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fredfa

11-30-06, 07:08 PM

Critic’s Notebook
`Scrubs' can't buy a break from neglectful NBC
By Charlie McCollum San Jose Mercury News Thu, Nov. 30, 2006

Over its five seasons on the air, ``Scrubs'' has been abused and misused more often than any other series on network television.

In its first year, the offbeat, sometimes surreal but consistently funny hospital comedy was yanked by NBC from its cushy spot behind ``Friends,'' the No. 1 sitcom on TV, because it didn't quite retain enough of the audience. Just about every year after that, it was moved around the network's schedule so often that keeping track of it bordered on a game of ``Where's Waldo?''

Even after winning the Emmy for best comedy, it wasn't in the network's fall lineup (but ``20 Good Years'' was; go figure). And when NBC finally brings ``Scrubs'' in off the bench tonight with a delightful opening episode (at 9, Chs. 8, 11), it will be thrown up against two of TV's most-watched series: ``Grey's Anatomy'' and ``CSI.''

All of which has been greeted with a sigh of resignation from ``Scrubs'' creator Bill Lawrence and Zach Braff, who stars as Dr. John (J.D.) Dorian.

``I'm a little past caring about when and where they put us on,'' says Lawrence, known as one of the more honest guys in the TV business. ``We're just happy to have jobs. There's maybe 10 live-action comedies left on television.''

Braff -- a relative unknown when the series began but now an actor with a burgeoning film career (``Garden State'') -- thinks ``people shouldn't have high expectations of what we're going to do against `Grey's Anatomy' and `CSI.' That would be preposterous.''

Which, Lawrence suggests, might be a blessing in disguise.

``The best thing about it: In TV, when you have high expectations, like `Studio 60' '' -- the highly touted new NBC series that has struggled in the ratings -- ``or when we went on behind `Friends,' it's almost impossible to meet those expectations,'' Lawrence says. ``When you have low expectations, it's easier to be a pleasant surprise to everybody.''

In addition, those lowered expectations have allowed those involved with the series to stay true to their comic instincts, instead of making a more generic show that might appeal to a broader audience.

``Starting last year, Bill set the tone, and we decided to stop making the show for anyone other than us and the fans,'' says Braff. ``That is very freeing.''

The one thing both men expect is that the show's smallish (around 6.5 million viewers last season) but devoted audience will stick with it even against the tough competition.

``No matter where they move us -- to Saturday morning before cartoons, to Sundays before the preachers -- we always have the same amount of people who watch us,'' says Braff. ``My feeling is that no matter where they put us, that same, loyal core audience will follow.''

As a plus, the show now is anchoring a terrific two-hour comedy block that also includes ``My Name Is Earl'' (8 p.m.), ``The Office'' (8:30 p.m.) and the new ``30 Rock'' (9:30 p.m.) -- something of a revival of NBC's once-dominant Thursday night lineup when ``Friends'' and ``Seinfeld'' topped the Nielsen ratings charts.

``It is a bad time for comedy. Executives and the powers-that-be in Hollywood are turning on it,'' says Lawrence. ``But when I was first starting, Thursday nights were NBC comedies. I'm psyched that they're doing it again and I'm glad to be a part of it.''

Remote controls

• While the return of ``Scrubs'' is getting the attention tonight, fans of ``The Office'' (8:30 p.m., NBC) will want to know that this evening's episode was written by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, creators of the British version of the series. It's an amusing half-hour in which Michael Scott (Steve Carell) discovers one of his new employees is an ex-con -- and tries to be supportive.

• ``Battlestar Galactica'' has a particularly strong episode Friday (9 p.m., Sci Fi) that revolves around something called the ``dance,'' in which anyone aboard ship can challenge anyone else to settle their differences with lively fisticuffs. After recent events, there are lots of differences to resolve, but the main event: Apollo (Jamie Bamber) against Starbuck (Katee Sackhoff).

• Look, let's be honest: ``The Librarian'' is a low-rent, tongue-in-cheek rip-off of the ``Indiana Jones'' movies. But the first one -- starring Noah Wyle (``ER'') as the smart but rather inept adventurer Flynn Carson -- was a big hit for TNT last year. So it was all but inevitable that a sequel would turn up -- which it does, Sunday at 8 p.m. ``The Librarian: The Return to King Solomon's Mines'' isn't great, but the cast (which includes Gabrielle Anwar and Bob Newhart in addition to Wyle) has a lot of fun with the cliches of the genre, and the production budget must have been boosted because the film was made entirely on location in Kenya and South Africa. If you're looking for some decent entertainment that won't put too much strain on your brain cells, this is it.

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/entertainment/television/16129727.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp

fredfa

11-30-06, 07:14 PM

Critic’s Notebook
`Scrubs' can't buy a break from neglectful NBC
By Alan Sepinwall of the Newark Star-Ledger in his TV blog “What’s Alan Watching”

Well, turns out NBC didn't show the "Friday Night Lights" homecoming episode out of order, as Tuesday's show clearly took place after the previous one. This wasn't one of my favorite episodes, but even when the show isn't clicking, I can always count on the family dynamics at the Taylor household to keep me engaged. (Taylor had one line about how, contrary to opinion, he does understand women, that I really wish I had written down so I could cite it exactly. The phrasing was very nice.) I would care more about the poor, doomed Riggins brothers and the Street/Lyla/Riggins triangle if the actors playing Riggins and Lyla didn't feel better-suited to "One Tree Hill," and as fair as they've tried to play Street's recovery, him participating in a Murderball scrimmage four or five weeks after he was paralyzed? Huh? I get that it's TV, and that this was around the point where the producers saw the writing on the wall and started cramming as many ideas in as they could before cancellation, but would it have killed them to wait at least until the Panthers season ended?

(On the plus side, NBC is moving the show to Wednesdays at 8 in January, which gets it out of the way of "American Idol" and gives me a Wednesday night show I actually want to watch. Last night's schedule was so barren on every channel that I toggled between "Mythbusters" and the "Clerks II" DVD. But we already talked about Pillowpants and the Listerfiend back in July.)

I'm starting to think I'm not cut out to be a "Grey's Anatomy" viewer much longer. The turducken-sized Thanksgiving episode had the show firing on all cylinders in a way it hasn't since that time Coach Taylor blew up real good after the Super Bowl, and yet it still bugged the hell out of me. Again, we're in the Denny Duquette area where characters are doing indefensible things that both their friends and the audience are supposed to forgive them for in the name of friendship, characterization, whatever, and I just can't do it. When Meredith shut McDreamy down on the subject of whether she should have ratted out Burke and Cristina, it was close to brick-throwing time again. (Ditto Izzie expecting an apology from George when he had exactly zilch to apologize for, given the history and the current circumstances.) The show is still the show; I'm just at or near my limit for what I'll swallow to get to the good stuff.

Speaking of treasure being surrounded by trash, Paris and Doyle's hip-hop dancing was about the only thing keeping me conscious for most of the latest "Gilmore Girls." I like Michael DeLuise when he has a good script and/or director (notably as Sipowicz Jr.), but take either or both of those away and he's always a half-step away from offensive overacting; my head hurt so much listening to him that I barely even noticed the rest of the Luke subplot, and I've lost whatever interest I may have had in the drawn-out process of Lorelai realizing the mistake she made in marrying Christopher.

If I've been sparse in commenting on "Dexter," it's because the show is so consistent both in what it does and how well it does it, and there are only so many different ways I can compliment Michael C. Hall for acting like a man who's always acting or admire the artful framing of the murder scenes. Things have gotten veddy interesting, however, now that the Ice Truck Killer's identity is known to us, and Sunday's serial killer couples weekend to Dexter's ancestral home was a creepy change of pace. I haven't read the book, but knowing that there are sequels (and that the TV show is going to continue), I have a sense of where things are going. But I look forward to hearing at the end of the season how much the show borrowed from the novel and how much had to be invented for series TV purposes.

Back to watching Oded Fehr get kicked in the nuts a lot. To paraphrase a very wise man, "Sleeper Cell" season one had heart, but "Sleeper Cell" season two has knees to the groin.

http://sepinwall.blogspot.com/2006/11/what-alan-was-watching-while-ago.html

TommyK

11-30-06, 07:39 PM

Heroes
House
Bones
The Unit
Jericho
CSI

...and the guilty pleasures...
Standoff
New Adventures Of Old Christine

AAF

11-30-06, 07:42 PM

1. Heroes (what a great new show!)
1-1.....24!!! When it gets back on the sched.
2. Lost
3. The Unit
4. House
5. Jericho
..........................
Missing the cut

6. CSI
7. NCIS
8. Studio 60 (but I keep asking why)

Guilty pleasure: ER, Men in Trees, Smallville

If it included cable: Battlestar Galactica (would be #1 or #2 overall)

fredfa

11-30-06, 07:43 PM

I'll have a cable poll in the future, AAF. Thanks for your vote.

AAF

11-30-06, 07:49 PM

How about a "worst of network" tv shows? :) Or shows you hate yourself for watching?

DoubleDAZ

11-30-06, 07:56 PM

Somebody mentioned earlier that 'Medium' has its own fan base and doesn't need a lead-in while 'Studio 60' needs the strong 'Heroes' lead-in......That might have been me, but I was just rationalizing why NBC might be scheduling things that way. You bring up some very good points and I could go along with that kind of schedule. I DVR everything on 2 DVRs anyway, so the schedule doesn't matter much to me that way.

fredfa

11-30-06, 08:01 PM

Critic’s Notebook
“Monk” Returns In January
USA NETWORK ANNOUNCES ALL-STAR GUEST SLATE FOR HIT SERIES "MONK" SEASON FIVE RETURN IN JANUARY

(USA Network News Release)

Guest stars include Steven Weber, Ricardo Chavira, Andy Richter, Sean Astin and more

New York, NY November 30, 2006 MONK, USA's critically-acclaimed original series starring Emmy, Golden Globe and SAG award winner Tony Shalhoub, returns in its fifth season with all-new episodes and a roster of top-tier guest stars on Friday, January 19, 2007 at 9pm/8 Central. The show remains one of the highest-rated original scripted series in basic cable history.

Guest stars for mid-fifth season return include Steven Weber ("Wings," "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip"), Ricardo Chavira ("Desperate Housewives", "Six Feet Under"), Sean Astin ("Lord of the Rings," "24"), Charles Durning ("Rescue Me," "Everybody Loves Raymond"), Dan Butler ("Frasier," "American Dreams"), Holland Taylor ("Two and a Half Men," "The Practice"), Michael Cavanaugh ("24"), David Eigenberg ("Sex and the City," "Third Watch"), Andy Richter ("Late Night with Conan O'Brien," "Andy Richter Controls the Universe"), Heather Tom ("One Life to Live," "The Young and the Restless"), James Gammon ("Nash Bridges," "Cold Mountain"), Chris Williams ("Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story," "Curb Your Enthusiasm"), Brooke Adams ("Lace," "Moonlighting") & Emmy Clarke ("My House in Umbria," "Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus") as Julie Teeger.

As season five continues, Monk suspects a radio shock jock (Weber) killed his wife but the DJ has an alibi he was on the air at the time of the murder; the mysterious "Six Way Killer" strikes in San Francisco, and Monk's detective skills are pitted against the flashy forensic technology of a federal agent (Williams) as they both pursue the murderer; a fun-loving everyman named Hal (Richter) befriends Monk and for the first time in his life, Monk appears to have a buddy... but is Hal up to something? (also guest starring Eigenberg); When wealthy neighbor's of Natalie's parents (Taylor and Cavanaugh) mysteriously die, Natalie suspects foul play, so Monk goes undercover as a butler for the deceased's son (Astin) in order to investigate; Monk goes to the emergency room for a bloody nose, but when a doctor in the hospital turns up dead, Monk joins the investigation and soon finds his own life is in danger (guest starring Durning and Butler); and when Lt. Disher inherits a farm from an uncle who committed suicide, he comes to suspect that it was murder, so Monk joins him on the farm to investigate (guest starring Chavira, Adams and Gammon).

Tony Shalhoub ("Big Night," "Wings," "Men in Black," "Cars") has earned three Emmy Awards, a Golden Globe Award and two SAG Awards for Best Actor in a Comedy Series for his portrayal of Adrian Monk, a brilliant detective who suffers from obsessive-compulsive disorder. Monk's psychological disorder cost him his position as a legendary homicide detective on the San Francisco Police Force. Due to the tragic unsolved murder of his wife, Monk has developed an abnormal fear of germs, heights, crowds and virtually everything else, which provides an unusual challenge to solving crimes not to mention his day-to-day existence.

Traylor Howard ("Two Guys and a Girl," "Me, Myself and Irene"), Ted Levine ("Heat," "Moby Dick") and Jason Gray-Stanford ("Taken," "A Beautiful Mind") also star.

hansol89

11-30-06, 08:02 PM

Critic’s Notebook
`Scrubs' can't buy a break from neglectful NBC
By Charlie McCollum San Jose Mercury News Thu, Nov. 30, 2006

Even after winning the Emmy for best comedy, it wasn't in the network's fall lineup (but ``20 Good Years'' was; go figure). And when NBC finally brings ``Scrubs'' in off the bench tonight with a delightful opening episode (at 9, Chs. 8, 11), it will be thrown up against two of TV's most-watched series: ``Grey's Anatomy'' and ``CSI.''

Correct me if i'm wrong but "The Office" won for best comedy, Scrubs was merely nominated

DoubleDAZ

11-30-06, 08:39 PM

So what's the concensus on Daybreak? Is everyone as tired of seeing 6:18 on the clock-radio as I am, but still can't quite quit tuning in to see it happen all over again next week? :)

fredfa

11-30-06, 08:57 PM

Correct me if i'm wrong but "The Office" won for best comedy, Scrubs was merely nominated

Good catch, hansol89. Charlie isn't usually that careless.

And welcome to the thread.

fredfa

11-30-06, 10:00 PM

The Business of TV
Mediacom, Sinclair Extend Deadline
By Jon Lafayette Television Week Nov. 30, 2006

Mediacom Communications and Sinclair Broadcast Group agreed to an extension of their retransmission consent agreements just hours before Sinclair's stations could have been removed from Mediacom cable systems.

The extension keeps the stations on cable until Jan. 5, 2007. This will allow negotiations to continue in order for both parties to reach a longer-term agreement, Mediacom said in a statement.

The retransmission consent fight has been ugly, with Sinclair urging Mediacom subscribers to switch to satellite and Mediacom taking Sinclair to court.

About 800,000 Mediacom subscribers live in markets where Sinclair owns stations.

http://www.tvweek.com/news.cms?newsId=11155

FSugino

11-30-06, 10:06 PM

Saw this on TVWeek.com...

November 30, 2006

'South Park' Conducting HD Tests
Comedy Central Animated Hit Experimenting With Format

Comedy Central's animated hit "South Park" is producing some episodes in high definition, a network spokesman confirmed.

At the request of the channel, Los Angeles-based South Park Studios recently produced two episodes of the series in the HD format.

The big question is: Why?

Comedy Central doesn't have an HD channel, and it's tough to imagine a show that would benefit less from an HD makeover than a half-hour animated starring cardboard cutouts.

"We asked them to do it to see if it can happen, what would it look like in HD," Comedy Central spokesman Steve Albani said. "If successful, there's some ideas our business development guys have about how to use it, but it's not something we're willing to discuss at this point."

Let's run down the possibilities: Is Comedy Central launching an HD channel?

"Oh no-no-no, nothing like that," Mr. Albani said.

A "South Park" release on HD-DVD or Blu-ray? Downloaded HD episodes online? A Comcast HD VOD offering?

"I really can't say," Mr. Albani said.

This much is known: The "South Park" experiment did not go smoothly.

The HD effort crashed the South Park Studios hard drives and the studio called in a computer recovery service called DriveSavers to recover two months' worth of work. All the data was salvaged. Comedy Central said it has yet to see the finished product.

shawn12341234

11-30-06, 10:19 PM

Saw this on TVWeek.com...
'South Park' Conducting HD Tests
...

But, South Park is on Xbox Live and it could be distributed in HD that way.

fredfa

11-30-06, 11:09 PM

Good point, shawn. (And good post FS)

fredfa

11-30-06, 11:12 PM

TV Notebook
Everybody `wins' in TV's sweeps
Parse the data just so and all the `We're No.1!' signs come out -- even before the final stats are in
By Martin Miller Los Angeles Times Staff Writer December 1, 2006

The sweeps numbers are in — let the spinning begin.

Days before the quarterly ratings battle officially even ended, both ABC and CBS issued news releases celebrating their triumphs. ABC touted its first-place finish in the highly desirable 18-to-49 age demographic, while CBS trumpeted its top-ranked 13.04 million overall viewers for the ratings period.

For ABC, the sweeps marked the first time in seven years it captured the coveted demographic during the November ratings period, which will help determine television advertising rates in medium and small markets across the country. Companies traditionally spend the bulk of their television advertising budgets courting the coveted block of potentially high-spending consumers.

ABC's winning numbers, however, still represented a roughly 7% drop in the same demographic compared with last year's November sweeps — not terribly surprising, say observers, because of the network's loss of "Monday Night Football."

Nevertheless, ABC could still boast two of the top-rated series within the demographic — its Thursday night medical drama "Grey's Anatomy" and its Sunday night comic soap "Desperate Housewives." Further, the network scored two of the highest-rated individual shows during sweeps with the final installments of "Dancing With the Stars." The penultimate episode drew 26.8 million total viewers, and the finale attracted 27.5 million.

"We're obviously very pleased," said Stephen McPherson, ABC entertainment president. "We took some big risks, especially by moving 'Grey's' from Sunday to Thursday, and they paid off."

But CBS also claimed victory — its sixth consecutive November sweeps in total viewers. The network could thank its ratings juggernaut "CSI," which stood as the month's top scripted series with an average of 22.19 million viewers, just nipping "Desperate Housewives" at 22.18 million, and "Grey's Anatomy" at 21.29 million. However, CBS ended up with a 3.8 rating in the 18-to-49 demographic, which meant from its perspective a disappointing tie with a surging NBC.

As is becoming more common among all the networks during sweeps, CBS achieved its total viewer numbers without airing outlandish stunts or over-hyped specials, which not long ago used to typify the ratings period. CBS aired about 97% of its regularly scheduled series during November — the most by any network in a sweep in more than a decade, said CBS officials.

"We're real happy," said Kelly Kahl, CBS scheduling chief. "It's a validation of our very strong, solid schedule. A lot of times stunts are born out of desperation to fill holes or trying to cover up a weak time period."

Though still important, sweeps aren't as crucial as they once were, especially in the 10 major television markets where recent technology enables networks to track daily viewership habits. However, outside those major cities, which include New York, Los Angeles and Chicago, viewers still keep diaries, and those results figure into ad rates in those smaller markets.

The diminished importance of sweeps has influenced how the networks schedule for the quarterly ratings periods. Now there tends to be a greater emphasis on original programming and midseason "finales," avoiding repeats, and eschewing stunt programming, according to Sam Armando, director of broadcast research for the media buying firm Starcom USA.

"November sweeps is really the time the networks put their best foot forward and try to deliver on the strategies they promised the advertisers," said Armando. "Years ago you'd get the old bait-and-switch — they'd promise the world's greatest scripted drama in May, then you'd get the world's wackiest dog tricks in November."

ABC and CBS weren't the only networks that found sweep results to champion. NBC, which has boosted its numbers with this year's addition of pro football on Sunday nights, highlighted its 15% increase in the 18-to-49 demographic compared with last year's November sweeps. Its last-minute tie with CBS in the category certainly was good news for NBC.

"It's part of our rebuilding story; all the problems aren't solved by any means," said Mitch Metcalf, NBC's head of programming. "But we're moving in the right direction."

Even the CW — the network formed from the old WB and UPN — banged the drum for its strongest November sweeps performers such as "Veronica Mars" and "Gilmore Girls," which both do well with the network's target audience of female viewers in the 18-to-34 demographic.

"In most markets, we had an awful lot of people to move to find our shows," said Kahl, who in addition to his CBS programming duties holds a similar position with the CW. "Still, week by week, we're getting more people to the CW."

Fox, stinging over its public humiliation caused by its canceled O.J. Simpson "If I Did It" interview, seemed relieved the month was over. Simpson notwithstanding, the network has — as it has for the last couple of years — had another rough quarter. It ranked well behind the big three networks in overall viewers and in the 18-to-49 demographic.

But a new year is coming for Fox, and so are its smash hits "American Idol" and "24."

"We're in the same competitive situation we've found ourselves in the past two years. We're not happy about it, we're trying not to be, but that seems to be our lot," said Preston Beckman, Fox's scheduling chief. "But in spite of all the doom-and-gloomers, we're now entering the time of year where our ratings go up and our competitors' go down. We expect to be very competitive."

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-et-sweeps1dec01,0,3323249,print.story?coll=la-home-entertainment

fredfa

12-01-06, 12:57 AM

TV Notebook

If you are a regular reader of the thread, you know that I post Media Week Ratings maven Marc Berman’s overnight ratings notes at the top of this thread late each morning. And in recent weeks, Marc has -- thankfully -- taken to filing his numbers even on weekends.

But if that isn’t enough for you, if you are interested in far more raw numbers and trends, reader (and frequent contributor) RussTC3 files reams of ratings news later (often MUCH later) in the day.

You can find his invaluable and in depth ratings numbers crunching here:

http://wordpress.com/tag/broadcast-tv-ratings/

And if you care about how your favorite shows are doing you should make sure the check in daily to see what Russ comes up with.

fredfa

12-01-06, 01:26 AM

TV Sports
NFL schedule flexibility a real stretch for Sunday nights
By Michael mcCarthy USA Today

Dress it up however you like, Mike, the NFL erred by bestowing its preferred prime-time package, with flexible scheduling, to NBC's Sunday Night Football rather than ESPN's Monday Night Football. Football fatigue is real.

The symptoms: viewer apathy during the third NFL game telecast of the day. If you don't believe me, maybe you should look at the anemic TV ratings for some of NBC's weaker games.

On any given Sunday, hard-core fans watch various pregame shows and two full games for 9-10 hours before Sunday's night's game even kicks off. The NFL audience actually peaks during the late afternoon game of national doubleheaders. Sunday's Bears-Patriots game on Fox notched a 15.4 rating, the highest this season.

The Colts-Cowboys late game on Nov. 19, which CBS protected, is No. 2 with a 14.7. Both telecasts out-rated NBC's respective prime-time contests by more than 50%.

Mike, I know Sunday is the most-watched night on TV, and that it's the easier day logistically to pull off flexible scheduling. But unless it's a good game, only the diehards hang in there (as well as fantasy players/gamblers). Monday enables everybody to take a breather and come back ready for some football. What about fans with tickets to Sunday games? Most would rather attend a day than a night game before their work week.

Over 36 seasons on ABC, the NFL owned a night of programming like no other sport. ABC begged for flexible scheduling for years. Imagine if Paul Tagliabue had dangled it as part of the MNF package last year. ESPN, NBC and Fox would have salivated. There's been some good games on ESPN this season, like Giants vs. Cowboys. But we might be spared the two stinkers involving the Raiders or this week's underwhelming Eagles vs. Panthers.

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/columnist/mccarthy/2006-11-30-mccarthy-counterpoint_x.htm

fredfa

12-01-06, 01:37 AM

And counterpoint:

TV Sports
Sunday night NFL changes accomplishing their goal
By Michael Hiestand USA Today

Mikey, is somebody pouty because NBC's Sunday games go way past their bedtime?

The point is the NFL's TV changes so far are doing what they're supposed to do — increase total consumption of the league's made-for-TV mauling.

ESPN's Monday games are up 39% from its Sunday games last year. Game ratings on CBS and Fox are both up 8%. NBC is running even with last year's ABC Monday Night Football even though only one game so far — Washington-Tampa Bay — was moved through flexible scheduling. And that replacement game drew NBC's second-lowest rating.

The big picture is the NFL kept Monday night as a big deal. ESPN, not broadcast networks, can prop up those games with six-hour lead-ins. And the NFL has let NBC have longer pregame shows and earlier kickoffs than MNF had, making the league a bigger deal on TV's most-watched night.

The problem, at least until it gets fixed, is that the prime-time national games aren't rigged. NBC had Philadelphia-Indianapolis on Sunday, which looked great when the schedule came out but was a blowout getting a listless rating. Who knew ESPN's Atlanta-New Orleans and Chicago-Arizona games, clunkers on paper, would be thrillers drawing two of ESPN's three best ratings?

Debating Monday vs. Sunday NFL is so 20th century. The bigger deal is how many NFL games will move from Sunday afternoons — which produce the biggest NFL ratings — to air other days on the NFL Network as the channel is built into a year-round high dive for hype.

And given that all college football games might someday air on TV, those susceptible to football fatigue might start feeling it way before Sunday night. And, Mike, we promise not to wake you.

Webcasting could be on tap for NFL

When the NFL's current TV deals end in a few years, the league just might decide to show some TV game broadcasts on the Internet — or even carry games only online.

The NFL's Brian McCarthy says "perhaps" that will happen, which is one reason the league will next week start letting U.S. viewers watch game webcasts for the first time — as a test of consumer appetite for online game action.

Only the NFL's Network's remaining six games this season — on Thursday and Saturday primetime — will be webcast. But they won't be widely available. They'll be accessible only to subscribers who get their cable TV and Internet system, or their DirecTV satellite TV, through Verizon — a consumer base of less than 500,000.

Online, users will get extras that go beyond the network's TV coverage, such as receiving game stats not carried on TV and getting to choose their own camera angles.

The league this season began offering game webcasts outside North America, where they won't conflict with any of the league's fat U.S. TV contracts. But if enough people seem willing to log on to NFL games, future TV deals — packaged with game online rights — might get even fatter.

Newcomers to man BCS show

Selection shows are made-for-TV events that usually feature networks' old hands.

But Sunday, Fox's first-ever Bowl Championship Series show — airing on Fox because the network picked up four of five BCS games from ABC — will feature newcomers to the network.

Billed as the first BCS show carried in prime time (8 p.m. ET), Fox will trot out its mix-and-match on-air BCS lineup, which had to be created from scratch since Fox doesn't carry college football.

That lineup Sunday will include TBS analyst Charles Davis, who'll call the BCS title game with ex-Wisconsin coach Barry Alvarez.

Chris Rose will host the BCS game pregame shows after doing the voiceovers for Fox NFL highlights this season.

Fox will have reporters, including actor Ryan O'Neal's son Patrick, at four campuses — Ohio State, Southern California, Florida and Boise State — to interview coaches.

Now, all Fox needs is for UCLA to beat archrival USC on Saturday — the game will be shown on ABC — to create a little suspense about which team will play Ohio State for the BCS title.

NASCAR hands keys to Mohr at N.Y. banquet

Jay Mohr has an idea for NASCAR TV coverage: "There should be an announcer on the track — in the middle of the straightaways. He'd just get up and brush himself off."

Cue the laugh track. Mohr, a comedian and actor who played an annoying sports agent in Jerry Maguire, hosts Friday's season-ending NASCAR banquet in New York on Friday, which airs on TNT (9 p.m. ET) Friday as well as NBC (2 p.m. ET) Saturday.

Mohr says he's a big fan of NASCAR although he finds its points system "very strange." Asked if there's anything that really stands out to him when he's at a track — actor Will Ferrell said there are more tube tops at races than anyplace else in the USA — Mohr says he's struck by the loudness: "It's what it must be like at space shuttle launches — except it's 30 shuttles."

Mohr won't say what about NASCAR should be off-limits for humor, and won't preview his jokes. But it seems obvious "lug nuts" needs to go in punch lines.

He'd like to get back to sports comedy, which he tried in his short-lived ESPN show in 2002, with guests such as Alec Baldwin, Snoop Dogg and Kansas City Chief Tony Gonzalez. But this time, he says, he'd be different: "I wouldn't be defensive and argumentative with executives. I'd give them the illusion we were working together."

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/columnist/hiestand-tv/2006-11-30-hiestand-weekend_x.htm

TheRock

12-01-06, 04:45 AM

Damn. I wish Comedy Central would go HD. I watch that channel all the time. Sounds like they are just trying to cash in on HDDVD/BLU-RAY, Xbox360, and HD ondemand. They don't have much programing that would benefit greatly from HD but I would still like to see it happen. I would also love it if they had there "Secrete Stash" rules and standards active 24/7. It would also be cool to see "Not Another Teen Movie" in HD. They seem to have all the broadcast rights for that movie. I cant recall it ever airing on any of the premium movie channels.

harley1

12-01-06, 07:23 AM

NPS Aims To Fill DISH Net Breach

EchoStar's loss of 800,000-plus distant net customers could become the National Programming Service's (NPS) gain. As the court-ordered deadline loomed for the company's DISH Network to cut off all distant network signals, NPS's Mike Mountford struck a last-minute deal with the EchoStar CEO Charlie Ergen to provide service for the subs left out to dry.

Under the agreement, which is similar to deals that EchoStar has with other programming vendors, NPS would lease a transponder for $150,000 per month. In exchange, the company would be able to sell its distant signal programming to disenfranchised DISH customers that fit the so-called "white area" criteria.

The deal could prove a windfall for NPS which currently has 57,000 C-Band subscribers (an enormously successful C-Band service by today's standards). In order to receive the distant net signals, customers would have to sign up with NPS either through the company's website (http://www.mydistantnetworks.com/) or by phone (800.786.9677). Costs for the signals will range from $2.50/month for one signal to $9/month for all four signals.

Potential customers would need to meet qualification criteria for the service and NPS will handle all customer service operations. Once qualified, a DISH customer would receive the distant networks seamlessly through their DISH equipment.

Late Thursday both the broadcasters and DIRECTV had publicly objected to the NPS scheme, claiming it would violate the injunction against DISH providing distant network services. At press time, an emergency request was pending before Judge William Dimitrouleas, who issued the original injunction.

NAB, EchoStar Trade 'Distant' Jabs

Shortly after EchoStar had signed a deal with National Programming Service to sell distant network signals to DISH Network subscribers affected by today's court-ordered shutdown, the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) was calling foul on the deal it believes to be the company's attempt at circumventing the law.
Upon learning of the agreement, network affiliate groups involved in the litigation filed an immediate cease and desist order, asking for an emergency motion to halt EchoStar's "flagrant contempt of the permanent injunction entered by the court" over its distant signals.

According to court documents, NAB said "EchoStar is engaging in the transparent sham of arranging for a third party - National Programming Service and its CEO, Michael Mountford to do, with enormous technical and other assistance from EchoStar, precisely what the permanent injunction prohibits."

Said Dennis Wharton, NAB EVP of Media Relations, "We're hopeful the courts recognize this latest stunt for what it is: a serial copyright abuser's refusal to comply with numerous court verdicts and federal statutes that preserve the enduring value of local broadcasting."

In response to the NAB statement, EchoStar said is has "worked diligently to make sure consumers have a choice of distant network signals (and had) reached a $100 million settlement that was accepted and later rejected by the broadcasters, yet they continue to bully consumers and the courts."

The cease and desist order said under this deal, "EchoStar customers will to continue to be able to receive distant network signals, delivered by satellites owned by EchoStar, using satellite frequencies licensed by the FCC to EchoStar, and using satellite dishes provided by EchoStar."

Kathie Gonzalez, EchoStar's director of communications, told SkyREPORT that NPS is in no way a subsidiary of the company and is a completely separate entity. The spokeswoman also said that NPS will be handling all call-center functions, customer contacts, customer authorizations and billing services.

EchoStar said the company is "hopeful the courts will see through the Fox Network-led coalition of broadcasters, whose real intention is to deny consumers their freedom of choice and leave the Fox-owned DIRECTV as a monopoly for distant networks."

http://www.skyreport.com/

harley1

12-01-06, 07:32 AM

Motion seeks to block EchoStar
Broadcasters act in copyright case. They want to squelch a deal the satellite-TV firm has struck to provide distant-network signals.

By Kimberly S. Johnson
Denver Post Staff Writer
DenverPost.com

Local broadcasters are trying to block EchoStar Communications' last-ditch efforts to offer relief for 900,000 customers who have lost or will lose distant-network signals on the Dish Network.

The broadcasters have filed a motion to block a deal EchoStar recently struck with National Programming Services LLC, an Indianapolis-based provider of C-band or big-dish satellite services, to deliver local TV signals to its out-of-market customers.

Today is the deadline for EchoStar, a Douglas County-based satellite provider, to shut off distant-network signals to its customers, after a U.S. district court in October ordered the shutoff.

The ruling was the culmination of a seven-year court battle with affiliate ABC, NBC and CBS stations and 25 stations owned by Fox.

"EchoStar demonstrates again its arrogant and flagrant contempt for the rule of law," said Dennis Wharton, a a National Association of Broadcasters spokesman. "We're hopeful the courts recognize this latest stunt for what it is: a serial copyright abuser's refusal to comply with numerous court verdicts and federal statutes that preserve the enduring value of local broadcasting."

EchoStar general counsel David Moskowitz said Thursday that National Programming Services will lease a transponder, or a portion of a satellite, from EchoStar to provide distant-network stations. Customers must order the service directly from NPS and are billed separately.

"We asked the court to confirm that the arrangement with NPS is entirely appropriate," he said. "We're confident it's permitted by law."

NPS approached the nation's second-largest satellite-TV provider a few months ago, but EchoStar wasn't interested because it was focused on a $100 million settlement with broadcasters and lobbying for legislation that would save distant-network signals, Moskowitz said.

The court didn't approve the settlement, however, and Congress isn't immediately expected to consider two bills regarding distant networks. EchoStar said it will meet today's deadline to turn off all distant-network signals.

"Our other legal avenues are pretty much exhausted," said Moskowitz. "At this point, we are getting out of the distant-networks business."

He said EchoStar faced an uphill battle because News Corp., the owner of Fox, and EchoStar's larger competitor, DirecTV, are working to scuttle any congressional action.

EchoStar's distant-network service brought in about $3 million a month in revenue. The company's stock dropped 7 cents Thursday to $36.01.

http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_4751641

archiguy

12-01-06, 07:49 AM

So what's the concensus on Daybreak? Is everyone as tired of seeing 6:18 on the clock-radio as I am, but still can't quite quit tuning in to see it happen all over again next week? :)

At the rate that midiseries seems to be shedding viewers, you may soon be the last one left. :p Looks like it's a goner; glad I didn't get invested in this one like I did 'The Nine' and 'Kidnapped'.

DoubleDAZ

12-01-06, 09:08 AM

trbarry

12-01-06, 10:13 AM

Well, I'm not really invested in it, but I do record it and watch as time permits. I think the premise is different, but the endless repeats of most daily action gets comical. Still, it's one of those I wouldn't mind seeing the conclusion, but it could have concluded already. :)

Daybreak's not my favorite series but I still watch all of them. And since they can completely wrap it up in just a few weeks anyway I hope they finish showing the rest of them.

- Tom

fredfa

12-01-06, 10:51 AM

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

fredfa

12-01-06, 11:16 AM

Nielsen Notebook
November Sweeps Wrap With ABC, CBS on Top
By Marc Berman Media Week Dec. 1, 2006

ABC and CBS finished the November 2006 sweeps in winning fashion, while NBC was the only Big Three network on the year-to-year plus side. CBS was the most-watched network for the sixth consecutive November and No. 1 among adults 25-54 for the fourth straight November.

CBS’ victory was particularly impressive considering that 97 percent of its lineup was comprised of regularly scheduled programming -- the most by any network in a sweep period in at least 13 years. ABC finished first among adults 18-49 (without Monday Night Football in the mix), with its first outright November sweep victory in seven years. ABC was also No.1 among adults 18-34, with a 3.3 rating/10 share in the demo.

Despite winning November, both ABC and CBS posted losses from November 2005, with erosion for CBS more significant at 10 percent in total viewers and 14 percent among adults 18-49.

Led by Sunday Night Football and breakout hit Heroes, NBC was on the plus side, building from one year earlier by 10 percent in total viewers and 15 percent among adults 18-49. Comparatively, NBC also narrowed the gap, trailing ABC by only-three tenths of a rating point among adults 18-49 (versus a deficit of 1.1 rating points in November 2005). Excluding the Olympics, NBC’s rise in the demo was the network’s biggest increase in a major sweep month since May 1995.

American Idol-less Fox finished an uneventful fourth in November in total viewers and adults 18-49, with losses of 5 percent and 6 percent, respectively. Rounding off the list was the CW in its first sweeps period at levels close to the now defunct UPN and the WB in November 2005.

Here are the results:

Total Viewers:
CBS: 13.05 million (-10)
ABC: 11.60 (- 1)
NBC: 10.94 (+10)
Fox: 7.38 (- 5)
CW: 3.55 (- 1 from the WB, - 4 from UPN)

Adults 18-49:
ABC: 4.1 rating/11 share (- 7)
NBC: 3.8/10 (+15)
CBS: 3.8/10 (-14)
Fox: 3.0/ 8 (- 6)
CW: 1.5/ 4 (+ 7 from the WB, no change from UPN)

Source: Nielsen Media Research data

http://www.mediaweek.com/mw/news/recent_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003466912

fredfa

12-01-06, 12:43 PM

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

fredfa

12-01-06, 12:46 PM

Overnights in the 18-49 Demo
NBC gets a kick from its comedy block
Ratings are up for its new four-sitcom lineup
By Toni Fitzgerald MediaLifeMagazine.com staff writer December 1, 2006

It’s far from Must See TV, but NBC’s Thursday lineup showed renewed life last night with the return to its old four-sitcom, one-drama format that helped the network dominate Thursdays during the 1980s and ‘90s.

For the night, NBC finished No. 2 to ABC with an average 4.7 rating in adults 18-49, according to Nielsen overnights, seven percent above its season average of 4.4 on the night. It didn’t hurt that CBS, the night’s usual No. 2, was in reruns for much of the night, helping the season debut of “Scrubs” and second Thursday outing of “30 Rock” to solid numbers.

That combined with season-best numbers from “My Name is Earl” and “The Office,” along with a dominant performance from “ER” at 10 p.m., helped NBC to its best Thursday night since Nov. 2.

“Scrubs” and “Rock” replaced the Thursday edition of “Deal or No Deal” as part of the network’s midseason overhaul.

“Scrubs” averaged a 3.9 rating at 9 p.m., 22 percent above last season’s 3.2 average. At 9:30, “Rock” averaged a 3.0. Though it lost a considerable 23 percent from its lead-in, the show hit a series high and was up 25 percent over its 2.4 season-to-date average.

The 9 p.m. comedies were helped by two things, their lead-ins and CBS airing a “CSI” repeat in the slot. At 8:30 p.m., “Office” hit a season high, averaging a 4.6, 10 percent above its 4.2 average. It built on “Earl’s” season-best 4.3.

Meanwhile, “CSI” averaged a 5.0 in the 9 p.m. slot, down a third from its season-to-date average of 7.5.

“CSI’s” repeat also helped boost ABC’s “Grey’s Anatomy,” which posted its highest rating in several weeks at 9 p.m., a 9.6. But new lead-out “Men in Trees” lost more than half that audience, averaging a 4.0, equal to benched timeslot occupant “Six Degrees’” season average.

Still, ABC finished first for the night quite comfortably with a 5.9 average rating and a 15 share. NBC was second at 4.7/12, CBS third at 4.4/11, Fox fourth at 1.8/4, Univision fifth at 1.6/4, and CW sixth at 1.1/3.

CBS began the night in the lead among 18-49s with a 5.3 rating during the 8 p.m. hour for “Survivor.” NBC was second with a 4.5 average for “My Name is Earl” (4.3) and “The Office” (4.6), ABC third with a 4.1 for “Ugly Betty” and Fox and Univision tied for fourth at 2.0, Fox for an hour of “Til Death” and Univision for “La Fea Mas Bella.” That left the CW sixth with a 1.2 for a repeat of “Smallville.”

At 9 p.m., ABC jumped into the lead with a 9.6 for “Grey’s,” easily the night’s top-rated show among 18-49s. CBS was second with a 5.0 for a repeat of “CSI,” NBC third with a 3.5 average for “Scrubs” (3.9) and “Rock” (3.0), and Fox fourth with a 1.6 for “The O.C.” Univision came in fifth that hour with a 1.5 for “Mundo de Fieras” and CW sixth with a 1.0 for “Supernatural.”

The 10 p.m. hour was NBC’s turn to lead with a 6.0 for “ER.” ABC was second with a 4.0 for “Trees,” CBS third with a 2.8 for a repeat of “Shark” and Univision fourth with a 1.2 for “Aqui y Ahora.”

ABC also finished first for the night among households, with a 10.8 average rating and a 17 share. CBS was second at 8.6/13, NBC third at 6.5/10, Fox fourth at 2.7/4, Univision fifth at 2.0/3 and CW sixth at 1.8/3.

http://www.medialifemagazine.com/artman/publish/article_8876.asp

fredfa

12-01-06, 01:46 PM

The Business of TV
EchoStar Battle Rages On
By John Eggerton Broadcasting & Cable 12/1/2006

With Dec. 1 the court-ordered deadline for EchoStar to cut off distant TV network signals to 850,000 subs, the battle between broadcasters and the satellite company raged.

The National Association of Broadcasters saw EchoStar's contract for satellite capacity with National Programming Service, which delivers local station signals to its customers, as a way to circumvent the court's Oct. 20 injunction, calling it "flagrant contempt" for the permanent injunction.

NAB also pointed out that the U.S.Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit had denied EchoStar's motion to stay the injunction. A Florida court had earlier also turned down an appeal of the injunction.

“We're hopeful the courts recognize this latest stunt for what it is: a serial copyright abuser's refusal to comply with numerous court verdicts and federal statutes that preserve the enduring value of local broadcasting," said NAB spokesman Dennis Wharton.

EchoStar shot back in a statement: " “EchoStar has worked diligently to make sure consumers have a choice of distant network signals. We reached a $100 million settlement that was accepted and later rejected by the broadcasters, yet they continue to bully consumers and the courts.

"We are hopeful the courts will see through the Fox Network-led coalition of broadcasters, whose real intention is to deny consumers their freedom of choice and leave the Fox-owned DirecTV as a monopoly for distant networks.”

Fox's DirecTV is looking to woo the EchoStar subscribers who will suddenly not be able to get their local stations.

The injunction stemmed from the court's conclusion that EchoStar could not effectively distinguish between subs eligible to receive a distant network affiliate and those who could receive an acceptable local signal of that same network. EchoStar settled with almost all the stations, but that did not dissuade the court. It also sought help from Congress, and a bill was crafted that would have effectively blocked the injunction, but no action was taken before the Thanksgiving break, which isn’t over until next week.

http://www.broadcastingcable.com/index.asp?layout=articlePrint&articleID=CA6396392

fredfa

12-01-06, 01:52 PM

TV Notebook
CBS: We'll stay the course midseason
Plans few schedule changes come January
By Kevin Downey MediaLifeMagazine.com staff writer Dec 1, 2006

Despite a disappointing performance in the November sweeps, and a weak fall overall, CBS is not planning on changing its programming strategy heading into midseason.

CBS surprised some when it introduced only four new shows in the fall, choosing to rely on long-running series, even though some were clearly showing signs of fading.

Then in November sweeps, the network, in what may be a first, scheduled virtually no specials and stunt programs for the entire ratings period.

The two decisions have cost the network, leading to falling ratings as the new season began and to what became a freefall during sweeps.

CBS still tied NBC for No. 2 behind ABC among 18-49s for sweeps, but its rating was down 14 percent from last November, to a 3.8. CBS’s season-to-date rating in the demographic is down 5.4 percent, to a 3.9, based on live-plus-same-day ratings from Nielsen Media Research.

But consistent with CBS's conservative strategy, network executives say it will introduce few changes in January.

“What we’ve done is introduce more stability to the lineup by replacing the Sunday movie, for instance, with two series that are performing above the Sunday movie,” says Kelly Kahl, senior executive vice president of programming operations at CBS.

“We have some midseason shows we’ll be putting on after the New Year. But in terms of wholesale changes, we’re not going to mess with a pretty good formula.”

The strategy carries two potential downsides, and one is that some of its longstanding hits, like “CSI,” will find themselves up against hit shows on other networks in the midseason, leading to a sudden drop in ratings for that show and for the network overall.

But the other longer-term concern is that with only five new shows in the fall--two of which have already been canceled, including one introduced last month--CBS is at risk of finding itself with no rising hits to take the place of those older shows should they take an abrupt tumble.

CBS isn’t the only network with declining ratings. ABC and Fox were also down in the sweeps. But CBS slumped more than any other network.

“When you’re not putting on new, fresh programs that drive new interest, you just slowly start losing viewers,” says John Spiropoulos, vice president and group research director at MediaVest. “We expected that to happen in the fall and that’s proven to be true.”

Among CBS's new shows, only "Jericho" looks to be a keeper. “Smith” was canceled early on, and “Shark,” the James Woods vehicle, is relatively weak in “Without a Trace’s” old time slot. "The Class" is also struggling. And Wednesday the network dropped “3 Lbs.,” a show originally intended to premiere later in the season that was called into early duty to replace “Smith.”

“I was surprised they introduced so few shows,” says Shari Anne Brill, vice president and director of programming at Carat. “CBS had been talking about broadening out with more programming diversity, but they really didn’t do that.”

CBS has not been helped by some of its fall schedule switches, such as moving “Without Trace” from Thursday to Sunday night and a tougher timeslot.

“That may have affected viewers who aren’t finding shows in time periods where they always watched a show,” says Susan Hajny, broadcast research manager at GSD&M. “The little good appointment television that was out there got tossed around.”

CBS’s ratings woes came into clearer focus in November when it struggled against stunt programming on other networks.

Last November, CBS saw a boost in ratings from specials like the Country Music Awards, which aired on ABC this year, and miniseries like “Category 7: End of the World.”

CBS’s experiment with moving away from stunt programs will likely prove to be short-lived. In February, CBS will have big, sweeps-type shows with the Grammy Awards and the Super Bowl.

“There wasn’t really the need to do a lot of stunting this [November],” says CBS’s Kahl.

“In a lot of cases, we were trying to nurture new shows. Keeping ‘Jericho’ on for a week at a time when viewers are still looking for new shows to watch is more important to us than bumping up our sweeps performance a tenth of a point.”

http://www.medialifemagazine.com/artman/publish/article_8874.asp

keenan

12-01-06, 02:34 PM

The Business of TV
EchoStar Battle Rages On
By John Eggerton Broadcasting & Cable 12/1/2006

"We are hopeful the courts will see through the Fox Network-led coalition of broadcasters, whose real intention is to deny consumers their freedom of choice and leave the Fox-owned DirecTV as a monopoly for distant networks.”

Fox's DirecTV is looking to woo the EchoStar subscribers who will suddenly not be able to get their local stations.

In the first underlined case here I can see that it's just Echostar mixing coporate connections to fit their argument. But in the second case, that's just sloppy reporting, Eggerton knows better than that. He knows that Fox does not "own" DirecTV but by his sloppiness he's fueled the idea that it's Fox and DirecTV out to "get" Echostar.

fredfa

12-01-06, 02:53 PM

In fairness to Eggerton, Fox doesn't "own" DirecTV, but it NewsCorp certainly controls it.

Sloppy yes, but understandable. Better if he had said "NewsCorp's DirectV is looking to woo....."

And everyone (egged on by EchStar, of course) is focusing on the poor subs who will "lose" DNS service -- even though it was (according to the court) EchStar's "egregious" actions over almost a decade (in which it was essentially stealing DNS signals, illegally reselling them and pocketing hundreds of millions of dollars) that caused this mess in the first place.

archiguy

12-01-06, 03:09 PM

And everyone (egged on by EchStar, of course) is focusing on the poor subs who will "lose" DNS service -- even though it was (according to the court) EchStar's "egregious" actions over almost a decade (in which it was essentially stealing DNS signals, illegally reselling them and pocketing hundreds of millions of dollars) that caused this mess in the first place.

But doesn't DirecTV do the same thing?

keenan

12-01-06, 03:13 PM

In fairness to Eggerton, Fox doesn't "own" DirecTV, but it NewsCorp certainly controls it.

Sloppy yes, but understandable. Better if he had said "NewsCorp's DirectV is looking to woo....."

Yes, but given that Fox Broadcasting is the main detractor from the settlement that E* reached with the other broadcasters, and seems to be leading the charge to make sure E* doesn't carry those signals, to link Fox directly to DirecTV, a provider of DNS signals....

Maybe I'm too picky, and this isn't a big deal, but there's just too much sloppy reporting which can put in doubt the veracity of anything, anyone, reports anywhere. I could expect that remark from a sat customer ran website or something like that, but not from a guy that knows the facts.

keenan

12-01-06, 03:15 PM

But doesn't DirecTV do the same thing?
No, by all accounts DirecTV has handled and provided DNS signals according to the "book". It's Echostar that has pretty much given them to whoever wanted them and violated agreements with the networks.

fredfa

12-01-06, 03:32 PM

You are right to be concerned about total accuracy, Jim.

And archiguy, Dish has tried to pull DirecTV into this for more than eight years. But time after time safter time (since way before NewsCorp took control) it had been demonstrated that DirecTV obeyed the letter and spirit of the DNS regulations.

Dish, on the other hand, has always acted (at least according to the court) like a local convenience store which sells cigarettes or liquor to anyone of any age who is tall enough to hand the money over the counter.

There were hundreds of thousands of illegal DNS subs to Dish. And while the court's decision to force Dish to stop serving all DNS subs, legal or not, was obviously Draconian, it did show how seriously the court felt Dish had flaunted the law.

archiguy

12-01-06, 04:18 PM

No, by all accounts DirecTV has handled and provided DNS signals according to the "book". It's Echostar that has pretty much given them to whoever wanted them and violated agreements with the networks.

And archiguy, Dish has tried to pull DirecTV into this for more than eight years. But time after time safter time (since way before NewsCorp took control) it had been demonstrated that DirecTV obeyed the letter and spirit of the DNS regulations.

Okay, thanks guys, I didn't realize all that. When I had DISH a few years ago, I thought about trying to get a waiver for locals because I was having some stubborn multi-path issues with my antenna but didn't bother trying because I live fairly close to the towers. At least now I know I could have easily gotten it. :D

Fitzie

12-01-06, 04:31 PM

keenan

12-01-06, 04:45 PM

As an additional comment on the Fox Network led action to block Dish network providing distant services, whether currently legal or not, I am on the other side from "Fredfa." He's obviously a Murdoch-News Corp. - DirecTV sympathizer.

I'm not, probably because I'm one of those who lost service today as a result of Fox Network and the draconian judge's actions. I sincerely and devoutly hope Congress puts the draconion judge, and Fox network, in their proper places. If not, I hope all of DirecTV's birds fall out of the sky (but not landing on anyone, of course, except the judge in question).

As you can guess, this is a reflection of my opinion. If you don't like it, ignore it.

Best regards,
Fitzie
No, it's definitely not a good thing for those who are legally eligible to receive DNS signals, and I think the ruling should have allowed those subs to continue to get them. But you only have Echostar to thank for everyone losing them as they continually refused/ignored requests to handle DNS properly. This thing isn't over, and it may turn out that those who are legally eligible may in fact have then restored, but again, Echostar has only themselves to blame for this. If they didn't agree with the regulation they should have lobbied and got it changed, they probably did, but the law is still the law as it is, and Echostar ignored it.

fredfa

12-01-06, 04:49 PM

Fitzie I understand your frustration.

While I am a DirecTV customer, I wouldn't say I am a sympathizer. (But that is not my call to make, and you may be right.)

My point simply was that Dish totally brought this on itself.

If you read any of the reports about the trial -- which Dish was able to delay year after year -- you would be shocked at how the company simply ignored the law to make profit.

To say somehow that Fox is now responsible for the mess Dish is in is quite a stretch -- although it is one the folks from Englewood CO have been strenuously pushing.

But again, I totally understand your frustration. I will be moving in a few months and even if I move just a block away, I will lose my grandfathered DNS (only SD from NYC, but useful nonetheless.)

By the way, if you have lost DNS, have you looked into Canadian satellites? That is certainly a grey area (at best) but apparently will solve your HD DNS problems. It is a remedy I probably will have to explore next spring.

tdtobat

12-01-06, 04:52 PM

fredfa

12-01-06, 05:09 PM

TV Notebook
NBC: “30 Rock” On
FRESHMAN COMEDY RECEIVES FULL-SEASON PICKUP

(NBC News Release) Published: December 1, 2006

BURBANK, Calif. – December 1, 2006 - NBC's freshman comedy "30 Rock" (Thursdays, 9:30-10 p.m. ET) has been picked up for a full-season order for 2006-07, it was announced today by Kevin Reilly, President, NBC Entertainment.

"In '30 Rock,' Tina Fey and Lorne Michaels, along with stars Alec Baldwin and Tracy Morgan, have the goods with this excellent comedy," said Reilly. "We look forward to future episodes of this bright new show, which is right on-brand for our Thursday-night comedy block."

In its first regular telecast in the Thursday 9:30 p.m. (ET) half-hour on November 30, "30 Rock" averaged a 3.0 rating, 7 share in adults 18-49 and 6.6 million viewers overall, according to preliminary "fast affiliate-based" ratings from Nielsen Media Research. Pending updates, this is the highest-rated telecast of "30 Rock" to date in adults 18-49 -- with a 25 percent increase on the comedy's previous Thursday telecast (2.4/6 for a November 16 "super-sized" episode from 9:20-10:01 p.m. ET). With its four Wednesday telecasts earlier this Fall, "30 Rock" averaged a 2.4 rating, 7 share in adults 18-49, and 6.4 million viewers overall.

After airing its super-sized episode on November 16 (9:20-10 p.m. ET), the series moved to its regular time period on Thursdays (9:30-10 p.m. ET) beginning last night.

"30 Rock" is told through the comedic voice of the Emmy Award-winning Fey (NBC's "Saturday Night Live," "Mean Girls") and features Alec Baldwin ("The Departed," "The Cooler") as Jack Donaghy, the brash new network executive who has turned the show upside down with his meddling ways. Fey, as the single Lemon, is living every comedy writer's dream -- head writer on a demanding, live TV program in New York City.

Her life is jolted when Donaghy interferes with her show, and bullies Lemon into convincing Tracy Jordan (Tracy Morgan, "Saturday Night Live," "The Longest Yard"), a wild and unpredictable movie star, to join the cast. Now Lemon must manage the unmanageable so that the show -- and her dream -- can go on.

Also rounding out the cast in the half-hour comedy are: Jane Krakowski ("Ally McBeal") as Jenna Maroney, the star of "The Girlie Show"; Scott Adsit as Pete Hornberger, the variety show's producer; Jack McBrayer as Kenneth the Page, the over-eager NBC Page -- a highly sought-after, entry-level position with the network; and Judah Friedlander as Frank, the crass and wisecracking writer. Rachel Dratch, also from "Saturday Night Live," appears in multiple episodes, playing a variety of different characters on the series.

rebkell

12-01-06, 05:15 PM

Has Fox put any sort of information out about Vanished? A new episode was to be available for viewing today but wasn't. There are only two episodes left. What possible logic would be behind not showing the last shows?

Oh crap, I hadn't made it to the website, but I definitely planned on watching the final two episodes, I can't believe they're screwing this up, I don't know why they didn't just put up the rest of the shows anyway, why do we have to wait, it's been cancelled, so why not let us have 'em all at once.

fredfa

12-01-06, 05:28 PM

A Reminder

Now that the November sweep is over how about telling us all what your favorite five shows (new or old) are. As an added bonus, how about also letting us know about your favorite “guilty pleasure” program – the one you are most hesitant to let anyone outside of your home know you enjoy.

(For the moment, let’s stick to network programming. I’ll rerun the quiz for cable programs in a while.)

Here is how the results stand at the moment:

Leading Programs:
1--Heroes
2--House
3--Grey's Anatomy
4--Friday Night Lights
5--Lost
6--NCIS
7--Studio 60
8--The Office
9--Veronica Mars
10 (tie)--Men In Trees
10 (tie)--The Unit
12--Law & Order: SVU
13--Bones
14 (tie)--Desperate Housewives
14 (tie)--Jericho
16 (tie)--Law & Order
16 (tie)--Ugly Betty
18--CSI
19 (tie)--Criminal Minds
19 (tie)--Law & Order: CI

Leading Guilty Pleasures:
1--Desperate Housewives
2--Deal Or No Deal
3--Men In Trees
4--Grey's Anatomy

So please get your ballots in -- either here or in a PM to me if you are shy -- by the end of the weekend.

fredfa

12-01-06, 05:32 PM

The Business of TV
Dish Starts Cutting Signals
By Ted Hearn Multi Channel News 12/1/2006

EchoStar Communications said Friday that it would terminate the delivery of distant ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox signals to 900,000 customers by day's end.

But the broadcasters, angered by the direct-broadcast satellite service’s actions, have gone to court accusing EchoStar of crafting a business deal designed to circumvent the court-ordered shutoff.

"Everyone will be turned off today if they haven't been already. We are meeting the deadline," EchoStar director of corporate communications Kathie Gonzalez said Friday.

But two days earlier, EchoStar announced it would lease a satellite transponder to National Programming Service, an Indianapolis-based provider of satellite programming to eight- and 10-foot C-band dish owners for more than 20 years.

NPS said it would begin marketing a package that includes ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox signals to EchoStar customers.

NPS CEO Michael Mountford -- in separate letters to member of Congress and broadcast law offices -- announced his plan to use the satellite capacity to offer distant network signals to EchoStar customers who would be legally eligible to subscribe if they had not been covered by injunction.

"These subscribers will become our customers and be able to regain their network stations in a hassle-free manner," Mountford said in the undated letter to members of Congress.

NPS -- with call-center and back-office staff in place -- is ready to sign up customers immediately, said Chuck Hewitt, an NPS consultant and former president of the Satellite Broadcasting & Communications Association.

One day after the NPS deal was disclosed, TV stations aligned with the Big Four broadcast networks returned to the U.S. judge in Florida who issued the permanent injunction with the Dec. 1 effective date. The stations claimed that the EchoStar-NPS deal was "a transparent sham" to evade the injunction and "an act of contempt."

In a reply, EchoStar explained that NPS was an independent company that agreed in an arms'-length transaction to pay $150,000 per month for the opportunity to provide distant network signals to EchoStar subscribers who got cut off.

NPS' distant signal package, called All American Direct, would not require subscribers to buy any programming from EchoStar, and EchoStar customers would not be automatically converted to the NPS service, EchoStar said.

"It is not a handoff," Hewitt said, adding that NPS would compete in the free market with DirecTV to acquire EchoStar's former distant network subscribers.

Satellite subscribers may buy distant network signals -- programming that originates on stations in other markets, usually New York and Los Angeles -- if they can't use an antenna to receive local stations. The courts slapped EchoStar with an injunction after finding that the company cheated by selling signals to hundreds of thousands of illegal customers.

The central question before U.S. Judge William Dimitrouleas is whether the EchoStar-NPS deal is consistent with the terms of his injunction issued Oct. 20, which applies to "those persons in active concert or participation" with EchoStar.

"EchoStar's scheme with NPS is flatly barred by the permanent injunction," the broadcasters told the court.

EchoStar, in response, argued that the terms of the transponder-lease agreement gave NPS total control over the programming delivered and that NPS wasn't required to provide distant signals.

"A court cannot enjoin the world at large," EchoStar said. "NPS ... is not, and cannot be, bound by the permanent injunction."

http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6396540.html?display=Breaking+News

fredfa

12-01-06, 05:39 PM

TV Notebook
NBC picks up '30 Rock' for full season
By Nellie Andreeva The Hollywood Reporter

"30 Rock" has been picked up for a full season with a back-nine order, bringing the total for Tina Fey's critically praised single-camera comedy to 22 half-hours.

"In '30 Rock,' Tina Fey and Lorne Michaels, along with stars Alec Baldwin and Tracy Morgan, have the goods with this excellent comedy," said NBC Entertainment president Kevin Reilly. "We look forward to future episodes of this bright new show, which is right on-brand for our Thursday-night comedy block."

In its first regular telecast in the Thursday 9:30 p.m. time slot this week, "30 Rock" averaged 6.6 million viewers and a 3.0 rating/7 share among adults 18-49, hitting demo highs in the 18-49 demographic against a repeat of "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" and holding onto 77% of its "Scrubs" demo lead-in.

"30 Rock," which is set behind the scenes of a late-night sketch show, got off to a slow start in its original Wednesday 8 p.m. time period where it averaged 6.4 million viewers and a 2.4/7 in 18-49.

The series starring Fey, Baldwin, Morgan and Jane Krakowski made its Thursday debut with a "super-sized" 40-minute episode Nov. 16, drawing 2.4/6 in the demo.

The back-nine order came after two pickups of three scripts each over the past month.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/news/e3ife5b7104c659520787da6cca40100460

almostinsane

12-01-06, 05:43 PM

Favorites:

1. 24
2. CSI LV
3. Heroes
4. House
5. CSI Miami

Guilty Pleasure:

Veronica Mars

keenan

12-01-06, 05:44 PM

By the way, if you have lost DNS, have you looked into Canadian satellites? That is certainly a grey area (at best) but apparently will solve your HD DNS problems. It is a remedy I probably will have to explore next spring.
You can get ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX and PBS in HD from the Detroit area-east time zone and NBC, CBS and FOX from Seattle-west time zone-no ABC station being carried as of yet. With the rest of SC HD channels I think I pay around $50 a month. You'll need a broker to do it if you reside in the US.

fredfa

12-01-06, 05:46 PM

How is the HD quality, Jim? And how about the HD DVR?

rebkell

12-01-06, 06:01 PM

You can get ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX and PBS in HD from the Detroit area-east time zone and NBC, CBS and FOX from Seattle-west time zone-no ABC station being carried as of yet. With the rest of SC HD channels I think I pay around $50 a month. You'll need a broker to do it if you reside in the US.

Broker? I have no chance of HD here via satellite or OTA, can get limited from cable, but would dearly love to get HD networks via sat.

fredfa

12-01-06, 07:28 PM

TV Q&A
Ask Matt
(from the Ask Matt column at TVGuide.com
By Matt Roush TVGuide.com TV Critic

Question: I just read the bad news that The Nine has been pulled from ABC's schedule. I was really into this show, so this is very disappointing! I felt like it was a bit much, pairing it with Lost on Wednesdays (especially the subpar, confusing episodes this fall), and I wish that ABC would have given it a chance after Grey's Anatomy on Thursday. I thought The Nine had an interesting premise plus great characters and actors, and every week made me want to come back. So what happened? Do you think there's a chance ABC could bring it back, especially if Men in Trees bombs after Grey's? At least I got to find out what happened between Jeremy and Lizzie before ABC broke my heart!— Lindsey

Matt Roush: I'm being serious when I say that I doubt anyone is more disappointed by the failure of The Nine than ABC itself. I moderated an industry panel recently in which an ABC exec expressed sincere frustration over the show's declining numbers, including the fact that the ratings often went down within an episode, which is never a good sign. I'm bummed, too. This was my pick as the best of the drama pilots. But as time went on, I began to realize that the show, much as I was intrigued by it, simply wasn't working. The last episode that aired, which involved Jeremy and Lizzie's backstory, illustrated the problems — especially in Jeremy's monologue about what happened in the bank that drove them apart. While it was well acted by Scott Wolf, I found it awfully anticlimactic not to show his moment of cowardly self-preservation. For the most part, the segments in the bank were so much more powerful than the present-day aftermath stories, which created an unsatisfying imbalance. Great cast, some very compelling material, but all in all, it just didn't work — something I hate to admit. It's kind of how I feel about Studio 60 struggling on, but at least NBC is keeping it on the air. (As if it has much of a choice.)

As for trying The Nine out after Grey's: there's much more at stake on Thursdays than on Wednesdays, and ABC isn't likely to put a dying show there. I'm sure Men in Trees will have trouble holding onto Grey's powerhouse lead-in, but at least its charm factor is more compatible to the Ugly Betty-Grey's hours that precede it. (I spent much of Thanksgiving week catching up with the Trees episodes that had been buried on Fridays, and was pleasantly entertained.) This is an interesting season in that some shows have noticeably improved from their pilots: Brothers & Sisters, Men in Trees, Heroes (which I still find awfully uneven), while other shows have stumbled after having pilots that knocked me out: The Nine, Studio 60 and The Class, to name a few.

Question: I watched Friday night's episode of Numbers and heard about Larry going into outer space for six months. Is he taking a leave of absence from the show? What's the scoop?— Shannon

Matt Roush: Simple. Peter MacNicol landed a role on 24 this season, and for as long as that lasts (or his character lives, knowing 24), he'll be absent from Numbers. But he'll be back.

Question: I just finished watching the "slap bet" (Nov. 20) episode of How I Met Your Mother, featuring "Robin Sparkles," and practically laughed from beginning to end. The episode, the MySpace profile of Robin Sparkles and the music video that streamed online were all hilarious. Given the quality of the show and its mediocre ratings, it could use exposure. Do you think there is any chance CBS would give HIMYM the post-Super Bowl spot? I think it would be the perfect show to capture the young viewers from the game. And anyway, what else does CBS have? 3 LBS and Shark are too old, Survivor is past its prime, Jericho is too bleak... perhaps the rumored Amazing Race: All-Stars?— John

Matt Roush: That was a great episode of Mother, wasn't it? (It generated a fair amount of mail from fans who still can't believe this show isn't a bigger hit. That got me thinking: Wouldn't NBC kill to have a smart comedy this mainstream on its schedule?) While I agree a comedy at the end of Super Bowl Sunday is a promising idea, especially for one like this that could use some extra exposure, it doesn't look like that's where CBS is leaning. Launching a new season of a reality show worked once for Survivor, but the editor here at TV Guide who's most plugged into this situation tells me it may end up being (sigh) one of CBS' signature procedural crime dramas. The network apparently is still mulling its options — though they probably don't include the premiere of The Amazing Race: All-Stars, which may not launch until later in sweeps. It's all still up in the air, last I heard.

Question: I can't be the only one in the U.S. who had no clue that ABC was going to pull the stupid stunt of extending the Thanksgiving-night episode of Grey's Anatomy. What do you think of them pulling this trick with so little notice? It is bad enough that they moved it to Thursday nights, so I have to record it and several other shows to watch later. I didn't set the recording long enough, thereby missing the last eight minutes of this stupid stunt. The official ABC website didn't even announce the change. I'm afraid that this stunt lost me as a viewer. I'll just wait for the DVDs to come out, in order to catch up without all those annoying ads and promos. There are enough other shows on Thursday to keep me busy.— Mike "Vidiot"

Matt Roush: While I'm sure there are others who suffered the same recording glitch on Thanksgiving night (I'm assuming on VCRs only, because my DVR was programmed for the long overrun, and believe me, I wasn't watching live TV on the holiday), in situations like this when I really think you have only yourself to blame. The extended length of the episode was not exactly a secret, and ABC can't be held responsible for "fans" who aren't keeping up. From a previous rant this writer sent me, I can already predict that pointing out that the episode is available online is no solution for him. But to check out of the rest of the season because you missed the last scenes of an episode that one can read recaps of here, there and everywhere? A bit of an overreaction, if you ask me — which you did.

Question: Sara Gilbert has appeared in prior seasons of ER as Jane, a cynical medical student who was soon to become an intern. In last week's episode (Nov. 24) she was a nurse who caught Crenshaw's eye. Why did her character suddenly change from doctor to nurse?— Anjanette

Matt Roush: She didn't change career paths, she merely changed clothes. If you remember, Jane had to change out of her scrubs (after being memorably thrown up on) into a girly pajama-style top that embarrassed her terribly. She looked like a nurse, and Crenshaw (now my least favorite ER character, next to the irredeemable Morris) mistook her for one. No one corrected him, I'm assuming because they all thought it was so funny that this jerk had found a soul mate whom he'll probably consider beneath him.

Question: I thought Patricia Wettig left Prison Break to star in Brothers & Sisters. Did someone forget to tell her that she wouldn't be the star at all, but at most a glorified guest star? I guess my question is, why can't she film a Prison episode (or two) during the many weeks she doesn't appear in Brothers? Or was there some other reason for her exit?— Marcus D.

Matt Roush: Um, have you seen Prison Break? The lady traded up, pure and simple. That's not to say she won't do another cameo on Prison Break, if she's able — although production of Prison Break has been on location, far away from where Brothers films in Los Angeles. But if she's a "glorified guest star" on Brothers, doesn't that pretty much describe her role on Prison Break as well? The real deciding factor here is that Wettig's husband, Ken Olin, is one of the key producers of Brothers & Sisters. This is a classy family affair, and I totally get why she'd pick that over the silly chase melodrama Prison Break has become.

Question: Already I am hearing that 3 LBS on CBS is doing even worse than Smith did in the Tuesday time period. I like Stanley Tucci, but I watched one episode and thought the show was awful. Something tells me that the network will pull the plug; what say you?— J.

Matt Roush: Wasn't this a timely question? Barely had I wrapped this column when CBS pulled the plug on the show after a mere three episodes. Personally, I didn't think 3 LBS was awful as much as it was awfully ordinary and awfully derivative. But once again, CBS has bombed out in that 10 pm-Tuesday time period, despite solid lead-ins NCIS and The Unit. It almost feels cursed. Guess we'll be seeing more replays of CBS' ubiquitous crime dramas while CBS goes back to the drawing board.I wouldn't say 3 LBS is awful as much as it is awfully ordinary and awfully derivative. But once again, CBS is struggling in that 10 pm Tuesday time period, despite solid lead-ins NCIS and The Unit. It almost feels cursed. And yes, I agree: I'd be surprised if 3 LBS lasts very long, if at all, into the new calendar year. Looks like CBS is going to have to go back to the drawing board, or end up filling the hour with more replays of its myriad crime dramas.

Question: With T.R. Knight coming out, wouldn't it be great if his Grey's Anatomy character, George, came out, too? That would explain his awkwardness around women. They can have him get a crush on Alex. Wouldn't that be funny? I think there are so many story-line possibilities there: George's family, other interns, patients. Do you think the producers, writers or T.R. Knight would do it? They could move this story line slowly, with first the viewers knowing, then one character, then another.— Sudesh K.

Matt Roush: There's a reason most of us watch TV and don't attempt to write it, and this is a good example. The dynamic of George being the platonic "friend," in a way "one of the girls," and often chafing at being patronized by the girls and guys alike, would be undercut by the cliché of having him be gay. If Grey's flipped his character that way, I'm sure T.R. Knight would play the hell out of it. But I think it's much more original for the show and for the actor to continue exploring George as a "nice guy" who's trying to find his way and his dignity amid all the sexual shenanigans of the McHotties. And on a somewhat related note...

Question: Whenever I see questions about whether the newly "out" Neil Patrick Harris will continue to be believed in his role as Barney in How I Met Your Mother, I have to laugh. Neil brilliantly plays Barney as an impeccably dressed, polished, sexual-conquest-obsessed, bar-cruising, relationship-adverse emotionally hollow man. In other words, he's playing a gay stereotype, who just happens to be interested in women rather than men. I can't see that it will take the audience much to cover that little alteration. And given that this best new sitcom of last year has actually gained creative steam with this season, I hope we'll see him in this role for a long time to come.— Nat G.

Matt Roush: Agreed on the last point. But I'm not sure that he's playing a gay stereotype as much as a twist on the yuppie metrosexual stereotype, the thing so brilliantly portrayed a while back on Sex and the City as the "straight gay guy" syndrome. Blurring the lines can be fun, and I thought this week's Mother episode demonstrated that brilliantly, when Wayne Brady appeared as Barney's gay black brother. Barney's take on gay marriage was a hoot: "Gay marriage is going to cause single life as we know it to die out. Think of how the American family will be strengthened." Take that, bigots.

Question: What is with the Criminal Minds hate? I adore crime dramas and so I feel confident in saying that Criminal Minds is one of the best on TV. It's not my favorite (that honor goes to Law & Order: SVU and Without a Trace), but I think the writing is interesting, the ideas and analysis are intriguing, and the story lines are, for the most part, captivating. However, every time you mention this show in your column, you follow it up with a comment about it being CBS' weakest show. I don't get it. It's different from every other crime drama out there because rather than just trying to solve murders, the behavioral-analysis team has to try to prevent them from happening again, often racing against the clock to save a victim. Personally, I think the worst crime dramas on TV are NCIS, which I can't even get through, CSI: NY, because the killer is always way too obvious, and this season of CSI, which has been stinking up the place with less-than-stellar episodes. (The man with the masks? Who didn't figure out it was all the same man within minutes?)— Nicole

Matt Roush: While respectfully disagreeing with you about the original CSI (the episode about the double murder of the identical twins alone was so much more compelling than anything I see on either of the other CSIs, and how about the killer using the miniature crime-scene models?), I will say that I am almost as sick of having to explain my antipathy toward Criminal Minds as I am whenever I have the bad fortune to tune in to the show (which I did, to catch Paget Brewster's premiere episode, which I should have expected would be a mere tease). I understand what people like about the show: its urgent stop-the-killer-before-he-strikes-again premise.

But I find the characters and especially the acting to be mannered and wooden and oh-so-familiar. The literary quotes add a level of pretension to what is often a gruesome story, and the cases are often wrapped so neatly, it offends me. I got another letter asking me about my "hate" for the show, likening Minds to the books of James Patterson. I found that telling, since he is easily my least favorite pop crime novelist. I was initially surprised by how much I disliked Criminal Minds, because I'm a fan of suspense. I just don't find the show very suspenseful. It's way too formulaic and smug, and even when the cases are disturbing, I never find myself disturbed by what happens.

I guess another word to describe it is phony. (Now give me a truly twisted and original show like Showtime's Dexter, based on a superior set of novels by Jeff Lindsay, and I'm a happy, if unsettled, camper.) Honestly, folks, I don't try to go out of my way to beat up on this show, but its wild success makes it kind of hard to ignore these days. (And please don't berate me with accusations that I can't criticize a show if I don't watch every episode. That doesn't fly.)

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

biggiE48

12-01-06, 08:56 PM

Battlestar Galactic (I NO IT IS CABLE)
The Wire (THIS IS ALSO)
1 House
2 Heroes
3 Supernatural
4 Ugly Betty
5 Grey's Anatomy
6. Criminal Minds

Guilty Pleasure
Las Vegas

keenan

12-01-06, 09:16 PM

How is the HD quality, Jim? And how about the HD DVR?
The HD quality is probably the best out of all the sat services, maybe as good as Dish, but better than DirecTV, not quite as good as cable or OTA, but certainly acceptable. The SC DVR is a piece of junk, I went with having the STB modified and I'm using a PC to do the recording---sort of an expensive solution. BEV, I believe has the better HD DVR solution but their PQ is not quite as good and they do some weird stuff with the US network stations, somebody with BEV would have to explain it.

RemyM

12-01-06, 09:19 PM

TV Notebook
NBC: “30 Rock” On
FRESHMAN COMEDY RECEIVES FULL-SEASON PICKUP

30 Rock is starting to grow on me. It would be nothing without Baldwin, and could easily lose Tracey Morgan.

fredfa

12-01-06, 09:29 PM

Critic’s Notebook
The hypnotic power of "Heroes"
By Hal Boedeker Orlando Sentinel Television Critic his TV Guy blog Dec 1, 2006

"How do you stop an exploding man?"

Good question. And a good reason to tune in "Heroes" Monday.

This addictive show had fans chanting, "Save the cheerleader, save the world." That cheerleader, Claire (Hayden Panettiere), remains in great jeopardy.

Monday's gripping episode supplies plot twists and harrowing developments. Fans will want to savor each one because the series won't offer a new episode until mid-January. (The show airs at 9 ET/PT on NBC)

Why has "Heroes" become the biggest hit among new series this fall? The show knows how to dangle the good stuff and keep viewers intrigued. ("Lost" could learn a few things from this show.) Add to that good acting, strong characters and nifty special effects, and you have that hit that NBC has needed for years.

These heroes, everyday people with extraordinary powers, are slowly learning about one another. Claire finds a kinship with Peter Petrelli (Milo Ventimiglia), who saved her in the last episode. "You're totally my hero," she tells him.

But Peter and several other heroes are suffering. Stripper Niki Sanders (Ali Larter) is feeling especially conflicted. Cop Matt Parkman (Greg Grunberg) is combatting headaches, which crimp his ability to read minds.

Hiro Nakamura (Masi Oka) remains the exuberant hero. Isaac Mendez (Santiago Carbera) continues to paint his prophetic visions.

And Claire's dad (Jack Coleman) remains a major mystery: concerned one minute, dastardly the next.

You have to pay attention every moment in "Heroes." And your patience is rewarded. Great show!

http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/entertainment_tv_tvblog/2006/12/the_hypnotic_po.html

fredfa

12-01-06, 11:58 PM

Washington Notebook
FCC hopes to speed phone companies' entry into TV
By Leslie Cauley USA Today Dec. 1, 2006

NEW YORK — Trying to spur competition and beat back cable TV prices, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin has proposed rules to make it easier for phone companies and others to jump into the video business.

The proposed order aims to streamline the video franchise approval process, FCC officials said. They declined to be named because the order has not been formally adopted. The other four FCC commissioners are reviewing it.

Martin is using the FCC's upcoming annual report on cable TV prices as ammunition. FCC officials say the report shows that satellite TV and cable TV operators have settled into a cozy duopoly, keeping prices in a steady, upward climb. It shows the average price of cable TV in 2005 was $43.33 a month. Where satellite TV also was available, the average was $43.34. But in markets with another "wired" video provider, the price was dramatically less: $35.94.

The upshot: Absent credible land-based rivals, cable TV prices will keep going up.

From 1995 to 2005, the survey shows, cable TV prices shot up 93%. The cable TV industry has blamed rising programming costs. But that does not explain the big difference in places with a second wired provider, one FCC official noted.

AT&T and Verizon are building advanced broadband networks so they can sell bundles of TV, voice, wireless and high-speed Internet services. But deployment of their video has been slow, in part because of the franchising process. There are thousands of local authorities, each with its own rules.

The proposed order would require the bodies to rule within 90 days on applications by phone companies and others with existing access to public rights-of-way. For others, it would be six months.

The order would also make it harder for localities to impose "unreasonable" requirements. In one case, the FCC says, a video provider was asked to build a recreation center and swimming pool. In another, a video applicant was asked to fork over $1 million and fund a $50,000 scholarship with annual contributions.

AT&T and Verizon have been trying to persuade lawmakers to pass a national franchising bill and pushing states to adopt statewide franchising laws.

So far, Congress has declined to take action. A number of states, including Texas, California and New Jersey, have passed statewide bills. But that leaves thousands of franchising bodies to contend with.

The result: More than two years after entering the TV business, Verizon has only about 300 franchise agreements. AT&T, which rolled out video in July, has around 24.

http://www.usatoday.com/money/media/2006-12-01-fcc-martin-usat_x.htm

fredfa

12-02-06, 12:23 AM

The Business of TV
Could Tony on A&E bring restrictions to cable?
By David Lieberman USA Today Dec. 1, 2006

NEW YORK — When HBO introduced The Sopranos in 1999, critics applauded the smartly crafted stories about a modern-day crime family. They saw the obscenities, sex, nudity and violence as part of what made it so realistic.

But it's unclear how audiences will react beginning Jan. 10 when a version of the series moves from the 30 million homes paying a premium to get HBO to the 90 million that get A&E Network in their basic cable TV package. Some of the more graphic elements have been edited out, but it may still cause a stir.

That's because an army of fed-up parents and lawmakers already are making an issue of what they see as the spread of child-unfriendly programming on basic cable that has followed the success of taboo-breaking basic cable shows including FX's The Shield, Rescue Me and Nip/Tuck, Comedy Central's South Park and MTV's annual Spring Break.

"There are cable network programmers whose clear and sole objective is to break any boundary without regard for what the consequences are for society," says Parents Television Council Executive Director Tim Winter. Some shows, he says, have glamorized rape, pedophilia, incest, racism and misogyny.

The risk cable now faces is that if edgy shows such as The Sopranos lead many more people to conclude that Winter is right, that could result in government restrictions for these basic networks, which now largely regulate themselves. Although such a change would raise free-speech questions, critics say that the fact that 86% of all homes get TV via cable or satellite services makes basic cable and broadcast programming virtually indistinguishable. About 60% of adults endorsed programming standards for basic cable in a recent Pew Research Center survey.

"You're hearing the tom-toms beating in Washington," says Henry Schleiff, CEO of Crown Media, which owns the Hallmark Channel. "The risk is that we are subjecting ourselves to potential regulation from the Federal Communications Commission or Congress. That's a very, very big thing."

Congress last year considered letting the FCC apply the kinds of rules for obscene or indecent programming on basic cable the way it now regulates broadcasters that use the public airwaves, including ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC (see box).

An alternative approach, favored by FCC Chairman Kevin Martin, would require cable and satellite to offer basic channels on a so-called a la carte basis instead of in all-or-nothing packages. That way, programmers could air what they want, and consumers could judge — and buy — each channel individually the same way they can now with premium channels such as HBO. That's an approach cable operators say would kill off many smaller and specialized channels.

These crosscurrents forced A&E to painstakingly edit The Sopranos. It couldn't be so bland that it would turn off the young adult viewers that advertisers covet, viewers the network must win to justify the record $2.5 million it is paying for each of the 78 episodes.

"We do not want to be the people who ruined The Sopranos," says Dawn Porter, A&E vice president of standards and practices. But A&E had to do something to escape the wrath of anti-smut activists who might target it and its advertisers.

"Generally, I would say, 'Come on, it's an adult show,' " general manager Bob DeBitetto says. But of the final edit, he adds: "When I look at … so much that's on television elsewhere already, I mean, my goodness, we're so well within that."

No easy choices

The state of the cable business isn't making the choices easier. Established, general entertainment channels know if they don't air attention-grabbing shows, including some that anger parents, they risk becoming irrelevant. The days of double-digit growth appear to be over for many ad-supported basic channels. Non-premium network revenue likely will hit $37.9 billion this year, with annual growth slowing from 16.8% in 2004 to 7.5% in 2010, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers.

And these numbers understate the issue for older, general entertainment networks. Prime-time ratings fell 1.7% in the first three quarters of 2006 vs. the period last year at the 36 largest cable networks. The average home now gets 95 channels, up from 77 in 2000.

"The environment has gotten a lot more competitive because there are a lot more options: (regular) channels, video on demand, video on broadband," says David Zaslav, who is NBC Universal's president of cable and domestic TV and new media distribution and will become CEO of Discovery Communications early next year. "To reach viewers, you have to be clear about what you are in your niche."

Many executives are backing away from offering mainly reruns of broadcasters' hit sitcoms and dramas. "Outside of Law & Order, there aren't a lot of (rerun) series that have really boosted a cable network," Schleiff says. "NYPD Blue didn't do much for Court TV," which Schleiff ran before moving to Crown.

One solution has been for channels to produce their own shows. FX showed how that could pay off beginning in 2002 when it introduced The Shield. That show, plus Nip/Tuck and Rescue Me added later, helped lift FX from the No. 12 cable network in prime time for prized 18- to 49-year-olds in 2001 to No. 5 this year. The Shield, starring Michael Chiklis as an anti-hero cop, "was the first of these high-quality, scripted, highly successful dramas on basic cable," FX President John Landgraf says.

In response to cultural critics shocked by The Shield's fascination with torture and sexual violence, Landgraf says the widely acclaimed show is for adults, it carries a warning about its graphic content and it airs at 10 p.m. ET. Still, Nielsen ratings show 5.2% of the average 2 million viewers per show over the last year were under age 17, including 2.4% under 11.

"Post-10 p.m. has been deemed since time immemorial … an adult viewing hour," Landgraf says. "Even though we're under no obligation to abide by that standard (as broadcasters are), we've abided by it voluntarily because we think it's responsible." The network also discovered with The Shield and its other graphic shows that there are secondary revenue sources. "There is an incredible appetite for (the series) overseas," Landgraf says. "They also do well on DVD. … I recently looked at a list of television DVDs, and we had four of the top 20."

Other channels caught on, and also pushed the edge. "Even a show like (Sci-Fi Channel's) Battlestar Galactica has pushed the envelope further than you'd see on a broadcast network: more graphic scenes of violence, some sexual content," says Larry Gerbrandt at Nielsen Analytics. "It's a darker vision."

Premium reruns

Along with more original productions, basic cable channels have taken a new look at the potential in reruns of hits from premium channels. Besides A&E's deal with HBO for The Sopranos, Bravo picked up its Six Feet Under and TBS got Sex and the City.

The cable industry says it can help parents who don't want their kids to see such fare. Late last year, the major operators introduced, as an alternative to basic cable packages, bundles of only kid-friendly channels. Comcast, Time Warner and Cox declined to say how many homes signed up. The industry also beefed up marketing to tell parents how their TV sets, cable boxes or DVRs can block certain shows or channels. "We've done some great campaigns on that," Zaslav says. "We have a rating system that provides real clarity."

Even the slickest technology can't help, though, when channels don't synchronize programs with ads. For example, DVR owners who recently recorded late-night airings of Spike TV's The Three StoogesSlap-Happy Hour —rated PG, meaning OK for 8-year-olds — might have been surprised to see ads for DVDs of Girls Gone Wild: Ultimate Rush. Spike TV's parent, MTV Networks, wouldn't address the specific example, but said in a statement: "We restrict mature content to late-night hours."

Cultural critics say the focus on blocking misses the point. So do federal rules. They want the freedom to subscribe to channels individually so they don't subsidize shows that they say coarsen the culture. Basic cable channels have two sources of revenue: ad sales and a fee from the cable operator for each subscriber to the basic package. "You're seeing exponential growth in this stuff," Winter says. "If it weren't for the forced bundles, this could not perpetuate."

And channels that trim graphic scenes still "help to legitimize the more vulgar stuff" and "allow advertisers to get comfortable" with the shows, he says.

The problem A&E faced a few years ago, though, was that advertisers were turned off by viewers who tuned in to shows such as Murder, She Wrote. "With a 61 median age, we were outside even the older of the valuable demos," DeBitetto says. In 2004, A&E began to chase younger viewers, and "We had to do something that was scary, which was to fairly rudely … show our loyal viewership the door."

The Sopranos is key to that effort. "This is certainly going to change A&E," says Kagan Media's Deana Myers. "It gets them talked about."

A&E says the edited versions will be rated TV-14 (some episodes will include labels indicating strong language or violence) and will air Wednesday nights, with repeats on Mondays, at 9 p.m. ET.

Little had to be cut, Porter says. "Our little secret is that it wasn't as hard as people think it is." The first two seasons presented the biggest challenges. Producers didn't expect the show to become such a big hit and didn't film less-graphic versions of key scenes. A&E got around some of those problems by using footage from the cutting-room floor and soundtracks with the actors replacing profanities.

Violence was "by far the easiest" element to address, DeBitetto says, because shows such as The Shield have redefined what's acceptable. More troublesome were naked dancers in the background of key scenes. "We were able to pull the frame in a little bit so maybe you see the girls' legs but not the naughty bits."

The bottom line, though: "It's an adult show. Surely, people would want to exercise discretion."

But pretty soon, even The Sopranos might seem tame. "There's absolutely no reason the episodes that are on A&E could not air on local television stations," says Scott Carlin, HBO's president of domestic programming distribution. If A&E hadn't bought the show, "We would have had a pretty easy time syndicating The Sopranos around the country."

http://www.usatoday.com/money/media/2006-12-01-cable-broadcast-usat_x.htm

fredfa

12-02-06, 01:26 AM

TV Notebook
The Executive Producer of ‘The Daily Show’ and ‘The Colbert Report’ Is Leaving
By Jacques Steinberg The New York Times December 2, 2006 (Bill Carter contributed reporting.)

It’s probably not an analogy Jon Stewart would appreciate, given his politics, but since soon after he began his run on Comedy Central’s “Daily Show” in 1999, Ben Karlin has served as Karl Rove to Mr. Stewart’s George W. Bush, if not his Dick Cheney.

So it has come as a shock that Mr. Karlin, an executive producer of both Mr. Stewart’s show and “The Colbert Report,” has decided to leave those jobs at the end of this month.

The sense of intrigue has only been heightened by the way word got out.

Hired by Mr. Stewart, based largely on his work at the satirical newspaper The Onion, Mr. Karlin moved from head writer of “The Daily Show” in the summer of 1999 to executive producer in 2003. While still holding that position, Mr. Karlin, 35, helped Mr. Stewart’s production company, Busboy, start “The Colbert Report,” with Stephen Colbert, for Comedy Central last fall as an executive producer, and then presided over the writing staff for Mr. Stewart’s appearance as host of the Academy Awards telecast earlier this year.

Given their close creative relationship — in recent weeks, Mr. Karlin has also been helping Mr. Stewart develop “Three Strikes,” a pilot about a minor league baseball team for Comedy Central — it came as a surprise when a comedy Web site, theapiary.org, first reported on Thursday afternoon that Mr. Karlin had decided to relinquish his roles as executive producer of both Mr. Stewart’s show and Mr. Colbert’s. Only minutes earlier, Mr. Karlin had informed the staffs of the two shows of his decision, which Comedy Central confirmed late Thursday night in a terse, two-sentence statement issued to the trade journals Variety and Broadcasting & Cable.

Why did the partnership between Mr. Stewart and Mr. Karlin begin to unravel so abruptly? The answer was not entirely clear yesterday. Comedy Central said it had learned of Mr. Karlin’s impending departure only over the last few days.

Representatives for Mr. Stewart, Mr. Colbert, Mr. Karlin and David Javerbaum — a fellow Onion alumnus who has been head writer of “The Daily Show,” and now succeeds Mr. Karlin as executive producer — said yesterday that neither they nor their clients would have any comment on the matter.

The only principal who would come to the phone was Doug Herzog, the president of Comedy Central. In a telephone interview yesterday, he said Mr. Karlin’s main motivation appeared to be a desire to pull back from the grueling pace that he has kept up for more than seven years. Mr. Karlin routinely shuttled the two blocks between Mr. Stewart’s studio in Midtown Manhattan and Mr. Colbert’s, sometimes traveling by scooter as one show ended its taping and the other began.

“Ben has been doing this a long time,” Mr. Herzog said. “It’s a grind. Four nights a week. Forty-some odd weeks a year.”

Mr. Herzog added: “I couldn’t stress more that it’s all amicable.”

An executive involved in the shows who agreed to be interviewed only on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak, said Mr. Karlin’s “Daily Show” contract had been up and had not been renewed, though yesterday it was not at all clear why. The same executive said Mr. Javerbaum, who joined “The Daily Show” in 1999, had made known in recent months that he wished to leave “The Daily Show,” but with Mr. Karlin’s departure, he has now been persuaded to stay.

Mr. Karlin, who had relinquished day-to-day management of “Colbert” to other producers in recent months, has not been replaced as an executive producer at “Colbert.” He will continue to be associated with both “The Daily Show” and “Colbert” as a consultant.

An orderly transition is critical to Comedy Central, given how important both shows are to that cable channel. On Monday through Thursday nights, when the shows are broadcast, Mr. Stewart’s show draws an average audience of about 1.6 million viewers, and Mr. Colbert’s 1.2 million, both up substantially from a year ago, according to figures from Nielsen Media Research provided by Comedy Central.

Of no small comfort to Comedy Central is that Mr. Stewart and Mr. Colbert are actively involved in the writing and producing of their respective shows.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/02/arts/television/02karl.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&ref=television&pagewanted=print

dad1153

12-02-06, 01:51 AM

Three stories, one cable network, one post! :)

Ratings
“Match Game” Documentary Scores Big Ratings
By Alex Davis buzzerblog.com November 29, 2006

GSN announced that their documentary “The Real Match Game Story: Behind the Blank” scored one of the biggest ratings in a long time: 0.7. This is with 614,000 viewers in the Persons +2 demographic. The show was captured in 450,000 households as well. It garnered a 57% increase in household ratings and delivery, a 40% increase among people 25-54 and a massive 121% increase in the 25-54 demographic from one year ago.

http://buzzerblog.com/
____________________________________________________________ _____
TV Notebook
“I've Got A Secret” Cancelled
By Alex Davis buzzerblog.com November 30, 2006

I just got done talking to a panel member on the show “I’ve Got A Secret”, currently on at 9;30PM ET on GSN, and she stated that in October, GSN decided not to make any more episodes, so unless some freakish reversal order comes in it’s officially cancelled. It’s a true shame in my eyes, as I thought it was incredibly funny and entertaining. It also scored very nice ratings (at GSN standards) at the 11:30PM ET time slot, seeing ratings in the .3-.4.

Edit: I completely forgot that “Anything to Win” had scores in that area, with the Tanya Harding episode earning a .7 (same rating the 'Match Game' documentary recently got).

http://buzzerblog.com/
____________________________________________________________ _____
Press Release
GSN Airs 'THE CHUCK BARRIS STORY: MY LIFE ON THE EDGE' December 10
The Special Documentary Features a Candid Interview with Barris, In Addition to Phyllis Diller, Jamie Farr and George Clooney

(Santa Monica, CA) – GSN is proud to put the spotlight on one of the game show industry’s most unsung heroes with a special THE CHUCK BARRIS STORY: MY LIFE ON THE EDGE, airing Sunday, December 10 (8:00-9:00 PM, ET). Narrated by Jim Lange, the special is preceded by a three hour marathon of Barris-created shows (“The Gong Show,” The Dating Game” and “The Newlywed Game”) on Saturday, December 9 (8:00-11:00 PM, ET).

Interviewees include Barris, Phyllis Diller, Jamie Farr, Bob Eubanks, Gary Owens, Al Michaels, George Clooney and numerous former employees from Barris’ production team.

Barris, who grew up in Philadelphia, was working in Los Angeles when he went to ABC executives in 1965 with an idea for a game show that would change the landscape of television. “The Dating Game,” and its progeny, “The Newlywed Game,” were such big hits that ABC placed them in their primetime line-up. Barris opened his own production company, which was a hugely successful business – and a very interesting place to work -- for decades. Still, the general public did not know who Barris was, but that changed when he became host of another of his creations, “The Gong Show.”

Barris became a household name as a result of his outlandish behavior as host of “The Gong Show,” but while a smile never left his face on screen, off screen he was crushed by the harsh criticisms he endured from the press and his peers. He also endured numerous personal tragedies including failed marriages and the loss of his daughter to a drug overdose.

THE CHUCK BARRIS STORY: MY LIFE ON THE EDGE is produced by Asylum Entertainment. Frank Sinton (“Anything to Win,” “Beyond the Glory”) serves as executive producer. Anthony Storm serves as producer.

http://www.gsn.com/corporate/press.php?release_id=235

fredfa

12-02-06, 01:58 AM

First "Match Game" and now Chuck Barris.

GSN is moving a lot higher in my personal pantheon of channels.

dad1153

12-02-06, 02:29 AM

GSN's been my #1 station since I discovered it accidentally in early 2003 when I got digital cable. All the gameshows I never knew existed before 1989 (the year I arrived to the States an English-deprived legal immigrant with zero pop culture knowledge) like 'Card Sharks,' the 'Password' shows, '$100K Pyramid,' 'Family Feud' (my first introduction to the kissing bandit Richard Dawson) and many more all-day long. The real deal were the classic B&W shows from the 50's-70's airing overnight (the holy trilogy of Goodson-Todman's 'To Tell The Truth,' 'I've Got A Secret' and the Daly/Cerf/Francis/Kilgallen version of 'What's My Line?'), a B&W kaleidoscope into what life was like in the States when taste and decorum were appreciated qualities on TV panelists. Of course now, in 2006, we're down to a single hour of B&W Overnight shows per week (Sundays from 3-4AM) because low-rated 'Amazing Race' repeats attract a smaller-but-younger demographic than the B&W oldies. :mad:

Back to early 2003 when GSN was new to me (and was actually still calling itself 'Game Show Network'). Every time I would channel surf there always seemed to be this weird game show with shag orange carpeting and people with 70's hairdos flipping cards. After weeks of ignoring it (but always wondering why this show seemed to be on at all times on GSN) I watched an episode of 'Match Game 7X' and wasn't impressed. There were promos airing at the time for a daylong '30th Anniversary Blank-A-Thon' of episodes in a week. I took the unprecedented step of taking that day off from work to watch a marathon of episodes for a TV show I had only seen once but intrigued me enough to want to watch (there was something about the show I liked but couldn't quite get what). From 9AM to midnight I watched 30 episodes (in chronological order) that pretty much covered 'Match Game' from beginning (the first episode) to end (the last episode in 1982 in which there is no mention it was the end) with all the highlights in-between (the 'School Riot' incident, Burt Reynolds' cameo, the cast of 'Carol Burnett' dropping unannounced to play a game, Dawson developing an ego when the 'Star Wheel' got introduced, etc.). I felt like a kid in Christmas at the privilege of discovering such an amusing time capsule, seeing the Brett/Charles relationship grow, watching in amazement how Rayburn kept a tight leash on the contestants/celebrities/rowdy audience yet somehow made an impression, etc. Been watching 'Match Game' and GSN (the good shows at least) loyally ever since.

BTW Fred, you may like what GSN is doing with these specials (they're apparently good at attracting non-regular GSN viewers to watch) but the natives (i.e. hardcore game show fans that watch the station faithfully) hate the management of the station because they constantly take the classic game shows for granted. 40% of the classics people keep begging to see (the Goodson-Todman library GSN has the rights to) are locked in a vault and rarely shown. They never, ever promote the "classics" in-house, and their original shows (the above-mentioned gay revival of 'IGAS,' 'Chain Reaction,' etc.) get the lion's share of promotion and budget. If GSN could it would get rid of game shows because they skew old (why do you think the network changed its name from 'Game Show Network' to GSN?) but everything they've attempted to attract young viewers (a horse breeding reality show that bombed big, expensive repeats of 'Amazing Race,' etc.) keeps failing so they have to go back to game shows (originals or repeats) just to pay the bills. Go to http://gameshow.ipbhost.com/ (otherwise known as the Invision forum) and http://www.gsn.com/buzz/forumdisplay.php?f=8 for a feel of how the hardcore game show faithful feel alienated by/from GSN management.

Oh, and for nostalgia's sake take a look at this 7m promotional video of what Game Show Network was like when it launched in 1994: http://www.pageoclips.com/ (click the third picture from the middle left). I wish I had this around when I was 21, it would have made my 20's TV diet much more entertaining than whatever it was I was watching back then. :(

fredfa

12-02-06, 02:36 AM

It is amazing how people who grew up with such wildly different backgrounds can share similar tastes in off-beat entertainment, dad.

Ah for the days of Bill Cullen (who for years in the 50s was an early morning radio host/disc jockey in NYC.

dad1153

12-02-06, 02:44 AM

Ah for the days of Bill Cullen (who for years in the 50s was an early morning radio host/disc jockey in NYC.

Didn't Rayburn also host morning radio in NYC at the time? He and Bob & Ray (remember them?) crossed paths on a few ocassions on Goodson-Todman gameshows like the rarely-seen ABC gameshow The Name's The Same (1951-1955), which has a cult following by the 23 people that saw it when Game Show Network ran it in 1998 and 2003. It's the best work Robert Q. Lewis did, IMHO, before disappearing into the anonimity of network radio broadcasts in the 1960's and 70's. I taped a few dozen episodes of 'TNTS' on DVD-R for posterity! :D

foxeng

12-02-06, 07:34 AM

Rayburn was part of a morning team at WNEW-AM 1130 called "Rayburn and Finch" in the late 40's. He later became the Ed McMahon to Johnny Carson of the original Tonight Show with Steve Allen in the 50's and then went to The Match Game in 1962. I had forgotten that he had been on Broadway in Bye Bye Birdie and worked with Charles Nelson Reilly on Broadway but the GSN special reminded me of that.

harley1

12-02-06, 08:21 AM

The Army-Navy game, played today at Lincoln Financial Field (2:30 p.m., CBS),

Army-Navy Game, a rivalry for the Ages

By Joseph A. Gambardello
Inquirer Staff Writer

On Dec. 7, 2002, Brian Stann took the field for his last Army-Navy Game, a high point of any midshipman's football career. Navy romped that day, giving the linebacker from Scranton a sweet victory to savor and to remember.

A little over two years later, Marine Corps First Lt. Brian Stann was in Iraq, and within weeks he and his men fought a fierce battle for which he would win the Silver Star.

Now on his second tour in Iraq, Stann is looking forward to this year's game along with graduates of both academies stationed overseas, although he expects to read about it afterward instead of following it, play by play.

For the 80th time in their 107 meetings, Army and Navy face off in Philadelphia tomorrow to remind the world why their rivalry is different from all others.

While players from other colleges might be bound for the pros, the seniors from West Point and Annapolis already know they're headed in a direction that is different - and very real.

If they are in the U.S. Military Academy, it could be armor, aviation, field artillery or infantry. For the U.S. Naval Academy, it could be surface warfare, naval flight or the Marine Corps, both ground and flight.

And when the game is over - and one service walks away with bragging rights for the year - one thing will remain unchanged when the student-athletes become warriors.

"At the end of the day," as Stann puts it, "we bleed as one on the battlefield and not as separate teams."

Army Capt. Gene Palka, who played his last Army-Navy Game in 2001, said in an e-mail from Baghdad that the game is rich in meaning for the military and the nation.

"The Army-Navy football game stands for everything that is right in our country," said Palka, whose fiancee, Melissa Kalinowski, is a nurse at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania.

"Not only on the field and sidelines, but in the stands in Philadelphia, you see 8,000 cadets and midshipmen who have taken an oath to serve their country," he said. "This could mean giving the ultimate sacrifice."

Some have paid that price.

To date, two former football players, both from Navy, have been killed in Iraq: Marine First Lt. Ronald Winchester and Marine Second Lt. James Blecksmith.

Stann, whose fiancee, Teressa Ruspi, is a former Eagles cheerleader, played with both men and he said the Army-Navy Games give him an opportunity to recall them.

"I think about all the times they made me laugh and all the best times we spent together, and I can only hope that at this time I am making them proud," he said.

Such are the bonds formed among academy football players.

"My teammates remain some of the most meaningful people in my life," said Marine Maj. Andrew Thompson, whose Navy team lost four years in a row to Army.

Thompson, who is slated to return home on game day from a joint assignment with, yes, the Army in Kuwait, said playing football "was the best possible training for me to become a Marine officer."

"The emphasis on team, subjugation of individual glory for collective success and physical hardships - all [were] valuable experiences," he said. "The lessons associated with winning and losing were also invaluable. The stakes were high in that game. The stakes are even higher over here."

Army First Lt. Seth Nieman, a platoon leader in Iraq who says his Army football experience also made him a better officer, is looking forward to watching the game with two former teammates from the Class of 2005 - Jake Holly and Jonathan Lewis.

He said he is always happy to see "a familiar face over here, but I get really excited when I see my old Army football brothers."

"Usually we just catch up, give each other a hug, and tell each other to stay safe."

Nieman, whose team only beat Navy once in his four years at West Point, of course is hoping that Army breaks Navy's 3-0 winning streak at Lincoln Financial Field, the fourth stadium in the city to host the annual rivalry.

"Navy games have left a bad taste in my mouth the last few seasons, so I am confident that my younger Army football brothers are going to take care of business this year," he said.

One can be sure that Stann and Thompson, for their part, are hoping otherwise.

http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/sports/16136187.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp

Navy takes aim at military sweep
A win over Army would give this year's seniors an 8-0 record against the other service academies.

Associated Press

Paul Johnson has his Navy seniors on the brink of a historic feat: a four-year sweep of Army and Air Force.

Should the Midshipmen (8-3) win the 107th Army-Navy game tomorrow, they will capture the Commander-in-Chief's Trophy outright for the fourth straight year and make Navy's senior class the first in school history to go 8-0 against the other two service academies.

"I hope that's extra motivation. It should be," said Johnson, Navy's fifth-year coach. "But at the same time, I'm sure that Army's got some motivation because the senior class doesn't want to go out not having won, so you can twist that any way you want."

The annual patriotic rivalry game has turned into pure revelry for Navy, outscoring the Black Knights (3-8) by a 176-54 margin the last four years. The Midshipmen can equal their longest winning streak in the series with a victory at Lincoln Financial Field, matching a pair of five-game series winning streaks, most recently from 1959 through 1963.

"The past few years have been horrible," said Army cocaptain Cameron Craig. "Navy has just come out and kicked our butts pretty good the last two years. The internal motivation for everybody throughout the entire off-season is to get that win," against Navy.

The series always has meant so much more than the final score, though: the bond, the brotherhood, the sacrifice.

Now there's another subplot for Johnson - rumors. Since taking over a program that was 1-20 the two years before his arrival in 2002, Johnson has returned Navy to national prominence.

Navy has won at least eight games each of the last four seasons, and will play in its fourth straight bowl game, the Meineke Bowl against an opponent from the Atlantic Coast Conference on Dec. 30.

"It's a whole different standard set here at the Naval Academy," said Navy cocaptain James Rossi. "Now, we expect to win a lot of games."

No longer is Army-Navy the final game of the year for the Midshipmen, even if it's still the most important. That's made Johnson a hot name at some open big-time coaching spots.

He was mentioned at North Carolina before Butch Davis was hired, and Johnson is reportedly on the short list of potential candidates at both Alabama and N.C. State. Johnson is a native of Newland, N.C., who graduated from Western Carolina in 1979. He has brushed off speculation that he's ready to bolt the service academy.

"I don't think much about it," he said. "I haven't thought about it at all. I'm thinking about trying to get ready to play Army... . I think that's a compliment to the program, to the players and the assistant coaches. I learned a long time ago that you don't believe everything that you read."

Overall, Johnson is 36-24 in five seasons at Navy after winning a pair of Division I-AA national titles at Georgia Southern.

Johnson has won seven straight against the other two service academies.

In naval terms, a clean sweep refers to a completely successful mission, with a broom hoisted to the main mast in celebration.

While the Midshipmen are used to accomplishing such feats on the sea, they have no experience with sweeping their storied rivals on the field. The Midshipmen beat Air Force, 24-17, in October, setting the stage for the senior-class shutout.

"Ever since earlier this year when we beat Air Force, it's definitely been in the back of our heads," said Rossi, a senior center. "It's a huge opportunity for us not only to beat Army four years in a row, but to beat both four years in a row is a real big deal for us."

http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/sports/16136209.htm

harley1

12-02-06, 08:35 AM

Lowe still going against the flow

By BILL HARRIS, SUN MEDIA

During Rob Lowe's run as a regular cast member on The West Wing from 1999 to 2003, Lowe played a Democrat working in the White House.

This occurred as Republican George W. Bush became U.S. president in 2000.

Now, in Lowe's extended guest role on Brothers & Sisters, Lowe is playing - get this - a Republican senator.

This comes only weeks after the Democrats regained control of the Senate south of the border.

Are TV executives doing this to Lowe on purpose? Are they still mad about (or jealous of) those sex tapes he made in the late 1980s?

Heck, with Britney Spears (and others) flashing her panty-less groin every time she steps out of a Hummer these days, Lowe's filmed threesomes actually seem like relics from a more innocent time, don't they?

Anyway, you won't see Lowe trying to charm Calista Flockhart tomorrow night, since Brothers & Sisters is due for another one of those annoying little things from a bygone era called a rerun.

Gather around, kids. Before virtually every show on the tube was a serial drama, reruns were quite common. But now many shows go on extended hiatus rather than running repeats, which tend to confuse and even enrage the fans

So be forewarned: Tomorrow night's Brothers & Sisters (Global, 8 p.m.) is a repeat of episode three, which is titled Affairs Of State.

It's not a bad place to get caught up, since this is the episode where the indiscretions of William Walker (Tom Skerritt) are made painfully public, and Nora (Walker's widow, played by Sally Field) reveals that she's not as naive as her family always has believed.

Speaking of naive, let's get back to Rob Lowe and his youthful good looks.

You know, he still has the kind of boyish mug that makes you think he should be the head of a political youth wing rather than an actual senator. But as hard as this may be to believe, Lowe is 42.

His role on The West Wing was cut short when his position as the lead cast member got overwhelmed by an excellent ensemble cast.

Brothers & Sisters has an excellent ensemble cast, too, but this time Lowe should have no illusions about his place in the pecking order.

In Brothers & Sisters, Lowe plays Robert McCallister, a conservative senator who is running for re-election despite the public messiness of his recent divorce.

Kitty Walker (Flockhart) meets McCallister when she interviews him for her TV show and, of course, the romantic sparks start to fly immediately.

It is a strange coincidence, though, that Lowe's characters in recent years have been political men swimming against the real-world political tide.

We still think it was an almighty copout, by the way, that The West Wing didn't end its run with the Republicans winning the presidency.

It would have been far more realistic at the time.

Just a thought: Do you think the creators of Brothers & Sisters would have made their title character (Kitty) a hardline right-winger had they known that mere months after the show's debut, the Democrats would kick butt in the mid-term elections?

The Brothers & Sisters team is trying to convince Lowe to make his role a quasi-permanent one, and political prognosticators would be wise to keep a close eye on how those negotiations go.

After all, if you want to know which way the U.S. is headed, just find out what role Rob Lowe has in the works and bet heavily on the other side.

http://www.edmontonsun.com/Entertainment/Showbiz/2006/12/02/pf-2591448.html

harley1

12-02-06, 08:49 AM

Hollywood unsure as more actors quit closet
Declared gays in straight roles face audience litmus test of ratings, box office

SCOTT COLLINS
SPECIAL TO THE STAR

HOLLYWOOD—In the 29 years since Billy Crystal outraged — and later won over — critics with his mostly sympathetic portrayal of a gay man on the sitcom Soap, mainstream audiences have come to accept straight actors playing gay parts, in everything from prime-time hits (Eric McCormack in Will & Grace) to all-but-forgotten flops (John Goodman in Normal, Ohio).

But will viewers prove as welcoming toward gay actors in straight roles, especially — at the heart of the issue — as romantic leads?

Several high-profile cases in the news lately suggest that we may be about to find out, as the public continues to grapple with conflicted and ever-evolving views on gays and lesbians.

Last month, T.R. Knight, who plays the romantically yearning and unquestionably heterosexual Dr. O'Malley on ABC's smash Grey's Anatomy, came out in a statement to People magazine, adding somewhat forlornly, "I hope the fact I'm gay isn't the most interesting part of me." Knight's orientation evidently was a factor in an on-set tussle involving co-stars Patrick Dempsey and Isaiah Washington, who had reportedly directed an anti-gay epithet in Knight's direction (and later apologized).

Then, two weeks ago, another coming-out message landed on the editor's desk at People, this one from Neil Patrick Harris, who plays the womanizing cad Barney on CBS's comedy How I Met Your Mother.

"I am a very content gay man living my life to the fullest," Harris wrote, after his publicist initially denied Internet rumours that the actor was gay.

Last week The Advocate, a gay and lesbian magazine, published an interview with Kristanna Loken of Terminator 3 and newly of The L Word. In it, she talked playfully of her relationship with another actress.

Television industry insiders agree that in just the past few weeks, gay actors in Hollywood have reached a critical new turning point, one that will reveal what restrictions may or may not be placed on their careers if they brave coming out of the closet. Ultimately, what happens next is up to prime-time viewers.

"This is new territory," said Damon Romine, entertainment media director at the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, an advocacy group. Harris and Knight in particular, he said, "are doing something that's not been done before: come out when being on a TV series.''

Ron Cowen, executive producer of Queer as Folk, said Harris, known to millions from his years on Doogie Howser, M.D., is furnishing "a test case" for other gay performers.

"If not a big deal is made out of it, Hollywood will adapt," Cowen said. "But if it turns out it's not a good thing — if the ratings for How I Met Your Mother drop, for instance — people will say, `That (coming out) hurts shows, that hurts the business.'''

Fear of sexual disclosure is among the most persistent of the terrors that govern Hollywood's upper echelons. Trying to cover up a gay star's romantic life has been a frequent obsession of publicists and agents.

In one of the most famous examples, Rock Hudson married his agent's secretary in 1955, when his movie career was rapidly ascending, largely to shield his homosexual affairs from tabloids and the public.

The thinking was a gay actor would never be accepted as a romantic lead. As a result, while his sexuality was an open secret in Hollywood, Hudson never confirmed publicly that he was gay, even when dying from AIDS in 1985.

For all the advances that gays and lesbians have made on other fronts, some facts remain unchanged since Hudson's day.

Sarah Warn, editor of Afterellen.com, a lesbian entertainment site, said she knows of one top Hollywood handler who tells her gay clients never to discuss their sexuality publicly.

"She tried to spin it as `It's nobody's business,'" Warn said. And when rumours crop up, "most publicists deny those kinds of claims without even checking with the client.''

Indeed, while top straight-identified actors have for years received praise and prizes for playing gay characters — Tom Hanks in Philadelphia, for example — executives, casting directors and maybe mass audiences still seem to have a block when it comes to gay people in straight parts.

Rupert Everett, who's been out since 1989 and has played both gay and straight characters in major films, admitted in one interview that viewers may wonder "if a queen like me can butch it up enough to play a convincing straight man." But several factors are conspiring to change things, albeit more slowly than some activists might like.

The legislative and court battles over gay marriage have increased general awareness, if not acceptance, of gays and lesbians, much as the initial AIDS crisis did 20 years ago. Then, too, entertainers such as Rosie O'Donnell and Ellen DeGeneres have come out and watched their careers soar, which may embolden younger performers.

"You can use it to your advantage in a lot of ways," said Howard Bragman, an openly gay Hollywood publicist who helped former sitcom stars Dick Sargent and Sheila Kuehl when they came out of the closet.

Meanwhile, Internet gossips such as Perez Hilton — whose notoriety depends largely on outing celebrities — have made it tougher for stars such as Harris to keep their private lives under wraps.

"Celebrity rumours that used to be spread around by phone or tabloid are now online in minutes," Romine said.

All that leads some to believe that a renaissance in attitudes is under way. When it comes to a star's sexuality, Bragman said, "It's a generational thing. Kids do not care." He predicted that in another decade, gays playing straight characters won't even be an issue.

Others aren't so optimistic. Cowen said in Hollywood, no issue can escape the core concerns of ratings and box office.

"The question is, how liberal can Hollywood afford to be?"

http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1164884348905&call_pageid=968867495754&col=969483191630

fredfa

12-02-06, 10:43 AM

TV Notebook
Reilly Rolls the Dice
By J. Max Robins Broadcasting & Cable 12/4/2006

When NBC Entertainment President Kevin Reilly laid out the network's midseason schedule last week, somewhere the late Brandon Tartikoff was smiling. The entertainment chief during NBC's golden years in the 1980s, he would have approved of Reilly's decision to give full-season orders to 30 Rock, Friday Night Lights and Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip.

That commitment to critically rich yet ratings-challenged series was a hallmark of the Tartikoff era, when the network nurtured shows like Hill Street Blues, Cheers and Seinfeld from the brink of cancellation into a powerhouse lineup of quality primetime programs.

Unfortunately for Reilly, these are radically different times, both within and without NBC.

Before joining the network, Reilly made his bones at FX, where he worked under Peter Liguori and helped put that network on the map with terrific, edgy series like The Shield and Nip/Tuck. But since he took charge in Burbank, he has lived with a target painted on his back.

His predecessor, NBC Universal TV Group CEO Jeff Zucker, had left primetime in rough shape, developing nary a hit to bolster an aging lineup of shows. His sharp elbows rankled the production community's old-boy network, and word got around that NBC was no longer the place for developing singular programming.

Even with his FX pedigree, Reilly had his work cut out for him trying to convince Hollywood that NBC was open to risky, first-rate scripted stuff beyond police-procedural rehashes and over-the-top reality series.

He's finally starting to get some traction this season. After standing by The Office and My Name Is Earl, which were part of his first development slate last year, both have become moderate hits. The rookie drama Heroes is arguably the only watercooler show of the new season. And Sunday Night Football, while expensive at $600 million, has not only played a big part in the network's 15% rise in the 18-49 demo this November sweeps, it has also given Reilly a much-needed platform for plugging the rest of his lineup.

I hope he celebrated when he had the chance.

Last month, Zucker and NBCU Chairman/CEO Bob Wright didn't help him any with their pledges to abandon scripted series in the 8 p.m. hour in the name of cost cutting. After weeks of turmoil within the NBCU corporate suites, the long knives seemed to be out for Reilly.

The day before he unveiled his midseason moves, the Los Angeles Times reported that Reilly was about to be layered by Jeff Gaspin, the head of NBCU's cable entertainment channels and digital programming, who might be on his way to overseeing all of the company's TV content.

It's hard to find anyone who thinks any of these changes at NBCU bode well for Reilly's future at the network.

This may be wishful thinking on my part, but Zucker and company might be onto something by positioning Gaspin, notably credited for such cheesy hits as The Apprentice and Deal or No Deal, as a counterbalance to Reilly's more urbane tastes.

Hey, even Tartikoff scored with schlock like The A-Team and Unsolved Mysteries. The Peacock has to be in the business of mass as well as class.

No doubt, Reilly knows he's staking his job on his blue-chip bet. But in the long run, I'd put money on his coming out top, whether or not he stays at NBC.

http://www.broadcastingcable.com/index.asp?layout=articlePrint&articleID=CA6396762

fredfa

12-02-06, 11:39 AM

The TV Column
Turkey Day Parade Was on Viewers' Plates
By Lisa de Moraes Washington Post Staff Writer Saturday, December 2, 2006

An average of about 21 million people spent Thanksgiving morning watching helium-filled Snoopy, Pikachu, Big Bird, SpongeBob SquarePants and a helium-less Barry Manilow lumber down Manhattan's Central Park West on NBC. It was last week's second-most-watched program in the country, behind only Sunday's "Desperate Housewives" on ABC.

The 80th annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade broadcast outdistanced 89 of 90 prime-time telecasts last week.

To put this in perspective, the four-hour, holiday kitschfest Thursday clocked about 4 million more viewers than the most recent Grammy Awards broadcast, 5 million more than the most recent Primetime Emmy Awards broadcast and nearly twice as many viewers as that other Christmas season orgy of commercialism, "The Victoria's Secret Fashion Show," snared in its first and best year on broadcast TV.

• • • • • • • • • • •

When NBC announced yesterday it had given Tina Fey's new comedy, "30 Rock," a full-season order, early stats suggested the previous night's broadcast had snagged the show's best number ever among the young viewers the network targets, despite the stiff "Grey's Anatomy" and "CSI" competition.

Overall, the episode averaged 6.6 million viewers, early stats indicated.

Then the final numbers came in and the overall audience dropped to 6 million and young-adult numbers also plopped. Still, NBC noted, putting on its bright smile, "30 Rock" copped the show's second- best performance against that aforementioned stiff competition.

NBC now has ordered full seasons of both of its prime-time "SNL"-esque series and is so in love with the franchise these days it's even threatening to run "SNL" Friday rehearsals on the Internet.

"Sometimes it's a lot more interesting than the show," NBC Universal chief digital officer George Kliavkoff cracked when he mentioned the idea being bandied about by NBC suits at this week's Digital Entertainment Media & Marketing Excellence conference, according to trade paper the Hollywood Reporter.

"It's something we watch on the cameras at 30 Rock."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/01/AR2006120101655_pf.html

fredfa

12-02-06, 12:51 PM

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

fredfa

12-02-06, 01:08 PM

If you haven't done it yet, please remember to post your favorite top five broadcast prime-time shows, and add in a favorite guilty pleasure program if you like.

(Note: The shows need not be new this year, just your favorites overall.)

I'll tabulate the votes and announce them probably some time tomorrow.

Now I'm off to the Rose Bowl to see my beloved Bruins get smoked by USC.

So play nice, I'll probably be in a very depressed mood later in the day.

AtogMuncher

12-02-06, 02:24 PM

1 Heroes
2 Medium
3 Lost
4 The War at Home
5 CSI Miami

Guilty Pleasure
'Til Death

If cable/pay were include these would bump a few off the list :)

Battlestar Galactica
Dexter

Kracko

12-02-06, 03:44 PM

Broadcast? OK since Battlestar Galactica had it's season preview on NBC, I'm going to count it. Let me know if you're not going to, Fredfa.

Jim

1) Battlestar Galactica
2) Lost
3) Boston Legal
4) Heroes
5) Studio 60

Guilty Pleasure: Desperate housewives and American Idol when it's on.

turansformer

12-02-06, 05:30 PM

1. 24
2. Lost
3. Studio 60
4. Desperate Housewives
5. Heroes

Guilty Pleasure: Prison Break

PJO1966

12-02-06, 05:33 PM

1. Heroes
2. Gray's Anatomy
3. 24
4. Lost
5. Studio 60

Guilty Pleasure: Ugly Betty

jabbathespud

12-02-06, 06:17 PM

1. 24
2. House
3. Lost
4. Veronica Mars
5. Heroes

Guilty Pleasure: Two & 1/2 Men

Honorable Mention: L&O:SVU, Ny Name is Earl

rebkell

12-02-06, 07:51 PM

Fredfa is gonna be in a good mood

keenan

12-02-06, 08:01 PM

Fredfa is gonna be in a good mood
No kiddin'...great game. :)

Kracko

12-02-06, 08:10 PM

Honorable Mention: L&O:SVU, Ny Name is Earl

Hmm...I thought they called it the Big Apple?

;)

humdinger70

12-02-06, 09:13 PM

If you haven't fone it yet, please remember to post your favorite top five broadcast prime-time shows, and add in a favorite guilty pleasure program if you like.

(Note: The shows need not be new this year, just your favorites overall.)

I'll tabulate the votes and announce them probably some time tomorrow.

Now I'm off to the Rose Bowl to see my beloved Bruins get smoked by USC.

So play nice, I'll probably be in a very depressed mood later in the day.

I'm sure you're anything BUT depressed after today's result! :D :D :D

fredfa

12-02-06, 10:20 PM

I have updated the College HD Bowl schedule here:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=4278280#post4278280

(And, on a personal note, as a U C L A Bruin fan just back from a crazed -- and, frankly, disbelieving -- Rose Bowl, never have I been so happy to pencil U S C into the Rose Bowl slot. Now I just have to wait to find out who I get to root for on my next trip to Pasadena on January 1st -- apparently either LSU or Michigan.)

I'll be updating the Bowl schedule for the next 22 hours -- until the official BCS pairings are announced, so keep checking in.

I certainly don't mean to offend any Trojan fans, but it is such fun NOT being depressed after the UCLA-USC game for the first time in eight years ! ! !

shawn12341234

12-02-06, 10:29 PM

fredfa

12-02-06, 10:37 PM

Good luck in the polls, shawn.

I suspect the final BCS standings will be very, very close for #2.

rebkell

12-02-06, 10:37 PM

Gator nation thanks you for your support.

It was tough, but this Vol fan was pulling for Florida tonight, that was quite a roller coaster, just when Florida looked dead, Arkansas fumbled that punt.

fredfa

12-02-06, 10:41 PM

Critic’s Notebook
Let's talk 'Grey's Anatomy'
From Maureen Ryan’s Chicago Tribune blog “The Watcher” December 01, 2006

Here are five random things that stick in my mind about Thursday’s satisfying episode of “Grey’s Anatomy”:

• McSteamy asked Izzie to get him a “bone-dry cappuccino.” What is a bone-dry cappuccino? I’ve never heard of such a thing. What is it?

• The scene in which George’s dad told George to be mad at him – well, actor George Dzundza, who played the senior O’Malley, just knocked that scene out of the park.

• How interesting was it that this show gets pigeonholed as a constant round of bedroom capers -- yet so much of Thursday’s episode revolved around hostility, anger and betrayal. Instead of flirting and making googly eyes over medical charts, just about every single character was shooting daggers at someone else, if not at a lot of someone elses. That sort of strong emotion gave everything in this episode a lot more impact.

• I wish Izzie had held out against McSteamy’s attempt to treat her like an errand-running servant. Her refusing to get him coffee and sandwiches -- forever -- would have made for an intriguing dynamic between them.

• What other show could do a plot about conjoined twins getting separated, and actually have you buy into the emotions of the woman involved in their lives? The scene in which she poured out her thoughts was actually quite well-done -- yet it was not at all out of character that the brothers started bickering and swatting each other by the end of that scene. I do rail against “Grey’s” weaknesses at times, but I can’t think of any other show that could pull off that particular mix of emotion and humor. Last night's episode showed that "Grey's" has still got it, whatever that magical "it" is.

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

fredfa

12-02-06, 10:51 PM

Critic’s Notebook
DVD megasets worth the weight
By Miriam Di Nunzio Chicago Sun-Times Weekend Editor

Never has the term "megaset" been more apropo than now. When it comes to the crop of 2006 DVD box sets, it's no longer about the "director's cut" or the "extended cut." Today it's all about girth, weight, volume, and oh yeah, "complete."

The past year has been a bonanza for fans of some of television's most popular series as well as film anthologies. The big boys of DVDs are here, those mega-priced, yet hard-to-resist box sets that are a must for diehards. And if the trend stays as hot as it is, they're here for the long haul.

So in no particular order, here are 10 must-have DVD megasets from 2006.

1. The James Bond Ultimate Edition Volume I, and Volume II (MGM Home Entertainment, $89.98 each). The first two box sets arrived a few weeks back (volumes 3 and 4 are due out Dec. 12), but if you're a diehard fan of one of the greatest movie dynasties in history, then you would do well to pick up these separate box set, 10-disc beauties. Each of the 10 films has been completely restored (at 1.2 million pixels of resolution, the look will astound) and is packaged with a separate disc of bonus features. Loaded with never-before-seen footage, rare interviews, new behind-the-scenes documentaries, music videos, interactive guides and commentary (14 hours of Roger Moore?) the series has never looked or sounded so good (thanks to 5.1 DTS surround sound). With the newest Bond film now in theaters, this is an incredible way to get reacquainted with the series -- the villains, the Bond girls, the gadgets, the fun, the cars, and come to understand why Sean Connery is still the greatest Bond ever.

2. "MASH: The Martinis & Medicine Collection" ( Fox Home Entertainment, $199.98). With 36 discs, this is one of the year's biggest box sets and it's worth every ounce. All 11 seasons of the 12-time Emmy-winning show as well as the Oscar-winning 1970 feature film directed by the late Robert Altman are included. That's 6,579 minutes of the television series that you'll have at your remote-control fingertips. The bonus features are sadly quite limited.

3. "Friends: The Complete Series Collection" (Warner Home Video, $299.98). All 236 episodes are featured on this re-packaged and weighty 40-disc set in a sturdy flip-top box. That's 10 years of the Emmy-winning show that made Jennifer Aniston a superstar and redefined situation comedy. The bonus features include 25 documentaries. This is the show that brought us "Smelly Cat," "We were on a break" and "Going commando" if you know what I mean. (If you've already bought the "Friends: The One With All 10 Seasons" limited edition box that came out last year, no need to pick this one up.)

4. "Homicide: Life on the Streets" (A&E Home Entertainment, $299.95). This is the megadaddy of the megasets: All 122 episodes (and bonus features) on 35 discs, packaged in a nifty "homicide" file cabinet. One of the best crime dramas to come down the pike, the show ran for 6 seasons (1993-99). The box set will delight hardcore fans for many reasons, not the least of which is "producer's order" the shows follow in the right order so that the storylines and characters' lives make better sense. The series featured an amazingly powerful cast including Yaphet Kotto, Richard Belzer and Andre Braugher, and though it was never a ratings-buster when it aired, it has become a cult classic among crime drama fanatics.

5. "The Superman Ultimate Collector's Edition" (Warner Home Video, $99.98). Listen up fans of the Man of Steel: If you want the definitive collection, this is it. The 14-disc set includes the 1951 George Reeves film "Superman and the Mole-Men," plus 17 of the original WWII-era television "Superman" cartoons; "Superman," "Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut"; "Superman III," "Superman IV," and "Superman Returns." The biggest thrill of this set is the Donner cut of "Superman II" in which the director has pieced together his version of the film he was fired from thanks to long-lost footage recently recovered and re-inserted. The extras overall are less than super, but what a joy it is to watch Christopher Reeve soar once again!

6. "Get Smart: The Complete Collection" (TimeLife/HBO Home Video; $199.96; www.getsmartondvd.com.) Would you believe ... All 138 completely restored episodes of the classic television series (1965-70) are featured on 25 DVDs plus 10 hours of bonus materials packaged in what else -- a phone booth. The show, which starred Don Adams as Maxwell Smart and Barbara Feldon as Agent 99, was a seven-time Emmy-winner, thanks in no small measure to the show's creators/writers Mel Brooks and Buck Henry. But it was Adams and Co. who kept us in stitches. Who can forget the "cone of silence" or "shoe phones?

7. "Six Feet Under: The Complete Series" (HBO Home Video, $279.99). Has there ever been a more dysfunctional family on television? Let's start with the clever packaging: an artificial-turf topped burial plot. But that's just window dressing. The 24-disc set includes all 63 episodes from the Emmy-Award winning series, two soundtrack CDs, a family tree, and a collector's booklet featuring all the characters' obituaries. The set abounds with commentaries, deleted scenes, behind-the-scenes futurities and a closer look at the incredible cast that featured Francis Conroy, Michael C. Hall, Freddy Rodriguez and Peter Krause.

8. "The Rodgers and Hammerstein Collection" (20th Century Fox Home Entertainment, $99.98). The 12-disc set features six of the duos most acclaimed musicals: "Carousel," "The King and I," "South Pacific," "The Sound of Music," "State Fair" and "Oklahoma!" Who could ask for anything more? Each musical is presented as separate 2-disc DVD complete with nrestored video and audio (legendary 55mm and Todd-AO versions of several of the films are included). As grand as these legendary films are, the set is blessed with an avalanche of bonus materials, from the 1934 film "Liliom" (on which "Carousel is based) to the Movietone news reel footage of the Hollywood premieres to vintage stage excerpts of the musicals featuring performances by Broadway casts. These timeless musicals have never sounded or looked as marvelous as they do on this set.

9. "Astaire & Rogers Ultimate Collector's Edition" (Warner Home Video, $99.98) From 1933 through 1949, Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers danced their way across the silver screen and into moviegoers' hearts like no other film musical duo in history. Their 10 films are featured on this 11-disc set, from "Flying Down to Rio" (Astaire and Rogers are paired for the first time and in supporting roles) and "The Gay Divorcee" (featuring the song "The Continental" that won an Oscar and started a dance craze), to "Top Hat" and "The Barkleys of Broadway" and all the others in between. Even if you're not a fan of the duo, the music of Cole Porter, George Gershwin, Jerome Kern, Irving Berlin is a pleasure in itself.

10. "Planet of the Apes - The Ultimate DVD Collection (with Ape Head Packaging, (20th Century Fox Home Entertainment, $179.98). A classic (albeit campy) film dynasty, this 14-disc set comes packaged with a replica of Caesar's ape head (it's both creepy and fantastic) and features the original 1968 film starring Charlton Heston, Roddy McDowall and Kim Hunter, as well as the sequels and remakes it spawned over the subsequent 40 years including the four feature films" the 1974 television series, the 1975 animated series, the acclaimed AMC documentary "Behind the Planet of the Apes," and the 2001 remake starring Mark Wahlberg. The bonus features are too numerous to mention (the usual making-of and behind-the-scenes docs are fantastic), but include pretty much everything you ever wanted to know about the "Ape" films and series. Best of all, the discs can be stored in the base of the ape's head bust.

http://www.suntimes.com/entertainment/movies/154995,WKP-News-holidaydvd01.article

Kracko

12-02-06, 11:08 PM

(And, on a personal note, as a U C L A Bruin fan just back from a crazed -- and, frankly, disbelieving -- Rose Bowl, never have I been so happy to pencil U S C into the Rose Bowl slot. Now I just have to wait to find out who I get to root for on my next trip to Pasadena on January 1st -- apparently either LSU or Michigan.)

Fellow Bruin fan here Fredfa. I knew I liked you. :D

Anyway, it was tough listening to Burnt Mooseburger on TV. He's such an apologist for the Trojans.

I have a lot of respect for Pete Carroll and the Trojans. He is one of, if not the best, coach in the country. UCLA's defense was simply motivated NOT to lose today. My guess is partially because of some of Brent's comments in last week's USC-Notre Dame game.

Now on to basketball season.

fredfa

12-02-06, 11:22 PM

Thanks, Kracko, and I agree, it is hard not to admire Carroll. His comments after the game, as well as the remarks I heard from Booty and others were gracious and reflect credit on themselves and that fabulous USC football program.

(I believe the recent death of Marcus Cassell also motivated the Bruins.)

But I try to leave my personal likes and dislikes out of the thread as much as possible, so perhaps we should end the discussion of UCLA-USC. I apologize for bringing it up and for my post-game delirium.

(Well, not a FULL apology, perhaps....)

But now let's get back to TV news!

RussTC3

12-02-06, 11:41 PM

What a shocking result to the USC-UCLA game, I'm sure you had a great time Fred.

The BCS standings should be very interesting.

And thanks for that article on Grey's. The most recent episode reminded me why I love that series so darn much. They churn out some amazing stories and push every emotional button.

I can't wait for Shonda's new series if that's still a go.

hask

12-03-06, 01:45 AM

fredfa

12-03-06, 01:49 AM

Actually, hask, Rayburn teamed with Finch first on WNEW, then after he left, Klavan took over.

It was Rayburn and Finch first, then morphed in to Klavan and Finch.

fredfa

12-03-06, 01:51 AM

shawn12341234

12-03-06, 07:50 AM

Good luck in the polls, shawn.

I suspect the final BCS standings will be very, very close for #2.

They shouldn't (but i will definitely be watching the BCS show on FOX at 8:00):

1. Florida beat nine teams that are projected to play in bowl games. Michigan beat six.

2. Michigan beat five teams that finished the season with losing records. Florida beat two teams with sub-.500 records.

3. Florida's 12 Division I-A opponents had a combined record of 89-57. Michigan's 12 opponents had a combined record of 84-61.

4. Michigan's best win is considered a 27-13 victory over Wisconsin on Sept. 23. The Badgers are 11-1 and have climbed to No. 7 in the AP Top 25 poll, despite having played only one ranked opponent -- the Wolverines -- the entire season.

5. The 12 teams Florida defeated finished the season with 11 combined wins against opponents which were ranked in the AP Top 25 poll at the time the game was played. The opponents Michigan defeated claim just three wins against ranked teams (Notre Dame beat Penn State. Indiana beat Iowa. Vanderbilt beat Georgia. The Nittany Lions, Hawkeyes and Bulldogs, it should be noted, haven't been ranked in seven weeks).

6. The Gators went 3-1 against ranked opponents, beating then-No. 13 Tennessee, No. 9 LSU and No. 8 Arkansas and losing at No. 11 Auburn. The Wolverines went 1-1 against ranked opponents, beating a highly overrated No. 2 Notre Dame team (that lost to Michigan and USC by a combined total of 46 points) and losing at No. 1 Ohio State 42-39 on Nov. 18.

7. The Gators' average margin of victory against Division I-A teams was 13.5 points. They won seven games by 14 points or fewer, six by less than 10. The Wolverines' average margin of victory was 17.3 points. They won six games by 14 points or fewer, two by less than 10.

8. The Gators played Western Carolina, a Division I-AA team, and won by 62 points. The Wolverines played Ball State, which should be a I-AA team, and won by eight.

9. Since the Wolverines last played and lost at Ohio State, the Gators won at Florida State (The Seminoles are 6-6, but rivalry games are tough to win. Just ask USC coach Pete Carroll) and then beat the No. 8 Razorbacks, who defeated then-No. 2 Auburn and No. 13 Tennessee by 17 points each.

10. Michigan didn't win the Big Ten; Florida won the SEC. Winning your conference should be a prerequisite for playing in the national championship.

By Mark Schlabach
ESPN.com

harley1

12-03-06, 09:03 AM

TNT's 'Librarian': Farcical fantasy fun

By Jonathan Storm
Inquirer Columnist

As our intrepid (and attractive) hero and heroine make their way across the drifting desert sands of northern Kenya, they come across a local dude with a brightly painted face, buried up to his neck.

"Are you all right?" they ask.

"I've been better," he replies.

And so it goes in the wisecracked, thrill-packed, special-effects-stacked foolishness of TNT's The Librarian: Return to King Solomon's Mines, premiering tonight at 8.

Starring Noah Wyle, still boyishly likable after 37 years on ER, and Gabrielle Anwar, 5 feet, 3 inches of charming pluck, it's the sequel to the first Librarian movie, which scored big for TNT on the first Sunday in December two years ago. Quest for the Spear was the highest-rated basic cable movie of 2004.

These films (it seems like a franchise that could go on forever) wear "old-fashioned adventure" on their sleeves, gleefully ripping off anything and everything from Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid through Indiana Jones and even Back to the Future.

Wyle plays Flynn Carson, a geek with a daredevil streak, who is curator of a vast museum of mankind's most awesome mysteries. But since half the intended audience wouldn't know what curator meant, the producers call it a library.

Bob Newhart plays Carson's boss, and Excalibur, King Arthur's magic sword, is one of his colleagues, and there's the film's formula: farcical fantasy featuring the kind of movie magic that used to cost millions.

Like Inspector Clouseau's houseboy, Kato, Excalibur greets Carson at the door with a playful jab, and disembodied sword and man do a little battle dance. It's much better than the movie's ultimate human vs. human fight scene, which looks like it was choreographed by the two Jerrys - Springer and Rice.

But who's counting? Any movie that offers dialogue like this is better than most television:

"Did we get a new statue?" Carson asks library personnel director Jane Curtin, as strong boys cart off a life-size figure.

"Steve the guard accidentally looked at Medusa's head," she deadpans. "Turned to stone."

"What covers that?" Carson queries. "Is that health insurance or workman's comp?"

From Medusa's head to Excalibur to Pan's magic flute, the Metropolitan Library stores them all. The Ten Commandments lie forlornly against a wall. Neptune's Trident springs a leak.

But the library's still lacking the Key of King Solomon and all the other mumbo-jumbo that goes with his legendary mines. So when Carson gets a package in the mail containing a mysterious map, he's off to find the mythic wonders.

Bad guys are after them, too. Aren't they always?

The movie opens with impressive helicopter panoramas of southern Utah and a lushly orchestrated score that signal we're in for something a little grander than the usual TV fare.

Carson and a Sioux sidekick are on the trail of the crystal skull, a treasure from Atlantis (maybe the Mormons carried it out to Utah). But, alas, there are more bad guys, and the two rappel down sandstone cliffs into their midst.

"There's at least six of them and there's only two of us, and they got guns," protests the Sioux.

"Relax," replies Carson. "This kind of stuff happens to me all the time."

Actually, despite hippo attacks and a last-second getaway on a cute Kenyan train, it could happen a little more. Return to King Solomon's Mines has its slow points, as Carson, who has 22 academic degrees but not a whole lot of life experience, ponders the early loss of his father.

Still, executive producer Dean Devlin (Independence Day, The Patriot) and director Jonathan Frakes, Star Trek's beloved Cmdr. Riker, don't let too much reality clog up the capers. Alert viewers can spot Frakes in a Chitty Chitty Bang Bang-style, though earthbound, "Honeymoon Bus" that plies the back roads of Kenya, supposed home to the legendary mines, where some of the movie was shot.

It's not often that basic cable travels all the way to Africa for a little local color. The Librarian goes the distance to bring home some cold weather diversion for the whole family.

File it in the card catalog under "fun."

The Librarian: Return to King Solomon's Mines
Tonight at 8 on TNT

http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/16140361.htm

harley1

12-03-06, 09:09 AM

Oh, daddy
Stiller reigns over the 'King of Queens'

By Jacqueline Cutler
December 3, 2006

Jerry Stiller plays the father-in-law on "The King of Queens," but he is actually a king of Brooklyn.

Yes, he and Anne Meara, his partner in comedy and wife of 53 years, were dubbed king and queen of Brooklyn at a "Welcome Back to Brooklyn" festival in 2000. Both natives of the borough, they've been on "The Ed Sullivan Show" 36 times and starred on Broadway, in movies and on television.

Now in his 17th year of playing a loudmouth dad, Stiller is soft-spoken.

"They are blowhards," Stiller says of Frank Costanza, George's dad on "Seinfeld," and Arthur Spooner, Carrie's dad, on CBS' "The King of Queens."

The sitcom ushers in its ninth season Wednesday, Dec. 6, with two episodes. Stiller isn't in these, but in others he'll soon be yelling as Arthur.

"You find what you have been holding back all these years, and there is no better place to do it than in the theater," Stiller says of conjuring up rage. "If I did it on the street, I'd be arrested. All actors are allowed to express certain things. That's what theater is."

That's why the show about a childish deliveryman and his not-so-silent suffering wife (played by Kevin James and Leah Remini) remains popular.

"Everything in this world is based on the audience, and the audience seems to be picking up on us. And they feel comfortable with the people on the screen, and the cast is very much like the way people are today," Stiller says. "There are two people trying to make it. They're blue collar or they want to buy a summer house or go on vacation, and they are up against it.

"The people today are up against it, despite the rosy picture presented by the current administration," Stiller says. "Kevin and Leah are very much like the people up against it."

Politics figure often during a one-hour conversation with Stiller, 79. A child of the Depression, he moved 10 times during his first 12 years, all in Brooklyn, where his father was an out-of-work cabbie.

At 17, he enlisted in a special program in the Army. Just before he was to be deployed to Tokyo, the bombs were dropped. Instead, he was shipped to Italy, where his function "was to dispense VD films to soldiers to make sure they did not catch anything bad. I saved a lot of guys," he says.

And think of the material he collected. Like all comedians, Stiller finds material everywhere. He and Meara used their ethnicities, Jewish and Irish Catholic, for some of their great skits.

"On 'The King of Queens,' we said whatever was on our minds - some of the language we used I am sure many people said we could not say that." Stiller then spells out what he said.

Stiller's favorite Arthur moment was when he applied to become head of a pediatric unit. He's not a doctor. "He had no qualifications," Stiller says. "It's a wonderful thing if you are an actor, you can make your own rules."

And pass them down to your children, Ben and Amy. Jerry is currently filming "The Heartbreak Kid," in which he plays Ben's father.

Although he works in Los Angeles, "New York is home," he says. "As an actor I am still around, and I can still do the work. And for that alone I am glad to be going to work. The best part is the laughter."

http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/tv/chi-0612030432dec03,1,7263115,print.story?coll=chi-ent_tv-hed

shuttermaker

12-03-06, 09:31 AM

GatorNation, Let us pray.....

Michigan had its shot.

harley1

12-03-06, 09:42 AM

How television took control of sports
TV made sports an overwhelming presence in our lives, and now it's exercising increasing control of when, where and how the games are played.

By Robert Dvorchak, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Having secured tickets to the Steelers home game against the Saints, Brendan Eccleston had a football weekend all planned.

His group of five would pack for their tailgate party and drive from Manalapan, N.J., near Trenton, to Pittsburgh for the Nov. 12 game. The 1 p.m. start would allow them to drive back Sunday night so nobody would miss work or school.

But under the National Football League's new flex schedules that allow TV networks to change starting times to accommodate nationally televised games, kickoff was moved up to 4:15 p.m. and the scramble began.

After giving consideration to selling the tickets and staying home, Mr. Eccleston's group hit on a backup plan that cost them more but salvaged their weekend. They drove to Philadelphia, caught a flight to Pittsburgh, rented a car and parked in a $40 lot at Heinz Field for a quick getaway -- leaving before the game clock had reached zero -- to catch a 9:20 return flight Sunday night.

"We're happy to be able to attend a Steelers game, but we're not happy with having to go through the trouble and the extra expense involved with the time change," Mr. Eccleston said. "It's not our game anymore. It doesn't even belong to the NFL. It belongs to TV."

The symbiotic relationship between TV and the NFL or TV and sports in general has produced gradual but profound cultural changes. The notion of high school games on Friday nights, college games on Saturday afternoons and NFL games on Sundays is now as quaint as day baseball. (The last World Series game to be played in daytime was in 1987 in Minnesota -- inside a dome.)

"As we roll forward and as cable continues to expand ... it's just going to continue to happen more frequently, where you have overlap between high school, college and pros," said University of Pittsburgh Athletic Director Jeff Long.

West Virginia University linebacker Jay Henry, one of only 17 National Football Foundation scholar-athletes, worries about the impact of weeknight games, which have become common this year, on his studies.

"They're fun to play. And you're on TV. There are pros and cons to it: You don't have to get up and go to class. But, at the same time, I got to make up all this work, man."

The power of television

Paying customers, especially those from out of town, see the NFL's flex scheduling as the latest and most egregious example of another thing lost, like Christmas being stolen by the Grinch, to the power of television.

Yet despite the annoyances conferred upon some, there is a trade-off cited by the networks, the NFL and viewers at home. That Saints-Steelers game was the most-watched football game in the land on that Sunday, and the third most-watched TV program of the week.

Higher ratings mean more money from advertisers, which helps the broadcasters recover some of the money they pay for the rights to air the games. In the NFL's case, that's close to $4 billion this year alone.

"We understand the inconvenience that goes along with having a later starting time," said the authoritative voice of Joe Buck, Fox's top play-by-announcer who doubles as host of "The NFL on Fox."

"It's a domino effect. We flip the first domino. But we also fill the hotels, promote the city, feature the Steelers on a national game and allow more people to watch at home."

Forget time changes on Sunday. Football, which rose to the sports pinnacle because of TV, has the power to change the calendar, with the new NFL Network broadcasting its own set of games on Thursday and Saturday nights.

So many viewers gather around the two-dimensional screen, the equivalent of the electronic hearth, that the Super Bowl is now an unofficial American holiday. No script writer or omnipotent TV mogul will be able to create any show that attracts more viewers than the Super Bowl, the pinnacle of unscripted drama, spectacle and raw emotion.

"It never ceases to amaze me how fans rally around football," said Kim Williams, chief operating officer of the NFL Network. "I've never painted my face, but I have so many memories of being with family around the TV when football is on. When you hear that music from NFL Films, you run in to watch. It does bring people together in that way."

She does acknowledge that a Thursday night tailgating experience may have a different feel, but the bottom line for the NFL is the mass audience TV can reach.

"We don't think in terms of denying fans access. We're expanding the access," Ms. Williams said. "On the whole, I don't think the [flex] scheduling will impact tailgating or ticket sales."

If you ever want to gauge the power of TV and its hypnotic appeal, stand at the open end of Heinz Field during a game. Fans who battle traffic, search for parking spaces and pay big money for tickets turn their backs to the actual game so they can watch it on the TV screen on the scoreboard. (Then again, they can smoke in that area, and the beer stands and restrooms are more accessible than they are from the seats in the stadium.)

William Shakespeare -- the bard, not the one-time Steelers draft choice -- once observed that if every day were a holiday, to sport would be as tedious as to work. But he didn't have a plasma TV and an endless choice of games to watch.

Troy Aikman, the retired quarterback who is on Fox's No. 1 broadcasting team, notes that viewers have never been closer to the action.

"Fans have a much better perspective than they've ever had. But the speed of the game, the impact of the collisions, we can never capture that," he said.

Mr. Aikman is also wary of the diluted product that could result.

"My concern is overexposure," Mr. Aikman said. "It's hard to argue [about the added broadcasts] because of the popularity of the game. That doesn't mean we can take it all for granted. As a kid, I thought of Monday night as a special night. I don't think it's as special as it was."

Sports and TV grow together

Historically, the marriage of sports and TV has involved passion and money, and all marriages have their rough spots.

The first sporting event ever televised was the 1936 Olympics in Nazi Germany, and sociologists could have a field day connecting the dots to an Adolph Hitler propaganda tool with later references to TV as the boob tube and idiot box.

In America, the first televised sporting event occurred in 1939 -- the second game of a college baseball doubleheader between Princeton and Columbia.

TV was so new back then that consumers needed a reason to invest money to purchase a set. A big part of the selling point was that they could watch sports at home. From the outset, TV promoted sports, and sports drove TV sales.

"Husbands would be out shopping with their wives in department stores, and all the TV sets were tuned to college football games," said Robert Thompson, a professor at the Center for the Study of Popular TV at Syracuse University. "You could almost see a light bulb go on. 'Oh, if I spend a lot of money on a TV set, I can watch this.' A connection was made that exists to this day. It's a match made in heaven."

Now viewers are investing in high definition TV sets -- the new wall art -- and cable or satellite services to watch more than just the major sports. Programming now includes made-for-TV golf like the skins game, beach volleyball, poker, darts, billiards, horse racing, car racing, skate-boarding, dog shows, equestrian competitions and on and on.

But if TV pays for the rights to broadcast, it also wants to call the shots. That means influencing the very games it airs.

"Being there has changed," Mr. Thompson said. "If you're at a big game, you're witnessing the taping of a TV show. Look at some of the Olympic events. There's nobody in the stands because TV wants to show them in prime time to a U.S. audience. Things are done for the convenience of TV. There is a ceiling someplace, but we don't seem to be near it. Sports and celebrity seem to be two things there's an unlimited appetite for."

Does that make TV a sinister technology when it comes to sports? It all depends on who is affected.

TV has certainly triggered the seismic changes in the economic landscape. George Steinbrenner's Yankees couldn't have a $200 million a year payroll without a local TV contract, and athletes long ago could not have reached the cult status of rock stars without the national exposure TV affords.

Changing the rules

Other influences are as obvious as they are cumulative.

Every viewer worth his or her salt knows there's a two-minute warning in the second and fourth quarters of an NFL game. The practice was introduced in the 1960s to make sure the networks were guaranteed a chance to air commercials before the end of the half and the end of the game.

Then there's instant replay, introduced in the 1963 Army-Navy game as a gimmick to wow viewers. The technology is now part of the rule book. It's up to TV to provide the definitive angle.

"We're part of the process whether we want to be or not," said Richie Zyontz, a TV producer for 25 years who now works the Fox national game each week.

Coaches watch replays before they issue a challenge. And referees peer into a special screen to determine if a ruling should stand or be overturned.

"Because of TV, there are more and more interruptions. If you're at a game, it's extremely disruptive. It's changed dramatically," said Gerry Weber, 66, a Steelers season ticket holder of 40 years.

A former Pittsburgher who now lives in Camp Hill in central Pennsylvania, Mr. Weber is among those affected by the decision to move today's game from a 1 p.m. to a 4:15 start. This week's Thursday night game against the Browns also complicates his commute. And he wants the NFL to know of his displeasure.

"I travel over three hours each way to every game, which means I must either pay to stay overnight or return home near midnight after the 4:15 games. Weeknight games mean that fans of school age can't attend," Mr. Weber said. "Clearly, TV is driving it. It's all geared to what they want, not the paying customers. It's just a bad deal. I can't justify paying a lot of money to keep doing this."

The way the Steelers season has played out, only two home games carry a traditional 1 p.m. start time, including the Christmas Eve game with the Ravens.

Local fans have their own concerns.

"My liver really feels it," said tailgater Graeme Dunlap when asked about the later start times. "I have to get here at the same time, but it's just three more hours of stress on my liver."

But the out-of-town fans who have to make last-minute adjustments to travel plans feel it in the wallet.

Consider the circumstances encountered by Bob Umenhofer, a native of the Pittsburgh area who now lives in Boston. Some time ago, he booked an 8:30 p.m. Sunday return flight. With the 4:15 start, he changed it to 7:30 a.m. tomorrow at a cost of $130. He can impose upon relatives to stay over, but it's still going to cost him extra to park his car overnight at Logan Airport. And with traffic hassles, he'll be lucky to get to work by 11 a.m. Monday.

"Once again, the dollars rule," Mr. Umenhofer said. "I'm not happy about this at all. The networks make this happen for their ratings. The NFL has no regard for the fans affected by this. So if you can ask the new commissioner [Roger Goodell] who I send the bill to for my additional costs, I'd be grateful. Otherwise, I'll think long and hard about purchasing another ticket in the future."

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/pp/06337/743190.stm

harley1

12-03-06, 09:45 AM

NFL Network: Who needs a middleman?
The NFL right now is the overwhelming presence in our culture

By Robert Dvorchak, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

The brave new world of the NFL on TV has arrived in the presence of the NFL Network. The big picture of what it all means is still coming into focus.

On the air 24 hours a day, seven days a week, since its debut in 2003, the NFL Network began airing a package of eight Thursday and Saturday night games on Thanksgiving night. It's all part of a strategy to project the NFL as a year-round sport.

"This isn't about eight games," said Steve Bornstein, president of the NFL Network. "The NFL offers the most popular programming content in this country -- it's the platinum standard of programming on TV -- and we're building a platform that will be responsive to fans' long-term interests. We have a sport that people follow 12 months of the year, and that's what we're offering our customers."

Fans of the Steelers are directly impacted this week because the featured game has the Browns playing in Heinz Field on Thursday, and they want to know if one thing -- will it be available on TV?

It won't be a problem in the Pittsburgh area, even for viewers who don't get the NFL Network with their basic cable service because KDKA will carry the game, subject to blackout restrictions. Satellite providers such as DirecTV and the Dish Network will also carry the game.

But there are sure to be viewers somewhere in the far-flung reaches of the Steeler Nation who won't get the game while the NFL and some cable giants haggle over availability, with the courts serving as referees.

Nationally, the NFL Network is available in about 41 million homes through 160 cable companies.

Comcast, for one, carries the NFL channel, but customers have to pay extra for the service. The NFL has filed a lawsuit against Comcast because it balks at being carried on a sports tier.

Other cable companies -- Time Warner, Cablevision and Charter -- have refused to bow to the NFL and don't show the channel. Their contention is that the NFL is demanding too much money per subscriber now that it is airing games. Litigation is pending.

While this power play works itself out, DirecTV is taking out full page ads offering the NFL games if subscribers sign up.

"I'm always concerned when the fan doesn't get what he wants," Bornstein said. "We're looking for the maximum number of homes we can get."

Perhaps it was inevitable that the most popular sport in a sports-obsessed country would begin airing its own games and rake in even more TV dollars. This is the first year of a six-year package, and it's the first time a sports league has aired games over its own network.

But NFL executives say their network compliments existing TV agreements, and there are no plans to monopolize the market.

For one thing, the league is paid big money -- close to $4 billion this year alone -- by CBS, FOX, NBC and ESPN for broadcast rights. To hype themselves and their other programming, each network promotes the NFL.

"We know where our bread is buttered," said Kim Williams, chief operating officer of the NFL Network. "[The new package] doesn't cannibalize existing relationships, it helps build on them."

But as far as the drawing power of football is concerned, the NFL Network is positioning itself to be a major player.

"Who better to give unprecedented access to the NFL than the NFL Network?" Ms. Williams asked.

The very existence of the NFL Network hints at the insatiable appetite that viewers have for football.

Even without the new games, the network has offered a variety of programming featuring condensed replays of games, news updates, highlights, features, news from the owners meetings, coverage of the NFL combine prior to the draft, the draft itself, mini-camps and training camps, along with a new NFL Films package on the 40 Super Bowls played to date.

"The league wanted us to make sure the sport of football was packaged as a year-round sport. I think we have done that," said Rich Eisen, formerly of ESPN and now the host of the new network.

The only restriction on editorial content is a prohibition about mentioning gambling odds, point spreads and over/under lines.

But if there is a big controversy over a call, the network can call out Mike Pereira, the director of officiating at the league office, and have him talk about it on the air. That access is as invaluable as having players and coaches miked during games.

"Sports is the ultimate escape, the ultimate in reality programming. It's true drama. You really don't know what's going to happen," Eisen said.

"The raw emotion and physical nature of the NFL definitely push a lot of peoples' buttons. It's played once a week, so every game is important. And fantasy football has drawn in a new segment. The NFL has captured the casual fan."

The NFL Network doesn't employ a sideline reporter for games.

Play-by-play and analysis are provided by the tandem of Bryant Gumbel and Cris Collinsworth, both of whom are amazed at how the NFL has grown.

"The NFL right now is the overwhelming presence in our culture," said Collinsworth. "I've sat at tables with actors, politicians and business leaders, and the common bond between everybody seems to be the NFL. It always cracks me up that all they want to talk about is football."

Gumbel had been away from play-by-play for decades. interviewing world leaders and U.S. presidents in his duties as co-anchor of NBC's "The Today Show" and CBS's "The Early Show".

"What's always been hilarious to me is even when I was away from the game, some guy would said, 'Hey, Bryant, who's going to win on Sunday?' People want to talk football.

"The appetite seems to be insatiable at this point," Gumbel said.

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06337/743134-66.stm

fredfa

12-03-06, 11:46 AM

TV Notebook
Primetime downloads are plentiful, but quality's spotty
“Variety” looks at nets' online offerings
By Brian Lowry, David S. Cohen Variety De. 3, 2006

Eager to follow eyeballs to the Web, four of the five networks have begun streaming their shows online for free. But how easy are these sites to use?

Variety tested them at home and at the office, comparing their offerings to iTunes for quality and ease of use. Bottom line: There's still much to improve.

Fox won the honors for best video quality of network sites. The network offers eight shows, including "Prison Break," on myspace.com/Fox, but doesn't yet support viewing on Macs. Navigation is easy. Though superior to rival sites, video quality still doesn't match broadcast, and playback suffers occasional pauses for buffering. Each segment of an episode is preceded by a very short commercial with a countdown timer -- a smart touch that discourages surfing away.

CBS.com's site had the most awkward navigation; it's often easier to simply go directly to cbs.com/innertube than to try to find a link to the Innertube site. Site offers 13 shows, including "Survivor" and "CSI," via Windows Media Player or RealPlayer; only RealPlayer worked on the test Macbook. Video is very fuzzy at full-screen, and although each viewing is supposed to be preceded by a commercial, sometimes the shows play without it.

ABC.com has the most attractive site of the bunch, though it has its quirks. A link takes you to a page of eight shows, including "Lost" and "Grey's Anatomy," that lists the time and date a new episode will be available, but this page doesn't take you directly to the show selection.

Once you finally get your episode of choice, sponsor information appears. Each segment is followed by a 30-second commercial, with the option to click over to the sponsor's site or get a special offer. The viewing window never gets that big, but the video quality is good.

NBC.com has a clearly marked section for "NBC 24/7" video with five shows displayed. However, when we visited, only "Friday Night Lights" and "Studio 60" offered full episodes. Site offers one nifty feature: each episode gets a DVD-style scene-selection menu, with each of the six segments as a separate link. Video is VHS-quality even in a small window. The site interrupts segments with short blurbs.

Apple's iTunes store takes an entirely different approach. First, it's not free; users pay either $1.99 per episode or a larger amount for a season pass for a show. Second, episodes are downloaded, not streamed. Third, they play on an iPod, not just a PC, so with the right cable, you can play them on a TV set. Fourth, it only works with Apple's iTunes software on a computer or with an iPod. At least the software is free.

iTunes boasts the biggest selection, with shows from many cable nets as well as the broadcast webs, plus the simplest navigation. You have to wait for the show to download, which can be no small thing on a slow connection, but once the show is on your hard disk, there are no hiccups for buffering -- or commercials. Video quality is also better -- crisp even at full screen.

http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117954897.html?categoryid=14&cs=1

rebkell

12-03-06, 01:10 PM

fredfa

12-03-06, 03:02 PM

The complete 2006-2007 NCAA Bowl Schedule is here:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=4278280&&#post4278280

fredfa

12-03-06, 03:14 PM

fredfa

12-03-06, 03:25 PM

Last Chance:

If you are still procrastinating, time is getting short. So please remember to post your favorite top five broadcast prime-time shows, and add in a favorite guilty pleasure program if you like.

(Note: The shows need not be new this year, just your favorites overall.)

I'll tabulate the votes and announce them late today

Here are the current leaders for favorite program:
Heroes
House
Grey's Anatomy
Lost
Friday Night Lights
Studio 60
NCIS
Veronica Mars
The Office
Men In Trees
The Unit
Law & Order: SVU
Jericho
Ugly Betty
Desperate Housewives
Bones
24
CSI
Law & Order
Criminal Minds
Law & Order: CI

And the current Guilty Pleasure leaders are:
Desperate Housewives
Men In Trees
Deal Or No Deal
American Idol
Grey's Anatomy
Las Vegas
Prison Break
‘Til Death
Ugly Betty

tkmedia2

12-03-06, 06:34 PM

There's a little high school in many 'grown-up shows
There are people I know who wouldn't be caught dead watching a high school show.
BY ELLEN GRAY Philadelphia Daily News Dec. 02, 2006

They never saw "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," passing up many an insight into the nature of good and evil -- not to mention tons of potentially life-saving information about the undead -- because Buffy and her friends began their world-saving exploits in high school.

(Later, the high school was destroyed to save everyone from the town's mayor, who'd been transformed into a giant serpent, and most of the gang went off to college. But by then it was too late -- the damage had been done.)

These same people -- some of whom devoted 10 years to watching six only moderately employed young adults hang around a Manhattan coffee shop -- can't be bothered with "Veronica Mars," another clever blonde who also began her adventures in high school. And when I tell them they're passing up one of the smartest shows on television, they're unmoved.

"Friday Night Lights"? "The O.C."? "Everwood"? "My So-Called Life"?

All these series -- many of them critical darlings, because, well, critics have to at least try everything on our plates before we turn up our noses -- have suffered from the misperception that they're not really meant for grown-ups just because most of their main characters weren't old enough to vote.

Meanwhile, though, a glance at the weekly Nielsens shows plenty of people watching shows about high school.

Those shows just don't advertise the fact.

What, after all, is "Grey's Anatomy" but a show about a Seattle hospital run by high school students?

These adolescents may occasionally save lives, but all the real action's in the stairwells, where, if they're not stealing kisses, they're taking time out of their busy days to explain to one another that some piece of gossip is or isn't true or that Dr. So-and-So really, REALLY likes Dr. Someone Else.

I mean, they had a prom last season.

Things aren't all that much more adult over at "Ugly Betty," where Betty Suarez (America Ferrera) is still having to contend with life's cheerleaders years after high school graduation.

Real cheerleaders, meanwhile, are popping up everywhere from "The Amazing Race" to "Heroes," whose "Save the cheerleader, save the world" may just be the most counterintuitive nerd catchphrase ever.

And make no mistake -- nerds are at the bottom of this.

Along with geeks, audio-visual club alumni and former drama-club prop mistresses.

While it would be a sweeping generalization to suggest that many of the people writing for (and OK, about) TV today are still working out a few of their issues from high school, generalizations don't sweep without picking up some truth along the way.

Aaron Sorkin's adolescent issues might have been mildly disguised on "The West Wing," but on "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip," another show where the prelude to a kiss can last three or more episodes, they're hiding in plain sight.

And medical terms aside, it's safe to say "Grey's" creator Shonda Rhimes learned everything she needed to know about doctors in love in high school.

"Boston Legal," "The Office," "Desperate Housewives" -- take out your yearbook and I promise they'll all start to make more sense.

The irony is that a show like "Friday Night Lights," most of whose main characters are actually in high school, appeals more to the adult in me than anything I've seen this season on "Grey's" or "Studio 60."

Because the truth, and the frustration, of adolescence so often lies in teenagers' inability to control their circumstances, there's genuine poignancy in their day-to-day dramas, whether it's a paralyzed athlete dealing with unexpected limits and changed relationships or a coach's daughter weighing her mistrust of football players against her attraction to one in particular.

Without the money or power of doctors, lawyers or even fashion-magazine employees, the kids in high school shows often have no choice but to deal with what's right in front of them. Little wonder then that they're at the center of their own small universes.

Transplant those dramas into an adult setting, though, and what you too often end up with is merely so-called grown-ups behaving like children.

http://www.belleville.com/mld/belleville/entertainment/16147744.htm

tkmedia2

12-03-06, 06:56 PM

The main season 3 veronica mars thread mentioned this story but, I thought it was interesting and have mixed feeling about. As mentioned the show might change formats to try to have a broader/higher ratings. Also note possible spoilers for those who didnt watch the Nov. 28 episode.

Watch with Kristin
Exclusive! Veronica Mars Creator Reveals New Plan, Answers You!
By Kristin Veitch E! Online Blog Nov. 29, 2006

It should be criminal to make an hour of television like last night’s Veronica Mars. Seriously, someone, please, arrest VM boss Rob Thomas and throw away the key.

Why? I’ll tell you why. ‘Cause it was so fanfreakingtastic it makes every other show on TV look like it was put together by glue-sniffing monkeys! Can I get an amen, my Veronica-lovin’ brethren?! (I thought I could!)

Not only was last night’s episode thoroughly rocking in every way, but the ratings reflected it, scoring 3.5 million viewers—the biggest audience ever in the CW's coveted 18-34 demo. Yeeeeeay!

To celebrate, I just spent a little time chatting with Rob himself. (Yes, miraculously, he has not yet been arrested or abducted by jealous producers of other shows.) And lucky for us, Rob was in an especially good mood (did I mention biggest audience ever?) and willing to spill. So, I had him tackle the most popular questions sent in by you fans. I’ll lead off with the big news…

What’s the plan for the rest of the season?

Well, you’ll be the first person to hear this. There has been talk—more than talk—about dropping the whole big mystery idea after this middle mystery and to do all stand-alone episodes and sort of a combination of a few things. The network is behind it, and I am interested in heading in that direction.

Really? Why the change?

One feeling is that the big mysteries keep away the casual TV viewers, and the other is that the thing that has been least successful since season one—meaning the things we get the most complaints about—are the big mysteries. My design in season one was that Veronica’s best friend was dead, and every season regular had an integral role in the mystery. And unless they wanted every year to kill Veronica’s friends, it’s hard to have the same emotional connective that’s worth spending seven, eight, nine episodes on a mystery. It’s one of the things we are deciding on right now.

Is this change something you are interested in or the network is interested in?

Both. Honestly, I brought it up to the network, and they jumped at the idea. But what I think we might do is the final mystery we were going to run instead of running it as our final five is just to play those as stand-alone episodes and maybe contract that big mystery into a two-episode thing with a cliffhanger as just a trial balloon. And hopefully before season four, we’ll see how it works. It seems like a good time to do it—a good fun test balloon. Try it over five and see how fans and non-fans react.

Will there still be some continuing story arcs?

Yes. I mean, we will still have ongoing personal life stories from Veronica, so there will be romantic relationships and the normal travails. We just wouldn’t have a mystery at the core.

Well, whatever your plan, I’m in. Honestly, last night was incredible. And the ratings show it. Congrats.

Thank you. It’s so nice to hear, because we have had some glum weeks. It has been a combination of ratings going down a little lower and that horrible [Entertainment Weekly] review. And, well, it’s just really good to have some good news. We got our best ever numbers and really good response to the episode, and we’re all really happy today.

I wish we LoVe fans could say the same.

Uh...

I must admit, I do like it better when those two are snarky and tortured, but you gotta give us fans a glimmer of hope. Was that the end of Logan and Veronica?

Here's what I'm willing to say: They are not over. But it will be a rocky road.

And the next arc is who killed the dean?

Yes.

And are we to believe the dean is the only who is dead?

I will answer that, because I didn’t mean to mislead anyone. He is the only one who is dead. He did not kill his wife and her lover.

I was so happy to see Mac back. I know that she was doing Big Love. Was it hard to let her go for those episodes?

It’s a little tricky, but the Big Love people were great with us. We love, love, love Tina in the show, and I wish I had her for more than what used to be 12 but is now 11 episodes.

So, where do things stand on a fourth season? Is there anything we fans can do to help?

I honestly don’t know much. I got an email from a Friday Night Lights viewer who said lets get Friday Night Lights viewers to watch Veronica Mars and Veronica Mars viewers to watch Friday Night Lights—and improve both their ratings, because they say it’s the best teen night on television, to watch them back to back on Tuesdays. I know the more the network feels it would outrage fans, the better the chance of getting back. But if the fans write them or contact them, they should always do it sweetly. Also, promotion equals bigger ratings, so we won’t miss a step when we come back in January.

Last question. And it's an important one. Where can I buy an "Ask Me About My STD" shirt?

[Laughs.] It’s funny, I actually made that up, and I now have one, too. And by the way, we liked that kid so much—the guy who offered Mac the whiskey—that he actually makes another appearance. We find out he was stumbling home drunk from the party and hears the gunshot. So, he’s the only witness who can put a time of death.

So, how do you all feel about the idea of dropping the longer mysteries in favor of episodes that stand alone? Good idea? Totally cracked out? Let your voice be heard by commenting below, or voting in the new poll on the main page!

http://www.eonline.com/gossip/kristin/blog/index.jsp?uuid=4992edd6-8f92-4afd-b1a4-d98abaf9af4f&page=1

shuttermaker

12-03-06, 07:11 PM

According to an article from www.jacksonville.com

Florida vaults to No. 2 in BCS, will play Ohio State for national title?

There isn't going to be a rematch.

No. 1 Ohio State will play No. 2 Florida, not Michigan, for the Bowl Championship Series national title on Jan. 8 in Glendale, Ariz.

According to a BCS source, Florida moved from fourth to second today ahead of No. 3 Michigan in the final BCS standings.

An official announcement will come this evening in a televised unveiling on Fox.

The news means that USC will play Michigan, not Louisiana State, in the Rose Bowl on Jan. 1.

LSU had pre-sold more than 42,000 tickets in advance of making its first-ever Rose Bowl appearance, but UCLA's upset win over previously No. 2 USC on Saturday, coupled with Florida's win over Arkansas in the Southeastern Conference championship game, changed the final pairings.

The BCS bowl lineup is now expected to be:

Rose: USC vs. Michigan.

Sugar: Notre Dame vs. LSU.

Orange: Louisville vs. Wake Forest.

Fiesta: Oklahoma vs. Boise State.

Florida's jump over No. 3 Michigan, which was idle Saturday and has not played since a three-point loss to No. 1 Ohio State on Nov. 18, likely will cause more uproar in BCS circles.

This will mark the fifth time in the nine-year history of the BCS that there has been controversy involving the title-game participants.

In the end, enough voters in the Harris Interactive and USA Today coaches' polls moved Florida to No. 2, ahead of Michigan, on their final ballots.

Ohio State Coach Jim Tressel released a statement today saying he did not vote in the final coaches' poll to avoid the perception of a conflict of interest.

"After consultation with my director of athletics, Gene Smith, and based on our unique position in the BCS standings, I believe it is only fair that we not participate (in) the final poll," Tressel said in a statement.

Michigan and Florida each finished the regular season with one loss, on the road. Michigan was 11-1 with its defeat at Ohio State, while 12-1 Florida lost at Auburn.

Florida picked up 66 points on Michigan in the coaches' poll and finished with a 26-point advantage.

chris.dufresne@latimes.com

Inundated

12-03-06, 07:14 PM

NBC repeated this report on its "Football Night in America" broadcast just now.

Kracko

12-03-06, 07:51 PM

I'll count BG when I do the cable poll shortly, Jim. Give me a new fifth place show if you'd like.

1) Lost
2) Boston Legal
3) Heroes
4) Studio 60
5) Desperate Housewives

Guilty Pleasure: American Idol when it's on.

cdp1276

12-03-06, 08:07 PM

1) Desperate Housewives
2) 24
3) Lost
4) Criminal Minds
5) ER

Guilty Pleasure: My Name is Earl

fredfa

12-03-06, 08:10 PM

The final and complete 2006-2007 NCAA Bowl Schedule is here:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=4278280&&#post4278280

grittree

12-03-06, 08:19 PM

Favs

Bros & Sis
HIMYM
The Office
Desp HW
24

Guilty

Gilmore Gals

dad1153

12-03-06, 09:44 PM

TV Notebook
'SNL' Rehearsal May Go Online
The New York Post December 01, 2006

NBC is considering broadcasting the Friday night rehearsal sessions of "Saturday Night Live" on the Internet.

"Sometimes it's a lot more interesting than the show," NBC Universal chief digital officer George Kliavkoff said at a conference for media executives yesterday.

The footage airs each week on closed-circuit TVs at NBC headquarters.

"It's something we watch on the cameras at 30 Rock," Kliavkoff said.

The Friday-night dry-run is used to determine camera angles, lens size, and focus - a process called camera blocking - that will be used for the show the following night.

It is different from the show's Saturday evening dress rehearsal (a long-running treat for in-the-know New Yorkers) which features sketches that are often dropped before the live telecast and generally runs longer than the show's 90-minutes.

http://www.nypost.com/seven/12012006/tv/snl_rehearsal_may_go_online_tv_.htm

keenan

12-03-06, 09:48 PM

TV Notebook
'SNL' Rehearsal May Go Online
The New York Post December 01, 2006

"Sometimes it's a lot more interesting than the show," NBC Universal chief digital officer George Kliavkoff said at a conference for media executives yesterday.

:D :D

I can't believe I just read that, surely he didn't mean how it sounds. :p

dad1153

12-03-06, 09:51 PM

TV Notebook
It's a wonderful lineup
Think stockings get stuffed this time of year? That's nothing compared to the tube's cramming of holiday shows
By Diane Werts Newsday December 3, 2006

It's all in the numbers now.

"25 Days of Christmas."

"24-hour Merrython."

"20 Merriest Christmas Videos."

"Studio 60" and "Adam-12."

So those last two are titles of series whose holiday episodes air this week. You get the point. The tube hosts so much Christmastime merriment, it has to be collected, categorized and counted down.

Have yourself a lengthy little Christmas - "Ugly Betty" aired a Christmas photo shoot episode way back on Oct. 19. You missed it? ABC aired a different holiday outing on Thursday. Still weren't ready? Catch up at abc.com or iTunes. We aren't even counting those alternative TV delivery outlets - online, podcasts, on-demand - and we're still overwhelmed by the sheer volume of tube tales unreeling around Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa and the politically handy winter solstice. So many shows, so little time. Unless you start airing 'em before Halloween.

And they say Christmas is being deleted from the season? When we started tracking yule tube airings some 15 years ago, we could fit the Christmas-show listings on one newspaper page. They've long since stretched to a length only Newsday.com can accommodate. Today, we're wondering if there's enough room in cyberspace to catalog all the series episodes, TV-movies, music specials, cartoons for both kids and adults, even documentaries ("Christmas in Yellowstone" on PBS' "Nature"), reality shows (Discovery's new holiday "MythBusters") and talk-fests (Jerry Springer loves yule, too).

The holiday sure provides a handy programming peg for cable channels itching for attention among hundreds of competitors.

ABC Family started its annual "25 Days of Christmas" stunt Friday, showcasing something seasonal every night in prime time. That includes vintage Rankin-Bass animation, Christmas sitcoms and holiday films to go along with two new TV-movies - "Santa Baby" (next Sunday) with Jenny McCarthy as the fat man's executive daughter and "Christmas Do-Over" (Dec. 16) with Jay Mohr as a holiday screwup reliving his wrongs till he rights them.

Hallmark Channel has holiday films nightly at 9 p.m., including new ones next Saturday ("What I Did for Love") and Dec. 16 ("Love's Abiding Joy").

Lifetime airs Christmas TV movies nightly at 9 p.m. Eight new productions include "A Christmas Wedding" (Dec. 11) with Sarah Paulson ("Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip") and Eric Mabius ("Ugly Betty").

TV Land divvies up its seventh annual Merrython of classic TV into two separate 24-hour events, this weekend ( till 10 p.m. Sunday) and Dec. 24-25 (6 p.m.-6 p.m.). Its original "Top 10 Holiday Moments" special airs among vintage faves from all the decades - the 1960s ("The Andy Griffith Show," "Green Acres"), the '70s ("The Brady Bunch," "All in the Family"), the '80s ("The Cosby Show," "Murphy Brown") and the '90s ("Cheers," "MacGyver").

Nick at Nite's All Nite Holiday Party runs Thursday and Dec. 24 with classic sitcom celebrations - "Full House," "Fresh Prince," "Roseanne," "Designing Women."

The i network (formerly PAX, on WPXN/31, Cablevision Ch. 3) broadcasts vintage Christmas episodes all this week at 6:30 p.m., including such rareties as "The Flying Nun" (Wednesday) and "McHale's Navy" (Thursday). Saturday night is devoted to dramas ("Adam-12," "Dragnet," "Alfred Hitchcock Presents").

Kids' holiday festivals appear on Nickelodeon (Dec. 16 and 24-25), Disney (Dec. 24-25) and Starz Kids & Family (Dec. 24-25).

Other Christmas-themed marathons spotlight sitcoms (FX Dec. 23), game shows (GSN Dec. 24) and adult animation (Adult Swim Dec. 24).

And then there's the venerable Yule Log. WPIX/11 has it once again, in high-definition, at 9 a.m. Christmas Day. (There's even the bio-profile "The Yule Log: A Log's Life" airing on Ch. 11 Dec. 23, 24 and 25.) The video fireplace also goes national in high-def on INHD, airing 24 hours from 7 a.m. Christmas morning. It's even available on demand from some cable providers (check your digital on-screen listings).

Our Christmas 2006 program listings now extend toward infinity at Newsday's info-packed TV blog newsday.com/tvzone, where they're broken down by categories (episodes, movies, music, animation), so you can more easily locate your faves. Some of ours are highlighted here.

Happy viewing!

http://www.newsday.com/entertainment/tv/ny-fftv4995606dec03,0,4520878.column?coll=ny-television-headlines

dad1153

12-03-06, 10:16 PM

TV Q&A
Watching ABC's Steve McPherson
By Jim Benson Broadcasting & Cable December 4, 2006

Hollywood is traditionally quick to pull up stakes at the first sign of trouble for a network entertainment president. When Steve McPherson took over the entertainment division of ABC in April 2004, he was hounded by the rumors that usually precede a fall from grace. They came even though, under his watch, ABC quickly ascended from the ratings basement, where it had dwelled for years, to the penthouse, thanks to Desperate Housewives, Lost and Grey's Anatomy.

The gossip reached a crescendo last season, when the former Touchstone Television president failed to gain traction for his first full slate of shows as entertainment head.

Stories painting him as an irascible man with incredibly good luck appeared, notably in New York Times television writer Bill Carter's recent book, Desperate Networks.

McPherson silenced those critics this fall when he made the network a primetime force on Thursdays, while keeping its strong Sunday-night schedule humming despite a challenge from football on NBC. And he led ABC to victory among the key adults 18-49 demo in the first nine out of 10 weeks of the season, including the November sweeps—ABC's longest winning streak in seven years—without the benefit of Monday Night Football.

The arrival of Grey's and rookie Ugly Betty on Thursdays turned the lucrative night into a two-way race between ABC and CBS, an unimaginable scenario only a year ago. And McPherson has kept Sunday nights strong with a creatively revitalized Housewives and freshman Brothers & Sisters.

Those wins have affirmed his formidable reputation as a savvy development executive, scheduler and marketer.

In his first in-depth interview of the fall, McPherson discusses with B&C's Jim Benson strategies for scheduling Dancing With the Stars next spring, the fate of Lost, bringing viewers back to serialized dramas, the firestorm over The Path to 9/11, and why stories of his volcanic temper are overblown.

Question: Before the season even began, ABC took heat for The Path to 9/11. Why did the program alter facts from the 9/11 Commission report? You had to know that would raise hackles.

McPherson: Here's the thing: The Path to 9/11 was a dramatization, not a documentary, and as with any dramatization, it was drawn from a variety of sources, including the 9/11 Commission report, a number of other published materials and personal interviews. So, the idea that it “strayed or varied from a single source” just isn't valid. We stand by the material and the research.

We weren't surprised that the film caused debate. We should be discussing and debating the events, so we can find a way to never let anything like that happen again. If the film helped make a few more people aware of the debate and become participants in it, I think it did its job.

Question: The biggest story of the season is ABC's turnaround on Thursday nights, thanks to the move of Grey's. Is it surpassing your expectations?

McPherson: It has exceeded my expectations. I was never nervous because I knew that it would perform; it was just at what level. The pieces in the puzzle fell together, like Ugly Betty and Brothers & Sisters. It's really a two-pronged thing: You can't have Thursday without Sunday.

Question: Was it a tough decision?

McPherson: I was talking with my buddy [NBC Entertainment President] Kevin Reilly. We kind of offer each other perspective on things, and we both have often said you can have a gut instinct about something, stick with it, and, when it works, it's one of the most rewarding things that can happen. It's like when Desperate Housewives took off. This was an even more magnified version of that and very public, and there were some people who thought it was a terrible idea and some people who thought it was a good idea. But there were very few people standing behind me saying, “No matter what happens, we're with ya!”

Question: What were those initial days like around the fall debuts?

McPherson: It was interesting because Thursday premiered before Sunday and everyone on Friday was congratulating me [for Grey's big debut numbers]. I was saying, “Let's wait until Monday.”

Question: Your decision to move Ugly Betty from the lead-off position on Fridays to Thursdays has paid big dividends, but did you worry about what would happen to a stranded Men In Trees at 9 p.m. Fridays?

McPherson: Friday is a tough notch, and we told the producers, “We really love this show. We don't have a high-profile spot for it right now. We look at this show as a farm team for us, as a possible Sunday or Thursday show. When that possibility opens up, just do great work, and we will be behind you.” And we were, and they did great work.

Question: With Sunday nights more vulnerable, the pressure had to be intense to fix Housewives this season.

McPherson: Yeah. To [creator/Executive Producer] Marc Cherry's credit, he never took the scrutiny in anything but a productive manner. He was very honest about some of the missteps that he had made.

He is his own biggest critic and realized that there really needed to be a change. He wanted to take control of 100% of it, but he put his ego aside and hired huge writers like Joe Keenan [Frasier] and Jeff Greenstein [Will & Grace], both of whom could run shows on their own. He got out ahead of it and got much more advanced writing going than they ever had in the first two seasons.

Creatively, I don't think that show has done better work than it's doing right now. They certainly heard from me a lot, but you don't have to listen to me if you can step up and execute, and they did.

Question: Didn't you once say that you get nervous when showrunners listen to you?

McPherson: [Rescue Me producer] Peter Tolan and I have laughed about that, because later, I think, he was like, “F--- Steve McPherson for saying that.” But in the experience that I've had, the best showrunners listen but interpret what you want to get executed and put it in their own words. I get nervous when someone is taking down my dialogue and my story fix, because we're there to collaborate and guide them, not to write the script.

Question: Is DWTS definitely returning later this season?

McPherson: I think we'll put another cycle on in March. We have to get the right casting. BBC America has done a brilliant job in casting thus far, and that's really important. The good and bad about these shows that are in installments is that they come, they're explosive, go away and come back to the next installment. We want to make sure we're not putting it back on in January. If it comes back in March, it will have actually been off longer than when it was off from spring to fall.

Question: The Apprentice faltered when NBC ran it multiple times per season.

McPherson: I think Dancing is different from shows like The Apprentice. We're not running three installments a year and doing as many shows as they did. We're not going to up the number of hours, the number of people or try to stretch this thinner.

Question: Will you put Dancing up against American Idol?

McPherson: There are definitely scenarios where people wouldn't have to choose. Dancing was on last year against Idol a couple times on Thursday, and both shows did well. Idol runs so many nights and hours, it's hard to avoid entirely, so we'll just have to see how it works.

ABC has sunk lots of money into Lost and reaped the benefits. Would you agree to end it if the producers think it has run its course but it is still doing well?

This is a show with a beginning, middle and end. It will run its natural course.

Question: Does its ratings decline this season concern you?

McPherson: We would have liked to have it come back as explosive as the second season. But part of that was the buzz that got going over the summer about [last season's] finale. There were a lot of elements that led up to that. There are unbelievably strong parts and a lot of good material in the back 17 [episodes returning from hiatus in February].

Question: Is there any chance that a serialized show like Six Degrees can redeem itself, or are you just going to burn off the episodes when it comes back?

McPherson: No, we would cancel it if we were just going to burn it off. There's a ton of good casting buzz on that show. Admittedly, both the producers and network would say we didn't creatively deliver on the promise of the pilot. I think, when we get to [the final two produced] episodes and you see what that show can be, we're really hoping we will deliver if [there is a ratings bump and] we shoot more.

Question: Are you moving toward more resolution on each episode?

McPherson: We wanted episodes that dramatically could be stand-alones but would allow you to really get deeper into one particular relationship or dynamic. Those are the stronger episodes, and that is the template moving forward.

Question: Bill Carter's book Desperate Networks paints former ABC head Lloyd Braun as the champion of Lost and you as its biggest critic. What's the real story?

McPherson: We developed that show [when I ran Touchstone]. Jack would have died in the pilot if it hadn't been for me. [Executive Producers] J.J. [Abrams] and Damon [Lindelof] are unbelievably talented, and we have a wonderful working relationship. In these jobs, people get an enormous amount of credit and blame they don't deserve.

There are thousands of people that are involved in the work. But I think you can really give us credit for decisions we make, like putting Desperate Housewives on the schedule, giving Lost 100% of the marketing money, putting Grey's on Thursday and after the Super Bowl at the appropriate time.

I like to let the work speak for itself and let people take whatever credit they want, but I inherited a network that was in a distant fourth and hadn't put on a hit since Who Wants To Be a Millionaire. I would conservatively say we've put on five since then.

Question: Does the criticism get to you?

McPherson: You can't pretend that criticism doesn't bother you. I'm a competitive guy. To me, it's just about performance and building the strongest network. So be it that somebody wants to write what they want to write for whatever reasons they want to write it. You try to go home to your baby and kiss her and worry about what's important.

Question: Carter spared few punches about your temper in his book.

McPherson: Most of it I couldn't care less about. Some of the stuff that was personal attacks on me without any accountability I find despicable, but I guess that goes with the territory. Some people say it should have been called “Desperate Sources.”

Question: Let's address the industry chatter about the on-going tension between ABC and Touchstone.

McPherson: I think there's always going to be natural tension between the in-house studio and the network. Having been on both sides now, I have sympathy for both sides.

Question: Is ABC pigeonholed among agents as the dysfunctional family comedy network?

McPherson: If (a show) ends up being in the tradition of the single lead like Tim Allen or Rosanne, and if you would consider those dysfunctional families, then I think that yes, part of that is our brand. But we could easily be doing MASH.

Question: Has your success led to more hour comedy pitches?

McPherson: Yeah, we have some funny ones in development. One of my favorites is a title that, unfortunately, won’t ever make it on air. It was pitched as Big Dicks and it’s basically Desperate CEOs, bedrooms and boardrooms, a humorous look at male relationships and that life and their wives.

Question: And what has Borat wrought in terms of pitches about improv reality?

McPherson: We’ve gotten a lot of pitches on it, but what that will generate I don’t know. He is a singular talent and I don’t know if anything like that will work. It’s going to be interesting, just from an industry standpoint, what happens with hidden camera techniques, because there’s already tough issues legally in certain states, California being one of them.

Question: What has been the toughest part of the job?

McPherson: One of the most difficult things that I’ve dealt with (is) The Nine. Putting on a show that is that well produced, conceived and marketed, that week in and week out is an exceptional TV show, and to not get the performance is just really hard. So if you’re asking for one of my biggest frustrations that would be it.

http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6396722.html

RussB

12-04-06, 12:22 AM

Favorite Programs

1) Lost (ABC)
2) Grey's Anatomy (ABC)
3) Boston Legal (ABC)
4) Numb3rs (CBS)
5) Criminal Minds (CBS)

Guilty Pleasure: Survivor: Cook Islands (CBS)

fredfa

12-04-06, 01:20 AM

December, 2006 Viewer Poll
Favorite Prime time network Shows

1. Heroes
2. House
3. Lost
4. Grey’s Anatomy
5. Friday Night Lights
6. Studio 60
7. NCIS
8. Veronica Mars
9. The Office
10. Desperate Housewives
11. Men In Trees
12. The Unit
13. Law & Order: SVU
14. 24
15. Ugly Betty
16. Jericho
17. Bones
18. CSI
19. Law & Order
20. Criminal Minds
21. Law & Order: CI
22. CSI: NY
23. CSI: Miami
24. My Name Is Earl
25. Shark
26. Brothers & Sisters
27. Prison Break
28. Boston Legal
29. Medium
30. Survivor
31. E R
32. How I Met Your Mother
33. Close To Home
34. Deal Or No Deal
35. 30 Rock
36. Amazing Race
37. Smallville
38. Supernatural
39. Family Guy
40. The War At Home
41. The Nine
42. Dateline: Catch A Predator

fredfa

12-04-06, 01:25 AM

December, 2006 Viewer Poll
”Guilty Pleasure” Prime time network Shows

1. Desperate Housewives
2. Men In Trees
3. Deal Or No Deal
4. Grey's Anatomy
5. Ugly Betty
6. American Idol
7. Dancing With The Stars
8. Prison Break
9. (tie) Criminal Minds
9. (tie)Gilmore Girls
9. (tie)Las Vegas
9. (tie)Til Death
13. (tie) Adventures of Christine
13. (tie) My Name Is Earl
13. (tie) Supernatural
13. (tie) Survivor
17. (tie) 1 vs 100
17. (tie) 7th Heaven
17. (tie) Amazing Race
17. (tie) E R
17. (tie) Smallville
17. (tie) Two and 1/2 Men
(Others Receiving Votes)
American Dad
Extreme Makoever: HE
Friday Night Lights
Heroes
Show Me The Money
Standoff
The Bachelor
Desperate Housewives
Men In Trees
Deal Or No Deal
Grey's Anatomy
Ugly Betty
American Idol
Dancing With The Stars
Prison Break
Criminal Minds
Gilmore Girls
Las Vegas
‘Til Death

fredfa

12-04-06, 01:27 AM

Thanks to all who voted in the prime time network program poll.

I'll conduct a poll on your favorite cable programs sometime in the next week, so jot down your lists and keep them handy.

fredfa

12-04-06, 01:42 AM

TV Notebook
'Heroes' falls into line with 'fall finale'
By Gary Levin, USA Today

NBC's Heroes bids farewell tonight as it takes a seven-week break in the latest example of TV's "fall finale" phenomenon.

Most shows air repeats during Christmas and New Year's weeks, but several serialized dramas last week started much longer winter vacations: Prison Break, like Heroes, won't return until Jan. 22; Veronica Mars is vacationing until Jan. 23; Lost is off the island until Feb. 7; and Jericho's next new episode airs Feb. 21.

The reason? These shows perform poorly in repeats, yet networks need to stretch out the usual 22 episodes over a 35-week season. So rather than stop and start series, they're opting just to take them off altogether.

"This is just what we found to be the optimal way," says CBS and CW scheduling chief Kelly Kahl. "People don't want to watch repeats of these shows. I have to give props to Fox and 24," which airs from January to May with non-stop new episodes. "That's a great way to run a show."

But most can't afford to sit out fall entirely.

Instead, CBS' Jericho split its season into 11-episode halves and will resume after a recap show Feb. 14. ABC's Lost is resting, replaced by low-rated Day Break, in order to air all originals, 24-style, from February to May. Veronica Mars wrapped up the first of two multi-episode mysteries last week and will take another break in March, says CW president Dawn Ostroff, with four stand-alone episodes likely for May.

Other producers are responding to the scheduling shifts by crafting story lines around them. Lost's six fall episodes were designed as a self-contained look at the mysterious Others inhabiting the island. And tonight's episode of Heroes (9 ET/PT) marks the end of the drama's "Save the cheerleader, save the world" plotline. Seven consecutive episodes that start in January — and five more due in late April — will explore two more story arcs.

In heralding their departures, "we're being honest with the audience; we're not going to be snowing people," says NBC scheduling chief Mitch Metcalf, noting that tonight's midseason finale will include a mention of the delayed return date.

And some fall finales, with their big cliffhangers, provide ratings bounces: Veronica had its second-most-watched episode ever last week, and Prison Break tied its season high.

The challenge for networks is maintaining interest in the dramas during the long break.

Jericho has a new website, whodroppedthebomb.com, a "fan community" with commentaries and clips from upcoming episodes; free repeats are offered at cbs.com. NBC will continue posting Heroes' companion graphic novel online and will repeat the five most recent episodes Jan. 1 and 8 and air others on Sci Fi Channel.

http://www.usatoday.com/life/television/news/2006-12-03-fall-finales_x.htm

dad1153

12-04-06, 08:06 AM

TV Notebook
Late Shift
VIEWERS DRIFT FROM LETTERMAN, LENO TO NEWS, REAL AND FAKE
By Don Kaplan The New York Post December 4, 2006

The beginnings of a so cial shift seems to be underway in late night TV - people are tuning away from traditional, joke-y talk shows like Leno and Letterman and turning more to news.

OK, it's not always real news.

But in the last year, the ratings for "Nightline" as well as fake-news shows "The Daily Show" and "The Colbert Report" are on the rise - and the talk shows are headed down.

It's a reminder that we are, after all, a country still at war, some people in TV are saying.

"We live in difficult times and I do think there is a thirst for information at the moment and this is one of the ways that that need is expressing itself," says "Nightline" executive producer, James Goldston.

So far this year, Leno's ratings are down 6 percent compared to last year - from 6.2 million to 5.8 million. Letterman is also down 6 percent, from 4.7 million to 4.4 million, according to the trade magazine Media Life and Nielsen.

"Nightline" meanwhile, grew 4 percent compared to last year, to 3.75 million total viewers.

On cable, "The Colbert Report" and "The Daily Show" have turned in some of their best ratings of the season with "Colbert" performing 40 percent better than it did last month. "The Daily Show" grew 30 percent compared to last month.

The Comedy Central shows lay no special claim to seriousness.

"The goal is simply to make people laugh," says Comedy Central's Michele Gainless, the network's executive vice president and general manager.

"We don't try to educate anybody. They're current, topical and hysterically funny and clearly that's what people want."

Perhaps "seriously funny" would have been a better term.

Studies keep showing that, although both Comedy Central shows are spoofs, a large percentage of young viewers call them their main source of news.

"In terms of the fake news show, they carry a lot of information," says "Nightline's" Goldston. "They do a lot more politics on those shows than some of the cable news channels will and they honestly carry a lot of news."

Ironically, just as the Comedy Central shows are peaking, Ben Karlin, the executive producer for both programs, suddenly announced his resignation late last week.

Sources said there was no behind-the-scenes intrigue involved.

After more than eight years on the job, Karlin sinply felt burned out.

The traditional late-night talk shows - Letterman and Leno - continue to have audiences that dwarf the "Nightline" and the fake shows.

But media people tend to put a lot of stock in trends. And the trend is unmistakable.

ABC tried several years ago to woo David Letterman away from CBS to replace Ted Koppel and "Nighline" at 11:30 p.m.

Now such a move would seem foolish.

http://www.nypost.com/seven/12042006/tv/late_shift_tv_don_kaplan.htm

dad1153

12-04-06, 08:10 AM

TV Notebook
With Brash Hosts, Headline News Finds More Viewers in Prime Time
By Noam Cohen, The New York Times December 4, 2006

“No offense, and I know Muslims. I like Muslims.”

Thus began Glenn Beck, a conservative talk-radio host who is six months into his own prime-time show on CNN Headline News, as he interviewed Congressman-elect Keith Ellison, the first Muslim elected to the House, on Nov. 14.

“With that being said, you are a Democrat. You are saying, ‘Let’s cut and run,’ ” Mr. Beck continued. “And I have to tell you, I have been nervous about this interview with you, because what I feel like saying is, ‘Sir, prove to me that you are not working with our enemies.’ ”

Mr. Beck’s incendiary question didn’t seem to rankle Mr. Ellison (“There’s no one who’s more patriotic than I am,” he replied), but it did provoke a lot of public criticism, as has his recent “war on ‘Happy Feet,’ ” the animated penguin movie featuring the voices of several celebrities. Mr. Beck says the film promotes a radical environmental agenda.

But then, Mr. Beck’s unfiltered approach is what executives at the network say made them court him as they transform Headline News in prime time to Headline Prime, “from news to views,” in the words of Kenneth Jautz, the CNN executive in charge of the network.

Along with Nancy Grace, a lawyer whose show appears at 8 p.m., Mr. Beck is part of a nearly two-year-old experiment to reinvent Headline News from a series of quick news summaries into a brasher, personality-driven talk-TV format along the lines of Fox News’s evening line-up.

So far, the experiment is a success. Since his arrival in May, Mr. Beck has increased the ratings in his 7 p.m. time period 60 percent among all viewers, and 84 percent among viewers aged 25 to 54. Ms. Grace has largely retained the triple-digit percentage increases in her time period from the year before.

While the daytime ratings at Headline News have grown a modest 10 percent in that prime demographic since 2004, Headline Prime’s ratings are up 48 percent, although Headline Prime still trails CNN, MSNBC and Fox News, by far the leader.

But with the improved ratings come a question: how can the CNN networks, which are owned by Time Warner, compete with the more opinionated prime-time competition — Fox News and MSNBC, in particular — while preserving their reputation as objective news gatherers?

Mr. Jautz spoke enthusiastically of the “passion and point of view” now present at the network. and compared its role to an op-ed page of a daily newspaper, with CNN representing the objective news pages. Mr. Beck sees the separation between news and opinion at the network as absolute.

“I never thought I would be on CNN, Fox, MSNBC. I am not a journalist. I am a recovering alcoholic with A.D.D.,” he said. “I am closer to an average schmoe.” Though bombastic on screen, Mr. Beck seems loath to praise himself in person, though he will take credit for saying what others are feeling but are afraid to say.

Crossing that line is a large part of talk TV’s appeal and Ms. Grace, a pugnacious former prosecutor who became famous for her appearances on CNN’s “Larry King Live,” does so regularly. On her show, she relates personally to crime victims and spares no sympathy for alleged criminals or their defense lawyers.

Her pugnacity was in evidence in September when Melinda Duckett, a 21-year-old mother of a missing child, appeared on her show. The taped segment ended with Ms. Grace insisting, “Where were you? Why aren’t you telling us where you were that day?” Ms. Duckett killed herself the next day, and Florida authorities have since described Ms. Duckett as the prime suspect in the case. Her family sued CNN and Ms. Grace, saying that the network misrepresented the nature of the interview. CNN would not comment on the lawsuit other than to say it supports Ms. Grace.

Mark Feldstein, an associate professor of media and public affairs at George Washington University and a veteran of CNN during the 1990s, said Headline News’s strategy reflected how competitive the news market had become. “The dirty little secret is how low the ratings are,” he said. “There is too much supply and too little demand.”

The exception, he said, is when there are breaking news stories that captivate the country. Mr. Feldstein said he recalled that when he worked at CNN, “they had these charts, it was like a EKG of a heart attack.” Ratings would be flat, and then spike for the first Gulf War or the O.J. Simpson case. “I remember an executive who said, in essence, we need to find a way to have heart attacks all the time.”

The mini-dramas that play out on shows like Ms. Grace’s are attempts to recreate that intense interest, he said. “There is more pandering to fear and base emotions because that’s what’s going to lead to the most immediate spike in the ratings.”

Mr. Beck said that when the idea of working at Headline News first came up, he turned it down. “I had no desire to do a cable news show; watching cable news makes me want to put a gun to my head,” he said.

“I came up and they presented their strategy — that they understood that Headline News was changing and needed to go in a different direction. A younger audience is consuming news in a different way.”

Mr. Jautz said that Mr. Beck’s political views never entered into the decision to hire him. “We did not set out to have anyone from any particular view fronting these shows,” he said. But the hiring has been criticized by liberal watchdog groups. A spokesman for one of Mr. Beck’s persistent critics, Media Matters for America, described his hiring as “more of this race to the bottom.”

“The big problem is far too often people ask how can you take seriously someone who could declare war on ‘Happy Feet,’ ” said Karl Frisch of Media Matters. “They do have large audiences, and people may mistake this information as legitimate news.”

One advertising buyer, Andy Donchin of Carat, said that while there were risks for Headline News in leaving straight news for opinion shows, better ratings were certainly a good reason to do so. “They want to push the envelope, get more viewers and advertisers without denigrating the CNN brand,” he said. “I would think that CNN and Turner Broadcasting are happy with the results. I think they have taken a lesson from Fox — that more opinionated programming can work.”

Mr. Jautz emphasizes the distinction between the hard-news approach on CNN and the opinion shows on Headline News. CNN journalists have not yet appeared on Mr. Beck’s show, and a spokeswoman for Headline News said that, barring a huge event, there was little chance they ever would.

Last month, Mr. Beck presented a special, “Exposed: The Extremist Agenda,” which included clips of extremist Islamic rallies in Iraq, anti-American cartoons from Egypt and TV news reports from Iran with reactions from commentators like Benjamin Netanyahu, the former Israeli premier.

Heavily promoted, the show delivered the network’s highest ratings for the year with over a million total viewers.

“We feel that you need to be straightforward and honest with viewers,” Mr. Jautz said. “Glenn Beck had a special on the Middle East and he said at the beginning that ‘I want to re-emphasize I am not a journalist.’ ”

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/04/business/media/04headline.html?_r=1&ref=television&oref=slogin

dad1153

12-04-06, 08:16 AM

TV Notebook
David, 'Curb' making room for Fox
By Nellie Andreeva, The Hollywood Reporter December 4, 2006

Vivica A. Fox has joined the cast of Larry David's "Curb Your Enthusiasm" for the HBO comedy's upcoming sixth season.

Reps for HBO and Fox were mum on the character she will play on the show, but according to breakdown information, she will be a member of a black family that moves into the Davids' house following a major natural disaster.

The story line, seemingly a take on the events following Hurricane Katrina, is sure to explore interracial relations, something "Curb" has done brilliantly with such classic episodes as "Krazee-Eyez Killa" and "The Carpool Lane."

The topic is in Hollywood's spotlight these days, following the racial outburst of Michael Richards, co-star of the hit comedy "Seinfeld," which David created with Jerry Seinfeld.

Fox recently starred in the Lifetime drama series "1-800-Missing" and did a multi-episode arc on the UPN comedy "All of Us," which has since migrated to the CW.

Fox is repped by Paradigm and manager Lita Richardson.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/television/news/e3i3b934b339f918aa1e080fab988a71610

dad1153

12-04-06, 08:24 AM

Critic's Notebook
Less taste, less filling: Singin' the blues over TV news
Brian Lowry's Variety 'Tuning In' Column Dec. 3, 2006

A few years ago, I mused about the prospect of Peter Jennings interrupting the nightly news to read ad copy, the same way radio stars like Sean Hannity and Paul Harvey do. Alas, the joke has become reality, with CNBC's Donny Deutsch doing precisely that, reading a plug for Philips Electronics during his cable talkshow.

Obviously, nobody will ever confuse ad-man Deutsch with newsman Jennings, but this concession to advertisers (in a multifaceted deal that includes sponsorship of "NBC Nightly News") is the latest shoe to drop in what has been a signature year for TV news -- one marked by a slow downward stumble in terms of long-eroding standards.

Many will view this year through the spectrum of Katie Couric's leap into "The CBS Evening News" anchor chair, which undeniably softened its focus to accommodate her morning-honed skills. Yet the more pertinent moment involved NBC's plan to dramatically cut costs, mostly at the expense of its news division.

As is so often the case, it took someone with news credentials to swing that kind of ax -- in this case, NBC Universal TV Group chief Jeff Zucker, who cut his professional teeth producing the "Today" show. Under Zucker, NBC announced an initiative to strip $750 million from its budget, most of which hinges on dismantling aspects of its news operation.

Beyond that, however, the lowlights just kept coming. A U. of Wisconsin study found almost nonexistent local news coverage of this year's midterm elections, considered the most significant in years. CNN and "Today" were among the news outlets that interviewed the stars of "Talladega Nights: The Legend of Ricky Bobby" and "Borat" in character, thus functioning as free-floating arms of studio marketing departments. And primetime newsmags continued to traffic heavily in true crime and pedophile sting operations -- compelling television, to be sure, but far from the kind of in-depth reporting for which the times cry out.

To be fair, the year also witnessed journalists like ABC News' Brian Ross doing yeoman work by breaking open the congressional page scandal (online), and Ted Koppel brought his customary class to Discovery Channel, while Dan Rather landed at HDNet -- finding niche life after network TV.

Bringing pictures back from Iraq also exacted a dismaying toll on those risking their lives abroad. Both ABC's Bob Woodruff and CBS' Kimberly Dozier suffered serious wounds in incidents that also resulted in injuries and death to their respective crews.

In the final analysis, though, the prevailing images of 2006 will almost surely be of news as a punch line serving up comedic fodder for "The Daily Show," coupled with NBC's streamlining efforts -- which, admittedly, parallel cuts implemented by many newspapers undergoing their own spasms adapting to fit the new-media future.

There will also be the lingering aftertaste (and related lawsuit) associated with Headline News' Nancy Grace grilling a woman about her missing child, only to have the interview subject later commit suicide; and colleague Glenn Beck asking a Muslim U.S. congressman why he shouldn't believe that the Democrat is in league with the nation's enemies.

Lost, too, from both cable and broadcast is any notion, however quaint it sounds, that news shouldn't be held to the same level of ratings tyranny that governs sitcoms and reality TV shows.

Indeed, Fox News' Bill O'Reilly could be heard on his radio show last week lamenting that he can't devote more time to Iraq because the net's numbers drop every time he ventures into that zone. Given the clout O'Reilly wields in the cable space, it's an especially lame excuse for retreating to overblown topics like kids in peril and the so-called "war on Christmas." Nor can the revamped "Nightline" present any better defense for its fluffy turn away from a venerable tradition than crowing "The numbers are up."

NBC coyly christened its belt-tightening "NBC 2.0," a reference to that shifting business climate and the technological advances behind these makeovers. Hopefully, the media bloodletting of 2006 will be a memory by this time in '07, but taking a broader view back of the year that was, it's time for all of TV news to take a deep breath, and then reboot.

http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117954926.html?categoryid=1682&cs=1

dad1153

12-04-06, 08:26 AM

Speaking of NBC 2.0...

The Business of TV
There's more change in store at peacock
NBC Uni reorganization sees Turner exit ad post
By Paul J. Gough, The Hollywood Reporter December 4, 2006

NBC Universal is expected to announce a reorganization as early as today that will see longtime ad sales chief Keith Turner -- who has left the company after eight years in the job -- replaced by veteran General Electric executive Mike Pilot. In addition, the company will redistribute the duties of former NBC Uni Television Group president and chief operating officer Randy Falco and soon-to-depart cable/new-media chief David Zaslav.

Pilot at present is president GE Capital Solutions, U.S. Equipment Financing. Pilot, who is expected to directly succeed Turner as president, NBC Uni sales and marketing, has been with GE since 1984, starting out in its commercial equipment financing unit. In his most recent post, Pilot managed nearly $30 billion in assets and is credited with "reinvent(ing)" a 30-year-old business division and doubling its net income during the past two years, according to information posted at GE's corporate Web site. Reps for NBC Uni declined comment on Pilot's appointment.

Falco and Zaslav announced they were leaving within a day of each other two weeks ago, Falco to head AOL and Zaslav to lead Discovery Communications. Turner, who was closely allied with Falco, was generally seen to be on his way out with Falco's departure as well as the fallen fortunes of the formerly No. 1 broadcast network.

The three departures are continued fallout surrounding the implementation of NBC Uni 2.0, the company's work-force reduction and realignment as well as the diminished status of the broadcast network and speculation over when longtime NBC Uni CEO Bob Wright will retire.

The reorganization that could be announced today won't address Wright and Jeff Zucker's future other than to put them atop the corporation organizational chart as they have been in the past. But it's likely to mean more responsibilities for other executives, who sources said will be getting the responsibilities that had been Falco and Zaslav's. Falco already has left the company; Zaslav will remain into early next year.

No one will replace Falco or Zaslav. Instead, their roles in the company will go to a handful of other executives. Falco had many responsibilities as president and chief operating officer of the television group, including many behind-the-scenes functions such as affiliate relations, the distribution of cable, business development, the National Broadband Co. and WeatherPlus initiatives as well as the NBC-owned Spanish-language network Telemundo.

Sources familiar with the planning said the goal is to redistribute the workload and streamline the company in a way that would put it even more in line with its NBCU 2.0 efforts. It will be the latest in a line of reorganizations of the NBC Uni television division, which was reorganized in late 2005 and shuffled again in May even before NBCU 2.0 was announced.

The same streamlining will happen in Zaslav's domain, which not only included cable and new media but also production in NBC Uni Domestic Television. Barry Wallach, president of NBC Uni Domestic Television Distribution, could report to Zucker. Other executives getting additional duties will be Jeff Gaspin, president of NBC Universal Cable Entertainment, Jean-Briac Perrette, senior vp new media at NBC Uni Cable, and Bridgette Baker, executive vp at NBC Uni Cable.

"Keith has been an outstanding leader of our sales organization for the past eight years and has played a significant role in our success throughout his almost 20-year career at NBC," Wright wrote. "He has built a first-rate team of sales professionals who will continue to be industry leaders in our rapidly evolving business environment."

NBC Uni's broadcast TV business fell from its longtime perch at the top of the pyramid with the series finale of "Friends" in May 2004. NBC went from first to fourth in the adults 18-49 demographic the next year, losing almost $1 billion in 2005 and then having another difficult upfront in 2006. It has seen some signs of life with such series as "Deal or No Deal," "Heroes" and "The Office" as well as the introduction of "Sunday Night Football."

It wasn't clear Friday when Turner would depart or where he was going.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/television/news/e3i3b934b339f918aa1910ee8ce2310e4ea

dad1153

12-04-06, 08:29 AM

And speaking of 'Deal Or No Deal'...

The Business of TV
Mandel Says No to Syndie Deal
By Jim Benson, Broadcasting & Cable December 4, 2006

A deal by NBC Universal to bring Howie Mandel to a prospective 30-minute syndicated edition of Deal or No Deal has collapsed, according to people familiar with the situation.

NBC U declined to comment on talent negotiations late last week. It is believed to have revived talks with Mandel, host of the hot hour-long network game show, after parting ways with Arsenio Hall, who was originally slated for the syndication role (B&C, Nov. 20).

But NBC U could yet still come to terms with Mandel if it is willing to meet what is believed to a hefty asking price, since having him as host could make the show an easier sell to a station launch group like Fox.

Stations have refused to commit to the project until they see a host. Comic actor Mark Curry has also been mentioned as a candidate.

With Deal on the backburner for the moment, the fate of Joker’s Wild and Combination Lock remained up in the air last week. A spokesman for distributor King World, now under the CBS Television Distribution Group banner, denied rumors the game shows are dead due to lack of sufficient time periods, saying a decision has yet to be made.

Twentieth Television is also considering game shows for fall, though whether the market can support any more beyond the four successful quizzers currently on the air—King World’s Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy, Buena Vista Television’s Who Wants To Be a Millionaire and Fremantle’s Family Feud—remains to be seen.

Overall, no new first-run projects for fall have been sold yet. Warner Bros. and Telepictures, however, may be getting close to rolling out a TMZ magazine project.

Warner Bros. declined to comment, but to succeed it would need to obtain sizeable license fees with late afternoon, access and late fringe clearances. The Fox O&Os are considered a prime candidate for the series, though Tribune may have some interest in it too.

To get it on the air by fall, some station executives think the pilot would need to be tweaked to make it more like the celebrity gossip Website and less like former magazine Celebrity Justice.

With its focus on the magazine and building its existing chat shows, Warner Bros. has dropped other development projects. Poor selling prospects for talk after three of four rookies failed to surpass a 1 rating this season led Warner Bros. to drop a show featuring Latina magazine creator Christy Haubegger.

But that project may come back even though Warner Bros. has passed on its “first look” deal with producer and former top WB, NBC and Fox executive Garth Ancier (Ricki).

The studio has the option to retain an economic interest in Christy—and possibly even distribute it—if Ancier succeeds in convincing one of several major broadcast launch groups that the fast-rising Hispanic population would embrace it. A decision could come soon after station groups review their November sweeps numbers.

http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6396751.html?display=Breaking+News

dad1153

12-04-06, 08:35 AM

TV Notebook
Producer of ‘Daily Show’ and ‘Colbert’ Cites Other Projects as He Steps Aside
By Jacques Steinberg, The New York Times December 4, 2006

Ben Karlin, the departing executive producer of both “The Daily Show” and “The Colbert Report,” said yesterday that he had decided to leave those positions at year’s end because the television shows were so all-consuming as to prevent him from fully committing to other projects, including a forthcoming book.

In a joint telephone interview, Mr. Karlin and Jon Stewart, the host of “The Daily Show” and a producer of that series and of “Colbert,” said that they had been talking for several years about how Mr. Karlin might scale back his commitments. Nearly eight years after Mr. Stewart first hired him as head writer of “The Daily Show” — and with his contract with the show up at the end of the year — Mr. Karlin said he had decided in recent weeks that the time was finally right.

“It’s the continuation of a conversation that has been going on for three years,” Mr. Karlin, 35, said. “At some point I knew I was going to have to leave before the show is over, even though it is something I do with sadness.”

A signal moment in making his decision came earlier in the fall, Mr. Karlin said, when — with a work ethic his staff would recognize — he sustained a stress fracture in his left tibia while training too hard for a marathon. “Maybe I’m not the best boss,” Mr. Stewart said. “When I heard that, I said, ‘Today, you hop on that left leg.’ ”

Asked if he had tried to talk Mr. Karlin out of pulling back, Mr. Stewart, turning serious, said he had not, but only because “I understand where he’s coming from.” Mr. Stewart also said he was heartened that Mr. Karlin had agreed to remain as a consultant for both shows, which are produced by Mr. Stewart’s Busboy productions. He will also continue to read scripts and give other feedback on “Three Strikes,” a comedy about minor-league baseball that Busboy is developing for Comedy Central.

The comments yesterday by Mr. Stewart and Mr. Karlin — who underscored the amiability of Mr. Karlin’s departure by repeatedly trading one-liners during the interview — were the first they had made since a comedy Web site, theapiary.org, reported on Thursday afternoon that Mr. Karlin had just announced his departure to his staff.

A terse, three-sentence statement released that night by Comedy Central to the trade journals Variety and Broadcasting & Cable — which quoted neither Mr. Stewart nor Mr. Karlin — seemed only to stoke the mystery of his decision , and whether it was voluntary. Mr. Karlin, who was hired by Mr. Stewart based largely on his role as editor of the satirical newspaper The Onion, has long functioned as Mr. Stewart’s right hand; while serving as executive producer of “The Daily Show,” last year he readied the launch of “Colbert,” starring the “Daily Show” alumnus Stephen Colbert. He also led the writing staff for Mr. Stewart’s turn as host of the Academy Awards and for their best-selling collaboration, “America (The Book).”

Both men emphasized yesterday that the decision to set aside his various titles as producer was Mr. Karlin’s.

Mr. Stewart said it was hard to articulate what Mr. Karlin had meant to him over the years. “It’s not arithmetic,” Mr. Stewart said. “I’m not sure I can quantify it.”

Mr. Stewart said, though, that it was Mr. Karlin who “helped build the structure” of a show that, with its acid take on both the government and media, has become a nightly habit for more than 1.5 million viewers.

“Hopefully,” Mr. Stewart said, “it’s built in a way that’s resilient.”

If there was any silver lining to Mr. Karlin’s scaling back, Mr. Stewart said, it was that it helped serve a dynamic they had discussed repeatedly over the years, the need continuously to “bring in oxygen,” via new writers and on-camera talent with new ideas.

Mr. Stewart succeeded Craig Kilborn as host of the show, and it has since withstood the departures of several seemingly irreplaceable correspondents — played by Steve Carell, Mr. Colbert and, most recently, Rob Corddry — only to grow in popularity.

Mr. Karlin is being replaced as executive producer of “The Daily Show” by its head writer, David Javerbaum, whom Mr. Karlin recruited to the show in 1999 from The Onion’ and whom he has known since both were teenagers.

In recent months, Mr. Karlin said, he had vastly scaled back his commitment to “Colbert” and was not running its day-to-day affairs.

At least initially Mr. Karlin said he expected to spend some of his newfound free time on a book that he sold to Warner Books six months ago. Titled “Things I’ve Learned From Women Who’ve Dumped Me,” it is a collection of essays, by him and others, about failed relationships, with charts and illustrations that sound reminiscent of “America.”

“I originally tried to do it all by myself,” said Mr. Karlin, who got married earlier this year and is now expecting his first child. “But I realized I’d only been dumped 17 times. And I needed 25 chapters.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/04/arts/television/04dail.html?ref=business

dad1153

12-04-06, 08:38 AM

Check above for lots of stories added over the past few hours as well as Fredfa's final tabulation of YOUR FAVORITE/GUILTIEST PLEASURE TV SHOWS on network TV. :)

There's a little high school in many 'grown-up shows
There are people I know who wouldn't be caught dead watching a high school show.
BY ELLEN GRAY Philadelphia Daily News Dec. 02, 2006

"Friday Night Lights"? "The O.C."? "Everwood"? "My So-Called Life"?

All these series -- many of them critical darlings, because, well, critics have to at least try everything on our plates before we turn up our noses -- have suffered from the misperception that they're not really meant for grown-ups just because most of their main characters weren't old enough to vote.

Because the truth, and the frustration, of adolescence so often lies in teenagers' inability to control their circumstances, there's genuine poignancy in their day-to-day dramas, whether it's a paralyzed athlete dealing with unexpected limits and changed relationships or a coach's daughter weighing her mistrust of football players against her attraction to one in particular.

Transplant those dramas into an adult setting, though, and what you too often end up with is merely so-called grown-ups behaving like children.

http://www.belleville.com/mld/belleville/entertainment/16147744.htm

After Fredfa is done with his 'Favorite Shows' lists for broadcast and cable TV I hope he does a poll for 'Your Personal Favorite Shows Of All Time Regardless of Network, Genre or Age' poll. My personal list would reveal three TV shows that would be deemed childish and too cartoony for grown-ups to appreciate (as the above-mentioned article indicates).

Two of them, Cardcaptor Sakura and Sailor Moon, are Japanese anime series dealing with the lives of young girls (tweens or adolescents) that have to learn to cope with their superpowers while struggling with personal issues of self-doubt and friendship. In both of them the background music (a usually unnoticed part of the TV viewing experience) is so well-composed and moving that it complements the emotions of the lead characters incredibly well (enough to make me cry alongside them and track down the music CD's all the way to Japan). Heck, my #1 favorite TV series of ALL TIME is a Nickelodeon show that ran from 1994 to 1998 called 'The Secret World of Alex Mack' that I started watching when I was unemployed for a year while looking for work after graduating from College. Alex Mack is about a girl that is covered with a chemical plant liquid that gives her superpowers (levitation, electric zapping and morphing into water) on her very first day at Paradise Valley Jr. High. The chemical plant is always looking for "the chemical kid" while publicly denying its existence. Alex (whose secret is only known by her best male friend and older sister with whom she doesn't get along) has to keep her secret powers hidden from her parents (and everybody else in Paradise Valley) because (a) they work for the chemical plant and (b) the plant controls everybody in town. Did I mention Alex is a social misfit that has no self-esteem and is aching for the love/recognition of the school's jock Scott Green, who appears to be a nice guy that just happens to be taken by the bitchy Jessica (Jessica Alba in her first major TV/movie role)?

For the first two seasons 'Alex Mack' is your typical Nickelodeon tween live action drama/comedy that often insults the intelligence of grown-ups but kids love. But the set-up of the story has a very subtle 'Invasion of the Body Snatchers' vibe (civilian can't escape from seemingly-normal suburban hell) and the relationship between young sister Alex and older sister Annie shows signs of actually growing as the series progresses. Then, on Seasons 3 and 4, a miracle takes place: the producers/writers decide to de-emphasize the Alex Mack characters' powers and concentrate on the emotional growth of all the characters (villains as well as the leads and supporting characters) on the series. The powers are almost afterthoughts as the focus of the series shifts squarely on how the sisters become closer, how one of the chemical plant goons (Dave Watt, a clumsy janitor) discovers the truth about Alex but chooses to keep it to himself for the girls' safety, etc. There are still a handful of idiotic/kiddie-dumb episodes (OK, more than a handful! :rolleyes: ) but anybody that started watching Alex Mack in '94 would be shocked at how much mature it became during its last two seasons. This has proven to be the show's downfall in its limited repeat cycle after Nickelodeon stopped the show in 1998 (at the request of lead actress Larisa Oleynik, who wanted to attend school rather than commit to a school-deprived work schedule): unless watched from beginning to end the emotional punch of watching Alex Mack grow and mature from an almost-unwatchable kid's show to a mature sci-fi dramedy TV show about young people is completely lost.

Another reason (of many) Alex Mack worked so well with me is that kids of actual age were hired when the series started, and as the cast grew in front of my viewer eyes over the years the kids didn't stay acting as kids but grew-up both physically and emotionally (up to a point) as developed TV characters. None of that 'twenty-something actors pretending to be teenagers' crap that ruins most TV series for me (it killed Friday Night Lights for me in the one episode of that series I saw). You have to take my word folks: there are episodes of Alex Mack that make shows like Friends, Grey's Anatomy or Studio 60 look like they're meant for children and not the other way around. Other "tween" shows on the air recently that have caught my attention (though not as strongly as Alex Mack did back in its day) include Caitlin's Way and The-N's South of Nowhere (from the creator of Alex Mack Thomas Lynch, who is pushing the boundaries of tween-aimed TV with a series in which teenagers are getting pregnant, high or sleeping with lovers of the same gender... on a Nickelodeon channel no less).

fredfa

12-04-06, 11:10 AM

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

fredfa

12-04-06, 11:15 AM

The Business of Television
For ABC, dumping football was smart
Take out sports and its ratings are actually up
By Toni Fitzgerald MediaLifeMagazine.com staff writer Dec 4, 2006

The biggest difference-maker in sweeps wasn’t an awards show, a made-for-TV movie, or an extra-long episode of “Deal or No Deal.”

It was actually the NFL, which had a major and very opposite impact on ABC and NBC’s ratings for the four-week long period. “Monday Night Football’s” move away from ABC and “Sunday Night Football’s” addition on NBC pushed the networks in seemingly opposite directions.

At first glance, it looks as though ABC, which won the sweeps period among adults 18-49 with a 4.1 average, was hurting from the loss of football. Its average fell 7 percent from last November, when it averaged a 4.4.

But on closer examination, it’s NBC, whose average soared during sweeps, that’s facing bigger trouble.

Take away NFL games’ averages from last and this fall’s numbers, and ABC was actually the only network to rise year to year. Its non-sports average went from a 4.1 last year to a 4.3 this year, up 5 percent, while it rose 10 percent in total viewers, from 10.9 million to 12.1 million, just 800,000 behind leader CBS.

Meanwhile, the numbers for NBC, which was the only Big Four network to gain over last year for the November sweeps, don’t look quite as rosy when you drop “SNF.”

With sports numbers included, NBC averaged a 3.8 in 18-49s, up 15 percent from last year’s 3.3. Without sports, NBC averaged a 3.3, the same as last year.

This tells us two things. First, it shows that ABC was smart to walk away from “MNF,” despite some doubts from media people about whether the network could sustain its momentum without the show, which had long been losing money.

Second and more important, it raises questions about how NBC will perform in the second half of the year without “MNF.” The network has the biggest new hit of the season, the very impressive “Heroes,” which is now a top-10 show among 18-49s.

But even with “Heroes,” its non-sports rating has remained stagnant, and that’s troubling. “SNF” has masked some major problems with the network’s schedule, some of which it will address with its new midseason schedule but some of which it will not.

Tuesday night is faltering, with its season-to-date average down 24 percent, from a 4.6 to a 3.5. “Friday Night Lights” has flopped at 8 p.m., and more alarmingly, that has weakened “Law & Order: Criminal Intent’s” audience at 9, where it has dipped about 10 percent in recent weeks from its season average. New lead-in “Dateline” may not help.

And Sunday nights are a huge worry after “SNF,” considering the renewed vigor of CBS’s Sunday and ABC’s continued strength on the night. ABC faced the same problem for years on Monday, where it struggled to find a winning combination after “MNF” left for the year.

http://www.medialifemagazine.com/artman/publish/printer_8877.asp

fredfa

12-04-06, 12:15 PM

fredfa

12-04-06, 12:20 PM

TV Notebook
Nip of holiday cheer with 'The Closer'
And a welcome one for TNT and its top series
By Diego Vasquez MediaLife Magazine Dec 4, 2006

When TNT’s “The Closer” ended its second season in September, it drew 7.6 million total viewers and 3.44 million adults 25-54, both basic cable records for a season ender. No wonder then that TNT wanted to bring the show back for a special standalone holiday episode.

Tonight the network airs a two-hour “Closer” starting at 8 p.m. In it Kyra Sedgwick’s Brenda works with her former Central Intelligence Agency mentor (William Daniels) to find the murderer of a defector. The episode was directed by Kevin Bacon, Sedgwick’s real-life husband.

TNT could use a little ratings oomph in December. Last month its primetime average among adults 25-54 dipped 4 percent compared with last year, from 978,000 to 940,000, according to Nielsen data analyzed by Turner Networks. Though it still ranked No. 3 on basic cable, it suffered from softer NBA ratings to begin the season, and it was well behind No. 1 ESPN and No. 2 USA.

The “Closer” special should dominate its timeslot on cable, but it may not draw the same huge numbers as it did in the summer, when it averaged better than 6 million total viewers. Now the broadcast competition is much stiffer. It faces NBC’s hit “Heroes” for the first time, as well as the network’s popular “Deal or No Deal.”

As a point of reference, a special Christmas episode of cable stalwart “Monk” on USA a few weeks ago averaged 3.9 million viewers, about 1 million fewer than its summer average.

http://www.medialifemagazine.com/artman/publish/article_8875.asp

fredfa

12-04-06, 12:31 PM

TV Notebook
CBS Coasts on Procedural Power
By John Consoli Media Week Dec. 4, 2006

The stability of the CBS prime-time schedule so far this season, combined with its telecast of Super Bowl XLI on Feb. 4, 2007, could be enough for the network to hold off Fox and American Idol to win the season in the key adults 18-49 demo, media agency researchers argued last week. But a lot will depend on how strongly ABC is able to defend its current lead.

“CBS is the only network that does not rely on short-term programming for ratings boosts,” said Steve Sternberg, executive vp of audience analysis for Magna Global USA. “This puts CBS in good shape going forward. It should win [the season] among adults 25-54 and be right in the middle of the 18-49 race.”

Likewise, Sam Armando, senior vp, director of television research at Starcom, explained, “CBS’ stability and the ability of its procedurals to repeat well will keep its ratings consistently high all season. While Fox will make up ground once American Idol comes on, it has more ground to make up this year than it did last year. Instead of it being the icing on the cake for Fox, Idol will be the cake. If it falters, it opens the door for CBS or ABC.”

Through the first 11 weeks of the new season, ABC is the adults 18-49 ratings leader with a 3.9, followed by CBS and NBC tied at 3.7, Fox with a 2.8 and The CW with a 1.4. Last year at this point, ABC was averaging a 4.2, CBS a 4.0, NBC and Fox 3.3 apiece and UPN and the WB (which merged into the CW) tied at 1.5. Although ABC led at this point last year—and even though it aired Super Bowl XL—it was beaten by Fox in the 18-49 ratings race last season.

Armando said ABC’s chance of winning the 18-49 race largely rests on how strongly its veteran drama Lost does when it returns in February for its final 16 episodes. He added that ABC didn’t help itself by putting Lost on hiatus (until February) after only six episodes.
But so far this season, the story, clearly, is how well CBS’ procedural dramas are holding up. And CBS’ performance continues to confound media critics who as far back as two summers ago were saying that the network’s continued reliance on procedurals could doom the network if that genre ever fell out of favor with viewers.

There are certainly cracks in that procedural armor, but as a whole, CBS remains strong. The network’s biggest show for the last several years, CSI, is down 30 percent because it airs directly against ABC hit Grey’s Anatomy (8.3) but is still doing a solid 6.8. Other procedurals CSI: NY (5.2) and Cold Case (3.8) are flat over last season, which isn’t bad at all. Better yet, second-year procedural Criminal Minds (5.7) is up 33 percent—for most of the fall, it’s been up against Lost (5.9, down 26 percent).

Kelly Kahl, executive vp of program planning and scheduling for CBS, said procedurals “are the unsung heroes of our prime-time schedule. There is no way to overstate the value of shows that air well in first-run and in repeats. We are not dependent on just a few shows to prop up our whole schedule.”

CBS’ only real programming stumble so far this season—Tuesdays at 10 p.m.—will be patched up with repeats of procedurals in the short term. Last week, CBS canceled its new medical drama 3 lbs. after only three weeks, since it was averaging only a 2.8 in 18-49. 3 lbs. had replaced high-profile heist drama Smith, which ironically delivered higher ratings than its replacement.

Meanwhile, ABC, which most media observers thought would dip in 18-49 delivery early in the season without Monday Night Football, remains the leader in the demo. Its schedule may be less stable than CBS, but the net programs some of the hottest shows on TV: reality hit Dancing with the Stars and veteran drama trio Grey’s Anatomy, Desperate Housewives and Lost, and freshman hit Ugly Betty.

But ABC entertainment president Steve McPherson is loathe to predict an 18-49 win over Fox just yet. “With 47 hours of American Idol on its schedule beginning in January, Fox will be hard to beat,” said McPherson.

At this point in the season, McPherson said he is not leaning toward going for Fox’s jugular by placing Dancing with the Stars in March directly against Idol. “We are trying to rebuild this network night by night, like we did this season with Thursdays,” he said.

While moving Grey’s Anatomy from 10 p.m. Sundays to Thursdays at 9 has not increased that show’s 18-49 rating (8.3), it has given the ABC sales department a big-ticket show to lure big-spending movie and retail advertisers. McPherson’s other decision, moving freshman Ugly Betty from its originally planned 8 p.m. Friday slot to 8 p.m.Thursday, has resulted in the show producing a 4.2 18-49 rating, much higher than it would have done on Friday.

Not all has been smooth for ABC. Only two of the eight new shows ABC has put on can be considered keepers for next season (Ugly Betty and Brothers & Sisters). But Starcom’s Armando believes the network can follow a pattern similar to CBS, which took nearly a decade to rebuild itself. “It’s about finding a few pieces a year,” Armando said. “Little by little, ABC will move toward the stability that CBS now has, but it can’t be done in one or two seasons.”

McPherson does acknowledge that how the network finishes the season in the 18-49 race will depend heavily on Lost. “We are hoping 16 first-run, back-to-back episodes will help us [draw a larger audience],” he said. He added that when the series returns, it will drill deeper back into the core storyline.

Until Lost and Dancing return on ABC, CBS’ Kahl believes his net can make tracks. “Where the other networks will struggle in December and January with their serialized repeats, our procedurals tend to repeat remarkably strong,” said Kahl. But he stopped short of predicting an 18-49 victory for the season. “It’s nice to be in the 18-49 mix, but our main goal is still to win 25-54. If our 25-54 numbers are doing as well as we hope, then our 18-49 numbers will make us competitive.”

http://www.mediaweek.com/mw/news/recent_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003467560

keenan

12-04-06, 01:32 PM

TV Notebook
Nip of holiday cheer with 'The Closer'
And a welcome one for TNT and its top series

I'm glad my trusty DVR picked up on this being a new episode as I had forgotten all about. Of course, I knew you wouldn't let us forget Fred, that's one of the great things about this thread, if you read it, it's hard to miss anything. :)

Marcus Carr

12-04-06, 02:23 PM

G4 to Launch The Next Generation 2.0

12/4/2006 1:21:00 PM

G4 will debut an interactive version of Star Trek: The Next Generation in January.

Building upon its successful Star Trek 2.0 initiative, Star Trek: The Next Generation 2.0 will include on-screen live chat, behind-the-scenes information, trivia games and interactive features that viewers can access via G4’s Web site.

Star Trek: The Next Generation debuts on the network Monday, Jan. 15 at 9 p.m. (EST/PST). Star Trek 2.0 was introduced in April.

“The young-male demo is driving today's media revolution," G4 president Neal Tiles said in a prepared statement. "Increasingly, they are demanding a more interactive, multiplatform experience. Our goal is to offer them TV that guys can get their hands on -- literally.”

http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6397001.html?display=Breaking+News

fredfa

12-04-06, 03:50 PM

I'm glad my trusty DVR picked up on this being a new episode as I had forgotten all about. Of course, I knew you wouldn't let us forget Fred, that's one of the great things about this thread, if you read it, it's hard to miss anything. :)

Thanks, Jim.

It is a show I have been waiting for for months. I might forget about some things, but never a new episdoe of "The Closer"!

fredfa

12-04-06, 03:55 PM

Overnights in the 18-49 Demo
BCS pick-a-thon wins Sunday for Fox
Team selection show pulls a 5.4 in 18-49s
By Toni Fitzgerald MediaLifeMagazine.com staff writer Dec 4, 2006

A big audience turned out to see who would be playing in the Bowl Championship Series national title game come January. How many of them will return, with Florida getting the nod over Michigan to face Ohio State in the Jan. 8 game, remains to be seen.

Last night’s “BCS Selection Show” on Fox averaged a 5.4 adults 18-49 rating at 8 p.m., according to Nielsen overnights, getting a major boost from NFL overrun in the previous hour.

That helped Fox to a rare fall Sunday win, with ABC’s usually dominant schedule in repeats. Despite airing reruns over its final 90 minutes, Fox finished a full 0.9 rating points ahead of runner-up NBC with a 5.1 rating and 12 share for the night.

There had been loads of controversy leading up to the selection show over whether one-loss Michigan, No. 2 for much of the season until falling to OSU a few weeks ago, deserved a rematch with the Buckeyes. One-loss Florida ended up nudging the Wolverines by just 0.1 for the spot, in a decision that’s sure to keep the debate going for weeks.

But whether the controversy will lead to big ratings for the title game is unclear. In the past, years where controversy marred the selection process generally resulted in lower ratings for the title game.

And certainly last night’s “Selection Show” got a big boost from NFL overrun. The final minutes of the exciting New York Giants-Dallas Cowboys game averaged an impressive 8.7 rating at 7 p.m.

Meanwhile, NBC was second for the evening at 4.2/10, ABC third at 3.5/8, CBS fourth at 3.4/8, Univision fifth at 1.4/2 and CW sixth at 1.2/3.

As a reminder, fast nationals measure timeslot performance and not actual program data. Final ratings for Fox and NBC, with live NFL coverage, will likely adjust when final ratings are released tomorrow.

Fox started the night in the lead with a 7.3 average during the 7 p.m. hour for NFL football runover and the first 10 minutes of its college football BCS selection show. NBC was second with a 2.7 for “Football Night in America,” ABC third with a 2.6 for a repeat of “America’s Funniest Home Videos” and CBS fourth with a 2.5 for “60 Minutes.” That left Univision fifth with a 1.4 for the first hour of “Festival Mariachi Disney” and CW sixth with a 1.0 for an hour of “Reba.”

NBC tied Fox for the lead with a 4.6 rating at 8 p.m., NBC for NFL pregame and the beginning of its game between the Broncos and Seahawks, Fox for the last half hour of its BCS selection show and a repeat of “The Simpsons.” ABC was third that hour with a 4.2 for a repeat of “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition,” CBS fourth with a 3.5 for “The Amazing Race,” CW fifth with a 1.7 for “7th Heaven” and Univision sixth with a 1.2 for the second half of “Festival Mariachi Disney.” “Heaven” did earn a season-best 1.8 in 18-34s for the hour.

NBC took the lead at 9 p.m. with a 5.1 rating for football. ABC was second with a 4.3 for a repeat of “Desperate Housewives,” CBS third with a 3.9 for “Cold Case” and Fox fourth with a 3.4 for repeats of “Family Guy” (3.8) and “American Dad” (3.1). Univision jumped back to fifth that hour with a 1.7 for the first hour of a soccer game between Club America and Guadalajara, with CW sixth with a 0.9 for a repeat of “America’s Next Top Model.”

At 10 p.m., NBC continue to lead with a 4.6 for football, followed by CBS with a 3.9 for “Without a Trace,” ABC with a 2.7 for a repeat of “Brothers & Sisters” and Univision with a 1.4 for its second hour of soccer.

Among households, CBS finished first for the night with an 8.3 average rating and a 13 share. Fox was second at 7.7/11, NBC third at 7.6/12, ABC fourth at 6.4/10, CW fifth at 2.0/3 an Univision sixth at 1.6/2.

http://www.medialifemagazine.com/artman/publish/article_8905.asp

dline

12-04-06, 04:35 PM

An interesting footnote from the world of satellite ...

FCC: RFD-TV ineligible for special satellite privileges

In an order (http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/FCC-06-172A1.pdf) released today, the FCC ruled that the rural issues network RFD-TV is no longer eligible for direct broadcast satellite carriage under special federal rules.

The ruling is a victory for Farm Journal Electronic Media, which produces the syndicated AgDay morning show and recently took over production of the weekend agribusiness program U.S. Farm Report.

Under federal law, DBS providers must set aside four percent of their capacity for “qualified programmers for noncommercial programming of an educational or informational nature.” RFD-TV (the name stands for "rural free delivery") claimed the right to carriage under this law, but Farm Journal claims RFD-TV airs too many advertisements to be considered a "qualified programmer" under this law.

Farm Journal also claims that RFD-TV has an exclusive relationship with Superior Livestock Auctions and airs "live, for-profit livestock auctions" conducted by the company on its set-aside channel.

"Even if RFD-TV should be considered a noncommercial entity with an educational mission under section 25.701(f)(2)(e) of the Commission’s rules ... we find that it is not acting like a noncommercial entity with an educational mission in this instance," the FCC wrote. "Because RFD-TV favors certain programming, maintains a significant exclusive relationship with Superior, a commercial enterprise, and acts as if it is a commercial enterprise, we conclude that RFD-TV cannot avail itself of the DBS set-aside provisions contained in section 25.701 of the Commission’s rules at this time."

Source: http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/FCC-06-172A1.pdf

fredfa

12-04-06, 05:00 PM

TV Notebook
CBS's Killer Super Bowl Finale
By Matt Roush TVGuide.com TV Critic

You might have thought, with the Super Bowl being played in South Florida and all, that CBS would use the occasion to follow the game with a special two-part episode of CSI: Miami or something. Or ANYTHING except Criminal Minds. But that’s CBS for you: the Criminal Broadcasting System. If it bleeds, it leads, especially if it can be wrapped up (and soon forgot) in a tidy little hourlong package.

But Criminal Minds, arguably the most unpleasant of CBS’s many procedurals? Is that a way to end a night of festivity and celebration? Ugh. It’s no secret I’m no fan of this mannered, deeply shallow and glibly pretentious show. But hey, to each CBS fan his or her own. (Check out my Dec. 1 Ask Matt column for a more detailed explanation of why this is my least favorite of CBS’s too-many crime dramas.) It’s not like I’m by nature a crime-drama hater. My favorite CBS shows in this genre include the original CSI, which still presents the most clever puzzles on a week-to-week basis, and the ones that take a more emotional look at the subject, like Cold Case, with its haunted survivors and suspects, and Without a Trace, with its desperate searches for missing persons.

Putting aside my own antipathy toward Criminal Minds, I admit I would have probably ranted no matter which CBS procedural had plugged into the slot—with the possible exception of CSI: Miami, of which I’m not a huge fan but which would at least have made thematic geographical sense. (Or maybe NCIS, another mainstream hit, and not one I watch regularly, but at least it has a sense of humor.)

Why not use Super Bowl night to launch a new cycle of one of CBS’s reality competition series, like Survivor or The Amazing Race? (Worked several years ago for one of the Survivors.) Or why not give some much-needed exposure to one of the network’s up-and-coming comedies, in particular How I Met Your Mother, which has been improving steadily this season and which has the sort of youth appeal you’d think CBS would be anxious to cash in on. Besides, a little feel-good mojo at the end of Super Bowl is never a bad thing.

But CBS never wants us to forget it’s the Crime Network, not even on a night when ending on a downer should be considered a national crime. At this point, I’m thinking fondly back to last year, when ABC aired an explosively entertaining cliffhanger episode of Grey’s Anatomy after the Super Bowl. It helped propel that series to the next level of visibility and popularity. I suppose CBS is hoping for the same thing to happen to Criminal Minds, which has become a major hit in its second season but still doesn’t generate the media buzz of its time-slot competitor Lost (talk about brilliant counter-programming, since never the twain shall meet).

I’ll be watching on Super Bowl Sunday in hopes that the minds behind Minds will put their best procedural foot forward to show the skeptical likes of yours truly what I’ve been missing (or dissing). But something tells me they won’t be able to change my mind, criminal or otherwise. Just because a show is popular doesn’t mean it’s not a bad show. Crowning it with the post-Super Bowl slot may give Criminal Minds its highest ratings ever, but that won’t necessarily convey industry or critical respect.

http://community.tvguide.com/thread.jspa?threadID=700013688

fredfa

12-04-06, 05:18 PM

The Business of Television
FiOS (and Comcast Sportsnet) come to Philly
(The Bridge)

Verizon introduced FiOS TV in the greater Philadelphia area, in Bucks, Chester, Delaware and Montgomery counties in Pennsylvania and New Castle County in Delaware.

The telco also said it will carry Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia for FiOS TV subscribers in the area along with other Comcast-controlled content, such as Versus and PBS Kids.

fredfa

12-04-06, 06:03 PM

TV Notebook
New Show from Stargate SGI and Stargate Atlantis Team
By John Eggerton Broadcasting & Cable 12/4/2006

MGM will pitch TV outlets a dark comedy from the cast and crew of its Sci Fi Channel TV series Stargate Atlantis and Stargate SG1.

On hiatus from filming the series, actor David Hewlitt, who plays Rodney McKay on Stargate Atlantis, directed the new film, A Dog's Breakfast, using Stargate actors and crew. Cost was under $1 million, says MGM of the film that was shot in Vancouver in HD.

MGM has bought the rights to TV, home video and new media distribution.

The film looks at a brother and sister whose rivalry takes a harder edge when the latter brings her TV star fiance home to meet the family.

http://www.broadcastingcable.com/index.asp?layout=articlePrint&articleID=CA6397088

chitchatjf

12-04-06, 06:16 PM

ABC didn't DUMP football.

They just moved it to ESPN, that's all.

taz291819

12-04-06, 06:39 PM

ABC didn't DUMP football.

They just moved it to ESPN, that's all.

Well, Disney didn't dump football, they just moved it to ESPN.

fredfa

12-04-06, 07:17 PM

TV Q&A
Ask Matt
(from the Ask Matt column at TVGuide.com
By Matt Roush TVGuide.com TV Critic Dec. 4, 2006

Question: I've been catching up on Dexter episodes this last week, and I'm really impressed with Michael C. Hall's performance. His character seems hard to play: He has to give depth to someone who says he's "empty" inside and all "surface." And in less capable hands, the whole "serial killer who only kills bad guys" premise could be arch or campy. Yet in every episode, Hall makes the character seem real, and there are a lot of subtle moments where he's able to convey a lot silently, merely through his eyes or a twitch of his mouth. It's a completely different performance than Hall's work as David on Six Feet Under, though both roles deal with repression and hidden identities. Do you think he has any chance of getting an Emmy nomination, or do you think voters will be too turned off by the violent subject matter in Dexter?— Don C.

Matt Roush: I tend to resist Emmy questions, especially this far out from the actual event, but any chance to plug Dexter and Michael C. Hall's work on the show is OK by me. Putting aside the fact that the lead actor in a drama series category is typically one of the most crowded and tough to break into, I'd agree that Hall's very clever and often chilling performance deserves serious consideration — especially when you appreciate how different he acts and looks here from what he did on Six Feet Under (for which he did once get a nomination). You make a good point that Dexter may be too graphic and disturbing for the more conservative or squeamish Emmy voters to stomach. But I'm betting Showtime will go all-out to get this show on the voters' radar, and I'd be surprised if the buzz around Dexter hasn't already infiltrated into Hollywood circles. (After all, the Oscars didn't have any problem giving a bunch of major awards to The Silence of the Lambs back in the day.)

Question: With The Nine's all-but-official cancellation, there are very few freshman shows still on my viewing list. Only one, to be exact: The Class. I've never really gotten into the comedy shows that NBC offers, and I find Two and a Half Men too crass for my liking, but this show has caught my attention. It's certainly not the best comedy out there, but it has a likable premise and characters, and the execution is improving from week to week. I just wonder if CBS will stick with this comedy. Also on the lines of comedy, Reba has returned full-force to the new CW, gaining on Everybody Hates Chris' numbers. Can the execs at the CW swallow their pride and give Reba the full season and the season renewal that it deserves? Or will it be halted after its 13-episode run this year?— Aaron M.

Matt Roush: The fact that CBS has stuck this long with The Class should give you some hope. But its ratings have been disappointing. And as fond as I was of the show from the start, I've found it awfully uneven and hope to see some signs of creative tinkering in the episodes in the new year, for as long as it goes. For one: A sharper focus on key characters and relationships like Richie-Lina/Kat-Ethan/Duncan-Nicole, and more of Duncan's daffy mom, while they're at it. And can they please get Lina out of that wheelchair? I expect CBS will rest The Class at some point in the mid-season to give a new sitcom titled Rules of Engagement a tryout. If that one is received better by viewers and critics, chances are it could pull an Old Christine — by which I'm referring to the Julia Louis-Dreyfus comedy that came along late last season to effectively give the boot to Out of Practice. As for Reba, I'm glad its loyal audience has found it on Sundays, but there are two strikes against it already: A hefty price tag and the fact that it's not compatible with any other comedy on the CW's schedule. Economics alone may likely keep the network from extending Reba's life much longer, unless the network feels it can't afford to drop it, which would be a rich irony considering how they've treated it so far.

Question: Can you offer a logical explanation as to why, year after year, The Wire is constantly shut out of most awards shows? It can't be because it's "too violent." If that were the case, The Sopranos would never win. The show is so cemented in realism, I can't even watch episodic shows like Law & Order anymore. They insult my intelligence after seeing David Simon's incredibly detailed and moving masterpiece. Don't you think actors like Michael K. Williams (Omar) deserve to be recognized? Omar might very well be one of the most electrifying antiheroes in TV history. (Right up there with Al Swearengen, anyway.) Andre Royo's tortured performance as street junkie Bubbles is absolutely heartbreaking. What are your thoughts?— Ryan

Matt Roush: I've always thought that if The Wire were more violent or more notorious — in other words, more "commercial" — it would have a better shot at awards recognition. As you note, The Wire is intensely realistic, unlike any other episodic drama on TV in that regard. It's the most novelistic of all of HBO's quality dramas, putting it high on many critics' best-of lists (including mine). But its refusal to pander and resistance to telling a story in tidy hourlong chunks may make it harder to get on the awards radar than more traditionally entertaining shows like 24, Lost or Grey's Anatomy (to name a few). Also working against it (as with Homicide: Life on the Street) is the fact that it is produced in Baltimore outside the mainstream, and there are virtually no stars in the cast. The acting is incredible — this year, I would put any of the four young boys at the heart of this season's story against any marquee actor — but a major flaw in the awards process is that relatively unknown actors like these are far less likely to get nominated. More simply put: The Wire is like an independent film trying to get recognized in the shadow of bigger blockbusters.

Question: Now that we're well into the new season of My Name Is Earl, I have to ask: Why did they scrap the show's opening theme? I loved it! I understand that Earl explaining his list is redundant now, but the music part of it was so cool. I am not happy they abandoned it.— Alana

Matt Roush: I don't have an official explanation. But the overall trend, where title credits is concerned, is to scale back on them once the show has been duly established. With Earl no longer having to set the premise each week, doing a musical credit sequence probably felt like an unnecessary use of precious time to the network, if not to the producers. I kind of miss it, too. But I'm still loving the show.

Question: Two questions for you: 1) How I Met Your Mother is really hitting its stride this season. The "Robin Sparkles" video episode had me laughing throughout. I really enjoy seeing Robin and Ted together, but I'm concerned that when the inevitable breakup occurs — we were told in the first episode that Robin and Ted do not ever marry, but she becomes the future children's "Aunt" — it will destroy the chemistry of the show. When viewers get used to seeing a couple together in a show, we bond to them, and the show is ruined if they break up (Gilmore Girls in particular comes to mind). Don't you think we will always want to see Ted and Robin together?

2) As an avid Gilmore Girls fan, I find it increasingly difficult to watch the show anymore. Not only are the dialogue and timing of the show off, but it's also becoming boring and tiresome. What happened to the townspeople and quirky story lines? Did Rory skip a year at Yale and lose what personality she had? I have invested so much time in this series that I feel compelled to watch, even if it's on a downward spiral. Given that the end point of the show was always Rory's graduation from Yale, what are the chances that this is the last season of the show? If the show were to continue for another season, what are the chances that the original producers would come back to finish it?

— Larry S.

Matt Roush: Good question about Mother. From the pilot episode onward, it has always seemed a puzzling risk to let us know in advance that Ted and Robin weren't going to be forever together. But in the most recent episode, in which we jumped forward in time to Barney's gay brother's wedding, Ted and Robin were still a couple, so it doesn't look like the show is going to rush to confront this obstacle. That will be a tricky moment, no question about it, and it will test our allegiance to these characters, depending on the circumstances of their breakup. (You have to assume they all remain great friends.) As for Gilmore Girls: I can only hope that this is the final season. (You're not the only one stymied by how quickly Rory zoomed through Yale, especially given that she dropped out for a while.) I find the show squirm-inducing these days for a variety of reasons. But it's hard to predict if the CW will let loose of its Tuesday anchor this soon. The network may feel compelled to keep it at least another year in hopes of developing more new programming that could potentially fill its shoes. (Not an easy task.) At the moment, it doesn't look as if the Palladinos are poised to return should the show continue. The falling-out was pretty brutal. But nothing would surprise me (except, perhaps, finding myself caring about what happens in Stars Hollow again).

Question: Would you agree that Boston Legal is severely underrated critically (if not ratings-wise, since the return to its original Sunday berth on Nov. 26 did very well). On the Nov. 28 show, it had the usual (and welcome) BL loopiness, with Lincoln kidnapping Shirley. Then we were treated to an extremely poignant exchange between Denny and Alan, where Alan waxed philosophical on what friendship has come to mean in today's society. This show can do it all, from absurd comedy to touching relationships and serious issues. Why is it never in the running for best series (comedy or drama) at the Emmys? It sure should be. Also, when NBC announced its new fall schedule, I was surprised to see that, with the move of Law & Order: Criminal Intent to Tuesdays, the peacock net didn't put Law & Order: SVU at 9 pm/ET, as a lead-in to its more ratings-challenged sibling. As SVU often outperforms both its older and younger sibs in the franchise, that would have seemed the ideal way to grow CI's audience. Did no one at NBC think of this, or is it because the subject matter on SVU is often hard to take (including the repeated victimization of children), and it couldn't go anywhere but the 10 pm, adults-only hour?— Travis K.

Matt Roush: I do not feel Boston Legal is underrated critically. Somehow, I found myself watching the show again this year. While I enjoy bits and pieces of it and can see why people find it entertaining in an over-the-top way, overall it has become so garishly annoying, infantile (Delta Burke tackling Denny repeatedly, the overdone caricatures like Lincoln Meyer and Jerry Espenson) and proud of its smarmy innuendoes that even when David E. Kelley does write a thoughtful character scene, it's too late for me to take it seriously, or to go out of my way to praise its comic chops. I'm at peace with those who love it, but I miss the good old days of The Practice, when you could sometimes take a little of it seriously. As for the Law & Order shows: NBC would have been nuts to fiddle with SVU, which regularly clobbers the 10 pm/ET competition. It's more important for the network, and for its affiliates, to have a powerful performer at 10 to lead in to local news and late night than to grow CI's audience. Besides, as you suggested, the dark subject matter of SVU is much better suited to the later time period.

Question: Has ABC pulled the plug on Six Degrees and The Nine? I thought they could at least give them some more time. I mean this is the network that keeps giving Men in Trees unearned chances!— Dawson

Matt Roush: I might have agreed with you, until I actually sat down and watched most of the Trees episodes that aired on Fridays. (It has just moved to Thursdays.) Trees got a lot better after the strained pilot, although it will still seem too cutesy and precious to some, I'm sure. And how many "unearned chances" has Men in Trees actually been blessed with so far? Outside of a double run its first week on Tuesday and Friday (when early results hinted there might be an audience for it on a night when people are more inclined to watch ABC), Trees was consigned to Fridays for the first two months of the season, stranded after ABC wisely decided to air Ugly Betty on Thursdays. Now with Betty leading in to Grey's Anatomy and Men in Trees, that looks to me like a perfectly charming night of entertainment. Whereas Six Degrees was a loser from the start: It had next to zero media buzz or support (outside of some admiration for several of its ill-used cast members), which combined with poor ratings to spell instant doom. (And yet ABC kept it on for six episodes from September into early November.) The Nine had much better buzz and reviews at the start, but it failed to open and showed no signs of significant growth. Plus, as the weeks went on, even many of its early supporters wondered about its long-term creative potential. ABC stuck with it for nearly two months, which is longer than many networks would have done in the past. To answer your initial question: ABC hasn't officially canceled either of these dramas. But the network hasn't issued back-nine orders for a full season, so they're basically dead. ABC promises both will return to play out the remaining episodes. But when or where? Who knows. I wouldn't hold my breath.

Question: I enjoyed Lola Glaudini on Criminal Minds. She did an excellent job! Why is she no longer a member of the cast?— Allison G.

Matt Roush: After weeks of ducking this often-asked question, because I had yet to see an official explanation anywhere, here's a detail from an upcoming TV Guide story (on newsstands this week) on new cast member Paget Brewster: "They were looking to bring in a female agent who was unknown to the unit. Ed [Bernero, the show's executive producer] said, 'We've grown complacent as writers with who these people are, and we need to shake it up.'" Characters get written out of shows all the time, especially on shows like this and especially when producers want to make changes from season to season. If there's more to the actress's departure than a creative desire to shake things up, I'm not aware of it. As I've said before, at least with Elle's character, they gave her plenty of dramatic context for leaving the team. It's not like she just disappeared without an explanation.

Question: Is the TNT drama Saved coming back for a second season? I've been dying to know ever since the finale of last season. Please say yes!— Danielle P.

Matt Roush: If we knew, we'd have told you already. TNT still hasn't made the call on this one.

Question: In your Ask Matt column last week, someone asked about Fox's reason behind promoting and supporting Standoff while dumping Justice. I'm not a fan of either show (though I did find Justice more enjoyable than Standoff), but I can understand why Fox chose to stay with the latter. Standoff is produced by 20th Century Fox Television, while Justice was produced by Warner Bros. Will a network's production house affect its willingness to pick up other production houses' shows? I remembered NBC initially held Scrubs, a Touchstone production, until last January because it wanted to promote My Name Is Earl, an NBC Universal show. Last month, CBS canceled Waterfront, a Warner Bros. production, before it even hit the airwaves. It was suspected (mainly by the actor Joe Pantoliano) that the network wanted to promote its CBS-Paramount produced 3 LBS. So, do networks only care about ratings and ad money, or are they also trying to make more of their own productions hits over other company's productions? ABC saved Ugly Betty by moving it to Thursday, but refused to save Warner Bros.' Men in Trees from its Friday slot until recently, after Touchstone's Six Degrees failed to gather any Grey's fans.— DB

Matt Roush: You're absolutely right. I should have pointed out the corporate synergy connection between Fox and 20th regarding the Standoff renewal. (Although it's also in Fox's best interest to want to be in business with Jerry Bruckheimer, Justice's producer, so that probably wasn't as easy a cancellation as it looked.) While your take on the issue is a bit cynical, and in the case of Earl, mistaken (that show is not from Universal, but from 20th, ironically), for the most part you're right. The networks are more likely to favor shows developed from their in-house studio: CBS/Paramount, Fox/20th, NBC/Universal, ABC/Touchstone, CW/Warner Bros. and Paramount. In the case of Betty, though, the show's move to Thursday was inspired more by the fact that everyone (critics as well as execs) loved it. And as buzz was building, ABC took the opportunity to dump the lousy comedies it had originally scheduled in front of Grey's (you got a taste of one of them this week in the DOA Big Day) in favor of pairing Betty with Grey's. A win-win. But you can't help concluding that Six Degrees got its plum spot — and What About Brian its full-season renewal — in part because they're from Touchstone. (The involvement of J.J. Abrams in both may also have been a factor.) As for Waterfront (the pilot of which I never saw, so I'm totally speculating here), maybe CBS just didn't believe in its potential. CBS' schedule is so strong that the network may not have felt the need for another hourlong drama on the back bench. Or maybe CBS finally woke up to the fact that, after several tries, it's going to be tough to build a show around Joe Pantoliano, who's more of a character actor than a leading man. But it's also very likely that if this pilot had been developed in-house, its chances of making it on air would have improved.

http://tvguide.com/News-Views/Columnists/Ask-Matt/Default.aspx#01dexter

fredfa

12-04-06, 07:53 PM

TV Notebook
“The Closer” Reminder

Back-to-back new episodes of "The Closer" will be on TNT (and TNT HD!) tonight at 8 PM ET/5 PM PT. They will be immediately repeated at 10 PM ET/7 PM PT.

The second episode was directed by Kyra Sedgwick's husband, Kevin Bacon.

fredfa

12-04-06, 09:42 PM

TV Notebook
David Letterman's bid to outlast Jay Leno
From Maureen Ryan’s Chicago Tribune blog “The Watcher” December 04, 2006

David Letterman has extended his contract with CBS through the fall of 2010.

That means the CBS late-night host will be on the air one year longer than NBC's Jay Leno, who announced some time ago that he will cede his "Tonight Show" spot to Conan O'Brien in 2009.

Letterman celebrates his 25th year of late-night hosting in February. He's been host of "The Late Show with David Letterman" for 13 years.

"I'm thrilled to be continuing on at CBS," Letterman said in CBS' Monday statement. "At my age you really don't want to have to learn a new commute."

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

dad1153

12-04-06, 09:44 PM

Critic's Notebook
Tweaking the News
Settling In at CBS, Katie Couric Learns to Adjust
By Howard Kurtz, The Washington Post December 4, 2006

Katie Couric showed up without an appointment.

It was Thursday morning in Amman, Jordan, and the CBS anchor, who hadn't gotten to bed until 4 a.m., was woken up with word that she might have a shot at talking to the Iraqi prime minister if she headed to the military airbase."I thought, 'What the heck, what else do I have to do but sleep?' " she says.

Nouri al-Maliki, who had just finished a scheduled sitdown with ABC's Charlie Gibson, did not recognize Couric and did not seem receptive. But the Iraqi foreign minister interceded on her behalf, much to the dismay of the ABC producers who thought they had an exclusive.

Couric, who also wound up interviewing Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, had hesitated to fly to Jordan for President Bush's meeting with Maliki. "We just weren't sure if it'd be worth our while in terms of securing interviews," she says from Amman. "Then we decided the only way we'd know is if we came and tried."

The critics -- and Couric has more than her share -- may not have noticed, but the nightly newscast that she launched three months ago is in transition. Some of the changes she made have been dropped or curtailed to squeeze in more old-fashioned, what-happened-today stories. And Couric is finally starting to make news for covering the news.

"In the first couple of weeks, we might have focused more on features than hard news, and we're adjusting that," says CBS News President Sean McManus. "We've also learned that to break the mold too much might be an interesting creative process, but it wouldn't serve the viewer tuning in at 6:30 to find out what's happening."

Rome Hartman, executive producer of the "CBS Evening News," says a myth has taken root in the press. "The story line that got peddled -- and believe me, it got peddled -- that we were off the news, or softer than the other guys, is basically bogus," he says.

Still, the pace and feel of Couric's program can differ markedly from those of Gibson and NBC's Brian Williams, who, like Couric, anchored from Amman on Wednesday and Thursday. As the former "Today" star has tried to transfer her morning magic to the more traditional confines of the nightly news, some of her moves have been controversial, even within CBS.

"It's a very tricky thing to toy with the format, because we want to try new things and not look as if we're throwing things against the wall to see what sticks," Couric says during a lengthy conversation in New York. "That's why I took this job, to take some chances and do new things . . . We're still sort of finding our way, and that's okay."

With the "Evening News" ensconced in third place, some pundits have been quick to pronounce the $15-million-a-year anchor a flop. But the mood at CBS improved when Couric garnered good reviews for her fast-paced election night coverage. "She was under incredible pressure, but she really came through," says Bob Schieffer, her predecessor as anchor.

Couric's visit to Jordan was her first foreign foray as anchor after a mostly stay-at-home tenure that has included quick trips to Los Angeles and Washington. But she had been to Jordan before to interview King Abdullah and Queen Rania for "Today," became friendly with the queen, and was able to work her contacts to help secure several interviews.

While Iraq dominated the news last week, Couric made time for a very different subject. Last Monday, after returning from Thanksgiving break, she was tinkering with promotions for a five-part series called "Overweight in America."

"We want to make it a little catchier," she told her staff. " Are you feeling as stuffed as your turkey?" She pondered for a moment. " ' Tis the season to be indulging?" Couric conjured up the series and reported the opening segment, on the genetic causes of being fat.

"The news of the day is still our staple, but that doesn't mean we can't do a really smart series on obesity," says Couric, who is perpetually on a diet herself. "Or a piece on foster kids being given addictive drugs . . . 'Hard' and 'soft' are completely antiquated terms. Some of the stories on the front page of The Washington Post and New York Times aren't traditional hard-news stories, and I've never heard anyone ask them to justify that."

In Couric's early weeks as anchor, her team loaded the broadcast with new segments -- from a nightly "Free Speech" forum for outside commentators to the highlighting of interesting photos and Web items -- while bypassing or truncating a handful of important stories. In recent weeks, though, "Free Speech" has been cut to barely once a week and other small features deep-sixed.

CBS's White House correspondent Jim Axelrod says Couric and the staff are still "tinkering with the right flow of hard news and soft news and commentary. I don't think it's any surprise that at the outset, people said, 'Wait a minute, I want more news here.' "

"I think 'Free Speech' was a great idea and well worth trying, but in the end it just took too much time away from news," Schieffer says. "All news programs are a work in progress. We're still in something of a shakedown cruise, but I think we're moving in the right direction."

National correspondent Byron Pitts says that "people are angry, in a good way, to make this the best show it can be . . . A tremendous amount of work went into the planning for Katie's arrival, and once she got here we realized we still had work to do. The problems aren't going to be fixed overnight."

CBS executives said all along that they planned to experiment with the format. "Maybe it takes some getting used to at 6:30 on a weeknight, but I think it's what people expect of her," Hartman says.

The experimentation generally comes after the first commercial break. Couric has led her broadcast with Iraq 18 times, terror-related subjects a dozen times, American politics a dozen times and other foreign-policy issues five times. But there are still differences among the newscasts. On Nov. 20, when her rivals were leading with developments in Iraq, CBS's first two stories dealt with an Alabama school bus accident that killed three teenagers and broader questions of student safety -- a local tragedy that warranted a few sentences on NBC and ABC.

"I think sometimes people have Iraq fatigue," Couric says. "If there's not something really significant going on, it starts to feel like 'Groundhog Day.' We felt millions of kids get on a school bus every day and this would just be interesting. It made us wonder why seat belts weren't required by buses."

Couric, who interviewed O.J. Simpson in 2000 and 2004, also broke with the pack in declining to cover Simpson's book deal and Fox television special for a hypothetical discussion about the two murders he maintains he did not commit.

"I felt it was so sleazy," says Couric, who aired a "Free Speech" commentary on domestic violence instead. "We felt it would turn into more of an infomercial for Fox and Judith Regan," the book's publisher. "It seemed so distasteful." Couric covered the story days later when Regan's boss, Rupert Murdoch, bowed to public outrage and killed the deal.

That stance -- Couric introduced the commentary by telling viewers the Simpson saga wasn't worth their time -- was reminiscent of CBS's Dan Rather refusing, in the summer of 2001, to join the media frenzy over missing congressional intern Chandra Levy.

One emerging hallmark of the newscast is that Couric, who honed her interviewing skills during 15 years at "Today," has been spending more time chatting up newsmakers and analysts, along with her own correspondents. On Iraq, for instance, Couric has spoken with the likes of Rep. Jack Murtha, Sen. Carl Levin, retired Maj. Gen. John Batiste and New York Times columnist Tom Friedman. During the campaign, she periodically hosted former Clinton White House spokesman Mike McCurry and former Bush White House spokeswoman Nicolle Wallace, segments that seemed little different from what is routinely on cable news.

Couric's longest interview, which drew the most flak within CBS, was a discussion with Michael J. Fox. She spoke to the actor after Rush Limbaugh accused him of exaggerating his Parkinson's symptoms during commercials for Democratic candidates who support stem cell research. Some CBS staffers were upset that she devoted nine minutes, or nearly half the newscast, to the subject. Couric made sure to disclose that she has contributed to Fox's foundation, and that her father suffers from Parkinson's.

"People can grouse about it," Couric says of the interview, "but it was distinguishing television."

She is aggravated by some of the pundit potshots about the broadcast's news quotient. "I just think we got an unfair rap, and unfortunately it was perpetrated by people who didn't take the time to watch the show," Couric says.

All the newscasts play up health care, but the subject has been particularly prominent on CBS, often featuring a physician, Jon LaPook, whom Couric helped recruit as medical correspondent. She reports some of these segments as well, including pieces about back pain and hormone replacement therapy. These and other stories and interviews have reduced the airtime of some frustrated correspondents, making Couric the unquestioned star of the show.

"Time is our enemy in this particular format," she says. "It's really a constant struggle to figure out what goes and what stays."

There is also, undeniably, the X factor: Couric's role as the first female anchor to fly solo on a network newscast, and her informal, "Hi, everyone" tone. That has its fans and its detractors.

Erik Sorenson, a former "Evening News" producer, says Couric is "a bit of a lightning rod" but that CBS executives "should be applauded for trying a lot of things." The question, he says, is "are they going to succumb [to criticism], and in three months we're going to look up and they're doing the same newscast as Dan Rather was three years ago?"

In the closely watched ratings race, Couric quickly faded after winning her first two weeks. For the week of Nov. 20, "NBC Nightly News" drew 9.46 million viewers, ABC's "World News" 8.48 million and Couric's broadcast 7.96 million. That represented a modest rebound from Couric's low mark of 7.74 million two weeks earlier.

But while the staff is conflicted over the uneven start, McManus's message remains upbeat. He says the program, excluding those atypical first two weeks, is up 11 percent over last year in the 25-to-54 group prized by advertisers.

"It's bringing in enough to pay for Katie's salary," he says. "I couldn't be happier with the job she is doing, knowing she is under more scrutiny than probably any other person in television history."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/03/AR2006120300988.html

fredfa

12-04-06, 09:48 PM

The Business of Television
Chernin: News, Liberty Still Talking
By Mike Farrell MultiChannel News 11/9/2006

News Corp. is in “constructive” negotiations with Liberty Media regarding the former’s 38% interest in DirecTV Group, chief operating officer Peter Chernin said on a conference call with analysts and reporters Wednesday night.

News Corp. has been in talks for months regarding swapping its stake in DirecTV for the 19% News Corp. voting stake owned by Liberty. Earlier this week, Liberty CEO Gregg Maffei said negotiations were progressing.

In a conference call with analysts and reporters discussing its fiscal-first-quarter results, Chernin said that while there is no hurry to do a deal, talks are moving forward.

“We don’t feel pressure that we have to do a deal,” Chernin said. “So we will continue to have talks and hope that they will progress and be constructive. On the other hand, we don’t feel some sort of defensive pressure. We’re moving forward on the talks and we’ll move forward as constructively as we can.”

Chernin wouldn’t speculate on whether a deal for DirecTV would actually get done, but he added that News Corp. would never consider selling its stake in the direct-broadcast satellite unit if it believed it would aversely impact overall business

Chernin said the two most relevant areas in News Corp.’s strategy are its relationship with cable operators and its ability to widely distribute its content. Neither, he added, would be affected if News Corp. no longer owned a controlling interest in DirecTV.

“We’re pretty confident about our strategic positioning,” Chernin said. “While I’m not going to speculate on DirecTV, we wouldn’t contemplate or even consider a deal if we thought it would have any negative impacts on our overall position.”

Later, asked if a Liberty deal could be reached before the end of the year, Chernin replied that it could. “I don’t want to speculate about timing, but I certainly don’t think it’s out of the question that it could happen this year,” he said.

Chernin added that carriage-renewal negotiations with cable operators for its Fox News Channel were moving forward. News Corp. has already reached deals with Cablevision Systems and DirecTV, and Chernin said those deals will set the pace with future pacts.

“We are extremely pleased with the deals that were struck -- deals that will dramatically increase our affiliate revenues on Fox News beginning later this year,” he said. “And we expect to ramp up our affiliate fees with our other MSO partners in the years to come.”

Chernin wouldn’t confirm reports that News Corp. struck a carriage deal with Comcast for its fledgling Fox Business Channel, but he added that the network is getting close to the 30 million-subscriber benchmark. News Corp. has said it will not launch the channel before it has deals with distributors representing at least 30 million subscribers.

“We believe we have much greater clout than we had in years past and we have an opportunity to sign up a large number of subs before we launch, thereby avoiding the kind of peak investments that we had to make on some of our previous cable-channel launches,” Chernin said.

“We’ve always said that we look at that number as being above 30 million, and we’re getting pretty close to that number,” he added. I would hope that a launch announcement would follow that pretty rapidly.”

Chernin added that carriage of Fox Business is not tied to renewal negotiations for Fox News. “The negotiations we have had on Fox Business up until now have all been completely separate from the Fox News renewal rates,” he said. “And our plan is to continue that going forward.”

For the quarter, News Corp. revenue was up 4.1% to $5.9 billion and operating income declined 6% to $851 million, mainly due to difficult year-over-year comparisons at its film division. At its cable networks, operating income surged 26% to $249 million and revenue was up 14.7% to $889 million.

http://www.multichannel.com/index.asp?layout=articlePrint&articleid=CA6389794

dad1153

12-04-06, 09:54 PM

TV Notebook
Rene Syler to Leave CBS' Early Show
By Anne Becker, Broadcasting & Cable December 4, 2006

Rene Syler, one of four anchors on CBS's Early Show, will leave the show at the end of the year. Syler is leaving the third-place morning show Dec. 22 to "pursue other media opportunities," including publishing a book, according to CBS.

Syler has been an Early Show anchor since Oct. 2002, when the show took on a multi-anchor format . Syler, hailing from the CBS-owned station in Dallas, was the least known of the team, which also included national personalities Harry Smith, Julie Chen and Hannah Storm. Her contributions have included interviews with Laura Bush, Jimmy Carter, Colin Powell and many other politicians and celebrities.

These days, the CBS morning show ranks as a distant third to NBC's Today show and ABC's Good Morning America. For example, the week of November 13, Today averaged 5.74 million viewers, GMA averaged 5.41 million and The Early Show averaged 2.84 million, according to Nielsen Media Research.

Prior to her work in Dallas, Syler was a weekend anchor in Birmingham, Ala. and Reno, Nev. and a weekend reporter in Reno. Her book, Good Enough Mother, is scheduled to be published in March.

Syler's departure is the first in what is expected to be a series of changes CBS will make to The Early Show. CBS News and Sports President Sean McManus has said the show was next on his list of priorities after re-launching The CBS Evening News with Katie Couric.

CBS has not yet determined whether the The Early Show will keep a four-anchor format and replace Syler or air with the three remaining anchors.

http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6397114.html

dad1153

12-04-06, 10:01 PM

TV Notebook
C-SPAN's Lamb Still Aboard After Changes
Associated Press December 4, 2006

NEW YORK (AP) -- Brian Lamb just turned 65, and Monday came the news that two people have been appointed to the job of C-SPAN president, the job Lamb has held since the network switched on in 1979.

Could the man virtually synonymous with his network be retiring?

Hardly. Lamb retains the titles of chairman and CEO, while the promotions of Susan Swain and Rob Kennedy were done to reward their service and set up the network for the future, Lamb told The Associated Press.

"I'm not planning to go anywhere," he said, "but I feel very strongly that my responsibility as a CEO is to have a succession plan and not surprise either my board of directors or the public."

As executive vice presidents, Swain and Kennedy have effectively been running the network day-to-day for the past decade, he said. Swain, 51, has worked at C-SPAN since 1982 and Kennedy, 50, has been there since 1987.

Lamb said he also wants to ensure that C-SPAN continues its mission of closely following government operations.

Besides his off-air duties, Lamb is host of the "Washington Journal" call-in show on Friday mornings and the interview series "Q&A" on Sunday nights.

"I don't think I'll ever retire completely," Lamb said, "but at the same time I'm not one of those people who wants to be carried out of the complex with my boots on."

Started with Lamb and three others, the C-SPAN company now has 265 employees and consists of three television stations, a radio station and about a dozen Web sites.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/T/TV_C_SPAN_LAMB?SITE=NYNYD&SECTION=ENTERTAINMENT&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

dad1153

12-04-06, 10:13 PM

First it was Bo Derek and Morgan Fairchild fueling MyNetwork's has-been star quota for its launch soaps. Now, for its second run of primetime sin, Fox digs deeper into the celebrity closet to plow out of relative obscurity the one and only...

TV Notebook
Tatum is tattlin' on her Wicked' work load
By Richard Huff, The New York Daily News December 5, 2006

Tatum O'Neal stars in MyNetworkTV's new telenovela "Wicked Wicked Games," and it will likely be her last.

"I don't think I would do a novela again," O'Neal said last week, noting the heavy work load involved in a five-nights-a-week drama. "To be honest, you have to be in your 20s. I'm in my 40s."

She's 43.

MyNetworkTV, the Fox-owned network that was created after the demise of UPN, exclusively airs telenovelas Monday through Friday, with weekend recap shows.

"Wicked Wicked Games" stars O'Neal as a sophisticated beauty who was left broken-hearted after a lover dumped her for another woman, played by Joan Severance. Twenty-five years later, O'Neal's character is trying to destroy the guy who ditched her.

The show will launch Wednesday at 8 p.m. EST along with "Watch Over Me," a new telenovela starring Dayanara Torres as a grad student engaged to a ruthless multimillionaire businessman. "Watch Over Me" airs at 9.

Producers shot 65 episodes of each show over a period of four months, meaning the cast worked six long days every week, and on multiple episodes daily.

"I did not audition for this one," O'Neal joked. "They probably wouldn't have gotten me. It's just so much work."

Torres said the difficulty with the telenovela work schedule is that so much of it is shot out of sequence, leaving the actors with little emotional guidance for their characters.

O'Neal is no stranger to hard work. Last season, she was in the cast of FX's "Rescue Me," and negotiations are under way to have her back next season. It's just the large volume of work in such a short period of time that made "Games" so demanding, she said.

And it's not that she didn't have some idea. Her father, Ryan O'Neal, who starred in the prime-time soap "Peyton Place," once warned her about the work load on that type of show.

"We shot so fast, your energy is never down, you've got to move on, move on, move on," she said.

O'Neal plays an over-the-top character who is very angry at her former lover. She's almost a cartoon, O'Neal said.

"I think it's fun to be big and have permission to take your acting ability and be as big as possible with it," she said. "There was no bar set for me. ... I just went off the deep end."

The production pace and lower-than-average budget for an hour-long prime-time series do have an impact, though.

"Sometimes the rush and trying to fit in so many scenes in a day," Torres said, "it cuts maybe a bit of the performance."

O'Neal said she expects the shows to do well with viewers, but added she told producers they need to be careful with the schedule.

"It makes it difficult for the show to be as great," O'Neal said. "It's very difficult when they're cutting corners and whatever. If they ... start putting a little more money into them, I think you will have a huge success."

http://www.azcentral.com/ent/tv/articles/1205wickedgamed1205.html

fredfa

12-04-06, 11:53 PM

Critic’s Notebook
ABC stealthily turns `The Nine' into the no-more
By Charlie McCollum San Jose Mercury News Dec. 4, 2006

ABC really upset some of the audience at home last week -- and it all involved a show that very few people were watching.

On Wednesday, Nov. 22, the night before Thanksgiving, ``The Nine'' -- the network's heavily promoted new series about the aftermath of a bank robbery -- attracted just 4 million viewers. That made it the least-watched show on any major network that week and behind more than a few programs on cable.

So, on the Saturday after Thanksgiving, ABC sent out a brief e-mail to reporters saying that a special edition of ``20/20'' would air in ``The Nine'' time slot last week. Buried at the end was the line that often sounds the death knell for a series: ``The Nine'' is on hiatus and will return later.

The announcement was so stealth -- we're talking a holiday weekend -- that it didn't attract a lot of publicity (probably ABC's intent) and more than a few newspapers and other publications couldn't change their Wednesday TV listings to reflect the schedule shift.

The end result: a barrage of angry e-mails on Thursday, surprising -- given the show's low ratings -- for its size and passion.

The irony of all this is that ``The Nine'' was (or, perhaps, still is) a drama that executives at ABC loved. They really wanted it to succeed, they were frustrated by its failure to reach a large audience, and they gave it every opportunity.

But after a sensational opening episode -- the best of any new series this fall -- ``The Nine'' struggled creatively. It wasn't bad, and there were things to like about it (a splendid cast, for one), but the premise proved to be shaky and the storytelling stumbled. This wasn't a case of a very good show being treated badly.

Of course, fans don't see it that way and are extremely frustrated by the notion they'll never know what really happened inside the bank during the takeover.

Chances are good they never will.

Seven episodes of the series have been shown with six more in the can that will probably turn up someday on the network or, more likely, the Web and video on demand. But closure on the story and the characters? Isn't going to happen -- at least in a way that will satisfy the fans.

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/entertainment/television/16159761.htm

DoubleDAZ

12-05-06, 12:11 AM

FWIW, I thought tonight's Studio 60 was the best so far, both funny and serious at the same time. If they keep this up, they may yet live up to the hype. Just one opinion though.

fredfa

12-05-06, 12:52 AM

I am looking forward to it, Dave

fredfa

12-05-06, 02:47 AM

Pretty spectacular episodes of "The Closer" tonight, also.

Now on to check out "Studio 60".

keenan

12-05-06, 04:06 AM

FWIW, I thought tonight's Studio 60 was the best so far, both funny and serious at the same time. If they keep this up, they may yet live up to the hype. Just one opinion though.
Definitely, this show is really hitting it's stride now.

foxeng

12-05-06, 06:32 AM

FWIW, I thought tonight's Studio 60 was the best so far, both funny and serious at the same time. If they keep this up, they may yet live up to the hype. Just one opinion though.

Looks like Sorkin has finally moved away from so much "inside baseball" and more torward people driven stories. A nice balance on this weeks show. And Danny stepping up! Who would have thunk it?

dad1153

12-05-06, 08:00 AM

TV Notebook
Video Gaming to Get a Slot on Network TV
By Noah Robischon, The New York Times December 4, 2006

A few years ago, few people would have imagined spending hours in front of the television watching professional poker. Now competitive video gaming is going to get a shot at mainstream network treatment when an hourlong special about the World Series of Video Games appears as part of the CBS Sports Spectacular on Dec. 30.

The event will mark the first time that professional video gaming will be broadcast as a sport on network television. “They Got Game: The Stars of the World Series of Video Games Presented by Intel,” is the pinnacle of 20 hours of television programming about the event that is being shown across several Viacom outlets, including MTV and College Sports Television.

“We’re planting our flag in the ground that this needs to be treated as sports television,” said Matthew Ringel, president and co-founder of Games Media Properties, which created the event. The company, spun off from the William Morris Agency in 2002, received a $4.8 million cash infusion from the Edison Venture Fund last week.

Not everyone is convinced that professional video gaming can attract a mainstream TV following.

“People want to play games and not watch them,” said Geoff Keighley, host of SpikeTV’s weekly video game industry news magazine show, “Game Head.” He added, though, that “someone is eventually going to crack it by figuring out how to tell a compelling story about what is happening in the game.”

One handicap is that CBS will only show snippets of actual competitive game play. The gory content in the games being played, like Counter Strike 1.6, Halo 2 and Quake 4, is considered inappropriate for the Saturday afternoon timeslot.

“The one hurdle that was a challenge, and is still a challenge for video gaming,” said Robert Horowitz, a veteran producer of televised sports events and the president of Juma Entertainment, which produced the special for CBS, “is you can’t put people shooting at one another on network television.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/04/technology/04video.html?_r=1&ref=technology&oref=slogin

fredfa

12-05-06, 09:31 AM

fredfa

12-05-06, 09:42 AM

TV Notebook
Tweaking the News
Settling In at CBS, Katie Couric Learns to Adjust

By Howard Kurtz Washington Post Staff Writer Monday, December 4, 2006

Katie Couric showed up without an appointment.

It was Thursday morning in Amman, Jordan, and the CBS anchor, who hadn't gotten to bed until 4 a.m., was woken up with word that she might have a shot at talking to the Iraqi prime minister if she headed to the military airbase."I thought, 'What the heck, what else do I have to do but sleep?' " she says.

Nouri al-Maliki, who had just finished a scheduled sitdown with ABC's Charlie Gibson, did not recognize Couric and did not seem receptive. But the Iraqi foreign minister interceded on her behalf, much to the dismay of the ABC producers who thought they had an exclusive.

Couric, who also wound up interviewing Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, had hesitated to fly to Jordan for President Bush's meeting with Maliki. "We just weren't sure if it'd be worth our while in terms of securing interviews," she says from Amman. "Then we decided the only way we'd know is if we came and tried."

The critics -- and Couric has more than her share -- may not have noticed, but the nightly newscast that she launched three months ago is in transition. Some of the changes she made have been dropped or curtailed to squeeze in more old-fashioned, what-happened-today stories. And Couric is finally starting to make news for covering the news.

"In the first couple of weeks, we might have focused more on features than hard news, and we're adjusting that," says CBS News President Sean McManus. "We've also learned that to break the mold too much might be an interesting creative process, but it wouldn't serve the viewer tuning in at 6:30 to find out what's happening."

Rome Hartman, executive producer of the "CBS Evening News," says a myth has taken root in the press. "The story line that got peddled -- and believe me, it got peddled -- that we were off the news, or softer than the other guys, is basically bogus," he says.

Still, the pace and feel of Couric's program can differ markedly from those of Gibson and NBC's Brian Williams, who, like Couric, anchored from Amman on Wednesday and Thursday. As the former "Today" star has tried to transfer her morning magic to the more traditional confines of the nightly news, some of her moves have been controversial, even within CBS.

"It's a very tricky thing to toy with the format, because we want to try new things and not look as if we're throwing things against the wall to see what sticks," Couric says during a lengthy conversation in New York. "That's why I took this job, to take some chances and do new things . . . We're still sort of finding our way, and that's okay."

With the "Evening News" ensconced in third place, some pundits have been quick to pronounce the $15-million-a-year anchor a flop. But the mood at CBS improved when Couric garnered good reviews for her fast-paced election night coverage. "She was under incredible pressure, but she really came through," says Bob Schieffer, her predecessor as anchor.

Couric's visit to Jordan was her first foreign foray as anchor after a mostly stay-at-home tenure that has included quick trips to Los Angeles and Washington. But she had been to Jordan before to interview King Abdullah and Queen Rania for "Today," became friendly with the queen, and was able to work her contacts to help secure several interviews.

While Iraq dominated the news last week, Couric made time for a very different subject. Last Monday, after returning from Thanksgiving break, she was tinkering with promotions for a five-part series called "Overweight in America."

"We want to make it a little catchier," she told her staff. " Are you feeling as stuffed as your turkey?" She pondered for a moment. " ' Tis the season to be indulging?" Couric conjured up the series and reported the opening segment, on the genetic causes of being fat.

"The news of the day is still our staple, but that doesn't mean we can't do a really smart series on obesity," says Couric, who is perpetually on a diet herself. "Or a piece on foster kids being given addictive drugs . . . 'Hard' and 'soft' are completely antiquated terms. Some of the stories on the front page of The Washington Post and New York Times aren't traditional hard-news stories, and I've never heard anyone ask them to justify that."

In Couric's early weeks as anchor, her team loaded the broadcast with new segments -- from a nightly "Free Speech" forum for outside commentators to the highlighting of interesting photos and Web items -- while bypassing or truncating a handful of important stories. In recent weeks, though, "Free Speech" has been cut to barely once a week and other small features deep-sixed.

CBS's White House correspondent Jim Axelrod says Couric and the staff are still "tinkering with the right flow of hard news and soft news and commentary. I don't think it's any surprise that at the outset, people said, 'Wait a minute, I want more news here.' "

"I think 'Free Speech' was a great idea and well worth trying, but in the end it just took too much time away from news," Schieffer says. "All news programs are a work in progress. We're still in something of a shakedown cruise, but I think we're moving in the right direction."

National correspondent Byron Pitts says that "people are angry, in a good way, to make this the best show it can be . . . A tremendous amount of work went into the planning for Katie's arrival, and once she got here we realized we still had work to do. The problems aren't going to be fixed overnight."

CBS executives said all along that they planned to experiment with the format. "Maybe it takes some getting used to at 6:30 on a weeknight, but I think it's what people expect of her," Hartman says.

The experimentation generally comes after the first commercial break. Couric has led her broadcast with Iraq 18 times, terror-related subjects a dozen times, American politics a dozen times and other foreign-policy issues five times. But there are still differences among the newscasts. On Nov. 20, when her rivals were leading with developments in Iraq, CBS's first two stories dealt with an Alabama school bus accident that killed three teenagers and broader questions of student safety -- a local tragedy that warranted a few sentences on NBC and ABC.

"I think sometimes people have Iraq fatigue," Couric says. "If there's not something really significant going on, it starts to feel like 'Groundhog Day.' We felt millions of kids get on a school bus every day and this would just be interesting. It made us wonder why seat belts weren't required by buses."

Couric, who interviewed O.J. Simpson in 2000 and 2004, also broke with the pack in declining to cover Simpson's book deal and Fox television special for a hypothetical discussion about the two murders he maintains he did not commit.

"I felt it was so sleazy," says Couric, who aired a "Free Speech" commentary on domestic violence instead. "We felt it would turn into more of an infomercial for Fox and Judith Regan," the book's publisher. "It seemed so distasteful." Couric covered the story days later when Regan's boss, Rupert Murdoch, bowed to public outrage and killed the deal.

That stance -- Couric introduced the commentary by telling viewers the Simpson saga wasn't worth their time -- was reminiscent of CBS's Dan Rather refusing, in the summer of 2001, to join the media frenzy over missing congressional intern Chandra Levy.

One emerging hallmark of the newscast is that Couric, who honed her interviewing skills during 15 years at "Today," has been spending more time chatting up newsmakers and analysts, along with her own correspondents. On Iraq, for instance, Couric has spoken with the likes of Rep. Jack Murtha, Sen. Carl Levin, retired Maj. Gen. John Batiste and New York Times columnist Tom Friedman. During the campaign, she periodically hosted former Clinton White House spokesman Mike McCurry and former Bush White House spokeswoman Nicolle Wallace, segments that seemed little different from what is routinely on cable news.

Couric's longest interview, which drew the most flak within CBS, was a discussion with Michael J. Fox. She spoke to the actor after Rush Limbaugh accused him of exaggerating his Parkinson's symptoms during commercials for Democratic candidates who support stem cell research. Some CBS staffers were upset that she devoted nine minutes, or nearly half the newscast, to the subject. Couric made sure to disclose that she has contributed to Fox's foundation, and that her father suffers from Parkinson's.

"People can grouse about it," Couric says of the interview, "but it was distinguishing television."

She is aggravated by some of the pundit potshots about the broadcast's news quotient. "I just think we got an unfair rap, and unfortunately it was perpetrated by people who didn't take the time to watch the show," Couric says.

All the newscasts play up health care, but the subject has been particularly prominent on CBS, often featuring a physician, Jon LaPook, whom Couric helped recruit as medical correspondent. She reports some of these segments as well, including pieces about back pain and hormone replacement therapy. These and other stories and interviews have reduced the airtime of some frustrated correspondents, making Couric the unquestioned star of the show.

"Time is our enemy in this particular format," she says. "It's really a constant struggle to figure out what goes and what stays."

There is also, undeniably, the X factor: Couric's role as the first female anchor to fly solo on a network newscast, and her informal, "Hi, everyone" tone. That has its fans and its detractors.

Erik Sorenson, a former "Evening News" producer, says Couric is "a bit of a lightning rod" but that CBS executives "should be applauded for trying a lot of things." The question, he says, is "are they going to succumb [to criticism], and in three months we're going to look up and they're doing the same newscast as Dan Rather was three years ago?"

In the closely watched ratings race, Couric quickly faded after winning her first two weeks. For the week of Nov. 20, "NBC Nightly News" drew 9.46 million viewers, ABC's "World News" 8.48 million and Couric's broadcast 7.96 million. That represented a modest rebound from Couric's low mark of 7.74 million two weeks earlier.

But while the staff is conflicted over the uneven start, McManus's message remains upbeat. He says the program, excluding those atypical first two weeks, is up 11 percent over last year in the 25-to-54 group prized by advertisers.

"It's bringing in enough to pay for Katie's salary," he says. "I couldn't be happier with the job she is doing, knowing she is under more scrutiny than probably any other person in television history."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/03/AR2006120300988_pf.html

fredfa

12-05-06, 09:56 AM

Critic’s Notebook
'Finale' means 'here come the repeats'
By Ellen Gray Philadelphia Daily News Dec. 5, 2006

Seems like only a year ago that the words "fall season finale" sounded like the Fox promotion department's efforts to paper over a bad situation.

"Prison Break," then its new surprise hit, needed, in Fox's view, to go away for a while, perhaps to fulfill the requirement that no week of a Fox prime-time schedule should ever look exactly like any other week.

(Think of snowflakes.)

Viewers howled, but the season's 13th episode - already written when the "finale" designation was added - ended with a failed prison break and left fans hanging till March.

It must've worked, because this fall, we've had more "finales," with "Prison Break" joined by ABC's "Lost," CBS' "Jericho," NBC's "Heroes" and even the CW's "Veronica Mars" in making a fuss about the last episode before the fresh episodes go away, most of them till sometime next month.

Of course, with November sweeps done and Christmas just around the corner, 'tis the season when most of these shows would have disappeared or have gone into reruns until January, anyway.

This year, they're just admitting it, spurred, no doubt, by the realization that serialized shows don't repeat well.

Truth in advertising?

In television, anything's possible.

http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/entertainment/television//16166235.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp

fredfa

12-05-06, 10:06 AM

Critic’s Notebook
"Studio 60's" unquestioned answers
By David Kronke Los Angeles Daily News Television Critic in his “The Mayor Of Television” blog Dec. 5, 2006

Aaron Sorkin did it, um, again. For what it's worth.

Another "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip" episode, another solid two-out single that likely won't result in much in the end. More melodrama that betrays the fact that although Sorkin really does live in L.A., he hasn't seemed to have absorbed all that much (a 4.1 earthquake that no one feels results in that much damage?). Then again, remember: This is a show that last week forced us to accept that an anarchic, cutting-edge sketch-comedy show would have Howie Mandel as a guest host (vaguely unsuccessful cross-promotion for NBC; meaningless for fictional network NBS).

So, Matt decides to make the Christmas episode about Christmas (cue: all sorts of irrelevant minutiae about the historical underpinnings of the holiday). So, Harriet is offered a movie role that sounds interesting only to aging Baby Boomers (whom Hollywood largely holds in contempt), and for scale (does Middle America really understand that term?), at that, from a guy who wants to steal her from Matt, who only seems to be most interested in her when another guy is. So, the big question about Jordan's impending status as a single parent is how she'll deal with the May upfronts (which pretty much no one in the free world cares about unless s/he's an advertiser). So, the FCC wants to go after the network because it aired a live news report in which a soldier dropped the F-bomb when insurgents were dropping real, actually deadly, bombs upon him (what broadcast network airs such live news reports? And, really, would such an incident actually trigger complaints, or would it become the most-viewed viral video in the history of the Internets ever, thereby discrediting any argument that the incident violated "community standards?").

Oh, well: At least we saw the germ of what might've been the first genuinely amusing idea for a sketch "Studio 60" has managed yet: Santa caught on "Dateline NBC's" "To Catch a Predator." And while the homage to New Orleans musicians would've been more resonant last season, "Studio 60" wasn't on then and no one else lifted such a finger, so the finale was kind of emotional.

Still: Why do I persist in watching this show? Because the show's producers have cattle-prodded me into believing that Jordan and Danny are a damn cute couple (if only because Christine Lahti isn't a regular on the show) and, by golly, I want to see them make it work!

You do have to wonder, though: If the show's promos are uniformly more compelling than the actual episodes, why aren't the people editing the promos writing the show?

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

fredfa

12-05-06, 10:09 AM

TV Notebook
Undie strut: Another 'Victoria's Secret'
And perhaps an idea that's come and gone

By Diego Vasquez Medialife Magazine staff writer Dec 5, 2006

The “Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show” was a big deal when it premiered in 2001 on ABC, drawing 12.4 million total viewers and spawning hundreds of complaints to the Federal Communications Commission.

More recently, however, it’s inspired little more than yawns. After a one-year hiatus following the 2004 Super Bowl indecency brouhaha, the show returned last year on CBS to its worst viewership ever, fewer than 9 million viewers.

Expect even fewer tonight, when the 2006 “Victoria’s” airs at 10 p.m. Last year at least the network could promote the show as supermodel and rising media star Tyra Banks’ final modeling appearance. This year’s show has received less publicity than any of the previous specials.

Last year the show was preempted on one station, Salt Lake City’s KUTV. This year, with no chatter about the show’s return from hiatus and no major lingerie-inspired FCC complaints last year, the show has been an afterthought for most TV writers and perhaps even CBS itself, which hasn’t made as big a promotional push as past years.

Still, if nothing else, the show should perform better than anything CBS has had in the timeslot this season. So far, two new shows have aired at 10 p.m. Tuesday and both have been canceled after three airings, “Smith” and “3 Lbs.”

Dating back to last season, CBS has cycled five new shows through the timeslot, also including “Close to Home,” “Threshold” and “Love Monkey,” the final two of which were also canceled. None have come close to the 3.8 adults 18-49 rating that “Victoria’s” averaged last year.

http://www.medialifemagazine.com/artman/publish/article_8906.asp

keenan

12-05-06, 10:38 AM

Agreed, guys.

"Studio 60" was at its best last night. It was a wonderful Christmas episode. For me, it didn't quite match the emotional intensity of "in Excelsis Deo" back in the first season of "The West Wing" -- but it was close. And to even be mentioned in the same breath with that astounding episode is pretty heady stuff.

What a night of great TV it made, after two hours of "The Closer". Which, by the way, finally answered a question which has lingered for me. I have wondered if Kyra and company looked so good simply because there is no network competition during the Summer. Nope, IMO, they can hold their own against any network show.
No kidding, on a night when there were very few new episodes on, Studio 60, The Closer and Heroes provided one of the best nights of TV I've had in a awhile. The Heroes fall finale was simply outstanding, wow, that show is just so much fun to watch. IMO, Heroes is smoking Lost for pure entertainment value right now, in fact, if they went head to head, I'll bet Heroes would end up on top.

fredfa

12-05-06, 10:44 AM

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

fredfa

12-05-06, 11:51 AM

CBS finally has announced its HD games for this weekend, so the NFL HD schedule (always posted at the top of this thread) is complete:

Sunday Dec. 10
New York Giants at Carolina 1 Fox-HD
Minnesota at Detroit 1 Fox-HD
Baltimore at Kansas City 1 CBS -HD
New England at Miami 1 CBS-HD
Atlanta at Tampa Bay 1 Fox-HD
Philadelphia at Washington 1 Fox-HD
Seattle at Arizona 4 Fox-HD
Denver at San Diego 4 CBS-HD
Gren Bay at San Francisco 4 Fox-HD
New Orleans at Dallas 8:15 NBC-HD

Monday Dec. 11
Chicago at St. Louis 8:30 ESPN-HD

fredfa

12-05-06, 11:59 AM

fredfa

12-05-06, 12:11 PM

Overnights in the 18-49 Demo
No-show no-go: Billboard awards sink
Music special falls 16 percent, to a 2.7 in 18-49s
By Toni Fitzgerald MediaLifeMagazine.com staff writer Dec 5, 2006

New buddies Britney Spears and Paris Hilton have made quite the splash in the online tabloids of late, with graphic pictures of the two partying driving up traffic to online celebrity gossip sites.

So Fox probably could have expected a bump in ratings when the two reportedly committed to host last night’s “Billboard Music Awards.” But both pulled out at the last moment, and without them ratings for the annual event dipped 16 percent from last year.

“Billboard” averaged a 2.7 adults 18-49 rating last night, according to Nielsen overnights, down from last year’s 3.2 overnight rating. The event aired live, and Nielsen fast nationals measure timeslot performance, not actual program data, so there may be some adjustment when final ratings are released later today.

This year the show moved from Tuesday, where its toughest competition was ABC’s “Charlie Brown Christmas,” to Monday, where it faced NBC’s dynamic duo of “Deal or No Deal” and “Heroes.” That, along with Paris and Brit’s bailout, likely hurt ratings for the show.

Spears pulled out first, and Hilton, who reportedly didn’t want to crack jokes about some of her friends as written in the script, followed over the weekend. The show aired instead without a host.

Meanwhile, NBC finished first for the night among 18-49s with a 4.8 average rating and a 12 share. ABC was second at 3.3/8, CBS third at 2.9/7, Fox fourth at 2.7/7, Univision fifth at 1.6/4 and CW sixth at 0.8/2.

NBC started the night in the lead with a 5.0 rating during the 8 p.m. hour for “Deal or No Deal.” ABC was second with a season-high 3.4 for “Wife Swap,” Fox third with a 2.7 for the first hour of the “Billboard Music Awards” and Univision fourth with a 2.2 for “La Fea Mas Bella.” That put CBS fifth with a 2.1 average for repeats of “How I Met Your Mother” (2.2) and “The Class” (2.0) and the CW sixth with a 0.8 average for repeats of “Everybody Hates Chris” (0.8) and “All Of Us” (0.8).

At 9 p.m. NBC led again, this time with a 6.5 for “Heroes,” the night’s top-rated show among 18-49s. ABC remained second that hour with a 4.0 for the season premiere of “Supernanny,” up slightly from last year. CBS was third with a 3.1 average for repeats of “Two and a Half Men” (3.4) and “Old Christine” (2.8) and Fox fourth with a 2.7 for the second hour of the “Billboard Music Awards.” Univision dropped to fifth that hour with a 1.4 for “Mundo de Fieras” and CW remained sixth with a 0.8 average for repeats of “Girlfriends” (0.9) and “The Game” (0.8).

CBS took the lead at 10 p.m. with a 3.7 rating for a repeat of “CSI: Miami,” followed by NBC with a 3.0 for a new “Studio 60.” ABC was third that hour with a 2.6 for “What About Brian” and Univision fourth with a 1.3 for “Cristina.”

Among households, NBC led the night with an 8.0 average rating and a 12 share. CBS finished second at 6.3/10, ABC third at 5.6/9, Fox fourth at 4.0/6, Univision fifth at 2.2/3 and CW sixth at 1.5/2.

http://www.medialifemagazine.com/artman/publish/article_8934.asp

fredfa

12-05-06, 12:16 PM

...IMO, Heroes is smoking Lost for pure entertainment value right now, in fact, if they went head to head, I'll bet Heroes would end up on top.

I agree, and the Nielsen numbers have been very soft for "Lost" this year. I'd expect them to sink even lower after the long layoff -- and when the February sweeps offer even more stellar competition.

There just hasn't, IMO, been enough of a payoff to all the disparate storylines in "Lost" to reward all but the most avid viewers. Clearly millions this year think the show just isn't worth the effort anymore.

fredfa

12-05-06, 12:34 PM

Critic’s Notebook
NBS Refutes FCC Indecency Authority
By John Eggerton at the Broadcasting & Cable “bcbeat” blog Dec. 5, 2006

Studio 60 is pretty darn preachy, which is no surprise for an Aaron Sorkin production, but fortunately for me its my favorite sermon.

If only Sorkin could script those snappy comebacks I can never think of until it's too late, but I digress.

Monday night's episode featured an apoplectic network chief railing at the FCC. Seems his NBS Nightly News' imbedded reporter in Afghanistan was interviewing a soldier when a rocket-propelled grenade's red glare burst in the air nearby, prompting an F-word in response from the GI.

Mr. Rogers would have cussed in the same circumstance, says NBS chairman Jack Rudolph,but now the FCC, goaded by pro-family groups, is going to fine it $325,000 per offense, he opines. His programming chief, Jordan McDeere, urges him to make a federal case out of it, literally, as a First Amendment issue. "Laywer up," she says. "The First Amendment doesn't apply to broadcast TV," Rudolph adds ominously.

Avoid a war with federal regulators, the NBS lawyer argues. He also says they could single out NBS.

The lawyer also says they should fly to Washington, meet with the FCC chairman and trade PSA's for a reduced fine.

Not quite true, but the real NBS, as in NBC, could be forgiven for the hyperbole given the FCC's crackdown on profanity and indecency, which NBC, along with CBS, Fox and others, has lawyered up over to make a federal case out of (enough prepositions).

But it was left to Ed Asner as the GE-like head of NBS' parent company to deliver the goods. When Rudolph offers to resign, saying the FCC could block a planned deal to get into the Asian casino business, Asner will hve none of it. He says that he doesn't plan to pay a $73 million fine, or even a 73 cent fine.

He says he no longer acknowledges the authority of the FCC over indecency and that he will, instead, look to a federal judge for some answers.

"I have been waiting for this fight all my life," says Asner'scharacter with a feisty twinkle in his eye. It may be a tad "Mr. Sorkin Goes to Washington-esque," but it was a Christmas show, so he can be forgiven for a little Christmas dreaming.

By the way (nice transition, huh?), I loved the ending of the show-within-a-show, with the out of work New Orleans musicians playing "O Holy Night," with a black-and-white photo montage of the city behind it.

It reminded me of that Paul Simon performance on SNL in the aftermath of 9/11.

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

rebkell

12-05-06, 01:27 PM

No kidding, on a night when there were very few new episodes on, Studio 60, The Closer and Heroes provided one of the best nights of TV I've had in a awhile. The Heroes fall finale was simply outstanding, wow, that show is just so much fun to watch. IMO, Heroes is smoking Lost for pure entertainment value right now, in fact, if they went head to head, I'll bet Heroes would end up on top.

totally agree about Heroes smoking Lost, Heroes keeps things moving along, Lost is losing me, nothing but questions with no real answers. Heroes seems to run at a great pace, a lot of questions, but we're getting answers every week.

dad1153

12-05-06, 01:37 PM

TV Notebook
Tweaking the News
Settling In at CBS, Katie Couric Learns to Adjust

By Howard Kurtz Washington Post Staff Writer Monday, December 4, 2006]

Uhh, what about post #18,700 from the previous page Fred? :rolleyes:

fredfa

12-05-06, 03:24 PM

oops, (again!) :)

fredfa

12-05-06, 03:26 PM

TV News Notebook
Evening-News Ratings: NBC Sweeps It
By Rebecca Stropoli Broadcasting & Cable 12/5/2006

NBC's Nightly News With Brian Williams took first place in the November sweeps in total viewers, homes and the adults 25-54 demographic, according to Nielsen Media Research.

During the sweeps period, Nightly News averaged 9.568 million total viewers, a good 7% more than ABC's World News With Charles Gibson (8.920 million) and 23% more than CBS' Evening News With Katie Couric (7.783 million in its first sweeps since Couric took the anchor chair in September).

In homes, NBC earned a 6.5 rating/12 share over ABC's 6.2/12 and CBS' 5.4/10.

And in adults 25-54, NBC scroed a 2.4 rating over ABC's 2.3 and CBS' 2.0.

http://www.broadcastingcable.com/index.asp?layout=articlePrint&articleID=CA6397385

fredfa

12-05-06, 03:34 PM

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

fredfa

12-05-06, 04:17 PM

Weekly Nielsen Notebook
NBC Beats ABC For 11th Week Victory
By James Hibberd Television Week Dec. 5, 2006
For the first time this season, ABC's thunder was stolen in the weekly ratings race.

NBC won the 11th week of the season, fueled by NFL football, "Heroes" and a strong performance from its newly formed Thursday night comedy block. NBC averaged a 3.7 rating among adults 18 to 49 for the week ending Dec. 3, according to Nielsen Media Research.

On two occasions previously this season, both NBC and CBS have managed to tie ABC, but neither has bested the network outright once live-plus-seven-day ratings were tabulated. This time, the margin of victory is likely wide enough to prevent a change in the outcome once later-day viewing is tabulated.

ABC was second with a 3.5 average, aided by "Grey's Anatomy," "Charlie Brown Christmas" and the broadcast premiere airing of "The Polar Express."

CBS was close behind with a 3.4 due to the ongoing strength of its procedurals and its Monday night comedy block. Fox was fourth with a 3.3, with "House" continuing to perform strongly amid a week of third and fourth place finishes. The CW enjoyed five series high, giving the network its best week yet among adults 18 to 34 (1.8), while its 18 to 49 average was a 1.5.

http://www.tvweek.com/news.cms?newsId=11177

fredfa

12-05-06, 04:55 PM

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

fredfa

12-05-06, 05:20 PM

Critic’s Notebook
” Studio 60”:
Let's get rid of demented Santa Claus!!!!!
By Alan Sepinwall of the Newark Star-Ledger in his TV blog “What’s Alan Watching” Dec. 5, 2006

… There were a couple of the requisite cringe-inducing moments, mostly involving the two leading men and their unconvincing romances, and the FCC subplot set up such a strawman villain that I was longing for the subtle nuances or Bob "Crime, boy I don't know" Ritchie, but overall, I didn't hate it. For this show, that's huge progress.

Let's take the good stuff first. I laughed several times, mostly at Cal's antics (see the subject line) and the Christmas debunking going on in the writers' room. (Though even I know that the virgin birth was Mary, not Jesus, and I'm the idiot responsible for the "figgy pudding"/"won't go until we get some" fiasco from the other night.) While the News 60 jokes were as lame and overly-wordy as ever, I at least admired the premise of the "To Catch a Predator" spoof with Santa. (Would have been funnier if Conan hadn't dipped a toe in these waters back at the Emmys, but c'est la vie.) And shameless as the New Orleans thing was, it was still beautiful. Sometimes you've gotta be shameless to provide good schmaltz.

Now, the bad. Matt and Harriet continue to have zero chemistry together, and him planting a kiss on her during a commercial break to mark his territory was a dick move, as both a guy and as a boss. But he's got nothing on Danny, who, aside from looking old enough to be the unborn baby's grandfather, came across like the kind of guy who should be the victim of a "Dateline NBC" sting operation with his obsessive stalking of Jordan. "I'm coming for you" isn't romantic; it's the sort of thing T-Bag from "Prison Break" would say.

Also, there is No. Way. In Hell. that the FCC would issue a $73 million fine in a situation involving live news and an American soldier in the middle of combat. No way. This is totally different from Janet Jackson or even the silly "Saving Private Ryan" thing, and no political administration of either stripe would allow this to happen. If Aaron wants to go after the FCC for the post-Nipplegate atmosphere, go right ahead, but pick a better target.

But, still, didn't hate it. I don't know that this is going to win anybody an Emmy the way the first three "West Wing" Christmas shows did, but it was by far the least objectionable episode of the series in weeks, if not going all the way back to the pilot.

http://sepinwall.blogspot.com/2006/12/studio-60-lets-get-rid-of-demented.html

fredfa

12-05-06, 05:33 PM

Critic’s Notebook
The Watchie Awards:
For 2006's wackiest and winningest TV
From Maureen Ryan’s Chicago Tribune blog “The Watcher” Originally posted: December 5, 2006

Next week, I’ll list my Top 10 shows of the year. But this week, it’s all about the Watchie Awards -- my take on the most memorable, notable or just plain weird moments and people of the 2006 TV scene.

As always, feel free to share your favorite moments and characters of the year in the comment area below.

Most formidable team: Would you want to go up against the combined fierceness of “Deadwood’s” Al Swearengen and Sheriff Bullock? Nope, me neither.

Most dynamic duo: Dulé Hill and James Roday on “Psych.” Roday’s energetic irreverence and Hill’s pained, deadpan patience make for a delightful combo.

Most efficient way to kill a show: Schedule it very late on Fridays, don’t promote it and then yank the show entirely after a few weeks. That’s what A&E did with the fine British spy drama “MI-5,” and it worked a little too well.

Best new “Lost” character: The enigmatic Desmond, brutha, played by Henry Ian Cusick. Let’s hope we see more of him (and the slippery Benjamin Linus) when the show returns in February, and I’m crossing my fingers that they wait a while before they kill either of them off (speaking of that, I hope they kill off those annoying new Losties first).

Best network executive (non-fictional): Kevin Reilly. Not only is he the man who stuck by “The Office” and was brave enough to put it on Thursdays, he also put his career on the line by giving full seasons to the entirely worthy (but ratings-challenged) “Friday Night Lights” and “30 Rock.” Which almost makes “Twenty Good Years” forgivable.

Scariest network executive (fictional): Jack Rudolph, the fearsome head of NBS on “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip.” Steven Weber is obviously having a great time playing this icy, ambitious executive. More screen time for him, pretty please.

Scariest movie executive: The fictional head of Warner Bros. on “Entourage”: Actor Paul Ben-Victor gives the studio boss just the right amount of steely resolve and smiling, shark-like viciousness. You hated him for not letting Vince Chase make “Medellin,” but you understood why even Ari Gold fears the guy.

Funniest network executive (fictional): Jack Donaghy, who does double duty on “30 Rock” as the head of GE’s trivection oven division -- and he also oversees an NBC sketch comedy show. As masterfully played by Alec Baldwin, Donaghy is an unaccountably charismatic network suit, and the smirky spin Baldwin puts on every one of his lines makes him by far the best part of the show.

Best eyes: Hugh Laurie’s peepers continue to be among the most transfixing things about “House.” Yes, the show has fine writing and acting and production values and all that. But if that all goes away, those blue orbs will keep me watching.

The go figure award: Who knew that “Jericho,” a Midwest-set thriller about a post-nuclear society, would be one of the few serialized dramas from the fall roster to find a following?

Most gripping season finale: The final 90 minutes of “The Shield’s” fifth season was so engrossing that the commercials came as jarring interruptions. The death of Lem -- at the hand of his anguished best friend, Shane -- is one of the most tragic, Shakespearean moments in TV history.

Most cheering news: “The Wire” will have one more season to tell its impassioned stories. If you’ve watched any of the sterling HBO show’s previous four seasons, you know why this is a wonderful thing.

Most dead network trend award: Serialized dramas with a crime element. In 2006, “Heist,” “Runaway,” “Smith,” “Kidnapped,” “The Nine,” “Day Break” and “Vanished” all tanked. Don’t expect to see more of these sorts of shows next year. Unless they also involve nuclear destruction. Or doctors.

Most charming new kids show: Playhouse Disney’s “Charlie and Lola,” an entirely winning, distinctive import about two fanciful British kids. A few other recent pre-school favorites: “The Wonder Pets!,” “The Backyardigans” and “Little Einsteins,” all of which have good music and stories parents won’t mind watching.

Most winning immigrant: The optimistic time-bender Hiro Nakamura of “Heroes,” who, along with the mysterious HRG, gave even grumps like me (who sometimes wince at the show’s dialogue and story lines) a reason to watch NBC’s surprise hit.

TV personality enduring the most awkward holiday season: Thanks to a technical glitch, Kyra Phillips, a CNN anchor, called her sister-in-law “a control freak” on national television -during a speech by President Bush, no less. But Phillips was a good sport and went on Letterman soon after to mock her inadvertent familial dis, which may have made passing the turkey a little tense this year.

The most welcome return to television: If “Brothers and Sisters” was purely a vehicle for the sensational Sally Field, that would be enough reason to tune in. But the nicely ripening show is much more than that, and has grown into an engrossing family drama. Still, a big reason to tune in is because Field is turning in great work as widowed matriarch Nora Walker.

The “Are you frakking kidding me?” award: In the January Season 2 finale to “Battlestar Galactica,” the writers advanced the story by a year in the blink of an eye. Putting a big chunk of “lost time” in the middle of this stunningly well-told story was a gutsy move, but no more than fans expect from this provocative, risk-taking drama, which has deepened and become even more satisfying each season.

Best dance routine: Donald Faison, who plays Turk on “Scrubs,” did a note-perfect dance routine to the new-jack-swing classic “Poison” in a February episode of the NBC comedy. Not only are his comedic chops impeccable, the man has footwork to die for.

Best cover song: Lane Kim’s band on “Gilmore Girls,” fronted by none other than former hair-metal bad boy Sebastian Bach, did a version of Gwen Stefani’s “Hollaback Girl” that was as sizzling as it was unexpected.

The why the hell did they do that to Kyle Chandler award: In the conclusion of the heart-stopping post-Super Bowl “Grey’s Anatomy” two-parter, the show reached a dramatic high point. Too bad they had to do it by making “pink mist” out of Chandler, who played a hunky rescue worker trying to defuse a bomb inside a patient. “Grey’s” creator, Shonda Rhimes, had to adamantly insist on her blog that Chandler’s character really did kaflooey and was really not coming back (but thank goodness he did come back in another show, “Friday Night Lights”).

Hottest romance: Forget McDreamy and Meredith. Tim Riggins and Lyla Garrity’s secret hookups nearly scorched the screen on “Friday Night Lights.”

Best YouTube snippet from “The View”: Oh golly, where to start with this one? There wasn’t just Star Jones Reynolds’ surprise “I’m so outta here” announcement or Barbara Walters’ icy “Don’t let the door hit you on your newly slender behind” rebuttal the next day. There were also any number of Elisabeth Hasselbeck meltdowns and a memorable claws-out encounter between Sandra Bernhardt and the entire “View” crew. And that was all before the combustible Rosie O’Donnell joined the fray! Post-Rosie, there was Danny DeVito’s inebriated appearance, which didn’t really make me lose respect for Danny, it made me wish I could party with George Clooney.

Most enjoyable daytime talk-show moment: Delightfully subversive actress Amy Sedaris’ appearance on Martha Stewart’s show, in which Stewart didn’t react to any of Sedaris’ seditious comments, or at least pretended not to hear her subversive chatter, was frankly a classic. When does Sedaris, who’s written the demented “I Like You,” an entertaining book of her own, get a show?

Most enjoyable nighttime talk-show moment: Conan O’Brien’s trip to Finland may be the most memorable thing he’s ever done. It’s certainly the funniest, and it showed him at his irreverent, spontaneous best.

Best fan campaign (network division): “Office” creator Greg Daniels used an interview in the Tribune to plead for a supersize Season 2 finale. Within hours of that interview, “Office” aficionados from the fan sites OfficeTally.com, NorthernAttack.com and GiveMeMyRemote.com had set up supersizedoffice.com -- and the thousands of pleas on the site worked - “The Office” got a supersize finale. Well done, fans!

Best fan campaign (cable division): When word leaked out that “Deadwood” might be going the way of the high-button shoe, the show’s vociferous fans made a ruckus, and thanks to sites such as savedeadwood.net, “Deadwood” will be getting another four hours to wrap up its enthralling stories. Heng dai!

Best political satire (British division): Talk about laughing till you cry. “The Thick of It,” a British faux reality show about a cabinet minister shot in the style of “The Office,” makes you weep with laughter at the ineptness and arrogance of politicians and their minions. Then you just weep because the antics of these self-serving government types are probably more realistic than you want to believe.

Best bad boy: Logan Echolls of “Veronica Mars.” Guys, next time you wonder, “Why do all the girls dig the bad boys?,” rent this show to find out. Thanks to Jason Dohring’s magnetic performance, Echolls isn’t just a messed-up rich boy with a bruised heart of gold, he’s also quite a match for the title character of “Veronica Mars,” played by the equally talented Kristin Bell. Too bad this on-again, off-again couple broke up, but their sparky post-breakup dialogue is often the best thing about the show.

The “Oh, my ears, my ears -- make it stop!” award: The two singles unveiled during the “American Idol” finale - “Do I Make You Proud” and “My Destiny” - were, I suppose, preferable to listening to six minutes of cats with laryngitis screeching at top volume, but then again, maybe not. Speaking of that finale, what was up with Clay Aiken’s hair? Did he have a bad encounter with some kelp?

Biggest reality TV upset: Chloe Dao’s win on Season 2 of “Project Runway” in March. But never mind, the right person, Jeffrey Sebelia, won Season 3, so now I’m mollified.

The go away already award: “The Apprentice.” It’s coming back next year. Why? We. Just. Don’t. Care. Anymore.

Biggest disappointment (cable division): After a wait of nearly two years for new “Sopranos” episodes, this June blog post was my reaction to much of Season 2: “Too many Season 6 stories on this once-great show are stone-cold boring, insignificant or glaringly obvious. Too many times this season, I’ve looked at my watch during an episode, wondering when it would be over. That shouldn’t happen.” Let’s hope the show amps things up for its final nine episodes, which begin airing next spring.

Biggest disappointment (network division): What the heck happened to “Commander in Chief”? From promising drama to limp dishrag in less than a season. Only “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip” managed to go south faster.

Biggest acting revelation: Who knew that Gerald McRaney was capable of such a thunderously great performance as George Hearst on “Deadwood”? All I can say is, wow.

Best commercials: “Prison Break’s” Peter Stormare starred in VW’s hilarious “Unpimp Your Auto” ads.

The “Oh, snap” award: There was one character who made me believe in the virtue and selflessness of public servants -- Aaron Pierce (Glenn Morshower), the Secret Service agent on “24.” When the evil President Logan tried to weasel out of his myriad crimes, here’s what Aaron said: “There is nothing that you have said or done that is acceptable to me in the least. You are a traitor to this country and a disgrace to your office, and it’s my duty to see that you’re brought to justice for what you’ve done. Is there anything else, Charles?”

Least inspired copycat award (cable division): “Saved” was about a troubled, rakish, charming bad boy with women troubles and addiction problems. Where have we seen that before? Uh, everywhere.

Least inspired copycat award (network division): “3 lbs.” We have a great show about a jerky doctor. It’s called “House.”

The underhyped gem award: If you haven’t seen Sundance Channel’s “Slings and Arrows,” go rent the first season now. That glimpse of the delicious backstage drama should get you salivating for Season 2’s DVDs, and for the third and final season, which should arrive on the cable network in 2007.

The blink and you missed it award: The ethnic divisions of the four teams on most on the most recent edition of “Survivor” was, according to creator Mark Burnett, supposed to get us all talking about race and really take on the subject in a serious fashion. Or, maybe, just maybe, this racial edition was all about the hype, considering the ethnic experiment lasted all of two episodes.

Least enjoyable reality-show judges: Count the number of times the judges on “Rock Star: Supernova” said “dude,” “that rocked” and “rock on,” and … you’d have a really, really high number.

Least effective “Grey’s Anatomy” character: Callie Torres. She irritates me less than she used to, but she has zero chemistry with George, and I’ve just never really liked her “I’m a tough girl, back off” persona. Maybe if there was something else going on there, I’d dig her more. But, so far, Addison Shephard is by far the better addition to the cast.

The give me that hour of my life back award: Yes, I have the most enjoyable job in the world. But I’ve also had to not just watch but find something to write about these wretched new shows: “American Inventor,” “Happy Hour,” “The Underground,” “Heist,” “Pepper Dennis,” “Twenty Good Years,” “Love, Inc.” It’s hard out here for a critic.

Most demented award: I usually feel like as if I’m breaking some kind of law by watching “Wonder Showzen” and “Moral Orel.” And that’s a beautiful thing.

The surprisingly not awful award: Tori Spelling’s “So NoTORIous,” a faux reality show modeled on her life, wasn’t half bad. And the devastating portrayal of Spelling’s TV mom makes their real-life battles that much more understandable.

The Tricky Dick award for best villain: If Gregory Itzin wasn’t the most transfixing actor “24” has ever had, then I don’t know what’s what. His querulous, commanding, absolutely riveting portrayal of a dastardly, self-serving president made a thrilling show even better, and was surely a big factor in the Fox drama winning the best drama Emmy in September. And in Jean Smart, Itzin’s President Logan had a more than worthy scene partner. It’s good to know they’re both back next season.

Most annoying “comedic” moment: The talking va-jay-jay on the Showtime sketch series “The Underground.” I don’t mind tawdry and gross comedy skits, as long as they’re also, you know, funny. This wasn’t (and besides, “South Park” had the dubious distinction of doing this particular bit first).

Best new “Daily Show” correspondent: As the show’s Resident Expert, John Hodgman’s unflappable inaccuracy never fails to produce a giggle or five.

Least effective public apology: James Frey’s appearance on “Oprah” in January only made me despise the lying liar even more.

Best online contest: “The Colbert Report’s” search for a fan-made version of Stephen Colbert’s light saber exploits drew dozens of hilarious and entertaining entries -- even a fancy one made by George Lucas, in which Jar-Jar Binks made an appearance. Lucas lost, and a terrific fan-created short film won. Me so happy!

Best award acceptance: Despite strong competition from Hugh Laurie and Gina Davis, Steve Carell was the most entertaining statue-accepter at January’s sprightly Golden Globes. In his deadpan speech, he thanked “Nancy, my precious wife, who put her career on hold in support of mine and who sometimes wishes I would let her know when I’m going to be home late, so she can schedule her life, which is no less important than mine.” Trust me, Carell’s delivery made that speech hilarious.

Funniest Online Extra: The “Psych-Outs” that accompany the winning USA series “Psych.” Little more than improvised silliness between co-stars Dulé Hill and James Roday, they are unaccountably smile-inducing, especially the duo’s goofball take on “Pass the Dutchie.”

Most revealing online extra: Dwight Schrute’s “Schrute-Space” blog gives us possibly more insight into his mind than we wanted. But I must give him credit where it’s due. He had some good ideas about merging the casts of “Lost” and “Battlestar Galactica.” “President Roslin would … have both casts mate in order to create more surviving humans.”

Best online presences: Most of the cast of “The Office” blogs, and there are several terrific fan sites as well that cover the show in exhaustive depth (in addition to the “Office” sites Office Tally and Northern Attack, check out Dunderball for the best quotes). And SciFi.com’s blogs and extras for “Battlestar Galactica” are among the most extensive anywhere; to keep with general news on the show, I dig Galatica Sitrep. Finally, the "Project Runway" offerings at Bravotv.com are always worth a look, but the day after each episode I positively run to the computer to check out the witty commentary at Project Rungay.

Worst guest star (cable division): Sharon Stone on “Huff.” When did overacting become an Olympic sport? Her scenes with Oliver Platt were veritable ham-offs. Yecch.

Worst guest star (network division): In Britney Spears’ appearance on “Will and Grace,” the pop star proved she’s no better at acting than she is at picking husbands. By the way, I would have nominated Kevin Federline’s guest turn on “CSI” for worst guest appearance -- if I could have brought myself to watch it.

Most shocking character deaths: They killed President Palmer! They killed Michelle! They killed Tony! They killed Edgar! Curse you people at “24” for whacking some of my favorite characters, yet addicting me to your show anyway.

Most weaselly NBC move: Premiering “Book of Daniel,” a fine and well-written series, on Friday nights in January, then yanking it as soon as humanly possible. It was a good show and deserved better. And “Deadwood’s” Garrett Dillahunt was surprisingly empathic and funny as Jesus.

Best ABC move: Shifting “Ugly Betty” to Thursdays, and building the most chick-friendly night on TV (and yeah, I know, lots of guys are addicted to the “Betty”/“Grey’s” combo as well). Kudos to the network for giving this scrappy, terrific show a chance at the big time. And hey, even “Men in Trees,” a new ABC Thursday entrant, is growing on me. A little.

Most literal title: As the title character of “Shark,” James Woods is compelling (as he always is), but he makes the actors around him seem like timid guppies by comparison. They need to give him some co-stars that can stand up to his overwhelming energy.

Best serial killer drama on HBO: “Epitafios,” a South American drama that was an elegiac, elegant film noir.

Best serial killer drama on Showtime: “Dexter,” a black comedy with a gripping plot and a bravura, vulnerable performance by Michael C. Hall.

Best serial killer drama on the broadcast networks: There isn’t one. Yes, I know, “Criminal Minds” is a big hit, but it’s so relentlessly grim and its characters are so thinly drawn that the only reason to tune in is to see whether any of the people on the show can wear an expression other than the “I’m very serious and humorless” face.

Most heartbreaking series finale: “Everwood’s” final moments in May were as classy, well-written and emotionally involving as its very first moments four years ago. We won’t dwell on the fact that the shows that the CW replaced “Everwood” with tanked. We’ll just focus on the fact that the `Wood was very good right ’til the very end.

Best kiss: The smooch between Jim and Pam at the end of the second season of “The Office” still ranks as one of my all-time TV moments. In a thousand ways, small and large, the savvy writers for this show earned that kiss, and the best part was that no spoilers spoiled the magic of that unexpected moment for the show’s loyal viewers. It was pure bliss, and the entire episode was fantastically played by John Krasinski and Jenna Fischer.

Best overall guest roster: Let’s hear it for “Everybody Hates Chris,” which gave good roles to Antonio Fargas, Jackee, Tim Meadows and Whoopi Goldberg, among others.

Best music video: “Robin Sparkles,” a.k.a. Robin from “How I Met Your Mother,” was revealed to be a teen pop princess from Canada -- her secret past included a terrible single, “Let’s Go to the Mall,” and an addiction to rubber bracelets and stone-washed denim. The video for her one hit was an achingly funny re-creation of ’80s tastelessness.

Worst “Desperate Housewives” train wreck: There were many, but all I can say is, I hope the fine Alfre Woodard got a big paycheck for her wasted time on this ABC drama, considering her role as Betty Applewhite went nowhere. I wish I could say that that was the worst part of the show’s second season, but sadly, it wasn’t.

Most “awk-ward” moment: Jon Stewart insulting the assembled glitterati at the Academy Awards. It may have played well to the college kids watching at home, but the icy response in the room to Stewart’s irreverence made the awards show seem even longer than it was.

The we’re not worthy, ma’am, award: Not only did Helen Mirren star as the Queen in, yes, “The Queen,” a critically acclaimed Oscar-bait film, but she gave TV viewers two virtuoso performances in HBO’s “Elizabeth I” and PBS’ final “Prime Suspect” outing. Attention, aspiring actors: You could do no better than watching these mesmerizing, brutally honest performances.

Best “Trek” tribute: The 200th episode of “Stargate SG-1” featured a brief scene with Ben Browder as the captain of the old-school Enterprise. Maybe you had to be a total geek to get why that was so fun, but trust me, it was.

Worst new network comedy: Was it the short-lived “Emily’s Reasons Why Not”? “Twenty Good Years”? “Big Day”? Networks are trying to make comedies better, but as these duds prove, they’re not trying hard enough. Making them funny is a good start, I always say.

Most necessary death: Marissa on “The O.C.” But good heavens, it took her a long time to die! And curiously, for a woman who’d just been in a fatal car wreck, there wasn’t a scratch on her. Now, if they’d just whack the entirely annoying Kaitlin Cooper, we might just be getting somewhere.

Best loser brother-in-law/brother (Network division): Hamish Linklater on “The New Adventures of Old Christine.” In a part that’s often a throwaway on network sitcoms, Linklater injects his sad-sack character with equal parts sly humor and pathetic fear.

Best loser brother-in-law/brother (Cable division): The hilarious Justin Kirk on “Weeds” was a standout in a strong cast as the unwanted houseguest you can’t really kick out but don’t really want around your impressionable kids.

http://featuresblogs.chicagotribune.com/entertainment_tv/2006/12/the_watchie_awa.html#more

dad1153

12-05-06, 05:52 PM

Anybody get the feeling Maureen Ryan REALLY likes her job? :) :D

fredfa

12-05-06, 05:55 PM

TV Notebook
The 10 Best Episodes of 2006
As voted by Yahoo! readers

Jericho
"Pilot" Originally aired Wed 9/20/06 on CBS

It's been an incredible fall season with a few freshman shows grabbing our attention with their very first episode. Jericho's Pilot makes the top of our list. (Watch the full episode now.) This CBS drama enacts the aftermath of nuclear bombs being dropped on U.S. soil, specifically focusing on how the small town of Jericho, Kansas reacts to the blasts. The pilot sucks us in right away with questions such as "who was responsible," "where did the blast originate," and introduces us to the mysterious character of Jake Green (Skeet Ulrich).

Veronica Mars
"My Big Fat Greek Rush Week" Originally aired Tue 10/10/06 on The CW

Our girl Veronica rushing a sorority? Say it ain't so?! Don't worry, of course Ms. Mars has an ulterior motive. Before you can say Tri Lambda Mu, Veronica goes undercover as like a totally perky freshman to look for clues to catch the Hearst campus rapist. Veronica Mars pretending to be a drunk co-ed was a genuine fall highlight.

Friday Night Lights
"Who's Your Daddy?" Originally aired Tue 10/24/06 on NBC

It's rival week in Dillon, Texas and it is sooo on. After the Tigers (longtime rivals) trash the Panthers locker room, Coach Taylor instructs the team against retaliation. He also instructs Matt (who is having a very bad week) to get "loose" with a girl in a backseat not knowing Matt is big-time crushing on the Coach's daughter Julie. Luckily nobody listens to the coach. Sounds soapy? Not with the genuine performances on display in this under-watched gem of a show. This episode sealed FNL's position in our Tivo queue.

How I Met Your Mother
"World's Greatest Couple" Originally aired Mon 10/16/06 on CBS

One of the best comedies on TV? Without a doubt. From Lily moving into Barney's bachelor palace and the horrors that ensue, to Marshall starting up a "bromance" with a fellow single guy (which ends disastrously), this episode will have your stomach aching from laughing so hard. If you haven't boarded the Mother train yet, it's time to get your ticket.

Grey's Anatomy
"From a Whisper to a Scream" Originally aired Thu 11/23/06 on ABC

Even with an extra 10 minutes on this special Thanksgiving night airing, this episode left us breathless for more. Why is Grey's Anatomy the most buzzworthy show right now? How about George's mom grilling Izzie about his sex life, Callie almost beating Meredith to a pulp in what would have been a very one-sided cat fight, and the final scene where Burke shuts the door on Cristina (and their relationship?) for her ultimate betrayal. Damn, that was good.

The Office (NBC)
"Gay Witch Hunt" Originally aired Thu 9/21/06 on NBC

In another uproarious 'outing' by the Dunder Mifflin gang, Michael finds another person to offend. This time the object is Oscar, who is unwittingly outed as a gay man by Michael. What follows is utter hilarity as Michael and lap-dog Dwight try to figure out who else in the branch might "swing that way." The episode ends with an uncomfortable, cringe-worthy kiss between Michael and Oscar (with Dwight jumping in as well) that cements this NBC sitcom as a worthy successor to its British namesake.

Battlestar Galactica
"Exodus, Part I" Originally aired Fri 10/13/06 on Sci Fi

Phew, we thought Laura Roslin was a goner for a second there. The former President survives a Cylon firing squad as the action on New Caprica heats up in anticipation of a rescue from the Galactica crew. And after all the care taken to hide baby Hera, of course she was bound to end up in Cylon hands. And look out for Boomer's wrath if she ever finds out that her child is still alive.

Desperate Housewives
"Bang" Originally aired Sun 11/5/06 on ABC

The Wisteria Lane Season 3 renaissance continues. When Bree tells Carolyn (guest star Jackie Metcalfe) that her husband is a big cheater, Carolyn snaps and takes the grocery store her husband manages hostage. Half the neighborhood happens to be inside the store, including Edie, Julie, Austin, Lynette, Nora and even the newest neighbor Art. The standoff brings Julie and Austin together and gives the much-maligned Nora a permanent one-way ticket out of our Sunday nights. For that alone, kudos! Admit it, how many of you cheered?

Heroes
"Collision" Originally aired Mon 10/16/06 on NBC

The worlds of our super-powered average citizens start to intersect in this cruical episode. never fails to hook us with its jaw-dropping imagery. First we see a dead Claire return to life to find her chest ripped open mid-autopsy. Then we see a future Hiro, wielding a very cool sword and speaking perfect English, visit Peter to deliver the now-famous mantra: "Save the Cheerleader, Save the World." Hey, if she can survive an autopsy and still remain unscathed, we think the cheerleader just might be able to save herself.

Ugly Betty
"The Lyin', the Watch and the Wardrobe" Originally aired Thu 10/26/06 on ABC

It's a busy day for Mode's most style-challenged employee. Betty not only has to track down her boss' conquests of the past week to find out which one has his watch, but she also has to fight off her attraction for fellow-employee, Henry from accounting (Gasp, what would Walter think?). Bitchy, binge-eater Amanda finally shows some heart when she opens up to Betty about her real feelings for Daniel. This is the episode where we officially fell in love with Betty, ugly or not.

Prison Break
"Buried" Originally aired Mon 10/2/06 on FOX

And then there were six. After Tweener's vicious murder at the hands of Mahone, only six escapees remain on the run. We finally get a big payoff when the buried $5 million is found, but Sucre's shocking betrayal lays the ground work for yet another twist in this ever-changing, heart-pounding chase across America and freedom (we hope) for Michael and Linc. Will one of Michael's tattoos bail the boys out once again?

Boston Legal
"Trick Or Treat" Originally aired Tue 10/31/06 on ABC

Forget the fact that this episode had Michael J. Fox's head in a jar. Or the fact that Alan was dressed as Tracy Turnblad from "Hairspray." What makes this Halloween episode even more outrageous than the typical Boston Legal episode is the fact that Denny finds out the midget he's dating could in fact be his daughter. And that, my friends, is why we can't get enough of the shenanigans at Crane, Poole & Schmidt.

http://tv.yahoo.com/collections/270

fredfa

12-05-06, 05:56 PM

Anybody get the feeling Maureen Ryan REALLY likes her job? :) :D

And given she is about the busiest TV critic/blogger around, how in the world does Mo ever get a chance to watch all that television?

fredfa

12-05-06, 06:29 PM

Critic’s Notebook
Networks reshuffle
Complex serial dramas flopped; game shows, reality shows will take up the slack
By Joanne Ostrow Denver Post TV Critic

Following the November sweeps and looking toward midseason, it's time to plug holes.

Quick, someone call NBC's "Dateline" and have them gin up a pile of predator stories.

Substitute a "20/20" for whatever is on the grid. Alert the folks at ABC's "Primetime" they can rush a five-part series onto the air.

Pump up the money-giveaway shows, where civilians grovel and emote on camera for the chance to win what amounts to a tiny percentage of the commercial take.

Grab the trowel and slap together a midseason schedule.

When all else fails, or at least when the year's ballyhooed trend to serialized dramas falls flat, the nonfiction hours of filler are cheap to produce and ready to take up the ratings slack.

The season that was supposed to mark a stellar shift in style and a renaissance for smart dramas, bringing an incursion of high-minded serials to primetime, has fallen back to earth.

A raft of literate, complex and sometimes overpopulated serial dramas have been yanked from the schedule after failing to live up to the hype. Some serials have been outright canceled, others sent to suffer quiet deaths in hiatus-

land, the television equivalent of being on interminable "hold" listening to tinny Muzak. As the expensive dramas depart, the usual reality drivel, tabloid news and titillating game shows assume their places.

As of this week, "The Nine" (ABC) joins "Kidnapped" (NBC), "Smith" (CBS), "Vanished" (Fox), "Runaway" (CW) and "Six Degrees" (ABC) on the roster of defunct serials. Both "Six Degrees" and "The Nine" officially are being held in that secure secret location called hiatus. Don't expect to see them again, unless it's online.

At the start of the season, Wednesday nights offered a serial showdown fit for the DVR: NBC's "Kidnapped" versus ABC's "The Nine," two suspenseful hours that required careful attention. They entailed a kidnapping, a bank robbery and hostage crisis, mysterious subplots, red herrings and an essential "Previously, on" at the top of each installment.

Previously on, currently off

This week, Wednesday will be a contest between "Medium" and "Primetime."

For the foreseeable future Wednesdays are awash in "Primetime: Basic Instinct," (the newsmag series about making ethical decisions), "Biggest Loser" and (beginning in January) "Deal or No Deal." After the midseason rejiggering, "Dateline NBC" will be trotted out for three nights a week, Tuesday, Saturday and Sunday.

Granted, some of the serials were unnecessarily convoluted. Some snared big acting talent (Dana Delany, Ray Liotta, Virginia Madsen) only to have them stand around in muddy stories that dared us to care.

And yes, it was asking a lot for viewers to follow so many plot lines and characters over so many weeks. Mindless entertainment is easier.

But "Show Me the Money"? Please. This was supposed to be the season when TV evolved. William Shatner is clearly shameless. Take heart from the fact that the ratings for that derivative mess have been as abysmal as the game itself.

ABC's "The Nine," one of the season's better dramas, seemed to play to an older audience than, for instance, NBC's "Heroes." The difference in texture was the difference between a traditional mystery novel and a fun comic book. Both started the season on my favorites list, only one remains. "The Nine's" interweaving of flashbacks and present time was clever at first, but the pace began to feel plodding. Ultimately, too few of us were paying attention.

"The Nine" was pulling roughly 8.6 million viewers, losing half the audience from the shows that preceded it, "Lost" and "Day Break." Network executives can't forgive an hour that squanders that kind of lead-in.

Now the question is, Will viewers forgive ABC for pulling "Lost" from the schedule for three months?

Unlike some seasons, there's still plenty to watch. We'll content ourselves with "Friday Night Lights," at 7 tonight on Channel 9; the series moves to Wednesdays on Jan. 10.

And we'll embrace a new mantra: Save the Cheerleader, Save the Reruns. Viewers who've fallen behind on "Heroes" can catch up with repeats until the series returns Jan. 22.

http://www.denverpost.com/ostrow

VisionOn

12-05-06, 06:49 PM

And given she is about the busiest TV critic/blogger around, how in the world does Mo ever get a chanc to watch all that television?

I often wonder the same thing about you Fredfa! How you keep up with all this TV news and this thread updated every hour of every day it seems, amazes me!

fredfa

12-05-06, 07:33 PM

I do get away, VisionOn, and then dad1153 fills in better than I could hope.

(But thanks for the compliment!)

keenan

12-05-06, 07:48 PM

I agree, and the Nielsen numbers have been very soft for "Lost" this year. I'd expect them to sink even lower after the long layoff -- and when the February sweeps offer even more stellar competition.

There just hasn't, IMO, been enough of a payoff to all the disparate storylines in "Lost" to reward all but the most avid viewers. Clearly millions this year think the show just isn't worth the effort anymore.
totally agree about Heroes smoking Lost, Heroes keeps things moving along, Lost is losing me, nothing but questions with no real answers. Heroes seems to run at a great pace, a lot of questions, but we're getting answers every week.
I get that "Lost" is primarily a character interaction type a drama, blah, blah, blah, as opposed to an action, mystery show. But when it first aired it was exciting and things actually happened, but pretty much the last season and a half have dragged on like a daytime soap opera. I mean, come on, 6 episodes of Jack, Kate and Sawyer being locked up? Gimme a break. At the end of last season we were introduced to some real-time(as opposed to flashbacks) people, off-island, who are actually tracking what's going on with the island, yet there's been nary a mention of it so far this season. Frankly, these first six episodes were boring, when it returns I'll probably stack them up on the DVR, and if I hear that it's starting to move along, then I'll watch them, otherwise, there's far more interesting stuff available to watch.

rustycruiser

12-05-06, 08:13 PM

'Lost' finds new timeslot
Shift ensures the show won't have to battle 'American Idol'

By Josef Adalian Variety Dec 5, 2006

ABC is moving "Lost" out of the way of the "American Idol" juggernaut.

Alphabet's January sked, set to be unveiled later today, has "Lost" moving to Wednesdays at 10 when it returns Feb. 7, insiders said. Shift ensures the third-year skein won't have to battle the Fox behemoth.

A year ago, "Lost" took a notable ratings hit once "Idol" returned. Skein has held steady in the ratings this fall vs. last spring, but ABC execs clearly don't want to take the chance of further slippage.

Net's affils should be happy with the shift. With "Lost" at 10 p.m., ABC will be delivering local stations their best numbers for the slot in years.

ABC isn't completely backing away from "Idol," however.

Net has decided to slot its buzzworthy laffer "Knights of Prosperity" Wednesdays at 9 p.m., directly against the "Idol" results show. It'll be paired at 9:30 with another new comedy, "In Case of Emergency."

New laffer block is set to debut Jan. 3, a month before "Daybreak" was set to end its run. Skein may shift to 10 p.m. Wednesday before "Lost" premieres, though it's more likely it'll simply be yanked at the end of December or moved to another night.

ABC will round out its Wednesday lineup with new episodes of "George Lopez" and "According to Jim" from 8-9 p.m. Net will double-pump "Jim" for a few weeks, with "George" bowing Jan. 24 at 8 p.m.

On Tuesdays, "Show Me the Money' will shift to 8 p.m. on Jan. 2. It'll be paired with "Big Day" and "Help Me Help You." Latter laffer may eventually be replaced by newcomer "Notes from the Underbelly," though no decision has been made.

ABC's Sunday, Monday and Thursday skeds will remain unchanged for now. At some point, net will have to make room for the return of "Dancing with the Stars."

On Fridays, ABC will continue to vamp with repeats. Saturday will be a mix of movies and specials.

Still on the bench: six episodes of "The Nine" and "Six Degrees."

http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117955107.html?categoryid=14&cs=1

AAF

12-05-06, 09:43 PM

And given she is about the busiest TV critic/blogger around, how in the world does Mo ever get a chance to watch all that television?

"Time travel, somebody said..."

DoubleDAZ

12-05-06, 09:45 PM

Hiro-san! :)

fredfa

12-05-06, 09:59 PM

good post rusty -- have you checked to see if the "Lost" thread has it yet?

rustycruiser

12-05-06, 10:16 PM

good post rusty -- have you checked to see if the "Lost" thread has it yet?

I just posted it, along with a link to this thread. Thanks Fred. I didn't think of it. Probably because I don't understand why everyone else doesn't compulsively check this thread daily like I do for all the latest TV news and info.

Keep up the great work, Fred.

:D

dad1153

12-05-06, 11:56 PM

Nielsen Ratings
Peacock wins demo; CBS still No. 1 overall
By Nellie Andreeva, The Hollywood Reporter December 6, 2006

Led by "Heroes," "Deal or No Deal" and football, NBC was the demo champ for the week ending Dec. 3, which overlapped the final three nights of the November sweep.

Meanwhile, CBS extended its winning streak in total viewers to 11 weeks and CW posted its best weekly numbers to date.

The rookie superhero drama "Heroes" (15.6 million, 6.8/16) continues to be NBC's big success story this season with a No. 3 finish for the week among adults 18-49 behind established hits "Grey's Anatomy" on ABC (24.0 million, 9.5/23) and "House" (17.3 million, 6.9/17) on Fox.

NBC's Emmy-winning comedy "The Office" (9.1 million, 4.4/11) also had a strong week, hitting a season high in 18-49 in the Thursday 8:30 p.m. slot, but the news was not all good for NBC's newly launched two-hour Thursday comedy block.

Airing against a repeat of CBS' "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," NBC's new Thursday 9 p.m. anchor "Scrubs" got off to a slow sixth-season start with 7.2 million viewers and a 3.6/9 in 18-49, down from the 3.8/9 the show logged for its fifth-season premiere on a Tuesday in January.

The network's struggling new comedy "30 Rock" (6 million, 2.7/7) slipped even further at 9:30 p.m.

ABC also didn't get much traction with its new Thursday addition. In its debut in the Thursday 10 p.m. slot, freshman dramedy "Men in Trees" delivered 11.3 million viewers and a 3.8/10 in 18-49, down 60% from its big "Grey's" demo lead-in and 30% from the premiere in the same time period of the now-benched "Six Degrees." With the transplant from the less-watched Friday night to Thursday, "Men," starring Anne Heche, still delivered its highest numbers in all key demographics.

Also soft was the series premiere of ABC's new comedy "Big Day," which opened to 7.6 million viewers and a 2.8/7 among adults 18-49 in the Tuesday 9 p.m. slot, dropping 42% from its "Charlie Brown Christmas" robust demo numbers. Without "Dancing With the Stars" as a lead-in, ABC's freshman comedy "Help Me Help You" (5.0 million, 1.8/4) at 9:30 p.m. fell to its lowest numbers ever.

It was a strong week for dramas overall with several series hitting season highs: CBS' "NCIS" in total viewers (18 million), Fox's "Bones" in adults 18-49 (3.1/8), NBC's "Las Vegas" in total viewers (10.2 million) and adults 18-49 (3.2/10), the CW's "One Tree Hill" in adults 18-34 (2.6/7) and "Gilmore Girls" in adults 18-34 (2.6/8) and total viewers (4.9 million).

CBS' red-hot sophomore drama "Criminal Minds" broke another series record, drawing its largest audience ever (17.9 million). Meanwhile, the CW's drama "Veronica Mars" posted a series best in adults 18-34 (2.0/5).

Two serialized dramas -- Fox's "Prison Break" and CBS' "Jericho" -- had solid fall finales. "Prison Break" tied its highest 18-49 rating for the season, while "Jericho" posted its best numbers in a month.

Theatrical movies, a dying breed on broadcast TV, also had a good week with the broadcast premiere of "The Polar Express" (13.2 million, 4.1/12) on ABC logging the best numbers for a theatrical film on broadcast TV in almost three years.

For the week, NBC averaged 10.4 million viewers and a 3.7/10 among adults 18-49 to CBS' 11.8 million, 3.4/9. ABC (10.1 million, 3.5/9) was second in adults 18-49, followed by Fox (8.2 million, 3.3/9).

The CW had its best week yet with an average of 3.8 million viewers and a 1.8/5 in adults 18-34.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/television/news/e3i33e4fd5c8511db328dcd0e3601c6ad62

dad1153

12-06-06, 12:00 AM

Critic's Notebook
A doofus version of 'Entourage'
By Verne Gay, (New York) Newsday December 6, 2006

Dudes, man.

Everybody seems to want them. Or every advertiser does. That's where a show like "Twentyfourseven" comes in. Perfectly configured to that primitive and evolving life form known as the 17-year-old male brain, this one as well as others - and there are a lot of them out there, like MTV's "Rob and Big" - are engineered for speed and simplicity. Dudes talk in grunts. They're into chicks (but don't usually seem to know many). They party (a lot). They work (very little). Booze or at least beer? The very air that they breathe.

"Twentyfourseven" has been described (by MTV) as a real-life "Entourage," but the HBO show is Pinter by comparison. This wanna-be's as dumb as dirt, and, as a consequence, even makes Hollywood seem more toxic than it probably is. There are the aforementioned babes - lots of them, in very brief bikinis, and endowed with even briefer vocabularies. There are guys, stoned or drunk or simply zonked out. There's some drama, too, amid the endless parties, boozing and other assorted life-wasting routines, because the show features some real headbangers (or at least one) who have impulse-control problems. Meanwhile, there's a reasonably good band (The Prom Kings) in a starring role.

All of this - in other words - means MTV's got a big hit on its hands.

Advertisers? Back to them. "Twentyfourseven" is about a dude named Greg Carney who's a partner in a company called Freedom Beverage Co., which will use this show to somehow promote something called Freedom Energy drink. The company's motto is the famous line by German philosopher Hegel - "the history of the world is none other than the progress of the consciousness of freedom" - which I bring up for no reason other than the sheer lunatic pleasure of referring to both Pinter and Hegel in a review of something this brain-dead.

In Wednesday night's pilot, we meet Greg and his requisite Hollywood posse (each described by their chief respective talent, so to speak). There's Frankie, the club promoter; Cipes, a musician; Ty, a filmmaker; Matt, an actor; Whitman, a record producer; and Chris, Greg's brother, who's also the lead singer of The Prom Kings and headbanger-in-chief.

They are all making plans to launch a new club called Cafe Casablanca. The problem is, they want the ladies to attend the launch party and they also want to get the ladies blottoed on the big night. The perfect solution to kill both elusive birds with one stone? Open bar! Unfortunately, Greg's partner thinks that's a waste of money, while Chris decides last minute to go on a hunting spree back in Arkansas, where he and Greg come from. That means no Prom Kings for opening night festivities either.

Chris has a little run-in with the law back home - no reason to get into details - where we do eventually pick up one of the ruling ironies of "twentyfourseven": Chris and Greg's father is a preacher.

How far, indeed, the lambs have strayed. Is it Hollywood or is it a natural rebellious streak that has led Chris and Greg astray? That question could conceivably make for an interesting series. Don't expect one, though.

TWENTYFOURSEVEN. "Entourage" meets its reality counterpart, with a bunch of guys looking to score in Hollywood. Series debuts Wednesday night at 10:30 on MTV.

http://www.newsday.com/entertainment/tv/ny-ettel5002988dec06,0,7304462.story?coll=ny-television-headlines

dad1153

12-06-06, 12:21 AM

TV Notebook
It's all in the game
On 'The Wire,' Andre Royo's 'Bubbles' is a reservoir of humanity
By Jake Coyle, Associated Press December 6, 2006

Walking back to his trailer while shooting the first season of "The Wire," Andre Royo was still in character as the homeless junkie and informant Bubbles - face scarred, hair a craggy black mess - when a real junkie approached with what Royo calls his "Street Oscar."

"He said, Yo, you need this, man. You look like you need a hit,'" recalls Royo. "I laughed a little bit and I got emotional. I was like, Wow, he thinks I'm a junkie for real.' I felt validated."

Royo had to discard his "Oscar" before flying home (airlines might not recognize a bag of heroin as an acting trophy), but the gesture was reward enough for Royo. It's also about as close as any actor on the acclaimed HBO series has come to awards recognition, even though the Baltimore drama has been hailed with hyperbole by critics.

On Sunday, Bubbles serves as an unusual reservoir of humanity as "The Wire" airs the fourth season's finale (10 p.m. EST). Bubbles has long been one of the show's most moral characters, captivating in his struggle to fight addiction and hopelessness on a show that revolves around futility.

This season has focused on a handful of young teenagers in West Baltimore's broken school system. The final episodes find various characters fighting for the futures of the kids - and none is more affecting than Bubs' unlikely mentoring of a homeless boy, which plays out tragically.

Bubbles' emotional scenes represent a climax for both the character and Royo, who has taken a role originally meant for just seven episodes and made it one of the show's most popular. But as always on "The Wire" - be it politics, police bureaucracy or the code of the street - Royo's acting career has been a long road of playing "the game."

The 38-year-old was raised in the Bronx, New York. After high school he wanted to act, but he had no idea how to pursue that career - all he had heard on TV were stories of various stars being "discovered." So he spent two years "just hanging' out in Manhattan" at the clubs, dressing weird, hoping that someone would "discover" him.

Royo eventually found acting classes, which led to off-off-Broadway plays, a job in TLC's "Ain't Too Proud to Beg" video and a small part on "Law & Order." His biggest breakthrough was a notable role in John Singleton's "Shaft."

Royo, whose father is Cuban, was often told he wasn't "black enough for the black roles" or "Spanish enough for the Spanish roles," and that he simply "looked Ethiopian." But he landed the part of Bubbles for the pilot of "The Wire" - not that he thought it was a big break at the time.

The dense plot and lack of standard cop show action made Royo think "The Wire" didn't have a chance. Besides, he says, "You get nervous. You go, How can I make this character not cliche?" So he spent time with junkies in New York and Baltimore - and found that every junkie is different.

"They were very stern on making sure that if you're a heroin addict, you're not a cocaine addict - they act differently," he says. "At the end of the day, it helped me remove myself from trying to find certain tricks and just be me."

Like so much of "The Wire," the character of Bubbles was taken directly from the street. Ed Burns, who helped create the show with David Simon (a former Baltimore journalist) and writes many of the episodes, was Baltimore police for years (later becoming a school teacher). For 15 years, Bubbles was one of his best informants.

"In his prime, whatever happened in West Baltimore, he knew about," Burns says of the real Bubbles, who he remembers fondly as an honest, unique person. "There's a lot of honor in the game, you just have to find it and sort of cultivate it."

When Bubbles died of AIDS in the late 80s, Simon wrote an obituary for him, but without Bubbles' name because his family wanted it kept anonymous. Burns still recognizes Bubs in Royo's performance.

"Andre has a very Chaplinesque way of being," says Burns. "There's a little walk that he does after the first time he's robbed and the guy takes his shoes off and takes the drugs. He picks himself up and he walks over to the cart and the kids laugh at him. That wasn't in the script - that was something he did as an actor. He looked like Quasimodo."

Burns largely credits the appeal of Bubbles to Royo's sympathetic portrayal.

"It's this feeling of loss that you have when you see a human being with such potential trapped in this world. He's more of our conscience," he says. "You can feel comfortable writing anything for (Royo). You know he can reach it."

At the same time, it's easy to wonder if the potential of Royo and much of the ensemble cast has been largely untapped because of either casting directors' unwillingness to try the actors in different roles or because of a subtle racist disinterest for a largely African-American program.

"After the first season, I got a lot of being-on-cocaine, being-on-meth" roles offered to me, says Royo. "Did it bother me? Not at all. I was stereotyped when I was waiting tables."

"You got to show Hollywood that you can play the game," he says. "I'll come into every scene or character 100 percent, and sooner or later, good acting will transcend."

Having moved with his wife and daughter to Los Angeles, where they have opened a restaurant, Royo is understandably ready for some new challenges.

"I've been snitching for a long time now. The first job I had on Law & Order' I was snitching," he says, also citing his roles in "Third Watch" and "Shaft." "For some reason, they look at me and think, That (guy) will tell. ... But I am Bubbles. There's a part of me that's invested and I want to make sure his story is fully told."

Royo is also disappointed that more of the mainstream media hasn't paid attention to his castmates - no late shows, no Oprah Winfrey.

"It's our loss," says Burns, citing the talent of Royo and a dozen other actors on "The Wire," from Michael K. Williams (Omar) to Wendell Pierce (Bunk Moreland).

"These guys clearly cut the mustard. They can act with anyone," says Burns. "I don't know why it has to be this You can play a drug addict; you can play the good sidekick.' These are the roles that these actors end up doing and it's a shame."

In March, "The Wire" begins production for a fifth and final season, which is expected to run in either late 2007 or early 2008 and will focus on the media of Baltimore. Will Bubbles still be a big part of the show?

"If you know my character well, you're going to have to put a little money on the table," jokes Royo. "If you want to find out that kind of information, it's gonna cost you a little bit."

http://www.azcentral.com/ent/tv/articles/1206bubble1206.html

dad1153

12-06-06, 12:31 AM

Technology
Video visionaries are melding traditional TV and Internet
By Mike Musgrove, The Washington Post December 6, 2006

Is TV moving onto the Internet or is the Internet moving onto TV? As the lines between the two begin to blur, it's getting harder to tell.

Fans of Comedy Central's "South Park," for example, can still watch the latest episode by tuning in on Wednesday nights. But they can also turn to Comedy Central's Web site to watch an ad-sponsored episode. If they're willing to cough up a couple of dollars, they can even download the shows for viewing through an Xbox or an iPod.

At iVillage, a Web site that caters to women, the push is toward the TV set. On Monday, the site, which NBC Universal acquired this year, launched a daytime TV show called "iVillage Live," which will be broadcast on some NBC stations, the Bravo network and the Web.

It's a nontraditional approach to broadcast television that's been growing in popularity in recent months: broadcasting shows on both the Internet and traditional TV to give advertisers as many viewers as possible. At the same time, the blurred line between traditional and online video is accommodating a growing variety of viewers: those who prefer to watch on a TV, those who gravitate more toward the Web and even those who like to watch on their mobile phones or TiVo recorders.

Thanks to popular sites such as YouTube and Google Video, video content has become one of the most popular offerings on the Internet. That's led to a flood of amateur sites that look more like cable TV services, complete with "channels" -- clickable icons on a Web page that bring up a lineup of shows to watch -- that accommodate different interests.

"This is definitely the Wild West in some ways," said Adam Berrey, vice president of marketing and strategy at Brightcove, an online video company based in Cambridge, Mass. "It's in the very early stages, and people are still learning."

So far, Brightcove customers have built online video programming networks dedicated to topics as varied as pet care and Miami night life. The channels are available only on computers, but Berrey hopes to soon offer viewers a way to watch on their TV sets.

One way Brightcove is trying to get on TV screens is to work with products connected to TV sets, such as the TiVo digital video recorder. Together, Brightcove and TiVo are creating a video portal that allows TiVo subscribers to upload homemade video clips and create unique channels -- a lineup of shows from various sources on TiVo's Now Playing list -- that friends and family members can watch through their own TiVo boxes.

"It's the democratization of video content," Berrey said.

Heavy.com, which shows racy programming targeted at college-age men, has teamed with Verizon Wireless and Sprint Nextel to offer video clips for the mobile-phone crowd. It has also partnered with TiVo to get its clips on TV sets.

The movement also helps TiVo broaden its reach beyond a DVR that stores traditional television shows. By offering amateur video channels alongside shows that come in from a Heavy.com or a CNET, as well as those recorded from ABC or HBO, the company offers a viewing experience that "otherwise wouldn't be able to exist due to the economics of television," said Tara Maitra, general manager of programming for TiVo.

Ultimately, the broader presence of programming on multiple formats could help traditional shows.

When CBS launched its channel on YouTube just over a month ago, the 300 video clips from its shows featured on the site got nearly 30 million views. Since then, ratings for the network have gone up, and viewership of "The Late Show with David Letterman," which got the biggest boost, was up by 200,000 over the past month.

"We're getting people who don't watch the show routinely to say, 'I'd forgotten how funny Dave is; I've got to go check him out again,'" said Dana McClintock, vice president of communications at CBS. "It's about exposing your content to new audiences -- and, of course, thereby making more money from it."

But putting TV shows on the Internet is only one part of the equation -- the easier part. Getting shows downloaded or streamed over the Internet to play on living-room sets has been more difficult.

Apple Computer is expected to announce a device early next year that will plug into a television set and pull in video from computers via home networks. Josh Bernoff, a technology analyst with Forrester Research, said he expected to see at least four new products that perform similar tricks at next month's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

"Now that there's all this video content on the Web, everyone is trying to figure out if there's any way to get it onto the television," he said.

These first attempts at melding TV and Internet video are a little lackluster; put a grainy video clip from YouTube on a television screen and it doesn't make for must-see TV, Bernoff said. So far the six-month-old TivoCast service hasn't been compelling enough to sell new TiVo units for the company, he said.

"For any of these things to get interesting, you have to have access to a large catalog of content," Bernoff said. "This is going to happen, but it will be quite a while before any of these collections are more than a curiosity."

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06340/743764-237.stm

dad1153

12-06-06, 12:40 AM

Critic's Notebook
Sugar-free TV
Let's hear it for prime-time shows that arefamily-friendly without being sickeningly sweet
By Matthew Gilbert, The Boston Globe December 3, 2006

Last month, Steven Spielberg complained to the board of the International Emmys about blood and guts. The networks need to be more cautious about what airs in those hours when kids might be watching TV, he said: "I'm a parent who is very concerned."

But a few years back, Spielberg did not put the kibosh on the pre-10 p.m. network airings of two of his most brutal movies, "Schindler's List" and "Saving Private Ryan." In fact, when "Schindler's List" first ran on NBC in 1997, Spielberg insisted it not be edited. And blood and guts aren't even that movie's most violent material.

The debate over what should be considered "family TV" is never-ending. We talk ourselves into spirals of contradiction, illogic, and subjectivity when we make big pronouncements about how to control a child's imagination. Oddly, if you ask the Parents Television Council what kids ought to watch, the answer is reality TV. In October, the socially conservative organization determined that of the 20 most popular shows among kids ages 2-17, the only truly suitable titles were "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition," "Deal or No Deal," "American Idol," "Dancing With the Stars," and "American Inventor."

Frankly, I pity the children whose most prominent TV influences are Paula Abdul, a parade of fame-and-money seekers, Howie Mandel, and Howie Mandel's soul patch. And I pity the adults who can share only reality series with their kids, pushing themselves to be enthusiastic about watching yet another tragedy healed by the wonders of carpentry, Corian , and handyman Ty Pennington .

Then again, rooting for Taylor Hicks or analyzing Mario Lopez's footwork alongside your kids is preferable to being clubbed by the moralistic lesson-learning and happy endings of fictional fare such as "7th Heaven." If scripted "family TV" is going to exist, and thrive, it probably won't look like "Touched by an Angel." Promoting a hyper-wholesome show like "7th Heaven" as the best of family TV doesn't leave much hope for those families that want to avoid sugar.

But there is hope in a number of recent prime time shows that have found a way to appeal to teens and their parents simultaneously, without insulting either group with sap or stupidity. While probably no series can stay interesting to both 4-year-olds and 40-year-olds, the likes of "Lost," "Friday Night Lights," "Ugly Betty," "Everybody Hates Chris," "Gilmore Girls," "My Name Is Earl," and, to some extent, "Heroes," have found a middle ground that speaks to a wide range of ages above, say, 13.

These are FCC-friendly shows that offer a degree of social relevance as they cross generations, and none of them carries a stuffy Sunday-morning aura of sanctimony. None of them are pat, or flat, even when they lightly strum the heartstrings. Are they rigorously devoid of all sexual innuendo or fantasy-tinged violence? No, and parents do need to be vigilant in order to enforce their own standards on their children, just as they would for a feature film such as "The Break Up," or "X-Men," or "Superman Returns."

"Heroes," for example, demands parental pre-consideration, especially for younger teens. This was the show that Spielberg spoke about to the Emmy board, saying he was particularly troubled when a body was torn in half during an episode of the 9 p.m. show. "Heroes," which is about ordinary people uneasily discovering they have superpowers, probably wouldn't bother a teen accustomed to comic-book-based films or video games, but it does land on the more adult side of the family-TV border.

It's a wonderful show about what it means to be a hero, and how heroism ultimately isn't about magical abilities; and it's a cool show, as people fly and read minds. But "Heroes" does have edgier moments.

"Lost" is a similarly offbeat show that invites viewers of differing ages to think and wonder and ask questions about the universe. It's the TV equivalent of a board game or a puzzle, and it's an opportunity for people to share personalized theories and approaches. Watching the series is only half of the "Lost" experience; the rest takes place in the hours of conversation and speculation about what's happening on the island -- or islands.

There is violence, including murder, torture, and child abduction. Parents need to protect kids who are particularly sensitive. But the violence on "Lost" takes place in the context of an adventure-fantasy, unlike a gritty crime show such as "CSI." It plays like a contemporary iteration of the novels of Robert Louis Stevenson.

Another cross-generational series, "My Name Is Earl," operates something like "The Simpsons," or the "Looney Tunes" of yesteryear. It's embedded with risque jokes that are likely to fly over the heads of its younger viewers, who nonetheless enjoy its buoyant and wily tone. As Earl tries to rectify his karma with the help of his simple brother, Randy, the sitcom almost begs for a bold comparison to the old stop-motion animated series "Davey and Goliath," particularly since Randy can sound like the dog Goliath ("But Daaayveee"). But the morality of "Earl" is far more twisty and light-hearted, and the show doesn't appear to have a narrow agenda regarding social politics.

Clearly, some parents will object to sharing these series with their kids. And cable has provided us with hundreds of very specifically defined channels -- Spike for dudes, Fox News for conservatives, Sci Fi for geeks -- so that a parent can send a child to Nickelodeon or Disney Channel or the Discovery Channel without worry.

These niche boundaries, along with parental control devices and supervision, provide the kind of guarantees that the networks no longer offer. In the mid-1970s, the FCC created a policy requiring the networks to create a family-viewing hour from 8-9 p.m. It quickly proved legally unenforceable, and the family hour has dwindled away over the decades.

The old-fashioned but realistic "Friday Night Lights" does seem to hark back to the family hour, though. The terrific NBC drama, which airs Tuesdays at 8 p.m., has struggled in the ratings since its October premiere, which may explain why the networks tend to stay away from such openly cross-generational material. Even those who like the idea of a safe hour in prime time may not be interested in watching it. Fortunately, NBC president Kevin Reilly has expressed a commitment to giving the show a chance.

"Friday Night Lights" has the kinds of story lines that parents can help their children to interpret, but can also enjoy themselves. About high-pressure high school football in Texas, the show is a sociological look at small-town life as much as it is a soap opera about kids with nowhere to go. It can be as rousing as "Rocky" and then as gothic as "The Last Picture Show." Its resolutions are satisfyingly poignant, and rarely tidy.

As somewhat conventional comedies, "Ugly Betty" and "Everybody Hates Chris" do generally end happily and affirmatively. But each of them is fueled by off-kilter humor that doesn't embarrass you with "awww" moments. And they easily provoke conversation about family life, money, and the relevance and irrelevance of cultural differences.

Watching the Latina heroine of "Ugly Betty" expose the superficiality at a glossy magazine is particularly amusing, since her nemeses are such queens of mean, notably Vanessa Williams's Wilhelmina. The writers have made Wilhelmina human with a dab of pathos about her loveless childhood, but still her comic nastiness is relentless and ripe ("Poor people are so . . . cheap," she noted in the Thanksgiving episode). Her material is never dulled with a Big Message.

Neither is "American Idol," which does qualify as a kind of family TV. One of the promotional beauties of the basic "American Idol" concept is its shrewd cross-generational approach. Young teeny-boppers singing the songs of previous generations? It grabs Mom, Dad, sis, and bro away from their lone computers for an hour of pretending they're a record company trying to choose a singer, or a music critic writing a review. Of course, "American Idol," like "Dancing With the Stars," will not expand anyone's inner world. It's TV for the family, though not particularly enriching TV.

But when it comes to TV for adults and their kids, not every show needs to be an educational tool. If something inspires good dialogue about life, death, wealth, poverty, spirituality, race, religion, and/or gender roles, that's great. But if something only inspires the opportunity to laugh together, well that's not so bad either.

http://www.boston.com/ae/tv/articles/2006/12/03/sugar_free_tv?mode=PF/

dad1153

12-06-06, 12:48 AM

TV Notebook
Ratings rise with Olbermann's anger
Broadcaster's commentaries, full of disgust and outrage, bring more viewers to MSNBC
By Matea Gold, Los Angeles Times December 3, 2006

The Democrats may have wrested back control of power in Congress, but that hasn't quieted the ire of Keith Olbermann.

Recently, he delivered one of his trademark blistering critiques of the country's leadership - this time charging that President Bush failed to learn the lessons of Vietnam by perpetuating the "monumental lie that is our presence in Iraq." And don't think the victors of the midterm election are going to escape his sharp tongue.

"If the Democrats don't undo a lot of the things that have been done, like the Military Commissions Act and many of the other infringements on freedom, as I see it, there will be a special comment with their name on it," Olbermann vowed on a recent afternoon, wearing a crisp, striped shirt and suspenders, his large frame hunched over his desk at MSNBC's Secaucus headquarters.

The 47-year-old broadcaster's "special comments" are not a regular feature on Countdown With Keith Olbermann, the dramatically intoned, fast-paced melange of politics and pop culture that he has anchored since 2003 and that recently emerged as the cable news network's top-rated show.

But Olbermann's occasional soliloquies - typically a no-holds-barred excoriation of the Bush administration - have dramatically elevated his profile in the last several months, especially in the liberal blogosphere, and helped drive up the ratings for the third-place cable news network.

The longtime sportscaster, who doesn't vote and eschews any political identity - "I may be a Whig, possibly a Free-Soiler," he quipped - has nevertheless become an unexpected folk hero for the frustrated left. One woman approached him in a New York restaurant recently and burst into tears as she thanked him.

"People just think, 'He speaks for me,'" said Jane Hamsher, a Mill Valley, Calif., author who runs a liberal blog at firedog lake.com. "There was no resonance within the media for their perspective, and suddenly Keith came on the scene and gave voice to these long-simmering feelings of disgust with the war."

Olbermann said he never set out to court disaffected liberals.

"But there's a time when what you're covering ceases to look like news and begins to look like history," he said. "And you say, 'Well, it doesn't matter how people might brand me or respond to this - I feel as if something very important is not being said.'"

Shift becomes ratings

It's perhaps a sign of the recent shift in the country's political mood that his message has translated into ratings.

Countdown's audience has grown by 21 percent this year compared with the same point last year, while its cable news competitors have lost viewers at that hour, according to Nielsen Media Research.

With an average nightly viewership of 464,000, Olbermann lags far behind Fox News' Bill O'Reilly, whose audience has averaged nearly 2.15 million viewers this year. But the MSNBC host is creeping up on second-place CNN. In October, Countdown edged out Paula Zahn Now by 11,000 viewers.

His gains come as all of MSNBC's ratings are on an upswing, a fact that has triggered no small amount of jubilation at the perpetually last-place network.

"MSNBC is now a player in the competitive world of cable news in a way that we have not been for many, many years, and that's a really big deal," said General Manager Dan Abrams, the network's one-time legal-affairs anchor who was tapped to run the channel in June.

Abrams said MSNBC is finally finding its identity, and he credits Olbermann with a large share of the network's recent success - so much so that he paired the longtime ESPN host with Chris Matthews to anchor the network's election-night coverage.

MSNBC more than doubled its viewership compared with the 2002 midterms. And its share of the cable news audience in prime time also increased, from 15 percent four years ago to 25 percent this year.

Olbermann is negotiating a new contract with MSNBC; his current one expires in March.

"It is, to some degree, a perfect setup," he said of his relationship with the network. "They leave me alone, I leave them alone, and I deliver what they need, both in terms of journalism and the money end of it, the ratings."

As his profile has risen, so has criticism of his provocative style. This summer, amid an on-air feud with O'Reilly, he addressed a gathering of television critics by donning a mask of the Fox News host and giving a Nazi salute.

A network spokesman said the gesture was intended as a satirical comment.
Robert Cox, who runs Olbermann Watch, a critical blog that monitors the cable news host's comments, said that Olbermann employs some of the same tactics that he decries.

"I think at the end of the day he has, by and large, become that which he has criticized - a demagogue like Bill O'Reilly," said Cox, a management consultant in New Rochelle, N.Y.

Urge to speak out

Olbermann rejects the comparison.

"I'm not trying to whip up a political frenzy," he said. "If I was out there every night beating people over the head with this, I would become a Rush Limbaugh. That's not my goal. I don't make the facts up to fit the political viewpoint that happens to parallel what it is I'm trying to express."

A longtime sportscaster who first got a show at MSNBC when he joined NBC Sports in 1997, Olbermann devotes nearly the same amount of time on Countdown to the tabloid stories, such as the latest Tom Cruise gossip, as to stories about Iraq.

When he's not lecturing Bush, he wears a perpetually amused expression on the air and casually tosses papers off his desk.

He said he doesn't vote because he doesn't want to be accused of having "a horse in the race." But he decided to give an on-air commentary last year after Hurricane Katrina, outraged by the lackluster federal reaction.

"We went on the air with it on Monday and got a response, and management was in here on that Tuesday saying, 'Could you do that on a regular basis?'" he recalled. "And I said, 'No, I have no intention of doing that on a regular basis.'"

The urge to speak out struck him again in late August, as he sat on a plane on the runway at LAX and read an account of a speech in which Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld equated critics of the Bush administration to Nazi appeasers.

Infuriated, he spent his flight scribbling out a response in which he compared Rumsfeld's attack on Bush's opponents to the way Neville Chamberlain attempted to marginalize Winston Churchill in the run-up to World War II.

His commentary was downloaded more than 300,000 times from the Web site Crooks and Liars, with liberal bloggers tagging it Olbermann's "Murrow moment."

When the cable host participated in a live chat at firedog lake.com last month, he was peppered with gushing messages, including one from former Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV, who thanked him for "all you are doing to re-energize the fourth estate and its role to be a skeptic of authority."

That includes the new Democratic leadership in Congress.

"They're serving as a balancing factor, a check and a balance against anybody being carted out of Gitmo without a hearing," Olbermann said. "But that's an interim measure. We have to do things to protect the Constitution.

"And if they don't," he added in a mock stentorian voice, "I will!"

http://www.baltimoresun.com/entertainment/tv/bal-ae.spotlight03dec03,0,2140024.story?coll=bal-artslife-tv

dad1153

12-06-06, 12:50 AM

Good to see corruption, nepotism, abuse of the national airwaves and government-sanctioned media monopolism is still alive and well in the Latin American third-world part of the globe I come from! :( :( :(

The (International) Business of TV
Mexico’s Newest TV Drama Is a Bid to Block a Third Broadcaster
By Elisabeth Malkin, The New York Times December 6, 2006

Night after night for almost two weeks, Mexican television news has shown exposés on how poor people suffer from the high cost of medicines.

The images of the ill and dying have been heart-wrenching. Legislators lament the lack of regulation. Corner pharmacies barely fend off failure. The new health minister concedes that high prices are a problem.

It may be merely a coincidence that Mexico’s two competing television companies, Televisa and TV Azteca, have each chosen to focus on this particular social problem at the same time.

Their separate reporting comes to exactly the same conclusion. The culprits who drive the prices so high are two pharmaceutical distributors who together control 70 percent of the market. And both news teams single out the same one for particular opprobrium: Grupo Casa Saba, a $2 billion company controlled by the reclusive octogenarian billionaire Isaac Saba Raffoul.

What neither Televisa nor TV Azteca mentions is that Mr. Saba has his eye on another business: television.

Mr. Saba is the Mexican partner of Telemundo, the NBC Universal unit that is the No. 2 Spanish-language television broadcaster in the United States. In September, Telemundo and another company Mr. Saba owns, Grupo Xtra, formally requested a license for a broadcast television network.

Both Televisa and TV Azteca say that their coverage is driven only by news judgment. “The high cost of medicines in a poor country with great health needs is a real issue, and it is not related to Saba and his other businesses,” said Manuel Compean, a spokesman for Televisa.

Jorge Sanchez, a spokesman for Casa Saba, denied any accusations of price-gouging and pointed to profit margins of less than 10 percent on the company’s balance sheet.

Within weeks, the license request set off a nasty dispute between Telemundo and TV Azteca, leading to lawsuits and countersuits. Last week, Telemundo asked the Federal Communications Commission in the United States to deny the renewal of the broadcasting license to KAZA, the Los Angeles affiliate of Azteca’s growing network based in the United States. The dispute comes just as Felipe Calderón takes office as president. Mr. Calderón, who campaigned on a promise to increase competition, has said that Mexico should have a third broadcast company.

The decision over whether to authorize a new network, which would be awarded by public auction, could prove to be the new government’s first big test when it comes to taking on powerful business interests.

Many parts of Mexico’s economy are controlled by just one or a few companies that have succeeded in keeping out competition.

Televisa and TV Azteca control almost the entire broadcast television industry in Mexico, although Televisa is much larger, with about 75 percent of the advertising market. Last April, they won passage of a law that critics say gives them free space on the broadcast spectrum.

That law created a public uproar that has heightened pressure for more competition. “There has to be at least one more open television channel,” said Mexico’s top antitrust regulator, Eduardo Pérez Motta, in an interview. Last week, he called on the government to auction off more spectrum quickly.

But both Televisa and TV Azteca declare that they are ready and willing to compete. “Televisa has competed historically and competes every day in all of its businesses,” Mr. Compean of Televisa said.

For Telemundo, the effort to gain a distribution platform for its programming is simply a question of equality. Televisa, the world’s largest Spanish-language media company, distributes its popular telenovelas and reality shows through a licensing agreement with Univision, the top Spanish-language network in the United States.

TV Azteca is creating its own American network through agreements with stations in cities with large Spanish-speaking populations.

“The point is pretty basic,” said Donald Browne, Telemundo’s president. “We want to do the same thing in Mexico that Televisa and TV Azteca do in the United States. They are able to distribute in the United States, and we would like to have an opportunity to distribute our own product.”

He added, “We’re looking for just a reasonable playing field — not even even — just to be able to show our product in Mexico.”

The bad blood between Telemundo and TV Azteca particularly goes back more than a dozen years, when NBC first tried to enter the Mexican market. A deal with TV Azteca that would have allowed NBC to take a small stake in the company fell through after TV Azteca backed out, arguing that NBC did not hold up its side of the deal to provide programming and technical assistance.

A dozen years later, the dispute is even more bitter. After Telemundo hired a well-known producer, Alan Tacher, for its talent show “Quinceañera,” in which 14- and 15-year-old girls live together as they study with voice and dance coaches, TV Azteca argued that it had an exclusive contract with him.

Azteca won an injunction from a Mexican judge to stop production, and Azteca lawyers accompanied the police on a raid on the studio where Telemundo was filming one of the final episodes. The production was eventually moved to Miami.

The raid is one of the main arguments in NBC’s filing last week with the F.C.C. It accuses TV Azteca of strong-arm tactics against Telemundo’s operations in Mexico to prevent it from “competing lawfully against TV Azteca in its own country.”

The filing also raises the long-running fraud case against TV Azteca’s controlling shareholder, Ricardo Salinas Pliego, filed by the Securities and Exchange Commission in January 2005. Mr. Salinas Pliego first delisted TV Azteca’s shares from the New York Stock Exchange and settled with the S.E.C. last September, paying a fine of $7.5 million.

Rick Cotton, NBC Universal’s general counsel, said, “If participation in the Mexican marketplace is foreclosed by the actions of TV Azteca in particular, then participation by TV Azteca in the U.S. marketplace needs to be re-examined by U.S. regulatory authorities.”

TV Azteca saw the NBC filing as a direct attack. “We are outraged,” Azteca America’s chairman, Luis J. Echarte, said in an e-mail message. “The filing has no legal fundamentals and is clearly a media ploy that attempts to damage the reputation of TV Azteca and its subsidiaries in the U.S., and put pressure on the Mexican government into auctioning new television licenses.”

The networks, meanwhile, can point to one accomplishment with their series on drug prices. Mexico’s antitrust commission plans to begin an investigation into the market for distributing pharmaceuticals.

Mr. Perez-Motta, the antitrust official, said: "There’s nothing strange about responding to media pressure."

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/06/business/worldbusiness/06tele.html?_r=1&ref=business&oref=slogin

rustycruiser

12-06-06, 12:51 AM

TV Notebook
It's all in the game
On 'The Wire,' Andre Royo's 'Bubbles' is a reservoir of humanity

Andre Royo's Bubbs and Michael K. William's Omar are my two favorite characters on The Wire. Maybe on TV. The show and it's actors gets entirely too little recognition and praise. The story is so intricatly entwined. The writing is sublime. The actors who have played the kids central to this 4th season have also done a fantastic job. It is a sin that The Wire does not have any Emmys or Golden Globes. Shame!

fredfa

12-06-06, 01:07 AM

Lots of good posts, dad1153. Thanks!

Now I don't feel so guilty about slipping away for a few hours to see a UCLA basketball game.

And glad to see you become a very active participant in the thread, too, rusty.

fredfa

12-06-06, 01:16 AM

Commentary
NAACP should acknowledge TV gains
By Brian Lowry Variety Dec. 6, 2006

HERE'S A NOVEL THOUGHT: Before the NAACP launches another campaign against television's perceived ills, would it set the cause back to pause and savor the group's recent victories?

Apparently so. Because after fatuously contending that Michael Richards' comedy club tirade is "a symptom of a much bigger problem" and emblematic of "an underlying current of racism in America," the NAACP scheduled, then canceled, an event this week to assail the TV industry for insufficient minority representation.

Certainly, TV still exhibits its share of shortcomings regarding race, but the NAACP chose a dubious time to level such criticism against television, coming in the midst of a very good fall for people of color based on those symbolic measures where the medium ultimately wields the greatest influence.

Such calculations are invariably subjective, but the two breakout stars of the new TV season are "Ugly Betty's" America Ferrara, who is Hispanic; and "Heroes'" Masi Oka, who is Asian. My third choice would be Lennie James, the black Brit who is the most mysterious character on CBS' "Jericho."

NBC's restored Thursday comedy lineup, meanwhile -- once attacked for lily-white casts on New York-set shows like "Friends" and "Seinfeld" -- now showcases diversity on "My Name Is Earl," "Scrubs" and "30 Rock." As for "The Office," that series not only boasts a multi-cultural cast but has brilliantly lampooned racism, as it did last week when an African-American employee was revealed to have done time as a white-collar criminal.

Some programs have also gone global, a la "Heroes," featuring natives of India and Japan. That's especially noteworthy given the narrow view U.S. television has historically assumed looking beyond its borders.

THE NAACP has singled out low employment levels within TV's executive and producing ranks as its next potential crusade, while the Rev. Jesse Jackson pithily lambasted news for being "all day, all night, all white."

Whatever the raw numerical data, though, once again, the symbolic advances are hard to overlook. As a prime example, consider producer Shonda Rhimes, an African-American, who presides over TV's hottest series in "Grey's Anatomy" -- a program that effortlessly displays a thoroughly diverse universe.

Hiring levels are of understandable concern to those pursuing jobs within the industry, but evaluating minority gains requires a more contextual analysis. In the past, equal attention has been paid to the separate question of onscreen imagery, recognizing that while the industry directly employs thousands, from a cultural perspective its product is watched by tens of millions.

Because there are never enough entertainment jobs to go around, the business's insular nature makes breaking down barriers difficult -- one of the hard realities of any closely knit club where merit can be subjective, and nepotism and connections frequently dictate who receives keys to the kingdom. As a consequence, the NAACP and other lobbying organs have every reason to keep reminding industry honchos to cast a wider net than the children of golf buddies and those they encounter at private-school PTA meetings.

Lobbying groups diminish their moral authority, however, when they appear unwilling to acknowledge when real strides are made, including those programs that convey messages about our ability to live and work together.

THERE IS ALSO HARM done by overreaching to generalize an incident such as the Richards episode. Beyond proving that the former "Seinfeld" co-star engaged in an ugly moment worthy of condemnation, seizing upon those slurs as evidence of an "underlying current" of racism in Hollywood or anywhere else makes as much sense as suggesting that Mel Gibson's drunken rant against Jews is proof of anti-Semitism among action stars or Australians. Nor does it bolster anyone's credibility, frankly, when cash settlements magically help soothe any wounded feelings among the aggrieved parties.

By exaggerating the significance of transgressions and turning a blind eye to progress, the NAACP risks doing a disservice to its legitimate gripes -- among them the occasionally distasteful depictions of minorities, through the wonders of editing, within reality TV.

In terms of symbolism, those programs warrant discussion, precisely because the portrayals are often the opposite of "Ugly Betty" and "Heroes" -- series that, in the best sense, represent genuine advancements within TV toward people of color.

http://www.variety.com/index.asp?layout=print_story&articleid=VR1117955108&categoryid=14

fredfa

12-06-06, 02:01 AM

TV Notebook
Hearst-Argyle's Barrett: ABC's 10 p.m. Needs Work
By P.J. Bednarski Broadcasting & Cable 12/5/2006

ABC's rejuvenation is making its affiliates happy, but at least one large group holder wishes ABC Entertainment chief Steve McPherson could spread some magic to the 10 p.m. hour.

Appearing at the Credit Suisse media week conference in New York Tuesday, Hearst-Argyle President and CEO David Barrett said that the issue of ABC's comparatively weak shows leading into local stations' 11 p.m. newscasts "is a cause for concern." He noted, for example, that Hearst-Argyle's WCVB Boston was on top in the November sweeps for every one of its newscasts in the early morning and at dinnertime-but finished third at 11 p.m.

Hearst-Argyle owns 12 ABC affiliates, and manages another one for the separate Hearst Corp., making it ABC's largest affiliate group. Altogether its 26 stations (10 NBC affiliates, two CBS affiliates among them) cover just over 15% of the country, well below the 39% FCC limit. So Hearst-Argyle could be in a buying mood. Barrett was coy on the matter, though he said the corporation is watching the action.

"I think there's a lot of inventory that's available," he said. "I don't know what you'd say about the Tribune stations," he added, referring to Tribune Co.'s very public deliberations about restructuring the company, selling parts of it piecemeal, or all of its stations. But adding a super-big market, like Tribune's stations in New York, Los Angeles or Chicago, would catapult Hearst-Argyle into a new universe.

One victory Hearst-Argyle toted to analysts was its success in securing retransmission consents, though mainly from a deal with EchoStar. Barrett made it clear the company would keep pushing cable companies to pay up--it has now taken its HD channels off of Cox Cable systems in six markets as part of the back-and-forth dance over fees.

Barrett said Hearst-Argyle will grab $16-$18 million in retransmission fees this year, and just $8-$10 million in compensation from networks its stations are affiliated with. Those figures, more than anything, show how stations are trying to replace their shrinking network comp piece of the pie with retrans money. Hearst-Argyle doesn't renegotiate retransmission fees with cable's big boys--Comcast and Time Warner Cable--until a span of time between 2008 and 2010. "That's the next horizon," Barrett said.

In a quirky note, Barrett, noting how important political advertising was to stations, said that he took a financial snapshot of the 26 stations on just one random day during the 2006 campaign. On that day, Oct. 19, Hearst-Argyle stations ran 768 local ads for candidates or issues--an eye-popping 26.16% of all the stations' inventory. In an earlier conference call with investors, Barrett said political ads poured $23.4% million into Hearst-Argyle's pockets during the third quarter.

http://www.broadcastingcable.com/index.asp?layout=articlePrint&articleID=CA6397510

fredfa

12-06-06, 02:13 AM

TV Notebook
Number's up for 'The Nine'
By Robert Bianco USA Today Dec. 6, 2006

Sometimes bad things happen to good shows.

Happenstance is, of course, hard to take as an explanation for TV failure. It would be far more comforting to think of "being awful" as a flop's defining characteristic.

Unfortunately, we all can name terrible shows that succeed. And this season we can name at least one terrific new series that seems to have failed: ABC's The Nine. Don't bother looking for it tonight; the show is off the schedule, moved to that TV netherland known as "hiatus."

No, it's not canceled, and ABC says it will return. But the odds of The Nine ever airing 22 episodes are remote. Even nine may be a stretch.

As is so often the case, part of the problem was timing. This wonderfully cast drama about the aftermath of a hostage crisis arrived in a fall filled with serialized shows. Each worked or didn't for different reasons; some of them rank among the season's successes, including NBC's Heroes, CBS' Jericho and ABC's Ugly Betty and Brothers & Sisters. But the cumulative effect of so many continuing stories opening at once was to make viewers draw a "this far and no further" line. The Nine never fell on the right side.

Oddly enough, it also probably suffered from what might look like a blessing: airing after Lost. Normally, new shows benefit by following an established hit. But Lost is proving to be a difficult lead-in. It well may be that too many people who watch Lost prefer to spend the hour after discussing what they just watched rather than watching something else.

Yet in any time slot, Nine was a tough sell for success, despite its quality. Building a show around a group of damaged people who are bonded by a traumatic experience was a risky proposition: The more honest the show was, the more grim it appeared.

For many viewers, the promised payoff may not have been worth the watch-each-week demands a serial imposes. Lost offers the immediate pleasures of its island adventure and the prolonged promise of island answers. Heroes hooks viewers with TV's best current cliffhangers, almost daring you not to come back to find out how, say, that cheerleader will bounce back from her autopsy.

Nine's main mystery was what the doctor did during the robbery to make his girlfriend so mad. Though that was compelling to those of us who loved the show, it wasn't the sort of story likely to pull in casual viewers.

Of course, the show isn't dead yet, and it could always have a ratings rebirth when it returns. But I wouldn't count on it. Blame creator error, network incompetence or sheer bad luck. But in the end the answer is still likely to be the same: a shorter run than the show deserved.

It happens.

http://www.usatoday.com/life/television/reviews/2006-12-05-nine_x.htm

harley1

12-06-06, 07:34 AM

In reality, it's no 'Entourage'

Ellen Gray

TWENTYFOURSEVEN. 10:30 tonight, MTV.

MTV's "Twentyfourseven" wants so much to be HBO's "Entourage," it hurts.

You can hear the strain in the voices of the seven guys that producer - and central player - Greg Carney's lined up for his "reality" show about what it takes to make it in Hollywood.

As they talk about their pet projects, from club openings to albums, they sound like people trying to be more interesting than they are, or at least as interesting as they think they are.

And this, my friends, is why HBO has writers. Not to mention actors.

On paper, the "Twentyfourseven" guys are promising enough characters. Besides Carney, there's his rocker brother, Chris, lead singer of The Prom Kings, a club promoter named Frankie Delgado, a musician and voiceover artist named Greg Cipes, an indie filmmaker, Ty Hodges, a fledgling actor, Matt Baker, whose biggest role so far was in the direct-to-video "American Pie Presents: Band Camp," and a record producer, Greg Whitman, described by MTV as a "self-taught sound engineer and passionate music fan," who's trying to find a record deal for Cipes and in the meantime is living with the Carney brothers.

Because three is probably more Gregs than anyone should have to keep track of, "Twentyfourseven's" decreed that Cipes and Whitman should be known by their last names.

I might have simply assigned everyone on the show a number. But then I'm mean.

I know this because I started to get slightly more interested in the show in the second episode, after Chris flaked off to his native Arkansas, ostensibly for a hunting trip, and ended up in jail for drunken driving and aggravated assault. Whatever footage of this incident might exist is not being shared with the TV audience, which does get to meet the Carney boys' parents. Their father, Pastor Ken Carney, even opens his church up to the camera crew, perhaps not realizing that his sermon about the Bible telling "us to run away" from temptation would be intercut with footage from a Hollywood pool party and closeups of girls in bikinis.

Watching Greg lecture Chris on his DUI charge is particularly sweet because up until that point, Greg's biggest challenge was persuading his club partner to throw a party with an open bar just days after a similar freebie for Greg's then-girlfriend, Haylie Duff. Apparently to run a successful Hollywood club, you need to give away drinks.

Which explains so much about "Twentyfourseven."

"We go to every Hollywood party and it's always the same thing," complains Whitman (Greg No. 2) in an existential moment. "The girls are always the same... I've been out here for four years and I haven't done one that I really care about."

"You'll find a girl, man," promises Cipes (Greg No. 3). "She'll find you."

Not if "Entourage" finds her first.

Closure for 'Smith' fans

Thanks to NBC.com and MyFoxPhilly.com, I find myself surprisingly up to date on the season's two canceled abduction dramas, NBC's "Kidnapped" and Fox's "Vanished," something that once would have been impossible.

My PC and I are drawing the line, though, at CBS' "Smith," the Ray Liotta heist series that did its own vanishing act earlier this season.

But if you're missing "Smith," CBS.com's posted all seven episodes that were filmed, plus extremely detailed synopses of the five that weren't.

Just don't expect a happy ending.

http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/16174056.htm

harley1

12-06-06, 07:40 AM

A King's ransom

By BILL BRIOUX

Tonight marks the ninth-season premiere of The King Of Queens. As Faith Hill would say -- "Whaaaat?"

Not only is it still on, it is the longest-running, live-action sitcom currently on the air.

To refresh your memory, the series stars Kevin James and Leah Remini as a blue-collar couple living in Queens, N.Y. Their combative "To the moon, Alice" antics are reminiscent of The Honeymooners. The great Jerry Stiller (Seinfeld) plays Remini's oddball dad, who lives in the basement.

Honeymooners, Seinfeld -- no greater associations. Still, time for this King to abdicate. This series is more over than Michael Richards' career. Rent the first five seasons on DVD and thank me later.

This is one of those domestic sitcoms where you go -- how did that doofus wind up with that hottie wife? In that way it is like Jim Belushi's According To Jim, another shelved sitcom limping into a sixth season (ABC still hasn't scheduled its return).

Being on bad shows nobody watches pays well. James reportedly pulls down half a million U.S. per episode. He'll bank $6.5 million for the 13 final episodes airing this season.

Okay, please, how in the name of all that is holy do these hammerheads keep their overpaid jobs?

The King Of Queens returns with back-to-back episodes tonight (8 p.m., CBS). In the first, Carrie (Remini) frets that Doug (James) will blow their tax-return cheque. In the second, Doug ducks a stalker who claims they had a fling. Both sound like re-fried Roseanne.

The King Of Queens joins a long list of shows that lasted at least one season too long, including recent examples Will & Grace and That '70s Show. CBS knows this and is simply slapping this sucker into holes on its schedule. Two more episodes will air next Wednesday, with singles Dec. 20 and 27. Seven more will air in 2007, but CBS isn't sure where.

Meanwhile, what are some other shows that you probably thought were already cancelled?

Nip/Tuck is enjoying a creative revival in its fourth season on originating U.S. cable channel FX. Too bad CTV owns it and shelves it. Hopefully they'll air it again next May or June.

Teen detective drama Veronica Mars is into a third terrific season; you can find it Tuesdays at 9 p.m. on SUN TV.

Scrubs snuck back on to NBC's schedule a few weeks ago (Thursdays at 9 p.m.); it is in its sixth season. Las Vegas, Numb3rs, NCIS -- are all still on the air, we just never write about them. Should we? Let us know.

STELLAR STUDIO:

Here's hoping Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip becomes the next series that runs forever even though not many are watching. Last Sunday/Monday's episode was the best since the pilot. The baby news seems to agree with Amanda Peet, who has finally found her rhythm as programming babe Jordan McDeere. Quirky Mark McKinney is a welcome addition to both the real and fictional writer's room. Matthew Perry and Bradley Whitford play those rarest of characters -- showrunners you care about.

There's still too much insiderish TV talk (last week's encyclopaedic ramblings about the origins of Christmas as it relates to sketch comedy was eye-glazing). The funny stuff on the show still isn't all that funny. But, after being on the fence about this series I'm prepared to accept the fact that I am hooked and that I'd rather watch writer/producer Aaron Sorkin fail on television than watch most others succeed.

http://torontosun.com/Entertainment/Columnists/Brioux_Bill/2006/12/06/pf-2653263.html

harley1

12-06-06, 09:14 AM

DirecTV to take NASCAR fans inside the car

Associated Press

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) - The sport that already offers unprecedented fan access is going one step further in 2007, allowing DirecTV viewers to watch an entire NASCAR race from behind the wheel.

NASCAR HotPass will debut on DirecTV at the Daytona 500 in February and offer fans at home the opportunity to watch a race from a driver's vantage point. Subscribers will have access to five channels dedicated to individual drivers, who will change every week.

Each channel will have up to six cameras and two isolated announcers focusing solely on one driver for an entire race. Viewers will have access to in-car audio communication, real-time statistics and cameras covering every angle from inside the race car to the pit box and all around the track.

HotPass is the brainchild of Fox Sports chairman David Hill.

"There was this moment for me when the lights went on, and I thought 'This is why NASCAR is so popular - because you can buy a seat and sit down and watch your guy go round and round,"' said Hill, who worried his network coverage was lacking because it didn't showcase the in-car conversations between a driver and team. That audio is available to fans at the track through scanners and FanView devices, but isn't offered to television viewers.

"In one fell swoop it was so obvious, and I couldn't believe I hadn't picked up on it before," Hill said. "We had to find a way for the fan to sit there and watch his car for an entire race."

He tried the idea in 2005 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway when he had multiple cameras follow winning driver Tony Stewart from flag to flag. He liked the results but still felt the effort was missing perspective.

So Hill tried it again at Las Vegas in March, adding two dedicated announcers to the Dale Earnhardt Jr. coverage. The announcers explained everything Earnhardt was doing, debated strategy, called pit stops and even chatted with the driver during cautions.

Pleased with the effort, Hill took it to NASCAR, which awarded DirecTV a three-year contract. But with NASCAR's TV ratings declining, Hill knows HotPass is a risky venture. DirecTV must persuade fans to pay $99 for a season pass with no guarantees on which drivers will be featured.

Hill is hopeful the behind-the-scenes access will entice fans to sign up for the venture, which will require an additional 70 at-track employees and 10 announcers.

"It's a big gamble," he admitted. "While we are quietly confident, the encouraging thing is that no one has said this is a really stupid idea. So we sort of believe it will be like pet rocks, hula hoops and yo-yos - brand new, but people will say 'I've got to have one."'

DirecTV isn't the only medium offering new access next season. Sirius Satellite Radio plans to offer 10 driver channels that will combine the overall race broadcast with driver-to-pit crew chatter in 2007.

"By layering the driver chatter over the race broadcast and alternating between the two, we'll provide a way to follow the race like never before," said Scott Greenstein, president of Entertainment and Sports.

Dick Glover, vice president of broadcasting and new media for NASCAR, said the DirecTV and Sirius deals show how committed the sport is to providing new and exciting ways for fans to enjoy it.

"We have always tried to be out front in bringing innovation into how our sport is covered," Glover said. "It's long been our tradition to work with telecasters to get our fans into the cars and closer to the action. This is the natural evolution."

http://msn.foxsports.com/nascar/story/6241658?print=true

fredfa

12-06-06, 09:43 AM

TV Notebook
BrandIntel: NBC Frosh Shows Generate Most Internet Chatter
By John Consoli Media Week

Despite that only one of NBC's five new fall shows, Heroes, can be considered a hit, the network's freshman series cumulatively are generating the highest amount of audience discussion on the Internet, while Fox's four ratings-troubled new shows are generating the least amount of discussion, according to a report issued by BrandIntel, a division of Brandimensions.

Thanks to Heroes, and ratings underperformers Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, Friday Night Lights, and 30 Rock, NBC’s new shows have generated 42 percent of online discussion about the new fall TV shows. ABC’s new shows, buoyed by the strong ratings performance of freshman hit Ugly Betty, are getting 25 percent of the discussion, while CBS’ new shows, strengthened by ratings solid Jericho and Shark, are getting 23 percent of the discussion. Fox’s new shows trail with just 10 percent of the online chatter.

Heroes is dominating online discourse, which BrandIntel measures surrepetiously, with a 25.4 percent share of audience. Ugly Betty is next, capturing 14.1 percent of audience discussion, and Studio 60 is third, garnering 10.2 percent of audience discussion. CBS’ Jericho and Shark are next, with 6.1 percent and 5.8 percent of audience chatter, respectively, and Friday Night Lights (5.3 percent) and 30 Rock (4.4 percent) follow in sixth and seventh place among the 21 new shows that have aired so far this fall.

Two ABC shows, The Nine (3.7 percent), which has been pulled off the air, and Brothers and Sisters (3 percent), doing adequately in the ratings on Sunday nights, along with Fox’s Standoff (2.8 percent), round out the Top 10 most discussed new shows.

Heroes also leads the 21 new shows among audience sentiment, with a 3.97 rating as measured by BrandIntel. Ugly Betty is next with a 3.82 sentiment score, Studio 60 is third with a 3.72, followed by Friday Night Lights with a 3.62. Jericho and another CBS freshman drama Smith, which has already been canceled, are next with sentiment scores of 3.53. Another ratings challenged show, Fox’s Justice has a sentiment score of 3.52 for seventh place, followed by Shark (3.44), Standoff (3.43), and a tie among Brothers and Sisters and The Nine to round out the Top 10.

Studio 60 was the show generating the most buzz in the last Brandimensions report, conducted in July/August prior to the start of the new season, and has slipped to third, still an extremely high ranking considering the show has not drawn the TV audience levels it was expected to. Heroes ranked second in the summer report and is now generating the most buzz, while Ugly Betty was fifth among buzz this summer and is now second. Jericho was sixth this summer and has moved up to fourth, while Friday Night Lights was seventh and has moved up to sixth. Making the biggest jumps in the discussion/buzz category were Shark, moving up from 14th place prior to the start of the season, to fifth, and Standoff, moving up from 20th to 10th.

The BrandIntel report said the cast and writing are still driving Internet discussion for Studio 60, but many feel the show is still “too inside Hollywood.” Amanda Peet is named as the cast member with the highest volume of negative comments, with many adults 25-54 not finding her role believeable.

Friday Night Lights is getting alot of support in discussions from men 18-49, which predictability of storylines being the biggest detraction.

James Woods, the star of Shark, has gotten positive reviews from audiences online, and audiences have commented positively on the clever writing and original concept of Ugly Betty. On Brothers and Sisters, audiences enjoy the performances of stars Calista Flockhart and Rachel Griffiths, although one criticism is that the show is sometimes too dark and there should be some lighter moments.

While Justice prior to the season was regarded as the best chance for a new show Fox hit, Standoff was able to capture more of the audience buzz, primarily because of Ron Livingston.

To put together its report, BrandIntel gathered data from 4.2 million Internet search hits.

http://www.mediaweek.com/mw/news/recent_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003468574

fredfa

12-06-06, 02:22 PM

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

fredfa

12-06-06, 02:29 PM

Overnights in the 18-49 demo
Revealed: 'Victoria's Secret' stays one
CBS undie special sinks 23 percent in total viewers
By Toni Fitzgerald MediaLife Magazine Dec 6, 2006

No doubt about it, the “Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show” is sagging. The most recent edition of the show last night fell to an all-time low and barely half its peak five years ago.

Airing in the 10 p.m. timeslot, “Secret” averaged 6.8 million total viewers, according to Nielsen overnights, down 23 percent from last year’s 8.8 million. Among adults 18-49, the show averaged a 2.7 rating, down 29 percent from last year’s 3.8.

It was a very distant third in its timeslot in total viewers and also 18-49s, behind even a rerun of NBC’s “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.”

It was a far cry from its 2001 debut, when the lingerie fashion show drew 12.4 million viewers but also spawned a host of indecency complaints to the Federal Communications Commission. The FCC cleared then-carrier ABC of any wrongdoing but the network passed the show on to CBS.

CBS skipped the show in 2004, following the indecency brouhaha brought on by Janet Jackson’s nipple flash during that year’s Super Bowl halftime show. It returned last year to post its lowest viewer total yet.

This year’s show was likely hurt by the absence of big-name models like Tyra Banks, who last year made the “Secret” show her farewell to the runway.

Fox took the rerun-laden night among viewers 18-49 with a 3.5 average rating and a 9 share. ABC was second at 3.0/8, NBC third at 2.7/7, CBS fourth at 2.5/7, and Univision and the CW tied for fifth at 1.5/4.

ABC opened the night in the lead with a 3.9 at 8 p.m. for the holiday special “Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town.” NBC and CBS tied for second that hour at 2.5, NBC for “Friday Night Lights” and CBS for a repeat of “NCIS,” with Fox fourth with a 2.2 for “Standoff.” Univision and CW tied for fifth at 2.1, Univision for “La Fea Mas Bella” and CW for “Gilmore Girls.”

At 9 p.m. Fox took the lead with a 4.7 rating for a rerun of “House,” the night’s highest-rated show among 18-49s. NBC’s “Law & Order: CI” repeat and CBS’s “The Unit” rerun tied for second at 2.4, followed by ABC with a 2.0 average for “Big Day” (2.3) and “Help Me Help You” (1.8), Univision fifth with a 1.4 for “Mundo de Fieras,” and CW sixth with a 0.9 for a “Veronica Mars” rerun.

NBC led the 10 p.m. hour with a 3.1 for a repeat of “SVU,” followed by a 3.0 for ABC for “Boston Legal.” CBS was third that hour with a 2.7 for “Secret” and Univision fourth with a 1.0 for “Ver para Creer.”

CBS was first for the night among households, averaging a 6.0 rating and a 10 share. Fox was second at 5.8/9, ABC third at 5.6/9, NBC fourth at 5.5/9, CW fifth at 2.3/4 and Univision sixth at 1.9/3.

http://www.medialifemagazine.com/artman/publish/article_8966.asp

harley1

12-06-06, 02:41 PM

ABC moves 'Lost' out of the way of 'Idol'

By Nellie Andreeva

Dec 6, 2006

ABC is reshuffling its Wednesday lineup, launching a two-hour comedy block and moving the hit drama "Lost" to 10 p.m.

With the shift from 9 p.m. to 10 p.m. when "Lost" returns with all-original episodes Feb. 7, the Emmy-winning drama will no longer face the "American Idol" results show.

That unenviable task has been assigned to buzzworthy new heist comedy "The Knights of Prosperity," which will air in the Wednesday 9 p.m. slot, followed by another new single-camera half-hour, "In Case of Emergency."

ABC's two-hour Wednesday comedy block will premiere Jan. 3 with episodes of "According to Jim" running back to back from 8-9 p.m. It will have two weeks to establish itself before "Idol" arrives on the night with an 8-10 p.m. Wednesday premiere.

ABC's comedy block will take final shape Jan. 24 when "George Lopez" joins the lineup at 8 p.m. with "Jim" airing at 8:30 p.m.

The network's announcement of "Lost's" move to 10 p.m. came on the same day Hearst-Argyle president and CEO David Barrett raised concerns at the Credit Suisse Media and Telecom Week conference in New York about ABC's weakness in the hour leading into local stations' 11 p.m. newscasts.

While having "Lost" at 10 p.m. is sure to improve the fortunes of ABC stations' late newscasts, the move of the young-skewing fantasy series, which has been a family viewing favorite, to the 10 p.m. hour normally reserved for adult-oriented dramas, raised a few eyebrows.

It has not been determined what will air in the Wednesday 10 p.m. slot in January until "Lost" returns. The low-rated new drama "Day Break," which has been subbing in "Lost's" Wednesday 9 p.m. slot, might migrate to 10 p.m.

Meanwhile, the reality series "Show Me the Money," which runs in the Wednesday 8 p.m. hour, will move to Tuesday at 8 p.m. starting Jan. 2.

"Knights," which stars Donal Logue as the leader of a group of misfits plotting to rob Mick Jagger, is produced by Touchstone TV. Creators Rob Burnett and Jon Beckerman are executive producing with David Letterman, Mick Jagger and Victoria Pearman.

"Emergency," an ensemble comedy with a cast including David Arquette and Greg Germann, also hails from Touchstone TV. Howard J. Morris is the creator.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/news/e3ie75b06f448ee1527e9a2f44f058533c6

harley1

12-06-06, 02:44 PM

CBS edges Tues. viewership win

By Paul J. Gough

Dec 7, 2006

NEW YORK -- CBS won a near-three-way-tie in viewership Tuesday while Fox ran away with the night's title in adults 18-49.

A repeat of "House" as the night's top show in viewership and adults 18-49, with Nielsen Media Research estimating that the medical drama averaged 11.8 million viewers and a 4.7 rating/12 share in the adults 18-49 demographic.

It followed a lackluster performance at 8 p.m. by Fox's "Standoff" (6.2 million, 2.2/6), which came in fourth in the time period against ABC's "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" (11.2 million, 3.9/11), a repeat of "NCIS" (11.5 million, 2.5/7) and even NBC's "Friday Night Lights" (6.2 million, 2.2/6). And "Standoff" was only barely ahead in the demographic to The CW's "Gilmore Girls" (4.8 million, 2.1/6), which was the show's highest ratings this season in women 18-34.

Beyond "House," there wasn't much to write home about at 9 p.m. "The Unit" (9 million, 2.4/6) and "Law & Order: Criminal Intent" (8.1 million, 2.4/6) were repeats. ABC's "Big Day" (6.3 million, 2.3/6) had another bad day, down 41% from last week's premiere. And "Help Me Help You" (5.2 million, 1.8/5) needed lots of help, falling to its lowest adults 18-49 rating of the season.

With "Law & Order: SVU" (10 million, 3.1/9) in repeat, "Boston Legal" (10.1 million, 3.0/8) won in viewership but was edged out by "SVU" in the demo. The "Victoria's Secret Fashion Show" came in third place with 6. 8 million viewers and a 2.7/8, down 29% compared to last December's 3.8/10.

Weekly averages: ABC (9 million, 3.0/8); CBS (9.1 million, 2.5/7); NBC (8.2 million, 2.7/7); Fox (9 million, 3.5/9); and The CW (3.4 million, 1.5/4).

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/television/news/e3if46d4bafee25ad437908c953067c3025

harley1

12-06-06, 02:47 PM

Liberty Media wants DirecTV for distribution

Reuters

Dec 7, 2006

NEW YORK - Liberty Media said Wednesday that obtaining a majority stake in U.S. satellite television provider DirecTV Group Inc. would give it a powerful distribution outlet for its programming networks.

Liberty has been in discussions to swap its estimated 20% voting stake in News Corp. for the Rupert Murdoch-run company's controlling stake in DirecTV.

Liberty Chief Executive Greg Maffei said at the UBS media and communications conference in New York that the discussions were continuing, but he gave no update on the progress.

"We have a host of content assets that don't have the distribution muscle they used to have," Maffei said.

The Colorado-based company, controlled by cable pioneer John Malone, owns the QVC cable television shopping network and the Starz Entertainment Group cable networks.

Since Malone divested ownership of TeleCommunications Inc., once the largest U.S. cable TV service provider, in the 1990s, he has quietly sought to recreate a cable TV and broadband empire outside of the United States.

A deal to acquire the majority stake in one of the biggest TV providers in the United States would signal Malone's return to the media distribution industry.

Liberty Media was created out of the ashes of that deal and owns big stakes in other media and technology companies, including Time Warner Inc. and News Corp.

Malone boosted its voting stake in News Corp. in 2004, spooking long-time associate Murdoch, who enacted an emergency "poison pill" provision to make hostile takeovers prohibitively costly.

Murdoch and Malone have been in discussions over the most tax-efficient means to exchange those shares. Those talks have centered on trading News Corp.'s stake in DirecTV lately.

Media analysts have said the heyday of strong subscriber growth in the satellite TV industry is past, with critics pointing out that providers lack the ability to offer high-speed Internet connections to residential homes, unlike cable and telephone operators.

Maffei said Wednesday that if Liberty controlled DirecTV, it would seek partnerships, possibly with companies in its own portfolio of investments, to make broadband services available to DirecTV customers.

Liberty Media has a big stake in WildBlue, which offers satellite high-speed Internet services to rural markets that are not served by either cable or phone companies.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/television/news/e3i4383520b62392ae11bf690737eabdc29

harley1

12-06-06, 02:49 PM

TNT booms with 'Librarian'

By Kimberly Nordyke

Dec 6, 2006

TNT is having a good week, with the network's sequel to its original movie "The Librarian: Quest for the Spear" and the second-season finale of "The Closer" drawing solid viewership numbers.

In other cable ratings news, ABC Family's telecast of theatrical "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban," Hallmark Channel's original movie "The Christmas Card" and the second-season finale of Nickelodeon's "Avatar" performed well for their respective networks.

"The Librarian: Return to King Solomon's Mines," starring Noah Wyle, averaged a strong 6.2 million total viewers from 8-10 p.m. Sunday, according to Nielsen Media Research. The number was off slightly from the first movie, which averaged nearly 7 million viewers in its Dec. 5, 2004, premiere.

Meanwhile, a special two-hour second-season ender of "Closer" drew 5.4 million viewers at 8 p.m. Monday, making the telecast basic cable's No. 1 program for the day. The second season averaged 6.6 million viewers, up 21% from Season 1.

At TNT's sister network TBS, new late-night comedy "10 Items or Less" grew slightly in its second week. The half-hour show was up by 5% in total viewers from last week (1,198,000 vs. 1,146,000) at 11 p.m. Monday.

At ABC Family, the basic cable premiere of "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban" from 5-8 p.m. Sunday averaged 4.8 million viewers. That figure means the movie ranks as the network's most-watched telecast of all time. It also won its time period compared with the rest of basic cable and was basic cable's No. 2 program of the day. "Harry Potter" also helped give ABC Family its most-watched day ever.

Hallmark's original movie "The Christmas Card," meanwhile, averaged 4.3 million viewers in its 9-11 p.m. premiere Saturday. Among total viewers, the movie ranks as the network's second-most-watched telecast ever behind Nov. 25's network premiere of the documentary "March of the Penguins" (4.5 million).

At Nickelodeon, the Season 2 finale of "Avatar: The Last " averaged 4.4 million viewers from 8-9 p.m. Friday, winning its time slot compared with the rest of basic cable.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/television/news/e3ie75b06f448ee1527b15a3b5496d89224

dad1153

12-06-06, 02:54 PM

Critic's Notebook
Tossed and Turned
The mini-series Tsunami reveals what was lost, and what remained
By John Leonard, New York Magazine December 11, 2006

Even Toni Collette, playing a God-fearing do-gooder determined to save, feed, cherish, and educate every child in ravaged Thailand, has begun to have doubts by the third hour of Tsunami, HBO’s reimagining of the killer waves of December 26, 2004. Some 227,073 lives were lost. Only 176,300 bodies were recovered. A third of the victims were children. “Maybe I’m just talking to myself,” worries Collette, when all along she has imagined she was talking to Jesus. Yet back to work in the rubble she goes, a credit to her God, who needs as much of it as He can get after what He did to the Indian Ocean and the Andaman Coast.

Collette’s Kathy is only one of a dozen characters in Abi Morgan’s absorbing screenplay, filmed on location in Phuket and Khao Lak, who are trying simultaneously to find their missing loved ones and make sense of the devastation that fell down on them out of a warm blue sky. A pair of loving parents on a holiday (Chiwetel Ejiofor and Sophie Okonedo) lose their daughter and almost their sanity. A young Thai waiter in a luxury resort (Samrit Machielsen) loses not only his grandmother but his ancestral fishing village, to bulldozers, real-estate speculators, and corrupt government officials. A seedy journalist left over from a Graham Greene novel (Tim Roth) saves not only his career but quite possibly his soul, by publishing the truth about the redevelopment of the coast, which happened at the expense of those who actually used to live there.

As the scene shifts abruptly from snorkel and snooze to sudden death and sustained grief, we are asked to worry how long a little girl can hold on to a palm tree in heavy winds and waves, and whether the burning of unidentified bodies by Buddhist monks in saffron robes is a religious obligation, a public-health precaution, or an indecent outrage. Are media representations of Third World disasters a kind of Orientalist pornography? Are images of refugees on their way to makeshift hospitals and camps on a permanent loop in our heads? And is it permissible for the vacationing bereaved to appropriate the nearest orphan, as if entitled to a substitute for whomever they’ve misplaced?

There is one clear message in this fierce Tsunami, which applies across the bloody board in a world of collateral damage, where every civilian is also a hostage. It’s a rebuke to the manly conventions of the hero narrative in literature and geopolitics. Of none of the victims of these killer waves could it be said that their character was their fate. Whoever they were, they didn’t deserve it.

Tsunami: The Aftermath
HBO. Part I: Sunday, December 10, 8 p.m. Part II: Sunday, December 17, 8 p.m.

http://nymag.com/arts/tv/reviews/24988/index.html

harley1

12-06-06, 02:59 PM

ABC Restacks Wednesdays

By Ben Grossman

ABC will shift Lost to Wednesdays at 10 to avoid the American Idol behemoth when the third-year drama returns to the network on February 7.

The network will also finally unveil Knights of Prosperity (formerly called Let’s Rob…Mick Jagger among its working titles) on Wednesday, January 3 at 9, which will be followed by fellow rookie In Case of Emergency.

Knights will go head-to-head with the Idol results show in that slot.

Wednesday nights will lead off with returning comedies George Lopez and According to Jim.

The William Shatner-hosted game show Show Me the Money will settle in Tuesdays at 8 in the new year.

Up in the air is the plan for the remainder of Day Break, which now runs in the Wednesday 9 pm slot that will be taken over by the new comedies. If it survives, it could finish its run at 10 on Wednesdays, but its future is still up in the air.

While Dancing With the Stars is expected to return sometime in March, still on the bench are yet-to-launch comedy Notes from the Underbelly and benched dramas The Nine and Six Degrees.

Still in its bullpen, ABC also has shows including Jimmy Kimmel-hosted gamer Set For Life.

http://www.broadcastingcable.com/index.asp?layout=articlePrint&articleID=CA6397508

dad1153

12-06-06, 03:01 PM

TV Sports
NBC Adds Brett Hull to NHL Studio
By Ben Grossman, Broadcasting & Cable December 6, 2006

NBC has signed former hockey star Brett Hull as a studio analyst for its National Hockey League coverage.

NBC Sports Coordinating Producer Sam Flood says he hopes Hull will give the network a trademark personality.

"I strongly believe that Brett's shoot-from-the-hip style, similar to what Cris Collinsworth brings to football and Charles Barkley to basketball, will be a huge hit with hockey fans in the U.S.," Flood says.

Hull will make his NBC debut Jan.13. He joins Bill Clement and former player Ray Ferraro in NBC’s studio.

http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6397749.html

harley1

12-06-06, 03:02 PM

Fox's Vinciquerra: Digital a Work in Progress

By Michele Greppi

In the next year or two the media world will begin to figure out what consumers really want on digital platforms and how that can best be monetized, but "we're really in the first inning of that game," Fox Networks Group President Tony Vinciquerra said Wednesday to Wall Street analysts attending the annual Credit Suisse Media and Telecom Week conference.

Right now, "what we're trying to do is be very clear about something that is not clear. We really don't know what the consumer really wants," he said.

Video-on-demand offerings at the Fox Broadcasting network level and through Fox stations have had some "pretty good" response from consumers and downloadable video has a future, Mr. Vinciquerra said, but the Fox executive added that so far it's a "minor business" that adds up.

He said probably 40 percent of the ad deals in the Fox cable properties he oversees have some digital component, and that that money is coming less from advertisers' broadcast budgets than from such columns as promotions.

Mr. Vinciquerra declined to give a specific digital ad growth projection but said it will be more than "whatever Jeff Zucker said the other day." Mr. Zucker, the CEO of the NBC Universal Television Group, on the first day of the Credit Suisse conference projected NBCU digital revenues would hit $300 million to $400 million next year and $1 billion by 2009.

The demand for advertising on the cable side and good scatter prices on the cable and broadcast sides, as well as the return in January of Fox Broadcasting hits "24" and "American Idol," all add up to Fox feeling "pretty happy with what's going on. Our business is very strong," he said.

Mr. Vinciquerra said that the sluggish upfront this year was not a sign that the upfront is broken but a reflection of the gross domestic product being off, which he expects to be the case next year. He predicted that upfront advertising revenues overall will be "a tick or two less."

He also said Fox anticipates launching more networks that are extensions of existing cable channels, sometimes via broadband, instead of as 24-hour channels. Among the possible examples he listed were a National Geographic channel dedicated to animals in the wild and a Speed Channel offshoot about car auctions.

http://www.tvweek.com/news.cms?newsId=11189

dad1153

12-06-06, 03:06 PM

Critic's Notebook
Putting disaster on a human scale
By Verne Gay, Newsday December 7, 2006

"Tsunami: The Aftermath" opens with an alluring shot of the jade sea, and closes with another of the water bathed in a sunset palette of reds, blues and oranges. The visual bookends are a secular symbol of sorts, as in: The sea giveth, and the sea taketh away, and then giveth again. But those are about the only glimpses that viewers get of what was - after all - the protagonist in one of the worst catastrophes in human history.

In fact, the tsunami that devastated the coastlines of a dozen South Asian countries and killed 227,000 people - more than one-third of them children - is hardly a forethought or afterthought in this two-part film covering the six days between Dec. 26, 2004 and New Year's Day. While the disaster's effects were real enough, its magnitude was so great that, for some of us, it exists mostly as an abstraction - as do the quarter-million dead. The destruction was simply too enormous for people to comprehend or the film to portray.

That being the case, you might question the wisdom or propriety of "Tsunami: The Aftermath" until you begin to understand what the writer (Abi Morgan) has tried to do, which is to bring the abstraction down to human scale. No one could ever hope to tell the full story of the 227,000 dead, or of those who survived, but maybe - just maybe - someone could be presumptuous enough to tell the story of one couple whose daughter has gone missing; or one mother, whose son is near death; or one journalist who tries to make sense of the aftermath; or one English bureaucrat who struggles with an impossible search-and-rescue effort.

On this scale, the human scale, the catastrophe comes into focus. And by this measure, "Tsunami" occasionally succeeds magnificently. It is often a beautiful, moving, and deeply respectful film, containing precious moments where the tragedy - completely and convincingly - becomes ours as well.

Chief credit for this significant accomplishment goes to two actors - Chiwetel Ejiofor and Sophie Okonedo, who play Ian and Susie Carter, British tourists who have come to Thailand with their 6-year-old daughter, Martha, for a vacation in paradise. Ejiofor and (especially) Okonedo ("Hotel Rwanda") are simply stunning as bereft parents, and they become the film's emotional core.

At the outset, Susie has gone diving, leaving Ian and Martha back at the resort to beachcomb. She surfaces, and sees something, or someone, bobbing in the distance. Unnoticed hours earlier, a mighty wave that would wash away an entire coastline had passed beneath the boat from which she was diving.

Called "fictional," although based on research and interviews, according to production partners HBO Films, the BBC, and Kudos Film, the movie also follows the stories of several other characters. Sharp-edged journalist Nick Fraser (Tim Roth, "Reservoir Dogs") uncovers scandal in the midst of monumental destruction. Tony Whittaker (Hugh Bonneville, "Notting Hill"), a British official, attends to the desperate needs of other British nationals in Thailand, including Kim (Gina McKee), whose son may lose an infected leg. Relief worker Kathy (Toni Collette, "Little Miss Sunshine") rationalizes her faith by observing, "I don't believe [God] did this.... The world keeps turning. "

Meanwhile, expect best actor/actress Emmy nods in the TV movie category for both Ejiofor and Okonedo come July, and - unless another insane Emmy injustice occurs - a win come September. They are the surest of sure bets.

TSUNAMI: THE AFTERMATH. A TV movie based on an incomprehensible disaster that occurred nearly two years ago. Fictional, but ... Part one airs Sunday at 8 p.m. on HBO, part two Dec. 17 at 8 p.m.

http://www.newsday.com/entertainment/tv/ny-ettel5004225dec07,0,947457.story?coll=ny-television-headlines

harley1

12-06-06, 03:11 PM

ESPN's Thursday night football proves big to the Big East

By Chuck Finder, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

West Virginia's stirring Sugar Bowl triumph in January, an event Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese called the most significant game in a conference history that happens to include Villanova's legendary 1985 basketball-championship upset of Georgetown, kindled a couple of profound television changes for the previously maligned football league:

The Big East got a new, improved, more lucrative contract with ESPN, reportedly worth $250 million for both basketball (to which CBS kicked in) and football between 2007-13.

The Big East got rid of its Wednesday night football.

OK, so the league grew bigger this season on a different night, in a made-for-ESPN, prime-time special.

Welcome to Thursday night lights, a profitable venture for ESPN and this basketball-concentrated league and its members, even if the coaches and the players find such midweek contests cumbersome for their football and academic workloads.

"I like to have college football on Saturday afternoons, every once in a while on Saturday nights," said West Virginia coach Rich Rodriguez, so old-fashioned at age 43 that he still believes the season should have ended in November instead of his Mountaineers finishing Saturday against Rutgers.

"Thursday nights are not natural. ... [Yet] once a year play a Thursday night game. But maybe those days are done.

"Why are we playing a 12th game? It's for money. Why are we playing on TV? It's for money. Let's be honest, that's what it is. Sure, TV helps with recruiting.

We can't complain about it as coaches if you want these [costly, keeping-up-with-the-Joneses] things in our program. That's why you won't hear me complain. But, at the same time, you'd like there to be a limit to things.

In other words, let's not play three, four midweek games during the year. And if we're going to play the 12-game season, I think they ought to start a week earlier in August. You can't move it back any further. Pretty soon, you'll play your last game and play your bowl game a week later."

Dave Brown, the ESPN vice president of programming who plays a critical role in spreading out a 2006 college football schedule that included a game every day of the week, considers the Big East's Thursday-through-Saturday flexibility a boon for all.

"I give credit to the conference office, Mike and Nick [Carparelli Jr., the associate commissioner in charge of football scheduling] and all eight athletic directors for really embracing it. Hopefully, it's a very good tool for them from an exposure standpoint. It's certainly worked great for us."

It worked so well for the Bristol, Conn.-based cable empire that ESPN garnered its two highest Thursday night ratings from Big East games this season.

First, West Virginia-Louisville Nov. 2 shattered the network's 11-year-old record for a Florida State-Virginia matchup with a 5.3 rating that translated to 4.91 million households tuned in.

Then, a week later, Louisville-Rutgers captured a 5.0 ranking and 4.62 million households.

Those two Big East contests represent the second- and third-largest audiences for regular-season college football broadcasts in ESPN's history -- Thursday, Saturday, whenever.

This, remember, from the conference left for dead two years ago when Miami, Virginia Tech and Boston College fled for the Atlantic Coast Conference and pared almost in half the TV deals that starting next year will average $36 million, an increase of as much as 140 percent.

"The three Thursdays in a row, we thought they had a chance to be great games," the Big East's Carparelli said, lumping in the West Virginia-Pitt Nov. 16 contest that garnered a 3.0 rating. "We couldn't have known they'd be this big."

The November troika helped to push the Big East to record ratings on their broadcast partner, which airs games on ABC, ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, in syndication on ESPN Regional/ESPN GamePlan and even online.

And the Big East's relative potency this season, with three teams in the Top 15, in turn helped to push ESPN's outlets to air a record number of conference games, 18 alone on its flagships ESPN and ESPN2.

To put that into perspective, their new contract completed in August -- locking up basketball and football broadcasts for a six-year extension starting next year -- requires only a total of 17 games broadcast on the network's array of channels and just 14 home games under the old deal.

As for midweek games, ESPN aired six involving Big East teams -- four Thursdays and two Fridays -- and averaged a 3.2 rating and 2.97 million households. ESPN2 aired three on Fridays and averaged a 1.0.

By contrast, the network averaged a 0.9 rating for all its non-Big East Thursday and Friday games, from similar arrangements with Conference USA, the Mid-American and the Western Athletic conferences.

That's still a higher number than the network got for regular-season NHL games when it had that professional contract. So there is an audience, there are advertisers.

"If you look at a school like Louisville, they will tell you they built their program playing on Thursday nights before they got to the Big East," Pitt athletic director Jeff Long said. "Otherwise, their games weren't seen on Saturdays."

"It's the college football version of Monday Night Football," ESPN's Brown said of Thursdays, which increasingly draws interest from teams wanting to be televised on that night next season. "It's the gateway to the weekend of college football.

If we can really put a strong schedule out there, advertisers gravitate to it because consumers are forming their weekend buying habits on Thursday and Friday."

Fridays, though, seem to be a different deal. College coaches aren't enamored with the notion of intruding on what is traditionally a high school night. Playing then not only means they cannot recruit those scholastic games, it also means they cannot entertain many prospects at their own, concurrent home games.

Long maintains that the Panthers' stance is to avoid any home Friday games, allowing the WPIAL and City League its own night.

In fact, the Panthers' administration and coaching staff isn't overly excited about midweek games because of their fan and academics intrusiveness, though they grasp the importance of the exposure and the electricity of the aura and the separation from other area games, such as the Steelers.

"It's all those things, to be honest," Long added. "On one level, we're traditional, and a large part of our fans are traditional in that they like to play Saturday games. But, also, our fans like Thursday night matchups because it's the thing to do, it's the game on that night. It certainly has benefits not only for athletics but the institution as a whole."

Connecticut coach Randy Edsall, however, doesn't like the weeknight gamses.

"I really don't like playing on a day other than Saturday. I know we have to do it because of the TV and the money. I don't like it, No. 1, because of the high schools [on Fridays].

And, No. 2, during the week because of missing class. Coaches get put under the pressure of not graduating your players and all that, but then you're going to play during the week," Edsall said. "I think what has to happen, the NCAA wants to talk about the APR and graduation rates, but they allow -- and TV dictates it -- that kids go out and miss classes due to games during the week."

Funny he should mention the NCAA. It was shoved out of the college-football TV business in 1984, after Georgia and Oklahoma sued the governing body over antitrust infringement and took their case to the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled 7-2 in their favor.

Justice Byron "Whizzer" White, a former Colorado All-America and Steelers back, wrote in the dissenting opinion that the NCAA's old TV plan fostered "the goal of amateurism," and he warned about the rising "financial incentives toward professionalism."

He was onto something, for it grew from the College Football Association that first decade into the every-man-for-himself the past decade (see Notre Dame's $9 million-or-so annually from NBC for home games).

Here's another look at old vs. new: From 1952-84, the NCAA permitted teams just six TV appearances over two seasons; this season, West Virginia was on ESPN five times and ESPN2 three.

Three of those were Thursdays and one a Friday for West Virginia. Pitt this season played one Thursday and two Fridays. Penn State and the Big Ten, for the most part, are a Saturdays-only bunch -- something Rodriguez, for one, envies.

"Regular-season scheduling is a responsibility of member institutions; the NCAA does not get involved in the activity," Stacey Osburn, an NCAA associate director for public and media relations, replied in an e-mail interview. "Because of this, each institution must address the potential of missed class times and make decisions on what it believes is best for the student-athletes and its programs."

Tranghese acknowledged that the Big East would prefer its own glistening Saturday window. But he also noted how it carved out this midweek niche. As evidence, he pointed to the 11 percent of America that got the chance to watch a split-national ABC telecast of Louisville-West Virginia in 2005, the triple-overtime thriller that was one of the games of the year.

The Big East could have shoved this year's game -- a battle between then-undefeated Nos. 3 and 5 -- to a Saturday and received a decent audience. "But we took a chance," Tranghese said. "No competition. One-hundred percent of the country. ... This was the game we started our [entire TV] schedule with."

"If we could have the same level of exposure on a Saturday, that would be the ultimate," Carparelli added. "We don't know if that's possible."

It is a big business: Fox spent $332 million for the right to televise just 16 games, or $20.75 million per game: the Fiesta, Sugar, Orange and national-championship finale for each of the next four years.

Fox also is creating a Big Ten Channel with that conference, which separately re-upped with ESPN for $1 billion over 10 years -- quite possibly the richest of the single conference sports contracts.

With such sizeable investments, no wonder games even appear on Sundays, Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays on ESPNU, the station born in 2004 after a Justice Department investigation over antitrust concerns of ESPN hoarding games and amid allegations from fledgling CSTV that ESPN was copying its idea of all college sports, all the time.

One last fact about the new Big East TV deals: A move to Wednesday night is still on the table, with ESPN allowed to request one per season -- but that doesn't mean conference teams have to accept it, the way West Virginia in 2005 had to play back-to-back Wednesdays in November and then the Backyard Brawl on Thanksgiving the following Thursday.

For the players themselves, midweek games and flexible scheduling have been a mixed bag.

"Horrible," was how it was described by West Virginia linebacker Jay Henry, one of only 17 National Football Foundation scholar-athletes. "For me, I need to go to class as much as I can. I've missed so much class, in Thanksgiving break I was doing homework all the time, catching up, doing projects. You can study on the flight and stuff, but once you get there your mind really isn't able to focus. You're thinking about the game and about watching film at the hotel, meetings ...

"They're fun to play. And you're on TV. There are pros and cons to it: You don't have to get up and go to class. But, at the same time, I got to make up all this work, man."

Added Pitt linebacker H.B. Blades: "The teachers are very understanding about things like that, especially representing the university on the field. Plus, I think it's fun. It gives teams an opportunity to play on national TV, at night, during the week. You know everybody in the country is watching because nobody else is playing. And people will watch any kind of games."

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06338/743356-139.stm

harley1

12-06-06, 03:26 PM

TV Bounty Hunter's Mexico Case Postponed

The Associated Press

HONOLULU - Duane "Dog" Chapman's court hearing in Mexico that could set him free or order his pending extradition and criminal case to proceed has been postponed.

The federal court hearing was to begin Monday in Guadalajara but was postponed because a report from a lower court was not received, according to Chapman's spokeswoman Mona Wood.

The court cannot proceed without the "justification report," she said.

A new date for the hearing has not been set.

The 53-year-old TV bounty hunter is charged under Mexican law with "deprivation of liberty" for his June 2003 capture of fugitive convicted rapist Andrew Luster, the Max Factor heir, in Puerto Vallarta.

Chapman's attorney, William Bollard, was scheduled to present arguments starting Monday. Chapman was not going to attend the closed hearing in Guadalajara.

Chapman was arrested Sept. 14 along with his son and another associate and is free on $300,000 bail. He has been aggressively fighting extradition.

He faces up to four years in a Mexican jail if convicted.

Chapman's capture of Luster catapulted the Honolulu-based bounty hunter to fame and led to the A&E reality series "Dog the Bounty Hunter."

Luster jumped a $1 million bond and disappeared during his trial in California's Ventura County on charges that he drugged and raped three women. The disappearance set off a national and international manhunt by police, FBI and bounty hunters trying to recoup some of the bond money. Luster is now serving a 124-year prison term.

http://www.examiner.com/printa-438848~TV_Bounty_Hunter's_Mexico_Case_Postponed.html

dad1153

12-06-06, 03:56 PM

TV Notebook
Big CW challenge: Building an identity
Behind the network's disappointing early ratings
By Diego Vasquez, MediaLife Magazine December 6, 2006

Before the WB and UPN merged into the CW in September, the 10-year-old networks had both built strong identities. The WB was the network of teenage angst. UPN had come to target a more sophisticated demographic of urban women ages 18-34.

So it only made sense that out of the merger would come a network that would have an even stronger identity, created as it was from the best of the two networks' lineups.

That did not happen.

Instead, what emerged was a network with no discernible identity. And as much as anything it's this lack of identity with viewers that's behind the new network's slow start.

That’s the feeling of media buyers and planners, who were asked in a recent Media Life poll to assess the performance of the new CW.

Most rated the performance of the network as disappointing, and the numbers would agree. Though ratings are beginning to perk up, the CW lags both UPN and the WB’s total viewer average to this point last season by at least 100,000 apiece.

It is coming off its best week thus far among adults 18-34, with a 1.8 rating, and total viewers, at 3.8 million. And it has finally pulled even with UPN's 18-34 average last year after bettering the WB for some weeks.

The CW has long said that expects modest ratings growth over the course of the season vs. UPN and The WB. Its buzzword has been patience.

Ironically, behind this lack of identity, say buyers, is the decision of network executives to stick with existing UPN and WB shows and to add only two new ones. Buyers believe adding new shows would have gone a long way to establishing a fresh identity.

Of those two new shows, one has already been canceled, and many of the holdovers have shown sharp ratings declines.

This lack of brand identity has meant that in many cases viewers who come to watch one show are less inclined to hang around to see what's on after.

With their strong identities, the old UPN or WB could rely on viewers being loyal not just to particular shows but the network behind them. Viewers drawn to UPN for “America’s Next Top Model” would in time sample and become attached to “Eve,” “Girlfriends” and “Everybody Hates Chris.”

By contrast, the CW seems but a crazy quilt of traditional WB shows like “7th Heaven” and “Smallville” and urban sitcoms like “Chris” and “Girlfriends.” Instead of becoming loyal viewers of the CW, fans of individual shows tune in and tune out without any flow.

Readers say the new CW has lots of work to do to correct its early mistakes.

“It needs an identity. What does a CW show feel like? When you tune into Fox or CBS, you know what you're gonna get,” writes one reader. “I knew what The WB was all about. The CW? Not so much.”

Ultimately, readers say, the network’s biggest problem may be its lack of corporate support from joint owners Warner Bros. and CBS. The new network’s marketing efforts to publicize the switch, which resulted in more than 70 percent of former UPN viewers having to change channels to find the CW, were less than effective.

Its failure to roll out any signature new shows it could publicize only worsened matters.

“The CW will never succeed as long as it’s part of this ridiculous hybrid relationship between Warner & CBS,” writes another reader. “It is being treated as an afterthought by CBS/Paramount. Once the original WB shows fade away from its lineup, it will have no identity and will always be mired deep in fifth place.”

Says another: “To get stronger, it needs to recognize that the general public probably had little awareness of UPN and the WB as broadcast nets (vs. another cable channel) so it should not have been surprised at the low initial awareness of CW. [It] needs to push net identity market by market.”

Many agree that the network must find that signature new show soon. The following are other reader suggestions and observations about the network’s early struggles:

“Dismal performance. It's an uphill battle all the way unless they can find a new ‘breakout’ program with lots of buzz.”

“Its performance so far is atrocious. With a roster of ancient shows (especially for their target demo), this network is a disaster. How to fix it? Either find a new hit or give up.”

“It needs to work on its promotion, particularly on the struggling shows, if it wants people to even consider watching them. The network lacks a complete identity and there still isn't a flow to the nights.”

“Due to the preponderance of programming carried over from the WB and UPN, the CW is not perceived as a 'new' or 'innovative' network. They need to try new concepts as their old series age and eventually die.”

“The network needs to focus on new QUALITY shows. They also need to find a focus and stick with it. It appears they are just mashing everything together and hoping something will stick.”

“CW needs a few new shows that are cutting edge. When you are at the bottom of the pile you need to take bigger chances.”

“Due to the preponderance of programming carried over from the WB and UPN, the CW is not perceived as a 'new' or 'innovative' network. They need to try new concepts as their old series age and eventually die.”

http://www.medialifemagazine.com/artman/publish/article_8908.asp

dad1153

12-06-06, 04:00 PM

TV Notebook
A hot love affair with telenovelas
By Glenn Garvin, Miami Herald December 3, 2006

The fledging all-telenovela MyNetworkTV may be based in Los Angeles, but its heart and soul -- or at least its viewers -- are in Miami.

Since the new network went on the air in September, most of its 200 affiliates have struggled to sell Americans on the idea of six-nights-a-week of prime-time soap operas. The huge exception is South Florida's WBFS-33, which is delivering ratings more than double MyNetwork's national average.

''A lot of people worried about the format, and we certainly had some questions,'' says Shaun McDonald, general manager at WBFS. ``But it's done very well for us.''

WBFS has been one of the few bright spots this fall for MyNetwork, which was cobbled together quickly last spring after the merger of two other networks -- UPN and The WB -- left hundreds of stations orphaned. With barely a million viewers, MyNetwork's audience is a tiny fraction of not only that of industry leader CBS (13 million) but even the other new-kid net The CW (3.5 million). In some markets, the all-telenovela lineup sent ratings plummeting as much as 90 percent.

Surprisingly, MyNetwork executives say the seemingly obvious reason for their programming's success in South Florida -- the large Latin audience that grew up with telenovelas on Spanish-language TV -- really doesn't have much to do with it.

''Los Angeles is probably one of the most heavily Hispanic communities in the country, and our ratings have not been particularly good in Los Angeles,'' says Bob Cook, the president of Twentieth Television, which operates MyNetwork. ``What these guys at WBFS did was work their tails off. They branded this network to the Miami community and made it their own local station.

"We use them as the showcase to our affiliates around the rest of the country. As far as marketing is concerned, these guys did it right.''

MARKETING TWIST

WBFS used conventional marketing tools -- billboards, buses, promotional spots within existing programming -- but with an unconventional message. It was almost an educational effort, aimed at allaying audience reservations about getting involved with serialized programs that air six hours a week.

'That was one of the things we were a little bit fearful of, that people couldn't watch every single night and would think, `Well, if I miss a show, I'll never be able to catch up with the story,' '' says McDonald. ``A big part of the marketing was educating them that you could catch up, that there are a lot of flashbacks and a recap episode on Saturday that reviews everything that happened during the week.''

Result: The first two MyNetwork telenovelas (Fashion House and Desire, which both air finales Tuesday) consistently pulled in around 2 percent and sometimes as much as 4 percent of the South Florida audience, double the national ratings. And while 4 percent doesn't exactly threaten Desperate Housewives or CSI, it compares more than decently with plenty of network programs and even beats some well-known series like The CW's Veronica Mars, which routinely has about 2 percent.

MyNetwork executives hope to replicate that promotion formula around the country. They remain convinced that telenovelas will attract audiences in the United States, as they have everywhere else in the world, if the programs can just be marketed correctly.

''Our research shows that we still only have a consumer awareness level of roughly 28 percent,'' says Cook. ``And frankly, that's somewhat suspect. When you really drill down, it's a small number that can tell you MyNetwork is a new network, and then you get down to the number that can tell you it's a network that runs telenovelas, it's maybe 8 or 9 percent . . . A lot of viewers are not even aware we exist. If they were, we might recruit them.''

Along with more aggressive marketing, MyNetwork plans to bring aboard more name-brand stars. (Fashion House, with Morgan Fairchild and Bo Derek, has garnered higher ratings than Desire, which has a lower-profile cast.) Tatum O'Neal and Spanish-language TV star Dayanara Torres star in the two new telenovelas (Wicked Wicked Games and Watch Over Me) that debut Wednesday, and Maria Conchita Alonso, Theresa Russell and Robin Givens have signed for future series.

''Now that we've been on the air a few months and the television community has seen what we can do, we're going to have access to bigger names,'' says Paul Buccieri, Twentieth Television's programming chief.

MORE INTRIGUE

MyNetwork, using data gathered from focus groups of its primarily female audience, will also tweak the formulas of the novelas: less money spent on showy panoramic ''beauty shots,'' not quite as much shoot-'em-up action, more intrigue. But nobody is talking about giving up on the concept of a novela network: Production has already begun on series that will debut in March.

''In a business where the failure rate is traditionally 95 to 98 percent. it's not that we don't continually second-guess ourselves or reevaluate,'' says Cook. ``. . . There's an appetite for these dramas. We just need to make them better . . . You'll see dramatic improvement in the second two [programming] arcs.''

Oh, and you'll see Miami, too. Saints & Sinners, scheduled to debut in March, is a kind of Romeo-and-Juliet saga set in the Miami Beach hotel business. Most of the show is produced in a San Diego studio, but second-unit crews have been here to shoot some exteriors.

''We're considering a few more series that are set in Miami,'' adds Buccieri. ``In the future, we may consider shooting an entire series in Miami. It's a great place, as long as you stay out of the way of the hurricanes.''

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/entertainment/columnists/glenn_garvin/16147257.htm

harley1

12-06-06, 04:00 PM

Can reviving holiday tale help resuscitate TV movie form?

By The Associated Press

Tired of the commercialization of Christmas? So is Santa in NBC's "The Year Without a Santa Claus." The usually jolly fat guy has had enough of all the holiday hype and just wants to retire to Florida.

"He's at a time of life when you are used to doing things in a certain way and you feel like the world is passing you by," says John Goodman, who plays Santa Claus. "But Santa finds he still has something to fight for, so he makes it through one more Christmas."

The live-action musical comedy, airing 8 p.m. Monday (KUSA-Channel 9), is based on the book by Phyllis McGinley and was previously made as a TV musical employing stop-motion animation with Mickey Rooney voicing Santa Claus.

Executive producer Mark Wolper says he was prompted to remake "The Year Without a Santa Claus" because his wife and their three children are big fans of the original.

"Of course any movie my kids like, they say, 'Daddy, how come you didn't make that?"' says Wolper, whose credits include such nonfamily fare as "Salem's Lot" and "Helter Skelter."

"So I said, 'OK, this time Daddy is going to make that!"' Wolper says. "The original theme and the theme of our movie I think are the same. It's about how Santa and a young boy, who both have lost their faith in Christmas, regain it because of each other ... and the fun, quirky, crazy journey along the way to that discovery."

The elaborate production - which contains 350 digitally created effects - was filmed in the middle of summer on soundstages in Louisiana.

Casting was probably the easiest element, says Wolper. "We really wanted funny people and so we put a list together and a lot of funny, improvisational people are ex-'Saturday Night Live' people," he says.

"SNL" alumnus Chris Kattan plays Sparky, the materialistic head elf. Michael McKean is the weather villain Snowmiser.

Then there's Harvey Fierstein as Heatmiser. Ethan Suplee is paired with Eddie Griffin as Jingle and Jangle, two of Santa's helpers who, in hopes of getting their boss to stay on the job, venture out to try to find at least one kid who still believes in the true spirit of Christmas. Dylan Minnette plays that kid, Iggy Thistlewhite. Delta Burke fills the role of an optimistic and glamorous Mrs. Claus.

"Needless to say, if I asked you to make a list of who would be the best actor to play Santa Claus, I suspect that John Goodman would be in the top three, and he was first on our list," says Wolper. Sounding warmly grumpy over the phone from his New Orleans home, Goodman said we shouldn't pay any attention to stories about his efforts to lose weight.

"I've gone up and down too many times. I'm tired of it," says the actor, best known for playing the dad on "Roseanne." His Falstaffian figure was a natural fit. "I looked rather like a tomato with a beard," he says.

Wolper's delighted about having created a new version of an old classic, but wistful that the networks seem to be turning away from original movies.

"Regretfully, because long-form television is my business, this may be one of the last sort of original movies for network TV," says Wolper. "That's a sad commentary. It's sort of an art form in the television business that is dying. So I'm praying it will do well, to breathe continued life into our business."

http://www.denverpost.com/entertainment/ci_4778949

dad1153

12-06-06, 04:04 PM

TV Notebook
From prison to 'Law & Order' to robbery charge
Associated Press December 5, 2006

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. -- An aspiring actor who landed a ''Law & Order'' part after his release from Sing Sing prison has been charged in a series of robberies in which police say he claimed to be wrapped in dynamite sticks.

David Wayne, 47, of Croton-on-Hudson, was arrested Friday after a foot chase following the holdup of a drugstore in Hartsdale, a northern suburb of New York City, said Capt. Joseph Delio of the Greenburgh Police Department, which covers Hartsdale. Wayne was carrying cash from the robbery and a BB pistol made to look like an automatic weapon, Delio said Monday.

In five previous robberies or attempts since Nov. 17, the robber opened a coat to reveal what looked like dynamite sticks wrapped around him. Greenburgh Police Chief John Kapica said Wayne told police he used highway flares, not dynamite, in other robberies.

Wayne was arraigned Saturday on charges of robbing two restaurants and a drug store. He was jailed pending a Tuesday court appearance.

Wayne spent 14 years in prison for robbery, and while he was at Sing Sing he took part in the Rehabilitation Through the Arts program. He was released in April 2005 and appeared on ''Law & Order'' last May.

http://www.suntimes.com/entertainment/television/159890,CST-NWS-law05.article

harley1

12-06-06, 04:08 PM

Ice skating's TV future isn't bright

By Philip Hersh
Special to The Times

December 6, 2006

In early January 1997, three men representing the United States Figure Skating Assn. went to the Mercedes Championship in Carlsbad to meet with executives of ABC Sports, whose network was broadcasting the golf tournament.

It was a rainy weekend, so wet, in fact, the final round was reduced to a playoff that became memorable because Tiger Woods won it and $216,000 with a single shot.

It also became a watershed weekend for U.S. figure skating, which was about to find itself flooded with ABC money — and be wise enough to put a lot of it aside for the rainy day about to arrive.

The forecast is so ominous it could turn figure skating into primarily an Internet sport as a broadcast commodity, barely a decade after its over-the-air network TV ratings and income were in googol range.

"Will we stay on TV? It depends what you mean by TV," said Eddie Einhorn, the skating association's TV consultant. "I see a combination of over-the-air, cable and Internet/new media. It will likely switch mostly to new media as years go by.

"Getting a big rights fee from television is the old game. Smaller sports are going to have to find other ways to get broadcast time."

In 1997, skating was such a big player, Einhorn could walk away from a big rights deal and know the network would come back with a better one.

Morry Stillwell and Jerry Lace, the skating association's president and executive director in 1997, joined Einhorn at the golf tournament to talk with ABC about an extension of the four-year contract negotiated in 1994. The 1994 deal brought the skating association a rights fee of $4.5 million a year.

In Carlsbad, after three years of great ratings because of interest generated when associates of Tonya Harding made a botched attempt to knock rival Nancy Kerrigan out of the Olympics, ABC offered the association an extension at $8 million a year. Lace and Stillwell accepted Einhorn's advice to hold out for more.

"Eddie left the meeting in his car, and Morry and I left in another," Lace recalled. "We had driven about 10 minutes when Morry said to me, 'What did we just do?' "

Three months later, ABC and the association agreed to a contract extension that would pay U.S. figure skating $12 million annually over its final eight years.

That contract led the skating association and ABC to create made-for-TV events such as the Marshalls U.S. Figure Skating Challenge airing live Sunday. The association also could pay its top athletes handsomely to take part in such events.

Five-time world champion Michelle Kwan earned $6.3 million from it, an average of $780,000 a year, from 1997 to 2005, according to the association's tax filings.

"And she was worth every penny," former association president Chuck Foster said.

Those were the days.

Now they are numbered, with the ABC contract ending next spring, at least four years after the end of skating's era as a red-hot TV commodity. That the sport still gets decent ratings for its major events is almost irrelevant, because those ratings come largely from older women rather than the demographic TV wants: 18-to-49-year-old males.

"I think they have a real problem," said Barry Frank, head of International Management Group's TV division.

Frank should know: he represented the International Skating Union as its rights fee for events including the world championships and Grand Prix series dropped from $22 million from ABC to $5 million from ESPN, the only network to make an offer. When that four-year deal expires after the 2008 season, the union could be out in the cold.

ABC/ESPN already have shunted figure skating off to time slots that make it cannon fodder — in TV parlance, "counter-programming" — to pro football.

Sunday telecasts, once programmed for late afternoon, now are aired in early afternoon, where they get ratings from 1 to 2. For the first time in memory, the women's final at the U.S. Championships will not be a Saturday night live prime-time telecast, with the 2007 event airing live in late afternoon.

ABC may decide to scrap the last of this season's made-for-TV shows, scheduled for next spring.

Those programming decisions irritate U.S. figure skating officials, but they have kept their unhappiness to themselves, because public complaints might jeopardize future negotiations. And ABC could point out that the 2006 telecast of the women's final did not get the ratings boost over 2005 that usually occurred for a national championship in an Olympic year.

In any case, Frank says, the skating association will have difficulty getting a rights fee from ABC/ESPN or any other network, especially because the sport lacks a commanding presence such as Kwan or Sasha Cohen.

That the last two U.S. women to win Olympic titles, Tara Lipinski (1998) and Sarah Hughes (2002), both were off the scene within a year of their mid-teenage triumphs, left a star void that would have been a black hole had Kwan not kept competing until last season.

ABC/ESPN spokesman Mark Mandel declined to comment on the status of negotiations. NBC, the Olympic network through 2012, has long lived with the philosophy that it did not need to program pre-Olympic sports to build interest in its Games telecasts. No other U.S. network has telecasts of figure skating competitions involving Olympic-eligible athletes.

"We hope to have something in place with a new TV contract by no later than next spring," skating association executive director David Raith said.

To get on television, the association probably will have to make a revenue-sharing deal, in which the network and the association sell advertising time to sponsors, with the association earning money once a defined dollar level is reached.

Another option would be a straight "time buy," in which the association would sell and keep all advertising revenue but must make enough sponsorship money to cover air time and production costs.

"We haven't had to do any selling in 20 years," Einhorn said. "We're going to have to be very creative."

Under the current agreement, ABC also owns the association's marketing, allowing the network to sign the five "U.S. figure skating national television sponsors'' (State Farm, Marshalls, Olay, Smuckers and Campbells). The association would now try to sign those sponsors on its own.

"I'm confident it is an opportunity for us to get directly involved with the sponsors we have been associated with," Raith said.

One of the biggest players in the sports world, the Anschutz Entertainment Group, recently became involved in skating by purchasing the Champions on Ice Tour and attracting the 2009 world championships to its Staples Center. AEG's billionaire owner, Philip Anschutz, went to Japan to lobby skating union President Ottavio Cinquanta for the world meet.

"We certainly have a commitment to figure skating, and we will look at all ways to help grow the sport," AEG spokesman Michael Ross said.

The skating association positioned itself as a broadband player by creating the Internet-based Ice Network, still in its infancy but likely to grow as the result of an agreement signed last week with MLB Advanced Media.

As of now, the Ice Network is webcasting some lower age-group event and qualifying competitions for the U.S. Championships. In the near future, it could air other countries' national championships and — depending on what happens to the skating union's contract after 2008 — other international events such as the Grand Prix series. It may be years, if ever, before such broadband programming becomes profitable.

In the short term, the skating association will be fortunate to generate one-third of the TV-related revenue it was getting from ABC.

In the last two tax years on record, the ABC payments represented about 65% of the association's income. The projected revenue falloff already has led to belt-tightening, and cuts in the number of skaters and judges sent to minor international competitions are likely.

Some of the income can be replaced by the approximately $2 million in dividends and interest generated annually by the U.S. Figure Skating Foundation, created in 2000 as a repository for some of the ABC money.

According to the foundation's president, Paul George, the foundation also had about $2 million in unrealized gains over the last tax year. It would be possible to use that money by selling investments to take the gains while returning the principal on which they were based.

Until now, all foundation income has been reinvested, allowing it to grow to $56.3 million as of Oct. 31.

A key question for the skating association is how much money it wants to risk staging events such as the three annual pro-ams, for which ABC now bears the financial burden.

Ratings and attendance for the pro-ams have become progressively worse; an attempt to generate interest by letting fans do the judging produced results that owed to popularity instead of performance.

"Skating doesn't need exposure," Einhorn said. "Skating needs money."

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/tv/la-spw-olyhersh6dec06,1,3353166,print.story?coll=la-entnews-tv

dad1153

12-06-06, 04:18 PM

TV Notebook
"Lost" and "Battlestar Galactica" find new timeslots
By Melanie McFarland, Seattle Post-Intelligencer December 5, 2006

One is moving in an attempt to keep from losing viewers.

The other is wagering it will find more of them.

On the face of it, "Lost's" move to 10 p.m. Wednesdays upon returning in February is more sensible than "Battlestar Galactica's" shift to Sundays at 10 starting Jan. 21, when the second half of the season launches after the series premiere of "The Dresden Files."

"Lost" needs to move because "American Idol" is coming back. And in case you didn't already know this, Fox returning "Idol" to the schedule makes other network programmers behave like tiny people in the path of a rampaging Mo'Nique: They know to either get the hell out of the way or be crushed. So "Lost's" move to the safer environs of 10 isn't only good sense, it'll be a boon for ABC affiliates like KOMO. Its 11 p.m. newscasts haven't had decent primetime support during the week in eons.

Meanwhile, moving "Battlestar" means breaking up Sci Fi's Friday night programming block. Not that the problems of two little people amount a hill of beans in this crazy world, but that lineup made for something of standing weekly date for your humble TV Gal and The Husband, i.e. He Who Detests Most Of Which Television Has to Offer.

Trust me, as much as The Husband grumbles about the sad state of TV beyond "Battlestar," "Heroes," and "The Knife Show" -- which he turns on just to annoy me -- he really, really can't stand change.

But if he wants to keep on watching the best dang drama on television, he'll have to make peace with it. So will the rest of its faithful. "Battlestar" may be in the midst of its most critically acclaimed season, but the ratings aren't matching the praise. Quite the opposite; its premiere attracted 900,000 fewer viewers than the season two premiere in July 2005.

Note the difference? This season premiered in the midst of the fall TV rush, whereas last season launched in the summer, when it's easier for cable series to get our attention. By moving it from its Friday night berth to Sundays, the most popular TV night of the week, Sci Fi is hoping to win a bigger share of the ratings pie.

To make sure viewers stay with Starbuck, Apollo and the rest, the fall finale, airing Dec. 15, will be part one of a two-part episode. A cliffhanger. No surprise there.

At any rate, we'll gladly move with "Battlestar" wherever it goes, and in spite of our disappointment with "Lost," we plan on seeing that one through too. What about you?

http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/tv/archives/109397.asp

dad1153

12-06-06, 04:21 PM

Critic's Notebook
In Pursuit of Hot Women, Hard Living and Insane Fame
By Virginia Heffernan, The New York Times December 6, 2006

When the reality series “Laguna Beach” started in 2004, MTV promised it would expose “The Real Orange County”; the dewy documentary was styled as a lifelike answer to Fox’s soapy “OC.”

To keep things consistent, then, MTV’s new reality series, “Twentyfourseven,” the story of a pack of guys aiming for fame in Hollywood, could have billed itself as the real “Entourage,” and a fan’s companion to that HBO comedy. Except now everyone knows how it goes: life begets art, which begets “reality.” Somewhere, in other words, young men actually do roll together, knock shoulders and pledge to make Thursday night “sick” and “insane.” That becomes comedy, which in turn becomes “Twentyfourseven,” which has its premiere tonight.

The producers have ably managed to recruit some presentable and ambitious young men from the honking, bottlenecked entrance to fame’s freeway. Among them are agent-filmmaker-actor-musician types. Their designated capo is Greg, who is, as it happens, a perfect narrator: a man whose disembodied baritone offers so many regional, racial and ethnic miscues that there’s some suspense before you finally see his face: he’s Arkansan (originally), 23 and white.

His real job is to be the star of “Twentyfourseven,” but MTV has given him cover in the ideal fame-seeker’s profession, the one that crosses courtier and profiteer and leaves almost no trace in, say, W-4 forms: party promoter. He also seems to sort of date Haylie Duff, sister of a bona fide famous person, Hilary Duff.

Greg’s brother Chris has a band, the Prom Kings, that sounds like most other Green Day-era bands, i.e., like Green Day, i.e., not that bad. The band seems far enough along in its evolution that MTV is not embarrassed to let it jam on the channel’s time.

At first the characters seem stiff, false and forced into a television friendship charade. But I came to like Chris when he insists on returning to “the dirty” — his name for Arkansas — shortly before playing at one of Greg’s parties. Though he says he’ll be back in Los Angeles in time to perform, he’s going to make only $500 at the gig (as opposed to Greg’s cut of the door), and some hunting boys back home have promised him a deer and a hog. Besides, he wants to see Mom and Dad.

Greg is enraged. This is his party that Chris is blowing off, and anyway, they were supposed to be all Hollywood now. But Chris, the older, digs in and leaves the city; he then misses his performance entirely when he lands in jail.

This return-of-the-Arkansas-repressed in the midst of the effort to go Hollywood is a good twist, and different from the way Queens occasionally comes back to haunt the consciences of the gang on “Entourage.” As with “Laguna Beach,” however, MTV seems to have deployed every camera at Viacom just following the cast members around town in case something exciting — a cellphone call! — happens.

It’s unlikely that the producers will wrangle a crew to stray beyond California and fly a whole team to Little Rock or Hot Springs. Too bad. It might be instructive to see what could go wrong in a healthy Arkansas childhood, filled with hogs, deer and good times, to turn a decent country boy into a mangy old party promoter.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/06/arts/television/06heff.html?_r=1&ref=television&oref=slogin

dad1153

12-06-06, 04:29 PM

The New Yorker magazine rarely covers or discusses television. When the magazine does write about TV though its usually an effen' brilliant essay. Fans of "The Office" (or any TV show set in the workplace) will love this lengthy article that appears on the New Yorker's Dec. 11th issue. :)

Also please check the previous page (#626) for loads of stories that myself and harley1 (Fredfa's new best friend) posted over the past few hours.

Critic's Notebook
The Paper Chase
Office life in two worlds
By Tad Friend, The New Yorker December 4, 2006

If Samuel Beckett were still around, his plays might begin on the late shift. “An office. An unattended PC glows under strong fluorescent light. Front left, a copying machine. Front right, a document shredder. Back, in near-darkness, a lounge with a disorderly refrigerator. A head peeps over a cubicle wall.”

Yet Beckett might consider an office too familiar, too encoded with generic misery. Just as a commercial about a fretful housewife readies us for a miracle spray, so a commercial set in an office—such as one for FedEx, Sprint Nextel, and countless others—prepares us for jocular scenes of oppression. The ads follow the blueprint established by the “Dilbert” comic strip and by Mike Judge’s 1999 film “Office Space” (where the boss kept dropping by to follow up on “those T.P.S. reports”). At the office, we have come to understand, the boss is always a blustery martinet; abbreviations are a B.F.D.; your co-workers eat your food, talk your ear off, and stab you in the back; and work has no inherent value.

The richest treatment of these themes—and other, more searching considerations—occurred on “The Office,” a BBC Two sitcom whose impact vastly exceeded the length of its run: a mere twelve episodes in 2001-02 and a two-part coda, “The Office Christmas Special,” the following year. Shot as a mock documentary, it examined the daily nonevents at a branch of Wernham Hogg, a fictional paper-supply company in Slough, the city west of London celebrated by John Betjeman: “Come friendly bombs and fall on Slough! / It isn’t fit for humans now.” The show, which aired here on BBC America and is available as a DVD set, was indebted for its format and some of its improvisatory byplay to such Christopher Guest films as “Best in Show,” but while Guest’s characters are defined by excessive optimism, the paper pushers created by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant were glum and self-loathing. They gauged their standing in the world by their jobs, as many of us do, and their jobs involved monotonous labor at a failing company in a collapsing industry. Like “The Office,” standout workplace sitcoms—including “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” “M*A*S*H,” “Taxi,” and “The Larry Sanders Show”—take place at pokey or besieged outfits. Their characters’ struggles to have their lives matter make the show “relatable,” as the networks put it. Failure is repeatedly relatable, whereas triumph goes down best in a single serving, such as one of those movies about unlikely bobsled heroes or plucky pint-size hockey players. A Goldman Sachs sitcom would have to be set in the mailroom, because watching envy and truckling is a lot funnier than watching the distribution of Christmas bonuses.

The workers at Wernham Hogg wear muted blues and grays and seem to be drowning in queasy fluorescence; they never see the sun. The show’s format compounded the gloom, because our emotions weren’t being cued with pop-song hooks or jolted by a laugh track; yet, by placing the cameras right up in the action and interspersing one-on-one interviews, the show allowed us to discover the characters for ourselves. The documentary verisimilitude also allowed scenes to peter out with a blank look or a sigh rather than build up to the American joke-joke-joke crescendo, known as the “blow,” a structure that usually involves someone bellowing at a freshly slammed door, “Does this mean we’re not getting married?”

The show’s lodestar was Ricky Gervais as the regional manager, David Brent. With his dated Vandyke, darting eyes, and ****-eating grin; with his wish to be more of a friend and entertainer than a boss, a wish torpedoed by the coercive feebleness of his patter and his horrifying dance moves; and with his unerring gift for joining conversations and killing them with one unpardonable remark, David was a new figure in sitcoms: the unbearable lead. In the first episode, in a scene that extended for an excruciating two and a half minutes, he sought to impress the new temp by having him sit in as he played a practical joke on the receptionist, Dawn (Lucy Davis). After calling her into his office, he pretended to fire her for stealing. When she began to sob, he winced and shifted and finally murmured, “Good girl, that was a joke we were doing.” With her head still in her hands, she called him a “wanker” and a “sad little man.” “Am I?” he said, attempting nonchalance. “Didn’t know that.” But he does. And our slow discovery of how this self-knowledge eats at David made us, grudgingly, begin to think of him as tragic.

While Gervais and Merchant’s decision to end the show well before it jumped the scone was admirable, NBC’s decision to air an American version, beginning in the spring of 2005, seemed deplorable. The show’s cult of admirers was outraged; the New York Observer wrote that, to much of Hollywood, “this smells like another colossal failure in the works.” It was as if the network had announced that it was going to take a British institution like “Pop Idol” and remake it with a jingoistic title like “American Idol.” (Since then, Québécois, French, and German networks have rolled out local versions of “The Office”; the template is becoming as globally ubiquitous as “Baywatch.”) The doubters had reason for concern, though: while classic sitcoms such as “All in the Family” and “Sanford and Son” were based on British models, more recent efforts to adapt “Absolutely Fabulous,” “Coupling,” and “The Kumars at No. 42” had all gone amiss.

Initially, NBC was too respectful. The goings on at the Scranton branch of the Dunder-Mifflin paper company duplicated those at Wernham Hogg scene for scene, which didn’t play to the new writers’ interests or the new cast’s strengths. But in the fall of 2005 the writers, led by Greg Daniels, the co-creator of “King of the Hill,” declared independence, and soon enough the show became a hit, first as a downloaded phenomenon on iTunes and then in the Nielsen ratings. It also became the best sitcom on the air. The creative turning point was last fall’s Halloween episode, in which Dunder-Mifflin’s corporate office in New York tells Michael Scott (the American version of David Brent, played by Steve Carell) to fire an employee by the end of the day. As he loudly struggles to think of a way out, or a way to get someone else to do it, Carell lets us see his character rummaging around in his brain for ideas, rocking forward as if to tip one closer to his mouth. The episode becomes completely goofy when Michael, in costume with a papier-mâché head on his shoulder, persuades his dweeby but Machiavellian lieutenant, Dwight (a brilliantly humorless Rainn Wilson), that the second head is whispering advice about whom to fire.

The winning silliness was new, as was that episode’s final scene. We see Michael, after going through with the firing, sitting glumly in his condo. Then the doorbell rings and he brightens, spilling candy in his eagerness to befriend a group of trick-or-treaters. Sappy, perhaps, but also an assertion that work needn’t define us.

The British “Office” was a pitiless meditation on rules and class. (The American “Office” doesn’t care about class; the writers handle very gently the fact that Michael’s favorite New York restaurants are a Sbarro’s and a Red Lobster.) David Brent was always afraid that he was being sneered at—and he was. It wasn’t so much that David’s bosses spoke in the tones of the BBC, while he spoke Estuary English and prided himself on knowing all the pop-culture trivia familiar to readers of the Sun; it was his attempts to disguise his background by larding his conversation with Latin tags like “ipso facto,” always misused, and with management-speak about, say, “team individuality.” And there was his public behavior, as when a woman at a club accused him of wanting just to shag her. His wounded rejoinder: “Yeah, and from behind, ’cause your breath stinks of onions, and I didn’t tell you that, did I?” As he smirked at her—touché!—she slapped him, and everyone froze. The appalled silence was “The Office” ’s recurrent landing point.

Most of David’s employees didn’t know what to do with their embarrassment, but Tim (Martin Freeman), a salesman, usually bailed out of the collective mortification with a deadpan look at the camera. Making faces is the way the weak take their revenge. (Tim also regularly needled David’s provincial assistant, perpetuating a British tradition of repressive jeering that extends back to Mr. Bennet in “Pride and Prejudice,” who observed, “For what do we live, but to make sport for our neighbors, and laugh at them in our turn?”)

Many of Tim’s poker-faced glances and slightly pop-eyed takes were directed toward Dawn; he wooed her the way a dog woos its master. Their long-simmering mutual crush was the show’s sole gesture toward the optimistic American “arc,” in which characters go on a journey together and are rewarded. But the crush didn’t boil over, because Dawn was engaged to someone else. Tim and Dawn were afraid to break the rules-—and their colleagues, equally afraid, made sure that they didn’t.

David declared at one point that he’d like “to live, you know, on and on and on, you know—know what it’s like to live forever.” Yet the show’s blank interstitial shots of the photocopier chunking out documents and of people staring at their computer screens, just as before, became increasingly dreadful. “Nothing happens, nobody comes, nobody goes, it’s awful!” as Estragon observes in “Waiting for Godot.” In the final episode, when David’s bravado crumbled and he pleaded with his bosses in a low voice to rescind their decision to fire him (“Don’t . . . make me redundant,” he said, barely able to get the words out. “Just say that it’s not definite now”), his appeal to keep things as they were, given how bad even he knew they were, was wrenching.

The challenge that faced the American “Office” was to honor the spirit of the original while tweaking the workplace dynamics so that audiences would want to watch more than twelve episodes. The British scabrousness and barely suppressed violence is gone, and the Scranton office—brighter and noisier, with more posters, parties, and pep—is Slough on Zoloft. Scranton has its thwarted lovebirds, too, Jim and Pam (the boyishly appealing John Krasinski and a depressed but radiant Jenna Fischer), who are better-looking and more assertive than Tim and Dawn. But two more office romances have been woven into the mix, and where Ricky Gervais’s David was nearly asexual, Steve Carell’s Michael Scott is weirdly and delightfully pansexual. Ryan, the go-getter junior salesman (B. J. Novak, one of several writers on the show who also play characters), tries never to be alone with his boss. It’s not just that Michael slaps him on the rear and calls him on his cell phone to coo but that Michael once proclaimed, when everyone was playing Who Would You Do?, “Well, I would definitely have sex with Ryan!,” adding, a moment late, “ ’cause he’s going to own his own business.” Which makes it perfectly understandable.

Referring to such differences, Kevin Reilly, the president of NBC Entertainment, has remarked that “Americans need a little bit more hope than the British.” In fact, conditions in Scranton are fairly hopeless: when it appeared, earlier this season, as if the branch might close, many of the employees were delighted. Toby, the doleful human-resources nebbish (Paul Lieberstein), told the camera, “For a minute there, I saw myself selling my house, moving to Costa Rica, learning how to surf. But, Costa Rica will still be there . . . when I’m sixty-five.”

What distinguishes Dunder-Mifflin from Wernham Hogg is not hope but consolation. In the British “Office,” we never learned most people’s names; the American version lovingly anatomizes everyone and takes advantage of the long-take documentary format to reveal the full complexity of everyone’s feelings (we glean, for instance, that Toby has an unspoken crush on Pam, and therefore resents Jim). Lost is the condemnatory power of the anonymous British chorus; gained are both a standard American melting pot and a commedia-dell’arte stock company, featuring Kelly the Yakker, Meredith the Lush, Kevin the Letch, and Creed the Cantankerous Freak, who is just a possession or two away from being a hobo. When Dwight is hovering uselessly in Michael’s office as Michael tries to deal with the sudden death of his predecessor, who was decapitated in a car accident, Creed (Creed Bratton) suddenly dips in his random oar.

CREED: You know, a human can go on living for several hours after being decapitated.
DWIGHT: You’re thinking of a chicken.
CREED: What’d I say?

It wouldn’t be the same without him. In the final episode of “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” Mary Richards explained the hidden mechanism of our workplace sitcoms, telling her co-workers, “I thought about something last night. What is a family? And I think I know. A family is people who make you feel less alone and really loved. Thank you for being my family.” Somewhat more self-importantly, Michael Scott tells the camera, “A lot of these people, this is the only family they have. So as far as I’m concerned”—he pulls out a “World’s Best Boss” mug that he bought for himself—“this says ‘World’s Best Dad.’ ”

This office taps home the point that work is fundamentally alien to the workplace. The reason that bosses become blustery martinets is that any sensible employee at a place like Dunder-Mifflin would rather play video games or gossip than tutor clients in the manifold varieties of copy paper. Yet Michael is the worst offender; he hates paperwork and is constantly distracting his employees while supposedly motivating them—the man is a karaoke machine of samplings from leadership manuals, and his emotional declarations sound like “The 48 Laws of Power.” “Would I rather be feared or loved?” he wonders aloud. “Um, easy: both. I want people to be afraid of how much they love me.” There is something Trump-like about Michael—the inert quiff of hair, the bombastic maxims, the bluff, mechanical determination.

Where David Brent wields language like a blunderbuss, brandishing it before the gates of the establishment, Michael wraps himself in it like a Sean John jacket, longing, hopelessly, to be black. “Wassup!” he cries, to his “dawgs” and “be-yotches” when they’re “in the house.” Last week, in an episode guest-written by Gervais and Merchant, he put on a do-rag and pretended to be Prison Mike, giving his employees the 411 on why office life is, in fact, preferable to time in the hole. There are also, in a somewhat more Caucasian mode, his impressions of Moe Howard, of the Three Stooges, and Adolf Hitler, of the Third Reich. Steve Carell does wonderful work with his voice, going from strangled and squeaky when he’s wounded to orotund when he’s feeling statesmanlike, an effect routinely shattered by his penchant for cackling and blurting out “Fo’ shizzle!” or “What’s the dealio?” All the conversational lint that tumbles around the airwaves gets trapped on the blank mesh of his brain.

Michael is less concerned with class than David, but he’s classier. When layoffs loomed at Wernham Hogg, David leapt to take a promotion, even though it meant that his Slough office would close (in the end, he failed the physical). By contrast, when Michael is told that the Scranton branch will be shuttered, he and Dwight drive to New York to appeal for his workers’ jobs. Scranton winds up absorbing the somewhat more professional Stamford branch, not because of Michael’s ultimately irrelevant road trip but because Stamford’s manager leveraged the situation and got a better job at Staples. Jim tells the camera, “Say what you will about Michael Scott, but he would never do that.”

Aside from such occasional clangers—fundamental-decency alert!—the show has a near-perfect grasp of tone. When Pam accepts her “Dundie” award from Michael at the annual ceremony at Chili’s, she has been drinking and flirting with Jim and wants to show off for him, so she launches into a mock acceptance speech. “Finally,” she concludes, “I want to thank God”—and her pause as she glances at the award in her hand and the engagement ring she has worn for more than three years is strangely affecting—“because God gave me this Dundie, and because I feel God in this Chili’s tonight.” In such scenes, the show manages to send up the forced camaraderie that Michael demands while celebrating its haphazard but genuine epiphanies.

The American show is much more willing to bend reality in the service of a joke. Jim, who sits next to Dwight and is able to tolerate his pettiness only by thinking of ingenious ways to punk him, goes so far as to send him faxes that purport to be time-travelling warnings from “future Dwight”—and Dwight heeds them. But the new “Office” does fix the original’s nagging realism problem: it was difficult to believe that David Brent would have lasted in his job for eight years. The writers take care to demonstrate that Michael Scott’s intense, blundering amiability can close a sale, particularly when the client is drunk. Most of the time, Michael’s boss, Jan Levinson (a splendid Melora Hardin as a steely professional occasionally beset by self-doubt), can’t understand why she hasn’t fired him. But Jan also warms to Michael’s sympathetic side, particularly when she’s drunk. She even makes out with him, twice, to her everlasting chagrin.

Michael is too dim to understand that Jan is way out of his league; he sees himself as a sort of man-about-town who’s not afraid to cry. In this vein, he regularly convenes breach-healing colloquia about diversity and tolerance, which always backfire. This fall, he tried to demonstrate that there’s nothing scary about gays by publicly embracing Oscar (Oscar Nuñez), an accountant who he had been told, privately, was gay. (Michael explained to us that he wished he’d known about Oscar’s sexuality, because then he wouldn’t have kept calling him “faggy.” “You don’t call retarded people retards,” he pointed out, with characteristic logic. “It’s bad taste. You call your friends retards when they’re acting retarded. And I consider Oscar a friend.”) Oscar rejected the embrace with a shove, declaring, “I don’t want to touch you—ever consider that? You’re ignorant. And insulting. And small.” Michael’s pained glance at the camera demonstrates Steve Carell’s particular strength as a comic actor: he doesn’t just deliver jokes and P.C. doubletalk—he swaddles them in bubble wrap and adds a gift card. When they don’t go over, he’s crestfallen. Here he ended up crying on Oscar’s shoulder: “Sorry I called you faggy.” Michael wants nothing more than to keep his humiliations to himself. But there are so many.

The biggest humiliation, though he hasn’t yet begun to acknowledge it, is the growing evidence that his office is not exactly a family. Michael’s employees, of course, recognize family metaphors as a corporate falsehood, and they behave accordingly: his wingman, Dwight, recently maneuvered to replace him, having earlier told us that his defining quality as a worker was loyalty—“but if there were somewhere else that valued that loyalty more highly, I’m going wherever they value loyalty the most.”

Similarly, Andy, a new guy from Stamford (Ed Helms, in a scene-stealing turn as a smarmy frat-boy type), tells us he’ll have the second-in-command job within six weeks, through “name repetition” and “personality mirroring.” Michael falls for the manipulation, of course, and his credulousness made us feel the sort of sadness we feel when a computer outplays Garry Kasparov. Even Jim has no problem with getting ahead and is now Michael’s No. 2. Class isn’t destiny here; destiny is achieved by selling and, in both senses of the word, hustling.

Gervais and Merchant’s handling of the Tim-and-Dawn plot was a master class in the pleasures of delayed gratification. At the very end of the show’s coda, “The Office Christmas Special,” Dawn tearily stepped into Tim’s arms. The related issue that the American “Office” must now resolve seems, at first, merely technical: how to perpetuate Jim and Pam’s mating dance as the show continues indefinitely. Their flirtation is more articulated, playful, and intimate than Tim and Dawn’s longing; it’s screwball rather than chivalric. They essentially serve as the office’s cruise directors, engineering a karate bout between Michael and Dwight and conducting an office Olympics with medals made from yogurt lids (they give Michael a gold lid for closing on his condo).

Inspired writing can multiply obstacles for a long time: Sam and Diane teased viewers for five years on “Cheers,” and Niles and Daphne eyed each other for seven years on “Frasier” before running off together. But when the will-they-or-won’t-they plot winds down, it often takes the show with it, as it did on “Moonlighting.” Precisely because Jim and Pam’s relationship has been so poignant—it’s the show’s chief ornament—they are fast running out of reasons to stay apart. At the end of last season, Jim approached Pam in the parking lot one night and said, “I’m in love with you.” A few minutes later in the darkened office, a likelier setting, they kissed. Then she said she was still going to marry Roy, her lunk of a fiancé. Yes, it made no sense. This season, even as Pam called off the wedding, Jim left for the Stamford office so that he could forget her; now the merger has brought him back, along with his Stamford colleague and new girlfriend, Karen (a spunky Rashida Jones). Their relationship feels much more mature than Jim and Pam’s skylarking, and so is clearly doomed.

How this matter plays out will define the show’s view of office life. Is this “Office” a romance, a place to find your soul’s counterpoint? Or is it a comedy of consolation, a place where dreams of love and Costa Rica gradually slip away? Michael, at least, would argue for the romance. Last season, he urged Jim to “never, ever, ever give up” his pursuit of Pam. It helped, somehow, that Michael uttered this Churchillian sentiment while wearing plastic handcuffs and shivering in the makeshift brig of a booze-cruise boat on Scranton’s Lake Wallenpaupack. The frigid weather and the correctional setting were straight out of the British original; the unlooked-for kindness was a local contribution. The BBC and NBC are two offices separated by a common language.

http://www.newyorker.com/critics/television/articles/061211crte_television

crimsonblake

12-06-06, 04:56 PM

I think your schedule is wrong in regards to the Hawaii Bowl. All day Saturday during the Hawaii game it said on the ESPN Ticket: Sheraton Hawaii Bowl Hawaii vs. Arizona State ESPN & ESPNHD

VisionOn

12-06-06, 05:27 PM

TV Notebook
"Lost" and "Battlestar Galactica" find new timeslots
By Melanie McFarland, Seattle Post-Intelligencer December 5, 2006

"Lost" needs to move because "American Idol" is coming back.

and it's getting beaten by Criminal Minds, which would probably drop it to 3rd place at 9pm.

tkmedia2

12-06-06, 06:23 PM

Under the Shadow of Swords
By Brendan Bernhard New York Sun December 5, 2006

The second season of "Sleeper Cell," the riveting Showtime miniseries about Muslim terrorists waging holy war in Los Angeles, gets off to a much slower start than the first. That's a shame because the eight one-hour episodes of "Sleeper Cell: American Terror," which will be shown on consecutive nights starting this Sunday, steadily ramp up the intrigue and excitement.

Faris Al-Farik (Oded Fehr), the charismatic Saudi leader of the opening season's sleeper cell, is now behind bars (with good reason: He tried to kill 50,000 people at Dodger Stadium). The only other cell members to survive the climactic ballpark shootout that ended Season One are Ilija Korjenic (Henri Lubatti), a Bosnian school teacher who finds shelter in the loving arms of a Tower Records employee who believes the attacks of September 11 were a Bush-Cheney plot, and the show's hero, Darwyn Al-Sayeed, the African-American Muslim FBI undercover agent who penetrated the cell and averted civic catastrophe.

Darwyn also managed to preserve his cover, which means he's good to go for another series. Unfortunately, as played by Michael Ealy, this perpetually hangdog Muslim American hero is one of the most soporific characters ever to head a series as good as this one. His facial expressions rarely exceed two — glum and glummer — perhaps because, among all his other duties, he has the weight of representing moderate Islam on his shoulders.

To its immense credit, "Sleeper Cell" doesn't flinch from showing the extreme fanaticism, cruelty, hypocrisy, duplicity, and grotesque behavior of the terrorists, and that's leaving aside their taste for mass murder. A scene from the first series, when three senior operatives convened in one Las Vegas hotel room, was particularly emblematic: Two helped themselves to infidel hookers on the carpeted floor while the third helped himself to blinis and caviar.

Still, one wonders whether the decision by the show's creators, Ethan Reiff and Cyrus Voris, to make Darwyn a Muslim was dictated by a desire for dramatic complexity or political expediency. Would Darywn be a more impressive hero if he'd simply studied Islam and passed as a Muslim on the strength of brilliant scholarship? As it is, seeing him pray immediately after a close female colleague is beheaded by his co-religionists, as we do in this season's opening episode, is more alienating than moving, perhaps because the writers are a little too vague about Darwyn's own interpretation of the religion. (He's a Sunni but acts more like a Sufi.)

For that matter, how many viewers are rooting for Gayle (Melissa Sagemiller), his white, single-mom girlfriend, to convert to Islam, as she shows signs of doing, even without marrying him, if she isn't murdered before she gets the chance? And what would Darwyn expect of her if she did? Would it be out with the tank tops and on with the hijab? Would we — meaning non-Muslims — care? How would it affect our view of Darwyn?

There are practicing Muslims involved in the making of "Sleeper Cell," including one of the writers, so its vagueness on these points cannot be blamed on lack of knowledge. Indeed, the second installment of the series is so chock-full of hadiths and quotations from the Koran ("There is no compulsion in religion," etc.), often accompanied by wailing Arabic music, that it can start to feel like a recruitment video. "Where is God's Paradise?" is a question asked of all who would be mujahedeen, and you'll soon know the answer by heart: "Under the shadow of the swords."

If only the FBI had such snappy code phrases. The agency is portrayed as even more tiresomely bureaucratic than in the first season and, in the form of Darwyn's latest case officer, increasingly sinister as well. With Farik imprisoned (he was shot in the knee cap, rather than the head, in the hope he'd talk), the specter of Abu Ghraib also looms large, but the Saudi isn't particularly impressed by our water-boarding techniques, let alone the controversies they arouse. "You Americans are so obsessed with yourselves," he remarks, "that you care more about analyzing your guilt than achieving victory. That is why we will win and you will lose." Change the pronouns and you're reading a right-wing blogger in a recriminatory mood.

The first season of "Sleeper Cell" revolved around a planned anthrax attack. This time it's dirty bombs and a plot that spans continents and allows for multiple story lines in Canada, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Germany, and Bosnia and Herzegovina. Some of them, particularly that of Ilija, the Bosnian from the first season who is slowly moving toward a renunciation of holy war, are engrossing enough to furnish a series of their own.

Though it fails to capture the typical jihadist's aesthetic distaste for America, which was the most impressive achievement of John Updike's recent novel, "Terrorist," "Sleeper Cell" does an excellent job of rendering the implacable nature of radical Islam. "Your world is never going to be safe again until you make peace with Islam, on our terms," Farik warns in a typical statement.

At the same time, even as the cell moves inexorably toward assembling a dirty bomb, the brittleness of the jihadists' faith is cleverly evoked. The second season's new cell members include Mina (Thekla Reuten), a Dutch convert who was formerly a call girl in Amsterdam, and Salim (Omid Abtahi), a closeted gay British jihadist of Iraqi origin whose terrifying fanaticism increases in tandem with his sexual turmoil.

Like many of the jihadists, Salim finds plenty of erotic opportunities in the land of the Great Satan and avails himself of them thoroughly. This underscores the widely held suspicion that sex, both in terms of male temptation and female oppression, is the Islamists' Achilles' heel. Perhaps the most devastating scene comes when Farik, who is eventually sprung from jail, persuades his English-educated daughter, who has shown a talent for drawing, to burn her sketches because Islam forbids the pictorial arts.

At moments like these — and there are more than a few of them — "Sleeper Cell" proves itself to be one of the most compelling programs on television. The new season is more introspective than the first in the sense that much of it is concerned with the battle between differing interpretations of what constitutes "true" Islam. Only the failure to address what that actually is prevents "Sleeper Cell" from being television drama at its very best.

http://www.nysun.com/article/44621

dad1153

12-06-06, 09:32 PM

TV Notebook
Who's surviving in 'Survivor'? Racial mix keeps show lively
Minorities rule
By L.A. Johnson, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette December 6, 2006

So much for fears that "Survivor: Cook Islands" would ignite race wars throughout the land.

No Rodney King-verdict mayhem has erupted.

Not even so much as a "West Side Story" dancing rumble.

The apprehension, outrage and moral indignation expressed when word spread that "Survivor: Cook Islands" initially would divide competitors into four teams by race may have been a bit premature and overblown.

The Asian-American, Caucasian, Latino and African-American tribes remained separate for only the first two episodes, then merged into two mixed-race tribes, Aitu and Raro, with a total of 18 members.

Now, some 11 episodes into the season -- which is drawing an average 15.6 million viewers per week according to Nielsen Media Research -- there is only one tribe, Aitutonga, with only seven members, and the four minority members are in the majority, including Becky Lee, a graduate of Thomas Jefferson High School in Jefferson Hills and the University of Pittsburgh School of Law.

Many viewers believe that race hasn't played a major role this season, but that's not to say it hasn't played some role.

Long before Candice's ouster and long smooch goodbye to tribemate/sweetheart Adam on last week's show, she set her eventual demise in motion with the infamous mutiny.

Before the big merge into one tribe two weeks ago, was Candice and Jonathan's decision to switch from the Aitu to Raro tribe race-based or merely a way to rejoin original Caucasian team members and avoid being in the minority on Aitu?

Jonathan and Candice's mutiny realigned them with their old Caucasian tribe members, put them in the majority on Raro and resulted in their surviving two more Tribal Councils, says Andrew Peters, 37, of Crafton, who's been a "Survivor" fan since the first season in 2000.

Three solid, minority members of the Raro tribe -- Brad, Rebecca and Jenny -- were systematically voted off for "reasons that are a bit suspect," says Mr. Peters, after Caucasians Jonathan, Candice, Parvati and Adam formed a renewed alliance on Raro.

Brad was voted off because he was considered "untrustworthy" and Rebecca was voted off because she was considered "lazy," he says.

"Yet unbelievably, Jonathan survived ... and is viewed as even more 'untrustworthy' than Brad; and Candice could [have been] viewed as even more 'lazy' than Rebecca," he says. "These actions make me believe that some old 'race' alliances [were] stronger than ever."

Did the then-four remaining Aitu tribe members -- Yul, Becky, Sundra and Ozzy -- minorities all, repeatedly banish Candice to Exile Island because she was white, or because she had betrayed and abandoned them?

"The smaller tribe [was] driven by revenge on the two members who deserted them," says Kailey Hughes, 14, of McCandless, who watches the show each week with her siblings and parents.

"Making alliances with people regardless of race is important if you can get a majority to stick with a vote, no matter what," says Kailey's dad, Matt Hughes, 40, of McCandless. "Then, you can pick people off one by one."

Personality, performance and loyalty have guided game play so far.

"If you are too strong a personality, you tend to rub people the wrong way, and if you are too weak a personality, people view you as lazy or cold, or without team [unity]," says Deborah Verrilla, 41, of Verona. "You have to find that happy medium immediately, and you have to align right away."

Strategy and loyalty to the game plan, if not completely to other players, figure more prominently than performance and personality now that the seven Aitutonga players are competing against each other and not another team.

Strategy trumps race alliances in this game every time, Mr. Hughes says.

That may explain why Jonathan, that crafty fisherman and abrasive writer-producer with the Alan Alda voice, has remained alive in the game even though he has double-crossed everyone.

He first abandoned Aitu for Raro, then betrayed Raro for Aitu by not voting with the Parvati-Adam-Candice alliance to oust Yul. This so incensed his original tribe members last week that they tried to vote him off.

They were unsuccessful, however, because Jonathan again is aligned with the powerful former Aitu faction of Aitutonga, which includes Yul and Becky, who are Korean-Americans, Sundra, who is African-American and Ozzy, who is Hispanic-American.

Even minority members of the Aitu power bloc -- which with unprecedented cruelty last week refused to share food with Parvati, Adam and Candice -- weren't all that thrilled with Jonathan's obnoxious enjoyment of a hot dog, fries, beer and pepperoni pizza during last week's food auction Reward Challenge. They, too, considered voting him off last week but decided to stick with their game plan and vote off Candice.

"Jonathan, he's kind of a poor man's Rob [Mariano]," says Christopher J. Wright, author of "Tribal Warfare: Survivor and the Political Unconscious of Reality Television."

"Boston Rob" Mariano -- a Season Four contestant and Season Eight runner-up who proposed to and later married that season's winner, Beaver County's Amber Brkich -- was skilled at reading shifting alliances and flipped back and forth frequently.

"They couldn't hold it against him -- until the end," Mr. Wright says. "But people are holding it against Jonathan and maybe [the flipping] will keep him alive for a while, but there's no way he's going to win."

Mr. Peters doesn't believe Jonathan deserved to survive another week, but understands why he did.

"He's a despicable guy. Keep him around and he'd be an easy one to go up against in the final two," he says. (Incidentally, "Survivor" producer Mark Burnett has told TV Guide that for the first time, the show will have a final three instead of a final two, and the number of jurors has risen from seven to nine.)

Has the loyalty some have shown their original tribe members been borne out of racial/ethnic ties or simply out of primacy -- the first bonds formed in their first tribes?

"People bond with those who you put them with, meaning the players want and will try to stay loyal to their original tribe, showing they are trustworthy," says Bridgett Kilmer, 28, of Hempfield. "People in general don't take the chance to get to know others when not placed with them. Is it because their original tribe is also the same race as them? Maybe."

John Stolec, 31, of Center Township believes Yul and Becky are close because they were on an original tribe together and were able to bond from day one, not because they're both Korean-Americans.

"Ozzy [became] an integral part of the Aitu tribe, and he was all alone as a member of the original Hispanic-American tribe," he says.

There's no way to know for sure whether race or simply original tribe ties have bound some players together more, Mr. Wright said.

"They obviously haven't shown people saying 'Yay for the white people' or 'Yay for the Hispanics,' " he said.

And there may be only one way to find out.

"The real test is taking the same four races and splitting them up in to four tribes -- one from each race on a tribe," Ms. Kilmer says. "Then, see who comes together in the end. The original tribes or by ethnic line. Maybe next season."

For more information visit www.cbs.com/primetime/survivor13.

Program note: KDKA will broadcast the Steelers vs. Cleveland Browns game tomorrow at 8 p.m. "Survivor: Cook Islands" will air in its regular time period on WPCW.

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06340/743778-237.stm