Oprah regains
top TV personality spot
Other shorts: Stern: I have an offer from terrestrial radio
By Louisa Ada Seltzer
Jan 26, 2010
Harris: Oprah regains top TV personality spot
Retirement is doing wonders for Oprah Winfrey's reputation. For the first time in four years, Winfrey tops Harris Interactive's list of top television personalities, after sliding to an all-time low of fourth last year. Winfrey knocked last year's No. 1 personality, Jay Leno, down to third, with a newcomer to the list, Fox News host Glenn Beck, claiming the No. 2 spot. Harris attributes renewed affection for Winfrey to her announcement last year that she will end her long-running talk show in 2011, sparking a huge amount of media coverage and, one would expect, an equal amount of nostalgia. TV favorites vary according to demographics. Winfrey is the top personality among both Generation X and Baby Boomers, but Conan O'Brien is the preferred choice of so-called Echo Boomers ages 18-32, despite not even making the overall top 10 list. (Note: The survey was taken in December, before NBC's late-night fiasco.) Beck is tops among matures ages 64 and over. Ellen DeGeneres and Hugh Laurie round out the top five, while Stephen Colbert and Steve Carrell dropped off this year's list.
Stern: I have an offer from terrestrial radio
Remember back in 2004 when Howard Stern kept threatening to move to satellite radio and no one really believed him? Well, six years later, Stern is making similar rumblings on his satellite home about moving back to terrestrial, and this time everyone is taking him seriously. The shock jock, who saw his star power and audience plummet after moving to Sirius in 2006 in a deal worth $500 million, said last week that he had a suitor from traditional radio, and now that suitor has been identified as Clear Channel, the company that dropped Stern from its stations in '04 amidst an indecency uproar. Of course the big question is whether Stern, after four years of running his mouth as he pleases on Sirius XM's unregulated airwaves, could curb his cursing and outrageous stunts enough to avoid run-ins with the Federal Communications Commission, which proved his undoing in his first Clear Channel stint. When Stern left for satellite, he proclaimed the medium perfect for free speech. But as he's seen his influence wane, Stern has become vocally disenchanted with his current employer.
Lifetime births cable's biggest movie since 1994
Call it the mother of all Lifetime movies. The network’s “The Pregnancy Pact,” which premiered on Saturday and stars Thora Birch as an online journalist investigating a spike in teenage pregnancies in her hometown, averaged 2.48 million women 18-49, according to Nielsen, making it the most-watched original movie premiere in that demo in the network’s history. The airing also set network records among women 18-34 (1.37 million), adults 18-49 (3.22 million) and adults 18-34 (1.77 million). “Pact” became the most-watched movie on ad-supported cable among women 18-34 since 1994, and it averaged 5.86 million total viewers. The film is a fictional story based on actual reports of teen pregnancy in summer 2008. Meanwhile, in other ratings, Syfy on Friday averaged 1.6 million viewers for the premiere of its “Battlestar Galactica” prequel “Caprica.” Syfy says 2 million people saw the episode online and on DVD before it premiered, which could have sapped Friday night’s viewer totals. Also on Friday night, the premiere of “Spartacus: Blood and Sand” averaged 553,000 viewers on Starz, as well as another 460,000 on Encore, making it easily the most-watched original premiere in network history. By comparison, another Starz original, “Crash,” averaged 185,000 viewers for its most recent season premiere.
The No. 1 game show in the world: 'Millionaire'
Apparently one of the U.S.’s biggest exports is TV game shows. Seven of the top 10 game shows in the world started in the U.S., according to a report from analysts Television Business International, using data from audience measurement company Mediametrie. TBI looked at game show ratings across 18 countries and ranked shows based on how many times the shows appeared in a country’s top-rated programs. “Who Wants To Be a Millionaire?” topped the list, followed by “Deal or No Deal.” “Millionaire” got its start in the UK and “Deal” began in the Netherlands, but six of the next seven shows on the list all started right here in the U.S.: “Wipeout,” “Wheel of Fortune,” “Family Feud,” “Don’t Forget the Lyrics,” “Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader?” and “Jeopardy.” “Hole in the Wall,” a Japanese show, and “I Love My Country,” which started in the Netherlands, rounded out the top 10. “Jeopardy,” which launched in 1964, was easily the oldest game in the top 10, followed by “Fortune” (1975), “Feud” (1976) and “Millionaire” (1998). The rest of the entries in the top 10 premiered in 2002 or later.
Women to CBS: Axe Bowl ad with Tebow and mom
Tim Tebow is a college football star, so he would seem a likely kind of guy to appear in a commercial set to air during the Super Bowl, but a bunch of women's groups want CBS, which airs the big game on Feb. 7, to scrap the ad because of the message they expect it to convey. The ad is not about football but an issue apparently dear to Tebow and Tebow's mother, who also is set to appear in the ad: the evils of abortion. The ad is being sponsored by Focus on the Family, a conservative Christian group. Just what's in the ad is not entirely known but there appears to be little doubt about its message following comments Tebow made to reporters over the weekend during an interview at the Senior Bowl. The University of Florida star talked to reporters about his mother's decision not have an abortion in 1987, despite the advice of doctors, and how she went on to deliver a healthy baby who would grow up to become one of college football's top athletes. A letter from the Women's Media Center challenging CBS to axe the Focus on the Family-funded ad reads in part: "By offering one of the most coveted advertising spots of the year to an anti-equality, anti-choice, homophobic organization, CBS is aligning itself with a political stance that will damage its reputation, alienate viewers, and discourage consumers from supporting its shows and advertisers." But most likely the ad will run anyhow. CBS has already cleared the script, finding no problem with the message, and the network indicates it sees no reason to yank it, despite the protests.
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