The 2006 B&C News Quiz
How much can you recall?
By B&C Staff -- Broadcasting & Cable, 12/17/2006 7:00:00 PM
1. What was the first new broadcast-network program to be cancelled for the fall 2006 season?
A) Kidnapped
B) Smith
C) Runaway
D) Shark
2. Political spending on local TV is estimated at how much for 2006?
A) $1.6 billion
B) $2 billion
C) $1 billion
D) $850 million
3. ESPN’s acquisition of Monday Night Football has made ratings soar but did not come cheap. How much is the cable network paying per year?
A) $600 million
B) $750 million
C) $800 million
D) $1.1 billion
4. Which of the following hosts has the highest-rated rookie first-run syndicated show?
A) Rachael Ray
B) Megan Mullally
C) Greg Behrendt
D) Maria Lopez
5. How many stations are now broadcasting local news in HDTV?
A) 15
B) 25
C) 35
D) 45
6. What news organization broke the news of Mel Gibson’s drunk-driving arrest and his ensuing anti-Semitic tirade?
A) ABC, Good Morning America
B) Fox News
C) Defamer.com
D) TMZ.com
E) CNN Headline News, Nancy Grace
7. Between them, how much did UPN and The WB burn through before going out of business?
A) $200 million
B) $500 million
C) $800 million
D) $1.1 billion
8. Name recognition is key to marketing success. The summer before launch, what percentage of the country knew what The CW was?
A) 5%
B) 12%
C) 48%
D) 71%
9. What did Chef Emeril Lagasse do to jambalaya on TV in August?
A) He threw a hot spoonful at Rachael Ray.
B) He began to choke on it, forcing a cameraman to use the Heimlich maneuver.
C) He put out a small kitchen fire with it during a live show.
D) He helped NASA send a dehydrated bag of it to astronauts at the International Space Station.
10. Looking to ride the “citizen-journalism” phenomenon, which station group launched Community Correspondent this year?
A) LIN TV
B) Pappas Telecasting
C) Journal Broadcasting
D) Gannett Broadcasting
11. How many viewers tuned in for Katie Couric’s debut as anchor of the CBS Evening News?
A) 14.7 million
B) 13.6 million
C) 10.2 million
D) 11.5 million
12. However, after a huge opening, Couric settled into third place. In November sweeps, CBS Evening News trailed No. 1 NBC Nightly News and No. 2 ABC World News. What was Couric’s average audience for the month?
A) 7.9 million viewers
B) 8.2 million viewers
C) 7.5 million viewers
D) 8.5 million viewers
13. What is Wicked, Wicked Games?
A) A soft-porn game show available as a video-on-demand feature from Spice
B) The name of one of the telenovelas on MyNetworkTV
C) A strip-poker game featuring Las Vegas showgirls that ESPN aired during the World Series
D) The new hit song Justin Timberlake performed during Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show while models danced around him dressed in flimsy lingerie
14. Whose description of the Internet as a “series of tubes” became a hit on YouTube during the network-neutrality debate?
A) Sen. Ted Stevens, chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee
B) Rep. Joe Barton, chairman of the House Energy & Commerce Committee
C) Google CIE (Chief Internet Evangelist) Vint Cerf
D) AT&T CEO Ed Whitacre
15. Viacom Chairman Sumner Redstone unceremoniously dumped beloved MTV CEO Tom Freston and complained more than once that he had failed to buy which Website?
A) Facebook
B) MySpace
C) Friendster
D) Matchbook
16. What percentage of commercials in the 2006 Super Bowl broadcast were shown in HDTV?
A) 5%
B) 25%
C) 50%
D) 75%
17. Before entering the television business, News Corp. President/COO Peter Chernin worked as a book editor. One of his most successful titles was:
A) The Bridges of Madison County
B) Mary Ellen’s Book of Helpful Hints
C) Kangaroos and the Outback: Travels in Australia
D) Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
18. What was the name of the viral video clip that kicked off the YouTube phenomenon in early 2006?
A) Lazy Sunday
B) William Shatner Sings “Rocket Man”
C) The Mentos-Diet Coke Experiment
D) The Chronicles of Narnia
E) LonelyGirl15
19. This show rubbed Republicans the wrong way and led to an attempt to zero-out funding for some noncommercial kids programming:
A) Notes From Carlos
B) Teletubbies
C) Handy Manny
D) Postcards From Buster
20. The FCC received a complaint about a segment of America’s Funniest Home Videos featuring a baby falling on its pacifier. It concluded that:
A) “The complaint is without merit.”
B) “The complaint is so ludicrous that several Enforcement Bureau staffers laughed until their sides ached and one did a spit take of coffee all over the Great FCC Seal.”
C) “Because no supporting tape was supplied for this incident, the complaint cannot be ruled on at this time.”
D) “Because this videotape depicts a child’s nude buttocks, we find that it depicts both excretory and sexual organs, and the broadcast therefore falls within the subject matter scope of our indecency analysis.”
21. Struggling under weak ad sales and profits, NBC Universal announced NBCU 2.0, a plan to slash annual expenses by
A) $600 million in part by cutting 650 jobs
B) $450 million in part by cutting 400 jobs
C) $500 million in part by cutting 550 jobs
D) $750 million in part by cutting 700 jobs
22. Whom did CBS News vet Mike Wallace refer to as “smart, savvy, self-assured, self-righteous and a brilliant man”?
A) Dan Rather
B) Brian Williams
C) Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
D) Vladimir Putin
23. John Kneuer is:
A) Head of the FCC’s Enforcement Bureau
B) President of the Parents Television Council
C) Head of the National Telecommunications & Information Administration, which oversees the DTV converter-box subsidy
D) The actor who plays Jerry “Hands” Espenson on Boston Legal
24. Former NBCU executive David Zaslav replaced Discovery Communications CEO Judith McHale in November. He briefly replaced McHale once before, in 1988, when she went on maternity leave. Where was Zaslav at that time?
A) He was a film editor working on Discovery’s “Shark Week.”
B) He was with law firm LeBouef, Lamb, Leiby & MacRae.
C) Oddly enough, he was working for NBC.
D) He was managing editor of National Geographic.
25. In October, search giant Google agreed to acquire video-sharing site YouTube. What was the value of the stock-for-stock transaction?
A) $650 million
B) $900 million
C) $1.65 billion
D) $3.1 billion
E) $10.9 billion
BONUS. Videos depicting the explosive results of mixing Diet Coke and Mentos candy became a YouTube staple in 2006. As of Dec. 14, how many videos come up in response to a search for “diet coke” and “mentos”?
A) 7,110
B) 3,845
C) 1,421
D) 11,023
E) 809
For the answers, turn to page 27.
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