CYNTHIA TURNER’S
Cyn opsis

01/13/05

Good morning. It’s Thursday, January 13, 2005, and this is your first early morning briefing. 

WB is making some changes, beginning on Sunday night.  Steve Harvey’s Big Time will get a title change – Steve Harvey’s Big Time Challenge, and format change, introducing judges and prizes and a competitive edge, as well as a new time period – 9pm (WB has set aside The Mountain).  Also on Sunday, Summerland returns to the schedule with Season #1 repeats airing at 7pm.  Season #2 kicks off on February 28, airing Mondays at 9pm while Everwood takes a midseason break for 7 weeks.  Summerland will then return to the schedule in the summer to air the remaining five episodes of its second season.  And kicking off in March – Life with Fran starring Fran Drescher.

Premiering Tonight:
ESPN:  Tilt at 9p

Casting / Development / Production

• ABC Family has ordered 6 eps of a new unscripted documentary series, Looks of Love (Mess Media Prods).  The action takes place in the Looks of Love Hair Salon in LA. Production begins January 21 and a premiere date is set for June 2005.
• here! TV has ordered a new series titled Third Man Out starring Chad Allen, a detective series based on Richard Stevenson’s novels.  The lead character, a gay detective, focuses on the world of urban corruption and its crime mysteries. Mark Saltzman wrote the series which begins production in Vancouver this month.  Directed by Queer As Folk’s Ron Oliver, Third Man Out is set to debut this summer.
• 20th Television has named Tim Green, former Atlanta Falcons player and an analyst for Fox Sports, to host its new (or returning) strip series, A Current Affair, according to Television Week.  The show makes its return to syndication next fall.

Final wrap ’em up episodes of both NBC‘s Biggest Loser and Fox‘s The Rebel Billionaire aired on Tuesday night.  Suffice to say, Biggest Loser was the biggest winner, and the Billionaire wasn’t. According to Nielsen Media Research final numbers, Biggest Loser drew a 5.9/15 A18-49 for the 90m broadcast, outpacing #2 NCIS on CBS (3.6/10) and George Lopez (3.8/10) and According to Jim (4.3/10) on ABC. The Rebel Billionaire pulled in a softer 1.6/4 for its 2-hour wind up. Committed, NBC’s newest sitcom, drew a 4.4/11 at 930p, and Law & Order SVU popped at 6.5/17.

Don King is none too happy with a SportsCentury biography produced about him on ESPN, and has filed a $2.5 billion lawsuit in Florida against ESPN owners Walt Disney Co., as well as ABC Cable Networks, ESPN and Advocate Communications (the cable MSO carrying the show in southern Florida) for defamation of character.  At a news conference in NYC yesterday, King said the biography portrayed him “a false light and slanted and twisted the truth” and he now plans to fight back.

Last September, Oprah gave away 276 Pontiacs on her season opener, creating a whirlwind of buzz for Oprah as well as Pontiac.  Come February 1st, Live with Regis & Kelly (Buena Vista Television) will try their own version of the car giveaway by awarding at least 1 new 2005 Pontiac Montana SV6 minivan per day for the month of February. All together, the program will be giving away approx $1 million in prizes, including the cars.  (Note: Feb Sweep dates: Feb 3 – March 2.)

Television Critics Association (TCA) Updates:  The TCA is going on now and broadcast and cable networks are making their annual presentations to the press of new series and specials for the upcoming here. 

E!:

• Daily courtroom re-enactments of the Michael Jackson trial are on the schedule, using verbatim courtroom transcripts. The series will also include expert analysis.  Produced by E! News and British Sky Broadcasting (BSkyB).
• Hollywood Poker Night is a weekly 60m series inside celebrity homes for a little friendly game of poker as three stars and three of their best buddies ante-up for an evening of cards, conversation and good company.  Schedule to launch in March 2005.
• Craft Corner Death Match (Idiot Box Prods) launches on march 9 and in the words of E!, it’s a cross between Martha Stewart Living and Iron Chef, with host Jason Jones. the show pits players in the art of homemade crafts, with winners duking it out in the death match.

CARTOON NETWORK:

• Robot Chicken, a stop-motion animation series from Seth Green and Matthew Senreich, will premiere in Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim block on February 20. In this series, legions of action figures are used to spoof everything from Quentin Tarantino’s blood-spattered action epics to The Real World.
• The Boondocks, also animated for Adult Swim, is based on Aaron McGruder’s comic strip fo the same name.  Cartoon has ordered 15 half hour eps.
• American Dad premieres on February 13 in Adult Swim, a new series from Seth McFarlane, one week after it debuts on Fox.

Showtime:

• Barbershop – based on the theatrical film.  10 eps have been ordered; and while casting is not complete, it is not expected any of the actors in the movie or the sequel, will reprise their roles.  Ice Cube is on as exec prod.
• The Cell, starring Oded Fehr and Michael Ealy is a thriller about a Muslim FBI agent working undercover to infiltrate Islamic terrorist cells. 10 eps have been ordered.
• The Brotherhood starring Jason Isaacs and Jason Clarke as brothers – one good, one bad.  The good one works for hte government, the other works in the underground world of organized crime.  12 eps are on order.
• The L Word will return for a third 12 ep season on February 20
• Queer as Folk will finish up this season and that’s it.
• Fat Actress has 6 eps on order, and is set to premiere on March 6.

CNN/Headline News:

• Showbiz Tonight will air at 7pm on Headline News, with hosts AJ Hammer and Karen Bryant. Premieres February 21.
• Nancy Grace will headline her own show on Headline News, evening at 8pm, with the talk centered on legal affairs.  (Grace also continues with her regular series on Court TV, Closing Arguments which airs 3-5p daily.)  Nancy Grace will premiere on February 21.
• The CNN and Headline News initiative is to program the two news channel to compliment each other, rather that compete. When one has hard news, the other will lean toward talk/news or shows such as Showbiz Tonight, and vice versa. 

Outdoor Life Network (OLN) will expand its field sports programming with Big Game Thursdays, an evening dedicated to hunting.  The night will kick off with Hunting 201 at 8pm; following by Buckmasters, World of Beretta and L.L. Bean’s Guide to the Outdoors.

WE: Women’s Entertainment has ordered up a second season of its original drama series, McLeod’s Daughters.  Season #2 kicks off on Saturday, March 19, just a couple weeks after the season #1 finale on March 5.

Greatest American – coming to you from Discovery Channel in partnership with America Online.  Discovery Channel wants to know who you think is the greatest American to ever live.  Nominations can be made starting today on AOL, or at www.AOL.com, keyword Greatest American. With all the nominations in on February 1 (you can nominate up to 5 individuals – dead or alive), Discovery will then tally up the nominees, and present via a series of specials first the Top 100, and then via view votes will present the top group.  Eventually in May, the top vote-getters will be highlighted with biographies of each one’s accomplishments,and through a final voting process, viewers will pick the Greatest American.  This should be very interesting and I encourage you to nominate, vote and participate.

Sean Gallagher has been named VP/Development for TLC, reporting to Roger Marmet, EVP/GM. Sean will coordinate all internal and external program development efforts for TLC.  He will also serve as a member of the network’s senior team, contributing to the strategic direction of the channel. Sean makes the move to TLC from Discovery Channel where he was VP/Program Development.

Alan Blaustein has joined Sucherman Consulting Group as a Senior Consultant.  The announcement was made by Stuart Sucherman, President.  

John Bianchi has joined Goodman Media International, Inc. as a Senior Account Director in the New York office.  The move reunites Tom Goodman, President & CEO and Bianchi, who worked together in the CBS News publicity department in the early 1990s. 

Interpublic Group of Cos.’ Lowe and Partners Worldwide upped its London office CEO Matthew Bull to the corporation top position as CEO.  He replaces Adrian Holmes, who will continue with the company as chairman.  Garry Lace was named to replace Matthew as CEO of the network’s flagship in London.  Garry was previously CEO of Grey Global Group’s Grey London.  Matthew will continue to be based out of London.

As in previous years, this January Cynopsis will provide its NATPE Syndicated Program Guide listing of NEW SERIES only coming to market in preparation for this year’s conference in Las Vegas.  If you have information you’d like listed for a new strip or weekly series, please send it to me at
(with NATPE listing in the subject line), and provide the name of the series, #/eps, distributor name/phone/booth or suite number, terms (cash, cash+, barter split), and frequency.  Because of space, no OTOs, specials, movie packages, quarterly shows or returning series are included in the listing. For Children’s Programming, please send your new series information (please add if its live action/animation and target age group) to Gwen Billings for the Cynopsis Kids NATPE Syndicated Program Guide at
.   The deadline for submissions is January 14; the Syndicated Guides will be sent to all subscribers on Wednesday, January 19, the week before the convention.

Tuesday, January 11, 2005. FINAL Ratings for all Networks – program averages.  Source: Nielsen Media Research.
[p] = Premiere; [r] = Repeat

NBC     9.1/14   Biggest Loser [finale] 8.8/13, Committed 6.7/10, Law & Order: SVU 10.9/17

CBS     8.1/13   NCIS 9.9/15, Amazing Race 6.9/10, Judging Amy 7.5/12

ABC     6.2/10   My Wife & Kids 5.8/9, George Lopez 5.7/9, According to Jim 6.9/10, Rodney 6.0/9, NYPD Blue 6.3/10

FOX     2.5/4    The Rebel Billionaire [finale] 2.5/4

UPN     2.2/3    All of Us 2.2/3, Eve 2.5/4, Veronica Mars 2.0/3

WB      1.7/3    Gilmore Girls [r] 2.1/3, High School Reunion 1.4/2

A18-49  NBC 5.8/15, ABC and CBS 3.6/9, Fox 1.6/4, UPN 1.3/3, WB 1.1/3

The History Channel presents This Day in History:
1974 – The Miami Dolphins win the Super Bowl for the second straight year, defeating the Minnesota Vikings 24-7.

Answer to Yesterday’s Trivia Question: Step into your syndication way-back machine and tell me what series starred Bill Daily as a veterinarian, Dr. James Shepherd? STARTING FROM SCRATCH, a Worldvision product.  Kudos to: Jim Halling-NewsChannel 8/Washington; Steve Woodward-UPN/Atlanta; Jim Byrne-WBDC/Washington; Ben Whitney-BET/NY; Ken Foote-KTVT KTXA/Dallas; Andre Wiggins-ABC/Houston; Tim Olsen-Media First Int’l/Minneapolis; Daniel Williams-Hubbard Bcsting/Minneapolis; Stan Justice-Litton Ent/Hermosa Beach; Jason Rosenberg-MVP Home Ent/LA; Jeri Anderson-Buena Vista Television/Burbank; Andrea Archer-51 Minds Ent/Hollywood; Jon Rutherford-Portfolio Ent/Toronto.

A MESSAGE FROM COURT TV

A letter to Court TV’s Miss X:

Today’s Trivia Question:  Who is Bob the Dummy? (now, let’s take it easy on our Bob friends … this Bob the Dummy is a primetime TV character).  (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 NEW LINE TELEVISION

Later — Cyn
01.13.06 5:26am

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WHAT’S ON TONIGHT:  JANUARY 13, 2005:

ABC              life as we know it, Extreme Makeover, Primetime Live
CBS              Wickedly Perfect, CSI, Without a Trace
FOX              The O.C., North Shore
NBC              Joey, Committed, Will & Grace, Will & Grace, ER
PAX              AFV, AFV, Diagnosis Murder, Diagnosis Murder
UPN              WWE Smackdown
WB               WB Movie: Love and Basketball
TELE             La Mujer en el Espejo, Gitanas, Te Voy a Ensenar a Querer
UNIV             Rubi, Amor Real, Aqui y Ahora