The word: ABC
closing on Koppel return
Other shorts: Experian: Even non-football fans watch Super Bowl
By Louisa Ada Seltzer
Jan 8, 2010
The word: ABC closing on Koppel return
All the talk today may be about late night, but there's also a morning show that's very much in flux right now. And ABC's "This Week with George Stephanopoulos" could be poaching a former late-nighter to step in. Rumors are intensifying that the network is wooing former "Nightline" host Ted Koppel to replace Stephanopoulos, who took over Diane Sawyer's spot on "Good Morning America" a few weeks ago. "World News" anchor Charles Gibson set off the musical chairs when he exited last month and Sawyer succeeded him. Politico reports that Koppel is interested in the job and is in discussions to host three out of four Sundays per month, though ABC News President David Westin tells the web site that "just about every specific that you have is false." Koppel worked for ABC for 42 years, helping to launch "Nightline" before exiting in 2005. Most recently he has been managing editor of the Discovery Channel, filming a series of specials.
Experian: Even non-football fans watch Super Bowl
The Super Bowl is perennially the year's most-watched TV program, and one reason is it’s not just football fans who are watching. In fact 13 percent of non-football viewers say they will watch the game, if only for the ads, according to the 2010 Super Bowl viewer profile from Experian Simmons. Not surprisingly that number jumps to 62 percent of occasional football viewers and 85 percent of frequent NFL viewers. Overall 84 percent of folks will watch the Super Bowl in their own home, and a majority of those folks will be watching the big game in high definition. According to the survey, 58 percent of Super Bowl viewers say they own at least one LCD, plasma or big-screen projection TV, compared to 48 percent of non-viewers. It’s also safe to say there will be a fair amount of alcohol flowing on Super Sunday. Super Bowl viewers of legal drinking age are 50 percent more likely than non-viewers to drink beer, and 147 percent more likely to drink Irish whiskey. That could result in some drunk dials, or at least drunk texts. While Super Bowl viewers aren’t more or less likely than non-viewers to own a wireless phone, they’re 25 percent more likely to personally use two or more devices.
Programming notes: Will 'Lost' lose its debut date?
Maybe ABC’s “Lost” won’t be returning on Feb. 2 after all. Despite endless promotion of the sixth and final season's premiere, ABC may be forced to move the debut after word that President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address may take place on Feb. 2. The networks were planning on a Jan. 26 State of the Union, but the White House is now considering Feb. 2 to allow the president to lay out a new healthcare reform law. This of course has “Lost” fanboys in a frenzy, including one who has started the Twitter hashtag #NoStateofUnionFeb2. Meanwhile, in other programming, Fox has pulled the premiere of the game show “Our Little Genius,” which was to premiere on Jan. 13 following “American Idol.” In a statement creator Mark Burnett said he’d “recently discovered that there was an issue with how some information was relayed to contestants" during preproduction. Burnett is currently reshooting some footage. Instead of "Genius," a repeat of “The Simpsons'” 450th episode will air after “Idol” next week and a repeat of “Human Target” will follow “Idol” on Jan. 19. CBS has fine-tuned its midseason schedule, premiering the fourth season of “Rules of Engagement” on March 1 at 8:30 p.m., moving first-year comedy “Accidentally on Purpose” to Wednesdays at 8:30 p.m. beginning March 31 and rolling out the drama “Miami Medical” on April 2 at 10 p.m. And on cable, Showtime has ordered 13 episodes of “The Big C,” which stars Laura Linney as a wife and mother who’s diagnosed with cancer. The show will premiere sometime in the fall.
On the NYT menu: Gastrointestinal distress
It's not just the recent layoffs that are making people queasy at the New York Times. It's also the newspaper's lunchroom. The Times shut down its cafeteria yesterday after a food poisoning scare, after several employees came down with gastrointestinal distress earlier this week. "While we do not know if the cause is food-related, as a precaution, we are closing the cafeteria for the day," reads an email sent out yesterday by publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr. and chief executive Janet L. Robinson. The pair asked Times employees to alert someone if they, too, started feeling ill. The paper is working with the New York City Department of Health and Restaurant Associates to address the problem, which of course was quickly picked up by Gawker and every other site itching to write a funny headline about the Times' cuisine quandary.
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