Cynopsis

03.30.09

Good morning. It’s Monday, March 30, 2009, and this is your first early morning briefing, coming to you from MIPTV in Cannes, France. 

Tonight’s Premieres:
ABC Family: Greek at 8p
Fuse: Metallica: In Their Own Words at 9p

FOX kicks off its summer primetime schedule in May and announces several scheduled premiere dates:

• So You Think You Can Dance opens its two-night, four-hour premiere event on May 21 and May 27 at 8p. Following the auditions, weekly performance shows will air on Wednesdays at 8p and weekly results shows are slated for Thursdays at 9p.
• New medical drama Mental will debut in the US on FOX May 22 at 9p, starring Chris Vance and Annabella Sciorra. At the same time, Mental will air day-and-date on Fox International Channels in 35 countries.
• Chef Gordon Ramsay’s Hell’s Kitchen will burn during its two-hour premiere on July 21 at 8p and subsequent episodes will air Tuesdays starting July 28 at 8p.
• New episodes of Don’t Forget the Lyrics! begin May 22 at 8p while Are You Smarter Than a 5^th Grader? goes back to class beginning July 3 at 8p.
• Saturdays during the summer will also sport new and encore episodes of Cops at 8p and 830p followed by new episodes of America’s Most Wanted at 9p.

A CYNOPSIS MESSAGE FROM TV GUIDE NETWORK^TM

NBC sliced the cooking competition series Chopping Block from its primetime schedule after airing episodes for only three weeks. NBC told affiliates last Thursday night the series will be off Wednesday nights as of next week, replaced with reruns of Law & Order: Criminal Intent previously seen on NBC. Chopping Block, featuring Chef Marco Pierre premiered March 12 and NBC will likely air the remaining episodes at a later date.

April brings new shows for Discovery Channel:

• Season five of Deadliest Catch begins April 14 at 9p preceded by the two-hour Best of Season Four recap special on April 7 at 9p.
• Discovery opens the new reality series Pitchmen April 15 featuring infomercial gurus Billy Mays and Anthony Sullivan reviewing product pitches from inventors worldwide, reports Variety. The 13-episode series is from Original Productions and Thom Beers, Mays, Sullivan, Philip D. Segal and Chris Wilson will all executive produce; Chris Rantamaki will executive produce for Discovery. 

Among younger baby boomers aged 45 to 54 years old, “live” television viewing continues to rule. According to findings from a $3.5 million year-long study conducted for the Nielsen-funded Council for Research Excellence (CRE) by Ball State University’s Center for Media Design and Sequent Partners, persons in this age category consume television at a little more than 9.5 hours daily. Other age groups kept their television consumption relatively stable at 8.5 hours per day. Other key findings include:

• Computer video viewing consumption on average is just two minutes per day.
• TV in the home continues to dominate screen time, even among A18-24.
• In major metropolitan areas where long commute times are normal, computer use has surpassed radio as the #2 media activity; radio is now #3 and print media is #4.
• Good news for advertisers: TV consumers were exposed to, on average, 72 minutes of TV ads and promos per day.
• More highlights from the report, can be found at:

www.researchexcellence.com/vcmstudy.

Charter Communications confirmed late last week it filed a pre-arranged reorganization plan and Chapter 11 petitions in US Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York. With $21.7 billion of debt racked up at the end of 2008, Charter expects to reduce its debt by approximately $8 billion with this Chapter 11 filing. Additionally, Chairman Paul Allen will likely see his voting interest in the company decrease from around 91% to 35%, though he will continue to retain the largest voting stake in the company.

Top 10 Weekend Box Office Estimates: March 27-29, 2009
Monsters vs. Aliens (Paramount)                   $58.2 million  opening weekend
The Haunting in Connecticut (Lionsgate)        $23.0 million  opening weekend
Knowing (Summit Entertainment)                  $14.7 million  2 wk total $46.2m
I Love You Man (Paramount)                        $12.6 million  2 wk total $37.0m
Duplicity (Universal)                                    $7.6 million  2 wk total $25.6m
Race to Witch Mountain (Disney)                  $5.6 million – 3 wk total $53.3m
12 Rounds (20^th Century Fox)                       $5.3 million  opening weekend
Watchmen (Warner Bros.)                           $2.8 million – 4 wk total $103.3m
Taken (20th Century Fox)                           $2.7 million – 9 wk total $137.1m
The Last House on the Left (Universal)          $2.6 million – 3 wk total $28.5m
Source: Rentrak

MIPTV 2009 Update:  While the market doesn’t officially start until today, couple of key items to remember.   You’ve heard me say this before, but these MIPTV vocab words bear repeating:

it’s not a conference, it’s a Congress;

not a show, it’s a Market;

it’s not a booth, it’s a Stand;

and if you order “coffee” it’ll come as espresso. 

As for the pre-market chatter, what are people talking about?  Production and how to produce a new product in this economy.  A friend made an interesting observation yesterday, and after asking around to several different people in different areas of our business, I found it to be true.  Production companies are looking to produce programs that are not only economically sound in the current marketplace, but perhaps even more importantly they are very keen that their shows are “perceived” to be on par with the economy.  In previous “down markets”, we’ve seen television produce shows over-the-top, bigger-than-life, perhaps even aspirational programming.  But in this economy, the general feeling seems to be doing an “over the top” or “glam” series would be insensitive to what people are coping with at home.  This is a very different “down market” than we as an industry has ever had to deal with before, and the rules now seem to be very different.  The key is to remain relevant – glam and over the top aren’t cutting it. 

A CYNOPSIS MESSAGE FROM THE WEATHER CHANNEL

NBC Universal Domestic Television Distribution has sold the NBC comedy The Office to local broadcast stations equaling more than 93% of the US for its first run in off-network syndication beginning fall 2009. Produced by Reveille, Universal Media Studios and Deedle-Dee Productions, The Office has been picked up by stations from broadcast groups such as Fox, CBS, Tribune, Peachtree TV, Sinclair, Gannett, Meredith, Hearst-Argyle, LIN, Local TV among others. Additionally, The Office was sold to the Fox Television Stations in top markets including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Washington, D.C., Phoenix, Minneapolis, Orlando, Baltimore and Memphis as well as by CBS Television Stations in Philadelphia, Boston, Seattle, Miami and Pittsburgh.

Because of new and expanded carriage agreements, US Jewish cable network Shalom TV, has surpassed a total of 30 million households. The network was added to Time Warner Cable systems nationwide including those in New York, the Carolinas, Dayton and Cincinnati, Dallas and Hawaii. Shalom TV was also added on Cox systems in Arizona, Las Vegas, New England and Fairfax, VA in addition to Bright House Networks in Birmingham.

The Ski Channel formed a partnership with Primal Quest Expedition Adventure Race and the United States Adventure Racing Association (USARA). The agreement allows the network to broadcast the US Nationals of Adventure Racing, making it the official television broadcast home of Adventure Racing as certified by the USARA Governing Body.

Not finding Hollywood to her liking, Tiffany “New York” Pollard returns to reality TV in a new series for VH1 titled New York Goes to Work opening May 4 at 10p. Viewers will vote via their mobile phones each week on three possible job opportunities for Tiffany. If she does well and impresses her employers, she gets a $5,000 weekly bonus, but if she quits, gets fired or messes up, she gets nothing. Episodes will be available at VH1.com the day after each air on the network. The series is created and executive produced by Mark Cronin and Cris Abrego for 51 Minds Entertainment, LLC., an Endemol Company.

ABC brings out the sandals, chariots and gladiators in a new miniseries version of Ben Hur, per Variety. The four-hour miniseries, from Alchemy Television Group and Spain’s Drimtim Entertainment, is being shopped at MIPTV this week. This new version of Ben Hur is executive produced by David Wyler, son of William Wyler who executive produced the 1959 Oscar-winning motion picture about the rebel hero in ancient Rome. Alchemy’s Simon Vaughan and Drimtim’s Roger Corbi will also executive produce. Production on the $22.5 million project is scheduled to begin this May in Spain, though ABC has not yet set an air date. Other co-production partners include ABC, Canada’s Muse Entertainment and the CBC, Morocco’s Zak Productions, Spain’s Antenna 3 and Germany’s Akkord Films and Pro Seiben.

TV Azteca announced a new adaptation of its telenovela New Love is now airing in Russia on Channel One, the largest television network in Russia. Now titled Stray Angel, the televovela has 85 one-hour episodes and is about a mother and a daughter who, not knowing they are related, battle for the same man. Stray Angel is produced by Russian World Studios.

4Kids Entertainment, Inc. introduces several new series at MIPTV this week (booth #R32.24):

• Chaotic: M’arrillian Invasion (26 eps, 30 min), available Spring 2009 for all markets
• Dinosaur King (79 eps, 30 min), with 30 new eps, available Summer 2009 for all markets excluding Asia
• Yu-Gi-Oh 5Ds (52 eps, 30 min), available Spring 2009 for all markets excluding Asia
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Back to the Sewer (13 eps, 30 min), available now for all markets
• Chaotic (40 eps, 30 min), available now for all markets

Casting Call: NBC seeks outgoing, fun-loving families to participate in its new series The Great American Road Trip. Families of all kinds with at least two children aged 10-16 years and available around early May to late June 2009 are encouraged to apply. Family type examples include: Clean Fanatic Family, Slob Family, Cheap Family, All-American Family, Hippie Family, Rancher Family, City Slicker Family, Musical Family and Animal Family to any other fun family type. Send an email to
and include full names of family members and who they are (i.e. mom, dad, etc.), family photos, contact information, where the family lives (city/state) and interests of each family member and why you would be perfect for the show.

CYNOPSIS DIGITAL – TODAY’S TOP STORY: Google is working on a scheme to combine its on-air TV ad sales business, Google TV Ads with web video from YouTube and other Web sites to allow marketers to make cross-platform ad buys from a single interface, per the WSJ. The feature, which the company hopes will attract a higher class of brand advertisers, fits into Google’s larger vision of providing technology to make multiplatform buys easier to manage and more precisely measurable. It could also position the search giant to become an integral cog in serving ads to broadband video that migrates to living room televisions.   Full edition: CYN DIGITAL.

CYNOPSIS KIDS – TODAY’S TOP STORY: CCTV Animation, a noted Chinese animation studio, and PorchLight Entertainment ink a co-development deal to develop and produce the preschool series Snap! Let’s Go! (52×12).  Snap! Let’s Go! follows the preschool-centric adventures of a Chinese girl named Mandy, a western boy named Matt, their life-sized Panda bear mentor, and a mischievous dragon named Snap as they explore new locations and learn about each others’ culture.  Additionally, the series aims teach Chinese viewers English phrases and other viewers the same phrase in Mandarin Chinese.  This marks CCTV Animation’s first collaboration on the development of a long format animated TV series with a North American production company.  Full edition: CYN KIDS.

Thursday – A18-49 Analysis: FOX dribbled past the competition Thursday night winning A18-49 with a 6.1/16 according to final national ratings from Nielsen Media Research.Hands down, FOX won the 8p hour with American Idol Results at 7.7/21 while NCAA Basketball on CBS placed second with 2.9/9. Also during 8p, ABC debuted the new In the Motherhood comedy at 8p and new episodes of Samantha Who? at 830p and both posted a 2.2/6. ABC gained #1 status at 9p with Grey’s Anatomy at 5.6/13 with FOX’s Hell’s Kitchen firing things up in second place at 4.5/11. CBS scored a victory at 10p with more NCAA Basketball tournament play at 4.0/11 with ABC’s Private Practice next at 3.6/10 and NBC’s ER a close third at 3.5/9. Also noted during 10p, FOX’s Hell’s Kitchen spilled over into the first fifteen minutes with a 4.7/11.

Live + Same Day Household Ratings: Thursday, March 26, 2009 (March Sweep Day 22) time period averages. Source: NTI Galaxy, as dated. Live+SD

FOX: 9.7/15      American Idol Results 13.2/21, Hell’s Kitchen 6.0/9

ABC: 7.3/12      In the Motherhood [p] 4.5/7, Samantha Who? [p] 4.5/7, Grey’s Anatomy 10.4/16, Private Practice 6.8/11

CBS: 6.6/11     NCAA Basketball Tournament (7-930p) 5.6/10; NCAA Basketball Tournament (930-11p) 6.7/12

NBC: 4.9/8      My Name is Earl 3.8/6, The Office [r] 3.0/5, The Office 5.0/7, 30 Rock 4.3/7, ER 6.7/11

UNIV: 3.1/5     Premio Lo Nuestro 2009 3.1/5

CW:  2.2/3      Smallville 2.3/4, Supernatural 2.1/3

MNT: 1.0/2      My Thursday Movie: Man in the Iron Mask 1.0/2

TELE: 0.6/1     Dona Barbara 0.6/1, El Rostro de Analia 0.7/1, Sin Senos No Hay Paraiso 0.6/1, El Cartel 0.6/1

ION: 0.3/0      Movie: Batman Forever 0.3/0

A18-49: FOX 6.1/16, ABC 3.8/10, CBS 3.6/10, NBC 3.2/8, UNIV 2.9/7, CW 1.4/4, TELE 0.6/1, MNT 0.5/1, ION 0.1/0

Michael Small advanced to Managing Director with BravoTV.com where he will supervise the operational, design and editorial teams for Bravo’s website. Michael joined Bravo in 2008, and in his new position will report to Mari Katsunuma, VP/Online Media, Bravo.

Toronto-based Breakthrough Films & Television named Joan Lambur to manage the company’s animation unit in addition to its live action and family television series. Joan will oversee development and production of all new animated and live-action kids’ and family series as well as manage licensing and merchandising efforts for the company’s properties. Atta girl, Joanie!

Effective immediately, Wendy Goldberg was appointed as VP/Business Development and Strategy for Hearst Entertainment & Syndication, reporting to Scott Sassa, President. In her new capacity, Wendy will take part in developing and expanding new and existing business with Hearst Entertainment & Syndication, the unit in charge of Hearst’s interest in cable television networks including ESPN, Lifetime, A&E and History, television production and distribution, newspaper syndication and merchandise licensing.

Beginning tomorrow, Nicholas N. Mohamed will take on the role as VP/Controller with LIN TV, replacing William Cunningham who resigns effective March 31, 2009 to pursue other interests. Nicholas previously worked for Sensata Technologies, Inc. where he served as Director/Finance Mergers and Acquisitions. At LIN TV, Nicholas will provide oversight on the company’s daily finance, accounting and treasury operations. He will report to Richard J. Schmaeling, SVP/CFO, LIN TV.

Darryl Gehly was upped to EVP with digital marketing network Isobar North America, part of Aegis Media. Darryl will now be in charge of developing client relationships, bolstering existing partnerships and spurring integration across the company’s units in the US and Canada.

Screen Actors Guild (SAG) tapped Damon Romine as Director/Communications starting April 1. Damon joins SAG from the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) where he was Director/Entertainment Media. Based in Los Angeles, Damon will report to Pamela Greenwalt, Communications Executive Director/Spokesperson, SAG. In his new capacity, Damon will be responsible for daily department administration, writing and editorial duties for the SAG magazine, in addition to working closely with Greenwalt on the execution of strategic communications efforts currently in process at SAG.

A CYNOPSIS MESSAGE FROM IFC + SUNDANCE

This day in History:  1993 – In the Peanuts comic strip, Charlie Brown hit his first home run.

Answer to Yesterday’s Trivia Question:   Who is the only actor to appear in both the original “Battlestar Galactica” (1978) and the new “Battlestar Galactica” (2004)?  Actor RICHARD HATCH (not the Survivor guy) appeared as Commander Apollo in the original, and returned as Tom Zerek in the newer version. Kudos to: Jeff Adams-Promotions.com/NYC; Gloria L. Price-CBS News/NY; Karen Feigenbaum-Fuse/New York; Sandra Krebelj-TV ONE/New York City; Bryan Wallace-HKS Inc/Dallas; Mary Beth McAdaragh-Fox TV/Gretna, LA; Michael Edelstein-Learning Curve Brands/Oak Brook, IL; Betsy Samuel-OpenTV/Golden, CO; Jason Bielski-Jimmy Kimmel Live/Hollywood; Paul Blutter-General American Group, Inc./Northridge; Lisa Tatum-Roerhig-10×10 Entertainment/Los Angeles; Russ Talley-Hulu/Los Angeles; Richard Cazeau/Toronto

Today’s Trivia Question:  True or False?  In the pilot episode of Seinfeld, Kramer was never seen.   (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.)

A CYNOPSIS MESSAGE FROM SCRIPPS NETWORKS

Source: Simmons Multimedia Engagement Study 2008 W5-8. Women 25-54 w/HHI $75K+ ranking among 80 ad-supported networks. For source details and marketing opportunities, visit ScrippsNetworksAdSales.com.

Later — Cyn
03.30.09

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A CYNOPSIS MESSAGE

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WHAT’S ON TONIGHT –  MONDAY, MARCH 30, 2009

ABC: Dancing with the Stars, Castle
AZTECA: Los Que Callamos Las Mujeres Edicion Especial, Historia Detras del Mito, Al Extremo
CBS: The Big Bang Theory, How I Met Your Mother, Two and a Half Men, Rules of Engagement, CSI: Miami
CW: Gossip Girl, One Tree Hill
FOX: House, 24
ION: ER, NCIS, NCIS
MNT: Masters of Illusion, Magic’s Biggest Secrets Finally Revealed [r]
NBC: Chuck, Heroes, Medium
PBS: Antiques Roadshow, American Experience 
TELE: Dona Barbara, El Rostro de Analia, Sin Senos No Hay Paraiso, El Cartel
UNIV: Cuidado con el Angel, Manana es para Siempre, Cristina

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