Hot Off The Press: The Latest TV News and Information - Page 2630

Tech/TV Notes
Katie Couric launches weekly Web show on Yahoo
By Dawn C. Chmielewski, Los Angeles Times' 'Company Town' Blog - Apr. 25, 2012

Television news personality Katie Couric is a familiar fixture at the network upfront presentations to advertisers and media buyers.

But this week the former news anchor appeared, microphone in hand, at Yahoo's Digital Content NewFront presentation as the site announced the May 1 premiere of "Katie's Take," a weekly online show that will explore subjects such as health, nutrition, parenting and wellness.

The original Web show represents a deepening of Yahoo's partnership with ABC News. Together, the network news operation and Yahoo News garnered more than half of all news videos watched online last month, said Ross Levinsohn, Yahoo's executive vice president of global media.

"Katie's new show is representative of our focus on premium content -- and premium content on every screen," Levinsohn said. "I enjoy watching cats on skateboards as much as anybody. We're shooting a little higher than that."

The former CBS "Evening News" anchor also has a new syndicated talk show with Walt Disney Co. that premieres this fall.

Couric, camera operator in tow, struck a comedic tone on stage, describing herself as an experienced journalist "wearing slightly S&M shoes." She staged a mock interview of Levinsohn, in which she asked irreverent questions such as "What the hell is Yahoo?" and "Why are you so special?"

"Thank goodness you didn't ask me what I've read," deadpanned Levinsohn, in a reference to Couric's interview of 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin. The line elicited laughter from about 600 people attending Yahoo's event.

Yahoo senior vice president Mickie Rosen said Yahoo's news service reaches 91 million Americans a month, more, she said, than such online competitors CNN and Fox News combined. ABC and Yahoo together plan to focus their coverage on the 2012 presidential election.

"When we dreamed up this together, we wanted to do something completely new," said ABC News President Ben Sherwood. "The thing I am most excited about is we're just getting started."

The new Couric show was part of a new slate of original programs. The creators of the Broadway show "Rock of Ages," Matthew Weaver and Chris D'Arienzo, will use Yahoo to launch a 1980s-themed jukebox musical about a big city kid who moves to a small town, tentatively titled "Dancing With Myself."

Actor Tom Hanks appeared, via video, to talk about his new, dark animated series on Yahoo, "Electric City," which is set in a post-apocalyptic world. CSI creator Anthony E. Zuiker appeared on stage to screen his cybercrime series, "Cybergeddon."

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/ente...-on-yahoo.html

A day late, but you can still catch the repeat Saturday nights on NBC.

TV Notes
Law & Order: SVU -- A Look Inside the Season
By Warren Leight, HuffingtonPost.com - Apr. 25, 2012

It's been an explosive year in the SVU squad room. Detective Stabler departed just before I took over as showrunner. Two engaging new detectives, Amanda Rollins (Kelli Giddish) and Nick Amaro (Danny Pino), came in. Two great ADAs (Cabot and Novak) returned. Even with the turnover, I wondered at first how we'd keep a 12-year-old show relevant. I brought in dozens of experts to talk to our writers' room. We began to plot. And then something strange began to happen ... out there. All summer long, week after week, stories broke about powerful men behaving badly or abusing their power. Sometimes we were ripping from the headlines, but just as often it felt like the headlines were ripping from us. Either way, we were trying to explore issues that were increasingly in the zeitgeist.

Our season premiere, "Scorched Earth," in which a foreign diplomat allegedly raped a hotel maid, contained fictional twists that "came to life" as the case against Dominique Strauss-Kahn continued to unfold. We actually had to rewrite several times when real twists in the case broke that too closely mirrored those of our script.

Another episode, "Personal Fouls," focused on a high school basketball coach who had been molesting the young boys in his summer leagues -- including some who went on to be NBA all-stars. The episode aired about four weeks before the case against Jerry Sandusky at Penn State broke in the news, followed by a number of similar stories at high schools and colleges across the country. This episode, like many others, helped raise awareness of the challenges faced by survivors and law enforcement in these complicated cases.

This year's squad room shake-up also allowed us to take Detective Olivia Benson to exciting and unfamiliar places. Though she has by now developed a solid partnership with Detective Amaro, she initially reacted to Stabler's departure by becoming a bit of a lone wolf in the squad. Her "untethered" emotional state opened her up to new experiences and new points of view. Her friendship with defense attorney Bayard Ellis (Andre Braugher) has given her more perspective on the cases she investigates, forcing her to examine both sides before rushing to judgment. Her relationship with David Haden (Harry Connick Jr.), her first serious love interest in years, has allowed her to take a step back and examine her life choices, her career, and her own happiness for a change. And while she continues to teach and learn from her new co-workers, she hasn't forgotten the lessons she learned from her old partner. She can still be tough when needed.

This week's episode, "Street Revenge," is a perfect example of Benson showing her muscle. While running the investigation of a high-profile serial rapist, Benson takes on a new leadership role as spokesperson for the Special Victims Unit, working to catch the rapist, support his victims, and keep an outraged community calm, all at the same time. And when she's out in the field, she hasn't forgotten how to use force -- when necessary.

[CLICK LINK BELOW TO SEE "SVU" CLIP]

It's been a fresh and surprising season, for those working on the show as well as those watching. Following -- and sometimes leading -- the news cycle has provided inspiration for unique stories as well as the chance to tackle some controversial issues: We've looked at the culpability of perpetrators with diminished brain capacity; the risk of coerced confessions that can put innocent people in prison; the unprecedented expansion of New York's DNA database; the use of back-page ads to facilitate sex trafficking.

The opportunity to reboot a long-running show by introducing new characters and exploring new sides of familiar ones wasn't just a bonus; it was the foundation on which we built our stories and ripped from the headlines. At the end of the day, episodes don't work if they are only about issues. We have to tell stories about real people -- victims, survivors, criminals -- and about the toll these cases take on the "dedicated detectives who investigate these vicious felonies."

Warren Leight is the Executive producer and showrunner of Law & Order: SVU.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/warren...31.html?ref=tv

TV Notes
New 'Dexter' Bad Guy: 'Rome' Star Ray Stevenson
By Kimberly Potts, TheWrap.com - Apr. 25, 2012

As if Dexter Morgan doesn't have enough problems, now he'll face a new bad guy, too: Ray Stevenson will play the head of a Russian crime syndicate in a multi-episode arc on the seventh season of "Dexter."

Stevenson has starred in TV's "Rome" and in movies like "Thor" and "Punisher: War Zone," will also star in the "Thor" sequel and this summer's "G.I. Joe: Retaliation." He also stars in Billy Bob Thorton's latest directorial effort, the drama "Jayne Mansfield's Car."

"Dexter," which was renewed for a seventh and eighth season by Showtime in November, will begin its seventh season on Sept. 30. It will pick up with Dexter

http://www.thewrap.com/tv/column-pos...tevenson-37296

TV Review
'7 Days of Sex,' you won't feel totally used
New Lifetime series is really about relationships
By Tom Conroy, Media Life Magazine - Apr. 26, 2012

Most Americans weren't told about this when it happened, but at some point we as a nation signed a privacy waiver. The simultaneous assaults of reality TV and the Internet have flung open the windows on things that we used to think were nobody else's business.

This has gone so far that most people won't even be surprised to hear that in Lifetime's new series "7 Days of Sex," married couples agree to be taped during a week in which they will have what used to be called conjugal relations at least once a day, a process that is supposed to strengthen their marriage. Questions of propriety and shame set aside, the glimpses into the couples' private lives are interesting and occasionally funny and may even provide some useful insights into viewers' own relationships.

Premiering tonight at 10, "7 Days of Sex" took its premise from a program created for married parishioners by a Texas pastor named Ed Young. The religious component is absent from the show.

The episode provided for review features two couples. Derek and Chantal have three young children and thus little time to be alone together. Galen and Marilyn, both on their second marriage, have clashing personality types. A rubric says "Opposites No Longer Attract."

Although both couples complain about the increasing rarity of sex in their lives, other problems emerge. Chantal feels that Derek doesn't appreciate her contribution as a full-time mother. He says he doesn't like to hear excuses.

Galen is a bit of a straight arrow. Marilyn has a sarcastic sense of humor that can make her seem dismissive of her husband.

Before the first night, we see Derek and Marilyn out in bars with their friends. Derek talks about all the fun he's about to have. When Marilyn, who seems to be getting a little tipsy, says that she and Galen are going to have sex every day for a week, one of her friends says, "With each other, right?"

In addition to their marital duties, the subjects perform less private tasks. Derek decides that he's finally going to get an engagement ring for Chantal. Marilyn sends Galen to a lingerie store to buy her something for the bedroom.

The actual sex on the show is presented relatively discreetly. The husbands and wives shoot each other with a handheld camera just before and after the act. Although they may seem driven by duty before, they usually seem happy afterward. Marilyn's permanent smirk, for example, relaxes slightly.

Thanks either to the producers' luck or to skillful editing, both stories have decent beginnings, middles and ends. Just when things seem to be going well, one couple has a serious fight, throwing the entire project into question.

One precommercial tease is a cheat, even by the relaxed standards of reality TV. We see Marilyn saying, "I shouldn't have gotten married." Later we learn that that was the end of a purely hypothetical sentence.

At the end of the week, the participants can decide to renew their vows in front of their families and friends. At times, the show actually makes us believe that neither couple will make it that far.

Considering the exploitative nature of "7 Days of Sex," viewers may be surprised to find themselves caring about the outcome. Sex is never just about sex, as they say. This show has a bit more to it as well.

http://www.medialifemagazine.com/art...tally-used.asp

Technology Notes
Martin Scorsese And Ang Lee Tell Theater Owners That The Future Belongs To 3D: CinemaCon
By David Lieberman, Deadline.com - Apr. 25, 2012

Directors Martin Scorsese and Ang Lee don't seem fazed by theater owners' concerns about the expense of installing the technology to show movies in 3D, and moviegoers' objections to higher-priced tickets and the glasses needed to watch them. Absolutely it's the future, Scorsese said in a joint interview with Lee today at the CinemaCon Filmmakers Forum an event partly sponsored by 3D technology company RealD. The moment (film) started, people wanted three things: color, sound and depth. Lee added that filmmakers really need your support. It will be a good investment to install projectors capable of showing 3D movies.

Scorsese says that it was a liberating challenge to film Hugo with the extra dimension that reminded him of looking into a View Master. There was something that transported you to another world, he says. There's a scene where actor Sacha Baron Cohen leans in to intimidate the boy (the film's lead character). It was like he came off the screen. But that also made the movie more intimate. People would come back and say that they liked being in that world. He doesn't have a strong view yet about efforts to increase the image projection speed to 48 frames a second or more from 24 frames. Although critics say the image can look cold and too precise, we've already made an adjustment from the look of nitrate (film) to acetate. So that adjustment can be made.And you could do anything you want with that image with that kind of clarity.

Scorsese's concerned, though, about the difficulty of preserving films in the digital world. You need to have migration, a system of every five years migrating all of the elements to a new technology so it doesn't disappear, he says. We have an obligation to our culture to preserve it. Lee, whose upcoming film Life Of Pi is being shot in 3D, added that the movie business is at the breaking point of taking 3D seriously. Although filmmakers still need to find excuses to make a movie in 3D, someday we won't need that. It also will become more accepted as the next generation of directors studies 3D in film schools.

His advice to theater owners: Keep them open. Keep them in good condition. And keep up with technology as much as you can.

http://www.deadline.com/2012/04/mart...-3d-cinemacon/

Critic's Notes
When Did You Realize TV Could Be Art?
By Matt Zoller Seitz, New York Magazine's 'Vulture' Blog - Apr. 25, 2012

Today, Vulture launches its latest column, Seitz Asks, which aims to tackle both grand questions about the medium and small ones about individual shows or episodes. Every week, TV critic Matt Zoller Seitz will propose a question, give his own answer, and then engage with readers and commenters about their own personal experiences.

As an American boy in the seventies, I saw plenty on TV that scared, disturbed, or upset me: the bigotry and brutality of Roots; naked prisoners being led into a gas chamber on Holocaust; Farrah Fawcett's torment in The Burning Bed. But I didn't realize commercial TV could be art, or even aspire to artfulness, until I started watching Hill Street Blues.

In many ways the godfather of today's melancholy, morally ambiguous cable dramas, the Steven Bochco series imported seventies movie values to NBC. There were content restrictions, some of them jarring (the cops never used any curses milder than "damn" or "hell" ), but for the most part, the show's situations were rougher and rawer than TV's norm. The stories dealt with adult issues — sex, race, class divisions, petty office turf wars, political chicanery, alcoholism, drug addiction, you name it — and while some of the characters were more sensible and ethical than others, the show never seemed to judge any of them. There were no bad guys on the show, just people living their lives according to whatever personal code they'd cobbled together.

I was addicted to Hill Street from its premiere in January 1981, but I didn't understand why until September 30, 1982, when the series aired "Trial by Fury", a harrowing episode written by a then-unknown David Milch. (You can watch the full episode here... Spoilers follow.) The episode's "A" plot is grim stuff: Two drug addicts rape and beat a nun while robbing a church. Police captain Frank Furillo (Daniel J. Travanti), an Italian-American Catholic, becomes obsessed with punishing the rapists. During interrogation, the two suspects (both African-American) drop deeply incriminating facts; Furillo's gut tells him that these are the guys. Unfortunately, there are serious forensic problems, and another nun who saw the perps running away from the church can't identify them in a lineup. (It's obvious that she's having trouble because she's white and all the men in the lineup are black, even though the show never comes right out and says so.)

After the nun dies, a lynch mob surrounds the precinct house; at one point, a deranged revenge-seeker opens fire inside the station, injuring Furillo's ex-wife (Barbara Bosson) with flying glass. Furillo devises an ingenious, disturbing solution to the crisis: He decides to charge the suspects with comparatively mild crimes and release them from the station house, where they'll be torn apart by the mob. The gambit terrifies the suspects into confessing to second-degree murder. Their public defender Joyce Davenport (Veronica Hamel), who also happens to be Furillo's lover, is disgusted and furious, and tells Furillo he's using "the oldest excuse in the world: the ends justify the means." The episode ends with Furillo going to confession; its closing line is, "Bless me, father, for I have sinned."

I was 12 when I saw "Trial by Fury." For the next few days, I obsessed over it; it wasn't just the violence and darkness that disturbed me, it was the episode's refusal to tell me whom to root for. The programs I mentioned above were more characteristic of "serious" seventies television, in that they dealt frankly with significant, sometimes disturbing topics, but you were never in doubt about what you were supposed to feel as you watched them. "Trial by Fury" was different. Like many Hill Street episodes, but more so, it gave viewers no safe place from which to judge anyone. I didn't know what to make of it; I argued about it with classmates, discussed it with adults, and thought about it every time I heard about some racially charged crisis on the local news.

When I rewatched "Trial by Fury" for the first time in 30 years, I found it less impressive overall than I'd remembered. One of the subplots (the tax problems of Rene Enriquez's Lieutenant Calletano) is amusing but forgettable. The other — Sergeant Mick Belker (Bruce Weitz) urging a gay hustler to stop degrading himself — manages to seem revolutionary and cringe-worthy at the same time. But all the scenes involving the rape, the investigation, the lynch mob, and Furillo's solution have barely aged a day. "Trial by Fury" was, and still is, powerful television. After watching it, I became more discriminating about what sorts of shows I committed to, because I'd seen what TV was capable of.

Can you think of anything on TV that affected you as profoundly?

http://www.vulture.com/2012/04/when-...ld-be-art.html

TV/Nielsen Notes
It's television 'sweeps' time, if you are watching
By Gary Levin, USA Today - Apr. 26, 2012

The big broadcast networks usher in the May "sweeps" period Thursday night, and with it, the final batch of original series and stunts before a summer of reruns and reality TV.

Among highlights: series finales of onetime hits Desperate Housewives (ending its ABC run May 13) and House (exiting Fox May 21), and the crowning of winners on American Idol, Dancing With the Stars and The Voice.

And the lowlight: The month caps a spring in which viewer apathy appears to have expanded, plunging initial ratings for many shows to record lows, particularly among adults ages 18 to 49, the sweet spot for a lot of advertisers.

Network executives blame several factors, from mild spring weather to daylight saving time and increased cable competition. But the clocks change every year, cable ratings have dropped, too, and total TV usage is down just slightly this month (though up 5% for the entire season). It's not that viewers have stopped watching; they're merely less-often doing so on the networks' schedules.

With 44% of U.S. homes now equipped with digital video recorders, parsing TV ratings requires a new math. In the first three months of this year, "14% of (all) homes using TV in prime time were using it to play something back on their DVR," says analyst Sam Armando of Chicago ad firm SMGx. That's up from 12% in the three previous months.

And while live TV viewing by young adults on the major networks is down 5% this season, when viewing delayed up to seven days is factored in, ratings are up 1%. Viewers would rather empty their DVR queue than channel-surf. Among extreme examples are NBC's Grimm and Fox's Fringe, two Friday dramas with ratings that now jump more than 60% within a week. (Viewers are recording Idol and Dancing more often, too, but their ratings are down 30% or more even after counting delayed playback.)

"DVR use continues to play a more important role," says ABC research chief Charles Kennedy, citing a heightened battle between a social-media-fueled "urgency" to see an episode live and the "convenience" of watching it later.

For networks, the problem is that they can't profit from all that delayed viewing: Advertisers pay only for the commercials that viewers don't skip, and only for three days after the programs first air. And the solution? "Create programming that is appointment TV," Armando says, "that people will watch a little more of live."

http://www.usatoday.com/life/televis...ves/54541998/1

TV Notes
ReelzChannel Orders Second Season Of Steven Seagal's True Justice'
By Nellie Andreeva, Deadline.com - Apr. 25, 2012

ReelzChannel has picked up a second season of 13 episodes of Steven Seagal's crime fighting drama series True Justice. True Justice became Reelz's first original scripted drama series when the cable network last year acquired the already produced first 13 episodes of the show, which had aired internationally.

Since True Justices premiere on ReelzChannel on March 30, the series has been growing its audience, with the premiere of episode three becoming the highest-rated program of the year for Reelz. That episode has reached more than 1.2 million viewers to date.

http://www.deadline.com/2012/04/reel...-true-justice/

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TV Notes (Syndication)
CTD's 'Swift Justice' Won't Return for Third Season
By Paige Albiniak, Broadcasting & Cable - Apr. 25, 2012

CBS Television Distribution's sophomore court show, Swift Justice, has gone out of production for the season and will not return next year, the distributor confirmed on Wednesday.

"We are very proud of the two-year run of Swift Justice and feel Judge Jackie Glass is an incredible talent," said a CTD spokesman in a statement. "At the same time, we are thrilled to still rule the courtroom genre with the number-one and number-two series in Judge Judy and Judge Joe Brown.

Half-hour strip Swift Justice, which aired in one-hour blocks across the country, launched in 2010 on Fox-owned stations in major markets. Originally, HLN anchor Nancy Grace was at the show's helm, but last season, CTD switched out Grace for Las Vegas district judge Jackie Glass, who presided over the most recent O.J. Simpson trial.

http://www.broadcastingcable.com/art...ird_Season.php

Business Notes
Basic Video Subs Down, Revenue Up at Time Warner Cable
No. 2 MSO Misses Video Subscriber Estimates, Beats Estimates on Revenue, OIBDA Growth
By Mike Farrell, Multichannel News - Apr. 26, 2012

Time Warner Cable kicked off the 2012 earnings season Thursday with heavier than expected basic customer losses, but revenue and cash flow growth came in ahead of most analysts' expectations.

"Time Warner Cable's first quarter results reflect continued strong performance, and residential Internet and business services were standouts," TWC chairman and CEO Glenn Britt said in the earnings release ahead of an 8:30 a.m. ET call with analysts. "Now that we have closed the Insight acquisition, our increased cash flow is available to fuel further investments in the business and capital returns to our shareholders."

The second largest MSO in the country shed about 94,000 basic video customers in the period, more than the 66,000 it lost in the prior year and above the 55,000 to 60,000 that most analysts anticipated.

Despite that shortfall, analysts were pleased with the results.

"TWC reported 1Q12 subscriber and financial results that, except for video subs, were generally better than our expectations," Credit Suisse media analyst Stefan Anninger wrote in a research note Thursday morning.

Although basic customers fell short of expectations, revenue grew 6.4% to $5.1 billion (ahead of last year's 5% growth) and adjusted operating income before depreciation and amortization (OIBDA) grew 8.2% to $1.9 billion (more than double the 3.6% growth in the prior year).

Time Warner Cable also reported strong growth in advanced services -- residential high speed Internet customers rose by 214,000 (compared to 177,000 additions last year) and residential phone subscribers increased by 112,000 (vs. 72,000 in 2011).

Business services also continued to be on a tear, with revenue rising 37.5% in the period to $429 million.

Anninger was particularly impressed with the HSD and phone results, which soundly beat consensus estimates of 186,000 and 51,000 additions, respectively.

"It is clear that the HSD business is still growing nicely, and the beat on phone is particularly encouraging given the concerns of wireless substitution," Anninger wrote. "We believe that a heavier emphasis on marketing the triple play helped to generate voice and HSD growth. Single play HSD growth has appears to also have been a key driver of HSD growth."

This was the first quarter since TWC completed its $3 billion acquisition of Insight Communications on Feb. 29. Insight contributed about $93 million in revenue between Feb 29 and March 31, according to the MSO.

http://www.multichannel.com/article/...rner_Cable.php

TV Notes
Stan Lee, co-creator of The Avengers,' gets heroic treatment in Epix documentary
By Ethan Sacks, New York Daily News - Apr. 26, 2012

Sitting at the star-studded Hollywood premiere of The Avengers recently, seeing a number of his signature creations including Iron Man and the Hulk come alive on the big screen, Stan Lee had only one complaint.

Every scene was more exciting than the last one, Lee told The News, tongue firmly in cheek. The only thing I would fault is my cameo wasn't long enough, it wasn't big enough, it wasn't dramatic enough, it wasn't one of the featured scenes in the movies. But I will have a talk with the director.

Well, the 89-year-old comic book legend, co-creator of Spider-Man (with artist Steve Ditko), Thor, the Fantastic Four, the Hulk, the X-Men and Iron Man (with Jack Kirby), is about to get feted properly on Epix.

The movie channel is playing With Great Power: The Stan Lee Story, a documentary on his illustrious and illustrated career, Friday at 8 p.m. as the centerpiece of a Marvel Heroes-themed weekend.

Also playing on Epix this weekend are Iron Man 2, Thor and the world television premiere of Captain America: The First Avenger, whetting audience's appetites to see the characters together in The Avengers, which hits the big screen May 4.

The documentary gives special attention to the five-year stretch where the Manhattan-born Lee revolutionized the comic business by creating characters that were a huge departure from the Supermen of the world.

To me the secret ingredient was trying to play up their personal lives and their personal problems, which as far as I knew had not been done in the case of other superhero stories, says Lee.

Peter Parker may have been able to crawl up walls as Spider-Man, but he couldn't afford cab money for dates. Billionaire Tony Stark, aka Iron Man, had an expensive suit of high-tech armor, but had a heart condition and needed his chest plate to keep him alive. The Hulk, like Frankenstein's monster, just wanted to be left alone by the military units always out to get him.

That formula worked during the Kennedy and Johnson administrations, a time of great social upheaval in the country but a boon time for the comic book business.

In the '60s it was an incredible time, it was like we could do nothing wrong, says Lee. I think we could've published a book with blank pages and it would've sold.

He didn't use his real name, Stanley Martin Lieber, on his stories, because he was saving it for the great novel that he has yet to get around to writing.

It still surprises him that a kid who grew up in Depression-era New York City ended up hobnobbing with the stars of The Avengers like Samuel L. Jackson and Scarlett Johansson.

When we were doing those strips, I just hoped that the books would sell so I could keep my job and pay the rent, says Lee. To think that someday that newspaper men would interview me about these heroes, and there would be big features on the screen, it never could've occurred to me in a million years.

http://www.nydailynews.com/entertain...icle-1.1067409

Business Notes
DirecTV Files FCC Complaint Vs. Tribune
By The Deadline.com Team - Apr. 25, 2012

The latest spat over broadcast station retransmission fees charged to satellite and cable system operators has taken an interesting turn. DirecTV has filed an FCC complaint that accuses creditors of bankrupt Tribune Co. of taking control of TV stations without getting approval from regulators, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The stations in question include affiliates of Fox and the CW, and they have been blacked out on DirecTV since the weekend. DirecTV filed a complaint Monday asking the FCC to intervene. The disagreement is over fees DirecTV pays to carry Tribune's 23 TV stations in 19 cities. Fox is owned by News Corp and The CW is owned by CBS Corp and Time Warner Inc. Tribune's ongoing bankruptcy complicates the issue of who controls the stations' broadcast licenses.

Tribune has asked the FCC for the OK to transfer control of the broadcast licenses to its creditors, DirecTV said in its complaint. But the FCC has been waiting for Tribune to reach a deal with its creditors and receive bankruptcy-court approval for the company's reorganization plan. DirecTV alleges Tribune creditors are already acting as if they are in charge. DirecTV says it reached an accord with Tribune but that creditors balked.

Tribune denied there was any agreement. Creditors Bank of America and Citigroup declined to comment. DirecTV said Tribune is asking for triple the fees it receives.

http://www.deadline.com/2012/04/dire...nt-vs-tribune/

Sweeps time baby! here we go!

So many fresh episodes tonight that the DVR will be working overtime..

TV Review
'Don't Be Tardy for the Wedding,' skip it
'Housewives' spinoff proves there can be too much of a bad thing
By Tom Conroy, Media Life Magazine

Back in 2004, a dour Jon Stewart ambushed the hosts on "Crossfire," saying that their partisan bickering and posturing was lowering the country's level of political discourse. He kept telling them, "Stop hurting America." Shortly thereafter, CNN canceled the show.

Bravo's new reality series "Don't Be Tardy for the Wedding,"the second spinoff of "The Real Housewives of Atlanta," might inspire fantasies of going to the channel and repeating Stewart's plea. Although the success of the "Real Housewives" franchise proves that millions of viewers enjoy watching self-indulgent, foul-mouthed, ill-tempered women fight, America would be a better place if Bravo stopped presenting their behavior as acceptable and even admirable and stopped rewarding the perpetrators with fame and wealth.

People who need more of the usual "Real Housewives" shtick or have a special fondness for the star of the spinoff, Kim Zolciak, will probably enjoy the new show. The rest of us, by not watching, can encourage Bravo to do the right thing and move on to another type of programming.

Premiering this Thursday, April 26, at 9 p.m., the series follows Kim, a standard-issue big blonde who seems to have ambitions to be a singer, as she prepares to wed her boyfriend, Kroy Biermann, a defensive end for the Atlanta Falcons. When the show begins, they're living together in a mansion with their 5-month-old son, KJ, and Kim's two daughters from her previous marriage, Brielle, 14, and Ariana, 9.

"From her previous marriage" is a loose term. While Kim discusses her upcoming wedding with her daughters, Brielle points out that she was in attendance at Kim's last wedding. Then, for no reason, Kim pushes Ariana into their swimming pool.

As with much of reality TV, it's hard to judge exactly where one stops disliking Kim and starts disliking the show. Having just been proposed to, she insists on getting married in just eight weeks, on Nov. 11, 2011 -- i.e., 11/11/11 -- because to her the number 1 symbolizes unity, and she and Kroy are becoming one, and there will be a new moon on the 10th. She doesn't care that it's in the middle of football season.

When Kroy and Kim discuss how much the event will cost, she implies he's being stingy because he doesn't want to spend more than half a million dollars. Then she hires the celebrity wedding planner Colin Cowie, who quickly gets her to agree to a budget of at least $1 million.

Kim plans to "plank" the pool -- i.e., build a path across it -- so she can make a big entrance to the ceremony. But she doesn't want the guests to walk through her house. Cowie assures her that there will be security.

Kim seems incapable of uttering a sentence without an obscenity. When her best friend, Jen, drops by and asks what Kim is doing, Kim replies, " B-----, I'm trying to find a f---ing wedding gown."

Although we'll never know if she talks like that because she thinks it's funny or because her producers think it's funny, it isn't funny. In another scene, Kim speaks to her mother contemptuously. The show ends with a montage of highlights from the upcoming season that shows someone close to Kim being informed by a third party that she's no longer in the wedding party.

Except for Cowie, the supporting players don't make a strong impression. Kroy seems to be a nice, sensible man. It remains a mystery why he would agree to legalize what seems destined to be a costly and brief relationship.

The easiest explanation would be that Kroy, like most Americans, will do anything to become more famous. The idea that notoriety is as good as actual accomplishment explains a lot of the foolish and dangerous behavior of the past few decades, both on TV and off. Shows like "Don't Be Tardy for the Wedding" will just make that worse.

http://www.medialifemagazine.com/art...ng-skip-it.asp

Critic's Notes
Costco Cunning: CNBC Examines the Retail Giant
By David Sicilia, TVWorthWatching.com - Apr. 24, 2012

We know Costco charges membership dues and sells goods off pallets on concrete floors under cheap lighting. We know the portions are large - mayonnaise in containers big enough to satisfy even the Ohioans in Martin Mull's 1985 mockumentary The History of White People in America. And we assume all of this means the prices are low. According to CNBC's The Costco Craze: Inside the Warehouse Giant - premiering Thursday, April 26 at 9 p.m. ET - they are. Buy in bulk, sell low, make profit through volume. End of story?

More like beginning of story. The typical Costco shopper is relatively affluent - earning about twice the average per capita - and well educated. And he or she buys a lot more per visit than the typical supermarket shopper. The show's talking heads explain that Costco aggressively encourages impulse buying by, among other things, posting few signs throughout the warehouses. You wander, you buy.

Shoppers roll out of Costco in a minivan full of stuff heavier and hundreds of bucks lighter because of the variety. They aren't just buying food, they're snapping up clothes and drugs and electronics and furniture and vacation packages. The irony is, one of Costco's shrewdest marketing strategies is LIMITED brand selection.

The typical supermarket, even selling mostly food, offers some 40,000 distinct products, and Walmart sells about 100,000. Costco stocks only 4,000. Without all that pesky choice, we buy more. Life is short. Who wants to ponder 57 varieties of ketchup when Costco conveniently offers one or two?

Like Walmart, Costco exerts enormous power over suppliers, and is itself a major producer and rebrander, with its private label, Kirkland. It is the biggest retailer of meat and toilet paper in America, probably the biggest wine seller in the world. What is more surprising is that much of that wine is high-end, and the program devotes an intriguing segment to Costco's novice yet globally powerful chief wine buyer, Annette Alvarez-Peters.

There are some reasons to feel good about shopping at Costco, which hasn't embraced Walmart's ruthless employee policies. Unlike Walmart, Costco pays higher than industry average wages. Most of its employees also have health insurance, in spite of its similar obsession with low costs. Of course, small independent retailers are hardly fans of Costco any more than they are of Walmart or Sam's Club, BJ's or Target. How much does Costco rely on foreign suppliers? The program is silent on the issue.

The Costco Craze introduces us to the company's indefatigable 75-year-old co-founder and CEO Jim Sinegal. Sure, he has a jet, but that's so he can fly around 200 days a year visiting the warehouses. Even with the jet, he's the perfect antidote to the fat cats of Wall Street.

In claiming that Costco's formula is revolutionary, The Costco Craze is historically ignorant. Most notably, America's original supermarkets offered rustic fixtures, sold all manner of goods and relied heavily on impulse buying. Some called themselves food "warehouses." This was because they were founded during the early years of the Great Depression; their owners were scrimping on fixtures and firing clerks. Lo and behold, penny-pinching shoppers, left to their own devices, bought more per visit.

Costco (like its chief competitor, Sam's Club) was founded in 1983 - well before the onset of the Great Recession - and has thrived since. When economic recovery eventually arrives, some bargain retailers will be tempted to move upscale toward nicer digs and fatter profit margins. That's what the early supermarkets did, as well as discount retailers in many other markets.

If and when they do, new low-end, low-margin firms will step in to serve the bargain hunters. This is known in the biz as the Wheel of Retailing. Every generation will have its Costcos - whether Costco continues to be one of them or not.

http://www.tvworthwatching.com/BlogP...px?postId=1758

Technology Notes
Netflix Streaming Traffic Grew 30% In Last Six Months: Study
YouTube Leading Source of Mobile Video Traffic, According to Sandvine
By Todd Spangler, Multichannel News - Apr. 25, 2012

The volume of Netflix's streaming-video traffic over wireline broadband networks in North America climbed 30% over the past six months, although the company's share of overall usage has leveled off at approximately 33% of all peak-hour downstream bandwidth, according to a new study.

That means that in North America, Netflix -- which continues to be the largest single source of traffic on fixed-access networks -- drives about one-third of capacity infrastructure costs for cable and telco providers, according to the report from bandwidth-management equipment vendor Sandvine.

Factoring in aggregate upstream and downstream traffic, Netflix represents 24.4% of total volume, ahead of B**T****** at 14.2%. On downstream usage during primetime hours, Netflix accounts for 32.9% of traffic, which is up only slightly from 32.7% in September 2011, Sandvine said.

"The explosive growth seems to be over" for Netflix in terms of bandwidth consumption, Sandvine said in the "Global Internet Phenomena Report 1H2012" report. The vendor expects Netflix's peak share to decline slightly to 32.5% in the second half of 2012, as other video-streaming services pick up steam.

"Going forward, Netflix faces increased competition from the likes of YouTube (the second-largest source of peak downstream traffic, at 13.8%), Hulu, HBO Go, Amazon Prime, and traditional TV networks streaming their content to game consoles and other devices," Sandvine said in the "Global Internet Phenomena Report 1H2012" report.

In the first quarter of 2012, Netflix added 1.7 million streaming-only video subscribers in the U.S. The company's shares fell Tuesday after Netflix said domestic net adds in the second quarter of 2012 would slow down because of quarterly "seasonality." Netflix expects to add 200,000 to 800,000 net streaming subs in the U.S. in the current quarter, and add a net 7 million for the full-year 2012 (the same as in 2010).

Meanwhile, according to Sandvine, YouTube is the largest single source of mobile video traffic in every region worldwide, accounting for as much as 25% of network data and no less than 12%.

In North America, YouTube accounts for 23.4% of daily traffic on mobile networks, followed by Pandora Radio at 6.4%. Netflix represents 2.1% of mobile data in the region, making it the eight-largest source of traffic. Sandvine predicts that real-time entertainment traffic will top 60% of mobile data in the U.S. by late 2014.

The "Global Internet Phenomena Report 1H2012 " report is based on data from a subset of Sandvine's 200-plus customers spanning North America, Europe, Middle East and Africa, Caribbean and Latin America and Asia-Pacific. The report is available at http://www.sandvine.com/news/global_...and_trends.asp.

http://www.multichannel.com/article/...nths_Study.php

Yea thats the Hot 100....that charts gone thru so many changes lately its freaky now cause it only goes by sales & doesnt account for any airplay so songs have very erratic chart lives there.

The top 40 chart is a more accurate reading of songs now:

http://www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/photo...n_mon_0423.pdf


1 more radio/tv tidbit for the NY peeps....

Beginning at 12:01 a.m. on Monday 4/30, ESPN Radio New York (1050 AM) will be heard on Urban AC Kiss-FM 98.7 FM in an LMA/lease between ESPN Audio and 98.7’s owner, Emmis Communications.
ESPN New York 98.7 is New York’s first 24/7 sports talk station on the FM band.

So finally sports on FM & good news for Mike & Mike in the morning & Colin Cowherd & now wonder if they make a play for the yanks in 2013....be interesting to see the affect on WFAN.

This is old, DIRECTV put this out a couple weeks ago...
http://investor.directv.com/released...leaseID=661302

WEDNESDAY's fast affiliate overnight prime-time ratings -and what they mean- have been posted on Analyst Marc Berman's Media INsight's Blog

Nielsen Overnights (18-49)
Fox dominates a slow Wednesday night
Averages a 4.6 in adults 18-49 courtesy of 'Idol'
By Toni Fitzgerald, Media Life Magazine - Apr. 26, 2012

Fox dominated a very slow Wednesday night for broadcast that was peppered with reruns.

The network was the only one of the Big Four to average above a 2.0 in adults 18-49 for the evening.

Fox averaged a 4.6 rating and 13 share in the demo in primetime, according to Nielsen overnights, more than double No. 2 CBS, which averaged a 1.9/5.

Of course Fox had "American Idol," easily the night's No. 1 show with that 4.6, down slightly from a 4.7 last week.

ABC and CBS ran a mix of originals and repeats on the night.

CBS's "Survivor" was the night's No. 2 show behind "Idol," averaging a 2.6, down 0.1 from last week, in the 8 p.m. hour.

ABC's first 90 minutes were reruns, and so not surprisingly the night's first original, the 9:30 p.m. "Don't Trust the B---- in Apartment 23," saw a big dip from last week, when it aired behind an original "Modern Family."

"Trust" averaged a 2.0, down 23 percent from last week.

Still, ABC finished third for the night at 1.8/5. Univision placed fourth at 1.5/4, NBC fifth at 1.2/4, and the CW and Telemundo tied for sixth at 0.4/1.

As a reminder, all ratings are based on live-plus-same-day DVR playback, which includes shows replayed before 3 a.m. the night before. Seven-day DVR data won't be available for several weeks. Forty-three percent of Nielsen households have DVRs.

At 8 p.m. Fox led with a 4.3 for "Idol," followed by CBS with a 2.6 for "Survivor." Univision was third with a 1.5 for "Una Familia con Suerte," ABC fourth with a 1.4 for repeats of "The Middle" and "Suburgatory," NBC fifth with a 1.2 for "Betty White's Off Their Rockers" (1.6) and "Best Friends Forever" (0.8), Telemundo sixth with a 0.4 for "Una Maid en Manhattan" and CW seventh with a 0.3 for a repeat of "The L.A. Complex," matching its Tuesday debut.

Fox was first again at 9 p.m. with a 4.9 for more "Idol," while ABC moved to second with a 2.1 for a repeat of "Family" (2.2) and the new "Trust" (2.0). CBS was third with a 1.8 for a "Criminal Minds" rerun, Univision fourth with a 1.5 for "Abismo de Pasion," NBC fifth with a 0.9 for "Rock Center with Brian Williams," CW sixth with a 0.5 for "America's Next Top Model" and Telemundo seventh with a 0.4 for "Corazon Valiente."

ABC moved to first at 10 p.m. with a 2.0 for "Revenge," with NBC second with a 1.6 for "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit." CBS and Univision tied for third at 1.5, CBS for a repeat of "CSI" and Univision for "La Que No Podia Amar," and Telemundo was fifth with a 0.4 for "Relaciones Peligrosas."

Fox also led the night among households with a 10.0 average overnight rating and a 16 share. CBS was second at 5.1/8, ABC third at 3.7/6, NBC fourth at 3.2/5, Univision fifth at 1.9/3, and CW and Telemundo tied for sixth at 0.6/1.

http://www.medialifemagazine.com/art...sday-night.asp

Tech/Business Notes
Nintendo posts first annual loss in at least three decades
By Alex Pham, Los Angeles Times' 'Company Town' Blog - Apr. 26, 2012

Nintendo on Thursday posted losses of more than $500 million for its fiscal year -- its first annual loss since the Japanese gaming company began publicly reporting its financial results in 1981.

The maker of Mario and Zelda games in January telegraphed that it would post steep declines in sales and a substantial loss for the year ended March 31. Thursday's results were roughly in line with its grim forecasts, as both sales and losses came in slightly lower than expected.

The Kyoto company, which manufactures the Wii and DS game consoles, recorded a $534.6-million loss on $8 billion in revenue, compared with a $960.5-million profit on $12.6 billion in sales the year before. On Jan. 26, Nintendo warned investors that it would likely post a $804.3-million loss on $8.2 billion in sales.

While sales came in lower than expected, losses narrowed as a result of a weaker Japanese yen.

Still, the rapid rise of inexpensive smartphone applications for mobile devices such as the iPhone, iPad and Android phones have weakened Nintendo's once-dominant grip on the portable games market. In addition, sales of its Wii console have slipped precipitously as players gravitate to the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3, both of which have higher graphical processing power and a more robust online entertainment offering than the Wii.

The 123-year-old company, which started in 1889 selling playing cards, is pinning its hopes on its upcoming Wii U, its next-generation console that is scheduled for launch later this year in time for Christmas.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/ente...nual-loss.html

Unfortunately (fortunately?) the Saturday repeat is of an episode that aired 2-3 weeks prior.

^^^ I'm a couple of "SVU" episodes behind, so that works for me.

Better safe (and very late) than sorry.

TV Notes
As Dishes Stack Up, Cities Start Trying to Put Them Away
Satellite Dishes Belong to Owners for Life, Get Left Hanging; A Planter or Sled?
By Jennifer Levitz, Wall Street Journal - Apr. 25, 2012

BOSTONWhen Afroditi Kleftis wanted an array of channels so patrons at her Laundromat could watch soap operas, she had a satellite dish mounted above her front window.

Her television-watching upstairs neighbors did the same, so there are now three satellite dishes mounted on the facade of the triple-decker in East Boston. "One is OK, but so many," said Ms. Kleftis, 71 years old, shaking her head. "It looks like a spaceship."

Her house is hardly the only spot where the saucers have landed. Along some streets in East Boston, satellite dishes protrude from nearly every house, with some multifamily structures decked with as many as eight. Other cities are reporting a similar outbreak. "We have blocks that look like NASA or Area 51," said William Carter, a chief staffer for the Philadelphia City Council.

Leaders in congested enclaves grapple with a litany of perennial annoyances: clotheslines, idling cars, trash, garish paint jobs.

Now, they are dealing with a new blight: clusters of satellite dishes. But figuring out what to do with all the old dishes can be a challenge.

Fed up, officials around the country are serving up plans to dismiss the dish. They look tacky, said Chicago Alderman Ray Suarez.

"It's just ugly," said Boston City Councilman Sal LaMattina, waving down a dish-decked street in East Boston, an enclave near Logan Airport. He called a public hearing this month on the "satellite dish epidemic."

Dishes have been around for years, and there have long been gripes about their appearance. But in the past, the industry has typically gone up against homeowner associations and condo boards. Today, cities are trying to get people to clean up their dishes.

Boston, Philadelphia and Chicago are among the cities that have recently passed or are drafting laws banning satellite dishes from the fronts of homes, unless a signal can't be obtained another way.

Dish companies would generally have to mount the dishes on sides, rears or roofs of homes so they aren't obvious from the streetand pick them up when customers move and leave dishes behind.

The dish industry calls the ordinances a "terrible idea," and is asking the Federal Communications Commission to intervene, arguing the new regulations, current and proposed, are discriminatory and costly.

Appearance-wise, the industry says, the dish may be no dish, but is it really so homely?

"A small but growing number of cities have recently singled out satellite dishes for regulationarguing that satellite dishes are uniquely ugly," the Satellite Broadcasting & Communications Association, the industry trade group, said in a statement.

"It is hard to understand why a satellite dish is any more 'aesthetically unpleasing,' " the group wrote, than other urban apparatus like "the multitude of air conditioning boxes that stick out of windows."

While cable is a popular option, many customers like satellite dishes to receive TV signals because they generally costs less than cable, said telecom industry analyst Jeff Kagan.

But there are quirks to the service that give headaches to local officials. Customers subscribe to satellite service, which they can turn on and off. But the service comes with a dish which, for better or worse, subscribers own for life.

Those who order a dish become its legal owners and are "free to move the dish with them or recycle it as they see fit," according to the satellite industry trade group. If it is left behind, "it becomes an issue between them and their landlord or new owner," the group said.

Homeowners who have outgrown their dishes, or moved into homes with dishes they don't want, have found novel ways to repurpose them. In the chat room at the technology site Slashdot.org, posters exchange ideas. One poster said: "We filled it with good soil and compost and planted a nice selection of butterfly/hummingbird flowers in it."

Alex Doak, a self-employed subcontractor who installs satellite dishes in Nashville, Tenn., said he started noticing unused dishes in the past year, and began telling residents he would be glad to take them off their hands.

"There are a lot of things you can do with dishes," said Mr. Doak, 31, who now sells them online for between $20 and $60, depending on the size.

"You can very easily turn the dishes into a piece of artwork if you're creative with paint," he said. "I've also seen guys try to use them as a sled." Another idea: turning them into "solar ovens."

Last month, Mr. Doak painted a 26-inch-wide dish with the orange logo of the University of Tennessee football team and is now trying to sell it. "I'm going to play with the market and see what it is willing to do," he said.

"I can't think of any other industry where people are just allowed to leave the apparatus," said Mr. Carter, staffer for the Philadelphia City Council. "If it continues, imagine the slippery slope. Will we have 20 on a house?"

But it isn't easy for officials to put away the dishes. A 1996 FCC rule largely prohibits local governments and homeowner boards from passing regulations that hinder the installation, upkeep or use of antennasincluding dishesto receive programs.

After Philadelphia passed an ordinance regulating dishes last fall, the satellite industry asked the FCC to review its legality.

The FCC said the matter is under review and declined to comment.

Philadelphia's ordinance says any dish mounted on the front of a building "shall be painted in a color that matches the building."

That is onerous, the industry counters. "Each technician would have to be supplied with a significant palette of colors," Dish Network LLC and DirecTV Inc., two big dish providers, wrote in a recent brief to the FCC.

Boston City Council officials are crafting their own dish law, according to Mr. LaMattina, who represents working-class East Boston.

"Look down the street," he said, turning onto one dish-heavy street. "Imagine if those satellite dishes weren't there. This would be a nice-looking little block."

But some East Boston old-timers don't see what the big deal is. Nick Coviello, 77, has three "dishes or whatever you call it" on the front of his triple-decker and said they don't bother him.

"What the hell is the difference?" he said. "We're not millionaires here. When you live in the city, you close your eyes."

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...l?mod=ITP_AHED

TV Notes
How Low Can The Bar Go for Saving Ratings-Challenged Bubble Shows?
By Michael Schneider, TVGuide.com - Apr. 25, 2012

It's nail-biting time for fans of programs that haven't yet been picked up for next season. As network executives make their final decisions next month on which shows to renew and which ones to cancel, low ratings across the board aren't making their jobs any easier.

It used to be pretty clear which shows were hits and what could be deemed a flop. But this spring, primetime ratings have once again slumped to levels that shock even the most jaded of TV executives, who find themselves picking up shows that are currently barely pulling little more than a 1 rating among the adults 18-49 demographic.

"I'm curious what the striking level is of the shows we're going to see come back this year," says one executive. "We've really gotten to the truly frightening point with how bad you have to be to get canceled these days. To where it is, it's almost comically funny."

Among the shows already picked up for next season are NBC's Smash, which dropped to a 1.9 rating with adults 18-49 on April 16 (but ticked up to a 2.0 on April 23); Fox's Raising Hope, which last week averaged a 1.8; NBC's Grimm, which last Friday posted a 1.4 rating; and CBS' The Good Wife, which averaged a 1.9 on Sunday.

It wasn't too long ago that those would be considered failing grades. But those shows are all still considered solid performers for their respective networks. Other shows with a shot at renewal include ABC's Last Man Standing (1.5 last week), NBC's 30 Rock (1.5) and Fox's Fringe (1.0). "It's amazing it's down as much as it is across the board," says Touch executive producer Tim Kring, whose show also remains on the bubble. "You're having to recalibrate in your mind what these numbers mean each week. If we had hit any of these numbers on Heroes we would have gone home and curled up in the fetal position."

As the saying goes, you can't cancel everything. That's why the networks take much more into account than just ratings when they decide whether to renew a show. Does their studio arm own all or part of the series? Is it an international success? Can the license fee be reduced? How does the show perform versus its competition? Does it improve on, or hold on to most of, its lead-in? Are advertisers supportive of the show, and are the network's sales teams clamoring to keep the show going?

The fate of this year's bubble shows will be decided by the week of May 14, when the networks announce their new fall schedules. In the meantime, here are some key questions that await an answer.

The networks are expected to add more comedies come fall. Is that good news for the remaining half-hours that are in flux?
It already was good for Fox's Raising Hope, which earned an early renewal as the network eyes a four-comedy Tuesday lineup. CBS' plan to possibly go with four comedies on Thursday could also be good news for perennial underdog Rules of Engagement or the critically reviled Rob. (But not both, mind you.) Ditto shows like Cougar Town and Up All Night, still awaiting their fates at ABC and NBC, respectively.

Shows like Harry's Law, Body of Proof and Unforgettable do well with total viewers, but they skew old. Will NBC, ABC and CBS stick with them or look for dramas that appeal to younger viewers?
"The advertiser currency is adults 18-49," says one exec. "Everything else is nice, but if you can't monetize it, why does it matter?" Still, another network source says sometimes it's better to stick with the devil you know. "The risk you take is you throw out your high total-viewer show for one you assume will get a better demo, and then you don't get that better demo. You need utility players, and I would think long and hard before throwing out shows like that." This is where relationships come into play: If NBC wants to curry favor with studio Warner Bros. Television or Harry's Law exec producer David E. Kelley, for example, they might give the Kathy Bates series a renewal.

Will CBS cancel CSI: NY or CSI: Miami?
CBS has a high-class problem: Too many strong-performing shows and not enough room for new dramas. That's why it seems inevitable that either David Caruso's Miami or Gary Sinise's NY has to go. "It's something you might want to prepare for," hints one insider. NY is seen as the more likely candidate, although another source says, "It is totally, and truly, up in the air." There's always the possibility that both could be canceled "They can't bring back everything," says a rival but such a drastic move is unlikely. The original CSI has already been renewed.

Fringe and Community are fan faves, but their ratings are very low. Will the shows' studios help with costs and save them?
Industry insiders say the odds are good that both TV Guide Magazine Fan Favorites will return. Warner Bros. Television is expected to reduce its license fee on Fringe for a final 13-episode season (though Fox will likely still lose money on the drama). "The business is tough, but it's really pretty simple," says one network exec. "Here's the license fee and here's the revenue generated. Is the show in the red or in the black?" Community is so close to having enough episodes for syndication that producer Sony Pictures Television should be flexible on the price tag, while NBC, which co-owns the comedy, would be financially foolish not to pick it up. "If you end up with four seasons, you now have an asset," one exec says. "It may not be Modern Family, but...you don't need 12 million people watching each week for it to be valuable."

Will deals with talent and producers be done in time to bring back shows like Two and a Half Men and The Office?
The quick answer is "yes." Even though negotiations will come down to the wire they always do no one is sweating. Ashton Kutcher is expected to be back in place with a nice raise for Two and a Half Men next season, while key The Office cast members Ed Helms and John Krasinski will likely be back for at least parts of next season. A deal with Law & Order: SVU star Mariska Hargitay was recently signed, boosting that show's chances for return.

http://www.tvguide.com/News/Bubble-S...e-1046439.aspx

Business Notes
Broadcasters debate FCC over political ad rules
By Joe Flint, Los Angeles Times' 'Company Town' Blog - Apr. 26, 2012

Every election year, politicians spend hundreds of millions of dollars buying commercials. It's a big part of their election-year bottom line.

"It may not be good for the country but it's going to be good for CBS," joked CBS Chief Executive Leslie Moonves during an investors' conference last fall.

It's no secret how much politicians spend on advertising. Television stations are required to not only keep records on every commercial bought by a candidate, but that information is also available to the public. The only catch is that anyone interested in seeing the stats has to visit a TV station and ask to look at the public file to get access to how much money a local station is getting in election dollars.

On Friday, the Federal Communications Commission is scheduled to vote on whether to require TV stations to put that same information on their websites. While it may not seem like a big deal to take already public files and put them online, the broadcasters are not happy.

The issue is not putting what a candidate spent on commercials online. But broadcasters are concerned about listing what specific commercials on specific shows cost. Even though by law candidates get the lowest rate available for commercials in the weeks leading up to an election, broadcasters worry that other advertisers could use that information to leverage their own negotiations.

"One poker player would, in effect, have had at least a partial glance at the other's hand," broadcast networks CBS, NBC, ABC Fox and Univision wrote in comments filed jointly at the FCC.

There is also fear that one station could learn what another is charging and then undercut its rates with advertisers. On top of that, broadcasters think it is unfair that political advertising on cable is not required to be disclosed. That, too, may change down the road, Washington insiders say.

FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski has a different opinion. In a speech at the National Assn. of Broadcasters convention last week, he said broadcasters resisting the commission's proposals, are "against technology, against transparency and against journalism."

Media watchdogs and academics also think the broadcasters are overreacting. Andrew Schwartzman, senior vice president of the Media Access Project, said it is ironic that "broadcasters, who as journalists advocate for freedom of information laws, now want secrecy when it comes to their own operations."

For more on the debate, please see the story in Thursday's Los Angeles Times.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/ente...ad-rules-.html

Business Notes
Providence Said Selling Hulu Stake at $2 Billion Value
By Andy Fixmer and Cristina Alesci, Bloomberg - Apr. 26, 2012

Hulu.com owners Walt Disney Co., Comcast Corp. and News Corp. are close to buying out Providence Equity Partners Inc.’s stake at a price valuing the company at about $2 billion, said two people with knowledge of the matter.

Providence is selling its 10 percent share in Los Angeles- based Hulu for about $200 million after investing $100 million when the venture began in 2007, according to the people, who weren’t authorized to talk publicly.

This would be the optimal outcome,” David Bank, an analyst at RBC Capital Markets in New York, said in an interview. “The real value of Hulu will be discovered on a longer time frame than what’s likely optimal for Providence.”

The companies will let employees of Hulu, including Chief Executive Officer Jason Kilar, sell shares of the closely held online TV service, the people said. This month, Hulu said its $8-a-month Hulu Plus service, which lets users view an expanded library of shows on game consoles and mobile devices, had more than 2 million subscribers.

Comcast Corp.’s NBC Universal, which relinquished its Hulu board seat and oversight as part of federal approval of its acquisition by the cable company, hasn’t been involved in the talks, they said. That complicates its role in the purchase.

Elisa Schreiber, a Hulu spokeswoman, declined to comment, as did Andrew Cole, an outside spokesman for the Providence, Rhode Island-based private equity group.

Owners’ Stakes

Disney, News Corp. and NBC Universal each hold Hulu stakes of about 27 percent, while employees own about 10 percent, the people said. Disney and News Corp. have representatives on Hulu’s board.

The owners canceled a sale last year after previously putting off plans for an initial public offering.

Exclusive programs will help the service compete with Netflix Inc., the online and mail-order film and TV subscription service.

Hulu LLC is building a roster of original programs to persuade advertisers to make bigger commitments and attract new ones. The site is offering ad buyers the ability to target viewers by demographics, geography and by viewing device. Earlier this week Hulu said advertisers would only pay for ads that had been viewed start to finish.

The service announced four new original series this month in meetings with advertisers.

Exclusive Shows

“We Got Next” and “The Awesomes,” an animated series by “Saturday Night Live” member Seth Meyers, will start this year and in 2013, Hulu said. Release times for “Don’t Quit Your Daydream,” from “Entourage” star Adrian Grenier, and “Flow” weren’t provided.

Hulu plans to spend $500 million on TV shows and films in 2012, Kilar wrote Jan. 12 on the company’s website. That’s up from $300 million projected a year ago, according to an April 2011 post.

Providence this week acquired a $200 million stake in the Chernin Group, the entertainment company founded by former News Corp. Chief Operating Officer Peter Chernin. The private equity firm’s media portfolio also includes Univision Communications Inc. and Yankees Entertainment and Sports Network.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-0...ion-value.html

TV Notes
ABC Family’s ‘Make It Or Break It’ To End
By Nellie Andreeva, Deadline.com - Apr. 26, 2012

The current eight-episode third season of the ABC Family series Make It Or Break It will be its last. The writing has pretty much been on the wall for the gymnastics drama, which first faced cancellation last summer following its second 20-episode season, which was down from the 20-epsiode Season 1. But last September, the network renewed the series for eight episodes “in time to ignite Olympic fever,” as ABC Family president Michael Riley put it.

The timing does make sense as the premise of the series was following several elite female teen gymnasts dreaming of competing at the upcoming summer 2012 Olympics in London. The current abbreviated third season chronicles the final leg of the race to the Olympics, with the May 14 finale revealing who of the three girls will make the U.S. team for the games.

ABC Family this week began promoting the May 14 closer as the series finale, with Make It Or Break It creator Holly Sorenson chiming in on Twitter. “We are, very sadly, three weeks away from the series finale of MIOBI,” she wrote Monday. ABC Family has three new series on tap for this summer: drama Bunheads, comedy Baby Daddy and docuseries Beverly Hills Nannies.

http://www.deadline.com/2012/04/abc-...eak-it-to-end/

Critic's Notes
Tranquillity Replaces Trash Talk and Heels
By Jon Caramanica, The New York Times - Apr. 26, 2012

In the first episode of Leave It to Niecy, a reality show about the actress and comedian Niecy Nash, Ms. Nash is determined to prove to her children that she can orchestrate family fun. Dominic, the oldest child and only boy, tries to tell her that their family isn't like others that have lived with cameras.

They got drama, he says. They got divorces going on, they got baby-mama drama going on.

Ms. Nash remains unbowed: In other words, it would be fun if we had drama.

This time it is her younger daughter, Dia, with the reply: Yup.

And thus it is guaranteed that there will be no drama in the Nash household and therefore no fun. Leave It to Niecy, which just completed its first season on TLC, could safely be described as fun-avoidant, one of a handful of recent reality shows documenting the lives of midlevel black celebrities that hew to middle-class ideals of family, stability and calm. Along with Ms. Nash's show, which revolves around her life after her second marriage, there's Mary Mary, Thursdays on WeTV, a behind-the-scenes look at the titular gospel duo, and Beverly's Full House, Saturdays on OWN, in which the former supermodel Beverly Johnson tries to forge a stronger relationship with her daughter, who has just given birth to a daughter of her own, by moving them into her house.

These aren't the first black celebrity reality television shows to emphasize mildness, but the recent spate feels poignant given that many of the most popular offerings in this category have been of the more sensationalist variety. The Real Housewives of Atlanta (Bravo), Love & Hip-Hop (VH1), Basketball Wives (VH1) and Braxton Family Values (WeTV), starring the 1990s R&B singer Toni Braxton, each deliver their own types of maelstrom. The women at the center of these shows generally not previously famous on their own have learned quickly that scrapping and backtalk and behind-the-back talk and towering high heels make sticky reality television.

This latest slate is the salve, the reprieve from all the rage, by celebrities with reputations at stake. Like Hammertime, starring MC Hammer; Family Foreman, about the boxer and entrepreneur George Foreman; and others before them, they're dull, almost studiously so. The model is probably Run's House, which MTV broadcast from 2005 to 2009, long enough for Run's children to grow up into semi-celebrities themselves, free to make their own dubious decisions. Run was a benign protagonist who ran his household with a loose but assured hand. The family's wealth was on display, but Run, a minister and part of the hip-hop group Run-D.M.C., preached the ethic of hard work as he gave his children the gift of celebrity.

These households are more modest, even if upper middle class or higher in income. This applies most to Ms. Nash's family. During one episode focused on health she utters a complaint familiar to many busy parents. I was feeding them a lot of fast food, she said of her kids. Why? Because I was working. Most of Leave It to Niecy is concerned with typical family problems: Dominic wants to get a tattoo, the family takes a no-technology vacation and so on. Hollywood did not give Ms. Nash a sitcom of her own, so she turned this show into her fief.

The struggles are similar on Mary Mary, about the singing sisters Erica and Tina Campbell: choosing between career and family, grappling with weight and other health issues, family quibbling (though it rarely rises to the level of a Braxton or a Kardashian beef). The tone of the show is nurturing, even when the two are at cross purposes. When Tina criticizes clothing that Erica tries on, Erica snaps back: Nobody said nothing to you and your R&B skirt. That skirt doesn't say nothing about the Lord.

Ultimately, though, Mary Mary is most interesting for peeling back the slick facade of the gospel music industry, which traffics in constant praise and flawless praisers. The most exciting figure on the show is the duo's manager, Mitchell, who speaks bluntly about money, weight and business protocol. He's irascible and fun, giving the show a layer of frisson it would otherwise lack. When he has to inform the sisters that a canceled tour has cost them $250,000, they try to handle the news evenly, but he doesn't bother. Mary Mary is a huge success, but that amount of money still matters.

Only on Beverly's Full House is money not a subject of discussion. Ms. Johnson lives in Palm Springs, Calif., with Robert Dupont, her house manager and on-call friend, but there are still markers of everyday life that pepper this show: a small guest room in the big house, mundane trips to the supermarket and fancyish dining establishments that seem like overgrown chain restaurants.

Ms. Johnson moves through the world with blinders on; her vanity is excruciating to watch. She claims to want to restore wholeness to her family, though really she wants to express her own frustrations under the guise of reaching out to help address Anansa's. She often treats Anansa like an alien invader, even though Ms. Johnson was the one who invited her daughter to move in. She handles Anansa's baby like a willful pet Little girl, that's not ladylike and Mr. Dupont like, well, a baby. Nappy-poo-time, she tells him when she wants him out of the room.

There is friction on this show, much more so than on the others, but it's friction in the service of family unity. The nouveau-riche-focused shows of the past few years rarely have a goal in mind beyond their own propagation: They fight, therefore they exist.

These new shows prefer peace. Notably none of the married couples on them are unhappy, at least not irredeemably so. Both halves of Mary Mary have patient, talented and well-dressed husbands. Ms. Nash regards hers as a prize she just won at a carnival, with excessive affection and just a tad of disbelief. (She's even warm to her ex-husband, the father of her children.)

Only Anansa and her husband, David, appear to have any tension, and that's directly traceable to their appearance on the show. I really have no idea what I'm doing here, David says, a blatant dissenter from the script.

But while he's dissenting, he's not much of a disruption. None of these shows appear ready to upend their ecosystems in the name of drama. Positive energy, wholesomeness and intense healing effort may sustain many a family, but they have a harder time sustaining compelling narrative. How much longer can the redeemers hold out?

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/26/ar...ref=television

The chart you mentioned is only airplay and only at mainstream top 40. The Hot 100 is ranked by radio airplay audience impressions as measured by Nielsen BDS (at ALL types of radio stations playing contemporary music including top 40, adult contemporary, R&B, hip-hop, country, rock, gospel, Latin and Christian stations), sales data compiled by Nielsen Soundscan (both at retail and digitally) and streaming activity provided by online music sources.

therefore it is number THREE

enough on music chart discussion.