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News Corp. chairman Rupert Murdoch has a few properties in his back pocket—20th Century Fox Studios and the Fox television network, the New York Post and British Sky Broadcasting, among others—but you know what would really hit the spot? General Motors. More specifically, GM’s satellite unit, which includes the DirecTV satellite television company. According to a report on MSNBC, Murdoch’s got a hankering for DirecTV, and lately he’s been thinking that the cheapest way to get it may just be to buy all of GM and then sell off the bits he doesn’t want—the automotive and finance divisions. If he can line up buyers for these properties in advance, it might enable him to make an unsolicited bid and snap up GM. That scenario is highly unlikely, say analysts, but just the talk of it was enough to send GM’s stock price shooting up yesterday.
UPN's "The Beat" doing well in its numbers
The premiere of UPN’s "The Beat" scored big for UPN this week. Pulling in 3 million viewers, the cop show from Barry Levinson and Tom Fontana ("Homicide: Life on the Street"), improved its season average for Tuesday at 9 by 43 percent. That propelled UPN to its strongest Tuesday night this season. Following the buzz of UPN’s "WWF Smackdown," the big numbers signal a resurgence of the previously languishing network. Looking to prove it's not a one-hit wonder, "The Beat" will be help UPN snag a bigger piece of the upfront this May if it holds its audience. The show follows the lives of two cops walking the streets of New York's lower east side. It stars two newcomers, Derek Cecil and Mark Ruffalo, but features guest appearances by Celeste Holm and Richard Belzer, who reprises his John Munch role from "Homicide." It is something of a cutting edge series as it interlaces drama with humor and is partially shot on hand-held video, a la "The Blair Witch Project." Viewing for the show was strong in all key demos, keeping in line with UPN’s plans to broaden its base of young men. Its household rating of 2.2/3 was a 47 percent improvement for the timeslot. The men 18-49 rating of 1.0/3 was 11 percent better than the time period average while the women 18-49 rating of 0.9/2 was a 29 percent improvement. The show’s lead-in, "Secret Agent Man," did not fare as well in its third outing. The high-tech drama from the "Men in Black" team pulled a 1.6/3. "The Beat" improved on its lead by 38 percent.
ABC cleans up
big time on Oscar spots
Prices for
a 30-second ad during Sunday night’s Oscars on ABC are averaging between
$1 million and $1.5 million, a 30 percent increase from last year’s rates. ABC
is expected to generate a record $60 million during the event, ranking
second only to the Super Bowl in ad rates. Spots during this year’s
Super Bowl—which also aired on ABC—cost sponsors an average of
$2.2 million. Advertisers airing spots during the Academy Awards this year
include the Gap, Pepsi, Sony, Blockbuster, McDonald’s, American Express,
Motorola, AT&T and Charles Schwab. The Oscars attracted an average of
46 million domestic viewers and reached an all-time ratings high with an
average of 55 million viewers domestically in 1998, when
"Titanic" swept the awards. ABC is counting on beating last year’s
numbers thanks to the return of host Billy Crystal, who skipped 1999’s
show.
Dave's back to a
full late-night schedule
David
Letterman will work full time next week, for the first time in over two
months since the CBS "Late Show" host underwent quintuple bypass
surgery in mid-January. Letterman will host all five shows next week but
Letterman's return to full-time work will reportedly be handled on a
week-by-week basis. If he feels well next week, Letterman will remain on a
full schedule. Initially, CBS aired "Late Show" reruns after
Letterman’s surgery. Beginning during sweeps, past guests such as Regis
Philbin and Charles Grodin hosted "Backstage" episodes which
mixed new interviews with old clips. Letterman returned on a part-time
basis to the show in mid-February, hosting three episodes a week, with the
other two shows being handled by various guest hosts.
Kuralt's secret
mistress wins one in court
Charles
Kuralt's longtime mistress Patricia Shannon won ownership of the late CBS
correspondent's Montana fishing retreat in court Wednesday. A Helena judge
agreed with Shannon’s claim that a letter Kuralt wrote to her shortly
before he died in 1997 was a valid will giving her the 90-acre property,
valued at $600,000. Kuralt's children contended that the letter only
expressed Kuralt's intention to draft a new will and was not a legal
document. Kuralt and Shannon had a secret relationship for 29 years.
Kuralt's widow, Suzanne, who died in October 1999, reportedly did not know
about Shannon until Kuralt's funeral.
