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Fox's "The Bernie Mac Show" premiered to strong numbers last night in its two-episode launch, winning the 8:30 p.m. half-hour among adults 18-49 and placing second behind "The West Wing" in both adults 18-49 and households at 9 p.m. "Bernie Mac" also improved its household and its adult 18-49 ratings by 7 percent from 8:30 to 9 p.m. Less promising was the season premiere of "Titus" afterwards, which dropped 25 percent of "Bernie Mac's" lead-in household rating and 31 percent of its lead-in adult 18-49 rating. At 10 p.m., the first of three Garth Brooks concerts on CBS fell flat, finishing
third in the hour in both households and adults 18-49. The preliminary Nielsen household rating and share and adult 18-49 rating for Wednesday were: NBC 14/18 and 6.4, ABC 7.3/12 and 4.6, CBS 6.7/11 and 3.3, and Fox
6.3/10 and 4.9. On Tuesday, the King of Pop ruled primetime, as "Michael Jackson 30th Anniversary Special" carried CBS to wins in both households and adults 18-49. The concert won every half-hour from 9-11 p.m. in households and adults 18-49, an impressive feat considering NBC’s “Frasier” aired its 200th episode and a clip show at 9 p.m. “Michael Jackson” averaged a preliminary 15.7/24 household rating and share and a 10.8, adult 18-49, rating. The “Frasier” special, which ran from 8-10 p.m., averaged a 10.5/15 household rating and share and a 6.8, adult 18-49, rating. CBS also won the 8 p.m. hour in households with “JAG,” while Fox’s “That '70s Show” and a repeat of “Frasier” won the hour among adults 18-49. The preliminary Nielsen household rating and share and adult 18-49 rating for Tuesday were: CBS 14.4/22 and 8.7, NBC 9.4/14 and 5.9, ABC 7.2/11 and 3.7, and Fox 5.5/8 and 4.6.
McGwire exit brings viewers to 'SportsCenter'
Announcing his departure from baseball, Mark McGwire hit one last home run for ESPN, helping its flagship show, "SportsCenter," draw its largest audience of the year Sunday night. With an exclusive on the news, the sports network ran teasers during the NFL game between the Seattle Seahawks and Oakland Raiders. Most of the football viewers wandered off by the time "SportsCenter" got going at a few minutes past 11:30 p.m., but enough stuck around to give the show a 3.1 rating, a 141 percent improvement over its usual rating in the Sunday 11 p.m. slot. McGwire set the single-season home run record in 1998 with 70, and he is fifth on the career home-run list with 583.
NBA and AOL-TW mull new b-ball network
According to playground basketball rules, he who owns the ball gets to decide on how the game is played. That may be in the back of the NBA’s mind this year as it re-negotiates, with AOL Time Warner and NBC Sports, its television rights contracts, both of which are in their final year. The NBA is reportedly in talks with AOL-TW to create a new cable network, jointly owned by the two, to carry most of the league’s cable games. In doing so, the NBA would bypass the rights-fee contract and create its own revenue-generating property, while AOL-TW could replace its CNN/SI sports network with the new NBA network. The option could be particularly appealing at this time, when the NBA may not be able to increase its rights fees within its new contracts. The NBA’s current four-year contract with NBC is worth $1.75 billion, and its four-year contract with TBS and TNT is worth $890 million.
Russian president agrees to NPR call-in show
Vladamir Putin, Russia's newly cuddly KGB-man-turned-president, will respond to telephone and email questions from U.S. citizens after an hour-long interview on National Public Radio with anchor Robert Siegel. It will be the first time a Russian leader will allow himself to be queried by Americans since former Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev's tour across the United States in 1959. Putin also talked with ABC's Barbara Walters in the Kremlin earlier this month. The interview reciprocates a sit-down former President Bill Clinton took part in on a Moscow radio and television talk show last year. NPR President and former Washington Post Moscow bureau chief Kevin Klose proved to be the catalyst for the meeting. Klose reportedly urged the Russian president to reiterate the message he gave to NATO in Brussels last month of a closer relationship with the West since the Sept. 11 attacks in a direct forum with an American audience. Listeners can submit email questions to Putin at putin@npr.org.
Tribune Co. adopts pay cuts and salary freeze
Publishing and broadcast giant Tribune Co. announced yesterday a series of cost-cutting measures intended to counter the ongoing ad recession. In a letter sent to all employees, the company cites "the worst advertising environment since the Depression" as the basis for an operating profit down 37 percent for the first three-quarters of this year compared to last year and the company's first quarterly loss in ten years this third quarter, even after restructuring changes like a company-wide voluntary retirement program. Year-to-date group revenues fell 6 percent to $1.1 billion from $1.2 billion in 2000. The new measures will include a 5 percent pay cut for about 140 senior managers, while employees not covered by a collective bargaining agreement will see their salaries frozen for the year. One-time stock options will be made available on a merit-based system to the approximately 18,000 employees not part of the collective bargaining agreement. Tribune owns 22 major-market TV stations, several papers including the Los Angeles Times and the Chicago Tribune, as well as the Chicago Cubs baseball team, among other properties.
November 15, 2001 © 2001 Media Life
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