Hot Off The Press! The Latest Television News and Info

[shuttermaker]

The Programming Insider

Marc Berman

Prime-Time Wednesday Ratings:
ABC Wins; Lost and Criminal Minds Share Dominance

Wednesday 10/25/06
Metered Market Ratings

Household Rating/Share
ABC: 10.2/16, CBS: 10.0/15, NBC: 5.1/ 8, Fox: 4.2/ 6, CW: 3.8/ 6

-Percent Change From the Comparable Year-Ago Evening (Wednesday 10/26/05)
(The CW is compared to the WB’s combination of One Tree Hill and Related; Fox aired Game 4 of The World Series – Chicago White Sox vs. Houston Astros; ABC aired a repeat of Lost)
ABC: +65, CW: +46, CBS: +27, NBC: -20, Fox: -64

---------------

Fast National Ratings

-Total Viewers:
ABC: 14.89 million, CBS: 14.73, NBC: 7.41, Fox: 5.52, CW: 4.52

-Adults 18-49:
ABC: 5.0 rating/13 share, CBS: 4.3/11, NBC: 2.9/ 8, CW: 2.1/ 6, Fox: 2.0/ 5

---------------

-Yesterday’s Winners:
Dancing With the Stars (ABC), Jericho (CBS), America’s Next Top Model (CW), Lost (ABC), Criminal Minds (CBS), CSI: NY (CBS)

-Honorable Mention:
The Biggest Loser (NBC)

-Yesterday’s Losers (excluding repeats):
30 Rock (NBC), 20 Good Years (NBC), The Nine (ABC)

---------------

-Ratings Breakdown:
ABC got over the “hump” in winning fashion, with a first-place Wednesday finish in the overnights, total viewers and adults 18-49. CBS ranked a competitive second. Once again, the little show that could, CBS’ Criminal Minds, gave ABC’s Lost a run for dominance in total viewers. And, yes, that is one of the biggest stories worth telling this season.

Beginning with 8 p.m., ABC mega-hit Dancing With the Stars danced to another stellar time period victory (great segue, don’t you think?) with a 13.4/21 in the overnights, 19.86 million viewers and a 5.1/14 among adults 18-49. Congratulations to the ultimate pro, Jerry Springer, who beat the odds and lasted longer than anyone thought. CBS’ competing Jericho also remains a show worth touting, with a respectable 6.8/11 in the overnights, 10.54 million viewers and a 3.2/ 9 among adults 18-49. And the CW’s rock-solid America’s Next Top Model lives up to that description, with a 4.8/ 7 in the overnights (#3), 5.48 million viewers (#4) and a 2.7/ 8 among adults 18-49 (#3). Keep in mind, of course, that Top Model’s primary strength comes from the young female viewers, and that Jericho is a marked improvement over year-ago occupants Still Standing and Yes, Dear.

With three solid shows in one time period, there was not much left for NBC’s Thursday-bound 30 Rock (Overnights: #4, 4.2/ 7; Viewers: #3, 6.01 million; A18-49: #4, 2.1/ 6) and the hiatus-bound 20 Good Years (Overnights: #5, 3.9/ 6; Viewers: #3, 5.40 million; A18-49: #5, 2.0/ 5). For more on the NBC sitcoms, see TV Tidbits below.

Fox replaced rained-out game four of The World Series with four repeat episodes of sitcom The War at Home, which averaged a 4.2/ 6 in the overnights (#4), 5.52 million viewers (#4) and a 2.0/ 5 among adults 18-49 (#5) from 8-10 p.m. As a reminder, total viewers and adults 18-49 are based on the fast national ratings.

At 9 p.m., there are now two shows dominating the hour, ABC’s Lost and CBS’ Criminal Minds. Take a look:

Wednesday 9 p.m.
Lost (ABC)
Overnights: 11.5/17 (#1t), Viewers: 16.80 million (#1); A18-49: 6.9/17 (#1)

Criminal Minds (CBS)
Overnights: 11.5/17 (31t), Viewers: 16.59 million (#2); A18-49: 4.4/11 (#2)

Criminal Minds, of course, is up by double-digit percentages year-to-year, while Lost is just the opposite. As for last night’s episode of Lost, all I can say is it was one of the best I have ever seen. Too bad, again, that ABC is making the mistake of taking it off for three months in place of upcoming drama Day Break, which debuts on Nov. 15.

Elsewhere at 9 p.m. was NBC’s The Biggest Loser (Overnights: #3, 5.2/ 8; Viewers: #3, 7.86 million; A18-49: #3, 3.4/ 9), which built from 20 Good Years by an ample 33 percent in the overnights, 2.4 million viewers and 70 percent among adults 18-49, and the CW’s One Tree Hill (Overnights: #5, 2.7/ 4; Viewers: #5, 3.57 million; A18-49: #5, 1.6/ 4). Retention for One Tree Hill out of America’s Next Top Model was a modest 56 percent in the overnights, 65 percent in total viewers and 59 percent among adults 18-49.

With a stronger lead-in (and no competition from ABC), CBS’ CSI: NY continues to benefit at 10 p.m., with a dominant 11.6/19 in the overnights, 17.06 million viewers and a 5.4/15 among adults 18-49. ABC clinker The Nine sunk even further, with a last-place 5.7/ 9 in the overnights, 8.02 million viewers and a 3.1/ 8 among adults 18-49. Comparably, that put retention for The Nine out of Lost of just 50 percent in the overnights, 48 percent in total viewers and 45 percent among adults 18-49. Had ABC known, it could have left former cult favorite Invasion in the time period. Food for thought for ABC: Considering how much is going on during Lost, how about something less intensive at 10 p.m.?

Also at 10 p.m. was NBC’s relocated Dateline at a second-place 5.9/ 9 in the overnights, 8.66 million viewers and a 3.2/ 9 among adults 18-49, which is a noticeable improvement over former occupant Kidnapped.

Source: Nielsen Media Research data


Ratings Box:
What’s Hot/What’s Not

-The CW vs. UPN and the WB:
Five weeks into the new season, the CW is reporting growth over the year-ago average for the WB (with regularly scheduled programming) of 6 percent among adults 18-34 (1.7/ 5 vs. 1.6/ 5) and 5 percent among women 18-34 (2.2/ 7 vs. 2.1/ 7). The CW mirrors The WB’s scheduling model with 6 nights and 13 hours of prime time programming. Compared to UPN (which programmed only 10 hours), the CW is on par in all key demos.

Source: Nielsen Media Research data

[dad1153]

For my money this guy is the best war correspondent in the Middle East on network TV news right now (sorry Lara Logan!). I was riveted by his coverage for ABC News during the fall of Baghdad in 2003 and shocked when NBC snagged him right afterwards. ABC News' loss is NBC News' gain though. If you're a news junkie like me you'll appreciate this in-depth look at Richard Engel's current stint in the Middle East.

Critic's Notebook
In Iraq, Journalist Richard Engel Sticks to the Story
NBC Correspondent Has Made War Coverage His Life
By Howard Kurtz The Washington Post October 26, 2006

NEW YORK -- After struggling for years to make it as a Middle East journalist, Richard Engel was living in Cairo, married to his college girlfriend and itching for a new adventure.

As the Bush administration geared up to invade Iraq, Engel decided he had to be there and bought an illegal visa. Once in Iraq, he became so absorbed in the conflict that his marriage became a casualty of war.

"There is no personal life," he says. "This is what I do all the time. It's not a solitary existence like I'm riding a camel in the desert, but you just don't have any personal space."

At 33, the baby-faced Engel has logged more time in Iraq than any other television correspondent, chronicling 3 1/2 years of carnage for NBC and shrugging off several close calls. As nearly all television correspondents rotate in and out of Iraq, Engel has stayed .

"In an era of instant media criticism, he calls balls and strikes in the middle of a war zone," says NBC anchor Brian Williams. "He is completely unbothered by any Web site that may have problems with his reporting while he's over in Iraq dodging bullets. . . . He is the most agenda-less person I've met in our business, I think, in the past 20 years."

On a rare visit home, Engel looks slighter than he does in flak-jacketed appearances from Baghdad, as if he doesn't quite fill out his suit. He speaks with an air of resignation about the worst that human beings can do to each other.

Earlier this month he interviewed a woman whose 13-year-old son was kidnapped. After she paid the $12,000 ransom, the boy was tortured and killed anyway.

"It's horrible," Engel says. "I've seen hundreds of dead bodies -- rotting bodies, bodies buried in shallow graves. One time I watched a dog carry a severed human head in its mouth. You're smelling bodies, you're seeing people who are so angry and insanely distraught. The people who are being killed are too old, too stupid, too poor, too young or too weak, socially or otherwise, to leave."

Engel frequently hits the punching bag as a form of therapy. "There are images that I would rather not have in my head," he says. "You can't let your guard down. . . . You have to go out every day assuming you're being hunted, that people want to take you for ransom."

Among the small circle of journalists who risk their lives in the region, Engel commands considerable respect.

"I admire Richard because he's passionate about the story, and he cares," Lara Logan, CBS's chief foreign correspondent, says from Iraq. "When he was a freelancer with no real support, he wasn't afraid to stay on his own in Baghdad for 'shock and awe.' He's also a really decent guy."

Why does he stay? When NBC made Engel its Middle East bureau chief over the summer, he agreed to a new contract and moved to the relative calm of Beirut. Days later he found himself covering a fierce war between Israel and Hezbollah -- and was suddenly reenergized. This, for better or worse, is what he does.

Not that Engel necessarily approves of military conflict.

"I think war should be illegal," he says. "I'm basically a pacifist."

* * *

Engel was taping a standup last week on Haifa Street, in one of Baghdad's most dangerous neighborhoods, where he was traveling with the 172nd Stryker Brigade.

Suddenly shots rang out. The unit was under sniper fire. "Let's go, go, go, go, go, go!" one soldier shouted. Engel scrambled for cover, but completed his report a few minutes later.

He has little patience for the notion that the media are suffering from Iraq fatigue because the story -- day after day of death and destruction -- has gotten so repetitive.

"Whether you agree with the war or not, I have a very soft spot for the guys who are out there. These guys have saved my life on more than one occasion, and they are dying at the rate of two a day, and they deserve to be talked about."

Danger lurks everywhere for Western correspondents in Iraq. Engel has survived two kidnapping attempts, one of which occurred when a pair of cars surrounded his vehicle, forcing his driver to make an evasive maneuver at 90 miles per hour with a third car in hot pursuit. And journalists' hotels are a periodic target. Engel's hotel room has been blown up three times in insurgent attacks, once collapsing the ceiling and another time blowing off the door as shrapnel filled the room.

"There's a fine line between fearless and crazy," Williams says. "Richard is not crazy. He has distilled risk to a science."

Few would have predicted that Engel would become an intrepid war correspondent when he was growing up on Manhattan's East 86th Street. He suffered from dyslexia and struggled in school.

"He was down in the mouth and low on self-confidence," says his mother, Nina Engel. "He lived in the shadow of his older brother, Mr. Perfect," who is now a cardiologist. In fact, she had only "a very faint hope" that he would be able to go to college.

When he was 13, Engel asked his parents to send him to a wilderness survival program in Wyoming. Frustrated by his learning disabilities, he was eager to escape the comforts of Upper East Side life and try a tougher environment.

He says he was "scared to death," especially when given a gun to hunt small game. Nina Engel remembers getting a letter from her son: "I just returned from my survival hike. I clubbed a bird to death and ate it." When the teenager returned, he told his mother: "I learned a lot about myself."

Engel says the experience began a transformation that largely enabled him to overcome his dyslexia and school problems. Despite his learning difficulties, he showed early promise in other ways.

"He was a great writer," says Ross Peet, who was a classmate at Riverdale Country School in the Bronx. "But he struggled with anything that had a number on it."

At 16, Engel spent a year as an exchange student in Sicily. After graduating from Stanford in 1996 with a degree in international relations, Engel says, he decided that "the Middle East would be the story of my generation." He announced to his parents that he was moving to Cairo, where the family had once taken a trip.

"Are you insane?" Nina Engel recalls asking him. "Do you remember what a hellhole it was?" When her son said he was also considering Damascus, she allowed as how Cairo was not really that bad.

The aspiring reporter took his $2,000 in savings, moved to Cairo, enrolled in Arabic classes and found an apartment in a neighborhood where donkeys and dogs roamed the dirt roads.

Engel did some local freelancing and caught an early break when he was asked to take over the English-language Middle East Times after the staff walked out in the wake of the editor's firing. He wrote all the articles -- making plenty of mistakes in the process -- and took the proofs each week to a printing press in Athens, as a way to avoid Egyptian censorship laws.

Engel ran into trouble anyway as he began reporting on the group that would become al-Qaeda. He says Egyptian authorities started following him and bugging his phone. Once, after a weekend trip, an official called to ask how he had liked staying in Room 17 of a hotel in Alexandria. Engel reported the surveillance to the U.S. embassy, to no avail.

"The embassy was useless," he says. "It was my first lesson that you cannot rely on anyone else. No one is coming to help you."

In 1999, Agence France-Presse hired Engel to go to Jerusalem and cover the Palestinians. As the intifada protests against Israel turned violent, he says, "I spent the next three years on my stomach, getting tear-gassed and shot at with rubber bullets."

Most people might consider that a miserable existence. But Engel brightens at the thought: "I was lucky enough to be on the fault line as history shifts and moves."

Friends were not surprised at his constant need for an adrenaline fix. "He has no interest in a 9-to-5 job," Peet says. "He's very much into living on the edge. I don't think he has much interest in having a normal life."

By late 2002, as war with Iraq loomed, ABC News and the BBC had hired Engel as a freelancer. But even though he spoke Arabic, Engel wasn't on anyone's list to get an Iraqi visa. The networks were concentrating their efforts on their bigger stars.

Undeterred, Engel took $20,000, went to Jordan and bought a human shield visa, meaning that he was pledging to chain himself to an Iraqi facility as a deterrent against U.S. bombing. Engel got the visa from an Iraqi official who knew full well he was a journalist but was swayed by a few hundred dollars and some baby clothing that Engel had bought for extra persuasion.

Once in Iraq, Engel bought a generator and some crowbars, souped up two Volkswagens so he could move fast without being conspicuous, and hired an off-duty police officer. On the eve of the Western invasion, most of the networks pulled out their correspondents for safety reasons, a decision that Engel could not fathom.

"You knew it was going to be horrible -- that's why you're there," he says.

As other journalists either withdrew, were expelled or clamored to get in, Engel was for a brief time the only American television reporter in Iraq. He found himself much in demand by ABC, which still identified him as a freelancer. He did the videotaping himself with a small camcorder. Once Saddam Hussein was toppled, ABC and NBC both offered to hire Engel. He retained a top New York agent and decided he would prefer a fresh start with NBC, "coming in the front door as opposed to climbing up the fire escape and breaking in the back door."

In the invasion's aftermath, Engel would drive each week to such cities as Najaf and Fallujah, poking around to find stories. But that gradually changed as the security situation deteriorated. Now, unless he is embedded with a military unit, Engel usually finds himself confined to the safer precincts of Baghdad, an experience he describes as "a noose tightening around us." He increasingly relies on Iraqi staffers who are from certain neighborhoods or members of the same ethnic group as a given area's residents. But even that can be problematic. "I've gotten rid of the ones who I think cannot be trusted," Engel says.

Not everything he covers involves bombs and bullets. Engel did a piece earlier this year on the plight of children at a Baghdad orphanage, which drew so much public reaction that "NBC Nightly News" aired it a second time.

"I don't look for good-news stories or bad-news stories. I don't have an abacus," he says.

But bad news has a way of finding journalists in Iraq. On Memorial Day, Engel heard a nearby explosion. He soon learned that CBS correspondent Kimberly Dozier had been badly wounded and her two crew members, Paul Douglas and James Brolan, killed by the blast.

His mother sent him an e-mail: "YOU ARE UNDER HOUSE ARREST UNTIL YOU CAN BOOK A FLIGHT OUT OF THERE . . . Mom's orders."

She writes him every day, but he has not followed her evacuation instructions. Still, there are psychological effects. Riding in an Army Humvee, Engel looked down at his legs and thought how fragile they looked. What if he lost them?

"You worry about how many lives you have and how many I've already used up," Engel says. "I don't think I'm invincible."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/25/AR2006102501982.html

[shuttermaker]

Mediaweek.com

NBC Orders Up More Scripts for Studio 60, The Nine

Marc Berman

OCTOBER 27, 2006 -

NBC's Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip and three freshman series on ABC – Help Me Help You, The Nine and Men in Trees – have been given additional script orders. Four more scripts for the ABC series have been ordered, with three for Studio 60. Six other new series to-date -- ABC’s Ugly Betty and Brothers & Sisters, CBS’ Jericho and Shark, NBC’s Heroes and CW’s The Game -- have been given full season orders.

Below is the revised freshman series scorecard:

ABC
-The Knights of Prosperity: on hiatus indefinitely
-Big Day (Tues. 9 p.m.): debuting on Nov. 28
-Help Me Help You (Tues. 9:30 p.m.): four more scripts ordered
-The Nine (Wed. 9 p.m.): four more scripts ordered
-Ugly Betty (Thurs. 8 p.m.): full season renewal
-Six Degrees (Thurs. 10 p.m.): losing steam every week
-Men in Trees (Fri. 9 p.m.): four more scripts ordered
-Brothers & Sisters (Sun. 10 p.m.): full season renewal

CBS
-The Class (Mon. 8:30 p.m.): on the fence
-Smith (Tues. 10 p.m.): canceled
-Jericho (Wed. 8 p.m.): full season renewal
-Shark (Thurs. 10 p.m.): full season renewal

NBC
-Heroes (Mon. 9 p.m.): full season renewal
-Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip (Mon. 10 p.m.): three more scripts ordered
-Friday Night Lights (Tues. 8 p.m.): OTO airing Monday, Oct. 30 at 10 p.m. ET
-30 Rock (Wed. 8 p.m.): major erosion in week two
-20 Good Years (Wed. 8:30 p.m.): unlikely to survive past midseason
-Kidnapped (Sat. 8 p.m.): shipped to Saturday to complete its 13-episode run

Fox
-Vanished (Mon 8 p.m.): now airing in this time period effective today
-Standoff (Tues. 8 p.m.): flipping time periods with lead-out House as planned
-Justice (Wed. 9 p.m.): moving to Monday at 9 p.m.
-‘Til Death (Thurs. 8 p.m.): three more scripts ordered despite minimal audience interest
-Happy Hour (Thurs. 8:30 p.m.): on hiatus

CW
-The Game (Mon. 9:30 p.m.): full season renewal
-Runaway (Sun. 9 p.m.): canceled

[dad1153]

Wow, a vote of confidence from ABC for 'The Nine.' But will it keep it at 10PM Wednesdays or move it after 'Lost' wraps-up the first half of its season? Because if 'Daybreak' gets clobbered by 'Criminal Minds' (as everyone expects it will) then it could drag 'The Nine' down with it.

[dad1153]

Jeff Zucker isn't the only one that wants big money game shows at 8PM. This new ABC entry with Shatner as emcee makes 'Deal or No Deal' sound like 'Jeopardy!'

The New Season
Answers! Dancers! Prancers! Vixens!
By Lisa De Moraes, The Washington Post October 27, 2006

We realize that earlier this month, when ABC announced William Shatner would host a game show for the network called "Show Me the Money," we wrote that details of the show, which were sketchy in the network's announcement, didn't really matter.

But that was before we heard the details.

Yesterday ABC filled them in.

Turns out we haven't even begun to plumb the depths of stupid to which reality television series can go.

On this particular show, for instance, contestants must answer a minimum of six trivia questions. After each answer, the contestant must choose from among 13 dancers on stage who, ABC assures us, will all be "stunning." Each dancer holds a scroll on which is written a dollar figure to be added or subtracted, for correct or incorrect answers, to the contestant's total.

A correct answer, combined with choosing a dancer holding big money, can catapult the player's winning into the millions. But a wrong answer, and the wrong dancer, can wipe out winnings in an instant.

The Answers and Dancers Show.

But there's more. At any given moment, the 13 Million-Dollar Dancers, as they're called on the show, may spontaneously break into any style of dance and, ABC promises, Shatner spontaneously "boogies with the beauties on stage."

Let's recap, shall we?

1. Trivia questions

2. 13 stunning dancers

3. Scrolls

4. Spontaneous dancing

5. William Shatner boogieing on stage

And suddenly, screaming at briefcases doesn't seem so idiotic, does it? Something almost operatic about it, really.

"Show Me the Money" is getting the 8 p.m. time slot on Wednesday once the current edition of "Dancing With the Stars" wraps next month. But that's where most pundits are expecting NBC to schedule "Deal or No Deal" now that it has moved scripted series "30 Rock" and "Twenty Good Years" out of the hour.

NBC execs announced recently they intend to schedule as much nonscripted programming as possible at 8 across the week, because they aren't getting the kind of ratings they need at 8 to justify the cost of scripted fare.

ABC clearly thinks William Shatner and Million-Dollar Dancers trump Howie Mandel and briefcase babes.

But all that really matters is, do you?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/26/AR2006102601747.html

[shuttermaker]

I hope William Shatner can be half as entertaining on "Show Me The Money" as he is on "Boston Legal".

I'm a BIG "Boston Legal" fan.

[dline]

Another sign of the times:

The FCC's Assistant Policy Chief has determined that an interview with California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on NBC's The Tonight Show with Jay Leno counted as a bona fide news segment, and that his Democratic opponent is not entitled to equal time.

Actually the debate is nothing new. NBC acknowledged that this issue came up when Jack Paar hosted The Tonight Show in 1960, according to today's order. But the network also argued that the FCC has taken a more liberal view of what constitutes "news" in more recent rulings, including one involving Phil Donahue's talk show.

Source: http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-06-2098A1.pdf

[rebkell]

I'm glad to see Men In Trees get some support, I wish it had been a full season, but hey, it's still got life. :) It's one of my favorite shows this year.

[rebkell]

In the above, you have "Vanished" listed on Monday at 8:00 pm as of today, shouldn't that be Friday at 8:00 pm?

[shuttermaker]

In the above, you have "Vanished" listed on Monday at 8:00 pm as of today, shouldn't that be Friday at 8:00 pm?

According to his column, listed today 10-27-06 , Monday at 8 pm is the new time slot for "Vanished".

I looked on my cables program guide and, it doesn't show as scheduled for Friday or Monday at 8pm. Maybe a correction or update is forthcoming.

[shuttermaker]

Seems Friday at 8pm is the time slot for "Vanished" on FOX.



OCTOBER 27, 2006
The Programming Insider

Marc Berman

Prime-Time Thursday Ratings:
Fox Wins Despite Lackluster World Series

Thursday 10/26/06
Metered Market Ratings

Household Rating/Share
Fox: 10.0/15, CBS: 9.4/14, ABC: 8.9/14, NBC: 5.9/ 9, CW: 3.2/ 5

-Percent Change From the Comparable Year-Ago Evening (Thursday 10/27/05)
(The CW is compared to Smallville and Everwood on the WB on the year-ago evening; Fox aired a repeat of theatrical Maid in Manhattan).
Fox: +186, ABC: +98, CW: -16, NBC: -19, CBS: -32

---------------

-Yesterday’s Winners:
Ugly Betty (ABC), CSI R (CBS)

-Yesterday’s Losers (excluding repeats):
nothing

---------------

Fast National Ratings

-Total Viewers:
Fox: 14.52 million, CBS: 13.21, ABC: 11.76, NBC: 8.40, CW: 4.23

-Adults 18-49:
Fox: 4.5 rating/12 share, ABC: 4.1/11, CBS: 4.0/11, NBC: 3.0/ 8, CW: 1.9/ 5

---------------

-Ratings Breakdown:
Opposite repeats on ABC and CBS from 9-11 p.m., game four of The World Series on Fox (Detroit vs. St. Louis) took center stage, with an 11.4/19 in the overnights from 8:30 p.m.-12:15 a.m., and an approximate 14.52 million viewers and a 4.5/12 among adults 18-49 in prime time. While that is certainly an improvement over Fox’s regularly scheduled Thursday delivery, compared to the game four match-up on Oct. 26, 2005 between The Chicago White Sox and the Houston Astros (Overnights: 14.8/24; Viewers: 19.98 million; A18-49: 6.6/18), it was also a decrease of a considerable 23 percent in the overnights, 5.46 million viewers and 32 percent among adults 18-49. Good? Yes. But a home-run? Absolutely not.

As a reminder, total viewers and adults 18-49 from last night are based on the fast nationals. Any prior results are based on the final nationals.

Airing opposite a clips edition of CBS’ Survivor: Cook Islands (which only demonstrated how deadly dull this season is) and Fox’s aforementioned baseball (including the half-hour pre-game show), ABC’s Ugly Betty dominated the 8 p.m. hour with a healthy 10.2/16 in the overnights, 13.15 million viewers and a 4.2/12 among adults 18-49. Second was Survivor: Cook Islands at a 7.9/12 in the overnights, 12.61 million viewers and a 4.1/11 among adults 18-49. The pre-game show scored a 6.7/10 in the overnights.

Repeats of NBC’s My Name Is Earl (Overnights: 5.4/ 8; Viewers: 7.56 million; A18-49: 2.8/ 8) and The Office (Overnights: #4, 4.6/ 7; Viewers: 6.38 million; A18-49: 2.7/ 7), which will begin airing into the return of Scrubs and the relocated 30 Rock in November, finished fourth in the 8 p.m. hour. The CW’s Smallville, meanwhile, held up at a 3.7/ 6 in the overnights, 4.79 million viewers and a 2.2/ 6 among adults 18-49. Comparably, Smallville matched its season highs in adults 18-34 and 18-49.

In the battle of the repeats at 9 p.m., CSI’s advantage over Grey’s Anatomy only solidifies the value of crime solving dramas versus serialized story-telling in off-network syndication. The CSI second-run averaged a potent (and first-place) 12.2/18 in the overnights, 16.63 million viewers and a 5.0/12 among adults 18-49 versus a third-place 9.0/13 in the overnights, 12.21 million viewers and a 4.5/11 among adults 18-49 for Grey’s Anatomy. As reported yesterday, Tony winner Liev Schreiber will be temporarily filling in for William Petersen on CSI beginning in January.

NBC’s competing Deal or No Deal, which the network is wisely removing from the competitive Thursday waters, scored a fourth-place 7.3/11 in the overnights, 11.03 million viewers and a 3.5/ 9 among adults 18-49. The CW’s Supernatural, which like lead-in Smallville is down year-to-year, capped off the hour with a last-place 2.8/ 4 in the overnights, 3.67 million viewers and a 1.7/ 4 among adults 18-49. Comparably, that put retention for Supernatural out of Smallville at 76 percent in the overnights, and 77 percent in both total viewers and adults 18-49.

In the battle of the repeats at 10 p.m., the No. 2 spot was shared between CBS’ Shark and another episode of ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy. Shark averaged an 8.1/13 in the overnights (#2), 10.37 million viewers (#2) and a 2.9/ 8 (#3) among adults 18-49, with Grey’s Anatomy at a 7.6/12 in the overnights (#3), 9.92 million viewers (#3) and a 3.8/10 among adults 18-49 (#2). A repeat of NBC’s ER was fourth with a 5.5/ 9 in the overnights, 7.20 million viewers and a 2.6/ 7 among adults 18-49.

Source: Nielsen Media Research data


Ratings Box:
What’s Hot/What’s Not

-Katie Couric Sinks to No. 3:
Based on ratings for the week of Oct. 16, The CBS Evening News With Katie Couric dipped to third in households, total viewers and key adults 25-54. But ratings year-to-year remained on the minor plus side, with growth of 310,000 viewers and 11 percent among adults 25-54. The NBC Nightly News was first, with minor erosion from one year earlier, while the ABC Nightly News finished second at levels consistent to the year-ago week.

-Households:
NBC: 6.0 rating/12 share (- 9), ABC: 5.9/12 (- 2), CBS: 5.2/10 (no change)

-Total Viewers:
NBC: 8.65 million (- 8), ABC: 8.45 (+ 2), CBS: 7.56 (+ 4)

-Adults 25-54:
ABC: 2.3 rating/ 9 share (no change), NBC: 2.2/ 9 (-12), CBS: 2.1/ 8 (+11)

----------

-Daytime Update:
Also based on ratings for the week of Oct. 16, ABC and CBS continued to dominate (both in daytime dramas and in total daytime), with CBS the most-watched network and ABC No. 1 among key women 18-49. CBS has now topped the daypart in households and total viewers for 917 consecutive weeks.

Take a look:

Daytime Dramas

-Total Viewers:
CBS: 4.03 million, ABC: 3.09, NBC: 2.35

-Women 18-49:
ABC: 1.7 rating/11 share, CBS and NBC: 1.4 rating/ 9 share each

-----------

Full Daytime

-Total Viewers:
CBS: 4.35 million, ABC: 3.11, NBC: 2.35

-Women 18-49:
ABC: 1.7/11, CBS and NBC: 1.4/ 9 each

Source: Nielsen Media Research data


On the Air This Weekend:
Prime-Time Programming Options

Friday 10/27/06

ABC:
8:00 p.m. Grey’s Anatomy (R)
9:00 p.m. Men in Trees
10:00 p.m. 20/20

CBS:
8:00 p.m. Ghost Whisperer
9:00 p.m. Close to Home
10:00 p.m. Numb3rs

NBC:
8:00 p.m. 1 vs. 100 (time period premiere)
9:00 p.m. Las Vegas (season premiere)
10:00 p.m. Law & Order

Fox:
8:00 p.m. Vanished (new day and time)
9:00 p.m. Trading Spouses: Meet Your New Mommy

CW:
8:00 p.m. Friday Night Smackdown!

---------------

Saturday 10/28/06

ABC:
8:00 p.m. Movie: Harry Potter & the Prisoner of Azkaban (R)

CBS:
8:00 p.m. Numb3rs (R)
9:00 p.m. CSI: NY (R)
10:00 p.m. 48 Hours Mystery

NBC:
8:00 p.m. Dateline
9:00 p.m. Kidnapped
10:00 p.m. Law & Order: SVU (R)

Fox:
8:00 p.m. Baseball World Series, Game 5

---------------

Sunday 10/29/06

ABC:
7:00 p.m. America’s Funniest Home Videos
8:00 p.m. Extreme Makeover: Home Edition
9:00 p.m. Desperate Housewives
10:00 p.m. Brothers & Sisters

CBS:
7:00 p.m. 60 Minutes
8:00 p.m. The Amazing Race 10
9:00 p.m. Cold Case
10:00 p.m. Without a Trace (100th episode)

NBC:
7:00 p.m. Football Night in America
8:00 p.m. NFL Pre-Game
8:15 p.m. NFL Sunday Night Football (Dallas at Carolina)

Fox:
7:30 p.m. World Series Pre-Game
8:00 p.m. Baseball World Series, Game 6 (if necessary)

CW:
7:00 p.m. Supernatural (R)
8:00 p.m. 7th Heaven
9:00 p.m. America’s Next Top Model (R)


TV Tidbits:
Notes of Interest

-Additional Script Orders:
NBC’s Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip and three freshman series on ABC – Help Me Help You, The Nine and Men in Trees – have been given additional script orders. Four more scripts for the ABC series have been ordered, with three for Studio 60. Six other new series to-date -- ABC’s Ugly Betty and Brothers & Sisters, CBS’ Jericho and Shark, NBC’s Heroes and CW’s The Game -- have been given full season orders. Take a look at the revised freshman series scorecard:

ABC
-The Knights of Prosperity: on hiatus indefinitely
-Big Day (Tues. 9 p.m.): debuting on Nov. 28
-Help Me Help You (Tues. 9:30 p.m.): four more scripts ordered
-The Nine (Wed. 9 p.m.): four more scripts ordered
-Ugly Betty (Thurs. 8 p.m.): full season renewal
-Six Degrees (Thurs. 10 p.m.): losing steam every week
-Men in Trees (Fri. 9 p.m.): four more scripts ordered
-Brothers & Sisters (Sun. 10 p.m.): full season renewal

CBS
-The Class (Mon. 8:30 p.m.): on the fence
-Smith (Tues. 10 p.m.): canceled
-Jericho (Wed. 8 p.m.): full season renewal
-Shark (Thurs. 10 p.m.): full season renewal

NBC
-Heroes (Mon. 9 p.m.): full season renewal
-Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip (Mon. 10 p.m.): three more scripts ordered
-Friday Night Lights (Tues. 8 p.m.): OTO airing Monday, Oct. 30 at 10 p.m. ET
-30 Rock (Wed. 8 p.m.): major erosion in week two
-20 Good Years (Wed. 8:30 p.m.): unlikely to survive past midseason
-Kidnapped (Sat. 8 p.m.): shipped to Saturday to complete its 13-episode run

Fox
-Vanished (Mon 8 p.m.): now airing in this time period effective today
-Standoff (Tues. 8 p.m.): flipping time periods with lead-out House as planned
-Justice (Wed. 9 p.m.): moving to Monday at 9 p.m.
-‘Til Death (Thurs. 8 p.m.): three more scripts ordered despite minimal audience interest
-Happy Hour (Thurs. 8:30 p.m.): on hiatus

CW
-The Game (Mon. 9:30 p.m.): full season renewal
-Runaway (Sun. 9 p.m.): canceled

----------

-A Not So Simple Life:
Production on the upcoming season of E Entertainment’s The Simple Life has been put on hold while star Nicole Richie is undergoing tests to see why she cannot put back any of her lost weight.

-Law & Order: Criminal Intent Sold to the Fox O&O’s:
NBC Universal Television Distribution has sold the off-network rights of drama Law & Order: Criminal Intent to the Fox owned and operated stations in the top markets (including New York, Los Angeles and Chicago) beginning in fall 2007. Criminal Intent will air in a stripped Monday to Friday format instead of the traditional weekend window. The last scripted crime drama to be stripped in off-network syndication was 21 Jump Street, and that was 14 years ago. The last drama overall, meanwhile, was 7th Heaven in 2001-02.

USA Network currently has the weekday cable rights for Criminal Intent, and a Sunday repurposing of the episode that airs the previous week on NBC. Bravo has a three-hour window on Sunday nights for repeats of the first five seasons.

[rebkell]

According to his column, listed today 10-27-06 , Monday at 8 pm is the new time slot for "Vanished".

I looked on my cables program guide and, it doesn't show as scheduled for Friday or Monday at 8pm. Maybe a correction or update is forthcoming.

It's been moved to Friday at 8:00 pm, it was in an earlier article posted in this thread http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=8753185&&#post8753185 ... the World Series is tonight, I looked at the TIVO extended guide and it shows it at 8:00 pm next Friday. I'm probably one of few people that actually watch(ed) Vanished.

[dad1153]

Critic's Notebook
'Housewives' settles down in TV's in-between
By Robert Bianco, USA Today October 26, 2006

With Desperate Housewives, it may be time to put both our hopes and fears to rest.

So far this fall, Housewives (Sunday, 9 ET/PT, ABC) has been markedly better than it was in its dismal second season, allaying concerns that the show had gone into an irreversible decline.

Yet it's also nowhere near as good as it was in its breakthrough first season, and with each passing week, those heights seem further beyond the show's reach.

What that leaves us with is a slightly less popular, ever more preposterous sitcomish soap — generally well played (at least by the stars) and frequently entertaining. It's no longer a pop-culture phenom and no longer ranks with TV's best, but it's also no longer an embarrassment, and that has to be of some comfort to its fans.

The credit for the creative improvement of this still-ratings-potent ABC Sunday hit goes to the show's decision to refocus its attention on its primary housewives and to put them together more often.

Gone are most of the extraneous characters and the imposed-from-the-outside mystery. Instead, the show has tied its main story to its main characters through their main men: a just-out-of-a-coma Mike — who is trying to remember whether he liked Susan or Edie — and Mike's assailant, Orson, who is now married to Bree.

Add in Lynette's extended family problems and Gaby's marital problems, and you have more than enough plot strands to keep all four stars busy.

As was often the case with Housewives even at its height, those plots are not all of equal interest and the episodes don't all hang together. But so far, at least, there have been fewer moments when you're looking at your watch wondering why you're still watching.

Yet while the show has regained its ability to amuse, the price paid has been a complete abandonment of reality. Actions have no consequences on Housewives, and horrid behavior is not so much forgiven as forgotten.

Edie burns Susan's house down without checking to see if anyone's inside, and Susan remains civil. Gaby tricks Carlos into catching her in bed with another man (a device the show already used with Andrew and Bree), and yet he still apparently wants to make their marriage work.

As for Lynette, whose pained maternal insecurities gave the show its most touching moments, she now seems content to torture her children on those odd weeks when she remembers they exist.

Lost forever, it seems, is the emotional resonance provided by that initial suburban-suicide plot. What's left are the flashy trappings of a Dynasty-style prime-time soap, fine for what it is but not exactly a must-see weekly event.

It was fun while it lasted, but for many of us, the Housewives love affair is over. We'll have to see whether we can just be friends.

http://www.usatoday.com/life/television/news/2006-10-26-housewives_x.htm

And yet 'DH' continues to outdraw Sunday Night Football on NBC whenever the two air at the same time. So long as more people are watching 'Housewives' than NFL players this show is a force to be reckoned with, IMHO.

[harley1]

fred enjoy your time off

dad you are doing a good job in relief

[dad1153]

Thanks! :)

It's official now: NBC is run by a bunch if whiny babies!

The Business of TV
Wright: Piracy imperils U.S. jobs, economy
By Carl DiOrio The Hollywood Reporter October 27, 2006

Bob Wright wants you to know that piracy is wrong.

And the NBC Universal chairman and CEO told a Wednesday night audience at the Beverly Hilton Hotel that intellectual property piracy isn't limited to ripping off Hollywood-created content. It imperils the nation's economic fabric, he warned.

"The U.S. economy is threatened by increases of counterfeiting and piracy in sectors as diverse as automobiles, aerospace, computer software, defense contractors, fashion design, high-tech manufacturing and pharmaceuticals," Wright told the dinner crowd of about 250.

"At risk," he added, "is every part of our economy where creativity, innovation and invention drive the creation of economic value and of high-wage jobs."

The Los Angeles World Affairs Council, which hosted the event, billed Wright's address as a "major policy speech." In it, the NBC Uni boss laid out a four-step plan for stemming the tide of product counterfeiting: greater recognition of the extent of the problem; spreading the word through the media that "piracy and counterfeiting are serious crimes"; increasing the use of government resources to fight the problem; and collaboration in all business segments to find technological solutions.

"The fact is, technological steps that would significantly reduce much of the piracy problem for media companies are available right now," Wright said. "We have the ability to insert a digital tag or watermark in our content. (Various) content industries have cooperated in developing technological standards for the new high-definition generation of DVDs, which will include provisions for detecting copyright watermarks in order to interfere with the playback of pirated material."

A recent MPAA study showed that piracy cost the group's six member companies $6.1 billion worldwide in 2005, he remarked.

"Absent piracy, 141,000 new jobs would have been added to the U.S. economy," Wright added.

China and Russia are among the worst global territories for piracy of Hollywood's intellectual property, he said, with counterfeit product rates of 95% and 80%, respectively.

But in remarks to a reporter after the speech, the NBC Uni topper expressed graver concern over increased piracy in developed territories such as the U.K., where cyber-piracy and other woes have pushed the counterfeit product rate to almost 20%.

Heedless of his gloomy message, Wall Street has been relatively unconcerned over Hollywood's vulnerability to content piracy, Wright acknowledged. "It's not a focal point for them," he said.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/business/news/e3i0q3OxqCLwzOwuDdr39J5ww%3D%3D

[dad1153]

I could have gotten a normal version of this story from other sources. But I deliberately chose Variety's version so we can all rejoice in our universal hatred of this publication's practice of re-writing copy with its trademark 'Variety' copy style. WTH is the deal with these people anyway?

The Business of TV
Prickly Peacock nixes Chicks:
NBC cancels ads for Dixie docu 'Sing'
By Pamela McClintock and Josef Adalian Variety October 26, 2006

The Weinstein Co. is claiming that NBC and the CW have refused to air national ads for the new Dixie Chicks docu "Shut Up & Sing."

But while the Peacock has specifically said it won't accept the spots because they are disparaging of President Bush, a rep for the CW strongly denies the Weinsteins version of events.

Barbara Kopple's docu, which opens today in Gotham and L.A., revisits the fierce fallout that occurred in 2003 after lead singer Natalie Maines said she was ashamed that the president is from Texas, her home state.

The national spot shows a clip of Bush authorizing troops to fight in Iraq, then cuts to a clip of Maines' comment. Next is a clip of the president saying publicly that the Dixie Chicks shouldn't have their feelings hurt if people don't want to buy their records anymore. The final frame shows Maines saying that Bush is a "real dumb (bleep)."

TWC wanted the national ads to begin running next week in preparation for the movie's expansion on Nov. 11. Company said it hasn't heard back yet from the commercial clearance departments at ABC, CBS and Fox.

"It's a sad commentary about the level of fear in our society that a movie about a group of courageous entertainers who were blacklisted for exercising their right of free speech is now itself being blacklisted by corporate America," Harvey Weinstein said in a statement. "The idea that anyone should be penalized for criticizing the president is profoundly un-American."

According to the Weinstein Co., NBC's commercial clearance department said in writing that it "cannot accept these spots as they are disparaging to President Bush."

TWC also quoted a rep from the CW as saying it had concerns that "we do not have appropriate programming in which to schedule this spot."

CW communications topper Paul McGuire rejected that version of events.

"That's not true," he said. "The spot was not declined. In fact, we were told they were not going to make a national spot buy on CW."

An email exchange obtained by Daily Variety between a media buyer for TWC and a CW standards and practices rep seems to back that up. The CW reps asks the media buyer if "you have a buy with us for the Dixie Chicks movie?" The ad rep for TWC replies, "We do not currently have a national buy with CW."

The Weinstein Co. isn't facing a total blockade against its ad.

Spot in question aired on the ABC-owned stations in New York and L.A. earlier this week during a broadcast of "The Oprah Winfrey Show" featuring the Dixie Chicks.

Ad has also aired on Peacock-owned stations in New York and L.A., as well as on CW affils in the same markets.

Earlier this week, CNN and National Public Radio said they wouldn't accept ads for the controversial film "Death of a President," about the fictional assassination of Bush. CNN said it had decided not to take the ads because of the "extreme nature" of the pic's storyline.

TWC said it will explore taking legal action.

East Coast-based Peacock sales execs couldn't be reached for comment, an NBC spokesman said.

http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117952760.html?categoryid=14&cs=1

[dad1153]

Critic’s Notebook
Paging Kenneth and a few other bits and pieces
From Maureen Ryan’s Chicago Tribune blog “The Watcher” October 27, 2006

The more I see of “30 Rock,” the more the show’s move to Thursdays makes sense. Tina Fey’s comedy does deserve a chance find its voice – one that was slightly more in evidence in this week’s episode.

I thought the first two episodes were pretty scattered and not all that funny, but Wednesday’s outing had several laugh-out-loud moments. Fey and her writers appear to be focusing on the characters a bit more, instead of the madcap antics of making a sketch-comedy show. That’s a wise move.

They’ve got a ridiculous talent in Alec Baldwin, who plays deadpan NBC exec Jack Donaghy. Here’s an exchange between Donaghy and Liz Lemon (Fey’s character), after Donaghy set her up on a blind date – with a woman.

“What made you think I was gay?” Lemon fumes.

“Your shoes,” Donaghy replies.

“Well, I’m straight,” Lemon says.

“Those shoes are definitely bi-curious,” Donaghy says.

A pretty funny line in the hands of a moderately talented actor – in the hands of Baldwin, who manages to be both hammy and dryly restrained at the same time, it’s comedy gold.

Donaghy’s more than enough reason to tune in, but after this week’s episode, Kenneth the page (Jack McBrayer) is by far my second-favorite character.

Donaghy discovered this week, to his surprise and consternation, that the sweetly idiotic Kenneth is a genius poker player. And the poker face of the happy-go-lucky Kenneth is not easy to read; he spent one game licking Doritos.

“He’s awesome,” says slovenly staff writer Frank (Judah Friedlander). “You can’t read his thoughts because he doesn’t have any.”

McBrayer’s really making the most of what could have been a nothing part; in his hands, Kenneth’s not just kind of naïve and goofy, but also represents the optimism of any small-town kid who’s ever dreamed of making it in showbiz.

I just have to segue here to shed a little light on some other unheralded comic performances I’ve been enjoying of late; the entire ensemble on “The New Adventures of Old Christine” is strong, but it’s admirable how Hamish Linklater fills out the part of what is often a throwaway character on sitcoms. Linklater plays Christine’s freeloading brother, but he imbues the role with a note of pathetic desperation that makes his character stand out.

And how great was “Malcolm in the Middle” vet Bryan Cranston as Ted’s mean boss on “How I Met Your Mother” this week? Cranston really hit it out of the park in his role as Mr. Druthers. And I am eager to see what Wayne Brady does in an upcoming episode – as Barney’s brother. Yes, you read that right. I have no idea what they’re going to do with that idea, but “Mother,” like Christine, has solid comic chops. Surely there will be much funny involved in Brady’s guest shot.

But back to Kenneth.

“In five years, we’ll all be either working for him… or dead by his hand,” Donaghy hissed as the floppy-haired young page rode his bike home.

If “30 Rock” concentrates more on Donaghy, the delightfully vacant Kenneth and even the brazenly crass Frank, and concentrates less on Lemon’s frustrated single-gal life and gives Tracy Morgan more to do than being the “out-of-control black man,” this show could become a real destination on Thursdays.

In other news:

-I don’t like the new version of the “Veronica Mars” theme. I really, really don’t like it. Why did they take a good song and de-good-ify it?

-Check out the new video from the “Nobody’s Watching” guy. See if you can spot the “Lost” cast member cleverly concealed within it.

-Department of being late to the party: The trailer for the new season of “24” went up a few days ago. It’s here.

-Also, in case you hadn’t heard, “Shark” has been picked up for a full season. And ABC has ordered more scripts for “The Nine,” so I have my fingers crossed on that front.

-To honor the passing of actress Jane Wyatt, who played Margaret Anderson on “Father Knows Best” as well as many other memorable roles, WWME-Ch. 23 is airing a two-hour marathon of Margaret-centric “Father Knows Best” episode starting at 11 a.m. Sunday.

-Here’s some fabulous news for “Project Runway” fans who are experiencing those troubling “Runway” withdrawal symptoms (you mumble Tim Gunn phrases under your breath, you think about buying a sewing machine, you feel inexorably drawn to fabric stores and have nightmares about Vincent): Project Rungay, one of the best sites that obsesses about the hit Bravo show, will start recapping the first and second seasons of the show next week. Currently up on the site are Tom and Lorenzo’s tart thoughts on the final collections and much more tongue-in-cheek “Runway” commentary.

-USA Today television critic Robert Bianco is staging an intervention for “Studio 60.” Like me, he thinks the drama can still be saved, and I think his suggestions for improvement are spot-on. Read his thoughts here.

-Which will end up being the goofiest stunt casting event of the fall? That’s a tough one. November sweeps haven’t even started, and already we’ve had K-Fed on “CSI,” Jerry Lewis on “Law & Order: SVU,” and now, coming up on Tuesday, Liza Minnelli stunts by, er, I mean, stops by “Law and Order: Criminal Intent” as a former beauty queen who was suspected in the 1992 death of her daughter.

-Speaking of “Arrested Development,” (Minnelli made a swell contribution to that canceled Fox comedy), “Arrested” creator Mitch Hurwitz is behind what might be the best TV news of the week. Hurwitz will be remaking the British comedy “The Thick of It” for American TV. “Thick” is one of the most painfully funny British shows in years; think of “The Office” set in the offices of a bumbling British cabinet minister and you get the idea. It was so accurate about the stupidity, cluelessness and arrogance that infest politics that those privy to the inner workings of Parliament would call the creators of the show to ask, “How did you know about that?” Anyhow, it’s good to know that Hurwitz is coming back to TV with a project as primo as “The Thick of It.”

-I’m probably going to be heartily attacked for this (hopefully not as much as I have been for my “Heroes” opinions, but whatever), but I’m digging this season of “Lost.” In fact, I thought the Sawyer episode that aired Wednesday was pretty darn solid. I know that for every question that gets answered on this show, three new questions take its place. But we’re never going to get all the answers, and so far, I’m still enjoying the ride.
Having said that, I can see why some other folks might have drifted away from the show; during most episodes, I have the feeling from time to time that I’m forgetting something important from past seasons that I no doubt should know (on that front, there are two new books out, “Finding Lost” by Nikki Stafford and “Getting Lost,” a collection of essays edited by Orson Scott Card that I’ve been using to refresh my memory).

Still, there’s a lot to keep track of regarding all these characters, and I’m always sure I’m forgetting a lot of stuff I shouldn’t be forgetting. Still, as long as the backstories stay away from brain-numbing repetitiveness (always a danger), I’m going to stay on board. By the way, did anyone else have the desire to start singing “I am the egg man, I am the walrus, I am the egg man, koo koo ka choo” during Locke’s whacked-out vision quest?

That is all.

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

[dad1153]

Critic’s Notebook
Another British import? Aiieee! Wait...
By Bill GoodyKoontz The Arizona Republic October 27, 2006

Now here's a funny reaction: you read that another American version of a British TV show is getting underway -- this time it's our version of The Thick of It, a truly brilliant, hilarious skewering of British politics that you absolutely should click here right this second and take a minute and watch clips of and whatnot -- and the only thing that keeps you from screaming and fleeing the computer in horror is the queasy feeling in the pit of your stomach that keeps you anchored in your chair.

Why is that? After all, the American version of The Office, after a sort of clunky start, has blossomed into one of the best sitcoms on TV. So it's obvious that in the right hands -- in this case a great cast and former Simpsons executive producer Greg Daniels -- that the translation can be done.

Here's why: because the American version of Coupling, a British show that wasn't all that great to begin with, was just awful. Tear at your eyes with your fingernails awful. So awful that, yes, even now it produces a reaction of terror and nausea when you hear about British imports.

But in this case, once that wave passed, I found myself excited, because of the talent involved. One of the executive producers is Mitch Hurwitz. Who's he? Oh, only the creator of the greatest sitcom ever on television, (wait for it) Arrested Development. (Pause for applause.) For that alone, Hurwitz gets a lifetime pass. If anyone can do this -- and political comedy is notoriously tricky -- Hurwitz and Richard Day, who also worked on AD, can.

I hope.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Giving credit where it's due (and it's due here so rarely): good move by NBC to try to resurrect a two-hour comedy block on Thursday nights.

And this time around, the comedies are actually better -- none of the awful Seinfeld/Friends ripoffs that were routinely propped up by the other, better shows (perhaps you have burned The Single Guy out of your memory -- a wise choice).

Let's check out the lineup, which kicks into gear Nov. 30:

-- My Name Is Earl: Great show. Hilarious. Subversive. Yet has a gentle sweetness that allows it go get away with way more than it should (making fun of Marlee Matlin, for instance -- for being deaf!).

-- The Office: Current Emmy winner for Best Comedy. And deservedly so. British original was great, but this knock-off is really funny -- and the Jim-and-Pam romance is better than the similar romance in the original.

-- Scrubs: About time. NBC's been keeping it on the shelf so far this season (and not for the first time). Why? Who knows -- clearly things aren't going so great at the network. Bringing back this twisted-yet-poignant (what other show can you describe THAT way?) hospital comedy may help. Though that's sort of like using a teaspoon to dig a hole. The size of the job may be too much.

-- 30 Rock: OK, so it's not in the same league with the others. But with some work, who knows? Alec Baldwin remains hilarious. Some of it doesn't work, but there are always some real laughs. And there's that fellow my colleagues continue to insist reminds them of me (see below). Hmm. I don't see it, but who am I to argue?

Worth noting: None of these shows is a traditional sitcom. All are shot in the "single-camera" format, meaning they're made like movies, with the camera following the action around. None have laugh tracks.

It's a great two-hour block. It's a good move.

Too bad they didn't make it a couple of months ago.

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

[dad1153]

Nielsen Notebook
GMA Edges Closer to Today
By Allison Romano Broadcasting & Cable 10/26/2006

With co-anchor Diane Sawyer reporting from North Korea, ABC's Good Morning America edged a little closer to its rival NBC Today last week, although Today continued its streak as the most-watched morning news show.

For the week of Oct. 16, Today averaged 5.66 million viewers and 2.71 million adults 25 to 54, the key news demographic. GMA, meanwhile, notched 4.93 million viewers and 2.26 million adults 25 to 54. CBS' Early Show trailed with 2.52 million viewers and 1.05 million adults 25 to 54.

Both Today and GMA improved audiences slightly from last week, although Today was the only morning show to grow over the same week last year. Today has been no. 1 for 567 consective weeks.

http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6385640.html

[joblo]

The New Season
Answers! Dancers! Prancers! Vixens!
By Lisa De Moraes, The Washington Post October 27, 2006

…

Let's recap, shall we?

1. Trivia questions
2. 13 stunning dancers
3. Scrolls
4. Spontaneous dancing
5. William Shatner boogieing on stage

…

ABC clearly thinks William Shatner and Million-Dollar Dancers trump Howie Mandel and briefcase babes.

But all that really matters is, do you?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/26/AR2006102601747.html
Oh, Lisa, Lisa, Lisa...

His Pompousness the Shat acting as quizmaster and doing spontaneous jigs?!?

Why, yes, I think that just could be hilariously funny...

Far more entertaining than Mr. Mandel and his banker....

[dad1153]

Back on Tuesday (10/24) Fred posted an article called 'Writing Lost' (Page 575, post ##17226) about how the scripts for the hit ABC show are put together. Consider this a quasi-spiritual sequel to that post.

Critic’s Notebook
Shooting 'Lost': Bring on the bug spray
From Maureen Ryan’s Chicago Tribune blog “The Watcher” October 26, 2006

Fans spend hours obsessing over “Lost’s” complicated plot points, but have they ever wondered what it’s like shooting in a dank lava cave? Or how hard it must be to re-create London, Korea or Nigeria — on the island of Oahu?

Cort Fey and John Bartley, the two directors of photography for the ABC show, have dealt with just those kinds of challenges. Fey is new to the show; his trial by fire was shooting Mr. Eko and Locke in a “lava tube” on Hawaii’s Big Island, which involved transporting actors, crew and tons of equipment from the show’s usual locations and soundstages on Oahu.

“The cave was pretty gonzo” recalls Fey.

On a trip to the cave’s location, “we were climbing down this nearly vertical stairwell; there was literally not an inch of level ground. The whole cave was really jagged lava rocks. Everyone was moving very slowly, and the actors’ faces were very pale.”

Still, Fey, along with the episode’s director and crew, got the shot, and it made for a gripping sequence in a recent — and very trippy — Locke-centered episode.

Bartley, who used to be one of the directors of photography on “The X-Files” and helped give that show its distinctive, mysterious look, had sworn off TV when he got the call from the “Lost” folks. “I didn’t want to do episodic [TV]. I felt it was taking away my life,” he recalls.

Still, when he arrived in Hawaii a couple of months after the first season began, he went to a meeting straight from the plane and was “out in the jungle shooting second unit with a rain machine” the next day.

For both Fey and Bartley, shooting on location is one of the most exciting things about the show, though it’s no picnic. Sunscreen is a must, as is heavy-duty mosquito repellent.

“We’re a 10-day show, eight days for main unit, two days for second unit,” Bartley says. “Five out of those days roughly are on location. Right now we’re shooting a flashback set in Florida.” Another upcoming episode is largely set in London; for those scenes, it’s likely that a few palm trees and other Hawaiian giveaways will have to be digitally removed.

The most difficult shoots Bartley recalls were the scenes of Walt, Jin, Michael and Sawyer on the castaway’s raft; their terrifying ordeal at sea closed out the show’s first season.

“Going out in the water at night was the hardest thing I think I’ve ever done,” Bartley says. “I always think I should have been able to do better, but there’s not much you can do for night lighting. I look back and think I could do better now. But I don’t know how we got through those nights.”

Some visuals are easier: For an upcoming flashback set in Australia, the footage was reversed so the steering wheel appears on the other side of the car. And that tidy “Others” village viewers glimpsed in the first episode of Season 3 was inserted with special effects (the show’s FX supervisor is now based in Hawaii, which makes those kinds of things easier to coordinate, Bartley says.)

Fey says shooting in the verdant greenery of Hawaii, a constant backdrop on “Lost,” is actually deceptively difficult. “One of the frustrating things is that you can go out and scout a location with a monkey pod tree in this grove with a great shaft of light coming through, and then you go back on the day [of shooting] and it’s a gray day.”

Shooting in the jungle, he adds, can be difficult because, on film, the jungle can end up appearing as “a green mash.” “We try to move the camera a lot and use light to define what makes [the forest setting] special. We try to create some dimensions and differences between the trees and shapes, and focus on distinctive features.”

For both men, one of the biggest rewards of working on this challenging show is getting involved in the story lines and the performances of the actors — just as fans do.

“The cast is spectacular, they bring it every day,” Fey says. “They’re troupers — they don’t require a lot of the usual niceties” that television actors get.

Shooting the “small” scenes — not the trademark epic “Lost” moments — can be the most interesting of all, Bartley says.

“Last season, I think Michael Emerson [who plays Benjamin Linus, a temporary prisoner of the castaways] did an amazing job,” Bartley says. “I’ve never seen an actor do so much while chained to a wall.”

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

[dad1153]

Apparently Fred isn't the only one taking time off from the spotlight...

TV Notebook
LIEV IS FALLING INTO ROLE ON 'CSI'
The New York Post October 26, 2006

TONY Award winner Liev Schreiber is joining the cast of "CSI" as a regular character, according to reports.

The actor will fill in for 'CSI" star William Peterson, who is taking time off in mid-season to appear in a play.

Schreiber will play a seasoned crime scene investigator with a checkered reputation who has worked in a number of police departments across the country before joining the Las Vegas Crime Lab.

He will appear sometime in January 2007, the reports said.

Sources say he won't start shooting scenes for new job until next month.

"After meeting the people who run 'CSI,' it immediately becomes apparent why it has consistently been one of the top shows on television. I am a fan, how could I say no?" says Schreiber.

Schreiber won a Tony last year for his role in the revival of the Broadway drama "Glengarry Glen Ross."

http://www.nypost.com/seven/10262006/tv/liev_is_falling_into_role_on_csi_tv_.htm

[shuttermaker]

I need a BIG favor. If someone could please let me know whether they can provide me a VHS or DVD copy of the pilot episode of 'Heroes' (or a notice of the soonest a re-broadcast of it will air) I'd be eternally grateful. While I can't obviously pay you for the show I'd be willing to cover shipping and media expenditures. A friend of mine wants to watch 'Heroes' and has all the episodes after the pilot Tivo'ed from the Sunday marathon last week to the present but is tempted to just start watching from Chapter 2. I have to stop him, and I need your help. Thanks for indulging me and now back to our regularly scheduled thread!

I'm downloading Episode 1 or "The Pilot". If it turns out to be of watchable quality, ill let you know and we can work something out.

[RussB]

Seems Friday at 8pm is the time slot for "Vanished" on FOX.



OCTOBER 27, 2006
The Programming Insider

Marc Berman

Prime-Time Thursday Ratings:
Fox Wins Despite Lackluster World Series

...

-Friday Night Lights (Tues. 8 p.m.): OTO airing Monday, Oct. 30 at 10 p.m. ET

...
What is OTO?

[dad1153]

The Business of TV
Univision's NY Station Finishes Second in Ratings
by John Consoli MediaWeek Oct. 27, 2006

Univision's New York City TV station, WXTV-Univision 41, for the first time since the implementation of Local People Meters by Nielsen Media Research, has finished second overall in the marketplace ratings for its 6 p.m. weekday local news telecast.

For the month of October, Noticias Univision 41 finished second among adults 18-34 (1.2/6), 18-49 (1.7/8) and 25.54 (1.9.8).

The Hispanic network newscast for the month outrated early evening news telecasts on WCBS-TV, WNBC-TV and Fox, as well as that on rival Hispanic station Telemundo.

http://www.mediaweek.com/mw/news/recent_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003316022

[dad1153]

TV Notebook
The Pick-Up Game: "Shark" keeps swimming, and Powers Boothe makes veep!
By Melanie McFarland Seattle Post-Intelligencer TV Critic in her TV blog - Oct. 26, 2006

Oh yeah. I just remembered something.

I need to update this bee-yotch every so often. So, whaddaya want to know? How about this:

--"Shark" got a full season. I know, it happened oh, say, last Friday and I should have told you then. Instead I'm telling you now. "Shark" has been succeeding against stale ole "ER," which is quite a feat for any new show. Especiallly an annoying one.

--Powers Boothe ("Deadwood's" Cy Tolliver) will play Vice President Noah Daniels on this season of "24." This season's Commander in Chief, as you might have already heard, is Wayne Palmer (D.B. Woodside), making him be the best looking U.S. president ever, fictional or non.

--"Lost" will take a 13-week break in a couple of weeks and return on Feb. 7, running uninterrupted until the end of the season. Maybe the break will give the writers some time to actually MAKE SOMETHING HAPPEN. Seriously, has the show gotten boring or what? No wonder "Criminal Minds" has caught up to it in the ratings. Another news item: Nathan Fillion, fondly remembered as Mal from "Firefly," will appear on "Lost's" Nov. 8 episode, the last episode before winter nap-time. We'll discuss "Lost's" dry spell some other time, mostly because at this point, I'm all about "Heroes."

-- Speaking of which: Jack Coleman, who plays Claire Bennet's evil, evil dad (and goes by the official title of H.R.G., as in Horn Rimmed Glasses), is now a series regular on "Heroes." This is a nice turn for Coleman, last seen on ABC's abysmal "Stephen King's Kingdom Hospital" and perhaps nostalgically recalled as Steven Carrington #2 on "Dynasty."

http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/tv/

[dad1153]

The Business of TV
Adelphia Documents Declassified
MultiChannel News 10/27/2006

Certain documents related to Adelphia Communications’ bankruptcy previously filed under seal and/or otherwise restricted from public dissemination have been declassified and made publicly available, according to a filing with the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York by the bankrupt cable operator.

The declassified documents -- which relate to the resolution process created under the Bankruptcy Court's order in aid of confirmation, dated Aug. 4, 2005 -- are available online (www.adelphiarestructuring.com) for review and download.

http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6386181.html?display=Breaking+News

[dad1153]

TV Q&A
Ask Matt
(from the Ask (TV Critic) Matt (Roush) column at TVGuide.com
By Matt Roush TVGuide.com TV Critic (10/27/06)

Question: People keep referring to a "resurgence" of ER this season. Is this a resurgence of quality or popularity? If you're talking about quality, I can't really judge (I've never watched more than a few episodes of the show). But it seems to me the ratings aren't really anything to be all that happy about. The show's main competition, Without a Trace, moved away this season, so it has been winning the time slot again, but not by much. I would be concerned that a mediocre legal procedural (Shark) and an oddball semi-experimental ensemble show that has failed to gel (Six Degrees) are as competitive as they are. Granted, any show that has been on since the Eisenhower administration, like ER has, can't expect to double its ratings, but NBC seems to be exaggerating the "resurgence." — Staley

Matt Roush: I know this may come as a shock to those who've been reading me beat up on ER the last few years (I bailed altogether midway through last season, it was so miserable), but I think ER's resurgence this season has been noticeable on screen as well as in the ratings. Sometimes all it takes is a catalyst, in this case John Stamos, who brings welcome energy and humor to his portrayal of paramedic-turned-intern Tony Gates. Once we got past the dreadful season opener, which tied up ridiculous loose ends from last season's cliff-hanger, most of the characters have lightened up considerably, making for a more entertaining, yet still dramatic, ER. And Forest Whitaker in his new story arc? Brilliant. As for ER's ratings "resurgence," look at where NBC is on the night. It's being clobbered in the 9 pm/ET hour by the week's two biggest megahits, Grey's Anatomy and CSI. Despite those lead-ins, neither ABC nor CBS can yet capitalize with the so-so shows they've put on at 10. (Shark is doing well enough for renewal, and it's certainly more commercial than the hopeless Six Degrees.) The fact that ER, in its 13th season, can still draw a crowd on a night where NBC is otherwise mired in third place is cause for some celebration, however modest. And it was the right call for NBC to decide not to bench it at mid-season, as originally planned. Where ER will falter, though, is when it airs repeats. At that point, and no doubt during the summer, Shark will pick up viewers and possibly some steam. That's how Without a Trace, a much better show than Shark, eventually began to surge past ER.

Question: Is there any news on the Commander in Chief movie?— Tammy

Matt Roush: I have it on excellent authority that this project is no longer in the works.

Question: I just heard they are going to start Medium on Wednesday nights at 10 pm/ET. I am into The Nine, although I don't think it's the best show on television, and I am very upset about them moving Medium opposite it. I was hoping they would move Studio 60 out of the Monday time slot and put Medium back there. I think it would go more nicely with Heroes.— Jennifer

Matt Roush: The Medium move isn't necessarily a long-term thing. This gives NBC something besides Dateline to air in that tough Wednesday time period until the next mid-season shuffle occurs, probably right after the new year. If Studio 60 hasn't improved by then, I'd put money on Medium moving back to its old roost, where it used to perform quite well. I agree it seems more compatible with the wild fantasy of Heroes. NBC has another supernatural-themed crime drama, Raines, on tap for mid-season. It was originally set for Sundays but could work alongside Heroes as well.

Question: I have to say that I'm shocked and saddened by the news that NBC is giving up on the 8 o'clock hour. I don't think the time has to do as much with the network's ratings as its offerings do. Deal or No Deal and My Name Is Earl manage to find audiences at 8. So do Jericho, Dancing with the Stars and many others on competing networks. Personally, I wish there would be more scripted shows at 8 o'clock. I always find myself sitting in front of the TV at that time with absolutely nothing to watch. I get up at 5:30 in the morning, and watching a dense drama that demands my attention is a daunting task at 10, so when shows like the wordy Studio 60 come on, I fall asleep during the commercial breaks. I have recently been taping 10 o'clock shows and watching them at 8. I really wish Studio 60 would be moved to 8 on Tuesdays or Wednesdays. Having watched the show at that time over the last few weeks, I even think it comes off as a little more lighthearted and a little less full of itself so early in the evening, before I start to get grumpy and sleepy. What are your thoughts?— Michael L.

Matt Roush: You're preaching to the converted, my friend. As a confirmed time-shifter from back in the prehistoric VCR days, I am all the time watching 9 pm shows at 10, 10 pm shows the next afternoon or early evening, you name it. The deal with the 8 pm/ET hour is that, from the network point of view, there's a lower concentration of viewers available, with many not yet ready to settle down in front of the TV. (These numbers are contradicted, of course, by the mega-numbers for shows like American Idol.) I agree, as I noted in my Dispatch last week, that NBC's announcement to move away from scripted comedies and dramas in the 8 pm hour sounded an awful lot like defeat and a shortsighted response to a current malaise. It feels like NBC is giving up instead of trying harder. That said, I think all of NBC's quality shows that are currently struggling would benefit by airing either an hour later or an hour earlier, in that sweet spot of 9 pm/ET. The trend among all of the networks has been to move toward reality or game shows in that first hour of prime time. NBC just stated it more baldly than the others have, at the same time sending a very mixed message to the Hollywood creative community that one less hour a night across the board was going to be available to them. Very dark tidings there. At the same time, NBC backtracks by insisting that the Thursday-night comedies will still air from 8 to 10. So it's not an absolute. Still, it's cause for anyone who cares about TV to be concerned.

Here's a similar reaction from Paul L: "With NBC's announcement about its plans to basically abandon the first hour of prime time to reality and game-show programming instead of scripted series, my frustration level is rising. I've never been a fan of reality TV, preferring programs that truly entertain me with smart writing and acting by people who have knowledge of what acting is all about. And the success of Deal or No Deal — which requires no knowledge, just a willingness to risk your winnings and ask another pretty model to smile and open a briefcase — doesn't bode well for truly intelligent, Jeopardy-type game shows in prime time. Do you think other networks will follow NBC's lead and cut costs by airing cheap nonscripted shows, or is there hope for those of us who want to watch fictional characters in well-written stories that make us laugh and care, regardless of which day or hour it is?"

As noted earlier, the trend is already upon us, with the 8 pm hour dominated many nights by all sorts of reality programming: Dancing with the Stars, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, Survivor, America's Next Top Model, The Amazing Race and, soon enough, American Idol, of course. But there are plenty of scripted hits at 8 as well, from NCIS to Ugly Betty to (more modestly) Gilmore Girls and Smallville. The weird thing is that, in this particular hour of TV, the scripted shows are starting to look like counterprogramming, when that's what reality shows were initially intended to be.

Question: Lola Glaudini is leaving Criminal Minds (I think Oct. 25 was her last episode) and taking her character, Elle Greenaway, with her. Do you know why? Is it her choice or the show's, and who will be her replacement, if anyone? I really enjoy Criminal Minds, my third favorite crime drama behind Without a Trace and Law & Order: SVU, and I am afraid that the show will suffer without her. The cast, as they are now, click, and someone new could affect the dynamic. If you ask me, the one who should get the boot is A.J. Cook, who plays J.J. Why exactly is she a cast regular? She doesn't do anything a random recurring character couldn't do. At least they made Garcia a regular and got something right.— Nicole

Matt Roush: I can't say if the actress was involved in the decision to write the character off the show, but from what I can tell, at least the story line gave her solid dramatic reasons for departing, which is more than many such characters get. On the other plus side, one of my favorite TV actresses, Paget Brewster (Andy Richter Controls the Universe, Huff), is coming aboard to join the team. That might actually get me to tune in.

Question: Do you think fan response has any effect at all on what the writers put into their shows? After all, we're the ones who keep their shows on the air! I'm speaking specifically of Gilmore Girls and the fact that the majority of fans hate the Lorelai and Christopher story line and are furious at Lorelai's trashy behavior and breakup with Luke. The writers keep telling us to keep the faith and that the characters are on journeys of self-discovery, yada yada, but I'm beginning to think that they could really care less what we think and are just lying to pacify outraged fans. I really want to give up on this once wonderful program to show my disgust and anger, but I want to know what happens to everyone else on the show! Is there any hope of it getting better?— Stephanie G.

Matt Roush: Given the fact (spoiler alert!) that the producers are making no secret (second warning: spoiler alert!) that Lorelai and Christopher are about to elope in Paris, it sure doesn't look like they're going to pander to your or other unhappy fans' needs and wishes anytime soon. Look, I've gone over this material so often I'm beginning to bore myself. It's not that I mind them being together. I mind how they came together, more specifically the ill-executed breakup of Lorelai and Luke. (Underscoring the issue this week by having Christopher be open about his letter from Sherry, as opposed to the way Luke hid the existence of April, didn't wash with me. A little too easy, that comparison.) If you ask me, it's not pickles that are causing the stink around Stars Hollow. If I were any more emotionally detached from the show this season, I'd be watching it from across the street. (Not that there still isn't plenty that's charming and funny about the show many weeks.) But to answer your first question: Producers are rarely blind to fan response, but they rarely (I hope) use that alone as a deciding factor on the creative direction of a show.

Question: Why is it that everyone thinks Studio 60 doesn't work? The same people who thought The West Wing was idealistic and hopeful find Studio 60 pretentious and self-important. Television is supposed to be a commentary of the times we live in, whether set in the forum of a hospital, law firm, family home, government office or television studio. I can't tell you how many shows I've watched that have tried to make a statement about something, whether it be breast-cancer awareness, drug abuse or reality TV. If there's one thing that folks enjoyed about The West Wing it was the idealism of our nation's highest office. Why can't the same concept apply to a television studio? This is precisely the kind of show I want to see: witty dialogue acted out by a superb cast with great chemistry making social statements that aren't usually expressed in your average scripted program. If Josiah Bartlet were the president we wished we could vote for, why can't NBS and Studio 60 be the television station and show we wish we could watch? This is the only new show this season that is appointment TV for me, and I'm heartbroken at the thought of cancellation. It's the only show that doesn't make me feel like I dropped 20 IQ points by watching.— Michelle

Matt Roush: I'm having my own love-hate issues with the show these days, and much of it has to do with what I feel is the patronizing tone of the writing. In the wrap-party episode, that would include the hateful depiction of the clueless bimbos who couldn't comprehend what a "writer" like Matt does, and the remarkable assumption by Aaron Sorkin that Tom's parents from Columbus, Ohio, had never heard of Abbott and Costello or "Who's on First?" (I suppose Ed Sullivan was a nobody to them, too, in the day.) Yes, the show is smart — maybe too smart for its own good. I enjoy much about it, but I can't really argue against criticism like this, from Laura:

"I really want to like Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. I really do. I love all the actors in it, and I usually like Aaron Sorkin for the most part. But there is something about this show that just seems so off-putting. That's why the numbers are dropping. And it has everything to do with Aaron Sorkin. Self-indulgent and condescending are the two words that come to mind. I'm a reasonably intelligent, college-educated (go, Hoosiers!), well-read adult and a lover of all things media-related. I like to have my mind engaged as much as entertained by a show. But this one makes me feel stupid. I feel like I'm missing the joke because I'm unfamiliar with August Strindberg's plays, or I don't know the tiny details of the Hollywood blacklist. I agree that a lot of TV underestimates the intelligence of the audience. But in a way it seems that Sorkin is doing the same thing. The constant reliance on hip and obscure references seems to be his way of saying, 'This is smart TV, just in case you're too dumb to recognize it.' And the need to include all sorts of things to advertise how smart the show is just makes the whole series seem disjointed, like there is no real purpose to any story lines, until it is summed up with some trite little moment, like the blacklisted writer talking about how he wrote to impress a girl, cut to Matt's face and his recognition of the similarities between then and now. As if that point hadn't already been made by the observation that the network didn't like political humor back then. Sorkin needs to trust his audience to recognize smart and well-written scripts without all the fancy talk, and he needs to trust that his characters are interesting enough to engage viewers because of how they react in the situations he has created for them. Because nobody, regardless of their education level, likes to be called stupid."

Finally, to show you the range of passions that Studio 60 somehow inspires, here's a tribute from Barbara, a high-school librarian from Richmond, Virginia: "In a world of television schlock, I would like to commend this week's episode of Studio 60. It deserves a Peabody Award for its portrayal of common decency and hope. The dual story lines: Timothy Busfield exhibiting kindness and patience with the Eli Wallach character (and Wallach deserves an Emmy), slowly eliciting the truth about an era we should be all too uncomfortable with; and the Cinderella story of a kid who isn't a comedian, but is, instead, a comic writer. Simon got to 'give some back,' as well as underscore the need for black writers. I hope Studio 60 makes it, that NBC will give it time to build an audience. But I think 'The Wrap Party' is a stand-alone, a set piece. I'd buy it in a minute for our high-school video collection."

Question: It seems as though every week someone is griping about the "believability" of television. They take issue with the town's abnormal fascination with football on Friday Night Lights, how a polar bear could survive its alien climate on Lost, and how Susan can be as oblivious as she is on Desperate Housewives. These can all be responded to with a simple "just because." This is the world of television, a world where nuns once flew and 16-year-olds can be doctors. I realize we live in more sophisticated times (and audiences are more demanding), and of course a show's realism is to be praised. However, just because a series requires you to suspend your disbelief does not cause it to lose its merit as an outstanding work of television. We never questioned why Lucy and Ricky never slept in the same bed or debated the logistics of Samantha Stephens' powers. When did so many of us lose the ability to sit back and be entertained without tedious overanalyzing?— T. Paul

Matt Roush: A lot of that has to do with the machine you used to file this complaint: the computer. Viewers now have a device to feed and indulge their TV obsessions, which often means weighing in instantly on a show the minute it rubs them (usually) the wrong way. I agree it isn't always healthy. Sometimes it's all I can do to open the e-mail bag, the negative energy threatening to sap my own enthusiasm for TV. But the debate can often be interesting, which is why I still value compiling these columns every week. Just as you take TV itself with a grain of salt, don't let the constant bickering get you down. (That said, even I was underwhelmed by the return of the polar bear on Lost. Much more on that show in Monday's column.)

Question: Since Six Degrees is tanking, why not have ABC put back Primetime at 10 pm/ET with Diane Sawyer and Chris Cuomo? This might be more successful and get more viewers to watch Good Morning America. Either that or that new drama with General Hospital's Tyler Christopher. I think they should replace Six Degrees quick!— Sudesh K.

Matt Roush: Even I'm amazed at how patient ABC has been with this one. But don't look for ABC to restore a newsmagazine to the post-Grey's Anatomy slot anytime soon. The Grey's lead-in is too valuable. ABC's mission is to create a new hit show out of Grey's. It's obvious that Six Degrees, so ponderous and contrived, isn't that show. Here's another, and more frequently offered solution to the Six Degrees problem, from Chris L.:

"With the broadcast networks looking for the next Desperate Housewives/Lost-style immediate ratings smash, ABC should be lauded for exercising patience by giving their new shows time to find an audience while the other networks have already swung the cancellation ax (Smith, Kidnapped, Happy Hour, Runaway). With November sweeps starting soon, do you think it's more likely for ABC to stay the course, or are some shake-ups on the way? I could suggest one change: Six Degrees' bleed-out from Grey's Anatomy is too severe and should be bumped for Men in Trees, a better, lighthearted alternative to the serious-minded ER and Shark."

Judging from the mail I get, and from those I know who've stayed with it, Men in Trees seems to deserve much more than its current Friday time period. Again, I'm surprised ABC hasn't tried at least once to sub a Six Degrees episode for Men in Trees, to see if the audience would sit still for another adjoining hour of romantic comedy-drama as opposed to drifting over to ER (as so many seem to be doing) for more medical intrigue.

http://www.tvguide.com/News-Views/Columnists/Ask-Matt/default.aspx

[dad1153]

The Business of TV
AT&T Nixes Net-Neutrality Proposal
By Ted Tearn Multichannel News October 27, 2006

A senior AT&T executive rejected a proposal that would require the company to adhere to Internet-nondiscrimination rules in order to gain approval from the Federal Communications Commission to merge with BellSouth.

The Internet-regulation proposal -- advanced by a coalition funded by Google, Yahoo!, eBay and Amazon.com -- would require AT&T to promise not to discriminate “in their carriage and treatment of Internet traffic based on the source, destination or ownership of such traffic.”

The net-neutrality condition would apply to AT&T, but to no other provider of broadband Internet access in the United States.

“The proper place to be debating the pros and cons of net neutrality is in the U.S. Congress or in an industrywide proceeding at the FCC,” AT&T senior executive vice president Jim Cicconi said in a prepared statement.

FCC chairman Kevin Martin agreed to launch an agency study of market conditions facing broadband-access providers and Web-based providers of voice, video and data services and applications.

The FCC vote, scheduled for Nov. 3, is the last regulatory hurdle facing the $81 billion deal. AT&T has been forced to make a number of concessions because only four of five FCC members are planning to cast votes.

A key issue is whether AT&T needs to embrace some form of nondiscrimination in order to persuade Democrats Michael Copps or Jonathan Adelstein to provide the necessary third vote.

Stifel Nicolaus telecommunications analyst David Kaut said he didn’t believe that AT&T would accept a nondiscrimination condition. “I think they are dug in on that -- they will not give that up, particularly in a merger proceeding where they would be the only company affected,” he added.

The Department of Justice approved the merger a few weeks ago without conditions. But Copps and Adelstein -- outraged that the DOJ let such a huge transaction pass unscathed -- refused to vote on the deal Oct. 13.

“I think at some point the odds are that they will work out a bipartisan deal to get this done. It looks like [Nov. 3] is in significant doubt,” Kaut said. “I just don’t think they are poised to get it done.”

AT&T put forward a number of voluntary conditions, although none of them dealt with one proposed by a few midsized cable companies that would require AT&T to exchange digital-phone traffic on fair and efficient terms.

Under current law, cable providers of voice-over-Internet-protocol calling services do not have the right to interconnect with AT&T, but cable operators have been able to route VoIP traffic through telecommunications carriers that do have interconnection rights.

Among other things, AT&T committed to offer broadband access to every home within its 22-state territory by Dec. 31, 2007. It also agreed to market $10-per-month broadband access to voice-service customers who have not previously signed up for digital-subscriber-line service. And within one year, customers in the nine former BellSouth states will not be required to purchase circuit-switched voice service in order to subscribe to DSL.

http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6386263.html?display=Breaking+News

[dad1153]

TV Notebook
McCollum: So much for dawn of a new era in network TV
By Charlie McCollum San Jose Mercury News October 26, 2006

For a while back in September, it looked as if the notion that we now are in the real Golden Age of Television actually might have had some validity.

Many of the new series being offered by the networks had a bright and shiny look to them, promising good things for the audience at home. The combination of the newbies and a fistful of strong returning shows heightened expectations for a good season, one with an overchoice of prime TV viewing.

Hasn't happened.

Just a few weeks into the season, the networks already are scrambling to realign their schedules by bringing "midseason'' shows in off the bench to replace faltering series they had hoped would be the Next Big Thing. It hasn't helped that some high-profile returning shows -- most notably ABC's Lost and the CW's Gilmore Girls -- have run into artistic and ratings difficulties.

Just two new series -- ABC's Ugly Betty and NBC's Heroes -- really can be tagged "hits,'' a designation that involves both actual viewership and the ever-elusive buzz quotient. (The shows also happen to be good, but that's only a small part of the equation.)

A few others may yet reach that status. CBS's Jericho is getting surprising buzz, but its audience is still 11 million or so -- good but not great. CBS's Shark and ABC's Brothers & Sisters are so far what network executives call "time-period hits,'' hanging on to just enough of the audiences generated by their lead-ins (CSI, Desperate Housewives) to put up good Nielsen numbers.

But many of the most promising, most-hyped newcomers are already gone (CBS's Smith, CW's Runaway), on their way out (Kidnapped, Vanished) or in real trouble.

At the start of the season, there was a critical consensus that the five best new shows were Betty, NBC's Studio 60 On the Sunset Strip and Friday Night Lights, ABC's The Nine and CBS's The Class (I didn't agree on that one). Except for Betty, they're all on shaky ground with viewers, hanging on only because the networks either have a lot invested in them or don't have anything available to replace them with.

After a return to form last season with My Name Is Earl, How I Met Your Mother and The New Adventures of Old Christine, the half-hour comedy is having a particularly dreadful fall. Not only is there nothing remotely resembling a hit, but the shows with the most potential -- Class and NBC's 30 Rock -- have disappointed creatively.

So what are the season's winners?

Well, Heroes and Betty, for sure, with the sci-fi drama qualifying as the biggest surprise. No one really expected a series about reluctant superheroes to find a big audience, but Heroes has, particularly among younger viewers.

And then there's Jericho, the grim post-nuclear holocaust drama that has built a loyal following on Wednesdays even though it airs opposite ABC's Dancing With the Stars. Once Dancing goes away in November, the Jericho audience could get even bigger.

But the rest of the noise this season is coming from established shows.

In a bold move, ABC shifted Grey's Anatomy to Thursdays at 9, expecting it to give CSI a tussle and possibly to beat it among younger viewers. Instead, the medical drama has overachieved, becoming the most-watched series on TV.

ABC also has gotten a boost from Dancing, which initially looked like a one-trick pony but has evolved in its third season into a durable hit with an average of 19 million-plus viewers for its Tuesday and Wednesday installments.

While CSI has been trailing Grey's, it is still No. 2 in the ratings and its spinoffs -- CSI: Miami and CSI: NY -- rank sixth and seventh. In the most recent Nielsen ratings, the three shows combined for 57.5 million viewers -- a hefty number that is making CBS very, very happy.

CBS's Criminal Minds, on Wednesdays was lightly regarded when it debuted last season but has taken an unexpectedly big bite out of ABC's Lost this fall. The pop-culture juggernaut barely beat the good-but-hardly-flashy FBI drama in total viewers the past two weeks.

And House has almost single-handedly kept the lights on at Fox, whose new series largely have stiffed. (Only Justice -- which has moved to Mondays at 9 -- seems to have any realistic hopes of longevity.)

Of course, House will get some help -- actually, a lot of help -- in January when Fox unleashes its big guns: American Idol and 24. The arrival of those shows is sure to alter this season's ratings game yet again.

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/entertainment/television/15852411.htm

[dad1153]

TV Notebook
1 vs 100's Bob Saget Reveals How He Got Game (Show)
By Joseph Hudak TV Guide 10/27/2006

Best known for benign turns on Full House and America's Funniest Home Videos, Bob Saget shattered his wholesome image with extremely ribald appearances on HBO's Entourage and in the film The Aristocrats. The comic showed us a little bit of both personalities when he chatted about hosting NBC's 1 vs 100 (Fridays at 8 pm/ET), the latest game show from the Deal or No Deal folks.

TV Guide: Why 1 vs 100?

Bob Saget: It's the most amazing thing ever made. [Laughs] I've been saying no to game shows since the video show. But [the producers] said I was the only guy who could do this, because once we got the palette laid — that sounds like I'm having sex with an art student — there's no script.

TV Guide: So you could show off your quick wit?

Bob Saget: Or "quick-twitted," if I were in England. It kind of combines my stand-up with conventional old-school TV. I keep calling it a quiz show, because I'm hoping we'll have a scandal.

TV Guide: Any game-show hosts you looked to for inspiration?

Bob Saget: I would say Groucho. I just loved You Bet Your Life. It was the perfect format for him. I started to like [the genre] again with Millionaire, because I could watch it with my kids.

TV Guide: Like you do with The Aristocrats?

Bob Saget: My oldest daughter, who's 19, did see that. She was like, "I'm walking into the theater," and I said, "Please don't do this," but it was too late. My mother wanted to see it, and I said, "No, you don't." It would finish her. But all my kids know me, they know that it's just words and that Dad is just like a 9-year-old hyper boy. I'm the guy that [comes over] your house, gets the kids all hyped up and then leaves when they have to go to bed. I'm Uncle Bob.

TV Guide: Does Full House still haunt you?

Bob Saget: I don't think it "haunts." I was talking to [John] Stamos the other day, and we were saying the "stigma" of Full House is only to be used in our favor now. It's, like, cool that we were all on it — even though he had a mullet and I had a bouffant. People wonder if my character was gay, and I say, "I don't think so...." Although Jesse looked good.

TV Guide: Did you ever think America's Funniest Home Videos would have lasted this long?

Bob Saget: I did, actually. I thought it'd last forever, because it's Candid Camera. The people supply the material. And Tom is the perfect host for it, because he doesn't get in the way of the videos. I would try to score comedically, and that doesn't always serve you. There are only four ways to narrate somebody getting hit in the nuts.

[B]TV Guide: You're directing a parody of March of the Penguins, aren't you?

Bob Saget: Yes, The Farce of the Penguins. It comes out in January. It's R-rated, man. It's a stoner movie. Samuel L. Jackson narrates.

TV Guide: And you also supply the narration for How I Met Your Mother.

Bob Saget: Yeah! I really like that show. It fills a sitcom void, because I'm obsessed with relationships and how they weave in and out. I think the mother should [turn out to] be some really sleazy bar woman, some whore. Or, maybe I [Ted] go through a sex change, [and] I am their mother. [Laughs]

http://www.tvguide.com/News-Views/Interviews-Features/Article/default.aspx?posting={8C03A7AE-C4BA-4FB4-9356-F034C1764D7F}

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TV Notebook
Networks now are entering the dark days. Feel the fear.
By Tim Goodman San Francisco Chronicle October 27, 2006

An interesting thing happens to network programmers from May to September. That's the period when they announce their new shows and schedules in New York (May) and roll them out to viewers at home (September). They live the dream -- not unlike the dream lived by professional sports coaches in the off-season.

This could be it. This could be our year. We could win this thing.

Unfortunately, by the end of September it's gone to hell, mostly. The September swoon then meshes with the October doom and pretty soon nobody is sleeping at night and it's all Xanax and sad cocktails.

That's when it gets really interesting. Like right now. Let the tinkering begin.

Remember, television is a fear-based industry. It's a deadly numbers game. Each hour of each night in prime time tells a story of death or glory. Five networks, with shows in each slot, competing directly with one another (and indirectly with cable and the Internet).

Who won the hour? By how much? Did we win in total viewers? What about the target demo (18-34)? Are those numbers up or down over last week? What about the same period last year? What percentage of the audience did Show B hold from Show A? If it's an hour drama, did viewers tune out at the half hour (oh, please, TV gods, no!). If the show has been losing viewers (usually in the millions) from week to week, when will it level off? Will I be fired tomorrow? Have I been fired already and just haven't been told?

With the pressure on (the whimsy of your viewing habits is destroying the inner organs of executives in Los Angeles and New York, just FYI), it's no wonder that people in television feel the need to tinker. Or, in the case of NBC, slash and burn. Less than a week after announcing job cuts, consolidations and the widely ridiculed idea of putting only reality and game shows in the 8 to 9 p.m. hour, NBC announced that it was creating a two-hour comedy block on Thursdays (yes, keeping "My Name Is Earl" and "The Office" in the 8 to 9 p.m. hour). The network will bring "Scrubs" back Nov. 30 and shift "30 Rock" from Wednesdays to Thursdays.

As for "Twenty Good Years," there was no announcement. There never is for the dead.

ABC tinkered as well. Last Friday it brought back "Extreme Makeover" -- not the feel-good "Home Edition" but the sleazy plastic-surgery original -- and just as quickly announced that it won't run again.

What kind of craziness is that? It's fear. So "Grey's Anatomy" reruns will air Fridays at 8 p.m. instead. Better to rerun a hit than flop with a dud. But what does this kind of jockeying tell viewers?

That it's almost November.

In November, a network believes that it needs to right the ship, that adjustments can't wait. November is a sweeps month. It's a moneymaking month. Things need to work.

And yet, for viewers, the tinkering creates confusion and confusion creates churn. Networks don't want churn. They want you in a predictable pattern. So how come things are so dysfunctional?

Because nobody in television truly, absolutely, knows what he's doing. Some of the time, yes. Most of the time -- guessing.

It's almost comic. Viewers want consistency. They want to know a show is on a certain night at a certain time -- without fail, every week. But with five broadcast networks to pick from (don't mention cable or the Internet), and an average of about 30 new shows to choose from, not to mention returning series, viewers can be excused for being confused. It takes them weeks to sample, to settle in. But in the TV business, weeks of waiting cause executives to go temporarily insane. They start playing tricks, like moving shows to special nights and times.

For example, NBC's low-rated "Friday Night Lights," normally on Tuesdays at 8 p.m., will get a special airing on Monday night at 10 p.m., in place of NBC's other low-rated freshman drama, "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip." Why? Different night, different time, perhaps a different audience. So goes the thinking. NBC will then rerun "Friday Night Lights" in its Tuesday slot. For whatever that's worth.

The question is, will this garner new viewers for "Lights" or just freak out "Studio 60" viewers, who will see this as a snub of their tenuous show? Nobody knows.

There has already been so much tinkering that it plays like a comic opera, except it's more confusing without the supertitles, translated from television's programming native tongue: stupidity.

Take Fox. Because of baseball, the network aired much of its schedule in August, then pulled it off for the playoffs, then will stuff it back on the schedule after the World Series, hoping that people who watched those shows in the first place haven't forgotten them. A risk, sure. Except that now Fox has moved a couple of them around and put them on at different nights and times.

Yeah, that helps a lot. (In the interest of lessening the confusion, no effort will be made here to figure out the Fox puzzle.)

The CW, our nation's fifth and newest network -- and therefore one that ought to be doing all it can to make it simple to view the wares -- flip-flopped its Sunday and Monday night programming, plus canceled one of its two freshman series.

Even rock-solid CBS got into the act, moving the new sitcom "The Class" from 8 to 8:30 p.m. after a few weeks and outright canceling "Smith," its star-studded freshman drama, after a mere two episodes.

ABC has moved "Men in Trees" around so many nights, you have to wonder if Friday really is its permanent home.

Now, assuming you've figured out all of those moves (which doesn't even cover some of the double-super-secret Fox shenanigans and cancellations), the networks are hoping that your family's erasable whiteboard can handle a few more X's and O's.

For example, before NBC goes to its two-hour comedy block on Nov. 30 with "Scrubs" and "30 Rock," it wants to inform you that "30 Rock" will move there two weeks earlier, on Nov. 16, and will be "supersized" from 30 to 40 minutes, along with "Earl" and "The Office." Never mind that adding 10 minutes messes up everybody's DVR and VCR and annoys viewers.

On the off chance that you're still paying attention, you may ask yourself, "Why Nov. 16?" Oh, that's easy. The next Thursday is Thanksgiving. And you don't want to get into that.

This incessant tinkering and scrambling is setting up television's midseason, which used to start around January but is now so nebulous as to creep into November. Why? Because more shows are failing earlier. Why? See everything above.

"The O.C." returns to Fox on Thursday at 9 p.m. as a kind of checkered flag to start the midseason.

Look for "Medium" to come back to NBC on Nov. 15 -- but not in its normal time slot of 10 p.m., but as a two-hour special starting at 9 p.m. A week later it starts at 10. Got that? And guess what -- for those of you watching NBC's "The Biggest Loser" on Wednesdays, that series moves from 9 to 8 p.m. on Nov. 15. Why? Because NBC forgot to tell you that it was killing "Twenty Good Years," and you already know that "30 Rock" is jumping to Thursdays so, presto-change-o, there's a hole to fill from 8 to 9 p.m.

Come on, a child could figure this out.

CBS will unveil the Stanley Tucci medical drama, "3 Lbs.," on Nov. 14 at 10 p.m. This midseason series gets an early start because -- quiz time! -- that's right: "Smith" was canceled out of that slot.

You're doing great.

ABC will pull "Lost" off the schedule for 13 weeks and replace it with midseason series "Day Break" as of Nov. 15. The network also will unveil midseason comedy "Big Day" on Nov. 28 at 9 p.m.

As a gift to confused viewers, NBC announced that it will not pull "ER" off the schedule for midseason series "The Black Donnellys," but in so doing refused to say when "The Black Donnellys" will actually premiere.

NBC will, however, bring back previously held series "Las Vegas" -- tonight at 9, in case you were wondering.

If you have a headache after all that, maybe you can rest easier knowing that the executives frantically making these changes have had headaches since mid-September, when the season started, and the throbbing is not likely to abate until someone higher up in the corporation chops their heads off.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/10/27/D