programs or a market's favorite anchor team, they should be rewarded with higher rates. If a Fox station has one spot to sell on American Idol, it wants to set the price and let competition for the ad time determine the cost. The rating point is not factored into the discussion. “These are more effective ways to sell,” Nexstar's Jones says. “I can help an advertiser make a business decision, as opposed to saying my news has more viewers than their news.”

Local clients, who have relationships with their broadcasters, may take time to learn and adjust to a new system. National ad agencies may not have the time or the inclination, buyers say. “It creates more work for a buyer,” says Donna Lee Peters, a local-media buyer with Pivec Advertising who buys time in Mid-Atlantic markets. “If a station is a market leader, then people will still want to be on that station. But, for a third- or fourth-placed station, someone might not want to take the extra time.”

Tribune Broadcasting President Patrick Mullen has been an outspoken critic of Nielsen's LPM system, but he still can't imagine doing business without the data. “Their ratings are the only currency,” he says. “To not have access to that information would put a station in a difficult position to negotiate with clients.”

Still, several local-broadcast executives say they're monitoring the experience of Nexstar and other Nielsen-free stations, looking to the impact on their business. So far, Jones says, Nexstar's ad sales are strong as ever.
Life Without Nielsen

In place of Nielsen, stations have assembled qualitative data sources they consider viable alternatives. Some buy reports on their markets from Simmons Research, Media Audit and The Media Center. These surveys cover a range of topics, including buying habits, technology use and TV viewing. Unlike Nielsen, which asks its participants to record as they watch TV, these services ask viewers in phone interviews to recall what they have watched.

Although stations may not pay for Nielsen, they are hardly in the dark on their ratings. Advertising agencies that buy ratings see the data, as do the stations' competitors. Local newspapers and trade magazines often report selected results. Under copyright laws, however, the Nielsen-free stations are not permitted to use ratings in their sales proposals or materials. In interviews, most station execs declined to even discuss their market positions, although they surely know them.

It takes time to wean station staffers off ratings. KNWA's sister station in Rochester, N.Y., WROC, split with Nielsen after last November sweeps, but VP/General Manager Marc Jaromin still keeps an eye on Nielsen numbers. He says the CBS affiliate always used to notch above-average ratings for network programming, so national ratings provide a barometer. For major sports events, such as the NCAA Tournament and Buffalo Bills games, he checks ratings in nearby Buffalo, N.Y., and Pittsburgh to gauge the audience's appetite.

But not having the ratings hasn't hurt sales, Jaromin says. “We're above where we were last year, and our share of market revenue is up. In a year the market is down, that's not bad.”

fredfa

06-13-05, 12:53 AM

The waiting is the hardest part
By Maureen Ryan The Chicago Tribune June 12, 2005

If you think the 21-month wait between Season 5 and Season 6 of "The Sopranos" is the longest between-season wait in TV history, you're wrong.

Brian Ford Sullivan, the 28-year old DePaul grad who created the essential TV site TheFutonCritic.com, recently calculated the top 250 waits between seasons of television, and though "The Sopranos" appears three times in the top 20, it's not the all-time champ when it comes to delays (the entire list is at www.thefutoncritic.com/cgi/newswire.cgi d=6919).

So how'd Sullivan, come up with this exhaustive list? "It was a lot of stuff I had stored in Excel spreadsheets, all of which I'd saved over the years."

Sullivan, who now lives in L.A., says his site gets about 2.5 million page views a month. At least a tenth of those hits are from me, since TheFutonCritic.com is one-stop shopping for Nielsen info, network press releases and prime-time scheduling info, among many other things.

Now that Sullivan is in L.A., producers, network execs and writers who are fans of the site frequently get in touch and ask him to come hang out on the sets of their shows. "Sometimes I'm like, `You realize I'm just some joker with a Web site, right?'" Sullivan laughs. "[The site] really just snowballed over the years."

Top 10 waits between TV seasons

1. 1,172 days: "Family Guy" (between Season 3 and post-cancellation Season 4).

2. 749 days: "Odyssey 5" (1.1-1.2 -- the show split its first season into two parts).

3. 665 days: "Tough Enough" (3-4).

4. 637 days: "The Sopranos" (5-6 -- assuming it comes back March 5, 2006, as announced).

5. 569 days: "Project Greenlight" (2-3).

6. 560 days: "Temptation Island" (2-3).

7. 548 days: "The Chris Isaak Show" (2-3).

8. 539 days: "Curb Your Enthusiasm" (4-5).

9. 506 days: "The Lot" (1-2).

10. 497 days: "Project Greenlight" (1-2).

fredfa

06-13-05, 12:59 AM

Couric vs. Sawyer hides real fight: network survival
By Joanne Ostrow Denver Post TV Critic

It's open season on Katie Couric as the death match between the Ice Queen (Diane Sawyer) and the former Girl Next Door (Couric) gains traction. As ever, the tabloids love a catfight.

In case you haven't noticed, amid all the headlines about the Michael Jackson trial, the buzz in media circles is all about the dueling divas of TV's rival morning shows. Katie versus Diane! The claws are out!

Couric's reported runaway ego is to blame for the trashing she's getting in print these days. Sawyer's relaxed on-air style and willingness to be a goofball on national TV is credited with helping her win points for ABC.

Whatever. The fact is, after a 10- year winning streak, "Today" is no longer the dominant morning show.

Of course, the state of ABC's primetime slate (hot, with "Desperate Housewives" and "Lost" the talk of the season) versus the state of NBC's (not, with "Joey" and "ER" hardly worth bragging about) contributes to the overall ratings reversal. Additionally, there are layers of producers, researchers and writers behind the scenes who deserve credit or blame for the changing standings.

But it's easier to cast this as a girl fight.

The focus on the two stars is inescapable. New York magazine headlined its feature on the subject "Duel at Sunrise ... How the former Ice Queen left America's Sweetheart in a meltdown."

True, "Good Morning America" has closed the gap with the once-invulnerable "Today." When Sawyer and Charlie Gibson took over as co-hosts of "GMA" six years ago, their show had 3 million fewer viewers than "Today." By last year they had shaved the difference to 1.3 million. In a dramatic turnaround revealed in May, the gap had narrowed to 45,000. On some days, "GMA" actually beats "Today."

Both shows earn hundreds of millions of dollars in operating profits. While other areas of broadcasting are in decline, the morning audience continues to grow. Meanwhile, the business is reeling: Network primetime advertising revenues are flat and projected to decline. A few network chiefs went on record last week predicting that not all six networks will survive the next five years.

Executives are panicked about people skipping ads, with digital video recorders like TiVo endangering the business model itself.

Shouldn't we be talking about these ominous shifts - or at least about NBC's stunning slide from first to worst in the primetime ratings? Apparently the dames on dawn patrol make for better reading. Couric's contract is up next May. Is it possible she could be forced to bow out?

"'Forced' would be too strong a word," said media analyst Andrew Tyndall, editor of the Tyndall Report, which tracks network news programs. "I put a lot of credence in a lot of the churning that's going on" in the battle between "GMA" and "Today," he said. Still, he sees through the catfight angle.

The key factor is that ABC as an overall network is doing better, and NBC is doing worse.

Beyond that, Tyndall agreed, there's an enormous number of elements that goes into these shows. "To label it all Diane and Katie is too simplistic."

Couric became the best-paid journalist in the world with her last $16 million-a-year contract, when NBC was making super profits on the "Today" show. "Now they're just making normal profits, not obscene profits," Tyndall said. "On that logic, she should take a pay cut."

Of course big network stars don't take pay cuts. It could never happen. Could it?

"If it happened, it would be unprecedented," Tyndall said. "There's an entire industry out there that would be dismayed if that came to pass."

For now, Sawyer's importance to the success of "GMA" is shrinking. The recent promotion of frequent substitute Robin Roberts to co-anchor assures that Sawyer will do less and less, while Couric seems more and more central to the success of "Today."

Tyndall agrees the dueling diva angle is maxed out. "This is not a catfight. They can take off their wet T-shirts right now."

fredfa

06-13-05, 01:48 AM

Some Upcoming DVD Releases of Interest

June 14:
The King of Queens Season 4
Little House on the Prairie Season 8
Northern Exposure Season 3
Reno 911! The Complete 2nd Season
Saved by the Bell: The New Class Season 3
Walker, Texas Ranger The Final Season
What's New Scooby-Doo? Vol 5: Sports Spooktacular

June 21:
Bewitched Season 1: Colorized Edition
Bewitched Season 1: Original Black & White
Farscape Starburst Edition - Volume 4
The Outer Limits (New) Aliens Among Us Collection
Oz Season 5

June 21:
Daily Show Indecision 2004
The Doris Day Show Season 1
Homicide: Life on the Street Season 7
La Femme Nikita Season 3
Spenser: For Hire Spenser: The Movie Collection
The Twilight Zone Season 3: Definitive Edition
The Twilight Zone Seasons 2 & 3

July 5:
The Fantastic Four Complete Series
Monk Season 3
Tour Of Duty Season 3

July 12:
Hunter Season 2
The Mickey Mouse Club Best Of The Original Mickey Mouse Club
The Nanny The Complete 1st Season
Sealab 2021 Season 3
Titus Seasons Seasons 1 & 2

July 19:
All Creatures Great and Small Series 5
Dead Like Me Season 2
Lost In Space Season 3, Volume 2
Saved By The Bell Season 5

July 26:
3rd Rock From The Sun Season 1
America's Funniest Home Videos Season 1
The Brady Bunch Season 2
Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman Season 6
Gilligan’s Island Season 3
The Mary Tyler Moore Show Season 2
Remington Steele Season One
Silk Stalking Season 3
Star Trek: Enterprise Season 2

August 2:
The Cosby Show Season 1
The Dick Cavett Show Rock Icons
The Dukes of Hazzard Season 4
Columbo Season 3
Dallas Season 3
The Greatest American Hero Season 3
McCloud Seasons 1&2
McMillan & Wife Season 1
Roswell Season 3
T.J. Hooker Seasons 1 & 2

fredfa

06-13-05, 09:11 AM

The Closer' begins with Kyra Sedgwick
The Closer TNT, Monday, 9 ET/PT
* * * out of four
By Robert Bianco USA TODAY

If you're going to try to sell us another cop show, you'd better have someone as special as Kyra Sedgwick to close the deal. Without Sedgwick, The Closer would be a standard-issue police procedural — a decent bit of TV entertainment, but nothing more. With Sedgwick's unforced charm and her witty iron-fist-meets-velvet-glove performance, The Closer rises to the top of TV's summer bill.

Monday's commercial-free premiere introduces Sedgwick as Los Angeles deputy police chief Brenda Johnson, a Southern, CIA-trained interrogator with a reputation for being a "closer," a cop who can get people to confess.

She operates on one guiding principle: As hard as it is to uncover a secret, it's even harder to keep one.
By now, of course, we've seen just about every interrogation technique cop shows have to offer, along with every gruesome makeup trick and every forensic marvel. Wisely, The Closer offers a more reliable pleasure: an intriguing lead character.

What the show and Sedgwick give us is sort of an American version of Prime Suspect's Jane Tennison, a smart but not completely secure middle-aged woman with a passion for junk food and an ability to switch from down-home sweet to tough-cop brusque at the drop of a Ding Dong.

Plus, as a Southerner in L.A. and a female in a male-dominated department, she's a fish out of water times two — and that's something TV has never been able to resist.

Brenda has been brought to Los Angeles to head up the "Priority Murder Squad." Her first case involves a victim who can't be identified and a suspect who may not exist. But her first priority is to get some support from her rebellious squad while keeping the support of assistant police chief Will Pope, played by a somewhat underemployed J.K. Simmons.

"They may dislike me because I'm new, or because Captain Taylor (Robert Gossett) doesn't want me here," she tells Pope. "But relax, Will, because once I get to work and they see me in action, they'll have a whole list of other reasons to hate my guts."

As is common with pilots, The Closer does attempt to instantly jump-start character development by laying things on a bit too thick, from Brenda's accent to her food fetishes, to her body-image issues. Though that kind of quirk fest is acceptable for an opening hour, it will grow tiresome if the writers don't watch out.

As the title indicates, the plot is designed to resolve itself in an interrogation/confessional climax. The pilot's finish doesn't disappoint, thanks to a clever solution, a good guest performance by the prime suspect, and a nicely modulated final push by Sedgwick, who dominates the scene without sucking all the air out of the room.

By the time she's done, her team is won over. And so was I. Thanks to Sedgwick, this is one summer show that will be worth watching. You could even say closely.

fredfa

06-13-05, 10:18 AM

The weekend prime-time ratings have been posted at the top of Latest News the first item in this thread.

fredfa

06-13-05, 11:22 AM

Supreme Court: Let the FCC rules stay dead
High court declines to hear appeal on ownership
medialifemagazine.com

It looks as though the Federal Communications Commission will be taking another pass at media consolidation.

This morning the Supreme Court declined to review a case challenging the 2003 media ownership limits set by the FCC. Several broadcasters, including Tribune Co., Sinclair Broadcast Group and Clear Channel, had asked the Supreme Court to review a lower court decision ordering the agency to rewrite to the rules to address various legal flaws.

But the court will let the Philadelphia 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision stand. The court did not have any comment on the decision not to review the case. Few really expected the high court to take up the media consolidation issue. The FCC itself did not appeal the earlier decision.

But the agency has not given up on media deregulation, nor has the Bush administration. New FCC chairman Kevin Martin is a proponent, as was his predecessor, Michael Powell. Still, recrafting the rules to pass muster with the courts will be a challenge, considering the long history of courts finding fault with revisions to ownership rules. It could take several years at least and even then face legal challenges.

The rules the appeals court kicked back to the FCC eased the rules regulating what media companies could own, allowing for the ownership of a TV station and newspaper in the same market. It also eased rules on owning multiple radio and TV stations in the same market.

Opponents of the rules argued that they would enable big media companies to become all the more powerful and that diversity of expression would be squelched.

The Philadelphia court, in a ruling issued last year, found that the FCC did not provide strong enough justification for the rule changes. The FCC, it found, “has not sufficiently justified its particular chosen numerical limits for local television ownership, local radio ownership, or cross-ownership of media within local markets.”

In appealing that ruling, a group of broadcasters and newspaper publishers, which also included Belo, Gannett, Fox, NBC and CBS, said the courts should defer to the FCC’s experience in this area and trust its instincts.

The FCC voted 3-2 in June 2003 for the rule changes. The rules changes included:

--Raising from 35 percent to 45 percent the cap on a single company's reach within the national broadcast TV audience

--Easing the limits on owning more than one TV station in a market

--Easing restrictions on owning both a newspaper and a TV station in the same market

--Easing restrictions on cross ownership of radio and TV stations in the same market

--Adopting a new, geographic approach to defining radio markets for the purpose of radio ownership caps

The number of markets in which duopolies would be permitted expanded to 72, up from 28. The revised rules forbid one company from owning two of the top four TV stations in a market, however. In the top six markets tri-opolies would have been permitted under the rule changes, allowing for one company to own three stations.

fredfa

06-13-05, 11:24 AM

Pistons-Spurs Game 2 remains a dud for ABC

medialifemagazine.com---Pistons-Spurs is no Pistons-Lakers.

Though last night’s Game 2 of the NBA finals between Detroit and San Antonio was up over Thursday’s Game 1, it still is far behind last year’s average, when Los Angeles was playing.

Metered market results had Game 2 at an 8.5 household rating for ABC last night, up about 18.1 percent versus a 7.2 household rating for Game 1 on Thursday.

Still, that 8.5 is off 26.1 percent from an 11.5 average household rating for last year’s finals between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Pistons.

dline

06-13-05, 03:07 PM

Supreme Court: Let the FCC rules stay dead
High court declines to hear appeal on ownership
medialifemagazine.com

It looks as though the Federal Communications Commission will be taking another pass at media consolidation.

To add to this story, it didn't take long for FCC commissioners on both sides of the issue to respond to the Supreme Court decision. Three statements are already on the FCC web site. (http://www.fcc.gov)

Chairman Kevin Martin, who supported loosening the ownership rules, issued a statement saying simply, "I am now looking forward to working with all of my colleagues as we reevaluate our media ownership rules consistent with the Third Circuit’s guidance and our statutory obligations."

Commissioner Michael Copps, who opposed both the new rules and the FCC's approach to passing them, called today's decision "a fresh opportunity now to come up with a set of rules to encourage localism, competition, and diversity in our media."

"This decision is a rare victory for the public over some of the most powerful corporations in America," added Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein, who also opposed the new rules. "The American public is concerned about concentration in the media, and our court system has rightly responded. The court’s decision puts the issue of media consolidation right back in the FCC’s hands and gives us an opportunity for a fresh start, so we better get it right this time."

Adelstein called on the FCC to "involve the public and Congress more fully in our deliberations. We need to hold public hearings across the country, and call for more studies from experts and academics."

fredfa

06-13-05, 04:44 PM

Without getting too political, I think in recent years it has become much more clear to people on both the right and the left that allowing a few large corporations to control all the major media in the country is not a good thing.
But, we shall see.

fredfa

06-13-05, 04:49 PM

Another view:

High Court Refuses Ownership Cases
By Ted Hearn Multichannel.com 6/13/2005 5:11 PM ET

The Supreme Court refused Monday to disturb a lower-court ruling from last year that largely rejected the Federal Communications Commission’s decision to relax rules governing the ownership of newspapers, TV stations and radio stations in markets across the country.

A comprehensive media-ownership regime was an important goal of former FCC chairman Michael Powell, but a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals, in a 2-1 vote last June, struck down many of Powell’s policies as lacking solid analytical foundation, cheering consumer groups and others that believed the Powell FCC had been too deregulatory.

Among other things, Powell’s policies would have largely eliminated the ban on the common ownership of a newspaper and a TV or radio station in the same market and would have permitted one company to own up to three TV stations, at least one newspaper and up to eight radio stations in the country’s largest media markets.
Media General Inc., Tribune Co., the National Association of Broadcasters, the Newspaper Association of America and Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc. filed appeals with the Supreme Court. Without explanation, the high court turned those appeals aside.

The controversy returns to the FCC under new chairman Kevin Martin, who, as a commissioner, had backed Powell’s decision to ease ownership curbs.

"I am now looking forward to working with all of my colleagues as we re-evaluate our media-ownership rules consistent with the Third Circuit's guidance and our statutory obligations,” Martin said in a prepared statement.

Consumer groups said they are ready for a new battle with the FCC.

“I expect difficult fights ahead. Chairman Martin has signaled that he will try to divide the media-ownership proceeding into several pieces to reduce its visibility. If true, that won’t work, because the American people now know what's at stake,” said Andrew Jay Schwartzman, president of Media Access Project, a public-interest law firm that helped to defeat Powell’s policies.

keenan

06-13-05, 04:50 PM

fredfa

06-13-05, 04:57 PM

Ending the Mean Streak

By A.J. Frutkin Mediaweek.com June 13, 2005

Simon Cowell, move over. In a rare display of good winning out, the latest trend in nonscripted programming favors positive, uplifting messages over the mean-spirited story lines that once fueled the format.

Following the success of ABC’s Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (not to mention Wife Swap, Super Nanny and Fox clones Trading Spouses and Nanny 911), NBC announced the fall reality series Three Wishes. Hosted by singer Amy Grant, the show plans to travel cross-country, bettering the lives of people in need. Even Mark Burnett, producer of such backstabbing shows as Survivor and The Apprentice, fell prey to the trend, announcing earlier this spring he was shopping a similarly charitable series loosely based on the CBS drama Touched by an Angel.

Meanwhile, ABC continues to expand its feel-good reality slate, announcing fall series like Miracle Worker and Welcome to the Neighborhood and summer shows like Brat Camp and The Scholar. It’s a far cry from Are You Hot?, the net’s trashy 2003 program that set out in search of America’s sexiest people.

The network’s new tack may look like a strategic zag to Hot’s zig, but ABC executives acknowledged they simply stumbled onto the genre. “Was it premeditated? No,” said Andrea Wong, executive vp of alternative series and specials at ABC Entertainment. “But once one or two of these shows started to work, we realized we were building a brand.” And that brand seems to have spurred an industry-wide trend. For example, the WB’s summer series Beauty and the Geek appears to play off the time-honored disparagement of the socially inept. But WB entertainment president David Janollari said the series peels back its mean-spirited façade to reveal a heart.

“These are people who probably never would have encountered each other in the real world,” Janollari said of the show’s female beauties and male geeks. “But they all walk away from the experience with a positive feeling.”

Whether it’s homecoming queens giving nerds grooming tips or just neighbors helping out a friend in need, Wong noted that the positive feeling these shows provide is something viewers seem to crave. “In a world where the economy is uncertain, where we’re at war and where we’re still not feeling secure after 9/11, viewers are looking for something that just feels good,” she said.

So are buyers. Although advertisers have flocked to nonscripted shows like American Idol and Survivor, many remain skittish about the more extreme subgenres, i.e. Fox’s Temptation Island. Several buyers said the latest crop of feel-good shows represents a win-win for them and their clients.

“The fact that these shows aren’t mean-spirited or otherwise risqué clearly is a positive development when it comes to advertisers,” said Laura Caraccioli-Davis, vp/director of Starcom Entertainment.

So can viewers say goodbye to the Omarosas (an Apprentice villain) of the world?

NBCU’s cable entertainment president Jeff Gaspin, who continues to oversee nonscripted series at NBC, said shows like The Apprentice, which can bring out the worst in contestants, aren’t dead—at least not yet. “It was certainly a novelty. And then you reach a saturation point,” he said of reality’s mean streak. “So it probably will slow down a bit.”

fredfa

06-13-05, 05:11 PM

Television Review:
'Reno 911' kicks off third trash-camp season -- in jail

BY PAIGE WISER Chicago Sun-Times Staff Reporter June 13, 2005

When we last left our heroes, they had not only been kicked off the Reno police force, but jailed -- on charges including, but not limited to, dereliction of duty and sexual indiscretion. The district attorney didn't know the half of it.

So the third season of "Reno 911" begins with Reno's finest behind bars. The deputies are all roommates, and they are unquestionably thriving. They're brushing up on their conversational German, in fact. Ah, we've missed our trashy friends.

The show started out as a "Cops" parody. Drunk, stupid criminals with blurred faces and bleeped-out dialogue: It was comedic platinum.

By now, it has gelled into an ensemble so comfortable with each other, so comfortable with their characters, that even the throw-away lines are a scream. On average, I laughed out loud every two minutes.

There's the preening Lt. Dangle (Thomas Lennon), sticking with his hot-pants uniform; the bootylicious Raineesha (Niecy Nash), who prefers not to have backup when singing old slave spirituals; the resident strapping stud (Cedric Yarbrough), who can croon into a woman's ear, "You smell like peanut butter cookies, you know that?" and still close the deal.

My favorite remains Deputy Trudy Wiegel (Kerry Kenney-Silver). She's funny -- but in an exquisitely painful way. Wiegel's a depressive who somehow always manages to look on the bright side. Like the nice thing about prison: "They have a very good suicide watch program there."

But the title, you may have noticed, is still "Reno 911." Will our hapless heroes be cleared of all charges? Will they ever be back on the beat again?

Yes, and in short order. The improv-based comedy depends on silly situations. Wisely, they never stay in one for long. Future episodes have the deputies receiving a visit from public television's "Reading Ron," guarding Liberace's piano and enticing the Hot Tub King of Reno.

They may not serve anyone, but they protect us from good taste.

Reno 911 10PM Tuesday ET/PT Comedy Central

fredfa

06-13-05, 06:40 PM

Jackson specials

Both NBC and CBS will air Michael Jackson specials Monday night at 8 PM ET/PT.
The CBS News version will run 30 minutes.
The NBC News special will last a full hour.

(Perhaps by the next "Trial Of The Century" such specials will be in HD .)

fredfa

06-13-05, 06:47 PM

Picking hits lies in right scheduling mix
It's not always easy to find best lead-out for a smash hit

By RICK KISSELL Variety.com

HOLLYWOOD -- One of the biggest problems facing NBC as it attempts to climb out of the cellar this fall is that it has so few platforms from which to launch hits.

This is not the case at the other nets, however, as each of them has effectively used their high-rated programs -- from "Desperate Housewives" and "American Idol" -- to funnel viewers into promising new shows.

Still, it's not always easy to find the right lead-out for a smash hit. It took CBS four tries, for example, before it planted "Without a Trace" to follow "CSI," and Fox tried a handful of shows behind "Idol" until "House" clicked.

This fall, ABC will try to take better advantage of its breakout hit "Lost," while on a smaller scale, Fox will again look for something behind "The OC," and UPN will try to take advantage of "America's Next Top Model."

Perhaps the best example of building a sked piece by piece is what CBS has done on Thursday. Once it established "Survivor" as its anchor in 2001, the Eye quickly paired it with hot drama "CSI" to form a powerhouse block.

But the post-"CSI" hour remained problematic, as none of the shows it tried -- "48 Hours" and the dramas "The Agency" and "Big Apple" -- could hold on to more than 40% of its "CSI" lead-in.

Net then went with the more thematically compatible "Without a Trace" (like "CSI," from Jerry Bruckheimer), and it has grown into a hit, initially holding about 50% of its lead-in and recently topping 60%.

Last season, Fox found the ideal show to follow "American Idol" on Tuesday in medical mystery "House," which had generated some buzz but tepid ratings prior to having "Idol" as a skedmate. In the May sweep, "House" held about 70% of the "Idol" aud -- much better than other shows, including "24" and "The OC," that followed the megahit in previous years.

Once ABC realized it had a big hit with "Desperate Housewives" last fall, it could no longer settle for the mediocre ratings behind it with "Boston Legal," which was holding less than half of the "DH" lead-in most weeks. Enter "Grey's Anatomy," which grew throughout its season-ending run and topped 70% retention. Although an entirely different show, "Grey's" is tonally similar to "Housewives," and it's not surprising that ABC is sticking with this combo next season.

Looking ahead to fall, the Alphabet will try to do better Wednesdays in the hour behind "Lost," which shifts to 9 o'clock. Last season saw "Alias" retain an unsatisfactory 55%-60% of its "Lost" lead-in, and the net's momentum on the night faded. If new sci-fi drama "Invasion" can hold about two-thirds of "Lost," it figures to challenge for the timeslot lead at 10 opposite "CSI: NY" and "Law & Order."

Also on Wednesday, UPN will try to improve in the post-"Top Model" hour, where "Kevin Hill" held a disappointing 42% of its 18-34 lead-in. It will be tough for "Veronica Mars" to top 50%, but the sked switch from Tuesday gives the cult fave its best chance to break out.

And Fox will be trying again to hold on to more of its "OC" aud on Thursday, after "North Shore," "Point Pleasant" and "Tru Calling" retained an average 55% of the sudser's 18-49 average. This fall, Fox turns to "Reunion," a unique drama that looks at the lives of a group of friends in the 20 years following high school graduation (with each episode repping one year).

A great idea whose pilot is well-executed, "Reunion" could hold 75% or more of its "OC" lead-in and put Fox in its most competitive Thursday position in years.

fredfa

06-13-05, 09:06 PM

I posted this in the massive "Lost" thread, but if you don't go there, you might find the story interesting:

An island of Losties
Like Trekkies before them, devoted fans of the current hit TV show find camaraderie at a convention
By Roy Rivenburg Los Angeles Times Staff Writer June 14, 2005

What's inside the mysterious hatch on ABC's hit TV show "Lost"? Maybe a tunnel to Burbank, where a dozen cast and crew members surfaced over the weekend for the world's first official "Lost" convention.

In an event that was billed as "history in the making," fans hobnobbed with the show's stars, scooped up "Lost" merchandise and unearthed a few secrets about the cryptic series, which is like a cross between "Twilight Zone" and "Gilligan's Island."

The two-day convention was organized by Creation Entertainment, a Glendale company that also runs fan conventions for "Star Trek," "Xena" and other shows with cult followings.

Nobody wore costumes to this confab, unless you count the woman with the red blob of fake flesh attached to her shoulder. "It's a piece of Arzt," she explained, referring to the character who inadvertently blew himself up in the season finale.

Other "Losties," who paid as much as $189 per ticket, were just as ardent about the show. One asked actor John Terry, who plays the father of Jack, if he was "in need of female companionship." Terry said he was "happily married."

At the end of a Q&A session with several of the show's writers, one audience member shouted, "Don't kill Sawyer," referring to the island's hunky bad boy. Executive producer Damon Lindelof replied, "We won't. But he did get shot, which means his shirt will be off in a future episode." As female crowd members whooped, Lindelof added, "And he'll be wet" (Sawyer fell into the ocean after being shot).

Many of the audience questions focused on various conundrums from the Wednesday night show, which will move to 9 p.m. this fall. Set on a strange tropical island, the sci-fi series revolves around 14 survivors of a plane crash, and their encounters with an unseen monster, a polar bear, the wreckage of a 150-year-old slave ship and other oddities.

"Have any of you heard of string theory?" Terry asked at the beginning of his talk. "I think the characters have fallen into a tear in the fabric of the universe, and they're co-creating this reality." But, he added, "I really don't know. And even if I did know, I couldn't tell you or I'd have to kill every one of you."

It's a familiar refrain among the show's cast and crew.

"You learn to become artful about giving infuriatingly vague answers," writer Javier Grillo-Marxuach said backstage. "I don't even show the scripts to my wife."

He added, "Our fans are like Talmudic scholars. They have created a body of scholarship about every episode."

About a month after the series debuted, Grillo-Marxuach was walking his dog when a neighbor yelled from across the street, "Are they dead?" Grillo-Marxuach shouted back, "No, they're not dead." The neighbor replied, "Really? Then why are their clothes so clean?"

At the convention, Grillo-Marxuach and his colleagues dangled a handful of clues to fans. "The plane did not crash by accident," Lindelof told the crowd. "It crashed for a very specific reason." But he dismissed speculation that someone aboard the plane caused the crash. "I will tell you today that is not the case."

He also promised, "Season 2 is gonna get weird" — though he and other writers promised the mysteries wouldn't drag on as long as "The X Files," which ran nine seasons.

Other tidbits:

What's inside the mysterious hatch will be interesting, but not as interesting as the effect it has on the John Locke character, according to Grillo-Marxuach.

The rear section of the plane — and additional survivors — will be discovered during the second season.

The people who kidnapped Walt, the young boy, are the "others" on the island.

Eight infants have played the newborn son of Claire on the show. "They keep growing," so new ones have to be brought in, said Emilie de Ravin, who plays Claire. "It's a constant struggle to find newborn Caucasian babies in Hawaii," where the show is taped.

Fans came from as far away as Toronto, Brooklyn and Alaska for the convention, but Creation Entertainment officials admitted they were disappointed by the turnout. Although they had hoped for a crowd of 1,000, actual attendance was closer to 800, they estimated. Even that might be generous, judging from Sunday's crowd. The ballroom, with seating for 280, was never full.

One fan, Marianna Anderson, blamed the weak attendance on a shortage of marquee names, such as the actors who play Jack, Kate or Sawyer. Organizers did recruit De Ravin and Jorge Garcia, who plays Hurley. But after that, the speaker lineup went to such second-tier characters as evil Ethan (William Mapother), and the psychic who warned Claire about her baby (Nick Jameson, a former member of the rock group Foghat).

The fans didn't seem to mind. Many crept up the center aisle on their knees to snap photos while the actors spoke. They also stood in a long line for autographs, and bought $25 T-shirts and caps, $40 canvas posters, $8 stainless steel shot glasses and $130 "Lost" jackets.

At one point, Terry was asked to sign a photo using his character's name. He paused, searching his memory. "Christian Shephard," the woman offered. Is that with one "p" or two, he asked. Someone pulled out a program and supplied the correct spelling.

Convention organizers said the weekend event was the first of six "Lost" gatherings planned for the next year. The next will be held in Northern California sometime before the end of 2005, they said.

fredfa

06-14-05, 12:14 AM

A Lighter and Brighter “CSI:NY”
Creator Zuiker talks 'CSI' at Banff

By TAMSEN TILLSON [B]Variety.com

BANFF, Alberta -- "CSI: New York" is going to have a new look and lighter feel to it next year, creator and executive producer Anthony Zuiker told delegates at the Banff World Television Festival on Monday.

"There will be no more basement labs for the show," he said. "The labs and sets will take place in a vertical city, 35 or 40 stories up."

He described the pilot for the "CSI" spinoff he wrote, "Blink," as a gritty and aggressive exploration of post-9/11 themes. But it was too dark for viewers.

"The show came off as grim and dour and depressing," he said. "It was too much about the underbelly of New York."

Zuiker is a special guest at this year's festival.

fredfa

06-14-05, 12:22 AM

As the Verdict Comes Down, Pundits' Crystal Balls Go Foggy

By Lisa de Moraes The Washington Post Tuesday, June 14, 2005; C07

Television brought the country together like one big rubbernecking family as the verdict was read yesterday in Michael Jackson's 3 1/2 -month trial on child-molestation charges.

At 3:34 p.m., when word came out that the jury had reached a verdict in its seventh day of deliberation, cable news networks shifted into high gear. The broadcast networks, no doubt nettled that the trial had not wrapped in time to get the moment into the May sweeps, waited a couple of minutes before breaking briefly into regularly scheduled fare to announce that a verdict had been reached. They told viewers they would return in about 45 minutes for the reading of the verdict -- signaling to Jackson fans and the morbidly curious that they should jump over to the cable networks. Maybe broadcasters should rethink that strategy the next time the trial of a faded celebrity comes up.

With the broadcast networks returning their stations to "Dr. Phil," "General Hospital," "Guiding Light" and the like, the cable news networks got to work at what they do best -- talking through the wait.

At Fox News Channel, talk turned to what would happen if Michael Jackson did not show up at the courthouse, noting that his three-SUV caravan was still parked at Neverland and with the clock ticking, he might not get to the Santa Barbara County Superior Court by 4:30 p.m., when the judge had said the verdict would be read.

FNC's Los Angeles-based correspondent Trace Gallagher reported from the courthouse in Santa Maria that an ambulance had arrived and that if Jackson, who probably would not tip the scales at more than 105 pounds, was convicted and fainted, "he will be taken out on a stretcher and that will be one vivid picture of Michael Jackson's health."

Fox's Shep Smith wondered what would happen if Jackson simply did not show up.

Gallagher noted that Roger Friedman at FoxNews.com was reporting that Jackson had stayed at the Santa Ynez Inn, not at Neverland, the night before, adding, "Michael Jackson has reportedly been everywhere except hiding with Elvis in the last five days.

"We don't know where Michael is at this point, Shep," he said.

This inspired Shep Smith to imagine that Jackson must be absolutely terrified and that it was not out of the realm of possibility that he was just refusing to leave.

Debate followed as to whether Jackson's mother would collapse if he was found guilty on the more serious counts. "I fully expect Jackson, who barely made it through the trial, who almost didn't get here on Pajama Party Day, that if he is convicted, his mother may collapse in the courtroom," FNC's legal analyst Jim Hammer forecast.

They prattled on about how, if convicted, Jackson would go into a holding cell in the courthouse and then be led out the back, would be driven to the Santa Barbara County Jail at high speed, surrounded by police officers; handcuffs would be involved; and how authorities would not take any chance that he might flee or kill himself.

Over at CNN, Robert Shapiro, lead attorney on O.J. Simpson's defense team, boldly predicted that the jury would render a guilty verdict "that will not have Michael Jackson singing 'Beat It.' "

"I think he's going to be convicted," Shapiro said, noting that he recently polled 36 judges who had tried cases where prior-acts evidence was admitted, and in 35 instances, there had been convictions. He also noted helpfully that Jackson would be in jail for six months to two years pending appeal and "from my perspective one day in jail will be more than he can manage."

And over at MSNBC, legal analyst Susan Filan -- among those covering the trial who had been heckled by the Jackson-obsessed crowd outside the court each day -- noted that an eerie calm had descended upon the weirdsmobiles, "almost like in the eye of a hurricane," though she predicted "pandemonium" once the verdict was read.

MSNBC moved on to ponder whether if Jackson was found not guilty of felony counts but guilty of misdemeanor charges he could survive even probation.

When the 46-year-old pop has-been finally arrived, looking wan in sunglasses and a dark suit, FNC noted he did not look well and Gallagher reminded viewers about that ambulance standing nearby. On CNN, viewers learned that if the jurors look at Jackson, it will signal acquittal, but if they don't, it would be bad news for the King of Punchlines.

With seconds to go, former prosecutor and FNC guest Wendy Murphy noted that this was "the exact number of days it took the Scott Peterson jury to reach its verdict. "Frankly, it is too long for an acquittal, not quite long enough for a hung jury. I don't think it's quite long enough for an outright acquittal. I think there is no question we will see convictions here."

"Really?" Shep Smith asked.

"No questions in terms of the timing," she said. "I don't think there is any doubt," she said, but she hedged a bit, saying the jury might convict on the more minor stuff.

The verdict was read.

Not guilty on all 10 counts.

A big disappointment for the cable news networks, but they soldiered on:

"I certainly did" think it would go the other way, Shapiro confessed on CNN. "I didn't think Michael Jackson would be singing 'Beat It.' . . . He will be doing the moonwalk."

Shapiro said he hoped the public would accept the verdict because the jury is "from a very conservative part of California and if they had no doubt, none of us should have any doubt."

On FNC, a disappointed Murphy suggested that Jackson's nickname be changed from King of Pop to Teflon Molester, adding, "We need IQ tests for jurors."

"These jurors have to go to bed tonight and wake up tomorrow and look at themselves in the mirror. And they basically put targets on the backs of all, especially highly vulnerable, kids that will now come into Michael Jackson's life."

Last night, CBS preempted its sitcom "Still Standing" for a half-hour "48 Hours" broadcast on the verdict, while NBC preempted "Fear Factor" for a "Dateline" special. And what of ABC, the network that arguably started it all when it broadcast the Martin Bashir documentary in which Jackson happily discussed sharing his bed with the then-13-year-old cancer victim at the center of the case? At press time, the network had no plans for a prime-time special on the outcome.

fredfa

06-14-05, 10:28 AM

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

fredfa

06-14-05, 11:39 AM

“Veronica Mars” Pilot

If you missed it last season, UPN is repeating it tonight at 9 PM ET/PT.

At the very least, "Veronica Mars" is a series worth checking out during the summer doldrums.

Xesdeeni

06-14-05, 11:44 AM

Yes, in spite of the teenage girl target demographic of UPN, Veronica Mars is a very well-done, somewhat mature, show. The main character is witty, funny, and ok...decent to look at. And the fact that they actually answer some questions at season's end (as opposed to other overarching mystery shows) makes it well worth the time investment.

Xesdeeni

Xesdeeni

06-14-05, 11:55 AM

Originally posted by Xesdeeni
Originally posted by fredfa
If true, too bad about "Eyes".
It sure seems better than about half of the new NBC schedule. Originally posted by Alan Gordon
Shame, as it was a truly "fun" show to watch.Originally posted by f44
That's exactly what it was...a fun show. Just fun to watch and see the plot unravel and Harland's wisecracks.

ABC didn't promote it enough, used promos that made it seem like a [i]Karen Sisco-type show for women, put it in an incredibly tough time slot against two other dramas, and launched it at an awkward time.As proof that it was not really given a chance, I have all the episodes recorded (in HD) and unwatched. I can't vouch for whether the show is good or not. We don't watch anything live, and we choose our already favorites when we watch recordings. We only took time to check out a couple of mid-season replacements, mostly the ones we figured we wouldn't like (like Life on a Stick, although we were surprised by Gray's Anatomy). So in the next week or so (now that the season is ending), we'll catch up on our known favorites and move to the other shows we thought we'd give a chance, along with Numb3rs, Revelations, etcetera.Well, we watched all five episodes of Eyes and it was great! I cannot believe they cancelled it.

It was a mid-season replacement, put against CSI:NY, and only ran for five episodes. What did ABC expect to happen!? Talk about setting it up for failure.

After watching Eyes, my wife and I both would have watched it instead of CSI:NY.

Wait...I know...the same morons who sank NBC after they were at the top of the heap must have moved over to ABC!

Xesdeeni

fredfa

06-14-05, 12:48 PM

Sadly, the NBC troops are still at the helm.

fredfa

06-14-05, 03:44 PM

Closer Sets Cable Record

By Anne Becker Broadcasting & Cable

As cable’s high season for originals heats up, Tuner’s TNT and NBC Universal’s USA are battling it out in the ratings.

The Closer, the second of three major original offerings from TNT this summer, earned a 4.8 household rating for its 9 p.m. series debut, the highest rated basic-cable original scripted series telecast ever, according to Nielsen Media Research.

The Kyra Sedgwick-starring detective drama, which aired commercial-free courtesy of Audi, beat out USA’s sci-fi themed The 4400 for the title, which held the record at a 4.6 rating when it bowed as a mini-series last July.

The 4400, however, still holds top honors for total viewers on a cable scripted series – it averaged 7.4 million for last season’s two-hour debut while last night’s hour-long Closer pulled in 7.03 million.

This year, back as a full series, The 4400 continues to perform well.

In its second hour-long episode last week, it drew 4.38 million total viewers Sunday at 9 p.m. The network’s fourth-season premiere of psychic thriller, The Dead Zone, which followed 4400 at 10 p.m., pulled in a healthy 3.45 million total viewers.

The two USA shows ranked as top two cable originals with 18-49-year-olds for the week ending June 12 – 2.54 million for The 4400 and 1.89 million for Dead Zone (Closer aired June 13).

But TNT, which also has original crime drama Wanted coming next month, still averaged the most total viewers in prime for the week – 3.75 million, followed by USA’s 2.32 million.

That was thanks to the start of the Turner network’s six-week limited series, Into the West, which earned 6.47 million total viewers in its two-hour premiere Friday night.

That made it the second most viewed show of the week behind only the network’s June 6 Pistons/Heat game.

Xesdeeni

06-14-05, 04:14 PM

WTF happened to TVTome (http://www.tvtome.com/)!?

And all the links from my Fall 2005 schedule (http://www.geocities.com/xesdeeni2001/TVFall2005.html) broken!

Bastards!

Xesdeeni

dturturro

06-14-05, 04:59 PM

WTF happened to TVTome (http://www.tvtome.com/)!?

And all the links from my Fall 2005 schedule (http://www.geocities.com/xesdeeni2001/TVFall2005.html) broken!

Bastards!

Xesdeeni

TV Tome is now TV.com

It looks pretty cool but I haven't had time to dig into it yet. Looking forward to the weekend for that. Wow, how sad does that sound?!

mikey p

06-14-05, 05:50 PM

"TV Tome is now TV.com"

Thanks for the tip.

keenan

06-14-05, 05:51 PM

It looks pretty cool but I haven't had time to dig into it yet. Looking forward to the weekend for that. Wow, how sad does that sound?!

Dude.... :eek:

fredfa

06-14-05, 08:22 PM

The Sopranos: On the lam
By Alan Sepinwall Newark NJ Star-Ledger

Look, I get it. I get it. The men and woman responsible for writing and producing "The Sopranos" need a lot of time between seasons to make the Jersey mob drama as good as they possibly can. They need prolonged vacations to clear their heads of the world of Tony, Carmela and Paulie Walnuts, and when they come back to work, they need more time to film 13 episodes than a network drama takes to film 22. Much as I'm annoyed that there won't be another new episode until March of next year, I'd rather wait for greatness than see them rush the shows to the air before they're ready.

But when this perfectionist streak means it's going to be nearly two calendar years between the end of season 5 and the start of season 6, it's only fair to ask Team Soprano to give fans some small morsel to tide them over during the loooooooong hiatus. And the season 5 DVD set, which hits stores last Tuesday, just isn't enough. "Sopranos" DVDs have never been known for their brilliant or abundant extra content. In an interview segment on the first season collection, for instance, creator David Chase looks like he's being interrogated by the KGB.

The episodes collected on the new set are among the best in the show's history and represent the most consistent, dramatically satisfying season since the first. But the extras attached to them are the same old, same old: A handful of commentary tracks that don't offer much meaningful dish, and nothing else.

The best of the bunch is Drea de Matteo discussing Adriana's farewell episode, and she spends half the time apologizing for not having anything interesting to say. Still, she talks about the four hours she spent in hair and makeup every day to look like her tacky alter ego and admits the episode was so emotionally grueling for everyone that "we went out drinking every night.

"I am not rooting for the Sopranos anymore," she says later, in light of what happened to Adriana, "because she was such a good girl."

The other commentaries feature directors of four of the episodes, including Peter Bogdanovich, Steve Buscemi and Mike Figgis.

Bogdanovich goes through his usual directorial name-dropping routine (he busts out his Hitchcock impression twice), and Buscemi is fairly reserved on his commentary, though he at least hints at being annoyed that Chase forced the great Polly Bergen to audition for her guest role as Johnny Soprano's ex-mistress because everyone has to audition for the show -- everyone, that is, except Chase's old buddy Tim Daly , who was simply offered the role of Christopher's 12-step pal.

The British Figgis ("Leaving Las Vegas") has plenty of compliments for the cast and crew but not much insight into the much-discussed slo-mo/freeze-frame shot of Carmela walking away from ex-lover Mr. Wegler.

"That's a really interesting transition, and it wasn't the way I expected the scene to look at the end there," he says.

And if ever an episode were begging for not only a commentary, but annotated subtitles, it would be the controversial "The Test Dream," where more than half the episode was spent inside Tony Soprano's subconscious. Even if Chase or episode co-writer Matthew Weiner decided they wanted to leave a lot of the dream imagery, they could have at least bothered to footnote the factual stuff, "Pop-Up Videos"-style.

You know, "The voice of God on the phone is David Chase," or "'The Valachi Papers' by Peter Maas was the first book to provide an inside look at the workings of organized crime."

Something. Anything but the bare minimum.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

In other 'Sopranos' news

Between now and March, there are going to be plenty of stories written suggesting that Chase is changing his mind about this being the last season, if only because Chase has declined to definitively rebut any of them. In the latest of them, TVGuide.com is claiming Chase would do an abbreviated seventh and final season, a la the six-episode swan song for "Sex and the City."

For now, though, it's just a rumor. And I imagine any seventh season probably wouldn't be done before, oh, 2010?

fredfa

06-14-05, 09:58 PM

It's morning, and it's rowdy
As the TV shows duke it out for Jackson trial figures, NBC's "Today" pulls ahead in ratings
By Matea Gold Los Angeles Times Staff Writer June 15, 2005

NEW YORK -- In Tuesday's installment of the fevered morning show wars, "Today" drew the first blood.

Co-anchor Katie Couric opened the broadcast by securing an exclusive with Michael Jackson's attorney, Thomas A. Mesereau Jr., which NBC flagged with an emblem "First on Today" in the corner of the screen.

"This is his very first interview since the verdict," Couric noted as she introduced him.

But her scoop didn't last long.

Over at ABC's Times Square studio, "Good Morning America's" Charlie Gibson also interviewed Mesereau by satellite, half an hour later.

ABC scored its own coup by persuading six Jackson jurors to be flown across the country for a live in-studio interview with Diane Sawyer.

"Today's" Matt Lauer shot back with two juror interviews but had to do them via satellite. Later in the show, NBC had two other jurors in the studio for interviews, but only after waiting for them to wrap up at ABC.

Tuesday's broadcasts offered a glimpse of the tight competition between the two top-rated morning shows and underscored how "Today" is fighting to maintain an edge in the face of "Good Morning America's" recent climb in the ratings.

Nearly two months after taking over the NBC program, Executive Producer Jim Bell and executive-in-charge Phil Griffin have sought to re-energize the show by aggressively pursuing exclusive newsmaker interviews, giving the anchors more freedom to ad lib, and encouraging creative approaches.

"We want to make the show sparkle, and hopefully we've done a little of that," Griffin said in a recent interview. "It's about creativity, finding the right edge to the story."

So, while "Good Morning America" beat out "Today" for a live behind-the-scenes tour of the King Tut exhibit at LACMA on Tuesday, two days before it opens to the public, "Today" sought to one-up the competition by dispatching correspondent Campbell Brown to Egypt. She conducted a live tour of the actual King Tut tomb with an Egyptologist.

(For its part, ABC had correspondent David Wright live in Giza, Egypt, where he introduced a taped segment about the "curse of the mummy.")

For almost a decade, "Today" has remained the undisputed champ of the morning shows. But in recent months, "Good Morning America" put a scare into NBC by coming close to surpassing it in viewership. In early May, "Today" was edging its ABC rival by only 45,000 viewers.

However, in the last five weeks, NBC has pulled away. By the end of the month, "Today's" lead was up to 497,000 viewers, according to Nielsen Media Research. Early estimates indicate that it grew to more than half a million last week.

In overall viewership, "Today" is still down from last year, averaging 5.9 million viewers this season to date, compared with 6.2 million viewers at this point last year. Meanwhile, "Good Morning America" has an average viewership of 5.3 million, up from 5 million during this time last year.

CBS' "The Early Show," perpetually in third place, has averaged 3.3 million viewers to date this year, a little more than half of the viewership of its network rivals.

Being first is not just a matter of pride — the morning programs are the most profitable parts of the network news divisions, and the highest-ranked show can charge advertisers a premium.

NBC officials expressed relief at the recent ratings trend.

"The show is demonstrably better, and I think the audience has clearly noticed," said NBC Universal Television Group President Jeff Zucker. In late April, he fired executive producer Tom Touchet in response to ABC's gains.

Zucker — the executive producer who guided "Today" to its top-ranked standing in 1995, where it has remained ever since — praised Bell and Griffin for speeding up the pacing of the program and returning the program to "its news roots."

In the last few weeks, Couric and Lauer have interviewed a spate of newsmakers, including U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, U.S. Atty. Gen. Alberto R. Gonzales, Democratic Party Chairman Howard Dean and Madonna.

NBC is already plugging the exclusive interview Couric scored with runaway bride Jennifer Wilbanks and her fiancé, John Mason, set to air in a prime-time special June 21, with portions broadcast that morning and the next on "Today."

The new executives have also eliminated much of the scripted banter between the two anchors, allowing Couric and Lauer to talk off-the-cuff instead. The change has allowed for a more relaxed dynamic between the longtime co-hosts, who enjoy teasing one another.

"It's important whenever possible to bring some spontaneity to live TV," Bell said. "One change we've tried to make is getting those two, among the best ad-libbers, to have a conversation, be it serious, funny or light."

Ben Sherwood, executive producer of "Good Morning America," acknowledged that his competitors have stepped up their game.

"They've taken it up a level," he said. "They're very aggressively going after stories. They've opened the show up so the anchors can be more themselves."

But he's not willing to accede "Today" the crown.

Under Sherwood, who has been in his post since April 2004, the ABC program has developed a fast-paced menu of news and pop culture. News anchor Robin Roberts has also joined Gibson and Sawyer at the desk as a co-anchor.

"The strategy is to stick with the game plan that has been working, to bring the most urgent, relevant and watchable program," Sherwood said. "We're exactly where we want to be."

Often, the competition between the programs resembles an endless volley between top-ranked tennis players.

On Friday, for example, while "Today" had an interview with the father of Natalee Holloway, the 18-year-old who is missing after a class trip to Aruba, "Good Morning America" interviewed her mother — whom "Today" promptly booked for Monday's show. ABC then brought her back Tuesday.

Both programs, meanwhile, have to keep an eye on "The Early Show," which has aggressively sought to stay in the competitive mix. On Tuesday, Executive Producer Michael Bass proudly touted that the program had Mesereau, three Jackson case jurors and an interview with the singer's brother Jermaine.

"On a story where all the biggest names in the business are going for the interview, we're usually at a little bit of a disadvantage," Bass said. "But we're scrappy and we're fighters and we don't give up."

fredfa

06-14-05, 10:10 PM

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

fredfa

06-15-05, 12:44 AM

Weekly Ratings Notes
ABC keeps on its toes
By Gary LevinUSA TODAY

•Dance fever. ABC's surprise hit Dancing with the Stars topped the Nielsens in its second week with 15.1 million viewers, a 12% gain over its premiere. NBC's Hit Me Baby One More Time fell 18% to 7.3 million, but ranked a solid eighth among young adults.

•Prime-time Pitt. Foreshadowing the $51 million opening-weekend haul for Mr. & Mrs. Smith, Diane Sawyer's Primetime Live Brad Pitt interview on Tuesday averaged a strong 11.2 million viewers and vaulted the ABC newsmagazine into the week's top five.

•Summer doldrums. Fox's drama reject The Inside got off to a sluggish summer start with 4.8 million viewers Wednesday, matching Monday's failing grade for ABC reality series The Scholar. CBS' Apprentice-like Tommy Hilfiger show The Cut didn't do much better with 6.6 million Thursday and was trumped by Tuesday's hidden-camera prank Fire Me ... Please with 8.3 million.

•Go West. TNT's sprawling Into the West miniseries scored despite tepid reviews. Friday's two-hour opener averaged 6.5 million viewers, and 3.1 million watched a repeat that immediately followed.

•MTV cool(s). The MTV Movie Awards, hosted by Jimmy Fallon, fell to 4.7 million viewers Thursday, down 21% from last year's show and the lowest total since 1998.

•NBA swish. ABC's first two games of the NBA Finals, with about 10.6 million viewers, were down sharply vs. last year's Pistons-Lakers matchup. And they didn't do much better than Game 7 of the Pistons-Heat conference finals on TNT Sunday, the week's top cable program with 9.1 million.

•Six Feet is under. The final-season premiere of HBO's Six Feet Under averaged 2.6 million viewers in its new Monday home, 30% below last season's average. Sunday, the second episode of Entourage fell to 1.2 million, from 1.6 million for last week's premiere, while Lisa Kudrow's The Comeback dropped to 925,000 from 1.5 million.

•No kudos for Bravo. The Queer Eye season premiere averaged 1.2 million Tuesday, a shadow of its 3 million peak two years ago. And Blow Out (661,000) did just as badly as last year's edition.

fredfa

06-15-05, 10:27 AM

Tuesday’s prime-time numbers and 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.

fredfa

06-15-05, 10:32 AM

I posted this note in its own thread, but it belongs here, too:

Madden Joins NBC's Sunday Night Football

By John Eggerton Broadcasting & Cable

John Madden is joining NBC as the analyst for its new Sunday Night Football package in a six-year deal.

He had been ABC's Monday Night Football analyst, but that game is moving to ESPN in 2006, while ESPN's Sunday game is going to NBC at the same time.

fredfa

06-15-05, 10:54 AM

Rupert Murdoch Strikes Back
His bold plan to give away 20 million digital video recorders
By Edward Jay Epstein slate.com

Never underestimate Rupert Murdoch as a true visionary of the New Hollywood—or his power to uproot and reshape it. Back in 1983, when it was considered little more than a sci-fi pipe dream for man-made satellites to send high-definition movies to homes around the world, Murdoch was positioning an armada 22,300 miles above the earth. His satellites were placed in the Clarke Ring, named after Arthur C. Clarke, who wrote the science-fiction classic 2001: A Space Odyssey. In this high orbit, they would serve as broadcasting platforms that could beam down movies—as well as sports events, news, and other programming—to tiny home antennas.

It took another two decades for Murdoch to complete his bold master plan. In 2003, he bought control of DirecTV—the largest provider of satellite television in America—which, along with his Sky TV in Europe and Latin America, and Star TV in Asia and the Antipodes, gave him some 40 million subscribers. He then announced that by the end of 2005 his satellites would have the capacity to transmit 500 channels of high-definition programs.

Girdling the earth with satellites was just the beginning. Even before Murdoch completed his acquisition of DirecTV, he told financiers at Morgan Stanley's Global Media Conference that he planned to marry the satellites above with TiVo-like home recorders below, explaining that "every subscriber will be getting either a free digital video recorder or one for nominal amounts of money." And, to this end, he placed an order for 20 million digital video recorders for his customers.

Murdoch is attempting to revolutionize the world's video-rental market (both VHS and DVD). Since its inception in the late 1970s, video renting has been an inefficient business. Indeed, on first hearing the business model, Warner Bros. titan Steve Ross asked incredulously, "Can we really expect millions of busy people to get in their car, drive to a store, pick out a movie, stand in line, fill out a rental agreement, pay a deposit, drive home, play it on their VCR and then, the next day, repeat the procedure in reverse to return it?" Even with improvements in swiping credit cards and mail-in schemes such as Netflix, renting remains a cumbersome affair.

Murdoch plans to digitally deliver movies and other programming from his satellites to home digital video recorders that would be the same quality, or higher (HDTV), than a DVD. Since there are not enough transponders on satellites to stream movies to individual subscribers on demand, Murdoch needs DVRs in every home to make his digital-delivery system work.

With DVRs, the satellites can upload movies in the middle of the night in encrypted form onto subscribers' hard discs without us having to do anything or even be aware of it. (One idea now under consideration at DirecTV is to provide these DVRs with an enormous 160-gigabyte recording capacity. The subscriber would only be told about 80 gigabytes, with the remaining 80 gigabytes reserved for encrypted movies.) Once the movies are placed on the DVRs, a customer "rents" them by clicking on his remote control.

Once it's possible to go no further than one's couch to rent a movie, why would any viewer choose to make two trips to the video store? Electronic delivery would also be much more profitable for the movie studios. Not only would it eliminate the manufacturing, warehousing, distribution, and return cost of DVDs, but it would cut out the video stores, which at present get about 40 percent of the rental money.

There's just one catch. To make digital video on demand work, Murdoch would have to overcome a formidable barrier—the 45-day head start that video stores have been given. This so-called "video window" is the result of a long-standing unwritten agreement among studios to delay the electronic delivery of movies for at least six weeks after video stores have had the opportunity to rent them. Because most people rent movies the week of their release—indeed, more than 80 percent of rental earnings comes in the first two weeks—most would-be renters have already seen a new release by the time the 45 days have elapsed. To get these renters, Murdoch would have do away with the delay and deliver his movies to his subscribers on DVR the same day that they are available in stores.

What has prevented the studios from closing the video window is, as a top Viacom executive explains, "In one word: Wal-Mart." Wal-Mart, the single biggest seller of DVDs, does not want to compete with home delivery. The company told Viacom's home-entertainment division, in no uncertain terms, that if any studio does away with the 45-day video window for a single title, they would risk losing access to Wal-Mart's incredibly valuable shelf space for all of its DVDs. In the face of Wal-Mart's retail power (the antitrust term for it is monopsony) the studios have kept the window wide open.

But Murdoch, who famously crushed the British newspaper unions, is not one to bend to pressure from a retailer even as powerful as Wal-Mart. After all, if he began delivering newly released movies to his satellite subscribers, his DirecTV would gain a powerful advantage over rivals in recruiting new subscribers, forcing his main rivals in the delivery business—including EchoStar, Comcast, and Time Warner Cable—to match his timely electronic delivery of movies.

If they did follow suit, much of the rental business would move from actual, physical DVDs in the stores to electronically delivered video at home. My bet is that Murdoch will succeed, creating a vast new video-on-demand market, qualifying him (once again) as a master of the universe—or at least of New Hollywood's universe.

slocko

06-15-05, 11:23 AM

that is why all the studios have to agree at the same time. that way walmart will have to give up selling dvds to make good on their threat. something i don't see them doing. good article.

fredfa

06-15-05, 11:25 AM

TV Networks Want Their Friday Back
High-Profile Shows Return To Once-Powerful Night;
Will Young Viewers Watch?
By BROOKS BARNES Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

The TV networks are trying to throw Friday a life preserver.

Friday night used to represent some of the most lucrative real estate in television. Powerhouses from "The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet" to "Dallas" called Friday nights home, racking up some of the biggest ratings in TV history.

In recent years Friday has become a bit of a wasteland. With the rise of DVDs and home-theater systems, more people are using Fridays for movie night, according to industry research. As programming has become more expensive, networks slotted their most attractive shows on the nights when advertisers drop the most money. Thursdays, for example, are hugely important to marketers such as movie studios and car companies that rely on weekend business.

So Friday has for the most part been stuck with less expensive fare -- news magazines, no-frills dramas, re-runs -- making its dwindling audience shrink faster. On average, 92 million people watched prime-time television on Fridays this spring, compared with 112 million on Mondays, the most-watched evening, according to Nielsen Media Research. Friday ranks just above Saturday -- the least watched night, with 89 million viewers.

Ad dollars have followed viewers. In the past five years, the amount of ad dollars generated in prime time on Thursday nights has increased 26% to $614.4 million. Friday nights have seen growth of 8% to $289.9 million, according to TNS Media Intelligence.

Now networks are trying to stanch the bleeding. Come fall, Fridays will get seven new series. Viacom's CBS has "Ghost Whisperer," starring Jennifer Love Hewitt as a psychic, while Walt Disney's ABC has "Hot Properties," a sitcom about real-estate agents. On NBC, a unit of General Electric's NBC Universal, one of the networks most promising new shows, a feel-good reality series starring singer Amy Grant called "Three Wishes," will compete with "Twins," a high-profile comedy on Time Warner's WB network that stars Melanie Griffith as the co-owner of a lingerie company.

UPN has been particularly vocal in trying to convince advertisers that Friday is just as important as Thursday in reaching consumers before weekend shopping sprees. The network, a CBS sibling, is moving its "WWE Smackdown!" professional wrestling to Friday this fall. "We're looking forward to Friday being a real success story for us," says Dawn Ostroff, UPN's president of entertainment.

Some media buyers aren't sure the networks' effort will pay off. While emphasizing that it is easy to convince advertisers to buy time on Friday if programs are successful, media buyers say Friday's ship has sailed when it comes to the younger viewers marketers covet. "Young adults just don't sit at home and watch TV on Friday nights," says John Rash, senior vice president, director of broadcast negotiations for Interpublic's Campbel Mithun.

Networks worry that viewers will get out of the habit of even looking for new TV shows on Friday if they don't reinvigorate it. Saturday night, once home to hits such as "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" and "Love Boat," has so eroded that networks view it as virtually unsalvageable.

"Saturday night has slipped into oblivion and we can't allow that to happen to Friday night," says Mitch Metcalf, NBC's executive vice president of program planning.

Besides, with the ratings race among the six broadcast networks tighter than ever, executives see Friday as a chance to break from the pack. Says Leslie Moonves, co-chief operating officer of Viacom: "Friday is ripe for the taking."

fredfa

06-15-05, 11:30 AM

Detective Munch
What's up with Kyra Sedgwick's food obsession in “The Closer”?
By Dana Stevens Slate.com Television Critic

In reviews of the new TNT police drama The Closer (Mondays, 9 p.m. ET), much has been made of the main character's obsessive relationship to food. LAPD police detective Brenda Johnson (Kyra Sedgwick), known as "the closer" because of her vaunted ability to extract confessions from suspects, spent much of Monday night's premiere episode gulping yogurt, sucking on mints, and snacking secretly on bags of candy. After wrapping up the wildly improbable and lurid murder case of the week (one that Gil Grissom and his team would have solved a good 20 minutes earlier), Brenda, alone in her hotel room, sensuously consumed a foil-wrapped Ring Ding as the show's credits rolled.

The Times' Alessandra Stanley speculates that Brenda's sweet tooth might be there to "add some humor" to this otherwise grim new procedural drama. Maybe, but there's an edge of dramatic tension to the way food is treated in The Closer. A scene midway through the pilot, in which Brenda spots a box of doughnuts on a fellow cop's desk, is typical; though the case-related banter continues in the background, the focus of the scene shifts to the doughnuts. The camera lingers on the pastries as Brenda considers taking one, changes her mind, then finally grabs one and carries it back to her office, only to abandon it, uneaten, on her desk. This is exactly the way liquor is filmed in TV shows focusing on a character's alcoholism; for example, in The OC's recent storyline about Kirsten Cohen's (Kelly Rowan) drinking, whole conversations were subordinated to shots of the cranberry-and-vodka cocktails she sneaked under her husband's nose.

Entertainment Weekly's Gillian Flynn sees Brenda's face-stuffing as a cute quirk provided by the writers in lieu of good character development. Flynn writes, "The I love burgers and I'm a reg'lar girl! ethos jump-started by Cameron Diaz circa There's Something About Mary has now become shorthand for 'she's down to earth.' Have a woman jam a large lamb shank down her maw, and she's just swell."

Though I wholeheartedly agree with Flynn's analysis of Cameron Diaz's annoying persona, I disagree with her comparison of the Diaz-style maw-jam to Brenda's oral fixation in The Closer. Brenda's doughnut jones doesn't seem to signify a one-of-the-boys sportiness as much as it does a specifically feminine neurosis. Does she have an eating disorder? Will junk-food addiction become an ongoing plot thread in The Closer, the way Kirsten's alcoholism is on The OC? Or will Brenda's snacking on sugary treats remain a gimmick, a gumshoe trademark on the order of Kojak's lollipops or Columbo's rumpled coat?

The press coverage of Brenda's eating issues has also ignored one salient fact: Kyra Sedgwick has an absolutely slammin' body. At 39, she's reed-thin, with toned, ropy arms and the generous yet buoyant breasts of a teenager (amply on display in a tank top in one scene last night.) If the show continues to focus on Brenda Johnson's compulsive eating, it'll have to reconcile that story line with Sedgwick's slenderness. Is Brenda a bulimic? An exercise addict? (That trait would seem to conflict with the portrait of her as a workaholic, at the office till all hours.) Or is she just a metabolic phenomenon, able to maintain a constant state of skinny blond hotness through any caloric onslaught?

If The Closer wants to fulfill its ambition of creating a complex, layered female cop character (Kyra Sedgwick has cited Jane Tennison, Helen Mirren's sublimely realized chief inspector in the British series Prime Suspect, as one of her influences), the show could make a brave choice and write in Brenda's as-yet-unnamed eating disorder as a regular plot element—neither a cute eccentricity nor a pat psychological problem to be solved in one episode, but a chronic, humiliating and semi-secret struggle, as eating issues are for so many women in real life.

That, or Kyra Sedgwick could just get fat. Which is not outside the realm of possibility; as she told USA Today, since relocating from her hometown of New York to Los Angeles to star in The Closer, "I haven't even had time to exercise."

fredfa

06-15-05, 11:38 AM

Ratings Do Jackson Jump
BroadcastingCable.com

Cable ratings soared, and broadcast nets and stations roadblocked coverage Monday as news broke that the jury in the Michael Jackson trial had reached a verdict.

Fox News Channel attracted 4.5 million viewers from 5 p.m. to 5:15 ET, while CNN nabbed 3.5 million and MSNBC recorded 1.3 million viewers. Court TV pulled in 3.4 million, its largest audience ever. Most viewers stuck around for the analysis of the "not-guilty-on-all-counts" verdict .

During the 5 p.m. hour, Fox News averaged 3.7 million viewers, followed by CNN’s 3.03 million and MSNBC’s 1.104 million. MTV’s live coverage attracted 886,000 viewers 12-34 years old, its core audience, out-delivering the cable news networks in the young demo.

In total, 13 national networks carried the verdict live.

Between 4:43 p.m. ET and 6 p.m. ET Monday, the wall-to-wall coverage tallied a total of 24.6 million households on 11 English language networks and two Spanish-language, according to Nielsen Media Research. The networks that interrupted regular afternoon programming for the not guilty verdict included ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, CNN, MSNBC, Court TV, E!, Headline News, MTV, MTV2, Telemundo and Univision.

In top market New York, UPN affiliate WWOR, which is owned by Fox, carried the Fox News feed, while WB station WPIX aired its own coverage.

Stations in Los Angeles cut into early afternoon programming to deliver the news.

ABC-owned KABC went first, cutting in at 12:30 p.m. PT. Through 4 p.m., it posted the highest local ratings, a 5.0 rating/ 14 share. KNBC jumped in around 1 p.m. local time and averaged a 2.4/7 through 4 p.m. KTTV, the Fox station, averaged 1.6/4 for its afternoon coverage. The WB station, KTLA, and CBS-owned KCBS and KCAL also ran special reports. KABC continued to lead through the early evening newscasts.

By late news, KNBC was, as usual, top-rated, pulling in a 6.0/13, followed by KABC’s 3.9/9 and KCBS with a 3.3/7.

In prime time, NBC and CBS opted for special editions of their newsmagazines. NBC’s Jackson-themed Dateline attracted 5.7 million viewers and a 1.9 rating/6 share in 18- 49s. A half-hour version of 48 Hours on CBS posted similar Nielsen marks with 5.5 million viewers and a 1.6/5.

On cable, Fox News was most-watched in prime, averaging 1.99 million viewers, up 21% from its May average. CNN recorded 1.28 million, up 94% from May. Headline News came in third with 540,000 viewers, a 49% improvement, and MSNBC trailed with 445,000, although that was up 56% from May.

E!'s live coverage mustered 159,000 viewers in the 5 p.m. hour and 243,000 viewers in prime time., only about half of its prime time average in May.

fredfa

06-15-05, 12:55 PM

Last Week’s Winners and Losers
By Lisa de Moraes The Washington Post Wednesday, June 15, 2005; C07

CBS won last week's ratings race with 2 1/2 hours of "Two and a Half Men," but the largest crowd came to see ABC's show about has-beens learning to dance. Here's a look at the cancans and can'ts:

WINNERS

Michael Jackson . Jacko's still got it! More than 30 million people tuned in to hear the verdict in his child molestation trial on Monday, across ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, Fox News Channel, MSNBC, CNN Headline News, Court TV, E! Entertainment, MTV, MTV2, Telemundo and Univision. (Not included are those who watched on the Fox broadcast stations that preempted their syndicated or local programming to run a Fox News feed provided to them.) To put this number in perspective, it is:

• About 3 million more people than watched the Martin Bashir documentary on ABC in February 2003, in which Jackson prattled on about sharing his bed with the then-13-year-old boy at the center of the trial.

• More than twice as many as watched Jackson's rebuttal to Bashir on Fox two weeks later.

• About 7 million fewer viewers than watched Michael's interview with Diane Sawyer on ABC shortly after he married Lisa Marie Presley in June '95.

"Two and a Half Men." Proving that packaging is everything, CBS won last week with a 2 1/2 -hour marathon of "Two and a Half Men" reruns. They averaged nearly 11 million viewers and made Monday the network's most-watched night of the week. Each episode won its time slot and four of the five landed in the week's top 10.

"Dancing With the Stars." The C-list celebrities series was last week's most-watched program, with more than 15 million viewers. It's ABC's first entertainment show in four years to finish first during a summer week.

"Primetime Live." Brad Pitt's "enough about me, let's talk about the poor African children who actually got to meet me" interview with ABC News's Lady Di copped more than 11 million viewers Tuesday at 10. That's ABC's best non-sports summer audience in the time period in nearly seven years. And among young adults, it was the highest-rated summer newsmag telecast since Bennifer I's interview on NBC's "Dateline" in July '03.

"Into the West." About 6.5 million viewers caught the first part of TBS's six-week miniseries from DreamWorks SKG and Steven Spielberg. In its Friday 8-10 p.m. debut, "Into the West" trounced ABC, CBS, Fox, WB and UPN. Only NBC's "Dateline," featuring Ann Curry's talk with one-half of Brangelina, managed to outstrip the western, with more than 8 million viewers.

LOSERS

"The Cut." Tommy Hilfiger's so-you-wanna-be-a-fashion-designer reality series didn't make the cut (saw that one coming, right?) on CBS's plum Thursday lineup when it opened with an anorexic 6.6 million viewers. After which, a "CSI" rerun nearly doubled its audience.

"MTV Movie Awards." A reunion of "The Breakfast Club" cast, the first MTV Generation Award delivered to Tom Cruise by his made-for-TV girlfriend Katie Holmes, and Dustin Hoffman's crotch-grabbing acceptance speech drove off all but 4.7 million viewers. That's the awards telecast's worst number since 1998. As recently as 2002 this show was logging an average of more than 7 million.

"The Real Gilligan's Island." Despite a super-creative ad campaign in which faux Gingers and faux Mary Anns roll around in pie and much cleavage is exposed both fore and aft, Wednesday's unveiling of this reality series's second season snagged only about 1.8 million viewers, immediately after which the second episode logged 2 million. In October '04, the very first and second episodes logged 4 million and 3.7 million, respectively.

NBA Finals. The pro basketball franchise, featuring the San Antonio Spurs and the Detroit Pistons, got off to a sluggish start; the first two broadcasts averaged just 10.6 million viewers, compared with last year's 16 million with the L.A. Lakers in the running.

dline

06-15-05, 04:19 PM

TV Networks Want Their Friday Back
High-Profile Shows Return To Once-Powerful Night;
Will Young Viewers Watch?
By BROOKS BARNES Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

... In recent years Friday has become a bit of a wasteland. With the rise of DVDs and home-theater systems, more people are using Fridays for movie night, according to industry research...
It's not just that -- a lot of folks just aren't home Friday or Saturday night (baseball games, races, dinner, the nightclubs, whatever ...)

fredfa

06-15-05, 04:54 PM

The networks are far more concerned that of those who are home, many fall outside the desirable 18-39 demographic.

fredfa

06-15-05, 06:14 PM

'Chris' on Thursdays boosts UPN upfront
Weblet expects to book $375 mil in ads for next season

By MICHAEL LEARMONTH variety.com
NEW YORK -- Hollywood studios helped UPN to a stronger upfront sales season thanks to increased demand for its Thursday night lineup, to be led by "Everybody Hates Chris." Weblet was close to wrapping up its upfront sales Wednesday and expects to book $375 million in ads for next season, up 7% from last year's $350 million.

Net achieved rate increases of 4%-6%, like sibling CBS, which took $2.6 billion at the upfront. ABC quickly sold $2.1 billion ($2.7 billion including sports) due to its hot sked and surging ratings.

UPN is staging one of the bigger scheduling gambles of the coming season by moving "WWE Smackdown" to Fridays and scheduling a comedy block on supercompetitive Thursday nights, the second-most-profitable night on television after Sunday.

Thursday is an important night for the film studios, which use it to promote weekend releases.

Network execs said they were able to capture increased studio advertising because of the revamped lineup.
The night will lead off with the Chris Rock-produced "Everybody Hates Chris," a comedy that struck a chord with Madison Avenue, leading into "Eve," "Cuts" and "Love, Inc."

At the weblet's May upfront presentation to advertisers, entertainment prexy Dawn Ostroff acknowledged the sked change is a gamble. "This is a game-changing move for UPN," she said. "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."

The WB sold $675 million in upfront ads. Fox took in $1.6 billion.

The only broadcast net still haggling with media buyers is NBC, which is attempting to limit the damage in the face of a steep drop-off in ratings from last year. The Peacock led the market with $2.9 billion in sales last year, but that tally is expected to drop significantly.

fredfa

06-15-05, 06:45 PM

NBC Gets Madden, Wants Michaels
By Ben Grossman & John Eggerton Broadcasting & Cable
John Madden is joining NBC as the analyst for its new Sunday Night Football package and if NBC gets its way, his current Monday Night Football broadcast partner Al Michaels may not be far behind.

Madden signed a six-year deal aligning with the net's six-year package to begin airing NBC’s Sunday Night Football in 2006. Madden will make the jump from Monday Night Football after the 2005 season, when MNF moves to ESPN as Sunday nights go from ESPN to NBC.

Madden has been a broadcaster for over 25 years, winning 14 Emmy's for a style that mixes X's and O's authority--he coached Oakland to a Super Bowl--with a folksy and engaging manner that has made him a prized pitchman out of the broadcast booth. He has been with ABC since 2002 following 21 seasons as an analyst with CBS and Fox.

NBC Universal Sports & Olympics Chairman Dick Ebersol said on a conference call Wednesday he planned on using just a two-man booth, and would talk to Michaels, currently calling the San Antonio-Detroit NBA Finals on ABC. "When the NBA finals are over we will talk extensively with Al Michaels," he said. "If there is a deal to work out there, I’d sure like to try."

The announcement gives Disney one fewer announcer to pick from as it decides who from its current Sunday night (ESPN) team of Mike Patrick, Joe Theismann and Paul Maguire or Monday night (ABC) team of Madden and Michaels would announce Monday Night Football for ESPN.

Ebersol said he will use Madden as his "chief advisor" for the selection of which games to air late in the season as part of the NFL’s new flexible scheduling plan.

Under the new format, for the last seven weeks of the season, the network carrying the Sunday doubleheader can protect one game, with NBC then having the ability to many any other game that week to the Sunday night slot. Fox and CBS rotate the doubleheader each week.

NBC’s deal includes a slate of 16 Sunday night games each year, as well as an annual Thursday night game that kicks off the NFL season. As part of the package, NBC gets the Super Bowl and Pro Bowl in both 2009 and 2012, as well as three preseason prime time games and two postseason Wild Card games each season.

fredfa

06-16-05, 12:36 AM

Old Shows Teach Reality TV New Tricks
By ALESSANDRA STANLEY The New York Times June 16, 2005

Reality shows may seem dumb, but the knockoffs show ingenuity and even glimmers of evil genius.
On the surface, NBC's "Hit Me Baby One More Time" is just a golden oldies version of "American Idol." Each pop star past his prime performs his most memorable hit ("My Sharona" by the Knack) and one new song by a younger artist, and the audience votes for a winner.

But FM radio nostalgia is not the show's only trick. "Hit Me," on Thursdays, provides instant uneasy gratification: "where are they now?" voyeurism. The artists arrive onstage after a clip is shown from their heyday. The camera closes in on the potbellies, thinning hair and double chins that belie the studded denim and black leather donned as if for time travel back to the 70's, 80's and early 90's. And that is not all. After each flashback to the days at the top of the charts, a camera follows the artists in their current, slower paces.

Haddaway, who became briefly famous for his 1993 club hit, "What Is Love," and picked Britney Spears's "Toxic" for his encore, is shown in track pants strolling across a vast green course, extolling the soothing properties of golf. Tommy Heath of the band Tommy Tutone ("867-5309/Jenny," 1981) is filmed going to his day job as a computer software expert.

Martha Davis, lead singer of the Motels ("Only the Lonely," 1982), is interviewed backstage at a supper club, where, dressed in a Cleopatra costume, she performs in what she described as Cirque du Soleil-style cabaret.

"American Idol" invites young unknowns to coast to fame on classic pop tunes of the past. "Hit Me" allows has-beens to fleetingly savor past glory, providing a richer texture.

Reality shows are decried as a new and pernicious genre of entertainment, but most are rooted in traditional television. "Hit Me" has subliminal ties to "American Bandstand" and "This Is Your Life," even though it is presented as a competition.

Other shows this summer have that same cozy, cheesy mustiness: primordial tastes packaged as novelty.

"Dancing With the Stars," Wednesdays on ABC, might also seem like an "American Idol" rip-off but it is really an homage to "The Lawrence Welk Show." Each week a semi-celebrity and a professional ballroom dancer perform a cha-cha, rumba or waltz under the scrutiny of three judges. Len Goodman, a former British exhibition dance champion, is the senior statesman, assessing the couples with English hauteur.

"I wanted to see a little more waltz," he told the model Rachel Hunter, after she performed a showy, not very Viennese dance in a flowing ice-blue gown with her partner, Jonathan Roberts. "It's not my cup of tea," Mr. Goodman said. Another judge disagreed, saying she reminded him of Cyd Charisse.

Analogies are popular on "Dancing." Charlotte Jorgensen, a former dance champion who helped the actor John O'Hurley (J. Peterman on "Seinfeld") perform a cha-cha, said, "I'm known as the Grace Kelly of the dancing world." Actually, in her tight red sparklingly fringed dance costume, she looked more like the Princess of Reno than Monaco, but that's close enough.

The show also favors illness. Perhaps to evoke Olympic Games vignettes of athletes triumphing over adversity, many of the celebrities overcome minor illnesses. Ms. Hunter told the judges she had been up all night with stomach flu before her performance; Kelly Monaco ("General Hospital") braved vertigo to execute spins.

"Fire Me ... Please," Tuesdays on CBS, is not nearly as thrilling. Contestants are assigned similar jobs in different locations; whoever is fired first wins. "Candid Camera" with less variety.

"The Scholar," Mondays on ABC, is much better sport. Some of the brightest students in the country live together in a dorm and compete for a full college scholarship. It's a hybrid of MTV and educational programming: "The Real World: Jeopardy."

NBC's "I Want to Be a Hilton" vaunts the school of no-knocks. It is a high- society version of "The Apprentice," and even more irresistible. On the premiere next Tuesday, 14 blue-collar workers - among them, a plumber, a ranch hand, a motor vehicles department clerk - vie for a $200,000 prize (which the show calls a "trust fund") and a chance to social climb alongside Paris Hilton's mother, Kathy. She has a calm, somewhat wooden poise that matches her silk cocktail dresses and her daughter Paris.

The contestants' assignments are cafe society specific: learning how to select a wine at the "21" Club or eating escargot without gagging. When Jabe, a ranchman from Joshua, Tex., resists the dish, one of the guests at Mrs. Hilton's table says, "But they have snails in Texas." Jabe replies: "Yes, sir. We just don't eat 'em."

Her dinner guests include Billy Bush, the "Access Hollywood" co-anchor; Prince Dimitri of Yugoslavia; and Ted Allen, the food and wine connoisseur on "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy." After watching Jabe struggle to fit in, even Mr. Allen seemed daunted by the makeover task. "I wouldn't want to be in your shoes," he tells Mrs. Hilton. "I mean I would actually," he adds, glancing down at her stiletto-heeled mules.

"I Want to Be a Hilton" is a knockoff reality competition, but it too harks back to an earlier era of silliness.

Mrs. Hilton may well be a very wealthy socialite in real life, but on reality TV she seems like a character on "Green Acres." The series could just as easily be named "I Want to Be Eva Gabor."

fredfa

06-16-05, 12:59 AM

Tuesday Cable News Ratings

mediabistro.com---Cable news ratings returned to relative normalcy on Tuesday, one day after the Jackson verdict. Fox News fared well, especially in primetime, averaging 2.2 million viewers. Here are the numbers:

Total viewers:

Total day:
FNC: 1,012,000
CNN: 490,000
MSNBC: 201,000
HLN: 228,000
CNBC: 112,000

Primetime:
FNC: 2,201,000
CNN: 915,000
MSNBC: 338,000
HLN: 404,000
CNBC: 107,000

25-54 demographic:

Total day:
FNC: 328,000
CNN: 171,000
MSNBC: 77,000
HLN: 108,000
CNBC: 34,000

Primetime:
FNC: 617,000
CNN:: 287,000
MSNBC: 131,000
HLN: 145,000
CNBC: 45,000

The hourlies:

5pm:
Gibson: 1,097,000
Blitzer: 529,000
Connected: 151,000
Kudlow: 105,000

6pm:
Hume: 1,280,000
Dobbs: 520,000
Abrams: 205,000
Mad Money: 130,000

7pm:
Shep: 1,563,000
Cooper: 618,000
Hardball: 330,000
Showbiz: 166,000
Conan: 111,000

8pm:
O'Reilly: 2,722,000
Zahn: 718,000
Countdown: 459,000
Grace: 583,000
Contender: 111,000

9pm:
H&C: 2,016,000
King: 1,277,000
Situation: 231,000
Prime News: 292,000
Mad Money repeat: 100,000

10pm:
Greta: 1,864,000
NewsNight: 751,000
Scarborough: 325,000
Grace repeat: 337,000
Deutsch: 110,000

Source: http://mediabistro.com/tvnewser/

fredfa

06-16-05, 01:15 AM

OBITUARY
Lane Smith, 69
Character Actor Gained Fame Playing Nixon, Perry White
By Myrna Oliver Los Angeles Times Staff Writer June 15, 2005

Lane Smith, the actor who portrayed President Nixon in the 1989 docudrama "The Final Days" and apoplectic Daily Planet editor Perry White in the 1990s television series "Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman," has died. He was 69.

Smith died Monday at his Los Angeles home of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, commonly called Lou Gehrig's disease, his family said.

A veteran stage actor with scores of character parts in film and television, Smith achieved instant fame when he took on the role of Nixon in the production based on the book "The Final Days" by Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein. Smith's performance earned him a Golden Globe nomination.

Although he had been acting for three decades when he was cast as Nixon, Smith told Newsday when the show aired that he considered the role "a tremendous career break."

"It's an actor's dream to play something like this," he said. "I consider this my masterwork."

The program itself generated controversy with Nixon supporters labeling it a "smear," and Nixon critics saying it was too sympathetic to the fallen leader. But Smith won critical praise for capturing the physical gestures, mannerisms and what he considered the Greek tragedy of the only U.S. president forced to resign in disgrace.

Newsweek called Smith's portrayal "a towering performance" and said: "This docudrama is a one-man show, and perhaps the most incandescent ever to ignite the tube."

And Newsday said Smith "is such a good Nixon that his despair and sorrow at his predicament become simply overwhelming."

"The Final Days" greatly enhanced Smith's reputation.

"Playing Nixon gave me tremendous recognition," Smith told United Press International a year after the docudrama aired. "I'd long been known in the business, but it pulled everything together. Finally people could put the name Lane Smith with my face."

In 1991, he landed regular roles in two short-lived television series, as cable television mogul R.J. Rappaport in "Good Sports" starring Farrah Fawcett and Ryan O'Neal, and as suitor for star Teri Garr's mother in "Good and Evil."

In short order, he also played a hockey coach in the highly popular "The Mighty Ducks," a politician in Eddie Murphy's "The Distinguished Gentleman" and a lawyer in "My Cousin Vinny," all released in 1992.

And then along came Superman.

Smith had been a regular on other series, including the title character's mentor in the 1986 medical drama "Kay O'Brien" and a corrupt industrialist aiding menacing aliens in the 1985 sci-fi series "V." But "Lois and Clark," which starred Dean Cain and Teri Hatcher and ran on ABC from 1993 to 1997, would be his most enduring employer.

In the updated take on the caped crusader from Krypton, White's favorite expression changed from "Great Caesar's ghost!" to "Great shades of Elvis!" and the editor spewed Elvis trivia.

Smith was born in Memphis, Tenn., on April 29, 1936, and grew up wanting to act.

He studied drama for two years at what is now Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh before dropping out for a two-year Army hitch. He later moved to New York to study at the Actors Studio.

Smith made his off-Broadway debut in 1959 and acted in several plays on and off Broadway.

Notwithstanding the Nixon role, his real career break came in the late 1960s when he played Randle Patrick McMurphy for 650 off-Broadway performances of "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest."

Better roles followed, and he went on to play characters as diverse as artist Modigliani, writer Jack Kerouac and dictator Adolf Hitler.

Smith earned a Drama Desk Award for his role in David Mamet's Pulitzer Prize-winning play "Glengarry Glen Ross" in 1984.

The actor made his motion picture debut in 1970 in Norman Mailer's "Maidstone," and in 1978, he moved to Los Angeles to concentrate on film and television work.

His first motion picture starring role came in 1988 when he played the warden in "Prison" with Viggo Mortensen.

Smith is survived by his wife of four years, Debbie, and his son from a previous marriage, Robertson.

fredfa

06-16-05, 09:56 AM

'There's nothing on!' Nonsense.
Summer's here, and so is lots of good TV

By Maureen Ryan Chicago Tribune staff reporter

Remember when summer was a wasteland of repeats and, well, more repeats? It's not anymore. Here's a rundown of all the best stuff that's on right now. I can personally recommend every single one of these shows, and if you don't like 'em, well, there's something wrong with you.

"The 4400," Sundays, USA Network: Time-traveling abductees return to earth to create spooky drama.

"The Dead Zone," Sundays, USA Network: That guy from "The Breakfast Club" is a psychic who solves crimes. What's not to love?

"The Comeback," Sundays, HBO: Some were not so keen on this show, but I think this Lisa Kudrow vehicle is pretty darn funny (meaning, it's nothing like the other fake reality show about a failed actress, "Fat Actress").

"Entourage," Sundays, HBO: Like "Sex and the City," if it were set in L.A. and populated with hot actors. And Jeremy Piven is freakishly great as killer agent Ari. Hug it out, people!

"Rescue Me," Tuesdays, FX: Now that "The Shield" is gone 'til next year (sniff), it's up to this bunch of hard-drinking firefighters to bring the messed-up-guy-with-a-badge magic. And they do.

"Reno 911!," Tuesdays, Comedy Central: No, Chappelle is not back yet. But these dippy cops are, and they're still funny. Jim Dangle rules!

"Family Guy," Sundays, Fox: Is it wrong for a woman to love a martini-swilling dog? If it is, I don't wanna be right.

"House," Tuesdays, Fox: Didn't see the show over the winter? Then you missed one of the finest dramas - and two of the bluest eyes, courtesy of Hugh Laurie -- on TV. Catch up via reruns already.

"Veronica Mars," Wednesdays, UPN: Ditto above, but the blue peepers on this show belong to heartbreaker Kristin Bell.

"Beauty and the Geek," Wednesdays, WB: Why is it that Ashton Kutcher gets to date Demi Moore, have a lucrative acting career and come up with fun TV shows? Why??? Well, anyway, if you don't get addicted to this show after watching it one time, you're some kind of alien or something.

"Sports Kids Moms and Dads," Wednesdays, Bravo: Yes, I did want to hate the parents on this show. Now I don't know what to think. They're all kinda nuts, parents and kids alike. But in a good-for-TV way.

"Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares Revisited," Tuesdays, BBC America: Even better than watching him insult trainee cooks on Fox's "Hell's Kitchen" is watching him insult restaurant owners and chefs as he sees whether they followed the advice he offered when he tried to fix up their failing establishments.

And that's just what's on now, people! Don't forget, these fine shows are coming in July: "Battlestar Galactica," "Stargate Atlantis" and "Stargate SG-1" return to Sci Fi July 15, "Over There" (FX's Iraq drama) starts up July 27, and cable's GSN starts rerunning the first eight seasons of "The Amazing Race" July 11.

CPanther95

06-16-05, 10:20 AM

Plus I believe the new season of Monk also starts in July.

fredfa

06-16-05, 10:20 AM

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

fredfa

06-16-05, 10:22 AM

You are right CPanther95:
(from USAnetwork.com)

SEASON PREMIERE! When a fellow detective shows up at a crime scene knowing all the answers, has Monk finally met his match... or is the other detective cheating? Don't miss guest star Jason Alexander in "Mr. Monk and the Other Detective," premiering Friday, July 8th at 10/9C.

fredfa

06-16-05, 11:03 AM

The word: Come fall, ABC will lead
But researchers say spring is too close to predict
By Kevin Downey medialifemagazine.com

ABC will take the fall among adults 18-49 on the strength of "Monday Night Football" and its returning hits, that much media researchers agree on heading into the new season. But after that, it’s a craps shoot. ABC, Fox or CBS could be No. 1 for the full year depending on how the spring goes.

The only other certainty is that NBC will continue to struggle, staying in fourth place. That’s where the sure things end among 18-49s.

Several agencies have released their fall forecasts, and they agree CBS will hold a considerable lead in households and the 25-54 demographic. Fox will dominate for the season among younger adults, notably when “American Idol” premieres in first quarter.

NBC isn’t likely to be far behind, particularly in its core 18-49 demographic, but it also won’t pull out of fourth place.

“ABC will win in the 18-49 demographic in the fall but not in the spring,” says Carat’s vice president and director of programming, Shari Anne Brill, whose report on the new season will be released this week.

“In the spring it’s going to be a tight race again. You will have an impact from the Winter Olympics on NBC while you have ABC making some great inroads with their scripted series and [they have] the Super Bowl. But it will be a tight race between CBS, Fox and possibly ABC. I don’t foresee NBC coming out of fourth place for the season.”

Steve Sternberg, executive vice president and director of audience analysis at Magna, mostly agrees with Brill’s predictions. “The networks overall could be marginally down next season,” he says. “But it all depends on NBC’s performance.”

NBC’s troubles, as this past season proved, are numerous. But its biggest problem is its tumble out of No. 1 in 18-49s on Thursday night, where it had dominated for two decades. The network fell behind CBS on Thursdays this past season, and competition on the night will become fierce this coming season.

Brad Adgate, senior vice president and corporate research director at Horizon Media, expects NBC in fourth quarter to hold onto No. 2 on Thursdays. However, he is also projecting that ABC will be relatively close behind, specifically from 8 p.m. to 9 p.m., with its first aggressively scheduled Thursday in years. The network’s lineup will consist of “Alias,” the new “Night Stalker” and long-running newsmagazine “Primetime Live.”

Adgate puts Fox close behind ABC on Thursdays at 8 p.m. with its returning “The O.C.,” while the WB will be competitive for the night with “Smallville” and “Everwood.”

Meanwhile, UPN’s dramatically reshuffled Thursday, long occupied by wrestling, will be in last place but will get noticed with comedies like the new “Everybody Hates Chris,” from comedian Chris Rock. “It is out and out funny,” says Brill. “It won’t win its timeslot in 18-49s, but it probably stands a good chance with teens.”

Magna’s Sternberg says “Chris” is UPN’s best shot at a new hit.

Sternberg also gives nods to ABC drama “Commander-in-Chief,” with Geena Davis, CBS drama “Criminal Minds,” about a special FBI unit, NBC’s Jerry Bruckheimer drama “E-Ring,” Fox drama “Head Cases,” about two lawyers with turbulent lives, and the WB drama “Supernatural.”

Carat’s Brill says while each of the networks has strong shows in development, CBS’s and ABC’s lineups stand out.

“CBS’s schedule looks really strong and ABC has good drama entries and a good midseason comedy that it’s going to [hold] until after football.”

fredfa

06-16-05, 11:05 AM

WB hits big with 'Beauty and the Geek'
First-ever summer reality show to score in 18-49s

medialifemagazine.com---It’s hard to believe, considering the WB caters to reality lovin’ 12-34-year-olds, but the network has never had a hit reality show, mostly poorly produced bombs like “High School Reunion” and “Boarding House: North Shore.”

But with the sharply focused, surprisingly sweet “Beauty and the Geek,” the WB may finally have found a successful reality franchise.

Last night’s third episode of “Geek” earned series highs in adults 18-49 and total viewers, according to Nielsen overnights, posting a 2.0 among 18-49s and averaging 4.26 million total viewers.

The premiere episode of the series two weeks ago averaged a 1.6 among 18-49s and 3.17 million viewers, while last week’s episode averaged a 1.8 18-49 rating and 3.75 million viewers.

That slow build is very promising for the WB, which has also struggled to program a successful summer show the past few years. Even UPN found a summer hit with “America’s Next Top Model” two years ago.

But “Geek” could be headed on the same path. Last night “Geek” was actually the second-highest-rated show in its 8 p.m. timeslot.

That’s a rarity for the WB during the regular season and the summer. It was the seventh-highest-rated show of the night on any network.

While “Geek” won’t make an Emmy run, it’s a fun show that actually offers some innovation. Couples made up of one hot but not-so-smart beauty and one smart but not-so-socially-conscious geek teach each other various skills in preparation for challenges, which ultimately decide whether the couple stays on the show.

fredfa

06-16-05, 11:09 AM

CBS' The Cut Moves to Wednesday
By John Eggerton Broadcasting & Cable

CBS fashion reality series, The Cut, is moving from Thursday nights at 8 to Wednesday's at 8 starting July 6, replacing 60 Minutes Wednesday, which has not been renewed for fall.

The Cut, whose debut last week actually underperformed a repeat of Cold Case in the Thursday time period, is making way for the debut of the sixth installment of Big Brother, which will take over CBS' marquee reality time period--Survivor also airs in the time slot.

It is not clear whether 60 Minutes Wednesay is gone for good, but one CBS staffer thought there were still some shows that may air sometime during the summer. A spokeswoman for the show had not returned a call at press time.

The network has said the decision to ax the show was due to poor ratings, which was certainly the case, but it also caught big flak and gave the CBS Eye a shiner over its failure to sufficiently vet the source of a story on President George W. Bush's National Guard service, or perceived lack of it.

Here are the new CBS lineups for Wendesday and Thursday (ripped from the CBS release, as it were), including the addition of its lead-singer reality competition, Rock Star: INXS

Wednesday, July 6
8:00-9:00 PM THE CUT (New Time Period)
9:00-9:30 PM THE KING OF QUEENS
9:30-10:00 PM YES, DEAR
10:00-11:00 PM CSI: NY

Thursday, July 7
8:00-9:00 PM BIG BROTHER 6 (Premiere)
9:00-10:00 PM CSI
10:00-11:00 PM WITHOUT A TRACE

Wednesday, Effective July 13
8:00-9:00 PM THE CUT
9:00-9:30 PM THE KING OF QUEENS
9:30-10:00 PM ROCK STAR: INXS (Time Period Premiere)
10:00-11:00 PM CSI: NY

fredfa

06-16-05, 05:39 PM

ABC, Davis Team on Hybrid Series
By Jim Benson Broadcasting & Cable

With embarrassment out and upbeat, wish fulfillment-based themed unscripted series in, ABC has teamed with Who Wants to be a Millionaire producer Michael Davies and several others for the late summer series My Kind of Town.

The network describes the variety/comedy studio-based game show-like hour as a hybrid that “celebrates small-town America each week,” with contestants competing in comedic games and gags for prizes tailored to their lives.

The initial order is six episodes, with production beginning in mid-July.

fredfa

06-16-05, 05:42 PM

HDNet Resurrects 'Clubhouse,' 'Boomtown'

(zap2it.com)--Very few viewers bothered to watch "Boomtown" and "Clubhouse" in their original lo-fi network incarnations, but HDNet is banking on fans discovering the critical favorites in a glossy new form.

CBS made "Clubhouse" one of its most heavily promoted shows last fall, but after averaging only 8.6 million viewers in three Tuesday airings, the batboy drama, which starred Dean Cain and Jeremy Sumpter moved to Saturdays and vanished after only one weekend airing.
"We are happy to be the only place on television where viewers can catch every episode of "Clubhouse," including the six episodes never seen before, all in their original HD format," says Mark Cuban of HDNet.

HDNet will show "Clubhouse" on Thursday nights at 9 p.m. ET in 1080i HD.

"Boomtown," an even more beloved drama, will get its HD treatment on Wednesday nights at 9 p.m. ET. The Graham Yost drama averaged 10 million viewers for the 2002-03 season airing on Sunday nights for NBC. Considered on the bubble, the network renewed the series -- which starred Neal McDonough, Donnie Wahlberg, Mykelti Williamson and Jason Gedrick -- and moved it to Fridays, where it disappeared after only two airings.

"HDNet is a great outlet to provide Boomtown's loyal, die-hard fans another opportunity to watch this exceptional series," says Bruce Casino, Senior Vice President, NBC Universal Television Distribution.

Now all that fans of those two shows need to do is make sure they subscribe to HDNet and that they have a TV capable of taking advantage of the network.

fredfa

06-16-05, 05:49 PM

An interesting (if lengthy!) look at some of the problems facing Nielsen as it tries to tell advertisers which programs Americans are watching.
TV In The Dark
TiVo. Digital cable. Internet television.
Can Nielsen keep up with the way America watches?
By Bryan Keefer Columbia Journalism Review

Since the beginning of TV time, ratings from Nielsen Media Research have been the arbiter of success on the tube. They determine, in large part, how the roughly $60 billion spent on television each year is allocated — and that $60 billion has a tremendous say in what stays on the air and what doesn’t. “Nielsen is the currency by which the television ad marketplace is traded,” says David Ernst, executive vice president for the media-buying firm, Initiative. But what if that currency slips? As any economist will tell you, a currency is only as good as the faith in it of the people who use it. And when the currency falls, there goes the neighborhood.

And faith in Nielsen is showing some slippage. The central problem is that what Nielsen was originally set up to do — measure programs broadcast by the big networks to viewers who watch in their homes — is increasingly no longer the norm. Just as the Internet has transformed print media, technology is radically transforming the way we watch TV. Consumers can watch television without their television sets, by using broadband Internet connections to stream video online, or even watching on their cell phones. Digital video recorders, now in about 6 percent of homes, have made what the industry calls “time-shifted viewing” much easier, even for those who used to leave their VCR’s blinking “12:00.” And video-on-demand, once the realm only of pay-per-view movies and sporting events, has begun allowing viewers to watch shows, including evening news broadcasts, that they once could only watch in real time. Television is, increasingly, an on-demand medium.

Consider, for example, ABC News Now, a 24-hour news channel launched about two years ago. It features programs with major ABC personalities like Sam Donaldson (viewers are invited to submit presidential trivia questions to “stump Sam”). But the only screens it’s currently available on are computer monitors and cell phone displays (ABC let a trial run on digital cable lapse earlier this year, but announced in April that the service would resume in July). And people are watching; according to the network, viewership peaked during the political conventions last year in the hundreds of thousands.

But those numbers are self-reported for a reason: the Nielsens can’t capture that audience. And if the Nielsens don’t capture it (and they don’t capture anything outside of in-home viewing on television screens), it doesn’t count, as far as ad buyers are concerned. “The advertising industry discounts the audience outside the home to zero,” says Initiative’s Ernst. “We basically don’t pay for those audiences.”

While the television industry has always griped about Nielsen’s various shortcomings, this is something entirely different, and unsettling to the television world.

Contrary to the impression one gets from the tidy tables of audience figures published each week by the Associated Press and USA Today, the Nielsens don’t capture every hour of television watched on every set. Rather, like a political poll, the ratings rely on sampling. For its national ratings, Nielsen tracks about 7,100 households using its “People Meters” — set-top boxes wired into television sets that record what is being watched, when, and by whom (family members press a button to tell the box who’s watching). It uses the same technique to capture information in five local markets (New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston, and San Francisco; five others will be added later this year). In about fifty other local markets, Nielsen uses an automatic meter that doesn’t record demographic information — who is watching — combined with paper diaries asking viewers what they tuned into during the infamous “sweeps months”; in 150 of the smallest local markets, it uses only the paper diaries.

Like Tolstoy's proverbial family, everyone in the television industry is unhappy with the Nielsens in their own way.

Out of this come two critical computations: a program’s “rating,” the percentage of all televisions in the market tuned to a particular program; and the “share,” the percentage of televisions turned on at a given time which are watching that program. For example, for the week ending February 13, 2005, NBC Nightly News pulled in a 7.1 rating and a 13 share (each rating point is equal to 1.08 million homes, though homes often have multiple viewers, complicating the calculation). ABC World News Tonight came in second, tying NBC’s rating and share but with fewer total viewers, and CBS pulled in third, with a 5.3 rating and a 10 share.

(Combined, the three newscasts had nearly 28 million viewers per evening, or roughly the same audience as American Idol, the top-rated program that week.)

Such ratings and shares, combined with demographic information, become the basis for decisions by advertising buyers, and the ratings do a good job of providing information about the bigger shows on the larger networks. But the ratings are only as good as what they can measure. Nielsen makes its money by charging clients — television channels and stations, advertisers, ad buyers, and others — for both collecting viewership data and for analyzing it. And like Tolstoy’s proverbial family, everyone in the television industry is unhappy with the Nielsens in their own way, mostly having to do with what the ratings fail to capture.
To begin with, the company only places its meters in residences. That means it doesn’t cover any viewing done outside the home — in offices, dorms, bars, or anywhere else. And while a few decades ago all or nearly all television viewing might have been done in the home, that’s no longer the case.

For example, for financial network CNBC, that translates into daytime ratings that the network feels don’t accurately reflect its audience. CNBC’s own research demonstrates that it has a 79 percent share of the cable viewing done in offices during the business day, and a very upscale demographic. Its promotional materials for advertisers encourage buyers to “Think outside the house.” (Evidently, this tack has been fairly successful; CNBC’s revenues were reportedly nearly $300 million last year.)

Another problem: because Nielsen’s ratings are based on a sample, it’s difficult for the ratings to accurately cover channels that don’t get substantial national distribution (20 to 30 million homes, according to those in the TV industry, though Nielsen suggests it might be less). The sampling methodology also makes some in the business feel as though the ratings can be arbitrary. “You get the sense that if two little old ladies in Nebraska aren’t watching your broadcast,” one news executive says, “your Nielsen numbers can drop half a million viewers.”

But far more important are the technological limitations of the ratings. “Nielsen has a huge challenge in trying to keep up” with new technology, says Alan Wurtzel, president of research and media development for NBC Universal. “My worry has always been that the technology will outstrip our ability to measure it. And I think we’re beginning to see evidence of that right now.”

Nielsen’s older meters, which the company is beginning to phase out, can’t collect information about time-shifted viewing via digital video recorders or about televisions with digital tuners, because its meters depend on being able to measure the analog signal from a television’s tuner. In the past, the company simply excluded households with such devices, which it labeled “technically difficult.” But with more and more digital sets in homes, and millions using digital video recorders, this is a market that Nielsen can no longer ignore.

In July, Nielsen began installing what the company calls an “active/passive” meter. The meter reads a code embedded in the audio signal of each program (inaudible to viewers), which the meter tabulates and sends back to Nielsen’s data processing center. There it is matched up and converted into viewing information. This system allows Nielsen to measure what’s being watched at any time — digital signals, and DVR playback.
The Portable People Meter is likely at least a few years away from being rolled out.

Still, Nielsen won’t begin reporting data on DVR viewership until January 2006. When they do, they will provide three cuts of the data: real-time viewing, time-shifted viewing done the same day the program airs, and a data set including all DVR viewing up to a week after the program airs. (Such data will give TV ad sellers maximum leverage with ad buyers.) According to David Poltrak, executive vice president for research and planning at CBS, it’s the networks and the largest shows that stand to benefit from the new data. “All the research we’ve seen so far suggests that the amount of viewing to the networks goes up” when DVR use is factored in, he says, “and the amount of viewing to the top twenty shows goes up substantially.”

While Nielsen is catching up with DVR use, the company’s slow pace of innovation remains a source of frustration for its clients. The company has long had a de facto monopoly on the television ratings. Various initiatives to launch competitors to Nielsen — most recently, a network-backed initiative called SMART, in the 1990s — have failed for two reasons: Nielsen’s aggressive response to competition, and the television industry’s unwillingness to give a competitor the long-term financial backing necessary to establish itself. “While I’d love to see competition, there isn’t any right now,” says NBC Universal’s Wurtzel, “They are the only game in town. It is really in everybody’s best interest for them to do as well as possible. I think they understand the urgency.”

Nielsen points out that, in some areas, it is caught between the interests of its two major groups of clients. Spokesman Jack Loftus says that advertising sellers — channels, networks, and system operators — want as much viewing counted as possible (DVR, outside the home, etc.), while advertising buyers prefer that the sample remain narrow. “It’s not that we can’t do it,” he says, “it’s that you can’t get agreement from the industry on doing it. I’ve often thought that if there were other ratings services, it would be good for us,” he adds, “because then people could compare, and see the value of our services.”

It’s possible that new technology will grant Loftus’s wish. While several firms have been doing propriety research for networks for decades, the data generated by new TV technology is opening the door to other companies. Comcast, the nation’s largest cable provider, now contracts with an outside company, Rentrak (best known for analyzing video rentals and movie box-office receipts) to evaluate video-on-demand usage. Other cable providers are also linking up with Rentrak.

Meanwhile, DVR service provider TiVo has quietly entered the fray. The company records data about what users are watching down to the second — of particular interest to advertisers who want to know if subscribers to the service are watching their ads, or fast-forwarding through them. The company also publishes its own weekly list of the top twenty-five programs, based on subscribers who have programmed their machines to record all episodes of various shows. (Lost and The O.C. both made the TiVo top twenty for the week ending March 27, though neither cracked the Nielsen list.)

The future, however, may lie in collecting actual viewing information from large numbers of people — not just a small sample — through the digital cable boxes already in place in twenty-four million homes. Those boxes are capable of capturing information about the programs being watched, though spokespeople for Comcast and Time Warner, the two largest cable providers, said their companies don’t do so right now. A Comcast spokesperson, however, did note that the company is considering various options for using that data.

Nielsen, however, is quick to point out that such data wouldn’t include the demographic and socioeconomic information that advertisers depend on, and that Nielsen provides. Loftus says that the company is in discussions with cable providers about using information from digital cable boxes to supplement its current sample. “Somebody is going to take that aggregated data and do something with it,” he says, “and we’d like it to be us.” Meanwhile, Nielsen, together with Arbitron, a radio ratings firm, is at work on a portable version of its People Meter. In March, however, Arbitron experienced some technical difficulties with the device, which it is replacing in trial homes*, and the device is likely at least a few years away from being rolled out.
"I call it the Tinkerbell phenomenon. If everyone believes Tinkerbell can fly, this whole media economy will work."

But even the portable People Meter won’t necessarily capture the ways in which viewer behavior may evolve. David Liroff, the chief technology officer at WGBH, the PBS station in Boston, says that, “While our focus for the moment is on someone sitting in their living room using a DVR on their television, we’re already seeing that the ways people access video content will become so numerous that they’re too complex to be tracked.” He adds, “Andy Grove, of Intel, has the idea of a strategic inflection point — the point at which old rules no longer apply, but new rules haven’t been written yet — and we’re certainly there.”

At the moment, for example, there is no effective way for a third party to provide ratings for wireless and broadband services. According to Bernie Gershon, the senior vice president and general manager of ABC News Digital Media Group, ABC News Now is able to monitor how many people are watching, but gets very little information about who they are or how closely they’re paying attention. Yet some advertisers, at least, are willing to take a chance on a service that doesn’t have — and may never have — Nielsen ratings. While Gershon notes that for now the channel’s primary source of revenue is through subscriptions via its broadband partners, “part of the hook is to be able to reach consumers in new and interesting ways. So there are a bunch of advertisers who are looking at broadband and wireless as the next wave of advertising opportunities.”

So far, the television industry has proven willing to adapt to the holes in Nielsen’s sample. But, as in any economy, television depends on faith in its currency, in this case, the Nielsens. If the community comes to believe that currency is unstable, it may well replace it with something else. “I call it the Tinkerbell phenomenon,” says Liroff. “If everyone believes Tinkerbell can fly, this whole media economy will work. But if there are too many doubters, and Tinkerbell has a hard time getting off the ground, the question becomes: what drives the media economy?”

http://www.cjr.org/issues/2005/2/keefer-nielsen.asp

fredfa

06-16-05, 08:53 PM

CBS Unveils Higher-Powered Mini Slate

By Ben Grossman Broadcasting & Cable

CBS will bank on higher powers to drive its mini-series business this season, officially announcing projects ranging from Pope John Paul II (which B&C told you about back in April ) to The End of the World as part of its 2005-2006 slate.

Highlighting the list is the four-hour papal mini-series documenting the life of the 264th Pope, which will have competition from an ABC rival production that could be ready for November sweeps. CBS did not release the air date of the mini, nor any of its other mini-series and movie offerings for that matter.

Mini-series highlights include Category 7: The End of the World, a sequel to last year’s Category 6: Day of Destruction about a catastrophic weather system that was the most watched mini-series of last year, according to the network.

On the original movie side, The Eye will reprise Tom Selleck’s role in last year’s Stone Cold, as he returns for a prequel entitled Jesse Stone: Night Passage.

And while NBC Universal is betting on Martha Stewart with both NBC’s The Apprentice: Martha Stewart and syndicated weekday show, Martha, CBS serves up its own Martha fare with Martha: Behind Bars, a movie chronicling the rise and subsequent fall of the domestic diva, portrayed by Cybill Shepherd.

The mini-series:

POPE JOHN PAUL II

CATEGORY 7: THE END OF THE WORLD

TV movies:

MARTHA: BEHIND BARS

JESSE STONE, NIGHT PASSAGE

MAYDAY (based on The New York Times bestseller by Nelson DeMille)

THE HUNT FOR THE BTK KILLER (based on the true story of a serial killer)

TIME BOMB (thriller about terrorists threatening D.C. during a football game)

SURRENDER DOROTHY (Diane Keaton stars in a family drama)

THE WATER IS WIDE (stars Alfre Woodard, based on author Pat Conroy’s memoir)

IN FROM THE NIGHT (Marcia Gay Harden stars in a family drama about a young writer who takes in a child)

SILVER BELLS (Anne Heche and Tate Donovan star in a Christmastime drama)

VAMPIRE BATS (a Halloween thriller)

THE CHRISTMAS SHOES 2 (holiday sequel to The Christmas Shoes, features appearance an from Rob Lowe)

JUST LIKE THE ONES (Mary Tyler Moore stars in this holiday movie)

fredfa

06-16-05, 08:55 PM

More on the CBS movies and minis
CBS Movie Slate Features Killers, Storms and Bats

(zap2it.com)--Danger lurks over CBS' freshly announced slate of movies and miniseries for the 2005-06 season. If a giant storm isn't out to get you, a pack of vampire bats probably will be. And if the bats and the storms don't get you, Martha Stewart probably will. Yup, CBS is going to be a dangerous place next year.

Leading the way on CBS' production slate is a sequel to the successful disaster flick "Category 6: Day of Destruction." Teasingly titled "Category 7: The End of the World" (we wish we were kidding), the movie chronicles the events following the destruction of Chicago in the original movie. Keeping things all trendy, "Category 7" will also feature a religious evangelist who warns that the building storm is actual a sign of the End of Days.

CBS also has a previously announced four-hour miniseries about "Pope John Paul II," temporarily and fittingly called "Pope John Paul II." The drama comes from the producers of the "Jesus" telefilm and covers the 26-year reign of Karol Wajtyla. Vatican historians supervised the script and some exclusive footage has already been shot in St. Peter's Square.

Capitalizing on the success of "The Christmas Shoes," CBS has already scheduled a sequel to star Neil Patrick Harris, who just happens to be starring in the network's comedy pilot "How I Met Your Mother." Rob Lowe, who starred in the first telefilm, will make a special appearance. Also getting follow-up treatment is "Stone Cold," with "Jesse Stone, Night Passage," a prequel which will feature Tom Selleck.

While not quite a sequel, the exploitation telefilm "Vampire Bats" is planned for Halloween. The network hopes the movie, whose plot you can probably guess yourself, follows in the semi-successful footsteps of "Spring Break Shark Attack" and "Locusts." If you're only just now hearing the buzz, it's probably still too late.

Other highlights for CBS include Cybill Shepherd in the sure-to-be-tasteful "Martha: Behind Bars," the Nelson DeMille adaptation "Mayday" and "Time Bomb," about a possible terrorist attack on a big football game (Memo to CBS: Somebody already made "Black Sunday" and it wasn't a bad movie). Also self-explanatory is "The Hunt for the BTK Killer."

Three Hallmark Hall of Fame movies -- "The Water Is Wide," "In From the Night" and "Silver Bells" -- will class up the schedule whenever things get too dire.

fredfa

06-16-05, 08:59 PM

For the sinking psyche
"Six Feet Under" and "Rescue Me" fill the pathos void in the summer lineup
By Paul Brownfield Los Angeles Times Staff Writer June 17, 2005

Sometimes you come back to a series. "Six Feet Under" is not conventional summer fare, but there it is, high-octane psychodrama cycling through its last season on HBO, get it while it's hot: Billy (Jeremy Sisto) is off the lithium and freaking that he can't find his "Ski Iraq" T-shirt; George (James Cromwell) is getting shock treatments while wife Ruth (Frances Conroy) knits, slowly losing her mind.

It all sounds like a Warren Zevon song. But you want something original in summer, something weighty and well-acted, something beyond "Dancing With the Stars," a show where self-loathing and mental illness just don't figure in. You don't need to have been watching "Six Feet Under" to watch it. It helps to know everyone's prior condition, and the series certainly has its soap opera machinations, but it's about nothing more immediate than free-floating anxiety, constantly articulated.

I dropped out several seasons ago because I found the show's voice incessantly dour. Then I dropped in again, after a stressful day, and the whole thing hit me differently: Yes they're bummed, but I'm bummed. This is a show that's trying to speak to me. And it only has a finite number of episodes left.

So I'm doing my psychopharmacological homework, catching up on who's on what meds. Despite what Tom Cruise has said about the miracle of vitamins and exercise and the evils of antidepressants, I like a show where the meds get their due. It's almost too obvious to point out: The anxious and vaguely depressed are under-represented on television. We do not have a Misery Channel as military enthusiasts have the Military Channel or "Law & Order" addicts have TNT (even the guilty until proven not guilty at which point they're still guilty have their own network. It's called Court TV).

Looking at the dramas the broadcast networks have planned for the fall, most characters on TV are going to be way too busy finding missing people and/or figuring out who among them is a space alien to delve into their own internal muck, much less figure out the whole Lexapro or Zoloft discussion.

It's curious — so much of television is designed to make you anxious, and yet there are few series that are actually about anxiety. A majority of Americans will have a mental health disorder at some time in their lives, according to a government-sponsored survey released earlier this month, the categories ranging from anxiety disorders to substance abuse.

A New York Times follow-up suggested that more people are falling under the rubric of mental illness largely because of shifts in the culture; in contemporary life, more names are being given to behavior traits, moving them away from, say, old religious contexts (e.g. "sinners, deviants or possessed") and into psychiatric terms, such as compulsive behavior — or "borderline personality disorder" "to describe a needy, scattered, uncertain self or personality."

And so it goes on "Six Feet Under," the borderline personality disorder hour, in which, in a particular piece of "Six Feet Under" wisdom, one character says to another: "I know that if you think life's a vending machine where you put in virtue and you get out happiness, then you're probably going to be disappointed." Next week sees the resumption of another series about free-floating anxiety, "Rescue Me," whose second season premieres Tuesday at 10 p.m. on basic cable's FX network. No meds here, unless you count booze and copious amounts of Vicodin. The show stars Denis Leary as Tommy Gavin, a prolifically flawed New York City firefighter. Tommy's an alcoholic in a toxic relationship with his ex-wife; as season two resumes, she's absconded with the kids, Tommy's drinking heavily and the widow of his cousin, a firefighter who died in the World Trade Center towers, is pregnant with Tommy's child.

It's because his mental state is putting his colleagues at risk Tommy's landed in a fire station out in the peaceful purgatory of Staten Island. Like the funerals on "Six Feet Under," the fires on "Rescue Me" are diversions — bits of action between the real business of the series, which is to descend farther than most TV series do into the muck of human frailty. Except that "Rescue Me," unlike "Six Feet Under," is about men who don't know from the language of the psychiatric establishment. They feel things but act out in countless self-destructive ways — mostly a cycle of drinking, brawling, gambling, womanizing and lying, both to themselves and the people around them.

They exist now in a post-post-9/11 world, the perks of being a New York City firefighter fading. When Tommy tries to schmooze his way out of a parking ticket evoking his fallen comrades, the cop who issues the fine is unmoved. "9/11 was four years ago, champ, deal with it," he tells Tommy, adding that after all the hero hoopla, "turns out some of yous are just broken-down drunks on the verge of a complete and total mental collapse."

"Rescue Me" is a show about men for men, and for the women who find Leary — and firefighters in general — dreamy. Tommy's flaws too often get romanticized into Leary's particular brand of nihilistic machismo, but the show has its rewards, mostly in the dialogue, which showcases a better-than-usual mix of pathos and humor. It's funny the way "Six Feet Under" is funny, from the bottom looking up. To hear it, it helps to be in that kind of mood — as when George, the one on shock treatments, says to Billy, the one off his lithium: "I think that as Emil Coue used to say, 'Every day in every way, I am getting better and better.' "

fredfa

06-16-05, 09:09 PM

Marketing Pros: DVRs Have Advertisers 'Freaked Out'

By Charley Daniels TVWeek.com

Advertisers are "freaked out" about viewers using DVRs to skip commercials while they watch television. That's the consensus among a few key television marketing professionals who gathered Thursday morning to discuss industry issues.

John Miller, chief marketing officer for NBC Universal Television Group and co-president of The NBC Agency, said the new media options available for viewers have more than confused advertisers, particularly because Nielsen Media Research has yet to figure out a way to measure viewership on the new platforms.

"It's freaked out the advertisers," he said. His colleagues agreed.

Michael Mischler, executive VP of marketing for Paramount Domestic Television, likened TiVo to "a light at the end of the tunnel that's actually an oncoming train." He echoed Mr. Miller's assessment: "The advertisers are feeling freaked," he said.

The discussion took place at TelevisionWeek's Power Breakfast: The New Television Marketing, Beyond the 30-Second Spot. The panel discussion was held at Le Meridian Hotel June 16 in Beverly Hills and boasted a powerful group of speakers, moderated by TVWeek Editor Alex Ben Block.

Does the ability to fast-forward through commercials mean the 30-second spot is dead? Not according to the panel. While new media is helping to drive the development of product placement, there is no need to abandon the more traditional options, the experts said.

"TiVo is not an excuse to pour millions of dollars into branded entertainment," said Jak Severson, CEO of Madison Road Entertainment, a branded entertainment studio serving the television and advertising industries. Branded entertainment should become a choice because it works, he said, not because it's the only choice.

Product placement was a hot topic among the panel members. Mr. Mischler listed some criteria for integrating products into shows: The integration must work for the advertiser, work in the show and work for the viewer. Mr. Severson agreed. "If the brand doesn't make the show better, the brand doesn't make the show," he said.

According to the five panelists, the 30-second spot will live on, but Chris Moseley, executive VP and chief marketing officer of Hallmark Channel and Hallmark Movie Channel, seemed to have the most hope. "The idea of telling a story in the advertising is really the way to go," she said.

Ms. Moseley said she likes the idea of making traditional commercials more interesting by "whipping up the emotional content." Emotional content is not necessarily sad or intense, she said, but can use humor, for example, to engage the viewers by connecting to them through emotions. "It's a difference between hard sell and soft sell," she said.

Michael Benson, senior VP of marketing, advertising and promotion for ABC Entertainment, said one of the emerging difficulties is the rising cost and increasing options that must be navigated using the same resources. "Now you have to leverage your dollars over many different areas," he said.

Despite the state of television advertising being what it is -- it was compared to the "Wild West" several times during the discussion -- where every spot buy and product placement is somewhat of a gamble, the panelists did agree that it all comes back to creative and quality programming.

"You have to like the show first," Mr. Miller said. "Everything else follows from that."

slocko

06-16-05, 09:32 PM

i'm beginning to find the camera zooming in to a logo on a product a distraction. it sometimes snaps me out of the scene.

sometimes it just doesn't make sense to all of a sudden zoom in on a cell phone so we can see it says Sprint. ruins the mood and the tone of what you are watching. i forgot what i was watching recently where they did that.

fredfa

06-16-05, 11:20 PM

I agree.
The obvious product placements tend to make me upset at whatever companies are responsible.

Xesdeeni

06-17-05, 09:26 AM

...ABC has teamed with...producer Michael Davies and several others for the late summer series My Kind of Town.Speaking of a town-centered reality show. What ever happened to the show where William Shatner duped a town (about what, I can't remember)? I don't want to watch it, but I was just curious if it was ever going to air.

Xesdeeni

fredfa

06-17-05, 09:53 AM

It was called "Invasion Iowa" and production was ended a bit early because some of the people in the town of fewer than 1,000 became "suspicious".

It was scheduled for early 2005, but I don't recall if it ever actually was shown by Spike TV.

pwrmetal

06-17-05, 09:54 AM

Speaking of a town-centered reality show. What ever happened to the show where William Shatner duped a town (about what, I can't remember)? I don't want to watch it, but I was just curious if it was ever going to air.

Xesdeeni

I think that show was called "Invasion Iowa" on Spike TV. I think it was only like a week long deal and aired a couple months ago. But, I may be wrong, since I didn't actually watch it. I just remember being inundated with ads for it when watching DS9 reruns one day.

fredfa

06-17-05, 10:03 AM

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

fredfa

06-17-05, 10:07 AM

This Isn’t TV “Reality” Anymore:
Leroy Wells, Idol 4's "incomprehensible contestant," charged with attempted murder

realityblurred.com---Even those who just appear on the audition episodes of American Idol can’t escape the enduring spotlight. For example: Leroy Wells, previously known as the “most incomprehensible contestant” on American Idol 4, has been arrested for attempted murder and denied bond.

Leroy is “accused of shooting a man three times last week for talking to Wells’ girlfriend,” the Mobile Register reports. Leroy “was in court for a bond hearing on a charge of attempted murder,” and because of “a secret indictment in a previous, unrelated case, District Judge Charles McKnight temporarily denied bond for” him.

Earlier, in December (after the auditions were taped, it seems), “Wells was accused of second-degree assault and shooting into an occupied vehicle.” Most recently, he “is accused of firing three .22-caliber slugs into a 21-year-old man at a Grand Bay gas station and convenience store June 7,” the paper reported.

Xesdeeni

06-17-05, 10:13 AM

I think that show was called "Invasion Iowa" on Spike TV. I think it was only like a week long deal and aired a couple months ago. But, I may be wrong, since I didn't actually watch it. I just remember being inundated with ads for it when watching DS9 reruns one day.Got it. (http://www.tv.com/invasion-iowa/show/31165/summary.html&full_summary=1) Thanks.

Am I the only one who is especially turned off by shows that exploit and make fun of people without their knowledge? It's one thing to know they are going to make fun of you, and still vie for the prize (but still stupid). But it's another to be set up without your knowledge, especially for the profit of others. The TOWN got a measly $100,000. The individuals got nothing. I wonder how much Shatner pocketed?

Xesdeeni

fredfa

06-17-05, 10:25 AM

I agree entirely, Xesdeeni.
(By the way, wasn't Riverside, IA, the town where Shatner was born?)
Even more fun -- go back to the birth place and make 'em all look silly.
Yikes.

David_Levin

06-17-05, 10:31 AM

'There's nothing on!' Nonsense.
Summer's here, and so is lots of good TV

By Maureen Ryan Chicago Tribune staff reporter

"The Comeback," Sundays, HBO: Some were not so keen on this show, but I think this Lisa Kudrow vehicle is pretty darn funny (meaning, it's nothing like the other fake reality show about a failed actress, "Fat Actress").

Wow, she lost me here. After two episodes I consider the show unwatchable. Like nails on a chalkboard.

fredfa

06-17-05, 11:02 AM

I am with you, David.
Unwatchable is a gentle word for that show, IMO.

fredfa

06-17-05, 12:32 PM

NBC's 'Hit Me Baby' gets one last slap
On the chin, as it were. Ratings take a tumble

medialifemagazine.com---NBC’s “Hit Me Baby One More Time” ended its limited three-episode run last night, but at the rate the show was losing viewers, it won’t be missed.

Last night’s episode averaged a 3.0 rating among viewers 18-49, according to Nielsen overnights, and averaged 5.92 million total viewers, both numbers off from the show’s first two weeks.

During its first week, “Baby” averaged a 4.7 rating among 18-49s and 8.90 million total viewers. But last week it slipped 21.7 percent among 18-49s to a 3.7, and 16.8 percent among viewers to 7.32 million.

Last night’s numbers represented another 18.9 percent week-to-week dip among 18-49s, and a 19.1 percent week-to-week slide among total viewers.

“Baby” played out as an “American Idol”-style show with contestants that have actually been in the limelight before. Last night’s episode featured has-beens Cameo, Sophie B. Hawkins, Howard Jones, Irene Cara and Wang Chung.

fredfa

06-17-05, 12:44 PM

“24” movie In The Works
But it will take time
by Tara Merrin Calgary Sun

BANFF — A movie based on the Fox series 24 is in the works. But whether it will be shot in real-time is still up for consideration, says the show’s Canadian director/producer Jon Cassar.

“The last I heard, the first hour will not be in real-time, but then something big will happen and real time will kick in. It still has to be worked out — it’s at a stage where they need to write it.”
Cassar will not predict a storyline for the big screen version of the hugely popular show.

He says the script will likely depend on what’s happening on the series prior to the movie coming out.
“It could still be two years from now, so it’s far too early to say,” he says, adding even if he did know, he wouldn’t give it away.

“The No. 1 question people ask me is ‘what’s going to happen next?’ My response is always, ‘Do you really want to know?’ and they always think about it and then say ‘no.’ ”

When 24 debuted in 2001 with its new twist (all the action happens in real time, over 24 hours), viewers instantly took notice and the show climbed to the top of the ratings.

Cassar says he was a little surprised by its instant success. In fact, when he first heard the real-time concept for the show, he recalls thinking, “God, that would be so boring. Who’s going to want to watch that?”

“The reason I think it worked is because of how it is shot and the scripts. The writers are amazing — they have been able to come up with yet another bad day for Jack for two years now.”

Cassar’s style of shooting full scenes without interruption, makes him one of the most sought after producer/directors in the industry, but this wasn’t always the case.

In fact, Cassar says he had a difficult time breaking into the industry, especially in Canada.

“Canadian producers need to take more chances.”

That’s a message Cassar hopes industry insiders attending the Banff World Television Festival this week will take to heart.

“The Canadian producers didn’t want to take a chance on me. It was always the Americans who said yes.

“In the States, they take pride in discovering the next big thing — Canadians just want to take the safe road. It’s really unfortunate.”

Before 24, Cassar directed several episodes of La Femme Nikita, Mutant X and Sheena: Queen of the Jungle, but it was while working as a camera man on Forever Knight in 1993 when he got his first big break.

“They gave me a chance and gave me my first episode. Once I started working in the U.S., all those same Canadian producers came running. I’m hoping when the next talented guy comes in the door, they’ll see it and hire him."

dline

06-17-05, 02:26 PM

I agree entirely, Xesdeeni.
(By the way, wasn't Riverside, IA, the town where Shatner was born?)
Even more fun -- go back to the birth place and make 'em all look silly.
Yikes.
As I recall, it wasn't Shatner, but his Star Trek character, Captain James T. Kirk, who was supposed to be born in Iowa. IIRC, Riverside, a small town a short drive south of Iowa City, got wind of this, declared itself the future birthplace of Captain Kirk, and has been running with it for years.

(Any eastern Iowa Trekkies, please help me out here!)

fredfa

06-17-05, 04:11 PM

keenan

06-17-05, 04:46 PM

My mistake, dline. You are correct -- as usual.
I am not sure where Capt Kirk was supposedly born, but numerous internet sources say William Shatner was born in Montreal (March 22, 1931 if you want to prepare his 75th birthday cards for next year).
You know, it's guys like Shatner, Newman and Eastwood that make me think 50 really isn't that old... :p :D

fredfa

06-17-05, 06:42 PM

You mean you once thought of 50 as old? :)

keenan

06-17-05, 06:57 PM

Well, yeah, when I was 20-25 I thought it was ancient, but now that I'm 50, seeing these guys in their 70's going on 80's makes me fell better. Turning 30 and 40 was no big deal, but 50...something different about it... :eek: :D

Inundated

06-17-05, 09:00 PM

As I recall, it wasn't Shatner, but his Star Trek character, Captain James T. Kirk, who was supposed to be born in Iowa. IIRC, Riverside, a small town a short drive south of Iowa City, got wind of this, declared itself the future birthplace of Captain Kirk, and has been running with it for years.

(Any eastern Iowa Trekkies, please help me out here!)

Well, I'm not an Eastern Iowa Trekkie, but you're basically right. And since I was almost invoked here accidentally (see my login name)... :D

The show did indeed air on Spike TV a few months ago. It's from the same folks who produced the two seasons of "Joe Schmo", and I'm a bit biased since I've followed their work since shortly after the premiere of the first "JS" season. I actually started watching it because of a very active thread in AVS Forum's sister forum, TiVo Community, and among the participants in the thread was one of the show's creators. In fact, Rhett has been with us over there through both seasons of that show, and through and after "Invasion Iowa". He's actually got a few hundred posts on TCF now. :D

I can see how the shorthand recounting of the premise would turn people off. But this show, and the "Joe Schmo" series, are not on the order of "Punk'd". The fun with the townspeople and those "duped" into the fake reality show is harmless, and nearly everyone who's experienced it says it's the best experience of their lives. And we should know...after JS's second season, two of the three "marks" actually joined us on TCF and said so themselves.

The shows were good hearted, funny and not at all mean to anyone involved. Unfortunately, being basically buried on a network that makes its name off pro wrestling, fewer and fewer people got to see these shows.

It's a bit long-winded, and kind of off topic, but since it got kicked around here in a few messages...and since I'm kind of the "obsessive" one on this topic, here I am. :D (My apologies to anyone who's also on TCF!)

fredfa

06-17-05, 10:04 PM

Thanks for the info, Inundated -- much appreciated.

fredfa

06-18-05, 11:18 AM

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

fredfa

06-18-05, 05:31 PM

Whither Taste in Advertising?

COMMENTARY By Tom Shales TVWeek.com

These are the darkly ages. If a film or TV show is to be found acceptably "comic" by a critic, it really must be "darkly comic" to qualify for recommendation; it must have that almighty "edge." The surprising thing-if anything is all that surprising anymore where television is concerned-is that even commercials aspire to darkness in their humor, or just darkness period.

We now have the ad noir, a commercial made in the style of the old postwar existential crime films (peril films, really, but that usually meant a crime or two), a demonstration of the fact that any look from any era can be duplicated but also an expression of a darkness that hath fallen over the land, a kind of mal de vie thing that has several obvious causes. The noir genre has a look-shadows and angles and a general visual austerity-but what it really has is a voice, often the voice of some surly Cro-Magnon who gets lots of work sounding nasty, taunting and tough while selling mayonnaise or roll-on deodorant or cracker snacks.

You know the voice: "Cheez-It. Get your own box."

Can you hear it in your head? The makers of Cheez-Its hope so, and they probably get their wish millions of times a day. The voice is deep, very deep, but also extremely hostile and argumentative, more irritating even than you'd expect the voice of importunity to be. If you could travel back in time and insert one of these hostile spots into, say, the CBS prime-time lineup, what would audience reaction be? Probably people would be hostile right back: How dare an advertiser implicitly threaten and harass me when he is trying to get me to buy his disposable diapers or butterlike chemical mush?

I literally hate that man with the voice. I hate him because he sounds like he hates me. The "Get your own box" command has all kinds of implicit ugly overtones: "Get your own box, you wimp," or "Get your own box, girly-man." Here's a commercial that insults your manhood-if you happen to be a man-yet imagines you'll buy the product to reward the insulter. Maybe women find the guy's voice sexy. Perhaps he's part of a reaction, one that's been going on for years, against the sensitive male, the guy who still hasn't scraped the Kerry-Edwards bumper sticker off his Volvo and who tries very hard to be in tune with his partner's needs and all that kind of thing.

By the way, that "Get your own box" bull is part of another interlocking trend in advertising, which is putting the product ahead of everything else in your life, even your spouse or parent or son or daughter. One of the most currently common kinds of commercials follows one similar symptomatic schematic: A shmoe has to choose between a beer and a beautiful girl in half a dress. That, or a variation of it. Inexplicably-also selfishly and coldly-the guy or guys always goes or go for the beer. Beer, indeed, is treated with more deferential, sanctimonious respect than any other product sold on television.

These ads obviously impart a sexual desirability to a product, a ploy that harks way back to Vance Packard's classic wake-up call of the '50s, "The Hidden Persuaders." Packard divulged lots of advertiser tricks but that didn't really hurt any of the advertisers, did it? We each see so many hundreds of commercials every year that the outrageous, the really skanky and shameful ones, get lost in the torrent. We may want to stay mad but we usually forget to.

There is one commercial, however, that I never forget I hate, and deplore, and find so abhorrent that I really do have to switch channels until it's over. It appeals to the same center of sickness in the human mind that the middle segment on "Fear Factor" appeals to-the segment where people have to eat worms or cow pies or let rats bite them. You've seen the ad; it's for a prescription drug that kills toenail fungus, a scourge on humanity of which many of us were unaware-UNTIL this stupidly sickening ad appeared. Now it's the ad that's the scourge.

The commercial is a kind of 3-D cartoon, probably computer imagery, in which a hideous gremlin, putrid yellow or green in color (putrid yellow is also sported by the slobby monsters who represent allergies in an Allegra spot) tells us about the dread menace of toenail rot while standing near a diseased foot. Early in the ad he takes hold of that cartoon but realistic toe's big toenail and, incredibly, LIFTS IT from its moorings as if it were the hood of a car, not part of a living organism. Under the nail, more ghastly creatures are hard at work advancing the fungus or maybe eating the whole victim alive.

It's a wonder we don't see cartoon maggots squiggling around in a swamp of pus.

I was never able to confirm a printed report that Dan Rather so abhorred this nauseating commercial that he requested it be banned from "The CBS Evening News" but then, tragically, he was sort of banned from "The CBS Evening News" himself. We know network executives would rather hemorrhage from a private part than turn down a single advertising dollar, but if there are departments of standards and practices anymore, they really should have stopped this spot at the gate and sent it back home.

Not everything can be sold with happy songs and dances. The hard sell will never be extinct because there will always be slimy guys around who prefer using it. Apparently, Fox stations will continue to run scary, nightmarish ads for R-rated horror movies in access and other dayparts when kids are likely to be watching. All I'm advocating, really, is a little decency and a modicum of respect, as we all used to say in college (when we loved saying "a modicum of" anything)-an approach that doesn't implicitly threaten viewers with a beating, as the craven cretin does, nor advocate and promote selfishness, materialism and greed.

Is it a lot to ask? Of companies determined to take the low road, yes, it is. Let's ask it anyway, just for the hell of it.

fredfa

06-18-05, 06:21 PM

Cable's Summer Sizzlers

By Anne Becker Broadcasting & Cable

Tuesday's summer solstice officially starts the season, but cable is already steaming with record-breaking ratings for the debuts of its original programming.

In what has become a rite of summer, after sweeps end, the broadcast networks pad their schedules with low-brow reality. Then cable steps up to counter-program. This season's earliest entrants—new series and returning shows alike—are often besting broadcast ratings. The June 13 premiere of TNT's crime drama, The Closer, was the highest-rated showing ever for a basic-cable original scripted series, notching a 4.8 household rating; it also outperformed the premieres of summer broadcast shows like Fox's The Inside and ABC's The Scholar in total viewers, with 7.03 million.

Returning shows on other cable networks continue to perform as well. Last week, The 4400's season-two second episode drew 4.38 million total viewers, and The Dead Zone's fourth-season premiere attracted 3.45 million. Lifetime's Strong Medicine, the longest-running basic-cable original series, logged 2.9 million viewers for its sixth-season premiere, and FX's The Shield finished its fourth season with 3.2 million viewers.

In addition to attracting viewers, original hits solidify branding, garner press and critical acclaim, and create new product-placement and sponsorship opportunities. Each successful show also improves cable shows' yet-unproven backend prospects for syndication and foreign sales.

Smart Spending

Cost is the biggest concern for cable networks looking to score a hit. Cable networks usually have smaller budgets for originals than broadcast networks do, so the number of shows and their production costs must be kept lower. That means selectively greenlighting pilots: three instead of 30, for instance; sometimes using those that don't go to series as one-off movies; and often using cross-promotion on parent companies' broadcast networks.

“Our philosophy is fewer, bigger, better,” says Bonnie Hammer, president of USA and Sci Fi. “We grew up without money, so when we started getting into the ballgame with originals, we became extremely effective developers and producers.”

Cable series' producers save by avoiding cost overruns from numerous script rewrites and multiple shoots. Says Kevin Beggs, programming/production president of boutique studio Lions Gate Television, “You might not need that seventh guest star.”

His company is producing four of cable's summer shows, including USA's Dead Zone and Lifetime's Missing.

Strategic Marketing

Lions Gate is also behind Wildfire, ABC Family's first-ever original drama, which debuts June 20. Beggs kept production costs low on the ranch-based show by casting unknown actors and shooting in Albuquerque, N.M. (The state offers producers tax incentives.)

With ratings growth from acquired Gilmore Girls and Smallville, ABC Family is using Wildfire and the network's second original series, July's Beautiful People, to further establish itself as destination for modern 18- to 34-year-olds, says President Paul Lee. Support from ABC and Disney has helped ABC Family launch one of its priciest and most comprehensive marketing campaigns ever to promote Wildfire—including print ads, movie-theater and shopping-mall promos, and prime time ads on ABC.

The Turner networks have been similarly aggressive with marketing their originals. TNT spent $50 million to market Into the West, its current Steven Spielberg/DreamWorks Television limited series. (Turner reports that the 12-hour drama cost another $50 million to produce.)

“Our plan's starting to come to fruition,” says Steve Koonin, executive VP/COO of TNT and TBS. “We're thrilled because we've beaten lots and lots of broadcast shows. This is a great thing for us.”

fredfa

06-18-05, 07:01 PM

'Nightline' Newsies Can Relax – A Little
By J. Max Robins Broadcasting & Cable

Look for Nightline to get jazzed up over the coming weeks. But that doesn't mean a move to the ersatz smoky nightclub set, complete with jazz combo, that I wrote about a couple of months back when ABC was weighing replacement formats pending Ted Koppel's departure at year's end.

The network shot some pilots, toying with a top-to-bottom reinvention of the show that included changing its name, focus and base of operations, from Washington to New York.

But now the idea is to let Nightline keep its name and evolve over the next six months into what it will look like in the post-Koppel era. Last Friday's edition, for example, at press time was scheduled to have Bob Woodruff anchor a show with different stories built around a Father's Day theme. Other Nightline newscasts throughout the summer are likely to trade the show's traditional single-topic format for a multi-topic structure.

Nightline won't abandon its news and public- affairs roots, but look for the show to retain the live format that helped make its reputation, as well as sprinkle in more human-interest and pop-culture fare.

In addition to Woodruff, a number of ABC News stalwarts, including George Stephanopoulos, Terry Moran, Chris Bury, John Donvan and Jake Tapper have surfaced as part of a rotating anchor cast. One idea being bandied about is to do away with the traditional anchor format altogether and go with something more akin to 60 Minutes, where a cadre of high-profile correspondents each introduce their own pieces.

“We can't just move into a post-Koppel era by simply putting a new person in the anchor chair,” says Nightline executive producer Tom Bettag, who plans to go out the door with Koppel. “I was at CBS when we did that, going from Cronkite to Rather, and it can just be disastrous if you don't shape the show to fit who the talent is going to be.”

Bettag has told Nightline staffers that, for “the foreseeable future,” the show will continue to be done from Washington, although, within ABC News headquarters in New York, it's still an open question whether the show may eventually make Gotham its home. Either way, the noise from New York is that the days of Nightline's being a quasi-independent D.C. fiefdom are coming to a close. ABC News brass is intimately involved in all changes being made, and network higher-ups are keeping a watchful eye. Nobody is happy that Nightline's ratings have been in descent in recent years. About 3.6 million people on average watch Nightline, down from 3.9 million a year ago. That's significantly below the 5.8 million who watch Jay Leno or the 4.5 million who tune into David Letterman.

In recent months, ABC News President David Westin has repeatedly stated his commitment to the Nightline franchise in the post-Koppel era. No doubt, but back in 2002, Westin's corporate bosses were willing to dump Nightline and made a serious but ultimately unsuccessful run at Letterman. The Late Show host ultimately decided to stay at CBS and let it be known that he didn't want to be seen as the guy who knocked Ted Koppel out of his job. “Today, even with Koppel going, it looks like Nightline is safe,” says a veteran ABC News executive. “But we're really powerless if Jon Stewart becomes available and the guys in L.A. decide to make a secret run at him.”

Stewart is tied to Comedy Central through the 2008 presidential election, so Nightline newsies can relax—but not too much. Letterman is basically tethered to CBS until 2007. By that time, Dave certainly wouldn't be known as the guy who put Ted Koppel out of work.

fredfa

06-18-05, 08:05 PM

60 Share In Sight For Cable Nets

By Mike Reynolds Multichannel.com
While many people tune into The Weather Channel or local-news sources in the summer to find out whether the mercury is expected to reach 90 degrees, cable executives have another number in mind to gauge industry heat.

Programmers and researchers alike are turning to Nielsen Media Research data in hopes of seeing the number 60 — as in a 60 primetime household share. Through the first two weeks after close of the 2004-05 TV season, cable officials have to be happy with their Nielsen readings.

During the first small-screen salvo of TV's summer season, from May 30 to June 5, ad-supported cable registered a 60.3 primetime share — the industry's best-ever single week, according to a Turner Research analysis of Nielsen data. Meanwhile, the seven broadcast networks saw their weighted share slip to a 34.3.

Basic cable didn't do too badly in the season's second week (spanning June 6 to 12) either, notching a 59.6 share, up 5.9% from the same week the year before. That's versus a 34.6 for broadcast, which was up 2.4% for the week.

Rounding the numbers up just a tick for summer's first two weeks, cable is at the 60 share level, versus 34.5 for broadcast.

The question now becomes: Can cable maintain that new benchmark throughout June, July and August?
Researchers, citing myriad factors — from cable's breadth and depth of original series, broadcast's relative programming somnabulence, improved seasonal viewing levels and the lack of a certain quadrennial athletic event — believe the industry could even exceed that level.

“Cable got off to a great start in the first week after the post-regular TV season. It looks as if it's going to be a great summer for cable,” said MTV Networks executive vice president of research and planning Betsy Frank. “Sure, we can attain the 60 mark.”

Added Steve Leblang, senior vice president of strategic planning and research for FX Networks and emerging networks, “A 60 share is sustainable, even beatable.”

Last Summer Was 57

Making 60 sing all summer long would represent a sizable jump for cable. Last summer, the medium's primetime household share grew 4% from 2003 to an all-time seasonal high of 57. Conversely, broadcast's share declined 2% to a low of 36.3%, according to a Turner analysis.

Thus, in order to push to 60, basic cable would have to raise its share 5.3%.

Given an array of movies, miniseries, new dramas, comedies and reality skeins into August — not to mention returning shows — Leblang believes that's a very doable number.

“We and our competitors are launching multiple high-profile shows. The finale of The Shield, to new series Over There and new seasons of Nip/Tuck, Rescue Me, and Lifetime's Strong Medicine and TNT's [limited series] Into The West, these are shows people want to see,” he said. “When you look at TV Guide and other publications like that, basic-cable shows are listed in the same way as other TV options. In our estimation, basic cable has reached program consideration parity in the minds of most viewers.”

NBC Universal president of research Alan Wurtzel also foresees a big number for cable in summer 2005. In an e-mail response, he pointed to the strong beginnings for the new season of The 4400 (it bowed as a limited series last summer) and season four of The Dead Zone, and wrote: “We believe that the USA shows can maintain those performances and that new shows and seasons on Sci Fi will help support cable in reaching a 60 share.”

USA will bow the fourth season of quirky detective series Monk on July 8, A week later, Stargate SG-1 (ninth season) Stargate Atlantis (second) and Battlestar Galactica (second) will return with fresh episodes on Sci Fi. On July 27, Master Blasters will join the second seasons of Tripping the Rift and Ghost Hunters on the service's all-original Wednesday lineup.

Brooks Is Encouraged

Tim Brooks, Lifetime Television's executive vice president of research, who stopped short of making an early prediction, nonetheless was encouraged by cable's summer beginning, which also includes a record original series 5.9 household ratings performance by TNT's The Closer on June 13 (see page 22).

“The strong start bodes well. Generally, cable doesn't begin to open the gap up until the middle of June,” he said. “And cable does get stronger as the season progresses.”

Although Fox is continuing to pursue its year-round scheduling strategy, the other broadcasters are again “populating their slates with low-budget shows and the latest version of reality shows,” said Brooks, whose network hopes to score big with six-hour miniseries Beach Girls, beginning July 31.

“The Scholar [on ABC] and Fire Me [CBS] are just other takes and not a new direction,” he said. “And then the networks surround them mainly with reruns.”

Broadcasts Hits, Too

But Leblang said broadcasters deserve some credit: “I don't know why, but [ABC's] Dancing With The Stars is an unqualified success, and [Fox's] Hell's Kitchen is doing well. People are coming to these shows and taking audience from everybody else.”

But the fact that viewers have grown accustomed to finding a bevy of original fare on cable in the summer — and only a handful of new broadcast shows — is not the only habit driving better returns for cable. More and more people are watching the tube during the summer.

“TV is part of our lives. It's in our vacation homes and goes out to the patio with us,” said Brooks, noting that seasonal viewing levels continue to rise. “The difference used to 30%. Now, it's about 10%.”

Viacom Inc.'s youthful-skewing networks like MTV: Music Television, with the upcoming Trailer Fabulous, a Pimp Your Ride-like parody of trailer homes hosted by rapper Brooks Buford; the latest installment of reality stalwart The Real World, this time from Austin, Texas; and Comedy Central certainly benefit from having more young people home from school.

“Having some more leisure time to kick back and watch TV certainly helps us with the 18 to 24s, 18 to 34s,” she said, adding that Nickelodeon and MTV have access to more kid and teen viewers as well.

Cable's scheduling is also key to attracting summer viewers. “Multiple showings work because if someone's not around the first time, they can catch an encore and maybe become a regular [primetime] viewer. That's always been a strength for cable,” Frank said.

There's another factor in cable's favor this year: An absence of programming from Athens. Last year, NBC's coverage of the Summer Olympic Games helped the broadcast industry improve its overall ratings 1%. Without the Olympics, broadcast would have been down 9%.

“Without the Olympics, [a 60 share] is pretty much a done deal,” Frank said.

fredfa

06-18-05, 10:18 PM

This interview may answer questions you have about Nilesen and how it measures who is watching what. (Then again, it might not.)

She Watches Who's Watching What
By LAURA RICH The New York Times

For 17 years, Nielsen Media Research has used "people meters" to measure and report overnight results of the network television viewing habits of individuals and entire households. Recently, the company began rolling out people meters to measure local viewing - and suddenly its process came under fire.

Rupert Murdoch, chairman of the News Corporation, lashed out at Susan Whiting, the chief executive at Nielsen Media, at a conference; Al Sharpton made public rebukes. There were protests outside its New York headquarters, with demonstrators objecting that blacks and Hispanics were being undercounted by local people meters. Recently, Ms. Whiting spoke about the decision to delay the introduction of people meters for demographic measurement and TiVo use. The following are excerpts from the conversation:
----------------------------
Q: Why has there been a delay in rolling out local people meters in Washington and Philadelphia this month?

A: It’s pretty straightforward, actually. We announced the schedule ahead of time and then clients start getting preliminary information about the market, so they look at people meter ratings and the current ratings side by side. But it’s a big change for our clients to change their business to getting information 365 days a year. So basically we agreed that it would be a good idea to give them another month to look at the comparisons on the demographic data on the May sweeps period. And that’s really why we provided the extra month, because they’ll get that in June and they weren’t going to have time to absorb all that information.
----------------------------
Q: Why won’t you get accreditation for the LPMs?

A: Well, every market we’ve gone in to we’ve applied for accreditation and we will continue to apply for accreditation. The MRC actually does an audit, which is the first step in accreditation, only when the service is up and operating. So, they will begin their audit when our sample in Philadelphia and Washington is fully ready. So, it’s a process. An ongoing process. And all of our services have gone through this -- other media-related services: radio, print, other services do the same thing: you launch a service, apply for accreditation – we’re doing that in every city, but we don’t for accreditation before you launch a service. And that’s really the process.
We totally agree with applying for it and working with MRC, and getting the audit.
----------------------------
Q: Then why all the objections, do the station groups just not know how it works?

A: They know how it works. I think that some of our clients – and it’s not all of our clients – but some of them would like the process to take longer. And the switch to take longer. And that would be a much longer, more drawn-out process, but it wouldn’t only apply to people meters, this would apply to any change that we were making.
But we just think that it’s faster, as responsive and we’re allowed to do more innovation if we have a process like we do today.
We’re doing the right thing. We’re working with MRC, we’re applying for accreditation, we’re getting audited.
----------------------------
Q: What do you say to Fox and other groups about concerns that certain demographic groups – — mainly blacks and Hispanics – — are undercounted and how are you addressing that?

A: Well, it’s largely a matter of perception, because as we’ve seen each of those claims, we’ve gone in and looked at the actual samples in each market. And we’re not underrepresenting people of color. In fact, we have more people of color and very, very close sample representation in all those major characteristics.
So, once you sit down and talk to people about the facts, they realize that’s not true. And that claim is not accurate. It’s not.
----------------------------
Q: Who are these people? Was Rupert Murdoch one of them?

A: I did have that conversation a year ago with Mr. Murdoch. And we obviously work with News Corp. folks every day. They’re a very large client of ours on the station side, on the network side, on the cable network side, and they continue to be a client with people here talking to them every day. That particular issue relates to their TV stations in individual markets, not their national network, not their cable network, not “American Idol.” And we’ve shown them all the same facts.
----------------------------
Q: Were you surprised that he came out and attacked you publicly?

A: It was almost a year ago, when that whole campaign against Nielsen began.
Yes, I was surprised. Because I had never spoken to him before, so to have a meeting like that in a private business setting was kind of a jolt, but in some ways, this has been a very public discussion between two businesses. And that’s uncomfortable and not the way we prefer to do business. But certainly we’ve had to talk about how we measure, explained it to a lot of different people, we’ve opened up our process, we brought in a task force, we’ve talked to elected officials and community leaders. In the long run, that actually is a good thing for us because a lot more people know how we do what we do, and understand it better. And like all research, you can always improve research, but at least they understand what the facts are.
So in a funny way, in the long run, I think it opened up our process.
----------------------------
Q: Was Al Sharpton one of those community leaders?

A: He was. He sat right here in this office.
----------------------------
Q: How did that meeting go? He seems to have a really big presence.

A: We met a lot of intelligent, interesting people in this process. Because, to be fair, when you make an accusation about undercounting, a lot of people have a lot of experience being undercounted, so until they get the facts about what we do, it’s not unusual. But once people saw the facts, it really changed their minds.
----------------------------
Q: Once people meters are in place everywhere, how do you see them transforming television?

A: I think it’s a gradual transformation, but the big benefit is that you have information about who watches TV. The demographics every day. And there’s some great quotes today from one of the station managers in Boston, where they’ve had people meters for a long time.
Obviously the whole national television business has been operating this way for 17 years. And you can understand programming trends better because you actually have a panel of people that you’re looking at over time. You can look at how new technology is used in the home. So I think it smoothes out programming. And what we’re hearing from people is that they don’t think they’ll be as much programming around the sweeps because you’ll measure 365 days a year.
But of course there are many markets that aren’t going to be people meter-filled and will be reported differently. But I think smart programmers have a lot more information available. Advertisers, the main driver here, have more information available, and, we have a much broader array of channels we’ve reported. So you really do see people watching television across lots of channels.
----------------------------
Q: If people don’t program around sweeps, that seems like a major changes.

A: Well, it changes marketing and promotion for programs. News producers have told us that makes life different.
----------------------------
Q: Some of the results, like the tests in Washington showed some lower numbers in certain time periods –

A: Actually, we have a lot of May information, we have a lot of trends that young people are actually watching more television, people of color are watching more television. You need to see the facts for Washington for all of May.
Basically, we’ve seen increases in the number of channels people are watching.
----------------------------
Q: Has Nielsen considered using set-top boxes to collect information on people’s TV-watching habits?

A: We have explored it; it’s not new. Since there’s been cable, there’s been information in set-top boxes.
If you think about what we do and it’s collecting what’s on the TV and who’s watching it, in a representative sample – you could collect what’s on TV with a set-top box. You’ll only know it on the TVs that have the set-top boxes – which is not every TV in every home, but you won’t know who. So there’s still a need for the demographics to have either a sample or a different way of getting that information from people with set-top boxes. And then you’ve got to put it together with people who have many TV sets at home, so when you think about it that way, there’s a real opportunity to get more information from a set-top box, we’ve talked to major MSOs many times in our past. We’re working on video-on-demand measurement that way, too. We’re looking at that.
But you still want to know who and that still requires talking to somebody and either asking who you are or having a people meter device or something else. So, it’s possible, it’s helpful. It’s not the whole solution. It’s complementary.
----------------------------
Q: Are you measuring TiVo watching?

A: We started to measure in April in our major metered markets “time shifting,” I call it. That could be TiVo or satellite DVR or the cable one. And we’re starting to see that in our sample and then nationally we’ll start in January, so yes, we are doing it.
----------------------------
Q: What exactly are you seeing?

A: Well, very preliminary, very early: There are certain kinds of programs that make sense, people have favorite programs, where the ratings actually go up when you include viewing that’s been time-shifted. So things like “American Idol,” “Desperate Housewives,” “Oprah.”
----------------------------
Q: These shows already had high ratings and time-shifted improved them further?

A: Yes.
----------------------------
Q: So that seems to indicate that mass viewing isn’t going away any time soon.

A: I don’t think so. And for the first time, we just saw statistics for last year and saw overall viewing by American households in our sample averaged more than eight hours a day. It’s the first time it’s gone over eight hours in all the years we’ve been doing this, in the same national panel of people meters. So I think that’s pretty interesting, actually.
Now, people watch less than eight hours – that’s a whole household – people average a little over four hours. But the average home has over 100 channels. They’re watching about 15, but your 15 and my 15 are probably different. So, people are watching a lot of channels, but they’re not cutting back on the average amount of time they’re spending on TV. And we saw some really good ratings with some great programming this year in broadcast networks. So I’m an optimist about television, and the strength of the programming.
----------------------------
Q: Does it really matter whether TV is the strongest medium? Nielsen measures all media.

A: You’re right in that, through our sister company Nielsen/NetRatings, we measure the Internet. We’re looking at product placement and sponsorships on TV. But it does matter to us because our clients are in the television business. Or they’re buying ads across the television business.
Our job is to be accurate about what people are watching, but we think it’s important that we measure it well so that advertisers have confidence in it. That’s really where this whole story started, trying to be as accurate as possible, even though things are changing. We’re seeing how people are watching more TV but in a different way.
----------------------------
Q: If the objections to people meters were to continue and people meters continue to show high “fault” rates, is there a plan B?

A: Well, I don’t think that we’re going to back off this plan, because we know it’s the proven way to measure television. It’s the gold standard for measuring television – internationally, nationally. In the top markets we’re seeing advertisers and agencies use it. Our clients are using it to program differently. I don’t think the facts bear out that there is as significant an issue as some people are stating.
----------------------------
Q: In your role giving people information about their shows and their advertisements, isn’t that this awesome responsibility to be behind the possibility of a major transformation?

A: It’s a huge responsibility. I feel and we feel it every day. Because we know you know you’re reporting about change and you know you’re affecting large companies, businesses, advertisers. You want to do it well. It’s a research company, it’s also a business. You have to manage the different priorities. We have competing clients who don’t agree on how we should do it. And so we have a really high profile and a lot of responsibility and we take it really seriously.
It’s also really exciting.
----------------------------
Q: You mention that Nielsen presents facts, but isn’t the thing about facts that there are different ways of looking at them, right?

A: Yes. And because Nielsen’s supposed to be an independent company reporting behavior about television and we don’t report opinions about TV, we don’t ask people about opinions, it’s just supposed to be about what people are watching.
----------------------------
Q: Nielsen doesn’t interpret the data at all?

A: We provide the data back to all of our clients every day and they make decisions about what to do with it. They do ask opinions about why there are differences in the numbers, and so we try to answer those from a research perspective. But, yes, it’s often controversial.
----------------------------
Q: People sometimes complain that television executives pay too much attention to ratings, developing shows based on audience results rather than a good creative ide
A: What do you say to that?

A: Well, I’m probably not the best person to answer that, but certainly we’ve seen high ratings for great programming. And we see people watching so many different channels now that I think the consumer is ultimately the decision maker and they have a lot of choice. But we’ve seen that when there’s something that people really want to watch, they watch it.
So I think programming executives use ratings to help them make decisions, but I don’t think most brilliant, creative people only use ratings.
----------------------------
Q: Would you say that Nielsen measures taste then?

A: No, I think of it more as measuring behavior. That’s what this is. I think that people watch all different kinds of programming, and you’ll see this when you see patterns. People don’t mostly just watch one thing. They jump from news to sports to movies to sitcoms to stripped programming to stuff for their kids. So a household has all different kinds of behaviors.
----------------------------
Q: You don’t consider that taste at all?

A: I think of that as being more about your opinion as opposed to a decision and an action.
It’s both a really difficult time with all the change, but it’s also really exciting because you get to see how television is changing and how consumers and young people in particular are using television somewhat differently and are getting programming in different places. And so we’re starting to measure things like advertising on video games and we’re looking at all the different uses of television programming. And everybody’s waiting to see how TiVo and time-shifting affect TV.
So I think it’s a really important time in TV. That’s why we want to make sure we have the right platform to measure it well.
----------------------------
Q: Speaking of which, have you had much cooperation from young people?

A: Yes, we actually have very good cooperation, with young adults with the people meters. So putting in perspective all the things I talked about, today, in the same cities where we have a panel of people meters and separate panel of people who keep a weeklong hand-written diaries. What we’re asking people to do is, with a remote control, push a button – their button, maybe number one – and an OK button when they watch TV. One, OK – that’s it. I don’t think – and all of our testing says that’s not more difficult than somebody writing down every channel and which TV set every 15 minutes. And we do a lot of testing around it. And it’s been in place for a really long time. This isn’t new. It’s new to the cities and markets, and I’m not underestimating the change. But it’s a pretty good process for collecting information. We measure it very carefully every day.

fredfa

06-18-05, 11:06 PM

A Critical Look at Some of the New Summer Shows

by Matt Roush TVGuide

I'm not one who thinks it's healthy to live in a nostalgic state of mind. Even in a bad TV year, which this most certainly was not, I don't like to dwell on a past "golden age." (There are clinkers, duds, appalling lows to every timeless high, in every era.)

That said, I find myself yearning for the good old days when summer meant taking a bit of a break from TV. First cable filled the void, launching signature shows at a time when it was easier to get attention. Then, fearful of losing even more audience to cable, the networks kicked in with short-run summer series, most of them disposable but with enough true breakthroughs Survivor, American Idol to keep them trying. And trying. And trying. And...

I can't remember a busier June than this year, with several new and returning shows a week on cable and network. It's a bit overwhelming to confront a calendar of TV premieres that looks nearly as full as it did a month ago, during the wild and wacky May sweeps. Simply put: I miss repeats.

But because of the backlog, I've let some shows get by me with minimal comment. Here's my quick take on a few of the more notable happenings since Memorial Day:

Best new procedural: TNT's The Closer, with Kyra Sedgwick as an appealingly imperfect and abrasive new arrival in the LAPD's Priority Murder Squad. This show has humor, plenty of conflict and, in the pilot, some nice twists as Sedgwick cannily conducts her interrogations while all of her resentful colleagues look on, waiting for her to screw up. While it's no Prime Suspect, to which some have compared it, at least it's making an effort. (For my less favorable take on Fox's The Inside, check out the minireview in my weekly magazine column.)

My initial Inside review did not leave me enough room to single out Peter Coyote's enigmatic performance as the manipulative boss of L.A.'s Violent Crimes Unit (how many special units does this city have to solve disgusting crimes, anyway?). Rachel Nichols does her best in an underdeveloped role as the Clarice Starling of this Silence of the Lambs retread, but it's Coyote's ruthless use of his otherwise bland agents that makes the show a bit more than generic. (Next week's episode, about a serial killer who targets potential mass murderers, is the best I've seen to date.) But The Inside has the stink of a summer burnoff from Fox, while The Closer really does look like a keeper.

Best new reality show: Well, it certainly isn't CBS' pallid Apprentice -meets- Project Runway wannabe, The Cut. (Tommy Hilfiger has zero TV presence, sorry to say.) Give WB's Beauty and the Geek credit for good-hearted fun, and for not being a dating show. It's the most enjoyable show lately from a genre even more oversaturated than procedural crime dramas.

But the most real reality show of the summer arrivds Wednesday with FX's 30 Days, from Morgan Spurlock of Super Size Me infamy. In this docu-reality series, people are given the chance to see life from a different angle for a month. The pilot features Spurlock and his long-suffering fiancée moving to Cleveland and attempting to live on minimum wage for a month. Told with wit and empathy, this is likely to be the best summer series almost no one watches.

Best HBO summer series: Entourage, hands down. It keeps getting better by the week as young movie star Vince Chase (Adrien Grenier) continues to struggle against selling out for stardom, while coveting the lifestyle he can only maintain by, you guessed it, selling out for stardom. Each of his buddies, the members of his friends-and-family entourage, is endearingly played.

Meanwhile, its Sunday night companion show, The Comeback, is a disappointing waste of Lisa Kudrow, who plays the dithery has-been star of a lousy old sitcom whose return to TV in a lousy new sitcom is being documented by a lousy new reality series. Already knowing the dreadfulness of the state of the sitcom and reality show, I find it impossible to savor her humiliations or care about anything that's happening on The Comeback. But at least it isn't as suicidally depressing as Six Feet Under 's final season, which now airs on Mondays. (What a thing to look forward to at the start of the week.)

fredfa

06-19-05, 09:07 AM

ESPN gets less sports-centered
Cabler to broaden its field with more series, telepix

By JOHN DEMPSEY [B]variety.com

Less hockey and baseball. More original movies and series.

That's one big equation on the mind of Mark Shapiro, executive VP of programming and production for ESPN, who's gung ho about broadening the audience for ESPN by reaching beyond the stereotypical potbellied sports nut, stretched out in his undershirt on a Barcalounger with a can of beer in one hand and a remote in the other.

ESPN and ESPN2 aimed the National Hockey League games it carried from 1999 through 2004 squarely at this viewer, but Shapiro says the NHL's ratings had fallen to such a depressed state by the 2003-04 season (a labor dispute obliterated the 2004-05 schedule) that he won't pay cash license fees anymore.

And Shapiro is negotiating a new contract with Major League Baseball but says, "I'm not interested in carrying five games a week unless I get full network exclusivity," a concession baseball seems unwilling to grant except for the traditional ESPN game of the week on Sunday night.

And that's where scripted programming comes in. Shapiro says one of the reasons ESPN's scripted series about Las Vegas poker players "Tilt" failed to find an audience earlier this year is that the only free night not saturated with live sports commitments was Thursday, where, at 9 p.m., the show had to go up against such strong series as "CSI" on CBS, "Will & Grace" on NBC and "Extreme Makeover" on ABC. Against those odds, "Tilt" never really had a chance.

By contrast, ESPN's other scripted series "Playmakers," a warts-and-all look at the members of a fictional pro-football team, fared much better with audiences in 2003's late summer and fall because the network was able to carve out a weekly primetime slot on Tuesday, where the competition was not so fierce.

Despite solid ratings, "Playmakers" got a reluctant cancellation notice after its first 13-episode season, falling victim to the hostility of the National Football League, most of whose owners hated the portrayal of some athletes as drug users, wife beaters and other unsavory types.

The mistakes ESPN made in shepherding "Playmakers" and "Tilt" onto the schedule have only reinforced Shapiro's goal of coming up with one or two hit series in the next few years and with at least four highly exploitable original movies a year, starting in 2006.

The man who created "Playmakers," John Eisendrath, is working on an untitled drama pilot set in the world of boxing, which is slated as ESPN's next series.

Shapiro says he has 30 movie projects in the works, with two in production: "Four Minutes," a docudrama about Roger Bannister, the first athlete to run the four-minute mile, and "The Code Breakers," a script based on the 1951 West Point scandal in which the school expelled 83 Army cadets, including most of the football team, for cheating.

Sports-media consultant Kevin O'Malley applauds Shapiro's push to get ESPN into scripted movies and series.

"These shows are already getting more women and younger men to watch the network," O'Malley says.

Getting different kinds of people to watch ESPN, says Neal Pilson, a sports consultant and former president of CBS Sports, will help to pump up the network's advertising revenues.

Kagan Research says ESPN already harvests more ad revenues than any other cable network, projecting a record $869.2 million in 2005, a 9% gain over those of last year.

ESPN should look at the example of MTV, says David Carter, a principal with the Los Angeles-based Sports Business Group.

"MTV became an integral part of the pop culture," he says, "by morphing from a musicvideo network to a channel carrying a wide range of programming."

However, Mike Trager, former head of Clear Channel Entertainment, says ESPN "has to walk a fine line between reaching out for new viewers and alienating its core audience."

Or, as another sports analyst puts it: "Women may watch an episode of one of the series, but that doesn't mean they're going to abandon Lifetime to become devotees of the NFL and the NBA on ESPN."

fredfa

06-19-05, 11:01 AM

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

fredfa

06-19-05, 11:49 AM

Fixing the Fall Network Schedules
Missing Pieces
By Marc Berman Media Week Magazine

If you believed everything you heard at the recent network upfront pre-sentations, every new show would be a break-out hit, and life would be a bed of roses at the six broadcast networks. Some of the comments from the endless network hype-meisters: "We're No. 1." "We have the hits." "We're poised for success in 2005-06." If spin equaled reality, there wouldn't even be a need for midseason replacement shows.

Considering there has never been a season where what you are told you are getting in the spring is exactly what you see in the fall, expect some programming changes, program disappearances and cast changes before the fall season begins. And don't believe everything you hear from the gloating network executives who probably have their fingers (and toes) crossed when they make these presentations. In addition to tabloid headliner Shannen Doherty mysteriously exiting UPN sitcom Love, Inc. three days after introducing it onstage to a packed crowd at Madison Square Garden (it was more of a surprise that UPN chose her to star in the show to begin with), here is what could, should or will be changed on the fall lineups.

C B S is cuckoo if it really thinks new legal drama Close to Home will find an audience opposite Law & Order: SVU and Boston Legal in the Tuesday 10 p.m. hour. In order to make an impact (and skew younger, which is the real reason C B S dumped gray-haired magnet Judging Amy), the network should flip Close to Home with new sci-fi drama Threshold. Currently scheduled Friday at 9 p.m. out of Jennifer Love Hewitt's ridiculous The Ghost Whisperer, scary Threshold has a better shot of succeeding out of the youth-oriented The Amazing Race on Tuesday. And Close to Home would benefit on Friday, a night that caters to older viewers.

If C B S wants viewers to take seriously The Ghost Whisperer, a show about a young woman who communicates with the dead, it needs to find a replacement for Ms. Hewitt, who looks like she's 12 years old. Hey, Nancy McKeon, are you looking for a new gig?

The WB, meanwhile, needs to flip new thriller Supernatural on Tuesday, which is scheduled out of those chatty Gilmore Girls, with drama Everwood on Thursday, which airs out of Smallville. Although I can understand why the network would not want to place a new drama against C B S’s CSI and n b c’s still relatively potent The Apprentice, Supernatural should be leading out of the compatible Smallville and not the folks in kooky Stars Hollow, Conn. Fast-talking Lorelei and Rory paired with two brothers who travel the country hunting down supernatural beings makes absolutely no sense.

If Smallville is still as strong as the WB says it is (moving it to Thursday is like a dose of kryptonite), Supernatural has a better shot at succeeding, and the network will not be sacrificing two established dramas on killer Thursday. If the WB is intent on moving Everwood, Tuesday at 9 p.m. is a better fit.

One move that might benefit the floundering N B C is to put promising new sci-fi drama Fathom on hold. That might not make sense at first glance—after all, you want to come out of the box strong—but with five other new science-fiction dramas vying for an audience this fall, Fathom might benefit if NBC saved it until midseason. Since Fear Factor was down, but not out, N B C should keep it in the Monday 8 p.m. time period and wait until a better slot opens for Fathom. Two options: if The West Wing tanks in the Sunday 8 p.m. hour, or viewers show no interest in E-Ring (Wednesdays at 9 p.m.).

N B C should also move somewhat promising sitcom My Name Is Earl to the higher-profile Thursday (in place of should-be-canceled Joey) instead of burying it on Tuesday at 9 p.m. While Programming 101 would dictate that you never anchor an evening with an unproven series, when you're struggling the way N B C is, you have to take chances. And plan wisely. N B C is doing neither.

Since we're talking about N B C, here's another suggestion. Make sure The Apprentice: Martha Stewart is on for only one season. If Martha's wooden appearance at the upfront presentation is any indication, the novelty will quickly wear thin.

Finally, considering Fox is the most notorious for announcing shows that never get on the air (remember Fearless, Schimmel and Hollyweird?), I am willing to predict that one of its fall entries will mysteriously disappear (or be delayed until next summer, like The Inside was this season). Since The Gate is buried on Friday, that's my choice for this year's doomed Fox series.

fredfa

06-19-05, 04:52 PM

Nets give life to mini mania
Webs again bullish as limited series gain traction with viewers, DVD buyers

By BRIAN LOWRY variety.com

Having gone from maxi to mini to endangered species, the miniseries is making a comeback, even if that requires changing its name.

TNT's "Into the West" was nearly plowed under by a stampede of negative reviews, but the frontier epic nevertheless bowed to highly respectable ratings. Last summer's sci-fi hit, "The 4400," has returned as a full-blown series on USA.

ABC, meanwhile, will soon travel the "Gladiator" route with "Empire" -- a journey back to toga-ville, not de Tocqueville, jumping the gun on HBO's upcoming drama "Rome."

Despite a stormy creative road that pared the production from eight hours to six, what survives is actually quite lavish, with an orgy scene so carefully photographed even smut crusaders will have to strain to discern precisely what offends them.

Thinking back to TV's version of ancient history -- you know, before "The Real World" -- miniseries were sometimes referred to as "novels for television," tackling subjects of grand scale and dimension. From "QB VII" to "Roots" to "Rich Man, Poor Man," "Eleanor and Franklin" to "Shogun" to "North and South," the format not only delivered huge ratings but some of the best and brightest moments TV has witnessed.

At some point, though, the TV gods deemed that miniseries were too big, too costly for our jaded, fast-paced times. Audiences couldn't be counted upon to carve out three or more successive nights for such showcases, leading virtually all "miniseries" to essentially become two-part movies.

Even squeezed into that package, the genre thrived, as NBC (frequently with producer Robert Halmi Sr.,) scored blockbuster ratings with mythological fare like "Gulliver's Travels" and "The Odyssey."

Lately, the multiple-parter has gained traction under the label "limited series," meant to imply that these are really short-order series that could be extended in success. (Never mind that the aforementioned "Roots," "Rich Man" and "Eleanor and Franklin" all spawned sequels; dammit, someone coined the term, now we have to use it.)

For years, the notion of limited series has been appealing if networks could get the economics to work. After all, ABC's 1990 series "Twin Peaks" would have been a highly satisfying event had it wrapped up "Who killed Laura Palmer?" after eight hours, instead of stretching into a second season that only the hardiest of viewers were inclined to endure.

Several factors have conspired to make the form more viable.

DVDs let consumers undertake such commitments on their schedule, not the network's, which is fine so long as the broadcaster can capture a share of the revenue. Technology can thus be a blessing to ventures like HBO's "Band of Brothers" or "Angels in America," among the boldest forays into that arena in years.

In addition, so-called reality shows unfold much like limited series -- telling a "story" in which someone loses weight, gets the girl or wins the job at the end of eight, 10 or 13 weeks. In that sense, the genre has paved the way for short-term viewing experiences, as opposed to feeling compelled to replicate every franchise week after week, year after year.

Still, the scripted migration into limited series, like that wagon train on "Into the West," has suffered setbacks, underscoring how hard it is to manufacture "events" for mass consumption. Nor does it help that programmers have been coy about whether some projects are truly miniseries as opposed to the appetizer preceding the hoped-for entrée to come.

Take NBC's biblical-themed "Revelations," which opened to significant tune-in against Fox's "American Idol" before viewing took an understandable nose-dive. The Devil, it turns out, really is in the details, especially as they apply to the script.

Similarly, it will be interesting to see whether "Into the West" can sustain its debut, since the marketing dollars TNT threw at the launch won't entice audiences back if their reaction mirrors that of critics. To quote a very old phrase, nothing kills a bad program faster than good promotion.

Yet whatever the fits and starts, it's encouraging to see programmers think big by toying with varied lengths and unusual venues, from the U.S.' 19th century to Rome circa 44 B.C. Such risk-taking represents a marked improvement over recent miniseries mired in the apocalyptic, from CBS' "Category 6: Day of Destruction" to NBC's earthquake yarn "10.5," which generated a sequel for next season. On a loftier if not unrelated plane, both NBC and ABC are also working on ambitious 9/11-related projects.

A miniseries can, however, also be a disaster, as CBS discovered in May when it dipped into the Elvis well one time too many -- a reminder that this is an era of no guts, no glory, where weighty projects can either augment careers or quickly cast them toward the abyss.

Given that dynamic and the twin Rome-themed productions heading our way, perhaps it's time execs adopted their own gladiatorial code -- introducing series, limited or otherwise, with a pledge of "Hail, viewers: Those who are about to die salute you."

fredfa

06-19-05, 07:01 PM

In Jacko's Wake: What’s Ahead for CNN?
CNN's new president isn't keen on stories like Michael Jackson's.
But will a more highbrow plan work in a tabloid era?
By Jonathan Darman Newsweek - June 27 issue

CNN president Jonathan Klein slipped quietly into his Atlanta newsroom last Monday afternoon. With the network poised to broadcast the Michael Jackson jury's verdict all over the world, he thought it best to be seen among the troops. But after a few moments absorbing images of white doves and black armbands, a worried Klein had seen enough.

Stepping away from the satellite feeds, he called CNN's real power center: the prime-time producers back in Manhattan. He was concerned that their evening coverage of the not-guilty verdict was destined to be stale. "We have a less interesting story now," Klein told his deputies. "What is there original to say about Michael Jackson at this point?"

It was a good question, but an odd one for Klein to ask. For months, after all, Jackson was CNN's biggest prime-time star, the pop star's black umbrella as ubiquitous on the network as Larry King's broad suspenders or Anderson Cooper's pin-striped suits. Nevertheless, talking to NEWSWEEK a few days after the verdict, Klein said he regretted the "endless parade" of stories CNN aired with "Michael dressed like Captain Crunch, walking out of the limousine." He marveled at opportunities lost: "We could have done 60 stories during that time."

Now Klein says he's taking steps so that CNN doesn't have to go wacko for Jacko, or someone like him, again. Seven months into his tenure, Klein is making revolutionary changes at the cable network—scrapping signature broadcasts like "Crossfire" and "Inside Politics," shaking up his morning-show ensemble and his prime-time producing staff, and creating a new international news show at noon.

These are only the first steps in a broad overhaul plan aimed at getting the pioneering and once dominant cable news network out of a seemingly perennial second-place finish, far behind Fox News. His unorthodox, even heretical game plan: serious news that doesn't put viewers to sleep. "There's a palpable thirst out there for the broad scope of stories if they're told in a compelling way," Klein says.

Klein has moved aggressively to make CNN's prime-time producers shift their focus to longer, more-polished pieces, eventually creating a sort of "60 Minutes" every night. It's an art he knows personally: for two decades he worked as producer at CBS and, as the network's executive vice president, he oversaw its prime-time programming. Forever roaming the halls and popping in on —producers, he's transformed CNN culture—news meetings are now singularly focused on finding characters and discussing storytelling technique.

In the past, CNN was plagued by a bumbling media image. Klein has imposed strict message discipline and many staffers refused to talk on the record about the network for fear of losing their jobs. Privately, though, many staffers express discontent with the new regime, saying it's not possible to make "60 Minutes"- style pieces on a limited budget and tight time constraints.

The ratings have yet to pro-vide consolation: in May CNN averaged only 610,000 viewers in prime time, still well above third-place finisher (and NEWSWEEK strategic partner) MSNBC, but still far below Fox's 1,401,000 viewers. CNN officials say they have numbers to be proud of, pointing to strong improvement in the key 25-to-54 demographic and a powerful performance by the brand name when CNN's numbers are combined with those of its sister network, Headline News. That network has improved dramatically in the ratings thanks almost entirely to its legal-affairs program hosted by Nancy Grace. Last Thursday, Grace drew 804,000 viewers, more than any CNN prime-time program save for "Larry King Live."

But therein lies Klein's dilemma. His vision may win over media critics who've grown weary of the food-fight culture of cable news. But Grace's style is what moves the numbers. (The former prosecutor's overly opinionated approach—"You're telling me what you believe doesn't matter?" she asked the Jackson jury's foreman in a postverdict duel—led Court TV founder Steven Brill to say he would have fired her for such talk. Grace makes no claim to being an objective journalist but insists that "as an officer of the court" she is always careful in interviews "not to misrepresent the facts.")

Klein declined to comment on Grace, saying Headline News does not fall under his jurisdiction. But some at the network wonder if he isn't secretly happy to have her on the air. With Grace safely tucked away at Headline News, they reason, Klein can preach his message of highbrow journalism even as the network continues to rake in tabloid gold.

Whatever Klein's ultimate strategy, it seems clear that Grace—who's been discussed as a possible successor to the ratings-rich Larry King—isn't going anywhere any time soon. "The old CNN is [esteemed political anchor] Judy Woodruff," said one veteran producer who declined to speak on the record for fear of upsetting Klein. "The new CNN is Nancy Grace."

CNN News Group president Jim Walton scoffs at the suggestion that Grace dilutes the CNN brand, saying viewers can differentiate between serious programming on one CNN network and lighter fare on another. But questions remain at CNN as to whether Klein's new approach can really work. Clarity could come quickly: staffers expect the network president to announce changes in the network's prime-time programming perhaps as soon as this summer.

Before that, though, Klein's challenge will be to prove just how serious he is about being serious. Even if Michael Jackson has agreed to keep the little boys out of his bed, another celebrity show trial is always around the corner. Just ask Nancy Grace.

fredfa

06-19-05, 07:02 PM

Net clones 'Lost' in transition
Networks pass on ripping off hits, look to uniqueness

By MICHAEL SCHNEIDER variety.com

HOLLYWOOD -- Where are all the "Desperate Housewives" clones?

It's Network TV 101: Success breeds imitation. "CSI" spawned a whole procedural drama industry. "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" launched a thousand gameshows. And the weight of so many bad "Friends" ripoffs nearly killed the entire sitcom genre.

Given its megahit status, "Housewives" should have triggered a fall season brimming with suburban mischief and quirky sudsers. Yet, nothing.

"One of the things that surprised me this year is there weren't 27 'Desperate Housewives' ripoffs," CBS topper Leslie Moonves mused in May, as he unveiled a schedule free of any Susan Mayer replicas or Bree Van de Kamp wannabes.

It wasn't for lack of trying.

Several scripts were handed in with a similar vibe, but just two pilots could even remotely be considered vaguely inspired by the success of "Housewives": ABC developed the hourlong "Soccer Moms," about suburban moms who moonlight as private eyes, and CBS ordered the pilot "The Commuters," about three couples in the New York 'burbs.

But even in those cases, "The Commuters" was originally developed pre-"Housewives," while "Soccer Moms" wasn't a "Housewives"-style soap opera.

One studio exec places part of the reason on timing. When the September launch of "Housewives" rolled around, the nets and studios had already figured out which direction their development was heading -- and the tremendous success of "Housewives" caught everyone off guard.

"Development season starts in July," he says. "People had already committed to pilots, to writing scripts. By the time it was a hit, it was too late."

Others argue it's simply an acknowledgement that the writing and casting on shows like "Housewives" are virtually impossible to duplicate -- so why even try, knowing that viewers are too savvy and the press too unforgiving when handed a pale imitation of their favorite show.

Paramount Network TV prexy David Stapf, meanwhile, believes the networks did take the lessons of "Housewives" and fellow hit "Lost" to heart -- just in more productive ways than simply ripping them off.

"It allowed people to try to develop things that weren't currently on the air," Stapf says. "After all, 'Desperate Housewives' and 'Lost' worked well and were able to break out of the pack because they were unique. That's how many of the networks were looking at it."
Stapf believes that's how so many supernatural-themed shows are making it to air this fall (WB's "Supernatural," ABC's "The Night Stalker" and "Invasion," CBS' "Ghost Whisperer" and "Threshold," NBC's "Fathom"). Contrary to popular belief, these aren't "Lost" clones -- but, rather, attempts to fill the spookfest and sci-fi voids.

Meanwhile, on the comedy side, nets burned by the "Friends" clone-a-thon are less interested in copying the more recent generation of hits. Hence, no "Two and a Half Men" facsimiles.

"Instead of mimicking what they're doing so successfully, we're looking for new ideas and voices," says Touchstone comedy VP Alex Weinberger.

Still, old habits die hard. As "CSI" continues to pop for CBS, the studios and networks are still developing and airing every possible version of procedural crime drama.

"There are still ways to fool yourself into thinking that 'ours will be different or better,' " one exec sheepishly admits.

fredfa

06-19-05, 07:05 PM

I posted this on the AVSforum home page. For those of you who missed it ---

How the HD Transition Is Similar to Color TV’s
TV's shift to color took time to focus
Visual changeover hiccupped its way in stages over a decade

By ELIZABETH GUIDER variety.com

The past is a funny thing: It tends to get simplified over time -- perhaps never more so than when the subject is technological change.

Take the arrival of what was once called "tint TV."
Like the current fits-and-starts bedeviling the arrival of digital TV, color hiccupped its way onto the entertainment scene in bewildering stages over a decade.

The changeover from a B&W visual world involved not only scientific and engineering breakthroughs but also regulatory issues, market forces, consumer demand and creative choices. The resulting problems didn't all get worked out at once, and they didn't all elicit equal enthusiasm or insight from Variety writers.

Among the crucial moments was the decision by the FCC in December 1953 in favor of RCA's so-called dot sequential system for color as opposed to CBS' spinning disk system. In retrospect, it was a turning point, though Variety dealt with the subject matter-of-factly.

For starters, no one was making the sets needed to receive a color signal, and no station had converted its equipment to transmit such signals. A front-page story in 1953 opined that "chromatic sets" would cost three to four times what traditional TVs cost and would take several years to make a dent in the market. (As it turned out, it took even longer.)

What the paper did track methodically were the first shows -- all from RCA subsidiary NBC, natch -- which got the "rainbow spectrum tint."

Just like the early-adapters who quickly took to digital cameras in the mid-'90s, Peacock producers eagerly experimented with the color palette -- even though practically no one could see any of these tentative red, blue and green hues.

Among the first tinted shows were specials like the Rose Parade and the yuletide mainstay "Amahl and the Night Visitors" as well as "The Dinah Shore Show" and "The Amateur Hour."

A reviewer said of this last: "Seldom before has a tinted-up product left such an impact on an audience. (Sponsor) Pet Milk can take a bow as one of the pioneers in advancing the cause of cherry pie in all its brilliant red-hued splendor!"

In 1955, "Howdy Doody" became the first kidshow to regularly broadcast in color.

Said Variety: "Not only do the cameras have their work cut out in reproducing flesh tones on live actors, but there's the puppets as well. ... It's wrong to say that it doesn't matter too much since the brats won't know the difference."

Reviewer George Rosen concluded that "the crew hasn't mastered it completely, but the lessons learned will be invaluable when color exposure means big audiences."

Flash forward to 1958, and the RCA-NBC brigade had taken their color crusade to Europe. They unveiled "operation tint" at the Brussels Expo that year, and the Europeans, per Variety, were "literally eating it up."

"Whatever the deterring factors holding back tint TV's advance, it's inevitable that 5-10 years hence color will be the thing. General S. (meaning David Sarnoff) is making sure the RCA label and performance get in there first."

Already that year, the Peacock was offering parts of its fall primetime sked in color -- Steve Allen, Perry Como, Tennessee Ernie Ford all got the treatment. Variety began labeling its reviews of tinted shows with the word "color."

Fast forward to 1960, where a Variety item suggested local stations were beginning to buy syndicated fare that had been tinted.

"Color is a definite plus in some markets, with a number of advertisers getting their commercials on the color bandwagon," the paper noted.

Also that season, sophomore "oater" "Bonanza" went to color, becoming the first regularly scheduled primetime Western to do so.

Most folks do think of 1964 as the crucial date when NBC put out its entire primetime schedule in living color (CBS followed the next year, and ABC the next), but perhaps the achievement had come in such increments that the crowning moment didn't seem so noteworthy.

In Variety, there was nary a word. The emphasis in September 1964 was on the glut of Westerns that had ridden their way onto the skeds.

fredfa

06-19-05, 09:01 PM

Networks and the Outside Producer: Can They Co-Exist??

By LORNE MANLY The New York Times June 20, 2005

This coming television season the broadcast networks will be stuffed with shows delving into the paranormal, but some of the oddest occurrences will have taken place behind the scenes.

The four major networks will rely less than they have in seven seasons on new scripted programming from production companies residing in their media conglomerates.

To begin the season in September, for example, ABC will carry just two shows from Touchstone Television, its sister division at the Walt Disney Company, the fewest since the fall of 1998 and the same number that will appear on Viacom's CBS.

With nearly half of the networks' new shows coming from outside sources, some production companies are having banner years. Warner Brothers Television Production, part of Time Warner like WB, will have the largest number of shows on other networks in eight years.

Meanwhile, 20th Century Fox Studios, the sister company to the News Corporation's Fox network, will have more shows on other networks than in any season since the rules restricting network owners from having financial stakes in their shows were abolished a decade ago. And executives there said they received more appealing time slots for their shows - including "My Name Is Earl" on NBC and "How I Met Your Mother" on CBS - than in the past.

No one in Hollywood, however, expects the networks to stop favoring their own. But at a time when some conglomerates like Viacom are reassessing the benefits of bigness - and when a hyper-competitive ratings race makes closing off any possible advantage foolhardy - most network and studio heads have come to realize that an overreliance on their own fare can lead to creative and financial trouble.

"I think there may have been a belief at some networks that it made sense to just take your own shows," said Kelly Kahl, head of scheduling for Viacom's CBS and UPN. "The reality is that it just doesn't work out that well."

In the continuing media consolidation wars, however, this tacking back is not enough to satisfy critics, who point out that the beneficiaries of the most open market in seven years are merely the other conglomerates. Michael J. Copps, a Democrat on the Federal Communications Commission, said he wants to hold a forum on how best to promote truly independent programming.

"If you're not adequately involved with a conglomerate, you've closed off doors of opportunity. We may not have the new generation of Norman Lears, Marcy Carseys and Ted Turners," Mr. Copps said, referring to some of the most successful independents. He said he favors an F.C.C-mandated set-aside for independent producers during prime time on the broadcast networks.

Until about a decade ago, independent producers dominated prime-time programming, thanks to federal regulations that severely restricted the ability of broadcast networks to own and syndicate their own shows. The F.C.C. had imposed these rules in 1970, saying they would increase the diversity of television programming by fostering competition in the supply of prime-time entertainment.

As the number of cable channels exploded, however, the broadcast networks argued that the regulations stifled their ability to compete. Years of lobbying paid off in the 1990's, when the F.C.C. first relaxed and then effectively abolished the restrictions.

During the 1995-96 season, as the shackles were removed almost completely, the networks had a corporate stake in just under 20 percent of their new shows, according to a 2003 study by William T. and Denise D. Bielby, professors of sociology at the University of California, Santa Barbara. (Mr. Bielby is now at the University of Pennsylvania.)

By the 2002 season, after a wave of consolidation in which studios and networks come under the same roof at Disney and Viacom, for example, that figure had skyrocketed to 77.5 percent.

"Publicly, everyone would say, 'We're just buying the best shows,' " said Kevin Reilly, president of NBC Entertainment. "But privately, they would say 'We want to own as much as we can.' "

In the arcane financing structure of the TV business, the profits from syndication, international sales and the burgeoning area of DVD sales go to the owner of the show. Therefore, the bonanza that came from successful shows like "Friends" and "Seinfeld" belonged only to the producers while the networks made money only from advertising.

Despite the allure of ownership, the percentage of freshman shows this coming season on the four major networks in which they have full or partial ownership has dropped to 52.5 percent, according to an analysis by The New York Times.

That is because of a sobering truth about the television business: failure is not just an option, it's the overwhelming reality. (Remember some of last season's new shows like "LAX," "Clubhouse" and "Point Pleasant"?) Perversely, not owning the show protects the network from a steeper loss. Networks pay the producers a license fee for a show that does not cover the cost of making it.

Dramas, for example, can easily cost $1.7 million to more than $2.5 million an episode, according to studio and network executives. But the amount the networks pay the producing studios often leaves $500,000 to $1 million uncovered per episode.

"It's great if you own 20 shows," said Mr. Reilly of NBC. "But if 19 of them fail, what you've done is just bought a lot of debt."

Signs that the industry recognizes it may have overindulged are showing up in various ways. Dana Walden, president of 20th Century Fox Television, said the studio's slate of pilots was less slanted toward Fox than in years past.

Bruce Rosenblum, who oversees the television operations of both the studio and the WB network as executive vice president of Warner Brothers Television Group, said networks have realized that broadening the pool of candidates can improve the chances of finding that elusive hit. "They don't want to be limited to the creative pool they can afford to keep under exclusive contract," said Mr. Rosenblum.

To encourage that, NBC this year reorganized its drama and comedy development teams. Each department has been split into two, with one team in each genre dealing with ideas from NBC Universal Television Studio and the other with projects from outside developers.

According to Stephen McPherson, president of entertainment for ABC, "the stakes are too high" to consider conglomerate ownership in scheduling choices. "Invasion," one of the network's most anticipated shows, comes from Warner Brothers, not Touchstone. And two Touchstone shows, "Criminal Minds" and "Ghost Whisperer," went to CBS.

Despite these changes, the most-favored-nation status the studios enjoy with their sister networks is here to stay. Studio executives, who work on the same lot and often report to the same people as their network counterparts, are involved from the beginning to meet the networks' development strategies. And the networks get first crack at the offerings of their sister studios.

"Candidly, in case of a tie with our company, Fox is going to win," said Ms. Walden of Fox television.

The independent community argues that the conglomerates are continuing to shut out true independents, forcing producers to set up development deals or selling ownership stakes to the big studios, and limiting the creativity and diversity they bring to television. With so few gatekeepers, "it limits the ability for independent programming to surface on prime time," said Mickey Gardner, a lawyer who has fought against the relaxation of the ownership rules.

Susan Lyne, a former president of ABC Entertainment and now president and chief executive of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, said, "There's no question that you are more likely to take a true risk as an independent studio than if you are a corporate studio."

Studio executives, she explained, tend to be overly aware of the tastes and priorities of their corporate counterparts at the network, and as a result may tailor their pitches accordingly. Executives at a true independent, she said, are more likely to heed their instincts and try to shop an idea to other networks rather than grant first dibs to a sister network.

What is needed to rectify this state of affairs, argue Mr. Gardner and others like the Caucus for Television Producers, Writers and Directors, is for the F.C.C. to order the networks to set aside 25 percent to 35 percent of their prime-time hours for the work of independent producers. The conglomerates, under this proposal, may have a passive interest of up to a third in a show in the set-aside.

Tom Fontana, a principal in the Levinson/Fontana Company, creators of shows like "Homicide" and "Oz," argue that stranger things have happened.

"I wouldn't have thought there was a shot" that Congress would rise up against many of the F.C.C.'s attempted rule changes, and that the courts would ultimately send the rules back to the commission to redo, Mr. Fontana said. "There's something about television that elicits a different response than the harvest in Iowa."

But network and studio executives said any set-aside would be misguided. "I defy anyone to say creativity has suffered with vertically integrated companies supplying the shows," Mr. Reilly of NBC said. Mr. Copps, he added, "is trying to turn the clock back to an era that simply doesn't exist anymore."

fredfa

06-19-05, 11:16 PM

TV Review
'Hilton' class is in session
Tired shtick plays on class envy and hits a low in an attempt to contrive high society
By Paul Brownfield Los Angeles Times Staff Writer June 20, 2005

"I Want to Be a Hilton" is a great name for a ridiculous reality show starring Kathy Hilton, mother of Paris and Nicky and wife of Rick, who is grandson of Conrad, who was once married to Elizabeth Taylor, who issued a statement last week expressing support for her friend, the not-guilty Michael Jackson.

"I Want to Be Michael Jackson" would be an even better name for a reality show, but we'll probably have to wait until the paperwork's figured out, which might not be until next summer. In the meantime, console yourself on your crummy beach towel with dreams of becoming a Hilton, which, according to "I Want to Be a Hilton," involves learning how to hold a wine glass (by the stem, people), how to handle your escargot (tongs in left hand and fork in right, people) and understanding how to create a buzz (instructional Internet sex video sold separately).

It's a setup at least as old as "The Beverly Hillbillies" — taking 14 reality-show-pliable players ("wannabes," the NBC website sniffs) and plopping them in high society. To these guinea pigs are dispensed lessons in how to behave like the nouveau riche, people who delight in noisy displays of wealth (clothes, jewelry, limos), and lord knowledge of decorum over the lower echelons.

By my math, that makes "I Want to Be a Hilton" a contrivance upon a contrivance — the first one being that the Hiltons exude class and the second being that the show creates a facsimile of high society.

There's a vague Roaring '20s theme, and a butler figure greets the contestants.

But this high cheese doesn't play as much fun. The show touches on craven class envy, as do a lot of reality shows. "I Want to Be a Hilton" is a second cousin of arguably the most successful reality show in this genre, Donald Trump's "The Apprentice."

But Trump was practically a bobblehead by the time "The Apprentice" rolled around; there is something rich, and I don't mean wealthy, about using the Hiltons to confer the idea of class on the less fortunate. Isn't the point of being super rich and classy not having to call attention to how rich and classy you are? Methinks the Hiltons doth do reality shows too much. Something else must be involved — greed, a slump in the hotel franchise, Paris envy (she's at 55 on the current Forbes Celebrity 100 list).

She's the daughter, to paraphrase the Chris Rock joke about parenting, that Rick and Kathy failed to keep off the pole. Paris, after all, can be seen on TV sexually assaulting a Bentley and then biting a hamburger for Carl's Jr. Kathy, sad to say, has none of her daughter's canniness when it comes to creating an image for the camera; unlike Paris, winking at her image as she creates it, Kathy is as stiff in her pearls and her Prada as an ad in Town and Country.

She seems like a nice lady. Though I don't think the winner of this actually gets to be a Hilton. In tonight's episode, the wannabes — a ranch hand, a department of motor vehicles clerk, a Vegas dancer, etc. — get taken to "etiquette boot camp" at New York's famed restaurant 21. It's all in preparation for a dinner that evening, where one contestant from each team must dine with heavy hitters and not embarrass themselves too much. The guardians of high class at the table are Ted Allen, the culinary expert from "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy," Billy Bush, from "Access Hollywood," and his Royal Highness Prince Dimitri of Yugoslavia.

Yes, nothing says class more than two guys from other TV shows and a prince from Yugoslavia. Then Kyle Hilton, Kathy's sister, enters late. In the midst of this, Jabe, the ranch hand, and JW, the construction worker, take turns trying to blend into the dinner scene without interrupting what Billy Bush or his royal highness might have to say about the Downing Street memo.

They're wearing earpieces, Jabe and JW are, because their respective teams are coaching them on etiquette. "It's pretty good, I'm in," says Jabe, after tasting the Chardonnay recommended by the sommelier. But he forgets (or the producers have him forget) to wear a jacket to the table.

Paris doesn't make a cameo until next week, when Team Park and Team Madison assist Kathy and the Hilton girls in a charity auction of Hilton castoffs at their home in Southampton. (Rick is a producer on the show.) Trying to move one of Paris' celebutante micro-dresses, Yvette the Vegas dancer takes it off the rack and struts before the chagrined crowd.

"You have to be a little careful with the sexuality," Kathy tells her later.

I don't think it went as well the last time Kathy dispensed that advice. On "I Want to Be a Hilton," contestants are seen kiss-kissing the host, once on each cheek. Because doing it drunk and open-mouthed and in the tabloids is so declassé.
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I Want to Be a Hilton
NBC Tuesday 9 PM ET/PT

fredfa

06-19-05, 11:41 PM

Wall Street Journal: Fox Business Channel To Start in 2006

According to Monday's WSJ, “Fox Quietly Gears Up Its Business Channel To Challenge CNBC”.

Journal reporter Julia Angwin writes Rupert Murdoch “is nearing an agreement with Time Warner Inc.'s cable division to carry a Fox News business channel, according to people familiar with the situation. The channel is currently slated to launch in the first half of 2006, a person close to the channel says. Of course, talks with Time Warner could break down and the launch date could be pushed back again.”

The Channel would be run, according to the Journal, by Fox News Chief Roger Ailes.

Angwin also reports that “in addition to launching the new channel on cable, News Corp. also plans to make it available on its own majority-owned DirecTV satellite service, which has 14 million subscribers. But people familiar with the situation say Mr. Murdoch didn't want to go ahead until he had an agreement with Time Warner Cable, because it controls the crucial Manhattan market. DirecTV's satellite dishes can't always receive clear signals amid the Manhattan skyscrapers, and some buildings don't allow them. But the market, a thicket of Wall Street traders, advertisers and media executives, is considered critical to the successful launch of a financial news channel.

People familiar with the situation say Fox is hoping to get a low-numbered channel in New York City for its business news channel but will settle for a digital channel in Time Warner Cable's other markets. In May, News Corp. President Peter Chernin hinted that the company might not launch the business channel if it couldn't get enough "affiliate support," meaning carriage on cable channels. "We would really want to feel comfortable with the affiliate side before we do anything," Mr. Chernin said on a conference call with investors.”

fredfa

06-20-05, 12:01 AM

Viewership Heating Up in Summer
Post-May HUT Level Dip Shrinks; Nets Up From 2004 as Cable Breaks Records
By Jon Lafayette and Christopher Lisotta TVWeek.com June 20, 2005

It's summertime and the livin' is easy, which usually means few are watching TV.

But this year is different. Household viewership this summer has been higher for broadcast, while cable has seen some record-breaking numbers.

Ad-supported cable networks accounted for a 60.3 percent household share of viewing for the week ended June 5, the highest ever, according to Nielsen Media Research. Shows like TNT's "The Closer" and "Into the West" are drawing unprecedented audiences for their network.

Broadcasters usually wilt in the summer, but this year some new reality shows are breaking through on broadcast as well, such as ABC's "Dancing With the Stars," NBC's "Hit Me Baby One More Time" or The WB's "Beauty and the Geek.

Household viewership for the broadcast networks for the first two weeks of June is actually up from a year ago, although their share is down, said Tim Brooks, senior VP for research at Lifetime. That's because the traditional post-May dip in households using television has been shrinking, he said. In May there were 60 million homes using television, compared with 57 million in the first week of June.

Executive heavyweights from both broadcast and cable advanced several theories last week for why viewers are tuning in. Suggested reasons ranged from the weather and plain old momentum to the quality of the fare in movie theaters versus what's being offered on TV.

"There's a heat wave. No one wants to go out," said Bonnie Hammer, president of USA Network and Sci Fi Channel. New seasons of USA's "The 4400" and "The Dead Zone" started this month, and the shows were cable's two top-rated original scripted series among 18- to 49-year-olds for the week ended June 12.

"The shows are better, more interesting more unique, more different," said Bill Carroll, VP and director of programming at Katz Television Group, of both new cable and broadcast offerings. "I'll use the phrase from the movie `Field of Dreams': `If they build it, they will come.' If you create something unique, people will come and check it out, and if you meet their expectations, not only will they come, they'll stay.

After years of ceding audiences to cable after the end of the May sweeps, many broadcasters vowed to launch 52-week programming efforts. But so far, the only broadcast shows this season getting traction appear to be unscripted offerings.

David Janollari, president of entertainment at The WB, said he's not a fan of the term "52-week season," but like many cable executives, he sees benefits to premiering series in the summer months, when there is relatively less original programming on the air, providing an opportunity for viewer sampling and greater promotion.

"It's just about the right shows that connect with the audience when there is less competition, less clutter, less shows demanding and fighting for the audience's attention," he said, adding that there are other times with similar debut windows.

"December to January remains a great opportunity when you find the right shows," he said.

And while ABC's "Dancing with the Stars" is attracting more viewers than anything cable can manage, cable's investment in drama is paying off.

This summer Turner will invest more than $125 million on original series "The Closer," "Wanted" and the miniseries "Into the West.

The June 13 premiere of the Kyra Sedgwick police drama "The Closer" on TNT earned a 4.8 U.S. household rating, drawing more than 7 million viewers and setting a record for an original scripted series on basic cable. Turner noted that the show beat the premieres of broadcast network summer fare, including "The Scholar" on ABC, "Psychic Detectives" (a fugitive from Court TV) on NBC, "The Cut" on CBS and "Hell's Kitchen" and "The Inside" on Fox, as well as UPN's "Britney & Kevin" and "Beauty and the Geek.

And over the June 10-12 weekend, when "Into the West" aired six times, it drew 21 million viewers, more than any show on NBC, UPN or The WB.

Steve Koonin, executive VP and chief operating officer for TNT and TBS, said he's not surprised the shows took off. "We've said it for three years that in order to have a successful environment for original series, you've got to build the foundation. And the foundation was built with our acquired stuff over the past couple of years. Now we have the platform. And the success and the viewers," he said.

TNT has plans to continue to run scripted dramas after the summer, and Mr. Koonin said he thinks viewers will find good shows on cable. "The numbers speak for themselves," he said. "We're seeing that time and time again.

Ms. Hammer added that the quality of the programming is helping to make cable's dramas more competitive with broadcast. "We're toe to toe with the networks, the budgets are so close to networks' budgets, that we believe we'd be competitive all year round with the right shows," she said.

In fact, Ms. Hammer said the spate of original summer programming from cable networks is starting to make it difficult for any project stand out. "We marvel at how competitive everything has gotten. No night is safe, no time slot is safe," she said.
But Mr. Brooks said that even though there are more cable networks, and more of them are producing original shows, the ratings for the biggest hits are getting bigger ratings than ever, shown by this summer's "Closer" and last summer's "Rescue Me" and "The 4400."
A raft of original unscripted shows are scheduled for this summer by a long list of cable networks, including Discovery, Spike, MTV, VH1, A&E, ABC Family, Court TV, Bravo and National Geographic.

Bravo itself is launching nine series in 12 weeks over the summer months, ranging from "Being Bobby Brown" to "Situation: Comedy" to "Battle of the Network Reality Stars.

Bravo President Lauren Zalaznick said that over the years, viewers have been trained to tune into the networks in the fall and to watch cable in the summer.

She said all of TV's summer hits stem from an event mentality, and with movie viewership down this year, "maybe people are event-izing their television sets.

Cable's top shows may not draw the same ratings as those on broadcast, but they're hits nonetheless.
"There's a difference between a broadcaster and a narrowcaster and to super-serve a demo-to be as Bravo is, the No. 1 most affluent entertainment cable network-those are not statistics you want to walk away from just by bulking up," Ms. Zalaznick said.

MTV is launching new shows including "The Andy Milonakis Show," "The 70s House," "Trailer Fabulous" and "Nick Cannon Presents Wild'N Out," and the network is putting its biggest marketing campaign ever behind the new season of "Laguna Beach," which premieres July 25. But then again, said Brian Graden, president of entertainment at MTV Networks Music Group, MTV launches a new show about every 10 days.
"We've gotten to the place where we have enough product and we are competitive enough to be in the year-round business and just sort of presume that the networks were our year-round competition," he said.

MTV still programs daytime and late-night more aggressively during the summer months, Mr. Graden said, because "our audiences are home in a way they're not during the school year."
Mr. Graden also programs VH1, which has launched several shows already this summer and has "Hogan Knows Best" and new seasons of "The Surreal Life" and "Celebrity Fit Club" on deck.

As new shows take hold-be they dramas or reality series-and become franchises, "then I think the opportunity we can build into full competitors [with broadcasters] is certainly there and some of the bigger cable networks do it now," he said.

Mr. Brooks of Lifetime said this summer is starting out like the summer of 2003. "That was the summer loaded up with reality shows. They started the summer unusually strong for them. They fell apart during the summer," he said.

[B]Broadcast's Summer Reality:

Since the end of the May sweeps and the official Nielsen 2004-05 season, the broadcast networks collectively have premiered nine shows, all of which are reality series except for Fox's procedural drama "The Inside." So far this summer, the highest-rated premiere has been NBC's Thursday night one-hit-wonder music performance show "Hit Me Baby One More Time," which scored a 4.7 rating in adults 18 to 49 for its June 2 debut, according to Nielsen Media Research.

"Hit Me" was the top-rated show for that night in the demo, but dropped 21 percent to a 3.7 in its second outing June 9, the same night MTV aired its "MTV Movie Awards." The MTV show garnered 4.7 million viewers, a high for basic cable but down 21 percent from last year's awards and the lowest viewership for the program since 1998.

"It's a pleasant surprise, and doing a little more than we probably expected," said Tom Bierbaum, VP of ratings and program information for NBC Universal Television Group, who said that for the broadcast networks, it appears to be business as usual this summer with a number of new reality offerings premiering in the hopes of getting a show that can perform beyond June, July and August.

"Three or four shows got off to nice starts here," he said. "Viewers are responding and are certainly willing to give these shows a try.

Despite the initial success of "Hit Me," Mr. Bierbaum said it's still too early to tell whether any of the new reality fare has staying power. "We're all hoping we come up with a show that breaks out like an `American Idol' or a `Survivor,' and we haven't seen that in a couple of summers," he said.

While "Hit Me" had the strongest start, the summer leader through its third week on the air is ABC's ballroom-dancing competition "Dancing With the Stars," which debuted Wednesday, June 1, at 9 p.m. with a 4.3 rating in adults 18 to 49, an 8 percent increase over the network's time period average for the 2004-05 season. In its second week "Dancing" grew 12 percent over its premiere, winning the night in all key adult demos, while its performance last week held with a 4.8 in adults 18 to 49, again the top show of the night.

Summer series like "Dancing" have a specific purpose, said Jeff Bader, executive VP for ABC Entertainment.

"We absolutely want to use the summer to try and establish some assets for us that can come back," he said. "These aren't placeholders until the `real' shows come on in fall.

For The WB, where the term "reality hit" has been an oxymoron, the network's unlucky streak has been broken by the dating competition series "Beauty and the Geek." The show debuted with a 1.6 in the demo June 1, and by its third airing on June 15 hit a 2.1. "Geek," a winner for Wednesdays in teens, has been second for the night in adults 18 to 34 only to ABC's "Dancing.

Besides breaking the network's reality jinx, Mr. Janollari said "Geek," which had been considered for a fall launch, is helping The WB beyond goosing its summer ratings.

"`Beauty and the Geek' is providing a great launching pad to build awareness for the fall," he said, adding that promotions for debuting fall series have run during the show.

Fox jumped into the summer reality foray on Monday, May 30, when it launched "Hell's Kitchen," which opened with a 3.2 in the demo and came in second in the 9 p.m. (ET) hour after repeats of CBS's traditional Monday night comedies. In its second week, "Kitchen" grew to a 3.5, tying CBS for the 9 p.m. hour, while last Monday it hit a 3.8, becoming the highest-rated show for the night in adults 18 to 49.

Although "The Inside" dropped 20 percent in the demo from its debut of 2.0 in its second airing June 15, the conventional wisdom that says only reality premieres can succeed in the summer will remain true until a scripted show comes along and proves the theory wrong, said Preston Beckman, executive VP of strategic program planning and research for Fox.

"This is a very random business," he said, noting that the last scripted summer breakout hit was "The O.C." "All it is going to take is a network, through design and accident and luck, to stumble upon a scripted show that works in the summer, and suddenly everyone will run to that side of the sinking boat.

Fox, the network that first touted the idea of the "52-week programming schedule," is still developing and programming for the summer. The lineup includes original episodes of some of its Sunday animated fare, but Mr. Preston said the approach has changed now that it has more repeatable scripted shows, most notably "House.

"The reason why we went on this adventure of a 52-week schedule [is that] we didn't have a schedule," he said. "Last summer we were throwing a lot of stuff on and hoping it would stick. Now we can be more selective.

While CBS has seen success with the comedic workplace reality series "Fire Me ... Please," the fashion design-based show "The Cut" has already been rescheduled off Thursday nights. NBC has a disappointment in "Psychic Detectives," while ABC's "The Scholar" has paled in comparison with "Dancing.

The current crop of summer broadcast premieres is just the beginning. ABC is launching the reality series "Welcome to the Neighborhood," "Brat Camp" and "Hooking Up" as well as the scripted ancient Rome miniseries "Empire" within the next month.

CBS will launch its reality music competition series starring the band INXS and the latest installment of "Big Brother," while Fox will launch its own dancing show plus the reality-comedy "The Princes of Malibu." NBC, in addition to debuting projects starring Kathy Hilton and Tommy Lee, is bringing back its "Average Joe" franchise.

CPanther95

06-20-05, 09:06 AM

Dolans offer to take Cablevision private

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=580&e=1&u=/nm/20050620/bs_nm/media_cablevision_dc

fredfa

06-20-05, 09:33 AM

Good post, CPanther95.
Here is the NY TImes version of the story:

Cablevision Seeks to Go Private and Spin Off Non-Cable Assets

By ANDREW ROSS SORKIN The New York Times June 20, 2005

The Dolans, one of New York's most powerful and fractious families, moved yesterday to buy out the public shareholders of their media empire, Cablevision Systems, and create a separate company for its prized entertainment assets, which include Madison Square Garden and Radio City Music Hall.

In a letter to the company's board, the family made a $7.9 billion bid to take Cablevision's lucrative cable systems in New York's suburbs private. The move came two weeks after the family succeeded in staving off competition for Madison Square Garden by blocking the construction of a stadium on the West Side of Manhattan.

As part of the transaction, the family proposed putting all of its other entertainment assets - which also include the New York Knicks, the New York Rangers and several cable channels like American Movie Classics - into a separate company.

The deal would move the Dolans, who own 71 percent of the voting rights of Cablevision, away from the spotlight and scrutiny of Wall Street, which has grown concerned in recent months about the company's direction amid a series of strategy shifts and feuds within the family.

Charles F. Dolan, the company's 78-year-old founder and chairman, and a son, Thomas C. Dolan, lost a boardroom showdown earlier this year with another son, James L. Dolan, Cablevision's chief executive, over the sale of a money-losing high-definition satellite unit. For a time, Charles and James Dolan stopped speaking to each other. Charles Dolan then ousted several of the company's directors who had voted against him and replaced them with his friends.

Then, in April, Mr. Dolan, by then reconciled with his son James, again surprised Wall Street by making an 11th-hour bid for Adelphia Communications, a move that was roundly derided by analysts, in part because it would have diluted its focus on the New York area. Adelphia was later sold to Time Warner and Comcast.
In their letter yesterday to the board of Cablevision, which is based in Bethpage, N.Y., Charles and James Dolan said they believed that the cable business could do better as a private business without the pressure to meet quarterly earnings targets.

"As you are aware, with new technologies and competitors redefining content delivery, the cable and telecommunications business has entered a new and challenging era," the two men wrote. "We strongly believe that a long-term, entrepreneurial management perspective - not constrained by the public markets' tendency to focus on short-term results - will better enable a new entity" to meet the challenges of increasing competition from telecommunications, satellite and wireless rivals.

Cablevision is expected to set up a special committee of independent directors to evaluate the Dolans' bid, which values the company's shares at $33.50, a 25 percent premium over its share price of $26.87 on Friday. The composition of the committee may raise questions among shareholders and corporate governance experts about their true independence.

Indeed, among the company's directors considered "independent" are several of the friends Mr. Dolan recently added to the board, including Frank J. Biondi Jr., the former chief of Viacom and Universal Studios; Dr. Leonard Tow, the former chief executive of Citizens Communications; and Rand Araskog, the former chief executive of the ITT Corporation. Cablevision bought Madison Square Garden from ITT when it was led by Mr. Araskog.

Of course, the committee could force the Dolans to raise their bid eventually, as is often the case in transactions of this sort.

While the Dolans' bid - which values the cable business at $13.9 billion, or $4,377 per subscriber - is much higher than other similar deals recently, their three million subscribers are considered some of the most valuable in the nation because they are clustered in New York, the nation's No. 1 media market.

Under the terms of the offer, the Dolans would pay public shareholders $21 a share for the cable business. Shareholders would also receive a stake worth $12.50 a share in the entertainment assets company, Rainbow Media Holdings. The Dolans have special shares in the company that give super-voting rights. After the spinoff they would own 20 percent of the entertainment company, which would be run by James Dolan. Charles Dolan, who founded HBO before selling it to Time Warner, would be the chairman of the cable business, and Tom Rutledge would be its chief executive.

Cablevision has long been considered a likely takeover target for Time Warner because of its natural fit with that company's cable business. A buyout offer like the one made by the Dolans would typically open up a company to competing offers, but the family's controlling stake stands in the way of that.

The move by the Dolans appears to be part of a growing trend among cable television companies to buy out public shareholders and become private companies. Last year, the Cox family bought out the public shareholders of the cable giant Cox Communications. In March, the Carlyle Group and the co-founders of Insight Communications, the nation's ninth-largest cable television operator, proposed taking that company private.

Part of the motivation for the Dolans and others is that they believe shares of cable businesses are undervalued. Shares in cable companies have fallen from their highs of several years ago because of investor concerns about increased competition from satellite providers. In addition, advanced cable services like high-speed Internet and video-on-demand products, which had been the basis for nearly $85 billion in network upgrades across the industry, have experienced less growth than expected.

The Dolans' offer is being financed by Merrill Lynch and Bank of America, which are also acting as advisers to the family. The family's counsel is Debevoise & Plimpton.

fredfa

06-20-05, 10:12 AM

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

Tabasco

06-20-05, 02:33 PM

From Sunday's ratings breakdown.

"A direct-to-DVD Family Guy movie will be released by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment on Tuesday, Sept, 27, by the way."

They sure buried that big piece of news. I hadn't heard anything about it. They've been script searching for a Simpson's movie for 15 years, and Family Guy's got one here soon.

fredfa

06-20-05, 08:24 PM

More on “Family Guy” DVD

B]thefutoncritic.com--[/B] 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment will release "Family Guy Presents Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story," an original feature-length DVD of the recently resurrected animated series on Tuesday, September 27. The 83-minute installment is comprised of three interconnected episodes from the show's fourth season that have yet to air ("Stewie B. Goode," "Bango Was His Name Oh" and "Stu & Stewie's Excellent Adventure") in which Stewie, the maniacal baby genius, sets out on a road trip to find his real dad after a near-death experience. The single-disc release will also include audio commentary, deleted scenes and other bonus features. More than 4 million units of the three "Family Guy" DVD releases have been sold thus far, generating more than $100 million in revenue.

fredfa

06-20-05, 09:47 PM

TV Review
'Rescue Me' crew returns with new fire

By MELANIE MCFARLAND SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER TELEVISION CRITIC Tuesday, June 21, 2005
In all his wisecracking, sucker-punching, hard-drinking glory, dear old Tommy Gavin has returned. If he were real, who would miss him? Nobody.

As the central character of FX's "Rescue Me," back tonight at 10, Denis Leary's pathetic alter-ego couldn't saunter back to us fast enough. His wife may have abandoned him in last season's finale, and he endangered his pal Franco's life, but Tommy hasn't changed much. He can't even get through a sit-down with his brother Johnny (Dean Winters) without it degenerating into name-calling and slaps.

Tormented souls, the lifeblood of FX's original programming. "Rescue Me" may have cornered the market on them -- which, if you tracked "The Shield" this season, is no small statement. In comparison, "Rescue Me" has a welcome, light tone to balance the sorrow, something other series can't quite bring themselves to include.

Leary has emerged as a creative force to be reckoned with; he writes the show with co-creator Peter Tolan in addition to starring in it. His rapid-fire wit and comedic cadence permeate the wiry, combative dialogue that serves the series so well.

Even if what they say about New York firefighters disliking the series is true, the small triumphs, tics and plot twists embroidering each episode grant "Rescue Me" a hearty authenticity.

And it's hard not to love the way the story can, say, turn from the longest locker-room joke in the world into a deadly serious, life-changing situation within minutes. (That would be a reference to the episode "Inches," which you can rent with the rest of the first season on DVD.)

Soon after the series premiered last July, it was as if "Rescue Me" didn't intend to simply introduce us to the men in New York City's 62 Truck. It wanted us to love them in all their messy stubbornness and macho folly. Three episodes of this season prove the series, which gave us 13 fine hours of television in its original go, may be maturing into raucous, addictive near-perfection. New episodes will test those emotional connections as the series demonstrates what imperfect sacks of misery they are.

For starters, it deflates the power 9/11 held over them a year ago. The seminal event served as a reminder of the firefighters' heroism and the reason for Tommy's degenerate behavior, but now, it's just another huge excuse for the man to crouch behind. He still aches for his cousin Jimmy (James McCaffrey), who died when the towers came down, but entrepreneurs have turned it into a commemorative cookie decoration. Tommy can't even use it to talk his way out of a parking ticket. "9/11 was four years ago, champ," the cop says. "Deal with it. You had your day."

He later adds that America doesn't like it when things get complicated -- which, as viewers know, it has. Chief Jerry Reilly (Jack McGee) has an Alzheimer's-stricken wife at home. Franco (Daniel Sunjata), who nearly died after Tommy had a psychological lapse in the middle of a fire last season, nurses wounds deeper than his burns, finding himself on the path to addiction. Laura (Diane Farr), the sole woman on the team, is losing patience with being called "doll face" and "sweetheart." Even Mike "The Probie" (Michael Lombardi) teeters off his rocker when his relationship with his girlfriend suddenly cools.

Tommy thinks of himself as the piece of garbage at the center of the known universe, so he believes his woes top them all. An on-again, off-again drunk, Tommy has knocked up Jimmy's widow Sheila (Callie Thorne) and her mood swings aren't pretty. His drinking drove off his estranged wife, Janet (Andrea Roth), who packed up his children and left without telling him, but it wasn't enough to get rid of Uncle Teddy (Lenny Clarke), whose betting habit matches the severity of Tommy's alco- holism.

It's difficult to argue what's worse -- all of that, or Tommy's transfer. The adrenaline addict's new firehouse sees little action and is filled with neat freaks who don't abide cursing.

So he wants his exile to be rescinded. Consider it a foregone conclusion that he's headed back to the city and the heat awaits him there. As much as Tommy Gavin hates himself, he needs to be around the people most adept at taking his abuse and giving it back in kind: his co-workers.

Besides, what is that plea of a title about if not the turbulent nucleus of this professional family? Their support of one another provides just what they need to survive their individual disasters, and it is that idea that keeps us tailgating this crew. If they manage to pull someone else from fire along the way, wonderful. But watching them attempt to save themselves is where the real action is.

keenan

06-20-05, 09:57 PM

fredfa

06-20-05, 11:44 PM

I agree, keenan, FX in HD would be awesome.

fredfa

06-20-05, 11:56 PM

Couric's 'Get' Is TV News's Loss
Interview With the 'Runaway Bride' Won't Lift Opinions of Network News
The Small Screen By Joe Flint The Wall Street Journal

In previewing Tuesday night's big interview with runaway bride Jennifer Wilbanks, Katie Couric told her "Today" show co-host Matt Lauer that "people's attitudes may change dramatically after they hear from her."
Unfortunately for Ms. Couric, the interview isn't likely to boost opinions of her -- or of television journalism in general.

Ms. Wilbanks is a considered a huge get for NBC. For those fortunate enough to have been out of town for the last two months, she became a wall-to-wall TV-news story after skipping out of her Duluth, Ga., hometown just four days before her wedding. With authorities fearing the worst (and the media no doubt hoping for it), the hunt for her filled the airwaves -- and drained local coffers of more than $50,000. Ms. Wilbanks turned up three days later, telling a bogus tale of kidnapping before admitting that she simply got skittish and hit the road.

The story should've ended right there. But for some reason, it only grew. Not only has Ms. Wilbanks landed a prime-time interview with Ms. Couric, she's also pulled down $500,000 from Judith Regan, head of Regan Books, for her life story. It's only a matter of time before the TV-movie-of-the-week deal is sealed -- and perhaps after that, a commemorative set of plates.

The courting of Ms. Wilbanks -- according to the Washington Post's Howard Kurtz, ABC's Diane Sawyer spent an hour on the phone with jilted fiancé John Mason in an unsuccessful attempt to get her on "Good Morning America" -- shows how desperate the networks are to drive ratings and how little they respect their viewers, many of whom surely didn't find Ms. Wilbanks' misadventures newsworthy. Argue that the media overdid their coverage of the Michael Jackson trial if you like, but at least in that case a world-famous entertainer was accused of some pretty hideous crimes.

Maybe you're reading this and thinking there's nothing new under the sun: We all know the explosion of cable-news channels has changed the standard for what qualifies as news and has proven that quantity doesn't always mean quality. But sometimes even those of us already jaded about the state of television news need to step back and ask if the Wilbanks story lowered the bar even further.

"There is almost nothing there, that is what is striking about it," says Jay Rosen, head of New York University's journalism department, who calls the Wilbanks coverage "pure news confection" and "almost entirely synthetic." (NBC officials had no comment about Ms. Couric's interview.)

Did Ms. Wilbanks take the media on a ride? More like the other way around. The police report of her disappearance was barely 24 hours old when the media descended on Duluth like a hurricane. Their obsession with the story, no doubt driven in part by anticipation of another Scott Peterson saga, is what pushed the manhunt and elevated a local case into a national freak show. By being on a bus to Las Vegas, Ms. Wilbanks was apparently one of the few people unaware of the stir she had caused.

That Ms. Wilbanks has found fame and fortune is quite distressing to some: She skips out on her wedding, lies about being abducted, wastes the state of Georgia's money and time looking for her, and for all that she gets half a million dollars and serves a little penance in a psychiatric facility. On his media-watchdog show "Reliable Sources," Mr. Kurtz ranted that "this is a woman who faked her kidnapping, traumatized her family, sparked this huge, over-the-top media frenzy, pleads guilty, is going to pay back some of the law enforcement costs involved in the search, and now she's going to get rich and get a one-hour NBC special? I sense the potential for a backlash here."

But to turn one's anger at Ms. Wilbanks misses the point. While one might wish she'd just returned home and disappeared, shouldn't any backlash be directed at the media who've thrown money at her, given her a national platform and refused to let the non-story die? I for one won't chastise her for taking the media's dough; after all, fools and their money are soon parted. The same can be said about viewers and their time; here's hoping that this time around the viewers send Ms. Couric and NBC News a message by staying elsewhere on the dial. As for the networks, the efforts by NBC and ABC and others to land Ms. Wilbanks certainly show they can be pretty aggressive when they have to be. If only they used that energy chasing actual news.

fredfa

06-21-05, 12:10 AM

'Geek' gets second shot
WB orders up another round of 'Beauty'

By JOSEF ADALIAN Variety.com (Michael Schneider contributed to this report.)

The Frog is giving "Beauty and the Geek" a big kiss, ordering a second season of the Ashton Kutcher-produced reality hit.

Early greenlight by WB Entertainment prexy David Janollari comes less than a month after the skein bowed to strong numbers. Since then, "Beauty" -- produced by Fox 21, Katalyst Films and 3 Ball Prods. -- has picked up young adult viewers in every airing.

Skein -- the first show greenlit by Janollari after he arrived at the WB last summer -- will expand to eight episodes for its second season, up from its original six-seg order. Net has also greenlit a reunion show featuring the season one cast of "Beauty"; it will air July 13.

Janollari said buzz on "Beauty" was growing each week. "It has a couple of things going for it," Janollari said. "It's a combination of comedy, competition, poignancy and heart, and the fact that it's a unique idea."

Katalyst's Jason Goldberg said producers had "already received thousands of letters from people wanting to be on the next one," adding the show's success proved "viewers were ready for a change in (the reality) sector."

"Beauty" is Fox 21's first series renewal, and shingle topper Jane Francis said the skein has the sensibilities the company is looking for in its reality projects. It's "different, unique, funny, but with heart," she said.

Last Wednesday's "Geek" won its timeslot in adults 18-34 and viewers 12-34, two of the WB's key demos. It also impressed among adults 18-49, beating out competish on CBS, NBC, Fox and UPN.

Kutcher, Goldberg, Nick Santora, J.D. Roth, Todd A. Nelson and John Foy are the exec producers. "Beauty" is For 3 Ball's second unscripted hit this year: Company also produces, with Ben Silverman, NBC's "The Biggest Loser."

"Beauty" joins ABC's "Dancing With the Stars," Fox's "Hell's Kitchen" and CBS's "Fire Me ... Please" as standouts in what has been a surprisingly strong summer for unscripted skeins.

fredfa

06-21-05, 12:42 AM

Its Crowded In the FX Pipeline
Send the word, send the word, 'Over There'
By Gary Levin USA TODAY Tuesday, June 21, 2005

Skeptics feared that Emmy-winning police drama The Shield would make FX a one-trick pony. But the cable network has built an unusually strong track record at launching — and keeping — noteworthy series with strong ratings.

With Tuesday night's second-season premiere of Denis Leary's firehouse drama Rescue Me (10 ET/PT), FX ushers in its first slate of year-round original programming. Nine shows are on the air or in the pipeline, and for a spell in late summer, the network will have four original series on three consecutive nights, including a comedy about eating disorders and an intense drama about the war in Iraq.

For fall 2006, George Clooney is plotting FX's first miniseries: Ten Commandments, a 10-part drama in which each hour is based on one of the thou-shalt-nots.

Though USA and TNT earn higher overall ratings with The 4400 and The Closer, FX has won more awards and critical acclaim. And it's a close competitor among the young adults advertisers love.

On the heels of The Shield's surprise Emmy for star Michael Chiklis, plastic-surgery drama Nip/Tuck surfaced in 2003, won a Golden Globe as best TV drama and is now the network's top-rated series, averaging 3.8 million viewers.

Rescue Me premiered last summer, and two new comedies —Starved and It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia - are due in August, aimed at broadening the network's appeal beyond dramas. (Lucky, a comedy about an unlucky gambler, proved a rare failure and was canceled after its first season in 2003.)

"They've done a fantastic job, and most of it has been due to investing heavily in original programming," says Kagan Research senior analyst Derek Baine. The network's overall programming budget has tripled to $360 million since 2000, Kagan says. Prime-time ratings also have grown: For the past 12 months, the channel averaged 1.1 million viewers, up 15% over the previous year.

FX hopes to continue its momentum next month with Over There, the war drama that FX pitched to Steven Bochco (NYPD Blue), then hired him to produce.

"It's the best experience I ever had," says Bochco. "These guys are enormously respectful of the creative process. They really do believe that when they commit to something, they're not just committing to a show, they're committing to someone's vision of a show."

Though once aiming to be the HBO of basic cable, FX says it has now carved out its own brand.

What makes an FX show? Adult appeal, flawed characters and, like its pay-cable competitor, a willingness to curse or flash some skin.

"Our shows have a distinctive tone that hasn't been watered down," FX chief John Landgraf says. "They're about contemporary American reality, and they tend to deal thematically with deep questions about us as a society. And they are willing to go to a place that's more real" than most television — amid the unreal fantasy world of a Nip/Tuck, where last season ended with a deranged "Carver" poised to further maim a plastic surgeon.

Landgraf now finds himself competing with predecessor Kevin Reilly and former boss Peter Liguori, now programming chiefs at NBC and Fox, who will try to imbue their networks with FX's stamp of off-kilter characters.

"That eloquently testifies to the influence our little network has had on television," he says.

In his own long career at NBC, Landgraf says, he found a creative environment "constipated and stultified by everything having to be procedural and plot-driven."

He says ABC's success this year with serialized, character-based dramas validates FX's strategy.

Leary says Landgraf is "a very sharp guy who's been through the wringer and decided he wanted to do shows he really likes, as opposed to throwing stuff against the wall."
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

On air or on the way on FX

30 Days (documentary), Wednesday 10 ET/PT, through July 20

Rescue Me (fire drama), Tuesday 10 ET/PT, returns tonight

Over There (Iraq war drama), Wednesday 10 ET/PT, starts July 27

Starved (eating-disorder comedy), Thursday 10 ET/PT, starts Aug. 4

It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia (friends comedy), Thursday 10:30 ET/PT, starts Aug. 4

Nip/Tuck (plastic surgeon drama), Tuesday 10 ET/PT, returns Sept. 20

The Shield (police drama), returns for fifth and possibly final season in January

Thief (crime drama), due early 2006

The Ten Commandments (10-hour miniseries), due fall 2006

Tabasco

06-21-05, 02:32 AM

Thanks for the Family Guy update, fredfa.

keenan

06-21-05, 02:52 AM

Its Crowded In the FX Pipeline
Send the word, send the word, 'Over There'
By Gary Levin USA TODAY Tuesday, June 21, 2005

"It's the best experience I ever had," says Bochco. "These guys are enormously respectful of the creative process. They really do believe that when they commit to something, they're not just committing to a show, they're committing to someone's vision of a show."

This is just the sort of thing I like to hear about a network.

Though once aiming to be the HBO of basic cable, FX says it has now carved out its own brand.
I agree, FX has a very unique image and style and I hope they continue to build on it. With a little bit of luck, FX could become the network of choice for the prime audience the majors are always fighting over. Maybe they could pick up Carnivale.. :)

keenan

06-21-05, 03:53 AM

FX Network just keeps getting better..they have to go HD now.. :)

The following is from Variety.

http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117924720?categoryid=1350&cs=1&s=h&p=0
Variety.com - FX visits the cape

When Batman Begins, He Does It on FX

FX visits the cape

Deal includes 'Constantine,' 'Lives,' 'Troy'

By JOHN DEMPSEY

NEW YORK -- "Batman Begins" has landed its first major deal in the network window.

Pic is part of an eight-title package bought by FX from Warner Bros. for a total license fee in the $30 million range.

FX gets "Batman" first in the window in late 2007/early 2008 for multiple runs before the title shifts to AMC for a batch of runs, returning to FX to finish out the contract. The FX deal is for three years. A spokesman for FX confirmed the deal but declined to discuss any contractual details.

Two other Warners titles will go to FX as first plays: "Constantine," which the network gets in late 2007, and "Taking Lives," available to FX in late 2006. AMC has bought some runs of "Constantine" following the FX plays, and Oxygen Media has bought second plays on "Taking Lives."

FX has picked up second runs of the five other Warner titles: "Last Samurai," "Terminator 3," "Troy," "Ghost Ship" and "Cradle 2 the Grave." AMC gets first dibs on "Last Samurai" and "T3."

The Warner Bros. deal propels FX into the front ranks of ad-supported networks that spring for the rights to volumes of theatrical movies, including a healthy sprinkling of blockbusters such as "Spider-Man 2" and three biggies from its sister company, 20th Century Fox: "The Day After Tomorrow," "I, Robot" and "Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story."

Overall, the marketplace is looking up for the major studios in their search for buyers of theatrical movies. Turner Broadcasting recently bought "The Matrix Revolutions" and "Miss Congeniality 2" from Warner Bros. plus "The Longest Yard" and "Sahara" from Paramount.

And the bidding is expected to be energetic for Lucasfilm's six "Star Wars" movies, led by the current box office hit "Revenge of the Sith."

George Thompson

06-21-05, 07:33 AM

Transition to Digital- Digital Tutorial from Broadcast Engineering
http://broadcastengineering.com/newsletters/t2d/20050620/#

fredfa

06-21-05, 09:41 AM

What if They Held an N.B.A. Finals and No One Bothered to Watch?

By RICHARD SANDOMIR The New York Times June 21, 2005

During a timeout after Robert Horry's 3-point shot put San Antonio up for good with 5.8. seconds left in overtime in Game 5 of the N.B.A. finals against Detroit, ABC's Al Michaels said to Hubie Brown, his partner on the broadcast, "Classic."

The game, Brown said, "has been absolutely fantastic."

The thriller yielded a 10.1 preliminary overnight Nielsen rating - not great, but better than national ratings that never crept over a 7.2 for the first four games, all unwatchable blowouts. Going in, ABC Sports was hamstrung by teams whose styles of play are not snazzy and whose rosters lack magical, broadly recognizable stars. If only the Lakers were here, you could hear the N.B.A. and the network whisper.

The N.B.A. finals have become like "The 4400," the USA Network science-fiction series in which a spaceship releases 4,400 people, who have been abducted over several decades, to lives unalterably changed. Each returns with special powers.

It appears that someone has abducted the fans who used to watch the N.B.A. finals, and time will tell if they will return like hoops-crazy Harry Potters with N.B.A. logos zapped by lightning into their rubber foreheads.

Those missing viewers appear to have departed year after year since Michael Jordan's last appearance in the finals, in 1998 with the Bulls; those finals generated a viewership of 29 million. In the post-Jordan era, finals viewership has never been better than 18.9 million, when the Lakers beat the Sixers in 2001, meaning a loss of 10.1 million viewers. Where have they gone? Can they all be victims of the erosion of network viewership, or is something more sinister afoot?

Last year, viewership stood at 17.9 million when the Pistons beat the Lakers. In 2002, when the Lakers beat the Nets, it was 15.7 million. In 2003, the Spurs-Nets finals had a viewership of 9.9 million.

Get the pattern? The Lakers equal survival, not like the 1990's Bulls, but better than the Nets, the Spurs or the Pistons.

That is undoubtedly why after Game 1, ABC Sports made note in a news release that "compared to the last N.B.A. finals matchup not to feature the L.A. Lakers," the 7.2 rating was 13 percent better than Game 1 of the Nets-Spurs series in 2003. Yes, that was a productive comparison. The Spurs-Pistons matchup is a low-rated series, so comparing it with one that that rated even lower was one way to obscure the obvious.

ABC has tried to prove that the best way to measure its finals success is not through ratings, which are down 35 percent from last year through the first four games, or through viewership, which is down 37 percent, but through important demographics like adults 18 to 49 and men 18 to 49.

The demographic ratings for the first four games were the highest in prime time each night, which is good for ABC, but not necessarily anything to boast about. The series is averaging 5.8 million viewers among adults 18 to 49, down 40 percent from last year, and 3.8 million among men in that demographic, down 38 percent. Both measurements are up from 2003 - the most recent year in which the Lakers were not in the finals - but down around 40 percent in each one since 2001, when NBC carried the Lakers' defeat of the Sixers.

Where have all those coveted viewers gone?

If one compares the N.B.A. finals with "Monday Night Football," it isn't a hit. These are the finals, for Duncan's sake, not regular-season games. Yet among men 18 to 49, "Monday Night Football" rated 34 percent better this season. "Desperate Housewives," a guilty pleasure among those men, rated 17 percent higher. ABC is nonetheless pleased. "On balance, the finals are doing what ABC wants them to do," said Mark Mandel, a spokesman for ABC Sports. "We keep on winning the nights and doing well against the competition. We're achieving our goals."

He said that the network was not distressed by the mystery of the disappearing viewership and that it hoped to get some of those missing folks back. "The people ABC is interested in watching are doing so, enabling the network to win the nights, thereby achieving our goals," he said.

David Stern, the N.B.A. commissioner, refused to comment.

The reasons for declining viewership are not secret: the absence of Jordan, which has permanently reshaped the league; the overabundance of the N.B.A. on cable TV, especially on ESPN, at the expense of the promotional power that NBC brought to the league; the rise of teams like Detroit, the No. 10 market, and San Antonio, ranked No. 37; and the falls from grace of the Knicks, the Lakers and the Bulls. Viewers also have numerous other choices, like video games and the Internet, to distract them from televised sports and other programming.

And so far, any new viewers that were expected to be realized by ESPN through its multimedia platforms have not materialized for ABC, its corporate sibling under the Walt Disney Corporation.

The case of the absentee finals viewers is a reversal for a league that once happily outdid the World Series - when it seemed Stern's league was eternally ascendant. The last time the finals beat the World Series, in 1998, the 29 million who watched the Chicago-Utah finals beat the 20.3 million for the Yankees-San Diego series. Since then, an annual average of nearly 6 million more viewers has watched the World Series than the N.B.A. finals.

fredfa

06-21-05, 10:12 AM

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

fredfa

06-21-05, 11:18 AM

A second chance for FX's 'Rescue Me'
Moving beyond the dark shadows of 9/11
By Abigail Azote medialifemagazine.com

In many ways “Rescue Me” is the classic FX show. It’s edgy, it has good acting and critics love it. But in one way it is different. After a very strong debut last year, the show’s audience took a steep tumble.

In fact, it may have been too edgy, with actual ghosts of 9/11 sharing screen time with angry alcoholic New York City firefighter Tommy (Denis Leary). That’s not an image many people are comfortable with just a few years after the terrorist attacks.

Now “Rescue” returns for a second season tonight at 10 p.m. with a three-episode shift in focus to a new firehouse and even more emphasis on Tommy’s personal struggle rather than those ghosts.

The show gets a more traditional structure with the new setting, allowing for further dark comedy in Tommy’s dealings with his new firehouse and his former firehouse’s reaction to the too-good-to-be-true guy who replaces him.

It will also give Leary a chance to really simmer as Tommy deals with an unexpectedly juicy plot twist, in which he impregnates his cousin’s widow. There will be a very personal focus on Tommy and how he deals with his ex-wife’s sudden departure and the new pregnancy.

Whether the quality of the show will remain the same could be an issue for returning viewers. Critical reaction has been mixed, from raves in the Boston Globe to gripes in other papers.

“I’ve decided ‘Rescue Me’ is one of those dramas we salute because it’s daring, unflinching and has its heart in the right place,” writes Ken Parish Perkins of the Fort Worth Star Telegram. “But good intentions don’t make good dramas, and my theory about ‘Rescue Me’ is that we feel better about ourselves for finding it engaging.”

Mark A. Perigard of the Boston Herald calls the show a spark of its old self. "The opener plays like a primer to a series to which few should need an introduction. For returning viewers, it’s a few degrees short of a rerun.”

“Rescue Me” debuted to impressive numbers last year, drawing 4.1 million total viewers to its premiere, bettering “Nip/Tuck’s” premiere audience by 11 percent. The episode averaged 2.52 million viewers 18-49.

But the impressive numbers didn’t hold. For the first season, “Rescue Me” averaged 2.7 million total viewers. Among 18-49s, the show averaged 1.9 million viewers, not quite equaling “The Shield” (2.1 million) and “Nip/Tuck” (2.2 million) during their first seasons.

When the series returns Tuesday night, its biggest competition will come from the NBA Finals, where the Detroit Pistons travel to the San Antonio Spurs for Game 6. Though weakened this year, the NBA still commands a sizable male viewership that will take away from “Rescue’s” audience. During season one, the series’ audience was 54 percent male.

Another potential audience distracter: the season premiere of “Real World.” That could divert some of “Rescue’s” younger viewers. The MTV reality show does well among 18-34s and 18-49s, both target demos that “Rescue” shares.

For a returning series, “Rescue” has gotten a lot of attention in the media, which will certainly build awareness. But after last season's dramatic falloff, it will do well to match the year one finale's 3.1 million average total viewers.

But its tougher challenge will come in the weeks ahead, once the critics have moved on and it's left to viewers to decide whether “Rescue” deserves a second chance.

David_Levin

06-21-05, 11:28 AM

It's shows like Rescue Me and The Shield that make me scream for FX to go HD. I'll watch these shows because of the content but the image quality of analog 4x3 material on my display is utter garbage, and that's after being de-interlaced, scaled and zoomed... :(

No kidding, I grimace at the thought of Nip/Tuck in HD -> Bring it On :eek:

So just what can FX actually get away with. What's passable under TV-MA?

Can the F-Word be used?

In one scene they were doing some breast work with just two pieces of strategically placed gauze (not really hiding much).

fredfa

06-21-05, 12:00 PM

Basic cable networks are trying not to upset Congress or the FCC these days, David.

I suspect we will see the F-word used on basic in the future, but probably not for a while yet -- at least not without a fairly substantial penalty.

Another reason mitigating against a wholesale lowering of standards on cable is that almost every major cable network is owned by a corperation with a big stake in OTA broadcast stations and networks. And there the FCC (and Congress) could really make their displeasure known -- and very, very expensive.

David_Levin

06-21-05, 12:14 PM

Part of my question is FX even subject to FCC standards? They are not operating on free public airways (if not, I'd assume there would be no penalty).

I'm all for letting the ratings system and Parental Supervision do thier jobs.

P.S. Thanks for all the contributions. Do you have to get permission to quote all the sources, or just provide links back?

Al Shing

06-21-05, 01:10 PM

umenon

06-21-05, 02:43 PM

When will National Geographic go HD ?

Max

fredfa

06-21-05, 03:51 PM

umenon: The short answer is: next year.

Here's a story from TVWeek I posted early last month with details on NGC and some other pending HD startups:

HD Television: Carriage Key to New Model
Demand Rising for Content, but License Fee, Distribution, Bandwidth Issues Unresolved
By Daisy Whitney TVWeek.com May 2, 2005

Though at least 18 national networks offer content in high-definition and consumer demand for programming is on the rise, many HD networks lack the distribution agreements they need for widespread visibility. How such carriage issues are resolved could set the tone in the coming months for a new business model that affects cable operators, programmers and consumers alike.

At issue, primarily, is the question of license fees. Most cable operators offer HD tiers free to consumers and are not inclined to pay extra for that content. In addition, HD channels are notoriously taxing to an operator's system, occupying about the same amount of space as five standard-definition digital channels.

Still, many of the incipient HD networks are optimistic that their carriage will increase dramatically as consumer demand rises.

Scripps Networks, for example, has predicted that HGTV in HD will be fully distributed when it launches early next year. "My expectation is we will be in every single hi-def household," said John Baird, executive VP of affiliates sales and marketing at Scripps. Scripps also expects to command a license fee for HGTV and Food Network in HD.

Those are bullish predictions, given that other HD networks that launched first are still angling for carriage deals with multiple system operators.

Comcast, which late last month announced it would add TNT's HD feed to its lineup, said it maintains a policy of not paying license fees for HD content.

Generally, Time Warner does not pay extra for HD either, unless the content is exclusive to the HD platform and does not have an underlying standard-definition component. Time Warner does pay for networks such as HDNet and INHD and INHD2, but it recoups that expense by charging consumers an additional fee in a paid HD tier to cover the costs. The operator also has a free HD tier with other content, such as Discovery HD Theater.

Fees in the 'Tens of Cents'

The no-license-fee stance also allows cable operators to look local broadcasters in the eye and say they don't pay twice for HD content when local stations want to be paid for their HD signals.

HD programmers need to look toward ad revenue as their core, said WealthTV CEO Charles Herring. "It seems clear the business model needs to be ad revenue, but to supplement the ad revenue, there needs to be a small amount of fees," he said.

Mr. Herring said his network has been getting license fees in the "tens of cents" per sub. WealthTV is available through some small cable operators and has inked a deal with Charter.

As a new round of networks such as HGTV, Food Network and National Geographic Channel gears up to enter the HD world next year, no one seems to doubt that demand for HD is rapidly expanding. The Consumer Electronics Association predicts 31 million digital TV sets total will have been shipped to retail by the end of this year, up from a base of 16 million at the end of last year. Nearly 90 percent of those sets are HD sets.

But when customers unwrap their shiny new sets, they may not be able to watch all that much in HD. Many networks, including Universal HD, TNT HD, HDNet, ESPN2 and new entrants such as WealthTV and the Outdoor Channel, are still in pursuit of mass distribution. Despite the broad license fee philosophy shared by the MSOs, most distribution agreements are complex, allowing for compensation to be worked out in indirect forms. These could include carriage of other digital networks, a longer-term deal or a higher license fee for other networks.

"HD is often part of a broader affiliation agreement," said Clint Stinchcomb, senior VP for Discovery HD Theater and VOD, which is fully distributed, with the exception of Cablevision. "It's not one for one, which makes it challenging for new entrants with no additional services."

Universal HD, for instance, is part of the larger NBC Universal family, with 14 properties. Universal HD, now available to 26 million homes, has been gaining momentum with new carriage deals, partly as a result of its parent company's overall attractiveness as a program supplier. "We have a lot of stuff we make available," said Ron Lamprecht, VP of new media at NBC Universal Cable.

Parceling Bandwidth

In addition to business issues, operators face bandwidth constraints. They need to parcel out capacity among SD, HD, digital, VOD, high-speed Internet and telephony, said Bob Wilson, senior VP of programming with Cox.

Still, he said it's important to try to carry as many new HD networks as possible to support a natural evolution in TV format to HD and to compete effectively with satellite. But Cox does not intend to pay license fees for HD content, he said, characterizing HD as a basic investment networks must make for the future.

Until then, networks that launched during the initial HD land grab earlier this decade are sitting pretty as new players scramble for space. "There are some networks that had a long-term vision and got in the game early," Mr. Wilson said, citing Discovery HD Theater and ESPN HD as among the networks with foresight.

Those networks are widely available in HD, but HDNet, which was launched at about the same time, is not. Mark Cuban, HDNet's co-founder, chairman and president, said bandwidth is one reason his network isn't fully distributed. Bandwidth is likely to remain an overhang until cable operators transition to all-digital infrastructure, he said.

Capacity issues are temporary, said Pamela Euler Halling, senior VP of marketing and programming for Insight. "When you launch phone, high-speed, then all the video requirements, you have to manage it carefully," she said.

fredfa

06-21-05, 04:38 PM

Howard Stern Wraps E! Show

By Ben Grossman Broadcasting & Cable

E! Entertainment Television today confirmed that Howard Stern’s half-hour nightly television show will wrap production as of July 1, with the last original episode set to air Friday, July 8.

Beginning Monday, July 11, E! will air reruns of the edited-down version of the shock jock’s radio show, which first began airing on the network in 1994.

Stern’s contract with E! comes to an end as he prepares to move his radio show to Sirius Satellite Radio in January in a deal reported to be worth $500 million over five years.

Stern indicated on his radio program Tuesday morning that an announcement may be coming in the next few weeks regarding future television plans for the show.

dturturro

06-21-05, 04:56 PM

I've been hearing the S-word an awful lot lately on extended basic cable. The Closer pilot on TNT had it. Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmare on BBCA is full of it, although they will beep out the F-word.

Has something been liberalized lately?

The FCC has no power over satellite TV (Cable is SO 20th century). They do adhere to certain unwritten rules (like the F-word, full frontal, etc...).

Someone earlier mentioned that the networks are owned by OTA companys. So the FCC couldn't fine FX for something done on Rescue Me, but they'd be charged through the nose if something happened on 24!

mikey p

06-21-05, 05:54 PM

"HD Television: Carriage Key to New Model
Demand Rising for Content, but License Fee, Distribution, Bandwidth Issues Unresolved
By Daisy Whitney TVWeek.com May 2, 2005"

Kind of like the world wide wait, none the less THANKS for posting this one, it says a lot. ;-)

fredfa

06-21-05, 06:25 PM

“Closer” Closes Ratings Deal For TNT
By Anne Becker Broadcasting & Cable

TNT’s The Closer continued to draw strong ratings with its second episode Monday night (6/20) at 9 p.m.
The Kyra Sedgwick crime drama earned a 3.8 household rating and 5.57 million total viewers, according to Nielsen.

The series’ record-breaking ratings for last Monday’s premiere (a 4.8 household rating), along with strong numbers for limited series, Into the West, helped keep TNT atop the cable ratings for the week. The network averaged 2.96 million total viewers in prime. Into the West’s second installment pulled in 4.81 million total viewers in its first showing Friday at 8 p.m. TNT is also showing each episode six times per weekend.

USA took the second slot in prime, averaging 2.17 million total viewers off continued success for new seasons of The 4400 and The Dead Zone (this week’s 4400 earned 4.03 million total viewers and The Dead Zone earned 3.42 on 6/19).

With an average 1.85 million total viewers, Fox News took third place in prime, boosted by its Monday (6/13) afternoon coverage of the Michael Jackson verdict. The news network averaged 4.80 million total viewers between 5:14 and 5:18 the day the decision came down.

fredfa

06-21-05, 06:31 PM

While (as far as I know) it is true the FCC can't specifically fine a cable network for raunchy content, Congress for several sessions has seemed to be getting closer and closer to moving legislation which would put them under some sort of control.

One possibility (greatly feared by MSOs and DBS companies) is forcing cable and satellite providers to offer either a la carte programming options, or tiers in which harsh language, violence and sexual content could be avoided.

IMO, it is that potential legislative threat which has kept the lid, at least somewhat, on cable network content thus far.

foxeng

06-21-05, 06:39 PM

I suspect we will see the F-word used on basic in the future, but probably not for a while yet -- at least not without a fairly substantial penalty.

CBS has already done that, twice. When they ran the 9/11 documentry "9/11" by Jules and Gedeon Naudet two times. It was LOADED with F and S and all kinds of stuff. No beeps.

fredfa

06-21-05, 06:41 PM

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

fredfa

06-21-05, 06:43 PM

foxeng: that was a very special case, and a very special documentary, about a very special event.
And the FCC knew about the problem ahead of time and gave its tacit blessing.

dturturro

06-21-05, 09:20 PM

foxeng: that was a very special case, and a very special documentary, about a very special event.
And the FCC knew about the problem ahead of time and gave its tacit blessing.

ABC has also aired Private Ryan uncut several times with zero FCC complaints, thus no fines.

fredfa

06-21-05, 11:10 PM

O'Hurley dances his way to new fame
By Gary Strauss USA TODAY

When the producers of ABC's Dancing with the Stars (Wednesday, 9 ET/PT) began recruiting him, actor John O'Hurley figured it was to host the reality show.

Little did he realize he was being sought as one of six celebrity amateur dancers paired with pros in the six-week competition. That he'd become the show's biggest star. That the show would become a hit. Or that the fame would overshadow his highest-profile role: pompous catalog king J. Peterman on NBC's Seinfeld.

"I thought the show was a great idea, but not for old twinkle toes," says O'Hurley, whose prior dancing consisted of 1980s stage musicals.

But after mulling the offer with his wife, Lisa, he signed on. "She told me it would be a life-changing experience, and it has," says O'Hurley, 48.

"I've lost 15 pounds so far, I've got flexibility I haven't had in years, and when I go through an airport, people yell 'John!' instead of 'Peterman!' It's been a total surprise."

Dancing, too, has been a surprise success. It was No. 1 last week with 15.7 million viewers, its audience builds every week, and it scores particularly well among young adults.

Dapper in white tie and tails, O'Hurley has developed strong chemistry with partner Charlotte Jorgensen, 33. And their cha-chas, tangos and quick steps have captured strong support from the judges and viewers, who share voting power.

Executive producer Conrad Green says O'Hurley wasn't tapped for his dancing prowess. "We wanted someone a bit older who is likable, warm and funny. We didn't have a clue how good of a dancer he is."

Training with Jorgensen, a top pro dancer in the 1990s, quickly evolved from twice-weekly, four-hour sessions to a six-hour, seven-day regimen.

"The physical demands are one thing, but it's mentally draining, too," he says. "You have a new dance every week. It's like learning the violin on a Thursday and playing a concerto the following Wednesday."

For O'Hurley, an avid golfer with a 4 handicap, winning the dance-off is both a matter of pride and his competitive nature. "I have more to gain by winning than losing and looking silly," he says.

Still, O'Hurley downplays his chances against remaining celebs Rachel Hunter, Joey McIntyre and Kelly Monaco. "Latin dance styles are very difficult for me, and dancing is a male-led activity, so it's easier for me to look worse than the professional dancers," he says.

fredfa

06-22-05, 12:10 AM

There She Goes?
By Rusty Saunders The Rocky Mountain News

SIGN OF THE TIMES: Remember when the Miss America Pageant was the major TV attraction on a Saturday night in September?

The glitz, the glory and the audience ratings have faded to the point that a date for the annual event has yet to be set for lack of a network TV contract.

ABC dropped the pageant after last year's competition, citing diminishing viewer interest and high production costs.

The organizers are negotiating with several cable networks in an effort to find an outlet.

The situation could inspire new lyrics to the "There she is" theme sung by the late Bert Parks.

Change it to "Is she there?"

fredfa

06-22-05, 12:50 AM

Last Crusade
Fans unite to save canceled TV shows -- Viewers of defunct shows like ''Carnivale,'' ''Eyes,'' ''Enterprise,'' and ''Joan of Arcadia,'' are trying to bring them back
by Paul Katz Entertainment Weekly

Is there life after death in prime time? There was last season for Fox's once-defunct Family Guy. Now fans of several recently canceled series are trying to work similar resurrection magic. Who'll succeed? EW weighs in.

Carnivàle
THE CAMPAIGN: Die-hard fans have deluged HBO with custom-made tarot cards demanding a revival and even got star Clancy Brown to publicize their efforts in the media.
WILL IT WORK? This low-rated Carnivàle ride could be over for good, but once the bearded lady joins the cause, who can stop them?
ODDS 10-1

Eyes
THE CAMPAIGN: ABC remains blind to the 6,700 folks who've signed an online petition begging to see the private-eye series' remaining five episodes.
WILL IT WORK? The network could easily air them this summer. Meanwhile, three fans are still on a hunger strike, waiting for a Wings reunion.
ODDS 25-1

Enterprise
THE CAMPAIGN: Trekkers raised almost $3 million toward production costs, but UPN didn't budge. Now fans are asking Sci Fi Channel to boldly go where UPN won't — season 5.
WILL IT WORK? Paramount seems intent on giving the franchise a rest. As a Klingon might say, ''Paramount's such a Jagh!''
ODDS 50-1

Joan of Arcadia
THE CAMPAIGN: Arcadia's Army has given up saving Joan at CBS. Now they're mailing strings of yarn to other nets, hoping to find it a new home.
WILL IT WORK? With the cast under contract only through the summer, it'll take a call from the Almighty to save Joan. Oh, put down the phone, Alanis.
ODDS 100-1

foxeng

06-22-05, 05:52 AM

foxeng: that was a very special case, and a very special documentary, about a very special event.
And the FCC knew about the problem ahead of time and gave its tacit blessing.

True, but the point I was trying to make was that the precedent has been set and it is happening. Private Ryan reinforced it. You will see it happen again. Someone WILL push the envelope.

Xesdeeni

06-22-05, 09:27 AM

Eyes
THE CAMPAIGN: ABC remains blind to the 6,700 folks who've signed an online petition begging to see the private-eye series' remaining five episodes.
WILL IT WORK? The network could easily air them this summer. Meanwhile, three fans are still on a hunger strike, waiting for a Wings reunion.
ODDS 25-1 According to IMDB (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0419323/guests) there are 8 more episodes in the can.

Xesdeeni

fredfa

06-22-05, 09:37 AM

Hmmmm.
Tv.com says there are just four left.
Personally, I hope its eight.
I think this was one of ABC's bigger blunders -- masked, of course this season by the tremendous success of "Desperate Housewives", "Grey's Anatomy" and "Lost".
But if ABC had been able to promote and build "Eyes" (and "Karen Sisco") they would have that much stronger a lineup -- especially with younger viewers who should have found both quirky shows very appealing.
If only ABC had figured out how to market them.

fredfa

06-22-05, 10:29 AM

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

fredfa

06-22-05, 11:19 AM

I guess the question is: who (at NBC) could possibly have thought there would be any interest in this program?
Paris of plaster: Hilton's mom tanks
NBC reality show debut underwhelms America

Like mother, like daughter? Not quite. America will not accept cheap knockoffs.

When Paris Hilton’s reality show “The Simple Life” premiered in December 2003 on Fox, it averaged a 5.9 rating among viewers 18-49. Last night, facing much less competition, Kathy Hilton’s new NBC reality show pulled less than half the audience that her daughter’s show did.

“I Want to Be a Hilton,” airing at 9 p.m., averaged a mere 2.5 adults 18-49 rating, losing 5 percent of its lead-in and placing fourth in its timeslot among total viewers and households.

The big surprise isn’t really that “Hilton” tanked. It’s that someone thought it was promising enough to put it on the air. Paris-mania peaked last year, with the heiress’s sex video and first season of “Simple Life.” By earlier this year, she was old news in the tabloids and “Life’s” third season was sputtering.

NBC’s show, in which poor contestants compete to adapt to the elder Hilton’s fancy-pants lifestyle, is exactly as stupid as it sounds. The contestants do silly things like learning to eat escargot (yep, it’s snails) and dining with D-list celebrities like “Access Hollywood’s” Billy Bush.

The allure of Paris’ show has always been watching the rich girls mess up in the real world. Watching real worlders get embarrassed in the rich one is nowhere near the fun.

fredfa

06-22-05, 11:20 AM

“Into The West” Fading Badly

According to medialifemagazine.com, “Into The West,” the epic from producer Steven Spielberg, saw drastic declines in its second outing last week. Among 18-49s, the “West” averaged a 1.3, down 24 percent from a 1.7 for its debut. Oddly enough, the Sunday repeat of that episode rated better in that demo, averaging a 1.5.

fredfa

06-22-05, 12:04 PM

A big summer indeed for cable
Viewing hits record levels in key demographics
By Toni Fitzgerald medialifemagazine.com

Cable viewership always rises in the summer, but it’s never risen this sharply this early. Last week, boosted by big premieres and a major finale, ad-supported cable had what will likely be its best week ever among several demographics.

For the first three weeks of the summer, cable has matched its all-time high share levels among adults 18-49, 25-54 and households.
Most significantly, ratings are up 5 to 6 percent in the major demographics compared with last year while the seven broadcast networks are down 4 to 10 percent.

The broadcast networks are averaging an 11.2 18-49 rating from May 26 to June 19, down 5.8 percent from last year’s 11.8, according to primetime cumulative ratings provided by the Cabletelevision Advertising Bureau. Basic cable is up 5.4 percent to a 15.7 rating from a 14.9.

It’s up 5 percent to a 17.2 in 25-54s while broadcast has dipped 3.8 percent to a 12.6.

But the biggest swing is among 18-34s, where cable is up 6 percent to a 14.0 and broadcast is down 10.3 percent to a 9.4.

CAB won’t know for sure if last week set a record until it gets full numbers from Nielsen on June 28. But with TNT, FX and USA all boasting at least two big performers last week, it’s safe to assume there will be several records.

TNT’s “The Closer” set a total viewers record for an original cable series and also ranked No. 1 for the week among 18-49s and 25-54s. The network’s “Into the West,” while falling off quite a bit from its premiere, still averaged a healthy 4.8 million total viewers and placed eighth among 25-54s.

USA’s “The 4400” and “Dead Zone” both made the top 10 among 18-49s and 25-54s, while FX’s “The Shield” finale matched its best 18-49s performance of the season. FX also got a decent premiere from the new reality show “30 Days,” which placed No. 34 among 18-49s.

Other shows at or near record performances last week included WE’s “Bridezillas,” Comedy Central’s “Reno 911!” and Adult Swim’s “Family Guy.”

According to CAB, summer cable viewership usually peaks in July. But with so many premieres and finales coming this month, it will be interesting to see if cable can top this early peak. It may be difficult, as interest in the new shows is already leveling off and programs like “The Shield” will be over.

Meanwhile, in other cable ratings for the week ended June 19:
Top five networks in primetime (18-49s):
TNT
USA
TBS
Spike
FX

Top five networks in primetime (total viewers):
TNT
USA
Fox News
Nick at Night
TBS

Top movie (18-49s): TBS’s “What Women Want” (Sunday 8 p.m.) 1.65 million

Top sporting event (total viewers): Spike’s WWE Entertainment (Monday, 10 p.m.) 5.2 million

Shows making the top 10 among 18-34s, 18-49s and 25-54s: Spike’s WWE Entertainment (Monday, 9 and 10 p.m.); USA’s “The 4400” (Sunday, 9 p.m.)

Show on the rise: “The Dead Zone,” USA, Sunday 10 p.m. Two episodes into its fourth season, “The Dead Zone” is showing lots of promise. Last week, it drew 2 million viewers 18-49, growing its audience in that demo by 11 percent week to week. That’s good news for a show that premiered to record-breaking ratings three years ago, only to see steep declines later in the season.

Show on the decline: “Into The West,” TNT, Friday 8 p.m. The epic from producer Steven Spielberg saw drastic declines in its second outing last week. Among 18-49s, the “West” averaged a 1.3, down 24 percent from a 1.7 for its debut. Oddly enough, the Sunday repeat of that episode rated better in that demo, averaging a 1.5.

keenan

06-22-05, 01:16 PM

NBC Networks to Simultaneously Air 'King Kong' HD Trailer
From TV Technology,
http://www.tvtechnology.com/hd_notebook/one.php?id=300
HD Notebook

Date posted: 2005-06-22

"Star Wars" and "Batman" have returned to cinemas with a vengeance, and now the producers of the latest version of "King Kong" are hoping that a new generation of summer moviegoers will want to see the giant gorilla in the digital age. Competition is fierce, where one opening weekend can either make or break a potential blockbuster, and so the marketing of big-budget films has become an art form unto itself.

Trailer production houses today compete with other houses for the right to have their trailers used to promote major films in theaters, on TV and the Internet. According to reports, the latest marketing attention-getter will be a "King Kong" trailer produced in HD that will air simultaneously on June 27 at 7:59 p.m. EDT on the various networks of NBC Universal.

As a really obvious example of "corporate synergy," the movie is produced by Universal and the 2.5-minute trailer will air on Bravo, CNBC, MSNBC, NBC, Sci Fi, Universal HD, USA Network, Telemundo and Mun2. Perhaps the symbolic precedent of the HD-related marketing strategy will stand out more than the trailer itself, since only about 4 million homes (out of 110 million) are capable of actually viewing broadcast content in HD, according to March 2005 figures from In-Stat.

Schedule from the Futon Critic,

http://www.thefutoncritic.com/cgi/pr.cgi?id=20050617nuts01
the futon critic - the web's best primetime television resource

The specific schedule for the airing of the teaser trailer on each of the NBC networks is as follows:

NBC -immediately following "Fear Factor"

USA Network -immediately following "Law & Order: SVU

SCI FI Channel - immediately following "Stargate-SG1"

Bravo -immediately following "West Wing"

Universal HD - immediately following "Airport '77"

MSNBC - immediately following "Countdown with Keith Olberman"

CNBC - immediately following "Cover to Cover"

Telemundo - immediately following "La Mujer en el Espejo"

Mun2 - teaser trailer will premiere during the two-hour block of "The Roof."

TRIO - immediately following "The Secret Life of Us"

<Edited to include TRIO-thanks to jaydee353>

f44

06-22-05, 08:23 PM

What about Trio?

fredfa

06-22-05, 08:50 PM

Sadly, I don't think the suits at NBC have had a thought about Trio since DirecTV dropped it.

fredfa

06-22-05, 10:02 PM

Perspective is always a good thing.
Here are the numbers for the cables news operations for last night.
For fun, compare the total viewers of any of them with the number of viewers of the week's prime-time network programs (in the first "Latest News" post).

Tuesday Cable News Ratings

mediabistro.com---It was a huge night for Fox News, but not for anyone else. Here are the numbers

Total viewers:

Total day:
FNC: 1,032,000:
CNN: 417,000:
MSNBC: 174,000:
HLN: 194,000:
CNBC: 123,000

Primetime:
FNC: 2,460,000:
CNN: 707,000:
MSNBC: 196,000:
HLN: 351,000:
CNBC: 77,000

25-54 demographic:

Total day:
FNC: 303,000:
CNN: 122,000:
MSNBC: 61,000:
HLN: 80,000:
CNBC: 30,000

Primetime:
FNC: 581,000:
CNN: 191,000:
MSNBC: 52,000:
HLN: 125,000:
CNBC: 31,000

The hourlies:

5pm:
Gibson: 1,166,000:
Blitzer: 470,000:
Connected: 128,000:
Kudlow: 151,000

6pm:
Hume: 1,391,000:
Dobbs: 408,000:
Abrams: 241,000:
Mad Money: 218,000

7pm:
Shep Smith: 1,489,000:
Cooper: 535,000:
Hardball: 228,000:
Showbiz: 156,000:
Conan: 117,000

8pm:
O'Reilly: 2,779,000:
Zahn: 490,000:
Countdown: 157,000:
Grace: 523,000:
Contender: 133,000

9pm:
Hannity &Colmes: 2,313,000:
King: 1,013,000:
Situation: 172,000:
Prime News: 252,000:
Mad Money repeat: 40,000

10pm:
Greta: 2,288,000:
NewsNight: 619,000:
Scarborough: 260,000:
Grace repeat: 277,000:
Deutsch: 59,000

fredfa

06-22-05, 10:32 PM

The lowest rated show last week, the WB's 112th-ranked "What I Like About You" had 1.14 million viewers.
No show on any cable news network (other than FNC) had as many viewers.
And for Fox News, all its shows would have made the primte-tome list. O'Reilly would have ranked 88th (right after #87 One On One 2.88 million viewers). Even John Gibson would have beaten (barely) "What I Like About You".

jaydee353

06-22-05, 11:25 PM

What about Trio?

It will be there too :)

From nbcmv

KING KONG (THEATRICAL PREVIEW)
NBC Universal will present an unprecedented motion picture preview "roadblock" as all ten of its networks simultaneously telecast the world premiere of the first trailer for Universal Pictures' King Kong, the dramatic adventure helmed by Oscar(r)-winning director Peter Jackson, on Monday, June 27, from 8:59:30-9:02 PM ET. As part of the ambitious, multi-pronged effort, the two-minute, 30-second teaser trailer will be broadcast at the same time on NBC, SCI FI, USA Network, Bravo, MSNBC, CNBC, Telemundo, Mun2, TRIO and Universal HD. The trailer will be offered in high-definition on NBC and Universal HD. The specific schedule for the airing of the teaser trailer on each of the NBC networks is as follows: NBC -immediately following "Fear Factor" USA Network -immediately following "Law & Order: SVU SCI FI Channel - immediately following "Stargate-SG1" Bravo -immediately following "West Wing" Universal HD - immediately following "Airport '77" MSNBC - immediately following "Countdown with Keith Olberman" CNBC - immediately following "Cover to Cover" Telemundo - immediately following "La Mujer en el Espejo" Mun2 - teaser trailer will premiere during the two-hour block of "The Roof" TRIO - immediately following "The Secret Life of Us"

fredfa

06-23-05, 01:11 AM

thanks jaydee353

fredfa

06-23-05, 09:56 AM

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

fredfa

06-23-05, 10:07 AM

Drama King Predicts Sitcom Revival
By Ben Grossman Broadcasting & Cable

According to Desperate Housewives creator Marc Cherry, the so-called “crisis” in the comedy genre is one breakout hit away from being solved. “I do think that sitcoms can reinvent themselves. All it takes is one, really,” he said. “One just bursting through like a comet and then someone will have a night, and they’ll start being able to program it.”

Cherry’s comments came during a panel discussion on the future of television comedy Wednesday night at the Museum of Television & Radio in Beverly Hills. Joining Cherry on the dais were Everybody Loves Raymond Executive Producer Phil Rosenthal, Arrested Development Creator Mitch Hurwitz, HBO Chairman and CEO Chris Albrecht, and former Bernie Mac Executive Producer Larry Wilmore.

On a night when thoughtful analysis often gave way to one-liners, the panel did discuss reasons for the downturn in sitcoms.

Cherry told the audience that one problem is just a lack of fresh ideas. “If I was a network executive, the last thing I would do is develop a domestic sitcom with a wife and a dad and a couple kids. Leave it alone, go somewhere else,” he said.

On the other hand, Rosenthal noted that just doing something different is not enough. “A lot of people are doing different, and leaving out the good,” he said.

HBO’s Albrecht also weighed in on the subject, noting mainstream comedies often just lack quality. “Broadcast networks make a mistake in that they strive for popular and hope for good. I think to strive for good and hope for popular is a better formula.”

The panel also discussed an important aspect of the sitcom: Shrinkage. They lamented the fact a typical sitcom now only runs about 21 minutes in between the ads that pay the bills.

“I think with less time to tell stories you don’t feel you have time to do a bunch of varied things in the course of your episode, and that’s having an effect,” said Cherry. “I have a little bit of resentment against the people who used to give us notes and network executives were like, ‘it’s slow there, it’s slow there.’ I literally felt from people who were the authority figures, they were giving bad notes and bad information.”

Rosenthal also stressed the need to give comedies a shelf life, as he made a point to do with Raymond. “There was a rule: no topical jokes,” he said. “Of course we were doing the show for CBS, but in the back of my mind, it was for Nick at Nite.”

Cherry also talked of the obvious need for promotional muscle, estimating that last year, Desperate Housewives, Lost and Wife Swap got 75% of ABC’s ad budget. “[ABC Entertainment President] Steve McPherson got behind all of those shows in a major way and said, ‘these are the ones I believe in.’ And lucky for him I think he was right. If you unveil a fall schedule and you are giving equal dollars to everyone, that’s a recipe for disaster.”

But in between the problem solving there was plenty of ribbing. Arrested’s Hurwitz blamed Rosenthal for the end of a comedy era. “We were still willing to laugh at Raymond, but Phil didn’t want to make any more episodes,” he said. “So the crisis is really about laziness.”

Later, Albrecht would tease Cherry about how great Desperate would be on HBO, to which an amazed Cherry shot back, “You passed on it twice!”

Albrecht also said he had asked Larry David to get this season’s episodes of Curb Your Enthusiasm under 30 minutes, and when he watched the first two episodes earlier Wednesday he found that both were exactly 29:59 long, including the credits.

fredfa

06-23-05, 10:13 AM

There is an interesting (or scary if you are a TV advertiser) study about DVR usage which was released today in London.
I posted the details over here:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=5793466#post5793466

fredfa

06-23-05, 01:03 PM

Higher hopes for networks' fall shows
Report: Two thirds of new series could beat the axe
By Kevin Downey medialifemagazine.com

Is network television on the verge of winning back some of the viewers it’s been losing to cable TV? Could be.

Broadcasters are poised to do well this fall, with a surprising number of potential new hits driving up ratings, according to a report released this week by media buying agency Carat.

This after a season in which three ABC hit shows served to halt the networks' slide in adults 18-49 while boosting its own ratings by 16 percent.

“Network TV is enjoying something of a renaissance,” says Shari Anne Brill, Carat’s vice president and director of programming. “I’m not sure why this was a revelation but the networks discovered that great stories with good characters and storytelling will get viewers.”

Of 31 programs set to debut this fall, Brill thinks nine shows on five networks stand a good chance of surviving next season and coming back in 2006-'07.

Moreover, Brill says another 14 shows have a fairly good chance of making it through the season, with only eight programs expected to struggle.
Later this month, Brill will update her outlook after further review of the pilots.

Last year Carat predicted as few as five shows could survive.
Two of those, the WB's "Jack & Bobby" and UPN's "Kevin Hill," were critical hits that got axed.

Like other media people who have screened next season’s shows, Brill is talking up UPN’s “Everybody Hates Chris” from comedian Chris Rock.

But she also says each network except the WB has at least one upcoming program that stands a good chance of making it.

Among them is ABC’s “Invasion,” a show about aliens that will lead out of hit “Lost” on Wednesdays.
Brill also points to the network’s drama “Commander-in-Chief” as a probable hit. The show stars Geena Davis as president of the U.S.

“With Hillary Clinton probably making a presidential run in 2008, it’s very topical,” says Brill. “There are so many aspects of great storytelling, it’s well acted and it’s a very real story for the times we live in.
”
Brill expects CBS’s Monday lineup to do well, despite the departure of “Everybody Loves Raymond.
” She believes first-year comedy “How I Met Your Mother,” with “Doogie Howser, M.D.’s” Neil Patrick Harris, will benefit from its time slot between strong shows “King of Queens” and “Two and a Half Men.”

NBC is expected to struggle to get out of last place among the Big Four networks, and its relatively low ratings means the bar it’s setting for successful shows will be lower than it is on other networks. As a result, NBC will likely hold onto shows that pull only mediocre ratings.

Brill thinks three new NBC shows will likely survive the season.

Among them is Tuesday comedy “My Name is Earl,” about a lottery winner, and “Three Wishes,” a reality show that latches onto the feel-good trend that the WB’s “Beauty and the Geek” kicked off this summer.

Brill also says “The Apprentice: Martha Stewart” will make it, if for no other reason than viewer interest in Stewart has increased since she spent five months in prison.

Meanwhile, Fox has two upcoming programs that will likely do well, according to Brill.

“Prison Break” is a about a guy who gets himself sent to prison to help his wrongly convicted brother break out. “Bones” is a “CSI”-inspired forensics show.

Of the 14 rookie shows that may make it are ABC comedy “Freddie” with Freddie Prinze, Jr., NBC drama “E-Ring” from “CSI” producer Jerry Bruckheimer, and Bruckheimer’s “Just Legal” on the WB.

Among the shows Brill expects to be axed, either because of tough timeslots or poor scripts, are the Fox comedy “Kitchen Confidential,” the UPN sitcom “Love, Inc.,” which has already fired star Shannen Doherty, and ABC’s Thursday update of “Night Stalker.”

“It’s on Thursday at 9 p.m. and there isn’t much of an audience left over, with ‘CSI’ dominating, ‘The Apprentice,’ and viewers following [the WB’s] ‘Everwood’ to its new night.”

fredfa

06-23-05, 05:34 PM

NBC News Release on “:Today” Ratings
NBC NEWS' "TODAY" CONTINUES TO WIDEN THE GAP OVER GMA WITH A 732K LEAD
NBC News Release
(Fifth Straight Week in a Row That "Today" Increases Its Lead Over the Competition)

NEW YORK -- Thursday, June 23 -- NBC News' "Today," for the fifth straight week in a row, widened the gap over GMA with a 732K lead for the week of June 13. This is the third week in a row that "Today's" advantage over GMA was more than 475K. In total viewers "Today" outperformed GMA by 15 percent (732,000) and CBS' "The Early Show" by 125 percent (3,100,000). The weekly win marks "Today's" 497th straight week in first place.

For the week of June 13-19, "Today" led with a 4.5 household rating/17 share and 5.6 million viewers. GMA remained in second place with a 3.8/14 and 4.9 million viewers. CBS' "The Early Show" finished third with a 2.0/7 and 2.5 million viewers

fredfa

06-23-05, 08:18 PM

Is that really you, L.A.?
"The Closer" on TNT is the latest police drama based in a Los Angeles that we have difficulty recognizing
ON TV By Paul Brownfield Los Angeles Times Staff Writer June 24, 2005

"The Closer," an L.A.-based cop show on TNT, debuted two Mondays ago to big basic cable ratings — just more than 7 million viewers. The drama stars Kyra Sedgwick as Brenda Johnson, a crack interrogator from Atlanta brought in to head the LAPD's new Priority Murder Squad, so-called because the unit deals with high-profile homicides.

This is not to be confused with the antigang strike team on "The Shield," the gritty, acclaimed cop show on FX that concluded its fourth season last week, or with the renegade band of L.A. cops and other law-enforcement types on "Wanted," another TNT drama debuting July 31.

The cops on "Wanted" conduct business from some warehouse-district outpost, from which they light out at all hours to capture L.A.'s 100 most-wanted fugitives, while the cops on "The Shield" work out of the Barn, an ugly, wood-paneled place where everyone's tipped between bedraggled and enraged, maybe because their work seems to consist of one continuous shakedown of the Latino community.

A staple since "Dragnet," the L.A.-based cop show increasingly presents the city as generally chaotic and ungovernable, a place where above-the-law sub-units of law enforcement battle bad guys on the streets and budget-conscious bureaucrats back at police headquarters. Some things don't change; there's still political infighting and turf wars, but compared to the New York City-based cop shows, the late "NYPD Blue" or "Law and Order," say, in which crime is dealt with by more recognizable teams of detectives, the L.A. shows are distinctive in the way they have internalized the L.A. sprawl.

Here we get cliques of antihero cops and specialized outsiders, drawn to the City of Angels like men of yore to the Old West. It makes the shows more thrilling in a Hollywood sense — there's no limit to the ways you can hunt criminals — although you wonder if this is yet another way in which the TV version of the city, unlike its incarnation in the best of the true crime novels, is not quite a specific place, with actual neighborhoods and distinguishing features.

This is less true of "The Shield, which came on the air in the aftermath of the scandal that plagued the LAPD's Rampart division in the late 1990s, than it is of the TNT shows. This Monday on "The Closer" Brenda's got her hands full with a dead Russian prostitute with a high-end client list. Already, we have seen her solve the shower death of the model wife of a movie star and the bludgeoning of a transsexual high-tech executive. "The Closer" is sordid, but it's sordid-light, because it also wants to be comedic; practically every scene is underscored with a twangy guitar, like we're in a movie with an establishing shot in which an alligator crosses the road. "The Closer," in fact, could be mistaken for "The Client" or the Ashley Judd vehicle "Double Jeopardy," one of those female-centered crime movies that play easier on the stomach than your given "CSI" episode.

Like Susan Sarandon in "The Client," Sedgwick, doing her first star turn on TV, gets to wear a Southern accent. But wait, there's more character development: She lives in a Hyatt and has a secret relationship with junk food. She's what people who work in cable like to call "a deeply flawed character," as opposed to the rest of us with our shallow flaws.

It's an amusing, if credulity-straining, fiction that L.A.'s top homicide investigator is an alternately fierce, cutesy-klutzy, down-home Southern girl who can't get from point A to point B without pulling over and staring at a Thomas Guide because, as she is given to say: "L.A.'s so beeeeg."

Yes, it is. About the only L.A. crime that unites this gigantic city is the freeway fugitive, captured fleeing the cops on the local news. That particular brand of street crime has yet to find its TV show equivalent, maybe because it's too expensive to re-create. Not that the local news doesn't continue to function as an ongoing cop show, jettisoning actual news for the inherent drama of a perp in flight, news anchors and producers rooting/not rooting for the climactic scene in which the cops surround the vehicle, guns drawn.

Watch freeway chases long enough and you can begin to imagine the Southland as some sort of "Blade Runner"-type place. TV shows, by degrees, are taking on this airborne perspective; when it works, it gives the L.A. cop show a modernist flair. "The Shield," especially, has its sensibilities tuned to a cop show experience that's fluid and free-wheeling but also hard and ugly.

"The Closer," by comparison, is practically as quaint as a Quinn Martin production. Sedgwick's Johnson would never cross paths with "The Shield's" Vic Mackey, but they do somehow seem to exist in the same place. "The Closer" has Gil Garcetti, district attorney during the O.J. Simpson trial, as a consulting producer. There's something very L.A. about this — former D.A. lives down black eye of his tenure by segueing into work in Hollywood, advising on a show in which high-profile homicides get solved before they can become PR nightmares.