Cynopsis

10/01/08

Good morning. It’s Wednesday, October 1, 2008, and this is your first early morning briefing. 
 
Tonight’s Premieres:
ABC: Pushing Daisies at 8p; Private Practice at 9p; Dirty Sexy Money at 1001p
FUEL TV: The Great Ride Open at 8p
DIRECTV: Friday Night Lights at 9p

Tonight’s Finales:
NBC: America’s Got Talent at 9p
A&E: Criss Angel: Mindfreak at 10p
Comedy Central: Lewis Black’s Root of All Evil at 1030p

VERSUS will air the fourth season of The Contender starting early this December. Tony Danza will host the 11 new 60m episodes as well as a two-hour season finale. The Contender is produced by Mark Burnett Productions and DreamWorks Television and this edition will be produced in Singapore in association with Mark Burnett Productions Asia. The series will feature 16 Cruiserweights from multiple countries who will fight each other in successive bouts with a final boxer taking the title of Contender Champion. Tony will also mentor the contestants as well as host while Tommy Brooks and John Bray will serve as trainers.

Santa Clara-based Macrovision current owner of TV Guide Channel has put the network up for sale, reports Variety. Macrovision bought the network from Gemstar-TV Guide last May and indicated then it wanted to resell it by the time it reports third quarter earnings early in November. The estimated price tag is $400 million and TV Guide Channel is distributed to more than 80 million cable and satellite households. Two companies looking at the channel are Constellation Ventures, a venture capital fund in New York and African-American network TV One.

Broadcast Evening News Ratings Wrap-Up: The final results for the week of September 22, 2008:
ABC: 8.07 million total viewers and 2.1/9 A25-54
NBC: 7.98 million total viewers and 2.1/9 A25-54
CBS: 5.99 million total viewers and 1.5/6 A25-54

Continental Television Sales, a unit of Katz Television Group will now represent six more stations owned by Bonten Media Group Inc. including: KAEF/Eureka; KRCR/Redding; KTXE/San Angelo; KTXS/Abilene; WCYB/Bristol; and WFXI/Greenville. Continental now represents ten total Bonten Media-owned stations.

Clarification: For Cartoon Network’s premiere of Star Wars: The Clone Wars this Friday at 9p from Lucasfilm Animation, the network is involved with two unique promotions. One with Walden Media allows a 90-second preview of the feature film City of Ember to air in a commercial break during the premiere episode. The second promotion with EA utilizes custom commercials airing this week encouraging viewers to watch the debut episode and featuring Simcity Creator including footage of the game, its release date and promoting Cartoon Network will release the exclusive game code during a commercial break within the premiere episode. Content from both promotions will be available online via www.cartoonnetwork.com.

A CYNOPSIS MESSAGE FROM NICKTOONS

·        Daily animated shorts on-air and online all October long.

·       Thousands of entries.

·       Catch all the winning shorts on October 30th!

·       A 2-day event in Los Angeles, CA at the Nick Animation studio Oct.3-4th with Marvel Comic Legend Stan Lee.

·       Grand prize $30,000 Nickelodeon Development Award.

·       New partnerships with LEGO, addictinggames.com and mtvU.

FOX gave a nod to a 30m animated comedy pilot presentation called Good Vibes from David Gordon Green (Pineapple Express) who will write the project about two high school surfer guys living near a California beach. Twentieth Century Fox Television is producing and Green is also executive producing with Tom Werner and Mike Clements of Good Humor TV and animator Brad Ableson.

Ellen Burstyn cast as the matriarch of the Hunt family in the Showtime drama pilot Possible Side Effects, centering inside the pharmaceutical industry, reports Variety. Tim Robbins is writing and directing as well as executive producing with Elaine Goldsmith-Thomas and Daniel Thomas. Burnstyn previously was seen in the TV series Big Love, Book of Daniel and That’s Life and will soon appear in the feature film W as Barbara Bush.

Spike TV ordered a single-camera comedy pilot, Peep Show based on a current BAFTA Award-winning British series, per THR. The 30m Peep Show is an updated Odd Couple scenario about a slacker musician Jeremy (Rob Chester Smith) living with an uptight office worker Mark (Brad Morris). In this version, the storyline will be delivered via a first-person perspective with voice-overs from the characters. Production just wrapped on the 30m pilot in Chicago and producing is Pangea, the script unit of RDF USA and British company Objective. In the UK, Peep Show will soon begin its sixth season on Channel 4.

Robert Duvall is back in the saddle developing a new Western-themed series for AMC in partnership with the Donners’ Company, cites Variety. The untitled drama will focus on the famed Pony Express with Duvall playing one of the characters. Fox TV Studios will produce; Erik Jendresen (Band of Brothers) will write; Richard Donner will likely direct; and Rob Carliner, Duvall’s production partner will also be involved through their company Butchers Run Films. Previously, Duvall collaborated with AMC on the Emmy Award-winning television movie Broken Trail.

CYNOPSIS DIGITAL – TODAY’S TOP STORY: Another drawn-out court battle is brewing over consumer rights to digital content with the official release of RealNetworks’ RealDVD software. RealDVD allows Windows users to make a digital copy of store-bought DVDs (extras and all) and save a backup copy of the movie to their hard drives for transfer to DVD-R. RealNetworks figures the product is legal because it leaves CSS encryption intact, making uploading and sharing of the ripped DVD a challenge. But just to be sure, the Seattle-based company filed a pre-emptive lawsuit against the studios and the MPAA yesterday asking for a declaratory judgment protecting it against legal action. Sure enough the MPAA cried foul, filing a temporary restraining order itself against RealNetworks for violation of copyright protections. MPAA attorney Greg Goeckner even managed to insert a pithy one-liner into the brief, referring to RealDVD as “StealDVD.”   Full edition: CYN DIGITAL.

CYNOPSIS KIDS – TODAY’S TOP STORY:  Director Michael Bay will shoot several sequences of the DreamWorks Pictures and Paramount Pictures new movie Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen with Imax cameras.  Bay plans to integrate the Imax footage with CGI to create a specialized look and feel for the Transformers sequel.  Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen is scheduled for release in Imax and traditional movie theaters simultaneously on June 26, 2009.  Full edition: CYN KIDS.

CYNOPSIS INTERNATIONAL – TODAY’S TOP STORY: Zodiak Television is growing a bit bigger with its newest acquisition of Netherlands’ Palm Plus Productions.  As part of the deal, Palm Plus will be paired up with Zodiak’s Kanakna Holland to form a new company while continuing to produce under the Palm Plus and Kanakna existing brands.  Kanakna Holland produces reality programming, documentaries and original formats.  Full edition: CYN INTERNATIONAL.

Top 10 Broadcast Programs among A18-49 rating/share and (000) for the week of 9/22-9/28/08
ABC    Grey’s Anatomy-THU 9PM                            7.4/18      9,760
ABC    Desperate Housewives                                 7.1/16      9,360
NBC    NBC Sunday Night Football                           6.9/17      9,100
ABC    Dancing with the Stars                                 5.3/13      7,050
CBS    Two and a Half Men                                     5.3/12      7,000
CBS    CSI: Miami                                                  5.2/13      6,870
FOX    House                                                         5.1/14      6,660
NBC    Heroes                                                       5.0/12       6,620
NBC    The Office                                                   4.9/12      6,480
FOX    The OT                                                       4.9/15       6,530
Source: Nielsen Media Research, Galaxy Explorer, Live + SD Data

Top 10 M-F Syndicated Strip Series for the week of 9/15-9/21/08 ranked by HH Rtg
Wheel of Fortune (CTD)                                   6.4 AA
Jeopardy (CTD)                                               5.5 AA
Oprah Winfrey Show (CTD)                              4.7 AA / 4.8 GAA
Two and a Half Men (WB)                                 4.6 AA / 6.2 GAA
Judge Judy (CTD)                                            4.4 AA / 6.8 GAA
Family Guy (2/T)                                             4.0 AA / 4.7 GAA
Entertainment Tonight (CTD)                            3.7 AA / 3.8 GAA
Seinfeld (SPT)                                                 3.5 AA / 4.1 GAA
Dr. Phil Show (CTD)                                         3.3 AA / 3.3 GAA
George Lopez (WB)                                          3.0 AA / 4.3 GAA
Source: NSS Galaxy Explorer, Live+SD

NEW M-F Syndicated Strip Series ratings for HH (9/15-9/21/08):
Deal or No Deal (NBU)                                     1.5 AA / 1.9 GAA
Doctors (CTD)                                                 1.3 AA / 1.3 GAA
Source: NSS Galaxy Explorer, Live+SD

Top 10 M-F Syndicated Strip Series for the week of 9/15-9/21/08 ranked by A18-49 Rtg
Family Guy (2/T)                                            2.7 AA / 3.1 GAA
Two and a Half Men (WB)                                2.5 AA / 3.3 GAA
Seinfeld (SPT)                                                2.2 AA / 2.5 GAA
Oprah Winfrey Show (CTD)                             1.7 AA / 1.7 GAA
Friends (WB)                                                 1.7 AA / 2.0 GAA
King of Queens (SPT)                                     1.7 AA / 2.3 GAA
Wheel of Fortune (CTD)                                  1.6 AA
Everybody Loves Raymond (CTD)                    1.6 AA / 1.8 GAA
George Lopez (WB)                                        1.5 AA / 2.0 GAA
Judge Judy (CTD)                                          1.4 AA / 2.0 GAA
Source: NSS Galaxy Explorer, Live+SD

NEW M-F Syndicated Strip Series ratings for A18-49 (9/15-9/21/08):
Deal or No Deal (NBU)                                     0.6 AA / 0.7 GAA
Doctors (CTD)                                                 0.4 AA / 0.4 GAA
Source: NSS Galaxy Explorer, Live+SD

Monday – A18-49 Analysis:  CBS retained the #1 position Monday night with 3.9/10 A18-49, according to final national ratings from Nielsen Media Research. ABC’s Dancing with the Stars waltzed away as the winner at 8p with 4.3/11 over the average of CBS’ comedies The Big Bang Theory and How I Met Your Mother at 3.5/9 and the sophomore season opener of NBC’s Chuck at 2.7/7. During the 9p hour, NBC led with Heroes at 4.5/11 over Dancing/Stars on ABC at 4.4/10 and the combo average of CBS’ sitcoms Two and a Half Men and Worst Week at 3.8/9 (note: Two/Men delivered a stand-alone 4.7/11 at 9p). Then at 10p, it was CBS’ turn as CSI: Miami was first at 4.4/11 followed by the season return of NBC’s Life at 2.7/7. 

Live + Same Day Household Ratings: Monday, September 29, 2008 time period averages. Source: NTI Galaxy, as dated. Live+SD.

ABC: 10.1/15       Dancing with the Stars 12.2/18, Boston Legal 5.7/9

CBS: 7.2/11          The Big Bang Theory 5.4/8, How I Met Your Mother 5.4/8, Two and a Half Men 8.4/12, Worst Week 5.6/8, CSI: Miami 9.2/15

NBC: 4.8/7             Chuck [p] 4.1/6, Heroes 5.7/8, Life [p] 4.6/7

FOX: 3.4/5            Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles 3.4/5, Prison Break 3.4/5

CW: 2.3/3            Gossip Girl 2.3/4, One Tree Hill 2.3/3

UNIV: 2.1/3           Cuidado con El Angel 2.0/3, Fuego en la Sangre 2.4/3, Cristina 1.8/3

TELE: 0.7/1          El Juramento 0.4/1, Dona Barbara 0.8/1, Sin Senos No Hay Paraiso 1.1/2

MNT: 0.5/1           Celebrity Expose [r] 0.6/1, Celebrity Expose [r] 0.4/1

A18-49: CBS 3.9/10, ABC 3.6/9, NBC 3.3/8, FOX 2.0/5, CW 1.9/5, UNIV 1.6/4, TELE 0.6/1, MNT 0.2/1

Lonnie Burstein advanced to EVP/Programming and Production with Debmar-Mercury. Lonnie began with the company in July 2006 as SVP in charge of research and new programming. Lonnie is involved in several projects including The Wendy Williams Show and Trivial Pursuit: America Plays.  Well done, Lonnie!!

NBA Digital staffed up for its live NBA TV studio projects based at its new studio in Atlanta by appointing Damon Fisher, Jeremy Levin and Rodney Triplett as Producers and Jim Allen and Stephen James as Directors. All will work with NBA.com to develop multi-platform content for various NBA Digital properties. Damon, Jeremy and Rodney will report to John Cook, Coordinating Producer, NBA TV while Jim and Stephen will report to Mike Miller, Coordinating Director for the network.

Oxygen Media hired David Stefanou as VP/Original Programming to head the network’s current original production. In this new position, David will report directly to Amy Introcaso-Davis, SVP/Original Programming and Development. David joins Oxygen from MTV’s London office where he led the production and development team.

FUEL TV named three to its New Media, Web and Programming divisions:

• Gene Pao is VP/New Media and International Development and will be working with Fox Digital Media and other companies in the digital media and action sports fields to boost FUEL TV’s new media properties. Gene will also supervise the network’s outreach to international markets.
• Patrick Perez is now Director/New Media and joins as a staffer after working as a freelancer for the network. Patrick brings his experience in technologies, people and ideas to the New Media strategy and objectives.
• Kirsten Missen becomes Manager/Acquisitions to seek out new, licensed shows to the network.

Linda Sullivan, President/GM of KNBC/Los Angeles is leaving her position later this year to enter retirement along with her husband, announcing she will return to the Boston area. KNBC appointed Craig Robinson, EVP/Operations and Digital Strategy as acting GM until Linda’s replacement is named. Linda has held this position since May 2007.

Disney and ESPN Media Networks recruited Renee Plato as VP/Digital Video Distribution where she will manage the expansive multi-platform distribution activities of The Walt Disney Company and ESPN through various affiliate partner digital channels. Based in ESPN’s Cheshire, CT office, Renee will report to Matt Murphy, SVP/Digital Video Distribution. Previously, Renee served as Senior Director/Business Development at Sony BMG Company in New York.

Internet comedy channel, RooftopComedy tapped Colin Decker as Head/Programming and Jennifer Manger as Senior Director/Sponsorships and Advertising Sales. Colin will lead the channel’s original content development, production and distribution while Jennifer will be involved with locating partnerships for the 2009 National College Comedy Competition and other channel national events.

Chris Friedrichs joins WOFL-TV the FOX O&O in Orlando as VP/Creative Services and Marketing. Chris relocates to Orlando from Richmond where he was Creative Director with Media General.

A CYNOPSIS MESSAGE FROM FUSE

This day in History:  1903 – The first modern World Series took place between the Boston Pilgrims and the Pittsburgh Pirates. Boston of the American League defeated Pittsburgh of the National League five games to three to become the world champions.

Answer to Yesterday’s Trivia Question:  On the sitcom Laverne & Shirley, what was Shirley’s beloved stuffed black cat’s name?  BOO BOO KITTY Kudos to: David John Nerahoo-Nerawhat! Productions/Jersey City, NJ; Sally Mancuso-A&E/NY; Chris Schwieterman-Gray Television, Inc./Tallahassee, FL; Monica Lenti-MTV Networks/NY; Buffy Johnson-Charter Media/St. Louis; Tom Nankival-WKOW/Madison, WI; Don Tapani-FOX4/My27/Dallas; David Shellhorse-Time Warner Cable/Austin, TX; Drew Tappon-Warner Horizon Television/Burbank; Jim Gray-FrogLight Pdns/Missoula, MT; Heidi Flydal-KFMB/San Diego;John Selig- KSWB (fox-tribune)/San Diego; Heather Muir-Insight Productions/Toronto

Today’s Trivia Question, Sponsored by Fuse. Ignite Your Brand.: Pop’s latest it-girl, Katy Perry, dates the lead singer of what band?   (Email
with your answer and be sure to include your name, company, city and time zone. 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
10.01.08

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WHAT’S ON TONIGHT –  Wednesday, October 1, 2008

ABC: Pushing Daisies [p ], Private Practice [p ], Dirty Sexy Money [p ]
AZTECA: Camino a la Fama, Vidas al Limite, Al Extremo
CBS: The New Adventures of Old Christine, Gary Unmarried, Criminal Minds, CSI: NY
CW: America’s Next Top Model, 90210 [r]
FOX: Bones, ‘Til Death, ‘Til Death
ION: Boston Legal, Boston Legal, Boston Legal
MNT: Twilight Zone [r], Twilight Zone [r], Twilight Zone [r], Twilight Zone [r]
NBC: Knight Rider, America’s Got Talent, Lipstick Jungle
PBS: Secrets of the Dead, Get Ready for Digital TV, Atchafalaya Houseboat [r], P.O.V.
TELE: El Juramento, Dona Barbara, Sin Senos No Hay Paraiso
UNIV: Cuidado con El Angel, Fuego en la Sangre, Don Francisco Presenta

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