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Reality, crime pay
Nonfiction, Thursday dramas boost Eye

By RICK KISSELL Variety.com

A nice combo of firstrun reality fare and repeats of its scripted hits enabled the Eye to lash its rivals in last week's primetime ratings race.

"Big Brother 6" and "Rock Star: INXS" were on the ratings upswing, and Thursday crime duo "CSI" and "Without a Trace" cleaned up for CBS, which won in adults 18-49 for a fourth straight frame. Net's 2.5 rating/8 share easily topped the tightly bunched other nets, with Fox (2.1/7) followed by ABC (2.0/6) and NBC (1.9/6), according to Nielsen Media Research.

The Eye also led in adults 25-54 for an eighth straight week (3.0/8) and remained perfect in total viewers for the summer, averaging 7.8 million.

WB trails pack

It was an embarrassing week, meanwhile, for the WB, whose all-repeat lineup slipped to 10th place among adults 18-34 (0.7/2) -- behind the other five broadcast nets as well as cablers TNT, USA, MTV and TBS. Net did well earlier this summer with "Beauty and the Geek" but has pretty much gone dark since then.

CBS dominated the program rankings, claiming six of the top 10 programs in 18-49, seven of 10 in adults 25-54 and eight of 10 in total viewers.

While "CSI" led the way as usual -- standing as the week's No. 1 program in adults 18-49 (4.1/12) and total viewers (13.03 million) -- lead-out "Without a Trace" was right on its heels (4.0/12 in 18-49, 12.92m).

These marked summer bests for "Trace" and its best retention to date coming out of "CSI." Many viewers likely missed the first airing of Thursday's "Trace" repeat, which originally aired on a Wednesday in May and thus attracted fewer viewers than usual.

Also for CBS, "Big Brother 6" won all three of its hours, led by Tuesday's 9 o'clock seg (3.4/9 in 18-49, 8.70m). Saturday's seg hit summer highs (2.3/9, 5.85m), with a bonus eviction helping attract more viewers.

"Rock Star: INXS" drew its largest overall auds to date on both Tuesday (3.0/8 in 18-49, 6.49m) and Wednesday (2.2/7, 5.34m).

CBS also benefited from its first National Football League preseason game of the year, as the Minnesota Vikings-New York Jets clash delivered the net's best Friday numbers of summer (1.8/7 in 18-49, 5.41m).

Fox rolls on

Fox, which led in adults 18-34 (2.1/7) for a 32nd straight week, was paced by improved numbers for Wednesday's "So You Think You Can Dance" (3.5/10 in 18-49, 8.72m) and by repeat Sunday laffers "Family Guy" (2.9/8, 6.15m) and "The Simpsons" (2.6/8, 5.53m).

Also, Thursday's New Orleans Saints-New England Patriots preseason NFL game significantly improved the net's Thursday standing (2.6/8 in 18-49, 6.78m), but Tuesday's "Teen Choice Awards" (2.0/6 in 18-49, 4.86m) plummeted 23% year-to-year in 18-49, placing fourth in its slot.

ABC got a nice boost from Monday's rebroadcast of feature film "Remember the Titans" (2.8/8 in 18-49, 7.67m), but again was unable to muster much enthusiasm for Sunday unscripted skein "My Kind of Town" (2.2/6, 5.65m).

NBC got off to a solid start Tuesday with "Tommy Lee Goes to College" (Daily Variety, Aug. 18) and saw "Joey" hit a 10-week high on Thursday (2.1/7 in 18-49, 5.16m).

While the WB is struggling with repeats of its core sked, UPN is keeping the lights on with originals of "WWE Smackdown" on Thursday (1.7/5 in 18-49, 4.57m) and music competition series "R U the Girl" on Wednesday (1.0/3, 2.48m).

TNT, led by Monday drama "The Closer" (1.5/4 in 18-49, 5.11m), edged past USA for the week in 18-49, 25-54 and total viewers. Both "Closer" and USA's "Monk" topped 5 million viewers with original episodes.

'9/11' doc delivers

The young National Geographic Channel topped 2 million viewers for the first time Sunday night with part one of doc "Inside 9/11" (2.12 million) and then hit 3 million Monday with the conclusion.

Discovery Channel scored Tuesday with its series "Dirty Jobs" (0.8/2 in 18-49, 1.83m) and "Going Tribal" (0.7/2, 1.45m), and Lifetime's "Strong Medicine" (1.1/3, 3.27m) achieved 5 shares in key femme demos while drawing its largest overall aud since February 2003.

Disney Channel scored yet again with an original Friday movie, animated "The Proud Family Movie" (4.81 million, including 2.04 million kids 6-11). Pic helped the net post its highest-ever weekly primetime aud among the 6-11 crowd (1.22m).

HBO averaged 3.89 million viewers for the initial airing of the series finale of "Six Feet Under."

Although it hasn't generated significant audiences on any single night, Showtime has been pleased with the perf of "Weeds," whose eight airings last week combined to attract 2 million unique viewers.

In the hour following primetime, Spike scored on Monday of the current week with the second season of "The Ultimate Fighter," which averaged 2.1 million viewers and was up sharply in key male demos vs. last year's opener.

HBO's 'Rome' wasn't built in a day
The cable channel is nervously awaiting the premiere of what
could be the most expensive 12-episode television series ever
By Matea Gold Los Angeles Times Staff Writer August 24, 2005

NEW YORK -- At one point during the 14-month, $100-million production of HBO's new series "Rome," actor James Purefoy, who plays Mark Antony, was introduced to a group of Italian extras undergoing rigorous boot-camp training to portray Roman soldiers.

The cameras weren't rolling, and on any other set the moment would have consisted of behind-the-scenes chitchat. But months of immersion in a painstakingly detailed re-creation of the ancient city had its effect. As he stood in a replica of the Forum  constructed to scale at the renowned Cinecitta Studios in Rome  Purefoy addressed the men not as himself but as the famed Roman commander. They, in turn, stood sharply at attention, facing him with respectful awe.

"There he was in the Forum, bellowing at these soldiers, and the whole thing was entirely real," recalled Bruno Heller, writer, co-creator and executive producer of the series. "It was a very strange moment. Everyone felt a shiver."

HBO is feeling its own nervous shiver in the days leading up to Sunday's premiere of "Rome." The premium-cable channel spent seven years developing and producing what may be the most costly 12-episode television series ever, striving to create a portrayal of the Roman Empire so grittily authentic that the city's ancient inhabitants would have recognized it. The key question, though, is will contemporary audiences embrace this vision?

"Everyone is on tenterhooks to see how it is received," Heller said.

The large-scale project comes at a key juncture for the network, which has recently had trouble duplicating the water-cooler buzz it generated with such shows as "The Sopranos," "Sex and the City" and "Six Feet Under."

With 27.7 million paid subscribers, HBO is highly profitable and still commands the largest audience of pay-cable channels. But its growth has slowed in the last two years as programs like the now-canceled "CarnivÃ*le" and the Lisa Kudrow comedy "The Comeback" struggled to draw viewers.

The most talked-about recent addition to the HBO lineup, "Entourage," has gotten critical acclaim but modest ratings. The finale of "Six Feet Under" last Sunday commanded almost 4 million viewers, far short of the 13.4 million who watched "The Sopranos" at its peak in 2002. The hit mobster drama, which averaged 12.9 million viewers last season, is now expected to end its run in 2007.

Meanwhile, the network must compete with a similar brand of edgy dramatic programs now found on basic cable and network television.

"They were kind of the undisputed leader in the late '90s in terms of quality television, and I don't think they are anymore," said John Landgraf, president of FX Networks, which has made its mark with such contemporary-themed shows as "Rescue Me" and "Nip/Tuck."

HBO needs "a series that has long legs to it and generates a kind of buzz, excitement and ratings that 'The Sopranos' did," said Jack Myers, editor of mediavillage.com, a television fan website. "Anything less than exceptional performance has to be considered underperformance."

Early reviews of the series have been mixed; critics have admired its look and intelligence, but some question whether it has the kind of genre-busting writing and attitude of "The Sopranos," or its western "Deadwood," or the compelling quality of the famed 1970s "Masterpiece Theatre" series "I, Claudius."

HBO executives acknowledge that they no longer have a monopoly on the kind of original programming that first distinguished the channel in the 1990s but reject the notion that their fortunes will rise or fall on the success of "Rome."

"I don't think it's fair to put the burden on this show and say this show has to be the next 'Sopranos,' because nothing could really wear that mantle," said Carolyn Strauss, president of HBO Entertainment.

That said, "Rome" is "something that we think very, very highly of," she added. "We expect that it will be very successful."

It remains to be seen whether HBO can do for ancient Romans what it has done for mobsters, cowboys and undertakers. Rival studio executives wonder whether television viewers have an appetite for another swords-and-sandals epic, noting the poor ratings ABC earned for its recent miniseries "Empire."

"I just don't know if this is something that feels cutting edge," said Angela Bromstad, president of NBC Universal Television Studio. But HBO believes it has found a new approach to the 2,000-year-old story, both through the quality of the production and the narrative.

Co-produced with the BBC, "Rome" features all the usual players: Julius Caesar, Pompey Magnus, Mark Antony. But the series also revolves around two soldiers: the severe Lucius Vorenus and his unlikely comrade-in-arms, the garrulous Titus Pullo. Through them, viewers are given a glimpse into the rough-and-tumble life of the plebian class.

"The novel aspect is that it's about everyday life in a time of great historical import," Heller said.

To convey everyday details, Heller said he wanted to get away from the "kitsch pastiches" of helmets and swords that have been used to signify the ancient world in other productions. Instead, the producers sought to create a more fully realized version of Roman life, circa 52 BC.

"The more real you make the world, the more real the actors and directors can be in that world," he said.

No detail was too small; costumes  more than 4,000 pieces  were made only out of natural fabrics that would have been available during that period. The temples and streets were painted in vivid colors, based on the original markings uncovered by archeologists at the ruins of Pompeii and Herculaneum.

The crew was delighted when creatures like rats, pigeons, hawks and stray dogs took up occupancy in the 5-acre back lot in Rome where they constructed the set, the largest of its kind.

"I was immediately struck by the fact that they were offering up an antidote to what I describe as 'Hollyrome,' the version of Rome we've all got in our heads of cleanliness and marble and togas that looked pressed," said historical consultant Jonathan Stamp, the head of the BBC archeology department, who worked on the project for a year.

Dust and chaos dominate this teeming city. To convey the density of the crowded capital, HBO employed a cast and crew of cinematic scope, assembling 750 actors and extras for a pivotal scene of Caesar's triumph. Strauss called the production "exhaustive and exhausting."

The result is a vivid portrayal of a dirty, cacophonous, amoral metropolis steeped in the tumult of the time. There are graphic depictions of both the city's violence and sex within the first few minutes of the premiere, which features blood-splattered soldiers thrusting fatal blows into their Gallic enemies and the full-frontal nudity of a woman emerging from a post-coitus bath.

Stamp delved deeply into Cicero's speeches and the plays of Titus Maccius Plautus and Terence to help the cast determine everything from the appropriate way for an upper-class woman to greet a senator to the length of time it would take for a letter to arrive in Rome from an outlying city.

It's the rare viewer who will appreciate such details, but Stamp said the approach affected "the texture and perhaps the confidence with which the world is presented, and that's something I think absolutely the viewers will respond to."

Despite the age of the material, Heller said he believes audiences will be struck by the contemporary feeling of ancient Rome.

"The problems they face are the same we do today: how to build a civil society, how to balance individual rights, employment, kids, money, power," he said.

And although the producers did not attempt to stress any parallels between the Roman Empire and any modern-day equivalents, Heller added that "the transition of a small republic into a vast empire ... is obviously intensely resonant today."

For their part, HBO executives are hoping "Rome" will draw audiences for a simpler reason.

"These are well-crafted stories and compelling characters," Strauss said. "No matter what time period they're in, we think those elements are magnetic."

Comcast/OLN Eyes ESPN's MLB Rights day

By John Consoli mediaweek.com

Like a hungry shark circling its prey, Comcast and its Outdoor Life Network, now referred to as OLN, is continuing its low-key but determined move to take a bite out of cable sports kingpin ESPN.

Not only did it snatch away cable rights for the National Hockey League for the next several years last week, but now Comcast/OLN has set its sights on landing Major League Baseball's Sunday-Wednesday-night cable package, the rights to which expire at the end of the current season.

That package also includes the MLB All-Star Game home run derby telecast, which produced hefty one-night ratings for ESPN this season.

Baseball is the bedrock of ESPN's summer programming, said one rival sports network executive. There is so much baseball and very little other programming to replace it with during the summer. Hockey can be replaced by running more college basketball, but Comcast could deliver a severe body blow to ESPN if it can steal away these baseball rights.

ESPN does have the Tuesday-Thursday MLB TV rights through the end of the 2006 season, which also includes the MLB division playoff games that Fox does not air. That package was obtained when ESPN parent Disney acquired Fox Family Channel (now ABC Family) and is currently valued at $100 million. ESPN is also currently paying $141.5 million per year for the Sunday-Wednesday rights package.

Sources familiar with the negotiations believe they have been delayed and slowed by ESPN's efforts to gain broadband and cellular phone rights, among other value-added, nontraditional rights, which MLB has been hesitant to give up.

It's late in the process for negotiations to still be going on for the Sunday-Wednesday package, a competing network executive said. It seems like ESPN was playing hardball with MLB and didn't think there would be any other bidders. Now, they've put MLB in the driver's seat.

The executive added that for building-block purposes, baseball would be even more important to Comcast than hockey. And having both, plus maybe even the [Thursday-Saturday] NFL package, would give Comcast a year-round presence with major sports.

Another sports exec also questioned why ESPN decided in May to opt out of the final year of its NHL deal for which it would pay $60 million: Even if ESPN were losing $40 million on the deal, it seems like a reasonable insurance policy to absorb it in order to keep the big bad wolf out of the hen house.

Losing a sizable portion of its MLB rights would present problems for ESPN. In particular, it could cause cable operators to push for a reduction in their subscriber fees and would cost the network significant ad revenue. ESPN doesn't need to have coverage of every sport, but it cannot lose coverage of its jewels. Major League Baseball is one of its jewels, said a rival sports net exec.

George Bodenheimer, chairman of ESPN and ABC Sports, acknowledged last week that Comcast and OLN appear to be setting themselves up as a competitor, but believes that the competition will push his network to get even better. Our world is filled with competitors, but the prospects for ESPN have never looked brighter, he added. Our brand has never been stronger. We are comfortable with our position in the marketplace.

Bodenheimer said ESPN's goal is to renew its Sunday-Wednesday package, although he would not comment on where the discussions stand or why a deal isn't done yet. He also believes ESPN brings lots to the table for MLB. Baseball Tonight and SportsCenter are the national programs of record for chronicling baseball, he said. And we feel we are in the best position to promote baseball.

Chris Tully, senior vp of broadcasting, MLB, also wouldn't discuss the negotiations or why they have dragged out, but said, Our challenge is to maximize the value of our national telecast packages from both an economic and promotional perspective. The sports marketplace is changing rapidly, and we're taking a long-term strategic view. Obviously ESPN is not only a key player in that market but also a longstanding partner of MLB, and our continuing discussions with ESPN have been our primary focus to date.

But sources at MLB said while approving a new deal with ESPN would be a reality if all terms were equal, should another party come in with a more attractive offer, the league would not hesitate to choose that alternative.

ESPN's exclusive negotiating window expired in June, and sources inside and outside of MLB confirmed that TV rights discussions have taken place with Comcast/OLN.

Another factor in the negotiations is MLB's plan to start its own Baseball Channel, possibly before the start of next season. Were Comcast to include a provision to carry the Baseball Channel in any rights offer it proposed, it could be a sweetener that might lure MLB.

For its part, Comcast and OLN officials are being careful not to rile ESPN, stating that their only goal is to grow OLN's male audience base where it makes sense. But one sports league exec sees Comcast/OLN becoming a major factor in the sports TV world. I think they can be a player, he said. Not necessarily on the ESPN level, but it doesn't have to be to have an impact. If I were betting, I would bet that it will be a success story.

While preoccupied with negotiating new TV rights deals, ESPN's Bodenheimer also has to deal with replacing Mark Shapiro, executive vp of programming and production, who oversaw all ESPN/ABC Sports programming.

(OK, so none of them are in HD. But they are clogging up the airways and keeping HD programs off the air!)

Real losers!

Facing up to the horror that is reality TV this summer

By Jonathan Storm Philadelphia Daily News

Now is the summer of my discontent. My brows are bound in disgust at the hordes of no-name morons who court the amorous looking glass of television. I hate the idle pleasures of these days.

That little prelude of pidgin Shakespeare has surely shooed the slack-jaws to the comics pages, so now let's howl with indignation, you and me, at the horror of summer reality TV.

On NBC, I Want to Be a Hilton (it made me want to be a Motel 6) mercifully ends, but then tattooed C-lister Tommy Lee jumps in, pointlessly struggling to make it in college. Smarmy Big Brother remains a summertime CBS fixture, now augmented with the wretchedness of Rock Star: INXS.

Continuing its copycat tradition, Fox galumphs onto the scene with a mean dance show, simultaneously inspiring boredom, aggravation and a sweet longing for the long-ago days of ABC's Dancing With the Stars, the only palatable offering in a cornucopia of summer silliness - even if the guy who played Mr. Peterman should have won.

Once again, ABC gets the gold star. It actually canceled a reality show before it began, though it was just luck, coupled with public outcry - "racist," "homophobic," "demeaning to Christians" - that killed Welcome to the Neighborhood.

Normal viewers' bleats of "insipid," "insulting" and "insufficiently entertaining" are never enough.

Let the kids have their MTV in the rec room. It is summer, after all. They're off. They can rest their brains watching the spoiled louts of Laguna Beach, that Andy show with the creepy fat kid (who's actually 29), or the self-involved preeners on The Real World.

But what has TV done to us grown-ups? Our channels are awash with awful offal, transcending the usual reruns of lame sitcoms and hackneyed dramas. Though there's still a chance to catch good, fresh stuff on cable (Monk, The Closer, Over There, Rescue Me, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia) and a rerun of an episode of CSI or Arrested Development you might have missed, it's just plain scary to turn on the tube.

The crisis hit Red Alert this week when Bravo premiered Battle of the Network Reality Stars. It still says "the Film and Arts Network" when you Google Bravo, but Inside the Actors Studio is all that remains from the network's former glory days. That's apt. James Lipton is a perfect candidate for The Surreal Life.

Not only does Battle feature "stars" you never heard of (Valerie Penso from Temptation Island?), it features "stars" from shows you never heard of (Showbiz Moms & Dads - on Bravo, of course). They square off in pointless competitions, like running obstacle courses or jousting. It's all pretty gentle. Nothing as brutal as, for instance, watching a 90-minute reality show (which Battle is) without interruption.

Amazon Rachel Love Frasier, whose plastic surgery made her look more like an albatross than The Swan she was supposed to become, and Charla Faddoul, the dwarf from The Amazing Race, battled to a tie, while festering viewers became the big losers.

The show is so dumb it couldn't even come up with different colors for its four teams. Their uniforms are red, green, light blue and dark blue.

Richard III went to his death hollering, "A horse! A horse! My kingdom for a horse!" If autumn's sanity does not soon arrive, we may all be forced to follow the lead of an earlier tragic character, Oedipus. He poked his eyes out.

Right nice sendoff for 'Six Feet Under'
Nearly 4 million pay their respects to the series

By Abigail Azote medialifemagazine.com

Early in the season, it looked like Six Feet Under was headed for a slow, dismal death. But after a summer of viewership decline, the series ended its five-year run Sunday respectably with its most-watched episode of the season.

The 75-minute finale drew 3.9 million viewers. The final episode was up 53 percent from the series' modest season average, though up only 4 percent from last season's finale.

While many former fans obviously returned to pay their final respects, it could not undo two years' worth of declining ratings. Season five averaged 2.5 million viewers, down 32 percent from last year and less than half its season two peak.

Much of the slip was because of a move to Mondays to start the season, where it averaged barely 2 million viewers. HBO returned the show to Sundays in July, where it received tons of finale publicity during this slow summer.

The finale averaged less than half of last year's Sex and the City sendoff or a typical Sopranos episode. But it was a dignified end to the once-critically acclaimed series that became increasingly morbid its final two years.

There were times when the incessant story-line darkness obliterated the humor and pushed the characters into the predictable world of dissolute soap opera, writes Dusty Saunders of the Rocky Mountain (Colo.) News. But the series nearly always rebounded and returned to its emotional roots, sometimes with a brutal honesty rare on television drama.

The final minutes of the dark comedy showed how members of the Fisher family met their end, a very different finish from the feel-good finales of late for Sex, Friends and Frasier. Which is exactly what creator Alan Ball wanted.

It was rare to see a show that so deftly melded the merry with the macabre, writes Teresa Wiltz of the Washington Post. Deep down, we were wishing that Six Feet Under' would turn out to be immortal.


In other cable ratings for the week ended Aug. 21:

Top five networks in primetime (18-49s): TNT, USA, TBS, Fox, Spike

Top five networks in primetime (total viewers): TNT, USA, Nick at Nite, Fox News, TBS

Top movie (18-49s): TBS's My Cousin Vinny (Sunday 8 p.m.) 1.88 million

Top sporting event (total viewers): TNT's Nextel Cup (Sunday 2:25 p.m.) 6.87 million

Shows making the top 10 among 18-34s, 18-49s and 25-54s: ESPN's NFL Preseason Eagles v. Steelers (Monday, 7:50 p.m.); Spike's WWE Entertainment (Monday, 10 p.m.); Spike's WWE Entertainment (Monday, 9 p.m.); FX's Rescue Me (Tuesday, 10 p.m.)

Show on the rise: Inside 9/11, National Geographic Channel, Sunday, 9 p.m. Some 2.1 million total viewers tuned in to the first part of a two-part miniseries, the first time NGC has ever broken 2 million. The show averaged a 2.0 rating among adults 25-54.

Show on the decline: Wanted, TNT, Sunday, 10 p.m. The show averaged 1.4 million viewers 18-49 last week, down 6 percent from the previous week and 21 percent from its July 31 premiere. It didn't make the top 50 show on cable among total viewers last week.

Tuesday's network prime-time ratings have been posted at the top of Latest News the first item in this thread.

For the WB, summer stumbles into fall
Ratings sink 20 percent among key 18-34 viewers

By Diego Vasquez medialifemagazine.com

It's been a rough summer for the WB, and it may be an even rougher fall.

The network, which is refocusing to target the older end of the 12-34 age group, is down significantly in every major demo this summer, most notably 20 percent among those key 18-34s.

Perhaps worse, one of the network's biggest schedule adjustments for fall is already looking like a bad idea.

The WB moved teen-focused dramas Smallville and Everwood to Thursday night last month. Since then, the WB's 18-34 Thursday average has fallen 40 percent to a 0.6.

For the six previous Thursdays, the WB averaged a 1.0 among 18-34s mainly showing back-to-back reruns of Blue Collar TV at 8 p.m. and reruns of Beauty and the Geek at 9 p.m.

Smallville and Everwood's 0.6 average is also 33 percent down from last summer's 0.9 average on Thursdays, when the reality bomb Studio 7 aired.

Both shows are in repeats now. Smallville previously aired on Wednesday and Everwood on Monday.

True, serial dramas don't repeat well, and Everwood in particular does poorly in reruns no matter where it airs. And summer tune-in isn't always indicative of regular-season performance, as big hits like ER and Desperate Housewives are also getting low ratings this summer.

But it's not the kind of start the WB wanted, and the night will get much tougher come fall.

Thursday will be the most competitive night of the week, with CBS's Survivor and CSI, NBC's Joey, Will & Grace and The Apprentice, Fox's The O.C., UPN's new Everybody Hates Chris and even ABC's Alias all expected to post decent ratings among 18-34s.

On TV, death's actually quite common
And less a matter of art than necessity, history tells us

By Ed Robertson medialifemagazine.com

From all the attention he received, you'd think Six Feet Under's Nate Fisher was the first TV character ever to die.

Not hardly. Television deaths occur with surprising regularity. The one interesting thing about them, and perhaps to the credit of the shows' writers, is that so few people seem to remember them.

Where Nate's death was remarkable was in its ingenuity, coming as it did in the weeks leading up to Sunday's finale. The writers' aim, a pretty clever one, was to use his death to wrap up the series, as a metaphorical shroud. Nate, a man who never found satisfaction at home or at work, finally finds in death the sense of purpose his life lacked.

And though he dies, he remains as a ghost, there to usher the others on their way. In the final sequence we witnessed the deaths of all the Fishers in a flash-forward. Television being the way it is, expect to see this plot device, death as doorway, coming to you on another network real soon.

But ordinarily TV deaths are less the work of creativity as of necessity. It's an ugly business, for sure, but there are times when there's little or no choice in the matter but to kill off the character.

Below are three occasions when death is the best option.

When a key actor dies

Actually, it's happened far more often than people may recall: Dan Blocker (Bonanza) in 1972, Jim Davis (Dallas) in 1981, Michael Conrad (Hill Street Blues) in 1983, Redd Foxx (The Royal Family) in 1991, John Ritter (8 Simple Rules) in 2003. This poses a problem for TV executives, especially if the series happens to be built around a specific actor, as in the case of Ritter.

In choosing to continue a show, as ABC did with Rules, the network faces the challenge of doing it in a manner that won't alienate the audience. ABC addressed Ritter's death head on by writing it into the show: His character, Paul Hennessy, died suddenly, just as Ritter died suddenly.

Death is also the only likely option where it's a supporting actor dies

The network knows that loyal viewers won't likely accept another actor in the role. Rather than recast the character, it's better to lay him to rest. That was done with Hoss when Blocker died and with Jock Ewing when Jim Davis passed away while "Dallas" was shooting. Hoss's death was alluded to in the 1972 season premiere of Bonanza, while Jock's death was part of the storyline that launched the 1981 season on Dallas. To explain a transition. A character's death can help a show address a change in concept or some other transition, such as when an actor leaves a show.

The Sopranos does this every season. Ralphie (Joe Pantoliano), Adriana (Drea de Matteo) and Big Pussy (Vincent Pastore) are just a few of the characters who have found themselves whacked at the end of their story arc.

NYPD Blue handled Jimmy Smits' exit by killing off Bobby Simone. Henry Blake on M*A*S*H perished when McLean Stevenson left. James Evans (John Amos) on Good Times, Edith Bunker (Jean Stapleton) on All in the Family and Bobby Ewing (Patrick Duffy) on Dallas likewise died when the actor who played them departed, though Bobby, of course, rose from the dead after Duffy came back to the show.

To salvage the show

When ratings are low, the options are few: either axe the show or try changes that will breathe new life into it.
At that point, there's still some risk that changes will drive off remaining viewers, but it's a minor one for sure. Changes can include switching time periods, revamping the format, introducing new characters, or killing off old ones.

Often it's supporting actors who get the bump when a show is struggling, as when Manny Quinlan (Henry Darrow) got knocked off in 1975 as part of the overhaul of Harry O.


But sometimes, though far less often, it's a lead character. James Garner did himself in on Nichols, an offbeat series the actor produced and starred in for NBC in 1971-1972.

Nichols was a turn-of-the-19th-century Western about a drifter (Garner) who reluctantly serves as sheriff of a small Arizona town. Nichols was also an amiable conman similar to the anti-heroes Garner had played on Maverick and in movies such as Support Your Local Sheriff. Yet viewers never warmed up to the character.

NBC not only switched Nichols to another night but changed the title to James Garner in Nichols, hoping that Garner's name might attract more viewers. But nothing worked. Nichols struggled all season.

By the time filming began on the year's final show, Nichols was on the bubble. In a last-ditch attempt to win renewal, Garner had Nichols gunned down in the opening minutes of the final show of the season and replaced with a new character, Nichols' stalwart twin brother (also played by Garner), a more conventional hero. The plan called for Nichols' brother to avenge the murder and take over as the focus of the series in the second season.

It was an audacious move, and it might have worked had the network stuck with the show. NBC chose not to, instead canceling Nichols just before the episode aired.

(Ed Robertson is a TV historian and a regular contributor to Media Life. )

Dutch TV Outdoes Itself

bcbeat.comYet another sign of the impending TV apocalypse:

New Dutch TV network Talpa will air a reality show about a woman seeking a sperm donor. The show is called "I Want Your Child ... and Nothing Else!", Reuters reports.

The show is a one-off that will compete against other reality pilots (including one about former prostitutes that band together to start a cafe) to become a series.

It's almost time to play hail to chiefs in prime time

By Diane Holloway Cox News Service August 24, 2005

AUSTIN, Texas -- This television season, look for three U.S. presidents in prime time. That's not counting the occasional address by President Bush, which would make a quartet of presidents. Too many.

We know for sure that one prez will be a woman; another has a 50-50 chance of being Latino. The third, whoever takes over on "24," won't be revealed until the thriller returns in January, and even then we won't know anything about his/her politics.

Until President Bartlet (Martin Sheen) moved into the White House on "The West Wing," we had never had a president starring in a TV series. In some opinion polls conducted before last year's real presidential election, Bartlet scored better than either President Bush or opponent Sen. John Kerry.

It is perhaps a reflection of the divisions in the country and the generally low esteem in which we hold our politicians that a fictional leader (and a liberal Democrat to boot) is the president of choice in our conservative-leaning country.

The new crop of TV presidents is diverse, something that has been missing in our real Oval Office.

Geena Davis will star as the first female president in ABC's "Commander in Chief," which debuts Sept. 27. (Yes, that means Thelma, of "Thelma & Louise" fame, will become the leader of the free world.)

Rumors of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton contending for the White House notwithstanding, "Commander" creator-executive producer Rod Lurie has Davis' character taking charge not through popular election but through the back door. Lurie thinks a woman will have a tough time being elected president as long as national security is the nation's top concern.

In the pilot for the new ABC series, the Republican president suffers a stroke, and Vice President Mackenzie Allen (Davis) is alerted. She is told -- by the dying president and by Republican staff and leaders -- that she is expected to resign so that Speaker of the House Nathan Templeton (Donald Sutherland) can assume the presidency.

It's unclear how much of the opposition to Allen is due to her being a woman and how much is due to her politics. She is an Independent who was put on the ticket as a vote-getter among women, but the party isn't thrilled with her unpredictable views.

Obviously Allen ignores the naysayers and assumes office after the president dies. Besides malcontents in her own party, she must deal with her husband, who becomes the first first gentleman, and their three children.

Sees need for female politicians

Lurie, a former reporter, is a self-proclaimed feminist who laments the absence of female politicians at the national level. He said recently that he wrote "Commander in Chief" for his daughter. He also wrote the movie "The Contender," in which Joan Allen faced political attacks in an attempt to be confirmed as vice president.

"If we don't consider women for high office, we knock out 50 percent of our greatness," Lurie said.

Hollywood tends to lean left; no doubt about it. And Lurie and Davis are both Democrats, but Lurie promises he will not use "Commander in Chief" as a soapbox.

Right off the bat, taking the politics out of "Commander" sets the show a world apart from "The West Wing," which loves to deal with partisan issues and the inner workings of the government. That's what creator Aaron Sorkin set out to do, and what executive producer John Wells has continued to do.

At the end of NBC's "West Wing" last season, Bartlet's tenure was ending, and two attractive candidates were on the campaign trail. It seemed a foregone conclusion that Jimmy Smits' U.S. Rep. Matt Santos, a Democrat from Houston, would win. How else would the show keep Bartlet's staff of Democrats?

Alda for president?

But now there is speculation that Alan Alda, who plays Sen. Arnold Vinick, a Republican from California, could win in a squeaker. NBC Entertainment President Kevin Reilly told TV critics in Los Angeles recently that the election will not be resolved right away -- probably not until the November sweeps.

So "The West Wing," when it returns Sept. 25 in a new Sunday time slot, will either give us a moderate Latino Democrat or a moderate, aging white Republican. It also will give us a live debate between the two fictional candidates during the November sweeps.

And what of "24"? As usual, everything is a big dark secret on the Fox suspense thriller. We don't know how much time will have elapsed from Jack Bauer's departure from CTU or who will be in office to direct our counterterrorism efforts when the show returns.

We do know that past "24" presidents have included David Palmer, a strong leader except when it came to dealing with the women in his life, and last season's odd duo. First came President Keeler, about whom we knew little before he was injured in an attack on Air Force One, and then came weak-kneed President Logan, who was elevated from vice president after the plane crash.

Unlike "The West Wing" or "Commander in Chief," "24" doesn't present its presidential character in a focal role of power. This year would be a good time to beef up the prez, swear in a woman (two female presidents in prime time might have an impact on real-life politics!) and send Jack to the White House to thwart a terrorist coup.

A TV series will never really show us what life is like in the White House, which is probably just as well. It's either a lot more intense or a lot more boring than fiction can conjure.

Ailes Claims New Fox Turf
By Rebecca Dana The New York Observer

First Roger Ailes took over part of Lachlan Murdoch's old job. Now, according to a News Corp. staffer, Mr. Ailes is taking Lachlan's old officeon the eighth floor of company headquarters, one door down from Rupert Murdoch himself.

Even without the new digs, Mr. Ailes' appointment earlier this month to head the Fox Television Stations group marks him as the ascendant figure in the post-Lachlan realignment of News Corp.

Mr. Ailes' newest territory is the most profitable unit of News Corp., bringing in $900 million in operating income last year, or more than one quarter of the company's total operating income. But unlike the Fox Broadcasting Company or the Fox News Channel, it remains one of the more vaguely known parts of the Murdoch empire, with no Homer Simpson or Bill O'Reilly to embody it.

The station group has been around since 1986, when Mr. Murdoch began buying up local television stations to carry his Fox network programming around the country.

Eventually, buying affiliates from independent owners and from other station groups, News Corp. amassed 35 stations. Among those were pairs of stations in nine marketsincluding New York, Los Angeles and Chicagowhich allowed Fox to save money by sharing a certain amount of staff.

All told, the Fox Stations Group now accounts for around 20 percent of the Fox network's affiliates and employs some 5,300 people. It is the second-largest station group in the country, behind only Viacom's station group.

Yet it has largely remained an aggregation of individual stations, not a streamlined national brand reaching out to local communities. Said one high-ranking executive who has worked both with Mr. Ailes and in local television, That's what's missing at Fox, and that's the first thing Roger's gonna try to do.

Mr. Ailes, a product of Warren, Ohio, has a history of connecting to small-town America. After producing the Ohio-based Mike Douglas show, the young Mr. Ailes made his name by putting Richard Nixon on television in 1968, making him look appealing to local viewers.

Building a station-group identity would be another feat of packaging. Right now, the affiliates get two hours of prime-time programming from Fox on weekdays, seven hours of kids and nighttime programming on Saturdays, four hours on Sundays, and an assortment of sports events and specials. That's less than what ABC, NBC and CBS offer their affiliates, because the Big Three also have morning and late-night shows and national evening newscasts.

The individual Fox affiliates fill up the rest of the day with local newscasts and syndicated programming, either first-run or reruns.

In another bit of centralization, Mr. Ailes will also oversee Twentieth Television, which produces some of this first-run syndicated programming and distributes off-network programming.

And Mr. Ailes will remain busy running the top-ranking Fox News Channel he helped build from scratch. But to varying degrees, the job of heading a stations group can be a hands-off job.

Mr. Ailes' rough organizational equivalent at Sinclair, which owns 61 stations (including 20 Fox affiliates), would be David Smith, the company's president and C.E.O. Mr. Smith is described by his company as a big picture, long-term strategic thinker; day-to-day operations are run by chief operating officer Steve Marks. Mr. Marks is an approximate analog to Jack Abernethy, C.E.O. of the Fox Stations Group, and Mr. Ailes' right-hand man and former deputy at Fox News Channel.

Each Fox Group station has a general manager, who reports up the corporate ladder to Mr. Abernethy, who reports to Mr. Ailes, who reports jointly to Mr. Murdoch and News Corp. president and chief operating officer Peter Chernin.

Much has already been made about the initial challenges that Mr. Ailes will face in the job: what to do (if anything) with morning and late-night time slots; how to convince Nielsen to change its people meters to boost Fox-friendly urban-viewership numbers; how to make local news more watchable; how (or whether) to proceed with the development of a Fox business channel; how to balance his new responsibilities with his old ones at Fox News.

Said one insider: I don't think there will be time for a lot of golf.

'Housewives' Won't Tease to Start Season

LOS ANGELES (Zap2it.com)Fans of "Desperate Housewives" won't have to wait very long to get a resolution to last season's closing-shot cliffhanger.

ABC says that the second-season premiere of the hit series, scheduled for Sunday, Sept. 25, will

Alfre Woodard ("Beauty Shop," "Miss Evers' Boys") and Mehcad Brooks also join the cast as a mother and son who have just moved onto Wisteria Lane.

Weekly Ratings Notes
'Six Feet' gets good send-off

By USA Today Contributing: By Bill Keveney

Crowded funeral. On Sunday, 3.9 million watched the entire Fisher family and their friends pass away on the final episode of HBO's Six Feet Under. It was the series's best showing since the fourth-season premiere in June 2004, and a jump of 700,000 over the previous week's episode (which had been the most watched of the season). Still, the fifth-season finale's audience was only slightly above last season's average of 3.7 million; in earlier seasons, episodes topped 5 million. With Six Feet Under as a lead-in, Entourage crept to a series high of 2.7 million viewers.

Dance revival. After three weeks of decline, Fox's So You Think You Can Dance had its second-best showing, 8.7 million viewers. It was No. 3 among young adults, with an audience of 4.6 million ages 18 to 49. Last week's episode was the first featuring the final 16 dancers in an elimination competition.

Good grades. The second of back-to-back premiere episodes of NBC's Tommy Lee Goes to College cracked the week's top 10 among young adults with 4 million viewers. The total audience, 6.1 million viewers, for the rocker's matriculation was less impressive, but gets a passing mark in TV's underperforming summer school.

Reality rebound. Four other network reality shows made the week's top 10 among young adults: two episodes of CBS' Big Brother (Nos. 4 and 5), a rerun of ABC's Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (No. 6) and the Tuesday edition of CBS' Rock Star: INXS (No. 10).

Happy birthday. MTV's My Super Sweet 16 grabbed an enviable 3.6 million viewers in its second-season premiere. It marked its best performance ever among the core demographic, ages 12 to 34.

Proud performance. About 4.8 million viewers watched Friday's premiere of The Proud Family Movie, a Disney Channel film based on the network's animated series. It marked the best showing for a Disney original film since October.

High absenteeism. Steve Carell's new film, The 40-Year-Old Virgin, was No. 1 at the box office, but a four-episode marathon of reruns of his NBC comedy, The Office, called in sick in the ratings with an average of 3.2 million viewers.

dline:

Stations will have to carry all multicast signals?

Wow, that is going to be a mess for D* and E*.

Will the same rules apply to MSOs?

TiVo's Rogers Says Co Has New Marketing Strategy

By ELLEN SHENG Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES August 24, 2005 6:34 p.m.

NEW YORK -- TiVo Inc. (TIVO) will be changing the way it markets its independent, standalone products, TiVo's new chief executive Tom Rogers said Wednesday after the company released its fiscal second-quarter earnings report.

The Alviso, Calif., company gets the majority of its customers through a partnership with DirecTV Group Inc. (DTV). But with that relationship winding down - DirecTV has said it will focus on marketing a rival digital video recorder in the future - TiVo has been putting more emphasis on its own independent product.

Despite efforts that included price slashing and a splashy ad campaign, increasing independent subscriber numbers hasn't been easy. TiVo's independent sales came in at the low end of expectations with 40,000 customers in the second quarter, which ended July 31. A year ago, the company added 63,000.

TiVo will be attacking the whole retail distribution side more aggressively, attacking the issue with "new energy and focus," Rogers told Dow Jones Newswires. Specifics about the company's new strategy weren't disclosed but will be announced in the coming months. Rogers said they will extend beyond tinkering with prices.

"Mass distribution is our goal" and both standalone subscribers and partnerships are important, Rogers said, but "the reality is the Comcast deal we've done and others we hope to do won't be kicking in until the middle of next year. In the meantime, retail sales take on importance."

TiVo landed an important partnership with Comcast Corp. (CMCSA, CMCSK), the country's largest cable operator with 21.5 million subscribers, earlier this year. Under the agreement, Comcast will be offering TiVo as a premium service.

TiVo also came to agreements with the National Cable Television Cooperative and closely held Cebridge. The company also said Wednesday that it is running a marketing trial with Cablevision Systems Corp. (CVC) of Bethpage, N.Y., through which Cablevision will be offering TiVo boxes to satellite customers who switch to cable.

Late Wednesday, TiVo said it earned $240,000, or break-even on a per-share basis, and posted net revenue after subtracting rebates of $39.3 million in the second quarter. A year ago, the company showed a net loss of $10.8 million, or 13 cents a share, on net revenue of $39.8 million.

Total net subscribers were 254,000 in the second quarter, with 214,000 coming from DirecTV. Rogers said the high number of DirecTV customers was due to promotions. The company ended the quarter with 3.6 million total subscribers.

USA and Universal-HD US Open Tennis Schedule
released by USA Network/Universal HD

For the 22nd consecutive year, USA Network is proud to present the US Open Tennis Championships. In his 14th year behind the mike, Hall-of-Famer and two-time Emmy-nominated analyst John McEnroe headlines the USA broadcast team, with fellow Hall-of-Famer Tracy Austin sitting beside McEnroe for her 15th year of calling US Open action. USA's announce team also includes four-time Grand Slam champion Jim Courier as well as Bill Macatee, Ted Robinson, Michael Barkann, and Al Trautwig.

More than 95 hours of live coverage on USA begins Monday, August 29th. Some 65 hours of USA Network's US Open coverage will also be simulcast in high-definition on Universal HD - visit universalhd.com for more information. Don't miss a second of the action!

Mon, August 29 7:00 PM 2005 US OPEN LIVE HD
Tue, August 30 7:00 PM 2005 US OPEN LIVE HD
Wed, August 31 6:00 AM 2005 US OPEN
Wed, August 31 7:00 PM 2005 US OPEN LIVE HD
Thu, September 1 6:00 AM 2005 US OPEN
Thu, September 1 7:00 PM 2005 US OPEN LIVE HD
Fri, September 2 6:00 AM 2005 US OPEN
Fri, September 2 7:00 PM 2005 US OPEN LIVE HD
Sat, September 3 6:00 AM 2005 US OPEN
Sat, September 3 7:00 PM 2005 US OPEN LIVE HD
Sat, September 3 1:00 AM 2005 US OPEN
Sun, September 4 6:00 AM 2005 US OPEN
Sun, September 4 7:00 PM 2005 US OPEN LIVE HD
Sun, September 4 12:30 AM 2005 US OPEN
Mon, September 5 6:00 AM 2005 US OPEN
Mon, September 5 7:00 PM 2005 US OPEN LIVE HD
Tue, September 6 6:00 AM 2005 US OPEN
Tue, September 6 11:00 AM 2005 US OPEN LIVE HD
Tue, September 6 7:00 PM 2005 US OPEN LIVE HD
Wed, September 7 6:00 AM 2005 US OPEN
Wed, September 7 11:00 AM 2005 US OPEN LIVE HD
Wed, September 7 7:00 PM 2005 US OPEN LIVE HD
Thu, September 8 6:00 AM 2005 US OPEN
Thu, September 8 11:00 AM 2005 US OPEN LIVE HD
Thu, September 8 7:00 PM 2005 US OPEN LIVE HD
Fri, September 9 6:00 AM 2005 US OPEN
Sat, September 10 6:00 AM 2005 US OPEN
Sun, September 11 6:00 AM 2005 US OPEN
Sun, September 11 1:00 PM 2005 US OPEN LIVE HD

It could be, foxeng, or it could be just because there are so few TV signals available in those two states (and the fact that Alaska Sen. Stevens heads the Commerce Committee.) So, in effect, it would give more TV service to DBS subs in the 49th and 50th states.

We'll have to see.

An Anchor by Evening, a Blogger Any Time

By JACQUES STEINBERG The New York Times August 25, 2005

He was the first anchor to take over a network evening newscast in the 21st century, so it was probably inevitable that Brian Williams would begin channeling his inner Gawker by getting his own daily blog.

While Mr. Williams is careful not to traffic in gossip or observations that might breach his journalistic objectivity on matters like the course of the war in Iraq, his dispatches for what is known as "The Daily Nightly" on nightly.msnbc.com are striking in two main respects. One is the light he periodically sheds, in real time, on deliberations among his "NBC Nightly News" colleagues, including their disagreements on the evolving lineup of that night's newscast. The other is the criticism he occasionally levels at himself and the program when he feels either has come up short.

"About last night's broadcast: immediately after we got off the air it was clear (based on my own gut, those whose opinions I respect, and viewer response) that we had missed the mark on two elements," he wrote, under the heading "Morning Mea Culpa," at 12:05 p.m. on Aug. 18. He went on to describe a series titled "Pain at the Pump," which had sought to answer the basic question of why gasoline prices vary wildly, even on the same street.

"We called the dynamic 'maddening' - and I'm afraid our attempt at an answer might have been equally maddening," he wrote, before adding, a few sentences later, "While the segment was the work of some our most talented folks ... I fully accept the ultimate blame for any miscommunication." He also took "full responsibility" for the intermittent failure of a search tool on the MSNBC Web site, to which he had directed viewers as a means to find the cheapest gas in their neighborhoods.

For several years, newscasts - on both the broadcast networks and cable - have sought to stoke the interest of viewers with mass messages sent via e-mail describing that night's program. As a logical extension, CBS News will introduce a new Web site next month that will feature an ombudsman charged with, among other tasks, answering viewer questions about the workings of the news division.

Meanwhile, a fledgling group of cable hosts - including Greta Van Susteren of Fox News - have begun their own blogs - hers is "Gretawire," reachable through foxnews.com.

But none of the Big 3 anchors who dominated network news for more than two decades - including Peter Jennings of ABC, who occasionally defended an editorial decision by mass e-mail - sought to do what Mr. Williams has been attempting since his blog went up, with little fanfare, on May 31: to communicate with his audience more informally, sometimes several times a day, in a voice that is effectively unfiltered.

"There is no better way to say this than to whip out a cliché from the old cliché bag or drawer," Mr. Williams said in an interview. "We are trying to lift the veil. We're trying to expose ourselves as a collection of humans grappling with how to spend our precious 22 minutes each night."

"I said to my wife," he added, " 'I don't have a therapist. I have my blog.' "

Mr. Williams and his colleagues (who sometimes post their own entries) have been motivated to show a little leg at least in part because of a financial reality of the news business: though the three broadcast newscasts still draw an average of more than 20 million viewers a night, they have been losing hundreds of thousands of viewers each year. As it has for other businesses, the Web offers a fresh marketing opportunity - in this case, a chance to lure younger people who might be thirsting for a little inside baseball.

In that quest, Mr. Williams has managed to captivate at least one influential viewer. He is Brian Stelter, whose own blog - a compendium of the daily doings in television news tvnewser.com - reads as if it were written by a grizzled veteran, not, as is the case, by a 19-year-old junior at Towson University in Maryland.

On 10 occasions over the last three months, Mr. Stelter has provided links to "The Daily Nightly" on his own blog. Never mind that at this early stage, Mr. Stelter receives about as many page views, or entries called up on his site, in a weekday (about 27,000) as "The Daily Nightly" does in about a week.

"It makes me want to watch the evening news, and I haven't watched in years," Mr. Stelter said in an interview. "It's so honest. Sometimes I'll wonder why he's allowed to tell us what he's telling us."

Mr. Williams - who at 46 is more than twice Mr. Stelter's age - said that he had struggled at times to find a tone that did not have the "coat of polish" that his words might in a "Nightly News" script.

His inaugural posting, at 4:20 p.m. on May 31, provided little more than a recitation of that night's newscast - a head's up that "The Daily Nightly" has provided every weekday since.

But as he has grown more comfortable, Mr. Williams has also begun posting musings on the editorial process that, he says, are virtually stream-of-consciousness and copy edited only lightly.

On June 23 at 4:09 p.m., for example, under the heading "Debating the Rundown," Mr. Williams wrote: "During our editorial meeting (which I will politely call a boisterous and vigorous exchange of views between colleagues) we debated the competing merits of our two lead story candidates: the changing administration position on the insurgency in Iraq, and today's Supreme Court decision on private property."

Mr. Williams then identified particular colleagues by name, and the positions they staked out. The reader was left with a cliffhanger, the matter unresolved. Only at 6:23 p.m., seven minutes before he went on the air, did Mr. Williams take to his blog to write, "And the lead is ... the Supreme Court decision."

And then, Mr. Williams's online alter ego provided a "billboard" or "tease" to the correspondent who would deliver that report by introducing him in a way that Mr. Williams's stentorian, on-air persona never would.

He called him "Pete 'no relation that we know of' Williams."

HBO plots to make history via 'Rome'

By Bill Keveney USA TODAY

They spent. They filmed. Will they conquer?

That's the question as HBO launches one of the most expensive series ever made, Rome (Sunday, 9 p.m. ET/PT). The pay-cable network, looking for the next Sopranos as it awaits the 2006 return of the original, is hoping the lavish story of the Roman empire in Caesar's time will be its next buzzworthy hit.

The 12-episode Rome comes weeks after ABC's Empire, another epic covering roughly the same period. Empire foundered with viewers and came in the wake of disappointing domestic box offices for Alexander, King Arthur and Kingdom of Heaven.

Executive producer Bruno Heller doesn't sense a larger rejection of the historical epic and says Rome will be judged on its own merits, not on generalizations about a genre reborn in the success of 2000's Gladiator. "It's about telling compelling stories and creating characters that people can identify with, whether it's a cowboy movie or a sci-fi show. That's what draws people in, not period costumes," he says.

Still, $100 million bought plenty of costumes, along with what producers say is a Rome studio set that is the largest ever for a TV series.

"We were on horseback riding up the Via Sacra, and it's almost a 360-degree full-sized set," says Ray Stevenson, who plays the impulsive soldier Titus Pullo. "You couldn't see the cameras, they're so far away. It gives your character a sense of the scale" of the city.

Rome starts in 52 B.C. with Julius Caesar (Ciaran Hinds) about to return after conquering Gaul. The Senate, led by Caesar's mentor, Pompey Magnus (Kenneth Cranham), is nervous about Caesar's plans and the fate of the Republic.

The series, a co-production of HBO and the BBC, depicts a filthier, grittier city than the white-marble edifice portrayed in many films. The political scheming and historical battles of the history books are balanced by the intimate domestic dramas of soldiers, slaves and aristocrats. Blood, gore, sex and nudity are plentiful "the Western id unleashed" in a pagan society, Heller says.

HBO entertainment president Carolyn Strauss believes Rome will stand out against other historical epics. "There's a painstakingness to production (detail) and a sort of worm's-eye view that is fresh and new," she says. "It's a little bit offbeat and a little bit wry."

All Yankees, All the Time Works for YES

By RICHARD SANDOMIR The New York Times August 25, 2005

YES Network is a study in Yankees immersion. Oh, there are Nets games, but YES is clearly the sod of the Yankees, a pinstriped gift box, a special-interest channel packed with 130 games and past classics, 34 adoring episodes of "Yankeeography," a magazine program and a series in which four fans travel to every Yankee game.

It offers no nightly sports news wrap-ups like "SportsCenter" but uses its studios for pregame and postgame Yankees and Nets shows and the "CenterStage" talk show.

The real news at YES is the Yankees - past and present, dead and active.

In its four years, YES has become the most-watched regional sports network in the country - outpacing its local rivals, MSG Network and Fox Sports New York - an achievement that would have been impossible if the Yankees did not have 26 World Series titles and an owner who prefers winning to breathing.

"The team has played real well for 10 years, so the question is, what's our risk profile?" said Tracy Dolgin, a former Fox Sports executive who became the YES president last September. "With an incredible brand like the Yankees, you could go some period of time not performing well without the business going to hell."

Despite an inconsistent season, the Yankees (69-56) have been the stars of local prime time. Twelve of their last 17 prime-time games through Tuesday had beaten all other local programming among YES's target audience, men 18 or older. For the season, Yankees games held that distinction 17 times in 56 games.

On Tuesday night, the Blue Jays-Yankees 7 p.m. game generated a 5.8 local rating - more than five times higher than that of the Mets' victory over Arizona, which started at 9:30. The Yankees' postgame show tripled the Mets' rating.

Through 98 YES telecasts, Yankees games had an average 4.4 rating, down 4 percent from last year, but 158 percent better than that of Mets games, which suffered in April and May from Time Warner's blackout of MSG and FSNY.

While the primary goal of Leo J. Hindery, Dolgin's predecessor, was to make sure YES was fully distributed around the region, Dolgin's role has been to raise YES's value and revenues. If fans crave comfort by tuning in to Yankees games, he reasons, advertisers should feel as cozy about tying their products to the team.

"I view YES as a business," he said. "Maybe when you own a team there is a public trust element, but this is a business."

Lee Berke, a consultant to several regional sports networks, said, "Tracy was brought in to improve profit margins, and he's been pushing it to the max in terms of advertising inventory and innovative marketing."

Dolgin said that his approach was to appeal to the core fan by acting like a fan, with a clear view that the network wanted the Yankees and the Nets to succeed - not unlike many other team- and league-owned cable channels.

Some of Dolgin's most noticeable changes have been on the advertising side. During Yankees telecasts this season, advertisers have bought 90-second "content breaks" to sell films ("The Bad News Bears" and "Mr. and Mrs. Smith") and television programs (Fox's "24," National Geographic's "Extraterrestrial" and FX's "Over There") on the belief that viewers will not surf away the way they would from traditional 30-second commercials.

Each break is preceded by two "teases" in earlier innings by Michael Kay, the Yankees' play-by-play announcer. Dolgin anticipates breaks lasting up to 2 minutes 40 seconds during halftime of Nets games and for nonentertainment companies, like banks, to buy time for 90-second breaks next baseball season.

A more intriguing, if immodest, innovation occurs in "The Ultimate Road Trip," in which four fans attend all home and away Yankees games. In these, the sponsors are kings, enablers of this season-long fantasy. The four extol the comfort of their Dodge Durango, compete to win a Fujifilm digital camera, fly on Continental Airlines, sip Dunkin' Donuts Coolattas and make sandwiches at a Blimpie in Manhattan to raise money for the Jorge Posada Foundation. And don't forget those glimpses at the Fujifilm blimp or the lingering close-ups of the Durango grille.

The aggressive integration of the sponsors' products into the series was planned by Dolgin as a kitschy extension of traditional product placement, a way to make the products the program's heroes, without which it would not exist.

"It helps them achieve their goals, and I'm not trying to fool viewers," he said.

Jarrod Moses, the president of Alliance, the entertainment marketing firm that is part of the Grey Global Group, said that over-the-top product integration might hurt the believability of the series.

"The rule of thumb," he added, "is what wouldn't happen in your own day wouldn't happen on the air."

Two of the sponsors said they were pleased with the results so far.

Adam Yates, a spokesman for Fujifilm, said the company did not want its cameras to be used shamelessly, but suggested that "it's not too far a reach for people on a road trip to record their adventures with a Fujifilm digital camera."

Ron Feigenbaum, the marketing director of Blimpie, said his fast-food chain coveted having its message inserted into the series and proposed turning over one of its stores to the four "Road Trip" participants for the day (during which Posada, the Yankees catcher, and his wife, Laura, made appearances).

Next season, Dolgin is planning a series tentatively called "Boys' Toys," which will integrate the types of products that appeal to demographically appealing guys.

As for the Nets, Dolgin said they were less exploitable than the Yankees. Their history is less glorious, their players less worthy of a "Netography."

"What we can do is improve the telecasts, and the easiest way is with the announcers," he said.

YES has hired Marv Albert - the former longtime Knicks announcer - as its play-by-play voice and is expected to add Kenny Smith, Mark Jackson or Mike Gminski as his partner.

"Being a better team this year, with more marketable players, and with Marv, we have a chance to outrate the Knicks," Dolgin said.

Last season, the Knicks averaged a 1.0 rating, the Nets a slim 0.6.

"If we beat the Knicks," Dolgin said, "we can go to sponsors no longer being the second banana.

Your Attention will 'Rome'
By David Bianculli New York Daily News August 25th, 2005

** 1/2

ROME Sunday night at 9 PM ET/PT, HBO

Just as Rome the city wasn't built in a day, "Rome" the HBO series requires patience, also.

Maybe too much - because after watching six episodes, I'm still not sold on the overall worth of this ambitious period drama.

With HBO, patience often is rewarded as well as required. "Deadwood" didn't reveal its full potential until episode five; "Six Feet Under" really kicked in during its second season, as did the current, increasingly enjoyable "Entourage."

"Rome," set in 52 B.C. and unspooling its action slowly over 12 first-season episodes, falls somewhere in between. The show, premiering Sunday night at 9, aspires to be "The Sopranos" in togas, taking the warring Italian factions to their ancient historical roots.

Yet where "The Sopranos" featured brilliant and vibrant writing from the start, "Rome" provides only occasional snippets, and is more muddy and confusing than crisp and entertaining.

And where "The Sopranos" is bursting with outstanding, charismatic, unforgettable characters and performances, the first half-season of "Rome" presents only one: Polly Walker as Atia, the scheming niece of Ciaran Hinds' Julius Caesar.

Walker's villainess is everything you'd want, and hope for, from an HBO-BBC co-production about ancient Rome: She's ruthless, twisted, gorgeous, oversexed and frequently naked. When she's on screen, almost no one matches her intensity.

The closest are Max Pirkis and Kerry Condon as Atia's dangerously intelligent and observant children, Octavian and Octavia, and James Purefoy as Marc Antony.

History tells us to expect more from these characters in future episodes and seasons of "Rome," and this could well be another HBO series that shifts into gear in its sophomore year.

There's a sense here, though, that a lot more attention and energy was invested in the look of the series - the sets, costumes and photography are marvelous - than in the areas of scriptwriting and casting.

"Rome," as it gets started, tells the often intertwined stories of two sets of men. One story focuses on the power struggle between victorious returning warrior Julius Caesar and Rome-ensconced Republic political leader Pompey Magnus (Kenneth Cranham). The other is a class-struggle comparison involving two odd-couple friends who served Caesar in the same armed legion: loyal centurion Lucius Vorenus (Kevin McKidd) and unbridled spirit Titus Pullo (Ray Stevenson).

The power and status of these men shifts significantly over the first several hours, and can be expected to shift even more. Subplots include spurned lovers, illegitimate children, and even Atia's determined attempts to nudge her young son into manhood by feeding him goat testicles and asking him, during a sword-fighting lesson, a question that turns out to have nothing to do with swordplay:

"Octavian," she asks pointedly, "have you penetrated anyone?"

Lines like that are why Atia, and Walker, stand out so vibrantly in "Rome."

Walker props up these early episodes almost singlehandedly. Stevenson has charm, but not enough screen time, and the other primary roles, for the most part, are played somewhat flat.

"Rome" may still turn out to be an exciting series for HBO, but it could take another I or II seasons to bear fruit - and in this competitive TV universe, that's much too much to ask.

Wednesday's network prime-time ratings have been posted at the top of Latest News the first item in this thread.

Cable Continues Summer Run
By Anthony Crupi mediaweek.com

According to Nielsen Media Research data crunched by Turner's chief research officer Jack Wakshlag for his quarterly ratings report to the media, ad supported cable is on track to win its fourth consecutive summer, taking in a projected 61.1 household share from June to August compared to the six broadcast networks' 32.0 household share.

Much of the share shift is happening in the adults 18-34 and 18-49 demos. Compared to last season, the six broadcast networks are down an average 21 percent in prime time among adults 18-34 , and off 14 percent in prime in the 18-49 demo.

The four-year trend shows no sign of stopping largely due to the broadcasters' inability to engague younger audiences, said Wakshlag.

"Young viewers continue to abandon and be abandoned by broadcast television," said Wakshlag, adding that the medium age of the big three's cumulative audience is now 49, up two years from 2000 and nine years from 1990.

Broadcast TV is also losing viewers because of its reliance on repeats, Wakshlag said. According to Nielsen data cited by Wakshlag, 69 percent of the broadcasters' summer fare are reruns.

Meanwhile cable's blend of original programming and movies is keeping it in the lead, Wakshlag said. Top-ranked TNT, which leads cable in 18-49, 25-54 and persons 2 plus, grew 8 percent versus summer 2004 thanks to its three new original series--The Closer, Wanted and Into The West--and the use of its extensive film library.

Other cable nets that fared well this summer were Spike TV, up 60 percent from last summer, AMC (24 percent), BET (23 percent) Lifetime (9 percent), VH1(8 percent) and A&E (8 percent).

However, not all of cable enjoyed a sunny summer. Despite a lineup of original critical darlings like Rescue Me and Over There, FX is down 7 percent this summer. ESPN is off 16 percent, having suffered ratings slides with Major League Baseball and its X-Games coverage.

TLC and Discovery limped into fall with both down 19 percent. Tent pole programs like American Chopper (down 45 percent), Monster House (down 55 percent) and American Hot Rod (down 32 percent), cooled considerably compared to last summer.

And more on the dismal summer ratings for the broadcast networks:

A summer of major gains for cable
Household share rises to 61, up 7 percent
By Toni Fitzgerald medialifemagazine.com

This summer the broadcast networks threw a slew of reality shows on the air in hopes that some would stick. Few did. Discriminating viewers sampled the shows once and clicked away.

Where did they go?

Off to cable, and in greater numbers than ever before. Broadcast's losses this summer, rather big losses, have been cable's gains.

Cable drew a best-ever 61 household share between May 30 and Aug. 21, according to Nielsen data analyzed by Turner Broadcasting and released yesterday. That was up 7 percent over last year's 57. Broadcast sank to a 32 share for the seven networks, including Pax, down 12 percent from last year.

It was the biggest summer dropoff since 1997, according to Turner, and it marks the fifth straight summer that cable has outdrawn broadcast in households.

Declines were even bigger in key demographics. The six broadcast networks are down 14 percent in 18-49s this summer and 21 percent among 18-34s, even though ABC and Fox have remained fairly steady.

At the same time the number of hours viewers spent per week this summer watching cable has risen to 15.8 from 11.2 five years ago, up 41 percent, according to Jack Wakshlag, Turner's chief researcher. By contrast, broadcast viewership has fallen 23 percent, from 12.4 hours to 9.5 hours.

At least part of this summer's dramatic declines can be attributed to last summer's Olympic coverage on NBC, which had the effect of boosting all the broadcast networks. With no Games this summer, viewing was bound to fall.

But also to blame for the networks' declines were a higher share of repeats this summer versus last and the flock of reality shows that sputtered after their debuts.

And as it happens they were airing during a summer when cable was at its strongest with original programming. Low-quality, lowbrow shows like NBC's Meet Mister Mom and Fox's Princes of Malibu bombed, while shows like TNT's The Closer and USA's Monk thrived on cable.

New shows have done particularly well on cable this summer among 18-49s. Closer, TNT's Wanted and FX's Over There, have averaged more than 1.5 million in the demo. Returning shows Monk and The 4400 on USA, FX's The Shield and Rescue Me and Sci Fi's Battlestar Galactica are all at 1.49 million or above.

Several networks also made big summer gains among 18-49s in primetime, including Spike, up 60 percent, AMC, up 24 percent, and BET, up 23 percent.

But sports also gave cable a big boost this summer, with TNT's NBA playoffs and NASCAR racing taking four of the summer's top five spots.

Among the broadcast networks this summer, NBC is down the most, falling 42 percent among 18-49s, though if you take out last summer's Olympic numbers it's down 24 percent.

Perhaps of interest to some of us who have left the favored 18-39 demographic..

Gunsmoke marks 50th anniversary
Actor Arness remembers his favorite episodes

By GLENN LOVELL Knight Ridder Newspapers

At 6 feet 7, James Arness as Marshal Matt Dillon redefined "tall in the saddle."

So imposing was the star of CBS's pioneering Gunsmoke series that when he told some no-account varmint to get out of Dodge, the skunk seldom needed a second invitation.

"Matt Dillon was the kind of guy who's low-key but stands for what is right," says Arness, 82, in a rare interview from his Los Angeles home. "And he goes about seeing that things turn out that way with, of course, a lot of people suffering along the way."

Expect plenty of shooting and suffering and darn good storytelling on the Encore Westerns channel starting at 7 p.m. Friday. To commemorate the 50th anniversary of TV's longest-running drama series, Encore is hosting a 50-hour Gunsmoke marathon. The show, often referred to as the first "adult" Western series, made its way from radio to a half-hour TV format in 1955. After climbing to No. 1 in the ratings, it was extended to an hour and was on the air until 1975.

John Wayne was originally approached about the Marshal Dillon role. He turned it down but recommended buddy Arness, his co-star in Hondo and a real-life hero who had received the Purple Heart for injuries sustained in Anzio, Italy, in 1944.

"It was ridiculous that they even went to Wayne," Arness says now. "He was the biggest Western movie star of all time, and they must have known he couldn't take it."

Arness earned $1,200 an episode at first, but after the show won Emmys and topped the ratings, he renegotiated for $20,000 an episode.

Since leaving prime time, Gunsmoke has been periodically reprised with Arness as producer-star of five made-for-TV movies, including Gunsmoke: The Long Ride (1993). It has always been a cash cow in syndication. (Encore and TV Land devote six hours daily to the show.) To what does Arness attribute its staying power?

"The only thing I can say is that we had great writers like Sam Peckinpah, and we always tried for realism," replies the actor who, though "retired from public life," still drives, and fields questions from fans at http://jamesarness.com.

The series also benefited from Arness' acting style. He would shoulder his way into a scene and let his physique do the talking.

"Yes, Dillon was a no-nonsense but multidimensional character," he agrees. "I just pretty much played the lines. I always said, 'I didn't play the character as much as the character played me.' "

Even after logging 600-plus episodes, Arness has no troubling ID'ing his favorites. Among these: Chato (1970), with Ricardo Montalban as a renegade Apache, and the two-parters Snow Train (1970) and The River (1972).

"The episode Chato is probably my all-time favorite show," he says. "Matt is sent out of his territory to stop the Apache, whose family was killed by U.S. cavalry, and we wind up having a certain understanding and friendship as the story evolves.

"Like a lot of the later shows, The River was shot on location, up in Oregon. The whole story takes place coming down this river, and these bad guys, played by Jack Elam and Slim Pickens, are after me, trying to kill me."

Each week, Marshal Dillon was joined by his worrywart deputy, Chester (Dennis Weaver), and the phlegmatic Doc (Milburn Stone) and hard-bitten Miss Kitty (Amanda Blake), who ran the Long Branch saloon. Burt Reynolds and Ken Curtis, who replaced Weaver, would later join the ensemble.

Given the show's often grim tone and fearless tackling of such issues as rape and revenge it's not surprising that CBS' front office had to battle the censors. The censors, he recalls, "limited us down to so many shootings per show and so many fistfights, but it didn't seem to affect the show. We kept on ticking; the producers wrote around this new set of rules."

Good.
But it would be nice if the must carry laws were the same for DBS, MSOs and the new Telco entrants -- though they all spend millions in lobbying to mainatin their various advantages.

'Closer' Finale Goes into Overtime

LOS ANGELES (Zap2it.com)The biggest cable hit of the summer is extending its season -- by 10 minutes.

TNT says the season finale of "The Closer," which is scheduled for Monday, Sept. 5, will run for 70 minutes instead the usual 60. The episode will find Deputy Chief Brenda Johnson (Kyra Sedgwick) charged with "conduct unbecoming" an officer.

"'The Closer' is a huge television success," says Steve Koonin, TNT's chief operating officer. "We are delighted to bring the first season of this top-notch show to a close by giving viewers even more of what they have come to love about the show."

The finale, written by series creator James Duff and directed by executive producer Michael Robin, sees the intramural fight between Johnson, head of Priority Homicide Division and Capt. Taylor (Robert Gossett) of the LAPD's Robbery Homicide Division come to a head, which results in the charges against Johnson. Meanwhile her squad is assigned to the murder of a Hollywood producer.

"The Closer" debuted in June to just over 7 million viewers -- one of the best showings ever by a scripted series on basic cable. It has shown staying power since then, averaging better than 5 million viewers per week and occasionally beating some of its broadcast counterparts on Monday nights.

TNT has already picked up a second season of the show.