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TV viewing is rising, even
as more go online
Americans are continuing to
watch more television, even as more and more of them link their computers
to the internet. So says the Television Bureau of Advertising, citing data
from Nielsen Media Research. According to TVB, household television
viewing during the first two months of this year averaged 7 hours and 58
minutes a day, up 9 minutes over the same period a year ago. Average
viewing during all of 1999 was 7 hours and 26 minutes a day, which was an
increase of 11 minutes a day over 1998's average. Women were the biggest
TV watchers in early 2000, averaging 5:08 hours a day, an increase of 7
minutes a day over the same period in 1999. Men were next at 4:28 hours,
also up 7 minutes from a year earlier. Teens watched 3:11 hours a day, up
4 minutes, followed by children 2-11, who watched an average of 3:12 hours
a day, up only 3 minutes from a year ago. "The trend suggests,
contrary to popular opinion, that the internet is having little negative
effect on American TV viewing patterns," says Harold Simpson, vice
president of research and development for TVB.
CBS's 'Falcone'
premiere fails to wow
CBS’s highly anticipated Mafia
drama, "Falcone," premiered Tuesday to a disappointing rating of
7.6/12 in the first of eight airings over two weeks. The show, based on
the movie "Donnie Brasco" and inspired by the success of HBO’s
"The Sopranos," failed to live up to expectations against ABC
and NBC comedies. The show sank CBS’s household rating to an 8.4/14 for
Tuesday night, compared to ABC’s 12.6/20 and NBC’s 7.6/12. Fox
pulled in a 4.0/6. CBS viewers seemed uninterested in testing the fall
series tryout, and those who did apparently lost interest along the way.
"Falcone" viewers trailed off with each half-hour, and its
ratings fell 25 percent from lead-in "JAG," which performed well
competing directly with ABC’s "Who Wants to be a
Millionaire?" "JAG" had a 10.1/16 to
"Millionaire’s" 17.9/29. Among younger viewers, the news was
a bit brighter in that ratings did not fall off as the episode wore
on. Still, "Falcone’s" 3.1/8 adults 18-49 rating wasn’t
enough to pull CBS out of a distant third place for the night. It’s 3.4/10 was 27 percent below NBC’s 4.7/13 and exactly half of ABC’s 6.8/19. Fox had a 2.8/8.
This time, judge grants
Darva annulment
What began as a Fox special watched by
over 22 million viewers ended quietly in a Las Vegas divorce court
yesterday. "Who Wants to Marry a Multimillionaire?" bride Darva Conger
was granted an annulment. Conger, who
petitioned for the annulment, testified she had not been told about
instant husband Rick Rockwell’s background before their on-air marriage. Soon after the
wedding, it came out that Rockwell’s former fiancé had gotten a restraining
order against him in 1991, claiming he hit her. Rockwell, who has recently
performed stand-up comedy routines to sold out audiences, capitalizing on
his 15 minutes of fame, saying, "I'm kind of disappointed that the
annulment is final because for a while I was the only man in the world who
could meet a woman and tell her, 'My wife doesn't understand and we're
splitting up,' and she would actually believe it." Earlier this week,
Conger lost her bid for an annulment without a full hearing.
Top editor named
for USAToday.com
Kinsey Wilson, a former editor at
Congressional Quarterly, has been named editor-in-chief of the
USAToday.com internet version of Gannett's USA Today newspaper. Wilson was
also named vice president of the USAToday.com. He succeeds Jim Schulte,
who left the company in February. Wilson's responsibilities will be
similar those at Congressional Quarterly, where he helped set the
editorial and strategic direction for online operations. USAToday.com is
the most visited newspaper site on the web, beating out the New York Times
and Washington Post web sites. Gannett’s revenue for the site rose 89
percent to more than $7 million in 1999. The site turned a profit in the second
half of last year and is expected to remain profitable throughout 2000,
even as the company continues to build its editorial staff.
