Buyers: ABC will own Monday night

The crew for ABC's 'Monday Night Football'

Jill Hennessy in NBC's 'Crossing Jordan'

Regis Philbin and Tony Hawk on ABC's 'Millionaire'

Buyers: ABC will
own Monday night

Football and 'Millionaire' a killer fall combo

By Kevin Downey

   When the fall television season kicks off next month, ABC will take the lead in virtually every demographic target on Monday nights.
   At least that’s the expectation of many media buyers.
   Most say ABC will be No. 1 on Mondays at least until midseason because of "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" and football.
   "Starting out with ‘Millionaire’ and ‘Monday Night Football,’ I would vote for ABC," says Stephanie Satterfield, vice president and director of local media at MARC-USA.
   ABC’s win will come on one of the most consistently strong nights of programming on just about all of the broadcast networks.
   ABC will fend off CBS’s block of long-running sitcoms, including "Everybody Loves Raymond."
   And it will beat Fox’s second year of back-to-back David E. Kelley dramas, "Boston Public" and "Ally McBeal." And ABC will greatly outdistance established hits on UPN and the WB.
   "I think CBS will remain strong," says Satterfield. "Those programs have been around a while now and are stable, but I don’t look for them to improve or do anything dramatically differently.
    "I can’t imagine that ‘Weakest Link’ [on NBC] will be as long-lived as some of these other phenomena have been. It’s the only program in its genre, but I’d feel more comfortable with the stable lineup of CBS and certainly ABC," she says.
   The one network that ABC does not have to worry too much about, in fact, is NBC. Not on Monday nights, anyway.
   NBC doesn’t have much audience left to go after with its lineup of "Weakest Link" and "Third Watch," which will be followed by the new drama, "Crossing Jordan," at 10 p.m. In that show, Jill Hennessy from "Law & Order" plays a medical examiner who gets involved with solving crimes.
   Most of the other networks already have a strong-enough block of programs to capture at least one demographic segment, whether that’s older viewers, younger viewers, or the teenager audience.
   "On Monday night, ABC’s got it," says Shari Anne Brill, director of programming services at Carat. "They are the strongest in homes and they will take first in adults 18-49, 25-54, 35+, and even persons 18-34.
   "But Fox is in a very close race with ABC in that younger 18-34 demo. And Fox will win women 18-24, men 18-24, and teens. Women 12-17 will go to the WB, though."
   ABC’s dominance of Monday night, however, will last only until the NFL season ends in January.
   Each of the networks by then will most likely have rearranged schedules and added midseason replacements.
   Based on ABC’s loss of football and what’s already scheduled for midseason, most media pundits are guessing that CBS will take the lead, but less dramatically than ABC will have done in the first half of the season.
   "In the first quarter, ABC loses football and then CBS moves in with its comedies," says Brill. "CBS may not win 18-34, though, because ABC will have ‘The Runner’ in January and that may skew younger."
   ABC has two shows for Monday set to premiere in January.
   "The Runner" is a reality show that, in theory, will get much of the general public involved. A runner attempts to complete eight missions over the course of one month for a $1 million prize but can be stopped by anyone who wants to try.
   Sally Field will star in "The Court," a drama focusing on the Supreme Court and the legal clerks who work with the justices.
   From the people behind the movie, "Erin Brockovich," Fox has "Emma Brody" coming in midseason. The show is about an American woman working in the U.S. Embassy in England.
   "Fox is going to introduce ‘Emma Brody’ and it is going to do time-slot sharing," says Brill. "It is going to rest ‘Ally,’ which doesn't work well as a repeat."

Fall 2001 Primetime Monday Schedule (including Premiere dates) New shows in red
Net	8:00	8:30	9:00	9:30	10:00	10:30
ABC	Millionaire		Monday Night Football*
	10-Sep		10-Sep
CBS	King of Queens	Yes, Dear	Raymond	Becker	Family Law
	17-Sep	17-Sep	17-Sep	24-Sep	17-Sep
Fox	Boston Public		Ally McBeal
	22-Oct		22-Oct
NBC	Weakest Link		Third Watch		Crossing Jordan
	17-Sep		17-Sep		17-Sep
UPN	Hughleys	One on One	The Parkers	Girlfriends
	3-Sep	3-Sep	10-Sep	10-Sep
WB	7th Heaven		Angel
	24-Sep		24-Sep
*Starting in January - The Runner @ 9pm; The Court @ 10pm

-Kevin Downey is a staff writer for Media Life.

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