CYNTHIA TURNER’S
CYNOPSIS

02/03/04

Good morning. It’s Tuesday, February 3, 2004, and this is your first early morning briefing. 

Guess who won?  Not the Panthers and not ABC, nor NBC, or Fox or even WB.  The big winners on Sunday night were the Pats and CBS.  The Pats with 32, CBS with 35.7 A18-49 rating according to fast affiliate ratings from Nielsen Media Research, with an average of 89.58 million total viewers. Sunday night’s game was the most watched program thus far this season, not to mention the most watched broadcast on any network since the 1998 Super Bowl which had 90 million viewers.  And Sunday’s game out-delivered last year’s: 89.58 million vs. 88.63 million.  In other demos, the game scored a 37.9 A25-54, 43.2 M25-54, 40.7 M18-49, 31.5 A18-34 and 34.5 M18-34.  The Cadillac Post Game show (1033-10:52p) earned a 25.1 A18-49 with 64.83 million viewers. And Survivor All Stars (10:52-11:58p) found 33.27 million viewers and a 15.8 A18-49 rating, making it the most watched premiere of the series since the Australian Outback (36.35 million).

Missed some or all of Survivor All Stars on CBS Sunday night?  It will be repeated tonight at 8pm.  The show then airs next on Thursday, 2/5 at 8pm. 

Also on Thursday 2/5, NBC will present a supersized edition of The Apprentice, pitting Mark Burnett’s Apprentice against Mark Burnett’s Survivor. The Apprentice will air from 8:42p-10p, overlapping the final 15m of Survivor. And for its part, the Apprentice begins with a retooling of the teams, making the first 15m of this particular episode perhaps a little more interesting than usual. Which will you watch?

Federal rules prohibit the broadcasting of obscene material at any time, and limit “indecent material” to late night hours when children are less likely to be watching.   Certainly everyone, including Federal regulators, knows by now that the “incident” during the half time show at the Super Bowl was well within the time frame when children may be watching.  As such, it is comprehensible that each and every CBS affiliate carrying the half time show could be fined $27,500, though probably more likely the FCC would direct their attentions to the network(s).  And yet, in this recent age of FCC fines, you never know. For its part, CBS has apologized, Viacom has apologized, MTV has apologized, all including a statement they had no idea this would happen.  Justin Timberlake has blamed it on a wardrobe malfunction, and for her part, Ms. Jackson has apparently decided to take the full brunt of the blame:  “The decision to have a costume reveal at the end of my half-time show performance was made after final rehearsals. MTV was completely unaware of it. It was not my intention that it go as far as it did. I apologize to anyone offended.”  Meanwhile, Democratic Presidential candidate Howard Dean calls the whole incident and the FCC inquiry “silly”, admitting that he’s “affected in some ways by the fact that I’m a doctor, so it’s not exactly an unusual phenomenon for me.”  I guess it would’ve been “safer” to watch the Lingerie Bowl.

The CBS Affiliate Board is asking the network to air this Sunday night’s Grammy Awards on a slight delay and to make sure someone is carefully monitoring the evening’s events during the broadcast to be sure no language slips or wardrobe malfunctions occur.   For its part, CBS has aired the Grammys on a delay before, and has every intention of doing so again on Sunday. 

According to a press release from Tivo, and Tivo’s analysis of aggregated data from an anonymous sample of 20,000 HHs, viewership of the Super Bowl halftime show increased by 12 percent compared to last year’s halftime show.  And as you might expect, the Jackson-Timberlake moment drew the biggest spike in audience reaction TiVo has ever measured. TiVo said viewership spiked up to 180 percent as hundreds of thousands of households used TiVo’s various functions to pause and replay live television to view the incident again and again.

And finally on this matter, the FCC Headlines at the FCC site go like this:
FCC Chairman Powell Calls Super Bowl Halftime Show A “Classless, Crass, Deplorable Stunt.” Opens Investigation.
Commissioner Abernathy Expresses Dismay Over Super Bowl Half-time Show.
Commissioner Copps Deplores Outrageous Super Bowl Stunt.
Commissioner Martin Supports the Opening of Investigation Into Broadcast of Super Bowl Halftime Show.
Commissioner Adelstein Applauds Immediate Investigation Into Super Bowl Halftime Stunt.
Glad to see they’re all on the same page.

In Development:

• NBC has ordered up a pilot of Foster Home (Conaco Prods/NBC studios) about two siblings who meet up again after being bounced from one foster home to another.  NBC has also ordered a pilot of Men’s Room, a buddy comedy.
• WB has ordered three pilots — Prodigy (Silver Pictures/Warner Bros. TV) about a family with a daughter and a son who is a child prodigy; Rocky Point (Warner Bros. TV)based in Hawaii about a young woman who lives with her friends and due to various circumstances, takes in her estranged father.  And Global Frequency (Mark Burnett/Warner Bros. TV), based on the DC Comic (imprint Wildstorm) of the same name.
• Comedy Central has signed Wanda Sykes to star in her own scripted/improvisational series wherein she takes on everyday sort of non-showbiz jobs and in her dealings with the public, improvises her way along.  On board as exec producer is Lance Crouther who also exec produced Sykes Fox series Wanda at Large.  According to Variety, Comedy has ordered six eps for next fall.

Monk continues to crack up a sizeable audience, and this past Friday night the most sizeable of all.  Earning its highest ratings ever, Monk delivered a 6.3 million viewers, 3.7 A25-54 and 2.7 A18-49, making it the highest rated basic cable program for the night among both demos.

Beginning Friday, Feb 28 at 10p, Trust (Box TV) will make its US premiere on BBC America, set in the often cut-throat world of corporate law. Produced by Jake Lushington, with executive producers Gareth Neame, Gub Neal and Johnathan Young, this program delves into the dealing in the boardroom and the personal lives of these legal wheeler dealers.

New ESPN 2 debuts tonight in Mexico, beginning with Fútbol Picante (930p) and SportsCenter (10p). What’s new about New ESPN 2 in Mexico? A renewed focus on the programs and events that have the most appeal to its local audience.  Produced out of Mexico City, ESPN 2 includes programming such as SportsCenter that uses local talent such as Mexican broadcasting veterans Heriberto Murrieta and Jorge Eduardo Sanchez Perez and noted sports presenters Fernando Palomo and Michele LaFountain.  And ESPN2’s concentration on events of particular appeal to the Mexican audience includes more than 120 live European football matches featuring the Spanish League, UEFA Champions League, and Italian Serie A, as well as more than 100 live telecasts focusing on La Liga del Pacifico, Major League Baseball, and Serie del Caribe.

Comcast and WGN Superstation have signed off on a multi-year carriage agreement which will include additional carriage for WGN on the Comcast systems.   The two companies have all reached retransmission consent agreements for Tribune’s terrestrial TV stations in both analog and high definition (HDTV) formats that cover stations in the top 50 television markets. Over the course of the next two years, Tribune expects WGN Superstation to increase its carriage from 59 million to 66 million  via this Comcast deal as well as other deals pending.

Dawn Abel has been named SVP/Research for Paramount Worldwide Television Distribution.  The announcement came from John Nogawski, President/Paramount Domestic Television and to whom Ms. Abel reports.  Dawn will oversee all quantitative and qualitative research for Paramount Domestic Television, Paramount International Television and Paramount Television Productions, which includes Paramount Network Television and Viacom Productions. 

Sunday, February 1, 2004. Fast Affiliate 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     37.1/56 Super Bowl (627-1033p) 41.3/61 ; Post Game (1033-10:52p) 28.7/46;  Survivor All Stars (10:52-11:58p) 17.8/32

ABC     3.7/6   AFV 2.7/4, Movie: Notting Hill 4.0/6

FOX     3.1/5   Movie:  Independence Day 3.1/5

NBC     2.9/4   Dateline 1.1/2, Queer Eye for the Straight Guy [r] 1.1/2, Queer Eye for the Straight Guy 1.5/3, Queer Eye for the Straight Guy 2.0/4

WB      1.1/2   The Surreal Life [r] 0.4/1, The Surreal Life [r] 0.8/1, The Surreal Life [r]  0.9/2

A18-49  CBS 32.0/64, Fox 1.6/3, ABC and NBC 1.4/3, WB 0.7/1

A MESSAGE FROM COURT TV

A COURT TV
SPECIAL PRESENTATION

RFK: Our Children, Our Future

·       One-hour documentary

·       A look at the living legacy of Robert F. Kennedy

·       His impact on children around the world

Premieres: Feb 10 at 8P e/p
Click here for more info.

The History Channel presents This Day in History: 
1959 – The day the music died: Buddy Holly, 22, the Big Bopper, 28, and Ritchie Valens, 17, die in a plane crash in Clear Lake, Iowa.

Answer to yesterday’s Trivia Question: This Swahili word for ‘doctor’ was also the name of a 1960’s television series.  What was it?  DAKTARI with Judy the Chimp, and Clarence the Cross-Eyed Lion.  Kudos to the free world, and to these, the second four correct respondents in each time zone:  Veronica Montali-Hispanic Content Consultants/Ft. Lauderdale; Dan Greenblatt-Boca Raton; Jonathan Spaet-Westwood One/NY; Paul Moscarello-Insight Interactive Group/Philadelphia; Jerry Harbin-Indianapolis Colts/Indy; Kristin Staskowski-Marketron/Birmingham; Jim Roche-Weigel Bcsting/Chicago; Keith Paxton-KDFI/Dallas; Jim King-Campbell Mithun/San Diego; Lonnie Burstein-In My Room TV/LA; Chip White-White Media/LA; Lynn Gutstadt-TechTV/San Francisco.

Today’s Trivia Question: Whose safe had this combination:  35-Right, 81-Right, 64-Left, 63-Left, 29-Left, 13-Right, 16-Left, 22-Left. (
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.)

Later — Cyn

Cynthia Turner’s Cynopsis
02/03/04  5:18am
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WHAT’S ON TONIGHT:  TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 2004

COURT TV:       Dominick Dunne, Forensic Files, The Investigators
ABC             According to Jim [r] (OTO), I’m with Her [r], According to Jim [r], Less than Perfect [r], Line of Fire
CBS             Survivor: All Stars [r] (OTO), Navy NCIS (OTO), Judging Amy
FOX             American Idol, 24
NBC             Whoopi, Happy Family, Frasier, Scrubs, L&O: SVU
PAX             AFV, Early Edition, Diagnosis Murder
UPN             One on One [r], All of Us [r], Top Model
WB              Gilmore Girls, One Tree Hill
TELE            Amor Descardo, El Alma Herida, Mujeres Apasionadas
UNIV            Velo de Novia, Te Amaré en Silencio, Casos de la Vida Real