CYNTHIA TURNER’S
CYNOPSIS

02/25/04

Good morning. It’s Wednesday, February 25, 2004, and this is your first early morning briefing. 

Fox led Monday night on the strength of its Big Fat Obnoxious ratings, posting an overall 7.2/17 for the night among A18-49 according to Nielsen Media Research.  CBS and NBC tied at #2 each with a 5.5/13, followed by ABC 3.2/8, WB 2.0/5, UPN 1.6/4. At 8pm the first hour of NBC’s 90m Fear Factor led with a 6.4/17 over #2 Fox’s Littlest Groom 4.2/11 and then CBS’ Yes Dear/Still Standing (3.9/10). At 9pm Fox’s Obnoxious ratings were a 10.2/23, whereas the final half hour of Fear Factor delivered a 6.0/14, with CBS’ Raymond (5.6/13) and Two and a Half Men (5.2/11) following. At 10p CSI Miami on CBS led with a 7.2/17, ahead of NBC’s final hour of Average Joe: Hawaii (5.3/13).  ABC’s 8-10p movie The Fast and the Furious drew a 2.8/7, followed by Super Millionaire with a 3.8/9 (#2 among total viewers with 12.3m).

On Sunday evening at 9pm PAX aired The Making of the Passion of Christ, and found an audience of 3.1 million viewers, a 2.0 HH NTI rating, making this OTO special the network’s second highest rated program in PAX history.  Among A25-54 the special drew  a 1.0 rating; and a 1.1 among W25-54.  The show repeated last evening at the same hour.

10.6 million viewers tuned in to see the finale of HBO’s S#x and the City on Sunday night at 9pm, according to Nielsen Media Research.  In HBO universe (which is about 30m households) the HH rating for S#x was a 21.8/28 which is the highest HH number for the premium channel since September 2002 season premiere of The Sopranos.  The telecast also led the A18-34 and W18-34 demo categories across cable and broadcast for the 45m show.  When this does find its way to the big screen, any bets on what that opening weekend box office will look like?

The next round of indecency hearings are scheduled for tomorrow, and showing up for the party are Bud Paxson (PAX TV), Harry Pappas (Pappas Telecasting), Gail Berman (Fox), Alex Wallau (ABC), Alan Wurtzel (NBC), John Hogan (Clear Channel Radio).  CBS is not represented this time around since Mel Karmazin joined the Senators’ subcommittee for the first hearing as did Paul Tagliabue.

New in Development/Casting:

• CBS has signed Jean Smart to join the cast of its comedy pilot Center of the Universe (Tannanbaum Co., Warner Bros. TV, CBS Prods), as John Goodman’s wife.  Center of the Universe is about a guy who’s tries to prevent war from breaking out among his large extended Chicago family. Elsewhere at CBS, Kathleen Rose Perkins has been added tot he growing cast of The Amazing Westerbergs (Sony/CBS Prods), joining Chris O’Donnell and Jay Harrington.
• WB has made its first major casting move with Oliver Hudson starring in its drama pilot The Mountain (Wonderland Sound & Vision, Warner Bros. TV) about a young man who inherits his family’s mountain resort.
• NBC‘s comedy pilot Untitled Matt Tarses/Bill Wrubel project, sometimes referred to as Home & Hardware, has added Al Madrigal to the cast as head of shipping for the store.
• UPN‘s comedy pilot Kevin Hill (Icon/Touchstone) has cast Patrick Breen as the gay nanny to Kevin Hill’s new charge, his infant niece.
• Sources: BaselineFT.com, Variety, Hollywood Reporter

USA Network and the WB have both acquired the television rights to Adam Sandler’s newest film, 50 First Dates (Sony).  The numbers weren’t make known, but typically these deals run in the neighborhood of 15% of total domestic box office, and given this film’s first two weeks where it has already taken in $73.3 million, the license fee for this baby will be substantial.  According to Variety, USA will air the film first in July 2006, thereafter bicycling between the two networks for multiple airings. The combined deal will also include Sony’s You Got Served, also beginning its term at USA before shuttling over to WB. The USA deal also included Sony’s film Big Fish for a license fee of $6 million, available to the net in May 2006 for a three year term.

As cable networks prepare for their upfront season, TBS has come out with a new tag line – TBS Very Funny, the juxtaposition to Turner’s other entertainment net, TNT We Know Drama.  Wtih the new tag this spring/summer comes the off-net launch of S#x and the City followed in the fall with Everybody Loves Raymond, as well as an original unscripted series from Bruce Nash (Meet My Folks,etc.), relationship driven, that takes a young women around the world in search of love.

A couple of key programming changes effecting syndicated shows to make note of:  in NYC, 20th’s On Air with Ryan Seacrest is moving from Fox’s UPN station, WWOR at 5pm, to the Fox affiliate WNYW at 3pm.  With that move, comes the upgrade of two other syndicated series on WNYW, Tribune’s double run of Family Feud will move to 4-5pm.  A similar move in Chicago -On Air had been airing on UPN affiliate, WPWR at 6pm, and it will now move to WFLD at 3pm, displacing back to back eps of Cops. In both cases, On Air is moving to the stronger of the two Fox O&O stations.

As mentioned last Friday, the Food Network is bringing Iron Chef to the United States with the Americanized version of the show.  Iron Chef America (Triage Ent) is set to launch with an original series of four special episodes on April 23-25, 9-11p each evening.  The American Iron Chefs are Bobby Flay Mario Batali and Wolfgang Puck.  In these special eps, the American Iron Chefs do kitchen battle with the Japanese Iron Chefs Masaharo Morimoto and Hiroyuki Sakai.   As any Iron Chef fan knows, there is also a set of judges and for the American version  will include Paige Davis (Trading Spaces), Dennis Franz (NYPD Blue), Barbara Fairchild (editor of Bon Appetit), Vincent Pastore (Sopranos), among others.  And in the role of play-by-ingredient commentator, chef/scientist Alton Brown.

Universal Domestic Television‘s new syndicated fare for the fall, Home Delivery, has now reach an 80% clearance with 45 of the top 50 markets done.   The top 10 markets include the Tribune O&O group, Universal’s partner in the project (Tribune Ent sells the national barter time):  WPIX/NY; KTLA/LA; WGN/Chicago; WPHL/Philadelphia; KTVU & KICU/San Francisco; WLVI/Boston; KDAF/Dallas; WBDC/Washington DC; WATL/Atlanta and WWJ & WKBD/Detroit.

CABLEready has acquired the international distribution rights to 13 episodes of Samurai Sportsman (Hidden Treasures Prods), currently airing in its first season on Outdoor Life Network in primetime. The show features Japanese sportsman Yoshi, a martial arts expert and Samurai swordsman, teaming up with a Western outdoorsman and learning how to master each new Western style as well as teaching the ways of the Samurai. Says Gary Lico, President/CEO of CABLEready, Samurai Sportsman is “…an outdoor sports show with appeal even to folks who don’t know a shotgun from a shogun.”

You may remember this show earlier this season on Fox, Banzai, which lasted only a handful of airings, and will now show up next on Comedy Central according to Daily Variety.  Beginning next month, Banzai will air on Thursday nights at 1030p.

When you think of MTV’s newest unscripted series, think Orange County Choppers meets Trading Spaces. Pimp My Ride helps an automotively-challenged car enthusiast with flat wheels, jazz up and trick out the car into a vehicular masterpiece.  Leading the charge is rapper Xzibit, and West Coast Customs, the world famous car shop that has customized cars for Shaquille O’Neal, 50 Cent and Ludacris.  Pimp My Ride debuts on March 4 at 1030p; MTV has ordered 10 episodes to air weekly.

Top Ten Basic Cable Ad Supported Network Rankings among Total Viewers for the week of Feb 16-22, 2004:
Primetime        (000)     Total Day            (000)
NICK/NAN        2519    NICK/NAN        2020
TNT                   2218      TNT             1314
USA             2218    CARTOON 1141
TBS             1697    USA             1064
LIFETIME        1629    LIFETIME        1026
CARTOON 1590    TBS             996
DISCOVERY     1378      FOXNEWS 797
FOXNEWS 1332    DISCOVERY       730
ESPN            1307    A&E             722
A&E             1210    ESPN            631
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 for the week of Feb 16-22, 2004:
Primetime        (000)     Total Day           (000)
TNT             1027    TNT             636
USA             986     TBS             596
TBS             898     NICK/NAN        583
DISCOVERY       797     USA             507
LIFETIME        732     LIFETIME        500
MTV             667     DISCOVERY       429
SPIKE           639     ESPN            366
ESPN            618     TLC             366
NICK/NAN        615     FX              324
TLC             608     SPIKE           304
Source  Turner Research from Nielsen Media Research Data.
All ratings based on Total U.S. Television Universe of 108,400,000 homes.

News Viewer Index for the week of Feb 16-22, 2004 in Total Viewers
Total Day Total Fox News/CNN/MSNBC/Headline Cable News Viewers  1.689 (000) Total Viewers. (+2% vs. previous week). Of the cable news viewership, Fox News had 47% of the viewing, CNN 28%, MSNBC 13%; and Headline News 12%
Primetime Total Fox News/CNN/MSNBC/Headline Cable News Viewers  2.679 (0000) Total Viewers (+5 vs. previous week). Of the primetime cable news viewership, Fox News had 50%, CNN 31%, MSNBC 11% and Headline News 8%.
Source Nielsen Media Research

During this Sunday’s telecast of the Academy Awards, JCPenny will launch its new image campaign created by DDB Worldwide/Chicago, and targeted to women, who traditionally turn out to in droves to watch the Oscars.  During the Oscar broadcast JCPenny will introduce five new :30 image spots highlighting various product areas of interest to women, and enhancing its well known jingle “its-all-inside” with the introduction of the question “Have you seen what’s inside?”  Of the five ads, titled Inchworm, showcases infant/kid/teen brands through the depiction of a baby girl evolving through kidhood, her teen years and so on.  The ad is tagged with a voice-over stating “As they grow and outgrow, JCPenny is there.”

Also debuting during the Oscars will be the new American Express campaign with Tiger Woods wherein he re-creates the role of Bill Murray in Caddyshack.  Using clips from the 1980 film, Tigershack finds the golfer trying to deal with a gopher. 

Intermedia Advertising Group’s Top Ten Most Effective New Ads for new campaigns airing the weeks of
February 2-15, 2004. The list is ranked by viewer’s ability to recall the new ads and their associated products and brands.  The Recall Score is the percentage of TV viewers who within 24 hours are able to remember the brand of the ad they saw during normal TV viewing.  The scores are then indexed against the mean score for all ads during the time period to create the Recall Index; 100 is Average. For example, with a recall index of 229, the top ranked Pepsi ad has proven to be more than twice as effective as the average new commercial.   Source Intermedia Advertising Group Inc.’s 2004 Ad Performance Data Series (www.iagr.net)
– 229  PEPSI:  iTunes Giveaway–teens prosecuted for downloading music, I Fought the Law 
– 197  PANTENE PRO-V: Kelly Ripa in blue top talks about healthy hair makeover
– 195  DOMINO’S: Cheesy Dots–they’re coming, boy runs from boulder sized Cheesy Dots
– 194  STAPLES: People offer man pastries in exchange for office supplies 
– 194  THETRUTH.COM: People take survey on street, know tobacco-related illness sufferers
– 193   AT&T WIRELESS: Ryan Seacrest on a plane, guy across aisle text-messaging friend
– 192  SNICKERS: Father & son at ball game, loves nuts, Almond, Cruncher, Regular (:30)
– 184   KAY JEWELERS: Valentine’s Day–Diamond and Natural Ruby, woman cries tears of joy (:15)
– 181   KAY JEWELERS: Valentine’s Day–Diamond and Natural Ruby, woman cries tears of joy (:30)
– 180   SNICKERS: Father & son at ball game, loves nuts, Almond, Cruncher, Regular (:15)

Larry Jones has been upped to President/TV Land and Nick at Nite, two networks among the Viacom group of cable networks.  The annoncement came from Herb Scannell, MTVN Group Pres and Pres/Nick Networks, to whom Larry reports.  Larry oversees the day-to-day operations of TV Land and NAN, as well as overseeing all original production and development, programming, marketing, promotions and ad sales for both nets.

Gavin Harvey has been named President of Outdoor Life Network (a Comcast owned cable net). Harvey makes to move to OLN from E! Networks where he was EVP/Mktg and Brand Director. OLN is currently available in more than 55 million homes.

Michelle Rice has been named VP/Distribution Strategy and Operations for TV One, the new entertainment network targeting African American adults.  Michelle will develop strategy to increase and maximize TV One’s distribution opportunities to cable and satellite operators and manage the day-to-day affiliate sales and marketing operations.  She will also handle sales efforts for key MSO national accounts and divisions.

Evan Messinger has rejoined Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. (TBS, Inc.) in the newly created position of SVP/Strategic Integration Sales Manager – News.  Evan will report to Greg D’Alba, COO/CNN Ad Sales and Marketing.  Evan will be responsible for the day-to-day sales management of all global client solutions, program integration sales and promotional activities.  Messinger will head a team of executives who will work across the entire breadth of the CNN brand to develop multimedia integrated marketing programs and promotions for clients.

NBC has upped Lauren Stein to Director/Primetime Series, NBC Studios, reporting to Angela Bromstad, EVP/NBC Studios. Lauren oversees such primetime series as American Dreams and Crossing Jordan, as well as involved in the development of new drama series.

Gary Herman has been upped to SVP/Advertising Sales, Emerging Networks, and Robert Calandruccio to VP/Ad Sales, both at DIY—Do It Yourself Network, a Scripps’ owned cable network. Gary will be responsible for the overall ad sales strategic direction for two of Scripps Networks’ emerging brands – DIY and Fine Living, along with Scripps Syndication. Robert’s responsibilities including supervising the ad sales staff, managing the business development, strategic planning and integrated marketing process.

Monday, February 23, 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     10.7/16 Yes Dear 7.6/12, Still Standing 8.4/13, Raymond 11.5/17, Two and a Half Men 10.9/16, CSI Miami 13.1/20

FOX     9.1/14  The Littlest Groom (part 2 of 2) 6.2/9, Big Fat Obnoxious Fiance [finale] 12.3/18

NBC     7.4/11  Fear Factor [90m] 8.5/13, Average Joe: Hawaii [90m] 6.3/10

ABC     6.0/9   ABC Movie: The Fast and the Furious 5.1/8; Super Millionaire 7.9/12

WB      3.8/6   7th Heaven 4.1/6, Everwood 3.5/5

UPN     2.6/4   The Parkers 2.6/4, Eve 2.8/4, Girlfriends 2.6/4, Half and Half 2,4/3

A18-49  Fox 7.2/17, CBS and NBC 5.5/13, ABC 3.2/8, WB 2.0/5, UPN 1.6/4

A MESSAGE FROM WARNER BROS. DOMESTIC CABLE DISTRIBUTION

Source: NTI Explorer, 9/22/03-2/22/04. Sun, 8p-9p.  Excludes specials. #2 rank week of 11/24/03. US HH rating.

The History Channel presents This Day in History: 
1965 – Heavyweight boxing champion Sonny Liston throws in the towel after seven rounds, yielding the world title to 22-year-old Cassius Clay. After the fight, the new champion announced publicly that he was member of the Nation of Islam, and in March he changed his name to Muhammad Ali.

Answer to yesterday’s Trivia Question:  What is an Evening Shade Argus? The LOCAL NEWSPAPER in Evening Shade.  Kudos to:  Jim Mason-Comcast Spotlight/Philadelphia; Reshma Shah-Univision Telefutura/NY; Christina Famy-Mount Snow Resort/Mt Snow; George Gerritsen-UniWorld Group/NY; Mike Wang-KSHB/Kansas City; Joelle Bower-Discovery Comm/Chicago; Marcia Ruggio-RW Lynch Agency/San Ramon; Amani K. Smith-Urbanscore Music/LA; Lloyd Komesar-Buena Vista Television/LA; Patrick Clark-G4 Network/LA; Mary Ann Spinella-YES TV5/Anchorage; and Peter Koll-Global Television/Toronto.  Reminder — You can only appear in the Kudos list once during the week!

A MESSAGE FROM 20TH TELEVISION

Today’s Trivia Question:  Bob Johnson had this unnamed role during the show’s 1966-73 run on CBS, and again later when the show made a comeback in 1988-90.  His voice began each episode, and without it, there was no plot (tho some would argue there still was no plot), no target, no cool stuff, no intrigue.  What was this show?  (
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
02/25/04  5:24am
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WHAT’S ON TONIGHT:  WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2004

COURT TV:       The Take: The Trenchcoat Gang, Forensic Files, Psychic Detectives, Dominick Dunne
ABC             My Wife & Kids, It’s All Relative, The Bachelorette [finale]
CBS             60 Minutes, King of Queens, Raymond [r], 48 Hours Investigates
FOX             That 70’s Show, American Idol, The O.C.
NBC             The Apprentice [r], West Wing, Law & Order
PAX             AFV, Early Edition, Diagnosis Murder
UPN             Enterprise, Top Model [r]
WB              Smallville, Angel
TELE            Amor Descardo, El Alma Herida, Mujeres Apasionadas
UNIV            Velo de Novia, Bajo la  Misma Piel, Don Francisco Presenta