CYNTHIA TURNER’S
CYNOPSIS

07/12/04

Good morning. It’s Monday, July 12, 2004, and this is your first early morning briefing.

Television Critics Association gathering kicked off on Saturday and as part of the opening act, NBC’s Jeff Zucker lobbied a few at Fox. Zucker said “Quite frankly, [Fox] used to be innovators, and now they’re imitators.”  Examples cited included The Contender vs. Fox’s The Next Great Champ; ABC’s Wife Swap vs. Fox’s Trading Spouses: Meet Your New Mommy (which premieres on July 20). Zucker went on to say he thought it was just ‘not right’ what Fox has been doing and that they should be ‘called on it.’  If that wasn’t enough, Zucker decided to announce a couple of Fox’s ‘secret’ reality shows – Who’s My Daddy featuring a woman trying to identify which father is hers among a field of 16; and Big Shot (Rocket Science Prods) which adds a nasty twist to The Apprentice idea wherein the big shot isn’t a big shot at all. Thus far, Fox has not responded to Zucker’s comments, perhaps waiting for its turn in front of critics later on this week.

Getting back to NBC, part of Zucker’s chat with critics included the announcement that NBC’s Last Comic Standing will return this fall, beginning August 31, airing on Tuesday nights at 8pm.  Average Joe will be on the schedule, once Last comic Standing winds up. Also several NBC launch dates were announced, so grab a pen — Father of the Pride debuts August 31 at 9pm, followed by Scrubs. Hawaii launches on August 30 with a special preview, and then returns on 9/1 in its regular time period at 8p. Fear Factor also launches on the 30th. On September 6, Las Vegas returns for a second season, and LAX will make its debut.  Joey premieres on 9/9, as will The Apprentice kicking off with a 90m premiere episode.  NBC will also use The Apprentice premiere to preview Medical Investigations at 10p, which will then return on September 10 in its regular time period.  Will & Grace kick off on 9/16, and all of the returning Law & Orders will debut the week of 9/20.  Crossing Jordan, American Dreams and ER will also make their season debuts the week of 9/20.

More finger pointing at Fox came from documentary filmmaker Robert Greenwald who held a press conference yesterday to announce his new doc Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch’s War on Journalism, which takes some serious shots at Fox News, and even includes unauthorized Fox News footage.  The film also relies on internal memos obtained from former employees. Thus far, no comment from Fox News.  Special screenings are scheduled for the doc in NY and LA this week.

Weekend Box Office Estimates: July 9-11, 2004
Spider-Man 2 (Sony)                     $45.0 million – 2 wk total $275.2m
Anchorman: Ron Burgundy (DreamWorks) $28.0 million – opening weekend
King Arthur (Buena Vista)               $15.1 million – opening weekend
Fahrenheit 911 (Fellowship Adv. Group)  $11.0 million – 3 wk total $80.1m
The Notebook (New Line)         $6.5 million – 3 wk total $43.1m
White Chicks (Sony)                     $6.5 million – 3 wk total $57.2m
Dodgeball (Fox)                 $5.4 million – 4 wk total $07.6m
The Terminal (DreamWorks)               $5.0 million – 4 wk total $65.3m
Shrek 2 (DreamWorks)                    $4.5 million – 8 wk total $418.6m
Sleepover (MGM)                 $4.2 million – opening weekend
Source: Box Office Mojo

Thursday night was all about CBS – with the time period premiere of Big Brother, and the usual Thursday evening draws of CSI and Without a Trace.  For the evening CBS earned a 4.2/13 A18-49, well ahead of #2 NBC’s 2.8/9, according to Nielsen Media Research.  Big Brother at 8pm drew a 3.6/13 A18-49, doing better among women: 4.7/15 W18-49; 4.1/14 W18-34. The closest competitor was NBC’s schedule of supersized sitcoms Friends and Will & Grace.  During the 8pm hour, NBC earned a 2.5/9.  CSI at 9pm averaged a 4.9/15, again ahead of NBC’s Friends/Will & Grace combo (3.4/10).  And Without A Trace topped off the evening for CBS with a 4.0/12, ahead of the tied NBC/ABC average of 2.6/8.

In a move that sounds like a natural, National Geographic Explorer will be seen on the National Geographic Channel beginning this winter with a new season, and where it will remain for at least the length of its three year exclusive agreement. The series has been around for nearly 20 years. It premiered in 1985 on Nickelodeon, and moved to TBS in February the following year. In September 1999, the series moved to CNBC and relocated to sister-network MSNBC in October 2001. The series re-launched as Ultimate Explorer in June 2003 on MSNBC.  National Geographic Channel launched three and a half years ago and today is available in 50 million homes across the US via cable and satellite deliver.

On Friday Nielsen Media Research released a follow-up clarification to its April 2004, Policies Regarding National Cable Network Measurement & Reporting.  Basically the rules clarification take into account that some networks don’t program all of primetime or all of daytime.  The new rules will firmly define dayparts as applying only to those networks which program at least 51% of that time frame (i.e., primetime M-Su 8-11p).  The immediate network which comes to mind as a result of this clarification is Nickelodeon and NAN.  Prior to second qtr, Nick/NAN defined its Total Day as M-Su 6a-6a.  Since 2nd qtr, the two nets in a net have split their reporting such that Nickelodeon is now only programming on average one hour of primetime (with exceptions), and therefore will not be included in primetime rankings since that one hour does not constitute more than 51% of the daypart. Additionally, Total Day has been retitled as Total Programming Day and redefined to include just those hours programmed by the ad supported cable networks, not a time frame (6a-6a) which may include hours not programmed. Nielsen has also made some clarifications on its rules for using its data in advertisements and how they are to be sourced.  Check with your Nielsen rep on that point.

William K. McClure, 81, former 60 Minutes producer and a colleague of Edward R. Murrow, died last Friday of a heart ailment. McClure began his long career at CBS in 10952 working with Murro on See It Now.  When 60 Minutes was born in 1968, McClure was chosen to produce the stories for Mike Wallace and Harry Reasoner.  He stayed with the program for the next 30 years, during which time he worked with almost all of the show’s correspondents.  During that time he won three Emmy Awards, the most recent in 1990 for the story of the first American cameras inside Chernobyl.    Don Hewitt:  “Bill McClure was brilliant.  He was as good a camerman, and then as good a television producer, as I’ve ever worked with in my life.   We will not see his like again.”  McClure is survived by his wife, Jane, and four children: David and Annie of London, Robert of Flagstaff, Ariz., and Katharine of New Jersey.  His brother, Wallace, of Knoxville, also survives. 

If you didn’t already know, here is the official word – Pat O’Brien will host Paramount Domestic Television‘s new syndicated series The Insider when the 30m news entertainment magazine launches this September 13, 2004, in 98% of the US Television markets.  O’Brien had been with Access Hollywood since 1997, and before that a sub anchor on E.T.

Francie Calfo, EVP/Drama and Comedy Development for ABC Primetime Entertainment, has named Suzanne Patmore-Gibbs as SVP/Drama Development, Josh Barry as VP/Drama Development, and Jocelyn Diaz as Director/Drama Development.  Suzanne will oversee the day-to-day operations of ABC’s Primetime Drama Development department.

Clarification:  David Elstein’s interest in the Hallmark Channel is limited to the Hallmark Channel International. The domestic Hallmark Channel is not for sale.

Thursday, July 8, 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

CBS     8.0/14  Big Brother 5.9/11, CSI [r] 9.7/17, Without a Trace [r] 8.4/15

NBC     4.8/9   Supersized 8-10p: Friends [r]/Friends [r] 4.7/9 , Friends [r]/Will & Grace [r] 5.2/9, Las Vegas [r] 4.4/8

ABC     3.4/6   Whose Line 3.3/6, Whose Line [r] 3.1/6, Kingdom Hospital 1.7/3, Primetime Thursday 2.4/4

FOX     2/0/4   North Shore [r] 2.2/4, Tru Calling [r] 1.9/3

WB      1.1/2   Pepsi Smash 1.0/2, JKE [r] 1.1/2, JKE [r] 1.3/2

UPN     3.1/6   WWE Smackdown  3.1/6

A18-49  CBS 4.2/13, NBC 2.8/9, ABC and UPN 1.7/6, Fox 1.0/3, WB 0.7/2

A MESSAGE FROM WARNER BROS. DOMESTIC CABLE DISTRIBUTION

Source: NHI Explorer, 6/21/04-6/27/04.  HH Cvg Rtg.  Prgm Rank: Blue Collar ties Ron White, Striptease ties ET on VH1, Best Week Ever, Surreal Life 2.

The History Channel presents This Day in History:
1389 – England’s King Richard II appoints Geoffrey Chaucer to the position of chief clerk of the king’s works in Westminster.  At roughly this time, Chaucer begins work on the wonderful Canterbury Tales, a series of stories narrating the experiences of a mixed group of nobles, peasants, and clergy on a pilgrimage to the shrine of Thomas a Becket in Canterbury

Answer to yesterday’s MOVIE Trivia Question sponsored by IFC:   Who played Ed Gentry in the 1972 film Deliverance? JON VOIGHT.  Kudos to: Tom Begley/Washington DC; Johnny Jan-American Ingenuity/MD; Sean Jones-NCC/Atlanta; Lesley Ross-Universal McCann/NY; Alan Rosenfeld-Southeast Media Group/Telluride; Ali Matyas-FX, National Geographic/Chicago; Karen Venetz-KFBB/Great Falls; Kenny Mueller-NCC/Dallas; Darline Lieblich-Fox Cable Networks/Santa Monica; Tina Mallam-KNTV/San Francisco; Joe Feldman and wife, Andrea-Effective Media Services/LA; Ramy Gorkowski-Deutsch/LA.

A MESSAGE FROM COMCAST SPOTLIGHT

Comcast Spotlight is at the forefront of creating innovative advertising opportunities with Comcast’s ON DEMAND VOD service. Whether through program sponsorship, product placement content or long format advertorial, Comcast Spotlight can help advertisers take advantage of this emerging technology. Comcast Spotlight – Spot cable finally delivers. For more information click here.

Today’s Trivia Question:  She lives on Easts 46th Street in NYC, and works for a secret organization located a block away from the United Nations.  Her new partner is Mark Slate, who made a move over from the London office.  Who is she? Not this this will help you any, but I really wanted to be her (more so than any Angel of Charlie’s) when I was growing up.  (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
07/12/04 5:35am
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WHAT’S ON TONIGHT:  MONDAY, JULY 12, 2004

COURT TV:       The I-Zone, Forensic Files, The Investigators
ABC             My Wife & Kids, George Lopez, According to Jim, Hope & Faith, Weddings
CBS             Still Standing, Yes Dear, Raymond, Two and a Half Men, CSI Miami
FOX             North Shore, The Casino
NBC             Fear Factor, For Love or Money, Who Wants to Marry My Dad?
PAX             AFV, Early Edition, Diagnosis Murder
UPN             One on One, Half and Half, Girlfriends, Half and Half
WB              7th Heaven [r], Summerland [r]
TELE            Prisonera, El Alma Herida, Protagonistas VIP
UNIV            Mariana de la Noche, Amarte es mi Pecado, Cristina