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fredfa

10-10-06, 11:34 AM

TV Notebook
Ditch Those Golden Years Commercials!
Charles Gibson: Run golden-oldie ads, get golden-oldie viewers
By Gail Shister Philadelphia Inquirer Columnist Tue, Oct. 10, 2006

Want younger viewers for the evening news? Ditch the geezer ads, says ABC World News anchor Charlie Gibson.

If networks are serious about luring pre-Social Security eyeballs, they should replace commercials for adult diapers, dentures and "patent medicines" with spots for younger, sexier products, in Gibson's view.

The current commercials "bespeak an older audience," says Gibson, in town last week to anchor World News from the National Constitution Center. "I'd rather have car ads.

"When you put on ads mostly for medicines, you're saying 'We want an older audience.' I would like ads that say 'We have a younger audience here.' "

Not likely, Chas.

Median age of World News viewers this season is 59.9, according to Nielsen Media Research. It's 60.3 for Brian Williams' No. 1 NBC Nightly News, and 59.5 for Katie Couric's CBS Evening News.

Networks target 25-to-54-year-olds for news.

At 63, Gibson is nine years out of the demo. And he's a first-time grandpa, to boot. (Daughter Jessica had a son in March.) Couric is 49, two years older than Williams.

"Why say the important audience is 25 to 54 if you run ads that obviously appeal to people over 60 or 65?" Gibson says. "Why aren't you trying to get commercials that appeal to the audience you want to get?"

So why did Gibson veto a recent guest shot on Stephen Colbert's hip-a-doodle-do Colbert Report on Comedy Central?

"I just didn't think it was something I should do. I wouldn't feel comfortable." Jon Stewart's Daily Show hasn't asked, Gibson says, adding that both hosts are "brilliant."

Hard to believe, but Colbert was a correspondent for Good Morning America for about 12 seconds in the mid-'90s.

Gibson, GMA coanchor at the time, says he didn't even realize Colbert was on the show until he saw a clip with both of them on a 60 Minutes profile of Colbert April 30.

"Apparently, he did one piece for us," Gibson says. "I have no memory of that. None. Apparently I interviewed him on the set. He was on a monitor."

As for letting Colbert slip away, Gibson says: "Boy, did we screw up. He's a real talent. It would have been good to have him as part of GMA." Back then, maybe. Now, of course, his act would never play on broadcast TV.

Unlike his competitors, Gibson didn't exactly slide into the anchor seat.

After not getting the job in January, he had decided to retire in June '07. Then coanchors Bob Woodruff and Elizabeth Vargas got injured in Iraq and pregnant (respectively), and Gibson was named solo anchor May 23.

The situation is not without irony. Gibson will anchor the '08 presidential elections - the sticking point in January. ABC News boss David Westin wanted him out in June '08, network insiders say.

"I had no bitterness when it didn't work out," Gibson says. "I understood what they were doing and why they did it, and, indeed, defended it."

Contrary to a published report, Gibson swears he never threatened to quit if Westin didn't give him the throne the second time. "Never happened. Scout's honor."

He's far more equivocal about how long he'll stick around, however.

"I suppose it's conditional on how I feel, and on those horrible things called ratings. Whether they like the cut of your jib doing this." (Cut of your jib? Spoken like a Princeton man.)

Gibson says World News will continue as "a very straight news show." No bells, whistles or, like CBS, "Free Speech" commentaries. "We've got 22 minutes. That's precious time."

He still considers the Big 3 the gold standard of TV news. He doesn't watch much cable, calling it "a lot of people yelling at each other."

ABC execs are quieter when Gibson shares his theory on World News ads. "They smile and pet me on the head," he says. "They think my business is doing the show and their business is selling the ads."

http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/magazine/daily/15719431.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp

HDTVChallenged

10-10-06, 11:36 AM

The hell with the rest of the country sangs, enjoy the next week -- or more!

LOL ... I look at it as a small break from the relentless TiVo backlog. ... I gotta start dropping shows, there are only so many hours in the day. :D

fredfa

10-10-06, 12:21 PM

TV Notebook
Too Many Geezers Watching Nightly News, Says Nightly News Geezer
By James Poniewozik Time Magazine television critic in Time’s “Tuned In” blog Tuesday, Oct. 10, 2006

Charles Gibson was not exactly the most revolutionary choice as ABC's evening news anchor. But he has a revolutionary idea to draw more young viewers to the 6:30 broadcast: Put on more ads for things young people buy.

""I'd rather have car ads," he tells Gail Shister of the Philadelphia Inquirer. "When you put on ads mostly for medicines, you're saying 'We want an older audience.'"

Uh, no offense, but Gibson does work in television, right? ABC News would rather have car ads too, in the same sense that I would rather see Donald Trump's bank balance when I check my ATM slips. But it doesn't quite work the way Gibson posits: You get the ads that advertisers are willing to purchase from you. When your audience is young, you get iPod ads. When your audience is, well, the network news', you get Preparation H.

The irony is, Gibson's promotion and his subsequent, meat-and-potatoes newscast were widely seen as a repudiation of CBS's (and, earlier, ABC's) strategy of trying to draw a younger audience with a nontraditional format and a younger anchor or anchors. Which is all fine--Gibson is an old-fashioned anchor and a damn good one, and he has every right to be proud of that. But: Dinosaurs in, dinosaurs out. You can't just put on an old-school newscast and will yourself to a younger audience by getting younger ads. It's like a failing football team wanting to win the Super Bowl and deciding, You know what? All the teams that win Super Bowls wear Super Bowl rings! If we want to win the Super Bowl, we should get some Super Bowl rings, too!

Here's another idea: maybe if you want to get a younger audience for your newscast, maybe you could start by not ash-canning a pregnant 43-year-old woman and replacing her with a man 20 years older. I'm just thinking out loud here.

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

fredfa

10-10-06, 12:24 PM

Overnights in the 18-49 Demo
NBC's 'Heroes' picks up more viewers
New fantasy series averages a 5.9 in 18-49s
By Toni Fitzgerald MediaLifeMagazine.com staff writer Oct. 10, 2006

Without the benefit of one of TV’s top lead-ins, NBC’s “Heroes” is doing what “Six Degrees,” “Brothers & Sisters” and “Shark” could not: Build its audience.

In its third week, the sci fi drama averaged a 5.9 in adults 18-49, according to Nielsen overnights, up 7 percent over last week’s 5.5 and matching its premiere week audience.

“Heroes” is now the season’s No. 1 new show with a 5.8 average for three outings.

That’s better than any of the aforementioned shows, which benefit from big lead-in audiences from “Grey’s Anatomy,” “Desperate Housewives” and “CSI,” respectively. By comparison, the 9 p.m. “Heroes” built 30 percent on its 8 p.m. “Deal or No Deal” lead-in.

Perhaps the best news for NBC was that “Heroes’” strong performance helped boost high-profile new drama “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip” at 10 p.m.

“Strip” had dipped severely in its last two weeks, down 30 percent from its premiere. But last night the show grew 12 percent week to week, going from a 3.4 to a 3.8. Though that was still a distant second in the timeslot, behind CBS’s “CSI: Miami,” “Strip” grew despite facing the season premiere of ABC’s “What About Brian.”

And it remained relatively steady from its first to its second half hour, dipping 8 percent, much better than its first two weeks.

CBS narrowly edged NBC for first place on the night, averaging a 4.8 rating and 12 share thanks to the improved performance of “The Class” in its new 8:30 p.m. timeslot. NBC was second at 4.7/12, followed by ABC at 3.1/8, Univision at 1.6/4, Fox at 1.3/3, and the CW at 1.0/3.

At 8 p.m., NBC’s “Deal” led with a 4.4, followed by CBS at 3.6. Its timeslot swap of “How I Met Your Mother” and “Class” proved very smart – “Mother” averaged a 3.6 and “Class” rebounded from a 2.8 last week to a 3.7 last night, a jump of 33 percent. ABC was third at 3.2 for “Wife Swap,” followed by Univision’s 1.9 for “La Fea Mas Bella,” Fox at 1.4 for a “Prison Break” rerun, and the CW’s “Everybody Hates Chris” (1.2) and “All of Us” (1.0) reruns at 1.1.

“Heroes” was first at 9 p.m., averaging a 5.9 to CBS’s 4.9 for “Two and a Half Men” (5.4) and “New Adventures of Old Christine” (4.3). ABC was third at 3.1 for “Bachelor,” followed by Univision’s 1.6 for “Mundo de Fieras,” Fox’s 1.2 for a “Justice” rerun and CW’s 1.0 for “Girlfriends” (1.0) and “The Game” (0.9) reruns.

At 10 p.m., CBS’s “CSI: Miami” dominated with a 5.9, followed by “Strip’s” 3.8 and “Brian’s” 3.0, even to last season’s average. Univision was fourth at 1.4 for “Cristina.”

Among households, CBS led at 9.4/15, followed by NBC at 7.8/12, ABC at 5.3/8, Fox at 2.7/4, Univision at 2.0/3, and the CW at 1.6/2.

http://www.medialifemagazine.com/artman/publish/article_7803.asp

DoubleDAZ

10-10-06, 12:31 PM

Watched 3 episodes yesterday and I'm pretty well hooked. :)

fredfa

10-10-06, 12:32 PM

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

fredfa

10-10-06, 12:33 PM

Three episodes of "Heroes", Dave?

KenA

10-10-06, 12:38 PM

Why do they bother with articles about poor WS ratings? What are they going to do, cancel it?

fredfa

10-10-06, 12:45 PM

Critic’s Notebook
The Fourth-Best ''Studio 60'' To Date
By Rich Heldenfels in his Akron Beacon Journal TV blog Oct. 10, 2006

An especially big mess for ''Studio 60'' in what, if I'm counting correctly, is its fourth telecast -- hence the title of this post.

Are we really supposed to believe that Harriet didn't know that was the baseball star's phone number? (And why does Sorkin insist on giving strong women a dumb streak?) Are we really going to have to sit through a faux Maureen Dowd? Is the show ever going to do a sketch -- or, in this case, a monologue -- that is genuinely funny? (I was particularly disappointed by the references to the show-within-the-show having had two good weeks; I had hoped that someone had recognized that it isn't really all that good.) And what sort of fake sunshine was that ending supposed to be?

Arrrrrrrrgh. But I'm sure Vanity Fair loved it.

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

fredfa

10-10-06, 12:48 PM

Critic’s Notebook
'Studio 60' and the nature of funny
From Maureen Ryan’s Chicago Tribune blog “The Watcher” October 10, 2006

Reviews of the sketches on “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip” have been coming in since the show premiered Sept. 18, and many have been pretty negative. A fair number of bloggers, critics and message-board commenters have said they find the sketches on the Aaron Sorkin drama tepid, uninspired and not befitting a “hot” sketch-comedy program; the fictional “Studio 60” show-within-a-show, we’re told, is on a red-hot roll.

I’d begun mapping out a defense of Sorkin’s sketches over the past few weeks. The sketches were really just there as engines for the characters on the show, to get them to talk about different subjects – religion, politics, whatever. And if they weren’t knee-slappingly funny, they were, at least, reasonably believable as sketches. And besides, weren’t we often seeing sketches that weren’t quite finished yet?

Another line of defense: “Studio 60” isn’t exactly a documentary. Nobody believes that Dr. Greg House on “House” would really get away with treating patients so rudely (nor would he skate by the fact that he nearly, or actually, kills someone every week). But the rest of the drama is so good and so meaty that we don’t really question the realness of what we’re seeing on shows like “House” and “Studio 60.”

Finally, are the sketches any lamer than the ones on “Saturday Night Live,” the model for “Studio 60”? I think not.

Well, I should say, I thought not. Monday’s episode changed all that.

Now I must concede that the anti-sketch crowd was right.

The subject of Monday’s episode was an “editorial” presented during “Studio 60’s” news segment. It came from the writers’ room, which was a big deal, since new top producer Matt Albie had single-handedly written the previous two episodes of “Studio 60.” His offer to let “the room” write one 90-second bit was a peace offering of sorts to head writers Ricky and Ron, with whom he’d been feuding for years.

The only trouble was, the piece that “the room” came up with was glaringly unfunny. If this had been the material of a C-grade comic at Toledo’s Laff Shak – yeah, that I would believe. That Ricky and Ron, and then Matt, thought the editorial, which was offered by a junior writer in “the room,” was extraordinarily funny was jarring, to say the least.

The piece was incredibly tired material about how kids with ADD or other behavior disorders would have, in the past, just been called “stupid.” And the U.S. has so much food that it can drop both food and bombs on people, etc. Imagine a Lewis Black rant on “The Daily Show,” but with all the actual comedy removed, and you get the idea.

The characters on “Studio 60” who thought that piece was funny became instantly less believable as arbiters of comedy. Most of the skits haven’t really affected my view of the characters one way or the other – I was willing to suspend disbelief and go along with the idea that Matt was a comedy genius. I certainly have more trouble believing that now.

Aaron Sorkin needs to hire better writers to write the sketch material on his show. And he needs to have people around him who will tell him the honest truth when the sketches are just plain awful. Or “Studio 60,” a show I’m still committed to and still like for a lot of good, solid reasons, is going to implode.

There were other troubling signs that the writing on the show is already getting lazy: During the crisis over that “editorial,” which was found to be plagiarized, network executive Jordan McDeere once again was allowed to wave off her angry boss, Jack Rudolph, with a quip. It looked as though she literally hung up on him in the show’s control room. That’s not funny, that’s career suicide.

And would Danny Tripp, Matt Albie’s creative partner, stand around with Harriet Hayes, Matt’s ex-girlfriend, and discuss the former couple’s romantic troubles three feet away from a visiting Vanity Fair journalist? (That journalist will, I’m guessing, turn out to be a horrible, soulless betrayer of good, well-intentioned people, which is par for the course for TV’s portrayal of journalists.)

Fumbles like these are forgivable – for now. There are still high points in every “Studio 60” episode – Monday’s was Harriet’s absolutely uncanny imitation of Juliette Lewis (now I see why Sarah Paulson makes some sense in the part of Harriet; Paulson a genius mimic). And that Juliette Lewis sketch was kind of funny – I wish we’d seen more of it.

But let’s face it, Aaron Sorkin is not a funny man. And let’s hope he realizes that sooner rather than later.

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

DoubleDAZ

10-10-06, 01:11 PM

Three episodes of "Heroes", Dave?Yeah, guess I should have been more specific, huh? :)

Haven't quite grasped exactly why I like it so far, I guess it's just different enough to add something comparatively new against Without A Trace, Vanished, and Kidnapped, L&O 1/2/3, CSI 1/2/3, etc.

FWIW, also watched The Nine and now I know where all the folks from cancelled shows went. :)

fredfa

10-10-06, 01:24 PM

I've got the first three episodes of "Heroes" on my TiVo, and given your review maybe I'll give them a look now that it appears the show will be around a while.

VisionOn

10-10-06, 01:49 PM

I've got the first three episodes of "Heroes" on my TiVo, and given your review maybe I'll give them a look now that it appears the show will be around a while.

while it's still finding it's feet and is a bit wobbly in some areas, it's fast, fun, stylish and has killer endings.

As other people have said, Japanese hero "Hiro" is awesome. The show really comes alive when he's on screen.

DoubleDAZ

10-10-06, 02:54 PM

As other people have said, Japanese hero "Hiro" is awesome. The show really comes alive when he's on screen.That is for sure!!!!!

keenan

10-10-06, 03:24 PM

That is for sure!!!!!
Indeed, he electrifies the screen when he on, easily my favorite character.

fredfa

10-10-06, 04:15 PM

Cable Nielsen Notebook
ESPN Beats TNT in Weekly Ratings Game
By Anthony Crupi Media Week Oct. 10, 2006

ESPN remained atop the ratings pile last week, averaging 4.33 million total viewers and a 3.5 household rating in prime time, outdistancing its nearest rival by some 1.8 million viewers.

Boosted by its fourth installment of Monday Night Football––the Oct. 2 matchup between the Philadelphia Eagles and the Green Bay Packers delivered 12.9 million total viewers, making it the most watched program on ad-supported cable for the week ending Oct. 8––ESPN beat out TNT, which averaged 2.53 million viewers and a 2.1 household rating, according to Nielsen Media Research data.

The sports network also topped all core demos, including adults 18-49 (2.05 million), 18-34 (935,000) and 25-54 (2.12 million), thanks to a lineup that included three of the top five shows on cable, including the Detroit Tigers’ drubbing of the New York Yankees in game three of the American League Division Series (6.56 million, 2nd place) and Saturday’s NCAA football clash between the Florida Gators and the LSU Tigers (4.45 million, 5th place).

TNT’s top performer last week was the Tom Hanks theatrical Cast Away, which averaged 3.96 million viewers in its three weekend showings. The Turner net also placed second behind ESPN in the three core demos.

Taking third on the week was USA Network, with 2.43 million total viewers and a 2.0 HH rating, thanks in large part to its two-hour presentation of WWE Raw, which averaged 4.77 million viewers Monday night between 9:00 p.m. and 11:00 p.m., taking the three and four spots. USA also got a lift from its Sunday night repeat of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, which served up 4.08 million viewers (10th place).

Cartoon Network placed fourth with 1.43 million viewers and a 1.3 HH rating, while Fox News Channel cracked the top five with 1.33 million total viewers and a 1.2 HH rating.

Disney Channel was the week’s nominal also-ran, as the non-ad-supported net delivered 2.94 million total viewers and a 2.5 HH rating in prime on the strength of command performances by two original movies, Halloweentown High (4.37 million) and Halloweentown II: Kalabar’s Revenge (4.27 million).

http://www.mediaweek.com/mw/news/recent_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003223985

fredfa

10-10-06, 04:20 PM

The Business of TV
25 More DirecTV HD LIL Markets
DIRECTV to Deliver Local HD Programming in 67 Markets by Year End
(DirecTV News Release)

Approximately 74 Percent of U.S. Television Homes will have Access to Local HD Channels from DIRECTV

EL SEGUNDO, Calif., Oct 10, 2006 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Already leading the satellite TV industry in the delivery of local HD programming, DIRECTV will offer local HD broadcast networks in 67 markets, representing approximately 74 percent of U.S. TV households, by year end when it rolls out 25 more local HD markets in the fourth quarter.

Local news, sports and popular primetime programming from ABC, CBS, FOX and NBC will be available in HD to customers who subscribe to any TOTAL CHOICE(R) programming package that offers local channels. There is no additional charge for local HD programming.

The 25 local markets to receive HD programming from DIRECTV include:

• Albuquerque, N.M.
• Buffalo, N.Y.
• Des Moines, Iowa
• Flint, Mich.
• Ft. Meyers, Fla.
• Grand Rapids, Mich.
• Green Bay, Wisc.
• Greensboro, N.C.
• Greenville, S.C.
• Harrisburg, Pa.
• Jacksonville, Fla.
• Little Rock, Ark.
• Madison, Wisc.
• Mobile, Ala.
• New Orleans
• Norfolk, Va.
• Oklahoma City, Okla.
• Portland, Me.
• Providence, R.I.
• Reno, Nev.
• Santa Barbara, Calif.
• Spokane, Wa.
• Springfield, Mo.
• Toledo, Ohio
• Tulsa, Okla.

VisionOn

10-10-06, 04:23 PM

Indeed, he electrifies the screen when he on, easily my favorite character.

what's even more impressive to me is that all of his scenes are subtitled (stylish subtitles and some of the best dialog too!) which is not only pretty brave of NBC, but a testament to the guy who plays Hiro. You get the feel of everything just from the performances even if you don't read the subtitles.

rustycruiser

10-10-06, 04:26 PM

My new show watching is:

Keepers:
Heroes
Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip
Men in Trees
Friday Night Lights
Ugly Betty

On The Fence:
Shark

Watched two or three, but discarded
Jericho
Six Degrees
Smith
The Class

Couldn't make it through first show:
Vanished
Standoff
Justice

Never Saw:
Kidnapped

Yet to see:
The Nine

fredfa

10-10-06, 04:28 PM

Last week’s complete network average prime-time results (with demographic averages) are now at the bottom of RATINGS NEWS the first post in this thread.

bphisig

10-10-06, 04:41 PM

New Shows For Me:

Keepers:
Jericho
The Nine
Friday Night Lights

Like it but need to see more:
Heroes

TBD:
Justice

Watched two or three, but discarded:
Vanished
Kidnapped
Studio 60
Six Degrees

Couldn't make it through first show:
Standoff

Never Saw:
Everything else

fredfa

10-10-06, 04:42 PM

Nielsen Notebook
Ratings for New Shows

Here are the rankings for new programs this season national prime-time network television last week as compiled by Nielsen Media Research. They are based on the average number of people who watched a program from start to finish. Nielsen estimates there are 283.5 million potential viewers in the U.S. ages 2 and older. Viewership is listed in millions.

Rank Program Viewers
15 SUNDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL NBC 15.14
18 * UGLY BETTY ABC 14.26
19 SHARK CBS 13.75
25 * BROTHERS & SISTERS ABC 13.01
26 HEROES NBC 12.96
28 * NINE, THE ABC 11.91
31 JERICHO CBS 10.83
34 SUNDAY NIGHT NFL PRE-KICK NBC 10.42
37 * HELP ME HELP YOU ABC 10.08
43 * SIX DEGREES ABC 9.11
47 STUDIO 60 NBC 8.85
48 FOOTBALL NT AMERICA PT 3 NBC 8.41
49 SMITH CBS 8.38
55 CLASS, THE CBS 7.88
58 * MEN IN TREES ABC 7.26
59 FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS NBC 7.17
69 VANISHED FOX 6.15
72 KIDNAPPED NBC 5.15
80 FOOTBALL NT AMERICA PT 2 NBC 3.74
81 * SAT NIGHT FOOTBALL ABC 3.72
88 GAME, THE CW 2.69
91 RUNAWAY CW 1.86

• Source: ABC-TV and Nielsen Media Research data

fredfa

10-10-06, 04:44 PM

Last week’s updated top 10 prime-time program ratings for the week of Oct. 2-8 are now toward the bottom of RATINGS NEWS -- the first post in this thread.

fredfa

10-10-06, 04:51 PM

fredfa

10-10-06, 04:56 PM

Critic’s Notebook
'30' rocks, but '20 Years' is from 1986
By Aaron Barnhart Kansas City Star in his blog “TV Barn”

When NBC executives announced earlier this year that the network's fall schedule would include two new shows both based on the same idea -- backstage at a show much like “Saturday Night Live” -- critics asked, “What were they thinking?” Turns out, we should've been asking that question of another NBC show.

“Twenty Good Years,” a perfectly serviceable but utterly forgettable sitcom that premieres at 7:30 CT Wednesday on NBC, stars Jeffrey Tambor and John Lithgow as two friends in their fifties. They're determined to skip middle age and go right to their renaissance. Yes, they're gonna get motorcycles and new girlfriends and live life to the …

Hey, you! Wake up! I see you nodding off there over your newspaper. It can't be my scintillating prose that's the problem - it's this DOA show. Oh, there are enough laughs, I suppose, especially when Lithgow starts hamming it up (in bikini briefs, no less). But why does this feel like a rerun? It's not just because Lithgow and Tambor are familiar TV faces, though that's part of it. It's that the premise is middle-aged. You could've done this show in 1985. Oh, wait, somebody did: it's called “The Golden Girls.”

“30 Rock,” on the other hand, bristles with newness. For starters, it's a show written by, produced by and starring a woman -- the same woman, actually, one Tina Fey, formerly head writer of “SNL.” Here she plays the head writer of “The Girlie Show,” a fictional sketch comedy program airing on the NBC network in a parallel universe. A universe where a GE executive named Jack (wonderfully and archly played by Alec Baldwin) suddenly appears one day as her boss.

“I'm the new vice president of East Coast television and microwave programming,” Jack announces.

“That makes it sound like you program microwave ovens,” says Tina.

“I like you,” Jack says, studying her thoughtfully. “You have the boldness of a much younger woman.”

Airing just before “Twenty Good Years” at 7 p.m. CT on NBC, “30 Rock” seems to come from a different generation as its lead-out. No laugh track here, just a strong ensemble and quick, sure-footed pacing that make “30 Rock” a good, potentially great show. If “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip” has been disappointing so far because it makes the real “SNL” seem hilarious by comparison, “30 Rock” leaves you wondering: Why wasn't Fey this funny when she was writing for that other show?

http://blogs.kansascity.com/tvbarn/2006/10/fall_tv_30_rock.html#more

fredfa

10-10-06, 04:58 PM

Critic’s Notebook
''Heroes'' Morning After
By Rich Heldenfels in his Akron Beacon Journal TV blog Oct. 6, 2006

I had already seen last night's ''Heroes'' but paused again for the shot of the cheerleader on the slab, because it's such a great ''holy cow'' closer. Can't wait to see what they're going to do with her next -- especially since Matt Lanter, who plays the evil quarterback, is going to be around for more episodes, and I suspect some creepy payback awaits.

I interviewed Matt last week, by the way, since he's a local guy and he also has a recurring role on ''Shark'' starting this week. You can find my story about him here. He was a little surprised that I had seen this week's episode -- which had been sent to critics some time ago -- and I was frustrated that we couldn't talk more for publication about the twists, both in his character and in the final scene. But I didn't want to spoil it all for readers.

Getting back to the episode, I'm thinking that from here on out, the best way to watch ''Heroes'' may be to record it and then just watch the sections about characters I'm entertained by -- cheerleader, Hiro, mind-reading ''Alias'' guy -- while skipping the rest. Unfortunately, they're promoting the intertwining of all their destinies, and there is that Overarching Plot, which also interests me a lot less than some of the characters.

Looking ahead, by the way, there's a pretty good little twist in tonight's ''Nip/Tuck'' involving Monica Wilder, the character from Akron. Even when I had an idea what was coming, I jumped when it happened.

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

fredfa

10-10-06, 05:03 PM

The New Season

[size=4] Changes Everywhere
By Matt Roush TV Guide in his online column “Roush Dispatches”

Didn’t take long for the first shoes to drop this season, did it? Let’s analyze the moves network by network.

CBS

We start here because CBS has wielded the cancellation ax first, dropping the Sopranos-lite caper Smith immediately from the otherwise successful Tuesday lineup. Strike one for this season’s new wave of serialized dramas. Crime-drama repeats (what else?) will occupy its slot starting this Tuesday.

I’m not terribly surprised. Though there was some buzz for the show and its very expensive (I heard $6 million at least) pilot, plus its starry cast (someone sign Simon Baker up for another show now!), Smith always struck me as an empty version of a Sopranos or a Shield, to name two distinguished shows with criminals as protagonists. The characters on Smith just felt hollow to me, giving us little reason to care or to root for or against them.

CBS’ other big move was a no-brainer: switching the time periods for Monday comedies The Class and How I Met Your Mother, so that the more established Mother now airs first. It should have been that way from the start. The Class is not star-driven or particularly concept-driven, and it will take some time, some nurturing and possibly some creative tinkering to get this promising ensemble comedy on its feet. By nesting it between Mother and the night’s anchor, Two and a Half Men, CBS ensures The Class will at least get a fair shot within a strong comedy block.

NBC

Kidnapped is moving to Saturdays, starting Oct. 21. Strike two for the serialized mystery-drama. The show is now expected to wrap its story in 13 episodes (three have aired so far), and if so, NBC deserves some sort of kudos for living up to its promise to critics this summer that if a show like this didn’t open and catch on, it would still be able to achieve some closure and the audience wouldn’t be left hanging. Moving Kidnapped to Saturday is the equivalent of putting it out to pasture, but I can’t think of a better use of this empty night of programming. Low risk, low gain, but at least Kidnapped’s small audience is being looked after. For now.

Fox

No cancellations yet (not even for the unwatchable Happy Hour), but there are significant moves for Justice (from Wednesday to Mondays after Prison Break, starting October 23) and for Vanished (banished to Fridays starting Oct. 27, where it will live up to its title). This is a good move for Justice, a stylish but so far overly formulaic legal procedural. It could be strong counterprogramming against the only other drama in the time period, NBC’s breakout Heroes, which just got picked up for a full season. As for Vanished, even killing off the robotic Gale Harold isn’t going to be enough to save this increasingly ludicrous conspiracy thriller. Sadly, the producers appear to have no intention of simplifying this story or moving it toward a fast resolution. So chances are excellent that whatever fans the show still has will be left in the lurch whenever the boom falls. Strike three for the serialized thriller.

The other move is no surprise, with Standoff and House switching places when they return from the baseball hiatus on Oct. 31. Fox never intended House to air in the earlier time period beyond September, and now it will be back where it belongs. This strands Standoff in the unenviable position (as the wonderful Friday Night Lights just learned) of facing the Dancing with the Stars juggernaut and the mainstream smash NCIS. Good luck with that.

The CW

Some pretty radical instant schedule surgery, as the new Frankenstein network cobbled together from the WB’s and UPN’s aging components pulls a switcheroo, moving Sunday’s comedies to Monday (starting this week) and moving Monday’s dramas, including the venerable 7th Heaven, to Sundays as of Oct. 15. This means the former UPN block of African-American sitcoms, now including Everybody Hates Chris, will be back on Monday, facing CBS’ more popular sitcom lineup.

The shocker this season has been how underwhelming the numbers for 7th Heaven have been. Which makes me think last season’s strong showing was in part due to the much-publicized fact that it was the final season, heightening interest in the Camden clan. Once the CW reversed the WB’s call and resurrected the show, it seems a percentage of the fan base has decided to move on. (Can’t blame them.) I’m already getting e-mails from Heaven fans complaining that this move puts the show up against another family favorite, ABC’s blockbuster Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. Tough luck, Camdens. Perhaps you should have thought about retiring gracefully. As for the DOA Runaway: There’s no reason to think it will do any better in this tough Sunday time slot opposite Desperate Housewives than where it bombed instantly on Mondays. Strike four for... oh, why bother?

ABC

As of this moment, no cancellations yet, but how long can Six Degrees survive on Thursdays, dropping as precipitously as it does from the Grey’s Anatomy lead-in? (Plus: What a lousy and pointless show, despite some fine actors.)

The major move announced by ABC this week: postponing the launch of the whimsical caper comedy The Knights of Prosperity from later this month to sometime in the mid-season, probably early ’07. Seems ABC was distracted by launching so many new shows this month, with the focus on Ugly Betty, The Nine and Brothers & Sisters and little left over for its half-hour comedies. Ted Danson’s uneven Help Me Help You is ailing in the post-Dancing time slot for now, and it will be joined on Nov. 28 by the strained farce Big Day, a filmed comedy whose entire first season takes place during a hectic wedding day. I’ll be shocked if they make it down the aisle. ABC has gone a little crazy in its zeal for offbeat single-camera comedies this season. Even Knights, the most agreeable of the lot, is probably going to be a slow build at best. But at least ABC is trying to break out of its mold of mediocrity, epitomized by the waiting-in-the-wings According to Jim.

http://community.tvguide.com/thread.jspa?threadID=700008423

Xesdeeni

10-10-06, 05:19 PM

(stylish subtitles and some of the best dialog too!)Except when whey have a misspelling. I saw "everbody" in last week's show.

Xesdeeni

generalpatton78

10-10-06, 05:27 PM

Critic’s Notebook
''Friday Night Lights'' Reminder
By Rich Heldenfels in his Akron Beacon Journal TV blog Oct. 6, 2006

Last week less than 7.2 million people watched the premiere of ''Friday Night Lights,'' which ranks among the best new shows of the season.

As I have said before, it was my favorite pilot for a new series. I know that the 8 p.m. hour (on the East Coast, at least) is a brutally competitive one for TV fans. The DVR will certainly be clicking in my house at that time.

But even if you have to record something else for later viewing, give ''Friday Night Lights'' a chance.

I have seen tonight's episode and it is still good, thoughtful, emotional -- a deft portrayal of a small town that goes far beyond its football trappings.

These are not patient times at the networks, with all five -- ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC and the new CW -- having already made changes in their fall plans.

So let's not push NBC's patience by waiting awhile to watch ''Friday Night Lights.'' It deserves a look now.

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

Who is this moron? I understand basing a show off a book and later a movie (varsity blues), but it's pretty bad not to change anything up. I knew every single thing that was going to happened this entire episode. This show would be compelling if they slowed things down and don't try to "hollywood" it so mutch. I played on a State championship football team in ILL and I can tell you news channel 6 isn't following you around to the local restaurants..

They need to focus on the bonds that the players form and share over the course of every practice and every game. How they have fingers broken, arms, legs, and ribs badly bruised. Yet every single day, every single practice, every single game they get back up and play because their teammates and brothers need them to. I think that story would be compelling, but the characters there creating here are nothing but stereotypes. Then factor in this is the same story being told for there third time and it's just bad. I'm going to watch tonights episode and hope they have more depth. Maybe if I hadn't seen the movie already the pilot would have been better and maybe thats why this moron actually likes the pilot.

VisionOn

10-10-06, 05:30 PM

Except when whey have a misspelling. I saw "everbody" in last week's show.

damn translators!

fredfa

10-10-06, 05:44 PM

Who is this moron? I understand basing a show off a book and later a movie (varsity blues), but it's pretty bad not to change anything up. I knew every single thing that was going to happened this entire episode. This show would be compelling if they slowed things down and don't try to "hollywood" it so mutch. I played on a State championship football team in ILL and I can tell you news channel 6 isn't following you around to the local restaurants..

They need to focus on the bonds that the players form and share over the course of every practice and every game. How they have fingers broken, arms, legs, and ribs badly bruised. Yet every single day, every single practice, every single game they get back up and play because their teammates and brothers need them to. I think that story would be compelling, but the characters there creating here are nothing but stereotypes. Then factor in this is the same story being told for there third time and it's just bad. I'm going to watch tonights episode and hope they have more depth. Maybe if I hadn't seen the movie already the pilot would have been better and maybe thats why this moron actually likes the pilot.

The vast majority of potential TV viewers did not see the movie.

keenan

10-10-06, 06:37 PM

The vast majority of potential TV viewers did not see the movie.
Not only that, high school football in Texas is a whole 'nother world.

Gaiwan

10-10-06, 07:11 PM

Being from Texas I can totally confirm the above statement.

fredfa

10-10-06, 08:14 PM

Having driven through the Lone Star State a number of times and having passed innumerable junior high stadiums seating 10,000 or more, I can attest to the sentiment.

DoubleDAZ

10-10-06, 08:34 PM

Besides, the whole concept might have been to play on Varsity Blues, then take it further and go to the next step.

dad1153

10-10-06, 10:23 PM

The last few comments also confirm that NBC, despite the ribbing its been taking from media types (as well as its own late night comics) for scheduling 'FNL' on Tuesdays, was smart and right in not putting this show on Friday nights. That's the night when all the folks that attend these games will be at the stadium and not in front of their TV sets watching the show. It might only be a few hundred thousand eyeballs we're talking about, but NBC needs all the viewers it can get. Besides, the demographics NBC is after with 'FNL' and the demos of the folks that watch network TV on Friday nights are wholly incompatible and ill-matched. You know, like 'Heroes' and 'Studio 60'! :confused:

fredfa

10-10-06, 11:17 PM

When it comes to people watching HS football, dad, I think there are millions attending games across the country on Friday nights.

fredfa

10-11-06, 12:34 AM

The New Season
NBC embraces older crowd
The only problem is, `Twenty Good Years' may not appeal even to the over-40 set it hopes to attract.
By Robert Lloyd Los Angeles Times Staff Writer October 11, 2006

"Twenty Good Years," which premieres tonight at 8:30 PM ET/PT on NBC, is a loud, limp situation comedy about two old friends (John Lithgow and Jeffrey Tambor, playing characters with their own first names) who experience a kind of late-life crisis.

John is a self-centered and self-satisfied surgeon who on his 60th birthday is rotated forcibly into "semi-retirement"; he shows up drunk at the party being thrown for him by Jeffrey and proposes that, as Old Time is still a-flying, they should gather rosebuds while they may. Jeffrey, who is an indecisive judge — an oxymoron that could be the spine of a pretty good vaudeville routine, if there were such a thing anymore — takes this as a cue to publicly dump his pushy girlfriend (Judith Light, of "Who's the Boss?").

Later, John's daughter (Heather Burns) has a baby, making him a grandfather; John moves in with Jeffrey, making them the Odd Couple; and John and Jeffrey run into the Atlantic Ocean (played by the Pacific Ocean) on a cold day, making them wet.

Co-created by Marsh McCall ("Just Shoot Me!") and Michael Leeson (a veteran of "The Cosby Show," "Taxi," "Mary Tyler Moore" and, yes, "The Odd Couple"), the show has been cited as evidence of a new trend, or trendlet: a growing willingness of TV networks and the sponsors that make them possible to look beyond the 18-to-34 demographic they have worshiped with unshakable ardor for more than a decade.

The Entertainment-Marketing Complex has apparently wakened to the fact that not only do older people watch more TV than younger people, but that there are also more of them, period, and they have more money to spend. Now, in the same way that real estate agents assign new names to old neighborhoods in order to dignify them — and jack up prices — the over-40 target audience is being reconceptualized as a "new power demographic."

It may be true, as television producers seem to think, that given the choice people will prefer to watch television shows about characters who look like themselves and superficially share their concerns. But if this is the face of No Longer Young America, you can have it.

Tambor has been great as recently as "Arrested Development," and his Hank Kingsley, from "The Larry Sanders Show," is one of TV's greatest creations. But his character here, though he scores with a couple of nice throwaway lines (distractedly leaving a courtroom, he waves the rising court back into their seats, mumbling, "Oh, that's very nice") is too much of a nebbish to really register; Felix Unger at least was aggressively passive-aggressive.

As for Lithgow, though he does not work on me at all, he collected three Emmys out of six nominations for "3rd Rock From the Sun," so somebody likes him, and viewers pining for his Master Thespian shtick — there is a joke made here about his "English accent" — will perhaps find relief here.

There's nothing inherently wrong with the premise, either, which is open-ended enough to accommodate all manner of strange or meaningful ends. But what's been done with it, on the evidence of the pilot, is weak, and slightly embarrassing to watch, the way that it's embarrassing to watch a drunk old uncle tell dirty stories or to be asked by an aged aunt if you can get her some pot. Not two minutes into tonight's pilot, Jeffrey has been hit in the crotch by a racquetball; later we get to see Lithgow in a Speedo.

The enterprise threatens to runs perilously close "grandma on a skateboard" comedy — making an older person act like a younger one in order to elicit Big Laffs.

But such a strategy just makes older actors seem even older. Only Ruth Gordon — from "Harold and Maude" and elsewhere — ever managed to pull off this senior-citizen-seizing-the-day gracefully, and she was just playing herself.

Jake Sandvig rounds out the cast as Jeffrey's son. All he has done so far is show his father a jeans ad he appeared in.

http://www.calendarlive.com/tv/cl-et-twenty11oct11,0,3572263,print.story?coll=cl-tvent

fredfa

10-11-06, 12:37 AM

The New Season
`SNL' sitcom `30 Rock' is right address
The Tina Fey-led comedy is smart without either condescending to or patronizing the viewer
By Robert Lloyd Los Angeles Times Staff Writer October 11, 2006

It would be confusing opinion with fact to definitively call any series "the best show of the fall season," but I can state unequivocally and without fear of contradiction that "30 Rock" — one of two new NBC shows set backstage at a broadcast-live sketch comedy — is my favorite. I feel an almost proprietary desire to see it succeed, and given the high mortality rate of such newborns, I light this small candle against its demise. (It premieres Wednesday at 8 PM ET/PT on NBC.)

Strictly speaking, it's not impossible to avoid comparing "30 Rock" to "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip," but the unlikelihood of two series on such a particular theme on the same network makes it hard to resist. This is the one made by people with sketch-comedy bona fides — creator Tina Fey, who plays Liz Lemon, the head writer of "The Girlie Show," was herself the first female head writer at "Saturday Night Live." "SNL" producer Lorne Michaels is the executive producer of "30 Rock"; costar Alec Baldwin has been a frequent guest host of that show — indeed, his appearances there have helped keep him credible through the years.

"Studio 60," meanwhile, springs from the forehead of Aaron Sorkin, who, as in "The West Wing," has created a wonky romantic fantasy-drama about how heroically dedicated souls, bound together in a chaotic workplace, can triumph over a corrupt and venal system. "30 Rock" takes account of the same difficulties but in a comic, not an epic way, and though it stretches some things almost to the point of surreality, it nevertheless seems (to a minimally informed outsider) to paint the more lifelike picture. It doesn't hurt that it's set not at a fictional network but at NBC — 30 Rockefeller Center is the address of the network's New York headquarters — and that it uses real locations and plays off the network's actual corporate relationships.

Fey is a dry actress — some critics barely think her an actress at all — but she seems to me to be exactly the person she is supposed to be, and makes a perfect fulcrum to balance Baldwin's purring corporate overseer on the see-side and Tracy Morgan's loose-cannon black comic on the saw. Baldwin is exceedingly funny as a man who owes his career in television to having developed a three-way oven — NBC being owned by General Electric, you see — and arrives at the top of the pilot as "the new vice president of East Coast television and microwave programming" to turn Liz's world upside down. ("That sounds like you program microwave ovens," she says, to which he replies, after a pause, "I like you — you have the boldness of a much younger woman.")

Morgan, who plays a comedian with nearly his own name, brought in, over Liz's initial objections, to bring "third heat" to her show, seems to have run half a dozen black comics and a couple of hip-hop stars through a blender and come up with a person who appears to be looking in on the world from some other dimension. ("I'm not on crack," he protests over an Us Weekly report, "I'm straight-up mentally ill.") But he has a sweetness to him, and hints of depth. "We're a team now," he tells Liz, "like Batman and Robin, like chicken and a chicken container."

Rounding out the ensemble are Scott Adsit as Pete the producer, Lonny Ross as a player on "The Girlie Show," Judah Friedlander as a writer and Keith Powell as the other writer, a preppy African American his colleagues call "Toofer" ("because with him you get two for one — he's a black guy and a Harvard guy"). Jane Krakowski ("Ally McBeal") plays Jenna, the original star of "The Girlie Show," having replaced Fey's longtime partner Rachel Dratch, who will now play a variety of characters, in a real-life echo of the matter of "30 Rock."

What is it that raises this series above the herd? Or, rather, what makes me like it so much? It's smart without either condescending to or patronizing the viewer. Despite its self-referential TV-studio setting, its humor is not particularly "inside" — the power relationships speak for themselves, and the world that contains them is built quietly out of sidelong details. The show is very much in the hallowed tradition of "The Larry Sanders Show," which is a fine tradition to follow in, and has roots as well in "The Dick Van Dyke Show" and "Mary Tyler Moore," which is also good.

If the characters seem vaguely familiar from other workplace comedies, there is something original about the way they've been fleshed out, and the timing throughout is unpredictable. You know there is some sort of happy end coming at an episode's end, but you don't know how you'll get there.

http://www.calendarlive.com/tv/cl-et-thirtyrock11oct11,0,1568346,print.story?coll=cl-tv-features

fredfa

10-11-06, 12:40 AM

The New Season
“30 Rock” and “Twenty Good Years”
TV Antics: A Sitcom Mocks Its Milieu
By Alessandra Stanley The New York Times Oct. 11, 2006

Nothing very funny happens on “30 Rock” until Alec Baldwin enters the room, and suddenly this new NBC sitcom comes alive. If the Yale drama school — or the I.C.M. mailroom — offered workshops on star power, tonight’s series about a live, late-night comedy show could serve as the textbook.

Mr. Baldwin has a slyly absurd comic presence that is bigger and brighter than any joke or character actor on the show. The series “30 Rock” was created by Tina Fey, who was until recently the lead writer of “Saturday Night Live” and who also wrote the screenplay for the movie “Mean Girls.” Ms. Fey has some amusing, seditious lines as Liz Lemon, the put-upon creator of “The Girlie Show,” but for the most part she and other cast members slumber until Mr. Baldwin takes over as Jack Donaghy, their new network boss.

“I like you,” he tells Liz. “You have the boldness of a much younger woman.”

NBC already has another series about the backstage machinations of a late-night comedy show like “Saturday Night Live.” It’s an hourlong drama by Aaron Sorkin called “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip,” and it takes television comedy as seriously as “The West Wing” took midterm elections. The new “30 Rock,” which counts Lorne Michaels, the creator of “Saturday Night Live,” among its executive producers, is more playful.

Jack is a corporate smoothie on a mission to pep up “The Girlie Show,” which stars an insecure diva, Jenna Maroney (Jane Krakowski). He begins by adding a popular and crazy movie star, Tracy Jordan (Tracy Morgan). He can because his title is “the new V.P. for development for NBC/GE/Universal/Kmart.” When the producer, Pete (Scott Adsit), asks, “We own Kmart now?,” Jack replies in a velvety whisper: “No. So why do you dress like we do?”

Sitcoms today are in about the same state of health as newspapers and newsmagazines: there are fewer of them, and those that remain face older, dwindling audiences and corporate owners with little patience for sagging returns. It’s a sad paradox that the genre that for the last 30 years defined and distinguished American television nowadays seems almost obsolete; one of the best, “The Office,” on NBC, is a replica of the British original by Ricky Gervais.

Dramatic series, on broadcast networks as well as on HBO and Showtime, are reaching new heights in boldness and creativity. The most successful prime-time comedies are dramas with a sense of humor, like “House” or “Grey’s Anatomy” and “Ugly Betty.” Traditional sitcoms are not nearly as inventive. Viewers, especially younger ones, seek out more daring amusement in clubs, on the Internet, on late-night shows and on cable networks like Comedy Central.

Ten years ago NBC had 16 sitcoms on its weekly schedule, including “Mad About You,” “Wings,” “Friends” and “Seinfeld.” This season NBC has four. Two are modest hits: “The Office” and “My Name Is Earl.” The new ones are “30 Rock,” and “Twenty Good Years,” which both premiere tonight.

Of those new shows, “30 Rock” has more sparkle and a better chance of success, mostly because of Mr. Baldwin’s alchemic power to make even slack dialogue sound like madcap wit. “Twenty Good Years,” which stars two great sitcom actors, John Lithgow and Jeffrey Tambor, as frisky sexagenarians, is a harder sell.

For one, it seems to be targeting an entirely different audience. The show “30 Rock,” which has no laugh track and is filmed in the style of “My Name Is Earl” or “Arrested Development,” is at heart a romantic comedy about a 30-something single female writer in New York. (The show’s title is the studio’s address in Rockefeller Center.)

“Twenty Good Years” is a much more old-fashioned sitcom, with a grating laugh track and one-two punch lines. It is a male version of “The Golden Girls,” but with weaker writing, and older viewers are not saps.

Mr. Lithgow is John Mason, a pompous, egotistical surgeon, while Mr. Tambor plays Jeffrey Pyne, an indecisive judge. On his 60th birthday, John bullies his best friend, Jeffrey, into a pledge that, together, they make the most of their remaining years. (He figures on 20.)

Mr. Lithgow and Mr. Tambor do the best they can with the material, but the jokes are thin. Determined to coax Jeffrey into joining him in a winter swim with the Coney Island Polar Bear Club, John strips off his raincoat to reveal himself, pale and fleshy, in an itsy-bitsy bathing suit. “Join me, old friend,” he bellows. “I am reborn.”

The actors do not seem ideally suited to their parts, and they might have been better served if the roles had been reversed. Mr. Tambor looks a bit too furtive and unsavory to be a soft-hearted widower. He could be much funnier as an insufferable surgeon; he was brilliantly loony as the corrupt patriarch on “Arrested Development” and also as a pompous talk-show sidekick on “The Larry Sanders Show.”

Mr. Lithgow, who has made dozens of movies and starred in the hit sitcom “3rd Rock From the Sun,” can play anything, but he has an underlying sweetness that might make the cowering judge more appealing.

There is nothing awry with the casting of “30 Rock.” Ms. Fey is a comedy writer, not really an actress, but she plays herself convincingly. Mr. Morgan didn’t really stand out as a cast member on the real “Saturday Night Live,” but for the mock version he does an amusing impersonation of a monomaniacal and volatile comedy star, somewhere between Dave Chappelle and Cuba Gooding Jr. in “Jerry Maguire.”

And Mr. Baldwin, who has played similar roles as a guest star on “Will & Grace” and “Friends,” makes everyone seem better just by being there.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/11/arts/television/11stan.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&ref=television&pagewanted=print

fredfa

10-11-06, 04:12 AM

TV Notebook
Couric in an unfamiliar place — 3rd
By Matea Gold Los Angeles Times Staff Writer October 11, 2006

NEW YORK -- Five weeks into her tenure at the "CBS Evening News," Katie Couric's broadcast continues to slip in the ratings, falling into third place last week for the second week in a row.

With an average of 7.04 million viewers, Couric's audience last week was the smallest she'd had since taking over the evening news anchor desk, and it's lower than the number that tuned in for her predecessor Bob Schieffer's last week on the air in late August, according to Nielsen Media Research.

Meanwhile, the Brian Williams-led "NBC Nightly News" appears to be regaining its first-place standing, attracting an average of 8.54 million viewers last week and beating out the competition for the third week in a row. ABC anchor Charles Gibson's "World News" took second place again, with almost 7.98 million viewers.

CBS News executives emphasized that Couric's newscast has brought in more people than the broadcast did at this time last year — particularly younger viewers — while both NBC and ABC have smaller audiences compared with then. CBS drew fewer 25- to 54-year-olds last week than its competitors, but the newscast did see a spike of 19% in that demographic, which advertisers target on television news, compared with the same week a year ago.

"In my mind, as long as that trend line continues the way it is, I'm satisfied that we're making the kind of progress I want," said CBS News President Sean McManus. "Who did the best week-to-week is of less concern to me than long-term growth."

McManus said that CBS Corp. Chief Executive Leslie Moonves is "very pleased" with the newscast's performance, adding that the network chief's only suggestions have been cosmetic ones.

"He thinks we're accomplishing exactly what we want to be," McManus said.

But the falloff of the former "Today" show anchor's audience since her debut has provoked a strong sense of unease internally, according to newsroom employees. Many are alarmed that the program isn't faring better, especially after a massive marketing push this summer that included radio spots and bus ads.

"You've got to ask the question whether CBS was wise to spend all that energy on publicity and promotion when they had a new product," said network news analyst Andrew Tyndall. "You can't retool a newscast like that and get it right from Day One."

Some of the staff have privately expressed concerns about changes to the broadcast, particularly a segment called "Free Speech," a platform for opinions from around the country.

Last week, executive producer Rome Hartman received strong protests from the newsroom after airing a commentary by Brian Rohrbough, the father of a student slain at Colorado's Columbine High School in 1999. In addressing recent school shootings in Colorado and Pennsylvania, Rohrbough said the public schools have taught students in a "moral vacuum" by emphasizing evolution and keeping religion out of the classroom.

Critics complained the opinion piece was not relevant to the current tragedies, especially since the most recent shooting happened at an Amish school.

Hartman, who said he was surprised by the topic Rohrbough chose to address, said he nevertheless didn't believe it would have been "in keeping with the spirit of the segment" to ask him to change the piece.

The executive producer called the feedback from newsroom employees "a very healthy conversation." Although the intense scrutiny of the broadcast's performance is "a little bit distracting" for staffers, Hartman said, the mood internally was upbeat. "It's a little frustrating that people treat what is our beginning as if it was some kind of end. These things take a long time to change."

In the last month, longtime leader NBC has steadily regained its advantage over the other two newscasts. "Nightly News" executive producer John Reiss said, "We knew there would be a lot of sampling in the early days, and it stood to reason that a disproportionate amount would come from us." He noted that many NBC viewers were likely already Couric fans. "I think they're coming back to us, and we're very gratified."

For its part, ABC attracted the most 25- to 54-year-old women in the last month, a demographic many expected would flock to Couric.

"This thing has not completely shaken itself out yet," said "World News" executive producer Jon Banner. "We have a lot of work to do, and we're not going to be satisfied until we're No. 1."

http://www.calendarlive.com/tv/cl-et-evening11oct11,0,1500425,print.story?coll=cl-tvent

generalpatton78

10-11-06, 07:27 AM

Not only that, high school football in Texas is a whole 'nother world.

I'm sorry I just have to disagree. People love to say that when their from texas. I get it Texas pride, but you know what I lived in Tuscaloosa AL and everybody there talks like football is bigger there then anywhere. The truth is it's not! Where a small community here in Southern IL with no town bigger then 50,000 people until you hit east st. louis 100 miles away. However every friday night the radio dial is filled with high school football. My local town has a population of just 6-7,000 and yet every game we have has 3-5000 people there. We set off our cannons (literally cannons) every time we score. It's an amazing atmosphere and I'd put it up against any place on earth. I'm sure this is repeated all across the county ever friday night. I'm just saying I played on a State title team and believe me it was amazing! Our town is very similar to the one portrayed here, but even on a state title team the pacing the entire year is slow. The pilot acts like this the nfl and all the kids are born again superstars worthy of being asked for a percentage of the paycheck down line line. When the reality is most of them won't even get the chance at college ball.

SVonhof

10-11-06, 09:01 AM

bphisig

10-11-06, 10:47 AM

fredfa

10-11-06, 10:52 AM

fredfa

10-11-06, 10:55 AM

Monday Night Football on ESPN

Anybody else annoyed by Joe Thiesman's voice and non-stop idiotic talk? I don't mind Mike Tirico.

Oh, and while I am bringing up MNF, what about Tony Kornheiser's hair? Either never allow a side profile to be seen of you or shave it all off....

Scott, personally I feel your pain. But any discussion of sports announcers (or actors or game show hots) on TV is very, very subjective.

We all like who we like and dislike others intensely.

I would suggest however, that given the oversall stunningly good ratings for ESPN Monday Night Football, the team of Mike and Joe and Tony may well be around for a while.

fredfa

10-11-06, 11:01 AM

The TV Column
The Week’s Winners and Losers
'ER' Is in Fine Health; 'Lost' Loses Ground
By Lisa de Moraes Washington Post Staff Writer Wednesday, October 11, 2006;

Week 3 of the new season saw more premieres and season debuts, but still no game-changers.

Here's a look at the week's top and bottom:

WINNERS

"ER." NBC's 13-year-old Thursday doc drama, thought to be a shoo-in for Very Special Series Finale treatment next May, is instead clobbering two highly hyped new time-slot competitors -- CBS's "Shark" and ABC's "Six Degrees" -- among not only people of all ages but also the younger people so irresistible to . . . um, advertisers.

"New Adventures of Old Christine." CBS picked up Julia Louis-Dreyfus for a full season; last week her sitcom logged 13.6 million viewers, up from last season's average of 12.3 million.

"South Park." The Comedy Central cartoon's nothing-special midseason debut nonetheless clocked 3.4 million viewers -- its best midseason launch since 2000.

"Ugly Betty." In her second week, "Betty" clung to her status as the most-watched new series. She also clung to 95 percent of her 18-to-34-year-old audience and 98 percent of her 18-to-34-year-old female audience. That retention made ABC very happy.

LOSERS

"Friday Night Lights." Critics went gaga for NBC's new football melodrama, resulting in the worst launch for any new series this season -- 7.2 million viewers. Pundits speculated that was because Tuesday also was the first night of Fox's baseball playoffs, but any silly knows the playoffs do no business on the first night at 8 -- especially compared with the regular time-slot occupant, Fox's "House." NBC noted "FNL" finished first in its hour among young men, which is true, but in aggregate, more young men were watching ABC's dancing competition and CW's "Gilmore Girls" combined in the hour.

"Smith." Three episodes were all it took for viewers to figure out Ray Liotta was the star of this new CBS drama, and Simon Baker would always play a supporting role, forcing the network to pull the plug. The good news: CBS will probably replace "Smith" with doc drama "3 Lbs.," about a brainiac brain surgeon played by Stanley Tucci, who while no Simon Baker is also no Ray Liotta.

"Kidnapped." NBC let viewers know this show is terminal, then moved it to Saturday to wrap up the plot by the end of its 13-episode order, after which we're Dana Delany-free for the time being.

"Six Degrees." Possibly this new season's biggest flop last week lost 60 percent of its gigantic "Grey's Anatomy" lead-in -- nearly 14 million viewers.

"Battlestar Galactica." When a cable network says the 2.2 million viewers who caught the third-season debut of its Peabody-winning series is soooo much better than its second-season average , any TV columnist who knows the difference between an apple and an orange checks the stats on last season's debut . Sure enough, "Battlestar Galactica" opened with an average audience of 3.1 million viewers in July '05.

Baseball. Year-to-year, through Sunday, baseball postseason play was down 21 percent. Steeerriiiike!

"Lost." Yes, one of the week's top 10 shows but, year-to-year, the debut of the super-hyped series stumbled 20 percent -- from nearly 24 million to fewer than 19 million. Guess "Dancing With the Stars" isn't such a great lead-in compared with last year's "Lost" clip job.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/10/AR2006101001393_pf.html

fredfa

10-11-06, 11:40 AM

(Admittedly, this is off topic. But cut me some slack. I am trying to save your life.)
TV Notebook
TV Sports Fans: Dying to Know the Score?
By John Eggerton Broadcasting & Cable 10/11/2006

Televised sports could be killing its key male demo...literally.

That's according to a study being presented to the annual meeting of the American College of Emergency Physicians in New Orleans.

The three-year study, conducted by Dr. David Jerard, associate professor of emergency

medicine at the University of Maryland Hospital in Baltimore, found that "Male patient visits to the ED [Emergency Department] increase significantly in the hours immediately after the conclusion of sporting events broadcast on radio and TV."

How significantly? His emergency room saw 75% more male patients in the few hours following a Division I college football game broadcast on TV and radio than during a comparable nongame period, 50% more male patients immediately following a pro football game, and 30%-40% more following a baseball game.

"Men should not risk their health by putting off going to the emergency room because they want to see the final results of a football game," Jerrard says. "It could be the last game they ever see."

An earlier study had concluded that visits by men to emergency rooms dropped off during televised sports. which led Jerrard to suspect that they were putting off going to the hospital until the game was over. That led to the follow-up that appeared to confirm his suspicion, though he concedes other factors could be at play as well.

The study did not address what health conditions prompted the visits, so it could not draw any hard and fast conclusions about the disparity. For instance, whether it was that men were putting off going to the emergency room for pre-existing problems, or perhaps were prompted to some of those ailments by the games--stomach troubles from too many nachos, accidents following celebratory imbibing, or chest pains when their team loses after being up by two touchdowns in the fourth quarter.

Jerrard says he still thinks they were delaying to catch the end of the game, but concedes those others are possible explanations as well.

If Jerrard is right, should the networks, in an effort to publicize this troubling statistic, start airing PSA's during games advising viewers not to wait until the final gun so it won't be their final gun? Jerrard says he thinks the press the study is going to get--given the calls he has gotten--will serve as its own public service announcement.

The choice of getting to the hospital or getting in the last few minutes or innings is dependent on the sport.

The study looked at emergency room visits by 32,000 men--over 36 months--in the four hours or so after 796 broadcast games, including pro football and baseball and college football and basketball, then compared that with visits by men at comparable times on similar days without those games.

The mean number of patients immediately after the games was 10.2, vs. 6.2 on nongame days, with division I college football showing the largest disparity at 14.6 vs. 8.3. Pro football followed at 13.2 vs. 9.2, followed by Major League Baseball at 4.9 vs. 7.2.

College basketball fans were most likely to break away from the game to head to the hospital, with the differential 8.2 vs. 7.2.

Jerrard said he plans to do a follow-up study of the patients to see if there was a correlation between delaying care and the course of their illness. Translation: To what extent were people dying to find out who won the game.

http://www.broadcastingcable.com/index.asp?layout=articlePrint&articleID=CA6379815

fredfa

10-11-06, 11:54 AM

The New Season
“30 Rock” and “Twenty Years”
Struggling NBC debuts two comedies
By Ellen Gray Philadelphia Daily News Wed, Oct. 11, 2006

There’s no telling how a network will behave when it hits bottom.

TV being a cyclical business, everyone - at least everyone in the Big Three or Four - gets to stand on the big rock from time to time, surveying the savanna and roaring at the losers below.

But sooner or later, the circle of life kicks in. Those multiple runs of "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" start to tank, or someone gives the wrong guy a spin-off, and you're looking at programming executives so desperate they'll throw out the rule books, maybe even the laugh tracks, to escape the hyenas.

Panic, or at least a willingness to try new things, helped make ABC the network of "Desperate Housewives," "Lost" and even "Dancing with the Stars," just as CBS' signing on for that first scary summer of "Survivor" helped reverse its fortunes, particularly with younger viewers.

Now it's NBC's turn to reinvent itself as a network that can get by without "Friends" - if not without football - that can laugh at itself and that may even be willing to stop ceding older viewers to CBS.

Not that it feels like a plan just yet.

This is still the network that scheduled not one, but two, shows about the behind-the-scenes goings-on at a late-night sketch-comedy show and then reportedly turned around and cut the budget of "Saturday Night Live," which inspired both.

That's the kind of thing you might expect to become a storyline on either "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip" or "30 Rock," which premieres tonight at 8 PM ET/PT.

Like "SNL," "30 Rock" is executive-produced by Lorne Michaels, who carries producer credits on an awful lot of projects by former "SNL"-ers, from the short-lived "Tracy Morgan Show" to such classics as "A Night at the Roxbury" and "Tommy Boy."

"30 Rock" is written and executive-produced by Upper Darby's Tina Fey, the former "SNL" head writer and player who also stars in it. She's joined by Morgan and frequent "SNL" host Alec Baldwin - another "SNL" vet, Rachel Dratch, will make cameos - and her show's named for the Rockefeller Center building where NBC's headquartered and "Saturday Night Live" is staged.

But, hey, her show-within-a-show is called "The Girlie Show" and stars a woman, Jenna Maroney (Jane Krakowski).

So we know it can't really be about "Saturday Night Live," right?

Right.

Fey plays Liz Lemon, the show's head writer and a woman probably not unlike Fey herself: talented, hard-working, loyal.

And about to be dumped out of her comfort zone.

Baldwin steals the first two episodes as Jack Donaghy, a corporate type who's been drafted - or who's maybe volunteered - to "fix" "The Girlie Show."

By making it less girly.

Enter Morgan, as Tracy Jordan, a comedian who appears to be channeling the tabloid version of Martin Lawrence.

Morgan, who didn't display much range in his years on "SNL," is only a little better here. Krakowski's so far not as funny as she was on "Ally McBeal," and "The Girlie Show" appears no more hilarious than Aaron Sorkin's show-within-a-show on "Studio 60," though in this case that may be deliberate.

The pacing's a refreshing departure from standard sitcom beats, but like many an "SNL" sketch, some scenes drag.

Baldwin's Donaghy, though, is great: slimy, shameless and smarter than he looks.

I want to like "30 Rock" more than I do so far, because I've always liked Fey. Yet it could be Fey - the actress, not the writer - I'm having trouble warming to. "Studio 60" has plenty of problems, but Matthew Perry's such a compelling presence, they can be easier to ignore.

Fey's "30 Rock" shows us a network that hasn't a clue.

I'm waiting for her Liz Lemon to make me believe she does.

These 'Years' add up

There was a time when NBC probably led the world in sitcoms about city-dwelling singles, and its executives proudly proclaimed their lack of interest in viewers over 49.

Today, it has four comedies on its schedule and none, not even the Scranton, Pa.-based "The Office," really fits that mold.

Tonight, NBC's launching "Twenty Good Years," (8:30 PM ET/PT) an "Odd Couple"-meets-"Frasier" sitcom about two guys in their early 60s that stars two guys - John Lithgow and Jeffrey Tambor - in their early 60s.

Talk about the world turned upside down.

Lithgow and Tambor not being just any two guys, the pilot for "Twenty Good Years" has some genuinely funny moments even as it makes no apparent effort to reinvent the form.

I'm not ready to sign on for 20 years, but I'm definitely willing to give it a few weeks.

http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/entertainment/television//15728966.htm

fredfa

10-11-06, 11:59 AM

The New Season ]
“30 Rock” and “Twenty Years”
Fey's show about a show isn't a very good show
By Tim Goodman San Francisco Chronicle Wed, Oct. 11, 2006

Poor Tina Fey. She left "Saturday Night Live" to do her new sitcom, "30 Rock," but all the early hype at NBC centered on Aaron Sorkin's drama "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip," which was patently about and essentially skewering "SNL." There was talk that NBC would never green-light two shows about the industry (both using a show-within-a-show conceit), yet each was picked up for the fall -- only Fey was left to make not-that-funny promos about how her show wasn't Sorkin's show.

A tough start, that.

Meanwhile, her show was in trouble. The original pilot sent to critics was decently funny, but rough in spots and not fully realized. To get a more accurate picture of how "30 Rock" was going to be, critics really needed to see two or more episodes. The premise wasn't overly difficult. Fey played Liz Lemon, the head writer of "The Girlie Show," a sketch comedy on a network meant to be NBC. Rachel Dratch, another "SNL" alum, was Jenna, the star of the fictitious "Girlie Show." Alec Baldwin -- a veteran host of "SNL" and one of its funniest staples -- plays Jack, the upper-management executive whose brilliance at dreaming up a new kind of microwave oven puts him in charge of several levels of the media conglomerate, including the TV division, even though he knows nothing about it. He decides that what "The Girlie Show" really needs is to add the slightly mentally ill but very funny comic Tracy Jordan ("SNL" alum Tracy Morgan).

This causes problems.

From pilot, three things were clear: 1. Baldwin was the best thing about it, followed closely by Morgan. 2. Where was it supposed to go after crazy Tracy Jordan joined the cast? 3. Would anyone really care?

Now, cynics can say that No. 3 really sums up "Studio 60," which will have had a running start -- four episodes on the air -- before "30 Rock" launches, and that "Studio" is losing viewers at a rapid pace because the behind-the-scenes machinations of a TV show hold no interest for most viewers.

But in the case of "30 Rock," a little bit of life was imitating art. NBC decided that Dratch wasn't the best fit for Jenna (not good looking enough, not a big enough star?), so they replaced her with Jane Krakowski, best known for her role on "Ally McBeal." In "30 Rock," Fey's character fights to keep Dratch's character on "The Girlie Show" (and the two are close friends in real life) as Jack pushes to hire crazy Tracy Jordan. What must Fey have thought when NBC brass -- not named Jack -- said Dratch had to go? (Dratch ends up with a bit part in the revamped pilot and another bit part in the second episode -- far from being the star of "The Girlie Show.")

Now, in both the pilot, which was redone and is airing tonight and the second episode, it's clear that Baldwin is still the funniest thing and that the issue of where the show goes after hiring Tracy Jordan is still in play, as is this idea that viewers may not give a damn about any of it.

But there's more daunting news. Krakowski is not at all believable as the head of a sketch show. Morgan as Jordan is great -- but it's a one-note joke. And, worst of all, the original pilot was funnier.

To its credit, next week's second episode is better than tonight's revamped pilot: tighter, funnier and more expansive to other cast members. But what NBC tossed out in the first go-round has yet to be topped. And may never, is the guess. And it wasn't that funny to begin with.

Worse by far is the show that follows "30 Rock," and that's "Twenty Good Years." (Maybe NBC decided to spell out that title so viewers wouldn't be confused by so many numerals.) If "30 Rock" ultimately stumbles by creating a fictitious workplace no one will care about, "Twenty Good Years" fails by simply assuming that putting John Lithgow and Jeffrey Tambor together will be funny.

It's not.

And the premise -- that 60 is the new 40 -- certainly seems strange in the demographics-obsessed world of television, where you're considered dead when you turn 50. But "Twenty Good Years" posits that two aging friends come to the conclusion that they only have so long to live and they'd better make the most of it. What gets left out of the equation is that no one will be interested in watching them live it once they see the pilot. You can love or loathe Lithgow for his penchant to chew scenery, but it's not his fault this time because that seems to be what he's told to do. His character is the one who really wants to bust out and live life. Tambor, who had far superior material in "Arrested Development" and "The Larry Sanders Show," is the meek one pulled along, his trepidation being the trigger for laughs (that don't come).

"Twenty Good Years" seems to have been pitched this way: Lithgow and Tambor as two crazy old guys. NBC bought that and now has to live with it -- but you don't. The jokes in "Twenty" are both predictable and telegraphed. Lithgow tries to turn this sap into Shakespeare and nearly gets a hernia in the process -- painful viewing, indeed. This is one "Odd Couple" not worth meeting.

It's too bad, really. With serialized dramas demanding so much viewer time (a commitment many seem to be shying away from), a couple of good sitcoms would have been a welcome addition to the tail end of the fall season launch.

But as it stands now, "30" is better than "Twenty," but neither is worth the half hour they cost.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/10/11/DDGOLLLO561.DTL

fredfa

10-11-06, 12:07 PM

TV Sports
ESPN’s NFL ratings up from last year
Leads all nets Monday in key male demos
(ESPN News Release)

ESPN's Monday Night Football earned a 10.3 rating for the Denver Broncos' 13-3 victory over the previously unbeaten Baltimore Ravens, representing 9,455,000 homes (12,505,000 viewers, P2+), cable television's fourth-biggest audience of all time, and third-biggest this year, behind only previous MNF telecasts. It was the fourth-straight week that MNF earned a rating over a 10.

In addition, last night ESPN led all networks - cable or broadcast - in delivery of all key male demos….

For the NFL season to date, MNF on ESPN is averaging a 10.3 rating and 9,474,000 homes (12,867,000 P2+) for six games in five weeks. These represent increases of 34%, 37% and 36%, respectively, compared to the first five weeks of last year's ESPN Sunday Night Football (7.7 rating, 6.937 million homes, 9.466 million viewers). ESPN's six MNF games so far are cable television's best ratings and largest audiences of the year.

Last night's MNF telecast was simulcast on local over-the-air channels in Baltimore (21.2 rating) and Denver (24.3 rating), boosting ESPN's audience to an estimated average of 10,036,000 households. The total also includes those viewing in high definition on ESPN HD.

fredfa

10-11-06, 12:31 PM

Another bad night for "Friday Night Lights".
Tuesday’s prime-time ratings have been posted just under the HD Football listings near the top of Ratings News the first post in this thread.

Leftcoastdave

10-11-06, 12:50 PM

Monday Night Football on ESPN

Anybody else annoyed by Joe Thiesman's voice and non-stop idiotic talk? I don't mind Mike Tirico.

Oh, and while I am bringing up MNF, what about Tony Kornheiser's hair? Either never allow a side profile to be seen of you or shave it all off....

Not to drift too far off topic -- Tirico is the best sports announcer out there, however, Kornheiser and Theisman are so annoying I usually listen to the game with the volume so low I can barely hear the crowd noise.

And what is with this "get a celebrity in the booth" crap that intereferes with just plain old watching football? Ugh.

fredfa

10-11-06, 01:49 PM

Tuesday’s prime-time ratings – and Media Week Analyst Marc Berman’s view of what they mean -- have been posted just under the HD Football listings near the top of Ratings News the first post in this thread.

fredfa

10-11-06, 01:52 PM

Overnights in the 18-49 Demo
Prospects dim for 'Friday Night Lights'
NBC sports drama falls 11 percent, to a 2.4
By Toni Fitzgerald MediaLifeMagazine.com staff writer Oct. 11, 2006

NBC had high hopes for “Friday Night Lights,” its critically acclaimed new drama about high school football based on the successful book and movie. But just two episodes into the show, its ratings are falling and dragging down an otherwise strong Tuesday night.

“Lights” averaged a 2.4 adults 18-49 rating last night at 8 p.m., according to Nielsen overnights. That’s off 11 percent from its 2.7 premiere, already the worst premiere on the Big Three networks for any new show.

Certainly part of the viewer drain could be sports fanatics switching over to Fox’s coverage of the American League Championship Series, but that drew relatively low ratings. It also could be that viewers dismissed the high-minded drama as teen fare despite its actually sophisticated presentation.

What’s equally troubling is that the show is pulling the rest of NBC’s lineup down with it. With a sagging lead-in, 9 p.m.’s “Law & Order: Criminal Intent” posted a 3.6, down 14 percent from last week and down from its season average.

At 10 p.m., “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” was also down to a new season low, and NBC’s Tuesday average sank 10 percent week to week, from a 4.0 to a 3.5.

NBC hyped “Lights” heavily, and critics raved about it. With the network already all but abandoning another acclaimed show, “Kidnapped,” it’s doubtful it will want to ditch one more so soon. A new timeslot could well be in the offing for “Lights,” though it’s unclear where that would be. “Kidnapped’s” 10 p.m. Wednesday slot is too late to grab the kids who the show appeals to.

Meanwhile, ABC led easily with a 4.3 rating and 11 share, followed by CBS at 3.6/9, NBC at 3.5/9, Fox at and CW at 1.7/4, and Univision at 1.6/4. Ratings for Fox are approximate, as fast nationals measure timeslot data and not actual program data, and the ALCS ran late.

At 8 p.m., ABC’s “Dancing with the Stars” led with a 5.3, followed by CBS’s “NCIS” at 3.8, NBC’s “Friday Night Lights” at 2.4, Fox’s ALCS at 2.2, and Univision’s “La Fea Mas Bella” and the CW’s “Gilmore Girls” at 2.0.

At 9 p.m., ABC again led with a 4.6 for the last half hour of “Stars” (4.6) and the third episode of “Help Me Help You,” which was even to last week at 3.1. CBS’s “The Unit” and NBC’s “L&O: CI” tied for second at 3.6, followed by Fox’s ALCS at 2.9, Univision’s “Mundo de Fieras” at 1.7 and the CW’s “Veronica Mars” at 1.3. The CW did finish third in 18-34s for the night, ahead of Fox and NBC.

At 10 p.m., NBC led easily with a 4.6 for “L&O: SVU,” followed by CBS with a 3.2 for a rerun of “CSI.” That was up 14 percent over last week, when now-yanked “Smith” aired in the timeslot. ABC was third with “Boston Legal” at 2.9, followed by Fox’s ALCS at 2.6 and Univision’s “Ver Para Creer” fourth at 1.1.

Among households, ABC led again with a 10.0/16, followed by CBS at 8.3/13, NBC at 7.1/11, Fox at 5.5/9, CW at 2.6/4 and Univision at 1.9/3.

• Source: Nielsen Media Research data

http://www.medialifemagazine.com/artman/publish/article_7835.asp

keenan

10-11-06, 02:05 PM

Another bad night for "Friday Night Lights".
Tuesday’s prime-time ratings have been posted just under the HD Football listings near the top of Ratings News the first post in this thread.
That's a shame, although I suppose not unexpected, it seems almost everything I like ends up on the scrap heap. I still think it's one of the very best new shows this season, even if most viewers don't. More proof that ratings and quality don't always go hand in hand.

fredfa

10-11-06, 02:15 PM

I agree, although everyone's perception of "quality" differs.

I thought last night's episode was marvelous.

archiguy

10-11-06, 02:32 PM

That's a shame, although I suppose not unexpected, it seems almost everything I like ends up on the scrap heap. I still think it's one of the very best new shows this season, even if most viewers don't. More proof that ratings and quality don't always go hand in hand.

We needed more proof? TV seems to prove that theorem every year. :eek: :D

keenan

10-11-06, 02:33 PM

I agree, although everyone's perception of "quality" differs.

I thought last night's episode was marvelous.
I thought it was too, and I expect it will get even better, although I'm seeing posts about how they didn't even show the game in last night's episode which tells me that at least some viewers are not even "getting it". As long as NBC wants to avoid a scorched earth approach(Kidnapped and FNL?) I guess we'll luck out for awhile and continue to get FNL.

fredfa

10-11-06, 02:33 PM

Nielsen Notebook
National Demographic ratings for Oct. 2-8
By Ed Bark former Dallas Morning News TV critic at his website unclebarky.com

Top 10 Prime-Time Programs in Total Viewers (all numbers in millions)
1. Grey's Anatomy (ABC) -- 22.8
2. CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (CBS) -- 21.5
3. Desperate Housewives (ABC) -- 21.0
4. Lost (ABC) -- 18.8
5. Dancing with the Stars performance show (ABC) -- 18.4
6. CSI: Miami (CBS) -- 17.9
7. Dancing with the Stars results (ABC) -- 17.5
8. NCIS (CBS) -- 15.9
9. Survivor: Cook Islands (CBS) -- 15.83
10. Two and a Half Men (CBS) -- 15.79

18-to-49-Year-Olds
1. Grey's Anatomy -- 12.2
2. Desperate Housewives -- 11.2
3. Lost -- 10.1
4. CSI: Crime Scene Investigation -- 9.5
5. NBC Sunday Night Football -- 8.3
6. ER (NBC) -- 8.0
7. CSI: Miami -- 7.7
8. Survivor: Cook Islands -- 7.3
9. Heroes (NBC) -- 7.2
10. Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (ABC) -- 7.1

Cable
1. Monday Night Football (ESPN) -- 12.9
2. Yankees-Tigers playoff/Fri. (ESPN) -- 6.6
3. WWE Raw, Mon./9p.m. (USA) -- 5.1
4. WWE Raw, Mon./8 p.m. (USA) -- 4.48
5. College football, Tennesse-Georgia (ESPN) -- 4.45
6. Halloweentown High (Disney) -- 4.4
7. Halloweentown II: Kalabar (Disney) -- 4.3
8. Castaway (TNT) -- 4.25
9. Spongebob, Sat. (Nick) -- 4.13
10. Law & Order: SVU, Sun. (USA) -- 4.07

African-American
1. The OT (Fox) -- 2.8
2. NBC Sunday Night Football -- 2.3
3. America's Next Top Model (CW) -- 2.2
4. CSI: Miami -- 2.16
5. Dancing with the Stars performance -- 2.1
6. Grey's Anatomy --- 2.041
7. Without a Trace (CBS) -- 2.009
8. Law & Order: SVU (NBC) -- 1.9
9. CSI: NY (CBS) -- 1.84
10. CSI: Crime Scene Investigation -- 1.81

Hispanic (Spanish Language)
Note: All shows are on Univision
1. Barrera De Amor, M-F -- 5.6
2. Fea Mas Bella, M-F -- 4.0
3. Mundo De Fieras, M-F -- 3.32
4. Cristina, Mon. -- 3.29
5. Heridas De Amor, M-F -- 2.9
6. Aqui Y Ahora, Thu. -- 2.6
7. Don Francisco Presenta, Wed. -- 2.5
8. Casos Vida R: Ed. Esp, Fri. == 2.2
9. Sabado Gigante, Sat. -- 2.09
10. Cantando Por Suenolll, Sun. -- 2.08

Hispanic (English Language)
1. Grey's Anatomy -- 1.7 mil.
2. Dancing with the Stars performance -- 1.1 mil.
3. Lost -- 1.052 mil.
4. Desperate Housewives -- 1.051 mil.
5. Ugly Betty (ABC) -- 1.007 mil.
6. Dancing with the Stars results --- 942,000
7. Prison Break (Fox) -- 890,000
8. The OT --- 846,000
9. CSI: Scene Investigation -- 830,000
10. Friday Night Smackdown! (CW) -- 823,000

• Source: Nielsen Media Research data

http://www.unclebarky.com/reviews.html

markdl

10-11-06, 02:36 PM

Monday Night Football on ESPN

Anybody else annoyed by Joe Thiesman's voice and non-stop idiotic talk? I don't mind Mike Tirico.

Oh, and while I am bringing up MNF, what about Tony Kornheiser's hair? Either never allow a side profile to be seen of you or shave it all off....

Funny, I put it exactly opposite of that. Can't stand Mike Tirico and Tony Kornheiser. Theisman's the only one that has a brain in the booth, with the other two there only to try to stir up controversy.

Never thought I'd say it, but I actually miss Paul Maguire.

fredfa

10-11-06, 02:38 PM

Nielsen Notebook
National ratings for Oct. 2-8
By Gary Levin USA Today

•Lost luster. The third-season opener of Lost averaged 18.8 million viewers Wednesday, down nearly 5 million from last fall's hatch-revealing premiere. However, Lost had its biggest audience since Jan. 25, reflecting a steady dropoff throughout last season.

•Nine lives. Lost's new companion, serial drama The Nine, had a decent start with 11.9 million viewers but held a lower percentage of Lost's audience than last fall's Invasion did

•Lights dim. Against weak competition, the premiere of NBC's heavily touted Friday Night Lights disappointed Tuesday with 7.2 million viewers, the lowest turnout for any drama debut this season.

•A little less pretty. The second episode of ABC's Ugly Betty averaged 14.3 million viewers Thursday, down 2 million from its big week-ago premiere. Still, the series appears to be a solid hit, and it challenged a declining Survivor (15.8 million) for the lead in its time slot.

•Drama graveyard. CBS sent Smith packing after Tuesday's episode notched a third-place 8.4 million viewers, while NBC exiled Kidnapped to Saturdays (for now) after Wednesday's outing drew a weak 5.1 million.

•Studio slowdown. NBC's Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip (8.9 million) continued its free fall, from 13.4 million for its Sept. 18 opener.

•Katie curtailed. The CBS Evening News With Katie Couric (7 million weekday average) hit its worst numbers yet, finishing third in both total viewers and the crowd ages 25 to 54 that nightly news calls its sweet spot. NBC retained its lead with 8.5 million viewers and ABC had 8 million, but both were tied among the narrower audience.

•Cable ready. Tenth-season episodes of Comedy Central's South Park returned with 3.4 million viewers Wednesday, matching its March kickoff, but the debut of Freak Show, which followed, sank to 1.5 million. The third-season opener of Sci Fi Channel's Battlestar Galactica Friday, with 2.2 million, was down from 3.1 million for Season 2's July 2005 start. And VH1's Flavor of Love ended its second season Sunday with a depressed 2.7 million.

• Source: Nielsen Media Research data

http://www.usatoday.com/life/television/news/2006-10-10-nielsen-analysis_x.htm

keenan

10-11-06, 02:38 PM

We needed more proof? TV seems to prove that theorem every year. :eek: :D
True dat, it's just frustrating, (and I'm not saying I'm the expert on what's good and what isn't, although I'm confident I have a pretty good handle on it), that the ratings are driven by the lowest common denominator and that that level is far below what I personally consider to be quality TV.

fredfa

10-11-06, 02:56 PM

HDTV Notebook
First San Francisco Station goes HD for News
KTVU (Fox) Channel 2 News Launches High Definition
(From KTVU.com)

KTVU Channel 2 News made Bay Area television history Wednesday by becoming the first television station to broadcast all local newscasts in high definition. Viewers will now enjoy a significantly enhanced television viewing experience.

As part of the HD launch, KTVU Channel 2 News unveiled a new set with animated footage in the background, a state of the art HD graphics package, a new Live StormTracker 2 radar display and a new Live Drive Time Traffic HD mapping computer with real time traffic sensors. Viewers will even see an improved picture watching on their standard definition set.

"As the Bay Area News leader we're very excited to be able to bring the benefits of high definition television to Bay Area news viewers. KTVU Channel 2 News is committed to giving our viewers the best local news viewing experience possible and high definition helps us achieve this," said Tim McVay, Vice President and General Manager.

KTVU Channel 2 News produces 38 ½ hours of award-winning local news each week with the KTVU Channel 2 Morning News, KTVU Mornings on 2, KTVU Channel 2 News at Noon, KTVU Channel 2 News at 5, KTVU Channel 2 News at 6 and The Ten o’Clock News on KTVU Channel 2.

"It is gratifying to see the terrific on-air results today of KTVU's high definition news debut. It took a tremendous effort by KTVU Channel 2 employees to launch all the elements of HD at once, but the payoff for the viewer is well worth it," said Ed Chapuis, News Director.

As a FOX affiliate, KTVU Channel 2 already broadcasts a number of highly rated FOX programs including, 24, American Idol, Bones, House, The OC, Prison Break, Major League baseball and NFL football.

http://www.ktvu.com/station/10052494/detail.html

keenan

10-11-06, 03:03 PM

HDTV Notebook
First San Francisco Station goes HD for News
KTVU (Fox) Channel 2 News Launches High Definition

Looks darn good too! I'm not a big fan of TV news, but KTVU is one of the very best in the country, especially for local focus so it's nice to see they're finally in HD.

fredfa

10-11-06, 03:21 PM

We needed more proof? TV seems to prove that theorem every year. :eek: :D

I am not sure I agree with this, archiguy.

If you compare thew quality of this season's programs overall with those of 2001-2002 of 1996-1997, I suspect you'd find a far higher number of well-done shows -- whether any of us watches a specific program.

Even some of the beneath te radar shows (NCIS as just one of many examples) are written well and produced at a very high level, IMO.

And, there are fewer hours to program as the nets have given up on Saturdays, and we currently have gone from one three-hour sports block (MNF) to seven hours of sports programming each week (SNF and ABC Saturday NCAA pigskin.)

keenan

10-11-06, 03:30 PM

Jediphish

10-11-06, 03:40 PM

I suppose what archiguy and I are saying, is that the truly brilliant stuff is fairly rare and doesn't seem to stick around very long. Yes, there is a large amount of good TV currently and those programs seem to to find the middle ground of ratings and quality, but that last 5-10% of really, really good stuff never seems to get a large enough audience to last, in my opinion anyway.

The problem with TV is that broadcasters try to sell Lexuses on the scale of a Ford F-150s. Just as there are different markets for automobiles, there are different TV markets. And I'm not just referring to the arbitrary age-defined demographic groups that Nielsen uses.

Not every show can be in the top 10 (or even the top 20). I just wish the broadcasters would change the way they think and start trying to create shows for which they can justify the expenses incurred based on the ratings they receive. If a show performs poorly, instead of yanking it, figure out a way to reduce the expenses, so that it still turns a profit with the few advertisers it is able to keep. I'm not suggesting they need to lower the bar in terms of quality, just that they need to realize that as long as a show as any market at all (and especially if it's a stable market), then maybe its worth keeping on the air if they can figure out how to make money doing so.

fredfa

10-11-06, 03:55 PM

TV Notebook
Stat of the Day

Last week, Katie Couric averaged 7.04 million viewers for “The CBS Evening News”.

In his final week (pre-Labor Day weekend – with fewer households watching TV) Bob Schieffer averaged 7.24 million viewers.

steverobertson

10-11-06, 04:22 PM

fredfa

10-11-06, 04:26 PM

The New Season
“30 Rock” and “Twenty Years”:
Scripts 2, Actors 0
By James Poniewozik Time Magazine television critic in Time’s “Tuned In” blog Wednesday, Oct. 11, 2006

It is the actors or the script? It's the eternal question that comes up when deciding whom to credit or blame for a TV series, play or movie, and while each is obviously a collaborative medium, it's an interesting game to determine whether a bad script can defeat good actors, or vice versa, or vice versa both ways in reverse.

For the two NBC sitcoms debuting tonight, it's the script. In Twenty Good Years, at 8:30 p.m. E.T., John (John Lithgow), a divorced surgeon forced into retirement, decides to convince his timid, nerdy friend Jeffrey (Jeffrey Tambor) to throw caution to the wind and spend the rest of their lives having adventures, living each day as their last. If the show were the gay senior-citizen romance my brief description makes it sound like, Twenty might be worth a curious watch, but, no, this is the same kind of odd-couple pairing that TV has been trying to sell for decades, and, like most every odd-couple concept after the actual Odd Couple, the premise has not even Twenty Good Minutes of humor in it. Lithgow, who delightfully chewed up the set of Third Rock from the Sun, and Tambor, who was acutely funny in The Larry Sanders Show and Arrested Development, seem less defeated by this lame show than imprisoned by it; you'll want to smash your picture tube to try to free them.

30 Rock (which I reviewed at more length here), which kicks off the night at 8 p.m. E.T., has gotten special praise for Alec Baldwin's scene-stealing as Jack Donaghy, a General Electric executive who starts meddling in a sketch comedy show run by Liz Lemon (Tina Fey). And Tracy Morgan deserves more praise than he's gotten for playing Tracy Jordan, the mentally unstable comedy star Jack foists on Liz to shake up her show. Tracy may be a one-note character, but Morgan plays out that one note like an Ornette Coleman solo, simultaneously getting at Jordan's craziness and his canniness. In his first meeting with Lemon, he rants about an Us Weekly article that claims he's on drugs. "That's racist!" he says with genuine indignation. "I'm straight-up mentally ill!"

Yet the big accomplishment of 30 Rock is that Tina Fey, scriptwriter, makes the show work despite the fact that her star, Tina Fey, actor, cannot really act. Fey is often called the thinking man's sex symbol, but maybe the better description would be that she's a better-looking Woody Allen. Despite her limited range (exasperation, nervousness, sardonicism), she knows how to write for herself, and she has enough presence and persona to let her being stand in for her acting: as with Allen, the glasses and the jaded-New-Yorker bearing do 90% of the lifting.

As I've said before, 30 Rock is half as stuffy and didactic as its subjectmate Studio 60, twice as astute about the real problems of TV (corporate interference and general knuckleheadedness) and ten times as funny. It owes a lot to producer Tina Fey's choosing the right actors. But it owes even more to actor Tina Fey's ending up with the right writer

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

fredfa

10-11-06, 04:33 PM

And to continue on the topic of quality television....

The New Season
Extreme Makeover Returns
Takes slot of “Grey’s” repeats starting Friday

(ABC News Release)October 11 2006

SEASON PREMIERE

THE ORIGINAL “EXTREME MAKEOVER” RETURNS IN ALL NEW, INSPIRING SPECIALS
FULFILLING THE LIFELONG WISHES OF DESERVING CANDIDATES WHOSE LOOKS
AND LIVES WILL BE TRANFORMED WITH THE AID OF PLASTIC SURGERY AND
MEDICAL BREAKTHROUGHS, FRIDAY, OCTOBER 20 ON ABC

Witness the Astounding Transformations of a Deaf Man and Spokesperson for the Hearing
Impaired, and a Mother Whose Face Bears the Severe Scars of a Deadly Spider Bite,
Plus “Extreme Makeover” Enlists the Aid of George Lopez and Marlee Matlin

“Episode 401” – The original series and phenomenon that catapulted the moniker “Extreme Makeover” to pop culture vernacular is back in four all-new specials. Each special will feature the shared makeover journeys of deserving candidates who suffered hardship in their lives due to medical conditions and the stigma associated with their looks. This week, Phillip, a 38-year-old deaf man from Huntington Beach, CA and Kerra, a 34-year-old scarred wife to a special forces hero from Fort Bragg, NC, will undergo a life-changing experience together as their lives and looks will be transformed by a team of plastic surgeons and top hair and makeup artists, stylists and personal trainers, then revealed to their families and friends, on “Extreme Makeover,” FRIDAY, OCTOBER 20 (8:00-9:00 p.m., ET), on the ABC Television Network.

Note: This program replaces “Grey’s Anatomy: Oh, the guilt” which had been scheduled.

Phillip has faced prejudice since the day he was born. He and his college sweetheart wife are both deaf and have had to overcome many obstacles in the years. He is the placement coordinator at the GLAD office (Greater Los Angeles Agency for the Deaf) in Orange County. Often his deaf clients include the illiterate, the abused and the disenfranchised. Phillip uses any means of communication to get through to people in need of his assistance, and he is proud that he has placed over 400 deaf people into jobs. Phillip was born into a hearing family and taught his younger brother Steve to sign at the age of three. Steve became Phil’s radio by bridging the gap for him between the hearing world and the silent world. Phillip never let the word “no” stop him from achieving his goals, and wishes to become a national ambassador for the deaf, but not before gaining confidence by changing his looks. Academy Award-winning actress Marlee Matlin grants Phillip his dream to be made over into a presentable spokesperson for the millions of the silent minority. And to start him on his spokesperson journey at his final reveal, ABC surprises Phil by providing airtime for him to make his first informational message on behalf of the deaf community.

Phillip’s procedures included rhinoplasty, forehead brow lift, crow’s feet release, liposuction of neck and body, two dental implants, gum repositioning, six da Vinci porcelain veneers & four crowns, Zoom whitening, a hair transplant and hair restoration.

Phillip’s “Extreme Team” included:

• Plastic surgeon Dr. Garth Fisher, who has performed more than 7,000 surgeries and was named as “one of the top plastic surgeons in the United States for facial cosmetic and breast surgery” by Best Doctors in America.

• Dentist Dr. William Dorfman, one of the pioneers of tooth whitening. Celebrity clientele includes Matthew Perry, Usher, Ali Landry, Brooke Burke and Melissa Joan Hart
• Dentist Tim Silegy, international lecturer on dental implants and orthognathic surgery
• Anesthesiologist Edward S. Akkaway, M.D.
• Hair transplant by Dr. Craig L. Ziering, D.O., founder and medical director of Ziering Medical
• Fashion stylist June Ambrose, who has styled Mariah Carey, Mary J. Blige, Jay Z, Jamie Foxx, Sean “P. Diddy” Combs, and was named among the “100 Hottest People to Know in Fashion”
• Hair restorationist/creative director Flora Fuentes
• Hairstylist Chong U
• Master body sculptor and rapid weight-loss expert Michael Thurmond, who trains various red-carpet celebrities
• As per Michael Thurmond’s customized diet regimens, gourmet custom meals are provided by Sally Ann Catering

Kerra is a dedicated wife to a Special Forces hero and loving mother of three sons. Bitten by a poisonous spider that came from her husband’s duffle bag, she -- rather than him -- bears the deep facial scars of war. As her husband fights in extreme conditions in Afghanistan, she undergoes extreme surgery and laser and chemical treatments as well. Skin expert and dermatologist Dr. Ava Shamban performs her most challenging case yet, as she teams with plastic surgeon Dr. Harvey Zarem and attempts to restore Kerra’s former beauty and self esteem. Will she be successful? In addition, Kerra gets her first surprise via satellite from the war zone, when her husband delivers the news that she’s the recipient of an Extreme Makeover. Her final reveal contains yet another emotional surprise, as she and her two boys are reunited with her husband, who has been away at war, then the entire family is surprised with an all-expenses-paid trip to Amelia Island Plantation.

Kerra’s procedures included scar revision to right forehead, fat injections to right cheek, lip augmentation, bilateral capsulectomies (removal of breast implants & scar tissue), repair detached pectoral muscle, and implant exchange w/silicone gel implants, Fraxel treatments (resurfacing laser), Photofacials, Diamond peel, collagen facial, deep cleanse cleaning facial, filler under eyes, muscle relaxer to forehead & eyes, topical treatments, laser hair removal on face, arms and hands, six upper da Vinci porcelain veneers and Zoom whitening, and hair transplant to head and right upper eyebrow scars.

Kerra’s “Extreme Team” included:

• Plastic surgeon Harvey A. Zarem, M.D., F.A.C.S. former Chief, Division of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, UCLA School of Medicine; Professor Emeritus, UCLA
• Dermatologist Ava T. Shamban, owner and director of the Laser Institute for Dermatology in Santa Monica
• Dentist Dr. William Dorfman, one of the pioneers of tooth whitening. Celebrity clientele includes Matthew Perry, Usher, Ali Landry, Brooke Burke and Melissa Joan Hart
• Porcelain veneers by da Vinci Studios
• Anesthesiologist Terry Reichelderfer, M.D.
• Fashion stylist June Ambrose, who has styled Mariah Carey, Mary J. Blige, Jay Z, Jamie Foxx, Sean “P. Diddy” Combs, and was named among the “100 Hottest People to Know in Fashion”
• Craig L. Ziering, D.O., a hair transplant specialist who has successfully performed over 9,000 hair transplant procedures
• Hairstylist and extentionist Noel Reid-Killings
• Hair colorist Joel Warren of Warren-Tricomi
• Makeup artist Ayinde Castro
• Eyebrow artist Anastasia of Beverly Hills

Meanwhile Tony, a 31-year-old post production assistant from South Gate, CA, gets some help from his boss and surprise guest ABC’s George Lopez. In a fast and furious wardrobe/hair/makeup overhaul, viewers will see Tony’s amazing transformation from a disheveled production assistant into a sharp production manager in a mini-makeover that will help him move into management.

“Extreme Makeover” is produced by New Screen Entertainment and Lighthearted Entertainment. Chuck Bangert, Lou Gorfain and Howard Schultz are the executive producers.

This program is broadcast with Spanish subtitles via secondary closed captioning.

A TV parental guideline will be posted closer to airdate.

generalpatton78

10-11-06, 04:46 PM

Good post, generalpatton.

And I'd suggest there are lots of small communities in a host of states across the country where Friday night football is incredible, including (as you note) Alabama, West Virginia, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Florida and many others.

I know there may be literary license taken in Friday Night Lights, but snce you actually were in a very similar situation to that of the Panthers, does the show capture the atmopshere well?

It does for the actual game night. Fridays are always electric and you do see the entire town on that day turn their focus to you, Some small things that they miss are that the parties don't happened until Friday after the game. Our coaches enforced a no parting rule on m-t nights and on sunday. We always had a couple of parents who would host a big bon fire and we would watch the local sports program and see our highlights. We would then proceed to get drunk and let loose.The next day we would all wake up at 8am the and go to the High school and watch film from the night before.Then we ate as a team at a local pizza place. Only after that did we actually have any time to ourselves.

So my personal experience is that your with these guys more then family members. Most of this time your just flat out tired and bored, but on Friday nights all that is turned on it's head. So personally I just want this show to focus a little more on all the work it takes to get ready for friday night. I think it would make Friday Night more of an event. It may have worked better if they had started the season with the previous years last game. Usually thats a loss and then pick up with all the returning players working there butt off in hot August two a days, They could then end it with the very first game starting (the episode not the season). I probably would have liked the pilot more if I didn't know what was going to happened. I'm just wondering if were are going to get that whip creme scene again,

fredfa

10-11-06, 04:47 PM

TV Sports
Weekend HD Football Notes

There are nine NFL games scheduled for HD coverage this weekend.

Of those, only three feature both teams with winning records.

Three more feature one team with a winning record.

And three will show teams with losing records.

In college, starting tomorrow night, there are also nine HD games.

One features a matchup of two top-10 (BCS) teams, another has a pair of top-25 teams.

Overall, four games feature both teams with winning records and only two have even a single team with a losing record.

The complete HD weekend football schedule, of course, is at the top of the first post in this thread.

CPanther95

10-11-06, 04:59 PM

Some small things that they miss are that the parties don't happened until Friday after the game.

Same here. We were well accounted for on Thursday nights, and Coach always said no dating or going out on Thursday 'cause "women weaken legs". We had to save that for Friday night after the game. No cheerleaders on the bus going to away games, but if we won, they could ride back.

fredfa

10-11-06, 06:03 PM

I hope you won more than lost, CP95!

fredfa

10-11-06, 06:05 PM

The New Season
Medium Expected To Replace Kidnapped
By Ben Grossman Broadcasting & Cable 10/11/2006

NBC is expected to bring back Medium to replace the relocated Kidnapped Wednesdays at 10.

While NBC isn’t commenting, sources with knowledge of the situation said the network is planning on bringing the veteran drama back onto the schedule in coming weeks, though it will continue to monitor Dateline in that slot.

NBC is also said to have considered launching rookie drama The Black Donnellys in place of Kidnapped, which will play out the rest of its 13-episode order on Saturday nights.

Though it has yet to make an announcement, CBS also has its plan to replace Smith, as the network is expected to introduce rookie drama 3 lbs. Tuesdays at 10 in coming weeks.

What would be the fifth new show of the season for CBS, 3 lbs. stars Stanley Tucci and Mark Feuerstein (West Wing, Good Morning, Miami) as surgeons.

http://www.broadcastingcable.com/index.asp?layout=articlePrint&articleID=CA6380232

fredfa

10-11-06, 06:37 PM

The New Season
Common Cause Charges:
Cable Spends Big in D.C.
By Linda Moss MultiChannel News 10/11/2006

Common Cause charged Wednesday that the cable industry’s nearly $100 million in spending on campaign contributions and lobbying has led to favorable treatment in Washington, resulting in higher prices for consumers and the defeat of a la carte legislation.

“The return on cable’s investment has been impressive: a 90% increase in cable rates since 1995 and industry-friendly regulations that boost profits, coupled with even more consolidation among cable companies,” Common Cause said in unveiling its first Ask Yourself Why report. “Big cable’s spending has also limited the tools that parents have to shield their children from inappropriate cable programs.”

The National Cable & Telecommunications Association immediately disputed Common Cause’s findings and allegations. “It’s ridiculous,” NCTA spokesman Brian Dietz said.

In its five-page report, Common Cause said cable has spent more than $92 million on lobbying in Washington since 1998, and the industry’s spending has increased dramatically in the past two years.

In addition, since 1991, major cable companies and their trade groups have given more than $13.8 million to congressional-candidate committees and leadership political-action committees, the report said. Nearly $7.7 million went to Republican candidates and more than $6 million to Democrats.

And the five congressional members who currently are key to big cable’s legislative agenda alone have received more than $500,000 in political contributions from major cable interests during that same period, Common Cause charged in its report.

The report alleged that cable’s lobbying gave it the “clout in Congress” to help “keep a la carte at bay.” Dietz, however, said there have been several studies about the negative impact a la carte would have had if legislated.

“Evidence shows, including independent government and industry reports, that a la carte would be harmful to consumers because most consumers would pay more, the number of channels would diminish and diversity would decrease if a la carte was forced upon consumers,” he added.

He also noted that cable has not gained any edge over would-be rivals, either, with satellite and the telcos in the mix.

“Competition is thriving in the multichannel-video marketplace, as evidenced by the fact that consumers today have a choice of at least three, and sometimes up to five, different providers for their home-video needs,” Dietz said. “There’s never been more competition and there’s never been more choice for consumers.”

In its report, Common Cause listed PAC donations totaling $13.8 million from cable interests to federal candidate committees and leadership PACs since 1991.

That list includes: the NCTA ($6.4 million), Time Warner ($2.8 million), Comcast ($2.5 million), Cablevision Systems ($693,500), Tele-Communications Inc. ($421,500), MediaOne Group ($275,200), Adelphia Communications ($145,600), Charter Communications ($119,700) and others ($441,500).

The PAC donations from cable to key Congress members were: Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), $82,200; Sen. Dan Inouye (D-Hawaii), $51,000; Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas), $150,000; Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich.), $158,300; and Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.), $119,000.

http://www.multichannel.com/index.asp?layout=articlePrint&articleid=CA6380151

fredfa

10-11-06, 06:40 PM

The entire Common Cause report "Ask Yourself Why...Cable Rates Got So High") is here:

fredfa

10-11-06, 06:50 PM

Weren’t we discussing quality television a while ago?

The New Season
NBC Diving Into Late-Night Poker Show
By Christopher Lisotta Television Week October 11, 2006

NBC is getting into the late-night poker show business with its new Monday-through-Saturday series "Poker After Dark," a Las Vegas-based series that features six poker professionals vying for a winner-take-all $120,000 first place prize.

Hosted by former World Poker Tour host Shana Hiatt, "Dark" will debut Jan. 2 at 2:05 a.m. (ET). Each night will feature a look at one table as it develops over the week, culminating with a winner on Friday night.

Saturday night's show—the "director's cut"—will recap the week's events with Ms. Hiatt, and that week's winner will comment and give insight into his winning strategy. The Saturday show will air at 1 a.m., following "Saturday Night Live."

NBC Universal Television West Coast President Marc Graboff made the announcement Wednesday.

"There's a vibrant late-night audience looking for original programming," Mr. Graboff said in a statement. "We felt this inside look at the professional poker scene is perfect for late-night television and those viewers seeking a unique and original broadcast."

Ms. Hiatt hosted the World Poker Tour from 2003 to 2005. A former model, she has also appeared in the feature films "Must Love Dogs" and "Grandma's Boy."

"Poker After Dark" is produced in conjunction with Poker Productions. Mori Eskandani and Eric Drache are producing.

http://www.tvweek.com/news.cms?newsId=10882

Al Shing

10-11-06, 06:59 PM

Medium Expected To Replace Kidnapped

Wouldn't it make more sense to move Studio 60 to Wednesday night and give Medium its traditional Monday night slot back? I think Medium is a natural match with Heroes.

fredfa

10-11-06, 08:34 PM

foxeng

10-11-06, 08:38 PM

If it were me, I would move S60 to Wed and dump 30 Rock.

fredfa

10-11-06, 08:40 PM

The New Season
Real Drama on “Grey’s” Set
Patrick Dempsey & Isaiah Washington's Dustup
By Elizabeth Leonard People.com Oct. 11, 2006

There would have been no shortage of bandages if things had really gotten out of hand during an on-set argument between Grey's Anatomy costars Patrick Dempsey and Isaiah Washington on Monday.

Dempsey, 40, and Washington, 43, didn't need medical aid, but the actors, who both play renowned doctors on the show, nearly came to blows during a spat over shooting issues.

"We were like two baseball players . . . nose-to-nose," Washington tells PEOPLE. "We had a difference of opinions while working on set but we've resolved it."

At issue, says Washington, was "time and (keeping) the production going. The communication was lost in translation."

But no punches were thrown: "Our faces are too beautiful for that!," says Washington, who plays Dr. Preston Burke. Dempsey plays heartthrob Dr. Derek Shepherd, otherwise known as "Dr. McDreamy."

In fact, just a few hours after the dustup, Washington and Dempsey were sitting side by side at a script read-through.

"In close families arguments happen," Dempsey's rep tells PEOPLE. "They worked it out."

Washington even learned a little something about his costar. "I've never been that close to (Patrick) before," he says. "He has really pretty blue eyes."

http://people.aol.com/people/article/0,26334,1544864,00.html

fredfa

10-11-06, 08:43 PM

If it were me, I would move S60 to Wed and dump 30 Rock.

I think the execs have very high hopes for "30 Rock".

And we should remember that the more shows NBC burns through now will cause it greater problems in January when it has to fill four Sunday night hours each week to replace SNF.

That replacement was a problem for ABC for all its 35 years of MNF, and I would assume NBC will have great problems, too.

foxeng

10-11-06, 08:45 PM

I think the execs have very high hopes for "30 Rock".

I just saw it. It just aired here in the eastern time zone. I will not be back. The difference between 30 Rock and S60 is the difference of Sesame Street and S60.

Edit: On second thought, I shouldn't have insulted Sesame Street in using it as the low end of the scale where 30 Rock is. I apologize to Sesame Street.

GeorgeLV

10-11-06, 08:55 PM

Why did NBC even order Friday Night Lights? From all the promotion I've seen, it seems like the typical "WB" (well, now CW) fare.

fredfa

10-11-06, 09:20 PM

The New Season
Bottom Dwellers

These shows are the lowest five on each network, not including repeats. They are listed by overall program rank and total viewers in the millions.

ABC
43 Six Degrees 9.11
52 Funniest Home Videos 8.18
67 20/20 6.46
89 College Football 3.72
96 College Football Pregame 3.24

CBS
35 Amazing Race 10 CBS 10.15
36 60 Minutes CBS 10.13
42 How I Met Your Mother CBS 9.32
49 Smith CBS 8.38
55 The Class CBS 7.88

Fox
50 " AL Div Playoff, NY-Det #1 (Tue.) 8.36
53 Bones 8.10
63 NL Div Playoff, #3: LA-NY (Sat) 6.77
68 NL Div Playoff, # 2: LA-NY (Thu) 6.39
82 Nanny 911 (9 p.m.) 4.09

NBC
60 Biggest Loser 3 7.15
65 Dateline: NBC (Sat.) 6.73
73 Kidnapped 5.15
79 Friday Night Lights (Wed.) 4.44
88 Football Night America, Part 2 3.74

The CW
99 Girlfriends 2.85
102 The Game 2.69
106 All of Us 2.40
107 Everybody Hates Chris 2.36
113 Runaway 1.86

• Source: Nielsen Media Research data

fredfa

10-11-06, 10:43 PM

The New Season
How "The O.C." smells
By David Kronke Los Angeles Daily News Television Critic in his “The Mayor Of Television” blog Oct. 11, 2006

Fox is desperately attempting to resurrect its threadbare melodrama "The O.C.," which returns Nov. 2 - it sent critics the first four episodes of its new season (Fox wasn't nearly so anxious for critics to get such a distinct sense of any of its new shows this season; given how that crop is doing, perhaps the network was wise to withhold multiple episodes for review). And they thoughtfully included a bottle of something called "The O.C. for Her," a - well, perfume seems too misleading a word; scent, perhaps? No: Eau de Toilette. Emphasis you know where.

Press Release of the Day touts said, um, fragrance, which, it declares, "capture(s) the glamorous and seductive lifestyle of this Newport Beach community." It then goes into a rapturous description of the subtle nuances of the smelly water, launching into the sort of detail a semiotics professor would reserve for Proust:

"Top Notes: Juicy mandarin combines with exuberant florals to lend 'The O.C. for Her' a delighfully fruity, floral aura that also has a modern, refreshingly classic side.
"Middle Notes: Hibiscus, tuberose, jasmine, freesia and fruity accents of white peach, guava and nectarine make it light and ideal for all day, yet sultry like a summer night's kiss.
"Base Notes: A rich foundation of white amber, sweet vanilla and clear musk make anyone feel beautiful, confident and daringly female."

Well, if you say so. Who writes this stuff?

The copy also moons over the bottle -- seriously, the bottle, a simple rectangular piece of glass unremarkable in the canon of perfumeries. But no: "A vibrantly colored glass bottle accented with a metallic stylized cap reflects the energetic spirit of today's design and fashion trends. Edgy dancing waves and tattoo-like floral vines depict a seductive, carefree day in Southern California."

Who am I to argue? But I will report that at great personal danger, your Mayor did spritz a bit of this into a barely controlled environment, and you know all that stuff they said above? Not so much. It smells more like a sickly sweet energy beverage, carbonation included. But it's not as bad as one imagines a whiff of Mischa Barton and her boyfriend might be like in her fashion portfolio over on Go Fug Yourself.

Nonetheless, this apparently has the folks over at "CSI" (which is on opposite "O.C.") concerned, because in their effort to remain fresh and girly-smelling, they've cast Roger Daltrey for an upcoming episode (guess K-Fed wasn't available to reprise his beloved role as "Young Tough"). Daltry's band The Who, of course, provides the main-title music for all "CSI" shows; he will appear in what the network describes as "a surprise role that will keep viewers guessing" (translation: The part hasn't been written yet).

Speaking (sort of) of the turgid aroma of man musk, stick a fork in NBC's "Friday Night Lights:" In its second outing, it lost nearly a million viewers from its already underwhelming premiere numbers.

http://www.insidesocal.com/tv/

fredfa

10-11-06, 11:23 PM

TV Notebook
Playback time for Nielsens
By Gary Levin USA Today

The TiVo Nation has arrived.

Nielsen has begun measuring playback on digital video recorders, and the first results are handing a big lift to some of TV's top shows.

As expected, the biggest hits and series in brutally competitive time slots are among the most frequently "time-shifted": Grey's Anatomy, Lost, Survivor, House. Of the 18.8 million Lost fans for last week's season opener, 1 million — or more than 5% of the audience — watched the show later Wednesday night.

And NBC's The Office had the biggest percentage of delayed viewers: The show's ratings spiked nearly 7% when viewing later Thursday night is counted, and more than 11% from viewing up to a week later.

House gained 1.4 million viewers, or 10.5%, from tardy fans up to seven days after its Sept. 19 episode, and the Grey's season opener grew 8%, adding 1.8 million who watched CSI or did something else instead on Thursday night.

The ratings lifts are even more startling considering that only 12% of homes have DVRs, according to unofficial Nielsen estimates, and they account for just 9% of Nielsen's ratings sample.

"Those people watch these shows at a much higher rate than the general population," CBS research chief David Poltrack says.

Initiative Media's Stacey Lynn Koerner calls the ratings jump "a big shift. It comes from multiple options, with more shows in competitive time periods that people want to watch. It's a great validation for television."

And it's part of a widening circle of viewing options that include streaming videos or iPod downloads.

When recorded, water-cooler shows such as Grey's and Survivor are most often watched that night; other series (House, CSI) get their biggest bumps days later in the week. Yet viewers almost never record newsmagazines, game shows, Spanish-language telenovelas and sports events.

And while Nielsen expects the ratings lift to accelerate by year's end, when its sample of homes will match the proportion of DVR households, networks can't yet profit from their newfound gains: After advertisers resisted, networks backed off plans to set ad rates that factored in DVR ratings.

http://www.usatoday.com/life/television/news/2006-10-11-nielsen-playback_x.htm

fredfa

10-11-06, 11:40 PM

TV Notebook
'Grey's' has a smooth operator
By William Keck USA Today

LOS ANGELES — Sara Ramirez is slightly mortified.

A bus showcasing her image alongside 10 other Grey's Anatomy cast members on a massive promotional poster has just pulled up on the street outside a cafe.

"Oh my God. That is so weird," she cringes.

After the initial shock wears off, she smiles, pleased with the photo.

"For one of the first times, I'm looking at myself going, 'Yeah, I'm OK with that.' "

Ramirez, 31, should be pleased. After an eight-episode run last season, she's a Grey's regular.

And while the other female docs of TV's hottest medical drama (tonight, 9 ET/PT) are breaking hearts, Ramirez is mending broken bones as orthopedic surgeon Callie Torres.

Soon after she accepted the role, Ramirez was able to make the most of a twisted ankle and torn ligaments she received on stage playing Lady of the Lake in Broadway's Spamalot. Her orthopedic surgeon let her observe operations: "I was watching surgeries where they opened up knees and shoulders, taking pictures with my phone."

The Mazatlan, Mexico-born actress is no stranger to blood and guts. She's a fan of TV shows about medical procedures and grew up with an oceanographer father who brought her with him to labs.

"I was always around rows of crazy jars that smelled like weird fermenting things from beneath the sea."

Ramirez's parents divorced when she was 8. Her father moved to Miami, and her mother, a former actress and singer, relocated to San Diego and enrolled Ramirez in a school for the performing arts.

Like Grey's Callie, who at one point was living in the hospital basement, Ramirez has resided in less than luxurious digs. During her 12 years on and off Broadway, Ramirez had several "humbling" living experiences in New York.

"I ended up renting a room (from) a really eccentric couple," she says. "Then there was a woman who kept every room piled up with clothes and dirty stuff. I found things missing. But it taught me I can live with less."

For now, she has opted to rent a house in Los Angeles.

"If I was to put my money down on a house, I don't know that I'd have much left. I don't know if this job's going to last. But if the show keeps me around for a little while, I'd like to settle down. I'm kind of in that nesting phase."

Ramirez has a boyfriend but prefers talking about her on-screen romance with self-deprecating softie George (T.R. Knight).

In tonight's episode, it's make-or-break time for the couple. But Ramirez says the characters are suited for each other.

"She gives him strength, and he gives her sensitivity."

http://www.usatoday.com/life/television/news/2006-10-11-sara-ramirez_x.htm

fredfa

10-12-06, 01:20 AM

TV Notebook
From Life Support to Miraculous Recovery for ‘ER’
By Bill Carter The New York Times October 12, 2006

This should be an axiom of television programming if it isn’t already: Never take your most popular show off the air for three months in the middle of a season.

That was what NBC intended to do this year with “ER,” its long-running hit on Thursday nights at 10 p.m. Eastern time. Of course NBC never expected “ER” to be its most popular show again.

But after three weeks of what can only be described as a stunning ratings performance by that 13-year-old medical drama, NBC has reconsidered its plan to shelve the series from January to April in favor of an untried drama called “The Black Donnellys.”

“I will confirm that ‘ER’ is not going to go away until the spring,” said Kevin Reilly, president of NBC Entertainment. “We are going to keep ‘ER’ in its time period for at least 22 episodes this season.”

The “at least” is also significant because rather than thinking of ways to supplant “ER” this season, NBC and the show’s creators are considering expanding the series to 24 or 25 episodes to cover more weeks of the season with original episodes.

The entire strategy for the future of “ER” is up in the air. David Zabel, who runs the show as executive producer, after the long tenure of John Wells, said the plan had been to get through this truncated season and then end the series after one more season next year.

In a telephone interview this week he said that idea was being rethought. “As long as we can keep doing what we’re doing, I don’t see any reason the show can’t keep going on,” he said.

Rather than relegating the series to part-time status this year, Mr. Zabel said, he is all for expanding it. Networks often order additional episodes of their most popular shows to limit the number of in-season repeats.

Mr. Reilly said NBC had initially concluded that “ER” was faring worse and worse with repeats during the season and wanted to give “The Black Donnellys” a chance to grab some of the audience available in the Thursday time slot. Yesterday’s decision to continue “ER” had nothing to do with the quality of “The Black Donnellys,” said Mr. Reilly, who called that new show excellent.

The remarkable turn of events for “ER,” which was presumed to be making a few last turns on the stage before heading for the exit, is entirely due to what the show has accomplished in the season that began last month.

“ER” has been asked to perform an operation that might seem far-fetched even in its own emergency-room plotlines. It has been assigned the job of saving a sagging network’s life on the most important night of the week.

NBC, which once dominated Thursdays — the night for which advertisers pay the most to reach viewers because of weekend events like movie openings and car sales — has been severely injured by the scheduling of the most formidable shows that two competing networks have to offer.

This season, with ABC adding the hottest show on television, “Grey’s Anatomy,” to Thursday nights at 9, facing off against what had previously been the most-watched show on television, CBS’s “CSI,” NBC has taken a ferocious beating in that hour. That meant that “ER” confronted a seemingly impossible task at 10 p.m.: recruiting an audience back to NBC on that show’s merits alone.

And that is exactly what “ER” has done. It is somehow among the top-rated shows this season despite these facts: In raw numbers ABC’s 10 p.m. show, “Six Degrees,” inherits 24.2 million viewers watching the preceding “Grey’s Anatomy” while “ER” inherits only 9.9 million viewers watching NBC’s “Deal or No Deal.” “ER” lifts that number to 15 million viewers while its ABC counterpart plummets to just 10.7 million.

The performance is even more impressive for “ER” in ratings for the 18-to-49-year-old audience that NBC uses as its main measuring stick of success. By that measure “ER” is the No. 4 show on television this season.

One key to the comeback by “ER” was CBS’s decision to move its resident hit in that time period, “Without a Trace,” to Sunday nights. “Without a Trace” had begun to beat “ER” consistently last season, one reason the NBC show faced so many intimations of mortality.

But Mr. Reilly argued that the consistent quality of “ER” has brought back viewers and attracted some new ones. “It never stopped being compelling television,” he said. “It still has that adrenaline rush and emotional impact.”

A subtle advantage that may not have been apparent originally has been the complete turnover of the show’s cast. Not one of the original actors, who included George Clooney and Noah Wyle, remains. “But younger viewers don’t know that group,” Mr. Zabel said, pointing out that a female fan in her early 20’s would probably have been a child in bed at 10 p.m. when the series started.

Now the show has added a familiar star, John Stamos, as a cast regular, which Mr. Reilly said was expected to give the show an additional boost. He plays a paramedic studying to be a doctor.

Mr. Zabel agreed with the prediction, saying, “John is a charming, dynamic character who brings us a color we didn’t have.” But he noted that the continuing stars Goran Visnjic and Maura Tierney have also taken off as lead characters on the series, although that has happened largely under the radar.

“They’re still the new guys,” he said, “even though they’ve been on the show for seven years.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/12/arts/television/12emer.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&ref=television&pagewanted=print

dad1153

10-12-06, 02:41 AM

TV Notebook
Playback time for Nielsens
By Gary Levin USA Today

The TiVo Nation has arrived.

Nielsen has begun measuring playback on digital video recorders, and the first results are handing a big lift to some of TV's top shows.

When recorded, water-cooler shows such as Grey's and Survivor are most often watched that night; other series (House, CSI) get their biggest bumps days later in the week. Yet viewers almost never record newsmagazines, game shows, Spanish-language telenovelas and sports events.

Damn, shows you how out of touch with the mainstream I am. My DVR is filled-to-the-brim with the usual suspects (all the L&O's, 'Studio 60,' 'Heroes,' etc.) but what I record the most are gameshows ('Deal or No Deal,' a ton of GSN's daytime schedule, etc.), newsmagazines ('60 Minutes,' 'Dateline: To Catch A Predator,' etc.) and PGA golf on weekend afternoons. I'm such a loser! :(

CPanther95

10-12-06, 07:55 AM

Deal or No Deal is great for the DVR. If you sit down to watch TV at 8pm, you can zip through two one hour episodes of DOND to eat up the 20 minutes you need to kill to build a buffer. 10 minutes per episode still factors in a couple of commercials you decide to watch plus a bathroom break.

generalpatton78

10-12-06, 08:36 AM

You could have a good point, Al..
But suddenly NBC has far more serious problems than I believe its executives expected.
Perhaps they are just shoring up one leak in the dike at a time.
But I suspect this is just the first of a series of moves -- and remember it isn't official yet.
You can bet lots of top NBC execs were huddled today over the unexpectedly worrisome "Studio 60" and dismal "Friday Nght Lights" situations, too.

Didn't St60 see a 15% increase in ratings this week compared to the previous week? I think NBC should stick with some of these shows longer and simply find the right time slot. I watched FNL second episode and enjoyed it allot more then the pilot. It has me wondering if they shouldn't re-air some of the episodes after the ND football games and maybe before SNF. FNL could actually see a increase in ratings when football season is over and all the football fans are dieing for a fix. Sometimes it simply takes time for shows to find their audience.

generalpatton78

10-12-06, 08:40 AM

jim tressler

10-12-06, 09:26 AM

Fred- I do not like her.. it seems like she is forcing her delivery.. real fake if you ask me.. whereas Bob was real and genuine.. someone you'd want to have a beer with

TV Notebook
Stat of the Day

Last week, Katie Couric averaged 7.04 million viewers for “The CBS Evening News”.

In his final week (pre-Labor Day weekend – with fewer households watching TV) Bob Schieffer averaged 7.24 million viewers.

DoubleDAZ

10-12-06, 09:37 AM

Fred- I do not like her.. it seems like she is forcing her delivery.. real fake if you ask me.. whereas Bob was real and genuine.. someone you'd want to have a beer withI disliked Dan Rather and I'd rather have him back on. At least he looked professional and didn't look like he was trying to be my best friend. Also, I don't want someone trying to be "homey" about the news of the day. If I wanted that, I'd watch The View. :eek:

fredfa

10-12-06, 10:15 AM

We need more articles about this stuff. I think this clearly shows a shift in numbers and we DVR freaks should be counted!

We have been counted, despite all the dire wailings.

TiVo has kept numbers for years and it is readily available to the advertising community. The TiVo sample, by the way, is far larger than the Nielsen sample.

The big battle is coming in how to count the DVR viewers. The networks, of course, syaythey should be counted equally. The advertisers fear (rightly in my view) that DVR viewers don't watch their commercials anywhere near as much as normal viewers.)

fredfa

10-12-06, 10:18 AM

Damn, shows you how out of touch with the mainstream I am. My DVR is filled-to-the-brim with the usual suspects (all the L&O's, 'Studio 60,' 'Heroes,' etc.) but what I record the most are gameshows ('Deal or No Deal,' a ton of GSN's daytime schedule, etc.), newsmagazines ('60 Minutes,' 'Dateline: To Catch A Predator,' etc.) and PGA golf on weekend afternoons. I'm such a loser! :(

I am with you in part. A rainy day treat can be a bucket of buttered popcorn and a half dozen back-to-back episodes of "Match Game".

fredfa

10-12-06, 10:39 AM

Nielsen Notebook
The new season's winners and losers
And mostly losers three weeks in, despite hopes
By Toni Fitzgerald MediaLifeMagazine.com staff writer Oct 12, 2006

Three weeks into the new season, one thing is clear: There’s no huge new breakout hit like “Desperate Housewives” and “Lost” two years ago.

There are some shows doing surprisingly well, such as NBC’s “Heroes” and ABC’s “Ugly Betty,” and some doing surprisingly awful, such as CBS’s now-yanked “Smith.”

But despite media buyers’ optimism about the high quality of shows this season, there are few stand-outs for any network.

Nearly every new show experienced a steep decline in its second outing, never a good sign. And every network has a good number of stinkers.

Here’s a network-by-network look at the winners and losers thus far this fall.

ABC

Winners: “Ugly Betty” (Thursday 8 p.m.). “Betty” has finished ahead of CBS’s solid “Survivor” twice in households and is the No. 1 new show on that measure. It’s also No. 11 overall among households, impressive considering other competition in the timeslot includes NBC’s young-skewing “My Name is Earl” and “The Office” and that “Betty” is leads off the night.

Losers: “Six Degrees” (Thursday 10 p.m). The new drama following ABC’s big hit “Grey’s Anatomy” is losing more than 40 percent of its lead-in, and looks unlikely to build. At least "Brothers & Sisters," airing after "Desperate Housewives," is drawing respectable 18-49 numbers and viewership seems to have stabilized, keeping it off the loser list.

It’s too soon to tell for critical hit “The Nine,” which in only one outing also lost quite a bit of “Lost’s” lead-in. All three shows could be gone or rescheduled by midseason.

CBS

Winner: “Jericho” (Wednesday 8 p.m.). Media people tabbed this as one of the new season’s first potential casualties, but “Jericho” was the only new show to grow in its second week. It’s up more than a quarter over CBS’s 2005 timeslot average.

Loser: “Smith” (Tuesday 8 p.m.). Yanked after just three weeks after CBS recorded an 8 percent dip in its 18-49 average compared with last year on the night.

“The Class” was nearing loser territory but a promising first outing in its new 8:30 p.m. timeslot, where it rose 30 percent from the previous week, saved it.

NBC

Winner: “Heroes” (Monday 9 p.m.). The season’s top-rated new show among 18-49s despite its lack of a superstar lead-in. The show also built audience in week three, a very reassuring sign, and was the first new show to get a full-season order.

Losers: “Friday Night Lights” (Tuesday 8 p.m.), “Kidnapped” (Wednesday 10 p.m.). Production on “Kidnapped,” now exiled to Saturday nights, has stopped, and “Lights” actually did slightly worse in its debut than that show despite extensive promotion. NBC may not keep it long on Tuesdays, where it’s pulling down an otherwise successful night.

Fox

Winner: “Standoff” (Tuesday 9 p.m.). Though the show is losing 44 percent of its lead-in, that lead-in is highly rated “House,” making “Standoff” Fox’s top new show with a 3.7 rating. However, it will face a tougher test after baseball when it moves to 8 p.m., before “House.”

Losers: “Vanished” (Monday 9 p.m.), “Happy Hour” (Thursday 8:30 p.m.). “Vanished” has been banished to Fridays, and “Hour” disappeared one week before its planned baseball hiatus. “Justice” and “’Til Death” could well join this list depending how they do after baseball.

CW

Winners: None. (Too soon to tell for “The Game,” which is moving to Monday nights from Sunday but has aired just one episode total.)

Losers: “Runaway” (Monday 9 p.m./Sunday 8 p.m.). The new Donnie Wahlberg drama is losing more than half “7th Heaven’s” lead-in among households and ranks behind Univision’s telenovelas among younger viewers.

http://www.medialifemagazine.com/artman/publish/article_7807.asp

fredfa

10-12-06, 11:00 AM

TV Notebook
Katie's hopes for a rebound: About nil
Couric is now third in the nightly news race
By Diego Vasquez medialifemagzaine staff writer Oct 12, 2006

Five weeks after her debut, Katie Couric has quickly dropped in the nightly ratings, delivering her worst numbers by far and finishing third for the second straight week.

The “CBS Evening News” is still showing some gains over last year in total viewers and adults 25-54. But for the week ended Oct. 8, Couric’s 7.04 million viewers and 1.9 rating badly trailed NBC’s “Nightly News with Brian Williams,” at 8.54 million total viewers and a 2.2 in 25-54s, and ABC’s “World News with Charles Gibson,” at 7.98 million total viewers and a 2.2 in 25-54s.

Nearly half of Couric’s debut audience of 13.6 million have tuned out, though that’s not a huge surprise.

Media people had predicted, in several Media Life polls, that Couric would sink to second or third after her debut and in the end would not significantly better former anchor Bob Schieffer’s numbers.

Key for Couric will be the upcoming midterm elections, as newscasts often gain or lose momentum based on big events, and that will be the first one she covers.

Paul Levinson, professor and chair of the communication and media studies department at Fordham University, and William J. McLaughlin, former CBS News correspondent and associate professor of communications at Quinnipiac University, talk to Media Life about why Couric’s ratings won’t rise, what CBS could have done differently, and why the evening news in general is old news news-wise.

Couric's ratings have dropped off quite a bit since week one, from 13.6 million in her first night to an average 7.04 million last week. What is a reasonable level to expect she'll even out at?

Levinson: She'll be lucky if she keeps the 7 million. Although she is doing a fine job, her presentation and the “CBS Evening News” in general is not different enough, young enough, radical enough a departure from the show before Couric to change American viewing habits.

McLaughlin: With any luck they will stay in the mid to low 7s, but the trend is downward so I wouldn't rule out a drift into the 6s---or worse.

Will she ever rise back to No. 1?

Levinson: No--unless there's a story that breaks that has to do with her, as a subject of the story.

McLaughlin: Ratings are usually not that volatile, especially in news. So barring something truly spectacular, like Katie morphing into the earth goddess, I don't see a return to the first slot. That was a fluke born out of marriage between publicity and curiosity that suffered a quickie divorce.

CBS certainly attracted a lot of attention for her debut. Why didn't her audience hold more?

Levinson: Her brief crest of viewers came from two sources: people who were watching other evening news shows, and people who did not regularly watch the evening news on TV at all.

Regarding the first, people who liked Brian Williams before Couric still like him, and didn't like Couric enough to leave him. Regarding the second, people whose lives don't bring them home at 6:30 p.m. are still living those same lives, working those same hours, etc.

McLaughlin: She did not hold on to the audience because it wasn't hers to begin with. It was borrowed and duly returned once the audience’s curiosity was satisfied.

How would you grade the changes made to CBS's newscast? Are they enough, or should the network have done something more radical? Or perhaps less?

Levinson: I would give the changes a B-, at most. They are okay, but nowhere nearly enough to shake things up. The network should have gone with someone with a younger, cooler tone, like Shepard Smith on Fox. CBS should have gone for a faster paced show. And they should have gone for more, not less, hard-hitting news--more along the lines of CNN's Headline News.

McLaughlin: The changes are mostly cookie-cutter or failure, like the “Free Speech gimmick.” The real change at CBS is the acute feminization of the news and those who deliver it. And it is not working.

Every evening news is a prelude to the end of the world as we know it, and it is the peculiar culture of Americans to expect doom to be announced in a baritone, not a mezzo-soprano. I'm not kidding--the male authority figure is still dominant, something the CBS suits forgot.

Do you think it's possible, this day in age, for any of the newscasts to realistically expect to grow?

Levinson: No. People are just not gathering around the TV set right after dinner at home anymore. Not only will the evening newscasts not grow, they will continue to dwindle, playing to an ever-aging audience. I predict total viewership on all three networks evening newscasts will be below 10 million by 2010, and even that will continue to diminish.

McLaughlin: None of the nets are growing except perhaps NBC, thanks to MSNBC and CNBC. I predict a Time Warner breakup and either ABC or CBS will pick up CNN. Probably CBS. They must amortize their talent or disappear.

Based on results so far, will ABC or NBC be affected by Couric's presence, either positively or negatively?

Levinson: All in all, there will be no long-lasting effect, either positive or negative.

McLaughlin: No effect except stability.

Is it too early to label Couric a success or failure?

Levinson: I think we can say she failed to do what CBS wanted, but the failure is more CBS's than hers.

McLaughlin: Yes, it's a bit too early to label it a success or failure. Let's wait for the first anniversary. If Katie's still No. 3, even she won't be smiling.

Conventional wisdom is that anchors are made based on big, breaking news. Do you think that could eventually give Couric a boost?

Levinson: That would be about the only chance Couric might have of surging upward in the ratings.

http://www.medialifemagazine.com/artman/publish/article_7812.asp

fredfa

10-12-06, 11:17 AM

Didn't St60 see a 15% increase in ratings this week compared to the previous week? I think NBC should stick with some of these shows longer and simply find the right time slot. I watched FNL second episode and enjoyed it allot more then the pilot. It has me wondering if they shouldn't re-air some of the episodes after the ND football games and maybe before SNF. FNL could actually see a increase in ratings when football season is over and all the football fans are dieing for a fix. Sometimes it simply takes time for shows to find their audience.

I'd have to look, but I do believe the Studio 60 18-39 demo did rise a bit this week.

Here are the overall viewer numbers for Studio 60 in its first four weeks:

Week One: 13.14 million
Week Two: 10.82 million
Week Three: 8.85 million
Week Four: 8.76 million

To put that fourth week number in context, if Studio 60 were to end the seaosn with an average of 8.76 million viewers, it would have ranked 64th in last season's final ratings, barely ahead of E-Ring (8.63 million.)

As for Friday Night Lights (a show I love, by the way) I just don't see any hope. Viewers have proven time and again they just don't care for sports-themed shows on mainstream networks.

fredfa

10-12-06, 11:19 AM

So, did anyone see "30 Rock" and/or "Twenty Good Years" last night?

If so, what did you think?

fredfa

10-12-06, 11:23 AM

fredfa

10-12-06, 11:31 AM

TV Notebook
CBS, NBC call for backup
Nets aim for early midseason magic
By Nellie Andreeva and Andrew Wallenstein The Hollywood Reporter Oct. 12, 2006

CBS and NBC are bringing in the midseason reinforcements for Tuesday and Wednesday nights with newcomer "3 Lbs." and returning drama "Medium," respectively.

CBS has slated "3 Lbs." to premiere Nov. 14 in the Tuesday 10 p.m. slot previously occupied by "Smith," which was canceled last week after three airings. "3 Lbs.," from CBS Paramount Network TV, revolves around the relationship between a rising star brain surgeon (Mark Feuerstein), and the brilliant but unpredictable surgeon he works under (Stanley Tucci).

NBC will bring the drama "Medium," starring Emmy-winning Patricia Arquette, back to its primetime lineup in the Wednesday 10 p.m. slot recently vacated by low-rated serial drama "Kidnapped," which has relocated to Saturday. "Medium," also from CBS Paramount Network TV, is expected to move into the Wednesday berth by mid November. NBC declined comment.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr/television/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003252302

fredfa

10-12-06, 12:05 PM

The initial ratings for "30 Rock" and "Twenty Good Years" seem to be disappointing. Details are coming shortly.

generalpatton78

10-12-06, 12:13 PM

You know this thread is better then Zap2it lol. I think in ST60 they should reference this thread instead of Variety subscribers.

fredfa

10-12-06, 12:17 PM

Overnights in the 18-49 Demo
Ratings dip for new Wednesday shows
ABC's 'Nine' falls 30 percent in its second week ng
By Toni Fitzgerald MediaLifeMagazine.com staff writer Oct. 12, 2006

Things aren’t looking good for three new series on Wednesday nights.

The second episode of “The Nine,” ABC’s highly praised drama following “Lost” at 10 p.m., averaged a 3.2 adults 18-49 rating last night, according to Nielsen overnights, down 30 percent from last week’s 4.6 for its premiere.

The show lost more than 50 percent of “Lost’s” 6.7 lead-in, never a good sign for a new program. And it fell off 25 percent from its first half hour to its second, going from a 3.6 to a 2.7. In fact, among households, it finished behind NBC’s competing “Dateline” in the hour with a 5.7 to the latter’s 5.8.

The results for NBC were equally disappointing. The new sitcoms “30 Rock” and “Twenty Good Years” are off to slow starts, with the latter posting the lowest debut rating for any new show on the Big Three networks this year.

“Rock,” the Tina Fey sitcom about life behind the scenes at a “Saturday Night Live”-type show, averaged a 2.9 18-49 rating, placing third in the 8 p.m. timeslot but only bettering the premiere for “Kidnapped,” which was recently exiled to Saturdays, by 0.1.

At 8:30 p.m., “Twenty” lost 14 percent of its lead-in and sank to a 2.5, 0.2 behind the premiere of “Friday Night Lights” last week.

NBC points out that the two shows were still a big improvement over last year’s timeslot average on the same night, but it was failed drama “E-Ring” in that slot, where it generated embarrassingly low ratings.

So what’s the problem? It’s not a quality issue, at least not for two of the shows. “Rock” and “Nine” are critically praised programs with smart writing and concepts, even if “Twenty” was universally panned.

Some of it simply may be tough timeslot competition. “Rock” and “Twenty” face ABC juggernaut “Dancing with the Stars,” which had the night’s highest household rating yesterday. And CBS’s “CSI: NY” had one of its strongest recent outings, averaging an impressive 5.9 at 10 p.m. opposite “Nine.”

Meanwhile, ABC won the night among 18-49s with a 4.8 rating and 13 share, followed closely by CBS at 4.5/12, NBC at 2.9/8, Fox at 2.6/7, the CW at 2.1/6 and Univision at 1.6/4.

Ratings for Fox are approximate, as fast nationals measure timeslot data and not actual program data, and baseball ran late.

ABC dominated at 8 p.m. with “Stars’” 4.6, followed by a 3.2 for CBS’s “Jericho,” NBC’s sitcoms and CW’s “America’s Next Top Model” tied at 2.7, Fox’s American League Championship Series at 2.4 and Univision’s “La Fea Mas Bella” at 2.0.

Of note, “Model” won the hour in adults 18-34 with a season-best 3.4.

At 9 p.m., ABC’s “Lost” was first with a 6.7, followed by CBS’s “Criminal Minds” at 4.4. Among total viewers, things were much closer – 16.66 million for “Lost” and 16.49 million for “Minds.”

Back to 18-49s, NBC was third with a 3.0 for “Biggest Loser,” followed by Fox’s ALCS at 2.7, Univision’s “Mundo de Fieras” at 1.7 and CW’s “One Tree Hill” at 1.5.

At 10 p.m., CBS’s “CSI: NY” shot ahead with a 5.9, followed by “Nine’s” 3.2, “Dateline’s” 2.9, Fox’s ALCS at 2.8 and Univision’s “Don Francisco Presenta” at 1.2.

Among households, CBS led at 9.8/15, followed by ABC at 9.4/15, Fox at 5.7/9, NBC at 5.3/8, the CW at 2.9/5 and Univision at 2.0/3.

http://www.medialifemagazine.com/artman/publish/article_7865.asp

fredfa

10-12-06, 12:48 PM

Wednesday’s prime-time ratings – and Media Week Analyst Marc Berman’s view of what they mean -- have been posted just under the HD Football listings near the top of Ratings News the first post in this thread.

Rakesh.S

10-12-06, 12:57 PM

A further "Studio 60" note.

Ellen Grey, in today's Philadelphia Daily News, notes that: "...Though its Nielsen ratings continue to drop - this week below 9 million viewers - NBC's "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip" continues as the most-watched new series among TiVo users, ranking sixth on the digital-recording device company's weekly primetime report...."

man they are spinning this thing in every way possible.

NBC: Denial isn't a river in Egypt.

Cancel this turkey and move on already.

More disconcerting news for ABC - Criminal Minds is catching up and may put Lost in 2nd place on Wednesdays...and American Idol isn't even on yet. Yikes. The Nine is a dud.

RussTC3

10-12-06, 12:59 PM

So, did anyone see "30 Rock" and/or "Twenty Good Years" last night?

If so, what did you think?
I had them on in the background last night as I was doing other things.

They were okay, nothing spectacular, with "30 Rock" a little better than the later.

I liked Baldwin's character, didn't care much about Fey's and thought Tracy was okay in some parts, and bad in others (the skit at the end wasn't funny at all, not sure what that was about).

It was good seeing Lithgow and Tambor on screen together in "Twenty Good Years", but it wasn't laugh-out-loud funny.

fredfa

10-12-06, 01:04 PM

man they are spinning this thing in every way possible.

NBC: Denial isn't a river in Egypt.

Cancel this turkey and move on already.

More disconcerting news for ABC - Criminal Minds is catching up and may put Lost in 2nd place on Wednesdays...and American Idol isn't even on yet. Yikes. The Nine is a dud.

I think the "Lost" erosion will steadily continue. After all, once you miss an episode or two, you are truly lost. "Criminal Minds" allows you to come back whenever you wish.

(To be clear, I am not making any value judgments about either program.)

Additionally, ABC will be taking "Lost" off the air for three months starting in Mid-November and when it comes back, I would anticipate even more ratings fall off.

fredfa

10-12-06, 01:07 PM

I had them on in the background last night as I was doing other things.

They were okay, nothing spectacular, with "30 Rock" a little better than the later.

I liked Baldwin's character, didn't care much about Fey's and thought Tracy was okay in some parts, and bad in others (the skit at the end wasn't funny at all, not sure what that was about).

It was good seeing Lithgow and Tambor on screen together in "Twenty Good Years", but it wasn't laugh-out-loud funny.

Personally I found a few amusing (if very predictable) moments in "Twenty Years".

On the other hand, "30 Rock" totally mystified me. I thought Baldwin was terrific, the material was awful. On show day a show runner totally disappears all day (in a strip club, no less?) I can suspend my disbelief, but not that far.

keenan

10-12-06, 01:16 PM

Personally I found a few amusing (if very preditable) moments in "Twenty Years".

On the other hand, "30 Rock" totally mystified me. I thought Baldwin was terrific, the material was awful. On show day a show runner totally disappears all day (in a strip club, no less?) I can suspend my disbelief, but not that far.
I watched them both and agree with your assessment, Baldwin was really the only redeeming part of either show but not enough to watch next week, thumbs down on both for me, although I should qualify that by saying they're not my cup of tea anyways.

posg

10-12-06, 01:18 PM

I think the "Lost" erosion will steadily continue. After all, once you miss an episode or two, you are truly lost. "Criminal Minds" allows you to come back whenever you wish.

(To be clear, I am not making any value judgments about either program.)

Additionally, ABC will be taking "Lost" off the air for three months starting in Mid-November and when it comes back, I would anticipate even more ratings fall off.

I find it amusing that you say that once you miss an episode or two of Lost, you are truely lost, while others (not those others) are saying that it moves too slowly and nothing happens to move the story forward week to week.

Unfortunately, Lost will continue lose steam, not because it isn't good, but because it does not afford instant gratification, and we are an instant gratification society.

VisionOn

10-12-06, 01:24 PM

I think the "Lost" erosion will steadily continue. After all, once you miss an episode or two, you are truly lost. "Criminal Minds" allows you to come back whenever you wish.

(To be clear, I am not making any value judgments about either program.)

Additionally, ABC will be taking "Lost" off the air for three months starting in Mid-November and when it comes back, I would anticipate even more ratings fall off.
The relentlessly dull "Others" have dropped Lost from the top of my viewing list this year. There's only so many times I can see a gang of hobos acting "mysterious" and being evasive. Especially when there are far bigger and more entertaining mysteries the show established a long time ago which keep getting ignored. Not to mention half of the characters who barely get screen time now.

I wouldn't be surprised if the ratings fall again when it returns either.

RussTC3

10-12-06, 01:27 PM

fredfa

10-12-06, 01:32 PM

TV Notebook
Roger Ebert Update
Roger writes from rehab

Rich Heldenfels of the Akron Beacon Journal notes in his blog (http://blogs.ohio.com/beacon_tv/) that there has been an update from Roger Ebert. (Rich also credits Jim Romenesko’s site for alertinghim. So here is the Ebert update from the man himself:

by Roger Ebert Chicago Sun-Times

For 40 years, I didn't miss a single deadline, but since July, I have missed every one. I also, to my intense disappointment, missed the Telluride and Toronto film festivals. Having just written my first review since June ("The Queen" -- for 10/12), I think an update is in order.

Faithful readers and viewers will recall that I expected a speedy recovery from surgery for salivary cancer last June. My expert (and now beloved) doctors had an encouraging game plan, and I expected to be back at work right away. Then I had several episodes of sudden and serious bleeding.

They stabilized me, operated on me to deal with the arteries, kept me sedated to avoid disturbing the affected areas -- and then I essentially spent July and August completely out of it. I remember only fragmentary episodes.

In September, my bleeding hazards stabilized, I came off sedation to find I had lost track of two months of my life, and starred in several prayer vigils for which I am eternally grateful to my wife and tower of strength, Chaz; my family and friends, and the many clergy who came to see me.

I was so touched when Chaz described those lost months. And now I am at the famous Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago -- learning to walk again! My muscles were atrophied by the weeks of inactivity, and I became a rehabilitation candidate. It's been quite an adventure, made easier by the tireless good cheer and expertise of Dr. Jim Sliwa and his RIC team.

During all of this, I didn't lose any marbles. My thinking is intact and my mental process doesn't require rehabilitation. Visits from colleagues at the Chicago Sun-Times, "Ebert & Roeper," ABC-7 and the film world kept me informed -- although, curiously, I found myself more interested in plunging into the depths of classic novels ("Persuasion," "Great Expectations," "The Ambassadors") than watching a lot of DVDs. I prefer to see the new Oliver Stone, Martin Scorsese and Clint Eastwood films on a big screen, for example. But our "Ebert & Roeper" producer Don DuPree brought around a DVD of "The Queen," and when I viewed it, I knew I wanted to review it.

A few more recent movies also will be reviewed, but I won't be back to full production until sometime early next year. The good news is that my rehabilitation is a profound education in the realities of the daily lives we lead, and my mind is still capable of being delighted by cinematic greatness.

I plan to have my Overlooked Film Festival again in April, and cover the Academy Awards and Cannes. I can't wait to be back in the Sun-Times on a full-time basis, and to rejoin Richard Roeper in the "Ebert & Roeper" balcony. Dr. Harold Pelzer and Dr. Neil Fine of Northwestern Memorial Hospital, and my personal physician, Dr. Robert Havey, also of Northwestern, assure me I will eventually walk, talk, taste, eat, drink and live, more or less, normally. But it will be a struggle, involving another surgery to complete what began in June.

I have discovered a goodness and decency in people as exhibited in all the letters, e-mails, flowers, gifts and prayers that have been directed my way. I am overwhelmed and humbled. I offer you my most sincere thanks and my deep and abiding gratitude. If I ever write my memoirs, I have some spellbinding material. How does the Joni Mitchell song go? "Don't it always seem to go that you don't know what you've got till it's gone"? One thing I've discovered is that I love my job more than I thought I did, and I love my wife even more!

http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061011/PEOPLE/61011001

biggiE48

10-12-06, 01:35 PM

VisionOn

10-12-06, 01:36 PM

I find it amusing that you say that once you miss an episode or two of Lost, you are truely lost, while others (not those others) are saying that it moves too slowly and nothing happens to move the story forward week to week.

Unfortunately, Lost will continue lose steam, not because it isn't good, but because it does not afford instant gratification, and we are an instant gratification society.

Depends if you miss one of the three or four episodes when something pivotal actually does happen.

And I don't think it's because the show doesn't instantly reward the viewer that people are not watching. I think it's because the show is dragging out one storyline (in which little happens) and a handful of characters at the expense of other plot lines and characters. There are too many characters as it is and the writers just can't balance them all. Adding more (which is going to happen) will further reduce the interest in characters people grew intreested in during season 1. Michael and Walt were significant in the first season and last season they were diluted and eventually written out with a fairly empty conclusion.

I'll be interested to see what happens with Day Break.

fredfa

10-12-06, 01:58 PM

I find it amusing that you say that once you miss an episode or two of Lost, you are truely lost, while others (not those others) are saying that it moves too slowly and nothing happens to move the story forward week to week.

Unfortunately, Lost will continue lose steam, not because it isn't good, but because it does not afford instant gratification, and we are an instant gratification society.

I understand your comment, and I think it has some truth to it.

But I can only post (and do so infrequently) what is true for me in relation to shows I enjoy (or don't). That is another reasopn I post so many different viewpoints -- I don't want my own personal prejudices to become the overwhelming opinion in the thread.

As to your final sentence, I see that as a catch-all excuse and I heartily (though, I trust courteously) disagree. Clearly J.J. Abrams was absent last year and the show (at least as far as I could tell) lost direction. Perhaps the slowness comes from the fact he wasn't there to guide the show runners on a daily basis. Perhaps not.

But losing a quarter of its audience in a year is not at all a good sign.

jim tressler

10-12-06, 01:59 PM

good point posg - its now a "what have you done for me lately" kind of thing!

I find it amusing that you say that once you miss an episode or two of Lost, you are truely lost, while others (not those others) are saying that it moves too slowly and nothing happens to move the story forward week to week.

Unfortunately, Lost will continue lose steam, not because it isn't good, but because it does not afford instant gratification, and we are an instant gratification society.

fredfa

10-12-06, 02:00 PM

New show I like watching are:

Heroes
Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip
Friday Night Lights
Ugly Betty
Jericho

On The Fence:
Shark

Watched two or three, but oh well
Kidnapped
Smith

Couldn't make it through first show:
Vanished
Standoff
Justice
The Nine
30 Rocks

Never Saw nor wanted to:
Help Me Help You
Six Degree
The Class
Runaway
MYNetwork TV

Thanks, BiggiE48 -- we seem to have similar tastes. (Try "Justice" once or twice more -- it certainly ain't brain surgery, but it grew on me.

And post more often!

fredfa

10-12-06, 02:06 PM

good point posg - its now a "what have you done for me lately" kind of thing!

Ain't that the truth?

As we can tell by all the threads of folks upset at one provider or another for not adding this or that channel, or a network like CBS which has led in (the amount of) prime-time HD programming for years but only broadcasts three NFL games in HD.

If it weren't for instant gratification complaints, AVS would lose two-thirds of its posts.

But that aside, my own take is that the Lost folks don't know where they are going and they meander aimlessly as they ever so slowly head for a destination they haven't yet figured out. But that is just me.

Another problem (and probably bigger), however, is that there (in my view at least) a plethora of quality shows and most people have just a finite time available for viewing. Give them a reason to come back and they will. Make it too tough and they will seek their entertainment options elsewhere.

posg

10-12-06, 02:39 PM

But that aside, my own take is that the Lost folks don't know where they are going and they meander aimlessly as they ever so slowly head for a destination they haven't yet figured out. But that is just me.

My take is that they know exactly where they are going, they just don't know how long it's going to take to get there. Two seasons, three seasons, etc.

If they knew they only had one season left, they wouldn't be adding new characters and questions, and would get to resolving what's currently on the table. But once they tidy up the big questions, then what??? They're just doing what any good serial drama has to do when it's an open ended exercise.

Daytime dramas have survived for years with that formula, but only occasionally does a true serial drama maintain momentum over an extended period in primetime.

Most hit shows drag on long past their prime. Seinfeld was right. Bail when you're on top. I hope ratings kill Lost before the creativity completely dries up and it becomes a parody of itself.

flint350

10-12-06, 03:17 PM

On "30 Rock" - I watched it and disliked it immediately. I really expected to like it. Oddly, all my expectations were reversed - I generally find Baldwin unappealing, but thought he was the best thing in the show. I generally find Tina Fey appealing, but found her character unappealing and non-believable. The writing was not funny for the most part. At times, it seemed to try to hard for little "please like this cute moment" segments (the hot dog opening, the strip club dancing, etc). And Fey showing up at the end just as the show needs saving - puhleeze. I'll probably give it a 2nd or 3rd try (if it lasts that long), but I was seriously disappointed.

On "Lost", I agree with posg about Lost's "problem". They probably have some sense of an ultimate conclusion/ending and are having difficulty creating a "middle", until they get there. The writers are in a tough spot. They created this tangled web of intrigue and don't know how long they have to conclude it. Therefore, the ever-growing backstories become more involved and the revelation of "the others" having a village and outside contact are brought in like mile markers - little rest stops to maintain interest as the main plot plods along. It's still good enough to watch, but I doubt it can ever return to its former full glory and will begin a wind-down to a hopefully satisfying conclusion.

fredfa

10-12-06, 03:31 PM

TV Notebook
NBC Makes It Official
Medium” Returns (Wednesdays at 10 PM ET/PT) Nov. 15
(NBC News Release) October 12, 2006

BURBANK – October 12, 2006 - NBC will return the hit drama "Medium" - starring Emmy Award winner Patricia Arquette --to its primetime schedule on Wednesday, November 15 (10-11 p.m. ET), it was announced today by Kevin Reilly, President, NBC Entertainment.

"We have been waiting for the right moment to bring back this excellent, chilling drama to our lineup and we know this will make the show's legion of devoted fans very happy," said Reilly. "'Medium' is an especially creative show, led by the vision of executive producer-creator Glenn Gordon Caron, that is ready to hit the ground running with its new season of thrilling episodes."

For the 2005-06 season, "Medium" averaged a 4.1 rating, 10 share among adults 18-49 and 11.1 million viewers overall and was NBC's #3 drama for the season in both categories.

From Emmy Award-winning executive producer, creator and director Glenn Gordon Caron ("Moonlighting"), "Medium" is a chilling drama series inspired by the real-life story of research medium Allison DuBois. Emmy-winning Patricia Arquette ("Stigmata," "Flirting with Disaster") stars as a young wife and mother who, since childhood, has been struggling to make sense of her dreams and visions of dead people. Arquette received the Emmy in the Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series category for her performance as DuBois after the telecast of the initial 16 episodes of the critically acclaimed series.

As a part-time consultant to the district attorney's office, Allison uses her psychic abilities, which consist of talking to dead people as well as seeing the future in her dreams to solve violent and horrifying crimes that have remained mysteries to her boss D.A. Devalos (Miguel Sandoval, "The Division") and others within the criminal justice system. Jake Weber ("Meet Joe Black") stars as Allison's supportive husband Joe, and Sofia Vassilieva ("Eloise at the Plaza") and Maria Lark ("10.5") star as Ariel and Bridget, the two eldest DuBois children. David Cubitt also stars as Detective Lee Scanlon and Madison Carabello plays the youngest daughter, Marie DuBois.

Gaiwan

10-12-06, 03:38 PM

While Lost's ratings are in decline, I dont see it getting cancelled anytime soon. If anything it will just hasten its conclusion, were the ratings increasing I can see them stretching this out to 5 or 6 seasons but if the ratings continue to decline they will most likely decide to wrap things up after 4. I envision MASH finale like numbers for Lost's series finale, adjusted for tv viewership inflation of course, or deflation as the case may be.

fredfa

10-12-06, 03:42 PM

TV Notebook
ABC Spins the “Lost” Numbers
(ABC News Release) Oct. 12, 2005

"Lost" (9:00-10:00 p.m.)

The No. 1 TV program of the night in Adults 18-49 for the second week in a row, ABC's "Lost" won the 9 o'clock hour in Total Viewers (16.7 million) and Adults 18-49 (6.7/17). Among Adults 18-49, "Lost" (6.7/17) beat out second-place CBS' "Criminal Minds" by 52% (4.4/11) and third-place NBC's "Biggest Loser" by 123% (3.0/8).

• "Lost" qualified as Wednesday's No. 1 TV program across the key adult demos (AD18-34 - 5.6/16, AD18-49 - 6.7/17 and AD25-54 - 7.4/17) and among Teens 12-17 (4.2/14).

• Compared to where it ended last season, "Lost" was up in viewers and young adults (2006 May Sweep = 15.7 million viewers & 6.6/15 in Adults 18-49). In fact, excepting last week's season opener and the season finale in May, "Lost" attracted its largest audience since February and its second-highest Adult 18-49 number since April - since 2/15/06 and 4/5/06, respectively.

fredfa

10-12-06, 05:11 PM

The Business of TV
Liberty Media weighing DirecTV swap
The Denver Business Journal

Greg Maffei, president and CEO of Liberty Media Corp., said Thursday the media holding company may swap its 17 percent stake in Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. for a 38 percent stake in the DirecTV Group Inc.

During a Shop.org conference in New York, Maffei said Englewood-based Liberty (NASDAQ: LCAPA) could enter into a deal to exchange its $11 billion stake in News Corp. (NYSE: NWS) for a controlling stake in DirecTV (NYSE: DTV).

Reports of the deal first surfaced in September, fueling speculation that Murdoch has discounted satellite TV as a viable and competitive platform because it lacks the "triple-play" of video, phone and information services cable offers. Murdoch has publicly defended the satellite TV market despite slowing subscriber growth.

In late September, Robert Routh, an analyst for New York-based investment firm Jefferies & Company, said such a deal would make sense for Liberty, which is controlled by Denver media mogul John Malone.

"It's a tax-efficient way for Liberty to monetize its News Corp. stock," Routh said. Acquiring DirecTV gives Liberty Media a "tremendous distribution platform" for the company's other holdings, including the home shopping network QVC Inc. and Denver-based television programming subsidiary, Starz Entertainment Group.

The deal -- combined with Liberty's nonstrategic assets, such as holdings in Sprint and Time Warner -- would give Liberty the ability to control distribution and transform its shares into "a real, common stock," Routh said.

DirecTV, which is based in El Segundo, Calif., has 15 million subscribers and 9,200 employees. But analysts differ on whether the company would relocate to Denver if Liberty holds the controlling stake in the company.

This summer, DirecTV opened a national operations center in Englewood in the 257,000-square-foot building at 161 Inverness Drive West with the goal of hiring 1,000 people by year-end.

Englewood-based EchoStar Communications Corp. (NASDAQ: DISH), which operates the DISH Network, employs 21,000 people -- including 5,000 in the Denver area.

Some analysts have speculated Malone would attempt to combine the two satellite TV companies -- although regulators could stall such a proposed merger because of anti-trust concerns.

EchoStar CEO Charlie Ergen said this summer the combination of the two satellite TV providers could save $3 billion a year in expenses.

Routh said whether or not Liberty combines EchoStar and DirecTV, Malone might be grooming the satellite TV provider to sell to Verizon or AT&T so that the larger Bells can offer TV in sparsely populated rural areas, where it's too expensive for them to lay fiber connections.

Rural areas can receive high-speed Internet connections through Denver's WildBlue Communications Inc., which already has marketing agreements with DirecTV and EchoStar. Malone is WildBlue's largest shareholder with a 32 percent stake in the company.

DirecTV shares were up 24 cents to $20.58 in late-afternoon trading. Shares of Liberty Media rose $1.58 to $88.2

http://denver.bizjournals.com/denver/stories/2006/10/09/daily44.html?t=printable

fredfa

10-12-06, 05:45 PM

TV Notebook
HD 'Star Wars' Will Cycle to HBO
Original Aspect Ratios Will Be Preserved
By James Hibberd posted at TV Week’s HD Newsletter Oct. 12, 2006

This week Cinemax officially announced what "Star Wars" fans have known for months: That all six films will debut in HD for the first time in November. The HBO-owned premium network will marathon all six starting at midnight Nov. 10, with Comcast offering the films on HD video-on-demand.

Two lingering questions have worried fans since they learned the news. Will the HD versions cycle to sister network HBO? And will the films be presented in their original aspect ratios?

The answers are yes and yes, an HBO spokesman confirmed.

The HBO question is key for many, since Cinemax HD seemingly has lower distribution than its HBO counterpart. HBO would not release distribution figures, but neither EchoStar nor DirecTV carry Cinemax HD, while both carry HBO HD.

The complete story is here:
http://www.tvweek.com/page.cms?pageId=333

humdinger70

10-12-06, 05:54 PM

What does ABC do if "Day Break", the show filling the spot of Lost for 13 weeks, turns out to be a ratings turkey - along the lines of "Smith"? Do they cancel it and replace it with episodes of "Nanny 911" or "The Bachelor"? :mad: Or will they be forced to push up the start of the final 16 episodes of Lost? :eek:

archiguy

10-12-06, 06:54 PM

Rakesh.S

10-12-06, 07:06 PM

I think Daybreak stays the course for 13 episodes, regardless of ratings. I also don't think it will be renewed. Hopefully it'll be a nice little stopgap mini-series with a conclusion while Lost is off the air.

If I were ABC, this would be a great opportunity to evaluate the effectiveness of short run miniseries during a tv season.

fredfa

10-12-06, 07:08 PM

Yes, but the price of taking "Lost" off for 13 weeks, then bringing it back when "American Idol" rules, could be steep.

fredfa

10-12-06, 07:47 PM

TV Notebook
“Jericho” Gets Full Season Order From CBS
Freshman Drama Has Boosted the Wednesday 8-9 PM Time Period in Viewers and Key Demographics and Helped Kickoff CBS's Biggest Night of Ratings Growth

(CBS News Release)

CBS has given JERICHO, its freshman hit drama about the aftermath of a nuclear explosion on a small, peaceful Kansas town, a full season order.

JERICHO, averaging 11.3 million viewers, 3.4/10 in adults 18-49 and 4.6/12 in adults 25-54, has boosted CBS's performance in the Wednesday, 8:00-9:00 PM time period by +48% in viewers, +36% in adults 18-49 and +48% in adults 25-54 compared to last year.

As part of a three-hour drama block that includes CRIMINAL MINDS and CSI: NY, CBS has seen its Wednesday ratings increase year-to-year by +34% in viewers, +22% in adults 18-49 and +30% in adults 25-54, the Network's biggest night of ratings growth. CBS is first on Wednesday in viewers and adults 25-54 and a close second in adults 18-49.

Ou8thisSN

10-12-06, 07:56 PM

fred, how do you interpret the share ratings? is there a key/legend for it?

like the 3.4/10 or 4.6/12 etc, how do they come up with the denominator? can you help me figure that out or link me? thanks

fredfa

10-12-06, 08:12 PM

Think of them as percentages (which is what they are).

The 3.4 means that 3.4 per cent of the people in a group (total viewers, or 18-49, or 25-54, etc.) are watching the show.

The second number /10 is the percentage of people actually watching TV at that time in that group who are tuned in.

So to use your example 3.4/10 would mean that of all people (in whatever group is surveyed) , 3.4% of them were watching a show and of people in the group actually watching TV at that time 10 per cent of them were viewing the program.

fredfa

10-12-06, 08:17 PM

TV Notebook
CBS Very Happy With “Criminal Minds”
Beats “Lost” in Households for first time
(CBS News Release)

CRIMINAL MINDS beat "Lost" in households for the first time ever and finished in a near dead heat with "Lost" in viewers in the 9:00-10:00 PM hour and attracted more viewers than "Lost" from 9:30-10:00 PM, according to Nielsen live plus same day ratings for Wednesday, Oct. 11.

CRIMINAL MINDS was first in households (11.0/17), in a virtual tie for first in viewers (16.73m, -160,000 behind "Lost") and a strong second in adults 25-54 (6.2/14) and adults 18-49 (4.5/11). From 9:30-10:00PM, "Criminal Minds" beat lost in viewers (17.29m vs. 16.56m, +4%).

CRIMINAL MINDS finished in its closest competitive position ever against a first run episode of "Lost" in viewers, adults 25-54 and adults 18-49 and this is the first time CRIMINAL MINDS ever topped a first run "Lost" in households.

This is CRIMINAL MINDS's best delivery ever on a Wednesday in households and viewers. Compared to last week, CRIMINAL MINDS was up +10% in households (from 10.0/15), +13% in adults 25-54 (from 5.5/13), +7% in adults 18-49 (from 4.2/10) and added +1.54m viewers (from 15.19m, +10%).

keenan

10-12-06, 09:05 PM

Yes, but the price of taking "Lost" off for 13 weeks, then bringing it back when "American Idol" rules, could be steep.
I think you're right, it's a good idea for the core audience, they don't have to sit through weeks of repeats and catchup shows, and I doubt it will be a fatal blow, but I suspect it is going erode the ratings in a big way. You have to wonder if ABC wishes they had gone with the "24" type schedule instead of what they're doing now.

fredfa

10-12-06, 09:20 PM

keenan

10-12-06, 09:30 PM

If it had been me, I would have started it in September and finished in Feb sweeps.

Let it build during December when so much else is in rerun and finish strong -- even against AI. But it will face AI (unless there is a time period change) in February anyway.

The ratings are already down substantially, and giving Criminal Minds all that more time to catch more and more viewers is going to make the problem even greater.
Well, yes, but I don't think the production schedule would have allowed for that.

Another thing others have mentioned, production in Hawaii may get to the point where it's prohibitive relative to the ratings/income the show is producing, which is also probably related to the above production schedule.

"Lost" definitely is going to have to prove it's mettle in the coming months.

dad1153

10-12-06, 11:30 PM

How long can ABC afford 'Lost'? CBS, unlike ABC, can repeat 'Criminal Minds' many times (during the season and afterwards during summer) and make money off of those repeats regardless of whether they're high or low rated (it's all profit for the network during repeats). You could argue that 'Jericho' also cannot be repeated and is likely to become an albatross around CBS' neck, especially when the show gets around a third or fourth year (will they all still be in Jericho for that long?). But so far 'Jericho' has served as a strong lead-in into 'Minds' while 'Lost' serves as a lead-in into an expensive dud ('The Nine'). Its an expensive one-time show that won't repeat well but 'Jericho's' costs can be absorbed by the fact it's shoring-up 'Minds' as a profitable Top 10 show. 'Lost' is an expensive one-time show that won't repeat well but isn't shoring anything substantial for ABC to make the 10PM Wednesday time slot competitive. And by vacating 'Law & Order' from that slot (good luck to 'Medium,' which should have been paired on Monday nights for a killer one-two combo of supernatural shows) NBC allows CBS to shore-up 'CSI: NY' as an even stronger lead-in into the local news of CBS affiliates.

Damn, I too can be a network programmer! :D

It's no stretch to predict 'Minds' will clobber 'Daybreak' when they go head-to-head (I'd like to be proven wrong), so there goes whatever money ABC spent on that 13-week tryout. So basically 'Lost' is suffering the curse of reality TV standouts like 'Survivor' (one-time airings that generate top ratings and strong demos but no profit in repeat cycles) but with a price tag many million dollars higher per-episode than what 'Survivor' costs. Does ABC own a piece of the DVD sales 'Lost' generates? Because if ratings keep eroding like they have that's the only incentive to keep 'Lost' around.

Imagine if ABC announced that the fourth season of 'Lost' would be the last and every episode will work toward concluding the saga without filler in a '24'-type schedule from January to May. Even I, someone that has never seen a single episode of 'Lost' (I only read about it from the grapevine to keep up with the late night jokes), might tune in out of curiosity to see them try to crawl from the hole they've been digging themselves into.

Rakesh.S

10-12-06, 11:47 PM

I think you're right, it's a good idea for the core audience, they don't have to sit through weeks of repeats and catchup shows, and I doubt it will be a fatal blow, but I suspect it is going erode the ratings in a big way. You have to wonder if ABC wishes they had gone with the "24" type schedule instead of what they're doing now.

The 24 type schedule is good...in hindsight.

If you were an ABC exec before the season started, you had to look at the programming - Dancing with the Stars, Housewives and Grey's are the true hits (Ugly Betty is too, but no one knew how it would do).

Without Lost, they are in BIG trouble on Wednesdays. They cannot keep showing more installments of Dancing with the Stars because it will lead to oversaturation - see Who wants to be a millionaire?

Having Lost on the schedule also gives new shows a chance to succeed with a huge lead-in -- obviously, Invasion was failure and The Nine looks like one too.

RussB

10-13-06, 02:37 AM

Freshman shows make an early impact on the prime-time ratings

By BY MIKE MCDANIEL
Oct. 11, 2006, 3:12PM
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle

Three weeks into the 2006-2007 television season, three new shows are capturing America's fancy: Ugly Betty on ABC, Heroes on NBC and Jericho on CBS. Series that are not meeting expectations include NBC's Friday Night Lights, ABC's Six Degrees, Fox's Vanished and NBC's Kidnapped.

Another NBC series, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, has been losing viewers each time it airs, but the network says those numbers are deceiving.

"We think (Studio 60) is doing well," said Tom Bierbaum, vice president of ratings and program information. "Our focus is on viewers 18 to 49, and it's up 9 percent this week in that category versus last week. Beyond that, the show gets a strong sampling by upscale homes — it's the most upscale show in prime time."

CBS, meanwhile, is ecstatic over the performance of Jericho, a drama about what happens to a small Kansas community following nuclear explosions in several U.S. cities.

"The best shows are the ones that come out of nowhere and creep up on you," said Kelly Kahl, executive vice president of planning and scheduling at CBS.

Jericho finished second in its time slot opposite ABC's Dancing With the Stars, helping CBS increase its Wednesday ratings by 18 percent over a year ago

"It's our biggest swing for the fence," said Kahl. "It was our biggest risk. Those are the most delightful successes."

On Thursday, ABC's tandem of Ugly Betty and Grey's Anatomy has made it an instant player on a night of the week the network once counted for naught. The premiere of Betty won its time period and has since locked up target demos, while Grey's emerged last week as the most-watched show in America.

The No. 2 show last week was CBS' CSI, "which goes to show that two strong shows can survive in one time slot," said Kahl. "The night is still very strong for us."

Though Shark is finishing second behind NBC's resurgent ER, it's "holding up better than Without a Trace when it first went on," he added. "Going on after CSI is a tough task; it's a big audience to hold onto. One thing we'd like to do is get the younger viewers up."

Look for CBS to beef up promotions of James Woods' younger cast members, Kahl said.

Thursday night casualties appear to be My Name Is Earl and The Office, which are finished third in the ratings in total viewers. But NBC sees it differently.

"On this night, you do acknowledge that third place is a very realistic place you may end up," Bierbaum said. "That's what we expected. We're a little closer to second than we thought we'd be."

The numbers are less promising for Friday Night Lights, which debuted in fourth place in its time slot, then dropped more 18-49 viewers with its Tuesday airing. NBC has already moved slow-performing Kidnapped to Saturdays and is not likely to renew it after its 13-episode run.

Twenty Good Years and 30 Rock premiered Wednesday, so it's too early to predict the future of those two comedies.

Meanwhile, the ABC comedy Help Me Help You, benefiting from its Dancing With the Stars lead-in, increased its boffo premiere audience by 6 percent last week. Men in Trees was also up 6 percent versus its previous rating. And though Six Degrees was DOA for its premiere, last week the show was No. 1 versus Shark in 18-34 viewers.

ABC still has a couple of shows that haven't premiered, including the promising Knights of Prosperity, which bows next week.

The situation at Fox is a bit murky. Though Vanished is declining, other new series such as Standoff have not been fully tested and are now being pre-empted by the baseball playoffs. Fox's real play for ratings supremacy will come in 2007 when American Idol and 24 return to the lineup.

Likewise, the CW has slowly rolled out its lineup and is still tinkering with its schedule; the network is flipping its Sunday and Monday night lineups, and those numbers have yet to come in.

Nevertheless, the network is pleased with the performance of America's Next Top Model, which premiered to its highest rating ever among the target 18-24 audience.

There's also satisfaction on Thursdays.

"When you look at how competitive Thursday has become, we've definitely established a foothold," said Paul Hewitt, vice president of corporate communications. "Smallville and Supernatural make for a good pairing, especially for our audience. We've staked a claim and viewers are finding us."

The bottom line: "By the end of the season, we hope to be above where UPN and the WB were at the end of last season," he said.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ent/tv/4252077.html

dad1153

10-13-06, 05:43 AM

Freshman shows make an early impact on the prime-time ratings

By BY MIKE MCDANIEL
Oct. 11, 2006, 3:12PM
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle

Though Shark is finishing second behind NBC's resurgent ER, it's "holding up better than Without a Trace when it first went on," he added. "Going on after CSI is a tough task; it's a big audience to hold onto. One thing we'd like to do is get the younger viewers up."

Look for CBS to beef up promotions of James Woods' younger cast members, Kahl said.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

ABC still has a couple of shows that haven't premiered, including the promising Knights of Prosperity, which bows next week.

Uhh, wasn't it announced a few days ago (a week even) that 'Knights' was getting benched until the midseason? And the CBS suits' reaction to 'Shark' is typical: emphasize the studly look of the background players and hope young people will tune in. Excuse me, but isn't the youthful cast often cited as the reason the show is lacking fire whenever James Woods is off-screen? Sigh... looks like Shark will be visiting his assistants' homes more often and having discussions with them while they're sitting by their pools with their clothes off. If only young viewers were that easy to please in this age of internet downloads (if you know what I mean) :rolleyes:

harley1

10-13-06, 09:25 AM

Sara Evans files for divorce, quits 'Dancing' show

By BEVERLY KEEL
Staff Writer

Country singer Sara Evans filed for divorce from husband Craig Schelske on Thursday and has dropped out of the ABC show "Dancing with the Stars," where she had reached the final six.

Late Thursday, her representatives released this statement:

"Recent events that shed light on the status of her marriage prompted Ms. Evans to make the filing, which was registered today (October 12) with a court in Tennessee, where Evans resides." It was believed that she filed for divorce in Williamson County, though it could not be verified at press time.

The statement continued, "A mother of three, Ms. Evans felt it was in her children's best interest that she also withdraw from competition on Dancing with the Stars, an ABC television series that she has been part of this fall, to give her family her full attention at this difficult time. Ms. Evans hopes that her fans and TV viewers who've supported her in recent weeks and throughout her music career will respect and understand her need for privacy in the face of these recent events."

Television station KTLA in Los Angeles reported that Evans told producers she will appear on Tuesday's episode of "Dancing" to explain why she left.

The news stunned Music Row as word spread late Thursday because Evans and Schelske, who ran for political office in Oregon, were considered to have one of the strongest marriages in country music. They married in 1993.

http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061013/ENTERTAINMENT01/610130434

I posted this for the part about quiting the show not the personal aspect of the article.

clapple

10-13-06, 09:59 AM

This has to be the worst new TV season, of all time. A couple shows that are not too bad; but not one "hit". Well, even bad scripted shows beat "reality" TV!

humdinger70

10-13-06, 10:07 AM

Sara's leaving really throws DwTS into a tizzy. :eek:

What do they do - reinstate Willa? And if they do that, how does she and her partner get together and get in enough practice time (they've already lost 2 days) to make a viable performance on the show?

My guess is, they don't reinstate anyone, no voting this week and the results show is turned into a glorified entertainment hour.

The last time something like this happened was on Survivor, where someone severely burned his hands and was forced to withdraw, eliminating the need for one tribal council to vote someone off.

AFH

10-13-06, 11:08 AM

fredfa

10-13-06, 11:17 AM

Is this foreshadowing of the future?

I think so, Antonio.

fredfa

10-13-06, 11:20 AM

TV Notebook
Missing: A million viewers ages 18-34 [FONT]
[FONT=ARIAL BLACK] New CW is pulling just half the target audience
By Kevin Downey medialifemagazine staff writer Oct. 13, 2006
Oct 13, 2006

When UPN and the WB merged into the CW earlier this year, the presumption was that the new network, having the best programming of both, would retain a good share of their audiences, especially in the 18-34 demographic, where they were strongest.

Not so. The combined CW has retained just half of those viewers. The other half have disappeared, and they do not appear to have gone to the other broadcast networks or even to cable.

Just where they’ve gone is a puzzle to which no one as yet has answers. Somewhere out there are a lot of people ages 18-34 who are simply not watching TV anymore. Or so it appears.

Their disappearance is reminiscent of a couple of years ago, when TV ratings for young adults suddenly plummeted. It was later determined, after much research and wrangling, that a goodly share had gone to the internet and video games.

Four weeks into the new season, overall TV usage among 18-34s is down 4 percent in primetime from the same time last year, despite the addition of Spanish-language networks to Nielsen Media Research’s national measurement, according to a Magna Global ratings analysis.

Network TV viewing among 18-34s is down 9 percent, while cable TV is down 5 percent and premium cable down 7 percent.

“It’s a mystery,” says Steve Sternberg, executive vice president of audience analysis at Magna. “We haven’t done an extensive analysis yet, but it just looks like a lot of them went away.”

Quite a lot, in fact over 1 million. Only half the combined 2.2 million 18-34 viewers who watched UPN and WB have gone to the CW.

The rest have not moved to the other broadcast networks. Only NBC has posted a ratings increase over last season, and it’s a mere 0.3 rating points.

That’s not surprising, says Sternberg. “All of the Big Four networks have median ages over 40 years old. The CW is the only broadcast network with a median age around 31 or 32, which is the range where UPN and the WB were.”

It would appear a good part of those departed viewers are African American. UPN had two nights geared to black viewers, where the CW has but one, meaning fewer shows appealing to black audiences.

In a Media Life poll conducted shortly after UPN and the WB merged, more than 70 percent of respondents thought black viewers would be the demographic most likely to be disenfranchised by the new network, in terms of fewer shows aimed at them

But that would explain only part of the decline. Clearly many of those former UPN and WB viewers have quit watching TV entirely.

Moreover, that erosion probably began well before the CW even debuted. A look at the ratings for the WB and UPN shows they were in a steep slide through the summer.

Rather than debuting new shows, as in summers past, the networks, by then lame ducks, went to reruns. The WB’s overall audience dipped 8 percent compared to the prior summer. UPN’s audience slid 24 percent.

Now the looming questions are: Where have they gone, these 18-34s?

“I think these viewers have gone to a variety of places,” says Brad Adgate, senior vice president and corporate research director at Horizon Media. “They probably went off in a lot of different directions. It’s become very complicated with all the choices young people engage in.”

Surely some have gone to the internet. Ball State University last year found that computers have become the second most-used media device. The average person now spends 120 minutes per day on the computer, compared to 241 minutes watching TV.

“It could be the internet, it could be DVDs, it could be any number of things,” says Sternberg. “The bottom line is that it’s all speculation at this point. But since overall television viewing is down at the same time a network went away, the logical assumption is that a lot of them are temporarily displaced.”

http://www.medialifemagazine.com/artman/publish/article_7870.asp

riker

10-13-06, 11:32 AM

Sara's leaving really throws DwTS into a tizzy. :eek:
The last time something like this happened was on Survivor, where someone severely burned his hands and was forced to withdraw, eliminating the need for one tribal council to vote someone off.

Actually, no, the last time was on Survivor when someone got a bowel obstruction and was forced to withdraw, eliminating the need for one tribal council to vote someone off. ;)

fredfa

10-13-06, 11:48 AM

The TV Column
From 'Saturday Night Live' To Wednesday Night Dead
By Lisa de Moraes Washington Post Staff Writer Friday, October 13, 2006

Another highly anticipated -- at least by critics -- new series fizzled Wednesday night.

"30 Rock," Tina Fey's much-ballyhooed "SNL" -ish comedy series, scared up only 8.1 million viewers in the third week of the new TV season.

NBC's other "SNL"-ish series, Aaron Sorkin's "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip," opened during Premiere Week to a crowd of 13.4 million, which was considered a disappointment.

We should note that "30 Rock" aired at 8 p.m., while "Studio 60" aired at 10, when more homes use television. Also, NBC hasn't tried comedy in Fey's 8 p.m. Wednesday time slot since, like, forever.

Oh wait, that's not my problem.

Only four new series on the four major networks opened to a smaller crowd so far this TV season than did Fey's.

They are NBC's sent-to-Saturday-to-die-with-dignity drama "Kidnapped" (7.6 million viewers), NBC's high school football drama "Friday Night Lights" (7.2 million), NBC's new old-guys sitcom "20 Good Years" (7.1 million), which premiered right after Fey's sitcom on Wednesday, and Fox's probably canceled "Happy Hour" (7 million).

Here's an interesting stat: While pundits expected the "20 Good Years" audience to skew very old, because it stars John Lithgow, who's very old (61 next week) by TV standards, and Jeffrey Tambor, who's even older (62), the median age of that show's premiere audience was just barely over 48 years, while the median age of "30 Rock" was just under 48 years -- 47.7 years, to be exact.

The median age of the "Studio 60" audience in its first broadcast was 48 years.

In fact, fully 17 percent of Fey's audience was 65 or older. So she might want to stop nicking "grandparents" over and over again in interviews, saying they're the only ones who are going confuse her "SNL" knockoff show with Sorkin's.

Fey finished third in her time slot among the 18-to-34-year-olds she covets, behind ABC's ballroom dancing and the CW's "America's Next Top Model."

Among 18-to-49-year-olds, "30 Rock" finished behind ABC's dance competition and even CBS's new the-sky-is-falling drama "Jericho," and that stars Gerald McRaney, for goodness' sake.

CBS celebrated by giving "Jericho," which also stars Skeet Ulrich, a full-season order.

Also that night, ABC's second-season drama "Lost" averaged 16.9 million viewers in its second broadcast -- down 10 percent from its season debut. In the same time period, CBS's "Criminal Minds" virtually matched the "Lost" crowd with 16.7 million viewers, though the "CM" audience skewed older.

Compared with its first two broadcasts last season, "Lost" is down 27 percent. ABC notes that the series is up slightly compared with its performance in May. But, of course, then "Lost" was getting clobbered by "American Idol" and you'd hope the show would bounce back in the fall when "Idol" was resting.

• • • • • • • • • • •The Fey and Lithgow/Tambour shows are officially the last of the fall series premieres. Just hours after their debuts, "midseason" kicked in.

CBS announced yesterday that canceled "Smith" will be replaced by new "3 Lbs," starring wonderful Stanley Tucci as a brilliant if cranky neurosurgeon (and wouldn't you be cranky if you were a brain surgeon who's starting to have hallucinations) who is saddled with a touchy-feely protege (the brain is the window to the spirit, blah, blah, blah) played by Mark Feuerstein -- yes, "Good Morning, Miami" Mark Feuerstein -- but, on the bright side, Tucci replaced Dylan McDermott in the other lead role.

"3 Lbs" -- so named because that's what the average brain weighs, we're told, which makes at least as much sense as naming a doc drama "House" -- debuts Nov. 14. "Smith" was canceled after just three broadcasts.

Meanwhile, NBC is dusting off "Medium" to fill the Wednesday 10 p.m. hole left by the move of "Kidnapped" to Saturday night to die a quiet 13-episode death. "Medium" will debut in November.

NBC has ordered two more scripts of its barely watched high school football drama, "Friday Night Lights," and Fox has ordered more episodes of its barely watched Tuesday drama "Standoff," the trades report. Is this one wacky new season or what?

And ABC has exhumed "Extreme Makeover" -- the slice-and-dice version, not the home renovation version. It's taking over for "Grey's Anatomy" reruns on Fridays at 8. We're sure there's a plastic surgery joke in there somewhere, given that "Grey's" stars Patrick Dempsey and Isaiah Washington this week got into a brawl on the set that did not include face punches because, Washington later told the media, "our faces are too beautiful for that."

• • • • • • • • • • •And hey, it's never too soon to start thinking about next season. Fox is developing a TV series version of "The Devil Wears Prada" which, quelle coincidence, was a Fox flick.

The suit shepherding that project told the trades it will not be a direct translation of the flick. For starters, the novice assistant at the center of the story will not have wised up and gotten the heck out of the fashion mag to get a real journalism job.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/12/AR2006101201861_pf.html

fredfa

10-13-06, 11:55 AM

TV Notebook
Adding to 'Numbers'
By Ellen Gray Philadelphia Daily News Fri, Oct. 13, 2006

LOS ANGELES - "My name is Friday - I'm a cop."

Those words, first spoken by "Dragnet's" Jack Webb more than 50 years ago, lie at the heart of one of television's most dependable and profitable genres, the police procedural, in which criminals may be caught, prosecuted and sent off to jail in the time it takes ABC's "Lost" to tell you two of its characters may - or may not - have met in their previous lives.

Serialized shows are getting the buzz this season, but things are changing in the once-rigid world of procedural dramas, where writers and actors are increasingly pushing for character development and secondary stories that don't necessarily end when the credits roll.

Networks, keeping a weather eye on ratings for serials like ABC's "Grey's Anatomy" and "Lost" - which this week attracted only about 160,000 more viewers than CBS' "Criminal Minds" - seem game. To a point.

Serialized dramas don't do as well in reruns or in syndication. And some viewers would prefer not to follow TV characters home.

Witness the fuss in May when the last scene of the season finale of CBS' "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" revealed Grissom (William Petersen) and Sara (Jorja Fox) in a state that once might have been expressed by a couple lighting up cigarettes.

Some fans were overjoyed. Others, not so much.

"From the beginning," Fox told reporters this summer "there's been a split" among "CSI" viewers. "There's been about 50 percent of the audience who would like to know more about the characters and about 50 percent who would really rather stick to the stories."

Some shows would like to have it both ways.

Consider CBS' "Numbers," which stars David Krumholtz as mathematics professor Charlie Eppes and Rob Morrow as Don Eppes, the FBI agent brother who frequently taps his expertise. Judd Hirsch plays their father, the trio adding an element that rivals any family drama for its examination of inter-generational dynamics.

The show, now in its third season, is a moderate hit for CBS on Fridays, where it has lately outdrawn NBC's relocated "Law & Order." It's also a case study in how seemingly cut-and-dried procedurals can morph into series that dig a little deeper.

"I think initially the reason they made this show about brothers is because they wanted to do a lot more character development than other procedurals," Krumholtz suggested in an interview on the show's Los Center Studios set in July.

With audiences now familiar with the characters, and the characters with one another, the writers "would like very much for us to expand character development and emotional arcs over the course of the season, So there'll probably be a lot more of that," he said.

Executive producer Cheryl Heuton, who co-created "Numbers" with husband Nick Falacci, agreed that it's time to broaden their characters' world.

"You don't need to explain, or even subtly explain, we use math to solve crime," she said. "That's done. So you just go into it. And when you start to go into stuff like that, you have more time for character" development.

So far this season, that's meant an abduction for Diane Farr's character, FBI agent Megan Reeves, that triggered a variety of reactions in some of the show's male characters, including Peter MacNicol's Larry Fleinhardt, a physics professor she's recently begun dating.

And tonight, Dylan Bruno, who plays FBI agent Colby Granger, gets a turn in the spotlight as his character's military past becomes a factor in a case.

Bruno, an MIT grad who's one of the few actors on the show to claim to even vaguely understand the math concepts on which the plots turn, said that giving viewers a closer look at the characters' lives beyond the immediate case "seems to be the through line of this season," and that "to know what he does outside of work is definitely more interesting to me."

It's more interesting to most actors, acknowledged Heuton.

"To some extent, you get more freedom to do that as you move into a third season. We would like to see more of David in the college world," she said.

"But until we have more elements in place, we don't want to just leave the crime story to do that, because... then it's a show about a college professor. And a college professor who doesn't solve crimes, I don't know that anybody'd be watching. I mean, they didn't watch 'The Education of Max Bickford,' " Heuton said.

The trick, Morrow said, is to strike a balance.

"Audiences are so sophisticated now. For me, I feel wanting as an audience member in a pure procedural," he said. "I'm interested in the human dynamic, and that means the people that I watch week in and week out."

Still, he added, "It's a crime drama. There has to be crime. You can't really escape that."

Navi Rawat plays Amita Ramanujan (her last name's in honor of a famed Indian mathematician), a former student of Charlie's who's now both a colleague and a love interest.

Wherever she goes, she's found that people are interested in her on-again, off-again relationship with Charlie, which she describes as a "kind of 'Moonlighting' thing... "

Farr, late of FX's "Rescue Me," said she was originally brought in as a possible love interest for Charlie, but that within a week, she'd suggested they match her with MacNicol's character instead.

As a TV veteran, she's wary, though, of overdoing the personal angle, noting that a show's third season - when "you're so close to syndication you can smell it" - is a tricky time.

Viewers do want to see "some version of humanity," but networks, she said, are right to be concerned.

"I'm sure that every person at CBS who's happy with our ratings is less than thrilled when a storyline is pitched about me and Peter going on a date, even if one of us is disrobing," she said. "They want to see the crime, and they want to see how it unfolds."

http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/entertainment/television//15747460.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp

fredfa

10-13-06, 12:06 PM

Obituary
Jerry Belson, 68
Comedy Writer Set the Standard for TV Shows of `60s, `70s
By Dennis McLellan Los Angeles Times Staff Writer October 13, 2006

When writer-director Garry Marshall was serving as an Army private in South Korea in the late 1950s, fellow soldier Gordon Belson would tell him, "You've got to meet my brother; he's a funny guy."

Marshall finally met Jerry Belson in 1962, teaming up with him a year later to become what many peers consider to be the preeminent television comedy-writing team of the 1960s and early '70s.

Belson, a three-time Emmy Award-winning writer, died of prostate cancer Tuesday at his home in Los Angeles, said his daughter, Kristine Belson. He was 68.

"He was truly one of the funniest persons I ever met," Marshall said Thursday.

During his four-decade career, Belson received 12 Emmy nominations, winning awards for "The Dick Van Dyke Show," "The Tracey Ullman Show" and "Tracey Takes On."

Belson was partnered with Marshall full time from 1963 to 1973, and the duo wrote for "The Dick Van Dyke Show," "The Lucy Show," "The Danny Thomas Show," "Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.," "The Joey Bishop Show" and "Hey Landlord," which they created.

In one year in the '60s, Marshall recalled, they freelanced 32 half-hour scripts for different shows.

"He was a brave and risky writer; he tried everything," Marshall said. "I remember he'd write some far-out stuff and I'd say, 'Jerry, four people are going to get this joke.' He'd always say, 'More than enough.' And that was my mantra; he taught me how to do that."

The Belson-Marshall team also created TV specials for Bob Hope, Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire, and "The Danny Thomas Special: It's Greek To Me," which earned them the Writers Guild Award.

But they may have been best-known for developing "The Odd Couple" for television, serving as executive producers for the 1970-75 sitcom, which starred Tony Randall and Jack Klugman.

"They were the dazzling team, the ones you wanted to emulate," said writer-director-producer James L. Brooks, who worked with Belson on "The Tracey Ullman Show" and "Tracey Takes On."

"Jerry was a very important figure in the way comedy evolved here" in Hollywood, Brooks said. "He was a mentor to a lot of people, myself among them."

Among Belson's film credits as a writer are "The Grasshopper," "Smile," "The End," "Fun with Dick and Jane" and "Always." He also wrote and directed "Surrender," co-wrote and directed the cult classic "Jekyll and Hyde … Together Again" and did uncredited writing on films including "Close Encounters of the Third Kind."

Belson's comedy-writer friends say he was known for his dark and cynical writing style.

"Almost every time he was in a room pitching something, people would be on the floor laughing and saying, 'I wish we could use that,' it was so dark," Brooks said. "Well, they could have; people do it now."

Brooks said Belson's script for "The End," the 1978 film starring Burt Reynolds as a terminally ill man who repeatedly tries to commit suicide, was "one of the great black comedies ever written. We passed it around like religious papers. It was so funny and hard-hitting."

Belson's dark comedy came naturally.

Marshall recalled that when comedian-actor Wally Cox, a permanent fixture on "The Hollywood Squares," died, someone asked, "How?"

"He fell out of his box," Belson replied.

Brooks recalled that Belson "would go to a party for 10 minutes — he could rarely take it more than that, but in those 10 minutes, he'd say a couple of lines that would circulate for two weeks."

"Jerry was the most observant person I ever met. He'd catch the essence of somebody at a glance and tend to make a funny observation about it."

Born on July 8, 1938, Belson grew up in El Centro, Calif., which he left for Hollywood immediately after graduating from high school.

At 22 — after working as a magician, drummer and comic book writer — he sold his first script, to the Danny Thomas show.

"He was a most unusual man," said TV veteran Carl Reiner. "He was an original, as most people are, but he was original in the sense that I never ran into anybody like that. He sort of whined funny lines — major laughs."

In his later years, Reiner said, Belson had "his imprimatur on a lot of things people don't know about. He was so good in creating a very quick laugh that he was put on a lot of shows just to listen to the first reading and make notes.

"They paid him a lot of money because he had this rare and original sense of humor and could call upon it so easily."

In addition to his brother, Gordon, and daughter Kristine, Belson is survived by his wife, Jo Ann; another daughter, Julie; his sister, Monica Johnson; and two grandchildren.

A memorial service will be held at 4 p.m. Oct. 23 at the Falcon Theatre, 4252 Riverside Drive, Burbank.

http://www.calendarlive.com/tv/cl-me-belson13oct13,0,2158034,print.story?coll=cl-tvent

Tom in OH

10-13-06, 12:19 PM

This has to be the worst new TV season, of all time. A couple shows that are not too bad; but not one "hit". Well, even bad scripted shows beat "reality" TV!

I suppose beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and although the new 'good' shows might no be plentiful, I am looking forward to "Studio 60" and find Matthew Perry's dry humor quite entertaining.

fredfa

10-13-06, 12:39 PM

Overnights in the 18-49 Demo
On the edge: ABC Sinking 'Six Degrees' could give night to CBS
By Toni Fitzgerald MediaLifeMagazine.com staff writer Oct. 13, 2006

After beating CBS by 1.2 rating points on the first Thursday night of the new season, ABC has seen its lead shrink. Last night CBS came within 0.1 of its resurgent rival, raising questions about how long ABC can keep its Thursday night lineup as-is with the sinking “Six Degrees” hitting a new season-low.

ABC averaged a 5.7 rating and 15 share last night, according to Nielsen overnights, just barely ahead of CBS’s 5.6/15.

Certainly “Grey’s Anatomy,” the young season’s top show in 18-49s, has faded a bit since its huge debut, which was expected. But another major difference from week one to week four has been the steep decline of “Degrees.”

It debuted with a 5.8 and last night had fallen to a 3.7, down 37 percent. More alarming, it retained just 40 percent of its “Grey’s” lead-in, about half what a healthy show should do. It also declined 21 percent from its first to its second half hour.

The first half of ABC’s night is in great shape, with “Ugly Betty” showing minimal declines and neck-and-neck with CBS’s “Survivor” in households. Meanwhile, “Grey’s” beat “CSI” again in total viewers and 18-49s.

If “Degrees’” erosion continues, CBS could regain its old No. 1 spot on the night. ABC could move the show to another night or cancel it and bring in a drama slated for midseason. Or perhaps “Degrees” could swap slots with Wednesday 10 p.m. drama “The Nine,” which is also having trouble holding its lead-in. That would put “Degrees,” a J.J. Abrams show, behind another Abrams program, “Lost.”

Meanwhile, NBC stayed steady in third place last night among 18-49s, averaging a 4.3/11, followed by Fox’s National League Championship Series coverage at 2.4/6, the CW at 1.9/5 and Univision at 1.6/4.

Ratings for Fox are approximate, as fast nationals measure timeslot data and not actual program data, and baseball ran late.

At 8 p.m., CBS’s “Survivor” was a comfortable No. 1 at 5.4, followed by ABC’s “Betty” at 4.2, down 5 percent from last week. “Survivor” edged “Betty” in households for the first time but just barely, with a 9.4 to the latter’s 9.3. NBC’s “My Name Is Earl” (3.9) and “The Office” (4.1) were third at 4.0 in 18-49s, followed by CW’s “Smallville” at 2.2, Fox’s NLCS at 2.0, and Univision’s “La Fea Mas Bella” at 1.7.

At 9 p.m., “Grey’s” surged ahead at 9.3, followed by “CSI” at 7.5, NBC’s “Deal or No Deal” at 3.1, the NLCS on Fox at 2.4, and the CW’s “Supernatural” and Univision’s “Mundo de Fieras” at 1.6.

At 10 p.m., NBC dominated with a 5.9 for “ER,” followed by a 4.0 for CBS’s “Shark,” a 3.7 for “Degrees,” a 2.9 for Fox’s NLCS and a 1.3 for Univision’s “Aqui y Ahora.”

Among households, CBS led at 10.6/17, followed by ABC at 10.1/16, NBC at 7.1/11, Fox at 5.5/9, CW at 2.3/4 and Univision at 1.9/3.

http://www.medialifemagazine.com/artman/publish/article_7897.asp

fredfa

10-13-06, 12:52 PM

Nielsen Notebook
"Today" Ratings win week of Oct. 2-8
NBC News Release October 13, 2006
NBC NEWS "TODAY" WINS THE WEEK WITH 5.6 MILLION VIEWERS
"Today" Is The Only AM News Program to Increase Versus the Same Week Last Season

NEW YORK – October 13, 2006 – NBC News' "Today" won yet another week, drawing 5.6 million viewers for the week of October 2. Through the first two weeks of the 2006/07season, "Today" has increased its total audience by 22K viewers. "Today" is the only morning news program to post any increase versus the comparable period and same week last season. "Today's" total viewer delivery and advantage over GMA has exceeded 600,000 in 48 of the past 49 weeks. The week marked "Today's" 565th week in a row in first place.

For the week of October 2 - 8, "Today" led with a 4.3 household rating/16 share and 5.6 million viewers. "GMA" stayed behind in second with a 3.9/14 and 5.0 million viewers. CBS' "The Early Show" finished third with a 2.0/7 and 2.6 million viewers.

"Today's" total viewer advantage over GMA (12 percent) represents a 9-percentage point increase versus the same week last season (3 percent). In rating A25-54, "Today" led GMA by 17 percent (3 tenths) and beat "The Early Show" by 163 percent (1.3 rating points). In rating A18-49, "Today" outperformed GMA by 14 percent (2 tenths) and "The Early Show" by 167 percent (1.0 rating point). "Today" increased in homes (2 percent) and total viewers (4 percent) compared to its 3Q'06-to-date average.

"Today II" had a good week with a 2.9/12 and 3.7 million viewers. It continues to outperform "The Early Show" and "The View" in homes, total viewers, and all key demos

fredfa

10-13-06, 12:57 PM

Thursday’s prime-time ratings have been posted just under the HD Football listings near the top of Ratings News the first post in this thread.

fredfa

10-13-06, 01:00 PM

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

• Spike TV Scores a Knock-Out:
The fight card between UFC legend Ken Shamrock and Tito Ortiz resulted in record ratings for Spike TV and the Ultimate Fighting Championship. The two-hour event on Tuesday, Oct. 10 at 8 p.m. averaged 4.2 million viewers, peaking at 5.7 million from 9:30-9:45 p.m. and delivering 500,000 more men 18-34 than the competing MLB playoffs on Fox (1.6 vs. 1.1 million). Overall, the boxing match-up averaged a 3.1 household rating, 2.8 million homes and 2.4 million men 18-49.

• Martha vs. Rachel:
Since there have been a lot of comparisons of Rachael Ray to hostess extraordinaire Martha Stewart, results for the top 10 markets on Monday, Oct. 9 show Martha with an advantage among key women 25-54 in six of those markets – Los Angeles (Martha: 1.0/ 6 vs. Rachael: 0.5/ 3), Chicago (WMAQ: 1.5/ 8 vs. 0.6/ 4), Dallas (1.4/ 8 vs. 0.9/ 7), Boston (1.1/ 8 vs. 0.5/ 3), Atlanta (2.1/11 vs. 1.5/ 8) and Detroit (2.1/13 vs. 2.0/10). In three of the four markets where Martha replaced Rachael – Minneapolis/KARE, Denver/KCNC and St. Louis/KTVI – overnight ratings did not improve either. So, for NBC Universal’s Martha, this is a good thing!

• Engineering An Empire Scores on History Channel:
The two-hour premiere of History Channel’s Engineering an Empire, set in Egypt, averaged a hefty 1.46 million viewers on Monday, Oct. 9 from 9-11 p.m. Comparatively, that was the most-watched series premiere in the cable network’s history. Upcoming episodes of Engineering an Empire will focus on Greece (Oct. 16), Greece: Age of Alexander (Oct. 23), The Aztecs (Oct. 30), Carthage (Nov. 6), China (Nov. 13), Russia (Nov. 20), Great Britain (Nov. 27), The Persians (Dec. 4), The Maya (Dec. 11), Napoleon and Beyond (Dec. 18) and The Byzantines (Dec. 25).

• Source: Nielsen Media Research data

fredfa

10-13-06, 01:07 PM

Thursday’s prime-time ratings – and Media Week Analyst Marc Berman’s view of what they mean -- have been posted just under the HD Football listings near the top of Ratings News the first post in this thread.

VisionOn

10-13-06, 01:24 PM

And the CBS suits' reaction to 'Shark' is typical: emphasize the studly look of the background players and hope young people will tune in. Excuse me, but isn't the youthful cast often cited as the reason the show is lacking fire whenever James Woods is off-screen? Sigh... looks like Shark will be visiting his assistants' homes more often and having discussions with them while they're sitting by their pools with their clothes off. If only young viewers were that easy to please in this age of internet downloads (if you know what I mean) :rolleyes:

I thought the first two epsiodes of Shark were very entertaining and James Woods was great and I was expecting Henry Simmons to join the cast, but apparently not. The past two weeks however I've already noticed less of Woods, and some of the dialog he is getting isn't particularly fiery now. I'm not looking forward to a Shark's Anatomy style show.

fredfa

10-13-06, 03:37 PM

(From Marc Berman’s Friday, October 13 , 2006, Programming Insider column at Mediaweek.com )

• The CW Makes Inroads on Wednesday:
Labeling the CW’s One Tree a loser yesterday was a premature call. Combined with America’s Next Top Model, the CW ranked second on Wednesday among adults 18-34 (2.8/ 8) and women 18-34 (4.1/11), with gains in all key demos over both UPN and the WB on the comparable year-ago evening. Both Top Model and One Tree Hill were also up week-to-week, with Top Model winning the 8 p.m. hour in adults 18-34 (3.4/11) and women 18-34 (5.1/15), and ranking second among women 18-49 (4.0/10). Growth for One Tree Hill, meanwhile, was as much as 17 percent among women 18-49 (2.1/ 5) from one week earlier.

• Speaking of the CW:
So far the new network has done what it needed to do, and that is alert the audience where they can now find their former favorite UPN and WB series. America’s Next Top Model, in particular, proves this is a viable platform given its consistency from one year earlier. The next step, of course, is to place more of an emphasis on new programming. Hopefully, the move to Monday will benefit recently introduced sitcom The Game, but chances are slim that drama Runaway will succeed in its new Sunday 9 p.m. time period (which kicks in this weekend).

• Lost vs. Criminal Minds
Based on the final Wednesday nationals, CBS’ growing Criminal Minds was thisclose to beating ABC’s Lost in total viewers, with Lost at 16.89 million and Criminal Minds at 16.73 million. Lost, however, still has a wide advantage among key adults 18-49, with a 6.9/11 vs. a 4.5/11 in the demo for Criminal Minds. Comparably, this is similar to how Lost performed opposite Fox’s American Idol last spring, but versus the year-ago evening (Viewers: 21.66 million; A18-49: 9.4/22 on Oct. 12, 2005) it was a loss of 4.77 million viewers and 27 percent among adults 18-49. Criminal Minds, in contrast, was up by 2.97 million viewers and 7 percent in the demo.

Source: Nielsen Media Research data

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

fredfa

10-13-06, 04:00 PM

TV Notebook
Blood on the floor as season settles in, shows start to fall
By Tim Goodman San Francisco Chronicle Friday, October 13, 2006

With the launch of the fall season pretty much over until November, here's what we know so far:

It's been ugly. And it will get uglier. And we're not talking about "Ugly Betty," either.

There are no definitive answers yet on a slate of new series that showed a lot of potential -- most of it yet unrealized. Except we do know this: CBS killed "Smith," and NBC all but killed "Kidnapped," cutting the season to 13 episodes and dumping it onto Saturday night, the graveyard of television programming.

No doubt there will be more casualties, or at least a trail of well-financed blood on the ground. Aaron Sorkin's hotly anticipated "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip" lost nearly 5 million viewers from its first episode to its fourth. The critically successful "Friday Night Lights" was dead on arrival, with fewer than 8 million viewers. And a slew of other new offerings are underperforming or breathing listlessly on the schedule, waiting for midseason replacements to pick them off.

Some of this can be chalked up to the statistic of doom: Roughly 80 percent of new programming fails. But specifically, it's important to remember that competition against returning series is always tough and that fall schedules are in flux (ABC doesn't have "Monday Night Football," a lot of Fox shows are off the schedule to make room for the baseball playoffs, and the WB and UPN merged into a new network, the CW). While all of that is true, you can bet that a good number of television critics across the country -- this one included -- are keen to say, "I told you so" about the most damaging trend in TV this fall: serialized dramas.

It didn't take much genius to predict that too many serials demanding viewer loyalty for 22 episodes (on top of returning staples such as "Lost," "Desperate Housewives" and "24" ) was going to cause a train wreck on the programming end, if not a full-on viewer revolt. We are in the midst of that now and -- with only about four episodes on average of new shows having aired -- there's more carnage around the corner.

Why? Because the nature of serialized dramas means viewers are apt to grow weary of the story and bail -- or worse, they miss an episode and then believe there's no point in trying to catch up. And networks are often their own worst enemy. Critics were skeptical of serial hits catching on this year because a handful from last season were canceled without giving loyal viewers any closure. All of that time invested for nothing. With the Ray Liotta-led heist drama "Smith" being canceled after two episodes and "Kidnapped" cut to 13 (at least the paltry remaining viewers may find out what happens to the missing kid), you can't fault the audience for doubting the networks' loyalty to any series.

With more serials on the way (including a serialized sitcom, of all things), you can expect further erosion. Indeed, this is the year that television will prove emphatically that it's a serial killer.

One indication that the fall launch is going less well than hoped: Only five freshman shows rank in the top 30 for total viewers, according to Mediaweek. They are ABC's "Ugly Betty" (14.26 million), CBS' "Shark" (13.75 million), ABC's "Brothers & Sisters" (13.01 million), NBC's "Heroes" (12.96 million) and ABC's "The Nine" (11.91 million viewers).

But "The Nine" dropped steeply Wednesday night, to 8.41 million viewers, according to Mediaweek. More damning, it lost nearly 2 million viewers after the first half hour, which is always a bad sign. Both "30 Rock" (8.26 million) and "Twenty Good Years" (6.97 million) were underwhelming, and the latter is in immediate danger.

NBC has already ordered a full 22 episodes for "Heroes," the first new serialized drama to get a vote of confidence from a network.

Conversely, underperformers are everywhere. Though total viewers tell only part of the ratings story, networks traditionally want to see a series pull in 10 million viewers. So far, only two other series in addition to the five above -- CBS' "Jericho" and ABC's Ted Danson sitcom, "Help Me Help You" -- have topped the 10 million mark.

Does that mean the ax is going to fall? Oh, honey, it's cutting through the wind as you read this.

But it may not fall on all the obvious targets. Much has been made of "Studio 60," falling from 13.4 million to 8.85 million viewers. But, like for most Sorkin shows, many are high-value viewers (better educated, higher incomes), and networks will tolerate the lower numbers, not to mention that, for all his stylistic quirks, there are not a lot of Sorkins in the TV business. If you kill one of his projects, he's not going to deliver something else to you. As in baseball, you bank on ace starters and stick with them through slumps.

One thing we know about serialized dramas is that their total number of viewers is unlikely to rise. Whereas a closed-ended show (say Tina Fey's "30 Rock") might get sampled after word-of-mouth buzz two or three episodes into the season, viewers know that if they've missed a few important episodes on a show like "Kidnapped," there's no reason to go back.

If there's any optimism to be had, strangely enough, it will come in the next few weeks. That's because the Big Four networks are exhaling -- they've stopped unveiling series and will finally allow viewers a chance to catch up on their TiVos or taped backlogs. Will it help? Probably not. That axiom about first impressions mostly holds true in TV land as well as in real life. But the end of the deluge offers hope. And right now, networks need a little ray of something.

Based on a plethora of confused e-mail messages ("Where's 'Smith'?" or "What happened to 'MI-5'?" etc.), now seems like the perfect time to reintroduce readers to the Bastard Machine, my TV blog, which you can find at sfgate.com. ( http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/sfgate/indexn?blogid=24 )

There you will find posts about late-breaking TV events ("Smith" out, "Kidnapped" to Saturdays, etc.) and an informative array of links to help you navigate the TV landscape. (For example, there's a great listings service you can personalize to your ZIP code, ratings information, how to find shows on DVD, some links to TV-related news sites and even other TV critics I recommend.)

It's all very simple. And perhaps most important, you'll find a community of like-minded, savvy TV viewers who share comments about what they are watching, discuss positive or negative developments in their favorite shows and chat about the most powerful medium on the planet. You can also talk with me, though that's generally a gigantic letdown for everyone.

In a TV season that promises to change daily, you can bookmark the Bastard Machine and supplement our Chronicle coverage. Going to the blog won't bring back "Smith" or necessarily save "Friday Night Lights," but it will make you better informed, better looking, thinner and more interesting at parties.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/10/13/DDGKVLNKAJ1.DTL&type=printable

fredfa

10-13-06, 04:48 PM

TV Q&A
Ask Matt
(from the Ask (TV Critic) Matt (Roush) column at TVGuide.com
By Matt Roush TVGuide.com TV Critic

Question: I agree with you that the first week of October was the Best TV Week Ever! (I finally got to watch the premiere of Friday Night Lights, and I must say that it is the best new show of the season. What a very welcome breath of fresh air this was in the midst of the glut of procedurals and complex serials that now pervade the networks' airwaves. Like you, I found the premiere to be very moving, and I too had to fight back the tears at certain spots. The performances were remarkable and portrayed a sense of heartfelt authenticity, which I think is why it struck such a chord with me. However, I'm a little worried about my favorite new show, after reading that its debut got clobbered by the Dancing with the Stars and NCIS juggernauts. You said that this show was going to be the underdog to root for this season, and it looks like your words have come to pass. How patient is NBC likely to be with this show? And wouldn't it work more favorably on actual Fridays? Fridays have been in the past a haven for this kind of sweet, nonflashy show, and it wouldn't face such stiff competition. I also wonder how many people NBC confused by having a show with "Friday" in the title air on Tuesdays. At any rate, I'm wholeheartedly rooting for this underdog right with you, Matt!— Geoff B.

Matt Roush: The last time NBC tried a high-school football drama on Fridays, 1993's Against the Grain (featuring a then-unknown Ben Affleck), it was a disaster. Turns out the target audience was too busy going to actual high-school football games to stay home to watch. There may not be a safe time period for Friday Night Lights — maybe Mondays, directly following NBC's Sunday-night football game (and all that promotion), would be better and less competitive. I have to think the early acclaim will inspire NBC to stick with it for a while. It can't hurt that it's an in-house production of NBC Universal, and that the brass (and some ad reps I know) love and believe in the show. What's not to love? I knew it was going to be a struggle, but if this one doesn't get a fair shot, it will break my heart.

My mailbag is full of love letters to the show, like this from Ashley: "It had a warmth and depth that I just wasn't expecting, and it managed to portray both the good and the bad of small-town values and ideals without mocking them or taking a smug tone." That, I think, is Friday Night Lights' most distinctive quality. But, taking a more critical view, is this from Drew:

"I see two serious problems for the show. Number one, spending half of the episode on the game was great for a football fan like me, but unfortunately, they trotted out the most overused sports cliché: Untested backup QB leads a miracle comeback when the wunderkind starter gets injured. Number two, my wife likes Kyle Chandler's character and his family, but she is not a football fan. She got lost in the lingo of the game almost immediately and got frustrated trying to keep up. She also didn't know or understand why people take high-school football so seriously in Texas. A couple of other little quibbles: Did they really need to break the star's neck when a simple broken leg would have done the job? Also, I am pretty sure that it is not cold enough in West Texas in August (when football season starts) for everyone to be wearing coats and long sleeves. My overall opinion is that it's well acted and produced, but it has too much football for those who aren't football fans, and it's too much like every football movie ever made. We'll give it another try but aren't likely to watch once House returns. Judging from the ratings, it may not last that long anyway."

I think that if the show is pulled before November sweeps, it will truly be over. I'm also curious what the reaction was among viewers like this to the second episode, during which there was no gridiron action, just the human drama of expectation and regret. The only reason I didn't put Friday Night Lights above The Nine as my favorite drama pilot was the Cinderella pass that won the game for the backup QB. It seemed too easy. But then comes the second episode, in which the rookie QB, the coach and the entire town wonders if it was a fluke. That doesn't seem too clichéd to me. Fact is, the show won't work if it alienates those who shun football. I disagree that it is too heavy on football, and wonder why the audience that makes uplifting (and far cornier) sports movies No. 1 at the box office didn't turn out for this one. Whatever. I'm still a cheerleader.

Question: What's up with CBS ditching Smith so quickly? I hardly watch anything on CBS thanks to their overabundance of crime shows, but Smith really interested me, and I was curious to see where they would take it. I thought the ratings were OK for a new serialized show. (Wasn't it doing about as well as Boston Legal in that time slot?) Do you think maybe CBS didn't like the creative direction of the episodes we haven't seen yet?— Chris

Matt Roush: You're onto something. The surprisingly fast fade of Smith is partly due to ratings that slipped each week (the trend wasn't positive), and partly due to Smith airing on a terrifically successful network that doesn't have as much patience for underperformers as others we might name (NBC, Fox, the CW). But when the ax falls this quickly, you also have to assume that the network execs know where the show is going and see little room for improvement, creatively and in the ratings. That was the explanation when ABC yanked Emily's Reasons Why Not after just one episode last winter. It failed to open, and the network didn't have confidence in where it was going.

Question: As hilarious as Joy's outburst of, uh, joy at her deaf lawyer's (Marlee Matlin) inability to speak in last week's episode of My Name Is Earl, do you think it was appropriate? Sure, the actresses had to sign off on it, but still, it was very offensive to the deaf community. It was a moment of sheer comedic brilliance with regards to timing, line delivery and camerawork, but after the cameras rolled I felt bad for Marlee Matlin. She doesn't know what she sounds like, and it was a low blow to point it out. We all know that Joy is an insensitive beeyotch, but maybe karma won't be so nice to this show after a joke that could have been on According to Jim.— Brett C.

Matt Roush: The fact that you found the gag hilarious is your own answer. Earl is a show that blends crude and sweet humor rather fearlessly, with little regard for political correctness or even tastefulness. If Joy's reaction to the lawyer's deafness was offensive, it was meant to be. But it was so extreme (as is Joy's way) that it was also hugely funny. Marlee Matlin was a great sport (as she usually is) in playing along. She's been doing this long enough to know how she sounds, or at least how her voice is perceived by others. I hope she makes a return appearance sometime. I thought it was all pretty inspired.

Question: I wrote in a few weeks ago defending Survivor's latest twist. I've watched every episode, and I actually didn't think that the show's twist was racist. But now I am upset how it's become blatantly obvious that it was nothing more than a cheap ratings ploy. I mean, they merged the four groups two episodes in. What happened to the "social experiment," Mark Burnett?!— Luis A.

Matt Roush: And you're surprised by this why? Yes, it's quite obvious that the initial division by race was nothing but a blatant publicity stunt to get us all talking about Survivor at a time when we'd normally be fixated on new shows (like, say, Ugly Betty). From Burnett's point of view, it worked beautifully. On the plus side, it does give us a more racially diverse game this season, now that the tribes have merged and the players can be seen as individuals, not symbols. On the other hand, this is now beginning to feel like such a routine season (familiar challenges on what looks like the same beach we've visited for years on end), and with shows like Earl and Betty in that slot, I don't imagine I'll be watching Survivor in real time again until the finale. (I'll keep watching, but only out of duty.)

Question: Just when I think I have the pulse of the American public, they go and really confuse me. Didn't it used to be that cult fans like myself had to wait for years of heartbreaking cancellations before a genre show like The X Files could be picked up for good? And now we have Jericho and Heroes both looking strong, while an Aaron Sorkin show and a quality show about football of all things are in trouble? I think it's very interesting that genre TV seems to have caught on big time while what used to be "safe bets" are bombing. Maybe, like you suggest, people are finally fed up with being spoon-fed familiar cornflakes and they're ready to try some exotic crunch berries, even if they're not all that great! I just hope people stick around as reliably when a legitimately great genre show debuts.— Dan

Matt Roush: While I would argue that neither Studio 60 nor Friday Night Lights were ever considered safe bets (quality shows almost never are), I agree that it's encouraging that the audience has taken a leap of faith with Heroes and even Jericho. The problem with this season's more traditional serial mysteries is that, even in a quality production like Kidnapped, they just felt too familiar to stand out. Heroes and Jericho don't really feel like anything else on TV, and that turns out to be an asset, even when the shows themselves sometimes leave much to be desired. But being critical of genre shows comes with a price. Witness the following, from Jared D.:

"Why is everyone bashing Heroes and Jericho? I and a lot of other people have been waiting for a major network to pick up some Buffy-esque, character-driven fantasies with an air of realism. Last season all the shows like that got canceled, and we got procedural clone after procedural clone shoved down our throats. Now we start to get shows like Buffy that are successful, and the same people clamoring for it complain. But do you think that the high ratings for these character-driven sci-fi shows will bode well for an increase of similar shows next year?"

Now that Heroes and Jericho appear to have caught on, I have no doubt the networks will ramp up development of weird TV for next season. You might see a few at mid-season as well; NBC's Raines, for instance, about a detective who solves crimes with the help of dead people, which seems to owe a big debt in concept to Medium and Ghost Whisperer. Not all are going to work or be successful, and not all should. As long as the characters and storytelling are strong and original, I'm all for it. But the defensiveness in Jared's question alarms me, because the worst thing any fan of genre programming can do is allow themselves to be pandered to. Not all of these shows are going to be created equally, and many of them (including the current crop) have serious creative issues that deserve to be addressed. By the way, be sure to check out next Monday's Ask Matt for more spirited discussion of Heroes and Jericho.

Question: I wanted your take on the CW's decision to move 7th Heaven and Runaway to Sunday nights from Monday because of low ratings. Do you think this is a sign that the network is giving up on these two shows? I hear that 7H is costing a fortune. It just kills me that they kept this dreck over Everwood, which arguably had many more good years left in it and cost much less to produce. (Someone should lose their job over that one.) So is it finally the end of the road for 7th Heaven? — Rhonda

Matt Roush: This was going to be the final season for 7th Heaven regardless, unless (I'm speculating) the numbers actually increased, which they didn't. The CW gave the show a full-season order, so I imagine it will have to play it out. But it seems obvious to me that the CW brass overreacted to the big numbers for Heaven's final season, disregarding (as so many noted at the time) the fact that the ratings spiked because those episodes were supposed to be the climax of a long-running series. And yet I was surprised when the CW couldn't even open Monday night, given that 7th Heaven had been such a reliable draw for so long. Part of it might be residual confusion over the network switch (although it doesn't appear to have harmed America's Next Top Model), and I hear anecdotal evidence of markets and systems that aren't carrying the CW programming as of yet. But honestly, I feel the CW made a terrific blunder by resurrecting a played-out series at the expense of a superior quality family drama (Everwood) that still had at least several seasons of story to explore. Looking at how dreadful Runaway's numbers have been, I can't help but think how thrilled the CW's execs would be to have Everwood's fan base, small as it was.

Picking up another thread of the argument, Anthony writes: "What the heck is the CW thinking, swapping their Sunday and Monday lineups? If they want to raise the ratings of 7th Heaven and Runaway, they picked the wrong night! Now family-friendly 7th Heaven is up against family-friendly Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. And Runaway is up against Desperate Housewives! Not to mention UPN/CW's lousy comedy block will now be up against CBS' more enjoyable one. Why would the network move 7th Heaven, a show that never changed its time over its 10-year run? The CW really seems to be living up to its 'Can't Win' nickname."

Can't Win. Love it. The bottom line here is that the CW sees a possible advantage in moving the former UPN's African-American comedy block back to Monday, where it thrived for years as counterprogramming to CBS' more mainstream (read: white bread) lineup. (The Class has been ridiculed for having no minority cast members.) I agree, it's a crying shame that three of the very few "family-friendly" (as you put it) shows prime time has to offer are now in direct competition: Makeover, Heaven and my personal fave, The Amazing Race. Now if only this so-called "family" audience would turn its gaze toward Friday Night Lights, which treats religion and faith with a seriousness and lack of condescension you almost never see in television drama.

Question: Don't you think that the most talked about plot of Desperate Housewives, Bree and Orson, is way too similar to Season 2's Bree and George? Sure, Orson is a much better character, but really? Bree's marrying a psycho murderer for the second time, and even worse, in the Bree-George plot, an old friend of George's also alerted Bree that her fiancé was a murderer (much like Laurie Metcalf did at her engagement party). Are we just supposed to forget Season 2 in order to enjoy the third one? Marc Cherry promised improvement, but the repetition of plots is getting absurd.— Alex

Matt Roush: I griped about this at the time Orson was introduced and his true colors emerged, at the end of last season. But now that the season is up and running, and running so much more efficiently than a year ago (with the exception of the dreadful Nora), I'll cut the show some slack on this front. Even Alex agrees that the Orson story line is better developed than the misbegotten George subplot, and last week's episode even seemed to humanize Orson a bit (as he reached out to the homeless Andrew). Repetition and absurd coincidence come with the territory of heightened soap opera. I wish Bree were working with a more original story line, but she's pretty terrific in this one so far. I'm just glad so much of the rest of the show is in better shape (no Applewhites, ditching Gabrielle's baby/maid story, finally giving Susan something fun to do). One last time, though: Ditch Nora now!

Question: How much of a role does critical acclaim have in determining whether a show will be picked up for another season? I know that a significant reason Veronica Mars made it to the CW is that it's a critic's darling, as its ratings were dismal. Then again, critics' raves over Arrested Development did not save it from a premature death. One could argue that since shows panned by critics are renewed if the ratings are high enough (Fox's The War at Home comes to mind), then networks don't place too much importance on ratings either way. Do critics' opinions really have an impact?— Elisabeth

Matt Roush: Media buzz, including reviews, awards and the like, can be a factor in keeping a show alive, but it depends on the show and the network. To be fair to the likes of myself, Arrested Development did get three (partial) seasons on the air, more than many expected. A lot of that had to do with the bouquets of acclaim the show got, along with good showings at the Emmys, Golden Globes, TCAs, etc. If a show has both dismal ratings and terrible reviews, the chances for success are very low. If the ratings are passable (thanks for reminding me that the execrable The War at Home is still on the air), it doesn't matter if critics hate it. Negative reviews alone can't sink a show. But if a show is struggling, like Veronica on a niche network or (I'm hoping) Friday Night Lights on NBC, positive and insistent media attention can sometimes work a small miracle. In some cases, positive media coverage of struggling shows has resulted in a network being patient and the show eventually emerging as a hit. (Some examples: Cheers, Seinfeld, The X-Files, Everybody Loves Raymond.) Every year I expect to lose some and win some. This year appears to be no different. Speaking of shows that may need all the critical help they can get to thrive, read on.

Question: I thoroughly loved the premiere of The Nine on ABC and felt it was the best new show on TV. Between this and the other new shows I am completely now hooked on, was The Nine your No. 1 pick this fall? What really threw me for a loop was that they didn't show the 52-hour bank robbery, scene by scene, in the first episodes. I loved the fact that it happened at the commercial break, and all of sudden the show came back after the break and it was completely different. I loved the twist, and now I am completely hooked and ready to see flashbacks of what happened during those pivotal 52 hours. Why some relationships changed for the better and for the worse, as well as what happened to poor Eva. Here's my other question regarding what befell Invasion (which I was a huge fan of) last year: Can another such dense, highly intense drama follow the intensity and fandom of Lost? I can handle it, but last year, it seems like the snobby Lost fan base turned off their TVs and went to the computer. They missed a terrific show in Invasion. What will happen with The Nine?— Alex R.

Matt Roush: In Fall Preview, I officially declared The Nine to be my favorite drama pilot. I thought the setup and execution were brilliant and riveting. I'm filing this column before the second episode airs (and its ratings are known), but it looks already as if it may struggle, as Invasion did, to hold on to a sizable percentage of Lost's audience. It may be asking too much for people to sit through two such demanding hours of TV in a row, but I wish they would. Now it's up to the show to deliver.

Question: I was disappointed to see that The Nine wasn't watched by more people. My idea is to put The Nine after Grey's Anatomy. Wouldn't that work? Or is that too good to be true? — Nick M.

Matt Roush: A time period like the post-Grey's slot is a risky proposition. On one hand, you're fed a giant lead-in. On the other, it's yours to lose (as Six Degrees, a much lesser show than The Nine, is learning each week). Expectations are so high now on Thursdays for ABC, thanks to the strong showings of Ugly Betty and Grey's, that it would be surprising if they would risk it on a show that may not be seen as holding on to enough of Lost's audience. There will be an opportunity later this season when NBC temporarily benches ER (to avoid low-rated repeats), but I'm not sure what ABC will choose to air then. It probably won't be Six Degrees.

http://www.tvguide.com/News-Views/Columnists/Ask-Matt/default.aspx

fredfa

10-13-06, 04:59 PM

TV Notebook
"Lost'' losing
Charlie McCollum San Jose Mercury News in his blog

It's way too early to jump to conclusions but if you were an executive at ABC, you'd be very concerned with the viewership trends of "Lost'' in its third season.

First, last week's premiere was down almost 20 percentage from the Season 2 return episode in fall 2005. Then, the viewership for last night's second episode slid to 16.6 million, down 12 percent from the premiere. To put this in perspective: the buzz-heavy "Lost'' beat CBS's "Criminal Minds'' by just 150,000 viewers.

Now, "Minds'' is a perfectly fine police procedural but it's hardly in "Lost's'' class as a pop culture icon. For it to come that close has got to be making the ABC suits very nervous -- and wondering what's going to happen when "Lost'' gets replaced by the new "Daybreak'' for 13 weeks starting Nov. 15.

Sure, "Lost'' is still a gold mine when it comes to the younger viewers advertisers covet (it whipped "Criminal Minds'' in that demographic) but you've got to wonder if the fascination with life on the island is starting to dim.

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

fredfa

10-13-06, 05:04 PM

TV Notebook
What'd the mama tomato say to the baby tomato?
By Alan Sepinwall of the Newark Star-Ledger in his TV blog “What’s Alan Watching”

Catch-up time, so look for comments on, in order, "Gilmore Girls," "Jericho," "The Nine," "South Park" and "Grey's Anatomy," just as soon as I figure out where I left my $8 million check in the pocket of those jeans I just put in the wash...

Now that's more like it, "Gilmore Girls." Amazing how just bringing back Richard and Emily makes the show feel more like itself, isn't it? (And that's even with Emily's cleverness quotient only at 80 percent or so of normal.) I've always preferred the fluffier stories to the more overtly soapy material, so an episode dealing with Lorelai's fear of cotillions, Rory's fear of text-sex and Lane and Zach's fear of the life-changing creature growing in her belly was right up my alley. I'm even in an optimistic enough mood to say I'm looking forward to Lorelai and Christopher giving things one last shot. Independent of the idiocy with Luke and April, last season did an effective job of transforming Chris into the kind of guy Lorelai might actually want to be with long-term (and that's not just because of his money), so while there will no doubt be Internet rioting if she doesn't get back with Luke eventually, this isn't a terrible avenue to explore.

I'm really riding the knife edge with "Jericho." Like the idea, love Gerald McRaney, like certain moments (the outcast kid discovering the train, the scattered TV images), am more often bored than not with the execution. It feels like the show only occasionally wants to act like the country has been nuked -- in particular, the stuff with the teenagers bear no resemblance to how anyone, even teenagers, would behave in this situation -- the crisis of the week stuff is rarely compelling, and McRaney's been reduced to delivering a speech at the end of every other episode. If there was anything remotely more compelling in the timeslot, I'd be long gone.

Well, "The Nine" absolutely cratered in the ratings in week two. And unlike the pitiful Nielsens for "Friday Night Lights" (my other favorite pilot of the season), I'm okay with that. I'd said all along that I had no idea what the weekly show would be like, and if this is an example of that, I could take it or leave it. Some nice moments, mainly involving Egan acting out all those "Dead Poets Society" life lessons and Felicia realizing that her 911 call created all the problems, but overall it was meh. Because of the time-cut in the pilot, we had to imagine most of what happened during the robbery, and our actual glimpses of it aren't really living up to that.

"South Park" has come back with two duds in a row. The "World of Warcraft" episode was like an "SNL" sketch: funny idea that just kept going and going and going. (And there wasn't even a good payoff to all those images of the fat loser player; how did he react to getting killed?) The 9/11 episode, meanwhile, felt built on a strawman premise ("Ha ha! Look at all these idiots who don't think Al Qaeda caused 9/11!"), and the only parts that made me laugh at all were Mr. Mackey's quest to find the dookie-dropper, and the tumescent hijinks of the Hardly Boys.

And this was the first "Grey's Anatomy" all season where I didn't once feel the need to yell at the TV. I think the whole "Derek is The One" stuff is fairly lame, but at least the show finally acknowledged that he's an ******* who's probably going to cause her more pain, and at least Finn escaped with more dignity than, say, Aiden did on "Sex and the City." I like that McSteamy's even more of an overt jerk than Derek, and as soon as I saw the salesman patient's face light up real good, I turned to Marian and said, "Well, it's a good thing the hospital finally hired its first plastic surgeon so they'll have someone to deal with this," in the same way that any case remotely involving a woman's reproductive organs or children gets assigned to Addison, anything in the head is Derek's and everything else goes to Burke.

So Denny's father is Remo Williams? Huh. No idea where they're going with Izzy's newfound fortune, although realistically, the only way she could actually get back into the surgical program after, you know, killing a guy, would be through bribery. Callie and McSteamy are an interesting pairing as the two odd hotties out, and Korev and McSteamy are made for each other, professionally.

http://sepinwall.blogspot.com/2006/10/whatd-mama-tomato-say-to-baby-tomato.html

fredfa

10-13-06, 05:20 PM

TV Notebook
Cable news too fast, not final
By Stu Bykofsky Philadelphia Daily News Fri, Oct. 13, 2006

Print journalism used to be called "the first draft of history," meaning the first version professionally reported.

It did not mean it was the fully accurate version, nor did it ever mean it was the final version.

That was when print was king.

Yes, early radio did some news, although it rarely reported breaking news live.

Most news read into a microphone was scripted.

Then came television, which also didn't cover news in its infancy. When it started to toddle, it covered planned-in-advance events, such as political conventions. Two things that helped TV news come of age were the miniaturization of the equipment, such as cameras, and the move from film, which needed to be processed, to tape, which didn't.

Further electronic development allowed TV to broadcast directly from a news scene.

With each advancement, journalism lost another filter.

Print reporters gather material, then write, then their work goes through editors' hands.

It is more or less the same for a TV reporter using film or tape.

The rules were changed by the so-called 24-hour cable news networks, although the modifier "news" is questionable.

CNN or CNBC or MSNBC or the Fox News Channel - each is larded with non-news programming, such as endless "analysis" or chat shows.

It's more like news-like, or News Lite. No one will ever confuse Nancy Grace with Andrea Mitchell.

The cable news networks, in the hyperdrive of a huge news story, or because of dogfight competition against others with the same technology, air stuff they have not properly checked out. Speed kills... their credibility.

If they were taking care, how could the Howard Stern adjunct by the name of Captain Janks repeatedly get on-air, pretending to be an official on the scene of a disaster?

A few months ago, on July 4th, I switched from one network to another to "learn" that North Korea had fired a missile somewhere near Japan. Then two missiles. Then four. Then eight. Then six. Then one was long range and two were short.

Every few minutes, another "fact" was reported, even though sometimes anchors admitted what they were reporting was unverified.

Question to TV anchors: Which journalism prof told you it was OK to ever air unverified information? (This is different from airing material that was verified by an authority who was later proved to be wrong.)

Wednesday, it happened again.

It was a helicopter that struck the New York condo.

Then it was a fixed-wing plane. Then a helicopter again.

One person was dead.

Then four.

There was one person in the plane, then two, then four, then one again.

You get the point.

"With breaking news, you have all the more obligation to be specific in citing your source," says Bob Steele, of the Poynter Institute, a journalism think tank.

And the source ought to be in a position to know the facts.

In other words, the mayor has more credibility than the gawkers in the street.

Identifying sources helps viewers evaluate the information - and may keep bad info off the air.

I had a certain amount of professional detachment watching the "facts" bounce around like a ball on a roulette wheel on Wednesday afternoon.

But viewers may have thought journalists were simple twits who couldn't get the story straight.

Or, maybe seeing the story evolve and change gave viewers an appreciation of what reporters go through.

But I think that's just wishful thinking on my part.

If you want the "best" facts rather than the "first" facts for your first draft of history, stick with your slow - but verified - newspaper reporting.

http://www.philly.com/mld/dailynews/15747359.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp

fredfa

10-13-06, 06:09 PM

TV Notebook
Better 'Late Late' than ever
By Nick A. Zaino III Boston Globe Correspondent October 13, 2006

Craig Ferguson spends most of his day planning to be spontaneous. As host of ``The Late Late Show" on CBS, he delivers an unrehearsed, off-the-cuff monologue unlike any other in late-night television. He goes over a few bullet points with his eight-person writing team, the smallest team in late night by Ferguson's guess, and then improvises a 10-minute-plus routine for the first and last time in front of a live audience.

``That's really what I do, I spend my day constructing escape hatches, and then go out and try to use them artfully when I do the monologue," he says by phone from his office in Los Angeles. ``When it's time to get out of one subject, bail and go to the next one."

Ferguson's career has been full of escape hatches. In the mid-'80s, he was a punk-rock drummer in England when he got hooked on stand-up after his first open- mike night. In the mid-'90s, he left his native Scotland and stand-up for America when he got a TV gig on ``The Drew Carey Show." He wrote the screenplay for the film ``Saving Grace" while he was bored in his trailer on that show. And if television, stand-up, music, and screenwriting don't work out, he could always become a full-time novelist. His brilliant first novel, ``Between the Bridge and the River," was released in March.

He has enjoyed each stop along the way, but he never gets too comfortable. He didn't set out to be a novelist, he just wanted to write a novel. And he never thought he'd last more than a couple of weeks as a talk show host. ``I'm looking at my office right now," he says. ``I could be out of here in 10 minutes. That's the way I feel about it. You would never know I'd been here."

It's unlikely Ferguson will be leaving late night any time soon. `` The Late Late Show" is garnering respectable ratings against heavy competition in NBC's ``Late Night With Conan O'Brien," and his monologue has drawn critical praise. But he's begun to sharpen his stand-up act over the past year. He's at the Comedy Connection tonight and tomorrow and at Mohegan Sun's 10th Anniversary Celebration next Saturday.

Plus, he says, there is nothing more liberating than stand-up comedy. ``I think once you're a stand-up, you really always are a stand-up, and I always had this nagging feeling that I'm in trouble, because if I have to go in and do my act, I don't have an act," he says.

Ferguson would never use the cliche that he's just following his muse. But he believes life is too short to waste time on projects that don't engage him in some way. "It would be nice to say there's an artistic impulse, but I think really the struggle is against boredom," he says.

http://www.boston.com/ae/tv/articles/2006/10/13/better_late_late_than_ever?mode=PF

fredfa

10-13-06, 06:17 PM

TV Notebook
Three new dramas are getting a quick heave-ho
By Charlie McCollum San Jose Mercury News

It's not even a month into the new television season and already we're about to find out how the networks will handle their cancellation of serialized dramas.

Officially, no series has been ``canceled.'' Network executives have an aversion to admitting that shows have gotten the ax, so they're put ``on hiatus'' or sometimes simply vanish from the schedule.

``It seems like a silly game to me,'' one exec said recently. ``You look at plenty of shows that we know are damn well canceled, but no one wants to say it.''

Still, two of the networks' highly touted serials -- CBS's "Smith'' and NBC's "Kidnapped'' -- were effectively terminated last week and a third, Fox's "Vanished,'' was put on life support. Each was (in the case of "Smith'') or still is "Kidnapped,''"Vanished'') in the midst of a complicated story line in which millions of viewers already have invested a number of hours.

And the networks have learned, rather painfully, that those viewers get pretty upset when they're left hanging with no closure on the mysteries that are at the core of these shows. A year after "Reunion'' was dropped by Fox, I'm still getting angry e-mails about the network's failure to resolve its murder mystery -- and that was a series that few people watched.

``These are our customers,'' said NBC Entertainment President Kevin Reilly, speaking generally just before the start of the season. ``We take that anger very seriously, particularly in this day and age of competition. We don't like pissing off the customers.''

Peter Liguori, the president of Fox Entertainment, suggested that not giving audiences closure could have long-term effects: ``We have to have some plans that say: How do we give the audience some satisfaction? If we don't, will audiences be really gun-shy about committing to these shows?''

No one back then really wanted to get into possible resolution strategies. But now that they're faced with the dilemma, the suits are taking a range of approaches.

NBC has yanked "Kidnapped'' out of its 10 p.m. Wednesday time period and has shuffled it to the Siberia that is Saturday night. But it gave the creators enough notice so they can wrap up the kidnapping plot in the 10 remaining episodes.

CBS has taken the traditional course with "Smith,'' at least so far: The show is gone after three installments. (Rumors are that, after a few weeks of "Criminal Minds'' repeats, CBS will bring in a new medical drama -- "3 Lbs'' starring Stanley Tucci -- to fill the 10 p.m. Tuesday slot.) And there appears to be no plan to wrap ``Smith'' up on the network, online or on video on demand.

That could change, though -- "Smith'' was still in production as of earlier this week -- so don't count out the heist drama turning up somewhere at some point.

"Vanished'' is in a slightly different position. Fox has moved it from a good slot on its schedule -- Monday nights behind "Prison Break'' -- to 8 p.m. Fridays as of Oct. 27, apparently giving it at least one more shot.

But creator Josh Berman told tvguide.com last week that the two main plot points of the convoluted series will be resolved by Episode 13. (For the record, they are: What happened to Sara Collins, the missing wife of a U.S. senator, and who is she really?)

Although Berman also said that ``as we turn over new cards, new questions will be asked,'' that 13th episode sure sounds like an early wrap-up to me.

Station breaks

• OK, mark this on your calendars: Fox's "24'' will return Sunday, Jan. 14 (8 p.m., Chs. 2, 35) with a two-hour episode. Another two hours will air Monday, Jan. 15. Among the newcomers to the cast this season: Peter MacNicol (``Numbers'') as a presidential aide, James Cromwell (``Six Feet Under'') as Jack Bauer's father, Regina King (the film ``Ray'') as an attorney and Eric Balfour (too many failed series to count) reprising his Season 1 role as a CTU agent.

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/entertainment/television/15738998.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp

fredfa

10-13-06, 06:32 PM

The New Season
“1 vs 100”
In Battle for Bucks, Personality Beats Intellect
By Alessandra Stanley The New York Times Oct. 13, 2006

Game shows are not quiz shows. That should be understood at the outset, because knowledge is not an American virtue; luck is. And so is virtue. Prime-time game shows like “1 vs 100,” (tonight 9 PM ET/PT, NBC) which begins tonight on NBC, are not a test of a contestant’s erudition or nerve; they are aspirational reality shows that allow ordinary Joes to go for it all in the hope of transforming their lives.

Personality is obviously more important than education or skill. The contestants selected to play on “1 vs 100” are lively and likable in exactly the same way as those who compete on “Deal or No Deal,” the NBC game show that precedes it. The new one, with Bob Saget as its host, requires slightly more acumen: there are multiple-choice questions. But the principle is the same: big rewards come with big risks. Producers seek out extroverts who do not desperately need the money but who deserve a lucky break nonetheless, because their intentions are pure.

Brian, the first contestant on “1 vs 100,” is a bouncer at a bar; he’s a jolly man who is quick to inform the audience that he wants to win the money for his fiancée. “I’d really like to buy her the engagement ring she deserves,” he says. On a recent episode of “Deal or No Deal,” Mark, an exuberant corrections officer, told the host, Howie Mandel, that he wanted the money because “I’ve never been able to buy my wife a nice ring.”

These game shows, like “American Idol,” “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” or “The Biggest Loser,” tap into viewers’ own fantasies of self-realization, but cash is less romantic than a singing career, a new house or a slimmer, healthier body. While there is nothing more American than the dream of earning $1 million for one night’s work, we haven’t entirely lost our puritanical streak. Contestants have to be altruistically materialistic; they play to help or reward a loved one, not to acquire a sports car or a spa vacation for themselves.

Both NBC game shows and several similar ones coming up, like “Set for Life” on ABC or “The Rich List” on Fox, follow the basic format of “Who Wants to be a Millionaire,” the game show that pioneered the formula of dispensing huge rewards for emotional exertion.

On “Deal or No Deal,” Mr. Mandel does not even pretend that skill is involved. He says upfront that his game is about “giving away a ton of money,” not winning a ton of money. In fact, “Deal or No Deal” eliminates the quiz element entirely. Contestants do not answer questions; they merely try to guess which one of the 26 silver attaché cases, carried by 26 scantily clad women, holds the most money.

In gambling terms, it’s not poker or even “Wheel of Fortune.” It’s more like those fairground games in which children fish a plastic duck out of water and hope the number beneath it translates into a teddy bear, not a whistle.

The players pick a case, which is left unopened, and then select other briefcases to be opened. By elimination, they can calculate the odds that theirs has a high value. They can choose to “deal,” and take home their cash in hand, or they can continue playing to the last attaché case: “no deal.”

Contestants ham up the agony of suspense, but most important, they are advised and encouraged by teams of mothers, spouses and best friends, adding a soap opera touch. When Mark reached $105,000, Mr. Mandel weighed in. “The amount now can buy her a ring,” he said portentously. “It can change your life.”

Like so many reality shows, “1 vs 100” originated in Europe and was adapted for American audiences. The contestants play against what Mr. Saget calls “the mob,” a group of 100 people that for the premiere includes teachers, seven valedictorians, three brain surgeons and the “Jeopardy!” champion Ken Jennings, a software engineer who won $2.5 million in 2004. (The 100 are stacked above the stage in brightly lighted boxes, a cross between “Hollywood Squares” and a college amphitheater.)

The players are given a question with three possible answers. If they get it right, they win money. They win more money for every member of the mob who answers incorrectly and is eliminated. The players can stop at any point and go home with their accumulated winnings, but if they stay and defeat the last remaining members of the 100, they win $1 million.

If they get a single question wrong, they go home and the mob divides the winnings. The questions are not the kind of brain teasers found on the British quiz show “Mastermind” or “Jeopardy!” Brian’s three choices to the question “What Hawaiian appetizer is often found on Asian cuisine menus?” are: a) pu-pu platter b) ka-ka combo c) du-du delight.

Eight of the 100 get it wrong, proving Mr. Saget’s point: “You never know what they will or won’t know.” But the point of “1 vs 100” is different: knowledge is beside the point.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/13/arts/television/13game.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&ref=television&pagewanted=print

fredfa

10-13-06, 07:50 PM

The New Season
“Ugly Betty” Gets Full-Season Pickup
ABC Television Network Press Release Oct. 13, 2006

The most-watched new TV show of the 2006-07 season, "Ugly Betty" was picked up for a full season order, Stephen McPherson, president of ABC Entertainment announced today. The show, based on the world's most popular telenovela, "Yo Soy Betty La Fea," is executive-produced by Salma Hayek and stars America Ferrera as Betty Suarez.

"In just two weeks 'Ugly Betty' has given us an impressive foothold leading into the 'Grey's Anatomy' hour on Thursday night," said McPherson. "The show has proven to be competitive in a very strong time period, and we're thrilled with 'Ugly Betty's' performance."

The ABC freshman has already established itself a solid second to CBS' time period veteran "Survivor" in the 8 o'clock hour among Total Viewers (15.3 million) and Adults 18-49 (4.7/13), while holding the No. 1 position on average with Adults 18-34 (4.0/12). On average, "Ugly Betty" has improved the time period for ABC by 96% in Total Viewers (15.3 million vs.. 7.8 million) and by 92% in Adults 18-49 (4.8/14 vs.. 2.5/7) over the same nights last year. Additionally "Ugly Betty" qualifies as the No. 1 new series this season in Total Viewers (1.13 million) and Adults 18-49 (3.2/9) among Hispanic viewers watching English language TV.

About "Ugly Betty":

In the superficial world of high fashion, image is everything. Styles come and go, and the only constants are the superthin beauties who wear them. How can an ordinary girl - a slightly plump plain-Jane from Queens - possibly fit in?

If you took a moment to get to know Betty Suarez, you'd see how sweet, intelligent and hard-working she is. But few people do, because in the world of high fashion Betty is the oversized peg in the petite round hole. When publishing mogul Bradford Meade hands the reigns of Mode, the bible of the fashion industry, over to this son, Daniel, he specifically hires Betty as his son's new assistant - mostly because she's the only woman in NYC Daniel won't sleep with. Though this "player" is reluctant to accept her at first, Betty's indomitable spirit and bright ideas will eventually win him over. Neither of them really knows the ins and outs of the fashion world, but the two are a formidable team against those who will do anything to see them fall.

And they really are swimming with the sharks. Diva fashionista Wilhelmina Slater is incensed that Bradford Meade passed her over and promoted Daniel to the coveted job after the mysterious death (or was it?) of Mode's legendary editress, Fey Sommers. Wilhelmina, along with toadying assistant Marc and scheming receptionist Amanda, are out to sabotage Daniel and Betty any chance they get. Betty finds a friend in warm-hearted Christina, who works as the magazine's in-house seamstress and seems to know everything about everybody who works there.

Away from work, Betty's home life is far from glamorous. Dad Ignacio and her sister, Hilda, worry that she's just setting herself up for a fall, while nephew Justin encourages his aunt to dream big (even if he's aghast at her fashion sense). Nerdy boyfriend Walter, who unceremoniously dumped Betty, keeps turning up despite her attempts to get him to stay away.

"Ugly Betty" stars America Ferrera as Betty Suarez, Eric Mabius as Daniel Meade, Alan Dale as Bradford Meade, Tony Plana as Ignacio, Ana Ortiz as Hilda, Ashley Jensen as Christina, Becki Newton as Amanda, Mark Indelicato as Justin and Vanessa Williams as Wilhelmina Slater. Recurring guest stars are Michael Urie as Marc and Kevin Sussman as Walter.

fredfa

10-13-06, 08:28 PM

The Business Of TV
DirecTV Satellite 9S Launched
DirecTV Press Release Oct. 13, 2006

DIRECTV 9S Satellite Launches Successfully; Expands DIRECTV Fleet to Nine Spacecraft

EL SEGUNDO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 13, 2006--DIRECTV continued to fortify its satellite fleet with the successful launch today of DIRECTV 9S, a high-powered, spot-beam satellite that will provide back-up capacity and ensure continuous, reliable service for DIRECTV customers. The spacecraft was successfully launched today at 1:56 p.m. PT from Europe's Spaceport in Kouou, French Guiana.

DIRECTV 9S is one of four satellites DIRECTV has launched over the past two years as it continues to expand its capacity to provide new national and local services in both standard- and high-definition, as well as interactive and original programming. DIRECTV will launch two more satellites next year that will more than quadruple its capacity and enable it to lead the industry in the delivery of HD programming.

The Space Systems/Loral-built satellite will be positioned at the 101-degree West longitude orbital slot, providing back-up capacity for the DIRECTV fleet, including spot-beam satellites that deliver standard definition local services. DIRECTV offers local channels in 142 markets, representing 94 percent of U.S. TV households.

DIRECTV 9S was launched aboard an Ariane 5 ECA rocket and after 26 minutes, the rocket left the spacecraft in a geosynchronous transfer orbit with a high point of 22,300 miles (36,000 km) above the equator. Controllers at the Hartebeesthoek ground station in South Africa made contact with the satellite and confirmed that all systems are functioning properly.

"We congratulate the launch team on the flawless lift off of DIRECTV 9S, the ninth satellite in our fleet," said Phil Goswitz, vice president, Space & Communications, DIRECTV, Inc.

"DIRECTV 9S will ensure that we have the needed capacity and flexibility to provide the breadth and quality of services that our customers have come to expect. We are committed to maintaining our near perfect 99.96% signal availability for our customers."

In the coming weeks, controllers will maneuver the spacecraft into a circular orbit; deploy the antennas and solar arrays; and test operational functions, communications payload and propulsion system.

The next scheduled satellite launches for DIRECTV are DIRECTV 10 and DIRECTV 11 in 2007. The two satellites will provide DIRECTV with the capacity to offer more than 150 national HD channels and more than 1,500 local HD channels, as well as other advanced programming services for its customers.

http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=127160&p=irol-newsArticle_print&ID=916210&highlight=

RussTC3

10-13-06, 08:33 PM

I may be crazy, but I still believe "What About Brian" would fit perfectly in the 10:00 PM time-period after "Grey's Anatomy".

I wonder how similar it is to Six Degrees (got all those episodes sitting in my DVR, haven't found the time to watch them yet), too bad they didn't launch What About Brian this year, not last.

Very good season opener, decent ratings too.

fredfa

10-13-06, 09:19 PM

The New Season
“30 Rock” and “Studio 60”
NBC's new shows-within-a-show, 'Studio 60' and '30 Rock,' skewer TV, but are they too inside for viewers?
By Noel Holston Special to Newsday October 15, 2006

TV producer Danny Tripp: "I have no reason to trust you and every reason not to."

Network president Jordan McDeere: "Why?"

Tripp: "You work in television."

Hearing an exchange like this - from the recent premiere of NBC's new series "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip" - you could easily get the idea that the people who write and produce television programs regard the business they work in with ambivalence, if not outright disdain. And you would be correct.

The common thread in "Studio 60," an hourlong comedy-drama, and another of NBC's fall newcomers, the single-camera comedy "30 Rock," is not just that both revolve around fictional late-night sketch-comedy series that bear more than a passing resemblance to the network's long-running "Saturday Night Live." It's that the creators of both shows mock the network system that bankrolled them.

In "Studio 60," the show-within-the-show's veteran executive producer (think "SNL" czar Lorne Michaels, but substitute a character played by Judd Hirsch) goes on a "Network"-like on-air tirade about the gutlessness of his network, the disparagingly initialed NBS. In "30 Rock," of which the real Lorne Michaels is an executive producer, actor Alec Baldwin plays GE-owned NBC's "vice president of East Coast television and microwave programming," a market-research specialist assigned to "retool" a comedy-variety hour called "The Girlie Show."

A history of TV about TV

Much critical comment has been made about whether the two shows are too inside, too narcissistic, for the "average" viewer to give a fig about. Actually, television has a history of self-reflexive, self-critical shows, a history so long it actually predates TV. The show-within-a-show format of Jack Benny's 1950s sitcom was transferred directly from his radio series.

The TV-about-TV genre has been successfully perpetuated by sitcoms such as "The Dick Van Dyke Show," in which Van Dyke's Rob Petrie and his fellow "Alan Brady Show" writers regularly butted heads with the mercurial, egomaniacal boss and star; "The Mary Tyler Moore Show," in which airhead anchorman Ted Baxter's triumph of appearance over substance served as a running critique of the medium; and "Murphy Brown," in which the titular broadcast newswoman battled all those who would impose triviality on her prime-time magazine show.

HBO's "The Larry Sanders Show," starring comic Garry Shandling as a paranoid, petty talk-show host, not only paraded show business's neurotic underbelly before voyeuristic viewers, it concluded its run with a realistic arc of episodes in which ratings-obsessed network "suits" drove Sanders to retire.

A less successful inside look, at least in terms of ratings, was "SportsNight," a series from "Studio 60" creator Aaron

Sorkin about the anchors and staff of a cable sportscast under constant pressure from network execs and their hired consultants.

Taking an unlikely cue from "Network," Paddy Chayefsky's corrosive 1976 movie satirizing the TV establishment, NBC in 1978 actually put on a nighttime soap, "W.E.B.," about backstabbing network executives so soulless they could have passed for vampires. While it's impossible to know whether viewers resoundingly rejected "W.E.B." because it was uncomfortably unflattering or simply because it was badly written, the history of TV-about-TV suggests that many viewers share the show creators' mixed feelings about the industry and its product. After all, there has never been a TV series about heroic executives, nor is there ever likely to be one.

"One could conceivably do it," said Michele Hilmes, a professor of media and cultural studies at the University of Wisconsin who's currently writing a history of NBC. "But I don't think we're going to see any show where the network executives are the good guys."

The help vs. the boss

The reason perhaps is that TV shows about TV shows are workplace-based, and workplace shows almost always side with the hired help over the suits. It's a smart, populist thing to do.

In shows such as "Studio 60" and "30 Rock," the network executives are "the boss," noted Erin Gough Wehrenberg, NBC's senior vice president for current programs. "And I think that if you look at any show that's a workplace environment, the boss character is the one who gets portrayed in a negative light. Look at 'The Office.'"

Writer Treva Silverman, an Emmy-winning veteran of Mary Tyler Moore's classic sitcom, said that the conflict between workers and bosses tends to be heightened in television because everybody's constantly second-guessing. "I once had some procedure in a hospital," she said. "They gave me a menu for the next three days. They said this made it easier. I had to guess what I would feel like eating on Thursday when it was Monday. That's what television is like.

"The writer is told to try to anticipate what the network people will like, and the network people are trying to anticipate what some farmer in Nebraska is going to like and, at the same time, what somebody in New York who's a Yale graduate is going to like. The whole thing is, 'Don't blame me. I don't want to be culpable.' Everybody's in fear for their jobs."

Thomas Schlamme, co-executive producer of "Studio 60" with writer Sorkin and its primary director, observed that writers stick to what they know, and that in the TV business, what many if not most of them know best is rejection. When they write about television, he said, it often "has a cynicism and a kind of contempt to it. It's like when you write in your diary. It's easier when you're depressed."

Schlamme said that even though network TV is far less restrictive with regard to content, language and artistic boldness than it once was, the tension between "the creatives" and the business side still exists and will continue to exist "as long as it costs money to do television."

But while "Studio 60" characters such as producer Danny Tripp (Bradley Whitford) may express cynical attitudes about the television industry, Schlamme said, viewers can expect a more rounded portrayal of even executives like NBS chairman Jack Rudolph (Steven Weber), who initially seems pretty craven.

"For people like Aaron and myself who are just trying to do a good show, we can sometimes appear to be very naive about the idea that we're spending somebody else's money," Schlamme said.

Creativity's good, money's better

"In the long run, if your TV show doesn't make money, as much as they [the network execs] would love to support your creativity, your intellect, your good spirit, you're done. You have to figure out a way to justify people writing a big, fat check to you to go do what you're passionate about doing.

"They're under a lot of pressure from Wall Street to make a profit," he said. "They can't help but be making all their decisions with the idea of, if we do the show this way and produce it for this amount of money and we sell it for this amount of money overseas, our profit will be this and our shareholders will see a return of this. They're coming from a completely different place. You've got to figure out a way that you're not insensitive to their plight. At the same time, you don't want it to overwhelm you so that your decisions become economic decisions and not creative decisions. And I think that's the conflict."

"30 Rock" likewise will try for a more rounded portrait of TV executives, notwithstanding the initial presentation of Baldwin's character as a cocky know-it-all who believes he can do for a comedy-variety hour what he did for GE's

Trivection Oven.

"Obviously Alec's character represents the corporate side of things," said Tina Fey, the series' star and a co-executive producer. "I think the way it will play out in this show is that it will be used to show my character's sort of immaturity and ignorance of the real world and how things work. And he's going to be educating her about the harsh realities of the real business world."

Somewhere on the East Coast, NBC's vice president for comedy and economic theory is smiling.

http://www.newsday.com/entertainment/tv/ny-fftv4928970oct15,0,6918351,print.story?coll=ny-television-headlines

Rakesh.S

10-13-06, 11:13 PM

TV Notebook
Better 'Late Late' than ever
By Nick A. Zaino III Boston Globe Correspondent October 13, 2006

A person could pick up on the brilliance of Craig Ferguson by watching just one show. The fact that he does an improv monologue and no pre-interviews with guests (seems that way) on a daily basis is friggin remarkable, to say the least.

fredfa

10-13-06, 11:30 PM

His show is perfect for Tivoing.

fredfa

10-13-06, 11:48 PM

The New Season
Cage match: ABC vs CBS
From Maureen Ryan’s Chicago Tribune blog “The Watcher” October 13, 2006

How obsessed are ABC and CBS with spinning the ratings of "CSI" versus Thursday upstart "Grey’s Anatomy"?

Pretty darn obsessed.

It’s not often that I laugh while reading a ratings press release from a network. But CBS’ Friday morning ratings missive was surprisingly giggle-inducing.

One sub-head in the release, which concerned preliminary Nielsen ratings for Thursday, read thusly: “‘CSI’ … Narrows the Gap With ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ in Adults 18-49.”

“Grey’s” won in that all-important demographic category (and the medical drama got the most overall viewers Thursday as well). But this week, “CSI” narrowed the 18-49 ratings gap by a comically minute margin.

Here’s that section of the CBS press release: “‘CSI’ closed the gap with ‘Grey's Anatomy’ compared to last week in both adults 25-54 (-1.0 this week from -1.2 last week) and adults 18-49 (-1.8 this week from -2.1 last week).”

These tiny variations don’t mean much to me (couldn’t they just be random, week-to-week fluctuations?), but they sure appear to mean a lot to CBS.

ABC’s response, in its press release an hour later? “It’s on!” Well, not those words, but statistics to that effect.

Here’s the primly triumphant start of ABC’s press release: “ABC qualified as Thursday's No. 1 network in Adults 18-49 for the fourth straight week….With ‘Grey's Anatomy,’ ABC claimed the No. 1 TV program on Thursday in Total Viewers, Adults 18-34, Adults 18-49 and Adults 25-54.”

Translation: In yo’ face, CBS!

ABC didn’t hesitate to trumpet the performance of “Ugly Betty” versus “Survivor,” which did actually get a larger number of viewers than “Betty.”

From ABC’s release: “[C]ompared to the same night last year, ‘Survivor’ lost -2.2 million viewers and -17% of its Adult 18-49 audience and delivered the CBS reality series' lowest-ever Thursday night numbers.”

Oh, snap! But ABC kept bringing the pain:

“At 9 p.m., ABC's ‘Grey's Anatomy’ drew 1.2 million more viewers than ‘CSI,’ topping the CBS drama for the second straight week in Total Viewers ([which it has done] 3 of 4 weeks). The ABC drama bested the CBS Thursday time period veteran by 24% in the key Adult 18-49 sales demographic, as ‘Grey's’ beat ‘CSI’ for the fourth straight week among young adults.”

You know, I don’t care much about ratings, unless they’re helping a show that I like. But watching these networks slug it out has made for pretty amusing Friday mornings of late.

[b]UPDATE: Cementing its status as one of the hits of the fall season, ABC has given "Ugly Betty" a full season order.

In other TV news:

[B] • “Medium” returns to NBC on Nov. 15. So you can stop sending e-mails asking me when it’s going to return. Please. And for the record, I don’t know when “King of Queens” and “Crossing Jordan” are going to return. I really, truly don’t.

• "Jericho” has been given a full season order by CBS.

• ”House” returns from its baseball break on Oct. 31. And when it does [spoiler alert], David Morse will be on the show for a six-episode arc as cop Michael Tritter, who thinks Dr. House may be obtaining his painkillers illegally (anyone else recall that scene in an early third season episode, in which House secretly swiped a sheet from Dr. Wilson’s prescription pad? I’m betting that action comes back to haunt both docs).

• Can I just say for the record how much I enjoy E!’s “The Soup”? The weekly roundup of all that is wrong and cheesy in television is a great deal of fun, and host Joel McHale hits just the right note of absurdist cynicism. Thanks to “The Soup,” I don’t have to sit through “House of Carters” or “Flavor of Love” to see the week’s most embarrassing moments, I can just watch McHale make fun of them with incisive sarcasm, and the same goes for Rachael Ray and Megan Mullally’s talk shows. And the show’s recent takedown of C-grade dialogue on “Prison Break” was simply hilarious.

• Let me go on record as saying that I liked the second episode of “The Nine” as much as the first, and I really, really hope the ABC show sticks around.

• Both the casts of “The Amazing Race” and “Survivor: Cook Islands” are boring me to death this season. Maybe I’ve just seen too many editions of these shows, or maybe the casts are just particularly bland. But I’m having trouble forcing myself to watch either show.

Your thoughts?

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

fredfa

10-14-06, 12:19 AM

More from Maureen Ryan:

Critic’s Notebook
David Simon looks to the future of 'The Wire'
From Maureen Ryan’s Chicago Tribune blog “The Watcher” October 13, 2006

David Simon, creator and executive producer of “The Wire,” squirmed a bit at one of the questions lobbed at him at Northwestern University’s Block Cinema on Thursday night.

Simon, at the Block for a Q&A session on the HBO show, which is in the midst of its fourth season, winced when asked about the foul language that some of the children in the cast have to use when they’re in character as residents of a rough west Baltimore neighborhood.

“I’m ashamed of myself some days,” he said ruefully. He recalled sitting in a post-production looping session with the father of the boy who plays Kenard; the young actor had to repeat a particularly heinous line of dialogue, and Simon looked over at the boy’s father, who, Simon said, had a look on his face that translated as, “Never again.”

But he stood by the dialogue as being true to that world. “We don’t want to do the Disney version,” he said. The goal of the show, in particular this season, which focuses on how schools and institutions let young people down, is to demonstrate that “this is a debilitating way to waste human life.”

Simon also answered a question about whether the upcoming fifth and final season of the show would be a culminating “call to arms.”

“I don’t know about a call to arms,” said Simon, who noted that the next season would, to a certain extent, concern the media and society’s ability to ignore the problems depicted in previous seasons of the show. The idea behind the fifth season is, Simon said, “if we’ve gotten everything right in the previous four seasons, why is it that nobody ever quite says it out loud, and no one ever hears it?”

Simon, a former Baltimore Sun reporter, noted that “it’s not as if journalism is any more healthy than” the police, the government, the schools or any of the other institutions depicted in the show.

Simon was quick to add that he wasn’t a fan of how journalists are usually depicted on TV as “a herd of microphone-thrusting, soulless [expletives].” In any case, he said, “the low end of journalism is not worrying to me. My fear is that there’s no high end anymore.”

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

fredfa

10-14-06, 12:19 PM

TV Notebook
Bumpy Start for 'Battlestar'
By R. Thomas Umstead MultiChannel News 10/16/2006

Battlestar Galactica's space jump back to the small screen yielded mixed performance results.

Sci Fi Channel executives said they were elated with the ratings and viewership performance of the series' Oct. 6 third-season debut, which drew a 1.8 household rating and 2.2 million viewers from 9 p.m. to 11 p.m. against competition from both broadcast and cable networks. The performance topped the 2.1 million viewership average for the second half of the skein's sophomore campaign, which debuted in January 2006. The first half of the second season premiered in July 2005.

But the show failed to match the 2.6 household rating and 3.1 million viewers for the series' season-two premiere in July of 2005. Sci Fi Channel executive vice president and general manager David Howe said it's unfair to compare the show's debut performance against stiff competition from first-run broadcast-network shows, like CBS's Numb3rs and NBC's Law & Order, with its numbers from summer 2005, when it squared off largely against reruns on the broadcast networks.

“We took a risk by launching Battlestar in the fourth quarter — we've never had any scripted originals in the quarter,” he said. “We believe Battlestar was absolutely the right show to take the risk with, and we were proven correct.”

He added the combined viewership between the premiere and an immediate repeat performance drew 3 million viewers.

“Everyone looks at the premiere number for the [2005] summer, but I can tell you now we have not lost anyone in terms of viewers for this show,” he said. “If you add those two numbers you get 3 million viewers, which matches the premiere for the last season.”

Battlestar, which did not and will not benefit from lead-ins by Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis this season, is the first of three scripted projects the network will launch over the next three months.

In December, Sci Fi will debut supernatural-based mystery miniseries The Lost Room, followed in January by The Dresnan Files, about a crime-fighting wizard.

Later in the first quarter, the network is also expected to debut Painkiller Jane, a revamped version of the network's 2005 original movie.

The new year will also see the final episodes of the 10th and final season of Stargate SG-1 on Sci Fi.

In addition, Sci Fi last week launched its Wednesday-night original programming schedule with the sophomore season of Ghost Hunters and a new series, Sci Fi Investigates, a co-production with NBC News Productions.

Overall, Howe said Sci Fi Channel plans to offer original content during every week of the year.

“Traditionally, we've gone dark in the second and fourth quarters, but from here on in, we'll have 52 weeks of original programming, including scripted series,” he said. “It means that we're driving habitual viewing and makes the rest of our schedule buoyant.”

http://www.multichannel.com/index.asp?layout=articlePrint&articleid=CA6381122

cdp1276

10-14-06, 01:09 PM

More from Maureen Ryan:

Critic’s Notebook
David Simon looks to the future of 'The Wire'
Simon also answered a question about whether the upcoming fifth and final season of the show would be a culminating “call to arms.”

Maybe HBO will finally put the final season in HD at least...

fredfa

10-14-06, 01:26 PM

Friday’s prime-time ratings have been posted just under the HD Football listings near the top of Ratings News the first post in this thread.

fredfa

10-14-06, 01:42 PM

TV Notebook
On TV: The good, the bad and the canceled
For the most part, new series fail to garner viewer support
By Melanie McFarland Seattle Post-Intelligencer TV Critic Saturday, October 14, 2006

Basking in a golden age of television dramas -- or so we have heard -- let us pause to say, glory be the couch taters! For, in addition to inheriting physiques built for comfort as opposed to speed, we also have a season filled with more intelligently produced and executed new series than we've seen in a long time. Supposedly. Expectations, professional television sponges led us to believe, were high.

If all that is true, why are so many series panning out to be pyrite? Fool's gold, that is. Deceptively shiny, and unfit for long-term wear. Happens every year. For some odd reason, though, this fall's lukewarm reception to even well-reviewed television smarts a little more than usual. Critics vetted every one of these series for you, and then what? Confronted with a new slate of viewing possibilities, prospecting audiences tossed most of it after a first glance -- if they even deigned to give a look in the first place.

The news isn't universally terrible; each of the big three has at least one check in the positive column. (Fox and The CW don't have anything to brag about.) Changes already are in the works and, as far as we know, the best show of 2006-2007 has yet to debut.

"Grey's Anatomy" didn't have its series premiere on ABC until March 2005, remember.

May as well start keeping score. First, the winners.

ABC and beautiful 'Betty'

Expected to be the underdog, "Ugly Betty" (8 p.m. Thursdays, NBC) is the season's prettiest surprise. Others may even call it a hit, considering that the numbers from the second episode only slightly declined from the premiere's l6.3 million. The secret to its success remains open for debate, but three weeks in people are latching onto its cheeky, moving sense of humor, reminiscent of "Desperate Housewives" in its first season. Star America Ferrera's inner beauty and confidence explode through those railroad tracks that have been laid across her teeth; that has a lot to do with it, too. Following the long-held dominance of the gloomy "Survivor," which is showing worn seams these days, "Ugly Betty" is a much-needed alternative, and it injects much-needed laughter and good feelings into the end of our week. ABC confirmed a full season pickup Friday.

People need 'Heroes'

A pleasant surprise, considering NBC's track record with genre programming -- and "Heroes" (9 p.m. Mondays, NBC) is a helluva lot better than "Surface." Sure, we can jaw about the way it hooks into the fundamental desire to tap into the extraordinary within all of us, but let's be real here. There's only one thing the typical red-blooded American dude likes better than a blond high school cheerleader, and that's a blond indestructible high school cheerleader. If Claire Bennet weren't so darned moody, she'd be every pimply boy's dream date -- provided she can find a way to regrow her chest.

"Heroes' " early victory does not rest solely on her slim shoulders, and its hit status is in spite of some wince-worthy dialogue. We can't wait for the next episode for one simple reason: It's exciting and skilled at getting us to hang on from thrill to thrill. "Heroes" is the first series to receive a full season pickup.

Putting up a good fight with 'Jericho'

One's success is a total surprise, another's was almost a given. But there's something about "Jericho" (8 p.m. Wednesdays, CBS) that has caught on with viewers, and that something probably is shaped like a mushroom cloud. Hooked viewers love the way it taps into our fears about disaster and survival scenarios, and it has an interesting conspiracy hook to string people along. While we wonder how long viewers will gloss over its flaws -- the story is too contrived for my tastes -- "Jericho" received a full season pickup on Thursday.

Not quite hitting it, but there's hope

"Shark" (10 p.m. Thursdays, CBS). Thirty percent of the "CSI" audience swims off before James Woods' law procedural comes on. But in the land of TV fashion, the loud-mouthed jerk with a corroded heart of gold is the new black. Besides, CBS can't cancel everything. "Without a Trace" won't be moving back to the time slot, since that show is beating ABC's so-so "Brothers & Sisters" in the 10 p.m. Sunday slot. "Shark" may get the tender patience CBS refused another fall series.

"Standoff" (8 p.m. Tuesdays starting Oct. 31, Fox). To continue the idea that networks can't cancel everything, there's this plecostomus (i.e., a bottom-feeding fish that exists to suck). Amazingly, although most of "House's" audience abandons it each week, the show has enough people sticking around to bring it back after baseball.

"Brothers & Sisters" (10 p.m. Sundays, ABC). Though no "Grey's," it's not a flop like "What About Brian." Enough people are tuning in to keep the Walker family in the mix for now.

An L on their foreheads

"Smith." As much as I liked the pilot, even I had to concede that its ending provided no burning reason to watch another episode. Sadly, that hunch was justified the following week. Sorry, Ray Liotta and Virginia Madsen, but your audience declined enough for CBS to pull the plug after three episodes. "3 Lbs.," starring Stanley Tucci as a brain surgeon, will take over the slot Tuesday, Nov. 14. Until then, expect more crimetime reruns.

" 'Til Death" and "Happy Hour." Remember when Fox used to have sitcoms that made your sides hurt? Neither do I. Or maybe it's just that this Thursday night sitcom mix was such a flop that it should have been nicknamed The Mind Eraser. Both are on hiatus, which in FoxLatin tends to mean canceled, although "Happy Hour" supposedly returns after baseball, " 'Til Death" resurrects at 8 p.m. Nov. 2.

"Kidnapped." Never mind that rich kid's snatching -- where did this Wednesday night series go? Well, the 5 million or so viewers that gave a rat's patootie can find it in the Saturday night graveyard, where it will die a quiet death after its 13 episodes are up. But just as TV taketh away, it giveth: "Medium" originally scheduled to return January, takes over the time slot on Nov. 15. Until then, "Dateline" fills in.

"Vanished." Similar themes, similar fates. The difference is that if "Kidnapped" was network TV trying to serve up brie, "Vanished" was Fox smacking us upside the head with a brick of government cheese. But don't you worry -- this big crappy processed product will be shifting to Fridays at 8 p.m. after baseball, where it too will vanish. New series "Justice" takes its spot Mondays at 9.

Things ain't looking good

Any new series on The CW. Viewers have a hard enough time finding their old favorites from The WB and UPN. What makes the suits think they'll make time for two lackluster entries like "Runaway" (9 p.m. Sundays) or "The Game" (9:30 Mondays)? With its African American comedy block gasping for air on Sundays, The CW already has moved "Everybody Hates Chris" and "Girlfriends" back to Monday, leaving "7th Heaven" and "Runaway" to shrivel up on Sundays.

"Friday Night Lights" (8 p.m. Tuesdays, NBC). It came on, but nobody came home to its premiere or second episodes. Even so, NBC has ordered two additional scripts, which means ... well, pretty much nothing if the ratings don't improve.

"Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip" (10 p.m. Mondays, NBC). The series that has transmogrified into "West Wing Recycled" is hemorrhaging viewers, although it does well with the TiVo crowd.

"The Nine" (10 p.m. Wednesdays, ABC). With only two episodes having aired, it may be too early to call this one, but as highly acclaimed as it was, "The Nine" didn't open well and lost more potato eyes during its second outing.

"Six Degrees" (10 p.m. Thursdays, ABC). Squandering the post-"Grey's Anatomy" slot, J.J. Abrams' drama also watches its audience further evaporate as the season rolls on.

"Men in Trees" (9 p.m. Fridays, ABC). It has a faithful core audience, but it's a shrinking core that's doing very little to keep ABC in the competitive mix on Fridays.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/printer2/index.asp?ploc=t&refer=http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/tv/288638_tv14.html

fredfa

10-14-06, 01:44 PM

Maybe HBO will finally put the final season in HD at least...

We can only hope. But I wouldn't waste too much energy on that prospect.

fredfa

10-14-06, 02:04 PM

TV Sports
Hot air: Caught not looking
Fox strikes out again in the ratings during the Division Series
By Barry Horn Dallas Morning News

Talking baseball:

Once again, baseball's postseason ratings are spiraling down ... down ... down. The five Division Series games on Fox limped home with an average 4.9 rating, down 27 percent from last year's 6.6. Now you know why Fox is getting out of the Division Series business next year. All first-round games are headed to TBS.

• National rating for last Saturday's finale of the Tigers-Yankees series: 4.4. National rating for the Eagles-Cowboys the next afternoon: 13.9. That's a difference of 10.5 million homes.

• During Tuesday's ALCS opener, Fox came up with a graphic pointing out that it has been awhile since any of baseball's final four won a World Series. For the record: The Cardinals last won in 1982, the Tigers in 1984, the Mets in 1986 and the A's in 1989. Here's hoping the network doesn't expect any sympathy from Rangers fans.

• Fox's No. 2 crew, Thom Brennaman and Steve Lyons, who are working the ALCS, remind that you don't have to be at the top of the game to land a network gig. Third man in the booth Lou Piniella has been the master of the obvious. He needs to stick to managing.

• Absolute lowlight has been Brennaman and Lyons taking nearly a minute out from a Mets-Dodgers NLDS game to make fun of an odd-looking device that a fan was looking through to watch the action. Turned out the fan is virtually blind and the device magnifies images. That brought a much-needed apology during the next game.

• If you have to ask why baseball adjusted Friday's and today's game times, scheduling the A's-Tigers in the afternoon and the Mets-Cardinals in prime time, you haven't been paying attention. It's all about catering to the New York television audience, the nation's No. 1 market.

• Fox is hoping for a Mets-Tigers World Series. Mets-A's is second choice.

HOT SEAT : James Brown, CBS studio host

At 6-4, James Brown was a standout basketball player at Maryland's DeMatha High School, where he played center for legendary coach Morgan Wooten. He morphed into an All-Ivy League guard at Harvard, then did time as a local sportscaster in Washington and as play-by-play voice of the Washington Bullets.

Brown, 55, first joined CBS Sports in 1984 before moving to Fox's fledgling NFL studio show in 1994. When contract negotiations stalled last winter, he was enticed to return to CBS. Coincidentally, CBS's studio show is making a strong ratings run at Fox, which has been dominant for the last dozen years. The Cowboys make their first CBS appearance of the season Sunday when they host Houston's Texans.

Why return to CBS?

In our business you always hear it's not about the money, but it's not something that can be ignored. Geographically, it was pretty attractive. My mother was battling diabetes, and it allowed me to be closer to home. And I'm competitive. ... I want to show I can win in a different environment.

[b] What is your role as studio host?

I need to be as effective a point guard as I can be, feeding the ball to the guys who the viewers tune in to see. I have to know their strengths and weaknesses, be as conversant as I can be about what is going on in the league and maintain a sense of humor.

Why Harvard?

I really bought into the notion that meeting the mark academically was the pass key I needed in the game of life. I was drafted by the Atlanta Hawks [in 1973] and had the opportunity to play in the same backcourt as Pete Maravich during the preseason. I was the last rookie cut before the season. I went home, locked myself in the house and cried for days.

What's the most surprising thing you've learned about your CBS studio mates – Boomer Esiason, Dan Marino and Shannon Sharpe?

When I got to CBS and saw my three new partners at our NFL seminar over the summer, they were hilarious. I told them they had to be more themselves on the air. Believe me, we're having fun.

Ever met "The Godfather of Soul"?

I had the opportunity back when I was working in Washington. I wanted to do a promo with him, but he declined. ... You know, there is a lot of pressure growing up black and in the hood with the name James Brown. I couldn't dance, nor could I sing. I was once booed off the stage in junior high school. Even now, when I'm paged at airports or meet a limo driver, people are still disappointed that I'm not that James Brown.

COOL BREEZES Talking football

• The first official Sunday night stinker for NBC comes this weekend with the winless Raiders visiting the Broncos (3-1). Bring on the flexible schedule.

• The Monday Night Football matchup on ESPN isn't much more compelling with the undefeated Bears visiting the hapless Cardinals (1-4).

• Meanwhile, CBS is dispatching its No. 1 team of Jim Nantz and Phil Simms to the Dolphins (1-4) at Jets (2-3).

• Fox's No. 1 team drew the long straw. Troy Aikman and Dick Stockton, filling in for Baseball Joe Buck, will call the Eagles at Saints, a matchup of 4-1 teams.

• Dick Enberg and Randy Cross call the Texans-Cowboys for CBS.

• Cowboys-Eagles (22.1 million viewers) clocked in as TV's second-most-watched show last week, behind only Grey's Anatomy (22.8 million).

• Cowboys-Eagles scored an 11.9 rating in New York going against the hometown Jets vs. the Jaguars, which limped home at a 3.8. Cowboys-Eagles also outscored Giants-Redskins in New York by a smidge. The first game of the Fox doubleheader scored an 11.6.

Quick hits

• Round and round with Musburger: The resurgence of Brent Musburger continues. He'll be the studio host on ESPN's and ABC's NASCAR coverage next year. Dr. Jerry Punch will call the lap-by-lap action, with Rusty Wallace and Andy Petree serving up the analysis.

• And the leader is ... : Starting Sunday, the weekly BCS standings will be unveiled during Fox's NFL postgame show. The inaugural standings will be announced at about 4:15 PM ET. On doubleheader weeks, the standings will be announced after the second game.

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/spt/columnists/bhorn/stories/101406dnspohorn.2ef1da7.html

fredfa

10-14-06, 02:26 PM

The New Season
Upon further review ...
By Scott D. Pierce (Salt Lake City) Deseret Morning News , Saturday, October 14, 200

On second thought, "Brothers & Sisters" is a whole lot better than I thought it was going to be.

Before it premiered, I was skeptical. C'mon, the show had scrapped its original pilot, recast one of its lead roles and gone through a change in the behind-the-scenes writer/producing team — all really bad signs.

The pilot was OK, but it certainly wasn't great. In my original review, the best thing I could find to say about "Brothers & Sisters" (Sunday, 10 PM ET/PT, ABC) was, "It has the makings of a decent family drama/soap."

After Episodes 2 and 3, I'm revising that. To paraphrase star Sally Field — I can't deny the fact that I like this show, right now, I like it!

A big part of the reason is Field herself, who's nothing short of great as Nora, the opinionated mother of the five "Brothers & Sisters" in what is quickly becoming a witty, involving, heartfelt and funny soap opera. In the Oct. 8 episode, when Nora, a recent widow, seemed to unknowingly invite her late husband's longtime mistress (Patricia Wettig) to a party, only to shock everyone with the revelation that she knew exactly who the woman was, will go down as one of the best scenes in any show this season.

Three weeks short of her 60th birthday, 40 years after "Gidget," 36 years after "The Flying Nun," Field can still captivate a TV audience.

And what with the smart, quick-witted writing — adding "Everwood" and "Jack & Bobby" creator Greg Berlanti as an executive producer/writer was a master stroke — "Brothers & Sisters" has turned out to be one of the best new shows in a season with a lot of good new shows.

http://www.desnews.com/dn/print/1,1442,650198543,00.html

fredfa

10-14-06, 04:23 PM

The New Season
“Brothers and Sisters”
Olin’s Family Q+A
By Jim Benson Broadcasting & Cable 10/16/2006

ABC’s Brothers & Sisters has emerged as one of the hottest new series of the fall. But it wasn’t so long ago that the show seemed unlikely to see air at all.

The ensemble drama about a family business, starring Calista Flockhart (Ally McBeal), was marked as troubled ever since ABC went to the May upfronts without a finished pilot. Over the summer, much of the episode was re-shot with major thematic changes and two key characters recast, including the clan’s matriarch, now played by Oscar-winner Sally Field. But even though showrunner Marti Noxon (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) exited abruptly and was replaced by Greg Berlanti (Everwood) in August, Touchstone Television never shut down production.

In its first three airings, Brothers & Sisters has been the highest-rated rookie drama at 10 p.m. and the second-highest-rated freshman among adults 18-49. Not only has it held that demo each week, especially among upscale viewers, the show has attracted a growing male audience. And while it may not match the phenomenal ratings of its time-slot predecessor, Grey’s Anatomy, it still delivered better retention out of Desperate Housewives than Boston Legal did in the same slot two years ago (62% vs. 52% in 18-49).

In his first in-depth interview since the show’s premiere, Executive Producer Ken Olin (thirtysomething) talks to B&C’s Jim Benson about the troubles the show has endured, his frustration with its coverage in the press and why this serialized drama is working when others aren’t.

What went wrong with the pilot?

[ABC Entertainment President] Steve McPherson was deeply supportive of the show but was concerned about where the series would go. The pilot ended with the death of the father. Structurally, we weren’t saying what the show was going to be, and it didn’t reflect the humor and light we would bring to it. Tonally, no one wanted a show about mourning. I told him that was only a starting point and it would move in a more positive direction. Steve’s only concerns were how we were going to do that and if we could do it by fall. I told him we could.

Why was the part of the mother recast?

We had a brilliant actor [in Betty Buckley], but she was miscast as the mother of five children. We had to cast a woman who could be the center of a family of children.

Did you have Sally Field in mind then?

This was before we even knew Sally was available.

What led to the showrunner changes?

Jon [Robin Baitz, the creator/executive producer,] never ran a show. He wanted to bring a voice and an emotional context to it, but he needed someone to create a structure for exploring those themes. I am a director and producer and wanted the … right stylistic energy. With Marti, it wasn’t a good fit. There were just real differences in terms of the direction the show was going in. came in and re-shot the original pilot. He is one of the most brilliant people, a superstar in terms of being a showrunner, and he has an extraordinary vision of what a show can be.

[B] So what has the reaction been to your success?

There were a lot of people who really wrote us off [early on]. There was this weird skepticism in the press that we’re still experiencing. There is this predisposed negativity toward the show. I read the New York Times, and it is unreasonably critical of Calista. It seems like there is some grudging acknowledgement that we’re doing pretty good. We can’t do what Grey’s did [in the time period]—we’re not as high concept of a show. If the perception had been more positive at the outset, those numbers would be spun that way.

Why is this show’s serialized format working where others haven’t?

It is serialized, but in a different way. Each episode has some satisfactory emotional resolution within the context of the hour. It is not based on contrivance. In a 10 p.m. drama, people want adult themes, adult relationships and want to invest in things that affect them emotionally.

How have the network and Touchstone responded?

We’re doing as well or better than virtually every other new show. ABC and the studio are feeling really good. It took 12 or 13 episodes with thirtysomething to start telling some substantive stories. It takes a while to get there, but we’re going to start telling some great stories soon.

http://www.broadcastingcable.com/index.asp?layout=articlePrint&articleID=CA6381205

fredfa

10-14-06, 04:53 PM

A "Broadcasting & Cable" Special Report: The Business of TV
Big Changes Ahead
By Anne Becker, Ben Grossman, John M. Higgins and Allison Romano Broadcasting & Cable 10/16/2006 (Additional reporting by Glen Dickson)

Google's $1.6 billion deal last week for control of YouTube triggers an avalanche of questions, but one fact is indisputable: There's a new elephant in the control room. Given the ever increasing appeal of online video, and the need to translate this content into sales, Google-YouTube will impact every element of the industry.

Decision makers in the TV business, never much for sitting idly by, will now face new competition in everything from ad sales to production budgets to distribution. Google's wish to be the one-stop shop for information and video makes it an ideal foil for the networks. And as Google-YouTube develops its business model, with a potential to become a richer partner, broadcast-network and station executives may find Howie Mandel's voice ringing in their ears: “Deal ... or no deal.”

“YouTube has been fascinating,” says media consultant Tom Wolzien, “but until someone put a financial model behind it, it wasn't particularly a threat to anybody. With Google, YouTube will have that model.”

Google-YouTube will no doubt face its own growing pains. Both sides began with hip, indie reputations. The combined company's emergence as an established player may repel an audience that once reveled in YouTube's garage-brand attitude.

Still, on paper, Google-YouTube looks to be more of a force than ever, at least in the boardroom. In the wake of the new reality, with everybody deciding how best to react, here are five major arenas where television may never be the same again.

A Bigger War for Ad Dollars

Just when it appeared safe for networks to steam further into the waters of online video content, the Google-YouTube merger has created a giant competitor, ready to sink its teeth into the market.

The TV industry takes in $70 billion annually in ad revenue. According to industry estimates, online-video-ad spending may reach as high as $2.5 billion by 2010. If that ends up taking a big bite out of the network's number, it could affect everything from production costs to the way networks choose what to air.

“Off-line linear television is vulnerable and has been vulnerable to things like VOD and streaming video,” says Tracey Scheppach, Starcom USA VP/director, video innovation. “Advertisers are still looking for the eyeballs and connection with consumers, which is something that potentially Google can offer.”

Advertisers and media companies are tapping into YouTube and MySpace.com as a route to more users. YouTube's business fits Google's strategy of using Internet content as a platform to sell ads.

Given Google's ability to display contextually relevant ads, YouTube is suddenly more attractive to advertisers that may have been skittish about finding their brands next to amateur videos of Coke-bottle/Mentos explosions.

A Google-owned YouTube may not undermine the value of traditional linear-TV advertising. But networks, eager to feed their coffers in this expanding new-media universe, may need to decide whether their strategic attitude toward Google-YouTube should be “beat 'em” or “join 'em.”

“For us,” says NBC Universal Chief Digital Officer George Kliavkoff, “[Google's acquisition of YouTube] means hopefully more advertising dollars spent on television.”

NBC and YouTube signed a deal in June to create a network-branded channel on YouTube to distribute promotional fare for NBC shows. “We assume that results in more folks watching the TV shows and therefore higher ad revenues in television,” Kliavkoff says.

It may, however, become a question of how the revenue pie gets divided. Google has cornered a huge chunk of the user-created online-video market. But will it soon control ad sales on the networks' own Websites as well? Toward that end, Google has been shopping its ad-targeting technology to the networks, executives say. While Google's technology could help in the short term, ceding control of online sales leaves networks' content vulnerable to devaluation. Google could be determining the value of TV content against the vast inventory that exists online rather than against other TV content. That would upset the entire revenue model upon which TV supports the costs of production.

Many media buyers are skeptical. “The networks don't want to lose a revenue stream by any means, so they're going to offer one-stop shopping that makes buying easier for agencies,” says Tom DeCabia, president of media-buying company TSD Marketing.

Networks may also go beyond just offering pre-roll and banner ads and develop sophisticated targeting technology of their own.

“As television networks, we should be proactive in making sure we develop our own tools,” says Albert Cheng, executive VP of digital media for the Disney-ABC TV Group, “and I don't think networks are there yet. It's about maximizing digital technology to deliver value in a way that Google will. We need to come up with the same level of sophistication they have.”

A Goldmine for Stations

Aside from an occasional clip of an anchor's on-air flubs, very little video from TV stations has found its way onto YouTube. That stands to change.

Google's expertise in branding and ad sales is an enticing lure to stations eager to reach a larger audience and collect more ad revenue for video already produced.

The issue for station managers, however, is control. Funneling video to Google-YouTube means letting go the reins on its usage and placement.

Despite some initial talks, no major group has cut a deal to put its stations' video on YouTube or Google's own video site, although several executives have expressed interest. (CBS' recent YouTube deal does not cover its owned-and-operated stations.) Stations have focused largely on building their Websites and using video as a centerpiece to compete with local newspapers.

But once Google-YouTube establishes a business model, more station groups may shift their focus. Several are already experimenting with online syndicates' selling video to third parties, such as NBC's National Broadband Co. But YouTube already has a track record for building a large audience at a good clip. “This is a way for stations to get more people to their content and more users from outside,” says Bill Hague, a consultant with Frank N. Magid Associates. “You can grow a Louisville or Columbus beyond your market.”

Station managers also recognize You Tube's potential. “We have great local content, but we need to take it beyond our sites and monetize it,” says Jason Gould, regional VP for Clear Channel's Internet division Inergize.

Some broadcasters are naturally wary, citing the need for Google to work out a copyright model to protect creators before broadcasters share content. But the concerns will not stall the inevitable.

“Stations need to let go because it is already happening,” says new-media consultant Steve Safran. “What they should try and control is the revenue from distributing their video online.”

The Rights Stuff

Google and YouTube have agreements in place with three of the world's largest record companies to add music videos to their Websites. The new conglomerate will no doubt attempt to license TV networks and other new clients as they come aboard.

But given YouTube's anarchic content, it's safe to say networks will be keeping whole cadres of lawyers on retainer.

It's also a safe bet that part of Google-YouTube's business model will be the creation of copyright guidelines—and a path for where all the money goes.

That won't stop the spin. YouTube has faced complaints before, but with the site poised to better monetize its content through Google's ad-targeting technology, the shouts could get louder. Last week, Time Warner Chairman Dick Parsons vowed to vigorously pursue any copyright complaints against YouTube.

For privately owned YouTube, litigation didn't much matter. Google, with a market cap of $130 billion, is a more vulnerable target.

Brian Baker, CEO of Seattle-based content-security firm Widevine, met with Disney, Universal and Sony last week to discuss how his company's technology could be implemented to police YouTube's use of their content. The issue of copyright infringement by YouTube has clearly become a priority for studios, he notes.

For now, the networks' own online-video efforts offer something YouTube does not: full-length episodes of their series. To protect against these episodes' being posted illegally, YouTube is developing technology that can “fingerprint” and block copyrighted content.

According to Baker, fingerprinting software—such as Widevine's Mensor product—analyzes a piece of content, such as a movie, and creates a small “key” that identifies it. The key technology allows owners to identify the illegal use of their product.

NBC Universal is interested in talking with YouTube about ways to allow content creators to remove copyrighted content rather than having to rely on the site to do so, according to NBC U's Kliavkoff. As long as the site does not post full-length episodes, a Google-owned YouTube does not represent a threat to undermine the value of streaming content on NBC.com. Kliavkoff notes that the company is “actively talking” to YouTube and other video aggregators about how to monetize this “premium product.”

He says, “That benefits both [parties] and, at the end of the day, consumers because they'll be able to get the content in different formats in different ways.”

Some, however, don't trust that even a Google-owned YouTube will efficiently police itself. Says one network executive, “YouTube wants to say, 'Here's the technology. We'll give you this, and you monitor your own stuff, and I can wash my hands of any potential lawsuits.'”

Under a separate deal, CBS will use YouTube's technology to monitor the site for copyrighted network content. User-submitted and network-approved CBS material will remain on YouTube, which will sell ads against it. (CBS will also supply content for a network-branded YouTube channel, selling the ads and sharing the revenue.) Content that the network requests be removed will be taken down. Just what criteria CBS will use to determine whether content is objectionable, the network won't say.

“That's our sole discretion. I'm not going to lay out the exact criteria for you,” says CBS spokesperson Dana McClintock. “If we feel that it has a greater benefit promotionally and financially than it does a detriment to us in terms of copyright violation, then we'll leave it up.”

An Assault on Cable

Today, YouTube's flood of confessing teens and skateboarding bulldogs is no substitute for a 100-channel package from Comcast or Cox. But as networks increasingly put their top shows online, it's not hard to see the day when cable networks become fully available on the Web. And as the Web becomes more and more like television—as storage gets cheaper and compression of video signals better—will subscribers use it to bypass cable?

One major network—Starz—already presents a good test case. The pay movie service puts all the theatrical films it licenses on the Web through its subscription service, Vongo. HBO has for years paid studios to at least secure the same online rights.

But it wouldn't take many more walls to crumble for Google-YouTube to offer bundles of full “cable” channels alongside its free or pay-per-view programs. Cable networks have readily pounced on new avenues of distribution in the past, happily feeding satellite TV's DirecTV and EchoStar in their earliest days, though at higher prices than they charged cable operators.

Established channels wouldn't simply put their feeds on the Net for free; that would risk the billions of dollars in license fees paid by cable and satellite operators. But Google would have the clout and the infrastructure to start selling packages of networks.

Cable operators would still generate revenue from sales of high-speed Internet connections to receive that video but would nevertheless lose on the bottom line.

Not everybody is convinced the threat is real, or technologically viable. “Don't confuse people watching video on the Internet with watching linear television,” says Cox Communications President Pat Esser. “The capacity is not there to do it.” He further cautions, “Don't underestimate what happens when 50 million [customers] change channels on the Internet.”

That didn't keep fear of “Internet bypass” from being a hot topic among cable investors last year. Comcast President Steve Burke called this anxiety one of two forces that depressed cable stocks for all of 2005 and the first months of 2006 (the other force: telco video).

Granted, such a reality is miles down the road. Video is a bandwidth hog, and widespread streaming of live action would tremendously tax the Internet's architecture. Google-YouTube would have little control over the quality of service. Glitches in free clips of Ted Turner's latest outrageous speech are tolerable; a stall in the last seconds of an ESPN football game is not.

Cable's best weapon to keep the status quo may be HDTV. The more consumers become addicted to crystal-clear pictures on the big screen, streaming Web video will pale by comparison. Bank of America media analyst Doug Shapiro doesn't see enough Web capacity for widespread HD video until 2015.

That gives the cable operators at least some time.

New Life For Indies

“Production and distribution are the barriers to entry that have kept studios and networks in power,” says former WB Network CEO Jordan Levin, now a principal in content-production and -management firm Generate. “But those barriers are continuing to come down.”

The Google-YouTube deal marks another step in a shifting balance of power. The emergence of a financial model for tying advertising to user-generated content may force some industry decisions. An expected trickle-down effect has media players eager to cash in.

“This further legitimizes online video,” says Jon Vlassopulos, VP, business development, digital media and strategic planning, for Endemol USA, the independent production company behind hits Deal or No Deal and Big Brother. “We are interested in creating original programming for these platforms. We just continue to see the number of valid partners growing.”

Adds Greg Spiridellis, co-founder of Jib Jab, a successful online producer/distributor, “To be able to tap an entity like [YouTube] to bring advertisers into online video will be a boon for a lot of businesses like ours.”

Although Jib Jab has deals with big-name sponsors, Spiridellis says it had already spoken with Google prior to the deal and is eager to discuss ways to leverage the ad-sales technology.

And while content providers are eager to explore profit potential, Generate's Levin says even the average person may soon be able to make a little money from his or her own content.

“It's not just about getting your stuff out there, but maybe now you can make a little money,” he says. “It's not Hollywood money, but $35,000-$50,000, which is what some content generators are starting to make on sites like Revver. For a kid in Nebraska in his garage, that's probably pretty good.”

And one of those garage kids could turn out to be the next Oprah. Google-YouTube is no doubt banking on it.

http://www.broadcastingcable.com/index.asp?layout=articlePrint&articleID=CA6381202

fredfa

10-14-06, 05:33 PM

The New Season
Hits & misses
'Heroes' and 'Ugly Betty' are clear winners. Meanwhile, networks shuffle series' time slots to make the most of the rest.
Hal Boedeker Orlando Sentinel Television Critic October 14, 2006

We do need another Heroes.

That could be the lament of TV programmers this fall. Heroes, an NBC adventure, isn't the most-watched new hit. That title goes to ABC's Ugly Betty, whose homely but principled heroine (played by America Ferrera) has won many admirers.

Heroes is No. 4 among new series. CBS' Shark and ABC's Brothers & Sisters also draw more viewers. But they each have lead-in help. Shark, with James Woods as a fiery prosecutor, follows CSI on Thursdays. Brothers & Sisters, with Sally Field as a mourning matriarch, airs after Desperate Housewives on Sundays.

Even so, Shark and Brothers & Sisters lose huge chunks of the audience delivered to them. On its own, Heroes has overcome underdog status to lift NBC at 9 p.m. Mondays.

Heroes also is succeeding despite its serial format featuring many characters, such as the cheerleader (Hayden Panettiere) who revived during her autopsy. Fans will learn more next week. They can rest assured that Heroes will run through this season.

Serial storytelling propels 24, Lost and Desperate Housewives, but the networks committed to too many similar series this fall. The form requires viewers to show up every week, and in most instances, they aren't.

Enough have visited Jericho, a drama about a small town after a nuclear catastrophe, to give CBS some hope. But NBC's Friday Night Lights debuted to terrible numbers.

CBS axed Smith, about a gang of robbers. NBC is exiling Kidnapped, with Dana Delany as a worried mom, to the dead zone of Saturdays, starting Oct. 21. Fox will send low-rated Vanished, about a senator's missing wife, to Fridays, beginning Oct. 27. Fox is trying to salvage Justice, a legal drama from producer Jerry Bruckheimer, by moving it to 9 p.m. Mondays.

Other schedule changes could be announced soon. ABC's Six Degrees is wasting the prime slot after Grey's Anatomy; Six Degrees is a not-too-believable drama about New York strangers interacting. Men in Trees, a romantic drama that airs on Fridays, would seem a better fit with Grey's Anatomy.

TV critics generally found this fall's crop of new series to be above average. But those in the 10 p.m. slots are having a tough time keeping viewers riveted for the whole hour. (Could daylight-saving time be a factor?)

New technology soon could render this situation obsolete by giving all viewers the power to watch programs when they want. Until then, the 10 p.m. dropoff is worrying programmers. There have been disturbing declines in the audiences for NBC's Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, a drama about a troubled sketch-comedy show, and ABC's The Nine, about survivors of a hostage crisis.

On the comedy front, Ugly Betty has an attractive story to tell. The saga of a dowdy newcomer who stuns the snooty fashion industry received the best reviews of any new series. At 8 p.m. Thursdays, Ugly Betty has shown strength against CBS' Survivor and outpaced two comedies on NBC, My Name Is Earl and The Office.

For other new comedies, the situation isn't pretty. CBS hopes to save The Class, about young adults who were third-grade classmates, by putting it at 8:30 p.m. Mondays, after How I Met Your Mother.

ABC's Help Me Help You with Ted Danson loses many viewers after Dancing With the Stars. Fox's 'Til Death and Happy Hour are weak additions on Thursday. It's too early to talk about NBC's 30 Rock and Twenty Good Years, which debuted Wednesday.

There might not be a lot to celebrate, but a pair of oddball delights -- Heroes and Ugly Betty -- do brighten the picture.

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/entertainment/tv/orl-tvhits06oct14,0,1441099,print.story?coll=orl-caltvtop

fredfa

10-14-06, 06:23 PM

The HD Football schedule has been updated to include next weekend's preliminary listings at the top of gthe first post in this thread.

rustycruiser

10-14-06, 07:10 PM

The HD Football schedule has been updated to include next weekend's preliminary listings at the top of gthe first post in this thread.

Preliminary CBS NFL games for Sun Oct 22:

Pittsburgh Steelers vs. Atlanta Falcons 1:00 PM
New England Patriots vs. Buffalo Bills 1:00 PM
Denver Broncos vs. Cleveland Browns 4:00 PM

Preliminary CBS NFL games for Sun Oct 29:

Baltimore Ravens vs. New Orleans Saints 1:00 PM
Jacksonville Jaguars vs. Philadelphia Eagles 1:00 PM
Indianapolis Colts vs. Denver Broncos 4:15 PM

fredfa

10-14-06, 07:13 PM

The Business of TV
NBC Weighs Down Profit at GE
General Electric posts a 6.1% gain in earnings despite a downturn at its entertainment unit. Its costly new TV shows have performed weakly.
By Lorenza Muñoz Los Angeles Times Staff Writer October 14, 2006

NBC Universal's operating profit fell 10% in the third quarter as higher revenue from a flurry of film and DVD releases was offset by a sluggish lineup of expensive new television shows.

The performance was a drag on the otherwise strong results of parent and U.S. market bellwether General Electric Co., which reported a 6.1% profit increase on a 12% gain in sales.

The results matched Wall Street expectations, but GE shares fell 24 cents to $35.98 on Friday.

"NBC had another tough quarter," GE Chief Financial Officer Keith Sherin said in a conference call with analysts.

NBC Universal, which makes up about 10% of GE's business, saw its revenue climb 20% to $3.6 billion. But operating profit fell to $542 million from $603 million a year earlier.

GE Chairman Jeffrey Immelt said that despite the profit downturn, NBC was rebounding and "well-positioned in the fourth quarter of 2006 and into 2007."

He cited an increase in prime-time ratings and an expectation that the network would finish the year on a financial upswing.

Several of the networks' biggest bets this season, including "Kidnapped" and Aaron Sorkin's drama "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip," which stars Matthew Perry and Bradley Whitford, have opened to disappointing ratings. Their pilots each cost close to $7 million.

All the major networks are struggling with rising production and promotion costs amid decreasing revenue from the sale of commercials as advertisers migrate to the Internet.

In the news division, "NBC Nightly News" remained the top-ranked national evening newscast among the major networks. And despite the departure of former co-anchor Katie Couric, "Today" is still ahead of all morning show competitors and continues to be the division's top moneymaker.

Cable revenue grew 17% and operating profit increased 23%, led by USA Network and Bravo.

http://www.calendarlive.com/tv/cl-fi-ge14oct14,0,3356994,print.story?coll=cl-tvent

fredfa

10-14-06, 07:14 PM

Preliminary CBS NFL games for Sun Oct 22:

Pittsburgh Steelers vs. Atlanta Falcons 1:00 PM
New England Patriots vs. Buffalo Bills 1:00 PM
Denver Broncos vs. Cleveland Browns 4:00 PM

Preliminary CBS NFL games for Sun Oct 29:

Baltimore Ravens vs. New Orleans Saints 1:00 PM
Jacksonville Jaguars vs. Philadelphia Eagles 1:00 PM
Indianapolis Colts vs. Denver Broncos 4:15 PM

Thanks Rusty, I appreciate the info immensely!

fredfa

10-14-06, 07:22 PM

If anyone knows what FSN's HD plan for next weekend is, I'd love to include it in the schedule.

kevin j

10-14-06, 07:24 PM

Looks like it's Washington at California at 3:30pm et according to HDSportsGuide.com.

rustycruiser

10-14-06, 07:27 PM

Thanks Rusty, I appreciate the info immensely!

Credit should go to HDsportsguide.com, where I stole it from.

Also, Fred, you have the October 22 red text heading (above the Oct 22 NFL games) as October 15th in the HD Sports schedule.

fredfa

10-14-06, 07:29 PM

Thanks guys

jim tressler

10-14-06, 08:27 PM

Holy crap!!! the Browns in HD!!

Preliminary CBS NFL games for Sun Oct 22:

Pittsburgh Steelers vs. Atlanta Falcons 1:00 PM
New England Patriots vs. Buffalo Bills 1:00 PM
Denver Broncos vs. Cleveland Browns 4:00 PM

Preliminary CBS NFL games for Sun Oct 29:

Baltimore Ravens vs. New Orleans Saints 1:00 PM
Jacksonville Jaguars vs. Philadelphia Eagles 1:00 PM
Indianapolis Colts vs. Denver Broncos 4:15 PM

fredfa

10-14-06, 08:35 PM

Will wonders never cease, Jim!

fredfa

10-14-06, 09:37 PM

TV Sports
Fox Fires Baseball Analyst Over Ethnic Comments
By Richard Sandomir The New York Times (Reporting was contributed by Jack Curry) October 14, 2006

Steve Lyons, the No. 2 Fox Sports baseball analyst, was fired Friday night for offensive comments he made earlier in the day during Game 3 of the American League Championship Series in Detroit.

He was replaced by Jose Mota, a radio analyst for the Los Angeles Angels, who has called some televised games for Fox Sports.

Lyons's remarks Friday came eight days after he cracked jokes about a device that a Mets fan was wearing to aid his poor vision during a division series game between the Mets and the Los Angeles Dodgers.

"Steve Lyons has been relieved of his Fox Sports duties for making comments on the air that the company found inappropriate," Lou D'Ermilio, a company spokesman, said.

The incident Friday afternoon began when Lou Piniella, a guest analyst working with Lyons and Thom Brennaman, noted that the Oakland Athletics could not expect shortstop Marco Scutaro to continue to produce runs as he did when he drove in six during the division series against Minnesota.

Piniella said that expecting similar production would be "like finding a wallet on a Friday night and looking for one on Sunday and Monday, too."

Four minutes later, they had moved to different subjects and Piniella said something in Spanish. "The bilingual Lou Piniella," Brennaman said.

Lyons said: "Lou's habla'ing some Español there, and I'm still looking for my wallet. I don't understand him and I don't want to sit close to him now." The three laughed and continued calling the game.

D'Ermilio declined to elaborate on the apparent insensitivity of Lyons's words. He said that Fox executives were unavailable for comment.

Lyons was fired after the game.

Mota was to continue to replace him for the rest of the best-of-seven series, which Detroit led by 3-0 heading into last night's game.

Lyons's contract with Fox was expiring. He also works as a television analyst for the Dodgers. He joined Fox Sports in 1996.

During the incident on Oct. 5 at Shea Stadium, Lyons and Brennaman were not aware that Stephen Teitelbaum, a 64-year-old fan, was wearing a magnifying device over his eyes. Teitelbaum, a longtime Mets season-ticket holder, is blind except for some peripheral vision in his left eye. Lyons and Brennaman mocked the device numerous times, over a 53-second span.

Fox took no action against the announcers.

But the firing is the second action Fox has taken against Lyons for making insensitive ethnic comments. Two years ago, he was suspended without pay for making light of Shawn Green's decision, when he was with the Dodgers, not to play on Yom Kippur, the holiest day on the Jewish calendar.

"He's not a practicing Jew," Lyons said. "He didn't marry a Jewish girl." He added, "And from what I understand, he never had a bar mitzvah, which is unfortunate because he didn't get the money."

In a statement, Fox apologized to viewers who had been offended and acknowledged that Lyons had "exercised poor judgment." Lyons never made an on-air apology. At the time, a Dodgers spokesman said that Green had not been offended by Lyons's words.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/14/sports/baseball/15lyonscnd.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&pagewanted=print

jim tressler

10-14-06, 10:09 PM

unbelievable.. people need to lighten up...

TV Sports
Fox Fires Baseball Analyst Over Ethnic Comments
By Richard Sandomir The New York Times (Reporting was contributed by Jack Curry) October 14, 2006

Steve Lyons, the No. 2 Fox Sports baseball analyst, was fired Friday night for offensive comments he made earlier in the day during Game 3 of the American League Championship Series in Detroit.

He was replaced by Jose Mota, a radio analyst for the Los Angeles Angels, who has called some televised games for Fox Sports.

Lyons's remarks Friday came eight days after he cracked jokes about a device that a Mets fan was wearing to aid his poor vision during a division series game between the Mets and the Los Angeles Dodgers.

"Steve Lyons has been relieved of his Fox Sports duties for making comments on the air that the company found inappropriate," Lou D'Ermilio, a company spokesman, said.

The incident Friday afternoon began when Lou Piniella, a guest analyst working with Lyons and Thom Brennaman, noted that the Oakland Athletics could not expect shortstop Marco Scutaro to continue to produce runs as he did when he drove in six during the division series against Minnesota.

Piniella said that expecting similar production would be "like finding a wallet on a Friday night and looking for one on Sunday and Monday, too."

Four minutes later, they had moved to different subjects and Piniella said something in Spanish. "The bilingual Lou Piniella," Brennaman said.

Lyons said: "Lou's habla'ing some Español there, and I'm still looking for my wallet. I don't understand him and I don't want to sit close to him now." The three laughed and continued calling the game.

D'Ermilio declined to elaborate on the apparent insensitivity of Lyons's words. He said that Fox executives were unavailable for comment.

Lyons was fired after the game.

Mota was to continue to replace him for the rest of the best-of-seven series, which Detroit led by 3-0 heading into last night's game.

Lyons's contract with Fox was expiring. He also works as a television analyst for the Dodgers. He joined Fox Sports in 1996.

During the incident on Oct. 5 at Shea Stadium, Lyons and Brennaman were not aware that Stephen Teitelbaum, a 64-year-old fan, was wearing a magnifying device over his eyes. Teitelbaum, a longtime Mets season-ticket holder, is blind except for some peripheral vision in his left eye. Lyons and Brennaman mocked the device numerous times, over a 53-second span.

Fox took no action against the announcers.

But the firing is the second action Fox has taken against Lyons for making insensitive ethnic comments. Two years ago, he was suspended without pay for making light of Shawn Green's decision, when he was with the Dodgers, not to play on Yom Kippur, the holiest day on the Jewish calendar.

"He's not a practicing Jew," Lyons said. "He didn't marry a Jewish girl." He added, "And from what I understand, he never had a bar mitzvah, which is unfortunate because he didn't get the money."

In a statement, Fox apologized to viewers who had been offended and acknowledged that Lyons had "exercised poor judgment." Lyons never made an on-air apology. At the time, a Dodgers spokesman said that Green had not been offended by Lyons's words.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/14/sports/baseball/15lyonscnd.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&pagewanted=print

jim tressler

10-14-06, 10:10 PM

hope not.. and someday maybe cleveland will get a professional title (besides indoor soccer) - being a cleveland fan is rough at (most) times!

Will wonders never cease, Jim!

fredfa

10-14-06, 10:35 PM

I agree with your Steve Lyons comments.

He worked hard, he was very serious about his job and he tried to make the game fun and less of a mystery to viewers and listeners. Sadly, some of the locker room humor brought him down.

His firing was, to my mind, totally undeserved.

fredfa

10-15-06, 01:37 AM

OK, time for your opinions again.

On the broadcast networks in the new fall season:

1. Best new show:

2. Worst new show:

3. New show you thought you would love -- but don't:

4. New show you are surprised you enjoy:

5. Returning show you are losing interest in:

6. Aside from categories 1 and 4, other additions to your TiVo or DVR:

fredfa

10-15-06, 01:40 AM

For me:

1. Best new show: Ugly Betty, Heroes

2. Worst new show: 'Til Death, Vanished, Six Degrees, Happy Hour, Smith
(hey, it's my thread, I can break the rules)

3. New show you thought you would love -- but don't: 30 Rock

4. New show you are surprised you enjoy: Men In Trees

5. Returning show you are losing interest in: CSI: Miami

Aside from categories 1 and 4, other additions to your TiVo or DVR: Justice, Shark, Studio 60

theo871

10-15-06, 02:59 AM

1. Best new show: Heroes

2. Worst new show: 20 Good Years

3. New show you thought you would love -- but don't: 30 Rock

4. New show you are surprised you enjoy: The Class

5. Returning show you are losing interest in: Grey's Anatomy

6. Aside from categories 1 and 4, other additions to your TiVo or DVR: Studio 60, Veronica Mars (Best Returning Show!)

VisionOn

10-15-06, 03:25 AM

1. Best new show: Heroes

2. Worst new show: Happy Hour, The Class

3. New show you thought you would love -- but don't: Smith, Six Degrees

4. New show you are surprised you enjoy: Men in Trees

5. Returning show you are losing interest in: The Unit, Lost

6. Aside from categories 1 and 4, other additions to your TiVo or DVR: Studio 60, Shark, Vanished

dad1153

10-15-06, 03:29 AM

1. Best new show: Studio 60 (not quite as good as 'Sports Night' but definitely has the same vibes), Heroes (intriguing-enough to keep me tuning week after week, which is incredibly hard to do).

2. Worst new show: all the new serialized dramas... seriously! Who gives a f*** about what happened during a bank robbery or the well-being of a rich family's kidnapped child? Since I never watched 'Lost' I guess the idea of stringing viewers along for several seasons' worth of gradually-revealed mysteries died for me with the 'X-Files' debacle that were its last two seasons. At least 'X-Files' producers were smart enough to realize this stringing-along of viewers can't be sustained, and made three 'Monster of the Week' episodes for every 'Mythology' episode during the show's run. Unless a serialized drama has a well-laid plan about how it will fill at least four seasons' worth of material (are the producers of 'The Nine' seriously expecting that it will take them four years to reveal the totality of what happened during the heist, or that we'd be there to give a rat's rear-end about the final reveal?) they should all be one-season miniseries, like 'Prison Break' should have been before it morphed into 'The Fugitive' on steroids.

3. New show you thought you would love -- but don't: Shark (maybe during the summer repeats it will be worth seeing, but not when so much else is on worth watching) and Jericho (see my 'Worst New Show' rant above, although I'll admit 'Jericho' is slightly above-average for the 'Lost' genre).

4. New show you are surprised you enjoy: Starface on Game Show Network (sorry fredfa, no network show qualified and I wanted to mention this one). Danny Bonaduci seems to be having a ball in this National Enquirer-inspired (and often mean) gameshow about celebrity gossip. While I despise the subject matter Danny's enthusiasm and the glee with which he plays a mean-to-the-stars schtick are worth seeing.

5. Returning show you are losing interest in: Law & Order: Criminal Intent and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. I love and will watch all 'L&O' shows 'till they die, but 'CI' is suffering from the absence of the guidance of original developer Rene Balcer (the shows are becoming a little more about the detectives and a little less about the cases, which is not what the 'L&O' formula is about) while 'SVU' is going through a rotating cast of guest stars (because of Mariska Hargitay's pregnancy) that just aren't meshing well with the regulars. 'SVU' will hopefully be back in form when Benson joins the squad again, but the new producers that have taken over day-to-day duties on 'CI' seem to be steering that show closer to 'CSI' and away from the mothership show's standards. Maybe that's why the original 'L&O' feels rejuvinated besides having two new cast members. Just because the new characters are female hasn't steered the scripts and plots of 'L&O' away from what has been its bread and butter for 17 years: it's all about the case at hand, with as little from the private lives of the detectives as possible.

6. Aside from categories 1 and 4, other additions to your TiVo or DVR: 1 Vs. 100

RussB

10-15-06, 05:42 AM

On the broadcast networks in the new fall season:

1. Best new show: Studio 60 & Jericho

2. Worst new show: Twenty Good Years

3. New show you thought you would love -- but don't: Hereos

4. New show you are surprised you enjoy: Brothers and Sisters

5. Returning show you are losing interest in: ER

6. Aside from categories 1 and 4, other additions to your TiVo or DVR: The Nine

I replaced my two SA 8300s with two SA 8300HDs and doubled the amount of storage to 320 GB so I now can record more shows including returning shows such as the Law & Order shows and Criminal Minds. Now, I just need to find time to watch them.

harley1

10-15-06, 09:06 AM

End of TV (as we know it).For big media, their wish is your demand

By Miriam Hill
Inquirer Staff Writer

The remote control in Nigel Davies' house has taken on a kind of magical status.

With a few clicks through his Comcast Corp. "On Demand" service, the Bryn Mawr technology consultant orders SpongeBob SquarePants episodes to watch with his 18-month-old son whenever they want, ignoring network schedules.

Daniel Loughlin, on the other hand, gets Comcast's cheapest cable package to save money. It doesn't include on-demand technology or many of his favorite shows, so the 21-year-old Drexel student watches his favorite television programs - especially Comedy Central's Chappelle's Show - on the Web video-sharing site YouTube.com.

Rapid improvements in technology have turned TV upside down, blurring lines between television, computers and even mobile phones. Consumers, cable and phone companies, and TV networks have been forced to rethink how they watch and deliver video - and make money from it.

Viewers can order entire shows, or just highlights, to watch on their computers, television sets, or mobile phones. They can watch Lost when it airs on Wednesday night, or catch it on ABC's Web site the next day.

Networks and other creators of content must decide whether to distribute their shows in a variety of new outlets that have sprung up almost overnight, including Apple's iTunes, which sells some TV shows for 99 cents, and YouTube.

In less than two years, YouTube's technology, which lets users post their own videos, has grown into a major force and potential threat to TV. YouTube boasts 34 million unique visitors monthly, an audience sizable enough that search engine Google last week agreed to pay $1.65 billion to buy it.

At a recent investor conference, Comcast president Steve Burke said the company is interested in offering a wide range of video content on the Web. Comcast's customer site, Comcast.net, already features downloadable clips of celebrity and other news, music videos, and episodes of some shows, including Showtime's Weeds, and The L Word.

"This is definitely an ever-changing landscape. Obviously, everyone is trying to make it up as they go along," said David Bernath, senior vice president of programming for Comedy Central. "It's not like sitcoms where there are all these conventional rules about what to do."

ABC.com handled 2.5 million requests for shows in the last two weeks. That's compared with 5.7 million requests for episodes over a two-month test period in the spring, when the network first began to make its top shows available online. The new initiative is supported by a range of advertisers including Toyota.

ESPN, which like ABC is part of the Walt Disney Co., used X Games On Demand to extend the life of its X Games coverage last summer from a few days in August to a month of previews ahead of the games and a month of highlights afterward. By extending the life of the event, ESPN could sell more ads.

For cable companies such as Philadelphia's Comcast, the rapid changes present opportunity and threat. Customers like Davies have viewed 3 billion videos on demand on Comcast's nationwide systems in the last two years alone, the equivalent of 10 programs for every American. And that's despite the fact that Netflix and the neighborhood video store still have broader movie choices. Music videos, children's shows and other fare have proved most popular on cable's on-demand menu.

For the cable industry, customers like Loughlin, however, represent a grave new world in which people watch video on computers and mobile devices, severing some ties with cable.

And while VOD in cable is a hit, the industry is still experimenting with ways to make money on it without cannibalizing long-existing revenue streams and audiences. Free content increasingly has pushed aside the pay-per-view on-demand model that initially prevailed.

"The only thing people are really paying for is traditional pay-per-view movies, but other than that, consumers don't really want to be nickeled and dimed," said Bruce Leichtman, president of Leichtman Research Group Inc., which studies the cable and entertainment industries.

Less than a year ago, many traditional broadcast networks were reluctant to offer on-demand content. But in December, someone posted a pirated copy of "Lazy Sunday," a Saturday Night Live skit, on YouTube. Six million people watched. Executives at NBC, which owned the skit, threatened to sue YouTube for copyright violations. But then they realized the publicity boosted the show. NBC then decided to let the Web site use some of its content.

That unleashed a flood of interest in on-demand. One quirky sign of the technology's new prominence: It played a major role in this year's promotion of "Shark Week," the Discovery Channel's highly rated festival of jaws, blood, and shark science last summer. Discovery and Comcast worked on a campaign that included a VOD premiere of the newest addition to the "Shark Week" library, Shark Rebellion, a look at why there have been 45 shark attacks off the Brazilian city of Recife in the last decade.

Comcast's 11 million digital subscribers were able to watch Rebellion 10 days before it appeared on the cable channel.

Discovery now sees VOD as a way to offer more to customers interested in a specific subject, said Clint Stinchcomb, the company's executive vice president and general manager for high-definition TV and new media. As happened earlier with DVDs, on-demand content now often includes extras, interviews with the cast, and director's cuts.

"From a promotional standpoint, it's very robust," he said. "There was a lot of fear of cannibalization, but what's happened is the total viewing pie has grown."

Households that watched Comcast's on-demand service watched traditional television for an average of 723 minutes per day, 9 percent more than all digital-cable households and 38 percent more than all cable households, according to a study of 180 households in the Philadelphia area released in February by Comcast and Nielsen Media Research.

VOD also helps cable companies hold onto customers who might otherwise be tempted to switch to satellite, which has limited on-demand capability. Comcast customers who upgrade from analog to digital service are half as likely to leave the company. When they start using VOD, that chance drops by 50 percent again.

"It just makes them feel that they have a much better value for the money that they're paying," said Page Thompson, Comcast's senior vice president and general manager of video products.

Because VOD acts like customer flypaper, cable companies are rapidly adding new capabilities. Time Warner Cable, for example, developed a product called Photo Show, which lets users create slide shows with pictures and videos, then share them with other subscribers via on-demand.

Advertisers at first feared that on-demand would mean viewers would fast-forward through marketing spots, but slowly, they are gravitating to it. Exercisetv, a joint venture of Comcast and Time Warner, provides on-demand fitness classes sponsored by New Balance. Instead of traditional ads, shows on excercisetv feature aerobics instructors wearing New Balance shoes, for example.

Companies are beginning to see on-demand as a quick way to hit niche markets, such as parents, gearheads or music lovers.

"With on-demand, if they start that show, you know that they're really interested in that show," Comcast's Thompson said. "There are some of our programmers right now who have sold every ad that's available."

While on-demand technology is progressing quickly, it still lags behind traditional television. On the Web, for example, video often stalls or is of frustrating quality.

And, with on-demand TV, companies can't get even the most basic data quickly, such as how many customers viewed an on-demand episode of Monk. As a result, they can't quantify the audience for advertisers as easily as with traditional TV.

"It's very hard for us to find out who's watching our shows on VOD," said Channing Dawson, senior vice president of new media distribution for Scripps Networks, which runs the Food Network, HGTV and other channels.

He thinks that TV on-demand may one day resemble content on his company's Web sites, which let users explore a topic as deeply as they like. Some videos on FoodNetwork.com, for example, include "bonus footage" on technique and other information. Eventually, Dawson and others think on-demand TV will offer the same options, only via a remote instead of a mouse.

"You're going to try to try to serve your best consumer," Dawson said, "with whatever they want to watch it and on any device they want to watch it."

http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/15764351.htm

DoubleDAZ

10-15-06, 10:09 AM

Here are mine.

1. Best new show: Heros, Studio 60 (has improved)

2. Worst new show:Ugly Betty, Smith, All Sitcoms, All Reality

3. New show you thought you would love -- but don't:Desire, Fashion House

4. New show you are surprised you enjoy:Men In Trees

5. Returning show you are losing interest in:All L&O

6. Aside from categories 1 and 4, other additions to your TiVo or DVR:The Nine, Six Degrees, Jericho, Shark, Friday Night Lights (I basically record every serialize drama on 2 DVRs. Timeshifting everything allows us to watch at least 4 in the space of 3 and catch up on weekends with enough time for Y&R, Battlestar Gallactica, and The Factor :) ).

fredfa

10-15-06, 10:43 AM

TV Notebook
The Marx of a True Pro
By John Eggerton at the Broadcasting & Cable “bcbeat” blog

I have discovered a gem of a show. That is, if "discovered" means that the cable network airing it sent me a press kit in the form of a TV screen with a chip that plays the theme to the show everytime I turn the light on in my office.

It is actually a very old show, but also a very good one.

Turner Classic Movies is re-running several Dick Cavett Shows vintage 1969 or so (there may be two or three years in that "or so"). It is teaming the shows with films from the start and documentaries about them, but I have only been tuning to the interviews when I remember they are on (Thursday nights).

Anyway, it has exhumed some classic Cavett interviews with movie stars including the lovably irrascible Groucho Marx and the lovably irrascible Katherine Hepburn, her first TV interview at the time I am told and choose to believe it with the same blind faith Judy Collins applies to rainbows.

But I digress. I was watching the Groucho Marx interview the other night and was struck by its quiet sweetness, and nobody was disemboweled or hung on a meat hook, which on TV these days is a pleasant surprise.

Marx sang and reminisced and Cavett mostly listened intelligently. Cavett was frequently hailed as the best interviewer around, including by Marx. That is because he was actually a better listener than a talker, something many talk show hosts have never learned to do at all.

Katherine Hepburn's interview is scheduled for next Thursday night at 11 p.m. I recommend it sight unseen.

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

Rakesh.S

10-15-06, 12:09 PM

1. Best new show: Jericho (decent, but not spectacular..best of the lot for me though)

2. Worst new show: Haven't watched anything that has been horrible (only watched Jericho, Heroes and Vanished). The only other new shows I'll watch are Daybreak and Traveler.

3. New show you thought you would love -- but don't: Heroes (will keep watching, but the cast is very mediocre and the cheerleader is annoying)

4. New show you are surprised you enjoy: Vanished (they have balls, and for that reason, I will keep watching)

5. Returning show you are losing interest in: Smallville (been a fan since day one, and the reboots are finally getting to me)

6. Aside from categories 1 and 4, other additions to your TiVo or DVR: None.

Leftcoastdave

10-15-06, 12:33 PM

OK, time for your opinions again.

On the broadcast networks in the new fall season:

1. Best new show: STUDIO 60

2. Worst new show: THE CLASS

3. New show you thought you would love -- but don't: JERICO

4. New show you are surprised you enjoy: HEROES

5. Returning show you are losing interest in: HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER

6. Aside from categories 1 and 4, other additions to your TiVo or DVR: JUSTICE ((and alas, SMITH & HAPPY HOUR. both cancelled.))

mike_somd

10-15-06, 12:51 PM

On the broadcast networks in the new fall season:

1. Best new show: Jericho, Friday Night Lights

2. Worst new show: I dunno I have only checked out a couple of shows

3. New show you thought you would love -- but don't: Heroes

4. New show you are surprised you enjoy: None

5. Returning show you are losing interest in: CSI Miami (they should have made the first episode of the season atleast 2 episodes, maybe more they just glossed over everything. However this show has some of the best opening visuals on network tv.)

6. Aside from categories 1 and 4, other additions to your TiVo or DVR: None unless you can count Dexter

keenan

10-15-06, 12:56 PM

1. Best new show: Kidnapped (Naturally, it's been canceled.) Friday Night Lights(Again, looks like it's headed for cancellation.)

2. Worst new show: Vanished, Jericho(This one is just so poorly written and acted it surprises me that it's doing so well--well, not really--I'm still watching myself, for now anyways)

3. New show you thought you would love -- but don't: Shark

4. New show you are surprised you enjoy: Men In Trees, Ugly Betty, Brothers And Sisters, Heroes(This one is pure fun!)

5. Returning show you are losing interest in: CSI:Miami(This has become nothing more than an HD photography showcase.) Lost(I get all the relationship stuff about this show, but honestly, the lack of answers is really starting to wear on me)

6. Aside from categories 1 and 4, other additions to your TiVo or DVR: Studio 60, The Nine, Six Degrees

AAF

10-15-06, 02:49 PM

1. Best new show: Jericho, Heroes <- I'm just starting to catch up on.

2. Worst new show: No vote

3. New show you thought you would love -- but don't: Studio 60 (still watching, but fading)

4. New show you are surprised you enjoy: Heroes, Men in Trees

5. Returning show you are losing interest in: I'm starting to wonder if it's LOST?

6. Aside from categories 1 and 4, other additions to your TiVo or DVR: ER, back on my worth watching list.

fredfa

10-15-06, 03:10 PM

I agree, ER has made a rather amazing comeback -- and the viewers seem to have noticed.

SJKurtzke

10-15-06, 03:54 PM

Best New Show: Ugly Betty
Worst New Show: Friday Night Lights (Do we really need to hear about the hardships of the popular kids? Especially as a guy in HS who's not on the football team)
New Show You Thought You'd Love-But Didn't: Heroes
New Show You're Suprised to Enjoy: Ugly Betty
Returning Show that is Waning Interest: Smallville! Nothing against the show, it's just that timeslot is just way too competitive.
Other Additions: Studio 60, Gilmore Girls, How I Met Your Mother, Buffy, Angel, The X Files. Angel is the best show ever! Why did they cancel it!?

baizdd

10-15-06, 05:26 PM

OK, time for your opinions again.

On the broadcast networks in the new fall season:

1. Best new show: JERICHO

2. Worst new show: STUDIO 60

3. New show you thought you would love -- but don't: THE NINE

4. New show you are surprised you enjoy: MEN IN TREES

5. Returning show you are losing interest in: DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES THE UNIT

6. Aside from categories 1 and 4, other additions to your TiVo or DVR: JUSTICE SHARK.
Report Post

fredfa

10-15-06, 05:41 PM

Thanks for joining us, baizdd!

fredfa

10-15-06, 06:07 PM

Next weekend's college football HD schedules have now been updated with official BCS rankings and team records at the top of the first post in this thread.

Of the 12 games on Friday/Saturday, only one does not feature at least one team in the top-25 of the BCS rankings.

cgh3rd

10-15-06, 07:43 PM

On the broadcast networks in the new fall season:

1. Best new show: Heroes

2. Worst new show: The Class, Six Degrees

3. New show you thought you would love -- but don't: Shark

4. New show you are surprised you enjoy: Jerihco, Justice

5. Returning show you are losing interest in: NCIS

6. Aside from categories 1 and 4, other additions to your TiVo or DVR: The Nine, Standoff, Vanished, Kidnapped, Studio 60.

dad1153

10-15-06, 08:16 PM

dad1153
Damn, shows you how out of touch with the mainstream I am. My DVR is filled-to-the-brim with the usual suspects (all the L&O's, 'Studio 60,' 'Heroes,' etc.) but what I record the most are gameshows ('Deal or No Deal,' a ton of GSN's daytime schedule, etc.), newsmagazines ('60 Minutes,' 'Dateline: To Catch A Predator,' etc.) and PGA golf on weekend afternoons. I'm such a loser!

fredfa
I am with you in part. A rainy day treat can be a bucket of buttered popcorn and a half dozen back-to-back episodes of "Match Game".

http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/newsitem.cfm?NewsID=6506
http://www.tvshowsondvd.net/graphics/news3/MatchGame-Bestof.jpg

:D :D :D

fredfa

10-15-06, 08:31 PM

Thanks dad...always a (guilty) treat to see Gene, Brett amd Charles!

GeorgeLV

10-15-06, 08:59 PM

1. Best new show: Studio 60 (NBC)

2. Worst new show: Desire (MyTV)

3. New show you thought you would love -- but don't: Dexter (Sho)

4. New show you are surprised you enjoy: The Underground (Sho)

5. Returning show you are losing interest in: Gilmore Girls (CW)

6. Aside from categories 1 and 4, other additions to your TiVo or DVR: Heros (NBC)

Note: I'm breaking the rules and including cable. Also, I'm adding another more categories:

7. Best returning show: Veronica Mars (CW)

8. Show you're waiting to return: Big Love (HBO)

JimsArcade

10-15-06, 09:13 PM

On the broadcast networks in the new fall season:

1. Best new show:
- I don't think any of the new shows are that great, but I give the mild nod as a tie between Heroes and 30 Rock

2. Worst new show:
- Happy Hour (narrowly edges-out 'til Death because it has the redeeming quality of Mrs. Woodcock ;) )

3. New show you thought you would love -- but don't:
- Studio 60. I heard Sorkin was this writing genius, but this show is barely holding my interest

4. New show you are surprised you enjoy:
- Jericho. It's not even that good, but something about post-apocalyptic survival just draws me in.

5. Returning show you are losing interest in:
- ER.

6. Aside from categories 1 and 4, other additions to your TiVo or DVR:
- Veronica Mars

fredfa

10-15-06, 10:51 PM

GeorgeLV: Think of the rules as guidelines-- feel free to break them any time when the occasion warrants.

And to you and JimsArcade, thanks for reminding me about Veronica Mars. I'll have to try to catch up.

RussTC3

10-15-06, 11:49 PM

On the broadcast networks in the new fall season:

1. Best new show: "Heroes", "Jericho", "Friday Night Lights". I like them all for different reasons, but they are all very enjoyable.

2. Worst new show: "Vanished or "Standoff". Both shows aren't really BAD, per say, just not anything special.

3. New show you thought you would love -- but don't: While I still like the show a lot, I think I expected a bit more from "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip". None of the shows so far has been as good as the the pilot, which was amazing.

4. New show you are surprised you enjoy: "Brothers & Sisters". This is a really enjoyable show with a great cast. I'm not sure why there was so much dislike for the pilot among most critics.

5. Returning show you are losing interest in: I think "Bones" has taken a step back from last year.

6. Aside from categories 1 and 4, other additions to your TiVo or DVR: Grey's Anatomy, Ugly Betty, Desperate Housewives, What About Brian, Veronica Mars, House, Lost, Supernatural. And then a few more, but I'll let those go for now.

cocoon

10-16-06, 01:29 AM

Best new show: toss up between men in trees and heroes
worst new show: standoff
new show that...: hasnt been any what im saying is i didnt have any expectations that i would really like any of the new shows

new show that Im surprised i like: men in trees and brothers and sisters

returning show(s) losing interest in: all the csi shows and ncis I agree with RussTC3 that bones isnt as good this season but to say i have lost interest would be too much at this point for me

best returning show: only been a couple weeks into the season so either supernatural or veronica mars

additions to DVR: brothers and sisters , men in trees, runaway, smallville, supernatural veronica mars, dexter, jericho, shark

general comments about this season I wish there more good shows with explosions and stuff ya know guy stuff i feel a little weird sometimes with all the female centric shows
they are good and all but... i guess i know what women must have felt all these years

biggiE48

10-16-06, 02:40 AM

1. Best new show:
"Heroes"
"Jericho"
***"Dexter" *** not broadcast but still a darn good show
2. Worst new show:
"30 Rock" what a stinker

3. New show you thought you would love -- but don't:
"Studio 60" "Smith"

4. New show you are surprised you enjoy:
"Heroes" "Ugly Betty"

5. Returning show you are losing interest in:
"Lost" "Everybody Love Chris" "Smallville"
6. Aside from categories 1 and 4, other additions to your TiVo or DVR:
"Brother and Sister" "Kidnapped" "Friday Night Lights"

bphisig

10-16-06, 08:00 AM

On the broadcast networks in the new fall season:

1. Best new show: The Nine. Even though its rating stink, I like the show so far.

2. Worst new show: Standoff and Vanished. I sat through half an episode of Standoff and barely 1.5 epsiodes of Vanished before they were deleted from the record list.

3. New show you thought you would love -- but don't: Kidnapped. Something about the show just isn't interesting. Also, Six Degrees. The show is just boring and the lives intersecting idea is dull.

4. New show you are surprised you enjoy: Heores and Jericho.

5. Returning show you are losing interest in: Survivor...seen it too many times.

jim tressler

10-16-06, 08:23 AM

As always - these are my opions and your mileage may vary!

1. Best new show: Eureka, Jericho

2. Worst new show: Ugly Betty - has to be one of the dumbest shows I have watched

3. New show you thought you would love -- but don't: Vanished

4. New show you are surprised you enjoy: The Nine

5. Returning show you are losing interest in: Desparate Housewives

6. Aside from categories 1 and 4, other additions to your TiVo or DVR: Studio 60 - jurys still out on it though

Gary*w*

10-16-06, 10:08 AM

Best new shows:
Dexter
Heroes
Jericho

Worst New Show:
6 Degrees (Dull,dull,dull)

New Show I thought I'd Love but don't:
Kidnapped (Don't know why but it just didn't grab me)

New Show I'm surprised I Enjoy:
Men In Trees (My wife watches it and i've caught myself laughing...alot)

Returning Show i'm losing interest in:
Lost

Additions to my Tivo/DVR:
Smith (now subtracted)
Studio 60
30 Rock
Grey's Anatomy (Not giving up my CSI)

jim tressler

10-16-06, 10:11 AM

Forgot that one.. 6 degrees.. not very good - good call gary!

Best new shows:

Worst New Show:
6 Degrees (Dull,dull,dull)

TeeJay1952

10-16-06, 10:39 AM

Best new shows: Hero, Jericho

Worst New Show: The game

New Show I thought I'd Love but don't: Runaway

New Show I'm surprised I Enjoy: The Class

Returning Show I'm losing interest in: 2 &1/2 Men.

Additions to my 2 VCRs: Everything that I can!

I really like TV.

fredfa

10-16-06, 10:41 AM

The Business of TV
DirecTV, NFL Network Going Deep
By Mike Reynolds MultiChannel News 10/16/2006

DirecTV and NFL Network are planning a major marketing blitz for Time Warner Cable subscribers.

The direct-broadcast satellite service will team up with the 41 million-subscriber network to run a multimedia, multimillion-dollar ad campaign in four Time Warner and Comcast markets not carrying the National Football League’s cable service.

The NFL Network ad blitz is part of an eight-market DirecTV acquisition campaign launched this past August targeted at siphoning subscribers in systems recently consolidated by Time Warner and Comcast.

DirecTV’s cable-consolidation campaign -- which offers $150 rebates to subscribers ditching cable -- has already yielded double-digit subscriber-increase percentages, according to vice president of acquisition marketing Brad Bentley.

Beginning Thursday, DirecTV and NFL Network will run radio ads and place ad inserts in major newspapers within the Buffalo, N.Y.; Dallas; Cleveland; and Los Angeles markets touting the satellite company’s carriage of the channel, which includes the network’s eight-game Thursday and Saturday package.

Time Warner has yet to reach a carriage deal for NFL Network, saying that it wants to carry the service on a sports tier. NFL Network officials are demanding carriage on highly penetrated analog-basic tiers.

“We’re just letting customers know that they do have a choice and we do carry the NFL Network,” Bentley said. “They’re not at the mercy of the cable company.”

NFL Network’s message will be combined with DirecTV’s overall acquisition campaign that has been running in those markets since August. That campaign also includes the Washington, D.C.; West Palm Beach, Fla.; Colorado Springs, Colo.; and Minneapolis markets.

“We’ve seen a lot of movement and, now, they have added reason to switch because they’re losing channels like NFL Network,” Bentley said. “Historically, these transitions have not gone smoothly and work to our advantage, so we hope to continue to see good growth momentum.”

Bentley would not speculate on whether operators will secure deals for NFL Network’s Thursday/Saturday package before the first game Thanksgiving night.

NFL Network spokesman Seth Palansky said the network expects to get good traction from the campaigns. “Ultimately, we prefer to have deals with cable operators, but our obligation is to our fans,” he added.

http://www.multichannel.com/index.asp?layout=articlePrint&articleid=CA6381162

fredfa

10-16-06, 10:49 AM

A note: I post this as a matter of some interest on many levels. It is not meant to be a jumping off point for comments about how the Democrats or Republicans are lousy, etc.
Washington Notebook
TV Issues May Shift With Vote
Democratic Victories Would Bring Changes
By Ira Teinowitz Television Week October 16, 2006

A tightening race for control of Congress in the November elections has the television business bracing for change.

A shift in control of the House of Representatives away from the Republican Party would bring more scrutiny of the Federal Communications Commission and the agenda set by its chairman, Kevin Martin. A Democrat-led House also would likely hamper any attempt to let media conglomerates own more TV stations and portend more efforts to curb prescription drug advertising and advertising aimed at children.

"The major change would be oversight," predicted Andy Schwartzman, president and CEO of the Media Access Project, a public interest law firm that works on FCC matters. "I would expect the FCC members to be on the Hill early and often."

Handicapping the House and Senate races is complicated by factors ranging from a sex scandal involving former House Republican Thomas Foley to the war in Iraq. The health of the economy and the threat of terrorism are also tilting races. Democrats must gain 15 seats in the House of Representatives and six slots in the Senate to take control after the Nov. 7 election.

As many as 16 House elections are toss-ups and four Senate contests are too close to call, according to The New York Times.

The number of tight races puts Democrats tantalizingly close to reclaiming the control of the House they lost in 1994. Seizing the House would give at least four Democrats who have been outspoken on media issues access to leadership positions.

Under GOP leadership, the House has tilted toward easing media ownership rules, blocking so-called net neutrality legislation and largely taking a hands-off approach to the FCC. Republicans have also increased fines for broadcast indecency, but on indecency issues and some other media issues, such as whether cable should offer a la carte choices, the party line divisions have been less clearly defined.

Democrats have been more vocal in supporting ad curbs, whether limiting drug advertising or calling for limits on junk food and alcohol ads, but there, too, some Republicans have been aggressive. Political observers suggest the biggest differences will likely be in the priority Democrats place on dealing with some of the media issues.

Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., would likely head the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass. might lead that committee's telecommunications subcommittee. Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., would probably head the House Government Reform Committee, and Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., would be in line to lead the House Judiciary Committee.

The Democrats have called for legislation on to prevent Internet service providers from forcing some content providers to pay more for faster service, and have blasted the FCC for moving to ease media ownership rules.

Dynamics in the Senate, which some political analysts say is less vulnerable to a Democratic takeover, could change even if the Republicans retain control. An increase in Democratic power may bring changes to the body's stance on media and advertising issues, said Dick O'Brien, executive VP of the American Association of Advertising Agencies.

"What will change is the pace, the tempo," Mr. O'Brien said, noting that Senate Republicans have been unwilling to move legislation that would limit some advertising directed at children. "There will be more hearings, more testimony. They are much more likely to investigate our issues."

The less-likely prospect of Democrats taking control of the Senate would bolster the power of Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., who has been critical of direct-to-consumer drug advertising. Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, a critic of some food advertising to kids, would also gain leverage, as would Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., another critic of some advertising.

On the House side, a Democratic takeover might bring more public fireworks on media issues.

Since June, Reps. Dingell and Markey have stirred controversy by demanding that FCC Chairman Martin explain the "intentional suppression" of several agency studies questioning media consolidation.

Activism

Reps. Conyers and Dingell have questioned ABC's airing of "The Path to 9/11" miniseries. Reps. Dingell and Markey have criticized Republicans, saying they haven't provided enough money for converters that will allow existing analog TVs to receive digital broadcasts when the country switches to digital TV in 2009 and have demanded that Mr. Martin provide more information about what the FCC is doing to inform consumers about the upcoming transition.

Rep. Dingell has blasted the FCC for taking too long to resolve indecency complaints, and Rep. Markey questioned cuts in funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Just last week, Rep. Markey criticized the Justice Department's approval of an ATT-BellSouth deal.

That record of activism builds on past positions that don't jibe with the Republican agenda on media issues. Rep. Waxman has questioned the Bush administration and TV stations' use of government-created video news releases. He's also raised questions about whether the Food and Drug Administration has adequately supervised ads that market prescription drugs directly to consumers.

The lawmakers mentioned in this report either declined to comment or didn't return calls requesting comment.

"Depending on how the election comes out, you have some congressmen who have been outspoken on some very significant issues, and some of these issues may accelerate in the next Congress," said Dan Jaffe, executive VP of the Association of National Advertisers.

Jeannine Kenny, senior policy analyst for Consumers Union, said Democrats could also start a wave of investigations of past FCC and administration decisions on media issues.

http://www.tvweek.com/article.cms?articleId=30697