News Shorts

CBS's strong pigskin Sunday
CBS and Fox split households and adults 18-49 last night, as ABC paced a close second in the demographic and NBC fell to fourth. CBS’s win in households was powered by strong performances by an NFL game and “60 Minutes” and by moderate ratings for “The Education of Max Bickford” and the movie “The Seventh Stream.” Fox won the 8 p.m. hour among adults 18-49 with “The Simpsons” and “Malcolm in the Middle,” while ABC’s “Alias” edged “The X-Files” in the demographic at 9 p.m. At 10 p.m., ABC’s “The Practice” won both households and adults 18-49. NBC, meanwhile, found success only with “Law and Order: Criminal Intent,” which won the 9:30 p.m. half-hour in households. The rest of its lineup, the National Geographic special “Supercroc” and “UC: Undercover,” fell flat. The preliminary Nielsen household rating and share and adult 18-49 rating for Sunday were: CBS 8.5/13 and 3.2, ABC 7.4/12 and 4.3, Fox 5.6/9 and 4.7, and NBC 5.5/9 and 2.8. Over the weekend, LSU’s win over Tennessee muddied the college football championship race, but it gave CBS an clear win for the night on Saturday. Without adjusting for time zone differences, the game averaged a 7.3/13 household rating and share and a 4.2 adult 18-49 rating, winning every half-hour in both categories for the night. On Friday, NBC won both households and adults 18-49 but struggled without “Providence” as its 8 p.m. anchor. NBC’s “National Geographic Pearl Harbor” special lost the hour to ABC’s “America’s Funniest Home Videos” in households and Fox’s “Dark Angel” among adults 18-49. The preliminary Nielsen household rating and share and adult 18-49 rating for Friday were: NBC 7.4/13 and 3.1, CBS 5.5/10 and 2.4, ABC 5.4/10 and 3.0, and Fox 3.6/6 and 2.4. For Saturday night: CBS 7.3/13 and 4.2, ABC 5.6/10 and 2.6, NBC 4.9/9 and 1.7, Fox 4.8/9 and 2.9.

Court upholds 'carry one, carry all' rule
Satellite carriers have been defeated again in their attempt to overturn a two-year-old rule that they say violates their constitutional rights. A federal appeals court in Richmond, Va., has upheld the controversial "carry one, carry all" provision of the Satellite Home Viewer Improvement Act, meaning that beginning Jan. 1, satellite operators will have to offer every local station in every market where they choose to offer any local stations. Companies like EchoStar and DirecTV say the need to do so will eat up valuable bandwidth that they would otherwise use to enrich their offerings in small, underserved markets. They also say the rule tramples on their free speech rights and their right to fair compensation, protected by the Fifth Amendment. In a ruling praised by the National Association of Broadcasters, Circuit Judge M. Blane Michael said the rule is not unconstitutional.

Slate's Kinsley: I have Parkinson's disease
Michael Kinsley, editor of Slate and former host of CNN's "Crossfire," reveals to the world this week that he suffers from Parkinson's disease, and that his ailment may have cost him his shot at the editorship of The New Yorker. In an essay in Time magazine, Kinsley says he has been hiding the disease from friends and co-workers since he was first diagnosed with it eight years ago. "It's simply easier to go through the day not thinking about Parkinson's disease if the people you interact with don't know you have it," he writes. But recently, he says, it has begun to seem inevitable that his secret would slip out. "I've come to assume that many or most of the people I interact with every day actually do know my secret and are pretending not to." As for the job at The New Yorker, Kinsley says Condé Nast Chairman Si Newhouse offered him the position but retracted the offer after learning about his illness. "I choose to believe him that the Parkinson's didn't matter," he writes. "To withdraw the offer for that reason would be, among other things, probably illegal. But I also doubt that he would have made the offer in the first place had he known all along."

CNN un-'Burdens' itself, axing four shows
Saying that it needs to make way for more breaking news, CNN has pulled four shows from its schedule, a move that will result in the elimination of about 30 jobs. Two daily shows, "Burden of Proof" and "NewsSite," have been cut, along with two weekend shows, "Showbiz This Week" and "Travel Now." "NewsSite" has been on hiatus since the Sept. 11 attacks. Its host, Joie Chen, has been let go, along with "Showbiz" anchor Bill Tush and "Burden" co-host Roger Cossack. Greta Van Susteren, Cossack's counterpart, still has a job at CNN hosting her evening talk show "The Point."

Report: Bad blood between Levin and Case
Was Gerald Levin's unexpected retirement announcement a simple case of the AOL Time Warner CEO declaring "My work here is done"? Perhaps not. Levin, who last week said he will step down in May, may have overstayed his welcome, especially in the eyes of Steve Case, according to a report in this week's Newsweek. Case, chairman of AOL Time Warner, has reportedly been annoyed by the unilateral pronouncements his colleague has been issuing--as when Levin, declaring his intention to treat the company as a "public trust," told investors, "I'm the CEO, and this is what I'm going to do." Levin also piqued Case, his nominal boss, by sending out a companywide Thanksgiving memo signed only in his own name. As for the promotion of Richard Parsons rather than Bob Pittman to Levin’s job, Newsweek says it may have been necessary to keep Parsons from jumping to Philip Morris, where he was recently offered a job as CEO.

Syndicated 'Card Sharks' goes under
"Card Sharks," a remake of the classic game show, has been canceled by FreemantleMedia after two other entries were killed off a week ago. "Card Sharks" most recently pulled in a 0.9 household rating in weekly syndication ratings, according to Nielsen Media Research. Fellow Tribune Entertainment freshman "Talk or Walk" and sophomore offering "Power of Attorney" were terminated last week, though they will stay on in syndication until January. Hoping to fill those empty slots are a number of shows in development for syndication, including Atlantis and October Moon's John Woo-produced "Once a Thief," which follows a group of young men and women in their fight against terrorism. Also on deck is an action series based on this summer's "The Fast and The Furious" from Universal and "The John Walsh Show" from NBC Enterprises, hosted by "America's Most Wanted" John Walsh.

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