News Shorts

Quiet death for Fox's 'Murder'
Fox’s reality program “Murder in Small Town X” never managed to scare up ratings, not even for its final episode last night. All four half-hours of the finale were the lowest rated half-hours in their time period for both households and adults 18-49, and Fox finished the night with half the household share and adult 18-49 rating of the other three networks. Running mostly repeat schedules, NBC and CBS tied for first place in households, and NBC edged CBS for the night among adults 18-49. The preliminary Nielsen household rating and share and adult 18-49 rating for Tuesday night were: NBC 6.5/11 and 3.8, CBS 6.5/11 and 3.7, ABC 6.4/10 and 3.2, and Fox 2.8/5 and 1.8. On Monday, ABC’s repeat of the movie “The Glimmer Man” gave its network a win for the night in households and a tie with NBC for first place among adults 18-49. The 1996 movie won three of its four half-hours in both households and adults 18-49 and earned an average household share of 13 and adult 18-49 rating of 4.1. NBC scored among adults 18-49 with its all-reality lineup of one episode of “Weakest Link” and two repeat episodes of “Fear Factor.” The preliminary Nielsen household rating and share and adult 18-49 rating for Monday night were: ABC 7.3/12 and 3.7, CBS 6.2/10 and 3.3, NBC 5.4/9 and 3.7, and Fox 3.0/5 and 2.1.

Vanity Fair unveils New Establishment power list
Bill Gates, Sumner Redstone and Steve Case are used to being on top, so they won't be surprised to find themselves heading up this year's edition of the Vanity Fair New Establishment list, which purports to name the 50 most influential leaders of the so-called Information Age. Case, chairman of AOL Time Warner, is at the very top of the rankings, followed by Microsoft boss Gates and Viacom chief Redstone. Rounding out the top five are News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch and Steve Ballmer, the second in command at Microsoft. Oracle chairman Larry Ellison and Disney chief Michael Eisner both fell out of the top 10, sliding to Nos. 22 and 23, respectively. And Ted Turner, a Time Warner bigwig no longer, is still hanging on by his fingernails at No. 50.

Britney Spears in PETA-cheetah flap
Britney Spears' flesh-baring gyrations have lost most of their shock value, but there's one group the juvenile singer can still get a rise out of: animal lovers. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals sprang into action recently after learning that Spears was planning to share the stage with live cheetahs at this week's MTV Awards. The group has sent a letter urging Spears to consider the welfare of the big cats and the plight of other wild beasts pressed into show business service. "Cheetahs used in show business are often trained through intimidation and with such devices as electric shock prods and sticks," reads the letter from PETA's Dan Mathews. "We hope you'll open your heart to the plight of captive 'wild' animals caged and forced to tolerate bright lights, crowds, and frightening levels of noise." No word yet on whether Spears has reconsidered having the cheetahs on hand while she performs her new single "I'm A Slave 4 U."

Man sets world records for TV viewing
A Brooklyn man defeated two Guinness world records for TV watching this weekend by plopping down for 51 episodes of "NYPD Blue." Kevin Keaveney, a Yale-educated out-of-work actor, lasted through 46 hours, 30 minutes and 50 seconds of the cop drama before falling asleep, setting records for consecutive episodes and total length of viewing. Contestants were allowed a five-minute break after every episode and 15 minutes every eight hours. Alertness aids like sugary snacks and caffeinated soda were allowed, and Keaveney says he partook liberally. The contest, sponsored by Court TV, was almost ended by a sense of cooperation during the 38th hour when a woman urged the remaining couch combatants to quit simultaneously and share in the winnings together. But Keaveney had a greater glory in mind. He lasted until the 51st hour, falling asleep around 6 a.m. Sunday. "I was seeing little spiders dropping from the ceiling," he told the New York Post afterwards. "The screen felt like the floor, and I was sitting on the wall. . . . The story lines were incomprehensible to me." His winnings include an MP3 player, a home entertainment system and a plasma, flat-panel-screen TV.

'Jeopardy!' cranks up the cash flow
Here's a stumper: Why compete against the brainiacs on "Jeopardy!" when any moron can win ten times as much on "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire"? The folks behind "Jeopardy!" couldn’t come up with a good answer for that one, so they're increasing the amount of prize money they'll be giving away starting in November. Questions in the first round will range from $200 to $1000 in value, and Double Jeopardy clues will be worth $400 to $2000. "Jeopardy!" producer Harry Friedman told the New York Post that the move is a measured response to the prize-money inflation that has taken place since shows like "Millionaire" and "Weakest Link" have gone on the air. Both shows will debut in syndication next year, meaning they could start competing with "Jeopardy!" on a daily basis. "Wheel of Fortune," also executive-produced by Friedman, will be raising its prize money as well, with a new bonus round offering a top giveaway of $100,000.

Indian birth control: Watch more television
While American legislators stress abstinence or Planned Parenthood-type programs to curb unwanted pregnancies, Indian lawmakers have come up with a more entertaining contraceptive: a television in every home. During a recent parliamentary debate over India’s ever-growing population, the minister for health and family welfare, C.P. Thakur, proposed making TV sets cheaper to the masses as a way of controlling the birth rate. Thakur cited a baby boomlet generated by a power outage in New York as evidence that people have less sex when they're watching TV. India reached the one-billion-person mark in May and will most likely soon overtake China as the world’s most populous nation. “Entertainment is an important component of the population policy,” the Times of India quotes the minister telling lawmakers. “We want people to watch television.” What a conundrum for Indian TV programmers. If the plan works and more people watch television, then there'll be fewer viewers around in the future.

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