'Frasier' proposal wins night for NBC
A heavily promoted new episode of "Frasier," where Niles Crane proposes to Daphne, pulled in big numbers and gave NBC the win for the night in adults 18-49. The long-running comedy scored an 8.3 adult 18-49 rating, almost four rating points above its closest competition. NBC came in with a 5.4 among adults 18-49 for the night. Fox had a 5.1, ABC a 4.1 and CBS a 3.9, based on preliminary Nielsen ratings. At 8 p.m. ABC's "The Char" continued to tumble, as it only drew a 3.3 adult 18-49 rating for the hour, a 34 percent drop from its debut just three weeks ago. Two episodes of Fox's "That '70s Show" easily took the hour with a 5.7 among adults 18-49, besting a 4.0 from CBS's "JAG" and a 4.1 from a repeat of "Will & Grace" and a new episode of
"Three Sisters" on NBC. At 9 p.m. Fox's "24" and ABC's "NYPD Blue" tied in the first half-hour with a 4.6 in adults 18-49, but the ABC cop drama jumped 17 percent in its second half while "24" fell 4 percent. NBC took the hour with a 7.2 in the demo from "Frasier" and "Scrubs." At 10 p.m. NBC's "Dateline" garnered a 4.9 for the hour, topping a 4.3 from CBS's "Judging Amy" and a 4.2 from ABC's "Philly." The average household rating and share for Tuesday night were: CBS 9.9/15, NBC 8.3/13, ABC 7.0/11, and Fox 6.3/9. On Monday night, strong showings from their regular hits brought first and second place finishes to NBC and Fox, as both edged out habitual winner CBS. NBC crept past with a 5.5 adult 18-49 rating, Fox had a 5.4, CBS a 5.1 and ABC a 2.9, based on preliminary Nielsen ratings. NBC's "Fear Factor" continued to display strong legs with a 6.2 rating among adults 18-49 for the hour, easily beating a 5.5 from CBS's duo of "King of Queens" and "Yes, Dear" and Fox's "Boston Public," which garnered a respectable 5.2. CBS took the 9 p.m. slot with a 6.8 in adults 18-49, but a 25 percent drop by "Becker" from its lead-in of "Everybody Loves Raymond" allowed Fox's "Ally McBeal" to take the second half-hour by just a tenth of a point. The resurgent David E. Kelley dramedy picked up a 5.7 adult 18-49 rating for the hour, topping a 5.1 from NBC's "Third Watch." At 10 p.m. NBC's "Crossing Jordan" continued its supremacy in the hour, defeating CBS's "Family Law" by two full rating points. ABC failed to excite viewers with its package of "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" and the Robin Williams movie "Patch Adams." The average household rating and share for Monday night were: CBS 9.5/14, NBC 8.1/12, Fox 7.8/11, and ABC 6.6/10.

'Friends' actors want $1.25M per show to return 
After promising for months that this season will be their last, the cast of "Friends" has decided that they'll stick together in the name of love--or at least love of money. The six members of NBC's No. 1 rated sitcom are reportedly demanding no less than $1.25 million apiece per episode, claiming that they are willing to stay together for another season only if their salary increases are granted. If the cast members' requests are fulfilled, "Friends" will become the most expensive program in the history of television, with the ninth season costing the network an estimated $150 million. It's money well spent, however: While "Friends" has, by any reasonable standard, jumped the shark several times over by now, its ratings are as strong as they've ever been, and it recently surpassed "Seinfeld" in revenue to become the most profitable network series ever. 

TiVo and Britney: A winning combination?
Sure, your wife thinks you were just watching the big game. But your TiVo knows where your attention was really focused: on a certain 20-year-old pop singer. After analyzing the Super Bowl viewing patterns of 10,000 of its subscribers, TiVo Inc., maker of the leading digital video recorder, says that the commercials were subjected to more replays and slow-motion viewing than any of the on-field action. TiVo subscribers used these functions an average of 44 times during the broadcast, most often to scrutinize the Pepsi ads that showed Britney Spears paying homage to commercial jingles of past decades. TiVo and other digital video recorders allow viewers to skip commercials, pause a live broadcast and automatically record their favorite shows.

CBS will air WTC documentary in March
Some of the most disturbing images from the Sept. 11 attacks were captured inadvertently, as tourist footage instantly became breaking news. Now the most striking example of that is being made into a two-hour primetime special on CBS, airing March 10. Two French filmmakers, brothers Gedeon and Jules Naudet, were shooting a documentary about a New York Fire Department unit on the day the towers were hit, providing the world with the only known footage of the first plane hitting the World Trade Center. They shot over 100 hours of total footage in all, including 45 minutes inside the North Tower as firefighters and paramedics rushed in, but before the tower collapsed. The project came to CBS via the William Morris Agency and editor Graydon Carter, whose Vanity Fair magazine will include a big feature story on the brothers in its March issue, on newsstands today. Whether the special will have a host or will even feature commercials is still undecided.

Bush budget fines b'casters for analog spectrum
Deficit spending isn't the only retro concept that President Bush has included in his new budget request. Bush has also asked Congress to reconsider Bill Clinton's spectrum-fee proposal, a plan originally intended to speed up the changeover from analog broadcasting to digital television. In his $2.13 trillion federal budget proposal, President Bush has included a half-billion dollar fine for networks that fail to switch over from analog to digital television by 2007. While the National Association of Broadcasters claims that many televisions are not yet capable of receiving digital signals, the president said the 2007 deadline would be extended if, at that time, less than 85 percent of the market can receive digital reception. In advocating the fee, the Federal Budget Commission has called the broadcast spectrum a "scarce resource" for which taxpayers should be compensated.

February 6, 2002  © 2002 Media Life

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