Syndie Insider

Just a few weeks after its launch, NBC Universal's The Jane Pauley Show is being downgraded in major markets. KXAS Dallas, an NBC O&O station, has moved it to noon from 3 p.m., returning Warner Bros.'The Ellen DeGeneres Show to the timeslot. WKRN Nashville, Tenn., an ABC affiliate, has moved Pauley to 11 a.m. from 3 p.m. Overall, Pauley is averaging a 1.7 rating/5 share in the metered markets, off 29% from its time-period average and 32% from its lead-in.

Paramount's new access magazine, The Insider, was syndication's highest-rated national launch at 2.4, leading the seven nationally rated rookies by a decent margin. Syndication premiere week ended Sept. 19, with most shows debuting Sept. 13. Buena Vista's The Tony Danza Show, hurt by middle-of-the-night clearances in three of the top five markets, premiered at a 1.2, although the show easily won its time periods in New York and Philadelphia.

Supermodel Tyra Banks has completed a deal with Warner Bros. Domestic Television Distribution to do a syndicated talk strip starting in fall 2005. "What sold us were her appearances on Oprah," says WBDTD President Dick Robertson.

"When she was on, Oprah got a bump in the key women 18-34 and 18-49 demos," says Jim Paratore, executive vice president of WBDTD and president of Telepictures Productions.

Banks became famous as a supermodel and a favorite Victoria's Secret model. She now executive-produces and stars in UPN's America's Next Top Model, a show credited with turning that network around. Robertson says Warner Bros. was able to sign Banks because only three new talk shows out of 71 in the past eight years have been called hits—Rosie, Dr. Phil and Ellen—and two were produced by Warner Bros. The distributor will begin selling the show next month.