CYNTHIA TURNER’S
CYNOPSIS

02/18/04

Good morning. It’s Wednesday, February 18, 2003, and this is your first early morning briefing. 

NBC won Monday night among A18-49 according to Nielsen Media Research by posting an overall 6.7/16 for the night.  CBS was second with a 5.7/14, followed by Fox 5.4/13, ABC 3.2/8, WB 1.9/4, UPN 1.6/4.  At 8pm NBC’s Fear Factor far and away won the hour with an 8.4/21, nearly doubling #2 CBS’ 4.2/11 for its sitcom hour.  Ranking third was Fox’s part 1 of 2, Littlest Groom with a 3.1/8.  WB’s 7th Heaven was next with a 2.0/5, narrowly beating the first hour of ABC’s Jurassic Park III (1.9/5) and UPN 1.8/4.  At 9pm Fox’s Big Fat Obnoxious Fiance takes center stage with a 7.6/17 (a high of 9.2/22 among W18-34), ahead of CBS’ Raymond 6.6/15 / Two and a Half Men 5.9/13 combo as well as NBC’s Las Vegas (5.5/13).  WB and UPN each posted a 4 share. At 10p CSI: Miami led the pack with a 6.7/16, but it was a highly competitive hour among the big three: NBC 6.2/14, ABC 5.8/14.

Paramount Domestic Television has announced the slow roll out of Dance 360, the urban dance show hosted by Kel Mitchell (Keenan & Kel) and Fredro Starr (Moesha), has been cleared on the Viacom owned UPN stations as well as on indy KCAL/Los Angeles, for fall 2004.  Dance 360 is produced by Hat to the Back Productions, and distributed by Paramount Domestic Television.  Claude Brooks and Ralph Farquhar are executive producers.

New in Development and Casting:

• A thus far un-network-affiliated, unscripted project is being shopped by the likes of Mark Burnett, Jeffrey Katzenberg and Sylvester Stallone on behalf of Dreamworks TV that dives into the world of boxing and boxer wannabes, called The Contender.  The show takes on the nationwide search for the next superstar boxer. Networks are being pitched the project this week.
• ABC has cast Selma Blair as one of the three sisters in the pilot formerly known as the Untitled Katims & Kelley Project (David E. Kelley/20th) about sisters who inherit a wedding planning company on Long Island.  Also from ABC, Desperate Housewives (Touchstone TV) has cast Teri Hatcher as one of the women living on the cul-de-sac. And Jennifer Aspen has been cast as the wife in the Untitled Rodney Carrington Project, wherein Carrington is a stand up comic (Touchstone TV).
• At CBS Christopher Lloyd has joined the pilot cast of The Clubhouse (Icon/Spelling) which takes place in the Yankee clubhouse. Also cast in this drama series are Marc Donato, Dean Cain, Mare Winningham, Kirsten Storms, Dan Byrd and JD Pardo.  Lloyd will play the role of a retired baseball coach, according to Hollywood Reporter.  And Jay Harrington will join Chris O’Donnell in the pilot comedy project The Amazing Westerbergs, says Variety.
• NBC has signed Jeff Goldblum to star in the sitcom pilot My 11:30 (Nuance Prods/NBC Studios) about a businessman and his no-nonsense therapist.  Goldblum will play the patient.
• At Fox, Robert Sean Leonard has been cast in the network’s thus far untitled drama pilot about a group of doctors working on impossible cases, known only as the Untitled David Shore Project (Heel & Toe Films/Universal). Leonard plays an oncologist.
• AMC is looking at a pilot project from Matt Morchower and Dave Kaufman’s Varsity Entertainment called Director’s Cut, a reality project wherein a featured director is given $10k and 24 hours to create and direct a scene of a real life, life altering event, i.e., birth, wedding proposal, etc. 

Comedy Central has ordered eight episodes of a new animated series called Odd Todd, based in part on the life of Todd Rosenberg, a laid off dot.com-er and the creator of somewhat autobiographical cartoon shorts that can be seen on Rosenberg’s website, oddtodd.com, according to Daily Variety.    Rosenberg will exec prod along with David Stern.

Disney and The Jim Henson Company announced yesterday that they had inked a binding purchase agreement whereby Disney will acquire the Muppets and Bear in the Big Blue House properties from Henson.  The deal includes all Muppet assets including Kermit, Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear, Gonzo and Animal characters, the Muppet film and TV library and all related copyrights and trademarks.  Similarly the deal includes Bear in the Big Blue House characters, TV library, copyrights and trademarks.  The agreement does not include the Sesame Street characters (like Big Bird & Elmo), which are owned by Sesame Workshop. The deal also contains a non-exclusive production and consulting codicil under which Henson will develop programs featuring the Muppets and Bear in the Big Blue House for Disney.  Henson will retain all other assets of the company including Jim Henson’s Creature Shop and ownership and rights to all other characters and entertainment properties in its film and TV library (e.g. Fraggle Rock, Farscape, Dark Crystal, Labyrinth, Storyteller and The Hoobs).  Henson also says it will actively pursue partnerships and other strategic arrangements to exploit these and other existing and new properties and to build their value over the long term. 

As you know, scheduled to launch this month (2/25) is cable network SiTV, an English language network for the Latino and multi-cultural audience between 18 and 34, with shows such as Urban Jungle (think Survivor in LA), a daily variety show called The Drop; I Can’t Believe Its Cinema redubs old Mexican movies and cuts them down to 30m; The Rub is a talk show with its primary topic being relationships.  Also coming this year (July 2004) is another English language network, Voy, targeting close to the same audience tho looking for the slightly older 18-49 demo.  Voy will also have a variety of programs, including talk, variety and original series and documentaries, tho it plans to steer clear of the more expensive sports, news and outside scripted programming.  Rather it will use its own resources to create lifestyle driven programming. Voy Network is owned by Voy, a media company which produces programming for the English speaking Latino market in the US. Voy Network is headed up by CEO Andrew Thau, and is heavily in carriage discussions with several MSOs.  SiTV has already gained carriage deals on  Comcast, Time Warner and Cox.

The word of the day is “Reality.”  Though I think we can all agree that’s the wrong word.  Not for the day, just for the genre. The question is, where is the Reality in Reality TV?  Mark Burnett tells me he classifies his own shows as Unscripted Dramas.  And as far as the term Reality is concerned, like a lot of topics, Mark has a very decided POV which he explains as it relates to Survivor:   “Reality?  How can you call it reality? First of all, the situation is contrived. This group of people didn’t just find themselves stranded on a deserted island. What is real is the castaways’ reactions as a result of their situation. That’s what’s real, that’s the story. Maybe it should be called a Situational Drama.”  Maybe it should. Can we all agree then, since nobody is buying the “reality” term anymore, that from now on we’ll follow Burnett’s lead and call them U.D.’s. or even S.D.’s?  Agreed?  Ok, let’s move on. 

WNBA President Val Ackerman announced Ann Sarnoff will join the WNBA on February 23 as the league’s Chief Operating Officer. Sarnoff, who will report to Ackerman, will be charged with overseeing the business functions of the league, including its advertising, broadcasting, marketing, merchandising, player programs and communications activities.  Ann makes the move to the WNBA from VH1 and CMT where she was COO.

John Fant has been named Director of Operations for TV One, the entertainment network targeting African American adults that launched in January 2004.  John is responsible for the logistics and quality control elements of TV One’s signal transmission, including reliable transmission to affiliates, traffic/log operations, on-air programming technical quality, and management of the relationship with and operation of the master control facility.  Additionally, SVP/Affiliates Sales and Marketing Bernard Bell announced Eric Claytor has been named Affiliate Sales Account Manager.

Elizabeth Tumulty has been upped to SVP/Affiliate Relations and Communications for The WB, reporting to Ken Werner, EVP/Distribution.

And it’s official … Richard Kaplan has been named President of MSNBC, reporting to Neal Shapiro, President/NBC News.  Erik Sorenson, GM of MSNBC since 1998, will move over to NBC News working with Shapiro on long term strategic projects.

Monday, February 16, 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     10.6/16 Yes Dear 7.511, Still Standing 8.0/12, Raymond 12.4/18, Two and a Half Men 11.1/16, CSI Miami 12.3/19

NBC     8.7/13  Fear Factor 10.6/16, Las Vegas 7.9/12, Average Joe: Hawaii 7.6/12

FOX     7.1/11  The Littlest Groom (part 1 of 2) 4.9/7, My Big Fat Obnoxious Fiance 9.4/14

ABC     6.9/10  ABC Movie: Jurassic Park III  4.7/7, Primetime Special Edition 11.2/17

WB      3.7/5   7th Heaven 3.9/6, Everwood 3.5/5

UPN     2.6/4   The Parkers 2.4/4, Eve 2.6/4, Girlfriends 2.8/4, Half and Half 2.6/4

A18-49  NBC 6.7/16, CBS 5.7/14, Fox 5.4/13, ABC 3.2/8, WB 1.9/4, UPN 1.6/4

A MESSAGE FROM WARNER BROS. DOMESTIC CABLE DISTRIBUTION

Source: NHI Explorer, 2/2/04-2/8/04.  HH Cvg Rtg.  #1 Ranks ties Robin Hood:Men In Tights, One Fine Day, Down Periscope.  Excludes sports and specials.

The History Channel presents This Day in History: 
1929 – The winners of the first Academy Awards are announced. “Wings” wins best picture, Emil Jannings best lead actor, and Janet Gaynor best lead actress.

Answer to yesterday’s Trivia Question:  Who was the Coward of Bitter Creek, who was forced to spend the entire series wandering the old west trying to disprove the false allegation?  Need either the character’s name or the actor’s.  CAPTAIN JASON McCORD, played by CHUCK CONNORS on BRANDED.  Kudos to:  Steve Eisenberg-SL Inc./NY; Jeffrey Tuchman-Documania Films/NY; Julius Picardi-PSP/NY; Alex Mullen-MTV Ad Sales/NY; Margaret Chunn-Carat USA/Chicago; Patti Clements-KXRM KXTV/Colorado Springs; Ed Worthington-KHWB/Houston; Mike Reitman-NEXTMedia/Dallas; Robert Langer-Majestic Studios/Van Nuys; Karen Miller-Reality Central/LA; Arthur Greenwald-Arthur Greenwald Prods/LA;: Scott Tallal-INSITE Media Research/Malibu; Monica Marcott-YES TV/Anchorage; Jacquie Hood-Omni TV/Toronto; and Iain Eggleton-XS TV Ltd/Auckland New Zealand.

Today’s Trivia Question:  On what series could you potentially run into the Devil’s Hole Gang, or what was left of it?  (
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
02/18/04   5:29am
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COURT TV:       The Take: Love Connection, Forensic Files, Psychic Detective, Dominick Dunne
ABC             My Wife & Kids, It’s All Relative, The Bachelorette, Celebrity Mole: Yucatan [finale]
CBS             60 Minutes II, King of Queens, Everybody Loves Raymond [r] (OTO), 48 Hours Investigates
FOX             That 70’s Show, American Idol, The O.C.
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UPN             Enterprise, Top Model [r]
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