CYNTHIA TURNER’S
CYNOPSIS

01/28/04

Good morning. It’s Wednesday, January 28, 2004, and this is your first early morning briefing. 

NBC once again took Monday night in the A18-49 demo according to fast affiliate ratings from Nielsen Media Research.  For the night, NBC tallied a 6.1/16, a full four demo share points ahead of Fox 4.9/12, in turn followed by CBS 4.1/10, ABC 2.9/7, WB 2.2/5, UPN 1.4/3.  At 8pm NBC owned the hour far and away from the competition thanks to couples competing on Fear Factor which stagged a 7.7/19. Fox was #2 for the hour with That 70’s Show (3.5/9) and a ‘long lost episode’ of The Simple Life (3.7/9). Among the slightly younger female viewers, Fear Factor was still tops at 8.0/12 W18-34, followed by Simple Life (4.2/11) and then a new ep of 7th Heaven was third with a 3.4/9.  At 9p Fox led among A18-49 with My Big Fat Obnoxious Fiance (6.2/14), beating NBC’s Las Vegas (5.3/12) and CBS’ Raymond/Two & a Half Men combo (4.5/10).  Could be the press run-around Steve (aka Obnoxious Fiance) has been doing this week has helped to elevate his reputation from obnoxious oaf to actually a nice guy, just working for a living. at 10p NBC’s Average Joe Hawaii led with a 5.4/13, ahead of CBS’ CSI Miami [r] (4.2/10).  In the face of drama and sitcom repeats, does it seem like the reality show is gaining ground?

The off-net teen angst drama, My So Called Life is joining Noggin’s The N‘s programming lineup premiering on the teen network April 2 at 8p.  The series will air regularly Friday evenings, 8p following back to back episodes of Degrassi: The Next Generation, 7p.  The series, which turns ten this year, stars Claire Danes, Jared Leto, Wilson Cruz, and A.J. Langer and comes from the executive producing team of Edward Zwick and Marshall Herskovits.

Matt Lauer is hitting the road again in his annual Where in the World is Matt Lauer, starting February 9 on NBC’s Today show. In previous treks, Lauer has found himself atop Mt. Everest, Rio de Janiero, the Taj Mahal and even the Blue Lagoon in Iceland. This year’s event is sponsored by CVS/Pharmacy.

Dennis Miller’s debut on CNBC Monday night drew 746,000 total viewers, fully four times the average Monday night 9pm audience for the news network, according to Nielsen Media Research.  Miller’s guests on his inaugural episode was Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and a monkey named Elle.  Across the street on MSNBC, Deborah Norville’s 9p show averaged 307,000 viewers.  However, neither show put a dent in Fox News Hannity & Colmes 1.7 million viewers or CNN’s Larry King Live’s 1.3 million viewers. 

USA debuted part one of Traffic: The Miniseries on Monday night, and delivered 2.8 million viewers from 9-11p, slightly lower than its L&O: SVU lead-in of 2.9 million and while it was behind Spike TV’s WWE Raw and TNT’s Law & Order, it did deliver 1.5 million A18-49 viewers, #2 behind Spike TV. 

Meanwhile, the rumor is Doug Herzog, President of USA Network, is planning an early exit once the merger with NBC is complete later on this year.  His plan is to return to Comedy Central where he was President before going to Fox and then USA.  At the same time, current Pres/CEO of Comedy Central, Larry Divney, has announced to the staff he will be retiring, though no mention was made of the potential return of Herzog.

UPN program changes – Arriving to the network on Wednesday, March 10 is a CGI-animated series called Game Over (Carsey-Werner-Mandabach) scheduled to air at 8p and immediately followed by a return of The Mullets at 830p.  Game Over follows the lives of video game characters when they’re not ‘working’. Star Trek Enterprise will shift to 9pm, replacing the current Top Model repeats.

In Development:

• Fox has ordered a pilot of Johnny Zero (John Wells Prods/Warner Bros TV) about an ex-con who becomes a private detective an yet still has leanings toward the dark side.  Franky G will star as Johnny Zero.
• CBS has order a pilot (cast contingent) for Nice Guys (Silver Pictures/Shoe Money Prods/Warner Bros TV) a project about a pair of private detectives.
• UPN has ordered up two pilots – Silver Lake (Spelling TV) is about a guy who talks to dead people; and Kevin Hill (from Mel Gibson’s Icon Int’l and Touchstone) about a young bachelor lawyer suddenly saddled with raising his young niece.
• ABC and Kelly Osbourne?  The pair are getting together for a scripted pilot titled Doing It based on the novel of the same name from Melvin Burgess about three teenage boys and their various experiences. Osbourne will be one of the boy’s girlfriend. Cast in the roles of the three young men are Sean Farris, Chris Lowell and Jon Foster. Elsewhere, ABC has ordered a pilot of action/adventure project The Catch starring Greg Grunberg about bounty hunters as a potential mid-season series for next year. Writer/producer JJ Abrams is also working on the network’s project Lost about a group of people stuck on a deserted island.  And also pushed to midseason is the Michael Bay/Shane Salerno legal drama (Touchstone) while both Shane and Bay are working on feature projects, says Variety.

Top Ten Basic Cable Ad Supported Network Rankings among Total Viewers for the month of January 2004:
Primetime        (000)     Total Day            (000)
USA                   2490      NICK/NAN            1857
NICK/NAN         2321      TNT                      1310
TNT                   2259      USA                      1199
TBS                   2060      LIFETIME             1174
LIFETIME          1854      CARTOON           1144
ESPN                1606      TBS                      1111
CARTOON        1548      ESPN                     854
DISCOVERY     1469      FOXNEWS             810
SCIFI           1404    MTV                        733
FOXNEWS        1382      TLC                         711
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 month of January 2004:
Primetime        (000)     Total Day           (000)
USA                   1102     TBS                     650
TBS                   1080     TNT                     635
TNT                     972      USA                    568
DISCOVERY      837       NICK/NAN          540
LIFETIME            782       LIFETIME           538
MTV                    778       ESPN                  465
TLC                    742       MTV                     440
ESPN                  671      TLC                     414
SCIFI                   645      DISCOVERY      393
FX                       625      FX                        354
Source  Turner Research from Nielsen Media Research Data.
All ratings based on Total U.S. Television Universe of 108,400,000 homes.

In year to year comparisons among A18-49 in primetime, the cable networks making the biggest gains in January 2004 were Fuse +100% vs. January 2003; Bravo +80%, AMC +66%, Outdoor Life Network +61%, CMT +50%, National Geographic Channel +47%.  Those networks that saw some diminished audiences this January vs a year ago in the A18-49 demo were TV Land -24%, TV Guide Channel -16%, Animal Planet and Court TV both -15%, and GSN -13%.

News Viewer Index for the week of January 19-25, 2004 in Total Viewers
Total Day Total Fox News/CNN/MSNBC/Headline Cable News Viewers  1.730 (000) Total Viewers. (+4% vs. previous week). Of the cable news viewership, Fox News had 48% of the viewing, CNN 27%, MSNBC 13%; and Headline News 11%
Primetime Total Fox News/CNN/MSNBC/Headline Cable News Viewers  3.267 (0000) Total Viewers (+27% vs. previous week). Of the primetime cable news viewership, Fox News had 55%, CNN 28%, MSNBC 11% and Headline News 6%.
Source Nielsen Media Research

The FCC has issued significant fines to two media outlets who reportedly were in violation of the Indecency and Public Inspection File Rules.  Five Florida radio stations owned by Clear Channel Communications was sited for 26 apparent violations and fined $27,500 for each as well as $40,000 fine for failure to maintain certain required documents in the station’s public files. The Clear Channel stations were fined a total fo $755,000.   And Young Broadcasting’s KRON/San Francisco was also fined for ‘apparently willfully broadcasting indecent material during a KRON 4 Morning News show on October 4, 2002 … The Commission proposed the statutory maximum amount of $27,500.”  For further information on both of these actions, go to http://www.fcc.gov/headlines.html.

Former Disney Co. directors Roy E. Disney and Stanley Gold have been reaching out to Disney shareholders and suggesting they withhold votes to re-elect Disney’s Chairman Michael Eisner as well as three board directors; George Mitchell, John Bryson and Judith Estrin.  Disney’s annual meeting will be held in Philadelphia on March, 3.  You’ll recall that Disney and Gold both stepped down from the Disney Co.’s board of directors while denouncing Eisner for a number of things including not having a long range plan to grow the company.

Intermedia Advertising Group’s Top Ten Most Effective New Ads for new campaigns airing the weeks of
January 5-18, 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 211, the top ranked Ritz 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)
– 211  RITZ: Chips–George Hamilton comes out of house in robe, crowd in front of house
– 202  PILLSBURY: Grands!–The Chesters, boy thinks biscuits are big
– 200  SEGA:  Sonic Heroes–man rushes to “League of Superheroes” for help
– 179  GLAXOSMITHKLINE: NicoDerm CQ, Commit, & Nicorette–woman’s hair smells like shampoo, soccer, pine tree
– 166  OREO: Young boy has difficulty dunking cookie into sip-cup
– 165  THETRUTH.COM: People take survey on street, know tobacco-related illness sufferers, hold orange circles
– 165  GM: Hot Button Giveaway–man wins Cadillac by pushing OnStar button
– 164  SPRINT: PCS–talkative girl braids family’s hair, Unlimited Night Minutes start at 7:00 p.m
– 162  SPRINT: PCS Picture Mail–man finds monster in closet
– 155  BUDWEISER: True–referee left field for 15 minutes, has toilet paper on shoe

Two CNN staff members were killed in Iraq on Tuesday following an ambush outside Baghdad. Traveling in a two-car convoy, driver Yasser Khatab and translator/producer Duraid Isa Mohammed both died as a result of gunfire.  Photog Scott McWhinnie was also injured, grazed by a bullet, and is being treated, while correspondent Michael Holmes and producer Shirley Hung were not harmed.  Khatab and Mohammed were two of 37 locals hired by CNN who also has 27 other staff members currently in Iraq.

He is credited with creating the late night talk show format as we know it today, of being a pioneer and launching the career of many notables including Carol Burnett and Liza Minnelli, and welcoming many others to his show including Judy Garland, Cassius Clay and Bill Cosby.  Jack Paar, former host of The Tonight Show from 1957-62, died at his home in Greenwich, Connecticut, yesterday at the age of 85.  He will be remembered for his famous WC joke and eventual walking off the set of a live show, and upon his return about a month later, he began by saying, “As I was saying, before I was interrupted …”; his ongoing feud with Ed Sullivan; and providing easy conversation with the like of John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon.

Hearst-Argyle will acquire WMTW/Portland from WMTW Broadcast Group for a reported $37.5 million.  Neighboring WMUR/Manchester and WNNE/Burlington are also owned by Hearst-Argyle.

Kathleen Cox has been named President/CEO of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, replacing Robert Coonrod who had been in that position for the past seven years and will stay on as an advisor during the transition. Coonrod’s contract expired approx 8 months ago, and at the request of the board he agreed to stay on until a successor could be found.

Monday, January 26, 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     8.7/13  Yes Dear [r]  9.5/14, Still Standing [r] 10.0/14, Raymond [r] 8.3/12, Two and a Half Men [r] 7.9/11, CSI Miami [r] 7.2/11

NBC     8.4/12  Fear Factor 9.7/14, Las Vegas 8.1/12, Average Joe: Hawaii 7.2/11

FOX     6.4/9   That 70’s Show [r] 4.5/7, The Simple Life 4.9/7, My Big Fat Obnoxious Fiance 8.0/12

ABC     4.7/7   ABC Monday Movie: Armageddon 4.7/7

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

UPN     2.4/4   The Parkers [r] 2.3/3, Eve [r] 2.6/4, Girlfriends [r] 2.4/3, Half & Half [r] 2.4/4

A18-49  NBC 6.1/15, Fox 4.9/12, CBS 4.1/10, ABC 2.9/7, WB 2.2/5, UPN 1.4/3

A MESSAGE FROM WARNER BROS. DOMESTIC CABLE DISTRIBUTION

The History Channel presents This Day in History: 
1878 – “The Yale News” was published for the first time. It was the first, daily, collegiate newspaper in the U.S.

Answer to yesterday’s Trivia Question:  This famous sitcom house was originally built in the mid 1940s for motion pictures settings. A facade in act, the ‘house’ appeared in several movies including So Goes My Love (1946); All I Desire (1953); The Brass Bottle (1964); The Ballad of Josie (1967); Coogan’s Bluff (1968); Dragnet (1987); and The Burbs (1989). It was also seen in the Alfred Hitchcock television series on an episode titled “Bang, You’re Dead,” and as the Lake Tahoe residence on the sitcom SHIRLEY/NBC/1979-80. The house was originally built on Colonial Street on the back lot of Universal Studios, sugar-borrowing distance from the Cleaver house on Leave it to Beaver. Since the sixties, the house has been uprooted and moved to another section of the back lot and is now nearly unrecognizable to tourists in search of the original series home. What sitcom family lived in this house?  THE MUNSTERS!  Kudos to:  Deborah Bays-TBS TNT/Atlanta; Jonathan Lipson-Active Media/NY; Zoe Gordon-Mediacom/NY; Scott Collins-Universal Television Networks/NY; Kendra Garwood-KSNT/Topeka; Robert Ray-HDNet/Dallas; Robert Mitt Dawson, Jr-KZJL/Houston; Alice Candiotti-DreamWorks SKG/Burbank; Dennis Aimino-KCBS KCAL/LA; Evan Weinstein-The Amazing Race/LA; Linda Jofrey-Sony Pictures Television/Culver City.

Today’s Trivia Question: What bad guy organization’s business card had the question “What evil have you done today?” on the front and a picture of an enraged bird on the back?   (
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
01/28/04 5:26am
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WHAT’S ON TONIGHT:  WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 28, 2004

COURT TV’S FORENSIC FACT:
Fingerprint identification relies on a minimum of twelve matching characteristics in the ridge patterns.

COURT TV:       Impossible Heists, Forensic Files, North Mission Road, Dominick Dunne
ABC             My Wife & Kids [r], It’s All Relative, The Bachelorette, Celebrity Mole: Yucatan
CBS             60 Minutes II, The King of Queens [r], Becker, 48 Hours Investigates
FOX             American Idol, The O.C.
NBC             The Apprentice [r], West Wing [r], Law & Order [r]
PAX             AFV, Early Edition, Diagnosis Murder
UPN             Enterprise [r], Top Model [r]
WB              Smallville, Angel
TELE            Amor Descardo, El Alma Herida, Mujeres Apasionadas
UNIV            Velo de Novia, Te Amaré en Silencio, Don Francisco Presenta