News Shorts

Fox slips past NBC for a sleepy Sunday win
The broadcast networks slumped through Sunday with only one summer reality show to boost viewership and settled for mediocre ratings for mostly repeats and movies. Fox came out ahead in the adult 18-49 demographic with a 2.7 rating that barely edged past NBC’s 2.6. ABC had a 1.7 to CBS’s 1.6, based on Nielsen overnight data. The highest ratings in the demo went to Fox’s block of sitcoms from 8 to 10 p.m., with “The Simpsons” and “Malcolm in the Middle” pulling in the strongest numbers. NBC remained competitive with “Law & Order: Criminal Intent” and moved into first place with its “Crime & Punishment” reality show after Fox’s primetime lineup wound down at 10 p.m. ABC settled for third place most of the night with a Disney movie and repeats of “Alias” and “The Practice.” Meanwhile, CBS was hurt by “The Guardian” and the movie “Missing Pieces,” which were in last place for most of the night. CBS did better in households, though. NBC was No. 1 with a 5.6 rating and 10 share to CBS’s 5.4/10, Fox’s 3.5/6 and ABC’s 3.2/6.

PBS's Moyers arrested for drunk driving
Respected public TV host and journalist Bill Moyers was arrested this weekend in Vermont for driving under the influence of alcohol. Moyers reportedly was on the way home from a friend’s birthday party and admitted to the arresting officer that he had had a glass of champagne and a small amount of wine. A roadside breathalyzer test showed Moyers' blood-alcohol content to be 0.10, just over the legal limit of 0.08. A follow-up test at the barracks 90 minutes later showed Moyers' blood-alcohol content had dropped to 0.079. But police calculate how much alcohol would have left the driver's system in the time after the arrest and take that into account. Moyers served as deputy director of the Peace Corps under President John Kennedy and as President Lyndon B. Johnson's press secretary from 1965 to 1967. He is regarded as one of the most influential journalists in the U.S. for his work on PBS.

Fox ponders all-reality cable channel
File under “Western Civilization, decline of”: Fox parent News Corp. is looking into launching a network devoted solely to the genre of reality TV. The tentatively named Fox Reality Channel, which would be transmitted via cable and satellite, would deliver reality programming 24 hours a day, seven days a week. One possible plan is for FRC to launch as a digital-tier cable channel in the U.S. by 2005 at the latest and possibly sooner in the United Kingdom and elsewhere abroad via DTH satellite. The new channel would have a preexisting reservoir of Fox-created reality programming on which to draw including “Who Wants to Marry a Multimillionaire?” “Temptation Island,” “Cops,” “America's Most Wanted,” and most recently “American Idol.”

People outbids Us for J.Lo-Ben pix
You know that things are getting a little out of hand when a few pictures of two movie stars sitting in a luxury car costs almost as much as the car itself. People magazine has agreed to pay $75,000 for nine photos of Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck, who are reported to be dating following the dissolution of the former’s short-lived marriage to dancer Cris Judd. The Time Inc. weekly agreed to the high price largely to keep the shots from falling into the hands of rival Us Weekly, according to the New York Post’s Keith Kelly. Not only do the photos feature the Hollywood couple-of-the-moment making out. They also would have provided priceless publicity for Us in the form of one photo that showed the pair reading the Bonnie Fuller-edited celebrity title.

ABC forges programming pact with HBO
Proof that low ratings make for strange bedfellows: ABC, the Disney-owned network that’s bringing family hour back to primetime, and HBO, home of “Sex and the City” and “The Sopranos,” have inked a two-year development deal. Under the deal, ABC will provide financial backing for HBO’s production unit, HBO Independent Productions, which in turn will create shows specifically for the network. ABC will get right of first refusal for any shows, although should the network pass on any program HBO will be able to sell it to other networks. The AOL Time Warner-owned unit has produced such popular TV programs as "The Sopranos," "Six Feet Under" and "Everybody Loves Raymond." ABC, which finished last among the big four broadcast networks last season, already had more than 15 new projects in development for the fall of 2003, not including those from HBO.

Hallelujah! New episodes of 'Davey and Goliath'
"Davey and Goliath," the religious-based claymation kids show from the 1960s, is being born again. The Evangelical Lutheran Church will produce 26 new episodes of the show, which features young Davey and his drawling dog Goliath, with the expectation of getting it on the air sometime next year. The United Lutheran Church, the Evangelical Lutheran Church’s predecessor, originally produced 65 episodes and six specials from 1960 to 1971. The church is hoping to introduce the Christian-themed program, made by Gumby creators Art and Ruth Clokey, to a new generation of children. In order to raise production money, the church is licensing videos of old shows and has allowed the two stars of the show to appear in a Mountain Dew commercial.

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