Good morning. It’s Friday, July 16, 2004, and this is your first early morning briefing. Reminder — Cynopsis is on vacation next week, returning on July 26. Have a good week!
Yesterday is was Fox‘s turn to present to the Television Critics Association and as you can imagine, the question of whether or not it copies ideas, formats, shows from other networks was a hot topic. Said Gail Berman: “Just like scripted programming, the unscripted world has reached a point where multiple projects with similar themes are being pitched simultaneously. … The baseless allegations of theft and extortion are outrageous and unacceptable.” As for new programming – Fox is in negotiations to continue with more Simple Life series. Fox also announced the following premiere dates: August 30: The Complex: Malibu Sept 6: North Shore Sept 8: That 70’s Show, Quintuplets, Bernie Mac, Method & Red Sept 11: Cops, America’s Most Wanted Fights Back Sept 18: MadTV Oct 25: The Swan II Nov 4: The OC, Tru Calling Nov 7: King of the Hill, Malcolm, The Partner, Arrested Development Nov 14: The Simpsons Nov 16: House
In a hearing before the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportion subcommittee yesterday, there were some strong allegations made between parties on opposite side of the debate regarding the potential undercounting of various minority groups by Nielsen Media Research. For instance, said Thomas Herwitz, Prez/Station Ops for Fox TV Station Group, “The TV ratings system upon which we rely is seriously broken … Accurate ratings are crucial to making programming decisions and meeting community needs …” and that this problem needed to be addressed to “protect the public.” Said Susan Whiting, CEO/Nielsen: “We will continue to resist all attempts to manipulate this process to mislead the public through a campaign that has nothing to do with protecting the rights of African-Americans, Latinos and Asian- Americans, or any other ethnic group, and everything to do with protecting the commercial self-interest of specific media companies.” And after the hearing, two differing comments from one Senator. Senator Conrad Burns, Chairman of the subcommittee, said the two sides ought to be able to work this out themselves without Congress getting involved. And on the other hand, Senator Burns followed up by saying Congress may have to introduce legislation if Nielsen doesn’t deal with these concerns.
According to Daily Variety, CBS has fired two key actors in its hit series CSI. George Eads and Jorja Fox, both beginning the fifth year of a seven year contract, were both apparently asking for a few extra bucks. Fox apparently didn’t respond in a timely fashion to a letter sent to all cast members asking for confirmation they would arrive to work as scheduled on Thursday morning at 6:15am. Her axe came down on Wednesday night. Thursday morning, when Eads was a no-show for the first day of production, his axe fell too.
Two different parties have asked UPN for advance tapes of their upcoming reality show Amish in the City, and thus far have received two different answers. Congressman Joe Pitts of Pennsylvania rec’d a no from UPN, with the reminder the show would be screened for critics a week before it premieres on July 28. Matt Uhl, General Manager of WLYH-Lancaster PA also requested a screener, and UPN has not said no, but rather will let him know by Tuesday.
Top 10 M-F Syndicated Strip Series for the week of June 28 – July 4, 2004 ranked by HH Rtg Jeopardy (King World) 7.9 AA Wheel of Fortune (King World) 7.9 AA Seinfeld (Sony) 5.2 AA / 6.1 GAA Oprah (King World) 5.2 AA / 5.3 GAA Friends (Warner Bros.) 5.0 AA / 6.1 GAA Everybody Loves Raymond (King World) 4.7 AA / 5.4 GAA Entertainment Tonight (Paramount) 4.4 AA / 4.5 GAA Judge Judy (Paramount) 4.1 AA / 5.9 GAA Dr. Phil (King World) 4.0 AA / 4.0 GAA Millionaire (Buena Vista) 3.4 AA / 3.7 GAA Source Nielsen Media Research
Top 10 M-F Syndicated Strip Series for the week of June 28 – July 4, 2004 ranked by A18-49 Seinfeld (Sony) 3.5 AA / 4.0 GAA Friends (Warner Bros.) 3.4 AA / 4.1 GAA Everybody Loves Raymond (King World) 2.6 AA / 2.9 GAA Jeopardy (King World) 2.3 AA That 70’s Show (Carsey-Werner) 2.2 AA / 2.6 GAA Oprah (King World) 2.1 AA / 2.1 GAA Wheel of Fortune (King World) 2.1 AA Entertainment Tonight (Paramount) 1.9 AA / 1.9 GAA King of the Hill (20th) 1.9 AA / 2.1 GAA Will & Grace (Warner Bros.) 1.8 AA / 2.1 GAA Source Nielsen Media Research
And some of the nominees for the 2004 Emmy Awards are:
Best Comedy: Arrested Development (Fox), Curb Your Enthusiasm (HBO), Everybody Loves Raymond (CBS), S#x and the City (HBO), Will & Grace (NBC)
Best Drama: CSI (CBS), Joan of Arcadia (CBS), The Sopranos (HBO), 24 (FOX), West Wing (NBC)
Best Reality/Competition: The Amazing Race (CBS), American Idol (FOX), The Apprentice (NBC), Last Comic Standing (NBC), Survivor (CBS)
A few surprises or “gee, that’s nice to see” in the Emmy nominee list among the many returnees, include: Amber Tamblyn nominated for best actress in a drama for Joan of Arcadia, and in the same category was Mariska Hargitay for Law & Order: SVU; The Reagans nominated for best Made-For Television Movie; John Ritter nominated for best actor in a comedy series for 8 Simple Rules; and virtually everyone involved with Angels in America for HBO was nominated. Not on the Bets Show list this year – Friends, any version of Law & Order, Simpsons, Monk.
In an effort to head off Fox‘s premiere of Trading Spouses: Meet Your New Mommy, ABC has scheduled an original Extreme Makeover to air opposite it on July 20.
Fox once again on Wednesday night had the single highest rated half hour of the night with a 4.3/13 A18-49 for Simple Life 2 at 9pm. For the full evening, Fox averaged a 3.0/10 A18-49 according to Nielsen Media Research. CBS CMA Music Festival drew a 2.5/7, Next Action Star on NBC a soft 1.6/6, and Quints on Fox at 830P (which just received a full season order) earned a 2.5/8, dropping two share points off its That 70’s Show lead-in.
Top 5 Broadcast Spanish Language Primetime Programs for the week of July 5 – 11, 2004 UNIV Mariana de la Noche (Thu 8p) 20.2 NHTI HH Rtg UNIV Mariana de la Noche (Wed 8p) 20.2 NHTI HH Rtg UNIV Mariana de la Noche (Tue 8p) 19.6 NHTI HH Rtg UNIV Mariana de la Noche (Mon 8p) 19.0 NHTI HH Rtg UNIV Amarte Es Mi Pecado (Wed 9p) 18.9 NHTI HH Rtg UNIV Copa America ’04 (Sat 830p) 18.1 NHTI HH Rtg Source: Nielsen Media Research Note: NHTI Ratings are based on 10.57 million Hispanic TV Homes
African American television homes in the US represent 12,870,000 households.Here are the rankings for the week of July 5 – 11, 2004 – highest rated primetime network programs in African American TV homes according to Nielsen Media Research ABC My Wife & Kids (Wed 830p) 12.5 HH Rtg FOX Bernie Mac (Tue 9p) 12.2 HH Rtg ABC My Wife & Kids (Wed 8p) 11.2 HH Rtg FOX Method and Red (Tue 930p) 10.9 HH Rtg CBS CSI (Thu 9p) 10.8 HH Rtg UPN Half & Half (Mon 930p) 10.2 HH Rtg FOX Bernie Mac (Fri 830p) 9.7 HH Rtg FOX Method and Red (Tue 830p) 9.6 HH Rtg CBS Without a Trace (Thu 10p) 9.6 HH Rtg UPN Eve (Tue 830p) 9.2 HH Rtg Source Nielsen Media Research
The Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has approved new regulations for studio-based marketing campaigns for the upcoming 77the Academy Awards season. Overall the MPAA announced two new rules and changes to three rules.
New rule #1: This rule will permit the distribution of passes or coupons that allow member to gains free entry to screenings in commercial theatres. According to Ric Robertson, Academy Exec. Administrator, previous guidelines and regulations did not anticipate this kind of activity, ‘but last year several companies requested permission to do so.’
New rule #2: This new rule prohibits specific and disparaging references to other pictures or individuals competing in a given category in ads, mailings, websites or other forms of campaign communication.
The three changes to existing rules are as follows:
Rule 3 governing screening schedules now specifically permits letters announcing the shipment of screeners to be mailed to members.
Rule 9 governing music now prohibits the distribution of sheet music of scores at any time.
Rule 12 regarding screenplays now permits screenplays to be reproduced in formats smaller than 8-1/2″ x 11″ size.
Dermot McQuarrie was upped to SVP/Assistant GM for Fox Sports International. He will retain many of his previous duties as Exec Producer and Head of Programming of Fox Sports en Espanol, Fox Sports World and Fox Sports Latin America in addition to more Fox Sports World daily operations responsibilities. Dermot will continue to report to David Sternberg, EVP of Emerging Networks for Fox Cable Networks and General Manager of Fox Sports International.
Richard D. Beckman has been named President, Conde Nast Media Group, the relatively new division of the Advance Magazine Group. Beckman was also named EVP/AMG. The Conde Nast Media Group supports corporate sales and integrated marketing for 28 consumer magazine titles across AMG, as well as for CondéNet and Parade Publications. Beckman, who has been with the company for 18 years, was most recently EVP/CMO, Conde Nast Publications.
Wednesday, July 14, 2004. 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
CBS 6.5/1260 Minutes 7.5/14, CMA Music Festival 6.0/10
NBC 5.7/10 Next Action Star 3.0/6, L&O 6.4/11, L&O 7.7/13
ABC 3.3/6 My Wife & Kids 4.3/8, My Wife & Kids 4.4/8, Drew Carey 3.1/5, Drew Carey 2.9/5, Ultimate Love Test 2.6/5
FOX 4.1/7That 70’s Show 3.6/7, Quintuplets 3.5/7, Simple Life 5.6/10, Method & Red 3.8/6
WB 1.7/3 Smallville 1.8/3, Smallville 1.6/3
UPN 1.1/2 Star Trek Enterprise 1.1/2, Star Trek Enterprise 1.0/2
A18-49 Fox 3.0/10, NBC 2.6/8, CBS 2.4/7, ABC 1.7/5 WB 1.0/3, UPN 0.6/2
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Friday Fun Fact: The adjective “sesquipedalian” defines itself: it is used to describe the use of very long, or multi-syllabic, words. Now, see if you can use it in a sentence….
The History Channel presents This Day in History: 1945 – The United States conducts the first test of the atomic bomb at its research facility at Alamogordo Air Base, New Mexico. The mushroom cloud, rising to 40,000 feet, became an awful and defining symbol of the twentieth century.
Answer to yesterday’s Trivia Question courtesy of Mike Valerio-Silverman Prods: Who is the only character (not actor) from TAXI to ever appear on CHEERS? JEFF BURNETT (played by J.Alan Thomas) who was in the Cage with Louie.Kudos to: Michael Lever-Access Hollywood/LA; Carolyn Bisson-Warner Bros/LA.
No Trivia Question since we won’t be here Monday to give you the answer. Back on the 26th – have a good week!
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Later — Cyn
Cynthia Turner’s Cynopsis 07/16/04 5:28am Subscriptions to Cynopsis: email
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COURT TV: The Investigation Channel
SPOT CHECK: 2Q’04 Primetime A25-54 ratings +5% + YOUR SPOT = Great ROInvestigation Click here for source
WHAT’S ON TONIGHT: FRIDAY, JULY 16, 2004:
COURT TV: Forensic Files, I, Detective, Forensic Files, Extreme Evidence, The Investigators ABC George Lopez [r], Married to the Kellys [r], Hope & Faith [r], Life with Bonnie [r], 20/20 CBS Joan of Arcadia [r], JAG [r], 48 Hours Investigates [r] FOX Bernie Mac Show [r], Method & Red [r], The Jury NBC Dateline, Las Vegas [r] PAX MGM Movie: Haunted Honeymoon, Diagnosis Murder UPN Movie: Lost and Found WB What I Like About You [r], Grounded for Life [r], Reba [r], Reba [r] TELE Prisonera,El Alma Herida, Protagonistas VIP UNIV Mariana de la Noche, Amarte es mi Pecado, La Escuelita VIP, La Casa de la Risa
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