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On a Thursday night of mostly reruns, ABC won households with its original programs, while NBC won adults 18-49 with repeats of its sitcoms and “ER.” ABC’s “Who Wants to be a Millionaire” and “Primetime Thursday” won every half hour in households from 9-11 p.m. And NBC won every half-hour in the evening among adults 18-49 except the half-hour at 9:30 p.m., when CBS’s “CSI” edged NBC’s “Just Shoot Me” by one-tenth of a rating point. The preliminary Nielsen household rating and share and adult 18-49 rating from Thursday night were: ABC 7.5/14 and 3.1, CBS 7.0/13 and 3.1, NBC 6.2/11 and 4.2, and Fox 3.0/5 and 1.6. On Wednesday, ABC won the evening among adults 18-49, but without any help from its new drama “The Beast.” The new game show “You Don’t Know Jack” and repeats of “Drew Carey” and “Spin City” swept the demographic until 10 p.m., when “The Beast” dropped 35 percent of its adult 18-49 lead-in rating. Now in its second week, “Jack” declined 13 percent in household rating and 3 percent in adult 18-49 rating from its averages last week. The preliminary Nielsen household rating and share and adult 18-49 rating for Wednesday night were: NBC 5.6/10 and 2.6, CBS 5.5/10 and 2.4, ABC 4.3/8 and 2.9, and Fox 3.6/7 and 2.5.
Supremes strike state tobacco ad ban
In a big win for the tobacco and advertising industries, the U.S. Supreme Court has knocked down a Massachusetts law banning cigarette advertising in many areas. In a ruling handed down yesterday, five out of the nine justices agreed that the law, which prohibits tobacco advertising within 1,000 feet of schools, oversteps the power of state governments to restrict advertising and infringes on free commercial speech. The remaining four agreed with their colleagues that the regulation may interfere unduly with the ability of tobacco makers to market to adults. "Noble ends do not save a speech-restricting statute whose means are poorly tailored," noted Justice John Paul Stevens in the minority opinion. But Stevens and the others argued, to no avail, that the state should be given a chance to demonstrate that tobacco marketers have adequate alternatives open to them. The ruling will not affect the framework of a 1998 agreement under which tobacco companies agreed to end billboard, transit and other types of outdoor advertising. But it will almost certainly prove a major obstacle to other attempts by state governments to ban tobacco advertising, including New York City’s Local Law 3, which sought to impose a similar 1,000-foot no-advertising radius around schools.
Top shoe Johnson out in latest CNN shakeup
Claiming a need to escape the stress of being chairman and CEO of the CNN News Group, Tom Johnson has announced he is resigning. The 59-year-old Johnson, a one-time aide to President Lyndon Johnson, has been with CNN since 1990. In a memo released internally yesterday, Johnson praised the new leadership at the station and said he's ready to spend time with his family. He also called Ted Turner, the network's founder who was put out to pasture after the AOL-Time Warner merger, "my hero." Johnson's resignation, while it continues the executive turmoil at the cable news giant, did not take many by surprise. According to some reports, Johnson was miffed when last year's reorganization left him with less responsibility on the business end of the network. But Johnson has also apparently been pondering the move for a while as part of a general reassessment of his life as he approaches his 60th birthday. CNN has no plans to replace Johnson directly at this point. Phil Kent, the current president and chief operating officer of CNN News Group, will now report to TBS chairman and CEO Jamie Kellner. Eason Jordan, the chief news executive, who reports to Kent, will begin reporting both to Kent and Kellner. And the departing Johnson will continue in a vaguely-defined adviser's role to Kellner as well.
Kiddie remote offers TV minus the bad stuff
Worried that your toddler is switching over to Spring Break T&A on MTV or foul language on Comedy Central while you're in the kitchen? You won't have to worry with the Weemote 2, a small egg-shaped remote control for the young 'uns that can limit their cable wanderings to safe spots like Animal Planet, Disney or the Cartoon Network. The face of the remote features nine buttons--power on/off, mute, channels one to five, volume and channel up/downs--with additional controls concealed under a screw-down. The second generation of the remote allows channel control of combination TV/VCRs and digital recorders like TiVo in addition to major brands of TVs, cable set-top boxes and satellite receivers. Of course, an enterprising tot set on breaking Joe Lieberman's heart can always get up and switch the channels manually on the set-top box.
Two former NFL greats join Fox broadcast team
One-time National Football League MVP Boomer Esiason is returning to the broadcast booth, joining the on-air team for Fox Sports Net’s "NFL This Morning" pre-game show. The former quarterback got less than stellar reviews during his two-year stint as announcer with ABC’s "Monday Night Football." For the last year, Esiason has been an analyst for Westwood One Monday Night Football radio broadcasts, a job he will continue. Esiason has both played in a Super Bowl and announced for one, in 1988 and 2000, respectively. Joining Esiason on "NFL This Morning" will be another gridiron great, Hall-of-Famer Deacon Jones. Jones played defensive end for 14 years and was enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1980. Jones is also credited with coining the term "sack," for when a defender crosses the line of scrimmage and tackles the quarterback. "NFL This Morning," now in its third season, will debut on September 9.
FCC's Tristani steamed over AM nudity complaint
FCC Commissioner Gloria Tristani has publicly decried a decision by her agency's enforcement bureau to throw out a complaint over nudity aired during the morning news on a Philadelphia TV station. The clip aired at approximately 8:53 a.m. and featured full-frontal male and female nudity from a nude Olympics competition in Australia. That air time put the broadcast comfortably within the 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. zone during which indecent material is forbidden by the FCC. The enforcement bureau threw out the grievance because no videotape, transcript or any other evidence was submitted. Officials for WTXF in Philadelphia say they do not know of any complaint and insist frontal nudity is not standard procedure at the station. Tristani said it was unfair to expect people to tape everything they watch and that such an expectation tips the scales in favor of broadcasters. "The bureau's action--or inaction--in this case will further embolden broadcasters to ignore the FCC's rules against indecent broadcasting and, in so doing, encourage them to air material that is harmful to children," she told one Philadelphia newspaper.
June 29, 2001 © 2001 Media Life
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