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Wasn't it great that ABC chose NOT to do the game in HD???
Heat-Lakers Game Lures TV Viewers
By THE NEW YORK TIMES December 27, 2004
The much-hyped meeting of the Miami Heat and the Los Angeles Lakers on Saturday produced an 8.0 preliminary overnight Nielsen rating, a 78 percent leap from the comparable broadcast last year, when the Lakers played the Houston Rockets. With Shaquille O'Neal leading the Heat to a 104-102 overtime victory over Kobe Bryant and the Lakers, the game generated the highest rating for a regular-season game since 1998 (for a Lakers-Chicago Bulls game) and the best one for an N.B.A. game on Christmas Day since at least 1996.
Each overnight rating point equals 761,544 television households.
(Now that ESPN HD [and soon ESPN2 HD] is showing a raft of HD games, this story seems appropriate for the forum.)
Vitale Has Become the Voice of a Sport
Often-imitated college basketball commentator is as exuberant and genuine off-camera as he is on TV
By Robyn Norwood Los AngelesTimes Staff Writer Dec 26 2004
The moment arrived sometime before 2 a.m., aboard a private jet carrying an ESPN crew from Durham, N.C., to Bloomington, Ind.
For the first time since before 9 a.m., Dick Vitale fell silent.
He had fallen asleep.
College basketball season arrives quietly, with this tournament and that. But Vitale is its town crier, jolting you from the couch with his trademark bursts. "Wow! I'm all excited! Coach K and Tommy Izzo! Unbelievable! Two of the great programs in college hoops!
"It's been a Hostess special! Cupcake City! They've blown away opposition, but now it's chemistry time! You get a true evaluation! This is not Phys Ed, baby! It's Chemistry 101!"
He is adored by players otherwise too cool to care, imitated more widely than any sportscaster since Howard Cosell, and muted by many a fan who would rather not be that wide awake.
But after more than 25 years and 1,000 games, Vitale has become the face of college basketball.
It is in part because others have abdicated. Which player would you recognize on the street, the way people once knew Ralph Sampson or Patrick Ewing?
"You don't develop the household names, because as soon as they're good, they're gone [to the NBA]," Vitale said.
The coaching giants are not what they once were either.
Dean Smith — "Michelangelo!" to Vitale — and John Thompson have retired. Bob Knight — "The General! Robert Montgomery Knight!" — is in semi-exile at Texas Tech.
Mike Krzyzewski, the greatest coach of his generation, presides over the game at Duke, but he is disinclined to be the focal point and prefers not to go out with his good friend Vitale in public.
"He's going to get mobbed," Krzyzewski said.
Imagine: A coach who has won three national championships and was Kobe Bryant's choice to coach the Lakers, playing second fiddle to Vitale.
Vitale's hold on people — particularly young people — is extraordinary.
The reason? Because he is the exact opposite of what he appears.
"He's completely genuine," said Dan Shulman, one of his ESPN broadcast partners.
His shtick made him famous — phrases such as "diaper dandy" and "awesome, baby!" and "gotta get a TO!" — but his relationships with players and coaches, his ability to cut to the essence of Xs and O's and his exuberance have made it last.
"Anybody who thinks he's putting on an act is crazy," Krzyzewski said. "He does get that excited. He's speaking from his heart. He puts it out there. He's not afraid of saying something that might be controversial. He's usually right."
On the morning he would broadcast a 9 p.m. game at Duke, Vitale was tooling down a highway in Sarasota, Fla., in a Mercedes convertible, headed for his favorite breakfast joint, the Broken Egg.
"Let's try to get Howie," he said, punching a cellphone.
Howie Schwab is a coordinating producer in studio production for ESPN. He is also Vitale's lifeline. Vitale calls him at home at night to get the scores. He calls in the morning to find out when he is on "SportsCenter," to discuss statistics, to shoot the breeze. "The record has got to be, oh, 10, 12 times in one day," Schwab said. "But Dick is great. He has an amazing memory. Dick will ask me a question, and I'll answer it and think he's not listening … and two seconds later, he recites it line and verse."
In the midst of his conversation with Schwab, just before pulling into a 7-Eleven to buy a pile of newspapers, Vitale decided to dictate a website column.
His volume went up about four notches, and he was off:
"The Jimmy V Classic is always such a special evening! I tell you, what a dynamic doubleheader at Madison Square Garden! But the biggest winners of all are the cancer patients who benefit from the dollars raised to fight this dreaded disease!"
Minutes later, he had finished dissecting two games, analyzing the players and strategies.
"So just clean that up a little bit, Howie. That's basically it," he said.
At the Broken Egg, Vitale made his way to his accustomed table. The universal celebrity uniform — ball cap, dark glasses — suddenly came off. The navy ESPN sweatshirt blared his identity. And when he was approached for the first autograph, Vitale whipped out a pen.
"I keep a Sharpie, just in case," he said.
Vitale tried to order breakfast, and a new employee had trouble. "Egg Beaters, double spinach?" he said, before a waitress leaned in to help.
"Just put down the Dickie V omelet," she said.
Nine hours before game time, Vitale finally left on a private jet, a perk of his success. Vitale works 60 or so games a year, and ESPN pays for first-class commercial fare. Vitale pays the difference with money from speaking engagements.
"The only work in my work is the travel," he said. "The games are play. I can't begin to tell you how much it means to have the extra half-day at home with my family."
Vitale lives with Lorraine, his wife of 34 years, in a $4-million, nearly 13,000-square-foot home in Lakewood Ranch, Fla. Their daughters — both former Notre Dame tennis players who later earned MBAs — live nearby with their families but are often at the house. In Vitale's office, there is a large-screen TV below two smaller screens. The home theater has leather seats with cup-holders and velvet walls.
In the master bedroom, a TV rises at the foot of the bed at the touch of a button. And as he shaves, Vitale can touch the alarm-system screen in the bathroom and bring up ESPN.
But it is not entirely the house that ESPN built.
Vitale commands up to $45,000 a speech, has written seven books — "Seven more than I've read!" — and has a website where fans can buy autographed caps, balls, bobblehead dolls, even an alarm clock that will wake you to the sound of Vitale shouting his signature phrases.
He also uses his appeal for charity, particularly the V Foundation for Cancer Research, pledging $50,000 this year as he seeks to raise $1 million among 20 friends in memory of his friend Jim Valvano, the late coach and analyst. Vitale also is such a benefactor of the Boys and Girls Clubs of Sarasota that there is a statue of him outside a new facility.
Some of his gestures are more personal. Dave Woloshin, a University of Memphis broadcaster who barely knew Vitale, saw him at a game in Springfield, Mass., the night before Woloshin had to broadcast a football game in Tampa, Fla.
Woloshin asked Vitale for directions to John F. Kennedy Airport.
"Why don't you fly home with me and stay at my house?" Vitale replied.
They arrived at 3:30 a.m., and Vitale offered a tour.
"We go into the bedroom, but we don't turn on all the lights because his wife is sleeping, and he's saying, 'This is my closet,' " Woloshin said. "I never met his wife, but I was probably 20 feet from her."
Something about his absence of guile seems to draw people to Vitale.
In Bloomington, before Indiana played North Carolina, Hoosier guard Bracey Wright made a beeline when he saw him. "Dickie V!" he said.
Talking off-camera with Indiana Coach Mike Davis, Vitale got an answer without asking a question.
"There are Knight lovers and Knight haters, but you have never felt accepted here," Vitale said.
"The only time I felt accepted was the Final Four," Davis said.
Later, a crowd of students surrounded Vitale as he wrapped up a broadcast. But instead of shoving and mugging to try to get on TV, they raised camera phones to try to beam a shot of Dickie V to their friends.
In a way, Vitale owes his career, the home, the Lexus and Mercedes with vanity plates reading "ESPN 79" and "T-O BABY" to two people.
One is Detroit Piston owner Bill Davidson, who ended Vitale's coaching career in 1979 after Vitale had lost 60 of 94 games. The other was the late Scotty Connal, the ESPN executive who hired him.
"I saw Bill Davidson at an All-Star game, and he said, 'You owe it all to me,' " Vitale said. "And I said, 'Yeah, thanks for giving me the ziggy!' "
Until then, Vitale was the same "hot coach" he often glorifies.
As a Rutgers assistant, he recruited Phil Sellers, the star of a Final Four team in 1976. By then, Vitale was already head coach at the University of Detroit, which reached the Sweet 16 in 1977.
It all came apart in the NBA.
"I didn't fit. I was too emotional," Vitale said. "I always felt like a failure.
"You go to church on Sunday, and I felt like the people around me picked up the paper that morning and knew whether I failed or succeeded. It tore my insides up."
He meant that literally. More than once during his coaching career, he suffered from a bleeding ulcer.
"If I were coaching, I never would have lived past 50," he said.
Connal saw Vitale speak as a college coach and vowed to hire him for TV one day.
"He said, 'You connect,' " Vitale said. "Whether people agree or disagree, only a handful of people have that ability to hit buttons."
A nervous-looking Vitale was paid $350 to work a DePaul-Wisconsin game in 1979, ESPN's first college basketball broadcast, opening with an information-packed monologue as his partner stood by.
"ESPN changed my life," Vitale said. "It really did."
If there is a common criticism, other than his style, it is that Vitale is too much the coaches' buddy.
But his interview with Jim Harrick in 2003, when Harrick was besieged by accusations of NCAA rules violations and academic fraud at Georgia, was tough and persistent. Vitale's follow-up questions prompted Harrick to reiterate his claims, and ESPN quickly received calls from UCLA and Rhode Island, contradicting Harrick's graduation-rate numbers.
"It wasn't something I anticipated turning out as it did," Harrick said. "I went to his daughter's wedding. Both daughters. We were good friends. I haven't really talked to him since."
The most remarkable thing about Vitale is that somehow the shtick never wore out, and office politics never turned against him.
Maybe it is because he pays attention to everyone. Consider that George Bodenheimer, president of ESPN Inc. and ABC Sports, started at the bottom at ESPN's headquarters in Bristol, Conn.
"I guess my first year there, I in effect became his driver. I would pick him up at the airport. He'd buy all the papers, and fire through them looking for any reference to himself, then throw them in the back seat," Bodenheimer said with a laugh. "It was my job to keep the car clean, so I was always picking them up.
"We became friends. We talked a lot about careers and jobs. He really helped create March Madness, when ESPN started televising the early rounds of the tournament."
The world knows him as Dickie V, but Vitale's parents, second-generation Italian Americans, called him Rich, as his wife, Lorraine, does. Before he was 3, Richie injured an eye in an accident involving a pencil.
"When I lost my eye, my mother told me, 'St. Jude is the miracle worker. Carry this card with you, Richie, all the time,' " Vitale said. "I lost an eye, and my mother said, 'Don't feel sorry for yourself.' "
His wife says his eye injury is part of why Vitale developed the big personality, becoming the boy whose high school yearbook photo was captioned, "Everybody's buddy."
And inside his pocket, there is always a St. Jude card.
At 65, in the first year of a five-year contract, Vitale has no plan to quit.
Last season, he became a finalist for the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, crying on the air when he learned he was among the nominees.
"Oh, God, to see my name there," he said.
Neither Vitale nor Connecticut Coach Jim Calhoun — who won his second national title the day of the announcement — made the cut.
Because the announcement is made Monday at the Final Four and future inductees must be flown in, the nominees learn the outcome Friday.
"Guys had been telling me, 'You're a lock,' " Vitale said. "Bobby Knight said, 'I know you'll be in.' Krzyzewski, Digger Phelps. I get choked up just thinking about it.
"I was at the San Antonio zoo with my family when I got the call. We're watching the elephants, and I get a call from John Doleva at the Basketball Hall of Fame, and he tells me, 'I'm sorry to tell you, you weren't inducted.'
"My wife and kids can tell just by looking at me. You're not supposed to tell anybody until Monday, and everywhere I go, people are saying, 'Congratulations, Dick, you're going to get in.' "
Suddenly, he was the little boy with the bad eye again, the coach who got fired. All those well-wishers, and he couldn't tell them he didn't make it.
"I felt like this … this … zero," Vitale said, wiping away tears.
He remains eligible, and would be inducted if he received 18 votes from the 24-person honors committee.
But unlike some other sports halls, the Basketball Hall of Fame doesn't have a media wing. Until Chick Hearn was enshrined in 2003, no media member had ever been inducted.
Vitale has influential backers. Smith, Krzyzewski and Rick Pitino were among those who wrote letters to the Hall of Fame supporting him.
"As a contributor to the game, he deserves to be in," Krzyzewski said. "He basically has been probably the game's biggest promoter in the last decade."
"He deserves it," North Carolina Coach Roy Williams said. "You know, he always jokes, 'I was fired, I've got no hair, one bad eye.' He'd never admit it, but I think it would make him feel more a part of the game.' "
Actually, Vitale does admit it.
"I mean, enshrinement," he said. "Your kids and grandkids could go there forever.
"People say I'll ultimately get in. Who knows? The bottom line is, you want to be living. I wish Chick Hearn got in while he was living so he could have had the moment."
Moments are precious to Vitale. Mention that maybe someday he will get through a day without being asked to sign anything, and Vitale seems crestfallen. What fun would that be?
"I'd run around saying, 'Please, ask me for my autograph or to take a picture! I used to be Dickie V!' " he said.
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[B]THE VITALE FILE
• Born: June 9, 1939, in East Rutherford, N.J.
• Personal: Vitale and his wife, Lorraine, have two daughters, Terri and Sherri.
• TV career: Joined ESPN as a college basketball analyst in 1979-80 season, just after network's September 1979 launch.
• Coaching career: Coached high school ball in New Jersey for eight seasons (1963-70), followed by two seasons as an assistant at Rutgers, five as head coach at the University of Detroit and one (1978-79) as head coach of the NBA's Detroit Pistons.
• Education: Bachelor's degree in business administration from Seton Hall and master's in education from William Paterson College in Wayne, N.J.
Source: ESPN
A Look at TV’s Year
The good, the bad and the 'Swan' ugly
By Robert Bianco, USA TODAY
Suddenly, the state of scripted television looks a lot less desperate.
All it took to banish a few years' worth of TV despair was the arrival of two big hits, Desperate Housewives and Lost. Now the attention is back on what TV has always done best: create characters and tell extended stories.
As always, the news is not all positive. No movie this year matched last December's Angels in America or even came close. And although a handful of sitcoms are worth watching —Arrested Development, Two and a Half Men, Scrubs, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Less Than Perfect and Entourage among them — the genre as a whole remains depressed.
So as we reach the end of a surprisingly good year, let's celebrate the best of TV, brush away the worst and hope for even better from 2005.
The Best
1. Lost (ABC)
How do you stretch a plane-crash castaway story into a weekly series? You do it by structuring the show so that the compelling mystery isn't where these people are but who they are. And so, under the guidance of Alias' supremely creative J.J. Abrams, Lost offers the intense pleasures of two shows in one: an exciting, grand-scale adventure married to a smart, intimate drama. Each week, 48 people face the trauma of forming a new society and each week, a happily committed fan cult joyfully gets lost in their stories.
2. Desperate Housewives (ABC)
Like Lost, the season's biggest new hit is a hybrid, part twist-a-minute mystery, part fast-moving soap, part ribald sex comedy. Marc Cherry has used the comic gifts he honed on The Golden Girls to create an hour-long version of a friends-in-need sitcom. Underneath the romps, the pratfalls and the hopping from bed to bed is the story — perfectly cast and played — of four women bonding together to face the difficulties of life: the death of a friend, the collapse of a marriage, the realization that parenting is hard and sometimes unrewarding work. Housewives is great fun, but it's the poignancy behind the desperation that hooks you in.
3. Arrested Development (Fox)
Don't look for poignancy here. TV's best sitcom plays family dysfunction strictly and reliably for laughs. Where other shot-like-a-movie sitcoms have used the absence of a studio audience as an excuse not to be funny, Arrested Development uses it to crowd the screen with jokes it couldn't otherwise tell. The show gleefully bounces from elaborate sight gags (including one involving a bathtub, a camera phone and weapons of mass destruction that defies explanation here), to subtle, almost whispered insults, many of them sotto voce responses by the invaluable Jason Bateman to the fabulous Jessica Walter. ("The doctor said I couldn't be a mother now if I tried." "And that was without interviewing me.") In a medium that tends to pound every joke home, you have to love a show that's confident enough to throw a few away.
4. The Wire (HBO)
By returning to its drug-war roots, this hard-hitting, far-reaching, one-of-a-kind examination of urban decay produced its most accessible and yet least watched season. What can we say? You can, if you choose, criticize HBO for moving this extremely fragile piece of TV art to the fall, where it was crushed by the competition. Or, since it's the holidays, you can praise HBO for putting The Wire on the air for three years, even though there was never any sign of widespread public interest. If this is how it ends, The Wire can go out knowing it was the only show telling this kind of story about these kind of people and telling it almost unimaginably well.
5. Rescue Me (FX)
If you've been searching for a silver lining in the still-lamented cancellation of The Job, here it is: It freed Denis Leary and Peter Tolan to do this even better version of the show. Set in a firehouse rather than a police station, Rescue Me brings out every one of Leary's strengths as a TV star, including some we didn't know he had. With its empathy for blue-collar public servants, its mix of humor and drama and its engaging yet damaged central character, Rescue Me is the heir apparent to the departing NYPD Blue.
6. Joan of Arcadia (CBS)
TV's best family drama has only gotten better this season, as Joan's rift with God was reflected in her mother's fears for the future. Anchored by the ever-more-remarkable Amber Tamblyn, Joan gently explores life's great metaphysical questions while showing a command of metaphor that verges on the poetic. If life is a juggling act, as God told Joan, so is TV, and Joan has done a masterful job of keeping its clubs in the air.
7. 24 (Fox)
Another bad day for Jack Bauer turned into another great day for viewers of this still shockingly audacious series. Yes, the season lagged a bit in the middle during Jack's misguided Mexican holiday, but the actors and the concept pulled the show through to a terrific climax. And here's a tip for 2005: The new season looks as if it might be even better.
8. Without a Trace (CBS)
Trace may not be as cleverly plotted or sickly amusing as the best CSI episodes, but it's much better at balancing its tricky plots with character development and at doing so without making us feel as if it's fulfilling some unwanted network-imposed obligation. By pausing to explore Jack's relationship with his father, or Sam and Martin's budding romance, the show ties us even more closely to their crime-fighting efforts. Among procedurals, Trace is simply without a peer.
9. Amazing Race (CBS)
In a year littered with reality atrocities, Race is a welcome reminder of the best the genre has to offer. This expertly produced travelogue follows ordinary people as they are put to extraordinary tests in a game that rewards skill and strength instead of duplicity and bad behavior. Besides, few scripted shows had any lines as funny as Colin's whiny lament "My ox is broken" or any climaxes as exciting as Chip and Kim's Race 5 victory. Now, let's hope Race 7 is a little less loaded with models than Race 6.
10. The Ellen DeGeneres Show (syndicated)
This buoyantly amusing talk show is a relief, not only just from the divorce court/paternity test swamp that is afternoon TV, but also from the plug-my-project palsy of most celebrity interviews. Dancing her way through daytime, DeGeneres somehow seems to bring out the best in most of her guests. Before Ellen, Justin Timberlake's year was marked by his ungentlemanly behavior toward Janet Jackson and his laughable attempts to sell himself as a gangsta. DeGeneres made him dance in a foam gingerbread suit, and darn if he wasn't suddenly likable. That's talent. Tape Ellen during the day; play it at night when you need a laugh.
The Worst
1. The Swan 2 (Fox)
Leave it to Fox's Gollum-like reality division, which has sold whatever soul it had in pursuit of the next big reality hit, to confuse Frankenstein with Cinderella. What is more revolting: the assumption that there is some single standard of beauty we all can or should attain; or the idea that it's OK to carve people up like turkeys and throw them into some bogus beauty contest, just so you can tell all but one of them they still haven't made the grade? Besides, if you're going to pass judgment on the work that was done, shouldn't the show be called The Surgeon instead of The Swan?
2. Growing Up Gotti (A&E)
Growing up Gotti? That's not a title; it's a threat. The most repulsive of the hidden-camera shows, Gotti stars yet another reality-show mother who should be struggling to change her children's bad behavior rather than offering it up as entertainment fodder for an increasingly less grateful nation. Please, people. Seek help, before society forces it upon you.
3. The Benefactor (ABC)
The only show that did a worse job of copying The Apprentice than The Apprentice 2 was Mark Cuban's The Benefactor. This game show was one of the many reality mistakes that the networks had to rush to an early conclusion, like nervous hostesses herding misbehaving guests toward the door. It was apparently Cuban's belief that America would enjoy watching people toady up to him for cash. Apparently not.
4. BMOC (WB)
How do you make the networks-as-panderers dating format even smarmier? Move it to a college campus, so we can see teenagers throw themselves at some would-be stud for the privilege of being named Campus Queen. I'm assuming WB used BMOC as a title because Co-ed Call Girl was already taken.
5. The Mountain (WB)
In a neck-and-neck race, the winner of Worst Scripted Show of 2004 goes to The Mountain. Granted, Center of the Universe was a more egregious waste of talent, Listen Up more grating, Method and Red more inept, and Father of the Pride more ill conceived. Yet The Mountain wins because it was just so completely superfluous. And because you know, deep down, WB knew it was never going to make even a speed bump out of this molehill, let alone a mountain. You lose points for airing failures you know are failures.
Watching the future of TV
Analysts say 25 years down the road, sports fans will be more in tune with the action
By Mike Klingaman The Baltimore Sun Staff December 27, 2004
It's Dec. 30, 2029, and Seymour Gamz is riled. From his luxury waterfront residence in Curtis Bay, Gamz is watching the Ravens' game in his home theater when he hears a disturbing report: The team's top receiver, Todd Heap Jr., appears to be favoring the hamstring that he injured earlier in Baltimore's victory over the Seoul Train.
"No way!" shouts Gamz, a longtime fan, who grabs the remote and punches some buttons. Instantly, the television - a huge 3-D screen covering two walls - splits into a dozen smaller windows. One screen isolates on Heap in the day's contest; another displays his statistics, game by game. A third screen shows Heap's medical history; another supplies background on typical hamstring injuries.
Gamz scans the screens, and others, including one that shows recent interviews with Heap, who swears that his thigh is fine.
"I knew it," says Gamz. He picks up his cell phone and text-messages the pro football network, giving producers a piece of his mind.
Moments later, his gripe is relayed to the same sideline reporter who'd brought it all up.
"We've just heard from Mr. Seymour Gamz, in Baltimore, who doubts the veracity of our report," the sportscaster says. "But I spoke with Todd before the game, and he said that he 'tweaked' that hamstring in practice this week."
Such is the future of TV sports, industry analysts say. It has been 25 years since ESPN broke from the gate and changed the viewing landscape. But the technological advances of that era - from point-of-view cameras placed inside racecars, to football's digitally projected first-down lines - pale alongside those predicted for the next 25 years.
What's ahead? Curved TV screens the size of cycloramas. Channels for every sport imaginable. And interactive programming that allows fans to choose everything from their favorite camera angles for games to the players they want to chat with afterward.
"Viewers will be able to drill deep inside of sports and access athletes on the granular level," says Len DeLuca, vice president of programming strategy at ESPN. "The balance of power is shifting from providers to fans.
"Cameras and microphones will be everywhere. You'll see and hear what goes on in locker rooms. And, for an extra charge, you can conduct TV post-game interviews with [the next] Ray Lewis."
You're in the action
The day is nigh, say experts, when television lifts viewers out of their La-Z-Boys and puts them into the path of a blitzing linebacker or a 95-mph fastball.
"Imagine football players with mini-cameras and sensors woven into their uniforms, allowing fans to see and experience everything that they do," says Robert Johnson, chief executive officer of Black Entertainment Television. Those microchips will let viewers track anything from an athlete's heart rate to the impact of a bone-jarring tackle.
Says Johnson: "It's virtual reality except that, at home, you can't feel the hit in football - unless the TV is set to give you an electric shock."
Industry advances will also allow consumers to tailor their sports programming to suit themselves, Johnson says. It won't be long, experts agree, before viewers are choosing from among a bevy of camera shots, graphics and instant replays.
"You'll be your own director. Your living room will be like the [network] control truck outside the stadium," says Michael Davis, senior editor at TV Guide. "Fans love the 'gizmo' factor. You'll be able to isolate on anything from a Ravens wide receiver to Shaq's big butt."
The options may be limited only by the fans' imagination, Davis says. "Someday, there may be an ESPN karaoke channel, where people can be their own sportscaster."
Look for a deluge of viewing choices, analysts say. Pro football, basketball, baseball and hockey will have their own cable channels. But so will sports with niche audiences, such as lacrosse, volleyball and archery.
"Your TV universe is becoming like a magazine kiosk with boutique channels," says Ed Goren, president of Fox Sports.
But separate stations for hunting and fishing? For billiards and bowling? Why not, says Robert Thompson, professor of media and popular culture at Syracuse University.
"If you'd told me five years ago that playing cards would be one of the big TV breakthroughs, I'd have said you were crazy," Thompson says. "Poker is the most non-telegenic activity short of knitting. But they figured out how to do it, with cameras."
"We're heading toward a highly fragmented video marketplace," says Neal Pilson, a media consultant and former head of CBS Sports. "Someday, a greyhound racing fan will get an automatic e-mail reminding him of live racing tonight on TV at 8 o'clock."
Where to turn?
"There will be so many choices, it will be like FM radio," says Lesley Visser, a CBS Sports reporter who began at that network in 1984. A history buff, Visser awaits the day when she can scroll through an electronic sports video archive containing footage of every classic ever played.
"I want to be able to push a button and call up the 1985 NCAA basketball championship [Villanova 66, Georgetown 64] or some of those great Green Bay Packers-Chicago Bears games," she says. "I could watch them over and over, the same way I never get tired of reading [Ernest Hemingway's] The Sun Also Rises."
You make the call
Consumers who prefer the open-mike approach to sports could probably get a tell-it-like-it-is version.
"We might have 'discreet' pay-per-view sports channels, where the cuss words of players and coaches aren't censored," says Johnson, the BET executive and owner of the NBA's Charlotte Bobcats. "Call them full-reality channels; they'd have a parental lock."
Also in the offing: a lottery gaming channel that lets viewers vie for prizes.
"Watching the game, you'll compete with a pool of others to guess the next play," Johnson says. "Will it be a pass to the wide-out or a run by the fullback? You'd vote on your screen and collect points toward winning something - say, an island in the Caribbean."
Televisions will keep expanding in size, for those who demand to see more on their screens than simple play-by-play.
"I'd expect to see a lot of informational support, like the statistics of a particular quarterback throwing to a particular receiver in the red zone. That's the minutiae that's interesting to me," says Terry McDonnell, managing editor of Sports Illustrated.
How detailed?
Says McDonnell: "I'll order a TV big enough so that when I'm watching the game between Florida and Florida State, on one side of the screen I can call up all of the players' [college board] scores.
"You will also be able to apply fantasy gaming to TV sports. I want to know what [quarterback] Jeff Garcia does for my fantasy team, at the same time that he is passing for Cleveland."
As technology grows, say industry experts, so will the blur between reality and fantasy. Fox's Goren sees the day when NASCAR fans, watching a live race on TV, can flip a switch and project themselves on the screen, circling the track at Daytona and battling the pros.
"You'd be driving a virtual car, but in a real race, against the Dale Earnhardts and Jeff Gordons," Goren says.
And there is one more view of sports circa 2029, a somewhat jaundiced one from Rachael Church, director of ArkSports, a London-based sports consulting and technology firm:
"Sports programming is now controlled by a conglomeration owned by Rupert Murdoch who, thanks to cloning, will live for eternity.
"Because sports fans are no longer able to attend events live (due to global warming), all contact with sports is via the medium of television (which is also a computer and handy vacuum cleaner).
"Athletes participate interactively in their sports via virtual reality; they compete while plugged into super computers from their luxury hotel rooms, thus preventing potentially litigious injuries ... "
All of these innovations raise the question: Why go to games? In 25 years, why would people endure traffic jams, bad weather and $40 hot dogs when their home theater offers so much more?
"There's an enjoyment factor in being at a college football game with 90,000 others," says Pilson, the consultant. "There's a group dynamic to it.
"We are a social species."
Fast National ratings for Sunday, Dec. 26, 2004
CBS Nips ABC Reruns on Sunday
(zap2it.com)--So it turns out that all CBS has to do to win Sunday nights again is have ABC go with reruns across the board. Of course, that formula may work overall, but it can't deliver a demographic win.
Overall Prime Time Ratings/Share
CBS 7.3/13
ABC 6.7/12
NBC 5.3/9
Fox 4.1/7
WB 1.2/2
Adults 18-49
ABC 4.3
CBS 3.4
Fox 2.9
NBC 2.1
WB 0.8
At 7 PM, CBS started on top with the 7.9/14 for "60 Minutes." FOX road NFL runover and "King of the Hill" to second place with a 6.2/11. ABC's "America's Funniest Home Videos" was third. NBC started things in fourth with the 4.4/8 for "Dateline." The WB was last with "Steve Harvey's Big Time," which actually delivered the network's best ratings of the night with a 1.4/2.
At 8 PM, CBS stayed on top with the 7.3/13 for "Cold Case". ABC was second with the first hour of "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition," which had a 5.7/10, just better than the results for a second hour of NBC's "Dateline." FOX was back down to fourth with "The Simpsons" and "Arrested Development" averaging a 3.5/6. The WB's "Charmed" was good for last.
At 9 PM, ABC grabbed first with the 7.8/13 for the second part of "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition." On CBS the first hour of the movie "Ocean's 11" was second with a 7.2/12. NBC's "Law & Order: Criminal Intent" and FOX's two episodes of "Malcolm in the Middle" were third and fourth. Despite being one of the night's only new programs, The WB's "The Mountain" delivered a robust 0.8/1.
At 10 PM, The pilot of "Desperate Housewives" reaired to the tune of an 8.2/15, giving ABC the night's final hour. CBS was second with the last hour of "Ocean's 11." "Crossing Jordan" did a 5.1/9 to put NBC in third.
• Ratings information is taken from fast national data. All numbers are preliminary and subject to change, particularly in the case of live events.
CEA Keeping Up Pressure on Set-Tops
By Ted Hearn 12/27/2004 Multichannel.com 5:17 PM ET
Cable operators are exaggerating the costs and complications associated with opening the digital set-top-box market in a way that would allow consumers to buy units from Best Buy Co. Inc. and Circuit City Stores Inc., according to the Consumer Electronics Association.
MSOs are facing a July 2006 deadline to deploy new digital boxes that function with CableCards. But the industry is resisting, saying that the cost to lease boxes would rise without any offsetting benefits.
The CEA -- members of which want to stock their shelves with cable set-tops -- continued to question cable’s motives and the logic of the industry’s position. The trade group, for example, believes that the mass production of CableCard-enabled boxes will drive prices down, not up.
The National Cable & Telecommunications Association’s “misguided belief that prices will remain high even after full-scale production defies the laws of economics, the marketplace and common sense,” the CEA said in a Dec. 21 letter to the Federal Communications Commission.
The NCTA, Comcast Corp. and Charter Communications Inc. want the FCC to either eliminate the ban on integrated boxes or to postpone the July 2006 deadline.
Cable wants the FCC to make a decision soon because if the ban is not lifted, MSOs would need to begin placing orders for CableCard boxes in the months ahead to ensure a ready inventory by July 2006.
Soccer tops for viewing in 2004
Olympics Opening Ceremony second in viewers
By BOBBIE WHITEMAN Variety.com
The final of the Euro 2004 soccer championship beat the Opening Ceremony of the Olympic Games as the most watched sporting event of the year, according to a study of global sports.
The final between Portugal and Greece was seen by 153 million TV viewers, thanks to a big jump in the number of Asian viewers.
The Olympics Opening Ceremony in Athens attracted 127 million viewers to come in at No. 2, while the Closing Ceremony, which attracted 96 million, came in third.
Janet Jackson's wardrobe malfunction during the Super Bowl in which the New England Patriots beat the Carolina Panthers was seen by 95 million people to grab fourth place, according to the ViewerTrack report from media agency Initiative Worldwide. The NBA Finals between the L.A. Lakers and the victorious Minnesota Timberwolves came in ninth with 25 million.
(From Marc Berman’s Programming Insider column Tuesday, Dec 27, 2004, at Mediaweek.com)
Primetime Monday Ratings:
ABC Opens the Week on a Winning Note
Metered Market Ratings
Note: The following ratings exclude the Miami, Cincinnati, Memphis, Raleigh and Richmond markets.
Household Rating/Share
ABC: 10.7/17
CBS: 8.2/13
NBC: 5.3/ 8
Fox: 3.4/ 5
WB: 2.5/ 4
UPN: 2.1/ 3
Percent Change From the Year-Ago Evening (Tuesday 12/29/03):
ABC: +62
NBC: - 4
CBS: - 6
Fox: - 9
WB: -14
UPN: -22
Fast Affiliate Ratings
Total Viewers:
ABC: 14.23 million
CBS: 12.05
NBC: 7.28
Fox: 4.64
WB: 3.01
UPN: 2.31
Adults 18-49:
ABC: 5.2/14
CBS: 3.7/10
NBC: 2.7/ 7
Fox: 1.9/ 5
WB: 1.2/ 3
UPN: 1.0/ 3
Yesterday's Winners:
Monday Night Football: Philadelphia vs. St. Louis (ABC)
Yesterday's Losers:
Considering only Monday Night Football was an original telecast last night, we'll avoid listing any losers.
Ratings Breakdown:
With Monday Night Football at the helm (and CBS in all repeats), the Philadelphia versus St. Louis match-up led ABC to victory, with an advantage over second-place CBS of 30 percent in the overnights, 2.18 million viewers and 41 percent among adults 18-49 according to the fast affiliate ratings. Leading out of a 6.8/10 in the overnights for repeat special, ESPN's Blunderful World of Sports at 8 p.m., Monday Night Football averaged an 11.3/19 in the overnights from 9 p.m. to 12:30 a.m., with 15.46 million viewers and a 5.8/16 among adults 18-49 in primetime (from 9-11 p.m. EST). Note: On the comparable year-ago evening, part two of made-for Dream Keeper aired on ABC in place of football.
Repeats of CBS' Still Standing (#2: 5.8/ 9; A18-49: #3, 2.8/ 8), Listen Up (#2: 5.2/ 8; A18-49: #3, 2.5/ 7), Everybody Loves Raymond (#2: 9.8/15; A18-49: #2, 4.6/12), Two and a Half Men (#2: 8.7/13; A18-49: #2, 4.2/11) and CSI: Miami (#2: 9.8/16; A18-49: #2, 4.1/11) were on par with typical non-original holiday levels. As a reminder, adults 18-49 is based on the fast affiliate ratings. As for the painfully generic Listen Up, Yes Dear - we miss you!
Over at NBC, a repeat of the tired Fear Factor (#3: 4.8/ 8; A18-49: #2, 2.9/ 8) led into a repeat of a Monday edition of Crossing Jordan (#3: 5.4/ 9; A18-49: #3, 2.4/ 6), and a 10 p.m. repeat of Las Vegas (#3: 5.7/ 9; A18-49: #3, 2.7/ 7). Two repeat episodes of underrated Fox drama House from 8-10 p.m. ranked fourth overall for the evening in the overnights (3.4/ 5), total viewers (4.64 million) and adults 18-49 (1.9/ 5).
On the WB, repeats of 7th Heaven (#5: 3.1/ 5; A18-49: #5, 1.4/ 4) and Everwood (#6: 2.0/ 3; A18-49: #5t, 1.0/ 2) out-rated repeat UPN sitcoms One On One (#6: 2.0/ 3; A18-49: #6, 0.9/ 3), Half and Half (#6: 2.2/ 3; A18-49: #6, 1.0/ 3), Girlfriends (#5: 2.3/ 4; A18-49: #5, 1.1/ 3) and Second Time Around (#5: 2.0/ 3; A18-49: #6, 0.8/ 2) by an average of 19 percent in the overnights and 20 percent among adults 18-49. With the start of the New Year this Saturday, unfortunately 'tis the season for repeats!
Source: Nielsen Media Research data
Ratings Box: What’s Hot/What’s Not
TNT and TBS to Conclude 2004 on a High Note:
For the third consecutive year, TNT has ranked No. 1 overall among all ad-supported cable networks in primetime among adults 18-49 (1.14 million through Dec. 19, 2004) and adults 25-54 (1.23 million), while also finishing first in households (1.86 million) and total viewers (2.45 million) for two straight years. Comparatively, TNT delivered more households in primetime and adults 25-54 in total day than any other cable network in history. Sister network TBS, meanwhile, has ranked first overall among adults 18-34 (513,000) in primetime, building year-to-year by double-digit percentages in adults 18-34 and adults 18-49 since launching its "very funny" brand in June. Also since the new launch, TBS' median age has dropped from 40 to 38.
Cartoon Network Soars:
Cartoon Network will end 2004 with its best performance ever in both kids' total day and primetime delivery. Based on total day, the home of animation's finest will reach a new zenith among kids and boys 2-11 and 6-11, increasing across-the-board in all key demo groups year-to-year. Based on primetime, Cartoon Network will reach a new high among kids 6-11 (655,000), building 3 percent over the comparable year-ago period. The older skewing Adult Swim block is also on the rise, with a record delivery in adults 18-34 (450,000) and adults 18-24 (248,000), and a first-place time period finish among all ad supported cable in adults 18-34, adults 18-24 and men 18-24.
Food Network Cooks Up Solid Ratings in 2004:
Based on ratings through Dec. 20, Food Network is up 5 percent year-to-year in total day rating (.44 in households), with growth of 18 and 15 percent, respectively, among adults 18-49 and 25-54. Particularly impressive was the cable net's In the Kitchen Saturday/Sunday 9 a.m.-2 p.m. block, which increased by 20 percent (to a .67 household rating) from 2003.
200 Straight Weekly Wins for NBC's Meet the Press:
Public service program Meet the Press on NBC hit a milestone by scoring its 200th straight weekly victory. Based on ratings for Sunday, Dec. 19, Meet the Press averaged a hefty 4.3 million viewers, beating competitors Face the Nation on CBS (3.2 million) and This Week on ABC (2.3 million) by 1.1 and 2.0 million viewers, respectively.
On the Air Tonight: Primetime Programming Options
Tuesday 12/28/04
ABC
My Wife and Kids (R), George Lopez (R), According to Jim (R), Rodney (R), 20/20 Special Edition
CBS
NCIS (R), The Amazing Race 6, Judging Amy (R)
NBC
Father of the Pride (three episodes), Scrubs (R), Law & Order: SVU (R)
Fox
The Rebel Billionaire: Branson's Quest for the Best, House
UPN
All of Us (R), Eve (R), Veronica Mars (R)
WB
Gilmore Girls (R), High School Reunion
CBS' NFL Games Score
By John Consoli Mediaweek.com December 28, 2004
The NFL on CBS national pair of games on Sunday, Dec. 26 --the New England Patriots' win over the New York Jets and the Indianapolis Colts' last-minute victory over the San Diego Chargers (a game that saw Colts quarterback Peyton Manning break a longstanding NFL record for touchdowns thrown in a season)-- produced a 13.9 metered-market rating and a 29 share.
The national games were CBS' highest-rated since the NFL returned to CBS in 1998 and were up 38 percent from the comparable Sunday national games last year (10.1/21).
CBS, ABC Celebrate Christmas Week Ratings Wins
(zap2it.com)--Christmas joy equaled Nielsen apathy as viewers turned away from their favorite shows and turned toward thoughts of family, Santa Claus and that obnoxious-looking belated sequel to "Meet the Parents." As result, ratings were down across the board for the week ending Sunday, Dec. 27, 2004.
Overall Prime Time Ratings/Share
CBS 6.4/11 10.02 million viewers
ABC 6.0/11 9.65 million viewers
NBC 4.6/8 6.98 million viewers
Fox 3.6/6 5.81 million viewers
UPN 1.9/3 2.77 million viewers
WB 1.6/3 2.31 million viewers
Adults 18-49
ABC 3.4
CBS 3.0
Fox 2.5
NBC 2.4
UPN 1.1
WB 0.9
It should serve as some indication of how slow the week was that the most watched program for the frame was a Monday repeat of CBS' "Everybody Loves Raymond," enthralling 16.99 million viewers and doing a 10.5/16 to earn the week's No. 2 rating. Fellow Monday offerings "CSI: Miami" (10.1/17, 3rd) and "Two and a Half Men" (9.8/15, 5th) also had strong weeks.
Sunday also yielded a trio of hits for CBS with "60 Minutes" leading the way at No. 9 with a 7.6/14 and "Cold Case" (7.2/12) and a screening of "Ocean's 11" (7.2/13) tying for No. 13. Even in a slow week, the network's powerhouse Thursday still delivered "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" (10.0/17, 4th) and "Without a Trace" (8.5/15, 6th).
Also making the Top 20 for CBS was Wednesday's "CSI: NY," which had a 7.1/12 for No. 15.
ABC had the week's top rated show with Miami's upset "Monday Night Football" victory over New England. "MNF" did a 10.9/19 and the seven-minute pre-show was No. 7 with an 8.3/13.
ABC ended up with an impressive eight entries in the Top 20 spread across several nights. The network's rejuvenated Sunday was led by a repeat of "Desperate Housewives" (8.1/14, 8th) and "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" (6.6/11, 19th), while Wednesday saw consecutive encores of "Lost" come in at No. 11 with a 7.5/13 and No. 15 with a 7.1/12. Playing well on Tuesday were "NYPD Blue" (6.9/12, 17th) and "According to Jim" (6.6/11, 19th).
It was a dismal week for NBC, which only had "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" (7.3/12, 12th) and "Law & Order" (6.9/12, 17th) in the Top 20.
Fox was led by Sunday NFL overrun at No. 10 with a 7.6/14. The network's most watched piece of regular programming was the finale of the second season of "The Swan," which did a 4.6/7 for No. 45.
"WWE Smackdown!" paced UPN's week with a 2.9/5 and the No. 65 position, better than The WB's best, which was "7th Heaven" at No. 79 with a 2.4/4.
What The WB lacked in quality, the network made up for in dreck. The five lowest rated programs on any of the networks last week were on The WB. Worst of all was "The Mountain" at No. 104 with a 0.8/1 and fewer than 1.1 million viewers.
Fox News Tops Combined Competition
By Linda Moss multichannel.com 12/28/2004
In a stunning showing, Fox News Channel outperformed its four cable-news rivals combined -- Cable News Network, MSNBC, CNBC and CNN Headline News -- in primetime this year, Fox News officials said Tuesday.
Fox News averaged 1.668 million viewers in primetime in 2004, according to Nielsen Media Research data supplied by the network. CNN averaged 855,000 viewers in primetime, while MSNBC had 374,000, CNBC had 161,000 and Headline had 212,000. The four networks’ combined averages totaled 1.602 million, less than Fox News.
The victory is the first such win for Fox News, which was also the only news network to rank in basic cable’s top 10 in primetime and total day.
Nielsen Ratings for Week Ending Sunday, Dec. 26th
A mixed holiday for Fox
Associated Press Dec 29 2004
A holiday week in which TV networks essentially took a vacation provided stark evidence of who's hot and who's not this season.
Of the 30 most popular prime-time shows last week — most of them reruns — 13 were on CBS and 12 on ABC, Nielsen Media Research said Tuesday. "Everybody Loves Raymond," approaching its victory lap, topped the list with 17 million viewers.
Struggling NBC had four. Only one NBC prime-time show, a "Law & Order: SVU" rerun, topped 10 million viewers.
It was even worse at Fox. The network's only top 30 entrant came by accident, when a Sunday football game went long and crept into prime time. The top-rated Fox entertainment show, "The Swan 2," ranked No. 43 for the week.
Fox News Channel celebrated a ratings milestone, with its average prime-time viewership topping that of CNN, MSNBC, CNBC and CNN Headline News combined for the first time, Nielsen said. News viewership was generally flat or down from last year, when the Iraq war began. Barring any sudden change in the last few days of the year, Fox News will also log 11 of the top 12 cable news shows, led by "The O'Reilly Factor." The only non-Fox show to crack that list is CNN's "Larry King Live."
For the week, CBS averaged 10 million viewers. ABC had 9.7 million and won convincingly among viewers ages 18 to 49. NBC averaged 7 million; Fox had 5.8 million; UPN, 2.8 million; the WB, 2.3 million; and Pax, 560,000.
NBC's "Nightly News" won the evening news ratings race, averaging 10.6 million viewers. ABC's "World News Tonight" had 10.3 million and the "CBS Evening News" had 7.9 million.
Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (Dec. 20-26) as compiled by Nielsen Media Research. They are based on the average number of people who watched a program from start to finish. Nielsen estimates there are 277.93 million potential viewers in the U.S. ages 2 and older. Viewership is listed in millions.
Program Net Viewers
1 Everybody Loves Raymond CBS 16.99
2 Monday Night Football ABC 16.18
3 CSI CBS 15.83
4 Two and a Half Men CBS 15.47
5 CSI: Miami CBS 14.84
6 Without a Trace CBS 13.06
7 Desperate Housewives ABC 12.89
8 NFL Monday Showcase ABC 12.49
9 60 Minutes CBS 12.37
10 "NFL Sunday Post-Game" FOX 12.03
11 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition ABC 11.88
12 Cold Case CBS 11.62
13 "Ocean's Eleven" CBS 11.58
14 Lost ABC 11.27
15 Lost (9 p.m.) ABC 10.92
16 CSI: NY CBS 10.77
17 Amazing Race: 6 CBS 10.72
18 Law & Order: SVU NBC 10.68
19 According to Jim ABC 10.58
20 NYPD Blue ABC 10.38
21 Wonderful World of Disney (Thu.) ABC 10.37
22 Biggest Loser NBC 9.69
23 Still Standing CBS 9.66
24 Law & Order NBC 9.64
24 NCIS CBS 9.64
26 Rodney ABC 9.32
27 Listen Up CBS 9.24
28 Law & Order: Criminal Intent NBC 9.11
29 America's Funniest Home Videos ABC 9.08
30 Wife Swap ABC 8.66
31 "Kennedy Center Honors" CBS 8.48
32 Fear Factor NBC 8.25
33 Primetime Live ABC 8.24
34 Crossing Jordan NBC 7.86
35 The West Wing NBC 7.83
36 George Lopez ABC 7.79
37 America's Funniest Home Videos (Fri.) ABC 7.72
38 King of Queens CBS 7.65
39 My Wife and Kids ABC 7.64
40 Dateline: NBC (Sun.) NBC 7.48
41 Will & Grace (Wed.) NBC 7.47
42 Las Vegas NBC 7.44
43 The Swan 2 FOX 7.20
44 "My Dog Skip" CBS 7.14
45 Joey NBC 7.10
46 Will & Grace (Thu., 9 p.m.) NBC 7.08
47 "Funniest Holiday Moments" FOX 7.03
48 Nanny 911 FOX 6.99
49 Wonderful World of Disney (Sat.) ABC 6.90
50 The Simpsons FOX 6.87
51 "TV Guide: Greatest Moments" ABC 6.82
52 House FOX 6.73
53 Center of the Universe CBS 6.59
54 Law & Order: Criminal Intent (Fri.) NBC 6.50
55 Will & Grace (Thu., 8:30 p.m.) NBC 6.34
56 Las Vegas (10 p.m.) NBC 6.33
57 48 Hours Mystery (Sat.) CBS 6.20
58 King of the Hill FOX 6.19
59 Father of the Pride NBC 6.16
60 Scrubs NBC 6.09
61 That '70s Show FOX 6.05
62 Wonderful World of Disney (Fri.) ABC 5.94
63 ER NBC 5.91
64 Cops (8:30 p.m.) FOX 5.79
65 JAG CBS 5.53
66 48 Hours Mystery (Fri.) CBS 5.30
67 "Home for the Holidays" CBS 5.26
68 Cops FOX 4.93
69 WWE Smackdown! UPN 4.85
70 Quintuplets FOX 4.84
71 Malcolm in the Middle (9:30 p.m.) FOX 4.52
72 "It's a Wonderful Life" NBC 4.43
73 "Christmas Carol" NBC 4.38
74 Arrested Development FOX 4.37
75 Malcolm in the Middle FOX 4.34
76 Joan of Arcadia CBS 4.24
77 The O.C. FOX 4.14
78 "Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle" FOX 3.96
79 7th Heaven WB 3.70
80 The O.C. (9 p.m.) FOX 3.54
81 Blue Collar WB 3.17
82 Reba WB 3.16
83 Gilmore Girls WB 3.00
84 Smallville WB 2.97
85 Rebel Billionaire FOX 2.82
86 High School Reunion WB 2.81
87 One on One UPN 2.78
88 Girlfriends UPN 2.61
89 Half and Half UPN 2.60
90 Everwood WB 2.58
91 "Nora's Hair Salon" UPN 2.47
92 Eve UPN 2.38
93 All of Us UPN 2.31
94 Second Time Around UPN 2.16
95 Kevin Hill UPN 2.12
96 Steve Harvey's Big Time WB 2.09
97 Charmed WB 2.07
98 Kevin Hill UPN 1.90
99 Grounded WB 1.80
100 What I Like About You WB 1.79
101 Veronica Mars UPN 1.65
102 BMOC WB 1.60
102 "Crazy/Beautiful" WB 1.60
104 Mountain WB 1.10
Network averages
Here is the number of viewers (in millions) that each network averaged per hour of prime time, for last week and for the season.
Net Last wk Season avg
CBS 10.02 13.04
ABC 9.65 10.18
NBC 8.98 9.96
FOX 5.81 8.73
UPN 2.77 3.54
WB 2.31 3.67
Bottom Five Shows By Network Week Ending Dec. 26
(viewers in millions)
ABC
36 George Lopez 7.79
39 My Wife and Kids 7.64
49 Wonderful World of Disney (Sat.) 6.90
51 "TV Guide: Greatest Moments" 6.82
62 Wonderful World of Disney (Fri.) 5.94
CBS
53 Center of the Universe 6.59
57 48 Hours Mystery (Sat.) 6.20
66 48 Hours Mystery (Fri.) 5.30
67 "Home for the Holidays" 5.26
76 Joan of Arcadia 4.24
Fox
75 Malcolm in the Middle 4.34
77 The O.C. 4.14
78 "Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle" 3.96
80 The O.C. (9 p.m.) 3.54
85 Rebel Billionaire 2.82
NBC
59 Father of the Pride 6.16
60 Scrubs 6.09
63 ER 5.91
72 "It's a Wonderful Life" 4.43
73 "Christmas Carol" 4.38
UPN
93 All of Us 2.31
94 Second Time Around 2.16
95 Kevin Hill 2.12
98 Kevin Hill 1.90
101 Veronica Mars 1.65
WB
99 Grounded 1.80
100 What I Like About You 1.79
102 BMOC 1.60
102 "Crazy/Beautiful" 1.60
104 Mountain 1.10
Source: Nielsen Media Research data
Top Five Shows By Network Week Ending Dec. 26
(Six Shows for Fox: So shoot me, I like “House”)
(viewers in millions)
ABC
2 Monday Night Football 16.18
7 Desperate Housewives 12.89
8 NFL Monday Showcase 12.49
11 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition 11.88
14 Lost 11.27
CBS
1 Everybody Loves Raymond 16.99
3 CSI 15.83
4 Two and a Half Men 15.47
5 CSI: Miami 14.84
6 Without a Trace 13.06
Fox
10 "NFL Sunday Post-Game" 12.03
43 The Swan 2 7.20
47 "Funniest Holiday Moments" 7.03
48 Nanny 911 6.99
50 The Simpsons 6.87
52 House 6.73
NBC
18 Law & Order: SVU 10.68
22 Biggest Loser 9.69
24 Law & Order 9.64
28 Law & Order: Criminal Intent 9.11
32 Fear Factor 8.25
UPN
69 WWE Smackdown! 4.85
87 One on One 2.78
88 Girlfriends 2.61
89 Half and Half 2.60
91 "Nora's Hair Salon" 2.47
WB
79 7th Heaven 3.70
81 Blue Collar 3.17
82 Reba 3.16
83 Gilmore Girls 3.00
84 Smallville 2.97
Source: Nielsen Media Research data
'Monday Night Football' Ratings Not as Dandy
By THE NEW YORK TIMES December 29, 2004
ABC's "Monday Night Football" concluded its 35th season with an 11.0 Nielsen rating, down 4 percent from last season and the lowest in its history.
Viewership fell to 16.4 million from 16.9 million.
But the program is ranked seventh in prime time, and it consistently wins its time slot.
"The most valid way to determine the success of a program is against its competition," Mark Mandel, a spokesman for ABC Sports, said. " 'Monday Night Football' has been in the top 10 for 15 straight years, and any implication that it is not doing well is just not right."
In its attractiveness to important male demographics, "Monday Night" had its rating increase 1 percent among men 18 to 34, and the rating fell 2 percent among men 18 to 49. Among all adults, the rating fell 3 percent.
Despite the appeal to the type of viewers that advertisers covet, "Monday Night" - which is headed into the final year of its contract - is losing as much as $200 million annually. CBS and Fox have extended their Sunday afternoon National Football League deals through the 2011 season, but ABC and ESPN have deferred their renewals. It is possible, despite the importance of "Monday Night," that ABC may not retain it.
It was a somewhat bumpy year for the "Monday Night" franchise. It drew a mixed reaction for a steamy opening skit to one game in which Nicollette Sheridan, one of the stars of ABC's "Desperate Housewives," appeared to leap naked into the arms of Terrell Owens, and for a series of juvenile halftime pranks pulled by players on their unsuspecting teammates.
A Merry Christmas for ABC
The Week’s Winners and Losers
By Lisa de Moraes The Washington Post Wednesday, December 29, 2004; Page C07
CBS snagged the most viewers during Christmas week, but really, how much is there to say about four variations on the procedural crime drama and "Ocean's Eleven"? ABC, meanwhile, snapped CBS's six-week winning streak among 18-to-49-year-olds with a grab bag that included a campy suburban sendup, a home makeover reality show and "Monday Night Football." ABC also clocked the highest rating in four years of any network in that demographic group during a Christmas week and took the week among 25-to-54-year-olds, teens and kids.
Here's a look at the week's cheer and humbug:
WINNERS
"Ocean's Eleven." Defying conventional wisdom, the most watched theatrical movie of the TV season aired the night after Christmas (when the number of homes using television is supposed to be low, low, low), bagging nearly 12 million viewers for CBS.
"Extreme Makeover: Home Edition." The rebroadcast of the ABC reality series season debut, in which a widowed father of six gets the treatment, was the week's most watched program among teens.
Christmas night flicks. ABC's "Sound of Music," CBS's "My Dog Skip" and NBC's "It's a Wonderful Life" collectively averaged nearly 19 million viewers Saturday.
The Jerry Bruckheimer drama factory. "CSI," "CSI: Miami," "Without a Trace" and "Cold Case" were the top-ranked drama series, catapulting CBS into first place Christmas week. Ho, ho, ho, hum . . .
LOSERS
NBC. The GE-owned network had a rough holiday week, finishing fourth in its target 18-49 demographic group for the second time this season. NBC hadn't placed fourth in the demo during a week since 2001. Overall, it averaged 7 million viewers, the network's smallest audience during an official TV season in at least seven seasons. "Law & Order: SVU" was the only NBC show to top 10 million viewers last week.
"The Swan" had an audience for the second-season finale on Fox that came in 3.5 million viewers slimmer than the first-season finale, which, in this case, is not a good thing.
"The Rebel Billionaire." The week's least-watched show among the Big Four broadcast networks had a scrawny 2.8 million viewers. That's also the smallest audience Fox has garnered in the Tuesday 8 p.m. hour since the network started programming it in 1993.
Kennedy Center Honors. CBS's frozen-in-time tribute special settled for its second smallest audience in seven years -- about 8.5 million viewers -- even though the network had moved it to a stronger pre-Christmas time slot. This year's honorees were Warren Beatty, Elton John, Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee, Joan Sutherland and John Williams. Last year the Honors show scored more than 11 million viewers the night after Christmas, but then ratings-magnet Carol Burnett was among the honorees. In 2002, the show suffered its smallest audience, 7.2 million viewers, when honoring James Earl Jones, James Levine, Chita Rivera, Paul Simon and Elizabeth Taylor. Previous ratings spikes include '98 (12.6 million viewers), when TV star Bill Cosby was among those feted, and '93 (12.5 million), when the list included late-night TV great Johnny Carson. Sense a trend?
2004 Nobel Peace Prize Concert. It's unclear where the news service reports of this event -- mostly about hosts Oprah Winfrey and Tom Cruise -- got that 450-million-viewer estimate, but given that in the United States the telecast attracted an average of just 227,000 viewers, the concert would have had to average around 4 million viewers in each of the other 100-ish countries in which it was shown, which seems unlikely. E!, which telecast the concert domestically, did better in the time slot the previous four weeks with such classics as "101 Most Sensational Crimes of Fashion" and "Diary of an Affair."
Ratings Notes
'Race' slips past 'Loser'
By Gary Levin, USA TODAY
•Reality race. In a duel of original reality episodes, CBS' Amazing Race (10.7 million) edged out NBC's The Biggest Loser (9.7 million), though it marked Race's season low. NBC's Father of the Pride, which has been caged since late October, returned to burn off remaining original episodes, averaging a typical 6.2 million viewers.
•Kennedy kudos dip. Tuesday's Kennedy Center Honors on CBS slipped 24% to 8.5 million viewers from last year's edition, which aired Dec. 26.
•NBC ranks third on Thursday. Tim Allen holiday perennial The Santa Clause averaged 10.4 million viewers Thursday, giving usual also-ran ABC its best performance in that 8 p.m.-to-10 p.m. ET/PT slot in more than a year. NBC's repeat lineup slumped to third place as a Without a Trace rerun (13.1 million) doubled the audience of an ER repeat (5.9 million).
•Holiday movie slugfest In the battle of Christmas Day movies, CBS' second airing of My Dog Skip (7.1 million viewers) narrowly edged the 25th run of ABC's The Sound of Music (6.9 million), and both trounced NBC's It's a Wonderful Life, which delivered 4.4 million viewers.
•Housewivesredux. A repeat of Desperate Housewives' pilot episode in a special 10 p.m. ET/PT time slot Sunday averaged 12.9 million viewers, outscoring CBS' broadcast premiere of Ocean's Eleven. With last week's results, Housewives eclipsed CSI as TV's top series among young adults, although the crime drama continues to lead comfortably among viewers of all ages.
•House home. Fox's critically praised but low-rated medical drama House took advantage of the slow week. A new episode ranked as the series high among young adults with a still-modest 6.7 million total viewers. Meanwhile, Monday's finale of plastic-surgery beauty pageant The Swan 2, which was moved up from January, notched 7.2 million, making it Fox's top show of the week.
•Skipper, too. TBS' The Real Gilligan's Island jumped back to 3.8 million viewers Tuesday from the prior week's 2.5-million turnout.
Sad news. Jerry Orbach succumbed to cancer. He will be missed.
http://www.cnn.com/2004/SHOWBIZ/TV/12/29/obit.orbach/index.html
(From Marc Berman’s Programming Insider column Wednesday, Dec. 29, 2004, at Mediaweek.com)
Primetime Tuesday Ratings:
CBS Leads the Troops--
Tuesday 12/28/04
Note: The following overnights exclude the Philadelphia, Miami, Tampa, Columbus, Richmond, Memphis, Greenville-Spartanburg, San Antonio, Oklahoma City, Albuquerque and Binghamton markets.
Metered Market Ratings
Household Rating/Share
CBS: 6.8/11
ABC: 5.4/ 9
NBC: 5.2/ 8
Fox: 3.8/ 6
WB: 2.6/ 4
UPN: 2.0/ 3
Percent Change From the Year-Ago Evening (Tuesday 12/30/03):
ABC: +12
WB: + 8
CBS: + 5
UPN: - 9
NBC: -16
Fox: -41
Fast Affiliate Ratings
Total Viewers:
CBS: 10.26 million
ABC: 8.09
NBC: 7.34
Fox: 5.38
WB: 3.12
UPN: 2.37
Adults 18-49:
CBS: 3.2/ 9
ABC: 3.1/ 8
NBC: 2.9/ 8
Fox: 2.1/ 6
WB: 1.4/ 4
UPN: 0.8/ 2
Yesterday's Winners:
NCIS R (CBS)
According To Jim R (ABC)
The Amazing Race 6 (CBS)
House (Fox)
Law & Order: SVU R (NBC)
Yesterday's Losers:
Father of the Pride (NBC)
The Rebel Billionaire: Branson's Quest for the Best (Fox)
High School Reunion (WB)
Ratings Breakdown:
With 57 percent of the schedule in repeats, CBS posted a three-tier Tuesday victory, finishing first in the overnights, total viewers and adults 18-49. As a reminder, viewers and adults 18-49 are based on the fast affiliate ratings. A repeat of CBS' underrated NCIS (8.7/14; Viewers: 12.86 million; A18-49: 3.5/10) and The Amazing Race 6 (6.9/11; Viewers: 10.44 million; A18-49: 3.9/10) ranked first in all three categories from 8-10 p.m., followed by a repeat of Judging Amy third in the overnights (5.0/ 8) and adults 18-49 (2.1/ 6) behind a repeat of NBC's Law & Order: SVU (#1: 8.4/14; A18-49: #1, 4.4/12) and a Tuesday edition of ABC's 20/20 (#2: 5.2/ 9; A18-49: #2, 2.6/ 7) at 10 p.m. As good as The Amazing Race 6 is (good luck next week, Lori and Bolo - you'll need it!), there is something missing without plucky Charla from season five in the mix.
In series burn-off news, three consecutive episodes of NBC's canceled Father of the Pride averaged a miniscule 3.4/ 5 in the overnights with a 2.1/ 5 among adults 18-49 from 8-9:30 p.m. The next time a network is looking for an animated comedy that has absolutely no appeal to kids, here's some advice: don't do it! At 9:30 p.m., a repeat of Scrubs was fourth in the overnights (3.8/ 6) and adults 18-49 (2.5/ 6). Next week, look for the premiere of comedy Committed at 9:30 p.m., with Scrubs moving into the 9 p.m. half-hour on Jan. 11. For more on Committed, see TV Tidbits below.
Over at ABC, repeats of My Wife and Kids (#2: 5.2/ 8; A18-49: #1t, 3.1/ 9), George Lopez (#2: 5.2/ 8; A18-49: #2, 3.2/ 9), According To Jim (#2: 6.3/10; A18-49: #1, 4.0/10) and Rodney (#3: 5.1/ 8; A18-49: #2, 3.2/ 8) were at typical non-original levels from 8-10 p.m. Considering According To Jim out-rated the first half of the competing Amazing Race by 5 percent among adults 18-49 (4.0/10 to 3.8/10), it's off to the winner's circle for Jim Belushi and company.
On Fox, reality dud Rebel Billionaire: Branson's Quest for the Best opened the evening with a typically lackluster (and fourth-place) 2.7/ 4 in the overnights, 3.84 million viewers and a 1.6/ 4 among adults 18-49. Lead-out House picked up typical steam, building to a third-place 5.0/ 8 in the overnights, 6.92 million viewers and a 2.6/ 7 among adults 18-49. Considering House has no lead-in support, that's worthy of accolades.
On the WB, a repeat of Gilmore Girls (#4: 3.1/ 5; A18-49: #5, 1.5/ 4) followed by an original installment of High School Reunion (#5: 2.1/ 3; A18-49: #5, 1.2/ 3) outdelivered repeats of UPN's All of Us (#6: 2.0/ 3; A18-49: #6, 0.8/ 2), Eve (#6: 2.2/ 4; A18-49: #6, 1.0/ 3) and Veronica Mars (#6: 2.0/ 3; A18-49: #6, 0.8/ 2) by an average of 30 percent in the overnights and 75 percent among adults 18-49.
Source: Nielsen Media Research data
National Ratings in Primetime - Week of Dec. 20:
ABC and CBS Split Leadership
Although judging any network's performance at the height of holiday repeat season is always questionable, it could be a tough 2005 for NBC given the declining network plummeted to the No. 4 spot in adults 18-49 and adults 18-34, while finishing a distant third in households, total viewers and adults 25-54. Tied for first for the week of Dec. 20 were ABC and CBS, with the growing Eye net No. 1 in households and total viewers, and the growing alphabet net holding the top spot in adults 18-49, adults 18-34 and adults 25-54. ABC's win among adults 18-49 was the highest rating for any network in the demo during a Christmas week in four years.
Fox was close to year-ago levels, finishing second among adults 18-34, third among adults 18-49, and fourth in households, total viewers and adults 25-54. Of note on Fox was the two-hour season, or series, finale of The Swan with a lackluster 7.2 million viewers (No. 41 overall) and a 3.3/ 9 among adults 18-49 (No. 20 tie) on Monday. UPN, which was also on par with the year-ago week, pulled ahead of the declining WB, with an average advantage of 19 percent in households, 460,000 viewers, and as much as 22 percent in the three surveyed demo groups.
What follows are the final national ratings for the week of Dec. 20 (with percent change versus the comparable year-ago period in parentheses):
Households:
CBS: 6.4/11 (+ 3)
ABC: 6.0/11 (+18)
NBC: 4.6/ 8 (- 2)
Fox: 3.6/ 6 (- 3)
UPN: 1.9/ 3 (+ 6)
WB: 1.6/ 3 (-11)
Total Viewers:
CBS: 10.01 million (+ 3)
ABC: 9.65 (+19)
NBC: 6.98 (- 5)
Fox: 5.81 (- 4)
UPN: 2.77 (+ 4)
WB: 2.31 (-15)
Adults 18-49:
ABC: 3.4/10 (+21)
CBS: 3.0/ 9 (+15)
Fox: 2.5/ 7 (no change)
NBC: 2.4/ 7 (- 4)
UPN: 1.1/ 3 (+10)
WB: 0.9/ 3 (-10)
Adults 18-34:
ABC: 2.5/ 9 (+19)
Fox: 2.4/ 8 (+ 4)
CBS: 2.2/ 8 (+22)
NBC: 1.9/ 6 (- 5)
UPN: 1.0/ 3 (no change)
WB: 0.9/ 3 (-10)
Adults 25-54:
ABC: 3.9/10 (+15)
CBS: 3.6/10 (+ 9)
NBC: 2.9/ 8 (- 3)
Fox: 2.5/ 7 (- 4)
UPN: 1.1/ 3 (no change)
WB: 0.9/ 2 (-10)
Source: Nielsen Media Research data
TV Tidbits: Notes of Interest
Give Me a Break!:
Has anyone noticed the tasteless promos NBC is running for new sitcom Committed, which features jokes about a paraplegic? This is obviously no cure for the current sitcom drought, which has hit NBC particularly hard.
Ebert & Roper Announce Their Top Picks of 2004:
Film critics Roger Ebert and Richard Roeper have announced their top 10 movie picks of the year, which will be unveiled this weekend in annual Buena Vista special, Ebert & Roeper: The Best of 2004. Their choices are:
Roger Ebert
1. Million Dollar Baby
2. Kill Bill: Vol. 2
3. Vera Drake
4. Spiderman 2
5. Moolade
6. The Aviator
7. Baadasssss!
8. Sideways
9. Hotel Rwanda
10. Undertow
Richard Roeper
1. Hotel Rwanda
2. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
3. The Aviator
4. Sideways
5. House of Flying Daggers
6. Million Dollar Baby
7. The Terminal
8. Kill Bill: Vol. 2
9. Spanglish
10. Collateral
On the Air Tonight: Primetime Programming Options
Wednesday 12/29/04
ABC:
Lost (two repeats), Wife Swap (R)
CBS:
60 Minutes, King Of Queens (R), Center of the Universe (R), CSI: NY (R)
NBC:
Law & Order: Criminal Intent (R), The West Wing (R), Law & Order (R)
Fox:
That '70s Show (R), Quintuplets (R), Nanny 911 (R)
UPN:
2004 Vibe Awards (R)
WB:
Smallville (R), Big Man on Campus
Yes he will. He was an original.
Sturmie
12-29-04, 12:06 PM
sad news indeed.
the-sloth
12-29-04, 12:08 PM
wow... extremely sad news. i have missed him on L&O and was excited to learn of the new L&O spinoff he would be staring in... sad day.
'Law & Order' Star Jerry Orbach Dies
The 69-year-old actor succumbs to prostate cancer.
NEW YORK The Associated Press — Actor Jerry Orbach, who played a sardonic, seen-it-all cop on TV's "Law & Order" and scored on Broadway as a song-and-dance man, has died of prostate cancer at 69, a representative of the show said today.
Orbach died Tuesday night in Manhattan after several weeks of treatment, Audrey Davis of the public relations agency Lippin Group said.
When his illness was diagnosed, he had begun production on NBC's upcoming spinoff "Law & Order: Trial By Jury," after 12 seasons playing Detective Lennie Briscoe in the original series. His return to the new show had been expected early next year.
On Broadway, the Bronx-born Orbach starred in hit musicals including "Carnival," "Promises, Promises" (for which he won a Tony Award), "Chicago" and "42nd Street."
Earlier, he was in the original cast of the off-off-Broadway hit "The Fantasticks," playing the narrator. The show went on to run for more than 40 years.
Among his film appearances were roles in "Dirty Dancing," "Prince of the City" and "Crimes and Misdemeanors."
Orbach is expected to appear in early episodes of "Law & Order: Trial by Jury," for which he continued as Briscoe in a secondary role, when the series premieres later this season, Davis said.
"I'm immensely saddened by the passing of not only a friend and colleague, but a legendary figure of 20th Century show business," said Dick Wolf, creator and executive producer of the "Law & Order" series, in a statement. "He was one of the most honored performers of his generation. His loss is irreplaceable."
In a 2000 Associated Press interview, Orbach said the role in the acclaimed "Law & Order" brought him "wonderful security" rare in the life of an actor.
"All my life, since I was 16, I've been wondering where that next job was gonna come from," he explained. "Now I take the summer off, relax, and I know that at the end of July we're gonna start another season."
He said he didn't know "where I stop and Lennie starts, really. ... I know he's tougher than me and he carries a gun. And I'm not an alcoholic."
"I know I wouldn't want to be him," Orbach sums up. "I guess THAT'S where I stop and he starts."
In 1987-88, he starred in the series "The Law and Harry McGraw," a spinoff featuring a character he created in "Murder, She Wrote." In 1990, a shot on "The Golden Girls" brought him an Emmy nomination as best guest actor in a comedy series.
"There's a pace in TV I like," he said in a 1993 interview. "I like to work fast. I don't like to dwell all day over one scene as you do in a big feature. Big feature films are another world."
Many people don't know that Orbach was a big time Broadway musical theater star before he got famous on Law & Order. His breakthrough performance was as El Gallo in the original off Broadway production of "The Fantastiks." He was later nominated for three Tony Awards and won the Best Actor in a Musical Tony for "Promises, Promises" in 1969. He was the first Billy Flynn in the original 1976 Broadway production of "Chicago." He was nominated for that performance, too.
Jerry Orbach was a talented fellow, indeed.
TreoFred
12-29-04, 12:34 PM
And for those that like to hear Jerry sing, he also was the voice of 'Lumiere' in the Disney's Animated Beauty and the Beast in 1991.
He played a lot of good parts, but one of my favorite Orbach roles was as the allegedly whacked mobster in "F/X."
Scott Greczkowski
12-29-04, 02:36 PM
He was also the father of "Baby" from the movie Dirty Dancing.
(Nobody puts Baby in the corner.)
Sad news.
Mark Vidonic
12-29-04, 03:58 PM
The best line ever from him was "Brewster's Millions". He was the manager.
"Tinker to Evers to ****."
rmcgirr83
12-29-04, 04:00 PM
Made my mouth gape open.
Very sad to hear.
NBC UNIVERSAL STATEMENT ON JERRY ORBACH
thefutoncritic.com--NEW YORK -- December 29, 2004 -- On behalf of NBC Universal, Chairman & CEO Bob Wright issued the following statement today:
We are saddened by the passing yesterday of the legendary Jerry Orbach, who had an unforgettable presence on stage and screen for more than forty years. He was a man of extraordinary talents and personal grace. Suzanne and I and all of us at NBC Universal will miss him, as will his countless fans. Our hearts go out to Jerry's wife, Elaine, and to his family and friends on their loss.
(An updated obit, with more information)
Jerry Orbach, Star of 'Law & Order,' Dies
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS December 29, 2004 Filed at 4:45 p.m. ET
NEW YORK (AP) -- Actor Jerry Orbach, who played a sardonic, seen-it-all cop on TV's ``Law & Order'' and scored on Broadway as a song-and-dance man, has died of prostate cancer at 69.
Orbach died Tuesday night in Manhattan after several weeks of treatment, Audrey Davis of the public relations agency Lippin Group said Wednesday.
When his illness was diagnosed, he had begun production on NBC's upcoming spinoff ``Law & Order: Trial By Jury,'' after 12 seasons playing Detective Lennie Briscoe in the original series.
On Broadway, Orbach starred in hit musicals including ``Carnival,'' ``Promises, Promises'' (for which he won a Tony Award), ``Chicago'' and ``42nd Street.''
Earlier, he was in the original cast of the off-off-Broadway hit ``The Fantasticks,'' playing the narrator. The show went on to run for more than 40 years.
Lights on Broadway marquees were expected to be dimmed for one minute at curtain time Wednesday night in Orbach's memory.
Among his film appearances were roles in ``Dirty Dancing,'' ``Prince of the City'' and ``Crimes and Misdemeanors.'' In the animated ``Beauty and the Beast,'' he voiced the role of the candlestick and sang ``Be Our Guest.''
Orbach still is expected to appear in early episodes of ``Law & Order: Trial by Jury,'' for which he continued as Briscoe in a secondary role, when the show premieres later this season, Davis said.
``I'm immensely saddened by the passing of not only a friend and colleague, but a legendary figure of 20th century show business,'' said Dick Wolf, creator and executive producer of the ``Law & Order'' series. ``He was one of the most honored performers of his generation. His loss is irreplaceable.''
With his hangdog face and loose-limbed gait, Orbach was adept at playing the street-smart tough guy, but could also hoof and carry a tune. The lifelong New Yorker personified the city's well-worn but implacable edge, embodying the Big Apple like few other actors.
Former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani called Orbach ``a devoted ambassador of the city.''
Orbach was the son of a vaudeville-performer father and a radio-singer mother. He acted in school plays, then attended Northwestern University's prestigious drama school, though he couldn't swing the money to finish. In 1955, he returned to New York to hit the stage.
In a 2000 interview with The Associated Press, Orbach remembered those days fondly. Money was tight, even with his early successes: In 1960 he was earning just $45 a week in ``The Fantasticks,'' but ``even married, with a son, we lived all right.''
He then began an association with producer David Merrick, appearing in three of his biggest musical successes, starting in 1961 with ``Carnival,'' in which he played an embittered puppeteer opposite Anna Maria Alberghetti's winsome Lili.
Orbach won a Tony for his performance in Merrick's ``Promises, Promises,'' the Neil Simon-Burt Bacharach-Hal David musical based on the film ``The Apartment.'' He played Chuck Baxter, the role originated in the movie by Jack Lemmon.
Yet his biggest hit for Merrick was ``42nd Street,'' which opened on Broadway in 1980 and ran for more than 3,400 performances. In the show, based on the classic backstage movie, Orbach played hard-boiled producer Julian Marsh, who brings the young hoofer out of the chorus to replace the show's ailing star.
Orbach also was in the original production of ``Chicago'' in 1975, which also starred Gwen Verdon and Chita Rivera. He played Billy Flynn, the role Richard Gere inherited in the 2002 film.
``It was a gift to work with him,'' recalled actress Brenda Smiley, who co-starred with Orbach in the Off-Broadway hit ``Scuba Duba,'' a dark comedy by Bruce Jay Friedman, in 1967-68. ``He was a master at that kind of performing and he made it so easy for everyone else.''
From early, obscure films like ``Cop Hater'' and ``Mad Dog Coll,'' Orbach rose to appearances in Woody Allen's ``Crimes and Misdemeanors'' and the 1981 crime drama ``Prince of the City,'' in a cop role that presaged his ``Law & Order'' character.
In 1987-88, he starred in the series ``The Law and Harry McGraw,'' a spinoff featuring a character he created on ``Murder, She Wrote.'' It flopped, but five years later he struck gold, following Paul Sorvino as a detective in ``Law and Order.''
In the 2000 interview, Orbach said ``Law & Order'' brought him ``wonderful security'' rare in the life of an actor.
``All my life, since I was 16, I've been wondering where that next job was gonna come from,'' he explained. ``Now I take the summer off, relax, and I know that at the end of July we're gonna start another season.''
He said he didn't know ``where I stop and Lennie starts, really. ... I know he's tougher than me and he carries a gun. And I'm not an alcoholic.''
``I know I wouldn't want to be him,'' Orbach summed up. ``I guess THAT'S where I stop and he starts.''
Orbach is survived by his second wife, Elaine, whom he met doing ``Chicago'' and married in 1979, and sons Chris and Tony from his first marriage.
(And another wth more remembrances)
Jerry Orbach of 'Law & Order' Dies at 69
By FRAZIER MOORE AP Television Writer Dec 29, 6:10 PM EST
NEW YORK (AP) -- Jerry Orbach had a gift for charming audiences his entire career - first as a song-and-dance man who starred in musicals on and off Broadway, then for 12 years as a sharp-tongued cop on TV's "Law & Order." Along the way, he made films as varied as the gritty crime drama "The Prince and the City" and the smash romance "Dirty Dancing."
Orbach, who died of prostate cancer Tuesday in Manhattan, was beginning another chapter at age 69: He had taken his signature role as Detective Lennie Briscoe to NBC's upcoming spinoff "Law & Order: Trial By Jury."
With his hangdog puss and loose-limbed gait, Orbach was unmatched at playing the street-smart tough guy. A quintessential New Yorker, he personified his city's well-worn but implacable edge, embodying the Big Apple like few other actors.
Former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani called Orbach "a friend to all New Yorkers" and "a devoted ambassador of the city."
Orbach's long-time "Law & Order" co-star, S. Epatha Merkerson, remembered him as "as a real good guy who knew everything and everybody. He had a real lust for life and the work he did, and it permeated throughout the set."
Of course, he presented quite a different picture as the world-weary, recovering alcoholic Briscoe. But even as Briscoe drooped from the burden of everything he'd encountered, both on and off the job, he sized up life with sarcastic asides. For instance, standing over a fresh body on which a receipt from a fancy restaurant was found, he muttered: "Dinner for two? Hope he enjoyed it."
Orbach had announced in early December that he had prostate cancer. His manager said at the time that he had been receiving treatment since spring, but declined to disclose any particulars about the seriousness of his condition.
Orbach is expected to appear in early "Trial By Jury" episodes when the show premieres in March.
"I'm immensely saddened by the passing of not only a friend and colleague, but a legendary figure of 20th-century show business," said Dick Wolf, creator and executive producer of the four "Law & Order" series. "He was one of the most honored performers of his generation. His loss is irreplaceable."
Orbach started his career as a hoofer who also could carry a tune. Beginning in the 1960s, he starred on Broadway in hit musicals including "Carnival," "Promises, Promises" (for which he won a Tony Award), "42nd Street" and "Chicago."
"He was an anchor who brought style, security and razzle-dazzle to our original `Chicago' company," said Chita Rivera, Orbach's co-star in that 1975 production. "He was a swell guy."
It was his cop role in the 1981 drama "Prince of the City" that inspired his "Law & Order" character.
Born in the Bronx in 1935, Orbach was the son of a vaudeville-performer father and a radio-singer mother. He acted in school plays, then attended Northwestern University's prestigious drama school in suburban Chicago, though he couldn't swing the money to finish. In 1955, he returned to New York to hit the stage.
In a 2000 interview with The Associated Press, Orbach remembered those days fondly. Money was tight, even with his early successes: He was earning just $45 a week in "The Fantasticks," but "even married, with a son, we lived all right."
He then began an association with producer David Merrick, appearing in three of Merrick's biggest musical successes, starting in 1961 with "Carnival," in which he played an embittered puppeteer opposite Anna Maria Alberghetti's winsome Lili.
In "Promises, Promises," the Neil Simon-Burt Bacharach-Hal David musical based on the film "The Apartment," he played Chuck Baxter, the role originated in the movie by Jack Lemmon.
His biggest hit for Merrick was "42nd Street," which opened on Broadway in 1980 and ran for more than 3,400 performances. In the show, based on the classic backstage movie, Orbach played hard-boiled producer Julian Marsh, who brings the young dancer out of the chorus to replace the show's ailing star.
In "Chicago," Orbach played money-loving lawyer Billy Flynn, the role Richard Gere inherited in the 2002 film. It was also in that show that he met dancer Elaine Cancilla, whom he married in 1979.
She survives him, as well as sons Chris and Tony from his first marriage.
Orbach's first shot at series television was a flop. In "The Law and Harry McGraw," he played a wily but irascible private eye. The show lasted only the 1987-88 season. But four years later he struck gold, succeeding Paul Sorvino at Manhattan's 27th Precinct as "Law & Order" entered its third season.
"People adored him," said Merkerson, who plays Lt. Van Buren. She recalled sharing lunch one day with Orbach and co-star Benjamin Bratt, when several fans approached the table. "Jerry stopped eating to talk to them. But after a while, I whispered to him, `Your food is getting cold.'
"`Kid,' he replied with a big smile, 'these are the people that keep us going!'"
The New York Times obituary:
Jerry Orbach, Star of 'Law & Order,' Dies at 69
By BEN BRANTLEY and RICHARD SEVERO The New York Times December 29, 2004
Jerry Orbach - who won fame on the New York stage as one of the last bona fide leading men of the Broadway musical and global celebrity on television as a New York detective on NBC's "Law & Order" - died on Tuesday night. He was 69. The cause was prostate cancer, according to his agent, Robert Malcom.
In performances that spanned half a century, the Bronx-born Mr. Orbach came to embody two beloved New York archetypes: the musical matinee idol, to which he gave a refreshingly modern spin with his rugged and idiosyncratic persona, and the shrewd, irascible cop, a role he honed to a razor's edge as Detective Lennie Briscoe on "Law & Order."
After playing that role for 12 seasons, Mr. Orbach left the show at the end of last season with plans to star in "Trial by Jury," a spinoff that is scheduled to have its debut on NBC in the spring. His illness, which he first disclosed earlier this month, figured in the switch; Dick Wolf, the creator of the "Law & Order" programs, said the new program, on which Mr. Orbach was to appear only occasionally, was less taxing.
Whether singing "Try To Remember" as the dashing narrator of "The Fantasticks" in 1960 or trading barbs with fellow detectives and reluctant witnesses on television in recent years, Mr. Orbach exuded a wry, ragged masculinity that was all his own. As a star of musicals, he created a new kind of hero who was leagues away from suave, swaggering Adonises like John Raitt, Howard Keel and Alfred Drake (though like them, he sang in a resonant baritone). And he flourished at a time when the Broadway musical hero was fast becoming an endangered species.
In shows like "Promises, Promises," Neil Simon and Burt Bacharach's 1968 adaptation of the movie "The Apartment," and "42nd Street" in 1981, Mr. Orbach registered as a musical answer to the shaggier leading men who had begun to emerge on American movie screens, actors like Dustin Hoffman and Jack Nicholson. His rough-edged individuality may account for his endurance on the Broadway stage in an era when other promising musical actors - including Larry Kert, Robert Goulet and Robert Morse - proved unable to follow through on their breakthrough successes.
Mr. Orbach may indeed have been the last of a breed: no male star since has matched the breadth and continuity of his career in musicals. Though he originated the part of the corrupt, silver-tongued lawyer Billy Flynn in Bob Fosse's 1975 production of the musical "Chicago," Mr. Orbach was at his best as a tough cookie with a melting center.
Writing in The New York Times of "Promises, Promises," the critic Clive Barnes said of Mr. Orbach's portrayal of the haplessly ambitious, morally bewildered hero: "He makes gangle into a verb because that is just what he does. He gangles. He also sings most effectively, dances most occasionally, and acts with an engaging and perfectly controlled sense of desperation."
Yet he was equally persuasive in 1981 as the dictatorial director in David Merrick's Broadway version of the movie "42nd Street," in which he managed to instill new vitality into the hoariest of show-biz clichés. When, at the conclusion of the show's opening night performance, Merrick shocked the audience and cast by announcing that its director, Gower Champion, had died, it was Mr. Orbach who had the taste and authority to request that the curtain come down.
Mr.. Orbach's other important roles on stage included Mack the Knife in the landmark off-Broadway production of "The Threepenny Opera" in the late 1950's and El Gallo, the benevolently interactive narrator in "The Fantasticks," which was staged at the Sullivan Street Playhouse in 1960 and went on to become the longest-running musical in New York. Walter Kerr, writing about that performance in The New York Herald Tribune, said, "Mr. Orbach is no doubt on his way."
He also appeared as the misanthropic puppeteer in "Carnival" in 1961 and was nominated for a Tony award for playing Sky Masterson in the 1965 revival of "Guys and Dolls." He won the Tony for best actor in a musical for "Promises, Promises."
His film work was less gratifying, though he appeared to good advantage as Gus Levy in "Prince of the City," Sidney Lumet's biting 1981 movie about corruption in the New York City Police Department, and as Jack Rosenthal in Woody Allen's "Crimes and Misdemeanors" in 1989. (His work in film also led to an unlikely friendship with the mobster Joey Gallo, after Mr. Orbach portrayed a character modeled on Gallo in the 1971 movie "The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight.")
It wasn't until the 1990's, when he started appearing as Lennie Briscoe in "Law and Order," that Mr. Orbach became a familiar name throughout the country. The rough edge that distinguished him on Broadway eased his transition to character roles like Briscoe, the recovering alcoholic who seemed to greet the discovery of each episode's crime with a world-weary shrug.
Mr. Orbach died at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in Manhattan, said Esther Carver, a spokeswoman for the hospital.
Jerome Bernard Orbach was born in the Bronx on Oct. 20, 1935, the only child of Leon Orbach, a restaurant manager with some experience in vaudeville, and the former Emily Olexy.
The Orbachs moved to Waukegan, Ill., when Jerome was in the seventh grade. In 1952, after graduating from Waukegan High School, where he was on the football and swimming teams, he enrolled at the University of Illinois but stayed only a year. He transferred to Northwestern, where he studied drama. He remained there until 1955 but left without earning a degree.
Mr. Orbach did menial work for stock companies before being awarded small parts; later, he said that the stock experience helped him control his voice and "not to do too much with my eyebrows."
In 1955, Mr. Orbach headed to New York and found a job almost immediately as the understudy for the role of the Street Singer in an acclaimed off-Broadway production of "The Threepenny Opera." He remained with the company for three years, eventually taking on Scott Merrill's role of Mack the Knife. He studied acting with Herbert Berghof, Mira Rostova and Lee Strasberg and took singing lessons with Hazel Schweppe. After leaving "Threepenny" in 1959, he worked with stock companies in Ohio, appearing in "Mr. Roberts," "The King and I" and "Harvey."
But it was the now fabled "Fantasticks," which opened at the Sullivan Street Playhouse on May 3, 1960, that established Mr. Orbach as a star. Soon after, he moved on to Broadway in "Carnival" Frances Herridge, writing in the Mirror, called him a "rare combination of powerful male actor and singer." She continued, "Once you've seen him, you're not likely to forget him."
Mr. Orbach remained busy with varied stage work in New York: "The Cradle Will Rock" (1964), revivals of "Carousel" and "Annie Get Your Gun" in the mid-1960's; Bruce Jay Freidman's comedy of neurosis "Scuba Duba" (1967) and "6 Rms Riv Vu" (1972), among others. His films include "Brewster's Millions" (1985); "Dirty Dancing"(1987); "Last Exit to Brooklyn" (1989); and "The Adventures of a Gnome Called Gnorm" (1993). On television, he appeared on "The Shari Lewis Show," "The Jack Paar Show," "The Nurses" and "Bob Hope Presents."
Mr. Orbach married Marta Curro in 1958. They were divorced in 1975. In 1979, he married Elaine Cancialla, who survives him. He is also survived by his two sons by his first marriage, Anthony, of New Jersey, and Christopher, of Manhattan, and two grandchildren.
After appearing in "The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight," Mr. Orbach received a call from Gallo. "A cop that he knew had met us and told him that he'd met the guy who supposedly played him in the movie, that he was a nice guy, not like an actor," Marta Orbach recalled shortly after Gallo was gunned down in 1972. Through the Orbachs, Gallo briefly became one of the stranger fixtures of the show-biz social scene in Manhattan and was working on a memoir with Marta Orbach at the time of his death. Gallo lived in the Orbachs' Chelsea brownstone for a month and was married there a month before his murder.
With his portrayal of Lennie Briscoe on "Law and Order," Mr. Orbach achieved a worldwide fame that had previously eluded him. He became the face and frame of a typical New York cop, and the police liked what they saw. Mr. Orbach took the role seriously, so much so that he appeared in 2001 at a demonstration where police demanded higher wages from the Giuliani administration.
"All I can do is try and represent you guys on a TV screen and make you look as good as I can," Mr. Orbach was quoted as saying in Newsday. "I could never go out and not know if I'm coming home that night the way you do."
(Carla Baranauckas contributed reporting for this article.)
From the Los Angeles Times:
'Law & Order' Star Jerry Orbach Dies
By Dennis McLellan Los Angeles Times Staff Writer 4:16 PM PST, December 29, 2004
NEW YORK — Jerry Orbach, the Tony Award-winning Broadway musical star who achieved his widest fame on television playing sardonic New York City police detective Lennie Briscoe for 12 years on NBC's acclaimed series "Law & Order," has died. He was 69.
The Bronx-born Orbach, whose film and television work earned him a reputation for playing the quintessential New Yorker, died of prostate cancer Tuesday night in a Manhattan hospital, said his agent, Robert Malcolm.
Although the New York Daily News reported Dec. 2 that Orbach had been receiving treatment for prostate cancer since spring, Malcolm told The Times today that the actor had been fighting the disease for more than 10 years.
"He's obviously been working through bad times and good times," said Malcolm. "He was a tremendous fighter."
Malcolm said Orbach, who began a new round of chemotherapy in the spring, told the cast and crew of "Law & Order" that he had prostate cancer in April before leaving the show to play Briscoe in an upcoming spinoff series, "Law & Order: Trial By Jury."
The new show, featuring an ensemble cast that includes Bebe Neuwirth, is to debut next year. Orbach will appear in some of the early episodes.
"I'm immensely saddened by the passing of not only a friend and colleague, but a legendary figure of 20th century show business who was a star of screen, stage and television," Dick Wolf, creator and executive producer of the "Law & Order" series, said in a statement. "He was one of the most honored performers of his generation. His loss is irreplaceable."
Orbach began his rise in New York theater in 1960 playing El Gallo in the original cast of the long-running off-Broadway hit "The Fantasticks," in which he introduced the standard "Try to Remember."
He went on to costar in a string of hit Broadway musicals, "Carnival!," "Promises, Promises" (which earned him a Tony Award in 1969), "Chicago," "42nd Street" and "Annie Get Your Gun," starring Ethel Merman.
"Jerry's strong spirit will be with me forever," Chita Rivera, who starred with Orbach in the 1975 Broadway production of "Chicago," said in a statement. "He was an anchor who brought style, security and razzle-dazzle to our original 'Chicago' company."
Among Orbach's film credits were "The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight," "Prince of the City," "Postcards from the Edge," "Crimes and Misdemeanors" and "Dirty Dancing." He also sang in the Oscar-winning Disney animated feature "Beauty and the Beast," as the voice of the charming French candlestick Lumiere (complete with Orbach's droopy eyes).
For his television work, he earned three Emmy nominations - in 2000 for "Law & Order," in 1992 for an ABC production of Neil Simon's "Broadway Bound," and in 1990 for an episode of "The Golden Girls."
Orbach was inducted into the Broadway Hall of Fame in 1999.
As a tribute to the esteemed actor, the lights on Broadway were to dim tonight.
An only child, Orbach was born in the Bronx on Oct. 20, 1935. His restaurant manager father was a former vaudeville actor and his mother was a radio singer. The family moved frequently while he was growing up, settling in Waukegan, Ill. when Orbach was 12. By then, he was already displaying a flair for show business.
"They always picked me for the class play and this and that from the time I was about 9," he told the New York Daily News in 1997. "And I always sang, sang with my mother, sang in the choir. I won the state singing contest in the baritone division without really any training; didn't know what I was doing."
After graduating from high school at 16, he landed a summer stock apprentice job at the Chevy Chase theater in Wheeling, Ill. Unable to afford tuition in his junior year in Northwestern University's prestigious drama school, he dropped out and moved to New York City in the fall of 1955.
That December, he received his first break in a major off-Broadway revival of "The Threepenny Opera."
Orbach, who studied acting with Lee Strasberg at the Actors Studio, said it took years to convince producers that he was more than a musical comedy performer. Even fellow actors, he said in a 1993 Los Angeles Times interview, thought he was only a song-and-dance man. "When I would get a straight play like 'Six Rms Riv Vu' or 'Scuba, Duba,' they would get shocked."
Orbach starred in the short-lived 1987-88 series "The Law and Harry McGraw," a spinoff featuring a character he played on the popular Angela Lansbury series "Murder, She Wrote."
In 1992, the producers of "Law & Order" asked Orbach to replace series regular Paul Sorvino, who was leaving the show. Orbach relished the role of the rule-bending, old-school detective, a twice married recovering alcoholic. He played the part with a distinct New York edge.
Standing over a corpse on which a receipt for an upscale restaurant was found, Orbach's Briscoe muttered, "Dinner for two? Hope he enjoyed it."
And to a homeless man who claimed he had spoken to St. Francis of Assisi, he said, "Been there, pal."
On the streets of New York City, where "Law & Order" is shot, the sight of Orbach would literally stop traffic, drivers shouting out his name or complimenting him on the show.
Among Orbach's biggest fans were members of the New York City Police Department.
"The police treat me very nicely," Orbach told the Philadelphia Inquirer last December. "If it's raining and I can't get a cab, sometimes a squad car will come by and they'll say, 'Where are you going?' I say, 'I don't want to get you guys in trouble.' They say, 'Get in the back. We'll pretend you're under arrest."
Orbach is survived by his wife, Elaine, whom he met in 1976 while they were both in the cast of "Chicago"; two sons by a previous marriage, Tony and Chris; two grandchildren; and his mother, Emily.
A memorial service is pending.
The Washington Post's obit:
'Law & Order' Star Jerry Orbach Dies at 69
By Adam Bernstein Washington Post Staff Writer Thursday, December 30, 2004; Page B07
Jerry Orbach, the versatile stage and film actor whose portrayal of the wry Detective Lennie Briscoe helped make NBC's long-running "Law & Order" show a hit for a dozen seasons, died of prostate cancer Dec. 28 at a New York hospital.
The 69-year-old actor filmed his last episode of the show in the spring and was scheduled to start production of a spinoff, "Law & Order: Trial By Jury."
A Tony Award-winning stage star -- his résumé includes landmark productions of "The Threepenny Opera," "The Fantasticks," "Carnival!" "Promises, Promises," "Chicago" and "42nd Street" -- he was best known in recent years for "Law & Order."
For that program, Mr. Orbach used his wit and extensive knowledge of New Yawkese -- as well as his friendship with doomed mobster Joseph "Crazy Joe" Gallo -- to shape the script when problems arose. He told the New York Daily News: "We had a line where I said, 'Well, it's your job to break the guy's balls, right?' Well, I couldn't say that because of censors."
When a writer changed it to "gumballs," Mr. Orbach grew flustered. "I looked and I said 'gumballs!' 'Who the . . . says gumballs? So I changed it to breaking chops . . . which is another nice New Yorky, Brooklynese thing. So whoever was in California writing 'gumballs,' I mean, that's just silly!"
Jerome Bernard Orbach was born Oct. 20, 1935, in the Bronx, N.Y., the son of a restaurant manager who had some vaudeville experience and a mother who had sung on the radio. As a child, he showed great talent as a mimic of radio voices, from Al Jolson to the Lone Ranger, and his early stage ambitions were encouraged by his family.
Raised in Waukegan, Ill., where his family had settled, Mr. Orbach excelled in sports and was mentored by a high school speech teacher.
He said his goal was to become a rebel acting icon in the mold of James Dean and Marlon Brando, a dream that frustrated him later when he was unable to find such anti-hero leading man parts.
After high school, he worked in regional theater, learning, he once said, "how not to do too much with my eyebrows . . . and not to do too many 'takes' " when performing comedy. He attended Northwestern University briefly, worked as a per