Hot Off The Press! The Latest Television News and Info [Text View] - Page 53

fredfa

07-10-06, 08:02 PM

TV Critics Summer Press Tour
Death March With Cocktails

Wes Craven, Nick Nolte, Joan and Melissa Rivers and "The Black Carpet"
By Tim Goodman San Francisco Chronicle in his TV blog “The Bastard Machine”

It's going to take more than Raven-Symone to get me motivated for "The Cheetah Girls 2," so I'm taking a pass, though I know that in some households with tweeners this is a very big deal indeed. I don't have tweeners and I'm working out some Wi-Fi glitches so if you wanted to know about Raven, I apologize in advance.

However, I'm going to see the Starz Entertainment Group hootenanny. I know, you probably don't know what Starz is other than they play most of the movies you watch on cable...but, they've got a documentary coming up called "Going to Pieces: The Rise and Fall of the Slasher Film," and Craven is on the panel. Immediately following that is "Buy the Ticket, Take the Ride: Hunter S. Thompson on Film," and narrator Nick Nolte is here, allegedly, so that might be very interesting indeed. And no, I'm not going to post his mug shot. Too easy.

Ugh. The TV Guide Channel has somehow been given its "first ever TCA event" and is hosting a party with Joan and Melissa Rivers, Tracey Gold, some industry people you don't care about, Kimberly Caldwell, an alleged "American Idol" finalist, Rosanna Tavarez, winner of "Popstars," Lisa Joyner, John Henson (he's funny, at least) and Madison Michele (she's hot, at least). Gotta say, that's not exactly the party magnet, but it's the only game in town unless we leave the hotel.

Later: BET is having a post-party and they are calling it "The BET Black Carpet Lounge." Here's the wording, verbatim: "Exclusive...engaging..and definitely for the "grown-and-sexy" set. Don't miss it." Yes, of course I'm going. I feel it's my duty to at least pop my head in there. And honestly, this item was just sitting there like a ball on a tee. I was tempted. I really was. But no, I'm taking the middle road. I'll let you know if the drapes match the carpet later tonight.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/sfgate/indexn?blogid=24

fredfa

07-10-06, 08:16 PM

Cable TV Notebook
USA psyched about 'Psych' bow

By John Dempsey Variety.com Jul. 10, 2006

USA hopes Friday night will foretell a bright ratings future.

Net's "Psych" bowed Friday as the highest-rated debut episode of a basic-cable series so far this year.

In all, 6.1 million total viewers tuned in, scoring USA's best numbers since the two-hour "The 4400" debut harvested 7.4 million viewers in July 2004. (At that time, "4400" was a six-hour limited series that scored such big numbers USA commissioned it as a series.)

"Psych" is a tongue-in-cheek detective series starring James Rodayand Dule Hill as crime-fighting buddies.

With "Psych," USA also was bullish about the fact that 2.76 million people ages 25-54, the network's target demo, watched the special 90-minute premiere, which was close to the 2.9 million people over 50 who tuned in.

The older skew is the one drawback to USA's long-running hit series "Monk," which kicked off its fifth season as the 9 p.m. lead-in to "Psych" with 5.1 million viewers. While a strong rating, that's the lowest new-season premiere number for "Monk" since season one, when the episode drew 4.77 million.

And more than half of "Monk's" viewers, 2.92 million, were older than 50. But a USA spokeswoman said "Monk" was playing out of its usual 10 p.m. timeslot in order to provide a known commodity table setter for the new series. Original episodes of "Monk" will continue at 9 and "Psych" at 10 for the rest of the summer.

fredfa

07-10-06, 08:32 PM

"Fallen'' and ABC Family
Rather Signs with Mark Cuban's HDNet

By Charlie McCollum San Jose Mercury News in his blog Monday, July 10, 2006

Over the past year, ABC Family has been making big strides, going from a cable channel that has gone numerous changes in ownership and tone and dealt almost exclusively in repeats of such network fare as "Gilmore Girls'' to an aggressive producer of original series and films aimed at its 18-to-34 audience. The result: A big boost in viewership.

Its latest original -- "Kyle XY,'' a sci fi thriller about a teenage boy with extraordinary abilities but no memories -- racked up 2.8 million its first week on the channel and then drew another 5 million viewers when it was repeated on ABC, winning its time period for the night.

On The Tour today, though, it was pretty clear that the network's executives think they have a next-big-thing in yet another bit of TV fantasy: "Fallen,'' which makes its debut July 23 at 8 p.m. Based on the teen thriller books of veteran comic book writer Tom Sniegoski (Batman and Hellboy, among others), "Fallen'' involves a teenager who discovers he is a fallen angel and becomes involved in a war between angels both good and evil.

"Fallen'' airs as a two-hour movie but ABC Family is already confident it can build a franchise. It has committed to another four hours next summer and, to bridge the gap between segements, it will create an alternative reality game online. The game will be heavily promoted at the end of the two-hour film, including clues for how to play it. Paul Lee, the channel's president, didn't offer extensive details -- "I don't want to give too much away'' -- but said ABC Family hopes the online presence will keep viewers involved in the tales of fallen angels until next summer.

"It's an opportunity for 'Fallen' to live on our network, live on our dot-com and live on ITunes -- and live for a very long time,'' said Lee.

http://blogs.mercurynews.com/aei/charlie_mccollum/index.html

fredfa

07-10-06, 08:37 PM

June Allyson, 88

By BOB THOMAS Associated Press Writer July 10, 2006

LOS ANGELES -- June Allyson, the sunny, raspy-voiced "perfect wife" of James Stewart, Van Johnson and other movie heroes, has died, her daughter said Monday. She was 88.

Allyson died Saturday at her home in Ojai, with her husband of nearly 30 years, David Ashrow, at her side, Pamela Allyson Powell said. She died of pulmonary respiratory failure and acute bronchitis after a long illness.

During World War II, American GIs pinned up photos of Rita Hayworth and Betty Grable, but June Allyson was the girl they wanted to come home to. Petite, blond and alive with fresh-faced optimism, she seemed the ideal sweetheart and wife, supportive and unthreatening.

"I had the most wonderful last meeting with June at her house. ... We were such dear friends. I will miss her," said lifelong friend and fellow actress Esther Williams.

http://www.calendarlive.com/tv/sns-ap-obit-june-allyson,0,5278756,print.story?coll=cl-tv-features

fredfa

07-10-06, 08:38 PM

TV Critics Summer Press Tour
"Fallen'' and ABC Family

By Charlie McCollum San Jose Mercury News in his blog Monday, July 10, 2006

Over the past year, ABC Family has been making big strides, going from a cable channel that has gone numerous changes in ownership and tone and dealt almost exclusively in repeats of such network fare as "Gilmore Girls'' to an aggressive producer of original series and films aimed at its 18-to-34 audience. The result: A big boost in viewership.

Its latest original -- "Kyle XY,'' a sci fi thriller about a teenage boy with extraordinary abilities but no memories -- racked up 2.8 million its first week on the channel and then drew another 5 million viewers when it was repeated on ABC, winning its time period for the night.

On The Tour today, though, it was pretty clear that the network's executives think they have a next-big-thing in yet another bit of TV fantasy: "Fallen,'' which makes its debut July 23 at 8 p.m. Based on the teen thriller books of veteran comic book writer Tom Sniegoski (Batman and Hellboy, among others), "Fallen'' involves a teenager who discovers he is a fallen angel and becomes involved in a war between angels both good and evil.

"Fallen'' airs as a two-hour movie but ABC Family is already confident it can build a franchise. It has committed to another four hours next summer and, to bridge the gap between segements, it will create an alternative reality game online. The game will be heavily promoted at the end of the two-hour film, including clues for how to play it. Paul Lee, the channel's president, didn't offer extensive details -- "I don't want to give too much away'' -- but said ABC Family hopes the online presence will keep viewers involved in the tales of fallen angels until next summer.

"It's an opportunity for 'Fallen' to live on our network, live on our dot-com and live on ITunes -- and live for a very long time,'' said Lee.

http://blogs.mercurynews.com/aei/charlie_mccollum/index.html

DoubleDAZ

07-10-06, 09:04 PM

FWIW, I enjoyed Psych. It was different and I can see it will probably not appeal to the masses, but different is sometimes good. :)

RIP to June Allyson! She is one of my all-time favorite actresses.

fredfa

07-10-06, 09:50 PM

TV Critics Summer Press Tour
The Starz Come Out

By Rich Heldenfels in his Akron Beacon Journal TV blog July 10, 2006

Michael Ruggiero is vice president for programming and scheduling at Starz. He was been onstage while a clip was run from ''Going to Pieces,'' a new documentary about slasher films, which Starz will air in October. The clip had violence -- duh -- and nudity.

''Clearly the Disney Channel presentation has concluded,'' Ruggiero said.

http://blogs.ohio.com/beacon_tv/

Inundated

07-10-06, 10:05 PM

Thanks for posting Rich Heldenfels, fred. I sometimes see him here before I get to the Beacon's website!

And notice his reference to one-named LeBron, otherwise known as NBA megastar LeBron James. He's a local, so we don't need that last name thing...and I'm not sure anyone else does at this point.

(I used to live basically a 1/4 mile from his mansion here in suburban Akron. Of course, there was a huge increase in housing values in that 1/4 mile from my place to LeBron's. :D)

fredfa

07-10-06, 10:09 PM

As you know, Inundated, Rich is one of my favorites. And he has turned into a blogging machine at the TCA Summer Tour.

So he'll be getting lots of play in this thread!

fredfa

07-10-06, 10:58 PM

TV Critics Summer Press Tour
The Starz Come Out (Continued)

By Rich Heldenfels in his Akron Beacon Journal TV blog July 10, 2006

Ruggiero had a lot more to say, probably too much for an executive when the subject is horror and the panel also includes Wes Craven. But questions were eventually directed to Craven including one by me, which -- at Starz's request -- included identifying myself by name and publication.

''Akron, Ohio?'' Craven said with a big smile. He noted that he was from Cleveland. I knew that, of course, but it was nice to make a connection. And Craven was interesting -- making slasher films sound more important to the culture than they may seem -- both during the press conference and when we chatted briefly afterward.

I had hoped for more time with him. But, as sometimes happens at these things, he was taken out one door when I was waiting at another. Then, when a few of us caught up with him, after a couple of questions a publicist rather insistently took him away from another interview. In any case, from the press conference and the chat after, I got enough for a decent little column for tomorrow's Beacon Journal. (I'll post a link here later.)

Because I was chasin' Craven, I missed the first part of a press conference for a new Starz documentary about Hunter S. Thompson. I'm an old school Thompson fan, and the added attraction was the presence of Nick Nolte, who narrates the documentary and who knew Thompson.

Time and wear are evident on Nolte, visible even under a fedora and a white beard; rasp in the voice has gotten heavy, too. But he was -- is -- a pretty good actor, and attention was paid when he recited Thompson's suicide note. Nolte thought it was like poetry. He made it sound that way, too.

After that press conference, I went back to the room and wrote the Craven column around visits from hotel staffers trying to fix my air conditioning. Fortunately, they did so before the room became an even better imitation of a sauna.

I also wrestled with a few computer problems -- the joy of a new laptop on the road -- before finally managing to get the column sent. Then I went down to a gathering by the TV Guide Channel because I wanted a glimpse of Joan Rivers. Turned out she had come and gone, and in a message delivered by satellite at that.

Oh, well. Tomorrow will bring new adventures.

http://blogs.ohio.com/beacon_tv/

fredfa

07-10-06, 11:02 PM

TV Critics Summer Press Tour
TCA-Day One

By Anne Becker at Broadcasting & Cable’s blog bcbeat.com July 10, 2006

And thus it has begun. The semi-annual dog-and-pony show that is TCA, wherein network executives and talent (and copious handlers) commingle with the faithful corps of television critics from around the country. Ensconced in the Spanish villa-style surroundings of the Pasadena Ritz Carlton, the critics hunker down for up to three weeks of panels with actors from upcoming shows, banking interviews for future articles with often...demanding...questions. While you can find the event’s nuggets of news on our website at broadcastingcable.com, my L.A. colleagues and I will dish out some of the more fun/fluffy stuff for you here on our newly redesigned blog, BCBeat.

Today's first day of the tour, which ushered in a week of presentations from the cable networks, was quiet. Disney/ABC kicked things off with presentations for their new ABC Family and Disney Channel shows. All in attendance were well-behaved, with nary a contentious critic question asked or talent snafu made. ABC Family’s panel looked like things could have taken a turn for the ugly side when one critic started asking Tom Sniegoski, the author of the angel-themed The Fallen books that the network has turned into the original movie Fallen, if he meant for them have religious overtones. The questioner seemed appeased by the answer – that they were more religious than Michael Landon on Highway to Heaven, but not out of the bible or anything.

Disney’s panel was, like, so Raven, with the star and her Cheetah Girl friends on hand to push the upcoming sequel to their first musical movie. The very adult and VERY serious 20-year-old Raven walked the doting critics through why she mysteriously dropped her last name and then readopted it (something about not wanting to confuse the network’s younger viewers at first with two names?), whether being an executive producer on her recent work has changed her (no) and whether she still talks to Bill Cosby, her co-star from her toddler days on TV’s Cosby Show (“I heard through the grapevine he watches some of what I do, but I don’t talk to him as much as I should. We’re all very busy in this industry.”).

Other than that, smooth sailing, said the ABC Family team over some post-panel drinks. They were tickled that the biggest bump in the road was clothing-related: Sam Murphy, a compact actor from the channel’s original series Three Moons Over Milford (which premieres tonight), requested a suit from the show’s wardrobe department be sent to the Ritz for his panel, only to be sent one from avuncular-ly oafish Spin City alum Richard Kind, who had just taped a guest appearance on the show. A wardrobe malfunction that reminds me of the TV Guide party with fashionistas Joan and Melissa Rivers is going on now. Off to check it out.

http://broadcastingcable.com/blog/1380000138.html

fredfa

07-10-06, 11:08 PM

TV Notebook
Emmy Submissions

Pssst!

Wanna see some of the TV episodes which were submitted to the Emmy folks for award consideration?

The people who run the Los Angeles Times "The Envelope" (Award) forum have come up with a way for us civilians to do just that.

Here is the magic key:

http://goldderbyforums.latimes.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/1106078764/m/9811005353

Enjoy!

fredfa

07-10-06, 11:17 PM

TV Notebook
USA 'Psych'-ed Over Ratings Record

By Scott Collins Los Angeles Times Staff Writer in the Channel Island TV Industry blog

Broadcasters might want to take another look at the assumption that no one watches TV on Friday nights anymore.

Last week, USA drew record numbers for the Friday premiere of "Psych," the light-hearted new drama with James Roday as a man who convinces cops he's a crime-solving psychic. An average of 6 million total viewers tuned in, according to figures from Nielsen Media Research, making "Psych" basic cable's biggest series debut so far this year.

Ad-supported cable series have been on a tear this summer. You may recall that last month, TNT's season two premiere of the cop drama "The Closer" with Kyra Sedgwick delivered a record-breaking 8.2 million total viewers. And earlier this month, AMC's miniseries "Broken Trail" roped in 9.8 million total viewers, although nearly three-quarters were over age 50 and thus of scant interest to advertisers.

Broadcasters aren't the only ones who should be worried. This ain't good news for HBO, either, is it?

http://hollywoodhotline.typepad.com/watcher/

fredfa

07-10-06, 11:21 PM

TV Critics Summer Press Tour
Death March With Cocktails

A Party As Bad As It Sounded
By Tim Goodman San Francisco Chronicle in his TV blog “The Bastard Machine”

I've never understood the purpose of the TV Guide Channel, or why anyone would watch it. Is there a point I'm not getting? It seems to me the channel is now one of those shallow wading pools that catch clowns who fall off tall ladders at the circus. I mean, that was a D-list party if there ever was one and instead of being curiously funny or sickly hilarious it was just sad. As in, "It must be awful to catch a whiff of fame and then spend the rest of your life sniffing around for it when it blows away."

Even Joan Rivers skipped out and she was, ostensibly, the big attraction. Her daughter was there. Hey kids, use sunscreen. A helpful reminder from your friendly TV critic.

I never saw Kimberly Caldwell when she was on "American Idol," so I went back and looked at some pictures. She looks pretty. And sweet. But now she's rocking this serious platinum job, has a lot of tattoos and seems hell-bent on either extending her alloted 15 or finding a way to fill the 13 she has left.

Unfortunately, when you end up on the TV Guide Channel, it's like falling asleep on BART and ending up out in Pittsburg-Baypoint.

That's the end of the line and you're a long way, metaphorically, from the Embarcadero. (Apologies to you people who don't live in the Bay Area. The point: These stars are not in Kansas anymore. Or Oz.)

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/sfgate/indexn?blogid=24

fredfa

07-10-06, 11:29 PM

TV Notebook
Sally Field tapped as matriarch in ABC drama

By Kimberly Nordyke The Hollywood Reporter July 11, 2006

Sally Field has joined the cast of ABC's upcoming drama series "Brothers & Sisters."

The Touchstone Television show is a family drama centering on five adult siblings, played by Calista Flockhart, Rachel Griffiths, Balthazar Getty, Dave Annable and Matthew Rhys. Field will play Nora, the mother of the siblings. The role has been recast as Betty Buckley portrayed the family matriarch in the pilot

The one-hour drama is set to air at 10 PM ET/PT. Sundays during the 2006-07 season.

Field has won two Oscars, for her performances in "Places in the Heart" and "Norma Rae." She also received an Emmy for the 1976 NBC miniseries "Sybil," playing the title role as a young woman with multiple personalities.

More recently, she reprised her Emmy-winning role on NBC's "ER," which earned her the award for guest actress in a drama series in 2001. She also recently appeared in "The Glass Menangerie" at the Kennedy Center and in the feature film "Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde."

Her credits also include the films "Forrest Gump," "Mrs. Doubtfire" and "Steel Magnolias," while her TV credits include appearances on CBS' "Murphy Brown" and Fox's "King of the Hill."

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr/television/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1002802761

fredfa

07-10-06, 11:56 PM

TV Notebook
Ex-'Apprentice' Jennifer Murphy marries 'Extreme Makeover' dentist

By Steve Rogers realitytvworld.com 07/10/2006

Former The Apprentice candidate Jennifer Murphy has gotten married, wedding former Extreme Makeover dentist Dr. Bill Dorfman in a Friday evening ceremony.

According to People, the non-denominational ceremony took place at Donald Trump's recently opened Trump National Golf Club Los Angeles. Longtime The Apprentice viewers will remember the oceanside Rancho Palos Verdes, CA golf course as one of the two job opportunities that Trump offered original Apprentice winner Bill Rancic (Rancic chose to instead work on Trump International Hotel, Trump's Chicago project.)

In addition to Trump himself, Esther Williams and several of Murphy's fellow former Apprentice contestants were reportedly among the 300 guests who attended the ceremony. Murphy, a 27-year-old former Miss Oregon who appeared on The Apprentice's Fall 2005 fourth edition, wore a Samin Haute Couture gown and diamond drop earrings from XIV Karats, a Beverly Hills jeweler. XIV Karats also designed the couple's wedding bands.

The couple first met when the 47-year-old Dorfman attended the 2004 Miss USA pageant (which Trump owns) in which Murphy was competing. Despite their 2004 meeting, they reportedly only began dating a year later when Discus Dental, Dorfman's company, hired Murphy for a teeth whitening ad. The couple got engaged last Christmas when Dorfman proposed to Murphy with a 3-carat diamond ring.

Murphy -- who Trump once called "one of the most beautiful women I've ever seen" -- was eliminated from The Apprentice 4 when, following an Episode 6 loss that represented the most lopsided task defeat in show history, Trump fired four members of the losing team.

Murphy and Dorfman -- who shouldn't be confused with Garth Fisher, the former Extreme Makeover plastic surgeon that Rock Star hostess Brooke Burke recently divorced -- are honeymooning in Fiji.

http://www.realitytvworld.com/news/former-apprentice-jennifer-murphy-marries-extreme-makeover-dentist-4220.php

fredfa

07-11-06, 12:00 AM

The New York Times Obituary
Ross Tompkins, 68

'Tonight' Show Pianist, Is Dead

Ross Tompkins, a jazz pianist best known for his long tenure with Doc Severinsen's big band on the "Tonight" show, died on June 30 at his home in St. Augustine, Fla. He was 68.

His death was announced by his family, who did not specify the cause, although published reports said it was lung cancer.

He recorded several albums as a leader, but was best known as a sideman and did some of his most acclaimed work in support of other musicians.

Born in Detroit on May 13, 1938, he studied at the New England Conservatory of Music and began his career in 1960 in New York, where he worked with Benny Goodman, Wes Montgomery, Eric Dolphy, the Clark Terry & Bob Brookmeyer quintet and many others.

In 1971 he moved to Los Angeles, where he joined Mr. Severinsen's "Tonight" ensemble. He remained on the show until Johnny Carson retired as host in 1992, ending Mr. Severinsen's long run as its bandleader.

During his television years Mr. Tompkins also worked regularly in the Los Angeles area, in and out of the recording studios. His most notable and long-lasting association was with the drummer Louie Bellson's big band. In the mid-1980's he began working with the trumpeter and singer Jack Sheldon, and in recent years the two performed frequently as a duo.

He is survived by a brother, Rick; three daughters, Teri, Suzie and Janine; and five grandchildren.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/09/arts/09tompkins.html?pagewanted=print

fredfa

07-11-06, 12:03 AM

Obituary
June Allyson Dead at 88

Screen' s 'Perfect Wife'

By Claudia Luther, Special to the Los Angeles Times, July 10, 2006
(Times staff writer Dennis McLellan contributed to this report. )

Actress June Allyson, the perky blonde with the husky voice who was one of Hollywood's most beloved stars in the 1940s and 1950s, has died. She was 88.

Allyson died Saturday at her home in Ojai of pulmonary respiratory failure and acute bronchitis after a long illness, said her daughter, Pamela Powell, on Monday. David Ashrow, Allyson's husband of 29 years, was at her side.

"She was a joy to know," said actress Ann Rutherford, who first met Allyson in the 1940s. "She was a wonderful actress and just confronted her life with vast enthusiasm."

Aquatic star Esther Williams, another MGM colleague, said:"Junie and I were wonderful friends. It was a wonderful relationship. Whenever we did a movie, we'd trade scripts and talk about it and see if there was a way to make it more interesting. She was a very special little lady. Very strong; people didn't know that."

Rising from a teenage chorus girl on Broadway to a contract player for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Allyson began in Hollywood as a dancer and a singer in short films. She later co-starred with Jimmy Stewart, Humphrey Bogart, Van Johnson and Dick Powell in a series of wifely and other supportive roles. Powell, who became her real-life husband in 1945, died in 1963.

Barely 5-foot-1 and weighing less than 100 pounds, she was everybody's sweetheart. As Ginger Rogers once said, "She's the girl every man wants to marry and the girl every woman wants as a friend."

Allyson's simple blond pageboy, Peter Pan collars and no-nonsense manner stamped her as the All American girl next door, the woman whom millions of GIs wanted to come home to. She was consistently voted a top star by movie magazines and box-office surveys.

Among her well-known movies were her breakthrough film, "Two Girls and a Sailor," in which she co-starred with Johnson and Gloria DeHaven; the 1949 remake of "Little Women," playing tomboy Jo; and three movies with Stewart: "The Stratton Story," "The Glenn Miller Story" and "Strategic Air Command."

After she married Powell and had two children, Allyson made a few films and TV movies and also had her own TV show, an anthology series, from 1959-61.

Following Powell's death, she worked a little in movies and appeared on Broadway replacing Julie Harris in "40 Carats." She also appeared on television programs, including guest spots on CBS' "The Judy Garland Show" and several TV series.

But life was not easy for Allyson after Powell's death. . Talking to CNN's Larry King in 2001 of what she called her "tunnel years," Allyson said, "I just locked myself away and -- I found the bottle."

She married and divorced Powell's barber. Then she met Ashrow, a dentist-turned-actor whom she married in 1976 and credited with helping her to turn her life around.

Drinking and other troubles hardly represented the good-girl image of Allyson that was fostered throughout her career both by her own sunny personality and the Hollywood publicity machine.

Allyson wrote in her autobiography that she was using her real name, Eleanor, when a choreographer for "Sing Out the News," her first Broadway show, decided she needed a new name. She told King that "actually it was George Abbott," the famed Broadway director, who changed her name.

She said Abbott liked the name "June" because it was "kind of sunny" and she picked Allison, which was a family name; she changed the spelling slightly.

Once in Hollywood, the spunky Allyson was buoyed by her ability to form close friendships. Among those who befriended her were Lucille Ball, the star of the 1943 film version of "Best Foot Forward," and Mickey Rooney and Garland, the stars of "Girl Crazy," in which Allyson had a specialty number.

Getting a foothold in Hollywood was not easy for Allyson, whom MGM movie chief Louis B. Mayer considered not conventionally beautiful. Although she got into films as a singer and dancer, Allyson was the first to admit she was not good at either.

Ball, who also starred in the 1944 film, "Meet the People," in which Allyson had a role, counseled the discouraged Allyson not to give up on Hollywood.

"You're here now, and you're going to stay," Ball said, according to Allyson's biography. Allyson's next film was "Two Girls and a Sailor," a musical that made her a star.

Although Allyson gave various birth dates for herself, her daughter said she was born Oct. 7, 1917, exactly two years later than the most frequently referenced date of birth.

For 13 years, Allyson's studio biography also stated that she was born "Jan Allyson" to French-English parents. But her daughter said Allyson was born Eleanor Geisman in the Bronx to a French mother and a Dutch father -- and a rocky family situation.

At age 8, she was seriously injured when a tree fell on her when she was riding her bicycle. The cost of her medical care and physical therapy impoverished the family, which was already desperate after her father had left.

"Sometimes my mother would not eat dinner when I was eating, and I'd ask why," Allyson wrote in her 1982 biography, written with Frances Spatz Leighton. "She would say she wasn't hungry, but later I realized there was only enough food for one."

The two of them moved often, and sometimes young Ella was put in the care of her grandmother or another relative.

Eventually, Allyson could go without a cast and a brace. She wanted desperately to learn to dance and, not able to afford dance lessons, she picked it up by seeing Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers movies.

When she boasted that she could dance as well as Rogers, her friends dared her to try out for a Broadway musical comedy chorus line, and she got the part. She was in seventh grade.

After several years in many chorus lines, Allyson graduated to small parts, including a bit with Ethel Merman in Cole Porter's "Panama Hattie." In that same musical, Allyson was understudy to Betty Hutton and, in a classic Broadway fantasy, Allyson stepped in for Hutton when the star got the measles.

Allyson's performance caught the attention of Abbott, who needed "a funny little girl like you to ham up some scenes with Nancy Walker" in "Best Foot Forward." When the musical got picked up by MGM for a film, Allyson found herself a contract player in Hollywood.

She arrived in Los Angeles by train with $10 to her name and knowing only two people -- Powell, whom she had met once backstage on Broadway, and Johnson, whom she had dated in New York.

She and Johnson would later be cast together as a romantic couple in a number of films, including "Two Girls and a Sailor" (1944) and "The Bride Goes Wild" (1948). Movie fans "were panting for a marriage" between them, Allyson wrote. But they were always just friends.

As an actress, she had an appealing naturalness, and she had two valuable skills: She could memorize her lines almost instantly, and she could turn on the tears.

"They liked me because I was the only actress who not only cried on cue, I could also cry in key," Allyson told the Los Angeles Times in 1968. "That's very important in musicals."

During the filming of "Meet the People," which starred Powell, Allyson developed a crush on the actor, 15 years her senior. She had first met him in New York when he asked to be introduced after a performance of "Best Foot Forward." Powell advised her on roles, including telling her which of the two sisters she should play in "Two Girls and a Sailor." When Powell's marriage to actress Joan Blondell foundered, Powell's attentions turned to Allyson. Blondell accused Allyson of stealing her husband, which Allyson denied.

Allyson described her early years with Powell in fairy tale terms, but in their 18 years together, there were some hard times. They separated once when Allyson fell in love with actor Alan Ladd, who was also married. Later, Allyson filed for divorce from Powell, who had been working nonstop running Four Star Productions, which produced many series for CBS. They reconciled about a year before he was diagnosed with cancer.

Allyson wrote in her autobiography that once, when Powell asked her what her philosophy of life was, she replied, "If you see someone without a smile, give him yours."

"Richard almost fell off the chair laughing," Allyson wrote. He exclaimed, "Oh, God, don't let her change!"

In 1984, Allyson became the spokesperson for Depend, a product for people with incontinence. The June Allyson Foundation, formed in 1997, raises money for research and education about incontinence.

In addition to her husband and daughter, Allyson is survived by her son, Richard; a grandson; and her brother, Dr. Arthur Peters.

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-me-allyson11jul11,1,7876157.story

fredfa

07-11-06, 12:08 AM

Cable Tv Notebook
MSNBC’s Star Carves Anti-Fox Niche

By Bill Carter The New York Times July 11, 2006

He is either the leading man of MSNBC or its leading agent provocateur, but Keith Olbermann has no problem embracing either role.

“You can’t spell momentum without Olbermann — or something like that,” he said in a telephone interview, with a typical sprinkle of wry in his voice.

The momentum reference related to MSNBC’s recent aggressive positioning of the program “Countdown With Keith Olbermann” as the centerpiece of this all-news cable network’s latest effort to become more competitive with Fox News Channel and CNN.

MSNBC revamped its prime-time schedule two weeks ago, shelving many of its prime-time hosts in favor of documentary-style programs but retaining “Countdown,” a program the network cites as its great growth story.

That growth, while coming from a base that Fox News would find disastrously puny, is demonstrable, especially among the group that is chiefly sold to news advertisers: people between the ages of 25 and 54. For the last quarter, Mr. Olbermann, who is 47, has seen his ratings in that group grow by more than 30 percent.

The growth has not been unfailingly steady, as competitors at Fox and CNN pointed out. They noted that Mr. Olbermann did better in February and March than he has since. Still, for the year, Mr. Olbermann has managed to climb past CNN into second place in the news channel competition at 8 p.m. among that 25-to-54 group. That qualifies as a feat for MSNBC, though Mr. Olbermann’s show remains little more than a dot in the rearview mirror of Fox News.

Even from that far back, he seems to have been able to honk his horn loud enough to raise hackles at Fox, which, Mr. Olbermann enthusiastically acknowledges, has been his precise intention as well as a useful marketing strategy.

He was especially able to redden the neck of the time period’s king, Bill O’Reilly, starting this winter, when the two men engaged in a widely discussed barb-filled feud.

Mr. Olbermann began frequently naming Mr. O’Reilly as the winner in a segment he calls “The Worst Person in the World,” tweaking cable news’s most popular host for such excesses (according to Mr. Olbermann) as his declaration last year (in jest, Mr. O’Reilly said) that a resolution passed in San Francisco to ban military recruitment in schools was so un-American that he was inviting Al Qaeda to blow up Coit Tower.

The worst-person citations eventually riled Mr. O’Reilly enough that he began a petition drive directed at Mr. Olbermann (though he did not mention him by name; he has apparently never mentioned Mr. Olbermann’s name), suggesting that he be replaced by a long-ago MSNBC host, Phil Donahue. Mr. Donahue’s ratings, Mr. O’Reilly said in February, eclipsed anything MSNBC had achieved since. By the next day, Mr. Olbermann was celebrating the petition and offering to sign it himself. Now he gleefully notes that Mr. O’Reilly (whose name he has no trouble uttering) only helped his cause by taking the bait and responding to the gibes.

“You don’t punch down,” Mr. Olbermann said. “If you’re in my position,” he added, referring to his initially microscopic ratings next to Mr. O’Reilly’s, “you punch upwards.”

Every time Mr. O’Reilly took umbrage at the slams, it seemed to add a bounce to Mr. Olbermann’s ratings — one reason, perhaps, that Mr. O’Reilly’s reactions seem to have tailed off more recently. Nobody at Fox News wants Mr. Olbermann to get any more of a draft from Mr. O’Reilly’s popularity.

Mr. Olbermann thinks he knows one reason behind his gains. He believes that Mr. O’Reilly’s audience, which is still huge, is aging. He noted that Mr. O’Reilly’s total viewer ratings are basically flat, while his numbers in the younger audience group have been dropping — down about 15 percent for the last quarter. “There is no other conclusion to draw than he is not adding younger viewers,” Mr. Olbermann said.

Of course, in terms of numbers of viewers in that younger age group, Mr. O’Reilly is still playing in another league, with about three times as many as Mr. Olbermann. But that does represent a small slice of the total audience for Mr. O’Reilly.

MSNBC’s research claims that the median age for Mr. O’Reilly’s audience is 71, while Mr. Olbermann’s is 59. (Fox and CNN both report that the only figures they get for median age of shows with older audiences is “65 plus,” and that Mr. O’Reilly’s audience falls into that category.)

The age discrepancy has led Mr. Olbermann to dish out even more mockery in his attacks. “It’s slipping away from you,” he said, addressing Mr. O’Reilly on a “Countdown” segment last month. “You don’t know what to do. You can’t even lie well any more. Seriously: I understand. It’s called panic.” He added, “You begin to see the audience dying off, and the creases deepening in your forehead.”

Lately Mr. O’Reilly has resisted giving Mr. Olbermann the satisfaction of more attention. Mr. O’Reilly was on vacation last week, so Fox responded through Irina Briganti, the spokeswoman for the channel. Her comments, matched with Mr. Olbermann’s biting remarks, reflected how corrosive the byplay has become.

“Because of his personal demons, Keith has imploded everywhere he’s worked,” Ms. Briganti said. “From lashing out at co-workers to personally attacking Bill O’Reilly and all things Fox, it’s obvious Keith is a train wreck waiting to happen. And like all train wrecks, people might tune in out of morbid curiosity, but they eventually tune out, as evidenced by Keith’s recent ratings decline. In the meantime, we hope he enjoys his paranoid view from the bottom of the ratings ladder and wish him well on his inevitable trip to oblivion.”

The references to personal demons and implosions touched on Mr. Olbermann’s résumé, which includes an array of positions over the last decade. At times he has been in public disputes with employers. More recently he landed in gossip columns after some nasty e-mail messages he sent were published. In one, he mocked the intelligence of the MSNBC host Rita Cosby; in others, he used vituperative language in responding to e-mail critics.

Mr. Olbermann apologized for the e-mail exchanges, saying he had been stupid and should have known better than to engage in such confrontations. He said he wouldn’t be e-mailing viewers again.

But the e-mail incidents offered an opening for critics like his antagonists at Fox to point to earlier evidence of a volatile nature. Certainly Mr. Olbermann has evoked a lot of strong reactions in his career.

He first came to the nation’s attention at ESPN, where his fast-paced commentary and sharp writing established a pattern: younger audiences liked Mr. Olbermann; traditionalists despised him.

Mr. Olbermann said, “People who didn’t like what I was doing would call and say: ‘Is this guy a jackass or what?’ You can tailor what you’re doing or saying to other people’s expectations, but you’re going to wind up acting.” He freely admitted, “The reaction of the audience has not been paramount with me.”

Still, Mr. Olbermann became a star at ESPN. His “Sports Center” work with his partner Dan Patrick became a trademark of the channel: sports delivered with irreverence and insouciance, like Mr. Olbermann’s home run call, “It’s deep, and I don’t think it’s playable.”

Mr. Olbermann acknowledged that his departure from ESPN in 1997 led to a “nuclear war.” The channel said he had abused the company’s rules; he said the company had a “corporate ‘all we have are the rules’ mentality.” At that point he began his first tenure at MSNBC, in a news show that mainly consisted of covering the Monica Lewinsky scandal during the Clinton administration.

“I did that for 218 straight days,” Mr. Olbermann said, recalling his rising frustration. From there it was back to sports for, of all organizations, Fox. When that ended after about two-and-a-half years, Mr. Olbermann landed at CNN briefly as an interim host.

Then, in 2003, MSNBC needed a temporary replacement for one of its hosts. “It was a three-day fill-in stint,” Mr. Olbermann said. “Thirty-nine days later I had a four-year contract.”

The “Countdown” show began as a prelude to the invasion of Iraq, but Mr. Olbermann decided it was an ideal format for him. He counted down the news stories of the day, in whatever order he pleased, adding his own spin and style.

Gradually, the show took on more of Mr. Olbermann’s persona, which meant stories were delivered with either mock outrage or ironic amusement. And unquestionably the chief target of the outrage was the Bush administration and its defenders.

Mr. Olbermann said he believed that the turn in public sentiment toward the administration clearly began to bring more viewers to his show. “We saw a certain cultural shift,” he said, adding that it was a “sea change, if that’s not too unfortunate a word, around the time of Hurricane Katrina.”

That a rabid audience can be built for a political discussion show from the left, as it has so effectively been done on talk radio and on some of Fox’s programs from the right, has not been demonstrated before, unless you count the fake news shows on Comedy Central. Mr. Olbermann said the administration had created enough disaffection to keep both his ratings and his outrage up.

“The country gave this president every imaginable benefit of the doubt,” he said, about the period following the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington. “He abused it. You know what Lincoln said: You can fool all of the people some of the time, and some of the people all of time. But it looks like you can’t fool all of the viewers all of the time, endlessly.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/11/arts/television/11keit.html?_r=1&pagewanted=print

fredfa

07-11-06, 12:15 AM

Cable TV Notebook
Rather to host HDNet show

By Peter Johnson USA Today

Less than a month after parting ways with CBS News, Dan Rather has signed with cable's tiny high-definition HDNet to host a weekly news program he says will offer "news in depth that is accurate and fair," with a mix of interviews, field reports and investigative pieces.

"I want to do news that matters, and I'm going to have the freedom to do that," the former CBS Evening News anchor said Monday.

He'll formally announce his new three-year commitment to Dan Rather Reports (Tuesday) in Los Angeles at the Television Critics Association summer meeting.

Rather said he's not concerned that he may soon be broadcasting to a small fraction of the audience he once reached: HDNet is available in just 3 million homes. The network is growing rapidly, he said.

"It's not about the tonnage of eyeballs, it's about the quality of the work. I believe we can demonstrate that there is a voracious appetite for news that pulls no punches (and) plays no favorites."

Rather, 74, said HDNet founder Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks, has promised Rather full editorial control to do whatever stories and interviews he wants. "It's important that hard news have backers that don't back down," Rather said. "Mark is such a leader. He's not entangled in big conglomerate, corporate needs and wants. What he said to me is: 'I want you to do your best work and I'll back you to the hilt.' What reporter wouldn't respond to that?"

Such a commitment, Rather said, is a rarity in a modern media world that has been overtaken by "the corporatization of news."

Rather left CBS three weeks ago after bitterly complaining that the network that employed him since 1962 did not plan to give him enough airtime on 60 Minutes for "meaningful" reporting.

After a short fishing vacation, Rather popped up last week on CNN's 360 with Anderson Cooper, talking about North Korea, which he reported on for 60 Minutes last October. Wednesday he'll be on Larry King Live, and he's booked on Chris Matthews' Sunday NBC chatfest the next two weeks.

"What I hope is that I still have something to contribute," Rather said. "I've gone around making speeches saying journalists need more spine. I give myself that lecture just about every morning."

http://www.usatoday.com/life/television/news/2006-07-10-rather-hdnet_x.htm

fredfa

07-11-06, 02:02 AM

The New York Times Obituary
June Allyson Is Dead at 88

Adoring Wife in MGM Films
By Aljean Harmetz The New York Times July 11, 2006

June Allyson, whose perky wholesomeness made her the perfect girlfriend in a series of MGM musicals during the 1940’s and the perfect screen wife during the 1950’s, died on Saturday at her home in Ojai, Calif. She was 88.

Her death was announced yesterday by her daughter, Pamela Allyson Powell. The cause was pulmonary respiratory failure and acute bronchitis, she told The Associated Press.

Cheerful, blonde and petite but with a husky voice, Miss Allyson turned from chorus girl into movie star when she melted into the arms of Van Johnson in “Two Girls and a Sailor” in 1944. For the next decade, Miss Allyson and Mr. Johnson were a romantic team, co-starring in “High Barbaree” (1947), “The Bride Goes Wild” (1948), “Too Young to Kiss” (1951), and “Remains to Be Seen” (1953).

She also starred twice opposite Robert Walker — in “Her Highness and the Bellboy” (1945) and “The Sailor Takes a Wife” (1946) — and played a bouncy Jo March in MGM’s glossy 1949 remake of “Little Women.”

By 1950, Miss Allyson had made the segue from adoring girlfriend to devoted wife. She was happy to leave musicals behind. Although she had started in the chorus on Broadway, she told an interviewer in 1951: “I couldn’t dance, and, Lord knows, I couldn’t sing, but I got by somehow. Richard Rodgers was always keeping them from firing me.”

She was the steadfast wife of James Stewart’s one-legged baseball player in “The Stratton Story” (1949); the widow left behind by Mr. Stewart’s bandleader in “The Glenn Miller Story” (1953); the worried wife of Mr. Stewart’s baseball player recalled to active duty in “Strategic Air Command” (1955); and the understanding wife who loses Alan Ladd’s jet pilot to honor and duty in “The McConnell Story ( 1955).

In “Executive Suite” (1954), she assured her husband, played by William Holden, who was vying for president of the Tredway Corporation, “Darling, if it’s something you really want, that’s all that’s important to either of us.”

Ms. Allyson was always modest about her star power. “Women identify with me,” she said in a 1986 intervew, “and while men desire Cyd Charisse, they’d take me home to meet Mom.”

When Miss Allyson tried to move beyond Peter Pan collars and sugary characters as the harsh and nasty woman who pushes her husband (José Ferrer) into a nervous breakdown in “The Shrike“ (1955), her acting was praised but audiences refused to accept her, and the movie was a box-office failure.

June Allyson was born Ella Geisman on Oct. 7, 1917, in the Bronx. Her alcoholic father skipped out when she was 6 months old. When she was 8, she was crushed by a falling tree limb while riding a bicycle. After four years in a back brace, she taught herself to dance by watching Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers movies.

The expensive therapy the injuries required tumbled the Geisman family out of genteel poverty into desperation. In her 1982 autobiography, “June Allyson,” written with Frances Spatz Leighton, Miss Allyson said she and her mother were forced to move countless times. The best months were when her mother had a job in a restaurant, she wrote, “because sometimes she could bring home food.”

Recovering from her injuries, she tried out for and won a chorus job in a 1938 Broadway revue, “Sing Out the News,” taking the name June (for the month) Allyson. Between 1938 and 1941, Miss Allyson sang and danced in several Broadway shows, including “Very Warm for May,” “Higher and Higher” and “Panama Hattie.” As understudy to Betty Hutton, who played the comedy lead in “Panama Hattie,” Miss Allyson took over the part for five performances when Miss Hutton came down with measles. In a plot development worthy of an MGM musical, the producer George Abbott saw her performance and offered her a small featured role in his next musical, “Best Foot Forward.” MGM bought the movie rights to the musical, and Miss Allyson was invited to Hollywood to play her role on screen. She stayed at MGM for 11 years and 25 movies.

“The only parental authority I had was the studio,” Miss Allyson said in 1972. “When I was a star, there was always somebody with me, to guard me. I was not allowed to be photographed with a cigarette, a drink, a cup of coffee or even a glass of water because someone might think it was liquor. When I left the studio I was already married and had two children, but I felt as sad as a child leaving home for the first time.”

A second-tier star at a studio that prided itself on owning “more stars than there are in heaven,“ Miss Allyson defied the studio boss Louis B. Mayer in only one thing. She fell in love with the married movie star Dick Powell. Mr. Powell divorced his wife, the actress Joan Blondell, and married Miss Allyson in 1945, despite Mr. Mayer’s opposition. Although the marriage was rocky at times — Miss Allyson once filed for divorce — it lasted until Mr. Powell’s death from cancer in 1963 at age 58. In her autobiography she touched on her struggle with alcoholism after Mr. Powell’s death.

Miss Allyson and Mr. Powell co-starred in two mediocre movies in 1950, “The Reformer and the Redhead” and “Right Cross.” Miss Allyson recalled being told that because of her childhood accident, she would never be able to have children, so she and Mr. Powell adopted a baby girl, Pamela, in 1948. Two years later, she gave birth to a son, Richard.

Pamela Allyson Powell now lives in Santa Monica, Calif. Richard, of Los Angeles, also survives Miss Allyson, as does her husband, David Ashrow, a dentist whom she married in 1976. A previous marriage, to Mr. Powell’s hairdresser, Glenn Maxwell, in 1963, the year Mr. Powell died, ended in divorce.

Miss Allyson’s film career had petered out in the late 1950’s with a remake of “My Man Godfrey “ (1957) opposite David Niven, and a sudsy Ross Hunter melodrama “A Stranger in My Arms” (1959). From 1959 to 1961, she was host of and occasionally starred in “The DuPont Show With June Allyson,” a dramatic anthology on CBS. After replacing Julie Harris as the star of “40 Carats” on Broadway and touring for a year in a revival of “No, No Nanette,” she returned to the screen and to MGM in 1972 as a lesbian murderess in “They Only Kill Their Masters.” She also appeared on “Love Boat,” “Murder, She Wrote” and other television shows.

In 1985 she became the national spokeswoman for Depend, a diaper for adults with incontinence. Still wearing her trademark pageboy hairdo, she broke one of the last taboos by bringing this uncomfortable subject into the nation’s living rooms by way of television commercials.

Writing about Miss Allyson’s autobiography in The New York Times, Janet Maslin wrote: “Miss Allyson presents herself as the same sunny, tomboyish figure she played on screen. Even the tough parts of her life — the death of her husband Dick Powell and her subsequent bout with alcoholism — are described in a relatively blithe manner.” Ms. Maslin added that Miss Allyson sounded “like someone who has come to inhabit the very myths she helped to create on the screen.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/11/movies/11allyson.html?pagewanted=print

fredfa

07-11-06, 02:12 AM

TV Notebook
"American Idol" tryouts begin Aug. 8

By Gary LevinUSA Today

Here we go again.

American Idol will seek a fresh crop of singing stars when TV's top series starts its sixth-season audition tour Aug. 8 in Los Angeles.

Producers will visit seven cities, starting about a week earlier than last year, trekking from The Forum in Inglewood, Calif., to San Antonio, East Rutherford, N.J. (near New York City), Birmingham, Ala., Memphis and Minneapolis before winding up in Seattle on Sept. 19.

Three of those cities get their first visits from the Idol crowd: Memphis (which was dropped at the last minute last summer because of Hurricane Katrina), Minneapolis and Birmingham, the prolific hometown of previous winners Ruben Studdard and Taylor Hicks and runner-up Bo Bice.

"Because that's where so many of our Idols have come from, that's a must," says executive producer Nigel Lythgoe. "If they paid us a visit, we must pay them."

All of the auditions will shift indoors, to protect against the rain that soaked tryouts in Chicago, Boston and San Francisco last year and the stifling 105-degree heat that plagued Austin.

Otherwise, the song remains the same: Auditions are open to most anyone ages 16 to 28 as of Aug. 6 who's eligible to work in the USA. (Rules at americanidol.com).

Lythgoe expects 12 producers to see as many as 100,000 candidates in those cities during early rounds. About 1,000 will make it to a second round, where Lythgoe and executive producer Ken Warwick will cull the list to 250 — both good and bad — who will be visited this fall by Simon Cowell, Randy Jackson and Paula Abdul.

Idol, fresh off its highest-rated season yet, returns with audition segments in mid-January; live competition among 12 finalists is due in March. Lythgoe hopes to enlist Andrew Lloyd Webber and Carole King as guest stars.

http://www.usatoday.com/life/television/news/2006-07-10-idol-auditions_x.htm

"IDOL" AUDITIONS

City and location Date

Los Angeles: The Forum Aug. 8

San Antonio: Alamodome Aug. 11

East Rutherford, N.J.: Continental Airlines Arena Aug. 14

Birmingham, Ala.: Birmingham Jefferson Convention Complex Aug. 21

Memphis: FedEx Forum Sept. 3

Minneapolis: Target Center Sept. 8

Seattle: Key Arena Sept. 19

fredfa

07-11-06, 02:16 AM

Sports On TV
Fox and MLB To Renew Contract

By Richard Sandomir The New York Times July 11,2006

Major League Baseball and Fox Sports will announce (Tuesday) a seven-year renewal of their contract, which would have Fox retain the Saturday game of the week, the All-Star Game and the World Series.

But Fox is likely to keep the rights to only one League Championship Series, according to executives who are familiar with the terms of the negotiations but were granted anonymity because the contracts had not been signed.

TBS is expected to get a new game-of-the-week package and the rights to all division series games that had been shared by Fox and ESPN.

TBS also hopes to buy the rights to the other L.C.S., which ESPN is interested in.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/11/sports/sportsspecial/11sportsbriefs.html?pagewanted=print

fredfa

07-11-06, 02:19 AM

TV Critics Summer Press Tour
I Have a Cool Job

By Rich Heldenfels in his Akron Beacon Journal TV blog

You will probably get some whining here during the press tour. I am away from home, and yesterday I was away while my wife and younger son had to deal with megastorms, a power outage and water in the basement.

But even before I got here, I knew there would be times when I realized I have a cool job. Take last night. I am sitting and talking with colleagues who have also been friends for many years.

Then, nearby, we see Mark Cuban. Yes, the Dallas Mavericks guy. The billionaire.

He's here because HDNet, which he owns, is having a press conference tomorrow with Dan Rather, who since leaving CBS has made a deal with Cuban's operation. But at this point Cuban was just walking through the hotel.

We wave. Cuban waves back. Led by the TV critic from Dallas, we go over to say hello. Cuban is polite, even cheerful; he's had dinner with Rather and is now waiting for word about a possible basketball deal. But he's talking about Rather, he's talking basketball -- and not only his team's. (All right, a lot of it is about Dallas. And he hasn't forgiven the refs yet.) When other people draw near, he pauses, extends his hand to them and says, ''Hi, I'm Mark.''

Believe what you want about him. I think he's a good guy, a very basic sort of person. I thought so when I first met him a couple of years ago and I think it still. Also, as cool as my job is (since it gives me a chance to do things like stand around with Cuban), he has a much cooler one.

http://blogs.ohio.com/beacon_tv/

fredfa

07-11-06, 02:29 AM

TV Critics Summer Press Tour
What's in a name?

By Rob Owen Pittsburgh Post-Gazette TV Editor in his blog “Tuned In” Tuesday, July 11, 2006

PASADENA, Calif. -- Actor Paul Wasilewski may not be a household name, but you'd recognize his face from guest stints on "Smallville," "Everwood," "Wolf Lake" and "American Dreams," but now he's starring in ABC Family's "Fallen" (based on the book series by author Tom Sniegoski) and he's going by the name Paul Wesley.

It's not unusual for actors to change their names at the outset of their careers, but the 23-year-old Wesley has been acting professionally since 1999.

Wesley said the name change was something he'd long contemplated and he finally "pulled the trigger" on it two years ago.

"People weren't capable of pronouncing my name correctly," he said.

http://www.post-gazette.com/tv/tunedin/

GeorgeLV

07-11-06, 02:40 AM

"...Fox is likely to keep the rights to only one League Championship Series..."

Let me guess...they only want the American League. These days, the National League has been relegated to something slightly above AAA.

fredfa

07-11-06, 03:03 AM

If Fox pays the right $$$, I am sure it would prefer to have its pick of LCS each year.

Sure the Yankees do a great rating, but a Cubs-Mets or Cubs-Dodgers NLCS might do really well, and if the Yankees weren't even in the ALCS......

fredfa

07-11-06, 09:11 AM

TV Critics Summer Press Tour
Back

By James Hibberd TVWeek.com in the “Critical Eye” TV Press Tour blog July 10th, 2006

Disney ABC Television Group drew the presentation short straw, presenting ABC Family Channel and The Disney Channel as the first panels during TCA’s opening half day. Most critics are still en route to the Ritz Carlton or encamped in their rooms, only about 70 grace the ballroom.

Among the ones who are here, a few wonder how a network lands the dreaded opening slot.The way it works is part money, part popularity, part luck. CTAM, which recently took over management of TCA from the National Cable & Telecommunications Association, rotates the network schedule each Tour. But the opening slots in the smaller ballrooms are also less expensive, sources said. Also, critics complain if heavy hitting networks such as HBO are presented during fringe periods.

Thus, ABC Family and Disney Channel are joined by Starz and TV Guide Channel as the first networks to storm the TCA beachhead. For the panels, ABC Family presented “Fallen” and “Kyle XY.” One common form of celebrity Q&A was on display: Questions that ask — and ask hopefully — if an actor is just like their character. So panelists for “Fallen” (about fallen angels living among us) are asked if they have “ever had an experience where you truly felt you had an angel looking out for you.”

Actors Paul Wesley and Rick Worthy gave straight-faced accounts of surviving car accidents and armed robbery, respectively, and said they survived only through divine intervention. Sort of.

“I would have died — 110 percent — if I had not buckled up,” Wesley said

http://blogs.tvweek.com/

fredfa

07-11-06, 09:14 AM

TV Critics Summer Press Tour
Angels in the Auditorium

By James Hibberd TVWeek.com in the “Critical Eye” TV Press Tour blog July 10th, 2006

“Oh my God, you’ve only been here for 10 minutes and you’re bitching already!“ exclaimed one critic to another at the Television Critics Association Press Tour check-in table. The complaining critic, who merely asked the TCA staff for power strips to plug in their laptop, laughed. TCA, after all, is famous for critical bitching—as well as for critics sparring with celebrity panelists, lavish parties and the occasional nugget of breaking news.

To paraphrase Jon Stewart’s line about the White House correspondents dinner, TCA is where critics and TV networks consummate their unholy marriage. For the next couple weeks, 180 reporters are sealed in a five-star hotel and, at every opportunity, networks will try to sell them on their brands and programming—from the sponsored breakfasts in the morning through the daily celebrity-packed panels to the net-branded chocolates waiting on hotel room pillows at night.

It’s a carefully scripted and mind-melting sales marathon, like a time-share presentation that costs hundreds of thousands of dollars, whose mental/emotional impact is only marginally offset by the TCA’s swank accommodations. So when a reporter from the Orlando Sentinel standing next to Courteney Cox at FX’s party at Spago is angrily cursing the meager portions of his parmesan-encrusted shrimp cocktail, it’s a tough call whether to feel derision or pity.

But right now, a few minutes before the start of the debut panel, critics are in high spirits. Unlike many prior Press Tours, cable networks will present their program first. So the critics are still fresh, all smiles, chatting about the roster for the next five days. The cable portion panelists include Shannen Doherty, Ted Koppel, Spike Lee, the cast of “Entourage,“ Trey Parker and Matt Stone, Mr. T, David Cross, Gene Simmons, Damon Wayans, Andre Benjamin and more.

The parties, too, have potential. To promote the acquisition of the hit documentary “March of the Penguins,“ Hallmark Channel is having a pool party complete with real penguins. Consider that for a moment: A couple hundred TV critics poolside with an open bar and live penguins.

Can’t wait.

http://blogs.tvweek.com/

fredfa

07-11-06, 09:19 AM

Sports On TV
World Cup final scores for ABC, Univision

By Paul J. Gough The Hollywood Reporter July 11, 2006

NEW YORK -- The down-to-the-wire World Cup final was a hit on this side of the Atlantic too, with both ABC and Univision reporting strong viewership Sunday.

Almost 12 million people watched on ABC as Italy beat France in a 3 1/2-hour game that featured double overtime and a round of penalty kicks, according to preliminary data released late Monday by Nielsen Media Research. Final numbers won't be in until Thursday.

That's a huge win for ABC, which said it was the third-highest rated men's soccer game and the third-most watched since 1994.

The record is still held by the 14.5 million who turned out to watch Brazil's defeat of Italy in the 1994 World Cup. It beat the 2002 final handily; 3.9 million people tuned in to see Brazil beat Germany, 5-0.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr/television/brief_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1002802725

fredfa

07-11-06, 09:26 AM

Sports On TV
Cup Ratings Are Up, but Fans Deserve Better

By Richard Sandomir The New York Times July 11, 2006

The quadrennial visit of the World Cup must be viewed as a television success story. The final on Sunday attracted 16.9 million American viewers, and the star of stars, Zinédine Zidane of France, morphed from magician to the soccer equivalent of Mike Tyson with his overtime head butt of Marco Materazzi.

Those 16.9 million viewers included 11.9 million on ABC and 5 million on Univision, and they represented a 152 percent leap from 2002, when the game in Japan was shown in the morning. The audience was 31 percent better than eight years ago from France, and it was on par with 1994 from Pasadena, Calif.

This year’s viewership — tough to achieve at 2 p.m. on a Sunday — exceeded by about four million the average audience last month for the N.B.A. finals between the Miami Heat and the Dallas Mavericks. It also came close to the 17.5 million for Florida’s victory over U.C.L.A. in the N.C.A.A. men’s basketball championship game and the 17.1 million average for the Chicago White Sox’ sweep of the Houston Astros in the World Series last October.

Still, the 16.9 million was one million short of the viewership, only on ABC, for the United States’ penalty-kick shootout win over China in the 1999 Women’s World Cup final at the Rose Bowl.

Nothing matches Super Bowl viewership; when Pittsburgh defeated Seattle in February, 91 million people tuned in.

But around the world, the World Cup makes the Super Bowl look tiny. Depending on two estimates, anywhere from 300 million to more than one billion people watched Italy win its fourth World Cup on Sunday.

“The World Cup final has the single largest global audience in sports,” Kevin Alavy, a senior analyst for the media agency Initiative Futures Worldwide, said from London. “It doubles the audience for the Olympic opening ceremony in Athens and triples the Super Bowl.”

Initiative and Sponsorship Intelligence, the agency hired by FIFA’s marketer, Infront Sports, view the World Cup’s world in different ways. Initiative estimates that 300 million watched the final and 5.9 billion watched the World Cup. Sponsorship Intelligence expects at least one billion for the final and more than 30 billion over all — nearly five times the total number of earthlings.

Initiative counts only the live World Cup coverage; Sponsorship Intelligence counts the live coverage and replays and highlights shown in news and magazine shows. Both count the same people over and over, leading to the big numbers for the full event.

Some games preceding the final had a world audience exceeding 200 million, said Andy Kowalczyk, deputy managing director of Sponsorship.

Alavy said 84 percent of the televisions in use in Italy, and 80 percent of those being viewed in France, were watching the game Sunday.

ESPN and ESPN2, which averaged viewership of 2.3 million and 1.1 million, far exceeded the expectations of Major League Soccer, whose marketing arm bought the television rights, sold the advertising and paid ESPN’s production costs. “We outdelivered our guarantees by 100 percent,” said Don Garber, the M.L.S. commissioner.

ABC’s average viewership, before the final, had already swelled by 125 percent, to 1.7 million, from 2002.

Granted, four years ago, viewing in the United States was hampered by the Asian time zone. But Artie Bulgrin, ESPN’s senior vice president for research, said ESPN did much better than during the 1998 World Cup in France.

“This year, we had 20 telecasts on ESPN, and 17 did a rating of 1.0 or better, and in 1998, only 7 out of 27 did a 1.0 or better,” he said. “Only one match in 1998 did a 2.0 or better, and this year, seven did.”

• Garber must now determine how to capitalize, whether through bettering the broadcasts or investing heavily in luring major international stars to M.L.S. “The market’s there,” he said. “We didn’t build this. We put on the games, and 17 million watched.”

But as ESPN looks to the next World Cup, in South Africa in 2010, it must change a few tactics:

1. Sure, there are no in-game stoppages for commercials, but larding the pregame and halftime shows with ads creates disjointed jumbles. On Sunday, some segments lasted as little as 10, 20, and 41 seconds.

2. Revel in the festivities. Univision, not ABC, carried the pregame show by Wyclef Jean and Shakira and the halftime singing of Placido Domingo. And ABC sinned by joining the Italian national anthem in progress.

3. Don’t lead into any match, let alone the third-place game, with a rerun of the 2005 All-Star Game home run derby, as ESPN did Saturday. The host country’s last game wasn’t worth a nice little pregame auf wiedersehen?

4. Restrain the visuals. Curb the drop-down graphics that block the field. Cut out urgent alerts like Sunday’s telling ABC viewers to watch the Western Open on ESPN. The government’s terrorism warnings are more subtle.

5. Nurture a new generation of announcers. Naming a fine baseball announcer like Dave O’Brien to be the lead soccer voice only put a target on his back from the chattering bloggers. Teach analysts to explain nuances and tell stories better. And hand them a 21st-century Telestrator.

6. Follow up stories. When Zidane was red-carded, ABC’s Marcelo Balboa said he believed the referee wrongly made the call after watching the stadium replay. Where was Jeremy Schaap when we needed him?

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/11/sports/soccer/11sandomir.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&pagewanted=print

fredfa

07-11-06, 09:33 AM

TV Critics Summer Press Tour
Guantanamo’s Influence

By James Hibberd TVWeek.com in the “Critical Eye” TV Press Tour blog July 10th, 2006

It’s apparently not too early in the day for naked breasts. The clip reel for Starz’s documentary, “Going to Pieces: The Rise and Fall of the Slasher Film,” includes several shots of topless women being brutally disemboweled and axe-hacked, but critics seem nonplussed.

“Clearly the Disney Channel presentation has concluded,” jokes Michael Ruggiero, executive producer and VP, programming and scheduling at Starz.

During the panel, “Scream” director Wes Craven speaks thoughtfully about why moviegoers enjoy horror films and notes a recent disturbing trend in popular films: torture. Many current horror movies such as “Hostel,” “Hard Candy” and “Saw” contain sequences of trapped victims being sadistically tormented.

“Torture has entered [horror movies] in a big way,” Craven said. “And it’s no coincidence with [U.S. detainment facilities accused of torture at] Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib. Whatever is in the news that’s deeply disturbing will turn up in a horror film.”

http://blogs.tvweek.com/

fredfa

07-11-06, 09:43 AM

Critic’s Notebook
Early word on 'Betty': It can get pretty ugly

The ABC show, with Salma Hayek as executive producer, won't air for a while, but the debate has begun
By Scott Collins Los Angeles Times Staff Writer July 11, 2006

The first of the new fall shows don't roll out until next month, but already ABC's "Betty the Ugly," executive produced by Salma Hayek, is turning into a critical battleground.

Based on a popular Colombian telenovela, "Betty" concerns one Betty Suarez (America Ferrera), a young working-class woman with the fashion sense of a cloistered 12-year-old — she wears braces and hideous printed ponchos — who gets a job at a snooty fashion magazine. In the pilot, Betty learns to reform her doormat ways after she is humiliated at a photo shoot.

The early reaction on the Internet is sharply divided. "You know how every year there's one show that makes you wonder 'How … did this get made?' Well, this is that show," wrote Brian Ford Sullivan at thefutoncritic .com. But over at mediavillage .com, Ed Martin loved it: " 'Betty' is an hour-long comedy brimming with heart, humor, humanity, compassion and the possibility of dizzying romance. There is nothing quite like it on broadcast television. It presents a uniquely fascinating mix of richly detailed characters, some recognizable from everyday life, others seemingly pulled from someone's very vivid imagination, all of them compelling."

Count me in the Sullivan camp. I watched the pilot — or roughly three-quarters of it, which is about all I could take. Clearly we're supposed to appreciate Betty as a scrappy underdog (pardon the expression), but I didn't find the episode nearly funny or engaging enough to win me over.

Call me Scotty the Bored. Both Betty's bickering family and catty co-workers feel recycled from countless other TV shows and movies, starting with "Working Girl." Worse, I don't know (or care) how the series can be sustained over the long term. If Betty remains a clueless naif, then the premise seems cruel. But if she grows worldly — or at least stops wearing ponchos — will there still be a show?

And what's up with that title? Ferrera's ugly not even by the unforgiving standards of Rodeo Drive. Beneath her ridiculous makeup and costumes, she's actually pleasant-looking, even striking.

The epithet's meant to be ironic, I guess, but shouldn't we have to view the heroine that way at least initially? Any producers who think this Betty lives up to her dubious billing should get out in the world and learn what ugly really looks like.

CBS receives a reality check

For the first time, CBS put its two key summer reality shows, "Big Brother: All-Stars" and "Rock Star: Supernova," back-to-back Thursday. (Well, the departed "Tuesday Night Book Club" was supposed to be a key reality show, but we know how that turned out.) It was a weak night, but CBS won in viewers and eked out a victory among 18- to 49-year-olds, a key demographic.

The regular time slot premiere of "Big Brother" notched a 2.8 rating/10 share in the demo (7.7 million total viewers), according to early data from Nielsen Media Research. Hardly a barnburner, but enough to win the slot against lame rivals like ABC's "Master of Champions" (1.5 rating/5 share in the demographic; 5.2 million overall).

"Rock Star," meanwhile, is looking like a thoroughly mediocre performer. Thursday's special edition did a 2.6 rating/ 8 share in the demographic (6 million total viewers), or up 18% in young adults compared with Wednesday's premiere.

Despite all the hype surrounding the addition of Tommy Lee's new band to the festivities, this year's "Rock Star" is unlikely to finish big.

http://www.calendarlive.com/tv/cl-et-channel11jul11,0,6101734,print.story?coll=cl-tv-features

fredfa

07-11-06, 09:49 AM

TV Critics Summer Press Tour
Critics get first whiff of fall projects

By Terry Morrow Knoxville News Sentinel July 11, 2006

PASADENA, Calif. - Ground Zero for critical acclaim is here.

Beginning today, stars such as James Woods and Andre Benjamin (of the duo OutKast) are turning their attention to the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Pasadena, Calif., to tout their fall projects in front of hundreds of television critics.

For the stars, it's important to get the ear of the members of Television Critics Association, which is mainly made up of print journalists from across the country and Canada. If the stars can find favor with critics, it can translate into plenty of free ink and good word-of-mouth for what they are promoting.

Woods will be around to push his new CBS drama, in which he plays a conflict lawyer, while Benjamin will shine a spotlight on his new Cartoon Network series about a class of musically gifted students.

FX drama "The Shield" will open its set to critics and have its stars available.

The TCA summer tour continues for three weeks. Among the events:

• Joan Rivers talked up the TV Guide Channel at a party sponsored by the cable outlet on Monday night.

• Raven-Symone has "The Cheetah Girls 2," a sequel to the highly successful Disney Channel movie. Its soundtrack was also a best seller two years ago.

• Wes Craven, the horror movie director ("Nightmare on Elm Street"), will focus on "The Rise and Fall of the Slasher Film" for Starz.

• Danny Bonaduce returns with a new show - "Chain Reaction" for the Game Show Network.

• Jay Bakker, a former Gatlinburg resident, introduces his new documentary about his love of punk rock music and his spiritual life. It's set for the Sundance Channel.

• Shannen Doherty has a new reality show called "Breaking Up" for Oxygen.

• Nick Carter, the former pop star, plans to talk up his new reality show, called "House of Carter," for E! His brother, Aaron, will also be on hand.

• Ted Koppel will plug his news program for the Discovery Channel. The show will focus heavily on life after Sept. 11, 2001, and issues of security and the military stemming from that event.

• Mr. T, who still pities the fool, wants to transform into Dr. Phil with his new reality show for TV Land called "I Pity the Fool," debuting Oct. 4.

• Matthew Perry's "Friends" days are over, but he's back on NBC for the drama "Studio 60."

• Donnie Wahlberg bounces back to weekly television, this time with "Runaway" for the newly formed CW network. The story is a little like "The Fugitive" meets "7th Heaven."

• Jason Ritter, son of the late John Ritter, has landed his first sitcom, on CBS. It's about reunited classmates trying to make it as young adults.

• Alec Baldwin and Tina Fey join forces for the NBC sitcom "30 Rock," about the backstage happenings at a successful late-night network show. Fey is the head writer for "Saturday Night Live."

http://www.knoxnews.com/kns/entertainment_columnists/article/0,1406,KNS_360_4834237,00.html

fredfa

07-11-06, 09:53 AM

TV Critics Summer Press Tour
Not the copycats' meow

By Diane Werts Newsday Staff Writer July 11, 2006

What hath "Lost" wrought? A 2006 fall season crammed with copycats, that's what - serialized shows that shift back and forth in time to tell their conspiratorial tales, populated by characters thrown together by the happenstance of harrowing events.

Besides which, many new series - which were previewed ahead of the three-week TV critics' press tour, which starts today - are designed as continuing sagas. They require what my husband has taken to describing as being "shackled" to your TV, seeking some kind/any kind of plot resolution.

Really. Who wants to spend an entire TV season enduring somebody else's nightmare wedding day?

This is the "high" concept behind "Big Day," which may be fall's worst new series, the one that brought me closest to contemplations of suicide as I spent last week shackled to my sofa in a marathon viewing of two dozen fall-season pilots prior to leaving for the press tour. "Big Day" is the big bomb, and I don't mean "da bomb." Its half-hour single-camera absurdity - pleeeeease, bring back the studio audience so I can hear laughter again! - finds the young couple facing down the bride's squabbling parents and wussy wedding planner as calamities befall them. And ABC's pilot only gets us through the first half-hour of their "big" day.

At least that series' action stays put; other comedies are all over the map. ABC's "Help Me Help You" buries Ted Danson as it hopscotches around Manhattan with his creepy group-therapy patients, while CBS' somewhat less annoying "The Class" tracks the 20-year reunion of schoolmates who since third grade have devolved into neurotic cliches.

Too many folks in fall shows are instantly grating, idiotic or drippy - more scriptwriters' puppets than recognizable people. Directors emphasize their characters' "edgy" aspects in choppy scenes, delivering pushy, phony portraits.

Dramas are equally in need of a major dose of Ritalin. ABC's "Six Degrees" from J.J. Abrams plays connect-the-dots as it weaves the intersecting tales of a bunch of dreary young New Yorkers who, like their too-slick show, mistake the glib for the profound. NBC's "Heroes" broadens beyond that one (overexposed) city to interlace the awakenings of people in America, Japan and India who begin tapping into dormant superpowers "that will take the species to the next evolutionary rung." (At least this daring concept tries to take flight.)

Several newbies busily shift through varied perspectives radiating from one connecting event. ABC's "The Nine" kicks off with a bank robbery throwing together strangers including troubled cop Tim Daly. NBC's "Kidnapped" and Fox's "Vanished" each begin with an abduction that gets murkier. While it's all Taye Diggs' viewpoint in ABC's "Daybreak," it's also a time trip where his cop goes "Groundhog Day" in being framed for murder by some apparently time-controlling conspiracy. After CBS' heist suspenser "Smith" kicks off with squealing tires and speeding getaway boats, the story jumps back 60 minutes, then three weeks, to show us how the caper comes apart.

But this one isn't just a thriller. "Smith" producer John Wells ("The West Wing," "ER") allots his fine actors (Ray Liotta, Virginia Madsen) enough settle-down time to breathe emotional life into their gang's conflicted characters. That's refreshing. It also makes us wonder about a season when the most flesh-and-blood people we see are essentially the bad guys.

Or, less troublingly, the everyday folks. While high-concept characters play terminally cute - Anne Heche's advice author in ABC's daffy Alaska-set "Men in Trees," or the bickering-lovebird hostage negotiators of Fox's "Standoff" - ordinary wallflowers manage to ring true. Their less flashy shows take a cue from the mundane landscapes rendered fresh in "My Name Is Earl" and "The Office," understanding the key is not what you say or do, it's the consequent human fallout. This fall's most satisfying pilots build from an underlying warmth at a less frenzied pace, leaving room for authentic emotion to resonate.

The unlikely gem of the bunch is ABC's "Betty the Ugly" - an American rendering of the hit telenovela "Betty la Fea" - in which a homely Queens klutz goes to work at a high-fashion magazine for a rich-kid editor. It's fairy tale all the way (Vanessa Williams makes a great evil queen), yet told humbly, with straightforward spunk and not a little gusto, like "Desperate Housewives" in its stride. But with real heart. (Plus a star-to-be in gutsy young America Ferrera.)

Close behind is CBS' "Jericho," another thankfully linear tale, about a small Kansas town coping with a nuclear aftermath. There's nothing fancy here, just Gerald McRaney as the plain-talking mayor and Skeet Ulrich as his prodigal son, hitting town just in time for the mushroom cloud. Add the mystery behind what happened, and you've got a wide, unmannered canvas on which to sketch human behavior (and simple courage) at its most elemental.

Likable characters who bear a passing resemblance to emotional reality - wow! How inventive can TV get?

http://www.newsday.com/entertainment/tv/

fredfa

07-11-06, 09:58 AM

TV Critics Summer Press Tour
Day One of Gloom

By Hal Boedeker Orlando Sentinel Television Critic in the Sentinel’s TV Guy blog Jul 10, 2006

Is this any way to celebrate television? The television critics' fall preview started Monday -- the first of 18 days -- with rampant gloom and doom in Pasadena, Calif. Programmers previewed an apocalyptic comedy, a slasher retrospective and a profile of an acclaimed writer who committed suicide.

Oh, and Disney Channel was here, too. But it came in for ribbing.

"The Disney Channel presentation has concluded," Starz programmer Michael Ruggiero said after blood flowed in clips from "Going to Pieces: The Rise and Fall of the Slasher Film." It premieres Friday, Oct. 13.

Wes Craven, director of the "Scream" trilogy, helped promote "Going to Pieces" by playing up the slasher trend's importance. "Whatever's in the news that's deeply troubling will turn up in horror films," he said. "They're dealing with torture now."

Craven described the typical horror filmmakers as "sweet people" who are deeply troubled by violence in society.

"Horror films are like boot camps of the psyche," Craven said.

Nick Nolte appeared to promote the documentary "Buy the Ticket, Take the Ride: Hunter S. Thompson on Film." That program will premiere in November on Starz, and it features William F. Buckley, John Cusack, Johnny Depp and former Sen. George McGovern.

"You never had a dull conversation with Hunter," McGovern says in the film.

Nolte, who narrates the film, said he knew Thompson mainly through phone conversations they had between midnight and 4 a.m. Nolte reads Thompson's suicide note in the film. In a breathtaking moment, Nolte recited it for critics.

The film stresses that Thomspon was an outspoken free spirit -- and filmmakers hope that theme will resonate with the audience. "This time is not about free spirits," Nolte said.

Thompson's gonzo journalism made him an influential figure. But it also could explain his downfall. "He felt trapped by his creation," director-writer Tom Thurman said.

"Three Moons Over Milford" from ABC Family offers an outlandish premise. The comedy-drama follows residents of a small town who muddle through or flip out when they realize their lives could end at any moment. A meteor has hit the moon, splintering it into three big chunks. If one portion falls to Earth, it's curtains for humanity. The series, starring Elizabeth McGovern, debuts Aug. 6.

If that seems improbable family entertainment, the producers say the setup frees them to tell moving, everyday stories. Are you ready for an apocalyptic comedy?

Disney Channel previewed its "Cheetah Girls 2" movie, which debuts Aug. 25. Star Raven-Symone has graduated to executive producer on this sequel.

As for the sequel to "High School Musical," Disney Channel honcho Gary Marsh says he's waiting for the script to come in. He hopes to premiere the film in August 2007.

The day concluded with TV Guide Channel saluting Joan and Melissa Rivers for their work on the red carpet. "It's good to spend quality time with you," Joan told TV critics. She appeared by tape -- not in person.

http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/entertainment_tv_tvblog/2006/07/day_one_of_gloo.html

fredfa

07-11-06, 10:05 AM

Sports On TV
Advertisers also won at the World Cup

By Diego Vasquez MediaLifeMagazine.com staff writer July 11, 2006

Since the World Cup began, there have been murmurs that advertising for what some call the world’s largest sporting event would not live up to high expectations.

A forecast released yesterday by Zenith Optimedia predicted that the quadrennial soccer tournament won’t give the worldwide boost to the ad economy that many had expected, with sluggish results in soccer-mad England and host Germany particularly disappointing. Actually, countries like South Korea and Malaysia, and not the usual soccer behemoths, are seeing the most advertising stimulated by the World Cup.

Indeed, the Cup has been a huge success in the U.S., thanks to better-than-expected audiences on ESPN and ABC, as well as Spanish-language broadcaster Univision. Ratings doubled the 2002 Cup in demographics such as adults 18-49, and advertisers came away more convinced that American fans will tune into soccer’s main event, even if they continue to bypass Major League Soccer games.

David Joyce, media analyst for Miller Tabak + Co., talks to Media Life about World Cup ratings, worldwide advertising, and what this means for soccer’s future in the U.S.

Ratings for the World Cup were way up over 2002 on English-language broadcasters. Does this mean that the game is starting to take off in the U.S., or does it just reflect how low ratings were the last time?

There were two main reasons for the better ratings. The time of day of the live broadcasts this time was more advantageous from the advertising perspective, with the daytime Germany games, so viewers would be less likely just to search news outlets for score updates, as they did for those late-night 2002 Korea games.

Second, there is increasing interest throughout the U.S. in soccer, though it has taken time to build, and it is being aided from both the male and female soccer games. Remember Mia Hamm? Tied to this is the trend of continued immigration, which brings natural interest in soccer to these shores.

Did U.S. World Cup advertisers get more or less exposure than they thought they would?

Official advertisers got better-than-expected exposure, and they should be happy. The interesting clamp down on FIFA-only sponsorships resulted in novel approaches for non-official ad sponsors to get notice.

On the Spanish-language networks, which positively affected Univision and Entravision, they had record ratings as well, with even the first Mexican game surpassing the 2002 final. Univision and Entravision and their advertisers would have done better, of course, had Mexico gone further in the Cup.

We've heard rumblings that Univision did not convert all of its booked ads to orders for the World Cup. If that’s true, will that make the Cup a bust for them, or is it still a success?

I cannot help you with those rumblings, but I think the Cup would still be considered a success even if that were true. There is a halo effect surrounding ownership of World Cup rights (and Copa America next year) that helps Univision sell ads in other parts of the year. It helps them fill in dayparts that are less in demand.

A forecast out from ZenithOptimedia says that the World Cup did not stimulate worldwide advertising as many had hoped. Why not, and is that a big problem?

That would probably be a question for the forecaster. If I were to speculate on their potential reasoning, I would say that it could be that some of the more traditional soccer powerhouses did not last as long as their relevant advertisers expected and/or, at least as the U.S. is concerned, that the timing of the live games is still, and probably always will be, an issue.

Separately, perhaps internet streaming and news updates could be taking some share away from regular TV viewing.

How can an event like the World Cup stimulate advertising in other areas?

Again, it’s the Univision halo effect. Additionally, there can be product or campaign tie-ins outside of television viewing, so there could be benefits to outdoor advertising owners, new campaigns that are kicked off with the World Cup, etc.

How does the World Cup compare to other major sporting events (the Olympics, for example) in ad spending?

Olympic ad spending is still bigger, despite it being shorter in length (unless you add together the Winter and the Summer Olympics, even though they are now two years apart) in part because it is still more important in the U.S.

Also, the Olympics are more universal in their range of sports and therefore viewership appeal and sponsor relationships.

Would you say overall that this was a successful World Cup in the U.S.? How about worldwide?

Yes for both. It gained viewership, advertising, and sponsor traction in the U.S.

http://www.medialifemagazine.com/artman/publish/printer_5874.asp

fredfa

07-11-06, 10:06 AM

TV Critics Summer Press Tour
Weird celebrity encounter No. 1

By Hal Boedeker Orlando Sentinel Television Critic in the Sentinel’s TV Guy blog Jul 11, 2006

It was just a harmless question. I wanted to know: Does Raven-Symone ever hear from former co-star Bill Cosby?

"We are talking about Disney," she said, drawing critics' laughter on the first day of the 18-day fall preview.

"That's NBC," Raven-Symone added, referring to "The Cosby Show." "No, I'm just playing. No, no, no. I hear through the grapevine that he watches some of my work, but I don't talk to him as much as I should. We're all very busy in this industry."

Raven-Symone is busy promoting "The Cheetah Girls 2," which premieres Aug. 25 on Disney Channel. The first film was a major success three years ago. Will there be a third film in the franchise?

"At the moment, there is no 'Cheetah Girls 3' in development," said Gary Marsh, president of entertainment for Disney Channel Worldwide.

http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/entertainment_tv_tvblog/2006/07/weird_celebrity.html

fredfa

07-11-06, 10:10 AM

TV Critics Summer Press Tour
Back on the Television Critics Association tour

By Scott D. Pierce Salt Lake City Deseret Morning News Tuesday, July 11, 2006

PASADENA, Calif. — As the summer Television Critics Association press tour kicks off, those of us who write about TV for a living are about to come face-to-face with the people who run networks for a living.

It's always fun to go back and look at what they had to say six months ago. Mind you, they're all trying not to say something silly, and to couch their answers so they don't come back to haunt them. CBS Entertainment president Nina Tassler, for example, used the phrase "never say never" in her answers five times.

The only real surprise is, combing through the transcript of ABC Entertainment president Steve McPherson's press conference, I couldn't find anything worth mocking. It is, perhaps, a testament to his cautiousness and ABC's current success, but my hat's off to him.

Six months ago there was a bit of an anomaly, given that there were six broadcast networks then and there are only five now. (The WB and UPN are merging into The CW.) And, with 20-20 hindsight, it's quite obvious that then-UPN Entertainment president, now-CW Entertainment president Dawn Ostroff knew what was about to happen and her counterparts at the WB were not clued in.

• WB chairman Garth Ancier said the network was "important to Warner Bros. as an outlet. . . . In terms of the viability, it's just too important to the studio and too important to the stations to not go forward."

Well, not so much.

• "We have momentum," said WB Entertainment president David Janollari. "The new shows we're presenting will help keep that momentum going through the second half of the season."

The shows bombed. And the network itself is no more.

• "My theme for you this morning is going to be that stability is the first step toward recovery," said NBC Entertainment president Kevin Reilly.

In May, he unveiled one fall schedule and, a few days later, announced another with changes on five nights.

• "We're going to make a bold move Wednesdays at (8 p.m.) where 'Law & Order' . . . will shift out of its time period to create a platform for another new drama, 'Heist,' at (9) p.m.," Reilly said.

Bold? Sure. Stupid? Yes. The move lasted two weeks.

• NBC's Reilly said "The Apprentice" "will definitely be on in the fall."

No, it won't. It's scheduled to return in January.

• "We have a very patient attitude with the show," UPN's Ostroff said of "South Beach."

It was seven episodes and out.

• At the last minute, UPN canceled an interview session for "South Beach," claiming it was because of a death in Vanessa Williams' family. "It was partially out of respect and partially because we just felt that the panel would not be the same without her," Ostroff said.

And mostly because the show was about to get axed.

• In regard to the "investigation" into the allegations that Paula Abdul had a sexual relationship with an "American Idol" contestant, Fox's Peter Liguori said, "We went out, got an outside counsel, did an extremely thorough investigation, and the investigation is geared toward the sanctity of the competition."

He actually used the word "sanctity" in regard to "American Idol"!

• Ligouri said "Bernie Mac" has "a loyal audience following it. Creatively, the show is incredibly strong."

So he canceled it.

• CBS Entertainment president Nina Tassler acknowledged that her network has been "very successful with the procedurals. We know that. But that's enabled us to experiment with different forms of programming."

Still, two of CBS's three new dramas this fall are crime-related, bringing the total to 11 crime shows.

• "In 'Four Kings,' I think we found . . . an excellent companion to 'Will & Grace,"' Reilly said.

Well, maybe. "Kings" won't be back next season, either.

•
"Teachers," a new sitcom, "stars Justin Bartha, and I think this guy is going to be a breakout star."

Not in this show, which was quickly canceled.

http://www.desnews.com/dn/print/1,1442,640193701,00.html

fredfa

07-11-06, 10:16 AM

TV Notebook
“MediaLife” Readers: Networks must take chances

They grouse that summer is wasted on reality
By Toni Fitzgerald MediaLifeMagazine.com staff writer Jul 11, 2006

For several years now, the broadcast networks’ summer strategy has been to roll out a string of reality series once the regular season ends, hoping a few stick with viewers, in their effort to stem the flow of eyeballs to cable.

Media Life readers think that's a dumb tactic.

Instead, they believe the networks should be using the summer off-season as a testing ground for the fall, rolling out original, offbeat dramas and comedies, as well as miniseries, in a direct challenge to cable.

That’s the sentiment of media buyers and planners surveyed by Media Life in a recent poll about the summer TV season.

They see the networks' reliance on reality television as playing it safe and conservative, and they think it is the entirely wrong approach.

Media Life asked readers to answer this question: “If you could advise the broadcast networks on programming strategy for summer, what would you tell them?”

Readers offered an earful.

“Use the time to take risks,” urged one respondent. “Thought-out programming will be watched no matter the season of the year. A break-out hit will then do well in the fall also, e.g. ‘Dancing with the Stars.’”

“Bring back the miniseries! Give the viewers something to follow with a real conclusion,” suggested one reader.

Responded another, “If you insist on treating the audience like it is stupid, what with programming ‘throwaway’ shows, then the audience will leave you. It is now a year-round game. Play all four quarters. The first network to truly acknowledge this and program intelligent drama & comedy (NOT REALI-CRAP) during the summer will break through and become the next dominant force in television.”

“Take a cue from cable and run more scripted shows with an edge to them,” advises yet another.

Fox, which has been the most aggressive with its summer programming in recent years, has also been the most impressive this summer, in the view of media planners and buyers.

Media Life asked: “Of the two broadcast networks showing rating gains this summer, which has impressed you more?”

Nearly two-thirds, 64 percent, chose Fox, which has summer’s No. 2 new show with “So You Think You Can Dance.” Thirty-six percent chose NBC, which has top-rated “America’s Got Talent.”

Media Life also wanted to know how this summer has differed from last summer.

Nearly half, 46.3 percent, chose this answer: “Not one breakout hit like ‘Dancing With the Stars.’” Another 40.6 percent picked “More returning shows that have been solid performers” and 8.6 percent agree there are fewer flat-out bombs.

Nearly everyone agreed on what the biggest bomb of the summer has been: 72.7 percent chose CBS’s canceled “Tuesday Night Book Club,” followed by 13.6 percent for ABC’s recently yanked “How to Get the Guy” and 9.7 percent for NBC’s low-rated Stanley Cup finals.

As for the summer’s biggest success, media people were evenly divided.

AMC’s miniseries “Broken Trail,” which averaged nearly 10 million viewers, and TNT’s “The Closer,” which set a basic cable record in its premiere, both got 24 percent of the vote. Fox’s “Dance” trailed with 21.7 percent, followed by NBC’s “Talent” at 13.7 percent and ABC’s NBA playoffs at 8 percent.

Media Life wanted to know what media people are watching on cable and broadcast this summer. It turns out few are even paying attention to the latter; 27.1 percent of respondents said they don’t watch broadcast during the summer. More than a fifth said they considered Fox’s “Hell’s Kitchen” the best show on broadcast while 26.7 percent voted HBO’s “Entourage” the best bet on cable, followed by TNT’s “Closer.”

Finally, Media Life asked how the all-star edition of “Big Brother” would fare, and readers pegged it. More than 54 percent said it would do worse than last year, and the show’s Thursday debut was down nearly 20 percent.

http://www.medialifemagazine.com/artman/publish/article_5869.asp

fredfa

07-11-06, 11:04 AM

(From Marc Berman’s Tuesday, July 11, 2006, Programming Insider column at Mediaweek.com )
Ratings Box: What’s Hot/What’s Not

Psych Scores on USA:

New crime solving drama Psych got off to a strong start on USA Network, debuting on Friday, July 7 at 10 p.m. as the highest-rated premiere for a new basic cable series this year with 6.1 million viewers. Lead-in Monk opened its new season with 5.1 million viewers, delivering a larger audience than any scripted hour in basic cable ever in the Friday 9 p.m. hour.

TeleFutura Network Delivers on July 4:

Reventon del 4 de Julio, The TeleFutura Network’s 4th of July holiday special, delivered an audience of approximately 700,000 viewers, building over the year-ago time period by double-digit percentages. According to the Nielsen Hispanic Television Index, that was an increase of as much as 91 percent among Hispanic Men 18-49.

TV Tidbits: Notes of Interest

Sally Field Heads to ABC’s Brothers & Sisters:
Two-time Academy Award winner Sally Field will join the cast of upcoming ABC drama Brothers & Sisters, which will air Sunday at 10 p.m. out of Desperate Housewives, as Calista Flockhart’s mother. Former Eight Is Enough/Oz star Betty Buckley was originally cast in the role. Field, who appears periodically on NBC’s ER, most recently headlined short-lived ABC legal drama The Court in 2002.

Disney Channel Summer Press Tour Update:
Disney Channel will introduce a new action/adventure/comedy series on Monday, Sept. 4 called Yin Yang Yo!, which will air weeknights at 7:30 p.m. during Jetix. Effective today, viewers can log onto the Jetix website and watch a preview of the series. In addition, production has begun on new animated comedy series Phineas and Ferb, which chronicles two step-brothers who attempt to build the world’s largest popsicle and a backyard roller coaster, among other things, during their summer vacation. The series will premiere next year.

Disney Channel has also ordered a second season of Playhouse Disney’s Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, and will introduce Handy Manny, a new CG-animated series, on Saturday, Sept. 16 with two back-to-back episodes beginning at 10 a.m. Former That ‘70s Show star Wilmer Valderamma will be the voice of Handy Manny, a cheerful handyman who is always available to help others with his eccentric team of trusty tools.

Reader Feedback: Big Brother 7: All-Stars

“This message is coming from a loyal Big Brother viewer, so I am a bit biased by stating that I am baffled why this show keeps losing viewers every season. Of course, it may be due to viewer fatigue – it is, after all, in its seventh season. However, last season was the most interesting and entertaining edition of Big Brother because the house was at its most divided, and the houseguests were at their most volatile. For a guilty pleasure, how much better can you get?

Now, with the All-Stars, the competitiveness is already apparent. Will, the winner of season two, is still a weasel, while Kaysar, one of my favorites from last season, looks as determined as ever to win after being bamboozled twice. Sounds like good TV to me!

I disagree with you, meanwhile, about "Chicken" George. He's not as popular in the Big Brother world as most of his current fellow housemates, but that' is only because he was on the first (and worst) season of the show. With all these competitive people in the house looking to get each other out, "Chicken" George may stay on the show for quite awhile, and that's okay by me.”
- Douglas, Bronx, N.Y.

The P.I.:
Personally, I would not concern myself with the audience erosion. Since Big Brother opened the new season first in the Thursday 8 p.m. hour, count on an eighth season, and beyond. But my concern is fixing something that isn’t broken. Was the all-star edition really necessary? It didn’t do anything for Survivor, after all. As for who will make the grade, keep an eye on under-the-radar Nakomis and the beloved Marcellas. Both probably have learned from their mistakes the second time around.

http://www.mediaweek.com/mw/newsletters/proginsider/index.jsp

fredfa

07-11-06, 11:08 AM

The Monday prime-time ratings – and Media Week Analyst Marc Berman’s view of what they mean -- have been posted at the top of Ratings News the first post in this thread.

fredfa

07-11-06, 11:13 AM

TV Critics Summer Press Tour
Star gazing

By Alan Sepinwall of the Newark Star-Ledger in the “All TV In Hollywood” blog Tuesday, July 11, 2006

California, here I am. Press tour technically started yesterday afternoon, but when I rolled in after dinnertime, the other critics suggested I had missed little, except "Nick Nolte with way too many miles on him."

But at least I got to the hotel in time for a BET-sponsored cocktail party, which, with no stars to have to interview and no loud music, felt like an actual party -- or a class reunion -- instead of a Non-Party Party. And yet, because it's press tour, some of the more memorable moments involved celebrities, anyway.

We were in a big open space that spilled out into one of the hotel's main corridors, and I wound up with a seat facing the hall. A few minutes after I got there, who should walk by but Rob Schneider (accompanied by one of the Hey, It's That Guy!s who has a small role in every Schneider or Adam Sandler movie).

Now, Rob's never had a good relationship with the press -- after reading one pan too many of "Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo," he wrote an angry letter to the LA Times denouncing their critic as "Best Third-Rate, Unfunny Pompous Reporter, Who's Never Been Acknowledged By His Peers!" -- and he wasn't at the hotel for any TCA session we knew of, but there was about 10 seconds where he seemed on the verge of entering the room before he thought better of it and bailing. For the next half hour, every critic who came up to say hi asked, "Am I crazy, or is Rob Schneider here?"

A little after that, we spotted outspoken Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban -- who has a session today about Dan Rather's new job on Cuban's HDNet -- roaming the hall. Because I was sitting with the critic from Dallas, and because I don't often get to pick the brain of an NBA owner, much less one this colorfully blunt, I wandered over with two or three guys to chat up Cubes. He said he was just waiting to hear if the Mavs had signed free agent point guard Mike James, and then stood and indulged our many NBA questions, including another rant about the officiating in the NBA Finals that Cuban still feels gift-wrapped the title for the Heat. While discussing potential offseason acquisitions, I tried to do the Knicks a solid and asked, "Do you have any interest in Steve Francis?" He laughed and insisted that he really liked the Knicks roster, that Larry Brown was the problem last year, that Isiah Thomas would coach the team to the playoffs, and that if his man Avery Johnson were coaching that roster, "They'd win 50 games, easy." But he never expressed any desire to take Francis and/or Stephon Marbury off New York's hands and cap.

A few minutes later, a BET publicist came over to introduce Cuban to one of their executives, and we excused ourselves. As we walked back to our people-watching spot, one of the critics said, "You can file that under 'We have pretty cool jobs.'"

http://www.nj.com/weblogs/tv/index.ssf?/mtlogs/njo_alan/archives/2006_07.html#159816

fredfa

07-11-06, 11:18 AM

TV Notebook
The Emmy Problem: Is It Them? Or Is It Us?

By James Poniewozik Time Magazine television critic in Time’s Tuned In blog Tuesday, Jul. 11, 2006

The Emmys have found their white knight.

Tom O'Neil, the awards expert who blogs at Gold Derby under the auspices of latimes.com, says that critics who have lambasted the Emmys for rewarding old-fashioned, unadventurous programming and familiar faces don't get how the Emmys work. Series and performers, he notes, submit individual episodes for consideration by the academy; whether a series is superior or inferior in general is irrelevant. Shows like Lost and Desperate Housewives, he argues, committed "Emmy suicide" by submitting episodes that were either inferior, or, in the case of Lost, required too much knowledge of backstory for a judge unfamiliar with the show. TV critics, he says, refused to take into consideration how the individual episodes submitted to the Emmy voters could have affected the decisions because critics "are too lazy and arrogant."

I would respond to that charge, but it would be too much work and it would be beneath me to do so.

Seriously, though, I would never match awards knowledge with O'Neil, who clearly knows his Emmys (and Oscars, etc.) backward and forward. In this case, though, he probably knows them too well. That is, he's so invested in understanding, justifying and explicating the awards process that he doesn't seem to get what the critiques or TV critics (and plenty of fans) are saying: that the process is the problem.

O'Neil is right about one thing: that the Emmys depend on submitting single episodes to the judges, often industry veterans who are not entirely up to speed on current TV--so, as he notes, if producers don't choose episodes that play well in this context (for instance, episodes with easier-to-follow, self-contained stories), they have themselves to blame. But they don't have only themselves to blame. There's also the teensy issue that TV's most prestigious awards ceremony is judged by people who are not required to watch a lot of TV.

One problem with any TV awards process is that TV is not like the movies: it tells stories over dozens, even hundreds of hours. It's not reasonable to expect any person, even a critic, to watch every hour of every program theoretically eligible for Emmy nomination. But is familiarity with TV's most popular and best-praised shows too much to ask? It takes things to the opposite extreme to say that it's fine--desirable, even--for an Emmy judge to be, well, ignorant: to come in like a juror in a criminal trial, a tabula rasa unsullied by extraneous knowledge of the show other than the tape submitted.

Let's take Lost, which O'Neil rightly identifies as a flashpoint for critics ticked off at the nominations. O'Neil says the producers sabotaged themselves by submitting "Man of Science, Man of Faith," an early second-season episode that O'Neil describes thus: "A dog runs away into the jungle at night and a couple of islanders go looking for it. Whoopdeedoo. Meantime, a few other islanders blow the lid off a hatch in the jungle floor and we see partial glimpses of a man living in a modern-style apartment down below. Huh? That's it. That's the whole episode."

Um, yeah. That's also the nature of Lost. (I'd love to hear O'Neil's description of Ulysses someday, by the way: "What? Some guy walks around Dublin all day. He goes to a bar, he meets some pretentious writer, then his wife gets a big internal monologue. Helloooooo? Where's the action?") Lost unfolds its story gradually, over time, doling out bits of information and relying on the audience to invest scenes with significance using what they've learned in the past months. Most episodes of Lost, described or watched out of context, would seem borderline nonsensical--because the show is not meant to be watched in random order out of context.

O'Neil suggests that the producers should have submitted an episode about the "tailies" (the other group of refugees stranded on the island)--a rare, self-contained story--because it would have fared better in the nominations. He's probably right, but that doesn't make the list of nominations, or the process used to compile it, any better. If, to get nominated, Lost needs to submit its least typical episode, the ultimate problem is not with Lost but with Emmy. Lost, after all, is not Veronica Mars, a tiny cult hit. It's one of the most popular dramas on TV. If you don't know as much about it as the 15 million or so people who watch it every week--forget about the critics--isn't it just possible that you should not be judging an awards show about television?
The bottom line is, the Emmy process today is set up to reward precisely the opposite of the best TV being made today. Today's best shows--Lost, Big Love and Battlestar Galactica, to name a few slighted programs--tell serial stories. They require attention to detail. They rely on you to remember things from week to week.

The Emmy process and Emmy voters are still best set up to evaluate TV from the mid-70s: sitcoms where characters don't change from year to year, dramas that wrap up their major stories in each episode. (The dramas that did get nominated this year were either very familiar, like 24 and The Sopranos, or very conventional, like Grey's Anatomy.)

Of course, this process is no secret, and O'Neil is right that producers ignore it at their peril. But the fact remains that if superior shows are losing out to inferior ones, there's a problem with the Emmys, period. It's as if the Emmys were a baseball game, and at the end, the winner was declared to be the team whose pitcher threw the fastest individual pitch, regardless of the final score.

Now I'll cheerfully admit I don't have an easy solution. It's hard to empanel a group of judges who are truly up-to-date with TV and yet don't have conflicts of interest. And I'm the last one who wants the process handed over to critics: we're swollen-headed enough as it is. But even if the problem is intractable, that doesn't make it less of a problem.

If O'Neil, or anyone else, wants to argue that conventional TV is just better, that shows like Lost are too big for their britches, that TV is supposed to be easy to watch and and that critics are eggheads who like TV that makes them feel smart, those are defensible arguments. But there's a kind of Stockholm-syndrome-like quality to O'Neil's defense of the Emmys, which has a weirdly personal, chivalric tone. Critics, he says, are "too, too busy beating the bejesus out of TV's Golden Girl because she had the nerve not to nominate who they told her to."

Trust me, critics are used to people ignoring them. But if she finds it too challenging to watch and evaluate TV the way TV's own fans do, the Golden Girl has only herself to blame.

http://time.blogs.com/tuned_in/

Marcus Carr

07-11-06, 11:50 AM

Congress swings and misses

Representatives should fix the cable industry, not just intervene in Nationals broadcasts.

Last week, two U.S. House members from Virginia asked the Federal Communications Commission to delay approving a merger between cable television companies Adelphia Communications Corp. and Comcast Corp.

Adelphia offers cable services in a number of Southwest Virginia communities. Some, such as Martinsville, would likely become Comcast operations if the FCC approves the merger estimated to be worth $17 billion.

Yet the further consolidation of the cable industry and further loss of customer choice in the national marketplace do not worry Reps. Tom Davis and James Moran. No, they are worried about baseball broadcasts.

Comcast is in a spat with Mid-Atlantic Sports Network over airing Washington Nationals games, which is preventing many D.C.-area fans from seeing their team on television.

Davis, Moran and a Maryland representative therefore asked the FCC to make binding arbitration between Comcast and MASN a condition of approval for the merger. Moreover, the entire House last week passed a resolution asking the FCC to act.

Do they have nothing better to do?

There are sometimes good reasons to intervene in free markets. Baseball broadcasting is not one of them. With the soft regulations that encourage near-monopoly service from behemoth cable providers, this sort of fight is inevitable. If Congress wants to do something, it should tackle the root of the problem.

Besides, Nationals fans are not missing much. The team is in last place in its division.

http://www.roanoke.com/editorials/wb/wb/xp-72989

fredfa

07-11-06, 12:06 PM

Sports On TV
Fox Continues To Play Ball

By Ben Grossman Broadcasting & Cable, 7/11/2006

Major League Baseball has scheduled a 5:30 ET press conference at Pittsburgh’s PNC Park, the site of tonight’s All-Star Game, at which it is expected to announce its new television deal.

Under the new seven-year deals, to begin in 2007, Fox is expected to keep the World Series, one of the two League Championship Series (LCS), a Saturday game of the week for 26 weeks and the All-Star Game. Fox will alternate between the American League Championship Series and National League Championship Series each year.

The network will no longer carry the first round of the playoffs (the divisional series) and one LCS beginning in 2007.

Turner Sports is expected to pick up coverage of the divisional series for both the American League and National League. It will put the games on TBS, with the ability to use TNT for overflow programming as it does with its NBA coverage.

As part of the deal beginning next year, Turner will add a Sunday regular-season game of the week as well as an All-Star Game selection show. This year, Turner also gets rights to any regular-season tie-breaker games that arise if two potential playoff teams finish even in the standings.

MLB is said to still be in negotiations over the remaining League Championship Series, the announcement of which may or may not be a part of today’s press conference. Turner is said to be the front runner, with ESPN also a possibility.

Fox’s current deal included the entire package of regular-season and post-season games, at the cost of $2.6 billion over the past six years.

The network has lost $200 million over the course of the deal and News Corp. President Peter Chernin had said recently Fox would walk away from the entire package if they couldn’t make the economics work.

A source with knowledge of the deal says Fox expects to make money on their new deal.

http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6351403.html

fredfa

07-11-06, 12:13 PM

Overnights in the 18-49 Demo
Chilly return for Fox's 'Hell's Kitchen'

By Toni Fitzgerald MediaLifeMagazine.com staff writer Jul 11, 2006

Celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay’s temper is hot but his latest ratings were merely lukewarm.

Ramsay’s “Hell’s Kitchen,” Fox’s Monday night hit about cooking wannabes competing for the British foodie’s approval, dipped 17 percent from its most recent outing last night, averaging a 3.0 adults 18-49 overnight rating. Though the show still won its timeslot over CBS’s sitcom repeats, it was down from the June 26 episode, which averaged a 3.6 at 9 p.m.

One reason for the dropoff may be the July 4 holiday. Fox wisely opted to run the movie “Mr. Deeds” in place of an original “Kitchen” on July 3, as July 4 weekend is notoriously one of the lowest-rated TV watching periods of the year.

“Deeds” averaged just a 1.7, barely half of what “Kitchen” had done in the slot the previous week. But the week off may have confused some Ramsay fans, who perhaps thought the show had moved to a new night or forgot it was returning last night after the week away.

It’s also possible that ESPN’s All-Star Home Run Derby last night stole viewers from “Kitchen” and that it was a one-week blip. If ratings don’t stabilize next week, that would be more worrisome for Fox.

Meanwhile, CBS led for the night with a 2.5 rating and 7 share among adults 18-49, followed by Fox at 2.4/7, ABC at 2.2/6, NBC at 1.8/5, Univision at 1.6/5, and the WB and UPN each at 0.7/2.

At 8 p.m., ABC's "Wife Swap" repeat was No. 1 at 2.4, followed by CBS's reruns of "King of Queens" and "How I Met Your Mother" and Univision's "La Fea Mas Bella" each at 1.9. At No. 4, Fox's "Kitchen" repeat averaged a 1.8, ahead of NBC's "Treasure Hunters" repeat at 1.5, and UPN's repeats of "One on One" and "All of Us" and WB's "7th Heaven" rerun each at 0.7.

At 9 p.m., Fox's "Kitchen" took No. 1 at 3.0, ahead of CBS's reruns of "Two and a Half Men" and "Mother" at 2.7, NBC's new "Hunters" at 2.3 (up from a 1.8 last week), ABC's repeat "Supernanny" at 2.1, Univision's "Barrera de Amor" at 1.5, and another tie at 0.7 for UPN's reruns of "Girlfriends" and "Half & Half" and the WB's repeat "7th Heaven."

At 10 p.m., CBS took No. 1 for a repeat of "CSI: Miami" at 2.9, followed by ABC's 2.1 for a "Supernanny" repeat replacing the yanked “How to Get the Guy,” NBC's 1.8 for a "Medium" rerun and Univision's 1.3 for "Cristina."

Among households, CBS was No. 1 at 5.8/10, trailed by ABC at 3.8/6, Fox at 3.3/6, NBC at 3.2/6, Univision at 2.0/3, WB at 1.3/2 and UPN at 1.2/2.

• Ratings courtesy Nielsen Media Research. Ratings information is taken from fast national data, which includes live and same-day DVR viewing. All numbers are preliminary and subject to change, especially in the case of live telecasts.

http://www.medialifemagazine.com/artman/publish/printer_5899.asp

fredfa

07-11-06, 12:27 PM

Sports On TV
Fox to keep Major League TV rights

By Paul J. Gough The Hollywood Reporter
NEW YORK -- Major League Baseball is expected to announce later Tuesday that Fox will retain the rights to televise the World Series, All-Star Game and one League Championship Series while Turner Broadcasting will carry the Divisional Series and, beginning in 2008, a Sunday afternoon game of the week.

The move will give Fox more flexibility with its primetime schedule, which recently has come to a halt in October with nearly wall-to-wall baseball, while retaining the big-ticket games. It also gives an expanded role to Turner, which carries Atlanta Braves games nationally and potentially leaves ESPN out at the plate when it comes to televising baseball's often-profitable postseason.

Financial terms of the deals couldn't be learned Tuesday, although both Turner and Fox's deals will last seven years until 2013. Baseball and television executives are expected to announce the rights deals at a 5:30 p.m. EDT news conference from PNC Park in Pittsburgh, the site of Tuesday night's All-Star Game.

Fox Sports will carry the LCS and World Series this October, along with Tuesday night's All-Star Game and its Saturday afternoon game of the week. Then, beginning next year, it will expand the game of the week to 26 weeks instead of the current 18 and carry the All-Star Game. Then, in the postseason, it will televise one League Championship Series and then the World Series. Fox will alternate between the American and National League Championship series, with the ALCS on Fox in 2007.

The other League Championship Series remains in play, with suitors including Fox, Turner and perhaps NBC. It wasn't clear whether ESPN would be involved.

Turner's deal will also be seven years, phased in over the next couple of years. Turner had just signed last year a seven-year deal to carry Atlanta Braves games on TBS and its then-regional network Turner South, which was sold to FSN earlier this year. The terms of that deal will still be in effect at least through this year and next, meaning that TBS will still carry 70 Braves games a year in 2006 and 2007. The fate of the Braves' games after 2007 couldn't be determined.

In 2007, TBS will carry the entire divisional series, which includes two sets of games in each of the leagues culled from the top team in each division and then two wildcards. It will have the rights to postseason tiebreakers beginning this year. And beginning in 2008, it will televise a national game of the week on Sunday afternoons through the entire regular season.

That will dramatically increase MLB's national TV exposure, which also includes a recently renewed rights deal with ESPN for regular-season games and the exclusive national "Sunday Night Baseball." But unlike "Sunday Night Baseball" and Fox's Saturday game, Turner's won't be exclusive.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr/television/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1002802978

fredfa

07-11-06, 12:58 PM

TV Notebook
Loyalty for Rather and Mark Cuban

By Gail Shister Philadelphia Inquirer Columnist Juky 11, 2006

Dan Rather has found his patron saint, and his name is Mark Cuban.

To Rather, the fiery Dallas Mavericks owner and cofounder of HDNet belongs in the same galaxy as legendary CBS founder William S. Paley and CNN visionary Ted Turner.

"Hard news needs backers that don't back down," says the exiled CBS anchor. "It needs owners and operators who understand what news is and isn't, and back up their people and back them all the way."

Rather, 74, signed a three-year deal with HDNet to develop and host a weekly documentary series for the high-definition network. The official announcement comes today.

The weekly Dan Rather Reports will debut in October. A full-time staff of 10 to 20 will be based in New York.

After 44 years at CBS, Rather says he has nothing to prove. Don't believe it. He still feels the sting of Memogate, which cost him the CBS Evening News anchor job after a record 24 years.

Equally painful was his back-door exit from the network three weeks ago, a full five months before the completion of his contract.

"Journalism has given me everything I've got, including my dream," Rather says, his voice quavering. "I think I still have something to give back.

"I spent a fair amount of my life with something to prove - that I might not be the smartest guy in the room, but I could become a legitimate, world-class reporter, with heart and guts.

"I'm humbled and honored to have this kind of opportunity, at this stage of my career. I will give Mark Cuban hard work, loyalty, and the most fearless, high-quality journalism possible."

Cuban, a rebellious billionaire who turns 48 this month, says he and Rather share similar DNA.

"We're both motivated and intense. I think he was tired of the corporate world, and he realized I certainly didn't operate that way, and I was more open-minded than the organization he worked for before."

HDNet, which launched in 2001, reaches about three million homes. It's available on DirectTV and Dish satellite networks, but has yet to break into Comcast's lineup. Talks are ongoing, Cuban says.

Because HDNet is not publicly traded and not at the mercy of shareholders, the network has few editorial constraints, according to Cuban.

"We don't have to take precautions. This is my money. To me, the more icons we take on and the more conventional wisdom we overturn, the happier I am.

"If I have to make a choice between losing an advertiser and doing the right thing, I'll say goodbye to the advertiser."

Rather labels Cuban "a pioneer and a maverick, small M. From infancy, we Texans are taught to have a special place for pioneers and mavericks."

Rather says he's worked up more than 50 story ideas, including return trips to Iraq and Afghanistan. He wants to do pieces on the Sudan and Katrina - he pitched both ideas to 60 Minutes, but was turned down.

All Rather cares about now, he says, is "news that matters. There's a place for 'celebrity of the week' or 'murder case of the day,' " he says, but not on his watch.

Speaking of watching, some might see Rather's move from a mainstream broadcast network to a high-tech start-up as a demotion. He's not one of them.

"I see this as a step forward. High-def is growing. Its day is coming, and it's coming in a hurry." Content-wise, "I don't have to worship at the shrine of ratings and demographics."

Cuban says Rather reached out to him in March through a mutual acquaintance after seeing Good Night, and Good Luck, about revered CBS newsman Edward R. Murrow. Cuban's company produced the film.

The two met in New York about a month later, Cuban says.

"I had no expectations. I'm always looking for marquee content for HDNet. Obviously, things were not going well for him at CBS. He said he had a lot to prove. When you have a chance to talk to Dan Rather, you take it."

At the time, Rather's first priority was working out a new deal with CBS, Cuban says, but when it became painfully obvious that he wasn't wanted there, conversations heated up.

Like many others, Cuban says CBS mistreated Rather in the end. "You don't take somebody who's done what he's done and basically make him a scapegoat. It's not right. Particularly over one incident."

For his part, Rather says CBS is in his rear-view mirror.

"I'm looking forward. I'm following what my mother taught me: 'About yesterday, no tears. About tomorrow, no fears.'

"I have no illusions about this job. In some ways, I'm going into the wilderness, to build something from the ground up in the new world.

"Is it a risk? Of course, it is. But I'm a risk taker, for better or for worse. I couldn't be more excited."

Another gig. When it rains, it pours...

Rather will be a panelist on Chris Matthews' syndicated political roundtable for the next two Sundays, Matthews confirms. The show airs at 10 a.m. on NBC10.

"We assume he'll be fabulous," says Matthews, who's been looking to book Rather for months. "Now that he's not constrained by the anchor role, he can say what he thinks. We don't know how far he's going to go."

First topic: the role of presidential power. "I'm sure he has an opinion on the rise of President Bush," Matthews says. "The topic will provoke his passions."

Unlike most Sunday programs, The Chris Matthews Show, distributed by NBC Universal, pays non-NBC panelists to appear.

"It's an appropriate stipend," Matthews says, offering no details. "People who've spent their careers developing knowledge should be paid for sharing it."

http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/entertainment/television//15009345.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp

fredfa

07-11-06, 01:18 PM

TV Critics Summer Press Tour
Nolte Nuts?

By Susan Young Oakland Tribune in her “Unscripted” blog July 11th, 2006

Nick Nolte, whose famous mug shot after getting busted has turned up on practically every Web site in the world, says he doesn’t mind.

“I even put it on my Web site,” says the off-center Nolte, who says he’s building up his www.nicknolte.com site. “I’m also doing my biography on there, a living, breathing one that changes.”

Nolte’s wild picture from his 2002 arrest for driving under the influence is on the home page, along with his 1962 mug shot for selling fake draft cards.

The wacky actor _ is that an oxymoron? _ was in Pasadena Monday afternoon for the summer Television Critics Association press tour. He’s the narrator of the documentary “Buy the Ticket, Take the Ride: Hunter S. Thompson on Film” set to air in November on Starz.

Nolte told a small group of critics after his session that he’s basically retired, living in Malibu. He says he’s in his “Marlon Brando” stage where he usually wears wrap-around sarongs.

“I don’t wear any underwear,” he says in response to a tabloid reporter’s nosy question. “Sarongs are like Scottish kilts. Nothing underneath.”

He was wearing a more conservative shirt, loose jacket and very baggy slacks that covered his feet. On his feet were slippers.

“Yeah, I forgot to bring shoes when I came here,” Nolte says, looking a bit shaggy in a full white beard. “I had to borrow these.

http://www.ibabuzz.com/unscripted/

fredfa

07-11-06, 01:32 PM

TV Critics Summer Press Tour
Press Tour Starts

By Roger Catlin Hartford Courant TV Critic in his “TV Eye” blog July 11, 2006

Like returnees to summer camp, the members of the TV Critics Association are gathering in Pasadena, Calif., where the Ritz-Carlton Huntington Hotel is serving as a compound for the press tour.

Do you know the drill? The critics stay put, the networks come one at a time to hotel ballrooms, present their fall shows and make available their producers and stars (and executives) in press conference panels and informal parties.

We’ll compile information, we will blog, we will gather other information like squirrels gather nuts for later use, we will all benefit. Or that’s the thought.

There are stories again of gloom as the Summer Press Tour begins, with the Los Angeles Times noting that many newspapers are not allowing their writers to cover the sessions, citing severe cuts to the travel budgets; as well as the usual charges of fluff reporting (essentially, that these are fluffernutters we squirrelly scribes are gathering).

Normally I would strenuously deny these charges to within a cent of my travel budget. But then again, the first question at the first of what will be more than 100 press conferences this year was this, for an ABC Family show about the world ending:

How would you act if, you know, your days were numbered? If we could start with [one actor] and go down the line.

It's going to be a long three weeks

http://blogs.courant.com/roger_catlin_tv_eye/

AAF

07-11-06, 01:33 PM

Playing Fred for a moment
Dan's Lonely New Gig

By DON KAPLAN NYPost.com

July 11, 2006 -- FORMER CBS newsman Dan Rather has taken a job on HDNet, a little-known satellite channel that can only be seen by a tiny audience nationwide.

At HDNet Rather, 74, who was pushed out of CBS just three weeks ago after 44 years at the network, is joining Internet billionaire Mark Cuban, who owns the high-definition channel.

Rather will appear on a new show, "Dan Rather Reports," that will be available in about 3 million homes, mostly on DirectTV and Dish satellite networks.

In New York City, Time Warner carries the signal on Ch. 724 in what amounts to TV's version of Siberia.

Typically, when a network says it's available in a given number of homes, its average audience is exponentially smaller.

Cuban, who also owns the NBA's Dallas Mavericks, told the Washington Post that the show will be "an opportunity to do what I like to call 'fearless mode,' what Dan calls 'with guts.' Go out there and find the stories we think will have impact."

Rather's new show is slated to debut in October.

Rather's long career at CBS was wrecked two years ago after he anchored a "60 Minutes II" report that questioned President Bush's military service - but cited what are now believed to be forged documents as evidence.

http://www.nypost.com/entertainment/dans_lonely_new_gig_entertainment_don_kaplan.htm

fredfa

07-11-06, 01:39 PM

Thanks, AAF, good job.

And I can use all the help I can get!

fredfa

07-11-06, 01:43 PM

TV Critics Summer Press Tour
Notes from The Tour, Day 2:

"American Idol'' auditions, "Psych'' scores, Dan Rather returns and other notes

By Charlie McCollum San Jose Mercury News in his blog Tuesday, July 11, 2006

• If you're a Bay Area singer who wants to try out for the next cycle of "American Idol,'' you're going to have to do some traveling this year. According to an announcement this morning, no auditions are currently scheduled for the Bay Area, a regular stop in recent years. (A local tryout could be added later but, right now, it doesn't look like it.) The closest sites are in Los Angeles at The Forum (the opener on Aug. 8) and Seattle's Key Arena on Sept. 19. Other cities include New York, Memphis and Minneapolis. For more info and the forms you need to audition, go to americanidol.com.

• If you're an executive at cable's USA, you gotta like what you saw from the debut of "Psych'' last Friday. The new comedy-tinged crime drama opened with the most-watched debut episode of any show on basic cable this season with 6.1 million viewers tuning in. The established "Monk'' also scored big with its season return, pulling in 5.1 million.

• I'll have some more of this later today but just a quick note that Dan Rather -- banished from the kingdom of CBS News -- has rebounded to a new show, "Dan Rather Reports.'' The only problem: It will be on HDNet, Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban's all-HD all-the-time cable channel. The outlet reaches just 3 million homes (it's not available on any cable system in the Bay Area) which is a long, long freefall from the audience Rather used to have on "The CBS Evening News.'' Rather is here on The Tour later today to tell us why he picked HDNet for his triumphant return.

• One new network show getting much discussion at Tour parties last night (the TV Guide Channel and BET did the cocktails and eats honors): ABC's "Brothers & Sisters,'' which will air Sundays behind "Desperate Housewives'' come the fall. But most of the discussion was about how troubled the series appears to be. It was the one newcomer that didn't send out a pilot to writers and critics and there are wholesale cast changes taking place (the latest: Sally Field replacing Betty Buckley as the mother of some very dysfunctional siblings). Makes you wonder why ABC gave it such prime territory on the schedule.

• And speaking of the TV Guide Channel: Joan and Melissa Rivers will do their 1,000th red carpet interview during the Emmy Awards on Aug. 27. (The first, for the record, was John Travolta.) Melissa assured reporters last night that this was a big deal and they're hoping to find someone "really unexpected'' for that coveted 1,000th spot. And how do they know it's been 1,000 interviews? Well, the counting was done by "little TV Guide elves'' -- translation: interns who thought they'd be doing something more useful with their summer -- who watched hours of video.

http://blogs.mercurynews.com/aei/charlie_mccollum/index.html

fredfa

07-11-06, 01:56 PM

TV Critics Summer Press Tour
Blood & Guts (& Brains)

By Bill Goodykoontz Arizona Republic TV Critic in his Critic’s Tour blog 07/11/2006

Wes Craven is the smartest guy in the room.

Granted, in this crowd that's not always saying much. But Craven, who has made plenty of slice-and-dice films, from A Nightmare On Elm Street to the more-meta Scream series, is one thoughtful dude.

He was here as past of a session for Going to Pieces: The Rise and Fall of the Slasher Film, a Starz documentary scheduled for October. You know, Halloween, all that. Someone asked Craven about the influence of Freudian theory on the Elm Street movies (bonus points for the big brain!), and his reply was, well, you figure it out:

"Nightmare on Elm Street was actually, if there was a spiritual father of it, it was Gurdjieff, who nobody's heard of, but he was a Russian mystic who wrote about the levels of consciousness."

Was he now? There was more, much more, about how Gurdjieff assigned numbers to represent levels of consciousness and whatnot, and how the farther up you go the more painful it is, "and then, you either stay there by just dint of determination or you go back down and get more comfortable or you break through to sort of an enlightenment where you kind of surrender your ego."

Now see, that's what's great about these sessions. Here I thought the movie was about a demented crazy demon-type fellow exacting revenge.

Live and learn.

http://www.azcentral.com/blogs/index.php?blog=5&blogtype=Entertainment

fredfa

07-11-06, 02:02 PM

(If this story proves to be true, the bad news is there will be no chance for Comcast and Cox RSNs via DBS.
The good news: multichannel must-carry won’t be legislated.)

Washington Notebook
Bass Aide: No Telecom Bill in 2006

By Ted Hearn Multichannel.com 7/11/2006

Newport, R.I. -- Sharp policy disputes and election-year time constraints mean that a major telecommunications bill will not pass Congress in 2006, an aide to Rep. Charles Bass (R-N.H.) said Tuesday.

"The number of days left in the House is sub-30. I just don't think there is enough time," said Tad Furtado, a telecommunications adviser to Bass, who serves on the House Energy and Commerce Committee where the House telecommunications bill originated.

Furtado, a panelist at the New England Cable & Telecommunications Association convention here, said a wide policy gulf existed between Senate Commerce Committee chairman Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) and House Energy and Commerce Committee chairman Joe Barton (R-Texas) on rural phone-company subsidies, and the two lawmakers were unlikely to reach a compromise.

"Sen. Stevens' interest in passing as part of the telecom bill comprehensive universal-service-fund reform is at direct odds with chairman Barton's views on USF," Furtado said. "Although there's a small effort in the House [Energy and] Commerce Committee, led by [Rep.] Lee Terry (R-Neb.), to engage the topic, we have not done the homework or built the record required for such an important topic. So I can't imagine that we will be able to conference a bill where Sen. Stevens is insisting on USF being part of it."

Stevens wants to empower the Federal Communications Commission to shore up the $6.5 billion USF by expanding the base of contributors -- perhaps including a portion of cable-modem revenue for the first time. Stevens' bill (S. 2686, H.R. 5252) also includes $500 million in additional annual funding for broadband facilities in unserved areas.

In contrast, Barton has expressed concern that USF money is not being administered properly, and he has even suggested elimination of the program. The Barton-sponsored telecom bill (H.R. 5252), which passed the House in June, is largely silent on USF except that facilities-based voice-over-Internet-protocol service providers would need to contribute, tracking an FCC order adopted in June.

Furtado suggested that a bill dealing strictly with cable-franchising issues had some hope. "The franchise stuff -- I think there is middle ground there," he added.

Two weeks ago, Stevens indicated that he might try to trim his bill to obtain Senate passage, but he insisted that the Senate bill include USF revisions.

But broader legislation, Furtado said, had little chance of success. "I just the think the differences between the Senate and House versions are just too great," he added.

Assuming that Republicans retain control of the House and Senate in the November elections, Furtado said, "I do think we'll get a bill ultimately next Congress."

http://www.multichannel.com/index.asp?layout=articlePrint&articleid=CA6351498

fredfa

07-11-06, 02:13 PM

More details. (Though still no mention of any HD requirements in the new contracts)
Sports On TV
MLB to Announce TBS Deal

By Mike Reynolds Multichannel.com 7/11/2006

Turner Sports will enter Major League Baseball’s postseason following the league’s 2007 campaign.

As part of deals that are expected to be announced in Pittsburgh before Tuesday night’s All-Star Game at PNC Park, MLB will announce that it has struck multiyear regular-season and postseason deals, terms of which were not disclosed, with Turner and Fox.

From 2007-13, TBS would become the home to all four Divisional Series. Those contests -- which would be presented to a large degree in the form of doubleheaders and even tripleheaders -- have been airing on Fox and ESPN. This marks the first time the Divisional Series will air entirely on cable.

The following year, TBS would take its first swing at a 26-week Sunday-afternoon package, according to sources familiar with the deal, who indicated that those contests would not be exclusive.

For its part, Fox, from 2007-13, would retain the World Series and one of the League Championship Series. Fox would also continue to present the All-Star Game, and it would have the right to expand its exclusive Saturday-afternoon game coverage to 26 weeks from its current 18-week schedule.

The next owner of the other LCS package -- which Fox has held the rights to under the $2.5 billion, six-year contract that expires after this season -- remained unclear at press time.

Fox and Turner officials declined to comment. MLB officials could not be immediately reached for comment.

TBS’ major step up to the plate will result in a further scaling back of its coverage of the Atlanta Braves.

Under a seven-year pact signed with MLB last season, TBS is airing 70 Braves games this season and next, and it was scheduled to present 45 in the last five years of the pact. However, the new pact dissolves that commitment, as the 45 Braves games will be aired locally on WTBS in Atlanta and/or within the club’s six-state home territory.

The new game-of-the-week deal allows TBS to air up to 13 games of any team, including the Braves, nationally per season. In its heyday, TBS carried up to 125 Braves games nationally.

For Fox -- which has taken a write-down on the value of its current deal -- the new contract will reduce its commitment to MLB during October.

Momentum for the network’s primetime schedule -- just weeks after what has traditionally been the start of the new TV season -- has often been disrupted by the large commitment to baseball during that month. Fox has responded by going to a more year-round scheduling approach and by delaying the start of such hits as serialized thriller 24 and American Idol until January.

http://www.multichannel.com/index.asp?layout=articlePrint&articleid=CA6351427

AAF

07-11-06, 02:21 PM

...And I can use all the help I can get!

Are you kidding? I don't know about the rest of the readers, but I'm pretty sure you're some sort of mad robot!

Keeps on going, and going, and going..... :D

keenan

07-11-06, 02:29 PM

More details. (Though still no mention of any HD requirements in the new contracts)
Sports On TV
MLB to Announce TBS Deal

That's what I've been wondering as I read all these articles, are we going to be saddled with FOX Saturday baseball in SD for the next 6 years, and if so, is FOX going to relinquish that exclusivity window on Saturdays..?

fredfa

07-11-06, 02:36 PM

Apparently not -- it may have windows for all 26 weeks, not just 18. But maybe, just maybe, they aren't exclusive.

And I don't know if TBS gets an exclusive window on Sunday afternoon (but I would doubt it).

We should learn more later after the MLB press conference.

And let's hope SOMEONE asks Bud Selig if there are any HD components to the agreements!

fredfa

07-11-06, 02:38 PM

... I'm pretty sure you're some sort of mad robot!..... :D

But AAF, I am rarely mad!

fredfa

07-11-06, 02:53 PM

Sports On TV
Networks Reach New Baseball Agreements

World Series, Game of the Week Deals on Tap
By Jon Lafayette TVWeek.com July 11, 2006

Fox and Turner Sports reached new agreement with Major League Baseball that keeps the World Series on Fox and creates a game of the week package on Turner, which will also televise on the divisional playoff series.

Fox is paying about $250 million a year over seven years for its baseball package, according to sources familiar with the transactions. The Fox deals include the All-Star Game, a Saturday exclusive game-of-the-week package (expanded to 26 weeks from 18 weeks) and one League Championship Series per season, airing the National League series in even numbered years and the American League in odd numbered years.

Fox had wanted to maintain its relationship with baseball while limiting its payments for expensive sports rights. Under the new arrangement, Fox will no longer televise the divisional playoffs and will broadcast fewer League Championship Series games, giving its entertainment division additional time slots in the fall.

Turner Sports, which already televises Braves games, jumps in with a non-exclusive package of Sunday afternoon games that will be blacked out in local markets. Turner will as air the divisional championship series, the sources said.

Negotiations continue between Major League Baseball, Fox and Turner to determine which network will air the second League Championship Series.

The latest deals appear to leave ESPN, which carries baseball games in the regular season, out of the playoff mix.

MLB is expected to announce the deals this afternoon at a press conference from the All Star Game in Pittsburgh.

http://www.tvweek.com/news.cms?newsId=10332

fredfa

07-11-06, 02:54 PM

keenan -- in the above story note:

"...Turner Sports, which already televises Braves games, jumps in with a non-exclusive package of Sunday afternoon games that will be blacked out in local markets...."

fredfa

07-11-06, 02:55 PM

and this, too:

"...The Fox deals include the All-Star Game, a Saturday exclusive game-of-the-week package (expanded to 26 weeks from 18 weeks)..."

risnuff

07-11-06, 02:59 PM

26 weeks would be every Saturday of the season.

fredfa

07-11-06, 03:02 PM

Sports On TV
MLB National Rights Holders

• NBC: 1947-1989; 1994-2000
• ABC: 1953-1965; 1976-1989; 1994-1995
• CBS: 1951; 1955-1965; 1990-1993
• FOX: 1996-2013
• ESPN: 1990-2013
• USA: 1978-1983
• TBS: 2007-2013

(Not including superstation home team broadcasts)

fredfa

07-11-06, 03:07 PM

Some MLB ratings history:

World Series TV Ratings Since 1969

1968 NBC 22.8 57 Detroit over St. Louis 4-3
1969 NBC 22.4 58 New York Mets over Baltimore 4-1
1970 NBC 19.4 53 Baltimore over Cincinnati 4-1
1971 NBC 24.2 59 Pittsburgh over Baltimore 4-3
1972 NBC 27.5 58 Oakland over Cincinnati 4-3
1973 NBC 30.7 57 Oakland over New York Mets 4-3
1974 NBC 25.6 47 Oakland over Los Angeles Dodgers 4-1
1975 NBC 29.0 53 Cincinnati over Boston 4-3
1976 NBC 27.7 48 Cincinnati over New York Yankees 4-2
1977 ABC 29.9 52 New York Yankees over Los Angeles Dodgers 4-2
1978 NBC 32.7 56 New York Yankees over Los Angeles Dodgers 4-2
1979 ABC 28.0 51 Pittsburgh over Baltimore 4-3
1980 NBC 32.8 56 Philadelphia over Kansas City 4-2
1981 ABC 30.0 49 Los Angeles Dodgers over New York Yankees 4-2
1982 NBC 28.0 49 St. Louis over Milwaukee 4-3
1983 ABC 23.3 41 Baltimore over Philadelphia 4-1
1984 NBC 22.9 40 Detroit over San Diego 4-1
1985 ABC 25.3 39 Kansas City over St. Louis 4-3
1986 NBC 28.6 46 New York Mets over Boston 4-3
1987 ABC 24.0 41 Minnesota over St. Louis 4-3
1988 NBC 23.9 39 Los Angeles over Oakland 4-1
1989 ABC 16.4 30 Oakland over San Francisco 4-0
1990 CBS 20.8 36 Cincinnati over Oakland 4-0
1991 CBS 24.0 39 Minnesota over Atlanta 4-3
1992 CBS 20.2 34 Toronto over Atlanta 4-2
1993 CBS 17.3 30 Toronto over Philadelphia 4-2
1994 None Strike, No World Series
1995 ABC /NBC 19.5 33 Atlanta over Cleveland 4-2
1996 FOX 17.4 29 New York Yankees over Atlanta 4-2
1997 NBC 16.8 29 Florida over Cleveland 4-3
1998 FOX 14.1 24 New York Yankees over San Diego 4-0
1999 NBC 16.0 26 New York Yankees over Atlanta 4-0
2000 FOX 12.4 21 New York Yankees over New York Mets 4-1 18.1 million viewers
2001 FOX 15.7 25 Arizona over New York Yankees 4-3
2002 FOX 11.9 20 Anaheim over San Francisco 4-3
2003 FOX 13.9 25 Florida over New York Yankees 4-2
2004 FOX 15.8 25 Boston over St. Louis 4-0 25.4 million viewers
2005 FOX 11.1 19 Chicago White Sox over Houston 4-0 17.2 million viewers

(Source: Nielsen Media Services and baseballalmanac.com)

Note: The first number, the rating, is an average percentage of all households in the United States which watched the World Series.

The second number, the share, is the percentage of those watching TV who watched the World Series.

fredfa

07-11-06, 03:28 PM

TV Critics Summer Press Tour
Shannen, Dan and hoochin'

From Maureen Ryan’s Chicago Tribune blog “The Watcher” July 11, 2006

What happens when you put a bunch of television critics, a truckload of publicists and a sprinkling of actors and TV executives in the same place?

There’s a lot of spinning, a lot of gossip and even a few funny quotes. Here are some glimpses of what’s going on at the Television Critics Association summer press tour, which began Monday afternoon at a hotel in Pasadena.

The twice-yearly press tours, for those new to the event (and I am – this is my first experience at TCA), is when cable and broadcast networks do presentations on new and returning shows for writers who cover TV, who try to pay attention while surreptitiously checking their e-mail on their laptops.

Now, on with the show:

• Fallen angels appear to be the latest hot demographic. Years after the cancellation of the much-loved “Angel” (by the way, where the heck are you, Joss Whedon? Come back to television already), which concerned a vampire who was mostly good, there are now at least two TV shows about actual angels. BBC America unveiled the Brit series “Hex” earlier this summer; the show’s broodingly handsome male lead was a fallen angel named Azazeal. Now ABC Family has come up with an TV movie called “Fallen,” based on a young man who’s “half man, half angel,” according to ABC Family President Paul Lee.

The ABC Family movie, which premieres July 23 and has a sequel already in production, is based on the novels of Tom Sniegoski, who said his mother, at least, probably won’t be tuning in to the movie. At the “Fallen” panel, Sniegoski said his mother’s taste ran more toward “Touched by an Angel.” “Where’s Michael Landon?” Sniegoski said his mother asked him. Alas, “Fallen” appears to be aimed more at teen and twentysomethings than at fans of the late Landon’s “Highway to Heaven.”

• "Kyle XY," the channel's recent sci-fi flavored hit, is, according to proud Lee, already the subject of its own YouTube.com parody, "Kaitlyn FU."

• Thank goodness for Nora Dunn. Her deadpan comments livened up an otherwise dry Monday panel on a new ABC Family series called “Three Moons Over Milford,” a new apocalyptic dramedy (no, really) that debuts Aug. 6 on the channel. What would the folks behind the show do if they were presented with the news that the world was ending (which is the premise of the show)? All the actors and producers on the stage gave predictable (if sincere) answers, then Dunn gave her response: “I think I would probably overeat.” Word.

• Wes Craven is such an eloquent, interesting, compelling defender of horror films that it makes you want to run out and re-watch “A Nightmare on Elm Street” and “Texas Chainsaw Massacre.” Almost. For a panel on “Going to Pieces,” an upcoming Starz documentary on slasher flicks, the network showed several clips from the various horror films the documentary examines. I just have no stomach for blood and guts and exploding body parts and couldn’t watch the whole thing, which was only a few minutes long.

Still, Craven was well worth listening to. The director talked about being raised in a strict Baptist home and not being allowed to watch movies growing up (at the first college he attended, you could be expelled for going to a movie theater). Warming to the panel’s topic, he noted that horror films are about both “the human body’s frailty” and humanity’s capability for “irrational violence,” as well as current events. “Whatever is in the news that is deeply troubling will turn up in horror films,” Craven said, noting that torture is a recurring theme in recent horror movies.

Craven also gets points for the tour’s first (and probably only) reference to the theories of consciousness outlined by the Russian mystic G.I. Gurdjieff, whose ideas, Craven said, influenced “Nightmare on Elm Street.”

• The producers of the “Pirates of the Caribbean” sequels really erred by not casting Nick Nolte. Nolte was part of a panel on another Starz documentary, “Buy the Ticket, Take the Ride: Hunter S. Thompson on Film.” Nolte, a longtime friend of the late Thompson, was every inch the crusty pirate, in a floppy white fedora, ruddy face, white beard and raspy voice. “I just never found a limit that he had. It never did get weird enough for him,” Nolte said of his late friend’s appetites and inclinations.

• A BET presentation on the cable network’s new shows on Tuesday morning was marred by a fire alarm that went off in the middle of a rather loud clip presentation. At first I thought the alarm was part of the presentation, and my reaction was, “I know it’s early (well, early-ish), but is a fire alarm really necessary to wake the assembled writers up?” Anyhow, it turned out to be a glitch.

One of BET’s most hyped shows was a new reality show called “Committed: The Christies,” which chronicles the relationship of NBA free agent Doug Christie and his wife, Jackie. (The show debuts in October on BET J, the renamed BET Jazz channel).

Is he afraid of his wife, who’s portrayed in the media (and on his own show) as controlling? “Yeah, I’m scared,” Christie said, giving a sheepish chuckle. To be in a committed relationship, Christie said, “You have to open up in a way that [the other person] could crush you.”

The session was notable for the first (and possibly only) use of the word “hoochin'” as a verb. Christie was asked what would happen if he was out on the road and caught “hoochin’” with another woman. Nothing good, Christie replied, not surprisingly.

His wife, for her part, didn’t appear to be fazed by her portrayal in the couple’s reality show. “I think it captured who I am,” Jackie answered in reply to a question.

At the start of the network’s session, journalists were assured that the network “is not the same old BET.” And BET does have quite a few new shows coming up, but they’re heavily focused on musicians and reality. There’s a series called “Beef” or feuds (and it’s not a show that “glamorizes crime,” producer Quincy Jones III said. Well, where’s the documentary on schoolteachers, eh?); a mini-series of true-crime stories called “American Gangster”; and reality shows about NFL player Vince Young, rapper DMX and R&B star Keyshia Cole (Cole’s series, "The Way It Is," begins Wednesday).

The network didn’t announce any upcoming scripted programming –- an obvious hole in BET’s schedule -- but executives promised that programs along those lines are in the works.

• Tuesday’s most anticipated session will feature Dan Rather talking about his upcoming weekly HDNet series, “Dan Rather Reports” which, according to a press release, “will feature hard-edged field reports, interviews and investigative pieces” and “will reflect the signature qualities of its host with a focus on accuracy, fairness and guts.”

Sounds hotter than a frog with side pockets. But before Rather’s presentation (at 4 p.m. California time), Shannen Doherty will swing by to talk about her new Oxygen dating show.

That’s press tour, I guess: Dan Rather and Shannen Doherty. And lots and lots of coffee.

More soon.

http://tempo.typepad.com/entertainment_tv/

fredfa

07-11-06, 03:30 PM

TV Critics Summer Press Tour
It's Tuesday, This Must Be Pasadena

By Ray Richmond The Hollywood Reporter in his blog “Past Deadline” Juky 11, 2006

For the next 2 1/2 weeks, I will be blogging and reporting (two distinctly different acts) from the semi-annual Television Critics Association press tour from the Ritz Carlton Huntington Hotel in Pasadena. And I don't mean Pasadena, Texas, either, ladies and gentlemen. For the uninitiated, this is the event where twice a year -- in January and July -- TV critics o'er the land fly into Southern California to be fed sumptuous rubber chicken meals and lavished with endless bargain-basement swag (mostly T-shirts and pens emblazoned with the Oxygen and Weather Channel logo, which frankly don't fetch much on ebay).

Most every network in the broadcast and cable realm rolls out their best and brightest (or, in the absence of same, whomever they just signed). The stars and producers of the new shows for both summer and fall materialize for panel sessions that inspire the gathered scribes to alternately yawn and toss verbal grenades. The first five days this year are all about cable. After that come the broadcast networks, sometimes in tandem with their owned cable entities. The idea is to stoke momentum for shows and stars who are either coming up or already running on the network and looking for an extra publicity boost.

The early session today was for BET (Black Entertainment Television) and its new shows "Keyshia Cole: The Wat It Is" and "DMS: Soul of a Man." I already endeared myself to the BET publicist by noting I would be in the "Kesh-i-a" session.

"That's 'Key-sha'," she corrected.

"Sorry," I replied sheepishly. "I am nothing if not far too white."

The early jabber thus far has been about something that thus far hasn't been addressed in the official sessions: last week's Emmy nominations. The critics collectively see them as an abomination, a joke and an embarrassment. And that's what they say when they're trying to be nice. There's also a lot of early debate about an ABC series entitled "Ugly Betty" coming this fall. The group think is that it's offensive to refer to your lead character as "Ugly" in your title. "Idiot Betty" probably wouldn't have been much better. Maybe by the end of TCA, ABC will have been convinced to change the show's name to "Somewhat Undesirable But Fairly Well-Proportioned Betty." But that debate remains several days off.

In the meantime, the big news this day could be summed up in a title that could be a Christopher Guest film: "Waiting For Rather." Yes, Dan Rather, bloodied but unbowed (okay, maybe a little bowed too), appears before the critics at 4 p.m. alongside blustery billionaire Mark Cuban for a session hawking his forthcoming HDNet weekly news series "Dan Rather Reports." He's not expected to heap praise on his former longtime employer that essentially dumped him unceremoniously without so much as a "Hey thanks!". It isn't often that an HDNet session is the day's highlight. After all, this is a network that's in all of 3 million homes. Observed one critic dryly: "It's like seeing a punch-drunk fighter who used to headline the card at Madison Square Garden now taking on pugs at a high school auditorium. It's sad. I mean, the people in this room are liable to represent his biggest audience."

No one ever said life would be fair. Certainly not at TCA.

Say this for press tour, at least the cable portion: it's all about diversity. You want your melting pot, we've got it right here, folks. Leading into Dan Rather today is a session with none other than Shannen Doherty, starring in a new Oxygen reality series entitled "Breaking Up With Shannen Doherty" (honest). (I don't think we're in the same buiding where Edward R. Murrow once held court anymore, Toto.) Before that, GSN (the former Gane Show Network) rolls out Danny Bonaduce and his new series "Starface." Danny Bonaduce bleeding into Danny Rather. Can it possibly get any better than that?

Actually, yes it can. On Wednesday morning arrives Ted Koppel promoting his new "Koppel on Discovery" series over Discovery Channel. You've got to figure it's only a matter of time before Rather and Koppel join forces to host the weekly hour, "Network News Sucks -- Long Live Cable!". Indeed, it's as this TCA event is already making clear, old newsmen never die. They just get wired.

But it's time for me to boogie. The Weather Channel is up now, promoting a new series about how changing environmental conditions mean we're all doomed. Can't wait to find out how long we've got. As long as the world doesn't end before Rather gets up there today to trash CBS, I'll die a happy man.

I hear Danny B. calling. I'll be returning later with more. Ya'll come back now, hear?

http://www.pastdeadline.com/

fredfa

07-11-06, 03:40 PM

OK this has nothing to do with HD or even TV…but with so many eyes turning to the MLB All-Star game tonight in Pittsburgh, it does hold some interest, I think.
(And, if it turns out to be true, it will really make the San Francsco Chronicle's Tim Goodman very, very cranky.)

Way Off Topic Breaking News
Sources see indictment on deck for Barry

BY MICHAEL O'KEEFFE in Pittsburgh and T.J. QUINN in New York
New York Daily News sports writers Tuesday, July 11th, 2006

Barry Bonds has played in 13 All-Star Games during his career, but during yesterday's All-Star media sessions he seemed like one of those old Soviet leaders who were airbrushed out of photographs when they fell out of favor with their peers.

While the players themselves tried to avoid any topic outside the gentle fairways of good news, the U.S. Attorney's office in San Francisco is mulling over whether it will seek an indictment against Bonds, perhaps as soon as next week. Bonds is facing possible indictment for perjury and tax evasion, and the grand jury that has been hearing evidence against him is due to expire within the next couple of weeks.

Generally, several attorneys said, when a grand jury comes to the end of its term, a prosecutor will seek an indictment. Getting the indictment isn't difficult: As former New York State chief justice Sol Wachtler famously told the Daily News in 1985, a grand jury would "indict a ham sandwich."

But if Kevin Ryan, the U.S. attorney in San Francisco, gets the indictment he wants from the grand jury, "it will be because they believe they have enough to convict, not because they think it will give them leverage or result in a plea or something like that," said Long Island attorney Rick Collins, the author of "Legal Muscle: Anabolics in America."

Bonds' longtime friend and personal trainer, Greg Anderson, one of four men convicted in the BALCO steroid trafficking case, was sent back to prison by a judge last week and denied bail for refusing to testify before the grand jury. (Anderson's attorney yesterday asked a California appeals court to allow his client to be freed on bail.) Though Anderson is not available, several other key witnesses have appeared. Among them: Bonds' former physician Arthur Ting; Giants trainer Stan Conte (no relation to BALCO founder Victor); and Kimberly Bell, who reportedly told the grand jury that Bonds gave her about $80,000 in possibly undeclared cash and admitted to her he used anabolic steroids before he was introduced to BALCO.

Bonds told a grand jury in December 2003 that he did not knowingly take performance-enhancing drugs.

Sources within Major League Baseball said they have no inside information, but expect that the troubled slugger will be indicted. On one of the next few Thursdays, the grand jury will meet in the Philip Burton Federal Building in San Francisco and may be asked to weigh the evidence. If at least 12 of the 23 members agree that there is "probable cause" that a crime has been committed and Bonds is the one who committed it, they will return a "true bill," otherwise known as an indictment. The grand jury could also return a "not true" bill, meaning it will not indict. The U.S. attorney could also decide not to seek an indictment at that point, or request an extension for the grand jury from the judge.

Collins said he thinks the feds would have a tough time getting an extension.

"I'm not so sure there would be a basis for it," he said, noting that he is not familiar with all the facts in the case. "If the government doesn't know what witnesses they need now, they never will."

Several senior MLB sources said they believe Bonds likely will be indicted, and that they found plenty of damning information about Bonds in their own investigation, launched secretly a year before commissioner Bud Selig appointed former U.S. Senator George Mitchell to conduct an inquiry in the spring.

A Bonds indictment, coming just two months after he passed Babe Ruth on the all-time home run list, would be a public relations calamity for the game. But players, coaches and baseball executives at the All-Star festivities said they haven't paid attention to his legal problems.

"I don't know," Mets shortstop Jose Reyes said, "and I don't want to talk about it."

Toronto Blue Jays pitcher B.J. Ryan claimed geographical ignorance. "I don't get caught up in that story because we're on the East Coast and they are on the West Coast," he said.

Cleveland manager Eric Wedge said it was a league thing.

"We're so far removed from it in the American League. It's not something I put a great deal of thought into," he said. "I just know this - the game is bigger than anybody and I think that's proven time and time again."

Tommy Lasorda seems to have an opinion on just about everything, but the longtime former Dodgers manager said he couldn't talk about Bonds' future.

"I have no idea what's going to happen, so there's no sense in commenting," Lasorda said. "Nobody else does, either."

http://www.nydailynews.com/front/v-pfriendly/story/434215p-365815c.html

GeorgeLV

07-11-06, 03:52 PM

fredfa

07-11-06, 03:55 PM

TV Notebook
Spike TV goes after the manly man with action programming

By Matea Gold Los Angeles Times Staff Writer Tuesday, July 11, 2006

Where have all the guys gone?

Television executives have been scratching their heads in recent years as young, male viewers -- always elusive -- have become scarce, lured away by Xboxes, iPods and other tech gadgets and online entertainment, some of which they probably don't want their mothers to know about.

Spike TV is hoping to bring some of them back by cultivating a more manly image -- call it the cable network for the anti-metrosexual.

To put it plainly: "The Rock is Spike," explained Spike President Doug Herzog. "Jude Law is not Spike."

Three years after executives proclaimed it the "first network for men," Spike has adopted a new slogan ("Get more action"), replaced its bubble-letter logo with hefty block print and scheduled a slew of action-oriented programs, including "The Ultimate Fighter" and "Blade" -- all part of an effort to sharpen the channel's identity.

"I think everybody understood the notion that it's a network for men, but what did that mean?" said Herzog, who also heads Spike's sister networks Comedy Central and TV Land. "We kind of landed on our notion of what it is: an unapologetic, action-oriented home base for guys.

"Action means car chases and dust-ups and fistfights and Bruce Willis movies but also means the action of the card table, the action of Vegas and beautiful women," he said. "If it's testosterone-driven, bold and unpretentious, we think there's room for it."

Spike is not alone in making a pound-on-your-chest appeal to men. Lately there seems to be a resurgence in macho-themed marketing: Burger King is running a new "Eat like a man" campaign for its Texas Double Whopper -- cholesterol and weight gain be damned -- and Miller Lite ads feature celebrities debating "Man Laws," including how soon you can make a play for a woman who dumped your best friend.

Some advertisers already view Spike as a good place to find a captive audience of young men; spots for Burger King, Toyota and Coors dominate the network's commercials.

Still, it remains to be seen if Spike's pumped-up image will draw a substantial share of guys back to the television screen when they have so many other pursuits vying for their attention.

In 2000, 18- to 34-year-old males made up 9.5 percent of the American television viewing audience; so far this year, their share has dropped to 9 percent, according to Nielsen Media Research.

Keith Richman, chief executive officer of Break.com, a user-generated entertainment Web site aimed at young men that attracts around 900,000 unique users a day, said Spike's new strategy makes sense.

"There's no channel that really talks to guys on their level like they're guys and says, 'We know you're not pretty, but we embrace you,' " he said. "Whether you'll be able to get the guys off the Internet back to watching TV is another matter. They're competing with being outdoors and the new gadget that just came out and 'Nacho Libre' at the box office and guys' desire to go out and meet girls. Lay on top of that our natural proclivity to be fickle."

Those distractions haven't hurt only the television industry, of course. Movies and music sales have also slumped in recent years, in part because young men -- once the driving force of popular culture -- have so many entertainment options.

Spike's attempt to recast itself as rough-hewn is the latest incarnation of the channel, which premiered as the Nashville Network in the 1980s, then was renamed TNN in 2000 and switched to a pop entertainment format. Three years later, the Viacom-owned network was relaunched as Spike TV, setting out to capture young male viewers.

But with a grab bag of programming that included sexpot cartoon "Stripperella" and episodes of "Star Trek," the network's original mandate proved too broad, and its effort stalled.

So far this year, Spike has averaged 1.27 million viewers in prime time -- around the same number it drew in 2004 -- 15 percent of them (about 192,000) men ages 18 to 34. More than one-fifth of the prime-time audience is women 18 to 49. That means the network draws fewer young men, on average, than Cartoon Network's "Adult Swim," TNT, ESPN, USA or Comedy Central during prime time, according to Nielsen Media Research.

Spike executives hope the network's beefed-up approach will propel it past its competitors.

Action is key

Key to the network's rebranding is a new slate of action programs in development, including "Amped," a drama about a mysterious outbreak in Los Angeles, and "The Kill Pit," which follows a bank robbery gone awry. Also in the works: "Afro Samurai," an animated series about a black samurai produced and voiced by Samuel L. Jackson and scheduled to premiere in November.

"We think we will consistently have something that will interest the audience that nobody else does," said Pancho Mansfield, executive vice president of original programming. "Fun is a big part of it. We're not out to be provocative to the critics necessarily."

The network has high hopes for its first original scripted series, "Blade." Based on the popular Marvel superhero, the drama features Kirk "Sticky" Jones as an immortal warrior engaged in a battle with a vampire underworld seeking to destroy the human race. The series is produced by David S. Goyer, who wrote the screenplays for the successful "Blade" movie trilogy that starred Wesley Snipes.

"It's a great franchise -- it has its own brand, its own following," Mansfield said. "There isn't anything like 'Blade' on. This is a bit grittier and darker than most things on television."

Another tent pole of the network's new strategy is its partnership with the Ultimate Fighting Championship, the top producer of the increasingly popular mixed-martial-arts fights.

Spike recently renewed its deal with UFC through 2008, and no wonder: The third season of "The Ultimate Fighter" -- a reality competition among 16 mixed-martial-arts fighters around the world -- drew an average audience of 2.2 million viewers.

"It is to boxing what snowboarding is to skiing: faster and more extreme and more dangerous," Herzog said. "And, most importantly, your father hates it."

http://www.bergen.com/page.php?qstr=eXJpcnk3ZjczN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXkxNjcmZmdiZWw3Zjd2cW VlRUV5eTY5NTgyOTQmeXJpcnk3ZjcxN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXk3

fredfa

07-11-06, 03:59 PM

TV Critics Summer Press Tour
A tale of two parties

By Bill Goodykoontz Arizona Republic TV Critic in his Critic’s Tour blog 07/11/2006

What if they gave a party and no one (interesting) came?

I now have the answer, having attended a party put on by the TV Guide Channel. Yes, there is such a thing, evidently. You know, you see the listings below and they have little shows that go on above them. Maybe you know this. If you have digital cable, you probably just use the screen guide it provides.

Anyway, the biggest name scheduled to attend the party was Joan Rivers, the once-groundbreaking comedian who now, along with daughter Melissa, harasses arrivals on the various red carpets for awards shows. I've been to sessions with Rivers before, and even if they're not always particularly useful, they're always funny (her often-brutal comic chops come to the fore).

One problem: No Joan. Just virtual Joan. (Though after all that plastic surgery, is there any other kind, really?) She appeared only on television screens, alas. That left Melissa as the biggest star in attendance, unless maybe that honor went to Tracey Gold, who used to be in Growing Pains way back when and is now host of Trapped In TV Guide (and, not coincidentally, at this party).

Now, if you're an absolute American Idol fanatic, maybe you'd say the biggest star here was Kimberly Caldwell, who as an Idol contestant and now host of Idol Tonight (who knew?). But really, isn't that a bit of a stretch?

Better by far was the after-hours party put on by BET Networks -- dubbed "Black Carpet Lounge" by the network, which included some interesting background chat with executives about the new Vince Young reality show BET's making, an amazing jazz singer and -- huh? -- Doug Christie, who by virtue of being an NBA player was the tallest guy in the room by about a foot, seemed like, and his wife.

Here's what was cool about the BET party. At face value, the star wattage was about equal with the TV Guide Channel. Where it made up for that was in its usefulness. No one tried to foist off a bunch of people no one's ever heard of as stars. Instead, they settled for providing important information in an entertaining way. And that wins out every time.

http://www.azcentral.com/blogs/index.php?blog=5&blogtype=Entertainment

fredfa

07-11-06, 04:14 PM

The 2006-2007 Season
CBS Schedule Tweak

It is nothing major, but CBS today flopped its two 8 o’clock hour Monday comedies. The new comer, “The Class” will now begin the evening at 8 PM, and “How I Met Your Mother” will follow at 8:30.

(There will not be a quiz on this information.)

fredfa

07-11-06, 04:28 PM

TV Notebook
Ted Koppel to Report From Guantanamo Bay on "Nightline"

Former Anchor to Be Interviewed by Terry Moran
(ABC Press Release)

July 11, 2006 — - Ted Koppel will make his first appearance on "Nightline" tonight since his departure from ABC News in November.

Koppel will be interviewed from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, by "Nightline" anchor Terry Moran. The program airs at 11:35 p.m. ET/PT.

Moran and Koppel will discuss the details of the Senate Judiciary Committee's open hearings today on the issue of how detainees at the controversial detention center should be treated.

Koppel and Moran also will discuss the Bush administration's surprising new stance that all detainees at Guantanamo Bay and in U.S. custody elsewhere are entitled to protections under the Geneva Conventions.

Koppel is in Guantanamo Bay for a special he is working on for the Discovery Channel, where he serves as managing editor.

"Ted Koppel was the anchor of 'Nightline' for 26 years," said executive producer James Goldston. "It will be a pleasure and a privilege for us to be able to welcome him back this evening. His journalism is an inspiration for everybody working at the show."

http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/print?id=2179079

keenan

07-11-06, 05:03 PM

"From 2007-13, TBS would become the home to all four Divisional Series. Those contests -- which would be presented to a large degree in the form of doubleheaders and even tripleheaders -- have been airing on Fox and ESPN. This marks the first time the Divisional Series will air entirely on cable."

Hopefully, this means a national version of TBS-HD will be launched by 2007. As a bonus, we could finally have an outlet for the mythical HD remasters of Seinfeld.
I was wondering about that as well, since those games have already been in HD it would seem TBS would have to launch a HD channel, but that question, and the FOX SD or HD Saturday question have yet to be answered, especially since FOX still has the exclusive Saturday window-that has irritated me for a few years now.

AAF

07-11-06, 05:08 PM

Ted Koppel to Report From Guantanamo Bay on "Nightline"...Former Anchor to Be Interviewed by Terry Moran

The always fun "one journalist interviewing another journalist." That's quality reporting!

And tomorrow Brit Hume interviews Bob Novak.

But Hume can do no wrong.

fredfa

07-11-06, 05:36 PM

Sports On TV
FOX Sports and MLB reach new seven-year rights agreement

FOX Sports News Release
Network Remains the Exclusive National Television Home For the All-Star Game and World Series through 2013

PITTSBURGH - FOX Sports and Major League Baseball have reached an extensive seven-year national television rights agreement that keeps the World Series and All-Star Game exclusively on FOX through 2013, it was announced Tuesday.

In addition to the Fall and Midsummer Classics, the network continues as the exclusive home of the FOX Saturday Afternoon Baseball Game of the Week as well as the American or National League Championship Series on a rotating basis for the contract's duration. Financial details were not disclosed.

FOX Sports' new agreement with MLB gives the network the rights to:

• Up to 26 FOX Saturday Baseball Game of the Week regionalized single-header broadcasts, an increase from 18 previously;

• Exclusive coverage of the American League Championship Series in 2007, 2009, 2011 and 2013;

• Exclusive coverage of the National League Championship Series in 2008, 2010 and 2012;

• Exclusive prime-time coverage of the World Series from 2007 through 2013 with Game 1 scheduled for the first Tuesday after completion of the LCS;

• Exclusive prime-time coverage of the All-Star Game from 2007 through 2013;

• This Week in Baseball, MLB's award-winning, youth-oriented magazine show which precedes the FOX Saturday Baseball Game of the Week.

"FOX has enjoyed 11 terrific years as the broadcast home of Major League Baseball, having covered some of the game's most memorable moments," said Fox Networks Group President/CEO Tony Vinciquerra. "Major League Baseball is as popular today as ever ... with new young stars and veteran players performing before hundreds of millions of fans in-person and on TV each year. The schedule this agreement provides enables FOX to combine the most-watched games of the year with the No. 1 prime-time lineup in America."

"For some time now, Major League Baseball has been a key component of FOX's programming strategy," said Peter Liguori, the President, Entertainment for the network. "The games are an invaluable promotional platform - for both our new series and returning hits such as HOUSE, 24, PRISON BREAK, BONES, THE SIMPSONS, and FAMILY GUY. We look forward to many more successful years with Major League Baseball, and are eager to see who will be on top come October."

The expanded FOX Saturday Baseball schedule gives baseball an over-the-air, April-through-September, "Game of the Week" for the first time since 1989, and FOX also retains exclusive rights to the MLB All-Star Game, annually the highest-rated All-Star event in sports. In 2005, the MLB All-Star Game out-rated the NBA All-Star Game in households by +65% (8.1 vs. 4.9), and the NFL Pro Bowl by +98% (vs. 4.1). In its history, the MLB All-Star Game has never been beaten by any other All-Star event on a same-year basis.

http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/5776108?print=true

fredfa

07-11-06, 06:00 PM

TV Critics Summer Press Tour
''Fight Girls''

By Rich Heldenfels in his Akron Beacon Journal TV blog

Right now I am sitting in a meeting room while Oxygen shows a clip from *li Fight Girls, *lf of a new documentary series about women doing Muay Thai fighting. (Mauy Thai apparently translates as ''Thai Boxing,'' but it's more than that, with a lot of martial arts moves.) A live demonstration is also promised.

''I love this sport,'' says one fighter, while two other women show their moves with the Muay Thai expert Master Toddy. The name makes me think of some Richie Rich in knee pants, but I'm not going to tell him that.

This is not a big room and the smack of fists and feet against pads sound pretty scary. My ribs are sore just from listening. And we're being told that the temperature in the ring in Thailand gets to 110 degrees, so these are tough folks.

Now they're talking about it being a mental sport -- although it's also one where the best strategy is to knock out your opponent before you get knocked out. After one of those punches I just heard, I would probably just roll up in a ball and beg for mercy. (A colleague, asking the fighters a question, promises up front that it will be a friendly one.)

Someone asks about the dating life for women who can beat the daylights out of many men. The answer: They date their trainers.

http://blogs.ohio.com/beacon_tv/

fredfa

07-11-06, 06:07 PM

TV Critics Summer Press Tour
Death March With Cocktails

Good Morning. It's Morning, Right?
By Tim Goodman San Francisco Chronicle in his TV blog “The Bastard Machine” July 11, 2006

Ah, kidding. Those days will come later. I'm a little late here mostly because of boring technical issues, a workout, a frantic search for coffee and a little hotel dodging of cable people I don't want to see for various reasons.

Not in that order.

Now that I'm wireless and wired (plus exercised and showered), I'm all over this day. Unfortunately I missed Danny Bonaduce and his new GSN show. (That's Game Show Network for you folks who missed the name change to all letters...I believe it was on the front page of the NYT several months ago...)

See, the truth of the matter is that I thought I could skate out on THE WEATHER CHANNEL (!) and skip part of GSN because as history has proven to me, I almost never write about GSN other than using the channel as a cheap joke. Had I known Bonaduce - who wily writers on tour call "blog gold" - was on the menu, I'd have hustled a little harder.

Still, a big day to come. I'm in with the Sundance Channel right now and I like the programming on the channel of late quite a bit, so we'll see what it has. Coming up, Tammy Faye Bakker's son, a punk rocker and minister. Later, and here's where you should really pay attention, the Oxygen Channel - another niche programmer with really good wares of late - has a documentary about female Muay Thai fighters. And guess what? It's gonna be a serious girl fight right here in the hotel. They promise some ass-kicking and in my book, that's blog gold.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/sfgate/indexn?blogid=24

fredfa

07-11-06, 06:14 PM

TV Critics Summer Press Tour
Time slot changes, unreal reality and Baker blows up

By Rob Owen Pittsburgh Post-Gazette TV Editor in his blog “Tuned In” Tuesday, July 11, 2006

PASADENA, Calif. -- I'm still getting in the swing of blog posting, but it's only taken me a day to realize I need to post more often. So check back throughout the day for updates.

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Lamest defense of reality TV: BET Entertainment president Reginald Hudlin, in defending his network's over-reliance on reality series, offered this pointless platitude: "Reality is as powerful a medium as you make it."

He went on to say, "I like them, there are a lot of stories not being told. Fortunately, as president of BET, I can put those shows on."

So until every person's story is told on TV, BET is our great hope for the much-maligned reality genre.

Speaking of reality shows, I heard from a friend who worked on NBC's "Treasure Hunters." My friend's job was in production behind-the-scenes, but this person also played a double of one of the contestants in shots taken overhead from a helicopter. So if they're using doubles in reality shows, that just adds another layer of unreality.

Still speaking of reality TV, while I was on vacation last week and out of the media mix (a welcome break, but it always means playing catch up), CBS announced the cast of "Big Brother: All-Stars" (8 p.m. Tuesday, Thursday, Sunday), which includes a contestant from Western Pennsylvania.

Alison Irwin, 25, first appeared in "Big Brother 4." She now lives in Columbus, Ohio.

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

CBS flops comedy slots: CBS wisely has faith in its new fall comedy "The Class," a funny traditional sitcom about a group of third grade classmates who reconnect as adults. When the network announced its fall schedule in May, "The Class" was scheduled for 8:30 p.m. following "How I Met Your Mother" at 8 p.m. Monday.

Yesterday, CBS announced "The Class" will lead the night at 8, while "Mother" will retain its 8:30 berth. Networks usually put new series in hammock slots, so giving "The Class" the lead-off slot rather than a hammock shows the network's faith in the series to be a self-starter.

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

If you don't have Showtime but were interested in the pilot for the new series "Brotherhood", CBS will air that one episode Saturday at 10 p.m. The episode will be edited to conform to broadcast network standards.

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Baker's home video: Scott Baker's farewell video at YouTube.com has been viewed more than 3,400 times since it was posted last week.

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

For the December docu-drama "One Punk Under God," Sundance Channel follows the work of punk preacher Jay Bakker, son of televangelist Jim Bakker and Tammy Faye Messner.

How does Bakker imagine God? "White beard and big breasts," he joked.

Bakker said he's been spending a lot of time with his mother, who has stage four cancer that began in her colon but has spread to her lungs.

http://www.post-gazette.com/tv/tunedin/

fredfa

07-11-06, 06:15 PM

TV Critics Summer Press Tour
Death March With Cocktails

Muay Thai, Muy Hot!
By Tim Goodman San Francisco Chronicle in his TV blog “The Bastard Machine” July 11, 2006

So three women just beat the crap out of their coach and his protective gear and if I had a lighter to flash into the air I would have done it. The documentary, "Fight Girls," is from this moment forward a don't miss option (Aug. 7 on Oxygen). Three of the women in the film, who basically wanted to do something different to stay fit, end up going to Thailand to fight female Muay Thai fighters who have little respect for their American counterparts and pledge to, well, beat the holy hell out of them. From the clips, when one of the very lovely American contestants get her nose bloodied in the first few seconds, they realize what they're up against. The clips were great by the way and the three women here right now are well spoken and, let's not kid ourselves, suddenly dangerous. They are all in their boxing shorts and have their hands wrapped. They are going to be followed on stage in about a half hour by Shannen Doherty, who has a new reallity show. I wish I was making that up. And now I wonder if they are going to beat the smirk off of her face. I'll keep you posted.

Hey, all three of them just said they are dating or are engaged to male Muay Thai fighters. Interesting, that.

Someone - a woman by the way - just said, "You're all three relatively good looking women" and the assembled folks here groaned and one mentioned that maybe she should run - now. The truth is they are all good looking, two especially so, and no, they are not worried about having their noses broken, which was the answer to the question. Apparently the film clip didn't convince the woman who asked the question that these women are serious about the sport. Perhaps going to Thailand and getting the snot kicked and punched out of them was not enough...

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/sfgate/indexn?blogid=24

fredfa

07-11-06, 06:17 PM

TV Critics Summer Press Tour
Breaking Bonaduce? Ha! He Barely Even Bent!

By Ray Richmond The Hollywood Reporter in his blog “Past Deadline”

Danny Bonaduce -- looking almost obsessively ripped (but in the muscle sense) and buff in a tight shirt and designer jeans -- met the critics an hour or so ago to hawk his new tabloid photo-themed game show "Starface" that premieres Aug. 1 on GSN. He sounded chipper and energetic, if a bit overly hyperkinetic, and assured all that he was bloodied by his VH1 reality series travesty "Breaking Bonaduce" but still standing, still married, still apparently clean and sober in its wake.

Star Jones, take note: the great thing about television is that no matter how far you fall, there's nearly always another job offer or three waiting for you. Just ask Danny. GSN took one look at Bonaduce's self-destructive VH1 extravaganza and said to themselves, "Now there's a guy we need to be in business with." So don't worry, Ms. Jones. I can already see the headline: "A Star is Reborn." And I'd be willing to lay odds that her comeback will start on GSN.

http://www.pastdeadline.com/

fredfa

07-11-06, 06:17 PM

TV Critics Summer Press Tour
Death March With Cocktails

Shannen Doherty In The House...Live Blog!

By Tim Goodman San Francisco Chronicle in his TV blog “The Bastard Machine” July 11, 2006

Well, another opportunity wasted. The Muay Thai girls did not, repeat not, kick Shannen Doherty in the head back stage. And so she's here promoting her new show, "Breaking Up with Shannen Doherty," where she helps people - duh - break up with their lovers. We saw a clip. It was pathetic and it looked fake. But it's a reality show, so you get what you paid for. The hook here is that she uses hidden cameras to see what cads and sluts the other partner is, then she walks in and announces that this relationship is over. It's a "break-up intervention" said the producers.

I need more Diet Coke to get through this.

She's talking about her past relationships and, well, I couldn't really care and now I'm frantically looking around for the exit and perhaps more Diet Coke...do I have to stay?

When I was coming back from coffee this morning, I ran into Doherty's posse, by the way, and it was enormous. She had black glasses on in the hotel, which actually happens a lot and never loses its annoying star appeal. Oxygen apparently thinks she'll mesh with their you-go-girl attitude. Maybe she will. But if you need Shannen Doherty to break up with your boyfriend or girlfriend, you need a new spine.

Doherty said she is 100 percent misunderstood and her reputation isn't totally accurate but that also she played into it by her behavior when she was 18. Well, 18ish. She knows she's typecast and is no longer worried about fighting it. She can only be who she is. Oprah would probably approve of that.

OK, so now I'm warming up to her. She said, "I tried desperately to be given a second chance by the media but it's never been given to me."

Uh-oh. She's crying now. She's cried before when she's been here from harsh questioning and now, as she explains why she's been misperceived (?) all these years, she's crying again. She says it hurts when people say mean things about her. And, uh-oh, she pointed out that her mom is in the room and the vicious media attacks make her mom sad. She's crying again.

God, we suck as people. But now I've gone all soft and feel sorry for her and agree that she needs a second chance.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/sfgate/indexn?blogid=24

fredfa

07-11-06, 06:20 PM

TV Notebook
USDTV Files for Chapter 7

By John M. Higgins Broadcasting & Cable, 7/11/2006

Despite the backing of some of the country’s largest station owners, broadcast wireless cable company USDTV has run out of money and filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection.

Two years after Salt Lake City-based USDTV rolled out its first market, the company has lined up just 16,000 subscribers to its low-cost, low-end packages of "cable" networks in four markets. But it burned through $26 million in equity invested last September by broadcasters including Fox Television Stations, Hearst-Argyle, and Lin Television and is loaded with an estimated $14 million in debt.

Control of the company has been surrounded to Alfred Guiliano, the federal bankruptcy court trustee in Delaware, where USTDV filed its bankruptcy petition.

John Carroll, an attorney representing the trustee, says that Guiliano is close to securing financing to keep USDTV's system going in hopes that it can be sold to an investor group.
One investor group is already negotiating to take over the company's assets and assume some of its debts, while Guiliano was contacted by a second group Tuesday.

USDTV's plan called for pooling the spare digital spectrum of three or four local broadcast stations in a market to air a package of “cable” networks to compete with cable and satellite TV operators.

Subscribers to the mini-wireless cable system could buy a special set-top box to see a dozen or so programming channels—plus all the local digital-broadcast services—even if they didn't have a digital TV.

Since 2004, USDTV has launched in Salt Lake City, Albuquerque and Las Vegas, and Dallas but lacked the cash for intensive marketing. The company has 7,000 customers in Dallas, 5,000 in Salt Lake City and 2,000 each in the other markets. Around 55% of those were from cable "nevers" that didn't subscribe to either cable or satellite TV but were drawn to USDTV’s low cost of $20 monthly.

USDTV CEO Steve Lindsley called those numbers "evidence of tremendous demand for an alternative to cable TV," adding that "we were well on our way to proving our business model." The problem, Lindsley contends, is that broadcast stations weren’t willing to make the financial commitment it would take to expand the system and market it properly.

"I believe this is another notch in the belt of big cable," Lindsley says. "They’ve won a battle not to have to provide a lower-cost alternative." However, cable operators have largely ignored the company, since it was making little impact on their operations.

The company hasn't detailed its debts. But one court document shows that creditors include a number of broadcasters owed money for leasing spectrum, including Sinclair and Ion Media, plus cable networks supplying programming, including Fox News, Scripps Networks and ESPN.

http://www.broadcastingcable.com/index.asp?layout=articlePrint&articleID=CA6351629

fredfa

07-11-06, 06:26 PM

TV Notebook
Katie Couric on the hustings

The new CBS anchor goes city to city to chat with folks as the network tries to stir up sizzle for her debut
By Matea Gold Los Angeles Times Staff Writer July 12, 2006

NEW YORK -- The campaign has already begun.

Nearly two months before Katie Couric makes her debut on the "CBS Evening News," the 49-year-old broadcaster is hopscotching the country on a six-city "Eye on America" tour, attending town hall meetings aimed at eliciting local residents' viewpoints on the news. The trip, which takes her to Minneapolis today, is part of a summer-long strategy by CBS to buttress Couric's credentials and build anticipation for her arrival at the anchor desk on Sept. 5.

In preparation, the newscast is getting a complete makeover. The decade-old set at CBS News' West 57th Street headquarters has been demolished, and outgoing anchor Bob Schieffer is broadcasting from an adjacent studio while a new one is being erected. New theme music and graphics are in the works as well.

The changes won't just be aesthetic. Couric and her producers are in the midst of extensive discussions about how they want to reshape the third-place broadcast, a progress they hope will be informed by this week's forums.

"I think Katie wants to hear about elements that people think might be missing in the nightly newscast," said Sean McManus, president of CBS News. "The main thing she has stressed is that she wants the news to be presented in a very accessible, intelligent way."

After 15 years as co-anchor of NBC's "Today" show, Couric's ascension to the evening news anchor desk has already drawn skepticism from some critics who question whether she can make the transition to a more staid format — a notion that the network is challenging head-on in a carefully calibrated promotional campaign.

The first four 15- and 20-second spots, which began airing on CBS several weeks ago, feature Schieffer offering his imprimatur of his successor.

"I've been reporting the news for a long time, so I think I know a little about journalism," the 69-year-old anchor says in one ad. "Come September, I'll be back in Washington on my regular beat. But the anchor chair will be in good hands, because my friend Katie Couric will be here. Just watch."

CBS officials hope that spotlighting the support of Schieffer, who will continue to provide analysis on the newscast, will go a long way toward assuaging concerns of longtime viewers who are wary of the anchor transition.

The widespread planning already underway for Couric's arrival signals the network's intent to make the most of the anchor change, casting it as the beginning of a new era for CBS News after a tumultuous two years.

"It's very, very exciting to figuratively and literally have a brand-new evening news," McManus said.

That said, while producers are developing several new elements that haven't been used before on an evening newscast, McManus stressed that "the mix will stay primarily the same."

"It's going to be an evolution, not a revolution," Couric told reporters in Clearwater, Fla., on Monday before the town hall meeting, according to the St. Petersburg Times. "We're going to make some changes. But we're not going to alter it so radically that people are going to be like, 'Oh my God, what is this?' "

Executive producer Rome Hartman, who is traveling with Couric this week, said that Couric is interested in a broadcast that puts complicated stories into context for viewers.

"It's about figuring out how to do stories in a way that are valuable and meaningful and relevant to people," he said. "It's easy to be a little bit isolated. We don't want to do stories for each other."

The town hall meetings were designed to spur ideas about how to approach stories in different ways, not to dictate the topics the broadcast will cover, Hartman said. The first forum, held Monday afternoon in Tampa, Fla., was a wide-ranging, two-hour conversation with about 85 people, he said. (Participants were selected by local station officials after submitting requests to attend.)

"I was really struck by how people kept saying that they want depth and they want serious journalism," Hartman said, adding that several attendees cited the recent tensions with North Korea as an example of a subject for which they wanted more background. "They want us to give them more to chew on, in a way."

The forums — which are also being held in Dallas-Fort Worth, Denver, San Diego and San Francisco — have been compared to the "listening tour" that helped former First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton win over New York residents in 2000 and secure her U.S. Senate seat. (Couric's personal publicist, Matthew Hiltzik, helped organize Clinton's trips when he worked for the New York state Democratic Party. But he said that Couric's cross-country tour was "absolutely her idea.")

CBS officials have insisted that the local visits — in which the new anchor, whose husband died of colon cancer, is also raising money for local cancer charities — are not part of a promotional effort and have barred outside media from the town hall meetings.

But there's no question that her presence is generating a substantial amount of attention in each market, where she is also taping promotions for the affiliates.

Sam Rosenwasser, general manager of Tampa's WTSP-TV, the CBS affiliate, said Couric's breakfast fundraiser for the American Cancer Society was covered by every local television station and garnered articles in both local newspapers. "It was pretty amazing," he said.

Meanwhile, CBS is rolling out a broad advertising campaign that is shaping up to be the news division's biggest promotional effort in at least a quarter-century, when Dan Rather replaced Walter Cronkite on the evening news.

"We're giving it the full resources of CBS and beyond," said George Schweitzer, president of the CBS Marketing Group.

Along with significant affiliate promotions, the network is going to begin running commercials about Couric's arrival on radio and cable, along with outdoor billboard ads and spots on airline programming.

The campaign won't have any "fancy slogans," Schweitzer said. "This is a very straight-ahead approach. People know Katie Couric and they like her very much. They want to know how she's going to approach her role."

To that end, a new round of commercials will premiere in the coming weeks featuring Couric, in her own words, talking about her decision to take the CBS News post.

"We could do a very fancy loud promo talking about all the great things Katie has done, but we felt hearing her speak in her own unscripted words will accentuate her accessibility, her naturalness, the fact that she is a very real person," McManus said.

Toward the end of August, shortly before she takes over the broadcast, a final round of ads will go up that will showcase the major news events she covered during her time at NBC's "Today," along with specifics about how the newscast is changing.

"She's a newscaster, she's a reporter and a journalist," McManus said. "If we're going to highlight anything, I think it's going to be that."

http://www.calendarlive.com/tv/cl-et-couric12jul12,0,2738668,print.story?coll=cl-tvent

fredfa

07-11-06, 06:30 PM

TV Notebook
CBS' 'The Class' Will Lead Off Mondays

By Scott Collins Los Angeles Times Staff Writer in the Channel Island TV Industry blog

In the dark art of TV network scheduling, it's generally accepted that when prime time starts at 8 p.m., you offer viewers an established show, so they don't encounter something unfamiliar right away and, wracked by terror and uncertainty, click the remote to another channel and hunker down for the rest of the evening under the sofa cushions.

But CBS is going to toss that precept out the window this fall, when its heavily promoted new comedy "The Class" will lead off Monday's all-important comedy block. The network announced Tuesday that "The Class," previously set for 8:30 p.m., will move to 8 p.m. and help bolster "How I Met Your Mother," a critically praised but ratings-challenged comedy entering its second year.

CBS is posting a high-stakes bet. "The Class" is the network's sole new comedy this fall, and executives are praying the costly new series can boost a lineup that's sagged in the ratings since "Everybody Loves Raymond" went off the air last year.

"'The Class' is a new show, so it's going to get a lot of promotion," CBS spokesman Chris Ender said. He added that viewers were already familiar with "Mother" in the 8:30 p.m. slot, so it made sense to keep it there.

"The Class," from writer-producer David Crane, the co-creator of NBC's "Friends," is an ensemble comedy about a group of third-grade classmates reunited as adults 20 years later.

It's an intriguing concept, but the pilot, directed by sitcom legend James Burrows, lacks inspiration and comes across as a hit-or-miss collection of gags and hammy character types rather than a fully realized show.

One clear benefit for CBS, though: Because rivals are airing dramas (Fox's "Prison Break") or reality (NBC's "Deal or No Deal"), the network will have a monopoly on comedy during that hour.

Missing Chappelle: 2.6M for 'Lost Episodes'

How much do Dave Chappelle fans miss the wayward star? Quite a bit, to judge by the ratings for Sunday's premiere of "Chappelle's Show: The Lost Episodes."

An average of 2.6 million total viewers tuned in to "Lost Episodes," according to figures from Nielsen Media Research. Although that's not a record — "Chappelle's Show" was the network's top-rated show after "South Park" — it was high considering that the show amounts to fragments of episodes from an aborted third season.

In what has become the stuff of TV legend, the volatile comic mysteriously left "Chappelle's Show" last year in the middle of production and evidently has no plans to return.

http://hollywoodhotline.typepad.com/watcher/

fredfa

07-11-06, 06:45 PM

TV Critics Summer Press Tour
Danny Bonaduce to the rescue

By Bill Goodykoontz Arizona Republic TV Critic in his Critic’s Tour blog 07/11/2006

PASADENA, Calif. -- Danny Bonaduce = blog GOLD.

Yes. No doubt about it. GSN, which you used to know as the Game Show Network, if you knew it at all, had a lunch session to introduce a couple of its new games, Chain Reaction and Star Face. You don't care much about them, seriously. They seem like fun-enough things to watch if the batteries fall out of your remote or whatever, but by themselves it's hard to imagine seeking them out.

But Bonaduce, well, that's a different story. Fresh off Breaking Bonaduce, in which his out-of-control behavior on the VH1 reality show included a maybe-maybe-not suicide attempt, he's hosting the latter game show, which uses tabloid stories and photos as its starting point -- categories include "Mug Shots" and "Celebrity Train Wreck." In a sample game, one of the answers was Anna Nicole Smith's colon.

"I just enjoy saying that," Bonaduce said. Then he is the man for the job.
Would you hire this man? Or run screaming away?

As you might imagine, legal issues must be tread carefully.

"If it's Charlie Sheen I was probably with him, so I can back that up," Bonaduce said.

Bonaduce is, if you haven't surmised this over the years, that intriguing combination of starved for attention and nuts. Growing up on The Partridge Family obviously had a less-than-desirable effect on him, yet he's milked his infamy about as far as is possible, and then farther.

"I'm sure you have a couple of questions," Bonaduce said to the critics, "Like, 'How did this guy get another job,' and, 'What was GSN thinking?'"

Actually, yes. Rich Cronin, GSN's president and CEO, said he did a lot of talking to people who knew and had worked with Bonaduce. "They said even in his darkest time, the guy is a pro," he said. Then he added, "He's in good shape now."

And everyone laughed. That's Bonaduce -- somehow he makes you feel like his problems, and their name is legion, are funny. And he's funny. I'd guess being around the guy 24 hours a day would be both exhausting and maddening. The game gets old, I'm sure, and I don't mean Star Face. But for such a seemingly clueless guy, Bonaduce seems to have a pretty healthy sense of self-awareness.

"It wasn't like there was a rush to hire me," he said. Then, later:

"If I fall tragically off the wagon and I'm found in a gutter in Hollywood and I get replaced by Gary Coleman, what's it hurt?"

Later someone asked Michael Davies, who produces Chain Reaction and brought Who Wants To Be a Millionaire to America, whether Meredith Vieira would continue to host the syndicated version of Millionaire now that she's replaced Katie Couric on the Today show.

"Unless there's something going on I don't know about, Meredith is the host," Davies said.

"I hear Star Jones is looking for a gig," Bonaduce chimed in.

Is it enough to make me want to tune in Star Face? Eh, maybe, for an episode or two, nothing more. Again, the act gets old. But for a lunch-time session for GSN? Like I say, he's pure gold.

http://www.azcentral.com/blogs/index.php?blog=5&blogtype=Entertainment

fredfa

07-11-06, 06:54 PM

Sports On TV
Fox renews with MLB; TBS joins postseason lineup

By Michael HiestandUSA Today July 11, 2006

After negotiating for more than a year, Fox Sports and Major League Baseball agreed Tuesday to a new seven-year TV deal — and MLB also agreed to give Turner Broadcasting System rights to cover all Division Series playoff games.

Now in the final year of a six-year deal in which it paid an average of $417 million per year, Fox will retain the World Series, All-Star Game and one League Championship Series each year in the new deal, which takes effect next season. Fox also will increase its regionalized Saturday afternoon regular-season coverage from 18 Saturdays to as many as 26, and get later start times — at 3:30 pm ET, as opposed to the current 1:00 pm ET.

Fox will alternate between showing the American League and National League Championship Series by calendar year. It has not yet been determined which network will win the TV rights to the LCS Series that Fox doesn't show. ESPN and TBS are interested in carrying it, with Fox potentially interested in splitting that series with another network.

The new deal marks the first time TBS will carry postseason MLB action, as it inherits coverage of all first-round playoff games, which had been carried by a variety of networks, including Fox and ESPN. In the 2008 season, TBS will also discontinue its coverage of the Atlanta Braves, which it has carried since the 1970s. But TBS will add to its regular-season coverage by adding weekly Sunday afternoon games, with any individual team limited to 13 appearances.

Financial details of the new deals weren't disclosed.

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/baseball/2006-07-11-tv-deal_x.htm

fredfa

07-11-06, 06:59 PM

TV Critics Summer Press Tour
How I Made Shannen Doherty Love Me

By Rich Heldenfels in his Akron Beacon Journal TV blog

I've written some harsh thingsabout Shannen Doherty over the years. But she was in very good form today as she talked about ''Breaking Up,'' a show she is doing for Oxygen.

She was smiling, joking, seemingly relaxed (although she later said she fears live audiences). She also showed a sweet vulnerability when talking about her media reputation.

She teared up a little when talking about her bad press, particularly because her family reads it -- and her mother was in the room during the press conference.

As the tears fell, I got the microphone and asked a gentle question about ''Breaking Up.'' The show has Doherty helping people to end bad matches; in a clip, she tells a guy that his girlfriend is dumping him -- and the guy began to make a play for Doherty.

So I asked if, among other things, this was the only one to try that.

''No,'' she said with a grin. And, happy that she was able to get away from the emotional stuff, she suddenly added, ''Thank you. ... I love you. Are you single?''

''No,'' I said. ''And not looking to break up either.''

I should add that I wasn't trying to bail her out of a difficult situation. I just had a question to ask. But she sure seemed to like the way it worked out, and I didn't mind it either. As a colleague said to me afterward: ''Blog gold.''

http://blogs.ohio.com/beacon_tv/

fredfa

07-11-06, 07:10 PM

TV Notebook
Competition tightens for network newscasts

"NBC Nightly News" is bested by ABC's "World News Tonight" for the first time this year, though Charles Gibson can't take the credit.
By Matea Gold Los Angeles Times Staff Writer July 12, 2006

NEW YORK -- ABC's "World News Tonight" pulled past the "NBC Nightly News" in the weekly ratings race last week, the first time the second-place broadcast moved into first place since the week that followed the death of longtime ABC anchor Peter Jennings last August.

The most recent win by "World News Tonight," which averaged 7.34 million viewers last week to NBC's 7.22 million, was in some ways more symbolic than substantive, coming during an unusual week.

Because of the Fourth of July holiday, Nielsen Media Research averaged the audiences for only the Wednesday through Friday broadcasts in its ratings report. And while Brian Williams anchored the NBC newscast, as usual, both ABC's Charles Gibson and CBS' Bob Schieffer were off last week, replaced by Diane Sawyer and Harry Smith, respectively.

Still, ABC's win comes amid a general tightening of the evening news competition, a rivalry that is bound to heighten even more this fall when Katie Couric makes her highly anticipated debut as the new CBS anchor.

One factor has been an erosion of viewership at top-rated NBC, whose audience has fallen by an average of 590,000 viewers this season, a 6% drop

ABC, meanwhile, has lost about 875,000 viewers this season, a drop of 9.5%. But "World News Tonight" has shown signs of growth since Gibson's appointment in late May. In the last four weeks, ABC has attracted the largest number of 25- to 54-year-old viewers, the key demographic used by advertisers.

John Reiss, executive producer of the "NBC Nightly News," said he is confident in the strength of the newscast, which has been increasingly focusing on live interviews, what he sees as one of Williams' strengths.

"We've got the right guy in the chair," Reiss said.

"We've been making adjustments to the broadcast that I think have made it stronger and will make it even stronger in the fall."

Meanwhile, third-place CBS, which averaged 6.52 million viewers last week, is the only broadcast that has increased its audience for the season, adding about 281,000 viewers, a 4% boost.

http://www.calendarlive.com/tv/cl-et-news12jul12,0,4288440,print.story?coll=cl-tvent

fredfa

07-11-06, 07:34 PM

TV Critics Summer Press Tour
Hanging with the D-list

By Lisa de Moraes Washington Post Staff Writer in her bog “Moraes On TV” July 11, 2006

Summer TV Press Tour 2006 kicked off today in Pasadena very short on star wattage. Tom Skerritt was a no-show; ditto Hunter Thompson's widow. Joan Rivers, who was billed to show up at the TV Guide Channel patio dinner party to plug her upcoming 1,000th trophy-show red carpet interview, stood up critics in order to hawk something on a home shopping network.

"Mom would love to be here," daughter Melissa told critics at the Ritz Carlton Huntington Hotel in Pasadena. No one bought it.

"How many faces have come and gone?" Melissa asked rhetorically which, presumably, was not a reference to her mother's evolving sliced-and-diced look, but to the mugs of the 999 slobs who've already endured a Joan Rivers "interview."

If Joan Rivers conducts an interview, but does not know to whom she is speaking, does it qualify as an interview? So many questions but no Joan to put them to.

Instead, critics had to settle for the TV Guide Channel hostesses who headline or are correspondents on various shows on the network, including, most notably, former "American Idol" contestant Kimberly Caldwell.

All of the TV Guide Channel hostesses at the party were wearing the same look: flimsy dresses with belts under their bosoms. Which was a nasty look the first time around and should not be encouraged under any circumstances, however campy.

Caldwell was in a purple strapless tunic dress with a wide yellow patent belt-under-bosom. She's sporting a Rod Stewart-ish mussed up short blonde hairdo with newly blackened roots under peroxide blonde hair. She's also fairly heavily tatted: Chinese lettering - "without regret" on one wrist and "sister" on her neck -- as well as a star under her right ear, a musical note on one shoulder and an angel on her ankle.

"How long do we have to stay here?" Caldwell whined to another TV Guide Channel hostess as they moved around the party in a pack, reaching the line for the bar.

"Kimberly!" shouted a guy with a video camera which he has pointed at her.

"What?" she asked, bored, then, turning and seeing the guy, "Oh, Hi! What's up TV Guide Channel!" she shouted, vamping for the camera.

Caldwell reminded one critic who approaches her that she was on the second edition of "Idol."

"I had really big hair," she confided as she yanked up her purple dress. "It was empowering for me to cut it off" she said of her "Texas big hair."

More recently, however, her "life ended" the night Chris Daughtry was booted off the most recent edition of "American Idol."

"He was my favorite Idol ever, ever , ever!" she explained.

On the other hand, she loved Elliott Yamin's major makeover on the last edition of the singing competition, losing the "chin strap" beard in favor of a hipper look.

And while her TV Guide Channel gig is her "day job instead of waitressing," her real love remains singing, she assured the critic.

Chatting with Kimberly Caldwell, you can learn a thing or two. For instance, "American Idol" contestants spend a couple hours after their performance shows voting for themselves via telephone. And Baccardi-and-Diet has no calories - this from her former personal trainer.

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/tvblog/

keenan

07-11-06, 07:39 PM

TV Notebook
USDTV Files for Chapter 7

Ah, gee, that's too bad... ;)

fredfa

07-11-06, 07:43 PM

Last week’s complete network average prime-time results (with demographic averages) are now at the top of RATINGS NEWS the first post in this thread.

fredfa

07-11-06, 07:58 PM

Nielsen Notebook
A Low-Water Mark for Broadcast TV Viewing

The Associated Press--TV viewers must have taken to the beach: It was the least-watched week in recorded history for the four biggest broadcast networks.

CBS, ABC, NBC and Fox averaged 20.8 million viewers during the average prime-time minute last week, according to Nielsen Media Research. That sunk below the previous record, set during the last week of July in 2005.

It wasn't entirely unexpected. By tradition, the week that includes Independence Day has the fewest viewers of the year, or close to it, because rerun season is in full swing and the public is consumed with outdoor activities.

There also aren't any new summer hits to entice people. Only one program, NBC's "America's Got Talent," recorded more than 10 million viewers, Nielsen said.

It was a lousy week for Brian Williams and the "NBC Nightly News," too.

Williams' newscast finished out of first place among viewers for the first time since last August, beaten by ABC's "World News Tonight," where Diane Sawyer subbed for Charles Gibson, according to Nielsen Media Research.

http://asia.news.yahoo.com/060711/ap/d8iq1l8g0.html

fredfa

07-11-06, 08:34 PM

TV Critics Summer Press Tour
Death March With Cocktails

Dan Rather and Mark Cuban: Live Blog
By Tim Goodman San Francisco Chronicle in his TV blog “The Bastard Machine”

As you probably know already, billionaire Mark Cuban (owner of the Dallas Mavericks in the NBA) has hired Rather to do a weekly, one-hour in-depth, hard-news program.

"News like you've never seen it," Rather said. In HD, he means, but also it's a small nudge to corporate driven, commercial broadcast news, though Rather quickly said he's not here to slap CBS or anyone else. He's just happy to be doing what he loves.

Everyone will spin this one way or the other, but the bottom line is, so what? Rather has a job, Cuban has a big name and HDNet, Cuban's high definition channel, will get more exposure. And people who like Rather and the news he does will have a weekly outlet for it (possibly as early as October). Everybody wins. Whether CBS pushed out Rather and what it all means about network journalism is, already, old news.

There are three things of real interest here:

1) Ted Koppel, who works for Discovery, will be here tomorrow. That's two major, old-school network anchors now working for cable channels and focusing on long-form hard news, which they couldn't really do on the networks.

2) Rather is (newly) fascinated with high definition and presented a high-def news reel that did indeed bring home even more the horrors of war (if you have an HDTV set, you know what I'm talking about) and it may be something unique in TV news to see thing, ahem, more clearly.

3) These are two wacky Texans. But so far, no real weirdness. But it could happen...

That said, Rather just went off about bias and good journalism and Edward R. Murrow and not being afraid and...well, it's pretty good, but I'm going to need the transcript to get it right because it was a good, long venting and I want to give it justice. So check back later for that.

Cuban is looking at Rather like he's just hired a legend. He's got that look on his face.

The question now is if Rather will hire anyone he's worked with before (the implication being Mary Mapes, of course) and Rather side-stepped that one directly, but did say he will hire people from his past. As if the Rather bashers don't have enough to scream about, that will set them off even more...Cuban has already said that his very public e-mail has filled up from the RatherBiased people.

There's a chance that Rather is tearing up right now. And he might have done it earlier (we're debating it) and, if so, he joins Shannen Doherty...

Yep, he's crying. "I want to do work that matters...I want to do great work."

Our new goal - tears at every session. Everyone must cry!

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/sfgate/indexn?blogid=24

fredfa

07-11-06, 08:38 PM

Critic’s Notebook
The return of 'Runway' is as delicious as ever

From Maureen Ryan’s Chicago Tribune blog “The Watcher” July 11, 2006

To loyal fans, “Project Runway,” which returns with a two-hour block at 9 PM ET Wednesday on Bravo, needs no hype.

All “Runway” addicts need to know is that the third season’s first two hours are as delicious as anything that’s gone before. In the brisk “Road to the Runway” special, which airs first, viewers glimpse the wackiness and talent seen during the Season 3 auditions, and also receive updates on the show’s most famous previous contestants.

In the second hour, we meet the 15 third-season contestants in a bit more depth: There’s a guy who designs dresses for Barbie, a man who owns a boutique catering to pageant contestants, an elegant mother of five and more than one designer with solid fashion world experience. Los Angeles designer Jeffrey Sebelia, who may just shape up as the next bad boy of “Project Runway,” a la Season 2’s Santino Rice, has created clothes for acts including Gwen Stefani and the Red Hot Chili Peppers. (Rice himself, according to Sebelia’s online diary at bravotv.com, is a pal).

The first dress-creation task is as creative as any challenge we’ve seen before on the show. (Not just because the network asked critics not to, but because it’s uncool, I won’t give away what the challenge is.) In any case, several inspired outfits strut down the runway at the end of the second hour, as well as one of the most hideous ensembles ever seen on the show.

The designer of that piece did not, as the contestants’ suave mentor, Tim Gunn, likes to say, “make it work.” (There's much more from Gunn here, by the way.)

If you’re new to “Project Runway,” don’t let your unfamiliarity with the show prevent you from watching. The spry pace and involving personalities put it firmly in the top tier of reality shows, and it’s more surprising and even more heartfelt than many scripted shows.

The designers on “Runway,” as well as Gunn and the judges who evaluate the contestants’ work, care about fashion. And the show is more about how beauty is created than a look at the kind of depressing interpersonal sordidness that defines “Big Brother,” another big summer reality program.

Forget the distinction between reality and scripted, though; good TV is good TV. Aside from “Deadwood,” there’s no more addictive first-run show on television this summer. So what are you waiting for?

http://tempo.typepad.com/entertainment_tv/

fredfa

07-11-06, 08:41 PM

TV Critics Summer Press Tour
This is why they hate us

By Alan Sepinwall of the Newark Star-Ledger in the “All TV In Hollywood” blog Tuesday, July 11, 2006

Because TV critics are, by and large, a cynical, blackhearted bunch, we keep track of the sorts of milestones that others would find odd at best, evil at worst. This afternoon, for instance, marked a first for the July '06 tour: first celebrity reduced to tears.

Our first victim was none other than Shannen Doherty. A year ago, Shannen should have been at the tour as the star of UPN's short-lived sitcom "Love, Inc.," except her tenure as star was really short-lived -- as in less than 24 hours from the time UPN picked the show up until the time they dumped her. Turning lemons into lemonade, she was here today to promote "Breaking Up with Shannen Doherty," a reality show for Oxygen in which she helps people get out of toxic relationships, whether they're romantic, roommates, best friends, whatever.

It was a fairly lively, upbeat session for a while there. Nobody was impolite enough to bring up "Love, Inc.," and most of us were amused by the clip reel, in which the guy being dumped immediately tried to hit on Shannen by asking if she was ovulating. The producers even talked about the irresistible title: "How do you not watch 'Breaking Up with Shannen Doherty'?"

And then, catastrophe. A senior critic, and one ordinarily graced with the gift of artfully asking hard questions so they don't sound rude, asked whether Shannen was doing this show to try to alter people's perceptions of her.

Shannen was doing okay there for a minute or two, noting, "I've answered this question so many different times. The only thing I can do in my life is be myself and live it the way I want to live it, whether people accept it or not." But the more she kept talking, the more upset she got, until, pointing out that her mother was in the room with us, she began crying and said of all the tabloid stories, "It hurts my mom a lot."

One uncomfortable pause later, my buddy Rich Heldenfels from the Akron Beacon-Journal saved the day by asking how many dumped guys hit on her during production of the show, and whether the ovulation line was the worst pick-up attempt she'd ever heard. The tears quickly turned to laughter, and she said, "Thank you for that question, you lightened the mood. I love you. Are you single?"

"No," Rich replied politely. "And I'm not looking to break up."

http://www.nj.com/weblogs/tv/index.ssf?/mtlogs/njo_alan/archives/2006_07.html#160108

fredfa

07-11-06, 08:46 PM

TV Critics Summer Press Tour
Maybe They Should Call It, 'Tearing Up With Shannen Doherty'

By Ray Richmond The Hollywood Reporter in his blog “Past Deadline”

You've got to love the fact that Oxygen -- which once was all about crystals and yoga and aura readers -- had an afternoon session with the critics where it hyped a new show featuring bad-ass woman who do really nasty things with their feet, fists and elbows ("Fight Girls") and another series ("Breaking Up With Shannen Doherty") that finds the notorious former star of "Beverly Hills, 90210" and "Charmed" serving as a one-woman intervention service retained to help separate people from one another. And who better, quite frankly.

Doherty, whose show premieres on the chick network Aug. 22, showed herself to be strong, confident, self-assured and a little bit cocky while taking the best shots of the assemb led critics. But even tough cookies with a reputation for difficulty and hubris have their limits, it turns out. Shannen was reduced to tears by Dallas Morning News TV critic Ed Bark when he asked, with genuine sensitivity and respect, about any regrets Doherty might have and whether she'd do anything differently if she could live her life over.

"I tend to be a really private and self-conscious person," Doherty said through sniffles. "It hurts a lot to read the stuff I have to about myself and it hurts my mom too." Yes, she's human after all. Can you say "Stop the presses!" on a blog? Stop the cyber?

As for what Doherty would do if she were ambushed in a similar fashion to whatg she does to unsuspecting dump-ees on her new show (on which she also serves as exec producer), she evokes no hesitation: "I would never sign the release."

http://www.pastdeadline.com/

fredfa

07-11-06, 09:31 PM

TV Critics Summer Press Tour
Dan Rather reports, Shannen Doherty cries

By Charlie McCollum San Jose Mercury News in his blog Tuesday, July 11, 2006

There are always days on The Tour that have a surreal quality, as if you've suddenly fallen down that rabbit hole with Alice. Most often, it's the simple juxtaposition of shows and the people who come to The Tour to promote them.

The first such moments of this tour came this afternoon on Day 2 when most of the TV writers had barely settled into their hotel rooms. It started at lunch with some strange (but funny) with Danny Bonaduce, the ex-"Partridge Family'' kid star who has become a staple of the supermarket tabloids and TV gossip shows.

Bonaduce rather famously self-destructed on his own reality show, "Breaking Bonduce'' on VH1, just last year. (He claimed today that he has never seen the show, saying, "I at least had the common sense not to watch it.'') But now he's back as the host of a new GSN game show called "Starface'' which uses the tabloid tales of celebrities behaving badly as the source for questions.

But Bonaduce was just the warmup act for the afternoon's two headliners: actress Shannen Doherty and former CBS anchor Dan Rather. (Now, there are two names I never thought I'd be using in the same sentence.)

In the house to promote her new reality show -- "Breaking Up With Shannen Doherty,'' which begins Aug. 22 on Oxygen -- the actress was actually on her better behavior as she answered the early questions about the series. (Doherty comes in to help people break up with their lovers.) But the love-hate relationship she has with the press eventually surfaced when a writer asked if she was trying to alter her checkered public image as someone who misbehaves off-screen and is difficult to work with onscreen.

"I'm not really trying to alter anything,'' replied Doherty with a bit of a glare. "The only thing I can do in my life is be who I am.'' She might have been better off leaving it there but she charged ahead: "I can't fight what people think of me. ... I've tried for years to get a second chance with the media and you guys haven't given it to me.''

At this point, Doherty started tearing up as she added, "It hurts a lot to read the stuff that's written about me.''

Also choking up during his time with the press: Rather, who left CBS under a cloud earlier this year and has now found a new home in "Dan Rather Reports'' on HDNet. The hour-long weekly news program will begin in October on the cable channel owned by Dallas Mavericks boss and multi-millionaire Mark Cuban who thinks Rather's presence could be just the boost HDNet needs to get beyond its limited viewership. (No cable system in the Bay Area carries it.)

Rather said he decided to go to HDNet because Cuban had told him, "I want to give you the backing to do the program you want to do.'' What journalist, he said, "would turn down total editorial and creative control?''

At CBS, Rather noted, he was working with "a large corporation with a chain of command that looks like the wiring of a nuclear reactor. The difference here is that the chain of command begins and ends with me.''

The veteran journalist -- who will turn 75 about the time "Dan Rather Reports'' makes its debut -- started to lose it just a bit when someone asked if he came with "baggage'' after suffering through a discredited "60 Minutes II'' report about President Bush's military record, stepping down from the anchor job a year earlier then planned and then being pushed out of CBS completely.

"You bet I have baggage -- and I'm proud it,'' said Rather. "I'm committed to independent journalism, sometimes fiercely independent journalism if need be. ... I'm not going to be bullied or intimidated'' by critics who say, "Listen, you report the news the way I want or else.''

His voice choking slightly, he added, "When you face the furnace, you have to take the heat -- and sometimes you get burned.'' (As you might have guessed, Rather is still given to slightly off-center, folksy phrasings.)

Still to come this week: Mr. T. I think the chances of him choking up are pretty slim.

http://blogs.mercurynews.com/aei/charlie_mccollum/index.html

fredfa

07-11-06, 09:37 PM

TV Critics Summer Press Tour
Dan, Rather polite

By Bill Goodykoontz Arizona Republic TV Critic in his Critic’s Tour blog 07/11/2006 05:58:21

Gunga Dan takes the high road.

Dan Rather, here with billionaire Mark Cuban to talk about his new gig at Cuban's HD Net, got asked, as you'd guess he might've, a lot of questions about his former employer, CBS. Part of they promotional push for Dan Rather Reports, which is scheduled to start on HD Net in October, says Rather will be "unleashed."

So you were leashed in your old job?

"I wouldn't touch that with a 17-foot pole," Rather said, "which is what I reserve for things I wouldn't touch with a 10-foot pole. I'm looking forward."

Doesn't quite track, but you get the idea.

OK, how about this? Ratings for the CBS Evening News have gone up since Bob Schieffer took over as its anchor. How's that make you feel? (We can be a cruel bunch.)

"I'm always pulling for the people of CBS News," he said. And yeah, maybe he put a little extra emphasis on the word "people," but Rather and Cuban both went out of their way not to trash CBS, or much else.

"I'm not here to be critical of any other news organization," Rather said. You can imagine how that disappointed the gathered group of critics, but it was probably the smart move.

Rather, as you may recall -- it got a little coverage -- had a rather messy breakup with CBS last month, after spending 44 years there. You may also recall the flap over the 60 Minutes report on President Bush's military service, which relied on documents that couldn't be authenticated and led to Rather stepping down as anchor earlier than he'd planned.

To Rather's detractors, and there are a ton -- just say something complimentary about the guy in print, I've learned, and they turn their knives on you as well -- this was all proof of his liberal bias. Forget that the guy has covered every major story since the Kennedy assassination.

Well, no. Don't forget that. Rather made a mistake, which he acknowledges in, admittedly, a round-about way, but he also defends himself.

"You bet your life I've got a lot of baggage," he said, "and I'm proud of it," ticking off stories he's reported, including Vietnam, Watergate, etc. etc. etc.

Did he make a stupid mistake with the Bush story? Yep. And he has paid quite a price. But you can be sure that he's being paid quite a wage to work for Cuban, whom you're probably more familiar with as the over-the-top owner of the Dallas Mavericks but maybe less so as a real visionary when it comes to technology (he didn't make those billions by winning the lottery, you know). He was his usual, ahem, confident self when asked if hiring Rather painted the network's news division into a corner.

"I've been painted into so many corners I'm out of corners," he said. "So, no.... I'm not concerned with it at all, because the work will speak for itself."

But will Rather's detractors let it? He discussed at length the climate in which a certain segment of viewers -- fans of Fox News was the unspoken context -- take the attitude, as he put it, "You report the news the way I want it reported or you will pay a price."

A little bit of a defense mechanism there? Sure. But he's also right. Most of the time -- not always, but most of the time -- someone complains of liberal bias, they're really complaining that the media is exposing something that makes institutions they identify with look bad. It's understandable, but it's not a valid criticism of journalism.

"News, real news at its best, is a wake-up call, not a lullaby," Rather said. "And I'm not in the lullaby business."

But he is back in the news business, and like him or not, he always bears watching.

http://www.azcentral.com/blogs/index.php?blog=5&blogtype=Entertainment

fredfa

07-11-06, 09:41 PM

Sports On TV
Extra innings for Fox, MLB

Net retains postseason; Turner trades Braves
By Paul J. Gough The Hollywood Reporter July 12, 2006

NEW YORK -- With one fell swoop Tuesday, Fox Broadcasting managed to alleviate some of the scheduling pressure surrounding the postseason baseball that washes over its slate in October.

Fox and Turner Broadcasting emerged the victors for much of the postseason baseball package, which was announced Tuesday at PNC Park in Pittsburgh, the site of Tuesday's All-Star Game.

Fox has retained the rights to the World Series and one League Championship Series for seven more years. It also upped its commitment to regular-season baseball with 26 weeks of Saturday afternoons compared with the current 18 weeks that start in May. Turner will trade the Atlanta Braves telecasts it has had on TBS for decades for a national package that next year will make it the exclusive home of both Divisional Series plus, in 2008, carve out a regular-season Sunday afternoon game every week of the season.

Financial terms were not disclosed, but sources said Fox will pay an average of $250 million a year for the seven-year deal, down from the $417 million a year it has been paying. Turner will pay $120 million a year, sources said.

Fox has had a sometimes rocky road with baseball, which can drive a stake through its regular TV season when it takes up much of October. The network has in the past had some difficulty launching its new season, though its strategy of starting some shows in August paid off last year with "Prison Break" as well as the scheduling of "American Idol" in January.

Its ratings can go through the roof, like what happened in 2003 with the nail-biting seven-game ALCS between the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox as well as the 2004 rematch in which the Red Sox came from behind and won its first World Series in 86 years. But ratings also can go the other way, like last year when the Chicago White Sox beat the Houston Astros in what became the lowest-rated World Series in history.

"We're not the same company that we were 10 years ago," Fox Sports president Ed Goren said. "Fox has won the adults 18-49 race two years running. Peter Liguori and his team has to figure out how to make the most out of postseason baseball. It makes sense to pre-empt fewer nights and create more windows for his schedule while retaining the promotional power of postseason baseball."

There are only two series per year in October, down from as many as seven Divisional Series games, two League Championship Series and the World Series.

"They have fewer variables. They won't have as many nights where they don't know whether there will be a Game 6 or will we have to program," Goren said. Liguori returned from vacation late Tuesday and wasn't available for comment.

Goren said Tuesday from Pittsburgh that it didn't start that way in the 13 months Fox and MLB were negotiating, including the time when Fox let its exclusive negotiating window pass.

"Three or four weeks ago, we weren't convinced we were doing any baseball," Goren said.

Turner's new deal begins at season's end, when it has the rights to any special tie-breaking games a la the one-game playoff between the Red Sox and Yankees on Oct. 2, 1978.

"We wanted to get involved with baseball as soon as possible," Turner Sports president David Levy said. "We asked what we could we get today. This was not tied to any other network. Wouldn't it be great if the Yankees and Red Sox came down to a one-game playoff?"

Turner will give up the 70 Braves games it airs on TBS after 2007, though the local WTBS in Atlanta still will carry 45 Braves games a year. Although Turner had reached a deal last year to extend the contract another seven years, this new national package required a choice.

"We couldn't have it all. We had to give to get," Levy said. "We just financially couldn't afford (having both packages)."

ESPN remains in contention for the second LCS rights as well as other networks. But ESPN took a pass on the Divisional Series, which it has televised since they started in 1995. Yet word from Bristol, Conn., was that it wasn't a big news flash because the ratings for the Divisional Series -- where many of the games happen in the low-rated daytime -- didn't match what it would cost for ESPN.

In a news conference Tuesday in Pittsburgh, MLB commissioner Bud Selig said that the LCS deal would be the last piece of the rights puzzle to emerge.

"There is an enormous amount of interest. I think sooner than later we can announce that," Selig said.

ESPN is by no means out of the baseball game. In September, ESPN and MLB announced a $2.4 billion deal through 2013 that included a continuation of the exclusive "Sunday Night Baseball" as well as nonexclusive nights of baseball during the regular season for a total of about 80 a year. ESPN also has extensive new-media rights.

But ESPN, at least for now, will be out of postseason baseball after this season.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr/television/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1002802978

fredfa

07-11-06, 10:03 PM

Updated version of the USA Today story:
Sports On TV
Fox renews with MLB; TBS joins postseason lineup

By Michael Hiestand USA Today July 11, 2006

After negotiating for more than a year, Fox Sports and Major League Baseball agreed Tuesday to a new seven-year TV deal the Associated Press reports is worth almost $3 billion. In addition, MLB also agreed to give Turner Broadcasting System rights to cover all Division Series playoff games.

Now in the final year of a six-year deal in which it paid an average of $417 million per year, Fox will retain the World Series, All-Star Game and one League Championship Series each year in the new deal, which takes effect next season. Fox also will increase its regionalized Saturday afternoon regular-season coverage from 18 Saturdays to as many as 26, and get later start times — at 3:30 pm ET, as opposed to the current 1:00 pm ET.

Fox will alternate between showing the American League and National League Championship Series by calendar year. It has not yet been determined which network will win the TV rights to the LCS Series that Fox doesn't show. ESPN and TBS are interested in carrying it, with Fox potentially interested in splitting that series with another network.

The new deal marks the first time TBS will carry postseason MLB action, as it inherits coverage of all first-round playoff games, which had been carried by a variety of networks, including Fox and ESPN. In the 2008 season, TBS will also discontinue its coverage of the Atlanta Braves, which it has carried since the 1970s. But TBS will add to its regular-season coverage by adding weekly Sunday afternoon games, with any individual team limited to 13 appearances.

There is a chance, too, that TBS could benefit from the deal even sooner. The network will show all division and wild-card tiebreaker games, starting this year.

So if the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees finish even in the AL East this October and just one playoff spot remains, for example, TBS gets the game.

"Don't make me start dreaming," Turner Sports president David Levy said. "I'm looking for a lot of ties."

Levy said it was too early to speculate which announcers TBS might want for its national games. He also said the network might "tinker with Braves" telecasts later this season to try out different camera angles and graphics packages for next season.

"We've always wanted to be a player in the postseason market," he said.

Turner began showing Braves games locally on WTBS in 1973, then took them national via satellite four years later.

TBS will show 70 Braves games nationally next year, then 45 per season locally through 2013. Up to 13 of those Atlanta games can be shown on TBS' Sunday package.

"Turner Sports has long been familiar to baseball fans, and we are excited that their coverage will now extend to all of our clubs during the regular season," commissioner Bud Selig said.

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/baseball/2006-07-11-tv-deal_x.htm

fredfa

07-11-06, 10:40 PM

TV Critics Summer Press Tour
Dan Rather

By Rich Heldenfels in his Akron Beacon Journal TV blog

Dan Rather has come and gone. There's some debate over whether he followed Shannen Doherty's tears with some of his own, but it was clear that he choked up some when talking about Edward R. Murrow.

I've written a column about his press conference for tomorrow's Beacon Journal and will post a link later. But I didn't get into a couple of things there. One was Rather's reference to having worked for a living -- meaning tough manual labor when he was young -- and how television is pretty easy compared to that. It was interesting to me because I remember him saying much the same thing at a press conference in New York City about 20 years ago. (So many things in my life now come with the phrase ''about 20 years ago.'') It always stuck with me -- as a reminder that, no matter how self-important some TV newsgatherers may get, they're doing it for an audience of people home after a day of genuinely hard work.

The other thing I didn't get into is what a boon Rather is to HDNet. As I said when he left CBS, he was going to end up working somewhere, because network newscasters do. (Ted Koppel will be here tomorrow, wearing his new hat for the Discovery Channel.) And one reason they get work is that they're brand names, and they bring attention to places that might not get so noticed. HDNet is mentioned in a lot of places today, and will be in other places tomorrow, because it had Rather in the house. Even though he has only done a promotional tape for the channel so far, he's already earning his paycheck.

http://blogs.ohio.com/beacon_tv/

fredfa

07-11-06, 10:43 PM

TV Critics Summer Press Tour
The Ghost of Ed Murrow Smiles Today

By Ray Richmond The Hollywood Reporter in his blog “Past Deadline” July 11, 2006

Dan Rather is ready for his high-def closeup. More than ready, actually. The man dumped a few weeks ago by CBS News like so much rotten fish after 44 years of loyal service met the TV press this afternoon in Pasadena to wax philosophical, nostalgic and defiant about his announced new three-year deal to produce, report and oversee a new weekly news program on HDNet (circulation: 3 million homes) for America's favorite self-absorbed dress-down billionaire, Mark Cuban.

The show is set to premiere in October, the same month Rather turns 75. But as the legendary newsman demonstrated in an expansive but guarded 50-minute SRO session with critics, he's already in mid-season (and possibly even season two) form.

But anyone hoping for a CBS News bashing session walked away disappointed. The longtime CBS correspondent and evening news anchor established the ground rules with the first question that coaxed him to evoke his bitterness at his unclassy dumping by the organization Edward R. Murrow made famous.

"I'm not gonna touch that with a 17-foot pole, which I wouldn't touch with a 12-foot pole," Rather began. And we were off to the races with what was by turns Folksy Dan, Serious Dan, Determined Dan, Gunga Dan, Emotional Dan and, always, Unbowed Dan.

Dressed casually in open-collar shirt and sport coat and sitting beside Cuban, Rather even quoted a sage named James Taylor in making his points. "I've seen fire and I've seen rain," he said while discussing the fickle nature of ratings, which probably wasn't what Taylor had in mind. "I've seen a lot of sunny days." But he always thought that he'd see us again. And here Rather was, sooner than even he probably thought, showing that he still has plenty of gas left in the tank and horsepower in the engine (analogies Rather will now no doubt be tempted to steal).

Rather said all of the right things through most of the session, though he did not specifically comment on a Tuesday report that he was in active negotiations with AOL to play a role in original programming for the Internet provider's video offerings. He spoke of putting the emphasis in his new job on "quality, not quantity" and promised "to try hard not to say what my backside cannot deliver," a line that from the mouth of Rather sounds downright poetic.

But the news veteran saved his most expansive replies for the questions that loom over charges of bias and the baggage that be brings to bear on his fledgling network.

"Yes, I have baggage," Rather declared with defiance. "I have baggage from the graduate school of the University of South Vietnam. I have baggage from covering Watergate...I have baggage from the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. I have baggage from two interviews wih Saddam Hussein...And I have bias. Yes, I have a bias for independent journalism...And if you're determined to be independent, you've got to take the heat. You can't back down, back up or back away. You have to face the furnace...and sometimes you're going to get burned."

And while Rather referred obliquely to a "sizeable and effective smear campaign" that had been mounted against him -- presumably in the wake of his notorious report about President Bush's military record -- he also understood that "it goes with the territory." He added, "News at its best is a wake-up call, not a lullaby. And I'm not in the lullaby business!"

The mood in the room on Tuesday was far more respectful and less challenging than might have been expected of an old warhorse who refuses to go quietly. For the most part, the critics didn't push to goad him into a worfd war with his former employer. Not that Rather was at all inclined to take the bait, anyway.

No, this was a grateful Rather whose voice cracked several times near the end of the session, specifically when he was asked if, after all he's accomplished, he still felt he had anything left to prove.

"I don't feel I've accomplished very much," he said without self-pity. "I want to do work that matters, great work...And if my health and Mark's money holds out, I feel like I've got a lot left in me. Unlucky? On no. I'm blessed, blessed in so many ways...To get as lucky as I have, I can't get wrapped up in the feeling I've been beset by difficulties. I've been too lucky for too long to give that more than a fleeting thought."

http://www.pastdeadline.com/

fredfa

07-11-06, 11:27 PM

TV Critics Summer Press Tour
Rather Takes "Control" With HD Net Show

By Anne Becker Broadcasting & Cable 7/11/2006

Former CBS News anchor Dan Rather has paired with Mark Cuban's HD Net because he will have "complete, absolute and total creative and editorial control" of his new investigative program, Dan Rather
Reports – news, "like you've never seen it before," he told critics at the Television Critics Association press tour today.

Rather is aiming for the hour-long weekly show to bring to the high-definition platform the "hard-digging, no-holds-barred reporting and excellent writing" on pieces reported with "accuracy, fairness and guts," he said. The show is slated to debut in Oct., when the veteran newsman will turn 75.

Admittedly not a heavy HD Net viewer before his talks with Cuban, Rather said he became "damned interested" in working with the network when Cuban offer to supply him whatever funding he needed to do kind of journalism he wanted to do (the two declined to answer what Rather would be paid for the job).

"This is a situation unprecedented in my own career," he said of Cuban's proposal to give him total control of the show.

"CBS is a large organization…with a chain of command that looks like the wiring of a nuclear plant or something," he said, adding later, "the difference here is that the chain of command begins and ends with me...It's having the ultimate responsibility and accountability of the broadcast."

Staffing has not yet begun for the series, but Rather said he will likely recruit former CBS colleagues for many of the roles.

Asked whether he felt he was "leashed" while at CBS News, Rather employed the colorful speech he is known for, saying he "wouldn't touch [the question] with a 17-foot pole, which is reserved for the things I wouldn't touch with a 12-foot pole," but took pains not to criticize CBS and make clear that he is "always pulling for the people of CBS News."

Rather and Cuban each stressed their new show as one of journalistic merit and criticized TV news organizations and the media that cover them for focusing too much on ratings and on the money
behind the programming.

Calling ratings "one wee small flag waving in the breeze," Rather said the kind of news I want to do with HD Net will emphasize quality reporting over quantitative ratings data and strive to avoid "media group-think."

"So much of journalism – particularly television journalism – has become a focus on the sound bytes and spin," he said. "What we're dedicated to focusing on is news that really matters.

For his part, Cuban stressed that the alliance with Rather was not simply to bring notoriety to his up-and-coming channel, or make money by latching onto newfangled digital media applications with news programming, but to put together a respectable news program.

"We've got such a bad case of Internet and broadband-it is where everyone thinks the Internet is the cure and we've forgotten about what journalism is about and it is to tell the story," Cuban said.

Rather said he was exclusive to HD for the sort of reporting he will be doing for the show and that HD Net was his first priority now, but allowed that he was "very interested" in broadband applications and would like to take on other projects if he could.

Industry speculation about where the notoriously dedicated newsman would channel his devotion to the field after he left CBS earlier this summer before his contract was due to expire in November.

After 24 years leading the CBS Evening News, Rather stepped down as anchor in March 2005 after a 60 Minutes II piece he did about the President's National Guard service was discredited.

Repeatedly invoking the work of Edward R. Murrow, Rather responded to questioning about whether he is biased, Rather slammed reporters who bow to public pressure to report news one way or another, saying
he is "prejudiced toward reporters who want to do the right thing."

Downplaying his professional accomplishments thus far, Rather told the critics he didn't feel he had anything to prove at this stage in his career.

"Sometimes you're not the best judge of what motivates yourself," he said. Mark thinks I have something to prove. Perhaps I do, but I don't feel that way. What I feel is that I want to do work that matters. I want to do great work and if my health and Mark's money holds out, maybe I can give that a chance."

http://broadcastingcable.com/index.asp?layout=articlePrint&articleID=CA6351639

fredfa

07-11-06, 11:53 PM

Sports On TV
Baseball mints billions

TBS catches the ball
By John Dempsey Variety.com July 11, 2006
(Rick Kissell in Hollywood contributed to this report.)

NEW YORK -- Baseball has signed another lucrative deal that will funnel more than $2.5 billion to its owners from the Fox Network and -- for the first time -- TBS. Pacts go into effect next year.

Fox, a baseball rights holder since 1996, will relinquish the opening round of the playoffs as well as one of the two League Championship Series. As a result, the broadcast net will be able to roll out more episodes of its entertainment series in October instead of turning the sked over to sports for three or four weeks.

Still to be determined is the cable entity that gets the other half of the League Championship Series round. Turner and ESPN are among those interested.

But regardless of who picks up the cable end, this move means that, for the first time, some LCS games will not air on broadcast television. The National Basketball Assn. recently adopted a similar model, in which cablers TNT and ESPN split that sport's conference championships and broadcaster ABC airs the title series.

For its part, TBS has bought national cable rights to the Division Playoffs and to 26 weeks of regular-season Sunday afternoon games, also for seven years. Prior to this contract, the net's ties to baseball have come from its national airings of Atlanta Braves baseball games for the past 30-plus years.

Renewal deal took many months, said Fox Sports prexy Ed Goren, because "my marching orders from Peter Chernin were not to sign another sports deal unless we believe we'll make money on it." Chernin is president of News Corp., Fox's parent company.

Goren wouldn't go into detail, but Fox Sports will pay a lot less than the $2.5 billion for the six-year contract that expires this year. Unlike the current deal, though, Fox will not get any Division Playoff games, all of which go to TBS as part of its new contract.

And Fox gets only half of each year's League Championship Series, starting with the American League best-of-seven next year. Goren said the cutback in the number of games on Fox in September and October will be a boon to the programmers at the network under Peter Liguori.

Goren said Fox's primetime schedule has finished No. 1 in the past two years in adults 18-49, making entertainment programming in the fall more valuable to the network than early playoff games, which tend not to harvest big ratings.

But while Fox will pay MLB less money than it's shelling out in the current deal, baseball will come out ahead because TBS' license fee will more than make up for the lower tariff from Fox.

As a tradeoff to getting 26 Sunday afternoon games (starting in 2008) along with the Division Playoffs, Turner Sports prexy David Levy said TBS will drop its national carriage of 70 Atlanta Braves games after the 2007 season. WTBS, the Turner-owned TV station whose signal is restricted to Atlanta and its suburbs, will broadcast 45 Braves games per year from 2008 through 2013.

TBS' Sunday games are not exclusive, meaning other MLB games can run simultaneously on regional sports networks and on local TV stations. In addition, TBS will have to schedule other games in the two markets whose teams are chosen for the national game.

While Fox hands over the Division Playoffs (including wildcards and tie-breakers) to TBS, it keeps the World Series, the All-Star Game and half of each year's League Championship Series. For that series, the leagues alternate on Fox each year -- American next year, National in 2008, etc. -- for the remainder of the contract.

As for the League Championship Series that doesn't go to Fox, Levy said TBS would like to get these games but not if they'd end up as money losers.

ESPN also is interested, because without the League Championship half, ESPN will wind up with no postseason baseball despite ponying up 51% more when it renewed its MLB contract last year. In that deal, ESPN agreed to pay an average of $296 million a year for seven years -- a total of $2.37 billion -- starting with the 2006 season.

fredfa

07-12-06, 12:07 AM

TV Critics Summer Press Tour
Rather will be very Rather, HDNet promises

By Lynn Smith Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

Dan Rather and Mark Cuban — polite, patting each other on the back and telling silly sports jokes — came to the press tour Tuesday to assure all that Rather will have “total, complete, unadulterated editorial control” of “Dan Rather Reports” on Cuban’s HDNet, scheduled to start in October.

Rather will personally hire his own staff, produce his own hourlong show, ask the questions he wants to ask and take all the heat — just as he says he likes it.

“The chain of command begins and ends with me,” Rather said.

Previous reports that Rather would be “unleashed” at HDNet should not be interpreted to mean he was constrained at his previous job as CBS news anchor, he added. However, he said, the network’s chain of command was so complex that it resembled “the wiring of a nuclear plant.”

Rather, 74, said he would not be shy about raiding CBS News to build his own staff but declined to say whether colleague Mary Mapes would be joining him. (Mapes, a producer on “60 Minutes Wednesday,” was involved in the debacle involving questionable documents that Rather used as the basis for a story on President Bush’s military service.)

Cuban, the Dallas Mavericks owner who co-founded the high-definition channel HDNet, acknowledged he had received e-mails from “everyone who thinks Dan Rather is biased.”

But, he added, “The work will speak for itself. I have complete confidence in his work. He’s going to do his thing and do the best he can. . . . If Dan’s happy, I’m happy.”

They said they have agreed to an exclusive commitment for three years, although Rather said he might still be interested in exploring opportunities in broadband.

Rather said Edward R. Murrow is his model for quality, independent journalism. “I’m not going to be bullied or intimidated; I won’t back away to meet your agenda. . . . News at its best is a wake-up call, not a lullaby. I’m not in the lullaby business.”

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/tv/la-tcas-dispatches-sp,0,5344589.special

fredfa

07-12-06, 12:59 AM

TV Critics Summer Press Tour
Playing games with Thai boxers and Dan Rather

By Rob Owen Pittsburgh Post-Gazette TV Editor in his blog “Tuned In” Juky 11, 2006

PASADENA, Calif. -- It's never a dull moment on the TV critics press tour.

Yesterday, after playing two new GSN game shows -- "Chain Reaction" and "Star Face" -- we were treated to the sight of women kicking and hitting their pad-clad Thai Boxing instructor at a session for Oxygen's "Fight Girls" (9 p.m. Aug. 7). The series will follow seven female fighters as they compete in the World Muay Thai Championship.

But it was Dan Rather who made the strongest impression Tuesday, choking back tears four times in a one-hour press conference, three times more than actress Shannen Doherty in a panel for her new Oxygen series.

Rather, who signed a three-year contract this week to host a one-hour weekly show on Mark Cuban's HDNet beginning in October, appeared in a promo promising his new series, "Dan Rather Reports," would be "uncensored" and said it will emphasize "accuracy, fairness and guts."

Comfortably dressed in the Navy blue blazer with an open collar blue shirt, Rather said calling his new show "uncensored" was not a slap at CBS News, but he was critical of the corporatization of news with its emphasis on ratings and demographics. He said the difference between being managing editor of "CBS Evening News" and his new role on HDNet is that at CBS, there was a chain of corporate command "that looks like the wiring of a nuclear plant" over his head, even though he was accountable for the newscast.

"The difference here is the chain of command begins and ends with me," Rather said. "I have creative and editorial control."

Rather said he has not hired any correspondents or producers yet, but he said he would look to his former CBS News colleagues. Rather did not rule out hiring Mary Mapes, the fired CBS News producer of the "60 Minutes Wednesday" report on President Bush's National Guard service.

Rather said he's prepared for more cries of "bias" but said he's only biased "for strong, independent journalism."

Rather said his detractors want him to report the news only in a way that fits their established views or else they'll threaten "to make you pay a price, hang a sign around your neck, say you're a bomb-throwing Bolshevik, then mount a sizeable and effective smear campaign on you."

Rather's voice cracked every time he invoked the name of Edward R. Murrow, while saying he's not capable of filling Murrow's shoes.

"News, at its best, is a wake up call, not a lullaby, and I'm not in the lullaby business," Rather said. "I want to do work that matters, I want to do great work, and if my health and Mark's money hold out, maybe I'll have that chance."

Rather said compared to most people, he hasn't had a difficult time these past two years, instead saying a single mother with three kids or a cop patrolling the streets at night have greater difficulties.

"I have my moments when I'm tempted to say, 'Why me?' I had some," Rather said, "but there weren't very many. I tried to keep it in perspective."

Rather would not discuss reports that he may also sign a deal with America Online.

Cuban, a Mt. Lebanon native, said there's nothing new with Comcast putting HDNet on its lineup. The network is carried by Adelphia, but with Comcast poised to take over that system, its future there could be uncertain.

"Have everybody call Comcast and ask why [we're not on their systems]," Cuban said, "or have everybody drop Comcast and get DirecTV or Dish Network."

• • • • • • • • • • •

Kathy Griffin, star of what had been my favorite celeb reality show the Emmy-nominated "Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List," revealed on Larry King Live Monday night that she and husband Matt Moline, who she separated from last fall, are now divorced and haven't spoken in two-and-a-half months.

That's a real bummer for fans of the series, or at least it is to me. During its filming, the pair had reconciled and seemed to be rebuilding their relationship. But Griffin lost trust in Moline after she says she discovered he'd stolen $72,000 from her.

"[We were not] able to get beyond the trust issue," Griffin told King.

It's all very ugly and sad and makes me want to quit watching the series.

• • • • • • • • • • •

Looks good: E! is making a claymation series called "Starveillance" that features animated versions of celebrities. It's incredibly irreverent and funny, at least in clips shown that purported to depict the first date between Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher. In it, he's an idiot, she just wants to look at his abs. Then Bruce Willis shows up. The show is from Eric Fogel ("Celebrity Deathmatch") and will show up first on Eonline.com and will premiere as a television series in January 2007.

http://www.post-gazette.com/tv/tunedin/

fredfa

07-12-06, 01:31 AM

The normally calm Rich Heldenfels is steaming over the most recent “Rescue Me” episode.
Critic’s Notebookr
''Rescue Me'': Is That It?

By R.D. Heldenfels Akron Beacon Journal television writer

If you haven't watched tonight's ''Rescue Me,'' come back after you have, because I am going to talk about plot developments.

And I am ticked off about them.

If you've read anything about ''Rescue Me'' the last (couple) of weeks, then you know about the debate over a scene where Tommy Gavin -- Denis Leary's character -- attacked his ex-wife Janet. To some viewers, myself included, it looked as if he raped her, and that she eventually enjoyed it. Others have looked for a less damaging interpretation; Robert Bianco in this morning's USA Today said that ''to imply that (the scene) endorsed or trivialized spousal abuse is to misread the scene.''

Bianco also urged that ''before we decide the story doesn't work, let's see where the talented people in charge at 'Rescue Me' plan to take it.''

Well, we saw some more tonight. And, as I said, I didn't like it.

In the key scene tonight, Janet showed up at Tommy's place and had a brief, aggressive sexual encounter with him. She may or may not have been doing it because of a public exhibition Tommy put on with his brother's ex (as part of a scheme to make Janet and his brother jealous). That quadrangle will interact more next week, according to the previews, and there's a fifth player -- Tommy's sometimer Sheila -- who could become pivotal.

But this doesn't really get us past the earlier scene. Nor does it justify Tommy's earlier actions. It indicates that Tommy is caught up in a tempest of sex and near sex, sure. Only the previous scene wasn't about sex. It was about Tommy's uncontainable violence and rage, which were unleashed against Janet -- an extension of the beating Tommy gave his brother.

''Rescue Me'' has not dealt with that side of what happened -- unless it is, indeed, trying to to trivialize or diminish it. Janet's reaction sure seems minimal.

There were other scenes tonight that I enjoyed to some degree, but when I was trying to get back into my old ''Rescue Me'' groove, I kept thinking about that rape scene and what they were going to do about it. So far they haven't done much. And the show won't work for me until they do something more serious about it.

http://blogs.ohio.com/beacon_tv/

VisionOn

07-12-06, 02:01 AM

"If you haven't watched tonight's ''Rescue Me,'' come back after you have, because I am going to talk about plot developments.

And I am ticked off about them."

God grief, this is turning into the Wardrobe Malfunction of 2006. I can't wait to see what the press thinks of the serial killing, vigilante anti-hero of upcoming Showtime drama, Dexter. I wonder if they will let weekly torture and murder pass without issue?

fredfa

07-12-06, 09:14 AM

Sports On TV
TV Lineup Is Changed for MLB Postseason Games

By Richard Sandomir The New York Times July 12, 2006

Major League Baseball announced yesterday that the cable network TBS would carry all 20 league division series games starting next year and would also carry a Sunday afternoon game-of-the-week package.

Fox also announced at a news conference at PNC Park in Pittsburgh that it would continue to carry the World Series and the All-Star Game. It will extend its Saturday afternoon schedule from 18 to 26 weeks and move the starting time from 1 to 3:30 p.m. Eastern, when more people are watching television and the games can lead into local newscasts.

But it is likely to carry only one of the League Championship Series.

Because it is shedding up to seven division series games and one L.C.S., Fox will slash its annual rights fee from the average $417 million it will pay through this season to $257 million a year from 2007 to 2013.

TBS, the onetime superstation created by Ted Turner, might swoop in to buy the second L.C.S., the first time that one of baseball’s semifinals would not appear on broadcast television, but negotiations have not ended.

Tim Brosnan, baseball’s executive vice president for business, said that Commissioner Bud Selig had earmarked the second L.C.S. for cable.

With more postseason games going to cable and the prospect of an L.C.S. leaving broadcast television, baseball appears to be following the model of the National Basketball Association, which increased its rights fees by shifting more of its games to cable in 2002. Cable networks like ESPN and TNT, which share N.B.A. rights, have revenue streams from cable subscribers and advertisers, giving them a major advantage over ad-supported broadcasters.

Fox, TBS and ESPN remain candidates for the second L.C.S. But Ed Goren, president of Fox Sports, said from Pittsburgh, “There is some interest in the possibility of working out a deal to televise those games in some kind of partnership, but a full schedule is counter to what we’ve been discussing.’’

From 1996 to 2000, Fox and NBC shared the L.C.S.

ESPN is interested in the L.C.S. at the right price, but it refused baseball’s financial demands to buy the division series games. Last year, it agreed to an eight-year, $2.4 billion extension of its regular-season deal. Len DeLuca, an ESPN senior vice president, said, “We’ll look seriously at the L.C.S.”

David Levy, president of Turner Sports, said that on a “per-game basis,” the L.C.S. would potentially be the “most valuable part” of TBS’s deal.

TBS’s first foray into the playoffs, from 2007 to 2013, combines Fox’s rights to seven division series games and ESPN’s rights to 13, which they will carry through the coming postseason.

TBS appears eager to add the L.C.S., which receives higher ratings than division games. Levy said his interest in the L.C.S. is “very high if we get the right financial model.” Each game could cost TBS up to $15 million.

Levy hopes that if TBS acquires the L.C.S., it would carry the games exclusively, as TNT does the Western Conference finals of the N.B.A. playoffs. But cable networks and satellite operators do not cover the nation’s television markets as fully as broadcasters do, leading to the possible viewer disenfranchisement.

But Levy said that “no one does any howling” when TNT carries the conference finals. Brosnan acknowledged that an L.C.S. on cable would mean moving a series that has since 1969 been a broadcast property.

But he said TBS, which is available to 90 percent of the nation’s cable and satellite households, would probably not have to make deals with broadcast stations in the markets of the teams playing in order to maximize viewership, as ESPN does with N.F.L. games.

TBS’s $104-million-a-year agreement unfolds in stages. When it starts carrying the division series next year, any schedule overlaps will be resolved by putting some games on TNT.

In 2008, TBS will start its Sunday afternoon slate that will let it show teams up to 13 times, but those telecasts will be blacked out in local markets. Levy said he pursued the Sunday afternoon time slot to provide “appointment viewing,” an upgrade from the times the Braves play.

During that season, the network will end its tradition of showing Braves games nationally. Locally, WTBS will continue to carry 45 Braves games annually.

Fox’s new deal is a reflection of its growing success in prime time, where the network has finished No. 1 the last two seasons among adults 18 to 49. It shed the division series, and at best, will have a part of the other L.C.S., giving Fox’s prime time more nights to showcase its fall season.

“The strength of our prime-time lineup,” Goren said, “had an effect on the structure of the deal in that it gives prime time more exposure for their shows and fewer pre-emptions, but still maintains the power of the October baseball platform as a promotional tool.”

By eliminating several nights of baseball, Fox’s entertainment division can start its fall season without the many interruptions of past years. Peter Liguori, president of Fox Entertainment, said: “Our input to Ed was, do what you do best, but we let it be known that we’ll make baseball work. We have enough programming to fill in if you don’t get everything in baseball.”

The reduction of Fox’s postseason commitment is mindful of an incident in 1996 when Don Ohlmeyer, then NBC’s head of entertainment, complained that network playoff games were depressing prime-time ratings.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/12/sports/baseball/12tv.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&pagewanted=print

fredfa

07-12-06, 09:18 AM

TV Critics Summer Press Tour
Mini-Spa Night

By Lisa de Moraes Washington Post Staff Writer in her blog “Moraes On TV”

After an emotionally exhausting afternoon listening to former TV news titan Dan Rather blubber on about Edward R. Murrow, wrung out TV critics retired to the pool at the Ritz Carlton Huntington Hotel in Pasadena to restore their tissues and fluff up their collagen at a mini-spa party hosted by E! Entertainment's Style network.

It had been a trying Q&A session with Rather and his new Internet Billionaire Boss Mark Cuban, who came to Summer TV Press Tour 2006 to unveil plan for Rather's new HDNet newsmag, "Dan Rather Reports." Rather, still licking his wounds though taking the high road after being subjected by CBS News to the same treatment Hollywood actresses receive when they hit 40, treated critics to one last round of Ratherisms. He even threw in some James Taylor material. It seems Rather has "seen fire" and he's "seen rain" and he's "seen sunny days" though he stopped short of saying he "thought they'd never end." (Rather, in case you've had your head in the sand, recently departed CBS News after they let him know they were going in another direction, as they say in Hollywood -- a Katie Couric direction, an Anderson Cooper direction.)

When the long Q&A was over, critics staggered to the pool where Style network had set up folks from a place called Nite Spa in Venice, California -- open noon to midnight and located on Abbot Kinney Blvd which, we were assured, is "the new Melrose" -- to restore them with massages and manicures.

Also offered was a Brow Bar -- because getting one's brows tweezed should be an interactive experience involving a nice glass of wine and good conversation with other eyebrow challenged guests, we were told.

The brightest star in the E! firmament, Ryan Seacrest was there; people were waiting in line to interview him, including an intern from Teen People, who wanted to know what was the best advice his parents ever gave him (Brush your tongue before a meeting).

Journalists also lined up to interview Internet Billionaire Cuban, who E! Entertainment CEO Ted Harbert had graciously invited to join the mini-spa party.

Cuban, sucking down a beer at the bar by the pool, continued with a nick the Net theme he'd been developing during his Q&A with critics, when he told them they were all suffering from "internet-and-broadband-itis."

"It's so ancient it's like the telegram," he said of the Internet, adding for good measure, "It's like electricity -- you don't make a big deal about electricity."

Cuban said he's not worried about how 74-year-old Rather is going to look in high-def. But then, on the five minute high-def presentation Cuban showed critics, Rather had looked pretty good, particularly next to the clip of a high-def dead pope.

One intrepid reporter from E!, with cameraman in tow, cornered Cuban and noted he'd just signed Dan Rather. Cuban did not deny it.

"Obviously he's an icon," the reporter said. Cuban, impressed, offered him a job. But he rescinded the offer when the guy asked him about his Dallas Mavericks, who recently lost the NBA championship to the Miami Heat.

And, if Rather's not enough, Cuban's about to sign whackjob Dennis Rodman to do a "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy"-ish reality series for the network. (He's also bought reruns of "Arrested Development" for his network, which was shot in high-def).

Sitting poolside in a grassy area, talk with party host Harbert naturally turned to messed-up child stars. Harbert's something of an expert on damaged child stars, having been a programming honcho at ABC during the "Full House" years. For sheer concentration of damaged former child stars, "Full House" is the motherlode, having produced Jodie Sweetin, now a recovering meth addict, and Mary Kate Olsen, who was treated for anorexia a couple years ago.

So, not surprisingly, Harbert has ordered a new series for E! called "House of Carters, " in which the five Carter kids -- including Backstreet Boy Nick and pop sensation Aaron -- help each other and their siblings get over their manager/parents.

"I'm so angry at these parents for what they did to these kids" Harbert said. Then he had the good sense to acknowledge he's not going to win a Humanitas Prize for putting on the series.

Mini-spa night winding to a close, critics migrated over to the top of the hotel parking lot for the GSN party.

GSN used to stand for Game Show Network but they prefer you not mention it these days. Kind of like how Discovery's TLC used to stand for The Learning Channel when it had the veneer of "educational," and A&E used to stand for Arts & Entertainment until they stopped telecasting "Vanity Fair" in favor of "Dog the Bounty Hunter."

GSN had a whole surfin' party thing going on. It involved air-mattress Twister, a firepit for roasting s'mores, beach chairs looking out over a video of an ocean, an Airstream with a neon martini on top, and -- speaking of damaged former child stars -- Danny Bonaduce hawking his latest series "Starface" in which contestants test their knowledge of all things celebrity.

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/tvblog/

fredfa

07-12-06, 09:22 AM

The TV Watch
Amateurs in All Their Reality TV Glory, Imperfect and Proud

By Alessandra Stanley The New York Times July 12, 2006

Television is supposed to be the medium of the masses, but mostly it smoothes over the unsightly bulges of middle-class life.

“America’s Got Talent,” an NBC knockoff of “American Idol” and one of the summer’s biggest hits, is the main exception. If “America’s Got Talent” is to be believed, the country actually doesn’t have much. For every gifted juggler, gymnast or quick-change artist, there are dozens of badly deluded singers, dancers and contortionists. But over all, the contest is cheerful, vulgar and unembarrassed, a liberating belch in an increasingly proper and sleekly self-conscious television landscape.

Nighttime dramas are especially fastidious. Whether the backdrop is a surgical ward on “Grey’s Anatomy,” the damp jungle of “Lost” or a military base on “The Unit,” life is airbrushed and sound-adjusted. The brashly colored signposts of suburbia — Arby’s, Target, Bally fitness centers, drive-through banks, churches, vinyl swimming pools and powerwalkers in pastel tracksuits — are washed out by tasteful, cinematic tones of sepia, gray and inky blue. Courtrooms, shopping centers and housing developments are so romanticized that the previews for the new fall season look like a vintage European art film.

Common-denominator sitcoms like “Two and a Half Men” on CBS tend to focus on the upper-middle class. (Casting the wonderful Holland Taylor is always a tell.) Newer ones like NBC’s “My Name Is Earl” lovingly patronize trailer-park living.

The dwindling majority in between is edited out of prime time much in the way financial experts say the middle class is being squeezed out of the economy. Average people are visible on game shows or in the studio audience of “Oprah” and “Ellen.” Even commercials are reductionist: carmakers conjure empty, winding roads through the wilderness at dusk, and phone companies wittily mock the American family. Only the Publishers Clearing House winners look familiar.

“America’s Got Talent” taps into summer aimlessness. On the eve of its sixth season, “Idol” has grown slickly professional. “Talent” is “Idol” with its stockings rolled down and belt loosened, something between amateur night at the Elks Lodge and the counselor’s farewell roast at summer camp. Regis Philbin is the master of ceremonies, not Ryan Seacrest, and that is another liberation: Mr. Philbin has the right vaudeville touch and is funny without trying. Mr. Seacrest tries to be funny and isn’t; his efforts to goad Mr. Cowell are as painful as a child’s first bow strokes on the violin.

David Hasselhoff (“Baywatch”) is a playful, “Gong Show” kind of judge, and so is the pop singer Brandy. The British judge, Piers Morgan, serves as a sneering stand-in for Mr. Cowell, who, not surprisingly, is the executive producer and mastermind of “Talent.”

Almost all the new reality contests include at least one British authority figure. “So You Think You Can Dance,” a Fox summer hit co-produced by Mr. Cowell’s colleague Simon Fuller has two: Nigel Lythgoe as a superior-sounding judge, and Cat Deeley, a slim, blond British TV personality who has replaced Lauren Sanchez as the host and brings a brisk, no-nonsense tone to interviews with the rejected. In New York and Los Angeles magazine editors and film producers hire assistants with English accents to lend their offices a touch of class; on reality shows the British are there to heighten the coarseness of Middle America.

“So You Think You Can Dance” has a more limited range: only the young, fit and coordinated have a shot, and the dancing styles are almost as restrictively pop as the music choices on “Idol.” It’s fun to watch, but it has a more limited range. The producers occasionally try to squeeze in a little humanity to the mix, including allowing a young woman from Highland, Mich., who said she had a spinal disorder, to perform her last tap dance as an audition. (CBS’s “Rock Star: Supernova” is its own pierced and tattooed niche; Tommy Lee, a judge, says things like: “It’s crunch time, dude. Bring it on.”)

There are plenty of other competitions and talent shows. “Treasure Hunters” on NBC divides its contestants by family and also by caste: “Southie Boys” are neighborhood lads from South Boston, while “Young Pros” includes a law student, a medical student and a public relations consultant. (“Geniuses” also are a team, as is “Miss USA.”)

“Master of Champions” on ABC takes people with a skill and puts them in an absurd arena: a recent episode pitted two young drift-car drivers not against each other so much as against a wheel of cheese. They raced in tight circles around the cheese with a grater-tipped pole attached to the car, vying over who could whittle it down the most.

There is less pressure on “America’s Got Talent,” and the rejection is not as stinging. Even though it offers a $1 million prize, career opportunities for yodelers, harmonica players and jugglers are limited. The five seconds of fame is incentive enough: hoi polloi are heard, seen, applauded and jeered before a raucous, good-natured studio audience. Most of its members are peers, contestants waiting to be called down to the stage, Bob Barker-style.

The criteria for “Talent” are broad and vague enough to draw a wide range of contestants. Some, and that includes Bernie Barker, who claims to be the oldest living male stripper, look like eccentrics or undermedicated exhibitionists. But many others could be somebody’s extroverted next-door neighbor.

Thirty years ago, prime time was ruled by the middle class, from “Newhart” and “Happy Days” to “Marcus Welby, M.D.” In today’s era of hyper wealth and downward mobility, “America’s Got Talent” is the place to see the nation unpolished and unchanged.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/12/arts/television/12watc.html?pagewanted=print

fredfa

07-12-06, 09:26 AM

TV Critics Summer Press Tour
Cable cranks out more reality shows

By Ellen Gray Philadelphia Daily News Wed, Jul. 12, 2006

PASADENA, Calif. - Time to face reality: "Reality" TV isn't going away anytime soon.

At least not on basic cable, which generally needs to shout louder with less money and never seems to run out of so-called real people who are willing to be followed around by camera crews.

As the cable portion of the Television Critics Association's summer meetings gets under way, reporters here are encountering those real people at every turn, from 24-year-old R&B singer Keyshia Cole, whose life story comes to BET starting tonight at 9 in "Keyshia Cole: The Way It Is," to Jay Bakker, 30, the multi-tattooed son of televangelists Jim Bakker and Tammy Faye Messner. His own foray into the Christian ministry will be the focus of the Sundance Channel's "One Punk Under God" this winter.

Rapper DMX, whose move to Carefree, Ariz., is explored in another series premiering tonight, "DMX: Soul of a Man" (9:30 p.m., BET), was a no-show, but Shannen Doherty was here, plugging "Breaking Up with Shannen Doherty," an Oxygen series premiering next month in which Doherty helps people end relationships.

So was Congressman Robert Wexler, D-Fla. Wexler and his staff opened his office to filmmaker Ivy Meeropol - best known for "Heir to an Execution," her documentary about her grandparents, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg - for a Sundance series called "The Hill" that premieres Aug. 23.

Messner, no stranger to "reality" herself (assuming you consider what went on during her stint on "The Surreal Life"), was more supportive of her son's signing on for the TV show than his father, Bakker indicated, but both will appear, he said.

He visits his father from time to time, and "I spend a lot of time with my mother," who's in the fourth stage of lung cancer, he said.

Bakker, who was 11 when his parents' empire crumbled and his father was sent to jail, said he doesn't "see televangelism in my future," preferring to interact with people directly and online.

"I don't think there's much use for me in the Christian box," he said.

As for how much reality we can expect from any of these shows, consider Cole's reply when she was asked whether, as a producer of her own series, she was "hands-on."

"Oh, yeah, definitely," she said. "I got to be hands-on. It's reality. If I don't want you to see it, I'm not going to show it."

Delaney's road trip

Things have a way of going from bad to worse - and downhill from there - in the stories of Stephen King, more of which creep their way onto the small screen starting tonight with the launch of TNT's four-week series, "Nightmares & Dreamscapes" (9 p.m., TNT).

The anthology boasts an impressive range of actors, including William Hurt, Marsha Mason and William H. Macy, but only Kim Delaney got to hang out with the late Janis Joplin.

The Roxborough native, who stars with Steven Weber in the series' final episode on Aug. 2, "You Know They Got a Hell of a Band," said last month that she's not "usually a big fan of the straight scary stuff," but that the script, in which she and Weber find themselves in a strange town full of familiar-looking characters after taking a few wrong turns on a road trip, was more fun than fright.

"Guys never ask for directions, no matter what," she said.

But then geography doesn't mean much in television, either, at least when production costs are involved, which is apparently why the Pacific Northwest setting of Delaney's episode was played by Melbourne, Australia.

"We went on a road trip from Oregon all the way to Australia," joked Delaney.

The "NYPD Blue" and "Philly" veteran, who's since saved the world - twice - in NBC's two "10.5" miniseries and guest-starred on Fox's "The O.C," is plotting a trip of her own, back to weekly television.

"Right now I'm looking at series again," said Delaney. "I think I'd like to do another series," possibly for TNT or another cable channel.

http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/entertainment/television//15018484.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp

fredfa

07-12-06, 09:29 AM

TV Critics Summer Press Tour
Dan Rather won't talk about CBS

Ex-anchor mum on his former network, but tackles other topics in high definition

By R.D. Heldenfels Akron Beacon Journal television writer Wed, Jul. 12, 2006

PASADENA, CALIF. - For a guy who has had the stuffing kicked out of him for two years, Dan Rather remains pretty feisty.

Sure, the former CBS newsman is no longer working in the plush and prestigious confines of network news. His latest gig, beginning in October, is producing a new series, Dan Rather Reports, for the HDNet high-definition TV channel. And while Rather said he had seen HD TV before signing with the network, he admitted that ``I'm still educating myself about high-definition technology.''

But he's not interested in sitting back and just collecting a paycheck from HDNet. ``If I just wanted to hire Dan as a spokesperson, it would be a lot less expensive,'' said HDNet co-founder Mark Cuban.

Rather plans to report for the show, handpick its staff (which may end up including some old CBS colleagues), lead the team and enjoy what he called ``complete, absolute and total control of this program.''

He won't do everything on the show, he said. But if you like it, Rather will take the credit. If you don't, he'll take the blame.

And the blame-senders are already lurking.

Rather goes to HDNet after a long limbo at CBS. He seemed tarred by an ultimately unproven report about President Bush when he stepped down as CBS Evening News anchor in 2004. That report just added to complaints about Rather's bias that date to the Nixon administration.

More recently, there appeared to be no room for him at 60 Minutes, an old home, even as newer correspondents were being brought on board.

At a Tuesday press conference with Cuban, Rather tried not to scorn CBS. An early question about whether he had been ``leashed'' in his last days at CBS resulted in a Rather-ism: ``I wouldn't touch that with a 17-foot pole, which is what I reserve for things I wouldn't touch with a 12-foot pole.''

He wouldn't even say the last couple of years have been difficult.

``Compared to most people's difficulties, I haven't had difficulties,'' he said. ``The single mother trying to make it with three kids has difficulties.''

During the 45-minute press conference, he did lament in a general way about corporate pressures on news to make ratings and money, about the overemphasis on celebrity and the ``Hollywoodization'' of news. He wants to do investigative stories and do work that matters.

Rather does admit to a very specific form of bias.

``I have a very strong bias toward independent journalism,'' he said. ``Italicize, underline, put it in bold caps.''

But he said that point of view runs into an attitude of ``Listen, mister, or miss, you report the news the way I want it reported, or I'm going to make you pay a price. . . . I'm going to mount a sizable and very effective smear campaign on you.''

Rather was quick to add that such campaigns are not new -- pointing to the movie Good Night and Good Luck, which showed the legendary Edward R. Murrow running into trouble over tough reporting in the 1950s. Rather remains a devoted fan of Murrow, even choking up when talking about him.

Yet the vitriol that flies over almost any news report of substance suggests that the battle lines are so hard that no one can see validity in an opponent. So I asked Rather if it was possible for him to do a report that might satisfy, say, one of his vocal critics.

``I think that's a very important question, one that we could spend the rest of today and part of tomorrow discussing,'' he said. ``I don't want to focus on personalities . . . (but) the short answer to your question is no.

``I don't think there's a way to do stories in which you please everybody,'' he said. ``I think there is a way -- and I'm dedicated to finding it with this program . . . to put together the proverbial body of work that says to people, `They make mistakes, I get angry with them, but this program is really trying to do a good job of being accurate (and) fair.'''

Besides, Rather said, you can't be afraid of how part of the audience might react. ``News at its best is a wake-up call, not a lullaby.''

http://www.ohio.com/mld/ohio/entertainment/columnists/rd_heldenfels/15019267.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp

fredfa

07-12-06, 09:34 AM

TV Critics Summer Press Tour
Death March With Cocktails

E! Poolside Party, A Different Carter Family and Another Chance At Bonaduce
By Tim Goodman San Francisco Chronicle in his TV blog “The Bastard Machine”

The poolside E! party had wound down to the point where there were no more Playboy Bunnies, Ryan Seacrest or even Mark Cuban, who had crashed the party and, inexplicably, ended up on E! talking about Dan Rather. At least that's what he appeared to be talking about - I was sort of stunned by the people who opted in for the free manicures and pedicures offered by E!, or in this case, its sister channel, style (yes, lowercase). But Cuban is a man who knows how to work the press and I give him credit for coming down from his room and going poolside where the action was.

The hotel guests - non-pros as Variety calls people not in the business - weren't so lucky. The pool is always locked down for these things - as the spacious gardens will be later for the bigger network parties - so they stared out of their balconies or walked on the Ritz-Carlton's historic Picture Bridge, which crosses the pool, and looked down on the scene no doubt thinking, "Who ARE these people."

Yes, the E! people know how to have a good time and the network party IS a step up from both TV Guide Channel and BET but still, outside of the Playboy Bunnies, who you couldn't miss for obvious reasons, it was still hard to find the stars. Reason: They're small. Or less brightly lit, or something. Still, there were white tents pitched everywhere, a DJ, big beds, a decent spread of chicken, salad and shrimp (there is always shrimp...it's a shrimpfest here) and a phalanx of hired-help babes dressed in all-white to offset their tans, which worked exceptionally well in the short-shorts. Just an observation.

In case you're interested, there were also free massages, beds by the pool, (I was two beds down from Hefner's Threesome, Holly, Bridget and Kendra, who star in E!'s "The Girls Next Door"), facials, photos and more glamour type stuff. I'm not sure my boss would fire me if he saw me getting a facial or a massage, but it's not the kind of thing that plays well back home.

Clear plastic balls floated in the pool like giant bubbles, white paper mache balls were in the trees and there was the distinct possibility that someone was going to go in the pool. (It didn't happen.) As parties go, this was decent. Despite - and I swear to you on this - having zero interest in Hefner's Threesome, you can't help staring at them because, well, that's a LOT of make-up and cleavage and short dresses. They are all a bit dizzy, as you'd expect, and the one who wears pigtails (sexy) seems very, very angry (not sexy). Hef was nowhere to be seen.

Seacrest was barely there or blended into the frosted hair set. Various E! stars or rising stars or dim stars wandered around without name tags (mistake). Chelsea Handler was there and I like her quite a bit but never got around to chatting with her because, well, I was in a spirited discussion with some Canadian critics on how old episodes of "The Sopranos" are played up there (it's a pretty cool story, so I'll post that later as time permits). I did chat with Joel McHale, host of "Talk Soup," who was in, of all place, Walnut Creek a few days ago buying a used car. But not just any used car - a Subaru WRX, which looks like a mild-mannered compact but is a highly desired, street legal rally car with serious horsepower. McHale said he drove it back to L.A. and hit 130 mph on Highway 5. Ted Harbert, take note. Sorry, Joel.

It was the best story I heard all night, except for the Canadian Sopranos thing. Remind me of that later, because I'm bound to forget.

When E! presented its panel earlier in the day, everyone was spent because Dan Rather and Mark Cuban had just held court and all things considered on this second day, that was pretty interesting. So presenting "House of Carters," about 26-year-old Backstreet Boy Nick Carter, his pop star brother Aaron and their three sisters living together ala "The Osbournes" was a considerable letdown. Normally I'd skip something like that but I have friends at E! and I like the channel's leader, Ted Harbert, so I showed up. In the end, I was glad I did because the Carter family is a lot more screwed up than I knew about. I don't follow boy-band machinations and very rarely partake in that kind of People magazine celebrity thing but hey, the Carter parents did a real number on the kids. Why the five siblings want to be on a reality show, I have no idea (well, yes I do, but isn't it so obvious as to go unspoken?). Anyway, they talked over each other a whole bunch and Nick Carter seemed particularly angry and it was all very dramatically dysfunctional so who knows, if you're bored it might fill the time.

After the Rather-Cuban session, I was tracked down by a publicist for GSN (she's very sweet and she throws a great party and I get invited all the time even after being snarky about the channel). Anyway, she had read today's blog about missing out on Danny Bonaduce and instead of berating me for skipping the session (this happens more frequently than you can imagine), she pointed out that he'll be at the post-party party which is taking place on the upper deck of the Ritz-Carlton parking lot. It's a beach theme. And they have a wave machine. For surfing. It starts in 30 minutes and I'm just not feeling very beachy, but I may go anyway in case Bonaduce kills himself or punches a critic, both a possibility. In the meantime, my pal Bill Goodykoontz from the Arizona Republic was at the Bonaduce session earlier and here's his take on that blog gold http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=7985580&&#post7985580

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/sfgate/detail?blogid=24&entry_id=6999#readmore

fredfa

07-12-06, 09:35 AM

TV Critics Summer Press Tour
Death March With Cocktails

Wednesday: Ted Koppel, Discovery, ESPN, FX and HBO
By Tim Goodman San Francisco Chronicle in his TV blog “The Bastard Machine”

Yes, things are picking up. (And no, I didn't go to the GSN party. Timmy don't surf.)

Koppel will be live via satellite from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Probably not being tortured, though. But neither are we unless you count D-list parties as torture.

ESPN is pimping "Monday Night Football," FX has another season of "30 Days" with Morgan Spurlock and HBO has "The Wire," a documentary from Spike Lee, who will be here, and a movie about the Tsunami starring Sophie Okonedo, who some of you might remember is a particular favorite of mine (but not in that Rwanda thing...too much of a downer..which reminds me that there's a good chance this one will be, too...)

Also, the cast of "Entourage" will be here.

Yes, yes and yes - we will be bringing up "Deadwood" with HBO Chairman and CEO Chris Albrecht.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/sfgate/indexn?blogid=24

fredfa

07-12-06, 09:44 AM

The MLB TV deal from the TBS perspective:
Sports On TV
TBS to air non-Braves games in '08

By TIM TUCKER The Atlanta Journal-Constitution July 12, 2006

Since Ted Turner had the seemingly zany idea in the 1970s of beaming his baseball team's games off the satellite and across the country, the Braves have been national television fare, even earning the moniker "America's Team" for a while.

But the team's status as a national television property — sharply reduced in recent years — will essentially disappear under a new broadcast deal between TBS and Major League Baseball.

The deal, announced Tuesday, gives TBS the television rights to games not involving the Braves for the first time. The seven-year deal includes all of the division series playoff games starting in 2007 and 26 regular-season Sunday afternoon games per year starting in 2008.

TBS will continue with its original commitment to show 70 regular-season Braves games nationally next year. But starting in 2008, the network's deal to televise Braves games nationally is dissolved, and the Braves become just another team in the new national package on TBS.

Under the deal, TBS can show a maximum of 13 games per season of any single team — the Braves or any other — on its Sunday afternoon national schedule starting in 2008.

Viewers in Atlanta, though, still will be able to watch the Braves on television. TBS, officially known as WTBS locally, will show 45 Braves games per season in the metro Atlanta market from 2008 through 2013, but no more than 13 of those — and potentially fewer — will be carried nationally. Between now and 2008, Turner Sports president David Levy said, TBS will work on how to show its non-national Braves telecasts in other Southeastern markets.

Also, by 2008, about 105 Braves games per season will be shown in Atlanta and across the Southeast on regional cable channels FSN South and Turner South, with a dozen or so others likely to be shown by ESPN or Fox.

The new deal will make TBS the exclusive carrier of division series games starting next season. In the event of overlapping division series games, Levy said, some could be shifted to TNT, which like TBS is part of Atlanta-based Turner Broadcasting. The deal also puts the MLB All-Star selection show on TBS starting next year and any tiebreaker games for division titles or wild-card berths on TBS starting this season.

"This is very exciting," Levy said. "This is the first time in our history we've carried postseason baseball, and that, coupled with our long-term relationship with NASCAR and our continuing relationship with the NBA, puts Turner Sports in a very prime position."

The tradeoff, though, is the end of a three-decades-old tradition of the Braves as national programming.

"Unfortunately, you can't have it all," Levy said. "You have to give up something to get something sometimes.

"The playoffs and how the models work for us, the displacement costs of other programming, what else is on TBS and audience flow — a lot of factors went into it. We kept as much as we possibly could as far as financially and consumer viewing habits."

The deal continues a trend of TBS downsizing its Braves coverage from a peak of 150 national telecasts to 70 this season, and three years ago it temporarily benched long-time Braves announcers Skip Caray and Pete Van Wieren to try to create more neutral telecasts.

Levy said it is "way too early" to consider who will announce the new package of games.

Also Tuesday, Major League Baseball announced a seven-year extension of its national broadcast deal with Fox.

http://www.ajc.com/braves/content/sports/braves/stories/0711tbs.html

fredfa

07-12-06, 09:49 AM

TV Notebook
Hello, 'Angels'! Producers' 'wings crossed' for special

By William Keck USA Today

ABC wants to reopen the doors of Townsend Investigations and bring TV's Charlie's Angels out of retirement for a 30th anniversary retrospective special that would air during November sweeps.

Henry Winkler, of Fonzie fame, and his producing partner, Michael Levitt, who have gathered the casts of Happy Days, Dallas, Knots Landing and Dynasty for recent reunion specials, are wooing the original Angels: Farrah Fawcett (Jill Munroe), Jaclyn Smith (Kelly Garrett) and Kate Jackson (Sabrina Duncan).

ABC spokeswoman Hope Hartman says the network "is thrilled about the project and hopes Michael and Henry can pull all the pieces together."

Though producers have been in touch with Fawcett, 59, the actress has yet to commit, says her lawyer. Tom Burke, who is the agent for Smith, 60, says, "Jaclyn cares about the project and, assuming all the i's are dotted and the t's are crossed, would be happy to participate."

Producers are waiting to hear from the third Angel, Jackson, 57, who left the series after three seasons. "We're keeping our Angel wings crossed. We would love nothing more than to celebrate her monumental contribution to this show," Levitt says.

Jackson's manager, Brian Pinella, says the actress, who is a breast cancer survivor, is "in good health and continues to work." But, he adds, "Kate has some issues about (the project)."

Producer Levitt says John Forsythe, 88, has agreed to voice never-seen agency owner Charlie Townsend, as he did through the series' 1976-81 run.

Cheryl Ladd, who turns 55 today, has accepted an invitation to appear. Her publicist, Jay D. Schwartz, says, "Cheryl's looking forward to having a blast." Ladd joined the show as Jill Munroe's kid sister, Kris, when Fawcett left in 1977. David Doyle, who played Bosley, died in 1997.

http://www.usatoday.com/life/television/news/2006-07-11-angels-retrospective_x.htm

fredfa

07-12-06, 09:58 AM

TV Critics Summer Press Tour
Dan Rather's latest adventure

From Maureen Ryan’s Chicago Tribune blog “The Watcher” July 12, 2006

A passionate, emotional and eloquent Dan Rather talked for the first time Tuesday about his new adventure in journalism, "Dan Rather Presents," a weekly news program that will debut on HDNet in October.

Speaking to a convention of television journalists in Pasadena, Calif., the former CBS news anchor said that the chance to create a program that was not part of a large corporate news organization and in which the chain of command “begins and ends with me” made the offer from Mark Cuban, chairman and co-founder of HDNet, irresistible.

“We intend to do hard-edged field reports, investigative reporting … and interviews,” Rather said of his new program on HDNet, which is available in 4 million homes via cable and satellite. “We want to make it news like you’ve never seen before, and on that, at least, we can deliver, because it’s [high definition television].”

Asked if the new program would be “Rather unleashed,” the anchor just smiled.

“I’m not going to touch that with a 17-foot pole,” Rather said.

“I’m not here to be critical of any other news operation,” he said, adding that he is “pulling for” the people of CBS news, where the 74-year old Texan worked for 44 years.

But Rather spoke at length about an increasing “emphasis on ratings, demographics and the larger needs of the huge corporate entities that now own most of the media outlets.”

“I’ve made my mistakes and some of my wounds are self-inflicted, [but] you will not find me cowing to pressure,” said Rather, who grew misty-eyed at a few points in the hourlong press conference. He voice was especially thick when he spoke of his journalistic hero, news legend Edward R. Murrow.

“There’s the model… if you’re determined to be independent, you’re going to take the heat,” said the anchor.

For his part, Cuban said he’s pushing Rather to think bigger.

“If anything, Dan’s held himself back in our conversations,” said Cuban, who added, “I don’t give a damn about earnings per share. I’m not worried about advertisers… I’m going to eat no matter what.”

“We’ll have what we need,” Rather said when asked about resources for his new show. He’s the only member of the program’s staff right now -- he and Cuban only got to know each other recently and reached their agreement in recent days -- but Rather said he’d consider former CBS colleagues for the staff of his new show.

“How could I not, having been at CBS News for 44 years?” said Rather, who would not be more specific about any individuals he might hire.

Cuban, who made his fortune through the sale of the Web site Broadcast.com, said that though the online world offered an array of intriguing possibilities for the future of the news medium, he’s bullish on the future of television news.

“We’ve got Internet-itis going on,” Cuban said. “People are so fixated on digital media that they’ve forgotten about the opportunities that good old television presents,” he said.

Cuban said he wasn’t worried about any “baggage” carried by Rather, who stepped down as CBS anchor in 2005 in the wake of the controversy over a discredited 2004 "60 Minutes" report on President Bush’s military service.

“Every person who thinks Dan is biased has acquired my e-mail and e-mailed me,” said Cuban, whose address is available on his blog. “I have complete confidence in Dan.”

Rather reacted with both resolute and emotional when discussing the issue of his “baggage.”

“Yes, I’m biased, very strongly biased toward independent journalism,” he said, his voice quaking.

As for being on a small network with far less reach than CBS, Rather shrugged off the comparison. “I don’t think in terms of impact, I think in terms of quality,” he said.

Rather was asked at several times if life had been tough for him over the last couple of years. “I don’t consider myself a person who’s been through difficulties at all,” he said, but he did say that “you do find out who your friends are.”

Regarding his HDNet venture, he said, “I don’t feel I have anything to prove. I know Mark feels differently. Sometimes you’re not the best judge of what motivates yourself. Mark thinks I have something to prove, perhaps I do, but I don't feel that way. What I feel, what’s in my marrow is that I want to do work that matters. I want to do great work.”

Rather’s contract is for three years, Rather noted; as for his pay, he offered no specifics. His new program will be headquartered in New York, and HDNet, Cuban said, already has a network of news stringers in 65 cities.

http://tempo.typepad.com/entertainment_tv/

fredfa

07-12-06, 10:02 AM

The Business of TV
Nielsen Will Post Data on Ad Viewing

For the first time, rates for commercials will be based on how many people watch them
By Meg James and Chris Gaither Los Angeles Times Staff Writers July 12, 2006
(Times staff writer Dawn Chmielewski contributed to this report)

Advertisers, television networks and ratings firm Nielsen Media Research for years have known approximately how many TV viewers bail during commercial breaks. Beginning this fall, they're going to let the rest of us in on the industry's little secret.

In a move that is sure to transform not only the way ad time is bought and sold but potentially the content of the ads themselves, Nielsen said Tuesday that it would begin distributing data on average viewership for the commercials in any given program.

The shift, which will roll out in November, is the industry's response to mounting pressures on two fronts: the rise of digital video recorders, or DVRs, that allow viewers to zip through the ads; and Madison Avenue's growing affection for the Internet, where ad penetration is easily measured by the number of users who click through.

"Nielsen's move is probably one of the most significant acknowledgments of how the Web has changed the marketing world," said Jeff Lanctot, vice president and general manager of Avenue A/Razorfish, an online advertising agency.

Until now, the TV industry has been content to rely on a measurement and reporting system created three decades ago. Nielsen reports TV viewership per half-hour, and ads are priced based on the average viewership of a whole program, including ads and promo spots.

But advertisers' traditional "spray and pray" strategy — buying lots of ads and hoping they connect with consumers — is increasingly being seen as wasteful when compared with the more targeted ad venues that the Internet offers.

Soon, for the first time, TV ad rates will be based on how many people watch the ads.

"We've all talked about the way the world is changing, and now it really is," said Alan Wurtzel, president of research for NBC Universal. "We will radically be changing the way we measure television from a business standpoint."

Although the new reporting system will mostly affect ad buyers and sellers, TV viewers at home may notice the difference as networks shuffle their ad inventory to give prominence to commercials that retain more viewers. That could require the advertising industry to come up with more clever commercials that are immediately engaging.

Advertisers and networks have long grappled with what's known in industry parlance as "commercial avoidance."

"Even before the remote control, there was the call of the refrigerator and the bathroom," said Irwin Gotlieb, chief executive of Group M Inc., which oversees four prominent agencies that buy time for such advertisers as American Express Co., Citibank, Cingular Wireless and Campbell's Soup Co. "We've been factoring these assumptions into our equations for decades."

But now, for the first time, there will be data that "the industry has agreed to use as a yardstick," Gotlieb said.

The new data reporting policy, which was first reported by MediaWeek, is largely an attempt to address the rising use of digital video recorders such as TiVo, which enable viewers to fast-forward through commercials when they play a recorded program.

About 10% of the nation's 110 million homes with TVs have DVRs, said Jack Wakshlag, chief research officer at Turner Broadcasting System. Within a year, nearly 20% of U.S. homes probably will have one.

Although Nielsen has included about 1,000 homes with DVRs in its national sample audience of 10,000 since late last year, the broadcast networks and advertisers recently have been at loggerheads over whether advertisers should have to pay to reach people who record a show and watch it later.

Last month, during the so-called upfront advance ad sales for the fall 2006 TV season, broadcasters caved in to pressure from advertisers who didn't want to pay for such "time-shifted" viewing. The broadcasters, whose profits depend on the number of eyeballs they can claim to be glued to their shows, were forced to leave a significant number of those people out of their tallies.

The big networks weren't happy with the results of this year's advanced advertising sales, with overall sales down about 2% from last year. So the networks have been eager to figure out a way to begin counting digital recorder users in their totals, particularly as more people get the devices through their cable and satellite providers.

"We wanted to get some credit for these viewers because we knew that some got exposure to the ads," said David Poltrack, president of CBS Vision, the company's newly created research arm. "And we know that when a person has a DVR they watch more television, and they watch the big-ticket shows."

Meanwhile, ad agency Mediaedge:cia was interested in just how many people skipped its clients' ads. Executives there knew that Nielsen had been collecting minute-by-minute ratings for TV shows for some time, but the data were so voluminous and cumbersome (not to mention expensive to retrieve) that they were rarely used by advertisers or the networks.

"The idea was to get the information in a manner that we could use for buying and selling," said Lyle Schwartz, director of broadcast research and marketplace analysis for Mediaedge, who first proposed the new reporting procedures to Nielsen.

"In this new age, DVRs are having a large impact, and we are seeing a tremendous amount of commercial avoidance," Schwartz said, adding that studies have shown that as few as 8% to as many as 90% of DVR owners skip ads.

"As a researcher, I'll be happy to be able to get my hands on this information," Schwartz said. "First we will be able to see how many people are watching the commercials, and the next phase will be to find out how viewers react to the commercials."

But with every change comes a new set of problems. Everyone agrees that advertisers will have to craft their television commercials differently, with an arresting image in the first few frames so that people don't skip the ad, said John Cate, San Francisco-based vice president and national media director for Carat Fusion, a digital ad agency.

There might also be jockeying for the first commercial in an ad break — something networks typically don't guarantee except for premier events such as the Super Bowl or the Academy Awards, said Tim Spengler, director of national broadcast for ad-buying firm Initiative.

Changes could be profound, particularly if network executives begin to shuffle the ad spots so they can prominently display the most compelling commercials.

"Will the networks say, 'Give me all the movie spots, and I'm not going to put this toilet paper spot on'?" Spengler asked. "Once that happens, you really open up Pandora's box."

Some say the new Nielsen service might force the networks to reduce their ad rates, particularly for shows whose viewers tend to skip the ads.

CBS' Poltrack said past studies have shown that viewership for commercials during broadcast shows was about 5% less than for the programs themselves, whereas cable shows saw a 10% drop. That's because cable programming tends to get more short-term viewers — channel surfers who stop by for a few minutes before flipping to a new show, Poltrack said.

Gotlieb of Group M said he didn't expect the networks to start slashing their rates.

"This isn't going to decrease the value of television time," he said. "But over time, the ratings will be more accurate than what we have now." Already, the growing popularity of so-called viral videos has provided an incentive for advertisers to make their commercials more interesting. The idea: Release commercials that are so funny, charming, sexy or controversial that viewers not only don't skip them, they share the ads with friends.

Anheuser-Busch Cos., Gap Inc. and other mainstream marketers have used these videos, also called pass-along ads.

Subservient Chicken, a bizarre Burger King website featuring a chicken that seemingly takes commands from Web surfers, has attracted hundreds of millions of viewers.

http://www.calendarlive.com/tv/cl-fi-ratings12jul12,0,422799.story?coll=cl-tvent

fredfa

07-12-06, 10:07 AM

Cable Nielsen Notebook
Dave Chappelle's not as hot comeback

By Toni Fitzgerald MediaLifeMagazine.com staff writer Jul 12, 2006, 01:05

You might expect, after the major ruckus caused last year when Dave Chappelle walked off the set of his self-titled and top-rated Comedy Central show, that when the half-finished episodes the comedian had filmed finally aired, they’d get a huge ratings bump from curiosity seekers.

In fact, they did not. After two years without “Chappelle’s Show,” and a new night to boot, fewer fans of the show turned out for Sunday’s 9 p.m. premiere of “Chappelle’s Show: The Lost Episodes.”

In adults 18-34, where Chappelle had his most rabid following, Sunday’s 1.32 million viewers were was down 21 percent from the 1.67 million who tuned in for the second-season premiere in January 2004.

The show also declined 15 percent from its last premiere among 18-49s, from 1.83 million to 2.16 million. Those numbers were still very good, as the show made basic cable’s top 10 in both demos and won its timeslot in men 18-24 and 18-34. But it raises the question of why the dropoff for a show that got so much publicity.

There are several possible reasons, the first being that perhaps fans felt betrayed by Chappelle’s actions last year. His departure from the show in May 2005, with part of season three shot and a $50 million contract in the bank, was a shocker, and rumors about his mental condition and a possible drug problem immediately surfaced.

Chappelle himself didn’t talk much about his reason for leaving until earlier this year when he began promoting his movie “Dave Chappelle’s Block Party.” He only said that he did not feel comfortable with the direction the show was going in, implying he had compromised himself to woo white America.

That disappointed many fans. It’s always difficult to complain when you're making $50 million, and fans making a fraction of that became former fans.

Second, Chappelle’s most rabid fans likely had already seen some of the material shown on Comedy Central Sunday. The network made some of the third-season sketches available on its broadband network Motherload earlier this year. That made the debut less climactic.

Third, other fans may have boycotted out of deference to Chappelle, who didn’t even film his customary introduction to the material and wasn't very happy about its broadcast.

And finally, “Chappelle” moved from Wednesdays alongside “South Park” to Sundays, where Comedy Central does not have a strong regular schedule. Though the premiere was heavily promoted along with “Mind of Mencia” and “Reno 911!” fans may have simply not realized that “Chappelle” was on a new night.

Comedy Central will air several more half hour episodes of “Chappelle” this month. The usual run for a season is 12 episodes.

Meanwhile, in other cable ratings for the week ended July 9:

• Top five networks in primetime (18-49s): USA, TNT, TBS, FX, Comedy Central

T • op five networks in primetime (total viewers): USA, TNT, TBS, Lifetime, Nick at Nite

• Top movie (18-49s): TBS’s “Gladiator” (Sunday, 7:04 p.m.) 1.74 million

• Top sporting event (total viewers): TNT’s “Nextel Cup” (Sunday, 3:29 p.m.) 6.78 million

• Shows making the top 10 among 18-34s, 18-49s and 25-54s: USA’s “WWE Entertainment” (Monday, 10 p.m.); USA’s “WWE Entertainment” (Monday, 9 p.m.); ESPN’s “World Cup: Germany-Italy” (Tuesday, 2:49 p.m.)

• Show on the rise: “Wild Hearts,” Hallmark Channel, Saturday, 9 p.m. The Richard Thomas-Nancy McKeon movie delivered the fifth-highest household rating in network history, a 2.8. It also finished first in its timeslot on basic cable.

• Show on the decline: “Blade: The Series,” Spike, Wednesday, 10 p.m. After averaging an impressive 1.68 million adults 18-49 in its debut June 25, Spike’s first original scripted drama fell back to Earth. It didn’t even make the top 50 in that demo.

http://www.medialifemagazine.com/artman/publish/printer_5900.asp

RemyM

07-12-06, 10:10 AM

fredfa

07-12-06, 10:11 AM

TV Review
A Delightful Scream: TNT's 'Nightmares' Toys With the Mind

By Tom Shales Washington Post Staff Writer Wednesday, July 12, 2006; C01

Mom's mantra was a rhetorical question: "Why don't you go outside and play?" If only little Stevie King's mother had asked the same question of him, and been more persistent about shoving him outdoors. Then little Stevie might have lost all interest in dreaming up foolish, spooky schlock and become not a writer but, oh, a great garbage, butterfly or income tax collector instead.

But we can't go back in time and so, every 90 days or so (at least that's how it seems), television emits yet another movie, TV series or miniseries based on a novel, short story, grocery list or doodle by Stephen King.

Yet for all that carping and caviling, allow me to concede an exception to the rule -- namely "Battleground," the opening installment in the new TNT anthology "Nightmares & Dreamscapes: From the Stories of Stephen King" -- premiering tonight at 9 PM ET. "Battleground" (to be followed by another King story) is a luminous chunk of sparkling dark crystal, a devilishly haunting gem polished to near-perfection by director Brian Henson and adapting writer Richard Christian Matheson.

What did Matheson adapt? On the surface, those with very good TV memories might think he adapted a rip-off; it's not as if King's ideas all resonate with originality. The primal tale -- about a tiny army of toy soldiers waging war on a big, bad man who killed a crusty old toymaker -- is strikingly reminiscent of "Amelia," the third story in a TV-movie called "Trilogy of Terror," produced by Dan Curtis for ABC in 1975.

Yes, children, we had TV in 1975.

Karen Black played the title role, a woman living alone in a small apartment who receives a mysterious gift in an unmarked box: a fetish doll, maybe six inches tall, from some primitive culture. It carries a nasty little spear and perpetually flashes a set of spiky choppers. One night the doll comes vindictively to life, and the film consists mainly of Amelia's efforts to survive the night with it chasing her over, under, around and through the furniture and hallways. And she in her bare feet, besides.

(And yes, in addition to its obvious "Gulliver's Travels" antecedent, the "Amelia" story had similarities to a famous "Twilight Zone" episode in which Agnes Moorehead, armed only with household items, battled itsy-bitsy invaders from another planet whose toylike space craft landed on her roof.)

Anyway, before any lawyers start drawing up plagiarism cases, the whole story is sort of all in the family. Richard Christian Matheson, it happens, is the son of Richard Matheson, one of the most brilliant and inventive of all sci-fi writers and a frequent "Zone" contributor ("Nightmare at 10,000 Feet"). He is also the writer who made "Amelia" such a fine finish to Curtis's "Terror" trilogy. In homage to Matheson and the original movie, the filmmakers include a shot or two of the fetish doll sitting on a shelf; if you saw the original "Trilogy of Terror," you'll likely recognize it immediately even though its appearances are brief.

The little monster made a big impression.

"Battleground" has other distinctions. It stars William Hurt, who doesn't do a lot of television work, and it tells its hour-long story without any dialogue from the main characters. When Hurt, at the airport, stops to watch a newscast on a TV set, in fact, the sound's been turned down and the closed captions turned on, so we don't even hear the anchor talk.

The story opens in Dallas, where the hit man and espionage artist whom Hurt plays -- mainly via a series of grunts and groans of pain -- sneaks into the office of toy magnate Hans Morris and, in addition to pilfering an innovative invention, shoots four bullets into poor Hans's chest. But the toy community, it seems, has excellent communications. Hurt gets back to his astonishingly gorgeous apartment (the film was shot in Australia and thereabouts) and finds a mysterious package waiting. It contains not a fetish doll but a cute army of toy green soldiers.

Cute -- but not so cute they wouldn't shoot a hole in your chest if they could aim their bazooka just right.

The special effects, which really do make or break the thing, are delightful -- in a sinister sort of way. One could recommend the film to older, thrill-seeking children, but with a caveat: There are long, gruesome close-ups of Hurt's growing garden of wounds. Pretty soon, his face has so many scars he looks like the evil Chucky doll from the most recent "Child's Play" movie.

Hurt throws himself into this captivating nuttiness and is even obliging enough to turn a Coca-Cola bottle so that its logo faces the camera (and another product placement is thus consummated). "Battleground," which will air without commercials, doesn't rank as some impressionistic TV masterpiece, but at least it shouldn't leave you cursing the name of Stephen King and the fortunes he has made.

For the record, TNT says "Battleground" originated in a 1978 King short-story collection called "Nightshift." That would be three years after "Trilogy of Terror" aired on ABC and the toothy fetish doll chased poor Ms. Black hither, thither and everywhere else. Coincidental, or copycatty? Truth -- or fiction? Genius -- or big thief?

The world may never know.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/11/AR2006071101396_pf.html

fredfa

07-12-06, 10:14 AM

Nielsen Notebook
'Psych' sees 6.1M viewers

By Gary Levin USA Today July 12, 2006

• Psyched. The season premiere of USA's Monk drew 5.1 million viewers, shy of last summer's record 6.4-million-viewer season opener. But new companion drama Psych, which followed, racked up an impressive 6.1 million, building 19% on Monk's lead-in.

• Chappelled. Comedy Central scored 2.6 million viewers Sunday for the first of three "lost episodes" of Chappelle's Show, which its star famously walked away from last year. The number, while solid, was well off the series' 4.1-million-viewer peak in April 2004. But new companions Reno 911 (1.8 million) and Mind of Mencia (2.4 million)were above prior-season averages.

• Spiked. New series The Dudesons (971,000 viewers) and Raising the Roofs (688,000) opened with weak numbers Thursday as Spike struggles in its latest manly makeover. Wednesday's second episode of Blade (1.3 million) lost nearly half its premiere's audience.

• Kyle down. ABC Family's Kyle XY also declined, to 1.5 million Monday from 2.6 million for the week-earlier premiere. (July Fourth weekend viewing levels are typically the lowest of the year.) But ABC's rebroadcast Friday held up, with 4.9 million vs. 5.2 million last week.

• Goooaaaaal! Italy's overtime win of the World Cup soccer tournament averaged 12 million viewers on ABC Sunday, the biggest final since 1994. Univision averaged an additional 5 million viewers, many in non-Hispanic homes.

• Not so Big. The premiere of CBS' Big Brother All-Stars, its seventh edition, averaged 7.5 million viewers. Though winning its time slot, it marked the least-watched opener yet and was down by a million from last summer's start. The second-season start of CBS' Rock Star (5.3 million) finished third in its time slot and was down slightly from last summer's series opener; Thursday's results show climbed to 6 million. NBC's America's Got Talent climbed to 12 million, up 9% from last week.

• How not to get the ratings. ABC dumped How to Get the Guy after a measly 2.7 million viewers dated Monday's fourth (and lowest-rated) episode.

http://www.usatoday.com/life/television/news/2006-07-11-nielsen-analysis_x.htm

fredfa

07-12-06, 10:22 AM

TV Notebook
Oxygen, TNT near deal for 'Grey's' rights

By Andrew Wallenstein and Kimberly Nordyke The Hollywood Reporter July 12, 2006

Oxygen and Turner Broadcasting are closing in on shared cable rights to the hit ABC series "Grey's Anatomy," sources said.

Although final negotiations are continuing this week, all indications are that Oxygen and Turner's TNT will end up splitting "Grey's." Buena Vista Television will hand over off-net rights to Oxygen for the post-6 p.m. window, while TNT will get off-net daytime rights. In addition, Oxygen will get a second window starting earlier than the off-net rights that gives the channel a weekly repeat of an episode from earlier seasons.

Buena Vista, Turner and Oxygen declined comment.

Estimates on the combined price tag for "Grey's" were around $1 million, with Oxygen believed to have shelled out about $700,000 per episode, leaving Turner to pick up the rest of the medical drama's bill.

The sale will bring to an end one of the most anticipated and complicated syndication deals of recent memory, shutting out futile bids from Lifetime and ABC Family -- one partially and one fully owned by the Walt Disney Co., home to both ABC and "Grey's" production company Touchstone Television.

Sources say Buena Vista actually accepted bids more than a month ago, but negotiations were protracted by the relatively new and thorny issue of assigning rights to digital platforms. Warner Bros. Domestic TV Distribution recently cut a precedent-setting deal with Tribune Broadcasting that gave its stations the ability to stream episodes on their respective Web sites.

Buena Vista has yet to sell "Grey's" to local stations.

Details of the "Grey's" deal still are coming together, but Oxygen is expected to begin airing repeat episodes from earlier seasons as early as January.

The official "Grey's" off-net window would begin in 2009; by then, the series likely will have cleared 100 episodes (36 hours have aired to date over two seasons) and be in its fifth season.

For Oxygen, snaring "Grey's" is a huge but expensive coup, amounting to what might be the biggest syndication deal in the history of the channel. The network typically ends up as an also-ran to bigger channels when vying for highly coveted off-net product, as it did when TBS won rights to HBO's "Sex and the City."

But the soap format and hunky cast make "Grey's" a good fit for the female-targeted network.

At TNT, "Grey's" likely would join a daytime lineup stocked with such powerhouse dramas as "ER," "Charmed" and "Law & Order."

Buena Vista this year unloaded "Desperate Housewives" to Lifetime for $500,000 an episode. Lifetime also picked up a second window for repeat episodes from previous seasons.

"Grey's" emerged as one of the hottest shows on television in the 2005-06 season, averaging nearly 20 million viewers. It premiered on ABC in March 2005; in the fall, the series is moving from its 10 p.m. Sunday slot to 9 p.m. Thursday.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr/television/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1002803440

CPanther95

07-12-06, 10:28 AM

fredfa

07-12-06, 10:30 AM

TV Notebook
Katie Push Heats Up

By Holly M. Sanders The New York Post

July 12, 2006 -- CBS has started the countdown to Katie Couric.

The network is shifting the publicity machine into high gear to herald the arrival later this summer of the former "Today" show star as the fresh yet familiar face of the "CBS Evening News."

The initial on-air promos with Bob Schieffer entreating viewers to "Just Watch" her Sept. 5 debut are just the start of a summer-long campaign. CBS marketing execs have mapped out a strategy that spans print, radio and billboards in addition to TV.

The goal is to not only reach the nightly news audience but also the millions of fans who watched her for 15 years on "Today" - women in particular.

CBS hopes to capitalize on her celebrity and groundbreaking status as the first solo female anchor of a network newscast. The message: She promises a more accessible and unaffected delivery style than the one-man anchor in a suit and tie.

"While it's not a secret that she's coming here, it's certainly something we don't take for granted that all people know," said George Schweitzer, CBS's head of marketing.

At the same time, the network wants viewers to believe that Couric has the hard news chops to handle the job and live up to her predecessors. In August, a second set of TV spots will feature her talking "unscripted" about her approach to the news.

Behind the scenes, insiders said the news division has assigned reporters to build a backlog of stories so that Couric will "look strong" immediately out of the gate.

Couric has already embarked on a six-city "listening tour" and cancer fund-raiser intended in part to put her in closer touch with her potential viewers. She sold out her first stop in St. Petersburg, Fla., on Monday before heading to Dallas and Minneapolis.

CBS' news division, which has long lagged the major networks, tapped Schieffer to take over for Dan Rather while it searched for a permanent successor.

Schieffer proved popular with an older audience and boosted ratings. That put pressure on CBS to smooth the transition from elder statesman Schieffer to newcomer Couric.

While CBS is redesigning the set of the "Evening News" - along with the music and graphics - executives are quick to say the changes will be subtle.

"It's not going to be revolutionary," said CBS News President Sean McManus. "We don't want to risk alienating an audience that is growing."

http://www.nypost.com/php/pfriendly/print.php?url=http://www.nypost.com/business/katie_push_heats_up_business_holly_m__sanders.htm

fredfa

07-12-06, 10:42 AM

TV Critics Summer Press Tour
Ted Koppel, Spike Lee and The Cast of 'Entourage'

By Kevin D. Thompson Palm Beach Post Television Writer in his blog July 12, 2006

Today should be interesting.

First up: Ted Koppel chats about Koppel on Discovery, his new Discovery Channel series that premieres in September. A few months ago everyone thought the former Nightline host's new home was gonna be HBO or PBS -- both natural fits for the kind of in-depth reporting Koppel yearned to do. But those deals fell through. So now TV's best interviewer will do his thing on the less glamorous Discovery Channel.

Hey, it's a job.

I'm really looking forward to chatting with the cast of The Wire. Yes, people, that show is still on. Although only three people watch it -- me, my girl Leslie "Flick Chick" "That Girl" "Music Nut" Streeter and one other person I haven't met yet, HBO still brought it back for a fourth season. You rock, HBO for spitting in the face of conventional wisdom!

Spike Lee is also scheduled to be here to talk about When the Levees Broke, his documentary on how New Orleans' Crescent City survived Hurricane Katrina. I'm wondering, however, how long it will take Spike to getting around to yapping about the dismal state of his beloved Knicks. As a die-hard Knicks fan myself, I feel your pain, Spike.

HBO is also trotting out the cast of Entourage. Let's see if Jeremy Piven can be as screamingly funny in person as he is as Ari Gold on one of TV's smartest shows.

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/blogs/content/shared-blogs/palmbeach/thompson/entries/2006/07/post_5.html

Xesdeeni

07-12-06, 10:47 AM

TV Critics Summer Press Tour
Nolte Nuts?

By Susan Young Oakland Tribune in her “Unscripted” blog July 11th, 2006

...

The wacky actor _ is that an oxymoron? _

...
http://www.ibabuzz.com/unscripted/No, but it could be redundant ;-)

An oxymoron is a phrase with two contradictory terms, like "living dead" or "true lies." (My favorite, "jumbo shrimp," isn't apparently a genuine oxymoron, according to the wikipedia.)

Xesdeeni

P.S. Sorry if this sounds pedantic, I couldn't resist. She gets PAID to be a writer and makes an error even a first year journalism student would be barbecued for. And then her editor, presumably an even more senior writer, doesn't catch it either!

Xesdeeni

07-12-06, 10:54 AM

Nielsen Notebook
A Low-Water Mark for Broadcast TV Viewing

The Associated Press--TV viewers must have taken to the beach: It was the least-watched week in recorded history for the four biggest broadcast networks.
...
http://asia.news.yahoo.com/060711/ap/d8iq1l8g0.htmlAnd this was in no way related to the dearth of non-reality, non-repeat shows filling the summer airwaves....

Xesdeeni

fredfa

07-12-06, 10:57 AM

Sports On TV
TBS drops Braves games, joins Fox in rich TV deal

By Michael Hiestand USA Today

Last season Major League Baseball staged its lowest-rated All-Star Game, followed by its lowest-rated World Series, followed by lots of offseason publicity about its stars and steroids.

But hey, in the ever-splintering media world, anybody who can still deliver big batches of (mostly male) eyeballs will do OK when it comes to selling themselves to TV networks.

MLB showed that Tuesday in finalizing seven-year TV deals — starting next year — with Fox and TBS. Fox stays the lead dog, retaining the World Series and one league championship series — down from showing both LCS in its current six-year deal. TBS gets a TV monopoly of all first-round playoff games, which have been aired in current deals by Fox and various cable TV channels, including ESPN. The fallout for viewers:

• Cable only. First-round playoff games will only be on TBS. TBS is in about 90 million of the USA's more than 110 million TV homes. Tim Brosnan, MLB executive vice president, says the number of homes without cable TV "shrinks daily" but if MLB "heard enormous backlash" about games being unavailable on free TV, then "we'd go back and adjust."

The idea of postseason sports only on cable used to be a big deal but is becoming a fact of life. But for cable channels, it's a big deal as well to stand out amid hundreds of channels. Turner Sports President David Levy says TBS getting exclusive first-round playoff games "was one of the key ingredients in the deal for us."

• More regular-season Fox ball. Fox will expand its Saturday afternoon regionalized coverage from its current 18 Saturdays to as many as 26. And it will get more favorable start times, as games probably will begin at 3:30 p.m. ET — compared with 1 p.m. ET for most games now.

• Bye bye, Braves. TBS, starting in 2008, will also have 26 weekly Sunday national games. But it will also give up a staple it's had since the 1970s — lots of Atlanta Braves action.

TBS parent Time Warner is trying to sell the ballclub that Ted Turner famously used as pioneering cable TV programming. After showing 70 Braves games next season, TBS won't show them nationally anymore — although the Braves could still show up on TBS' new Sunday games. What will be different then: The Braves will, presumably, play on TBS if they're actually good — now they get on by showing up.

Turner's Levy says the TBS change isn't related to parent Time Warner trying to unload the team: "It was a programming decision."

• Still up for grabs. With Fox showing just one LCS annually in the new deal — it will alternate between the leagues each year — one LCS is still up for grabs. ESPN and TBS are interested, and Fox Sports President Ed Goren says Fox would "be willing to split it in some fashion with another broadcaster."

The complication: LCS games, all in prime time, come in October when overall prime-time TV competition is fierce. And even if they deliver good ratings — although ratings can vary widely based on whether marquee teams are involved — the length of best-of-seven series is impossible to predict, so they can play havoc with scheduling prime-time shows that are trying to survive long after baseball is over.

• MLB's Brosnan won't disclose financial terms. But he says the TBS and Fox deals — along with a new regular-season MLB deal that ESPN made last September — will send MLB's national TV revenue up 19%. Meaning, after ESPN's rights fees went up 50% to $296 million annually in its deal, the new Fox deal will generate something under $300 million a year while TBS should generate more than $70 million.

Given ratings swings — the Boston Red Sox's 2004 World Series sweep drew 15.8% of TV households, while the Chicago White Sox's sweep last year averaged just 11.1% — it's hard to say if networks will score with these deals. But Nielsen is about to begin measuring how many viewers watch TV ads as well as the programming itself. Since sports, Goren notes, is usually watched live — not on digital video recorders — that means "for advertisers their commercials will be seen live."

There's the sales pitch. But Goren adds a more personal note: "After all my years at CBS when I saw what happens when you lose contracts (including football and baseball), I never wanted to live through that again."

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/columnist/hiestand-tv/2006-07-11-hiestand-mlb_x.htm

EricRobins

07-12-06, 12:08 PM

TV Critics Summer Press Tour
Dan Rather's latest adventure

From Maureen Ryan’s Chicago Tribune blog “The Watcher” July 12, 2006

Once the DVR penetration reaches critical mass, isn't the only logical conclusion of this "minute-my-minute" data, pay per view for everything (particularly if a la carte is ever implimented)?

fredfa

07-12-06, 12:11 PM

The Tuesday prime-time ratings – and Media Week Analyst Marc Berman’s view of what they mean -- have been posted at the top of Ratings News the first post in this thread.

fredfa

07-12-06, 12:32 PM

TV Critics Summer Press Tour
The Tour: "Brotherhood'' surfaces on CBS

By Charlie McCollum San Jose Mercury News in his blog Wednesday, July 12, 2006

In another case of synergy (or whatever) in TV world, CBS has announced it will show the first episode of Showtime's new "Brotherhood'' this Saturday night at 10. (Showtime is part of the CBS empire.) What makes this something a bit different is that "Brotherhood'' -- a drama about an Irish family with feet in the worlds of crime and politics -- was made for premium cable which means the language is, uh, a bit raw, there's a bit of nudity (not much) and it runs close to 60 minutes long instead of the usual 42 minutes or so for a typical network dramatic hour.

(It's a bit like having an episode of HBO's "The Sopranos'' or "Deadwood'' suddenly pop up on NBC.)

CBS says it will edit the episode for "network TV standards'' which means "Brotherhood'' may not have some of the bite it had when it aired on Showtime last Sunday.

But that said, it's worth checking out because the show has a lot going for it including some first-rate performances. If you like it, you may want to dip into Showtime temporarily for future installments -- and you can get one of TV's better comedies, "Weeds,'' as a chaser starting Aug. 14.

http://blogs.mercurynews.com/aei/charlie_mccollum/index.html

fredfa

07-12-06, 12:34 PM

TV Critics Summer Press Tour
"Project Runway'' runs to NBC

By Charlie McCollum San Jose Mercury News in his blog Wednesday, July 12, 2006

In another case of cable coming to the broadcast networks -- see my previous posting on Showtime's "Brotherhood'' airing on CBS -- NBC will show at least a few episodes of Bravo's "Project Runway,'' the fashion world reality show that returned as addictive as ever Wednesday night.

The network will repeat at least two episodes, and maybe more, of the series Mondays at 8 p.m. starting next week. (First up: Wednesday's opening installment.)

By the way, it's worth tuning just to hiss and boo a guy who could be the most arrogant and self-absorbed contestants in recent reality TV history. Designer wannabe Malan Breton (looking smug at left), who was picked for Season 2 but turned it down, has surfaced for Season 3 and he is one irritating piece of work.

http://blogs.mercurynews.com/aei/charlie_mccollum/index.html

fredfa

07-12-06, 12:45 PM

Overnights in the 18-49 Demo
A nifty boost for MLB's All-Star Game

By Toni Fitzgerald medialifemagazine.com Jul 12, 2006

Last night it looked like the National League would break its long Major League Baseball All-Star Game losing streak to the American League before the latter rallied to win in the ninth inning. But it seems as though another long streak, that of fading ratings for the All-Star Game, has been snapped.

Based on early numbers from Nielsen, ratings for this year’s game on Fox actually rose for the first time in five years. Last night’s game averaged a 10.6 metered market rating from 8:45-11:15 p.m., up 8 percent over last year’s 9.8 metered market average.

As a reminder, these numbers are based on the top 56 markets, and that trend may change once final ratings, which measure actual program data, come in later today. Overnight ratings are based on timeslot data.

Still, even if the game is even to last year that would be a victory of sorts for baseball. Last year’s game hit an all-time low final rating of 8.1 among households, down 26 percent from the 2001 game, the last time ratings improved year to year.

The excitement late in yesterday’s game may have given baseball the lift. It looked as though the NL was going to secure a victory, heading into the final inning with the lead. But the AL rallied with two runs in the top of the ninth, and the NL could not answer, going winless for the 11th time in the past 11 games.

The game may better last year’s 12.3 million average total viewers as well. Early estimates put last night’s average at 12.62 million.

Fox easily won the night with a 4.0 average rating and 12 share among adults 18-49, according to Nielsen fast nationals, followed by NBC at 2.8/8, CBS at 2.6/8, ABC at 1.8/5, Univision at 1.4/4, WB at 0.7/2 and UPN at 0.5/2.

Fox led every hour, starting with a 3.5 at 8 p.m. for its pregame show. CBS followed with a 2.9 for “Big Brother,” followed by NBC’s 2.3 for “Fear Factor,” Univision’s 1.9 for “La Bella Mas Fea,” ABC’s 1.8 for reruns of “According to Jim,” WB’s 0.8 for “Gilmore Girls” rerun and UPN’s 0.6 for a “Veronica Mars” rerun.

At 9 p.m., Fox led again with a 4.2 for the All-Star game, followed by NBC at 3.3 for “Last Comic Standing,” CBS at 2.7 for “Rock Star: Supernova,” ABC at 1.8 for the first hour of a two-hour “Primetime,” Univision at 1.4 for “Barrera de Amor,” WB at 0.7 for another “Girls” repeat and UPN at 0.5 for another “Mars” repeat.

At 10 p.m. Fox led with a 4.3, followed by NBC’s “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” at 2.8, CBS’s “48 Hours Mystery” second at 2.1, ABC’s “Primetime” third at 1.9, and Univision fourth at 1.4.

Among households, Fox led the night with an 8.1 from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m. in households, followed by NBC at 4.6/8, CBS at 4.4/7, ABC at 4.3/7, Univision at 1.8/3, WB at 1.3/2, and UPN at 1.0/2.

http://www.medialifemagazine.com/artman/publish/printer_5931.asp

fredfa

07-12-06, 12:47 PM

Once the DVR penetration reaches critical mass, isn't the only logical conclusion of this "minute-my-minute" data, pay per view for everything (particularly if a la carte is ever implimented)?

As long as advertisters remain a critical component of the business plan, total pay-per-view, I would think, will not happen.

But limited pay-per-view (where, for example, you would get out of market TV shows -- East coast for those in the west, or vice versa) could well happen.

fredfa

07-12-06, 01:43 PM

TV Critics Summer Press Tour
Press Tour Day 3

By Rich Heldenfels in his Akron Beacon Journal TV blog

It's a little after 9 a.m. as I start writing this, and we're about to talk to Ted Koppel. He's not in the room; he's visible on a big TV screen, beaming to us by satellite from Guatanamo Bay, where he is filming his first special for the Discovery Channel. It will be about security and personal liberty, and will air on the Sept. 10, the eve of the fifth anniversary of 9/11.

The first question to Koppel involves working for Discovery after reaching the larger audience available to the big networks. He admits the numbers are smaller but goes on to say that it is almost impossible to get, say, a serious program about foreign policy into prime time.

He doesn't apologize for being old school in some ways: ''The old school is a good school,'' he says. Later, he notes that foreign-policy issues are not just material for wonks. They're ''issues that going to have impact on the lives of all Americans.'' And he fears that newsgathering will be weaker in the future -- that, for example, there's little attention paid to India even though it is an increasingly important story for the world.

There's a little lag in the discussion, since it takes a moment for Koppel to hear the questions. (Koppel also lost his phone connection at one point, able to talk but not hear the queries from Pasadena. He asked a Discovery exec to vamp until the sound was restored.) And I'm fighting a little bit of time disorientation.

Not jet lag exactly. More of an attempt to remember what time it is while working odd hours of the day and night.

Last night, after watching ''Rescue Me'' and doing some writing, I went to the hotel's parking deck, which had been decorated with a beach party theme by GSN. I talked some with Danny Bonaduce; I had missed his press conference earlier but had read the transcript and had a couple of follow-up questions. Also, I like talking to Danny, who's been a good interview every time I have chatted with him over the years.

But when I was done, I looked at my watch. It was about 11 p.m. It didn't feel that late, even though I had been going pretty hard for most of the day and knew I would be up before 6 a.m. today. You get into a bubble on these things where most of your life revolves around the next press conference and the next in-person interview, and when you're going to screen things. (Earlier this morning, I was watching a new DVD of Sally Field's ''Sybil'' because I'm still hoping to put together my TV-on-DVD column for Friday.)

Still, there is a world beyond the walls of these meeting rooms. All right, there's California beyond these meeting room. Some of that is pretty nice. I had a good walk this morning through tree-lined residential areas, the sun bright, the only challenges coming from the need to dodge lawn sprinklers and the occasional evidence of the many dogs around here.

Walking is certainly more fun than a car trip. Yesterday, I had to drive over to Los Angeles to pick up my credentials for tonight's ESPYS taping. Driving in L.A. is close to the adventure you've heard about; there are just so many people doing it, for starters, that traffic sometimes stops for no noticeable reason other than the sheer volume. When I got off one of the snaking highways and onto regular roads, I hadn't driven far before I came to a police car blocking the road. Flashers could be seen down the block. At least one chopper rumbled overhead.

Working along smaller side streets, I got to my location. And near it saw one of those things that reminds you that all of this area is part of show biz. A historic but long-closed coffee shop still stood; on the building was a sign declaring ''available for filming.''

http://blogs.ohio.com/beacon_tv/

fredfa

07-12-06, 01:47 PM

TV Critics Summer Press Tour
The Tour: Talking the fall season, what's good and what's not (Vol. I)

By Charlie McCollum San Jose Mercury News in his blog

From The Tour:

For the first time at a stylish Style party last night, a bunch of the TV writers on The Tour started to dissect and diss the new network shows for the fall season. Early line (and trust me, this will change):

• There are more shows to like (if not love) than last season. In fact, the overall slate is pretty decent.

• All the top shows are hour-long dramas. After a burst of creativity last year -- "My Name Is Earl,'' "Everybody Hates Chris,'' "How I Met Your Mother'' -- comedies have gone back in the crapper.

• General (but not total) consensus on the top pilot: NBC's "Friday Night Lights'' (above), a series about high school football. (My view: One of the best pilots I've seen in a couple of years.) Almost no one thinks it will last past mid-season, unfortunately.

• Best comedy: Wow, everybody has something they kinda like. NBC's "30 Rock'' gets mentioned most often but more than a few writers hate co-star Tracy Morgan so much they think the show will die an untimely death. The one buzz-heavy show that's getting little love: ABC's "Knights of Prosperity'' (once called "Let's Rob ...''). Given advance talk, everyone was expecting something better they got.

• Best bet to be a hit: CBS's "Shark'' which gets the Thursday slot behind "CSI,'' has a strong lead in James Woods as a hotshot defense attorney turned assistant district attorney and has a solid pilot.

• Best network slate: NBC, trying to make a big comeback. In addition to "Friday Night Lights'' and "30 Rock,'' people like such shows as Aaron Sorkin's "Studio 60 On the Sunset Strip,'' "Heroes'' and "Kidnapped.''

• Biggest surprises: NBC's "Heroes,'' a sci fi thriller that sounded pretty dumb on paper and turned out to be surprisingly strong, and ABC's "Men In Trees,'' a romantic comedy-drama that didn't draw much early buzz but proved to be rather charming.

• Worst show: Fox's "Happy Hour.'' Unfunny was the kindest adjective used to describe it.

Now, let me assure you: This will change and I'll have updates as the consensus evolves over the next couple of weeks. The final determination won't come until the fall when the TV writers get to see more than one episode and you get to vote with your remotes.

http://blogs.mercurynews.com/aei/charlie_mccollum/index.html

fredfa

07-12-06, 01:56 PM

TV Critics Summer Press Tour
TCA-Koppel's Words of Widsom

By Anne Becker broadcastingcable.com/ Jul 12 2006

Discovery Networks kicked off the day with another veteran newsman, Ted Koppel, who was live via satellite from Guantanamo Bay, where he’s filming the first of several annual specials he and producing partner Tom Bettag will do for Discovery.

Before any questions were asked, Koppel, his hair blowing in the wind, asked that his cameraman pull back for a second to reveal that, although it looked like he was all alone, he was actually standing under a white tarp and surrounded by a massive crew – uniformed representatives from the Army and Navy, satellite technicians, a camera crew, producers and others. Koppel got chuckles from saying that even critics who are familiar with the TV industry "have to marvel at how much combined effort" it takes just so he can "stand there and answer questions" from them.

Koppel says he hopes to do 6 to 7 specials a year – next up will be one on the Middle East. He’ll travel to Iran this fall and pull together footage he’s already shot in Southern Lebanon and the Persian Gulf.

Koppel also vehemently defended his old friend Dan Rather regarding Rather’s exit from CBS, saying he did not at all approve of CBS’ treatment of its former anchor. "Clearly a mistake was made on the broadcast he did and it took him a while to acknowledge that because Dan is very, very loyal to the people that work with him and for him. Should that have cost him his career at CBS? I don’t think so. I wish he was still on CBS."

He went on to say that he was at Discovery "truly by choice" and that nobody had forced him out of ABC, and then extolled the virtues of cable TV’s dual revenue stream and the license fees that relieve some of the pressure to attract a young audience. He also said working for Discovery has helped him gain goodwill from people around the world, who get the cable channel but have never seen ABC.

http://broadcastingcable.com/blog/1380000138.html

fredfa

07-12-06, 01:56 PM

TV Critics Summer Press Tour
TCA-Messages From a Flower

By Anne Becker broadcastingcable.com/ Jul 12 2006

Possibly the oddest TCA transition yet – amidst a mini-exodus of filing reporters, Discovery Networks just switched from a satellite feed of Ted Koppel to spoken-word specialist Cornelious "See" Flowers, there to introduce TLC’s new reality series The Messengers, a hunt for the next great motivational speaker.

Flowers, in a T-shirt bearing the word "Stand," got applause from critics for a lengthy speech filled with tidbits like, "If you’ve fallen for something you don’t know, why don’t you stand for something you believe?" That was of course followed by the requisite questions on whether the show had religious overtimes – apparently a hot topic, as the question been asked at other networks’ presentations.

http://broadcastingcable.com/blog/1380000138.html

fredfa

07-12-06, 01:57 PM

TV Critics Summer Press Tour
Footballapalooza

broadcastingcable.com/ Jul 12 2006

What has 14 heads, is 188 NFL-years old and has 17 Super Bowl rings? ESPN's football analyst squad.

The cable net was touting that monster of the gridiron Wednesday as it prepared to pitch TV critics on its new Monday Night Football programming push, which should actually be called Late Sunday, Monday Afternoon and Into the Wee Hours of Tuesday Morning Football, though that would be really tough for Hank Williams Jr. to work into the opening number.

Chris Berman has. gone. all. the. way. to the top spot in the 360 approach to football coverage--though I'm not sure where the top of a circle is, actually. He will host both the Sunday Night Countdown and Monday night pregame shows for what ESPN hopes to make into an even more iconic prime time event/extravaganza/lollapalooza of a a sports spectacuular.

I just hope they find room for a game in there somewhere.

http://broadcastingcable.com/blog/1380000138.html

fredfa

07-12-06, 03:32 PM

TV Critics Summer Press Tour
Death March With Cocktails

Koppel & Rather: A Strange New Media World

By Tim Goodman San Francisco Chronicle in his TV blog “The Bastard Machine”

There was a tad bit of irony on Tuesday night when Ted Koppel, who no longer workds for ABC's "Nightline" popped up on..."Nightline." He was reporting from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and he was the only reporter there and available to comment on President Bush's apparent change of direction when it comes to detainees.

Koppel, who now works for the Discovery networks doing long-form, in-depth news pieces was joined in this post-career career on Tuesday when Dan Rather announced he would be doing essentially the same thing for HDNet. Now, Discovery is a massive cable channel with worldwide tentacles and HDNet is mostly a fledgling cable channel (though pure gold for anyone with an HDTV), so while both men are outside of the network glare and working partly in obscurity, Rather's a lot more invisible.

That, however, seems to make no difference to the two men. They are committed to reporting the news, much of far more in-depth than their former networks would allow, and often from international trouble spots, which Koppel said is essential in a changing world. He said that in the wake of Sept. 11, he had hopes that networks would refocus their energies on foreign news, since news from there would no doubt be impacting the United States in ever greater (and more dangerous) ways.

It never happened.

"That (shift in coverage), I'm afraid, has not been the case and is not the case," Koppel said. He lamented that broadcast networks, beholden to corporate interests, ratings and the bottom line, haven't deemed it necessary to have more of a global presence in places like India and China, two massively populated countries where an increased need for oil and gas and other products will have a major impact on the United States.

In short, the broadcast networks have learned nothing since the events of Sept. 11 changed the world - a mantra almost every network anchor used excessively in the days after the attacks on New York and the Pentagon.

It was odd to see these two old-school anchors embracing change that was mostly put upon them (though Koppel reiterated that he left ABC News on his own and wasn't pushed like Rather). "I think the old school is a very good school," Koppel said, via satellite from Cuba. The former "Nightline" host will be doing a series of reports titled "Koppel On Discovery" from various parts of the globe. His first big series airs Sept. 10 and naturally involves the anniversary (and implications) of Sept. 11.

Rather is hoping his new HDNet news team, supporting his weekly series called "Dan Rather Reports," will be in place and operational by September of October.

For his part, Koppel acknowledged that "the numbers will be vastly different" on Discovery as opposed to ABC News, but he felt better about being able to do stories "the networks can not or simply will not do." Koppel believes he and Rather will carve out fine niches for each other and that certainly underscored an emerging issue for viewers in search of smart, educational and thorough news: You need to hunt for it. For some time now the network newscasts haven't provided any kind of depth and only rarely do 24-hour cable channels rise up and meet the needs of breaking news (they feel much more at home talking an issue to death or touting the latest shocking murder, though in fairness CNN still has enough bureaus around the world to remain a player, despite the best efforts of Jonathan Klein to dumb down the whole operation).

But now the hunt has expanded to the nether regions of the dial. You've got "The NewsHour" on PBS, some good work from the BBC (found on BBC America), smaller entities like Link TV, Koppel on Discovery and Rather on HDNet. The onus for those seeking diverse storytelling and certainly more in-depth news is that they have to become more familiar with what's on the dial (a habit most older viewers have yet to adopt). Some of Koppel's upcoming reports and interviews will be available both on-demand and through the internet on broadband segments.

Koppel took the whole shift in stride, essentially saying this is what happens in evolution. "I know for a fact that the importance of the nightly news will never be the same asit was back in the days" of Cronkite, Huntley and Brinkley. Broadcast networks are "trying to appeal to younger viewers and what their audience WANTS to see," Koppel said. "We have an additional responsibility to give them what they need to know and what they ought to know."

Koppel touched on Rather's departure from CBS and didn't mince words. "CBS News did not act with the greatest heroism in supporting him," he said. He acknowleded that story that got Rather in trouble was flawed and that Rather was slow to respond out of too much loyalty to those around him. "Should that have cost him his career at CBS? I don't think so."

A day earlier, Rather passionately defended himself on that topic. Here's what he said:

"Yes, I have baggage. I have the baggage of being a graduate of the journalism school out of the University of South Vietnam. I have baggage from the Civil Rights movement in Birmingham. I have baggage from Watergate and covering, as the White House and lead correspondent for CBS News, on the only President in history who resigned. I have baggage from Afghanistan when the Soviets invaded it. I have baggage from two interviews with Saddam Hussein. You bet your life I've got a lot of baggage. And make no mistake, I'm proud of it. Yes, I'm biased. I have a very strong bias toward independent journalism, italicized, underlined, put in bold caps. Some - I'm not here to argue all - some of the problems I have and have had with this question of, quote, bias, is misunderstanding what my bias is. I'm committed to independent journalism and, yes, fiercely independent when necessary. And a lot of the times it's necessary. Not all, but some of what you describe as, quote, baggage, comes from people who have the following view, which they're entitled to have. This, God bless it, is America, and you can have it. But their view is, to not just Dan Rather, but to a lot of people in journalism, "Listen, Mr. or Ms., you report the news the way I want it reported, or I'm going to make you pay a price. I'm going to hang a sign around your neck that says you were a bomb-throwing Bolshevik or something. And I'm going to mount a sizable and very effective smear campaign on you."

Now, this doesn't only happen to me. If you've seen "Good Night, and Good Luck," you know what I'm talking about. And I should - I should be lucky enough to live to the day that I can walk in the same room with Ed Murrow, but I can't, and nobody before or since him could. But there's the model for things. If you're determined to be independent, you're going to take the heat. If you are determined to be fiercely independent when necessary and say, "No, sir" - or ma'am - "I'm not going to report the news the way you want it reported. I'm not going to be bullied or intimidated. I'm not going back up, back down, or back away to meet your partisan, political, or ideologic agenda. I'm going to play to my bias for independent news" - now, when you face the furnace, you have to take the heat, and some of the time, you're going to get burned. And I've got plenty of scars. I've made my mistakes, and some of my wounds are self-inflicted.

But the one thing, if you check the record - and I invite you to check the record - you will not find me cowing to pressure. Now, sometimes that can lead to making mistakes. Sometimes - and I've had people tell me, "Dan, this is not healthy for your career." Well, my answer to that is to hell with the career. I didn't get into journalism as a careerist. I'm not going to go out of journalism as a careerist. So yes, I'm biased about doing independent journalism. And you bet I'm prejudiced. I'm prejudiced toward reporters - and America is filled with reporters - who want to do the right thing. Increasingly it's difficult to do the right thing because of what I described before. You stand up and ask the tough question. You ask the toughest question you know how of the highest power you can find, and I guarantee you the second your backside hits the seat, there are going to be people coming after you. But you know, that goes with the territory. I wouldn't have it any other way. That news, real news, news at its best, is a wake-up call, not a lullaby. And I'm not in the lullaby business."

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/sfgate/detail?blogid=24&entry_id=7005#readmore

fredfa

07-12-06, 03:39 PM

The Business of TV
Louisiana Governor Vetoes State Franchise Reform

By John Eggerton Broadcasting & Cable 7/12/2006

Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco has vetoed a bill that would have created a statewide video franchising system to help telcos more readily compete with cable in the state, according to a staffer for the governor.

The bill would have allowed the telcos to get franchises without going through the process of negotiating with each locality, something the telcos have been seeking on a local and national scale.

Blanco vetoed the bill late Tuesday and had not issued her explanation at press time--she has 24 hours to do so. But she was said to be concerned about the impact on local revenues and constituent services.

She could also have been concerned about possible preemption by national franchise reform legislation. If such a national bill passes, it could render moot several state's revisions of their franchise rules.

http://www.broadcastingcable.com/index.asp?layout=articlePrint&articleID=CA6352091

fredfa

07-12-06, 03:54 PM

TV Critics Summer Press Tour
Dave in Hollywood: Day 3

By Dave Walker New Orleans Times-Picayune TV columnist

Clear plastic bubbles the size of beach balls floated like lilies on the surface of the swimming pool.

In temporary cabanas off to the side, there were stations for (clothes-on) massages, manicures and makeup makeovers.

The July TV Tour had paused briefly to visit the land of sucked-in cheeks and the kind of inner glow that only expertly applied cosmetics can provide. It was a Tuesday night party for the digital Style network, for which work a lot of people I wouldn’t know.

The cable portion of the TV Tour is where climbing niche networks like Style (and others, see below) strive to attract attention from reporters who might throw them a line or two of publicity, or at the very least occasionally journey to the outer rings of whatever digital tier they inhabit for a visit.

Accordingly, the setting for the party was lush, the al fresco décor sleek.
And it all left me kind of cold.

Even though a taste arbiter as esteemed as Melissa Rivers had passed positive judgment on my sad “look” as recently as 24 hours ago, the Style affair made me feel bloated and oafish, which is pretty close to default for me anyway.

But it had been kind of a weepy day, and something slightly less lush or sleek – say, a couple dozen chicken wings and a pitcher of beer – might’ve been more soothing.

Earlier, both Shannen Doherty and Dan Rather had cried during sequential sessions with critics intended to promote new ventures, validating in a matter of hours the entire travel budget for this three-week slog.

Doherty, ex of “Beverly Hills 90210” and “Charmed,” was here to promote “Breaking Up with Shannen Doherty,” which premieres next month on Oxygen.

An insane premise that threatens to be insanely compelling, “Breaking Up” inserts Daugherty into ruined relationships of all kinds to render them asunder.

The clip that preceded the session showed Doherty surrogate-dumping some dude who immediately hit on her by asking, “Are you ovulating?”

Lovers, roommates, bosses and workers – all will be neatly divisible by the avenging angel Shannen, who cried when someone asked her how she feels about all the negative publicity generated about her tempestuous personal and professional lives, most of which has been likely reported with high-definition accuracy.

“I'm not going to lie to you,” she lied. “It hurts a lot to read the stuff that I read about myself.

“And it hurts my mom” – who was actually in the room – “a lot.”

Then Dan Rather puddled up several times – I counted five, others four – while discussing his new gig with HDNet.

The former “CBS Evening News” anchor recently got the bum’s rush from CBS and has signed on with the high-definition network run by Mark Cuban, the dot-com billionaire otherwise best known as the habitually underdressed owner of the Dallas Mavericks.

The waterworks first opened for Rather when he summoned Edward R. Murrow as his personal touchstone for big-J broadcast journalism, which is what Rather and Cuban intend for the weekly “Dan Rather Reports,” slated for an October debut.

“I'll resort to a Texism here,” he said. “The biggest compliment you can pay a man in Texas is to say he's a hoss. And I'd like to think when it comes to reporting, yeah, I'm a hoss.

"You stand up and ask the tough question. You ask the toughest question you know how of the highest power you can find, and I guarantee you the second your backside hits the seat, there are going to be people coming after you. But you know, that goes with the territory. I wouldn't have it any other way.

“News, real news, news at its best, is a wake-up call, not a lullaby. And I'm not in the lullaby business.”

http://www.nola.com/newslogs/tpliving/

fredfa

07-12-06, 03:59 PM

TV Critics Summer Press Tour
HBO’s Plans for “Rome”

Good news and bad news for fans of the HBO/BBC miniseries ”Rome”.

The good news: HBO says the second season will begin on January 7th.

The bad news: The second season will be the last for “Rome”.

More details coming up.

fredfa

07-12-06, 04:08 PM

TV Critics Summer Press Tour
Two and Out for 'Rome'

HBO show begins final season January 7th
July 12 2006

(Zap2It.com---)LOS ANGELES -- The fall of "Rome" will happen sometime in early 2007.

HBO announced Wednesday that the second season of its epic series set in the time of Caesar will debut Jan. 7. At the same time, the network says next season will be the last for the show.

Filming on season two is currently taking place at the Cinecitta Studios in Rome and will wrap in October. Once that's done, though, the show -- a co-production with the BBC -- will call it quits.

"Rome" was one of the most expensive projects in TV history -- reports pegged the cost of the first season at somewhere around $100 million. Its ratings on HBO were decent (most episodes drew between 2 million and 3 million viewers) but not at the level of "The Sopranos" or, say, "Six Feet Under" in its prime. Last week it was nominated for eight Emmys.

The second season will pick up following the death of Julius Caesar. Most of the principal cast is scheduled to return, including Kevin McKidd, Polly Walker, Ray Stevenson, James Purefoy, Lindsay Duncan and Kerry Condon.

The January premiere date will likely pair the show with the final episodes of "The Sopranos," which are also slated to begin shortly after the new year.

http://www.zap2it.com/tv/news/zap-romeendingafterseason2,0,2626590,print.story?coll=zap-tv-headlines

keenan

07-12-06, 04:10 PM

Doesn't surprise me at all.

fredfa

07-12-06, 04:12 PM

I think I was more surprised they brought it back at all.

The numbers started off OK, then steadily headed south.

Maybe had many more people had access to HD it might have made more of a splash.

fredfa

07-12-06, 04:19 PM

TV Notebook
Spending 'Office' time on the Net

Sitcom Webisodes keep fans tuned in during summer

By Verne Gay Newsday Staff Writer July 13, 2006

In the little world of "The Office," these three characters often exhibit the effervescence of week-old soda and the vitality of growing grass. Not that they are dull, per se, but just that they are preoccupied with the finances of a particular paper company branch based in Scranton, Pa.

OK, never mind: They're dull - but also quirky, odd and often funny.

So, really, who better to base a 10-"Webisode" summer series on than Dunder Mifflin accountants Angela (Angela Kinsey), Kevin (Brian Baumgartner) and Oscar (Oscar Nuñez)? Starting today, they begin to grapple with their own personal Enron scandal, when $3,000 goes missing from the D-M safe - enough money to fund the office's paper clip supply well into the next century. It's a big scandal and Angela, Kevin and Oscar are on the case. Who done it? That's the storyline of this "Office" Webisode series starting today on NBC.com, as they interview the usual suspects - other office mates.

Don't worry, you're not too far behind the curve on this one. Webisodes - free TV-like series that run on the Web - have been around forever, at least in Internet years (go to www.webisodes.org for a brief sampling).

But the commercial networks are just discovering them. Many "Office" fans caught up with this show last season by downloading episodes on iTunes, so NBC knows there's an audience of tech sophisticates out there who would be likely "Webisode" viewers. The network also likes the idea because it keeps the show on viewers' minds during the dead months in TV land.

If you prefer to watch "The Office" the old-fashioned way, reruns air Thursday nights. Tonight, there's another chance to see the show's pilot episode at 8:30.

So how very amusing and ironic that one of network TV's inaugural flings with the Webisode will be focused on that dynamic trio of Angela, Kevin and Oscar. (Other cast members will appear, including Rainn Wilson's Dwight Schrute, but not Steve Carell, who plays boss Michael Scott.)

One of the Webisode's writers is Paul Lieberstein, an "Office" co-executive producer, who also plays Toby, the human resources punching bag whose essential response to anything Scott says or does is a look of utter bafflement.

He explains, "We thought we had several different worlds going on" in the TV version of "The Office." "There's the very centric one [involving] the receptionist ... and there's a whole other office going on in accounting. Our actors would sit there in character and play out these little vignettes that we didn't use. But we did think theirs was a very interesting world."

Hence, their closeup on the Web. While each two-minute Webisode will be original, the idea comes directly out of the regular series: Watch closely the accounting triumvirate in each episode and you will notice that they are urgently engaged in some semicomplex task, and not just counting sheets of paper. The 10-part Webisode arc will explore exactly what they are doing.

So what's the future of "The Office" Webisode?

"We're putting a lot of energy into this," Lieberstein says, "and will try to do more. I don't know when we'll be shooting them, [but] there will definitely be series in the spring."

Here's an idea - a Webisode on Dwight's love life. On second thought, even the World Wide Web isn't ready for that one, ever.

http://www.newsday.com/entertainment/tv/ny-ettel4814168jul13,0,5746770,print.story?coll=ny-television-headlines

keenan

07-12-06, 04:19 PM

I think I was more surprised they brought it back at all.

The numbers started off OK, then steadily headed south.

Maybe had many more people had access to HD it might have made more of a splash.
Yes, actually I was too. I think part of the problem with Rome was that it's a story that's been told a gazillion times and anyone with any sort of history education knows the story. Deadwood on the other hand, while it's based on history, is about a smaller part of history, and the fact that it's inherently "American" history, something I think Americans are more interested in over ancient world history-who doesn't like shows about the American west..? :)

Too bad they couldn't have just blown off the second season of Rome and got a fourth season out of Deadwood, and saved a considerable amount of money to boot.

fredfa

07-12-06, 04:31 PM

If you are depressed over the cancellation of “Rome”, here is programming news to cheer you up:

TV Notebook
Paris, Nicole May Face Off In The Simple Life 5

By Carrie Borzillo-Vrenna People.com July 12, 2006

E! Entertainment Television has ordered a fifth season of the reality series The Simple Life, E! Networks president and CEO Ted Harbert announced at the Television Critics Association press tour on Tuesday.

But this time, stars and best friends-turned-archenemies Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie might not be filmed separately, as they were for season four, The Simple Life: 'Til Death Do Us Part.

"I don't have any control over whether they'll be friends by next season," Harbert tells PEOPLE. "We need to talk about the best thing to do for the show, and I'm not sure shooting them separately again is the best thing for the show."

On the most recent season, Hilton, 25, and Richie, 24, were shown trying to run the households of regular families – but the two did not share any screen time.

Still, the show was a hit for E! – its June 6 premiere drew triple the cable net's average viewers. "We pulled off a difficult thing this year, but frankly we got away with it," says Harbert. "We can't do that again."

And hopefully, when the feuding heiresses are forced to interact, sparks will fly, says an insider. "They want to give the viewers what they want, and what the viewers want is to see Paris and Nicole together, fighting," says the source.

http://people.aol.com/people/article/0,26334,1213143,00.html

keenan

07-12-06, 04:33 PM

If you are depressed over the cancellation of “Rome”, here is programming news to cheer you up:

TV Notebook
Paris, Nicole May Face Off In The Simple Life 5

:D :D

Fred's got his funny hat on today... :p

fredfa

07-12-06, 04:40 PM

TV Notebook
Fox cuts the ‘24′ day short

By Gail Pennington St. Louis Post-Dispatch Television Critic 07/12/2006

People trying to watch “24″ in reruns felt cheated last Friday when Fox dropped an hour. But that was nothing compared with what comes next. The network promised repeats of the full, 24-hour “Day Five,” but viewership has been low, so now the reruns are being cut short. Way short.

According to Fox, instead of picking up at 5 p.m., this Friday will skip all the way to 3 a.m., with the run of repeats ending the next week, July 21. So the last four hours will air, but not the middle 10 hours. Fox will run movies instead.

This is just another example of a network telling viewers they don’t matter, go watch something else. It’s like ending a reality show before the conclusion, or pulling a serialized drama in the middle of the run, as Fox did with “Reunion.” And the networks wonder why viewer loyalty isn’t there anymore.

Still want to see the whole “Day Five”? Buy it on itunes.com or myspace.com, Fox suggests.

http://www.stltoday.com/blogs/entertainment-tube-talk/2006/07/fox-cuts-the-24-day-short/#more-5139

fredfa

07-12-06, 05:36 PM

TV Critics Summer Press Tour
“Rescue Me” renewed

Rob Owen Pittsburgh Post-Gazette TV Editor (and president of the Television Critics Association) reports that FX has renewed its Denis Leary drama "Rescue Me" for a fourth season of 13 episodes to air next year.

fredfa

07-12-06, 05:43 PM

Weekly Cable Nielsen Report
USA Tops Weekly Cable Ratings for 3rd Consecutive Week

By Anthony Crupi MediaWeek.com JULY 12, 2006 -

USA Network once again finished out the week as basic cable’s most-watched network, cruising to its third consecutive win on the strength of its WWE Raw franchise and the debut of its new original series, Psych.

The network averaged 2.97 million total viewers and a 2.3 household rating in prime for the week ending July 9, according to Nielsen Media Research, and was tops among all key demos, including adults 18-34 (0.6 million), 18-49 (1.3 million), and 25-54 (1.4 million). USA got a big lift from the premiere of Psych, a new one-hour series about an almost supernaturally observant detective (James Roday) which lured 6.1 million total viewers Friday night, making it the highest rated new scripted series for the year in basic cable prime time. Psych also drew the year’s best numbers for a new scripted series in the 18-49 demo (2.5 million) and 25-54 (2.5 million).

All told, USA boasted five of the top 10 most-watched programs last week, as Raw, the season five premiere of Monk and Friday’s episode of House all delivered between four and 5 million total viewers.

TNT came in second on the week thanks to yet another strong performance from its original drama series, The Closer, which delivered 5.3 million total viewers Monday night, good enough for fourth place. TNT averaged 2.33 million total viewers and a 2.0 household rating and boasted the number one rated program with its Sunday telecast of the NASCAR Nextel Cup race, which drew 6.77 million total viewers and 3.4 million adults 25-54.

In its fourth week, TNT’s Tom Everett Scott drama Saved began to see some erosion of its share of The Closer’s lead-in, drawing 2.78 million total viewers Monday night at 10:00 p.m., versus 3.46 million the week before and the 5.1 million it delivered in its debut last month.

TNT sibling TBS took third place (1.59 million/1.3 HH) on the week, while Lifetime came in fourth (1.55 million/1.4 HH) and Hallmark Channel placed fifth (1.38 million/1.4 HH). Non-ad-supported Disney Channel was the nominal second-place finisher in prime, averaging 2.58 million total viewers and a 2.2 household rating, thanks to some strong showings by its Friday and Saturday night presentations of the Pixar film Monsters Inc. and a number of its original series.

Among the week’s most-watched telecasts was ESPN’s coverage of the World Cup semifinal between Italy and Germany, which averaged 5.85 million total viewers on the afternoon of Independence Day, making it the third highest-rated program.

http://www.mediaweek.com/mw/news/recent_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1002837883

fredfa

07-12-06, 06:04 PM

TV Critics Summer Press Tour
Harbert’s Not-So-Simple Life

By James Hibberd of broadcasting&cable.com July 12th, 2006

E! Networks President and CEO Ted Harbert is trying to get Paris and Nicole back together. For the recently announced fifth season of “Simple Life,” Harbert is adamant the feuding duo share camera time together. The fourth season kept the socialites separate in all but the first and final scenes of the season to accommodate the girls’ public falling out.
“I want them on screen together, definitely,” he said.

Harbert was sitting in an empty ballroom after his TCA panel. He recently broke two ribs falling in the bathroom and was a bit stiff. Still, the panel went well and he was in high spirits. And Harbert in high spirits is an inherently likeable guy – witty and self-effacing. You genuinely want him to turn the network around. E! ratings are on the rise – up 12 percent among 18 to 49 last quarter — but the channel is still searching for a breakout hit original show.

As an example of recent success, Harbert pointed to “E! News,” how the show’s ratings are up and the median age has dropped since Ryan Seacrest joined as co-anchor.

“’E News’ average age is 31 years old,” he said. “’Entertainment Tonight’ is 52. ‘Access’ and ‘Extra’ are 48. We’re 17 years younger than our closest competitor.”

Recently, Harbert has been meeting with talent agencies to request pitches for scripted programming.

“I want ‘Entourage,’ I want ‘Nip/Tuck,’” he said. “What I want is good, what I want is quality. If the ratings are great, great. More important is that I want a show that is the favorite for some.”

Harbert sighs.

“I was having breakfast with my 80-year-old mother and she asked me what’s my long-term vision for E!”

She did not.

“Swear to God.”

What did you tell her?

“That I’m gonna put on some hit shows and keep my job.”

http://blogs.tvweek.com/

fredfa

07-12-06, 06:53 PM

TV Critics Summer Press Tour
Death March With Cocktails

HBO Updates
By Tim Goodman San Francisco Chronicle in his TV blog “The Bastard Machine”

"The Sopranos" is not, repeat not, coming back in January. James Gandolfini apparently had knee surgery and that set things back and everybody at HBO took a look at January and how crowded it was going to be and...how about March.

That's more likely. Don't act like you're surprised.

"It definitely won't be January," Albrecht said. "Most likely it will be in March."

Albrecht also announced that the second - and final - season of "Rome" will kick off in January. Rome had originally been meant as a mini-series and then was left open to continue as a series. At this moment, it's two and done, though Albrecht reiterated that HBO has few hard and fast rules and the channel could change its mind at any time.

"Deadwood" fans know all about that.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/sfgate/indexn?blogid=24

fredfa

07-12-06, 07:14 PM

TV Critics Summer Press Tour
HBO series updates

By Rob Owen Pittsburgh Post-Gazette TV Editor (and Television Critics Association President) in his blog “Tuned In”

The last batch of episodes of "The Sopranos" has been delayed until later in 2007 (probably March) due to James Gandolfini's recent knee surgery (and likely the last-minute negotiations with returning cast members that were finally settled last week).

When asked if Tony Soprano would live through the final eight episodes, HBO chairman Chris Albrecht replied, "Are you high? I might as well shoot myself in the head if I tell you that."

Albrecht did say he knows the storyline for the final eight episodes. "I'm absolutely, positively certain that when the curtain comes down on 'The Sopranos,' people will say it's one of the great things of all time."

The second and FINAL season of "Rome," HBO's uber-expensive period drama, will debut in January 2007. Albrecht said the show wasn't intended to run just two years, but because of the cost, it likely won't continue beyond its second season.

Albrecht said he's hopeful a new season of "Curb Your Enthusiasm" will air in 2007. "We thought we'd have something to talk to you about today," he said. "[We're] Pretty close."

With a bare series cupboard this fall, save for "The Wire" (back at 10 p.m. Sept. 10), HBO will shift its movie premieres from Saturday to 8 p.m. Sunday until early 2007.

On the "Deadwood" cancellation debacle, Albrecht said he wishes the phone call he had with series creator David Milch could happen all over again. After hearing the pitch for Milch's new series, Albrecht suggested ending "Deadwood" after another six episodes to get on with Milch's new show, but Milch was content to move on after the current season. Albrecht said he told Milch to think about it over the weekend (Albrecht was happy to consider eight episodes), but Milch shared the conversation with actors, who talked to the reporters.

"We were having a privileged conversation with one of our producers and it got out to the press," Albrecht said.

Despite the uproar from fans, Albrecht said the number of e-mails he received about the "Deadwood" cancellation were a fraction of those he received after canceling "Carnivale."

It seems likely that Swissvale native Bill Schmidt's vampire drama "Suckers" is dead because Albrecht said HBO will "definitely" make the pilot for "True Blood," the vampire drama from Alan Ball ("Six Feet Under").

"After all those show business stories, we'll see about doing another vampire show," Albrecht said, referring to press coverage of HBO's spate of inside show business series a year ago ("Entourage," "The Comeback," "Unscripted").

Meanwhile, Schmidt's proposed HBO series "Ollie," about a cop in Pittsburgh's Hill District circa the 1970s, remains in development.

"He just delivered the script and I haven't had time to read it," said HBO Entertainment president Carolyn Strauss. She offered no time table for when HBO might make a decision on "Ollie."

http://www.post-gazette.com/tv/tunedin/

fredfa

07-12-06, 07:23 PM

TV Critics Summer Press Tour
Death March With Cocktails

HBO Update
By Tim Goodman San Francisco Chronicle in his TV blog “The Bastard Machine”

As for "Deadwood," Albrecht's version of events was murky and nebulous, but he basically said that he had a conversation with Milch after getting so excited about "John From Cincinnati" and expressed a desire to start working on it immediately, even if that ultimately meant a shortened "Deadwood" season - whether it be six or eight episodes. He asked Milch to think about it, but somehow through a third party the news got into the press and thinks went sideways.

Frankly, it didn't seem real clear and maybe I'll get a better answer from him between sessions. (HBO is making a movie about the Thai tsunami and that's the session currently onstage. The clips looked incredible and moving, as an early peak)

Albrecht said that the network was extremely impressed with the upcoming season of "The Wire" and will shift some movies to Sundays as a lead in and, in a twist, premiere episodes of "The Wire" on-demand up to six days prior to their on-air date, which will allow the heavily male audience to find it more easily. "It's as good as anything this network has ever done."

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/sfgate/indexn?blogid=24

keenan

07-12-06, 07:39 PM

Albrecht changes his tune like the wind blows, the guy is just too much. I get the impression he suffers from a form of ADD. He wants to jump all over Milch's new idea for a show before he's completed his current project. He mentions that he got more emails over "Carnivale's" cancellation than he did over "Deadwood". First off, Deadwood is still on the air so most folks don't have it in their face yet that "Deadwood" is gone, and secondly, he also doesn't mention that those emails, for both shows, evidently have no value to him, as both shows are still gone. Why bother emailing if it doesn't matter....I really don't like this guy...if you couldn't tell already, and I think he's turned the premiere TV network into just another TV channel....

fredfa

07-12-06, 07:39 PM

TV Critics Summer Press Tour
Upcoming TV season is promising - or not

By Rick Kushman Sacramento Bee TV Columnist July 12, 2006

PASADENA -- We seem to say this every year now: The new fall season looks promising, and that tells you something about the state of television.

For all the regular -- and knee-jerk -- griping about TV, the truth is, there's a lot of good television out there and, at least in terms of major-network, prime-time programming, a lot less schlock. Well, less schlock if you don't count the magazine shows that pretend to be news, such as "Dateline NBC" and ABC's "20/20."

Anyway, after having watched the fall season pilots for the new shows one after another, I have good news: The headaches finally have stopped. Really, don't do that if you don't have to.

The other good news is that there's lots of quality stuff coming. Sorting it all out might be tough -- a lot of plot lines are going to sound like other plot lines, even after you've watched the shows. But at least those shows are well made.

Plus, there's no automatic awful show, no hideous train wreck that would make you wonder how those producers can get jobs. This doesn't mean some of the new series won't get awful pretty quickly or that any viewers will like most of what's coming, but I am saying there are some promising signs.

There should be something for almost everyone next fall, and there are a half-dozen truly intriguing series coming, plus another dozen or so that could be really good, too.

There are caveats here, because life always has caveats, and because anything from Hollywood should always come with a couple of warnings.

First, just because the pilots look good doesn't mean the series won't tank as the episodes trudge on. (An example from this past season: ABC's "Commander in Chief." Zippy pilot. One of the best last year. Then it slowly and steadily went down the drain.)

Next, one reason there are no blatantly awful shows is that there are only 10 new half-hour comedies, and comedies are where you find most of your hideous train wrecks. Still, half of the 10 have the potential to slide off the tracks.

Finally, and this is the big question for the coming season, more than half the new shows -- including even some comedies -- are serials. Either out-and-out continuing stories like "Lost" or "24," or series with a running story line that will progress through the season.

You'll see, for instance, a show that chronicles a pregnancy (ABC's "Notes From the Underbelly"), a single wedding day (ABC's "Big Day") and the aftermath of a school reunion (CBS' "The Class.") And those are the comedies.

Among the dramas, serials follow a kidnapping (NBC's "Kidnapped"), a disappearance (Fox's "Vanished"), a family on the run (The CW's "Runaway"), a possible nuclear holocaust (CBS' "Jericho"), thieves planning a caper (CBS' drama "Smith," not to be confused with ABC's comedy "The Knights of Prosperity"), various groups of strangers with connected lives (ABC's "Six Degrees" and "The Nine," and NBC's "Heroes"), and a high school football season in a Texas town ("Friday Night Lights").

Almost all of those are good shows -- some better than others -- but that is a truckload of television to follow closely enough to track the stories, particularly since a lot of viewers already have their TV plates filled with current serials such as "Lost," "Grey's Anatomy," "24" and "Prison Break."

And do most people in TV think they've got an overload of serials? That will be one of the questions television critics from around the United States and Canada ask over the next couple weeks as we meet here with the collected TV industry to talk about the new season.

This is called the TV Critics Association press tour, and it brings together television executives, producers and stars, and TV critics for a useful but odd dance. It's nearly three weeks of news conferences, interviews and parties -- all day, every day -- during which the professionals who make television and the professionals who watch everything that's made probe and spin and sometimes even tell the truth.

What comes out of this is rarely actual news, but it helps, big-time, with the long view. Network, cable and PBS people get a chance to explain themselves and their shows, and critics get to see the opposition up close.

Sometimes just listening to them talk about their programming, or about anything, gives us a read on how much heft these people have, and on how well they've thought out their stories.

Two summers ago, for instance, J.J. Abrams and Damon Lindelof chatted tirelessly about the web of stories they were building for "Lost," which helped convince a lot of critics that the show was for real. We've also seen producers say they have no clue where their shows will go beyond the first few weeks, and it's often the case that those shows don't go anywhere except to the scrapheap.

So over the coming weeks, I'll try to keep you posted on what I learn. Provided, of course, I learn anything. If not, there's always gossip. I can tell you this already: Most of the critics -- professional TV watchers that they are -- can't keep the new shows straight, either.

http://www.sacbee.com/content/lifestyle/columns/kushman/v-print/story/14276946p-15086187c.html

fredfa

07-12-06, 07:45 PM

TV Critics Summer Press Tour
Deadwood and Live Sopranos

BroadcastingCable.com Jul 12 2006 |

HBO Chairman Chris Albrecht has been getting an inboxful of e-mail from viewers about Deadwood’s impending demise (after a lot of back-and-forth, HBO said last month it would end the show with two, two-hour specials rather than a full season).

"My favorite was, ‘may you never take an easy dump again,’" he told TV critics gathered in L.A.. "I sent that to a few friends," he added, "but being Italian, I knew that would never be a problem again.”

Albrecht said the reaction was only a fraction of what he got about Carnivale, HBO's freak show show it canned in 2005 after more awards than buzz. He noted that there’s often a "disconnect" between a show’s quality and the audience’s feel for it.

Albrecht, always a favorite of the critics, had no comment ("I don’t know what to say") about The Sopranos lack of Emmy nominations. The show, he says, will more likely be back in March, rather than January, since "Jimmy" had to have some unexpected knee surgery, that's James (Tony Soprano) Gandolfini.

Having seen what happens in the series’ final episodes, Albrecht says he has faith that "absolutely when the curtain comes down on The Sopranos, the vast, vast, vast majority of people will be able to say this was one of the great things of all time."

HBO is "pretty close" to commmiting to another season of Curb Your Enthusiasm. Albrecht says the network hoped to be able to announce the new season at TCA, but things aren’t quite ready yet.

HBO has been in talks with Larry David for months on the new season after the comic came to them and said he’d gotten inspired with new material.

Even that took months, said Albrecht, noting that, having known David for more than 30 years, "I know you don’t push him. He needed to be inspired. [David] said, ‘I want to sit around to see if something comes up and there are stories I want to tell.’" Odds are, Albrecht says, the new season – if there is one – will be the last.

As to the survival of individual Sopranos, Albrecht declined to say whether Tony lives through the final season. "Is anybody else interested in that?," he asked, in mock disbelief that she had asked the question. "I don’t want to bore you. What are you, high? I’m going to have to shoot myself in the head if I tell you that."

Albrecht says he does know what Sopranos creator David Chase is planning to do, but aded that Chase could "change things up" on HBO, too.

"I can just tell you that, in my opinion, it will not disappoint." The critic thanked Albrecht for the insight and clarified that "for the record," she wasn’t high.

http://www.broadcastingcable.com/blog/1380000138/post/510003851.html

keenan

07-12-06, 07:52 PM

TV Critics Summer Press Tour
Deadwood and Live Sopranos

BroadcastingCable.com Jul 12 2006 |

Albrecht said the reaction was only a fraction of what he got about Carnivale, HBO's freak show show it canned in 2005 after more awards than buzz. He noted that there’s often a "disconnect" between a show’s quality and the audience’s feel for it.

IMO, the "disconnect" is between what HBO used to be and what it's becoming, just another listing in the TV Guide...

fredfa

07-12-06, 07:53 PM

TV Critics Summer Press Tour
The Sopranos return! In, uh, March

By Bill Goodykoontz Arizona Republic TV Critic in his Critic’s Tour blog 07/12/2006

PASADENA, Calif. -- Remember how The Sopranos was going to come back for eight final episodes in January?

Not gonna happen.

James Gandolfini's knee surgery, combined with the prospect of bringing the show back during the middle of the NFL playoffs, has pushed the beginning of the end back.

"It definitely won't be January," Chris Albrecht, HBO's CEO and chairman, said. "Most likely it'll be the beginning of March.

"And I know you all hope people die."

Well, yeah, sort of. The Sopranos got a lot of grief at the end of its last run for going out with more of a whimper than a bang. I didn't necessarily agree -- oh, I guess I could have gone for a major character getting whacked, but I got over it -- but there was a clear sentiment that not enough happened, that the season, despite Tony getting shot in the first episode, was lackluster.

Albrecht, as you might imagine, wasn't one of the disappointed.

"I thought the show was great.... David Chase is not interested in meeting what expectations other people might have for the show," he said.

By those lights, he certainly succeeded.

Who knows what'll happen at the end of the show? Well, Albrecht, for one, but, no surprise, he's not saying. That didn't stop a critic from asking whether Tony lives or dies.

"Are you HIGH?" Albrecht asked. "I might as well shoot myself in the head."

That's a hint! He's hiding clues! Oh, forget it.

Whatever the case, if the show begins in March, that'll mean a year between seasons. Which is, of course, shorter than the 18 months between the last two, but is still a long time, and risky coming off a season that a lot of viewers didn't like. How much patience do even the biggest Sopranos fans have? We'll find out.

At least they're giving us something meaty to chew on. Rome returns for its second season in January. Long wait for that, as well, but it wasn't, as they say, built in a day.

http://www.azcentral.com/blogs/index.php?blog=5&blogtype=Entertainment

fredfa

07-12-06, 07:57 PM

IMO, the "disconnect" is between what HBO used to be and what it's becoming, just another listing in the TV Guide...

I think I would miss FX or TNT far more than HBO if I had to lose one of them.

keenan

07-12-06, 08:01 PM

Same here.

fredfa

07-12-06, 09:33 PM

TV Critics Summer Press Tour
HBO To Sack Rome After Season 2

By Anne Becker Broadcasting & Cable 7/12/2006

HBO is putting the kibosh on Rome after season two, considering a spring debut for The Sopranos’ final season and toying with its fall programming schedule by moving theatrical premieres from Saturday to Sunday, and premiering the entire new seasons of its fall lineup The Wire and Def Comedy on HBO On Demand six days before their HBO debut.

Rome, the epic drama HBO produced with the BBC, will not return on the network after its second season, which will debut Jan. 7.

The decision, according to HBO Chairman/CEO Chris Albrecht had to do with the fact that the notoriously expensive show was developed as a miniseries under a two-year contract with the BBC and it would have been difficult for the BBC to stay on for longer.

“This was a big bite for them,” he said. After Rome runs its course, HBO is eyeing early March as the tentative premiere date for the final eight episodes of The Sopranos, which will run into new Entourage episodes, followed by the summer return of Big Love.

Being considered for the second half of 2007 are John From Cincinnati, the new hour-long surfing drama being developed by Deadwood creator David Milch, and Sex Life, the hour drama from Roseanne executive producer Cynthia Mort about three couples who share a sex therapist.

In a fall scheduling shuffle, HBO will move its premieres of theatrical movies from Saturday to Sunday nights, along with new episodes of The Wire at 10 p.m.

The Sunday-night movie strategy, which will not continue after the fall, does not signify HBO’s giving up on Sunday night as its main night for original programming, according to Albrecht, who said the move “just seemed like a good thing to try for the fall.”

HBO has struggled with its more recent originals to find a hit that generates the kind of ratings it saw with The Sopranos and Sex and the City. Over four episodes, the network’s current major summer originals Entourage and Deadwood, have averaged 2.4 million and 2.1 million viewers, respectively, far fewer than the 8.9 million who watched the sixth season of The Sopranos.

HBO will premiere each episode of The Wire’s new season, along with those of the new season of Russell Simmons’ Def Comedy Jam, on HBO On Demand (HOD) six days before their network debut, the first move of its kind for the network.

Both will be available on HOD on Sept. 4. The Wire’s fourth season debuts Sept. 10 and Jam returns Sept. 11.

http://www.broadcastingcable.com/index.asp?layout=articlePrint&articleID=CA6352216

fredfa

07-12-06, 09:38 PM

TV Critics Summer Press Tour
And Now, Chris Albrecht

By James Hibberd of broadcasting&cable.com in the “Critical Eye” blog

HBO Chairman and CEO Chris Albrecht, in his gray suit, placed his hands on either side of the podium for his executive session Wednesday afternoon.

The Q&A that followed was, as always, an invaluable opportunity for critics to put the ultra confident (some say arrogant) and prickly (some say abrasive) leader of their favorite network on the spot about the fates of their favorite shows.

And, as always, Albrecht’s candor resulted in several newsworthy revelations. Since there’s so much ground to cover, and since nobody can portray Chris Albrecht better than Chris Albrecht, let’s turn it over to him:

• On the fate of the long absent “Curb Your Enthusiasm”: “We thought we would have [a renewal announcement] today, but hopefully there will be a new season of ‘Curb’ in 07.”

• On the lack of “Sopranos” Emmys nominations: “I don’t know what to say.”

• On fan reaction to the “Deadwood” cancellation: “My favorite [email] was ‘May you never take an easy dump again.” He then elaborated: “The amount of email was a fraction of what I got for ‘Carnival(e)’ … there’s a disconnect between what’s written about a show … and what the viewers feel for it.”

• On being interrupted while speaking by a ringing cell phone: “What is that ringing? Do we know? Or is that just in my head?”

• On the much publicized fight with David Milch regarding the fate of Mr. Milch’s “Deadwood,” a fight which began with Mr. Albrecht’s offer for six final episodes, then went public with a battle in the press, then the parties settled on a pair of two-hour movies: “I think we’d all like to revisit a phone call I had with David Milch … I said let’s do six and start the new show [Milch’s “surf-noir” drama “John From Cincinnati”] earlier, because there’s a finite amount of time for him to do all the work he does on the show. David said, ‘[Six] is enough, let’s move on.’ Then he called some actors. Then [the actors] called the press. Then the story got out of hand … I know some people think 12 hours is the exact number to end the show exactly correctly but …”

• On whether he believes he handled the conflict with Mr. Milch correctly. “I thought I handled it great. I think David Milch wishes he had that afternoon back [when I offered the six episodes].”

• On the next year’s final eight episodes of “The Sopranos:” “I have seen the storylines for the final eight. I am absolutely positively certain when the curtain comes down on ‘The Sopranos’ that the vast, vast, vast majority of people will say it’s one of the great things of all time.”

• On an unfortunate critic who asked if Tony Soprano will be killed in the finale: “Are you high? I might as well shoot myself in the head if I told you … I happen to know, and I’m not going to tell you.”

• On “Rome,” which Mr. Albrecht now says will conclude after the upcoming second season: “It’s an enormous undertaking to do a regular series 6,000 miles away. People enjoy talking about the price … but it’s one of the most cost-effective shows we do. The show sells incredibly well overseas.”

• On the Tom Hanks’ John Adams mini-series in development: ”We just had a big, big meeting .. I’m hoping we will announce production soon.”

• On the two vampire projects his network has in development (“True Blood,” a series by “Six Feet Under” creator Alan Ball, and another project that even HBO executives in the back of the TCA auditorium are unsure of the title and details). “’True Blood’ we will definitely do … I don’t know if we can do two vampire projects. Then all you guys will write ‘All HBO does is vampire shows now.’”

• On HBO’s new media plans, or lack of them: “You don’t see studios throwing movies up on iPod and you won’t see HBO throwing shows up on iPod. For our business model, it’s more like a theatrical studio. We need to preserve that subscription and DVD window.”

http://blogs.tvweek.com/

RemyM

07-12-06, 09:42 PM

fredfa

07-12-06, 10:08 PM

keenan

07-12-06, 10:19 PM

TV Critics Summer Press Tour
And Now, Chris Albrecht

By James Hibberd of broadcasting&cable.com in the “Critical Eye” blog

The Q&A that followed was, as always, an invaluable opportunity for critics to put the ultra confident (some say arrogant) and prickly (some say abrasive) leader of their favorite network on the spot about the fates of their favorite shows.

• On whether he believes he handled the conflict with Mr. Milch correctly. “I thought I handled it great. I think David Milch wishes he had that afternoon back [when I offered the six episodes].”

Arrogant, nah, not Albrecht. I guess he's never going to admit that because he got ants in his pants about a new Milch project that it was his idea to truncate the running of "Deadwood".

fredfa

07-12-06, 10:29 PM

Speaking of arrogant, it seems to me in reading them carefully, that a goodly percentage of these TV writers fall into that category.

The glee they took yesterday in getting Shannon Dohertyt to cry; the imperious attitide they showed Rather when he shed a tear or two, their haughty attitude toward Danny Bonaduce and Melissa Rivers and on and on.

Rob Owens says it is against TCA rules for any of these sessions to be on camera. That is a wise decision, it seems to me. Many of these writers would come off as insufferably smarmy and elitist -- at least judging by what so many of them write.

(By the way, Owens emailed me last week and wouldn't give me a TCA schedule, saying the TCA doesn't release it to the public. Fair enough.)

And believe me, even though I post a lot of them, I probably don't post at least much by writers I think just don't have a clue about either
a) how television works or
b) how to write a decent sentence or
c) what TV viewers want to read about.

As to that last category, I don't think we much care about a TV writer's problems travelling to a relatively posh hotel in Pasadena CA.

I don't think we much care that some of them are apparently thrilleed to be in the elevator with celebrities.

And I personally don't care to have them act like some superior beings to creative people who are allowing themselves to be insulted by these writers.

I hasten to note that in general, the writers I post I respect. And most of them, most of the time, don't fall into the arrogant a--hole category.

End of rant.

dturturro

07-12-06, 10:34 PM

We'll have to agree to disagree on this one, RemyM.

To me it jumped the shark with Leary's knowing smirk after the rape.

But I know others feel differently. That why we have lots of channels and almost infinite choices.

I don't see anyone protesting about the awful way Tommy's ex is using him for sex! :rolleyes:

keenan

07-12-06, 10:35 PM

Yes, well said, my eyes glazed over when reading Goodman about his accommodations and such, like I really give crap, and he's one of my favorites.

fredfa

07-12-06, 10:43 PM

TV Critics Summer Press Tour
Death March With Cocktails

A Heartwarming Tale of Excessive Drinking: The Hallmark Channel Party

By Tim Goodman San Francisco Chronicle in his TV blog “The Bastard Machine”

Now there's a headline you don't see too often.

And I'm kidding. While it's true that I do need a drink right now (perhaps "want" is a better word), it's very unlikely that I will end up face down in the pool. I wouldn't want to rule it out, but it's currently not in the plans.

I'm already late to the damn party. Morgan Freeman is there and do you know why? BECAUSE THERE ARE PENGUINS IN THE HOTEL. No kidding. In fact, I swear to you that they are just across the hall. Unless I'm bleary-eyed, the Hallmark Channel party is promising the penguins from "March of the Penguins," though it appears they're really from Sea World. There is going to be a "blue" carpet. This just one night after the black carpet. Or was that two nights ago. Uh-oh.

Now, I can't recall ever going to a Hallmark Channel party on purpose, but I've been playing A LOT of American Music Club here in my hotel room and, as Mark Eitzel said, "I've got a thirst that would make the ocean proud." And this is the press tour, after all, and we are definitely a drinking crowd. Thanks to Eitzel (and my iPod and Bose Docking Station that I carted down here) for getting me this far.

Expected at the party: Doris Roberts (oh, lord), Dick Van Dyke, Richard Thomas, Naomi Judd, Kellie Martin, Marion Ross, Steve Guttenberg, Lea Thompson, Michael Landon, Jr., John Larroquette, Crystal Bernard and Barbara Niven.

Oh for Christ's sake. Can't anybody throw a party in this town? Maybe Freeman will help me feed Jell-O shots to the penguins. Come on, last night we had Playboy Bunnies and tonight we have Marion Ross?

If you are in the Los Angeles area and you're reading this, come get me.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/sfgate/indexn?blogid=24

• • • • • • • • • • •

Note: I am almost tempted to get the car keys and go rescue Tim. Almost.

fredfa

07-12-06, 10:53 PM

TV Critics Summer Press Tour
HBO scrimmage: Movies move to Sunday

By Andrew Wallenstein The Hollywood Reporter July 13, 2006

PASADENA -- HBO is rewriting its programming playbook in the face of NFL competition in the fall.

The premium cable network is shaking up its schedule in September, shifting its Saturday showcase for movie studio output to Sunday, a night it traditionally devotes to original programming.

"It just seemed like a good thing to try for the fall," HBO chairman and CEO Chris Albrecht said Wednesday at the Television Critics Assn.'s summer press tour session.

That same night and same month, NBC will unveil its new Sunday night NFL telecast, and other broadcasters will launch many new and returning 2006-07 series.

The drama series "The Wire" will remain at Sunday at 10 p.m. in September, but for the first time HBO will premiere each episode six nights prior on HBO On Demand, the network's fast-growing video-on-demand service, rather than force its male-skewing audience to choose between "Wire" and football.

In addition, HBO is postponing the tentative return date it had set for the final season of "The Sopranos." It will be bumped from Jan. 7 to a premiere date as late as March. Albrecht said that production had to be delayed a few weeks to accommodate "Sopranos" star James Gandolfini's knee surgery, which consequently would have put the series up against NFL postseason play.

Saturday has been HBO's movie premiere night for the past 15 years. On Sunday at 8 p.m., HBO's theatrical movies will have strictly series competition given that CBS decided to get out of the original film business on Sundays in the fall. HBO's fall theatricals will include "Fantastic Four," "Doom" and "Domino."

In a 30-minute Q&A with reporters, Albrecht commented on the status of a wide variety of HBO programs, including:

"Curb Your Enthusiasm": Albrecht said series creator and star Larry David is close to signing on for another season that he figures will probably be the last. "We're working hard with Larry, and we're hoping to have another season on in '07."

"Deadwood": Albrecht outlined how negotiations with creator David Milch were complicated by public disclosures. They agreed that not doing a full 12-episode final season would free Milch to work on his next HBO series, "John From Cincinnati."

"Rome": A second 10-episode season will launch in January, and HBO has decided that it almost certainly is its last season. "It's an enormous undertaking to do a regular series 6,000 miles away in a foreign country," said Albrecht, who added that co-production partners BBC and Rai TV were unlikely to sign on for a third season given that European TV producers are accustomed to shorter series life cycles.

"Extras": Ricky Gervais' comedy series is returning for a second season, most likely in January, with six new episodes featuring cameos from stars including David Bowie, Orlando Bloom and Ian McKellen.

"Big Love": "We feel big love was a big success story for us in many ways," said Albrecht, who expects a second season to premiere in June.

Albrecht also pointed to a few miniseries projects from Tom Hanks' Playtone banner that seem perpetually in development -- a John Adams biopic and a World War II Pacific Theater saga -- but could be getting a green light soon. He also spoke optimistically of giving the go ahead to "True Blood," a vampire-themed series from "Six Feet Under" creator Alan Ball.

In other HBO announcements Wednesday:

• Spike Lee's four-hour documentary on the Hurricane Katrina disaster, "When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts," will have its Aug. 16 world premiere at the New Orleans Arena in front of an audience of 10,000. "Requiem" will have its HBO premiere five days later.

• Pop star Kelly Clarkson will get her own HBO concert in February, live from Wembley Arena in London.

• "Russell Simmons' Def Comedy Jam" is returning to HBO after a 10-year hiatus and will get the same early VOD window as "Wire."

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr/television/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1002838597

fredfa

07-12-06, 11:01 PM

TV Critics Summer Press Tour
FX orders 4th season of 'Rescue'

By Andrew Wallenstein The Hollywood Reporter July 13, 2006

PASADENA -- FX has ordered a fourth season of drama series "Rescue Me."

The cable network said it has ordered 13 more episodes at the Television Critics Assn.'s summer press tour at the Ritz-Carlton Huntington Hotel.

"Rescue" will begin production early next year in anticipation of launching in second-quarter 2007.

"Rescue" star Denis Leary was recognized last week with an Emmy nomination for lead actor in a drama series.

"We are enormously proud of this series (and) of Denis' Emmy nomination for best actor," FX president and general manager John Landgraf said.

Leary, Peter Tolan and Jim Serpico are executive producers of "Rescue," which is halfway through its third season.

So far, the series is up 10% vs. season-to-date last year.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr/television/brief_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1002838578

fredfa

07-12-06, 11:11 PM

The New York Times Obituary
Barnard Hughes, Character Actor, Dies at 90

By Campbell Robertson The New York Times Jul 12, 2006

Barnard Hughes, a Tony- and Emmy-award-winning actor who was well-known for playing warm-hearted if not always serious-minded father figures, died yesterday in New York. He was 90.

His death was confirmed by his son, the director Doug Hughes.

Though Mr. Hughes made his acting debut in 1934 at age 19 and already had a solid career in theater and television work, it was the 1978 Broadway production of Hugh Leonard’s “Da” that gained him his reputation as a skilled character actor, with a particular gift for jolly old Irishmen whose cheerfulness is tinged with melancholy.

Mr. Hughes played the title role, that of an exasperatingly affable and unambitious Irish widower who haunts the memories of his emigrant son. Walter Kerr, writing about “Da” in The New York Times, said Mr. Hughes was “masterly in the role of a lifetime, working skillfully as a watchmaker with every jewel in place.” John Simon, in New York magazine, said that Mr. Hughes “gives one of the greatest performances of this or any year.”

Mr. Simon continued: “Put this right alongside the achievements of the Gielguds, Oliviers and Richardsons.”

Mr. Hughes beat out Hume Cronyn, Frank Langella and Jason Robards for the best-actor Tony that year and also won a Drama Desk award. He did a reprise of the role of Da for a 1988 movie version, which also starred Martin Sheen.

A frequent presence in soap operas and television series of the 1970’s and 1980’s, Mr. Hughes won an Emmy for his portrayal of a senile judge on an episode of “Lou Grant.” He also starred as an avuncular physician in a short-lived comedy series, “Doc,” and as an Irish patriarch in the sitcom “The Cavanaughs.”

He had recurring roles on “The Guiding Light,” “As The World Turns,” “All in the Family,” “The Bob Newhart Show” and “Blossom.”

Mr. Hughes also had a long film career, appearing in “Midnight Cowboy,” “The Hospital,” “Where’s Poppa?” “Oh God!” “Tron,” “Doc Hollywood” and numerous television movies.

Barnard Aloysius Kiernan Hughes was born in Bedford Hills, N.Y. on July 16, 1915, to Irish immigrants. Through high school and his first year at Manhattan College, he worked a series of jobs, including as a salesman at Macy’s and a dockworker, before a friend tricked him into auditioning for a repertory company that performed Shakespeare in high schools. He won a tiny role in “The Taming of the Shrew.”

Mr. Hughes soon dropped out of Manhattan College and stayed with the company for two years, eventually playing many of the major Shakespeare roles. He then began traveling the country, performing with a repertory company in Chicago and with a comedy troupe that toured the South. After a few years in the army in World War II, he returned to acting.

In 1946, while rehearsing for a show called “Laugh That Off” to be performed at a military hospitals, he met an actress named Helen Stenborg. They married in 1950 and would act alongside each other throughout their careers, appearing together in Mr. Hughes’s last performance on Broadway, in the 1999 production of Noël Coward’s “Waiting in the Wings.”

In addition to his wife and son, Mr. Hughes’s other survivors include a daughter, Laura Hughes of New York; and a grandson, Samuel Hughes Rubin.

For the next three decades, Mr. Hughes performed in Broadway productions like “Advise and Consent,” “Nobody Loves an Albatross,” “How Now, Dow Jones,” “Hamlet” with Richard Burton, and the New York Shakespeare Festival’s production of “Much Ado About Nothing,” for which he received a Tony nomination for his portrayal of the dim-witted constable, Dogberry.

Speaking of the early years, when he was playing mostly minor parts in film and theater, Mr. Hughes said in a 1978 interview in The New York Times that he could have played the roles “without pants.”

“I was always sitting behind something like a desk,” he said. “I was a judge or a businessman or a lawyer or a doctor. Nobody saw my bottom half.”

In 1981, Mr. Hughes played the rustic schoolmaster in the American premiere of Brian Friel’s “Translations” at the Manhattan Theater Club. Frank Rich, in The Times, called Mr. Hughes’s performance “especially exciting,” adding that “funny as he is, Mr. Hughes always turns his eyes sadly downward, as if he’s surveying the defeated landscape of his own soul.”

In the 1980’s and early 1990’s, Mr. Hughes alternated his film and television career with his stage career, acting on Broadway in Lanford Wilson’s “Angels Fall” and Craig Lucas’s “Prelude to a Kiss.” He also performed in Dublin, playing the role of Grandpa in “You Can’t Take It With You” at the Abbey Theater in 1989, and playing Da at the Olympia Theater there in 1991.

“I’m a feeler,” Mr. Hughes said of his acting approach in the interview with The Times. “As a matter of fact, I think if we had more feelers and less thinkers we’d be a hell of a lot better off — not only in the theater, either.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/12/arts/12hughes.html?pagewanted=print

fredfa

07-12-06, 11:20 PM

TV Critics Summer Press Tour
A lot is possible but little's certain for HBO

By Scott Collins Los Angeles Times Staff Writer in the Channel Island TV Industry blog July 12, 2006

"Sopranos" fans are used to delays, so when word came down Wednesday that the series' final "bonus" episodes wouldn't arrive until March — well, it wasn't all that shocking. But fans of HBO's "Curb Your Enthusiasm" can be forgiven for wondering whether writer-star Larry David's cranky comedy is coming back at all. The network has been silent about that since the Emmy-nominated show wrapped its fifth season in December.

"We thought we'd have something to talk to you about today," HBO chairman Chris Albrecht told reporters Wednesday at the Television Critics Assn. press tour in Pasadena. "Larry was very unsure after last season.... He needed to be inspired."

But the network is "pretty close" to a deal, presumably for another 10 episodes, he added. "Hopefully we'll have a new 'Curb' in 2007."

And will that be the end of David's critically acclaimed show?

"Odds are probably yes, but who knows?" Albrecht said. HBO could probably put some new "Curb" episodes to good use, because its series cupboard is looking a little bare. The final episodes of "The Sopranos" won't air until March, a couple of months later than expected, because star James Gandolfini injured his knee, delaying production, Albrecht said.

The epic "Rome," meanwhile, probably won't last beyond its upcoming second season, because HBO's European partners signed on for a limited number of episodes. But again, Albrecht coyly played with the possibilities. "We may look at this and decide, 'You know, the food is good in Rome, so let's find a way to keep this going,' " he joked.

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/tv/la-et-tca14jul14,0,5610068,print.story

fredfa

07-12-06, 11:27 PM

TV Critics Summer Press Tour
The end of Tony Soprano, the return of Jacqueline Bisset and Ted Koppel's news

From Maureen Ryan’s Chicago Tribune blog “The Watcher” July 12, 2006

Wednesday's TCA update:

At the long HBO session Wednesday, the cable channel’s CEO, Chris Albrecht, was asked if “The Sopranos” will end in 2007 with Tony Soprano’s death.

“Are you high?” Albrecht jokingly asked. “I might as well shoot myself in the head if I tell you that.”

The series will probably start its final run in March, Albrecht said, though no date is locked in yet for the final batch of “Sopranos” episodes. (And by the way, the reporter took pains later to say that she was not, in fact, high.)

Albrecht also said another season of “Curb Your Enthusiasm” is not 100 percent locked in, but it’s “pretty definitive” that the Larry David show is coming back for at least one more year.

At the convention of critics, HBO also announced that pop singer Kelly Clarkson will headline an HBO concert on Feb. 3, the lavish period drama “Rome” will return Jan. 7 for its second and final season, and the network is producing a film called “Life Support” starring Queen Latifah, that examines “the African-American community’s HIV crisis through the eyes of a survivor who is a mother, an ex-crack addict and an AIDS activist,” according to the network.

The network also said that the upcoming Spike Lee-directed HBO documentary on the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, “When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts,” will be screened for residents of New Orleans on Aug. 16.

The film will be shown for free at the New Orleans Arena, which is next to the Superdome, which became a symbol of the botched post-Katrina disaster response.

Some FX news: The network has renewed “Rescue Me” for a fourth season. Network president John Landgraf talked at length with reporters after the session about the infamous “Rescue Me” rape scene, and I’ll try to post more on that later (I also asked him about non-"Rescue Me" stuff).

In other FX news, Jacqueline Bisset will be guesting on “Nip/Tuck,” which returns in September. She’s signed up for half a dozen episodes, but the show’s creator doesn’t want it known yet who she’ll be playing. Other guest stars for the upcoming season include Larry Hagman, Brooke Shields and Kathleen Turner as a phone-sex operator. Rosie O’Donnell will also be on the show, as a lottery winner who wants a complete body makeover.

On Wednesday morning at the summer press tour in Pasadena, Calif., Ted Koppel spoke to journalists by satellite about his new Discovery Channnel news program, “Koppel on Discovery,” which debuts Sept. 10. He talked a bit about Dan Rather, who announced Tuesday that he’s joining the tiny HDNet, and what’s driving these TV-news veteran to smaller networks.

“Clearly a mistake was made on the broadcast that it did it took him a while to acknowledge,” Koppel said of discredited “60 Minutes” report that effectively ended Rather’s CBS career. “Should that have cost him his career at CBS? I don’t think so.”

As for his own move to cable, Koppel concurred with Rather, who said on Tuesday that the freedom supplied by his smaller cable home was worth the tradeoff in audience size.

“I am really where I am truly by choice,” Koppel said. “Nobody forced me out of ABC.”

“I truly do feel that Discovery is a better place to be. Time will tell. We’ll see. Do I think that my colleagues [at ABC] are inhibited by political timidity [from their corporate bosses]? I don’t think [that] has as much to do with it as the marketplace,” in other words, commercial pressures determining what gets on the air.

“The pressure to reach a particular demographic is simply not as great at Discovery,” noted Koppel, who stood in front of Camp Delta at Guantanamo Bay as he spoke.

One upside of his new gig that he didn’t anticipate? People all over the world see Discovery Channel on their TVs.

“There is a world of goodwill for Discovery Networks,” Koppel said. “They see Discovery in Iran, Lebanon, Jordan, Israel. They weren’t seeing ABC news.”

http://tempo.typepad.com/entertainment_tv/

fredfa

07-12-06, 11:30 PM

TV Critics Summer Press Tour
Some non-TCA news bits

From Maureen Ryan’s Chicago Tribune blog “The Watcher” July 12, 2006

• CBS is going to re-air “Brotherhood,” the new Showtime series about Irish-Americans in Rhode Island (gosh, another show about that? Yeeesh.) 9 p.m. Saturday. Meanwhile Bravo’s “Project Runway” will air on sister network NBC on Monday and July 24.

• Gary Griffin, older brother of Kathy Griffin, wrote in to note that I did not note that “Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List” got an Emmy nomination. Duly noted, Gary. He added that “while some might hint that her siblings are only hoping that she'll become an even bigger star so that they can live off her success like Turtle, Johnny Drama and 'E' on 'Entourage,' I'm can assure you that nothing is further from the truth. (Unless she offers, of course, in which case we'll snap up the offer in a heartbeat.)”

• I don’t want to know what happens next season on “The Office,” but if you’re dying for tidbits on the third season of the show, Jennie at OfficeTally.com has collected a big bunch of spoilers for next season. She also has a bit of news on the terrific news that the original British cast of the U.K. version of the show will likely visit the Scranton offices of Dunder Mifflin next season. Sweet.

• And don’t forget, on Thursday, NBC debuts two of 10 Webisodes centered on the staff of “The Office.”

• Ricky Gervais’ Web site lists some of the luminaries who’ll be seen in the next season of “Extras”: David Bowie, Orlando Bloom and Chris Martin of “Coldplay” are just a few of the folks lined up for the next season of the HBO show. HBO will be airing Season 2 of the show, by the way.

• The first season of the BBC’s new “Doctor Who” series came out on DVD last week; I thought the first few episodes of the show had potential but were marred by weak plots. But it grew on me; by the second half of the season, the show had come up with more emotionally resonant and interesting stories (and I always liked the performances of Christopher Eccleston and Billie Piper).

But by far, the best part of the show is Captain Jack Harkness, a space adventurer who turned up in the excellent two-parter “The Empty Child”/ “The Doctor Dances.” Harkness is one of my favorite recent TV characters, and he’s played with gusto and humor by the terrific John Barrowman, who hails from Joliet.

The DVD set has a special featurette on Captain Jack, and if an American network imports the upcoming “Who” spinoff starring the character, I’ll let you know a.s.a.p. The series, by the way, is an adventure yarn called “Torchwood” (an anagram of “Doctor Who”). “Torchwood will be a dark, clever, wild, sexy, British crime/sci-fi paranoid thriller cop show with a sense of humor,” new “Who” creator Russell T. Davies told the BBC last year.

http://tempo.typepad.com/entertainment_tv/

fredfa

07-12-06, 11:35 PM

TV Critics Summer Press Tour
Is it the end of the line for 'The Wire'?

By Robert Bianco USA Today July 12, 2006

PASADENA, Calif. — They're down to the wire at The Wire.

David Simon, the creator of the acclaimed but ratings-challenged HBO urban drama, faces the Sept. 10 launch of his show's fourth season knowing it's likely the last. The Wire's shot at a fifth season, says HBO CEO Chris Albrecht, depends on the reaction to the one coming up.

If history repeats, critics will adore the show — and viewers will avoid it. One reason they might, Simon told the critics at their semiannual gathering, is that the cast is largely African-American. "There is a certain portion of the audience that will change the channel. Not in any grandly venal, racist way, but there are a lot of people that are going to look and see that many black faces looking back at them, and they're going to say 'This is not my story.' "

But it is everyone's story, he says, because it is the story of the failure of our cities and institutions, which is why the show reinvents itself each year to tackle a different theme. The first season was police and the drug wars; the second, the death of the working class; the third, politics. This year's theme is the schools, and if the show gets another year, it will move on to the media.

"In our own heads, we have a five-season arc. ... They all connect in a way that explains why we are what we are and why we can't get out of our own boxes." The goal is to pose a question he's unable to answer: "Why is it the richest, most powerful country in the world can't solve its fundamental problems when it comes to places like Baltimore? And there are a lot of places like Baltimore."

Come September, The Wire will occupy the only Sunday slot available for HBO original series. For the first time, this fall the pay channel is moving the debut night of its big theatrical films from Saturday to Sunday at 8 p.m. ET/PT. HBO, which has been running series from 9 p.m. to 11 Sundays, will now only have the 10 p.m. slot to program.

The move, says HBO CEO Chris Albrecht, "seemed like a fun idea," but it isn't a permanent one. When Rome returns for its second — and last — season in January, it will air at 9.

And that January run of Rome means the return/conclusion of The Sopranos has been pushed back to March, at the earliest.

To make matters more complicated, HBO is trying a new time experiment with HBO On Demand. The Wire and Russell Simmons' Def Comedy Jam will debut there on Sept. 4 — six days before their arrival on the main HBO channel.

Future projects for the network include Life Support, a movie starring Queen Latifah as an AIDS activist, a vampire series from Six Feet Under's Alan Ball, and miniseries about John Adams and the Pacific front in World War II.

As for The Sopranos, Albrecht says the network was happy with this season's ratings and quality, but not with the show's lack of Emmy love (and nominations) this year. "Regarding the Emmys, I don't know what to say. I don't know what to say."

http://www.usatoday.com/life/television/news/2006-07-12-the-wire_x.htm

fredfa

07-13-06, 01:21 AM

TV Critics Summer Press Tour
Koppel Assails Network News

By Scott Collins Los Angeles Times Staff Writer in the Channel Island TV Industry blog

Former ABC newsman Ted Koppel thinks TV networks' foreign coverage stinks — and that it's actually gotten worse since the terrorist attacks of 9/11.

One day after a series of deadly explosions ripped through commuter trains in Mumbai, India, Koppel noted the paucity of American TV correspondents based in that country, "the world’s largest democracy," he told reporters Wednesday. Koppel, whose "Ted Koppel Reports" premieres Sept. 10 on the Discovery Channel, said the common assumption following 9/11 was that news gathering outlets would beef up foreign coverage. "That, I’m afraid, has not been the case," he said via satellite from Guantanamo Bay, where he's reporting.

He attacked network news divisions for covering important foreign stories by "parachuting in" high-priced anchors. "What, we don’t have are young, aggressive correspondents who are willing to spend years in an area" learning the culture and developing contacts, he said. "This is not only a travesty. It's something we’re going to be paying for for years to come."

http://hollywoodhotline.typepad.com/watcher/

fredfa

07-13-06, 01:29 AM

TV Notebook
Laurie cashes in on 'House'

By Michael Schneider, Josef Adalian Variety.com

Hugh Laurie is getting a big raise to stay in Fox's "House."

Thesp will pull down more than $275,000 per episode next season as part of a just-renegotiated contract with producer NBC Universal Television Studio. Assuming his old deal put him at the high end of what drama series leads make, it's likely Laurie has roughly tripled his payday.

Big raise isn't a surprise given the smash success "House" has become on Fox. Skein is a top 10 staple, particularly when it follows "American Idol" in the spring.

What's more, because it's a procedural drama, "House" is expected to do very well in the off-net syndie marketplace, ensuring that NBC will make a tidy profit on the show. That fact gave Laurie's reps plenty of leverage in the negotiating room.

Laurie scored an Emmy nom last year but, in a major surprise, was snubbed when this year's nominations were announced last week (although "House" earned a mention for drama series).

fredfa

07-13-06, 01:29 AM

TV Critics Summer Press Tour
Nouveau Cosell?

By Scott Collins Los Angeles Times Staff Writer in the Channel Island TV Industry blog

Is Tony Kornheiser the next Howard Cosell? His colleagues on ESPN's new "Monday Night Football" seem to think so.

The opinionated and abrasive Washington Post sports columnist and radio host will do color commentary alongside play-by-play announcer Mike Tirico and analyst Joe Theismann for the sports cable network, which is taking over the "MNF" franchise this fall after 36 colorful years on sister broadcaster ABC.

The danger is that Kornheiser might end up like comic Dennis Miller, who spent a brief, fairly disastrous tenure as color commentator in the "MNF" booth dispensing obscure cultural references that left many viewers scratching their heads. But clearly ESPN execs hope the columnist will instead channel the late Cosell, who was loved and hated by millions during his "MNF" tenure in the 1970s.

"I think Tony has a chance to be more like Howard than Dennis," Theismann told reporters Wednesday at the Television Critics Assn. press tour in Pasadena, adding: "Will Tony be over-the-top at times? Sure."

Whether Kornheiser will match Cosell’s unique brand of charm remains to be seen; Cosell, after all, sparked national outrage in 1983 by exclaiming of black NFL star Alvin Garrett: "Look at that little monkey run!"

But Kornheiser has his own endearing quirk: He’s morbidly afraid of flying, so much so that he did not show up in Pasadena and offered only a taped bit. When the new announcing team met with team owners recently, Theismann said, Kornheiser made a 21-hour train trip from Washington to Orlando.

So how will he get to all those away games?" It won’t be easy for him," Theismann said, "but he’ll do it."

http://hollywoodhotline.typepad.com/watcher/

fredfa

07-13-06, 01:30 AM

TV Critics Summer Press Tour
HBO 'Hopeful' on New 'Curb' Episodes

By Scott Collins Los Angeles Times Staff Writer in the Channel Island TV Industry blog

Is another HBO show about to say goodbye?

Fans of "Curb Your Enthusiasm" can be forgiven for wondering whether writer/star Larry David’s cranky comedy is coming back. The network has been silent since the Emmy-nominated show wrapped its fifth season in December.

"We thought we’d have something to talk to you about today," HBO chairman Chris Albrecht told reporters Wednesday at the Television Critics Assn. press tour in Pasadena. "Larry was very unsure after last season ... He needed to be inspired." But the network is "pretty close" to a deal, presumably for another 10 episodes, Albrecht added. "Hopefully we’ll have a new ‘Curb’ in 2007.”
And will that be the end of David’s critically acclaimed show? "Odds are probably yes, but who knows?" Albrecht said. HBO could probably put some new "Curb" episodes to good use, because its series cupboard is looking a little bare.

The final episodes of "The Sopranos" won’t air until March, a couple of months later than expected, because star James Gandolfini injured his knee, delaying production, Albrecht said. The epic "Rome," meanwhile, probably won’t last beyond its upcoming second season, because HBO’s European partners signed on for a limited number of episodes.

But again, Albrecht coyly played with the possibilities. "We may look at this and decide, ’You know, the food is good in Rome, so let’s find a way to keep this going,’ " he joked.

Photo: Chris Albrecht, HBO Chairman & CEO takes questions from the media during the Press Tour at the Television Critics Association in Pasadena, Calif. (Damian Dovarganes / Associated Press)

http://hollywoodhotline.typepad.com/watcher/

fredfa

07-13-06, 10:03 AM

Nielsen Notebook
Last laugh: 'Nightline' gaining on Dave

ABC's revamped news show ties Letterman
By Toni Fitzgerald MediaLifeMagazine.com staff writer Jujly 13, 2006

Four years ago, when word broke that ABC was courting David Letterman to replace its sagging late-night news show “Nightline,” it seemed to make sense. Letterman’s comedy was fun and hip, while “Nightline,” with longtime anchor Ted Koppel, was just the opposite.

But a deal never emerged, and “Nightline” continued to fade while CBS re-signed Letterman to a lucrative long-term contract.

Now it’s the new “Nightline” having the final guffaw.

Six months after Koppel left, and after his trio of anchor replacements received harsh initial reviews, “Nightline” is pulling very close CBS’s “Late Show with David Letterman” in the very demographics that ABC was so hot to attract four years ago.

In fact, for the week ended June 25, “Nightline” tied “Letterman” among both adults 25-54 and 18-49, averaging a 1.5 and 1.2 rating, respectively.

That follows a second quarter when “Nightline” was the only late-night show to increase in total viewers and 25-54s. The show was up 5 percent in 25-54s, to 1.69 million, and 4 percent in total viewers, to 3.37 million.

Meanwhile, “Letterman” was down 7 percent in 25-54s, to 2.01 million, and 6 percent in total viewers, to 4 million. Longtime leader “Tonight Show with Jay Leno” on NBC was flat in total viewers at 5.74 million and down 4 percent in 25-54s, to 2.73 million.

Certainly “Nightline” has a long way to go before it can consistently match “Letterman,” and it’s still well behind in total viewers. But clearly “Nightline’s” new format is appealing to younger people who before wouldn’t have given the show a second look.

What’s doubling interesting is that these younger viewers waited several months before sampling the show. Two months after Koppel’s November departure, when all the poor reviews came in, “Nightline” was down 8 percent year to year in 18-49s.

The show’s resurgence has been helped by a number of things. ABC’s improved NBA playoffs performance among 25-54s this year certainly help drive its late-night ratings in second quarter. And the show may have picked up some Letterman viewers channel surfing elsewhere.

Yet perhaps the best explanation is that “Nightline” simply needed time to grow into its new format.

When the three-story, three-anchor show premiered in December, critics were harsh. “Something extraordinary has been replaced by the commonplace,” wrote USA Today’s Robert Bianco, likening the show to a half-hour version of “20/20.”

Now, with the pace of the program having slowed and anchors Martin Bashir, Cynthia McFadden and Terry Moran rotating instead of competing for screen time, it has begun to forge an identity. Recent stories have focused on fertility treatments and the shortage of AIDS drugs in Africa, as well as softer pieces on the new “Tarzan” Broadway musical.

Meanwhile, in other daypart ratings for the week ended July 2:

“Good Morning America” was up 400,000 from the previous week on the strength of Charles Gibson’s final episode, averaging 4.8 million total viewers. But it was still about 700,000 behind NBC’s “Today.” “Early Show” on CBS averaged 2.2 million viewers.

NBC’s “Tonight Show with Jay Leno” remained No. 1 in late night, with an average 5.6 million total viewers, followed by CBS’s “Late Show with David Letterman” at 3.8 million. ABC’s “Nightline” trailed with 3 million.

In daytime, ABC and NBC tied for the lead in women 18-49 in both full daytime and daytime dramas, both with a 1.6 average. CBS led easily in total viewers in both categories, averaging 4.28 million for full day and 3.98 million for daytime dramas.

For the week ended July 9, ABC’s “World News Tonight” pulled ahead of NBC’s “Nightly News” among total viewers, averaging 7.34 million to the latter’s 7.22 million.

It was an abnormal week, however, with July 3 and 4 of the holiday week not counting toward the average and regular ABC news anchor Charles Gibson and CBS anchor Bob Schieffer both off the rest of the week.

http://www.medialifemagazine.com/artman/publish/article_5929.asp

fredfa

07-13-06, 10:08 AM

The TV Column
Ted Koppel Makes A Discovery About Broadcast News

By Lisa de Moraes Washington Post Staff Writer Thursday, July 13, 2006; C01

PASADENA, Calif., July 12--"March of the Former TV News Titans" continues to play to big crowds at Summer TV Press Tour 2006 here. Episode 2 got a warm reception Wednesday morning; it starred former ABC News Titan Ted Koppel waxing pessimistic about the future of broadcast TV news while hawking the Sept. 11 launch of his newsmag series on the Discovery Channel.

The day before, a rock-'em-sock-'em Episode 1 wowed the Reporters Who Cover Television with a multilayered performance by former CBS News Titan Dan Rather. He simultaneously cracked skulls of CBS News suits, plugged his new "Dan Rather Reports" newsmag for Mark Cuban's HDNet and shed tears while talking about his legacy, being shown the door at CBS after 44 years and being unfit to be in the same room as the late Edward R. Murrow.

As the second episode opened, Koppel, who knows a tough act to follow when he sees one, appeared via satellite from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where he's working on a three-hour prime-time special. "Security and Liberty" will kick off his "Koppel on Discovery" series for the cable network.

Going for drama, Koppel told his cameraman to pull back, revealing members of the U.S. military helping the news crew with what appeared to be the poles holding up the tent-thingy under which he was standing in strong winds in front of Camp Delta.

"Even though . . . television critics know an awful lot about this business, sometimes even those of us who are in it have to marvel at how much . . . combined effort it takes to put a live shot like this on the air.

"We literally have members of the U.S. Army, U.S. Navy, a couple of satellite technicians from Discovery, our own camera crew and a couple of producers just so that I can stand here in the 15-knot wind with Camp Delta directly behind me and answer whatever questions you may have," Koppel told the reporters, who are swanking it up at the Ritz-Carlton Huntington Hotel.

Hmmmm, isn't the U.S. military part of the story Koppel's covering?

The reporters, still marveling at Rather's performance the afternoon before, wanted to know where Koppel stood on the Rather Situation.

The longtime anchor left CBS News last month after he and management could not agree on his future role there. His last year at the network had been marred by the controversy over an unverified report about President Bush's National Guard service.

"Let me just say as an old friend of his that I feel that CBS News and its parent organization did not act with the greatest heroism in terms of supporting him. Clearly a mistake was made on the broadcast . . . and it took him a while to acknowledge that because Dan is very, very loyal to the people who work with him and for him. Should that have cost him his career at CBS? I don't think so."

But Koppel wanted to make it absolutely clear that his leaving ABC News bears no comparison to Rather leaving CBS News.

"I am really where I am truly by choice. Nobody forced me out of ABC. Indeed, they were very generous in offering to keep me on in a variety of different roles there, and I have nothing but good feelings about my association with ABC over the years. But I truly do feel Discovery is a better place to be right now," he told the TV critics.

Asked if he thought, as Rather had suggested the day before, that political timidity on the part of the large corporations that now own the broadcast networks affects decisions about news programming, Koppel said, "I don't think politics has as much to do with it, quite frankly, as the marketplace does.

"The marketplace is exerting a far more dangerous influence on what gets on and what doesn't get on television news programming these days than any . . . fear of political repercussions or consequences."

Getting down to brass tacks, Koppel explained that ABC is entirely dependent for its income on the commercials it can sell in the programs that it airs.

"As all of you know far better than I, the cost of a commercial on a program that reaches an audience over 45 or 50 is a fraction of what a . . . sponsor is willing to pay for a commercial on a broadcast that reaches the 18-to-29-year-olds."

Discovery, meanwhile, also sells ads but gets a significant portion of its income from "cable feeds," Koppel said, and the price is the same whether the subscriber is 18 or 85.

"So the pressure to reach a particular demographic is simply not as great at Discovery as it is at one of the commercial networks. That's just a fact. And while I have grown to be very fond of [Discovery Network President Billy Campbell] and all the people I am working for at Discovery, fondness, friendship has nothing to do with it. This is simply a reality of the business world in which we live."

Cut to ABC News staffers Wednesday e-mailing a news release to the same reporters about the next "Primetime" newsmag story -- a report on a boy ABC News identifies only as Adam the Healer:

"Can a 19-year-old from Canada heal people of incurable conditions such as cancer and multiple sclerosis?" the release said.

" 'Primetime's' John Quiñones investigates the phenomenon, following stories of the desperate people who have come hoping for miracles, sitting down with the healer himself, and interviewing some experts who weigh in as well."

The news report airs Thursday night. Coincidentally, "Adam's" new book, "The Path of the Dreamhealer," comes out in the United States this week -- what are the odds?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/12/AR2006071202072_pf.html

CPanther95

07-13-06, 10:09 AM

Well, we're getting a crystal clear picture of the many things that HBO won't be doing - perhaps they could start making some announcements regarding what they do plan on doing. :rolleyes:

fredfa

07-13-06, 10:11 AM

TV Critics Summer Press Tour
March of the Penguins

By Lisa de Moraes Washington Post Staff Writer in her blog “Moraes On TV”

Hallmark Channel -- aka the Celebrities You Thought Might Be Dead But Aren't Channel -- threw Wednesday's Summer TV Press Tour 2006 party, celebrating its recent acquisition of the docu-flick "March of the Penguins."

Anyone who is no longer anyone is there: Shirley Jones, Naomi Judd, John Boy Walton, Dick Van Dyke, Steve Guttenberg, Marion Ross. Hallmark Channel skews seriously old, though Hallmark suits are trying to young-up the channel with some Olsen Twin flicks and two American Girl movies that are part of the package of 39 flicks Hallmark bought to get "Penguins."

Two 20-inch tall Magellanic penguins, who'd been vanned in from Sea World in San Diego, waddle down the blue carpet and under the styrofoam ice arch to the Ritz Carlton Huntington hotel's swimming pool, where the party is happening. The pool has been turned into a globally-warmed iceberg, with styrofoam iceberg shards floating in the water and what looks like fake dead penguins floating about four inches below the water. Pete and Penny - they're the penguins - are followed by Hallmark programming executive vice president David Kenin, who looks like The Mock Turtle on Zoloft.

"Are they gentile, are they Jewish?" asked Shirley Jones' husband Marty Ingels, who is wearing a loud orange jacket over a black shirt; Ingels seems to have an issue with being upstaged by two bewildered 10-pound birds.

Photographers and cameramen bail on formerly famous old folks in favor of adorable penguins, each of whom has a handler.

But before they can get up to the podium, where Kenin is supposed to give a speech, 11-year-old Pete begins to shake violently while clinging to his handler's arm. Pete and Penny, the 4-year-old female, are whisked away as a woman spritzes them with water to keep them cool. It's a very hot night.

We feel very bad for Pete and Penny, who seemed disoriented. One unsympathetic critic says they're like farm-raised salmon.

Pete and Penny bear no resemblance to the penguins in the movie, who are Emperor Penguins -- about four feet tall and about 60 to 90 pounds. No one seems to care.

Some time later Pete and Penny brought back and put in a glass pen on a stand. We are assured Pete was only overly excited and had been humping the handler's arm. He starts again and handler tells him to stop.

"No humping - we hear that a lot at the [press tour]," cracks a publicist.

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/tvblog/

fredfa

07-13-06, 10:20 AM

Sports On TV
Selig's blackout promise

By Jeff Passan Yahoo! Sports national baseball writer.

PITTSBURGH – Even the commissioner of baseball isn't immune to the sport's television blackout rules.

Bud Selig admitted Tuesday that he has been restricted from watching some games this season – and that he intends to change the policy that leaves some cities without as many as six baseball games each night.

"I don't understand (blackouts) myself," Selig said at a luncheon with the Baseball Writers Association of America. "I get blacked out from some games."

While he did not outline a plan, Selig said he had spoken with Major League Baseball about addressing the blackout issue.

"Right now," he said, "I don't know what to do about it. We'll figure it out."

More than 1,000 fans emailed Yahoo! Sports to voice their frustration with baseball's territorial-rights rules that black out games on the Extra Innings pay-per-view package and MLB.TV. The rules, developed about 40 years ago to protect teams' marketing areas, have fallen woefully out of date with a sport able to televise every game.

Instead, fans in Las Vegas cannot watch the Los Angeles Dodgers, Los Angeles Angels, Oakland Athletics, San Francisco Giants, San Diego Padres and Arizona Diamondbacks. And no one in Iowa can watch the Chicago Cubs, Chicago White Sox, St. Louis Cardinals, Milwaukee Brewers, Minnesota Twins and Kansas City Royals. And so on, all across the country.

In protest, fans have mobilized to send Selig letters of complaint. They seem to have finally found an advocate in the commissioner.

"I hear more about people who can't get the game," Selig said, "and, yes, I've already told our people we have to do something about it."

While Selig intends to take care of the territorial blackouts, he won't be doing anything about the blanket blackout on Saturday afternoon.

MLB agreed to a new seven-year contract with Fox Sports and Turner Sports worth more than $3 billion, according to sources. The parties announced the deal before Tuesday's All-Star Game.

Fox will keep the World Series, the All-Star Game and its Saturday-afternoon game, during which all other games are blacked out. That will remain the case, baseball president and chief operating officer Bob DuPuy said, because of "exclusivity."

The World Series will begin the first Tuesday after the completion of the League Championship Series starting in 2007, possibly pushing the championship into the first week of November and setting up a schedule that sets games on Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and, if necessary, Sunday, Tuesday and Wednesday.

Fox will broadcast alternating LCS, with the American League in 2007, 2009, 2011 and 2013, and the National League in 2008, 2010 and 2012. "A significant number of people," Selig said, are in the running for LCS rights opposite Fox.

Starting in 2007, Turner will televise all the Division Series games, on TBS and TNT, and a new Sunday-afternoon game. There will not be a blackout Sunday afternoon, except in the host city of the teams playing.

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slug=jp-blackouts071106&prov=yhoo&type=lgns

fredfa

07-13-06, 10:36 AM

Washington Notebook
FCC Meeting Delay

The Federal Communication Commission meeting, which among other things is scheduled to (finally) rule on the proposed Comcast/Time Warner takeover of Adelphia, has been delayed.

Originally scheduled to begin at 9:30 ER, it now has been rescheduled for 11:30 ET.

fredfa

07-13-06, 10:47 AM

TV Critics Summer Press Tour
Death March With Cocktails

Penguins In the Hotel, Poor Champagne, A Voice Gone, Freaks
By Tim Goodman San Francisco Chronicle in his TV blog “The Bastard Machine” July 13, 2006

Apparently the Hallmark Channel didn't consult with the E! network or we wouldn't have had back-to-back nights with a party at the pool. Don't you hate when that happens?

I have no real idea how this party turned out, though the general consensus is that it was a place holder for some far better party coming tomorrow night. I couldn't care less because I got in early and often for the Champagne, which effectively ruled out seeing Marion Ross or Doris Roberts or Kellie Martin, though I did hear an announcement that Kellie Martin was pregnant.

I have no idea what that means or if it's true since the only thing that mattered for a good three-quarters of the event was the bubbles. (Could it be that because I saw Bubbles from "The Wire" in the hotel lobby it triggered some need for Champagne? That's my current excuse.) Anyway, I found a corner away from the pool and the shrimp (more shrimp!) and talked shop with assorted other critics and met Barbara Niven, even though you could put a gun to my head in a downtown Hollywood crack hotel and I still couldn't tell you who Barbara Niven actually is. But she's aging well. She's Elder Hot. And yes, I'm working on a trademark for that.

What I did find out was that THE PENGUINS HAD A ROOM ACROSS THE HALL FROM ME. Damn dirty penguins. I knew it. See, they came up from Sea World or the San Diego Zoo or some such place where they keep animals against their will (much like the Death March with Cocktails) and they were the stars of the party. They came down a blue carpet. Yes, they really did. I was late, so I don't know if Morgan Freeman actually introduced them as planned. Never saw Morgan Freeman. Ever.

Instead, I think someone from the channel was speaking. Couldn't tell you for sure. I had one purpose - find the bubbly. While I was eating a salad - true story, so bear with me - the Person From Hallmark (PFH) ended his speech with, and I kid you not, "The drinking light is lit." Now, a certain someone close to me on the press tour once said, "The drinking lamp is lit" and I quoted that, thus getting him in trouble, so this exchange from PFH had a bigger importance than it might have, and I found it endlessly amusing. Needless to say, after a long day of blogging, I didn't need to be goaded any further, so I took him up on the deal.

Later I met the penguins. There were only two of them. They were cute, and small - surprisingly small, as if you could club the life out of them with a Wiffle bat. Not that I would even think of such a thing, but they were definitely small. Like actors. They certainly looked bigger up on the screen when I slept through "March of the Penguins." But my point is this - I tracked them down and I asked the keeper a question: "Did these penguins have a room at the hotel?" She looked stunned. "Uh, yes." I stared back. "What number?" She looked blank. "First floor, 100s maybe?" I asked. Then she lit up. "Yes, room 110." Ha! J'accuse! I don't know what my tone was really signifying, but it's not important, because I had pretty much lost my voice by then. It's a long story. And it got much longer (the story) and worse (my voice) at the post-party party thrown by WE TV (Women's Entertainment) for it's new series called "Dirty Dancing," hosted by Cris Judd (apparently there's no "h" in his name) who once did some dirty dancing with J. Lo.

It was a strange night. Any more revelations might be damaging, and what can really top rogue penguins anyway? Although on the way back to my hotel room I did spot David Cross ("Arrested Development") in the hotel bar, so I stopped to talk because he's in my Fantasy Baseball league and, as it turns out, he's executive producing a new series for Comedy Central called "Freak Show." And Comedy Central presents at 9 a.m., which just isn't fair.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/sfgate/indexn?blogid=24

keenan

07-13-06, 10:47 AM

Still nothing about HD in these baseball contracts? I just can't imagine we'll have to put up with SD baseball on Saturdays for the next 7 years.

afiggatt

07-13-06, 10:56 AM

TV Critics Summer Press Tour

HBO Chairman and CEO Chris Albrecht, in his gray suit, placed his hands on either side of the podium for his executive session Wednesday afternoon.

The Q&A that followed was, as always, an invaluable opportunity for critics to put the ultra confident (some say arrogant) and prickly (some say abrasive) leader of their favorite network on the spot about the fates of their favorite shows.

Too bad, there was no one from avsforum there. It would probably have gone completely over the head of most of the TV writers present, but based on the most common complaint about HBO (outside of this or that program not renewed), someone should have asked: Why does HBO persist in cropping most 2.35:1 scope movies? Is he aware that people have dropped HBO because of this? It would have been worth it to see if the CEO even understood the question.

fredfa

07-13-06, 11:04 AM

Good point, afiggatt.

I don't believe I have ever heard of Albrecht being asked that question.

fredfa

07-13-06, 11:08 AM

Critic’s Notebook
Aaron Barnhart

Paul Harris of KMOX radio in St. Louis talks with Kansas City Star TYV writer Aaron Baqrnhart on a weekly basis.

If you want to listen in, here is this week’s chat:

http://www.harrisonline.com/audio/aaron0710.mp3

fredfa

07-13-06, 11:15 AM

TV Notebook
“The Office” debuts webisodes today

By Diane Holloway Austin American-Statesman in her TV blog Thursday, July 13, 2006

Can’t wait until September for new episodes of “The Office?”

Well, starting today, NBC is serving up new “webisodes” every Thursday through Sept. 7 on nbc.com. The two- to three-minute installments will follow a 10-part mystery about a budget shortfall at Dunder Mifflin Paper Company.

In today’s first webisode, accountants at the Scranton office are shocked to discover that $3,000 is missing. Bean-counters Angela, Kevin and Oscar first blame everybody else and then turn on each other.

In the second webisode, excruciatingly inept (and hugely egotistical) boss Michael comes under suspicion. And on it goes until the mini-‘sodes are finished and the mystery is solved.

“The Office” and star Steve Carell were recently nominated for Emmy Awards, which is terrific. The incomparable Rainn Wilson, who plays pitiful Dwight, sadly, was not.

Offended once? Take offense again!

“South Park” will rerun the controversial episode, titled “Trapped in the Closet,” that poked wicked fun at Scientology and its pop-culture guru Tom Cruise.

The Emmy-nominated installment will air July 19 on Comedy Central.

You may recall that Isaac Hayes, who voices Chef on the show and is a scientology believer, quit in protest over the episode — but only after he had filmed it.

http://www.austin360.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/austin/tvblog/

fredfa

07-13-06, 11:20 AM

TV Notebook
Behind the change in the nightly news

By Diego Vasquez MediaLifeMagazine.com staff writer JulY 13, 2006

Over the past 18 months, the networks’ nightly newscasts have provided nearly as much news as they’ve covered.

Two networks, CBS and ABC, have hired their second and third new anchors, respectively, in that span. The other, NBC, has remained in first place but seen its average margin of victory shrink markedly over recent weeks.

In fact, last week ABC’s “World News Tonight” finished ahead of “NBC Nightly News” in total viewers for the first time since August, albeit on a week abbreviated by the July 4 holiday and with Diane Sawyer filling in for regular “WNT” anchor Charles Gibson.

NBC also points out that its newscast was delayed in many markets because of overrun from the low-rated Wimbledon tennis championships.

The coming months should see yet more shifting, as ABC’s Gibson settles into the anchor chair and CBS’s Katie Couric comes on the air in September.

Andrew Tyndall, the noted network news analyst and publisher of The Tyndall Report, talks to Media Life about evening news ratings, why Couric may not draw new viewers to the news, and why ABC is covering fewer family stories.

When was the last time there was this much turmoil in the evening news? Or is this a first?

Many changes have happened in the anchor chairs and in the diversification from broadcast to various online offerings.

“Turmoil” implies that these changes are disruptive rather than evidence of fresh thinking and lack of stagnation. I see little evidence of turmoil in the core journalism of the evening newscasts compared with the early ‘90s.

Back then budgets were being cut, bureaus closed, resources were transferred from evening newscasts to the morning programs, the threat posed by CNN was an unknown factor and there was a crisis in self-confidence about story selection — whether to cover hard news or celebrity/tabloid fare.

The crisis reached its climax with the wrongheaded decision to treat the O.J. Simpson trial as a serious story in 1994-1995. It took another five years to regain stability after that.

ABC News has been sinking steadily since last fall. How much of that is just because of the loss of Peter Jennings and how much can be attributed to the unstable anchor situation?

Since the loss of Peter Jennings was the direct cause of the unstable anchor situation, this is hardly an either/or question. ABC’s standing may be best explained by the unanticipated success of its rivals.

No one expected Bob Schieffer to be [such an] attractive replacement for Dan Rather at CBS. Morale at CBS has improved markedly since Rather/Heyward were replaced by Schieffer/MacManus.

NBC News has done a remarkable job keeping that network afloat despite its poor performance in primetime. Both “Today” and “Nightly News” have prevailed on a fourth-place network.

What effect will Katie Couric have on news viewership when she takes over in September? Will she pull new viewers to the news broadcasts?

The pool of news viewers available at 6:30 p.m. is defined by sociological and demographic factors rather than by the personality of the network anchors. The news audience grows at the margins during periods of heavy news events, [such as] wars, disasters, terrorist attacks, elections and so on.

Couric’s arrival will presumably increase the amount of sampling of the rival networks’ offerings but is unlikely to convert non-news viewers to the core news audience in that timeslot.

Transition periods have been rough on CBS and ABC so far. Why was NBC able to have so much success in their transition from Tom Brokaw to Williams? Was it simply that they’d actually planned for it?

I disagree that the transition from Rather-to-Schieffer-to-Couric has been as rough as you assert, so far at least.

If anything, CBS’ “rough” period consisted of Rather’s resistance to change. As for ABC, all the planning in the world could not have prepared them for Jennings’ cancer followed by Woodruff’s injury followed by Vargas’ pregnancy.

It is true, however, that NBC News’s success under Andy Lack in building broadcast leaders in major timeslots--evening news, morning programs, Sunday mornings--a stable of anchors signed to long-term contracts, and a 24-hour cable news operation, albeit a third-place one, allowed for depth of talent and resources that gave NBC a planning edge over its two rivals.

Williams would not have had the opportunity to spend so many years preparing himself to be the “Nightly News” anchor if MSNBC had not been part of NBC News.

Dan Rather has joined Mark Cuban’s HDNet for his own news program. Do you expect that will draw any interest? What sort of stories could Rather do there that he couldn’t on CBS?

Dan Rather prided himself on being a reporter first and anchor second during most of his time at “CBS Evening News.” However, that reputation overstates the amount of hard news reporting he did in the final six years or so behind the anchor chair.

During that period he was on the road less often and reading a teleprompter more often than in his heyday. Remember that in 1989, for example, he was already in Beijing covering Mikhail Gorbachev before the Tiananmen Square protests even broke out.

The key question about the HDNet venture is whether Rather, at his age, can turn the clock back to a style of journalism he has not done for almost a decade.

It could be that Rather’s reports will be more like Ted Koppel’s project at Discovery — longform think pieces on major trends rather than hard news on-the-ground coverage of breaking stories. For breaking news, television needs a larger organization of production, editing, research and newsgathering than HDNet could probably support.

What has been the dominant news story of the summer thus far for the broadcast networks? Why?

Internationally, Iraq has continued to dominate the networks’ resources — for the obvious reason that the country is at war, and for the more parochial reason that the networks’ own journalists have been injured and killed in the fighting. Domestically, there has been no dominant story. Probably the illegal immigration story has been the biggest of a series of medium size events.

Have you seen any trends in the past year related to how different networks cover different stories? That is, is there one network spending more time on a certain story than another?

The biggest difference has been NBC’s decision to stick with the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, arising directly from Brian Williams’ personal experiences. CBS continues to cover overseas news in general more heavily than its rivals, and Iraq in particular. While the pregnant Elizabeth Vargas was anchor, ABC specialized in sex and family features. That emphasis seems to have declined upon her departure.

Is there any general trend over the past year in the sort of stories that get big play on the broadcast networks? How does it differ from the big stories on cable?

The story selection on cable news tends to be closer to that of the networks’ morning programs than the networks’ evening newscasts. So cable has more tabloid tales, more true crime melodrama, more human interest, more domestic coverage.

The evening newscasts emphasize public policy more: both foreign policy--too much on Iraq compared with the rest of the world--and inside-the-Beltway stories. It is not clear yet that the midterm elections are shaping up as a big story for the fall. We’ll find out after Labor Day.

http://www.medialifemagazine.com/artman/publish/printer_5928.asp

fredfa

07-13-06, 12:00 PM

Washington Notebook
FCC Meeting Delay II

The Federal Communication Commission meeting, which among other things is scheduled to (finally) rule on the proposed Comcast/Time Warner takeover of Adelphia, has been delayed.

Originally scheduled to begin at 9:30 ER, it had has been rescheduled for 11:30 ET.

As of 12:00 Noon ET it had not yet started.

If you have RealPlayer the FCC meeting is available for viewing.

(Google FCC and go to the site. The viewing instructions are in the lower left of the first page.)

The Adelphia matter is the third order of business.

fredfa

07-13-06, 12:03 PM

TV Notebook
Dr.'s orders: Salary boost for Laurie

By Nellie Andreeva The Hollywood Reporter July 13, 2006

"House" star Hugh Laurie is joining the ranks of the top drama actors on television.

After a two-month renegotiation, the actor has received a big salary bump going into the hot medical drama's third season, bringing his per-episode fee to the neighborhood of $300,000, sources said.

That is a dramatic increase from Laurie's starting pay on the Fox series, which is said to have been in the mid-five figures.

The renegotiation also adds an additional year to the actor's current contract for "House," which is produced by NBC Universal TV Studio. It is understood that Fox has helped NBC Uni TV foot the bill for Laurie's new deal. Laurie is also said to have received a small stake in the backend of "House."

Laurie's performance as the brutally honest and brilliant Dr. Gregory House has been key to the success of the medical drama, which has emerged as a blockbuster hit for Fox.

The role earned the actor a Golden Globe this year.

"House," created by David Shore, already is in production on its third season.

NBC Uni TV and Fox declined comment Wednesday.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr/television/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1002838745

fredfa

07-13-06, 12:15 PM

The Wednesday prime-time ratings – and Media Week Analyst Marc Berman’s view of what they mean -- have been posted at the top of Ratings News the first post in this thread.

fredfa

07-13-06, 12:27 PM

Obituary
Bewitched’s Kasey Rogers, 80

The Associated Press--LOS ANGELES – Kasey Rogers, an actress who was a regular on television shows like “Bewitched” but was best known for an appearance in Alfred Hitchcock's “Strangers on a Train,” has died. She was 80.

Rogers died July 6 at USC University Hospital from a stroke, said her companion, Mark Wood.

Using the name Laura Elliott, Rogers played Farley Granger's estranged wife, Miriam, who is strangled by the psychotic character in “Strangers on a Train.”

• • • • • • • • • • •

For an interview with and (picture of) Kasey Rogers, go here:

http://www.bewitched.net/kasintrv.htm

fredfa

07-13-06, 12:32 PM

Washington Notebook
FCC Meeting Delay III

The Federal Communication Commission meeting, which among other things is scheduled to (finally) rule on the proposed Comcast/Time Warner takeover of Adelphia, has been delayed.

Originally scheduled to begin at 9:30 ET, it had has been rescheduled for 11:30 ET.

As of 12:33 PM ET it had not yet started. (But the selection of elevator music on the FCC feed is very annoying)

If you have RealPlayer the FCC meeting is available for your viewing and listening pleasure:

http://www.fcc.gov/realaudio/#jul13

The Adelphia matter is the third order of business.

fredfa

07-13-06, 12:41 PM

The Digital Revolution
FiOS Adds Sarasota to Franchise List

By Karen Brown Multichannel.com 7/13/2006

Verizon Communications’ Verizon FiOS TV franchise train keeps moving along in Florida, adding yet another stop in Sarasota County.

County commissioners there approved a 15-year franchise for FiOS TV earlier this week, making it the ninth Florida market for the fiber-to-the-home-based service to date. The franchise will extend service to 246,000 potential customers in the unincorporated parts of the county, excluding the cities of Sarasota, Longboat Key, Venice and North Port. Comcast also offers cable-TV service there.

Verizon will begin offering FiOS TV service in the north part of the county soon, with plans to extend that to cover the entire county within five years.

Under the franchise agreement, Verizon will provide two public-access channels initially and expand that to as many as six in the future. It will support the channels by kicking in 53 cents per subscriber for the first three years of service, raising that to as much as $1.50 per subscriber afterward.

Verizon also will provide cable service to more than 85 schools and governments at no cost.

With Sarasota County, FiOS TV franchises cover more than 1.8 million customers in Florida and, as of the first quarter, the company said it is averaging a 10% penetration rate in the Sunshine State markets it serves.

http://www.multichannel.com/index.asp?layout=articlePrint&articleid=CA6352587

fredfa

07-13-06, 12:48 PM

Overnights in the 18-49 Demo
'America's Got Talent' betters 'Dance'

By Samantha Melamed MediaLifeMagazine.com staff writer Jul 13, 2006

With voting about to start on NBC's "America's Got Talent," the program appears to have more potential than many of its bizarre contestants.

"Talent" average a 3.9 rating and 11 share of adults 18-49 last night at 9 p.m., drawing more than 12 million total viewers and reclaiming the top slot over Fox's summer talent series "So You Think You Can Dance."

"Dance" had won the time slot last week, beating "Talent" for the first time. Last night's "Dance" rated a 3.7/11.

But "Talent" is still down from its 4.6-rated premiere on June 21. Its second outing on June 28 rated a 3.8 and last week's show rated a 4.0.
The program, essentially a "Gong Show" update, is hosted by Regis Philbin and executive produced by "American Idol's" Simon Cowell. It could be benefiting from the chemistry of judges Brandy, David Hasselhoff and Piers Morgan, who spend plenty of time wrestling past each other to buzz out offensive contestants. Or perhaps viewers just grew weary of the two-day per week "Dance" and turned to NBC for a change of pace.

"Talent" propelled NBC to the lead for the night among adults 18-49 with a 3.1 rating and 10 share, followed by Fox at 2.9/9, CBS at 2.3/7, Univision at 1.6/4, ABC at 1.1/3, WB at 0.8/2 and UPN at 0.6/2.

At 8 p.m., NBC's "Talent" rerun led at 3.1, followed by CBS's "Rock Star: Supernova" at 2.2, Fox's "Dance" repeat at 2.1, Univision's "La Fea Mas Bella" at 2.0, ABC's "George" and "Freddie" reruns at 1.3, WB's new and repeat "Blue Collar TV" at 1.0 and UPN's "America's Next Top Model" rerun at 0.7.

At 9 p.m., NBC's "Talent" led at 3.9, ahead of Fox's "Dance" at 3.7, CBS's "Criminal Minds" repeat at 2.1, Univision's "Barrera de Amor" at 1.6, ABC's "Lost" repeat at 0.9, and UPN's "Eve" and "Cuts" repeats and WB's rerun of "One Tree Hill" all at 0.5.

At 10 p.m., CBS's "CSI: NY" repeat led at 2.7, ahead of NBC's "Law & Order" rerun at 2.4, Univision's "Don Francisco Presenta" at 1.2 and ABC's "Lost" repeat at 1.1.

Among households, NBC led again with a 6.2 rating and 11 share, followed by CBS at 5.1/9, Fox at 4.8/8, ABC at 2.3/4, Univision at 2.0/3, WB at 1.2/2 and UPN at 1.0/2.

http://www.medialifemagazine.com/artman/publish/printer_5960.asp

fredfa

07-13-06, 12:51 PM

Still nothing about HD in these baseball contracts? I just can't imagine we'll have to put up with SD baseball on Saturdays for the next 7 years.

I can't either.

I wouldn't be surprised if at least the main game of the week isn't in HD starting next season.

But remember we are forced to put up with SD ABC NCAA football regional games, too. (Maybe Saturday is just a bad HD day?)

fredfa

07-13-06, 01:01 PM

TV Notebook
'Runway' model's traffic tragedy

By Ben Widdicombe New York Daily News Thursday, July 13th, 2006

Season three of "Project Runway" premiered on Bravo last night, but a tragic accident marred the finale of the Heidi Klum show.

Designers compete for $100,000, a car and other prizes, while their model wins a spread in Elle magazine.

Hungarian model Jia Santos (whose real name is Eliza Jakubek), 18, became one of the three finalists. But near the end of taping, she was struck by a bus while riding her bike to the show's location in the city.

"She was dragged underneath the bus," her agent, Avenue Models' Javier Hernandez, told us yesterday. "She fractured her skull and her eye socket and was in critical condition for three days. Now she has been in intensive care for a month."

Her first words upon waking up, Hernandez tells us, were: "Am I still on 'Project Runway'?"

Santos still appears in the show, and her accident is explained during the finale. Hernandez said she was modeling to support her parents in their Hungarian village.

"Everyone from the show has been really supportive and offered their help to get her parents a visa to visit her in the hospital and work on a benefit for her," he said.
http://www.nydailynews.com/front/v-pfriendly/story/434734p-366199c.html

fredfa

07-13-06, 01:06 PM

TV Notebook
"CBS News Is In My Rearview Mirror Now"

(from Brian Stelter’s TVNewser at mediabistro.com)

Dan Rather spent the hour with Larry King on CNN last night. Excerpt:

KING: What happened? Why so abrupt? What happened, Dan?

RATHER: Larry, I don't know everything that happened. What I do know is that there was a contract which went unfulfilled and there were promises not kept. I was surprised by that. I never heard the other side of the story, which is to say that I never heard from the top of the corporation or the top of the news division.

KING: Didn't call you?

RATHER: No.

He said he was "disappointed and puzzled." More:

RATHER: ...I had 44 years there. But in the end what I was told, what was relayed to me, was we just don't have a place for you.

KING: And how is that said? Were you at your desk? What happened? Did you get a phone call?

RATHER: I got a phone call from the lawyers. It was relayed by the lawyers. A little earlier than that the executive producer of '60 Minutes' had said that he expected me to be gone by the end of June, or the end of May. And that came as a surprise to me. But perhaps I should have known, you know, going along that there was a point in the middle of last year in which what I thought had been a warm, good relationship with the very top management turned marble slab cold.

Rather Has Considered Suing CBS

When Dan Rather left CBS last month, Rebecca Dana reported that "he has not agreed to rule out legal action against the network." Here's what he said on the subject last night:

KING: Have you ever thought of entertaining a lawsuit?

[PAUSE]

RATHER: Notice that I pause.

KING: Pregnant pause.

RATHER: I'm not going to talk about that.

KING: But you're not saying no? I'll just -- I'm being a Dan Rather journalist now. You did not say no.

RATHER: You asked me had I ever thought about it. And the answer is I can't say that I never thought about it.

Here is the full transcript:

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0607/12/lkl.01.html

fredfa

07-13-06, 01:22 PM

Washington Notebook
FCC Meeting Delay IV

The Federal Communication Commission meeting, which among other things is scheduled to (finally) rule on the proposed Comcast/Time Warner takeover of Adelphia, has been delayed.

Originally scheduled to begin at 9:30 ET, it had has been rescheduled for 11:30 ET.

As of 1:22 PM ET it had still not yet started. (But it appears Commissioners may be arriving in the room.)

If you have RealPlayer the FCC meeting is available for your viewing and listening pleasure:

http://www.fcc.gov/realaudio/#jul13

The Adelphia matter is the third order of business.

Marcus Carr

07-13-06, 01:31 PM

MNT Signs Up Seven More

By Allison Romano -- Broadcasting & Cable, 7/12/2006 3:41:00 PM

Fox's MyNetworkTV (MNT) signed up seven new affiliates Tuesday, including three CBS-owned UPN stations that lost out on The CW affiliation.

CBS-owned WBFS Miami-Ft. Lauderdale (market No. 17); WTCN-West Palm Beach, Fla. (No. 38) and WUPL New Orleans (No. 43) will become MNT affiliates when the network launches Sept. 5. The three stations lost out to Tribune-owned WB stations in their markets to get The CW, which also launches in September after The WB and UPN shut down.

Other new MNT stations include: KTVD Denver, owned by Multimedia Holdings Corporation; WHP-DT Harrisburg, Pa., owned by Clear Channel Television; WAWS-DT Jacksonville, Fla., also owned by Clear Channel, and Sinclair Broadacsting's WSYZDT Columbus, Ohio.

“We are pleased to have reached a deal for three of our UPN stations -- WBFS in Miami, WTCN-CA in West Palm Beach and WUPL in New Orleans -- to become primary affiliates of MyNetworkTV in September,” CBS Television Stations President Tom Kane said in a statement. “We determined that these stations, in these markets, would be better served as network affiliates, as opposed to being independent stations.”

“We are thrilled that a station group as well-respected as CBS has joined our cadre of partners and that quality operators like Sinclair Broadcasting Group, Clear Channel Television and Multimedia Holdings Corporation continue to collaborate with us as we revolutionize local primetime broadcasting," Fox Television Stations CEO Jack Abernethy said.

The new affiliates bring MNT's total coverage to 91% of the country and 158 markets.

http://broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6352108.html?display=Breaking+News

fredfa

07-13-06, 01:33 PM

Washington Notebook
FCC Open Meeting Begins

The Federal Communication Commission meeting, which among other things is scheduled to (finally) rule on the proposed Comcast/Time Warner takeover of Adelphia, finally began at 1:30 PM ET.

It originally ha scheduled to begin at 9:30 AM ET.

If you have RealPlayer the FCC meeting is available for your viewing and listening pleasure – although the audio seems to be having trouble. But there is closed captioning:

http://www.fcc.gov/realaudio/#jul13

The Adelphia matter is the third order of business.

fredfa

07-13-06, 01:46 PM

Washington Notebook
Some VOOM Content To Canadian Satellite

Rainbow, High Fidelity Make High-Def Pact

By Glen Dickson Broadcasting & Cable 7/13/2006

High Fidelity HDTV, a Toronto-based HD broadcaster carried by the Bell ExpressVu direct-to-home satellite service, has expanded its agreement with Rainbow HD Holdings LLC, a subsidiary of Rainbow Media, to bring Voom HD programming to Canadian audiences.

Under the deal, High Fidelity will license Voom HD content in order to launch the Rush HD and Equator HD channels, following up on the previous launch of Rainbow’s Treasure HD channel, which is now on the air in Canada. As part of that deal, High Fidelity currently distributes the Treasure HD brand throughout Canada and has access to over 100 hours each year of Voom HD content. High Fidelity will now have exclusive Canadian rights for Rush HD, which features action sports, and Equator HD, which offers travel-based fare, and access to hundreds of additional hours of Voom HD programming.

"With a command of the Canadian HD landscape, it has been a natural fit for High Fidelity and Rainbow to join resources as we increase the global footprint of our Voom HD Networks," says Greg Moyer, Voom HD’s General Manager. "We are pleased to continue our successful collaboration in providing some of the very best HD content to Canadian viewers."

Voom HD and High Fidelity also plan to work together to develop a slate of original productions, with the first planned production being the 26-episode Collector’s Showdown.

http://www.broadcastingcable.com/index.asp?layout=articlePrint&articleID=CA6352637

fredfa

07-13-06, 01:57 PM

Washington Notebook
FCC Meeting In Progress

The Federal Communication Commission, which among other things is scheduled to (finally) rule on the proposed Comcast/Time Warner takeover of Adelphia, has finished the first two items on today's agenda and is taking a short (three-minute) break.

When it reconvenes, the Adelphia matter should be the next item to be acted on. Reportedly there will be a vote.

If you have RealPlayer the FCC meeting is available for your viewing and listening pleasure:

http://www.fcc.gov/realaudio/#jul13

keenan

07-13-06, 02:04 PM

fredfa

07-13-06, 02:16 PM

Washington Notebook
Comcast RSN

The Federal Communication Commission media bureau has just recommended that Comcast’s Philadelphia RSN not be subject to any conditions in the Adelphia sale.

The Media Bureau also recommends compulsory arbitration for RSNs who seek carriage by Comcast or Time Warner. This would apparently effect MASN in the Baltimore/Washington area.

JWhip

07-13-06, 02:37 PM

The FCC has effectively thrown the whole Philadelphia market under the bus. Interestingly, the FCC's findings do not explain why the Philadelphia market should be treated any differently from any other market. Not hard to understand as there is no valid reason.

keenan

07-13-06, 02:51 PM

Dang, just lost the feed right after Tate...Copps was downright impressive, clear and to the point.

JWhip

07-13-06, 02:58 PM

Wow, Mrs. Tate seems like a real lightweight.

keenan

07-13-06, 03:01 PM

Wow, Mrs. Tate seems like a real lightweight.
You know, I was thinking the same thing, very lightweight, almost as if she's a token.

fredfa

07-13-06, 03:01 PM

Washington Notebook
Adelphia Sale Approved

The Federal Communications Commission has just approved the sale of Adelphia to Comcast and Time Warner.

It imposed mandatory arbitration of the Washington-area RSN MASN which Comcast has refused to carry.

It did not require that Comcast allow DBS systems to gain access to its Philadelphia RSN.

fredfa

07-13-06, 03:07 PM

Washington Notebook
FCC Approves Adelphia Merger

By Ted Hearn & Mike Farrell Multichannel.com 7/13/2006

The Federal Communications Commission voted 4-1 Thursday to approve the $16.9 billion acquisition of Adelphia Communications by Time Warner Inc. and Comcast, removing the last regulatory hurdle facing the deal.

Democratic commissioner Jonathan Adelstein partially dissented, but the agency counts the split vote as a vote in favor of the deal.

The vote culminates one of the longest cable-system transactions in recent FCC history, taking 404 days. In contrast, the Federal Trade Commission approved the deal without conditions in late January.

Adelphia currently has about 5 million subscribers. Time Warner Cable and Comcast intend to divide Adelphia’s assets and some of their own properties in a series of cable-system trades designed to bolster their regional footprints in several large markets, including Los Angeles, Dallas and Minneapolis-St. Paul.

Time Warner Cable would emerge with a net gain of 3.5 million subscribers and Comcast with about 1.8 million. Those figures were announced last year, when Adelphia had about 5.4 million subscribers.

Time Warner will emerge from the deal with about 14.5 million subscribers and Comcast with 23.3 million. Comcast is the largest U.S. cable operator and Time Warner is the second-largest. With more that 15 million subscribers, direct-broadcast satellite provider DirecTV is the second-largest pay TV provider in the United States.

The commission attached a number of program-access conditions to its approval of the transaction.

Any regional sports network affiliated with Comcast or Time Warner must go to arbitration in the event of a pricing dispute.

However, Comcast SportsNet in Philadelphia is grandfathered, meaning that Comcast can retain exclusivity over the RSN.

And Mid-Atlantic Sports Network and Comcast will go to arbitration over that RSN’s attempt to gain carriage on the MSO. MASN carries Washington Nationals Major League Baseball games.

Adelphia filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in June 2002 in the wake of a massive accounting scandal that resulted in four of its top executives being charged in federal court with fraud and conspiracy.

Two of those executives -- former chairman John Rigas and his son, former chief financial officer Timothy Rigas -- were convicted and sentenced to 15 years and 20 years in prison, respectively. The Rigases are appealing their convictions.

On June 28, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Robert Gerber approved a reorganization plan that effectively removed legal obstacles in the way of the Adelphia sale.

Adelphia is to receive $12.7 billion in cash and 16% equity in Time Warner Cable when the company becomes publicly traded.

http://www.multichannel.com/index.asp?layout=articlePrint&articleid=CA6352881

fredfa

07-13-06, 03:09 PM

You know, I was thinking the same thing, very lightweight, almost as if she's a token.

I think you two are giving her too much credit.

fredfa

07-13-06, 03:14 PM

Washington Notebook
FCC Approves Adelphia Deal

By John Eggerton Broadcasting & Cable 7/13/2006 (John Higgins contributed to this report.)

As expected, the FCC Thursday approved--by a 4-1 vote--Comcast and Time Warner's $17.6 billion purchase of bankrupt Adelphia Communications, with the two dividing up the systems.

Democrat Jonathan Adelstein joined the Republicans in voting for the deal, leaving only Democrat Michael Copps opposing. Adelstein did dissent in part, saying the commission should have imposed network neutrality conditions, a deficit that also troubled Copps.

Adelstein said, on balance, that the more compelling interest was to get Adelphia out of bankruptcy and improve service to its customers. It has been "rotting on the vine," in the interim, he said.

The merger, said the commission, serves the public interest, complies with all rules and statues and whatever public interest harms there might be are outweighed by public interest benefits, including principally system upgrades that will bring high speed voice and data, HDTV and video on demand to Adelphia's systems that are upgraded, and resolving the Adelphia bankruptcy.

The key conditions the FCC did put on the merger had to do with regional sports networks. Comcast and Time Warner must put disputes over pricing or access to its regional sports networks (RSNs) to arbitration. The companies also cannot deny access to its sports networks to other multichannel programming providers, with, as expected, a carve-out for Philadelphia.

The decision does close the terrestrial loophole for regional sports networks, which means that program access rules will now apply to landline-delivered RSNs. Previously, they only applied to satellite-delivered programming. "The conditions apply regardless of the means of delivery. Terrestrial means are included."

Comcast and Mid Atlantic Sports Network (MASN) will now have to submit their dispute to binding arbitration, which means resolving a fight that has kept the Washington Nationals baseball games out of many Washington homes. That was an issue that many on Capitol Hill had pushed the FCC to address. New Commissioner Robert McDowell was given credit for working on that issue .

McDowell had some strong words for the FCC, saying it had been slow to resolve and address program carriage issues. He said he wholeheartedly supports launching a review of program access rules, which the FCC also agreed to do.

"The MASN complaint has been left to rot in some small crypt in this building," he said. McDowell said it had become clear to him that complaints wait too long for action, attributing it to an "indolent bureaucracy's failure to obey simple congressional mandates." To that end, he praised the decision to put a shot clock on resolving those complaints.

Competitors, congressmen and media reform activists had all called for some conditions on the merger, which allows the top two cable MSO's, Comcast and Time Warner, respectively, to get even bigger. Chairman Kevin Martin had telegraphed his intention to put some programming access conditions on the deal, particularly after input from many complaining of the access to home team sports broadcasts that Comcast controls.

Copps was unhappy that there were not tougher program access and other conditions, saying that "while rescuing Adelphia is laudable, the antcompetitive combination of asssets is not."

Copps said nothing in the order "rebuts the truth that competitoin means higher prices." It is big media getting bigger, he said, without sufficient protections from dominating programming and potentially broadband access as well.

Martin said he did not believe that network neutrality conditions were called for absent any showing of present harm, but said the FCC would stand by its four network neutrality principles and monitor for potential harms..

Copps also took issue with the regional sports remedies. He said arbigration was a positive step, but oppposed the carve-out for Philadelpia.

Time Warner Cable and Comcast will divvy up Adelphia systems serving 5.2 million subscribers scattered across 31 states. The two cable operators will further swap systems from their existing portfolios to create stronger geographic clusters.

The deal will allow Time Warner to emerge as the largest cable operator in the Los Angeles market, which has been the most fragmented major market in the country.

The deal will also allow Comcast to fulfill its promise to regulators to unwind its 21% ownership of Time Warner Cable, something inherited in a past deal. Antitrust regulators frowned on such a significant link between the two largest cable operators—a legacy of the AT&T deal. As part of the various system swaps, Comcast will give Time Warner that stock back.

Friedman Billings Ramsey analyst Brian Coyne said two weeks ago that the analysts sees major system upgrades, and cable tech fortunes, spurred by the decision to allow Comcast and Time Warner to divvy up Adelphia's almost 5 million basic subs.

The FCC had pledged to move on its decision on the sale of Adelphia by the Aug 31 deadline for the deal to close--pushed back from an initial Aug. 31 deadline.

At the end of the day, Time Warner will grow from 10.9 million subscribers to 14.4 million. FCC Chairman Kevin Martin had wanted to move earlier on the merger approval, but was deadlocked with a 2-2 commission until recently, with the two Demcratic commissioners wanting stronger conditions put on the merger.

Utlimately, the conditions were sufficient to win over Adelstein to the majority.

In addition, Adelphia has been in protracted bankruptcy proceedings that affected the timing of the approval as well.

Coyne noted that Comcast alone plans to spend $150 million to upgrade the Adelphia systems
and Time Warner potentially more since it is getting more systems out of the deal.

In fact, Commissioner Adelstein said Thursday that the two had commited to $1.6 billion in upgrades between them.

http://www.broadcastingcable.com/index.asp?layout=articlePrint&articleID=CA6352882

JWhip

07-13-06, 03:18 PM

What is the possible "rationale" for the carve out in Philadelphia? Other than the obvious...

AFH

07-13-06, 03:25 PM

Speaking of arrogant, it seems to me in reading them carefully, that a goodly percentage of these TV writers fall into that category.

Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you Fred. I clearly sensed a rather arrogant tone in the writings of certains critics whom articles or blogs entries you post here especially after the Rescue Me 'rape show'. I've been seeing it for a couple of months. Especially from certain individuals out of Chicago, Washington - Lisa......, the Tv Guide to an extent, Orlando and Variety.

Glad I'm not the only one.

AFH

07-13-06, 03:30 PM

I don't think we much care that some of them are apparently thrilleed to be in the elevator with celebrities.

And I personally don't care to have them act like some superior beings to creative people who are allowing themselves to be insulted by these writers.

Or when they insult their fellow writer by commenting how a certain writer from the Orlando Sentinel was complaining how small of a serving of some shrimp he had while at a party standing next to Courtney Cox. Why call someone out like that? It seems like some of the critics are trying to be as*-holes during the TCA and some of them seem to get a kick out of it.

GeorgeLV

07-13-06, 03:32 PM

Wow, I guess it will literally take an act of Congress to get the Philly RSNs on satellite.

AFH

07-13-06, 03:32 PM

Yes, well said, my eyes glazed over when reading Goodman about his accommodations and such, like I really give crap, and he's one of my favorites.

I maybe the lone one, but I kinda like hearing about the ancillary things. It kinds of gives you a 'live on the set' feel, especially from those whom are blogging.

fredfa

07-13-06, 03:32 PM

I think we'll have to disagree on that specific case, Antonio.

Personally I found that "Rescue Me" show perhaps the most distasteful TV episode I have ever seen.

(And trust me, I am as far from PC as anyone can get.)

I have found some of their dismissive critical treatment some celebrities incredibly cruel and thoughtless and their view of their own "importance" to be incredibly over the top.

They get paid to watch TV, for goodness sake. That is (presumably) fun..but neither back (nor mind) breaking work.

The fact that a pair of penguins can make so many of them weak at the knees almost defies belief.

fredfa

07-13-06, 03:42 PM

Sports On TV
ESPN to Run Wide-Screen College Football

Channel Risks Irking Standard-Def Viewers to Promote HD Content

(TVWeek.com)---In a sports programming first, ESPN will add letterbox bars to its Thursday Night Football series of standard-definition college telecasts to promote the high-definition experience to viewers who lack HD service.

The weekly program will add black bars on the upper and lower portion of the screen to simulate the expansive picture ratio familiar to viewers with widescreen HD sets. Though standard-definition viewers will not be able to see a true high-definition picture-which has up to 1080 lines of resolution versus standard definition's 480-the image will hint at a more exclusive viewing experience.

"We're taking the medium and using it to educate the public about what's out there," said Bryan Burns, ESPN VP for strategic business planning and development. "We cannot go into their homes and put more pixels into their TV sets. But we can change the shape of what they're seeing and give them the opportunity to experience the aspect ratio of high-definition television."

The move is also expected to irk some SD viewers. Video stores such as Blockbuster often receive complaints from members who rent "widescreen" movies that present films in letterbox format on SD sets. Though fans of the widescreen format tout the presentation as more compatible with the human field of vision and more effective for showing complex scenes, others decry the bars as "shrinking" a program's image on their traditional square sets.

Mr. Burns said the concern has been discussed internally and ESPN decided the benefits of promoting HD are worth some calls to the switchboard. "We get calls on everything we do," Mr. Burns said. "You can't do new things without breaking some old models. It's inevitable."

Most HD programming is shot in widescreen and telecast two different ways: A widescreen 16:9 aspect ratio presentation on a network's HD feed, and a traditional 4:3 "center cut" presentation that crops off the sides of the image for standard-definition signals.

A very small number of entertainment series-mainly NBC's "ER" and "The West Wing," and HBO's "The Sopranos"-have bucked convention and aired a letterbox version on SD signals. In 2001, "West Wing" and "ER" executive producer John Wells explained to the Akron Beacon Journal that he opted for letterboxing simply because it looked "classier." But some fans of the dramas were put off. "If I want a letterbox frame," wrote one viewer on the CHUD pop culture message boards, "I'll go make a f***ing movie."

As for "The Sopranos," an HBO spokesperson acknowledged that some SD viewers complain about the formatting.

Letterboxing a traditional sport like college football could present a greater challenge to gaining viewer acceptance than letterboxing contemporary urbanite dramas. But Mr. Burns pointed out that in addition to promoting HD, there are production and aesthetic advantages to making the switch for ESPN's growing HD audience. When shooting a program for both wide and full screen, for instance, ESPN has to ensure all graphics and action is contained within the 4:3 square center of the screen, lest SD viewers miss crucial information.

By adopting a widescreen presentation format for both SD and HD airings, producers can feel free to utilize the entire 16:9 field. HD viewers will notice graphics appearing at the far ends of the screen and more action shots taking advantage of their entire display.

ESPN has been arguably the most aggressive cable network in promoting high definition, having launched HD simulcast networks for its flagship network and ESPN2. The Thursday Night Football letterbox strategy kicks off Aug. 31 for a South Carolina vs. Mississippi State match and will run for 13 games through Nov. 30.

keenan

07-13-06, 03:49 PM

What is the possible "rationale" for the carve out in Philadelphia? Other than the obvious...
I'm not as up to date with the facts, but that puzzles me as well. The only way I could possibly understand it is if Comcast owned the teams in question, and even then, I don't think an MSO should have complete media control over a sports franchise, or at least, be able to flatly refuse carriage to other providers. Are the venues where these teams play owned privately, with no public funding what so ever?

fredfa

07-13-06, 03:55 PM

Comcast/Spectacor owns the Flyers and 76ers.

keenan

07-13-06, 03:59 PM

Comcast/Spectacor owns the Flyers and 76ers.
Well, that's probably the reason then, were the venues built with private funds or with public bond/tax measures?

fredfa

07-13-06, 04:07 PM

TV Critics Summer Press Tour
Mr. T Pities the Fool

By Anne Becker at Broadcasting & Cable’s blog bcbeat.com BroadcastingCable.com July 13 2006

Ok, Mr. T is a ridiculous smash hit with the critics – hands down their favorite star so far. They are bombarding him with adoring playful questions about why he "pities the fool" (because you don’t want to beat up the fool"), what he watches on TV (The A-Team on TV Land, National Geographic, the Christian channels, the Travel Channel and TLC) and whether people should be afraid of him (no – he’s a "big overgrown, tuff mama’s boy.").

He’s beyond animated at this 9 a.m. panel, the first of the day ("I’m always up, brother, no drugs," he explains. "I be so up people think I’m on drugs. They ask me what you got, man, what you got, I say it’s God." When he’s in the presence of ladies, he "speaks low," he says). He’s debonair in a tailored suit and gleaming white sneakers. T says he’s not going to give advice in his I Pity the Fool TV Land show (which starts on Oct. 11), but rather inspire people, what he says he does best.

Why is he qualified, they want to know. He says "you can’t get no degree in the streets for doing this," and that he’s got "not a doctorate, but a street degree." He’s talking a lot about his mother, who’s the lady in his life because no one lives up to her – "just when you find a woman who cooks like your mother, she looks like your mother," he says, to roaring laughter. T, who clarifies that to the women in the church that means "tender," says he was asked to be in The Surrreal Life, but declined because he "doesn’t do stuff like that."

But as for his show, whatever you do, don’t think it’ll be like Dr. Phil "where people sit around crying, he tells the adoring crowd, ‘What’s wrong with me, Dr. Phil? What’s wrong with me Dr. Phil?’ You’re a FOOL, that’s what’s wrong with you!"

http://broadcastingcable.com/blog/1380000138.html

fredfa

07-13-06, 04:07 PM

TV Critics Summer Press Tour
Balls to the Wall at Comedy

By Anne Becker at Broadcasting & Cable’s blog bcbeat.com BroadcastingCable.com July 13 2006

Comedy Central's the first network to have an entire panel for broadband shows. They've got these schmo creators of new MotherLoad show Baxter & McGuire, a "buddy comedy" about a pair of testicles. The one just said they would have "had to bring the concept that it's balls in real late" if they were pitching network TV.

The critics are indulging them with questions, most about the concept of TV about testicles. But someone just asked the executives about where they think broadband is going. Lauren Corrao, Comedy's Executive Vice President of Original Programming and Development said: "What cable was to broadcast television 15 years ago, broadband is to television now, it’s just another platform for content."

Another critic asked what the economic model was. "It’s shorter form, more rudimentary production values. I would synopsize it as lower-risk, high reward," said Lou Wallach, Senior VP, original programming and development. "Two minutes are not expensive, but it gives us the opportunity to get viewers in the short term in this emerging kind of platform."

He also said the lower cost of broadband videos "play into that kind of viral, user-generated kind of quality and feel of the form itself."

Someone asked whether these shows could branch onto the traditional platforms. Wallach said "the goal in developing these things are for the digital platforms. Again, I think there’s not a world where the kind of fences between these platforms are so rigid that if something were to evolve and it make sense organically – that’s the threshold – I think we’d certainly be open to it."

http://broadcastingcable.com/blog/1380000138.html

archiguy

07-13-06, 04:08 PM

By adopting a widescreen presentation format for both SD and HD airings, producers can feel free to utilize the entire 16:9 field. HD viewers will notice graphics appearing at the far ends of the screen and more action shots taking advantage of their entire display.

It will be interesting to see if ESPN follows through with the potential of this change and actually starts framing the shot to take advantage of the 16x9 format. If we still see the line of scrimmage in the exact center of the frame with 10 yards of empty space behind the offensive backfield, we'll know they still don't "get it".

fredfa

07-13-06, 04:08 PM

TV Critics Summer Press Tour
Parker and Stone Talk Scientology

By Anne Becker at Broadcasting & Cable’s blog bcbeat.com BroadcastingCable.com July 13 2006

South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone are still no-holds-barred when it comes to Scientology. Earlier in the week, Comedy Central said it would put back into rotation "Trapped in the Closet," a Scientology-focused episode that had angered members of the church. The episode, which earned an Emmy nomination, prompted fire from Scientologists by showing church member Tom Cruise refusing to come out of a closet.

Parker and Stone, on a TCA panel to promote the series’ tenth season, which debuts Oct. 4, said they did believe Comedy initially yanked the episode because Cruise said he’d refuse to promote Paramount’s Mission: Impossible III (Viacom owns Comedy Central and Paramount) if it ran. They started the panel by joking "first of all, there can’t be any questions about Tom Cruise or Scientology or South Park," and went on to say while they’d actually avoided touching Scientology for a long time, when they did float the idea of an episode by Comedy’s lawyers, they approved it.

Have they heard from the Scientologists since? Joked Parker, "They’re actually extremely happy with us. Everything we’ve heard, they’re actually, like, really supportive. Really like, ‘you go guys.’" Stone answered a little more seriously: "Scientology has this reputation for intimidating people and throwing dead animals over your fence and bricks at your cars…I think it’s all bullshit. Scientology enjoys that reputation because it keeps people from doing anything about them."

Setting the record straight, he said they haven’t heard from the Scientologists at all regarding the episode.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=440744

fredfa

07-13-06, 04:14 PM

TV Critics Summer Press Tour
Everybody Plays the Fool (Except Mr. T)

By Ray Richmond The Hollywood Reporter in his blog “Past Deadline”

Okay, so after a 24-hour hiccup during which the server for this fine blog -- not to name names, but it's called TypePad -- experienced technical difficulties that kept us from posting, we're back. Whatever couldn't be posted on Wednesday will soon be added to the blog, since we promised you, our loyal readers, at least that much.

In the meantime, it's already Thursday of Week One of the Television Critics Association Press Tour in Pasadena, and Mr. T is IN THE HOUSE!

Let me just say at the outset that no one handles the TV critics of America better than does this guy. On hand to promote his new TV Land inspirational reality show "I Pity the Fool" (think of it as Dr. Phil-Meets-Tony Robbins-Meets-Dog Chapman) that premieres Oct. 4, it was a new-look T who stood in front of the room. He was wearing a black suit, for one thing, For another, the only thing around his neck was a tie. The 50 pounds of gold chains?

Gone, apparently forever. He decided to put them into storage after visiting the Katrina hurricane victims and realizing it wasn't in the best taste to be flashing so much hardware at people who had lost everything.

It was also a notable less angry Mr. T -- still whipped up into a high energy frenzy on what is apparently natural crack and still preaching about staying in school and staying off drugs and being good to one's mother. The Mohawk still dotted his otherwise shaved scalp. And the rap had the cynical multitudes eating from the palm of his oversized hand.

The questions came at him in waves: "Mr. T, I've followed your career fairly closely. When did you become a self-help guru?"; "Mr. T, why do you pity the fool?"; "Mr. T, what happened to the gold chains?"; "Mr. T, why isn't there a Mrs. T?".

Without missing a beat, the onetime "A-Team" star took over the room like the secular preacher he is.

"I pity the fool because he doesn't know no better."

"I put the gold chains away because I saw all of these celebrities going to New Orleans and doing photo ops. It was disgusting. Those people didn't have nothin'. So the gold is in my heart now."

"There's no Mrs. T because I could never find a woman who cooks like my mother. The problem is once she learns to cook like your mother, she looks like your mother!"

He also finally told us what the "T" in Mr. T stands for. It's "Tender" if you're a woman or child, "Tough" if you're a dude. It also stands for a lot of things that doln't begin with "T" because, as it happens, the lead consonant now means less than the message, which is: do good, do right by people, don't screw up, don't be a jerk, make your mommy proud. That's why he turned down doing "The Surreal Life." Yes, sometimes, the guys who are the least educated turn out to be smartest.
http://www.pastdeadline.com/

JWhip

07-13-06, 04:17 PM

AFH

07-13-06, 04:19 PM

TV Critics Summer Press Tour
Mr. T Pities the Fool

By Anne Becker at Broadcasting & Cable’s blog bcbeat.com BroadcastingCable.com July 13 2006

But as for his show, whatever you do, don’t think it’ll be like Dr. Phil "where people sit around crying, he tells the adoring crowd, ‘What’s wrong with me, Dr. Phil? What’s wrong with me Dr. Phil?’ You’re a FOOL, that’s what’s wrong with you!"

http://broadcastingcable.com/blog/1380000138.html

hehe; That is the funniest thing I've read today! :D

keenan

07-13-06, 04:20 PM

Comcast Spectacor own the Flyers and Sixers as well as the Wachovia Center. However, CSN has in addition to them, the Phillies as well as other teams they have no financial interest in. Furthermore, the Phillies own a small minority share in CSN. The Wachovia Center was built with private money by Ed Snider and sold to Comcast as part of the deal. The same in not true of Citizens Bank Park. THat still does not mean that they can withhold the programming. They are doing the same thing with CN8.
While I disagree with the situation, apparently the FCC says they can. Like you, I would love to hear the reasoning behind the exclusion, something that we didn't hear today, they just went right by it, with no explanation.

fredfa

07-13-06, 04:22 PM

TV Critics Summer Press Tour
About Those ESPYS

By Rich Heldenfels in his Akron Beacon Journal TV blog

Earlier today I wrote a couple of stories for tomorrow's Beacon Journal about being at the ESPYS. Here are the backstage highlights:

• The red carpet is one long haul. According to notes handed out to reporters, a celebrity walking the red carpet passed, in order, platforms for ESPN News, Entertainment Tonight, Access Hollywood, Extra, The Insider, Good Morning America, Cold Pizza, ESPN 360, ESPN.com and E!, among others. After all of those, they hit an area for print and radio writers; papers on the ground marked precious locations by the red-carpet rail for different organizations. And banked at different spots along the way were photographers.

''It was so hot,'' said Danica Patrick, ''and I was wearing silk.''

The stars also walked by a cheering section encouraged by announcements of which star was coming. LeBron James arrived a little more than 10 minutes after the two-hour red-carpet ceremony began but received the biggest ovation I heard during that time. (The arrival of Janet Jackson and boyfriend Jermaine Dupri was a very close second.) And, while some players could walk down the red carpet in a few minutes, James appeared to be stopped by every crew, taking more than 20 minutes to finish the walk.

• Because of all this, celebrities were highly selective about talking to people in the print and radio sections. Singer Vince Neil and comedian Kathy Griffin (who confided that she hates sports) were among the chatty folks. James walked past with a wave -- although, once he was out of the sun, he paused to talk to some regular fans and even to pose for a few pictures.

Those who did talk also risked getting caught by a crew from Howard Stern's show. I couldn't hear the questions, but some would look stunned and walk away after a moment. Others chatted away, including Kurt Warner and Doug Flutie. Flutie's reponses were especially funny to hear: ''No. No. No. No. ...''

• It's no picnic when you win an award, either. OK, you did get one of this big ESPY trophys and a gift bag from the ''diamond gift lounge.'' But here was what happened to people after they won: an official ESPY photo with the presenters, sound bites for ET, GMA, Access Hollywood snd Extra, a stop at the diamond gift lounge with a sound bite for E! the press room, the photo room and then a last sound bite for The Insider.

• I spent the ceremony in the press room, a noisy area accommodating radio, print reporters, TV crews and one woman who spent a lot of time complaining that she didn't know who any of the athletes were. The ceremony was on monitors, but those were muted when winners came in to talk.

One reporter asked almost every winner about the best advice he or she had ever received. Some asked about music (Dwyane Wade listened to Eminem before playoff games), or clothes (Danica Patrick was in Dolce & Gabbana).

• Producer Jerry Bruckheimer, the man behind CSI and Pirates of the Caribbean, was asked about Pirates' record-busting grosses as much as about Glory Road, which won the ESPY for best movie. ('' Glory Road wasn't a huge success,'' he said, '' but it was a meaningful picture for me.'')

But Bruckheimer knows how the game is played; the real-life Texas Western players portrayed in Glory Road talked to the press first, with Bruckheimer following, so the players got their own share of press time without being overshadowed by the producer.

Again, different stars had different reactions to the ritual. Shaun White, for one, seemed happy to talk as long as anyone listened. So did Andre 3000. And Alonzo Mourning was still emotional when he arrived. When Mourning was dealing with his kidney transplant, Lance Armstrong had been especially supportive. But they had never met before Wednesday night, and Mourning was moved when Armstrong paid tribute to him onstage.

• The ESPYS have a dress code. The stars of the ESPYs don't. ''Dress is Formal,'' said the notes to reporters. ''No Exceptions. No jeans, tenis shoes, t-shirts, flip-flops, shorts, etc.''

Now, ''formal'' no longer means a tuxedo; I got by with a jacket and tie, and was still better dressed than some. In the press room, a cameraman carped about having worn long pants as a result while seeing plenty of his red-carpet counterparts in shorts.

Celebrity fashion, though, varies. Plenty of stars dressed up, but actor Matthew McConaughey, a friend of Armstrong's, didn't even have his shirt tucked in as he ambled down the red carpet -- and he had a comparable sloppy-casual air for the telecast.

• Lance Armstrong was happy as a host. ''It felt good,'' he said after the ceremony. ''I was into it. I was really into it.'' And he was genuinely surprised by a bit where Will Ferrell serenaded him. ''We rehearsed the whole show (but) they wouldn't let me see that piece. It was the first time I heard it.''

I asked him if he thought people would be surprised by his opening monologue -- since I thought some of the jokes were PG-13.

''Really?'' he said with a sly grin. ''Well, if (people) lived with me, they would know that was actually a step down, from R.''

http://blogs.ohio.com/beacon_tv/