CYNTHIA TURNER’S
CYNOPSIS

12/21/04

Good morning. It’s Tuesday, December 21, 2004, and this is your first early morning briefing.

Alias (Touchstone TV) returns to the ABC schedule on January 5 at 9pm with a two hour season premiere. Among the many guest stars is Angela Bassett as CIA Director Hayden Chase and Robert Patrick Benedict in the role of Brodien. New to the cast this season is Mia Maestro as Nadia Santos, Sydney’s half sister.

A&E‘s documentary series The First 48 is set to make its second season premiere on January 6 with a 90m special episode starting at 9p.  Thereafter, the series will appear in its regular time period, Thursdays at 10p.

Casting / Development / Production

• Discovery Health Channel will launch a new show with medical expert Dr. Drew Pinsky called Strictly S#x with Dr. Drew (Weller Grossman), scheduled to debut in second qtr 2005.
• Joining the cast of Queer as Folk for three episodes next season is Rosie O’Donnell.  Rosie was apparently offered a permanent role, but declined in favor of the handful of eps, though the door remains open for additional eps in the future.
• Morris Chestnut (great name!) and Tony Cox will co-star in Steve Levitan’s newest comedy project called Dante.  NBC has ordered up a pilot. The project revolves around Chestnut as a star football player who’s sense of self worth and reality runs a little afield.
• Showtime has cancelled its sophomore series Dead Like Me.  With that decision comes a new project – Barbarshop (MGM TV, and based on the MGM film) with an expected order of 10 eps.  Also expected on Showtime in 2nd qtr 2005 is a remake of the musical stage show (based on the original film), Reefer Madness.

The weekly syndicated series Eye for an Eye, distributed by Atlas, is gearing up for a re-launch as a strip series for next fall.  And as of January, it will begin appearing in the syndicated ratings charts.  The show begins as a standard court room judge series, but instead of monetary rewards and a tongue thrashing by the judge, the show doles out in-kind judgments, that is one good smashed up car deserves another.  Eye for an eye.  Get it?  The weekly series is currently cleared in 70% of the country.

Top Five shows recorded by Tivo for the week ending last Sunday are, in rank order, Desperate Housewives, The Apprentice, CSI, Lost and ER.  Top Five Wish List Actors (recording by cast, rather than title) are Tom Hanks, Harrison Ford, Julia Roberts, Johnny Depp and Clint Eastwood.  And the Top Five Wish List Directors are Alfred Hitchcock, Steven Spielberg, Stanley Kubrick, Woody Allen and Martin Scorsese.  Source:  Tivo.com

ABC won the night on Sunday with solid demo performances from new eps of both Desperate Housewives and Boston Legal.  For the night, ABC averaged a 5.4/14 A18-49 according to fast time period averages from Nielsen Media Research.  CBS was #2 overall with a 4.6/12 due in large part to the NFL runover into prime and 60 Minutes, earning a 7.3/21 from 7-8p, and then a 4.8/12 from 8-9pm, winning both hours.  ABC takes over at 9p with Desperate Housewives’ 9.8/22, and followed by Boston Legal’s 5.2/13.

A couple of End of Year Housekeeping Notes: 

• If your IT Dept is planning on adding any new spam/junk mail filters for the first of the year, please advise them Cynopsis is delivered daily from
  , so they can add the address to their white list.
• If your email address will be changing for the new year (or at any time for that matter), changing your subscription address to any Cynopsis edition is now handled automatically given the large volume of new subscriptions each day. Just go to http://www.cynopsis.com/subscriptions.cfm?sub1=1, and subscribe your new address, while unsubscribing the old address at the bottom of the same page.  That’s all there is to it.
• The final 2004 edition for Cynopsis is December 22; the first edition of the new year (after the traditional January 1 edition), will be on Monday, January 3rd.

Sunday, December 19, 2004. Fast Affiliate Ratings for all Networks – time period averages.  Source Nielsen Media Research. Time Period Averages Only. [p] = Premiere; [o] = Original; [r] = Repeat

CBS     10.4/17  Football Runover (until approx 7:40p) 13/5/23; 60 Minutes/Cold Case 11.4/18, Hallmark Movie: Fallen Angel [r] 8.5/13

ABC     8.0/13   AFV 5.1/9, EM: Home Edition [r] 5.8/9, Desperate Housewives 13.0/20, Boston Legal 8.1/13

FOX     3.3/5    70’s Show [r] 3.2/6, Malcolm [r] 3.0/5, Simpsons [r] 4.6/7, Arrested Development 3.3/5, Malcolm 2.8/4, 70’s Show 2.7/4

NBC     6.5/10   Dateline (2hrs) 7.0/12, Law & Order: CI [r] 5.8/9, Crossing Jordan [r] 6.1/10

WB      2.0/3    Steve Harvey [r] 1.4/2, Movie: The Wizard of Oz  2.3/4

A18-49  ABC 5.4/14, CBS 4.6/12, NBC 2.8/7, Fox 2.6/7, WB 1.3/3

A MESSAGE FROM COURT TV

The History Channe l presents This Day in History:
1937:  Walt Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs debuts.  It was the first feature-length animated movie and an instant classic.

Answer to Yesterday’s Trivia Question:  What holiday are you celebrating if your decorates include an aluminum pole and a tradition known as The Airing of Grievances?  Okay, Seinfeld fans – consider that your FESTIVUS gift, for the rest of us.

Today’s Trivia Question:  What’s a Wassail? Oh sure, we all know it really is from the Old Norse ‘ves heill’ meaning ‘to be of good health.’  But the question here is what should a Wassail be?  You make up the definition – the best five here tomorrow. (click here with your answer and be sure to include your name, company, city and time zone with your answer.  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.)

A MESSAGE FROM COURT TV

Later — Cyn
12.21.04  4:57am

In 2005, Cynopsis will offer new ad space. Interested?

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Copyright Cynthia Turner 2004

CYNOPSIS CLASSIFIEDS

JOB OPENING:  LIFETIME TV, NY-DIRECTOR, PARTNERSHIPS.As Sales bkgrnd. Will create and customize sponsorship packages for advertisers. Resume & cover:
. Note “Partnerships Dir” in the subject of email  (1/6)

JOB OPENING:  KUVN 23/ KSTR 49 RESEARCH ANALYST. Compile & analyze Nielsen ratings data & syndicated market research info. Min 2 yrs research/ marketing/sales exp.  Bilingual (Engl/ Span) is pref. 
.  EOE.  (Note: New Email Address) (12/22)

More new Job Opening ads here on Monday, January 3rd …

SITUATION WANTED ADS, POSTED BY THOSE LOOKING TO BE HIRED —

SITUATION WANTED: MBA Candidate with specialization in Media Management is seeking full-time job opportunity. 7+ years experience in TECHNOLOGY CONSULTING – looking to transition into TVBroadcast in NYC. E-Mail:
  (12/23)

SITUATION WANTED:  Experienced SCREENWRITER/ PROMO WRITER seeking script rewriting assignment. Experience at Universal/NBC and reality TV. I can make any script a red hot rocket destined for box office glory. Email:
  (12/23)

SITUATION WANTED: BIZ DEV, STRATEGY, PLANNING & OPS EXEC, MBA + 20yrs exp, Cable/Program Distribution (VOD), Interactive Media & Consumer Electronics, seeks consulting/interim/FT assignment. NYC based. Travel OK
  (12/23)

SITUATION WANTED:  Female mktg. guru and sales person seeks freelance gig for NATPE. Will work from LA and help in LV. References and proven track record. Email me at

or cel (954) 270-1725  (12/23)

SITUATION WANTED:  15 yr+ LA Coordinating Producer relocated to DC Metro area. Available for work ASAP in DC Metro, LA or elsewhere – casting,talent relations, publicity, clearances and S&P. Email
   (12/23)

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WHAT’S ON TONIGHT:  DECEMBER 21, 2004:

ABC              My Wife & Kids, George Lopez, According to Jim, Rodney, NYPD Blue
CBS              The Amazing Race, 27th Annual Kennedy Center Honors
FOX              The Rebel Billionaire, House
NBC              The Biggest Loser (60m), Father of the Pride, Scrubs, L&O
PAX              Mission Space Special, Family Movie: Race to Space
UPN              All of Us, Eve, Veronica Mars
WB               Gilmore Girls [r], High School Reunion
TELE             La Mujer en el Espejo, Gitanas, Te Voy a Ensenar a Querer
UNIV             Rubi, Amor Real, Lo veremos todo con Niurka y Bobby