CYNTHIA TURNER’S
CYNOPSIS

03/05/04

Good morning. It’s Friday, March 5, 2004, and this is your first early morning briefing. 

Comedy Central has assigned distribution duties of its signature series South Park to Tribune Entertainment Company and Debmar Studios.  Debmar will distribute to the Top 30 US TV markets, while Tribune will take care of the rest of the markets as well as oversee ad sales.  South Park is looking at an off-net syndication debut in Fall 2005 and thus far has been cleared in 19 of the top 20 markets including WPIX/NY, KCAL/LA, WCIU/Chicago, WPSG/Philly, KBHK/San Francisco, for a total clearance to date of 60%.  Terms are cash + 1-1/2m

Premiering Tonight:  The WB – The Help at 930p

New in Development and Casting:

• Sci Fi Channel has cast Daniel Baldwin and Sam Trammel in a two hour original movie (also to be used as a pilot) called Anonymous Rex (USACE).  The story is based on Eric Garcia’s futurist mystery novels Casual Rex wherein dinosaurs evolve into human sized creatures and roam the Earth disguised as humans.  Anonymous Rex focuses on two dinosaur/human partners who are high tech private eyes.   Production is set to begin later on this month in Toronto.
• NBC‘s limited series Revelations (Pariah) has added Bill Pullman and Natascha McElhone as the two leads. The story is the showdown between God and Satan as represented in the Bible’s Book of Revelations. The story follows the investigation of a murdered college professor by a nun who believes the stories in the Bible are coming true; she recruits Pullman’s character to help her.  In the net’s pilot comedy Never Mind Nirvana (Untitled/NBC Studios), Kal Penn has been cast as an Indian-American doctor whose immigrant parents come to live with him and his Caucasian wife.
• WB‘s drama pilot Prodigy (Silver Pictures/Warner Bros. TV) has added Marley Shelton to the growing cast that also includes Cody Arens and Stacy Edwards.
• Sources:  BaselineFT.com, Hollywood Reporter, Variety

National Geographic Channel presented its plans for the upcoming season last night at its first Upfront presentations to advertisers.  National Geo is now 3 years old and in 50 million homes. New original programs include drama/doc Interpol about the innards of the international police; Mayday! highlight disastrous moments in the air; Seconds from Disaster takes a look at catastrophic disasters in the moments before they happened such as Chernobyl; Mega Structures will look at some of the most amazing building on the planet and the architects and builders who constructed them; and Into the Unknown which looks at thus far unexplained natural phenomena and “unexplained ancient and modern puzzles” such as Stonehenge.  Ad revenues projections as estimated by Kagan World Media for 2004 are up by 32% (over $31.2 million in 2003) thanks in part to new advertisers such as Honda Motor’s Acura, Toyota Motor’s Lexus and Porsche.

Oops – there goes another one.  Radio commentator Sandra Tsing Loh was unceremoniously dismissed from her six year job at KCRW-FM for using inappropriate language during her 3m radio commentary, despite her claims the error lies with the radio station.  Loh says her item did include the f-word, but it was preplanned that the engineer would bleep the word, which apparently didn’t happen.  The station GM, Ruth Seymour says it is Loh’s responsibility to “deliver a program ready for broadcast.”  Loh is also a commentator for Minnesota Public Radio’s Marketplace, and a reviewers for the Atlantic Monthly, both jobs she’ll keep.  Earlier this week Clear Channel wrote a check for $755,000 for inappropriate language from their former DJ Bubba the Love Sponge.  That amount represents 26 violations at $27,500 per violation. Good thing they occurred before the violation fee was upped to $500,000 per incident.

Top 10 M-F Syndicated Strip Series for the week of Feb 16-22, 2004 ranked by HH Rtg
Wheel of Fortune (King World)                 9.8 AA  
Jeopardy (King World)                   7.8 AA
Oprah (King World)                      7.6 AA / 7.7 GAA
Seinfeld (Sony)                         6.5 AA / 8.1 GAA
Friends (Warner Bros.)                  6.4 AA / 7.7 GAA
Entertainment Tonight (Paramount)       6.1 AA / 6.2 GAA
Dr. Phil (King World)                   5.6 AA / 5.7 GAA
Everybody Loves Raymond (King World)    5.4 AA / 6.1 GAA
Judge Judy (Paramount)          5.4 AA / 8.0 GAA
Regis and Kelly (BVT)                   4.0 AA
That 70’s Show  (Carsey-Werner) 4.0 AA / 5.1 GAA
Source Nielsen Media Research

Top 10 M-F Syndicated Strip Series for the week of Feb 16-22, 2004 ranked by A18-49
Seinfeld (Sony)                         4.4 AA / 5.5 GAA
Friends (Warner Bros.)                  4.4 AA / 5.4 GAA
Oprah (King World)                      3.4 AA / 3.4 GAA
Wheel of Fortune (King World)           3.0 AA
Entertainment Tonight (Paramount)       2.9 AA / 3.0 GAA
Everybody Loves Raymond (King World)    2.8 AA / 3.1 GAA
That 70’s Show (Carsey-Werner)  2.7 AA / 3. GAA
Will & Grace (Warner Bros.)             2.4 AA / 2.8 GAA
Dr. Phil (King World)                   2.4 AA / 2.4 GAA
Jeopardy (King World)                   2.2 AA
Source Nielsen Media Research

Hugh Jackman (“Boys from Oz”) has been tapped as the host for this year’s 54th Annual Tony Awards, airing on CBS June 6, live from Radio City Music Hall.  Pundits also predict Jackman will be in line for a Best Actor in a Musical Tony himself, while his show, Boys from Oz, will most likely not get the nod.

Janet Jackson returns to television for the first time since “the incident” on April 10 as host of Saturday Night Live.  She last appeared on the show as a musical guest in 1994. 

Top 5 Broadcast Spanish Language Primetime Programs for the week of Feb 23-29, 2004
UNIV    Premio Lo Nuestro 2004 (Thur 8p)        27.4 NHTI HH Rtg
UNIV    Velo De Novia    (Tue 8p)               25.0 NHTI HH Rtg
UNIV    Noche De Estrellas (Thurs 7p)   24.9 NHTI HH Rtg
UNIV    Velo De Novia    (Mon 8p)               23.4 NHTI HH Rtg
UNIV    Velo De Novia    (Wed 8p)       22.4 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  Feb 23-29, 2004 – highest rated primetime network programs in African American TV homes according to Nielsen Media Research
UPN     Eve (Mon 830p)                          19.1 HH Rtg / 3.2m Total Viewers 2+
FOX     American Idol (Tue)                     18.6 HH Rtg / 3.4m Total Viewers 2+
UPN     America’s Next Top Model (Tue 9p)       18.2 HH Rtg / 3.2m Total Viewers 2+
UPN     Half & Half (Mon 930p)                  17.8 HH Rtg / 2.8m Total Viewers 2+
UPN     Girlfriends (Mon 9p)                    17.7 HH Rtg / 2.8m Total Viewers 2+
UPN     All of Us (Tue 8p)                      16.1 HH Rtg / 2.7m Total Viewers 2+
ABC     My Wife & Kids (Wed 8p)                 16.0 HH Rtg / 2.6m Total Viewers 2+
UPN     The Parkers (Mon 8p)                    15.8 HH Rtg / 2.6m Total Viewers 2+
FOX     American Idol  (Wed)                    15.6 HH Rtg / 2.9m Total Viewers 2+
ABC     Academy Awards (Sun 830p)               14.5 HH Rtg / 2.6m Total Viewers 2+
Source Nielsen Media Research

ABC won the night on Wednesday with its 2-hour premiere of Stephen King’s Kingdom Hospital airing from 9-11p.  For the night ABC delivered a 4.8/13 A18-49 rating according to Nielsen Media Research, followed by NBC 4.0/10, CBS 3.7/10, WB 2.0/5, UPN 1.5/4.  At 8pm Fox’s That 70’s Show (4.6/13) and American Idol (8.5/22) owned the hour with a collective 6.5/18 for the hour. ABC’s hour long episode of My Wife and Kids was #2 for the hour with a 3.4/9 followed the repeat ep of The Apprentice on NBC (2.8/8).  ABC’s Kingdom Hospital delivered a 5.5/14, outpacing all other programming during the two hour premiere event.  King of Queens and a repeat of Raymond averaged a 4.2/10; where as CSI [r] at 10p found just 3.9/10 rating. West Wing earned a 3.9/10, and Law & Order came closes to Kingdom with a 5.1/13 at 10p. The OC on Fox earned a 4.7/12.

Knoxville is getting a new high powered VHF television station on June 30, 2004, WMAK-DT.  And it will originate as well as pass through HDTV programming, the first such station in the market, or in the state.  Channel 7 will be headed by Lewis Cosby as Pres/GM; David Williams as Station Mgr and Rogan Oliver as Asst GM/GSM.  Both David and Rogan make the move to Channel 7 from local station WBXX.  This station marks the third Lewis Cosby has signed on in the market – the other two were WVLT and WBXX.

Lew Leone, VP/GM of WCBS has been upped to President/GM.  The announcement was made by Fred Reynolds, Pres/CEO of the Viacom Television Stations Group.  Lew has been with WCBS since 2002.

Neal Tiles has been named EVP/Marketing at DirecTV.  The announcement was made by Mitchell Stern, Pres/CEO. Neal’s responsibilities include advertising and brand management, creative services and on-air promotion strategy and initiatives.

Wednesday, March 3, 2004. Fast Affiliate 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     7.9/13  My Wife and Kids (60m) 6.1/10, Kingdom Hospital [Premiere] 8.8/14

FOX     7.9/12  That 70s Show 6.5/11, American Idol 11.5/18, The O.C. 6.7/10

CBS     7.9/12  60 Minutes II 8.0/13, The King of Queens 8.0/12, Everybody Loves Raymond 8.4/13, CSI 7.4/12

NBC     7.4/12  The Apprentice [r] 4.6/7, The West Wing 7.6/12, Law & Order 10.0/16

WB      3.2/5   Smallville 3.5/6, Angel 2.9/4

UPN     2.3/4   Enterprise 2.6/4, America’s Next Top Model [r] 1.9/3

A18-49  ABC 4.8/13, NBC 4.0/10, CBS 3.7/10, WB 2.0/5, UPN 1.5/4

A MESSAGE FROM WARNER BROS. DOMESTIC CABLE DISTRIBUTION

Friday Fun Fact: The very peak of the Washington Monument is not stone, but a 100-ounce solid aluminum pyramid, constructed as part of the monument’s lightning protection system.

The History Channel presents This Day in History: 
1946 – In a speech in Fulton, Missouri, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill condemns the policies of the Soviet Union in Europe and warns that “an iron curtain has descended across the continent.”  The speech is widely considered one of the defining moments of the start of the Cold War.

Answer to yesterday’s Trivia Question:  Who is Khan Souphanousinphone? HANK HILL’S NEIGHBOR on KING OF THE HILL.  Kudos to:  Gerald Belton-WRAZ/Raleigh Durham; Dennis Degan-NBC Today Show/NY; Jim Bono-Hallmark Channel/NY; Lisa Nguyen-Scripps Networks/Knoxville; Phillip Stockwell-Nexstar Bcsting/Irving; Brian Winkeler-Robot House Creative/Oklahoma City; Miranda Morris Brisbee-KLRT & KASN/Little Rock; Jo Ransom/Boham TX; Karen Miller-Reality Central/LA; Joel Metzger-Debacle Prods/LA; Katie Alender-In-Finn-Ity Prods/LA; Dave Harding-Termite Art Prods/LA;

A MESSAGE FROM 20TH TELEVISION

Today’s Trivia Question:   What was the name of this duo’s segment on an NBC show that coined the phrase “Shyeeeeah!  Rriiigggghhhhttt!!!!!”?  (
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.)

Later — Cyn

Cynthia Turner’s Cynopsis
03/05/04  5:21am
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WHAT’S ON TONIGHT:  FRIDAY, MARCH 5, 2004

COURT TV:       Forensic Fridays
ABC             George Lopez [r], Married to the Kellys, Hope & Faith, Life with Bonnie, 20/20
CBS             Joan of Arcadia [r], JAG [r], 48 Hours Investigates
FOX             Fox Special: Test the Nation 2
NBC             Dateline NBC, Third Watch
PAX             MGM Night at the Movies: Twelve Angry Men, Diagnosis Murder
UPN             Movie:  Operation Condor
WB              Reba [r], Reba [r], Grounded for Life, The Help [premiere]
TELE            Amor Descardo, El Alma Herida, Mujeres Apasionadas
UNIV            Velo de Novia [r], Bajo la Misma Piel, Casos de la Vida Real: Edicion Especial