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Critic’s Notebook
No news is good news with Couric rumor
Couric? That's just putting a wig on a T-Rex.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/12/05/DDG73G23CI1.DTL&type=printable
Well said by Mr. Goodman! I watched NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams for the first time last week. :-) They don't get it I find my news on the internet, then cable news channels and rarely on the "big 3". It is amazing how far in the past these people live.
My family finally all gets home around 6 p.m. CST. We usually eat dinner together. Usually by the time my wife and I are ready to settle down to watch the tube it is after 8 p.m. Networks news? Not on the radar. I usually have read the latest 2-3 times throughout the day on the Internet or tuned in to Fox News at some point in the early afternoon. My wife is too tired to care she just wants her Lost, Survivor, Bones, NCIS, or House. I think we are a pretty typical family.
To me all of this ties in neatly with the cable and sat companies not wanting to go ala carte. Don't they understand that I want to watch what I want to when I want to and not have to pay more for than I should have to for it?
I think Apple and Tivo get it.
Loving all the one stop shopping info Fred...keep it up! :)
News notes from Sky Report
Support Grows for a la Carte
Support continues to surface for a la carte options, an issue that gained attention last week after Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin suggested cable/satellite TV program choice should be given more consideration.
Gene Kimmelman of the Consumers Union said Martin should be commended "for striking at the heart of the cable industry's flawed pricing model which forces people to buy packages of television channels they don't want and shouldn't have to pay for."
He added, "Cable companies and broadcasters have fought a la carte pricing for years, hiding behind the fallacious argument that popular and unpopular programming had to be bundled together to keep all programming afloat."
Phone interests, lobbying for telcos preparing to enter the video business, also voiced support for a la carte.
Said Walter McCormick, CEO of Washington, D.C.,-based USTelecom, "In today's dynamic communications market, consumers win when they have a choice in service providers and among offerings for video services. A la carte pricing is just one more example of the endless possibilities for consumers when selecting video services."
As for others, the new talk surrounding a la carte may be a "sign that the benign regulatory environment for the cable industry is starting to cloud up some," said Blair Levin of Stifel Nicolaus.
"While we remain skeptical that government will be able to impose indecency or a la carte regulation/legislation on cable for now, the issues do give policymakers increased leverage across several fronts," Levin said. "We doubt cable can afford to simply stiff-arm regulators and legislators on indecency and a la carte without jeopardizing their interests in bigger fights over broadband network neutrality, telco video franchising, digital TV multicasting must-carry obligations and cable price increases."
More DirecTV HD Locals on the Way This Week
DirecTV's local HD slate is set to grow again later this week.
Local HD from the satellite TV service will launch this Thursday in Boston, Washington, D.C., Tampa, Dallas and Houston.
In early November, DirecTV launched HD locals for Atlanta, San Francisco, Chicago and Philadelphia. Its first market for the high-def offering was Detroit.
DirecTV has been launching satellites and rolling out advanced set-top boxes in certain cities as part of its local HD channels push. The company has said it wants to deliver more than 1,500 local and more than 150 national HD channels and other advanced programming services to consumers nationwide by 2007.
Bodenheimer Would Welcome iPod Distribution Deal for ESPN
By Jay Sherman TVWeek.com December 5, 2005
ESPN's top executive said Monday that the sports programming powerhouse would consider striking a deal to distribute content to iPods, though no talks have been held yet with iPod maker Apple Computer.
Speaking at an investor conference sponsored by UBS Securities, George Bodenheimer, co-chairman of The Walt Disney Co.'s media networks division and president of ESPN, said the channel is platform-agnostic and is "looking to distribute our content anywhere we can."
In October, ESPN sibling ABC struck a landmark deal with Apple to offer for $1.99 per download episodes of series such as "Desperate Housewives" and "Lost" a day after they air on ABC. The alliance has triggered a tidal wave of deals from other broadcast networks looking to distribute content in alternative formats.
http://www.tvweek.com/news.cms?newsId=9000
Comment: How could it possibly work, George. Would every iPod owner (like every cable, telco and DBS subscriber) have to pay for ESPN content, whether they watched or not?.
Or perhaps, in this case, would an a la carte arrangement work OK for you?
Just wondering. [/B]
Well said by Mr. Goodman! I watched NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams for the first time last week. :-) They don't get it I find my news on the internet, then cable news channels and rarely on the "big 3". It is amazing how far in the past these people live.
Unfortunately we waste a lot of time each day surfing the web for a piece here and there, and sitting through those back-and-forth yell-fests that all too often pass themselves off for cable "news." Way too often, they spend inordinate amounts of time arguing about issues with absolutely no gravity for most of the country.
There's something to be said for watching a nice, tightly-produced 30 minute show and spending the rest of the night doing something worthwhile -- walking the dog, checking out the band at your neighborhood bar, watching Lost or My Name Is Earl, etc. -- rather than spending hours being a slave to the cable news ticker.
Personally I agree with both dline and with cgh3rd.
I don't think the nhetworks get it at all -- and certainly how little interest (beyond the back-of-the-book closing story, about anything out of the Washington-NYC corridor.
A well-done 30 minute (well, 21 minutes with commercials) network newscast would be a welcome addition. Though I doubt in the current Madison Avenue climate of the 18-49 demo is all-important, that it will happen.
A Critical View:
Has Larry kicked it to the “Curb”?
The “Enthusiasm” star winds up Season 5, and possibly his series, with an outlandish episode
By Paul Brownfield Los Angeles Times Staff Writer December 6, 2005
When Larry David came back to write the "Seinfeld" finale, he decided to leave his four characters to posterity in a jail cell — imprisoning them, finally, for being uncaring and self-involved, dangerous to the social order. This was David's closing argument, a twist that enabled the episode to act as a comment on all the celebrated, much-quoted behavior of nine seasons.
Sunday night, in what was officially the finale of the fifth season of David's "Curb Your Enthusiasm" but felt, maybe, like a bigger kind of finale (the episode was called "The End"), Larry finds out he's actually the product of Gentile parents and converts from nettlesome Jew to beneficent Christian. He gives up his kidney to an ailing Richard Lewis, only to discover on the way to the operating room that the private investigator tracking down his birth parents has made an error. A near-death experience finds him on his way to the afterlife, where he's bounced back to Earth after an argument with a heavenly guide (Dustin Hoffman) over the proper system for storing DVDs.
The whole dying process is played as you might imagine Larry David playing it — the weightiest of occasions undermined by petty arguments. In heaven, Larry is berated by his mother, who is played by Bea Arthur ("Who goes around giving their kidney to people? Idiot!" she greets him), while around his deathbed his loved ones haggle over the Blue Book value of a Prius.
It was David throwing the petty fights in which his show has trafficked, the molehills made into mountains, into heightened relief. His whole conversion to the good in himself, followed by the inevitable going-down-with-the-ship of his innate personality, had that "Seinfeld" finale self-awareness to it, even if nobody was saying that this was the end of "Curb."
True, last season ended in grandiose fashion too, with David starring in a Broadway production of "The Producers," but visually and contextually this was a further reach — Larry on a horse in Arizona, Larry hurtling into the afterlife. It didn't entirely work. "Curb" has always been better going for smaller versions of comedic triumph. The show at its best can seem to be about watching David meander from deli to doctor's office to cocktail party, infecting the entire Westside of Los Angeles with his obsession and shame reflexes.
In this, "Curb" became influential, a show that not only lent a certain vogue to the idea of improvising dialogue but also tipped off other comic artists that exploring the obnoxious side of show business personality, in real-time, vérité style, was the way to go. And so you got Kirstie Alley in "Fat Actress" and Lisa Kudrow in "The Comeback," and both proved that what David did looked deceptively easy.
"Curb" has been criticized this season for having played itself out, although the show has essentially remained unchanged — David fantasizing into his id and producing moments, if not entire situations, pitched to articulate the paranoia and social phobias and comical asides that human beings don't otherwise express.
He's the outside voice where most of us would keep it inside, a fact reflected back at him by a strong ensemble cast that plays this well. Having had its debut during HBO's powerhouse Sunday night lineup, coming on after "Sex and the City," "Curb" seems more naked now as the network's fortunes on the night have changed.
Then too, the form of the series has become familiar to viewers, and the same thing that happened to George on the later seasons of "Seinfeld" has happened to David on "Curb Your Enthusiasm": The comedy of him comes across as louder and more obvious.
And yet, it can be hard to determine whether "Curb" has changed or the audience has changed around it. In Season 5, as in Season 1, the smaller predicament builds to the bigger one — like the "Curb" of a few weeks ago, in which Larry tries to curry favor with the head of a kidney transplant consortium and ends up stranded at episode's end on a ski lift with the guy's Orthodox Jewish daughter, who panics that she can't be with a man at sundown.
We know the show's biorhythms by now, so an episode like "The Ski Lift" doesn't play as memorably as, say, "The Doll" from Season 2, in which Larry cuts off the hair of a little girl's doll, causing unimagined repercussions. That life should be good but is fraught with tumult at every turn is the place from which each "Curb" starts.
David took this to a more symbolic place Sunday night; even when we're dying, the other kind of tsimmes doesn't abate. "Curb" was kind of an accident to begin with — an HBO special David did about returning to stand-up comedy post-"Seinfeld" that blossomed into a series — so it would not be out of context for the show to depart on parallel terms.
However far it has fallen off the cultural radar, there's still some kind of touchstone in its complaints.
http://www.calendarlive.com/tv/cl-et-ontv6dec06,0,1365741,print.story?coll=cl-tv-top-right
Vargas, Woodruff Share Thoughts About Future of 'World News Tonight'
Anchor Duo Accepting Job With "Enormous Excitement," "Profound Sense of Responsibility"
(ABC News press release and transcript of comments on Monday’s “World News Tonight”)
Dec. 5, 2005 — - ABC News President David Westin announced today that beginning Jan. 3, ABC News' Elizabeth Vargas and Bob Woodruff will co-anchor an expanded version of ABC News' flagship broadcast "World News Tonight."
Appearing on tonight's broadcast, Vargas and Woodruff told viewers the following:
Elizabeth Vargas: Before we leave you tonight, a few words about the future. ABC News announced today that Bob Woodruff and I will be taking over as co-anchors of "World News Tonight" at the beginning of next year. It's a job we accept with enormous excitement and a profound sense of responsibility.
Bob Woodruff: Over the coming months and years, Elizabeth and I will do everything we can to preserve the traditions and standards that have made this broadcast great. You'll see us here in the studio but more often than not you will find one of us on the road. We will cover the world relentlessly and we'll take some chances in how we go about it when we think we can make a difference.
Vargas: We are, as Bob said, committed in every way to maintaining the standard of excellence established by Peter Jennings. We are also dedicated to the idea that this institution exists to serve you. And in order to stay vital it must evolve, which is why we're going to make the program available in some new ways. After the new year we'll begin a separate West Coast edition. It will be broadcast live. The goal: to serve people in that part of the country long after the lights go dark in most major television news organizations. And we're going to make some changes to recognize the inescapable fact that technology has changed our lives. We'll anchor a live webcast every afternoon that will be available pretty much anywhere there's a screen. And you'll be able to find large portions of "World News Tonight" online throughout the day.
Woodruff: It will be "World News Tonight" for the digital age. No longer confined to the evening, and no longer just on television. And yes, we will try to make Peter proud.
http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/print?id=1374555
PJO1966
12-05-05, 08:54 PM
“24" PREQUEL NEWS
This week's Season 4 DVD release of Fox's ”24 “features a "miniepisode," about 10 minutes in length, that bridges the gap between last season, at the end of which Jack staged his death, and the new one, which begins unspooling Jan. 15. Per Variety, the "prequel," set 14 months after the Season 4 finale, kicks off with a clandestine meeting between Jack and Chloe and ends with Kim being devoured by a mountain lion. OK, wishful thinking on that last part.
http://tvguide.com/news/entertainment/
Don't tease us with stories about Kim getting eaten by a mountain lion. It's not right to get our hopes up about such things.
Since I have no desire to pick up the DVDs, I hope they stream that 10 minute clip on-line somewhere.
That was just the TV Guide guy's sense of humor!
To my mind, Kim should have been offed midway through Season 1. That would have saved lots of groaning throughout the nation since then.
Don't tease us with stories about Kim getting eaten by a mountain lion. It's not right to get our hopes up about such things.
Since I have no desire to pick up the DVDs, I hope they stream that 10 minute clip on-line somewhere.
Here:
http://24natic.atspace.com/Season5/prequel.htm
or here:
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=DIHYI0GJ
Beware the ads from megaupload though. They are everywhere
Given that there so much in the news lately about the network news programs, I like to post the cable news prime time numbers on occasion.
(Remember that the third-rated "CBS Evening News" gets about 6.5 million viewers each night.)
Cable News numbers
The Scoreboard: Friday, Dec. 2:
Total viewers:
(All are averages at any given moment in the time period)
Total day:
FNC: 948,000
CNN: 408,000
MSNBC: 235,000
HLN: 202,000
CNBC: 179,000
Primetime:
FNC: 1,780,000
CNN: 705,000
MSNBC: 329,000
HLN: 379,000
CNBC: 138,000
25-54 demographic:
Total day:
FNC: 241,000
CNN: 109,000
MSNBC: 84,000
HLN: 87,000
CNBC: 50,000
Primetime:
FNC: 293,000
CNN: 151,000
MSNBC: 103,000
HLN: 129,000
CNBC: 93,000
The hourlies:
(Average of Total Viewers)
7pm:
Shepherd Smith: 1,219,000
Wolf Blitzer: 408,000
Chris Matthews: 364,000
Showbiz: 146,000
On The Money: 117,000
8pm:
Bill O'Reilly: 2,447,000
Paula Zahn: 467,000
Nancy Grace: 563,000
Keith Olbermann: 376,000
Apprentice: 193,000
9pm:
Hannity & Colmes: 1,548,000
Larry King: 885,000
Rita Cosby: 311,000
Prime News: 287,000
Mad Money: 97,000
10pm:
Greta van Susteren: 1,347,000
Anderson Cooper: 763,000
Joe Scarborough: 300,000
Grace repeat: 288,000
Donny Deutsch: 123,000
11pm:
O'Reilly repeat: 1,097,000
Cooper: 490,000
Situation: 124,000
Showbiz repeat: 223,000
Apprentice repeat: 130,000
http://mediabistro.com/tvnewser/ (from FTVlive.com)
dturturro
12-05-05, 10:27 PM
A well-done 30 minute (well, 21 minutes with commercials) network newscast would be a welcome addition. Though I doubt in the current Madison Avenue climate of the 18-49 demo is all-important, that it will happen.
Tried suggesting the BBC news on PBS the other day. It's exactly what you say we don't get: facts, WITHOUT opinions. It's left to you to decide what you think. No bells and whistles, just facts. And yes, they cover American news, not just world news. And, NO commercials! :D
I guess we will have to (I hope respectfully!) disagree, dturturro.
I have seen the BBC news. It is fine. Ostensibly dry and "fact"-filled.
But one man's "fact" is surely another's opinion.
Having spent a lifetime in journalism (and having seen the BBC's product for much of that time) I can assure you that the BBC of today is a mere shadow of its storied past. Just as CBS is no longer the Murrow network.
IMO the Beeb is no purer than many the American news organizations you apparently disdain. While they do possess cool accents and a certain smarmy appearance of diffidence, I would disagree that they dispense "facts" any better than Bob Schieffer, Tim Russert, Brian Williams or even the brand new team at ABC.
But we are both entitled to our opinions -- which after all - is what they are.
Mine is certainly no more worthy (nor less strongly felt) than yours.
“SVU” attorney out of hiding for NBC drama
The Hollywood Reporter – After two years in the witness-protection program, Alexandra Cabot is returning to "Law & Order" creator Dick Wolf's TV universe.
Stephanie March, who left "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" after her character, Assistant District Attorney Cabot, was shot and sent away with a changed identity in an October 2003 episode, is joining Wolf's new NBC legal drama, "Conviction."
Rounding out the cast are Jordan Bridges and J. August Richards. They join previously cast Anson Mount, Eric Balfour, Julianne Nicholson and Milena Govich.
"Conviction" is described as a fast-paced, character-driven series focusing on young ADAs in New York who often tackle tough, high-profile cases
"Since 'Conviction' will be a 'charactercedural,' we will be dealing extensively with characters' back stories and personal lives," said Wolf, whose three "Law & Order" series largely avoid the personal touch.
http://channels.netscape.com/news/story.jsp?id=2005120523180002446940&dt=20051205231800&w=RTR&coview=
Holiday Viewing: Tonight 8 PM ET/PT ABC
Schulz's Holiday Special Is Still Going Strong
The beloved "A Charlie Brown Christmas" now fuels a $1.2 billion a year global marketing machine
By Meg James Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
In a twist that might make its round-headed hero exclaim, "Good grief," Charles M. Schulz's "A Charlie Brown Christmas" -- the animated television special about love conquering materialism that airs Tuesday on ABC -- now fuels a $1.2 billion a year global publishing, merchandising and marketing machine.
Millions of Americans will tune in Tuesday, as they have every December for 40 years, to watch Charlie Brown and his gang learn that friendship and faith are more important than presents.
But this year, as every year, advertisers clamored to buy time during the cartoon to hype their holiday movies and toys. So many advertisers, in fact, that ABC had to turn some away.
"They chase us for this show," said Geri Wang, ABC's senior vice president for prime-time sales. "It provides a safe, warm and family-feel-good message."
Those who got into the coveted program paid as much as $200,000 for each 30-second spot, which is more than advertisers have paid for such hot new hits as ABC's "Commander in Chief."
Which is just one reason why Schulz's estate, the Charles M. Schulz Creative Association, earned an estimated $35 million in 2004, according to Forbes magazine. Powered by Peanuts-related products that include clothing, cosmetics, dishes, toys and stationery, Schulz has become the second-most profitable "dead celebrity," Forbes found, with only the estate of Elvis Presley collecting more.
Peanuts now accounts for more than 90 percent of United Media's licensing revenues, according to regulatory filings. Last year, United Media took in $100 million in revenue.
"It is ironic that something so totally noncommercial has become so commercial," said Doug Stern, chief executive of United Media, the licensing arm and syndicator of the comic strip that still runs in 2,400 newspapers five years after Schulz's death.
"The artist's soul shines through, and in a sense, the financial success has been an unintended consequence," Stern said.
Schulz and his creations have had strong ties to Corporate America almost since the beginning.
In 1950, after several failed attempts, Schulz sold his comic strip, "Li'l Folks" to the United Feature Syndicate, which renamed the comic "Peanuts" -- a title Schulz never liked.
The strip was a hit, and within a few years, marketers came calling. Kodak featured the characters in a camera handbook in 1955. The first plastic Snoopy doll was produced in 1958.
The following year, Schulz teamed up with Hallmark Cards, allowing the family-owned Kansas City, Mo., company to produce a line of cards. Since they were first offered, in 1960, Hallmark has sold more than 1.5 billion Peanuts cards.
But it was Schulz's relationship with the Ford Motor Co. that would lead the comic strip characters to make their debut on television, and cement their status as cultural icons.
When the car company first asked to use his gang of innocents in its TV commercials, Schulz -- known as Sparky to his family and friends -- initially resisted the idea. He changed his mind, however, when the J. Walter Thompson ad agency introduced him to Bill Melendez.
A gregarious animator from Los Angeles who had worked at the Walt Disney Co. on such classics as "Pinocchio" and "Bambi," Melendez impressed Schulz by not embellishing his characters, instead taking care to duplicate the flat look and feel of the comic strip. The resulting black-and-white commercial of Linus and Lucy inspecting Ford's line of 1962 Falcons preserved the characters' sweetness, with Linus knocking his little cartoon fist on the Falcon's simulated wood side panels for good luck.
Meanwhile, a young TV producer from San Francisco who had filmed a documentary for NBC about baseball's best player, Willie Mays, wanted to do a sequel about the worst player, Charlie Brown.
The producer, Lee Mendelson, spent much of 1963 working on the project, which featured animation by Melendez. But in the end, no network or advertising sponsors wanted to buy it.
That changed in April 1965, when the Peanuts characters were featured on the cover of Time magazine. Suddenly, an ad agency called Mendelson to say that Coca-Cola wanted to sponsor an animated Charlie Brown Christmas special. Could they do that?
"I said, `Absolutely'," Mendelson, now 72, recalled in an interview. "Once I said it, I couldn't take it back so I called Schulz and said: `I just sold "A Charlie Brown Christmas".' And he said, `What's that?' "
Schulz, Mendelson and Melendez scrambled to draw up an outline for the show, complete with a school play with Nativity scenes, a stubby tree, and an undercurrent of anti-commercialism. Mendelson suggested adding a laugh track, a popular device in the 1960s, but Schulz said no. Schulz also decreed that only children's voices would be featured.
Schulz, a Midwesterner who had taught Sunday School, wanted Linus to quote a passage from the Bible about the birth of Jesus to present the "true meaning of Christmas."
His collaborators worried it might feel preachy.
"I was dead-set against it," Melendez, now 89, recalled during an interview at his Los Angeles office. "It was too religious, too dangerous."
Melendez has never forgotten Schulz's response: "Sparky said, `Bill, if we don't do it, then who will?' "
Coca-Cola approved the story outline, and agreed to cover production costs of less than $150,000. Schulz wrote the script and Melendez got busy on the drawings. For the soundtrack, producer Mendelson turned to a San Francisco jazz pianist, Vince Guaraldi. Mendelson wrote the lyrics for the show's opening number, "Christmas Time Is Here," on an envelope.
When they finished about a week before the show's December premiere, Mendelson and Melendez were disappointed with the show's slow pace.
"We thought that we had ruined Charlie Brown," recalled Mendelson.
CBS executives thought the show was awful, Mendelson said. They complained there wasn't enough action and the jazz soundtrack was all wrong for a children's show. Besides, they asked, what kids would talk in such a grown-up manner?
With the premiere broadcast just days away, it was too late to pull the plug. But as others braced for a flop, there remained one true believer in the little Christmas show.
"Sparky liked it from the beginning," Mendelson said.
In December, 1965, the first viewers tuned in to see snowflakes gently falling on a frozen pond. Charlie Brown and his friend Linus trudge through the snow with ice skates slung over their shoulders. They stop at a brick wall.
"I think there's something wrong with me," Charlie Brown confides, his round head cupped in his hand. "Christmas is coming, but I'm not happy. I just don't feel the way I'm supposed to feel."
To cure his depression, he consults with Lucy at her 5-cent psychiatric booth. She ultimately tells him: "Let's face it. We all know that Christmas a big commercial racket." Then she lowers her voice: "It's run by a big eastern syndicate, you know. "
"Well," Charlie Brown says defiantly: "This is one play that's not going to be commercial."
The exchange was an inside joke for Schulz, who some believe intended the "eastern syndicate" to refer to United Feature Syndicate, which still owns the copyright to his characters. Just as Charlie Brown vowed to direct a non-commercial play, Schulz was vowing to do the same in his Christmas special.
Still, over the years, the Emmy winning show would bring in more than $50 million to the producers, United Media, Schulz and, later, his estate, and the two networks that have broadcast it.
Last year alone, ABC raked in $5.75 million in ad revenue for its two telecasts of "A Charlie Brown Christmas," according to TNS Media Intelligence, which tracks ad spending. More than 13.6 million people watched the show, which won its time slot in all key demographic groups.
More than 30 companies bought ad time, collectively forking over five times the approximately $1 million in license fees that ABC paid to run the show.
ABC is anticipating another big audience Tuesday, and, thus, more happy advertisers. Companies who committed to buying time in the show last summer paid about $170,000 for a 30 second spot. Now, with so much demand, the price tag for latecomers has topped $200,000.
This year, the show attracted some companies that don't typically buy a lot of network prime-time. Like Welch's.
"Kids grew up watching this show, and now they are parents watching it with their kids," said Jim Callahan, spokesman for the Massachusetts grape farmers cooperative. "It brings you back to your childhood, when you were drinking grape juice and getting a purple mustache."
Stacey Lynn Koerner, an executive vice president of Initiative, a major ad buying firm, agreed. "It harkens back to a much simpler time," she said. "Even though we get caught up in the hustle-and-bustle and all of the buying, we hold up that ideal of what the holidays were back then."
What would Schulz think about all this? His widow, Jeannie, said in an interview that over the years, when he received complaints from fans about the commercial exploitation of the characters, he would say, "Once you open the door, it's somewhat out of your hands."
To Jeannie Schulz, the show endures, in large part, because of its "innocence and honesty."
"The things that Sparky felt strongly about are a big part of what made the show a success," she said. Besides, she added, "Sparky said there would always be a market for innocence."
http://www.calendarlive.com/tv/la-fi-charlie6dec06,0,1170403,print.story?coll=cl-tv-top-right
Holiday Viewing: Tonight 8 PM ET/PT ABC
The Christmas classic that almost wasn't
By Bill Nichols,USA TODAY
When CBS bigwigs saw a rough cut of A Charlie Brown Christmas in November 1965, they hated it.
"They said it was slow," executive producer Lee Mendelson remembers with a laugh. There were concerns that the show was almost defiantly different: There was no laugh track, real children provided the voices, and there was a swinging score by jazz pianist Vince Guaraldi.
Mendelson and animator Bill Melendez fretted about the insistence by Peanuts creator Charles Schulz that his first-ever TV spinoff end with a reading of the Christmas story from the Gospel of Luke by a lisping little boy named Linus.
"We told Schulz, 'Look, you can't read from the Bible on network television,' " Mendelson says. "When we finished the show and watched it, Melendez and I looked at each other and I said, 'We've ruined Charlie Brown.' "
Good grief, were they wrong. The first broadcast was watched by almost 50% of the nation's viewers. "When I started reading the reviews, I was absolutely shocked," says Melendez, 89. "They actually liked it!"
And when the program airs today at 8 p.m. ET/PT on ABC, it will mark its 40th anniversary — a run that has made it a staple of family holiday traditions and an icon of American pop culture. The show won an Emmy and a Peabody award and began a string of more than two dozen Peanuts specials.
Last year, 13.6 million people watched it, making it the 18th-most-popular show on television the week it aired; CSI was first. One advertiser on the show, financial services giant MetLife, has contracted to use Peanuts characters in its advertising since 1985 and will continue through at least 2012.
Schulz, who died in 2000, never doubted the power of his tale of Charlie Brown's quest for the true meaning of Christmas amid the garish trappings of a commercialized holiday. "It comes across in the voice of a child," says Jeannie Schulz, the wife of the cartoonist, whose friends called him Sparky. "Sparky used to say there will always be a market for innocence."
Peter Robbins, now 49, was the voice of Charlie Brown. "This show poses a question that I don't think had been asked before on television: Does anybody know the meaning of Christmas?"
Parents like Molly Kremidas, 39, who grew up adoring A Charlie Brown Christmas, watch it with their kids. "It's the values in the story," says Kremidas, of Winston-Salem, N.C. She'll watch tonight with daughter Sofia, 6. "Would there be any programs for children on today that could get away with talking about the real meaning of Christmas? I don't think so."
Erin Kane, 36, is eager for her 3-year-old son Tommy to watch the program for the first time tonight in their Boston home. "The Christmas season doesn't start," Kane says, "until Charlie Brown is on."
Hip but wholesome
On paper, the show's bare-bones script would seem to offer few clues to its enduring popularity. Mendelson says the show was written in several weeks, after Coca-Cola called him just six months before the program aired to ask if Schulz could come up with a Peanuts Christmas special.
Charlie Brown, depressed as always, can't seem to get into the Christmas spirit. His friend and nemesis Lucy suggests that he direct the gang's Christmas play. But the Peanuts crew is focused on how many presents they're going to get, not on putting on a show.
"Just send money. How about tens and twenties?" says Charlie's sister Sally as she dictates a letter to Santa Claus.
Charlie goes to find a Christmas tree to set the mood. He returns with a scrawny specimen that prompts his cohorts to mock him as a blockhead. In desperation, Charlie asks if anyone can explain to him what Christmas is all about.
"Sure, I can," says his friend Linus, who proceeds to recite the story of the birth of Jesus from the book of Luke in the King James Version of the Bible. "And suddenly, there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, 'Glory to God in the Highest, and on Earth peace, and goodwill toward men,' " Linus says. "And that's what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown."
Scholars of pop culture say that shining through the program's skeletal plot is the quirky and sophisticated genius that fueled the phenomenal popularity of Schulz's work, still carried by 2,400 newspapers worldwide even though it's repeating old comic strips.
The Christmas special epitomizes the nostalgic appeal of holiday television classics for baby boomers raised as that medium gained prominence, says Robert Thompson, a professor of television and popular culture at Syracuse University.
Thompson notes that other Christmas specials made during the same era — such as Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and Frosty The Snowman - also air each year to strong ratings.
"This is the only time in the year when TV programs from the LBJ years play on network television and do very, very well," he says. "For millions of baby boomers, these things became as much a holiday tradition as hanging a stocking or putting up a tree."
What makes A Charlie Brown Christmas the "gold standard" in Thompson's view is that it somehow manages to convey an old-fashioned, overtly religious holiday theme that's coupled with Schulz's trademark sardonic, even hip, sense of humor.
While Schulz centers the piece on verses from the Bible, laced throughout are biting references to the modern materialism of the Christmas season. Lucy complains to Charlie that she never gets wants she really wants. "What is it you want?" Charlie asks. "Real estate," she answers.
"A key element in all of Schulz's work is his sense of man's place in the scheme of things in a theological sense as well as a psychological sense," says Thomas Inge, an English and humanities professor at Randolph-Macon College who edited a series of interviews with Schulz released in 2000. "Then there's this slightly cynical attitude that makes everything work."
Parents say the combination of humor and bedrock values is what draws them and their children to the show. "It does provide a balance, but it's a balance that we as a society have forgotten about," says Patrick Lemp, 43, of West Hartford, Conn. He'll watch tonight with son Brendan, 13.
"This is one of the last shows that actually comes out and talks about the meaning of Christmas. As a society, we're taking religion out of a lot of the trappings of the holiday. This one is different."
A cultural footprint
Much about A Charlie Brown Christmas was revolutionary for network TV, even beyond its religious themes.
The voices of children had not been used before in animation, a technique Mendelson, Melendez and Schulz all wanted to try.
"Lee didn't want to use Hollywood kids. He wanted the sound of kids who didn't have training," says Sally Dryer, 48, who did the voice of Violet — the little girl who mocks Charlie Brown for not getting any Christmas cards. In later specials, she was Lucy's voice.
Mendelson sent tape recorders home with all his employees in Burlingame, Calif. Dryer, then 8, was chosen because her sister worked for the Mendelson crew. Robbins and Christopher Shea, the voice of Linus, were the only children with professional acting experience in the cast.
The show was also novel in that it used no laugh track, an omnipresent device in animated and live-action comedies of the era. Schulz strongly believed that his audience could figure out when to laugh.
Perhaps the most enduring aspect of the show has been its score — a piano-driven jazz suite that was absolutely unheard-of for children's programming in 1965.
Guaraldi, the composer and pianist, was best known for a 1962 hit called Cast Your Fate To the Wind. Mendelson liked it so much that he hired Guaraldi to score a documentary about Schulz that never aired. When the Christmas program was sold, parts of that music were incorporated.
The driving tune that the Peanuts children keep dancing to in the special, called Linus and Lucy, has become a pop staple that's been recorded countless time in the intervening decades.
A new version of the soundtrack was released last month for the 40th anniversary. It features Vanessa Williams, Christian McBride, David Benoit and others.
The song that opens the program, Christmas Time is Here, was written only for piano by Guaraldi, but Mendelson decided to add words to appease other network concerns. When he found his songwriter friends in California were all tied up, Mendelson wrote the words himself on the back of an envelope.
"So now it's a standard," says Mendelson, now 72. "Who knew? I tell people that I'm old and I'm lucky."
Jazz pianist George Winston, recorded a 1996 tribute album to Guaraldi, who died in 1976. He says that when he plays Guaraldi tunes at concerts, young children come up later and say, "Hey, that's the Peanuts music!"
Says Winston: "Vince made a stamp on our popular culture that will never go away. For an artist, that's the ultimate tribute."
A sweet memory
The Christmas special has become a key part of the Peanuts marketing empire, which racks up $1.2 billion in annual retail sales, $350 million of which come in the USA. Millions of VCR tapes and DVDs of the program are in circulation worldwide.
The 40th anniversary has spawned a long list of spinoff products, including a "Charlie Brown Christmas Tree" at Urban Outfitters and a paperback version of a book Mendelson wrote, The Making of a Tradition: A Charlie Brown Christmas. And the Charles Schulz Museum in Santa Rosa, Calif., where Schulz lived, plans a special commemoration on Dec. 17 with Mendelson and several cast members. The museum also has an exhibit on the Christmas show that runs through Jan. 9.
"It's a tradition, along with White Christmas, A Christmas Carol and It's a Wonderful Life," says Marion Hull, 77, who toured the exhibit on Friday. "It's simple, it tells a simple story, and it's something that both adults and children can get something out of."
For those who worked to make the program — as well as fans who watch it — its material success seems ancillary. The word that keeps coming up is "sweet."
Robbins, who is single, has no children and manages an apartment building in Encino, Calif., loves that kids of friends squeal with delight each Christmas that "Uncle Pete used to be Charlie Brown."
Jeannie Schulz, who was the artist's second wife when they married in 1973, says their five children, 25 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren see the show as a holiday tradition as well.
"The reason it's endured is because of its simplicity and its very basic honesty to real life," she says. "Who would have thought this would last 40 years? How did that happen?"
For many viewers, it is the speech by Linus from Luke near the end that packs the biggest emotional wallop.
Christopher Shea was just 7 when he did the part and credits Melendez's coaching and his mom's doctorate in 17th-century British literature for Linus' lilting eloquence with a Biblical text.
Shea, who now lives in Eureka, Calif., with two daughters, 11 and 16, answers quickly when asked why the special has proved so enduring. "It's the words," he says.
Shea says that for years, in his teens and 20s, he didn't quite understand his soliloquy's impact.
"People kept coming up to me and saying, 'Every time I watch that, I cry,' " he says. "But as I got older, I understood the words more, and I understood the power of what was going on. Now I cry, too."
Editor's note: USA TODAY reporter Bill Nichols first watched A Charlie Brown Christmas on Dec. 9, 1965. He was 7. This Thanksgiving, he watched a tape of it with his son, Charlie, 3, for the first time.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
How “Peanuts” rate
A Charlie Brown Christmas drew 15.4 million viewers when it first aired in 1965, making it the second-mos t watched program on television that week. The top show: Bonanza.
Ratings last year for three cartoon favorites still airing:
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964), 14.9 million viewers. Tied for 15th place the week it ran. CBS.
A Charlie Brown Christmas, 13.6 million. 18th place the week it aired. ABC.
Frosty the Snowman (1969), 10.1 million. Tied for 38th place the week it aired. CBS.
http://www.usatoday.com/life/television/news/2005-12-05-charlie-brown-christmas_x.htm#
Tuesday Morning News Briefs
The Hollywood Reporter
Family 'Life' on FX with Izzard set for '06 drama pilot
FX has selected its class of 2006 drama pilots, including "Low Life." Actor-comedian Eddie Izzard, left, will star as the father of a family of traveling con artists who, after hitting a spiritual and midlife crisis, settles down with his wife and kids in a suburban community.
ABC News: new anchors
Eight months after Peter Jennings signed off for what would be the end of his two-decade run at the anchor desk, ABC News said it would make room for two at "World News Tonight."
NBC Uni, iPod deal
NBC Universal and Apple are set to announce a major licensing pact that will make programs from the NBC broadcast network, USA Network, Sci Fi Channel and other NBC Uni outlets available for download-on-demand viewing on iPod devices.
ESPN eyes iPod, too
ESPN is considering joining corporate sibling ABC in a video iPod distribution deal with Apple Computer Inc., ESPN's chief said Monday.
Chappelle shows
Comedy Central announced Monday that it will air more episodes of the hit "Chappelle's Show" next year using footage shot before Dave Chappelle abandoned the production in May.
'Conviction' for March
Stephanie March, who left "Law & Order: SVU" in 2003, is joining Dick Wolf's new series for NBC, "Conviction."
'Court' in session
Twentieth Television said Monday that it has declared a firm go for its new court strip "Cristina's Court," set to launch in syndication in fall 2006.
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr/television/index.jsp
Tuesday Morning News Briefs
zap2it.com
“E-Ring” Addition
NBC has beefed up the cast of its freshman series "E-Ring," adding former "Dawson's Creek"-er Kerr Smith to the Pentagon drama.
Smith has guest-starred in three episodes of the show already this season and will make his first appearance as a regular after "E-Ring" returns from its holiday rerun cycle. He's the second addition to the cast since the show premiered; Kelly Rutherford joined the series as Samantha "Sonny" Liston earlier in the fall.
Rachael Ray Talk Show a Go
Food Network star Rachael Ray is officially on her way to becoming more than just a TV cook/tour guide.
Syndicated-TV giant King World has given a "firm go" to a daytime talk show starring the "30 Minute Meals" host, multiple cookbook author and now magazine editor for fall 2006. "Rachael Ray" has been sold in all but four of the country's top 50 TV markets, including all of the top 25.
"The demand for this show is unbelievable," King World CEO Roger King says. "To have this much of the country cleared in just a few weeks is a testament to the tremendous talent and popularity of Rachael Ray."
Holiday Viewing: Tonight 8 PM ET/PT ABC
A “Charlie Brown” Reminder
If you have missed the reviews, features and other "hints” I have posted about “A Charlie Brown Christmas” over the past few days, here’s a chance to catch up.
Most importantly, the show is on ABC tonight 8 PM ET/PT.
So gather the kids around and enjoy a classic TV holiday half-hour. It is one of those rare shows that truly gets better each time you see it.
And if you haven’t got kids?
If you can’t somehow borrow a couple of youngsters for the evening, just settle down in front of the TV, think back to what the holidays were like when you were little, tune to ABC and, at least for 30 minutes, become a kid again yourself.
NFL lines up Stevie Wonder for Super Bowl pregame show
By SARAH Sarah Karush The Asssociated Press
Motown fans miffed by the NFL’s choice of the Rolling Stones for Super Bowl halftime entertainment are getting at least some satisfaction: Stevie Wonder will perform during the pregame show at Ford Field.
Wonder will play three or four songs during the pregame show before the game Feb. 5, Lori Lambert, vice president of strategic marketing for Universal Motown Records Group, told The Associated Press. At least part of the performance will be televised, she said.
Other artists — still to be announced — also will be featured in the pregame show, Lambert said.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/artikkel?Avis=C4&Dato=20051205&Kategori=NEWS11&Lopenr=51205017&Ref=AR&template=printart
Post Christmas Nielsen Present: A Longer wait
The Counting of DVR Use to Delay Nielsens: Time-Shifted Data to Arrive Dec. 26
By Christopher Lisotta TVWeek.com
The November 2005 sweeps is likely to be remembered as the last before the big change.
That's because starting Dec. 26, Nielsen Media Research will begin releasing data on the national measurement of time-shifted, or DVR, viewing.
Incorporating this new data is expected to delay delivery of ratings information, making the process of calling a close sweeps like the one that just ended more drawn-out and difficult. Not only that, at least one expert said the information could play into upfront negotiations as soon as next season.
For years, any Nielsen household with a TiVo was branded a "technical difficulty" and promptly removed from the ratings sample, but the 6 percent to 7 percent of homes Nielsen estimates have DVR devices will, for the first time, become part of the sampled fold.
The addition of DVR information will make figuring out close sweeps results more difficult and longer to call.
"This is the last time we'll be able to get these ratings real time," Brad Adgate, senior VP and corporate research director for Horizon Media said.
At a meeting with television industry reporters last week, Fox research executives went over some of the expected delays in ratings information as Nielsen begins offering "live," "live plus same day," and "live plus seven day" numbers.
"Live" refers to viewers who don't use DVRs or who catch up to a live telecast using a DVR; "live plus same day" refers to viewers who use their DVRs to watch a program the same day it was telecast; and "live plus seven day" refers to viewers who play back a program within seven days of telecast. DVR usage beyond a week from telecast will not be rated.
The introduction of live plus same day numbers will push back by one hour the arrival of Fast Nationals, which are currently available at 10 a.m. (ET). Nationals won't be offered until 4:30 p.m., 90 minutes later than they are currently available.
In a sweep like November 2005, in which the adults 18 to 49 rating was a tie, a conclusive number that takes into account full DVR viewing might not be available until Nielsen releases Final ratings 11 business days after the end of the last report week. In its meeting Fox used the example of the upcoming May 2006 sweeps, in which Final numbers aren't expected to be out until June 12.
At least for now, aside from the inconvenience of getting information later than usual, the impact of the DVR numbers is expected to be limited, Mr. Adgate said. "Initially, it's not going to cause that much of a change because penetration is kind of low," he said.
While the delays will be a source of inconvenience to industry executives who need to process daily numbers, the big ratings picture won't get lost for weeks on end because of DVR measurement, he said.
"The consumers are very habitual," Mr. Adgate said. "You can pretty much make an educated guess on what the final, final rating will be."
Still, the new data could have an impact on business as soon as next season, Mr. Adgate said. "Perhaps by upfront next year it will be interesting to see how that plays into negotiations."
DVRs are only the beginning, Mr. Adgate said. If at some point penetration builds, devices like the video iPod and other technologies will have to be rated.
http://www.tvweek.com/article.cms?articleId=29071
nikkoxyz
12-06-05, 06:48 AM
I guess we will have to (I hope respectfully!) disagree, dturturro.
I have seen the BBC news. It is fine. Ostensibly dry and "fact"-filled.
But one man's "fact" is surely another's opinion.
Having spent a lifetime in journalism (and having seen the BBC's product for much of that time) I can assure you that the BBC of today is a mere shadow of its storied past. Just as CBS is no longer the Murrow network.
IMO the Beeb is no purer than many the American news organizations you apparently disdain. While they do possess cool accents and a certain smarmy appearance of diffidence, I would disagree that they dispense "facts" any better than Bob Schieffer, Tim Russert, Brian Williams or even the brand new team at ABC.
But we are both entitled to our opinions -- which after all - is what they are.
Mine is certainly no more worthy (nor less strongly felt) than yours.
Having been on numerous business trips to London in the '80's and '90's, I couldn't agree with you more
Carl Jones
12-06-05, 07:50 AM
Is Fox doinmg the Cotton Bowl in HD, Carl?
If so, great news!
Amd George -- do you know if NBC is going to present the Gator Bowl in HD?
Alas...I don't know. I guess I just assumed my beloved Crimson Tide would be in HD along with all the other bowl games.
NBC Makes “Law & Order”, “Leno” Available on iTunes
Mike Shields MediaWeek.com Dec. 6, 2005
NBC Universal will begin selling 11 of its TV series in Apple's iTunes Music Store, including Law & Order and The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, allowing users to views these series on their home PCs or the recently released video iPod.
NBCU's announcement comes less than two month's after Disney and Apple made headlines with the announcement that ABC's hits Desperate Housewives and Lost would be available on the new iPod, released on Oct 12.
NBCU's offering is more wide ranging than ABC's, as it includes a mix of classic and current fare, though is lacking a show with the ratings heft of ABC's two biggest hits. Besides Law & Order and The Tonight Show, current NBC series The Office, Surface, and Late Night with Conan O'Brien will be available starting today for $1.99 each. In addition, USA Network's current hit Monk along with Sci-Fi Channel's Battlestar Galactica are available, as well as the classic shows Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Dragnet, Adam-12 and Knight Rider.
Current shows will be available to purchase one day after they air on their respective networks.
Previously, it was reported that NBC executives had been hesitant to distribute shows via the iPod because of piracy concerns. Apparently, those concerns have been assuaged.
"We are committed to helping viewers enjoy the wide breadth of our programs across an equally wide range of devices and distribution models," said NBCU CEO and GE vice chairman Bob Wright in a statement. "Apple has developed a distribution platform that is attractive to consumers while at the same time providing the safeguards against theft that are so important to us and to every content provider. We are pleased to partner with them in this new venture."
According to Apple, more than 3 million videos have been sold since the video iPod launched.
http://www.mediaweek.com/mw/news/recent_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001614920
WB to Air 5 Nights of “Supernatural”
By John Consoli MediaWeek.com DECEMBER 05, 2005 -
The WB network will air an episode of its freshman drama hit Supernatural each night for five nights during the week from Dec. 25 to Jan. 1. The show will air from 9-10 p.m. on Sunday, Dec.25, Tuesday, Dec. 27, Wednesday, Dec. 28, Thursday, Dec. 29, and on Sunday, Jan. 1.
Supernatural is averaging a 2.2 rating among adults 18-34, a 2.3 among persons 12-34, a 2.6 among women 18-34 and a 2.7 among women 12-34.
In addition to its regular Tuesday 9 p.m. timeslot, Supernatural also has been airing on Sundays at 9 p.m. The episode on Wednesday will air in the time period where first-year WB drama Related has been airing in repeat, while the Thursday episode will air in the time period now occupied by WB veteran drama Everwood.
http://www.mediaweek.com/mw/news/networktv/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001614005
The TV Column
Latest Comic Episode in Chappelle Saga
By Lisa de Moraes The Washington Post Staff Writer Tuesday, December 6, 2005; C01
Comedy Central suits have fired off a popgun in an effort to frighten Dave Chappelle back to the table to talk about the aborted third season of his "Chappelle's Show," announcing that sometime in the second quarter of '06 it will telecast the sketches he shot before pulling a Cat Stevens and dropping out.
"Comedy Central to Premiere Third Season of 'Chappelle's Show' during 2Q 2006," the cable network said yesterday in a news release.
Unfortunately, it contains no other information about the telecast plans for the four episodes' worth of sketches, except that you will be able to get a 2 1/2 -minute "sneak peek" at the material during the network's "Last Laugh '05" on Dec. 11 and, after that, on its new broadband channel, MotherLoad.
"We've tried to get some real definitive response out of Dave and have yet to," Comedy Central chief Doug Herzog told The TV Column about talks to get Chappelle back to work.
He said yesterday's announcement was about Comedy Central trying to find a way to offset the millions it spent this year promoting the launch of a third season that never happened.
"We leave the door wide open for Dave to return at some point," Herzog said, adding, "I don't want to create expectations he's going to; I have no reason to believe he's going to at this point."
"Good call!" says Chappelle spokeswoman Carla Sims. Actually, what she really said was:
"Comedy Central is not going to obtain Dave's return by releasing material that he has not approved or that doesn't meet his standards."
But, she added, "flowers still work."
Late in April, Chappelle vanished from production on the third season of his show, after the network had started to promote it -- to the tune of the millions of dollars to which Herzog alluded.
Chappelle eventually turned up in Durban, South Africa, on what he described to Time magazine as a "spiritual retreat."
Chappelle has said in various interviews that he did not like the direction of the show and decided to take off.
In the Time article, Herzog noted it was the second delay Chappelle had caused in production of the third season. Last December Chappelle, who became a practicing Muslim in the late '90s, tried unsuccessfully to perform the hajj -- a pilgrimage to Mecca.
Chappelle told Time he took that first break because he felt the show had moved from sending up racial stereotypes to reinforcing them.
When he returned, however, that had not changed, according to his writing partner at the time, Neal Brennan. Brennan told Time that Chappelle would like an idea; it would be shot, but Chappelle would then say, "This sketch is racist, and I don't want this on the air."
"He was calling his own writing racist," Brennan said.
Herzog insisted yesterday's announcement was not a ploy to get Chappelle back to the table. "It's not like Dave's Osama bin Laden and we're trying to smoke him out or something," he said.
"We tried to wait for Dave as long as we could. We will see what happens in the next couple weeks. It will not be on the air until well into next year. So we have a lot to figure out between now and then."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/1Latest Comic Episode in Chappelle Saga/05/AR2005120502252_pf.html
Anchor Duo To Succeed Jennings at ABC News
Bob Woodruff, Vargas Rare Network Pairing
By Howard Kurtz Washington Post Staff Writer Tuesday, December 6, 2005; C01
ABC News named Elizabeth Vargas and Bob Woodruff as its evening news co-anchors yesterday, opting for a younger and more diverse look for the coveted assignment after failing to reach an agreement with veteran Charlie Gibson.
Four months after the death of Peter Jennings, ABC is gambling on the first dual-anchor and male-female pairing on a network evening newscast since the ill-fated coupling of CBS's Dan Rather and Connie Chung more than a decade ago. ABC executives were clearly reluctant to break up a successful "Good Morning America" team by tapping Gibson, 62, and "World News Tonight" had already been using Vargas, 43, and Woodruff, 44, as temporary anchors.
Gibson wanted the job, but the two sides could not strike a deal.
Vargas, who was raised by a Puerto Rican father and an Irish American mother, said yesterday that she brings a different mix of views to the job because "I'm a woman, I'm a working mother, I'm a minority. Being a mom is the biggest, most important role in my entire life. . . . Especially as a woman, I really, really want to do this well. It's important to have a woman be successful in this role."
Filling in after Jennings's death "has been tough and trying and tragic for everyone here," she said. "Bob and I are taking seriously the legacy he left behind, to do hard news and do it well. We've been really lucky the audience has stuck with us in this time of uncertainty."
Woodruff, who told the staff "this is awesome," said the arrangement will free him to continue his field reporting. "Peter used to say to me, 'Be careful what you wish for, because you're going to end up in a chair and not out on the stories you love.' " In the past, said the lawyer-turned-journalist, "I wanted to become the best damn foreign correspondent in the business. I never really thought about anchoring."
ABC News President David Westin actually offered the job to Gibson last week, but not on terms he could accept, according to two sources familiar with the process who declined to be identified discussing details of personnel matters. Gibson wanted to remain anchor through the 2008 elections, while Westin was offering only a two-year tenure, with duties to be shared with Vargas and Woodruff in a three-anchor arrangement.
"I'm very pleased for them and hoping they'll have a long and successful run," Gibson said, adding that he is quite happy on the morning show. "David and I had long discussions, which simply broke down over the issue of the length of time to do it."
Westin gave the new anchors the news Thursday, with Woodruff in his New York office after returning from Mississippi and Vargas on the phone from New Orleans, where she had just been dispatched. While neither is as well known as Jennings at the end of his life, Westin said, "both Bob and Elizabeth will be earning that relationship day after day with the quality of what they put on the air."
The new duo will be competing with 46-year-old Brian Williams, whose "NBC Nightly News" leads the ratings pack, and possibly Katie Couric, 48, if CBS's aggressive effort to lure her from "Today" to succeed Bob Schieffer is successful. The ABC newscast has maintained its second-place ranking under Vargas and Woodruff.
The anchors plan to remain on duty for an additional three hours each night to deliver two live versions for the western United States -- sometimes with different lead stories -- a first for the broadcast networks. ABC says that both will contribute to a daily blog and that parts of "World News Tonight" will be made available online even before the broadcast. Williams has pioneered anchor-blogging, and both NBC and CBS have been putting their newscasts on the Internet in different forms.
Despite these new wrinkles, the networks seem to be preserving the basic franchise after two decades of eroding audiences and criticism that 6:30 newscasts are anachronisms in an age of round-the-clock news. The programs still reach a combined audience of 25 million, and although the departure of Dan Rather, Tom Brokaw and Jennings after more than two decades sparked talk of a radical departure, change comes hard.
"The evening news is locked into two things -- a half-hour format and the existing time slot," said Bob Zelnick, a former ABC correspondent who now chairs Boston University's journalism department. "You can talk about ensembles, guys parachuting in from Comedy Central, new formats that appeal to bubblegum-chomping 12-year-olds, but you can't do it."
Steve Friedman, a former executive producer of "Today" and CBS's "Early Show," said the male-female pairing "is what people are used to seeing in local news." Friedman foresees an "indoor-outdoor show" in which Woodruff spends much of his time racing to breaking-news events.
"Anybody who goes in there and tries to reinvent the wheel is going to lose," he said. "You have to put different spokes on the wheel."
Erik Sorenson, a former president of MSNBC, said "there are some real advantages" to being able to dispatch one of the anchors to various hot spots, "but not a lot of benefit with two people sitting within three feet of each other."
Said Sorenson, who was executive producer of the "CBS Evening News" during the failed Rather-Chung experiment of the early 1990s: "The downside is, it's a 22-minute broadcast and you're splitting up the fact time between two people. . . . There's certainly some risk for ABC to do this, but this is the time to take a risk."
During the swirl of speculation about the decision, many industry insiders, including some ABC staffers, expected Gibson to get the nod, even though he and Diane Sawyer have been closing the ratings gap with Couric and Matt Lauer at "Today." As recently as last month, Woodruff explored the possibility of jumping to another network and had a conversation with Sean McManus, the new president of CBS News, who did not make an offer, according to industry sources who declined to be named because of the sensitivity of personnel discussions.
"Charlie has always loved 'World News Tonight' " and would have been "perfectly happy" to take the job, Westin said, praising what he called Gibson's "heroic" double shifts after Jennings's death. Gibson, who initially rotated the evening duties with Vargas, gave way to Woodruff in September after contracting pneumonia.
"Let's be honest, they're younger, they're prettier," Emily Rooney, a former ABC producer, said of Vargas and Woodruff. She said Woodruff has more "gravitas" but that both anchors bring appealing qualities to the job.
"Bob Woodruff is brilliant," said Rooney, who hosts two talk shows on Boston's WGBH-TV. "He can ad-lib and put information out in a seamless manner. Elizabeth, I think, is very serious and studious. She's not the classic prima donna. I don't think anybody will resent her."
Vargas, a "20/20" co-anchor who will continue in that role, is the better-known of the two, having been a substitute anchor for several years, including during the death of Ronald Reagan and the Elian Gonzalez case, which won her an Emmy.
She grew up as an Army brat, in Germany and Okinawa, without a television, and her first job -- while in college -- was Saturday anchor for the ABC affiliate in Columbia, Mo., for $3.35 an hour. After stints in Reno and Phoenix, where her bosses "told me I was a lousy anchor," she joined CBS News in Chicago and later became a correspondent for NBC's "Dateline."
Vargas has handled a range of feature stories not normally associated with an evening news anchor, hosting one-hour "Vanished" specials about missing people, along with programs on same-sex marriage, surrogate parenting and miracles.
Woodruff is better known as a field reporter, having won attention for his coverage of Hurricane Katrina and the Asian tsunami, as well as his reporting from Afghanistan and as an embedded reporter during the U.S. invasion of Iraq.
A New York corporate attorney who moved to China to train lawyers in 1988 -- two days after what he calls a "shotgun wedding" -- Woodruff wound up working as Rather's "fixer" and translator in the aftermath of the Tiananmen Square uprising.
He "caught the journalism bug," abandoning the law to become an NBC local reporter in Redding, Calif., Richmond and Phoenix. Woodruff joined ABC for stints in Chicago, London and Washington, where he covered the Justice Department during the Clinton administration.
Although the new broadcast doesn't launch until Jan. 3, the two will essentially be co-anchoring next week when Vargas heads for Baghdad to cover the Iraqi elections.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/05/AR2005120502182_pf.html
The 2005-2006 Season
Few cancellations as midseason nears
By Kevin Downey MediaLifeMagazine.com staff writer Dec 6, 2005,
The broadcast networks are gingerly wielding the cancellation axe this season.
Heading into what will likely be a competitive midseason, the broadcast networks are shuffling lineups, but most are also being cautious when it comes to yanking freshman underperformers. Competition is simply too tight in key advertising demographics for the networks to mess with existing programs, say media researchers.
Moreover, with cable television siphoning off viewers, the networks are growing more accepting of modest performers.
“The threshold for what is an acceptable rating level has gone down,” explains Jordan Breslow, director of broadcast research at MediaCom.
“Years ago you needed a 20 [household] share on the major networks, but now they are looking at a 12 to 15 share. Fox maybe needs an 8 to 10 share, while the little guys are okay with a 4 or 5 share. They’ve come to realize that they have to lower that minimum threshold because with so many cable options ratings are generally going down.”
ABC has canceled two shows, but CBS, UPN and the WB have so far axed only one new show apiece.
Even NBC with its sinking ratings has been reluctant to kill off many shows, opting instead to let disappointments such as “Apprentice: Martha Stewart” finish out their runs. “Three Wishes” and “Inconceivable” have been canceled.
Fox alone has been aggressive in canceling new series “Head Cases,” “Reunion” and “Killer Instinct,” while scaling back the orders for others like “Kitchen Confidential.”
Why is Fox different? Credit "American Idol." It can afford to dump underperformers going into midseason in the sure knowledge that its one massive hit is almost certain to boost ratings once it returns in January.
“The networks seem to be a bit more patient with their new series,” says Breslow. “It’s hard to write a new series, and it’s very costly to get a new series on the air. I think they are thinking, ‘Maybe we can stick it out and viewers will find the show,’ rather than pop it on, cancel it and put on repeats of something else.”
This season’s relatively few cancellations are perhaps a sign that most networks feel good about ratings. Why overhaul a lineup of shows when it’s working?
ABC and CBS are tied in the 18-49 demographic with a 4.1 rating for the season through the first 10 weeks.
ABC so far has canceled “Night Stalker” and Friday sitcom “Hot Properties,” while putting “Alias” and “Supernanny” on hiatus. The network’s surprise reality hit from the summer, “Dancing with the Stars,” returns in January.
CBS has only canceled sci-fi drama “Threshold,” while putting Monday sitcom “Out of Practice” on hiatus while it tests out a comedy with Jenna Elfman.
“You can move from first to third with one false move, so there is probably some concern about overplaying your hand,” says Brad Adgate, senior vice president and corporate research director at Horizon Media. “There aren’t great blockbuster hits like Desperate Housewives" or "CSI: Miami," but there are pretty solid ratings performers.”
Fox is far behind with a 3.3, but it will soon rebound with “Idol.”
NBC is faltering with a 3.2 rating. The network’s performance will slightly improve with the Winter Olympics in February. Rather than kill off dead weight, the network is choosing to shore up weak spots, notably Thursdays, where a four-comedy block will be revived next month.
Meanwhile, the WB is hurting but it remains competitive with UPN in most demographics. The WB earlier this season dropped older-skewing drama “Just Legal” and has sidelined “Living with Fran” and “Blue Collar TV.”
UPN has canceled comedy “Sex, Love & Secrets.”
Both the WB and UPN have a 1.6 adult 18-49 rating. In the 18-34 demographic that both networks target, UPN has a 1.7 and the WB has a 1.6 rating.
http://medialifemagazine.com/artman/publish/printer_1661.asp
Critic’s Notebook
Early line on the new “Nightline”: Hopeful
There are flaws, but give change a chance
By Jonathan Storm Philadelphia Inquirer Columnist Dec. 6, 2005
What's the new Nightline trying to do with all those jiggling graphics and the lights of Times Square glaring in the background - send viewers to bed with a headache?
With three anchors and a trio of stories to cover each evening, Nightline forges into the 1990s in TV news coverage. Triple the effort provides more to like and dislike, and you can miss Joe DiMaggio all you want, but he's not coming back.
There was no such thing as a cable news channel when Ted Koppel started with Nightline, unofficially on Nov. 8, 1979, with nightly coverage of the Iran hostage crisis, or officially four months later, when the people at ABC realized what a good idea they had stumbled onto.
As CNN unleashed its 24-hour jump-around news later in 1980 and Fox News came along in 1996 to up the ante with an extra dose of the trivial, Nightline soldiered on consistently with in-depth reporting, almost always one topic, one show.
There's danger and opportunity in change, and the new Nightline anchor troika, which officially replaced Ted Koppel Nov. 28, already has flourished and failed after a week on the air.
Friday's special project, a half-hour "town meeting" format from Baghdad that harkened to the Nightline past, may have been the best TV news show last week. Other episodes were inconsistent. You get three strikes, you're going to swing and miss.
Perhaps the show's strongest aspect will be the constant motion of its anchors, traveling hither and yon to report what's going on. But the new Nightline does have organic problems, from a coanchor who has a lot to prove to Americans to those swiveling graphics.
The word Nightline frequently appeared simultaneously in three different places in three different fonts.
Then, there's anchor Cynthia McFadden's post in a window overlooking Times Square, a crazy quilt of blinking colors with plenty of advertising. Are Kodak, Coke and Mr. Peanut paying ABC product-placement fees?
All that visual clutter is supposed to hypnotize the young folks, but, dude, they're not watching in the first place.
ABC veterans McFadden and Terry Moran generally seemed solid last week. She did an interview about Iraq war strategy with Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff: "How will you judge victory?" she asked.
Moran, who looked to be first among the three supposed equals, got the plum Baghdad assignment. An old-news story on Iraqi manipulator Ahmad Chalabi was hardly his grandest accomplishment: "He just might be the man best positioned to help the U.S. achieve its goal," said Moran. "Or maybe not."
But Moran's moderation of the Iraqi town meeting was probing, and he showed panache in the report on paid-for Pentagon propaganda being placed in the Iraqi press.
ABC's deep network resources worked to great advantage on that one, as Nightline correspondent Chris Bury obtained comprehensive coverage back in Washington and the network got tape of an American general in Iraq lying as he said, "We don't lie."
It was a fine example of what can be done in the six- to eight-minute chunks that Nightline will be featuring.
Anchor No. 3, former BBC and ITV newsman Martin Bashir, did not start strongly. He's supposed to be one of the world's greatest interviewers, but his chat with steroid scandal star Victor Conte, going off to prison for four whole months, revealed nothing.
Though ABC touts Bashir's investigative abilities, the presence, as a full-fledged anchor, of a man who is famously known for revealing chats with Princess Diana and Michael Jackson signals a softness in the Nightline report. He may be miles from Geraldo, but he's a little bit too much of a news personality. I'm not crazy about his Columbo raincoat, and don't take this the wrong way, but, unless it's BBC World Service or Christiane Amanpour, I don't like foreign people giving me my news.
Another problem: Nightline presented months-old tape from Bashir on face transplants and from McFadden on AIDS in India. Old is bad in news.
But Friday's Iraqi town meeting made memories of failure fade away. The news is saturated with Americans bickering about the war. Here was a chance to see what the folks who are really suffering feel. The conclusion was newsworthy: It's hope.
Judging from its first week, there's hope for Nightline, too. Though their approach breaks no ground, the newbies seem committed to trying to perform a balancing act between attracting an audience and providing viewers with at least some important, and factual, information that they won't find elsewhere.
In a media environment where triviality reigns and profit has risen from prince to king to emperor of the universe, that's worthy of encouragement.
http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/entertainment/television//13336697.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp
TV Ratings
Sorry Eagles end hot streak for “MNF”
Seahawks blowout game down 14 percent
By Diego Vasquez MediaLifeMagazine.com staff writer Dec 6, 2005
During the preseason, it looked as though last night’s Philadelphia Eagles-Seattle Seahawks game could be a preview of the NFC Championship game in January.
Instead, with Philly decimated by injuries and distractions, Eagles-Seahawks was a one-sided blowout, ending ABC’s recent hot streak for “Monday Night Football.”
The game, won 42-0 by the surging Seahawks, averaged a 5.5 overnight rating among viewers 18-49 from 9 p.m.-11 p.m., down 14 percent from the 6.4 overnight “MNF” had averaged in that period so far this season.
As a reminder, fast national ratings are based on timeslot data and not actual program data. They will be adjusted when final ratings come out later today.
The game was down 24 percent from the 7.2 average “MNF” had averaged over its last four weeks, which included two season-highs thanks to games featuring the undefeated Indianapolis Colts.
Last night’s game was a showcase of two teams headed in opposite directions. The Eagles, hampered this season by the Terrell Owens saga and the injury of star quarterback Donovan McNabb, looked nothing like the team that reached last year’s Super Bowl and the last four NFC Championship games.
Meanwhile, the Seahawks, coming off a disappointing playoff loss last season, could be this year’s team to beat in the NFC.
Seattle led 35-0 at halftime, and viewers had seen enough. The game posted a 4.8 overnight rating from 10:30-11 p.m., falling behind a 4.9 for the second half of a “CSI: Miami” rerun on CBS.
http://medialifemagazine.com/artman/publish/article_1669.asp
Fredfa,
I believe you have omitted the New Orleans Bowl on 12/20 from your College Bowl Games in HD listing.
Monday’s prime-time ratings – and Media Week Analyst Marc Berman’s analysis of what they mean -- have been posted at the top of Ratings News the second post in this thread.
The 2005-2006 Season
Embracing a crime wave
Of top 25 shows, 11 are whodunnits that viewers adore
By Hal Boedeker Orlando Sentinel Television Critic December 7, 2005
Before the television season began, critics and industry analysts bemoaned a crime-saturated schedule. Ten weeks later, viewers are sending a far different message: We like it.
"NCIS," a Tuesday drama with Mark Harmon, is pulling in 18 percent more viewers this season than last. "Criminal Minds," an intense Wednesday drama about FBI profilers, has emerged as a surprise hit. The Nov. 10 episode of "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" drew more than 29.5 million viewers, the most for any telecast this season.
Eleven of the nation's Top 25 series traffic in mystery, forensics or law. The trend's chief beneficiary is CBS, the most-watched network, which airs "NCIS," "Criminal Minds" and "CSI." Each week, CBS devotes half of its 22 prime-time hours to such series - and draws a few brickbats for that reliance.
The style's the thing
"It's unfair to lump everything into one pile," says Nina Tassler, president of CBS Entertainment. "The big bone I have to pick: There are crime elements in a lot of shows, but each show has a distinctive style. That emanates from producers and writers."
Sometimes the series do share titles. "CSI" is affixed to three CBS series. NBC tried to expand the "Law & Order" brand to four series last season, then retreated to three this fall. That was one indication that TV's crime wave could have peaked. Is there too much? "From a ratings point, perhaps not," says John Rash, who analyzes television as a senior vice president at Campbell Mithun advertising agency in Minneapolis. "From an artistic perspective, absolutely. Viewers vexed by all of these police procedurals have fewer entry points into a network."
Nevertheless, these procedurals continue to flourish for several reasons. They play better in network repeats than serialized stories such as "Desperate Housewives" and "Lost." The crime programs sell well in syndication. The procedurals fit comfortably with late local newscasts, which are often heavy on crime.
Several producers have excelled in the genre. Dick Wolf bolsters NBC with "Law & Order" and its spin-offs. Jerry Bruckheimer supplies six crime series to CBS, including "CSI," "Without a Trace" and "Cold Case." The storytelling comforts viewers.
"They have the right tonality for the times: certitude in an uncertain world," Rash says.
A different audience
The changing television business also accommodates crime drama. "With the audience so fragmented, there will be plenty of audience to go around, and it doesn't take that much to make a hit anymore," says Horace Newcomb, director of the University of Georgia's Peabody Awards, one of the highest honors for electronic media. "I describe television as different when I started 30 years ago. It's no longer a site where people go to share experiences. It's like a newsstand or a bookstore. Dick Wolf and the 'CSI' people have tapped into it. It's like having a new book come out every week."
Viewers keep putting these televised novels on the Nielsens, TV's bestseller list. CBS crime dominates the national rankings:
No. 1 "CSI,"
No. 3 "Without a Trace,"
No. 6 "CSI: Miami,"
No. 8 "NCIS,"
No. 11 "Cold Case" and
No. 13 "CSI: NY."
NBC, which is struggling this season, places its most-watched series at
No. 14: "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit."
A few CBS series are showing weakness against stronger competition: "CSI: Miami" is off 13 percent and "CSI: NY" is down 7 percent in viewers from a year ago. But both still place first in their time periods.
And CBS' overall audience has grown slightly, reflecting the network's strength in comedy, reality and newsmagazines. Despite the naysayers, CBS continues to find success in crime.
"Close to Home," about a prosecutor (Jennifer Finnigan) balancing motherhood and work, struggled on Tuesdays after its October premiere. Yet ratings for this Bruckheimer-produced drama improved when CBS shifted it to Fridays for a two-week tryout. Two weeks ago, the network announced it had picked up "Close to Home" for the full season and will keep it on Fridays.
Tassler plays down concerns of a crime overload, saying her programs reach different viewers. "It would be nice if our audience watched every show," she says. "They pick and choose their favorites."
For midseason, ABC is shooting for its own hit procedural. The Disney-owned network will offer "The Evidence" about two San Francisco detectives and "In Justice" about a nonprofit group that helps free those wrongly convicted.
Upcoming genre shows
Also for midseason, NBC has ordered Wolf's "Conviction" about young assistant district attorneys in New York. NBC will try "24"-style storytelling with "Heist," about jewel thieves, and "Kidnapped," about a family's reaction to its 15-year-old son's abduction.
CBS has no new crime series planned for midseason, but the network remains committed to the genre. Tassler says viewers will let CBS know when they've had enough crime.
"The audience is saying they're continuing to respond to the programming we're putting on," Tassler says. "They're telling us they enjoy this form of storytelling."
http://www.newsday.com/entertainment/tv/ny-ettel4540872dec07,0,3331110,print.story?coll=ny-television-headlines
I think this show moved from funny and original and over-the-top in its first season to just tired and "over" last year.
We'll see what season three brings. (The ratings last season spiraled downward.)
But it seems to me the entire show might have been a brilliant "one-joke" idea which feels less than satisfying with constant repetition along with the incredible media over-exposure of the stars.
The 2005-2006 Season
`Queer Eye' turns focus to marriage
By Sid Smith Chicago Tribune arts critic December 6, 2005
Launching a new season with a slight tweak to its formula, "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy" (10 PM ET/PT, Tuesday, Bravo) turns its attentions to marriage.
The makeover program, in which scruffy, straight shlubs are refashioned by a five-man team of gay lifestyle experts, will now focus on the finer points of marriage proposals and the planning of the perfect wedding. This time around, future grooms, not bachelors, are in the gay eye.
Actually, one of the more touching and successful early episodes of this show involved helping a guy craft the perfect proposal. So, the idea makes perfect sense, and, judging from Tuesday's episode, the new gimmick will be both entertaining and often more moving than typical "Queer Eye" endeavors.
For starters, Joe, Tuesday's target, isn't remotely the kind of slob so bread and butter to the series. He's sweet, well-mannered, sympathetic and sensitive, residing in a spacious, modern town home that may not be a designer showplace, but isn't cluttered with piles of dirty clothes and debris like so many earlier "Queer Eye" targets.
Joe just has a hard time with commitment, not to mention popping the question. His estranged girlfriend, her family and her friends have all been waiting for 10 years now. Earlier, in lieu of a ring, he chickened out and, adding insult to injury, used those funds to buy himself a motorcycle.
So much of the advice here comes in the form of boosting Joe's innate sensitivity just a nudge so he emerges as the ideal groom to be. He agrees first to woo her skeptical parents, reverting to the old tradition of asking them for her hand. He and the fab five, as the gay experts are dubbed, collude to bring in a small army of his own relatives, drafted to make lavish bouquets and gather for an elaborately staged public proposal in the lobby of the office building where, Laura, his beloved, works.
As always, there are still plenty of plugs for products and shops, and caustic gay humor is sprinkled throughout, especially by the show's flamboyant resident humorist Carson Kressley. But just about everybody tears up by the end. Later episodes are set to feature Joe and Laura's wedding and another couple grappling with their families' differing religions.
The bitchy barbs still fly, but "Queer Eye" this season promises to be more cuddly and tearful, more fairy godmother than Cruella de Vil in rescuing the stylistically challenged.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/tv/chi-0512050204dec06,1,933512.story?coll=chi-ent_tv-photo
Its time again for my periodic reminder of something I think you will really find interesting:
Check It Out!
If you haven’t yet heard AVS Radio, which offers two new shows a week, what are you waiting for? For those of us who are fanatics about PQ, this Thursday's program is especially compelling.
It features Joe Kane, the guy who came up with the “Video Essentials” laserdisc – and later the "VE" DVD. He is one of the fathers of great PQ and certainly worth your time – but only if you’d like to get better pictures from your expensive HD rig.
Joe’s show will air late Thursday aftyernoon, so be sure to check it out!
AVS Radio 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:
[url[http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/announcement.php?f=34&announcementid=84[/url]
Happy listening!
If your eyes glazed over with all the recent network prime time programming changes, here is all the information you need in one convenient wrap up story.
N O T E: Time are Mountain (and Central). Eastern and Pacific viewers simply add an hour (thus 7 p.m. in Scott's story becomes 8 PM ET/PT).
The 2005-2006 Mid-Season
Fox, NBC, ABC all make midseason adjustments
Are network schedule changes brave or simply desperate?
By Scott D. Pierce Salt Lake City Deseret Morning News
Fox chickened out. And NBC is really brave.
Or maybe Fox is really smart and NBC is desperate. It all depends on how you interpret what the two networks are planning with their schedules come January.
As for their competitors at ABC, it looks an awful lot like they're waaaay overestimating how big an appetite there is for "Dancing with the Stars."
After much speculation that Fox might try to take on CBS's Thursday dominance by putting one of two weekly editions of "American Idol" there, the network took a more conservative route — beginning Jan. 17, the competition show will return to Tuesdays at 7 p.m.; on Jan. 18, the results show returns to Wednesdays at 8 p.m.
NBC, which is still struggling mightily in the ratings, is making some big changes and launching perhaps the single riskiest show of the season — "The Book of Daniel," an hourlong drama about an Episcopalian minister named Daniel who — in addition to dealing with his flock and a variety of family issues — often talks to a manifestation of Jesus Christ. The series will air a two-hour debut on Friday, Jan. 6, at 8 p.m. and then air Fridays at 9 p.m. through Feb. 3. (The Winter Olympics begin on the network the following week.)
Oh, did I mention that "Book" was the single best pilot of any fall or midseason show on any network I've seen this year?
All three networks are making big changes after the first of the year. For Fox, it's becoming an annual event; for NBC, it's a matter of necessity; and for ABC, it's trying desperately to at least make some sort of impact on Thursday nights. Here's what to expect:
FOX will bring back "24" with two hours on Sunday, Jan. 15, and another two hours on Monday, Jan. 16. It begins airing Mondays at 8 p.m. on Jan. 22.
• Really Good News Alert! "Prison Break" will be back sooner than originally announced — which was supposed to be May. The most recent episode repeats Monday, March 13, at 7 p.m.; new episodes begin a week later. Fox Entertainment president Peter Ligouri apparently became the last person in America to realize "it's a fantastic companion for '24'," but whatever the reason, whoo-hoo!
• Really Bad News Alert! The season (and, perhaps, series) finale of "Reunion" will air Thursday, Feb. 2 — and that will cut short by several weeks the plan to have each episode cover a year in this 20-year murder mystery.
• Trading Spouses" returns on Fridays at 8 p.m. on Jan. 6.
• Fox's Rip-off On Ice of ABC's "Dancing with the Stars" — "Skating with Celebrities" (really!) — debuts Monday, Jan. 23, and moves to Wednesdays at 8 p.m. on Jan. 25.
Of course, Fox ought to be charged with false advertising for the title of this show — calling Dave Coulier, Bruce Jenner, Todd Bridges, Kristy Swanson, Deborah Gibson and Jillian Barberi "celebrities" is, at the very least, stretching the truth.
• "Bones" moves to Wednesdays at 8 p.m. on Jan. 25.
• "That '70s Show" and "Stacked" move to Thursday at 8 and 8:30 p.m. on March. 2.
• Shows without a place on Fox's midseason schedule (and, apparently, without a future) include "Arrested Development," "Killer Instinct" and "Kitchen Confidential."
NBC is making a bunch of changes in January and a bunch more after the Olympics end in February. But they're not going to give us all that info until next month's TV critic's press tour. Hmmmmm . . .
Anyway, the announced changes include:
• "My Name Is Earl" and "The Office" move to Thursdays at 8 and 8:30 p.m. on Jan. 5.
• Also on Thursday, Jan. 5, "Will & Grace" (which is in its final season) moves up a half hour to 7 p.m. And the promising new sitcom "Four Kings" debuts at 7:30 p.m.
• "The Apprentice" and "Joey" will return after the Olympics (scheduling TBA), which isn't necessarily a good sign. At least not for "Joey."
• Back-to-back, original episodes of "Scrubs" will air Tuesdays at 8 and 8:30 p.m. beginning Jan. 3. (Which looks at least a little like they're just burning it off.)
• The clip show "Most Outrageous TV Moments," which has been seen as a series of specials, becomes a weekly series on Friday, Jan. 6, at 7 p.m.
• "The Biggest Loser" will return as a series of self-contained specials that will air Wednesdays at 8 p.m. for six weeks beginning Jan. 4.
• "Dateline's" Friday edition moves back an hour to 8 p.m. on Jan 15, leaving "Three Wishes" in limbo until (you guess it!) after the Olympics.
ABC is putting an awful lot of faith in a show that probably doesn't deserve it — are we really ready for two hours a week of "Dancing with the Stars"? This is, after all, a cheesy reality show that was a nice diversion during the summer months, but it wasn't that good, and it's ratings weren't that great.
So airing 90-minute editions on Thursdays at 7 p.m. beginning Jan. 5 — with the last half hour going up against ratings juggernaut "CSI" — seems a bit quixotic.
(Oh well, at least it's cheaper than "Alias" and "Nightstalker," which bombed there.)
There's no word yet on what, um, "stars" will actually sign up for the series this time around, but it's hard to imagine a lineup less glittering than the one on "Skating with Celebrities."
ABC is also adding a half-hour "Dancing" results show on Fridays at 7 p.m. on Jan. 6.
• "Crumbs," a promising new sitcom about a fractured family (with a cast that includes Fred Savage, Jane Curtin and William Devane) premieres Thursday, Jan. 5, at 8:30 p.m. The pilot episode is a hoot!
• Also on Jan. 6, "Hope & Faith" moves to Fridays at 7:30 p.m.
• Also on Jan. 6, ABC adds the legal drama "In Justice" on Fridays at 8 p.m. It's about a "group of young lawyers and investigators (who) catch the bad guys and free the good," according to the network.
Their leader is played by Kyle MacLachlan, who, at the age of 46, wouldn't seem to qualify as "young." But there's always makeup.
• "Alias" is off the air for January and February — a planned hiatus to accommodate Jennifer Garner's pregnancy — but will return sometime in the spring. The network has, however, announced that this will be the final season for the show.
• Left in limbo at the moment is "Hot Properties," but its future looks dim. Which is a good thing.
• As previously announced, after "Monday Night Football" ends the network's Monday-night lineup will feature "Wife Swap" at 7 p.m.; the new comedy "Emily's Reasons Why Not" at 8 p.m.; the returning comedy "Jake In Progress" at 8:30 p.m.; and another season of the remarkably tiresome "Bachelor" at 9 p.m.
http://www.desnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,635166485,00.html
CBS won the total viewer crown, while ABC claimed the demographics wins. Check out all of last week’s network prime-time ratings which are now at the top of RATINGS NEWS (the second post in this thread).
(The individual program ratings will be posted a bit later in the day.)
CBS To Stream 'March Madness' Free.
By John Eggerton Broadcasting & Cable
CBS will stream the majority of NCAA Division I basketball playoff games (otherwise known as "March Madness") through a new deal with the NCAA and cable channel College Sports Television, (CSTV) which CBS plans to acquire for $325 million effective January 2006.
CBS, which has the broadcast rights to the games, will Webcast for free out-of-market contests via ncaapsorts.com, which is overseen by CBS SportsLine.com. While the CBS affiliate in each market will get the exclusive coverage of the game of greatest regional interest (a Duke game in Durham, for example), while simultaneous games between other teams will be available in the market.
"For the first time ever, fans everywhere will have an opportunity to see their teams play live, at no charge, on NCAAsports.com via our new broadband channel, no matter where or when that game is being played," said Larry Kramer, President of CBS Digital Media, in a statement.
NCAA March Madness on Demand will include the sweet 16 games (the regional semifinals), but not the final seven games--elite eight, final four and championship games.
Also available will be highlights, interviews, press conferences and more.
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6289356.html?display=Breaking+News
How will they keep people from seeing the game online that's on TV? The honor system? :D I guess it does make sense that they'll watch the TV version cause it will have better quality
jim tressler
12-06-05, 02:03 PM
hey fred - anyword on when the apprectice and amazing race finalalies are?? I am assuming it must be soon??!! any word on amazing race for winter / spring?
thanks
jim
Fred’s Ratings Recap
Nielsen Weekly Ratings Week Ending Dec. 4th
Sparked by the undefeated Indianapolis Colts thrashing over the Pittsburgh Steelers, ABC won last week’s demographic prime-time ratings race, although CBS, as usual, had the most total viewers.
ABC’s #1 Desperate Housewives (25.32 million viewers) led the week, and the network also had #3 Monday Night Football (22.64 million), #4 Lost (21.54 million, #5 “Grey’s Anatomy (20.59), #9 NFL Monday Showcase (18.11), #13 Extreme Makeover (16.46), #21 Commander In Chief (13.66) and the one-time perennial top-10 attraction, now ranking just #24, Barbara Walters 10 Most Fascinating People (12.98.)
For CBS, it’s top-25 programs were led by #2 CSI (23.24 million viewers. Then came #6 Survivor: Guatemala (19.82), #7 CSI: Miami (19.77), the incredibly overlooked #8 NCIS (18.17), #11 60 Minutes with its Howard Stern interview (17.53), #12 Two and a Half Men (16.53), #15 CSI:NY (15.85), #16 Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer (15.80), #17 Criminal Minds, the season’s sleeper new hit at (15.56), #19 Without A Trace (15.30), #22 Cold Case (13.32), #23 Out of Practice (12.99) and #25 King Of Queens (12.92.
NBC had just three Top 25 reasons to smile and they were the usual old faithfuls: #10 Law and Order: SVU (17.54 million viewers), #14 Biggest Loser 2 finale (15.95) and #18 ER, the old Thursday warhorse ER (15.44).
Fox had a single program in the top 25: #20 House (14.91 million viewers). In fact Fox had only four programs in the week’s top 56 (#30 Prison Break, #39 The Simpsons and #51 Bones being the others).
In the “What Were They Thinking” category, the WB’s canceled 7th Heaven was its top-rated show at #75 with 5.93 million viewers. (On the flip side, same category, CBS’s Knots Landing Reunion was the network’s lowest rated program at #62 and 6.89 million viewers.)
For UPN, America’s Next Top Model 5 was the most watched show, ranking #80 with 5.23 million viewers.
For the week in total viewers:
CBS 12.9 million viewers
ABC 12.4 million
NBC 10.3 million
Fox 7.0 million
UPN 3.6 million
WB 3.1 million
In the 18-49 Demographic:
ABC 5.8 million
CBS 5.3 million
NBC 4.6 million
Fox 3.8 million
UPN 1.9 million
WB 1.5 million
In the 25-54 Demographic:
ABC 6.3 million
CBS 6.2 million
NBC 5.1 million
Fox 3.7 million
UPN 1.7 million
WB 1.1/3, 1.4 million
Source: Nielsen Media Services
hey fred - anyword on when the apprectice and amazing race finalalies are?? I am assuming it must be soon??!! any word on amazing race for winter / spring?
thanks
jim
Jim:
“The Apprentice” ends with a two-hour live (East Coast) finale from NYC’s Lincoln Center 9=11 PM Dec. 15th
Amazing Race finishes next week, Dec. 13th
TV Tonight:
“Fear Factor'” back, and bigger than ever
By Ann Oldenburg USA TODAY
Bigger. Badder. Better.
That's how NBC is hyping the sixth season of Fear Factor which starts Tuesday at 8 ET/PT.
But one surprise: It's not grosser. The show made a name for itself in reality TV by challenging contestants to eat pieces of pig rectum, maggoty cheese and rats in a blender. Is it really toning down the grossness?
"I don't want to say toning down," says Matt Kunitz, executive producer. "What I want to say is you won't just see someone eating an animal part. You'll see even more outrageous, gigantic stunts."
Kunitz promises that there are still some stomach-churning stunts, but they're not the primary focus. "There are only so many animal parts you can eat and bugs you can eat that won't kill you," Kunitz says. "One thing about our show: It's no Price Is Right. You will not see Plinko again and again."
After 125 episodes, the show took a break and left the air in May. After a peak of more than 18 million viewers in early 2004, Factor averaged 10.2 million viewers last season. That's still a success, and it regularly won its time period among young adults.
So now, after its break, Factor has been retooled. Producers have brought in a new stunt team headed by Pat Romano, a veteran film stuntman and coordinator.
"They've come up with some bold, creative stuff," host Joe Rogan says. Also new for this season: a segment called Home Invasion, in which Rogan roams the country challenging fans to do stunts to win a $5,000 debit card.
Factor also is changing from single contestants to teams this season to provide more emotional drama. And the shows will be themed:
Tuesday's premiere is dubbed Heist Fear Factor. Contestants compete to reach a submerged armored car filled with $1 million.
Reality Stars Fear Factor will play out over multiple episodes with teams from The Apprentice (Craig Williams and Tana Goertz), The Amazing Race (Jonathan Baker and Victoria Fuller), Survivor (Twila Tanner and John "Johnny Fairplay" Dalton), American Idol (Carmen Rasmusen and Anthony Fedorov) and Real World (Trishelle Cannatella and Mike "The Miz" Mizanin).
Family Fear Factor was shot at Universal Studios Orlando, featuring Shaquille O'Neal co-hosting a stunt in which parents drop from a helicopter into the water and their kids fly down a zip line.
Psycho Fear Factor pits two-person teams against each other in the house from the classic film Psycho and the Bates Motel on the Universal Studios Hollywood back lot.
Military Fear Factor features male and female teams, all of whom have served in Iraq. Contestants compete in military-themed stunts on an aircraft carrier.
Kunitz says the crew has been shooting for about seven months and is just about done for the season. Now, he says, "we're starting to think about how we're going to one-up ourselves for next season."
http://www.usatoday.com/life/television/news/2005-12-05-fear-factor_x.htm
Fredfa,
I believe you have omitted the New Orleans Bowl on 12/20 from your College Bowl Games in HD listing.
Thanks for your eagle eye, Jeff...it must have gotten accidentally deleted during an edit.
All is well now.
Katie's topic for 'Today': Credibility
By Richard Huff New York Daily News TV Editor Tuesday, December 6th, 2005
If the reports are to be believed, CBS News bosses are seriously making a run at Katie Couric to become the new anchor of the "CBS Evening News."
But, before they sign the undoubtedly massive contract with Couric, CBS News executives might want to think about this: There are folks who think she has a credibility problem.
Well, actually, Couric and her "Today" cohort Matt Lauer. However, let's just focus on Couric for a moment, since she's the one being spun for the CBS gig.
I wasn't aware of the Couric-Lauer animosity until I recently wrote that NBC left them twisting in the wind by not informing them of the balloon crash during the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, which they were hosting on NBC. The move, I believe, risked their credibility as journalists.
"What I thought was interesting was that they were considered newscaster anchors," wrote Jimmy Hiler, one of the readers who responded. "I had never thought of them that way. Their program seems more entertainme