CYNTHIA TURNER’S
CYNOPSIS

02/19/04

Good morning. It’s Thursday, February 19, 2003, and this is your first early morning briefing. 

On the back of American Idol, Fox again wins Tuesday night among A18-49 posting an overall 7.6/19 according to Nielsen Media Research.  NBC was second for the evening with a 5.0/13, followed by ABC 3.4/9, CBS 3.0/7, UPN 2.3/6, WB 1.9/5.  At 8pm American Idol delivered a 10.8/28 A18-49 rating (13.1/34 among W18-34), nearly tripling the #2 show for the hour, the first 60m of NBC’s Fear Factor (4.0/10).  The 9pm hour was quite competitive with the final 22 minutes of Fear Factor on NBC, combined with a supersized Scrubs (922-10p) posting a 4.8/12.  Tied behind NBC was Fox’s 24 with a 4.4/11 and ABC’s sitcom hour also with a 4.4/11. CBS and UPN tied, each with a 7 share, WB a 6 share.  On UPN America’s Next Top Model led the Teen demo with a 4.0/12, as well as the W18-34 category with a 5.3/13, as well as the W12-17 with a 6.1/18.  At 10p NBC’s Law & Order SVU pulled a 6.2/16, well ahead of ABC’s NYPD Blue (3.5/9) and Judging Amy on CBS (3.2/8).

The second cycle of King World’s Everybody Loves Raymond, is especially loved by the Fox O&Os in NY, LA, Chicago, Houston, and Dallas, more so than the incumbent Tribune owned stations in those markets.  With the move from the Tribune to the Fox stations, comes a reported hefty price hike of double the original cycle licensing fees.  Several sources site the per ep fee in the NY and LA markets for the second cycle to run around $250-$300k per ep; the national per ep fee up to approx $2.2 million.  Cycle #2 for Raymond begins in March 2008 with about 194 eps.

New in Development and Casting:

• HBO has added Ciaran Hinds to the cast of its 12 episode series Rome set in 51 B.C. which follows the story of two Roman soldiers and their families. Hinds will play Caesar, to Lindsay Duncan’s Servilia, Caesar’s mistress.
• ABC‘s drama pilot Countdown, now titled 43 Minutes (Touchstone, Vertikal, Fremantle), has cast Jason O’Mara in the lead role. The show follows the final 43 minutes of a crisis as handled by a S.W.A.T. team.  In another drama pilot titled 111 Grammercy Park (Warner Bros. TV, Tannenbaum Co.) about three nannies and the high rise families they work for, Paul Blackthorne has joined the cast.
• CBS‘ pilot drama The Webster Report (CBS Prods, Warner Bros. TV, 25c Prods) has added Kari Matchett to the cast, joining Stanley Tucci.
• NBC has ordered a pilot for Beverly Hills SUV (NBC Studios), a workplace sitcom set in a car lot in, you guess it, Beverly Hills.  Larry Wilmore will exec prod.  In casting news, joining Patricia Arquette in NBC’s drama pilot Medium (Paramount, Grammnet, Picturemaker) are Miguel Sandoval and Jake Weber as Arquette’s husband. Elsewhere at NBC, joining the cast of the as yet untitled Jason Horwitch Project (Paramount, NBC Studios, Landscape) which focuses of a man who unravels medical mysteries, is Christopher Gorham. Neal McDonough has already been cast in this pilot.  Billy Gardell has been added to the cast of NBC’s sitcom pilot The Friendly’s (NBC Studios).
• Fox‘s blended family dramedy pilot, One Big Happy (20th) has added D.W. Moffett and Noelle Beck to the cast as the parents and Katherine Lanesa as one of the kids,, joining A.J. Trauth, Josh Henderson and Kaylee Defer.  And Sara Paxton has joined the cast of Mr. Ed (20th, Original) as the Post’s teenage daughter.  Nikki Deloach has been added to the serial drama Oahu (20th).
• UPN‘s Kevin Hill, sitcom pilot about a young single guy-about-town who suddenly finds himself the caregiver of his infant niece, has cast John Seda in the pilot, opposite Taye Diggs who plays Kevin Hill.  Also at UPN, the net has greenlit a pilot for Second Time Around (Paramount, B and C Prods) about a divorced couple who decide to give their marriage another go.  Leading that cast are Boris Kodjoe and Nicole Ari Parker.

You often hear of new cable networks launching, but rarely of them closing shop and disappearing.  According to today’s New York Times, The Football Channel (not to be confused with the popular NFL Network) will likely throw in the white towel. It launched last September with Pat Summerall as its primary face of the network, though found cable carriage difficult.  By December it was back off the air, the majority of its 75 employees let go, and while it is now looking for at least $15 million in investment dollars, the outlook is bleak at best.

Coming to Discovery Times Channel beginning February 24 is the first of six episodes of Staffers, a series which focuses on the men and the women behind the candidates on the campaign trail.  The first episode takes and up close and personal stance on Clark’s body guy Amad Jackson; Dean’s Deputy Press Secretary Sandra Abrevaya; and Joe Lieberman’s Deputy Political Director Chris Lavery. 

Comedy Central has added two other series to its group of premieres this year, in addition to OddTodd mentioned here yesterday.  One is a UK sketch comedy show (think Monty Python) called Hollow Men.  The second is a series spoofing traditional topical debate shows called Crossballs.  Hosting this show is comedian Chris Tallman.

NBC’s Today is taking a page from The Apprentice with its early morning reality game, The Intern.  On Friday the show will introduce 8 interns who have come from all over the country, with four eventually winning a spot on the Today team going on special assignment.  The other four will return to their regular interning duties within NBC.  The Intern will follow a similar format to The Apprentice, and by the conclusion of the week, four will have been ‘dismissed’.

TNT’s NBA All Star Game led many of the adult and HH ratings charts for basic cable for the week of February 9-15.  Among total viewers, the Sunday night 8:56-1129p game delivered 8.190 million viewers; 4.586m A18-49, 2.535m among A18-34 and 4.348million among A25-54.

Top Ten Basic Cable Ad Supported Network Rankings among Total Viewers for the week of Feb 9-15, 2004:
Primetime        (000)     Total Day            (000)
USA                   3151      NICK/NAN            1803
TNT                   2727      TNT                      1402
NICK/NAN         2251      USA                      1204
CARTOON       1672      CARTOON           1125
TBS                   1638      LIFETIME               999
LIFETIME           1565     TBS                        958
FOXNEWS        1321      FOXNEWS            802
SCIFI                  1241      HISTORY               656
DISCOVERY      1236     ABC FAMILY           639
HISTORY           1209      TLC                        626
Source  Turner Research from Nielsen Media Research Data.
All ratings based on Total U.S. Television Universe of 108,400,000 homes

Top Ten Basic Cable Ad Supported Network Rankings among A18-49 for the week of Feb 9-15, 2004:
Primetime        (000)     Total Day           (000)
TNT                   1415     TNT                     752
USA                   1286     TBS                     580
TBS                     808     USA                     558
DISCOVERY       712     NICK/NAN            531
TLC                      657     LIFETIME             459
SPIKE                  649     TLC                      370
LIFETIME             610     DISCOVERY        351
NICK/NAN            557      ESPN                  335
SCIFI                    547     FX                        330
MTV                     533      SPIKE                  330
Source  Turner Research from Nielsen Media Research Data.
All ratings based on Total U.S. Television Universe of 108,400,000 homes.

News Viewer Index for the week of Feb 9-15, 2004 in Total Viewers
Total Day Total Fox News/CNN/MSNBC/Headline Cable News Viewers  1.664 (000) Total Viewers. (-5% vs. previous week). Of the cable news viewership, Fox News had 48% of the viewing, CNN 27%, MSNBC 14%; and Headline News 11%
Primetime Total Fox News/CNN/MSNBC/Headline Cable News Viewers  2.560 (0000) Total Viewers (-8 vs. previous week). Of the primetime cable news viewership, Fox News had 51%, CNN 28%, MSNBC 12% and Headline News 8%.
Source Nielsen Media Research

Reality Central, overseen by Kay Koplovitz as Chairman, and Larry Namer, Pres/CEO, has announced its first carriage deal with Insight Communications in a deal that includes Reality Central’s exclusive broadband cable modem interactive feed, an exclusive VOD daily feed of reality news and gossip, original wireless and PVR content. Insight reaches 1.4 million households in Illinois, Kentucky, Indiana and Ohio.  Reality Central is set to launch with its 24/7 feed later on this year.

Museum of Television & Radio has found its new President, Stuart Brotman, a media consultant from Massachusetts.  Brotman steps in following the July 2003 death of Robert Batscha who served as President for 22 years.  Brotman joins MT&R on March 1.

A coup for cable network Fuse — Robert Weiss, VP/Programming and Development at VH1 will leave that post to become head of programming for cabler Fuse, overseeing programming strategies and content. Weiss will report to net honcho, Marc Juris.

Gemstar-TV Guide International, Inc., announced the upping of Ryan O’Hara to COO of its TVG Network from SVP/Business Development an Strategic Planning, effective immediately.  Ryan is based in LA and continue to report to Jef Shell, CEO.  Gemstar is still in search of a President for TV Guide Network.

Thomas Free has been appointed to the newly-created position of VP/Programming and Scheduling for World Picks, the provider of in-language, international on-demand programming services and international programming networks.  Tom will be responsible for the acquisition of programming and oversight of scheduling strategies and implementation for World Picks services, by identifying target international networks, negotiating and executing a representation agreement with each, and maintaining the relationship over the course of the contracts.  Tom reports to Harold Gronenthal, VP/Programming and Production for World Picks and IFC Digital Media.

As Paramount’s Judge Joe Brown exec prod Frank Kelly decides to focus his attention on his overall deal with Paramount Television, John Terenzio steps up and is named the new EP of Judge Joe Brown.  The announcement was made by Greg Meidel, President/Programming for the Division.

Barbara Griffin has been upped to SVP/Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. Image Management group. The announcement was made by Kelly Regal, EVP/HR and Corporate Communications, TBS, Inc.  Barbara will oversee the company’s in-house creative unit charged with supporting the photographic needs of the Turner Broadcasting marketing and public relations functions, as well as TBS, Inc. and Time Warner corporate initiatives.

RaMona Clay Alexander has been named as VP/General Sales Manager at Fox O&O WTXF/Philadelphia.  The announcement was made by Bob Simone, VP/GM, and RaMona will join the station in March.  She will oversee all business and administrative functions of the WTXF sales department.  RaMona makes the move to Philadelphia from WHBQ/Memphis, where she was  also the VP/GSM.

Tuesday, February 17, 2004. Fast Affiliate 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     10.4/16 American Idol 14.4/22, 24   6.4/10

CBS     8.4/13  Navy NCIS 8.5/13, The Guardian 7.7/12, Judging Amy 8.8/14

NBC     7.1/11  Fear Factor (8-922p) 6.0/9 from 8-930p, Scrubs (922-10p) 5.3/8 from 930-10p, Law & Order: SVU 9.6/16

ABC     6.1/9   8 Simple Rules 5.7/9, I’m with Her 4.6/7, According to Jim 7.2/11, Less than Perfect 6.4/10, NYPD Blue 6.5/11

UPN     3.4/5   One on One 2.4/4, All of Us 2.6/4, Top Model 4.2/6

WB      3.3/5   Gilmore Girls 3.6/5, One Tree Hill 3.0/4

A18-49  Fox 7.6/19, NBC 5.0/13, ABC 3.4/9, CBS 3.0/7, UPN 2.3/6, WB 1.9/5

A MESSAGE FROM WARNER BROS. DOMESTIC CABLE DISTRIBUTION

Source: NTI Explorer, 02/15/04 or as noted.  Sunday 8-9p.  US Rating.  All ranks based on persons 2+.  Excludes sports and specials.

The History Channel presents This Day in History: 
1940 – Smokey Robinson is born in Detroit.

Answer to yesterday’s Trivia Question:  On what series could you potentially run into the Devil’s Hole Gang, or what was left of it?  ALIAS SMITH & JONES, the gang to which Hannibal Hayes and Kid Curry once belonged.  Kudos to:  Paul Bodamer-WJW/Cleveland; Joanne Milano-RJP/NY; Fay Yu-BBC Worldwide/NY; Eileen Lichtenfeld-The Weather Channel/Atlanta; Robb Gray-Apex Media/Tucson; Eric Merrill-GSD&M/Austin; Chuck Loomis-Starz/Englewood; Jennifer Kemper-Cartoon Network and Kids WB/Chicago; Sharon Levi-Anaheim Hills; Deborah Arakelian-Axium Int’l/LA; Kevin Davis-Premier Retail Networks/LA; Amber Bickham-Creative Light Ent/Beverly Hills.

Today’s Trivia Question:  What happens if you take Absorbitron? (
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
02/19/04    5:28am
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WHAT’S ON TONIGHT:  THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 2004

COURT TV:       Hollywood Justice, Hollywood at Large, Forensic Files, Body of Evidence, The Investigators
ABC             The Bachelorette: Men Tell All (OTO), Extreme Makeover, Primetime Thursday
CBS             Survivor All Stars, CSI, Without a Trace
FOX             Movie:  Planet of the Apes
NBC             Friends, Will & Grace, The Apprentice, ER
PAX             AFV, Early Edition, Diagnosis Murder
UPN             WWE Smackdown
WB              Steve Harvey, All About the Andersons, The Surreal Life
TELE            Amor Descardo, El Alma Herida, Mujeres Apasionadas
UNIV            Velo de Novia, Bajo la  Misma Piel, Aqui y Ahora

A MESSAGE FROM THE HISTORY CHANNEL