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Olympics still tops but easing
NBC's Winter Olympics coverage on Tuesday night continued its winning streak, though it slipped a bit, garnering its lowest rating thus far. NBC still easily won the night, as rival networks largely played dead. The peacock network drew a 10.4 adult 18-49 rating for the night, Fox had a
3.7, CBS a 2.6 and ABC a 2.3, based on preliminary Nielsen ratings. At 8 p.m.
ABC 's "The Chair" and Fox's "That '70s Show" fell 32 and 26 percent among adults 18-49, respectively, from last week. For the hour, NBC scored a 9.4 adult 18-49 rating, while Fox's "That '70s Show" and
"Undeclared" followed with a 3.7. At 9 p.m. the adult 18-49 audience for the Winter Olympiad swelled to an 11.2 for the hour, tripling the 3.7 from Fox's "24," which dropped 18 percent from last week. At 10 p.m. the Olympics hauled in a
10.6 among adults 18-49, more than doubling the viewership of the competition, combined. ABC and CBS never got out of the basement all night, as new episodes of "The Chair," "Whose Line Is It Anyway" and "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" on ABC did just slightly worse than repeats of "JAG," "The Guardian," and "Judging Amy" on CBS. Neither network was able to capture more than a 2.9 adult 18-49 rating all night. The average household rating and share for Tuesday night were: NBC 18.6/29, CBS 6.8/10, Fox 4.7/7 and
ABC 4.2/6. On Monday night, the Salt Lake City Games retained all of Sunday's 18-49 audience Monday
night, giving NBC another dominating win in the demo with an 11.1. Fox had
a 4.2, CBS a 3.9 and ABC a 2.2, based on preliminary Nielsen ratings. The
Olympics 18-49 audience surged from an 8.9 at 8 p.m. to an 11.5 at 9 p.m.
before easing to an 11.4 at 9:30 p.m. At 10 p.m. viewership expanded to a
12.4 and fell only slightly to a 12.0 at 10:30. From 8 p.m. to 10 p.m.
only Fox aired new programming, though its "Boston Public" and
"Ally McBeal" experienced substantial ratings declines, with
"Public" falling
to a 4.4 from last week's 5.2 and "Ally" falling to a 4.0 compared
to last week's 5.7 adult 18-49 rating. For CBS,
repeats of "King of Queens" and "Yes, Dear" managed
only a 4.0 for the hour, while reruns of "Everybody Loves
Raymond" and "Becker" scraped together a 4.9 among adults
18-49. ABC tanked with a repeat of the Jim Carrey movie "Ace Ventura:
When Nature Calls," which drew only a 2.3 adult 18-49 rating for its
two hours. At 10 p.m. neither ABC's "Who Wants to Be a
Millionaire" nor CBS's "48 Hours" captured more than a
quarter of the Olympic audience. The average household rating and share
for Monday night were: NBC 19.6/29, CBS 7.2/11, Fox 5.9/9, ABC 3.8/6.
Marv Albert in talks
to call NBA shots for ABC
Onetime late-night
punchline master Marv Albert is back at the top of his game with a deal in the
works that will fatten his wallet and make him the top voice of the NBA.
Albert is ready to sign on to become lead NBA commentator for ABC and ESPN
next season, according to a report in the New York Post. Under the
arrangement, he’ll earn $4 million a year and still be able to call
games for the Madison Square Garden network. That Disney, which owns ABC
and ESPN, will hire him just shows how successful Albert has been in
rehabilitating his reputation since he was fired from NBC amid allegations
of strange sexual behavior. Albert was accused of biting a woman and
forcing her to perform oral sex on him, and he eventually pleaded guilty
to assault and battery.
Fox taps Kelley for another
lawyer show
Über-producer David E. Kelley, who earns more money than
you and everyone you know put together, is branching out next season with
a brand new...legal drama. The "Ally McBeal" creator has a
commitment from Fox for 13 episodes of the show, which reportedly will
depict the lives of three female lawyers who share a house in San
Francisco. The as-yet-untitled series will have to work hard to stand out
from a glut of courtroom shows including Kelley's own "Ally" and
"The Practice" as well as "Philly," "Family
Law," "Judging Amy" and "First Monday." Kelley's
development deal with Fox, signed two years ago, makes him the best-paid
producer in the TV industry, providing that he continues to craft hits.
But his imprimatur, while counting for a lot, isn’t a guarantee of
success, as the short-lived and much-reviled "Snoops"
demonstrated.
Finance reform sparks fear,
loathing in b'casters
Broadcasters are hoping this year's fall elections will give
their slumping ad revenues a lift, but it might be the last time they can
expect such a windfall. Among its other provisions, the Shays-Meehan
bill, up for a vote in the House of Representatives this week, would
require broadcasters, cable and satellite television operators to sell ad
time to federal candidates at the lowest cost for which airtime has sold
during the past year. While broadcasters now get a 25 percent discount,
under Shays-Meehan their discount would be more like 60 percent, according
to the National Association of Broadcasters. The industry group is seeking
an up-down vote on the amendment, which would allow House members to vote
on just the ad time portion of the bill, not the entire bill. Campaign
finance supporters insist ad time must be cheaper if soft money
contributions are banned, as the bill seeks to do, and point out that the
airways are public property, not an entitlement to the networks or
stations. The NAB has characterized the provision as an affront to freedom
of speech that would do little to clean up elections.
E! will air next-day repeats of NBC's 'Last Call'
Guess they’ll have to start calling him Carson
Twice-Daly. NBC has made a deal with E! Entertainment Television under
which the cable network will air "Last Call with Carson Daly,"
NBC’s new late-night talk show. Each edition of "Last Call"
will air first on NBC in its 1:35 a.m. Monday-Thursday time slot. E! will
broadcast the previous night’s show weekdays at 6 p.m., with repeat
airings on Mondays and over the weekend. NBC says it made the deal with
the idea that people who are exposed to the show in the evening might be
more inclined to stay up and catch it after the end of "Late Night
with Conan O’Brien." Daly, host of MTV’s "Total Request
Live," started the NBC gig last month.
Love in the Holy Land? A
personals puzzler
A Middle Eastern mystery has
arisen amid the usual transgender-seeking-transgender ads in the
Village Voice, New York's alternative weekly newspaper. Out of the 88
women-seeking-men personals in this week's edition of the paper, 16 of
them are purportedly from Palestinian babes seeking Jewish Israeli men.
Moreover, a number of these women say they're looking to settle down--in
Israel. One personal writer says she'd love to "return to ancestral
home for Palestinian-Jewish Valentine's Day in the Galilee"; another
says, "YOU claimed our FALAFEL, olives, oranges, music, houses as
yours; I need you to get me home." The ads have alarmed some in the
Jewish community, who wonder whether it's part of a conspiracy by
Palestinians to acquire citizenship by marrying--and then
dumping--unsuspecting Israeli singles. The Village Voice's ad department
is currently investigating the identities of the Palestinian ad holders,
according to the New York Post, which reported the wave of strange
personals yesterday. There were similar ads posted in the Village Voice in
July of last year, according to the Post.
February 13, 2002 © 200
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