Superman lives:
CW renews 'Smallville'
Other shorts: Among TiVo users, 'Air' is Oscar fave
By Louisa Ada Seltzer
Mar 5, 2010
Programming notes: 'Smallville' takes 10
The Man of Steel has muscled past some other CW shows on the bubble. The network has picked up the Superman drama “Smallville” for a 10th season after moving the show to Friday nights this season. “Smallville” has averaged a 1.5 rating among viewers 18-34 this season, improving CW’s Friday 8 p.m. hour by 67 percent versus last year. It joins five other shows that already received early pickups from the network, with "One Tree Hill" and "Life Unexpected" considered the main fence sitters at this point. Meanwhile, in other programming, ABC is developing an ice dancing reality competition based on the BBC show “Strictly Ice Dancing.” The show’s format will be similar to “Dancing with the Stars,” with six celebrities teamed with pro skaters. Fox aired a similar show a few years ago. Also at ABC, the network is bringing back the reality series “True Beauty” and “Wipeout” this summer, with “Beauty” returning on May 31 and “Wipeout” back on June 22. On cable, Disney Channel is working on a “Tron” animated series, which will follow the upcoming movie “Tron: Legacy.” The movie hits theaters in December. On April 1 National Geographic Channel will premiere “Known Universe,” a six-part series that uses computer animation to look at the universe. On April 5 Versus will roll out “The Daily Line,” an hour-long news show that will air on weeknights. And on June 6 Lifetime will premiere the second season of “Drop Dead Diva,” the network's top new show last year. Lifetime has ordered 13 episodes for the sophomore season.
Among TiVo users, 'Air' is Oscars favorite
The George Clooney movie “Up in the Air” may not be among the favorites to win best picture at this weekend’s Academy Awards, but its trailer was a favorite among TiVo users who are also film buffs. From Jan. 2009 to Jan. 2010, just 15.5 percent of frequent moviegoers fast-forwarded the “Up in the Air” trailer on broadcast, well ahead of No. 2 Avatar, which was fast-forwarded by 41.3 percent of TiVo users, according to the company’s Stop||Watch ratings service. “Up in the Air” also led on cable, with its trailer zapped by 13.0 percent of TiVo users, followed again by “Avatar” at 22.5 percent. Among all Stop||Watch measured households, not just those of frequent moviegoers, “Up in the Air” once again led on both broadcast and cable, with fast-forward rates of 26.9 percent and 31 percent, respectively. “The Blind Side” was No. 2 on broadcast among all Stop||Watch households, with a 45.2 percent fast-forward rate, with “Avatar” No. 2 on cable with a 37.2 percent rate. It should be noted that the study called for a minimum of 20 movie trailer spots on broadcast and/or cable, which eliminated limited-release films “The Hurt Locker,” “A Serious Man” and “An Education.”
Analyst: TiVo decision could hamstring Dish
These days if you can't offer a subscriber a DVR option, you're as good as toast. And so the latest decision in the ongoing Dish Network-TiVo patent case could be a big win for DirecTV. Yesterday the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit upheld a lower court's decision ordering Dish and Echostar to pay up to $300 million to TiVo and perhaps stop offering the offending DVR, according to one analyst who says DirecTV stands to gain from the decision. Dish immediately said it plans to appeal the decision and that its current DVR subscribers will not be affected. But assuming the decision stands, analyst Craig Moffett of Sanford Bernstein predicts that some 8 million DVRs may be sent offline. "[I]f one assumed that Dish Network would no longer be a viable competitor without a DVR offering -- not an entirely unreasonable proposition -- then DirecTV's gain from exclusivity would be nothing less than all current and future satellite subscribers." Other analysts say they expect the decision to be upheld again on appeal.
CBS offers makegood for errant underwear pair
Those watching the first half of CBS's Super Bowl coverage last month probably thought they were seeing double after the network aired back-to-back commercials featuring people in their underwear. Turns out one of the advertisers was seeing red, and CBS is giving it a very special make-good to atone for the gaffe. The first ad in the pod was for Careerbuilder, and it showed a nudist-style interpretation of casual Friday. The ad that followed was for Dockers and featured men roaming around without pants. It was certainly odd, since pantsless commercials themselves are a rarity in the game, but apparently Dockers was concerned that the creative would blur together in viewers minds, concerned enough that CBS offered the company three gratis 30-second spots in the upcoming men's NCAA basketball tournament, according to Ad Age. CBS has neither confirmed nor denied the report. Make-goods are usually given when a program fails to meet ratings guaranteed beforehand, but this was hardly the case for the Super Bowl, the most-watched television program of all time with 106.5 million viewers.
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