Cynopsis

11/10/08

Good morning. It’s Monday, November 10, 2008, and this is your first early morning briefing. 

How much longer The Oprah Winfrey Show will air in syndication was questioned late last week. During a call Friday morning regarding earnings, David Zaslav, Discovery Communications CEO said this about Oprah Winfrey and her show: “current expectation is that after fall 2011 her show will go off of . . . syndication, and she will come to OWN.” The distribution deal signed by Winfrey in August 2004 with King World, which is now part of CBS Television Distribution (CTD), does expire in fall 2011 and also marks the end of the show’s 25th season. Later on Friday though, a spokesperson from Harpo Productions, Inc. acknowledged that while the contract will expire in 2011, Winfrey has not made a final decision whether or not her show will continue in syndication beyond this date. Despite a 14% ratings erosion this year, both CTD and local television affiliates carrying The Oprah Winfrey Show would welcome the show continuing in syndication past 2011.

ABC announced the fifth season premiere of Lost will open January 21 at 9p with two back-to-back episodes preceded by a Lost recap show airing at 8p. For this new season, Lost can be found on Wednesdays at 9p where Private Practice currently resides, instead of Thursdays at 10p. ABC has not said where Private Practice will relocate, although the network just granted the medical drama a full-season order. ABC is expected to make more changes to its Wednesday primetime schedule as Pushing Daisies at 8p and Dirty Sexy Money at 10p have both underperformed in their time periods thus far this season.

NBC continues to resuscitate the drama Life as the network gave Universal Media Studios approval on the back nine episodes giving the series a full-season order. Recently, Life was moved off of Friday nights to Wednesdays at 9p where last week it averaged a 2.0/5 and 5.9 million viewers among A18-49, doing better than its lead-in show Knight Rider which posted a 1.6/4 and 5.1 million viewers with A18-49.

Retirement Living TV (RLTV) and NBC News are co-producing season three of Daily Cafe, the 60m live news and current affairs program premiering tomorrow at 12p. Hosted by former U.S. Congressional Representative from Iowa, Fred Grandy based in Washington, D.C. and Alex Witt, MSNBC anchor/correspondent located in New York City, Daily Cafe will feature appearances by Elton John, Elvis Costello, Daniel Craig and George Hamilton during the first week, plus post-election reports from campaign journalists.

Lady Luck is with ESPN tomorrow night as the network airs same-day coverage of the 2008 World Series of Poker final, presented by Milwaukee’s Best Light, starting with a 60m encore preview special at 8p. Following at 9p will be two-hours of poker action from the Penn and Teller Theater at the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas where nine finalists will battle for the champion bracelet and $9.1 million.

Top 10 Weekend Box Office Estimates: November 7-November 9, 2008
Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa (Paramount/DW) $63.5 million – opening weekend
Role Models (Universal)                               $19.3 million – opening weekend
High School Musical 3: Senior Year (Buena Vista) $9.3 million – 3 wk total $75.7m
Changeling (Universal)                                 $7.3 million – 3 wk total $20.6m
Zack and Miri Make a Porno (Weinstein Co.)   $6.5 million – 2 wk total $20.9m
Soul Men (MGM/W)                                     $5.6 million – opening weekend
Saw V (Lionsgate)                                       $4.2 million – 3 wk total $52.3m
The Haunting of Molly Hartley (Freestyle Releasing) $3.5 million – 2 wk total $10.2m
The Secret Life of Bees (Fox Searchlight)       $3.1 million – 4 wk total $29.9m
Eagle Eye (Paramount/DW)                          $2.6 million – 7 wk total $96.4m
Source: Box Office Mojo

A CYNOPSIS MESSAGE FROM HALLMARK CHANNEL

AmericanLife TV Network is now available on Charter Communications Mid-America KMA in Wisconsin and Michigan.

Hallmark Movie Channel advanced its distribution by almost seven million subscribers by launching in all of the top 10 U.S. markets: New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, Boston, San Francisco, Dallas, Washington, D.C., Atlanta and Houston. The family-oriented movie channel is now carried on many of the top cable, satellite and telco distributors consisting of AT&T, Cablevision, Charter, Comcast, Cox, Echostar, NCTC, Time Warner and Verizon.

The CW and Warner Bros. Television halted plans to further develop The Graysons, a put pilot commitment granted in early October about the life of Dick “DJ” Grayson aka Robin before he became Batman’s sidekick, reports Variety. Apparently, Jeff Robinov, President of Warner Bros. Pictures Group decided against the project, even though The CW was hoping it would replace Smallville once that series ends. According to studio executives, Warner Bros. Television has other show replacement options in the works for The CW.

Mark Burnett Productions and entertainment network NO GOOD TV are collaborating on a broad-based production partnership including multiple programming genres created to air in North America and internationally for a variety of media formats such as broadcast, cable, online and wireless. The initial project is a late-night talk show hosted by Carrie Keagan, lead anchor on NO GOOD TV and the network’s EVP/Programming. Other upcoming projects include game shows, unscripted entertainment series, scripted comedies, movies and specials.

Dylan McDermott will star as the lead in TNT’s new drama pilot The Line from Jerry Bruckheimer TV and Warner Horizon, writes THR. McDermott will portray Lt. Andre Carter, a long-time LAPD officer who operates an illegal undercover ring. McDermott was most recently on ABC’s The Practice which earned him a Golden Globe award.

Casting Call: New York Comic Con and MTV are working together to cast a “fanboy” for a segment in the True Life docu-series. Applicants, who appear to be 16 to 28 years old and are fanatic about comic books, anime, fantasy or manga should strongly consider trying for this opportunity to dress up as a favorite character and be a guest at New York Comic Con and followed around at the convention by a MTV True Life production crew. Visit www.nycomiccon.com/mtvtruelife for more information and to download the application.

CYNOPSIS DIGITAL – TODAY’S TOP STORY:  Yahoo‘s share price took a beating on Friday closing under $12/share after Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer spurned advances made earlier in the week by Yahoo Chief Executive Jerry Yang. After initially rejecting an offer of $33/share from Microsoft, Yahoo’s CEO made it clear he was now open to an acquisition. Mr. Yang made the comments on the same day Google walked away from its planned search alliance with Yahoo, that was expected to have generated hundreds of millions in new revenue for the company. Full edition: CYN DIGITAL.

CYNOPSIS KIDS – TODAY’S TOP STORY: Hyde Park Entertainment teams with Singapore’s Toonz Entertainment and Gang of 7 Animation to produce the CGI-animated feature film The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus, based on L. Frank Baum‘s book of the same name, according to Variety.  With product set to begin this month at the Toonz Animation studio in India, The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus is slated for release for holiday 2010.  Hyde Park Entertainment holds the international distribution rights and shares the domestic rights with Gang of 7 Animation.  Full edition: CYN KIDS.

CYNOPSIS INTERNATIONAL – TODAY’S TOP STORY:  In another post-MIPCOM deal, CABLEready picked up the exclusive global distribution rights to a duo of Michael Hoff Productions works. The 1×60-minute Hooked (available in high-def) currently airs in the U.S. on National Geographic Channel while Chain Gang Girls 2 (2×60-minutes, available in high-def) is broadcast on WeTV. Full edition: CYN INTERNATIONAL.

Tuesday – A18-49 Analysis: Final ratings were released for Tuesday night’s election coverage and ABC and NBC remained tied at 4.5/10 A18-49 according to final national ratings from Nielsen Media Research. The presidential election action between the broadcast networks see-sawed between ABC and NBC during primetime. NBC’s live Decision ’08 won the 8p hour with 3.6/9 in front of Vote 2008 on ABC at 3.5/8. During 9p, ABC was #1 with 4.6/10 with NBC next at 4.4/9. Then at 10p, ABC surged ahead even more with 5.2/11 while NBC posted a 4.7/10.

Live + Same Day Household Ratings: Tuesday, November 4, 2008 (November Sweep Day 6) time period averages. Source: NTI Galaxy, as dated.  Live+SD

ABC: 8.0/12          Vote 2008 7.0/10, Vote 2008 8.5/12

NBC: 7.5/11           Decision ’08 7.5/11

CBS: 4.6/7             Campaign 2008 Election 4.6/7

FOX: 2.8/4             You Decide 2008 [8-10p] 2.8/4

UNIV: 2.0/3            Destino 2008 1.7/3, Destino 2008 1.8/3, Destino 2008 1.8/3, Destino 2008 2.2/3, Destino 2008 2.3/3, Destino 2008 2.2/3

CW: 1.6/2              90210 1.9/3, Privileged 1.2/2

MNT: 0.5/1             My Tuesday Night Movie Election: Detroit 9000 [r] 0.5/1

TELE: 0.4/1            Decision 2008 0.4/1

A18-49: ABC 4.5/10, NBC 4.5/10, CBS 2.3/5, FOX 2.0/4, UNIV 1.6/4, CW 1.2/2, TELE 0.3/1, MNT 0.2/0

 
Thursday – A18-49 Analysis: CBS remained in the first place berth Thursday night at 4.0/10 A18-49, according to final national ratings from Nielsen Media Research. CBS thrived at 8p with Survivor at 3.8/10 followed in second place by ABC’s Ugly Betty at 2.7/7. ABC was unstoppable at 9p with Grey’s Anatomy at 6.0/14 pacing ahead of CBS’ CSI at 5.1/12. A tightening in the ratings occurred during 10p with venerable ER on NBC coming in first at 3.2/9 pursued closely by CBS’ Eleventh Hour at 3.1/8 and ABC’s Life on Mars at 2.9/8.

Live + Same Day Household Ratings: Thursday, November 6, 2008 (November Sweep Day 8) time period averages. Source: NTI Galaxy, as dated. Live+SD.

CBS: 8.5/13         Survivor: Gabon 7.2/11, CSI 11.2/17, Eleventh Hour 7.0/12

ABC: 7.3/12           Ugly Betty 5.8/9, Grey’s Anatomy 10.1/15, Life on Mars 5.8/10

NBC: 4.7/7            My Name Is Earl 4.1/6, Kath & Kim 3.4/5, The Office 4.8/7, 30 Rock 4.6/7, ER 5.7/10

FOX: 2.9/5           Kitchen Nightmares 2.9/4, Kitchen Nightmares 3.0/5

CW: 2.4/4             Smallville 2.7/4, Supernatural 2.1/3

UNIV: 2.3/4          Cuidado con El Angel 2.5/4, Fuego en La Sangre 2.6/4, La Rosa de Guadalupe 1.7/3

MNT: 0.8/1           My Thursday Night Movie: Alien: Resurrection 0.8/1

TELE: 0.8/1          Dona Barbara 0.6/1, El Rostro de Analia 0.8/1, Sin Senos No Hay Paraiso 1.0/2

A18-49: CBS 4.0/10, ABC 3.9/10, NBC 3.3/8, FOX 2.1/5, UNIV 1.9/5, CW 1.7/4, TELE 0.6/1, MNT 0.4/1

Warner Horizon Television tapped Drew Tappon as Senior Creative Executive/Alternative Programming to develop original unscripted projects for broadcast and cable. He will also supervise current programming while reporting to Brooke Karzen, SVP/Alternative Programming.   Congratulations Drew!

This day in History:   1969 – Sesame Street made its debut on PBS.

Answer to Yesterday’s Trivia Question:  On Cheers, everyone knew him as Norm. Named after his grandfather, what was Norm’s real first name?  HILLARY Kudos to: Rev. Mark Wajda-Annunciation Catholic Church/Altamonte Springs, FL; Gigi James- Choking Hazard Productions/NY; Bob Brewer-Opus 3 Artists/NY; Synda Kollman-Charter Marketing Group/Boca Raton, FL; Lisa Richards-Harpo Productions, Inc./Chicago; Kyle Brawner  KDAF/Dallas; John Maroney-MMT Sales/Chicago; William Boesen-WFLD/WPWR/Chicago; Mike Mellon-ABC Network TV/Burbank; Kevin Fay- Euro RSCG Edge/CA; Robin Schmelling-BCMI/Rancho Mirage, CA; Vic Lowrey-GSN/”GSN Live”/Culver City, CA

Today’s Trivia Question:  Which two characters on M*A*S*H had wives named Louise?   (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
11.10.08

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WHAT’S ON TONIGHT –  Monday, November 10, 2008

ABC: Dancing with the Stars, Samantha Who?, Boston Legal
AZTECA: Camino a la Fama, Historia Detras del Mito, Al Extremo
CBS: The Big Bang Theory, How I Met Your Mother, Two and a Half Men, Worst Week , CSI: Miami
CW: Gossip Girl, One Tree Hill
FOX: Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Prison Break
ION: Boston Legal, NCIS, NCIS
MNT: Twilight Zone [r], Twilight Zone [r], Magic’s Biggest Secrets Finally Revealed
NBC: Chuck, Heroes, My Own Worst Enemy
PBS: Antiques Roadshow [r], American Experience [r], The Journey to Palomar
TELE: Dona Barbara, El Rostro de Analia, Sin Senos No Hay Paraiso
UNIV: Cuidado con el Angel, Fuego on la Sangre, Cristina

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