CYNTHIA TURNER’S
CYNOPSIS

08/05/04

Good morning. It’s Thursday, August 5, 2004, and this is your first early morning briefing.

CBS took Tuesday night with a repeat of Navy NCIS and originals for both Big Brother and The Amazing Race (though the #1 Mktg, NYC, carried baseball from 7-10pm ET).  CBS averaged a 3.5/10 A18-49 rating according to Nielsen Media Research. At 8pm, however, Fox’s Trading Spouses was again out in front with a 3.7/12 A18-49 rating. And once again Trading Spouses excelled in the women demos – 4.3/13 W18-49 and 4.7/16 among W18-34. At 9pm the clear cut winner was CBS with a 3.8/11 A18-49 rating for Big Brother. It too excelled in the female demos: 4.5/12 W18-49 and 4.1/12 W18-34.  Making its premiere at 9pm on UPN was The Player which drew in a soft 0.9/3 A18-49, ranking 6th; though performed markedly better among P12-17 with a 2.07 and ranking #1 (tied with Fox) for the hour.  Amazing Race at 10p on CBS dominated the hour with a healthy4.4/12, ahead of Law & Order SVU’s 3.1/9 on NBC. 

Say what you will about former President Bill Clinton, the man can get ratings.  He appeared on Dave Letterman on Tuesday night and pulled in 5.2/12 in metered market overnight ratings, beating Leno for the first time in a long time (4.8/11 for Leno). Clinton is the highest rating for Letterman since the Janet Jackson appearance back in March which earned a 5.5/12.

More updates from Lifetime – Strong Medicine (Sony Pictures Television) will have a go at a sixth season with a 22-ep order.  with the completion of a sixth season, the show will have 132 eps in the can, enough for a syndicated series.

Comedy Central has ordered a half dozen eps of a game show called Distraction from FremantleMedia, per Variety. The concept is simple, if not a little alarming – contestants try to answer various questions, relatively simple, while being tortured.  Tortured too strong a word?  Depends. How to you view electric shocks and body piercing?  No host yet.  The show is based on the UK series of the same name.

63% of the WB Network primetime schedule this fall (which represents 9.5 hours of their full prime schedule) will be available in HDTV.  The WB has been providing certain programs in HDTV since Fall 2003, and for the upcoming season the shows include freshman series Jack & Bobby, The Mountain, Commando Nanny as well as returning series Everwood, Gilmore Girls, One Tree Hill, Smallville, Reba and What I Like About You.  Additionally, November’s big event, Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring will also mark WB’s 5.1 Dolby surround sound.

In Development:

• Showtime has ordered up a pilot of Weeds, about a fine upstanding woman looking to support herself after the sudden death of her husband, turns to the growing, harvesting, selling marijuana. The woman will be played by Mary-Louise Parker; Elizabeth Perkins has just joined the cast to play another upstanding woman in the community whose son becomes romantically linked with the pot-dealing mom’s son, according to Hollywood Reporter.
• 20th C. Fox TV has signed a talent holding deal with Chris Kattan to star in either his own show or to join an existing show, within the year.  No network has been tied to this deal as yet, according to Variety.

Tivo has won over the FCC in their bid for approval of technology that will allow users to record a program and then send a digital copy to as many as nine other Tivo users via the internet. Dubbed TivoToGo, you can imagine the ground swell of dissatisfaction from MPAA, NFL to name two, on the issue of copyright infringement via file sharing (remember NAPSTER?). A year ago the FCC adopted rules to limit the distribution of digital broadcasts over the internet and required companies to develop the technology that will limit the distribution.  With the approval of the TivoToGo technology, the FCC also approved technologies proposed by Microsoft, Sony and RealNetworks, among others, to limit distribution. TivoToGo is expected to become available to users this fall as far as copying files inside the home; no dates yet when they will roll out the technology to send files outside the home.

Florida-based marketing company, Qtopia Media and Mariposa Group, a San Francisco-based research company, surveyed online 750 gay and lesbian adults, 18+, living in major gay metros in the US, in an effort to determine their income and spending patterns. Here are some of the results:

• 20% of the gay and lesbian respondents to its proprietary survey stated a $100,000+ household income.
• 75% of those surveyed would pay extra for items if they knew the revenue would benefit the gay/lesbian community.
• Nearly all gay men (94%) and 72% of lesbian women have childless homes.
• 45% of the males surveyed and 38% of females live with a same s#x partner, many categorizing themselves as dual income households.
• Concerning savings, 42% own stocks with nearly 60% having 401K or IRA accounts.
• But when it comes to entertainment, the survey reported 31% expended $2K on clothes a year, 36% spent $3K+ on travel annually and nearly one quarter allowed the possibility of splurging $30K+ on their next car.
• In terms of advertising, 75% look at brands and/or stores that cater to the gay/lesbian community.
• 64% frequent venues they know support gay and lesbian causes.
• On the other hand, close to one quarter reported no influence from gay friendly advertising.

In addition to the survey, Qtopia opened a new San Francisco office with Mark Decloux heading up the office.  Source: Qtopia Media, Mariposa Group.  (Please note, the spelling of the word “s#x” is interrupted with the pound sign is to discourage your spam filters from blocking the prompt delivery of this email.)

Disney will debut its ABC TV network, ABC1, on September 27 in the UK through the BBC/BSkyB-supported Freeview digital platform to 4 million households.  This will be the company’s first non-Disney branded channel outside US borders and its first British free-to-air digital channel.  The UK audience will see such shows as the soap General Hospital and sitcom Sports Night for the first time plus other programs such as the drama Once and Again, 8 Simple Rules, The Geena Davis Show and Home Improvement. For now, ABC1 will air 6am-6pm with future designs of being a 24/7 network. The channel also plans on developing local productions and include regularly scheduled movies.

Today is the first day of the extreme sports competition, the 10th Annual X Games. The summer ESPN X Games will take place August 5-8, in LA and will be feature on TV in primetime on ESPN and ABC. Events for the X Games X will be held at several venues including, The Home Depot Center in Carson, CA and Staples Center and various other sites in the LA area. For a full schedule for X Games events and venues, as well as other features including: news; and En Español area; online video highlights; X Games X Raw; a live online feed of raw X Game footage; athlete bios; sport specific information; instant polling, and all sorts of other stuff, go to http://expn.go.com/expn/summerx/2004/index.

A number of musicals and readings coming to NY, many of them as part of the New York Musical Festival (www.nymf.org) this fall, and based on works that are probably familiar, if not seemingly unlikely sources:
Top Gun! The Musical
Meet John Doe, based on the Frank Capra movie, Meet John Doe
The Man Who Would be King, based on the Rudyard Kipling story
Far From the Madding Crowd, an adaptation of Thomas Hardy’s novel of the same name.
Houdini, the show tells Houdini’s life story.
The Sistahs, a version of Chekhov’s Three Sisters set in the 1960s and featuring an African American family.
Tim and Scrooge, you know the story to a certain point and this show picks up 12 years later.
Skin of our Teeth, Kander & Ebb’s musical take on the Thornton Wilder story

Tuesday, August 3, 2004. Fast National Household 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     6.4/11  Navy NCIS 6.3/11, Big Brother 6.3/11, The Amazing Race  6.6/11

NBC     4.8/8   Last Comic Standing 3.0/5, Last Comic Standing 4.7/8, Law & Order: SVU 6.8/12

ABC     4.2/7   Extreme Makeover: Home Edition 4.8/9, According to Jim 4.5/8, Less Than Perfect 3.9/6, NYPD 24/7  3.7/6

FOX     4.0/7   Trading Spouses 5.1/9, That 70’s Show 3.1/5, Quintuplets 2.7/4

UPN     1.7/3   All of Us 1.6/3, Eve 1.6/3, The Player [p]1.7/3

WB      2.2/4   Gilmore Girls [r] 1.5/3, Summerland 2.8/5

A18-49  CBS 3.5/10, Fox 2.9/9, NBC 2.7/8, ABC 2.2/7, WB 1.2/4, UPN 0.9/3

A MESSAGE FROM WARNER BROS. DOMESTIC CABLE DISTRIBUTION

Source: NTI Explorer, 8/2/04.  TP=Mon 9:30-10pm.  Rating.

The History Channel presents This Day in History:
1583:  English explorer Sir Humphrey Gilbert comes ashore near Saint John’s, Newfoundland and claims the territory for himself and England.  His audience, fishermen from a variety of European countries, listens politely as Gilbert declares himself their leader.  Gilbert’s claims to the New World died with him at sea the same year. 

Answer to Yesterday’s Trivia Question: He’s from the south, tho educated at Harvard. He doesn’t mind the wrinkles in his suit or if his hair is at all awry, and he collects coins. He still likes to play the guitar, hum a tune, hang out with an old pal, or go fishin’.  The rest of the time, he’s working. Who is he? That would be the hot dog eating, white suit wearing, legal eagle BEN MATLOCK. Kudos to:  Bobby Rivers-Food Network/NY; Anne Elliot-Nielsen Media Research/NY; Linda McLoof-ABC/NY; Gyneen Meyers-MTVN/NY; Elliot Benn-CBS58/Milwaukee; Roxanne Lyson-KECI/Missoula; Bob Quigley-KJZZ/Salt Lake City; John Ryan-KAZT/Phoenix; Darlene Lieblich-Fox Cable Nets/LA; Randy Warner-Special Looks Ent/LA; Suzanne Fluke-DDB/LA; Laura Black-lulu pix/LA; and Stephen Pickford-Travel World Radio Show/Montreal.

Today’s Trivia Question:  On what show was the new dance The Twizzle introduced by singer Jerry Lanning, playing the role of Randy Twizzle?  (click here 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
08/05/04   5:22am
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A MESSAGE FROM COURT TV

WHAT’S ON TONIGHT:  THURSDAY, AUGUST 5, 2004:

COURT TV:       The I-Zone, Forensic Files, Body of Evidence, The Investigators
ABC             Extreme Makeover, Extreme Makeover, Primetime Thursday
CBS             Big Brother, CSI, Without a Trace
FOX             Movie:  Little Nicky
NBC             Will & Grace, Will & Grace, Last Comic Standing, ER
PAX             AFV, Balderdash, Early Edition, Diagnosis Murder
UPN             WWE Smackdown
WB              Blue Collar TV, Reba, Studio 7
TELE            Prisonera, Gitanas, Protagonistas VIP
UNIV            Mariana de la Noche, Amarte es mi Pecado, Aqui y Ahora