Hot Off The Press! The Latest Television News and Info [Text View] - Page 90

fredfa

02-14-07, 05:21 PM

TV Q&A
Ask Maureen Ryan
You asked, I answered and we may still disagree: Yes, it's mailbag time!
From Maureen Ryan’s Chicago Tribune blog “The Watcher” February 14, 2007

You want reader feedback? I got it right here. Below are some comments and questions I've received about recent columns.

Dianne Kinzer (via e-mail): "Read your article on [`24's] Chloe but you didn't answer the question I want answered -- has she had plastic surgery? It's not just the hair and clothes that have changed, it's the chin, too -- [it's] fuller, seems to me. What do you think?"

Mo sez: I wouldn't dream of asking an actress if she has had plastic surgery -- for one thing, I'd never get an honest answer, and for another, I think most of the plastic-surgery victims on TV (the ones with the immovable and perfectly smooth faces) are pretty apparent. In person, Mary Lynn Rajskub doesn't resemble those stone-faced TV types at all. And to me, Chloe's face looks the same as when she first joined the show.

Marianne Diekman (via e-mail): "I read your column about the TV program `24.' Please tell them we no longer watch it because there are too many commercials. It is too bad because it is a fun program."

Mo sez: I get this complaint a lot. I don't think the tendency to jam-pack hit shows with commercials is a great turn of events, but it's not going to change. The networks are going to wring as much money out of ad sales as they can. That's why I have a TiVo and skip through the ads I've already seen 200 times.

Wally Wade (via e-mail): "On [the Feb. 4 `Rome'] it appeared they changed actors for the part of Octavius. Yes, no?"

Mo sez: Yes. Gaius Octavian had been played by Max Pirkis (who I thought was doing a credible job), but from Feb. 4 onward, the all-growed-up Octavian will be played by Simon Woods. I don't know why they made the change; maybe they wanted someone with more physical presence to stand up to the weaselly (yet magnetic) Marc Antony.

June (via e-mail): "I'm one of those apparently few people who still prefers to see a movie in a movie theater (although I do rent when necessary) and even one of the (apparently) extremely rare folk who has seen all five nominated pictures (I see about 20-25 movies a year).

"When you write that the Academy Awards telecast is on its way to becoming irrevelant, are you suggesting that you would prefer that the academy chose the entertaining but hardly worthy `Pirates of the Caribbean' or, worse, the dreadful `Da Vinci Code' as best picture nominees to make the broadcast relevant to a larger number of the moviegoing public?"

Mo sez: Of course not. Perish the thought (though I loved Johnny Depp in the first "Pirates"). I just wish quality films were released all year 'round, not just during one frenzied period around the holidays. That way more people would have a chance to enjoy quality fare throughout the year -- and, quite possibly, more viewers would be excited about the Oscars.

Davidin60640 (via Watcher site): "I love [`Brothers & Sisters'], but I would never laud it as intelligent, quality television. It is a guilty pleasure akin to `Gilmore Girls.' I mean, the unlikelihood of so many unique characters, so many unique circumstances and so much drama converging on this one family that always seems to be having a catered party at home or attending a gala makes this not much more than a soap opera. ... The show is delicious, but let's accept that it's `Dallas' with more likeable rich people."

Mo sez: I wouldn't call it a soap. Yes, some contrived things happen, but that's the nature of TV storytelling. Personally, I don't feel a bit guilty about enjoying "Brothers & Sisters."

Jon (via Watcher site): "I enjoy the whole show [`Brothers & Sisters'], with the exception of too much of Calista [Flockhart] and Rob Lowe."

Mo sez: So far that element of the show hasn't gotten too intrusive for me, but then, I enjoy Lowe's deft work quite a bit, and I feel that those scenes make me actually care about Kitty (which I didn't before). As long as that part of the show doesn't take over, I'm fine with it.

JLP (via Watcher site): “I can't put my finger on it, but there is something about the direction ‘Ugly Betty’ is taking that has dampened my enthusiasm for the show. I had liked the mix of family drama, mystery and comedy, but now it's not working as well.”

Mo sez: Really? I’ve had the opposite reaction, I think they’re still balancing the various elements quite well (though the subplot about Ignacio’s immigration caseworker was rather pointless – Tony Plana is great, I wish they’d find a meatier story for him).

Mary Mc (via Watcher site): “Nowhere is the conflict between where [Betty Suarez is] from and where she's going more evident than in her choice of [significant other]. But does Henry have a secret, a shocking dark side, that will eventually be revealed? And will Betty learn a hard lesson about deceptive packaging and facades? Because Walter is all about honesty - what you see is what you get.”

Mo sez: Funny you should mention that, Mary. There are certainly some rather surprising developments lately on the Henry front (such as, the existence of his girlfriend, whom we meet in Thursday’s episode). And by the way, who else enjoyed the “Ugly Betty” shoutout on the Feb. 8 “30 Rock”?

MS (Via Watcher site): “Part of what draws me to [‘Lost’] is the mystery surrounding everything, and if they answered all of the questions, the show might as well be over! Yes, some episodes drag on and seem to just be filler, but the majority of the episodes leave me wanting more, so I'm happy with ‘Lost’ the way it is.”

Leigh (Via Watcher site): “I guess my main gripe with ‘Lost's’ developments is that the so-called scientific answers that are provided as the show's canon cannot possibly explain all the supernatural phenomena that has occurred over the past three seasons. It's like the writers want to give us a mind-wipe to make us forget about the otherworldly stuff, like a smoke monster that can beat a man to death. I am sorely disappointed with the direction that ‘Lost’ has taken lately. I think the producers want to end the series after five seasons, but I fear that network interference will churn out more unremarkable seasons after the 100 episode mark, a la ‘The X-Files.’”

Mo sez: I sympathize with both viewers. I fear that “Lost” could destroy its goodwill by going on for too long (I do hope ABC gives the show a firm end date, which the producers have said they want). And I’m also concerned that they seem clearly in the camp of playing up the relationships over the show’s mythology, which, reading between the lines, they seem to see as too geeky to be popular with the majority of viewers. Still, I’m nowhere near prepared to give up on the show. But I do have to say, if I see one more Sun or Jin flashback…

Tom (via email): “I like the new TV listing page [in the print Tribune]. This is the jump in to the entertainment/writing field that would suit my narrow talents. Please resign and hand over your duties to me. You can have my CPA certificate.”

Mo sez: Sounds like a good deal. I’ll get back to you when I learn how to add and subtract.

http://featuresblogs.chicagotribune.com/entertainment_tv/2007/02/you_asked_i_ans.html#more

fredfa

02-14-07, 05:52 PM

VisionOn

02-14-07, 06:03 PM

A Request
Your favorite sources for TV information

I am putting together a list of link to the best sites which provide TV news and commentary. Do you have any which you think I have overlooked over the years?

Let me know.

I hope to have the links up in a few days.

"Fredfa's Hot Off The Press! The Latest Television News and Info", thread has become pretty much my only source for TV news! :)

I can barely keep up with all the stuff that gets posted in here.

fredfa

02-14-07, 06:20 PM

TV Notebook
NBC’s “Identity” Returns
NBC News Release

BURBANK February 14, 2007 NBC's popular game show "Identity" hosted for one week before Christmas by Emmy Award-winning comedian-magician Penn Jillette ("Penn & Teller") will return to the schedule on Friday, March 16 (9-10 p.m. ET) before moving to its regular time slot (Fridays at 8 p.m.) the following week on March 23.

The hour-long "Identity" first premiered as a one-week event launched from December 18-22, 2006 (in much the same fashion as the successful "Deal or No Deal" was introduced in the previous December). The December 18 premiere episode debuted with a 4.4 rating, 11 share in adults 18-49 and 12.3 million total viewers. The premiere tied "Deal or No Deal" lead-in as the week's #1 entertainment telecast in adult 18-49. "Identity" finished #1 in its time period with four of five telecasts that week (including a tie).

The exhilarating "Identity" is the ultimate game of "who's who," where keen perception and instincts can lead to a top prize of $500,000. In each new game, one contestant faces 12 strangers and a list of 12 traits to identify them. The contestant picks a trait -- ranging anywhere from a profession to a shoe size -- and tries to match it with one of the 12 strangers.

The amount of money the contestant accumulates increases with each correctly identified stranger. If all 12 are matched up correctly, the player is rewarded with the grand prize of $500,000. "Identity" also offers viewers at home the chance to play the watch-and-win "Identity Challenge" for a chance at $10,000.

CPanther95

02-14-07, 06:40 PM

TV Notebook
NBC’s “Identity” Returns
NBC News Release

The exhilarating "Identity" is the ultimate game of "who's who,"

I read that and then looked at the byline to see which reviewer I was going to completely ignore from here on out. Should have guessed it was the official news release.

fredfa

02-14-07, 07:03 PM

I can't imagine "Exhilarating" and "Identity" have ever been used before in the same sentence.

fredfa

02-14-07, 07:09 PM

Washington Notebook
Dingell Applauds Industry’s DTV Moves
By Ted Hearn MultiChannel News 2/14/2007

The cable, broadcasting and equipment-manufacturing industries united Wednesday behind a digital-TV consumer-education campaign that won quick praise from House Energy and Commerce Committee chairman John Dingell (D-Mich.).

The three industries promised to use various communications strategies to inform consumers about maintaining TV service when analog-TV signals are terminated by law Feb. 17, 2009. The Bush administration was given up to $1.5 billion for a coupon program designed to subsidize the retail cost of digital-to-analog converter boxes.

“The most recent Congress established Feb. [17], 2009, as the transition date, yet failed to ensure adequate consumer education. For this reason, I am particularly pleased that the broadcasting, cable and consumer-electronics industries are joining to educate consumers on the transition and on how to obtain the converter-box coupons to help keep their TVs functioning,” Dingell said in a prepared statement.

Backing the consumer campaign were the National Cable & Telecommunications Association, the National Association of Broadcasters and the Consumer Electronics Association. The presidents of all three groups -- the NCTA’s Kyle McSlarrow, the NAB’s David Rehr and the CEA’s Gary Shapiro -- sent a joint letter to Dingell and other congressional leaders in telecommunications policy Wednesday about their commitment to a fully informed public leading up to the analog cutoff.

"Our goal is to ensure that no American loses the ability to view over-the-air television signals due to a lack of accurate information about the transition," the trade groups’ letter said.

About 20 million households rely exclusively on free, over-the-air broadcasting and possess about 45 million analog-TV sets that can’t display digital signals. Broadcast-only homes will need digital-to-analog converters to continue using their existing analog TVs after Feb. 17, 2009.

“I will closely monitor both public- and private-sector efforts to ensure that no American household loses its television signal,” Dingell said.

http://www.multichannel.com/index.asp?layout=articlePrint&articleid=CA6416632

kjpjr

02-14-07, 07:22 PM

If the writer did some research he would have found that IN Demand only bid $70 million to keep the package and provide it to everyone. So MLB will be making $30 million more by going exclusively to D*.

But 230,000 x $179 is $41 million+ I really don't think all 230000 will move to Directv. I am a subscriber to MLB EI and can't have a dish. There are many people who will stay where they are. Most of the sports junkies have already moved to Directv. BTW I consider myself one of the junkies but I can't move.

If you really dig on this issue it gets bigger. NHL Center Ice is probably going to Directv next year -- can the NBA be far behind?

If you want to have the out of market sports packs you will have to go to Directv. Somehow that just seems wrong to me but the face of cable is changing very fast. Watch out for retran issues. When the networks go away, cable could be down to the History Channel and QVC. :eek:

dad1153

02-14-07, 07:43 PM

fredfa

02-14-07, 08:14 PM

SJKurtzke

02-14-07, 08:37 PM

"Fredfa's Hot Off The Press! The Latest Television News and Info", thread has become pretty much my only source for TV news! :)

I can barely keep up with all the stuff that gets posted in here.
This thread is awesome, and is my primary source too, but I do have some others:

Zap2It's TV Gal
http://www.zap2it.com/tv/news/zap-tvgal-gallery,0,2359343.storygallery

Zap2It in general:
http://www.zap2it.com/

The Futon Critic
http://www.thefutoncritic.com/home.aspx

TV Guide
http://tvguide.com/

Test Pattern
http://testpattern.msnbc.msn.com/

and locally I use http://www.dcrtv.com/

bphisig

02-14-07, 09:29 PM

tvtattle is definitely one of my faves, but a lot of the information there ends up in this thread as well.

Maestro J

02-14-07, 09:36 PM

TV Sports
MLB-Extra Innings

Assuming all the final negotiations work out, expect an announcement of the exclusive DirecTV-MLB Extra Innings deal in the next couple of weeks. That is the latest word from the authoritative “Sports Business Journal”.

N addition I have heard from an excellent source that there will be a “major” increase in the number of HD games available through MLB EI this year. The contract, at last word, will be in effect for seven years, beginning this season.

Pricing has not been set. So stay tuned.

fredfa - please keep us updated on the news that there will be an upgrade in HD availability for EI subs. I plan on staying with my renewal (I'm already with D*) and I was hoping that there will be more HD games this year. Maybe my prayers have been answered?

On a side note, I kind of acquired the guilty pleasure that is Identity. I could do without Penn but the concept and the score/musical theme was addictive (to me at least).

fredfa

02-14-07, 09:53 PM

I'll keep an eye out for MLB-EI HD news, Maestro J.

I would expect that, as usual, DirecTV won't say very much until close to opening day.

As for Identity, we all have our guilty secrets! :)

dad1153

02-14-07, 10:03 PM

As for Identity, we all have our guilty secrets! :)

Do tell Fred. We know your likes from the first page posts, but guilty pleasures? I think we'd all like to know a few of these. Don't we folks?

[The mob screams approvingly to my suggestion].

fredfa

02-14-07, 10:11 PM

I'll think it over, dad.

I will reveal that last year it was "Related" on the WB.

rebkell

02-14-07, 10:20 PM

I'll think it over, dad.

I will reveal that last year it was "Related" on the WB.

Good one, Fred. I liked all the sisters, it had Kat Warbler of the Class and Nikki the newest member of the LOST plane wreck victims. I liked Pepper Dennis too.

dad1153

02-14-07, 10:44 PM

I liked Pepper Dennis too.

It was a pretty wretched show (IMHO) but I watched it because the star of The Secret World of Alex Mack (my favorite show of all time) Larisa Oleynik appeared briefly in it. She played Pepper's receptionist Brianna that is on maternity leave for most of the series, but returns (on the "Curtis Wilson's a Total Nut Job -- Film at Eleven" episode) throwing Kathy (Brooke Burns) into a tizzy.

I will reveal that last year it was "Related" on the WB.

Never even heard of that one! :confused: Let me see... aha! http://www.tv.com/related/show/33416/summary.html?q=Related&tag=search_results;title;0 - Mondays at 9PM two years ago were reserved for Monday Night Football on ABC so its no surprise this one went undetected.

Come on Fred, more guilty pleasures, you know you want to get them off your chest. Share the shame! :p

fredfa

02-14-07, 10:59 PM

Geez, dad, doesn't "Desperate Housewives" count?

Or Arizona Diamondbacks baseball? (I am going to miss Thom Brennaman -- I might start having to watch Cincinnati Reds games on EI.)

How about Ohio State football?

Or UCLA basketball (although almost all those games are attended in person)?

I got it. Tennessee women's basketball (gotta love Pat Summit).

fredfa

02-14-07, 11:01 PM

Good one, Fred. I liked all the sisters, it had Kat Warbler of the Class and Nikki the newest member of the LOST plane wreck victims. I liked Pepper Dennis too.

I thought it started off pretty weak, but the writing improved for the most part through the season, and the Thanksgiving flashback episode with Dana Delany as the Mom was, I thought, one of the best scripted episodes on TV last year.

flint350

02-14-07, 11:05 PM

fredfa

02-14-07, 11:11 PM

But to answer you seriously, dad, there is nothing I don't disclose about my viewing.

I think it is important that folks here know where I am coming from, so as they read the thread they can do their best to filter out whatever prejudices I might have been unable to overcome.

So when things change, I update what I watch in the fifth post or wherever it is. I am somewhat behind in watching a number of shows there, I must have 60 hours or so on various TiVos and DVRs waiting for me.

So, sorry, no hidden agendas or terribly offbeat things to admit.

Oh I did forget, though I detest the San Francisco Giants, I love the broadcast team of Duane Kuyper and Mike Krukow. (On radio it's Jerry Coleman with the Padres -- just re-signed for his 30th-something year and who will be doing all the games this season--they had "reduced his workload" to just half the past two seasons. And other favorites are Charley Steiner of the Dodgers, Mike Shannon of the Cardinals, Bob Uecker of the Brewers, Milo Hamilton of the Astros, and I loved the occasional pairing last season of Skip and Chip Carey in Atlanta. Thank God for XM.)

That's it -- just about all my electronic pleasures -- I don't feel a lot of guilt. Sorry. :)

shuttermaker

02-14-07, 11:12 PM

fredfa

02-14-07, 11:13 PM

Thanks for the report, flint350. I am TiVoing it in a couple of hours and will get around to it sooner or later.

I can't bear the size of the Lost thread and, given that the reviewers usually quoted in here were saying good things about tonight's return - I'll say this:

If ever a show regained its original footing and flair and made up for "lost" time and episodes, this was it! It was truly gripping and a full return to form. Whether it's enough to salvage the weak start, I'll leave to others.

rebkell

02-14-07, 11:16 PM

I got it. Tennessee women's basketball (gotta love Pat Summit).

Does that count? I've attended all home games, but two, in the last four years. :) They are on next Monday in HD ;)

fredfa

02-14-07, 11:24 PM

Great, ESPN2 HD at LSU, should be fun!

fredfa

02-14-07, 11:31 PM

Nielsen Notebook
College campuses boost ratings
'Grey's,' 'Gilmore' see surge
By Rick Kissell Variety February 14, 2007

Nielsen has taken its ratings game to college campuses for the first time, and the early results are good news for young-skewing programs.

It's not surprising that primetime shows with young auds like "Grey's Anatomy" and "Gilmore Girls" have seen their ratings spike up, but a few daytime soap operas have also been big beneficiaries.

Looking at data for Jan. 29-Feb. 2 -- the first week that Nielsen included viewing estimates of students living away from home -- NBC's young-skewing combo of "Days of Our Lives" and "Passions" shot up by more than 30% week to week among adults 18-24. ABC's "General Hospital" and CBS' "Guiding Light" also benefited, climbing more than 20%.

"Passions" was the biggest gainer, with Nielsen reporting week-to-week gains among women 18-24 of 39% (to 223,000 from 160,000). This translated into a 16% change in the program's core sales demo of adults 18-34.

"Days," meanwhile, shot up 33% in women 18-24 (231,000 from 174,000) and grew by 20% -- the most of any show -- in the broader 18-34 category (582,000 from 490,000). It also tied for second place among daytime dramas in adults 18-49, up from third the previous week.

It's also not surprising that "General Hospital," a favorite of college women since the heyday of Luke and Laura in the 1980s, would see a ratings spike. But it was something of a nice surprise for CBS that two of the oldest-skewing soaps, "Guiding Light" and "As the World Turns," could also benefit from the Nielsen methodology change.

Eye's "Young and the Restless," though, the season's No. 1 daytime drama among adults 18-49 and 25-54, has a broader audience and wasn't among the week-to-week demo gainers.

A boost in Nielsen ratings -- especially among young adults -- means increased advertising revenue. And such a boost could make the difference between cancellation or survival.

It looks to be too late for "Passions," though, as the 8-year-old show announced last month that it will shut down later this year. But if "Days" continues to rise, it may be able to quell talk that it will end its lengthy run in 2009 when its contract with NBC is up.

http://www.variety.com/index.asp?layout=print_story&articleid=VR1117959497&categoryid=14

kizzo

02-14-07, 11:35 PM

What was the actual reason for delaying college being added to ratings?? This should have happen years ago...

fredfa

02-14-07, 11:35 PM

Obituary
Peter Ellenshaw, 93
Legendary Disney artist
By Mike Barnes The Hollywood Repoter Feb 15, 2007

Peter Ellenshaw, the visual effects pioneer and matte artist who won an Oscar for "Mary Poppins" and worked his magic on other live-action Disney classics like "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" and "Treasure Island," died Monday at his home in Santa Barbara. He was 93.

Ellenshaw, a painter known for his dramatic seascapes and elegant Irish landscapes, was hand-picked by Walt Disney to serve on the studio's creative team. He painted the iconic first map of Disneyland that was featured on all the early postcards and souvenir booklets.

Ellenshaw began his association with Disney in 1947 when he was tapped to work on the studio's first live-action film, "Treasure Island" (1950), and he continued working there until his retirement in 1979 following "The Black Hole." He came out of retirement to do several matte paintings for the 1990 film "Dick Tracy."

Other Disney films on which Ellenshaw worked included "Darby O'Gill and the Little People" (1959), "The Sword in the Rose" (1953), "The Story of Robin Hood and his Merrie Men" (1952), "The Love Bug" (1968), "The Island on Top of the World" (1974) and "Bedknobs and Broomsticks" (1971). He earned Oscar nominations for the latter two in addition to "The Black Hole" and "Mary Poppins."

Ellenshaw also made major artistic contributions to Disney 1950s television shows "Davy Crockett" and "Zorro."

Before Disney, he worked on the Michael Powell-Emeric Pressburger 1947 classic "Black Narcissus." The native of Great Britain apprenticed for visual effects pioneer W. Percy "Pop" Day in the early 1930s.

"Peter was a Disney legend in every sense of the word and played a vital role in the creation of many of the studio's greatest live-action films from the very beginning," Roy E. Disney said in a statement released by the studio. "He was a brilliant and innovative visual effects pioneer who was able to consistently please my Uncle Walt and push the boundaries of the medium to fantastic new heights."

Ellenshaw is survived by his two children, Lynda Ellenshaw Thompson (an industry veteran visual effects producer), and Harrison Ellenshaw (a visual effects artist who was an Oscar nominee for "The Black Hole," matte supervisor on "Star Wars: Episodes IV and V" and visual effects supervisor for "Tron"), as well as his two grandchildren, Michael and Hilary. His wife of 58 years, Bobbie, passed away in 2000.

Funeral services will be private. In lieu of flowers, the family asked that donations can be made to Direct Relief International in Santa Barbara.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/news/e3i2d7be7b09f32186c42bcd49fc31b8801

fredfa

02-14-07, 11:37 PM

What was the actual reason for delaying college being added to ratings?? This should have happen years ago...

Who knows the real reason -- Nielsen works in mysterious ways.

I think the claim was something like the audience was too hard to measure.

fredfa

02-15-07, 12:15 AM

Cable Nielsen Notebook
A&E Network finds its fountain of youth
By Gary Levin USA Today

Cable's A&E Network has undergone more makeovers than an American Idol winner.

The former Arts & Entertainment Network started out in the mid-'80s airing powdered-wig BBC dramas, then hit pay dirt in the '90s with the much-copied Biography series and Law & Order reruns. When L&O jumped to TNT in 2000 and Biography burned out soon after, the channel's fortunes sank.

But a recent revival of reality series, led by Dog the Bounty Hunter, and the high-profile addition of The Sopranos and CSI: Miami reruns to its lineup have produced steady gains. Now the channel ranks fifth among all cable networks, has a much younger audience and plans to launch original drama series for the first time in seven years.

A&E Television Networks chief Abbe Raven likens A&E to Cadillac, shedding its fusty image with a new generation of Escalade-driving young 'uns. In just three years, the network's median age went from 61 — among the oldest of cable networks — to 47, a startling drop.

So what if longtime viewers cry foul? "People say, 'You're not A&E anymore,' " Raven says. "We are; we're still entertainment."

But "arts"? Not so much.

"The network was obviously challenged," says general manager Bob DeBitetto, who was hired from TNT in 2003. "The task was to completely reinvent it, and my job kind of became to introduce the network to an entirely new generation of viewers," even if it meant ditching longtime fans.

Seven years ago, reeling from Law's exit and the costly failure of dramas such as Nero Wolfe and 100 Centre Street, "they lost a big chunk of their audience," Kagan Research analyst Derek Baine says. "They're trying to revitalize the brand name."

A&E, which is owned by NBC, ABC and Hearst, averaged 1.1 million viewers in prime time last year, and ratings jumped 21% among adults 18 to 49. Last month, it began airing two edited episodes of HBO's The Sopranos a week (Wednesdays 9-11 p.m. ET/PT, repeating on the following Mondays at the same time).

On Jan. 10, A&E lured 4.3 million viewers — a channel record — for the heavily promoted premiere. Subsequent airings have dropped to about half that number, but January ratings overall were up 67% over last year, A&E's best month ever. The Mob drama cost $2.5 million an episode, a cable record.

The channel also has found success with some of its forays into lower-cost reality series, ranging from Airline to Criss Angel's Mindfreak, Growing Up Gotti, Gene Simmons' Family Jewels and Dog, its biggest homegrown show.

The plan, Raven says, was to "seed the network with younger viewers and build a platform" to reintroduce original scripted series.

A&E also plans a few high-profile projects, including a miniseries remake of Michael Crichton's The Andromeda Strain. But up first:

• Movie Kings of South Beach, starring Jason Gedrick and Donnie Wahlberg, March 12.

• A new season of Gene Simmons Family Jewels, March 25.

• Sons of Hollywood, another reality series, about three scions of L.A. bigwigs including Randy Spelling, son of Aaron, due April 1.

The network is considering 12 drama series and expects to put one or two on the air in 2008. Among contenders, heavy on crime and law, is a series about married divorce attorneys from Steven Bochco, and Dry River, about a father-and-son sheriff and federal agent in a wealthy Texas town.

http://www.usatoday.com/life/television/news/2007-02-14-A&E-ratings_x.htm

VisionOn

02-15-07, 12:23 AM

Cable Nielsen Notebook
A&E Network finds its fountain of youth
By Gary Levin USA Today

Cable's A&E Network has undergone more makeovers than an American Idol winner.

A&E also plans a few high-profile projects, including a miniseries remake of Michael Crichton's The Andromeda Strain.

my only thought when I read that was "why?"

It was (and still is) a good viral thriller, but hardly mini series material. It only just had enough plot to sustain it's movie length.

VisionOn

02-15-07, 12:28 AM

I can't bear the size of the Lost thread and, given that the reviewers usually quoted in here were saying good things about tonight's return - I'll say this:

If ever a show regained its original footing and flair and made up for "lost" time and episodes, this was it! It was truly gripping and a full return to form. Whether it's enough to salvage the weak start, I'll leave to others.

and I'll balance that by saying it was utterly pointless and yet again failed to deliver on the promise of the previous week's trailers. Last week we were shown a return to the full cast, plenty of running, high tension and huge explosions.

What ABC actually delivered was a 35 minute flashback, retelling a story that was already known and was not particularly interesting to begin with.

I'll be interested to see if the viewers dropped off for the second hour when they realized that the rest of the cast wouldn't be appearing. Again.

fredfa

02-15-07, 12:38 AM

my only thought when I read that was "why?"

It was (and still is) a good viral thriller, but hardly mini series material. It only just had enough plot to sustain it's movie length.

A&E doesn't need to get a big audience by network standards -- 4-5 million would be great, and they can replay stuff forever -- and then get the DVD sales.

But a sizeable cable audience helps convince cable and satellite providers to pony up the nexy time A&E (which currently gets a reported 22 cents a month for its subs) to raise its rates.

I think one of last season's episodes of "The Closer" got the biggest rating ever for a scripted cable series -- something over eight million viewers.

TNT crowed about that (as well it should have) for weeks.

But to put things in context, the number of viewers for that "Closer" episode is right about what "The Medium" and "Crossing Jordan" got on NBC last week -- and they were ranked #51 and #52.

cherry ghost

02-15-07, 01:29 AM

I got it. Tennessee women's basketball (gotta love Pat Summit).

Me too, but for Candace, not Pat.

fredfa

02-15-07, 01:53 AM

The Looming Writers’ Strike
Antistrike force eyes supply line
TV execs seek to bank more episodes
By Carl DiOrio and Nellie Andreeva The Hollywood Reporter Feb 15, 2007

TV studio execs might try to nip the potential threat of a writers strike by tucking away scripts or even shooting extra episodes of hit dramas and sitcoms.

The fledgling plan represents what a key management insider described as "phase one" of studio strike preparations. It's considered more important for TV execs than those in film to get a jump on planning for a possible writers walkout -- the current WGA contract expires Oct. 31 -- so thus far it's mostly the TV divisions at major studios taking the most aggressive steps toward content stockpiling.

Teams on such hit shows as FX's "Nip/Tuck" and "Rescue Me" have been approached about producing more than the 13 episodes required to complete the current season, perhaps as many as 22 in total. Sources said some major studios have approached actors on their hit returning series about shortening show hiatuses to as little as six weeks to complete more episodes in the summer.

"Everybody is talking about series possibly returning (to production) after really short hiatuses to bank as many episodes as possible," a talent agent said.

Studios are said to be exploring the feasibility of moving the start of production of returning broadcast series from August to late May or early June, though no formal requests have been made. The plan is still in the feeling-out stage as a shortened time off could create problems for series stars, who often use the summer hiatus to do features.

For instance, "24" star Kiefer Sutherland is set to star in the Fox/New Regency thriller "Mirrors," which lenses in the summer. And others including "Grey's Anatomy" regular Patrick Dempsey are believed to be reviewing similar offers for big-screen summer paydays.

Additionally, industry sources indicate that talent and crews on such dramas as "24" and "Lost" -- which boast elaborate location shoots -- desperately need a breather between seasons and can't possibly mount a new production cycle so quickly. To accommodate such needs, some studios are considering keeping filming schedules intact but storing extra scripts that can be shot during a potential strike.

But where possible, TV studios aim to assemble show casts to shoot episodes they can stockpile for the fall or beyond. For some long-running procedural shows, such as the "Law & Order" and "CSI" franchises, studios choose to keep talent and crews in production beyond the scheduled wrap date rather than breaking and reconvening, sources said.

"We're just starting to hear kind of secondhand that the TV schedule might be switched around a little bit this year," Association of Talent Agents spokeswoman Karen Stuart said. "We are hearing that people might be brought back in after the May pickups much sooner than normal."

The prospect of a writers strike already is a conversational flashpoint of the ongoing pilot-casting season, with actors being advised that production on the new series could begin almost immediately after the networks pick up their new shows in May.

So for old shows and new, the next impact from prestrike preparations is likely to kick in around May. That's when networks stage their upfront presentations for advertisers and signal which shows will be returning and which won't.

It also will bear watching whether it's tougher to get dramas and comedies picked up because of the possible unavailability of scripts in the event of a strike by the WGA. Already, there are signs of increased reality-show activity this pilot season.

"There's a lot of talk about ramping up this next production cycle with more reality shows," said Craig Borders, a director-producer on such reality shows as "Laguna Beach" and "The Mole." "One concrete sign is the marked increase of activity within companies who primarily produce reality shows. They're out shooting shows, whereas a year ago very few broadcast networks were purchasing much first-run reality shows. I'm developing several shows that I hope take advantage of this appetite for increased reality content."

Among those is a reality game show based on oil wildcatting in which one contestant and a "silent partner" can end up with a significant portion of a wildcat well, he said.

"The next trigger moment -- and it's a big one -- is around May and the upfronts," a management insider said. "Right now what they're doing is preparing. Every network is doing something different, (but) they're not going to tell each other, because they're competitors."

So while one network might opt to greenlight more reality projects for the period in question, another might lean toward sports and a third might choose to produce more game shows or even news programming.

"And if you lose viewers during a strike to cable or to someone else's sports programming or news programming, you might not get them back after the strike," the insider noted.

Many suggest the rise of the TV newsmagazine format owes much historically to the WGA strike in 1988, when the format was used to fill troublesome slots and viewers embraced the programming.

Meanwhile, though it's less clear what specific movie projects will be impacted by early strike-threat preparations, some industryites suggest that the situation also is starting to affect certain areas of film activity.

"I'm sure certain studios have sped up some development of scripts," a well-placed industry observer said. "But then, there's the question you ask yourself of whether I can produce this script without a writer on board during production. Some will say yes. Some will say no because they might need rewrites or a scene added here or there. Or it might involve a big writer, and you don't mess with big writer stuff."

On the TV side, de-facto strike conditions are a bit easier to track.

Once it becomes clear which shows are not returning, the networks will turn their sights in earnest to the question of how to program open slots -- while bearing in mind the possibility of a writers strike in late 2007. And it would almost be equally disruptive to scripted programming were labor strife to break out in early 2008.

WGA execs say they expect to begin negotiations for a new contract in July, but many observers say they are likely to go several months before seriously considering any walkout. That's because contracts for SAG and the DGA don't expire until mid-'08, and many believe the WGA will have increased bargaining power as those expirations draw closer.

Still, guild preparations for the various contracts talks also are under way. Just last week, the WGA named its negotiating committee and the DGA appointed a negotiating committee chairman.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/news/e3if86c028d8e16e1e04dbf596a46a75ee5

dad1153

02-15-07, 02:17 AM

Great. Wall-to-wall Dateline NBC, Deal or No Deal, America's Got Talent and a million other reality shows if/when the WGA goes on strike. And this coming from someone that likes 'Dateline' and 'DOND.' :rolleyes:

All three Law & Order shows already have a 10 1/2 month year-round schedule (from August 'till mid-June) just to fill their regular 22-episode quota. Why do you think poor Vincent D'Onofrio almost collapsed from exhaustion after four consecutive seasons of Criminal Intent with him in almost every shot/scene? At least 'L&O' shows, like CBS' procedurals, repeat well-enough that if a strike were to happen they could be repeated often and still get a decent rating. Shows that need topical first-run episodes (like Grey's Anatomy or 24) and the networks that build their schedules around these "event" programs are going to be soooooooo screwed if a strike happens! :(

RussB

02-15-07, 02:29 AM

by John Falcone
Feb. 9, 2007
crave CNET

Slowly but surely, the February 17, 2009, cutoff date for over-the-air analog TV gets an increasing amount of attention as we get closer to the date (just two years away). But an equally important date is just days away: February 28, 2007. That's the last day that manufacturers can ship or import any product that has only an analog TV tuner. As of March 1, all new TV and video products imported into the U.S. or shipped to retailers that include an analog (NTSC) tuner need to have a digital (ATSC) tuner as well.

The March 1 date is merely one step in an ongoing process. By federal mandate, over-the-air analog TV broadcasts will cease in the U.S. on February 17, 2009. From that day forward, you'll only be able to receive over-the-air TV broadcasts on TVs with digital (ATSC) tuners. To prepare for that inevitability, the FCC has setup a years-long schedule for transitioning the nation from analog to digital TVs. That's one reason why it's become increasingly impossible to buy large-screen analog TVs: Big-screen models were the first to fall under the digital tuner mandate, and it's been applied to smaller and smaller screen sizes as the decade has progressed. March 1 is the final deadline on the product side. At that point, TVs of all screen sizes need to have a digital tuner. Perhaps more importantly, any device with a built-in TV tuner needs to have a digital option as well. That encompasses a huge swath of products--everything from VCRs, DVRs, and DVD recorders to more esoteric PC peripherals such as TV tuner cards.

Of course, there's always a loophole. The FCC rules about the digital TV transition extend only to tuners that can receive over-the-air (OTA) broadcasts--ones you receive via an antenna. That's why the tens of millions of TV viewers who are cable or satellite subscribers should be largely unaffected by the 2009 over-the-air analog cut-off. Manufacturers can bypass the rules by simply omitting an over-the air analog tuner altogether. For instance, HD monitors such as the Panasonic TH-50PH9UK don't include any built-in tuners at all, just plenty of inputs for external video sources--leaving it up to you to connect your own cable or satellite box or even an outboard over-the-air tuner. Likewise, manufacturers may tweak an internal analog tuner to accept only a cable TV signal--rather than one from an antenna--thus skirting the requirements of the rule. The TiVo Series2 DT is one such example: Its tuner decodes signals from analog cable but, unlike the older Series2 models, not from analog antennas. As a result, the DT version is compliant with the post-March 1 mandate, even though it doesn't include a digital tuner.

So how will the deadline affect what you can buy in the store? In the short term, it won't. The March 1 deadline applies to manufacturers, not retailers. Whatever's on the shelf at Circuit City or Best Buy on February 28 will still be there the following day. But once the existing stocks of analog-only products are sold off, they won't be replaced. For TVs, that won't be a big problem. All larger (25 inches and up) HDTVs are already digital-ready, or they're monitor-only and thus exempt. For example, Best Buy already offers a 27-inch tube TV with analog and digital tuners for a scant $209--it just downconverts all the HD programming to standard-definition resolution. Look for digital tuners to appear in even smaller, cheaper TVs as the year progresses.

Perhaps more interesting is how the March 1 deadline will affect other video equipment with TV tuners. At the Consumer Electronics Show 2007, major manufacturers such as Panasonic, Samsung, RCA, and LG were showing off DVD recorders with built-in digital tuners. Fully compliant with the tuner mandate, they're exactly the sort of upgraded products that will be replacing the analog-only DVD recorders from the 2006 model year. Because the digital tuner costs more to implement, entry-level VCR and DVD recorders will likely follow the "monitor model" and go without a tuner, offering only line-in and line-out ports. Once again, if you're attaching them to a satellite or cable box, the lack of a tuner won't be missed.

One final reminder as we enter the home stretch of the digital TV transition: The hundreds of millions of old analog TVs already in use will still work just fine. All existing cable and satellite boxes--even HD ones--can still be connected to old analog TVs. However, viewers who watch over-the-air TV via an antenna will be able to purchase a digital-to-analog conversion box to avoid a loss of TV programming. (The government is even establishing a fund to help subsidize the purchase of such boxes, but details remain vague.) So while there's nothing wrong with upgrading to a nice, big, digital-ready flat-panel TV, there's no need to rush, either.

http://crave.cnet.com/8301-1_105-9685948-1.html?tag=nl.e501

fredfa

02-15-07, 02:35 AM

Thanks Russ -- we all have less than two weeks to rush out and snap up an NTSC-only TV.

CPanther95

02-15-07, 09:17 AM

Thanks Russ -- we all have less than two weeks to rush out and snap up an NTSC-only TV.

If our esteemed legislative leaders handling this transition didn't have their heads firmly inserted in their rectums, your last opportunity to buy an NTSC-only television would have happened a few years ago (and ATSC tuners would be dirt cheap by now). Instead, we've unnecessarily allowed millions of TVs that represent millions of additional government subsidies to continue to flow through the pipeline.

fredfa

02-15-07, 10:02 AM

The TV Column
Anna Nicole Coverage Sweetens the Ratings Pot
By Lisa de Moraes Washington Post Staff Writer Thursday, February 15, 2007

Last week when Anna Nicole Smith died, the cable news networks were all over the story in minutes; the broadcast newscasts were all over it that night.

Almost immediately, the bashing began. The Reporters Who Cover Television, media watchdog Web sites -- even the networks' own on-air talent -- excoriated the TV outlets for lavishing so much time on the sudden, mysterious death of the gorgeous, buxom 39-year-old pinup who was famous merely for being famous.

After all, traditionally this kind of time and attention has more appropriately been reserved for the coverage of the sudden, mysterious deaths of people like Princess Di and JFK Jr. -- people famous for being -- um, more famous.

"Why are they all focused in on this story and why are they going to be providing a lot more time to Anna Nicole Smith than the war in Iraq and possible coming war with Iran?" MSNBC talking head Joe Scarborough faux-wondered that very Thursday night at 10 on his program.

"Over the course of the next hour, there will be no reporting . . . on the passing of Anna Nicole Smith," CNN's resident old gasbag Lou Dobbs sniffed at Wolf Blitzer (who'd gone into high Anna Nicole mode on "The Situation Room") as he promoted his upcoming "I'm Lou Dobbs and You're Not" show.

"Anna Nicole Smith and Our National Media Embarrassment," Web site Thinkprogress.org -- a project of the Washington think tank American Progress Action Fund (which says it's a sister advocacy organization of think tank Center for American Progress) -- said in a finger-wagging headline.

"The death of Anna Nicole Smith yesterday was a feeding frenzy for the national media," the site complained.

"Coverage of the war was drowned out: NBC's Nightly News devoted 14 seconds to Iraq compared to 3 minutes and 13 seconds to Anna Nicole. CNN referenced Anna Nicole 522% more frequently than it did Iraq. MSNBC was even worse -- 708% more references to Anna Nicole than Iraq."

"War? What war?" the Philadelphia Inquirer wrote in response to figures released this week by the Project for Excellence in Journalism. That group discovered that the unexpected death of the billionaire-wife-turned-E!-reality-series-star was last week's No. 3 news story, nearly edging out what it called "a bloody week in Iraq" -- to distinguish it from all the non-bloody weeks.

"The bosomy blonde's demise consumed a staggering 50% of the cable news hole PEJ examined on February 8 and 9," the organization wrote -- adding that those are the kinds of levels not seen since the demises of Di and JFK Jr.

Back at CNN, Blitzer got slapped again the next day by the network's official downer-guy, Jack Cafferty, who'd collected viewer e-mails grousing about the network's Anna Nicole coverage.

"That's the only story we reported [yesterday] for two solid hours and we weren't the only ones," Cafferty grumbled. "Her death was tabloid gold and apparently we just couldn't help ourselves."

"I know a lot of people are complaining about that," Blitzer said. "But a lot of people are also watching."

He said a mouthful.

Last Thursday, when Blitzer was standing in front of his Big Board of Moving Pictures, shepherding CNN's Anna Nicole coverage on "The Situation Room," he had an average audience of 1.7 million viewers -- nearly tripling his audience in the same hour the day before and beating Fox News Channel in the hour. This is a good place to mention that Too Good to Cover Pop Culture Cafferty, who appears on Blitzer's program, also got to enjoy those million or so extra viewers that day.

In that same hour, FNC's Neil Cavuto tried gamely to cover the Anna Nicole story while standing at the golf course in Pebble Beach, Calif., site of the annual Pro-Am tourney, where he was slated to interview Oscar nominee Clint Eastwood:

"I want to touch on this with you, then I'm going to leave it because there are far more urgent issues for you," Cavuto told Eastwood on the links.

"But Anna Nicole has died. Sort of a whimsical character now to the press," Cavuto continued. "Here-again-gone-again celebrity. You have survived so many careers that have gone up and down -- how do you feel?"

"You're trying to make me feel [like a] senior citizen," Eastwood responded. "I see what you're doing. I feel fine. I'm sorry that this life ended tragically for this lady. Obviously that wasn't a good thing."

Ironically, Blitzer's hard work also paid off for Lou "No Stinkin' Anna Nicole Coverage Here" Dobbs, what with his show being sandwiched as it is in the middle of "The Situation Room," where all that great Anna Nicole Is Dead coverage was being done.

Dobbs clocked an average of nearly 1.2 million viewers that night, compared with 751,000 viewers the previous night. Dobbs did not beat FNC's Brit Hume newscast, which logged nearly 1.7 million viewers.

We'll never know if those several hundred thousand viewers who bailed when Dobbs came on would have stuck around had he not disdained to make mention of the gimongous pop-culture story crashing all around him.

At any rate, he owes Blitzer an apology. Cafferty, too.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/14/AR2007021401813_pf.html

fredfa

02-15-07, 10:19 AM

TV Notebook
Olbermann Renews Contract
By Anne Becker Broadcasting & Cable 2/15/2007

After reportedly seeking a four-fold increase on his pay, MSNBC anchor Keith Olbermann renewed his contract with the network for four more years. Per the deal, he will continue hosting Countdown with Keith Olbermann, and take on new roles contributing occasional essays to NBC's Nightly News and hosting two primetime Countdown specials a year on NBC.

B&C broke the news that the controversial host was said to have been seeking more than $4 million a year to renew his contract, which came due in April. His current deal is believed to have paid about $1 million per year.

Olbermann sought the big payout because his 8 p.m. show is a ratings superstar for MSNBC. It finished January with an average 283,000 viewers in news' key 25-54 demographic and 715,000 total viewers, up 89% and 85%, respectively, over last year.

"Keith Olbermann is a tremendous talent and a superb broadcaster," said NBC News President Steve Capus in a statement. "He is an asset to NBC News and the timing of this announcement couldn't be better given the momentum Keith's program is enjoying right now."

http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6416673.html

fredfa

02-15-07, 10:24 AM

TV Notebook
“Nightline” To Stay As A Half Hour Show
By Adam Buckman The New York Post February 15, 2007

ABC has no plans to expand "Nightline" by a half-hour and move "Jimmy Kimmel Live" to 12:35 a.m., network officials insisted yesterday.

They were reacting to a story published in the New York Observer that said ABC officials in Burbank had instructed ABC's news division in New York to produce a one-hour "practice" version of "Nightline" as preparation for an expansion to 12:35.

The so-called "test" show was produced last week in New York, but not aired.

ABC execs said the network is happy with the performance of the "Kimmel" show and that they have not discussed moving the show to a later time period.

"The show has grown," said Andrea Wong, executive vice-president of alternative series and late-night for ABC, on the phone from L.A. yesterday.

"Season-to-date ["Kimmel"] is up 17 percent in adults 18-49 [and] up 13 percent in total viewers," she said. "So it's really paying off and we couldn't be happier about where the show's going."

She noted that the network doesn't even have the option of moving the one-hour "Kimmel" show.

"The affiliates have cleared 11:35 to 1:05 [for network programs] - we don't have 'til 1:35" to schedule a network show, she pointed out.

Meanwhile, a spokeswoman for ABC News said network executives based on the West Coast had nothing to do with the "test" hour. She said it was produced solely at the behest of news division execs who wanted to see what a one-hour "Nightline" - featuring the show's current anchor triad of Terry Moran, Cynthia McFadden and Martin Bashir - would look like.

Instead of preparing to take over the time period currently occupied by the first half-hour of "Kimmel," the "Nightline" producers were preparing only for their show's occasional need to run long, either due to breaking news or special programming requiring an hour in the manner of the old "Nightline" anchored by Ted Koppel.

http://www.nypost.com/seven/02152007/tv/nightline_to_stay_in_half_hour_time_slot_tv_adam_buckman.htm

fredfa

02-15-07, 10:58 AM

So how did "Lost" do last night as it settles into its new 10 PM time slot?

The first reurns are in and you can find them in Wednesday’s metered market over-night prime-time ratings – and Media Week Analyst Marc Berman’s view of what they mean -- which have been posted just near the top of Ratings News the second post in this thread.

We'll have the fast national ratings in the next hour or so.

shuttermaker

02-15-07, 11:11 AM

fredfa

02-15-07, 11:12 AM

TV Notebook
For 'ER,' a renewed bout of ratings flu
By Diego Vasquez MediaLifeMagazine.com staff writer Feb 15, 2007, 01:00

A few months ago, it looked as though “ER” was going through a twilight resurgence of sorts. Ratings were up over the previous year, and NBC backtracked on an earlier decision to shelve the 13-year-old show at midseason in favor of a fresh drama.

But with two weeks left in February sweeps, it now seems that the resurgence was merely temporary. Over the last two weeks, “ER” has dropped to season-low and near series-low ratings.

“Media buyers are once again voicing concerns about the show's health, and it feels like this discussion is going to have an impact on ‘ER's’ attractiveness during the next upfronts,” one veteran media buyer tells Media Life.

Tonight’s 10 p.m. episode addresses a moral dilemma Gates and Kovac face while treating a liver patient.

While even a weakened “ER” still outdraws most of NBC’s shows, the ratings decline is not encouraging. Last week’s episode averaged a 4.8, down 16 percent from its season-to-date 5.7 average for originals and 21 percent from last year’s 6.1 average on the same night.

Meanwhile, ratings for the competing “Men in Trees” on ABC and CBS’s “Shark” were both up last week, and the latter beat “ER” in total viewers.

Certainly better competition may explain the show’s recent decline. Last fall, when "ER's" ratings were healthier, “Shark” was not as strong in 18-49s and ABC’s “Six Degrees” was bombing.

But it’s also likely been hurt by its lead-in, the low-rated sitcom “30 Rock.” That show is averaging just a 2.8 rating, down a considerable 22 percent from a 3.6 for “Deal or No Deal,” its lead-in last fall.

Another factor may be the departure of longtime cast member Laura Innes (Kerry Weaver) who left at midseason after more than a decade on the show.

With NBC still rebuilding and its once-promising freshman drama “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip” looking unlikely to return, “ER” may return for a 14th season; it remains a top 20 show. Whether it can remain one next year looks less and less clear.

http://www.medialifemagazine.com/artman/publish/printer_10198.asp

fredfa

02-15-07, 11:15 AM

TV Notebook
The word: MSNBC re-signs Olbermann
The feisty left-leaning newsman is the network’s hot face
By Toni Fitzgerald MediaLifeMagazine.com staff writer Feb 15, 2007

After years of struggle, MSNBC seems to be finding its voice over the past year, making major ratings gains and moving to its closest competitive position ever to No. 2 cable news network CNN.

Today the network will take a major step in ensuring that its rise continues, renewing the contract of host Keith Olbermann in a long-term deal rumored to be worth many millions.

The two sides have been in negotiations for months. Though MSNBC had no comment on the deal this morning, several news outlets reported that it will be announced later today, and the network scheduled a press conference for noon.

Last year Olbermann said he was looking for $4 million per year, which would have been four times his current salary. CNN was also rumored to have made a bid for Olbermann, though he had insisted he wanted to stay with his current network.

Though he has caught the ire of conservative bloggers, there’s no denying the former “SportsCenter” anchor has become the most valuable personality on the network.

“Countdown with Keith Olbermann” was the biggest gainer on MSNBC last year, posting the network’s highest ratings ever in the 8 p.m. weeknight timeslot. The show averaged 479,000 total viewers, up 24 percent over 2005, as CNN and Fox News both saw double-digit declines in the timeslot.

During fourth quarter, when the midterm elections were held, Olbermann’s show was up 60 percent in total viewers, to 656,000, and began to consistently best CNN in adults 25-54.

That led MSNBC to major gains in primetime, and that’s continued in January, when it trailed CNN in primetime among 25-54s by just 59,000 viewers.

In many ways it seems appropriate that Olbermann should have emerged as the face of long-dragging, often disjointed MSNBC just as Bill O’Reilly is the face of Fox News and Anderson Cooper is the face of CNN.

Olbermann was known as a somewhat quixotic and unhappy man before he landed at MSNBC for a second go-round. Though a talented broadcaster, he clashed with his bosses and often aired those gripes in public, which did not sit well with his bosses.

After leaving ESPN on bad terms in 1997, he landed briefly at MSNBC before jumping over to Fox Sports, where things also ended badly in 2001. Olbermann then bounced between CNN and ABC Radio before reemerging at MSNBC in 2003, when the network’s ratings were flailing.

Much as Olbermann struggled to find the right fit, MSNBC has adopted and shed many personalities over the years. Phil Donahue, Michael Savage, Connie Chung and Ron Reagan Jr. have come and gone, none finding a loyal audience.

But over the past year, and more recently under new general manager Dan Abrams, the network has shifted its focus to politics, and Olbermann, who often delivers diatribes against President Bush and the Iraq War, has been a big part of that.

“We target a smart viewer, an informed viewer, a viewer who cares about what’s going on in the world,” Abrams told Media Life earlier this year. “[Our success] has been spearheaded by Keith Olbermann’s success.”

http://www.medialifemagazine.com/artman/publish/article_10214.asp

fredfa

02-15-07, 11:23 AM

OK..so "Lost" is still slipping. Thats not a surprise.

If I were in charge of ABC programming and could do WHATEVER I wanted with no questions asked...

I think I would go back to Season 1 and replay back to back episodes in the 8pm to 10 pm time slot on Friday or Saturday nights. A 2 hour block from Season 1 Episode 1 until its current episode.

But the surprise is that they are slipping so badly -- and against such previously nondescript competition.

I think the "Lost" ship may be beyond salvage -- although another season is surely in the cards.

IMO, rerunning season 1 on Fridays or Saturdays would be a ratings disaster.

People who love the show clearly love it; others have apparently made up their minds that it is not for them -- including a substantial number of once-loyal viewers.

In retrospect, the best move might have been to delay this season until January and then run the entire Season Three uninterrupted in a comfortable time slot. But that is Monday morning QBing on my part.

Although the ratings it should be emphasized are still more than respectable, I just don't see any reasonable way for ABC to reverse the ratings trend for "Lost".

shuttermaker

02-15-07, 11:29 AM

TV Notebook
For 'ER,' a renewed bout of ratings flu
By Diego Vasquez MediaLifeMagazine.com staff writer Feb 15, 2007, 01:00

http://www.medialifemagazine.com/artman/publish/printer_10198.asp

ER needs a face lift. Ive been watching it for probably 6 years now. Maybe the "County General" set could be enlarged? For a while so many episodes involved budget cuts and the plight of the patients. They need to bring the show into the 21st century. Spruce it up a bit.

My favorite episode is when the helo fell on that ass of a surgeon...i forget his name.

Isnt ER the last show of the "Must See TV" era for NBC. It really doesnt deserve the Thursday slot anymore.

fredfa

02-15-07, 11:32 AM

TV Notebook
The NBC Keith Olbermann News Release
Four More Years
Named Managing Editor of "Countdown" And Will Contribute To NBC Network News Programming

SECAUCUS, NJ – February 15, 2007 – MSNBC today announced that Keith Olbermann will be counting down the top stories of the day for four more years, continuing as host of his enormously popular nightly news program, "Countdown with Keith Olbermann" (8-9 p.m. ET). In addition, he will contribute to NBC Nightly News with occasional essays and will host two "Countdown" primetime specials each year on NBC. Since its launch in April, 2003, "Countdown" has grown its audience by 91%, making it one of the most watched programs on cable news.

"Keith Olbermann is a tremendous talent and a superb broadcaster," said NBC News President Steve Capus. "He is an asset to NBC News and the timing of this announcement couldn't be better given the momentum Keith's program is enjoying right now."

A compelling hour of nightly news, delivered with Olbermann's particular wit and style, "Countdown" takes a fast paced look at the top five news stories of the day – from politics to pop culture and from the mainstream to the oddball. The program has enjoyed particular success in the past year, finishing the month of January with an average of 283,000 viewers in the adult demographic (25-54) and 715,000 total viewers, up +89% and +85% respectively, over a year ago.

"I've been overwhelmed by the support for this newscast, both inside NBC, and among our remarkable viewers," said Olbermann. "I'm delighted we can continue 'Countdown,' and continue to try to hold politicians and other newsmakers accountable for what they are doing, or not doing."

Olbermann is the recipient of numerous distinguished awards in radio and television broadcasting, including the 1995 Cable Ace Award for Best Sportscaster, 11 Golden Mike Awards for excellence in television and radio, and four Sports Emmy Awards. Olbermann also received two Edward R. Murrow Awards, one for his coverage of the events of 9/11 and another for the anniversary coverage of 9/11.

In addition to his extensive broadcasting experience, Olbermann has written for dozens of publications, including The New York Times, USA Today, Newsweek, Time, Sports Illustrated and Playboy. His first book, "The Major League Coaches," was published when he was 14. His latest book, "The Worst Person in the World," is based on the popular segment within "Countdown with Keith Olbermann," and another, based on his electrifying Countdown "Special Comments," will be published next winter.

shuttermaker

02-15-07, 11:39 AM

But the surprise is that they are slipping so badly -- and against such previously nondescript competition.

I think the "Lost" ship may be beyond salvage -- although another season is surely in the cards.

IMO, rerunning season 1 on Fridays or Saturdays would be a ratings disaster.

People who love the show clearly love it; others have apparently made up their minds that it is not for them -- including a substantial number of once-loyal viewers.

In retrospect, the best move might have been to delay this season until January and then run the entire Season Three uninterrupted in a comfortable time slot. But that is Monday morning QBing on my part.

Although the ratings it should be emphasized are still more than respectable, I just don't see any reasonable way for ABC to reverse the ratings trend for "Lost".

While I agree that weeks off inbetween new episodes is whats killing the shows ability to retain viewers and bring into the fold new ones, I think people are just flat out too impatient. Everybody wants things explained in 2 or 3 episodes. Maybe a lot of viewers cant handle multiple story lines?

JMO but, I like they way the story is going, I like the flow, the only problem I have is the long breaks in between new episodes. This show, with its multiple story lines cant survive with those long breaks. People cant invest the required patience and attention to enjoy it the way its presented.

fredfa

02-15-07, 11:56 AM

I agree to an extent, shuttermaker. But beyond everything else, I suspect many people want some sort of resolution after investing an hour in watching what is supposed to be entertaining. And it is hard to blame them.

I am not suggesting that all serial-like elements should be done away with. But it does seem to me that except in rare cases, people should get a sense that they learned something new after a show ends -- and not only some new element of a continuing mystery. And we have seen this year that serials do not seem to work all that well -- even well constyructed ones.

In the case of "Lost" it is my belief, and I wouldn't dare post it over on the "Lost" thread, that there just hasn't been enough of a weekly payoff to viewers who have been incredibly supportive to the show.

Many critics have written that perhaps the show runners haven't figured out what is going to happen yet. Without any evidence whatsoever one way or the other that is certainly how it seems to me. There are some brilliant moments, but they are too often, to me at least, wasted in a morass of confusing and unfulfilling episodes.

In my mind, "Lost" has become, to many viewers, a chore to watch. And apparently they have decided they payback isn't worth the effort. It seems to me that in television (as in most areas of life) it is harder to win back someone who has decided he/she no longer likes your product than it is to get his or her attention the first time.

fredfa

02-15-07, 12:05 PM

Last night's fast national over night prime-time ratings – and Media Week Analyst Marc Berman’s view of what they mean -- have been posted near the top of Ratings News the second post in this thread.

VisionOn

02-15-07, 12:09 PM

While I agree that weeks off inbetween new episodes is whats killing the shows ability to retain viewers and bring into the fold new ones, I think people are just flat out too impatient. Everybody wants things explained in 2 or 3 episodes. Maybe a lot of viewers cant handle multiple story lines?

there are no multiple storylines on Lost anymore. Lost is guilty of false promises and killing momentum every week now. Instead of balancing each episode with storylines about each character they concentrate on a small group and one plot thread. Compare this to the first season when every character was appearing every episode and they were all involved.

We had 7 weeks about Sawyer, Jack and Kate, and where the writer's could have had concurrently running storyline throughout they didn't. If your favorite characters are for example Locke and Sayid, you have been left high and dry for the better part of the season.

Compare this to Heroes. What works in Heroes favor is that the characters all get screen time and each separate story moves along. The viewers that like Hiro the most for example, know they will at least see him during the episode even if his story isn't the most pivotal. If Lost wants to solve it's problem they need to hire writers who can juggle a few storylines in every episode and start using all the cast members on an equal basis. A huge number of the cast have had barely two lines in almost 10 episodes. Moving it back to 9pm would help as well.

I was trying to find how it fared in it's second half but couldn't see those ratings. I wanted to see if a large number dropped off when they realized that despite the promises made last week the entire episode was about one character.

bphisig

02-15-07, 12:09 PM

What baffles me with LOST is why the Season 2 DVD set was released so close to the premier of Season 3...didn't FOX release the first season of 24 on DVD right away, giving everyone plenty of time to get caught up in time for the premier of Season 2? On the E! True Hollywood Story show that covered 24, they said that the ratings for S2 were up significantly from S1, in large part due to the DVD release.

For a show like LOST, where you really need to see all the previous episodes, shouldn't they have approached it the same way? Let as many people as possible get caught up with the show, otherwise, they're not going to tune in.

Obviously there are a number of other problems, but I think that a better DVD release schedule wouldn't hurt. They should put it out no more than a month after the season finale.

VisionOn

02-15-07, 12:18 PM

I agree to an extent, shuttermaker. But beyond everything else, I suspect many people want some sort of resolution after investing an hour in watching what is supposed to be entertaining. And it is hard to blame them.

I am not suggesting that all serial-like elements should be done away with. But it does seem to me that except in rare cases, people should get a sense that they learned something new after a show ends -- and not only some new element of a continuing mystery. And we have seen this year that serials do not seem to work all that well -- even well constyructed ones.

In the case of "Lost" it is my belief, and I wouldn't dare post it over on the "Lost" thread, that there just hasn't been enough of a weekly payoff to viewers who have been incredibly supportive to the show.

Without dragging this into another Lost thread, this brings up a mistake the creator's made with the online game. A lot of the show's mysteries, including the biggest - what the numbers mean - have already been addressed. The plot threads which they revealed a year ago have yet to find their way into the show, which makes no sense. It's created a two tier level of viewer and for some reason the writer's think it's okay to not mention this information on the show because they've already put it out there for people to find.

All the information that has been revealed already would have gone a long way to not only keeping viewers interested (the long running numbers mystery is barely mentioned now) but actually feel like the story is moving forward. It's already written, it should be simple to incorporate.

fredfa

02-15-07, 12:18 PM

The marketing people won that one, bphisig. The feeling is that all the premiere week hoopla gets "free" advertising which helps the sales of the DVD.

I agree with your premise: I would use the season-ending publicity to hype a season's DVD sales, release the DVD set the week of the annual cliff-hanger, and let people catch up with the show over the summer.

fredfa

02-15-07, 12:21 PM

Overnights in the 18-49 Demo
ABC's 'Lost' struggling to find its way
Returned drama dips 14 percent from last week
By Toni Fitzgerald MediaLifeMagazine.com staff writer Feb 15, 2007

In its second week back from a midseason hiatus, ABC hit “Lost” continued to show ratings declines. The question now is what is causing them and whether they can be reversed.

Last night’s episode averaged a 5.6 adults 18-49 rating, according to Nielsen overnights, down 14 percent from the previous week’s 6.5 and 23 percent from its season-to-date average of 7.3.

It also lost 2 million total viewers from the previous week, down to 12.7 million, nearly 2 million behind competing “CSI: NY” on CBS. But “Lost” was first in the timeslot in 18-49s.

There are certainly a myriad of possible reasons for the falloff, and one is that “Lost” has moved into a new, later 10 p.m. timeslot, an hour when TV usage in general falls off.

Thus it could be that “Lost” will see an uptick in digital video recorder ratings when they are released, explaining some of the decline though nowhere near all of it.

Another reason for “Lost’s” decline since last fall is that it no longer has strong lead-in “Dancing with the Stars.” Last night its lead-in, a repeat of “Lost,” averaged a 2.1, less than half “Stars’” average last fall.

But the most likely reason is that fans are dissatisfied with the drama’s dragging plotlines. Message boards are full of complaints about producers’ failure to tie up almost any of the mysteries on the show, instead adding new ones as well as new characters.

While last week’s premiere won praise from critics, this week focused on a completely different group of survivors, a fractioning also unpopular with fans. Some may have decided that they’re sick of waiting.

If that’s the case, then the ratings declines may not be reversible unless more answers are given.

Also last night, CW’s third season of “Beauty and the Geek” had its highest-rated finale ever in adults 18-34 (2.4), adults 18-49 (1.9), and viewers (4.2 million).

Fox was first for the night among 18-49s with an 8.1 average rating and a 21 share. CBS was second at 3.5/9, ABC third at 3.3/8, NBC fourth at 2.7/7, Univision fifth at 1.6/4 and CW sixth at 1.5/4.

At 8 p.m. Fox began the night in the lead with a 4.1 rating for “Bones.” NBC was second that hour with a 2.5 for “Friday Night Lights” and ABC third with a 2.2 average for “George Lopez” (2.6) and “Knights of Prosperity” (1.9). Univision and CBS tied for fourth that hour at 2.1, Univision for “La Fea Mas Bella” and CBS for “Return to Jericho,” with CW sixth with a 1.9 for “Beauty and the Geek.”

At 9 p.m. Fox extended its lead with a 12.1 rating for “American Idol.” CBS moved to second with a 4.0 for “Criminal Minds,” with NBC third with a 2.6 for “Deal or No Deal” and ABC fourth with a 2.1 for a repeat of “Lost.” That left Univision fifth with a 1.5 for “Mundo de Fieras” and CW sixth with a 1.1 for “One Tree Hill.”

ABC took the lead at 10 p.m. with a 5.6 rating for “Lost,” followed by CBS with a 4.4 for “CSI: NY.” NBC was third with a 3.0 for “Medium” and Univision fourth with a 1.3 for “Don Francisco Presenta.”

Fox was first for the night among households, coming away with an 11.8 average rating and an 18 share. CBS finished second at 8.0/13, NBC third at 5.6/9, ABC fourth at 4.9/8 and Univision and CW tied for fifth at 2.1/3.

http://www.medialifemagazine.com/artman/publish/article_10230.asp

fredfa

02-15-07, 12:42 PM

In case you missed it in the ratings summary, here is some (rare) "Friday Night Lights" good news. Not great, but encouraging, nonetheless.

(From Marc Berman’s Thursday, Feb. 15, 2007, Programming Insider column and blog at Mediaweek.com )
http://pifeedback.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/63310451/m/45910043?r=61010143#61010143
Overnight Ratings for Wednesday, February 14th

Fox, of course, led the midweek troops on the strength of blockbuster American Idol, which scored a typically mammoth 28.54 million viewers and a 12.1 rating/29 share among adults 18-49 at 9 p.m. But since there is more to an evening than American Idol, let’s begin with 8 p.m.

Fox’s Bones opened on a winning note at 12.36 million viewers and a 4.1/17 among adults 18-49 at 8 p.m… CBS special Return of Jericho, which featured a look back at the previously telecast episodes, took a major backseat at 7.69 million viewers (#2) and a 2.1/ 6 among adults 18-49 (#4)…Also in the 8 p.m. hour were ABC comedies George Lopez (Viewers: #4, 7.15 million; A18-49: #2, 2.6/ 7) and The Knights of Prosperity (Viewers: #4, 4.87 million; A18-49: #5, 1.9/ 5), NBC’s Friday Night Lights (Viewers: #3, 7.43 million; A18-49: #2, 2.5/ 7), and the season-finale of Beauty and the Geek on the CW (Viewers: #5, 4.21 million; A18-49: #5, 1.9/ 5)….”

• Source: Nielsen Media Research data

As I noted in the “FNL” thread, the good news is the #2 18-49 ranking, and the total viewership during a show which dealt with a tough subject, was up from last week's 6.41 million by 822,000 viewers (16%).

fredfa

02-15-07, 12:47 PM

TV Notebook
Fox Pickup Rumors

I have heard rumblings that Fox may announce, as early as today, that is has picked up “House” and “Bones" for next season.

Neither move would be a surprise, and I reiterate that at the moment, they are just a rumors floating around. But they are rumors I think have some substance.

So the start of the fall pickup season might be at hand.

steverobertson

02-15-07, 01:11 PM

Fred,

Thanks that is good news on FNL lets hope all these people come back for more.

fredfa

02-15-07, 01:15 PM

kizzo

02-15-07, 01:35 PM

We can only hope, steve.

But I am frankly stunned that the numbers rose so much during such a hard episode to watch.

Don't get me wrong, I loved it, but the racial divide is not an easy subject to promote.

Very true. Its the reason that I decided to tune in to the episode. I have ignored the show in the past, but I wanted to see how they would treat this particular issue.

fredfa

02-15-07, 01:47 PM

(Note: Spoilers abound in this post. You have been warned.)
Critic’s Notebook
“Friday Night Lights”
Let's go to the strip club
By Alan Sepinwall of the Newark Star-Ledger in his TV blog “What’s Alan Watching” February 15, 2007

A very strong episode, with one caveat that I'll get to in a bit. Let's take the silly before the serious.

Landry Clarke at a strip club? Absolute comic genius. The writers and Jesse Plemons have done such a wonderful job of establishing the ABC's of Landry that I started laughing at the very idea of him going there, well before he actually wound up in the dressing room. (Nice garnish: that one stripper nodding enthusiastically at Landry's speech about how they work hard for their money, so you better tip them right.)

The preview for this episode tipped off most of Coach and Mrs. Coach's scene, especially the "Is there anybody else I can talk to?" punchline, but it was still funny in context, plus there was a new capper with his reference to all three of them being scary. The Taylors have one of the most realistic, honest and entertaining marriages on TV. And am I the only one who keeps flashing back to Tami telling Tyra "I used to be like you" (or words to that effect) in an early episode? While Tyra's absolutely a bad influence on Julie, I also think Tami is protesting so vehemently because she identifies too much with Tyra.

Now, for the serious. I was so pleased by the nuanced way the show dealt last week with the Mac plot until now, how Mac's comments were unpleasant but not Tim Hardaway-level automatic proof of violent biogtry, how people like Coach and Riggins let their focus on the playoffs blind them to what needed to be said and done to defuse the situation, Smash's gradual awakening, etc. And I liked a lot of the material here: Mac's confession that he picked up some attitudes from his old man that he wishes he hadn't, Mama Smash's speech, Riggins finally standing up for Smash (and why didn't he tell Coach about the "tarbaby" comment after the fact?), the team being pelted with garbage while walking to the bus in full uniform, and that scary-ass traffic stop.

But I also feel like the show took the easy way out on Mac, both with Coach's line about him being the one who integrated the team and him saving the day with the redneck cops. First of all, if Mac was really the man responsible for integrating the Panthers, shouldn't that have come up really early in the whole media firestorm? Second, both bits -- and the nasty depiction of the rival team and its fans -- seemed to be a case of the writers trying to say, as Rich Heldenfels put it to me, "our racist is better than your racists." It was like the show went to a place that was really complicated and scary, and someone -- either the writers or NBC -- decided it was a little too scary to stay very long, so they wrapped things up neat and tidy. Rich wants to give the show the benefit of the doubt and assume that Smash and Mac's relationship will be an ongoing subject, but it looked from this seat like they put a bow on the whole thing.

Still, if there's any network show right now that deserves some benefit of the doubt, it's "Friday Night Lights."

http://sepinwall.blogspot.com/2007/02/friday-night-lights-lets-go-to-strip.html

fredfa

02-15-07, 01:49 PM

It is hard to just step into a complex show at such a point, kizzo...and in the sceond of a two-part episode, no less.

So what did you think?

Very true. Its the reason that I decided to tune in to the episode. I have ignored the show in the past, but I wanted to see how they would treat this particular issue.

steverobertson

02-15-07, 01:58 PM

I think the best line last night was the QB sitting in jail when the cop comes in says the parents have arrived and you are free to go and the look on his face and the way he said is my grandmother here was great.

By the way I think they handled the race issue very well in the show and hope it dies a quick death no need to drag it out in my mind.

fredfa

02-15-07, 02:10 PM

The Business of Television
DVR Commercial Effect:
Nielsen: DVR Users View Commericals in First Day
By Jon Lafayette Television Week February 15, 2007

If a commercial is going to be seen by a viewer using a digital video recorder, its most likely they’ll see it in the first day or so after it was originally aired, according to a new analysis by The Nielsen Company.

The findings are likely to factor into the debate going on in the TV industry about how commercials viewed after they are broadcast by consumers using DVRs will be accounted for when ad time is purchased. This season, commercials are based on live program viewing, but by next season, Nielsen expects to be able to produce average ratings for the commercials in those programs, including those seen by DVR users.

Nielsen found that ratings for primetime broadcast commercials gain 16 percent in ratings among viewers 18-49 in homes with DVRS during the first 27 hours after being recorded. Over the full seven days that Nielsen measures, that figure rises to just 22 percent.

By comparison, ratings for prime time programs increase 35 percent in those first 27 hours, and rise by a total of 47 percent after seven days.

Nielsen also said that households with DVRs watch significantly less live TV than households without DVRS, but that most of that difference is made up after seven days of DVR playback. Those DVR owners are younger, better educated and have higher incomes than the average U.S. household.

VCRS are becoming less of a factor, Nielsen said, based on its analysis of viewing in DVR homes from Jan 1 to Jan. 21. VCR recording contribute 2.4 percent of total broadcast primetime ratings in 2007, compared to 3.1 percent in January 2006.

Nielsen released the findings today at its national clients meeting in Orlando.

http://www.tvweek.com/news.cms?newsId=11572

steverobertson

02-15-07, 02:13 PM

Who watches commercials with a DVR? I know I don't

fredfa

02-15-07, 02:14 PM

The Business of Television
DVR Commercial Effect:
What Nielsen Discovered About DVR Playback
By Linda Moss MultiChannel News 2/15/2007

Nielsen will tell its national TV clients Thursday that there are significant differences in the way viewers use digital-video recorders, depending upon how soon after the original telecast they play back the recording and what genre of programming they are watching.

Specifically Nielsen will report that DVR playback that occurs closest to the original telecast retains more of the audience during commercials than DVR playback that occurs further out; and that certain genres, such as sports and news, have higher levels of live viewing, with DVR playback occurring closer to the original telecast than average.

In a separate presentation to clients, Nielsen will also report that about 20% of households have some form of personal video device, but that a mass platform for watching television on portable screens has not yet emerged.

The findings will be presented to Nielsen’s annual meeting of national clients at the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Orlando, Fla. There are representatives from Nielsen's various national client groups -- broadcast, cable and Hispanic networks; syndicators; advertising agencies; and advertisers and marketers -- attending the two-day gathering.

Using its NPOWER software-analysis system, Nielsen was set to review the viewing behavior of sample households with DVRs from Jan. 1-21.

Among the highlights of this analysis, Nielsen found:

• During the first 27 hours after being recorded, primetime broadcast commercials gain 16% in ratings among viewers 18-49 in households with DVRs, with the total increase reaching 22% after seven days. This compares with a 35% increase in ratings for broadcast programs during the first 27 hours after the original telecast and a total increase of 47% after seven days.

• Among 18- to 34-year-old viewers in DVR households, virtually all sports and news DVR playback occurs within the same day, 85% of playback for daytime dramas occurs within the same day and about 75% of playback of sitcoms and primetime dramas occurs within the same day.

• Households with DVRs watch significantly less live television than households without DVRs, but most of that difference is made up after seven days of DVR playback.

• DVR viewing of primetime broadcast programming is a communal experience. 54% of people watching DVR playback are watching with someone else, versus 46% who are viewing alone. This compares to a 50-50 breakdown among viewers of live programming.

• DVR owners are younger, better educated and have higher incomes than the average U.S. household.

• The ratings contribution of VCRs continues to decline. VCR recording contributed 2.4% of total broadcast primetime ratings in January compared with 3.1% in January 2006, although it is higher (5.4%) during weekday afternoons.

Nielsen also presented an overview of emerging platforms for viewing video on personal devices based on data reported from its quarterly Home Technology Study, its National People Meter panel and its panel of iTunes users.

Nielsen was also scheduled to report that:

• 19% of households have at least one PVD. The largest penetration is for portable DVD players (10% of households) and video-enabled cellular phones (5%). Only 4% of households own a video-enabled iPod or MP3 player.

• Playing video on a personal device has not yet become an ingrained habit. Even among PVD owners, about two-thirds said it has been more than one week since they watched something on their portable player.

• About one-third of iPod owners played a video file during the fourth quarter of last year. 40% of those users who played video do not own a video iPod, meaning they are watching the video clips through iTunes on their PCs.

• Even among iTunes video users, 95% of all daily playback time (50 minutes and 30 seconds) is audio. The average iTunes video user plays video files only two-and-a-half minutes per day.

• Users of PVDs tend to have higher incomes, more education and larger families.

http://www.multichannel.com/index.asp?layout=articlePrint&articleid=CA6416747

kizzo

02-15-07, 02:22 PM

It is hard to just step into a complex show at such a point, kizzo...and in the sceond of a two-part episode, no less.

So what did you think?

It was a very good episode.. It would have helped if I actually watched some of the earlier episodes. But I did watch the first two episodes when it first aired.. So the characters were not unfamiliar to me..

When it is released on DVD I will watch the entire first season :D

fredfa

02-15-07, 02:22 PM

Critic’s Notebook
“Studio 60” Won't Pander
No Creative Changes Just To Boost Ratings
By Roger Catlin Hartford Courant TV Critic

BURBANK, Calif. -- As Aaron Sorkin sits at the long table for the head writers of his show within a show, it might be a scene from some future episode of "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip":

The press comes calling, and the vaunted show-runner defends himself.

Either way, Sorkin looks very much at home at a table littered with magazines, paper clips, water bottles and the detritus of coaxing creativity from writers.

It's at the edge of what is a large, multistory set seen in the NBC drama - a late-night network sketch show that looks like "Saturday Night Live," but as if shot in an old theater on the West Coast.

"It's served us really well," says Sorkin of the set.

Well, sort of well.

After being hailed as the most promising new show of the new season by a number of publications (including this one), "Studio 60" hasn't attracted the numbers or attention of his last project, "The West Wing," or even "Heroes," the comic-book-style show that precedes "Studio."

"I'm not sophisticated when it comes to crunching the numbers and analyzing the audience," Sorkin says. "But I can tell you this: Our audience is 10 percent bigger than you think it is."

It's the kind of brash phrase you'd imagine his counterpart, Matt Albie (Matthew Perry), would say in "Studio 60." But Sorkin persists.

"We're the No 1 time-shifted show on television," he says. "When you add the number of people who are recording the show and watching later in the week, the audience grows by over 10 percent - 10.9 percent."

Even so, the whole numbers thing has to be taken in context.

"When I compare the size of the `Studio 60' audience to the size of the `Sports Night' audience, I'm delighted," Sorkin says, referring to his late-'90s series.

"Would we like to have more people watching it?" he says. "Of course we would. But we're really happy with the audience that is watching it."

He reels off the numbers (just as Albie had earlier in the season about his show), about how upscale the audience is.

But there is a downside to such riches, Sorkin says. "Because it is a high-end audience, they all own TiVos." Hence, the hidden 10 percent.

As for getting a lot more people watching, "There isn't a lot we can do creatively," he says. And even if he could, "I think it's a mistake to do things creatively in order to attract that audience."

Even so, the show has been concentrating almost exclusively in recent episodes on romantic story lines.

"Hopefully, that is going to bring some people who wouldn't have otherwise been interested in the show," Sorkin says. But he insists the shift in emphasis wasn't done to bring in more people.

"The romantic comedy was intended all along," he says, nor was it suggested by the network, which he describes as "supportive as you could possibly imagine."

"It was really meant to be somewhat at its core a romantic comedy," NBC President Kevin Reilly says of "Studio 60."

At the same time, Reilly adds, "Aaron likes social relevance, pop-culture references, political references [and] being smart on the fly - and I think that's what really the true fans of the show love."

The network has promised a full season for the struggling show, averaging 9 million viewers. But it will take a break March 5 to make way for another series, "The Black Donnellys."

"Studio 60," from the start, might have been hobbled by high expectations.

"I'm very proud that there were, and are still, high expectations," Sorkin says. "It's not an advantage, though."

Says Sarah Paulson, who plays Harriet Hayes: "Basically saying this is the show of all shows, there's nowhere to go but down from there. There's no possible way to live up to that hype."

That leads to bad press, first about the ratings, and then stories that really rile Sorkin - newspapers quoting Internet bloggers dismissing the show.

"I do believe we've seen an enormous rise of amateurism," he says of the Internet slagging. "Everybody's voice oughtn't be equal."

But how does he feel about occasional complaints from legit critics that the show is smug or its sketches aren't funny?

"It's the cost of doing business. You get used to it," Sorkin says. "But I get it. I get when people write there's smugness to the show, there's an arrogance to the show. I get when people write that the characters on the show take television too seriously. Again, it's not fun to read. I don't necessarily agree with it."

He says he never intended to fill his shows with laughs from the occasional sketches. He meant to show only very brief scenes from the sketch show to indicate what they do - "the way, on `Sports Night,' we'd do a few seconds of news or, on `West Wing,' there'd be a few moments of chatter about the Council of Economic Advisers."

Besides, he says, "If you saw a random 10 seconds of `Wayne's World' or the Coneheads or any `SNL' sketch, you'd say you wouldn't think it was funny. You probably wouldn't get it.

Director and longtime Sorkin collaborator Thomas Schlamme says that showing the mechanics of comedy necessarily removes the laughs. "We're showing the magic. And the magic trick is not going to be that exciting once it's shown."

"I want to make it clear," Sorkin says of his drama, "you're not supposed to be finding it funny."

As for the smugness, Paulson says, "I think it's that thing where people don't feel like they're being talked down to."

"And I think he doesn't do that," she says of Sorkin, who writes all the scripts. "He speaks as if people know what a reference to Strindberg means. And if you don't know what Strindberg means, you might decide what we're doing is arrogant."

Why "change the show for people who don't know who Strindberg is? Because it means more people will watch?" Paulson says.

For now, the ensemble cast is enjoying the romantic turns, even when they're fraught with problems, as with Bradley Whitford's character, Danny Tripp, falling for TV executive Jordan McDeere, played by Amanda Peet.

"I love the complexity of the connection with Amanda," says Whitford, who earned an Emmy in "The West Wing," playing Josh Lyman. "I'd like to see more of that personal stuff bleeding down to the crew."

And if it's complex, well, sometimes that's how things are.

"When you fall in love when you're younger, it's so much more simple," says Peet, whose character is, as she is, pregnant. "When you have two people who are in really complicated careers, and you're older, and you're at the end of your child-bearing years, things become real complicated, and I think that it's very real."

http://www.ctnow.com/tv/hce-studio60.artfeb14,0,4442701,print.story?coll=hce-headlines-tv

Iteki

02-15-07, 02:30 PM

Who watches commercials with a DVR? I know I don't

On occasion I will watch, but usually only when I'm 'asleep at the wheel' and forget that I'm not watching live. Often when 30sec skipping I (or my fiance) will see a commercial that interests me and I'll backtrack to it.

fredfa

02-15-07, 03:06 PM

dad1153

02-15-07, 03:12 PM

I think the "Lost" ship may be beyond salvage -- although another season is surely in the cards.

People who love the show clearly love it; others have apparently made up their minds that it is not for them -- including a substantial number of once-loyal viewers.

Now you know who buys those "Lost" DVD Box Sets to the tune of millions of units sold: dissatisfied "Lost" fans that have given up on following the show week to week but anxiously await and watch the DVD's so they don't have to put up with the weekly cliffhanger nonsense. It's also Monday Morning QB'ing, but "Lost" should have found a way to integrate the windfall of DVD sale revenue into the considerations that went into how to allocate the seasons and schedules. Because while there's little chance "Lost" can last more than a season and a half Disney would sure like more episodes for the boffo DVD sales to continue.

fredfa

02-15-07, 03:22 PM

This makes the long wait to summer seem so much longer. :)
TV Notebook
ABC To Hunt for the Greatest Celebrity Impersonator
By Ben Grossman Broadcasting & Cable 2/15/2007

ABC will begin production on March 5 of The Next Best Thing: Who is the Greatest Celebrity Impersonator.
The show, from the producers of the now-defunct Last Comic Standing, will air this summer and feature a search for the best celebrity impersonator in the country.

The show will host auditions in Los Angeles, Las Vegas, New York and Orlando, Fla., in March.

Michele Merkin (Food Call, Extreme Dodgeball) will host, and actress and comedian Lisa Ann Walters is on board as one of three judges. The other two are yet to be named.

The show is from Peter Engel Productions and New Wave Entertainment. Peter Engel and Barry Katz are executive producers, along with Fax Bahr and Adam Small.

http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6416887.html?display=Breaking+News

dad1153

02-15-07, 03:33 PM

Critic’s Notebook
“Studio 60” Won't Pander
No Creative Changes Just To Boost Ratings
By Roger Catlin Hartford Courant TV Critic

Thanks Fred. I needed some calm and re-assuring words from the master to soothe my battered psyche over the highs ('The Friday Night Slaughter') and lows (early hiatus) this week for my beloved 'Studio 60.' It's also clear from the tone of the interview(s) with Sorkin and the cast members that it was done a while back and that they had no idea 'Studio 60' would be leaving the air a week earlier than anticipated.

VisionOn

02-15-07, 04:10 PM

Critic’s Notebook
“Studio 60” Won't Pander
No Creative Changes Just To Boost Ratings
By Roger Catlin Hartford Courant TV Critic

"The romantic comedy was intended all along," he says, nor was it suggested by the network, which he describes as "supportive as you could possibly imagine."

"It was really meant to be somewhat at its core a romantic comedy," NBC President Kevin Reilly says of "Studio 60."

okay, so I guess that clears up the confusion now. It is a romantic comedy! :)

fredfa

02-15-07, 04:21 PM

Thanks Fred. I needed some calm and re-assuring words from the master to soothe my battered psyche over the highs ('The Friday Night Slaughter') and lows (early hiatus) this week for my beloved 'Studio 60.' It's also clear from the tone of the interview(s) with Sorkin and the cast members that it was done a while back and that they had no idea 'Studio 60' would be leaving the air a week earlier than anticipated.

Yes it was done last month during the TCA tour. I have posted some other stories on the set visit in the past.

JimsArcade

02-15-07, 04:25 PM

TV Notebook
Ouch!
From the Arch and Molloy column “The Daily Dish” in the New York Daily News February 13, 2007
...
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/gossip/story/497047p-418943c.html I missed the forums the last couple of days thanks to the ice storms, so I apologize for the lateness of my reaction to this.

As someone who watches both shows, honestly, this sounds like nothing but gossipers trying to fan a fire that may not even exist. So Fey makes a joke about the person making an hour-long drama based on a similar setting. I read it as a harmless metaphor between the shows' differences, not a biting comment about the quality of Studio 60. I'd like to see Fey's delivery instead of reading it on paper (which includes the writers' assesment of it before her quote is even given the chance to be seen) before I'd agree with this interpretation. Also, almost every article I've read on this uses the exact same quote, including describing it as a "diss", so it sounds like they're using one person's remarks about it and running with it.

Taking gossip columns as factual just because they're in print is something we should all think twice about.

(No offense to you, dad: I can understand the reaction of yourself and any other huge Studio 60 supporter after reading this article when it's presented the way it is. I just don't buy this or any other gossip columnist's "stories" at face value since scandals get them more attention... and money.)

Now, if I saw her speech and came away with the same conclusion, then I'd be happy to eat my words.

fredfa

02-15-07, 04:33 PM

You reaction is why I so rarely post gossip items, Jim.

But this one seemd so wonderfully juicy and fun I couldn't resist. I am only human.

fredfa

02-15-07, 04:46 PM

I souldn't come close to expressing my feelings about "Friday Night Lights" as well as Maureen Ryan does.
Critic’s Notebook
'Friday Night Lights' is the best show on network television
From Maureen Ryan’s Chicago Tribune blog “The Watcher” February 15, 2007

I find it difficult to convey how wonderful I think NBC's “Friday Night Lights” is. So I’ll put it in context – I not only think it's the best show on network television, I also think it’s as good as “The Wire.”

The HBO show and “FNL” are doing quite different things – through the use of memorable characters and complicated plots, “The Wire” masterfully depicts how a society rots from within, from the highest precincts of power to the lowest drug slinger on the streets.

“FNL" is depicting life in one small town in Texas, but it’s just as emotionally involving as “The Wire’s” heartbreaking recent season, perhaps more so. The fact that “The Wire” doesn’t shy away from cold, hard realities is what gives the HBO show its cumulative impact, but the show can be quite bleak.

“Friday Night Lights,” on the other hand, can finish an episode dealing with the land mine of racism in a small town with a sweet kiss between quarterback Matt Saracen (Evanston's Zach Gilford) and the coach’s daughter, Julie Taylor (Aimee Teegarden), and thus leave one feeling that the world is not such a bad place after all.

The kiss wasn’t some cloying capper to a Very Special Episode of “Friday Night Lights” -- it wasn’t a feel-good moment tacked on to a roster of storytelling clichés. The world that “FNL” has created feels so real by this point that the characters’ interactions feel organic and unforced – just as they do on “The Wire” or “Deadwood,” or any other show that manages to get every single detail right without being showy about it.

If “FNL” was an ordinary, or even above average, network drama, the story of Coach McGill’s racist comments, which largely occupied the last two episodes, would have gone one of two predictable ways: McGill would have been fired outright, which would have given the lead characters a chance to revel in their own self-righteousness, or McGill would have been kept on as part of a rebellious crusade by head coach Eric Taylor (Kyle Chandler), who was Not Going to Be Pushed Around by Anyone.

But as on “The Wire,” there were not two sides to this story, there were about 12. Yes, the assistant coach made some racist statements to the media, and yes, he was pretty unrepentant about them, despite making an “apology” that sounded hollow to everyone but him.

Still, Coach Taylor, his boss, felt that McGill was not a bad human being, just a misguided one. As an aside, he mentioned that McGill, who’d been coaching the Dillon Panthers for over 20 years, had actually been among the first to integrate the team – a brave move in a small Texas town.

And McGill’s recalcitrance, as he later admitted, was partly due to the fact that he resented that Taylor had been hired as head coach, not him. He bungled the entire situation, as Coach Taylor had mishandled the affair of the racist remarks. But Taylor would not fire someone if it felt wrong in his gut – even if it cost his team a state championship.

The walkout of the team’s African-American members was also handled with unusual subtlety. The mother of running back Smash Williams didn’t say a word as she overheard Smash and his girlfriend discuss the standoff between the team and the black players, who threatened to boycott a playoff game unless McGill was fired. The look on Mama’s face said everything – her son was not going to throw his life away on some quixotic cause that wouldn’t change anything but his own chances for a better future.

That’s the beauty of “FNL” – so many moments rely on a gesture, a look, a silence between to people. And the dialogue is probably the most realistic on network television. Nobody is writing around dramatic “act breaks” and snappy patter is nonexistent. We’re so used to the hyperliterate, zingy conversations between high schoolers on other shows that to listen to people on “FNL” talk is a relief. They talk like normal people. And scenes and conversations often trail off, as they do in real life.

That’s not to say the dialogue on “FNL” is pedestrian. Far from it. Something about the halting, innocent way Matt Saracen speaks just slays me every time. He wasn’t hurt in a fight that broke out at Wednesday’s game, he told Julie.

“In a fight, I just kind of stand in the back and just yell stuff,” he mumbled.

Move over, Logan and Veronica. Matt and Julie are my new favorite couple on TV.

That’s not to say that everybody hugs at the end of every episode of “FNL.” Smash still probably thinks McGill is racist. McGill probably thinks that to some degree he got a raw deal. Racism is not “fixed” in this town, and the writers of the show are intelligent enough to know that we’d find it condescending if they implied that it was.

But this extraordinary drama lets us peek inside the lives and the minds of people who aren’t any different than we are, who are struggling with the mundane and major problems of real life. And it’s done with such subtlety, surprising wit and grace, that at the end of every hour, I devoutly wish it wasn’t over.

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

fredfa

02-15-07, 05:38 PM

The Business of Television
ABC's Academy Awards Ad Prices Up, But Clutter Low
By John Consoli MediaWeek February 15, 2007

Over the past 10 years, the price of a 30-second ad spot in the Academy Awards telecast on ABC has more than doubled, from about $700,000 in 1995 to $1.6 million last year, according to a report issued by TNS Media Intelligence. This year’s telecast airs on ABC again this year on Sunday, Feb. 25 at 8 p.m.

With the high price tag, though, comes less ad clutter with viewers typically exposed to 11-12 minutes of commercials per hour, compared to 13-14 minutes of commercial time per hour in the Super Bowl, and a typical 18 minutes per hour in regular prime-time programming on the broadcast networks, the report said.

About one-third of Academy Awards advertisers each year have also bought time in the Super Bowl, the report said, with that number peaking in 2003, when 9 advertisers bought commercial time in both telecasts.

The Top Five advertisers in the Academy Awards over the past 12 years are General Motors; American Express and McDonald's, which have each advertised in each of the 12 years; JCPenney, which has advertised in 9 of the 12 years; and Pepsi, which has been in 8 of the 12 years. GM has spent $99.5 million over the past 12 years on Academy Awards spots; American Express has spent $67.9 million; Pepsi has spent $61.5 million; JCPenney has spent $53.5 million; and McDonald's has spent $31.6 million, TNS reported.

http://www.mediaweek.com/mw/news/recent_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003546445

fredfa

02-15-07, 05:44 PM

Washington Notebook
FCC Report suggests FCC limits on TV violence
By The Associated Press

WASHINGTON -- Beaten up and strapped to a chair, once again it looks like the end for Jack Bauer, the hero of Fox Network's hit show "24." Using his wits (and his teeth), Bauer goes for the jugular -- literally.

In the scene, Bauer, played by Kiefer Sutherland, chomps on the neck of the terrorist holding him captive; he spits the blood out and makes his escape.

Broadcasters are free to televise such cringe-inducing scenes of violence with relative impunity in the U.S. But a new draft report from the FCC suggests the government may be able to limit violence on TV in a way that does not violate the Constitution.

The long-overdue report suggests Congress could craft a law that would let the agency regulate violent programming much like it regulates sexual content and profanity -- by barring it from being aired during hours when children may be watching, for example

The rest of this story is here:

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/news/e3i062edc4baa2e1addb8685bcfec89aa39

cherry ghost

02-15-07, 05:57 PM

'Friday Night Lights' is the best show on network television
From Maureen Ryan’s Chicago Tribune blog “The Watcher” February 15, 2007

I also think it’s as good as “The Wire.”

First she praises Khandi Alexander as an actress and now this? It's a good show, but
come on. I've lost a lot of respect for my hometown girl.

fredfa

02-15-07, 06:02 PM

Well, one out of two is pretty good in baseball, cherry ghost!

CHeath

02-15-07, 06:27 PM

[QUOTE=fredfa]This makes the long wait to summer seem so much longer. :)
TV Notebook
ABC To Hunt for the Greatest Celebrity Impersonator
By Ben Grossman Broadcasting & Cable 2/15/2007

ABC will begin production on March 5 of The Next Best Thing: Who is the Greatest Celebrity Impersonator.
The show, from the producers of the now-defunct Last Comic Standing, ...QUOTE]

Is this wishful thinking from ABC's standpoint? I thought it was returning this summer.

fredfa

02-15-07, 06:32 PM

LCS is already in production I believe. Just a B&C error.

shuttermaker

02-15-07, 06:37 PM

Has anyone heard a start date for this summers Big Brother on CBS ? Also Rockstar...

CHeath

02-15-07, 06:47 PM

LCS is already in production I believe. Just a B&C error.

:cool: With that show you just never know... thanks

Steve Schauer

02-15-07, 07:22 PM

• Households with DVRs watch significantly less live television than households without DVRs...
I was guessing that the households without DVRs watched somewhere close to 100% live TV, and now they've confirmed it! They're brainiacs!

PJO1966

02-15-07, 07:23 PM

I was guessing that the households without DVRs watched somewhere close to 100% live TV, and now they've confirmed it! They're brainiacs!

There are still quite a lot of people who are clinging to their old VCRs for dear life.

fredfa

02-15-07, 07:30 PM

Not all that many, PJO1966.

It was down to 2.4% in January, a drop of about 25% in just a year.

And of those remaining diehards, how many do you think still have the blinking 00:00s? :)

PJO1966

02-15-07, 07:32 PM

Not all that many, PJO1966.

It was down to 2.4% in January, a drop of about 25% in just a year.

(And of those, how many do you think still have the blinking 00:00s? :)

I'd say all of them. :D

Steve Schauer

02-15-07, 07:36 PM

Oh yeah I forgot about VCRs. :o

Still sounded really dumb when I read it. I would be unhappy if I paid for that kind of research.

fredfa

02-15-07, 07:41 PM

Long-time (and very respected) Dallas TV critic Ed Bark has to strongest words yet about yesterday’s “Studio 60” move by NBC.
(Warning to dad: don’t read this under any circumstances.)
Critic’s Notebook
Dead from Los Angeles
it's “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip”
By Ed Bark former Dallas Morning News TV critic at his website unclebarky.com

NBC has all but canceled Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip with its announcement that a new series, The Black Donnellys, will supplant it a week earlier than first announced.

Studio 60 is slated to return "later this season on a date to be determined," NBC says. But the show's high production costs and sinking ratings clearly have killed its chances for a second season.

Donnellys, which now will step in for Studio 60 on the last Monday of the February sweeps (Feb. 26), is co-created and produced by Paul Haggis, director of last year's Oscar-winning Crash. Its title characters are four working class Irish brothers caught up in New York's organized crime scene.

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

URFloorMatt

02-15-07, 08:22 PM

I just wish I had chosen to find time for FNL instead of Studio 60. Unfortunately for me, I was wooed by Sports Night and The West Wing memories, but Studio 60 just doesn't live up.

I'm not sure why it doesn't live up. I think because it tries to transpose the good things about The West Wing onto a Sports Night setting, and it just doesn't work. At least with sports you can occasionally be preachy about sports history things and not lose fellow sports' fans, but there really aren't all too many people that can identify or understand why the people who walk around a late night sketch comedy series act and think like the people that run the White House.

30 Rock isn't the best comedy on television, and it isn't the smartest show on television, but it succeeds at something that Studio 60 fails miserably: it makes me believe that the people on the show actually write for a sketch comedy series. Of course, that in itself I could probably live with. What I can't live with are characters that aren't likeable, sermons that aren't intelligent about political issues that have little place on Studio 60, and stories that are rehashed, boring, tired, or all three.

The only time where the show is good and the plots are worth watching is when Webber and Asner are on-screen. Everyone else is a complete waste of talent. I don't get it. The "Network" homage is the strongest element of the show, and Sorkin seems determined to stay as far away from that as possible and make it into some horrible romantic comedy show. He couldn't write romance for Sports Night or The West Wing, I don't know why he thinks he can or has to do it now.

The worst part is, people will say it was "too inside" or "too intelligent" to thrive. On the contrary, those were the only ways that it could survive, and the show ran as far away from those things as fast as it could.

fredfa

02-15-07, 09:04 PM

Some well thought-out comments, Matt. Thanks.

fredfa

02-15-07, 09:21 PM

Critic’s Notebook
'24' tamps down the torture
It wasn't protests that carried the day, but the programmers' belief that torture had gotten "trite."
By Gail Shister Philadelphia Inquirer Columnist February 15, 2007

Fox's 24 will become less torturous, but not because the U.S. military, human rights groups and children's advocates want it to.

So says Howard Gordon, an executive producer of the hit thriller starring Emmy winner Kiefer Sutherland as secret antiterrorist operative Jack Bauer, whose interrogation tactics make oatmeal of the Geneva Conventions.

Our hero routinely shoots, suffocates, drugs and/or electrocutes suspects. One of them, his treacherous brother, Graem, died in last week's episode. (Their evil father, played by James Cromwell, actually did the deed, although Jack is convinced that he was responsible.)

The decision to cut back on torture is driven by creativity, not criticism, according to Gordon. In its sixth season, 24 has become so torture-heavy that it borders on cliche, he says.

"What was once an extraordinary or exceptional moment is starting to feel a little trite. The idea of physical coercion or torture is no longer a novelty or surprise.

"It's not something that we, as writers, want to use as a crutch. We'd like to find other ways for Jack to get information out of suspects," says Gordon. "Our appetite has decreased. Personally, I think the audience may be tiring of it as well. My wife says it's too much."

The final eight to 10 episodes this season will include fewer torture scenes, Gordon says, adding that 16 of the 24 ordered segments have been shot.

The decision to tone down 24 "is all to the good, but in my view they could have cut back significantly the past few seasons," saysMelissa Caldwell, senior director of programs at Parents Television Council. "It's almost too little, too late."

Gordon says he's not oblivious to issues raised by various groups, among them, PTC, the U.S. military and human rights groups.

In November, he met in L.A. with Brig. Gen. Patrick Finnegan, dean of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, retired military interrogators and Human Rights First representatives. (They also met with producers of ABC's Lost.)

In the aftermath of Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay, some worry that Bauer's unethical techniques may influence young, real-life American interrogators in Iraq.

"We're not nearly as naive as some people think we are," says Gordon. "Once upon a time, we looked at torture in a kind of antiseptic way, not in a broad political context. It's become politicized because of very real stories and events."

That said, Gordon is skeptical of the show's power over U.S. troops.

"The thesis that we are affecting our soldiers in Iraq in their treatment of prisoners is being exaggerated, I think. Hopefully, there are a lot of filters between their watching 24 and their work in the field."

But it is undeniable that depictions of torture in prime time have increased dramatically in the post-9/11 world.

From 1996 to '01, there were 102 scenes, according to PTC, which maintains a database of programs.

From '02 to '05, the figure jumped to 624, the group says. The primary offender is 24, with 67 scenes in its first five seasons.

For the study, the group defined torture as "the act of inflicting excruciating pain as punishment or revenge, or as means of getting a confession or information, or for sheer cruelty," says PTC's Caldwell.

Also, the identity of the torturer during this period is more likely to be an American hero than a bad guy, PTC contends. In Caldwell's view, that's even more alarming because "it makes the behavior seem more acceptable."

Gordon says he's open to working with outside groups, "but my bottom line is that this is a TV show and that's reality. I'm optimistic that most people are able to distinguish between the two."

That means producers trump protesters.

"We're not going to be handcuffed or hamstrung," Gordon says. "While being sensitive, we have a story to tell. We intend to tell it, however we need to."

http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/magazine/daily/16700918.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp

dad1153

02-15-07, 09:23 PM

30 Rock isn't the best comedy on television, and it isn't the smartest show on television, but it succeeds at something that Studio 60 fails miserably: it makes me believe that the people on the show actually write for a sketch comedy series.

I may love Studio 60 to death but I'm not blind to its many shortcomings, and URFloorMatt points out the most obvious one. I can't help but think that last Monday's 'The Friday Night Slaughter' episode would have worked better if, instead of Harriet being the source of inner turmoil that drives Matt to take pills (and to really try to get a sketch on the air during the flashback sequences), it's the inability to get the show to work/click that sends Matt on his downward spiral. Many moons ago I worked as a PA/writer's assistant for some comedy shows on NBC and Comedy Central. The fuel that keeps the underpaid and starving-for-attention writers/performers going past most normal folks' working hours is the need to get the comedy bits to work, to nail a character's mannerisms down, etc. so the show kills. There's a degree of selfish pride and workaholism in trying to get a good show done right. By relegating this psychological aspect of how sketch comedy is done to the background (personified in the 'Friday Night Slaughter' episode by Nate Torrence and Nathan Corddry's characters sweating outside the office waiting for their sketch to be picked) 'Studio 60' is doing itself and its viewers a disservice. Its Sorkin's ball to play with and for me to admire (warts and all), but one still wonders why he chose this subject matter if his intent all along was to set a romantic comedy inside a TV studio. At $3 million an episode 'Studio 60' is the most expensive TV backdrop to ever be assembled in a Hollywood soundstage just for people to talk and emotionally attach/distance one from another in front of/around it.

Oh, and Ed Bark is a sterile hairless monkey that lucks out something coherent comes up when he throws his own you-know-what into the computer keyboard. :mad:

fredfa

02-16-07, 12:17 AM

But didn't the "Studio 60" people involved tell the TCA folks last month that it was a romantic comedy?

What's up with that?

My suspicion is that Sorkin's halo is pretty much askew after this fiasco.

fredfa

02-16-07, 12:33 AM

TV Notebook
TV plotlines are growing and growing
By Bill Keveney USA Today

Is there something in the bottled water? Lala Land is quickly becoming Mama Land with a parade of pregnant prime-time actresses.

Those expecting, all in the next three months, include Marcia Cross, ABC's Desperate Housewives; Jaime Pressly, NBC's My Name Is Earl; Diane Farr, CBS' Numb3rs; Julie Bowen, ABC's Boston Legal; Melissa McCarthy, CW's Gilmore Girls; and Amanda Peet, NBC's Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip.

Producers are happy for the actresses, but a pregnancy raises questions that stretch back to when Lucille Ball's maternal state was made part of I Love Lucy. Should it be written into the show? What changes must writers make in the story? How will the bump be shielded from view, if producers don't go with a pregnancy story?

Housewives, which has hidden Cross' pregnancy, has dealt with all those questions. On Sunday (9 ET/PT), the show ends a mystery story line featuring Cross' Bree that was originally intended to last the season but was shortened to finish before her temporary departure. Cross, pregnant with twins, is due in April.

"It made the story much more interesting, having to condense it into a smaller window," co-executive producer Bob Daily says.

When Cross was put on bed rest with two of her episodes remaining, she gave Housewives the OK to film at her place. "The crew descended on her house. They built two sets, in her living room and family room," Daily says.

Whether art imitates life depends on a variety of factors, including the nature of the show, its plotlines and the ramifications for the character.

Numb3rs decided against a date with the stork because it wasn't a good fit with a workplace drama about a dynamic FBI unit. The timing also wasn't right for Farr's Megan Reeves, a newer character still being developed, executive producer Cheryl Heuton says.

Other shows, including Boston, Gilmore and Studio 60, added pregnancy to the plot. Earl turned Pressly's impending motherhood into a new story and a twist on an existing one: Her character, Joy, decides to become the surrogate mother for her half-sister's baby, hoping that being with child will garner jury sympathy as she goes on trial for what would be her third strike. Surrogacy allows the series to avoid having to figure out what to do with a baby. Pressly praises the inspiration: "It was a great twist. No one would have come up with that" without the pregnancy.

Gilmore Girls even undid a plot point to make Melissa McCarthy's pregnancy part of the show. After her character, Sookie, had a second child, she ordered husband Jackson to get a vasectomy.

Guess what? To Sookie's — and viewers' — surprise, writers decided that Jackson didn't get a vasectomy. "He was planning on telling her eventually," executive producer David Rosenthal says. "This seemed like a fun thing to do. And, we wouldn't have to have Melissa hiding behind the furniture wearing a strange caftan all the time."

http://www.usatoday.com/life/television/news/2007-02-15-pregnant-TV-cover_x.htm

fredfa

02-16-07, 01:20 AM

As mentioned way earlier Thursday, here are the official details:
TV Notebook
Fox renews 'House', 'Bones'
Both shows picked up for next season
By Michael Schneider Variety February 16, 2007

Fox is showing some early love for "House" and "Bones," picking up both for next season.

News is no surprise for "House," which will enter its fourth season this fall. Show, which launched to tepid numbers, eventually burst into a mega-Nielsen performer and now is one of Fox's top-rated tentpole dramas.

"Bones," meanwhile, hasn't yet turned into a blockbuster but has seen its fortunes improve at the net, turning into a decent player for Fox. Show marks its third season this fall.

Season to date, "House" has averaged a strong 7.1 rating/18 share in adults 18-49, as well as 17.4 million viewers. It's Fox's top-rated scripted skein, and No. 3 among all webs with adults 18-49.

Show stars Hugh Laurie as Dr. Gregory House, an acerbic but brilliant infectious disease specialist. Omar Epps, Jennifer Morrison, Jesse Spencer, Robert Sean Leonard and Lisa Edelstein also star.

David Shore created and exec produces "House," which earned him an Emmy for writing in a drama in 2005. Katie Jacobs, Paul Attanasio, Bryan Singer and Dan Sackheim also exec produce "House," which comes from NBC Universal TV Studio.

As for "Bones," the drama has averaged a 3.1 rating/8 share in adults 18-49 season to date, as well as 8.8 million viewers.

Show stars Emily Deschanel as Dr. Temperance Brennan, a forensic anthropologist who assists in murder investigations. She's frequently teamed with FBI Special Agent Seeley Booth (played by David Boreanaz).

http://www.variety.com/index.asp?layout=print_story&articleid=VR1117959594&categoryid=14

fredfa

02-16-07, 01:55 AM

The Business of TV
Viewers Fast-Forwarding Past Ads?
Not Always
By Louise Story The New York Times February 16, 2007

People with digital video recorders like TiVo never watch commercials, right?

Add that to the list of urban — and suburban — myths.

It turns out that a lot of people with digital video recorders are not fast-forwarding and time-shifting as much as advertisers feared. According to new data released yesterday by the Nielsen Company, people who own digital video recorders, or DVRs, still watch, on average, two-thirds of the ads.

One big reason is that many people with DVRs still tune in to watch about half of their shows at the scheduled start time, meaning they must sit through commercials.

And even when people watch recorded shows later, many are not fast-forwarding through the ads. On average, Nielsen found, DVR owners watch 40 percent of commercials that they could skip over — perhaps because they like ads, don’t mind them or simply can’t be bothered.

“People are actually playing back more of the commercials than we thought,” said Steve Sternberg, executive vice president and director of audience analysis at Magna Global Media Research, an ad-buying agency. “People are buying DVRs not because they want to time-shift all of their viewing and skip all commercials, but because they want to time-shift some of their viewing.”

While the new data may well be fodder for cocktail party chatter, it also has major financial implications. Largely because many advertisers thought that people with DVRs were not watching their ads, they have not been paying for time-shifted viewing on DVRs. Now the networks could use the new information to try to charge more. And advertisers may begin pressing networks to rethink commercial breaks — maybe making them shorter.

People who have DVRs often insist that they never watch commercials, as if skipping commercials is a badge of honor. And while it is true that some DVR owners probably watch no commercials, others never touch the fast-forward button. Most people are probably in the middle of those two extremes.

“That’s part of the reward of taping: being able to zip through the advertisements,” said Marjorie Elson, a 62-year-old psychologist in Maryland. “But sometimes I do watch them — only if they capture me.”

TiVo has found that its customers view the last commercial in a break the most, followed by the first commercial. (Viewers sometimes do not start fast-forwarding right away, and they often stop a bit early so they do not miss the next part of the show.) Commercials in the middle fare the worst, said Todd Juenger, vice president and general manager for audience research and measurement at TiVo, which serves 4.5 million of the roughly 15 million DVR viewers.

Nielsen announced the data as part of its preparations to release commercial viewing numbers for every TV program, starting in May. Nielsen, which collects data every few seconds through its set-top boxes, added DVR households to its sample in the last year; its commercial ratings data reflects the total time viewers spend watching ads, including viewing of partial ads, rather than whether ads are watched from start to finish. Advertisers spent upward of $70 billion last year for their TV spots — more than in any other type of media.

“The cable operators that have the subscribers, the programmers who have the content and the marketers have to get ahead of this,” said Curt Hecht, chief digital officer at GM Planworks, the part of the Starcom MediaVest Group that manages General Motors’ ad buying. “They need to figure out how advertising can remain sustainable and effective in the new landscape.”

Advertising and television executives have not yet figured out which DVR owners are more likely to be commercial skippers, though Nielsen has found that younger people generally skip more commercials and time-shift more of their viewing than older people.

Nielsen has also found that commercials are more often watched during playback if the viewer is looking at the show the same day it ran. Commercial viewing drops significantly over time after the original showing. If advertisers start paying for DVR viewing, one question is whether they will pay just when viewers play back shows within a few hours.

Without DVRs, people can, of course, change the channel, leave the room or not pay attention during commercial breaks, but those activities seem to have only a minor effect on ratings during commercials — only 5 percent, according to Nielsen data.

“DVRs are really the big X factor going forward,” said Brad Adgate, senior vice president for research at Horizon Media, an ad-buying agency. “People’s DVR behavior is going to drive the marketplace.”

DVRs, which were introduced in 1999, are becoming more popular every year, and the cable operators are increasingly offering the feature in new set-top box packages. Analysts say DVRs are now in 12 to 20 percent of households. DVR owners tend to be wealthier and more educated than the average TV owner. DVR owners tend to have more children, and some own more than one DVR.

DVR owners account for about 6 percent of all TV viewing, but that figure is likely to grow, said Tracey Scheppach, vice president and video innovations director at Starcom USA. “Four of five people use the word ‘love’ when they describe this product, and when you have a product that powerful, it is going to become mainstream,” Ms. Scheppach said.

Starcom USA signed on last month to become TiVo’s first customer for a new monthly rating service in which TiVo will sell viewership numbers for commercials and programs seen by its customers. Companies like Nissan have already bought TiVo data to analyze how often their commercials are fast-forwarded. TiVo has long been tracking what its viewers watch, down to the second. But it is just now beginning to develop demographic data, using a panel of customers.

In some households, children are exposed to TV only through DVRs. Patricia Bowen, 35, a commercial property manager in San Antonio, said she liked being able to control what her children watched by programming acceptable shows on the DVR. She said her family liked to stop fast-forwarding during commercials to watch Apple and Geico ads.

“My son doesn’t understand why other people cannot pause their TV when they need to go to the bathroom,” she said.

Advertisers are well aware that coming generations may be DVR users. Visa decided to use brighter colors in its recent “Life Takes Visa” commercials in an effort to get fast-forwarders to stop and watch for a moment, said Susanne Lyons, chief marketing officer for Visa.

“We’re trying to make a bigger-than-live color statement so when you’re flipping through quickly, the color jumps out,” Ms. Lyons said.

But Visa also decided not to advertise on TV at all in its new campaign for Visa Signature, a card for affluent consumers, in part because DVRs tend to be in wealthier households, Ms. Lyons said.

Emma Staples, a 29-year-old sales manager in Knoxville, Tenn., says she fast-forwards the commercials at a slower speed than her husband in case she wants to stop and watch one.

“I like to see what is going on in commercials,” Ms. Staples said. “Sometimes I’ll stop if it’s a preview for a movie I might want to see.”

Advertisers generally do not get to purchase particular positions in commercial breaks, even though it has long been known that the first and last position are best for brand recall. Now, networks may have to consider what happens to advertisers that follow a boring ad.

“If you have a horrible ad in the first position and it just basically drives people away, whose fault is that?” said Alan Wurtzel, president for research at NBC Universal.

Network executives said they had talked to a number of advertisers developing commercials that remain visible even during fast-forwarding. TV networks are testing to see how often DVR users remember ads even when they fast-forward through.

The cable operators are also experimenting with ads shown through video-on-demand and promotions for ads that run along the bottom of screens during TV viewing. Advertisers like Burger King and General Motors have purchased a new offering from TiVo that asks people at the end of shows if they would like to see a commercial.

Network executives said that commercial skipping has been overblown.

“When you talk to an advertiser it is like ‘Oh god, I’ve got to go on to the Internet because on television these people are fast-forwarding through the commercials,’ ” said David Poltrack, the chief research officer for the CBS Corporation.

Mr. Poltrack also said that the networks had always focused primarily on attracting the most viewers to their programs. As DVRs become more popular, he said, networks will be forced to find ways to keep more people watching commercials.

Katherine Bryant, 29, owns three DVRs — two in her home in Charleston, S.C., and one in her Oklahoma City apartment. Ms. Bryant, a dentist, said she watched more TV shows than she used to because she no longer had to sit through all the ads.

“Once you have one,” she said, “you can never, ever go back.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/16/business/16commercials.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&pagewanted=print

rebkell

02-16-07, 08:36 AM

Maestro J

02-16-07, 09:52 AM

Iteki

02-16-07, 09:57 AM

I don't see a central Grey's Anatomy thread so I thought I'd ask here...

What did everyone think of last night's ep? I'm really digging this whole 3 part special event as promoted by ABC. Ending was a nice little shocker but what will they follow through with next week?

It's here (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=524705&highlight=grey+s+anatomy)

Fiance and I liked it.

fredfa

02-16-07, 09:57 AM

Great news, glad to see it confirmed. :)

I always considered Booth(Boreanaz) as pretty much the costar, with equal billing. Their chemistry is one of the best parts of the show.

Agreed. Booth is as pivotal to the show as Bones.

Some critcs have described the show as a 21st Century version of "Moonlighting". Not totally on-mark, but not far off, either.

fredfa

02-16-07, 10:01 AM

I don't see a central Grey's Anatomy thread so I thought I'd ask here...

What did everyone think of last night's ep? I'm really digging this whole 3 part special event as promoted by ABC. Ending was a nice little shocker but what will they follow through with next week?

I am almost sorry I didn't the the past two weeks on my DVR o I could watch all three at one sitting.

I thought it was a marvelous hour of entertainment with that wonderful Rhimes twist in the final few seconds.

I guess she figures an awful loty of people will be tuning in next week to see how it all turns out. To me it almost feel like one of the May cliff hangers -- but thank goodness we don't have to wait for four months to find out how it is resolved.

fredfa

02-16-07, 10:05 AM

Washington Notebook
Congress Could Give FCC Power to Regulate TV Violence
Brooks Boliek,The Hollywood Reporter February 16, 2006

The FCC is considering a report to Congress claiming that the agency can regulate TV violence the same way it regulates indecency if lawmakers give it the authority, sources said Thursday.

A draft of the report is being circulated among commissioners as FCC chairman Kevin Martin attempts to muster the three votes necessary to win its approval, commission sources said. Martin and senior Democratic commissioner Michael Copps are pushing for approval of the report.

Broadcasters are restricted from airing "indecent" material from 6 a.m.-10 p.m. The report contends that the agency could use a similar regulatory regime to regulate violent content.

While the commission might regulate only broadcast television for indecent programming, the report suggests that Congress could allow it to go further and bring cable into the mix. Lawmakers could approve a measure that would mandate an a la carte program system that would allow customers to buy only the programming they desire and eliminate channels with a lot of violence, or the new law could mandate a family tier like the ones offered by many cable and satellite TV providers, sources said.

The report also draws a link between TV violence and "short-term aggressive behavior" in children, sources said.

A bipartisan group of 39 House members nearly three years ago requested a report by Jan. 1, 2005, on whether the FCC could define "exceedingly violent programming that is harmful to children." It also asked whether the agency could regulate such programming "in a constitutional manner."

Any new legislation would face a string of First Amendment problems, including defining violence.

"What this is is government control of creative content, and we have a real problem with that," said Jonathan Rintels, executive director of the Center for Creative Voices in Media. "Will it count on news or reality programming? What about sports? In hockey, will it count when the gloves come off? How about documentaries? Or will it only count on scripted TV?"

Broadcasters are expected to object strenuously to any anti-violence regulatory regime but have been skittish about going on the record. The National Association of Broadcasters declined comment, as did CBS Inc. Scott Grogin, senior vp corporate communications at Fox Broadcasting, also declined comment because the report has not yet been released.

Generally, broadcasters and cable companies say parents should take responsibility for what their children watch and take advantage of blocking technology like the V-chip, for which they are sponsoring a multimillion-dollar advertising campaign to teach parents how to use it.

As for a la carte, Brian Dietz, spokesman for the National Cable and Telecommunications Assn., said it is an "unnecessary government intrusion in a vibrant marketplace that would result in higher prices, fewer choices and less diversity in programming."

Broadcasters also claim that their shows are becoming edgier to keep up with increasingly violent fare on cable networks.

If the report gets approved by the commission, it could face a receptive audience in Congress. Several lawmakers from both parties, such as Sens. John Rockefeller, D-W.Va., and Sam Brownback, R-Kan., have expressed concern about violent content.

Approval of some version of the report by the commission is likely. Martin and Copps are expected to be joined by commissioner Deborah Taylor Tate, who has been an active critic of TV content.

Republican commissioner Robert McDowell and Democratic commissioner Jonathan Adelstein are less predictable. While Adelstein has backed some commission content initiatives, he has moderated his view somewhat as the FCC rulings have become more radical.

McDowell, a father of young children, issued a statement Thursday to the Associated Press saying he is "deeply concerned about the effects of television violence" but added that the "first line of defense rests with parents."

"I look forward to examining the legal and constitutional implications of potential additional regulation in this arena as my colleagues and I consider the recommendations we should make to Congress," he added.

http://www.mediaweek.com/mw/news/recent_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003546818

Maestro J

02-16-07, 10:11 AM

I am almost sorry I didn't the the past two weeks on my DVR o I could watch all three at one sitting.

I thought it was a marvelous hour of entertainment with that wonderful Rhimes twist in the final few seconds.

I guess she figures an awful loty of people will be tuning in next week to see how it all turns out. To me it almost feel like one of the May cliff hangers -- but thank goodness we don't have to wait for four months to find out how it is resolved.

I totally agree. Hands down the best show on television right now. I'm sure many people share this opinion.
It did sort of feel like a season ending cliff hanger. I can't wait to see how it plays out next Thursday.
(I wish we could talk about it more but I know some people either have it DVR'd or will watch it replay tonight.)

fredfa

02-16-07, 10:13 AM

Nielsen Notebook
'Lost' losing in ratings
By Gary Levin USA Today

ABC's Lost is losing viewers, fast.

The island mystery Wednesday averaged 12.8 million viewers — its smallest audience yet — and was down by more than 2 million from last week's return of the series after a three-month break.

In its new 10 p.m. ET/PT time slot, where it moved to get away from the competition of American Idol, Lost finished 2 million viewers behind CBS' CSI: NY, though it comfortably won among the young adult audience. The depressed ratings amount to little more than half the show's peak audience of 23.5 million at the start of its second season in September 2005, when the contents of the hatch were revealed.

Critics and fans have complained about the show's sidetracking away from major characters, and analysts say the long hiatus may have s

http://www.usatoday.com/life/television/news/2007-02-15-lost-ratings_x.htm

shuttermaker

02-16-07, 10:13 AM

fredfa

02-16-07, 10:22 AM

TV Sports
NASCAR’s TV Coverage
As Daytona arrives, TV networks give viewers more options
Bi Michael Hiestand USA Today February 16, 2007

Future generations might be amazed that people used to have to attend NASCAR races to see the action in three dimensions. If so, historians might look back to this weekend as the turning point.

Sunday, viewers can follow the Daytona 500 — on Fox and online at NASCAR.com — and see cars appear to be three-dimensional. How's this for an experimental weekend: Sunday, the NBA is also testing live 3-D coverage of its All-Star Game, albeit to an invite-only crowd that will watch it on big screens in Las Vegas.

With NASCAR, says Lenny Daniels, a senior vice president with Turner Sports, which produces www.NASCAR.com, viewers might be able to see things in 3-D coverage that haven't been clear before: "You might see exactly what happens in a wreck — without any smoke blocking the view."

The idea behind the system, developed by technology firm SportsVision, is to use the data collected in "black boxes" in each car, such as mph, rpm and brake use. That data is routinely sent to satellites and returned to Earth for normal TV and online race coverage. Now that information will be used to generate 3-D animated depiction of race cars — in real-time.

At nascar.com, users can choose between three virtual views: from above, behind and in front of cars. Fox director Artie Kempner says TV viewers will get a range of views: "The camera shot basically floats — like in a video game — so you could vertically place the camera anywhere you want."

Says Turner's Daniels: "We're going to do a lot of focus groups to see what people want. We don't have preconceived notions."

ESPN cutting no corners in return to NASCAR

With Saturday's Daytona 300 Busch Series race, ESPN is back in NASCAR racing after a six-year break.

New wrinkles include the first in-car cameras producing high-definition TV. As the first TV outlet to carry all 35 Busch Series races, ESPN will also simulcast those races online. (On TV, ESPN2 will air 29 Busch races, with the rest on "ESPN on ABC" — aka ABC — while ESPN's second-half Nextel Cup coverage will have six races on ESPN and 11 on ABC.)

Saturday's ESPN2 coverage will also include the on-air NASCAR race debuts of race host Brent Musburger and studio host Chris Fowler and the first team outing for race-callers Jerry Punch, Rusty Wallace and Andy Petree— and a cameo by driver Carl Edwards as an in-car reporter as he races.

ESPN will use 60-75 cameras on Busch racing, more cameras than the series has ever had and more than ESPN uses on any events other than Nextel Cup races. And while ESPN denies it gives more news coverage to sports it's also paying to air, Fox Sports chairman David Hill suggests ESPN's news side is getting more interested in NASCAR. Fox carries first-half Cup races, and Hill is "excited about the way ESPN is presenting NASCAR on SportsCenter— like it's a real sport."

Pick a driver, channel in and watch him run

NASCAR fans are famous for showing allegiance to particular drivers. During Sunday's Daytona 500, new media options will let them really be obsessed with their favorites.

On DirecTV, the satellite TV service reaching more than 15.6 million subscribers, five drivers — tentatively scheduled to be Kevin Harvick, Jimmie Johnson, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Tony Stewart and Michael Waltrip — will have their own channels on the debut of DirecTV's HotPass, which costs about $100 for the season.

Each driver's channel will include two announcers — one in a TV production truck and one in the driver's pit — and will let viewers flip among such shots as a driver's in-car camera or a camera focused on his crew chief.

For total immersion, the true die-hard should also listen to Sirius Satellite Radio, which will premier its NASCAR coverage with 10 channels that will be devoted solely to specific drivers — offering their in-car chatter non-stop throughout the race.

And new media for the fan who has everything: the NASCAR FanView. The 12-ounce device, meant to be used at racetracks, includes a scanner to listen in on drivers, lots of stats and video race coverage. For the first time, it's on sale at tracks for $415.

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/columnist/hiestand-tv/2007-02-16-daytona_x.htm

fredfa

02-16-07, 10:27 AM

I totally agree. Hands down the best show on television right now. I'm sure many people share this opinion.
It did sort of feel like a season ending cliff hanger. I can't wait to see how it plays out next Thursday.
(I wish we could talk about it more but I know some people either have it DVR'd or will watch it replay tonight.)

The only rule I have on this thread is that people don't spoil the ending for those on the West Coast who haven't seen a program yet. So, no spoilers until a show ends its Pacific Time airing.

(I know that sucks for those in Hawaii, but hey, they live in Hawaii!) :)

Other than that, everything is fair game here. After all, this is a news and opinion thread.

fredfa

02-16-07, 10:36 AM

It seems to me Jay Posner misinterpreted Selig’s comments. And his concern for San Diego cable fans is ironic – since Cox makes sure DBS never gets to see its coverage of the Padres.
TV Sports
The MLB-EI Situation
Hope for cable viewers?
By Jay Posner San Diego Union-Tribune February 16, 2006

Since the news broke last month that Major League Baseball was taking its “MLB Extra Innings” pay-per-view package to DirecTV and only DirecTV, no one from MLB has denied the exclusive nature of the deal, saying only that no contract had been finalized.
Yesterday, however, in an interview with ESPN Radio, Commissioner Bud Selig said the new contract – while still not complete – will affect a small number of fans.
“I've read a lot of things (and) I've heard a lot of things that quite frankly just are not true,” Selig told host Mike Greenberg. “Once we announce it . . . then I expect people to understand that we thought all these issues out. There's no doubt in my mind that you will be quite surprised at how few people are affected. Frankly, I'm very comfortable where we are.”
Selig did not provide any details and MLB officials were unavailable for comment, which left the obvious questions unanswered: Was he just spreading spin? Or is there really a chance DirecTV won't have exclusivity? Because if Extra Innings is exclusive to DirecTV and unavailable to cable or Dish Network subscribers, then whatever Selig said is just spin.
The issue is of particular importance in San Diego, where Padres games are not available on satellite. Cable viewers accustomed to buying the Extra Innings package would have to choose between losing access to that package, not seeing Padres telecasts, or paying for cable and satellite.

http://www.signonsandiego.com/sports/20070216-9999-1s16media.html

pwrmetal

02-16-07, 10:47 AM

Re: Grey's Anatomy (and yes I am going to reveal spoilers since Fred says it's ok, so skip if you don't want to know.

My fiance loves GA. I like it to a point, but find it a little too soapy at times to my tastes. I have really enjoyed the last 2 weeks a lot. I find myself (not so secretly) hoping they WILL kill off Meredith since I basically don't like her. (I don't like any of the 3 main female characters on the show, which probably is why I only like the show as opposed to loving it). Of course, I know they won't really kill her off since her name is in the title of the show and all. I have a feeling next week's I won't like as much since we are going to have a "Tony Soprano in his weird purgatory coma" ripoff only to have her miraculously recover at the end. Since I am truly evil, I was joking around with my fiance saying, "Hey when they kill her off next week, they can change the name of the show to 'We hate Gays Anatomy'." ;)

(Note, I am merely poking fun of the actor playing Dr Burke, not expressing anything else!)

fredfa

02-16-07, 10:51 AM

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

Iteki

02-16-07, 10:53 AM

pwrmetal

02-16-07, 11:00 AM

Just change it to Seattle Grace...it'll do just fine without Meredith.

How exactly did she manage to drown from a 10 foot fall? Is the water just that cold that it knocked her into shock?

It seemed to me that she may have intentionally drowned, based on that earlier bathtub scene the week before. Maybe we'll find out she can't swim!

Maestro J

02-16-07, 11:10 AM

pwr - yes, I think that is the intention of the writers...

I don't see them offing Meredith. Not only is her name in the title of the show, she is a main selling point of the show from ABC's standpoint and New York and Co. advertisements. So there is no way she is leaving. Plus, word would have leaked that she is leaving in this day and age of "information superhighway".
BTW, my wife, who is in the medical industry, says there is no way she could be under for 20 minutes and then be miraculously recussitated. That's what is going to end up happening but it's certainly not plausible.

fredfa

02-16-07, 11:23 AM

TV Notebook
The “Grey’s Anatomy” Writer’s Blog
Shonda Rhimes Comments

For those of you who enjoiyed (or didn’t, for that matter) last night’s episode of “Grey’s Anatomy” you should be aware there is a blog wirtten each week by the "Grey's" writers. Each week, after an episode airs, the writer explains more about it.

Last night’s writer, Shonda Rhimes, is also the show’s creator, executive producer and show runner. So if you care to read her comments they are here:

http://www.greyswriters.com/2007/02/drowning_on_dry.html#comments

fredfa

02-16-07, 11:25 AM

....Plus, word would have leaked that she is leaving in this day and age of "information superhighway"....

Actually, Shonda Rhimes has kept a very tight lid on all developments in "Grey's" and as best I know no major plot points have ever leaked to the internet.

Maestro J

02-16-07, 11:38 AM

As I was reading that blog, I got to thinking...what if they do kill off Meredith? She could still stay on the show, just not in the capacity that we know her in now. Follow me here...

Last night after Izzie got back from the ferry scene after saving the man, she made a statement (I think it was to George) about Denny always being with her. Moments later, we see Denny in the form of Meredith's vision as she's dying (or going to heaven) - whatever...you know what I mean. What if Meredith joins Denny and Kyle Chandler bomb guy (in limited role because of his other show) as "angels" who oversee the goings-on at Seattle Grace. It would certainly take the show in a whole new direction, wouldn't it? I doubt this happens because you would be taking a very successful show and changing the entire dynamics of it. But it is just a thought. I just thought it was ironic that Izzie made that statement about Denny and then we see him for the first time since he died.

fredfa

02-16-07, 11:38 AM

The Business of Television
Revealed: Top shows for college kids
By Kevin Downey MediaLifeMagazine.com staff writer Feb 16, 2007

For all the concern over younger TV viewers, and the fear of their flight to other media, there was long a big gap in tracking just what they were watching. Nielsen's tracking of viewers 18-24 was missing a huge body of young people: kids living in college dorms.

But in late January, Nielsen began including those young viewers in its 18-24 sample, adding them to those living at home with parents or on their own, and the results are quite dramatic in terms of ratings boosts for a number of primetime shows.

One would expect a boost for Fox's "American Idol," and indeed viewing is up, the Tuesday episode by 11 percent and Wednesday's by 22 percent.

But college-age viewing is also way up for a number of other shows, some of which one would not expect to see gains.

ABC’s “Grey’s Anatomy” was up 67 percent for the first week of the new ratings compared to the prior week, to a 9 among 18-24 year olds, according to a Magna Global analysis of Nielsen data released yesterday.

That analysis is based on the first round of actual data from the sample, a panel of 130 college students. This follows a preliminary report in late January based on November viewing. The data does not break out college viewing but rather combines viewing data of the two 18-24 samples.

ABC’s “Ugly Betty” was up 86 percent from its prior original episode and its “Men In Trees” was up 65 percent.

“These viewers have technically been an unmeasured part of Nielsen’s sample and credited with zero viewing when they were away at college,” says Steve Sternberg, executive vice president of audience analysis at Magna. “They account for a significant amount of viewing in the 18-24 demographic and should be counted.”

Many shows continued to show gains in week two, based on ratings averages for the first two weeks compared to the season average before college dorms were added.

Fox’s “House,” for instance, had an 8.7 rating among adults 18-24 compared to a 4.6 before the additional sample was added, an increase of 89.1 percent.

NBC’s “Office” had a 4.4 rating compared to the earlier 2.8, up 57.1 percent.

“Ugly Betty” had a 4.3 versus a 2.3, an increase of 87 percent, and the CW’s “Beauty and the Geek” had a 2.7 compared to its previous 2.2 rating, an increase of 22.7 percent.

Media buyers have been asking Nielsen to measure out-of-home viewing for years, knowing that millions of viewers were not reflected in the ratings used to negotiate ad prices. Nielsen says it has only been in the past few years that there’s been an upswing in requests for the measurement of viewing in college dorms.

Three years ago, Nielsen set about gathering the data, and one issue was whether college students would use the people meter correctly, logging in when watching a program and logging out when not. Nielsen ended up tapping into its existing sample to measure college students, recruiting 130 respondents from households already being measured by the TV ratings service.

Media buyers say they had hoped Nielsen would have a bigger sample but most also say this is a good initial step to gauge the impact this audience is having on viewing.

“This is very consistent with the impact data that was previously provided,” says Susan Hajny, broadcast research manager at GSD&M. “But you always have to add the footnote of caution: These numbers will bounce around a lot. All it will take is spring break week and these ratings will disappear.”

Perhaps what's most interesting about the data is just how much TV, particularly broadcast TV, college students do watch, considering the widely held perception that they spend most of their media time with such newer media as iPods.

Still, the sample size raises some concerns that too few students are being relied upon to represent the viewing patterns of millions TV viewers.

“This is a difficult age group to be working with,” says Hajny. “They are very volatile in their behavior and patterns, so the fact that we have any ratings is a good thing. But we have to approach the results knowing that there will be lots of ups and downs.”

http://www.medialifemagazine.com/artman/publish/printer_10251.asp

fredfa

02-16-07, 11:43 AM

You can certainly like or dislike "Grey's", but it is hard to dispute that Ms. Rhime scan construct an incredible cliff hanger.

There is this week's three-parter, of course.

But then there was the two-parter which had its first episode after last year's Super Bowl, and the end of the first mini season...when Addison, McDreamy's wife, showed up (heck, we didn't know there was a wife) in the final few seconds and introduced herself to Meredith.

As I was reading that blog, I got to thinking...what if they do kill off Meredith? She could still stay on the show, just not in the capacity that we know her in now. Follow me here...

Last night after Izzie got back from the ferry scene after saving the man, she made a statement (I think it was to George) about Denny always being with her. Moments later, we see Denny in the form of Meredith's vision as she's dying (or going to heaven) - whatever...you know what I mean. What if Meredith joins Denny and Kyle Chandler bomb guy (in limited role because of his other show) as "angels" who oversee the goings-on at Seattle Grace. It would certainly take the show in a whole new direction, wouldn't it? I doubt this happens because you would be taking a very successful show and changing the entire dynamics of it. But it is just a thought. I just thought it was ironic that Izzie made that statement about Denny and then we see him for the first time since he died.

fredfa

02-16-07, 11:53 AM

(From Marc Berman’s Friday, Feb. 16, 2007, Programming Insider column at Mediaweek.com )
http://www.mediaweek.com/mw/newsletters/proginsider/index.jsp
Ratings Box:
What’s Hot/What’s Not

Record Season-Finale for the CW’s Beauty and the Geek:
The CW’s Beauty and the Geek ended cycle No. 3 on Wednesday with its largest audience (4.2 million) and highest season-finale ratings among key adults 18-34 (2.4/ 7), women 18-34 (3.0/ 9), adults 18-49 (1.9/ 5) and women 18-49 (2.3/ 5). Compared to the second cycle finale, that was an increase of as much as 43 percent among women 18-34, with double and triple digit percent gains over programming on both UPN and the WB on the year-ago evening. Overall, Beauty and the Geek ranked second in the Wednesday 9 p.m. hour behind Fox’s American Idol in adults 18-34 and women 18-34.

ABC Daytime Extends Winning Streak:
Based on ratings for the week of Feb. 5, ABC Daytime remained in the winner’s circle among key women 18-49 (1.9/11) and women 18-34 (1.5/ 9). Morning coffee-klatch The View continues to shine, with an overall third-place finish in women 18-49 (1.8/12 – tied with One Life to Live). Comparatively, that was up by 22 percent year-to-year -- the most growth of any daytime program. Perennial ABC serial General Hospital also had plenty to crow about, with its biggest delivery among women 18-49 (1.5 million) in almost two years.

Growing Jimmy Kimmel Live on ABC:
Based on ratings for the week of Feb. 5, ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live attracted its largest audience (1.91 million) since the week of Nov. 27, 2006, while matching its best ratings to-date among key women 18-34 and women 18-49. Comparatively, Kimmel was up year-to-year by 11 percent in total viewers, with growth over one year earlier in 19 of the last 21 weeks.

Also on the Plus Side on ABC in Late Night:
Veteran Nightline delivered an above average 3.76 million viewers, also for the week of Feb. 5 – its biggest audience since the week of Nov. 27, 2006. Nightline’s adult 25-54 average for the week (1.82 million) was also its best since that week.

Tyra Picks Up Steam:
Based on ratings for the week of Jan. 29, Warner Bros. talker The Tyra Banks Show rose to a 1.5 household rating, with a 1.2 among target women 18-34. Comparatively, that was up by seven and nine percent, respectively, from its season to-date average.

Sweet Results for Rachael Ray:
Freshman CBS Television Distribution talker The Rachael Ray Show scored a record metered market average on Valentine’s Day, with a 3.3/ 9 in households. Of note was a whopping 6.8/16 in New York.

Oxygen’s The Bad Girls Club Breaks the Women 18-24 Record Books:
Tuesday’s episode of The Bad Girls Club on Oxygen this week rose to a 2.1 rating among women 18-24 -- the highest rating in the cable net’s history. It was also a series-high in women 18-49 (0.9) and women 18-34 (1.2).

fredfa

02-16-07, 12:28 PM

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

AFH

02-16-07, 12:50 PM

I am the same way, Iteki. I would guess I actually watch no more than one or two commercials in a show, unless I get up to use the commercial break to fix a snack or something (and then I am hardly "watching".

And there are very, very few shows I actually watch "live" anymore. I tend to even put most sports events on the DVR and start them an appropriate time after they begin so I end up live for only the final minutes.

Exactly. I'll watch a commercial for a movie that I may interested if I haven't seen the commercial or if I'm trying to fix a snack. The only time I'll watch something "live" is when I'm out of town at someone's else place. Otherwise every single thing that I watch on a regular basis is recorded and 99% of it isn't bad back until a day or two or sometimes a couple of days later. I watch sports live except for some of the 12pm college football games that I record.

Iteki

02-16-07, 12:51 PM

Exactly. I'll watch a commercial for a movie that I may interested if I haven't seen the commercial or if I'm trying to fix a snack. The only time I'll watch something "live" is when I'm out of town at someone's else place. Otherwise every single thing that I watch on a regular basis is recorded and 99% of it isn't bad back until a day or two or sometimes a couple of days later. I watch sports live except for some of the 12pm college football games that I record.

I find myself rewinding to watch "The 300" HD trailers even though I've seen them a thousand times before. It just looks kick ass in HD. The movie itself may blow, but I'm going to give it a shot.

AFH

02-16-07, 01:00 PM

TV Notebook
TV plotlines are growing and growing
By Bill Keveney USA Today

Housewives, which has hidden Cross' pregnancy...................

http://www.usatoday.com/life/television/news/2007-02-15-pregnant-TV-cover_x.htm

You can still tell that she has put on some baby weight by looking at her face. Before I found out that she was preggers, I noticed that she added on some weight in her face and I figured that she was preggers. But the producers have done a good job of not showing her lower half.

fredfa

02-16-07, 01:01 PM

TV Notebook
More “Nip/Tuck”
By Rich Heldenfels in his Akron Beacon Journal blog February 16th, 2007

Fox announced the following today:

"...In a significant deal spanning three flagship Fox entities, Ryan Murphy, the Golden Globe® Award winning producer and creator of nip/tuck, has agreed to stay with the acclaimed series for its expanded 22-episode fifth season.

In addition, he’ll also develop new projects exclusively with Twentieth Century Fox Television under a multi-year overall deal which includes a first-look deal with the Fox Broadcasting Company (FOX).

The deal was announced jointly today by FX President John Landgraf, TCFTV Presidents Gary Newman and Dana Walden, and FOX Entertainment President Peter Liguori...."

http://www.ohiomm.com/blogs/heldenfiles/

fredfa

02-16-07, 01:11 PM

Overnights in the 18-49 Demo
'Shark' bite: CBS drama closes on 'ER'
Up 5 percent over last week in adults 18-49
By Toni Fitzgerald MediaLifeMagazine.com staff writer Feb 16, 2007
“ER” had better watch out. CBS’s “Shark” is nipping ever closer to it in adults 18-49 and has now beaten the veteran NBC drama among total viewers for five straight weeks.

Last night “Shark” delivered its second-best 18-49 rating of the season, a 4.3, and placed just 0.5 behind “ER” in the 10 p.m. timeslot, according to Nielsen overnights. Last week it was 0.7 behind.

That 4.3 rating is 0.1 lower than its final average for its Nov. 16 episode, which also delivered a series-best 15.24 million total viewers. Last night’s episode averaged 15.1 million, well ahead of “ER’s” 11.5 million.

Like that November episode, “Shark” got a bigger-than-average lead-in from “CSI,” which rose 6 percent in 18-49s week to week with the return of Gil Grissom. “Shark” was also up 5 percent week to week and finished in its best competitive position to “ER” in the demo this season.

Certainly “Shark” has the benefit of a huge lead in that “ER” does not. Last night “30 Rock” delivered just a 2.4 at 9:30 p.m. compared with “CSI’s” 7.3. That puts the 13-year-old drama in the tough position of having to build substantially from its lead-in, a problem that its competitors do not face.

“ER” is also seeing increased competition from ABC’s “Men in Trees,” which again tied a series best with a 4.1 last night, though that included at least a minute of late-running lead-in “Grey’s Anatomy” and may adjust downward when final ratings come out later today.

Still, credit goes to “Shark” for gaining after a somewhat lukewarm start. Though the show has been a hit with total viewers, it lags well behind former timeslot occupant “Without a Trace” in 18-49s.

The James Woods drama could start matching “ER” in 18-49s by the end of the season if the current pattern holds. Last night the shows tied with a 5.4 rating in 25-54s.

Meanwhile, ABC finished first for the night as usual among viewers 18-49 with a 6.4 average rating and a 16 share. CBS was second at 5.7/14, NBC third at 3.9/10, Fox fourth at 1.9/5 and Univision and the CW tied for fifth at 1.7/4.

A different network led each hour over the course of the night, starting with CBS at 8 p.m. with a 5.6 for “Survivor.” ABC was second with a 4.5 for “Ugly Betty,” NBC third with a 4.2 average for “My Name is Earl” (3.9) and “The Office” (4.4) and Fox fourth with a 2.3 for “Til Death” (2.3) and “The War at Home” (2.3). Univision was fifth with a 2.2 for “La Fea Mas Bella” and CW sixth with a 2.0 for “Smallville.”

ABC took the lead at 9 p.m. with a 10.7 for “Grey’s Anatomy,” the night’s top-rated show among 18-49s. CBS was second with a 7.2 for “CSI,” NBC third with a 2.7 for “Scrubs” (3.0) and “30 Rock” (2.4), and Fox fourth with a 1.6 for the penultimate “The O.C.” Univision remained fifth that hour with a 1.5 for “Mundo de Fieras” and CW sixth with a 1.4 for “Supernatural.”

At 10 p.m. NBC led with a 4.6 for “ER,” followed by a 4.3 for CBS’s “Shark.” ABC dropped to third that hour with a 4.1 for “Trees,” with Univision fourth with a 1.4 for “Aqui y Ahora.”

Among households, CBS barely edged ABC for first place for the night, finishing with an 11.1 average rating and 17 share to ABC’s 10.9/17. NBC was third at 5.6/9, 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_10261.asp

fredfa

02-16-07, 01:24 PM

thanks to dad1153 for pointing the stry out to me. It’s a little OT, well maybe more than a little, but a fun TV-related story nonetheless. Enjoy
TV Notebook
Cheap Seats: Live From New York, It’s Cold People Waiting in Line
ByBen Sisario The New York Times February 16, 2007

I thought I deserved it.

But the hour and a half I spent on wind-whipped 49th Street in Manhattan two weekends ago, hunched in the predawn freeze with 100 other people, turned out to be a weak, amateur effort. That kind of commitment may be enough — barely — to get into a taping of one of the daily comedy shows on cable. For those of us in the shadow of 30 Rockefeller Plaza that morning, however, it would take a much more punishing, more frigid, more sleepless dedication to get what we wanted: a low-numbered standby ticket to sit in the studio audience of “Saturday Night Live.”

Steve Martin once said that comedy is not pretty. It’s not cheap, either, as anyone who has run up a bar tab waiting through five stand-up comics knows. But almost every night of the week New York offers one of the world’s great comedy bargains, the chance to be part of the audience for the late-night shows watched by millions, free. In less than one square mile in Midtown, four weekday shows are taped in the afternoon: “Late Show With David Letterman,” “Late Night With Conan O’Brien,” “The Daily Show With Jon Stewart” and “The Colbert Report.” And “Saturday Night Live” broadcasts 20 new episodes each season.

“Free” almost always comes with qualifiers of course. As I learned while standing my way into every studio I could, the price for those free seats is time. And in deep winter there is another cost: the price of long johns. And something to protect tender ears from bitterly unfunny gusts.

Each year thousands of organized, forward-planning people — many of them tourists but plenty of New Yorkers too — arrange for tickets to these shows months in advance. The NBC information line states that for “Saturday Night Live” all requests must be made in August for the season that follows, and if you are lucky enough to be sent a pair, they will be for a random Saturday and cannot be exchanged. The rest of us have standby lines. Since most shows overbook to guarantee a full audience, standby is often a long shot. Subfreezing temperatures, however, can be the skinflint’s best friend, since the cold generally increases ticketholder absenteeism and decreases the number of people willing to risk frostbite to take those people’s place.

That, at least, was what I was counting on with “Saturday Night Live.” Its procedure is somewhat cruel. Numbered tickets are handed out on Saturday at 7 a.m., and suppliants return that night to wait for a chance to get in. Standby, no matter how many hours of chilly hardship you have endured, does not guarantee anything.

Huddled Masses, Yearning

I set my alarm for 5 a.m. and, with the skies still dark, slumped in a cab and headed for Rockefeller Center. My confidence sank when arrived and I saw the masses huddled beneath the “NBC Studios” marquee on 49th Street. They were bundled in thick jackets, wrapped in blankets and hidden in sleeping bags, and it was clear that many had been there all night.

Taking my place behind a group of 20-somethings from Florida — a birthday crew, one of three I encountered in various lines — I rubbed the arms of my inadequate wool coat for warmth as dairy and bakery trucks barreled by. At 6:57 a perky woman from NBC came out and explained the deal: We had a choice of standby tickets to either the dress rehearsal or the live broadcast. One ticket per frozen nose.

I chose the live show, got a nicely printed blue card bearing No. 41 and headed home to thaw.

That night we queued up according to number — inside, thankfully — and waited for orders from the young women who mind this line, dressed in identical gray suits, like stewardesses. Around 11:15 one of our keepers explained with a smile that we could still be let in until just before the broadcast begins. It was 11:26 before I learned that I would not be so lucky.

Not every show is as hard to get into as “Saturday Night Live,” but none are truly easy. For “The Daily Show,” on Comedy Central, I filled out a request form for a regular ticket a few days in advance on the Web and to my surprise got a confirmation within hours. But even with this assurance I still had to wait in line. The audience is overbooked, so attendees are advised to come early.

On a blustery Tuesday I stood for almost two hours outside the 11th Avenue studio, where a banner above the door reads, in faux Old English script, “Abandon News, All Ye Who Enter Here.” Once inside I was led to a room with about 200 seats arranged on three sides around a fairly spacious stage, with Jon Stewart’s desk on a riser in the middle.

There I met my first warm-up man. Every show has one to get the audience members excited and to explain that even if they are not excited, they must fake it with lots of laughing, clapping and hollering. So accustomed the semi-vegetative state of late-night channel surfing, we were now asked to become actors.

Each warm-up man I saw relied on those hoariest of stand-up clichés, ridiculing audience members’ home states and questioning their sexual orientation. But these uncomfortable moments offer important practice for the crowd’s prime directive: Even when it’s not funny, you must laugh.

It becomes Pavlovian. I chuckled and applauded heartily when Neil deGrasse Tyson, an astrophysicist, told Mr. Stewart, “We’re in the universe, but not only that: because the chemical ingredients of life are the same as that of the universe, and traceable to stars, the universe is also in us.”

But is that comedy? The funniest and most exciting moments were when something unscripted or unexpected happened. I could see on a monitor the lines that Mr. Stewart was supposed to be reading when he did his end-of-show check-in with Mr. Colbert, and the madcap jokes the two men improvised over a video link — acting out Daniel Day-Lewis’s running sequence in “The Last of the Mohicans” and bellowing, “I will find you!” — drew the most honest laughter of all.

The March of the Pages

I was still cold when I left “The Daily Show” studio about 7:10, and I was dreading even worse chills for “Late Show With David Letterman,” on CBS. About 4.1 million people watch Mr. Letterman on an average night, more than six times as many as watch “The Daily Show.” For a standby hopeful, that means serious competition for those scant extra seats.

To get standby tickets for “Letterman,” you must call at 11 a.m. and correctly answer a trivia question about the show. I haven’t been a regular watcher of it since high school, and the question I was asked — Who is Rupert Jee? — I couldn’t answer. (He’s the proprietor of the Hello Deli, around the corner from the studio.) But the man on the other end said: “Not a problem. Your number is 24. Come to the Ed Sullivan Theater at 53rd and Broadway at 3:30.”

I never had to give my number. When I arrived I was handed a ticket — a real ticket — and told to wait around the corner in the Roseland Ballroom. At 11 degrees, it was just too cold for an outside line, they said. Holding ticket No. 317, I waited in comfort on Roseland’s dance floor, where word got around that the guests on the show would be Dr. Phil and Fall Out Boy. At 4:15 we were led to the theater by the show’s pages, this time all young men in Worldwide Pants varsity jackets, after Mr. Letterman’s production company, and crossed 53rd Street like a family of ducks.

The intricate Gothic Revival interior of the Ed Sullivan Theater, built in 1927, is worth the trip alone. Inside, “Late Show” has the greatest audience capacity of all, with about 460 seats on two levels. But Mr. Letterman’s off-camera manner was brusque, and being there was not much different from watching it on television.

If my page-guided trip across 53rd Street for “Letterman” did not seem like the most sophisticated New York experience, I felt even less like a city slicker the next day at NBC’s “Late Night With Conan O’Brien.” The policy there is for those without advance tickets to wait outside on 49th Street — the same spot as for “Saturday Night Live” — at 9 a.m. I was there at 8:30 and got No. 8; the temperature was 20 degrees. But returning to the studio at 3:45 I waited in line after line that shuffled through drab office corridors, all the while being directed by the “Late Night” crew. Go down this stairway, up that one; form a line four bodies wide; make sure your ticket is in the same hand as your wristband. It was like being a kindergartner again.

The reward was Conan O’Brien. I groaned when I heard that one of his guests would be Dr. Phil — whom I was not excited about seeing once, let alone twice — but the show was the only one that made me genuinely laugh out loud. It featured “Vomiting Kermit,” as in the frog, and a slide show of presidential candidates and their pop-culture look-alikes that paired Rudolph W. Giuliani with Skeletor from “He-Man” and Hillary Rodham Clinton with Chucky, the horror movie doll. Nobody said late-night TV had to be subtle.

Mr. O’Brien was a treat to see in person. Even paler and more boyish than he appears on screen, he was also doubly zany and energetic in his own crowd warm-up. Spending much more time with the audience than any other host, he directed two men in the front row to hug each other (they complied without hesitation) and then sent another young man to embrace the bandleader, Max Weinberg. (That one was a little less enthusiastic.)

As a live, improvising comedian, only Stephen Colbert compared. Dressed and coiffed as perfectly as a Brooks Brothers model, Mr. Colbert took questions from his crowd, which at about 100 was the smallest of all. When one man suggested that Mr. Colbert do Tek Jansen, his animated space-traveler character, “on ice,” he responded instantly with a fairly lengthy song and dance number about “super awesomely spectacular heroes.”

One of the Chosen

“Saturday Night Live” remained unconquered. As the weekend approached I waffled between staying overnight and just rolling the dice again at 5:30. Remembering the previous week’s line, I estimated that only the first 10 or 12 people had been equipped to spend the night; everyone else must have gotten there sometime between, say, midnight and 6. I split the difference and decided to go at 3.

I was 17th in line. At the front were, as I expected, about 10 people packed like sleepers at Pompeii, followed by recently arrived standees. Line etiquette allows brief absences for food and relief. I held out as long as I could and about 5:45 stepped into a nearby building and ran to the heating vents.

The skies began to lighten about 6:30, and at 7 a familiar face came out holding two stacks of tickets. I took No. 8 for the live show: a big improvement over 41, but still no sure thing.

Fast forward to 10:55 p.m. The first 12 of us were screened by security and then lined up, tantalizingly, in front of the elevator bank. There my party giggled nervously and asked the guards about eight versions of the same question: What are our chances? They gave about eight versions on the same answer: Totally unpredictable.

I was starting to lose hope when, at 11:15, a woman with a clipboard leaned around the corner and told the guard matter-of-factly, “Let ’em up.” We all hooted joyously and began our trip to Studio 8H, the home of “Saturday Night Live” for 32 years.

Taking my seat in the second-to-last row of extreme stage left, I was struck by the vastness and complexity of the operation. The area in front of the stage, and every exit I could see, teemed with activity as stagehands, producers with headsets and dozens of others took up whatever space was not occupied by a camera.

More than any other show I saw, “SNL” seemed most like an elaborately orchestrated television taping and less like theater, though the clockwork production activity became theater in itself. With sets constantly going up and being broken down all over the soundstage, the actors were often not visible, but the busy crew always was. The instant a skit cut to commercial, a woman grabbed the guest host, Forest Whitaker, by the hand and dragged him backstage. All the while Lorne Michaels, the show’s creator and executive producer, coolly paced the set in a charcoal suit and smart red tie.

After the show ended — it wasn’t the funniest episode I had ever seen, but I contributed my quota of laughter and applause — I walked through the doors of 30 Rock. The barriers were up on the sidewalk again and new lines were forming, this time to spot celebrities on their way out.

I was tempted to join them. But I decided instead that it was time to head for what was clearly the best seat in the house: my couch.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/16/arts/television/16chea.html?_r=2&pagewanted=print

dad1153

02-16-07, 01:44 PM

TV Notebook
Cheap Seats: Live From New York, It’s Cold People Waiting in Line
ByBen Sisario The New York Times February 16, 2007

One of the Chosen

I was starting to lose hope when, at 11:15, a woman with a clipboard leaned around the corner and told the guard matter-of-factly, “Let ’em up.” We all hooted joyously and began our trip to Studio 8H, the home of “Saturday Night Live” for 32 years.

Taking my seat in the second-to-last row of extreme stage left, I was struck by the vastness and complexity of the operation. The area in front of the stage, and every exit I could see, teemed with activity as stagehands, producers with headsets and dozens of others took up whatever space was not occupied by a camera.

More than any other show I saw, “SNL” seemed most like an elaborately orchestrated television taping and less like theater, though the clockwork production activity became theater in itself. With sets constantly going up and being broken down all over the soundstage, the actors were often not visible, but the busy crew always was. The instant a skit cut to commercial, a woman grabbed the guest host, Forest Whitaker, by the hand and dragged him backstage. All the while Lorne Michaels, the show’s creator and executive producer, coolly paced the set in a charcoal suit and smart red tie.

Looks like Sorkin & Co. have done their research well for Studio 60 (although he could have just asked Matthew Perry what it was like when he hosted "SNL" in years past). This NY Times reporter's description of the chaos at studio 8H during a live show is somewhat similar to what we see on 'Studio 60' each week except the latter prefers to show chaos long before the live show starts. Having been to Letterman and Conan's shows I can verify that 'The Late Show' is a bore to watch in person (although when I was there Dave came by our front row aisle during a commercial break and shook my hand when I extended it) while Conan's warm-up schtick is fun to watch even though it apparently hasn't changed in 13 years. The whole 'men hugging' and 'go hug Max' things were there when I attended the show live for the first time (out of 30+ Conan tapings I've attended since) in December of 1993. Besides being nervous on-camera those were the days when (a) entire commercial breaks would be filled with NBC promos instead of commercials, (b) Conan's future was uncertain and (c) they routinely held the audience after the main taping ended to show them an "emergency/alternate" skit (usually involving vomiting or the old-stanby 'Skull Juice') to replace a skit within the show that bombed badly. My, how times have changed! :rolleyes:

fredfa

02-16-07, 02:19 PM

Critic’s Notebook
Kyle Chandler on 'Grey's Anatomy'!
Meredith is dead! Or not! Discuss!
From Maureen Ryan’s Chicago Tribune blog “The Watcher” February 16, 2007

Was Thursday’s episode the most shocking “Grey’s Anatomy” ever? I mean, ever?

Shocker! It looked as though lead character Meredith Grey (Ellen Pompeo) was dead at the end of Thursday’s episode of the hit ABC drama.

In the episode that aired on Feb. 8, she was accidentally thrown into the Seattle harbor at the site of a ferry disaster. She was missing until her boyfriend, Dr. McDreamy, a.k.a. Derek Shepherd (Patrick Dempsey), dragged her from the water looking blue and limp in Thursday’s episode. Her doctor friends at Seattle Grace Hospital worked feverishly to save her, but it looked grim as the most recent episode closed.

In the closing minutes of the show, Meredith woke up in what looked like the afterlife. And if the afterlife includes visits from Denny Duquette (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) and the rescue worker played last season by Kyle Chandler – both of whom appeared in her “afterlife” scene – then, let’s face it, the next life doesn’t look so bad. Am I right?

But. Seriously. Would one of the biggest hits on TV kill off its leading lady just as a sweeps stunt? Don’t count on it, reader.

It’s a medical soap, after all, and no doubt next week’s “Grey’s” will feature a stunning comeback by Meredith Grey. Maybe she’ll be in a coma, a possibly a coma lite and/or there will be a long stint for her in the hospital, during which Shepherd can once again reaffirm his love for her in long tender scenes at her bedside. And her friends can cry and grieve and do those sorts of “Grey’s” things they do so well. And so forth.

But if she’s not dead, Meredith will miss out on the fabulousness of Kyle Chandler’s hair. That’s no fun. Still, if she ever wants to check it out again, she can always travel to Dillon, Texas, where this season Chandler is playing a football coach on “Friday Night Lights.”

Other thoughts:

I wasn’t so fond of the Izzie story. It seemed too frantic and predictable to me. Though I liked this line: “I’m going to need a drill.” It reminded me of Jack Bauer’s infamous line from “24”: “I’m going to need a hacksaw.”

In any case, I couldn’t entirely say no to the closing Izzie monologue, during which she told George he’d made a mistake by marrying Callie. Word. And she said other stuff about surviving and how that makes us survive. Or something. What can I say, I’m a sucker for an emotional Izzie speech like that.

And I liked Alex trying to be a nice, sensitive person to the relatives of the ferry victims. And did I mention that I agree with Izzie about George and Callie?

All in all, it was a pretty exciting trip to the “Grey’s” of Sweepsville.

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

VisionOn

02-16-07, 02:25 PM

I find myself rewinding to watch "The 300" HD trailers even though I've seen them a thousand times before. It just looks kick ass in HD. The movie itself may blow, but I'm going to give it a shot.

It's just a pity that the currently running TV trailers for 300 are nowhere near as well edited or dramatic as the previous trailers available online.

fredfa

02-16-07, 02:38 PM

Critic’s Notebook
Grey's Anatomy:
Lady in the water
By Alan Sepinwall of the Newark Star-Ledger in his TV blog “What’s Alan Watching” February 16, 2007

Okay, here's where being a guy who's paid to watch TV obsessively and exhaustively gets in the way of me enjoying a moment the way I would if I were a regular viewer. Already, I'm inclined to be cynical about the possibility of Meredith dying, because I know the way the TV business works, and I know how Shonda Rhimes practically breathes through Meredith Grey, and then comes the Big. Shocking. Moment. when Meredith is ice-blue on the table one second, and a healthy pink the next, looking up at Dylan the blowed-up bomb squad hunk and the late Denny Duquette...

...and all I could think was, "'St. Elsewhere' already did it." Followed by "And so did 'The Sopranos' -- like, nine months ago."

(For you non-tube historians out there, one of the greatest achievements of "St. Elsewhere" was an episode called "After Life," in which Wayne Fiscus was shot in the ER and journeyed through Purgatory, Hell and Heaven -- meeting a God who looked exactly like Wayne Fiscus -- while the surgical team -- including the hotshot heart surgeon still recovering from a potentially career-ending hand injury, mind you -- struggled to save him. End history lesson. Now go wait for the season 5 DVD to come out so you can go watch it -- but not before you sit through the "Time Heals" arc from season 4, or the rape arc from seasons two and three, or the one where Boomer's wife dies, or...)

Point is, I'm sure that cliffhanger was immeasurably cool to a lot of you -- especially those of you who pay no attention to spoilers or even hinted-at spoilers -- as it probably should have been, but as the man who knows too much, it left me flat.

Now, "Grey's" has never been about reinventing the medical show wheel, and I'm sure Meredith's brief visit to the afterlife -- and I have absolutely zero doubt in my mind that brief is what it shall be, that she'll be alive, if not kicking, by the end of next week's episode -- will be different than Fiscus meeting God, or Tony Soprano going to the Finnerty family reunion. But when Shonda boasts that "I’m not entirely playing by the rules of TV here," it suggests that either she doesn't watch a lot of TV or she has a gift for hyperbole.

Beyond the cliffhanger -- and, even though I wasn't blown away, I'm all in favor of anything that might send even a handful of viewers to go check out Kyle Chandler's new show -- I'm still not feeling the ferry crash storyline. Izzie with the drill was cool, and the closest the show came to "ER" disaster episode intensity, but then she had to go and ruin my goodwill by turning her inspirational speech for Cristina into another excuse to be a total bitch about Callie. I also liked McSteamy putting his hand on McDreamy's arm in what felt like a very earned moment.

What a strange, frustrating, compelling show this is.

http://sepinwall.blogspot.com/2007/02/greys-anatomy-lady-in-water.html

shuttermaker

02-16-07, 03:36 PM

Being someone that doesnt watch FNL, i didnt know that Kyle Chandler was the guy in the after life scene of Greys. Heck, i didnt even know that was his name. When they showed the afterlife scene or whatever you want to call it, the first words out of my mouth was "its the fine pink mist dude".

fredfa

02-16-07, 04:14 PM

TV Notebook
NBC Schedule Changes
“Deal”, “Crossing Jordan”, “The Apprentice" shifted
(NBC News Release) February 16, 2007

BURBANK, Calif. - NBC will adjust its late-winter primetime schedule by moving "Deal or No Deal" to Sundays (9-10 p.m. ET) followed by "The Apprentice: Los Angeles" (10-11 p.m. ET) beginning Sunday, March 4. "Crossing Jordan" (currently Sundays, 10-11 p.m. ET) shifts to Wednesdays (9-10 p.m. ET) beginning March 7. The moves create an expanded block of unscripted programming on NBC's Sunday schedule, which will now feature "Grease: You're the One That I Want," "Deal or No Deal" and "The Apprentice: Los Angeles," and a three-hour drama block on NBC's Wednesdays schedule, which will now feature "Friday Night Lights," "Crossing Jordan" and "Medium." The announcements were made by Kevin Reilly, President, NBC Entertainment.

Hosted by Howie Mandel, "Deal or No Deal" is an exhilarating hit game show where contestants play and deal for a top prize of $1 million in a high-energy contest of nerves, instincts and raw intuition.

Each night, the game of odds and chance unfolds when a contestant is confronted with 26 sealed briefcases full of varying amounts of cash -- ranging from a measly penny to $1 million. Without knowing the amount in each briefcase, the contestant picks one -- his to keep, if he chooses -- until its unsealing at game's end.

The risk element kicks in when the player must then instinctively eliminate the remaining 25 cases, which are opened and the amount of cash inside revealed. The pressure mounts as in each round, after a pre-determined number of cases are opened, the participant is tempted by a mysterious entity known only as "the Banker" to accept an offer of cash in exchange for what might be contained in the contestant's chosen briefcase -- prompting Mandel to ask the all-important question - "Deal or No Deal?"

Based on the successful format from Endemol that has aired in over 35 countries, the series is produced by Endemol USA, a division of Endemol Holding. David Goldberg is the president of Endemol USA. The program is executive-produced by Scott St. John.

A cross-country move to Los Angeles adds a compelling element to NBC's "The Apprentice: Los Angeles" as 18 original contestants are winnowed down in the fiercest competition yet in the series' history. All of them vie for the coveted title of "The Apprentice: Los Angeles" and the career opportunity of a lifetime working for legendary business tycoon Donald Trump.

In an interesting social experiment of haves and have-nots, contestants this season have to earn the right to live like Trump. Each week, the contestants on the winning team have to live in a luxurious mansion. But contestants on the losing team have to sleep outside in tents in the back yard of the mansion with outdoor showers and port-a-potties, giving contestants more incentive than ever to win their tasks each week.

This season, the winning project manager each week remains project manager until they lose -- plus they will also sit in the boardroom and help advise Trump on who he should fire each week from their opposing team. Ivanka and Donald Trump Jr. will return for several episodes, along with previous "Apprentice" winners, as boardroom advisors.

"The Apprentice: Los Angeles" is produced by Mark Burnett Productions in association with Trump Productions LLC. Mark Burnett, Donald J. Trump and Jay Bienstock are executive producers. Conrad Riggs, Page Feldman and James Canniffe are co-executive producers.

"Crossing Jordan," now in its sixth season, is from NBC's "Heroes" creator and executive producer Tim Kring. The series continues to explore the inner workings of a Boston city morgue while following the cadre of coroners who use their forensic skills to help police solve crimes and bring closure to the victims' families.

Jill Hennessy (NBC's "Law & Order") stars as Dr. Jordan Cavanaugh, a sexy, smart and fearless medical examiner with a checkered past. She works under the guidance of Dr. Garrett Macy (Miguel Ferrer, "Traffic"), the no-nonsense head of the morgue, and alongside Detective Woodrow "Woody" Hoyt (Jerry O'Connell, "Jerry Maguire"), who puts in the legwork to hunt down the perpetrators of crimes.

Additional support is provided by grief counselor Lily Lebowski (Kathryn Hahn, "How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days"), forensic entomologist "Bug" (Ravi Kapoor, "Gideon's Crossing") and criminalist Nigel Townsend (Steve Valentine, "The Muse").

URFloorMatt

02-16-07, 04:16 PM

fredfa

02-16-07, 04:29 PM

I'll try to see if Nielsen has a complete list of changes, Matt.

dad1153

02-16-07, 04:37 PM

fredfa

02-16-07, 04:38 PM

I guess Men in Trees got an unexpected bump, but you'd have to be completely oblivious to the lives and interests of young people not to expect all those other shows to get huge bumps. Grey's is appointment TV for college women more so than Friends, probably more so than 24 for college men.

Frankly, I was most interested to see what kinds of boosts The Daily Show and The Colbert Report would get, since all sense dictates that a substantial proportion of their audience is college-age (and thereby not even recorded), but the article didn't go there. :rolleyes:

I'd also be slightly interested in seeing comparisons for How I Met Your Mother. That has attracted a bit of a male audience that you probably wouldn't expect, probably in part due to its convenient timing, especially post-MNF.

In a quick check of Nielsen, Matt, none of the shows you expressed interest in made it to the top-10 improved list of either men or women in the new ratings.
I'll see if somehow I can get access to a full rundown and give you specific answers, but with the three-day holiday starting (Nielsen weekly numbers will be delayed a day and come out next week on Wednesday) it might take a while.

fredfa

02-16-07, 05:42 PM

TV Notebook
New “Dancing With The Stars” Cast
To be announced Wednesday on “Good Morning America”
(ABC News Release) February 16, 2007

ABC's "Good Morning America" will once again host the official cast announcement for the upcoming fourth season of the hit series "Dancing with the Stars." TV personality Jerry Springer, who made it to the seventh week of competition with partner Kym Johnson last season, will make the announcement.

In addition, the first interview with one of the new celebrities will take place that night on "Jimmy Kimmel Live."

"Dancing with the Stars'" fourth season will premiere Monday, March 19 with a two-hour premiere (8:00-10:00 p.m., ET). To offer viewers two weeks to see the performers in action before the first elimination, the first results show will air on Week Two. The second performance show, airing Monday, March 26, will also be two hours in length (8:00-10:00 p.m.), and the first results show will air Tuesday, March 27 (9:00-10:00 p.m., ET).

When asked why he was returning to announce the cast, Springer said, "I had a wonderful experience on the show, met some great people -- dancing is my life -- and I still have another week left before I have to return my tux."

In addition to 16 seasons as the host of "The Jerry Springer Show," Springer has been a two-term mayor of Cincinnati, political pundit, lawyer, award-winning newscaster, country recording artist, international Emcee, movie star, Broadway actor, progressive talk-radio broadcaster, and his most recent and proudest achievement -- ballroom dancer.

fredfa

02-16-07, 05:47 PM

Is NBC trying to kill 'DOND' and 'Jordan'? First it gets creamed opposite 'Idol' on Wednesday, and now it moves against 'Desperate Housewives.' Tim Kring must be happy knowing the show he created (and served well for years) for NBC is now going to get really creamed opposite 'NCIS' and 'Idol.' Donald Trump must still have a lot of pull at NBC though. How else to explain his 'Apprentice' show getting the best possible lead-in NBC could give it? :(

Maybe the fact that "Crossing Jordan" has a #92 18-49 ranking in all shows in season-to-date ratings (and 26th among NBC shows) has something to do with it. (The STD 18-49 Nielsens, "Apprentice is #56, Wednesday's "DOND" #73.)

"Crossing" is even behind the switched-to-Friday "Law & Order" (#72 in 18-49s). It is way behind #58 "Medium" and even #45 "Studio 60".

(I'll try to post the lists of each network's top-- and bottom -- season-to-date 18-49 shows later on, or perhaps tomorrow.)

fredfa

02-16-07, 06:03 PM

This news item might be my new favorite argument in favor of a la carte.
We all are forced to pay for this?
TV Notebook
Spike TV series is going belly up
By Kimberly Nordyke The Hollywood Reporter Feb 16, 2007

Spike TV has acquired an appetite for competitive eating.

The male-targeted network has struck a deal with Major League Eating to telecast four competitive-eating events this year, starting with "MLE: St. Patrick's Day Chowdown" on March 17.

The inaugural St. Patrick's Day event will take place in Savannah, Ga., on the banks of the Savannah River during what is said to be one of the country's largest celebrations on that day. It will involve such foods as corned beef and cabbage and beef tongue in the preliminary rounds and green donuts in the final round, during which the top two eaters from the earlier rounds will face off. Spike will air same-day tape of the event from 7-8 p.m.

"Guys are hungry for new and exciting sports on television that satisfy their craving for gut-busting action," Spike TV general manager Kevin Kay said. "Spike TV is proud to be the new television home of competitive eating."

Such networks as ESPN, Discovery Channel and MTV have aired programming featuring competitive eaters or competitions like MLE's Nathan's Famous July 4th International Hot Dog Eating Championship, which ESPN has broadcast live from Coney Island in New York since 2004, but this marks Spike's first foray into the "sport" and the first multievent television deal for MLE.

Competing in the St. Patrick's Day event will be Takeru Kobayashi, Joey "Jaws" Chestnut, Sonya "The Black Widow" Thomas, "Humble" Bob Shoudt and ChipBurger Simpson. MLE chairman George Shea and MLE president Richard Shea will host the telecast.

"We're excited to be working with the network," Shea said. "Competitive eating will resonate with the Spike audience, and we're excited that this will be a new audience for us. This also underscores the growth of our sport from sideshow into the mainstream."

The plan is to air one event per quarter, with the other three events yet to be determined.Brian Diamond is senior vp sports and specials at Spike, while Peter Symuleski is the executive in charge of production at Spike TV. David Baer is executive producer for Shea Baer Prods., which will produce the series.

MLE produces events in the U.S., England, Japan, Germany, Thailand and Canada, with 100 events taking place last year. The organization was developed by the International Federation of Competitive Eating, which the Sheas established in 1997.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/television/news/e3i3ee77d6d7d2ce4c6628f77a48d70a3a9

foxeng

02-16-07, 07:30 PM

The male-targeted network has struck a deal with Major League Eating to telecast four competitive-eating events this year, starting with "MLE: St. Patrick's Day Chowdown" on March 17.

What tha..............????????????????? :confused:

keenan

02-16-07, 07:36 PM

Not only are we the most overweight people on the planet, we are now celebrating it with TV shows about eating mass amounts of food...

CHeath

02-16-07, 07:57 PM

What tha..............????????????????? :confused:

My thoughts exactly.

How much longer until D* gets a Buffet ticket: so one can catch all of the events :rolleyes:

shuttermaker

02-16-07, 07:58 PM

Not only are we the most overweight people on the planet, we are now celebrating it with TV shows about eating mass amounts of food...

Ironically, its a skinny asian that wins quite often. I forget his name.

fredfa

02-16-07, 07:58 PM

This is my favorite part of the story:

...""Guys are hungry for new and exciting sports on television that satisfy their craving for gut-busting action," Spike TV general manager Kevin Kay said. "Spike TV is proud to be the new television home of competitive eating...."

Makes one proud to be a guy. And I can't wait for some of that "gut-busting" action.

fredfa

02-16-07, 08:01 PM

Ironically, its a skinny asian that wins quite often. I forget his name.

How could you forget the nearly immortal Takeru Kobayashi.

For shame, shuttermaker!

You have been spending too much time watching Nora Roberts movies with Mrs. s.

Back to manly pursuits! :)

But rather than just make fun of all this, why don't we found the World Belching League and sell the rights to Spike. We'd be millionaires!

homcom

02-16-07, 09:09 PM

The important question is whether we will see these eating event in HD sometime from Spike. I do believe some of these events used to be on INHD in the past.

Maestro J

02-16-07, 09:11 PM

Hey Fredfa - no Matt Roush this week?

fredfa

02-16-07, 09:31 PM

His Q&A Monday was the last for a while -- he is taking a few days off.

SowegaBowler

02-16-07, 09:38 PM

Re: Spike TV airing eating competitions:

Dude, where's my Pepto-Bismol? :D

shuttermaker

02-16-07, 09:44 PM

How could you forget the nearly immortal Takeru Kobayashi.

For shame, shuttermaker!

You have been spending too much time watching Nora Roberts movies with Mrs. s.

Back to manly pursuits! :)

But rather than just make fun of all this, why don't we found the World Belching League and sell the rights to Spike. We'd be millionaires!

Lets not forget the Loogie Hocking Spring Nationals ! :eek:

fredfa

02-16-07, 09:51 PM

You're right, shuttermaker.

Does anyone remember if Spike has announced it is adding an HD channel?

We can only hope.

Inundated

02-16-07, 10:59 PM

Sigh. And Spike was once the proud home of the one and only MKG.

:D

homcom

02-16-07, 11:10 PM

You're right, shuttermaker.

Does anyone remember if Spike has announced it is adding an HD channel?

We can only hope.
The eating events Spike could also get an music artist to do some live dramatic music during the contest and then air it on MHD. It would at least add some content to the MHD lineup.

fredfa

02-17-07, 02:01 AM

TV Sports
Chief says NASCAR will push forward in ratings
By Dave Darling Orlando Sentinel

As the green flag drops on another NASCAR season Sunday, it appears America's fastest-growing sport has hit a speed bump.

The sport has enjoyed unprecedented growth during the past 20 years, but in 2006, there were signs it might be stalling.

Viewership declined by 6.5 percent from 2005 as ratings dropped in 32 of 36 races. And attendance was down at many venues, with fewer than half of the races selling out.

Still, NASCAR remains the second-most-popular television sport in America -- far behind the mighty NFL but ahead of baseball -- averaging 7.8 million viewers per weekend. And last year's Daytona 500 was the most-watched ever, with an average 20 million viewers and as many as 47 million watching at least part of the race.

"I don't think we've plateaued at all," NASCAR CEO Brian France said this week. "We don't get too hung up on [ratings]. We look at it over a long period of time -- two, three, four, five years trending the right way. My expectation is we'll be up in TV ratings in '07."

France said there are a number of changes coming to the sport this year that he hopes will draw new fans and boost ratings. For the first time, a foreign automaker will be competing as Toyota makes its debut. There also is a new points system designed to put more emphasis on winning. And perhaps most important, ESPN is back in the NASCAR fray after a six-year absence.

ESPN/ABC will broadcast the entire Busch Series schedule as well as the final 17 races of the Nextel Cup. Fox has the first 13 Nextel races, and TNT has the six in between.

Everyone from NASCAR executives to the brass at Fox Sports is happy to have promotion-savvy ESPN back on board.

"I'm absolutely thrilled that ESPN is involved with NASCAR," Fox Sports Chairman David Hill said. "The amount of commitment that they contribute is absolutely terrific."

And while drivers are pleased more emphasis is being placed on winning races, they say the new points system could lead to more bumping and crashing. (Not that anyone is watching the sport for that sort of thing.)

"If you're running second and you can nudge a guy out of the way . . . to win to get those extra 10 points you're crazy to not do that," Tony Stewart said this week on ESPN.

Regardless of the changes, NASCAR always will be hamstrung by its backward season. It's the only major sport that holds its biggest event at the beginning of its season.

Combine that with the fact that NASCAR's 10-week playoff is held during the NFL season, and it's not hard to see how the sport might experience growing pains.

"When you look at the rise of the sport, a blip like last year is not enough for anyone to start rushing for the lifeboats," Hill said.

But he added it's frustrating that the Nextel Cup takes a week off after just two weeks of racing.

"It's a huge stumbling block that we're dark the third week of the season," Hill said. "We've got this huge momentum going from Daytona, then Fontana -- and then there's a Busch race from Mexico and no Nextel Cup racing . . . NASCAR has got to look at how they schedule the races."

Asked if he expects ratings to improve this year, Hill responded, "Well, we're dark in the third week again, aren't we?"

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/sports/local/orl-darling1607feb16,0,7764585,print.column?coll=orl-sports-headlines

fredfa

02-17-07, 10:32 AM

TV Notebook
The Amazing Race: New Season
Previous Season Teams to Travel More Than 45,000 Miles and Span 5 Continents In 28 Days
An Online Chat with Phil Keoghan, TV Host, conducted by The Washington Post

Eleven former teams return to compete in a race around the world on The Amazing Race: All-Stars, the 11th installment of the four-time Emmy winning series hosted by Phil Keoghan and premiering this Sunday, Feb. 18, at 8 p.m. ET on CBS.

Keoghan was online Friday, Feb. 16, to talk about the show and what's planned for the teams as they race to the finish line for their second chance at winning the million dollar prize.

____________________

Phil Keoghan: I love sunny days.

_______________________

College Park, Md.: What happens during the 12 hour pit stops? Do the teams explore the area, hang out together or just sleep? Also, how well do you get to know the teams while you travel with them?

Phil Keoghan: I do an interview with them on the mat chat. Then they'll go and do interviews with the story producers. I do more of the reaction interviews when they come in. Then the story producers do interviews with them separately. The producers get them to go from the beginning to the end of the leg -- to recap leg of the race -- and give them information about what happened story-wise.

Occasionally there is an opportunity for the teams to go and do something together -- they have the option -- but for the most part they're exhausted and they want to sleep.

I get to know them extremely well. I interview them extensively and I get plenty of time to hang with them at the pit stops.

_______________________

Gaithersburg, Md.: Will there be any special twists for the contestants, especially since they have been through the race before and are aware of how to play the game?

Phil Keoghan: The format and the structure of the race will be exactly the same. We know that it works. What makes the show different is that we have the best of the best, not the ones that are fastest at going from Point A to Point B but the ones that are most interesting, racing against teams they know about but they have never raced against, with the odd exception of Rob and Amber and Uchenna and Joyce.

Obviously we'll be ramping things up because it is All-Stars but we always make any race challenging.

_______________________

Arlington, Va.: why do we have to suffer through another season of Rob and Amber? Haven't they been overexposed enough yet? And isn't he an employee of CBS and The Early Show? Aren't CBS employees banned from such competitions?

Phil Keoghan: I can't speak to the arrangement that CBS has with Rob on The Early Show but there is no way you could have an All-Star show without Rob and Amber. If we didn't put them in even if people hated them, they would still be wondering why they weren't part of the All-Star Race, after all, the All-Stars are meant to be the most telegenic, captivating, engaging characters we've ever had in the race franchise. Surely you'd agree that Rob would be one of the most competitive and controversial racers ever. Having them in the race whether you love them or hate them is only going to make for a more exciting show.

_______________________

Detroit, Mich.: Phil, Do you know if CBS can put full episodes of "Amazing Race" on Innertube? Currently, eight shows have full episode links on the CBS Web site? Why not 'Race'?

Phil Keoghan: Good question. Please contact the people at Innertube and ask them directly. It makes sense that we should be up there with the other shows. Go to Innertube at cbs.com and click on Feedback button at bottom of the screen.

_______________________

Washington, D.C.: Hello, Phil! How are the challenges and locations decided upon? Is there a team out circling the globe looking for great experiences or are locals used?

Phil Keoghan: It's a combination of researchers, producers and people in a given country finding great challenges around the world.

_______________________

Frank from B-more: Phil, first of all, love the show. Me, my wife and kids make it appointment TV.

Especially with this All-Star format, is it hard to not pick a favorite team, and have you ever had to intervene with a team that was arguing? We also wonder, how long do you stay on location for the check-ins?

Phil Keoghan: You always have favorites; it's only human nature. But at the end of the day the teams I want to see stay in the race are not necessarily the ones that I like the most but the ones that I think are helping us create the best television show.

I don't see myself as a marriage counselor. Obviously, if I felt the need to step in and break something up I would but the nature of our show doesn't call for me to do that.

The time I stay for the pit stops or for the check-ins depends on the arrival times for all the teams. Sometimes it has been as little as minutes and other times it can be as much as 17 hours. That happened this season and the first teams to arrive left on the next leg before I had checked in the remaining team. That creates a problem for our schedule and makes our life frantic.

_______________________

Columbus, Ohio: Hi Phil! What's the status of other seasons of Race coming out on DVD (besides 1 and 7)?

Phil Keoghan: That's a great question. I'd love to see the whole series come out on DVD. Can you please go to cbs.com and make this request. If you look at the CBS homepage there is the same Feedback button at the bottom of the page.

_______________________

Silver Spring Race Fan: Phil! My wife and I love your show, we travel vicariously through it every season. My question is, have you ever had trouble staying ahead of the contestants to shoot your intros at the detour/roadblock/pit stop sites? Have you ever been passed by a team of racers? Thanks!

Phil Keoghan: We have trouble staying ahead of the teams all the time. A lot of people don't realize that with only 28 days to shoot 13 shows and travel more than 50,000 miles there are going to be major logistical challenges, especially when we can't predict exactly when teams will arrive in each location. There have been many times when I have had to skip shooting introductions ad detours and roadblocks, et., because the teams are ahead of me and I need to beat them to the pit stop and welcome the first team.

There have been occasions where I have literally been running to the mat from one direction while watching the first team running towards me.

I have been passed by racers. I have watched them take off on a flight ahead of me. In Season 10 I got stuck in immigration in Ukraine from 2:00 in the morning until about lunch time and almost missed seeing any of the teams at all.

If the spread of the teams is large enough we can find ourselves in an extremely tricky situation where we're trying to get all the elements we need shot and somehow find a way to keep ahead.

_______________________

Atlanta, Ga.: Many people noticed last season that you were not as prominant as in previous seasons (less voice overs, explanations, etc.). Since this is an All Star edition with people who have raced before, will we be seeing more or less of you this season? I definitely vote for more! Many of us tune in for you!

Phil Keoghan: Well, thank you. I have no idea how much presence I'll have. It's totally up to how the producers want to cut the show. Regardless of how much they use, the workload for me is always the same.

_______________________

Washington, D.C.: As much as I love the show -- and I do, a lot -- it seems to me that over the seasons the tasks have gotten physically harder but the clues have become easier to solve. Where once teams had to figure out where to go, now the clues often seem to be no more than directions? Do you agree?

Phil Keoghan: Personally I like it when the teams have to figure stuff out. Designing a show that can allow somebody like Uchenna who at one point was one of the fastest men on the planet and Sharla who was a small person is an extremely challenging process. I think the producers do that well. The race has to be a perfect combination of using brains, brawn, teamwork and, of course, a bit of luck thrown in there as well. Not an easy thing to do.

_______________________

Immigration and Customs?: Hi Phil! I love TAR. My husband and I watch every season.

Do racers ever get preferential treatment in going through immigrations and customs? I've often wondered about how that works when all of the racers come shooting out of a new country's airport at the same time. Surely some of them have hang-ups in immigration. Do you guys keep them in a holding pen until everyone is through?

Phil Keoghan: All teams have to cooperate with helping their camera crews pass through customs with equipment. A tremendous amount of effort goes into making sure that this is done in a fair manner. Everybody has to go through the same process. For processing of immigratin, no team receives any preferential treatment over any other.

_______________________

Houston, Tex.: Are you able to work out and eat healthy during the running of "The Amazing Race"?

Phil Keoghan: Working out is always a challenge. Sometimes my workouts involve lifting equipment cases at airports, doing pushups curling rocks and pullups from trees on location when time permits. I also travel with a skipping rope and a pair of running shoes. Even if I can get 15 minutes of free time I'll use it to maintain some level of fitness.

_______________________

Phil Keoghan: I get myself in the best possible shape I can before each race, bike riding up to 12 hours a week as well as boxing training twice a week. I don't drink when I'm on the road and in any given season with the crazy schedule and lack of sleep I lose up to 10 pounds.

_______________________

Fairfax, Va.: Phil, I love the Amazing Race! It's the only reality show I ever watch. But why would I want to watch a bunch of teams I've seen before? Previous commercials for the show mentioned how 75 percent of Americans want to be on the show. An all-star edition doesn't give me or anyone else a chance.

Phil Keoghan: Not so long ago the idea of an All-Star Amazing Race didn't really appeal to me either. People were talking about it as early as Season 5. But after doing 10 races and featuring more than 100 teams Race fans seeme to show more and more interest in the idea of featuring their favorite teams facing off against each other. I have to say that the results of mixing our most interesting teams together in one race has created a dynamic new spin and I hope that once you see the show you'll agree it had to be done.

_______________________

Arlington, Va.: What did you do before the show?

Phil Keoghan: For more than 20 years I've been working in front of the camera, shooting and traveling around the world for 20 years now. Before being picked to work on Race I had worked in over 60 countries and worked on a number of personality-driven series for the Discovery Channel, spent four years traveling around the U.S., doing live stories for the Fox morning show, "Fox After Breakfast," hosted specials for the Sundance Channel, Vh1, A and E, Fox and CBS.

_______________________

Ocean City, Md.: Hi, Phil!!

I love the show, and can't wait for the new season.

Do you ever disclose the countries the teams will visit in advance? Will you return to some of the countries from previous seasons, like Morocco, or Russia?

Thank you!

Phil Keoghan: Yes, we do disclose some of the countries we go to. In this season, for instance, we'll be going to Argentina, Chile and Mozambique. We keep some of the locations a secret so viewers are surprised by where we go. We will absolutely go back to countries we visite before. India has featured again and again in series of The Amazing Race. Personally, I like it when we go somewhere completely new.

_______________________

Rockville, Md.: I've noticed that a lot of (probably stinky and sweaty) Racers love to hug you when they check in. Does that annoy you?

Phil Keoghan: It depends what they've been rolling in. In Season 4 when the Clowns had so much fun playing in the manure I wasn't exactly welcoming them with open arms. There are times when having a good sense of smell is a kerse if only television could provide the extensive plethora of aromas that teams arrive at the mat with.

_______________________

Silver Spring, Md.: Can one of your producers make a video collage of your eyebrow thing?

Phil Keoghan: I understand from fans they call my eyebrow the "browsie." Funny story, I was at the Kentucky Derby last year and Lee Majors's wife came storming up to me saying that I had stolen her husband's (Lee Majors) eyebrow from the time he was on "The Six Million Dollar Man." Turns out she's a huge fan of the show and was just kidding. However, she did mention that The Rock is also making use of the "browsie" and if she sees him, she's gonna take him down.

_______________________

Washington, D.C.: How many applications do you get per season? And any chance me and my brother could be on the next show?

Phil Keoghan: We get tens of thousands of applications. Imagine a large room filled with mail from floor to ceiling. It's overwhelming the interest that people have to be on this show. Every application is viewed; you just never know that an amazing team might be buried at the bottom of the pile.

_______________________

Phil Keoghan: People always ask me what you need to do to get on the race. Just be yourself. If you're interesting and unique we'll find you. I'd like to say thank you to our devoted fans, the ones that have stuck with us from the beginning, the fan sites that continue to generate interest in the show, particularly our biggest fans at Television Without Pity. Thank you.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2007/02/15/DI2007021501098_pf.html

fredfa

02-17-07, 10:48 AM

Critic’s Notebook
"Cold Case" ices Dylan:
How does it feel?
By David Kronke Los Angeles Daily News Television Critic in his “The Mayor Of Television” blog February 17, 2007

Increasingly, and somewhat mysteriously, CBS’s lesser Bruckheimer crime procedural “Cold Case” has opted to incorporate songs by iconic artists into their mystery narratives (previous episodes included U2, Bruce Springsteen, John Mellencamp, Tim McGraw and the musical “Cabaret;” the show also uses songs from a specific genre – say, a certain jazz era or a particular new-wave-ish trend). Sometimes the fusion of music and mystery makes sense; other times, not so much.

On Sunday’s episode, Bob Dylan is “Cold Case’s” victim du jour. No, Dylan isn’t murdered in the episode, but his songs look to be exploited for no apparent reason.

CBS’s press release, expecting us to be extraordinarily dim, informs us: “Bob Dylan is one of the world’s most popular and acclaimed songwriters, musicians and performers, having sold nearly 100 million albums and performed literally thousands of shows around the world in a career spanning five decades.” Ah, OK, thanks for that -- so he's significant, you're saying?

And yet, while the press release lists the songs that will be incorporated in the episode, the screener itself is such a rough cut that we don’t know where the songs will go. (Actually, it’s pretty easy to guess where “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door” will land in the episode – somewhere around the scene of the murder – and “Ballad of a Thin Man” will no doubt underscore a reference to a “Mr. Jones.”) Eight songs in total will be no doubt seamlessly woven into the episode but, based on the silences in the screener’s rough cut, for no more than 30 seconds at a time, suggesting that true Dylan fans will be better off spending the hour listening to old CD’s than watching this wan mystery.

The episode opens with a group of former hippie-pinko radicals who, in 1981, have all become comfortable Yuppies, watching a slideshow of their gloriously ignominious past. Later, the house where this nostalgic romp occurred explodes, killing two people.

One character in the episode is named Johanna. “Visions of Johanna” is not one of the songs in the episode. Another character is named Sara. Also not used: Dylan’s “Sara.” And given the episode’s theme of revolution, it’s also curious that “Subterranean Homesick Blues,” with its then-timely-though-still-nominally-oblique reference to anarchy, “You don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows,” isn’t in the episode’s iPod shuffle.

Actually, the producers blew a brilliant opportunity: This episode is really a “Big Chill” redux with a body count. So Motown hits would’ve made just as much sense as Dylan’s back catalogue.

And, like a lot of episodes of this show, it’s a sort of simplistic ping-pong of witness/suspect memories that eventually leads to the not-so-shocking solution of the mystery.

One might be surprised that Dylan would agree to lend his songs to an enterprise as prosaic as this, but then, he also agreed to participate in a disastrous Broadway musical choreographed by Twyla Tharp (if you haven’t seen this clip, prepare to have your mind blown worse than any acid could manage, but if you’re a true Dylan fan, keep any razor blades in your domicile well out of reach for its duration). By contrast, this “Cold Case” episode is sorta like Dylan’s “Street Legal:” Loathed when released, but grudgingly admired in retrospect.

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

fredfa

02-17-07, 12:24 PM

Passings
Robert Adler, 93
R.I.P., Remote Inventor
By Roger Catlin Hartford Courant TV Critic in his “TV Eye” blog

Let us now praise Dr. Robert Adler.

The co-inventor of the remote control died this week at the age of 93.

In 1956 he and and fellow Zenith engineer came up with Space Command, their name for the first wireless tv remote control. Zenith commercially released the ultrasonic device in 1956. He won his first award on the advance in 1958; he got an Emmy for it on its 50th anniversary in 1997.

What would life be without the remote? Many of us lived those dark days, when someone had to get up and physically change channels. Imagine the burden, even if there were only three channels to choose from. Back then the worst thing that would happen is having the knob fall off from so much use. Then you had to have a pair of pliers ontop of the set, next to the rabbit ears, to switch stations.

Oh the agony.

My aunt had the first remote control I saw, back in the 60s. It was unbelievably fun switching back and forth while staying on the couch. You switch even if you liked the show that was on; you’d switch just because you could. It really was like Space Command.

That was the last I saw of the remote control for a while. It didn’t instantly settle in instantly as a must-have device in every household, believe it or not. People love their pliers, I guess. Then it made its big push – when? Was it the 80s when everyone had a remote and those who didn’t were looking for it between the couch cushions? And the 90s when one remote turned to two, to three and four? Then came the Universal Remote, with a name even more grand and all encompassing than the Space Command.

Adler went on to invent all kinds of breakthroughs in technology including the science that led to UHF (subject for another day). He was still submitting new patents as recently as February (for a new touch screen application).

But what he’ll be remembered most widely for is the device that served as such important fertilizer for couch potatoes everywhere.

http://blogs.courant.com/roger_catlin_tv_eye/

fredfa

02-17-07, 12:36 PM

TV Notebook
Fox News anchor out in contract drama
(But already on the air at CNN)
By Paul J. Gough The Hollywood Reporter Feb 17, 2007

NEW YORK -- One of Fox News Channel's rising stars jumped to CNN on Friday after a lightning-fast turn of events that led Fox News to tell her agent that it wasn't interested in keeping her.

Kiran Chetry, who had been a FNC anchor since 2001, was signed Friday by CNN about an hour after Fox News sent a fax to her agent, John Ferriter, releasing her from her contract that was to expire March 6.

Chetry had had discussions with other networks but seemed closer to reupping with Fox News, sources said. But the negotiations, which lasted more than a month, ran aground late Thursday over a clause that Chetry wanted to include in the contract regarding the future of "Fox & Friends," the channel's morning show.

The source of the dispute seems a matter of interpretation, with Fox News saying that it would have led to them agreeing to fire the current co-host, Gretchen Carlson, and another source saying that it merely asked for written clarification of whether Chetry would become a "Fox & Friends" co-host and when. If that didn't happen by a certain date, then Chetry would have a window to exit her new contract.

"You and your client's unprofessional demand that we include a clause in her new agreement would have been detrimental to other Fox News talent (and) is simply not the way we conduct business," Fox News vp legal and business affairs Dianne Brandi wrote.

Fox News confirmed the authenticity of the memo, which first appeared on the TV Newser Web site. Ferriter, who represents Larry King and Ryan Seacrest, among others, declined comment. Chetry wasn't available for an interview Friday.

Enter CNN, whose president, Jon Klein, had met with Chetry on Feb. 7 during Chetry's window to negotiate with other networks. (Fox News still had the ability to match any offer she got until they renounced it in Brandi's letter.) Chetry had met with the previous administration at CNN and "there was a lot of goodwill toward her already," Klein said in an interview Friday. Klein and others at CNN had followed her career since then but thought it was likely she would stay at Fox News Channel.

"I was bowled over by her charm and her intelligence and her character," Klein said. "She was a really good person. None of this TV stuff had gone to her head. I felt she would be a good person to have in the mix, but I also thought there's no chance of her becoming available unless extraordinary circumstances intervened."

Those "extraordinary circumstances" came into play shortly before 6 p.m. EST Thursday when Klein talked to Ferriter and learned what had just happened.

"I couldn't believe that this was dropping into my lap," Klein said. He spoke to CNN Worldwide president Jim Walton and another CNN exec, Joel Cheatwood, and they agreed to pursue Chetry. The deal was done with a verbal agreement less than an hour later between Walton, Klein and Ferriter, a process that Klein a day later marveled about.

"I've never been involved in anything like this in 30 years in this business," Klein said of the one-hour negotiation. He said that many talent negotiations, particularly ones with salary-matching clauses, can take more than a year to complete.

Klein made the call to have Chetry immediately join CNN, having her sub for the vacationing Soledad O'Brien on "American Morning" on Friday. And she turned around later that day and anchored "Anderson Cooper 360ý" with Cooper was on assignment. She continued to do that Monday and will do so until Wednesday.

"She's going to be a terrific fit here. She really wants to cover the news," Klein said. "That helps a lot. She had a burn to work at CNN, she said so, and you could tell it was true."

Klein declined comment about the turn of events on Fox, saying that the story for him was that CNN was getting a talented anchor. "The fact that it probably annoyed them is just icing on the cake," Klein said.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/television/news/e3i00c30daf8fb3b8f1b92c68de6362e363

fredfa

02-17-07, 01:49 PM

Friday’s fast national over night prime-time ratings have been posted near the top of Ratings News the second post in this thread.

fredfa

02-17-07, 02:25 PM

Critic’s Notebook
Not a teenage wasteland
‘The O.C.’ may be coming to an end, but the teen dramas aren’t having any growing pains as they thrive on cable
By Kevin McDonough Special to Newsday February 18, 2007
(Note: All times are Eastern)

Have network teen dramas gone the way of the TV Western?

Thursday night brings the final episode of "The O.C." It has only been three and a half years since it arrived and became a full-fledged pop-culture phenomenon. "The O.C." spawned numerous soundtrack CDs, inspired fashion, launched at least three young careers and sparked an entire genre of cable copycat series from MTV's "Laguna Beach: The Real Orange County" to Bravo's "The Real Housewives of Orange County."

Reached via telephone on the final day of shooting last month on "The O.C." set, series creator and executive producer Josh Schwartz seemed both proud and philosophical about his show's meteoric trajectory.

"Sometimes I feel like I wrote the pilot script and walked out of my apartment and got hit by a high-speed locomotive," he recalled. Critical acclaim and public adulation soon followed.

"Five episodes in, we went to a viewing party and there were throngs of fans screaming for the cast. It was surreal."

Now it's over. And Schwartz is not confident about the genre's future.

Is there a teen-drama future?

"Teen shows are not really the province of the big four broadcast networks any more," he ruefully observed. And that very much includes Fox, home to "The O.C." for the past four seasons.

In the 1990s, both Fox and the WB defined themselves with teen fare. Fox branded itself with "Beverly Hills, 90120," the iconic Aaron Spelling series that launched the careers of Shannen Doherty, Luke Perry, Jason Priestley and Spelling's daughter, Tori. In 1994 Fox would mine similar gold with "Party of Five," a melodrama about an orphaned family raising itself in a difficult world.

"Party of Five" star Neve Campbell appeared in the big screen shocker "Scream" (1996). Her "Party" co-star Jennifer Love Hewitt followed in "I Know What You Did Last Summer" (1997). Both films were written by Kevin Williamson, a master dissector of pop-culture genres who then created "Dawson's Creek" for the WB. That touchstone series all but redefined the network. With shows including "Dawson's Creek," "Felicity" and "Buffy, the Vampire Slayer," the WB became the hot place for advertisers in search of young audiences.

Over the years, the WB would "grow up" and try to appeal to an older audience with multi-generational stories. The critically acclaimed mother-daughter dramedy "Gilmore Girls" became the new template.

But while teen dramas were struggling on the broadcast networks, cable channels were moving in the opposite direction, establishing themselves as the new home of teen dramas.

Sarah Tomassi Lindman, senior vice president and general manager of The N, home to the high-school drama "Degrassi: The Next Generation" and surfing saga "Beyond the Break," sees her network and its shows as part of a trend towards narrowcasting.

Targeting specific audiences

"Channels and brands are focusing on more specific audiences and are able to super-serve them," she says. One of the defining characteristics of 'Degrassi' is that you will never have a scene that isn't told from a teen's perspective. You will never see a scene on 'Degrassi' between two parents or between a parent and a teacher."

This stands in stark contrast to "The O.C." with its interest in the career and love life of bleeding-heart lawyer Sandy Cohen (Peter Gallagher), or "Gilmore Girls" and its endless subplots about parents, and heaven forbid, grandparents.

And "Degrassi" has shattered another teen show tradition - that of the older actor pretending to be a high school student. Remember those receding hairlines on "90210?" Melissa Joan Hart turned 27 before she gave up her gig on "Sabrina the Teenage Witch." And the boyish Seth Cohen on "The O.C." is played by 27-year-old Adam Brody.

Acting their age

Every actor on "Degrassi" is within a year of his or her character's age. "It's a real signature of the series," Lindeman says.

Age appropriateness may not be the only element of verisimilitude to attract young viewers. A generation raised under the watchful gaze of video cameras and nearly 20 seasons of "The Real World" considers documentary-style soaps more "real" than scripted dramas.

MTV Entertainment president Brian Graden recalled attending a focus group for a scripted show under consideration by his network. A young participant interrupted and asked, "Why watch these actors when I can see the real thing?"

Paul Lee, president of ABC Family, says he firmly believes that young viewers are still attracted to strong scripted stories told with heart, like his network's "Kyle XY," "Wildfire" and "Lincoln Heights." But these viewers are quite different in the ways they experience television. "We define our audience as viewers from 14 to 28, a group who consume huge amounts of programming on different platforms."

Lee explained that they previewed their hit teen drama "Kyle XY" on iTunes before airing it on Family. "We had 200,000 downloads of our series 'Lincoln Heights' before it aired on our network," he says.

Lee does not see any conflict or audience cannibalization in any of this. "We see our audience creating a parody of 'Kyle XY' and uploading it onto YouTube while watching the show on iTunes and encouraging their friends to watch it on Family."

MTV's Graden agrees that the relatively new phenomenon of "massive exhibitionism" exhibited on Internet sites like MySpace and FaceBook have changed how young viewers express themselves and this in turn has affected their expectations of fictional characters and the way they interact. "Young people are living out loud, and they expect to see similar behavior on a show like 'Laguna Beach,'" Graden says.

CW may be last hope

If there is still hope for the network teen show, it surely resides on the CW, which was formed last year by the merger of the WB and UPN networks. Later this spring, the network will launch "Hidden Palms," written and created by Williamson. Does the man behind "Dawson's Creek" have what it takes to attracts teens to network TV in 2007?

A saucy combination of "The O.C." and "Desperate Housewives," "Hidden" uses a mystery plot to explore the lives of photogenic high school students residing in the decidedly older-skewing city of Palm Springs, Calif. One character describes the place as filled with "Grays, gays and streets named after dead people." "Desperate Housewives" viewers may enjoy watching Sharon Lawrence's character bragging about her serial plastic surgery: "It looks like the nose two noses ago." But will kids sit still for this brand of satire?

"O.C." creator Schwartz certainly hopes viewers still navigate to the CW. He'll soon start shooting a pilot for "Gossip Girl," a teen drama based on Cecily von Ziegesar's popular books of the same name about an anonymous blogger spilling secrets about spoiled Upper East Side teenagers.

While confident that "Gossip Girl" will be the next hot show, Schwartz (who has only recently turned 30) seems to have been around television long enough to know that uncertainty itself is the only sure thing. Nothing, it seems, is really definite until it becomes a hit.

"When 'The O.C.' came on the air in summer 2003, people said, 'Have fun - it won't survive August,'" recalls Schwartz with some satisfaction. "We were told that serialized dramas don't work anymore; soaps don't work and teen dramas are dead. And here I am, four years later hearing the exact same thing."

ABC Family

Lincoln Heights (7 p.m., Monday) - A dedicated police officer moves his family to his old neighborhood, a crime-ridden section of Los Angeles. A PG family drama with gritty urban action. An audacious and improbable hybrid of "The Wire" and "7th Heaven."

Wildfire (8 p.m., Monday) - A troubled teen graduates from a youth-detention facility to a family-run horse ranch.

Kyle XY (returning in summer) - The mystery of a teen with remarkable abilities, who wakes up in the woods outside of Seattle, bereft of clothes, memories and a belly button.

The N

Degrassi: The Next Generation (8 p.m., Friday) - A Canadian-produced drama about the lives of students at a public high school. Notable for its lesson- and issue-driven plots.

Instant Star (8:30 p.m., Friday) - Canadian-produced musical drama about the life of a teen (Alexz Johnson) who wins an "Idol"-style contest. "Instant" features a new song in every episode.

Beyond the Break (9:30 p.m., Friday) - The complicated lives of four young women in the field of competitive surfing.

MTV

The Hills (Monday, 10 p.m.) - A documentary soap spun off from "Laguna Beach" following the complicated lives of young people in an affluent Los Angeles neighborhood.

Two-a-Days (Tuesday, 10 p.m.) - A reality series set in the pressure-cooker world of high school football in Hoover, Ala., home to multiple state champions. A low-budget alternative to NBC's "Friday Night Lights," "Two" has flourished on MTV. This is in stark contrast to the languishing ratings of the network series.

Juvies (Thursday, 10 p.m.) - A documentary look at teens in a state juvenile home.

Soap Net

Reruns of Beverly Hills 90210 (weekdays at 4 p.m.), One Tree Hill and The O.C. (weekdays at 5 and 6 p.m., respectively, beginning April 9.)

http://www.newsday.com/entertainment/tv/ny-fftv5094438feb18,0,3191973,print.story?coll=ny-television-headlines

fredfa

02-17-07, 02:36 PM

TV Sports
'Extra Innings’ Still In Play
By R. Thomas Umstead Multi Channel News 2/19/2007

Against the backdrop of pitchers and catchers reporting to baseball spring-training camps last week, Major League Baseball, DirecTV and cable operators continued to toss out mixed signals regarding the fate of the sport’s “MLB Extra Innings” out-of-market package.

Executives close to several multiple-system operators said the cable industry late last week made a last-minute pitch to significantly increase the industry’s subscriber commitment to the league’s proposed channel, set to launch in 2009 — the major curveball in negotiations to secure the league’s out-of-market package of live games.

But other executives close to the negotiations said MLB could announce an exclusive Extra Innings distribution deal with DirecTV as early as this week.

The developments came as baseball commissioner Bud Selig said last week that whatever deal is cut would only adversely affect a “small” number of fans.

Executives close to the MSOs said cable has “significantly” increased its subscriber commitment to the launch of baseball’s planned 24-hour dedicated channel, although it’s unclear how big of a base has been promised.

Executives close to the negotiations said the commitment is for more households than the 15 million DirecTV subscribers that would put the planned service on the “Total Choice Plus” tier, part of DirecTV’s proposed $700 million, seven-year offer for exclusive rights to Extra Innings, which retails for $179 per season.

Initially the cable industry, through video-on-demand and pay-per-view content provider In Demand, said it would only distribute the channel via premium sports tiers, which on average reach less than 20% of all digital subscriber homes.

In Demand executives would not comment on the matter.

DirecTV’s proposed exclusive Extra Innings deal continues to set off protests from TV columnists, sports bloggers — and some MLB clubs. San Diego Padres CEO Sandy Alderson told local newspaper the North County Times the deal would hurt some fans who want to watch both their local team and out-of-market games. Rightsholder Cox Communications offers Padres games exclusively to cable.

“If you have satellite TV, you can’t get the Padres,” Alderson said. “Now, if you have cable, you can’t get the MLB package. And if you want both, it means adding one or the other, and it would cost quite a bit of money.”

Selig weighed in last week on ESPN Radio’s Mike and Mike In the Morning. While no deal has been reached for Extra Innings, he said, reports of baseball fans being greatly disenfranchised if DirecTV got the exclusive arrangement are exaggerated.

“I expect people to understand that we thought all of these issues out, and there’s no doubt in my mind that you’ll be quite surprised at how few people are affected,” he said. “When I look at the number of people that would be affected, it’s so small.”

http://www.multichannel.com/index.asp?layout=articlePrint&articleid=CA6417388

keenan

02-17-07, 02:53 PM

Passings
Robert Adler, 93
R.I.P., Remote Inventor
By Roger Catlin Hartford Courant TV Critic in his “TV Eye” blog

Adler's birthday should be made a national holiday. :)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v637/keenanj/1957_Zentih_Ad-Remote1.jpg

Below link can be enlarged to enable reading the text in the above image.
http://www.tvhistory.tv/1957_Zentih_Ad-Remote1.JPG
1957_Zentih_Ad-Remote1.JPG (JPEG Image, 841x1071 pixels) - Scaled (32%)

fredfa

02-17-07, 02:58 PM

TV Sports
Malone’s Deal For Braves Looks To Be Done
MultiChannel News 2/17/07

Atlanta — John Malone took a few more swings at asset swaps last week.

Liberty Media’s chairman moved toward finalizing an agreement with Time Warner Inc. for the Atlanta Braves and traded his company’s holding in CBS Corp. for a broadcast-TV station in Green Bay, Wisc.

With negotiations between Liberty and Time Warner’s Turner Broadcasting System taking place for more than a year, the parties have evidently reached an accord whereby Liberty would exchange 60 million of its 171 million shares in Time Warner for the team, which is valued at some $460 million; 18 Leisure Arts craft magazines owned by Time Inc.; and $1 billion in cash.

The agreement, designed to limit both parties’ tax liabilities, must still be approved by three-quarters of the Major League Baseball club owners, who don’t have a meeting scheduled until May. Published reports indicate that a vote could come via conference call.

Liberty officials wouldn’t concede that a deal had been reached, saying only that it’s been negotiating with Time Warner, which couldn’t be reached for comment.

MLB officials didn’t return phone calls.

As for the CBS accord, Liberty exchanged 7.6 million shares it held in the company, roughly 1%, for WFVR in Green Bay and its satellite, WJMN in Escanaba, Mich. The pact, which values the station at $64 million, also gives Liberty $170 million in cash. The deal is expected to close in the second quarter, subject to Federal Communications Commission approval.

“This transaction represents another step in our transformation of Liberty into a focused operating company,” Liberty senior vice president David Flowers said in a statement.

Of course, Liberty’s most significant play in recent weeks is its pending $11 billion transaction for DirecTV Inc. Liberty is trading its 19% voting interest in News Corp. for a 38.4% controlling stake in the 16 million subscriber direct-broadcast satellite provider; $550 million in cash; and regional sports networks in Seattle, Denver and Pittsburgh.

http://www.multichannel.com/index.asp?layout=articlePrint&articleid=CA6417388

fredfa

02-17-07, 03:18 PM

The Business of Television
That Digital Deadline:
Don’t Panic. Yet.
Broadcasters, Cable Operators Think They Can Prevent 'Tsunami of Public Outrage’ If Millions of Televisions Don’t Work Two Years From Now
By Ted Hearn 2/19/2007 MultiChannel News 2/17/07

Washington— “It’s too soon to panic,” said Philip Lombardo, CEO of Citadel Communications, a Bronxville, N.Y., company that owns four TV stations. “It’s too soon to say we can’t accomplish it.”

Lombardo, who also serves on the executive committee of the 8,300-member National Association of Broadcasters, was referring to the digital-television transition — a federally imposed flip of the switch on Feb. 17, 2009. That’s almost exactly two years from today.

When that winter Tuesday arrives, just 16 days after the Super Bowl and 28 days after the next presidential inauguration, each full-power TV station in the land will need to turn off its traditional analog signal and send all programs over the air as digits.

Analog TV sets can’t translate digital signals. Without the proper equipment to convert those digits back into wave-like analog signals, 73 million analog TVs dispersed among 109 million U.S. TV households, including cable and satellite TV homes, are expected to go dark.

If millions of consumers find they suddenly can’t watch TV because of this government fiat, they are not expected to receive the news with polite calm.

“If we don’t get this right, we could face a tsunami of public outrage,” Federal Communications Commission Democrat Jonathan Adelstein has warned.

Congressional leaders who designed the DTV transition hope that Feb. 17, 2009 is a non-event that comes and goes as peacefully as did Jan. 1, 2000 — when scary speculation held that the Y2K software problem would cause widespread computer crashes, when programs designed only to record years up to “99” suddenly had to deal with four-digit dates like “2000.”

At least one House member thinks the DTV transition schedule is too aggressive. If that’s the case, here’s the problem: Instead of being just another day on the calendar, Feb. 17, 2009 could turn into the TV industry’s equivalent of Hurricane Katrina, leaving millions of unsuspecting citizens cut off from a vital source of communications.

“I think that date is absurd. It’s far too early,” said Rep. Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.), a member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, soon after voting against the 2006 law that established the so-called DTV hard date.

TRANSITION MECHANICS

The mechanics of the transition were worked out by House and Senate Republicans, who used their majority power to include the hard date in the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 [Public Law No: 109-204]. The analog cutoff, signed into law by President Bush last February, was codified as The Digital Television and Public Safety Act of 2005.

By forcing TV stations from their analog channels by a specific deadline, the DTV law cleared the way for the FCC to auction off what would become surplus analog spectrum for at least $10 billion, paid by companies, perhaps even cable companies, that want to grab the channels for wireless broadband services. The other channels are to go for free to fire, police and emergency organizations hungry for new frequencies.

The legislation didn’t leave the DTV transition solely in the hands of the free market. Included is up to $1.5 billion to subsidize digital-to-analog converter boxes.

The federal program will allocate up to two $40 coupons for each eligible recipient to purchase such boxes. But the Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) hasn’t announced final eligibility criteria.

The NTIA has tentatively concluded that pay TV subscribers wouldn’t be permitted to seek coupons. A ban on well-to-do broadcast-only homes is another proposal.

The coupon program could be underfunded.

The U.S. has about 20 million homes that rely exclusively on free, over-the-air broadcasting, according to government officials and industry executives. These homes have 45 million analog TV sets. A $40 coupon for each TV set would cost $1.8 billion.

Providing coupons for the 28 million analog sets in pay TV homes which rely on a rabbit-ears antenna would raise the price tag to nearly $3 billion.

“I think we probably need more funds to underwrite the boxes and I think that’s probably going to happen, so people who have second and third sets in their homes aren’t disenfranchised,” Lombardo said.

Rep. Rick Boucher (D-Va.), who sought maximum funding to ensure that no analog TV went dark, said it was possible Congress would boost converter-box funding.

“With all the things on my plate at the moment, I’m not planning to mount that effort, but I would certainly support it if somebody else did,” said Boucher, who became chairman of the Energy and Air Quality Subcommittee in January.

CAMPAIGN COMING

Demand for converter-box coupons might be difficult to gauge. Cable and satellite subscribers might opt out by deciding to connect standalone analog sets to their pay TV services. Broadcast-only homes might replace some or all analog TVs with digital units over the next 24 months.

Citing Consumer Electronics Association data, NTIA believes that 115 million digital TV sets will be sold by the end of 2008. That’s roughly one per U.S. TV household. But the sales data will not likely reveal the extent to which the purchase of DTV sets has caused consumers to junk their functioning analog TVs.

The DTV law included $5 million to fund an NTIA consumer-outreach program. More extensive consumer-awareness provisions contained in House legislation didn’t make it into the final law. As a result, educating the public about the DTV transition was left to the consumer electronics, cable, satellite TV and broadcast-TV industries.

The task may be formidable. On Jan. 31, the Association of Public Television stations released a survey showing that 61% of Americans polled “had no idea the transition was taking place.” The poll also found that a majority of broadcast-only homes were unaware of the transition and its impact on free TV service.

The CEA, the National Cable & Telecommunications Association, and the National Association of Broadcasters came together last week to announce a cooperative effort to inform the public about the DTV transition. Yet key details still need to be ironed out.

NAB has created a small DTV transition team staffed by people with political campaign and media-outreach experience. NAB vice president Jonathan Collegio, press secretary for the National Republican Congressional Committee until late last year, was tapped by NAB president David Rehr to lead the organization’s effort.

“The idea is to look at DTV consumer education like a political campaign,” Collegio said. “We have digital television as a candidate. We have a Feb. 17, 2009 election day. We want to make sure our candidate wins the election two years from now.”

At first, Collegio’s team will begin by seeking broad media coverage of the DTV transition, hoping the issue receives prominent treatment again and again.

“We’re going to be reaching out to small newspapers, large newspapers, small television stations, small radio stations — all the way, A to Z, to make sure that DTV has a positive, ubiquitous presence in the media from now until 2009 so consumers know what they need to do to navigate the transition,” Collegio said.

In 2008, the NAB plan calls for the extensive broadcast of public-service announcements on the DTV transition.

“The hope is that by bringing this message to as many consumers as possible that no consumer will lose reception due to a lack of information,” Collegio said. “Some consumers may choose to go dark and choose to no longer have television reception and there’s not really anything we can do about that.”

Broadcasters are not quietly planning to lobby Congress to scuttle the hard date at the same time they are blitzing the airwaves with public alerts about the need to buy digital TVs or obtain converter boxes.

“We can’t take that position,” Lombardo said. “The industry is committed to that hard date. We are going to do everything we possibly can to make it happen.”

The DTV education campaign, projected to cost $100 million in cash and in-kind promotional efforts, could result in a waste of time and money if Congress decides to postpone the hard because consumers have failed to acquired DTV sets or converter boxes in sufficient numbers.

Manufacturers are ramping up production of converter boxes to meet the Feb. 17, 2009 deadline, Boucher said.

“The hard date definitely will stay,” Boucher predicted. “I don’t think a persuasive argument could be made by anyone at this point that it ought to be changed.”

http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6417227.html?display=Top+Stories

fredfa

02-17-07, 03:30 PM

The Business of Television
What About “Dual Must-Carry”?
MultiChannel News 2/17/07

Washington — Nine years ago, cable operators claimed they lacked the channel capacity to carry local TV stations in analog and digital form and shouldn’t be forced to comply with regulatory mandates to carry both types of signals.

Led by the National Cable & Telecommunications Association, the industry argued that “dual must-carry” would violate the First Amendment. The result of duplicate carriage of TV stations, operators said, would be the denial of slots to programming networks that lacked compulsory access to cable TV viewers.

The National Association of Broadcasters strongly objected, dismissing the constitutional and channel-capacity claims as baseless.

The Federal Communications Commission never got around to imposing dual carriage. Now, it turns out that it didn’t need to. In one of the ironies of the digital TV-transition, the five largest U.S. cable operators ended up embracing dual carriage without assistance from federal bureaucrats.

Hoping to match the all-digital lineups of satellite TV competitors, the big multiple-system operators decided to use scarce bandwidth on standard-definition digital simulcasts of their analog programming tiers. Some TV stations even are carried a third time, in high definition digital format.

“Digital simulcast will ensure customers receive the best picture quality and best sound on all of their channels,” said Time Warner Cable vice president of communications Mark Harrad. Two years ago, Raleigh, N.C., became the first of the MSO’s markets to receive the digital simulcast.

Cox Communications has begun digital simulcasts in nine markets, including Fairfax, Va., and Orange County, Calif. “This is going well for us and we are promoting the all-digital format in the [nine] markets. We are rolling out digital simulcast to our other markets,” Cox director of media relations David Grabert said.

The dual must-carry debate raged while Michael Powell was FCC chairman. Powell’s Media Bureau chief, Ken Ferree, who crafted much of the digital-TV transition plan adopted by Congress, believed that market forces would drive cable carriage of local DTV signals as the age of analog broadcasting came to a close.

“I hate to say 'I told you so,’ but we said all along that many, if not most, stations would end up getting dual carriage [up until the cable systems went all digital] because the cable operators cannot afford to abandon viewers of broadcast programming, however those viewers are set up to receive the programming, particularly once the broadcasters started doing HD,” Ferree said.

Did broadcasters then seek a regulatory solution to a problem that didn’t exist?

“NAB is pleased that many cable operators are now carrying both analog and digital feeds of local television stations, which we always believed was in the best interest of consumers and the best way to advance the digital transition,” said NAB executive vice president of communications Dennis Wharton.

http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6417227.html?display=Top+Stories

dad1153

02-17-07, 03:32 PM

Passings
Robert Adler, 93
R.I.P., Remote Inventor
By Roger Catlin Hartford Courant TV Critic in his “TV Eye” blog

Let us now praise Dr. Robert Adler.

In 1956 he and and fellow Zenith engineer came up with Space Command, their name for the first wireless tv remote control. Zenith commercially released the ultrasonic device in 1956. He won his first award on the advance in 1958; he got an Emmy for it on its 50th anniversary in 1997.

50th anniversary? The math only adds-up to a 41st anniversary! :confused:

fredfa

02-17-07, 03:53 PM

Hey, dad, Catlin is a TV writer, not a mathematician! :)

fredfa

02-17-07, 03:59 PM

Technology Notebook
Five Decades of Channel Surfing:
History of the TV Remote Control
(from the Zenith website)

Channel surfing was born five decades ago. The first TV remote control, called "Lazy Bones," was developed in 1950 by Zenith Electronics Corporation (then known as Zenith Radio Corporation). Lazy Bones used a cable that ran from the TV set to the viewer. A motor in the TV set operated the tuner through the remote control.

By pushing buttons on the remote control, viewers rotated the tuner clockwise or counterclockwise, depending on whether they wanted to change the channel to a higher or lower number. The remote control included buttons that turned the TV on and off.

Although customers liked having remote control of their television, they complained that people tripped over the unsightly cable that meandered across the living room floor.

Commander Eugene F. McDonald Jr., Zenith's late founder-president, believed TV viewers would not tolerate commercials and was convinced that sooner or later commercial television would collapse. While waiting for the development of commercial-free subscription television, McDonald yearned for a wireless remote control that would mute the sound of commercials.

Flashmatic: The First Wireless TV Remote

Zenith engineer Eugene Polley invented the "Flashmatic," which represented the industry's first wireless TV remote. Introduced in 1955, Flashmatic operated by means of four photo cells, one in each corner of the TV screen. The viewer used a highly directional flashlight to activate the four control functions, which turned the picture and sound on and off and changed channels by turning the tuner dial clockwise and counter-clockwise.

While it pioneered the concept of wireless TV remote control, the Flashmatic had some limitations. It was a simple device that had no protection circuits and, if the TV sat in an area in which the sun shone directly on it, the tuner might start rotating.

Development Challenges

Commander McDonald loved the concepts proven by Polley's Flashmatic and directed his engineers to develop a better remote control. First thoughts pointed to radio. But, because they travel through walls, radio waves could inadvertently control a TV set in an adjacent apartment or room.

Using distinctive sound signals was discussed, but Zenith engineers believed people might not like hearing a certain sound that would become characteristic of operating the TV set through a remote control. It also would be difficult to find a sound that wouldn't accidentally be duplicated by either household noises or by the sound coming from TV programming.

Regardless of the specific system chosen, Zenith sales people were against using batteries in the remote control. In those days, batteries were used primarily in flashlights. If the battery went dead, the sales staff said, the customer might think something was wrong with the TV. If the remote control didn't emit light or show any other visible sign of functioning, people would think it was broken once the batteries died.

The Birth of Space Command

Zenith's Dr. Robert Adler suggested using "ultrasonics," that is, high-frequency sound, beyond the range of human hearing. He was assigned to lead a team of engineers to work on the first use of ultrasonics technology in the home as a new approach for a remote control.

The transmitter used no batteries; it was built around aluminum rods that were light in weight and, when struck at one end, emitted distinctive high-frequency sounds. The first such remote control used four rods, each approximately 2-1/2 inches long: one for channel up, one for channel down, one for sound on and off, and one for on and off.

They were very carefully cut to lengths that would generate four slightly different frequencies. They were excited by a trigger mechanism - similar to the trigger of a gun - that stretched a spring and then released it so that a small hammer would strike the end of the aluminum rod.

The device was developed quickly, with the design phase beginning in 1955. Called "Zenith Space Command," the remote went into production in the fall of 1956, becoming the first practical wireless remote control device.

Quarter Century of Ultrasonic Remotes

The original Space Command remote control was expensive because an elaborate receiver in the TV set, using six additional vacuum tubes, was needed to pick up and process the signals. Although adding the remote control system increased the price of the TV set by about 30 percent, it was a technical success and was adopted in later years by other manufacturers.

In the early 1960s, solid-state circuitry (i.e., transistors) began to replace vacuum tubes. Hand-held, battery-powered control units could now be designed to generate the inaudible sound electronically. In this modified form, Dr. Adler's ultrasonic remote control invention lasted through the early 1980s, a quarter century from its inception.

More than 9 million ultrasonic remote control TVs were sold by the industry during the 25-year reign of Dr. Adler's invention.

Today's Infrared Remote Controls

By the early 1980s, the industry moved to infrared, or IR, remote technology. The IR remote works by using a low frequency light beam, so low that the human eye cannot see it, but which can be detected by a receiver in the TV. Zenith's development of cable-compatible tuning and teletext technologies in the 1980s greatly enhanced the capabilities and uses for infrared TV remotes.

Today, remote control is a standard feature on other consumer electronics products, including VCRs, cable and satellite boxes, digital video disc players and home audio receivers. And the most sophisticated TV sets have remotes with as many as 50 buttons. In 2000, more than 99 percent of all TV sets and 100 percent of all VCRs and DVD players sold in the United States are equipped with remote control.

http://www.zenith.com/sub_about/about_remote.html

dad1153

02-17-07, 04:00 PM

Hey, dad, Catlin is a TV writer, not a mathematician! :)

Unless he meant the 50th anniversary of the Emmy award (1947-97), in which case he still gets a 'D' for writing the article in such a way that leaves the reader wondering. :o

fredfa

02-17-07, 04:01 PM

Only the intelligent reader. I misssed it altogether.

dad1153

02-17-07, 04:15 PM

I'll take that as a complement! :D

fredfa

02-17-07, 04:24 PM

Critic’s Notebook
Why so low?
“Studio 60", a ‘Sure’ hit struggles to find viewers
By Joanne Weintraub Milwaukee Journal Sentinel TV critic

Up in the bleachers sat Matthew Perry, surrounded by a dozen or so journalists poking tape recorders in his face.

Down on the stage, other members of the large cast, including Bradley Whitford, Sarah Paulson and D.L. Hughley, walked around doing interviews with two or three people at a time. Amanda Peet, whose baby is due in March, did her interviews from a director's chair.

Holding court in the writers' room, meanwhile, was Aaron Sorkin, creator, head writer and guiding spirit of "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip."

The occasion was a "grab-and-gab" for TV critics - find a star, pop a question - on the set of the NBC freshman series last month. And the question that kept rearing its head, between the ones about characters and subplots and the expansive, multilevel set itself, was: How did a talent-rich, expensively produced, seemingly surefire show wind up in 76th place in the ratings?

Coming from Sorkin and director Thomas Schlamme, the team behind the seven-year NBC hit "The West Wing," with a cast headed by "West Wing's" Whitford and "Friends' " Perry, "Studio 60" was one of the most anticipated new series of the season.

But the show's audience, which numbered more than 13 million when it debuted in September, has dwindled to little more than half that, with an estimated 7 million viewers for last week's episode.

And all but the most committed of those fans might acknowledge that, while the cast shines and the writing reflects Sorkin's sharp wit and flair for the dramatic moment, the plots can be far-fetched and the characters too often uniformly, maddeningly glib.

"Studio 60" takes place behind the scenes of a sketch comedy show with a not-so-slight resemblance to "Saturday Night Live."

It's a setting that would seem to be as full of possibilities as the Oval Office, yet the show hasn't taken hold with either fans or critics the way "The West Wing" quickly did.

Sorkin maintained that there's only one way to handle that response: Ignore it.

"Whether the show is a smash hit or it's struggling, you've got to write the show you planned on writing," he said.

"Would we like more people to (watch) the show? You bet. (But) I think it's a mistake to do things creatively to attract that audience."

Perry - who plays a compulsively wisecracking, frequently self-lacerating writer-producer modeled on Sorkin himself - sounded a similar note: If you believe in what you're doing, you try not to worry about the ratings.

"We were unbelievably highly touted when the show came out, and we were working 15 hours a day to try to live up to it," he said. "Then the ratings weren't that great, but we're still working 15 hours a day. . . . It's what you do."

One change that Sorkin said had been in his plans from the beginning is the increasing place of romance in the plots.

Where the scripts in the show's early months tended to focus on creative struggles among the writers or power plays involving the network, the emphasis has shifted to the point where this week's episode earned the breathless on-air promotion: "Tonight on 'Studio 60 . . . ' Hook-ups! Break-ups . . . !"

Perry's character and the actress played by Paulson are unable to stop lashing out at each other after a notably prolonged and messy split.

Whitford's Danny, the sketch show's executive producer, recently declared his love for the network executive played by Peet, who is single and pregnant - but not by Danny.

For Whitford, whose "West Wing" character was prone to long bouts of romantic deprivation, Danny's ardor - recently if belatedly reciprocated by Peet's Jordan - has been a nice change.

"It's been a blast," said the actor, who grew up in Madison and is married to Milwaukee native Jane Kaczmarek ("Malcolm in the Middle").

"I love the complexity of (Danny and Jordan's relationship), and the stakes underneath it.

"The problem with romantic stuff is that it (can) be fairly juvenile. You rarely get to deal with the grown-up stakes behind people connecting. And (with Jordan pregnant), you have to."

The stakes are high, too, for "Studio 60."

Starting Feb. 26, the show goes on hiatus for an indefinite period to make room for a midseason starter, "The Black Donnellys," a drama from Oscar winner Paul Haggis ("Crash," "Million Dollar Baby").

NBC President Kevin Reilly told critics last month that he was a fan of "Studio 60" and believed it deserved the time to find a larger audience. But his patience with the show, which reportedly costs the network a hefty $3 million an episode, isn't likely to be infinite.

Some other observations on the show from "Studio 60" cast members:

• Perry (who plays producer Matt Albie), on the series' backstage setting: "The world of people who are in charge of creating comedy and are that serious about it is a very bent place . . . sometimes a dark place. That's what I like about it."

• Peet (who plays network executive Jordan McDeere), on what she finds most interesting about her character: "She's a young woman in a position of power, and people always question how someone like that got to where she is. She also has a lot of charisma, which (raises the question of ) whether or not you can use that sort of charisma and flair to get things done."

• Hughley (who plays writer Simon Stiles), on director Schlamme's signature "walk-and-talks," notoriously hard-to-shoot scenes where characters converse while moving quickly around the set: "I don't like to see my name on (one of those scenes) in the script. If you flub a word, if the cameraman didn't get it right, if you didn't hit your mark - it's always a long night."

• Paulson (who plays show-within-a-show actress Harriet Hayes), on walk-and-talks: "I always feel that I don't know why (the character) is walking somewhere. It doesn't feel natural to me. I'm always the one who says I don't want to do it, but since I'm not powerful or famous (she laughs) I have to do it anyway."

• Steven Weber (who plays network executive Jack Rudolph), on Sorkin's fast-paced dialogue: "It's challenging to say. People don't always speak with the depth that he writes. . . . One thing that this show isn't is easy, and that's a good thing."

http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=566080&format=print

JMCecil

02-17-07, 05:04 PM

Critic’s Notebook
Why so low?
“Studio 60, a ‘Sure’ hit struggles to find viewers

Well this show is like FNLs to me. I've tried several times to watch both and have never made it through an entire episode of either. I know that freda and few of you really like FNLs. But, even as a huge football fan and maybe because of that fact, it doesn't even partially represent being a high school football player. It's the over-hyped MTV public perception of what high school football is.

Studio 60 is the same. It's a not funny comedy with a bit of irony but very little drama to hold it over. It's not quirky or fun or guilty pleasure or anything. The show just drags by. At least the 3 or 4 episodes I tried to watch.

I think maybe the writers see their world as "more" than it really is and assume that people are interested in it.

That's my opinion of course, but I don't think either show will grow an audience. Pretty much the people that are interested are watching. I've been wrong before though. Plus, it just takes one great episode that starts an fun story arch to create water cooler buzz and all of the sudden .............

dad1153

02-17-07, 05:04 PM

Apparently every TV writer that went to the 'Studio 60' set during the TCA trip last January had the bright idea of going back to their notes the moment news came that Sorkin's show was going on hiatus a week earlier than expected. Talk about the mob mentality of the media!

fredfa

02-17-07, 05:56 PM

One of the major reasons for the TCA Winter and Summer tours is that the writers and critics are able to "bank" interviews for when they are necessary.

A few critics wrote about "Studio 60" immediately after visiting the set. The remainder waited until they sensed a news peg.

As Aaron Barnhart wrote at the time of the "Studio 60" set tour (along with those of "NCIS", "24" and "Ugly Betty") in the [B]Kansas City Star[B] (and his TV Barn blog), it would be very difficult for writers at all but a handful of major outlets to get the kind of access they routinely are offered at the two TCA tours.

I am perfectly content with the critics giving us their versions of those tours when the need arises. It makes total sense to me.

I think we are better served when 40-50 critics -- rather than just a small handful -- get access to people at the top of TV.

jtbell

02-17-07, 06:20 PM

Passings
Robert Adler, 93
R.I.P., Remote Inventor
By Roger Catlin Hartford Courant TV Critic in his “TV Eye” blog

I wonder if his wife ever got to use his invention. :D

fredfa

02-17-07, 06:38 PM

I am sure he never let her touch it! :)

kjpjr

02-17-07, 06:53 PM

My friends parents had one of the early Space Commands. Their neighbor down the street played a little "keeping up" and bought the set up also. One night we took the remote from his parents and hid in the bushes outside the neighbors. We were able to really mess with their TV while they were watching it. It was a lot of fun for a couple of 13 year olds and we were both "in love" with the neighbor's 13 year old daughter :p We told her about the prank years later!

fredfa

02-17-07, 08:36 PM

TV Notebook
Still the object of their projection
Not Ally, not Kitty, Calista Flockhart just can't seem to get a real-world break.
By Maria Elena Fernandez Los Angeles Times Staff Writer February 18, 2007

Calista Flockhart is enjoying a glass of red wine at the bar of the boutique hotel she called home for six months when she began working on "Ally McBeal," the show that, for better or worse, catapulted her into stardom. The Hotel Bel-Air, she says a bit nostalgically, brings up "friendly feelings" and the bar itself, with its East Coast vibe, reminds her of New York, the city she longs to return to so she can perform on its stages again.

That isn't likely to happen for a while. Her 6-year-old son, Liam, just started kindergarten and loves the outdoors. Her partner, Harrison Ford, has a teenage daughter in school in Los Angeles. There's also the six-year contract she signed with ABC to costar in "Brothers & Sisters," which is attracting 12 million viewers a week and seems to be gaining momentum, especially with women.

In the late '90s, when Flockhart lived in this lush, urban hotel with her dog, Webster, her award-winning turn as Ally — the miniskirted, legal eagle singleton — transformed her from an off-Broadway actress into a household name, giving way to a public persona that has always seemed at odds with itself. Is it possible to be at once shy and diva-like, a team player and a prima donna, aloof and warm? Or did the actress just get caught in a cultural flashpoint and not have the desire or wherewithal to shout to the world: "This is who I am!"

Flockhart's reluctance to engage with the press to dispel rumors or explain herself after "Ally" went off the air made her a conveniently blank slate to be filled in with conjecture: She was just like Ally. She was self-centered and neurotic. She was difficult. And her longing to disappear seemed to play out literally. Had anyone seen her eat? Was she wasting away?

Smoldering fire refueled

IF she was hoping that her reticence would play better when she reemerged after a five-year absence — as part of a notable ensemble that includes Sally Field, Rachel Griffiths, Patricia Wettig and Rob Lowe — she was quickly dissuaded. Last summer, she stepped into the center of another whirlwind when she appeared on a panel before the press with her cast mates and producers to promote the new show. Flockhart did her best to answer the three softball questions lobbed her way, then sat blankly, shoulders drooped, staring into the audience, as the others played the game. By the time it was over, writers and bloggers from across the country were describing the 42-year-old actress as "miserable," "depressed" and "spaced-out."

Flockhart responded not with triage interviews but by disappearing into her work once again. It was only with great reluctance — after the show was a hit and people were marveling at her performance — that she agreed to sit down for her first interview since her awkward appearance.

Certainly, Flockhart has never been a couch-jumper. She is reserved and private, and she didn't recite prepared anecdotes, but seemed quite aware of the tape recorder, at first. As time passed, she became more open and asked many questions, indicating her desire to have a conversation instead of a standard interview.

"I don't know what people expect. I don't know what people want me to do," says Flockhart, who is much more upbeat talking about her son or her TV character than being a TV star. "And if they get disappointed that I don't satisfy something that they're looking for, I don't quite know what that's about. But, for me, I was happy and content to be [at the panel]. I did my job, I went home and I felt like it was all fine."

Then the press accounts hit. Though Flockhart felt the characterization of her behavior at the press conference was "unfair and inaccurate," she says the articles "did not bother me."

But executive producer Ken Olin did feel badly that he had lured Flockhart away from her nest, where she has spent the last half-decade bonding with her son and enjoying her time with Ford and their two dogs, only to have her lambasted on her first public outing.

"Wherever she shows up, for whatever reason, she's such a lightning rod for media and scrutiny and a certain kind of resentment, and I don't think that's always easy for her but she's doing it," Olin said. "She's had to be tough. That hurts her feelings. When you're held up being iconic and you represent things — and for her these are things that [ticked] off a lot of people: the neurotic, man-hungry female that is a setback for intelligent, liberated women — people take shots at you. But it's this character of Ally McBeal that is held up to represent something that she's not."

Olin and Flockhart's co-workers protectively fill in the back story and shadings of personality that she might provide herself if only "approachable celebrity" were a role she wanted to play.

"You can feel that Calista had parents and has memories and isn't reinvented just because she came to L.A.," said "Brothers & Sisters" creator Jon Robin Baitz, who has known her for more than a decade. "So that accident of having been cast as Ally McBeal could have possibly interrupted a very different kind of career and set it on a different course, one that's more public than she ever imagined for herself. I would describe her as a reluctant star, and I mean that sort of in the most magical way: a reluctant princess."

Supporters to the defense

Field sees the vicious cycle in it all. She and Flockhart have grown close playing estranged mother and daughter. Their scenes together, whether they are fighting, making up or giggling like best friends, are among the most memorable of the series, which centers around five adult siblings, their newly widowed mother and the family produce company.

"She and I talked about it because I've had more years in the saddle, so to speak, dealing with the press," Field said. "I think she doesn't feel she does it well. So she comes in feeling like, 'Ugh, I'm going to get beat up by this.' And so it makes her shy. A lot of actors, when they're put up on a stage like that, they become the class clown and will entertain the troops, as I say. But because her personality is such, the press does what it does. And then the more things hurt her, the more she's reluctant to come out and be there. It builds with her."

Baitz, a playwright who became friends with Flockhart in New York, created the Kitty Walker character with her in mind, even though he wasn't sure he could talk her into committing to a television series again. From the start, the Kitty he envisioned was "intelligent, sly, credibly available and mercurial," traits that reminded him of the actress on his wish list.

"Calista has a quality of reserve about her under which is a great, great sense of humor, but she's terribly shy on the surface and doesn't have something that so many actors have," Baitz said. "She doesn't have a performing quality. Acting for her is more intrinsic. It feels more like the place where she goes to be free and find out more about herself rather than the place where she goes to exhibit herself. I think she saves herself for acting in a way."

To hear her describe herself, Flockhart is an introvert who can become extroverted, depending on the company she keeps, namely people she likes and who make her feel safe. She will take anonymity over celebrity every time. But now, five months after "Brothers & Sisters" premiered, all of this talk of how the public perceives her has taken a back seat to how she feels about her job.

"At my real heart, I'm a character actress, and I do crave playing all kinds of different roles," Flockhart said. "I want to play the dark, crazy, alcoholic someday. But the good thing about television is that characters do change. The third episode doesn't have to be like the first, so you have to explore and find things within it. It feels easier for me to do now. It just feels simple and fun and that's when I know I've hooked into something."

The timing was right

Landing Flockhart wasn't easy. The long hours and her meteoric popularity during "Ally" gave Flockhart very little time for herself. She adopted her son during the final season and then devoted herself "to the mom thing" when it was over. Olin and Baitz set out to persuade her to trust them because they knew if they landed her they would get "not just a comedienne or someone that can cry," Olin said. "This is someone who came from an emotional depth and maturity that has size and weight to it."

They got lucky — they called at a pivotal moment for her family.

"Kindergarten, as it turns out, is a huge milestone and I wasn't quite prepared for it," Flockhart says softly, looking into her wine glass. "He's doing great and having a lot of fun. I know it sounds kind of silly, but it's the end of an era. It's the end of that baby being home with you and you have to let go. And it's a wonderful thing, but it wasn't easy. It was emotional."

Knowing that Liam would be away for seven hours a day tempted her to meet with Olin and Baitz. "It was really daunting to her," Olin said. "She is a very committed mother and partner to Harrison. I also think her experience on 'Ally' was exhausting. That much work and the dynamics of that show, it was like talking to someone who had post-traumatic stress syndrome. Every step of the way, she just kept insisting that she wanted to be in an ensemble show."

Promised that she would work only two or three days a week, Flockhart finally agreed to play the family's only Republican member. All seemed to be on track until Steve McPherson, ABC president of prime-time entertainment, decided to re-shoot the pilot, recasting the role of the mother, Nora, from Betty Buckley to Field. With no screener to show off to the press and the exit of an executive producer before the show premiered, "Brothers & Sisters" appeared to be falling apart.

"I didn't much care what people were saying about it, and at times, I agreed, and I would say, 'Yeah, this is a train wreck. This is a mess. This is a disaster and thank God, because I don't want to do it. I get to go home and not work anymore,' " Flockhart says, laughing.

She was only teasing, but when several 15-hour days were strung together to make up for lost time, Flockhart became concerned. In the early episodes, the troubled relationship between Kitty and Nora was a focal point.

"I was constantly going 'Ken, Ken, what is going on? This is crazy. Why am I still here? You've ruined my life.' And he would just say that it was going to get better. We were all so tired, and I don't know if you know this, but Ken lost all of his hair. Seriously. He had plugs put in. It was bizarre."

That, of course, is another joke.

"It would have been very easy, with the kind of scrutiny this show was under early on, for an actor to freak out and ask for more control creatively because so much of their name is on the line and attached to that thing," says executive producer Greg Berlanti ("Everwood"), who was hired to run the show when Marti Noxon left. "Not a single call about that. Her one request is the most humane of all: How can I have more time with my son?"

Last month, during the shooting of a scene in the office of Sen. Robert McAllister (Lowe), Flockhart must have been missing Liam. McAllister, Kitty's boss and now lover, and an extra were tossing a football, and during a break, Flockhart tried to bribe the extra into throwing it at her head so that she could go home. Not that she wasn't enjoying the scene or the opportunity to gently berate Lowe when he missed his cue to throw the football.

"We're having great fun, but Liam is always the priority," she says, minutes before she notices her son's bedtime is approaching. The previous night she missed tucking him in, and when that happens two nights in a row "she gets cranky," warned Olin.

This is a characterization Flockhart can live with. "With a child, I just don't want to give up that much time," she says. "I feel really fortunate that I'm able to make my own decisions about how much I'm going to work. It's an amazing place to be and I'm kind of surprised I'm there. I'm in a place in my life where I'm just really happy." She pauses and deadpans: "Not miserable. Happy."

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/celebrity/la-ca-flockhart18feb18,1,4142895,print.story?coll=la-celebrity-news

fredfa

02-17-07, 10:45 PM

TV Notebook
“American Idol”: Polishing Their Pitch
The Cameras May Be Off, but the Heat Is Still On
By Richard Harrington Washington Post Staff Writer Sunday, February 18, 2007

Finally, television's top-rated series gets to the meat and potatoes: The 12 male semifinalists take the stage Tuesday and the 12 female semifinalists Wednesday in two-hour sessions of "American Idol."

We'll see the contestants strut, sing and sweat on stage as they await possible skewering from the judges. But what we don't see are the arduous preparations that take place behind the scenes as coaches help contestants choose songs and polish performances before they take the stage in front of millions of viewers. The coaches -- part parent, part shrink -- must deal with contestants' fragile egos and their often extreme hopes and fears.

The guys work with associate music director Michael Orland and vocal coach Matt Rohde, the gals with Dorian Holley and vocal coach and arranger Debra Byrd.

Orland and Byrd revealed how a typical week spins by, along with the pressures and challenges faced by the contestants -- some of whom have never sung in public or performed with live musicians.

Day 1:

The day after the results show is the most important and is "the hardest day, absolutely, because it's their music-picking day," Orland said.

Contestants learn the theme of the upcoming show, chosen by executive producers Nigel Lythgoe and Ken Warwick, and get a CD with snippets of 50 to 200 songs that fit in the category. Song selection is critical -- a point stressed week in and week out by judges Simon Cowell, Paula Abdul and Randy Jackson.

The final choice of what to sing, Orland said, falls to the contestants.

"We are technically not allowed to help in the song-picking," Orland said. "However, we can say, 'What did the judges say to you last week? What is it you want to show different?' It's all about the contestant bringing their best and showing a little something different every week -- you don't want to be a one-trick pony."

Each contestant gets an hour to select a song and find a proper, comfortable key. Then the song is edited to fit the 90-second performance slot. The challenge is to make the song sound complete while also showing off the contestant's vocal range and personality.

At that point, music director and bandleader Rickey Minor and associate music director John Beasley are e-mailed MP3 files of the contestants performing their songs. After some fine-tuning -- perhaps changing the key, adding or subtracting a bar, sharpening the beginning or ending -- they score each song and develop the orchestration themselves or delegate it via computer to one of 20 freelancers around the country.

Day 2:

Coaches spend a half-hour with each contestant to "perfect their song," Orland said, including finding ways to keep on pitch from the first notes. Concurrently, the "Idol" band starts rehearsing to prepare for live filming.

Before Minor arrived at the beginning of Season 4, contestants sang to prerecorded music. But that, Orland said, "left no wiggle room for tempo, holding a note longer or holding back for dramatic effect -- the things that happen in a live performance with live energy."

Now a five-piece band accompanies the final 24 contestants; the final 12 perform with a full 22-piece orchestra.

Days 3-4:

The contestants' often-hectic weekends include filming commercials, shopping, sitting for photo shoots and choosing a wardrobe. Though the contestants are urged to rest their voices, the coaches are always available to work on the songs.

Day 5:

Contestants rehearse with the band several times and learn the group number they will perform that week. The coaching teams help contestants shape their songs vocally and emotionally, and try to break some bad habits -- perhaps eyes are focused in the wrong direction or, more often, a song is performed with too many notes or too much volume.

"We constantly fight, constantly ask them to pull it back," Byrd said. "We'll work on it, but when they are under the gun, when the camera's rolling, when the audience is yelling, they'll fall back on that habit -- and whatever bad habits they have -- and just backslide."

But Byrd knows trying to teach or improve technique at this stage probably would hurt or confuse the mostly untrained contestants.

Day 6:

This is the most exhausting day of the week, full of drama and pressure. Contestants sing a song at least three times before showtime: once for sound check, once for camera blocking and lighting, and once for a dress rehearsal in front of an audience. (It's not the same audience that will be there that night, though clips from that performance will be used in the show.) The day ends with the all-important final performance -- the one that counts with millions of viewers.

Day 7:

Results day -- always very emotional -- has a different energy than any other day as the hopefuls learn who is cut from the competition. But the remaining contestants have to get over it immediately and get back to work as the whole grueling process revs up again.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/13/AR2007021301083_pf.html

RussB

02-17-07, 11:41 PM

I haven't seen Jack Cafferty on CNN's "In the Money" lately. During the holidays, I think he was on vacation and the guest hosts would say they were filling in for him. Now, he is no longer on vacation because I see him on "The Situation Room" with Wolf Blitzer, but he is no longer on "In the Money" and he is not even mentioned. I didn't find anything on the Ineternet about this. Does anyone know why is no longer on "In the Money" and if he is going to come back or be replaced?

fredfa

02-17-07, 11:45 PM

I think "Situation Room" is his new gig, RussB. Although the CNN website says he still hosts "In The Money". (But you know how often media websites get updated.)

His very best work was done, IMO, in the early days of "Live at Five" in NYC with (first) Pia Lindstrom, and then Sue Simmons back in the early 1980s.

dad1153

02-18-07, 12:26 AM

Which means Chuck Scarborough probably pulled some strings to get him the hell out of WNBC-TV's local newscasts. Like Bob Barker with 'The Price Is Right' Chuck doesn't like it when the camera and attention aren't centered on him and longtime co-anchor Sue Simmons. And Cafferty's best performance sadly isn't on tape when he ran a biker off and then fled the scene of the accident: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Cafferty :rolleyes:

02-18-07, 12:45 AM

"Zenith's 'Sunshine Picture Tube'"...Priceless!

fredfa

02-18-07, 02:19 AM

Welcome to "Hot Off The Press", EJ. :)

Isn't it kinda fun to think that a generation or two from now all the electronic toys we think are so state of the art will be considered with the same bemused attitude we now think of those Zenith devices of the 50s, 60s, and 70s?

fredfa

02-18-07, 02:37 AM

The Business of Television
NFL thrown for a loss by cable ops
League's net still can't get carriage deals
(But the game is not over yet)
By John Dempsey Variety

The National Football League so dominates the sports-media universe that it's big news when the NFL gets roughed up in financial negotiations.

The sports world is still buzzing over the fact that the three-year-old NFL Network still can't get carriage deals with Time Warner Cable, Charter and Cablevision, three of the major operators who continue to shun the network.

The NFL Network thought it would gain a vital advantage and pull those three operators to the bargaining table by convincing the league's owners to carve out -- for exclusive coverage -- eight live regular-season NFL games in 2006-07 for the first time.

The league further ramped up the pressure by joining with DirecTV in a multimillion-dollar ad campaign targeted at cities where the nay-saying operators own cable systems.

The upshot: The NFL got thrown for a loss. Football season is over, and no deals are in the offing with TW, Charter or Cablevision.

The net runs plenty of NFL programming in the off-season -- highlighted by the draft in April and training camp in summer -- but it holds its biggest bargaining power in November and December.

"I'd call it a miscalculation by the league," says Kevin O'Malley, TV-sports consultant and former top exec at Turner Sports, referring to the fact the NFL could have harvested $400 million a year or so for the eight games by putting them up for bid to such football-hungry cable networks as TNT and Versus.

O'Malley says he thinks that if the ops continue to hold out through 2007, "the NFL could put the eight games back into the marketplace and get substantial license fees for them."

But Chris Bevilacqua, a partner in SPC Worldwide, a sports-marketing operation, says he's convinced the NFL Network will keep the games through 2011, the expiration year of the contract, and beyond.

"Signing up 40 million subscribers in just three years is an incredible achievement for the NFL Network," Bevilacqua says.

But the most widely circulated cable networks average 90 million; it's the future growth of the NFL Network that its president, Steve Bornstein, wants to secure.

The cable-op holdouts are insisting they be allowed to pitchfork the NFL Network to the Siberia of a digital sports tier, where subscribers would have to pony up extra dollars every month. Since those tiers average less than 10% of a cable system's subscriber base, the NFL Network is holding the line, fearful that its chances of reaching critical mass on these systems would be permanently hobbled.

The NFL Network can certainly afford to be patient. It's on the way to chalking up a projected $400 million in license fees from cable operators in 2007, a giant leap over the $173 million it pocketed last year, according to Kagan Research.

The ballooning growth reflects the advent of the eight NFL primetime games, which began on Thanksgiving night; the NFL had the foresight to write a clause into the contract with cable ops that if the network secured live NFL games, subscriber fees on the average system would rocket from 34¢ a month to nearly 80¢.

And advertising revenues are expected to climb from $190 million in 2006 to $260 million this year.

The NFL Network also loves to tweak the cable-op holdouts by pointing out that its two biggest distributors, Comcast and DirecTV, each added far more new subscribers in the fourth quarter of 2006 than those forecast by the most optimistic analysts -- 613,000 digital subs for Comcast and 275,000 for DirecTV.

"It may take two or three years," says Bob Gutkowski, CEO of Sports Marketing Group Intl., "but as digital penetration keeps shooting up, the cable-operator deals for NFL Network will eventually get made."

Or, as David Carter, a partner in the L.A.-based Sports Business Group, puts it: "Digital cable is growing so fast that what looks like Siberia today might morph into a bustling New York City over the next few years, turning the NFL Network into an asset worth billions of dollars."

http://www.variety.com/index.asp?layout=print_story&articleid=VR1117959731&categoryid=14

fredfa

02-18-07, 11:31 AM

Critic’s Notebook
Indefinite hiatus
By Doug Elfman Chicago Sun-Times Television Critic February 18, 2007

Of all the TV shows that debuted in the fall, "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip" was the best bet to be a critics' darling and a hit. It was created by the makers of "The West Wing." Surely enough "West Wing" fans would give it the ratings to stay on the air.

But more viewers abandon it every week, and after Monday's episode NBC is sending it on indefinite hiatus.

What went wrong with "Studio 60"? The sex, the lack of sex, and the long and drawn-out relationships between potential couples are what's killing this show.

Despite the "West Wing" credentials of lead writer Aaron Sorkin and director Thomas Schlamme, "Studio 60" has been drawing the most typical kinds of TV couple conflicts.

A few weeks ago, two characters -- Matt (Matthew Perry) and Harriet (Sarah Paulson) -- were going through their 14th episode of trying to mend a broken romantic relationship. But Harriet kept finding artificial reasons to stay angry with Matt.

The show introduced a secondary, unrequited relationship between Jordan (Amanda Peet) and Danny (Bradley Whitford). They hooked up two weeks ago, but only after they got stuck on the roof of the "Studio 60" building for two episodes -- two! -- while another story line took two episodes -- two! -- to deal with a loose snake in the building.

If those two relationships haven't been belabored enough, a third was started between a guy who lied about having to cancel a date with a woman. He didn't have to lie; he canceled because of a work obligation. This caused severely idiotic arguments between him and her.

It doesn't help "Studio 60" that's it's an unfunny drama about the inner workings of a a TV sketch-comedy show akin to "Saturday Night Live."

D.L. Hughley, a comedian and actor who plays a sketch performer on the show, says working with "Studio's" happy cast is a joy. But he acknowledges the show's seriousness may puzzle potential viewers.

"When you say 'drama,' it automatically has a connotation that it's gonna be heavy," he says. "We're doing a show about comedy. That confuses people.

"What I like about '30 Rock' [the NBC comedy about an "SNL"-type show] is it's just a whimsical, fun thing people respond to."

Last week, "30 Rock" star Tina Fey took a jab at "Studio 60," comparing it to the outfit she wore at the Writers Guild Awards. "I hear Aaron Sorkin is in Los Angeles," she said, "wearing the same dress -- but longer, and not funny."

Hughley says if "Studio 60" survives, it will do so by ignoring expectations of contradictory critics -- some named it a top show of 2006; Entertainment Weekly named it the worst of the year.

"I became a funnier comic when I stopped believing [audience members] had to laugh," Hughley says. "It's gonna be incumbent upon us to do a show we believe in, and take off all the expectations and all the extra bull----, and do what we think is great."

It must be frustrating for the actors to be in this situation, working for the esteemed Sorkin on a show that should be better and better-watched. (Although it is getting better; last week's couples-centric episode was the season's best.)

Peet portrays a network TV executive, with a likable intensity, and she credits Sorkin for making her character real-ish.

"He's so good at avoiding cliches," Peet says. "Every time you think she's going to be the power woman, or the bitchy femme fatale ... it never [goes that way]. Whenever it leans that way," he bends in a different direction.

"If I could stay with Aaron Sorkin for the rest of my days, I'd be a happy camper," Peet says.

But odds are low "Studio 60" will weather a hiatus. Starting Feb. 26, NBC will fill the 10 PM ET/PT Monday slot with "The Black Donnellys," another critically notable series.

The impressionist

It was partly by default that Sarah Paulson earned the "Studio 60" part of Harriet Hayes, the Christian-centric sketch comedian. At tryouts, the candidates were supposed to do impressions, but "none of the other actresses did it," Paulson says.

"I took out my bobby pins and started to imitate Juliette Lewis in my audition. And I could see them sort of recoil in their chairs after I took out a prop, [as if] they thought, 'Oh gosh, she's gonna do an impression of her Aunt Fern. ... That's not gonna be funny.'"

Paulson, 32, is the surprise standout in NBC's non-hit. She was nominated for best supporting actress at this year's Golden Globes.

At a moment's notice, Paulson can pretend-voice Juliette Lewis, Annette Bening, Julia Roberts and a dolphin, among others.

"I do a lot of women. I don't do a lot of men," she says.

What makes Paulson's work special isn't just mimicry skills, but her human portrayal of Harriett as a strong-willed woman who is no stereotype. Despite a part that's not always well written, she's kept relationship-conflicted Harriett spiritually likable, and neither whiny nor overbearing.

"People are interested in seeing a Christian woman who can have a martini and talk about premarital sex. She doesn't think she's going to hell," Paulson says. (This is acting for Paulson: "I'm not religious, but I'm not not-religious. I don't go to church.")

They were ballyhooed, then bombed

The bigger they are, they faster they fall. "Studio 60" isn't the first TV show to start out with critical acclaim or network hype only to fall quickly by the wayside. Here's a recent look back at a few other huge losers:

• Just this fall, CBS' "Smith" starred Ray Liotta, Virginia Madsen, Simon Baker and Amy Smart in a series whose first episode felt like a riveting, character-based action movie about thieves. But it quickly started to go downhill. It couldn't retain viewers and it was axed in a few short weeks.

• "Commander in Chief" was the "Studio 60" of 2005. With Geena Davis starring as the U.S. president and Donald Sutherland portraying a crafty Republican senator, the drama took off like a rocket, critically and popularly. Davis won an Emmy, even. But viewers dropped off en masse after ABC forced out creator Rod Lurie for delivering scripts late. Replacement producer Steven Bochco ruined the feel of the series, and it was dead within the first season.

• Fox's "Wonderfalls" was compared favorably to CBS' "Joan of Arcadia," which managed to last two seasons. It was about a young woman who helped people after talking with animated objects, like stuffed bears. Fox dumped it after a few weeks, despite a fan-generated save-"Wonderfalls" campaign.

• In 2003, "Skin" offered Ron Silver as a porn producer in this soapy "Romeo and Juliet" drama in the vein of "The O.C." A few critics liked its sleek focus on porn and politics, but after much advertising, Fox pulled the plug after less than handful of installments.

• "The Fugitive" of 2000 was fast-paced, patterned like the movie and not like the '60s series. The CBS drama starred Tim Daly as Dr. Richard Kimble. It died. And last fall, Daly starred in "The Nine," yet another drama that was acclaimed (though I don't know why) but also was put on hiatus. Daly can't catch a break in the 2000s.

• Fox had the guts to put on "Profit," a quick-cult show about a villainous businessman, but cut the 1996 series when it couldn't cut it in the ratings chase. "Profit" had a budding star on its hands: Adrian Pasdar, later Natalie Maines' husband and now flying man Nathan in "Heroes."

http://www.suntimes.com/entertainment/elfman/261693,SHO-Sunday-elf18.articleprint

fredfa

02-18-07, 11:50 AM

TV Sports
Michael Irvin, ESPN part ways
By Ray Buck McClatchy Newspapers; (Charlotte Observer Staff writer Clarence Hill contributed to this report.) February 18, 2007

Fort Worth, Texas - Michael Irvin has lost his ESPN gig, barely two weeks after being elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

The Cowboys' all-time leading receiver spent four years as an NFL studio analyst for the all-sports network.

ESPN decided Friday "as part of an annual evaluation" not to exercise an option in Irvin's contract, it was confirmed Saturday.

"Michael Irvin will not be returning to ESPN," said network spokesman Bill Hofheimer.

"We thank him for his contributions and wish him well."

"It's fine," Irvin said Saturday night. "These are exciting times for me and my family.

"There are a lot of opportunities to explore."

Leaving ESPN is not his wish; however, Irvin will leave taking the high road.

"I truly appreciate what ESPN allowed me to do, but it was time to move on," Irvin said. "I loved working with those guys ... but I feel blessed enough to do other things."

Controversy has surrounded Irvin twice in the past 15 months.

During a November 2005 traffic stop in Plano, he was arrested on a misdemeanor charge when a routine search turned up a drug pipe inside his car.

Irvin claimed the pipe belonged to a close friend whom he had been trying to help kick an addiction.

ESPN suspended Irvin for one week for "not divulging" information about his arrest to the network. ESPN, though, gave him a one-year contract with a three-year option after the incident.

This past November, Irvin joked on the air that Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo's athletic ability must be the result of some African-American heritage.

Irvin later apologized for being "inappropriate and insensitive."

Irvin's on-camera persona has grown over the years. He is known for his infectious laugh, his flashy wardrobe and his unflinching opinions.

For the past two seasons, he appeared twice a week on ESPN NFL pregame shows, Sunday morning and Monday night.

http://www.charlotte.com/mld/charlotte/sports/football/nfl/carolina_panthers/16724756.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp

JMCecil

02-18-07, 12:26 PM

fredfa

02-18-07, 01:39 PM

Saturday’s fast national over night prime-time ratings have been posted near the top of Ratings News the second post in this thread.

fredfa

02-18-07, 02:47 PM

Critic’s Notebook
O.C.' runs out of ideas
and network pulls the plug
By Charlie McCollum San Jose Mercury News Feb. 18, 2007

Back in January 2006, there was a moment that captured the spectacular fall of ``The O.C.''

The Fox network was throwing a big party at Citizen Smith, a then new-and-hot club in Hollywood. Some of the young stars of ``The O.C'' were there. At previous network parties, the same cast members had been swamped by reporters, photographers, hangers-on and even actors from other shows, all vying for a little attention and a few words.

But that night, the ``O.C.'' actors sat alone as the spotlight shifted from them to Kiefer Sutherland from ``24'' and the judges from ``American Idol.'' Being mobbed at these parties is probably no fun, but being ignored is far worse.

Now, 13 months later, ``The O.C.'' is about to come to an end. After four seasons and 92 episodes, its last episode, ``The End's Not Near, It's Here,'' will be shown Thursday (9 p.m., Chs. 2, 35), attended by none of the glitz, glamour and pop of the show's early days on the air.

Started out strong

When ``The O.C.,'' set in the posh Orange County town of Newport Beach, first hit the airwaves in August 2003, it had an immediate impact.

``We were really fortunate that we were one of those shows that had a really clear sense of ourselves right out of the gate,'' says its creator, Josh Schwartz. ``We had the benefit of being successful right off the bat and connecting almost immediately. We had that run of seven episodes in the summer, and it just felt like we were in the groove right away.''

It had debuted with an audience of 7.5 million and eventually rose to more than 10 million a week. Within a few episodes, the cast was on the cover of every celebrity magazine and had become a staple of ``Access Hollywood'' and ``Entertainment Tonight.''

By the end of its first season, it had made some of its catchphrases (``welcome to the O.C., bitch'') part of the pop culture lexicon, introduced Chrismukkah (a mix of Christmas and Hanukkah), revived the teen soap opera format, put emo music (Death Cab for Cutie, etc.) on the charts and turned comic book geeks into hot hunks.

``The O.C.'' also specialized in ironic cool in its early days, with some sparkling dialogue that managed to meld knowing pop references, screwball comedy pacing and shrewd observations of the young and the restless.

``Of course, I'm screwed up,'' said the ever-troubled Marissa Cooper (Mischa Barton) in one episode. ``I'm the daughter of a thief and a slut.''

Even the parents, normally marginalized in teen soaps, were the coolest thing in the room. Said Kirsten Cohen, mother of geek hunk Seth, in one memorable holiday episode: ``Don't you judge me. I have a family that won't let me cook for Thanksgiving dinner, I have a father who is using me for my candied yams, and we are out of merlot!''

So why, in a relatively brief period of time, did ``The O.C.'' fall off the pop culture radar and see its audience drop to less than 4 million?

``It's one of those things that you can probably study in television classes across the country for years. I'm going to start my own syllabus,'' says Schwartz, a TV wunderkind who created the show at age 26 and became the youngest executive producer in network history.

``There are a lot of factors that contribute to this kind of thing. Certainly, we were playing to an audience that was younger and fickle. When you hit the nerve with the speed and size that we hit it, it's hard to sustain.''

Burning up story line

While there's no question ``The O.C.'' was fragile culturally, there's also no question that the storytelling went awry rather quickly even by the standards of teen soaps.

``We burned through a lot of story'' in the first season, Schwartz admits. ``We wanted to put it all out there on screen.''

But that left the writers repeating themselves -- by halfway through Season 2, Seth Cohen (Adam Brody) and Summer Roberts (Rachel Bilson) had broken up, reunited and broken up again. Bad-boy-turned-good Ryan Atwood (Benjamin McKenzie) was with Marissa, then not with Marissa and then back with Marissa. Newport Beach was getting pretty claustrophobic and insular.

``At some point, you're going to have feelings about doing the same thing over and over again,'' said McKenzie in an Entertainment Weekly interview. ``Around the third season, we reached a slow point, and that was hard.''

That left Schwartz struggling to give ``The O.C.'' a creative scramble that reached its zenith when angst-ridden Marissa was killed off at the end of Season 3.

Schwartz insists, however, that the biggest factor in the show's demise was the way it was scheduled by Fox.

``In the end, it's really a question of scheduling, more than any other factor,'' he says. ``I've been upfront about creative issues, the fickleness of the audience. But at the end of the day, to write about the audience and not write about the scheduling is not telling the story. With every time slot move, there's concrete, definitive proof of audience loss.''

``The O.C.'' was bounced all over the schedule, ending up on Thursdays this season against the toughest competition of the week: ``CSI'' and ``Grey's Anatomy,'' the two most-watched dramas on TV.

``When the show premiered this season, I had a pretty good idea the next morning that we'd only be doing 16 episodes'' and ending the show's run, says Schwartz, who has two shows in development for next season.

``We certainly did go into this season pretty realistic about the situation. It was actually rather freeing, rather liberating.''

The show has had its moments this season -- a relationship involving Ryan and Taylor Townsend (Autumn Reeser), a kind of anti-Marissa, has been particularly popular with the remaining fans -- but that's done little to boost viewership. Earlier this month, ``The O.C.'' hit a low point when its audience crashed to 3.6 million.

Not made for network

In the end, perhaps ``The O.C.'' was one of those network shows that would have better off on cable, with a limited number of episodes each season. The wicked pace that Schwartz and the series set in the first season simply couldn't be maintained, and the audience simply moved along to the Next Big Thing.

Even Schwartz admits the series might have had a very short built-in shelf life: ``I don't know that shows like this are necessarily designed to run forever, but just to be a blast while they're on.''

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/entertainment/television/16727656.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp

VisionOn

02-18-07, 04:33 PM

Critic’s Notebook
Indefinite hiatus
By Doug Elfman Chicago Sun-Times Television Critic February 18, 2007

It doesn't help "Studio 60" that's it's an unfunny drama about the inner workings of a a TV sketch-comedy show akin to "Saturday Night Live."

D.L. Hughley, a comedian and actor who plays a sketch performer on the show, says working with "Studio's" happy cast is a joy. But he acknowledges the show's seriousness may puzzle potential viewers.

"When you say 'drama,' it automatically has a connotation that it's gonna be heavy," he says. "We're doing a show about comedy. That confuses people.

wait a second ... I thought it's already been decided that it's a romantic comedy?

Doh! :rolleyes:

VisionOn

02-18-07, 04:39 PM

Critic’s Notebook
Why so low?
“Studio 60", a ‘Sure’ hit struggles to find viewers
By Joanne Weintraub Milwaukee Journal Sentinel TV critic

Starting Feb. 26, the show goes on hiatus for an indefinite period to make room for a midseason starter, "The Black Donnellys," a drama from Oscar winner Paul Haggis ("Crash," "Million Dollar Baby").

when I first saw the preview for Donnelly's I was unaware that is was by Paul Haggis. My first thought while I was watching it was "this reminds me of EZ Streets." and I was unaware of the connection.

I thought EZ Streets was an excellent show, but if Donnelly's can't cash in on Haggis's new found fame (even if Donnelly's is a great show) Studio 60 could be back on the air pretty quickly.

steverobertson

02-18-07, 04:51 PM

Thank God. I can't stand that loud mouth self centered butt head. They let him dominate the conversatin on that show and I was starting to skip it because of him. As far as I'm concerned he is a poster child for the athletes that are ruining sports. I hope one of these days these guys figure out that they are NOT entertainers. The entertainment comes from them performing well as athletes.

He belongs in the hall of shame, not fame.

</rant>

Very well put it got to the point I wouldn't watch ESPN'S show because of him. He is a total jack ass in my book

fredfa

02-18-07, 07:45 PM

wait a second ... I thought it's already been decided that it's a romantic comedy?

Doh! :rolleyes:

I guess it is a major problem when the actors seem confused about what the show is supposed to be. No wonder the viewers can't figure it out.

fredfa

02-18-07, 07:59 PM

Critic’s Notebook
The serial killed the latest TV stars
Mark McGuire Albany Times Union staff writer Sunday, February 18, 2007

Soon, as in next season, it will be OK to miss your new favorite show for a week or two.

Critics watch a lot of television. Not a complaint, just a fact. After you sit through a couple dozen-hundred identical sitcoms or cop procedurals, you get bored. Really bored. Jim Belushi bored. You want to be entertained. More than that, you want to be challenged.

Make me think. Lay waste to the tired cliche that TV is merely the idiot box.

The serialized drama -- where intersecting and continuing story lines build on a weekly basis, requiring viewers to not miss an episode -- was supposed to be the cure. Think "Lost," or "24." (Then again, it's best NOT to think during "24." Just hold on, enjoy the rush and ignore the implausibilities.)

The problem, the disconnect, is that not everyone who watches TV wants to be challenged.

You work hard all day, get home, cook and/or do the dishes, help the kids with homework and get them off to bed. There's a lot to be said for an hour or two of mindless entertainment that wants to tax you as much as a politician up for re-election.

In many ways, I'm no different. I can budget only so much time to watch TV shows. With VOD, DVDs, the DVR, new, old and bad movies, sports, video poker (never for cash; I'd be wiped out in four days), the Internet, NFL mock drafts and -- I feel like I'm forgetting something ... oh, yeah, my family -- time becomes an impenetrable roadblock to keeping up on the intricacies of serials that require weekly attention. I also don't like the guilt associated with missing a show where every episode is crucial. (Can I go on the record now and apologize for not watching "Friday Night Lights" more? My bad.)

I can watch "CSI" or "Starship Troopers" without the mandate that I watched last week, or will next week. Besides, I know "Troopers" by heart; I'm one ape who doesn't want to live forever. Then again, if I did, I might actually get caught up on my TV.

In any given year, you can find that show or two that breaks out, the one that's unique and daring and compels you to find the time week after week. These shows run counter to the conventional wisdom that rules television, yet in a way confirms it: TV follows what is successful, until it isn't. Then it chases the one show that shatters convention; the ensuing flock of so many sea gulls suddenly creates the new norm.

So it went with the serials -- dramas and even comedies with continuing story lines that became all the rage last fall. With hits like "24" and "Lost," networks paraded a series of challenging shows that mandated viewers tune in each week, keep up with characters and follow crisscrossing and often purposely muddled story lines. The stand-alone episodes model of "Law & Order" became considered hackneyed.

The problem? Everybody hit on this great idea all at once. The ensuing train wreck was envisioned as far back as last summer: A lot of these good shows are going to receive quick, ignoble deaths by ratings, I wrote.

What, you don't remember "Big Day"? Or "Vanished"? "Runaway"? Anybody?

Yes, "Heroes" hit big time. (As of this writing, I'm two weeks behind in my viewing.) "Jericho," which seems to have been off the air since 1989 (but returned this past week at 9 p.m. Wednesdays on WRGB Ch. 6), is another freshman serial that has succeeded thus far. But these are the exceptions to the exception that became the rule. (Wait ... no, that's right.)

Now it appears the serialized drama trend is over after little more than a year.

February is sweeps, when the networks pay close attention to ratings in order to determine ad rates -- and potentially what shows get the ax in the spring, or next week. It's also pilot season, the time when the networks start ordering first episodes of shows that may or may not make the fall schedule.

According to Variety, many of these shows in development will go the safer route. There is a big number of familiar remakes in play, including:

"Mr. and Mrs. Smith" (the Brad Pitt-Angelina Jolie film, ABC); "Marlowe" (based on the detective once played by Humphrey Bogart, ABC); and "The Bionic Woman" (NBC). There are also efforts at re-creating a couple of British series for American TV; hey, it worked for "All in the Family" and "The Office."

Many of these pilots will never make it to air. Many you will never watch. But many of the shows you do end up seeing won't demand too much of you. Good TV is challenging, but challenging TV may be too much of a good thing.

http://timesunion.com/AspStories/storyprint.asp?StoryID=563782

fredfa

02-18-07, 08:16 PM

TV on DVD Notebook
Heeere’s Johnny, Not Quite Fully Formed
By David Itzkoff The New York Times February 18, 2007

It is a television moment almost no one has seen in more than half a century: On the evening of June 30, 1955, an eager 29-year-old comedian emerged from behind a curtain and onto a CBS stage in Hollywood, propelled by coincidence and good timing into the starring role of his first prime-time series. Just before he stepped forward to meet his audience — each strand of his close-cropped haircut perfectly in place, his handkerchief neatly folded into his left breast pocket, his frame so thin that a round of applause could bowl him over — the untested host paused visibly, uncertain perhaps if he was about to encounter his destiny or just another dead end in his struggling career.

With similar ambivalence an announcer delivered an introduction written by the comic himself: “And here’s the young man who has to account for this half-hour — Johnny Carson!”

Less than a year later “The Johnny Carson Show,” a weekly live comedy and variety series, would be canceled, and its host would not get another crack at a national, post-dinnertime viewership for six years. Carson came to view this 39-episode series as a kind of instructive failure, an opinion he held right up until his death in January 2005.

Yet to Joanne Carson, the second of Carson’s four wives, the rare films are much more: they are documents of a nascent but remarkably poised talent, as well as a memento of Carson’s courtship of her in the early 1960s and a portent of how their relationship would ultimately break apart. And on Tuesday Shout Factory is releasing a DVD of 10 of the show’s episodes, kinescopes of which she kept after the couple’s divorce in 1972.

“This is a part of him that nobody knows about but everyone will appreciate,” Ms. Carson, a slender, sprightly woman of 75, said over tea at her home in the Bel-Air section of Los Angeles. “The American public saw Johnny as a good and decent man, a little boy from the Midwest who never completely grew up, and I want them to know they were right.”

Carson was not as enthusiastic about his own prospects when he and his wife-to-be, then known by her maiden name, Joanne Copeland, first met in New York in 1960. In the preceding years Carson had moved from Omaha to Los Angeles, where a pair of locally broadcast series, “Carson’s Corner” and “Carson’s Cellar,” had earned him the attention of Hollywood’s leading comedians and a writing position on “The Red Skelton Show.” When Skelton found himself unable to be host of his show one night in 1954 (after rehearsing with a breakaway door that failed to live up to its name), Carson was chosen to stand in.

The surprise guest shot had led to his own show, but it was short-lived. Now he was living in Manhattan, separated from his first wife, Joan, sharing custody of their three children and reduced to serving as host of an afternoon quiz show, “Who Do You Trust?” (originally called “Do You Trust Your Wife?”).

At the time Miss Copeland, an actress and model who was host of her own prime-time game show, “Video Village,” had little interest in being introduced to the dapper young comic her father had met at Eddie Condon’s jazz club. “I said, ‘He’s daytime on ABC?’ ” Ms. Carson recalled. “‘I work for CBS. I don’t associate with people on daytime TV.’ ”

But she agreed to a first date (chaperoned by her father), and to many others that would traditionally end with her at Carson’s Sutton Place apartment, watching his kinescopes of “The Johnny Carson Show.” Gradually she found herself attracted to the star of those shows and the earliest, purest expressions of his experimental, offbeat wit: a parody of “Dragnet” set in the age of Alexander the Great; a skit that finds Carson married to a female matador who makes him dress like a bull, longhorns and all.

“Little by little I saw them all,” Ms. Carson said, “and I promise you, I fell in love with him over these.”

Soon the two were inseparable. She would lend her aptitude for interior design to her future husband, who was too painfully shy even to set foot in a department store. “I think he needed a couple of shots to get him into the elevator at Bloomingdale’s,” she said.

And each time Carson arrived in his MG sports car to pick her up for a date, she would invariably present him with some home furnishing from her own apartment. When she showed up for one rendezvous toting an ironing board, Ms. Carson said, “he put it gingerly, precariously, in the back seat, and said, ‘Why do I have the feeling you’re moving in on me?’ ”

In return Carson consulted with her on the most momentous decision of his career. In 1962 he sat (her) down at a restaurant and told her he had been asked to become the permanent host of “Tonight.” He had been offered the chair at least once before — while Jack Paar was still sitting in it — but now Paar had quit, and the job was Carson’s if he wanted it.

Ms. Carson encouraged him, but he was hesitant. “He said, ‘It frightens me to take it, because I think I might lose you,’ ” she recalled. “I said: ‘Are you crazy? You couldn’t lose me if you tried.’ ”

He took over “Tonight,” and in 1963 the couple married. And while she made a handful of appearances on her husband’s earliest episodes, she quickly came to resent the unofficial role she was forced to play as a conduit between Carson and anyone on his staff who wanted his attention. “I took the brunt of everything,” Ms. Carson said, “because talent like that needs to be protected. You just can’t let it loose on the street.”

In equal measure she learned to disdain New York high society, though she forged a lasting friendship with Truman Capote. At their first encounter, Ms. Carson recalled, “He took me by the arm and said the most deadly thing in the world to me: ‘Tell me all about yourself.’ ”

By the early 1970s Ms. Carson was depressed and frequently exhausted — hypothyroidism and hypoglycemia would later be diagnosed — and her marriage to Carson was failing. When the two separated in 1971, he allowed her to keep the “Johnny Carson Show” kinescopes, knowing that she loved the films and that the deal would make good fodder for his monologues. “After our divorce he said, ‘She left me with a hassock and a hair net,’ ” Ms. Carson said. “I’m going to remember that forever.”

Today Ms. Carson lives in the same ranch-style house she moved into upon returning to her native Los Angeles, furnished over the years with plants, trees and photographs of the many actors she has befriended in her life, including Roddy McDowall and Russell Crowe. After a stint as host of a syndicated health-and-fitness talk show, “Joanne Carson’s V.I.P.’s,” she earned a master’s degree in psychology and a Ph.D. in nutritional biochemistry and physiology.

She also became a close confidante of Capote, who frequently lived at her home in the 1970s and ’80s and died there in 1984. Ms. Carson has since turned his bedroom into a dressing room, but his writing room remains largely intact, still decorated with framed preserved butterflies, a poster for the Polish publication of “The Grass Harp” and his Emmy citation for a 1966 television adaptation of “A Christmas Memory.”

“When he passed, he said: ‘I don’t belong to the public anymore. It’s over and out, goodbye,’ ” Ms. Carson recalled.

Recently, while sorting through some of Capote’s possessions in preparation for an auction held last November, Ms. Carson rediscovered the kinescopes, which she had stowed in a wine closet. Almost immediately the few people with whom she shared the films recognized their historical significance, and not simply because their containers still bore faint traces of Mr. Carson’s handwriting.

“What you see is Johnny perfecting the craft that would serve him well later,” said Robert S. Bader, a television historian and the producer of the “Johnny Carson Show” DVD. Since most videotapes of Mr. Carson’s earliest “Tonight” broadcasts were lost — NBC recorded over them, as was standard practice — the “Johnny Carson Show” films are perhaps the only opportunity to watch him develop a performance style that was still rough in places. “By the time we catch Johnny on the ‘Tonight’ shows that survived from the ’70s, it’s fully grown,” Mr. Bader said. “It’s there.”

Yet Carson spent the rest of his life regarding the experience as a disappointment. “The whole thing was like a show done on probation,” said Bill Zehme, the author of a forthcoming biography, “Carson the Magnificent,” who conducted one of the last major interviews with Carson. “He had such high hopes for it, and he thought of it as a bomb, just a total mess.”

Ms. Carson estimated that she saw her former husband roughly four times between their divorce and his death from emphysema, though she said she continued to speak with him occasionally by phone. No public funeral or memorial was held for him, but “if I’d been asked, I wouldn’t have gone,” she said. “That was another part of his life that I didn’t want to be part of.”

She did, however, spend many months grieving privately for the man she said “validated my outrageousness,” just as Capote had. “They were absolutely bookends,” she said. “Between the two of them my life was complete.”

And yet Ms. Carson continues to find completeness in her life, even in the absence of their memorable, defining personalities. “Part of evolving is moving on,” she said, “ and I have that ability. Which I think is what keeps me young and keeps my attitude young. I’m very — as Truman would say — au courant.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/18/arts/television/18itzk.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&pagewanted=print

dad1153

02-18-07, 08:33 PM

TV on DVD Notebook
Heeere’s Johnny, Not Quite Fully Formed
By David Itzkoff The New York Times February 18, 2007

Yet to Joanne Carson, the second of Carson’s four wives, the rare films are much more: they are documents of a nascent but remarkably poised talent, as well as a memento of Carson’s courtship of her in the early 1960s and a portent of how their relationship would ultimately break apart. And on Tuesday Shout Factory is releasing a DVD of 10 of the show’s episodes, kinescopes of which she kept after the couple’s divorce in 1972.

Recently, while sorting through some of Capote’s possessions in preparation for an auction held last November, Ms. Carson rediscovered the kinescopes, which she had stowed in a wine closet. Almost immediately the few people with whom she shared the films recognized their historical significance, and not simply because their containers still bore faint traces of Mr. Carson’s handwriting.

Thanks for the heads-up. I had no idea these were coming on Tuesday. Between this and their 'Tomorrow Show' and 'Dick Cavett' DVD Box Sets Shout Factory is shaping up as one of my favorite boutique DVD publishers. Now if only Shout got around to releasing the rarely-seen David Letterman morning show on NBC from 1980 I'd die a happy man! :)

123HDTV

02-18-07, 08:38 PM

Won't happen -- at least with current laws. Sports events which have been transmitted via satellite must be offered to all carriers.

There's the key transmitted by satellite. If Liberty decides to fiber the broadcast directly to DirecTV they would be legally entitled to do so. It would be no different than the situation in Philly and San Diego. The difference is that you'd be receiving via satellite. The ruling states anything uplinked by satellite should be available to all.

Sorry for the late post. I've been out of town all week.

fredfa

02-18-07, 08:46 PM

But as I understand it, once it is delivered by satellite, you can't go back. So I beliueve the Braves coulodn't move from allowing all to have their games to a specific kind of carrier.

The law was written (apparently specifically) to protect the Comcast Philadelphia RSN, and Cox just joined the party later.

(And welcome back.)

123HDTV

02-18-07, 09:00 PM

But as I understand it, once it is delivered by satellite, you can't go back. So I beliueve the Braves coulodn't move from allowing all to have their games to a specific kind of carrier.

Ahh thank you did not know the can't go back part. Another nugget of info learned from this thread. As always I bow to thee. :)

(And welcome back.)

It's incredibly good to be back. Working weeks gone are always loooong :)

Kracko

02-18-07, 09:21 PM

Our kids go to school with Tommy's. I've asked my wife to ask if she runs into him or his wife over the next few days about this and I'll let the board know what she finds out.

So my wife ran into Tommy and discussed Studio 60 with him. She said he told her that he doesn't think it's coming back. He wasn't definative but that it doesn't look good.

fredfa

02-18-07, 09:21 PM

I just give information as I believe it to be.....There are no guarantees!

But thanks for the very kind words!

fredfa

02-18-07, 09:23 PM

Thanks for the heads-up. I had no idea these were coming on Tuesday. Between this and their 'Tomorrow Show' and 'Dick Cavett' DVD Box Sets Shout Factory is shaping up as one of my favorite boutique DVD publishers. Now if only Shout got around to releasing the rarely-seen David Letterman morning show on NBC from 1980 I'd die a happy man! :)

Since you brought up Tom Snyder, I remember posting a story about two years ago that he was suffering from leukemia.

Since then his website has gone dark http://www.colortini.com/ and I haven't heard anything from or about him.

Does anyone have an update -- hopefully a positive update -- on Tom Snyder?

DoubleDAZ

02-18-07, 09:36 PM

Fred,

How do you even have time to notice that someone hasn't posted for 3 weeks?

fredfa

02-18-07, 09:51 PM

Thanks for the news, Kracko -- disappointing (though not unexpected) -- as it is.

fredfa

02-18-07, 09:52 PM

Usually I have a pretty good memory about when people post, Dave. But in this case it was even easier -- 123HDTV told us he had been gone a while. :)

DoubleDAZ

02-18-07, 10:04 PM

Fred,

I read that and it went right over my head. :)

02-18-07, 10:10 PM

Thank you for the welcome, fredfa! Even though I have been a member of this forum since 1999, it wasn't until several months ago that I started reading this thread.

This single thread is more informative than most entire sites. A big thank you to everyone who contributes their time and effort!

EJ

fredfa

02-18-07, 10:18 PM

Fee free to join the contributors, EJ -- the more the merrier! :)

dad1153

02-18-07, 10:42 PM

Since you brought up Tom Snyder, I remember posting a story about two years ago that he was suffering from leukemia.

Does anyone have an update -- hopefully a positive update -- on Tom Snyder?

In June 2006, Tom sold his Benedict Canyon home of almost 30 years and headed to Tiburon, in Northern California, where he has a second home. Snyder sold the Benedict Canyon house for $1.7 million. It had four bedrooms and four bathrooms in nearly 3,000 square feet. The home, built in 1951, also had a pool and canyon views.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Snyder

I love Tom Snyder! When I came to the States in 1989 and became a huge fan of David Letterman's NBC late night show I started doing library research (remember the days before the internet? :rolleyes: ) to know more about him. Snyder's name came up and it wasn't until Tom got a show on CNBC in the early 1990's that I was finally able to put a face with what I had read about the 'Tomorrow Show' that followed Johnny Carson at 1:00AM. Then when Letterman moved to CBS he brought Tom along with him to host 'The Late Late Show' two years later. As my opinion of Letterman soured throughout the 1990's (on NBC he was brilliant but when he moved to CBS he gradually lost "it") my esteem and love of Snyder soared. 'The Late Late Show' was the only show on network TV where people actually talked and listened to one another while engaged in intelligent and/or amusing conversation (what a concept! :( ). A pre-'Deadwood' David Milch was a regular guest, as was movie critic Gene Siskel and TV critic David Biaculli (who wrote a column in 1994 egging Letterman to put Snyder on the time slot after 'The Late Show'). Of course Tom's demos skewed really old so in 2000 Craig Kilborn took over and turned 'The Late Late Show' into another hoot and howler comedy show (albeit a good one). Tom hasn't been seen or heard of since! :(

Though colortini.com is not working this portion of the site is: http://www.colortini.com/index2.html. And if you type 'Tom Snyder' on www.youtube.com you'll get a ton of clips from Tom's career.

JMCecil

02-18-07, 10:47 PM

I miss shows like Snyder did. Semi-scripted is probably the hardest type of show to carry for a half hour and keep interesting. But, he always made it seem like he was just talking to the guests without ever letting there be a gap or lull. You don't see many shows anymore where peoples real personality come out so readily. Everything is glammed up. Even Larry King live lost the conversational banter that made it so great. It hasn't been right for about 10 or 15 years. Now everyone comes in with publicists, cue cards and an agenda.

Since we had a little sports discussion going as well, there used to be a sports writers show where some old school reporters sat around a smokey pool table with a spot lamp overhead. It was the pre-cursour to ESPNs The Sports Reporters. It's pretty much the same comparison. The old school guys were awesome in a freeform anything goes way. The new school one is canned and lacks any personal feeling.

Just my opinion that Tom Snyder and handfull of other more human oriented journalists are now a thing sadly lacking in covering any kind of news. Just as I complained about athletes who think they are entertainers, I think the same can be said of journalists. They now want to be part of the story. Tom just let his guests be themselves and that was 99 times out of 100 VERY entertaining.

fredfa

02-18-07, 11:44 PM

Amazing, wasn't it, that both Snyder and Johnny Carson both let their guests take the limelight.

They understood that they would be back the next night, and that if the guests were allowed to be interesting, the audience would return, too.

Sad that Jay, David and the rest haven't learned that simple show business truth.

DoubleDAZ

02-18-07, 11:57 PM

Sad that Jay, David and the rest haven't learned that simple show business truth.Isn't that the truth! I used to watch Johhny (and even some of Jack's later years for that matter), but now I rarely ever catch Leno, Dave, et al. When I do, I'm almost always disappointed. While I don't particularly care for Oprah, she seems to have that knack too.

fredfa

02-19-07, 12:26 AM

Critic’s Notebook
Love — and rejection — is in the air at 'Studio 60'
By Robert Bianco USA Today

With Studio 60, maybe two strikes are enough.

This much-heralded NBC hour from Aaron Sorkin has been rejected twice by viewers, who were even less enthralled with its winter reincarnation as a romantic comedy than they were with its fall stint as a backstage drama. And now it's being rejected by its network, which is pulling the show after tonight's episode to make way for The Black Donnellys.

Yes, NBC says Studio will return this spring (though the network also said the show would run through February, and that's not happening), but the odds of it returning for a second season are long at best. And if these latest episodes are any indication of what the future holds, perhaps it's best if the future ends now.

Death would not come without mourning, but the grief would be more for the promise represented by Sorkin and a stellar cast led by Matthew Perry and Bradley Whitford than for anything they produced. The hope was that the show would expand beyond its good but too inside-the-business start to encompass TV's effect on all of us, both those who make it and those who watch it. Instead, it collapsed upon itself, devoting hour after hour to its head writer's struggles — interrupted only by an FCC-inspired crisis far too patently absurd to support a continuing story.

As you should expect from the stellar talents involved, Studio has given us flashes of brilliance, but ultimately, it never gave us enough reason to care. The people working on the show-within-a-show had nothing at risk because the fictional Studio was a smash from the very start. And we as viewers had nothing at stake in that show's survival, because most of what we saw of it was terrible. You get the feeling this is what The Dick Van Dyke Show would have looked like had it been made with too much self-aggrandizing angst and by too few funny people.

Yet for all their problems, those early episodes did at least seem to have a point, as opposed to the weightless, painfully silly romantic comedy the show has become. The only rooting interest we can possibly have in these two misaligned couples, Matt and Harriet (Perry and Sarah Paulson) and Danny and Jordan (Whitford and Amanda Peet), is to root against them.

Indeed, it's hard to say which woman you cringe for more: Jordan, who is being chased by a man who shares her own near-psychotic attachment to being overly cute; or Harriet, who is being chased by a self-absorbed, egotistic addict who routinely mocks her most closely held beliefs.

The change in tone came about, of course, because viewers weren't interested enough in the story Sorkin originally wanted to tell, but can he really be interested in telling this one? If so, it's hard to fathom. It's coming across as little more than a desperate, flailing attempt to find something, anything, to keep the lights on.

And if that's the case, well, maybe it's better to just turn them off now.

http://www.usatoday.com/life/television/reviews/2007-02-18-studio-60_x.htm

123HDTV

02-19-07, 02:24 AM

I remember seeing a Snyder show live. The guest was Tony Randall and the musical guests were a group of sisters... can't remember the name now. Anyway, in commercial Randall and Snyder were yukking it up with members of the audience.

I was lucky enough to be seated 2nd row aisle.

During the musical guest, Snyder sat down on the step next to me and watched. In the middle of the song his only comment was "This is supposed to be entertaining?". Then he went back on camera and like the great host he was proceeded to tell the home audience he thought the performance was outstanding.

I loved that.

dad1153

02-19-07, 02:50 AM

Nice story 123HDTV. Reminds me of my days in El Salvador when I attended the audiences of live TV variety/game shows. The hosts would also come down and sit on the stairs of the studio aisles next to us, mere mortals, and mingle during taped segments or commercial breaks. Its a rare moment of intimacy between audience member and TV personality that stays in one's mind when lucky enough to have experienced it (like you and I 123HDTV). :)

foxeng

02-19-07, 08:03 AM

Now if only Shout got around to releasing the rarely-seen David Letterman morning show on NBC from 1980 I'd die a happy man! :)

Take it from someone who saw them live, no you don't. The good stuff from that show you can see tonight on the Late Show. The rest needs to stay in the past. Imagine "Letterman hosting the Today Show." It is funny stuff, but it just doesn't work in the venue they were forcing him to work in. The stuff that made him at night, lays an egg in the morning. Can you see "Stupid Pet Tricks" in the morning? It doesn't work. You go , "Huh? What the heck is this?"

fredfa

02-19-07, 10:31 AM

Critic’s Notebook
'Studio 60' flop humbles the mighty Sorkin
By Tim Goodman San Francisco Chronicle Television Critic Monday, February 19, 2007

Tonight might be the last episode of "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip," Aaron Sorkin's much-anticipated, then much-derided drama for NBC. The series, about the behind-the-scenes machinations of a television sketch show not unlike "Saturday Night Live," was pulled a week earlier than expected after its season-worst ratings performance. It's unlikely to be renewed for a second season. And if "Studio 60" comes back to finish its six remaining episodes, it will have everything to do with the respect accorded Sorkin and nothing to do with a last-ditch effort to save it.

In a freshman crop littered with failures, why is the demise of "Studio 60" so intriguing? Easy, it's Sorkin. He's an immensely talented writer who made television better with "Sports Night" and "The West Wing." And he made a pilot, "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip," that got people's blood pumping and piqued their interest in a way that only one other freshman pilot did. That pilot was "The Nine," and like "Studio 60," it never followed with an episode to match the first one and it, too, is now all but dead.

Anytime a home-run hitter like Sorkin swings the bat, people pay attention. But television is a business that makes a lot of people whiff. There was a time when anything Steven Bochco or David Kelley did brought viewers up on the edge of their seats in anticipation. Both men are still enormously respected, but until their next great hit -- which neither has delivered in some time -- they remain out of the stratosphere.

Now Sorkin joins them. Because no matter how long his die-hard fans -- and NBC -- hung in there, "Studio 60" didn't get better. In fact, it got far worse. Last week, "Studio 60" had its worst ratings, which is saying something for a series that never delivered eyeballs to NBC from the moment it appeared and was, unexpectedly, overshadowed by the dark horse hit "Heroes," which airs in the time slot just before.

Television is a cruel, ugly and bloody business. Nobody knows those trite truisms better than someone like Sorkin, who didn't need a failure of his own to know how things work in this world. In a twist so perfectly dramatic it's almost hard to believe, "Studio 60" is being replaced by "The Black Donnellys," from creator Paul Haggis, who has led a far more mercurial life as a television writer than Sorkin.

An A-list film writer and director ("Crash," "Million Dollar Baby," "Casino Royale," "Flags of Our Fathers," "Letters From Iwo Jima"), Haggis went from writing episodes for creatively bankrupt series such as "Diff'rent Strokes," "The Facts of Life," among others, to creating one of his own: "Walker, Texas Ranger." He also wrote for "Thirtysomething" and "L.A. Law," then created two series that broke the hearts of critics when they failed: "Due South" and "EZ Streets."

He and Sorkin share a reputation in the industry as top-notch writers, but even that didn't stop him from failing again on television -- "Michael Hayes" and "Family Law" for CBS -- before finding success in films.

Sorkin, of course, has also represented himself well on the big screen -- "A Few Good Men," "Malice" and "The American President" -- before his heretofore glorious run in television. So don't pity Sorkin for the failure of "Studio 60," but have no doubt that it is, indeed, a creative misstep.

For a lot of his loyal fans, the question is why? Here, in descending order of importance, are a multitude of answers to that lone query:

• The premise wasn't so much flawed as doomed. It turns out that most Americans didn't care at all about the career woes and personal crises of pampered Hollywood writers. An inside baseball show about the TV industry, apparently, does not have the same gravitas as the presidential politics of "The West Wing," where Sorkin's rapid-fire dialogue, smart speeches and finely tuned dramatic timbre worked especially well.

• It was a drama about a comedy show but the skits weren't funny. In fact, much of the show was decidedly unfunny.

• The cast was a bad fit. Aside from Matthew Perry (who was a wonderful surprise) and Timothy Busfield (who was underused), not much else worked. Sarah Paulson and D.L. Hughley were not funny in this series playing comics. Nate Corddry is funny in real life and was funny on the show, but his part, like Busfield's, was too small. Had Amanda Peet, as the fictional network president, flipped roles with Paulson, it would have been a major improvement. Bradley Whitford is a wonderful actor but he at first seemed to be rejiggering his "West Wing" role, then his character became periodically unlikable or annoying. Either way, it's not the mix you want.

Steven Weber went from bellicose chairman of the network (which didn't work) to beleaguered chairman of the network (which did, and he became funny while everyone around him went dour by apparent accident.)

This could mean but two things:

• Sorkin was tone deaf to the problems. Or, more likely:

• This was a bad fit for his talents. He aimed for something and missed. No home run. No hit. It happens. (For an example of a behind-the-scenes series that works in a manner that better fits Sorkin's talents and is, without question, far superior, look for the Canadian series "Slings and Arrows" on the Sundance Channel, or rent the DVD.)

• When America didn't care for an inside baseball look at how hard it is to live and work successfully in Hollywood, Sorkin refashioned the series as a romantic comedy. See: "The cast was a bad fit." The Perry-Paulson relationship/ongoing argument was a deadly dull nonstarter. The Whitford-Peet relationship of convenience was wholly unbelievable. Peet's real life pregnancy didn't help Sorkin, clearly, but all the interoffice dating lacked spark and drama.

• Almost every story line was a dud, and no amount of Sorkin whimsy, tear-pulling or soap-box speeches could save them. In fact, those often made the stories worse.

• Who's the rooting interest here? (Take your time.) Ultimately, it was hard to care. Those who tried to care were Sorkin loyalists, and even they were dropping off at the end. Those who didn't care at all opted for "Heroes" or something else entirely. (And, yes, 10 p.m. on a Monday didn't help.)

Despite the demographically desirable audience who did watch "Studio 60," most Americans simply chose not to. Failure analysis is an interesting pursuit, but it doesn't change the fact that the audience decides. Always.

Here's looking forward to Sorkin's next offering.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/02/19/GOODMAN.TMP&type=printable

fredfa

02-19-07, 10:49 AM

Nielsen Notebook
ABC: Anatomy of a Ratings Skid
Net Slides From First to Third in 35 Days
By James Hibberd Television Week February 19, 2007

ABC's ratings have plummeted since the start of the year, dropping the network from first place season-to-date down to a third-place tie with NBC.

The drop comes after a strong performance last season that continued into a top-rated fall, with ABC winning November sweeps for the first time in seven years. ABC had risked moving its Sunday hit "Grey's Anatomy" to ultra-competitive Thursday night and paired it with newcomer "Ugly Betty." The move proved to be a scheduling masterstroke and ABC is now up 96 percent among adults 18 to 49 on Thursdays, the most lucrative night of the week for advertising.

Outside of Thursdays, however, the schedule is rough sledding. ABC's ratings are down five out of seven nights, including down 40 percent on Sundays, 36 percent on Mondays and 31 percent on Wednesdays. The current schedule has too many repeats and low-performing shows filling space, almost resembling Fox during the fall season before "American Idol" and "24" returned.

With the Academy Awards airing on Sunday and "Dancing With the Stars" coming back for another round in March, analysts expect ABC to reverse its downward trend to avoid coming in fourth, settling into third place for the season. But that's down considerably from last year, when ABC came in second after giving leader Fox a run for its money deep into the May sweeps.

The drop increases pressure on ABC Entertainment President Steve McPherson, who has helped architect ABC's return to glory since assuming his current position in 2004. Having the network go from a first-place tie the week ending Jan. 7 to a third-place tie the week ending Feb. 11 begs the question:

What Happened?

Too many freshman flops: After a trio of new popular dramas in recent years ("Grey's Anatomy," "Lost" and "Desperate Housewives") as well one major reality hit ("Dancing With the Stars"), ABC premiered and canceled five series this season—more than any other network.

The frustrating part is that ABC deserves credit for ordering ambitious single-camera comedies and clever, mind-bending dramas. "Day Break," "Knights of Prosperity," "Six Degrees" and "The Nine" at least tried to break the mold rather than stick to genre formulas.

The "Lost" hiatus: ABC has taken an enormous amount of flak for its three-month "Lost" hiatus, not all of it deserved. Fan frustration with "Lost" has more to do with the show's content than any scheduling sins the network may have committed. If viewers are willing to wait a year or two for "The Sopranos," they could wait three months during a "Lost" hiatus. The fall episodes had the show's three main leads in jail cells, enduring various forms of torture, and Matthew Fox shouting a lot. Still, by holding out until February sweeps to bring back the series during the show's creative nadir, ABC fanned the flames of viewer discord. The show returned to a season low two weeks ago, and last week it hit a series low.

Stiffer competition: CBS had its Super Bowl boost (which ABC had last year, along with "Monday Night Football," two factors in last year's success). Fox has "American Idol." NBC has ... well ... NBC shouldn't be neck-and-neck with ABC, but it is.

An empty pipeline: At the Television Critics Association press tour, critics were surprised that ABC only had two series panels—for "Lost" and the struggling "In Case of Emergency"—while most networks had at least four. The lineup suggests the network wasn't prepared for this many holes in its schedule this early in the season.

As a result, ABC is running "Grey's Anatomy" twice a week, with repeats on Fridays and, for two weeks, airing two episodes of "Lost" per week, repeating on Wednesdays at 9 p.m. Veteran clip show "America's Funniest Home Videos" has become ABC's 8 p.m. equivalent to NBC's "Deal or No Deal," an all-purpose filler against heavy competition—but without "Deal"-size ratings.

What ABC Can Do

Less serialization: This season, even some of ABC's comedies were serialized. "Knights of Prosperity" and "Big Day" had serialized elements, as did "Day Break," "The Nine" and "Six Degrees." Even when a serialized show like "Lost" or "24" works, it's easier to lose viewers than gain them midway through the season, as the ongoing story line discourages latecomers.

Run "Lost" straight through: Mr. McPherson has said he wants to run "Lost" straight through a la "24" next season. Given the controversy of the hiatus and subsequent ratings flap, he almost surely will. But that raises a Catch-22: Launch in September and the show has to air during the holidays, and ABC risks once again putting too many eggs in its fall basket. Launch in January, and some will complain the network is waiting too long to bring back the series. Still, the winter model is the safest bet; fans complained the first time "24" made the move to January, but the strategy worked.

Find comedies that click: Every network is looking for scripted comedies, but for ABC the matter is more urgent: CBS has a Monday night block, Fox has Sunday night animated comedies and NBC has Thursday sitcoms. ABC has been unable to get a mid-week block off the ground this season.

Refresh reality: ABC revolutionized its drama slate, but many of its reality shows feel very 2003. Monday night's "The Bachelor," "Wife Swap" and "Supernanny" don't mesh with the network's cutting-edge dramas and have recently been a fourth-place finisher. The idea is to target women and compete with "Monday Night Football" on ESPN, but the network would be well-served by adding some fresher unscripted ideas rather than falling back on "Funniest Videos" for 8 p.m. slots.

http://www.tvweek.com/article.cms?articleId=31550

fredfa

02-19-07, 10:56 AM

TV on DVD Notebook
ABC Commits to Kimmel
By Ben Grossman Broadcasting & Cable 2/19/2007

ABC and Jimmy Kimmel are close to a multi-year extension that would keep ABC’s late-night franchise in place beyond the 2009 season. Significantly, that’s when NBC’s Conan O’Brien is scheduled to supplant Jay Leno, a move sure to send tremors throughout the late-night schedule.

The pending deal indicates that ABC is solidifying its bet on Kimmel, whose ratings are up double digits in both adults 18-49 (17%) and total viewers (13%) season-to-date.

"We all feel like we’re growing this thing," says ABC Entertainment President Steve McPherson. "He wants us to bet on him, and we want to bet on him, so now we are moving forward."

The move also keeps ABC out of a potential bidding war for Kimmel, whose show was previously signed through 2008. As a steadily improving late-night personality with a growing audience, the former Man Show host might have been a perfect fit for Fox, which has said it wants to get back into late night.

"We’ve invested a lot in building him," McPherson says. "It would be silly to spend the money and then say goodbye or get caught with our pants down."

The move also signifies the network’s intention to stay with entertainment in the daypart, which continues to be the source of a tug of war between the entertainment and news divisions.

Although ABC’s news division recently shot a series of 60-minute pilots for Nightline, the shows were not ordered by the network and caused some internal strife at the company. A source close to the network says its sales department had previously told the news department it can’t monetize a 60-minute version of Nightline, ruling out the news program’s expanding beyond its 30-minute slot.

Kimmel’s new deal probably will not include a guaranteed time slot, although he will remain at midnight as long as Nightline stays on the air at 11:30 p.m. ABC has control of the daypart until 1 a.m.

Given the entertainment division’s long desire to take over the 11:30 time slot, one option would be for the network to make a run at Jon Stewart, whose deal with Comedy Central expires in 2008. Stewart would then air at 11:30, with Kimmel to follow. However, that outcome seems highly unlikely. If Stewart were to move to a broadcast network, he is said to covet David Letterman’s chair on CBS.

ABC is not expected to pursue Jay Leno, should NBC go ahead with its stated plan to insert Conan O’Brien into the Tonight Show chair in 2009. The possibility also remains that NBC could reverse its course and stick with Leno, which sources say would mean a payment in the neighborhood of $40 million to O’Brien, who would then be a free agent.

Kimmel will be given the chance to earn 11:30 himself. ABC plans to relaunch the show in the spring, backed by a big marketing push. In the meantime, Kimmel will host a post-Academy Awards special on the network Sunday, Feb. 25. ABC also has an unscripted series hosted by Kimmel called Set For Life that it has yet to debut.

Kimmel’s show is not yet profitable, but ABC executives have seen enough growth to stick with it and think it could be a moneymaker before the new deal is done.

http://www.broadcastingcable.com/index.asp?layout=articlePrint&articleID=CA6417337

fredfa

02-19-07, 11:11 AM

TV Sports
NASCAR's accessibility evident in Fox's Daytona 500 coverage
By Michael Hiestand USA Today February 19, 2007

Fox couldn't have gotten a more photogenic Daytona 500 finish if it had used a screenplay to stage one.

"Four wide with five to go!" said Fox analyst Darrell Waltrip, clearly in no danger of running out of gas with five laps left. "Tires are smokin'! Sheet metal's draggin! And we're still racin'!!! "

Well, they raced a few more seconds, until various cars crashed and drivers turned off their engines and sat on the track. Fortunately, even during breaks, there's really nothing like NASCAR, where everything and everybody is accessible — and drivers emerge from seeming near-death experiences to go on TV.

No wonder NASCAR fans are so fervent. The world might end if spy satellites picked up too much from NFL sidelines. But everything in NASCAR — including chatter by drivers going nearly 200 miles per hour — is fair game. Long before Kurt Busch and Tony Stewart collided while leading the race, viewers heard Busch tell his pit crew that Stewart's car "is out of control."

Kevin Harvick edged out Mark Martin by the length of a few lug nuts to win, as Fox shots showed cars behind them spinning around in smoking pirouettes you'd normally associate with disaster movies. Fox announcer Mike Joy didn't seem unreasonable in suggesting it was "the wildest Daytona finish ever." Predictably, Martin went on Fox to thank his team, sponsors and fans: "I really hate I let them down."

P.S.: Complaining about over-the-top promotion in NASCAR is like pointing out a particular ocean wave and calling it too wet. But when Waltrip, in the prerace show, got defensive about the "stigmatism" surrounding Toyota's arrival in NASCAR and rattled off stats about how Toyota hires U.S. workers, viewers should have been told Waltrip is in TV ads for Toyota. … On Monday FoxSports.com, for the first time, will air the 500 in its entirety online.

Irvin out:

Michael Irvin, an ESPN NFL studio analyst since 2003, won't return next season. Irvin, the ex-Dallas Cowboy recently elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame, was briefly suspended by ESPN after a misdemeanor arrest for possession of drug paraphernalia in Plano, Texas, in November 2005. He was working at ESPN on a one-year deal last season and drew criticism for suggesting on ESPN Radio that Dallas quarterback Tony Romo's speed might have resulted by a maternal ancestor mating with a slave.

Logical additions to ESPN NFL studio shows include recently retired coach Bill Parcells, who has already worked at ESPN, and Emmitt Smith, who had a recent tryout at ESPN and last season worked on the NFL Network. Said ESPN's Mike Soltys on Sunday: "We thank Michael for his contributions and wish him well."

Sunday, Irvin said ESPN "was great for me and I want to thank all of them for the opportunity." Irvin was in the film The Longest Yard and is interested in doing more acting: "When you work for ESPN, there are certain things you can't do. … I'd still love to talk football on TV, but also want to have leeway."

Reynolds, cont.:

Harold Reynolds filed a "wrongful termination" suit in Connecticut against ESPN in November after being fired as a baseball analyst in July. As part of that suit, he's seeking his ESPN personnel files. But ESPN, in a motion filed last week, said it should not have to release that information since it's "related to concerns by five young women about (Reynolds') sexual misconduct. Publicizing this information would constitute an invasion of the women's personal privacy."

Said ESPN's Soltys on Sunday: "Our court papers speak for themselves."

Daniel L. Alterman, Reynolds' lawyer, said Sunday that "ESPN's shoot-from-hip internal policy is under fire here because they failed to conduct a thorough and proper investigation before they fired Harold Reynolds. ESPN has defied the law by not turning over the personnel files."

Spice rack:

After Phil Mickelson muffed a wedge shot in CBS' Nissan Open on Sunday, CBS' David Feherty, offering technical advice on what he'd do next: "I would need a hug from my mommy." … TNT's Charles Barkley won his much-hyped race against NBA ref Dick Bavetta, 67, on Saturday night. Said Bavetta afterwards on TNT: "I think we're ready for Barkley vs. Bavetta II." Or maybe not. … New Orleans Saints fans had to briefly go cross-eyed when star Reggie Bush went down with a twisted ankle in a made-for-TV celeb basketball game, part of the NBA's All-Star weekend, Friday on ESPN. It was just a sprain. But imagine losing your star back in a game whose players included chef Bobby Flay and comedian Carrot Top — and Wayne Newton was an assistant coach.

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/columnist/hiestand-tv/2007-02-18-weekend_x.htm

fredfa

02-19-07, 11:32 AM

TV Sports
Latest on the DirecTV MLB-EI Deal

Sports Business Journal is reporting that, according to “a senior baseball source” the deal could be announced this week. The proposed $700 million agreement would give DirecTV exclusivity in offering the MLB Extra Innings out of market package.

SBJ says cable networks made a “late run” at making the package non-exclusive – including matching the financials from DirecTV -- but wouldn’t agree to place the proposed new baseball network on its expanded basic tier. It did offer to match the financials of the deal, SBJ says, but “…agreed to guarantee the same amount of distribution for MLB’s planned channel, which is scheduled to launch as soon as 2009….”

Cable sources, meanwhile, are telling SBJ that MLB could be planning to allow DirecTV to resell the MLB-EI package to the two telcos, Verizon and AT&T, which are now offering video services.

steverobertson

02-19-07, 11:37 AM

That is interesting about Verizon and AT&T possibly getting the package.

CPanther95

02-19-07, 11:40 AM

Doing the same thing with NFL ST would be even more interesting. ;)

steverobertson

02-19-07, 11:43 AM

Doing the same thing with NFL ST would be even more interesting. ;)

I would be shocked if that happened I think D* knows this their ace in hole to keep subs. This also may be a way to help keep the govt off their backs as well.

fredfa

02-19-07, 11:51 AM

fredfa

02-19-07, 11:59 AM

Doing the same thing with NFL ST would be even more interesting. ;)

Except the NFL needs to do a delicate balancing act with NFL ST: it obviously tries to gtet every last penny from DirecTV for exclusivity, but offering the package to cable would dramatically drive down the price the NFL would get from Fox and CBS for the Sunday OTA games.

Making NFL ST too available would probably cost the NFL hundreds of millions of dollars. That's because a major part of the price CBS and Fox are willing to pay is the bump their O&Os get from the NFL. Each network, of course, loses substantial amounts of money on the network portion of the deal. Leaving aside the promotional pluses offered by the NFL, each network's local stations recoup much -- if not all -- of their network's financial loss by selling Sunday ad time at far higher rates than would otherwise be possible.

If millions more fans were potentially able to tune in to whichever games they wanted on Sunday, the O&Os would feel an immediate dramatic -- and negative -- financial effect.

fredfa

02-19-07, 12:05 PM

TV Q&A
Matt Roush

The question was asked Friday -- where's Matt Roush's column?

Matt's on vacation. His TV Guide Q&A column will next appear Friday.

homcom

02-19-07, 12:33 PM

Perhaps just the threat of reselling either package to the telcos might get the cable guys to offer their exclusive RSNs (Philadelphia and San Diego) to DirecTV.

And there are reports today in Sports Business Journal that Comcast is nearing a deal to acquire Liberty Media's share of the RSNs in San Francisco and New England.

The sports delivery system is apparently going to be a major battleground between cable and satellite in the nextt few years.

(SBJ also says Liberty will spin off its soon-to-be-acquired RSNs in Pittsburgh, Denver and Seattle to Comcast. But reportedly that will have to wait three years until some complicated tax loopholes kick in.)
Comcast gaining full control of the San Francisco and New England is no surprise. It should be interesting in Northern CA because Comcast already has CSN-West. This would give them all the bay area cable rights for sports.

It will be interesting to see where tis goes in coming years. Right now the CSNs show FSN backdrop programming in markets that don't have a FSN. In a couple of years I wonder if Comcast will have a network large enough to support their own backdrop programming across the network. It is kinda looking like Comcast is going the route that News Corp did. If you can't beat ESPN just gobble up all the regional rights to sports and create a national network that way.

homcom

02-19-07, 12:35 PM

BTW, Fredfa

When will ratings for the Daytona 500 be available?

fredfa

02-19-07, 12:49 PM

The overrun past 7 PM won in total viewers, homcom. I'll have Sunday's prime time fast nationals soon. The full Daytona ratings should be available later in the day.

I'll post them when I get them.

A holiday always poses delay problems with Nielsen.

fredfa

02-19-07, 01:09 PM

TV Sports
It’s 1 Driver Per Channel on NASCAR Hot Pass
By Richard Sandomir The New York Times

The concept behind DirecTV’s Nascar Hot Pass is simple: focus on five drivers in each race and provide fans with an immersive experience unattainable on Fox, ABC or ESPN. The five cars are outfitted with cameras and audio, and each channel has its own announcers.

Hot Pass’s debut yesterday at the Daytona 500 provided one channel each for Tony Stewart, Jimmie Johnson and Dale Earnhardt Jr. (who all departed before the finish in crashes), as well as Kevin Harvick and Michael Waltrip. Harvick won the race, rewarding DirecTV, which is also a Nascar sponsor.

Hot Pass is a purposeful exercise in tunnel vision, a willing abandonment of the broader view provided by Fox’s announcers (who can be summoned by the press of a button if necessary) for the single universe that revolves around each driver. The push of another button yielded the race standings, but the standard for each channel only lists which driver is in first, the status of each channel’s driver and who is directly in front and behind him.

One part of each driver’s Hot Pass screen showed the Fox network feed. The other two screens juggled tight and medium angles of where each car was in the field, in addition to shots from inside the five cars and close-ups of the drivers.

• • • • • • • • • • •

This is very personal television if you’re a fan of any of the drivers selected weekly by DirecTV. But the accompanying style of announcing — unabashed homerism — takes a lot of getting used to. There was so little objectivity on the Stewart, Johnson and Earnhardt channels you might have believed you were watching live infomercials. There were so many “we’s” and “our’s” you might have thought that the drivers’ families were in the booths.

“The good news is we’ve got a driver who knows how to win the Daytona 500, and a crew that doesn’t know how to quit,” said Pat Patterson, the lead voice for Johnson’s channel, who was matched as the lead objectivity offenders by Ray Dunlap, who was on the Stewart channel. “We’re going to cheer them right through to the finish line.”

Harvick’s channel was less subjective until the last 15 or 20 laps while the Waltrip channel’s three calmer voices had little to cheer about in the first race after his team was penalized for cheating.

Most networks will not confess to sending their announcers out to root, root, root for their home team (or driver), but DirecTV gladly does.

“They were supposed to be homers,” said David Hill, the president of DirecTV Entertainment. “Those were their directions. We figure the people buying this are the fans. It goes back to Harry Caray. They were rooting for their guys, the same as the guys on the sofa who bought it.”

DirecTV subscribers were offered a free preview of Hot Pass yesterday, and the announcers were put in the position of hawking the $99 season-long subscription as if they were Tony Little, some of them making the service seem as if it were the greatest invention since the George Foreman griller.

Still, there is some audacity in the creation of Hot Pass, which is the linear successor to a similar service offered to cable operators by In Demand a few years ago. Nascar wants to further increase its fans’ ardor for drivers. What better way than to provide them with channels that can exploit it?

Networks have used in-car cameras and audio for years, but those extras were deployed at the discretion of a producer and a director. Although Hot Pass fans can’t choose camera angles, they can choose their channels.

Some aspects of Hot Pass need help, as Hill acknowledged. The blathering of the announcers must be toned down to allow fans to hear the conversations among the drivers, crew chiefs and spotters. The quality of those primitive transmissions is not very high (they sounded CB-level).

• • • • • • • • • • •

DirecTV must also let the raw, astonishing roar of the cars come through better and more often. Hot Pass’s intimacy would be enhanced by cutting to the drivers more often — even dimly lit shots of guys turning their wheels, as they cope with cars that are tight or loose, are valuable. Some of the better shots were of Stewart, Johnson and Earnhardt after they crashed.

“All we did today was an on-air rehearsal,” said Hill, who hopes to eventually have cameras show drivers’ feet moving from the gas to the brake and to have channels for each driver.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/19/sports/othersports/19sandomir.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&pagewanted=print

fredfa

02-19-07, 01:53 PM

This is obviously not TV-related, but since many of you are early adopters, I assume it will be of interest .
(By the way, the Wall Street Journal is also reporting a deal between the two companies is near.)
Technology Notebook
Sirius and XM near to a Heavenly Deal

February 19, 2007 -- Satellite radio operators Sirius and XM are expected to announce their long-awaited merger today, according to a source familiar with the deal.

The two sides were locked in negotiations over the weekend trying to hammer out a final agreement with an eye toward going public with the merger today in Washington, D.C., where XM is based, this source said.

Talks were still going on at press time and the deal could fall apart at any time. With antitrust issues of paramount importance, this source said lawyers for both companies were working overtime to fine-tune the language of the agreement and frame the discussion around the deal itself and not regulatory concerns.

The transaction is expected to be structured as a merger of equals, but given Sirius' higher enterprise value, shareholders in the Mel Karmazin-led firm will likely come away with a larger percentage of a combined company.

According to the source, XM Chairman Gary Parsons will retain that title in the combined entity, with Karmazin likely taking the CEO role. It is unclear what role, if any, XM CEO Hugh Panero will play.

Combining Sirius and XM would result in a single satellite radio operator with more than 12 million total subscribers. A deal would also marry Sirius content, such as Howard Stern, Frank Sinatra and Nascar with XM's Oprah Winfrey, Bob Dylan and Major League Baseball.

More important, analysts widely predict that a deal would also save the two companies nearly $7 billion annually.

Karmazin and Parsons have been dropping hints since last summer about a possible tie-up, believing that competition from terrestrial radio, online radio and mobile music devices such as iPods have not only expanded the marketplace but also lowered the regulatory hurdles to a deal.

In a note on Friday, Bear Stearns analyst Robert Peck speculated that Sirius and XM needed to move quickly before their window of opportunity closed.

Gaining regulatory approval "could take up to 15 months; hence, we think any proposed deal needs to be announced by the end of March to close by mid-2008," Peck wrote.

On Friday, XM shares hit their lowest point since early November while Sirius shares were approaching 52-week lows. Shares in both companies did trade on heavy volume and ended the session higher, with Sirius gaining 10 cents to close at $3.70 and XM jumping a dollar to $13.98.

http://www.nypost.com/php/pfriendly/print.php?url=http://www.nypost.com/seven/02192007/business/heavenly_deal_business_peter_lauria.htm