News Shorts

Fox's 'Idol' handily takes Tuesday
NBC gave its Thursday-bound “Scrubs” every chance to find an audience on Tuesday with five episodes of the first-year sitcom. The strategy worked well enough for NBC to rank No. 2 for the night in the 18-49 demographic. But NBC paled in comparison to Fox, which held a sizable lead in every half-hour. Repeats of “That 70s Show” in the 8 p.m. hour held nearly a one-point lead over its nearest competitor. A new episode of “American Idol: The Search for a Superstar” at 9 p.m. did even better. The reality show averaged a 4.65 adult 18-49 rating to NBC’s 3. ABC had a 2.8 with “The Mole 2” and CBS had a 1.5 with “The Guardian.” Fox’s average for Tuesday was a 3.9 adult 18-49 rating. NBC had a 2.8, ABC had a 2.4 and CBS had a 1.8. CBS held its usual spot at No. 1 among households with repeats of its Tuesday dramas. The network had a 5.6 household rating and 10 share, based on Nielsen overnights. Fox had a 5/9, NBC had a 4.5/8 and ABC had a 3.9/7.

NBC devours Monday with 'Dog Eat Dog'
NBC won Monday among adults 18-49 and households on the strength of its summer reality series "Dog Eat Dog." The show had the night’s highest rating in the 18-49 demographic with an average 4.5, which improved in its second half-hour by a full rating point, or 25 percent. NBC also ranked No. 1 in the demo for every half-hour, beginning with a repeat of "Fear Factor" and ending with a repeat of "Crossing Jordan." The network averaged a 3.8 rating to CBS’s 3, ABC’s 2.5 and Fox’s 1.6, based on preliminary Nielsen data. CBS ranked No. 1 in household ratings with a 6.9 and 12 share with its Monday sitcoms and "48 Hours," all of which won their respective time slots in that demographic. NBC averaged a 5.5/10. ABC had a 4.9/9 with the Brad Pitt movie "Meet Joe Black," while Fox trailed with a 3.1/6 with repeats of "Boston Public" and "Ally McBeal."

Earth Times and Soap Opera Update go under
The end has come for troubled magazines Soap Opera Update and The Earth Times, although there appears to be a happy ending on the horizon for the latter. Last Thursday, Bauer President Hubert Boehle pulled the plug on Soap Opera Update because of sluggish circulation. The title's circulation had dropped 28 percent in the second half of last year to 144,698, under the 150,000 base it guaranteed advertisers. Boehle claims that not a single employee will be laid off, though, with the staff folding instead into two other Bauer titles, Soaps in Depth-ABC and Soaps in Depth-NBC. Many former Update staffers might also be headed towards In Touch, the new low-price Bauer competitor to People and Us Weekly set to launch this fall, according to the New York Post's Keith Kelly. The Earth Times, an environmentally conscious magazine and newspaper, ended its 12-year run with a letter from editor in chief Pranay Gupte. "In this economic climate, it's proving impossible to raise funds," Gupte writes. A former New York Times reporter, Gupte founded the magazine with the high-profile labor lawyer Theodore Kheel in advance of the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development.

Irate country lovers give Peter Jennings the boot
When country singer Toby Keith was pulled from the lineup of an ABC 4th of July musical special, he pointed the finger at Peter Jennings, claiming the news anchor objected to the content of his song. Now fans of the country singer are planning to protest Keith's exclusion by shipping more than 300 pairs of boots to Jennings' office at ABC News in New York. The Send Your Old Boots to Peter Jennings stunt was cooked up by Crash, the co-host of a country morning radio show on KTST in Oklahoma City. Supporters hope to have Keith reinstated to the lineup so he can perform the song that has become a cause celebre, "Courtesy of the Red, White, and Blue (The Angry American)." ABC producers took responsibility for dropping Keith from the lineup, saying that the song's content wasn't appropriate to lead off the event and that Jennings had nothing to do with the decision. Among the song's strident lyrics is the line, "You'll be sorry that you messed with the U.S. of A. because we'll put a boot in your ass--it's the American way." UPS in Oklahoma City has volunteered to ship the boots for free, with delivery slated for next Tuesday.

Martha works out her anger on 'Early Show'
One would not wish to be a cabbage around a stressed-out Martha Stewart. The homemaker extraordinaire did not pause from chopping a cabbage on yesterday's "Early Show" when asked about allegations of insider trading surrounding her sale of ImClone stock. Stewart said she preferred to "to focus on my salad," but agreed to answer some questions posed by CBS host Jane Clayson before the salad presentation began. While declining to discuss details of the investigation, Stewart predicted its outcome thus: "I will be exonerated of any ridiculousness." Clayson introduced Stewart's weekly segment on the "Early Show" with a brief overview of Stewart's ImClone sale, which prompted an inquiry on suspicion that Stewart was tipped off about the stock's imminent nosedive. Stewart admitted she is fed up with the recent scrutiny surrounding her sale, saying that although when she was a model she prized being on the cover of magazines, her opinion has now changed. "I am a CEO of a New York Stock Exchange-listed company and I don't want to be on any covers of any newspapers for a long, long time," said Stewart. Stewart's claim of innocence was weakened recently by the news that the ex-husband of a woman she was traveling with on Dec. 27--the day she sold nearly 4,000 shares of ImClone stock--unloaded 10,000 shares of his own the following day, just before the stock's price crashed.

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