FAST TRACK
By Staff -- Broadcasting & Cable, 9/25/2005 8:00:00 PM
Items:
CBS Conquers Thursday Night, Again
Verizon Moves Into Cable TV
PBS, 'World News Tonight' Lead Emmys
Fanfare for the Uncommon Man
CNBC Chairman Departs
Leavitt Leaves TV Academy
Emergency Response Gets Full Court Press
'Affair' Ending; 'Geraldo at Large' Once Again
Herwitz Exits Fox
The WB Marketing VP Promoted
CBS Conquers Thursday Night, Again
UPN gets a piece of the action, too
CBS extended its reign as Thursday-night leader into the new 2005-06 TV season last week, winning television's most lucrative night with the help of CSI and Survivor. Sister Viacom-owned network UPN is getting a piece of Thursday action, too, with its highly anticipated new comedy Everybody Hates Chris finishing second in its time slot and outdelivering the more established, young-skewing competition in Fox's The O.C. and NBC's Joey.
The night before belonged to ABC as Lost continued to thrill in its season-two debut with 23.5 million viewers and a 10.2 rating/25 share in 18-49s. And NBC managed to win Tuesday night thanks to the strong premieres of My Name Is Earl and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. Here's B&C's scorecard:
ABC: Even before Desperate Housewives returned, ABC got off to a hot start. Lost delivered monster ratings against stiff competition, and most viewers stayed put for new thriller Invasion. The network's luck is tested this week with the premieres of freshman shows Commander in Chief and Nightstalker.
CBS: Once again, CSI and Survivor are unstoppable. The forensics drama nabbed network TV's highest premiere ratings yet, with 29 million viewers and a 10.2/25 in 18-49s. New drama Criminal Minds and NCIS also started off strong. CBS' new Friday-night duo of Threshold and Ghost Whisperer gets its first test this week.
FOX: After just two episodes, laggard legal comedy Head Cases was axed, earning it the distinction of being the first cancelled new show. But other new entries Bones and Prison Break are promising, and medical drama House is sizzling in its sophomore season, averaging more than 15 million viewers.
NBC: Mixed results for the Peacock in week one. My Name Is Earl lived up to its hype, with 15.2 million viewers and a 6.6/16 in 18-49s. But Martha Stewart had a stroke of Earl's bad luck: Her edition of The Apprentice limped out Sept. 21, with 2.3/7 in 18-49 and 7.1 million viewers. New military drama E-Ring and workhorses Law & Order and ER got off solidly.
UPN: Everybody Hates Chris, the season's most lauded new show, premiered with 7.8 million viewers and a 3.2/9 in 18-49s, stellar numbers for UPN. The Tyra Banks wannabes of America's Next Top Model strutted out to record ratings for its fifth incarnation. But the trick is getting more Chris viewers to stick around for the other Thursday-night sitcoms.
THE WB: So far, the network's push for more 18-34s is stalled. New Jerry Bruckheimer-produced crime show Just Legal, co-starring Don Johnson, and comedy Twins, with Melanie Griffith, got off to lackluster starts. Returning shows such as Gilmore Girls are healthy but appeal to The WB's already loyal young set.
Verizon Moves Into Cable TV
Telco debuts service in Texas towns
Verizon launched its fiber-optic cable-TV service, called FiOS, in 8,800 homes in Keller, Texas, last week. The service will be available in other Texas towns later this year, followed by Florida, Virginia and California.
Expanded basic, with 180 music and video channels, will cost $39.95 per month. Basic service is $12.95 a month for local-broadcast, public, education and government channels.
FiOS will carry, among other things, 12 channels owned by The Walt Disney Co., including ABC Family, Disney Channel and ESPN. Disney also gave Verizon permission to carry its 12 ABC stations. FiOS will use Disney-related broadband, pay-per-view, Spanish-language programming and VOD offerings.
The deal included an understanding that Disney and Verizon will work together to battle piracy in FiOS' subscriber base.
Also included: a sports package with 15 channels for $5.95, a movie package with 45 channels of Starz, Encore, Showtime and The Movie Channel for $11.95, and a Spanish language package of 24 channels for $11.95.
PBS, 'World News Tonight' Lead Emmys
PBS was the big winner at the News and Documentary Emmys, collecting six at the National Television Academy awards banquet in New York on Sept. 19.
On the eve of the late ABC anchor Peter Jennings' memorial service, his World News Tonight topped all evening newscasts with three Emmys, helping ABC to a three-way tie for second place in the statue totals with four. The range of ABC stories saluted and their international datelines—Iraq (war), Darfur (genocide), Beslan (school massacre)—also clearly reflect Jennings' imprint.
CBS and NBC also collected four awards apiece, including one to Dan Rather's newscast for its Enron reporting. Documentary powerhouse HBO collected three, Cinemax two, Discovery Times Channel and Discovery Channel two each, and History, MSNBC and Sundance one each.—J.E.
Fanfare for the Uncommon Man
The memorial for late ABC anchorman Peter Jennings, held Sept. 20 at Carnegie Hall, was, in a word, sincere.
That was the trait about Jennings most of the speakers spoke to, along with the apparent fact that he was an A-1 sentimentalist and a great believer in a moral code to life.
His son Chris Jennings said, “The slightest achievement by his children, or even his dog, could move him to tears.” His daughter, Elizabeth, quoted from a speech Jennings gave at her high school graduation: “Once you are clear what your values are, you must always stand up for them.” —P.J. Bednarski
CNBC Chairman Departs
CNBC's Pamela Thomas-Graham will leave the company for a job as group president of Liz Claiborne Inc.
President and CEO of CNBC for four years beginning in 2001, she was eased into a strategic-planning and brand-extending role as chairman in February when Mark Hoffman was brought in as president/CEO to oversee the ratings-challenged business news net. The chairman post will not be filled.—A.B.
Leavitt Leaves TV Academy
Academy of Television Arts & Sciences President/COO Todd Leavitt has resigned from his post overseeing ATAS and its foundation and will leave as the senior staff executive by the end of the year.
Leavitt, who was nearing the end of his three-year contract in October, waited until after Sunday's Primetime Emmy Awards ceremony to announce his departure, expressing a desire to return to the commercial sector of the television industry and pursue entrepreneurial opportunities in areas of emerging media technologies.
He will stay on for the next few months to assist ATAS with the transition, including an upcoming retreat for the group's leaders in October. ATAS will form a search committee to find a new executive to run the group.—J.B.
Emergency Response Gets Full Court Press
In the wake of Hurricane Katrina and in the face of Hurricane Rita, a new, pan-media, national-local coordinated emergency-communications response has become a priority in Washington.
Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) Sept. 22 proposed the Communications Security Act of 2005, which would require the Department of Homeland Security and the FCC to work together to develop backup communications systems using satellites, wireless and terrestrial services.
“Our first responders make the greatest commitment to our country by protecting us in times of disaster,” says Kerry. “It is unacceptable that, four years after 9/11, we are still putting them on the frontlines without reliable communications equipment.”
Also on Sept. 22, FCC Chairman Kevin Martin in testimony to the Senate Commerce Committee, recommended a flexible emergency-communications system for first responders that would employ various media.
Before the day was done, a bipartisan block of Commerce Committee members had introduced the Warning, Alerts and Response Network (or WARN) bill. It would allocate a quarter billion dollars to develop a system of geographically targeted alerts across TV, radio, cable, satellite, Blackberrys, cellphones and non-traditional media. —John Eggerton
'Affair' Ending; 'Geraldo at Large' Once Again
Twentieth Television last week announced the long-rumored cancellation of A Current Affair, which will be replaced with Geraldo at Large, a live, first-run strip hosted by Fox News Channel's Geraldo Rivera.
The new show will be produced in New York and distributed by Twentieth Television. It will be slotted in Current Affair's time periods on the Fox O&Os when Affair goes off the air next month.
Fox has been expected to give its owned stations a more FNC-like branding given the success of its cable news network and Fox News Channel architect Roger Ailes' taking over the station group.
The show, which has been on for 26 weeks through last Friday, averaged a 2.5 rating/5 share in weighted metered-markets for primary runs. The show was down 26% from its average lead-in and down 22% from its year-ago time period average. —Ben Grossman/J.E.
Herwitz Exits Fox
After almost 20 years with the Fox Television Station Group, President Tom Herwitz is leaving the company.
His departure comes just weeks after Fox News chief Roger Ailes took over the group following the departure of former News Corp. Deputy COO and station group Chairman Lachlan Murdoch. Former Ailes lieutenant Jack Abernethy arrived last year to be the group's CEO over Herwitz.—A.R./J.E.
The WB Marketing VP Promoted
Nineteen-year Warner Bros. veteran Lisa Gregorian will lead a new group as executive VP, worldwide marketing, of the recently created Warner Bros. Television Group. She will work with the studio's internal television marketing teams, as well as with networks and stations, on marketing opportunities for its TV properties.—Jim Benson
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