CYNTHIA TURNER’S
CYNOPSIS

10/06/04

Good morning. It’s Wednesday, October 6, 2004, and this is your first early morning briefing.

According to fast national ratings from Nielsen Media Research, CBS won Monday night by a share point, tallying up a 5.6/14 overall among A18-49, a notion ahead of ABC’s 5.2/13.  NBC was third with a 4.0/10, followed by WB 2.1/6, Fox 2.5/6, UPN 1.4/4.  For the football game, which ran from 9-12:09am, ABC averaged a 6.9/16 A18-49 rating.
At 8pm NBC was well in front with Fear Factor’s 4.7/13, while ABC and CBS tied at a 9 share. ABC’s the Benefactor continues to improve, this week up by 64% for the hour vs. last week. Also up week to week in the A18-49 demo is WB’s 7th Heaven, improving 16% for the hour, though its stronghold continues to be among female teens (7.5/24). CBS’ Listen Up at 830 delivered a 3.4/9, down slightly week to week by a tenth of a rating point.
At 9pm ABC pulled out in front with a 6.1/15, slightly ahead of CBS’ Raymond/2-1/2 Men combo (5.8/14), which was followed by Las Vegas on NBC (4.4/11).
At 10p CBS’ CSI Miami led with a 7.5/19, while the second hour of NFL Football was down week to week by approx 23% for the hour.  LAX on NBC was on par with the previous week, posting a 2.9/7.

Tonight’s Premieres:
PAX:  World Cup Comedy at 8pm

Casting / Development / Production:

• ABC has given a script commitment with penalty to a comedy project called Surviving the Mintz Sisters (Brad Grey Television)y.  From the perspective of the sisters’ husbands, the project looks at life among siblings and their spouses, per Variety.
• The U.N. (20th/SideStreet) is a drama project for Fox about a group of young career starters working at the United Nations, written by Sri Rao, says Variety.
• Lifetime is reportedly looking at a project called Bel-Air (Axelrod/Edwards Co.), about a blue collar working mother of three, who marries a millionaire.
• David E. Kelley’s reality series The Law Firm (think Apprentice only in legal terms), has chosen Roy Black as the lawyer who will make the choice among the 12 partner-wannabes (20th/Renegade 83). Black is a professor at the University of Miami School of Law, and his past clients have included Rush Limbaugh and William Kennedy Smith.  No launch date has been set yet for this NBC series.

Speaking of The Apprentice, Fox has a new series set to launch next month called My Big Fat Obnoxious Boss (Rocket Science Labs) wherein fake CEO N. Paul Todd (played by William August) chooses among various CEO wannabes, according to Variety.  The ten ep series will premiere on November 7 at 9pm.  The time period was originally assigned to a new series called The Partner, which has been pushed back to 1st qtr 2005.  The show uses many of The Apprentice pieces including the Boardroom and its own catch phrase at the conclusion of every eviction – Get the hell out of my office. At the end of the show, the “winner” receives a check for $250,000, tho no high level prestiges career.

NBC’s The Biggest Loser (NBC Universal, Reveille, 25/7 Prods, 3 Ball Prods) debuts on October 19 at 8pm with a 90m episode.  Hosted by Caroline Rhea, this reality show looks for the biggest loser to be its biggest winner.  12 contestants, with the help of fitness trainers and health experts, look to make a transformation by losing weight and changing their lifestyles.  Each week there will be an elimination of one contestant, as chosen by the contestant group.  The last one standing wins $250,000.

At the Goldman Sachs Communacopia media conference yesterday in NYC, Rupert Murdoch told the group he plans to launch an all sports network, but not until he secures the rights for it to the NFL.  Fox is currently in the midst of football renewal negotiations for the NFC games and is prepared to pay a healthy sum for those rights.  Alternatively, if the pot gets too rich, Murdoch says he is also prepared to step away from the table. In 2004, the NFL games rights fees across four networks totaled $2.2 billion.  Fox in 2004 paid $400 million for its NFL Sunday Ticket out of market games, per Variety.  Expected newcomers to the bidding table this year are NBC, TNT, Echostar and Comcast, in addition to the returning ABC, CBS, ESPN, DirecTV and Fox.  Other planned cable net launches at Fox include a financial news net and an entertainment news net.

Top Ten Basic Cable Ad Supported Network Rankings among Total Viewers for the week of September 27 – October 3, 2004:
Primetime       (000)   Total Pgm Day   (000)
FOX NEWS        2886    NICK            1825
ESPN            2439    NAN*            1482
USA             2151    CARTOON 1162
NAN             1780    FOXNEWS 1160
LIFETIME        1719    LIFETIME        1045
TBS             1714    TNT             1005
SPIKE TV        1662    USA             991
TNT             1656    ESPN            901
CARTOON 1638    TBS             893
FX              1187    SPIKE TV        629
Source Turner Research from Nielsen Media Research Data.
All ratings based on Total U.S. Television Universe of 108,400,000 homes
* = Network broadcasts less than 51% of minutes in a 24 hour day. Primetime listing only includes those networks broadcasting more than 51% of the primetime hours (M-Su 8p-11p)

Top Ten Basic Cable Ad Supported Network Rankings among A18-49 for the week of September 27 – October 3, 2004:
Primetime       (000)   Total Pgm Day   (000)
ESPN            1302    NAN*            673
USA             1038    TBS             557
TBS             998     ESPN            529
SPIKE TV        875     USA             496
FOXNEWS 871     TNT             494
FX              728     LIFETIME        481
TNT             695     NICK            442
LIFETIME        691     FOXNEWS 355
DISCOVERY       603     FX              352
MTV             518     SPIKE TV        340
Source Turner Research from Nielsen Media Research Data.
All ratings based on Total U.S. Television Universe of 108,400,000 homes.
* = Network broadcasts less than 51% of minutes in a 24 hour day. Primetime listing only includes those networks broadcasting more than 51% of the primetime hours (M-Su 8p-11p)

Young Broadcasting Inc. has signed an agreement to sell the assets of WTVO/Rockford, an ABC affiliate, to Mission Broadcasting Inc. for $20.75 million. While a portion of the transaction will close on November 1, the balance is subject to regulatory approval.

Intermedia Advertising Group’s Top Ten Most Effective New Ads for new campaigns airing the weeks of September 13-26, 2004. The list is ranked by viewer’s ability to recall the new ads and their associated products and brands. The Recall Score is the percentage of TV viewers who within 24 hours are able to remember the brand of the ad they saw during normal TV viewing. The scores are then indexed against the mean score for all ads during the time period to create the Recall Index; 100 is Average. For example, with a Recall Index of 215, the top-ranked Apple iPod spot was more than twice as memorable as the average new ad during the period. Source Intermedia Advertising Group Inc.’s 2004 Ad Performance Data Series (www.iagr.net)
– 215 APPLE: iPod + iTunes–black silhouettes dance before colorful backgrounds, Dip Dive Socialize song by Ozomatli
– 214 SWIFFER: Dry Cloth–woman screams for Frank, shows him that Swiffer picked up makeup, hair, and lint
– 196 PIZZA HUT: 4 for All Pizza–Miss Piggy recommends pizza to arguing faces of Mt. Rushmore
– 187 GENERAL ELECTRIC:  GE Reveal Light Bulb–detectives notice criminal is wearing a seafoam-colored shirt
– 182 DYSON: Cyclone–images of vacuum cleaners lined up, man in blue shirt says nothing gets clogged ever      
– 181 WAL-MART: Mr. Charles talks about being an entertainer for 60 years while shining shoes
– 170 CURIOUS: Fragrance by Britney Spears–Spears walks into hotel, fantasizes about man next door
– 163 KFC: Game Bucket Deal–man runs through neighborhood to make it back before halftime is over
– 163 LUCAS ARTS: Star Wars Battlefront–video game battle scenes from Star Wars movies 
– 160 CESAR: Gourmet Biscuits–couple in kitchen, dog begs for treats

Rodney Dangerfield, at the age of 82, died yesterday afternoon in Los Angeles. He had recently undergone heart valve replacement surgery in late August, and after suffering from a small stroke and then infection and complications, was unable to recover. He had fallen into a coma after the surgery, but awoke from that coma just this past week.   Dangerfield is credited with launching the careers of many well known comics, including Jim Carrey, Roseanne and Jerry Seinfeld. It is generally agreed Dangerfield’s biggest movie break came when he appeared in Caddyshack in 1980. A couple of his more famous lines include:  “When I was born, I was so ugly that the doctor slapped my mother”; and “When I started in show business, I played one club that was so far out my act was reviewed in Field and Stream.”

NBC Universal Cable has upped Bridget Baker to EVP/Cable Distribution. In her new role, Bridget is responsible for leading the national accounts team in securing the distribution of NBC Universal’s cable networks:  Bravo, Bravo HD+, CNBC, MSNBC, CNBC World, ShopNBC, USA, Sci-Fi, Trio, Telemundo, mun2, and the Olympics on cable.  With the Universal assets, Baker and her team have added Video-On-Demand and PPV initiatives to their cable offering. She will continue to report to David Zaslav, President, NBC Universal Cable.  

Michael Healy has been promoted to SVP/Original Movies for the Disney Channel.  The announcement was made by Gary Marsh, EVP/Original Programming and Production, to whom Michael reports.  Disney Channel is part of the Disney ABC Cable Networks Group. In his new capacity, Michael will oversee the development of Disney Channel’s Original Movie franchise and the development of original movies on the basic cable channel ABC Family.

Monday, October 4, 2004. Fast National Household Ratings for all Networks. Fast affiliate numbers which reflect time period data, not program data, and can change slightly once the finals come in, particularly for LIVE programming (i.e. Football). Source Nielsen Media Research. Time Period Averages Only. [p] = Premiere; [o] = Original; [r] = Repeat

ABC     8.6/13  The Benefactor 5.9/9, ABC Monday Night Football 10.0/15 (9-11p)

CBS     10.5/16 Still Standing 7.2/12, Listen Up 7.4/11, Raymond 11.4/17, 2-1/2 Men 10.9/16, CSI Miami  13.2/21

NBC     6.5/10  Fear Factor 6.7/11, Las Vegas 7.2/11, LAX 5.6/9

FOX     3.6/6   Renovate My Family 3.1/5, Renovate My Family 4.2/6

WB      3.9/6   7th Heaven 4.5/7, Everwood 3.4/5

UPN     2.6/4   One on One 2.7/4, Half and Half 2.6/4, Girlfriends 2.6/4, Second Time Around 2.3/3

A18-49  CBS 5.6/14, ABC 5.2/13, NBC 4.0/10, WB 2.1/6, Fox 2.5/6, UPN 1.4/4

A MESSAGE FROM WARNER BROS. DOMESTIC CABLE DISTRIBUTION

Source: NTI Explorer, 10/4/04. A18-34, A18-49, W18-34, W18-49 Cvg Rtg.  7th Heaven debut=week of 9/16/02.

The History Channel presents This Day in History:
1683:  A group of Mennonites arrive in present-day Philadelphia, among the first Germans to settle in the American colonies.  The group had been offered a land grant by William Penn and freedom to practice their religion.  Naming their first settlement Germantown, this group was the entering wedge of a huge German migration to America.  Their arrival was formally commemorated in 1987 with Congressional passage of an act naming October 6 as German-American Day.

Answer to Yesterday’s Trivia Question:    Where would you unofficial find “More stars than there are in heaven”? Hint: This line harkens back to the old Hollywood studio days.  METRO-GOLDWYN-MAYER.  The studio’s official motto, Ars Gratia Artis appeared above the roaring lion at the opening of all the MGM movies.  Kudos to:  Christopher Dalrymple-Digital Verite/NY; Mike Davies-ABC/NY; Sharon Cauthen-WNYC Radio/NY; Karen Fahy-MediaOcean; Gary Griffin-APN VNN/Houston; Jordy Luft-WGNO and WNOL/New Orleans; Barrett Travis/Denver; Kevin Boles-Wheel of Fortune/Culver City; Lynn Gutstadt-Premier Retail Networks/San Francisco; Don Wollman-Big Brother 5/LA; Gary Kessler-Euphoria Ent/Santa Monica and Stephanie Kravos-Nelvana Ltd./Toronto.
 

A MESSAGE FROM COMCAST SPOTLIGHT

Comcast Spotlight now has the ability to segment markets both geographically and demographically. Adtag and Adcopy enable advertisers to be more targeted than they could ever be with broadcast. Comcast Spotlight – Spot cable finally delivers. For more information click here.

Today’s Trivia Question:  What television character lived by this credo:  “If he’s got  a price on his head, I’ve got an empty pocket.”  Oldie but a goodie — think way back for this one.  (click
to respond to the trivia question and please be sure to include with your answer your name, company, city and time zone. Only the second four correct responses from each time zone will be listed in tomorrow’s kudo list.)

A MESSAGE FROM COURT TV

Later — Cyn

Cynthia Turner’s Cynopsis
10/06/04  5:29am

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JOB OPENING:  ANALYST, STRATEGIC SALES SRV/Discovery NY: Report, analyze & track DCI Nets’ deal revenue. 3-5 yrs Excel detail oriented analytical media exp. For details/apply: http://corporate.discovery.com/
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JOB OPENING:  RESEARCH MGR/National Geographic Channel, Washington DC. 6-8 yrs net TV research exp; multi-tasker, org, solid comm skills, prof w/MS Office and TV research related software. Apply at: www.foxcareers.com
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JOB OPENING: RESEARCH ANALYST, Screenvision NY (Cinema) Support ad sales, mktg & research mgmt in data collection/analyses. 2-4 yrs Bcst/cable research ideal. Knwldg of Nielsen & research tools. Resumes:
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WHAT’S ON TONIGHT:  WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 6, 2004:

ABC             Lost, The Bachelor, Wife Swap
CBS             60 Minutes, CSI Miami [r], CSI New York
FOX             That 70’s Show, Quintuplets, Bernie Mac Show [r], Bernie Mac Show [r]
NBC             Hawaii, L&O: SVU [r], L&O
PAX             World Cup Comedy [p], Second Verdict, Early Edition
UPN             Top Model, Kevin Hill
WB              Smallville, The Mountain
TELE            Prisonera, Gitanas, Te Voy a Ensenar a Querer
UNIV            Rubi, Amarte es mi Pecado, Don Francisco Presenta