CYNTHIA TURNER’S
CYNOPSIS

09/03/04

Good morning. It’s Friday, September 3, 2004, and this is your first early morning briefing.

The battle of the premieres on Wednesday night found Fox out in front with its two hour premiere of Renovate My Family pulling a 4.0/12 A18-49 rating for the night according to Nielsen Media Research.  NBC debuted its new crime drama Hawaii at 8pm and averaged a 3.1/10, trailing the first hour of Renovate My Family (3.2/11 from 8-9p).  At 9pm, NBC’s Dateline interview with Jane Pauley delivered a 2.7/7, while the final hour of Fox’s premiere earned a 4.6/12. For its duration, Renovate delivered a strong 6.1/18 among W18-34 and a 5.3/14 W18-49. Elsewhere, CBS’ Latin Grammy Awards struggled, finding its highest key demo number among W18-49 with a 1.3/4. Amish in the City on UPN continues to pull in the younger demo, 1.7/7 Teens, specifically female teens (2.2/9); as well as among women: 1.7/5 W18-49 and 1.9/6 W18-34.  As far as the broadcasters at 10pm with their coverage of the Republican National Convention, NBC led with a 1.6/5, ABC 1.2/3, and CBS 0.9/3.

Casting / Production / Development:

• Mark McGrath, perhaps best known as the lead singer of the band Sugar Ray, will join the prime access newsmagazine Extra (distributed by Warner Bros. Domestic Distribution)  as a co-host this upcoming season across from Dayna Devon.  Extra launches its 11th season on September 13.
• Former WB-er Kerr Smith (Dawson’s Creek) returns to the network in a recurring role on WB‘s Charmed as an agent in the Dark Operatives Unit.

Correction:  Yesterday’s Cynopsis misquoted the ratings for NBC’s Father of the Pride.  It should have read a Household rating of 7.0/11 with an A18-49 rating of 4.7/13, winning the 9-930p time period.

Are you familiar with the term baggin’?  Well, you’re familiar with Don Rickles’ brand of humor loaded with insults? That apparently is baggin’.  Sarcastic one-liners.  Baggin’ is what this humor is referred to in urban slang.  And now a show is being made around it.  According to Hollywood Reporter, producer Claude Brooks and his C to the B Prods. has produced a pilot episode with various contestants from a wide range of backgrounds, competing one on one baggin’ each other in front of a live audience. The audience eventually decides which baggin’-r wins.  The show is hosted by Last Comic Standing’s runner up in season #1, Ralphie May.  Brooks will soon be shopping the idea to cable nets.

Many Florida television stations have already begun their wall to wall coverage of Hurricane Frances as more than a 2.5 million Floridians have been ordered to evacuate parts of central and eastern Florida before the storm makes landfall tonight or early Saturday morning. This is when local news is at its best – sharing audio feeds with radio stations, providing assistance where needed, on the air 24/7 with storm updates and emergency information.  Good luck guys – we’re all watching and pulling for you.

Top 5 Broadcast Spanish Language Primetime Programs for the week of August 23-29, 2004 **
UNIV    Amarte Es Mi Pecado (M-F 9p)          23.3 NHTI HH Rtg
UNIV    Cristina (Mon 10p)                              22.9 NHTI HH Rtg
UNIV    Mariana de la Noche (M-F 8p)            21.9 NHTI HH Rtg
UNIV    Don Francisco Presenta (Wed 10p)   20.2 NHTI HH Rtg
UNIV    Casos Vida R: Ed.Esp. (Tue 10p)      20.0 NHTI HH Rtg
Source: Nielsen Media Research
Note: NHTI Ratings are based on 10.57 million Hispanic TV Homes
** Please note that Nielsen Media’s rating parameters have changed for shows that air Monday-Friday to include the 5 day average instead of listing each individual weekday.
 
Top 5 Broadcast English Language Primetime Programs in Hispanic TV Homes for the week of August 23-29, 2004
NBC     Summer Olympics (Mon 8p)                                      8.1 NHTI HH Rtg
NBC     Summer Olympics (Tue 8p)                                       7.9 NHTI HH Rtg
NBC     Summer Olympics (Wed 8p)                                      6.8 NHTI HH Rtg
NBC     Summer Olympics (Thu 8p)                                       6.7 NHTI HH Rtg
UPN     WWE Smackdown! (Thu 8p)                                      6.0 NHTI HH Rtg
Source Nielsen Media Research
Note NHTI Ratings are based on 10.57 million Hispanic TV Homes

The Parents Television Council has turned its sights to Spanish-language television.  Their findings are similar with English language broadcast networks as far as s#xual content, but Spanish-language television scored much better with regard to violence and profanity.  PTC looked at 99 shows for a 3-week time period in 2003. PTC specifically cited two programs, Univision’s Sabado Gigante (one of the oldest running programs on Spanish language television) and Telemundo’s Los Teens (been on the air for just one year).  PTC found the first to be too vulgar and the second they deemed degrading to females. According to the LA Times, Univision responded to the PTC’s assessment with this comment: “We endeavor to responsibly provide high-quality news, entertainment and public-interest programming to our viewers.”  Telemundo had a little more to say in response to PTC’s comments re: Los Teens, a show designed to create awareness of several teen issues including s#x and pregnancy, HIV, suicide, obesity, racism, etc.  Telemundo’s VP/Programming Mimi Belt told the LA Times, the PTC “focuses on sex as if it were the one and only dimension in the life of the adolescent. … It doesn’t mention the public-service announcements in each episode that were designed to assist teens or parents in need of help.”

African American television homes in the US represent 12,870,000 households. Here are the rankings for the week of August 23-29, 2004 – highest rated primetime network programs in African American TV homes according to Nielsen Media Research
NBC     Summer Olympics (Wed 830p)                           12.7 HH Rtg
UPN     Girlfriends (Mon 9p)                                            12.2 HH Rtg
NBC     Summer Olympics (Tue 830p)                            12.1 HH Rtg
UPN     Half & Half (Mon 830p)                                        11.9 HH Rtg
NBC     Summer Olympics (Fri 830p)                              11.5 HH Rtg
UPN     Girlfriends (Mon 930p)                                 11.4 HH Rtg
NBC     Summer Olympics (Tues 8p)                                10.9 HH Rtg
NBC     Summer Olympics (Mon 8p)                                  10.7 HH Rtg
UPN     Eve (Tues 830p)                                                     10.0 HH Rtg
UPN     One on One (Mon 8p)                                              9.8 HH Rtg
Source: Nielsen Media Research

Clarification:  In yesterday’s edition, the item regarding the new lawsuit filed by Leigh Ann Burton who claims Fox’s new show The Next Great Champ was originally hers, she claims show producers Golden Boy Prods stole her idea, not the network.

Chris Pursell joins Sony Pictures Television (SPT) as VP/Media Relations. The announcement came from Paula Askanas, SVP/Media Relations and Promotion, SPT, to whom he will report.  Chris will work on behalf of the studio’s syndicated properties, including the upcoming new first-run series Life & Style and Pat Croce: Moving In, as well as returning and off-net programs and library titles.

Wednesday, September 1, 2004. Fast 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

NBC     5.9/10  Hawaii [p] 7.0/12, Dateline News Special 6.9/11, Republican National Convention 3.9/7

FOX     5.0/8   Renovate My Family [p] 5.0/9

ABC     3.5/6   My Wife & Kids  4.5/8, My Wife & Kids 4.4/7, Drew Carey 3.8/6, Drew Carey 3.7/6, Republican National Convention 2.3/4

CBS     2.3/4   5th Annual Latin Grammy Awards (OTO) 2.4/4, Republican National Convention 2.2/4

WB      1.7/3   Smallville 1.6/3, Smallville 1.8/3

UPN     1.6/3   Amish in the City 2.0/3, The Player 1.3/2

A18-49  Fox 4.0/12, NBC 2.5/7, ABC 1.9/6, WB 1.1/3, UPN and CBS 1.0/3

A MESSAGE FROM WARNER BROS. DOMESTIC CABLE DISTRIBUTION

Source: NHI Explorer, 8/23/04-8/29/04.  HH  Cvg Rtg.  Wyatt Earp ties Jeremiah Johnson.   Princess ties Teen Witch, Boy Meets Wld, Full Hse, Good Will Hunting.

Friday Fun Fact:  “Scapulamancy” was a method of fortune telling involving the study of cracked shoulder bones. I suppose the bones would have to be in a living person otherwise their fortune is pretty well wrapped up, but sheesh, so much less painful with tea leaves.

The History Channel presents This Day in History:
1967:  At 5:00 a.m., traffic switches from the left side of Sweden’s roads to the right, bringing the orderly and chilly nation in line with its neighbor Norway and many others.  In a staggering display of efficient government and general respect for the law, the few cars allowed on the road this day are required to come to a complete stop at 4:50 a.m.  As officials everywhere unveil new street signs and switch on new traffic lights, drivers slowly change to the right side of the road.  At 5:00 a.m., traffic resumes.  The Monday following “Dagen H,” or “H Day” (the H stands for Högertrafik, the Swedish word for “right-hand traffic”) reported fewer traffic accidents than a normal day.

Answer to Monday Trivia Question: Multiple choice:  During his college years, Dick Van Dyke studied the a) dentistry; b) ministry; c) criminal psychology; or d) pre-med?  MINISTRY.  Kudos to: Gene Evans-MetroNetworks/Hartford; Henry Gallegos-ITN Networks/NY; Bob Eisenstaedt-Granite Springs Prods/Tampa; Christina Domenech-Icon Int’l/CT; Sallie Ramelot-KYOU/Ottumwa; Tami Freeman-SpotPlus/Dallas; Nick Beyer-Starz Encore/Englewood; Bob Quigley-KJZZ/Salt Lake City; Sharon Levi-Anaheim Hills; Kevin Kelton-LRN/LA; Peter Kaufman-Berkes Crane Robinson & Seal/LA; Patrick Clark-G4 Network/LA.

Today’s Trivia Question: What cigarette brand once sponsored the primetime cartoon series The Flintstones?  (click
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.)

A MESSAGE FROM COURT TV

Have a lovely and safe long weekend – see you back here Tuesday morning …
Later — Cyn

Cynthia Turner’s Cynopsis
09/03/04 5:16am
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WHAT’S ON TONIGHT: SEPTEMBER 3, 2004:

ABC             George Lopez, 8 Simple Rules, Hope & Faith, Less than Perfect, 20/20
CBS             Joan of Arcadia, JAG, 48 Hours
FOX             The Complex: Malibu, Totally Outrageous Behavior, World’s Craziest Videos
NBC             Dateline, Hawaii [r]
PAX             On the Cover, Balderdash, MGM Movie: Baby Boom
UPN             Star Trek Enterprise, Amish in the City [r]
WB              Grounded for Life [r], What I Like About You [r], Reba [r], Blue Collar TV [r]
TELE            Prisonera, Gitanas, Zapata
UNIV            Mariana de la Noche, Amarte es mi Pecado, La Escuelita VIP