Tuesday, April 27th, 2004


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Cynopsis
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CYNTHIA TURNER’S
CYNOPSIS


04/27/04

Good morning. It’s Tuesday, April 27, 2004, and this is your first early morning briefing.

What will $2 million get you these days? About 30 seconds … on the final episode of Friends. And ponying up to the ad bar are Anheuser-Busch, Gatorade, GM, Chevy, GE, Universal Studios, Walt Disney Co., Allstate Corp., and Hewlett Packard, according to the Wall Street Journal.  Within estimated 50 million viewers tuning in for the big May 6 event (still smaller numbers than the finale of MASH which had more than double that number), the price tag is approx a 14% increase from NBC’s final ep of Seinfeld in 1998.  Then a single 30 would cost you approx $1.72 million, and the show enjoyed a little more than 76 million viewers.   And if you’d like to join in the fun and say goodbye to Frasier on NBC (May 13), that will cost you the bargain rate of $800,000.  Here’s the schedule for May 6:  At 8p NBC has scheduled a 60m Friends clip show; 9pm a 60m original episode.  The Friends will also appear later on that evening on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno which will have been taped at Central Perk, the Friends favorite coffee joint.

If you can’t get Paris Hilton – is her mom available?  Apparently.  And NBC‘s got her. The Good Life (Endemol) has received an 8 ep order and is looking at a potential September launch.  With host Kathy Hilton, the show will bring together ten young women from around the country who have exhibited an ability to ‘be someone.’  Through the process of the show, Hilton will expose each of the women to their career field of choice where they will have an opportunity to showcase their talents, all the while showing them just what The Good Life really means. During the process they will stay at NY’s Waldorf Astoria (a Hilton owned hotel since 1949).  At the end, as the contestants are slowly eliminated, one will win a job in her field of choice, a one year stay at the Waldorf and a vehicle.

WB has signed up for a second year of One Tree Hill, giving the freshman series a full 22-ep order.  Other WB shows on the return list for next season are 7th Heaven, Everwood, Charmed, Smallville and Gilmore Girls.  Thus far, no other freshman series have been given the nod.

UPN‘s biggest hit, safely you could probably say its biggest hit in the network’s history, America’s Next Top Model, has now been sold in more than 40 different territories/countries including Latin America, points in Asia, and throughout Europe, and the format rights have been sold in many others, including Russia.  According to the Hollywood Reporter, the Russian version launched a month ago and is already reporting strong health with an average 13 share on Saturday and Sunday afternoons.

Reality TV, the network from Zone Vision that launched on the Dish Network last December, has announced five new first run series coming to the schedule, between now and June:

  • Taking it Off follows six people in their efforts to lose weight from Take Off Productions in Canada).
  • Dream Factory (Beyond Int’l, Australia) follows a group of young people who have given up everything in their individual quests to become big time Hollywood stars. 
  • Lad’s Army is a situational reality series from England where 30 young men (18-24) are put through the rigorous armed forces training as it was devised 50 years ago, considered to be England’s toughest training regimen. 
  • Girl Cops (Granada International) also comes from England, and is a five part series following the lives of policewomen in some of the world’s toughest neighborhoods – Miami included.
  • And an acquired series, Hospital, from New Zealand is a 12 part series inside the walls, wards, operating rooms of a major hospital.  This series is New Zealand’s most popular reality series to date.

Cable network Trio this summer will launch OutZone, a special programming block for and about gay people.  Outzone kicks off on Friday May 28 at 9pmand will include two premieres: Dame Edna Live at the Palace (US premiere) and Rufus Wainwright Live at the Fillmore (world premiere).  The block will become permanent fixture on the schedule as of September 18 and will include music specials, films, series (including Brideshead Revisited, Dame Edna and Kath & Kim) as well as documentaries.  On July 4, Trio will premiere an original documentary called The N-Word, produced by filmmakers Helene Echegoyen and Todd Williams.  The program examines the origin of the N-word, its evolution, social significance, uses in comedy and hip-hop and its transformation into a common word in today’s youth culture.  Interview subjects include: Chris Rock, Ice Cube, Whoopi Goldberg, Damon Dash, Russell Simmons, George Carlin, Samuel L. Jackson, Regina King, and George C. Wolfe.
 
It’s not product placement, it’s not just a commercial, but a kind of hybrid. On May 12, Fox will air a 10m movie trailer from 8:44-8:54pm of the 20th Century Fox film The Day After Tomorrow.  The air time surrounding the trailer will be filled first from 830-844p with bloopers from That 70’s Show, and from 854-10p with an extended version of American Idol which will ensure tune in.  Over on ABC, beginning last night with The Sixth Sense, and continuing next Monday with Unbreakable, the evening will be hosted by producer M. Night Shyamalan, who will also be promoting his next film The Village (a Touchstone film).

GSN (formerly known as Game Show Network) has picked up the cable syndication rights to the game show strip series Street Smarts (Warner Bros. Domestic Cable distribution) which comes with four full seasons and 640 episodes.  Street Smarts is still being produced.  GSN will air the show weeknights at 11pm beginning this summer, according to Hollywood Reporter.

Five Viacom networks, MTV, MTV2, VH1, VH1 Classic, and BET will air a half hour Prince special, including an interview and performances with the singer/songwriter/musician, in a road block event, tomorrow April 28, 9p.  And since the artist himself has gone by several different names and, well, er, symbols, so shall it be that the special will have more than one title depending on the network a given viewer is watching.  On MTV, MTV2, VH1 and VH1 Classic the special will be known as Prince: The Art of Musicology, while over on BET, the title of the special is, Music and Words by Price.  In any case the special was taped in front of a live studio audience; and includes Prince performing songs from his new album Musicology, released last week.

Have you ever thought about what different women age groups prefer when it comes to their TV humor intake?  Well, Oxygen Network did.  Their Fall 2003 commissioned research study showed that younger women’s (18-49) humor preferences tended to be more similar to men than older women.  Over 50% liked their sarcasm and were not adverse to body shape/size jokes.  Only 29% of older women liked that kind of body humor.  The 18-49 year old women found that funny commercials within sitcoms were 55% more likely to be effective while those within science fiction shows received only 4%.  Don’t try to place your ad in between documentaries.  Fifty percent agreed that would be inappropriate.  Here’s a predictable number…19% of the younger women liked humorous stories or jokes making fun of men.  Approximately 70% enjoyed the funny everyday life issues with a sense of sarcasm present.

Brooke Johnson was dubbed the next president of Food Network at Scripps Networks.  She succeeds Judy Girard, the new Shop At Home Network president. Brooke joined the network in 2003.  Side note…she was behind the development of Food Network’s Iron Chef America, the American version of Japan’s Iron Chef show (wouldn’t you like to be a judge on that show).  Brooke held previous key positions with A&E and the History Channel.
 
Alan Nesbitt
was upped to SVP of ABC Owned Television Stations.  He will report to the president, Walter Liss.  Alan previously held the position of Division VP.  In addition to other responsibilities, he will expand his management duties at 5 ABC stations: Philadelphia’s WPVI, Houston’s KTRK, Raleigh-Durham’s WTVD, Flint’s WJRT and Toledo’s WTVG.
 
Michael Okwu was named NBC News Correspondent.  He will be based in Burbank, CA and contribute to several NBC programs, including Today and NBC Nightly News with Tom Brokaw.  Michael, an Emmy award winner, previously worked at CNN’s NY bureau.

Tom Barreca, SVP/WWE Enterprises, announced Peter Clifford as the new VP/Affiliate Sales, bringing World Wrestling Entertainment’s recently announced WWE 24/7 venture to market.  Peter’s focus will be to enlist cable operators and satellite services to distribute WWE 24/7, WWE’s new subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) service.

Tom Rutledge has been upped to COO/Cablevision Systems Corp., overseeing the company’s cable and communications unit, as well as the business services division Lightpath, and some areas within Rainbow Media including Voom.  Replacing Rutledge as President of the cable and comm division will be John Bickham who makes the most from Time Warner where he was EVP.

Joe Oulvey has been upped to SVP/Fox Stations Sales, responsible for all business and admin duties at Fox Station Sales.  He reports to Jim Burke, President of Sales for FOX Television Stations and the Regional Sports Networks.

Sunday, April 25, 2004. Fast Affiliate 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


CBS     9.4/15  60 Minutes 7.6/14, Cold Case 9.5/15, CBS Movie: Plainsong 10.2/16


NBC     6.7/11  Dateline NBC 5.3/9, Law & Order: Criminal Intent [r] 8.1/12, Crossing Jordan 7.9/13


ABC     5.5/9   America’s Funniest Home Videos 5.1/10, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition 5.9/10, Alias 5.2/8, The Practice 5.8/9


FOX     4.4/7   King of the Hill [r] 3.2/6, King of the Hill 4.9/9, The Simpsons 5.5/9, The Simpsons [r] 5.8/9, Malcolm Middle 4.4/7, Arrested Development 3.6/5


WB      1.5/2   High School Reunion [r] 0.8/1, Charmed 1.9/3, High School Reunion 4.0/6


A18-49  ABC 3.5/10, NBC 3.2/9, FOX 3.2/9, CBS 2.8/8, WB 1.1/3



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Answer to Yesterday’s Trivia Question:    The Iolani Palace was the stand in building for what TV Police Headquarters?   HAWAII FIVE-O.  Kudos to much of the free world (except those who said Magnum PI), including:  Meade Camp-The Weather Channel/NY; Paul Gaulke-Media General/Richmond; Colleen Orme-20th Television/NY; George Gerritsen-UniWorld Group/NY; Jordy Luft-WGNO & WNOL/New Orleans; Jo Ann Gonzales-KHWB/Houston; Larry Cazavan-KWBM/Springfield MO; David Pascua-KMSP/Minneapolis; Darlene Lieblich-Fox Cable Networks/LA; Greg West-Sinclair Bcst Group/Las Vegas; Nerissa Ichikawa-Horizon Media/LA; Dennis Aimino-KCBS/LA; and internationally from Iain Eggleton-XSTV/Auckland NZ.


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Today’s Trivia Question:   California registered landmark #367, The Queen Anne Cottage, formerly owned and partially built by Elias “Lucky” Jackson Baldwin.  This Victorian styled house and its 127-acre tropical jungle style setting has been used through the decades as a favorite Hollywood backdrop – Tarzan swung through the arboretum, Bob Hope and Bing Crosby  traveled on the Road to Singapore through the grounds; and James Earl Jones in search of Kunte traveled its waterways.  Less historic, but significant nonetheless, this tropical setting house was also the main office/house on what mystical/magical primetime drama series?   (click here 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.)


THIS MESSAGE FROM OXYGEN


Who knew?

Oxygen attracted 59 million unique viewers throughout 1st quarter 2004.

Now you know Oh!

Source: Oxygen Media’s analysis of Nielsen Media Research data. NPower 1Q04 (12/29/03-3/28/04); Persons 2+; Based on Oxygen’s Total Day: M-Su 8a-2a; 6 minute qualifier used in analysis.


Later — Cyn

Cynthia Turner’s Cynopsis
04/27/04  5:29am
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COURT TV:       
The I-Zone, Forensic Files
ABC             8 Simple Rules [r], I’m with Her, According to Jim, Less than Perfect, NYPD Blue
CBS             Navy NCIS, The Guardian, Judging Amy
FOX             American Idol, 24
NBC             Friends [r], Frasier [r], Frasier, Scrubs, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
PAX             AFV, AFV, Early Edition, Diagnosis Murder
UPN             One on One, All of Us, Rock Me Baby, Girlfriends
WB              Gilmore Girls, One Tree Hill
TELE            Prisonera, El Alma Herida, Mujeres Apasionadas
UNIV            Mariana de la Noche, Bajo la Misma Piel, Casos de la Vida Real: Edicion Especial

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