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Four hours of “The Ten Commandments” dominated viewing on Easter and pushed ABC to a rare Sunday win in the adult 18-49 demographic. The 1956 movie with Charlton Heston won every half-hour in the demo against relatively light competition on the other Big Four networks. “Ten Commandments” averaged a 4.1 rating but had a 4.9 in its final half-hour, representing a 75 percent improvement from the beginning to the end of primetime. ABC had a 4.1 rating to NBC’s 3.4, Fox’s 2.6 and CBS’s 2, based on Nielsen overnights. NBC came closest to unseating ABC later in primetime with a repeat of “Law & Order: Criminal Intent” at 9 p.m. In its second half, the show tied “Ten Commandments” with a 4.8 rating. A two-hour special honoring Bob Hope earlier in the night ranked No. 2 in its time slot. A repeat of “The Simpsons” and tougher-than-usual competition hurt Fox. Meanwhile, CBS was in last place most of the night, including for its movie “Ice Bound: A Woman’s Survival at the South Pole.” The movie, starring controversial activist Susan Sarandon, averaged a 2.1 rating.
Yuen & Leung get the TV Guide boot
Gemstar-TV Guide International has fired former CEO Henry Yuen, citing his refusal to cooperate with the Securities and Exchange Commission’s inquiry into the company’s accounting practices. Former chief financial officer Elsie Ma Leung has also been dismissed, and both will leave the board of directors. Yuen and Leung stepped down in November but continued to be employed by Gemstar-TV Guide, which owns TV Guide magazine and various electronic programming guides. On Thursday, the SEC asked a federal court to hold Yuen in contempt, jail him and fine him $50,000, doubling daily, after he defied a court order to testify in its investigation. He and Leung were fired the following day.
Reality TV on the big
screen: 'The Real Cancun'
The Emmys have already added a category
for reality programming. Might the Academy Awards soon have to do the
same? Perhaps not. "The Real Cancun," which is being billed as
the first feature film inspired by the reality show craze, doesn’t sound
quite like Oscar material. The film, made by Jonathan Murray, creator of
MTV’s "The Real World," follows a group of 16 college students
on spring break in Cancun, Mexico. It features all the expected
activities, including drinking, wet T-shirt contests, and, yes, sex
("hooking up," in the parlance). Footage was shot this past
March and production was rushed to get the film out ahead of a competing
project, Universal Picture’s "The Quest," which has since been
postponed. Thanks to low production costs, "The Real Cancun"
only needs to gross about $25 million to break even.
Ted speaks: Rupe's a
warmonger and a creep
With News Corp.'s deal to acquire
DirecTV, Rupert Murdoch has become arguably the world's most powerful
media titan. In the view of Ted Turner, that's not a good thing. "I'm
very concerned about the power that Rupert Murdoch is consolidating,"
said former AOL Time Warner vice chairman Turner recently. "He's
a very dangerous person. He's waving the flag of patriotism, and he's
barely an American citizen." The CNN founder says Fox News Channel’s
reporting is skewed by its owner's enthusiasm for the war in Iraq.
"They are not trying to be objective at all. They are trying to be
cheerleaders," says Turner. "This is Murdoch's war… He's
exploiting this war to help build the circulation for his television
network and his newspapers." Turner, who made his remarks in an
interview with the newsletter Mermigas on Media, says he's glad that he's
largely out of the media business, unlike former rivals Murdoch and Sumner
Redstone, chairman of Viacom. "They are still selling 30-second spots
to advertisers. They are still doing the same old things. I'm doing
totally different things than I was 10 years ago."
HBO shelves Castro docu
after bout of repression
HBO has shelved a documentary about Cuban
leader Fidel Castro, saying the Communist dictator’s recent crackdown on
dissidents had made the film seem dated. "Commandante," which
was directed by filmmaker Oliver Stone ("JFK,"
"Platoon"), was distilled from 30 hours of interviews with the
aging Castro. It was scheduled to air in May after premiering in January
at the Sundance Film Festival. This month, using the war in Iraq as a
distraction, Castro’s regime arrested some 75 political opponents,
jailing many of them and executing three men who attempted to escape to
the U.S. by hijacking a boat. HBO says "Commandante" will appear
irrelevant unless Stone is allowed back into Cuba to question Castro about
the new round of repression.
April 21, 2003© 2003 Media Life
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