CYNTHIA TURNER’S
CYNOPSIS

01/26/04

Good morning. It’s Monday, January 26, 2004, and this is your first early morning briefing. 

NBC takes bragging rights on Thursday night with an overall 7.2/19 A18-49 rating according to Nielsen Media Research.  CBS was second for the night with a 4.7/12, followed by a tie between ABC and Fox at 2.6/5, UPN 2.0/5 and WB 1.3/3. At 8pm NBC’s combo of back to back Friends (both repeats) delivered a customary 9.8/26, and a repeat of CBS’ Without a Trace ranking #2 for the hour with a 2.7/7.  At 9p NBC and CBS were in a dead tie, each posting 6.7/16 for the hour. A repeat of Fox’s Big Fat Obnoxious Fiance delivered a 2.6/6, not quite enough to beat ABC’s Extreme Makeover (3.0/7). At 10p NBC eked out a single share win over CBS (5.0/14 vs. 4.7/13), ABC followed with a 2.7/7.

As has been its habit of late, ABC again won the Friday night A18-49 demo category, posting a 3.3/10 for the night according to Nielsen Media Research. NBC was #2 overall with a 2.7/8, followed by CBS 2.2/7, Fox 2.0/6, WB 1.3/4, UPN 0.9/3. NBC won the 8pm hour with a 3.3/10 by a share point over ABC’s 2.7/9, which in turn had a single share pt win over CBS’ 2.5/8, and similarly was a single share win over Fox’s 2.2/7.  WB delivered a 4 share, UPN a 3 share. Phew.  At 9p ABC took the lead with a 3.2/9 for Hope & Faith/Life with Bonnie; NBC’s Ed was second with a 2.7/8. Fox’s Boston Public delivered a soft 1.8/5, ranking fourth in the time period. Barbara Walter’s 20/20 was top dog at 10p with a 4.0/12, well ahead of NBC’s Third Watch (2.2/6) and CBS’ The Handler (1.9/5).

Fox again takes Saturday night with its standard fare, delivering a 2.9/9 A18-49 rating for the night according to Nielsen Media Research.  NBC followed with a  2.4/7, then CBS and ABC tied at 2.0/6. Fox won both its 8p and 9p hours with a 2.9/9 for each winning by a share point over ABC and two share points over both CBS and NBC. CBS presents its third go around with Star Search at 8pm on Saturday nights and thus far has generated very little heat, no matter which demo you look at: A25-54 2.6/7, W18-49 2.5/8, A50+ 5.1/10. At 10p NBC stepped up with a 3.0/9 over CBS’  2.1/6 and a 1.6/5 for ABC’s return of Monk.

More Post-NATPE Clearance Updates:

• Sony Pictures Television announces its two newest shows have landed clearances to the tune of 60% of the country.  Pat Croce: Moving In has been cleared in six of the top ten markets including KYW/KPSG-Philly, KBHK/KPIX-San Francisco, WBZ-WSBK/Boston, KTVT/KTXA-Dallas, WUPA-Atlanta and WKBD/WWJ-Detroit. Four-gal daytime talker Life & Style has also been cleared in six of the top ten including KYW/KPSG-Philly, KBHK/KPIX-San Francisco, WBZ-WSBK/Boston, KTVT/KTXA-Dallas, WXIA-Atlanta and WKBD/WWJ-Detroit.  No official word on the longterm future of Sony’s Pyramid.

Barbara Walters is looking for a little flexibility, and will gain that extra time in her life by stepping down as host of 20/20 as of this fall. Wtih that said, she will continue to host a half dozen primetime interview specials each year, including her traditional pre-Oscar how-do-you-do, and she will continue as co-host and Exec Prod on The View.  John Stossel remains with 20/20, though who will be sitting in the chair beside him and responsible for the big ‘gets’, remains to be seen.  Not so incidentally, for the week ending January 16, The View earned its best delivery since December ’02 among W18-49 (1.7/12 and 1.1 million viewers) and best delivery among W18-34 since January 2001 (1.7/13 and 550,000 viewers), ranking #7 and #4 respectively.

And coming to ABC next month airing a total of five times during the week of February 22, is Who Wants to be a Super Millionaire, with Regis Philbin, back in the host chair.  The schedule calls for a 2-hour return of the primetime game on Sunday night beginning at 9p, and airing Mon, Tue, Thu and Fri at 10p.  The money for this show will be 10 times the money in the original and current daytime syndicated version. 

Premieres Tonight:
USA: Traffic: The Miniseries at 9p
CNBC:  Dennis Miller at 9p

ABC’s Threat Matrix, originally receiving a full season’s order of 22 episodes, has been cut back to just 16 eps, according to Variety.

Golden Globe biggies:
Film:
Best Picture – Drama: LOTR: Return of the King (New Line)
Best Picture – Comedy: Lost in Translation (Focus)
Best Director/Film: Peter Jackson, LOTR: Return of the King
Actress in a Film – Drama: Charlize Theron-Monster
Actor in a Film – Drama: Sean Penn – Mystic River
Actress in a Film – Comedy: Diane Keaton – Something’s Gotta Give
Actor in a Film – Comedy: Bill Murray – Lost in Translation
Television:
Best Drama Series: 24 (Fox)
Best Actor in a TV Series – Drama: Anthony Lapaglia – Without a Trace (CBS)
Best Actress in a TV Series – Drama: Frances Conroy – Six Feet Under (HBO)
Best Comedy Series: The Office (BBC America)
Best Actor in a TV Series – Comedy:: Ricky Gervais-The Office (BBC America)
Best Actress in a TV Series – Comedy: Sarah Jessica Parker – S*x and the City (HBO)
Best TV Film or Miniseries: Angels in America (HBO)

Weekend Box Office Estimates – January 23-25, 2004
Butterfly Effect (New Line)                           $17.1 million – opening weekend
Along Came Polly (Universal)                      $16.5 million – 2 wk total $53.5m
Win a Date … (Dreamworks)                      $7.5 million – opening weekend
Big Fish (Sony)                                            $7.3 million – 7 wk total $49.1m
LOTR: Return of the King (New Line)         $6.9 million – 6 wk total $338.7m
Cheaper by the Dozen (Fox)                       $6.6 million – 5 wk total $122.7m
Cold Mountain (Miramax)                             $5.0 million – 5 wk total $72.6m
Torque (Warner Bros.)                                 $4.4 million – 2 wk total $17.2m
Something’s Gotta Give (Sony)                   $4.1 million – 7 wk total $107.1m
Mystic River (Warner Bros.)                        $3.1 million – 16 wk total $58.5m
Source: Box Office Mojo

Though he seemed to be old even when we were kids, Captain Kangaroo (nee Bob Keeshan) was just 76 when he passed away last Friday morning.  The series debuted on CBS in 1955, and grew to be the longest running kids series on network television ending in 1985, and followed by an additional six years on PBS.  The best thing of all was to see a grown-up viewer of Captain Kangaroo meet The Captain, as most fans continued to refer to him, and refer to the show as if it had just wrapped for the day, discussing the likes of his friend and other human regular Mr. Green Jeans (Hugh ‘Lumpy’ Brannum) and the infamous carrot pinching Bunny Rabbit, Dancing Bear, Word Bird and the clever Mr. Moose whose antics brought on a regular deluges of falling ping-pong balls.  A few interesting facts about Keeshan include that he was an NBC page, an assistant to kids radio/TV personality Bob Smith and Keeshan also played the role of Clarabell the Clown when Smith made the move from radio to TV.  Those of you who work at CBS might want to check under some of the old wooden tables in the various New York City studios, as many of them are still labeled Captain Kangaroo. 

David Bohrman has been named VP/News and Production, Washington Bureau Chief for CNN, with all Washington-based political news programs reporting in to him.  Where former bureau chief Kathryn Kross lands is still being determined at the network. The promotion also sets the stage for a variety of structural changes including merging 11 bureaus into four regions with each region having a bureau chief.  Two new units are also born – a Futures unit with Steven Robinson leading the charge; and a Features unit with Kim Brody at the helm.  And joining CNN in the Washington Bureau is former NBC newsman, Joe Johns.

Thursday, January 22, 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

NBC     10.3/16 Friends [r] 13.3/21, Friends [r] 13.1/20, Will & Grace 10.7/16, Scrubs 7.9/12, ER [r] 8.4/14

CBS     9.9/16  Without a Trace [r] 7.2/11, CSI [r] 13.1/20, Without a Trace [r]  9.5/16

ABC     5.2/8   Threat Matrix 4.4/7, Extreme Makeover 5.5/8, Primetime Thursday 5.6/9

FOX     3.7/6   Tru Calling 3.6/6, My Big Fat Obnoxious Fiance [r] 3.76

UPN     3.4/5   WWE Smackdown 3.4/5

WB      2.3/4   Steve Harvey  3.0/5, All About the Andersons 2.3/3, Surreal Life [r] 2.0/3

A18-49  NBC 7.2/19, CBS 4.7/12, ABC and Fox 2.5/6, UPN 2.0/5, WB 1.3/3

Friday, January 23, 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     6.3/11  George Lopez 5.3/9, Married to the Kelly 4.9/8, Hope & Faith 5.6/9, Life with Bonnie 5.7/9, 20/20 8.2/14

NBC     5.7/10  Dateline 7.2/12, Ed 5.5/9, Third Watch [r] 4.3/8

CBS     5.5/9   Joan of Arcadia [r] 6.2/11, JAG [r] 5.9/10, The Handler [r] 4.2/7

FOX     3.3/6   Totally Outrageous Behavior 3.1/5, World’s Craziest Videos 3.4/6, Boston Public 3.5/6

WB      2.2/4   Reba 2.8/5, What I Like About You 2.3/4, Grounded for Life 2.1/3, Like Family 1.7/3

UPN     1.5/3   UPN Friday Movie: Species II 1.5/3

A18-49  ABC 3.3/10, NBC 2.7/8, CBS 2.2/7, Fox 2.0/6, WB 1.3/4, UPN 0.9/3

Saturday, January 24, 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     5.8/10  Star Search 5.2/9, Hack 5.9/10, The District 6.5/12

FOX     4.8/8   Cops 4.5/8, Cops [r] 5.0/9, AMW 5.0/9

NBC     3.8/7   The Apprentice [r] 2.7/5, The Apprentice [r] 3.5/6, Law & Order: SVU [r] 5.1/9

ABC     3.7/10  Disney Movie: A Bug’s Life 3.9/7, Monk 3.2/6

A18-49  Fox 2.9/9, NBC 2.4/7, CBS and ABC tied at 2.0/6

A MESSAGE FROM WARNER BROS. DOMESTIC CABLE DISTRIBUTION

The History Channel presents This Day in History: 
1998 – U.S. President Clinton denied having an affair with a former White House intern

Answer to yesterday’s Trivia Question:   What is ‘something special in the air’? AMERICAN AIRLINES.  Kudos to:  Arthur Carmichael III-HGTV/Knoxville; Andrew Knopf-WWE/NY; Mark Shea-NBC/NY; Elizabeth Corda-Turner Broadcasting/NY;  Don Tapani-KDFW/Dallas; Kenny Mueller-NCC/Dallas; Marion Hartley-Woodhart Adv/Mobile; Roger Bare-KHWB/Houston; Alice Candiotti-DreamWorks SKG/Burbank; John Helmrich-Int’l Bcst Communications/LA; Scott Mauro/LA; Robin Kolodny-Playboy TV Networks/LA; and internationally from Patrick Patterson-Comedy Network & Talktv/Toronto; Peter Koll-Global Television/Toronto.

Today’s Trivia Question:  You may know him a the captain of his own spaceship, or as a police sergeant, but William Shatner was also an undercover officer and master of disguise working for the government in this television western series.  What was the series?   (
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
01/26/04  5:17am
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WHAT’S ON TONIGHT:  MONDAY, JANUARY 26, 2004

COURT TV:       Extreme Evidence, Masterminds, Forensic Files, The Investigators
ABC             ABC Monday Movie: Armageddon
CBS             Yes Dear [r], Still Standing [r], Raymond [r], Two and a Half Men [r], CSI Miami [r]
FOX             That 70’s Show [r], The Simple Life, 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 & Half [r]
WB              7th Heaven, Everwood
TELE            Amor Descardo, El Alma Herida, Mujeres Apasionadas
UNIV            Velo de Novia, Te Amaré en Silencio, Cristina