CYNTHIA TURNER’S
CYNOPSIS

09/02/04

Good morning. It’s Thursday, September 2, 2004, and this is your first early morning briefing.

Difficult to remember what round this is, but yet another lawsuit has entered the ring, filed against Fox‘s The Next Great Champ (though Fox Network is not named as a defendant). This one comes from independent producer Leigh Ann Burton who says the idea was hers to begin with, and Fox stole it. The suit alleges breach of contract, breach of confidence and unfair competition, filed in the Los Angeles Superior Court who is now undoubtedly quite familiar with the show.  Burton has not named Fox as a defendant, but rather has gone after Oscar de la Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions and Richard Schaefer, Golden Boy’s CEO.  Burton says she came up with the idea and registered it with the WGA in September 2003 before pitching it to GRB Entertainment. She alleges a production deal was negotiated with GRB, and the working title of the show was The House of Pain. Then Burton and GRB approached Golden Boy Promotions in October 2003, where the full concept was laid out. A production deal was negotiated and finalized in November 2003, but come January the deal seems to have stalled out.  Burton says she learned later in March 2004 that Golden Boy had signed a deal for Endemol to produce the show with Fox.  Attorneys for the defendants have said Burton’s accounts are “simply not true” and her claims are “without merit.”

Season Finale: 
WB:  Studio 7 at 9pm

A highly competitive night on Tuesday with Fox in front by a single share point over a tied NBC and CBS.  Fox averaged a 3.0/9 A18-49, while NBC and CBS tied at 3.0/8, according to Nielsen Media Research.  At 8pm CBS was in front by a share point with Big Brother’s 2.9/9; following tightly was NBC Last Comic Standing (2.6/8) and Fox’s first hour of Trading Spouses (2.5/8). At 9pm, NBC led with its premiere of Father of the Pride which delivered a 4.0/11 A18-49, doing a couple of tenths better among the female demos. CBS was close in NBC’s heels with Amazing Race (3.9/10), and Fox averaged a 3.5/9 for the second hour of Trading Spouses. Among the broadcast networks at 10p, both NBC and CBS averaged a 6 share in the demo, while ABC had a 4 share.

In the race for news viewers on cable Tuesday night, it was Fox News that averaged the most viewers for the Republican National Convention with 4.12 million, MSNBC was ranked #2 with 1.26 million, ahead of CNN’s 1.18 million, according to Nielsen Media Research. At 10pm the broadcasters (ABC, CBS, NBC and PBS) chimed in. NBC drew 5.1 million, behind Fox News for the hour (5.2m), CBS had 4.4 million, and ABC 4.3 million. During that hour MSNBC had 1.26 million, again beating CNN’s 1.18 million.  PBS aired wall to wall coverage in primetime and delivered 1.9 million viewers.

According to N’Power Source and Destination data from Nielsen Media Research, TV Guide Channel was able to drive 34.9 million households to the NBC Networks for Olympic programming during the 16 days of the games.  NBC had partnered with TV Guide Channel to help viewers find all the channels, times, and coverage of all of NBC 1200+ hours of Olympic broadcasting.

Ken Solomon is leaving Fine Living.  Awwwww rats!  Kenny’s plans at the moment are fluid, though he’s looking at various new entrepreneurial opportunities. Ooooooh, yeah! He joined Scripps Networks in February 2001 to create what is now the Fine Living Network. The network launched on St. Patrick’s Day, March 17, 2002, and is today available in more than 23 million homes.   John MacDonald, SVP/Business Operations and Acquisitions, will take over as Acting GM.  Go get ’em John!

If you’re interested in seeing the WB‘s pilot episode of The Mountain before it actually premieres on the air, you can visit any of the Tribune-owned WB affiliate websites where the pilot will be made available between September 13-20, days before the premiere on 9/22.

A&E premiered its newest show Dog the Bounty Hunter, a reality series about husband/wife bounty hunters, on Tuesday, August 31 at 10p, and delivered 3.2 million viewers, with 1.8 million in the coveted A18-49 demo. Among the slightly older 25-54 crowd, Dog hunted down 1.9 million viewers. 

As part of ESPN’s 25th anniversary, ESPN Books has released ESPN25-25 Mind-Bending, Eye-Popping, Culture-Morphing Years of Highlights.  Written by journalist Charles Hirshberg, with a forward by ESPN’s Chris Berman, the book takes a look at the best and worst moment in sports, greatest lines from sports movies, most stylish athletes as well as a poster and a DVD collection of ESPN’s SportsCenter commercials. ESPN is 80% owned by ABC, Inc., which is an indirect subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company. The Hearst Corporation holds a 20% interest in ESPN.

TV Guide magazine has named Ian Birch as its new Editor-in-Chief.  Birch, who will report to John Loughlin, President/TV Guide Publishing Group, officially takes his new post on October 18.  Birch most recently served as Editorial Director/Elan, the lifestyle division of EMAP, the UK media company that owns 100+ consumer magazines in the UK, US, and France and other countries.

here! TV made several key appointments and opened a New York office centering on operation, finances and affiliate relations.  Andrew Tow was named as President/COO of here! Networks, here! TV’s parent corporation.  He is currently an investment partner in here! Networks, LLC and was most recently the founder and head of Global Media Holdings, LLC, (GMH).  Andrew Vecchione was named as VP/Finance for the network. He was previously with Global Japan as VP/Finance.  Eric Feldman was named as VP/Programming and Operations.  He was recently with Rainbow Media’s Fuse Network as an On-Air Programming Planning Strategist.  Andrew, Andrew and Eric will be based in here! TV’s new Manhattan office.

Charissa Gilmore has been named VP/Media Relations for Touchstone Television, reporting to Kevin Brockman, SVP/ABC Entertainment Communications. Charissa will be responsible for the day-to-day media/talent relations and special advertising for the studio.

Tuesday, August 31, 2004. Fast National Household 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

ABC     4.1/7   Extreme Makeover Home Edition [r]4.9/8, According to Jim [r] 4.5/8, Republican National Convention 2.9/5

CBS     5.0/8   Big Brother 5.2/9, Amazing Race 5.9/9, Republican National Convention 3.9/6

NBC     4.8/8   Last Comic Standing 4.5/8, Father of the Pride [p] 6.0/9, Republican National Convention 3.8/6

FOX     4.3/7   Trading Spouses 3.9/7, Trading Spouses 4.8/8

WB      1.5/2   Gilmore Girls 1.6/3, One Tree Hill 1.4/2

UPN     1.3/2   All of Us 1.4/3, Eve 1.5/3, The Player 1.4/2

A18-49  Fox 3.0/9, NBC and CBS 3.0/8, ABC 2.0/6, WB and UPN 0.8/2

A MESSAGE FROM WARNER BROS. DOMESTIC CABLE DISTRIBUTION

Source: NTI Explorer, Week ranks= 9/22/03-8/29/04, excludes specials.  Rank based on HH Rating.

The History Channel presents This Day in History:
1666:  The Great Fire of London begins in the house and shop of Thomas Farynor, baker to King Charles II.  Five days later, Shakespeare’s London was in ashes.  Although the physical destruction was vast, including 87 churches (among them St. Paul’s Cathedral) and 13,200 houses, only 6 people are known to have been killed by the fire.

Answer to Monday Trivia Question: In the first season of The Mod Squad, you remember them – “one black, one white, one blonde” –  the crew drove a1950 Mercury station wagon, which sadly went off a cliff during the second season.  What as the nickname of this heap?  WOODY.  Kudos to: Mark Berger-MediaMax Network/Valhalla NY; Christina Owen-Millenia 3 Communications/Atlanta; Katie Hite-WRLH/Richmond; Michael Steinberg-Continental TV Sales/NY; Ricki Kohn-rk media solutions/Mill Valley CA; Mitch Tucker-BBC Worldwide Americas/Burbank; Manny Caraballo-ABC National Sales/Burbank;  John Mazur-XETV, XUPN/LA.

Today’s Trivia Question:  Multiple choice:  During his college years, Dick Van Dyke studied the a) dentistry; b) ministry; c) criminal psychology; or d) pre-med? (click
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.)

A MESSAGE FROM COURT TV

Later — Cyn

Cynthia Turner’s Cynopsis
09/02/04  5:20am
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WHAT’S ON TONIGHT: SEPTEMBER 2, 2004:

ABC             Extreme Makeover, Extreme Makeover, Republican National Convention
CBS             Big Brother, CSI, Republican National Convention
FOX             Movie:  Big Momma’s House
NBC             Will & Grace, Will & Grace, Father of the Pride, Republican National Convention
PAX             On the Cover, Balderdash, Early Edition, Diagnosis Murder
UPN             WWE Smackdown
WB              Blue Collar TV, Reba, Studio 7 [finale]
TELE            Prisonera, Gitanas, Zapata
UNIV            Mariana de la Noche, Amarte es mi Pecado, Le Gran Noche de los Republicanos