CYNTHIA TURNER’S
CYNOPSIS

09/14/04

Good morning. It’s Tuesday, September 14, 2004, and this is your first early morning briefing.

Fox led the charge on Sunday night, thanks in part to Fox NFL post game coverage (ending at 745p), posting an overall 4.0/11 A18-49 rating according to fast national ratings from Nielsen Media Research.  During the first hour of prime, Fox’s football/Simpsons combo posted a 5.7/18, which ABC, CBS and NBC each delivery a 6 share.  The premiere of Steve Harvey’s Big Time on the WB delivered a 0.9/3 A18-49, doing better among Teens 12-17 with a 1.1/5.  At 8pm the first hour of Fox’s movie Deuce Bigelow earned a 3.2/9, ahead of CBS and NBC tied with a 7 share, ABC’s 6 share, and the premiere of Charmed on the WB earned a 2.2/6. Charmed also performed better among women demos: 3.9/12 W18-34, and 3.2/9 W18-49.  At 9p NBC was in front with a 3.4/8 for the start of The Perfect Storm, in a share tie with Fox’s 3.2/8 for Deuce Bigelow. Jack & Bobby, the much touted series premiere on the WB earned a 1.7/4 A18-49, picking up among several demos including a very strong 5.5/18 among female teens, 3.3/11 Teens, 2.5/6 W18-49, 2.6/7 W18-34 and a 2.9/6 W25-54.  NBC led the 10p hour with a 3.5/9, over CBS’ 2.4/6 for its full movie The Painted House (9-11p), and ABC’s The Practice 1.9/5.

Casting / Development / Production:

• Yep – sign up Jessica Simpson as Daisy Duke. It’s been confirmed, the pop star will make her feature film debut in Warner Bros.’ big screen remake of Dukes of Hazzard, opposite Johnny Knoxville and Seann William Scott.
• Scott Foley (Felicity) has signed a development deal with 20th for a potential series for next season.  Most recently Foley had a recurring character on NBC’s Scrubs.
• New in the development arena is a sitcom for NBC from Carsey Werner, David Israel and Jim O’Doherty.  The action takes place in a dysfunctional documentary production house wherein the players are trying to churn out as many hours of docs as they can for various cable nets in need of content, according to Variety.  The sitcom would be partially improvisational (think Curb Your Enthusiasm).
• CBS has given a put pilot commitment for a sci fi drama called Threshold (working title) from Paramount Network Television.  Behind this project are three feature film notables: David Goyer (Batman Begins) will direct and exec prod the pilot; David Heyman (Harry Potter) will exec prod; and Bragi Schut will write and exec prod, according to Variety.
• WB is moving along with a comedy special that will also act as a pilot for a potential series, with comedian Ron White, part of the touring Blue Collar Comedy group (though not part of the WB television series). Produced by Parallel Ent. in Las Vegas. 

A consortium led by Sony Corp of America has reached an agreement to acquire MGM for a reported $4.8 billion in cash.  The partners in the consortium with Sony includes Brian Roberts led Comcast, Providence Equity Partners, Texas Pacific Group and DLJ Merchant Banking Partners.  The deal remains subject of approval by both Boards. The deal calls for Sony to launch several premium cable networks utilizing the MGM and Sony libraries, as well as Comcast’s VOD movie service.

A few Fall Programming changes from Fox: 

• The Next Great Champ is exiting the primetime schedule on September 28, only to reappear as of October 22 on Friday nights at 9pm. 
• Totally Outrageous Behavior and World’s Craziest Videos will move to Fridays beginning October 22 (8-9pm).
• Starting November 1, Monday nights will be Trading Spouses followed by The Swan. The Swan will make its two hour season debut on October 25.
• Fox has made a commitment to bring back Renovate My Family later on this season.
• The season debut of Tru Calling has been pushed back from November 4 to later in the season. Filling the Thursday time period as of November 4 with be new episodes of The O.C. at 8pm and North Shore at 9pm.  According to Variety, Tru Calling has also had its episode order chopped from 13 down to 6.

ABC will premiere Wife Swap on 9/26 at 10pm following a 2hour premiere of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.  This is just a preview and won’t change Wife Swap’s regular time period of Wednesdays at 10pm, where the show will see its first airing on 9/29 as originally planned.

PAX has finalized their fall premiere dates as follows: Doc and Sue Thomas F.B.Eye will debut on 10/3 at 8p and 9p, respectively. America’s Most Talented Kids kicks off the night on October 3 at 7pm, and finishing up the night is Cold Turkey at 10p. Model Citizens debuts on 10/4 at 9pm; Second Verdict on 10/5 at 9p; World Cup Comedy premieres October 6 at 9p.

When Oprah says big, she means BIG!  Giving away 276 Pontiacs on yesterday’s season opener, was just the show opener. She went on to have SBC Comm fund a young woman’s full college education; and in the ep’s grand finale, buy a house and new furnishings for another family in need. 

Tracy Dolgin has accepted the position of President/CEO of YES Network, filling the vacancy left by Leo Hindery, founding president.

The NFL Network will be carried on the Comcast digital systems in several key cities including Boston, Atlanta and Detroit, making the new net available to an estimated 8 million digital cable homes. As with many new cable coverage deals of late, this deal includes VOD service with highlights from particular games, as well as two games a week available in HD format.

King World Productions has upped two of its sales execs — Steve Hackett and John Holdridge have both been promoted to SVP/Regional Sales Manager, both reporting to Joe DiSalvo, President Domestic Television Sales. Based in Dallas Steve will oversee the sales efforts of King World’s Dallas and Los Angeles offices.  John is based in Atlanta and will now have responsibility for the sales efforts of the Atlanta and Chicago offices.

Debra D’Arinzo has been upped to VP/Financial Planning and Strategy for Court TV. The announcement came from Galen Jones, EVP/Chief Strategy Officer. Debbie joined Court TV in 1999 as Director of Ad Sales Planning and Pricing.  In her new position, she will continue to manage revenue planning and budgeting, financial analysis, and new business analysis. In addition, she will integrate the efforts of her department more closely with Court TV’s Finance department. 

Sunday, September 12, 2004. Fast National 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     6.9/11  60 Minutes 6.5/12, Cold Case 7.1/12, Movie: A Painted House 7.1/11

FOX     5.9/7   Fox NFL Post Game/The Simpsons 8.1/15; Movie: Deuce Bigelow: Male Gigolo 4.5/7

NBC     5.1/8   Dateline NBC 4.4/8, Movie: The Perfect Storm 5.4/8

ABC     3.7/6   AFHV 3.5/6, Pepsi Play for a Billion 3.8/6; Extreme Makeover Home Edition [r] .9/6, The Practice [r] 3.5/6

WB      2.6/4   Steve Harvey’s Big Time [p] 1.6/3, Charmed [p] 3.2/5, Jack & Bobby [p] 3.0/5

A18-49  Fox 4.0/11, NBC 2.8/8, CBS 2.4/6, ABC 2.1/6, WB 1.6/5

A MESSAGE FROM COURT TV

The History Channel presents This Day in History:
1752:  Great Britain finally adopts the Gregorian calendar, used in much of Europe since 1582.  Depending on how you look at it, the eleven days immediately preceding this date never existed: after going to bed on the evening of September 2, Britons woke up on September 14.  Britain’s belated calendar reform also formally recognized January 1 as the first day of the year, replacing March 25.

Answer to Yesterday’s Trivia Question: Dr. Pepper once had the numbers “10-2-4” on its bottles of soda.  What did the numbers mean? THE TIMES OF DAY YOU SHOULD TAKE A DR. PEPPER BREAK.  Kudos to: Ron Bennett-Screen Actors Guild/NY; Stuart Elliot-NY Times/NY; Amy Finno-ABC Family/NY; Kevin Day-Mindshare/NY; Bryan Johnson-Optimedia/Dallas; Kathy Daume-Viacom Station Sales/Dallas; Lucie Prann-The Richard Group/Oklahoma City; Roger Bare-KHWB/Houston; Phil Olsman-NAMSLO Prods/LA; David Meister-The Tennis Channel/Santa Monica; Rudy Adame-LA Times/LA; Liz Thompson-Carat USA/Santa Monica; Ken Dubow-Modern Ent/Toronto; Gayle Reznik-Core FA/Toronto.

A MESSAGE FROM ROGERS MEDIA

Call for Help is Back! Harbourfront Distribution is pleased to announce the production of a new Call For Help starring tech guru Leo Laporte. The 1hour show helps viewers, from the tech savvy to the novice, get the most out of their tech and stay current on the latest products.There are 160 episodes available for all markets. For details call:Malcolm Dunlop 416-260-3601

Today’s Trivia Question:  What well known series host narrated The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau?  (click
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 COURT TV

Later — Cyn

Cynthia Turner’s Cynopsis
09/14/04  5:26am
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JOB OPENING:  TRAFFIC & DIGITAL ASSETS MGR, HALLMARK CHANNEL/LA. Manage Design Dept in project development; traffic & budget. 2 yrs related exp. Full posting www.hallmarkchannel.com. Send resume to
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JOB OPENING:  ACCOUNT EXEC/Nielsen, Atlanta. Sell Nielsen products to Southeast Regional Local Stations/Agencies and Atlanta agency list. 5+years research/sales industry experience a must. www.NielsenMedia.com ref:(200402250-JL)  (9/18)

JOB OPENING: CREATIVE SERVICES MANAGER/Comcast Spotlight, Union NJ. Work with sales force to create innovative advertising for clients. Shooting/Editing exp; kwldg of Avid. Resume:
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A MESSAGE FROM CYNOPSIS AD SALES

WHAT’S ON TONIGHT:  SEPTEMBER 14, 2004:

ABC             Extreme Makeover Home Edition [r], According to Jim [r], According to Jim [r], The Benefactor [r]
CBS             NCIS [r], Big Brother, Amazing Race
FOX             Trading Spouses, Next Great Champ
NBC             Last Comic Standing, Father of the Pride, Scrubs, Law & Order: SVU [r]
PAX             On the Cover, Balderdash, Early Edition, Diagnosis Murder
UPN             All of Us [r], Eve [r], The Player
WB              Gilmore Girls [r], One Tree Hill [r]
TELE            Prisonera, Gitanas, Te Voy a Ensenar a Querer
UNIV            Mariana de la Noche, Amarte es mi Pecado, Casos de la Vida Real

END OF PAGE MESSAGE FROM INTERMAT, INC.