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ABC edged CBS in households last night, due to a strong performance by the “Little League World Series” and wins by “Who Wants to be a Millionaire” and “The Practice.” Without adjusting for time zone differences, the “Little League World Series” game averaged a preliminary 6.2/11 household rating and share and a 2.8 adult 18-49 rating from 7 p.m. to 9:30 p.m., good enough for second place in its time period in both households and adults 18-49. ABC lost the night in adults 18-49 to Fox by one-tenth of a rating point. The preliminary Nielsen household rating and share and adult 18-49 rating for Sunday were: ABC 6.8/12 and 3.0, CBS 6.6/12 and 2.3, NBC 3.9/7 and 2.3, and Fox 3.7/7 and 3.1. Over the weekend, CBS almost made a clean sweep of households on Saturday night. Of the three hours of programming, only the second half of “Big Brother 2” failed to win its time slot in households. The last half-hour of ABC’s movie “The Long Kiss Goodnight” won at 9:30 p.m. in households instead. “Big Brother 2” did take the 9 p.m. hour among adults 18-49, stealing the win from Fox’s “America’s Most Wanted.” On Friday, ABC won the night in both households and adults 18-49 with “America’s Funniest Home Videos,” a rerun of “Who Wants to be a Millionaire” and “20/20.” Without adjusting for time-zone differences, Fox tied ABC for the win among adults 18-49 with its “NFL Preseason Game.” The preliminary Nielsen household rating and share and adult 18-49 rating for Friday night were: ABC 6.8/13 and 2.7, NBC 5.0/10 and 2.1, CBS 4.8/9 and 2.1, and Fox 4.3/8 and 2.7. For Saturday: CBS 5.1/10 and 2.5, Fox 4.8/10 and 2.7, ABC 4.7/9 and 2.4, and NBC 3.8/7 and 2.1.
So who controls the media? Here's a peek.
Broadcasting and Cable has released an updated, bear-market version of its list of the top-25 media companies, ranked by revenue. While the hierarchy has changed a bit from a year ago, there are no new names in this edition of the top 25. Sitting atop the list is, of course, AOL Time Warner, which took in $36.2 billion in revenue last fiscal year. Walt Disney and Vivendi follow, rounding out a top three identical to last year’s list. After Viacom’s fourth-place showing, News Corp. comes in at No. 5, having moved up a spot from last year—the No. 5 company a year ago, Sony, has slipped to No. 7. NBC, Gannett and Clear Channel all moved up two slots this year, while Cox, The New York Times and The Washington Post all slipped slightly. Tribune Co. showed the most precipitous decline, falling from the No. 9 spot to No. 14. Hughes and USA Networks tied for the biggest gains, each moving up three spots.
How Connie's Condit quiz stacks up, #s-wise
The 23.7 million viewers who tuned into Connie Chung’s interview of Gary Condit made "Primetime Thursday" the most-watched television program since the finale of NBC’s "ER" back in May (30.7 million viewers), the most-watched program on ABC since the "Academy Awards" in March (42.9 million viewers) and the most-watched newsmagazine since Diane Sawyer’s interview with Michael J. Fox for "20/20" in May 2000 (19.1 million viewers). Among the cable networks, Fox News fared the best, averaging a 1.2 rating and 834,000 households from 8 p.m. to 1 a.m. CNN had a 0.9 rating and 707,000 households and MSNBC had a 0.4 rating and 261,000 households. Of course, none of these numbers compare to Barbara Walters’ interview with Monica Lewinsky in March 1999, which attracted 48.5 million viewers, or last year’s finale of "Survivor," which coincidentally enough, also ran on August 23, but attracted 51.7 million viewers.
Early dope on next 'Survivor' series
With six weeks still to go before the start of "Survivor: Africa," details about the upcoming series continue to trickle out. Spies for a web site that calls itself The Ellipsis Brain Trust (www.surviiivor.com) claim to have dug up information on "Survivor 3," including the names and backgrounds of many cast members. If they're right, the next crop of survivors will include Kimberly Powers, an Olympic-level diver and Stanford University student from Kentucky; Diane Ogden, a dog breeder from Newark; Tom Buchanan, a cattle rancher from Virginia; and Jessie Camacho, a nursing student or investment banker from California or Florida. The site also reports that "Survivor 4" will be set in Jordan, possibly in Petra, a city whose ancient buildings, carved into a cliff face, served as the location of the fictional Alexandretta in "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade."
Coming, perhaps, Spruce TV
Time Inc. design title Wallpaper may follow up the launch of spinoff fashion magazine Spruce with a television show of the same name, according to a report in the New York Post. Wallpaper Group CEO and editorial director Tyler Brulé is talking with several networks, including Time Inc. sister CNN. The news network may be looking to fill a gap left by the departure of fashion reporter Elsa Klensch. Set to launch August 30, Spruce will be a biannual fashion cocktail of fashion spreads, industry news, and catalog-like product directories. Time Inc. bought Wallpaper from Brulé in 1997 about a year after its successful launch. The new magazine will cost $10 on newsstands but will be distributed free to Wallpaper subscribers. Spruce joins the flagship design title Wallpaper and fitness lifestyle magazine Line in the Wallpaper stable.
Milosevic rings up Fox network from jail
When jailed dictator Slobodan Milosevic needed a sympathetic ear in the media, who did he call first? You guessed it: the Fox network. Milosevic, former president of Yugoslavia, made the call from a detention unit in The Hague, where he is being held on charges that he masterminded war crimes including ethnic cleansing. Seizing on the impromptu interview to assert his innocence, Milosevic said, according to a transcript, "There are individual crimes, but there was clear order that any crime has to be punished immediately and whoever did it have to be arrested." Upon learning of the call, officials from the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia warned Milosevic that any more such incidents could cost him jail privileges. So don't go looking for him to turn up as a guest on "The O'Reilly Factor" anytime soon.
August 27, 2001 © 2001 Media Life
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