Source: NTI, Galaxy Explorer. 3/14/05-3/20/05. Based on A18-49. Rank = US AA Rtg. #1 Ties = Raymond. Lead-in retention = Share.

CYNTHIA TURNER’S
Cynopsis

03/28/05

Good morning.  It’s Monday, March 28, 2005, and this is your first early morning briefing.

Tonight’s Premiere:
ABC:     The Bachelor at 9p

A couple of May finale dates from UPN:
May 10:  Veronica Mars season finale
May 13:  Star Trek: Enterprise – 2 hour series finale

And last Friday’s 9p airing of Kojak was a premiere, not a finale.

ABC Family has ordered six episodes of a new reality show starring Serena and Venus Williams.  The show will chronicle the day the day lives of the Williams women, both on the court and off, per Hollywood Reporter.  Also coming to ABC Family with 11 ordered episodes is Wildfire (Lions Gate TV) starring Genevieve Cortese about a teenager working on setting her life straight again.  The show will debut with a two hour premiere episode (originally developed as a made-for movie) on June 20.

MTV will team up with Seventeen magazine for a new reality/search series called Project Seventeen, wherein the magazine is looking for it bills as America’s Sweetheart. Participating girls will be put through a variety of paces as they are whittled down to just one.  The show is expected to debut in the fall.

ABC:

• Crumbs (Touchstone TV/Tollin-Robbins) has signed Maggie Lawson to the comedy project. The show is about two brothers – one gay and one straight – who come together to run the family business when their parents get divorced.  Also cast in the project are Jane Curtin and William Devane, as well as Fred Savage and Eddie McClintock.
• Untitled Holly Hester comedy pilot (NBC Universal TV/Touchstone TV/Conaco Prods) has added Brenda Blethyn to star as the woman in this story who decides to give up her ‘perfect’ life, get a divorce and find a job.
• Play Mates (Warner Bros. TV) has added David DeLuise to the line up which also includes Michael Boatman, Erinn Hayes and Susan Ward.  The comedy is about three couples whose lives intersect after they meet each other in a new baby class.

CBS:

• How I Met Your Mother (20th) has cast Alyson Hannigan. The comedy is about the exploits of a single man (played by Josh Radnor) as seen and told through his own eyes, 20 years later.  Other cast members include Neil Patrick Harris and Jason Segel.  Hannigan was originally cast in the ABC sitcom In the Game, a now defunct project.
• Untitled Yuspa-Goldsmith comedy project (Sony Pictures TV/Paramount Network TV) has signed Benjamin King to join Darren Ritchie and Tiffani Amber Thiessen, in a project about a young couple who are dealing with being new parents.

FOX:

• Kitchen Confidential (20th/New Line/Darren Star) has added Bonnie Somerville to the lineup. The project is about a bad boy chef working in a high end NYC eatery.  Casting includes Bradley Cooper as the chef; John Francis Daley, Owain Yeoman, Nicholas Brendon, and Jaime King as the restaurant hostess.  Somerville will play a waitress.
• Untitled Oakley Weinstein project (NBC Universal TV/Broadway Video) has signed Diedrich Bader in this self-described Barney Miller meets NewsRadio comedy. 

NBC:

• Blue Skies (NBC Universal) has added Michael McKean. Previously the project signed Anna Faris in the lead role as a stockbroker turned YMCA lifeguard; and Missi Pyle and Jay Paulson.
• Confessions of a Dog (NBC Universal TV/Doozer) has tapped Justin Theroux as its lead dog, lifting the cast contingency off this project. Also cast is Biaca Kajlich, in this comedy pilot about three friends, two of whom are moving into the “spouse & family” portions of their lives, the third the consummate bachelor. From the creators of Scrubs, Bill Lawrence and Eric Weinberg.

WB:

• The Prince (Warner Bros. TV/Berlanti-Liddell/Ft. Hill Prods) has cast Mariel Hemingway to join Tim Matheson, Chris Egan as the Prince, Amber Heard and Noel Fisher.  Matheson is the wealthy dad of the young princely teen. The story is about a well to-do NYC family and the relationship between father and son (Matheson and Egan) after the eldest brother dies.

E!‘s nightly recap series, The Michael Jackson Trial (E! Ent/Sky News), in its third week (week of March 14-18) averaged a .19 A18-34 rtg, and a .23 A18-49, with the highest ratings for the week coming on Tuesday with a .51 HH coverage rtg.  The series began airing on 2/28/05, the same day opening arguments in the case began.  E! estimates that since the show’s debut, it has reached 9.9 million viewers, and in its third week reached an average of 412,000 total viewers.  The show ha also been sold by Target Entertainment to Canada’s STAR! and MuchMoreMusic, Germany’s Viv, the Netherland’s SBS Netherlands, Sweden’s Kanal Fem and Denmark’s TV Danmark. 

The global sales rights to CBS’ Elvis have been picked up by Arclight Films.  The Elvis Presley bio mini-series stars Jonathan Rhys-Meyers and Camryn Manheim. The acquisition was made in collaboration with Germany’s Apollo (media fund).  Arclight recently bought the international rights to several others including the musical Reefer Comedy and The Librarian film.

Weekend Box Office Estimates: March 25-27, 2005
Guess Who (Sony)                                     $21.0 million – opening weekend
Miss Congeniality 2 (Warner Bros.)           $14.5 million – opening weekend
The Ring Two (DreamWorks)                   $13.8 million – 2 wk total $58.1m
Robots (Fox)                                              $13.0 million – 3 wk total $87.3m
The Pacifier (Buena Vista)                         $8.5 million – 4 wk total $86.3m
Hitch (Sony)                                               $4.3 million – 7 wk total $166.4m
Hostage (Miramax)                                     $4.1 million – 3 wk total $26.2m
Ice Princess (Buena Vista)                        $3.7 million – 2 wk total $13.3m
Be Cool (MGM)                                           $2.8 million – 4 wk total $52.4m
Million Dollar Baby (Warner Bros.)             $2.6 million – 15 wk total $94.2m
Source: Box Office Mojo

On behalf of Cynopsis I am thrilled to tell you Andy Grossman, former New York Bureau Chief for The Hollywood Reporter, has joined the staff of Cynopsis as Editor. About a year ago, tired of spending 2 1/2 hours a day commuting, Andy left THR and began a free-lance career in order to spend time with his family. Thanks to the modern miracles of  telecommunications, he will continue to work out of his home office in New Rochelle, NY. Andy will be contributing regularly to all of the Cynopsis editions, and you can reach him at 
.

Thursday – A18-49 Analysis:   NBC was in front on Thursday night with an overall 5.2/14 among A18-49, according to final numbers from Nielsen Media Research.  Fox was a very close second with a 5.0/14, followed by CBS 4.0/11, ABC 2.1/6, UPN 2.0/5, WB .9/2.  CBS’ Game #1 of the NCAA Tourney aired from 7-932pm and averaged a 3.4/11; the second game aired from 932-1222am and delivered a 3.9/11 (930-11p avg). As to non-sports programming, both NBC and Fox began the night with an 11 share in the a18-49 demo, NBC for Joey, and Fox for The O.C.  NBC then picked up at 830p with an early airing of The Apprentice which delivered a 4.8/13 for the hour.  Fox then charged up its lineup with American Idol at 9p scoring an 8.6/22, which in turn led into the premiere of Life on a Stick for Fox, and earned a 4.0/10.  Meanwhile, also at 930p, NBC premiered its new non-laugh track comedy, The Office and beat Fox with a 5.0/13, winning the time period.  ER at 10p also won with a 6.5/17.

FINAL HOUSEHOLD Ratings:  Thursday, March 24, 2005, for all Networks – program averages.  Source: Nielsen Media Research. 

NBC     8.0/13   Joey 6.0/10, The Apprentice 7.2/11, The Office [p] 7.5/12, ER 10.0.17

CBS     7.5/12   NCAA Basketball 6.9/12 (7-930p), 6.9/12 (930-12:22a)

FOX     7.2/12   The O.C. 5.6/9, American Idol 12.1/19, Life on a Stick [p] 5.5/9

ABC     4.5/7    Jake in Progress 4.6/8, Jake in Progress 4.6/7, Jake in Progress [r] 3.4/5, Jake in Progress [r] 3.9/6, Primetime Live 5.3/9

UPN     3.3/5    WWE Smackdown 3.3/5

WB      1.6/3    Blue Collar TV 2.0/3, Blue Collar TV [r] 2.3/4, The Starlet [r] 1.1/2

A18-49                NBC 5.2/14, Fox 5.0/14, CBS 4.0/11, ABC 2.1/6, UPN 2.0/5, WB .9/2

Friday – A18-49 Analysis:   CBS’ coverage of the NCAA Basketball Tournament on Friday night led the charge with an 4.6/14 A18-49 rating, according to fast affiliate ratings from Nielsen Media Research, which measures time period averages only.  With live events, the final numbers can change, some times significantly.  NBC was #2 with a 2.6/8, followed by ABC 2.0/6, Fox 1.6/5, WB 1.1/3, UPN 0.7/2.  For each hour of prime, CBS dominated:  at 8pm with a 4.0/13, at 9p a 5.0/15 and a 3.7/14 at 10p.  NBC’s L&O: Trial by Jury came closer than any other primetime program, posting a 3.4/10.

Fast Affiliate Ratings:  Friday, March 25, 2005, for all Networks – time period averages.  Source: Nielsen Media Research. 

CBS     8.1/14   NCAA Basketball (7p-12m) 8.1/14 (8-11p avg)

NBC     6.3/11   Dateline 6.5/12, Medical Investigation 5.2/9, L&O: Trial by Jury  7.3/13

ABC     4.2/7    It’s the Easter Beagle Charlie Brown 4.3/8, 8 Simple Rules 3.3/6, Hope & Faith 4.1/7, Less than Perfect 3.7/6, 20/20 4.9/9

FOX     3.1/6    2005 NAACP Image Awards (OTO) 3.1/6

WB      1.9/3    What I Like About You [r] 1.4/3, What I Like About You [r] 1.5/3, Reba [r] 2.2/4, Reba [r] 2.4/4

UPN     1.3/2    Star Trek Enterprise 1.3/2, Top Model [r] 1.2/2

A18-49                CBS 4.6/14, NBC 2.6/8, ABC 2.0/6, Fox 1.6/5, WB 1.1/3, UPN 0.7/2

A MESSAGE FROM COMCAST SPOTLIGHT

Comcast Spotlight enables advertisers to geographically segment their markets through Adtag. Adtag lets you run the same commercial in the same market but with different tags. So you don’t just drive traffic, you direct it to specific locations within a DMA. And with Adtag, advertisers can be more targeted than they could ever be on broadcast. Comcast Spotlight – Spot cable finally delivers. For more information click here.

The History Channel presents This Day in History:
1982 – The 1st NCAA Women’s Basketball Championship takes place between Louisiana Tech and Cheney.  Louisiana Tech reigns victorious with a final score of 76-62.
 
Answer to Friday’s Trivia Question:  Quoting whom, here:  “We’re sugar and spice and everything nice.  So bite me!” ROSEANNE CONNOR.  Kudos to:  Matt Joyner-Spier/NY; Scott Pesner-NMA Ent & Mktg/NY; Dave Ware-WKMG/Orlando; Shannon Flynn-PLUS Media/NY; John Corcoran-Lifetime/Chicago; Yolanda Covarrubias-WICU/Chicago; Barb Throm-Smart Media/St. Louis; David Scott Jones-Marleigh Ent/LA; Rose Pacatte-Pauline Center for Media Studies/Culver City; Christie Long-Turner Sports/LA; Michael Dender-E Poll/Encino.

A CYNOPSIS MESSAGE FROM COURT TV

Today’s Trivia Question courtesy of Jim Bono/Hallmark Channel, NY:  Garry Marshall developed a comedy pilot called New Family in Town in the early 1970’s.  That pilot never went to series, but it did become a sketch for Love American Style.  From there, it was then turned into a series.  What was the name of this series?    (click here 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
03.28.05 

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WHAT’S ON TONIGHT:  MARCH 28, 2005:

ABC              EM: HD How’d They Do That? [r], The Bachelor [p]
CBS              Still Standing [r], Listen Up [r], Raymond [r], 2-1/2 Men [r], CSI: Miami [r]
FOX              Nanny 911, 24
NBC              Fear Factor, Las Vegas [r], Medium
PAX              AFV, AFV, Mrs. World 2005
UPN              One on One, Cuts, Girlfriends, Half & Half
WB               7th Heaven [r], Summerland
TELE             La Mujer en el Espejo, Los Plateados, La Ley del Silencio
UNIV             Apuesta por un Amor, La Madrastra, Christina

A MESSAGE FROM THE HISTORY CHANNEL