Mort's relief: Murdoch drops Newsday bid; Dolan wins
Weeks ago it seemed a foregone conclusion that Rupert Murdoch was to become the new owner of Newsday, with Tribune Co. anxious to shed it and the News Corp. tycoon and New York Post owner willing to pay $580 million for the Long Island daily. But then the bidding heated up when New York Daily News owner Mort Zuckerman stepped in to match that offer and Cablevision then topped it handily with a bid of $650 million. Would Murdoch up his ante? No, as it turns out. This weekend he pulled out of the bidding, leaving the Long Island cable operator free to close the deal with Tribune, which it did this morning. All this must come as a great relief to Zuckerman, longtime archrival of Murdoch, whose marginally profitable Daily News would have faced a fearsome competitor in a combined Post-Newsday franchise. Now the puzzle becomes how the Dolan family, which controls Cablevision, will manage Newsday, having no experience in newspapers. But they do have a huge advantage in the ability to cross promote the paper and cable service, as well as offer joint ad deals.
Weekend overnights: Fox's NASCAR takes Saturday
CBS’s Friday night dramas once again led it to first place among viewers 18-49 for the night, as it finished with a 2.0 average overnight rating and a 7 share. ABC was second at 1.7/6, Univision third at 1.5/5, NBC fourth at 1.4/5, CW fifth at 1.3/5 and Fox sixth at 1.1/4.
At 8 p.m. CBS was first with a 2.1 for “Ghost Whisperer,” followed by Univision with a 1.6 for “Al Diablo con los Guapos.” ABC was third with a 1.4 for the first hour of “TV’s All-Time Funniest,” CW fourth with a 1.3 for the first hour of “Friday Night Smackdown,” NBC fifth with a 1.2 for “Most Outrageous Moments” and Fox sixth with a 1.0 for the first hour of the movie “Man of the House.”
At 9 p.m. ABC and CBS tied for the lead at 1.9, ABC for another hour of “All-Time Funniest” and CBS for “Moonlight.” Univision was third with a 1.5 for “Fuego en la Sangre,” NBC and CW tied for fourth at 1.4, NBC for “Dateline” and CW for “Smackdown,” and Fox sixth with a 1.1 for the second half of the movie.
CBS was first again at 10 p.m. with a 2.2 for “Numb3rs,” while ABC took second with a 1.9 for “20/20.” NBC was third with a 1.6 for another hour of “Dateline” and Univision fourth with a 1.4 for “Nuestra Belleza Latina.”
Among households, CBS was first for the night with a 5.5 average overnight rating and a 10 share. ABC was second at 4.2/8, NBC third at 3.8/7, CW fourth at 2.4/4, Fox fifth at 2.2/4 and Univision sixth at 1.8/3.
On Saturday night Fox’s coverage of NASCAR racing led it to first place among 18-49s with an approximate 2.4 average overnight rating and a 9 share. As a reminder, fast nationals measure timeslot, not actual program, data, and so Fox’s ratings will adjust when final numbers are released tomorrow. ABC was second at 1.6/6, CBS third at 1.3/5, NBC fourth at 1.0/3 and Univision fifth at 0.9/3.
At 8 p.m. Fox was first with a 2.4 for racing, followed by ABC with a 1.2 for its first hour of coverage of an NBA playoff game. CBS was third with a 1.1 for a repeat of “CSI: Miami,” Univision fourth with a 0.7 for the first of three hours of “Sabado Gigante” and NBC fifth with a 0.6 for a “Medium” rerun.
Fox led again at 9 p.m. with a 2.5 for more racing, while ABC remained second with a 1.6 for basketball. CBS was third with a 1.3 for a repeat of “Criminal Minds,” NBC fourth with a 1.0 for a “Law & Order: Criminal Intent” repeat and Univision fifth with a 0.9 for the middle hour of “Sabado Gigante.”
At 10 p.m. ABC took the lead with a 1.9 for more basketball, with CBS second with a 1.5 for “48 Hours Mystery.” NBC was third with a 1.3 for a “Law & Order” repeat and Univision fourth with a 1.1 for the last hour of “Sabado Gigante.”
Fox also finished first for the night among households with a 4.6 average overnight rating and a 9 share. CBS was second at 3.9/8, ABC third at 3.0/6, NBC fourth at 2.8/5 and Univision fifth at 1.3/2.
Upfront update: 'Back' won't be but 'Boston' returns
With the networks’ upfront presentations beginning today with NBC, the renewal notices and cancellation slips are being distributed. The latest: ABC’s on-the-bubble “Boston Legal” will return for a fifth year, coinciding with the pickup of another David E. Kelley show, “Life on Mars,” an adaptation of a British series. Over at Fox, “Back to You” has been passed over, though the network did renew “’Til Death” for a third season. “You” never quite delivered on the promise of pairing its co-stars, “Frasier’s” Kelsey Grammer and “Everybody Loves Raymond’s” Patricia Heaton, in their first ventures since their hugely popular shows ended. “Death” may be paired with “The Inn,” a new comedy that was picked up over the weekend. Meanwhile, the CW has given “The Game” a third-season pickup, following a season in which it grew over lead-in “Girlfriends,” which has already been canceled.
While still eschewing iTunes, NBC jumps on iPhones
You can’t get NBC shows on iTunes, but you’ll be able to see a few of them on iPhones. NBC has begun streaming full episodes of its comedies “The Office,” once among the most popular downloads on iTunes, and “30 Rock” to the Apple device. Users can find them on nbc.com, though Silicon Alley Insider reports that the quality is “pretty bad and our borrowed iPhone froze twice.” The episodes don’t have any commercials, which is a change from the ones available on the NBC site. Still, the oddest thing about the move is that it roundaboutly unites NBC and Apple after their recent iTunes standoff. NBC pulled its shows off the site after the two disagreed over pricing. Soon after, NBC Universal’s joint video venture with News Corp., hulu.com, launched.
CW sells off Sunday night to Media Rights Capital
The CW’s Sunday night problem will become someone else’s headache. The network has entered an agreement with Media Rights Capital, a film, TV and digital studio, to program one of its most challenging nights. The CW is pumping it as a way to provide more original content on Sundays than it has ever had, after two years in which family-oriented shows like “Life is Wild” and “Seventh Heaven” struggled there. The network also launched a pair of young-skewing newsmagazines last fall that quickly flopped. MRC will produce two comedies and two dramas to fill the night, though details on those shows have not yet been released. Speculation is that the CW sold off the Sunday night rights for up to $15 million, which frees it up to focus on programming Monday through Friday. The move, while rare these days in primetime, isn’t exactly unprecedented; NBC and Fox’s Saturday morning kids’ schedules have been similarly sold off.
