CYNTHIA TURNER’S
CYNOPSIS

08/30/04

Good morning. It’s Monday, August 30, 2004, and this is your first early morning briefing, coming to you live from sunny downtown Connecticut.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Lisa Hart Cole has ruled that Fox can go forward with its September 7 launch of reality series The Next Great Champ, saying in her decision that blocking the premiere would fly in the face of the First Amendment. The result of this decision also effectivey negates the need for another hearing previously scheduled on the morning of 9/7 at which hearing the Judge was to decide whether or not to order a Temporary Restraining Order preventing the premiere.

Next April, along with the blooming azalea bushes in Augusta, comes the inevitable return of television commercials to coverage of the 2005 Masters Golf Championship.  Hootie Johnson, Chairman of Augusta National, made the announcement on Friday that Exxon Mobil, SBC Comm and IBM will all be corporate TV sponsors of the event in 2005, according to the Hollywood Reporter.  Keeping with the Augusta tradition when it did have commercials, the network will limit the amount of commercial minutes per hour to just 4m.  The tournament airs April 4-10 on both CBS and USA Network. You’ll recall a couple of years ago when the lack of female golf members to the club raised the ire of one Martha Burk and her National Council of Women’s Organizations who pointed a finger to all TV sponsors of the event as supporting Augusta National’s membership policies.

Tonight’s Premieres:
FOX:  The Complex: Malibu at 8pm
NBC:  Fear Factor at 8pm, Last Comic Standing at 930p

NBC‘s Olympic coverage won the evening last Thursday, as it has for all of the Olympic nights thus far, earning an overall 7.3/21 A18-49 rating for the night according to Nielsen Media Research.  CBS, as has been its habit for much of these Olympic Games, came in #2 for the night night with a 3.6/11.  ABC and Fox continue to duke it out for #2 among non-sports programming, followed by UPN and WB.  CBS’ Big Brother at 8pm delivered a 3.4/11, just 7 share points behind NBC’s first hour of sports coverage.  WB’s summer launch of Blue Collar TV at 8pm drew a  1.6/5 A18-49 rating, pulling slightly better among the key female demos with a 6 share.  UPN’s always original ep of WWE Smackdown found its strongest demo for the night among Teens (2.8/10) and M18-34 (2.3/8).

TBS is readying a new reality series called He’s a Lady (Evolution Tape & Film) where eleven very guy guys, all undergoing a decidedly female makeover and finding out what it’s like to live the life of a woman for a period of time.  In a typical reality show ambush style, none of the 11 men know what they’re in for – in fact they all believed they would be competing in various strength and endurance competitions for a show called All American Male.  At the end of the day, one of the 11 will win a cash prize.  The show is set to premiere on October 12, airing on Tuesday nights.

Casting / Production / Development Notes:

• Kyra Sedgwick has signed to star in a drama pilot for TNT called The Closer (Shephard Robin Co/Warner Bros Television) about an elite LAPD force.
• Jimmy Smits has been confirmed to have joined the cast of NBC’s The West Wing as the Congressman from Houston who has an eye on the Oval Office. West Wing premieres this season on October 20.
• Raven Symone (Cosby and That’s So Raven) has signed a one year development deal with ABC, with an eye toward a Fall 2005 project.

The 21st annual MTV Video Music Awards were handed out last night with nary a FCC-questionable moment. That’s not to say MTV wasn’t prepared — the show aired on a several second tape delay with folks manning the “audio-out” buttons.  In addition to awards being handed out, coverage included yachts delivering guests to the Miami event, Senator Kerry’s daughters appearing on tape encouraging young viewers to register to vote, and an extraordinary tribute to Ray Charles that included musical performances by Stevie Wonder, Alicia Keys and Lenny Kravitz. Top awards went to OutKast who ultimately took home four including Best Video of the Year; Usher got his first for for Best Male Video for Yeah!; Jay-Z’s 99 Problems was nominated six times and won four.

Weekend Box Office Estimates: August 27-29, 2004
Hero (Miramax)                          $17.8 million – opening weekend
Anacondas (Screen Gems)         $13.2 million – opening weekend
Without a Paddle (Paramount)            $8.7 million – 2 wk total $27.8m
Princess Diaries 2 (Buena Vista)                $8.1 million – 3 wk total $75.1m
Exorcist: The Beginning (Warner Bros.)  $6.7 million – 2 wk total $30.8m
Collateral (DreamWorks)         $6.3 million – 4 wk total $79.9m
Open Water (Lions Gate)         $5.0 million – 4 wk total $23.5m
Alien v. Predator (Fox)                 $4.8 million – 3 wk total $72.1m
The Bourne Supremacy (Universal)        $4.6 million – 6 wk total $157.7m
Suspect Zero (Paramount)                $3.4 million – opening weekend
Source: Box Office Mojo

CSTV: College Sports Television and the Mountain West Conference, a Division 1 intercollegiate athletics conference, have inked a 7 yr NCAA Division 1-A football and men’s basketball conference broadcast deal, beginning in the fall 2006.  The multi-year deal, reportedly worth some $82m, also includes ‘all conference-related media and marketing rights, including, all television, national over-the-air and satellite radio, video-on-demand, online and broadband and exclusive corporate sponsorship rights.’  By making this pact the MWC ends its 7yr broadcast deal with ESPN, which carried a price tag of just under $50m.  Among the newly deal points important to the MWC are game start times and days that the division will not play on (specifically Tuesdays and Wednesdays).  ESPN has said it was unwilling to get into a bidding war for the MWC in light of their recent low ratings.

You will, I’m sure, be relieved to know the Taxi and Limousine Commission in NYC has dropped charges against 86 year old 60 Minutes’ correspondent Mike Wallace, for disorderly conduct.  Wallace also received a phone call from Matthew Daus, chairman of TLC, to formally apologize for the skirmish.  You remember Wallace reported “lunged” at the two TLC officers, an allegation Wallace disputed siting his age an inability to even “lunge into bed”. As it turns out, the office that handcuffed Wallace was not authorized to even carry handcuffs, much less use them, and both officers have been assigned to desk duty, as they undergo a second round of conflict resolution training.  Case closed.

The Republication National Convention comes to NYC today, though you wouldn’t know it on the Big 3 broadcast networks – that is not until tomorrow night.  However, you can get your RNC GOP fix tonight on cable news nets and PBS.  ABC, CBS and NBC primetime coverage begins Tuesday night at 10p, providing a total of three hours during the week (Wed/Thurs at 10p), the same number the DNC received.

Thursday, August 26, 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     13.7/23 Olympic Summer Games 2004 13.7/23

CBS     7.0/12  Big Brother 5.6/10, CSI [r] 8.1/13, Without a Trace [r] 7.3/12

ABC     3.9/6   Extreme Makeover [r] 3.9/7,  Thursday Movie: Charlie’s Angels  3.8/6

UPN     3.0/5   WWE Smackdown 3.0/5

FOX     2.5/4   Simple Life 2 x4 [r] 2.5/4

WB      1.8/3   Blue Collar TV 2.5/5, Reba [r] 2.3/4, Studio 7 1.2/2

A18-49  NBC 7.3/21, CBS 3.6/11, ABC 2.0/6, Fox 1.6/5, UPN 1.5/4, WB 1.1/2

A MESSAGE FROM WARNER BROS. DOMESTIC CABLE DISTRIBUTION

Source: NTI Explorer, Weekly Rankings 6/7-8/22/04. Ratings. #1 Sitcom ties Raymond week of 6/7 & 8/16.

The History Channel presents This Day in History:
30 B.C. – Egyptian queen and legendary beauty Cleopatra, whose admirers included Julius Caesar and Mark Antony, clasps an asp to her breast and commits poetic suicide after the defeat of her armies.

Answer to Friday’s Trivia Question: This futuristic police officer played by Rex Smith was assigned to drive a super secret pursuit vehicle.  What was the name of the vehicle (also the title of this ABC series)?  STREET HAWK.  Kudos to:  Alex Mullen-MTV Ad Sales/NY; Craig Brown-Discovery Comm/Silver Spring MD; Joe Pepitone-YES Network/NY; Rob Casalaina-KD&E Adv/NY; Jeff Roark-Clear Channel/Wichita; Kevin Hegarty-NextMedia/Joliet; Jerry Wise-KTVT/Dallas; Robert Cass-Chicago Reader/Chicago; Phyllis Ann Coblentz-Crisman Films/LA; Randall Bosley-Studio Talent Group/LA; Emily Jaffe-E! Entertainment/LA; Dave Harding-Creative Differences/Studio City.

A MESSAGE FROM COMCAST SPOTLIGHT

Comcast Spotlight works with our cable network partners to develop unique promotions for advertisers that leverage cable?s powerful brands. Through network associations or tune-in sponsorships, advertisers get customized, branded promotions that build upon viewer affinity for their favorite cable networks. Comcast Spotlight – Spot cable finally delivers. For more information click here.

Today’s Trivia Question:  On what series did the characters use domino-shaped coins made out of gold called Cubits? (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

Later — Cyn

Cynthia Turner’s Cynopsis
08/30/04
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WHAT’S ON TONIGHT:  MONDAY, AUGUST 30, 2004:

ABC             NFL Preseason Football: Tennessee vs. Dallas
CBS             Still Standing, Yes Dear, Raymond, 2-1/2 Men, CSI Miami
FOX             The Complex: Malibu [p]
NBC             Fear Factor [p], Last Comic Standing [p]
PAX             On the Cover, Balderdash, Early Edition, Diagnosis Murder
UPN             One on One [r], Half and Half [r], Girlfriends [r], Girlfriends [r]
WB              7th Heaven [r], Everwood [r
TELE            Prisonera, Gitanas, Zapata
UNIV            Mariana de la Noche, Amarte es mi Pecado, Christina