Royal shrug for Fox's new 'Princes' on Sunday
   We’ve seen reality shows with spoiled rich kids work with “The Simple Life,” but it appears interest in such shows stops at Paris and Nicole.
   Sunday night Fox premiered the new reality series “The Princes of Malibu,” which follows the two twentysomething stepsons of music producer David Foster. According to Nielsen overnights, the show posted just a 2.6 average rating among viewers 18-49, down 7 percent from its “Simpsons” lead-in.
   It was also off 50.8 percent from the 5.9 18-49 rating “Simple Life” earned in its Fox premiere in December 2003, and down 40.8 percent from the 4.9 “Simple Life 2” earned for its premiere last summer.
   Meanwhile, NBC edged Fox for the night among viewers 18-49, averaging a 2.5 rating and an 7 share, just ahead of Fox’s 2.4/8. ABC was third at 2.1/6, CBS fourth at 1.6/5 and the WB fifth at 0.8/2.
   NBC led at 7 p.m. with a 2.5 average for an hour of “Dateline.” CBS was second during the hour with a 1.7 for “60 Minutes” and ABC third with a 1.6 for “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.”
   Fox took the lead at 8 p.m. with a 2.7 average for a repeat of “The Simpsons” (2.8) and the premiere of “Princes” (2.6). The second hours of “Dateline” on NBC and “Home Edition” on ABC tied for third, each with a 2.5 average, with CBS fourth during the hour with a 1.5 average for a repeat of “Cold Case.”
   Fox led again at 9 p.m. with a 3.2 average for an hour of “Family Guy,” the highest-rated hour of the night in the demo. NBC was second with a 2.5 for a repeat of “Law & Order: Criminal Intent” and ABC third with a 2.1 for a repeat of “Desperate Housewives.”
   NBC regained the lead at 10 p.m. with a 2.3 average rating for a “Crossing Jordan” rerun. ABC was second with a 2.2 for a repeat of “Grey’s Anatomy” and CBS third with a 1.8 for the last hour of the movie “Open House.”
   CBS finished first for the night among households with a 5.7 average rating and a 10 share. NBC was second at 5.5/10, ABC third at 3.8/7, Fox fourth at 3.1/6 and the WB fifth at 1.1/2.

White House sidesteps Rove questions in probe
With Deep Throat’s identity now revealed, Washington, D.C., has a new party game: Who leaked CIA operative Valerie Plame’s name to the media? The White House isn’t playing. After President Bush promised a year ago to fire the leaker, the administration seemed to back off on any sort of pledge yesterday, as speculation swirled around senior Bush advisor Karl Rove as the source. During two briefings yesterday, White House press secretary Scott McClellan fielded many questions about the Plame probe. He basically wouldn’t comment, sidestepping questions over whether the leaker would be fired. Two years ago, McClellan denied Rove’s involvement in the matter. But over the weekend a Time email surfaced on the internet showing Rove was one of Time reporter Matthew Cooper’s sources in a story on the Plame matter. Columnist Bob Novak published Plame’s name in a 2003 column, leading to a grand jury investigation into how he and two other reporters, Cooper and the New York Times’ Judith Miller, learned the name. It’s a crime for a government official to identify an undercover agent under certain conditions.

Programming notes: Fox debuts before baseball
Fox may have earned its first-ever win among viewers 18-49 last season but that hasn’t stopped the network from altering its strategy come fall. In a departure from what it has done the past few years, Fox will roll out most of its season and series premieres in September, before its coverage of the baseball playoffs and World Series begins. It starts with "Prison Break" on Aug. 29. The network will launch 20 shows by Sept. 23, including the return of “The O.C.” on Sept. 8 at 8 p.m. followed by the series premiere of “The Reunion.” At May’s upfront Fox hinted that it would rollout its shows earlier this season, making it official with yesterday’s announcement. In other programming, Comedy Central and WGN have both picked up syndicated rights to NBC’s “Scrubs,” set to begin airing in 2006. Nick at Nite will pay $500,000 each for 236 episodes of “Friends,” which it will air under a six-year deal that starts in 2011. ABC says the eighth season of “The Bachelor” will take place in Paris, the first time the series has gone abroad. Lifetime has picked up the rights to the not nearly as popular “Golden Girls” spinoff “The Golden Palace” starting Aug. 1. And tonight, MTV Networks will launch MTV Desi, a network aimed at people living in the U.S. with ties to southern Asia. The channel will be carried on DirecTV.

Judge says AMC's new look violates TWC deal
Tossing out the old for the new has few consequences for media moguls upgrading their trophy wives, but it could have some for a cable network. A New York civil court yesterday ruled that AMC violated a deal with Time Warner Cable when it began changing its lineup to focus on more recent movies. According to Judge Bernard J. Fried, AMC’s contract with TWC required it to program mostly old movies. When AMC began switching to younger ones, TWC was within its rights to cancel that contract, which it did two years ago, resulting in the civil suit. The two signed their deal in 1993, when 94.4 percent of AMC’s movies were from 1930 to 1959. By 2002, such movies had fallen to 18.9 percent of the network’s schedule. Black and white movies had gone from 73.8 percent to 14.8 percent. AMC owner Rainbow Media is appealing the decision. TWC continues to carry AMC, which is available in 87 million households, and probably won’t drop it. But it may try to renegotiate its current carriage deal, worth about $25 million.

Study: Black staffers in local news radio plummet
African-Americans are disappearing from local radio news teams, according to a survey released yesterday by the Radio-Television News Directors Association. The percentage of African-Americans in local news radio fell from 7.3 percent in 2003 to just 0.7 percent in 2004, and black radio news directors fell from 2.7 percent to zero. Ten years ago, it was 5.4 percent. The share of whites in local news radio grew from 88.2 percent to 92.1. Hispanic news directors shot up from 2.7 percent in 2003 to 8.8 percent last year. The RTNDA says minority representation in radio newsrooms has been falling steadily since stringent Equal Employment Opportunity rules were cut in 1998. The overall share of minorities in the news radio workforce fell from 11.8 percent to 7.9 last year. In TV news, however, the share of minorities fell just slightly, from 21.9 percent to 21.2 percent last year. By comparison, just over 13 percent of newspaper journalists are minorities, and minorities represent 33.2 percent of the U.S. population. The study did caution that newsroom consolidation and inconsistent responses from many stations can make year-to-year data comparisons misleading.

Ill-timed WWE show offends viewers after attacks 
Professional wrestling has always been somewhat tongue-in-cheek, but an ill-timed plotline struck some viewers as a bit too cheeky. UPN received complaints after Thursday’s “WWE Smackdown” depicted a terrorist-like attack, the same night as the deadly terrorist attacks in London. In the episode, Arab-American wrestler Muhammad Hassan was shown praying while five ski mask-clad partners assaulted the good-guy wrestler called The Undertaker. UPN says a tight shooting schedule prevented it from changing the episode taped July 5, two days before the London attacks. WWE did edit the segment out of the UK version of “Smackdown.” It also warned viewers four times throughout the episode with a crawl that read, “In light of today's tragic events in London, parental discretion is advised in viewing tonight's episode.” The WWE says it’s an entertainment business and that its plot shouldn’t be taken seriously.