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Fox’s new Wednesday night shows bolted out of the gate last night, winning every time period among adults 18-49 and doubling Fox’s typical Wednesday night ratings this season. The premiere of "Grounded for Life" upped the ratings from its lead-in "That 70’s Show" by 5 percent, and the premiere of "Temptation Island" upped "Grounded’s" ratings by another 30 percent. "Temptation" also finished second among households, averaging a 10.5/15 household rating and share. The reality show hurt the ABC’s "Drew Carey" and "Spin City the most, dropping those comedies to third place at the 9 p.m. hour. The preliminary Nielsen household rating and share and adult 18-49 rating for Wednesday night were: NBC 11.1/17 and 6.3, ABC 9.6/14 and 5.1, Fox 9.1/13 and 7.4, and CBS 7.7/12 and 2.7. Tuesday night was another night of big premieres. ABC debuted "The Mole" and the new season of "NYPD Blue," and NBC trotted out its new sitcom "Three Sisters." Ironically enough, it was premiere-free CBS that won the night among households, while ABC and NBC scrabbled over the undecided viewers. The much-hyped "Mole" at 8 p.m. had the worst premiere of the night, placing second among households and adults 18-49. Those wins went to CBS’s "JAG" and Fox’s "That 70’s Show" and "Titus," respectively. At 9:30 p.m., "Three Sisters" had the best premiere of the night, winning both households and adults 18-49 by over 2 ratings points. This success came at the cost of ABC’s "The Geena Davis Show," which lost nearly 40 percent of its lead-in audience from "Dharma and Greg." And at 10 p.m., "NYPD Blue" had a successful premiere, topping CBS’s "Judging Amy" among households and adults 18-49 to win its time slot. The preliminary Nielsen household rating and share and adult 18-49 rating for Tuesday night were: CBS 9.9/15 and 3.8, ABC 9.0/14 and 5.9, NBC 9.0/14 and 5.6, and Fox 7.1/11 and 5.8.
Report: A fourth of CNN staffers may be axed
CNN employees have been bracing for a major layoff announcement for a month or so, and now it looks like the details are beginning to emerge. Somewhere between 500 and 1,000 of the company’s 4,000 jobs are expected to be eliminated as the result of a major re-evaluation of company structure and employee performance, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal. A formal announcement is expected as soon as next week. The job cuts and reorganization are intended to help consolidate news reporting into one operation. Currently, the CNN News Group functions in disconnected units with news gatherers separately funneling information to the company’s different media outlets, which include cable channels CNN Headline News and CNNfn and the web site CNNSI.com. The hardest-hit area of the company will likely be its interactive operations, which currently employs some 750 people. The company-wide consolidation is seen as part of parent Time Warner’s preparation for its merger with America Online and is occurring under the specific direction of Terence McGuirk, chairman and chief executive of Time Warner’s Turner Broadcasting unit. A long-time associate of Ted Turner, McGuirk is slated to report to Bob Pittman after the merger as Pittman becomes AOL Time Warner’s co-chief operating officer
Yet more fame for 'Survivor's' Richard and Rudy
"Survivor II" may be premiering in only a few weeks, immediately following the Super Bowl, but the stars of the first season of the show are still basking in their 15 minutes of fame. "Survivor" winner Richard Hatch, who was made a millionaire by the successful CBS reality series, is producing a pilot episode of a new series for NBC. Details about the series are sketchy beyond the fact that the show will be taped in London. Meanwhile, Hatch’s erstwhile island mate Rudy Boesch is seeking fame in the form of an action figure. Boesch, 72, a retired Navy SEAL, will be immortalized as a 12-inch doll from BBI toy makers. The Rudy doll will join the company's line of historical military action figures. No word yet on when the Rudy action figure will go on sale.
Court TV picks up crime web sites
Cable network Court TV has acquired two crime and law related web sites:
TheSmokingGun.com and CrimeLibrary.com. Court TV chairman Henry Schleiff
says the sites will be networked with the network’s web site,
CourtTV.com, and their content mined for
material for Court TV programming. CrimeLibrary.com offers readers feature
stories and fiction about organized crime, terrorism,
serial murder and other varieties of law-breaking. TheSmokingGun.com
collects and displays publicly available documents pertaining to
crimes, court cases, law suits and other legal matters. Co-founded by
Daniel Green and William Bastone, TheSmokingGun.com has embarrassed a
number of public figures ever since it made headlines by digging up the
restraining order filed against Rick Rockwell, the groom on the Fox
special "Who Wants to Marry a Multi-Millionaire?" Other victims
of TheSmokingGun’s quest for truth have included Bill Gates, Martha
Stewart and Yankee pitcher Orlando Hernandez.
'60 Minutes': V word not
fit for primetime
CBS’s long-running news program
"60 Minutes" is known for its gutsy, fearless
journalism. But it appears some topics are too dicey. One of them belongs
to women everywhere. "60 Minutes II" has
reportedly killed a segment about the hit play "The Vagina
Monologues," the long-running Broadway show that focuses on womanhood and female
sexuality and includes discussions about people’s discomfort with the word
"vagina."
The crew of the news magazine had been interviewing and shooting the cast
of the show for the last several weeks but then abruptly canceled the
segment. Why? CBS executives felt uneasy using the V word on primetime television, according to MSNBC gossip Jeannette Walls.
CBS declined to comment on the cancellation of the segment or the reasons
for doing so.
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