Good morning. It’s Thursday, December 2, 2004, and this is your first early morning briefing.
NBC won the night on Tuesday according to final ratings from Nielsen Media Research, posting a 4.4/11 A18-49. CBS was #2 with a 4.0/10, followed by ABC 3.6/9, WB 2.4/6, Fox 2.2/6, UPN 1.2/3. At 8pm NCIS on CBS earned a 3.9/10, while ABC’s sitcoms earned a 3.5/10 for My Wife & Kids, and 3.6/9 for George Lopez. The Christmas Lighting special on NBC was third with a 3.1/8. Amazing Race on CBS led the 9p hour with a 4.8/12, although again it was the ABC sitcoms delivering close #2 ratings – According to Jim 4.3/11 and Rodney 3.6/9. Biggest Loser on NBC earned a 3.8/9. At 10p Law & Order SVU was well in front with a 6.3/16, while both NYPD Blue and Judging Amy tied with a 3.2/8.
NBC has announced four midseason premiere dates – Medium debuts January 3 at 10p, stars Patricia Arquette as a housewife who sees dead people; Committed premieres January 4 at 930p (push Scrubs back to 9p) is a comedy about how opposites attract; Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Model Search begins on January 5 at 8p, a reality competition show whose ending will correspond to the Swimsuit Model issue coming out on newsstands. Mark Burnett’s long awaited The Contender will kick off with a 90m premiere on February 21 at 930p, before it falls into its regular time period on Tuesdays at 8pm as of March 1. And the finale of The Biggest Loser has been scheduled for January 11 at 8pm. Other dates we’re waiting on include L&O: Trial by Jury, Revelations, and The Office.
Sweep thru 11/30 according to Nielsen Media Research: A18-49: CBS 4.5/12 (+7% vs. Nov 2003), ABC 4.0/11 (+8%); NBC 4.0/10 (-9%), Fox 3.0/8 (-3%), WB 1.6/4 (flat), UPN 1.5/4 (-6%).
Casting / Development / Production
Filling in for Jesse L. Martin who takes a short leave from Law & Order to film his role in the feature film Rent, will be Michael Imperioli (Sopranos). Imperioli is expected to be around for 4 or 5 episodes, and Martin will return in early 2005 to pick up with Detective Green.
NBC has ordered a pilot of My Name is Earl (20th) about a bad guy who wins the lottery and uses his new found wealth to right some of his past wrongs, per Hollywood Reporter.
Fox has ordered a pilot of The War at Home (Warner Bros. TV/Acme Prods) is about the power struggle between a pair of hypocritical parents and their kids.
Fox‘s drama pilot Prison Break (20th), about one brother, an engineer, purposefully getting himself sent to prison in an effort to break out his brother, has cast Dominic Purcell in the role of the death row brother. The engineer brother is played by Wentworth Miller.
WB has picked up the TV rights to the NYTimes bestseller, Bergdorf Blondes by Plum Sykes. The book about NYC rich girls, will be developed into a dramedy by Warner Bros. TV, and exec prods Karey Burke and Jamie Tarses, according to Variety.
Elsewhere at the WB, the net will look at a script of a new comedy from Peter Tolan and Diane Farr (Farr also writes, produces and would star), with Sony Pictures TV, about a group of women reaching that critical 30 age and living in LA, per Variety.
A&E has picked up the off-net cable rights to 24 (20th Television) for a reported license fee of $250,000 per ep, per Hollywood Reporter. The property was being shopped back in ’02 and the ask them was $750k/ep, but given the nature of the show and the necessity of the viewing audience to follow from one ep to the next, it turned out to be a tough sell.
TBS’ newest reality series based on the classic sitcom, Gilligan’s Island, debuted last night with back to back eps. National HH Rtg for the first hour was a 2.4 rating, with 2.7 million viewers A18-49 besting both UPN and Fox for the hour. For the second hour at 9pm, Gilligan drew a 2.3 HH National Rtg with 2.5 million A18-49 viewers, in front of WB and UPN.
Top Ten Basic Cable Ad Supported Network Rankings among Total Viewers for the month of November, 2004: Primetime (000) Total Pgm Day (000) ESPN 2692 NICK 2199 TNT 2331 NAN* 1565 USA 2252 TNT 1269 FOXNEWS 2178 CARTOON 1265 NAN 1924 FOXNEWS 1210 TBS 1883 LIFETIME 1105 LIFETIME 1805 TBS 1058 CARTOON 1738 USA 1055 SPIKE 1677 ESPN 1042 AMC 1156 ABC FAMILY 720 Source Turner Research from Nielsen Media Research Data. All ratings based on Total U.S. Television Universe of 108,400,000 homes * = Network broadcasts less than 51% of minutes in a 24 hour day. Primetime listing only includes those networks broadcasting more than 51% of the primetime hours (M-Su 8p-11p)
Top Ten Basic Cable Ad Supported Network Rankings among A18-49 for the month of November, 2004: Primetime (000) Total Pgm Day (000) ESPN 1341 NAN* 666 TBS 1093 TNT 663 TNT 1063 TBS 638 USA 1047 ESPN 594 SPIKE 877 USA 540 LIFETIME 755 NICK 530 DISCOVERY 589 LIFETIME 525 FX 584 SPIKE 379 FOXNEWS 575 FOXNEWS 359 COMEDY 568 CARTOON 355 FX 355 COMEDY 355 Source Turner Research from Nielsen Media Research Data. All ratings based on Total U.S. Television Universe of 108,400,000 homes. * = Network broadcasts less than 51% of minutes in a 24 hour day. Primetime listing only includes those networks broadcasting more than 51% of the primetime hours (M-Su 8p-11p)
The ten non-news networks that saw the largest gains this November vs. November 2003 in primetime among A18-49 were in rank order: Noggin +131%, National Geographic Channel +71%, Speed Channel +60%, Toon Disney +48%, A&E +44%, Spike +39%, Discovery Health +34%, FX +33%, AMC +23%, and ABC Family +23%. The five cable nets losing the most ground year to year were BBC America -45%, TLC -37%, BET -27%, Animal Planet -14%, and The Weather Channel -14%.
The 24/7 cable news networks also fared well in November primetime among A18-49, thanks in large part no doubt to their Presidential Election coverage: CNBC +109%, Fox News +99%, MSNBC +66%, Headline News +39%, CNN +37%.
Among the highest rated cable programming among A18-49 for November were plenty of football on ESPN, plenty of election coverage on the cable news nets, five movies (Bourne Identity, Liar Liar, Ocean’s Eleven, Wizard of Oz, Coyote Ugly), WWE on Spike, among others.
The ten non-news networks that saw the largest gains this November vs. November 2003 in Total Day among A18-49 were in rank order: National Geographic Channel +69%, Speed Channel +61%, Hallmark +53%, Noggin +50%, ABC Family +44%, Court TV +44%, Oxygen +39%, A&E +36%, Fuse +33%, Toon Disney +32%. Those losing the most ground year to year in Total Day among A18-49 were: BBC America -38%, TLC -34%, The Weather Channel -21%, E! -15%, Animal Planet -14%.
The 24/7 cable news networks performance in November total day among A18-49: Fox News +69%, MSNBC +49%, Headline News +33%, CNN +27%, CNBC -23%.
November 2004 Pay Cable Rankings: Household Coverage Ratings Primetime HH Rtg Total Day: HH Rtg HBO 2.2 HBO 1.3 Cinemas 1.4 Cinemas 0.9 Starz! 1.2 Starz! 0.7 Showtime 0.7 Encore 0.4 Encore 0.6 Showtime 0.4 TMC 0.4 TMC 0.3 Source: Nielsen Media Research– Galaxy Explorer: Total day (M–Su 6A–6A) and prime time (M–Su 8P-11P), November 1-28, 2004. Subject to qualifications available on request.
According to figures supplied by SNTA, the Syndication marketplace is up 17.3% for the first nine months of 2004. An analysis done by TNS Media Intelligence/CMR indicates the first quarter of 2004 was up by 16.7%, posting $947,801,570 in revenues; 2nd qtr was up by 18.4% posting $977,125,220 in revenues; and 3rd qtr was up by 16.8% with $973,548,260 in revenues.
Lisa Richards has been named Affiliate Sales Director, Western Region, for WWE Enterprises. Lisa will oversee the distribution and sell-through of WWE’s new products to cable and new technology distribution partners, including an SVOD service.
Tuesday, November 30, 2004.FINAL Ratings for all Networks – program averages.Source Nielsen Media Research. Time Period Averages Only. [p] = Premiere; [o] = Original; [r] = Repeat
CBS 8.5/13 NCIS 10.3/16, The Amazing Race 7.5/11, Judging Amy 7.7/12
NBC 8.1/13 Christmas in Rockefeller Center (OTO) 7.3/11, The Biggest Loser 6.7/10, Law & Order: SVU 10.5/17
ABC 6.5/10 My Wife & Kids 6.2/10, George Lopez 5.7/8, According to Jim 7.6/11, Rodney 6.5/10, NYPD Blue 6.4/10
WB 3.6/5 Gilmore Girls 4.2/6, One Tree Hill 3.0/5
FOX 3.4/5 The Rebel Billionaire 2.8/4, House 4.0/6
UPN 1.9/3 All of Us 2.0/3, Eve 2.3/3, Veronica Mars 1.7/3
A18-49 NBC 4.4/11, CBS 4.0/10, ABC 3.6/9, WB 2.4/6, Fox 2.2/6, UPN 1.2/3
A MESSAGE FROM WARNER BROS. DOMESTIC CABLE DISTRIBUTION
A Top Comedy on ABC: #1 with Teens, #2 with ALL 18-34 Demos
GEORGE LOPEZ Available exclusively from Warner Bros. Domestic Cable Distribution
Source: NTI Explorer, Premiere-to-date 9/20-11/28/04 & 9/22-11/30/03, % US Rtg Gain. Comedy=CS typecode. Ties Teens w/ Acc Jim and Wife-Kids. Ranked on US Rtg.
The History Channel presents This Day in History: 1804: Victorious in wars against most of the European powers, Napoleon Bonaparte crowns himself Emperor Napoleon I in Paris. Napoleon’s rise to this point was spectacular: recalled from a campaign in Egypt, the diminutive Corsican general quickly consolidated control over the French government and army and decisively defeated his rivals on the battlefields of Europe. After his coronation, Napoleon continued to extend the boundaries of the French empire until 1812, when military reversals culminated in his defeat at Waterloo in 1815.
Answer to Yesterday’s Trivia Question: Who am I? I was born in Wisconsin, and then adopted by a family of farmers in Kansas, who named their new daughter after their missing cat. As soon as I was able, I moved out of farm country and to the big city to find fame, and fame I found. In fact, I was soon nicknamed the Gotcha Girl. But that’s all behind me now – I have a new job and new career. Who am I? NINA VAN PELT – Just Shoot Me. Kudos to: Karen Daniel-DIY Network/Knoxville; Sheryl Rosen-The Lawyers Group/Stamford; Kathy McClung-CBS/NY; Jim Dettman-Hustler TV/NY; Tim Rank-Adamson Adv/St. Louis; Kent Carbon-KSTU/Salt Lake City; Lorrie Shilling-Centennial; Juliet Noory-Turner Media Group; Susan Goldberg-Beverly Park Prods/LA; Andrea Archer-51 Minds/Hollywood; Coleen Raymann-DirecTV/El Segundo; Andrea Feldman-PHD/LA.
And by the way, thank you to all of you who corrected my faux pas yesterday. You are correct, Harry Morgan was not Spring Byington’s husband on December Bride, he was her neighbor.
Today’s Trivia Question: Sam Waterston starred in the 1982 drama series Q.E.D., as a London scientist and amateur sleuth. Q.E.D. were Waterston’s character’s initials – what was his name? (click here with your answer and be sure to include your name, company, city and time zone with your answer. 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 MESSAGE FROM COURT TV
Over 200 years old and still as topical as tomorrow’s headlines.
The First Amendment Project
Produced in Partnership by Court TV and Sundance Channel
A series of original documentaries directed by independent filmmakers.
Mario Van Peebles, Chris Hegedus, Bob Balaban, and John Walter explore controversy around America’s most basic freedoms.
December 7th & December 14th at 10PM on Court TV.
Later — Cyn 12.02.04 4:49am
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WHAT’S ON TONIGHT: DECEMBER 2, 2004:
ABC Extreme Makeover, life as we know it, Primetime Live CBS Survivor, CSI [r], Without a Trace [r] FOX The O.C., North Shore NBC Joey, Will & Grace [r], The Apprentice, ER PAX AFV, AFV, Diagnosis Murder UPN WWE Smackdown WB Movie: 40 Days and 40 Nights TELE Prisionera, Gitanas, Te Voy a Ensenar a Querer UNIV Rubi, Amor Real, Aqui y Ahora
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