Cynopsis

08/26/08

Good morning. It’s Tuesday, August 26, 2008, and this is your first early morning briefing.  

Tonight’s Premieres:
BBC America: Gavin & Stacey at 840p
ABC Family: Greek at 9p
Oxygen: The Janice Dickinson Modeling Agency at 10p

ABC’s Dancing with the Stars will be back for season seven beginning with a three-night premiere on September 22 at 8p. This new season will follow 13 celebrities as they compete for the disco ball trophy:

• Lance Bass, former *NSYNC performer is paired with professional dancer Lacey Schwimmer.
• Grammy winner Toni Braxton will dance with pro Alec Mazo.
• Host/actress/entrepreneur Brooke Burke will partner with Derek Hough.
• Rocco DiSpirito, celebrity chef/author will dance with Karina Smirnoff.
• Olympic gold medal winner Maurice Greene is paired with professional dancer Cheryl Burke.
• Kim Kardashian, model and star in the E! show, Keeping Up with the Kardashians will team with Mark Ballas.
• Multiple award-winning actress Cloris Leachman will partner with Corky Ballas.
• Disney Channel star of Hannah Montana Cody Linley will dance with Julianne Hough.
• Susan Lucci, ABC daytime soap star will be paired with Tony Dovolani.
• Misty May-Treanor, Olympic gold volleyball champ will team with Maksim Chmerkovskiy.
• Actor Ted McGinley will partner with Inna Brayer.
• Comedian Jeffrey Ross will dance with pro Edyta Sliwinska.
• Warren Sapp, Superbowl champ will be paired with Kym Johnson.

NBC Universal’s coverage of the Beijing Olympics resulted in a 17-day rating of 16.2/28. Due to Nielsen’s delays yesterday, a final total viewer count will be released today and reported in tomorrow’s edition.

CBS is changing the season debut date of Survivor: Gabon – Earth’s Last Eden to September 25 and making it a two-hour premiere starting at 8p. The series, which will broadcast in hi-def for the first time, was originally scheduled for a 60m episode on September 18. 

Lifetime Television introduces a first-time schedule of original, unscripted daytime programs:

• Mom’s Cooking – Moms and daughters will cook favorite recipes together. 20 half hour episodes produced by Boy Wonder Productions and airing Monday-Friday beginning this December.
• Lisa Williams – British clairvoyant returns to the network in this half-hour, five-episode special from Merv Griffin Entertainment that airs over five consecutive days starting October 27.
• Untitled Fat Friends Project – Docu-series follows a group of girlfriends as they attempt to lose weight together. Five episodes from Pie Town Productions will air over five consecutive weekdays next January.

ESPNU HD will launch this Thursday with a live college football game between Vanderbilt at Miami (Ohio) at 730p. Over its first year, ESPNU HD has more than 200 hi-def televised events planned including all of its live Thursday and Saturday college football games. Currently, ESPNU HD has carriage deals with Time Warner Cable, Verizon FiOS TV, RCN, Atlantic Broadband and Broadstripe and more distribution agreements with other cable, satellite and telecommunications operators are in the works.

Jon Stewart and his team from Comedy Central’s The Daily Show with Jon Stewart will broadcast from the Democratic National Convention tonight through Friday at 11p nightly. The Daily Show: Look Who’s Coming to Denver will be taped at The Byron Theatre in the Newman Center for the Performing Arts at the University of Denver.

The Big Ten Network made a carriage pact with Time Warner Cable allowing the channel to air on TWC in the eight states where the conference schools are based. This deal gives Big Ten approximately 3 million new homes, mostly in Ohio and Wisconsin. This deal came just in time for the Ohio State opening game set to air exclusively on the Big Ten Network this Saturday. The Big Ten Network is a collaboration of the conference and Fox Cable Networks.

Ion Media Networks will reveal a new logo and a new tagline “Positively Entertaining” to correspond with new programming starting on the network this fall, according to THR. New programs added to ION’s schedule will include NCIS, Boston Legal and ER starting September 8, while Ghost Whisperer and Criminal Minds begin in 2009.

ABC announced five new series orders including three comedies:

• Cupid – about a guy who thinks he is Cupid from ABC Studios and Sony Pictures Televison.
• Better Off Ted – starring Jay Harrington who plays an office worker trying to move up in his corporation. 20th Century Fox TV produces.
• Single With Parents – starring Alyssa Milano about a young woman juggling her parents played by Annie Potts and Beau Bridges. ABC Studios and DreamWorks TV produces.

ABC also picked up two cop shows:

• Castle – starring Nathan Fillion in the lead as a novelist who helps the NYPD solve murder cases from ABC Studios and Beacon Pictures.
• The Unusuals – ensemble show also set within the NYPD inside a crazy precinct with Harold Perrineau Jr., Amber Tamblyn, Jeremy Renner, Adam Goldberg, Kai Lennoz and Terry Kinney. Sony Pictures Television produces.

ESPN Outdoors tapped Jose Wejebe to host ESPN Outdoors Saltwater Series coverage on ESPN2. Airing on Sunday mornings, the network will showcase six events beginning next April. Jose also hosts Spanish Fly on ESPN2 for the last 13 years.

For American Idol’s eighth season songwriter/producer Kara DioGuardi will be added as a fourth judge along with Paula Abdul, Simon Cowell and Randy Jackson. American Idol will premiere next January on FOX.

MTV selected Mario Lopez to host its newest live music competition series MTV’s Top Pop Group which opens September 11 at 10p. Mario will be joined by Marianela Pereyra who will work as backstage correspondent. The list of celebrity judges and mentors will be announced later. Nine aspiring pop groups will compete for the $100,000 cash prize and the title of MTV’s Top Pop Group. The series is produced by BBC Worldwide America. The network will air a sneak peak special, MTV’s Top Pop Group: The Casting Special this Thursday at 9p to introduce the competing groups.

Richard Karn will host GSN’s Bingo America which began production on season two in Los Angeles with 65 episodes. The game show will debut October 6 airing weeknights at 630p with encores airing Saturdays and Sundays at 4p. Glassman Media produces.

CYNOPSIS DIGITAL – TODAY’S TOP STORY:  New media outlets are descending on the mile high city this week for the Democratic National Convention. This year bloggers (and traditional media folks) have their own facility in which to work: Big Tent Denver, hosted by Daily Kos, Progress Now and the Alliance for Sustainable Colorado and sponsored by Google and Digg. A broad selection of publishers and tool providers will also be there to offer online coverage of the big political dance:

• The DNC itself is streaming the festivities live in HD quality video on DemConvention.com, powered by Move Networks and Microsoft’s Silverlight
• Ustream.tv is providing live streaming coverage from The Big Tent
• HuffingtonPost.com is utilizing digital media platform Kyte.tv to cover the event
• Dailymotion will stream a half hour of political content each night from 9pm including webcam videos uploaded from programming partners Good, Remix America, JibJab, Barely Political and 23/6
• The DNC accredited 14 bloggers from Lifecasting and microblogging service Zannel who will contribute to Zannel’s Politics Blue channel from the convention through election day

 Full edition: CYN DIGITAL.

CYNOPSIS KIDS – TODAY’S TOP STORY: Marvel Entertainment, Inc. is partnering with the noted Japanese animation studio Madhouse to create new characters based on the Marvel Universe for the Japanese market.  Marvel and Madhouse will work closely to produce new Japanese anime series inspired by Marvel’s library of characters, which will be adapted using anime style and creating unique back stories that will intertwine local culture and Japanese history in an effort to make characters and stories that are relevant to Japanese audiences.  Madhouse is currently in production on the first of four new series (12×30), which are slated to launch in spring 2010, and will do so on Animax, the 24/7 anime network.  The initial series will feature characters including Iron Man and Wolverine, among others.  Ultimately, Madhouse plans to adapt the entire Marvel Universe, thus creating an entire new character base for Marvel.  Additionally, Marvel and Madhouse will support the new series with merchandising efforts.  Full edition: CYN KIDS.

CYNOPSIS INTERNATIONAL – TODAY’S TOP STORY:  Have you wanted to have a little fun at Bob Saget’s expense? Well, it seems Canada’s Comedy Central had just that thought and will debut The Comedy Central Roast of Bob Saget on September 20 at 10p.  Airing exclusively on the network, the 90-minute show will bring in former Full House co-star John Stamos as Roast Master with other roasters such as Susie Essman, Artie Lange and Tracy Morgan putting in a word of their own.  It will also be available on www.thecomedynetwork.ca as of September 21. Full edition: CYN INTERNATIONAL.

Friday – A18-49 Analysis:  Despite a week-to-week dip, NBC led Friday night with 5.5/18 A18-49, according to final national ratings from Nielsen Media Research. At 830p, Olympic coverage on NBC did a 4.5/16, followed by a 5.2/17 during 9p and a 6.1/19 through 10p.

Live + Same Day Household Ratings: Friday, August 22, 2008  time period averages. Source: NTI Galaxy, as dated. Live+SD.

NBC: 10.7/19     Olympic Summer Games 2008 10.7/19 [830p start]

CBS: 3.2/6          NFL Pre-Season: Houston at Dallas 3.2/6

ABC: 2.7/5          ABC Friday Movie of the Week: Collateral 2.6/5, 20/20 2.9/5

FOX: 2.5/5          Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? [r] 2.5/5, Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? [r] 2.5/4

CW: 2.1/4           Friday Night Smackdown! 2.1/4

UNIV: 2.0/4        Al Diablo con los Guapos 2.2/4, Fuego en la Sangre 2.2/4, La Rosa de Guadalupe 1.6/3

MNT: 0.9/2         My Friday Night Movie: Jaws: The Revenge 0.9/2

TELE: 0.5/1         El Juramento 0.3/1, Dona Barbara 0.6/1, Sin Senos No Hay Paraiso 0.7/1

A18-49: NBC 5.5/18, CBS 1.6/6, UNIV 1.5/5, CW 1.2/4, ABC 1.1/4, FOX 1.1/4, MNT 0.4/2, TELE 0.3/1

James Sullivan was officially named the President/Sales for CBS Television Stations. James currently serves in this role and will continue to head spot sales for 29 CBS O&O stations.

CABLEready elevated Eric Benitez as Director/Operations for both CABLEready and CABLEready Productions. Eric will continue to help with rights management matters, work with clients pertaining to their technical needs and supervise daily operations of both entities. He reports to Lou Occhicone, SVP/Operations.

Geoff Keighley was appointed Executive in charge of video game publisher relations at Spike TV. Geoff will head Spike’s video game programming direction and will oversee the network’s editorial relations with game publishers. Geoff reports jointly to Casey Patterson, SVP/Event Production and Talent Development, Spike TV and TV Land and Niels Schuurmans, SVP/Brand Creative and Marketing, Spike TV.

Jane Gould moves into the position of VP/Consumer Insights with Nickelodeon/MTVN Kids and Family Group. Jane will head all consumer insights research that encompasses Nick Jr., Noggin, The N, Nicktoons Network, Nick at Nite and associated digital brands including AddictingGames, Shockwave and Nick.com. Her scope of work will also include orchestrating consumer research for Nickelodeon’s production, consumer products, recreation and public affairs units. Based in New York, Jane will report to Ron Geraci, SVP/Research and Planning, Nickelodeon/MTVN Kids and Family Group.

Stephen Ferrera was named EVP with A&R, Island and Mercury Records. Most recently, Stephen was SVP, A&R/Staff Producer with RCA Music Group.

Effective immediately, MindShare North America added Matt Kain as Managing Director of MindShare Search.

Meteor Worldwide recruited Syd Smith for the new position of Group CEO where he will supervise the company and its associated businesses including the production company White Flower Entertainment and the mobile marketing company Pliq. Syd’s goals including unifying the brand marketing activities for these three entities, developing an international sales team and being involved in the company’s European expansion. Syd will report to Dieter Abt and Ben Blanco, Managing Partners.

Michelle Donaldson will take on the role as News Director for KPHO/Phoenix beginning September 13.

Peter Blacker advanced to EVP/Digital Media and Emerging Businesses with Telemundo Communications Group. The newly formed Digital Media and Emerging Businesses Division, which merges the company’s digital properties, will be headed by Peter who will report to Jacqueline Hernandez, COO, Telemundo.

A CYNOPSIS MESSAGE FROM CABLEU

This day in History:   1873 – The St. Louis, Missouri school board established the first public school kindergarten in the United States.

Answer to Yesterday’s Trivia Question:  The Marcus-Nelson Murders (1973) was a made for TV movie that spawned a popular series. What was the name of this series?  KOJAK Kudos to: Evan Kutner-WNBC/NY; Alan Browdy-Lifetime/NY; Jim Kelsh-Comcast Spotlight/Malvern, PA; Rev. Mark Wajda-Annunciation Catholic Church/Altamonte Springs, FL; Mechael Tudor-Equity Media/Little Rock, AR; Larry Cazavan-WXVT/Greenville, MS; Norman C. Berns-ReelGrok/Minneapolis, MN; Barbara Spafford-Spafford Creative/Mobile, AL; John Amato-KTTV/LA; Joe Whitaker-Matrix Global/PTZ; Greg Stewart-Evolution Media/Burbank; Will Levine-Upper Management/LA; Nancy Gallagher-NBC-Universal/Beijing; Jack Krayson-SCTV/ Toronto

Today’s Trivia Question: On the Batman TV series, who played villian and Penguin collaborator Lola Lasagne?  (Email
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
08.26.08

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WHAT’S ON TONIGHT –  Tuesday, August 26, 2008

ABC: Wipeout , Wanna Bet, ABC News Vote ’08: The Democratic National Convention
AZTECA: Lo Que La Gente Cuenta, Historias Engarzadas, Pasiones Prohibidas
CBS: NCIS [r], Big Brother 10, CBS News: Democratic National Convention
CW: Smallville [r], Reaper [r]
FOX: House [r], House [r]
ION: Quantum Leap, The Dead Zone, ER
MNT: Street Patrol [r], Street Patrol [r], Jail [r], Jail [r]
NBC: America’s Got Talent, 2008 Democratic National Convention
PBS: 2008 Democratic National Convention Coverage
TELE: El Juramento, Dona Barbara, Sin Senos No Hay Paraiso
UNIV: Al Diablo con los Guapos, Fuego en la Sangre, Aqui y Ahora

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