Cynopsis

06.29.09

Good morning. It’s Monday, June 29, 2009, and this is your first early morning briefing.  And as always, if you prefer to watch this morning’s news instead of reading it, click here.  

Tonight’s Premieres:
National Geographic Channel: Hooked at 10p
Oxygen: Dance Your Ass Off at 10p

Tonight’s Finale:
VH1: New York Goes to Work at 10p

Billy Mays, the well-known and energetic product salesman on TV infomercials and co-host of the series Pitchmen on Discovery Channel, was found dead early yesterday at his home in Tampa, FL. He was 50. Referred to as “king of the infomercial,” Mays began selling products on the boardwalk in Atlantic City then traveled the country working at garden and home shows and other sales exhibits. In 1996, he was selected to sell the Orange Glo cleaning product live on the Home Shopping Network which led to a successful direct response advertising career. A statement released from Discovery Channel following the news of Billy’s death, says in part, “Everyone that knows him was aware of his larger-than-life personality, generosity and warmth. Billy was a pioneer in his field and helped many people fulfill their dreams. He will be greatly missed as a loyal and compassionate friend. Our deepest sympathies go out to his family at this time of incredible loss.” Discovery Channel has not announced what will happen to the series Pitchmen, a competition show Billy co-hosted with Anthony Sullivan.

CBS announced to its affiliates it will embark on “Project L.E.N.O.” a multi-tiered local marketing campaign which is short for: Late Prime Enhanced News Opportunity. The plan’s goal is to increase viewing during the 10p hour leading into late local news. Among the ideas for local CBS stations include sponsored broadcast spots and behind-the-scenes segments, sponsored web banners and tagged radio commercials in addition to an affiliate swap spot to highlight the 10p hour.

Animal Planet unleashes a new season of Untamed & Uncut July 5 at 9p featuring amazing stories from around the globe of people’s encounters with animals. During the twenty new episodes, computer graphics enliven the stories along with video flashbacks and user-generated content to give viewers the reality of what happened between man and beast. Cheri Sundae Productions produces the series for Animal Planet.

New York-based Multicultural Television Broadcasting Cleveland Operating, LLC and Multicultural Television Broadcasting Cleveland Licensee, LLC is selling television station WOAC/Canton to Ohio-based Radiant Life Ministries, Inc. for $7 million. Radiant Life Ministries is a not-for-profit corporation and broadcaster of Christian and inspirational television programming since 1977.

Top 10 Weekend Box Office Estimates: June 26-28, 2009
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (Paramount) $112.0 million – 1 wk total $201.2m
The Proposal (Disney)                                      $18.5 million – 2 wk total $69.0m
The Hangover (Warner Bros.)                            $17.2 million – 4 wk total $183.2m
Up (Disney)                                                   $13.0 million – 5 wk total $250.2m
My Sister’s Keeper (Warner Bros.)                      $12.0 million – opening weekend
Year One (Sony)                                            $5.8 million – 2 wk total $32.3m
The Taking Of Pelham 123 (Sony)                      $5.4 million – 3 wk total $53.4m
Star Trek (Paramount)                                     $3.6 million – 8 wk total $246.2m
Night at the Museum: Battle at the Smithsonian (20^th Century Fox) $3.5 million – 6 wk total $163.2m
Away We Go (Focus Features)                         $1.7 million – 4 wk total $4.1m
Source: Rentrak

Each year I highlight this benefit and this year is no exception — the difference tho is it will be held on the East Coast this time!  Check it out … The City of Hope Golf Classic benefiting the Tim Nesvig Lymphoma Fellowship and Research Fund is moving to the East coast.  This great event will take place on Tuesday, October 13, 2009 at the Westchester Country Club in Rye, New York.  After the golf tournament, a cocktail reception, dinner and auction will begin at 4pm with Master of Ceremonies Joe Buck.   Tim Nesvig, son of FOX Broadcasting Sales President Jon Nesvig, died of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma at age 30.  His memory lives on through events like the Golf Classic and your generous support gets us closer to a cure.  Impressively, over the past four years the City of Hope Golf Classic and other fundraising efforts have raised $4.8 million for the Tim Nesvig Fellowship.  Terrific sponsorship opportunities are available at all levels, including golf foursomes and dinner sponsorships.  To register, please go to timnesvigfellowship .com (click on the City of Hope Golf Classic page).  Also, back by popular demand is the Ultimate Fan Ticket Package Raffle, where you can win tickets to great championship events through the 2009-2010 year.  Tickets will go on sale in a few weeks – look for the announcement here on how and where to get your tickets..  Your support during these difficult times will go directly to Tim’s fellowship and fund research and treatments for lymphoma. 

TNT cast Noah Wyle (ER) to headline a new untitled series from DreamWorks Television and Steven Spielberg. Wyle’s character will be the leader of an unorganized group of soldiers and civilians as they battle against hostile aliens taking over the planet. The pilot depicts the aftermath of an alien invasion that wipes out most of the human population and now they are searching for the remaining survivors. Spielberg executive produces along with DreamWorks Television’s Justin Falvey and Darryl Frank and screenwriter Robert Rodat (Saving Private Ryan). This series is Wyle’s fifth project with TNT as he previously starred in the three Librarian movies and the movie Pirates of Silicon Valley.

Casting Call: A major cable network is casting homeowners for an upcoming untitled makeover show about construction nightmares. If you are a homeowner who has had damage caused by terrible contractors, the show will send a qualified team of experts to come and repair the damage for free. To be considered for the show, the homeowner must live in the greater Los Angeles area; had a bad experience with a contractor; have one room in need of repair; be available for one week of filming; and have an outgoing, energetic personality. Send an email to
and include a short description of the room’s problem and what your original plans were for the space, along with photos of the room and your family.

CYNOPSIS DIGITAL – TODAY’S TOP STORY: The death of Michael Jackson proved to be both a boon and a bane in the world of digital media over the weekend. As news spread of the King of Pop’s death – celebrity gossip site TMZ.com broke the story on Thursday – traffic to news and social networking sites erupted to record levels, causing problems the likes of which had not been seen since the presidential election. News sites slowed to a crawl as their traffic increased by 20% on average, according to Akamai’s news net usage index. Wikipedia administrators were forced to lock down the Michael Jackson page after it was accessed more than 1 million times in less than an hour. Twitter crashed after activity more than doubled. Search volume increased so quickly on Google that Google News initially mistook the event as an automated attack. Fortunately for the troubled Jackson estate, sales of singer’s albums on popular digital outlets such as iTunes and Amazon.com also went through the roof. As late as Sunday afternoon 8 of the top 10 selling songs on iTunes and 7 of the top 10 albums (including #s 1-6) were Michael Jackson works.  Full edition: CYN DIGITAL.

CYNOPSIS KIDS – TODAY’S TOP STORY:  After setting records in its open on Wednesday, Paramount‘s Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (PG-13) joins last summer’s Warner Bros. release The Dark Knight (PG-13, July 2008) as the only two domestic movies to ever break $200 million in box office receipts in their five days, with Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (PG-13) earning an estimated $201.2 million in 4,234 theaters trailing just behind The Dark Knight, which earned $203.8 million in 4,366 theaters, according to Box Office Mojo.  This weekend, June 26-28, accounted for 112.0 million of the receipts for the sequel, which opened with midnight showings on Wednesday, June 24.  In addition to regular theaters, the Transformers sequel also set an Imax five-day box office record.  According to Variety, opening on 169 Imax screens, the movie earned an estimated $14.4 million.  That’s twice the $7.3 million that Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (PG-13, 2007) in its first five days in release in Imax theaters.  Full edition: CYN KIDS. 

A CYNOPSIS MESSAGE TV GUIDE NETWORK^TM

Make your brand a star in TV Guide Network’s Jam-Packed July!

Contact Richy Glassberg or your AE: 212.626.2500 for creative network solutions and unique cross platform opportunities.

Thursday – A18-49 Analysis:During a tumultuous night of news, FOX led the A18-49 demo Thursday at 1.9/6 according to final national ratings from Nielsen Media Research. At 8p, UNIV’s Cuidado con el Angel won with 1.5/5 while FOX’s Bones repeat was #2 at 1.3/5. Through 9p, FOX kept a steady beat winning with So You Think You Can Dance at 2.5/8 while UNIV’s Manana es para Siempre came second with 2.0/6. Then at 10p, ABC’s 20/20 Special Edition did best at 2.2/7 followed by CBS’ News Michael Jackson retrospective at 1.9/6 and NBC’s Dateline Tribute to Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson at 1.6/5.

Live + Same Day Household Ratings: Thursday, June 25, 2009 time period averages. Source: NTI Galaxy, as dated. Live+SD.

CBS: 5.0/9         The Mentalist [r] 4.4/8, CSI [r] 5.6/10, CBS News: Michael Jackson 4.9/9

ABC: 3.8/7         Samantha Who? 2.4/5, In the Motherhood 1.8/3, 20/20 Special Edition 3.9/7, 20/20 Special Edition 5.6/10

FOX: 3.5/6           Bones [r] 2.8/5, So You Think You Can Dance 4.2/7

NBC: 3.1/6          The Office [r] 2.0/4, The Office [r] 1.9/4, Dateline NBC: Tribute to Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson 3.7/8

UNIV: 2.0/4        Cuidado con el Angel 2.1/4, Manana es para Siempre 2.4/4, Mujeres Asesinas 1.6/3

CW:  0.9/2         Smallville [r] 1.0/2, Supernatural [r] 0.8/1

MNT: 0.5/1        My Thursday Night Movie: The Street King [r] 0.5/1

TELE: 0.5/1        Mas Sabe el Diablo 0.4/1, El Rostro de Analia 0.6/1, Los Victorinos 0.5/1

ION: 0.2/0         Thursday 7PM Movie: Pacific Heights 0.2/0, Thursday Night Movie: Pacific Heights [r] 0.3/0

A18-49: FOX 1.9/6, ABC 1.6/5, UNIV 1.6/5, CBS 1.5/5, NBC 1.5/5, TELE 0.5/2, CW 0.4/1, MNT 0.3/1, ION 0.1/0

Last Thursday, the full US Senate voted unanimously to confirm Julius Genachowski as the new Chairman of the FCC. Also approved was the re-nomination of Republican Commissioner Robert McDowell. With Genachowski in place, acting Chairman Michael Copps will become a Commissioner once again, following praise for his leadership during the recent DTV transition. McDowell, who previously finished out the unexpired term of former Chairman Michael Powell, will get his first full term. President Obama still must sign the commissioning papers and both will need to be sworn in, though both procedures are expected to happen within the next few days. It is likely Genachowski could lead his first FCC public meeting as early as July 2.

Direct response media buying firm, Media Stream Direct tapped Diane Nelson as Senior Media Buyer. Diane will work with the company’s clients across a variety of categories, buying in the areas of long-form cable and broadcast and she will be in charge of media buying, planning and profitability management for clients’ programs.
 

This day in History:  2007 – The Apple iPhone went on sale … it cost $600.

Answer to Yesterday’s Trivia Question: The Committee was headed by Professor Frank Morgan until his death and Oliver Sampson took his place.  What show is this?  V.R.5 aired on Fox in 1995  Kudos to: Marge Pistulka-Empower MediaMarketing/Coral Springs; MaryLee Valenti-Nielsen Media/Oldsmar; Synda Kollman-WPTV/West Palm Beach; Gerry Bixenspan-TV Marketing/New York; Peter Alexander/Los Angeles; Lorrie Shilling-DIRECTV/El Segundo

Today’s Trivia Question :   This older lady lived in Philadelphia and took the train every evening to NYC to sit in the audience of The Tonight Show with Steve Allen.  She later became a daily audience member of The Merv Griffin Show, and at one point she was seen on camera so often AFTRA forced her to join the union.  Who is this ardent fan?   (Email
with your answer and be sure to include your name, company, city and time zone. Unofficial rules: Only the second four correct answers from each time zone will be mentioned; and once you’ve been mentioned in any of the Cynopsis editions, you can’t be mentioned again that calendar week.)

Later — Cyn
06.29.09

A CYNOPSIS MESSAGE

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WHAT’S ON TONIGHT –  MONDAY, JUNE 29, 2009

ABC:  The Bachelorette, Here Come the Newlyweds
AZTECA: Lo Que Callamos Las Mujeres Edicion Especial, Extranormal de Impacto, Al Extremo
CBS: How I Met Your Mother [r], Rules of Engagement [r], Two and a Half Men [r], Big Bang Theory [r], CSI Miami [r]
CW:  Gossip Girl [r], One Tree Hill [r]
FOX: House [r], Lie to Me [r]
ION:  Ghost Whisperer, NCIS, NCIS
MNT: Masters of Illusion [r], Magic’s Biggest Secrets Finally Revealed [r]
NBC:  Law & Order [r], L&O: Criminal Intent [r], Dateline
PBS: Antiques Roadshow, History Detectives, Make ‘Em Laugh: The Funny Business of America
TELE: Mas Sabe el Diablo, El Rostro de Analia, Victorinos
UNIV: Cuidado con el Angel, Manana es para Siempre, Cristina    

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