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FX Adds More “Shield”
By James Hibbard TVWeek.com
FX has ordered an additional eight episodes of its crime drama "The Shield," the network confirmed Thursday.
The episodes will be added to the fifth season, which premieres in January, for a total of 21 episodes. Actor Forest Whitaker will join the cast as a detective.
http://www.tvweek.com/news.cms?newsId=8725
Ask Matt
(from the Ask (TV Critic) Matt (Roush) column at TVGuide.com
Question: Is it just me, or is Grey's Anatomy the third-best show on TV right now (behind Lost and Veronica Mars, of course)? This last episode, "Make Me Lose Control," was amazing, and Ellen Pompeo gave a terrific performance. I love how there are compelling stories for both the main characters and the patients in the episode, unlike the past-its-prime ER. What you think of the second season? To me it is way better than its lead-in, Desperate Housewives, or another one of my faves, Gilmore Girls (which has been under par this season). Why don't you mention it in your column more? It is a perennial Top 10 show. Oh, love the column, by the way. — Ethan
Matt Roush: Well, thanks. I'm also a bit surprised I don't get more questions/comments on Grey's Anatomy, because it's really hitting its stride these days. I was lukewarm on the show when it premiered late last season — the pilot episode overused the voice-over narration, which only exacerbated the "It's hard work being a doctor-in-training" clichés. But quickly the show and, more importantly, its many endearing characters, found their feet. Now I'm surprised to find myself enjoying it much more than the creatively uneven Desperate Housewives (more on that and Gilmore Girls later). I'm not sure I'd put Anatomy on my personal Top 10 list quite yet. It's very entertaining, and the Oct. 9 episode (with the discovery of Cristina's ectopic pregnancy and Meredith's infamous mom being admitted to the hospital) was so strong, it felt like sweeps. But it's not especially groundbreaking. The cast is terrific and terrifically diverse, and it's hard to imagine anyone not finding a favorite among the characters (mine is currently George). The chemistry is reminiscent of ER's glory days, when you felt a personal empathy or antipathy toward almost every character (not the ennui of today). The breezy, sexy tone is very appealing as well, and provides a wonderful way to end a Sunday night.
Question: After seeing the first two episodes of the season, I just love Everwood more and more! The end of the second episode left me in tears. This show has the unique ability to be touching and real at the same time. What do you think of this season so far? How do you think it will fare against CSI? Do you think there is a possibility of it returning to Monday, when it clearly has a better chance of survival? — Amy
Matt Roush: Everwood became a personal favorite show of mine last season — I wrote a column declaring it to be TV's best tearjerker — and it's just as strong and moving this year. It is hands-down the best "family" show on TV, with a broad range of sympathetic characters, and the writing and acting continue to improve and shine. I hate that WB moved the show to the overstuffed Thursday night, where it's in danger of getting lost and buried. But it's doing better than anything WB ever put there before, so it's far from a disaster for the network (which is merely looking to generate some business, however small, on Thursdays). But I'm all for moving it back to Mondays now that Just Legal has been judged as incompatible for this network (anyone could have predicted that). Unfortunately, the first week after Legal was pulled, WB gave the slot to the woefully cutesy Related, and I fear that show may eventually inherit the time period. If so, let the jeering begin. Everwood is good enough to deserve a plum time period, and I hope WB steps up and does its fans a favor.
On another Everwood topic, Kelly writes: "Am I alone in not liking Ephram on Everwood? Maybe it's because I'm a parent myself, but I can't stand the way he treats his father. I couldn't believe he stormed out of the room because his father wouldn't pay rent for him to live in an apartment. Who does he think he is? Andy makes a lot of mistakes (the Madison thing was a whopper), but he doesn't deserve the way Ephram treats him. It seems like there is a trend of unlikable TV characters, but House, for example, can be a complete jerk, but I still love him. For some reason, it doesn't work that way with Ephram. I just want to kick him."
Ah, Ephram. If Everwood does have a flaw, it's making the adolescent characters so self-righteously angsty and precociously adult in attitude (shades of Dawson's Creek) that they often get the last word on the adults or parents. I think we're meant to feel that Ephram often deserves a kick in the pants, and some of the more emotional moments on the show come when Ephram wakes up to what a jerk he has been. I've read the script for a late-October episode when Ephram and Andy go on a camping trip (not easy for city boys!) and take tentative steps toward burying the hatchet. I only hope when Lorelai and Rory on Gilmore Girls take a step toward reconciliation, it will be even half as satisfying.
Question: What do you and your fellow critics have against Surface? I find it much more interesting than Invasion, with the story told from several points of view. I don't know where it is all going yet, but I'm looking forward to seeing how they tie a sea monster in (intelligent or not?) with Old Faithful suddenly spewing lava and then connect that to one guy's obsession with his dead brother contacting him through water! And I find it totally realistic that the government would try something as dumb as keeping everything secret, even though various parts of the mystery are plastered all over the news! (I work for the government and see dumb decisions made every day!) And to see the government painted in a different light, I enjoy Threshold! — Laurie
Matt Roush: I'm with you on Threshold, and if I found even one of the points of view in Surface fascinating, amusing or even tragically compelling, I might be more willing to stick with it. But the characters are cardboard, the writing a weak variation on any number of Spielbergian clichés and the plotting is literally all over the map, which strikes me as less ambitious than unfocused. The show seems to be a mess to me, and not a very enjoyable one. I've got plenty on my plate in this genre without wasting my time here. The knock on Invasion seems mostly to be how slowly it's unfolding and how limited it is in its quarantined geography. For me, because I like its moody and sustained tone, those are pluses. Still, I can see why people resist Invasion. Why anyone would embrace Surface is beyond me.
Question: I've been watching Commander in Chief the past two weeks, and I think it's pretty good. I heard that Steven Bochco has come on board as show runner, leaving Rod Lurie free of the day-to-day duties to develop other shows. Do you think Bochco will make it edgier? I love all the other shows he's done. — Sandy
Matt Roush: I can't imagine this will be a bad thing for the show, and yet there's something bittersweet about a series being taken away from its creator so soon in the process, especially when it got off to such a strong start in the ratings (and in much of the critical press). Bochco is a pro, and has developed series with others, but he has never taken over the reins of a preexisting show, so I'm sure it's an odd situation for him as well. But, I stress again, he is a pro, one of the best in the biz, which is why Touchstone/ABC turned to him to shepherd such a valuable project. I've been pleasantly surprised by Commander in Chief so far, with its mix of fantasyland politics (we could use a dose of that now!) and domestic/personal stories. Also, Donald Sutherland is one of the season's great villains. I may have said it before, but how cool and encouraging for a time period to be able to accommodate five successful shows (Commander, House, The Amazing Race, My Name Is Earl and Supernatural).
Question: Hey, Matt! First off, great column, great advice and great analysis, so thank you from a true TV fan! I wanted to know what you think about Desperate Housewives so far this season. For me, it has been quite a disappointment as I think (like you noted before) that the housewives are definitely going over the top. Also, they seem to have erased their memories of last season! Zach and Paul have easily been forgotten, except, apparently, by Mike in Episode 3. Andrew and Danielle took Rex's sudden death so easily, it seemed ridiculous, and what about Andrew's sexuality? They never officially blamed anyone for Mrs. Huber's death. It seems to me they are trying to take the show over the top and are forgetting the original mysteries that made it as amazing as it was. What do you think? — Alex
Matt Roush: First off: You're welcome. And while this pains me to say it, since I try to be a patient fellow and not the sort to jump on derisive bandwagons, Desperate Housewives has been downgraded, at least for now, in my mind from a can't-miss delight to just another TV show. I still enjoy spending time on Wisteria Lane, and at the moment wouldn't dream of missing the show, but it doesn't feel like so much of an event anymore. It's not so much a lack of continuity between seasons — I'm willing to let last season's intrigues fade away — but that a lack of compelling new stories has given the show a feeling of treading water, with a few exceptions. Loved Bree's freakout at Rex's funeral and most everything involving Shirley Knight. But she's gone for now and the neighbors seem like they're living in separate universes, so there's no overriding arc to pull us in. And really, they need to give Susan a story where she doesn't come off like a blooming idiot. However, with all that said, I find the show very pleasurable still and am happy for its success. Now it just needs to stop resting on its laurels.
Question: I'm a little confused and mad about some of the reactions I read from fans regarding the new season of Veronica Mars. I've read stuff like, "If Logan and Veronica don't get together now, I'll stop watching the show." And I really don't understand these thoughts. I watched Season 1 in about three days and rewatched it a lot after that. I think this show is amazing, especially in the way it does not revolve all around the teen soap opera, does-he-love-me? drama. So I don't get why real fans would say this. That's not what this show is about. I loved the season premiere; I was hopping all around my room after watching it. Amazing! And now I'm wondering what your thoughts are on Season 2 (so far), because some of these forum posters are freaking me out and I want to know what the pros think about it. — Marja
Matt Roush: The pros think you shouldn't let other fans get in the way of your enjoyment of what has so far been a jaw-droppingly amazing season. The Logan-Veronica dynamic is even richer because they're separated — last week's scene in the hotel corridor was so deliciously awkward — and as you said, the show is about so much more than that. And the mystery so far puts "Who Killed Lilly?" in the dust. If anything, I'm enjoying this season even more than the first. It's so confident, smart, poignant and intriguing. It just doesn't get much better than this — excepting, of course, Lost, in the exact same time period.
Question: What do you think of Lauren Holly as the new female lead on NCIS? I don't like her at all. She has no chemistry with Mark Harmon's character and she's not very likable. She's certainly no match for Sasha Alexander's character, Kate. — Lori
Matt Roush: If it makes you feel any better, Lauren Holly appears to be only a recurring player this season and, according to insiders, is likely to be seen in only a handful of episodes. Besides, I'm not sure she's meant to be likable. She's more a source of conflict. The actual replacement for the Kate slot is Cote de Pablo as former Mossad agent Ziva. You might not like her by comparison, either, but you'll have to get over Kate not coming back (the actress' choice, plus Kate is really truly dead).
Question: I was wondering why you're not enjoying the first few episodes of Gilmore Girls this season, and I guess I'm surprised that more people haven't written in to disagree with you. I find the estrangement between Rory and Lorelai to be interesting and realistic. I also love watching Rory come to terms with the life her mother gave her versus the life she could have had with the elder Gilmores. I've become very interested in Logan's character, as well as in watching Luke do his best to navigate Lorelai's emotional upheaval after "losing" her daughter. Perhaps it is my own tumultuous relationship with my mother that is influencing my view of the show, but I think that this breakup is some of the most compelling stuff the show has done in a long time. Maybe Lorelai is acting like a child, but hasn't that always been the point? And now that Rory is finally acting like a young adult as well, we can see what happens when both are forced to grow up. Anyway, that's my two cents. — Lee
Matt Roush: It all boils down to Lorelai's closing line in the recent episode where she watched a corny TV-movie by herself (which Rory would have loved mocking with her): "It's not the same." Gilmore Girls is much better when Lorelai and Rory are a team against the world, not when they're at each other's throats or removed from each other's company for a sustained period of time. The show also struggled trying to make good comedy-drama out of Rory's first year at Yale. Whatever benefits the show reaps in realism, it loses by robbing the show of the primary relations we tune in for (it is, after all, the title of the show). I did think this week's (Oct. 11) episode was a cut above, but that was primarily because of Richard and Emily; her tirade against Logan's mom was brilliant, and Richard's anger and agony as he realized the depth of Rory's hurt was ferocious. (Remind me again why Kelly Bishop and Edward Herrmann never get nominated for awards?) I guess I simply don't accept Rory choosing the DAR — group groan, everyone? — over Yale, just because of a bad performance review. The following response from Maria is more indicative of the Gilmore Girls mail I've been getting lately:
"How long do we have to endure Rory's Adventures in Emilyland? As if watching her rather willingly turn into just another, younger version of her entitled grandmother weren't bad enough, we have to watch her engage in empty-headed, reckless behavior with her Poor Little Rich Boy Logan. If I want to watch MTV, I know where that channel is. What used to be a witty, smart, gentle hour has turned into a shrill, mean-spirited mess. Please tell me the Palladinos have a plan, because Lorelai and Rory not interacting is sucking the charm out of this show. And even the promise of a Luke-and-Lorelai wedding may not be enough to keep me hanging in for the reconciliation." I might not go that far, but I sure did enjoy the MTV slam (this from a charter member of the I Despise Laguna Beach club).
Question: I think you missed the boat on 7th Heaven when you called it "comfort food." Sure, there's the obligatory "feel good" message in a lot of episodes, but this show has as much soapy melodrama and misguided teen/young adult sexuality as any other Aaron Spelling production — it's just alluded to more than portrayed. Maybe it's only been since you stopped watching, but Simon went on a sexual frenzy; Martin got a girl pregnant; Mary abandoned her family; and Ruthie is throwing around words like "sexy" and "hot." I've been watching the show for about three years now, and I've always seen it as a devious vehicle for Spelling to portray the same youthful recklessness as his other shows while hiding it behind the goody-goody facade of a minister's family, with some excessively cheesy messages thrown in now and then to make it seem like family-friendly entertainment. But the subject matter is often not at all appropriate for the entire family. — Dave
Matt Roush: Kind of like how Cecil B. deMille used to thread scenes of sensual debauchery through his Biblical epics, I suppose. I keep up with the story lines (at a distance) and watch the odd episode here and there, so I'm not completely out of the loop. But with your argument in mind, I guess I would now explain the show's success by citing its ability to pander to two audiences: those in desperate need of feel-good schmaltz and those who enjoy risqué material wrapped with a cloying candy bow. If you want the real deal, I still recommend Everwood.
Question: What do you feel about Ghost Whisperer? The CBS honchos made a big mistake when they said talking to ghosts plays better than talking to God. I personally don't think this show's acting and writing is of the same caliber as Joan of Arcadia's. Ghost Whisperer is just the 21st century's answer to Touched by an Angel. Been there, done that. — Marlene
Matt Roush: Nothing could make the CBS honchos, as you call them, happier than to have this show likened to Touched by an Angel, which had a very healthy nine-season run. No question that this is a less ambitious and distinguished show than Joan, and is in no danger of being nominated for Emmys (although with that ridiculous group you never know). But so far, it's doing quite well on Fridays, surprising just about everyone. Looks like a keeper to me. A keeper I have little intention of watching, but a keeper nonetheless.
http://tvguide.com/tv/roush/askmatt/
THE 2005-2006 TV SEASON: FRIDAY
'Hot Properties,' on the wrong block
A smart show but left to die on Friday night
By Toni Fitzgerald MediaLifeMagazine.com Oct 14, 2005
ABC’s new sitcom “Hot Properties” has sharp writing, an excellent cast and the appropriately raunchy tone of a "Sex and the City" cleaned up for network primetime. Lots of people ought to be talking about it. They are not, and indeed the prospects for this show look quite dim.
“Properties” is one of the season’s funniest new sitcoms, but for reasons best known to ABC, the network has doomed the show by sticking it on the wrong night. It airs on Fridays at 9:30 p.m. after the toothless “Hope & Faith” and in the midst of what’s long been family hour on ABC, TGIF.
What was the network thinking when it slotted “Properties” in that timeslot? The sitcom garnered some buzz during pilot development season but that died as the upfront approached. Clearly the network had already written the show off when it came time to make up the fall schedule.
It's hard to imagine ABC, with three of the biggest hits on TV, seeing this as a chance to bolster its Friday lineup with a show of “Properties'” qualities. The audience that “Properties” would play best with, women 18-34, are not at home to watch TV on Fridays at 9:30.
For sure, "Properties" has its flaws. Its premise isn’t all that original: four very attractive real estate women bitching about men. And the “SATC” reverence is way overdone, with the first episode featuring the “Sex”-inspired book “He’s Just Not That Into You,” a reference to gaydar, or the ability to pick out gay men, and even a former “Sex” cast member, Evan Handler.
Yet “Properties” rises above being a mere knockoff by its wit and skillfully drawn characters. These women are actually likable.
Gail O’Grady (“American Dreams”) plays the owner of the real estate business, a fortysomething woman who recently married a 25-year-old and is now undergoing fertility treatment. She looks out for the others like a wise older sister while emiting an effortless sex appeal that Kim Cattrall would envy.
But the real standout is former “Mad TV” star Nicole Sullivan, playing whiny, slutty Chloe. She provides many of the show’s best one-liners. Her character is clearly a mess, yet Sullivan’s delivery is so fiery that she never seems pathetic.
Sultry Lola (Sofia Vergara) and virginal Emerson (Christina Moore) fill out the foursome, and they show an immediate rapport, as in tonight’s episode when they all get drunk and do silly things they'll later regret, like leaving inappropriate voicemails.
Writer and creator Suzanne Martin (the WB’s “Maybe It’s Me”) sometimes goes for the obvious joke but more often delivers lines that are original and unexpected.
That wit doesn't always rise to the occasion. When the male doctors from down the hall drop by, the jokes fall flat. Martin can’t write as well for men. And though the first two episodes are fun, there’s no conflict in the show and no sense yet of any sort of running plotline developing, something “SATC” excelled at.
But “Properties’” biggest worry right now is its timeslot. It needs something to persuade ABC to move it to another night, one on which single women are actually home to watch it, but that something has yet to arrive. It's received only mixed reviews, and its premiere was a middling one, bettering “Hope’s” numbers in adults 18-49 but still only averaging a 2.2.
http://medialifemagazine.com/artman/publish/article_666.asp
Thursday’s network prime-time ratings – and Media Week Analyst Marc Berman’s opinions of what they mean -- have been posted at the top of Ratings News the second post in this thread.
NBC Revenue Drops
(from The Wall Street Journal)
(General Electric announced today that) profits rose 13% to $603 million at NBC Universal, but revenue dropped 26% to $3 billion compared with a year ago when NBC broadcast the summer Olympics. GE said Universal Picture's "40-Year-Old Virgin" surpassed $100 million in domestic box office receipts, but NBC has lost popular television shows in recent years such as "Friends."
CBS's 'Trace' tops NBC's fading 'ER'
Wins 10 p.m. slot for second week in a row
By Diego Vasquez MediaLifeMagazine.com Oct 14, 2005
No matter how many times “ER” reinvents itself, and it’s certainly been many, it can’t hold up against CBS when the rest of NBC’s schedule is so weak.
Last week CBS’s “Without a Trace” topped “ER” among adults 18-49 for the first time in their four-year timeslot battle Thursday at 10 p.m. It did it again last night, averaging a 6.7 Nielsen overnight rating to “ER’s” 6.1, a 10 percent advantage.
“ER” and “Trace” both fell 3 percent week to week undoubtedly because of Fox’s coverage of the National League Championship Series, which didn’t finish until after 11 p.m. Fox averaged a 3.4 that hour.
“ER” isn’t getting much support from the lineup that used to provide so much momentum. NBC averaged just a 3.9 in adults 18-49 from 8 to 10 p.m. Comparatively, “ER” is actually holding up pretty well – it built on lead-in “The Apprentice’s” 4.6 average by 32 percent.
But “ER” is an aging show, now in its 12th year, while “Trace” is a mere pup at four years old. “ER” has weathered cast changes and plot twists while still remaining one of the top dramas in 18-49s.
Last year “Trace” passed “ER” in total viewers, and many figured it was only a matter of time before NBC’s 8-10 schedule slowed down enough that “ER” became vulnerable in 18-49s.
Now it looks as though “Trace’s” No. 1 finish last week was the start of a new trend. Expect the show to remain there for the foreseeable future, especially as unfamiliar faces continue to cycle through “ER.”
http://medialifemagazine.com/artman/publish/article_690.asp
DTV Date: April 7, 2009
By John Eggerton Broadcasting & Cable
April 7, 2009: Thats the date when broadcasters will have to pull the plug on analog transmissions, according to a Senate Commerce Committee draft of a digital-TV "hard-date” bill circulated among staffers late last week.
As expected, the bare-bones bill does not deal with mandatory cable carriage of broadcasters' multicast DTV signals, or with any new public-interest obligations or cable conversion of the DTV signal, which are expected to be addressed in a separate bill.
The date is a compromise between the Jan. 1, 2009, date that has been floated for months, and a midsummer date favored by those who wanted to push it past the bowl games and the May sweeps viewing period into the lower viewing summer months.
The hard date bill would require that money collected from auctions of the reclaimed analog spectrum--the committee expects the auction to pull in $4.8 billion--would go into a new Digital Transition and Public Safety Fund to: 1) help pay for digital-to-analog converter boxes; 2) convert low-power TV stations and TV translators (an important issue with Commerce Committee Chairman Senator Ted Stevens (R-Alaska); 3) fund new emergency communications systems (some of the spectrum will be handed over to first responders); 4) help pay for an enhanced 911 system; and 5) provide money for hurricane assistance in coastal states.
The last provision was a way of addressing the pressure to use the auction proceeds to help pay for the hundreds of billions promised for Katrina relief.
The provision for funding translator conversion is near and dear to Stevens since rural areas--like Alaska--rely on them to relay TV signals to remote viewers.
The Senate "hard date" bill must be reconciled with a House version expected to be marked up by Oct. 28.
April 7, 2009: Thats the date when broadcasters will have to pull the plug on analog transmissions, according to a Senate Commerce Committee draft of a digital-TV "hard-date” bill circulated among staffers late last week.
That could be a very interesting Tuesday.
FX Adds More “Shield”
By James Hibbard TVWeek.com
FX has ordered an additional eight episodes of its crime drama "The Shield," the network confirmed Thursday.
The episodes will be added to the fifth season, which premieres in January, for a total of 21 episodes. Actor Forest Whitaker will join the cast as a detective.
http://www.tvweek.com/news.cms?newsId=8725
Wow, it just gets even better, great news!
That could be a very interesting Tuesday.
I certainly wouldn't want to be in any TV station's engineering department that day! :)
DTV Date: April 7, 2009
Senators to Mull April '09 Digital Date
By Todd Shields MediaWeek.com October 14, 2005
U.S. senators next week will consider a date of April 7, 2009, for ending traditional analog TV service, according to draft legislation released today.
The date would mean Congress likely would be in session --and in a position to react-- when analog TV sets that rely on over-the-air reception stop working in more than 21 million homes unless owners attach additional equipment. Cable and satellite customers' picture reception would be largely unaffected.
The bill, which is to be voted upon at an Oct. 19 meeting of the Senate Commerce Committee, also calls for subsidies for consumers to buy the set-top boxes that can convert digital signals to the analog format for use by legacy TVs.
A similar bill is expected to be introduced soon in the House, where some leaders have called for a transition date of Dec. 31, 2008.
A long road awaits any measure, since bills need approval from both chambers of Congress and the president's signature before becoming law.
http://www.mediaweek.com/mw/news/recent_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001306315
GE's Immelt Downplays NBCU's Ratings Problems
By Jay Sherman TVWeek.com October 14, 2005
The chairman of NBC Universal parent General Electric attempted Friday to contain the severity of the problems confronting the entertainment unit's broadcast network, saying that ratings challenges confronting NBC are being more than offset by strong results in NBCU's film and cable assets.
Speaking to investors during the company's third-quarter earnings call Friday morning, GE Chairman Jeffrey Immelt acknowledged that NBC's prime-time ratings declines have taken a toll on NBCU's overall performance, and he warned that they would continue to do so through the first half of 2006.
However, Mr. Immelt and GE Chief Financial Officer Keith Sherin each sought to show that NBC's woes would not have a profound impact on either NBCU's overall results or those of GE.
"We are rebuilding our prime-time programming," Mr. Immelt said. But "it will be a journey."
In a bit of a shift from past earnings calls, GE executives provided a more detailed analysis of NBCU's results, splitting the entertainment operation into two distinct categories. They pointed out that the problem areas-prime-time programming, television production and owned-and-operated television stations-account for just 32 percent of NBCU's overall segment profit picture, while NBC News, NBCU's cable networks, the film studio and theme parks account for 68 percent of NBCU's segment profit.
Using that math, NBCU's third-quarter segment profit was able to grow 13 percent to $603 million, largely on the strength of news, cable and the studio, which reported a 31 percent surge in segment profit to around $410 million. The problem areas collective reported an 11 percent decline in segment profit, resulting in a contribution of $193 million for the quarter.
Revenue for the entire NBCU operation fell 26 percent to just over $3 billion. The company said the decline was driven largely by the absence of $930 million in Olympics broadcast revenue. Excluding that figure, the company said, NBCU's revenue would have been down 4 percent.
GE officials emphasized that NBCU accounts for just 10 percent of the conglomerate's overall revenues.
Both Mr. Immelt and Mr. Sherin each acknowledged the challenges facing NBC's prime-time schedule, but appeared to be bullish about the network's long-term prospects.
Mr. Sherin said the company believes NBC is "making progress in the fall lineup" and added that NBC News continues to perform well. He said that "Today" widened its lead over "Good Morning America." However, Nielsen Media figures show that for the of week Oct. 3, that gap had narrowed once again, this time to around 150,000-the narrowest since May.
Looking ahead, Mr. Immelt predicted NBCU's segment profit for the full year would be around $3 billion, representing a 15 percent increase over 2004. Profit for the prime time, production and stations profit is estimated to be off by 25 percent, while profit for the rest of NBCU is estimated to be up 50 percent. In 2006, Mr. Immelt said NBCU would be "flatish" as the unit continues to deal with its prime-time challenges.
Overall, GE said its third-quarter profit rose 15 percent to $4.7 billion, while revenue rose 9 percent to $41.9 billion.
http://www.tvweek.com/news.cms?newsId=8727
chris_h2
10-14-05, 03:05 PM
DTV Date: April 7, 2009
Senators to Mull April '09 Digital Date
The date would mean Congress likely would be in session --and in a position to react-- when analog TV sets that rely on over-the-air reception stop working in more than 21 million homes unless owners attach additional equipment. Cable and satellite customers' picture reception would be largely unaffected.
I just don't get this "all 21 million on one date" thing. It seems to me like any good plan would include a two or three month period of transitioning multiple cities per day. I think all broadcasters in a given DMA would want to switch over on the same day, so they do not give up viewers to other channels that still broadcast via analog. Am I missing something here, or does this just make too much sense for anyone in government to consider?
One problem with flexible dates is that broadcasters who were forced to go the earliest would be bitching about how unfair the system is.
Ratings Gap Closing Between 'Today,' 'GMA'
By Michele Greppi TVWeek.com October 14, 2005
It looks as if the morning-show ratings war is kicking into high gear again. After a summer watching NBC's No. 1 "Today" show run 400,000 or more viewers ahead, ABC's "Good Morning America" narrowed the gap to 150,000 the week of Oct. 3-7, according to data from Nielsen Media Research. That's "GMA's" closest finish since May, when the ABC morning show was three quarters of the way through its highest-rated season ever.
"Today" led the week with an average 5.49 million viewers, 2.8 million of them in the target demographic group of 25 to 54 years old. That was down 1 percent and 3 percent, respectively, compared with a year ago. "GMA" averaged 5.34 million, 2.6 million in the 25 to 54 demo, up 7 percent and 18 percent, respectively.
"The Early Show" on CBS averaged 2.8 million viewers, 1.2 million of them in the demo, down 2 percent and 8 percent, respectively.
http://www.tvweek.com/news.cms?newsId=8730
George Thompson
10-14-05, 05:06 PM
JAY GETS HIS BIGGEST WEEKLONG WIN VS. ORIGINAL COMPETITION IN SEVEN MONTHS, CONAN GETS HIS BIGGEST NIGHT SINCE MARCH
Published: October 14, 2005
CONAN'S ALL-U2 THURSDAY TELECAST IS THE TOP-SCORING 'LATE NIGHT' IN 18-49 SINCE MARCH 24
JAY'S 18-49 MARGIN LAST WEEK, 0.7 OF A RATING POINT, IS 'TONIGHT'S' LARGEST OVER A WEEK OF FIRST-RUN 'LATE SHOWS' SINCE FEB. 28-MARCH 4
AMONG ADULT 18-34 VIEWERS, CARSON DALY IS UP 25 PERCENT VS. THE SAME WEEK LAST YEAR
BURBANK, Calif. -– October 14, 2005 –- "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" won the week of Oct. 3-7 with its biggest adult 18-49 margin over a week of first-run "Late Show with David Letterman" episodes in more than seven months. "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" also dominated its time period last week, led by Thursday's telecast, with the entire hour dedicated to rock superband U2. That episode achieved the highest 18-49 rating for a "Late Night" telecast since March and the show's largest overall audience since January.
Jay won the week by a margin of 0.7 of a rating point (2.0 vs. 1.3), his biggest margin over original Letterman telecasts since the week of Feb. 28-March 4.
Conan's Thursday U2 telecast averaged a 1.4 rating in 18-49, the top "Late Night" result for any night of the week since Thursday, March 24. Thursday's episode also averaged 3.3 million viewers overall, the biggest audience for Conan on any day of the week since Monday, Jan. 24.
At 1:35 a.m. ET, "Last Call with Carson Daly" continued to excel last week in the valuable adult 18-34 category, where it jumped 25 percent above its delivery for the same week last year (514,000 vs. 412,000). For the first three weeks of the season, "Last Call" is up 19 percent in 18-34. In total viewers, Carson Daly was up 15 percent last week versus the same week last year (1.6 million vs. 1.4 million) and is up 12 percent for the season to date. For the week and season, "Last Call" is outscoring CBS' "Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson" and ABC's "Jimmy Kimmel Live" in adults 18-34 and 18-49.
WEEKLY AVERAGES
(According to in-home viewing figures from Nielsen Media Research for the week of Oct. 3-7)
ADULTS 18-49
NBC "Tonight," 2.0 rating, 8 share
CBS "Late Show," 1.3/6
ABC "Nightline," 1.1/4*
ABC "Kimmel," 0.6/3*
NBC "Late Night," 1.1/7*
CBS "Late Late Show," 0.7/4
NBC "Last Call," 0.7/6*
TOTAL VIEWERS
NBC "Tonight," 5.9 million viewers
CBS "Late Show," 4.1 million viewers
ABC "Nightline," 3.3 million viewers*
ABC "Kimmel," 1.5 million viewers*
NBC "Late Night," 2.5 million viewers*
CBS "Late Late Show," 1.8 million viewers
NBC "Last Call," 1.6 million viewers *
* "Conan" and "Carson Daly" aired encore episodes on Monday and "Kimmel" aired an encore on Thursday. Monday results for "Nightline" and "Kimmel" were delayed by football and the Monday "Nightline" is excluded from these averages.
SEASON-TO-DATE AVERAGES
ADULTS 18-49
NBC "Tonight," 2.0/9
CBS "Late Show," 1.3/6
ABC "Nightline," 1.2/5
ABC "Kimmel," 0.6/4
NBC "Late Night," 1.1/7
CBS "Late Late Show," 0.6/4
NBC "Last Call," 0.7/6
Each rating point equals 1.30 million viewers
TOTAL VIEWERS
NBC "Tonight," 5.9 million viewers
CBS "Late Show," 4.0 million viewers
ABC "Nightline," 3.7 million viewers
ABC "Kimmel," 1.6 million viewers
NBC "Late Night," 2.4 million viewers
CBS "Late Late Show," 1.8 million viewers
NBC "Last Call," 1.6 million viewers
I certainly wouldn't want to be in any TV station's engineering department that day! :)
I can tell you my lumbaigo will be acting up that day!
“Showkiller” is fated to find success
By Mark McGuire Albany Times Union Friday, October 14, 2005
I'm going to root for Paula Marshall this year.
Like all new shows, her CBS sitcom "Out of Practice" is a long shot to succeed. Critics are split on it: Some like it, others don't.
I don't. But I'd like to see a stay of execution for the Queen of the Showkillers.
Paula Marshall isn't a great actress, but she's hardly among the worst in the business. Her real problem is this: Every TV show in which she's a cast member dies a quick death. Some deserve it, others are prematurely executed. "Out of Practice," which airs at 9:30 p.m. Mondays on WRGB Ch. 6, debuted at very respectable 22nd in the household ratings last month; it was 23rd its second week, and is holding firm in the top 25. It may have a shot.
Marshall's resume of flops spans the genres from romantic dramedy to spy thrillers to straight comedy. The constants have been Marshall, and cancellation.
But she keeps getting jobs. "Out of Practice" has a loaded cast (Henry Winkler, Stockard Channing) that's much better than the initial material. Like last season's "Center of the Universe," it's a CBS comedy with a great cast and not much else.
Appearing before critics in July, Marshall was breezy, funny, even defiant as she dismissed her showkiller rep.
"I don't think I was ever responsible for anything being canceled," she said. "I feel really fortunate people keep hiring me. People think I have talent."
But her series resume is a collection of trivia answers even the most devoted TV addict would have a hard time remembering: "Hidden Hills," "Cursed," "Snoops." ABC's "Cupid" had critical support and leading man Jeremy Piven, currently stealing the show on HBO's "Entourage" -- it didn't deserve to die.
Yes, Marshall has had recurring guest turns on successful series like "Veronica Mars," "Spin City" and "Just Shoot Me." But apparently the curse doesn't fall on shows in which Marshall merely guest-stars -- it takes a starring role to truly anger the gods.
Yet she keeps getting hired.
In the pantheon of showkillers, Marshall ranked right up there with Jon Cryer and Paget Brewster. In fact, Cryer and Brewster appeared together on the 2000 ABC sitcom "The Trouble with Normal," a show that was doubly condemned to failure before it aired.
But then Cryer broke his losing streak with the CBS hit "Two and Half Men," and Brewster landed a role in Showtime's well-received "Huff." (Which raises the question: Do broadcast showkillers have the same effect on premium cable?)
This sort of rep "gets in your head," Cryer said. "Everybody is just lucky to work. But if you either worked on one show for six years or six shows for one year, you're still working."
Well, Marshall has that.
As noted, she's an actor of modest talent, but she's not the reason shows featuring her get canned. (Well, maybe "Snoops" -- although she did meet her husband Danny Nucci on that project.)
Sometimes it's just a matter of picking bad shows. Other times, bad luck. Like a hitter in a slump, she's due.
So I'm going to root for her this season. Not that I'll watch her show.
http://timesunion.com/AspStories/storyprint.asp?StoryID=408781
Friday’s network prime-time ratings have been posted at the top of RATINGS NEWS the second post in this thread.
NBC Picks Up “Surface”
By Christopher Lisotta TVWeek.com
NBC has given a full-season order to its new Monday night sci-fi aquatic drama "Surface." The show, which premiered Sept. 19 at 8 p.m. (ET), scored a 3.4 in the adults 18 to 49 demographic Monday, according to Nielsen Media Research. That was a 13 percent increase in the demo from its previous week.
NBC announced earlier in October that it had given a full-season pickup to its sole new comedy of the fall season, "My Name Is Earl." The network has made one scripted cancellation, the new Friday medical drama "Inconceivable."
http://www.tvweek.com/news.cms?newsId=8735
Since nashvillecat has an interest in this show, here is news reported earlier this week:
Court TV going to 'Trial'
The Hollywood Reporter--Court TV has snapped up rights to all 13 episodes of NBC's short-lived series "Law & Order: Trial by Jury" from NBC Universal Domestic Television Distribution. The deal for the most recent series in Dick Wolf's franchise includes one never-before-seen episode of the courtroom drama, which stars Bebe Neuwirth and Fred Dalton Thompson.
"Given our viewers' interest in dramatic stories of life in the courthouse, we believe this 'Law & Order' series will work particularly well on Court TV," chairman and CEO Henry Schleiff said. The network will start airing the series -- which debuted on NBC in March -- in December as a two-hour block from 7-9 p.m. Saturdays.
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr/television/brief_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001263210
Note: The lead in the following column does not fall into the category of “Spoiler”. There has been no official word on who will win the election in ”The West Wing”. But it is the considered opinion of Ms. De Moraes (and she explains her reasons) that the Jimmy Smith character will emerge victorious.
(Personally, I disagree and, for a number of reasons, believe Alda’s character will “win”.)
The TV Column
'West Wing' Candidates To Face Off in Live Debate
By Lisa de Moraes The Washington Post Saturday, October 15, 2005; C01
This time around, the Republican will win the presidential debate, but the Democrat will win the election.
NBC will air a live debate during the November ratings race between faux candidates Jimmy Smits and Alan Alda on its struggling political drama series "The West Wing," which since moving to Sunday this season has seen its audience plunge from more than 11 million viewers to fewer than 8 million.
Alda plays Republican Sen. Arnold Vinick; Smits plays Democratic Rep. Matt Santos.
Executive Producer John Wells says that they'll have a "general sense of where they're going," are "definitely rehearsing a script" and are giving the two actors "substantial briefing materials" for the episode, noting that these days real presidential candidates are usually well rehearsed and almost never surprised by a question.
But there will be improvisation and spontaneity -- more than in the real thing, Wells said -- and they plan to solicit some questions over the Internet from viewers.
"To even call our current presidential debates 'debates' is stretching the term," he said, noting that virtually all elements, including the types of questions and the format, are "so pre-negotiated."
"In many ways what they've done is created a world for real presidential debates in which the candidates have an opportunity, to a larger audience, not to engage each other, but to give another version of their stump speech," Wells said.
"The whole idea about doing a [live 'West Wing'] debate was to try to do a debate in which the characters actually debated. . . . We will try to set up a world in which the candidates can have a real exchange," he said, adding that his goal is to get viewers to question why they don't get that in real life.
If yesterday's unscripted, spontaneous phone news conference is any indication, Alda will win the debate hands down -- though it's widely presumed that NBC has Smits in mind to play the next president of the United States if "West Wing" goes to another season -- if only because, at 69, Alda has nearly 20 years on Smits and is even further out of the 18-49 age bracket NBC chases than current "West Wing" faux president Martin Sheen, who's 65.
Alda is a very good public speaker. His early training, he notes, was in improv, whereas, Smits explained, "Jimmy is not a good talker," and his character is "much more verbal than Jimmy is or could ever be." Yes, it appears Smits sometimes talks about himself in the third person. Why is that so creepy?
Consider their answers to a simple question: "Is it important to you guys . . . that your character wins the debate or . . . the election?"
"What's important to me," Smits replied, "is that we do good storytelling. I think we've been doing that and keep the audience on their toes, keep it topical. And, just to reinforce what Alan said before, is that both points of view are strong and I think since last season we've been doing that and will continue doing that."
Alda also began with the same evasive blah, blah, blah, but then recovered with a great save: "But specifically, to answer your question . . . I have to tell you that it's hard to play any character and not want that character to get what he wants. I wanted to destroy Howard Hughes when I was in 'The Aviator' and I saw every good reason to do it, so that I could be the guy convincingly.
"Of course I want to win the debate, some part of me does, anyway, but . . . you do have to go along with what the story is. If the story doesn't actually have Richard III winning the battle, no matter how much he wants to win, he doesn't win. But you still have to want it. In a debate like this, where . . . you're the one live on camera, if you don't win, it's like something's wrong with you. So it gets even more personal. Some part of me of course wants to win. Even in our imagination I would love to rule the world."
To which Smits added: "Alan wants to cream me out there."
See what we mean?
Even Smits acknowledged he's no Alan Alda when one critic asked if he was worried about the live debate, given that "Alda is slick of tongue" and has been "talking for decades" -- which somehow sounded like it was meant to be an insult.
"Jimmy is not a good talker," Smits said, adding bravely that will force him to "prepare doubly hard."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/14/AR2005101401982_pf.html
I certainly wouldn't want to be in any TV station's engineering department that day! :)
I'm not so quick to share that gloom ...
Heck, if this passes, we'll finally have a hard date and more than three years to work this out. If we spend these three years wisely, this day could come and go with barely a hiccup, even with viewers at the OTA baseline.
I'll be spending that day kicking back and watching the local news on some channel ending in -1. When they get to the story about analog shutdown, I'll be saying, with a yawn, "Oh, THAT'S what day it is! Just as well, never really liked ghost images anyway ..."
It's a good year to be John O'Hurley
The actor has been able to 'reinvent' himself, thanks to fancy footwork
By Hal Boedeker Orlando Sentinel Television Critic October 15, 2005
John O'Hurley says when he won last month's rematch of Dancing With the Stars, vindication wasn't on his mind.
"I felt a sense of quiet and completeness, and I could put it to bed," says the Seinfeld alum who played pompous J. Peterman. "Losing stays with you. Winning is a quiet sense of completion.''
O'Hurley emerged as one of the brightest luminaries in the Dancing constellation. The ABC contest became the summer's biggest new hit, scoring its highest ratings in Orlando. O'Hurley's initial loss to Kelly Monaco of ABC's General Hospital set off widespread complaints of a fix. The whole phenomenon pushed O'Hurley to even greater celebrity.
Local fans can see him at 1 p.m. Sunday at the Southern Women's Show. He will sign autographs and judge a dance contest in the north building of the Orange County Convention Center.
It's a rare public appearance for the silver-haired actor, 51, who is busy pursuing new opportunities. He has become the poster boy for middle-age rebirth and an inspiration to baby boomers. He acknowledges a debt to Dancing With the Stars.
"It allowed me to reinvent myself, quite frankly," he says in a phone interview from Los Angeles.
He has performed in soap operas, sitcoms and commercials, but his stylish dancing is bringing him splashier jobs. In January, O'Hurley joins the Broadway musical Chicago as publicity-seeking lawyer Billy Flynn. Such a starring role has been dear to O'Hurley since he started acting in 1981.
"To be able to go back and headline a show is a thrill," he says. "It's a barometer of my life. It's a high-water mark. Seinfeld is great. This show [Dancing] is great. The highest-water mark was when my album came in at No. 13 on the Billboard chart.''
His Peace of Our Minds CD, featuring his compositions and cellist Marston, placed in the classical category.
The past year "has been kind of a complete regeneration for him -- his personal life, his acting life," says wife Lisa O'Hurley. "He's experiencing so much success, and I hope I'm helping him with that."
Dancing With the Stars put him on the Nielsen charts. After soap star Monaco won the summer contest, many O'Hurley fans were outraged.
"He was very surprised," says brother Bruce O'Hurley, a building-services contractor in New Hampshire. "All indications from the judges were basically he was the person to beat."
John O'Hurley, who remained a good sport during the flap, says he was more upset by the voting process than the outcome.
"I thought the voting template was askew, really off," he says. "That's what people reacted to, not that I won or lost. It was more a case of how I lost.''
The controversy prompted ABC to stage a dance-off, and a tight viewer vote gave O'Hurley the edge the second time around. The actor salutes his partner, Charlotte Jorgensen, as the personification of grace. They will shoot an instructional-dancing DVD that should be out at Thanksgiving.
The rematch allowed O'Hurley to raise money for the charity Golfers Against Cancer. So did a celebrity tournament last month in which he beat pro golfer Annika Sorenstam. Through the two events, O'Hurley netted $426,000 for the charity.
Golf also has been very good for O'Hurley's personal life. His wife, the former Lisa Mesloh, was an executive at the Golf Channel when they met. They married last year.
"That's probably the biggest thing that has happened in his life," brother Bruce says. "They share a love of golf, and she's exceptional at that."
A heavy schedule of projects is bound to cut down on the actor's time on the links. He has a development deal for a television series, in the style of Curb Your Enthusiasm, that will parody show business and his efforts to keep up with others.
"I think people enjoy pomposity and arrogance as long as it's pointed at you," John O'Hurley says.
He has a three-picture deal with the makers of the Barbershop movies.
He just signed a book contract. The title: It's OK to Miss the Bed on the First Jump. The premise: Everything O'Hurley needed to know he learned from his two dogs.
On Thanksgiving, he will host The National Dog Show on NBC.
"When you run it down, we have had a good year," Lisa O'Hurley says.
As a sign of his new celebrity, the actor notes that he will appear in People's forthcoming sexiest-men-alive issue. He savors the memory of learning of that honor.
"I looked at my wife and I said, 'I guess I don't need an Oscar or an Emmy. I can die a happy man.' "
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/entertainment/tv/orl-ohurley05oct15,0,1453769,print.story?coll=orl-caltvtop
Chris Noth: When It's Easy to Play Older, Wiser, Wearier
By David Carr The New York Times October 15, 2005
The tidy, almost fussy apartment in Greenwich Village is a place where neither Mr. Big nor Det. Mike Logan would live. Sitting in jeans with an open white shirt and a nearly shaved head, Chris Noth, the man who played both characters, fits in pretty well with the quiet, the lush furnishings, the huge rack of CD's and the books, including a gigantic antique book on a stand.
Mr. Noth has never confused himself with his characters. Still, he gets dirty looks on the subway from women because he has played a cad on "Sex and the City" and approval from police officers for his righteous portrayal of a working New York detective.
This season, Mr. Noth (rhymes with "both") is reprising that role as Detective Logan, the emotional, intuitive police detective who helped found the "Law & Order" franchise back in 1990. When he left in 1995, he characterized his tour in that police procedural series as a "five-year prison sentence," so it is a bit of a surprise to see him prowling New York as part of "Law & Order: Criminal Intent."
Ten years later, things are different. His recurring role as "Mr. Big," the suitor who won Carrie Bradshaw's heart in "Sex and the City," turned out to be a prison of another sort. He was in a bar in Saigon a few years ago, and someone started yelling at him for his portrayal of that self-involved Lothario allergic to commitment.
And this time around on "Law & Order" - the grind wore him down during his last tour - he and his co-star, Anabella Sciorra, have a partnership that alternates with another detective team played by Vincent D'Onofrio and Kathryn Erbe, so the physical and mental sprint of a weekly series will be only half as taxing.
Still, it is a genre in which actors are as much game pieces as thespians, pushed around by plot and form.
"For an actor, it's troubling, because you have to ask the fundamental question: does it matter what I bring?" he said, backlighted by a very sunny day pouring in the south window of his apartment. His hair, normally a thick mop that is a bit of a trademark, is all but gone - "I got bored" - and at 49, Mr. Noth is less apt to lean on his boyish charms than show up as a man in full.
Both Detective Logan and Mr. Noth represent talented, mercurial characters tempered by forces beyond their control. Detective Logan is back in Manhattan after having punched a superior and been banished to Staten Island. Mr. Noth, who is fond of late nights and gnawing on the hand that feeds him, bears marks from both. The youth has been replaced by a kind of majesty, though the look of someone who has been places and seen things.
The show's fans seem to think that Mr. Noth's version of a "Law & Order" detective matters very much. "Criminal Intent" episodes have drawn an average of almost 12 million viewers this fall, a ratings performance fueled in part by Detective Logan's return. This season, he is beginning to turn his investigative skills and moral compass on fellow cops, giving him plenty of texture and conflicts to chew through.
Mr. Noth is back partly because a man has to eat, and partly because 10 years have given him some perspective on the value of working with your craft, regardless of the outlet. A 1998 "Law & Order" television movie, "Exiled," was a hit with viewers and gave Mr. Noth a measure of input into the character and development of Detective Logan. He called the "five-year prison sentence remark" a reflection of his youth at the time and the grind of being on camera every week.
"The danger is that you feel you are on an assembly line, but this particular schedule gives an actor time to infuse himself creatively," he said.
Because the range of the characters is limited on all the "Law & Orders" - "Criminal Intent" is the third installment of a brand that has spread across television for 15 years - Mr. Noth said that it is important to use screen time judiciously.
"Every moment has to have a meaning, because on a procedural show, it can easily appear that you are doing it by rote," he said.
"The older you get, the whole notion of success in this business is ephemeral, confusing and hard to give as much energy as when you're young and it meant everything," he said.
Mr. Noth is less mellowed than matured, still itchy and somewhat obsessed, but realistic about where he belongs in the firmament of celebrity and acting. He knows he is not George Clooney, another suave salt-and-pepper television brand who crossed over and never looked back.
Mr. Noth, an actor who attended the Yale School of Drama, just finished a run of "American Buffalo" at the Berkshire Theater Festival. Early in his television career, he spent a great deal of time banging against the limits of the procedural genre and the man who invented it, Dick Wolf, who created "Law & Order." When Mr. Noth sought more money, Mr. Wolf invited him to leave.
"Let's face it, I had one foot out the door, and Dick turned out to be fundamentally correct," Mr. Noth said. "I was not trying to hide the fact that I was frustrated and restless. Restlessness is a part of my nature, and it has always come to haunt me personally and professionally."
Mr. Wolf did not hide that he and Mr. Noth had a complicated professional relationship, or that he was enjoying the renewal of that dialogue.
"Look, no one can play Det. Mike Logan better than Chris Noth," Mr. Wolf said in a telephone interview. "He has an attitude, a physical presence. He looks the way that most New York detectives look when they get up in the morning."
"I have had a longer-term relationship with Chris than I have had with almost anybody in the business," Mr. Wolf said. "Neither of us would admit it to each other, but there is a well of affection that is hard to account for."
There is far more clutter than when they last worked together; thanks to "Law & Order" and "CSI," a similar procedural franchise, the top 20 shows feature a glut of whodunit-and-how shows that invite and cue the viewer to solve the crime just ahead of the people on the screen.
"It is a very different climate than when we started," Mr. Noth said. " 'Law & Order' was pretty revolutionary. It felt like something that had never been done. Even New York City was a very different city back then, a far more dangerous place."
Getting Mr. Noth started on the subject of New York is an invitation for a tutorial on the dangers of civic sanitization, on the things that can be lost when a city is "improved."
"It has deteriorated into a very clean and shiny mall," he said, running his hand back and forth over his bristle of hair as he gets worked up. "We have to go out of Manhattan to get a texture of the city. I'm not just talking about graffiti and that we want to bring the crime back. From the meatpacking district to the East Village to below Houston Street, all those delicious and interesting and complex neighborhoods are just basically gone. It has been death by fashion and trend."
"Being a New York detective is a character," he added. "They are different than other detectives. There is a fraternity and a brotherhood and a way of doing police work in New York that's different than anywhere else, and you've got to tap into that also."
"Most of them are what we would call working-class guys," he said, "who deal in a very specific world and live in that world, 100 percent committed."
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/15/arts/television/15noth.html?pagewanted=print
Source: NASCAR closing on new television contract
NBC out of bidding
By David Poole Charlotte Observer Staff
NBC has withdrawn from negotiations to continue as a NASCAR television partner beyond 2006, opening a door through which ABC/ESPN might return to the sport, The Charlotte Observer has learned.
NBC informed NASCAR just more than a week ago that it felt NASCAR's asking price for rights to Nextel Cup and Busch races was higher than the value of the package, a source told the Observer.
Current television partners had an exclusive negotiating window in which they could work with NASCAR on a new deal. After electing not to continue negotiations, NBC has waived that clause, allowing NASCAR to negotiate with new partners, and the source said NASCAR is close to a new deal that could be announced early next week.
Fox Sports is expected to retain rights to Nextel Cup races in the first half of the season. Fox and NBC have had the season-opening Daytona 500 in alternating years in the current deal, but Fox is expected to get rights to that event each year in the new deal.
Cup races in the second half of the season, including the 10-race Chase for the Nextel Cup, would likely air on ABC and ESPN, which are both owned by the Disney Company.
At least some of the Busch Series races would air on ESPN2, the source said.
NASCAR chairman Brian France said last week at Kansas Speedway that he would like to see the Busch Series have its own broadcast identity.
That raises the possibility that all or at least a majority of that series' events could be on one network.
ESPN and NASCAR fueled each other's growth through the 1990s.
ESPN's helped stock-car racing gain national exposure, and NASCAR providing attractive programming that helped ESPN get its networks picked up by more cable providers.
But when Fox/FX and NBC/TNT signed on to a $2.8 billion contract in late 1999, a deal that went into effect at the start of the 2001 season and expires at the end of 2006, ESPN was shut out.
"Everybody knows we are working on our TV contracts ... and we're having discussions with our existing partners and others," said Jim Hunter, NASCAR's vice president for corporate communications. "It's no secret that ESPN is extremely interested."
Spokespersons for ESPN and Fox Sports said they had nothing to announce about the talks.
In April, NBC announced a six-year deal to broadcast NFL games in prime time on Sundays, paying a reported $600 million a year for those rights.
That package begins next season. ESPN's Sunday night NFL package moves to Mondays in 2006.
http://www.charlotte.com/mld/charlotte/sports/12908912.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp
THE 2005-2006 TV SEASON
Networks have to know when to hold ’em and when to fold ’em
By Jim Benson, Ben Grossman and Anne Becker Broadcasting & Cable,10/17/2005
This time last year, the television industry was agog over ABC’s breakout monster hits Desperate Housewivesand Lost. As the new fall season unfolded this year, anticipation of another splashy debut or two was palpable, even though veteran TV hands know that instant mega-success is a rarity. And sure enough, this fall’s big story is the middling success of the networks’ slates of new shows.
Yes, there have been some notably strong performances, like My Name Is Earl’s for NBC and Commander in Chief’s for ABC, and some of the customary quick failures (WB’s cancelled Just Legal was just lethal, and Fox should plead temporary insanity for having granted Head Cases even a brief tryout). But the major theme of the fall so far: the encouraging number of shows that are doing well enough, if not to become huge hits, then at least to avoid being obvious candidates for the ax, and the way these solid performers are spread evenly among the networks for a change.
Though it’s still early, industry insiders have been eagerly reading the ratings tea leaves. Beyond handicapping which shows will last and which will go, and how various networks are faring (ABC galloping, CBS strong but possibly tiring, NBC limping worse than ever), the industry savants we consulted reached some wider-ranging conclusions as well.
After years of flocking to procedural dramas, audiences appear to be cooling to the genre, or at least to be unwilling to add copycat newcomers to their viewing habit. Reality TV, the demise of which has been regularly predicted for years, may in fact be finally losing its juggernaut status. And cable television, which used to cede the fall to broadcasters, has made inroads that—as with every other incursion of cable on broadcasters’ turf—are likely to become only more pronounced in future seasons.
Wall Street has already started to weigh in on the networks’ fall fortunes. While cautioning that the season is still young and merits further tracking, Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. analyst Michael Nathanson lauded the gains made after three weeks by Fox and ABC in the 18-49 demo from last year (up 20% and 8%, respectively).
Nathanson’s report noted that the networks’ owners, Disney and News Corp., have similar revenue exposure (about 11% each) to broadcast advertising and “could see positive earnings revisions” if the trend continues.
Fox has scored with its post-season baseball action and some strong showings by rookie drama Prison Break and offbeat medical drama House, which is a bona fide hit in its second year. ABC is primarily building on its existing franchises: Housewives and Grey’s Anatomy on Sunday, Lost on Wednesday. The supernatural drama Invasion follows Lost, and while Invasion pulls in a respectable audience of about 11 million, that means it loses half of its Lost lead-in.
ABC Entertainment President Stephen McPherson says Invasion’s future will hinge on where it stabilizes in the next four to six weeks. He laughs at all the early ratings analysis, pointing out that staggered premieres, the baseball playoffs and other factors have meant that “there is too much weird competition now to make predictions.”
Analyst Nathanson was unenthusiastic about the performances of NBC and CBS, which he called “on the losing side.” Both networks are shedding viewers in the key 18-49 demo. The 13% drop at the still-struggling NBC is surprising—apparently when things are dark, they can get even darker (no thanks to Inconceivable, a misbegotten fertility-clinic drama that aired twice before being pulled from the schedule).
A CURIOUS LOSS
But perhaps the most curious loss is the 5% drop at CBS from last year. Although it remains the dominant network in total viewers and older demos, CBS is slowly losing audience across the board. The loss is “significant,” Nathanson wrote, because the network has been the most stable the past five seasons and “is about to take on a bigger role as Viacom will split itself into two parts” early next year. According to Nathanson’s estimates, CBS will account for about 28% of the total revenue of the new company: “Any material change to CBS’ ratings will become a greater issue for investors.”
Nathanson didn’t separate out CBS’ little cousin UPN, which rose 7% in 18-49 in the season’s first three weeks, despite the inauspicious debut of the soapy Sex, Love & Secrets, which prompted the network to stop production after one airing. Much of UPN’s upturn can be attributed to the heavily promoted Everybody Hates Chris. Although UPN’s primary target is 18-34s, Chris likely will be judged on whether it can remain above a 2 rating in 18-49 in its highly competitive 8 p.m. Thursday-night slot. Should it drop below a 2, it would fall into the undistinguished ratings territory of UPN’s Monday-night comedies All of Us and One on One.
Former NBC Entertainment President Warren Littlefield is an analyst of another sort. Having worked for years alongside late programming legend Brandon Tartikoff, he knows the business as well as anyone. One of his insights into the new season: TV has reached the procedural saturation point. “You cannot launch a procedural hour in any time period without going against an incumbent procedural drama,” says Littlefield (who doesn’t happen to be in the procedural game right now; he’s executive producer of UPN sitcom Love, Inc.). “Therefore, there are a few being sold and developed, but not a lot.”
The established procedurals, like Dick Wolf’s Law & Order shows and Jerry Bruckheimer’s various CSIs, have maintained their popularity with viewers, but a newcomer like this season’s Night Stalker on ABC has struggled: Its 7 million average viewers are a quarter of the 28 million who watch CBS’ CSI—which happens to be the top-rated show and airs opposite Night Stalker on Thursday nights. Of course, it’s not clear whether the problems have to do with the quality of the show itself (with Stuart Townsend as a journalist investigating spooky crimes) or with the procedural genre.
Fox Entertainment President Peter Liguori remains bullish on the genre, saying procedurals will remain “as part of a good programming mix.” Like any genre, he says, procedurals just need to keep evolving in their conception. House, he says, represents “the next bounce on procedurals.”
A genre that may have lost some of its bounce: reality TV. Both Survivor and Amazing Race, two staples of CBS’ overall preeminence in recent years, have seen their audiences shrink in the first three weeks this fall (19% and 12%, respectively, in 18-49 from last year); they’re still strong, however, against tougher competition. And NBC’s Apprentice franchise appears to be tottering, regardless of whether Donald Trump or Martha Stewart is in charge; neither show is exactly stopping the bleeding at NBC.
“The decline of reality is official now,” says Littlefield. “The genre, which took so many dollars and time periods out of the marketplace, is just not as much of a dominant force anymore. For people who play in the world of scripted TV”—like Littlefield himself, it should be said—“it’s a very welcome sign.”
Of course, given the sheer number of unscripted shows on television, the “decline” could be a very gentle slope. But Littlefield is hardly alone among industry insiders when he says that TV has entered an era when fresh blood and fresh ideas are required—and welcome. “I think everybody more or less admits the old rules no longer apply,” he says. “Those who have taken risks the last few years have not always been rewarded, but enough so that people will continue to do it.”
The networks learned last season that viewers are hungry for ambitious new concepts that stretch familiar formats, says Fox’s Liguori: “As the landscape becomes a little more homogenous, it further inspires us to want to try something different.” As examples, he cites event series like ABC’s Lost and Fox’s Prison Break, the latter having the makings of a freshman hit.
Liguori’s counterpart at ABC, McPherson, lists Prison Break among the most promising new shows in what he calls an “interesting fall”—one that might lack game-changers like last year’s Housewives and Loston his network but is hardly a low-achiever. He singles out solid early performers spread across all the networks: ABC’s Commander in Chief,NBC’s Earl, CBS’ Criminal Minds and Ghost Whisperer, Fox’s Prison Break, The WB’s Supernatural, and UPN’s Chris.
McPherson attributes the more level playing field this fall to the fact that “everyone stepped up their marketing efforts.”
Another factor, says WB Entertainment President David Janollari, is the simple truth of TV programming: Runaway hits like the ones ABC launched last year are a rarity. “Those things come around once a decade,” he says, noting that, before ABC’s coup, the last time a network launched two gigantic franchises in the same season was NBC with Friends and ER in 1994.
STRONG LEAD-INS NOT NEEDED
One encouraging development for networks this fall: the apparent ability of some freshman series (Commander in Chief, My Name Is Earl) to draw viewers without requiring a strong lead-in to jump-start their ratings. If the trend holds, it would delight networks in search of franchises to build on new nights and in new time periods.
Less encouraging for the six broadcast networks: Although their combined prime time ratings were either stable or down marginally (depending on the demo) from a year ago, aggregate ratings for ad-supported cable climbed 2%-5% for adults and about 11% among teens. That shift might have been expected, given that this fall cable signaled its willingness to try to steal some of the broadcasters’ thunder. The Sept. 20 premiere of Nip/Tuck on FX was just one indication of challenges likely to come for broadcasters.
Cable whittled away more than ever at broadcast numbers over the summer, tipping the balance to a 60.9 share versus broadcast’s 32.7. In the fall, the margin narrowed to a 53.8 share for cable and 45.6 share for broadcast, thanks primarily to strong showings by ABC and Fox, according to Turner research chief Jack Wakshlag. (Last year, ad-supported cable out-delivered the broadcast networks in household share during the early fall season for the first time, 51.9 vs. 43.1).
“Cable grows in share and rating year-to-year every single quarter,” Wakshlag says. “In the old days, it was increased penetration, then more channels. Now it’s about programming and marketing.”
FX FLOUTS TRADITION
While ESPN, as it has since 1998, brings in many cable viewers each fall with Sunday-night football—and Monday-night football starting next year—the entertainment cable networks are doing their part. They deftly tied up summer originals as fall arrived, then rolled out new acquired dramas and movies for the fourth quarter.
USA added prime time episodes of Law & Order: Criminal Intent in September; Lifetime will run its first two-night miniseries Human Trafficking Oct. 24; and TNT is banking on major theatricals, premiering triple plays of Erin Brockovich, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers and Spiderman in the coming months.
Meanwhile, when FX flouted the cable tradition of clustering the premieres of original scripted series during the summer by bringing back Nip/Tuck in September, the network was rewarded with an average 4.5 million total viewers in its first three episodes—up 20% over season two.
FX’s fall scheduling “took some cojones, and clearly it didn’t hurt them,” says Sci Fi/USA President Bonnie Hammer.
Hammer’s own network also has been aggressive. USA, having grabbed World Wrestling Entertainment from Spike, debuted WWE Raw on Oct. 3, marketing it heavily under the network’s “Characters Welcome” tagline. It was a winner for the network, pulling in 5.6 million total viewers.
“Cable is a true competitor now,” Hammer says. “You see it in the way the ad dollars are going and in cable’s increasing growth of viewership. Cable’s getting more aggressive about where they put their original shows. We don’t run and hide.”
It used to hide. Now it’s what cable is seeking that could make future fall seasons more fascinating than ever.
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/index.asp?layout=articlePrint&articleID=CA6273131
THE 2005-2006 TV SEASON
This Season's Shows From Best-Reviewed to Worst-Reviewed
metacritic.comWhat did the critics like this fall?
We've ranked all the season's new shows in order, from best- to worst-reviewed.
* Shows in bold have been cancelled.
SHOW NET SCORE
Everybody Hates Chris UPN 89
My Name Is Earl NBC 79
Invasion ABC 72
How I Met Your Mother CBS 68
Prison Break Fox 65
Threshold CBS 65
Kitchen Confidential Fox 64
Supernatural WB 60
Commander In Chief ABC 55
Bones Fox 54
Close To Home CBS 54
Just Legal WB 53
Out Of Practice CBS 52
Reunion Fox 50
Related WB 49
The Night Stalker ABC 48
Head Cases Fox 43
Sex, Love & Secrets UPN 41
Criminal Minds CBS 40
Surface NBC 39
E-Ring NBC 38
Twins WB 37
Three Wishes NBC 36
Freddie ABC 33
Inconceivable NBC 32
Hot Properties ABC 29
War At Home, The Fox 28
Love, Inc. UPN 28
Ghost Whisperer CBS 26
Killer Instinct Fox 25
http://www.metacritic.com/tv/seasons/2005fall/
Bochco might turn `D.C. Pink' into `Blues'
Tom Jicha Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinal TV and Radio Writer
Don Johnson is looking for work again. The teens and twentysomethings who are the cornerstone of the WB didn't embrace a star older than their parents, so Just Legal was dismissed. The casts of Head Cases and Inconceivable are also getting back in line at the cattle calls. That's what happens when Paris Hilton's video is seen by more people than your series.
It might seem surprising, judging by the numbers alone, that Martha Stewart still has a prime-time job. With the demise of Inconceivable, the domestic diva's version of The Apprentice has the distinction of being NBC's lowest-rated series. On a network that still refuses to cut bait with Joey, this is not a good thing. But NBC has a big stake in Martha's daytime series, so it doesn't want to devalue her image by making her the season's highest-profile loser.
Actually, there is only one shocker so far this season -- and the reason it is such a startling development is that it involves the closest thing to a breakout hit, Commander in Chief. The ABC series starring Geena Davis as the first female president established instant dominance in its time period and is the only new series in Nielsen's Top 10. Nevertheless, its creator and executive producer, Rod Lurie, has been cast aside less than a month into the season.
Reportedly Lurie, whose background is primarily in film, was pushed out because he was having a hard time keeping up with the demands of weekly television. Scripts were arriving so late, the story goes, ABC was beginning to worry that eventually he wouldn't have an episode ready for its airdate.
Equally as stunning is the identity of his replacement, Steven Bochco. Bochco is peerless when it comes to gritty shows like Hill Street Blues and NYPD Blue. However, there's no evidence that "Washington Pink," Lurie's vision for Commander in Chief, is in Bochco's repertoire. Also, Bochco's strength is as a creator, not a repairman.
The upside to the change is that Commander in Chief, which looks as if it will be around longer than George W. Bush, could stand a dose of realism and toughening up. Lurie was so anxious to push the concept of a woman president, he egregiously overplayed his hand. Donald Sutherland continues to be cartoonish -- a human Wile E. Coyote to Davis' Road Runner -- as the diabolically partisan Speaker of the House. Meanwhile, Davis' character is a composite of Margaret Thatcher, Mother Teresa and Wonder Woman.
As her first presidential act, she mobilized U.S. armed forces to rescue an African woman condemned to stoning for adultery. This past Tuesday, she not only faced down a dictatorial Latin American drug lord, but with just a few sentences, she inspired his followers to overthrow him. Then she played June Cleaver to her whiny teenage daughter.
For her vice president she chose her opponent in the last election, a man who repeatedly eviscerated her on the campaign trail. She liked him because he was independent like her. The ornery former military man repaid her faith by initially telling her what she could do with the job. But the crusty old crank reconsidered after he was moved almost to tears by the strength of leadership she demonstrated.
The West Wing is an idealistic take on the executive branch. Commander in Chief is a fairy tale.
It's unfathomable that these fantasies will continue in a Bocho-run show, so what can we expect?
The Oscar-winning Davis might have too much clout to be forced to bare her backside, but Kyle Secor, who plays her husband, better be prepared to drop trou. The entire cast -- well, at least the males -- might as well get used to swapping lines while standing at a urinal, another favorite Bochco device.
Bochco also has a penchant for calling on old friends, so maybe if we're lucky, Dennis Franz will pop in as the Secretary of Something or perhaps the head of the FBI. Who has more experience in law enforcement?
No matter what tinkering Bochco does, it's sure to make TV's political season a lot more interesting.
http://www.southflorida.com/movies/sfl-tv15tjoct15,0,1486503.column?coll=sfe-tv-headlines
Saturday’s network prime-time ratings have been posted at the top of RATINGS NEWS the second post in this thread.
CPanther95
10-16-05, 12:17 PM
Fast National ratings for Saturday, Oct. 15th
THE 2005-2006 TV SEASON
This Season's Shows From Best-Reviewed to Worst-Reviewed
metacritic.comWhat did the critics like this fall?
We've ranked all the season's new shows in order, from best- to worst-reviewed.
* Shows in bold have been cancelled.
SHOW NET SCORE
Everybody Hates Chris UPN 89
My Name Is Earl NBC 79
Invasion ABC 72
How I Met Your Mother CBS 68
Prison Break Fox 65
Threshold CBS 65
Kitchen Confidential Fox 64
Supernatural WB 60
Commander In Chief ABC 55
Bones Fox 54
Close To Home CBS 54
Just Legal WB 53
Out Of Practice CBS 52
Reunion Fox 50
Related WB 49
The Night Stalker ABC 48
Head Cases Fox 43
Sex, Love & Secrets UPN 41
Criminal Minds CBS 40
Surface NBC 39
E-Ring NBC 38
Twins WB 37
Three Wishes NBC 36
Freddie ABC 33
Inconceivable NBC 32
Hot Properties ABC 29
War At Home, The Fox 28
Love, Inc. UPN 28
Ghost Whisperer CBS 26
Killer Instinct Fox 25
http://www.metacritic.com/tv/seasons/2005fall/
Threshold - #6 new show ?!? :rolleyes:
DoubleDAZ
10-16-05, 12:29 PM
Threshold - #6 new show ?!? :rolleyes:
Remember, this is based on critic's reviews, what do they know anyway? :)
Unfortunately, I had high hopes for Carla, but it looks like she's missed the mark again. She was great on Spin City, but it has been downhill since. :(
Remember, this is based on critic's reviews, what do they know anyway? :)
Unfortunately, I had high hopes for Carla, but it looks like she's missed the mark again. She was great on Spin City, but it has been downhill since. :(
Exactly, a critic's listing of best shows is suspect.
I think they should cancel Threshold and maybe Gugino could replace Union in Night Stalker.. :)
THE 2005-2006 TV SEASON
“Criminal Minds”: no crime show copycat
Jeanne Jakle San Antonio Express-News
The joke is that CBS stands for Crime Broadcasting System.
Not only does it offer "CSI" times three, but also there's "Without a Trace," "Cold Case" and the new suburbia-set crime show, "Close to Home."
The initial tendency, therefore, would be to dismiss another CBS newcomer, "Criminal Minds," as just the umpteenth procedural — let's-catch-the-bad-guy — drama.
Upon closer examination, however, the show is no crime copycat. It has a unique style and intriguing band of experts who use not only physical evidence as clues to serial cases, but also their meticulously trained brains to get inside perpetrators' minds.
I'm fortunate to have had a close-to-home incentive to look deeper into this show. Thomas Gibson ("Dharma & Greg"), who lives in San Antonio with his family, plays one of the behavioral analysts: Aaron Hotch, a dependable straight-arrow of a man, who easily earns people's trust.
On the edgier side is team leader Jason Gideon (Mandy Patinkin), who may take more risks, but his volatile history also inspires worry. Gideon has made mistakes, ones that continue to haunt him. Caution and care, after all, are extremely important in the world of "Minds," where crimes — which so far have included multiple kidnappings and murders; arson at a university; and bombings in a neighborhood — involve the calculated destruction of numerous people.
One of my favorite characters is young Dr. Spencer Reid, a genius and computer whiz who's as naive about social situations as he is sharp about numbers and technology. Matthew Gray Gubler, a relatively new face on television, portrays him with the perfect blend of admirable concentration and lovable awkwardness. He's quirky, but not so quirky you'll want to roll your eyes. I'm looking forward to an episode (promised by a producer of the series) where Gubler just might use his offscreen talent for magic to catch a criminal.
Aside from Gibson, who fits FBI to a T with his dark, intense good looks, there are two other easy-on-the-eyes agents. However, neither Shemar Moore ("Diary of a Mad Black Woman") nor Lola Glaudini ("The Sopranos") fits the stereotypical pretty-person image. Their attractiveness is quieter, more real-life than Hollywood.
Another standout feature of "Minds" — one that keeps me coming back for more — is the almost surreal way crime segments are presented. For instance, in the third episode, a homemade bomb injures and kills neighborhood residents who just happen to be in the way. We see the explosion from the perspective of one man in its path; the distorted images that follow are reminiscent of a nightmarish Dali painting.
This week's episode involves a crime of obsession, the kidnapping of a twin, who's the daughter of a U.S. district attorney.
"Criminal Minds" has a difficult time slot — Wednesdays at 8 p.m. — opposite ABC's mega-hit "Lost." Still, it's managed to finish second in key demographics. Its premiere, which ran in the more preferable slot — Thursday after "CSI" — crowned it the most-watched newcomer of the season.
Let's hope CBS treats "Minds" with care. It really would be criminal to see this well-crafted gem go under.
http://www.mysanantonio.com/global-includes/printstory.jsp?path=/entertainment/columnists/jjackle/stories/MYSA101605.0Z.jakle.f510eed6.html
CPanther95
10-16-05, 02:50 PM
Exactly, a critic's listing of best shows is suspect.
I think they should cancel Threshold and maybe Gugino could replace Union in Night Stalker.. :)
Great Idea. She could also play the attorney/ex on Prison Break, the frequent bikini wearing Lake Bell role on Surface and a new promiscuous survivor on Lost. ;)
A simpler idea: now that ABC has some ratings traction, just bring back "Karen Sisco", promote it in "Lost", "Desperate Housewives" and "Grey's Anatomy" and place it almost anywhere on the ABC schedule.
It would be a top 20 hit in a matter of weeks.
DoubleDAZ
10-16-05, 03:26 PM
A simpler idea: now that ABC has some ratings traction, just bring back "Karen Sisco", promote it in "Lost", "Desperate Housewives" and "Grey's Anatomy" and place it almost anywhere on the ABC schedule.
It would be a top 20 hit in a matter of weeks.
I totally support that!!!
THE 2005-2006 TV SEASON
TV's one-month checkup
'Earl' and 'Chris' are humming, Martha is slumming, and we're all still bumming that there's no new 'Lost' or 'Desperate Housewives' to buzz about
By Ken Parish Perkins Fort Worth Star-Telegram TV Critic Oct. 16, 2005
Ask any habitual TV watcher to comment on the month-old season and you're likely to hear a heavy sigh. Last year at this time, we were discussing the mythical symbolism of the head-scratching drama Lost, or the oh-no-they-didn't hilarity of the schizophrenic Desperate Housewives.
This year, we're talking about the mythical symbolism of Lost and the oh-no-they-didn't hilarity of Desperate Housewives.
It isn't that the 31 new dramas, comedies and Martha Stewart shows are all lousy or irrelevant (well, Stewart's Apprentice is); it's that none are so irresistible that they're compelling us to ditch happy hour or reschedule that tango class.
NBC's My Name Is Earl, about a perpetual loser making amends, and UPN's Everybody Hates Chris, a kind of Wonder Years-meets-Good Times comedy, are the two most-talked-about shows so far -- and neither are out-of-the-gate hits, according to Nielsen ratings. In fact, both could end up goners by midseason if they fall into a mini-slump of mediocrity.
But how interesting and encouraging it is that the two shows heading up the buzz pack are comedies, the TV genre that's supposedly dead and decomposing.
Or that The West Wing is doing its most ambitious, intriguing work and is being virtually ignored -- like nearly everything else on NBC.
And how Head Cases, a buddy comedy about a pair of nutcases with law degrees, was axed after two episodes. Hmm. Who'd have thunk that?
Perhaps the same people who thought men would watch a drama about a fertility clinic?
It's still early, but here's how the 2005-06 season is shaping up and out.
The hits are missing
One season of rookie blockbusters, and look how spoiled we've become. Those of you moaning over not having some newbie series kicking down your door ought to remember that droughts are par for the course.
Lost and Desperate Housewives arriving in the same season is the equivalent of a UFO landing.
We so badly wanted the same sensation this year that Earl and Chris were anointed (by critics, mostly) as The Next Great whatevers. Earl was impressive last week, racking up 13.2 million viewers in a tough time slot (against House on Fox, The Amazing Race: Family Edition on CBS and the new Commander in Chief on ABC) and Chris broke all sorts of ratings records for UPN, attracting 7 million viewers. But it's still UPN.
ABC hails the Geena Davis-as-president series Commander in Chief, averaging around 16 million viewers and No. 8 overall (tops among all new shows), as something of a hit. I say "something" because the network isn't thrilled with its demographics: women 50 and older represent the heart of the show's viewership. ABC will take the 16 mill, but it wants what advertisers want: Viewers who fall between 18 and 49.
Also on ABC, the medical melodrama Grey's Anatomy is showing some real staying power. It arrived at midseason and knocked Boston Legal clear to Tuesday. (Which isn't doing too shabby there, with 12 million viewers). Last week, Grey's Anatomy, co-starring the hunky Patrick Dempsey in yet another comeback, failed to hold on to 8 million of its Desperate Housewives lead-in audience -- but that still leaves 18 million viewers, good enough to land solidly in the Top 10. It's a delicious show that now has breathing room to stretch its legs.
Going, going, gone
Head Cases, after just two episodes, is finished.
So is the WB's Just Legal, the other buddy legal show with Don Johnson, and NBC's Inconceivable, the fertility drama, which couldn't sustain itself on female viewers alone (only 0.8 percent of men wanted to see people discuss babies for an hour. Go figure.)
Sex, Love & Secrets, a messy melodrama about singles in lust, drew 1.4 million viewers, prompting UPN to "halt production." (In other words, it's canceled). The same goes for Fox's Kitchen Confidential.
Other shows that have stumbled out of the gate: The Apprentice: Martha Stewart, on NBC; Killer Instinct, the Fox crime drama; Love, Inc., about a matchmaking service, is squandering Chris' lead-in on UPN; E-Ring, the silly Pentagon thriller on NBC starring Dennis Hopper and Benjamin Bratt; The Office, on NBC, is drawing only about 7 million viewers; Twins, on WB, averages 2 million, which could mean that ex-spouses Don Johnson and Melanie Griffith will both get canceled.
Two-time Emmy winner Arrested Development has taken up its usual post as the Best Show We Ignore, with a paltry 4 million viewers on Mondays on Fox. Joey, the Friends spinoff on NBC, has fewer viewers than last season's dismal showing. It's a goner.
UPN's Veronica Mars, with 3.3 million viewers, is performing only slightly better than last season despite a four-episode airing on CBS, a larger marketing budget, and assurances from CBS Chairman Leslie Moonves that "that lady [lead Kristen Bell] will be a star."
New and promising
Sitting alongside Chris and Earl are several CBS series, including the Jennifer Love Hewitt dead people drama Ghost Whisperer (10.8 million), the profiler procedural Criminal Minds (10.5 million) and How I Met Your Mother, (10.4 million) the standard but snappy sitcom with a twist, along with the WB's Supernatural, (5 million) the horror thriller about ghost-battling brothers.
Still king of the hill
CBS' CSI remains TV's top draw, averaging an eye-popping 28 million viewers with ABC's Desperate Housewives at 26 mill, followed by ABC's Lost, the missing-persons procedural Without A Trace on CBS and Grey's Anatomy. CSI: Miami, Survivor and Cold Case both on CBS are still among the most-watched shows on the tube.
Jerry Bruckheimer's bricks
The producer, who came into the fall season with more shows (9) than several production companies combined has seen his Just Legal dumped with E-Ring expected to join the scrap heap soon. CBS' Close To Home, about a suburban mom who happens to be a really, really good prosecutor, is averaging 10 million viewers over its two airings, just a few thousand more than what an over-the-hill Judging Amy mustered in that time period before getting axed. Just saying. With the exception of Amazing Race, Bruckheimer is finding it hard to expand beyond straight-up crime procedurals.
Better than expected
CBS' Ghost Whisperer (11 million), and Fox's Prison Break, (9.4 million), a preposterous drama about a guy who breaks into prison to break out his innocent brother, was on the air two weeks before the official start of the season and has managed to hang on to most of its audience. ABC's The Night Stalker got off to a decent start, helped by a large sampling of male viewers, who, instead of watching Inconceivable, apparently felt more comfortable with the Stalker storyline where pregnant women were yanked out of their homes by scary beasts. You guys.
Worse than expected
Amy Grant's Three Wishes on NBC, the feel-good, three-hanky wish-fulfillment show, started modestly and dropped from there. Could be timing, as in giving fatigue, what with Hurricane Katrina. (So what does the show do? They help a Katrina family in a "special" episode.) The series seems like overkill. It's hanging on to about 6.8 million viewers in a weak timeslot where the wimpy CBS sci-fi series Threshold is the night's winner and the now unbearably over-the-top Kelly Ripa resides on ABC's Hope & Faith.
Then there's ABC's Alias, which left us with quite a cliffhanger, only to have 8.2 million viewers care. (Last week's airing lured only 7.3 million). With Jennifer Garner (and her character Sydney) in mom mode, it scared off men, who like to watch Garner beat up on people while wearing next to nothing. Pregnancy might be the new black among celebrities, but nothing drives away men quicker than seeing a woman with a baby looking all glowy. They'll take scary beasts any day.
http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/entertainment/television/12911046.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp
Great Idea. She could also play the attorney/ex on Prison Break, the frequent bikini wearing Lake Bell role on Surface and a new promiscuous survivor on Lost. ;)
Yes, yes and yes.. :D
A simpler idea: now that ABC has some ratings traction, just bring back "Karen Sisco", promote it in "Lost", "Desperate Housewives" and "Grey's Anatomy" and place it almost anywhere on the ABC schedule.
It would be a top 20 hit in a matter of weeks.
That's a great idea, and while we're at it, maybe NBC could replace E-Ring with Boomtown, I still can't believe they let that one go..
Let's hope CBS treats "Minds" with care. It really would be criminal to see this well-crafted gem go under.
I hope they do too, this one is a keeper in my book.
NBC gives Sorkin the green light
Two years after leaving "The West Wing," the writer-producer returns to network TV with a behind-the-scenes look at late-night comedy
By Scott Collins Los Angeles Times Staff Writer October 16, 2005
Writer Aaron Sorkin knows something about fighting with TV executives. Now he's decided to make a show about them -- and has persuaded NBC to fork over big money for the idea.
Two years after leaving "The West Wing," the long-running White House drama he created for NBC, Sorkin clinched a deal with the network for "Studio 7," a behind-the-scenes sendup of a late-night comedy series very much like NBC's "Saturday Night Live."
NBC, which beat out CBS for "Studio 7" after a lively bidding war, will pay at least $1.6 million per one-hour episode and is aiming for the fall 2006 schedule, according to an executive familiar with the deal. Warner Bros. Television, Sorkin's longtime studio home and the maker of "West Wing," will produce. Sorkin and frequent collaborator Thomas Schlamme are both aboard as executive producers, with shooting likely to start early next year.
"This project is a noisy, compelling combination of bold drama and laugh-out-loud comedy," NBC Entertainment President Kevin Reilly said in a statement on Friday. 10/14 "We're thrilled to again partner with this team on their next great NBC show." Sorkin and Warner Bros. declined to comment.
The deal has Hollywood veterans chattering for several reasons, including the fact that it represents the first TV series Sorkin has sold since leaving "The West Wing." "Studio 7" also underscores an emerging trend of TV executives buying "spec," or speculative, scripts, which are written before a network has agreed to back a project. Typically, established writers will not spend much time working on a program idea until a network has committed to the project in some fashion. But ABC's "Desperate Housewives" and NBC's "My Name Is Earl" — both bought on spec — have persuaded executives to pay more attention to writers' pet projects, according to several agents and executives interviewed for this article.
CBS, for example, earlier this month paid top dollar for a spec comedy called "Class" from former "Friends" executive producer David Crane.
"Studio 7" promises to take more than a few swipes at network executives and programming, and viewers likely won't have much trouble figuring out real-life inspirations for characters and plot points. In many cases, it's NBC taking it on the chin.
In a copy of the pilot script obtained by the Los Angeles Times, the executive producer of the "SNL"-type show has an on-camera meltdown, saying on live television: "This show used to be cutting-edge political and social satire, but it's gotten lobotomized by a broadcast network hell-bent on doing nothing that might challenge their audience."
Later, the producer attacks the network for programming that involves "eating worms for money." That might be construed as a none-too-veiled reference to the gross-out stunts on NBC's reality show "Fear Factor."
Hollywood satires have a mixed record on TV. HBO's comedy "Entourage" has strengthened its ratings, but a number of other recent experiments -- including Fox's "Action," the WB Network's "Grosse Pointe" and HBO's "The Comeback" -- have failed.
But Sorkin may have more colorful show-business experiences to draw on than most writers. When ABC insisted on using a laugh track to punctuate his short-lived ABC comedy "Sports Night," the writer-producer told the New Yorker that the experience made him feel "like I've put on an Armani tuxedo, tied my tie, snapped on my cuff links, and the last thing I do before I leave the house is spray Cheez Whiz all over myself."
A respected playwright and screenwriter (his play "A Few Good Men" was turned into a hit movie with Tom Cruise and Jack Nicholson), Sorkin became one of the most talked-about figures in the industry during his days running "The West Wing," which presents a fictionalized -- some might say idealized -- White House starring Martin Sheen as President Bartlet.
Sorkin was known as a workaholic who insisted on writing -- or rewriting -- virtually all the "West Wing" scripts himself. Critics particularly relished his rapid-fire dialogue and ability to manage large numbers of characters. But his work habits took a heavy toll; scripts were frequently delivered late, which caused widely reported production delays and costly budget overruns that were thought to be a factor in Sorkin's eventual exit from the series.
After "The West Wing's" second season, Sorkin was arrested at Burbank Airport on charges of possession of cocaine, hallucinogenic mushrooms and marijuana (the charges were later dismissed after he completed a rehabilitation program).
He once told TV Guide that he smoked crack every day while writing his 1995 film "The American President." "That is why it took me three years to write the script," he said.
http://www.calendarlive.com/tv/cl-et-sorkin17oct17,0,7382544,print.story?coll=cl-tv-top-right
ATSCguy
10-16-05, 10:42 PM
From http://nbcumv.com/sports/release_detail.nbc/sports-20051016000000-bestnotredamerati.html
ND-USC EPIC CONTEST EARNS BEST NOTRE DAME RATING IN MORE THAN A DECADE
NBC's Haden: "As Entertaining a Last Three Minutes of a College Football Game as I've Ever Seen"
NEW YORK - October 16, 2005 - Yesterday's USC-Notre Dame football game earned the best overnight rating for a Notre Dame game in more than a decade. The 7.9 overnight rating and 17 share was the highest since Notre Dame-Michigan earned a 8.4/21 overnight on Sept. 10, 1994.
The rating peaked at a 14.2/27 from 7:30-7:45 as USC QB Matt Leinert scored with three seconds remaining leading the Trojans to a dramatic 34-31 victory. Notre Dame had taken the lead with 2:02 left. No. 9 Notre Dame had been bidding to end No. 1 USC's 28-game winning streak.
Notre Dame on NBC analyst Pat Haden called the contest, "as entertaining a last three minutes of a college football game as I've ever seen."
The top-rated markets were: 1) Indianapolis, 14.7/30; 2) Los Angeles, 13.4/31; 3) Knoxville, 12.6/25; 4) Oklahoma City, 11.9/25; 5) Portland, 11.0/25; 6) Chicago, 10.7/24; 7) Birmingham, 10.4/19; 8) Boston, 10.3/21.
NASCAR ON NBC
NBC's broadcast of NASCAR Nextel Cup racing from Lowe's Motor Speedway in Charlotte, N.C., on Saturday night delivered the highest overnight rating in the history of the event. The 4.8 overnight rating and 8 share outperformed last year's 4.6/8, the previous high for the fall race from Charlotte, by 4 percent.
The top-rated markets for the race were: 1) Greensboro, 14.7/24; 2) Greenville, 14.1/23; 3) Charlotte, 13.9/24; 4) Knoxville, 11.2/19; 5) Indianapolis, 10.0/16.
DirecTV's Stock Has Taken a Beating. Is a Buyback the Fix?
By Geraldine Fabrikant The New York Times October 17, 2005
It has been a tough year for shareholders of the DirecTV Group, the satellite television company controlled by Rupert Murdoch.
Fears about competition from telephone and cable companies have buffeted its stock price, which has fallen 12.9 percent this year. The shares rose 19 cents, or 1.3 percent, on Friday to close at $14.57 on the New York Stock Exchange.
Anxious analysts who have endorsed the stock are hoping shareholders will get a Christmas present as a reward for their loyalty. On Dec. 23, a tax ruling that prohibited DirecTV from buying its own shares will lapse, clearing the way for the company to go on a buying spree if it chooses to do so.
The analysts point out that the company's healthy balance sheet would permit it to buy back the entire stake of 215 million shares, or 15 percent of the company, that is held by the General Motors Pension Trust, although few of them expect the company to authorize such an aggressive purchase.
But even a far smaller buyback might give a lift to the stock at a time of increasing concerns about cable competition.
The cable industry, itself under siege from both the telephone companies and satellite operators, is getting more aggressive at pricing its packages of video, data and voice services. Last week, Comcast, the nation's largest cable company, said it might join in a bid to acquire a stake in AOL from Time Warner, potentially allowing it to offer instant messaging and other AOL services to Comcast customers.
In June 2004 the Cablevision Systems Corporation introduced a "triple play" - phone calls, Internet access and television channels - for $89.95 a month. The offer jolted the industry. In just 12 months, Cablevision signed up 174,000 triple-play customers and added about 55,000 new subscribers, the first annual increase for the company in two years, bringing its total to 3 million subscribers. "Satellite had been eating our lunch," Cablevision's chief operating officer, Thomas M. Rutledge, acknowledged in a recent interview.
Although Cablevision raised the price of the triple play to $115 for subscribers signing up for a second year, Mr. Rutledge said that the churn, or turnover rate, among these subscribers was 18 percent lower than that of other customers.
The cable packages and Comcast's interest in AOL "appear to make the competition for home video subscribers more competitive," said Craig Moffett, an analyst who follows cable and satellite TV for Sanford C. Bernstein & Company.
Not that Cablevision has cornered the market. Last year DirecTV added 1.7 million new subscribers, and it added another 730,000 through the second quarter of this year, for a total of 14.7 million subscribers. That makes it the second-largest provider of multichannel home video after Comcast, which has 21 million subscribers.
In the second quarter that ended June 30, DirecTV reported a profit of $161.5 million, compared with a loss of $13.3 million a year earlier.
DirecTV's subscriber growth rate has slowed this year, but that may not be all bad. Chase Carey, DirectTV's chief executive, said the company had opted for slower growth as it tried to reduce last year's higher churn levels, which were partly a result of taking on too many customers with weak credit.
"We have recognized that our churn rate was too high, and we have been monitoring the credit," Mr. Carey said.
Aryeh Bourkoff, a media analy