CYNTHIA TURNER’S
CYNOPSIS

02/02/04

Good morning. It’s Monday, February 2, 2004, and this is your first early morning briefing. 

NBC took over Thursday night again, posting an overall 7.8/21 A18-49 rating according to Nielsen Media Research. CBS was #2 for the night with a 5.615, followed in the distance by ABC 2.4/6, UPN 2.1/5, Fox 1.8/5, WB 1.1/3.  At 8pm NBC averaged an 8.2/22 for reruns of Friends and Will & Grace; CBS aired a repeat of CSI delivering a modest 4.8/13.  At 9p, it was a repeat of CSI vs. an original ep of The Apprentice, and NBC’s The Apprentice won in virtually all demos with a few notable exceptions — CBS won in HHs, teens, A55+ and total viewers (20m vs. 18.8m).  Among A18-48, NBC delivered a 9.3/23 at 9p, CBS a 6.3/16. At 10p, NBC’s ER also led the hour by a nose with a 6.1/16 vs. CBS’ Without a Trace 5.9/16. ABC’s Primetime Thursday earned a 2.9/8 at 10p.

ABC earned top dog status again this past Friday night with an overall 3.0/9 A18-49 demo rating according to Nielsen Media Research.  NBC was #2 with a 2.4/7, followed by CBS 2.2/7, Fox 2.1/7, WB 1.4/4, UPN 1.1/3.  At 8pm NBC led with a 2.7/9, a single share point ahead of ABC, CBS and Fox.  At 9pm ABC was in front with a 2.8/9 for the hour, besting NBC’s Ed 2.5/7, CBS Jag 2.1/6, Fox’s Boston Public 1.7/5, and WB and UPN which each delivered a 4 share.  At 10p ABC’s 20/20 was way out in front with a 3.8/11, handily out-pacing both CBS and NBC, each with a 6 share.

Fox scoots by the competition on Saturday night by a tenth of a rating point over ABC and CBS, and just a half a point ahead of NBC.  Overall for the night among A18-49 according to Nielsen Media Research, Fox earned a 2.9/9, followed by ABC and CBS 2.8/8, NBC 2.3/7.  At 8pm Fox’s traditional combo of one original and one repeat ep of Cops was good for the win with a 2.9/9, a notion ahead of Star Search on CBS (2.6/8) and nearly a full point ahead of ABC’s first hour of its Disney movie (2.1/7). NBC’s Tracy Morgan and Whoopi earned a sad 1.5/5.  At 9p CBS’s Super Bowl’s Greatest Commercials earned a 3.9/11, ahead of AMW on Fox.  At 10p surprisingly the final hour of the Disney movie Parent Trap won the hour with a 3.5/10, ahead of NBC’s L&O: SVU (3.3/9) and CBS’s repeat of The District (1.8/5).

The Super Bowl – arguably the one of the best games in history, certainly a slam dunk for CBS with tension all the way down to the final 8 seconds of the game.  As for the commercials — the only one to score a 10 in the Turner house was the Budweiser Clydesdales and the Donkey. LOL funny.  Others that deserve a nod for effort were the Pepsi Bears, Chevy Aveo with the slightly smaller than expected basketball players; Mitsubishi/Seewhathappens.com; Sierra Mist Scotsman; Pepsi & iTunes; Linux with Muhammed Ali; Charmin Ultra plays football; NFL Network’s Tomorrow spot; truth.com’s Shards of Glass Freeze Pops; and the Cadillac waves of water.  Beyond these, the rest were a little … ordinary and often juvenile.  The only non-football event that got quite a reaction was Janet Jackson’s less than full coverage.  Yes, that got a reaction, and a flurry of phone calls to my house – did I just see what I thought I just saw?  CBS has apologized, no not to my family personally, to whomever was offended for the unexpected and unplanned indiscretion.  Offended? no.  Surprised? Oh yeah. Perhaps most surprising is the lack of any mention on air.

Only a third of the way through its second season, and Tyra Banks’ America’s Next Top Model has been picked up by UPN for a third and a fourth season.  On its most recent outing of an original episode, the show was #1 in the time period among W18-34 (6.1/15), also UPN’s best ratings ever, and delivered a 3.9/11 A18-34 and a 3.4/8 A18-49.  Casting for the third season begins soon at which time applications can be picked up at www.upn.com

Sony Pictures Television has announced the WB 100+ Station Group has picked up Sony’s new strip series, Life & Style.  WB 100+ has picked up the show to be a companion to their The Ellen Degeneres Show, airing in the WB’s daytime block.  Thus far, the series has been cleared in more than 60% of the country.

BET‘s newest reality series College Hill which follows the lives of eight African American students at Southern University debuted last week with 1.4 million viewers in tow and a 1.4 HH Rtg, making it the most watched series premiere in BET’s 24 year history.  Produced by Edmonds Entertainment, the show airs on Wednesdays at 9pm.

Scheduled to kick off on March 29 at 9pm is a new show on Fox called The Swan.  In this reality makeover, the participants get the full treatment, including plastic surgery, according to Hollywood Reporter.  And the kicker is, they don’t get to see themselves until after the season finale, a two hour beauty pageant.  Throughout the series, they are being revealed to friends and family and can only gauge their own appearance by other’s reactions.  From each ep, two participants are chosen to go to the Ultimate Swan Pageant, schedule to air on May 24, 8-10p.

Coming to Fox before The Swan show, is Playing It Straight, current on the sched for March 12 at 8pm, says Variety. A sort of Bachelorette type reality, though in this case, some of the men are actually gay, playing it straight. At the end fo the day, if she picks a straight man, they split $1 million; if she picks a gay man, he gets it all.

In Development:

• CBS has picked up a couple more sitcoms for its pilot season – Center of the Universe (Warner Bros. TV) with John Goodman and Saint Louie (Mohawk Prods/Warner Bros TV), a somewhat autobiographical sitcom with Louie CK, based on his standup act.
• WB is considering bring back Dark Shadows (John Wells Prods/Warner Bros. TV), and the entire Collins family, with their order for the dark soap.
• UPN is taking a close look at Awful Pretty (Nash Entertainment) about a group of men who, by their wives’ hands, are transformed into women.  Following the transformation, they are then required to live in a house, as women, 24/7, giving each an upclose and personal view of life as a woman.

Variety reports ABC has ordered 4 additional eps of the George Lopez show, bring the season total up to 28.

Weekend Box Office Estimates – January 30-Feb 1, 2004
You Got Served (Screen Gems)                 $16.0 million – opening weekend
Along Came Polly (Universal)                      $10.1 million – 3 wk total $66.8m
Butterfly Effect (New Line)                           $9.9 million – 2 wk total $32.4m
LOTR: Return of the King (New Line)         $5.3 million – 7 wk total $345.3m
The Perfect Score (Paramount)                  $5.0 million – opening weekend
Big Fish (Sony)                                            $4.5 million – 8 wk total $55.4m
Cold Mountain (Miramax)                             $4.5 million – 6 wk total $78.8m
Win a Date … (Dreamworks)                      $4.5 million – 2 wk total $13.4m
Mystic River (Warner Bros.)                        $4.4 million – 17 wk total $64.9m
Cheaper by the Dozen (Fox)                       $4.1 million – 6 wk total $127.8m
Source: Box Office Mojo

Azteca America Network has added two new affiliates to its list in Dallas and Corpus Christi.  With the addition of the two affiliate, the network now reaches 73% of the US Hispanic market, with a total of 33 affiliates, the last ten added since October.

Mary-Ellis Bunim, who with partner Jonathan Murray is credited with creating the modern reality television genre, has died last Thursday in Los Angeles. She was 57.  Bunim-Murray Productions  were the creative minds behind MTV’s The Real World, Road Rules, The Love Cruise, Making the Band, Real World Road Rules Challenge and the feature film The Real Cancun.  They were also behind the syndicated daytime series Starting Over and Fox’s hit of the current season, The Simple Life.  Prior to her partnership with Jonathan Murray, Mary-Ellis was a production executive overseeing more than 2500 hours of daytime serial television.  A memorial service will be held in Los Angeles at 1PM on Saturday, February 7, 2004, at Forest Lawn – Hollywood Hills, 6300 Forest Lawn Drive, Los Angeles, CA 90068.  In lieu of flowers, the family requests that friends honor Mary-Ellis Bunim’s memory through contributions to the National Breast Cancer Coalition Fund, 1101 17th Street, NW, Suite 1300, Washington D.C. 20036. 

Young Broadcasting Inc. has named René LaSpina as the President/GM of WTEN/Albany.  The announcement was made by Vincent Young, Chairman, Young Broadcasting and the appointment is effective immediately.

Kevin Adelstein has been named Director/Business Development for Regional Reps Corp. He will be responsible for developing traditional and multi-channel marketing strategies for radio advertisers targeting small to medium markets.  Kevin is based in Cleveland.

Gaylord Entertainment announced Melissa Fraley has been named VP/Brand Development for the media and entertainment group, responsible for merchandising and licensing of the Grand Ole Opry, Ryman Auditorium, WSM-AM 650 and Hee Haw brands.  Melissa will be based in Nashville.

Thursday, January 29, 2004. Fast Affiliate 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

CBS     11.5/18 CSI [r] 10.2/16, CSI [r] 12.9/19, Without a Trace 11.5/19

NBC     11.2/17 Friends [r]13.5/21, Will & Grace [r] 11.3/17, The Apprentice 11.9/18, ER [r] 9.2/15

ABC     5.2/8   Threat Matrix 4.5/7, Extreme Makeover [r] 5.0/7, Primetime Thursday 6.1/10

UPN     3.5/5   WWE Smackdown 3.5/5

FOX     3.0/5   Tru Calling [r] 2.7/4, Big Fat Obnoxious Fiance [r] 3.3/5

WB      2.0/3   Steve Harvey2.7/4, All About the Andersons 2.1/3, The Surreal Life [r] 1.6/2

A18-49  NBC 7.8/21, CBS 5.6/15, ABC 2.4/6, UPN 2.1/5, Fox 1.8/5, WB 1.1/3

Friday, January 30, 2004. Fast Affiliate 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     6.5/11  George Lopez [r] 5.1/9, Married to the Kellys 4.6/8, Hope & Faith [r] 5.7/10, Life with Bonnie 5.2/9, 20/20 9.1/16

CBS     5.5/9   Joan of Arcadia [r] 6.2/11, JAG [r] 5.8/10, The Handler 4.4/8

NBC     5.3/9   Dateline 7.3/13, Ed 4.8/8, Third Watch [r] 3.9/7

FOX     3.8/6   Totally Outrageous Behavior 3.7/7, World’s Craziest Videos4.2/7, Boston Public 3.5/6

WB      2.2/4   Reba 3.0/5, What I Like About You 2.1/4, Grounded for Life 2.0/3, Like Family 1.9/3

UPN     1.8/3   Movie:  The Cell 1/8/3

A18-49  ABC 3.0/9, NBC 2.4/7, CBS 2.2/7, Fox 2.1/7, WB 1.4/4, UPN 1.1/3

Saturday, January 31, 2004. Fast Affiliate 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

CBS     5.6/10  Star Search 5.6/10, Super Bowl’s Greatest Commercials 6.6/11, The District [r] 4.5/8

ABC     5.6/10  Movie: The Parent Trap 5.6/10

FOX     4.9/8   Cops 4.6/8, Cops [r] 4.9/9, AMW 5.1/8

NBC     4.7/8   Tracy Morgan Show 2.8/5, Whoopi [r] 2.9/5, L&O [r] 5.0/8, L&O: SVU [r] 6.3/11

A18-49  Fox 2.9/9, ABC and CBS 2.8/8, NBC 2.3/7

A MESSAGE FROM WARNER BROS. DOMESTIC CABLE DISTRIBUTION

Source: NTI Explorer, 1/23/04 or as noted.  TP: Fri 8-8:30pm.  US Rating.  Key demos=18-34/18-49/25-54.

The History Channel presents This Day in History: 
1880 – The S.S. Strathleven arrived in London with the first successful shipment of frozen mutton from Australia.

Answer to Friday’s Trivia Question: This primetime network character sported a tattoo, the same tattoo his father wore to honor his ancestors, The Rubber Tree People of Central America. Who is this guy?  From the Starship Voyager, Chakotay.  Kudos to:  Sara Sacks-Empower MediaMarketing/Philly; Eli Bailin-CBS/NY; Ron Salcedo-Zimmerman Partners/NY; Joanne Milano-RJ Palmer/NY; Phillip Stockwell-Nexstar Bcsting/Dallas; Marge Pistulka-Empower MediaMarketing/Chicago; Robert Ray-HD Net/Dallas; John Feria-Millennium Sales & Mktg/San Francisco; Andrea Beckum-KCBS/LA; Michael McKinley-KBHK/San Francisco; Harold Geller-Verance/San Diego.

Today’s Trivia Question:  This Swahili word for ‘doctor’ was also the name of a 1960’s television series.  What was it?  (
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
02/02/04  5:27am
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WHAT’S ON TONIGHT:  MONDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 2004

COURT TV:       Masterminds, Forensic Files, The Investigators
ABC             ABC Movie: Gladiator
CBS             Yes Dear, Still Standing, Raymond, Two and a Half Men, CSI: Miami
FOX             American Idol: Road to Hollywood (OTO), My Big Fat Obnoxious Fiance
NBC             Fear Factor, Las Vegas, Average Joe Hawaii
PAX             AFV, Early Edition, Diagnosis Murder
UPN             The Parkers [r], Eve [r], Girlfriends [r], Half and Half [r]
WB              7th Heaven [r], Everwood
TELE            Amor Descardo, El Alma Herida, Mujeres Apasionadas
UNIV            Velo de Novia, Te Amaré en Silencio, Cristina