Cynopsis

05.18.09

Good morning. It’s Monday, May 18, 2009, and this is your first early morning briefing.  

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

Tonight’s Finales:
The CW: Gossip Girl at 8p; One Tree Hill at 9p
FOX: 24 at 8p
CBS: How I Met Your Mother at 830p; Two and a Half Men at 9p; Rules of Engagement at 930p; CSI: Miami at 10p
HISTORY: Ax Men at 9p
A&E Network: Paranormal State at 10p

A CYNOPSIS MESSAGE FROM FOX

As the 2009 Upfront presentations begin today in New York, there was abundant activity from some of the broadcast networks late Friday and into the weekend with new pilot pickups and series renewals.

Pilot Pickup News:

• FOX gave the comedy Brothers a 13-episode order from Sony/Tantamount. The plot centers on the relationship between two brothers, one a retired NFL player (NY Giants’ Michael Strahan) who returns to his hometown of Houston to care for his disabled brother (Darryl “Chill” Mitchell). The series also stars CCH Pounder.
• ABC is “going to town” with its pilot approvals, adding the new drama Happy Town and the comedy Cougar Town starring Courteney Cox, both produced by ABC Studios. Happy Town is a small-town murder mystery starring Geoff Stults, Lauren German, Dean Winters, Amy Acker, Sam Neill, John Patrick Amedori, Sarah Gadon, Jay Paulson and Robert Wisdom. In Cougar Town, the series also stars Dan Byrd, Busy Philipps, Brian Van Holt, Christa Miller, Josh Hopkins and Ian Gomez.
• Additionally, ABC finalized a deal late Friday to pick up the Warner Bros. TV series V and 20th TV’s The Deep End (formerly titled Associates). Both series will likely get 13-episodes each and The Deep End may be a midseason roll-out.
• Also on Friday, ABC picked up the Jerry Bruckheimer drama The Forgotten about a team of amateur detectives who specialize in unidentified victims cases. Another order for ABC went to the drama Eastwick, loosely based on John Updike’s novel and the feature film The Witches of Eastwick. Two new comedies will hit ABC’s lineup including Hank starring Kelsey Grammer and The Middle headlined by Patricia Heaton. All four series are produced by Warner Bros. TV and Warner Horizon.
• Over the weekend, CBS gave a nod to three drama pilots to begin staffing including the NCIS spinoff, the medical drama Three Rivers and The Good Wife with Julianna Margulies in the lead. All three are from CBS Television Studio (formerly CBS Paramount Network TV).

Series Renewal News:

• ABC is moving forward with a second season for its midseason drama Castle starring Nathan Fillion and produced by ABC Studios.
• Further news from ABC, the network officially renewed Scrubs for a ninth season from ABC Studios. Most of the primary cast members are under contract to come back for six episodes to transition the show to its upcoming new set-up, though Sarah Chalke is not a definite. Zach Braff will return along with Donald Faison, John C. McGinley and Neil Flynn. The latter three will all return as regulars in 2nd position to the pilots they also have in contention. Faison and Flynn co-star in ABC’s pilots The Law and The Middle respectively, while McGinley stars in CBS’ drama pilot Back.
• ABC also renewed the reality series True Beauty, produced by Warner Bros. TV and Warner Horizon and executive produced by Ashton Kutcher and Tyra Banks. 
• Continuing its flurry of orders, ABC gave the midseason comedy Better Off Ted a go for a second season from 20th TV.
• Confirmed for a second season is Joss Whedon’s Dollhouse on FOX with a 13-episode order. 20th Century Fox TV produces Dollhouse.
• Following negotiations involving licensing fees, FOX okayed the dramedy Bones for a fifth season from 20th TV. FOX also is returning House and 24 to its schedule next fall – no surprise there.

FOX is adding an additional run of summer reality series So You Think You Can Dance this fall, reports THR. Casting has begun for this first fall edition by FOX and series producer 19 Entertainment.  FOX will confirm its official fall schedule today during its upfront presentation in New York.

Correction : In Friday’s issue, we inadvertently placed the series Sarah’s House on the wrong network. The series currently airs on Fine Living Network during FLN Weekends at 1130a. New episodes are expected to premiere this fall.

Top 10 Weekend Box Office Estimates: May 15-17, 2009
Angels & Demons (Sony)                              $48.0 million – opening weekend
Star Trek (Paramount)                                 $43.0 million – 2 wk total $147.6m
X-Men Origins: Wolverine (20th Century Fox)   $14.8 million – 3 wk total $151.1m
The Ghosts of Girlfriends Past (Warner Bros.)   $6.9 million – 3 wk total $40.1m
Obsessed (Sony)                                        $4.6 million – 4 wk total $62.6m
17 Again (Warner Bros.)                               $3.4 million – 5 wk total $58.4m
Monsters vs. Aliens (Paramount)                    $3.0 million – 8 wk total $190.6m
The Soloist (Paramount)                               $2.4 million – 4 wk total $27.5m
Next Day Air (Summit Entertainment)              $2.3 million – 2 wk total $7.6m
Earth (Disney)                                            $1.7 million – 4 wk total $29.1m
Source: Rentrak

National Geographic Channel launched this past Saturday on the Premiere Familie package distributed by cable, satellite and IPTV and available to most households in Germany and Austria. Following this addition, National Geographic Channel is now available in more than 3 million homes in Germany.

Regent Worldwide Sales, a unit of Regent Entertainment and CineTel Films are in partnership involving international sales of television and DVD rights. The two companies will jointly attend international sales markets and also combine their administration staff and rights management systems, using CineTel’s West Hollywood headquarters as a base. Heading the alliance is 30-year veteran Paul Hertzberg of CineTel. Regent’s sales activity will continue to be spearheaded by Adam Wright and Liz Mackiewicz.

Liberman Broadcasting, Inc. (LBI Media) made an affiliate deal with Titan Broadcasting to make KTNC-TV an affiliate of LBI Media’s Hispanic network, Estrella TV. KTNC serves the markets of San Francisco, Oakland, San Jose, Sacramento, Stockton and Modesto and combined reaches more than 5% of the US Hispanic population. LBI Media also owns television stations in Los Angeles (KRCA) and San Diego (KSDX).  

The N, switching its name this fall to TeenNick, okayed a 30m dramedy titled Gigantic produced by Reveille, per THR. The new project will have 13 episodes and centers on the children of Hollywood’s A-list celebrities. Production will begin this year with Marti Noxon and Dawn Parouse as executive producer/showrunners.

CYNOPSIS DIGITAL – TODAY’S TOP STORY:  In a potentially far-reaching policy change, Google updated its ad trademarks policy in the U.S. to allow some ads to utilize trademarked company names in the text of their paid search ads. “This change (effective from Friday) will bring Google’s policy on trademark use in ad text more in line with the industry standard,” writes Googler Dan Friedman in the company’s AdWords blog. Companies have long complained of competitors who use Google to piggyback off searches that use their trademarked name to capture users attention amid search results. Analysts see the change as a moneymaker for Google as advertisers will likely bid more for such placements, unless owners of the brand names are able to make the legal argument that they amount to copyright infringement.  Full edition: CYN DIGITAL. 

CYNOPSIS KIDS – TODAY’S TOP STORY:  StudioCanal and Universal Music Group (UMG) enter into a partnership for the upcoming and 3D animated feature, Around the World in 50 Years.  Set for release worldwide in Q4 2010, Around the World in 50 Years is being directed by Ben Stassen (Fly Me to the Moon) and produced at nWave’s Brussels studio.  Under the deal, UMG will handle all North American theatrical, DVD, TV and non-theatrical rights to the buddy movie, as well as handling the soundtrack album on a worldwide basis.   Cherry and Vincent Herbert will create the soundtrack album to the movie.  Full edition: CYN KIDS. 

Thursday – A18-49 Analysis: Amidst a slew of high-profile finales, ABC dominated Thursday night among A18-49 at 4.6/13 according to final national ratings from Nielsen Media Research.At 8p, CBS led with Survivor at 3.8/12 followed by the season conclusion of Bones on FOX at 2.6/8 while the finales of My Name Is Earl and Parks and Recreation averaged a third place 2.0/7. ABC’s star this night was the two-hour season end of Grey’s Anatomy which won the 9p hour at 5.6/15 with CBS’ CSI season finale in second at 3.4/9 followed by a tie in third place with the finales of FOX’s Hell’s Kitchen and NBC’s comedies The Office/30 Rock at 3.2/8 each. During 10p, a ratings crescendo happened as the second hour of ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy peaked at 6.2/17 with the season finale of CBS’ CSI: NY next at 3.0/8.

Live + Same Day Household Ratings: Thursday, May 14, 2009 (May Sweep Day 22) time period averages. Source: NTI Galaxy, as dated. Live+SD

ABC: 8.8/15      Ugly Betty 4.6/8, Grey’s Anatomy [f] 11.0/18

CBS: 8.2/14        Survivor: Tocantins 7.0/12, CSI [f] 9.3/15, CSI: NY [f] 8.3/14

FOX: 4.9/8          Bones [f] 5.5/10, Hell’s Kitchen [f] 4.2/7

NBC: 3.2/5         My Name is Earl [f] 3.2/6, Parks and Recreation [f] 2.7/5, The Office [f] 4.0/6, 30 Rock [f] 3.4/5, Southland 3.0/5

UNIV: 2.1/4       Cuidado con el Angel 1.9/3, Manana es para Siempre 2.5/4, Mujeres Asesinas 1.9/3

CW:  1.9/3         Smallville [f] 2.0/3, Supernatural [f] 1.7/3

TELE: 0.8/1        Dona Barbara 0.8/1, El Rostro de Analia 0.8/1, Sin Senos No Hay Paraiso 0.6/1, El Cartel 0.7/1

MNT: 0.6/1         My Thursday Movie: The Last King of Scotland 0.6/1

ION: 0.4/1         Reba 0.3/1, Thursday Night Movie: The Hunt for Red October 0.4/1

A18-49: ABC 4.6/13, CBS 3.4/10, FOX 2.9/8, NBC 2.3/6, UNIV 1.6/4, CW 1.3/4, TELE 0.7/2, MNT 0.3/1, ION 0.1/0

Tom Keefer joins BBC Worldwide as SVP/Global Licensing, in charge of licensing opportunities for the company’s entire roster of children’s and adult brands within the initial concentration of the US market. Tom relocated from California to New York starting his new position today. He reports to Neil Ross Russell, Managing Director, BBC Worldwide Children’s and Licensing and Garth Ancier, President, BBC Worldwide America.

Mediaedge:cia named six executives on its North American team to Senior Partner:

• Allison Coley as Senior Partner/Account Director will continue to manage the Colgate-Palmolive account worldwide and report to Managing Director Eamonn Store.
• Christina Dagnello as Senior Partner/Account Director will now handle lead responsibility for the Xerox account in North America. She will continue to report to Managing Director Eamonn Store.
• Ann McGrath as Senior Partner/Director of Client Services, MEC Retail, will continue to report to David Sommer, Managing Partner, MEC Retail.
• Jessica Michaels as Senior Partner/Group Director handles the company’s Community Activation practice on the West Coast. She continues to report jointly to Patrick Cartmel and Carrie Frolich, Co-Managing Directors, MED Interaction.
• Colleen Soriano as Senior Partner/Group Director will supervise several MEC clients. She will continue to report to Managing Director Eamonn Store.
• Jill Toscano as Senior Partner/Account Director will now take on leadership duties with the MetLife account in addition to continuing on the Chevron account. She will continue to report to Managing Director Tom Brookbanks.

A CYNOPSIS MESSAGE FROM TV GUIDE NETWORK^TM

This day in History:    1951 – The United Nations moved its headquarters to New York City.

Answer to Yesterday’s Trivia Question:  Where and when was this question asked and by whom:  “Where the hell are the dancin’ cats?”  PAUL NEWMAN ON THE INAUGURAL EPISODE OF LATE NIGHT WITH DAVID LETTERMAN Kudos to: Jay Vincini-FKQ/Clearwater; Bob Yanofsky-HRP/Washington DC; Paco Correa-HBO/NY; Mark Altabe-Citibank/NY; Eric Litt-WGN/Chicago; Dory Melman Petsrillo-Petry Media Corp/Dallas; Tim Necas-NBC Universal/Chicago; John Novotny-Assignment Desk/Chicago; Susan Nessanbaum Goldberg-M and S Ent/LA; Randy Warner-R Train Management/LA; Richard Ross-CDTV/LA; Steve Wishnoff/LA; Stephen Kelley-SSK Communications/Toronto

Today’s Trivia Question:   What 1993 CBS series was based at the Flying Tumbleweed Ranch? (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
05.18.09

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WHAT’S ON TONIGHT –  MONDAY, MAY 18, 2009

ABC: Dancing with the Stars, The Bachelorette [p ]
AZTECA: Los Que Callamos Las Mujeres Edicion Especial, Historia Detras del Mito, Al Extremo
CBS: Rules of Engagement, How I Met Your Mother [f ], Two and a Half Men [f ], Rules of Engagement [f ], CSI: Miami [f ]
CW: Gossip Girl [f ], One Tree Hill [f ]
FOX: 24  [f ]
ION: Reba, Reba, NCIS, NCIS
MNT: Masters of Illusion, Magic’s Biggest Secrets Finally Revealed
NBC: Deal or No Deal, Deal or No Deal, 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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