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NBC’s reality train continued to roll last night, winning every half hour in both households and adults 18-49 except for one. At 8 p.m., “Fear Factor” more than doubled the adult 18-49 rating of its closest competitors, repeat sitcoms on CBS, and won the hour in households by three shares. At 9 p.m., “Weakest Link” lost its first half hour in households to CBS’s repeat of “Everybody Loves Raymond,” but the game show still won its second half hour in households and the entire hour among adults 18-49. At 10 p.m., “Dateline” swept the hour in both households and adults 18-49. The preliminary Nielsen household rating and share and adult 18-49 rating for Monday night were: NBC 7.5/13 and 4.8, CBS 6.3/11 and 2.9, ABC 4.7/8 and 2.0, and Fox 2.9/5 and 1.8. On Sunday, CBS and Fox split the night again for the household and adult 18-49 wins, although CBS nearly upset Fox to win the demographic as well. CBS’s movie, a repeat of 1998’s “To Live Again,” won three of its four half-hours among adults 18-49 and boosted the network to within two-tenths of a rating point of Fox. “To Live Again” also topped the NBC movie, the 1994 Brad Pitt flick “Legends of the Fall,” by 3 household shares. The preliminary Nielsen household rating and share and adult 18-49 rating for Sunday night were: CBS 6.7/12 and 2.5, ABC 5.5/10 and 2.1, NBC 4.2/8 and 2.3, and Fox 3.9/7 and 2.7.
'Sopranos' creator agrees to a fifth season
It looks like Tony and the gang will be doing an encore. "Sopranos" creator David Chase said from the beginning that he intended to end the series after four seasons, but HBO and Brad Grey Television have succeeded in changing his mind, with the aid of a huge pile of money. Chase will reportedly haul in about $15 million for his work on the fifth (and final?) season of the mob drama in a deal that includes advances on syndication revenues and money from DVD and video sales. With that settled, the chief concern of "Sopranos" fans is that the new episodes air while they’re still young enough to enjoy them. Fourteen months elapsed between the second and third seasons of the series, and the current hiatus before the start of season four could stretch even longer.
UPN boss: No more steamy reality for us, thanks
"Chains of Love" was such a disappointment for UPN, it seems to have soured the network on an entire genre. Speaking before a crowd at the Television Critics Association Press Tour in Pasadena, Calif., UPN president Dean Valentine said that the network won’t be doing any more titillating reality shows for the foreseeable future, comparing their effects on ratings to that of heroin: "There’s a real big high at first, followed by a long low." Valentine said UPN still has at least one reality show in the works, but noted that that series, from "Big Brother" and "Chains of Love" creator Endemol Entertainment, will feature families spending "quality time" together, presumably not shackled to one another. Perhaps Jeff Zucker could have predicted that Valentine would be feeling so disillusioned with reality just about now; as entertainment president of NBC, Zucker passed on "Chains of Love," electing to go with classier reality fare such as "Fear Factor" and "Spy TV."
PGA signs four year, $850M rights deal
Golf may be a rich man’s pastime, but it’s still the poor boy of televised sports. The Professional Golfers Association has signed a deal with three broadcast and three cable networks covering four years’ worth of tours. Under the deal, ABC, CBS, NBC, ESPN, USA and The Golf Channel will pay $850 million, or $212.5 million per year, for PGA Tour events beginning in 2003. It’s a sizable step up from the $575 million the PGA earned from the last four-year deal, but small change next to the contracts for football, baseball and other pro sports. The NFL’s current deal will net it $17.6 billion over eight years, while Major League Baseball’s six-year agreement with Fox is worth $2.5 billion.
'West Wing' stars return but still want more $
The four disgruntled "West Wing" actors went back to work on Monday on the third season of the NBC drama, but they have not backed down from their demands. Representatives for Emmy nominees Allison Janney, Richard Schiff, John Spencer and Bradley Whitford continue to insist that Warner Bros. Television promised pay raises to the supporting cast by the third season if the show was successful. The studio denies this but claims it has offered to double each actor's salary for the next season, along with more raises later on, even though each actor signed five-year contracts. Depending on how low the actual salaries are, that might not be enough. The actors reportedly receive in the low- to mid-five figure range per episode, but are clamoring for checks in the high-five-figure area. It's not all bad news at "The West Wing" though. The First Lady herself, Stockard Channing, has signed on as a regular to appear in 12 episodes this season. She has so far been billed as a guest star, and it was in that capacity that she earned an Emmy nod last week.
Time Inc. close to $1.5B deal for Brit publisher
After gobbling up Times Mirror Magazines last fall, Time Inc. is once again hungry for acquisitions. This time, the nation’s biggest magazine publisher appears set to make an English breakfast out of IPC Media, the London-based company that owns titles including Loaded, Woman’s Weekly and Horse & Hound. Time Inc., a division of AOL Time Warner, is expected to agree to pay around $1.5 billion for IPC—more than three times what it laid out for the 20 titles that make up Times Mirror, now known as Time4Media. In addition to swelling AOL Time Warner’s international revenue, the purchase would position Time Inc. for entry into several publishing segments in which it has little or no presence. In particular, it could establish a beachhead in the men’s market with a U.S. edition of Loaded, the British "lads" magazine that inspired ultra-successful copycats Maxim and FHM.
People to publish MTV anniversary special
Proving once again that even sworn enemies can set aside their differences when there’s synergy to be exploited, People magazine is getting set to publish a special issue commemorating the 20th anniversary of MTV. The newsstand-only issue will go on sale July 23 with 26 ad pages and 58 editorial pages documenting the rise of the pioneering all-music channel. People is published by Time Inc., a unit of AOL Time Warner, while MTV Networks is a division of arch-rival Viacom Inc. The MTV issue marks the second time that the two mega-conglomerates have paired up to scratch each other’s backs this year. Back in March, People published another newsstand special previewing CBS’s reality series "Survivor: The Australian Outback." It also published a "Sex and the City" special, but that show airs on HBO, which is owned by Time Warner.
Correction: Mistaken gender
In last Friday's edition of Media Life, we mistakenly referred to Blair Westlake, the new corporate executive vice president at Gemstar-TV Guide International, as a she. The correct title is Mr. Blair Westlake. We apologize for the error.
July 17, 2001 © 2001 Media Life
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