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Cynopsis

03.13.09

Good morning. It’s Friday, March 13, 2009, and this is your first early morning briefing. 

Tonight’s Premieres:
E!: Hot Girls In Scary Places at 9p
ReelzChannel: ReelzChannel Friday Night Movie at 9p

Saturday’s Premiere:
BBC America: The Graham Norton Show at 10p

Sunday’s Premieres:
NBC: Kings at 8p
Planet Green: Future Car: Future Fuel at 9p
VH1: Tough Love at 10p

Further shake-ups happened yesterday at News Corp.’s Los Angeles operations following the announcement of President/COO Peter Chernin’s upcoming departure this June. After five years, Peter Liguori, Chairman/Entertainment for Fox Broadcasting is leaving. 

Continuing with the executive changes at fox Broadcasting, replacing Peter Liguori as Chairman of Entertainment is Peter Rice, who joins the television side after serving as President of Fox Searchlight, the company’s specialty film unit. Fox Searchlight COOs Nancy Utley and Steve Gilula will now jointly run the film division. Tony Vinciquerra, Chairman/CEO of Fox Networks Group will continue to lead the cable networks, the business side of FOX Broadcasting, Fox International Channels and will now head FOX Broadcasting programming. Rice will report to Vinciquerra. Tom Rothman and Jim Gianopulos will supervise all Los Angeles-based creative production as Co-Chairmen/CEOs of Fox Filmed Entertainment. Gary Newman and Dana Walden, Co-Chairmen of Twentieth Century Fox Television will now report to Rothman and Gianopulos while Emiliano Calemzuk, President of Fox Television Studios will report to Newman and Walden. Roger Ailes, Chairman/CEO of FOX News Channel and Fox Business Network and Chairman of the Fox Television Stations and Twentieth Television and Peter Levinsohn, President/Fox Interactive Media will continue to report to Rupert Murdoch, Chairman/Managing Director, News Corp.

NBC announced its summer schedule of new and returning series.

Premieres include:
June 1: I’m A Celebrity . . . Get Me Out of Here! at 8p
June 4: The Listener at 10p
June 8: Law & Order: Criminal Intent at 9p
June 21: Merlin at 8p
June 23 and June 24: America’s Got Talent at 9p both nights
June 24: The Philanthropist at 10p
July 1: Great American Road Trip at 8p

Season finales include:
June 1: Medium at 10p
June 2: Law & Order: SVU at 10p
June 3: Law & Order at 10p

MTV introduces viewers to young, inspiring performers in a new reality musical series Taking The Stage, opening next Thursday at 10p. The series, over ten one-hour episodes, will follow five students who attend the School For Creative and Performing Arts (SCPA) in Cincinnati. Former SCPA alum Nick Lachey co-created the show and is executive producer along with Colton Gramm, Mark Ford, Kevin Lopez and Marc Platt who also is the show’s creative consultant. A unique twist of the show is each episode will spotlight songs and dance routines written and choreographed by the student cast. Other famous SCPA alums are Sarah Jessica Parker, Carmen Electra, actor/director Todd Luiso and actor Rocky Carroll.

Tom Brokaw takes to the road in a new documentary series for USA Network titled Highway 50: A Road Trip Across America. The docu-series, part of USA Network’s CHARACTER PROJECT initiative, will journey with Brokaw as he meets every day Americans living and working along Highway 50, a transcontinental highway connecting both coasts. The series, co-produced by Peacock Productions, will premiere as a 60m primetime special in January 2010, timed to coincide with the one-year anniversary of President Obama’s inauguration. As a preview to the series, Brokaw will broadcast a series of brief vignettes called “Dispatches From The Road” starting this spring which will air in primetime on USA Network, on the Today Show, MSNBC and NBC Nightly News.

ReelzChannel is counting on viewers staying at home more to watch movies and as a result launches ReelzChannel Friday Night Movie tonight at 9p. Tonight’s feature-length presentation is Miami Blues. Preceding the weekly movie will be Secret’s Out, the movie recommendation show with Leonard Maltin at 8p and Movie Mob featuring rotating amateur webcam critics dishing on new releases at 830p.

Prior to its US debut, Fox International Channels launched drama series The Listener to the world last week, premiering across 180 countries in Europe, Latin America, Asia and the Middle East. The series was received well and in most of FIC’s territories it finished first in its time slot. Produced by Shaftesbury Films, The Listener will premiere early this summer on CTV in Canada and June 4 on NBC. ShineReveille distributes the series globally.

SCI FI Channel’s season five debut of Ghost Hunters at 9p explored Betsy Ross’ House in Philadelphia, unleashing 1.6 million A18-49 viewers, 1.7 million A25-54 viewers and 2.7 million total viewers as well as a 1.9 HH rating. 

All is not sweet for David Alan Grier as his Comedy Central series Chocolate News was not picked up for renewal by the network, reports The New York Times. The show, which ran for ten episodes, was not so much a news parody but more of a sketch comedy series where Grier portrayed fictitious characters to the poet Maya Angelou. Fans of Grier, though, can catch the comedian on this season’s Dancing with the Stars on ABC.

MIP TV Program Call: If your company will be attending and showcasing programming at MIP TV 2009 in Cannes, France, at the end of next month, Cynopsis will send out a special MIP TV Shopping Guide edition the Thursday before the conference. To have your programming included, please send only the following info for your top 5 shows: title, availability date, number of episodes, length, type (i.e., movie, series, special, etc.), genre, your terms (barter, cash, etc.) and names and contact info of those attending from your company. If your company is interested in being included in this free guide, please send the details to
by Friday, March 20, 2009.

Housekeeping Note:  As we have in 2000, 2005 and 2007, once again we are conducting a survey to get your feedback on the Cynopsis editions and how we might make them better and more relevant for you.  Please take a few minutes to click on this link and fill out the survey – your comments are greatly appreciated! 

 
National Geographic Channels International tapped UK-based Darlow Smithson Productions, a division of IMG Media Company, to produce season two of Engineering Connections based on the success of series one. During six new episodes with Richard Hammond as host, the series will bore deep into the DNA of some of the world’s most remarkable structures. The new season will open on National Geographic Channel in the UK this fall and early in 2010 in other territories.

CYNOPSIS DIGITAL – TODAY’S TOP STORY:  Do you know those commercials where football fans check scores while shopping for their wives? Well this year iPhone and iPod Touch users can watch all 63 games of the NCAA hoops tourney live from their devices via a new app from MobiTV and CBSSports.com. The app costs $4.99 and will include real-time in game box scores and player stats presented as an overlay on top of the video – a very thoughtful feature. The one catch is that the app requires a Wi-Fi connection to stream video, but this makes sense – live video over AT&T’s 3G network is not pretty. Of course the games are also available on CBS’ MMOD site as well as for purchase on iTunes for $1.99 a pop the day after they’re played.  Full edition: CYN DIGITAL.

CYNOPSIS KIDS – TODAY’S TOP STORY:  The 2009 TV upfront season got underway yesterday as Nickelodeon held its annual presentation, at the Hammerstein Ballroom in NYC, where the net offered its upbeat “Bigger and Bolder” plans as it heads into its 30th year and, with the help of a cast of celebrities, showcased upcoming shows, movies and consumer efforts and network and brand plans.  The network’s big picture plan includes bringing all of its TV channels and websites under one banner, the Nickelodeon brand, which targets the whole family beginning 4Q 2009.  The hope is that with everything under the Nickelodeon umbrella kids and adults alike will be able to find whatever content they are looking for on TV, online and so on.  Nick.com will expand to serve as a hub for Nickelodeon’s digital properties and brands.  Nick also confirmed that come 4Q 2009 its preschool-aimed channel Noggin will become Nick Jr., and The N will be renamed TEENick.  Nickelodeon maintains its place as the top-rated basic cable kids, network with the 4Q-to-date (12/29/08-3/10/09), Nickelodeon holds 63+% of the gross ratings points (GRPs) in the marketplace.   Full edition: CYN KIDS.

Wednesday – A18-49 Analysis:  FOX took charge Wednesday night with 6.2/17 A18-49, according to final national ratings from Nielsen Media Research. FOX flipped its lineup to optimum results as Lie To Me at 8p won with a 3.4/10 and CBS’ comedy duo Old Christine/Gary Unmarried placed second with an average of 2.2/7. NBC also premiered new series Chopping Block this hour, coming in fourth place at 1.4/4. American Idol on FOX dominated the 9p hour with 9.1/23 while CBS came next again with Criminal Minds at 3.6/9. CBS stood out at 10p with CSI: NY at 3.5/10 followed by NBC’s Law & Order at 2.2/6.

Live + Same Day Household Ratings: Wednesday, March 11, 2009 time period averages. Source: NTI Galaxy, as dated. Live+SD.

FOX: 10.7/17      Lie To Me 6.8/11, American Idol 14.6/22

CBS: 7.4/12          Old Christine 4.8/8, Gary Unmarried 4.8/8, Criminal Minds 8.9/14, CSI: NY 8.6/14

NBC: 3.7/6           Chopping Block [p] 2.7/4, Life 3.4/5, Law & Order 5.0/8

ABC: 2.7/4           Scrubs [r] 2.4/4, Scrubs [r] 2.2/3, Lost [r] 2.7/4, Life on Mars 3.0/5

UNIV: 2.3/4         Cuidado con el Angel 2.4/4, Manana para Siempre 2.6/4, Don Francisco Presenta 1.8/3

CW: 1.8/3           America’s Next Top Model 3.0/5, 90210 [r] 0.7/1

TELE: 0.9/1         Junto al Tri 0.4/1, Rumbo Pre-Game 0.4/1, Rumbo al Mundial: Mexico vs. Bolivia 1.1/2

MNT: 0.8/1          World’s Funniest Moments 1.1/2, Tony Rock Project 0.5/1, Tony Rock Project [r] 0.4/1

A18-49: FOX 6.2/17, CBS 3.1/8, NBC 1.8/5, UNIV 1.8/5, ABC 1.4/4, CW 1.2/3, TELE 0.9/3, MNT 0.4/1

Zodiak Entertainment, part of De Agostini Group, named Matthieu Porte as Head/Format Sales to manage the sales team in charge of distribution of the company’s unscripted programming. Matthieu will be based in London.

National Hockey League tagged Scott Davis as EVP/NHL Media Distribution and Operations where he will oversee all media production and distribution operations for the NHL Network, NHL.com, NHL Studios and NHL Events. His duties will also cover archiving and digitizing the NHL Library. Scott previously was President/Network Services with Ascent Media Group. In addition, Stephen McArdle was hired as VP/Strategic Planning to work in tandem with NHL COO John Collins with business planning on various strategic platforms.

A CYNOPSIS MESSAGE

Friday Fun Fact:   It is estimated that 4 million “junk” telephone calls – phone solicitations by humans or machines – are made every day in the United States.

This day in History: 1930 – It was announced that the planet Pluto had been discovered by scientist Clyde Tombaugh at the Lowell Observatory. What would Clyde say today?

Answer to Yesterday’s Trivia Question: Joshua Smith and Thaddeus Jones were also known as whom?  HANNIBAL HAYES and KID CURRY on ALIAS SMITH AND JONES  Kudos to: Rev. Mark Wajda-Annunciation Catholic Church/Altamonte Springs, FL; Marge Pistulka-Empower MediaMarketing/Coral Springs; Kevin Fay-Euro RSCG/Boston; Lisa Batchelder/West Orange NJ; Ted Tremper-20 West Productions/Chicago; Kathy Alexander-SpotPlus/Dallas; Robb Gray, Jr.-Apex Media/Tucson; Sally Sluss-Charter Media/St. Louis; Greg Stewart-Evolution Media/Burbank; Alan Perris-The Television Academy/North Hollywood; Miriam Aardahl-OMD/LA; Yvonne Vega-Fox Mobile Group/LA; Arthur Reinstein-Canwest Broadcasting/Toronto

Today’s Trivia Question:   This successful ad campaign created by the McKinney & Silver ad agency in North Carolina, was launched in 2003, and it still runs today.  It is based on a European and UK practical joke.  What is the campaign and who is the client?   (Email
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
03.13.09

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JOB OPENING: MKTG MGR/General Electric/NY: Responsible for working w/NBC & msnbc.com’s sales team to dvlp sales prgrms & mktg solutions. Apply: http://appclix.postmasterlx.com/track.html’pid=402881bd1fef2fc6011ff1b1eefe066a&source=ctc (3/20)

JOB OPENING: EXEC ASSISTANT, CONTENT DEVELOPMENT/MTV/NYC: 2+yrs exp. Exec Assist, Strg org/detail skills, Superior Cust. Service, Strng comm/comp skills, Able to prioritize/Meet deadlines EOE/M/F/D/AAP. Apply www.mtvncareers.com (3/20)

JOB OPENING: RSRCH PROJECT MGR/CNN/ATL: Supporting Strat Mktg & On-Air Promo w/ ability to translate raw data into useable & actionable insights. Solid media math skills/5+ yrs. brdcst and/or cable TV Apply:
(3/20)

JOB OPENING: SR. COUNSEL, BUSINESS & LEGAL AFFAIRS/NY: Negotiate production, programming & talent agreements for AMC NETWORK. L.A. Contacts, JD & 8+ yrs ent law experience required / M&A exp a +. 
(3/19)

JOB OPENING: OFFICE MGR/MGM AD SALES/NY: Mng all aspects of A/R including prep of wkly & monthly accounting reports. Provide sales & admin support to dept. Back up Sales Plan & Traffic Mgrs. Apply www.MGM.jobs #6440 (3/19)

JOB OPENING: TRAFFIC MGR/MGM AD SALES/NY: Resp for proper plcemnt of commercials & copy assgnmnt. Mng prod & reconcil of logs. Liaise betw Ad Agncies, Sls, Mktg & Prog depts to gather fitting copy materials. Apply www.MGM.jobs #6441 (3/19)

JOB OPENING: DEV EXEC/VA: Join team to create and pitch new TV programs, esp character-based. Must have exp in developing factual programs and knowledge of US cable net slates and players. Apply:
(3/17)

JOB OPENING: VP MARKETING/The Sportsman Channel/Milwaukee WI: Resp for building consumer awareness while overseeing affiliate marketing, media planning & promotions. 7+ yrs exp in TV or digital media. Apply:
(3/14)

JOB OPENING: ReelzChannel/NYC/ SR TRAFFIC COORDINATOR: Daily log maintenance, prep & delivery 3+ yrs exp. TRAFFIC COORDINATOR: Ensures scheduling commercial materials are executed & trafficked. Both Apply:
(3/14)

INTERNSHIPS – These positions are for credit only – nobody gets paid here. These ads are always posted for free , and students work for school credit only. For more information on the specs for posting an Internship ad, email Trish at
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SUMMER INTERNSHIP CREDITS ONLY: MARKETING/Urtak.com: user-generated public opinion site. Resp: Prdct dev, mkt expansion, corp svcs, for innovative startup. Work remotely, w/ few meetings in NYC. ~35hrs/wk. Send cv & CL to
(3/19)

SUMMER INTERNSHIP CREDITS ONLY: PROGRAMMER/Urtak.com: user-generated public opinion site. Resp: prgrm’ing & user interface design for innovative startup. RubyOnRails exp. Work remotely, w/ few NYC meetings. ~35hr/wk. Send cv&CL to
(3/19)

SUMMER INTERNSHIP CREDITS ONLY:  Doc production co. seeks exp’d, orgnzd & energetic JRS/SRS. Driven to gain exp in fast-paced envir. Pls specify “dvlpmnt” or “prod” in app. Resp. incl office, shoot, & post-prod & dvlpmnt asst. Email
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SITUATION WANTED ADS, POSTED BY THOSE LOOKING TO BE HIRED …  There is no charge for placing your Situation Wanted ad … for more information contact Trish Pihonak at

SITUATION WANTED: NON-FICTION PRODUCER/WRITER (STORY & FIELD).10+yrs exp. NBC, VH1, CMT, TLC, E!, Disney, CNN, etc.; reality, ent, news, talk, developmt; LA based, will travel.
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SITUATION WANTED: PRODUCER/ ASSOC. PRODUCER (LA) Out-of-the-box thinker, creative, award- winning, all formats, all genres. Budgets, schedules, breakdowns, crewing, casting, post and more. Over 20 yrs. exp.
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SITUATION WANTED: Top-tier agency ACCOUNT MANAGER/SUPERVISOR seeks full-time employment in LA area. If your agency needs a professional w/ multi-platform technology, entertainment or interactive experience, e-mail
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SITUATION WANTED: SR. MARKETING/BRAND MANAGER with home video, TV, animation and indie film experience is seeking a dynamic opportunity with a Los Angeles area studio or agency. E-Mail
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SITUATION WANTED: Award winning COMEDY WRITER/PRODUCER in L.A. Credits: WB, UPN, TBS, MTV, Discovery etc. Check out pilot, You’re Joking, Right? at www.justjokesentertainment.com Contact email:
(3/17)

SITUATION WANTED: WRITER. I’ll gladly write/re-write what you don’t want to write! Summaries; reports; proposals, human resource materials; updates; copy; web content; synopses; and more. Contact Bernie.
(3/17)

SITUATION WANTED: BRANDED ENTERTAINMENT EXPERT/TELEVISION PRODUCER seeks consulting work, long or short term. Over 15 years experience working with brands, multi-media/faceted talent. Contact:
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SITUATION WANTED: GROW YOUR BUS/MAKE IT THRIVE/NYC: MBA w/15yrs int’l exp: turnaround & startup mgmt, strategic partnerships, negotiating, fundraising. Proj/Consult/FT. Contact:
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SITUATION WANTED: STORY DOCTOR: Are your scripts too weak to make it to the bay? Got a rough-cut on life support? 20+ years crafting nonfic series, specials, sizzles and web content. Contact:
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SITUATION WANTED: WRITER: Children’s writer with exp at various prod co’s & Kids’ CBC. Portfolio in educational & comedic works for kids. Exp. in development, creative consulting, editing. Freelance. Contact
(3/14)

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WHAT’S ON TONIGHT –  FRIDAY, MARCH 13, 2009

ABC: Wife Swap, Supernanny, 20/20
AZTECA: Lo Que Callamos Las Mujeres Edicion Especial, Extranormal de Impacto, Al Extremo
CBS: Ghost Whisperer, Flashpoint, Numb3rs
CW:  Everybody Hates Chris, The Game, America’s Next Top Model [r]
FOX: Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles, Dollhouse
ION: Movie: Three Kings (630p); Movie: Three Kings
MNT: WWE Friday Night Smackdown
NBC: Howie Do It, Howie Do It [r], Friday Night Lights, Dateline
PBS: Washington Week, Now on PBS, Bill Moyers’ Journal, History Detectives
TELE: Dona Barbara, El Rostro de Analia, Sin Senos No Hay Paraiso, El Cartel
UNIV: Cuidado con el Angel, Manana es para Siempre, La Rosa de Guadalupe

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