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NBC returned to its regular Wednesday night dominance last night, easily winning 18-49s and households on the strength of "The West Wing" and "Law & Order." NBC logged a 6.4 adult 18-49 rating, Fox a 4.6, ABC a 4.2 and CBS a 2.1, based on preliminary Nielsen ratings. The only area of competition was the 8 p.m. hour, which ABC took with a 5.0 in adults 18-49 from "My Wife & Kids" and "According to Jim." The two comedies were up 12 percent from last week while the entire night's lineup edged up 8 percent from the previous week. Fox's "That '80 Show" fell 21 percent from its debut last week, which translated to a slide of 16 percent for all of Fox's comedies. NBC's "West Wing" took the 9 p.m. hour with a 7.1 in adults 18-49, topping a 4.5 from Fox's "Bernie Mac" and "Titus." At 9:30 pm. ABC's "The Job" reversed its recent slide, hopping up 13 percent from last week. Two repeats of CBS's "Becker" failed to draw audiences, coming in last with a 2.3 among adults 18-49. At 10 p.m. NBC's "Law & Order" clocked an 8.0 adult 18-49 rating, more than doubling the pull of ABC's "20/20 Downtown." The average household rating and share for Wednesday night were: NBC 11.1/18, ABC 6.7/11, CBS 6.0/10 and Fox 5.5/9. On Tuesday night, all four networks essentially relinquished the night to the President's State of the Union Address and offered mostly reruns for the hour before the speech, except ABC, which took the opportunity to showcase "The Chair" at 8 p.m. The new reality offering helped the network to a win in 18-49s for the night, on top of taking the 8 p.m. hour with a 4.2 in the demo. ABC had a 4.0, NBC a 3.9, Fox a 3.0 and CBS a 2.9 in adults 18-49, based on preliminary Nielsen ratings. Also at 8 p.m., Fox came in second with "That '70s Show" and "Undeclared," while NBC placed third with "Frasier" and "Three Sisters." "Undeclared" dropped 22 percent of its lead-in, and "Sisters" dropped 11 percent of its lead-in. NBC's coverage of the President's speech took the 9 p.m. hour with a 5.0 among 18-49s, followed by a 4.5 from ABC, a 3.1 from CBS and a 2.4 from Fox. ABC regained the pole position at 10 p.m. with its speech analysis, edging NBC's "Dateline" breakdown with an adult 18-49 rating of 3.5 to "Dateline's" 3.1. The average household rating and share for Tuesday night were: NBC 7.2/11, ABC 6.9/11, CBS 6.9/11 and Fox 3.7/6.
Kidnappers threaten to kill WSJ reporter
The situation has grown more dire in Pakistan, where the kidnappers who seized Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl more than a week ago are threatening to execute him unless their demands are met immediately. In a second e-mail to U.S. and Pakistani news organizations, the self-proclaimed kidnappers retracted their earlier charge that Pearl was spying for the CIA, but said they now believe he is an agent of Mossad, the Israeli intelligence agency. They said they plan to kill Pearl within 24 hours and begin targeting other American journalists unless the U.S. agrees to their demands, which include repatriation of Pakistanis captured in Afghanistan and held in Cuba. The letter, filled with spelling and syntax errors and accompanied by a photo of Pearl in chains and another with a pistol pointed at his head, had a more mocking and threatening tone than the kidnappers' previous communication. They promised sarcastically to send food packets to Pearl's family, writing, "We hope Mr danny's family will be grateful for the food packets that we send them just as the amreekan public expected the afgans to be grateful for the food packets its airforce was dropping on them." Pakistani police made several arrests related to the kidnapping yesterday. One person taken into custody was Sheik Mubarak Ali Shah Gilani, head of a militant Islamic group, whom Pearl was reportedly scheduled to meet on the day he went missing.
White House buys Bowl time for anti-drug spots
Alongside all the Super Bowl ads urging you to consume legal drugs (e.g., alcohol, caffeine) will be a couple spots warning you that buying illegal drugs means supporting guys like Osama bin Laden. The two 30-second commercials were paid for by the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy and created by British director/producer Tony Kaye, who directed the film "American History X." The ads play up the fact that groups like the Taliban and Al Qaeda derive a portion of their revenues from the international drug trade. Under law, Fox has to match the buy by donating free airtime of equivalent value to the anti-drug campaign. A program under which networks could skirt this requirement by weaving anti-drug messages into the plots of primetime shows has been discontinued.
UPN axes 20% of staff in merge with CBS.
As a result of UPN's consolidation with CBS, 22 of UPN's 110 staffers are expected to lose their jobs. The deal is that the contracted employees who are laid off will receive all of what they would have received before their contracts expired. Non-contracted staffers will receive two-weeks salary for every year they've worked at the 6-year-old network. So far five marketing employees have been let go, with six expected to leave the sales department, three to leave research and four to exit from media relations. UPN's Chicago sales office will close as a result of the restructuring, and department heads will report to employees of their equivalent rank at CBS. The layoffs are by order of CBS's President, Leslie Moonves, who took over control of UPN last month.
'Survivor 4' finale won't take on 'Friends'
Has CBS lost faith in the giant-slaying power of its "Survivor" franchise? The upcoming "Survivor: Marquesas" will occupy the same Thursday 8 p.m. time slot as its predecessor, going opposite NBC’s top rated "Friends" beginning Feb. 28. But CBS scheduled the finale of "Survivor 4" on a Sunday—May 19, to be precise--rather than let it face off against NBC's "must-see" Thursday block. The two-hour episode begins at 8 p.m. and will be followed by a one-hour cast-reunion special. But the "Survivor" denouement won’t be entirely without competition: The series finale of "The X-Files" will air the same night. Also at CBS, "Amazing Race 2" will debut in its regular 9 p.m. slot on Wednesday, March 13, with a preview at 10 p.m. on March 11. "AFP: American Fighter Pilot," the new reality series from directors Ridley and Tony Scott, is set to premiere Friday, March 29 at 8 p.m.
Study: Women and minority TV directors are few
If you watched a primetime sitcom or drama in the last year, chances are there was a white guy behind the camera calling the shots. That's according to the Directors Guild of America, which this week published a study assessing the efforts by television networks to bring more diversity to the ranks of directors. It turns out they still have quite a ways to go. A full 80 percent of the 826 episodes that aired in primetime during the 2000-01 season were directed by Caucasian men. The numbers for all other groups are pretty paltry. Women directed 89 episodes (11 percent), blacks accounted for 27 episodes (3 percent), Latinos directed 15 episodes (2 percent) and Asians helmed 11 episodes (1 percent). Twelve of the top 40 shows employed no minority directors, and the same number hired no women directors. And three shows--"Friends," "Law & Order" and "The Drew Carey Show"--were doubly guilty, using no women or minority directors.
January 31, 2002 © 2002 Media Life
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