Hot Off The Press: The Latest TV News and Information - Page 503

TV Notes
Lights out for 'Friday Night Lights'?
By Chuck Barney, Contra Costa Times, February 19, 2008

A new game show called "Amnesia" (9 PM ET/PT) premieres tonight on NBC. Hosted by Dennis Miller, it is described as a cross between "This Is Your Life" and "Jeopardy." Apparently, contestants earn big bucks if they can remember some embarrassing things about their own lives that they'd sometimes rather forget.

For all we know, "Amnesia" might be the next "American Idol" (but probably not). Still, there will be some viewers (but probably not enough) who hope NBC doesn't forget the little show that "Amnesia" is replacing in the lineup "Friday Night Lights."

OK, we've gone on and on about the amazing attributes of this wonderful small-town drama, so we'll spare you the drooling. Instead, we'll simply report that "Friday Night Lights" could be finished -- done and dead.

Sadly, "FNL" is one of the few shows that is not going back into production following the writers strike. And NBC has thus far held off on giving it a third-season order. That's not a good sign.

Already, dedicated fans have dipped into the "Jericho" playbook and launched a save-our-show campaign. But instead of bombarding the NBC offices with nuts, they're sending a bunch of mini footballs. To see what they're up to and perhaps lend a hand, check out their site at www.savefnl.com.

Now, we don't want to be the proverbial wet blanket, but we're not sure if such a campaign can score a touchdown. Unlike "Jericho," which was canceled after one season,

"FNL" has had almost two full seasons to gain some ratings traction and it failed to do so even when it was airing fresh episodes against mainly repeats during the strike.

Under those circumstances, maybe the most we could expect from NBC is some kind of wrap-up episode and/or movie to at least give fans some closure. After all, we don't even know if the Dillon Panthers are going to make the playoffs.

Then again, maybe our little underdog show can connect on a Hail Mary pass and secure a third season on NBC or elsewhere. Stranger upsets have happened. Just ask the New York Giants.

THE WOES OF 'JERICHO'

Fans, on occasion, can save a show, but sometimes the show they save doesn't exactly turn out to be the one for which they fought so passionately.

Case in point: After "Jericho" finally resumed last week, many viewers grumbled about the changes in look and tone, while bemoaning the absence of some beloved characters.

Chalk up some of that to economics. Even though CBS did renew "Jericho," it slashed the show's budget and dropped some actors, as well as writers. And producers had to play the card they were dealt.

The ratings didn't provide much encouragement either. After all that buzz "Jericho" generated with its fan uprising, last week's premiere drew a lackluster seven million viewers.

It will probably take a lot more than nuts to bring it back for a third season.

http://www.contracostatimes.com/television/ci_8305295

TV Notes
USA wants more 'Monk'
By Kimberly Nordyke, The Hollywood Reporter

"Monk" will be back on the case for a seventh season.

USA Network has given a 16-episode order to the drama series that stars Tony Shalhoub as Adrian Monk, a brilliant detective who suffers from obsessive-compulsive disorder. The cable channel is targeting a July premiere for the first half of the show, which is from Universal Media Studios in association with Mandeville Films and ABC Studios, and January for the second half.

In addition to Shalhoub, the rest of the cast also is set to return, including Traylor Howard, Ted Levine and Jason Gray-Stanford.

Shalhoub -- who has earned three Emmys, a Golden Globe and two SAG Awards for his role -- also executive produces with David Hoberman, Andy Breckman and Randy Zisk.

USA executive vp original programming Jeff Wachtel said it was a no-brainer renewing the series, saying it serves as both a tentpole series for the network's "Characters Welcome" brand as well as a launch pad for new shows. He noted that "Monk" is up 22% in the adults 18-49 demo and 15% in adults 25-54 for what USA calls the current "winter season" vs. the same period a year ago.

"You might say we were 'obsessed' with making this deal," Wachtel said. "Let's face it: It's not easy to 'wash your hands' of a show like 'Monk.' We have high hopes that this summer it will once again 'clean up' in the ratings."

Wachtel, who said there are no plans for any radical changes for the seventh season, noted that the tentative plan is to once again pair "Monk" with "Psych" but emphasized that nothing is set in stone. "Psych," also from Universal Media Studios, got renewed with a 16-episode order in September and also is set to return in the summer.

Meanwhile, "Monk" aired the first part of its sixth-season finale at 9 p.m. Friday night, drawing 5.6 million total viewers, according to Nielsen Media Research. That's on par with the 5.7 million averaged by the second-half season premiere last month. In the key adult demos, "Monk" pulled in 2.1 million in 18-49 and 2.5 million in 25-54.

Leading out of "Monk," "Psych" aired its second-season finale at 10 p.m. Friday. The episode averaged 4.7 million viewers, which also was on par with its "winter-season premiere" in January. That includes 2 million adults 18-49 and 2.2 million viewers 25-54.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/...f440470e5ff2b4

TV Notes
USA wants more 'Monk'
Network orders seventh season of hit show
By Josef Adalian, Variety

USA Network has hammered out a deal for a seventh season of signature skein "Monk" and will use the Tony Shalhoub starrer to anchor an aggressive summer sked of originals.

This summer the Peacock-owned cabler will have fresh episodes of no less than seven series -- a number unlikely to be surpassed by any other cabler, according to USA exec veepee of original programming Jeff Wachtel.

In addition to "Monk" -- which will return with new episodes in May -- Wachtel plans to run fresh segs of "Psych," "The Starter Wife," "Burn Notice" and newcomer "In Plain Sight" during the warm weather months. A new batch of "Law & Order: Criminal Intent" segs, originally slated for March, has been pushed to summer because of the Writers Guild strike.

Seventh skein on USA's summer slate has yet to be decided. Cabler expects to greenlight a couple of pilots in the next few months with the aim of launching one of them as a series in the summer.

Getting "Monk" back for a seventh season was a key part of USA's summer plan. While the show's strong ratings made a renewal likely, contract negotiations with the show's three key profit participants -- producers David Hoberman and Andy Breckman, along with Shalhoub -- meant the pickup was not a sure thing.

"You might say we were obsessed with making this deal," Wachtel quipped, alluding to Shalhoub's obsessive-compulsive character. "It's not easy to wash your hands of a show like 'Monk.' "

On a more serious note, Wachtel told Daily Variety that "Monk" is "a hugely significant show" for USA.

"It's a tentpole for our success, and it's been a successful launching pad," he said, noting "Monk's" key role in helping turn "Psych" into a success.

Despite "Monk's" value to USA, the show's pricetag could make the seventh season the last.

"We have to be thinking of that," Wachtel said. Andy Breckman is "starting to wrap up the show's mythology if this is, in fact, the final season."

Universal Media Studios produces "Monk" in association with Mandeville Films and ABC Studios. Repeats of the most recent season of "Monk" will begin airing on NBC later this season.

http://www.variety.com/article/VR111...goryid=14&cs=1

The Business of Television
Ending Tradition, NBC Dismisses Fall Debuts
By Bill Carter and Stuart Elliott, The New York Times, February 20, 2008

It soon may be time to retire the phrase “fall television season.”

NBC Universal took a big step toward undoing one of the television industry’s oldest traditions by announcing Tuesday that it would move to a year-round schedule of staggered program introductions. The move is intended to appeal to advertisers, who crave fresh content to keep viewers tuned in.

And if it succeeds — and leads other broadcast networks to shift from their focus on a mass introduction of new shows — it could alter an American cultural cycle that extends all the way back to the days of radio, when families gathered around the Philco every September, as the school year began, to sample the new entertainment choices.

NBC plans to announce a 52-week schedule in April, a month before ABC and CBS will unveil their fall lineups at splashy presentations known as upfronts. The decision means that NBC will be committing to a new lineup of shows earlier than any of its competitors, while also inviting advertisers to build marketing plans around specific shows and perhaps to integrate brands and products into the plots of the shows themselves.

“We absolutely think this is going to change the industry,” said Michael Pilot, the head of sales for NBC. That was one of the goals cited by Jeff Zucker, the president and chief executive of NBC Universal, in comments he has made recently about how the strike by Hollywood writers could create opportunities to change some of the ways networks do business.

The fall television season has been under assault on many fronts, from the many cable channels that introduce new shows whenever they find it convenient, to individual series like ABC’s “Grey’s Anatomy” that made their debuts in odd months like March.

Viewers have already become accustomed to a spring lineup from Fox, for instance, and for fresh slates of reality shows during the summer.

But the move by NBC Universal, a property of General Electric and Vivendi, represents a particularly bold stroke by a network with the size and clout to move markets. After it announces a list of programs in April, NBC plans to meet with big advertising clients in several cities, followed by a different sort of presentation in May that will encompass all the NBC Universal properties, including cable channels like Bravo, USA and CNBC.

What that event will not include is a special introduction of the fall prime-time schedule, which NBC has held for years in Radio City Music Hall and as its broadcast network competitors still intend to do this year. NBC is looking for a different site for the presentation because the Music Hall is not appropriate for the plans it has for that day.

But the day will include an introduction of the yearlong programming plans for the press as well as a party for advertising clients that will include some NBC stars. “We still want to keep some of that sizzle,” Mr. Pilot said. Marc Graboff, the co-chairman of NBC Entertainment, said, “This is all about creating a two-way conversation with advertisers.”

Senior executives at media agencies greeted the NBC decision with mild to enthusiastic praise. “It’s a step in the right direction,” said Aaron Cohen, executive vice president at Horizon Media in New York. “Something like this was bound to happen.”

“I applaud it,” said Charlie Rutman, chief executive for North American operations at MPG in New York, a media agency owned by Havas, because “the idea of a constant stream of new programming is good.”

Shari Anne Brill, senior vice president and director for programming at another New York media agency, Carat, described the NBC plan as “a smart idea,” likening it to steps that Fox Broadcasting has tried in the past, announcing several schedules for a season, with new shows coming on the air in September, November and January and in the spring.

Asked whether the other broadcast networks may adopt a year-round programming schedule, Mr. Cohen replied: “NBC is the test bed. If buyer reaction is good, it will get considered by the others.”

The idea of a 52-week schedule is not really new. Most networks now have programming scattered throughout the year with specific shows set aside for summer, like “Big Brother” on CBS (though it was used in the regular season this year because of the strike) and others for midyear like “24” and “American Idol” on Fox and “Lost” on ABC.

But NBC intends to give advertisers a much earlier look at its plans for the entire year. That will presumably make it easier to match advertisers to specific shows, an idea that is growing in popularity. Networks are looking for ways to keep clients paying, even as ratings diminish and programs are replayed on digital recorders with commercials skipped.

Ben Silverman, the other co-chairman of NBC Entertainment, who will travel the country with Mr. Graboff making the presentations to advertisers, has been an advocate of linking advertisers to shows. He made a deal with Ford Motor Company, for example, to supply the car used in a remake of the 1980s series “Knight Rider.” A version of that aired Sunday night on NBC as a made-for-TV movie, and Mr. Silverman said Tuesday that its ratings success makes it a likely addition to NBC’s schedule when it is announced in April.

As a result of the new plan, Mr. Silverman said, “NBC will have more original programming year-round than anyone else.”

The lineup also may receive early input from advertisers who are given an earlier look at it. That may help both parties, Mr. Graboff said. He cited as a cautionary tale the network’s experience with “Kidnapped,” a show from a season ago.

“That’s a perfect example,” Mr. Graboff said. “The pilot cost $7 million to produce. We put it on sale to advertisers in May, and they ran for the hills. If we had been able to sit down and have a two-way conversation about them and we told they we had a show about a 13-year-old boy who is kidnapped for the entire season, they would have told us, ‘Good for you, but we’re not putting our clients in it.’ ”

But Mr. Graboff said this did not mean NBC would base its programming on input from advertisers. “The ultimate decision is going to be made by program executives who believe in the shows,” he said.

One potential benefit of the change, according to Gene DeWitt, chairman of DeWitt Media in New York, is a solution to advertisers’ annual quandary. The last three months of the year are the most important for many marketers — particularly retailers and automakers — but under the current system many of the broadcast shows they are offered then are new and untested.

If more shows are brought out earlier in the calendar year, he said, “you’d have a track record of their performance.”

“We’d have more reliable rating information,” he added, “so we won’t be going into the fourth quarter blind.”

A 52-week broadcast schedule may make it more difficult to track the hits and flops, Mr. DeWitt said, but “it’s the way of the world today — things move faster, and we all have to keep up.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/20/bu...gewanted=print

The Business of Television
NBC overhauls upfront plans
Network to announce 52-week schedule
By Josef Adalian, Variety, February 20, 2008

NBC Universal is once again beating the drums of change, unveiling plans to overhaul the Peacock's upfront pitch to Madison Avenue.

While it will still kick off upfront week with a May 12 advertiser event, NBC U plans to shift the focus away from its still-rebuilding broadcast network. Instead, it will offer an "interactive presentation" highlighting all of the conglom's TV assets, including cable and digital.

NBC will also try to one-up other nets by announcing what it promised would be "a full, 52-week primetime programming schedule" in early April. While the net touted the move as "unprecedented," it comes a few years after Fox declared that it was in the 52-week programming business and began unveiling its winter and spring lineups at the same time that it announced the fall sked.

"The traditional primetime presentation shines a light on only one piece of what our company has to offer," said NBC U prexy-CEO Jeff Zucker. "This new approach gives our clients an early look at NBC's scheduling strategy and allows us to showcase the full suite of creative advertising solutions and customized services that NBC Universal is uniquely positioned to provide to the marketplace."

NBC's intention to announce a new sked in April -- and then follow with a mix of small meetings and one big Gotham pitch -- promises to disrupt the usual upfront selling season by giving the net a full month's head start on dealmaking. Other nets aren't slated to disclose their lineups until May.

Critics emphasized, however, that the preemptive announcement makes it even more likely that whatever sked NBC unveils will be written in pencil. Indeed, just a year ago, Peacock brass were complaining that the net's traditional lead-off position during upfront week put it at a disadvantage since it meant other nets had the chance to react to NBC's moves.

NBC Entertainment co-chairman Marc Graboff said the net's upfront changes aren't about posturing or pronouncements but are meant to rework a template that's existed for decades.

"We wanted to turn the upfront presentation from something where you talk at people to something where you talk with people," he said. "It'll be more of a conversation about what our strategy is and what our slate is shaping up to be."

Toward that end, NBC has all but decided to ditch Radio City Music Hall as the site of its May 12 presentation.

The event, which is still being planned, will feature interactive elements that allow ad buyers and media types to sample all of what NBC U is selling. Insiders predicted a "hands-on" feel to the presentation, complete with celebrity appearances. And, yes, there will be a party when it's over.

NBC's streamlining of its upfront presentation continues an evolution started by other nets.

A few years back, for instance, ABC shook up upfront protocol by ditching the night-by-night, show-by-show unveiling of the sked. And last year, Fox whittled down its event to barely an hour.

Graboff recognized the dangers of announcing a lineup a month before it knew what other nets were planning.

"I'm not going to say the schedule will be set in stone," he said. "We won't know (in April) what show we're going to launch on Jan. 21, 2009."

NBC may, however, indicate its long-range plans for, say, Sunday nights or when it intends to launch a series version of "Knight Rider." It will also tout NBC Entertainment co-chair Ben Silverman's mandates to have programs bowing all the time on the network.

"There is an insatiable desire for new content year round, and we want to satisfy that need and be efficient at the same time," Silverman said.

Graboff also noted that previewing the lineup in early April will allow NBC's sales staff, headed by Mike Pilot, to check the pulse of the ad community -- and adjust if needed.

"We'll say, 'Here's what we're thinking, tell us how you'd like to be involved,' " Graboff said. " 'If you'd hate to see a certain show Mondays at 9, tell us. We may change it.' "

Graboff was quick to emphasize that NBC brass remained "the ultimate decisionmakers" when it comes to programming and scheduling. "This is just another tool," he said.

While the fallout from the 100-day WGA strike has called into question the ability of nets to make pilots in advance of the upfronts, Peacock programmers feel they have enough projects in the hopper to ensure ad buyers will have plenty of new fare to sample.

Advertiser reaction to the plan varied.

Chris Boothe, prexy of Starcom USA, said NBC's changes weren't a shocker.

"We've been having a dialogue for months, so we were expecting this," he said, adding that he generally likes how NBC is reshaping upfronts.

"All the networks have to push the reset button and figure out how to change the market," Boothe said. "What NBC is doing is evolving where they were and having a more customized approach."

Another Starcom rep, VP and video activation director Jackie Kulesza, said she doesn't expect NBC to serve up a full year of hour-by-hour lineups. "The goal is for Ben and Marc to lay out their programming vision," she said.

View was different from another major ad buying company.

"They're making a big deal out of this, and we don't really think it's a big deal," the insider said. "It seems to us like they're trying to save money rather than stake out a leadership position."

Rep also noted that NBC has a history of making grand pronouncements that later to turn out to be not so grand. He cited Zucker's call to abolish scripted programming at 8 p.m. to which the programmers in Burbank have not been strictly adhering.

http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117981116.html

TV Notes
Fox adds episodes, revises schedule
“House” Adds 4; “Bones” 6
By Nellie Andreeva, The Hollywood Reporter, Feb 20, 2008

Fox said Tuesday that it has ordered additional episodes of the dramas "House" and "Bones" and the multicamera comedies "Back to You" and " 'Til Death" to air in the spring and beyond.

The order for "Back to You" and " 'Til Death" is said to be for eight episodes, some of them expected to air in early August. "House" will produce four new episodes, while "Bones" will make six fresh segments and might get a supersized order for next season.

Also returning to production are the animated comedies "American Dad!" "Family Guy" and "The Simpsons," as well as the real-time drama "24," which won't premiere until January.

Fox also has revised its midseason premiere dates and slots for some of its scripted series.

With Fox's announcement, ABC is the only broadcast network that hasn't unveiled its post-strike plans for the rest of the season.

Fox's fall Tuesday lineup of "Bones" and "House" will move to Mondays.

"Bones" will return with originals at 8 p.m. April 14. "House" will move to the Monday 9 p.m. period April 21, resuming originals the following Monday.

The two unaired original episodes of the Kelsey Grammer starrer "Back to You" produced before the strike were slated to air behind 90-minute Tuesday editions of "American Idol" on Feb. 26 and March 25. They will now run Feb. 26 and 27 at 9:30 p.m., following the "Idol" results show.

The post-"Idol" slot March 25 will go to a newly produced episode of the Brad Garrett starrer "Death," which received a big ratings boost from its run behind "Idol" last year.

The two comedies will return to their fall Wednesday 8-9 p.m. period April 16 but will switch slots -- "Death" at 8 p.m. and "Back to You" at 8:30 p.m.

The new drama "New Amsterdam" will keep its launch schedule of two previews after "Idol" on March 4 and March 6 before settling into its regular 9 p.m. Monday slot March 10.

However, fellow midseason drama "Canterbury's Law," previously slotted to replace "Amsterdam" in the 9 p.m. Monday slot, will now air in tandem with it. "Canterbury's" will debut March 10 in the 8 p.m. Monday berth.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/...1e6d2b55beeee8

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

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...&#post10367387

TV Notes
Will Oscar show grab great ratings?
Smaller films/strike may spur smaller audience
By Rick Kissell, Variety

Folks in Hollywood are rallying behind Sunday's Oscarcast with renewed passion after prolonged fears about its strike-stricken fate.

But will the film biz's fervor extend to the rest of the world's TV viewers?

Each year, U.S. viewership of the Academy Awards rises and falls depending on the films in contention. This year, Oscar's big hopes may rest on a pregnant 16-year-old.

Over the years, the Academy Awards telecast has proved to be a durable ratings performer -- second only to the Super Bowl among annual events.

Last year's kudocast, in which Martin Scorsese's "The Departed" was crowned best pic, averaged 40.17 million viewers, up from the previous year (38.94 million), in which "Crash" was the big winner. The 2007 Oscarcast was the 2006-07 TV season's most-watched entertainment telecast, outdrawing even the highest-rated episodes of "American Idol."

But a ceremony whose top nominees will be "No Country for Old Men" and "There Will Be Blood" is a far cry from the 1998 Oscarcast, when the "Titanic" phenomenon reeled in more than 55 million TV viewers.

This time out, the top-grossing best-pic contender is Fox Searchlight's "Juno," which has a worldwide cume of $134 million -- a tidy sum for a little indie, but not exactly in the same league as "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End" (which sports two noms and a B.O. gross of nearly $1 billion).

This year, Academy voters bypassed the chance to nominate such stars as Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, but the Acad and producer Gil Cates have smartly ratcheted up the star quotient with its presenters.

There are movie stars such as George Clooney, Cameron Diaz, Harrison Ford, Tom Hanks, Nicole Kidman and Denzel Washington, plus the movie stars familiar to TV viewers: Steve Carell, Patrick Dempsey, Katherine Heigl and, of course, Miley Cyrus.

Last year marked the 18th time in the last 20 years that the Oscars drew more than 40 million. But over the years, the kudocast's share of the national viewing audience has shrunk noticeably as alternative viewing options have vastly increased.

Last year's show, for example, averaged a 37 share of the viewing public that night; 10 years earlier, the show had earned a 46 share.

The show tends to draw its largest audiences when a popular film dominates the major awards. The largest aud of the past 30 years came in 1998, when "Titanic" sailed to victory before a whopping 55.25 million viewers; the biggest crowd in the last five years came in 2004, when 43.53 million viewers watched the coronation of "Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King."

Conversely, the smallest Oscar audience on record (33.04 million) was in 2003, a year when a musical, "Chicago," topped a field that included lightly watched films including "Gangs of New York" and "The Hours."

That year was also the last held in the Academy Awards' traditional early-spring window, with the show shifting from late March to late February beginning in 2004. Move was made in part to maximize viewership, as February is consistently the most-watched month of the calendar year.

If the late-March date was still in place, this year's show would take place during the early weeks of daylight-saving time, the onset of which keeps even more viewers away from their television sets.

Once again this year, the competition is ceding the night to ABC. Fox is airing repeats of its animated comedies "The Simpsons," "Family Guy" and "American Dad," while NBC is running four repeats of "Law & Order: Criminal Intent." CBS is offering the only firstrun programming among the major nets, 8 o'clock reality show "Big Brother."

http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117981146.html

TV Notes
Jon Stewart, Hands Long Tied by Strike, Pedals Fast for Oscars
By Bill Carter, The New York Times, February 20, 2008

LOS ANGELES — In the bowels of the Kodak Theater, one floor below the auditorium where the elaborate set for the Academy Awards telecast on Sunday was already in place, Jon Stewart, unshaved and wearing Army boots, was sitting in his modest dressing room, just back from the latest planning session with his writing team.

Somehow, despite the fact that he had all of eight days to prepare for his role this Sunday as host of the Super Bowl of entertainment shows, he was, by his own words and all visual evidence, utterly relaxed. Maybe it was because finally, after 100 days of forced separation, he could talk to his writers again.

“This is an exercise in battle stations,” Mr. Stewart said, perhaps explaining the Army boots. “In some ways it allows your mind to be in that fight-or-flight mode the whole time: ‘O.K., we’re mice being chased by a cat. Let’s just do it.’ ”

Until the strike by the Writers Guild of America ended a week ago, Mr. Stewart, 45, was unable to prepare, or even to think much about, his Oscar assignment. His regular job, as host of “The Daily Show” on Comedy Central, took precedence.

“You never really gave yourself a chance to think this thing was going to be over because you were so focused on getting through that day,” he said. “The Oscars were always an afterthought in that.”

He said he and Gil Cates, producer of the awards telecast, on ABC, had discussed what would happen if the strike didn’t end: Mr. Stewart would not have been the host.

Mr. Stewart recalled: “Gil and I have a good relationship, and I just said to him, ‘I want you to know that I consider the Oscars to be an elective.’ ” Under those circumstances, Mr. Stewart said, “I wouldn’t make that choice to do an elective.”

He was already expending enormous energy keeping “The Daily Show” running without writers, an experience he described as disorienting. “You really did feel,” he said, “you were playing one of those moral dilemma games at a really crummy party: ‘If you had to choose between your writers and your staff ...’ Except it was real.”

But he said the act of pulling together a show every day instilled a sense of pride in the nonwriting staff. “I didn’t want the writers walking back into Dresden,” Mr. Stewart said, “and we’d burnt the place to the ground.”

In a way, the enforced changes were a blessing, he noted. “I feel like we reoriented to the core of the show instead of doing things by rote,” Mr. Stewart said. “You almost create these ruts and you need them to plow through, but they can become sort of stultifying.”

There is nothing stultifying about condensing into several days what he once had months to work on. When Mr. Stewart was the Oscars host two years ago, the invitation had come rather late, in December. This time Mr. Cates wanted to smooth the experience, so he invited him way back in September.

That led Mr. Stewart to think “this was going to be a beautifully casual walk to the beach, a lovely amble to the Oscars.” The strike blew all that to pieces. Mr. Stewart said: “Now it’s like: I can name that tune in seven notes. I can do the Oscars in nine days. No, I can do the Oscars in eight days.”

And to raise the degree of difficulty, the roster of nominated films is not top-heavy in either audience favorites or ideal comedy material, a problem Mr. Stewart also had to deal with two years ago. “The thing is,” he said, “they’re not all about psychopathic killers; only about 80 percent of them. I’m the guy they call in whenever none of the movies crack $100 million at the box office. Bring in the cable guy!” (Mr. Stewart was overlooking “Juno,” whose box office take stands at $125 million.)

Yet the situation does not seem daunting, at least from Mr. Stewart’s unclenched body language. He said he was relishing sitting in windowless rooms this week, batting ideas around with his team of writers. (All his material will be written by the “Daily Show” staff; a separate Oscar-hired team handles the presenters’ lines.)

He and the writers are awash in energy, he said, partly from having had such an extended rest. (“The Daily Show” is not in production this week.) “We’re like puppies right now,” Mr. Stewart said. “It’s a lot of adrenaline and enthusiasm.”

Unlike some other hosts (including a certain late-night colleague on CBS) who have come back from the Oscars licking their wounds, Mr. Stewart said he enjoyed the first time around. The roomful of stars, which to television viewers often appears as cold as a meat locker (even if filled with prime cuts), felt warm to Mr. Stewart. “I remember coming back and feeling pretty good about it,” he said.

One reason may be his understanding of the position he occupies. “I think there’s a way to do it where either you’re a guy hosting a party for your friends, or a guy watching a party you were invited to,” he said. “I’m much more in that category. I embrace that.”

He said he had to remember that for the people in the first 20 rows of the audience, “this is the pinnacle of their careers.”

He added: “Their lives could change, and they’re very on edge. So you’ve got to give respect to the fact that this is the most important night in film. But for the audience at home, you also have to let them in on the fact that it’s still film. It’s not war; it’s not cancer. No one’s going to come out of it and say, ‘My God, I can walk!’ ”

The biggest challenge, Mr. Stewart said, is tailoring his personal comedy style to this situation: “The thing I always have to fight is I have a tendency to undercut. It’s the comedy of deflation in large amount. That doesn’t necessarily work on the greatest night of their lives. There is a strong tension between respecting these people and somehow deflating them while standing in that room. I like that. I find that tension interesting.”

Mr. Stewart is accustomed, of course, to deflating Washington politicians. “Washington and Hollywood are really sister cities,” he said. “The only difference between Hollywood and Washington is that Washington actually has power.”

So far, Mr. Stewart said, he and his writers have come up with ideas that play with Oscar telecast traditions. An ambitious bit for the opening can’t be taped until Friday, making it a tight squeeze to get it on the air.

All of that is O.K., Mr. Stewart said. Even the inevitable mass scrutiny of his performance leaves him untroubled. “You’re leading with your face, of course you’re going to get hit,” he said. “How can you not? It’s irresistible.”

He added: “It really is in a way sport. You have to accept that.”

And Mr. Stewart has. “Very rarely do you get to do something that’s the 80th annual,” he said. “And afterward you go: Wow, put it to bed. Let’s enjoy having done it. I have a good job, I have a good life. I’m not looking to do something that would eat me up inside. But I do like the process. It’s fun putting on a show.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/20/ar...gewanted=print

Morning Cable Briefing
Comcast Faces Internal Competition
Invest or Save at Comcast, Low-Key Partying for NBC, More Monk, Lifetime Wants To Own Laughter and More News
From Cable360.net February 20, 2008

Last week’s financial report was just the beginning for Comcast, The Wall Street Journal’s George Anders says this morning. The bellwether MSO scored points by promising a dividend, talking conservatively, reducing exec bonuses for ’07 and promising not to pay founder Ralph Roberts after he dies. But now comes the tougher part, Anders writes, as shareholders push and pull over how the company will be act moving forward. Will Comcast continue to invest in technology and seek acquisitions, or will it be more conservative and make returning cash to investors via dividends and stock repurchases its top priority? [WSJ]

Man, NBC really means business with this cost-cutting stuff. The network has cancelled its annual Radio City Music Hall advertiser upfront extravaganza in favor of smaller, less glitzy sit-downs in 3 cities, The LA Times says. Fortunately, other networks haven’t followed NBC. On the up side for cable, NBCU said it will not only push broadcast shows, but also series from its cable properties, including USA Network. [LAT]

Lifetime gets good ratings with sitcoms like Frasier, Will & Grace, Reba and, yes, The Golden Girls, so it’s about to make one or two itself, The Hollywood Reporter says. The network has signed Media Rights Capital for a pair of pilots, Libertyville, starring Christine Ebersole and exec produced by Caryn Mandabach, and Rita Rocks. Most important, Lifetime can co-own the series. The effort will be Lifetime's first try at a multicamera comedy. [THR]

Briefly Noted

USA picked up a 7th season of obsessive compulsive detective Monk.

Style Network renewed Kimora Lee Simmons’ reality series, Kimora: Life in the Fab Lane, for a second season, Hollywood Reporter says. [THR]

FCC chief Kevin Martin’s plan to ease the transition to digital for rural TV stations will hurt cable, the AP says. [AP]

http://www.cable360.net/competition/...ast/28133.html

TV Notes
The DTV transition:
It's Y2K all over again
By Aaron Barnhart Kansas City Star in his blog “TV Barn”

Eleven years and one month ago, I wrote my first Sunday feature for this newspaper, about an exciting new technology that would soon be sweeping the nation called digital television.

Well, DTV is here, but we're still waiting on the excitement.

That's not too surprising, seeing as how DTV wasn't the brainchild of industry or a consumer-driven phenomenon. Rather, it was a government mandate -- you can feel the oxygen being sucked out of the room by that phrase, can't you? -- that the nation's TV stations were to stop broadcasting the analog signals they'd been putting out for half a century and switch to all-digital signals.

Over the past decade and change, a video revolution did happen, but it wasn't DTV, and old media and bureaucrats mostly stood by and watched. Yes, people started to buy those big screen TVs, not to watch hi-def TV shows but the relatively grainy images of DVDs. We spent more time watching the tube, but instead of the live DTV broadcasts that Congress envisioned, we started saving shows with our new TiVos and DVRs and watched them later, skipping over the ads. And we began watching high-definition TV, but most of our choices came from the likes of ESPN, Discovery and HDNet, which weren't subject to the DTV mandate.

Internet streaming, iPods, mobisodes … the list goes on. How we consume video has changed dramatically since DTV legislation took effect 11 years ago. But these other trends were driven by the private sector, by supply and demand, by “I want” rather than “thou shalt.”

Why was an act of Congress required, when so many other digital revolutions happened without one? Back then, there was a lot of talk about competitiveness and taking back the TV-set business from the Japanese and Koreans. In reality, though, the feds realized there was a lot of money to be made auctioning off the “free” airwaves. By reclaiming the hugely lucrative chunk of analog TV frequencies and selling them to the highest bidder, we could pay for, oh, a good week and a half of the Iraq war.

That auction process was to be underway by now. Instead, everybody predictably dragged their feet. So Congress extended the deadline for the DTV transition to Feb. 17, 2009 -- exactly one year from today.

Only now are industry leaders and the Federal Communications Commission, the agency charged with overseeing the DTV transition, sounding the alarm. Only now are people facing up to the fact that in 366 days, millions of American households could be without television service because they didn't upgrade their sets.

In a best case scenario, this will be Y2K all over again: a lot of hand-wringing, a lot of doomsday predictions, followed by a weird letdown as the media learns that folks were a lot better prepared than they thought.

But in a worst case scenario … well, let's just say there's a reason the deadline for switching off the old TV stations doesn't fall in an election year.

“A lot of politicians are all freaked out at having to deal with a potentially difficult situation,” said Ted Hearn, Washington bureau chief of the trade weekly Multichannel News.

So, to the obvious question: Are you ready?

If your television service is provided by a cable company or a satellite service, or you have an all-in-one service from Everest, Sunflower or AT&T U-verse, the answer is yes, you are ready. That's the vast majority of folks reading this story. Fact is, subscription TV providers have already gone digital and their customers will face little inconvenience other than a few changes to their lineup card. For instance, KMBC currently airs its analog signal on Channel 12 on Time Warner. After Feb. 17, 2009, it will no longer exist and Time Warner will be free to give its digital replacement a new number. Or not. And for those of you who are really on your toes this morning: No, you won't need a digital cable box to watch KMBC in digital.

But what if you're a rabbit-ears person? Or you have a TV in the back room that you never bothered hooking up to the dish?

Well, that's where your freaked-out politicians are looking out for themselves -- oops, I mean working for you. You can get up to two coupons worth $40 apiece toward the purchase of a converter box that will descramble the digital signals you get over the air, so that you can watch network and public TV shows after the analog stations sign off next year. Apply online at dtv2009.gov or call 1-888-DTV-2009.

You won't be able to watch HDTV on your old set; it wasn't built for that. But you will be able to watch the digital channel in standard definition. In fact, you may notice a slightly sharper picture, just because it's digital. You'll also be able to watch any multicast channels available locally. Multicast is when a broadcaster splits up its signal into several channels, each with its own program. That really would be exciting -- if stations would embrace the concept. Sadly, there is little multicasting going on, other than at KCPT and KTWU, our area's public TV stations.

In 2006 KSHB, the local NBC affiliate, started to multicast a second channel for NBC Weather Plus, a national service with local cut-ins. This month KMBC rolled out its multicast channel … and surprise, it's another weather station! That makes four in our area if you count Metro Weather and the Weather Channel.

Hey, here's an idea. What if the government allowed local broadcasters to launch 24-hour weather channels only if they agreed to stop interrupting their main channels for wall-to-wall storm coverage every time a thunderstorm grazed the viewing area?

Now there's a law I'll bet a lot of you could get behind.

http://blogs.kansascity.com/tvbarn/2...v-transit.html

It is a sign of the times that tonight at 8 PM ET/PT, there is not a single scripted show scheduled on any of the traditional English-language networks.

Perhaps scripted shows will have to go the way of major sports: to the cable channels which have dual revenue streams to afford them.