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fredfa

01-25-07, 07:57 PM

Critics Notebook
Love, 'Office' style,
and thoughts on the scheming Andy
From Maureen Ryan’s Chicago Tribune blog “The Watcher” January 25, 2007

The lead cast of “The Office” - especially Jenna Fischer as Pam, John Krasinski as Jim, Rainn Wilson as Dwight and Steve Carell as the blundering manager Michael - have been justly praised for their nuanced and subtly hilarious portrayals of workers at the Dunder Mifflin paper company.

But one of the true joys of the NBC show (which airs three repeats Thursday) is in the depth of its supporting cast. Stanley (Leslie David Baker) can speak comedic volumes with one baleful glance, and often a single scolding stare from Angela (Angela Kinsey) is all it takes to set off the giggles.

Two supporting actors, Melora Hardin as corporate boss Jan and Ed Helms as the scheming Andy, have really stood out on the NBC comedy of late.

Jan and Michael have been dating each other in secret - well, Jan thinks the relationship is secret. Michael’s accidental e-mail to an indiscreet pal of a picture of Michael and Jan at a Jamaican resort let the cat out of the bag (though Jan, of all people, hasn’t seen the photo).

Though Jan is Michael’s boss and their relationship is probably doomed for a variety of reasons, it’s easy to see why Jan is attracted to Michael’s innocence and enthusiasm.

When told that in a recent interview, Hardin replied, “Thank you for saying that. Because so many people have said, `Why, Why?’ and they try to talk me out of it. I’m like, look. … Jan has been really good at being a man in a man’s world. She is an intelligent, driven, ambitious, smart, political woman who has climbed to the top without sleeping her way to the top.

“She knows very much about herself as a professional person, but she doesn’t know herself as a woman,” Hardin said. “I think that’s the perfect reason to try to figure out what to do with Michael. Because here is somebody that desires her, that adores her, that wants her, and he sees past her hard exterior.”

The perfect date for Jan and Michael? “I could see them cuddling in bed eating popcorn watching an old movie together and thinking that that’s heaven,” Hardin said.

Despite Michael’s penchant for awkward remarks and bone-headed decisions, the man has some attractive qualities for Jan, Hardin says.

“He’s actually a good salesman. He comes through,” Hardin said. “He always kind of wins the day somehow, even though he’s an idiot.”

As for Jan finding out about that incriminating photo that Michael sent out - well, Hardin thinks Michael’s secret is safe for now.

“I don’t think anyone sent it to Jan,” Hardin says. “I think they’re scared of her, they’re intimidated by her, and probably deep down, nobody wants to hurt her. And that would probably put her over the top. Maybe she’ll never find out. I think if she finds out, it’ll be way down the road when it doesn’t mean anything any more.”

The next two episodes of the show involve Phyllis’ wedding shower and nuptials, but in an unspecified upcoming outing on the show, Jan and Michael will officially come clean about their relationship to avoid running afoul of personnel rules, Hardin said.

“He’s like, I know you’re above me, but I want you anyway. He doesn’t care.”
Speaking of getting into trouble, Andy had a major meltdown in the Jan. 18 episode of “The Office,” after being pranked by Jim and Pam. So, will the office schemer be back?

Helms, who’s in the process of moving to Los Angeles, said in an interview, “I’m coming back,” but he didn’t give any clues about when.

An NBC rep says Andy’s not in any February episodes, but the character, who persisted in calling an annoyed Jim “Big Tuna,” certainly made an impression on the Scranton branch of Dunder Mifflin.

“He’s kind of like everything I’d imagine hating in an office,” Helms said. “I think he’s a fusion of different things - hot-tempered [guy], frat boy, nerd. He’s kind of overcompensating for being an a cappella singer.

“I like to think he was in a fraternity, but not in the cool fraternity, he was in kind of a loser fraternity. But he’s incapable of acknowledging that it was anything but awesome,” Helms continued. “He probably goes home every night and gets really upset when he’s alone with his thoughts and reads self-help-y kind of stuff.”

Helms, a “Daily Show” correspondent who returned from his “Office” stint for one appearance on the Comedy Central show in December, said he hasn’t ruled out returning to that program again.

But given his move to L.A., we probably won’t see him quite as much on Jon Stewart’s show.

“I’m very proud of my time at `The Daily Show’ and it’s a relationship that I want to foster as long as that show is around and I’m in showbiz,” said Helms, who’s also in a bluegrass group called the Lonesome Trio. “I’d love to just sort of keep doing [occasional] segments and they seem open to it.”

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

DoubleDAZ

01-25-07, 08:01 PM

fredfa

01-25-07, 08:03 PM

in other words now that they are split from viacomm CBS's O&O's really plan to put the screws to cable and DBS to get "there fair share" of what used to be the communal viacom payment. And they dont want any governemnet agency getting in their way.

Absolutely.

Les Moonves has been saying publicly and forcefully for the past year that he will get compensation for the CBS O&Os when their retransmission agreements are renegotiated. The commonly assumed figures range from 50 cents to just under a dollar a month per subscriber.

NewsCorp has also made it clear it will get cash for its retransmission rights as well.

Since both networks carry the NFL, and Fox will (probably) again win the 18-49 demo race this year, and CBS is a runaway total viewers winner, it will be hard for cable companies NOT to pay. The agreements typically expire at the end of a year -- so can you hear the hue and cry if folks were about the miss the NFL playoffs, possibly the Super Bowl and the start of "American Idol"?

By the way, this is just a looming fight with cable. Dish and DirecTV have been paying for carriage all along, as have -- more recently, of course -- the telcos.

fredfa

01-25-07, 08:13 PM

If you think times are tough for the CW.....
The Business of Television
My Network TV scrambles to draw viewers
Phil Rosenthal The Chicago Tribune

Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. is aglow with the success that comes with "American Idol" returning to Fox.

But while Fox is on fire, the company's other network just burns.

My Network TV--born out of desperation when CBS and Warner Bros. shuttered UPN and the WB in favor of launching the CW from the remains of those two also-ran networks--has been a success only in that it is on the air.

Its stopgap schedule of serials that News Corp. originally intended to sell into syndication has attracted a mere 1 percent share of the viewing audience. That's roughly the same number of households as ABC Family and Spike TV on cable.

"You play the hand that's dealt you in life," said Dennis Swanson, president of station operations for News Corp.'s Fox Television Stations Group. "We were faced with being either independent or trying to put together a network, and our choice was to put together a network.

"We didn't have the luxury of established programs or even having a lot of programs in development. So we took the short series dramas that we had and got a network together in five months. I'm not sure anyone's ever done that before."

My Network TV was a necessity for stations around the country orphaned by the demise of the WB and UPN and spurned by the CW, including Chicago's News Corp.-owned WPWR-Ch. 50, which had been with UPN. So the attitude is, it's better than nothing.

The current cycle of My Network serials runs into March. After that, don't be surprised to see some changes.

"We want to gut it out on My Network TV because you've got to have a prime-time base," Swanson said. "People will see a better product hopefully before too long."

http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/columnists/chi-0701240067jan24,0,7312639,print.column

michaelk

01-25-07, 08:14 PM

As mentioned above, The CW never had the intentions (publicly) to be another CBS, Fox, ABC, NBC. They are after the young demos.

Why do I think more viewers aren't watching? I believe it's how they promote a show. The CW promotes the hell out of Top Model and Everybody Hates Chris. You'll be lucky to see one or two promos within a 24-hour period for Veronica Mars.

Also, to use VM as an example, most of their promos aren't compelling. So far this season, I've seen one compelling promo (Spit and Eggs), and it was :30 long. The CW even ran the promo a little more often than normal. Guess what happened? It got it's highest ratings of the season, and matched an all-time high.

And besides that episode and the premiere, The CW only produces :20 spots for the show. They use to only produce :20 spots for Supernatural, but have stepped it up the past few weeks (that Johnny Cash promo rocked).
....

promo quality means nothing if no one is looking at the netwrok to begin with. I would venture to guess that I haven't seen a single CW or MY promo. I watched a bit of everyone hates Chris a while back when it was on UPN or WB but that's the last time I've watched anything except local sports on either one. If one of them doesn't pick up the ota broadcast of my baseball team i wont be turning them on for another year likely.

My basic opinion is those 2 networks themselves stink so everything on them must suck too. If the shows were a success then one of the big 4 wold have picked it up. I paid a bit of attention to them when they changed from wb/upn to my/cw - i thought maybe they would try to get real programming, but then i read one was basically the novella channel and the other seemed to just pick up all the kids shows (I'm in my 30's- so I'm not an old man but my perception is it's all for teens). I could be completely off base- and sometimes I hear people )or read posts here) talking about how good veronica mars or smallville might be great and i just cant get over my basic feeling that they networks such so I assume those shows must have a very small niche that a certain segment of the population likes and i must not be in that segment.

Again I could be completley off base about the quality of the programming but untill my opinion of the networks themselves changes I'm not likley to bother giving anything they have a chance. And if i never see a good show (becasue i dont trust the network enough to even spend 30 minutes of my time to try anything) on them then i will never change my opinion. Thet are in a catch 22 and blew their rebranding.

If I owned a CW or MY station in a major market, I'd probably ditch the "network" and buy up all the broadcast sports packages and make the station into a broadcast rsn type thing. I think the WB/UPN/MY/CW brands stink and I dont know why an affiliate would want to be bothered with those names. one or 2 baseball games a week for 6 months plus a few preseason football games plus some college football plus a couple nights of basketball and hockey during the winter would probably yeild more eyes then a whole year of their current content.

fredfa

01-25-07, 08:43 PM

I think you are verbalizing a widespread belief, michaelk.

It seems to me to be very difficult for either nhetwork to get people unaccustomed to viewing them to give anything they carry a chance.

Plus I think the unspoken problem the CW faces is that there really is so much good TV available.

We can disagree what specific programs they might be, but I find it hard to wade through everything my DVRs record during a week. It took me most of December to catch up with programs I had recorded (mostly during the November sweep) but since the start of the season.

dad1153

01-25-07, 08:56 PM

My basic opinion is those 2 networks themselves stink so everything on them must suck too. If the shows were a success then one of the big 4 wold have picked it up.

The first sentence obviously isn't true. There are lots of intelligent and well-rounded people in this forum (as well as respectable TV critics) that aren't or weren't shy to proclaim their love for Buffy, Angel, Felicity (J.J. Abrams' breakthrough show before Alias), 7th Heaven, Dawson's Creek, Veronica Mars, Smallville, Veronica Mars and other WB/UPN/CW shows over the years. Yes, the ratio of stinkers to watchable fare is skewed to the former (Homeboys from Outer Space and Diary of Desmond Pfeiffer anyone?) and many of these networks' shows that survive long enough to be syndicated are inconsequential and pretty forgettable stuff (Unhappily Ever After, The Parkers, etc.). I've never seen a single show on either WB, UPN and CW (including all of the one's listed above) but I know not everything on them is garbage that sucks because enough people I know whose opinion I respect like(d) some of those networks' shows. Being on a low-rated, youth-skewing network doesn't automatically equate critical/quality failure, although even CW has to cancel low-rated shows that don't pull their weight live every other TV outlet.

That second sentence is true michaelk, but in the same way we as TV viewers tend to automatically dismiss TV commercials for beauty products claiming to erase wrinkles (or weight loss drugs that don't demand hardship from viewers). Why? Because we live in the real world and know from experience that if such miracle product actually existed corporate America would be all over it selling it in stores for premium prices, not cheap on direct response TV commercials. I believe the primary reason Battlestar Galactica is struggling for recognition beyond the critics and committed fans is that it resides on the Sci-Fi Channel, home of the cheesy Stargate twins, tons of edited-for-TV movies and quality niche' science fiction shows like Dr. Who. If 'BG' is that good, using michaelk's argument, NBC would pick it up and expose it to a wider audience to capitalize on its quality and critical acclaim. The fact is some TV shows are good but quirky-enough to be hits on cable or a smaller OTA network, and they belong there and not getting cancelled on ABC for coming behind a Univision soap opera in the key demo (or some nonsense like that which gets TV shows booted early). Otherwise Psych and Monk would have already moved to NBC and USA Network would be showing Failure to Launch for the umpteenth time on Friday night.

homcom

01-25-07, 09:23 PM

The commonly assumed figures range from 50 cents to just under a dollar a month per subscriber.
Does this figure account for having local news as well network programming? Is there any word on how much a CBS station is worth without any local programming? Am sure it will be part of a group deal but I'm just wondering how much value they think they can get for CBS Detroit. They are the only CBS O & O without local news.

michaelk

01-25-07, 09:37 PM

The first sentence obviously isn't true. There are lots of intelligent and well-rounded people in this forum (as well as respectable TV critics) that aren't or weren't shy to proclaim their love for Buffy, Angel, Felicity (J.J. Abrams' breakthrough show before Alias), 7th Heaven, Dawson's Creek, Veronica Mars, Smallville, Veronica Mars and other WB/UPN/CW shows over the years. Yes, the ratio of stinkers to watchable fare is skewed to the former (Homeboys from Outer Space and Diary of Desmond Pfeiffer anyone?) and many of these networks' shows that survive long enough to be syndicated are inconsequential and pretty forgettable stuff (Unhappily Ever After, The Parkers, etc.). I've never seen a single show on either WB, UPN and CW (including all of the one's listed above) but I know not everything on them is garbage that sucks because enough people I know whose opinion I respect like(d) some of those networks' shows. Being on a low-rated, youth-skewing network doesn't automatically equate critical/quality failure, although even CW has to cancel low-rated shows that don't pull their weight live every other TV outlet.

That second sentence is true michaelk, but in the same way we as TV viewers tend to automatically dismiss TV commercials for beauty products claiming to erase wrinkles (or weight loss drugs that don't demand hardship from viewers). Why? Because we live in the real world and know from experience that if such miracle product actually existed corporate America would be all over it selling it in stores for premium prices, not cheap on direct response TV commercials. I believe the primary reason Battlestar Galactica is struggling for recognition beyond the critics and committed fans is that it resides on the Sci-Fi Channel, home of the cheesy Stargate twins, tons of edited-for-TV movies and quality niche' science fiction shows like Dr. Who. If 'BG' is that good, using michaelk's argument, NBC would pick it up and expose it to a wider audience to capitalize on its quality and critical acclaim. The fact is some TV shows are good but quirky-enough to be hits on cable or a smaller OTA network, and they belong there and not getting cancelled on ABC for coming behind a Univision soap opera in the key demo (or some nonsense like that which gets TV shows booted early). Otherwise Psych and Monk would have already moved to NBC and USA Network would be showing Failure to Launch for the umpteenth time on Friday night.

just to be clear- in no way shape of form did i intend to imply that the people here wern't intelligent or well rounded(the demographics of an HDTV forum would tend to sqew to more income and therfore more college- so in theory were more educated and more rounded).

Not an english major myself-lol- i was trying to say that the posts here from people's who opinions I generally respect and think to be similar to mine even hold little favor compared to my admitted bias of so many years of suck. I see the posts from some folks about smallville or veronica mars and I think maybe those shows are good- they even sound like stuff I would like- but then I go back to my thought that the wb/upn/cw/my mess sucks so i'm not going to take 30-60 minutes of my time to investigate.

TO be honest I even assume that the Big 3 are higher quality. But FOX kind of catches me with baseball and so I see their promos and give them a shot. Every now and again i find one I like and so I'm on their network more and more all the time. The CW and MY I'm never near so aside from when they promote on the radio I dont know they exist and I bought sat radio last year so I dont even really get commericals there anymore.

I even assume my opinion is incorrect to a degree but it's still an opinion i have. I spent a lot of time attempting not to be biased about important things that I let my self be prejudicial about tv networks.

they are in a big hole.

michaelk

01-25-07, 09:44 PM

Absolutely.

...

By the way, this is just a looming fight with cable. Dish and DirecTV have been paying for carriage all along, as have -- more recently, of course -- the telcos.

curious- the O&O's got paid before by DBS? I just assumed that viacom would say "OK you get he 10ish O&O's thrown in with the $3 you pay for mtv and all out cable crap"

Or do you mean DBS is used to paying for locals from everyone but the O&O's so the shock of paying for O&O's wont occur?

michaelk

01-25-07, 09:47 PM

Does this figure account for having local news as well network programming? Is there any word on how much a CBS station is worth without any local programming? Am sure it will be part of a group deal but I'm just wondering how much value they think they can get for CBS Detroit. They are the only CBS O & O without local news.

the pro's here can probably answer better, but I suspect that local news doesn't exactly bring in a hige number of eyeballs so the value is probably based mostly on primetime and sports ratings. I know the national nightly news gets less and less eyes all the time.

Curious- what do you get from during the news hours? Syndicated sitcoms and the like?

DoubleDAZ

01-25-07, 09:57 PM

Curious- what do you get from during the news hours? Syndicated sitcoms and the like?Google CBS Detroit and you'll see he gets things like Judge Mathis, Judge Joe Brown, Insider, and Dr Phil. :)

fredfa

01-25-07, 09:57 PM

Does this figure account for having local news as well network programming? Is there any word on how much a CBS station is worth without any local programming? Am sure it will be part of a group deal but I'm just wondering how much value they think they can get for CBS Detroit. They are the only CBS O & O without local news.

As I uinderstand it, the DBS and telcos have been paying every local station for carriage, not just the O&Os.

Of course, in some cases, when they can't reach an agreement, the stations aren't carried.

fredfa

01-25-07, 10:02 PM

Critics Notebook
Sundance fest on TV;
wrong about "The Shield," right about "The Wire" censorship
By Tim Goodman San Francisco Chronicle in his TV blog “The Bastard Machine” January 25, 2007

OK, so our patented 2007 resolution (less blogging) gave way to our new bogging mantra (Bigger, Better, Faster, Less), which yesterday fell victim to sloth and time management issues (which are sooooo 2006). Apologies all around.

(Check back soon for a killer TV Show Face-Off! and the resumption of "TiVoiding," which unexpectedly led to some rather entertaining confessions from everyone about what they're watching - mostly sad crap - instead of watching what they've TiNo'd, if that makes sense - and it does.)

In the meantime, three quick things:

1. It seems obvious, but if you love film but you can't get to the Sundance Film Festival, you can always watch it on TV. The Sundance Channel is running lots of lovely little bits from the films, filmmakers and scene-setters at Sundance. There's a handy guide to when everything airs at the Web site linked above. Please note: If you don't get the Sundance Channel, please don't whine to the Machine about it. There's a whole different place for whining here at the Chronicle, if you can believe that. (Don't forget to whine about me not getting paid to blog.)

2. I was wrong about the upcoming resumption of "The Shield" being its last season. Sorry. Creator Shawn Ryan apparently realized he couldn't finish out the story that quickly, so there will be another 13 episodes after the 10 coming up shortly. (I'll review it prior.) Anytime we get more of Michael Chiklis/Vic Mackey, I'm all for it.

3. Well, it was bound to happen. But this was like a message from the censorship gods. The other night, with the snappers in bed and Mrs. Cranky Pants sound asleep, I went downstairs to - hey, I'm getting paid for this - watch some TV. I scanned the DirecTV guide, saw "The Wire" on BET and thought, "OK, let's see how it looks all cleaned up, with soap in its mouth." Soon as the channel rolls over, it's McNulty and Bunk, in THAT famous scene from Season 1 that all "Wire" fans figured would be the hardest and most egregiously pointless to censor: the two detectives barely speaking, using only F-bombs periodically as their measured and exact po-lice work leads them to figure out the odd angle of a bullet that killed a woman. Originally, it was a beautiful and hilarious scene of sparse wonder. Edited, well, it was even more hilarious. Censors let the actors says "Mother" but that's it and they had Bunk grunting a lot. But mostly there was tape hiss where the words were edited. Anyone stumbling on it would have thought "The Wire" was a silent movie. Funny, but also just as sad as everyone predicted.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/sfgate/indexn?blogid=24

homcom

01-25-07, 10:18 PM

the pro's here can probably answer better, but I suspect that local news doesn't exactly bring in a hige number of eyeballs so the value is probably based mostly on primetime and sports ratings. I know the national nightly news gets less and less eyes all the time.

Curious- what do you get from during the news hours? Syndicated sitcoms and the like?
Local news is of huge value to local stations, it is all local ad time and it provides the identity of the station. The major networks have always pushed for local stations to have a strong news department as it provides a great lead in to primetime and late night programming. Local news usually does pretty descent in the ratings.

DoubleDAZ

01-25-07, 10:20 PM

Of course, in some cases, when they can't reach an agreement, the stations aren't carried.I'm sorry, but the economics of this statement continue to defy my understanding. As was pointed out in the Sinclair thread, some markets have 10, 20, or more locals, yet DirecTV used to charge only $5/mo across the board and now wraps that cost into their basic package (@ $44.99 I guess), and now includes digital/HD locals. I'm not saying anyone if wrong, you all are probably right, but paying cash, especially anywhere near $.50/sub, just doesn't compute for me.

homcom

01-25-07, 10:26 PM

kjpjr

01-25-07, 11:01 PM

I'd like to see a grass roots effort to help support propping up David Caruso's head so it's on straight. Someone post an address where we can send neck collars to David.

Maybe we could call Nancy Grace -- her head tips the other way and she never says anything worth repeating.

fredfa

01-25-07, 11:09 PM

I'm sorry, but the economics of this statement continue to defy my understanding. As was pointed out in the Sinclair thread, some markets have 10, 20, or more locals, yet DirecTV used to charge only $5/mo across the board and now wraps that cost into their basic package (@ $44.99 I guess), and now includes digital/HD locals. I'm not saying anyone if wrong, you all are probably right, but paying cash, especially anywhere near $.50/sub, just doesn't compute for me.

Try this, Dave:

The premium channels get $6-$12 a month, ESPN gets about $3, most RSNs something over $2, TNT $.83, Disney $.79, Fox News $.75, USA Network $.60, CNN $.44, etc.

It seems to me on that scale the four major networks are certainly worth $.50-$1 a month each, considering that in prime time they get about 45% of all viewing, and for major events (The Super Bowl, Academy Awards, the Olympics, World Series, NFL Playoffs, NCAA Tournament, etc.), they are the carriers, $1 or so a month for each ain't bad.

You already are being charged about $60 a year, or more, just for ESPN and your RSN, so $48 a year for all four major networks doesn't seem out of line to me.

And the DBS companies somehow still generally have lower rates than the cable companies -- even though DBS pays the stations for carriage.

(And I don't know of many markets with 20 locals. Here in LA we have seven VHS and, I believe 13 or 14 UHF stations, many in surrounding communities with duplicate PBS feeds.)

But aside from NYC and LA, I think most markets would end up with a maximum of 10 stations. The major nets get $1 apiece, say, and the other six split another $2-3 bucks. Some of the independents and outlying PBS stations might just agree to carriage for little or no fee because of the extra advertising revenue or donations they could get.

And local stations can always, in the case of cable, insist on their must-carry status -- though without any fee.

fredfa

01-25-07, 11:15 PM

Maybe we could call Nancy Grace -- her head tips the other way and she never says anything worth repeating.

As opposed to Mr. Caruso, whose head cocks the other way as he continually says things that crack us up. :)

fredfa

01-25-07, 11:19 PM

Local news is of huge value to local stations, it is all local ad time and it provides the identity of the station. The major networks have always pushed for local stations to have a strong news department as it provides a great lead in to primetime and late night programming. Local news usually does pretty descent in the ratings.

And local news, where ratings tend to be slowly slipping, is a tremendous concern to the stations. It has been their financial rock for genberatioins -- some stations make well over half their profits from news broadcasts.

But with the proliferation of the internet along with cable/satellite (and DVD) entertainment options during local news, that viewership is declining, especially among the coveted younger demographics. Some stations have eliminated news altogether in recent years.

I believe, (and I could be wrong), that the Detroit CBS O&O does little or no news.

homcom

01-25-07, 11:27 PM

And local news, where ratings tend to be slowly slipping, is a tremendous concern to the stations. It has been their financial rock for genberatioins -- some stations make well over half their profits from news broadcasts.

But with the proliferation of the internet along with cable/satellite (and DVD) entertainment options during local news, that viewership is declining, especially among the coveted younger demographics. Some stations have eliminated news altogether in recent years.

I believe, (and I could be wrong), that the Detroit CBS O&O does little or no news.
No news on CBS Detroit, except for a weekly current affairs program on Sunday and I would hardly call that program news. Their current marketing for the 11PM timeslot is something like, "No News, is Good News". All the promos for that timeslot take the look of a news promo for, "Tonight at 11". It is kinda funny seeing them hype Everybody Loves Raymond and Letterman as part of a fake news promo.

DoubleDAZ

01-25-07, 11:29 PM

The figure of ~$.50 only applies to the major network stations. It would less for the lower tier networks, to the point where some stations do not justify any payment. Not all 10-20 stations per market are getting $.50 per sub.I understand all that, but the economics still don't compute (for me) and I think DBS will be impacted at some point by all this too. They may pay for some locals now, but I suspect it's not as much as theyll be paying in the future, assuming the locals demand the same from DBS as they demand from cable.

Also, the $.50/sub figure was the low end of the scale with estimates approaching $1.00/sub. That tells me that CBS in LA or NY might demand closer to $1.00/sub whereas CBS elsewhere might demand only $.50/sub. I wonder if DBS pays more for CBS in NY or LA than it does for CBS elsewhere? IMHO, the problem with these discussions is that very few are privy to "hard" data, the rest of us just have opinions. :)

And, this really isn't the thread for a long discussion. Back to Hot Off The Presses!

fredfa

01-25-07, 11:44 PM

No news on CBS Detroit, except for a weekly current affairs program on Sunday and I would hardly call that program news. Their current marketing for the 11PM timeslot is something like, "No News, is Good News". All the promos for that timeslot take the look of a news promo for, "Tonight at 11". It is kinda funny seeing them hype Everybody Loves Raymond and Letterman as part of a fake news promo.

Wherever he is, Mr. Paley is not looking down at that sad situation with a smile.

DoubleDAZ

01-25-07, 11:47 PM

Try this, Dave:

The premium channels get $6-$12 a month, ESPN gets about $3, most RSNs something over $2, TNT $.83, Disney $.79, Fox News $.75, USA Network $.60, CNN $.44, etc.......... Fred,

I'm not talking about that part of the economic equasion. While I don't agree with either DBS or cable paying for locals, I understand that is the way it's going to be and I don't have a problem with the price when compared to other channels, even though I have no way to verify all the individual costs. On that point I'll just say that when I retire in 2 years, TV is going to have a lot of competition for my time and I can see myself going the OTA-only route. Then these greedy b*st*rds can see how much they make off me. I've already thrown sports out the window because of the high salaries paid to under-achieving bums. I can't even afford to take my family to a ballgame and that's obscene.

Anyway, the part that I don't get is how DBS can pay cash for all these locals, especially in the amounts we seem to be talking about, and not have it impact their price more. They started with a $5 charge and now it's wrapped in the basic package, though they did raise that by $5 for new subs (and everyone else eventually to be sure).

I certainly get more than $.50 worth of enjoyment out of CBS, so that is not the issue. But, I could get the same enjoyment OTA for free. Cable/DBS is just more convenient.

Plus, no matter what some folks say, cable is required to do things that DBS is not and that is still unfair in my mind. Maybe I'm just tired of government interference and he who has the biggest lobby today (telco) gets their way. I have no problem with government regulating the stations (I guess), but OTA, cable, DBS, and telco's ought to be able to package and sell us what we want, not some bureaucrat's idea of what we should want. I really should be able to order HBO from HBO and my cableco or DBS provides the transport, nothing more. Likewise, I should be able to order the NFL Network from the NFL and not have to worry about exclusivity with a single provider. IMHO BUD had the right idea, the dishes were just too darned big and ugly. :)

randosel

01-26-07, 12:29 AM

Wow, the quality of writing on Letterman has plummeted!

Maybe because they went of to do the show Ed on NBC and currently ABC's Knights of Prosperity :)

fredfa

01-26-07, 12:35 AM

Agreed, ran.

(And welcome back to the thread.)

HDTVChallenged

01-26-07, 12:46 AM

... You could argue that the CW shows have essentially replaced the syndicated dramas (Renegade, Highlander, Xena, Baywatch, etc.) and comedies (Mama's Family, etc.) from decades past as the lower-end American supplier of TV product for the rest of the world and lower-tier US TV outlets.

Exactly my thoughts ... Although, I think traditional syndication had a small advantage in that stations didn't have to face the primetime buzzsaw. Gain some marketing power, loose some scheduling flexibility.

fredfa

01-26-07, 12:51 AM

I rarely post these kinds of behind-the-scenes stories, but since we were amusing ourselves earlier in the day at the expense of David Caruso of "CSI: Miami", it seemed timely……
TV Notebook
CBS Paramount reups 'CSI' czars
Mendelsohn, Donahue to stay until 2010
By Josef Adalian Variety January 25, 2007

In separate eight-figure deals that will keep them in the ranks of TV's highest-paid showrunners, "CSI" exec producers Carol Mendelsohn and Ann Donahue have signed on to stay at CBS Paramount Network Television through spring 2010.

Pacts will give the scribe-producers a bump from their previous deals, which paid them north of $12 million over the course of four years. Mendelsohn remains showrunner on the original "CSI," while Donahue continues in charge of "CSI: Miami."

Deal also covers future development by Donahue or Mendelsohn, as well as their roles as exec producers on all three CBS Par/Jerry Bruckheimer Television-produced skeins, which collectively rate as TV's No. 1 drama franchise.

"CSI" creator Anthony Zuiker, who's showrunner on "CSI: NY," reupped with CBS Par at the end of 2005.

CBS Par Network TV prexy David Stapf said Donahue and Mendelsohn have been key to the success of the Eye's most important entertainment franchise.

"They're both fantastic writers and great showrunners, which is a rare combination to get," Stapf told Daily Variety, noting the ability to write well and to run a multimillion-dollar production don't always go hand-in-hand.

"They have different styles, but both of them engender a lot of loyalty from their crew and cast," he added.

Stapf also said "CSI" and "CSI: Miami" have remained strong creatively despite being in their seventh and fifth seasons, respectively. "They're as good or better now than they've ever been before," he said.

While Mendelsohn and Donahue would both fetch top dollar from other studios if they ever considered leaving, neither woman seemed inclined to make a change when it came time to hammer out a new deal with CBS Par.

"The beauty of 'CSI' is that it's feature television every week," Mendelsohn said of the skein. "We try to evolve the look of the show and the storytelling, so my creative juices are always flowing. I'm not lacking for challenges."

She also cited the family atmosphere surrounding the show and its production auspices as a reason to stay put, noting all parties "share this same passion for television and making shows." That sentiment was echoed by Donahue, who's been running "Miami" since the show began.

"I'm from a time when ballplayers stayed with a team their whole lives," Donahue said. "This is my home team. I'm happy here."

Donahue said her decision to stay in the Eye fold was cemented after a family member fell gravely ill last year and the conglom's exec team rallied around her.

"They were instrumental in cutting through a lot of red tape and making sure the family member came through," she said.

Donahue and Mendelsohn also praised Zuiker as well as Jerry Bruckheimer's company, citing both as factors in their decisions to reup.

Neither Donahue nor Mendelsohn have any current plans to develop programming, though both said they're open to the notion if the right idea comes along.

http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117958117.html?categoryid=14&cs=1

dad1153

01-26-07, 12:55 AM

HDTVChallenged

01-26-07, 12:58 AM

Since both networks carry the NFL, and Fox will (probably) again win the 18-49 demo race this year, and CBS is a runaway total viewers winner, it will be hard for cable companies NOT to pay. The agreements typically expire at the end of a year -- so can you hear the hue and cry if folks were about the miss the NFL playoffs, possibly the Super Bowl and the start of "American Idol"?

Of course there's little chance of viewers actually translating their "anger" into action ... like buying an antenna and dumping their offending cable co.

Honestly, I've reached the conclusion that all this arguing over retransmission is 100% vaporous show for the FCC, congress and a gullible public. It's like the trolls from "The Hobbit" arguing over how best to cook and eat 12 dwarves and a "burra-hobbit." ... Guess who the dwarves and burra-hobbits are. :D

dad1153

01-26-07, 01:21 AM

fredfa

01-26-07, 01:45 AM

I realize it was a flip, wise-guy comment, but I think you might want to do a little study of Mr. Paley and his rather incredible lifetime of contributions to broadcasting, dad.

If he has just a 50-50 shot, the vast majority of us better just forget it.

fredfa

01-26-07, 02:19 AM

TV Notebook
Reality thrives at ABC
'Swap,' 'Supernanny,' 'Videos' renewed
By Josef Adalian Variety January 25, 2007

ABC has given early greenlights to reality skeins "Wife Swap," "Supernanny" and "America's Funniest Home Videos."

All three will return next season with at least 13 episodes. They join the certain-to-be-renewed "Dancing With the Stars" and "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" on the Alphabet's 2007-08 reality roster, along with "The Bachelor," now shooting its next season.

"Videos" will be back for what ABC is calling the show's 18th season, having originally premiered in January 1990, just a few weeks after "The Simpsons" bowed on Fox. Skein was off the air for two years between 1999 and 2001.

"Wife Swap" and "Supernanny" have proven to be solid utility players for ABC, giving the net a presence on Monday nights vs. tough competish.

Chris Coelen, whose RDF USA produces "Wife Swap" for ABC, said the renewal will bring the skein's total episode tally to 87 segs over four seasons. Skein has been a near-constant presence on ABC's sked, with originals and repeats airing both in-season and during the summer.

"It's amazing how well it's done, considering that the show hasn't really been rested at all," he said. "It's a really accessible format. Everybody can see a little bit of themselves in the show."

"Wife Swap" is exec produced by Wendy Roth, Stephen Lambert and Michael Davies.

"Supernanny," now in its fourth season, stars Jo Frost as the Blighty nanny charged with taming troublesome tykes. Nick Powell, who created the skein, exec produces with Craig Armstrong and Nick Emmerson via Ricochet.

Tom Bergeron hosts "Videos," which Vin di Bona exec produces via his self-titled production shingle.

http://www.variety.com/index.asp?layout=print_story&articleid=VR1117958128&categoryid=14

fredfa

01-26-07, 02:29 AM

Critic’s Notebook
Reality Check for a Generation That Knows Best
By Alessandra Stanley The New York Times January 26, 2007

Viewers who complain that the auditions on this season’s “American Idol” are too cruel are missing the point.

They are cruel, but there are more victims than the two young men who were so viciously ridiculed by Simon Cowell that they ended up as guests on the “Today” program and “Jimmy Kimmel Live.” One, Jonathan Jayne, who has a mild form of autism, turns out to be a video savant:

“I think that he was just, you know, trying to make television,” Mr. Jayne said of his tormentor. “They’re just actors, and they’re out to make a buck and increase ratings.”

The larger cruelty of Fox’s “American Idol,” its NBC look-alike “Grease: You’re the One That I Want,” “The Apprentice” and even “Armed and Famous” (Erik Estrada?!), is a generational snub. Reality television, which was originally created as a thumb-nosing alternative for the young (“The Real World”), has been co-opted by the baby boomers, who never miss a chance to assert their hegemony on popular culture.

It’s not so much that they watch the shows, though many do. It’s that reality television aims for younger viewers, 18 to 34, while subliminally underscoring and cementing their fealty to the relaxed-fit generation.

Whether it is a firing by Donald Trump or a personal attack by Mr. Cowell, each rejection is a symbolic re-enactment of an inter-era struggle in which the bullies always come out on top.

It explains the popularity of “Grease,” a contest for the two leads in a Broadway revival of a show that first opened in New York in 1972 and became a hit film in 1978. It’s a favorite high school production, so the contestants — and younger viewers — already know the lyrics by heart. “Grease” is also reconstituted nostalgia for a pre-Aquarian era only the oldest baby boomers tasted first hand. (The hugely popular made-for-TV Disney movie “High School Musical,” on the other hand, seems to be the next “Grease” for Generation Z.)

The survival of “The Apprentice” on NBC is surely a sign of the viewer’s unconscious impulse to relive the conflict between young and refuse-to-get-old. Season after season, good-looking, ambitious young people willingly abase themselves before a mercurial, aging baby boomer with odd hair and ostentatious taste. Every episode contains a reminder that Mr. Trump is a sovereign whose favor must be recaptured time and time again.

“You’re expecting an experience where you’re going to taste the Trump lifestyle,” Aaron, a sweet-faced real estate manager, said mournfully after his team on “The Apprentice: Los Angeles” lost a round and was banished to outdoor tents and cold-water showers. “Right now it’s still dangling in front of my nose.”

Senator Barack Obama of Illinois considers himself part of the post-boomer generation. (Boomers are usually defined as those born between 1946 and 1964, so Mr. Obama, born in 1961, is actually at the tail end of the second wave.) In his bid for the Democratic nomination, Mr. Obama says he hopes to steer the country away from the ideological battles of Vietnam and Watergate, but he knows better than to challenge pop radio playlists or nostalgia programming on cable. They may not be the greatest generation, but baby boomers are the bossiest and most imposing, and they have a way of muscling their way past young upstarts and innovators. NBC quickly cut a deal with YouTube, and a parody of iPhone from the network’s “Late Night With Conan O’Brien” has been viewed 1.4 million times.

Baby boomers will watch “Law & Order” and “CSI,” bankrupt Social Security, deplete Medicare and go noisily, dementedly into gated retirement communities with their shriveled, arthritic fingers still pushing the levers of culture and clutching the remote.

Revolutionaries turn reactionary once they seize control; the generation that prided itself on freedom and nonconformity keeps Generations X and Y walking behind it in lock step, weaned on reruns of “M*A*S*H” and remakes of “Charlie’s Angels” and each new lunar phase of Madonna. Like the youngest children in a large family, the post-boom generations are living on hand-me-down pop culture, and don’t seem to mind.

It’s not just that the songs on “Grease” and “American Idol” are by the likes of Toto, Debbie Harry or Stevie Wonder. “American Idol” presents aging singers like Barry Manilow and Rod Stewart as hot, contemporary artists. They are depicted as mentors to the contestants, but they mainly leech the show’s popularity to boost their album sales.

Like their rivals on “American Idol,” the three judges on “Grease” are baby boomers. Even when those shows bring in a guest judge, it is only rarely a younger artist, like the only slightly passé singer Jewel. Most often it’s a celebrity old enough to have watched the funeral of John F. Kennedy on live television, like the songwriter Carole Bayer Sager or Olivia Newton-John, who played Sandy in the film version of “Grease.”

The producers could just as easily recruit successful performers in their 20s to balance the bench, but they don’t want to and don’t have to: younger viewers identify with the supplicants begging to be tapped, not with the authority figures who determine their fate.

The few who talk back in tryouts, like Ian Benardo, 25, who swanned on stage and demanded to see Mr. Cowell’s visa, are kept in for amusement, but the editing ensures that they leave the show looking nutty and even dangerous.

Parents play an important role on these reality shows, a signal that there is no generation gap between boomers and their offspring; children owe their happiness and even their success to their fathers and mothers.

Mr. Trump has replaced seasoned executives from the boardroom with two of his children, the stone-faced Ivanka and the eager-to-please Donald Jr., and constantly reminds them that they owe their livelihood to Dad. “These are my children, but they are not children,” Mr. Trump informed his newest crop of would-be apprentices. “They are very talented business people.”

There probably are young business executives in the world who are not related to the boss and can be held up as role models (Google founders come to mind), but that may undermine Mr. Trump’s cultivated air of infallibility. The series prefers to warn young viewers that real power lies in the hands of those born after World War II and before the Gulf of Tonkin: a band of yuppies that cannot be left behind.

While filming part of an episode at the Loews Hotel in Santa Monica, Calif., Mr. Trump made a plug not just for the hotel chain, but also for its chairman and chief executive, Jonathan Tisch. “He’s been my boss for 27 years; he’s a great man,” the hotel manager dutifully tells Mr. Trump.

Mr. Trump replies, “He’s a great man, and he’s a great friend of mine.”

Even rebellious children beg for parents’ approval, and parents keep the upper hand. Sarah, 19, slipped away from home in Ohio to audition for “Idol” without telling her father, and she wept so poignantly about needing his blessing that the show’s host, Ryan Seacrest, helped her call home to break the news.

“Dad, I have something to tell you, please don’t be mad at me, Dad,” she said tearfully into her cellphone.

“Who is this?” her father replied.

Baby boomers don’t eat their young; they just keep them hooked on their leftovers.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/26/arts/television/26real.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&ref=television&pagewanted=print

fredfa

01-26-07, 02:37 AM

TV Sports
Extra Innings Throws a Curve,
and Fans Cry Foul
By Richard Sandomir The New York Times January 26, 2007

Jeanette Bottone cried last week when she heard that the Extra Innings package of major league baseball games that she has diligently watched on cable since 2002 was about to migrate to DirecTV in April.

“It’s really a big part of our summertime,” she said by telephone from her condominium in Wellesley, Mass. “But that didn’t last long. And then I felt angry.”

Bottone and her husband bought Extra Innings to keep track of the Yankees. Her father, Lou, was a minor leaguer in the Yankee system in the 1930s.

“But it’s exciting to watch the other teams if the games are important, and because there are certain players I like,” she said, adding, “I’m sad, but it won’t really hit me until those channels won’t have the games.”

Bottone is part of the resentment expressed on fan forums, blogs and inside my e-mail inbox against a pending seven-year, $700 million deal that would shift Extra Innings this season into an exclusive arrangement with DirecTV after five seasons of being available to 75 million cable, DirecTV and Dish homes.

A writer on the Cards Fan Union blog said, “I feel as though I’ve just had my teeth worked on with a drill that entered my body through my big toe.”

On the umpbump.com fan site, a screed against the deal was titled, “MLB Only Needs 700 Million Reasons to Tell You to Drop Dead.”

The deal would also make DirecTV the exclusive home of the 24/7 baseball channel that will launch in 2009 — but that is not the concern of the devotees who will be disenfranchised by cable’s and Dish’s loss of Extra Innings if the agreement is completed. It will be difficult for them to see much besides Major League Baseball getting $30 million more a year than what InDemand, the consortium that distributed Extra Innings to cable systems, bid to renew it.

This is a case of taking something that a part of the fan base has grown accustomed to and selling it to a higher bidder, which is available to 15 million subscribers, less than one-fifth the cable universe.

And it raises these simple questions: Why anger any part of your fan base? Why marginalize any part of your fan base?

“It’s shocking to me because it’s a move to have less of an audience and less coverage nationally,” said Dan Quinn, a graduate student from Newton, Mass., who roots for the Yankees.

Without Extra Innings, he added, “I’ll be stuck watching the Red Sox.”

It will not assuage those fans with cable or Dish, who should expect to see their Extra Innings ties broken, that they will still be able to watch hundreds of games a year on local stations, regional sports networks, Fox, ESPN and TBS. They have been treated to a somewhat privileged view of baseball from 10 Extra Innings channels — and now that will be taken away.

This situation is different from that of Sunday Ticket, the package of CBS’s and Fox’s Sunday afternoon, out-of-market N.F.L. games that are available only on DirecTV, which pays $700 million annually for it. Cable subscribers never had it, and while they may covet it, they can’t complain that they once had it but that it was sold to DirecTV, because DirecTV has always had it.

There will be only two options for discarded Extra Innings fans. They can switch from cable to DirecTV, which is impossible if landlords or condominium boards prohibit dishes, or if their exposure is wrong to snare the signal.

Baseball is counting on fans who lack any building or geographic hindrances to change to DirecTV. It may be right, even if it has to wait for the anger of fans to dissipate.

But Mark Requet, the co-owner of a weekly newspaper in rural Shelbina, Mo., said he would not switch from Dish to DirecTV, even if it means curtailing his ability to watch Mets games, his sole reason for buying Extra Innings for the first time last year. “I’m pretty satisfied with Dish and I’ve heard other people say they have trouble with DirecTV in bad weather,” he said.

The second option is subscribing to a seasonlong package of mlb.tv, the video streaming arm of mlb.com, for $79.95, nearly $100 less than last year’s suggested retail price for Extra Innings for cable subscribers.

It requires a broadband connection, which is increasingly common; there are 57 million subscribers, through cable and telephone connections, according to the Telecommunications Industry Association, a trade group.

Bottone said that mlb.tv is her backup, but she must go to her husband’s office a town away to watch. “But it doesn’t work that well,” she said.

Even with planned upgrades to mlb.tv’s video quality, watching a game on a computer screen is a different experience than taking it in on a TV screen, which allows viewers to be more than three feet away.

Yes, newer televisions allow for a relatively easy connection from the computer, but the quality of the picture degrades in the transfer. And streaming can be bedeviled by breakdowns and choppy pictures.

Baseball isn’t talking for now. How it eventually explains the deal — and tries to temper fan discontent — will be fascinating.

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/front.htm

fredfa

01-26-07, 03:02 AM

TV Notebook
Anchor’s Ties to Citigroup Attract Scrutiny
By Geraldine Fabrikant The New York Times January 26, 2007

Late last year, an executive from Citigroup phoned an official connected with CNBC, the cable business news channel. According to people with knowledge of the call, the Citigroup executive made it clear that Maria Bartiromo, the popular CNBC anchor, would not be permitted to fly on Citigroup’s corporate jet again.

Shortly before that, Todd S. Thomson, the head of Citigroup’s global wealth management group, arranged for Ms. Bartiromo to speak to some Citigroup clients in Hong Kong and Shanghai. Ms. Bartiromo had flown home with Mr. Thomson on the corporate jet, bumping several company bankers from the plane.

Executives at CNBC deny receiving a phone call telling them that Ms. Bartiromo would be barred from further flights.

Mr. Thomson was let go by Citigroup this week amid concerns over his judgment, his expenses and the way he handled some of his interactions with the CNBC anchor, including his decision to have Citigroup put $5 million into a multiyear sponsorship of a program on the Sundance Channel cable television network that would have Ms. Bartiromo as a co-host.

Ms. Bartiromo, by contrast, has the strong support of her employer. CNBC, which had said that her flight was pre-approved and that Citigroup was compensated, issued a statement yesterday that said she had not violated any of the channel’s ethical standards. It called her “one of the most prolific and well-respected financial journalists in the industry.”

Despite CNBC’s blessing, it is unusual for a financial journalist to make a public appearance on behalf of a major advertiser. That incident and other associations with Mr. Thomson have raised questions about Ms. Bartiromo’s judgment in getting too close to the people and organizations that she covers.

CNBC executives dismissed any suggestion of an ethics breach in any of Ms. Bartiromo’s activities involving Citigroup. Neither Mr. Thomson nor Ms. Bartiromo would comment for this article.

The episode comes at an awkward time for CNBC. Having endured a long ratings and advertising slump after the last bull market, the network has been on a run, becoming a growing profit center for NBC Universal. At the moment, the channel has no competitors in the field of 24-hour business news coverage on television, but the News Corporation, controlled by Rupert Murdoch, has been promising for almost three years to start a business channel.

As CNBC’s most visible asset, Ms. Bartiromo, who is married to Jonathan Steinberg, son of the financier Saul Steinberg, has become something of a celebrity. She has written two financial books and has a regular column in BusinessWeek magazine. And she is often seen at corporate or political events: she is spending this week leading the network’s coverage from the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

Some of the events put her in close proximity to Citigroup executives. According to one of last year’s guests at Davos, Ms. Bartiromo made the trip back to the United States on the Citigroup private jet on that occasion as well. She appeared at a Citigroup-sponsored awards event in London in 2005, as co-host of the event with another CNBC anchor, Simon Hobbs. Mr. Thomson represented Citigroup at the event.

One executive representing CNBC said that Ms. Bartiromo had made “no more than two” trips on the Citigroup jet. CNBC executives would not agree to be quoted by name because they said they did want to be seen as adding anything to what they considered an illegitimate inquiry.

CNBC also denied that Ms. Bartiromo had involvement with Citigroup more so than other businesses. In its statement, CNBC said, “In 2006 alone, she made 46 public appearances on behalf of CNBC.”

The CNBC representative said that as the on-air figure most closely associated with the channel, Ms. Bartiromo routinely made promotional appearances at corporate events. Many of the corporations advertise on CNBC. Citigroup is among the biggest advertisers, a CNBC spokesman said.

Of the 46 appearances Ms. Bartiromo made in 2006, the CNBC representative said, only three were on behalf of Citigroup. The list of other companies with events at which she appeared last year included Google, Schwab and Dow Jones.

In no case was Ms. Bartiromo paid for speaking at the events, the CNBC representative said. The channel defended Ms. Bartiromo’s travel arrangements. The statement said, “Her travel has been company-related and approved, and involved legitimate business assignments.” The CNBC representative added that the awards event in London was a routine appearance for Ms. Bartiromo.

CNBC also dismissed any connection between Citigroup’s sponsorship in the Sundance Channel program and Ms. Bartiromo’s participation.

The CNBC representative noted that CNBC’s parent company, NBC Universal, owns more than 50 percent of the Sundance Channel; so Ms. Bartiromo, an NBC employee, was a logical choice as host of a Sundance program. Her selection for the program came long before Citigroup’s decision to invest, the representative said. She has since ended her participation in the program.

There are other connections between Ms. Bartiromo and Mr. Thomson. In 2004, she was named to an advisory board for the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. A Wharton news release then reported that Mr. Thomson — who, along with his wife, had made a gift of $500,000 to the Wharton Center to Support Leadership and Change Management — had led the formation of the advisory board, which included Ms. Bartiromo.

In June 2005, she and Mr. Thomson were co-hosts of a leadership conference at Wharton. A Wharton spokeswoman did not return phone calls yesterday seeking comment.

Ms. Bartiromo has drawn criticism before. In 2003, she disclosed during an interview with Citigroup’s chief executive, Sanford I. Weill, that she owned 1,000 shares of stock in his company. Many journalistic enterprises consider it an ethics breach for reporters to own shares in businesses they cover, and CNBC tightened its guidelines soon after the interview. In 2006, she reported off-the-record comments by the Federal Reserve chairman, Ben S. Bernanke.

But CNBC remained supportive. “Her record and reporting speak for themselves,” its statement said.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/26/business/media/26maria.html?ref=media&pagewanted=print

keenan

01-26-07, 03:11 AM

(And I don't know of many markets with 20 locals. Here in LA we have seven VHS and, I believe 13 or 14 UHF stations, many in surrounding communities with duplicate PBS feeds.)

But aside from NYC and LA, I think most markets would end up with a maximum of 10 stations. The major nets get $1 apiece, say, and the other six split another $2-3 bucks. Some of the independents and outlying PBS stations might just agree to carriage for little or no fee because of the extra advertising revenue or donations they could get.

And local stations can always, in the case of cable, insist on their must-carry status -- though without any fee.
The San Francisco market local stations number in the mid 20's, it's very crowded up here.

keenan

01-26-07, 03:19 AM

TV Sports
Extra Innings Throws a Curve,
and Fans Cry Foul
By Richard Sandomir The New York Times January 26, 2007

Baseball isn’t talking for now. How it eventually explains the deal — and tries to temper fan discontent — will be fascinating.

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/front.htm
Yes, it will be fascinating, especially since the only explanation is that MLB is in it for the money and the larger fan base be damned.

Although, it really shouldn't surprise anyone, I still expect that most all HD TV programming will be a "pay"service eventually.

fredfa

01-26-07, 03:39 AM

Sadly, I am not sure it will take too much longer before "eventually" gets here.

foxeng

01-26-07, 07:17 AM

On that point I'll just say that when I retire in 2 years, TV is going to have a lot of competition for my time and I can see myself going the OTA-only route. Then these greedy b*st*rds can see how much they make off me.

Hopefully to tie the ribbon on this, as a broadcaster, I can say we in the industry HAVE NO PROBLEM with you NOT paying us if you, as the end consumer, receives our signal OTA for free. Where we DO HAVE THE PROBLEM, and I can say it ISN'T with the end user, but with the MIDDLE MAN, who is making money from you on our product and we get NOTHING. In any other venue that would be called fraud and people would be in jail for it. I am sure if cable DID NOT charge for basic cable channels, in other words, cable ran the line to your house, turned on the local channels only and you NEVER got a bill from any one, we the broadcasters would not have a leg to stand on on this issue. But that isn't what happens and the Congress and FCC agree with us on that point. It has now come down where the value of our product is driving many sales of cable and we think we deserve a piece of that pie, something we have been entitled to for years but have let cable slide and we have admitted that. It is now time to pay the piper but cable thinks they still deserve a free ride.

Mediacom has dramatically proven for all to see, cable's arrogance on the subject and something I have been saying for years, the "cable emperor has no clothes" when it comes to who needs who the most. If cable drops our channel, you either put up an antenna and receive it OTA or you move to another MSO who has our channel. In the end, you still see our channel one way or another and the Mediacom mess is proving it. If you move MSO's, the first MSO looses money that it may never get back. Repeat that scenario enough and the MSO is out of business but the station is still there. Maybe not making as much money as they once were, but still in business. I don't understand why people can't see that simple truth of economics. It is supply and demand in its simpliest form, you are just not dealing with a solid object.

And as you yourself have pointed out, you are/will be cutting the cable tie and be OTA only. Cable looses you money, but we keep your eyeballs. Point very well made. Thank you.

CPanther95

01-26-07, 08:24 AM

I certainly get more than $.50 worth of enjoyment out of CBS, so that is not the issue. But, I could get the same enjoyment OTA for free. Cable/DBS is just more convenient.

It's simple - cable/DBS are compensating the owner of the programming in order to profit from that programming. OTA is definitely a better deal, but that's because you aren't paying a middleman.

barcod

01-26-07, 09:24 AM

I would hate to sound rude, but wouldn't real world has better image quality? Why would you watch a show for the image value? Or am I missing a point here?

I watch this show for the image value, it's a showcase for HD image quality and the DP definitely seems to have free rein on the different things they do with the images, some are very cool, some just okay.

If I'm not mistaken, CSI: Miami is the most popular show in the world, I seem to remember reading that somewhere, it may have that been David Caruso was the most popular actor, but I'm pretty sure it was the show itself.

oldavman

01-26-07, 10:05 AM

fredfa

01-26-07, 10:15 AM

Welcome to the thread, oldavman!

While I agree to a point, I do believe there is enough quality TV on these days that it is hard to fit all the viewing in. In a way, thank Goid for the networks chgeaping out with second rate reality fare, giving up on Saturdays (and increasingly, Fridays) because it gives me a time to catch up with all the programs I want to see on my HD TiVo and DVR.

fredfa

01-26-07, 10:27 AM

The Business of Television
Big Changes Coming
NBC's Zucker Sees `Beginning of End' for Network Soap Operas
By Michael Janofsky Bloomberg.com January 26, 2007

Jan. 26 (Bloomberg) -- NBC network chief Jeff Zucker, who canceled the soap opera ``Passions'' last week, predicts the daytime dramas are facing ``the beginning of the end.''

``They went away from radio; they'll go away from television,'' Zucker, chief executive officer of NBC Universal Television Group, said last week at an event to showcase the network's program line up in Pasadena, California.

Women entering the workforce, an increase in cable channels and the success of syndicated daytime programs such as ``The Oprah Winfrey Show'' are reducing the audience for network soap operas. The number of daytime dramas on network TV has slumped from 18 in the early 1970s to nine today, including ``Passions.''

``They're not going to go away tomorrow,'' said Brad Adgate, director of research for the advertising firm, Horizon Media, in New York. ``But it will happen.''

Soap operas, named for their origins on radio when consumer products companies such as Procter & Gamble Co. began producing them, suffered as women went back to work. Between 1970 and 2004, women increased their participation in the labor force from 43 percent to 59 percent, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Advertising revenue from network soap operas has fallen every year since 1998, according to TNS Media Intelligence, an advertising consulting firm in New York.

Overall, annual revenue for the current soap operas have dropped 15 percent since 1998, to $1.1 billion for 2005, the last full year for which data are available, from $1.3 billion.

Viewers Fall

Viewership is falling as well. The total audience for daytime soap operas on the networks fell to 30.5 million last year from 51.8 million in 1999, a 41 percent drop, according to Nielsen Media Research, while the overall daytime audience fell 36 percent.

NBC, a unit of Fairfield, Connecticut-based General Electric Co., will stop showing ``Passions'' in August after an eight-year run. The program's audience had declined to 2 million, making it the least viewed of all the soap operas. NBC's decision will leave ``Days of Our Lives'' as its last daytime drama. The 41- year-old show was extended until 2009.

CBS, the daytime leader with four soap operas, is also losing viewers for its shows. ``The Young and the Restless,'' the top-rated soap for the last 18 years, has lost 30 percent of its audience since 1998, according to Nielsen.

In the 12 months ended in December, the show had an average daily audience of 5.4 million, compared with 7.7 million in the same period of 1998.

`Guiding Light'

The second-leading show over the same period, CBS's ``Bold and the Beautiful,'' lost 27 percent of its audience, falling to 4.1 million from 5.6 million.

The oldest soap opera, CBS's ``The Guiding Light,'' which began on radio 70 years ago and is still produced by Procter & Gamble, the largest U.S. consumer-goods maker, ranked eighth last year, ahead of only ``Passions.''

Procter & Gamble, based in Cincinnati, also produces the sixth-ranking soap, ``As the World Turns'' on CBS, owned by New York-based CBS Corp.

Barbara Bloom, CBS's senior vice president for daytime shows, said that while soap operas may ultimately disappear from the networks, they may still be viewed elsewhere.

``The way people view story-telling in their homes is changing,'' she said. ``The challenge for us is to deliver the stories the best way we can in a successful business model.''

She said the networks have recognized that sustaining interest in daytime programming relies, in part, on developing new ways to deliver the shows, like over the Internet, on cell phones and other digital devices.

``There are different issues at hand for each network,'' she said. ``The universal issue is finding a viable business model that works.''

`Great Mechanism'

P&G is betting that daytime television is still the best way to reach consumers. Brian Cahill, vice president for operations and strategic initiatives for TeleVest Daytime Programs, which produces the daytime shows for P&G, said the company doesn't plan to abandon its programs on CBS.

``It's a great mechanism through which we can reach our consumers,'' he said, adding that any demise of soap operas on the networks, ``may be true of NBC, but it's certainly not true of where we are.''

`Holistic Approach'

ABC, a unit of the Burbank, California-based Walt Disney Co., is also committed to its soap operas, said Brian Frons, president of daytime television at ABC.

He said Disney takes ``a more holistic approach'' to assessing the popularity of the shows, largely because of Disney's successful cable channel, Soapnet, which first appeared seven years ago and now reaches 57 million homes.

Soapnet has a weekday primetime schedule that now includes episodes of the five leading soap operas that appeared earlier in the day on ABC, NBC and CBS.

In 2006, Soapnet had its largest audiences ever during primetime, an average of 311,000 nightly viewers.

``Soap opera fans have a great passion,'' said Deborah Blackwell, Soapnet's executive vice president and general manager. ``They constantly come up to me and say Soapnet changed their life. We feel we're taking the right steps to ensure the future health of soap operas.''

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601204&sid=aEYKX59PsHN4&refer=technology

fredfa

01-26-07, 10:39 AM

TV Notebook
NBC Runs For 'Office,'
Follows President, Other Time Slots
by David Goetzl MediaPost Friday, Jan 26, 2007

NBC sees more room in "The Office"--for ratings growth. The network used three high-profile slots this week to air episodes "out of turn," looking to heighten new interest and drive viewership.

The half-hour comedy followed NBC News coverage of President Bush's "State of the Union" on Tuesday. The network hoped to benefit by pairing the upscale profile of "The Office" with a similar audience skew for the news event.

Then last night, back-to-back episodes aired in the highly rated "ER" time slot at 10 p.m. NBC apparently wanted to capitalize on viewers who may have mistakenly tuned in to the hit drama.

Earlier Thursday, the show appeared in its regular 8:30 p.m. home. All four episodes were repeats--another sign that reaching potentially new devotees was the goal.

"The Office" is having a great season creatively, and we feel additional exposure will bring even more viewers to the show and deliver solid ratings in these special time periods," says a NBC spokeswoman.

The gambit has had some success.

The Tuesday episode won the 10:30 p.m. half-hour, beating CBS' "Two and a Half Men." The victory was possibly the result of a stronger political lead-in from NBC News, which out-rated CBS News' coverage. "The Office" won the half-hour with a 1.9 "live" rating among adults 18 to 49, versus a 1.6 for "Men." (ABC stuck with analysis of the speech in the 10:30 half-hour and fared poorly).

Both "The Office" and "Men" performed well below their season averages in the demo, where "Men" leads by a slightly larger margin: 4.7 versus a 4.3. Those ratings include viewing via DVRs in the seven days after broadcast--which isn't a factor in ad sales. Negotiations are taking place based on "live" viewing only.

But DVR viewing ("The Office" is heavily recorded, meaning that "Men" may be more lucrative if it has more "live" viewers) helps in the sampling department. Whether it drives viewers to watch during the broadcast window is up for debate.

http://publications.mediapost.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=Articles.showArticleHomePage&art_aid=54506

michaelk

01-26-07, 10:44 AM

...
And local stations can always, in the case of cable, insist on their must-carry status -- though without any fee.

does that apply to DBS also- once DBS declares they will serve a particular DMA?

I thought it did but seems lately people are implying that they dont?

fredfa

01-26-07, 10:48 AM

The Business of Television
Fox Business Channel Coming Soon
Becker Named VP of Business News
By Anthony Crupi MediaWeek

Now that News Corp. has wrapped up its first clutch of carriage agreements for its soon-to-be-launched Fox Business Channel, the media conglomerate has redoubled its efforts to staff the network, naming Fox News Channel interim Washington bureau chief Bruce Becker as the startup’s vp of business news.

Becker was installed as FNC’s transitional D.C. bureau chief last fall after Kim Hume abdicated the position. He has been with FNC since the network’s inception in 1996. Prior to spelling Hume, Becker had served in Washington as the deputy bureau chief.

In a statement, Fox News chairman and CEO Roger Ailes praised Becker for his work as fill-in bureau chief but emphasized that Becker’s “extensive experience and insight in Washington is now integral to our development of the proposed business channel.”

Meanwhile, Weekend Live anchor and congressional correspondent Brian Wilson will take over as Hume’s permanent replacement, having been named vp and Washington bureau chief.

A specific timetable for the launch of the business channel has not been announced. That said, in the company’s latest earnings call, News Corp COO Peter Chernin told investors that “a launch announcement would follow ... pretty rapidly” after the network secured distribution in at least 30 million households. News Corp. has already surpassed that mark, signing carriage agreements with Comcast and Time Warner Cable.

Last fall, former NBC substitute anchor and CNBC senior business correspondent on-air star Alexis Glick was tapped as the startup’s director of business news.

http://www.mediaweek.com/mw/news/recent_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003538002

keenan

01-26-07, 10:51 AM

I would hate to sound rude, but wouldn't real world has better image quality? Why would you watch a show for the image value? Or am I missing a point here?
I was referring to the different ways and techniques the DoP manipulates the images, from blood-red sky to cobalt blue ocean, the over-saturated colors, the dropped frame sequences, the shooting through colored, textured glass....they really try a lot of different stuff on this show and I enjoy seeing it...sometimes it gives spectacular results, sometimes not so great, but it's usually always something different, which makes it interesting to me.

kjpjr

01-26-07, 10:51 AM

The premium channels get $6-$12 a month, ESPN gets about $3, most RSNs something over $2, TNT $.83, Disney $.79, Fox News $.75, USA Network $.60, CNN $.44, etc.

It seems to me on that scale the four major networks are certainly worth $.50-$1 a month each, considering that in prime time they get about 45% of all viewing, and for major events (The Super Bowl, Academy Awards, the Olympics, World Series, NFL Playoffs, NCAA Tournament, etc.), they are the carriers, $1 or so a month for each ain't bad

Could you quote a link to these numbers? I would like to see waht our cable co is paying vs. what we are paying them.

Thanks!

michaelk

01-26-07, 10:56 AM

Yes, it will be fascinating, especially since the only explanation is that MLB is in it for the money and the larger fan base be damned.

Although, it really shouldn't surprise anyone, I still expect that most all HD TV programming will be a "pay"service eventually.

maybe (i'm hoping) that MLB.TV intends to pick up some of the slack.

In my perfect world MLB.TV figures out a way to stream my LOCAL team in HD to my TiVo and I can dump pay tv all together. Basicallyt my RSN is the only thing I NEED from cable/sat. I'll pay the $79 a year for my local team alone. Probably woldn't flinch at $120. And with a little time to mull it over I'm sure I'd go a bunch higher since I would have several hundred other dollars left over from my Pay tv bill to pay for downloaded or mailed content.

They could lock me down to just my local team. Rather then my local team getting $24 a year by charging my cable/sat provider 2/month, they could make multiples of that.

It's a long way away if ever but that's my dream....

fredfa

01-26-07, 11:00 AM

I'll try to find a single link, kjpr.

The numbers are all from Kagan Research, and I addthem to a list I keep as I see them. Often a story about a cable network mentions one or two carriage fees, and I add it to a list I keep for reference sake.

And they are all general numbers -- different providers cut slightly different deals with cable networks.

The premium channels get $6-$12 a month, ESPN gets about $3, most RSNs something over $2, TNT $.83, Disney $.79, Fox News $.75, USA Network $.60, CNN $.44, etc.

It seems to me on that scale the four major networks are certainly worth $.50-$1 a month each, considering that in prime time they get about 45% of all viewing, and for major events (The Super Bowl, Academy Awards, the Olympics, World Series, NFL Playoffs, NCAA Tournament, etc.), they are the carriers, $1 or so a month for each ain't bad

Could you quote a link to these numbers? I would like to see waht our cable co is paying vs. what we are paying them.

Thanks!

CPanther95

01-26-07, 11:10 AM

IIRC, most cablecos/DBS list their programming costs at about 40% of revenue.

fredfa

01-26-07, 11:24 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.

123HDTV

01-26-07, 11:38 AM

TV Sports
Extra Innings Throws a Curve,
and Fans Cry Foul

I'm surprised this hasn't blazed up on more mainstream media yet. This rumor has been persistent on the net for better than a week now, yet the mainstream is just taking hold of it. That said, I'm glad SOME are grabbing onto it. There might be hope for some change of heart with MLB.

Keith Olberman the other night gave it one of his bonehead move of the week awards.

I'm still hopeful, however dwindling that hope is becoming.

fredfa

01-26-07, 11:42 AM

Probably because there are so comparatively few MLB EI subscribers, 123HDTV. After all, there are more mlb.com subs than MLB-EI has.

Even Sunday Ticket doesn't get all that much press with its 2,000,000+ subs.

fredfa

01-26-07, 11:54 AM

Reminder:

The Screen Actors Guild Awards will be presented Sunday night (8 PM ET TBS and TNT).

As usual for major TV aeward presentations, "Hot Off The Press" will keep a running list of the television category winners throughout the show.

No need for you to stay glued to the thread -- just check in during commercial breaks of your favorite Sunday night programs to get caught up on who is winning.

Screen Actors Guild TV Award Nominations

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Television Movie or Miniseries
Thomas Haden Church / BROKEN TRAIL – Tom Harte - AMC
Robert Duvall / BROKEN TRAIL – Print Ritter - AMC
Jeremy Irons / ELIZABETH I – Earl of Leicester - HBO
William H. Macy / NIGHTMARES & DREAMSCAPES – Clyde Umney - TNT
Matthew Perry / THE RON CLARK STORY – Ron Clark - TNT

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Television Movie or Miniseries
Annette Bening / MRS. HARRIS – Jean Harris - HBO
Shirley Jones / HIDDEN PLACES – Aunt Batty - Hallmark Channel
Cloris Leachman / MRS. HARRIS – Tarnower’s Sister - HBO
Helen Mirren / ELIZABETH I – Elizabeth I - HBO
Greta Scacchi / BROKEN TRAIL – Nola Johns - AMC

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama Series
James Gandolfini / THE SOPRANOS – Tony Soprano - HBO
Michael C. Hall / DEXTER – Dexter Morgan - Showtime
Hugh Laurie / HOUSE – Dr. Gregory House - FOX
James Spader / BOSTON LEGAL – Alan Shore - ABC
Kiefer Sutherland / 24 – Jack Bauer - FOX

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series
Patricia Arquette / MEDIUM – Allison Dubois - NBC
Edie Falco / THE SOPRANOS – Carmela Soprano - HBO
Mariska Hargitay / LAW & ORDER: SPECIAL VICTIMS UNIT – Det. Olivia Benson - NBC
Kyra Sedgwick / THE CLOSER – Deputy Chief Brenda Johnson - TNT
Chandra Wilson / GREY’S ANATOMY – Dr. Miranda Bailey - ABC

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Comedy Series
Alec Baldwin / 30 ROCK – Jack Donaghy - NBC
Steve Carell / THE OFFICE – Michael Scott - NBC
Jason Lee / MY NAME IS EARL – Earl Hicke - NBC
Jeremy Piven / ENTOURAGE – Ari Gold - HBO
Tony Shalhoub / MONK – Adrian Monk - USA

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series
America Ferrera / UGLY BETTY – Betty Suarez - ABC
Felicity Huffman / DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES – Lynette - ABC
Julia Louis-Dreyfus / THE NEW ADVENTURES OF OLD CHRISTINE – Christine Campbell - CBS
Megan Mullally / WILL & GRACE – Karen Walker - NBC
Mary-Louise Parker / WEEDS – Nancy Botwin - Showtime
Jaime Pressly / MY NAME IS EARL – Joy - NBC

Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series

24 - FOX
Jayne Atkinson - Karen Hayes
Jude Ciccolella - Mike Novic
Roger Cross - Curtis Manning
Gregory Itzin - Charles Logan
Louis Lombardi - Edgar Stiles
James Morrison - Bill Buchanan
Glenn Morshower - Aaron Pierce
Mary Lynn Rajskub - Chloe O’Brian
Kim Raver - Audrey Raines
Jean Smart - Martha Logan
Kiefer Sutherland - Jack Bauer

BOSTON LEGAL - ABC
Rene Auberjonois - Paul Lewiston
Candice Bergen - Shirley Schmidt
Craig Bierko - Jeffrey Coho
Julie Bowen - Denise Bauer
William Shatner - Denny Crane
James Spader - Alan Shore
Mark Valley - Brad Chase

DEADWOOD - HBO
Jim Beaver - Ellsworth
Powers Boothe - Cy Tolliver
Sean Bridgers - Johnny Burns
W. Earl Brown - Dan Dority
Dayton Callie - Charlie Utter
Brian Cox - Jack Langrishe
Kim Dickens - Joanie Stubbs
Brad Dourif - Doc Cochran
Anna Gunn - Martha Bullock
John Hawkes - Sol Starr
Jeffrey Jones - A.W. Merrick
Paula Malcomson - Trixie
Gerald McRaney - George Hearst
Ian McShane - Al Swearengen
Timothy Olyphant - Seth Bullock
Molly Parker - Alma Garret
Leon Rippy - Tom Nuttall
William Sanderson - E.B. Farnum
Brent Sexton - Harry Young
Bree Seanna - WallSofia Metz
Robin Weigert - Calamity Jane
Titus Welliver - Silas Adam

GREY’S ANATOMY - ABC
Justin Chambers - Alex Karev
Eric Dane - Mark Sloan
Patrick Dempsey - Derek Shepherd
Katherine Heigl - Isobel “Izzie” Stevens
T.R. Knight - George O’Malley
Sandra Oh - Cristina Yang
James Pickens, Jr. - Richard Webber
Ellen Pompeo - Meredith Grey
Sara Ramirez - Callie Torres
Kate Walsh - Addison Montgomery Shepherd
Isaiah Washington - Preston Burke
Chandra Wilson - Miranda Bailey

THE SOPRANOS - HBO
Sharon Angela - Rosalie Aprile
Lorraine Bracco - Dr. Jennifer Melfi
Max Casella - Benny Fazio
Dominic Chianese - Corrado “Junior” Soprano
Edie Falco Carmela - Soprano
James Gandolfini - Tony Soprano
Joseph R. Gannascoli - Vito Spatafore
Dan Grimaldi - Patsy Parisi
Robert Iler - Anthony Soprano, Jr.
Michael Imperioli - Christopher Moltisanti
Steven R. Schirripa - Bobby “Bacala” Baccalieri
Jamie Lynn Sigler - Meadow Soprano
Tony Sirico - Paulie “Walnuts” Gaultieri
Aida Turturro - Janice Soprano-Baccalieri
Steven Van Zandt - Silvio Dante
Frank Vincent - Phil Leotardo

Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series

DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES - ABC
Andrea Bowen - Julie Mayer
Mehcad Brooks - Matthew Applewhite
Ricardo Antonio Chavira - Carlos Solis
Marcia Cross - Bree Hodge
James Denton - Mike Delfino
Teri Hatcher - Susan Mayer
Josh Henderson - Austin McCann
Zane Huett - Parker Scavo
Felicity Huffman - Lynette Scavo
Kathryn Joosten - Mrs. McCluskey
Nashawn Kearse - Caleb Applewhite
Brent Kinsman - Preston Scavo
Shane Kinsman - Porter Scavo
Joy Lauren - Danielle Van De Kamp
Eva Longoria - Gabrielle Solis
Kyle MacLachlan - Orson Hodge
Laurie Metcalf - Carolyn Bigsby
Shawn Pyfrom - Andrew Van De Kamp
Doug Savant - Tom Scavo
Dougray Scott - Ian Hainsworth
Nicollette Sheridan - Edie Britt
Brenda Strong - Mary Alice Young
Kiersten Warren - Nora
Alfre Woodard - Betty Applewhite

ENTOURAGE - HBO
Kevin Connolly - Eric Murphy
Kevin Dillon - Drama
Jerry Ferrara - Turtle
Adrian Grenier - Vincent Chase
Rex Lee - Lloyd
Debi Mazar - Shauna
Jeremy Piven- Ari Gold
Perrey Reeves - Mrs. Ari

THE OFFICE - NBC
Leslie David Baker - Stanley Hudson
Brian Baumgartner - Kevin Malone
Steve Carell - Michael Scott
David Denman - Roy Anderson
Jenna Fischer - Pam Beesly
Kate Flannery - Meredith Palmer
Melora Hardin - Jan Levinson
Mindy Kaling - Kelly Kapoor
Angela Kinsey - Angela Martin
John Krasinski - Jim Malpert
Paul Lieberstein - Toby Flenderson
B.J. Novak - Ryan Howard
Oscar Nunez - Oscar Martinez
Phyllis Smith - Phyllis Lapin
Rainn Wilson - Dwight Schrute

UGLY BETTY - ABC
Alan Dale - Bradford Meade
America Ferrera - Betty Suarez
Mark Indelicato - Justin
Ashley Jensen - Christina
Eric Mabius - Daniel Meade
Becki Newton - Amanda
Ana Ortiz - Hilda
Tony Plana - Ignacio
Kevin Sussman - Walter
Michael Urie - Marc
Vanessa Williams - Wilhelmina Slater

WEEDS - SHOWTIME
Martin Donovan - Peter Scottson
Alexander Gould - Shane Botwin
Justin Kirk - Andy Botwin
Romany Malco - Conrad Shepard
Kevin Nealon - Doug Wilson
Mary-Louise Parker - Nancy Botwin
Hunter Parrish - Silas Botwin
Tonye Patano - Heylia Jones
Elizabeth Perkins- Celia Hodes

http://www.sagawards.com/PR_070104.htm

fredfa

01-26-07, 12:07 PM

TV Sports
Nantz and Faldo pairing is a first
By Jay Posner San Diego Union-Tribune January 26, 2007

There will be numerous firsts this weekend when CBS begins its golf season at the Buick Invitational:

It's the first tournament of the season for Tiger Woods, who is to his sport's TV ratings what sunshine is to San Diego real estate prices.

It's the first tournament of the year to be shown on a broadcast network.

It's the first nonmajor PGA Tour event to be shown in high definition.

And, it will mark the first time Jim Nantz and Nick Faldo work together.

“I've known him a long time but only chatted to him a few times,” Faldo said the other day inside the CBS compound at Torrey Pines South. “I'm quite excited. I mean, he's Mr. Unflappable. So that's my mission: Flap Mr. Unflappable. I'll be known as the Faldo Flapper.”

Moments earlier, near the end of a conference call that included Nantz, Faldo gave his new partner a hard time after a particularly long answer.

“My salad was getting warm, waiting for you to finish your answer,” Faldo said.

“Get used to it, pal,” Nantz joked from his home in Connecticut.

“That's quite fine by me,” Faldo said. “I just have to say six words a day and I'm done. . . . Just let him go and throw in some tidbits every now and then.”

I've got a feeling CBS is counting on Faldo to do more than that after signing him last fall to replace Lanny Wadkins as lead analyst. Faldo was impressive the past two years working at ABC, but he became available after that network was left out of the PGA Tour's new TV contract.

CBS wasn't displeased with Wadkins, but the chance to add Faldo – and Ian Baker-Finch, who also will debut this weekend – was too enticing.

“We want the best people and that's what we have always assembled as our team,” coordinating producer Lance Barrow said. “I feel like we were pretty good before. I think we're even better now.”

No one seems quite sure what to expect, which is only natural. Hopefully we'll hear the same amount of candor and humor we heard from Faldo at ABC.

“This is meant to be entertaining,” said Faldo, who also is working for The Golf Channel (which has the second round today). “The best advice was from (ABC's Mike) Tirico. He said, 'If you think it's interesting, say it.' That's very simple. I don't need to walk out the door (of the booth) and think, 'Oh, cripes, what have I done today?' I want to bounce out the door going, 'Well, that was fun. That was great. I enjoyed it, had some entertainment.' ”

In terms of controversy, Faldo probably isn't going to be NBC's Johnny Miller, but he is going to be honest.

“I have no intentions of being personal with the guys,” Faldo said. “I mean, if they hit a (bad) shot, I'm going to say it's (bad). Why not? And I explain why. And if they have a problem with that, then they have a problem. That's my attitude.”

Barrow said he just wants Faldo “to be Nick Faldo . . . and if he has an opinion about someone or something, then I expect him to give it, just like I do everybody else.”

Barrow will be working tomorrow's telecast, but Sunday he'll fly to Miami to prepare to produce his first Super Bowl. Nantz will handle play-by-play on that game for the first time, but neither wanted to miss the beginning of golf season.

“Jim and I both considered not coming here,” Barrow said. “But coming to our first golf tournament is like coming to a family reunion for us, but the only difference is we want to be at this family reunion.”

Said Nantz: “I do think that San Diego has been given the primo spot on the West Coast schedule. When you lock in the week between the (NFL) championship games and the Super Bowl and you are running unopposed to that NFL juggernaut, this is an important tournament. This is going to be a big tournament for many years to come.”

http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20070126/news_1s26media.html

fredfa

01-26-07, 12:22 PM

Yesterday’s fast national over night prime-time ratings have been posted just under the HD Football listings near the top of Ratings News the first post in this thread.

fredfa

01-26-07, 12:29 PM

Overnights in the 18-49 Demo
'Men in Trees' climbs to a ratings high
ABC dramedy averages a 3.9 in 18-49s, winning its timeslot on a night of reruns, as it shows signs of building after a modest start
By Toni Fitzgerald MediaLifeMagazine.com staff writer Jan 26, 2007

It took a few weeks, but audiences seem to be warming to “Men in Trees,” ABC’s romantic dramedy set in Alaska. Last night the Anne Heche show hit a series best in adults 18-49, building on the previous week and winning its Thursday timeslot in the demographic for the first time.

It’s still far from a hit, but it’s a promising sign for ABC, which already saw “Six Degrees” bomb in the important 10 p.m. post-“Grey’s Anatomy” timeslot earlier this season.

“Trees” averaged a 3.9 adults 18-49 rating, according to Nielsen overnights, 0.1 better than its then-record 3.8 when it debuted on Thursdays last year.

Granted, the gains against weak competition. NBC and CBS aired repeats, and “Trees” was just 0.1 ahead of the “Shark” rerun aired by the latter.

But for the show to experience growth after two months’ worth of episodes in the timeslot has to seem promising for ABC, whose strength on the night is with the women. TV Guide recently ran a feature calling “Men” the most romantic show on television, and the network has been marketing it as such, making it a much better fit on the night with the similarly themed “Ugly Betty” and “Grey’s” than “Degrees” ever was.

“Trees” is still fumbling more than half its “Grey’s” lead-in, which is never good. But ABC has promised to give the show time to find an audience in the timeslot, especially since it started off on Fridays and will take time for buzz to build for viewers coming in at midseason.

With this week’s season high in 18-49s coming a week after last week’s season best in 18-34s, there’s reason to believe that could happen.

Meanwhile, ABC continues to rule on Thursdays. “Grey’s” led the network to a first-place finish for the night among 18-49s with a 5.3 average rating and a 14 share. CBS was second at 4.6/12, NBC third at 2.7/7, Univision fourth at 1.7/5, and CW and Fox tied for fifth at 1.7/4.

Although it finished third for the night, NBC started the night in the lead with a 3.6 rating at 8 p.m. for repeats of “My Name is Earl” and “The Office.” ABC and CBS tied for second at 3.3, ABC for a repeat of “Ugly Betty” and CBS for a “CSI: Miami” rerun. That left Univision fourth with a 2.4 for “La Fea Mas Bella,” CW fifth with a 2.1 for “Smallville” and Fox sixth with a 1.9 for “Til Death” (2.0) and “The War at Home” (1.8).

ABC took the lead in a big way at 9 p.m. with an 8.8 rating for “Grey’s.” CBS was second with a season-low 6.6 for “CSI,” with NBC third with a 2.1 for repeats of “Scrubs” and “30 Rock” and Fox and Univision tied for fourth at 1.5, Fox for “The O.C.” and Univision for “Mundo de Fieras.” CW fell to sixth that hour with a 1.4 for “Supernatural.”

At 10 p.m. ABC led with a 3.9 for “Men in Trees.” CBS was a close second with a 3.8 for “Shark,” with NBC third with a 2.3 for an hour of “Office” repeats and Univision fourth with a 1.3 for “Aqui y Ahora.”

Among households, CBS led the night with a 10.1 average rating and a 16 share. ABC was second at 9.5/15, NBC third at 3.6/6, Fox fourth at 2.9/4, CW fifth at 2.5/4 and Univision sixth at 2.2/3.

http://www.medialifemagazine.com/artman/publish/article_9794.asp

fredfa

01-26-07, 12:33 PM

Washington Notebook
FCC to Feel Unfamiliar Heat From Democrats
By Charles Babington Washington Post Staff Writer Friday, January 26, 2007

As congressional Democrats prepare to give the Federal Communications Commission its toughest scrutiny in years, a rivalry between the powerful agency's two most prominent Republicans is raising questions about its readiness to handle barbed questions and stiff challenges.

The Republican-controlled FCC -- which makes far-reaching decisions on telephone, television, radio, Internet and other services that people use daily -- has sparred infrequently with Republican-controlled congresses. But the Democratic-run 110th Congress is about to heat up the grill, starting with a Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee hearing on Thursday.

Senators vow to press the chairman and four commissioners on matters such as media-ownership diversity, Internet access, broadcast decency standards and delays in resolving various issues. The hearing may cover the waterfront, Democratic staff members say, but there's little doubt that the agency will face a tone of questioning unseen in recent years.

"They've effectively emasculated any public-interest standards that existed" for radio and TV stations, said Sen. Byron L. Dorgan (D-N.D.), a committee member who plans sharp questions on decency, media consolidation and other topics. "The entire Congress for years now has been devoid of any kind of oversight," he said, and the new Democratic majority is launching a process that will force the FCC to "beat a path to Capitol Hill to respond."

Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), a senior House Commerce Committee member, said he plans "comprehensive hearings on net neutrality" later this year. The term refers to measures barring telephone and cable service providers from charging Web-based companies for priority access to the Internet. Markey supports such proposals, while the FCC's Republican members generally oppose them.

FCC Chairman Kevin J. Martin, a Republican with close ties to the Bush administration, will be the focus of Democrats' criticisms. But some industry analysts think those lawmakers may try to find an ally in Commissioner Robert M. McDowell, another young Republican loyalist with a reputation for intelligence and political ambition. The two have clashed on at least three significant issues in the past several months, creating what some see as a rift that could be ripe for exploitation.

"McDowell has been critical of Kevin Martin on a number of occasions," said industry analyst Blair Levin. Although both men are conservative Republicans, Levin said, their independence is partly explained by their different political bases -- Martin's in the Bush administration, McDowell's in Congress.

In the legal, lobbying and industrial circles that monitor the FCC, opinions vary on the severity of the Martin-McDowell rivalry.

Publicly, the two men have played down their differences and said they have a good working relationship. "The chairman and I have been friends for more than a decade," McDowell, 43, said in an interview. "We have a strong and durable relationship. . . . We will still have some differences, but we work together."

A spokeswoman for Martin, Tamara Lipper, said the two men "have a very good relationship."

The FCC's commissioners -- currently three Republicans and two Democrats -- are appointed by the president, confirmed by the Senate, and allowed to operate largely independently of each other. Intra-agency and intra-party feuds are not uncommon, and many analysts noted that Martin clashed with former chairman and fellow Republican Michael K. Powell.

"When Michael Powell was FCC chairman, Kevin Martin was viewed as the maverick Republican," said Philip J. Weiser, a law professor at the University of Colorado who specializes in telecommunications. "And now he has to deal with his own maverick Republican."

Martin, 40, and McDowell clashed even before McDowell arrived at the FCC in June. McDowell handed Martin a stinging setback by saying the FCC had no authority to require cable companies to carry additional digital broadcast channels, a key industry issue that Martin hoped to bring to a vote.

The two subsequently tangled on other issues, most notably the $85 billion merger between AT&T and BellSouth approved by the FCC last month. Martin needed McDowell's vote to break a deadlock. But McDowell effectively held the process up, insisting that he could not take part in a vote because he previously worked as a lobbyist for an association representing companies that competed against AT&T and BellSouth.

McDowell's sharp criticism of arguments in favor of a full commission vote were widely regarded as a rebuke of Martin. Ultimately, the merger was approved, but only after the companies made concessions sought by the two Democratic commissioners.

Martin, McDowell and their colleagues may need all the camaraderie and cohesion they can muster at next week's hearing. With Democrats now in control of Congress, Dorgan said, "the running room of the FCC is going to be limited."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/25/AR2007012501736_pf.html

HDTVChallenged

01-26-07, 12:34 PM

Hopefully to tie the ribbon on this, as a broadcaster, I can say we in the industry HAVE NO PROBLEM with you NOT paying us if you, as the end consumer, receives our signal OTA for free. Where we DO HAVE THE PROBLEM, and I can say it ISN'T with the end user, but with the MIDDLE MAN, who is making money from you on our product and we get NOTHING. .

Rubbish,

'We intend to get paid for our content.'

- Les Moonves, pres/CEO/BigGiantHead CBS Corp.

It's pretty clear that broadcast wants to use the backdoor since they can't charge the viewer directly. It's also clear that neither Cable/DBS nor Broadcasters have any intention of "divorcing" over retransmission, that would be killing the golden goose. This is just a big giant show for "the public benefit."

"Broadcast" is well aware that "Cable" is only going to pass the "cost" directly onto the end consumer. Don't try to sell us the Brooklyn Bridge here.

fredfa

01-26-07, 01:13 PM

TV Q&A
Ask Matt
(from the Ask Matt column at TVGuide.com
By Matt Roush: TVGuide.com TV Critic Friday, January 26, 2007

Question: As a lifelong comic-book fan, I take serious issue with Janis M.'s assertion in the recent discussion of Heroes that "power implies control," and that Niki must somehow be in control of her power in order for it to count. Most of the heroes are modeled after comic-book staples. Claire has Wolverine's healing factor, D.L. has Kitty Pride's phase-shifting, and Peter's powers resemble those of the more obscure X-Man Mimic. Niki harkens back to the Hulk, who is basically split between two personalities, the powerless Bruce Banner and the raging and extraordinarily powerful (though nearly uncontrollable) Hulk. I don't think anyone would argue that the Hulk did not have a power or was in some way a lesser superhero simply because he could not control his alter ego.

This all brings up a larger issue for me: Heroes has all been done before, and better. I like the show, and I'm thrilled that it's getting positive ratings. This can only be good for the future of comics. I'm just a little perturbed that everyone seems to think it's such a bold new direction for serialized storytelling. To paraphrase my favorite comics author Brian K. Vaughan, Buffy felt like a TV show done by a comics fan. Heroes feels like a TV producer trying to make a comic. Again, I like the show. I just don't love it as much as everyone else does, mostly because it only hints at the greatness of some classic comics that have told remarkably similar stories.— Dan

Matt Roush: Are we ever on the same page about this show? And I'm not nearly as grounded in the world of comics as Dan is. The Buffy analogy is a good one, because the one thing I don't feel Heroes is endowed with is inspired genius. Add to that a breathless obviousness in the writing, and the wildly uneven performances and tone, and you've got a show that, though I believe is overrated (including by fellow critics), I'm also glad has found a large audience. And I believe it is heading toward better things.

I also agree with Karen L., who chimed in with these thoughts about Heroes and the concept of power. "Last week, Janis M. mentioned Niki's superpower being more of a curse than a power. One of the things I like best about the show is that the powers can be a curse or a blessing, depending on the individual. These people didn't ask if they wanted a power, nor did they get to choose what power they wanted. I also like the fact that these powers seemed to appear out of nowhere, leaving the individual to have to deal with the shock of his/her ability. I fell in love with the show when Hiro showed such joy at discovering his ability. Claire hid her power while trying to figure out and document its limits. Nathan wanted to pretend that he's normal, and the power doesn't exist. Niki is scared of it. Sylar lusts for everybody's power and is willing to kill to get it. Whether the power is good or bad, right or wrong depends on the individual who has it and how he chooses to use it. That doesn't make it any more or less powerful."

Question: You've recently had several questions regarding Heroes and how the characters feel about their powers, especially Niki. I completely agree with your assessment that the heroes are learning, and some are more comfortable than others with their abilities. I imagine that Christopher Eccleston's character will bring a new outlook. I've read on TVGuide.com that he has had his powers for a while and is comfortable with them and with who he is. Do you see his character influencing the characters he meets? Does he help them become more aware or more comfortable, possibly even proud? Also, are you looking forward to this amazing British actor joining the cast? I am.— Andrea B.

Matt Roush: All of your questions/theories are good ones, and I hope they come to pass as Claude makes his presence known to the other heroes, although I'm also hoping that there will always be some ambivalence among the heroes — that makes good drama. I enjoyed Christopher Eccleston as Doctor Who (and in the sensational horror film 28 Days Later), so I am more than happy to see another seasoned actor join a cast that could use a few.

Question: Is 24 addicted to controversial plot twists, or what? Last season we had the polarizing "Logan is evil" twist, and now this Graham shocker. What are your feelings about these "family" developments? I am in a wait-and-see mode. It could be brilliant, or it could be horrible. I was skeptical with the Logan story line, and they proved me very wrong, so I'm hoping for the best. If they play it like they did on Monday night, I think we're in for a roller-coaster ride, but if they get too soapy on us, then the cougars may pounce. Either way, that reveal with Graham in the car was one of the biggest jaw-dropping moments this show has ever pulled.— Michael M.

Matt Roush: I'm with you. I loved the twist, and am going to wait and see before making the sort of knee-jerk judgment call I'm sure is going on within the so-called "fan" communities. What I most loved about the twist is how the reveal was dropped in the middle of the episode, not saved for a last-second cliff-hanger, as a lesser or more conventional show might have done. The twist was sensational, the choice of actor was inspired (Paul McCrane is such a great villain), and opening up a window into Jack's estrangement from his family is legitimate dramatic territory. Every show has some soap opera in it, and 24 is no different. (What I could do without are the scenes between Morris and Chloe. Ick.) There are dangers inherent in this Bauer-family story line as well, but that's as it should be. If 24 had played it safe, we'd bitch about that, too. You just can't please everyone when it comes to this show, and it's simply too soon in the season for the negatives to outweigh the positives. The only way this is going to be a detriment to the season is if the family stuff gums up the action, rather than advancing and intensifying it. Let's hope for the best, OK?

Question: Love your column! (And I don't think you're sexist!) I'm sure you'll get lots of comments about T.R. Knight's performance on Grey's Anatomy on Jan. 18. Amazing! I know it's early, but do you think he'll get nominated for an Emmy this year?— Leeta

Matt Roush: Honestly (or should I say seriously? I think I'll give that one a rest now), isn't it enough just to shower the guy with praise? Waiting for reinforcement from the Emmy voters is like Charlie Brown expecting Lucy to keep the football on the ground. But it would be great if T.R. was singled out this year from the ensemble. He certainly deserved it after that performance when his father slipped away, with the family (and George's friends and coworkers) gathered around. Tremendously moving, and Knight's performance was so delicately calibrated, you can really see his theatrical training pay off in every subtle yet deeply felt moment.

Question: Regarding the Grey's Anatomy controversy surrounding Isaiah Washington: I find his attitude and lack of sensitivity to be distressing and vile. His callousness and obvious lack of understanding are offensive, and he just makes himself look like a fool. It makes sense that ABC and Shonda Rhimes could be looking to remove him from the show. I would understand that and could support it. But here is my problem: Selfishly, I love the Burke character. I think he is fascinating, and Washington does a tremendous job portraying him. I think the show would take a real hit losing that character. I'm not saying it couldn't or wouldn't recover, but it would take a hit. At the same time, I am afraid that for a while it will be hard to separate Burke from my views of Isaiah Washington. We should be able to separate our personal views of actors from their characters, but the bottom line is that it is often very hard to do so (Example 1: Tom Cruise's demise at the box office). The George-Burke relationship has been my favorite relationship on the show for a while. Some of my favorite moments last season were when George moved in with Burke and Cristina, and they became buddies. Last week's scene with Burke explaining to George that he needed to have faith was touching and wonderful. But a part of me felt very uncomfortable watching it, knowing the actors' history, and it took away from the magic of the scene. Your thoughts?— Ed

Matt Roush: Thank you for couching the question in a way that allows me to address this unhappy situation through the show and not merely as gossip. I agree. Watching last Thursday's episode, I was very moved by that Burke-George scene, but given the events of the week (T.R. Knight's warmly received appearance on Ellen DeGeneres' show the day before, the continuing fallout over Washington's Golden Globes meltdown), it wasn't easy to separate the two. If the events of this week, during which Washington met with gay leaders, lead to a more public and sustained show of regret over his actions, maybe the show and ABC can put this behind them. It won't be easy, and I'll accept whatever happens (without trying to predict).

What Washington did and said are inexcusable, but perhaps not ultimately unforgivable, depending on what comes next and how genuine and public he is about it. No one involved probably wants Burke or the actor to be written out under this cloud, but it also couldn't be allowed to carry on without addressing it, especially after the Globes outburst and its aftermath. If there's an upside to any of this, it would be a newly dawning mass cultural awareness that the anti-gay slur Washington used is every bit as damaging and unacceptable a hate word and as much a sign of toxic bigotry as the N-word. It's too bad it takes something like this to get it addressed in the public consciousness, but it's not like this is the only hurdle America's gay population faces these days.

Question: Why is it still OK to gay-bash in America? Mel Gibson and Michael Richards got the wrath of everyone for their racist remarks, as they well should have. But Grey's Anatomy's Isaiah Washington can call T.R. Knight the F-word and those in charge are snowing it over. I think he should be fired, but the character of Dr. Burke should stay. Why can't prime-time shows take a page from soaps? When an actor leaves a role, they don't lose the character but hire a new actor. We're smart viewers, we get it. Fire Washington and replace him with, say, Taye Diggs. Now that Day Break is off the air, I'd love to see him back on TV.— Sharon H.

Matt Roush: Oh, wouldn't Taye Diggs fit right into this show? (Too bad Ellen already coined "McYummy" for T.R. Knight. I can only imagine what nickname the Grey's writers would give this matinee idol.) Not to disparage the world of soaps, but we're in a different prime-time environment these days. TV and its audience have grown up a bit from a time when you could switch your Miss Ellie (disastrously, as it turned out), or give Steven Carrington a new face, or give Fallon a new body and personality (again, not exactly an improvement), and so on. Grey's has its soapy elements, but it's also part of a new golden age of TV drama, where we can take the characters a bit more seriously, as well as respect the actors who created these roles indelibly, and not render them interchangeable. If it's determined that dropping Isaiah Washington is in the best interest of Grey's Anatomy, then Burke should also be history. He's not exactly James Bond (which they finally got right in Casino Royale, to go off on a tangent). I do agree with you that we're all smart enough to "get it" if they were to recast the role. But that doesn't mean it's the right thing to do.

Question: Regarding the announcement that the producers of Lost are thinking about the endpoint of the show, I was wondering what effect, if any, it will have on the ratings and number of viewers. If people think that we are closer to the end of Lost than the beginning, will they expect answers to come more quickly and maybe tune in more often once the show returns? Also, if Lost does change to a 24-like schedule next season, is it too late for them to gain back viewers they have lost over the last couple of seasons?— David

Matt Roush: I'm not sure Lost will ever achieve the meganumbers of its earliest days again, maybe not until the eventual grand finale, and perhaps not even then. It's still a hit, a bigger hit than I (or almost anyone else) would have imagined, but the longer it goes, the more it asks of people, and the less willing many are to go along for the ride. Their loss. I do think the producers' decision to announce a timetable for the endgame is a calculated ploy to woo back as many as possible with a promise of resolution, and (one presumes) a stronger narrative flow. If ABC does present Lost's next season in an uninterrupted schedule, as it promised, that would give the network the chance to promote it as an "event," the way Fox does 24, and we've seen how well that works. I think both developments are positives for Lost. But do I think that will translate to a significant spurt in ratings? Probably not.

Question: A lot of us in the Lost community are discussing other options for the Season 4 scheduling of Lost. Many of us do not like the idea of a 24-style, consecutive, 22-episode season starting in January. We would like to explore the option of a seven-eight-seven schedule (seven episodes, break, eight episodes, break, seven episodes) from September or October through May. That way, the show would be able to hit all three sweeps periods. We would not want each chunk of episodes to be formed like a miniseries, because that format really did not go over well with the fans this past fall. The other option we would like explored is 11 or 12 episodes and then a break and then another 11 or 12 episodes. This would potentially miss the February-sweeps period, but since Lost skipped it last year anyway, because of the Olympics and American Idol, maybe that's not such a big deal. We know from Heroes that a show can run 11 episodes in a row, starting early in the fall, without repeats. Hopefully the producers and Steve McPherson will consider these options, instead of just opting for what seems like the predestined choice to go with 24's schedule.— Laura

Matt Roush: I'm assuming the main problem you have with a nonstop 24-like schedule — because you don't really articulate your beef with this idea — is the long wait between seasons. I don't buy the option you describe because it doesn't address what ABC will do in these undefined "breaks," which are a logistical nightmare for the network. Of course, that isn't a problem for the obsessives who live in Lost "communities" and who may not realize that ABC doesn't revolve around Lost. Yes, the show absolutely did help propel the network (along with Desperate Housewives) into its current high-profile status, but it's only one part of a complicated schedule. For me, the reason Lost would benefit from airing start to finish without a break, even if that means delaying the premiere until the new calendar year, is all about momentum. The writers could go all out without having to insert artificial spikes in the storytelling, and I'd like to see what Lost would do under those circumstances. I do agree, though, that doing a miniseries "pod" within the season doesn't work. We found that out last October-November.

Question: Your recent comments on Gilmore Girls just confirmed fears I've had for a long time, that the show has deteriorated from a show about family to a show about romantic relationships. In the past, the romantic relationships were there to enhance the family relationships, but I think the romantic relationships started inching to the forefront in Season 2 when Rory's Dean-Jess dilemma started. They need to get back to the core characters, the Gilmores. I would rather see a show focusing on Lorelai, Rory, Emily and Richard. I thought the Lorelai-Rory split and later reconciliation had so much material wealth in terms of how the Gilmores' relationships shifted, but instead of focusing on that and expanding on the relationship between Lorelai and Emily after the scene in the airplane, the show got into the ridiculousness of the long-lost daughter and Luke, Luke, Luke — who should at best be a secondary character.— C.S.

Matt Roush: And here we begin the Gilmore Girls section of this column, which, as regular readers know, has become a rather contentious topic of late. I saved it to the end, to spare those who no longer care so passionately. I agree with the above point, that the best part of Gilmore Girls was always the multigenerational family dynamic, and that has certainly been sacrificed on the altar of many less-satisfying soap-operatic twists the last few seasons.

And now, one of the many reactions to a recent exchange that gave me grief for my Gilmore criticisms:

Question: "You bring a lot of sexist and classist prejudice to this, don't you?" Wow, I think somebody needs a nap. This is the kind of humorless overreaction that has turned "feminism" into an "F-word" for so many people. (And I proudly consider myself a feminist.) I think this is less about you bringing "sexist and classist prejudice" and more about Sandy projecting her own issues on you. While I still enjoy the diminished Gilmore Girls more than you do, I feel the need to defend your stance on the Rory-Logan relationship. Though I appreciate the way the show has allowed Logan to grow somewhat, I would completely respect Rory if she decided to walk away at the end. She's in her early twenties. Deciding not to stay with someone who might not be right for her doesn't mean she'll be alone at 40 (not that that's necessarily the worst thing in the world, either). I think that, rather than accusing you of insinuating that women "can't have it all," Sandy seems to be insinuating that if a woman hasn't earned her "MRS" degree by the time she finishes college, she's destined for spinsterhood. If you'd like to avoid being offensive, I'll go ahead and do it for you: Sandy, lighten the [Insert expletive here] up!— Julie C.

Matt Roush: Whoa, I'm not about to get in the middle of a catfight here. But I would like to say that Julie is on to something. When I earlier noted that I wouldn't mind if Rory ended the series on her own, that didn't imply a downbeat ending for her or the character. Anything but. The world is Rory's oyster (or, given her culinary tastes, her oyster cracker), and I think the series could make the idea of a new millennium "That Girl" hitting the trail a very optimistic one.

Anyway, I'm printing the next response from Allison because of its inspired punch line:

"I did not watch most of last season, and I have only watched a couple of episodes this season. I still love Lauren Graham as an actress, I still think Lorelai and Luke had the best chemistry, and I still enjoy all the wonderful episodes I have on DVD from Seasons 1 through 5. I prefer not to complicate that enjoyment with the current season. I also did not watch the last two seasons of The X-Files, even though I am a huge fan of the show. It really is OK to let something go if you're not happy with it. In some ways, I think shows like Angel and Everwood had it the best. They died of a quick heart attack in bed rather than a long, slow fight with cancer."

And this from Erin:

"Whoa! What part of TV 'critic' don't people understand? Your job is to call 'em like you see 'em, and I think it's rather nice of you that you list your e-mail address at all, much less publish the responses of people who so violently disagree with you. My problem with Rory isn't so much the 'kept woman' thing or even Logan (whom I can't help but despise), but that the woman we see now bears little resemblance to the girl we watched grow up. I have been watching the reruns of Gilmore Girls on ABC Family, and Rory as a girl was hypersensitive to everyone's feelings around her. The last thing she'd want to do would be to upset the apple cart. Rory as a woman is blind to everyone's feelings except her own. I am all for character change and development, especially as Rory went to college. But while girl Rory was a role model of sorts, woman Rory embarrasses me, especially when reflected against what she once was. (And wouldn't it be great if someone — her mother, Paris, her old headmaster — actually let her know that she hasn't lived up to her potential?) Maybe the writers and producers say the changes in Rory are realistic, but when did we ever turn to Stars Hollow for realism? Thanks for your insights, and just take everything we armchair TV critics say with a grain of salt."
I should note here that I got a number of e-mails of positive reinforcement after that particular column. It was gratifying, but made me worry I had made myself look like a "victim," which is hardly the case or the issue. I tend to enjoy the debate, even when it gets heated, and tried in this case to react tongue in cheek to the "sexist" comment, which I admit did sting a bit. (Although when I opened up another e-mail calling me "self-important" and "condescending" in the way I'd answered Sandy, I had to sigh.)

And finally (I promise), we'll close the discussion for now with these thoughtful (and lengthy) musings from Jen:

"Your response to Melissa about Gilmore Girls was so eloquent and dead-on, it was completely heartening to know that I'm not alone in hating who Rory has become. I've been watching the reruns from Seasons 2 and 3, and I have two thoughts that I wanted to get your opinion on.
1) It seems that Rory and Lorelai have negated the show's premise in recent years, having both ended up with rich, privileged, spoiled men (Logan and Christopher). In the beginning, the Gilmore girls were considered independent and did not bask in the realm of the wealthy. Despite the fact that they clearly had access to wealth through Emily and Richard and despite the fact that Rory hung out with the privileged at Chilton, both of the Gilmores refreshingly remained on the sidelines (their humble Stars Hollow home, dating Dean, dating Jess, running a quaint B&B, struggling with finances). That premise has been shattered with the reverence for the pretentious Light Brigade members, Christopher's newfound wealth, running off to Paris and paying the restaurant to open, etc. There's so much adulation and flaunting of wealth and no commentary from the Gilmores that I can't help but think they are enjoying it.

2) Rory's charming original character has evolved in ways I don't think are natural. I've tried to see that possibly the first few seasons were meant to be Rory's naive years and that now she has supposedly grown up. But that doesn't work. I don't see what the point has been to destroy Rory's character — to have her stay as a kept woman with Logan, to drop out of school (I'm still screaming "What were they thinking?"), to neglect developing her likes and dislikes at college, etc. Perhaps dabbling with a rich boyfriend was inevitable at some point, but it just doesn't ring true that we've had to endure seasons with this guy. The old Rory would have seen through this rich boy's pretentious behavior. (I'm not saying she has to end up with a "poor" man, either — just someone who is her intellectual equal.) I don't think "ending up single" is a euphemism for sexism. I think the vast majority of woman college graduates today head off into the real world, their first job, their first apartment, as single, strong-minded, independent women. This should be the only ending possible for the sweet, book-smart daughter of headstrong Lorelai we met years ago. But I fear the worse, too — that after all this, I'll be left remembering the whimpering, whiny ninny Rory has become.
PS. Clearly, I need to go lighten up now and get a life."

Matt Roush: So do we all. See you again on Monday.

http://www.tvguide.com/News-Views/Columnists/Ask-Matt/Default.aspx#01heroes

Reagan

01-26-07, 01:22 PM

My two cents on this cable retrans issue...

If I was a broadcaster, I would love it if a viewer dropped cable and watched OTA only. Now I only have to compete against the other 7 or so local channels instead of the 30 to 40 channels that most cable companies offer.

-Reagan

HDTVChallenged

01-26-07, 01:32 PM

My two cents on this cable retrans issue...

If I was a broadcaster, I would love it if a viewer dropped cable and watched OTA only.

Oh sure, but that's not likely to happen in any meaningful (i.e. mass exodus) way, and all parties involved are well aware of that.

When DBS was force to take away my "locals" for an extended period (years), I did *not* drop my satellite provider ... I did put up an attic antenna, which didn't work so well ... I did wind up ignoring the big 4. I watched a whole lot more of "basic cable" fare during "the dark ages." Of course, at the time I mostly worked 3pm-1am hours, so it was easy for me. :D

homcom

01-26-07, 01:33 PM

TV Sports
Nantz and Faldo pairing is a first
By Jay Posner San Diego Union-Tribune January 26, 2007

It's the first nonmajor PGA Tour event to be shown in high definition.

Not exactly high quality reporting, there have been plenty of nonmajors in HD over the past few years.

fredfa

01-26-07, 01:57 PM

Jay is not the best at checking his facts, though I liked his look at the new CBS golf team.

I should have edited that HD reference out to save him embarrassment.

fredfa

01-26-07, 02:11 PM

Critics Notebook
“The Dresden Files”
The Trouble With Harry
By Aaron Barnhart Kansas City Star in his blog “TV Barn” January 26, 2007

For months, readers have been advising me that Independence author Jim Butcher's popular Harry Dresden novels were coming to the small screen, thanks to the SciFi Channel and Nicolas Cage's production company. Now that the series has arrived -- the first two episodes air at 8 and 9 PM ET Sunday on SciFi -- well, color me confused. Who exactly is this TV show for, anyway?

Is it for the hardcore fans of Butcher's books about a wizard-detective who solves the cases the cops can't crack? If so, then it is clear that many Dresdenphiles are disappointed with what they saw when the first episode aired last week.

“He's pretty much been made everything he's NOT,” one fan posted about the TV version of Harry at the Jim-Butcher.com bulletin board. “I'll keep watching, but it's not nearly as great as it could have been.”

Or was it meant for a wider audience, fandom be damned? Well, then those viewers are going to feel let down, too, compared to earlier SciFi programs (“Eureka,” “Battlestar Galactica,” “The Lost Room”). The first episode of “Dresden Files” was a mess, frankly, not to mention a tad bewildering. Had I not done some journalistic boning up on this Harry Dresden fellow, I would have been totally lost.

Son of a magician, Dresden is the only wizard listed in the Chicago phonebook, a fact cleverly revealed in the show's minimalist opening. Harry (played by Paul Blackthorne, whom you may recognize as a baddie from season three of “24”) solves crimes that are too tough for the CSIs, drawing upon a vast knowledge of ancient spells and hoodoo, and if that's not “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” enough for you, he draws upon an older British mentor for help, a sardonic ghost named Bob (Terrence Mann), who lives with Harry for reasons not yet explained to viewers.

Harry is often called onto cases handled by Lt. Connie Murphy (Valerie Cruz), a Chicago cop. That's another mystery: Does Murphy believe this guy is in touch with the supernatural, and if not, why does she keep requesting his help and letting him compromise sensitive crime investigations?

I was also curious to know why Harry drives around Chicago in a Jeep that looks like it was stolen off the set of “M*A*S*H.” There's a great answer -- his wizardly powers are so potent that they would instantly fry the innards of today's computerized cars -- but it wasn't until I talked with Butcher earlier this month that I learned this.

In our conversation, and in “Butcher Block” podcasts taped by his friend Fred Hicks, Butcher expressed his enthusiasm for SciFi's adaptation of his series. He acknowledged that numerous changes were made, but he said the producers of the TV series made them in consultation with him and in the same spirit in which Harry and the gang were originally conceived. Butcher has sat in on taping of the show in Toronto and is taking part in some of the show promotion.

SciFi seems to have thought through the marketing of “The Dresden Files,” giving it decent publicity and a killer time slot, leading into the most talked-about show on the network, “Battlestar Galactica,” which moved from Fridays to Sundays to give “Dresden” a boost.

But the first episode shows classic signs of having come through a different butcher, the kind who grinds sausage. It is not the original pilot, which was supposed to be two hours long and based on Butcher's first Dresden novel, Storm Front, published in 2000. Rather, this hour looks more like a midseason episode. Besides the character of Bob, one person on the Jim-Butcher.com fan board noted that the episode introduces “Susan, Murphy, the High Council, a High Council associate of Harry's (that they promptly kill off), Harry's father, Harry's mother's tragic death … and that Harry is a less powerful wizard than he might be. The episode is freaking PACKED.”

The second hour, by contrast, is given a little more air to breathe, so I would recommend watching them both together tonight. (They'll air again next week, when SciFi sticks with reruns opposite the Super Bowl.) This episode is just a good old-fashioned ghost story with some intriguing twists.

SciFi must be thrilled with the ratings for the first “Dresden Files,” which were a third higher than its usual Sunday-night fare. Even if it's creatively not firing on all cylinders, the network will likely be patient with the show, because it's a genre cable channel and can afford to let it develop and make Dresdenphiles out of us all.

http://blogs.kansascity.com/tvbarn/2007/01/the_trouble_wit.html#more

fredfa

01-26-07, 02:16 PM

Critics Notebook
“King of the Hill,”
kept alive by Fox, is in its prime. Long live the king
By Tim Goodman San Francisco Chronicle Television Critic Friday, January 26, 2007

It happens to every long-running show on television, no matter how great the past may have been. In the present, you're taken for granted.

Such was the fate of "King of the Hill," the second-longest-running animated series on television (behind "The Simpsons," another show to periodically suffer from lack of respect and media attention). What happened to Hank Hill and friends was a sad little story about the vagaries of television. After celebrating 10 seasons on the air -- marred near the end by football pre-emptions and less than vigorous promotion by Fox -- "King of the Hill" was going to be shut down. A decade of subtle but piercing comedy going out with a whimper.

No doubt Fox thought that some of its newer, nonanimated sitcoms -- most of them dreadful in that they all preened and jumped up and down for laughs -- were going to take off. They didn't.

But in that "final" season, "King of the Hill" gained new life. Its loyal audience showed up every week desperately looking for it. And Fox, no stranger to shutting down then firing back up its animated series ("Family Guy," "Futurama"), realized that what it had was probably better than anything it was going to create from scratch, so the network told everybody involved with the show to get back to work.

And we are all the better for that. "King of the Hill" starts its 11th season on Sunday, this time in the 8:30 p.m. time slot after "The Simpsons" (and far enough away from Fox's asinine "The War at Home"). In "The Simpsons," "King of the Hill" and "Family Guy," Fox has three disparately dysfunctional families. "King of the Hill" is by far the most subtle, the animated series that resists the easy urges of its genre to make everything hyper-ridiculous just because it can (cartoons not being subject to budget constraints, endangering actors or any of the normal storytelling rules).

In fact, "King of the Hill" has always been a classically smart, wry, sometimes sentimental take on family and friends that seems to relish not being absurd. The series lets the writing, for the most part, tell the story. No flights of creative fancy, no over-the-top flashbacks to hammer home a punch line, no boundary-free animation high jinks. "King of the Hill" is mostly static -- a series that could almost, but not quite, be duplicated with three-dimensional actors without missing a beat.

Created by Mike Judge ("Beavis and Butt-head") and Greg Daniels ("The Office"), the series revolves around Hank Hill, an upstanding American who follows the law to the letter, believes in God and country and old-fashioned values and, in the end, somehow suffers because of all of that. The beauty of Hank is that, proud propane salesman from (fictional) Arlen, Texas, that he is, he is not some liberal, coastal version of what a Texas Republican who loves beer, God, football and his family (not necessarily in that order) might be. Hank is just a good guy. He may not be fully evolved; he is often on the, uh, Arlen side of political correctness. But he tries. He realizes that for most of his life, he's been a peg of a different shape. All he wants, ultimately, is for his family to be happy.

This allows Judge (who also supplies the voice) to skewer both sides, of course. It's a sly conceit that makes "King of the Hill" appeal to all kinds of people. Hank doesn't understand gay people or shopping or talking out loud about your feelings, but he's sweet about those shortcomings, and Judge and the writers effortlessly eviscerate all sides (of any issue) by making Hank so understandable (and lovable).

Hank's wife, Peggy (Kathy Najimy), is as reliable as a sturdy clock. She's not flashy or mean, but neither is she always sensible, though she is forever trying to expand her horizons outside of Arlen. Sometimes this means being a substitute Spanish teacher who doesn't really speak the language. Sometimes it means pampering her tubby but sweet son Bobby (Pamela Adlon) when what he really needs is some of Hank's old-school tough love.

When the propane business, his family, life in Arlen, parenting or even his own abusive, awful father, Colt Hill, gets Hank down, he can always turn to his three best friends, each as hilariously unhelpful and odd as the next. There's Dale (Johnny Hardwick), an exterminator and relentless conspiracy theorist who believes something strange is going on, though he's the only one who can't see that his wife had a 14-year affair with John Redcorn (Jonathan Joss), an American Indian who clearly fathered Dale's son, Joseph; Bill (Stephen Root), a painfully lonely, clinically depressed, impressively odd (and vulnerable) Army barber; and Boomhauer (Judge, again), the babbling (can't hear much of what he says, which sounds patently stupid or shockingly brilliant, depending) ladies' man who likes his cars muscular and his rock hard.

What makes this collection of oddball Arlen folk work is that Judge and his writers always reveal the humanity in each character. And the absurdity. It truly is the small things that make you laugh the hardest (and most frequently) in this show, because it is so wonderfully nuanced.

For example, Hank and Peggy only have one child because, well, Hank's got "a narrow urethra." And instead of taking a sledgehammer to the whole Southern thing, Judge (who grew up in Texas and lovingly spoofs it throughout) tends to opt for something like Bobby going to Tom Landry Middle School.

There is a sweetness to the skewering, an impressive balance between gigantic, opposing targets and a sense of Americana that is at once ironic and heartfelt.

The real genius of "King of the Hill" is the studied nuance in the storytelling, the aforementioned shunning of freewheeling animation quirks.

"King of the Hill" is a family sitcom executed with depth, honesty and a sweet sense of humor. That it's also a cartoon is both a formality and a bonus. That it's back in business should make your eyes bug out in stunned appreciation at the whimsical nature of television programming.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/01/26/DDGF2NOE3J1.DTL

humdinger70

01-26-07, 02:33 PM

The thing is that money rules.

Sooner or later (and sooner than you might think!) the MLB World Series, the Super Bowl, NHL Stanley Cup Finals, NBA Finals, College World Series...they'll all go pay-per-view!

You'll get to watch the run-up to the championship on free networks, but if you want to watch the ultimate event (the championship itself), you'll have to fork over lotsa coin.

And many people will do so and will do so willingly (cost of living and what not).

fredfa

01-26-07, 02:40 PM

Critics Notebook
Random TV Thoughts
By Kevin D. Thompson Palm Beach Post Television Writer January 26, 2007

• Someone should force Grey's Anatomy's Isiah Washington to keep his trap shut. For a long time. That same someone should also make him to sit through every Barbra Streisand musical ever made with a group of gay men. Shame on you, Isiah. You should know better. Next time keep your homphobic coments to yourself.

• Is it just me, or does touchy-feely David Gregory have more chemistry with Meredith Viera than Matt Lauer on Today?

• Why aren't more people watching Friday Night Lights? It's not just a football show, people. Check it out.

• The Knights of Prosperity has TV's coolest theme song. Gotta love a Shaft-inspired theme song that gives props to Isaac Hayes.

• I love 24, but don't love Wayne Palmer as the president. He's too good-looking. He has a goatee. He's bald. He's a wimp.

• 30 Rock has quickly become one of TV's funniest comedies.

• NBC's Thursday night comedy block is just as good, if not better, than the The Cosby Show, Cheers and Seinfeld days.

• I liked the first several episodes of Men in Trees. Then it fell off my radar because, well, I got caught up watching 479 other shows. My point is, I'm gonna catch up with this charming dramedy in reruns. Anne Heche is so cute.

• Why is Cops still on?

• The Apprentice is no longer fun to watch. The only reason I'm checking out the lame Los Angeles edition is because there's a local Wellington gal on it. Hey, it's my job.

• VH1's ghetto-fabulous dating show I Love New York is breaking ratings records for the cable channel. What does that say about viewer taste? Not much.

• I came in on the middle of Wednesday's American Idol. My first thought when I tuned in: Why is Joan Collins one of the judges? My bad. That was Carole Bayer Sager.

• The "Two A------" characters on Saturday Night Live who affectionately refer to each other as "beb" make me loose it every time. "I want a baby with eyeballs," the dim-bulb, gum-smacking chick told the guy at an adoption agency in last week's hilarious sketch.

• April 8: That's when The Sopranos and Entourage return. Can't wait.

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/blogs/content/shared-blogs/palmbeach/thompson/entries/2007/01/random_tv_thoug_1.html

fredfa

01-26-07, 02:51 PM

If you are having withdrawals from all the posts from Pasadena during the TV Critics Association Winter Tour which ended last week, here is one final look back….
TV Critics Winter Tour Notebook
Party Report
By Roger Catlin Hartford Courant TV Critic in his “TV Eye” blog January 26, 2007

I suppose it sounds glamorous, jetting off to Southern California a couple times a year to receive news of the TV world, meet its producers and many stars, step on the sets where the very shows are made.

But the pace of the TV critics press tour – even the shorter winter version – is relentless, with scores of press conferences, a dozen parties, a half dozen more after parties and a handful of set visits.

All work related mind you. Stars snub you, network executives flee, there are myriad daily humiliations (reporters fighting eachother to ask questions for one thing) and the same food day in and day out.

This time, it also got cold and scores of people got sick.

If we act like legionnaires with our nametags and cocktail parties, I suppose it’s fitting we got something akin to legionnaire’s disease. But it was actually two virulent strains of illness – one a flu that mowed down a dozen people and sent at least one straight home, the other a raging cold that combined sore throat, runny nose, coughs, aches and fever. It rather sapped your enthusiasm for the latest David Spade sitcom.

Work was still to be done though even for us with the latter malady. And if we couldn’t get a lot of rest, drinking plenty of liquids was already part of the party plan.

Which leads us to the semi-annual review of network parties.

Welcome Back – Who sponsored this convivial occasion? Nobody quite knew, but the jetlagged and the drivers and the locals with parking validation all came together quite warmly, survivors of the newspaper war that is decimating the ranks. No time to talk of TV, instead the rise and fall of papers, who’s been sold to whom, and who’s on the way out. The field is smaller each time of TV critics, but only slightly so, and even those who’ve been unfairly canned are back in a new guise – as one-man blog operations. Others, such as Toronto Sun stalwart, classic film expert and all around good guy Bill Briox are literally on their last days. Who knows how long the rest of us will last? So good now to drink (but avoid the chicken, it’s been in there warming for god knows how long).

Fox Networks – FX is the one you know, National Geographic Channel is the one you don’t expect, and Fox Reality is the one you didn’t know you actually got on your cable system. A livelier event than the night before, but there seems to be an awful lot of cops. Turns out they’re members of a new reality show about Los Angeles County Sheriffs trainees So can we relax now? Not really. Amid the food is some exotic fare courtesy of the National Geographic show “Taboo,” which revels in this kind of exotica. Still, the deep fat fried cow testicles seem a contradiction in terms, the crocodile filets with rosemary sauce look more generic than that, and the chocolate covered worms and crickets could be really something else, so says a friend who pops one in his mouth. There are more takers for anything in chocolate than, say the Asian braised chicken feet, which look a little too authentic.

Dog Whisperer Cesar Millan strolls through the place with a pack of dogs and who’s going to stop him? Can we feed the dogs the chicken feet? The biggest star there, Eddie Izzard, the British comic who’s about to be huge stateside once his remarkable series “The Riches” starts on FX March 13, goes unmolested. Nobody’s seen the show yet.

BBC America – A network known for good shows and good press tour parties, this one turns out to be the only one outside in the Horseshoe Garden, normally a place for a number of parties. The winter chill that will wreck the orange industry of Southern California will also chill the party somewhat. A Robin Hood themed party goes under a tent, which probably isn’t thematically wrong. A big feast is served on big tables and we drink mead to get in the mood. It’s not as terrible as everyone says. But we decline a second goblet. I give my regards to Mr. Hood but talk more to Jennifer Saunders, the half of “Ab Fab” whose latest comedy starts in March on BBC America. She seems utterly bored with our conversation but doesn’t come right out and say it. Locals hired from the Renaissance Fair circuit entertain with card tricks and wench patter, but even they tire of their duty after a while. A good after party is sought.

Comedy Central – Because it’s a party for the combined MTV Networks, it has the largest possible cross section of people from David Spade (whose fake celebrity show is on Comedy Central) to Miss America (the pageant is on CMT next week). Sarah Silverman is over at the next table, but I’m engrossed in the musical entertainment, the Naked Trucker & T Bones, whose new show wouldn’t even start in a week. I happened to see part of the soundcheck in the ballroom earlier (The Naked Trucker wore clothes!) so was more attuned to the nuances of the comedy and country-rock the four-piece band put out. Not so on the party crowd, who stuffed their faces, drank and chatted as if the band were nothing but a faraway distraction. A shabby way to treat musicians, even those in a band dedicated to comedy. Still, it was a fun little set. And who was that playing drums but Andy Paley, the longtime producer and former recording artist, who had recoded everyone from Brian Wilson to Al Anderson to Jonathan Richman. Lately, he’s been putting out the Spongebob Squarepants album. So we went backstage to talk to these fine folk, and it was better than an interview. Ended up closing down the hotel bar – lights up, vacuums roaring – with Chris Kilpatrick the former N Sync member gone to reality series about the nature of 80s boy bands. Unusual.

NBCU – This stands for NBC Universal, but I can’t for the life of me remember quite who was at this shindig, held over at the lobby bar. The statuesque woman who will be xxx? You’ll have to come back to me. Better was the afterparty sponsored by IFC where I got into a long conversation with filmmaker Kirby Dick about his film “This Film has Not Yet Been Rated,” he did with former Connecticut dude Eddie Schmidt, and a long conversation with Laura Kightlinger, the one season “SNL” player who has a funny series on IFC called “The Minor Accomplishments of Jackie Woodman.”

PBS – It wasn’t quite a party but a private concert, from Sting no less. But it was part of his lute era, so it was well-meaning classical singing interspersed with readings. It was rather like Elvis Costello’s “The Juliet Letters” – a valiant effort, but you were kind of waiting for the encore and the cover songs in this case Robert Johnson’s “Hellhound on my Trail,” “Fields of Gold” and “Message in a Bottle,” lute style. In the press conference in between we practically squeezed the Police reunion out of him.

ABC – The first broadcast network party was suitably big, with stars sprawling across a ballroom or two. There was America Ferrera unnoticed out of her “Ugly Betty” garb, but the rest of her castmates joining the ABC publicists on the dance floor. Connecticut’s Becki Newton – Amanda on “Betty” ws there with her mother. Vanessa Williams alreadyhad her hair up in the ‘do she’d have the next day at the Golden Globes. The “Lost” crew making a week of it at the hotel, were out in force. Calista Flockhart was not only present, she lingered. Sally Field was in there somewhere (but apparently no Rachel Griffiths). Stacy Keibler stood out though, as a “Dancing with the Stars” plies her flimsy fame into various guest slots. Generally there is dancing at ABC parties, but this one petered out pretty early.

NBC – I start to worry when early morning types like Meredith Vieira who has to get up at 2 a.m. when on the West Coast to do the “Today” staying up to do these press parties. But there she was. It was a buzzing event, maybe buzzing too much. Maybe I was getting weary of it all by then. But I sought out Andy Richter who has a funny sitcom coming out soon, who had a long story about his wife’s various operations that just got more gross and more gross (and I figured out only later that it must have been a bit). And though I didn’t talk to the stars of “Heroes” at the party, I did talk to the man responsible for all the artwork that turns up on the show. He actually lives in Pasadena.

CBS – The worst party of press tour was given by the most successful network. But CBS figured it blew its party money after renting out the Rose Bowl last summer. January also had a football theme, with the Super Bowl coming up. But there were hardly any stars of any show there outside of the new ones that were presented in a panel on the least busy day. (David Spade, back in the room again!).

The CW – An opulent decadence marked the party of the least successful broadcast network holding an event (MyNetworkTV, by contrast, didn’t show up to press tour at all). And yet there were sort of recognizable people there, including cast members from the current season of “Beauty and the Geek” – including beauties who looked about the same and geeks who had undergone some kind of coolness transformation. Series producer Ashton Kutcher was there as well, protected by publicists who acted more like bodyguards. The “7th Heaven” people were there, as was Kristen Bell from “Veronica Mars,” but it was sort of telling that hardly anyone from “Gilmore Girls” showed. A display of Guitar Hero II was popular – a big set was raffled off to a guy who looked like Jerry Garcia already. The most prominent thing in the room was a giant wineglass in which women in green hair cavorted. They did one hour shifts and the changing of the guard, completed with a ladder, was something to see. Once down, the women immediately resumed being waitresses. “It’s not as easy as it looks,” said one, after her stint.

Fox – The only party off the hotel grounds (though still in Pasadena) was saved until the last night as Fox invaded a restaurant on Colorado Avenue. The Fox stars there were pretty thick, with nice representation from “24,” “Prison Break,” “Bones” and what have you. Matt Groening entertained questions about “The Simpsons” and the impending 400th episode. The “American Idol” judges were no-shows. And I ended up, as usual, next to the guy from “Mad TV.” I had to leave early to catch the red eye, and by this time didn’t feel too bad about doing so.

http://blogs.courant.com/roger_catlin_tv_eye/2007/01/party_report.html#more

fredfa

01-26-07, 03:36 PM

TV Notebook
Emmy considers dramedy dilemma
'Boston Legal' and 'Grey's' could go both ways
By Michael Schneider, Josef Adalian Variety

Last year, the stars of "Boston Legal" were nominated by the Screen Actors Guild for ensemble perf in a comedy series. This Sunday, they're up for ensemble perf -- in a drama.

Comedic dramas -- or dramatic comedies -- like "Boston Legal" are on the rise. And so far, kudofests like the SAG Awards haven't figured out an obvious place to honor them.

At the Emmys, "Desperate Housewives" has earned comedy nods, while "Grey's Anatomy" thrives in the drama column. Yet both shows contain virtually the same yuks-to-pathos ratio.

Newbies like "Ugly Betty" and "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip" could also make a case for being in either column.

"Typically, your show tends to lean one way or another," said "Boston Legal" exec producer David E. Kelley. "What's unique about 'Boston Legal' is that we don't. We can be deeply dramatic one moment and deeply silly the next ... It's a tough tightrope to walk. It took us the better part of a year to get it right."

Last year, the TV Academy attempted to address the issue by asking shows to submit six episodes that contain a preponderance of comedy or drama, depending on which category the show's producers were submitting themselves in.

But the org didn't give an objective definition on how much comedy or drama was necessary, giving dramedies free reign to compete in whichever category they want.

"It's one of those situations where you try to give as much useful counsel as you can to the producers who are deciding how to enter," said TV Academy rules chief John Leverence. "We don't have a breakout dramedy category that would accommodate that kind of thing."

The org's rules committee won't finalize this year's Emmy guidelines until March, so it's too soon to tell whether the TV Acad will revisit its stance on how shows decide to enter the comedy or drama competish.

But it's unlikely that the group will add a new category to accommodate the growing number of dramedies; org has been looking to remove, not add, Emmy awards.

With audience tastes continuing to evolve, ABC Entertainment prexy Steve McPherson said it's no longer easy to simply classify shows in one of two ways. "We've traditionally said that hours are dramas and half-hours are comedy," he said. "But that's pretty limiting. It's great that shows these days are so versatile."

McPherson doesn't think that ABC pays a price for having shows that straddle the comedy-drama divide. " 'Lost' and 'Desperate Housewives' wouldn't win on the same night if they were in the same category," he said. "So it probably helps us some."

http://www.variety.com/index.asp?layout=print_story&articleid=VR1117958131&categoryid=1985

fredfa

01-26-07, 03:41 PM

The Business of Television
Murdoch: Big media has less sway on Internet
By Georg Szalai The Hollywood Reporter Jan 27, 2007

NEW YORK --Big media companies and governments ultimately can't stop or reverse their reduced agenda setting power brought about by the Internet and digital media, but must learn to live with it and embrace it as an opportunity, a panel at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland said Friday.

Big media conglomerates have less influence amid the continued explosion of news sites, blogs and podcasts, News Corp. chairman and CEO Rupert Murdoch said in the session moderated by Charlie Rose and available via Webcast. "It's so pluralistic," Murdoch said. "We all have less power, much less...(we) the big companies."

Not only are there many more places from which to get news and opinion thanks to the Internet, he said. He said traditional media are also "put right immediately" these days when making mistakes, citing the example of the CBS News affair surrounding allegations against president George Bush last year.

Similarly, Murdoch said "government now has to be much more open" because of the Web and suggested, along with Gordon Brown, chancellor of the exchequer and the possible future prime minister of the U.K., that governments should try to see it as an opportunity for them.

"We just have to let this go," Murdoch said. "We can't reverse it."

Asked if his News Corp. managed to shape the agenda on the war in Iraq, Murdoch said: "No, I don't think so. We tried." Asked by Rose for further comment, he said: "We basically supported the Bush policy in the Middle East...but we have been very critical of his execution."

The News Corp. CEO also once again signaled that he sees much more change ahead thanks to digital media. "We're in the very early stages of it," he said.

During the same panel, Jack Ma Yun, founder and CEO of Chinese Web and electronic commerce giant Alibaba.com, suggested that outsiders often overstate China's controls and regulations of the Internet. While many complain about government censorship, "to me it's not that serious," he said.

He suggested the Web can't be fully controlled and said his company has managed to educate the Chinese government about its benefits over the years and to demonstrate to a growing number of the country's people how it helps them. "You create value and show the government it works," he said.

Nonetheless, the Alibaba CEO argued that the Internet "needs to be controlled or managed" in China due to its traditions and size. For example, he said as a father he likes that China blocks access to online pornography. But he also expressed discontent over misrepresentations of past comments of his on various Web sites.

Overall, he argued that "opening (things up) completely would be chaos."

The annual World Economic Forum meeting runs through Sunday and this year focused on the theme "The Shifting Power Equation."

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/news/e3i96671211ab37012854ddbec57715c8b0

fredfa

01-26-07, 04:15 PM

Sorry it took so long, but the NH:L All-Star game ratings are finally in….
TV Sports
NHL All-Star Game Ratings
Versus claims “Dramatic Gains Over the Network’s 2006-07 Regular Season Average”
(Versus News Release)
STAMFORD, Conn. (January 26, 2007)—VERSUS, the national cable television home of the National Hockey League (NHL), garnered a .7 HH rating which translates to 474,298 viewing homes and 672,948 total viewers for its telecast of the 2007 NHL All-Star Game on January 24. This was the first time the All-Star Game has been played since 2004. The viewership figures propelled VERSUS to a Top 15 ranked cable network in all of ad-supported cable television from 8:00p-11:15 p.m. ET on January 24 among the key male demographics: Men 18-34 (ranked #12), Men 18-49 (ranked #13), Men 25-54 (ranked #14). All figures are according to Nielsen Media Research and VERSUS Research.

The 2007 All-Star Game on VERSUS showed a bigger rating increase over its regular season average than any All-Star Game since at least 1999. The game on VERSUS was up 250 percent in HH rating from the regular season average (.7 vs .2) and in contrast, the All-Star Games on ABC showed a much smaller increase of 64 percent in both 2004 and 2003 (1.8 rating vs 1.1 rating, both years).

ADDITIONAL HIGHLIGHTS INCLUDE:

• VERSUS was a Top 20 performer among cable networks on January 24 from 8-11:15 p.m. ET in the following key hockey markets: Buffalo (#1, 7.1 rating), Pittsburgh (#1, 2.8 rating), St. Louis (#6, 1.1 rating), Detroit (#7, 1.3 rating), Nashville (#8 ranking, 1.2 rating), Philadelphia (#8, 1.0 rating), Denver (#10, 1.1 rating), Minneapolis-St. Paul (#11, .7 rating), Boston (#13, .9 rating), Richmond-Petersburg (#15, 1.0 rating), Columbus, OH (#17, .8 rating), Chicago (#17, .7 rating), Dallas (#18, .5 rating), Baltimore (#20, .7 rating), Tampa-St. Petersburg (#20, .6 rating) and San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose (#20, .5 rating).

• Compared to the 2006-07 regular season average of 32 games for the NHL on VERSUS, the All-Star Game telecast saw a whopping 251 percent increase in total viewers (672,948 vs 191,478). Among key male demos the network showed a 181 percent increase in viewership for Men 18-34 (106,667 vs 37,922), a 208 percent increase for Men 18-49 (223,179 vs 72,368) and a 246 percent gain for Men 25-54 (221,231 vs 63,932).

• Compared to the 2005-06 regular season average of 58 games for the NHL on VERSUS, the All-Star Game telecast gained a 250 percent HH rating increase (.7 vs .2), a 306 percent increase in total viewing households (474,298 vs 116,852) and a 315 percent increase of total viewers (672,948 vs 162,163).

• The All-Star Game also achieved a higher rating (.7) than the average of last season's Quarter-Finals (.3), Semi-Finals (.4) and Conference Finals (.6). Viewership among Men 18-34, Men 18-49, and Men 25-54 was also higher than the average of the Quarter, Semi, and Conference Finals games from last season.

“We were honored to be the network destination for the first All-Star Game in three years; it was a terrific opportunity to showcase the stars and skills of this great game,” said Gavin Harvey, President of VERSUS. “With our hi def production, the use of Rail Cam and even putting a microphone on goalie Marty Turco during the third period, our production team did a fantastic job translating the action on the ice to the television viewing audience. VERSUS is setting the standard for hockey on television.”

The competition intensifies for play-off spots when the regular season returns to VERSUS on Monday January 29 with the New York Rangers at Boston Bruins starting at 7 p.m. ET. In total, VERSUS is presenting 54 regular-season games for the 2006-07 season. The schedule includes a Game of the Week, wherein VERSUS is the only place on television to catch an NHL game in the U.S. at that time. The network also has select early-round playoff coverage, all of the Conference Finals and the first two games of the Stanley Cup Final. Every NHL game on VERSUS is produced in hi def.

steverobertson

01-26-07, 04:28 PM

I think Collewge hockey gets better rattings than that. Why is Bettman still running that league he is totally useless

fredfa

01-26-07, 04:49 PM

Interesting that while Versus trumpets the ratings "gains", it also discloses the pitifully rotten regular season ratings the NHL has been getting.

dr_mal

01-26-07, 05:04 PM

Interesting that while Versus trumpets the ratings "gains", it also discloses the pitifully rotten regular season ratings the NHL has been getting.
It doesn't help Versus much, but I really liked Mark Cuban's idea as quoted in this post (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=9481059&&#post9481059) from this very thread. If you combine Canada + US ratings for weekly NHL games, the NHL is higher rated than Canada + US ratings for the NBA. If only the NHL could find some way to profit from that...

fredfa

01-26-07, 05:05 PM

Critic’s Notebook
NBC’s Big Problem:
So, how do you get people to watch 'Friday Night Lights'?
From Maureen Ryan’s Chicago Tribune blog “The Watcher” January 26, 2007

Kevin Reilly’s got a problem.

The NBC entertainment president has a jaw-droppingly great drama in “Friday Night Lights,” but the show just doesn’t have enough viewers. The show was moved to 8 PM ET/PT Wednesdays a couple of weeks ago, and its numbers have ticked up a bit, but even Reilly acknowledged in a recent interview that that the early time slot is not doing “FNL” any favors.

“It’s something that was fragile to begin with - and then it was up against `Dancing [With the Stars’ last fall]. I think people just didn’t get onboard and then they felt like they fell behind,” Reilly said.

Plus, given the title and its one-sentence description - it’s about a high school football team in Texas - the show’s a hard sell for some. As Reilly says, “How do we get women to watch this show?”

One suggestion: Posters of Tim Riggins all across America. Riggins, a star player (played by Taylor Kitsch) on the show’s fictional Dillon Panther football squad, is a combustible mixture of party boy, rebel and sensitive yearner (the fact that he’s yearning for his disabled best friend’s girl makes things all the more bittersweet).

Failing that, NBC must find a way to convince potential viewers that the show is about much more than football (and some weeks - go figure - there’s no football at all). Evanston native Zach Gilford is lovably awkward and sweet as quarterback Matt Saracen, who’s got a dad in Iraq and an increasingly infirm grandma to take care of. Kyle Chandler and Connie Britton are believable and compelling as the coach and his tough, perceptive wife. And the story of the injured Jason Street’s lawsuit against his former coach and team is both fascinating and heartbreaking - the small-town hero is now a pariah.

As Reilly noted, “I think it’s hard to put your finger on what the show is. It’s a soap, but it’s not soapy, it’s a family show, but it’s not soft like a family show.”

But viewers unfamiliar with what “FNL” is all about should not fret. It’s easy to get drawn in to the show’s stand-alone stories each week, and, if your interest is piqued, five episodes of the show are available at NBC.com.

In a bit of good news for the show, Reilly floated the idea that “FNL” - which has not been guaranteed a second season yet - might do better, if it returns, after people catch up with the first season on DVD.

Reilly says he remains committed to the show, in any case. “You feel the pressure because there are skeptics, but the work is just so damn good,” he said. “There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t hear from somebody about how much they love it.”

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

fredfa

01-26-07, 05:36 PM

Critic’s Notebook
Happy 25th, Mr. Letterman
From Maureen Ryan’s Chicago Tribune blog “The Watcher” January 26, 2007

Happy anniversary, Dave.

On Feb. 1, 1982, David Letterman debuted his first after-hours outing, “Late Night With David Letterman,” on NBC. The wee hours haven’t been the same since.

Though his show moved to CBS in 1993 and was renamed “Late Show With David Letterman,” some things have never changed.

Dave’s still delightfully weird, sarcastic and uninterested in chasing cheap laughs. There’s no one better at scolding a wayward celebrity or famous big-mouth without seeming like a jerk. He may seem bored at times of late, but when he’s on his game, Dave is one heck of a good interviewer.

So here’s to you, Dave. Enjoy your big day. I’m glad you’ll be around for at least three more years. And thanks for re-inventing the late-night game without ever making a big fuss about it.

UPDATE: Letterman's guests on Thursday will be LeBron James and Bill Murray. Murray was Letterman's very first guest on Feb. 1, 1982, and the Chicago actor was also Letterman's debut "Late Show" guest in 1993.

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

keenan

01-26-07, 05:42 PM

Critic’s Notebook
NBC’s Big Problem:
So, how do you get people to watch 'Friday Night Lights'?

Reilly says he remains committed to the show, in any case. “You feel the pressure because there are skeptics, but the work is just so damn good,” he said. “There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t hear from somebody about how much they love it.”

http://tempo.typepad.com/entertainment_tv/
I hope he stays committed, one thing going for the show is it's an NBC/Uni property, which could mean they'll give a longer leash, hopefully anyway.

fredfa

01-26-07, 06:09 PM

SJKurtzke

01-26-07, 06:12 PM

Critic’s Notebook
NBC’s Big Problem:
So, how do you get people to watch 'Friday Night Lights'?
From Maureen Ryan’s Chicago Tribune blog “The Watcher” January 26, 2007

http://tempo.typepad.com/entertainment_tv/
Wow, of all the shows the networks market to the youth demo, they can't even get this right. Put in some promotion at high schools, using some deals with local affiliates. Even though the season is over, people in high schools go INSANE when anyone mentions anything related to HS football; the pep rallys are deafening. Personally, I haven't seen it yet, but I might check it out next week now that everyone is saying it's so great.

fredfa

01-26-07, 06:18 PM

I welcome you aboard, though it might be a hard show to jump into.

But please give it a try!

fredfa

01-26-07, 06:22 PM

fredfa

01-26-07, 06:37 PM

The Prime Time Network TV Grid has been updated.

You can find it as a .pdf file here:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=4265637#post4265637

dad1153

01-26-07, 06:57 PM

The Business of Television
Murdoch: Big media has less sway on Internet
By Georg Szalai The Hollywood Reporter Jan 27, 2007

Asked if his News Corp. managed to shape the agenda on the war in Iraq, Murdoch said: "No, I don't think so. We tried." Asked by Rose for further comment, he said: "We basically supported the Bush policy in the Middle East...but we have been very critical of his execution."

The hell??!! :eek: :eek: :mad: :mad:

Critic’s Notebook
Happy 25th, Mr. Letterman
From Maureen Ryan’s Chicago Tribune blog “The Watcher” January 26, 2007

Though his show moved to CBS in 1993 and was renamed “Late Show With David Letterman,” some things have never changed.

Dave’s still delightfully weird, sarcastic and uninterested in chasing cheap laughs. There’s no one better at scolding a wayward celebrity or famous big-mouth without seeming like a jerk. He may seem bored at times of late, but when he’s on his game, Dave is one heck of a good interviewer.

I disagree completely. The David Letterman I fell in love with back in the late 80's and early 90's was unpredicatable, as much a danger to himself (as proven by his lack of lobbying and ass-kissing for The Tonight Show he so desperately wanted) as to the TV conventions he and his crew/writers mocked relentlessly. That David Letterman showed up on CBS for a couple of years with the same care-free attitude and looseness, but gradually he's gotten softer and lost his edge. The jump the shark moment came when he was all over Oprah Winfrey and kissed her ass hard and repeteadlyl, the very thing Letterman mocked to shreds on his better NBC days. I'm happy Dave's been on the air 25 years and has achieved a degree of personal/professional happiness, but I'll stick with my collection of home recorded VHS tapes from the NBC days than waste a second watching the watered-down Dave currently passing time until Leno retires. :(

fredfa

01-26-07, 06:59 PM

TV Notebook
Colts Beat Patriots; Game Beats Galactica
By R. Thomas Umstead MultiChannel News 1/26/2007

Captain William Adama has successfully fought off numerous cylon attacks on Batttlestar Galactica. But last Sunday, he couldn’t defend his position against the blitz of the National Football League.

The popular Sci Fi Channel skein’s maiden voyage to Sunday nights took a viewership hit from CBS’ New England Patriots-Indianapolis Colts American Football Conference championship game, which drew 46 million viewers -- the game’s best performance in more than two decades.

The 1.4 rating for the third-year show’s Jan. 21 midseason debut -- the first of 10 episodes -- matched the average for the season’s initial 10 installments, which ran Fridays last October-December. But it was below the 1.9 rating/2.1 million viewers the show averaged during the second half of its sophomore season from January-March 2006.

"We took a risk and rolled the dice [going up against football] and lost," Sci Fi executive vice president and general manager David Howe said. "Nevertheless, I was incredibly impressed by how Battlestar held up."

Indeed, Sci Fi executives said Battlestar was the No. 1 basic-cable entertainment program for the day among viewers 18-49 and 25-54 despite competition from the game. The show also increased its viewership among those two demos by 60% and 18%, respectively, compared with its Dec. 15 finale.

In addition, Battlestar -- along with its lead-in, freshman dramedy series The Dresden Files, which also posted a 1.4 rating -- combined to post the top ratings performance on cable from 9 p.m.-11 p.m. among the network’s target 18-49 demo with a 1.3 household average. It was Sci Fi’s best performance among that group in the time period since May 2005 (Jurassic Park).

Howe said he expects ratings for both Battlestar and Dresden Files to increase over the next few weeks, sans any competition again posting a 40 share against the block. But just to be on the safe side, the network isn’t running original episodes from either series Feb. 4 -- that’s the night another little game, the Super Bowl, will play out on CBS.

http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6410588.html?display=Breaking+News

keenan

01-26-07, 07:07 PM

I really, really want to be hopeful, Jim. But it is difficult.

Other than Reilly's statement, I can't find a single reason for optimism. The critics have been almost unanimously praising the show and all but begging people to watch it.

But the ratings don't improve (and against "AI" they sure don't figure to get better).

But then again Reilly is the most important person, isn't he?

My sense is that the "Studio 60" people should be really worried. Reilly took time at the TCA to praise "FNL" effusively. His remarks about Studio 60" didn't seem anywhere near as enthusiastic.
One of the problems with this show is that it's done in a style like no other on TV. Personally, I really like how it's done, but I've read many posts where folks can't get past, or accept, the style(the camera work-the use of dialog running over each other, etc.) and actually get into the story itself.

I think you're right though, it's probably a long shot to make it. But that seems to happen with a lot of what I like. :p

Agree on S60 as well, I think a large part of the problem there is that it doesn't appeal to a broad enough audience, it tips too far to the " TV insider" side of the equation.

keenan

01-26-07, 07:11 PM

TV Notebook
ABC TV Shifts Wednesday Comedy Lineup
(ABC News Release) January 26, 2007

As of January 31, ABC announces the following schedule changes to the Wednesday night comedy lineup: "The Knights of Prosperity" will now air from 8:30-9:00 p.m., and "According to Jim" from 9:00-9:30 p.m., ET.

The complete Wednesday night primetime lineup will now be (all times ET):

8:00-8:30 p.m. "George Lopez"

8:30-9:00 p.m. "The Knights of Prosperity"

9:00-9:30 p.m. "According to Jim"

9:30-10:00 p.m. "In Case of Emergency"

10:00-11:00 p.m. "Lost," beginning February 7

Maybe it's just me as I don't watch any of those 4 lead-in shows, but that really doesn't look like a very good group of programs to lead into "Lost". I get the sense that "Lost" will have to "cold-start" itself at 10pm, and that can't be good. Just one viewers opinion...

fredfa

01-26-07, 07:12 PM

... I'll stick with my collection of home recorded VHS tapes from the NBC days than waste a second watching the watered-down Dave currently passing time until Leno retires. :(

Why would Dave care anymore when Leno retires?

Conan's already got the gig.

It seems to me Dave's happy just cashing his CBS paychecks, and -- as you note -- has been for some years now.

Davinleeds

01-26-07, 07:15 PM

TV Notebook
Colts Beat Patriots; Game Beats Galactica
By R. Thomas Umstead MultiChannel News 1/26/2007

http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6410588.html?display=Breaking+News

DVR - Handles the scheduling problem. And SciFi reruns help too.

fredfa

01-26-07, 07:21 PM

Sometimes you have to wonder, dave, how the world ever existed without DVRs, ATMs, and, of course, HDTV. :)

VisionOn

01-26-07, 07:23 PM

Critic’s Notebook
NBC’s Big Problem:
So, how do you get people to watch 'Friday Night Lights'?
From Maureen Ryan’s Chicago Tribune blog “The Watcher” January 26, 2007

based on the new ABC lineup for Wednesday, just leave it where it is or move it to 9pm.

Either way I think it will come out ahead.

VisionOn

01-26-07, 07:26 PM

Sometimes you have to wonder, dave, how the world ever existed without DVRs, ATMs, and, of course, HDTV. :)

and the internet. I've forgotten how dark those days where.

It's a good feeling to know that you aren't the only one who watches a certain TV show or is experiencing a piece of technology throwing a tantrum.

Davinleeds

01-26-07, 07:30 PM

Sometimes you have to wonder, dave, how the world ever existed without DVRs, ATMs, and, of course, HDTV. :)

My Grandparents had 12 and 8 children respectively. What would have happened without radio?

fredfa

01-26-07, 07:32 PM

Of course if they had HDTV, you would have a whole lot fewer relatives to visit!

Davinleeds

01-26-07, 07:41 PM

They want to come over and watch all these HD shows your thread mentions on my projector. I tell them, at least bring the beer.

dad1153

01-26-07, 07:47 PM

Why would Dave care anymore when Leno retires?

Conan's already got the gig.

It seems to me Dave's happy just cashing his CBS paychecks, and -- as you note -- has been for some years now.

Because Dave's contract on CBS will take him past Leno's scheduled departure in 2009. If Dave were to make a comeback of sorts and win the 11:30PM battle with Conan (no guarantee that what works for Conan at 12:30AM will/can translate for the 11:30PM crowd) he could then retire while on top, rather than go quietly and on a whimper of almost two decades as the #2 late night host. There's more than big bucks and fame driving the hosts of these shows, and Letterman is probably more concerned with his legacy and how he'll be remembered than who's on tonight's show. Again, pure speculation based on a very well-written piece on Variety that I posted on this thread many many... days ago! :(

foxeng

01-26-07, 08:15 PM

Rubbish,

Out of the mouth of babes and know nots.

'We intend to get paid for our content.'

- Les Moonves, pres/CEO/BigGiantHead CBS Corp.

You need to FINISH that statement, "from cable." Nice try though. Better luck next time.

fredfa

01-26-07, 08:23 PM

OK guys, we've had the point and counterpoint. Let's keep it from getting ugly, OK?

randosel

01-26-07, 08:58 PM

I too enjoyed Dave on Late Night, much more than on Late Show. Will it float.. yeah... I fear the same will happen to Conan with the time change and his move to the Tonight Show. Conan has changed to a more self-deprecating style the past couple of years with the departure of Andy Richter. While some of it's a plus, it becomes a bit too annoying sometimes on a nightly basis. The addition of Joel, Max, La Bamba, and Pender into skits and time filling sessions have improved the shows somewhat... But I miss some of the odd Conan and Andy chemisty and banter before the first guest. It would have been great if these oddball characters of the band and others were added during the earlier years.

fredfa

01-26-07, 09:27 PM

I think as we get used to TV stars and show (and they get used to their surroundings) it is very hard to keep the magic at the original level.

Dave did keep it for quite a while.

The king, of course, was Carson.

DoubleDAZ

01-26-07, 09:35 PM

Fred,

One more comment and I'm done. I was gone all day, went up north to refresh my memory of what snow looks like. :)

The one thing I hate about this whole discussion is that the anti-cable crowd chooses to ignore the fact that cable does pay for retransmission, just not in cash, and they are forced to follow different rules than DBS. I don't know why DBS recently rolled locals into their basic package, but at one time, DBS subs had the option to opt out of paying for locals. If I could do that with cable, CBS, et al, could charge all they want, I'd put up an antenna and to heck with their corporate greed.

This is all about the networks losing viewers to cable/DBS networks and they don't feel their non-cash compensation is enough anymore. I don't have a problem with any of that, just acknowledge what this is really all about and quit stating that cable doesn't pay, for crying out loud already.

It has nothing to do with cable/DBS paying other networks, they've been doing that since day one. It has everything to do with those networks becoming more popular and stealing viewers. It also has to do with CBS no longer being able to get paid via bundled channels and Sinclair, and others, are simply jumping on the bandwagon because their contracts ran out sooner.

dad1153

01-26-07, 09:35 PM

I think as we get used to TV stars and show (and they get used to their surroundings) it is very hard to keep the magic at the original level.

The king, of course, was Carson.

Yep, Carson still had magic... on the six 'Tonight' shows he did per month during the last few years he hosted. Remember?

Week one: Carson repeat on Monday, Leno guest-hosts Tuesday, Carson hosts Wed-Fri.
Week two: same as week one.
Week three: week of Carson repeats
Week four: Leno guest-hosts during the entire week.

Repeat x 12.

If I had been a true hardcore Carson fan back in the late 1980's I would have been so pissed to finally score tickets for 'Tonight' only to found out that Leno was hosting that night. You know, the same way Carson fans had to put up with his many other guest hosts in the 70's and early 80's.

LL3HD

01-26-07, 09:39 PM

generalpatton78

01-26-07, 10:52 PM

Agree.

It would be great if Andy came back when Conan takes over for Jay.

Can’t wait for Jay to be history…

and as far as Letterman, he died years ago, way before his heart thing. I think it was when he stopped wearing sneakers.

And yes- Carson was in a class by himself.

Carson this jay that blah blah blah j/j. I'm a Assy McGee fan!! Seriously though new late night programing blocks by cable channels like adult swim will have a big impact on late night programming from now on.

bphisig

01-26-07, 10:53 PM

I think Letterman has been pretty good lately. Great Moments in Presidential Speeches gets me every time. Even when he's bad, he's still much more entertaining than Leno.

fredfa

01-27-07, 12:29 AM

As always, Dave, you certainly have a valid and well thought out opinion, even though I don't agree with it.

(And by the way, I think anyone who doesn't have an antenna -- if it is possible, of course -- is just silly.]

DBS subs, by better than 92% in DirecTV's case, opted FOR the local channels, even when they cost an extra $5. And survey after survey shows viewers think the network stations are worth more than any cable station.

Nonetheless, the O&Os may have gotten payment in kind but many smaller market stations didn't really get anything from cable. They see USA getting its 60 cents a month, or TNT its 89 cents and (understandably) they want in on the bonanza. Who is to blame them?

And how was the snow? I just got back from Missouri and have seen enough for a couple more years.

Fred,

One more comment and I'm done. I was gone all day, went up north to refresh my memory of what snow looks like. :)

The one thing I hate about this whole discussion is that the anti-cable crowd chooses to ignore the fact that cable does pay for retransmission, just not in cash, and they are forced to follow different rules than DBS. I don't know why DBS recently rolled locals into their basic package, but at one time, DBS subs had the option to opt out of paying for locals. If I could do that with cable, CBS, et al, could charge all they want, I'd put up an antenna and to heck with their corporate greed.

This is all about the networks losing viewers to cable/DBS networks and they don't feel their non-cash compensation is enough anymore. I don't have a problem with any of that, just acknowledge what this is really all about and quit stating that cable doesn't pay, for crying out loud already.

It has nothing to do with cable/DBS paying other networks, they've been doing that since day one. It has everything to do with those networks becoming more popular and stealing viewers. It also has to do with CBS no longer being able to get paid via bundled channels and Sinclair, and others, are simply jumping on the bandwagon because their contracts ran out sooner.

fredfa

01-27-07, 12:43 AM

TV Q&A
Lost over Lost - again; believing in 24
By Tom Jicha South Florida Sun-Sentinel TV/Radio Writer January 28 2007

QUESTION: Why did ABC move Lost to 10 p.m.? Also what happened to What I Like About You? Has it vanished? -- M.T., e-mail

TOM JICHA: Lost has a new time period for several reasons. Primarily, ABC didn't want to risk further audience erosion by having it up against Criminal Minds, which was already beating it, and the American Idol results show, which crushes everything. The 10 p.m. hour is far less contentious. Also, ABC has had no luck trying to launch shows after Lost -- think Invasion and The Nine -- an important consideration in being scheduled at 9 p.m. Finally, the shift will make affiliates happy, since they will get a strong lead-in to their late local news, something ABC hasn't been giving them in recent years. As for What I Like About You, it was a casualty of the merger of the WB and UPN into the CW.

QUESTION: My husband and I would like to know what happened to Daryn Kagan from CNN. We really liked her but one day she was just gone. Also, was she really the girlfriend of Rush Limbaugh? -- I.H., Plantation

TOM JICHA: Kagan, whose contract was not renewed by CNN after 12 years, now hosts an inspirational Webcast at darynkagan.com. She has been romantically linked with Rush Limbaugh, although there is nothing to suggest this had anything to do with her departure from CNN.

QUESTION: I am an avid fan of 24. Although the country seems fixated on the atomic explosion in Los Angeles, I have a different problem with this premise. The father of the family being held hostage, after his wife is released, picks up an obvious weapons component to be delivered to an obviously Middle Eastern man, Fayed. Does he not realize this fact and that he will be killed regardless? Wouldn't he call the authorities to tell them where he is going to pick up the package? Wouldn't anyone, after picking up the package and killing a terrorist collaborator in the process, call the authorities, since he has 30 minutes to save his son and he knows where Fayed is located? The premise leading to the explosion could have been a little more plausible, although not being a father might sway my observations. -- J.G., Deerfield

TOM JICHA: Your last point is perceptive for not being a father. A parent will do anything, make any sacrifice for a child. However, I question your first statement. You cannot be an avid fan of 24 and nitpick details. How did you miss Jack getting stabbed in the back, yet there being no blood on his shirt? Or that after almost two years of torture in a Chinese prison, he still has the strength to overcome any number of assailants? On the recent press tour, Kiefer Sutherland acknowledged that 24 requires a tremendous suspension of disbelief and that he is gratified fans have been so generous in allowing it. You either go with the flow or switch to the documentary-like Heroes.

http://www.southflorida.com/movies/sfl-tvj28tjqajan28,0,7950751,print.story?coll=sfe-movies-promos

fredfa

01-27-07, 12:56 AM

TV Q&A
Realism takes back seat on action-packed "24"
Don't obsess over the details, just enjoy the ride
By Rich Heldenfels Akron Beacon Journal popular culture writer

QUESTION: After being a dedicated fan of ``24'' for five years, there are a few things that I am still wondering about. No one ever seems to take a restroom break. No one ever either sleeps or takes a short nap break. No one ever seems to eat anything. No one has ever charged the batteries in their cellular phones, even though they use them for all communications. I know that there must be an explanation for these points.

RICH HELDENFELS: The show takes place over a single day, so the cell phones should hold up. With nukes and other disasters looming, I'd think everyone was too excited to sleep or eat. As for the bathroom, I suspect they take their breaks during the commercials -- just the way viewers do!

More seriously, 24 is not remotely realistic, and it's easy to question not only the details but the big things (like the nuclear explosion in the second season, which was forgotten almost as soon as it happened). The show is more like a thrill ride, where all you remember is the sensation.

QUESTION: I have been a faithful reader of your column for some time and have never seen this subject addressed. Why are the networks obsessed with sex and violence? Why can't we have any decent, clean programs these days? I have resorted to reading these days and leave the TV off.

RICH HELDENFELS: Television does contain more sex and violence than it did when I was growing up in the '50s -- although some people complained about the content then, too. The culture generally accepts rawer content than in the past, and people have been willing to spend money and viewing time on it.

But it's not all adult out there. The Parents Television Council, a strict TV watchdog, has said that Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, 7th Heaven, Deal or No Deal, Wife Swap, Supernanny, American Idol are all ``family-friendly'' and promote ``responsible themes and traditional values'' -- and that's just on the commercial broadcast networks. The availability of TV shows on DVD also makes it possible to watch family-friendly shows from the past instead of today's fare.

QUESTION: In the late '50s or early '60s, there was a television program called ``Science Fiction Theatre.'' Do you know if that is played on any television stations? I live in Northern California, San Mateo area.

RICH HELDENFELS: The syndicated series, made from 1955 to 1957, ``explored the `what-ifs' of modern science'' in individual dramas, says The Complete Directory to Prime Time and Network Cable TV Shows. I do not know of stations televising it. I have seen it for sale on DVD, including through the sites www.tvaddicts.tv and www.skaryguyvideo.com. But I cannot vouch for the source or quality of products from those companies.

http://www.ohio.com/mld/ohio/entertainment/16532485.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp

fredfa

01-27-07, 01:11 AM

TV Notebook
A Career High Note
Fellow Actors Tap Julie Andrews for Top Honor
By Kathy Blumenstock Washington Post Staff Writer Sunday, January 28, 2007

Julie Andrews, whose career spans 50 years, takes center stage again this week as she is honored with the Screen Actors Guild's 43rd Life Achievement Award, (8 PM ET, Sunday, TBS and TNT) given for acting excellence and humanitarian accomplishment. Since 1995, SAG has also presented annual awards for outstanding performers in theatrical movies and prime-time television.

Andrews, 71, was a teenager when she first appeared on Broadway, where she later brought "My Fair Lady" and "Camelot" to life. She has starred in a multitude of stage, TV and movie roles, including the Oscar-winning "Mary Poppins."

"It's all gone so quickly and wonderfully, and it's been so fascinating," Andrews said. "I've learned so much about survival and acting. Every single role has been enjoyable for one reason or another, whether [it's] the director or the screenplay or the people."

Andrews has starred in theatrical films such as "The Sound of Music," "Victor/Victoria," "10," "Thoroughly Modern Millie" and "The Princess Diaries," and she provided the voice of Queen Lillian in "Shrek 2." She's also co-written children's books with her daughter Emma Walton Hamilton.

"I used to make up stories as a kid, but I am only just beginning to consider it my day job," she said.

Her most recent book, "The Great American Mousical," was a bestseller. "Literally, there was a mouse in my theater and some witty fellow said, 'He probably came up to gawk at the stars,'" said Andrews, who saw the book as a way to give children a behind-the-scenes look at the world of theater.

When she's not writing or performing, Andrews also serves as a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations Development Fund for Women. With her filmmaker husband, Blake Edwards, she is a founding board member of Operation USA, which provides disaster relief and development assistance to needy communities around the world.

Andrews, whose elegant singing voice was silenced after 1998 surgery on her vocal cords went wrong, said she was surprised by the SAG honor, given annually to the actor who best embodies the profession's ideals.

Doing work on the stage is an entirely different experience than acting in films or on TV, Andrews said.

"One is a phenomenal communication with an audience, and the other is in a much quieter setting with your fellow actors," she said. "One is that full sweep every evening and afternoon, and the other is tiny little jigsaw puzzles you will have made into something bigger."

Although she no longer has her soprano voice, Andrews said she's still "able to get out a few low notes." She said she misses singing with an orchestra and "conveying the beauty of music."

"I miss the giving, the sheer ecstasy," Andrews said. "I'm glad it happened later in my career [rather] than sooner."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/23/AR2007012301238_pf.html

fredfa

01-27-07, 01:21 AM

TV Notebook
Bye Bye to Two Shows
“Armed & Famous”, "Reba" are Axed

Brian Ford Sullivan at The Futon Critic is reporting CBS has canceled “Armed & Famous” effective immediately.

There were only three episodes left, but repeats of “CSI: NY” and “Criminal Minds” will fill the Wednesday 8 PM ET/PT time slot until “Jericho” is back on the CBS schedule on Valentines Day. If you care, look for an announcement of when CBS will burn those final episodes on its website.

In addition, the final two episodes of “Reba” will air back-to-back starting at 7 PM ET/PT Sunday, February 18. The show, finishing its sixth season, was the CW’s highest rated comedy, but didn’t fit in with the young and hip image it is trying so hard to project.

fredfa

01-27-07, 01:29 AM

HDTVChallenged

01-27-07, 02:08 AM

OK guys, we've had the point and counterpoint. Let's keep it from getting ugly, OK?

LOL ... I'm trying to pull back, but sometimes you just can't let the spindoctoring pass. :D

You need to FINISH that statement, "from cable." Nice try though. Better luck next time

And who does "cable" pass that cost onto? ... Just stop the spin ... admit that you want in on the pay-for-view market and I'll back off. :D

Of course, that raises the question of why not just put up E/W national feeds and be done with it. I'd pay for an uncensored, commercial free (or reduced) version of CBS/NBC/ABC/FOX. :)

OTOH, I don't see why I should have to pay a mandatory penalty to local broadcasters just because I want to watch something on USA, SciFi, TNT, ESPN, etc ... comprende?

DBS subs, by better than 92% in DirecTV's case, opted FOR the local channels, even when they cost an extra $5. And survey after survey shows viewers think the network stations are worth more than any cable station.

The corollary to this is statistic is that from the group of people angry enough to drop cable for another provider, 92% are unwilling (or unable) to put up an antenna ... thus proving that local stations have little or no market value without Cable a/o DBS carriage. QED. ;) :D

dad1153

01-27-07, 02:54 AM

TV Notebook
Bye Bye to Two Shows
“Armed & Famous”, "Reba" are Axed

In addition, the final two episodes of “Reba” will air back-to-back starting at 7 PM ET/PT Sunday, February 18. The show, finishing its sixth season, was the CW’s highest rated comedy, but didn’t fit in with the young and hip image it is trying so hard to project.

Back in Fall 2005 Don Johnson had an hour-long drama on the then-WB Network called Just Legal (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0460653/) that scored above-average-for-WB overall ratings. But apparently this show skewed really old so WB cancelled it swiftly for fear it would drive the network's median age way up even though it was just one hour a week in the schedule. I guess what I'm trying to say is that I'm amazed Reba lasted as long as it did in a network so hostile to the genre and demographic that kept the show in production for six seasons. :confused:

RussB

01-27-07, 03:42 AM

JANUARY 25, 2007

Cable geeks from the world over are converging in Houston this week for the Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers 's Emerging Technologies (ET) 2007 conference. Larry sent us to investigate any ensuing monkey business on the Gulf Coast.

In a sign verifying the presence of intelligent life with this ET, the cablers invited Sling Media Inc. to participate in the conference's opening session covering the time and place shifting of video. While there was no mud slinging, this outsider provided a needed contrarian view, compared to those shared by industry torchbearers from Motorola Inc. (NYSE: MOT - message board), Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: CSCO - message board), Tandberg Television , Comcast Media Center, and Time Warner Cable Inc. .

While ET is a technology conference, this particular discussion reminds us that the dynamics driving, limiting, and shaping video shifting are principally legal and economic.

Sling Media's Dave Mathews contended that the technical kludge playing out with set-top and DVR support for video portability, while driven by onerous digital rights management (DRM) restrictions, is a key demand driver for Slingbox. The device bypasses digital restrictions by transcoding feeds from analog video outputs, making the content from cable, DVRs, and home PCs remotely accessible. "We have to do a little sidestepping to give the consumers what they want with content," Matthews said.

This creates a quandary for cable operators. Consumers who have Slingboxes love them. However, the devices are upstream bandwidth leeches on the Docsis cable modem network. They're particularly painful in cases where the network is taxed with round-trip fares for TV fare that is delivered downstream by the MSO and then sent back upstream by the consumer for viewing at an off-net locale.

"Sling is nice, but how do MSOs make money?" asked Greg Whelan, senior marketing manager of Cisco. "We need a network-based sling, injest it into the CDS [content distribution system], and access it anywhere."

Nice idea, but far from possible today for cable operators, due to content rights issues.

"The video in the [network] cloud is the Holy Grail," Matthews ceded. Chasing this dream is why Cisco bought Scientific Atlanta , he argued. While network-hosted video is conceptually appealing, content owners and MSOs seem unlikely to agree anytime in the near term. The firestorm that ensued after Cablevision Systems Corp. (NYSE: CVC - message board)'s network PVR trial is ample evidence. (See Lawsuits Could Nuke Network DVR (http://www.lightreading.com/document.asp?doc_id=97070).) That's why cable operators are still stuck deploying set-top DVRs.

"Cable operators don't want a hot, spinning hard-drive in every customer's living room. Unfortunately, that's the state of things," Matthews argued, blaming the obvious capital and operating expense liabilities.

If any company is positioned to bridge the video rights and distribution divide, it's Time Warner, given its immense programming and cable system assets. Realizing how far the industry remains from serious consensus, Time Warner Cable has moved ahead with its much-publicized compromise service, called Start Over. (See Time Warner Expands Start Over (http://www.lightreading.com/document.asp?doc_id=111369&site=cdn).)
NOTE: Within in the Time Warner Expands Start Over article is the following paragraph: Finally, Time Warner is toying with introducing a complementary time-shifting service called "Look Back." This proposed service would enable viewers to watch a program after its scheduled run time on the same night.
Keith Nichols, Time Warner Cable's senior director of new product deployment said Start Over is now available in six markets, with plans to expand to a dozen more by the end of 2007. As the name implies, Start Over enables viewers to restart some TV shows in progress, with pause and rewind capabilities, but without the ability to fast-forward through commercials. That fast-forwarding ability is a feature that DVR users love, but advertisers and programmers despise.

Time Warner offers a set-top-based service with full DVR functionality. Start Over supplements it, offering access to shows that consumers did not schedule to record on their boxes. Nichols noted that Time Warner is now working with over 100 programmers to provide content for Start Over. He said the service is now averaging 450,000 sessions weekly, with average usage clocking in at 75-90 minutes per week.

Like Cablevision, Time Warner and other MSOs are eager to move to network DVRs as part of their quest to capture the video Holy Grail. It's a vision that culminates with the MSO offering customers the ability to access their video content anytime, anywhere, whether at home or on the road, on the TV, laptop, or mobile phone. So, they'll continue to work out the technical kinks while attorneys wrangle over rights issues.

"The lawyers will get in the way long enough for us to catch up," Nichols said. "Over the next five years, we'll have time to get these things in place as the lawyers work out ways to make the content available."

— Michael Harris, Chief Analyst, Cable Digital News

http://www.lightreading.com/document.asp?doc_id=115531&site=cdn

rpete

01-27-07, 04:26 AM

Wow, of all the shows the networks market to the youth demo, they can't even get this right. Put in some promotion at high schools, using some deals with local affiliates. Even though the season is over, people in high schools go INSANE when anyone mentions anything related to HS football; the pep rallys are deafening. Personally, I haven't seen it yet, but I might check it out next week now that everyone is saying it's so great.

I agree that it's difficult to jump into FNL at this point. Apparently nbc.com has a few episodes available for viewing, and if you want to see all of them...well I suppose that's possible somehow or other.

This series is also one of those that continues to improve with each episode. And this is hardly an original thought, but FNL seems to me to be a good candidate for a one-and-done-run. I've just read that's it's picked up for another season, and maybe it'll continue to be excellent, but I wouldn't be at all disappointed if it wrapped up all of the storylines this year. It would be an excellent example of an expanded mini-series concept executed to perfection.

keenan

01-27-07, 04:49 AM

I agree that it's difficult to jump into FNL at this point. Apparently nbc.com has a few episodes available for viewing, and if you want to see all of them...well I suppose that's possible somehow or other.

This series is also one of those that continues to improve with each episode. And this is hardly an original thought, but FNL seems to me to be a good candidate for a one-and-done-run. I've just read that's it's picked up for another season, and maybe it'll continue to be excellent, but I wouldn't be at all disappointed if it wrapped up all of the storylines this year. It would be an excellent example of an expanded mini-series concept executed to perfection.
Where did you read it was picked up?

rpete

01-27-07, 05:11 AM

Where did you read it was picked up?

I have to take that statement back, I misread something. Sorry for any confusion :)

fredfa

01-27-07, 05:37 AM

TV Sports
Hi-Def Golf Tees Off
By Glen Dickson Broadcasting & Cable 1/29/2007

CBS' big upgrade in golf coverage is being driven by a very big truck.

CBS has produced major tournaments, including the Masters and PGA Championship, in HDTV for years. This year, the network is upping the ante: It will broadcast all 19 regular PGA tournaments on its schedule in 1,080-line interlace (1080i) HD, starting with this weekend's Buick Invitational in La Jolla, Calif.

To do so, it is relying on a new, $15 million high-definition "mega-truck," HD12, built by mobile-production vendor National Mobile Television of Torrance, Calif. NMT produces 750 HD sports events a year, out of an estimated 4,000 aired nationwide.

The truck is actually made up of three 53-foot "expando" units, each weighing 80,000 pounds, which are combined via fiber to create one massive mobile production center. "There is a lot of complexity to this truck," says NMT CEO Mark Howorth.

HD12 is loaded: It contains more than 600,000 feet of cable, terminated at more than 40,000 cable-ends. It has a Pesa Cheetah video router capable of 1,024 inputs and 1,344 outputs, the largest ever in a mobile truck. It took 16,000 worker-hours to complete its integration.

In addition to Sony monitors, other equipment in HD12 includes Sony cameras and production switchers, Fujinon lenses, Calrec digital audio consoles, VizRT graphics systems and a massive EVS server-based replay system. Some equipment, like the Fujinon lenses, was selected by NMT after "bake-offs" between rival manufacturers. CBS specified some gear, like VizRT graphics.

Audio-processing equipment comes from Dolby, Rane and Ross. Sound is a tricky part of HD golf telecasts. Because of the bandwidth HDTV eats up, video and audio delays occur when the signals get compressed, particularly from wireless HD cameras. And audio-synch is particularly important in the quiet sport of golf, where a delay in the "whack" sound of a golfer teeing off can be unsettling.

"It's a big problem," says Ken Aagaard, senior VP of operations and production services for CBS Sports. "Our golf coverage relies on a minimum of six wireless cameras, so, in a golf tournament, the audio-latency issue is a much bigger deal [than in other sports]. In essence, we're putting a delay in all our hard [wired] cameras to meet the three-frame delay coming from the handhelds."

Golf is no picnic to produce in any format, Howorth says. There are no pre-wired facilities, as in football or baseball. Producers need to grab footage from many sites on the course and yet deliver easy-to-understand coverage for viewers.

"The geography you have got to cover is immense," he says, "and you have action occurring simultaneously everywhere, which means a huge amount of graphics and replays."

http://www.broadcastingcable.com/index.asp?layout=articlePrint&articleID=CA6410625

foxeng

01-27-07, 08:27 AM

LOL ... I'm trying to pull back, but sometimes you just can't let the spindoctoring pass. :D

No spin there. I don't know of a single broadcaster who has a problem with OTA viewers. If broadcasters wanted money from the OTA viewers we would encrypt and sell subscriptions, something that HAS been done in the past but not of recently (the last 20 years and it was never a wide spread thing, usually on small speciality stations on UHF in large metros).

And who does "cable" pass that cost onto?

Then your beef is really with cable, not with the broadcasters. Cable has been getting the broadcast stations for free for years and that hasn't stopped them from raising cable rates every year for over 20 years. I think you need a new whipping boy.

... Just stop the spin ... admit that you want in on the pay-for-view market and I'll back off. :D

See my first reply above.

Of course, that raises the question of why not just put up E/W national feeds and be done with it. I'd pay for an uncensored, commercial free (or reduced) version of CBS/NBC/ABC/FOX. :)

There are not enough of you to support that kind of OTA. If there were, I am sure we would be doing that already.

OTOH, I don't see why I should have to pay a mandatory penalty to local broadcasters just because I want to watch something on USA, SciFi, TNT, ESPN, etc ... comprende?

Stations (top 4 stations basically are the only ones that can get that kind of rate at this point, not your bottom feeders in the ratings who have to rely on must carry) only want between .50 to $1 per sub. ESPN demands almost 3$ a sub for a fraction of the eyeballs. Sorry, again I think your attacking the wrong part of the industry. If you really hate $3 a sub for ESPN, then call Disney and complain or better your local cableco who is passing that rate on to you.

The corollary to this is statistic is that from the group of people angry enough to drop cable for another provider, 92% are unwilling (or unable) to put up an antenna ... thus proving that local stations have little or no market value without Cable a/o DBS carriage. QED. ;) :D

I think the current Sinclair/Mediacom issue has now, once and for all, shot that theory all to hell. People ARE going to where the channels are they want, via sat or OTA if Mediacom has dropped a broadcast channel they want (they do it all the time for HD, we hear about it here WAY too often).

The bigger cablecos have known this for years and that is why they do EVERYTHING they can to avoid a Sinclair/Mediacom situation. In the end they may win, but over the long haul they lose subs that don't come back and their reputation is damaged that takes years to rebuild. It ultimately falls under their customer service.

And that is currently happening in Mediacom areas as I speak. I am seeing it with my own eyes via my family and the majority of their friends. They are not happy and they are pointing the finger at Mediacom, not Sinclair. Again, Mediacom is begging the FCC and Congress to get involved because it is hurting them. Sinclair has asked no regulatory agent or government representative to step in. By your theory, it should be reversed, Medicam should be sitting pretty and Sinclair should be crying foul. But that isn't happening. That shouts volumes who is worried and who is not. The government doesn't seem to be in a big hurry to act on any of Medicom's request either. If it was such the big deal you and others make out (viewers being harmed), the government, Congress, local governments and the FCC would have already dealt with it. Their silence and reluctanance to act show that they have little ground to act on. Simply put, it would appear that Mediacom has overplayed their hand and has publicly exposed cable's weakness.

Like I said, what cable has been getting away with in just about any other case would be defrauding the public. But in this case, it is the broadcasters fault? Sorry, I don't think so and I think I have presented the case that proves my point.

Now back to "Hot Off The Press! The Latest Television News and Info"

Inundated

01-27-07, 09:45 AM

The newly updated TV prime time schedule, with HD designations of all network programs, is now at the bottom of post # 2 in this thread:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=4265637&&#post4265637

Is there some reason CBS' The Amazing Race (All-Stars) is not listed Sundays at 8 PM in the PDF? It premieres 2/18, and other upcoming show/season premieres are in there...

fredfa

01-27-07, 11:22 AM

Inundated: Does "Oops, I forgot to put it in the grid" count as a reason?

But it is there now, and the (very) newly updated prime time grid can now be found at the bottom of post 2 in this thread.

Or here:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=4265637&&#post4265637

foxeng

01-27-07, 11:30 AM

TVT Newsbytes :: Business

Sinclair and Time Warner Reach Retrans Terms

January 26, 2007

Sinclair and Time Warner hammered out a three-year retransmission consent agreement. The deal assures that 6 million Time Warner Cable subscribers will receive the digital and analog signals of 35 Sinclair stations in 22 markets through Dec. 31, 2009.
"We are excited that this agreement not only ensures retransmission of our signals by Time Warner for the next three years, but also provides for the carriage of our digital signals for the first time to most of Time Warner's subscribers," said David Smith, president and CEO of Sinclair.

Sinclair Broadcast Group has been on the forefront of an effort by broadcasters to get paid for their signals vis-à-vis cable networks. Cash terms of the deal were not disclosed, but the chief of another cable company embroiled in a retrans fight with Sinclair said he'd take them.

"Now that Sinclair has reached a long term deal with Time Warner, whose terms presumably reflect the current market for retransmission consent, Sinclair should have no further excuses offering similar terms to Mediacom," said Rocco B. Commisso, chairman and CEO of Mediacom.

Earlier this month, Sinclair pulled 22 of its stations in 13 states off of Mediacom systems after the two companies came to a stalemate on retrans conditions. The companies are about $1 million apart, according to Forbes.

The fallout has affected about 700,000 Mediacom subscribers, one-third of whom live in Iowa. That state's legislature Tuesday called Sinclair and Mediacom to the carpet and told them to settle. The Sioux City Journal said that while state lawmakers can't force the situation, they've put the TV companies on notice that the Iowa congressional delegation will likely get an earful. Commisso earlier implored Congress to hold a hearing on the standoff.

According to analysts, Sinclair is faring better in the showdown than Mediacom, especially in light of the deal with Time Warner--Sinclair's biggest cable carrier. Victor Miller of Bear Stearns said the Time Warner deal put Sinclair on a "run rate" of $35 million to $40 million in overall retrans revenues.

Mediacom, on the other hand, is believed to be bleeding subscribers. Rich Greenfield of Pali Research estimates that the cable company could be losing up to 5,000 subscribers a week.

"We find it hard to believe that Mediacom management does not recognize how poor its negotiating position is relative to Sinclair," Greenfield said.

fredfa

01-27-07, 11:47 AM

The link for the above TV Technology story is here:

http://www.tvtechnology.com/pages/s.0016/t.945.html

foxeng

01-27-07, 11:53 AM

Sorry 'bout that. I knew I left something out!!

foxeng

01-27-07, 11:54 AM

TVT Newsbytes :: Top Story

House Republicans Revisit DTV Education

January 26, 2007

The former leader of the House Commerce Committee has resurrected legislation to alert folks that TV will no longer work as they know it come February 2009. Rep. Joe Barton, (R-Texas), former chairman of the committee, rolled out the Digital Television Consumer Education Act of 2007 this week. Reps. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) and Fred Upton (R-Mich.) signed off on the bill as well.
The proposed legislation outlines a multiplayer approach encompassing retailers, cable and satellite TV providers, broadcasters and the FCC. It also includes a provision for setting an energy consumption standard for digital-to-analog converter boxes. The boxes are intended to keep over-the-air analog TVs working after analog broadcast transmissions cease Feb. 17, 2009. Lawmakers created a program to subsidize the converters in the same bill that established the 2009 analog sunset date. Barton included public education language in an early version of that bill, but it was stripped out before passage in late 2005.

"Regrettably, those provisions were stripped out and left behind because of Senate procedural rules," Barton said in a statement. "Senate rules are fine things, but they're not likely to be standing around, explaining how digital television works. So the bill we introduce today reasserts the necessary public education provisions that were left out last year."

The latest proposed law would require retailers selling or renting analog TV sets to put signs up saying those TVs won't receive over-the-air signals after the analog deadline, Feb. 17, 2009. The prescribed language is as follows:

"This TV has only an analog broadcast tuner and will require a converter box after February 17, 2009, to receive over-the-air broadcasts with an antenna because of the nation's transition to digital broadcasting. The TV should continue to work as before with cable and satellite TV services, gaming consoles, VCRs, DVD players, and similar products."

The legislation also provides that cable and satellite operators include DTV transition information in billings; that broadcasters report their own education efforts with the FCC; and that the FCC create a public outreach program and a consumer education working group.

An additional provision directs the National Telecommunications and Information Administration to establish a nationwide energy consumption standard for converters. The NTIA is currently in charge of the converter subsidy program, and is already reviewing energy standards, as is the Environmental Protection Agency. Consumer electronics makers, who will more than likely be making the converters, favor one national standard over a raft of divergent ones from state governments.

Another item directs the FCC to report the progress of the outlined public education efforts, as well as the status of international coordination with Canada and Mexico on the DTV table of allotments.

"Digital televisions are selling like umbrellas in a thunderstorm, outpacing all expectations, and the Feb. 17, 2009, transition date is still two years away," Barton said. "But we should use our transition time wisely. This legislation that Mr. Upton, Mr. Hastert and I have introduced will ensure that the relatively small number of consumers who are still using those analog televisions with over-the-air antennas in two years understand what they need to do."

NAB spokesman Dennis Wharton thanked the congressmen for offering "legislation aimed at educating America's television viewers about the ongoing digital transition. As we draw nearer to February 2009, we welcome all pro consumer initiatives designed to positively educate America on the transition from analog to digital television."

The NAB this month launched its own transition education program with the formation of a four-member DTV transition team.

http://www.tvtechnology.com/pages/s.0014/t.932.html

foxeng

01-27-07, 12:00 PM

TV Technology Email Newsletters :: Doug Lung's RF Report

Digital Deadline

January 25, 2007

As the end of analog TV approaches (see the countdown clock at www.MSTV.org), articles are starting to appear about the transition in a variety of publications. When I see interesting articles, I'll post links to them in this new "Digital Deadline" section of RF Report. Here's a sampling of articles I found while researching this week's RF Report.
Rob Pegoraro begins his article Counting Down to the Digital Deadline in the Washington Post with this warning: "TV as most people have known it has a little more than two years to live." Pegoraro tells readers that they don't need a "$1,500 plasma screen and a $100-a-month cable or satellite subscription" to keep watching TV. He explains that with a digital tuner, viewers can have a perfect picture for free. The article encourages people to try digital TV and take advantage of the extra, digital-only channels such as NBC's Weather Plus and the many specialized channels PBS affiliate WETA-TV is offering in the Washington D.C. area.

EDN technical editor Brian Dipert describes his problems receiving KTXL-DT in his blog Brian's Brain. His experience is an example of the "all or nothing" nature of DTV reception. It will be interesting to see if he's able to resolve the reception problem. Are the problems caused by reflections/multipath, the KTXL antenna pattern, or simply too much signal? I examined a case of poor analog TV reception in a Boston neighborhood and found an area where the signal would fade in and out roughly every block. The situation was obviously caused by some form of multipath or reflection, as different channels at slightly different locations on the Prudential Tower would not fade at the same time. Of course, antennas side-mounted on a tower, or in close proximity to reflective surfaces, will not have the nice smooth pattern you see on the manufacturer's data sheet.

Roy Mark, writing on the Internetnews.com Web site outlines efforts by the High Tech DTV Coalition to discourage lawmakers from delaying the Feb. 17, 2009 DTV transition date in the article Coalition Pushes for DTV Transition. Additional information is available at www.DTVCoalition.com, although the latest news release on the Web site as of Wednesday was dated Feb. 1, 2006.

http://www.tvtechnology.com/pages/s.0115/t.899.html

foxeng

01-27-07, 12:04 PM

TV Technology Email Newsletters :: Doug Lung's RF Report

DTV Station Status

January 25, 2007

DTV Station Status per FCC CDBS - Jan. 22, 2007:
LICENSED (LIC): 1043 (+3)
CONSTRUCTION PERMIT (CP): 401 (-0-)
CP Modification (CP MOD): 372 (-2)
STA (All variations): 1057 (+9)
STA (Modifications): 169 (+1)
APPLICATIONS (minus rule making and channel/service elections): 226 (+1)
Rule making - Digital channel changes
PENDING APPLICATIONS: 20 (-0-)
GRANTS: 155 (-0-)

(Change from Jan. 9, 2006 listing)

Note: These totals do not include digital class A TV, low power TV or TV translator entries. The total will be greater than the number of DTV stations as some stations have licenses, construction permits and applications on file. Some stations also have licenses, construction permits or applications for backup facilities (auxiliary broadcast). Subtracting the STA Modification number from the number in STA (All variations) will give a more accurate indication of the number of DTV stations operating under STA, although STA records sometimes remain in the CDBS after the licensed facility is operational.

A spreadsheet showing all current DTV entries in the FCC CDBS TV engineering database files may be downloaded from www.xmtr.com/fcc/dtvdb.zip. CDBS database files used for the spreadsheets carry a date of Jan. 22, 2007. The entire TV engineering database (file is more than 2 MB) extracted from the CDBS will be available from www.xmtr.com/fcc/tvdb.zip on or before Friday.

http://www.tvtechnology.com/pages/s.0115/t.901.html

foxeng

01-27-07, 12:07 PM

TV Technology Email Newsletters :: Doug Lung's RF Report

TV Stations Agree to Accept MediaFLO Interference

January 25, 2007

Qualcomm, which heavily promoted its new MediaFLO broadcast service for cell phones at CES, received permission from the FCC to expand its service on TV Channel 55 in two markets after broadcasters in nearby markets agreed to accept higher levels of interference than Part 27 of the FCC rules would otherwise permit.
Gocom Media of Ill., the licensee of Fox affiliate WRSP-TV, analog Channel 55 in Springfield, Ill., agreed to accept potential interference to 5.7 percent of the population in the station's licensed Grade B contour from Qualcomm's Channel 55 system in the St. Louis area. Only 0.36 percent of the predicted interference is to viewers in the Champaign-Springfield-Decatur DMA. The rest is to viewers that reside within the St. Louis DMA and receive service from the Fox affiliate, KTVI, in St. Louis.

Nexstar Broadcasting Inc., licensee of NBC affiliate WHAG-DT, Channel 55 in Hagerstown, Md. agreed to accept potential interference from Qualcomm's system in the Norfolk/Richmond Va. area to 2.31 percent of the population inside the noise limited contour of the facilities authorized in WHAG-DT's construction permit. The FCC noted that "most of the area of agreed-upon interference is served by other NBC affiliates." It said almost half the affected viewers reside within the Harrisburg-Lancaster-Lebanon-York Pa. or Baltimore, Md. DMA and receive service from other NBC affiliates. Of the remaining viewers, they will be able to receive local NBC service from WHAG-TV's analog transmitter or from NBC affiliates in adjacent markets.

In approving the interference agreements, the FCC cited benefits including transmission of emergency information and local programming on Qualcomm's system. For details, see the FCC letters approving the WRSP-TV agreement (DA 07-121) and the WHAG-DT agreement (DA 07-122).

http://www.tvtechnology.com/pages/s.0115/t.894.html

foxeng

01-27-07, 12:09 PM

January 25, 2007

NFL Network Plans 63 Hours of HD Super Bowl Coverage
Super Bowl Trimmings Served Up in High Definition

During the Television Critics Association's press tour earlier this month, reporters asked CBS Sports executives why they were airing six hours of pre-game Super Bowl coverage.

"Isn't that excessive?" reporters asked.

The NFL Network, however, has Super Bowl coverage plans that not only easily overshadow those of CBS, but just might set a record for the number of hours dedicated in advance to covering a single football game.

The NFL Network will offer more than 100 hours of Super Bowl XLI coverage, 63 hours of which will be in high definition.

The commitment is all the more striking considering the NFL Network cannot air the actual Super Bowl. The situation reflects the adolescent stage of HD's development in the U.S., with high-definition stuck between its childhood as a niche product embraced by early-adopting TV geeks and a mature mass market with a full menu of content.

NFL Network will have 21 anchors and analysts camped in five South Florida locations; coverage of every NFL press conference; live pre- and post- game shows; a special performance by half-time act Prince and Cirque de Soleil, and airing of four previous Super Bowl games.

Instead of the actual Super Bowl, the network will carry statistics from the live game.

The NFL Network was launched by the football league in 2003.

This article is part of TVWeek.com's High Definition Newsletter, a weekly source of breaking HD news, articles and interviews written by Senior Reporter James Hibberd.

http://www.tvweek.com/page.cms?pageId=521

foxeng

01-27-07, 12:11 PM

January 25, 2007

HD Survey: Screen Size Matters to Men
Women More Interested in Sound Quality

A Best Buy survey showed that men are more concerned about television screen size, while women are more concerned about sound quality.

The survey, conducted in December by Best Buy and Omnitel, questioned more than 1,000 people about their attitudes regarding home theater.

The results of the study may prove useful to marketers trying to sell HD sets. Currently more than half of TV purchases are high-definition models, with men buying most of the HD sets.

In the survey, 74 percent of women thought sound quality was "very important" while only 54 percent of men held the same opinion. When asked if bigger televisions are always better, 37 percent of men agreed while only 32 percent of women did.

Other splits between the sexes were found in ease of use, price and whether a flat-panel television should be hung on the wall.

When asked the importance of ease of use, 67 percent of women deemed ease "very important" compared to 45 percent of men. Price was considered key to 69 percent of women versus 50 percent of men. And having a flat panel hung on the wall with the wires hidden was important to 43 percent of women compared to 37 percent of men.

This article is part of TVWeek.com's High Definition Newsletter, a weekly source of breaking HD news, articles and interviews written by Senior Reporter James Hibberd.

http://www.tvweek.com/page.cms?pageId=523

HDTVChallenged

01-27-07, 12:21 PM

Then your beef is really with cable, not with the broadcasters. Cable has been getting the broadcast stations for free for years and that hasn't stopped them from raising cable rates every year for over 20 years. "

Nope my beef is squarely where it belongs ... as much as I hate cable, I hate (some of) my local stations even more ... especially the one that pretends to be a CBS/CW affiliate, unless there's some meaningless HS or College basketball game they can use to preempt primetime programming. ;) :)

There are not enough of you to support that kind of OTA. If there were, I am sure we would be doing that already.

ROTFL .... So the all that broadcaster angst over the evil DNS threat was a figment of my imagination? Get your stories straight. :)

I think the current Sinclair/Mediacom issue has now, once and for all, shot that theory all to hell. People ARE going to where the channels are they want, via sat or OTA if Mediacom has dropped a broadcast channel they want (they do it all the time for HD, we hear about it here WAY too often).

On the contrary, it just proves that Sinclair has figured out how to play one retranmission provider against another. It says nothing about the intrinsic value of standalone OTA. The people have already spoken loudly and clearly, "We hate antennas ... and we'll do just about anything to avoid putting one up."

PS: Why should Sinclair run to mommy FCC/Congress? They've already extracted the legislation needed to tilt the field overwhelmingly to their advantage. :D

fredfa

01-27-07, 12:45 PM

It seems that what will happen eventually -- and probably sooner than later -- is that (at least in O&O markets) the networks will enable viewers to see programs whenever they want.

Whether it is some kind of VOD or a separate time zone's feed (if you want to pay for it) you'll be able to get it.

Some CBS stations have already done this sort of thing in the past by broadcasting other regional NCAA tournament games on their current side channels.

fredfa

01-27-07, 12:52 PM

Friday’s 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

01-27-07, 01:10 PM

Technology Notebook
Gates: Internet About to Revolutionize TV Viewing
By Ben Hirschler Reuters January 27, 2007

DAVOS, Switzerland - The Internet is set to revolutionize television within five years, due to an explosion of online video content and the merging of PCs and TV sets, Microsoft chairman Bill Gates said on Saturday.

"I'm stunned how people aren't seeing that with TV, in five years from now, people will laugh at what we've had," he told business leaders and politicians at the World Economic Forum.

http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=businessNews&storyid=2007-01-27T160433Z_01_L27910975_RTRUKOC_0_US-DAVOS-INTERNET-TV.xml&src=rss&rpc=23

fredfa

01-27-07, 01:36 PM

TV Sports
CBS at Super Bowl XLI:
“No Trick Plays
By Glen Dickson Broadcasting & Cable 1/29/2007

Although the biggest NFL game of the year is often a place for networks to introduce the latest production gizmos, for Super Bowl XLI, CBS is keeping it simple.

That is, if deploying some 500 staffers, positioning 47 HD cameras and replacing the lights at Miami's Dolphin Stadium is keeping it simple.

To be sure, the scope of CBS' Super Bowl production in Miami on Feb. 4 is typically immense—evidenced by multiple production trucks provided by vendors NEP, Coreplex and New Century Productions with sophisticated replay, graphics and audio units. But there won't be anything radically new for the matchup between the Indianapolis Colts and New Orleans Saints—just a lot of state-of-the-art equipment, all in one place.

"We want to make sure we're putting the game first," says Tony Petitti, executive VP/executive producer, CBS Sports. "It's not about using any one camera or how many replays you do. It's really about letting the game happen and not trying to force any plan you have onto the game."

For example, he says, CBS may be forced to use fewer replays than usual when the Colts are on offense because quarterback Peyton Manning often uses a no-huddle attack that speeds the pace of the game.

One gizmo that won't be seen is the CBS Eye Vision system that gives viewers a 360-degree look at replays. CBS used it in 2001 and 2004 but decided it was prohibitively expensive to do in standard-definition, much less HD.

"That technology is old, but it never really matured just because of the flat-out cost," explains Ken Aagaard, senior VP of operations and production services for CBS Sports. "The system costs over $2 million to build and $400,000-$500,000 to move." It wasn't hi-def, and he decided it wasn't worth it.

This year, CBS will deploy the latest super-slow-motion technology. That includes three ultra-high-frame-rate cameras capable of capturing hundreds of frames per second: two NAC Image Technology units that shoot at 300 frames per second and a Phantom camera that can capture 2,000 frames per second, manufactured by Vision Research Inc.

Such "overcranking" by the camera allows a slo-mo replay that can document a player's motion in pain-staking detail. It was good to have in CBS' playoff coverage, used to replay a critical third-down catch in the Colts' divisional win over the San Diego Chargers.

CBS will also use six of Sony's latest-generation super-slo-mo camera systems, four hard-wired units and two handhelds, a technology it used successfully during the regular season.

Aagaard has been planning the Super Bowl XLI production for a year and a half, holding weekly meetings for the past year. CBS wants to be prepared. Aagaard wants no surprises come Super Sunday, when more than 90 million viewers are likely to be watching.

"We made the determination early on that whatever we were going to introduce in the Super Bowl was something we were going to introduce in the season," says Aagaard. "We've probably added five or six more camera positions than before, for angles down the end-zone lines and sidelines. We have various angles, so we don't miss a guy stepping out of bounds. There are going to be lot of cameras that will never get on the air; you just don't know which cameras they will be."

A huge stockpile of gear

The nine cameras dedicated to slow-motion replay applications are just a start.

CBS will have 21 hard (or wired) cameras, three cabled handheld cameras, two wireless handheld cameras, one wireless Steadycam camera, one CableCam camera, two robotic goalpost cameras, two robotic "coaches' cameras," two talent-booth cameras, one unmanned camera for inside beauty shots, one robotic camera atop a tower at CBS-owned WFOR Miami for outside shots, two clock cameras and a spare hard camera.

CBS will also use seven cameras to calibrate the virtual–first-down technology provided by Princeton Video Image, compared with the usual three.

Other key equipment for the game includes two Chapman sideline vehicles, six HD videotape decks, 18 EVS multi-camera edit/replay devices, six EVS super-slow-motion replay devices, one tape-based linear edit suite, three VizRT graphics systems, and eight parabolic wireless microphones.

Because signal interference is always a problem at massive sports events like the Super Bowl, CBS tries to keep the use of wireless camera units to a minimum. That explains the high percentage of cabled units.

"If I could use no wireless, I would," says Aagaard, "but you need to give the guys some freedom."

In pure tonnage, the equipment CBS devotes to this game is mind-boggling. For example, just for the Super Bowl Today pregame show, which will use an outside set and a main set inside the stadium, CBS will dedicate 21 cameras. In addition, the pregame show will utilize seven HD tape decks, seven EVS replay units, two linear edit suites, five Avid nonlinear editing suites, five VizRT graphics systems, and two roving satellite newsgathering (SNG) trucks.

The camera count at Dolphin Stadium includes two cabled cameras on jibs, one fixed-wing–aircraft camera and four robotic cameras in the hallways leading to the team's locker rooms.

"We're plastered [with cameras]," says Aagaard.

Adequate light is critical to the performance of the ultra-high-frame-rate cameras. So CBS technicians got to work replacing the existing lighting configuration at Dolphin Stadium with a more powerful one.

"We're relighting it with a different scheme," says Aagaard. "The existing lights were an older system, and they weren't giving us the foot-candles [a lighting metric] that we needed."

That attention to detail extends to processing the 5.1-channel Dolby Digital audio, which remains intact for HD viewers and is down-mixed to stereo for analog viewers.

A new development for CBS' high-definition NFL coverage this season was that, in addition to producing everything on-site in HD, it also relied on a single high-definition transmission path back to the CBS Broadcast Center in New York, where the signal is then downconverted to support standard-definition analog broadcasts. The network will employ the same approach for the Super Bowl, although, of course, it will have multiple satellite and fiber paths (four outbound and two returns) for redundancy.

"It's the Super Bowl, so there is no stone unturned," says Aagaard.

This is the 18th Super Bowl for Aagaard, who worked at NBC and as an independent consultant before joining CBS. Surprisingly, he says, "It's not necessarily the biggest event we do. From an operation and technical point of view, nothing is bigger than the NCAA tournament."

But, he adds, "every time the Super Bowl happens, it's the largest audience for a single event, every year. The most important thing is to try to handle the pressure in a constructive way. You've got 400-500 people, and you've got to keep everybody calm. At the end, it's still a game."

http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6410623.html?display=Feature

fredfa

01-27-07, 02:36 PM

Critic’s Notebook
“Knight” Fall
By Roger Catlin Hartford Courant TV Critic in his “TV Eye” blog

So far, no contestant has tried to sing a Rolling Stones song. But Mick Jagger still can’t compete against “American Idol.” So “The Knights of Prosperity,” the comedy once titled “Let’s Rob Mick Jagger” is being moved out of the way of the reality show juggernaut so it won’t continue to be squashed in the ratings, as it has been the last couple of weeks.

“Knights,” which stars Donal Logue as thehead of a mismatched would-be crime gang with Jagger as their target, will move to 8:30 p.m., just after “George Lopez.” It switches places with the longtime “According to Jim” that may be better able to go head to head with TV’s most popular show Wednesdays at 9 p.m.

Left hanging against “Idol” will be the other new comedy introduced this season, “In Case of Emergency,” which may need a ride to the emergency room itself after Simon Cowell and others run them over at 9:30 p.m. (at least until the 9 p.m.”Idol” becomes a half hour show weeks from now).
ABC originally planned to offer “Knights” as part of its fall lineup, but ultimately decided to save it for midseason so it would have a better chance of standing out. But giving the new show some traction for at least a couple of weeks before “Idol” meant putting it on just two days after New Year’s, when most people haven’t really settled back to TV watching yet.

“Knights” averaged about 6 million its first two weeks, only to fall to 4 million against “Idol,” which has been surging past 30 million in each episode. Aside from the first episode, Jagger hasn’t had much to do with the show. E Online reports that the writers have been informed that the plug is pulled on “Knights” with nothing past the initial 13 episodes ordered. But if Donal Lugue is on the job you know he’s cooking up a caper against that.

http://blogs.courant.com/roger_catlin_tv_eye/

michaelk

01-27-07, 02:46 PM

TVT Newsbytes :: Top Story

House Republicans Revisit DTV Education

... The prescribed language is as follows:

"This TV has only an analog broadcast tuner and will require a converter box after February 17, 2009, to receive over-the-air broadcasts with an antenna because of the nation's transition to digital broadcasting. The TV should continue to work as before with cable and satellite TV services, gaming consoles, VCRs, DVD players, and similar products."...

http://www.tvtechnology.com/pages/s.0014/t.932.html

so they are forcing cable to convert DTV to NTSC at the head end for people with older TV's?

1) I thought there was a dispute if that was even allowed?

2) I'm sure most cable company's will want that but what about the ones that plan to go all digital at the shutdown. The FCC is actively cajoling cable company's to go all digital by dangling integration ban waivers as a reward...

foxeng

01-27-07, 03:18 PM

Nope my beef is squarely where it belongs ... as much as I hate cable, I hate (some of) my local stations even more ... especially the one that pretends to be a CBS/CW affiliate, unless there's some meaningless HS or College basketball game they can use to preempt primetime programming. ;) :)

Then I would rather not be tarred and feathered along with a small number of broadcasters that you have a personal vendetta with because I know not all of us are like that.

ROTFL .... So the all that broadcaster angst over the evil DNS threat was a figment of my imagination? Get your stories straight. :)

DNS has NOTHING to do with this. This is about cable NOT about sat. Justing trying to confuse issues doesn't make your point since you haven't proved any evidence to support your position. All you have made here are opinions disgusted as fact.

On the contrary, it just proves that Sinclair has figured out how to play one retranmission provider against another. It says nothing about the intrinsic value of standalone OTA. The people have already spoken loudly and clearly, "We hate antennas ... and we'll do just about anything to avoid putting one up."

Well obviously people HAVEN'T decided according to this:

Mediacom, on the other hand, is believed to be bleeding subscribers. Rich Greenfield of Pali Research estimates that the cable company could be losing up to 5,000 subscribers a week.

"We find it hard to believe that Mediacom management does not recognize how poor its negotiating position is relative to Sinclair," Greenfield said.

Got any more opinions I can shoot down with facts?

PS: Why should Sinclair run to mommy FCC/Congress? They've already extracted the legislation needed to tilt the field overwhelmingly to their advantage. :D

Another opinion and irrelevant.

I am now finished. There is nothing left to tbe gained on this topic on this thread. Reply away to your hearts content.

fredfa

01-27-07, 03:28 PM

PLEASE!!!!

Let's not turn any discussion in this thread into a personal attack -- no matter how subtle.

There are no personal vendettas here, just differences of opinion. And what is opinion to some is fact to you. (Greenfield's statement, "We find it hard to believe that Mediacom management does not recognize how poor its negotiating position is relative to Sinclair," of course, is his opinion, not a fact. As is "Mediacom is believed to be bleeding subscribers...")

Make no mistake: spirited, lively discussions are always welcome here.

But personal attacks are not.

There are plenty of other threads where such "entertainment" is welcome (I'd suggest the Mediacom/Sinclair thread for the best of such posts) but this is not one of them.

So say what you like. Denegrate the other person's analysis or opinion. Dispute his or her facts. But stay away from anything that even smells like a personal attack.

fredfa

01-27-07, 03:41 PM

The Business of TV
TV Sales Expecting Super Zoom
Retail Group Expects 2.5 Million HD TVs to be Sold Before Big Day
(National Retail Federation News Release)

Consumers will be seeing the Super Bowl action more clearly this year as the high-def buying frenzy continues. According to the Retail Advertising and Marketing Association’s (RAMA) 2007 Super Bowl Consumer Intentions and Actions Survey, more consumers plan to take advantage of retailers’ promotions of high-definition televisions for game day. In fact, 2.5 million consumers plan to purchase a new television for Super Bowl Sunday, up from the 1.7 million who said they would last year.

The survey found that consumers plan on spending an average of $56.04 on Super Bowl-related merchandise, up from last year’s $36.78. Total spending for the February 4 Super Bowl is expected to reach $8.7 billion.

“The Super Bowl is more than just a game – it’s a chance for companies to attract new customers by being creative, and often outlandish, in their advertisements,” said RAMA Executive Director Mike Gatti. “After an incredibly promotional holiday season, consumers can expect big sales on Super Bowl-related merchandise until game day.”

According to the survey, 69.7 percent of consumers plan to celebrate the Super Bowl, compared with 65.9 percent last year. Of those that will be celebrating, 69.3 percent will be purchasing food and beverages and 6.3 percent will buy team apparel and accessories. In anticipation of the big day, 1.3 million consumers plan to buy new furniture, including new home entertainment centers.

The survey also found that more people plan on throwing a party this year than last year (12.8% vs. 9.8%), and more people will be attending those parties (26.8% vs. 24.3% in 2006). Additionally, 9.2 million people plan to watch the game from a restaurant or bar.

“The interest in this year’s Super Bowl is higher than in many other years, so retailers have an opportunity to win big with sales of electronics, team apparel, and food,” stated Phil Rist, Vice President of Strategy at BIGresearch. “As the price of flat-screen televisions continues to decrease, they are becoming more affordable for average consumers, which is contributing to an increase in TV sales.”

While Americans say the game itself is still the most important part of the Super Bowl (32.1%), more than 40 million consumers (18.1%) said they will tune in because of the commercials. The 18-24 (22.2%) and 25-34 (26.3%) year-old age groups will be most likely to pay attention to the advertisements, compared to last year when 18.5 percent and 19.3 percent respectively said the commercials were most important.

harley1

01-27-07, 04:17 PM

Found the numbers for The NHL All Star Game on VS and they are really bad.

Notebook: Versus a good choice for league, NHL commissioner says

Karen Price

NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said on Tuesday that he still believes the league's decision to go with Versus as its broadcasting partner was the right one.

But according to Sports Business Daily, viewership of Wednesday's All-Star Game dropped an amazing 76.1 percent from the last All-Star Game in 2004, shown on ABC on a Sunday afternoon.

According to the Nielsen ratings, only 474,298 households tuned into the game, compared to 1,985,000 in 2004.

It was the first All-Star Game played since the league canceled the 2004-05 season because of the lockout. There was no game last season because the league broke for two weeks for the Olympics in February.

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/sports/penguins/s_490556.html

fredfa

01-27-07, 04:37 PM

sorry you missed it, harley1 -- I posted the All-Star ratings yesterday here:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=9593917&&#post9593917

dad1153

01-27-07, 04:50 PM

Notebook: Versus a good choice for league, NHL commissioner says

But according to Sports Business Daily, viewership of Wednesday's All-Star Game dropped an amazing 76.1 percent from the last All-Star Game in 2004, shown on ABC on a Sunday afternoon.

According to the Nielsen ratings, only 474,298 households tuned into the game, compared to 1,985,000 in 2004.

NHL might be the only sport that has more TV viewers collectively watching highlights of it on other shows/stations ('Sports Center,' all the late local news' sports sections, RSN recap shows, etc.) than actually tuning in to watch a televised game. Seriously, if the NHL were a primetime show with HS football players on NBC even Kevin Reilly would have cancelled it by now! :rolleyes:

BTW Fred, why don't you post the story about ABC and the low-rated ice skating events from the other thread (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=795697) on this one? It's about televised sports and the ratings of a once-prestige event taking a tumbling, I believe it belongs here. Then again what do I know about what should or shouldn't be posted here? :(

AAF

01-27-07, 05:58 PM

As a conservative, it hurts me to say this (because we're evil don't you know?), but we need more love in this thread.

To quote Mr. King, "I just want to say, you know, can we all get along?"

dad1153

01-27-07, 06:30 PM

fredfa

01-27-07, 06:38 PM

NHL might be the only sport that has more TV viewers collectively watching highlights of it on other shows/stations ('Sports Center,' all the late local news' sports sections, RSN recap shows, etc.) than actually tuning in to watch a televised game. Seriously, if the NHL were a primetime show with HS football players on NBC even Kevin Reilly would have cancelled it by now! :rolleyes:

BTW Fred, why don't you post the story about ABC and the low-rated ice skating events from the other thread (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=795697) on this one? It's about televised sports and the ratings of a once-prestige event taking a tumbling, I believe it belongs here. Then again what do I know about what should or shouldn't be posted here? :(

OK, to your very first point: obviously all sports (with the possible exception of the Super Bowl) have more people watching highlights (on the local news, ESPN, the RSNs, etc.) than watching the games themselves.

Secondly: I posted an item in a thread specifically talking about why ABC wouldn't broadcast the US Figure Skating finals in HD.

Since no one really watches figure skating, I didn't think it demanded to be posted here. The post went in the thread where there was evident interest.

If you think it belongs somewhere, start a thread and post away

DoubleDAZ

01-27-07, 06:45 PM

And how was the snow? I just got back from Missouri and have seen enough for a couple more years.The snow was hard and crusty, but really quite beautiful. We wanted to drive along the Mogollon Rom, b ut they don't service the forest roads up there until spring. :(

So, we filled the day with an old-time greasy-spoon lunch and a tour of the Zane Grey Museum and replica Cabin. It's a small-town, kind of hokey museum, but quite nice for what it is. Zane Grey hunted bear every year in the area and built a small cabin beneath The Rim. It burned down 10 years ago in the Dude fire, so they relocated it to the town park and rebuilt it to the same specs. They salvaged a lot of stuff and were able to get loaners from collectors for stuff that was lost in the fire. They have a map that shows the locations of many of the spots he mentioned in his books, complete with a picture and the book reference.

fredfa

01-27-07, 07:00 PM

To AAF: UHHHH??!! :confused: What are you talking about dude? Fred has kept a pretty tight leash on those of us that would like this thread to reflect the media/TV critic's coverage of the cable news channels (Olberman's rising star at MSNBC, O'Reilly versus the TV critics -which he did again big time last week-, CNN's increasing irrelevance, etc.). Notice, for example, how few posts Fred did on the new HBO Alexandra Pelosi documentary about Southern church goers. I counted six or seven really good reviews that could have made for interesting reads for TV-loving folks. I would have posted them here but Fred chose to ignore most of them (as is his prerogative as the grand poobah of AVS Forum). If anything this thread is a safe heaven for TV-loving conservatives like you AAF that just want to breath TV amongst friends. And you're not evil AAF, just forgetful about putting the toilet lid down. Happens to the best of us! :D

A tight leash? Only on one person in the life of this thread.

And, as I have attempted to explain to you on numerous occasions, getting into the subjects of O'Reilly/Olbermann/Hannity/Colbert/Stewart, etc. just arouses partisan passions. (And aside from O'Reilly and Hannity, they get written about far more than they get watched.) I post cable news ratings on occasion, (usually the hourlies once a month or so) and if any of the networks hits the top ten it gets mentioned in the various weekly cable ratings roundup.

As for Ms. Pelosi's documentary, the reviews were decidedly mixed -- and again about a topic which only stirs deep passions. I found some which thought her program was good, many which thought it bad. The reviews seemed to run pretty much down (surprise!) a very obvious political divide. By the way, I did watch it.

As I have repeatedly told you in literally dozens of PMs in the past few months, I have opted to generally stay away from routinely posting stories which would serve to do little more than incite political debate in the thread.

I am sorry you feel this thread is a safe haven for conservatives. It has been pretty carefully designed to be a safe haven for those who really enjoy TV, want to learn more about it, and are curious about proigramming -- most especially prime time HD network programming.

Personally, I find your assertion groundless, more than a bit spiteful, and I believe it is difficult to discern my personal political leanings by reading my posts. (Where I a conservative, one would think I would post many, many O'Reilly/Hannity/FNC items.)

But this is a HD forum and this thread has been given extreme latitude to cover the entire breadth of television. You have told us you don't have an HDTV, and you have told us (again and again) that your main interests are in some niche channels.

I have always been concerned here with the civility of the posters, and hopefully alerting people to new shows thye might enjoy watching and what is going on in the business of TV which could have some effect on what they watch.

Many readers post items I had seen and decided not to post. In some (rare) cases I PM them and have discussed my feelings. But no one aside from you in 2 1/2 years has continually ignored the tone of the thread, the intent of the thread, the spirit of the thread and even the very civility of the thread with the needless abandon -- and seeming joyfulness -- you constantly exhibit.

This contentiousness adds nothing of any value to the thread, so if for any reason you wish to continue it, please do it privately via PM -- where this discussion belongs.

fredfa

01-27-07, 07:02 PM

The snow was hard and crusty, but really quite beautiful. We wanted to drive along the Mogollon Rom, but they don't service the forest roads up there until spring. :(

So, we filled the day with an old-time greasy-spoon lunch and a tour of the Zane Grey Museum and replica Cabin. It's a small-town, kind of hokey museum, but quite nice for what it is. Zane Grey hunted bear every year in the area and built a small cabin beneath The Rim. It burned down 10 years ago in the Dude fire, so they relocated it to the town park and rebuilt it to the same specs. They salvaged a lot of stuff and were able to get loaners from collectors for stuff that was lost in the fire. They have a map that shows the locations of many of the spots he mentioned in his books, complete with a picture and the book reference.

I know the area well -- I have some property in Payson -- so if you ever are in the mood for a round of golf, we should get together. That is truly gorgeous country!

(This year if I get to Pheonix for spring training, I promise to call,)

DoubleDAZ

01-27-07, 07:49 PM

I know the area well -- I have some property in Payson -- so if you ever are in the mood for a round of golf, we should get together. That is truly gorgeous country!

(This year if I get to Phoenix for spring training, I promise to call,)Unfortunately, I don't golf, but if you come over and have some time, maybe we can arrange to get together on one of my days off for lunch or something. Payson is certainly beautiful and we try to explore new areas between there and Show Low every chance we get. I assume you've been up on The Rim, General Crook's Trail that follows along all the way to Wood's Canyon Lake and beyond. Some of the lookouts are spectacular, but it is windy. :)

FWIW, I never thought this thread was a bastion for conservatives, if anything, just the opposite. I completely understand your desire to limit posts that will only serve to inflame partisianship and I think you've done a good job posting articles that provide some interest for the intended topic. The Sinclair stuff shows just how one topic can tend to take over when there really is no solution. We have our opinions and not much can be said by either side to change them, so it's kind of a waste and limiting the discussion lets us focus on TV News and Info. Keep up the great work!

AAF

01-27-07, 08:01 PM

Okay. My attempt at a little humor went awry. Fredfa does yeoman work keeping this thread on track.

(more love, less bickering, and dad that includes no less than subtle shots at Fredfa)

dad1153

01-27-07, 08:20 PM

OK! :cool:

grittree

01-27-07, 08:38 PM

so they are forcing cable to convert DTV to NTSC at the head end for people with older TV's?

1) I thought there was a dispute if that was even allowed?

2) I'm sure most cable company's will want that but what about the ones that plan to go all digital at the shutdown. The FCC is actively cajoling cable company's to go all digital by dangling integration ban waivers as a reward...

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought the cablecos can go all digital. All that would happen is you couldn't plug the cable into a cable-ready analog tuner. Just need a STB like the ones already in use which do that now.

keenan

01-27-07, 08:58 PM

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought the cablecos can go all digital. All that would happen is you couldn't plug the cable into a cable-ready analog tuner. Just need a STB like the ones already in use which do that now.
True, but that's about 50 to 100 million TVs that would need converter boxes, not a small sum of money, especially since these subs tend to have the lower paying packages(Basic, Expanded Basic, etc.).

kjpjr

01-27-07, 08:58 PM

As one who considers himself, and has been told he is, the most liberal person in the world I think Fred goes a great job! I read this post every day and find it most informative. Now as for politics ....................:)

dad1153

01-27-07, 09:16 PM

As one who considers himself, and has been told he is, the most liberal person in the world...

How dare you? (walks over to kjpjr, takes glove off and slaps him across the face) Your choice: nerf balls, lazer tag or paint ball. See you tomorrow at the waterfront, high noon. For honor's sake! :o

Davinleeds

01-27-07, 09:32 PM

Fred, I need some info on what is good to watch. At eleven, Star Trek is on CW. What's a well rated after hours weekend show? Thanks.

fredfa

01-27-07, 10:24 PM

I am not an expert on late night Sat TV, dave.

There is MADTV on Fox, followed by Spike Feresten...and SNL of course...most of the rest is syndicated and will depend on your local market.

I use Saturdays to catch on on my DVR stuff and maybe some DVDs.

GeorgeLV

01-27-07, 10:54 PM

Fred, I need some info on what is good to watch. At eleven, Star Trek is on CW. What's a well rated after hours weekend show? Thanks.

Since you're on the east coast, if you have Universal HD, you might want to catch the 12am reair of Battlestar Galactica.

jtbell

01-27-07, 10:58 PM

As fredfa noted, you're mostly at the mercy of your local stations' programmers on weekends after prime time. Even your Star Trek was put in its time slot by local programmers. It's not a CW program, although many stations showing it do happen to be CW stations. Of the two stations that show Star Trek in my area (both CW), one has it at 8pm Saturday and 3pm Sunday; the other has it at 4pm Sunday.

DoubleDAZ

01-27-07, 10:59 PM

True, but that's about 50 to 100 million TVs that would need converter boxes, not a small sum of money, especially since these subs tend to have the lower paying packages(Basic, Expanded Basic, etc.).Let's not forget those of us who have bedroom TVs that are still SD, but with higher priced packages. Even though I currently only watch expanded basic in the bedroom, I wouldn't have any problem getting a digital tuner if it means doing away with analogs and freeing up space for more HD. I've heard that new subs here get a digital tuner whether they want one or not. Of course, I believe Phoenix has a very high digital subscriber base. which requires a tuner in the first place.

fredfa

01-27-07, 11:28 PM

(Another) Reminder:

The Screen Actors Guild Awards will be presented Sunday night (8 PM ET TBS and TNT).

As has become the norm for major TV award presentations, "Hot Off The Press" will post a running list of the television category winners throughout the show.

No need for you to stay glued to the thread -- just check in during commercial breaks of your favorite Sunday night programs to get caught up on who is winning.

Screen Actors Guild TV Award Nominations

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Television Movie or Miniseries
Thomas Haden Church / BROKEN TRAIL – Tom Harte - AMC
Robert Duvall / BROKEN TRAIL – Print Ritter - AMC
Jeremy Irons / ELIZABETH I – Earl of Leicester - HBO
William H. Macy / NIGHTMARES & DREAMSCAPES – Clyde Umney - TNT
Matthew Perry / THE RON CLARK STORY – Ron Clark - TNT

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Television Movie or Miniseries
Annette Bening / MRS. HARRIS – Jean Harris - HBO
Shirley Jones / HIDDEN PLACES – Aunt Batty - Hallmark Channel
Cloris Leachman / MRS. HARRIS – Tarnower’s Sister - HBO
Helen Mirren / ELIZABETH I – Elizabeth I - HBO
Greta Scacchi / BROKEN TRAIL – Nola Johns - AMC

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama Series
James Gandolfini / THE SOPRANOS – Tony Soprano - HBO
Michael C. Hall / DEXTER – Dexter Morgan - Showtime
Hugh Laurie / HOUSE – Dr. Gregory House - FOX
James Spader / BOSTON LEGAL – Alan Shore - ABC
Kiefer Sutherland / 24 – Jack Bauer - FOX

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series
Patricia Arquette / MEDIUM – Allison Dubois - NBC
Edie Falco / THE SOPRANOS – Carmela Soprano - HBO
Mariska Hargitay / LAW & ORDER: SPECIAL VICTIMS UNIT – Det. Olivia Benson - NBC
Kyra Sedgwick / THE CLOSER – Deputy Chief Brenda Johnson - TNT
Chandra Wilson / GREY’S ANATOMY – Dr. Miranda Bailey - ABC

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Comedy Series
Alec Baldwin / 30 ROCK – Jack Donaghy - NBC
Steve Carell / THE OFFICE – Michael Scott - NBC
Jason Lee / MY NAME IS EARL – Earl Hicke - NBC
Jeremy Piven / ENTOURAGE – Ari Gold - HBO
Tony Shalhoub / MONK – Adrian Monk - USA

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series
America Ferrera / UGLY BETTY – Betty Suarez - ABC
Felicity Huffman / DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES – Lynette - ABC
Julia Louis-Dreyfus / THE NEW ADVENTURES OF OLD CHRISTINE – Christine Campbell - CBS
Megan Mullally / WILL & GRACE – Karen Walker - NBC
Mary-Louise Parker / WEEDS – Nancy Botwin - Showtime
Jaime Pressly / MY NAME IS EARL – Joy - NBC

Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series

24 - FOX
Jayne Atkinson - Karen Hayes
Jude Ciccolella - Mike Novic
Roger Cross - Curtis Manning
Gregory Itzin - Charles Logan
Louis Lombardi - Edgar Stiles
James Morrison - Bill Buchanan
Glenn Morshower - Aaron Pierce
Mary Lynn Rajskub - Chloe O’Brian
Kim Raver - Audrey Raines
Jean Smart - Martha Logan
Kiefer Sutherland - Jack Bauer

BOSTON LEGAL - ABC
Rene Auberjonois - Paul Lewiston
Candice Bergen - Shirley Schmidt
Craig Bierko - Jeffrey Coho
Julie Bowen - Denise Bauer
William Shatner - Denny Crane
James Spader - Alan Shore
Mark Valley - Brad Chase

DEADWOOD - HBO
Jim Beaver - Ellsworth
Powers Boothe - Cy Tolliver
Sean Bridgers - Johnny Burns
W. Earl Brown - Dan Dority
Dayton Callie - Charlie Utter
Brian Cox - Jack Langrishe
Kim Dickens - Joanie Stubbs
Brad Dourif - Doc Cochran
Anna Gunn - Martha Bullock
John Hawkes - Sol Starr
Jeffrey Jones - A.W. Merrick
Paula Malcomson - Trixie
Gerald McRaney - George Hearst
Ian McShane - Al Swearengen
Timothy Olyphant - Seth Bullock
Molly Parker - Alma Garret
Leon Rippy - Tom Nuttall
William Sanderson - E.B. Farnum
Brent Sexton - Harry Young
Bree Seanna - WallSofia Metz
Robin Weigert - Calamity Jane
Titus Welliver - Silas Adam

GREY’S ANATOMY - ABC
Justin Chambers - Alex Karev
Eric Dane - Mark Sloan
Patrick Dempsey - Derek Shepherd
Katherine Heigl - Isobel “Izzie” Stevens
T.R. Knight - George O’Malley
Sandra Oh - Cristina Yang
James Pickens, Jr. - Richard Webber
Ellen Pompeo - Meredith Grey
Sara Ramirez - Callie Torres
Kate Walsh - Addison Montgomery Shepherd
Isaiah Washington - Preston Burke
Chandra Wilson - Miranda Bailey

THE SOPRANOS - HBO
Sharon Angela - Rosalie Aprile
Lorraine Bracco - Dr. Jennifer Melfi
Max Casella - Benny Fazio
Dominic Chianese - Corrado “Junior” Soprano
Edie Falco Carmela - Soprano
James Gandolfini - Tony Soprano
Joseph R. Gannascoli - Vito Spatafore
Dan Grimaldi - Patsy Parisi
Robert Iler - Anthony Soprano, Jr.
Michael Imperioli - Christopher Moltisanti
Steven R. Schirripa - Bobby “Bacala” Baccalieri
Jamie Lynn Sigler - Meadow Soprano
Tony Sirico - Paulie “Walnuts” Gaultieri
Aida Turturro - Janice Soprano-Baccalieri
Steven Van Zandt - Silvio Dante
Frank Vincent - Phil Leotardo

Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series

DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES - ABC
Andrea Bowen - Julie Mayer
Mehcad Brooks - Matthew Applewhite
Ricardo Antonio Chavira - Carlos Solis
Marcia Cross - Bree Hodge
James Denton - Mike Delfino
Teri Hatcher - Susan Mayer
Josh Henderson - Austin McCann
Zane Huett - Parker Scavo
Felicity Huffman - Lynette Scavo
Kathryn Joosten - Mrs. McCluskey
Nashawn Kearse - Caleb Applewhite
Brent Kinsman - Preston Scavo
Shane Kinsman - Porter Scavo
Joy Lauren - Danielle Van De Kamp
Eva Longoria - Gabrielle Solis
Kyle MacLachlan - Orson Hodge
Laurie Metcalf - Carolyn Bigsby
Shawn Pyfrom - Andrew Van De Kamp
Doug Savant - Tom Scavo
Dougray Scott - Ian Hainsworth
Nicollette Sheridan - Edie Britt
Brenda Strong - Mary Alice Young
Kiersten Warren - Nora
Alfre Woodard - Betty Applewhite

ENTOURAGE - HBO
Kevin Connolly - Eric Murphy
Kevin Dillon - Drama
Jerry Ferrara - Turtle
Adrian Grenier - Vincent Chase
Rex Lee - Lloyd
Debi Mazar - Shauna
Jeremy Piven- Ari Gold
Perrey Reeves - Mrs. Ari

THE OFFICE - NBC
Leslie David Baker - Stanley Hudson
Brian Baumgartner - Kevin Malone
Steve Carell - Michael Scott
David Denman - Roy Anderson
Jenna Fischer - Pam Beesly
Kate Flannery - Meredith Palmer
Melora Hardin - Jan Levinson
Mindy Kaling - Kelly Kapoor
Angela Kinsey - Angela Martin
John Krasinski - Jim Malpert
Paul Lieberstein - Toby Flenderson
B.J. Novak - Ryan Howard
Oscar Nunez - Oscar Martinez
Phyllis Smith - Phyllis Lapin
Rainn Wilson - Dwight Schrute

UGLY BETTY - ABC
Alan Dale - Bradford Meade
America Ferrera - Betty Suarez
Mark Indelicato - Justin
Ashley Jensen - Christina
Eric Mabius - Daniel Meade
Becki Newton - Amanda
Ana Ortiz - Hilda
Tony Plana - Ignacio
Kevin Sussman - Walter
Michael Urie - Marc
Vanessa Williams - Wilhelmina Slater

WEEDS - SHOWTIME
Martin Donovan - Peter Scottson
Alexander Gould - Shane Botwin
Justin Kirk - Andy Botwin
Romany Malco - Conrad Shepard
Kevin Nealon - Doug Wilson
Mary-Louise Parker - Nancy Botwin
Hunter Parrish - Silas Botwin
Tonye Patano - Heylia Jones
Elizabeth Perkins- Celia Hodes

http://www.sagawards.com/PR_070104.htm

fredfa

01-27-07, 11:33 PM

TV Notebook
After “Larry Sanders”:
Hey Now: It’s Garry Shandling’s Obsession
By Jacques Steinberg The New York Times January 28, 2007

LOS ANGELES--It was almost nine years ago that Larry Sanders, the fictional talk-show host who was a too-close-for-comfort amalgam of Johnny Carson, David Letterman, Jay Leno and Jack Paar, signed off the air. In the final episode of his show (and of the biting HBO series that bore the same name), he perched Carsonesque on a stool in front of a blue curtain and started his farewell monologue.

“To you at home, thank you so much,” he began, choking up. Regaining his composure, he returned his gaze to the audience and continued, “To tell you the truth, I don’t know exactly what I’m going to do without you.”

Larry wasn’t just losing his talk show; he was losing a nightly ego boost, and the security of a shimmering curtain that kept the real world at bay. But what of Garry Shandling, the comedian who not only played Larry but created him and “The Larry Sanders Show”? After a six-year run, what would either of them do without it?

“The Larry Sanders Show” had always straddled a fine line between reality and fiction, with Mr. Shandling encouraging the actors and writers to draw on their own experiences to send up the most unappealing aspects of Hollywood culture. Thus an endless stream of celebrities were recruited to play cartoonish versions of themselves, whether it was Ellen DeGeneres having a fling with Larry while Hollywood buzzed about her sexuality, or Alec Baldwin sleeping with Larry’s wife while the couple were separated, only to be booked later as one of Larry’s guests.

But while the actor and his main character shared more than a few awkward insecurities, Mr. Shandling had never pursued that nightly fix of entertaining millions. As a regular substitute host on “The Tonight Show” in the 1980s, he could have tried to succeed Mr. Carson and was later offered Mr. Letterman’s old job. He declined.

Nonetheless that final “Larry Sanders” monologue proved prescient: Mr. Shandling, now 57, has never entirely moved on. Unlike Jerry Seinfeld, whose television series ended that same spring, Mr. Shandling has not done a stand-up tour. And unlike Bill Cosby, whose “Cosby Show” signed off NBC in 1992 only to be succeeded by “Cosby” on CBS, he has not pursued another series. Meanwhile, as “Larry Sanders” fades from memory, shows like “Curb Your Enthusiasm” and “Entourage” on HBO, and “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip” and “30 Rock” on NBC, have tried to replicate the show-business realism that Mr. Shandling did first and, arguably, best.

Save for two gigs as host of the Emmy Awards and scattered movie roles, Mr. Shandling has kept a low profile. “It’s very similar to — what is it? — the seven stages of grieving,” he said recently, during the first extended interview he had granted in several years. “First there’s the shock,” he said, at ease in a soft leather chair in his living room. “Now I’m going to head for something funny here. Then there’s denial, acceptance and,” he paused, “masturbation.”

As it turns out, the wrenching process of producing as many as 18 episodes a season was so grueling for Mr. Shandling — who was not only the star but also the head writer and so-called show runner — that he never really gave the show a proper goodbye. Meanwhile, in the midst of ending the show, he filed a spectacular lawsuit against his manager, Brad Grey, whom he accused of cheating him.

Hence there was no real wrap party for the cast, and even years later Mr. Shandling was still too exhausted to contribute much to a DVD of episodes from the first season. “It was unfortunate the show couldn’t end with a higher spirit,” he said.

These days Mr. Shandling seems more settled. He spends much of his time boxing (four times a week) or in periodic pickup basketball games at his home. He is financially secure, at least partly as a result of his settlement with Mr. Grey, valued by Mr. Shandling’s lawyer at more than $10 million. His bushy brown hair, so memorable from his early “Tonight” appearances, remains full but is now close-cropped; his face is tan and taut. And he has sought peace in a place Larry never would: the study of Zen Buddhism. He meditates on long, solitary trips to Hawaii or around his sprawling home, with its sloping backyard overlooking a canyon.

“My sense is that this has been a time for Garry of introspection, and, it sounds funny to say about a comedian or comic actor, of real spiritual growth,” said Peter Tolan, a writer and producer who was his longtime collaborator on the show. “He’s in a better place than when we were doing the show.”

Still, Mr. Shandling has lately been tugged by a powerful, almost obsessive desire to go back and revisit the breadth of his “Larry Sanders’’ experience, for the purpose, he said, of finding out both who he was then and how he might give the show, and his role in it, a fitting ending. His vehicle: a DVD set, drawn from all six seasons of “Larry Sanders,” to be released by Sony Pictures on April 17.

Other performers might be content to put out such packages with a few sweeteners, maybe some outtakes and running commentary from the star. But Mr. Shandling has never been like other performers. More than a year ago he set out, hand-held camera crew in tow, to interview virtually everyone connected to the show. There are the series regulars, including Jeffrey Tambor, who played Hank Kingsley (“hey now!”), Larry’s eager-to-please yet quick-to-lash-out sidekick, and Rip Torn, who played Artie, Larry’s fiercely protective executive producer. Mr. Shandling’s camera also found many of the A-list guest stars whom he had goaded into cameos on the original show, including Mr. Seinfeld, Mr. Baldwin, Sharon Stone, David Duchovny, Carol Burnett, Jon Stewart and Tom Petty.

Thus the DVD’s title, “Not Just the Best of the Larry Sanders Show,” and its length: four discs, despite containing just 23 episodes.

Mr. Shandling concedes that these recorded conversations — which are presented largely unedited, with awkward silences and plenty of mistakes — are at least partly self-congratulatory. Taken as a whole the treatment is also expansive, exhaustive and at times exhausting, with Mr. Shandling’s new material (including a documentary) adding up to nearly eight hours.

But the results are, in many instances, riveting. There are some good casting stories: Ms. Burnett, for example, tells how Mr. Shandling persuaded her to be a guest and to play against her clean-cut image. (On the talk-show-within-a-show, she warns Larry that the loincloth costume he’s wearing isn’t covering what it needs to cover.) And Bruno Kirby, whom Larry memorably “bumped” from the last episode, made an appearance as well — his last, it turned out, before he died last summer.

But to those who watch them carefully — and Mr. Shandling hasn’t a clue whether anyone will — the interviews are also striking for his efforts to make amends. He apologizes to some of the best-known people in Hollywood for having failed to thank them for their service on “Larry Sanders,” and for largely allowing them to drift from his life in the years since.

It is as if the drama club president has returned to high school, a decade after graduating, to find out what his classmates and teachers really thought of him, while also telling them he was sorry if he occasionally passed them in the corridor without saying hello. Mr. Shandling has a slightly darker analogy.

“What’s that old adage, you don’t hear nice things until the funeral?” he said. “I wanted to objectively see the realities of that time. What was I like? What were my relationships like, with the actors and writers? What did they feel?”

Thus the viewer gets to listen in as Mr. Shandling apologizes for not reciprocating when Mr. Baldwin promised to send a gift after his cameo appearance, and later for losing Mr. Baldwin’s cellphone number. This scene of self-reckoning takes place in a boxing gym.

“I thought you really extended yourself,” Mr. Shandling says, as his hands are being wrapped outside the ring. “I did not appropriately extend myself back. I’d like to. ...”

“Make it up to me by coming in here and smacking me in the face a few times?” Mr. Baldwin says, leaning against the ropes.

Mr. Shandling responds, “I’m going to allow you to hit me so hard that I don’t have to. ... ”

“Work again for the next five years?” Mr. Baldwin interjects.

No, Mr. Shandling says, “ ...finish these DVDs.” Mr. Baldwin eventually gets fairly pummeled by the better-trained Mr. Shandling, while the two somehow conduct a meaningful conversation about comedy.

It is hard of course for anyone to be genuine with a camera trained on him, but an exchange that raw would never find its way onto Jay Leno’s “Tonight,” or even Bravo’s “Inside the Actors Studio.”

The most voyeuristic moment on the DVD, however, probably comes when Mr. Shandling sits down in a production office to talk to Linda Doucett. On the show she played Hank’s secretary, Darlene, but in real life she was Mr. Shandling’s fiancée, at least for a time. After the engagement ended, she was fired, and in 1996 she sued Mr. Shandling, along with Mr. Grey’s company, for sexual harassment and wrongful termination. Mr. Shandling and Ms. Doucett eventually reached a settlement, but last March she told The New York Times that he had warned her that Mr. Grey once considered putting Anthony Pellicano, the private investigator now under federal investigation, on her case.

In the interview Ms. Doucett is teary as she and Mr. Shandling openly discuss their relationship. “It’s really perfect for ‘Larry Sanders,’ ” he said, “and perfect for the DVD and, I suppose, perfect for my life that I’m able to have captured the nature of this personal relationship on tape.” (He said he would have nothing to say about the Pellicano matter, “until it’s finished.”)

Perhaps appropriately, the four discs end with Mr. Shandling in idle conversation with a Vietnamese monk, who is seeking to explain the meaning of a particular Buddhist statue.

“So always extend compassion,” Mr. Shandling is heard saying to the monk, Hanh Nguyen, who interrupts him to add, “Love and compassion to all sentient beings.”

“Even for the enemy,” Mr. Shandling adds, sounding like a post-enlightenment Larry.

The monk responds: “Sure. The true enemy is ignorance.”

GARRY SHANDLING’S humor always had the neurotic shadings of someone raised a summer weekend’s drive from the borscht belt, but he actually grew up in Tucson. His family had moved there from Chicago because the dry climate better suited his older brother, Barry, who suffered from cystic fibrosis.

Barry died when Garry was 10. “I was devastated,” Mr. Shandling recalled. “I remember starting to cry in the schoolyard. I didn’t quite know how to deal with it. I think there was some damage in that.”

His comedic awakening came in his early teens, when he watched “Hot Dog,” a children’s show that, in this particular episode, featured an appearance by Woody Allen. “Here he is, this kid in Arizona, he’s not in New York,” Mr. Shandling recalled, “and while being Jewish, he’s not at all Jewish in the traditional sense, of a noisy Jewish household. And suddenly he sees Woody Allen, and he relates.”

He went on to study electrical engineering at the University of Arizona, but in his junior year he wrote a monologue in the style of George Carlin. As it turned out, he was able to get it to Mr. Carlin, who read it and encouraged him to pursue a career in comedy. After he sold scripts for “Sanford and Son” and “Welcome Back, Kotter,” his big break came during a “Tonight” appearance in March 1981, in which Carson told viewers: “His name is Garry Shandling. You’ll hear a lot about him.”

In his first sitcom, “It’s Garry Shandling’s Show,” Mr. Shandling frequently broke character to address the camera and even walk into the audience. That experience led directly to “Larry Sanders,” in which he marshaled everything he had seen backstage in Hollywood to produce, in cinéma vérité style, a scripted half-hour comedy intended to show how people really treat one another when the spotlights are off.

For several years now the creative well that fed those efforts seems to have run dry, and instead of mounting something original, he has been content to retrace old steps. Watching him during this period has been somewhat frustrating to some old friends, who believe he is young enough and creative enough to find fresh ways to entertain people.

Mr. Seinfeld, for example, is among those who have been encouraging Mr. Shandling to go back on the road as a stand-up comedian, with an eye toward bringing his act to television. In a recent phone interview Mr. Seinfeld said he understood his friend’s reluctance.

“When you go through this TV thing like he and I did, you make so much, you do so much, you’re kind of overfull at the end,” he said. “You don’t want to write anything. You don’t want to read anybody at an audition.”

“Someone starts pitching you an idea,” he added, “and your head just explodes.”

And yet, Jeffrey Tambor said, the same relentlessness Mr. Shandling displayed on “Larry Sanders” was reassuringly evident in his preparation of the DVD. When Mr. Tambor arrived at Mr. Shandling’s home for a joint interview with Mr. Torn, he was filmed from the time he left his car, so no moment would be lost.

“He’s thrown himself into this like I’ve never seen,” Mr. Tambor said. “Happy go lucky, he ain’t. Heels clicking, he ain’t. But I think he had enormous pride in that show, and I think that continues.”

Told of Mr. Shandling’s various attempts to make amends, Mr. Tambor said: “He certainly doesn’t owe me an apology. He changed my life.”

Nonetheless, by finally putting his “Sanders” experience to bed between the covers of his DVD, Mr. Shandling is hoping that he may finally be able to consider what the next new thing might be. “It certainly didn’t start that way,” he said, “but there is no question that this became a reflective journey that I’m still absorbing.”

One idea he is mulling is working up to a stand-up special, as Mr. Seinfeld and others have urged. Another project would draw from his study of Buddhism and shed further light on “what life is about, what the human condition is about,” maybe a series or documentary. He has yet to divine quite what.

“Usually things become clearer as I get closer to the moment of execution,” he said. And then, because old habits die hard, he added, “That’s not to be confused with Saddam Hussein’s execution.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/28/arts/television/28stei.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&ref=television&pagewanted=print

fredfa

01-27-07, 11:37 PM

TV Notebook
After “The Honeymooners”:
For TV’s Trixie, the Honeymoon Lives On
By Glenn Collins The New York Times January 27, 2007

It is 5:01 p.m. and Joyce Randolph, a k a Trixie Norton, is holding forth in the downstairs bar at Sardi’s, sipping her favorite formulation of the White Cadillac, Dewar’s and milk. “I think it does your stomach good,” she is saying. “The Scotch. The milk.”

Before her, flanking the silver Rolex clock above the bar, are the four caricatures of the sacred sitcom’s characters: hers and the portraits of Jackie Gleason, Audrey Meadows and Art Carney of “The Honeymooners.”

She is strong of voice and precise of diction at 82, given to addressing people as “Dear.” How sweet it is, then, to hang out with Miss Randolph in one of her favorite haunts where the honeymoon is never over.

For his 16 years at Sardi’s, José Estevez, the perpetually amenable barkeep, has looked on as new customers enact the ritual. First, they register the likeness portrayed in the caricature. Then they study the face at the barstool. Always, there is the double take. And so it is tonight.

“This is such a thrill!” said Toni Terracciano from Bethpage, N.Y., putting aside her glass of cabernet to reach for a moment with Trixie. “It’s girls’ night out,” said Ms. Terracciano, who would soon be heading for “Mary Poppins” with her mother and their friend Kathy Cocoman.

“We’re fans for so many years,” said her mother, Pat Astarita. “You were so wonderful on that show.”

Miss Randolph smiled, and shook her head. “It was the others, not me.”

“No, all of you were wonderful,” Ms. Astarita insisted. “I was about to cry. When I saw you.”

True, five decades ago Miss Randolph was dubbed the Garbo of Detroit, but she genuinely seems to enjoy greeting Honeymoonies, as the show’s most ardent fans are called. She is always available to smile and pose with them in a camera-phone flash.

“I talk to everyone,” she said. “You can’t be hoity.”

She signs her name to Playbills and cocktail napkins. “But I know what they really want is the name Trixie Norton,” she said. “So I sign that, too.”

It has been 56 years since Miss Randolph assumed the role of Trixie, yet she is still revered as the surviving goddess of the celebrated screwball comedy from the golden age of television.

“I am the last one left,” Miss Randolph said a bit later, without drama. “Even the girl who held the stopwatch, Joan Reichman Canale, is gone.”

At the bar, Miss Randolph is Trixie-thin and perfectly put together in a brown brocade jacket that showcases an Art Deco gold necklace that she got “from an old beau,” she said when asked.

“You would think that Trixie Norton would be some kind of battle-ax in person, but Joyce is so elegant and thin and pretty,” the actor Matthew Broderick said later, when asked about his first meeting with Miss Randolph a few years back. That was down the block from Sardi’s at the Angus McIndoe restaurant, another of her favorites.

She does get around. A Broadway opening here, a fund-raiser there, a night of cabaret — all of them are on her great circle route. Aside from Sardi’s and Angus, there is the Lambs Club on West 51st Street and Chez Josephine, a restaurant on West 42nd Street where she has been a habitué for decades.

“I came here as a poor immigrant from France in the 1970s,” said Jean-Claude Baker, proprietor of Chez Josephine, in his Gallic accent heavier than pâté. “And I watched ‘The Honeymooners’ to help me to learn English. So when she first came in the restaurant with her husband 20 years ago, I was thrilled. We became friends right away!”

He sighed. “The only failure in her life is that she has not been able to make my English better.”

It was at the Lambs, the theatrical club, that Miss Randolph’s husband, Richard Lincoln Charles, a wealthy marketing executive, served as “shepherd,” or president; she was “first lady.” Mr. Charles died in 1997 at age 74. Their son, Randolph Richard Charles, 46, a marketing executive, lives in Philadelphia.

She is no longer first lady, but she wouldn’t miss the Lambs lunch at Sardi’s on the first Tuesday of every month. At this gathering of a dozen longtime friends, it is the ritualistic duty of Jim Copening, a waiter at the restaurant since 1992, to write separate checks for all.

She is still active with the U.S.O., and on Pearl Harbor Day in December, she was called to the dais at the group’s gala at Cipriani 42nd Street for a standing ovation. “I think they were applauding because I’m so old,” she allowed. “I guess all those young marines watch television.”

Then there was Miss Randolph’s recent role, as Trixie, in an unreleased independent film, “Lips,” shot in the Lips bar on Bank Street. “They had me sit at the bar, saying, ‘I have to get home to my husband, Ed.’ ”

Sometimes hanging out becomes a “Honeymooners” episode. On a recent evening she met friends at the Sardi’s bar, then found herself talking Trixie with theaterbound admirers who aimed digital flash her way. That took so long that she decided to stay for dinner there, and was seated next to Neil Sedaka’s table. They had never met; dish ensued. A nearby patron sent over some wine, then insisted on yet another picture: Mr. Sedaka and Miss Randolph together in a baby-you’re-the-greatest moment.

Miss Randolph gave her first drink order at Sardi’s six decades ago. She was a Finnish-American actress from Detroit, Joyce Sirola, who arrived in Manhattan in 1943. She took roles on Broadway and landed jobs on that fledgling television thing.

In 1951 she caught Gleason’s eye in a Clorets commercial and graduated to a serious skit on “Cavalcade of Stars,” his variety show on the DuMont Television Network in those pre-CBS years. Soon, she was Trixie.

Some New York write-ups referred to her as the Garbo of Detroit, and to Miss Randolph “that’s still a mystery,” she said. “I was a nobody in Detroit.” She sipped some of her White Cadillac. “Why Garbo? Well, she was Scandinavian — and so was I.”

Miss Randolph is proud of her work as Alice Kramden’s co-conspirator, the spiky marital partner of the Slinky-limbed sewer worker Ed Norton, “especially in the episodes where I have more than four lines,” she said slyly.

The show keeps addicting new generations. Mr. Broderick said simply that “every situation human beings can have is in one of these shows.”

“From these four characters springs everything,” he added.

Miss Randolph said that she received no compensation in residuals for the classic 39 shows from 1955 to 1956.

Finally, with the discovery of “lost” episodes from the variety hours, she began receiving royalties.

Suddenly, it is 5:29 p.m., and Miss Randolph is striding briskly westward from Sardi’s, heading not to the moon, where Ralph Kramden so yearned to propel his Alice, but to a fund-raising mixer at Gallagher’s Steak House.

On Eighth Avenue her interviewer offers to find a cab, but she snares one herself, nearly immediately. “You have to be bold,” she said, “when you’re alone.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/27/nyregion/27trixie.html?pagewanted=print

HDTVChallenged

01-28-07, 01:29 AM

DNS has NOTHING to do with this. This is about cable NOT about sat. Justing trying to confuse issues doesn't make your point since you haven't proved any evidence to support your position. All you have made here are opinions disgusted as fact..

Sure it does ... you made the statement that, 'people aren't interested in getting CBS/FOX/NBC/ABC as a national feed. If they were we'd already have it.' Or at least that's the way I read your statement. Clearly, the DNS episode(s) and the litigative response from the broadcast industry proves otherwise. I'm just trying to cut through all the spin here. :)

... and as far as your "facts" from Mr. Greenfield, I don't see any claim that there are 5000 people a week rushing out to buy antennas ... they could just as easily be going to DBS or (gasp) just turning their TV's off.

harley1

01-28-07, 10:08 AM

sorry you missed it, harley1 -- I posted the All-Star ratings yesterday here:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=9593917&&#post9593917

Thanks , I did miss the whole page of threads.

fredfa

01-28-07, 10:45 AM

TV Notebook
New CW looking for identity
Young adults discovering network
By Rick Kissell Variety January 28, 2007

The second half of its first season should be an interesting one for the CW, which has found its footing but has yet to take many big strides.

With some exceptions, early ratings weren't great when the UPN-WB hybrid bowed in September -- but that wasn't too surprising.

After all, its launch came less than eight months after the network was created. And former UPN shows changed their spots on the dial in about two-thirds of the country, while ex-WB skeins shifted in nearly 30%.

By the end of the November sweep, though, young adults had figured out where to find faves like "America's Next Top Model" and "Smallville." Indeed, nearly all CW series achieved season highs in their final firstrun airings of 2006.

Still, the net in its current form seems a motley mix of solid but fading vet dramas and successful reality skeins, with some African-American comedies thrown in.

That makes next season's development huge for the Green web. Topper Dawn Ostroff says she's developing more shows than the WB or UPN ever did -- and that should go a long way toward putting a fresh face on the net.

Here's a look at the CW:

What sizzled: "America's Next Top Model" quickly became the CW's first top show, with the seventh edition of the skein often ranking No. 1 among women 18-34 in its timeslot.

Its Wednesday skedmate "One Tree Hill" also has been a good performer, rising to its best ratings in two years with a stronger season creatively.

They seemed mismatched -- the unscripted "Model" skewing much more urban -- but the Wednesday combo has become the best meshing of UPN and WB programs to date.

Dramas "Smallville," "Supernatural" and "Gilmore Girls" have put up solid to good numbers, while "Veronica Mars," paired with "Gilmore Girls," is up slightly vs. last year, but could still do better.

"Smallville" is the net's No. 1 scripted program in 18-34 (2.1 rating), followed by "One Tree Hill" (1.9) and "Gilmore Girls" (1.8). "Top Model" is far and away No. 1 overall (3.2) and will return for its eighth season in late February.

Another reality show, "Beauty and the Geek," has excelled while "Model" rests. And "Reba" has done well on Sunday, although the show doesn't fit into CW's long-term plans of reaching a young, urban audience.

What fizzled: Net's Monday drama "Runaway" was a bust from the start, averaging a 0.8 rating in adults 18-34 in its two airings there and prompting a sked overhaul that sent "7th Heaven" to Sunday.

Monday then became a night for African-American comedies -- as it had been for years on UPN -- but they didn't travel well to the new net. Lineup, anchored by "Everybody Hates Chris" at 8 and vet "Girlfriends" at 9, is down more than 25% vs. UPN a year ago and could use some new blood.

"Chris" has lost some buzz after its big 2005 bow, but it remains one of television's better comedies and has been renewed for next season.

Sunday overall remains the weak spot for the net, and there are no easy solutions.

What's ahead: "Pussycat Dolls Present: The Search for the Next Doll" bows March 6, and will air at 9 p.m. Tuesdays for eight weeks in place of "Veronica Mars" repeats. Music competition skein could benefit from airing in the hour after "American Idol" on Fox.

When "Veronica Mars" returns in April for its final five episodes this season, there will not be a continuing mystery storyline. Looking to try something different -- and in a bid to attract new viewers -- each episode will feature self-contained mysteries.

If they're well-received and ratings increase, "Veronica" could be back for a fifth season.

The intriguing drama "Hidden Palms" also could bow this spring, although the net hasn't announced an airdate -- and there's no obvious slot before the season ends in May. A summer bow is a possibility, perhaps paired with a firstrun reality show.

Biggest question marks: Now that "Top Model" and "Beauty and the Geek" have performed better than expected, will the net push even further into reality?

It's certainly not a bad way to establish an identity. And CW has what sounds like another potential winner in mother-daughter beauty pageant skein "Crowned," which will air later this year.

What direction does the net take in comedy? Both UPN and CW were hoping for a broader audience for "Chris," but it remains heavily reliant on African-American viewers. It will be telling to see what comedy pilots get picked up.

The return of "7th Heaven" likely depends on drama development and whether the net has something to pair it with. Ratings haven't been great on Sunday, and the net must significantly retool there.

Overall, the CW is still looking for an identity, and that's something that may not become clear until it lands its first homegrown hit.

Bottom line: Gains over last year's WB numbers rep a decent start, but we won't know much about CW or its long-term prospects until about this time next year.

http://www.variety.com/index.asp?layout=print_story&articleid=VR1117958189&categoryid=14

fredfa

01-28-07, 11:14 AM

TV Sports
Braves unveiling TV lineup Monday
By Tim Tucker The Atlanta Journal-Constitution 01/28/07

TBS plans to announce on Monday what has been pretty obvious for a while: Chip Caray and Joe Simpson will be its primary Braves broadcasters this year.

Earlier reports of Don Sutton's departure, of Pete Van Wieren's shift to full-time radio and of Skip Caray's shift to primarily radio had provided, by process of elimination, the answer to the question of who principally would call Braves games on TBS in the cable channel's final season of televising the team nationally.

Chip and Joe, it is.

"We have really enjoyed the byplay between the two of them, and we think they are the chemistry we are looking for moving forward," Turner Sports executive producer Jeff Behnke said.

Chip Caray is scheduled to call play-by-play on all 70 Braves games that air on TBS this year, while Simpson will join him as the analyst for at least 50 of the TBS games, Behnke confirmed. Skip Caray will work with his son on 10 TBS games, while a guest analyst will be used on up to 10 late-season games, Behnke said.

Also, Behnke said Chip Caray, who broadcast Chicago Cubs, Seattle Mariners and Orlando Magic games before rejoining the Braves' booth in 2005, "is definitely going to be [TBS'] lead play-by-play announcer for division series and LCS games."

This year, TBS will televise postseason games for the first time — all four division series plus the National League Championship Series. TBS has exclusive rights to the division series through 2013 and will share the NLCS and ALCS with Fox, carrying the NL one year and the AL the next.

Behnke said Simpson will be part of TBS' postseason coverage, but said specific assignments beyond Chip Caray's haven't been determined. (In addition to working Braves games on TBS, Simpson — a 16-year veteran of the team's broadcast booth — also will be the analyst on 80 Braves telecasts on Fox-owned regional cable channels SportSouth and FSN South.)

Starting in 2008, when it eliminates the national Braves telecasts, TBS will televise a regular-season package of 26 league-wide Sunday afternoon games. Chip Caray will handle play-by-play on those games, too, Behnke said. (Starting in '08, TBS will show 45 Braves games per season in the metro Atlanta market.)

In the final season of national Braves telecasts on TBS, the biggest change will be the absence of Van Wieren and, for the most part, Skip Caray. Viewers also might notice a broadening of the telecasts as TBS transitions toward its postseason and league-wide packages.

"We're going to give the Atlanta Braves fans at home what they tune in to see, the focus being on the Braves," Behnke said. "But what we will do ... is intermix more production elements regarding the entire baseball world, whether it's graphics, head shots, animations, standings of different divisions.

"With us acquiring the postseason, we definitely want people to know we have it. And we think Atlanta Braves fans want to know what's going on in the rest of baseball as well."

And for fans who want to know why there was no room for Van Wieren and little room for Skip Caray on TBS after 31 years, Behnke offered: "With the number of games being reduced, there simply wasn't the room for us to have the five announcers anymore. It's just like in any business — if you lose a lot of business, you only need so much personnel. Pete and Skip both had a tremendous opportunity to do radio, and believe me, those guys are a part of the TBS fabric and we love those guys. But we got to a point where it just simply was a numbers game."

BRAVES' 2007 TV LINEUP

• TBS (70 games): Chip Caray is scheduled to call play-by-play on all 70 games, joined by analyst Joe Simpson on at least 50, Skip Caray on 10 and a guest analyst on up to 10 late-season games. (The guest analysts likely will come from announcers who'll call postseason games on TBS.) Marc Fein again will be studio host, providing updates and highlights from around the majors.

• SportSouth (55 games): Newcomer Jon Sciambi, former Florida Marlins broadcaster, is scheduled to call play-by-play on all 55 games, with Simpson as analyst.

• FSN South (25 games): Sciambi will call play-by-play, with Simpson as analyst.

• Radio (162 games): Van Wieren is scheduled to call all 162 games and will be joined by Skip Caray on 120, with one of the other TV announcers filling in on the rest.

(Note: The 12 Braves games not scheduled for TBS, SportSouth or FSN South likely will be picked up by ESPN's or Fox's national packages.)

http://www.ajc.com/sports/content/sports/braves/stories/2007/01/27/0128sportsbiz.html

fredfa

01-28-07, 11:36 AM

Critic’s Notebook
“King Of The Hill”
Head for the Hills: Big Tex and brood back for another round
By Ed Bark former Dallas Morning News TV critic at his website unclebarky.com

Fated to be second to The Simpsons in everything, King of the Hill returns to Fox Sunday night for an 11th under-appreciated season.

There is this, though. On last Sunday's flight home from Pasadena, our American Airlines pilot did an impression of Hank Hill to the puzzlement of some and bemusement of most. And to his credit, he nailed it.

The real Hank is Austin-based Mike Judge, who's been voicing him since King of the Hill's Jan. 12, 1997 premiere. Fox has come close to dropping the show on several occasions. But now it's back for at least one more howdy, nestled nicely between The Simpsons and Family Guy at 7:30 p.m. central, 8:30 eastern.

Fictional Arlen, TX returns to the prime-time map with an episode titled "The Peggy Horror Picture Show." It's only an OK outing, with Hank's wife, Peg (Kathy Najimy), vexed by her she-man clothing and size 16 shoes.

"You think I'm feminine, don't you, Hank?" she asks.

"Well, sure you are," he assures her. "You're a wife and a mother."

The big lug then offers to buy Peg some new footwear at her favorite Lubbock emporium, Very Big Shoes. But the place has gone out of business, and an Internet search yields just one other possibility, Clarissa's Closet. It turns out to be a Big Foot monster of a store with Size 16s galore. While shopping, Peg meets "Caroline," who unbeknownst to her is a drag queen. They become fast friends before Peg predictably gets devastated.

Mildly amusing at best, the episode never clicks its heels. Hank is only minimally in it, and a subplot with dense son Bobby (Pamela Adlon) is lame from start to stop. It doesn't yet mean that King of the Hill finally is over the hill. But this definitely isn't putting its best foot forward.

Ya just gotta do better, guys, and here's hoping you will. Otherwise it's gonna be Boot Hill for keeps.

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

fredfa

01-28-07, 12:06 PM

TV Q&A
'Ghost Whisperer' still a presence on CBS
But its chances at winning a second season are, well, less than substantial.
By Tom Jicha South Florida Sun-Sentinel TV/Radio Writer

Question: What is the status of my favorite program, Ghost Whisperer?

Tom Jicha: It remains a part of CBS' Friday lineup, although another season isn't a sure thing.

Question: Do you have any idea whatever happened to Phil Donahue?

Tom Jicha: Nothing has happened to him in the big picture. Regis Philbin talked recently about seeing Phil and his wife, Marlo Thomas, at a Christmas party. Donahue's most recent attempt at a comeback, as a cable talk host, failed for lack of an audience.

Question: Why are TV executives so dumb? I have two VCRs, so I get lucky if there are three programs that I want to watch. But now on Tuesday they have Numb3rs, Law & Order: SVU, Boston Legal, The Closer and Dirt all on at 10 p.m. Why can't the geniuses at these networks have an encore later that evening? If they don't, they will lose audience, then lose their show. Will the American people ever wake up and start demanding better scheduling and programming?

Tom Jicha: So basically you're complaining that there are so many good shows you can't keep up with them, even with two VCRs. FYI: A second weekly Numb3rs was a temporary solution to a time slot where other series failed prematurely (Smith and 3 LBS). Numb3rs' regular home remains Friday at 10 p.m. The Closer episodes on TNT are repeats. By the time new shows appear in late spring, L&O: SVU and Boston Legal will be airing reruns. As for Dirt, FX does have an immediate encore at 11 p.m., as well as additional repeats on Fridays at 11 p.m. and Sundays at 10 p.m., following the pattern of The Shield and Nip/Tuck.

Question: As a kid, I remember watching The Goldbergs on a 12-inch black-and-white TV. Gertrude Berg was like a member of my family, so warm and wonderful. The times were so different then, as was the new box that produced talking pictures in your living room. I was wondering if any of the shows were preserved and if so, are they available on DVD?

Tom Jicha: I have a vague recollection of, "Yoohoo, Mrs. Goldberg." That probably will have to be my only memory. The Goldbergs aired in 1950. This was a year before Desi Arnaz was prescient enough to shoot I Love Lucy on film to preserve it for all time. TV shows were not saved in those days. Even many of the early years of Johnny Carson's Tonight Show, which wouldn't premiere for more than another decade, were destroyed. Maybe this question will uncover some collectors who somehow have episodes of The Goldbergs, but that's your only hope.

Question: I would like to know what happened to Vanished. Did it vanish? Also, whatever happened to Extreme Makeover, which was supposed to be on TV in November? It was in the TV listings but never came on.

Tom Jicha: Vanished did vanish, as did its NBC clone Kidnapped, as well as other serialized dramas Six Degrees, Runaway, Day Break and, for all practical purposes, The Nine (ABC says it will return at some date to be announced; June or July would be good guesses). Extreme Makeover did return for one extremely low-rated episode. In all probability, we have seen the last of it.

Question: Why do some networks resort to the annoying practice of extending shows by one to five minutes? It makes it more difficult to set the DVR because of overlaps. Do they have so little faith in their content that they must play this game with us?

Tom Jicha: There are two motivations: to sell an extra minute or two of high-priced ads in a popular show, and to discourage people from switching channels, since competing programs have already started.

Question: I very seldom watch Medium, but I did see an episode that gave me nightmares. One scene showed a tortured dog, chained in a garage without food or water and with cigarette burns all over it. A sadistic killer approached this poor, defenseless dog, smiling as he was lighting a cigarette. I am appalled such a horrific, sadistic scene would be on TV.

Tom Jicha: Your compassion for animals is praiseworthy and your point is well-made. However, why do I never get letters protesting even more sadistic treatment of humans?

Question: What is your current take on Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip? I had high hopes for that program. I think Aaron Sorkin is a very talented writer. All seven seasons of The West Wing are treasured possessions. But some of the Studio 60 stories are weak, the show has no continuity, it doesn't build and the casting is lopsided. I don't see an Emmy here. What about a future?

Tom Jicha: Studio 60 is the biggest disappointment of the season, considering its sensational pilot and Sorkin's credentials. The two-parter about the road trip to Nevada was an embarrassment. However, a recent episode was the closest the series has come to the quality of the premiere. The show had heart, spotlighting the situation in New Orleans; the characters took precedence over backstage contretemps; and the decision to take on the government over a ridiculous fine for an expletive on a live news show from a war zone is the closest the show has come to an issue that resonates like those in The West Wing. Bradley Whitford's awkward attempts to romance Amanda Peet's character had a charm about them. However, there is absolutely no chemistry between the characters played by Matthew Perry and Sarah Paulson, as appealing as both actors are. Right now, Studio 60 has a better chance to cop some Emmys -- they are a joke, after all -- than it does to be picked up for a second season.

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/entertainment/tv/orl-chatter2807jan28,0,1560453.story?coll=orl-caltvtop

fredfa

01-28-07, 12:20 PM

TV Notebook
“Criminal Minds” following Super Bowl
CBS' FBI show already a hit
By Michael Schneider Variety January 28, 2007

After the Bears maul the Colts (or vice versa) on Feb. 4, CBS hopes viewers will be up to see a little more blood spilt.

Eye execs unexpectedly chose rising drama "Criminal Minds" -- starring Mandy Patinkin and Thomas Gibson as FBI agents tracking twisted murderers -- to lead out of this year's Super Bowl XLI telecast.

The decision startled some, as "Minds" is already a hit, and midlevel ratings performers like the young-adult laffer "How I Met Your Mother" could have used the Nielsen boost.

Also making it an unlikely Super Bowl lead-out: "Minds" doesn't attract as broad a crowd as the last show that CBS ran behind the big game, "Survivor" three years ago.

Are half-drunk football fans stuffed with onion dip and cocktail weenies prepared to stick around to see Patinkin hunting down a serial killer?

"I was a little surprised," says one rival network scheduling exec of CBS' move.

But the minds at the Eye have big things in mind for "Minds." By placing the show behind the Super Bowl, CBS hopes to propel it from strong ratings player to megahitdom. It's also a pretty safe bet, and one that will reap the net significant coin.

"The momentum behind 'Criminal Minds' is inescapable," says Kelly Kahl, CBS senior exec VP for programming operations. "It's a show we could propel to new heights by doing this."

The broadcast webs have become more strategic than ever when it comes to the post-Super Bowl spot.

"As shares have declined in TV but the Super Bowl has held up, that's a spot that has become more precious," Kahl says. "A 45 rating the Super Bowl was doing wasn't as a big a deal when the networks were doing that rating all of the time. But it's gained in importance as a vehicle as time has gone on."

Before 1983, the nets didn't pay much attention to the post-Super Bowl slot, running episodes of "60 Minutes," movies and even golf tournaments. (Earlier kickoffs also meant the game sometimes ended before primetime even began.)

Then came "The A-Team." Mr. T and company bowed after Super Bowl XVII to solid ratings, turning that show into an instant phenom.

Pity the fools who tried to repeat that success. For most of the 1980s and early '90s, the nets tried to launch more new shows behind the game, but that strategy flopped ("Extreme," "Davis Rules," "Grand Slam") more often than it succeeded ("The Wonder Years").

In the late '90s and early 2000s, the webs switched gears and went for the big ratings with special episodes of "Friends," "The X-Files," "Third Rock From the Sun" and "Survivor."

But those shows were already big enough hits that the Super Bowl shot was more of a gimmick than a programming decision with lasting impact.

That all changed again last year. With "Grey's Anatomy" emerging as a sophomore sensation for ABC, the Alphabet web scheduled part one of a special two-part episode behind the pigskin classic.

The result was the stuff of McDreams. The showcase timeslot (which, conveniently, was the skein's normal Sunday night home) propelled "Grey's Anatomy" into the rarefied world of TV's supernovas. The push eventually allowed ABC to move the show to Thursday last fall.

"That's what changed it from being the show that followed 'Desperate Housewives' to being a hit in its own right," says Jeff Bader, ABC exec veep of programming and scheduling.

The gambit worked so well that Bader says ABC flirted with airing another post-Super Bowl episode of "Grey's Anatomy" this year, even though the game isn't even on the net.

Across town, CBS took notes. Like last year's "Grey's Anatomy" strategy, the post-Super Bowl episode of "Criminal Minds" is actually part one of a two-hour mini-event; part two airs three days later in the show's normal slot.

"We'd be crazy not to see what it did for 'Grey's' last year," Kahl says. "It took a hot show and made it even hotter."

The "Minds" move wasn't made without heated internal debate. CBS execs were divided into camps pushing for "Minds" vs. "How I Met Your Mother." (Other possibilities, including "Survivor" and even newcomer "Rules of Engagement," were briefly considered as well.)

In the end, CBS supremo Leslie Moonves lent his support to "Minds."

Eye also has a reason to give "Minds" an extra bit of oomph: The show is preparing to do battle in a ratings war zone opposite the Wednesday results-show edition of Fox's "American Idol."

"I think it's the smart thing to do," Bader says. "'Criminal Minds' is doing well, but their goal is to turn it into a top-10 hit."

Also, there's security in putting "Criminal Minds" there. Already a hit, "Minds" is sure to deliver a boffo number -- pleasing the net and advertisers in the process. A lesser-known commodity could send post-Super Bowl viewers flipping.

As for "Mother," the laffer will likely still get a residual bump, as it airs in its regular Monday spot the following night.

Meanwhile, Bader notes another change this year: Rather than counterprogram the Super Bowl with femme-centric fare (think Julia Roberts movies), ABC and Fox are going after stray young men.

ABC has slated the Will Ferrell feature "Old School" at 9 p.m., while Fox is showcasing "X2: X-Men United." Bader says the Ferrell movie is broad enough and could perhaps grab a portion of the suddenly available Super Bowl aud if the game runs short.

"We decided to go broad and funny," he says.

http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117958194.html?categoryid=14&cs=1

TommyK

01-28-07, 12:54 PM

fredfa

01-28-07, 01:04 PM

Good catch, TommyK -- although I think I'd blame that on the headline writer at Jicha's paper. He knows better. (And I should have caught it, too.)

TommyK

01-28-07, 01:12 PM

Yeah, I too figured that was probably the case because Jicha is generally known for knowing what he's talking about.

fredfa

01-28-07, 02:28 PM

The Business of Television
Hail to the campaign coin
Stations await windfall from early primaries
By Michael Learmonth Variety January 28, 2007

The presidential election may be nearly two years down the road, but the TV biz is already salivating.

A drawn-out race for the White House is sure to try the patience of the electorate. It's all upside for TV stations and cable nets, however. They're already reaping campaign cash amid predictions that the 2008 campaign will easily eclipse 2004's as the most expensive in history.

Every presidential election -- and, to a lesser extent, the midterms -- the American political process dumps money into the coffers of local television stations. But the current prospect of California, Florida, Illinois and New Jersey pushing their primaries up to February creates what strategists are calling a de facto "national TV primary."

The primary pileup will force candidates to spend huge and early on television in some of the nation's biggest and most expensive markets. Already there are 16 official candidates, with several more mulling bids, making it the most crowded field in decades. Plus, for the first time in 80 years, there is no sitting president or vice president running, but with Hillary Clinton, John McCain, Barack Obama and Rudolph Giuliani all potentially in the mix, there's plenty of names with fund-raising clout.

That means candidates will have to buy time in Los Angeles, Chicago and the greater New York area, in addition to relatively cheap markets Des Moines, Iowa, Manchester, N.H., and Charleston, S.C.

This is likely to go down as the election in which all the serious candidates forgo federal election funds, meaning they can raise cash simultaneously for both the primary and general elections, doubling what they can take from each donor. Clinton has already done just that.

"Presuming several candidates opt out of matching funds, then fund-raising will have no roof," says Leland Westerfield, a BMO Capital Markets analyst who's predicting $2.8 billion will be spent on TV advertising before the general election in 2008, 65% more than in 2004.

And despite inroads made by local cable and the Internet, more than 80% of the dollars will flow to local stations, targeted largely at battleground areas.

Candidates still will spend heavily in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina, which all hold primaries or caucuses in January, but an early primary in California, Florida, Illinois and New Jersey gives candidates with coastal appeal a big boost.

The attack ads have already begun. Last week Moveon.org placed the first media buy in the 2008 election cycle. The ad, airing in New Hampshire and Iowa, slams Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) for supporting increased troop levels in Iraq.

"This is going to be a wilder year than most in that we've got a lot of candidates and they're all working very early," says Jeff Bartlett, general manager of Hearst-Argyle's ABC affiliate WMUR in New Hampshire. "In the last few election cycles, we haven't seen any money before August."

An early coast-to-coast primary may shift some of the emphasis from local broadcast. "It's going to be local markets for the early states and then national cable, because there isn't enough time tactically to develop a market-by-market strategy," Backus says.

As with their announcements, candidates increasingly are looking to communicate directly to the public through their own Web sites and sites such as YouTube.com.

"All of these campaigns are not going to have the money to spend on television like Hillary or Obama would," says former Clinton aide Craig Minassian, now at HBO. "They are finding creative ways to not have to spend money on television by exploiting new technology."

For national TV, the benefits will come in the form of ratings points. Network and cable news operations will get a lift, as will the latenight circuit, with a steady stream of material for shows like "Saturday Night Live," "Late Show With David Letterman" and "The Daily Show."

"From a comedy perspective, I think everyone's a little exhausted of the current president, so it's good to get new looks in," says "SNL" co-head writer Seth Meyers. "It's a lot of personalities and egos -- any time you put the magnifying glass on it, great things will happen for comedians."

"SNL" also plans to mock the debates when they begin in April. "There's a big race on for who's got the best Sam Brownback," he says.

Comedy Central's "The Daily Show," which thrives on mocking the excesses of its nonsatirical news peers, lapped the field by inviting Iowa's Democratic Gov. Tom Vilsack as a guest Dec. 18 to kick off its "Indecision 2008" coverage. Even financial cabler CNBC has a play, tagging a segment last week "Obamanomics."

For cable news, an election campaign provides an ongoing, critical narrative, and the sparks are already starting to fly. Fox News picked up a claim in the conservative Insight magazine alleging Obama had attended a radical Muslim school as a child in Indonesia.

CNN gleefully debunked the report, while FNC's John Gibson blamed the Clinton campaign for leaking the story in the first place.

All three cable news nets are trying to build a brand around the race, a cornerstone of which is hosting an early debate. Fox News was first in, announcing it would host the Republicans in South Carolina in May; MSNBC one-upped Fox by hosting the Dems in South Carolina on April 26.

But that was before CNN swooped in with the grand prize: both parties on consecutive days (April 4 and 5) in New Hampshire, in a partnership with WMUR and the New Hampshire Union Leader newspaper.

At this early stage, the cablers provide critical oxygen to candidates hoping to lock down donors and staff.

"This election is the fight for dollars at this point, and they want their contributors to see their candidates out there," says MSNBC political editor Tammy Haddad. "There are more people running than in 44 years. They are fighting each other for their moment on the air."

http://www.variety.com/index.asp?layout=print_story&articleid=VR1117958195&categoryid=14

keenan

01-28-07, 02:42 PM

TV Notebook
New CW looking for identity
Young adults discovering network
By Rick Kissell Variety January 28, 2007

If they're well-received and ratings increase, "Veronica" could be back for a fifth season.

This is great news, I guess season 4 is already a lock?! :p

fredfa

01-28-07, 03:08 PM

The weekend wobblies seem to have hit the correspondents today.

Maybe they are all just so revved up for tonight's SAG Awards they just can't think straight. :)

fredfa

01-28-07, 03:23 PM

Saturday’s 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.

GeorgeLV

01-28-07, 03:43 PM

This is great news, I guess season 4 is already a lock?! :p

Well, once you've got the 4th season in the bag, the 5th season is pretty much a gimme since the production company will want enough episodes to get it into syndication.

fredfa

01-28-07, 03:50 PM

A question for all of you faithful readers.

The Screen Actors Guild Awards are being presented tonight at 8 PM ET. They will be broadcast live on TNT HD, and taped delayed on TBS and TNT.

I had planned to post the winners as they are announced, since the broadcast will be live in HD in the Pacific time zone. But if enough of you plan to watch it later in SD, I'll use spoiler tags as I did for the Golden Globes.

Otherwise, if only a few of you care, I'd just suggest you don't check out the thread until after the SAG Awards conclude their PT telecasts.

But if you have a problem with the live postings, let me know.

In any event, I'll let you know ahead of time, probably by 7:45 PM ET, which way I plan to go with the award postings.

Thanks.

AAF

01-28-07, 03:54 PM

Fredfa,

...we'll all be watching BSG (and debating about Dresden Files) so I say post away :-)

fredfa

01-28-07, 04:17 PM

That's what I figured...just check in here every once in a while during commercial breaks!

dad1153

01-28-07, 06:45 PM

'BSG' all the way baby, the SAG Awards are important but they're not People's Choice Award-caliber important! :D

michaelk

01-28-07, 06:56 PM

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought the cablecos can go all digital. All that would happen is you couldn't plug the cable into a cable-ready analog tuner. Just need a STB like the ones already in use which do that now.

problem is the warning will say:

The TV should continue to work as before with cable ...

your exactly right but the warning says you can still use these analog sets for cable like you do today. That imply's to people that plug their cable into the back of their cable ready analog tuners that they will be able to do so in the future. That is just not a universal truth. THe FCC is actively attempting to get cable company's to move to all digital.

fredfa

01-28-07, 07:09 PM

The Business of Television
Dish Sets a Deadline: Thursday
Court TV May Get Dropped For Good If Deal Not Done
By Linda Moss & Mike Reynolds MultiChannel News January 29, 2007

One of EchoStar Communications' disputes with two programmers may come to a final head this week, with Court TV possibly permanently losing carriage on the satellite service.

EchoStar chairman Charlie Ergen earlier this month said he might replace Court TV for good on his Dish Network service if a new distribution deal is not reached by Feb. 1.

Court TV, now owned by Turner Broadcasting System, lost carriage to roughly 11 million Dish subscribers on New Year's Eve, with the expiration of its affiliate contract. In the interim, Dish has replaced the crime-and-justice network with The Biography Channel.

EchoStar is also embroiled in a $90 million legal dispute with Court TV's Time Warner Inc. corporate sibling, HBO.

The premium service has sued EchoStar, for what it claims is a failure to pay monthly license fees on a timely basis, miscalculation and underpayment of license fees and accrued interest payments.

As of press time Friday, Turner's 800-number line, which urges Dish subscribers to switch to DirecTV or their local cable company, had received more than 122,000 calls, according to a Turner spokesperson.

Dish Network wanted to move Court TV from its “America's Top 60” tier to “America's Top 120,” which reaches 3 million fewer homes. Under Court TV's tiered rate card, that would mean a license-fee increase — a 70% hike, EchoStar claimed.

At least one industry analyst last week was predicting that Court TV, despite Ergen's threatened Feb. 1 deadline, will eventually return to one of Dish's tiers.

“I kind of doubt that they would drop them permanently,” Kagan Research analyst Derek Baine said. “Everybody says we're never going to go back to the table. It's too important of a distribution outlet for Court TV.”

Jimmy Schaeffler, chairman of the Carmel Group, said Ergen and EchoStar are getting “a unique reputation” for getting into battles with programmers and dropping their networks – and that this strategy won't help Dish Network long-term.

“Good business practices mean you prepare ahead of time for things like this … I would be very reticent to run a company this way. For me, it's operating more on bad faith than it is on good faith.”

In recent years, EchoStar has been involved with carriage disputes with Lifetime Television, OLN (now Versus) and Viacom.

HBO filed its suit against EchoStar two weeks after the satellite company dropped Court TV.

HBO denied that its lawsuit was an attempt to put Time Warner's corporate leverage to bear on behalf of Court TV against Dish Network.

For its part, EchoStar last week charged that HBO filed its litigation in retaliation for the satellite provider lodging a program-access complaint last fall against HBO with the Federal Communications Commission. HBO denied that allegation.

EchoStar also said it is being asked to pay a premium to distribute HBO's services.

HBO responded by saying: “That's simply not true. Our proposed agreement is in no way discriminatory.”

http://www.multichannel.com/index.asp?layout=articlePrint&articleid=CA6410669

fredfa

01-28-07, 07:47 PM

Since there has been not a single request for spoiler tags tonight on the Screen Actors Guild Awards, I won't be adding them.

So check out the thread throughout the evening at commercial breaks of your favorite shows to see who and what win the SAG TV awards.

And if you are on the West Coast and plan to watch the awards on a delayed basis, check back in at 10 PM PT. Until then, this will be a SAG Spoiler Zone.

fredfa

01-28-07, 08:06 PM

Screen Actors Guild TV Award Winners

Female Actor in a TV Movie or Miniseries

WINNER:

Helen Mirren / ELIZABETH I – Elizabeth I - HBO

Nominees:
Annette Bening / MRS. HARRIS – Jean Harris - HBO
Shirley Jones / HIDDEN PLACES – Aunt Batty - Hallmark Channel
Cloris Leachman / MRS. HARRIS – Tarnower’s Sister - HBO
Greta Scacchi / BROKEN TRAIL – Nola Johns – AMC

fredfa

01-28-07, 08:12 PM

Screen Actors Guild TV Award Winners

Male Actor in a TV Movie or Miniseries

WINNER:

Jeremy Irons / ELIZABETH I – Earl of Leicester - HBO

Nominees:
Thomas Haden Church / BROKEN TRAIL – Tom Harte - AMC
Robert Duvall / BROKEN TRAIL – Print Ritter - AMC
William H. Macy / NIGHTMARES & DREAMSCAPES – Clyde Umney - TNT
Matthew Perry / THE RON CLARK STORY – Ron Clark - TNT

fredfa

01-28-07, 08:21 PM

Screen Actors Guild TV Award Winners

Male Actor in a Comedy Series

WINNER:

Alec Baldwin / 30 ROCK – Jack Donaghy - NBC

Nominees:
Steve Carell / THE OFFICE – Michael Scott - NBC
Jason Lee / MY NAME IS EARL – Earl Hicke - NBC
Jeremy Piven / ENTOURAGE – Ari Gold - HBO
Tony Shalhoub / MONK – Adrian Monk – USA

fredfa

01-28-07, 08:25 PM

Screen Actors Guild TV Award Winners

Female Actor in a Comedy Series

WINNER:

America Ferrera / UGLY BETTY – Betty Suarez - ABC

Nominees:
Felicity Huffman / DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES – Lynette - ABC
Julia Louis-Dreyfus / THE NEW ADVENTURES OF OLD CHRISTINE – Christine Campbell - CBS
Megan Mullally / WILL & GRACE – Karen Walker - NBC
Mary-Louise Parker / WEEDS – Nancy Botwin - Showtime
Jaime Pressly / MY NAME IS EARL – Joy - NBC

fredfa

01-28-07, 08:38 PM

Screen Actors Guild TV Award Winners

Ensemble in a Comedy Series

WINNER: THE OFFICE - NBC

Leslie David Baker - Stanley Hudson
Brian Baumgartner - Kevin Malone
Steve Carell - Michael Scott
David Denman - Roy Anderson
Jenna Fischer - Pam Beesly
Kate Flannery - Meredith Palmer
Melora Hardin - Jan Levinson
Mindy Kaling - Kelly Kapoor
Angela Kinsey - Angela Martin
John Krasinski - Jim Malpert
Paul Lieberstein - Toby Flenderson
B.J. Novak - Ryan Howard
Oscar Nunez - Oscar Martinez
Phyllis Smith - Phyllis Lapin
Rainn Wilson - Dwight Schrute

Nominees:

DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES - ABC
Andrea Bowen - Julie Mayer
Mehcad Brooks - Matthew Applewhite
Ricardo Antonio Chavira - Carlos Solis
Marcia Cross - Bree Hodge
James Denton - Mike Delfino
Teri Hatcher - Susan Mayer
Josh Henderson - Austin McCann
Zane Huett - Parker Scavo
Felicity Huffman - Lynette Scavo
Kathryn Joosten - Mrs. McCluskey
Nashawn Kearse - Caleb Applewhite
Brent Kinsman - Preston Scavo
Shane Kinsman - Porter Scavo
Joy Lauren - Danielle Van De Kamp
Eva Longoria - Gabrielle Solis
Kyle MacLachlan - Orson Hodge
Laurie Metcalf - Carolyn Bigsby
Shawn Pyfrom - Andrew Van De Kamp
Doug Savant - Tom Scavo
Dougray Scott - Ian Hainsworth
Nicollette Sheridan - Edie Britt
Brenda Strong - Mary Alice Young
Kiersten Warren - Nora
Alfre Woodard - Betty Applewhite

ENTOURAGE - HBO
Kevin Connolly - Eric Murphy
Kevin Dillon - Drama
Jerry Ferrara - Turtle
Adrian Grenier - Vincent Chase
Rex Lee - Lloyd
Debi Mazar - Shauna
Jeremy Piven- Ari Gold
Perrey Reeves - Mrs. Ari

UGLY BETTY - ABC
Alan Dale - Bradford Meade
America Ferrera - Betty Suarez
Mark Indelicato - Justin
Ashley Jensen - Christina
Eric Mabius - Daniel Meade
Becki Newton - Amanda
Ana Ortiz - Hilda
Tony Plana - Ignacio
Kevin Sussman - Walter
Michael Urie - Marc
Vanessa Williams - Wilhelmina Slater

WEEDS - SHOWTIME
Martin Donovan - Peter Scottson
Alexander Gould - Shane Botwin
Justin Kirk - Andy Botwin
Romany Malco - Conrad Shepard
Kevin Nealon - Doug Wilson
Mary-Louise Parker - Nancy Botwin
Hunter Parrish - Silas Botwin
Tonye Patano - Heylia Jones
Elizabeth Perkins- Celia Hodes

Davinleeds

01-28-07, 08:45 PM

The Business of Television
Dish Sets a Deadline: Thursday
Court TV May Get Dropped For Good If Deal Not Done
By Linda Moss & Mike Reynolds MultiChannel News January 29, 2007

http://www.multichannel.com/index.asp?layout=articlePrint&articleid=CA6410669
I'm in the Ala Cart camp. For me, Court TV was only good for Simpson's trial and Profiler. That could change with programing but so far???

fredfa

01-28-07, 09:06 PM

Critic’s Notebook
Cruel to be kind means Simon loves you
By Mark McGuire Albany Times Union staff writer Sunday, January 28, 2007

We remain immersed in the delusional portion of "American Idol" -- where the delightfully strange, uncomfortably psychotic and simply untalented dutifully line up for public castigation and slaughter. The process is cruel, inhumane even, but what can you say? America loves its veal.

The audition episodes are by far the most popular of the hit Fox reality show (8 p.m. Tuesday, 9 p.m. Wednesday, WXXA Ch. 23; check weekly listings). We as a nation delight in a preordained and slightly unjustified sense of superiority, as hopefuls helplessly warble "Unchained Melody" or some Celine Dion sapfest.

Our collective cluck comes from the fact that (A) we surely can sing better; (B) we are more self-aware, blessed with a Harry Callahan belief that a man's got to know his limitations; and (C) we surely can sing better.

But I cringe during this process -- and that's even before the recent complaints that the professional curmudgeon Simon Cowell was poking fun at a handicapped contestant, and Randy Jackson tired of playing the nice guy. My aversion comes from my inability to embrace the sly joy that comes with schadenfreude (except maybe when the Miami Dolphins lose). And this season is especially mean; seriously, Jackson has been poaching on Simon's turf in the way he has cleavered participants.

Such is the truth of reality shows: The schtick, the hook, must regularly be ratcheted up, lest the routine becomes stale. (That said, producers have done a wonderful job getting the misguided and wretched on air, and bypassing the merely mediocre.)

Sorry, but to watch a parade of earnest-if-lacking dreamers get beheaded for sport is a tad bit too Caligulan for me. I have no sympathy for the conniving looking for three minutes of glory. Yeah, that's you, guy who came dressed as Uncle Sam/Apollo Creed. Some really are hoping to parlay some sort of hi-low game into a William Hung career: I'm so bad, I'm good.

That all said, "American Idol," in its sixth season, serves as an important milepost in our culture, a show that remains vibrantly relevant even as it is quickly becoming archaic.

At its heart it's a talent show that demands, well, talent. And that talent requires validation and consecration, in the form of approval from a panel of experts. And Paula, of course.

How quaint. Americans today neither crave nor seek outside validation. Certainly it's nice -- but it's also assumed. Everybody gets a trophy.

We don't need the approval of an editor or producer or talent judge to deem ourselves worthy. We merely press enter, and our insightful blog or YouTube post is published, ratified, approved.

No middle man or woman. Instant acceptance. Worldwide exposure. Made it, Ma! Top of the world, Ma, and Simon can't stop me. There isn't a single soul to argue what you have to say/do/perform is not worthy of the effort. Just like on "Idol," anyone can chase fame.

There's a benefit, of course, a richness of variety that allows almost any perspective to be aired. And those who previously judged all that is good are not infallible purveyors: How would you like to have been the literary agent or publishers who turned down J.K. Rowling's first Harry Potter book?

The problem is that all the different voices/performers in this cacophony demand, and are sometimes afforded, equal weight to the untrained eye or ear, whether its deserved or not. You'll notice this on blogs and message boards, where old-school gatekeepers -- particularly the hated MSM (mainstream media) -- are viewed with contempt. Who are they to say I'm not as good as them? Maybe that's why we are seeing more "Idol" contestants getting in the grills of Simon & Co. when they are booted.

Sometimes the bloggers are better. I direct you to In Medias Res (http://middleofthings.blogspot.com/), a blog by former WNYT Ch. 13 anchorman Ed Dague. He writes about local TV with a focus, insight and technical acumen that I will never attain.

And cruising YouTube will find a treasure trove amid the dreck; check out the short comedy series "Mr. Deity" (http://www.mrdeity.com), a scaled-down portrayal of a very modern Christian God creating the world. (Caveat: This is comedy, not theology, so don't take it seriously.) There's very little chance this would get on television -- but it's worth my time.

So, yes, sometimes it's better to trust the judgment and taste of the artist. Sometimes out-of-control bloviators, narcissists and the unadvised need someone to say, "Um, no."

Simon and Randy do it cruelly. That's part of the theater, the appeal of the Colosseum. To quote "Airplane!": "They knew what they were getting into. I say let 'em crash."

I still cringe watching. But somebody's got to level with people. As Oscar Wilde said, true friends stab you in the front.

http://timesunion.com/AspStories/storyprint.asp?StoryID=557442