Thursday, January 22nd, 2004


Cynopsis

Cynopsis
Article_Text

CYNTHIA TURNER’S
CYNOPSIS


01/22/04

Good morning. It’s Thursday, January 22, 2004, and this is your first early morning briefing. 

Fox‘s American Idol held court again on Tuesday night, winning the night for the network despite the viewership levels falling off when the President came on with his State of the Union Address.  During primetime last evening Fox delivered a 8.2/21 A18-49 demo rating according to fast affiliate ratings from Nielsen Media Research.  NBC was second for the night with a 2.5/7, followed by ABC and CBS tied at 2.2/6, WB 1.8/5, UPN 1.6/4.  At 8pm American Idol dominated the set with a 11.9/31 demo rating.  The closest competition came from both ABC and CBS, each tied with a 6 share for the hour; NBC and WB tied with a 5 share, UPN a 3 share.  At 9pm for the President’s State of the Union, Fox was still in front with a 4.5/11, followed by NBC’s 8 share, CBS and ABC tied at 6.  UPN’s Top Model (preempted in some markets for local coverage of the President) earned a 5 share, WB a 4.  The 10p hour was home to both the Democratic Response and news analysis, led by NBC with a 2.5/7, with CBS 2.0/5 and ABC 1.5/4 trailing.

CBS has announced the premiere dates of two midseason offerings – Century City, a futuristic legal drama (Heel and Toe Films/Universal Network Television) stars Hector Elizondo, Nestor Carbonell and Viola Davis, kicks off on March 16 at 9pm.  (The Guardian will get a break, returning to the schedule on April 27.)  And starting on March 17, a new comedy called The Stones (Komut Ent/Warner Bros. Television) stars Judith Light and Robert Klein.

NATPE Wrap Up Stats:

  • NBC Enterprises‘s Starting Over has been renewed in more than 55% of the country, with most recent renewals coming from WXIX/Cincinnati, WTLV/Jacksonville and KMBC/Kansas City.
  • Sony has yet to announce any clearances for its two new offerings: Pat Croce: Moving In and Life & Style, nor official news of Pyramid’s future.
  • Still a question mark is the future of The Sharon Osbourne Show, and with Telepictures looking at both Steve Harvey and Larry Elder for daytime, Sharon could be the one without a chair when the music stops.
  • Universal has cleared Home Delivery in 27 of the top 30 markets, and before the conference cleared the Tribune station group. The unmentioned child in this booth is Universal’s untitled strip series from exec prod J-Lo.

Boston Public will halt production after 15 episodes this season, fulfilling the original order by Fox. While no official word as to its future has been given, the show will go off the air on March 12 as it makes way for midseason drama series Wonderfalls. 

Food Network will launch a new series in March in conjunction with Parade Magazine called What America Eats with Parade, premiering on March 7 and 9p. Hosted by Stephanie March, the limited series will air nightly at 9p,and will take an up close and personal look at how and what Americans eat.

Oxygen is gearing up for a new original sitcom from Carsey-Werner-Mandabach, co-founders of Oxygen, and the first CWM will produce especially for cable.  The sitcom, as yet untitled, is scheduled to make its debut in April and focuses around two 20-something women who head to LA with hopes of living the Hollywood lifestyle, with a decidedly back-home budget. It stars Joy Gohring and Bree Turner, and was created by Claudia Lonow.

Outdoor Life Network has signed Picabo Street to host a new primetime series Picabo’s SnowZone, airing Thursdays at 9p beginning tonight and airing thru March 25th. The show will focus on the latest and greatest action in outdoor winter sports.

Top Ten Basic Cable Ad Supported Network Rankings among Total Viewers for the week of January 12-18, 2004:
Primetime        (000)     Total Day            (000)
USA                   2438      NICK/NAN            1797
TNT                   2381      TNT                      1278
NICK/NAN         2207      USA                      1227
TBS                  2118       LIFETIME             1150
LIFETIME          1978      CARTOON           1116
CARTOON       1624       TBS                      1087
DISCOVERY    1406       FOXNEWS             796
SCIFI                 1307       TLC                         696
TLC             1299    MTV                        680
FOXNEWS        1280      HISTORY                674
AMC                   1320      TLC                         683
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 January 12-18, 2004:
Primetime        (000)     Total Day           (000)
TBS                   1186      TBS                     663
USA                   1069      TNT                     604
TNT                   1005      USA                     578
LIFETIME            835      LIFETIME             536
DISCOVERY      801      NICK/NAN             524
MTV                     766      MTV                      406
TLC                     744     TLC                       395
FX                        575      DISCOVERY       368
SPIKE                  570      ESPN                   360
SCIFI                    561     COMEDY              541
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 January 12-18, 2004 in Total Viewers
Total Day
Total Fox News/CNN/MSNBC/Headline Cable News Viewers  1.661 (000) Total Viewers. (-2% vs. previous week). Of the cable news viewership, Fox News had 48% of the viewing, CNN 25%, MSNBC 15%; and Headline News 12%
Primetime Total Fox News/CNN/MSNBC/Headline Cable News Viewers  2.579 (000) Total Viewers (-4% vs. previous week). Of the primetime cable news viewership, Fox News had 50%, CNN 30%, MSNBC 13% and Headline News 8%.
Source Nielsen Media Research

Among all shows available on cable for the week of January 12, the season premiere of MONK on USA led in total viewers with 5.95 million viewers (2.5 million A18-49).  Others in the top ten among total viewers was WWE on Spike  (4.3m), SpongeBob SquarePants on Nick (4.2m), Gracie’s Choice on Lifetime delivered 4.2m, Fairly Odd Parents on Nick (4.1m), Real World on MTV with 4.06m.  Elsewhere, TNT packaged five airings of its remake of Neil Simon’s The Goodbye Girl, and the premiere on Friday night drew 3.5m viewers, and the five airings over the course of three days drew a total of 12.6m.

Among the A18-49 that struck a cord for the week of January 12 was MTV’s Real World with 2.8 million Adults 18-49, Discovery’s American Chopper with 2.5 million A18-49, an episode of Seinfeld on TBS drew 1.6m, an episode of Law & Order SVU on USA with 1.6m, and the Sunday night airing of The Goodbye Girl on TNT delivered 1.5m while a total of five airings of TNT’s movie drew a collective 5.5 million.

Development & Casting Notes:

  • Fox has ordered a pilot for its Kathryn Bigelow High School Undercover Drama (Imagine, 20th) about a female cop working undercover in a high school.  A romantic comedy project called Lucky Us (Original TV, 20th) has received a pilot order; as did The Big Island set in a Hawaiian hotel from 20th.  Fox’s pilot called Related by Family has cast Amy Yasbeck as the mom, Matthew Glave as Dad, according to Hollywood Reporter.
  • ABC has ordered a pilot + 6 scripts for a drama project from JJ Abrams (Alias) called Lost (Touchstone TV), about the survivors of a plane crash on a desert island. A pilot has been ordered for a drama project called Kat Plus One (Berlanti-Liddell Prods/Warner Bros. TV) about a single NY publicist who suddenly finds herself responsible for her 6-year old nephew. And if that’s not enough, ABC has ordered a drama called Harry Green and Eugene (Paramount Network TV) about a private investigator and his much less brilliant brother who comes to stay. Also Variety reports ABC has ordered up extra episodes of Robin Leach’s Life of Luxury (Andy Friendly Prods), set to air this spring. And ABC’s drama series The D.A. welcomes Felicity Huffman to the cast, joining Steven Weber. 
  • USA network has ordered a pilot based on the original tale of Frankenstein, penned by horror novelist Dean Koontz who will also get a exec producer credit.   Also on board as exec prod is Martin Scorsese, his first for scripted television. The pilot goes into production later on this spring, and could see a time slot on USA as early as 4th qtr 2004.  Should it go to series, likelihood is it will be a 6-ep limited series.  This tale of Frankenstein picks up a couple hundred years after the monster was originally created, only now the monster is the good guy, and the good doctor is the bad guy.
  •  NBC also has a project about survivors on a desert island – this time the setup is a cruise ship run afoul by a storm. This project is from Mark Burnett Prods. NBC has ordered a cast-contingent pilot for a medical drama mystery which thus far has no title.  From Landscape Entertainment/NBC Studios, the show is by described by BaselineFT.com as a gifted man gets to the center of medical marvels.
  • UPN has placed three orders: a pilot for a drama project called Beck and Call about three 20-something secretaries living in NYC (Is or Isn’t It Ent, Shephard/Robin Co, Warner Bros. TV); a detective series called Nikki and Nora about a couple of women investigators that reportedly also has a lesbian angle to it, from exec prods Leonard Dick and Nancylee Myatt; and a crime series called Veronica Mars about a teenage girl who helps out dad with his investigations (Silver Pictures Television, Paramount Network TV), according to Hollywood Reporter.

With a carriage deal in place with Insight Communications, Bravo HD+ is now available in a total of 1.4 million homes. The ten Insight Comm markets cover a large section of the midwest including cities in Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois and Ohio.  Along with Insight are carriage deals with Cox in Ohio, GCI Cable in Anchorage, Mediacom in Des Moines, Patriot Media in Somerset, Blue Ridge Comm and Service Electric in Pennsylvania.

Hallmark Channel will add several homes to its carriage base with new Comcast deals secured in Savannah and Little Rock. The two markets add 176,000 new analog cable subscribers to Hallmark’s base, for a total of newly one million new Comcast subscribers since last October. Add to the Comcast deals, additional deals with Cox in Oklahoma, Rhode Island and Connecticut, for a total of 940,000 new cable subs. All together, Hallmark has 56 million subscribers

Liberty Media has increased its stake in News Corp. that gives Liberty a 9.1% voting stock in Rupert’s company, having sold some of its own non-voting stock, of which Liberty had about 18% according to the Wall Street Journal.   Counting both voting and non-voting stock, Liberty now owns approx 17%; Rupert’s family has 30% of the voting stock.

Mark Gray has resigned from his position as Controller of Programme Development, Carlton International, effective next month.  Mark Gray said: “I have really enjoyed working at Carlton International and am very proud to have been part of a team which established the company as one of Europe’s leading distributors.  With the forthcoming Carlton/Granada merger, I now feel it is time for new challenges.  I wish Granada International all the best in the future.”

World Picks, provider of in-language, international on-demand programming services and international programming networks, has named Kate Carr as VP/Marketing.  Kate will oversee marketing outreach and brand development strategies for World Picks On Demand and World Picks Networks and will report to Cynthia Burnell, SVP/GM of World Picks.  World Picks is owned and operated by Rainbow Media Holdings LLC.

Greg Pittman has been named General Sales Manager for WAZE/Evansville, reporting to Lyle Schulze, General Manager.  Greg makes the move from KXRM/KXTU in Colorado Springs where he was GSM/NSM. 

Mark Marshall has been upped to VP/Turner Sports Sales’ Western Region.  The announcement was made by Trish Frohman, SVP/Turner Sports Sales.  Mark is responsible for overseeing advertising sales, including TV and online sales, for all of Turner Broadcasting System, Inc.’s sports properties. He is based in Los Angeles.  Turner Sports properties include the NBA, NASCAR, Atlanta Braves Baseball, College Football, Wimbledon and PGA golf.

Betsy Swanson has been upped to EVP/CFO of Fox Television Stations, Inc. The announcement was made by Lachlan Murdoch, News Corporation’s Deputy COO. Betsy will continue to be responsible for all financial areas relating to the stations, corporate home office and for the Fox O&Os’ Regional Sports Networks.

Steve Davidson rejoins HBO as EVP/Affiliate Sales on February 2 after leaving the net in 2002 to co-found Sports Media Group LLC.  At HBO Steve will oversee affiliate sales for HBO and Cinemax.
 
Tuesday, January 20, 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     10.8/16 American Idol 15.5/23, State of the Union Address 6.1/9


CBS     5.9/9   Navy NCIS [r] 7.1/11, State of the Union Address 5.9/9, Democratic Response/Analysis 4.7/8


NBC     5.0/8   The Tracy Morgan Show 4.1/6, Whoopi [r] 4.0/6, State of the Union Address 5.9/9, Democratic Response/Analysis 5.2/9


ABC     4.6/7   According to Jim [r] 5.0/8, According to Jim [r] 4.7/7, State of the Union Address 5.2/8, Democratic Response/Analysis 3.76


UPN     2.5/4   One on One [r] 1.73, All of Us [r] 1.9/3, Top Model 3.2/5


WB      3.3/6   Gilmore Girls 3.5/5, One Tree Hill 3.1/5


A18-49  Fox 8.2/21, NBC 2.5/7, ABC and CBS 2.2/6, WB 1.8/5, UPN 1.6/4



A MESSAGE FROM WARNER BROS. DOMESTIC CABLE DISTRIBUTION



MOVIES WORK ON CABLE!
Warner Bros. Features Score Top Ranks

MISERY
#1 Movie on Oxygen (#1 Program)!

BLUE COLLAR COMEDY TOUR
#1 Movie on Comedy Central (#2 Program)!

PURE COUNTRY
#1 Movie on CMT (#1 Program)!

For movies that perform
Warner Bros. Domestic Cable Distribution

Source:  NHTI, 1/12-18/04.  Based on HH Cov Rtg.  Pure Country tied w/Driven (Tue 7p, 10p) & Toby Keith Uncut (Tue 9p).  Misery tied w/Where the Heart Is (Mon, 8p) & Bliss (Sun,12a).  Blue Collar Comedy tied w/South Park, (Wed, 9:30p).


The History Channel presents This Day in History: 
1938 – “Our Town,” by Thornton Wilder, was performed publicly for the first time, in Princeton, NJ

Answer to yesterday’s Trivia Question:   Who worked at the New York Chronicle? MARTIN LANE, Patty’s father on The Patty Duke Show. Kudos to:  Andrew Janis-iProspect/Boston; Marc Wollis-The Golf Channel/Orlando; James Sias-Alan Taylor Comm/NY; John Baldino-WNEP/Moosic PA; Tiffany Clark-KHOU/Houston; Bernice Moshini/Sherman Oaks; Cary Miller-Creative Television Mktg/Burbank; Sam Linsky-TNT/Burbank; Coleen Raymann-DirecTV/El Segundo.

Today’s Trivia Question:  This administrative assistant had a penchant for bird watching.  Who was she?  (
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
01/22/04  5:32am
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WHAT’S ON TONIGHT:  THURSDAY, JANUARY 22, 2004


Online Investigation:

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COURT TV:       Hollywood Justice, Hollywood at Large, Forensic Files, Body of Evidence, The Investigators
ABC             Threat Matrix, Extreme Makeover, Primetime Thursday
CBS             Without a Trace [r], CSI [r], Without a Trace [r]
FOX             Tru Calling, My Big Fat Obnoxious Fiance [r]
NBC             Friends [r], Friends [r], Will & Grace, Scrubs, ER [r]
PAX             AFV, Early Edition, Diagnosis Murder
UPN             WWE Smackdown
WB              Steve Harvey, All About the Andersons, Surreal Life [r]
TELE            Amor Descardo, El Alma Herida, Laura: Casos Resueltos
UNIV            Velo de Novia, Te Amaré en Silencio, Aquí y Ahora

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