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CYNTHIA TURNER’S
Cynopsis

03/31/05

Good morning.  It’s Thursday, March 31, 2005, and this is your first early morning briefing.

A letter addressed to ABC News’ President David Westin signed by 21 members of Congress and the United Food and Commercial Workers union, urged Westin to drop Wal-Mart as a corporate sponsor of Good Morning America’s current series, Only in America. The letter argued Wal-Mart’s practices and policies (i.e., providing poor benefits to employees, selling manufactured goods from made in China by low paid laborers, and forcing small shops to close for lack of business) was hardly compatible to an Only in America segment, and that “Wal-Mart’s association with the segment might give viewers the impression the company supports American products and workers.”  Westin’s answer was simple and straight forward:  No. He addressed his own letter back to the group which said in part it would be ‘inappropriate that ABC News should be used to act as your intermediary” and suggested they’d be better served by taking their concerns directly to Wal-Mart. 

HBO has renewed Deadwood for a third season, order 12 new eps.  The current season just kicked off on March 6 adn the premiere ep drew 2.8 million viewers.

Tucker Carlson: Unfiltered on PBS didn’t have such luck.  After just one season, the show will end in June. The cancellation has nothing to do with the show’s popularity; rather with Carlson’s move to NYC where he’ll be doing a nightly series on MSNBC.  Unfiltered is produced at WETA in Washington DC.

Gail Berman‘s job at Paramount?  President of Paramount Pictures. Now you can update our Rolodex.  Gail’s responsibilities will take the development skills at Fox and put them in pictures — oversee the development of each year’s films, making acquisitions, budgeting casting and finally producing. She’ll officially be on the lot at Paramount in May.

Mark your calendars – News Corp.’s newest network, Fox Reality Channel, is scheduled to debut on June 1, give or take a week or so.

PAX is moving two of its regular series beginning the week of April 18.  Lie Detector will now be on Tuesdays at 8p; and Young Blades goes to Thursdays at 8p.

Tonight’s Premiere:
Spike TV:  Invasion Iowa at 9p

Think “Up Close and Person” meets PM Magazine, and then you have what NBC network and its affiliates will provide viewers in the half hour prior to primetime Olympic coverage during the 2006 Winter Games from Turino, Italy.  The Olympic Zone will focus on local athletes and sports of interest, and feature local talent.  The show will be produced by the local station, with drop in packages provided by NBC.

Danny Salles and his Semi-Cool Prods have signed a development deal with Fox’s alternative programming group to create new unscripted series and hybrid mix of reality/scripted for Fox TV Studios.  If you’re not familiar with Salles name, you certainly are with some of this shows — My Big Fat Obnoxious Fiance, The Joe Schmo Show

ABC:

• Untitled Holly Hester project (NBC Universal TV/Touchstone TV/Conaco Prods) has signed Eugene Byrd to join Brenda Blethyn as her boss. Blethyn plays a woman who decides to give up her ‘perfect’ life, get a divorce and find a job.
• Untitled Chris Kattan comedy project (20th/3 Arts) adds Leigh-Allyn Baker as Kattan’s assistant in this comedy about a consumer reporter (Kattan) and a fledging cable news network. Also on board are James Patrick Stewart, Tinsley Grimes, Chris Williams and Kate Hodge. 
• Untitled Freddie Prinze Jr. project (Warner Bros. TV/Mohawk), a comedy about a young man who was raised in a house full of women, now living on his own and and successful, and the women come move in with him, has added Jacqueline Obradors to the cast.

CBS:

• Untitled Susie Essman project (20th/Paramount Network TV/Watson Pond) has cast Gregory Harrison as the male lead.  They play a young married couple, she the new step mom to his child, living and getting accustomed to live in suburbia.
• Untitled Yuspa-Goldsmith comedy project (Sony Pictures TV/Paramount Network TV), aka Stroller Wars, has added JoBeth Williams to the company, as Tiffani Theissen’s mother, in a project about a young couple who are dealing with being new parents.
• American Crime (Warner Bros. TV/Jerry Bruckheimer) adds Christian Kane and David Starzyk. The project is about a young prosecutor (Jennifer Finnigan) who is balancing her life as a single mom and law. Also cast is John Carroll Lynch.
• Commuters (Paramount Network TV) has a new commuter – Jason Wiles, who joins Jeri Ryan, David Arquette, Johnathan Schaech and Christine Taylor.

FOX:

• Queen B (20th/Imagine TV) has added two more to the cast – Jennifer Carpenter and Lauren Hodges. The cast is led by Alicia Silverstone as a self-centered woman whose manipulative powers don’t work as well now as they did in high school.  Carpenter is a high school best friend; Hodges her acerbic assistant.

NBC:

• Early Bird (NBC Universal TV/3 Arts Ent) has added Robert Culp as one of the retirees in the retirement community where the lead character, a young writers (Timm Sharp), decides to hang out after being fired from his job.

WB:

• The Evolution of Man (Warner Bros. TV/Jerry Bruckheimer Films) has added Marla Sokoloff. The cast already includes George Wendt, Eric Lively, Max Greenfield and Josh Braaten in a comedy about three life long friends who hire a life coach.
• The Prince (Warner Bros. TV/Berlanti-Liddell/Ft. Hill Prods) has added newcomer Dan Hunter. The drama is about a wealthy NY family and the relationship between father (Tim Matheson) and son (Chris Egan) after the death of the eldest son. Also cast are Mariel Hemingway, Amber Heard and Noel Fisher.

G4 will launch a new block called The Whip Set on April 10 at 10p, designed to give viewers a legit, inside line on the fastest cars, the hottest drivers and the culture behind motor sports today.  The block includes two new series – Formula D and Street Fury.  Formula D is described as providing a trackside seat to this tire screeching sport.  Street Fury (TokyoPop produced) celebrates the import car racing lifestyle with shows, rides, women and clubs.  Street Fury is hosted by Carlton “Big C” Lewis.

CMT will launch a new reality series called Popularity Contest on April 11 at 1030p, immediately following the CMT 2005 Music Awards. That Friday it moves into its regular time period at 8p.  Here’s how it works – you get yourself 10 big city folk, put them in a small, small, we’re talking small, town.  Their job is to try to endear themselves to the townfolk, about whose lives they know nothing, and at the end of the process, and by virtue of regular eliminations, the one who gets voted most popular by the town population, wins a hundred grand.  Twists?  Sure, it’s got twists.  The show is hosted by Jonathan Torrens.

Joe Kissack has been named Partner/EVP of Sales and Distribution for Marsh Cove Productions, a multimedia company based in Atlanta. Last week, Marsh Cove acquired August House Publishers, Inc.,  publisher of children’s books and folktale anthologies. Both companies will operate under the August House name going forward.

Jodi Falkenthal has been upped to VP/Advertising Sales, Southeast Region for Hallmark Channel and Hallmark Movie Channel.  The announcement was made by Ed Georger, SVP/Eastern Region, Hallmark Channel and Hallmark Movie Channel, to whom she reports.  Jodi will be based in Atlanta and will present strategic advertising solutions and be responsible for the sale of national advertising time, as well as negotiating upfront and scatter deals with advertising agencies. 

Jim Bennett has been promoted to VP/Technical Operations, for Hallmark Channel and Hallmark Movie Channel, reporting to Brian Stewart, SVP/Finance and Chief Financial Officer. Jim will be based in the LA office and oversees the technical operations department where he is responsible for all of the channels’ technical facilities, playback, log production, signal integration, MSO-head-end system data and authorization management.  Additionally, he plays a key role in deploying and maintaining the channels’ high definition and Video-On-Demand products.

Sue Johnson has been named VP/Talent Development and East Coast Programming for ABC Daytime.  Sue is the network programming executive and creative liaison for the ABC Daytime dramas, All My Children and One Life to Live. In addition she is responsible for the writer and production development programs for all three ABC Daytime dramas.

Tuesday – A18-49 Analysis:  As you might expect, Fox won the night on Tuesday thanks to its winning combo of American Idol and House delivering an overall 9.1/23 A18-49, according to final ratings data from Nielsen Media Research.  CBS put on a good show with an overall 4.8/12 A18-49, followed by NBC 3.2/8, ABC 2.9/7, WB 1.1/3; UPN .9/2.  At 8p American Idol pulled a 11.0/29; CBS was #2 with NCIS’ 3.4/9. At 9p House on Fox scored a 7.2/17, even share with last week. CBS’ two hour Amazing Race provided the net with a 5.5/14.  As for the newbie, The Office at 930p on NBC, its lead-in was a new ep of Scrubs (not the strongest in the artillery shed) with a 3.0/7, and The Office slipped with a 2.7/6.  Law & Order SVU at 10p delivered a 5.5/14, handily beating ABC’s Blind Justice which softened considerably from last week (2.6/7 vs. last week’s 3.6/10).

FINAL HOUSEHOLD RATINGS:  Tuesday, March 29, 2005, for all Networks – time period averages.  Source: Nielsen Media Research. 

FOX     13.4/20  American Idol 15.5/24, House 11.3/17

CBS     8.3/13   NCIS 9.1/14, Amazing Race (2-hr ep) 7.9/12

NBC     5.7/9    Will & Grace [r] 2.9/5, Scrubs [r] 2.7/4, Scrubs 4.4/7, The Office 4.1/6, Law & Order: SVU 10.2/16

ABC     5.2/8    My Wife & Kids 4.5/7, George Lopez 4.3/7, According to Jim 6.1/9, Rodney 5.4/8, Blind Justice 5.4/9

WB      1.83     Gilmore Girls [r] 2.1/3, The Starlet 1.5/2

UPN     1.7/3    All of Us 1.8/3, Eve 1.9/3, Veronica Mars 1.6/2

A18-49                Fox 9.1/23, CBS 4.8/12, NBC 3.2/8, ABC 2.9/7, WB 1.1/3; UPN .9/2

The History Channel presents This Day in History:
1959 – The Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of Tibet, completes a fifteen-day journey over the Himalayan mountains into India, fleeing violence and repression in Chinese-controlled Tibetan capital Lhasa. In 1989 he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his long non-violent struggle for a free Tibet.

Answer to Yesterday’s Trivia Question: The slogan of this on-TV network is “The Network that Means Business”.  Which network is this?  NETWORKS 23 on Max Headroom where they used subliminal messages causing inactive viewers to explode.  No couch potatoes there!  Kudos to:  Gloria Price-CBS News/NY; Jim Halling-NewsChannel 8/Washington DC; Meredith Kawer-Media First Int’l/NY; Crystal Healey-Zenith Media Services/NY.

A CYNOPSIS MESSAGE FROM COURT TV

Today’s Trivia Question:  The local newspaper, known in part as the Courier Press, had a motto which read You Do It, We’ll Print It.  What show were you watching if you read this paper?  (click here with your answer and be sure to include your name, company, city and time zone. 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.)

Later — Cyn
03.31.05

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WHAT’S ON TONIGHT:  MARCH 31, 2005:

ABC              Jake in Progress, Jake in Progress, Extreme Makeover, Primetime Live
CBS              Survivor, CSI, Without a Trace
FOX              Tru Calling, Tru Calling
NBC              Joey, Will & Grace, The Apprentice, ER
PAX              Purina Incredible Dog Challenge, Incredible Dog Challenge, Diagnosis Murder
UPN              WWE Smackdown
WB               Blue Collar TV, Blue Collar TV [r], The Starlet [r]
TELE             La Mujer en el Espejo, Gitanas, La Ley del Silencio
UNIV             Apuesta por un Amor, La Madrastra, Aqui y Ahora