ABC cans 'Push, Nevada' and 'That Was Then'
In a not-unexpected but nevertheless painful move, ABC has been forced to cancel two new dramas, "Push, Nevada" and "That Was Then," because of low ratings. "That Was Then," about a man who gets the chance to relive events from high school, was a weak performer on Friday night, while "Push" managed a strong audience in an initial Tuesday outing, but got clobbered in its regular Thursday night timeslot opposite two of primetime’s biggest hits, "CSI" and "Will & Grace." Media Life’s Dan Jewel predicted that the timeslot would be a problem but gave the Ben Affleck-produced series a critical thumbs-up, writing, "’Push, Nevada’ succeeds as a sort of ‘Twin Peaks’ Lite, filled with oddball humor and a smooth noir look." At least one more episode of the series will have to air so that writers will get a chance to insert a clue that will allow viewers to solve the mystery and compete for the promised $1 million prize.

Satellite giants may call off merger plans
The clock is ticking on the proposed EchoStar-DirecTV merger. DirecTV chairman Eddy Hartenstein says the $26 billion merger will most likely be abandoned if it doesn't win approval from the Federal Communications Commission and the Department of Justice by Jan. 21. Hartenstein's remarks came at yesterday's meeting of the Satellite, Broadcasting and Communications Association in New York City. Earlier this week, officials from both satellite TV companies asked the FCC to hold off on approving or rejecting the merger until Oct. 28, when they will meet with regulators from the Justice Department's antitrust division. Both regulatory bodies are believed to be leaning towards rejecting the merger, which would have the effect of creating a satellite TV monopoly in many areas. One possible means of rescuing the merger might be for EchoStar to sell or give some of its resources to Cablevision, which is interested in starting a satellite service of its own.  

'Less Than Perfect' gets go-ahead from ABC
Another ABC nightly win in the Tuesday 18-49 adults demographic spurred the network to place its third full-season order of the year. New show “Less Than Perfect,” starring critical darling Sara Rue, joins Tuesday mates “8 Simple Rules For Dating My Teenage Daughter” and “Life With Bonnie” with a nine-episode extension. The sitcom airs at 9:30 p.m. and has boosted the network’s ratings by 10 percent in 18-49s compared to last year, averaging a 4.3 rating and 11 share. Retaining 91 percent of its “Life With Bonnie” lead-in this week helped “Perfect” earn ABC’s best 18-34 score in the time slot since Nov. 6, 200 1. “8 Simple Rules” posted an 8 percent improvement over last week’s numbers to lead ABC to the nightly win, posting a 5.6 rating and 16 share. That’s a 64 percent improvement over the network’s ratings this time last year. In other new-show news, the WB has ordered a full season of “Everwood,” its Monday night companion to highly rated “7th Heaven.” The drama scored the WB’s best time-period premiere ever, and has retained 81 percent of viewers 12-34 and 85 percent of teen viewers.

Tina in the Times: Bring on the sex scandals
"What America needs now is a good sex scandal." So opines Tina Brown, Talk magazine editor turned transatlantic fly-on-the-wall, in her second weekly column for the Times of London. Fed up with all the Iraq invasion foreplay, Brown bemoans the absence of high-level hanky-panky -- of the physical, not fiscal, variety -- to cut the tension. "The only people in public life daring to have fun are oldsters with nothing to lose when the world blows up — like Sumner Redstone, the frisky 78-year-old CEO of Viacom who, because he controls 68 per cent of the voting stock in a company that’s prospering, can squire eyepopping new arm candy every night of the week." Redstone, however, recently got engaged, prompting Brown to note, "[P]erhaps he too is now playing it safe." A better standard bearer for America's flagging randiness is "the 66-year-old dynamo Jack Welch, who absconded from home with the sexpot editor of the Harvard Business Review, Suzy Wetlaufer, as soon as he had bowed out of General Electric." Neither man, however, quite affords Tina the relief she craves. "When I channel-surf between the Peter Sellers clip of Saddam in his pork pie hat waving that rifle and the angry-foetus features of James Carville on CNN’s Crossfire, I long for the irresponsible days of Monica and Bill."

Rosie: I was never that nice to begin with
To those who say that Rosie O'Donnell went from "Queen of Nice" to "über-bitch" after retiring from her talk show in May, O'Donnell has this to say: You're wrong -- I was always nasty. "I'm not that nice. I'm a very biting, caustic, sarcastic person," O'Donnell tells designer Isaac Mizrahi in an upcoming interview on his Oxygen network talk show. The comedian recently broke off her joint venture to publish Rosie magazine with Gruner + Jahr USA, resulting in dueling breach-of-contract lawsuits. Some believe that she contributed to tensions at Rosie by publicly coming out as a lesbian last March, a revelation that may or may not have contributed to a sudden drop in newsstand sales. For her part, O'Donnell says she was never really in the closet in the first place. "I don't feel like I ever pretended anything… I think you can live your life as a gay person in the way that I did - never hiding it from anyone, attending every event with [longtime companion] Kelli [Carpenter], never pretending to have a boyfriend." The interview airs on "The Isaac Mizrahi Show" Monday, Oct. 21 at 10:30 p.m.

Andy Rooney: Get those dames off the sidelines
When "60 Minutes" curmudgeon Andy Rooney prefaces some off-the-cuff comment with “I’m not a sexist person,” you can guess what’s coming next. Rooney, who ranks right behind Ted Turner on the all-time "most people offended" list, stepped in it again last Friday with his comments on the MSG Network’s “Boomer Esiason Show.” “The only thing that really bugs me about television's coverage [of football games] is those damn women they have down on the sidelines who don't know what the hell they're talking about,” Rooney said. “I mean, I'm not a sexist person, but a woman has no business being down there trying to make some comment about a football game.” In the past, the 83-year-old has angered homosexuals, evangelists, blacks, Greek-Americans and Native Americans. He was suspended in 1990 after being quoted as saying that blacks “drop out of school, do drugs and get pregnant.” Rooney denied making those comments, but this time around he's not backing down, or not quite. He recently repeated that he thinks women sideline reporters are “terrible” but added that he doesn’t like male sideline reporters, either.

October 10, 2002 © 2002 Media Life

Printer-Friendly Version |  Send to a Friend
Cover Page | Contact Us