CYNTHIA TURNER’S
CYNOPSIS

05/07/04

Good morning. It’s Friday, May 7, 2004, and this is your first early morning briefing.

As is their way, the WB has announced early the first of the new primetime additions for next season — Jack & Bobby, the primetime drama NOT about the Kennedy clan, but rather two high school age Irish brothers, one of who will become President of the United States one day, and one who will become a true visionary.  But it’s NOT about the Kennedys.  The WB has ordered up 13 eps. The show is from Warner Bros. Television Production Inc., Berlanti/Liddell Productions and Thomas Schlamme’s Shoe Money Production. 

It’s not often you hear of a news organization cancelling its news show, but here you go: CNBC will pull The News on CNBC off the air following the May 14, 8pm newscast, according to Broadcasting & Cable.  Filing the time period which leads into Dennis Miller will be Meet the Press repeats on Monday, and Cover to Cover for the rest of the week.  The News on CNBC is anchored by John Seigenthaler, and he as well as the 16 staff members, will be absorbed into the NBC News organization. Pamela Thomas Graham, Pres/CEO of CNBC, says the decision to pull the show was part of the network’s decision to “move in a different strategic direction,” that is to move news out of primetime in an effort to bring in other broader appealing programming. John McEnroe’s new show on CNBC is scheduled to launch in July, airing at 10p following Dennis Miller.

A&E went shopping at the MGM feature film store and came out with several new purchases — Windtalkers (shared deal with MTVN Spike TV), Thomas Crown Affair, The Great Escape, Ronin, A Bridge Too Far and Wild Bill (the latter two will go to History Channel). spending approx $2 million according to Daily Variety.  And A&E also stopped by the 20th Century Fox film store and made several more purchases including Down With Love, Point Break, My Cousin Vinny, The Princess Bride, Unlawful Entry, Brubaker, The Good Son and Class Action, for a total price of $2.5 million.

David Letterman‘s show next Friday night, May 14th, will actually be taped at 4am that morning – testing the ‘city that never sleeps’ theory.  The show will be taped at the Ed Sullivan Theatre before a life audience and the show is inviting you ‘nightcrawlers’ to participate. If you’re interested, call 212/846-2566 or go online at www.cbs.com/latenight/lateshow to apply for tickets.

Lifetime has picked up the off-net series Providence (NBC Enterprises) which will join its schedule immediately, airing at 8pm, according to Variety, and used as a lead-in to Lifetime’s new slate of 9pm movies.

The merging and final steps of Comcast G4 Video game network’s acquisition of Tech TV are expected to be complete next week and with that came the announcement at the San Francisco based cable net that 285 staff positions would be cut.  G4 also said it plans to bring 80 people from the San Francisco office to the LA-based G4 office.

While Disney‘s sensibilities are to block Miramax‘s release of Michael Moore’s new film Fahrenheit 9/11, right or wrong (not having seen the film, surprisingly I don’t have an opinion), the same cannot be said for the UK’s Optimum Releasing.  According to the Financial Times, Optimum Releasing will distribute Moore’s film throughout the UK this summer. The film deals with the response by the White House and the US in general, to the 9/11 hijackings and attacks. Suffice to say, the film is not kind to the sitting President.  Moore has been quite vocal about Disney’s decision not to allow Miramax to release the film, and has suggested in the press the decision was directly linked to its Florida DisneyWorld theme park, and that state’s Governor, Jeb Bush, and back to the White House.

Speaking of sensibilities, it is Fox News Anchor Chris Wallace‘s thinks ABC News Nightline‘s reading the names of those killed in Iraq was presented out of context and given the amount of PR the show received for a variety of reasons, Wallace came to “feel offended” by the broadcast.  To that end, Wallace will counter the Nightline reading with a special segment of his own called What We’ve Accomplished set to air during Fox News Sunday this weekend in which Wallace will highlight all the good things the US has done in Iraq.  Said Wallace in standard Fox News speak: “We understand there are plenty of questions about the war, we’ve been asking them for months on ‘Fox News Sunday. … I think our approach is more even-handed than Nightline’s, I think it’s more balanced.” 

Elsewhere at News Corp., during Rupert Murdoch’s third qtr earnings conference call yesterday, he said Fox would be launching a new network by year’s end.  He declined to be more specific about its content except to say it was only the beginning of its initiative to expand the corporation’s global business and the Fox brand, and is just the first of many new nets to come.  Murdoch said he expects the new channel will have an immediate impact on DirecTV which News Corp recently acquired.

Top 5 Broadcast Spanish Language Primetime Programs for the week of April 26 – May 2, 2004
UNIV    Mariana de la Noche (Tue 8p)            20.9 NHTI HH Rtg
UNIV    Bajo La Misma Piel (Wed 9p)             20.7 NHTI HH Rtg
UNIV    Mariana de la Noche (Mon 8p)            20.4 NHTI HH Rtg
UNIV    Mariana de la Noche (Wed 8p)            19.8 NHTI HH Rtg
UNIV    Bajo La Misma Piel (Tue 9p)             19.5 NHTI HH Rtg
Source Nielsen Media Research
Note NHTI Ratings are based on 10.57 million Hispanic TV Homes

Top 5 Broadcast English Language Primetime Programs in Hispanic TV Homes for the week of April 26 – May 2, 2004
Fox     American Idol (Tue 8p)                  9.2 NHTI HH Rtg
NBC     Friends (Thu 8p)                                9.0 NHTI HH Rtg
NBC     Will & Grace (Thu 9p)                   9.0 NHTI HH Rtg
NBC     Friends (Thu 830p)                      8.5 NHTI HH Rtg
Fox     American Idol (Wed 830p)                7.3 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 April 26 – May 2, 2004 – highest rated primetime network programs in African American TV homes according to Nielsen Media Research
FOX     American Idol (Tue 8p)                  19.1 HH Rtg
FOX     American Idol (Wed 830p)                16.6 HH Rtg
UPN     Girlfriends (Mon 9p)                    13,8 HH Rtg
UPN     Half & Half (Mon 930p)                  13.7 HH Rtg
UPN     Eve (Mon 830p)                          12.5 HH Rtg
ABC     My Wife and Kids (Wed 8p)               12.4 HH Rtg
UPN     The Parkers (Mon 8p)                    11.7 HH Rtg
Fox     Bernie Mac (Mon 830p)                   11.2 HH Rtg
ABC     My Wife and Kids (Wed 830p)             11.1 HH Rtg
UPN     All of Us       (Tue 830p)                      10.8 HH Rtg
Source Nielsen Media Research
.
Fox had Wednesday night by a share point with an overall 5.6/16 rating according to data from Nielsen Media Research.  Right on its heels was NBC’s 5.5/15, followed by ABC 3.8/10, CBS 3.0/8, WB 2.3/6, UPN 1.1/3.  At 8pmThat 70’s Show won the first half hour of primetime with a 4.4/15, while the 30m ep of American Idol cranked it up to 8.6/25 at 830p (W18-49: 10.7/28). NBC’s back to back repeat eps of Friends was second for the 8p hour with a 3.5/11.  At 9p the first hour of a two hour special NBC special interview with the cast of Friends led at 9p with a 5.9/15, while Fox and ABC tied each posting a 12 share, followed by CBS with a 6 share for its pair of sitcoms, and WB with Angel’s 2.4/6. At 10p the final hour of the Friends interviews led by a healthy margin, giving some indication to the success of the finale ep on Thursday night, with a 7.0/18 demo rating. ABC was second for the hour with their season finale of Extreme Makeover (4.4/12); CSI repeat on CBS delivered a 4.3/11.

Correction:  The Primetime List of top ten Basic Cable rankings which ran here this past Wednesday, incorrectly listed the #1 cable net in Primetime – the corrected list is below:
Top Ten Basic Cable Ad Supported Network Rankings among A18-49 for the week of April 26 – May 2, 2004
Primetime       (000)   Total Day       (000)
TNT             1301    TNT             724
USA             741     NAN**           663
TBS             734     TBS             519
DISCOVERY       729     LIFETIME        487
LIFETIME        654     NICK*           426
MTV             652     ESPN            423
COMEDY  634     USA             400
ESPN            629     COMEDY  366
NAN**           556     DISCOVERY       326
SPIKE                   MTV             326
Source Turner Research from Nielsen Media Research Data.
All ratings based on Total U.S. Television Universe of 108,400,000 homes.
*Nickelodeon: M-Th 6:30a-9p; Fri 6:30a-10p; Sat 6a-10p; Sun 6a-9p
**Nick at Nite (NAN): S-Th 9p-6a; Fri-Sat 10p-6a

And it is now official — Angela Shapiro will head up Fox Television Studios as President, reporting to Peter Chernin, effective May 24. Most recently, Angela was President of ABC Family, and prior to that she was President/Buena Vista Productions and ABC Daytime.  Angela fills the role left vacant by David Grant following his resignation last week.

In a statement issued by Barbara Fisher, EVP/Entertainment at Lifetime, she says she will leave the cable net once her contract expires next month, and is looking forward ‘to  the next chapter in her career.’  Lifetime had seen enormous success for several years, making it to top 10 in weekly lists for several months in 2002, often in #1 spot, and evening finishing the season as the #1 basic cable net among total viewers.  Fisher arrived at Lifetime during its height, and has overseen programming as Lifetime slipped from #1 down to #5 in first qtr 2004.

Scott Greenstein has been named President/Entertainment and Sports at Sirius Satellite Radio, reporting to Joe Clayton, CEO.  Scott will be responsible for all programming, marketing and corporate marketing, and the development of new entertainment and sports programming channels.  He is based in NYC.

Wednesday, May 5, 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

NBC     8.8/14  Friends [r] 5.8/10, Friends [r] 6.8/11, NBC Special: “Friends” Interviews  7.9/13

FOX     7.8/13  That 70’s Show 5.9/10, American Idol 12.0/20, O.C. [season finale]  6.7/10

CBS     7.4/12  60 Minutes II  6.6/11, The King of Queens 6.5/10, Everybody Loves Raymond [r] 6.5/10, CSI   [r] 9.1/15

ABC     6.3/10  My Wife and Kids  5.2/9, My Wife and Kids [r] 4.9/8, The Bachelor 6.8/11, Extreme Makeover [finale]  7.1/11

WB      2.8/5   Smallville  2.9/5, Angel 2.7/4

UPN     1.8/3   Star Trek: Enterprise  2.1/4, I’m Still Alive  1.5/2

A18-49  Fox 5.6/16, NBC 5.5/15, ABC 3.8/10, CBS 3.0/8, WB 2.3/6, UPN 1.1/3

A MESSAGE FROM WARNER BROS. DOMESTIC CABLE DISTRIBUTION

The History Channel presents This Day in History:
1924 – The American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) denounces movies and radio as “parasitic.”

Answer to Yesterday’s Trivia Question:  This TV western was set in Kentucky and focused on a well-off family who owned a tobacco farm in the post Civil War 1881.  What was the name of this short term western? LEGACY on UPN 1998-99.  Kudos to:  Jeff Breslow-Corp for Public Bcsting/Washington DC; Kevin Van Wye-WNDY/Indianapolis; Sharon Levi-Anaheim Hills; Cary Miller-Verance/LA.

Today’s Trivia Question:  What primetime TV character is afraid of flowers, particularly after that “bumble bee incident”? (click here 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
05/07/04  5:29am
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A MESSAGE FROM OUTDOOR LIFE NETWORK

OLN^® – A Network For All Seasons

Delivering superior programming for men

Spring: NASCAR Outdoors – 75 million race fans for the taking.
Summer: Tour de France – 2003’s million plus viewers can’t be wrong.
Fall: Gravity Games – The most popular action sports event ever.
Winter: Picabo Street’s SnowZone – A proven favorite of male viewers in prime.

JOB OPENING:  AD SALES ASSISTANT (entry-level), TV One/ NY office. Please see our web site for a detailed job description and other exciting career opportunities. www.tv-one.tv (5/14)

JOB OPENING:  DIRECTOR, PGMING RESEARCH, Comedy Central/NY. 6 yrs primary/secondary research exp pref w/ cable/bcst net. Expert: N-Power/Nielsen Systems. Strong leadership/presentation/writing skills req. Apply: www.mtvncareers.com (5/14)

JOB OPENING:  SR MANAGER, PROGRAMMING RESEARCH, MTV/NY. 5+ yrs quantitative research exp pref. Expert in all Nielsen software. Must: strong writing, presentation, analytical skills, and management exp. Apply: www.mtvncareers.com (5/14)

JOB OPENING:  TIME SALES ADMINISTRATOR/Lifetime TV NY. Primary resp. are scheduling, placement, trafficking of all time sales pgms. See www.lifetimetv.com/about/jobs for more info; email resume/cover ltr:
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JOB OPENING:  MGR., STATION RELATIONS – Los Angeles. Primary station contact for 1st-run daytime show. Coordinate promo campaigns, station requests, liaison with prod/talent. Syndication background req’d. Resume to
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JOB OPENING:  Successful NY based television music company seeks DIRECTOR OF PRODUCTION.  Top-notch client relation skills, great with budgets, and an excellent manager of production staff.  Email resume to:
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JOB OPENING:  MGR MKTG, Disney Consumer Products, Baby Einstein. Develop marketing plans supporting Little Einstein.Full job desc/apply: https://dcpcareers.disney.go.com/dcpcareers/submit.jsp?Source=Synopsis&Requisition=CP42982 (5/13)

JOB OPENING:  FREELANCE PUBLICIST/TBS & TNT: Motivated, organized freelance publicist with reality TV exp. Must be able to strategize/execute a plan, handle media, talent. Send resume/cover letter:
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JOB OPENING:  SENIOR ANALYST, SYN. RESEARCH, Buena Vista TV, LA. 2+ yrs. exp. Proficiency w/Nielsen Gal. Expl., Mkt. Brks, WRAP, Word, Excel & Powerpoint necessary.  Please send resumes to
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JOB OPENING:  BCST DESIGNER, Comedy Central/NY. Bcst/Motion Graphic Dsgnr & Animator. Strong design/typogrph skills/After Effects  Photo Shop/Illstr. Prior exp net/des house a+. Print/Flash/3D Bkgd need not apply. www.mtvncareers.com (5/12)

JOB OPENING:  SR DIR BIZ DEV, MTV/NY. Gaming/digital media/strategic planning exp req. Identify/analyze/dev new biz ops/strategies. 5+yrs in field. Must: PPt/Excel(fin. modeling) & pres. skills.MBA a +. Apply www.mtvncareers.com (5/12)

JOB OPENING:  MGR CONSUMER PROD MKTG & RETAIL DEV, MTV/NY. 4-5 yrs exp brand mgmt/licensing/ &/or ent mktg. Strong pres skills. Strat & creat thinker/ team player. Fast paced env. Prof Excel & PPt. Apply www.mtvncareers.com (5/12)

JOB OPENING:  AD SALES RESEARCH ANALYST/Discovery Networks-NY: Min 2 yrs research exp. Knowledge of Nielsen/MRI required, strong communication & computer skills necessary.  Send resume/cover letter:
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JOB OPENING:   SR. RESEARCH ANALYST, TBS/TNT Ad Sales, NY 3-5 yrs Nat’l rsch exp; strong analytical/communication skills, ability to interpret data; proficiency in Nielsen data/systems; www.turner.com req # 24281BR   (5/11)

JOB OPENING:  INTERACTIVE SALES PLANNER-CNN/NY. Acct tracking, prep proposals/pres., research. Participate in Turner Sales Training pgm. Strong Comm. skills, college deg. Interactive exp a +. Resume:
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JOB OPENING:   E-Poll/LA is looking for a RESEARCH DIRECTOR to design and manage custom market research projects, prepare proposals, design questionnaires, manage data collection, analyze data/write reports. Resume to:
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JOB OPENING:  EDITOR, STANDARDS & PRACTICES, NBC/NY: 1 YR POSITION. Review/edit scripts/tapes for compliance.  Strong computer/analytic/negotiating skills. BA/BS in media field. Email resume to
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JOB OPENING:  PRODUCER/FIELD PRODUCER/NEWS BOOKER positions available: New York based nationally syndicated TV show. Must have prior experience in talk shows or news programming. Send resumes to
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JOB OPENING:  Established NY production company requires part time PUBLIC RELATIONS support for current and new projects. Looking for bright individual at entry level. Please e-mail
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SITUATION WANTED ADS, POSTED BY THOSE LOOKING TO BE HIRED —

SITUATION WANTED:   DEVELOPMENT TRACK position, ideally in Canada. Law background, experience in comedy, comic book industry and live theatre production. Strong in both creative and analytical skills. Contact:
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SITUATION WANTED:   GRAPHIC DESIGN STUDIO – specializing in print design for the entertainment industry. Appearing in Multichannel News and Cable World for clients such as IFC and the Bravo Network. Contact:
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SITUATION WANTED:   Former producer/Aspiring actor would be great LA-based PERSONAL ASSISTANT. Extremely reliable, pleasantly affable, and a good, solid East-Coaster. Resume and references upon request.
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SITUATION WANTED:   Diligent, detail-oriented UNC grad seeks challenging ENTRY-LEVEL MEDIA POSITION on West Coast.Exp.in PR, event planning, prod., promotions. (Visiting LA for interviews May 5-9.) E-mail
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SITUATION WANTED:   NYC based – 6 plus years as a PROMO WRITER/PRODUCER.  Produced for E! Entertainment, In Demand Pay-Per-View and Oxygen Media. Very motivated, organized and creative.  Contact:
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SITUATION WANTED:   ACCOUNT MANAGER/NYC, 10+ years experience in cable, local sales and national rep firm.  Aggressive self-starter with ability to persuade.  Contact:
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WHAT’S ON TONIGHT:  FRIDAY, MAY 7, 2004

COURT TV:       Forensic Fridays
ABC             George Lopez, George Lopez [r], Hope & Faith, Hope & Faith [r], 20/20
CBS             Joan of Arcadia, JAG, Cold Case (OTO)[r]
FOX             Fox Movie: Spy Kids
NBC             Dateline; Third Watch
PAX             MGM Night at the Movies: Rocky V, Diagnosis Murder
UPN             Movie: Shaft
WB              Reba, What I Like About You, Grounded for Life, Run of the House
TELE            Prisonera, El Alma Herida, Mujeres Apasionadas
UNIV            Mariana de la Noche, Bajo la Misma Piel, La Esquelita VIP