CYNTHIA TURNER’S 
CYNOPSIS
01/06/04

Good morning. It’s Tuesday, January 6, 2004, and this is your first early morning briefing.

ABC wins again on the heels of another college bowl game, this time the Sugar Bowl.  Sunday night ABC cleaned the field with the competition, posting a 6.9/16 A18-49 rating, besting CBS 4.4/11, NBC 3.9/9, Fox 3.4/8 and WB’s 1.5/4, according to Nielsen Media Research.  The Sugar Bowl itself aired from 830-11p and earned a healthy 8.3/19.   CBS owned the first hour of primetime, thanks in large part to its football runover, and posting a 6.2/16 for the hour, well ahead of the tied NBC and ABC (3.5/9). At 8pm and for the remainder of the evening ABC was #1 hour to hour.  Fox’s Simpsons 5.4/13 and Bernie Mac’s 3.7/8 combined to rank #2 at 8pm, CBS and NBC tied at a 9 share, and WB’s first hour of its movie pulling a softer 1.6/4 (tho a 2.7/7 in the slightly younger and decidedly more female W18-34 demo). NBC was #2 at 9pm with an original episode of Law & Order CI  (4.8/11), CBS followed with a repeat of Cold Case.  At 10p CBS was #2 with a repeat of CSI delivering a very decent 4.6/11, outpacing the Fab Five on NBC (3.6/9), tho this show also did much better with younger females (W18-49 5.1/12, W18-34 4.5/12).

By now you’ve heard. Sandy Grushow has ankled his post as Chairman of Fox Television Entertainment Group to start his own production company, Phase Two.  He has a three year development deal with Fox, which reportedly was a pre-existing option in his original contract.  That option allows his production company to pitch projects to Fox as well as any other broadcast or cable network, and the option allows him to step away from the prod company altogether should he decide to take on a position at Fox or any other network.  His decision is effective immediately, and just months before the expiration of his contract.  Now let the games begin — who will move into the corner office?  For the time being, all divisions will report directly to Peter Chernin.

New in Development:

• Fox has been very busy.  As expected, the network has picked up The Juryfrom Barry Levinson/Tom Fontana about the legal system through the eyes of the jury. Levinson actually appears as the judge in the pilot episode.  Also picked up for next season: Method Man/Redman Comedy Pilot from Regency, urban sitcom about a pair of suddenly famous rappers.  Script Commitment for sitcom Dangerville from 20th/First Move about a NYC family that moves to rural Louisiana.  Added to the Development Slate for 2004:  Sitcom:  That’s So Me from 20th/First Move Prods about a 30 year old gym teacher and his 8 year old clone; sitcom: Too Much Information from 20th/First Move about a two parents/therapists whose kids suffer from all sorts of the bizarro neuroses; sitcom:  Parenting without a License from Paramount Network Television and Ron Zimmerman, about a man who is left to raise his son alone, based in part on the life of Zimmerman.  And if you hadn’t heard yet, Forever Eden has been ordered for midseason — think Paradise Hotel without a big finish.  These folks could literally end up on a reality series for, well, years if the show goes that long, which makes this the first reality soap. From the same folks who brought you Paradise Hotel – Arthur Smith & Co/Mentorn Int’l.
• WB has two new shows in the development hopper – Small Time Kramersabout a pair of thieves who use their children in their thievery – yep, a comedy – from First Move/20th; and a script commitment has been given to a project simply called for the moment the WB/Regency Jarrad Paul/Chris Thompson Media Empire Comedy Pilot about a couple of somewhat nitwit brothers who take over their recently departed father’s media conglomerate (Regency Television).  Source: BaselineFT.com
• ABC

has a script in development for a comedy pilot currently titled theABC/WORLDWIDE PANTS KRISTEN JOHNSTON CHEF COMEDY about a celebrity chef who moves to the Berkshires, from Worldwide Pants/Touchstone. Additionally, the network has ordered a pilot of theSuzanne Martin Hot Mom project about a fun loving mom who is a wedding planner, whose daughter is far more conservative.

• UPN has added to its development slate with a Perlman/McCluggage Workplace Comedy about a couple of P.A.s working on a late night network series, from Paramount Network Television & Craftsman Films with both Heide Perlman and Kerry McCluggage as exec prods. Source: BaselineFT.com
• A&E

has ordered 7 eps of a new reality series called Dearly Departed about the three Wissmiller sisters who are all morticians. More coming from A&E at their TCA presentation.

• HBO is looking at a drama project from Playtone Prods (Tom Hanks’ prod co) called Big Love. Hanks is connected as exec prod along with his partner Gary Goetzman; writing the project is Will Schaffer and Mark V. Olsen.

NBC premieres The Apprentice this week, Thursday at 830p where it will air opposite back to back original episodes of CSI on CBS (8p and 9p).  And if that’s not enough, when The Apprentice airs in its regular time period of Wednesdays at 8p beginning next week, CBS has scheduled yet for the first week another original ep of CSI to air opposite.  Over in The Apprentice camp, the good news is Chrysler has been signed as the exclusive automobile sponsor of the limited series, and a Chrysler car will be awarded to the “winner,” or at least to the person who ultimately gets to work for Trump.

Scripps owned cable net Fine Living has ordered up its own reality series – Your Reality Checked, according to Variety. The 13 one-hour eps scheduled to debut this spring, puts people in the position of being the entrepreneur they have always dreamed to be, tho in something of a fantasy world.  To wit — a couple with aspirations of starting their own company, spend seven short days going through all the motions of creating that company, with the assistance of various experts.  The only unreality in this reality, is at the end of the week there is no new company.  And yet, the participants perhaps walk away with a real idea of how to launch those aspirations in the real world.

Top Ten Basic Cable Ad Supported Network Rankings among Total Viewersfor Calendar Year 2003 (12/30/02-12/28-03):
Primetime        (000)     Total Day            (000)
TNT                   2334      NICK/NAN            1731
NICK/NAN         2063      CARTOON           1222
USA                   1894     TNT                       1216
LIFETIME           1791     LIFETIME              1154
ESPN                1767      FOXNEWS           1023
CARTOON        1759     TBS                         979
TBS                   1729      USA                        906
FOXNEWS        1706     ESPN                      788
TLC                    1243     CNN                        665
DISCOVERY     1136      TLC                        660
Source  Turner Research from Nielsen Media Research Data. 
All ratings based on Total U.S. Television Universe of 108,400,000 homes

Top Ten Basic Cable Ad Supported Network Rankings among A18-49 forCalendar Year 2003 (12/30/02-12/28-03):
Primetime        (000)     Total Day           (000)
TNT                   1115      TNT                     630
TBS                     898      TBS                     566
USA                     880      LIFETIME             524
ESPN                   875     NICK/NAN            491
LIFETIME             719     ESPN                   448
TLC                      711     USA                      430
MTV                      636     TLC                      384
SPIKE                   595     MTV                     339
DISCCOVERY     592     FOXNEWS          322
SCIFI                    552     CARTOON           314
Source  Turner Research from Nielsen Media Research Data. 
All ratings based on Total U.S. Television Universe of 108,400,000 homes.

According to Nielsen data provided by Turner Research, the top ten gainers for 2003 among A18-49 in primetime were Bravo +71% vs. total year 2002; Fox News +49%, CNN +49%, Hallmark +44%, MSNBC +34%, Discovery Health +32%, Lifetime Movie Network +28%, WE: Women’s Entertainment +27%,  SOAPNet +25%, VH1 +24%.  The five networks which lost the most ground year to year(despite in some cases full year success) in primetime among A18-49 were CNBC -34%, WGN -18%, Lifetime -17%, ABC Family -16%, USA -11%. 

In Total Day year to year comparisons of Nielsen data, the top ten gainers for 2003 Fox News +60% vs. total year 2002; Hallmark +55%, Bravo +53%, CNN +48%, Lifetime Movie Network +39%, WE: Women’s Entertainment +32%, Discovery Health +31%, SOAPNet +29%, VH1 +29%, Court TV +26%.  The five networks which lost the most ground year to year for total day, despite for some overall success for the year, were A&E -16%, TV Guide Channel -13%, Headline News -11%, WGN -9%, and USA -7%. 

Additional Nielsen data information supplied by Oxygen Network indicates the network was up in 2003 over 2002 among A18-49 in primetime by 78%, and 93% in total day in total impressions.  Please note, Oxygen’s 2002 data includes only March-December numbers.

The four top viewed shows (non sports) among A18-49 in 2003 were split by just two channels:  
TLC    Trading Spaces $100,000 Grand    10/5/2003   5.68m A18-49 viewers
TLC    Trading Spaces                                1/18/2003   4.04m A18-49 viewers
MTV    2003 Movie Awards                          6/5/2003     3.81m A18-49 viewers
MTV    2003 VMA Post Show                       8/28/2003   3.72m A18-49 viewers

Among the 24/7 Cable News Networks, comparing total viewers year to year, in both prime and total day, here’s how they shake out (000):
Net         Prime  vs. 2002     Total Day vs 2002
Fox                   +45%                            +53%
CNN                 +22%                            +24%
MSNBC            +23%                            +20%
HLN                    +4%                               -5% 

Casting FYI:  Disney/ABC TV is looking for identical twin girls 11-15 years old to star in its previously announced TV pilot for The Parent Trap.  Open casting calls will be held this Saturday Disney January 10 in NY, LA, Chicago and in Toronto and Vancouver.  Tollin/Robbins Productions and Touchstone are producing the project, with Don Beck (8 Simple Rules) serving as writer.

Here’s something to really look forward to:  Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick, both together again on Broadway in Mel Brooks’ The Producers, have both signed to do the film adaptation (of the play adaptation of the film.  Follow?). Universal Pictures is looking at a 2005 release.

Remember the Don’t Call rule imposed last October?  Apparently that means Don’t Fax as well.  Yesterday the FCC imposed a $5,379,000 fine on Fax.com for sending unsolicited advertisements via fax to consumers which the FCC says is a direct violation of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA).  Fax.com is a company hired by others to send faxes to a large number of consumers.  The FCC found Fax.com violated the rules on 489 separate occasions, fining at a rate of $11k per infraction and also noted that the very business of Fax.com puts it in a position of violating the rules each and every time it conducts business.  It has 30 days to send in a report (by fax?) to the FCC indicating how it has changed its business to comply with the TCPA rules.

John Lansing has been named EVP/Scripps Networks, effectively immediately.  Scripps Networks is a division of The E. W. Scripps Company, operates Home & Garden Television, Food Network, the DIY – Do It Yourself Network and Fine Living. John’s responsibilities will include working closely with top executives at each of the networks to help ensure the distinctiveness of each of the Scripps Networks brands and to further improve programming production efficiencies.

As in previous years, this January Cynopsis will provide its NATPE Syndicated Program Guide listing of NEW SERIES coming to market in preparation for this year’s conference in Las Vegas.  If you have information you’d like listed for a newstrip or weekly series, please send it to me at [email protected] (with NATPE listing in the subject line), and provide the name of the series, #/eps, distributor name/phone/booth or suite number, terms (cash, cash+, barter split), and frequency.  Because of space, no OTOs, specials. quarterly shows or returning series are included in the listing. For Children’s Programming, please send your new series information (please add if its live action/animation and target age group) to Gwen Billings for the Cynopsis Kids NATPE Syndicated Program Guide at[email protected].   Please have your information in no later than January 9, 2004.

Sunday, January 4, 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

ABC     12.0/18 AVF [r] 7.6/12, Sugar Bowl Pregame 11.6/17, Sugar Bowl 13.9/21

CBS     9.9/15  NFL Runover 13.5/21, 60 Minutes (730-9p) 8.2/12, Cold Case [r] 7.5/11, CSI [r] 9.7/15

NBC     7.2/11  Dateline 8.2/13, American Dreams 5.9/9, Law & Order: CI 8.4/12, Queer Eye 6.1/9

Fox     4.7/7   King of the Hill [r] 3.5/6, King of the Hill 4.4/7, Simpsons 6.7/10, Bernie Mac 5.1/7, Malcolm 4.6/6, Arrested Development 3.6/5

WB      2.6/4   Smallville Beginnings 1.6/2, Movie: Bring it On 3.2/5

A18-49  ABC 6.9/16, CBS 4.4/11, NBC 3.9/9, Fox 3.4/8, WB 1.5/4

A MESSAGE FROM COURT TV

The History Channel presents This Day in History:  
1957 – Elvis Presley made his last appearance on the “Ed Sullivan Show” in New York City.

Answer to Yesterday’s Trivia Question:  Who is Morty the Moose?  The moose that wandered through the opening sequence of Northern Exposure. (Lest you confused them, the Moose from Wally World was named Marty.) Kudos to:  Joy Kingshott-ABC Radio Networks/NY; David Stern-Bard Ent/NY; Greg Janover-King World/NY; Matt Robinson-Echopoint Media/Indianapolis; Matt Rankin-WDAF/Kansas City; Alan Rosenfeld-Southeast Media Group/Telluride; Terry Austin-Starz Encore/Englewood; Jo Gillett-Gambaru Prods; Paul Gilbert-Sony Pictures Television Int’l/Culver City; Alan Perris-Perris Hubert Prods/LA; Lynn Gutstadt-Tech TV/San Francisco; Brett Colbert-Warner Bros/Burbank; and Cynthia Kennedy-A&E/London.

Today’s Trivia Question: In what major city would you find the elite detective squad known as M Squad? (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.)

A MESSAGE FROM INFOTAINMENT MEDIA

Want to reach young urban viewers during primetime, online and at retail all in one deal?

*  Have your brand associated with pro athletes and hip-hop artists
*  Ads in Primetime TV Special
*  Product Integration into TV Show, DVD and CD
*  Point-of-Purchase Displays in National Retailers

Call Eileen Simms at (310) 312-9570, or email[email protected] for more info.

Later — Cyn

Cynthia Turner’s Cynopsis
01/06/04  5:21am
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WHAT’S ON TONIGHT:  TUESDAY, JANUARY 6, 2004

COURT TV’S FORENSIC FACT:
The DNA of each person is unique UNLESS you are an identical twin.

COURT TV:       I-Zone, Forensic Files, The Investigators 
ABC             8 Simple Rules, I’m with Her, According to Jim, Less than Perfect, Line of Fire
CBS             Navy NCIS, The Guardian, Judging Amy
FOX             That 70’s Show [r], The Simpsons [r], 24
NBC             Tracy Morgan Show, Whoopi, Frasier, Happy Family, L&O: SVU
PAX             AFV, Early Edition, Diagnosis Murder
UPN             One on One [r], All of Us [r], Rock Me Baby [r], Girlfriends [r]
WB              Gilmore Girls [r], One Tree Hill [r]
TELE            Amor Descardo, El Alma Herida, Presencia de Anita
UNIV            Velo de Novia, Te Amaré en Silencio, Casos de la Vida Real