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THE 2005-2006 TV SEASON
“Desperate Housewives” can survive the backlash
By Ellen Gray Philadelphia Daily News Oct. 25, 2005
With this week's Entertainment Weekly - Charlize Theron on the cover, "PLUS What's Wrong with 'Desperate Housewives' " - the "DH" backlash has officially begun.
Right on time.
Yes, folks, it's the second season of a hit show, one that became such a cultural phenomenon in its first year that even other networks cash in on its cachet (as CBS did last week in "CSI: Miami" and "Close to Home," which both featured suburban women running amok).
If we're following the "Ally McBeal" playbook, this is the year:
• That one or more of ABC's "Desperate Housewives" can be expected to go from skinny to scary.
• That critics will begin to complain that the show isn't nearly as good as it was a year ago.
• That the show's audience will largely stay put. And may even grow.
No one knows exactly why actresses on hit shows tend to lose weight after the first year or so - could there be something in the spotlight's glare that actually speeds metabolism? - but there's no mystery in the divide that often springs up between critics and fans as cutting-edge series become more familiar.
We critics tend to love new.
Viewers tend to love familiar.
This is why NBC's "ER" continued to attract huge audiences long, long after the creative thrill was gone, and it's also why the Peacock's former powerhouse is finally faltering: So many of the familiar faces are missing that County General finally feels like a real hospital, where the shifts change regularly and all patients see is a dizzying flurry of white coats.
It's true, as Entertainment Weekly's Henry Goldblatt and others have pointed out, that this season's "Desperate Housewives" haven't been spending as much time together as they did last season.
Lynnette (Felicity Huffman) has gone back to work full time, Bree (Marcia Cross) is dealing with the fallout, legal and otherwise, from her husband's fatal heart attack, Gabrielle (Eva Longoria) is often visiting her husband, Carlos (Ricardo Antonio Chavira) in prison, and Susan?
Susan (Teri Hatcher) has been running all over, coping with her boyfriend (James Denton), his possible offspring, Zach (Cody Kasch), her thieving agent (Wallace Shawn), and, of course, Edie Britt (Nicollette Sheridan), who's shacked up with Susan's ex (Richard Burgi) right there on Wisteria Lane.
Plus, the neighborhood's newest addition, Betty Applewhite (Alfre Woodard), has a possible murderer (Page Kennedy) locked up in her basement.
So it's not as if any of these women has been sitting around admiring her manicure.
They're just not hanging out together much.
Last season, I'd argued that one of the appeals of "Desperate Housewives" was the fantasy it created of busy women finding time for the kind of friendship that can be conducted around someone's kitchen table.
Sadly, it was a fantasy for a lot of women, who are as busy - if not quite so desperate - as Susan, Lynette, Bree and Gabrielle and whose kitchen tables may be too crowded with bills, school announcements and dioramas-in-progress to even manage breakfast with their families, much less coffee with the girls.
What some of them have managed to find, though, is an hour a week to spend with women whose problems make them laugh on the night before yet another busy week.
And it's going to take more than a few bad reviews to break up that friendship.
http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/entertainment/television/12989760.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp
TV reporters' windy blather does disservice to viewers facing disaster
By Hal Boedeker Orlando Sentinel Television Critic October 25, 2005
Another hurricane, another chance for Anderson Cooper to act like a fool.
Television relayed a lot of vital information Monday morning about Hurricane Wilma's march through Florida, but the silly moments overshadowed the substantial ones. One reason Floridians feel hurricane fatigue is reporters' stupefying willingness to stand in lashing winds and carry on like Indiana Jones.
In doing so, they transform reports into misguided adventures. Worse yet, they trivialize the disaster facing their viewers.
Setting the pace for hurricane hot dogs is Cooper, who never misses a chance to throw on his CNN slicker and let the winds pound him. He's an excellent anchor, but his hurricane observations are often lame.
Stationed at Marco Island for Wilma, he said, "It's actually kind of hard to breathe out here in this wind."
He marveled as the storm whipped up a hotel swimming pool: "It's an amazing sight."
Standing next to Cooper, colleague John Zarrella added, "I can barely hear what Anderson is saying."
Nothing worth hearing. This derring-do was needlessly dangerous. Gov. Jeb Bush rightly complained Monday that seeing "these characters" putting themselves in harm's way "creates a bad example."
But reporters keep putting themselves out there in the belief it will help their careers. Over on Fox News Channel, Steve Harrigan was busy dodging a big piece of flying roof in Everglades City. High winds pushed him across the screen as if he were a silent-screen comedian.
Those images gave way to bizarre banter, with an anchor wondering whether Harrigan had brought his protective glasses. "No," Harrigan said. "I could kill myself."
With no shame, Fox News followed that chatter with the report of a fatality in Coral Springs.
Trace Gallagher of Fox News kept viewers wondering whether he might blow away in West Palm Beach. The reporter gripped a garbage can and questioned a report that put the wind speed at 95 mph. "It feels a lot breezier where I am," he said.
Weird, but the oddest moment belonged to Al Roker of NBC's Today. In Naples, he revealed how a cameraman held his legs through gusty conditions. Katie Couric and Matt Lauer laughed at the antics, which weren't so funny when Roker fell.
Television journalists evidently don't feel any embarrassment about this showboating. As Florida struggled, CNN even repeated footage of its reporters weathering Wilma's winds.
The channel never misses a chance to promote itself. Miles O'Brien had CNN emblazoned on his slicker and his microphone as the CNN logo decorated the screen. But he took time to say, "CNN, your hurricane headquarters." An announcer immediately followed with: "CNN, your hurricane headquarters."
Will television's hurricane follies ever end?
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/entertainment/tv/orl-wtv2505oct25,0,1221382,print.story?coll=orl-caltvtop
Dolans drop plan to take Cablevision private
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS October 25, 2005, 10:22 AM EDT
NEW YORK -- The family that controls Cablevision Systems Corp., a major cable company in metropolitan New York, has abandoned a bid to take the company private after failing to agree to terms with the company's board of directors.
At the same time, the Dolan family also recommended that the company declare a special one-time dividend of $3 billion to all shareholders. The company said it would consider the proposal.
The news sent the company's shares plunging $3.30, or nearly 12 percent, to $24.50 in morning trading on the New York Stock Exchange.
http://www.newsday.com/business/ny-bzcabl1026,0,7602219,print.story?coll=ny-business-leadheadlines
Monday’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.
Dolans Withdraw Cablevision's Plans for Privatization
By Anthony Crupi MediaWeek.com October 25, 2005
Cablevision’s board of directors announced Tuesday that the Dolan family has withdrawn a $7.9 billion offer to take the company private.
In a statement issued Tuesday morning, the board said that Cablevision chairman Charles Dolan and his son James, the company’s president and CEO, have taken their proposal of June 19 off the table. The Dolans had proposed taking their cable operations private and spinning off the Rainbow Media unit, an umbrella for the company’s programming, sports and entertainment businesses.
While Cablevision offered no rationale for the about face, a letter from Charles Dolan to the board dated Oct. 24 stated that “it has become clear that we will be unable to reach agreement with the Special Transaction Committee on the terms of our proposal, despite good faith negotiations.”
Dolan also cited “a decline in communications sector valuations and an increased competitive environment.”
Additionally, the Dolans now recommend that the board consider declaring a one-time cash dividend of $3 billion. The board is said to be considering the dividend proposal, although no decision has been made as yet.
Wall Street hadn’t been supportive of the proposal, as analysts agreed that the Dolan bid was anywhere from $2 to $3 a share short of the company’s actual value. Shares of Cablevision have dipped 13 percent since the Dolans issued the proposal in June.
The decision to abort the proposal is the latest bombshell in a year that has seen Charles Dolan battling his son over the fate of the cash-hemorraghing Voom satellite TV service and Cablevision taking on the city of New York in a bid to block the erection of a multi-purpose arena near the Dolans’ Madison Square Garden.
Last week, Cablevision announced that the 50-year-old James Dolan had undergone successful coronary bypass surgery.
http://www.mediaweek.com/mw/news/recent_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001351187
For Immediate Release,
October 25, 2005
ESPN HD, ESPN2 HD AND ABC SPORTS HD COMBINE TO TELEVISE 24 COLLEGE BOWL GAMES
MORE THAN 600 TELECASTS SLATED TO AIR ON ESPN HD AND ESPN2 HD IN 2006
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ESPN HD, ESPN2 HD and ABC Sports HD will continue to expand their programming line-ups by offering 24 of the 25 post-season college bowl games on the networks services in high-definition December 20 through January 4. ESPN HD, ESPN2 HD and ABC Sports HD will deliver 16, three and five high-definition games in 15 days, respectively.
Beginning December 20 through December 24, ESPN's Bowl Road Trip will kick off with the New Orleans Bowl and continue on to Capital One Bowl Week on December 26, concluding with the BCS national championship game on ABC Sports HD from the Rose Bowl, Presented by Citi, on Wednesday, January 4 at 8 p.m.
“Offering 24 bowl games in high definition raises the bar and emphatically demonstrates our HDTV leadership,” said George Bodenheimer, president, ESPN and ABC Sports. “From affiliates of ABC, to distributors of ESPN HD and ESPN2 HD, and along with current and future sponsors, the message is clear - ESPN and ABC Sports are delivering the future of sports and technology.”
In continuing to over deliver high-definition inventory projected each year across both HD services, ESPN HD and ESPN2 HD will distribute over 600 event telecasts to fans across the country in 2006. Up from the projected 400 to the actual 468 delivered in 2005, ESPN continues to be at the forefront of the HD industry.
“Quantity is catching up with quality,” said Bryan Burns, vice president, strategic planning and business development. “When we launched ESPN HD we predicted we would display 100 events in its first 12 months of operation and it was a major accomplishment. Now 2.5 years later we have launched a second HD service and are planning for over 600 events. Our distributors and our fans are the clear recipients of this upswing in quality sports programming in high definition.”
In addition to the over 600 event telecasts ESPN’s two HD services will offer, all Bristol-based news and information programs such as shows SportsCenter, NFL Countdown, NFL Prime Time, NFL Live, Monday Night Countdown and Baseball Tonight, will continue to be produced and delivered in high-definition.
Highlights on ESPN HD and ESPN2 HD in 2005-2006 include over 150 men’s and women’s college basketball games, over 100 college football games, all 56 World Cup matches from Germany, and every Monday Night Football game, when it moves to ESPN next season.
24 BOWL GAMES ON ESPN HD, ESPN2 HD and ABC SPORTS HD
· ABC Sports HD’s five bowl games will include the four-game Bowl Championship Series, highlighted by the National Championship Rose Bowl Game Presented by Citi, and the Capital One Bowl.
· ESPN HD and ESPN2 HD’s 19 bowl games will be highlighted by Capital One Bowl Week, one of ESPN’s most-viewed weeks of the year, with 14 games in eight days, December 26 - January 2.
2005/2006 COLLEGE FOOTBALL POST-SEASON HD SCHEDULE
Tuesday 12/20
ESPN HD 8:00 p.m. ET New Orleans Bowl
Wednesday 12/21
ESPN HD 8:00 p.m. ET GMAC Bowl
Thursday 12/22
ESPN HD 8:00 p.m. ET Pioneer PureVision Las Vegas Bowl
ESPN2 HD 10:30 p.m. ET Poinsettia Bowl Presented by San Diego County Credit Union
Friday 12/23
ESPN HD 8:00 p.m. ET Fort Worth Bowl
Capital One Bowl Week
Monday 12/26
ESPN HD 4:00 p.m. ET Motor City Bowl
Tuesday 12/27
ESPN HD 5:00 p.m. ET Champs Sports Bowl
Tuesday 12/27
ESPN HD 8:30 p.m. ET Insight Bowl
Wednesday 12/28
ESPN HD 4:30 p.m. ET MPC Computers Bowl
ESPN HD 8:00 p.m. ET MasterCard Alamo Bowl
Thursday 12/29
ESPN HD 4:30 p.m. ET Emerald Bowl
ESPN HD 8:00 p.m. ET Pacific Life Holiday Bowl
Friday 12/30
ESPN HD noon ET Gaylord Hotels Music City Bowl
ESPN HD 3:30 p.m. ET Independence Bowl
ESPN HD 7:30 p.m. ET Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl
Saturday 12/31
ESPN2 HD 11:00 a.m. ET Meineke Car Care Bowl
ESPN HD 1:00 p.m. ET AutoZone Liberty Bowl
ESPN2 HD 2:30 p.m. ET EV1.net Houston Bowl
Monday 1/2
ESPN HD 11:00 a.m. ET Outback Bowl
ABC HD 1:00 p.m. ET Capital One Bowl
ABC HD 4:30 p.m. ET Tostitos Fiesta Bowl
ABC HD 8:30 p.m. ET Nokia Sugar Bowl
Tuesday 1/3
ABC HD 8:00 p.m. ET FedEx Orange Bowl
Wednesday 1/4
ABC HD 8:00 p.m. ET Rose Bowl Game Presented by Citi (National Championship Game)
ESPN HD and ESPN2 HD
ESPN HD and ESPN2 HD will combine in 2006 to deliver over 600 major events plus over 2,000 programs totaling more than 6,000 hours in high definition featuring live programming, individual programs, movies and series from ESPN Original Entertainment plus news and information programming. Event telecasts will include a variety of match-ups from college football, the men’s and women’s College World Series, the Little League World Series, Major League Baseball, men’s and women’s college basketball, the National Basketball Association, Monday Night Football from the National Football League, the Women’s Final Four, the National Finals Rodeo, the National Hot Rod Association, the NCAA Frozen Four (hockey championships) and the FIFA World Cup from Germany. The ESPN Digital Center, a 120,000 square foot, state-of-the-art, all digital high-definition facility at ESPN’s headquarters in Bristol, Conn., began operation on June 7, 2004. The building contains over seven million feet of cable and three HDTV studios that are home to Bristol-based news and information programs such as SportsCenter, NFL Countdown, NFL Prime Time, NFL Live, Monday Night Countdown and Baseball Tonight, all of which are produced in high definition. ESPN HD and ESPN2 HD are delivered to cable systems and satellite providers in the 720p high-definition format.
Source: ESPN Communications
A big Halloween helping of Peanuts
It's the annual “Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown”
By Diego Vasquez MediaLifeMagazine.com Oct 25, 2005
The leaves are falling and the air is thick with commercialism. Halloween is near, and one of the holiday’s greatest traditions, outside of making yourself sick on candy corns, comes tonight at 8 p.m. on ABC with “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown.”
“Great Pumpkin” premiered in 1966 and quickly became a classic. In this special, Linus awaits the Great Pumpkin, Snoopy battles the Red Baron, and Charlie Brown dons his multi-eyed ghost costume.
Though the animation looks prehistoric these days, the characters are as relevant today as they were 39 years ago. Linus, the 5-year-old equivalent of a great philosopher, is the eternal optimist, forever hopeful that the Great Pumpkin will arrive despite his friends’ and family’s doubts.
Like all men of faith, Linus is continually tested: “I've learned there are three things you don't discuss with people: religion, politics and the Great Pumpkin.”
His observations are also practical: “Never jump into a pile of leaves with a wet sucker.”
Meanwhile, Charlie Brown has some problems of his own. He receives rocks in his candy bag instead of treats. When the special first aired, hundreds of kids, sympathetic to his plight, sent bags of candy to Charlie Brown.
“Great Pumpkin” aired on the same night in the same timeslot last year, earning a 3.7 overnight rating among 18-49s, followed by “George Lopez.” Tonight, “According to Jim” has that honor.
http://medialifemagazine.com/artman/publish/article_860.asp
A base hit for returning “Prison Break”
Rises by 7 percent in 18-49s after baseball break
By Diego Vasquez MediaLifeMagazine.com Oct 25, 2005
Fox’s “Prison Break” got an early jump on the competition, debuting three weeks before premiere week, but that raised a question: How would it hold up against other first-run shows after taking three weeks off for the baseball playoffs?
The early answer is it will hold up just fine: “Prison Break” averaged a 4.7 Nielsen overnight rating among viewers 18-49 last night in its first new episode since Oct. 3.
The rating is the show’s second-best ever, behind only a 4.9 earned by the second of two episodes the night it premiered. Last night’s rating is also up 7 percent versus the 4.4 overnight 18-49 rating the show had averaged through seven previous episodes.
Though the show finished only third in its timeslot, its rating has to encourage Fox. It’s head-to-head against tough competition at 9 p.m. in ABC’s “Monday Night Football” and CBS’s “Two and a Half Men,” but it’s doing very well until proven hit “24” takes over the timeslot come mid-season.
And that’s with no lead-in to speak of. Yesterday Fox aired a “Prison” rerun at 8 p.m., which did much better with a wan 2.6 rating than usual lead-in comedies “Arrested Development” and “Kitchen Confidential” have been doing.
http://medialifemagazine.com/artman/publish/article_888.asp
Last week’s (week five of the 2005-2006 TV season) and the season-to-date network prime-time ratings are now at the top of RATINGS NEWS (the second post in this thread). The complete program-by-program list will be posted later today.
Inundated
10-25-05, 03:21 PM
24 of 25 ESPN/ABC bowl games in HD? Which one's the straggler, the "Toilet Bowl"? :D
Al Shing
10-25-05, 04:40 PM
2005/2006 COLLEGE FOOTBALL POST-SEASON HD SCHEDULE
Tuesday 12/20
ESPN HD 8:00 p.m. ET New Orleans Bowl
Where's this going to be moved to, and will it still be called the New Orleans Bowl?
It'll be in Lafayette, LA, (in 31,000-seat Cajun Field) and yes, it is still the New Orleans Bowl.
Check It Out!
If you haven’t yet checked out AVS Radio, which offers two new shows a week, what are you waiting for?
It is produced by The HTGuys for AVS Forum and offers news, interviews, and HT topics that are sure to make you a weekly listener.
Here is all the info you need:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/announcement.php?f=34&announcementid=81
Happy Listening!
THE 2005-2006 TV SEASON
Through Week Five: The Top 15 Shows
There are few big surprises so far this season, except, perhaps, for the strength of "Grey's Anatomy" on ABC and the absence of "Law and Order" from the top 15 list.
1. CSI: Crime Scene Investigation CBS
2. Desperate Housewives ABC
3. Without A Trace CBS
4. Lost ABC
5. CSI: Miami CBS
6. Grey’s Anatomy ABC
7. Commander In Chief ABC
8. NCIS CBS
9. (Tie) Survivor: Guatamala CBS
9. (Tie) NFL Monday Night Football ABC
9. (Tie) Law and Order: SVU NBC
12. (Tie) Two and a Half Men CBS
12. (Tie) Cold Case CBS
14. ER NBC
15. CSI: NY CBS
THE 2005-2006 TV SEASON
The WB’s “Supernatural” WB scares up some fun
By Scott D. Pierce Salt Lake City Deseret Morning News
When I was a kid, I used to love scary TV shows. Shows like "Kolchak: The Night Stalker," "Night Gallery" and repeats of the original "Twilight Zone." (Hey, even I'm not old enough to have watched them in first-run.)
Not that there have ever been a whole lot of shows that scare you.
These days there are plenty that gross you out, but genuine scares? Those are a lot harder to come by.
And combining scares with humor is even harder — and more rare — than that.
Which is why "Supernatural" is such a pleasant surprise. It's highly entertaining, often quite scary and has a sense of humor.
"Supernatural" follows brothers Dean (Jensen Ackles) and Sam (Jared Padalecki) as they travel around the country fighting all manner of evil. As we learned in the pilot, their mother was (apparently) killed by some sort of demon when they were very young. Which turned their father into a demon-hunter, with Dean and Sam as his assistants.
Sam tried to pursue a more normal life, but when his girlfriend met the same fate as his mother, he was back in.
"It's almost like these two guys are cowboys, and they kind of ride into town and they hunt down whatever's evil and hurting people in that town," said creator/executive producer Eric Kripke. "And then they kiss the girl and ride off into the sunset."’
Turns out Kripke had a darn good idea for the show, and it's worked better than I expected through its first half-dozen episodes. "Supernatural" is sort of the "Law & Order" of horror shows — it takes real urban legends (oxymoron though that is), twists them a bit and turns them into episodes.
There was that woman who appeared to travelers, then the travelers ended up dead. The wendigo. The ghost dragging people down in a lake. The spirit causing plane crashes. The shape-shifter. "The show is sticking to folklore and urban legend," Kripke said. "I have sort of a mandate to the writers that the show must be extremely Google-worthy."
Which is why, if you watched the episode titled "Wendigo" and then Googled the word, you'd find several hundred thousand entries somehow related the Native American legend of a murderous monster, of sorts.
Not that the show's young viewers necessarily need to be looking on the Internet. You should have heard the screams from the teenage girls who live in my house when the WB promo'd the episode about Bloody Mary. (Having never been a teenage girl myself, I was out of the Bloody Mary loop.)
But even I've heard of the Hook Man, a story that was old when I was a kid. You know — the guy with a hook for a hand who terrorizes and/or slaughters teenagers parked on a lovers lane of some sort. And the hook man is terrorizing a small Iowa town in tonight's episode of "Supernatural."
There have been moments of blood and gore — it's too intense for younger children — but compared to shows like "CSI" and "The X-Files," "Supernatural" is almost Disney-esque. "I think what works for our show is less-is-more," Kripke said. "And horror that happens in the shadows and what you can imagine is 50 times scarier than what you can see."
"Supernatural" is sort of the horror version of "Route 66," with the traveling pair of brothers and the monster of the week. But Kripke and his writing team do have an overall story arc going, too. Sam and Dean's father is missing, and they're trying to track him from haunting to haunting as they root out evil.
"I think there's an overall mythology to the show," Kripke said. "I think it's a very emotional one. I mean, it's about a family trying to reunite."
To date, that hasn't played a big part in the episodes, but it just might before long. "I'm not a fan, personally, of the endless tease of the shows that are all questions and no answers," Kripke said. "My own personal preference is to tease it out, create drama, but then answer some questions in a big, slam-bang episode and then ask several more difficult, larger questions.
"So, yeah, I think Dad may be making an appearance somewhere in the first season in some unexpected way."
Can't wait.
http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,635155834,00.html
24 of 25 ESPN/ABC bowl games in HD? Which one's the straggler, the "Toilet Bowl"? :D
At first glance, I can see a pair of bowl games the Disney press release missed:
the December 30th Sun Bowl (CBS)
and the January 2nd Cotton Bowl (Fox)
THE 2005-2006 TV SEASON
Spotlight: TiVo's most-recorded shows
Week of Oct 17-23
Rank Series Net Pct. Of TiVo Owners
1. Desperate Housewives ABC 30.2
2. Lost ABC 24.7
3. Grey's Anatomy ABC 19.4
4. CSI CBS 19.3
5. Survivor: Guatemala CBS 17.6
6. The Apprentice NBC 15.6
7. ER NBC 13.8
8. CSI: Miami CBS 13.4
9. Medium NBC 12.9
10. Commander in Chief ABC 12.5
Source: USA Today and TiVo, week of Oct. 16-22; based on an analysis of viewing preferences of an anonymous aggregate sample of 20,000 households; reflects recorded and live viewing of prime-time programs of the six major networks.
Xesdeeni
10-26-05, 09:23 AM
The WB’s “Supernatural” WB scares up some funI'll chime in here and say I'm really enjoying this show as well. It seems like every other show claims the "chemistry" between the main two characters is wonderful, but then I fail to see it. But I do like the byplay between the brothers. It's humorous and even for a rather video-experienced (meaning I've watched WAY too much TV and there isn't much that is new to me any more) old TV-aholic like myself, it is able to send a chill or two up my spine each week. If you haven't checked it out, give it a try. Unfortunately, it's on against several other shows you might find more interesting (House, Earl/Office, Commander in Chief, Amazing Race, etc.). But I'd really recommend that you set the VCR in the back bedroom to record it and check it out.
Xesdeeni
Last week’s complete program-by-program list of network prime-time ratings have been added to the top of RATINGS NEWS (the second post in this thread).
THE 2005-2006 TV SEASON: WEEK FIVE
Shows in Potential Ratings Trouble
If you are looking for hints about ratings problems for a specific show, one useful tool is to check the bottom-rated programs for each network.
So here are the bottom five shows (excluding specials, movies and repeats), by network, for the fifth week of the 2005-2006 season, the week ending October 23rd:
A B C
Rank Show Viewers (in millions)
68 Alias 6.78
71 Primetime 6.58
73 Hope & Faith 6.23
75 Supernanny 5.74
76 Hot Properties 5.63
C B S
Rank Show Viewers (in millions)
39 Close to Home 9.91
46 48 Hours Mystery 8.37
63 Yes, Dear 7.56
64 Threshold 7.45
67 Still Standing 6.98
Fox
Rank Show Viewers (in millions)
69 "NLCS Pre-Game 5 (Mon.) 6.77
83 Bones 4.46
85 Killer Instinct 4.30
91 Bernie Mac 4.00
94 Malcolm in the Middle 3.63
N B C
Rank Show Viewers (in millions)
52 Dateline: NBC (Sun.) 8.01
54 Will & Grace 7.88
56 The West Wing 7.85
61 Joey 7.60
70 Apprentice: Martha 6.62
UPN
Rank Show Viewers (in millions)
97 Love Inc. 3.14
99 Veronica Mars 3.05
101 Eve 2.66
105 Cuts 2.45
113 Sex, Love & Secrets 1.12
The WB
Rank Show Viewers (in millions)
96 Reba (Fri.) 3.34
98 One Tree Hill 3.12
104 Twins 2.49
108 Related (Mon.) 2.25
110 What I Like About You (8 p.m.) 2.15
“Over There" fails to draw big audience
By Ellen Gray Philadelphia Daily News Wed, Oct. 26, 2005
A few months ago, I thought FX's "Over There," Steven Bochco's all-too-contemporary drama about the war in Iraq, might become the most controversial series on television.
Certainly it had what it takes: blood, guts, a hot-button topic.
Everything, it now seems, but viewers.
Turns out even Bochco, whose "NYPD Blue" brought us Dennis Franz's naked backside and helped pioneer the use of certain words on network TV, can't do controversy in a vacuum.
If a tree strips naked and swears in the forest, will the Parents Television Council - or anyone else - be offended if there's no one there to watch?
Bochco, who just took over ABC's "Commander In Chief," may chafe at the content restrictions of broadcast television. But now that he's rejected all the conventional wisdom about dramatizing an ongoing war and produced a cable series that goes into tonight's (Wednesday, Oct. 26th) season finale having averaged just 2.2 million viewers - in recent weeks, it was more like 1.7 million - I'm betting the bigger, safer broadcast networks are looking better to him.
Which is too bad, because "Over There" - which wasn't all that shocking, if you could get past the fact that the war these guys were fighting is still going on - probably deserved a bigger audience than it's gotten.
But as one of the early fans who let episodes pile up in my DVR as the fall season began to claim my attention, I understand why so many shied away.
Watching a war with no clear end in sight doesn't sound like entertainment.
It can feel more like news.
And while it's easy to bash the people who'll stick a yellow ribbon on the SUV but don't want to think too much about what it is the troops most of us claim to support are going through, watching a television drama's not meant to be like eating your spinach.
Nor is it actually important.
It's telling that for all of the envelope-pushing on FX's "Rescue Me" and "The Shield," the network's most popular show - at 4.2 million viewers a week - remains an often farcical soap opera about plastic surgeons, "Nip/Tuck."
Tonight's "Over There" finale, which ties up a few storylines and leaves others open-ended, was written by co-creator Chris Gerolmo. Literally explosive in places, it's nevertheless subtler than the show's July premiere, and even if you haven't been watching regularly, you can see character development's occurred over 13 episodes.
Watching the last two back-to-back yesterday, it occurred to me that "Over There" is exactly the kind of show that could do well on DVD, the medium that allows viewers who get hooked on an entire season in a weekend.
Assuming, that is, you can get them to pick it up in the first place.
In the case of "Over There," it might be wiser to wait till whenever things are over, over there.
http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/entertainment/television/12998275.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp
Andrew Heyward Out At CBS News
Sean McManus To Be News and Sports Chief
By Sandy Brown TheStreet.com Staff Reporter
CBS named its head of sports, Sean McManus, to its top news position.
He'll replace Andrew Heyward, whose contract won't be renewed at year's end.
The appointment is effective Nov. 7. Heyward, who has held the post of President of CBS News for almost 10 years, will serve as an adviser to the CBS News Division and assist McManus in the transition.
CBS News came under heavy criticism last fall for running a story taking issue with President Bush's National Guard service in the early 1970s. After mounting a vigorous early defense of the story and its sourcing, anchor Dan Rather and CBS conceded that they couldn't confirm the authenticity of documents cited in the report.
The furor started with the Sept. 8, 2004, "60 Minutes" broadcast. After initially brushing off questions about the segment, CBS in mid-September started an investigation into the matter and said it would seek to get to the bottom of the dispute.
"Based on what we now know, CBS News cannot prove that the documents are authentic, which is the only acceptable journalistic standard to justify using them in the report," Heyward said Sept. 20. "We should not have used them. That was a mistake, which we deeply regret."
Rather, who reported the story, issued an apology.
"We made a mistake in judgment, and for that I am sorry," he said in September. "It was an error that was made, however, in good faith and in the spirit of trying to carry on a CBS News tradition of investigative reporting without fear or favoritism."
Heyward was spared the brunt of the ordeal last year, with CBS Chairman Les Moonves standing firmly beside him, but Rather soon announced his own retirement and a number of producers associated with the piece departed as well.
Meanwhile, Moonves has said repeatedly that it continues to be a major priority at CBS to modernize and customize the news to suit current audiences.
"I believe Sean's background has prepared him well for the significant tasks that face us at CBS News, and I am very pleased that we have such a brilliant executive within our management team who can take on this crucial role," said Moonves, in a statement.
"The business is changing and the challenges are many. I'm confident that, while maintaining the standards and values of this great organization, we can build upon its legacy and become even more successful, competitive and relevant to the viewers and the nation we serve," said McManus.
Of Heyward, who served the company for more than two decades, Moonves said, "Andrew is a man of great character, whose integrity and experience has guided our News division through a time of tremendous change in our industry," said Moonves. "I want to thank him for his unwavering commitment to the core values of journalism, and for his years of creativity, dedication and loyalty to this company. I wish him only the best and look forward with anticipation to what I'm sure will be an important next phase in an already-distinguished career."
http://www.thestreet.com/stocks/media/10249587.html
Tim Goodman Answers Viewer Questions
All the dirt on sci-fi shows and D.C. dramas
Rudi Bakhtiar's absence on CNN strongly felt
By Tim Goodman San Francisco Chronicle Wednesday, October 26, 2005
Before we get to the questions of choice, let's get to the obvious answer: Yes, your Fox shows will probably be coming back after the baseball playoffs. Why say probably? Because this is Fox, and there's no clear indication that it has planned anything beyond next week.
Also, I didn't get this question so I'll pose it myself: Why do cable TV reporters stand out in the wind and rain during hurricane coverage? A: Because they're morons and they don't know any better. And their bosses, particularly at CNN, think this makes for great television: "As you can tell, rain is pelting my pretty face, and the only thing keeping me from doing cartwheels right now is the hamburger I had two minutes ago. We are approaching Category 4 stupidity."
On to the real deal:
Q: Have you never reviewed Sci Fi's excellent series remake of "Battlestar Galactica"? Having read your reviews for the past few years and looking at the shows you've favorably reviewed, it seems like it'd be right up your alley (good character drama, great budget spent wisely on effects, political commentary and some nice darkish humor here and there). Now that I think of it though, you've never seemed too keen on the sci-fi flavored stuff. --- Dave Long, Novato
A: You're right, Dave. Never reviewed it. I like what I've seen but I'm not a faithful watcher. I do like some sci-fi stuff (I was essentially prodded by readers to jump on the "Farscape" bandwagon), but I find that with a lot of sci-fi material, if you get one part of the mythology wrong -- "Gorgon's wife, related to Vishnuzium by the blood of a dark arts cousin" -- the faithful blow up your e-mail. It's a mighty headache.
Q: I have a research job for you: What happened to Rudi Bakhtiar on CNN? She had to be one of TV's more engaging newscasters. --- Jonathan Bruce, Raleigh, N.C.
A: This is another of the most frequently asked questions, particularly from men. Bakhtiar, who was very high profile at CNN and a frequently ogled/googled/downloaded female media personality, has recently had some personal setbacks and been off the air. When contacted, this was CNN's official statement: "Rudi is no longer with CNN. She has recently gone through the protracted illness and ultimate loss of her father. She is taking this time to be with her family."
Q: What's the rationale for moving "The Apprentice: Martha Stewart" to 9 p.m. against "Lost" on Wednesday? Do the network execs think "E-Ring" can pull better numbers at 8 p.m.? While Mark Burnett may not be quite the god he once was, I think they wouldn't want to rub him the wrong way by putting his show up against one of the most popular shows on TV. --- Laurel Theren, Oakland
A: Martha's version of "The Apprentice" continues to slide and has been a huge disappointment for NBC and Burnett. Now Donald Trump is taking potshots at her -- this after NBC Entertainment President Kevin Reilly said the network had contemplated only one season of the show, which immediately won fall's Least Believable Statement. Though "E-Ring" has benefited from the move away from the "Lost" Death Star and NBC continues to spin the "Martha" ratings, there's no buzz for the show, the network is distancing itself from her and, in all likelihood, Martha's version will be a one-time experiment. By the way, Trump's original version has declined as well.
Q: Why can't HBO number their episodes on something like "Rome"? I think I may have missed one because I had to cancel my TiVo Season Pass (ran out of room), and don't know if I have them all to date. Or is there somewhere to look up what the episodes are so far?
My other pet peeve when setting a Season Pass is that when you designate "first run only," on shows like "The Daily Show" or "Hardball," all the numerous reruns for the day will record too, since they don't say "repeat." TiVo says they can do nothing about it. That's why I had to cancel my Season Pass on "Rome." --- N.B. Carlson, Saratoga
A: Almost every network and cable channel numbers or refers to the title of each episode, so you can keep track. HBO included. Check out their Web site. Also, a good resource for updates is www.epguides.com. As for your TiVo woes, they are my woes too. I called TiVo, and they said the problem stems from the listing service not indicating when a show is a repeat or not. They said this problem will be fixed -- hopefully soon. In the meantime, for anyone taping something like "SportsCenter" that repeats throughout the day, there's a work-around, according to TiVo: Go to TiVo Central, then "Pick Programs to Record," then "Record By Time or Channel," then "Manually Record Time/Channel" -- and you can prompt it for day, channel, start and stop time. That should eliminate repeat tapings. Whew.
Q: Can anything be done to get the producers of "Commander in Chief" to hire some decent writers? They have taken an interesting concept and thrown every TV plot cliche at it. --- Larry Klein, San Francisco
A: From your lips to Steven Bochco's ax, Larry. After taking over for Rod Lurie, who created the series (Lurie was ousted by the network, allegedly for being too slow with scripts, thus slowing down production, thus burning cash), Bochco has reportedly dumped more than half the show's writers. That should help.
Q: How are the ratings determined? More specifically, what is the math? It is something like Total TVs/TVs turned on/TVs tuned to a show? Or is it really just a room full of monkeys with darts and a dartboard, with the shows listed on it?
Also, how are ratings determined for cable shows (premium and regular cable)? Is the quantity of subscribers to that cable service taken into consideration? Or does HBO have to go straight up against NBC? --- Norm Stuart, Windsor
A: It's all those things, Norm, plus the monkey and the darts and a whole bunch of cheap booze. Nielsen Media Research says that a rating is "the estimate of the size of a television audience relative to the total universe, expressed as a percentage. The estimated percent of all TV households or persons tuned to a specific station." Got that? A share is a percentage of households or people "tuned to a specific program or station at a specified time."
Great, thanks, Norm. Half the people on BART just jumped to Jon Carroll. Ah, but there's more: According to Nielsen, there are 110.2 million "television households," which means that "a single national ratings point represents 1 percent or 1, 102,000 households."
Ad supported cable and pay cable also use Nielsen, though HBO and Showtime have said that ratings are pointless because of the lack of advertising. And yes, far fewer people get HBO than get NBC, so that skews total viewers. Much more important to HBO is buzz, which then prompts people to subscribe.
Q: My partner and I got an invitation from the Nielsen people the other day, asking us to become a member of the Nielsen family, but only if we were either single and living alone, or married (among other categories we did not fit, as a same-sex couple). Are these always the criteria that Nielsen uses to pick who gets to contribute to the Nielsen ratings, thus consistently excluding same-sex couples, and could this help explain why Nielsen ratings always seem so out of whack? --- Emily Griffen, Oakland
A: This is complicated and it's not, Emily. To get to the heart of your question, Nielsen doesn't discriminate based on same-sex couples, or any other qualifier. "Absolutely not," according to Anne Elliot, vice president of marketing communications for Nielsen Media Research. Elliot says that if there are, say, six people living together in a household, Nielsen doesn't care what they're doing inside or how they're related to each other, only how they're watching TV. Without knowing your exact circumstance, Elliot suggested that what most likely occurred is that an "initially designated household" in the random sample declined to participate, and Nielsen had to replicate, with an alternative home, the makeup of the previous household, thus the questions.
As for Nielsen being out of whack, well, until they come up with a way to show 10 million or more people watching "Arrested Development," I say the whole system is broken.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/10/26/DDGP4FDDE81.DTL&type=printable
Tuesday’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.
(From Marc Berman’s Wednesday, October 26, 2005 Programming Insider column at Mediaweek.com)
National Ratings in Primetime - Week Ending October 23rd
CBS Dominates; ABC and CBS on the Plus Side
CBS remained in the winner’s circle for this fifth week of the 2005-06 season, with a first-place finish in households, total viewers, adults 18-49 and adults 25-54. The Eye net has now won every week this season in households and total viewers, with its second consecutive weekly win (over ABC) among adults 18-49, and third in a row among adults 25-54. ABC was No. 1 in adults 18-34. Although the below-average Baseball World Series was still enough to lift Fox into the No. 2 spot in households, total viewers and adults 18-34, year-to-year the network struck out with losses of 49 to 55 percent in the five surveyed categories. That’s what happens when a New York team is not in the competitive mix!
CBS not only dominated, it outdelivered No. 2 Fox by a hefty 2.45 million viewers, growing over the year-ago week by as much as 11 percent. ABC was also on the plus, building by margins of 10 to 18 percent thanks to the success of Desperate Housewives, Lost, Grey’s Anatomy, Commander in Chief and Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.
Struggling NBC finished fourth across-the-board, declining by as much as 19 percent. An ongoing sore spot for the Peacock net remains relocated The West Wing, at No. 56 overall in total viewers (7.78 million) and tied for No. 69 overall among adults 18-49 (2.1/ 5).
The WB, which was close to year-ago levels, moved into the No. 5 spot, while last-place UPN was down in four of the five categories. Although UPN has flourished with Everybody Hates Chris (see below rankings), the rest of the network’s Thursday schedule -- Love, Inc., Eve and Cuts -- could use a major facelift.
George Thompson
10-26-05, 11:18 AM
Martial Arts From the Varicam POV
By Michael Goldman
Oct 25, 2005 2:26 PM
DP Tim Gordon gave Panasonic’s AJ-HDC27F 720p Varicam system a hefty workout during taping of a unique documentary called Fight Science, which is slated to air on the National Geographic channel early next year. The show documents the science of martial arts—painstakingly illustrating and measuring the force of blows and analyzing movement of fighters in a variety of situations. The scientists featured on the program use motion capture technology and ultra high-speed scientific cameras to conduct their analysis, but the workhorse for the entire show was the Varicam.
On other projects in the past, Gordon had always shot martial arts fights on film in order to alter frame rates to emphasize certain movements. But Gordon says his work on Fight Science has convinced him that the Varicam can be used in a very specialized way to highlight the movements of martial artists engaged in choreographed combat.
“I have shot choreographed fights in the past with John Brenkus (creator/co-producer/director of the show for BASE Productions, Washington D.C.), and he really prefers stylized fighting,” Gordon explains. “We shot some of that stuff 35mm in the past, but this show needed more flexibility than a 35mm shoot could provide since the schedule was very compact, and also because we were doing a variety of other things besides the fights—weapons demos, the documentary portions, the science stuff, and so forth—all on the same set and packed into the same schedule.
“The good thing about the Varicam was that the adjustable frame rate covered all our fighting needs and gave us all kinds of shuttered angles for the choreographed portions. Then, for the rest of the show, our operators could use the same system handheld to cover the other segments. Plus, we had to cover all the mo-cap sessions (which are featured as scientific content in the program, in addition to being used to animate digital versions of the fighters) under extreme low-light conditions. In other word,: we were serving a lot of masters and had limited ability to change our approach for each one. This format was the best one for that purpose.”
Gordon says the choreographed fights particularly benefited from his ability to alter frame rates, because it allowed him to capture specific moments in time.
“For each beat of a fight sequence there were certain punches, kicks, etc., that were points of emphasis, either to relate to the mo-cap animation or to illustrate the science,” says Gordon. “In order to capture these specific moments in time between two or more martial artists, overcranking was a must to clearly see these moments. To see a spinning kick at 60fps goes a long way in illustrating the complexity and level of difficulty, whereas at 24fps, the moment is so fast that you can’t understand the athletic ability, timing, and speed these athletes need to perform at this level. Sometimes we shot 6fps or 12fps just because we liked the motion, and it added a little flair to fight sequences.
“As for shutter angles, this system was valuable for understanding the weapons themselves, and how they are used either in attacking or defending. Using different shutter angles allows the eye to understand the path the weapon takes, and why that path makes it an effective weapon. It also gives the fight a hyper-real aspect which, in the end, creates a fight with more impact than shooting a standard frame rate and shutter speed. If you watch how fast these guys use nunchakus, for instance, and you shoot different shutter angles, you can actually see the pattern left by the chuk, like a tracer in the air. That gave us an excellent way to illustrate the movement.”
For a detailed look at all aspects of producing the Fight Science documentary, see the upcoming November issue of Millimeter.
George Thompson
10-26-05, 11:20 AM
SureWest Set to Offer HDTV Over IP Network
SureWest Communications is set to become the first company in the United States to offer high-definition TV (HDTV) commercially over its Internet Protocol (IP)-based fiber-to-the-premise (FTTP) network.
Beginning today, the Roseville, Calif.-based company will take its HDTV over IP beta testing out of the lab environment and into a broader production environment. This full-service round of testing will be the final stage leading up to SureWest's commercial HDTV deployment.
"Using IP technology over our fiber-optic network offers the potential for increased clarity to the HD experience and will allow SureWest to offer a variety of emerging video products, while maintaining the area's fastest high-speed Internet service," says Bill DeMuth, SureWest's vice president and chief technology officer. "The IP FTTP service delivery model provides flexibility and abundant cost-effective bandwidth to deliver voice and data services, as well as a host of interactive television capabilities with IPTV.
"This is more of what people are looking for from their televisions and we are excited to be at the forefront of this movement."
As part of its broadband growth strategy, SureWest has built an FTTP network throughout the Sacramento, Calif., region, passing more than 80,000 marketable homes. SureWest currently expects to launch HDTV over IP commercially in November 2005.
(From Marc Berman’s Wednesday, October 26, 2005 Programming Insider column at Mediaweek.com)
NEW SERIES RESULTS
Week Ending October 23rd
(Listed in order of viewership. Times are ET/PT. Fox’s Bones is excluded because it was a repeat telecast.)
Commander in Chief
(ABC, Tues. 9 p.m.)
Viewers: 16.30 million (#10)
A18-49: 4.3/11 (#23t)
Biggest surprise new hit of the season. Geena Davis – get your Emmy acceptance speech ready!
Criminal Minds
(CBS, Wed. 9 p.m.)
Viewers: 12.79 million (#21)
A18-49: 3.9/ 9 (#30t)
Even competing with ABC’s Lost cannot thwart the current appetite for crime solving dramas.
Out of Practice
(CBS, Mon. 9:30 p.m.)
Viewers: 12.25 million (#24)
A18-49: 4.3/10 (#23t)
Retention this week from lead-in Two and a Half Men was a still modest 79 percent in viewers and 78 percent among adults 18-49.
My Name Is Earl
(NBC, Tues. 9 p.m.)
Viewers: 12.19 million (#25)
A18-49: 5.6/14 (#11)
The lights are not totally dark at NBC.
Invasion
(ABC, Wed. 10 p.m.)
Viewers: 11.24 million (#30)
A18-49: 4.7/12 (#17t)
Considering lead-in Lost scored 21.38 million viewers with a 9.3/22 among adults 18-49, Invasion is really nothing to boast about.
Ghost Whisperer
(CBS, Fri. 8 p.m.)
Viewers: 10.55 million (#35)
A18-49: 2.9/10 (#48t)
On another evening, Ghost Whisperer would be a modest performer. But on the how HUT level Friday, it’s a hit.
How I Met Your Mother
(CBS, Mon. 8:30 p.m.)
Viewers: 10.14 million (#38)
A18-49: 3.9/10 (#30t)
Growth of 11 percent among adults 18-49 out of King of Queens is a positive this week.
Close To Home
(CBS, Tues. 10 p.m.)
Viewers: 9.92 million (#39)
A18-49: 3.3/ 9 (#40)
Certainly not great, but younger than former occupant Judging Amy.
Surface
(NBC, Mon. 8 p.m.)
Viewers: 9.56 million (#41)
A18-49: 3.0/ 8 (#45t)
Modest, but still better than expected as a replacement for Fear Factor.
E-Ring
(NBC, Wed. 8 p.m.)
Viewers: 9.55 million (#42), A18-49: 2.8/ 8 (#51t)
NBC has asked for three additional scripts above the initial 13-episode order.
Three Wishes
(NBC, Fri. 8 p.m.)
Viewers: 8.84 million (#44)
A18-49: 2.6/ 8 (#56t)
Series-high ratings for Three Wishes this week means a full-season renewal should be coming any moment.
Threshold
(CBS, Fri. 9 p.m.)
Viewers: 7.45 million (#64)
A18-49: 2.1/ 7 (#69t)
Series-low performance this week.
The Apprentice: Martha Stewart
(NBC, Wed. 9 p.m.)
Viewers: 6.62 million (#70)
A18-49: 2.6/ 6 (#56t)
What NBC should have done was rested Donald Trump for one season, and scheduled Martha’s version on Thursday. There was no need for two hours of The Apprentice, and the Donald has no one to blame but himself.
Everybody Hates Chris
(UPN, Thurs. 8 p.m.)
Viewers: 5.52 million (#77)
A18-49: 2.1/ 6 (#69t)
Bona fide hit for UPN.
Supernatural
(WB, Tues. 9 p.m.)
Viewers: 5.00 million (#80)
A18-49: 2.3/ 6 (#63t)
One bright in a sea of freshman mediocrity on the WB.
The Night Stalker
(ABC, Thurs. 9 p.m.)
Viewers: 4.51 million (#82)
A18-49: 1.6/ 4 (#88t)
Tick, tock…the cancellation clock is ticking.
Killer Instinct
(Fox, Fri. 9 p.m.)
Viewers: 4.30 million (#85)
A18-49: 1.7/ 5 (#84t)
Also waiting for the axe to swing.
Love, Inc.
(UPN, Thurs. 8:30 p.m.)
Viewers: 3.14 million (#97)
A18-49: 1.3/ 4 (#97t)
Considering the lead-in is Everybody Hates Chris, UPN should put this time period to better use.
Related
(WB, Wed. 9 p.m.)
Viewers: 2.28 million (#108)
A18-49: 1.1/ 3 (#101t)
The WB had better be patient.
Twins
(WB, Fri. 9:30 p.m.): time period debut
Viewers: 2.49 million (#104)
A18-49: 1.2/ 4 (#100)
Moving to Friday at 9:30 p.m. did not help.
Sex, Love & Secrets
(UPN, Tues. 9 p.m.)
Viewers: 1.12 million (#113)
A18-49: 0.5/ 1 (#113)
Thankfully, it’s now officially over.
http://www.mediaweek.com/mw/newsletters/proginsider/index.jsp
Change At The Top At CBS News
CBS.com NEW YORK, Oct. 26, 2005-- CBS News President Andrew Heyward announced Wednesday he would be leaving his post when his contract expires at the end of the year. Heyward will be replaced by CBS Sports President Sean McManus.
"After nearly ten years in this job … it's time for a change, both for the News division and for me," Heyward wrote in an e-mail to CBS News staff. Heyward is the second-longest serving CBS News president in history. Richard Salant ranks first.
McManus takes the reins of the news division Nov. 7, when Heyward is expected to begin coaching him on his new role. McManus will meanwhile retain his position as president of CBS Sports, which he has held since 1996.
Heyward has been with CBS for 24 years in various roles, including executive producer of the CBS Evening News and vice president of CBS News. Heyward said he will stick around until the end of the year, making himself available to the new president as an advisor as needed.
CBS Chairman Les Moonves praised Heyward upon the announcement of his departure.
"He is, quite simply, a man of great character, whose integrity and experience has guided our News division through a time of tremendous change, and I want to thank him for his unwavering commitment to the core values of journalism, and for his years of creativity, dedication and loyalty to this company," Moonves said in a message to CBS employees.
"Sean McManus is a superb executive, a great leader and a fierce competitor whose pedigree for excellence in live-event programming is well-known," Moonves said of the incoming president.
"I’m very excited about the opportunities that lie head," McManus said in a press release. "CBS News is a truly great institution, and its people have defined excellence in broadcast journalism since the beginning of the medium."
During his time at CBS Sports, McManus transformed it into the No. 1 broadcast organization of its kind in the industry. McManus, who will continue to be based in New York, will keep offices at the headquarters of both CBS Sports and CBS News, although he will spend the majority of his time at CBS News for the foreseeable future.
"The business is changing and the challenges are many," McManus said. "I’m confident that, while maintaining the standards and values of this great organization, we can build upon its legacy and become even more successful, competitive and relevant to the viewers and the nation we serve.”
Recently, Heyward had steered CBS News through choppy water, including the cancellation of 60 Minutes Wednesday, a news program he initiated. The broadcast of disputed documents pertaining to President Bush's National guard service that led to the dismissal of four CBS News personnel and long-time anchor Dan Rather's departure from the CBS Evening News.
Bob Schieffer now sits in the CBS Evening News anchor chair, and it is assumed that a new Evening News format is being planned.
Early Wednesday, Heyward wrote to staff: "As for my own plans, I do not intend to 'pursue other interests' or even 'spend more time with my family,' wonderful as it is. I am going to remain fully engaged in the media business."
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/10/26/national/printable981421.shtml
THE 2005 WORLD SERIES
Swat sweat: World Series is a sinker
Off 33 percent from last year and dropping
By Toni Fitzgerald MediaLifeMagazine.com staff writer Oct 26, 2005
The first three games of the World Series have been some of the most exciting in years, featuring a walk-off home run, a game-winning grand slam, and last night’s 14-inning, five-hour affair.
But thrilling baseball is not what draws postseason ratings. Popular teams do, and in that regard, the Chicago White Sox and Houston Astros have been miserable failures.
This year’s World Series is on pace to become the least-watched in history, averaging just 16.1 million total viewers for Games One and Two over the weekend.
That will fall off even more once final numbers for last night’s game, which lasted until 2 a.m., become available. Though viewership tends to peak after 11 p.m. for most Series games, only the most loyal fans stick around for games that run past midnight.
This year’s fall classic is pacing well behind the 2002 World Series, the last in which neither the Boston Red Sox nor New York Yankees appeared. That Series averaged 19.3 million total viewers for a seven-game nail-biter between the Anaheim Angels and San Francisco Giants.
This year’s average is 4 percent behind the 16.8 million two-game average for the 2002 Series. It’s also pacing behind the least-viewed World Series ever, the 2000 Subway Series between the New York Yankees and Mets, which averaged 18.1 million viewers over five games and 18.2 million through the first two. The Astros-White Sox are 12 percent below that average.
It’s a third behind last year’s 24 million average for Games One and Two, but Fox and Major League Baseball expected a significant dropoff. Last year featured the Red Sox trying for their first World Series win in 86 years, and ratings were inflated despite mostly dull baseball in a four-game Boston sweep of the St. Louis Cardinals.
The Series’ big problem is that both its participants are low-profile squads.
Though Chicago is the country’s No. 3 television market, the White Sox are not the city’s biggest baseball draw. The Chicago Cubs are, and before the Series, many Cubs fans swore not to watch their hated cross-town rivals attempt to win their first title since 1917.
The Series’ other participant, the Astros, come from the nation’s 10th-biggest TV market, but a significantly smaller one than Chicago, at 1.9 million homes to the latter’s 3.4 million.
Neither team has a strong national following, like the Red Sox or Yankees, and no storylines have arisen from this series that would interest the casual baseball fan, such as the curse of the Bambino that fueled last year’s series or a scrappy underdog making an unexpected run, like the 1997 and 2003 Florida Marlins.
This series also had to face ABC's dominating Sunday lineup in Game Two. The "Desperate Housewives" factor alone likely went a long way to chilling viewership.
Ratings usually rise through the course of a postseason series. But with the White Sox now up 3-0 and a sweep very much possible, the remaining game or games aren’t expected to improve.
http://medialifemagazine.com/artman/publish/article_893.asp
“Over There" fails to draw big audience
What a shame, TV this good is rare, it's too bad people are more interested in mindless entertainment instead of a well written and executed drama about current events. I guess folks would rather keep their head in the sand. Maybe some of the writing and directing talent from Over There will make it into CiC as CiC is fluff compared to Over There, it could use it.
THE 2005-2006 TV SEASON
A big autumn salute for CBS's “NCIS”
Third-year show up 21 percent over last season
By Diego Vasquez MediaLifeMagazine.com staff writer Oct 26, 2005
After an impressive summer in which it did very well in repeats, CBS’s “NCIS” has become Tuesday’s most-watched show, and its biggest surprise.
Last night’s episode of the Navy crime-fighting drama averaged a 4.1 overnight rating among 18-49s, up 21 percent over its 3.4 average through five episodes last year.
The third-year show has also taken off among total viewers. Last night’s episode averaged 17.2 million, up 100,000 over the previous week, and up 19 percent over last year’s 14.4 million to this point in the season. It was the most-watched non-sporting show of the night.
Last week “NCIS” set series bests in households, viewers 18-49 and 25-54s for the third straight week. It probably won’t reach the same levels when final numbers are released for last night, because timeslot competition was much tougher. But it may equal last week’s 4.3 final rating in 18-49s.
Last night ABC jumped 33 percent week to week in the 8 p.m. timeslot thanks to “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown,” while Fox jumped 153 percent with the World Series.
“NCIS’s” growth can be attributed to several things. First, without “American Idol” in the timeslot during the fall, viewers are looking for something else to watch. Second, the show received lots of publicity when Lauren Holly joined the cast over the summer, which led to some new viewership.
http://medialifemagazine.com/artman/publish/article_918.asp
Xesdeeni
10-26-05, 01:06 PM
What a shame, TV this good is rare, it's too bad people are more interested in mindless entertainment instead of a well written and executed drama about current events.Not to open up a political debate, but a group of Iraq veterans who screened the show said it did not reflect the realities they had experienced: http://mediachannel.org/blog/node/733.
Xesdeeni
CPanther95
10-26-05, 01:50 PM
The "gritty realism" is there - whether it is "real" or not. Over There is definitely in my Top 5 most-anticipated shows each week.
THE 2005-2006 TV SEASON
For ABC, sweeps could be a toughie
After its hot start, CBS is pulling ahead
By Diego Vasquez MediaLifeMagazine.com staff writer Oct 26, 2005
In the early weeks of the new season, anticipating November, it looked as though the sweeps rating period was ABC's to lose, with returning hits "Desperate Housewives" and "Lost" even stronger than last year and promising starts for new shows “Invasion” and "Commander in Chief."
Now, it looks as though ABC will be lucky if it ties or squeaks past CBS, in what looks to be the closest November sweeps race since NBC edged Fox by 0.1 in 2001.
Over the past two weeks, CBS has crept up, winning both weeks in adults 18-49. ABC’s 4.2 season-to-date average still leads CBS’s 4.0, but that slim 0.2 edge appears highly vulnerable, looking at some weaknesses that have popped up on ABC's schedule
ABC remains strong on Wednesday, but its overall rating for the night has slipped significantly over the first five weeks, from a 7.6 average in premiere week to a 5.7 last week, representing a decline of 25 percent.
The main reason is the falloff of “Invasion,” which airs at 10 p.m. following “Lost.” During premiere week the supernatural spooker pulled a 6.8 rating, holding 67 percent of “Lost’s” 10.2, but last week “Invasion” was down to 4.7, just half of “Lost's” 9.3.
For any other show a 4.7 would still be a respectable rating, but for one leading out of a top show like "Lost" it signals real trouble, with more likely to come. ABC's worry is that the pace of decline will pick up.
Also slipping is ABC’s formidable Sunday.
Last week, the network averaged a 6.8 rating for the night, its lowest of the season and down 13 percent from the 7.8 of premiere week. Some of the dropoff can be attributed to baseball, with Fox's Game Two of the World Series drawing some viewers away from ABC, but there's also been a slight cooling for "Housewives."
It's still the top show in primetime, and ABC is at no risk of losing the night. Yet any further declines, even modest declines, will hurt the network during sweeps.
Meanwhile, CBS is looking stronger after a slow start, with the “CSI” franchise performing well and its Friday lineup providing a boost over last year in 18-49s. It has also pulled solidly ahead among 25-54s after trailing ABC the first two weeks.
Looking ahead to sweeps, ABC's best hope may well be movies and specials scheduled through the month. Besides the annual American Music Awards, it will air movies “Catch Me If You Can,” “Pirates of the Caribbean” and “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.” How those do could well determine whether it can edge past CBS, or at least gain a tie.
http://medialifemagazine.com/artman/publish/article_892.asp
THE 2005-2006 TV SEASON
Last Week’s Top 15 Cable Shows
# Show Network Viewers in millions
1. WWE Raw (10 p.m.) USA 4.6
2. WWE Raw (9 p.m.) USA 4.3
3. Twitches DIsney 4.2
4. Casper Meets Wendy Disney 4.0
5. Nip/Tuck FX 3.8
6. Law & Order: SVU (Sat. 10 p.m.) USA 3.6
6. Little Vampire Disney 3.6
6. Laguna Beach MTV 3.6
9. NFL Prime Time ESPN 3.5
10. Zack & Cody Disney 3.4
11. Law & Order: SVU (Sat. 9 p.m.) USA 3.2
11. SpongeBob Nick 3.2
13. The O'Reilly Factor (Thur. 8 p.m.) Fox News 3.0
13. Avatar Nick 3.0
13. Law & Order TNT 3.0
Source: Nielsen Media Research and USA Today
THE 2006-2007 TV SEASON?
NBC, Bruckheimer Check Into the Hospital
By A.J. Frutkin MediaWeek.com October 26, 2005
The WB's Just Legal has flatlined. NBC's E-Ring is on life support. But that won't stopped Jerry Bruckheimer from entering the ER. Teamed with Seabiscuit writer/producer Gary Ross, the CSI uber-producer is developing a medical drama at NBC.
Titled Invisible, the series is set at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and revolves around a researcher tracking a mysterious illness.
On the comedy front, ABC is developing a hybrid multi-single cam sitcom about a recovering alcoholic. The project is from exec producers Dave Caplan (George Lopez) and Emile Levisetti (Hope and Faith).
http://www.mediaweek.com/mw/news/networktv/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001390399
The "gritty realism" is there - whether it is "real" or not. Over There is definitely in my Top 5 most-anticipated shows each week.
Same here, and I'll miss it when it's gone. Whether or not it's real or factually correct isn't the point, anything is possible and what they've portrayed is entirely plausible and that's what makes it good TV.
Heck, I feel I know these characters better than the ones on Alias, which I've been watching for 5 years.
THE 2006-2007 TV SEASON?
NBC, Bruckheimer Check Into the Hospital
Titled Invisible, the series is set at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and revolves around a researcher tracking a mysterious illness.
Didn't NBC already do this? Medical Investigation I believe was the title..maybe JB's golden touch will bring something better this time.
In TV, everything old is new again -- sometimes even within the same season
SVonhof
10-26-05, 02:56 PM
THE 2005-2006 TV SEASON: WEEK FIVE
Shows in Potential Ratings Trouble
Fox
Rank Show Viewers (in millions)
69 "NLCS Pre-Game 5 (Mon.) 6.77
83 Bones 4.46
85 Killer Instinct 4.30
91 Bernie Mac 4.00
94 Malcolm in the Middle 3.63
Funny how last night, before the game, Fox was showing long commercials for it's gem, "House" but also showed commercials for Bones and Malcom that I saw. They felt so strongly about this that they didn't even show the throwing of the first pitch until the game was already underway...
I think "Bones" will ultimately be fine, Scott, but "Malcolm" may be about out of steam.
I'd rather see Fox try to save "Killer Instinct" which I think has some promise. But it may already be too late for that.
And, of course, there may not be many more World Series games to use as promotion vehicles.
In TV, everything olk is new again -- sometimes even within the same season
True. :D
I think "Bones" will ultimately be fine, Scott, but "Malcolm" may be about out of steam.
I'd rather see Fox try to save "Killer Instinct" which I think has some promise. But it may already be too late for that.
And, of course, there may not be many more World Series games to use as promotion vehicles.
I think Killer Instinct has promise as well, the pilot sucked, but the cast change from ep 2 on was a definite improvement. Kristin Lehman is far more engaging than either of the 2 males leads in fact.
President of CBS News Steps Down
By Jacques Steinberg The New York Times October 26, 2005
The chairman of CBS, Leslie Moonves, announced today that he was replacing the longtime president of CBS News, Andrew Heyward, with the longtime president of the network's sports division, Sean McManus.
In a conscious nod to Roone Arledge, who oversaw both the news and sports divisions at ABC for more than a decade, Mr. McManus, 50, will similarly serve in both capacities at CBS. But Mr. McManus will face challenges that simply did not exist in Mr. Arledge's time, as CBS - and other television news divisions, to say nothing of newspapers - struggle to find new ways to captivate viewers who are increasingly defecting to newer outlets like Fox News and Yahoo, and increasingly skeptical of journalists as a whole.
Mr. McManus's most immediate challenge will be to develop the next incarnation of the "CBS Evening News," which has been led on camera, since April, by Bob Schieffer, whose tenure has always been characterized as temporary. It has been nearly a year since Mr. Moonves said he was seeking to blow up what he has described as the "voice of God" single-anchor format for the nightly news in favor of something more innovative - a quest that has thus far proved elusive.
In succeeding Mr. Heyward, whose contract expires at the end of the year, Mr. McManus inherits a once-vaunted news division - symbolized by Edward R. Murrow, whose legacy is celebrated in the current George Clooney movie "Good Night, and Good Luck" - that is now reeling on several fronts.
Last fall, the news division was upended by the fallout from a report, first broadcast on the weeknight edition of "60 Minutes," that purported to present new details about the Vietnam-era National Guard service of President Bush but was later discredited after the network acknowledged it could not vouch for the documents on which it was based.
Mr. Heyward - who, at least initially, fiercely defended the report and the documents, despite fundamental questions raised immediately about their authenticity - managed to hold on to his job in the months afterward. But few others involved in the production of the report did. Dan Rather, the correspondent on the report and the anchor of the "CBS Evening News" for nearly a quarter century, stepped down as anchor in the spring, a year earlier than he had planned.
Meanwhile, after an outside panel concluded that the disputed report had been rushed onto the air under competitive pressure and never should have been broadcast, Mr. Moonves fired the segment producer, Mary Mapes, and demanded the resignations of three other top journalists, including Betsy West, a senior vice president, who was one of Mr. Heyward's chief deputies.
While Mr. Heyward, president of CBS News for nearly a decade, survived that period, he has failed, in recent months, to meet Mr. Moonves's mandate of developing a successor to the broadcast led by Mr. Rather and now Mr. Schieffer.
"Clearly there's a need for a different vision for CBS News," Mr. Moonves said today in a telephone interview. "Obviously the evening news is one issue that has sort of been on hold for a while."
"This has been a very difficult year for CBS News, for Andrew, for other people in CBS News," Mr. Moonves added, a moment later. "I think it was a mutual decision. Andrew's been head of CBS News for a long time, longer than anyone else in many years. It was just time."
And, Mr. Moonves added, "we had another extremely talented executive right down the hall."
Mr. McManus, who has been president of CBS sports since 1996, is the son of the legendary ABC sportscaster Jim McKay, whose legal name is McManus.
In an interview today, Mr. McManus said he faced a steep "learning curve," but said that there were many similarities between sports and news, not least the necessity of enlisting good story-tellers capable of working on deadline pressure and often live.
While saying he and Mr. Moonves had already begun to discuss ideas for the next "CBS Evening News," he said he was not prepared to share any details of what that format might be.
"One of the things we're going to look at very closely is putting together the best ensemble," he said. "Whether that involves having an anchor or not having an anchor, it's way too premature."
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/26/business/media/26cnd-cbs.html?ei=5094&en=1acca29a2bd1b5b8&hp=&ex=1130385600&adxnnl=1&partner=homepage&adxnnlx=1130353996-UbQUK9/iGhQFjI8azP1YvA&pagewanted=print
THE 2005-2006 TV SEASON
Missing persons
Audiences turn away from crime dramas. The suspect: show cloners
By Scott Collins Los Angeles Times Staff Writer October 26, 2005
The nation's crime wave — the one on TV, that is — may have peaked.
Ratings for some of prime time's top crime shows, such as NBC's "Law & Order" and CBS' "CSI" franchise, have slumped this fall, raising suspicions about the genre that sustained network drama departments for years before "Desperate Housewives" and "Lost" came along.
Executives say that so-called procedurals, which use the crime-solving process to advance plots, still have plenty of life. But there are growing signs of a shakeout on the way.
"It started to become a little bit overstated that, 'Well, a procedural will work,' " NBC Entertainment President Kevin Reilly said this week. But "if you bring on a generic show, odds are it's not going to do particularly well."
Added Nina Tassler, president of CBS Entertainment: "The whole [television] landscape is more competitive. You can't deny that."
Consider, as "Dragnet's" Det. Joe Friday might say, just the facts about two high-profile Wednesday shows.
"Law & Order," now in its 16th season and the forerunner of virtually all of today's top procedurals, has seen a 16% slide among the advertiser-friendly young-adult audience compared with last year, according to figures from Nielsen Media Research (the show is down a more modest 5% in total viewers, to 12.9 million). "CSI: New York," which like "Law & Order" airs at 10 p.m., has shed an alarming 29% of its young-adult audience and 23% of its total viewers (to 14.3 million), although it's still the most-watched program in the time slot. Both shows have been heavily affected by ABC's new thriller "Invasion."
Any declines among young adults are especially worrisome to TV executives because those viewers are considered very hard to win back, advertisers pay premium rates to reach them and their viewing habits are often predictive of general audience trends, researchers say.
Crime is paying smaller dividends on other nights too. CBS' "CSI: Miami" and NBC's "Law & Order: Criminal Intent" have each slipped 19% in viewers ages 18 to 49 this season. Even "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," the smash hit that unleashed the forensics craze back in 2000, has stopped increasing its total audience and is down 6% in young adults, though the show remains No. 1 in the ratings. The drop-offs are especially noticeable when compared with overall network performance: No. 1-ranked CBS is up 1% this season in total viewers, to 12.9 million, followed by ABC (11 million, up 12%), NBC (9.5 million, down 5%) and Fox (8.9 million, down 20%).
Among the few crime shows bucking the trend are two spinoffs, NBC's "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" and CBS' "NCIS" (which followed "JAG"), which have both posted gains across the board this season.
But generally, the outlook for procedurals is one of decline, and many TV veterans say there's no mystery why: In addition to the competition from new hits like "Lost," there are simply too many look-alike crime shows.
Of course, me-too programming is a time-honored TV tradition. The surprise success of ABC's "Lost" last year brought a spate of supernatural-themed shows this season. CBS' "Survivor" series spurred a reality gold rush that is only now abating. What makes the procedural dominance unusual is that it's lasted for so long and spawned so many shows.
Blame "television's unalloyed penchant for wretched excess and cloning," said Tim Brooks, a TV historian and executive vice president of research at Lifetime Entertainment. The procedural genre, he added, is "beginning to show signs of wear."
Crowded field
Mysteries and crime shows of various stripes occupy just under half of CBS' weekly schedule, including a two-hour block of repeats dubbed "Crimetime Saturday." Add the three "Law & Order" shows on NBC and there were already very few time slots for any new procedural that would not put it in instant competition with a similar show on another network. And yet this season has somehow brought even more.
CBS recently ordered more episodes of "Criminal Minds," a profiler show starring Mandy Patinkin that has delivered respectable if not enormous ratings. Fox has gotten into the act with a modestly successful forensics show called "Bones."
CBS' Tassler disputes the idea that the genre is overcrowded, arguing that each of the shows has certain story and character elements that set it apart.
"The only thing I take a little bit of offense with is to sort of lump them all into one thing," she said. "We have viewers that are really attracted to shows that have a crime-solving, mystery or procedural element…. The fact that 'Criminal Minds' is certainly showing signs of growth [proves] that our audiences are still responding to shows with those kinds of elements."
Others take a different view.
"There are too many procedurals," said "Law & Order" creator and executive producer Dick Wolf. "Most of these shows will go away over the next couple of years." He added: "I certainly don't think any of the 'Law & Orders' or 'CSIs' fall into that category."
Wolf is doing everything he can to make sure his shows aren't among the dropouts. He is still seething that NBC canceled a third spinoff, "Law & Order: Trial by Jury," after 12 episodes last spring. He has long said he wants the original "Law & Order" to stay on the air at least 21 years, thus beating CBS' western "Gunsmoke" as TV's longest-running drama.
NBC has strong incentives to help him achieve that goal. The network acquired the studio rights to the entire "Law & Order" franchise as part of its merger with Universal, and repeats earn high ratings on NBC's cable networks USA and Bravo, as well as on Time Warner's TNT. NBC estimates that the three shows reach 100 million viewers per month, and its total ad tally for the franchise amounts to a reported $1 billion annually.
"Company-wide, in the television business, there's no bigger asset," Reilly said. (NBC Universal, a unit of General Electric, also has interests in motion pictures and theme parks.)
Like Tassler, who says "CSI: New York" is finally on track creatively after a shaky first season, Wolf said "Law & Order" is being reinvigorated by the addition of a new "show runner" this fall, Nick Wootton. "No one is throwing any darts at the show creatively," he said.
"Law & Order," though, may be a victim of its own success, because it inspired the creation of a host of other procedurals that now threaten its existence. The original show is in many ways a throwback to Jack Webb's pioneering cop drama "Dragnet" — a pure procedural that generally ignores what detectives and prosecutors do in their off-duty hours. Each episode's two-part structure, one focused on crime detection, the other on the criminal courts, initially confused some viewers, Reilly said. That problem was solved partly by the voice-over introduction that has become the show's signature: "In the criminal justice system, the people are represented by two separate yet equally important groups … "
As "Law & Order" grew its audience, it gradually became impregnable on Wednesday nights. And NBC, which has had trouble finding a new runaway hit drama after "ER" debuted in 1995, came to rely increasingly on the show and its spinoffs ("SVU" arrived in 1999 and "Criminal Intent" in 2001).
"It seemed there for quite a while that the only thing that would work was a procedural," Reilly said. "Certainly during the reality craze, we were having a hard time finding any dramas that could match the firepower of a reality show."
Wolf said that a big part of "Criminal Intent's" current decline is due to its unforgiving Sunday time slot: "I don't know any other shows that could have stood up against the tsunami that 'Desperate Housewives' is." The Wednesday "Law & Order," he added, has suffered from a weak lead-in, "The Apprentice: Martha Stewart."
Wolf says that NBC has grown "overly reliant" on the "Law & Order" franchise. At the same time, he remains unhappy about the fate of "Trial by Jury," which focused on the preparation behind criminal trials.
"It never should have been canceled," he said.
Reilly said the audience for "Trial by Jury" skewed older than NBC would have liked. "It was a tough year to add a new addition to the brand, and I think [the show] didn't get off to a particularly strong start," he said.
But then, Wolf doesn't have too much cause to worry. NBC is already working with him on another series. It's — you guessed it — a procedural about assistant district attorneys called "Conviction."
Viewers may find the show familiar in more ways than one. As Reilly noted, the new show will use "Trial by Jury's" old sets.
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=34
THE 2005-2006 TV SEASON
WATCH list
Five TV actors you don't want to miss
By David Kronke, Los Angeles Daily News Television Writer
You know them when you see them: They're supporting characters on your favorite TV shows whose scenes seem to pop just a little more than the others, whose presence elevates a good show to great and a great show to bliss.
In other words, they're folks you wouldn't mind seeing more of.
Here, the Daily News offers five of its favorite supporting players.
Lisa Edelstein, "House" (9 p.m. Tuesdays, Fox all times are ET/PT).
Edelstein wrote and mounted her own musical about AIDS before she was 21. "That's the time in your life to do those impossible things; nothing has really broken you just yet," she explains with a laugh.
So clearly she has the moxie to tangle with Hugh Laurie's acerbic curmudgeon on Fox's hit medical drama "House." As House's boss, Dr. Lisa Cuddy, Edelstein gives as good as she gets, and if you don't discern a whiff of flirtatiousness between the two, you're not paying attention.
"There's definite chemistry," she says. "Cuddy enjoys his brilliance, humor and gall. I wouldn't say there won't be something between them in the future. I'm enjoying getting to that point. It's more interesting, in the end, than two characters just crashing together."
Nonetheless, Cuddy has been subtly undercut on the series by high-profile guest stars: Chi McBride as a hospital administrator last season, and, currently, Sela Ward as House's old flame.
"In both circumstances, those characters brought a lot of parallels to what Cuddy does," Edelstein says. "It forced my character to have to step up."
Seeing that House had a relationship with a woman not unlike Cuddy, Edelstein says, "lays a nice foundation for our two characters. Ultimately, that's not a bad thing."
Pauley Perrette, "NCIS" (8 p.m. Tuesdays; CBS).
Perrette declines to take credit for the popularity of her character, cheeky goth-girl lab tech Abby Sciuto, on the popular military crime procedural "NCIS."
"(Series creator) Don Bellisario did an amazing thing when he cooked up Abby," Perrette enthuses. "When he created 'Magnum, P.I.,' Vietnam vets were mainly being portrayed as junkies, crooks, complete messes. He created a vet who was doing fine to give people another angle on a stereotype."
In the same way, Abby offers viewers a portrait different from the kid lounging outside Amoeba Records on Sunset Boulevard.
"He's presenting a character that to some people has an extreme kind of look and dress, but there's nothing about her that isn't completely competent," Perrette says. "She's smart, together, focused and excellent at her job. Young people tell me, 'My grandfather loves you.' She spans a lot of gaps. She may sport dog collars and tattoos, but she's so incredibly smart, there's no way you can't respect her."
Perrette admits the cast was nervous when Sasha Alexander decided to exit the series. "Summer was, wooo - scary," she says. "No one in our show wanted to change the dynamic at all. I told Don, 'I don't care who you cast, but please make them cool and fun, no prima donnas." Lauren Holly and Cote de Pablo joined the cast, meeting with Perrette's approval: "Not only was my wish granted," she says, "but granted twice."
Tom Amandes, "Everwood" (9 p.m. Thursdays; The WB).
Amandes, who plays the wryly, weasly (if occasionally redeemable) Dr. Abbott, is apparently a favorite of series creator Greg Berlanti as well. "Greg told me, "If I get stuck while writing an episode, I just write a Dr. Abbott scene,"' Amandes says. "They're fun, but I suspect Greg has more Dr. Abbott in him than he'd care to admit."
Even if Amandes doesn't get more screen time, his presence will continue to be felt: He directed his first episode last season and will do a couple more this year. Before this interview, he had just finished scouting locations in Utah, where the series is shot, "driving from one mountain to the next."
Though Abbott is one of "Everwood's" flies in the ointment, Amandes plays him with such wit that when he and Treat Williams' Dr. Brown square off, one is never sure who'll deliver the final bon mot. Amandes significantly humanizes his character, as well.
"The saving grace for Dr. Abbott is how much he loves his family and how much he is loved by them," Amandes notes. "Early on, they said, 'We're going to do great stuff with your character.' I've learned to take such pronouncements with a grain of salt, but Greg remained true to his word. They can throw anything at Dr. Abbott - any situation, dramatic or comedic - and have fun with him. He's a fun guy to play."
Enrico Colantoni, "Veronica Mars" (9 p.m. Wednesdays; UPN).
"Veronica Mars' " sexy, street-smart teenage detective (Kristin Bell) and deadpan dialogue has made the show cool, but Colantoni brings it warmth. He co-stars as Veronica's divorced father, Keith, a sheriff-turned-private-investigator who recruits his daughter for many of his cases.
Colantoni credits his and Bell's chemistry: "It was immediate. ... My only concern was, she's so cute and blond and blue-eyed ... how will anyone buy me as her father?" he says. "She's adorable, she's funny, and she does no wrong. Thank goodness - if she was bratty on any level, I would hate to come to work."
The actor also finds resonance in the father-daughter relationship. "They're underdogs who have fallen from grace," he notes. "They constantly get knocked down, but they always get back up."
Veronica begins her second season and senior year of high school simultaneously, which might make an actor playing the father of a clever girl wonder how much longer he's going to be viable on the show.
"I brought that up right away," Colantoni says, adding with a laugh, `I'm not so good at math, but if she's in her senior year, and she wants to go to Stanford, those plans might not include her father."
Series creator Rob Thomas has told him not to worry. "If this is a story about black sheep, and she goes to Stanford, she has nothing to be upset about," Colantoni reasons. "She has to get stuck at a local school so she can stay angry."
Diane Farr, "Numb3rs" (10 p.m. Fridays; CBS).
Before the calculating crime procedural "Numb3rs" even began its second season, we knew we'd want to see more of Farr's new character, FBI agent Megan Reeves. How? By watching season two of FX's terrific black-comedy/drama, "Rescue Me."
Farr co-starred as Laura Miles, who joined a machismo-dripping firehouse (led by Denis Leary's Tommy Gavin), confronting rampant misogyny and her inevitably doomed attraction to womanizing co-worker Franco (Daniel Sunjata).
"With every card on the table, she pulled the joker, the one that'd bring her down," laughs Farr. "The thing you fear the most in life will be the thing you run toward the fastest."
Farr spent three weeks traversing the country twice a week, finishing her work on "Rescue Me" while beginning it on "Numb3rs." Already she's noticed a difference between the two sets: On "Numb3rs," "There's not as much testosterone."
Maybe, but there's just as much estrogen. Megan will clearly learn nothing from Laura's mistakes. "At the moment, Megan will be throwing it around the math department and seeing where it may land over there," suggests Farr, referring to the university department that employs her partner's brother (David Krumholtz), who offers technical assistance on crimes.
"I'm thrilled. Either one I find totally impressive. David Krumholtz and Peter MacNicol - can I please see if there's anything there."
http://www.dailynews.com/entertainment/ci_3149740
CBS has selected the Alabama-Mississippi State game for its SEC HD telecast for Nov. 5th.
The football (college and pro) HD listings are now complete through November 5th under Latest News, the first post in this thread.
THE 2005-2006 TV SEASON
WATCH list
Five TV actors you don't want to miss
By David Kronke, Los Angeles Daily News Television Writer
Enrico Colantoni, "Veronica Mars" (9 p.m. Wednesdays; UPN).
The actor also finds resonance in the father-daughter relationship. "They're underdogs who have fallen from grace," he notes. "They constantly get knocked down, but they always get back up."
One of the things I noticed about Veronica Mars outside of it being super cool. The father character was not an idiot or bad guy. It just seemed to me that most shows going for the teen to 30 something demographic its always a rotten father or hes a complete moron. I find it refreshing that in Veronica Mars that the father character is actually a decent guy.
I agree.
It just goes to show not every TV show is written by the same six people (although it often seems like that is the case).
THE TV ON DVD REVOLUTION
“Lost” Weekend: A Season in One Sitting
By Stephanie Rosenbloom The New York Times Oct. 27, 2005
Robert Michelin’s landlord was worried. She lived downstairs from him and had not heard a noise, not so much as a footstep, in his apartment for two days. Mr. Michelin himself was weary, and his girlfriend was too.
"You should have seen the two of us in our P.J.'s," Mr. Michelin, 23, a student of ethnomusicology who was then living in London, wrote in an e-mail message, "exhausted from lack of sleep, hungry at times, stressed at other times, elated and shocked most of the time."
"But," he added, they were "determined to complete the season." The entire second season of the television show "24," that is. Mr. Michelin, who now lives in Freeport, N.Y., was holed up in front of the television in a marathon viewing of 24 episodes of that hit series on DVD. "We did not see the light of day until we were done," he wrote.
Thousands of television series, from the era of "I Love Lucy" to that of "Curb Your Enthusiasm," are newly available on DVD'. They have already made an impact on people's precious leisure time and given new meaning to the concept of the lost weekend. Viewers cram a 13-episode television series into one gluteus-numbing session in front of the set, forgoing sit-down dinners, party invitations and all manner of social obligations as they revisit a favorite series like "Lost" or "Six Feet Under," or catch up on what all the fuss was about.
Almost since the advent of television, viewers have parked themselves on La-Z-Boys to binge on football or old movies. And in recent years, some network and cable stations have shown old series like "The Brady Bunch" back to back. But only recently have viewers had the technology - which besides DVD's includes on-demand satellite and cable channels and digital video recorders like TiVO - to screen for themselves the entire second season, say, of "The X Files," which is packaged on seven discs.
"About 70 percent of all TV DVD titles have been released in the last year, so it's a pretty new phenomenon," said Ted Sarandos, the chief content officer for Netflix, the online DVD rental company. And the market is only expected to grow. "They're cramming over a weekend," he said. "A month's worth of viewing in one sitting."
Three years ago, only about 230 series were commercially available on DVD, Mr. Sarandos said. Today there are about 2,000; critically acclaimed favorites like "24" and "The Sopranos," but also oddities like "The A-Team," "Knight Rider" and "MacGyver."
The Netflix DVD's currently most in demand, Mr. Sarandos said, are "Lost," "Six Feet Under," "Chappelle's Show" and the original BBC version of "The Office." (The all-time favorite television DVD from Netflix is Season 5 of "The Sopranos," he added.)
Jan Saxton, a film entertainment analyst at Adams Media Research in Carmel, Calif., said that studio revenue from television-show DVD's was $2.3 billion in 2004, up from just $132 million in 2000.
"That's a huge jump in four years," Ms. Saxton said. The growth is expected to continue, reaching $3.1 billion in 2006, she said, adding, "The big money is in the current hit shows that are coming right off the TV."
Bruce Gersh, the senior vice president for business development for ABC Entertainment, said DVD's help build brand awareness. One of ABC's aims in making the first season of "Lost" available to buy or rent was to pump up anticipation for the second season, Mr. Gersh said.
He was not worried that DVD sales would encourage viewers to skip watching the original broadcasts, eroding the audience that advertisers pay the network to reach.
"We obviously look at it as an opportunity to gain new fans as well as to gain new revenue stream," he said. "It's a great promotional vehicle for the series."
Some marathon episode-watchers are fans who want to see a favorite series uninterrupted by commercials. Others are catching up on the early seasons of shows they have just begun to like. Then there are those people who intentionally miss new episodes of a favorite series, preferring to see them all at once on DVD, like an epic film. Fans of "24," in which each episode is a consecutive hour in a single day, are famous for this.
"You can't stop," said Kimberly Dolan, 32, a lawyer in Manhattan who discovered the series after it became a hit. "It leaves you on a cliffhanger every week."
On one particular "24" binge, Ms. Dolan ran to her local video store at midnight to get the next "24" DVD, only to find that she was not alone in her need; several other people were looking for "24" DVD's.
Marathon viewing of series is creating a new breed of television aficionados, some say, people with a sharper eye for narrative twists, suspense techniques and character development. Like film buffs they become familiar with the names of the directors and writers of a series, pick up on nuances others may have missed and acquire a deeper appreciation of plotlines.
"From a dramatic standpoint the characters really come alive," said Jason Treat, 31, of Washington, who once watched more than 20 hours of "Twin Peaks" in what he described as a "spooky" house in Baltimore. "You become much more invested in what's going on."
That people can find such large chunks of time to devote to television does not come as news to John P. Robinson, co-author of "Time for Life: The Surprising Ways Americans Use Their Time," which reported that people have much more free time than they think they do: from 35 to 40 hours a week.
"Television is just about half of free time," said Dr. Robinson, a professor of sociology at the University of Maryland and director of the Americans' Use of Time Project, which collects diaries from thousands of people about their daily activities. "It's the 800-pound gorilla of free time."
Seven Rivera, 31, a lawyer, once squeezed five full seasons of "Gilmore Girls" into two months, though he said his most impressive DVD marathon was when a snowstorm caused his office to close and he spent about 22 hours watching the entire first season of "Angel."
Such devotion means that every now and then he must decline an invitation to happy hour. He has been known to turn off his cellphone and later claim that it died. His more creative excuses include informing callers that he and his roommate are engaged in a John Madden PlayStation tournament or that they cannot go out because they purchased an "Ultimate Fighting Championship" from pay-per-view.
"You make up a reason," Mr. Rivera said, "because you can't say you're not going out on a Thursday night because 'I'm going to see how this 'Gilmore Girls' ends.' "
Dave Kass, 28, who works in public relations in Manhattan and who used to watch "Real World" marathons on MTV with a girlfriend, recently purchased a digital video recorder, the better to enjoy marathons of favorite shows like "Deadwood," "Curb Your Enthusiasm" and "Entourage."
"My DVR is my new girlfriend," Mr. Kass said. "And she does whatever I tell her to do."
While watching so many consecutive hours of television might be considered antisocial, series marathons can also be a way for people to share with others a show they are already hooked on, or to trade DVD's.
"We want to introduce them to friends and family," said Gillian Crippen, 27, of Northampton, Mass., who along with her husband, Andrew, 28, is a fan of the BBC series "The Office." The Crippens have given "The Office" DVD's to Ms. Crippen's sister, shown them to friends and taken them on trips.
Harlan Eplan, 40, part owner and a vice president of a technology company, said that he, his sisters and their 77-year-old father all enjoy watching Bravo's marathon broadcasts of previous seasons of "The West Wing," so that viewing becomes a family affair, even if they are not physically together.
Impatience with the weekly suspense built into a television series is another reason people prefer watching one episode after another. "You don't have to wait," explained Laurie Dawson, 41, a massage therapist from Manhattan, who usually complements her marathons with Indian food. "It's immediate gratification."
Alan Cohen, 39, a journalist in Manhattan, agreed. "Lost" is the most recent show he watched continuously. He had missed most of the first season and did not want to start watching halfway through so he simply waited for the DVD box set to come out.
"There's something exciting - and probably tremendously sad - about finishing one episode of "Lost" and knowing you've got another one all ready to fire up," he wrote in an e-mail message. "No more of this waiting-a-week-to-find-out hassle. It's like finding a cache of Playboys as a kid. One Playboy was cool, but it was so much better knowing you've got all these other Playboys on deck, ready to go."
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/27/fashion/thursdaystyles/27dvd.html?pagewanted=print
CBS Sports Chief Also Will Head News Division
By Howard Kurtz Washington Post Staff Writer Thursday, October 27, 2005; C01
Sean McManus, the president of CBS Sports, didn't have any trouble naming his professional role model during a conversation last month with his boss.
The son of legendary sportscaster Jim McKay, McManus spent much of his childhood in control rooms with ABC sports impresario Roone Arledge, including during the terrorist attack at the 1972 Munich Olympics. So he told CBS Chairman Les Moonves that Arledge was his idol.
And what, Moonves asked, had Arledge accomplished that McManus hadn't? The answer was obvious: Arledge went on to run ABC's news division at the same time as its sports empire. "Bingo," Moonves said.
McManus, 50, was "totally taken aback," Moonves recalled yesterday as the network announced that its top sports executive was also being put in charge of CBS News, replacing Andrew Heyward.
"Look, this guy is a phenomenal executive," Moonves said. "He took CBS Sports from being a doormat to being t