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What do you get when you combine the season finale of “Friends” with repeats on CBS and ABC? “Friends” earning an adult 18-49 rating six times that of its closest competitor, a repeat of CBS’s “C.S.I.” “Friends’” household rating was also double that of second place “C.S.I.” A new episode of “C.S.I,” its season finale, fared better at 9 p.m., losing to the season finale of NBC’s “Will and Grace” by only 2 household shares. “Will and Grace” still doubled the adult 18-49 rating of the CBS crime drama and quadrupled the adult 18-49 rating of ABC’s “Who Wants to be a Millionaire.” At 10 p.m., the season finale of “ER” more than doubled the household rating of second place “Primetime Thursday” on ABC and tripled the adult 18-49 rating of second place “48 Hours” on CBS. The preliminary Nielsen household rating and share and adult 18-49 rating for Thursday night were: NBC 17.3/28 and 14.2, CBS 8.8/14 and 3.8, ABC 6.6/11 and 2.6, and Fox 4.0/6 and 2.4. On Wednesday, NBC also dominated the ratings, as neither CBS’s part two of “Blonde” nor Fox’s “Boot Camp” provided any serious competition to NBC’s “The West Wing” and “Law and Order.” However, NBC’s lead-off hour, “Ed,” continued to struggle against its 8 p.m. competition. Fox’s “Grounded for Life” and repeat of “That '70s Show” won the hour among adults 18-49, while CBS’s “48 Hours” won the first half-hour in households. “Ed” won the second half-hour. Also at 8 p.m., the series finale of ABC’s “Two Guys and a Girl” finished fourth in households and third among adults 18-49. The preliminary Nielsen household rating and share and adult 18-49 rating for Wednesday night were: NBC 11.8/19 and 7.0, ABC 6.8/11 and 3.9, CBS 6.8/11 and 2.7, and Fox 6.0/10 and 4.7.
More hurting: Red Herring and Forbes ASAP
It was another painful week for so-called New Economy magazines. Yesterday, news emerged that Forbes is ceasing publication of bimonthly biz-tech supplement Forbes ASAP in its current form. Beginning in September, ASAP will be folded into a new bimonthly tech-and-internet title, along with Forbes.com: Best of the Web, a five-times-a-year supplement, according to a report by Inside.com. ASAP has been in publication for nine years, making it one of the oldest magazines in the New Economy sector. Meanwhile, Red Herring swallowed its pride yet again this week, letting go 54 employees in its third round of layoffs since last November. The fired staffers represent about 20 percent of the company’s personnel, cutting most deeply into the online and events divisions. Red Herring, which was down almost 40 percent in ad pages through April versus last year, last month denied reports that it was for sale.
Shatner will host U.S. edition of 'Iron Chef' on UPN
The biggest smackdowns on UPN next fall may not be handed out by the Rock but by guys in puffy white hats. The network will produce a special episode of "Iron Chef," the Japanese gladiatorial cooking show, with an eye to turning it into a series. Presiding over the culinary showdown in so-called Kitchen Stadium will be William Shatner, whose kitschy appeal is perfectly suited to the show’s campy aesthetic. The special will air before Labor Day. "Iron Chef" has become a cult favorite in America, where it airs on the Food Network. The show requires two chefs to prepare a multi-course feast in one hour, making sure that every course utilizes a special ingredient that is presented to them at the start of the contest.
'Survivor' vets handed setbacks by L.A. judge
Yesterday marked setbacks in court for two veterans of the first "Survivor" series. In separate but equally confusing rulings, a Los Angeles judge upheld the breach-of-confidentiality suit filed by the producers of the show against Stacey Stillman and denied a request to remove permanently Dirk Been’s deposition from public scrutiny. In the case against Stillman, the judge ruled that lawyers for the Survivor Entertainment Group had succeeded in demonstrating that various incorrect or defamatory statements made by Stillman to the press could potentially have been made with malice. The judge did not consider, however, whether Stillman’s actions constituted a breach of her confidentiality agreement with SEG. If such a breach is proven, Stillman stands subject to a $5 million fine under the terms of the contract she signed with SEG. Stillman’s own suit against SEG, in which she is trying to prove that the show’s outcome was manipulated by the producers, hinges largely on the testimony of Dirk Been. Been’s lawyers have been trying to prevent his deposition from becoming available to the public, claiming that the deposition was given with the understanding that it would be kept confidential. The judge ruled yesterday that Been’s testimony must first be "sealed" and introduced into the court record before he can consider the question of whether to "unseal" it, making it available to reporters and the public.
Dave apologizes to Miss Colombia for drug joke
After ticking off Miss Colombia and a good number of her countrymen with a crack about the nation's drug problems, David Letterman made amends last night when the beauty queen appeared as a guest on his show. Chatting it up with Miss Universe contestant Andrea Noceti, Letterman made numerous apologies, dished out several fun facts about Colombia, and demanded--and got--a standing ovation for Colombian coffee. The affair began earlier this week with a joke during his opening monologue. "I don't know if you've seen a beauty pageant lately, but you know what's really gotten very impressive, the talent competition," ran the joke. "For example, Miss Colombia--and this was hard to beat--swallowed 50 balloons full of heroin.'' Noceti said Letterman besmirched the name of all Colombians by playing up the country's drug-producing image. "I am totally outraged,'' Noceti told the Bogota-based RCN television news. "I don't think there should be jokes about something this serious ... People have died in this conflict.'' Colombia's ambassador to the U.S., Luis Alberto Moreno, had urged protests by Colombians living in the U.S., especially in front of Letterman's studio in New York. Letterman had apologized earlier in the week, but Noceti remained unappeased. But at the end of her appearance last night, she admitted, "You may joke about things you shouldn't joke about, but you're a nice man."
French force rule change on 'Loft Story'
Leave it to the French to foul up a perfectly good thing like reality TV with a crummy idea like human dignity. A French agency in charge of television programming, worried about the implications of using humans as guinea pigs in a media experiment, ordered the producers of a hit voyeur show to grant contestants a modicum of privacy. From now on, contestants on "Loft Story," a "Big Brother"/"Temptation Island" hybrid, will get daily timeouts "of a significant and reasonable length" during which they don’t have to appear on camera. And to encourage kinder, gentler alliances, players will be instructed to vote for their favorite roommates instead of for the ones they want to kick out. No word yet on whether the rule changes will appease the mobs of protestors who last week swarmed outside the sealed house, lobbing rotten vegetables and challenging security guards in an effort to free the "hostages" inside.
'Jackass' model breaks her back in stunt
Joining a gaggle of bruised and bandaged adolescent boys, model Stephanie Hodges is the latest to suffer serious injury related to MTV’s "Jackass." Hodges, who had been featured on the show before, was performing a stunt last month that involved launching off a snowbank on an air mattress. The 21-year-old model suffered several broken vertebrae and a fractured pelvis, effectively putting her modeling career on hold for up to a year. Hodges has been featured in ads for McDonald’s and Coke, all while enrolled as a full-time student at UCLA. "Jackass" fans may remember Hodges from her stunning victory in the "Milk Challenge," when she imbibed a gallon of strawberry milk in under an hour. In typical "Jackass" fashion, the stunt ended in fountains of pink milk vomit. She is now recovering at home with her parents, and her manager reassures the public that she is "up and mobile."
WWF in new reality show on MTV
The embarrassing demise of the XFL hasn't dampened the hopes of the WWF, which has teamed up with MTV to produce the latest competition reality show. "WWF Tough Enough" features 13 wannabe pro wrestlers corralled in a house for 13 weeks, with "Big Brother"-style eliminations. The two that are left--one man and one woman--will get not a $1 million prize but much cheaper contracts to wrestle for the WWF. The thousands of applications and videotapes sent to the WWF for a spot on the show were whittled down to two hundred semifinalists who duked it out in the ring at WWF New York in Times Square in the winter. Eight men and five women were picked. The series begins June 21 on MTV.
May 18, 2001 © 2001 Media Life
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