View Full Version : Hot Off The Press! The Latest Television News and Info
Prime-time ratings for Monday – and Media Week Analyst Marc Berman’s view of what they mean -- have been posted at the top of Ratings News the first post in this thread.
The Labor Day Weekend-delayed Friday and Saturday network prime-time ratings are now at the top of RATINGS NEWS (the first post in this thread).
Critic’s Notebook
More on Rosie and Katie later; let's look at some premieres
By Melanie McFarland Seattle Post-Intelligencer TV Critic Tuesday, September 5, 2006
Feelings, a wise woman once said, are not fights.
Wait. Is Rosie O'Donnell a wise woman? Depends on who's reading her, I guess.
O'Donnell said this last week on her blog, the electronic sleeve upon which she wears all major emotions and inner thoughts. And if you've been keeping up with events, you know she's talking about her widely publicized trepidation over joining "The View."
One minute she was wary. "It will be hard 4 me/ 2 not b /the boss," the famous entry said. The next post, she was at peace. "I am excited about the view/ like a new kid on the first day of school/ hoping they all like me ..."
Big day for feelings, friends. Rosie starts her stint on "The View" (10 a.m., KOMO/4) and Katie Couric embarks upon what cynics think will be a long reign of caring about and sharing in the anchor chair tonight at "CBS Evening News."
Give them a little time before deciding how you feel about them. We'll do the same.
Instead, we're here to talk about the feeling fest in prime time. The third-season premiere of "House," the first episode of "Standoff" (both on Fox) and the fourth-season debut of "Nip/Tuck" on FX, all deal with feelings as a central theme -- differently than Rosie and Katie would, of course.
Thank God for that.
You know that hackneyed moment in most B-grade action flicks, when the outlook is grimmest and the gun-toting skullbuster makes a crack about holding hands with the enemy and singing "Kumbaya"? That's how prime-time dramas confront feelings. They have to be raw, tough, bloody and difficult. Save the soft stuff for Dr. Phil and Jerry Springer, Dr. Gregory House (Hugh Laurie) would say.
A cozier House?
"House" has spent two seasons now entertaining us with cutting, deadpan one-liners born of the doctor's attitude that feelings are for suckers. Patients aren't people, they're puzzles, in the same way sicknesses are challenges that need conquering.
House paid for his wretched bedside manner in last season's finale when a former patient shot him, and he returns tonight changed in ways we can't discuss in detail. You'll see soon enough.
Aside from that, the shooting forced House to acknowledge that his feelings hadn't atrophied along with his leg, something he realizes while working with a patient everyone else considers to be a lost cause.
House with heart?
You're right to worry about how this threatens the show's essence. Degrading his co-workers and patients with boundless sarcasm is what makes House who he is, after all. The writing devoted to that signature mean streak is among the best on television. More than that, last season let us in on the secret that his spiked malevolence is a hard shell over a broken soul.
Seeing House and his team wrestling with this intrusion of tenderness, such as it is, makes this a terrific opening episode -- and ends with dark coda. There are far less sophisticated ways to start a season.
A pointless 'Standoff'
Why, here's a terrific example now: "Standoff," another new Fox series, introduces us to Matt Flannery (Ron Livingston) and Emily Lehman (Rosemarie DeWitt), the best negotiators in the FBI's Crisis Negotiation Unit, aka CNU. Together they can defuse crises that seem absolutely impossible with a combination of empathy, understanding and calm.
They're also defying department rules by sleeping together, which comes to light when Matt screams it into a phone while trying to help a TV star turned psycho dad (played by Tom Wopat) keep his cool.
Even people who are the best at what they do make stupid, obvious mistakes like that.
Anyway.
This unsubtle foot-in-mouth moment sets off a department-wide tizzy. Matt and Emily's boss, Cheryl Carrera, is livid (in the cool, smooth way only an actress like Gina Torres can effectively convey), while co-workers fear such an entanglement may lead to mistakes in the field when they start thinking with unwieldy emotions.
As you'd expect, Matt and Emily don't want to call what they're doing a relationship. It's just horizontal cardio-fitness. Right. Whatever. They can't stand each other. And doesn't the seething tension make them hot, hot, "let's smash mouths and mumble about getting a room" hot!
But Livingston and DeWitt's chemistry, though budding, hasn't taken full effect yet. So their sniping, which is supposed to be cute and winsome, sounds like one of those restaurant conversations going on at a nearby table that you wish you weren't overhearing.
"Standoff" fails to connect on almost every level, in fact, except for one -- the wish that Livingston, who was so lovable in "Office Space" and "Sex and the City," had something better to work with here. His charm may carry "Standoff" until it ferments into a better show, but otherwise, we can't say you'll be feeling it.
Reconstructing 'Nip/Tuck'
Ask yourself, does the intimate knowledge of two odious characters like Dr. Sean McNamara (Dylan Walsh) and Dr. Christian Troy (Julian McMahon) make them more attractive as a show goes on, or less?
Four seasons into "Nip/Tuck" we have to wonder, especially after McNamara/Troy's tedious detour into Carverville last year.
"Nip/Tuck" is aiming for profundity again, as far as that goes. At one point the series catch phrase said something about being more than skin deep, but I'm not sure the scalpel even scratches the fatty layer anymore. Understand that "Nip/Tuck" was never about adventurous quality or exploring new frontiers in emotional depth. It's just the handsomest, indecently pleasurable soap opera television can crank out, and a reliable supplier of muscular butt shots.
Creator Ryan Murphy aim's for the next 15 episodes is to explore the enduring bond between Sean and Christian, "Nip/Tuck's" true central love affair. Striving to be opposites for the past three years, in the end they place the same skewed value on perfection, making them perfect for each other and no one else. Provided the lurid stunts from last season haven't made you turn your back on it, watching Sean's pregnant wife, Julia (Joely Richardson), become the third wheel proves to be an intriguing development, particularly once we get news about the couple's unborn son.
But Sean and Christian lay fierce claim to their heterosexuality, so if they are married in a platonic, spiritual sense, they're going to fight like hell to tamp down any warm fuzzies that would hint at anything more than friendship between them.
Other than that new wrinkle, and the insertion of Sanaa Lathan as Michelle Landau, McNamara/Troy's new financial backer, the same old melodrama still drives this bus, with Matt (John Hensley) horrifying all three of his parents (again) with a spiritual decision that too conveniently matches current events.
Round four is lousy with guest stars, too. Brooke Shields, Larry Hagman, Kathleen Turner, Richard Chamberlain, Jacqueline Bissett, Peter Dinklage and Mario Lopez all traipse through within three episodes. Coming soon: Melissa Gilbert and our pal, Rosie. Our guess is that she won't be holding Sean and Christian's hands. She'll need to save that for "The View."
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/printer2/index.asp?ploc=t&refer=http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/tv/283573_tv05x.html
Overnights in the 18-49 Demo
Few folks tune in for 'Diff'rent Strokes'
By Toni Fitzgerald MediaLifeMagazine.com staff writer Sep 5, 2006
“Diff’rent Strokes” is no “Three’s Company.” It’s no “Mork & Mindy,” either.
NBC’s most recent so-called “Behind the Camera” original movie about a controversy-marred old sitcom was quite a bit off the ratings for others in the series in its premiere last night.
“Behind the Camera: The Unauthorized Story of ‘Diff’rent Strokes’” averaged just a 1.6 in adults 18-49 last night, according to Nielsen overnights. NBC placed fifth in the 8 to 10 p.m. timeslot, finishing behind not only ABC, CBS and Fox, which aired mostly repeats, but also Univision.
“Camera” did rise slightly from start to finish, starting with a 1.4 at 8 and peaking with a 1.9 at 9:30. But it drew just 4 million total viewers, and it was well behind two other unauthorized movies about ‘70s and ‘80s sitcoms the network has run.
The “Mork & Mindy” movie averaged a 3.7 in April 2005, while the “Three’s Company” flick pulled a 4.6 during the 2003 May sweeps.
Of course, both those ran during the regular season. You’d expect viewership to be quite a bit lower for a summer movie, and one airing on Labor Day no less, when folks are outdoors trying to squeeze in one last barbeque on summer’s last long weekend.
Fox led for the night among adults 18-49 with a 3.3 rating and 8 share, followed by CBS at 2.9/7, ABC at 2.5/6, Univision at 1.9/5, NBC at 1.5/4, WB at 0.5/1 and UPN at 0.2/1.
At 8 p.m., Fox was No. 1 at a 3.8 for an original "Prison Break," ahead of CBS at 2.7 for repeats of "Two and a Half Men" and "How I Met Your Mother," ABC at 2.3 for a "Wife Swap" rerun, Univision at 1.9 for "La Fea Mas Bella," NBC at 1.4 for "Camera," WB at 0.4 for a "7th Heaven" repeat and UPN at 0.2 for reruns of "One on One" and "All of Us."
At 9 p.m., CBS took the lead at 2.9 for repeats of "Men" and "The New Adventures of Old Christine," edging out ABC's "Swap" rerun at 2.8, Fox's original "Vanished" at 2.7, Univision's "Barrera de Amor" at 1.8, NBC's "Camera" at 1.7, WB's "Heaven" rerun at 0.5 and UPN's reruns of "Girlfriends" and "Half & Half" at 0.2.
At 10 p.m., CBS led again at 3.1 for a "CSI: Miami" rerun, followed by ABC at 2.4 for a "Supernanny" repeat, Univision at 2.0 for "Cristina" and NBC at 1.4 for a "Medium" rerun.
Among households, CBS was No. 1 for the night with a 5.9 rating and 9 share, ahead of Fox at 5.3/8, ABC at 4.0/6, NBC at 2.9/5, Univision at 2.3/4, WB at 1.0/2 and UPN at 0.4/1.
http://www.medialifemagazine.com/artman/publish/printer_7072.asp
CPanther95
09-05-06, 01:38 PM
Fred:
Do you have the new 2006-2007 DMA rankings yet? Can only find the press release that says they are done, but only details Top 10 minority markets.
[EDIT] Never Mind - VARTA just posted this:
http://www.vartv.com/media/2006_2007_Market_ranks_revised.xls
CPanther95
09-05-06, 03:12 PM
Here's the new list - Green moved up, Red moved down:
New York, NY
Los Angeles, CA
Chicago, IL
Philadelphia, PA
San Francisco, CA
Dallas, TX
Boston, MA
Washington, DC
Atlanta, GA
Houston, TX
Detroit, MI
Tampa, FL
Phoenix, AZ
Seattle, WA
Minneapolis, MN
Miami, FL
Cleveland, OH
Denver, CO
Orlando, FL
Sacramento, CA
St. Louis, MO
Pittsburgh, PA
Portland, OR
Baltimore, MD
Indianapolis, IN
Charlotte, NC
San Diego, CA
Hartford, CT
Raleigh, NC
Nashville, TN
Kansas City, MO
Columbus, OH
Cincinnati, OH
Milwaukee, WI
Salt Lake City, UT
Greenville, SC
San Antonio, TX
West Palm Beach, FL
Grand Rapids, MI
Birmingham, AL
Harrisburg, PA
Norfolk, VA
Las Vegas, NV
Memphis, TN
Albuquerque, NM
Oklahoma City, OK
Greensboro, NC
Louisville, KY
Buffalo, NY
Jacksonville, FL
Providence, RI
Austin, TX
Wilkes Barre, PA
New Orleans, LA
Fresno, CA
Albany, NY
Little Rock, AR
Dayton, OH
Mobile, AL
Knoxville, TN
Richmond, VA
Tulsa, OK
Lexington, KY
Ft. Myers, FL
Charleston, WV
Flint, MI
Wichita, KS
Roanoke, VA
Green Bay, WI
Tucson, AZ
Toledo, OH
Honolulu, HI
Des Moines, IA
Portland, ME
Omaha, NE
Springfield, MO
Spokane, WA
Rochester, NY
Syracuse, NY
Paducah, KY
Shreveport, LA
Champaign, IL
Columbia, SC
Huntsville, AL
Madison, WI
Chattanooga, TN
Jackson, MS
South Bend, IN
Cedar Rapids, IA
Burlington, VT
Harlingen, TX
Tri-Cities, TN-VA
Baton Rouge, LA
Colorado Springs, CO
Waco, TX
Davenport, IA
Savannah, GA
Johnstown, PA
El Paso, TX
Charleston, SC
Evansville, IN
Ft. Smith, AR
Youngstown, OH
Lincoln, NE
Florence, SC
Ft. Wayne, IN
Greenville, NC
Tallahassee, FL
Springfield, MA
Reno, NV
Tyler, TX
Lansing, MI
Traverse City, MI
Augusta, GA
Sioux Falls, SD
Peoria, IL
Montgomery, AL
Boise, ID
Fargo, ND
Eugene, OR
Macon, GA
Santa Barbara, CA
Lafayette, LA
Monterey, CA
Yakima, WA
Bakersfield, CA
La Crosse, WI
Columbus, GA
Corpus Christi, TX
Chico, CA
Amarillo, TX
Columbus, MS
Rockford, IL
Wausau, WI
Monroe, LA
Wilmington, NC
Duluth, MN
Topeka, KS
Columbia, MO
Beaumont, TX
Medford, OR
Erie, PA
Sioux City, IA
Joplin, MO
Albany, GA
Wichita Falls, TX
Lubbock, TX
Salisbury, MD
Palm Springs, CA
Bluefield, WV
Terre Haute, IN
Bangor, ME
Rochester, MN
Anchorage, AK
Wheeling, WV
Panama City, FL
Binghamton, NY
Minot, ND
Odessa, TX
Biloxi, MS
Sherman, TX
Gainesville, FL
Idaho Falls, ID
Abilene, TX
Hattiesburg, MS
Clarksburg, WV
Yuma, AZ
Missoula, MT
Utica, NY
Billings, MT
Quincy, IL
Dothan, AL
Elmira, NY
Jackson, TN
Lake Charles, LA
Watertown, NY
Rapid City, SD
Marquette, MI
Alexandria, LA
Jonesboro, AR
Harrisonburg, VA
Charlottesville, VA
Bowling Green, KY
Greenwood, MS
Meridian, MS
Grand Junction, CO
Laredo, TX
Lafayette, IN
Parkersburg, WV
Great Falls, MT
Twin Falls, ID
Butte, MT
Eureka, CA
Bend, OR
Cheyenne, WY
Lima, OH
San Angelo, TX
Casper, WY
Ottumwa, IA
Mankato, MN
St. Joseph, MO
Fairbanks, AK
Zanesville, OH
Presque Isle, ME
Victoria, TX
Helena, MT
Juneau, AK
Alpena, MI
North Platte, NE
Glendive, MT
Movement in the Top 50 DMAs
GAINERS
+ 5 Las Vegas, NV
+ 2 Louisville, KY
+ 2 Jacksonville, FL
+ 1 San Francisco, CA
+ 1 Dallas, TX
+ 1 Phoenix, AZ
+ 1 Miami, FL
+ 1 Orlando, FL
+ 1 Charlotte, NC
+ 1 Cincinnati, OH
+ 1 Salt Lake City, UT
+ 1 Albuquerque, NM
LOSERS
-11 New Orleans, LA (Dropped from the Top 50)
-2 Boston, MA
-1 Seattle, WA
-1 Cleveland, OH
-1 Sacramento, CA
-1 San Diego, CA
-1 Milwaukee, WI
-1 Greenville, SC
ALL DMAs
LARGEST GAINERS
+5 Las Vegas, NV
+4 Palm Springs, CA
+4 Charlottesville, VA
+3 Mobile, AL
+3 Baton Rouge, LA
+3 Wilmington, NC
+3 Yuma, AZ
+3 Lafayette, IN
+3 Bend, OR
LARGEST LOSERS
-11 New Orleans, LA
-11 Lima, OH
-4 La Crosse, WI
-3 Syracuse, NY
-3 Utica, NY
-3 Alexandria, LA
Fred:
Do you have the new 2006-2007 DMA rankings yet? Can only find the press release that says they are done, but only details Top 10 minority markets.
[EDIT] Never Mind - VARTA just posted this:
The list was updated in the top of the thread a couple of weeks ago, the day Nielsen released it.
But thanks for the colorful editing!
TV Notebook
Rosie adds more chaos to 'The View'
From Maureen Ryan’s Chicago Tribune blog “The Watcher” September 05, 2006
If you thought months of YouTube.com wackiness was as weird as “The View” could get, you thought wrong.
Rosie O’Donnell showed up Tuesday and took the show to a whole new level of manic pandemonium.
The departure of Star Jones Reynolds, the dustups between Elisabeth Hasselbeck and just about everyone, even a claws-out confrontation between the “View” women and Sandra Bernhard -- all incidents that were replayed thousands of times via the video-sharing site YouTube.com -- well, all of that served as a mere prelude to O’Donnell’s Tuesday arrival as one of the show’s regular hosts.
In the first quarter-hour of the program, she talked about Tom Cruise, medicating herself, letting her “crazy haircut” grow out, being a lesbian and discussing, ahem, her naked body with her daughter.
Then she gave away a cruise to every member of the audience.
Typically of “The View” of late, chaos reigned; adding O’Donnell’s voice to the cacophony only increased the madness. When Jessica Simpson, the first guest of “The View’s” 10th season, showed up, the hosts talked over each other and their guest, which is annoyingly typical on the show. The pop starlet had trouble getting a word in edgewise.
Simpson did, however, manage to say for the record that she is not dating singer John Mayer, as People magazine has reported, that she hasn’t found a way to avoid the paparazzi, and that she’s doing just fine post-divorce.
O’Donnell was her typically feisty self, bristling when Joy Behar imitated one of her new co-host’s children. O’Donnell glared at Behar and quipped, “And you all thought I was going to have problems with Elisabeth.”
“Trust me, you will,” responded “View” creator Barbara Walters.
After the segment with Simpson, who sang in perfect voice despite having audible vocal-chord problems during the chat segment, O’Donnell recapped what she’s done with her life since she quit her own daytime talk show four years ago. She talked about her Broadway activities, her family life, her blog and that infamously unattractive hair cut. She took full blame for the hairdo, which she sported just after her show ended, calling it “an error of epic proportions.”
Speaking of errors, “The View” also debuted a hideous new set on Tuesday. Picking the color of the new set was a discussion topic for weeks before the show took its summer break, but the extensive chats didn’t stop it from being horrible. The old set may have looked like “someone’s grandmother’s living room,” as O’Donnell said, but at least it wasn’t a textured, braying electric blue.
It was the only thing louder than Rosie on Tuesday.
http://tempo.typepad.com/entertainment_tv/
TV Sports
NBC returns as an NFL player
By BARRY HORN The Dallas Morning News Tuesday, September 5, 2006
Unwilling to pony up $500 million in 1998 for NFL television rights, NBC, the network that broadcast the three Cowboys Super Bowl victories in the '90s, dropped out of the game.
The NFL, NBC declared, was a money-losing proposition.
NBC, the only home the AFC had ever known, was ready with a plan to fill its pro football void. Plan A was the XFL, a mutant cross between Wrestlemania and minor league football whose most memorable player labeled himself "He Hate Me." Stamped across the league logo might well have been: "America Hate Us." Plan B was the Arena Football League, a shrunk-down, minor league version of the real thing.
The failure of the XFL and the AFL to attract viewers led to the expensive realization that the only "FL" that matters on television starts with an "N."
And so when the time came to negotiate for a piece of the new NFL contract that kicks off this season, NBC buckled its chin strap and jumped back into the fray.
The network agreed to pay $600 million a season for six years for a new prime-time package, leaving its accountants to massage the profit and loss columns and its spin doctors to trumpet its return to sports television's most valuable major league.
NBC says its new Sunday night package has become overnight the NFL's pre-eminent prime-time package, relegating to sweep-up duty Monday Night Football, which relocates from ABC to ESPN this season.
After all, more eyeballs are glued to television sets on Sundays than any other night of the week. That pesky, unsolvable problem of West Coast viewers scrambling home from work for a 6 p.m. kickoff on Mondays doesn't rear its ratings-killing head on Sundays.
'Football Night'
To make sure NBC conveys the feeling to the masses that Sunday night is the new, upgraded Monday night, network sports boss Dick Ebersol has borrowed from his friends who broadcast NHL games across Canada. Ebersol has christened his schedule Football Night in America.
NBC has done so with the approval and cooperation of the NFL. The league has partnered with NBC to ensure the success of Sunday nights on over-the-air television, hoping to increase the package's value the next time it goes up for bid.
NBC's schedule is unique in the TV game. It is flexible. From Weeks 10 to 15, and in Week 17, NBC will be able to choose a game from CBS or Fox if it doesn't like the game it has been tentatively assigned by the league. Only the Eagles-Cowboys on Christmas afternoon, a Monday, is written into the NBC late-season schedule in stone.
ABC lobbied for years to gain late-season flexibility as its Monday night ratings plummeted. But the logistics of changing game days was unappealing to the NFL. Swapping kickoff times on Sundays to appease a network partner has proven to be another matter.
"We want to see NBC get off to a strong start," said Howard Katz, the NFL's scheduling boss. Katz joined the league after a tour of duty as the president of ABC Sports.
As for NBC's lineup, Ebersol has rounded up a Murderer's Row of talent.
"For starters, we went out and hired the very best," Ebersol said. "The greatest advantage we have is our team."
Al Michaels and John Madden in the booth simply slid over from ABC Monday Night Football. Madden came first. He was unwilling to stay on the ESPN version of Monday Night Football because the cable network was shut out from the playoffs and Super Bowls.
Mass exodus
Michaels signed on to stay with ESPN but soon realized he, too, wanted the prestige that comes with calling Super Bowls. Also gone to NBC were Fred Gaudelli and Drew Esocoff, the Monday Night Football producer and director. The thought of starting over with a new sidekick as well as breaking in a new production team was too much for Michaels.
In the end, ESPN released Michaels to NBC in exchange for acquiring the rights to Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, a cartoon character whose roots are at Disney, ESPN's parent company.
In the studio, NBC has signature voice Bob Costas teamed with Fox-ex Cris Collinsworth as co-hosts. The analysts are Sterling Sharpe, who has worked at ESPN and the NFL Network, and ex-Steeler Jerome Bettis, fresh off a Super Bowl championship.
"We don't have any rookies here," Ebersol said. "There won't be any rookie mistakes."
http://www.dallasnews.com/cgi-bin/bi/gold_print.cgi
TV Sports
COMPARING NFL BROADCASTS
The Dallas Morning News Tuesday, September 5, 2006
NBC Football Night in America
The Deal: 6 years, $3.6 billion
Per Season: $600 million
In The Booth: Al Michaels, John Madden
On the Sidelines: Andrea Kremer
In the Studio: Bob Costas, Cris Collinsworth, Sterling Sharpe, Jerome Bettis, Peter King
What's new: Everything. The network is back in the game after an eight-season hiatus. It's hoping to make Sunday night the new Monday night.
ESPN Monday Night Football
The Deal: 8 years, $8.8 billion
Per Season: $1.1 billion
In The Booth: Mike Tirico, Tony Kornheiser, Joe Theismann
On the Sidelines: Michele Tafoya, Suzy Kolber
In the Studio: Chris Berman, Michael Irvin, Tom Jackson, Steve Young, Chris Mortensen
What's new: The Kornheiser Experiment. He's not as acerbic as Howard Cosell, not as funny as Dennis Miller, but he has the potential to be more entertaining. He had better be because he doesn't have any street cred when it comes to the whys of the X's and O's.
Fox Sunday Afternoon NFC Football
The Deal: 6 years, $4.28 billion
Per Season: $712.5 million
In The Booth: Joe Buck, Troy Aikman; Dick Stockton, Daryl Johnston
On the Sidelines: Pam Oliver, Tony Siragusa
In the Studio: Joe Buck, Terry Bradshaw, Howie Long, Jimmy Johnson
What's new: See Buck hosting the pregame show not in a sterile studio but in a rowdy stadium parking lot. See Buck moving up to the booth to call play-by-play of the network's top game.
CBS Sunday Afternoon AFC Football
The Deal: 6 years, $3.74 billion
Per Season: $622.5 million
In The Booth: Jim Nantz, Phil Simms; Greg Gumbel, Dan Dierdorf
On the Sidelines: The network has decided sideline reporters are passé. There will be no one to ask, "Your thoughts, Coach?"
In the Studio: Dan Marino, James Brown, Boomer Esiason, Shannon Sharpe
What's new: Brown slides over from the Fox studio, where he played ringmaster for Terry, Howie and Jimmy. Things will be much more subdued here.
NFL Network Package
The Deal: 6 years, $0. The beauty of ownership.
Per Season: See above
Talking heads: Bryant Gumbel, Cris Collinsworth
On the Sidelines: TBD.
In the Studio: Rich Eisen, Steve Mariucci, Deion Sanders
What's new: The NFL as its own television partner. Sort of like the White House Daily News covering the president.
http://www.dallasnews.com/cgi-bin/bi/gold_print.cgi
ESPN paid WAY too much for MNF!
In the end, ESPN released Michaels to NBC in exchange for acquiring the rights to Oswald the Lucky Rabbit,
Al must be proud.
ESPN paid WAY too much for MNF!
I agree. And NBC which gets four hours of Sunday night programming, along with exclusivity on major clips, got a bargain.
TV News
Katie Couric’s CBS Debut
By Allison Romano BCBeat.com Tuesday, September 5, 2006
(Posted on the blog as the CBS Evening News ran.)
Couric showed a little nervousness on her opening night. Introducing a headline on health problems related to 9/11, Couric referred to the terrorist act as the "worst attack on U.S. soul", but quickly corrected herself with "soil."
She then whipped through several news headlines, including William Ford stepping down as CEO of Ford and the death of Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin. Couric used the news of Irwin's death to tease CBS's Web site, where she said viewers could go for more on Irwin and other stories.
While Couric mentioned the Ford leader stepping down, she did not mention the exit of CBS former sister company Viacom's CEO Tom Freston exiting.
After Couric's second commercial break, Anthony Mason has a report on oil production in the Gulf of Mexico and how hurricanes and new drilling effects the price of gas.
Couric may be new, but the advertisers are still the old-targeted core that is loyal to evening news. After the Mason report, ads for avacor and advil and Smart Balance butter follow.
Teasing the Free Speech segment, Couric said, "Coming up, something new for the evening news besides me, we call it Free Speech." It is a forum, she said, for people to express themselves unfiltered.
Couric explains that Free Speech will sometimes feature people viewers will recognize, like Rush Limbaugh tomorrow, and some they won't. She asks viewers to go on the Web site and give their reaction.
Next up is another new feature callled Snap Shots, where Evening News looks back at an old story. Tonight it was a picture of 19 week old Prince Charles in 1949. That's how Couric set up tonight's "snap shot", Vanity Fair magazine "cover girl" Suri Cruise. "This is proof that yes siree she does exist, Couric says.
More ads for medicine and house cleaning follow, this time a cholesteral drug called Caduet, sleep drug Lunesta and shower cleaner Scrubbing Bubbles Automotic Shower Cleaner. The first CBS program tease follows, a plug for a Jessica Simpson concert on the Early show.
After the commercial break, correspondent Steve Hartman has a tear-jerker story on an orphanage in Nicaragua. A young guy from Wisconsin brings gifts to the home, 62 pounds of portraits of the kids. The kids, he notes, don't have parents that took baby pictures. It is callled the memory project. He sends pictures to high school art students who paint the assignments, then the American kids often feel a connection and write notes to the orphans.
Couric notes that some artists have become pen pals with the children they painted
Now it is time to sign off and Couric says she's tried some final statements but "nothing has felt quite right." (She recently joked with some reporters she considered "peace out hommies").
For her first sign off, Couric paid hommage to some legendary anchors sign offs, including Edward R. Murrow (Good Night and Good Luck) to Walter Cronkite (That's the way it is) to Dan Rather (Thank you for joining us. Courage.) and -- in a lighter note -- the movie anchor man, where actor Will Farrell plays prototypical anchor Ron Burgundy (Stay classy San Diego).
As for her own message, Couric asked her viewers to give their suggestions via CBS News' web site. "I know we'll have fun reading them and maybe one will stick" Couric said.
She wrapped the broadcast by simply saying, "For now all I have to say is I am Katie Couric and thanks so much for watching. I hope to see you tomorrow night."
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/blog/1380000138.html
TV Notebook
Where You Can Find ''Everwood'' Next
By Rich Heldenfels in his Akron Beacon Journal TV blog Sept.5, 2006
ABC Family picked up the rerun rights to ''Everwood'' some time ago, but it's now formally scheduled it. And this is especially important to fans given the unlikelihood that the later seasons will make it to DVD. (The sales of the first-season set were reportedly too disappointing to justify later releases.)
Anyway, here's the ''Everwood'' announcement:
Dr. Andrew Brown has moved his family again, but this time to ABC Family. Beginning Monday, October 2nd (6:00 – 7:00 PM ET/PT) fans of the critically acclaimed series EVERWOOD can relive the drama, laughter and love ... five days a week, beginning with the first season.
http://blogs.ohio.com/beacon_tv/
Critic’s Notebook
"Standoff"
By Aaron Barnhart Kansas City Star in his blog “TV Barn”
I’m having a reverse case of Stockholm Syndrome with “Standoff”: The more time I spend with it, the less I like it.
On this show, debuting at 9 ET/PT tonight following the return of “House” on Fox, Ron Livingston and Rosemarie DeWitt portray expert hostage negotiators who throw their careers into jeopardy when the higher-ups learn they are an item.
They make for an attractive pair, and their chemistry seems plausible enough. But the show doesn’t sell me convincingly on the idea that these two professionals can’t keep their sex life and their professions separate, so long as one’s not the other’s boss.
More troubling for “Standoff” were the howlers that disrupted the tension of the hostage takings in the pilot. Most distracting was the frat boy who is seen terrifying everyone with what might be the world’s worst impersonation of an al-Qaida terrorist.
Also, the pacing seems too slow. Dr. House can keep two or three cases going at once, but because “Standoff” is designed around Livingston’s and DeWitt’s characters, they’re stuck handling one crisis at a time.
“Desire” and “Fashion House,” the first two shows of the new My Network TV, also debut tonight. These are nightly, 13-week soaps modeled on the Spanish-language telenovelas. “Desire,” at 8 PM ET/PT, is set at a tony Beverly Hills restaurant, while “Fashion House” at 9 revolves around a clothing empire.
I could scarcely stand to sit through the over-the-top dialogue and stories of either one.
In “Fashion House,” Bo Derek and Morgan Fairchild are the veteran actors — say no more. These shows look a lot better than the soaps on Univision, though, and who knows, this time-tested formula from south of the border may produce just the kind of caliente television this network needs to get noticed.
http://blogs.kansascity.com/tvbarn/2006/09/review_standoff.html#more
Ou8thisSN
09-05-06, 07:22 PM
why did CBS pay less than FOX for afternoon football rights? its the same 'deal' in principle right or does fox air more games than CBS?
As I understand it, Fox paid more because the NFC teams are in bigger markets overall.
And traditionally, the NFC has been priced a little higher than the AFC.
Playing Fred
The Speed channel emerges as a big winner in NASCAR's new TV package.
By Paul J. Gough, The Hollywood Reporter
One of the big winners in the new TV rights deal is an 11-year-old cable network based in Charlotte, N.C., that has become NASCAR's network of sorts.
It's been quite a ride for Speed, which launched as Speedvision in 1995 devoted to motorsports and aviation. By 2001, it was televising several races like the Rolex 24 and the 24 Hours of LeMans.
Yet after News Corp. acquired full ownership in 2002, the network was renamed and relaunched with a programming block dedicated to NASCAR called "NASCAR TV." It's grown since then, grabbing in 2002 the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series that has helped Speed achieve ever higher ratings. And its pre- and postrace shows after Nextel Cup races are fan favorites.
" 'NASCAR RaceDay' is at the highest ratings Speed has ever had for its NASCAR prerace programming. We're experiencing the highest ratings we've had for our postrace programming, 'NASCAR Victory Lane,' " says Hunter Nickell, general manager of Speed. "We're on track to have another record year for our NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series. NASCAR and Speed are growing together."
With the new rights deal that begins in 2007, Speed will get even stronger in NASCAR: It will now have the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series Pit Crew Challenge, the NASCAR Nextel Cup All-Star Challenge and the two Gatorade Duels (none are Nextel points races, however). Plus, Speed will be the first option for any Fox NASCAR Nextel Cup event forced off the broadcast network by weather or scheduling conflicts. Overall, its NASCAR programming deal was extended from 2012 to 2014 as Fox sibling FX drops out of NASCAR.
Nickell says Speed will rev up its coverage, televising the Gatorade Duels during Daytona 500's Speedweeks, marking the first time viewers can see all the drivers in competition. And they're going to be in the middle of Saturday night festivities in Charlotte during the All-Star Challenge, held the weekend before Memorial Day weekend each season.
"This is the coolest All-Star event in professional sports," Nickell says. "These guys are racing all out at night, and all of them race in some part of the All-Star night."
Speed, which is now available in 67 million households (and another 5 million in Canada), has been growing its coverage of NASCAR. But not everything has been a success: Speed canceled its Monday-Thursday nightly feature show "NASCAR Nation" in November.
It just didn't work, despite the resources thrown at it, executives say, partly because Speed found it more difficult to attract the so-called perimeter racing fan on nonracing days. But two other shows, "NASCAR Beyond the Wheel" and "7 Days," grew out of "NASCAR Nation."
Nickell won't rule out further attempts to grow the audience beyond strong NASCAR enthusiasts but acknowledges it's a balancing act.
"We want to make sure that we're offering a lot for the hard-core fans, and I'll put it this way, Speed is a must-view for NASCAR fans," he says. "But one of our goals this year for a show like 'RaceDay,' for example, was to expand beyond the hard-core fan and start to rope in people who hadn't been watching the prerace programming. And the ratings are growing."
Count NASCAR as happy with Speed. Paul Brooks, senior vp of NASCAR and its president of broadcasting and digital entertainment, notes that NASCAR had talked in 2001 of perhaps starting its own network but decided the "network within a network" of NASCAR TV worked well.
"For us, it was a good match and a good kind of allocation to have a network that had a significant, majority of programming that was NASCAR but had other motorsports involved in it too," he says. "We saw it as a good thing for us and a good thing for them."
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr/television/feature_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003053682
jim tressler
09-05-06, 10:02 PM
anyone know what directv is paying for the privlege of the sunday ticket?? I thought I had read that it was $700million for the next 3 years.. kinda funny though.. in that article it talks about the nfl owns the nfl network.. so the cost is free to them, they get the ad revenue.. yada yada yada.. but what is even better, they are getting paid twice to show the same game once!! cbs / fox and then sunday ticket.. lol.. love capitalism!
jim
I agree. And NBC which gets four hours of Sunday night programming, along with exclusivity on major clips, got a bargain.
As I recall, DirecTV is paying $700 million a year for 6 years, Jim.
anyone know what directv is paying for the privlege of the sunday ticket?? I thought I had read that it was $700million for the next 3 years.. kinda funny though.. in that article it talks about the nfl owns the nfl network.. so the cost is free to them, they get the ad revenue.. yada yada yada.. but what is even better, they are getting paid twice to show the same game once!! cbs / fox and then sunday ticket.. lol.. love capitalism!
jim
Jim, here is a story from back in 2004 when the Sunday Ticket extension was announced:
TV Sports
Ticket too high
Cable Punts On Pricey NFL Slate
By Steve Donohue & Mike Reynolds MultiChannel News 11/15/2004
Cable operators have complained for years about losing customers who jumped to satellite for DirecTV Inc.'s exclusive “NFL Sunday Ticket” package. But when cable recently had an opportunity to buy the National Football League's out-of-market pay-per-view offering, Comcast Corp. and other operators took a pass.
“It's no secret cable was interested in Sunday Ticket, but the price was too high,” said Cable & Telecommunications Association for Marketing CEO Char Beales, referring to the five-year, $3.5 billion contract extension DirecTV cut with the NFL last week, giving it rights to 14 live games each Sunday through the 2010 season.
At $700 million per annum, DirecTV's new contract represents a 75% hike over the $400 million it is paying per season under the pact signed two years ago that was slated to extend through the 2007 campaign.
It should be pointed out, though, that DirecTV only had satellite exclusivity for the 2006 and 2007 seasons under the previous pact. DirecTV's new contract supercedes the remaining years on the old deal.
NFL representatives declined to discuss the size of cable's offer for Sunday Ticket. One source, though, said MSOs walked away from the table after they were “blown away by what DirecTV was willing to pay.”
This was the first time that the NFL had even entertained a bid from cable operators for Sunday Ticket. Cable executives were miffed when DirecTV last renewed its Sunday Ticket contract in December 2002.
At that point, the league wouldn't consider selling the games to cable because of concerns that if every Sunday afternoon football game nationwide was available on digital cable, broadcast-TV carriers Fox and CBS would suffer significant ratings erosion.
BRIAN ROBERTS' ROLE
Sources said Comcast CEO Brian Roberts — who cut a deal with the NFL Network in September to offer game highlights as part of Comcast's expansive free on-demand platform — led the major MSOs in negotiations for Sunday Ticket.
But Comcast spokesman Tim Fitzpatrick said Roberts wasn't representing other operators in his talks with the NFL. “Brian was not negotiating on behalf of the cable industry for Sunday Ticket,” he said.
Some other operators said they believed the NFL used cable merely as leverage to obtain a better price from News Corp.-controlled DirecTV.
“We had ongoing conversations,” Time Warner executive vice president of programming Fred Dressler said last week. “I think they came to us to get a floor for [DirecTV bid].
“I'm not sure the economics work. I never believed they [the NFL] were really serious about” giving cable a shot at Sunday Ticket.
The NFL last week also cut Sunday-afternoon deals worth a combined $8 billion to extend CBS's rights to the American Football Conference and Fox's National Football Conference rights, both through the 2011 season.
Still up for grabs: the Sunday- and Monday-night game packages, now controlled by The Walt Disney Co.'s ESPN and ABC. A deal for those games may not be struck until next year, and a bidding war could see NBC Universal attempt to secure games for NBC and USA Network.
Other observers contend Comcast is considering bidding for cable NFL rights that could be used as the cornerstone of a new all-sports network.
2M SUBS — AND BUZZ
Sunday Ticket has been a thorn in the side of cable operators since 1995, when DirecTV first launched the package, charging customers $99 in its debut year.
Analysts said the package, which now retails for $249 annually, has grown to 1.6 million to 2 million customers, many of whom are former cable subscribers.
DirecTV has made Sunday Ticket the centerpiece of its subscriber-acquisition campaigns, and it ran a media blitz this fall, offering new customers that ordered Sunday Ticket four free months of its Total Choice programming package.
“Sunday Ticket is probably the most important feature of DirecTV to really establish it as a leader in subscription television,” DirecTV Group Inc. CEO Chase Carey told analysts on a conference call last week.
While some cable executives said operators wouldn't be hurt by Sunday Ticket, as DirecTV has already picked off most hard-core football fans, some analysts said they see more room for growth. That's because DirecTV plans to offer a slew of new ITV features, including multiple camera angles and the ability for fantasy football players to get personalized highlight shows.
“They [DirecTV] could start targeting your super fanatic NFL fan, and turn it into something like a gambling addiction, where they can't stop spending money on each new offering,” The Carmel Group analyst Jimmy Schaeffler said.
DirecTV will generate about $385 million in revenue this year from Sunday Ticket, and revenue has grown 20% during the past two years, Carey said. If DirecTV grows its Sunday Ticket revenue each year by 11% to 12%, the company will be able to break even on the rights deal, Carey said.
“I think there is certainly an opportunity to make money, although … the real value for this is what it does for our overall business in terms of taking it to the next level,” he added.
http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA480250.html
AAF: Thanks for the post -- I do leave my computer on occasion -- it is good to see you, Marcus, keenan and others making sure no one even knows I have taken a break.
NFL Weekly Coverage Maps
As last year, the weekly NFL coverage maps are available online.
I'll post them here weekly when they are up (only CBS is at the moment).
The maps are usually posted by Wednesday or Thursday for each week's games.
If you don't bookmark the link, it is always available in the USEFUL INFORMATION post, the fourth at the top of the thread.
http://www.gribblenation.net/nflmaps/
Critic’s Notebook
Katie Couric, Douglas Edwards and Me
By Rich Heldenfels in his Akron Beacon Journal TV blog
Katie Couric's debut tonight on ''The CBS Evening News'' was only half-interesting, and that half was in the second part of the show. (I'll have a full review of her and of Rosie O'Donnell in tomorrow's Beacon Journal.)
I wonder how long before she feels she has demonstrated enough serious credentials to the audience that she can be herself more; in that interview with Thomas Friedman, she looked especially formal. And as long as she has to introduce and explain ''new'' features, the telecast is not going to find its own rhythm.
But there was one odd thing, at least for me, in the newscast. I am well aware that some viewers were scrutinizing every inch of Couric footage, including her wardrobe, for signs that she has thrown the news in that old handbasket to hell. And that the hyping of a look at the Suri Cruise cover of Vanity Fair would probably be seen as handbasket-worthy.
But I was preparing to defend that choice, because I have seen old newscasts going back to the late 1940s, when they ran just 15 minutes and still tried to balance the heavy news with lighter material. In my book, ''Television's Greatest Year: 1954,'' I wrote:
''Those who believe that television news fell into feature fuzziness only in recent years should be aware that this 1949 (CBS News) telecast included a New York bank that had installed a baby-carriage ramp and still photos of nineteen-week-old Prince Charles of England. ('This is my favorite,' (anchor Douglas) Edwards said of one.)''
So I went slack-jawed when Couric led into the Suri shot with that same piece of Edwards and Prince Charles.
I am not, not, not saying that Couric read my book. After all, almost no one did. (You can find used copies for sale on amazon.com starting at -- sigh -- eight cents apiece.) It's just an easily found program. When I was researching my book at New York's Museum of Television & Radio, that was one of the standard examples of early TV newscasts at the museum.
But a smart move by Couric's newscast, even if it deprived me of a chance to show off in tomorrow's column.
http://blogs.ohio.com/beacon_tv/
Marcus Carr
09-06-06, 12:41 AM
Sharp, NBC Slate Giant Times Square TV
By Greg Tarr -- TWICE, 9/5/2006 9:55:00 AM
Burbank, Calif. – Sharp and NBC Universal announced an extension to their co-marketing relationship including the placement of an outdoor video billboard between 42nd Street and 7th Avenue in New York City’s Time Square the Fall.
The display will measure 3,600 square feet, (12-by-20 feet), and will showcase the AQUOS logo on the cabinet.
Two backlit fixed billboard panels will be positioned at the top and bottom of the board, with the NBC Universal logo at the crown. Sharp and AQUOS logos will be placed on the frame surrounding the AQUOS display.
NBC Universal video content will run 18 hours a day on the display, from 7 a.m. until 1 a.m.
Sharp will be the exclusive advertiser in all of the product categories in which it competes, and non-competing third-party advertisers will also be given the opportunity to purchase advertising time on the video display from NBC's digital ad sales team.
“The new video billboard will be a modernized, striking addition to New York's Times Square.It will be bigger and better than our previous displays,” said John Miller, NBC Universal Television Group chief marketing officer. “In addition to promoting NBC Universal shows, the display will also be used as an avenue to feed live programming from our networks.”
The billboard is an extension of the co-marketing relationship between Sharp Electronics Corporation and NBC Universal that made Sharp AQUOS the official high-definition television of the NBC Experience Store. More than 150 Sharp AQUOS LCD TVs have been installed throughout the store and select areas of the NBC Studio Tour, providing a high-definition (HD) upgrade to the popular visitor destination.
In addition, AQUOS units were placed in the windows outside the “TODAY” studios that face RockefellerCenter as well as throughout the famed Studio 8H, where “Saturday Night Live” is produced in HD, and select areas of the NBC Studio Tour.
http://www.twice.com/article/CA6368598.html
GeorgeLV
09-06-06, 01:00 AM
"The display will measure 3,600 square feet, (12-by-20 feet)"
12 ft x 20 ft = 240 sq ft. Or 3,360 sq ft short or 3,600 sq ft. Or they'd need 15 of the 12x20 screens to get to 3,600 sq ft. etc.
Maybe they meant 12x30 (or 360 SF)?
Nonetheless, it always amazes me that even simple arithmetic doesn't get checked in so many of these stories.
TV Watch
For the New Face of CBS News, a Subdued Beginning
By Alessandra Stanley The New York Times September 6, 2006
Katie Couric didn’t really need Walter Cronkite to introduce her yesterday at the opening of the newscast, saying with his familiar gravelly voice, “This is the ‘CBS Evening News With Katie Couric.’ ” The network’s new face handled her first day at the anchor desk — a shinier, lighter desk — calmly and competently.
The woman who stood out most last night was CBS’s chief foreign-affairs reporter, Lara Logan, an experienced and unusually pretty war correspondent who took a daring trip into Taliban-held territory in Afghanistan wrapped in a black chador.
“Am I allowed to smile?” Ms. Logan asked her surly mujahedeen escorts. She contrasted the Taliban’s ascendancy with old film from 2004, when she visited American troops in control of the same area and wore a flak jacket and Chanel sunglasses.
That segment displayed Ms. Couric’s commitment to covering foreign news as anchor and managing editor. But Ms. Logan’s arresting screen presence also helped deflect attention from Ms. Couric’s much scrutinized appearance (fitted white jacket over a black sheath dress).
Ms. Couric was subdued throughout the broadcast, perhaps a little spooked by all the fuss over her appointment. The network’s readiness campaign — the focus groups, the listening tour of America, the wardrobe questions — have prompted ample attention and some snickering. CBS executives have complained that Ms. Couric is being held to a cattier standard.
In an interview with Harry Smith on “The Early Show” on CBS yesterday, Ms. Couric delicately allowed that she was partly a victim of “residual sexism.” CBS, however, was perhaps the worst offender. The network recently doctored a publicity picture of Ms. Couric to make her appear longer and slimmer, something it did not do for Bob Schieffer.
American womanhood does not rise or fall on Ms. Couric’s success. She is the first woman to serve as the official solo anchor of a major network evening news broadcast, though plenty of women have filled in as solo anchors. Mostly, Ms. Couric is the first true celebrity to anchor a network news program.
Tom Brokaw was well known when he went from “Today” to the “NBC Nightly News,” as is Charles Gibson, who recently left “Good Morning America” to be the evening-news anchor on ABC. Neither is nearly as high wattage.
No other news figure, not even the glamorous Diane Sawyer, appears as often in People magazine or is stalked as relentlessly by gossip columnists and entertainment shows. And Ms. Couric revels in the show-business spotlight, whether as the focus of an episode of “E! True Hollywood Story” or making cameos on “Will and Grace” and in “Austin Powers in Goldmember.”
CBS is not paying her an estimated $15 million a year for being a woman — that is the cost of hiring the biggest star. And that star factor affects the “CBS Evening News” far more than a new format, new theme music or a redesigned set.
Ms. Couric greeted viewers informally with the words “Hi, everyone.” Her armchair-to-armchair interview with the New York Times columnist Thomas L. Friedman was a conflation of her new role and her old one at “Today,” but Ms. Couric said little, interjecting questions like, “How do you do that?” She was also humble about her closing line, asking viewers to write in with suggestions for a sign-off other than “that’s the way it is” or “courage.”
The first program was certainly a work in progress. Hard news was followed by the softest of features, including a first look at the cover of Vanity Fair showing Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes’s long-unseen baby, Suri (adorable). Perhaps worried that the segment would look too frivolous, Ms. Couric introduced it with a clip of a 1949 CBS newscast with Douglas Edwards showing a baby picture of Prince Charles, as if there were a grand tradition of baby pictures at the Tiffany network.
Infants must be in vogue, though. ABC also showed baby pictures to mark Chris Cuomo’s first day at the news desk of “Good Morning America,” alongside a new weatherman, Sam Champion.
Rosie O’Donnell made a far brasher debut on “The View” yesterday, taking the seat of Meredith Vieira at the head of a glass table on the program’s new, sleeker set (the recently deposed Star Jones Reynolds has been airbrushed from ABC history).
“My name is Meredith Vieira, and welcome to ‘The View,’ ” is how Ms. O’Donnell began, quickly seizing the alpha role. She told funny, sometimes ribald stories, interrupting at will and speaking often and openly about her lesbian relationship and four adopted children. It was a vivid contrast to Ellen DeGeneres, who never alludes to her sexuality on her talk show.
When Elisabeth Hasselbeck, the Zeppo Marx of the foursome, said she donned a bathing suit to take a bath with her baby daughter, Ms. O’Donnell went wide-eyed at her prudery and recalled that when she took a more natural bath with her daughter, the child asked, “When do I get my fur?”
Ms. O’Donnell announced a surprise gift for the audience, a two-day cruise on a Royal Caribbean liner, and then made fun of the sponsor’s lengthy promotional segment.
“You better give us something more than a two-day cruise for that hour-minute-long package,” she said. “The audience has cramps in their arms from clapping.”
Joy Behar tried to hold her own by making a joke at Ms. O’Donnell’s expense and was soundly pushed back. Ms. O’Donnell looked at the camera and said waggishly, “And you all thought I was going to have problems with Elisabeth.”
Ms. O’Donnell is the first boisterously gay host of a major daytime talk show, but that doesn’t make her a touchstone of tolerance. Ms. Couric’s ratings at CBS will not be a test of feminism; they will be a measure of viewers’ flexibility.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/06/arts/television/06watch.html?_r=1&oref=login&ref=media&pagewanted=print
Critic’s Notebook
No News Not the Best News For Katie Couric's Debut
By Tom Shales Washington Post SColumnist Wednesday, September 6, 2006; C01
Atitle change would seem to be in order. Maybe "The CBS Evening No-News." Or "The CBS Evening Magazine." Or "30 Minutes."
Whatever it was, Katie Couric did a brisk, engaging job of getting the strange new show off the ground last night as, at long last -- and after one of the most relentless hype hurricanes in history -- she debuted as the first woman to be solo anchor of a major network newscast. K-Day had come at last!
Couric occupied a chair that once belonged to Walter Cronkite and, later, Dan Rather, both of whom did newscasts that were much, much newsier. Yesterday, though, was apparently a no-news day in the opinion of Executive Producer Rome Hartman, the staff and Couric herself, since the half-hour began with a "60 Minutes"-style piece on the resurgence of the Taliban in Afghanistan.
The real purpose of this report was to show off Lara Logan, the intensely telegenic reporter who serves as foreign correspondent. She went undercover in Afghanistan, much as Rather had done many many years ago. But as a woman, Logan said, her Taliban hosts "insisted I cover everything but my eyes."
The story was in fact largely about her -- about how dangerous it was to do the story, about what a big, "unprecedented" exclusive it was (Brian Ross seemed to have much the same story on ABC's "World News Tonight" with Charles Gibson) and how she had to tippy-toe away from the camp through a minefield, led by a guide.
Couric, who began the newscast standing up and promoting what was to come, oddly wore a white blazer over a black top and skirt, the blazer buttoned in such a way as to make her look chubby, bursting at the button, which we know she isn't. It was a poor choice, but the lavish newsroom set built as Couric's display case was handsome indeed, gleaming and shiny, with Couric seated eventually at a huge semicircular desk and looking comfortably at home.
From that perch, it appeared, she could cover the world. And when she really does start covering the world, it will be easier to judge her fitness as an anchor. Anchors prove their mettle when guiding viewers through marathon coverage of a crisis, and it is grimly safe to say that time will come. Then Couric will either justify her selection as anchor or make a mockery of it.
Last night, the show simply played to her strengths, chiefly her ability as an interviewer. She had a taped sit-down with liberal columnist Thomas Friedman of the New York Times, who seemed to be trying too hard to "come across" on television, as if he'd just completed TV training.
Suddenly, with no hint at a transition, Couric was talking about executive changes at the Ford Motor Co. and then about the late Steve Irwin, the crocodile expert who died over the weekend when he was attacked underwater by a stingray. These little mini-stories were rammed together with no indication from Couric that she was changing topics. She needs work, and help, at reading off the prompting device and making it clear when the focus is about to shift.
The premiere was too jammed with "new features," as if the producers feared people would give Couric only one night's chance before they ran away to some other option. A segment called "Eye on Your Money" was simply a report by Anthony Mason that proved largely an apologia for big oil. Mason did concede that for all the tribulations the companies have suffered -- hurricane damage and such -- Shell Oil showed a $25 billion profit last year. No tears for them.
Couric was standing again to introduce "something new," which turned out to be the oldest idea in television: Have some well-known or obscure blowhard pop up and do a rant into the camera.
On the first show, it was the overexposed and tiresome bore Morgan Spurlock, who became famous by making a movie in which he ate at McDonald's every day for a month.
How's that for credentials? He carried on about how there is too much arguing and not enough civilized discourse in America, but there was nothing civilized about his piece, which included footage of pro wrestlers battling in the ring.
Spurlock really seemed to be doing a variation on Richard Nixon's unfortunate "Silent Majority" tirade of many long years ago. Couric said that another stale face, that of Rush Limbaugh, would appear in the "free speech" segment Thursday. Oh goody! Set the TiVo now!
Then the show reached its lowest point with an item that Couric had coyly promoted earlier in the day on the CBS Web site: a photograph of Suri Cruise, the previously hidden baby of Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes. The portrait will be on the cover of Vanity Fair, out today -- so the segment was a shameless plug as well as celebrity trash, the kind of thing better saved for "Entertainment Tonight" and its ilk.
A so-so human-interest piece by Steve Hartman, the schmaltz king, closed the show. Or almost closed it. Gettin' real folksy with viewers, Couric asked them to send in suggestions on how she should sign off the newscast. There was a montage of sign-offs from the past -- including Edward R. Murrow's immortal "Good night, and good luck," even though Murrow never anchored the evening news.
Some people will say that including the image of Murrow on such a frothy, funsy broadcast as the Couric premiere was sacrilege, and that Murrow is spinning in his grave. In fact, if Murrow were going to spin in his grave, he would have started long ago, when "infotainment" first appeared on the TV horizon and newscasters became pop personalities akin to movie stars and actors appearing in sitcoms. Murrow must be all spun out by now. It's been downhill for a long time.
Couric's broadcast did not seem to hasten the decline and fall of TV news, but it didn't offer anything really new, either -- and on its first outing, it didn't offer anything news. A stranger from another planet tuning in the show would have to assume nothing happened in America or the world yesterday except that a photo of Tom Cruise's baby materialized.
Viewers hoping to hate Couric during the long, long countdown to Katie Day had to be disappointed, but so would those expecting a revelation. Coming weeks will tell both how Couric wears in the new assignment, and whether she'll lure younger viewers to a broadcast that has mainly appealed to men who get up to use the bathroom too often at night.
One wants to wish her well on the basis of her tremendous charm, but opening night left acres and acres of room for improvement.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/05/AR2006090501473_pf.html
Critic’s Notebook
Don't Adjust Your Set: Her Brightness Is a Contrast
By Paul Brownfield Los Angeles Times TV critic Sept. 6, 2006
She referred to the Taliban in Afghanistan as "Al Qaeda's best friends," as if the two groups schedule play dates. Oh, God, you thought, here it comes, what's been brewing for months and what the pundits have been pundit-ing about. It's the Katie-ing of the evening news; let the infantilizing begin.
Al Qaeda's best friends? Would Murrow have said that? Cronkite? Rather? That last guy?
And yet, nobody can turn a frown upside down the way Katie Couric can. Which is precisely why she gets away with "Al Qaeda's best friends" and why Tuesday's debut showed she is such a great choice to drag a moribund format not so much into the next century as toward the next iteration of what is, in a large sense, a commercial enterprise.
Couric, under the weight of it all, seemed to have taken herself down a notch; she might even have been nervous, quickly correcting herself when she flubbed the word "soil." On "Today" she could joke her way out of a gaffe; here, she was auditioning for the biggest part in her life.
With a woman, Nancy Pelosi, 15 Democratic seats away from having a good shot at becoming the first female speaker of the House, Couric is the first female solo Speaker of the Evening News.
And she's an ideal figure to ease a transition toward a more accessible, less arch media elite. She had toured the country, conducting town halls on what people want, and her first broadcast practically came with a How's My Driving? bumper sticker: She's taking suggestions on what her sign-off should be, and she introduced a soapbox segment called "Free Speech" that invites guest contributors to the nightly news.
Mostly, though, Couric brought what the evening news hasn't had in some time: buzz. (It's like Hollywood's best friend).
Couric is reportedly making $15 million a year in her new job. What, you wanted CBS Chief Executive Leslie Moonves to spend that beefing up overseas bureaus? He knows you don't watch the evening news, because he probably doesn't either. And frankly, why should you or he? I mean, what's on network news each night is far more in depth than the news crawl in an elevator and not as scary as Wolf Blitzer's Panic Room on CNN. But still, it isn't as good as the video and context you get on public television or the BBC or C-SPAN — except in a crisis, and even then, all of our crisis counselors have gone: the late Peter Jennings, disgraced Dan Rather, gracefully retiring Tom Brokaw.
Because of those men, Couric is inheriting a role that comes with a lot of male baggage. You have to pick a face and set it there, decide whether to tilt the head for emphasis (too Jennings?).
None of this should confound Couric, though; she's a quick-change artist of the facial mood. Tuesday night she seemed determined to keep, well, a straight face, which is to say not too many faces.
It was over 15 years on "Today" that she earned the reputation for having really nice teeth (i.e., the "perky" smile), but of all the Katies on "Today," my favorite was the one who put those reading spectacles on the bridge of her nose before sitting down with a dignitary or intellectual.
That's when I was so in the moment with her it became very nearly titillating. She went without the glasses Tuesday night, sitting down for an interview with New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman for some plain-spokenness about the Middle East, after a lead story on the resurgent Taliban in Afghanistan and President Bush's latest poll-juicing exhortation about the threat of Islamic bad guys.
What was perhaps most striking about the broadcast, in its infancy was how it mirrored the identity crisis newspapers are going through, with readership at risk from all the sea changes in news gathering and disseminating. It has produced in the old-guard media a recognition that they'll have to be more transparent to survive — meet me at my blog! — more adaptable to the way we live now.
Enter Couric, who will take us by the hand, make the evening news more of a mi casa es su casa experience. It's hypocritical to criticize her for showing the Vanity Fair cover of the first public photo of Suri Cruise, Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes' daughter; it's nothing that would be out of context on the front page of any newspaper in America.
But you need Couric to make the transition toward news-o-tainment seamless. She simultaneously populates the big-media hierarchy and conveys that she's not of it.
The not-of-it part was represented on Tuesday night by Morgan Spurlock, the documentary fabulist who in his film "Super Size Me" lived on McDonald's for a month to condemn the health effects of eating fast food.
He was first up in the "Free Speech" segment. It's an essay, if you will, a giving-back-of-the-airwaves to the people who, after all, own them in the first place. Spurlock used it to say: "It seems like every time I turn on the TV some 'reputable' news source is telling me how we're a nation divided…. Well, I don't buy it."
It's been a Couric talking point in the months leading up to her debut, this need for more civil discourse. Was Spurlock a front for Katie-ology?
Yet, Rush Limbaugh is up on Thursday. Yes, nothing says civil discourse like Rush Limbaugh. See how she does it?
http://www.calendarlive.com/tv/la-et-couricreview6sep06,0,1761405.story?coll=la-home-headlines
TV Sports
Woods and Agassi: Stay Tuned
By Richard Sandomir The New York Times September 6, 2006
Since his five-tournament winning streak began, Tiger Woods has demonstrated what television star power means.
And in his farewell to professional tennis at the United States Open, Andre Agassi mixed grit and charisma into a strong viewership potion.
Woods’s presence as the leader or a strong contender in the final round of a tournament has thrilled the networks that televise golf. CBS and ABC have been the most recent recipients of his magic.
• In the final round of the British Open on July 23, ABC drew nearly 6.4 million viewers, up 6 percent from a year ago.
• In the fourth round of the Buick Open on Aug. 6, he pushed viewership for CBS up by 3 percent from 2005, to 5.24 million.
• His victory at the P.G.A. Championship on Aug. 20 led to a 29.5 percent leap in viewership, to 10.1 million, for the final round on CBS.
• When he won the Bridgestone Invitational on CBS on Aug. 27, the 8.4 million watching the final round represented a 23 percent increase.
• And when he won the Deutsche Bank Championship on Monday, the overnight rating on ABC showed a 17 percent increase over a year ago, although viewership figures for the tournament were unavailable.
Agassi has never been as powerful an audience magnet as Woods or, before him, Michael Jordan, but his well-orchestrated goodbye and determined play despite a painful back attracted viewers.
• Agassi’s win over Andrei Pavel, after the ceremony renaming the U.S.T.A. National Tennis Center for Billie Jean King, drew nearly 2.2 million viewers for the USA network, with a peak of 2.6 million from 12:30 to 1 a.m. The full night’s viewership rose 123 percent from 2005.
• The Agassi-Marcos Baghdatis second-round match on USA attracted about 3.1 million viewers. The full night’s average viewership of 2.5 million represented a 203 percent increase over the comparable night a year ago.
• Agassi’s loss to Benjamin Becker, carried by CBS on Sunday afternoon, was seen by 4.4 million people, and as many as 5.2 million at one point, raising the day’s average viewership to 3.7 million, up 41 percent from 2005.
• Agassi’s most-viewed United States Open cable TV match was his quarterfinal loss to Pete Sampras in 2001, a major reason why that night’s prime-time block on the USA network attracted 4.6 million viewers, according to figures supplied by the network.
The ability of Agassi and Woods to drive up viewership could be seen in the Davie-Brown Entertainment Index, which surveys celebrity awareness and appeal. The index ranked Woods as the No. 1 athlete, and Agassi as the top tennis player.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/06/sports/tennis/06tv.html?adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1157529655-Ms+s0gRoEnEApg0IBumSRA&pagewanted=print
DoubleDAZ
09-06-06, 09:45 AM
Maybe they meant 12x30 (or 360 SF)?
Nonetheless, it always amazes me that even simple arithmetic doesn't get checked in so many of these stories.Not to nit-pik, but there are a couple of commas in that poorly worded sentence. :) My take is that the complete display, including screen and surrounding billboards, will be around 3,600 sq ft while the actual screen itself will be 12 ft x 20 ft. You can find a picture of the display here:
http://www.genesysbc.com/Projectsright.html
Thanks, Dave. You are probably right.
Ms. O’Donnell is the first boisterously gay host of a major daytime talk show, but that doesn’t make her a touchstone of tolerance.
Ellen DeGeneres does not count?
TV Notebook
WNBC Goes HD
By Allison Romano Broadcasting & Cable 9/6/2006
NBC Universal-owned WNBC New York is set to become the first station in the country's top TV market to switch its local news to high-definition.
On Sept. 13, WNBC will begin producing 28 hours per week of news and local programs in HD, including its daily newscasts, movie review show Reel Talk and sports shows Mike'd Up and Gameday New York. So far, WNBC's studio cameras and helicopter camera have been switched to high-definition and the station says it will transition field cameras in the coming months.
WNBC is among only about a dozen stations nationwide that have converted to local HD production. Recently, ABC-owned WPVI Philadelphia went HD, making it the first station in the No. 4 maket broadcasting local news in high-def. Other NBC O&Os are expected to soon follow WNBC's path to HD.
"From our daily newscasts to breaking news to our commitment to the community, WNBC is evolving its unmatched local news coverage," WNBC's Senior VP, News, and Station Manager Dan Forman said in a statement. "Our foray into HD further enables WNBC to maintain its mission of covering the tri-state area like no one else."
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/index.asp?layout=articlePrint&articleID=CA6369114
TV Notebook
Couric's Debut Number One in Early Ratings
By Allison Romano Broadcasting & Cable 9/6/2006
Katie Couric's much-anticipated debut as anchor of The CBS Evening News vaulted the network to first-place in the network news race, according to preliminary ratings from Nielsen Media Research.
Based on household ratings from metered markets, Couric averaged a impressive 9.1 rating/17 share, giving CBS its best Evening News rating since 1998. Couric's premiere marks more than double the program's metered market average of 4.4/9 over the past four weeks.
ABC grabbed second place Tuesday night with a 5.7/10 rating and NBC was third with a 5.3/10. Those standings could change when Nielsen releases more ratings information, including demographic data, this afternoon.
CBS News President Sean McManus said the network was encouraged by Couric's first outing, "but what’s more important is what the audience will be six months and a year from now.”
“Our primary focus remains on producing the highest quality broadcast night in and night out," he added in a statement.
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/index.asp?layout=articlePrint&articleID=CA6369002
TV Notebook
MyNetworkTV Off to Slow Start With Desire, Fashion House
By Marc Berman MediaWeek.com Sept. 06, 2006 -
As expected, serialized dramas Desire and Fashion House limped out of the starting gate on the launch of MyNetworkTV, with double-digit percent losses from both the lead-in and year-ago time period averages (WB, UPN and other outlets).
Based on prime-time periods only, Desire at 8 p.m. debuted with a mere 1.1 rating/2 share (in 46 metered markets), according to Nielsen Media Research data. Comparatively, that was a loss of 42 percent in the overnights and one share point from the lead-in average, and a more significant 56 percent in the overnights and two share points from the year-ago time period average.
Take a look:
September 2005 time period: 2.5/ 4
Lead-in average: 1.9/ 3
Desire: 1.1/ 2
Although campy lead-out Fashion House picked up some steam at 9 p.m., a 1.3/ 2 in the overnights (also based on 46 markets in prime time) was still off by a staggering 43 percent in the overnights and one share point from the year-ago time period average.
September 2005 time period: 2.3/ 3
Lead-in average: 1.0/ 2
Fashion House: 1.3/ 2
Both Desire and Fashion House aired opposite predominantly repeat programming last night.
http://www.mediaweek.com/mw/news/recent_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003117335
GeorgeLV
09-06-06, 12:26 PM
^^ I hope Fox was lying about not having any non-telenovela replacement programming in the can.
Ou8thisSN
09-06-06, 12:29 PM
no ratings news from House?
NBC Universal-owned WNBC New York is set to become the first station in the country's top TV market to switch its local news to high-definition.
It's about time. I could never understand why it was taking so long for a NY station to do the local news in HD.
It's about time. I could never understand why it was taking so long for a NY station to do the local news in HD.
Too busy replacing digital transmitters lost on 9/11?
no ratings news from House?
sorry, computer was down...I'll post the overnights shortly -- if it doesn't crash again.
(From Marc Berman’s Wednesday, September 7, 2006, Programming Insider column at Mediaweek.com )
Primetime Ratings For Tuesday, September 6th
Fox’s House Huge, Standoff Amply Sampled
The third-season premiere of drama House exploded out of the gate, lifting Fox head-and-shoulders above the competition on this late summer Tuesday. House kicked-off with a 13.3/21 in the overnights, 19.41 million viewers and a 7.1/20 among adults 18-49 at 8 p.m. Comparatively, that beat the competing ABC, CBS and NBC combined in the overnights and total viewers (while tying the three among adults 18-49). Ignited by bona fide sensation House, the series-premiere of Fox drama Standoff took the 9 p.m. hour with ease, at a 9.6/14 in the overnights, 13.72 million viewers and a 4.7/12 among adults 18-49. Although retention out of House of just 72 percent in the overnights, 71 percent in total viewers and 66 percent among adults 18-49 (with a loss of audience at 9:30 p.m. of 5 percent in the overnights, 1.08 million viewers and 10 percent among adults 18-49) could be considered concerning, Standoff was still amply sampled. And a network can’t ask more than that for the debut of a new series.
As a reminder, total viewers and adults 18-49 are based on the fast nationals
Note: The complete Tuesday ratings report is, as usual, in the first post at the top of this thread.
Overnights in the 18-49 Demo
Full house for Fox's returning 'House'
By Toni Fitzgerald MediaLifeMagazine.com staff writer Sep 6, 2006
“House” lost his limp but not his audience. The third-season premiere of the hot Fox drama was the highest-rated show on broadcast since May, and just as important to the network, it led to big ratings for new lead-out “Standoff.”
“House” averaged a 7.1 adults 18-49 rating, according to Nielsen overnights, up 25 percent from last season’s 5.7 premiere.
It was down quite a bit from last May’s finale, which drew a 10.3, but that was to be expected. The finale aired after part one of the season finale of TV’s biggest hit, “American Idol.” Last night’s debut, in which the grumpy doctor lost the limp that had plagued him for years, showed that “House” will still be a top 10 show even without “Idol.”
“House” drew 19.4 million total viewers, made more impressive by the fact that the fall season hasn’t started yet. Some viewers may not even know that “House” had premiered.
That also boosted lead-out “Standoff,” the new show about hostage negotiators. “Standoff” became Fox’s highest-rated drama premiere this year with a 4.7 average. Though it lost about a third of its lead in, it fared much better than “Vanished” and “Justice,” which debuted over the past two weeks.
“Standoff” did dip 10 percent from start to finish but both Fox shows were first in their timeslot.
Fox was No. 1 for the night with a 5.9 rating and 16 share in 18-49s, followed by CBS at 3.1/8, ABC at 2.3/6, NBC at 2.2/6, Univision at 2.0/5 and WB at 0.6/2.
At 8 p.m., Fox was No. 1 at a 7.1 for the premiere of "House," ahead of CBS at 3.6 for "Big Brother 7: All-Stars," Univision at 2.3 for "La Fea Mas Bella," ABC at 1.8 for two "According to Jim" reruns, NBC at 1.7 for "Fear Factor" and WB at 0.6 for a "Gilmore Girls" repeat.
At 9 p.m., Fox led again at 4.7 for the premiere of "Standoff," followed by CBS at 3.7 for "Rock Star: Supernova," ABC at 2.3 for two more "Jim" reruns, NBC and Univision each at 2.1 for a repeat "Law & Order: Criminal Intent" and "Barrera de Amor," and WB at 0.6 for another "Girls" rerun.
At 10 p.m., NBC led at 2.8 for a rerun of "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit," followed by ABC's "Primetime: The Outsiders" at 2.7, CBS's "NCIS" rerun at 2.1 and Univision's "Ver para Creer" at 1.6.
Among households, Fox was No. 1 again with a 9.9 rating and 16 share for the night, ahead of CBS at 5.1/8, NBC at 4.7/8, ABC at 4.2/7, Univision at 2.2/3 and WB at 1.1/2. (Note: UPN is not included as many affiliates have already switched to airing MyNetworkTV programming.)
http://www.medialifemagazine.com/artman/publish/printer_7102.asp
The continuing saga of yet another NFL battle…
TV Sports
Local TV affiliates miffed over NFL's new video policy
By Phillip B. Wilson Indianapolis Star September 6, 2006
Tony Dungy's first game back after the death of his son ended with a poignant New Year's Day moment as Indianapolis Colts safety Mike Doss presented the game ball to his emotional coach, who held it up in triumph.
WTHR-13 photographer Robin Lynch shot the exchange. The rest of the country didn't see it. "The national network missed it completely," Lynch said.
NFL fans may miss more of that memorable footage in the future.
A new NFL resolution, unanimously approved by owners in the offseason, reduces the number of local TV affiliate cameras on the sidelines during games this season. For Colts games, just two local TV cameras will be permitted -- and they must share all video in a pool-shooting capacity with other stations.
Fans may not initially notice a difference because all stations will have the same highlights. But local TV affiliates and national broadcasting groups are outraged.
"I'm disappointed (the NFL) wouldn't think more about the local stations and all that we have done for them over the years," said Jacques Natz, WTHR-13's news director for 10 years. "The reality is the Colts are going to get less air time. In the end, the Colts coverage is going to be more generic.
"They've taken the editorial decision-making away from us. They've neutered us in that sense."
Each local network affiliate -- WTHR-13, WISH-8, WRTV-6 and WXIN-59 -- initially was told it would have to rely upon one pool photographer. Station officials met and reluctantly agreed to alternate pool shooting.
After learning the Cincinnati Bengals have approved two TV pool photographers from their home market, Colts senior executive vice president Pete Ward consulted with the NFL. On Tuesday, he said the Colts received league permission to credential two Indianapolis affiliate photographers in a pool-shooting capacity for each home game. For road games, each NFL team must seek league approval to have more than one visitor-market camera on the field during the game.
"It's evolved to this," Ward said of the new rule, which the NFL says is aimed at protecting its game video rights from misuse and reducing the crowd of sideline photographers. "This gives (local affiliates) more options."
Lynch suggested the rule's true purpose is to help the league promote the NFL Network's new Sunday night highlight show.
"It's all about money," Lynch said. "How are they going to get the NFL Network up and going? They want to sell that."
NFL spokesman Greg Aiello rebutted the allegation of an ulterior promotional motive.
"Absolutely not. The usage rules pertaining to NFL game video have not changed at all," Aiello said. "Television news operations -- local and national -- can continue to show as many NFL game highlights as they have in the past. Those longstanding rules say news programs can use up to six minutes of same-day NFL highlights. On other days, they can use two minutes of NFL game highlights within a seven-day period."
TV executives around the country see it differently.
"Nobody in town is happy with this at all," said WISH-8 assistant news director Kevin Finch. "But we're stuck with it, and what we're trying to do is just get through the season and hopefully it will change."
Natz appreciated the Colts' decision to double the local pool TV cameras to two.
"The recent attempts by the Colts to move ahead so there are more photographers is an encouraging sign," he said.
But for photographers who take pride in their craft like Lynch, who has a decade of experience, the change is difficult.
"They're taking away from my livelihood," he said.
http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?Date=20060906&Category=SPORTS03&ArtNo=609060384&SectionCat=SPORTS&Template=printart
Washing ton Notebook
Senators Push for News Corp. Investigation
By John Eggerton Broadcasting & Cable 9/6/2006
The senators from EchoStar's home state of Colorado want the Senate Judiciary Committee to investigate rival News Corp.--which controls DirecTV--over its push to have EchoStar's imported distant signals cut off.
In a letter to the chairman and ranking member of the committee, Senators Wayne Allard, a Republican, and Ken Salaszar, a Democrat, said they were concerned with Fox/News Corp.'s rejection of a $100 million deal between EchoStar and all the network affiliates, including Fox's, that EchoStar hoped would settle their long-standing dispute.
TV stations filed suit against EchoStar in 1998, arguing that it was importing network-affiliated TV stations into markets where viewers could already get a signal from the local affiliate of the same network. By law, such signals can only be imported to viewers who can't get an acceptable signal from their local affiliate.
A federal court found that EchoStar had, indeed, been breaking the law by failing to distinguish properly between eligible and ineligible homes, and directed a lower court to implement a permanent injunction, which Fox says applies irrespective of the settlement. The injunction applies to all distant signals, not just those delivered to disputed customers.
News Corp. told a Florida court that it must proceed with the injunction at the higher court's direction, despite the settlement. The Florida court has given EchoStar until September. 15 to explain why the court should not impose the injunction.
The legislators say that they want to make sure that News Corp.s refusal to accept the settlement for its owned stations and its push for implementing the injunction that would pull the signals from hundreds of thousands of EchoStar customers, "was not motivated by a desire to ensure that DirecTV wins the market share that will be abandoned should EchoStar be forced to turn off its distant signals."
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/index.asp?layout=articlePrint&articleID=CA6369108
The 2006-2007 Season
Forecast: ABC will be No. 1 for the fall
By Diego Vasquez MediaLifeMagazine.com staff writer Sep 6, 2006
ABC may have lost “Monday Night Football” but it hasn’t lost its fall edge. With the promising drama “The Nine” pairing with “Lost” on Wednesday, Thursday expected to get a big boost from “Grey’s Anatomy” and hit “Dancing with the Stars” making its first fall appearance, ABC will lead among adults 18-49 during a very competitive fourth quarter.
That’s the forecast in a new report issued by Carat USA, which predicts that ABC will average a 3.9 during fourth quarter, just ahead of CBS’s 3.8. NBC will be third at 3.6 and Fox fourth at 3.2, followed by the CW at 1.6. Carat also predicts that ABC will be the top network in 18-49s on lucrative Thursday night, where its schedule has gotten an aggressive makeover pitting “Grey’s” against CBS’s longtime stalwart “CSI.”
Among the report’s other predictions: NBC will rebound after two off years, CBS will win every night but one (Wednesday) among households, and Fox will dominate once again when “American Idol” returns in first quarter.
Shari Anne Brill, vice president and director of programming at Carat, talks to Media Life about ABC’s continued resurgence, the fall’s top new shows and biggest potential flops.
Your report predicts that ABC will finish No. 1 among adults 18-49 in fourth quarter, despite the loss of "Monday Night Football." What do you think will be the key to ABC achieving that performance?
Building on “Grey’s” on Thursdays, and they still have “Desperate Housewives” on Sunday night.
It will be a tight race in the fourth quarter, like it is in the first and second. Of course, once “American Idol” shows up, forget it. I also think ABC’s got a good midseason show, “The Traveler.” I wish it was on in the fall.
What are the three most promising new shows this fall, in terms of both quality and favorable timeslots?
ABC’s “The Nine,” hands down.
I think it pairs up very well as the lead-out to “Lost,” it will blend better than [former timeslot occupant] “Invasion” did. “Invasion” was probably a little too sci-fi-esque. “Lost” has the supernatural element but it’s not necessarily sci-fi with aliens, etc.
The parallel here is [the characters on “Lost”] have to survive in the face of being taken hostage, and in “The Nine” the people have gone through a similar trauma. It’s about nine who were hostages in a bank robbery and the aftermath of that. “Lost” works on so many different levels, but the main level is they’ve created multilayered complex characters that you want to care about, and that what hooks viewers.
“Shark.” James Woods is a phenomenal actor, it is procedural story telling, but there’s a backstory because he came from the defense attorney side and now he’s with the prosecution.
Plus, it’s on Thursdays at 10 right after “CSI,” you can’t get a much better timeslot than that. “ER” is getting on in years, it’s becoming a very mature show and was starting to be decimated by “Without a Trace.” Also, the new show at 10 p.m. on ABC will probably suffer the most.
The third I really like, although I think it will not have as broad of an appeal. I just like Aaron Sorkin, so I think “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip” will be the top-rated new show in terms of bringing in affluent viewers.
It’s on Mondays at 10 and offers a good alternative to “CSI: Miami.” Again, ABC’s 10 p.m. entry “What About Brian,” which barely got around 6 million viewers last year, offers no competition in that slot. It’s a really interesting topic, and when Sorkin was writing for “West Wing,” it was a stellar show.
But will viewers want to watch a show about the making of a TV show? That’s the question, but the drama is compelling enough, and I think viewers will come. This, like “West Wing,” will be a thinking person’s show. It will get educated viewers and advertisers want to connect with those. Honorable mentions are “Ugly Betty”--I think it will work as a lead-in to “Grey’s Anatomy” far better than the two shows it benched for midseason. This year’s crop overall, the bar of quality has been raised so much, so many shows have a lot to offer.
What are the three least promising?
Now that we’re talking about midseason, I didn’t really get the point of ABC’s comedy “Notes From the Underbelly.” A show about fertility—it didn’t work for “Inconceivable”—why would this work as a comedy?
Now it’s been moved to midseason, so I’m not alone in my thoughts. They knew they had to come up with a better Thursday 8 p.m. show to support “Grey’s Anatomy.”
It’s really tough, there isn’t a lot that’s really god-awful, there’s really good and less good. There are a couple of shows that are having issues behind the scenes—ABC’s “Brothers and Sisters,” they switched three actors, got rid of the showrunner, and maybe it will turn out good, but when you start to hear that these kind of repairs are going on, it gives you pause.
ABC’s “Six Degrees,” they brought in another showrunner too, someone to fix the show. When shows are having creative problems, there’s a little concern there.
Were there any programming moves that really made you scratch your head? How about any you found very smart?
I thought it was very smart of NBC to move “30 Rock” to 8 p.m., I think that will help the show. It’s also up against “Dancing with the Stars” results, but I think it could work. Saturday nights the networks have pretty much abandoned original programming, and you expect that, but when I see it happening on Friday nights, I just, you know, think that’s a problem.
Repeats really hurt the WB when they went to encores. And when I see repeats of “America’s Funniest Home Videos,” a show that’s always been a Band-Aid, it sort of signals that maybe there’s creative product that’s not ready yet, but it could hurt ABC on that night.
NBC seems to have the potential for either great gains or great losses, with all of its schedule switches and new programs. Which do you think it will be?
I think their development is so far superior to what I’ve seen in the last three to five years. “The Office” is a brilliant comedy, but it also appeals to special tastes. “30 Rock” is a broader comedy. This year the Peacock will be a phoenix, I really believe that this year.
“The Black Donnellys,” a midseason show, I think is terrific. “Heroes” is a really great show, and it will have some niche appeal, which leads to loyal viewers.
They really have a lot of shows that people are talking about, and not just the industry, viewers as well. And it’s a cyclical business--seven years ago CBS was a mess, but they built show by show, night by night.
You categorized NBC's "Heroes" as potentially one of the most successful new fall shows. How come?
I think there’s a lot of advanced buzz. It was promoted heavily at Comic-Con. “Smallville,” which is based on the legend of Superman, is one of WB’s, now CW’s top shows.
The characters are really interesting, you don’t know how they got their powers. Four different people from four different parts of the world, how they embrace the powers and what they mean to them in their own world. They all have very different lives. One character you can only get through subtitles, because he doesn’t speak English.
Now that there’s no longer football on Monday night, I think a lot of men will go there and “Studio 60” if they don’t want to go to CBS’s comedies, and I think it will be a tremendous cult hit.
How do you think "Sunday Night Football" and the addition of CBS's "Without a Trace" will affect Sunday nights?
I think viewers will go back and forth. You’ll probably see some switching to “Desperate Housewives” at halftime to check out the girls before they go back to the game. I think CBS will be better off than they would have been with their movie.
“Without a Trace” will probably finish second in its time period, I doubt “Brothers and Sisters” will do well, it will get sampled but it will probably finish third.
http://www.medialifemagazine.com/artman/publish/printer_7074.asp
Weekly Cable Nielsen Notebook
ESPN Close Behind TNT in Weekly Ratings
By Anthony Crupi MediaWeek SEept. 06, 2006
It’s a sure sign that football season is upon us when ESPN begins threatening to take the top spot in prime time among all ad-supported cable nets.
Although the sports net was outgunned by TNT for the week ending Sept. 3, it did boast the week’s most-watched program on cable with its Monday night scrimmage, the last before the NFL season officially kicks off with Thursday’s Steelers/Dolphins showdown. (That game marks the official return of the NFL to NBC after an 8-year hiatus.) ESPN’s coverage of the Packers/Bengals exhibition drew an average audience of 6.69 million viewers between 8:00 p.m. and 11:15 p.m., beating out TNT’s The Closer, which delivered 6.5 million viewers in the Monday 9:00 p.m. slot.
Overall, TNT lured 3.08 million total viewers and racked up a 2.6 household rating for the week, besting ESPN (2.78 million/2.2 HH rating). On the demo front, ESPN lead all comers in its delivery of adults 18-49, averaging 1.4 million in prime, an increase of 117 percent versus the same period a year ago. It also reached the greatest number of adults 25-54 (1.41 million), a 100 percent hike over the corresponding week in 2005 and claimed the top rank for the key male categories (M 18-34: 496,000; M 18-49: 1.04 million, M 25-54: 1.04 million).
While the 2006 MTV Video Music Awards was a ratings disappointment, averaging 5.77 million viewers Thursday night––that’s a decrease of 28 percent from last year’s telecast, which drew an audience of 8 million viewers––it was a good enough showing to take the number three spot amongst all ad-supported cable programming. Moreover, it helped catapult MTV into some rarified air, as the music net delivered an average 1.83 million viewers/1.6 HH rating, good enough for third place overall. MTV also was tops among the P 18-34 demo (766,000), 12-34 (1.28 million), 12-24 (880,000) and 12-17 (509,000).
Lifetime took fourth on the week with 1.62 million viewers and a 1.4 HH rating, while Sci Fi Channel, boosted by its new hit, the WWE-produced Extreme Championship Wrestling, finished fifth with 1.6 million viewers and a 1.4 HH rating. With ECW, Sci Fi averaged 4.16 million total viewers Monday night between 9:00 p.m. and 11:12 p.m., taking fourth and fifth place among all cable programming.
Ad-free Disney Channel was the nominal third-place network, with 2.57 million total viewers and a 2.2 HH rating.
http://www.mediaweek.com/mw/news/recent_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003117522
The 2006-2007 Season
Strike up the band
Broadcast networks are experimenting with many facets of digital-media distribution as they try to fit into the new world of broadband Internet and wireless devices
By Andrew Wallenstein The Hollywood Reporter Sept. 6,2007
When Beth Comstock assumed her post as president of digital media and market development at NBC Universal, she arrived with preconceptions about new programming platforms.
"You're not going to go home at night and curl up on your sofa with your cell phone and watch a 22-minute program," Comstock admitted to having thought in a July speech she delivered as part of NBC's Television Critics Assn. press tour presentation.
Then she took a gander at NBC Uni research that had observed average Americans in their homes, navigating the growing array of options for video. It turns out that 68% of households that owned Apple's popular iPod -- perfect for viewing shows on the go -- were using the device inside their homes. "It wasn't to commute with or get on the plane with," Comstock noted.
Moral of the story: Make no assumptions about new-media consumption. That's a crucial lesson for the broadcast TV business as it approaches the 2006-07 season with drastically different concerns than those it had before the 2005-06 campaign. Don't worry as much about what's on at, say, 9:30 p.m. Tuesday; figuring out where a mass medium fits into the bewildering new world of broadband Internet and wireless devices is becoming a bigger concern.
"We're trying to understand how we can participate in that and how that could be a revenue stream for us in addition," ABC Entertainment president Stephen McPherson says.
No one can say that broadcasters haven't risen to the challenge: ABC, CBS, NBC and, to a lesser extent, Fox and the CW are experimenting with nearly every facet of digital-media distribution. ABC fired the first shot in October by signing a watershed deal with Apple to put hits including "Lost" on iTunes. CBS followed with deals to put its programs on Google and Comcast's video-on-demand service. NBC didn't make any type of deal when copyright-infringing clips from "Saturday Night Live" exploded on YouTube, but then the peacock turned around and struck an agreement with that viral-video site to harness its promotional power.
With broadcast's single revenue stream -- advertising -- experiencing serious erosion at the hands of online giants, those are only a few ways in which networks are extending their brands to new media. It's going to take a lot of trial and error, according to CBS Digital Media president Larry Kramer.
"We're in kind of beta-test mode in this world," he says. "The good news in the first year is that it doesn't negatively impact our business."
At its most basic level, the question regarding broadcast's place in digital media is: Are new platforms additive to the broadcast experience, or is it a zero-sum game by which viewing elsewhere detracts from Nielsen ratings? To hear broadcasters tell it, the array of video-market entrants has not cannibalized their business but rather provided more opportunities to promote or distribute themselves.
"In fact, a lot of the research we're doing shows that, clearly, more people are spending time with television," Comstock says. "They may be doing other things, but that pie is growing -- and the basis is incremental, which is exciting to us."
Kramer agrees. "Given the chance to watch anything in front of a 50-inch flat screen versus another alternative, (viewers) are going to want the flat screen," he says.
With the emergence of video alternatives to the living-room television, though, broadcasters are covering their tracks. Many top-rated series are available on iTunes or VOD after their primetime windows or even before airing, for promotional purposes, on portals like Yahoo!
ABC might have conducted the boldest post-primetime experiment to date during the latter part of last season by offering hits including "Desperate Housewives" for viewing anytime on ABC.com. The trial streaming service was free through June but carried custom commercials through which viewers could not fast-forward -- an interesting alternative during the TiVo era.
ABC has not ruled out attempting another such an arrangement, but this fall the network is placing more emphasis on extending the viewing relationship beyond the broadcast window. "Lost" was considered the template last season, spawning online content offerings that deepened the mythology of the drama series, and ABC plans to follow up with a "Lost"-branded video game and a mobisode spinoff through Verizon Wireless' V Cast service.
Ahead of the upcoming season, broadcasters began to hatch digital-media extensions during the development phase. New series including the CBS drama "Jericho" will launch with online-only story lines, and even news programs are set to go multiplatform, with CBS' "60 Minutes" spawning a Yahoo!-hosted companion Web site and the "CBS Evening News With Katie Couric" reconfiguring its 6:30 p.m. broadcast with offerings throughout the day.
NBC has become more aggressive in online extensions through its TV 360 strategy. Supplemental content is being created for series including the new shows "Friday Night Lights," "Heroes" and "30 Rock," as well as returning favorites "Law & Order: Criminal Intent" and "The Office," the latter of which offered webisodes this summer to tide fans over until the fall.
With a target audience on the younger side of the adults 18-49 demographic, new broadcaster the CW also is getting active in this area. In keeping with the craze for user-generated Web content, the network has created the CW Lab, an online destination where viewers are given clips from the CW programs and tools to transform them -- along with homemade video or music -- into promos that could receive airtime.
"Our audience has grown up with both traditional and new media, so we want to make the CW as interactive as possible," CW entertainment president Dawn Ostroff says.
Don't be surprised if digital platforms come to the rescue of the new season's biggest programming trend: serialized dramas, which have frustrated fans in the past as weak ratings have triggered cancellations and pulled series off the air before their suspenseful story lines are settled.
"I think it would be great if certain things could be extended and ended and wrapped up, if you will, outside of the broadcast window, which financially is just impossible," McPherson says.
Broadcasters also are launching their own broadband channels. In May, CBS debuted Innertube, which mixes repurposed programs with exclusive original fare. In some cases, original broadband programming is a companion to on-air series, as was an Innertube summer reality show that allowed interns on the set of the CBS soap opera
"As the World Turns" to compete for a guest spot on the show. NBC's broadband channel DotComedy.com, which is in the works, will provide a venue for the network's classic comedy programming, including "SNL" and "Last Comic Standing."
Broadband pipelines are pumping up broadcasters' new shows through online brands like NBCFirstLook.com, which is set to premiere as many as four episodes of each of the network's debuting series in their entirety. Advance peeks at the NBC freshmen "Kidnapped" and "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip" also are available through a DVD promotion with Netflix.
NBC already has begun to blur the lines between on-air and online original programming with its pickup of the