CYNTHIA TURNER’S
CYNOPSIS

04/01/04

Good morning.  It’s Thursday, April 1, 2004, and this is your first early morning briefing. 

This is quickly becoming the year of Get the Billionaires on TV.  Trump, Mark Cuban (The Benefactor) and now Richard Branson. Fox has yet another Apprentice-like reality show to add to the mix — this time they’ve secured Richard Branson, CEO of Virgin Group (includes Virgin Atlantic, Virgin Records, etc.), for their own show, according to Variety. Among the candidates in the game, tentatively titled Branson’s Big Adventure (Rebel Entertainment Partners), he’ll be looking for the one with the qualities to succeed him at Virgin Group.  Also this week Fox announced a reality show featuring young newly bar examined lawyers looking for a partnership in a firm, called The Partner.

Perhaps CBS‘ Century City was ahead of its time.  Whatever the problem, CBS has pulled it from the schedule, replacing it with The Guardian on Tuesdays at 9pm.

Spike TV has ordered up 8 episodes of a new reality series called I Hate My Job (RDF Media).  Three guys leave their cushy jobs to pursue their dream jobs.  The three undergo career bootcamp before making their giant leap of faith and hope they don’t end up all dressed up and no where to go.  Spike is looking at a fall launch.

Food Network has made its upfront programming announcements and in primetime new series include:

• Recipe for Success (premieres tonight at 930p) features career makeovers – lawyer turned baker, flight attendant turned coffee bar owner.
• The Secret Life of is the history of some of your favorite foods, with host Jim O’Connor (debuts June 8 at 10p)
• What’s Hot, What’s Cool is a look at all of the cool new trends, gadgets and gizmos used in restaurants, kitchen design, catering (premieres June 8 at 1030p)
• Party Starters is scheduled to start the party in July is party planning for creative types on a budget.
• Iron Chef America kicks off with a four ep marathon/round robin tournament April 23-25

And an abundance of OTOs and specials as well as a dash of new series in daytime.  Food Network will produce more than 800 hours of new and original programming in the upcoming season with 7 new series in primetime and 90 new specials.  Food Network is now in more than 85 million homes, up by 5 million over 2003. For the calendar year 2003, Food earned a .6 primetime HH rating.

Hallmark Channel announced its plans for the upcoming season which includes 36 hours of original programming, two new  program acquisitions, three miniseries with more in 2005, and a Hallmark movie sponsorship plan for advertisers.  New acquisitions are Diagnosis Murder and JAG, both set to start in 2005.  Upcoming miniseries include King Solomon’s Mines with Patrick Swayze; La Femme Musketeer with Nastassja Kinski; and Frankenstein with Donald Sutherland.   Hallmark has also set up a Sponsor Solutions Unit which offers Movie Entitlements – that is sponsored movies with limited commercial breaks (total 8m in 2-hour movie), advertiser mentions in all promotions.  An upcoming sponsored movie is Long Shot, Claritin is the sponsor (airs April 18); and Kraft has sponsored The Parent Trap (most recent version) which is scheduled to air June 13.  And Sunday nights at 9p in January will be the new home of the channel’s Mystery Sunday franchise, featuring 16 original movies.  And finally, instead of just one holiday film this year, Hallmark plans on present four, as well as a renewed commitment to other major holidays during the calendar year.  Hallmark finished 2003 in the top ten in HH ratings within its coverage area posting a 0.7 HH Rtg for total day.

TeleFutura will launch a new series on April 5 called Alegrijex y Rebujos (Don Darvelio’s Secret) which will air weeknights at 6pm ET.  This family targeted novela block has served the network well since last September.  By 1st qtr 2004 the hour is delivering its highest quarterly performance among Hispanic A18-49 and W18-49, currently ranking #2 among all broadcast networks at 630p with Hispanics, second only to Univision.  Alegrijex y Rebujos follows the adventures of a 10 year old girl who dared to venture into the neighborhood’s haunted house.  There she learns the secrets of the ‘ghosts’ in a classic battle of good v. evil.

Very little is safe in an election year.  Primetime indecency, radio indecency, potentially cable indecency, and now daytime soap opera indecency and commercial advertising indecency.  According to TelevisionWeek, FCC Commissioner Michael Copps told reporters at the NAB indecency summit, he has turned his attention to daytime soaps and reports they are “pretty steamy for the middle of the afternoon.”  So what else is new?  The Commissioner went on to say he would like the FCC to take a closer look at commercial advertising on broadcast television. Within his official remarks to the conference body, Commissioner Copps also said, “While you meet and discuss and move toward, I hope, resolute new industry policies on indecency, I am going to be pressing my colleagues to get on with the job of enforcing the statute, using all the ammunition already in our armory and also putting to immediate use any additional arrows that Congress may provide for our quiver.”  How long do you think it will take before they turn their attention to less blatant “acts of indecency” and put primetime television innuendo and double entendre on the indecency list (good thing Friends is ending this season); or how long will it be before books need to have parental guideline ratings?

New in Development/Casting/Production:

• ABC has added Orlando Jones to the cast of The Catch (Bad Robot/Touchstone) about a group of bounty hunters and starring Greg Grunberg. And for their comedy pilot Hot Momma (Warner Bros. TV), Lindsay Price has joined the cast which is led by Gina Gershon and Nick Lachey.  ABC’s untitled Sofia Vergara comedy (DDJ Prods/Touchstone), Lil Maxso has been signed.
• CBS‘ untitled comedy starring Aisha Tyler (Is or Isn’t It Ent/Warner Bros.TV) about a single woman who makes a career change that moves her from a small edgy fashion house to corporate America, Conor Dubin and been added.
• UPN‘s Dane Cook comedy project (Sony) has added Justine Bateman to the cast

Another slam dunk for Fox on Tuesday night, earning a 7.8/20 overall according to Nielsen Media Research.  NBC was #2 for the night with a 4.0/11, followed by ABC 3.2/8, CBS 2.2/6, UPN 1.0/3, WB 1.0/2.  At 8pm American Idol blew away the competition with a 10.7/29 (and a 13.3/33 among W18-49). Everyone else was in single digit shares for the hour in all key demos.  That’s pretty amazing.  At 9p Fox still led with an original episode of 24 delivering a 4.9/13.  ABC and NBC duked it out for #2, each posting a 10 share.  ABC’s It’s All Relative aired for the first time in its new time period, 930p, and earned a 3.5/9, holding 90% of its lead-in share.  At 10p NBC jumped up and down with an original ep of L&O: SVU 6.0/16, out pacing ABC’s NYPD Blue 3.4/9 and a repeat of Judging Amy (1.9/5).

For those of you who like to plan ahead, the 77th Annual Academy Awards ceremony is scheduled for February 27 on ABC (likely to be within the final week of the Feb sweep).  Nominations will be announced on January 25, 2005.

Chris Ender was upped to SVP/Communications for CBS.  Chris will oversee PR and communications functions for all of CBS’s West Coast programming divisions, including CBS Entertainment, UPN and King World.  He will report to Gil Schwartz, EVP/Communications, CBS.

Mike Antinoro and Will Staeger were upped to Executive Producers of ESPN Original Entertainment (EOE).  Both Will and Mike will oversee all EOE programming and production agreements, acquisitions, development and production.  They will report to Ron Semiao/SVP of EOE.

Anthony Batson has been named Sr. Producer/48 Hours Investigates, CBS News. Anthony has been with CBS News and 48 Hours since 1996 as a producer.  He reports to Susan Zirinsky/Executive Producer.

Jo Sweby was named Director/Acquisitions for Cartoon Network, Boomerang and Toonami in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.   Jo will work with European programming managers on programming strategy and acquire content for Turner’s European kids channels. Part of her new role will involve working with the Business Development team on new business opportunities.  The department has been renamed Original Animation and Acquisitions to reflect its responsibilities.

Tuesday, March 30, 2004. Fast Affiliate Household Ratings for all Networks. Fast affiliate numbers which reflect time period data, not program data, and can change slightly once the finals come in, particularly for LIVE programming (i.e. Football). Source Nielsen Media Research. Time Period Averages Only. [p] = Premiere; [o] = Original; [r] = Repeat

FOX     11.2/17 American Idol 15.1/23, 24  7.2/11

NBC     7.3/12  Whoopi 4.7/7, Happy Family 4.0/6, Frasier 7.9/12, Scrubs 6.5/10, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit 10.4/17

CBS     5.9/9   Navy NCIS [r] 7.2/11, Century City 5.38/, Judging Amy [r] 5.1/9

ABC     5.6/9   8 Simple Rules 5.3/8, I’m with Her 4.1/6, According to Jim 6.1/9, It’s All Relative (UFN) 5.7/9, NYPD Blue 6.3/11

UPN     1.9/3   One on One 1.9/3, All of Us 2.1/3, Rock Me Baby 1.9/3, Rock Me Baby 1.6/3

WB      1.8/3   Gilmore Girls [r] 2.0/3, High School Reunion [r] 1.6/3

A18-49  FOX 7.8/20, NBC 4.0/11, ABC 3.2/8, CBS 2.2/6, UPN 1.0/3, WB 1.0/2

A MESSAGE FROM WARNER BROS. DOMESTIC CABLE DISTRIBUTION

Source: NTI Explorer, 3/22-3/28/04 or as noted.  Sun 8-10:15pm.  Ad supported cable only.  Cable movie rank ties What Wmn Want w/ W18-34, A25-54 & Ind. Day w/M18-49. TBS week rank ties US Marshalls w/W25-54, M25-54.  Cvg rtgs.

The History Channel presents This Day in History: 
In 1957, the BBC profiles the Swiss spaghetti harvest. In a follow-up story, it acknowledges the story was an April Fools gag. Some viewers are not amused.

Answer to yesterday’s Trivia Question:  Kit, or K.I.T.T. – the tricked out Black Pontiac Trans Am, what did the license plate read on the car?  KNIGHT.  Kudos to:  Anna Maria Lang-PMI Syndication/Pittsburgh; Lisa Van Tassel-WFTX/Cape Coral; Bill Rock-NBC/NY; Chris Claro-YES Network/NY; Mitt Dawson-Fox Sports Net/Houston; Drew Borcherding-KGUN/Tucson; RJ Morris-KSMO/Kansas City; Dan Pawlak-SBC/Chicago; Jonathan Tavss-Scarlet Terrier Prods/LA; David Pearlman-Fox Movie Channel/LA; Jeff June-GSN/LA; Jake Guswa-Warner Bros./Burbank.

Today’s Trivia Question:  The wedding of this primetime couple took place on December 2, 1969, and it was truly magical.  Who were they?   (
to respond to the trivia question and please be sure to include with your answer your name, company, city and time zone. Only the second four correct responses from each time zone will be listed in tomorrow’s kudo list.)

Later — Cyn

Cynthia Turner’s Cynopsis
04/01/04  5:29am
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WHAT’S ON TONIGHT:  Thursday, April 1, 2004

COURT TV:       Psychic Detectives, Forensic Files, Body of Evidence, The Investigators
ABC             Extreme Makeover: Home Edition [r], Extreme Makeover [r], Primetime Thursday
CBS             Survivor: All Stars, CSI, Without a Trace
FOX             Tru Calling, Wonderfalls
NBC             Friends, Will & Grace, The Apprentice, ER
PAX             AFV, AFV, Early Edition, Diagnosis Murder
UPN             WWE Smackdown
WB              Steve Harvey’s Big Time [r], Like Family, The Jamie Kennedy Experiment, The Jamie Kennedy Experiment [r]
TELE            Prisonera, El Alma Herida, Mujeres Apasionadas
UNIV            Mariana de la Noche, Bajo la Misma Piel, Aqui y Ahora