CYNTHIA TURNER’S
Cynopsis

06/17/05

Good morning.  It’s Friday, June 17, 2005, and this is your first early morning briefing.

Nielsen Media Research issued a report yesterday that the fault rates in markets where the LPMs are in use are down from November to May in three out of four markets: NY -10.4%, Chicago -24.7%, San Francisco -22.4% and LA is up 1.6%.  Fault rates are any time a home does not report its daily viewing information.  Fault rates occur for a variety of reasons including installation of new hardware (DVDs, PS2s, VCRs, etc.), any sort of interruption of service (electrical, telephone, mechanical) and/or power outages, as well as human error in failing to log in correctly.  The fault rates in Latino homes were down in all markets except NY (+1.7%); in African-American homes the faults were down in all four markets by double digits. Fault rates tend to be higher in homes with children – machines are unplugged, new stuff is plugged in, etc. According to Nielsen, faulting does not significantly affect the accuracy of ratings as Nielsen “weights the contributing sample households in a demographic thereby moving closer to the true estimate of viewing by that demographic.”

Elsewhere at Nielsen, the company is being sued by two companies, ErinMedia and ReacTV, both owned by Frank Maggio.  The antitrust suit has been brought in US District Court, and seeks to negate Nielsen’s long term contracts with its clients (networks, local stations, distributors, etc.).  Nielsen’s response is the suit has no merit and is frivolous.  ErinMedia is a ratings service using the digital set top cable boxes to gather data which is claims to be better than the methods employed by Nielsen.

Sony Pictures TV has signed Sarah Timberman and her 25C Prods partner Carl Beverly to a two year deal whereby they will develop new projects for the studio.

USA Network has ordered a pilot of a monk-ish project called Psyche (Tagline Pictures) about a guy who works as a hired psychic for the police department, only he’s faking it.  Per Variety, the project is cast contingent, and if all goes as planned, production could begin as early as this fall.

FX‘s debut of its newest reality series 30 Days drew in 1.7 million viewers on Wednesday night at 10p.  The series produced by RJ Cutler was created by Morgan Spurlock, the filmmaker behind the documentary Super Size Me.  For the 11p replay, another 890,000 viewers tuned in.  The premiere ep focused on Spurlock and his wife, both living for 30 days on a minimum wage income.

Bravo debuted season #2 of Blow Out last week (Tuesday at 9p) and averaged 661,000 total viewers with demos of 465,000 A18-49, 480,000 among A25-54. That marked the highest premiere delivery in both demos (excluding Queer Eye), since the premiere of Celebrity Poker on July 8, 2004.  Very nice.  Nicer is episode #2 this past Tuesday night at 9p, which upped the ante:  Total Viewers 768,000 (+16% over premiere), 567,000 A18-49 (+22% week to week), and 636,000 A25-54 (+33% vs. last week’s premiere). Blow Out also blew up the season-to-date time period averages by 129% among A18-49 and 133% in A15-54.  Not a trend yet, but perhaps the early markings of one.
 
A CBS program change: Beginning on July 6, The Cut will move to Wednesdays at 8p.  Beginning that week on July 7 at 8p, The Cut’s current time period, is the premiere of Big Brother.

Mark Cuban’s HDNet network has acquired the off-net rights to the limited series Clubhouse, which originally aired on CBS last fall.  The series stars Dean Cain and Christopher Lloyd, and will air on HDNet on Thursdays at 9p. Six episodes of Clubhouse will be original for HDNet, never having aired on CBS.  All eps will air in full Hi-Def format.
 
Comcast Southern California Region has added two Scripps Networks to its lineup:  Fine Living and DIY, both as of June 1.

APT has picked up the US bcst distribution rights for three BBC Worldwide Americas titles: Posh Nosh beginning August 1; Great Raids of World War II and Greatest Escapes, both as of September 1.  Each series will be made available to public TV stations across the United States.

• Posh Nosh:  Sitcom in the form of eight, nine-minute cooking shows set in the kitchen, dining room and garden of the country house of two self-styled celebrity chefs, Minty an aspirant, ordinary woman and Simon, a genuine minor aristocrat who is spoiled and arrogant.
• Great Raids of World War II:  Events during World War II where certain small-scale military operations were as vital to Allied success as they were dangerous. Veterans’ accounts, archive film and meticulous reconstructions will put viewers right into the action.
• Greatest Escapes: Stories of those who have achieved the seemingly impossible, from the three Apollo 13 astronauts who returned to earth safely after their spacecraft suffered a major explosion, to the hundreds of WWII soldiers who survived for weeks behind enemy lines before they were eventually rescued.

Top 10 M-F Syndicated Strip Series for the week of May 30-June 5, 2005 ranked by HH Rtg
Wheel of Fortune (King World)                  7.6 AA
Oprah (King World)                                    6.6 AA / 6.7 GAA
Jeopardy (King World)                                6.5 AA
Everybody Loves Raymond (King World)  5.7 AA / 7.2 GAA
Seinfeld (Sony)                                           5.6 AA / 6.8 GAA
Dr. Phil (King World)                                  4.9 AA / 4.9 GAA
Judge Judy (Paramount)                            4.8 AA / 7.3 GAA
Entertainment Tonight (Paramount)          4.4 AA / 4.5 GAA
Regis & Kelly (Buena Vista)                      3.5 AA
Inside Edition (King World)                        3.1 AA / 3.1 GAA
Source Nielsen Media Research

Top 10 M-F Syndicated Strip Series for the week of May 30-June 5, 2005 ranked by A18-49
Seinfeld (Sony)                                           3.6 AA / 4.5 GAA
Everybody Loves Raymond (King World)  3.1 AA / 3.8 GAA
Oprah (King World)                                    2.7 AA / 2.7 GAA
That 70’s Show (Carsey-Werner)              2.1 AA / 2.7 GAA
King of the Hill (20th)                                   1.9 AA / 2.4 GAA
Wheel of Fortune (King World)                  1.9 AA
Judge Judy (Paramount)                            1.8 AA / 2.6 GAA
Malcolm/Middle (20th)                                 1.8 AA/ 2.1 GAA
Jeopardy (King World)                                1.7 AA
King of Queens (Sony)                                1.7 AA / 2.1 GAA
Cops (20th)                                                  1.7 AA / 2.1 GAA
Will & Grace (Warner Bros.)                      1.7 AA / 2.0 GAA
Dr. Phil (King World)                                  1.7 AA / 1.8 GAA
Entertainment Tonight (Paramount)          1.7 AA / 1.8 GAA
Maury (NBC U)                                            1.7 AA / 1.8 GAA
Source Nielsen Media Research

Jeffrey B. Yapp has been appointed to the newly created position of EVP/MTV Networks Music and LOGO Enterprise Group. It was announced by Rich Eigendorff, COO/MTV Networks Music/LOGO Group.  Yapp will report to Eigendorff and be based in the company’s New York headquarters.
 
Univision Communications Inc., has named Sandi Stretch VP/National Sales for San Francisco, CA, serving the Univision and TeleFutura Networks, effective immediately. In this role, Sandi will be responsible for coordinating and developing the company’s sales strategies to ensure that all nation-wide sales efforts are aligned with the goals of the Univision brands. Sandi will remain based in San Francisco and will report to Charlie Stuart, SVP/ National Sales, Univision Television Group.

Following the move of Bill Fine going to WCVB/Boston on August 1st, filling his shoes at WBAL in Baltimore will be Jordan Wertlieb, named Pres/GM.  Both stations are owned by Hearst-Argyle.
 
David Ferraro has been named Production Manager at Cox Media Hampton Roads, VA. In his new role, David is responsible for coordinating the efforts of Production in Cox Media’s Hampton Roads, Roanoke, VA, and Greenville, NC operations.
 
MTV Networks Latin America has upped Scot McBride to EVP/COO for MTV Networks Latin America.  Based in Miami, Scot will continue to report to Pierluigi Gazzolo, Managing Director/MTV Networks Latin America. He will now oversee the executives in charge of MTVN’s new regional operations. Additionally, he will head up the Digital Media Business team, while remaining in charge of the Strategy and Research team, along with the general and administrative areas of Finance, Production Management, Business and Legal Affairs, Human Resources, Information Systems and Technology, and Digital Media Business Development.

Lowe Worldwide tapped Chris Chard as Chief Strategy Officer.  He was previously regional planning director at Publicis Groupe’s Leo Burnett in Paris.  Chris will initially be based in London and eventually transfer to the New York office.

Reuters named Janet Scardino to EVP/Global Head of Marketing for its media responsibilities. Janet was previously an SVP of international marketing for AOL where she oversaw brand and acquisition marketing for 16 nations.

Meredith Corporation named Chiqui Cartagena as Managing Director of Multicultural Communications for Meredith Integrated Marketing. In this newly created position, she will be mainly responsible for developing the company’s integrated marketing work.  Chiqui was previously with The Ad Age Group.

Wednesday- A18-49 Analysis:  On the strength of ballroom dance, ABC won the night on Wednesday with an overall 3.1/10 A18-49, according to final numbers from Nielsen Media Research.  NBC ranked #2 overall with a 2.3/7, followed by CBS 2.1/7, Fox 1.7/6, WB 1.6/5, UPN .8/3.  At 8p a repeat of Dancing with the Stars drew a 2.2/8 in the demo.  Beauty & the Geek on WB and That 70’s Show on Fox both averaged a 7 share.  At 9p an original Dancing with the Stars averaged a 4.8/14, more than doubling the share of the closest competition. Fox’s second installment of The Inside delivered a 1.6/5, #3 in the time period behind CBS and NBC. At 10p a repeat of Law & Order on NBC was the winning ticket with a 3.0/9, a mere share point ahead of CBS’ CSI: NY, which in turn was a mere share point ahead of ABC’s Lost repeat.

FINAL HOUSEHOLD RATINGS: Wednesday, June 15, 2005, for all Networks – program averages.  Source: Nielsen Media Research. 

ABC     6.9/12   Dancing With the Stars [r] 5.8/11, Dancing With the Stars 10.6/17, Lost [r] 4.3/7

NBC     5.6/10   Psychic Detectives 4.2/8, Law & Order [r] 5.4/9, Law & Order [r] 7.1/12

CBS     5.0/9           60 Minutes 4.8/9, The King of Queens [r] 4.3/7, Yes Dear [r] 4.1/7, CSI: NY [r] 6.1/10

FOX     2.7/5    That 70’s Show [r] 2.8/5, Stacked [r] 2.5/4, The Inside  2.7/5

WB      2.2/4    Beauty and the Geek 2.8/5, Smallville [r] 1.6/3

UPN     1.3/2    All of Us [r] 1.4/3, Eve [r] 1.5/3, Veronica Mars [r] 1.1/2

A18-49            ABC 3.1/10, NBC 2.3/7, CBS 2.1/7, Fox 1.7/6, WB 1.6/5, UPN .8/3

Friday Fun Fact:  In 1963, baseball pitcher Gaylord Perry said: “They’ll put a man on the moon before I hit a home run.” Only a few hours after Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon on July 20, 1969, Perry hit the first and only home run of his career.  How cool is that??!!??

The History Channel presents This Day in History:
1972 – The Watergate scandal begins when five men are arrested for breaking into the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee in the Watergate, an office/hotel/apartment complex in Washington, DC. The following day it was revealed that one of the men was the security coordinator for President Richard Nixon’s Presidential reelection committee
 
Answer to Yesterday’s trivia question: On the show M*A*S*H, where was BJ Honeycutt from?   MILL VALLEY   CA  Kudos to:  Linda Siller-ABC Kid Networks/NY; Cindy O’Connor-HRP/NY; Jim Jarocki-Illinois CPA Society/Chicago; Keith Inman-Mphasis on Frontier/Denver; Dale Warshaw-KWBA/Tucson; Dan Rolls-EchoStar Satellite; Kevin Miller-New Wave Entertainment/LA; Julie Senik-RPA/Santa Monica; Richard Harter-Sleep Medicine/LA; Lynn Gutstadt-Premier Retail Networks/San Francisco
 

A CYNOPSIS MESSAGE FROM COURT TV

Today’s Trivia Question:  Veteran actor Peter Finch gave an electrifying performance as Howard Beale in the box office hit Network. Before Finch, who was offered this role of this newsman-gone-mad? (click here with your answer and be sure to include your name, company, city and time zone. Unofficial rules: Only the second four correct answers from each time zone will be mentioned; and once you’ve been mentioned in any of the Cynopsis editions, you can’t be mentioned again that calendar week.)

Later — Cyn
06.17.05 5:09am
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WHAT’S ON TONIGHT: Friday, June 17, 2005

ABC              8 Simple Rules [r], Complete Savages, Hope & Faith [r], Less Than Perfect [r], 20/20
CBS              JAG [r], JAG [r], Numb3rs [r]
FOX              Movie: The Wedding Singer
NBC              Dateline, L&O: Trial by Jury [r]
PAX              America’s Talented Kids [r], Radio Inside
UPN              Movie:  Driven
WB               What I Like About You [r], What I Like About You,  Reba [r],  Living with Fran [r]
TELE             La Mujer en el Espejo, Los Plateados, Decisiones
UNIV             Apuesta por un Amor, La Madrasta, Hospital El Paisa