CYNTHIA TURNER’S
Cynopsis

01/05/05

Good morning. It’s Monday, January 5, 2005, and this is your first early morning briefing. 

Monday night brought the premiere of Medium on NBC at 10p and it drew a very solid 6.3/16 A18-49 according to Nielsen Media Research data, tied in share with CBS’s CSI Miami with a 6.6/16.  Medium also increased it’s Las Vegas lead-in by four share points.  Among W18-49, Medium was in a dead tie with CSI Miami, each posting an 8.0/18.  If you missed the premiere of Medium, NBC will give you another change on Thursday at 10p. Also airing on Monday night was Fox‘s controversial 90m reality special, Who’s Your Daddy?.  The special delivered an overall 2.3/6 among A18-49.  During each half hour, it built: 1.8/5 for the first 30m, up to a 2.2/6, and finishing at a 2.9/7 among A18-49.  It’s highest numbers came from W18-34 who averaged a 2.9/8 for the full show, with a high of 3.9/10 for the final half hour.

Tonight’s Premieres:
ABC:    Alias at 9p
NBC:  SI: Swimsuit Model Search at 8p
UPN:  The Road to Stardom with Missy Elliott at 8p

Casting / Development / Production

• ABC‘s sitcom In the Game has added Alyson Hannigan (American Pie, you know, at band camp?) to the lineup that already includes Jennifer Love Hewitt and Ed O’Neill.  The premise is a sports producer (Hewitt) who is unwilling pushed into becoming an onair sports reporter.
• Comedy Central has ordered up two new series. The first is a reality show, set to air in April with the first of 8 eps, called Con headed up by Skyler Stone.   The second is called is called Stella and stars Michael Ian Black, Michael Showalter and David Wain, and is based on the stage show of the same name. Stella has an order for 10 eps.

Turner is reportedly in the midst of talks to acquire the cable rights to the off-net series Ed from NBC Universal Studios for TBS. 

Superstation WGN will get the syndication rights to Moesha beginning September 20, 2005, when the show finishes up in broadcast syndication.  The deal with Superstation WGN is for four years, and it will have the exclusive broadcast rights to the series on the analog tier. Moesha is likely to air in early fringe between 5p and 7p.  Moesha is distributed by Paramount.

ABC Family has picked up the 25 unaired off-net episodes of Whose Line is it Anyway? (dist. by Warner Bros. Domestic Cable Dist.), per Variety.  The cable net already has the off-net rights to the show, these unseen eps will be added on to the current deal which has been in place since January 2002.  The new eps will begin airing later on this month.

HBO has ordered up a second season of Deadwood and has scheduled its premiere to be on March 6 at 10p following Carnivale.

Did you happen to see Stephen King’s Riding the Bullet when it came out in theatres last fall?  Neither did to many others – after a brief test run the film averaged about $1k per screen and that was the end of that.  Until now. USA Network has picked up the exclusive broadcast rights to the film for a reported $1 million and will air it for the first time on January 23, according to Daily Variety.  USA will air the film a total of five times over the course of ten days.  Per the Variety item, films with high action that don’t do well in theatres can still have a healthy afterlife on cable – to wit, two Steven Seagal movies which aired last year on USA both delivered better than 2 million adult viewers on their inaugural plays, and a Jean Claude Van Damme film drew in 1.8 million viewers.  None of the films were box office boffos (Belly of the Beast, Out for a Kill and In Hell), but all delivered for cable.

Cynopsis question for you:  By your own estimation, how much of your headline news intake comes from online vs. on air? And how different, would you say, is ratio versus a year ago? 
, tuck “Online News” in the subject line, and look for your collective responses in tomorrow’s edition.

CABLEready and Broadview Media will partner to bring US style expert Kate Rice into the reality world for both a domestic and international audience with a new show called The Style Method with Kate Rice.  CABLEready will introduce the 30m show at NATPE in Las Vegas, January 25-27.  Rice is not new to US viewers – she has been often seen on NBC’s The Other Half, Fox’s Good Day Live, HGTV’s Smart Solutions, and Lifetime’s Head 2 Toe and New Attitudes.

BlueHighways TV, a new network created to explore the people, stories, folklore, traditions and cultures of America, has entered into a carriage agreement with Insight Communications, bringing the new cable/satellite delivered network to 13 Insight markets.  This marks BlueHighways TV second cable MSO deal to date.

Citadel Broadcasting has pulled Howard Stern off the air.  Not for indecent comments, but for self promotional comments.  According to a statement from Citadel, Stern has turned his show into a “continuous infomercial promoting Sirius, his new satellite radio employer.”  Stern makes the move to satelite radio in 2006.  The markets effected are Syracuse, Providence, Harrisburg and Grand Rapids.  No word on when or if Stern will return.

Casting – for Charity:  Citymeals-on-Wheels’ 12th Annual Media Battle of the Bands will be held on February 17, 2005 at BB King Blues Club & Grill.  They are looking for one great band to join the battle this year; giving the band the the chance to play at a terrific venue before an audience of 1,200, all while helping to raise money to provide meals for New York’s homebound elderly neighbors.  Band members must work within the cable industry or for related agencies or technology providers. If interested, call Heather Gere at Citymeals-on-Wheels, 212.687.1290, or contact via email at

Court TV: The Investigation Channel has named Mary Corigliano, SVP/Marketing. The announcement came from Marc Juris, GM/Court TV, to whom Mary formerly reported when both she and Marc were at Fuse.  In her new role, she will oversee the development and execution of all marketing strategies, as well as implement and create initiatives to expand the Court TV brand and promote the network.

Pamela Kaufman has been upped to EVP/Marketing and Worldwide Promotions at Nickelodeon.  Pam’s new spectrum of responsibilities include strategic planning of worldwide programming launches as well as global partnership deals. She continues to report to Cyma Zarghami, President of Nickelodeon Television.   Now, give Pam a holler and have her take you to lunch.

Jeff Gralnick has been tapped to serve as Internet and Technology Consultant to Neal Shapiro at NBC News.  The announcement was made by Shapiro, and is effective immediately.  Gralnick was EP of NBC Nightly News from 1993-96, returning in 2002 as a consultant in a variety of areas across NBC News. 

As in previous years, this January Cynopsis will provide its NATPE Syndicated Program Guide listing of NEW SERIES only coming to market in preparation for this year’s conference in Las Vegas.  If you have information you’d like listed for a new strip or weekly series, please send it to me at
(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, movie packages, 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
.   The deadline for submissions is January 14; the Syndicated Guides will be sent to all subscribers on Wednesday, January 19, the week before the convention.

Monday, January 3, 2005. Fast Affiliate Ratings for all Networks – time period averages only.  Source Nielsen Media Research. Time Period Averages Only. [p] = Premiere; [o] = Original; [r] = Repeat

CBS     10.3/16  Still Standing 7.2/11, Listen Up 7.2/11, Raymond 11.8/17, 2-1/2 Men 11.4/17, CSI: Miami 12.0/19

ABC     9.5/15   The Nokia Sugar Bowl 9.5/15 (game ended at 11:25pm)

NBC     8.5/13   Fear Factor 6.7/10, Las Vegas 8.4/12, Medium [p] 10.4/16

FOX     3.9/6    Who’s Your Daddy [90m] 4.3/6, That 70’s Show 2.8/4

UPN     2.4/4    One on One 2.2/3, Half & Half 2.4/4, Girlfriends 2.6/4, Second Time Around 2.2/3

WB      2.0/3    7th Heaven [r] 2.4/4, Everwood [r] 1.5/2

A18-49  CBS 5.6/14, NBC 5.3/13, ABC 4.7/12, Fox 2.1/5, UPN 1.5/4, WB 1.0/3

A MESSAGE FROM Cyn opsis

The History Channel presents This Day in History:
1934 – Both the National and American baseball leagues decided to use a uniform-size baseball. It was the first time in 33 years that both leagues used the same size ball.

Answer to Yesterday’s Trivia Question:. This favorite, albeit older, series character favored a candy called jellybabies.  He always carried a bag of them in his pocket, an on occasion would offer one to a new acquaintance.  Who was he?  DR. WHO, 1963-69.  Kudos to:  Jim Ryan-A&E/NY; Glordia Rodgers-GHR Media/Albany; Nicole Naimo-mtv U Ad Sales/NY; Dennis Nance-Turner Bcsting/Atlanta; Adam DePaul-WMOR/Tampa; Tim Rank-Adamson Adv/St. Louis; Brett Calvers-KSAT/San Antonio; Jim Smith-National Benefit Resources/Dallas; Sam Lawson-UPN46/St. Louis; Jay Markowitz-Hand & Assoc/LA; Daniela Onel-ALSA Design/LA; Andrea Archer-51 Minds Ent/Hollywood; Lisa Mateas-Mateas Media Consulting/Antigonish Nova Scotia; Peter Mohan/Toronto; Sheldon Wiebe-Eclipse Magazine/Calgary.

A MESSAGE FROM COURT TV

Today’s Trivia Question:  According to this ad campaign that kicked off in the mid 1970’s, who “answers to a higher authority”? (click here with your answer and be sure to include your name, company, city and time zone with your answer.  Unofficial rules: Only the second four correct answers from each time zone will be mentioned; and once you’ve been mentioned in any of the Cynopsis editions, you can’t be mentioned again that calendar week.)

Later — Cyn
01.05.05  5:17am

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WHAT’S ON TONIGHT:  JANUARY 5, 2005:

ABC              Lost, Alias [p] (2 hrs)
CBS              60 Minutes, King of Queens, Center of the Universe, CSI: NY
FOX              That 70’s Show, Quintuplets, Nanny 911
NBC              SI: Swimsuit Model Search [p], The West Wing, Law & Order
PAX              Doc, Sue Thomas F.B.Eye, Early Edition
UPN              The Road to Stardom with Missy Elliott [p], Kevin Hill
WB               Smallville, Big Man on Campus
TELE             La Mujer en el Espejo, Gitanas, Te Voy a Ensenar a Querer
UNIV             Rubi, Amor Real, Dan Francisco Presenta