Good morning. It’s Wednesday, October 20, 2004, and this is your first early morning briefing.
As you might expect, Fox’s coverage of the Red Sox vs Yankees in the ALCS Game #5 owned the night on Monday. Perhaps going 14 innings is a good thing. According to final national numbers from Nielsen Media Research, for the 8-11pm time frame, Fox delivered a very strong 8.7/22 among A18-49. CBS’ Monday night lineup was #2 overall with a 5.5/13 A18-49, followed by NBC 3.7/9, ABC 3.2/8, WB 2.0/5 and UPN’s 1.6/4. As far as non-sports programming, the 8pm hour was won by NBC’s Fear Factor with a 4.4/11, with CBS a close #2 for its sitcom hour earning a 3.1/8. CBS increased its share of the audience at 9pm with Raymond and 2-1/2 Men earning a 5.7/13, while the first hour of the football game on ABC and NBC’s Las Vegas tied at a 10 share. CSI Miami was the #1 show after the baseball game at 10p with a 7.6/18 demo rating.
Tonight’s Premieres: CBS: King of Queens at 9p, Center of the Universe at 930p NBC: The West Wing at 9p
CBS will make a programming switcheroo with Clubhouse going to Saturdays at 8pm, and Amazing Race going to Tuesdays at 9p. Amazing Race will first be seen on Tuesdays come November 16 when it will air a 2-hour episode beginning at 9pm and bumping Judging Amy for the evening.
Also making a switch is the WB – The Mountain on Wednesdays at 9 with move to Sundays at 9p starting 10/31; Jack & Bobby (which rec’d a full season pick up after its second outing) will go to Wednesdays effective one week from tonight. Additionally, the WB has given The Mountain an order for 4 additional scripts.
NBC has swung the first official ax of the season, and it took out Hawaii. Originally the show had been put on hiatus and production in Hawaii continued. Over the weekend, that changed, per Variety, and production has closed shop.
Casting / Development / Production:
USA has ordered up a second season of The 4400 (Paramount Television), with a 13 episode order. Production begins in first qtr and the show is expected on the schedule this June. The first time around, The 4400 aired as a six hour miniseries, debuting last July with a total viewing audience of 7.4 million.
Creative Prod Group has picked up the feature film rights to the Normal Lear series Good Times.
Fox has ordered a script for a new legal drama from David Hollander (The Guardian). The project is set in a legal clinic in LA wherein legal professors and their students work together in providing legal assistance to those who cannot afford it.
Hollander has also received a script order from ABC for a drama project titled Three Rivers, also a crime drama, with three points of view – crime journalist daughter and divorcee, father newspaper publisher, and ex-husband/son in law police officer.
Sources:Variety, Hollywood Reporter
ABC‘s midseason starter Grey’s Anatomy has begun production and is expected to show up on the scheduled in January. The show from Touchstone Television, focuses on a group of surgical interns in a Seattle hospital.
For your scheduling reference:
ABC’s The Benefactor has its season finale next Monday. Stepping in for the hour in November are two eps of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition – How’d They Do That? on November 1 and 29, which offers up additional details to the show that aired the previous night. Two specials are scheduled for the Monday nights in between – George Hamilton hosting Life of Luxury.
As with previous The Bachelor eps, a women tell all ep is scheduled as well as 2- hour finale (11/24 at 8p) and an After the Rose special on November 24 at 10p.
Sinclair Broadcasting has said the company will air the anti-Kerry film Stolen Honor only in part – not the full documentary, on Friday night as part of its News Special: A POW Story – Politics, Pressure and the Media which will include a discussion about the film, and about Kerry’s campaign and the media influence on the voting process. Sinclair has extended an invitation to Kerry to join them on the show; Kerry has declined. Sinclair’s stock has fallen by double digits in the past week, since it announced it would air the documentary. Also, Andy Rappaport, a Silicon Valley executive, has offered to buy an hour of primetime on the Sinclair station group for $1 million plus network preemption fees, to air George Butler’s Going Upriver: The Long War of Senator John Kerry, in a time period where it will reach the same demographic audience as Stolen Honor, and prior to Election Day. At this point, Sinclair with 24 hours to respond, has not.
The Style Network will launch a new reality show called Pulled Over which endeavors to identify style-challenged families, and help them identify and bring out each of their individual styles – from their person to their car, to their abilities to dance, cook a gourmet meal, and plan the greatest parties. Hosting the show will be Nia Peeples and Mystro Clark; produced by Steve Harvey and Rushion McDonald of Endeavor, along with Damon Harmon (ICM), in a co-prod with Chameleon Ent. Style has ordered up 13 eps. Pulled Over is schedule to launch in December.
Are you ready for a new updated Wizard of Oz inspired story that finds Dorothy back in Oz (Outer Zone), an ethnically diverse land overseen by a law enforcement agency known as the Tin Man? Sci-fi Channel’s 4 hour miniseries Tin Man finds Dorothy, as in the originally, on her quest to find her way back home to Kansas, and along the way she happens upon three equally diverse and strange people. Tin Man is exec prod and co-written by Steven Long Mitchell and Craig Van Sickle.
Top Ten Basic Cable Ad Supported Network Rankings among Total Viewers for the week of October 11-17, 2004: Primetime (000) Total Pgm Day (000) ESPN 2454 NICK 2125 FOXNEWS 2274 NAN* 1562 NAN 2004 CARTOON 1223 TNT 1978 TNT 1197 USA 1823 FOXNEWS 1047 CARTOON 1775 LIFETIME 964 SPIKE TV 1649 ESPN 903 LIFETIME 1512 TBS 901 TBS 1424 USA 894 FX 1176 SPIKE 662 Source Turner Research from Nielsen Media Research Data. All ratings based on Total U.S. Television Universe of 108,400,000 homes * = Network broadcasts less than 51% of minutes in a 24 hour day. Primetime listing only includes those networks broadcasting more than 51% of the primetime hours (M-Su 8p-11p)
Top Ten Basic Cable Ad Supported Network Rankings among A18-49 for the week of October 11-17, 2004: Primetime (000) Total Pgm Day (000) ESPN 1234 NAN* 721 TBS 910 TNT 627 TNT 906 TBS 566 SPIKE TV 827 ESPN 533 USA 803 NICK 533 FX 676 LIFETIME 462 LIFETIME 643 USA 441 NAN 638 FX 374 DISCOVERY 617 SPIKE TV 356 FOXNEWS 603 CARTOON 347 Source Turner Research from Nielsen Media Research Data. All ratings based on Total U.S. Television Universe of 108,400,000 homes. * = Network broadcasts less than 51% of minutes in a 24 hour day. Primetime listing only includes those networks broadcasting more than 51% of the primetime hours (M-Su 8p-11p)
A Show Cause hearing in the Supreme Court for the State of New York has been scheduled on Friday wherein Andrea Mackis – the woman who has filed suit against Fox News Corp and specifically Bill O’Reilly – must appear with her legal representatives to ‘show cause’ why the audio tapes they allegedly have, should not be shared with the O’Reilly camp. Mackis and her attorneys have also been ordered not to destroy any tapes currently in their possession.
At a press gathering yesterday in NYC, Paul FitzPatrick, EVP/COO of Crown Media Holdings/Hallmark Channel, announced the network will provide content from its library to Comcast Cable for use on the cable operator’s ON DEMAND service, beginning in early next year. Hallmark picked up an additional 8.2 million homes this calendar year and is currently available in 64 million homes across the US. They are projecting being available in 66-68 million homes by year’s end.
Intermedia Advertising Group’s Top Ten Most Effective New Ads for new campaigns airing the weeks of September 27-October 10, 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 241, the top-ranked Crest spot was more than twice as memorable as the average new ad during the period. Source Intermedia Advertising Group Inc.’s 2004 Ad Performance Data Series (www.iagr.net) – 241 CREST: Whitening Expressions–neighbor walks towards Emeril’s apartment with 2 cops, Bam Bam! (:30) – 232 CAMPBELL’S: Beef Pot Roast–Donovan McNabb, Mrs. McNabb knits for the team, dumps sports drink on her – 204 CREST: Whitening Expressions–neighbor walks towards Emeril’s apartment with 2 cops, Bam Bam! – 198 CAMPBELL’S: Cream of Mushroom–2-Step Chicken Bake, woman peels label from can, family commends mom – 189 SUNNY DELIGHT: With Sport Cap–boys attempt to do tricks on skateboards – 185 PAYLESS: Stretch Boots–brunette uses aerosol can to spray on tall black boots (:30) – 172 PAYLESS: Stretch Boots–50% off select boots–brunette uses aerosol can to spray on tall black boots (:15) – 170 SCRUBBING BUBBLES: Fresh Brush–flush the brush down toilet along with germs – 166 NETZERO: Candidate Zero tries to get into the 2004 Debate, security guard says he’s not on the list – 160 PAYLESS: Stretch Boots–Buy two get one free–brunette uses aerosol can to spray on tall black boots (:15)
Casting Call: Wanna be a country music star? USA‘s fixin’ to launch its third season of Nashville Star (Reveille) in March 2005 and to do that, it’s first scheduling auditions. To get the dates/times/locations check out http://www.usanetwork.com/nashvillestar/.
Henry Watkins has been named VP/Business Development for TV One, the new entertainment and lifestyle network targeting African American adults. Henry will be responsible for managing TV One’s relationships with African American advertising agencies and multi-cultural client groups. He will also be responsible for developing the networks multi-cultural sales strategy and the coordination of endemic sales research. Additionally, he will serve as the liaison to advertising trade associations.
Steve Sternberg, EVP/Director of Audience Analysis for MAGNA Global USA, announced the upping of Lisa Quan to VP/Manager of Broadcast Research, effective immediately. Lisa will be based in New York.
Bromley Communications upped Jessica Pantanini to COO. She will manage the ad agency’s San Antonio headquarters and LA, Miami and New York offices’ quality controls and integration. Jessica was previously VP and director of media for the past 5 years.
Monday, October 18, 2004.FINAL National Household Ratings for all Networks – Time period Averages only, particular for Live Sports Programming. 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
FOX 14.6/22 MLB: ALCS Game #5 NY at Boston or NLCS Game #5 St. Louis at Houston 11.3/19 (total game average)
CBS 9.9/15 Still Standing 6.5/10, Listen Up 6.3/9, Raymond 10.7/15, 2-1/2 Men 10.4/15, CSI Miami 12.6/19
NBC 6.2/9 Fear Factor 6.7/10, Las Vegas 7.1/10, LAX 4.7/7
ABC 5.7/8 The Benefactor 2.8/5, ABC Monday Night Football: Tampa at St. Louis 7.7/13 (game ended at 12:24am)
WB 3.2/5 7th Heaven 4.3/6, Everwood [r] 2.1/3
UPN 2.5/4 One on One 2.3/4, Half and Half 2.4/4, Girlfriends 2.7/4, Second time Around 2.4/3
A18-49 Fox 8.7/22, CBS 5.5/13, NBC 3.7/9, ABC 3.2/8, WB 2.0/5, UPN 1.6/4
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ONE TREE HILL PRIMETIME’S FASTEST GROWING DRAMA
Spectacular gains season-to-season!
ONE TREE HILL Available exclusively from Warner Bros. Domestic Cable Distribution
Source: NTI Explorer, Premiere-to-date 9/20-10/15/04 & 9/22-10/19/03. % US Rtg Gain.
The History Channel presents This Day in History: 1973: In the “Saturday Night Massacre,” President Nixon orders Attorney General Elliot Richardson to fire Archibald Cox, the special prosecutor investigating the Watergate allegations. Richardson refused and resigned, as did his deputy, William Ruckelshaus. Solicitor General Robert Bork, however, agreed to fire Cox in an action that enraged the Congress and led directly to the drafting of articles of impeachment.
Answer to yesterday’s Trivia Question: Peter Jenning’s first job as an adult was: a) librarian; b) copyboy; c) bank teller; d) circus barker? c) BANK TELLER. Kudos to: Paul Gluck-WHYY/Philadelphia; Anthea Kisvarda-Marketing Evolution/NY; Susan Goldberg-Beverly Park Prods/LA; David Scott Jones-Marleigh Ent/LA.
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Comcast Spotlight works with our cable network partners to develop unique promotions for advertisers that leverage cable’s powerful brands. Through network associations or tune-in sponsorships, advertisers get customized, branded promotions that build upon viewer affinity for their favorite cable networks. Comcast Spotlight – Spot cable finally delivers. For more information click here.
Today’s Trivia Question: The premise was an American Spy spying in the West Indies. What is the name of this show? (click 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.)
A MESSAGE FROM COURT TV
Investigate this!
Court TV: The Investigation Channel Sees a premiere in your future…
Don’t miss an all-new episode of Psychic Detectives TONIGHT @ 10pm
Great Programming. Great Return On Investigation.
Later — Cyn
Cynthia Turner’s Cynopsis 10/20/04
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JOB OPENING: RESEARCH COORD/Nielsen Media Research-NY. Sr. level research position. Analyze impact of changes in measurement/reporting.Expert knwldg Excel, N-Power, MktBreaks, Ad*views. www.Nielsenmedia.com ref. Job# 200402212-JL (10/27)
JOB OPENING: SALES ASSISTANT, NBC Universal TV Networks, LA. 1-2 years experience, preferably in ad sales, organized, detail-oriented. Knowledge of Nielsen, MRI and media math desirable. Apply www.gecareers.com, job# 380775 (10/26)
JOB OPENING: NEWS/TALK SHOW PRODUCERS & AP’S wanted for LA production featuring controversial, pop-cultural and weighty faith-context topics. Strong civilian/celebrity booking exp required. Email resumes: (10/26)
JOB OPENING: MGR, SALES RESEARCH & MKTG/ABC SOAPnet-NY. 3-5 yrs Media Research exp w/cable (pref), bcst net or adv agency. Prof in research applications incl Nielsen systems, Simmons, MRI. Resumes:
(10/26)
JOB OPENING: PROJECT COORD, SERIES & SPECIALS, VH1/NYC. Highly Organized/detailed, Xcellnt communication skills, able to work under pressure & deliver, Production/development skills A+ EOE/M/F/D/AAP. Apply www.mtvncareers.com (10/26)
JOB OPENING: PRODUCER-TBS, Inc./Atlanta. 3+ yrs exp producing ent. pgms; able to write VOs w/humor, drama, info as approp. Knwldge of mainstream pop cultural/ent is critical. Submit resume to www.turnerjobs.com, Req #32541 EEO (10/26)
JOB OPENING: CLIENT SERVICES-Nielsen Media Research/NY. Responsible for Installing, Training, Supporting & Maintaining NMR software at client sites. Training and Presentation exp a must. www.NielsenMedia.com ref:(200402277-JL) (10/23)
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JOB OPENING: FIELD MARKETING MANAGER, OLN – LA. Develop/implement grass roots mktg tactics for targeted systems. Sell mktg & LAS promos to assigned customers.Resume/Salary: (10/22)
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WHAT’S ON TONIGHT: WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 20, 2004:
ABC Lost, The Bachelor, Wife Swap CBS 60 Minutes, King of Queens [p], Center of the Universe [p], CSI: NY FOX MLB: ALCS Game #7: Boston Red Sox at New York Yankees (NLCS game #6 airs at 4pm) NBC West Wing [r], West Wing [p], Law & Order PAX World Cup Comedy, Second Verdict, Early Edition UPN Top Model, Kevin Hill WB Smallville, The Mountain TELE Prisonera, Gitanas, Te Voy a Ensenar a Querer UNIV Rubi, Amarte es mi Pecado, Don Francisco Presenta
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