Friday

Monday Wacko
Jacko schlock-a-thon

Could this be sweeps? NBC and ABC dukeout.

For a sweeps period that started off like so many in the past, with some high-profile ratings grabbers--"Joe Millionaire," anyone?--but less than in prior years, February is fast becoming a freak show.
   The freak, of course, is Michael Jackson.
   Jackson is the once-talented singer and dancer who of late appears to be attempting to rebuild his celebrity status by affirming our worst fears about his private life.
   The big question now is when people will cease caring. It may be sooner rather than later if the networks keep up their pace.
   Next week Fox, ABC and NBC will deliver three more programs devoted to the baby-dangling singer, bringing the total of broadcast Jackson sweeps stunts to 10 hours, with cable running another 10.
   On Monday night, ABC will rebroadcast “Living With Michael Jackson” at 9 p.m., preceded by an hour-long special “Primetime” that will examine all the controversy brought on by the Martin Bashir documentary.
    The network first aired the Brit special on Feb. 6 to a 11.0 18-49 rating, its best in sweeps.
    During Monday's same 9-11 period, NBC airs its Jackson special, which actually was in the works long before ABC won the “Living With” bidding war.
   The expanded “Dateline,” called “Michael Jackson Unmasked,” will concentrate on Jackson’s extensive plastic surgeries over the years, ensuring a train wreck audience.
   “Dateline” was originally supposed to be one hour. But NBC expanded when faced with three hours of Jackson on ABC, not to mention the two-hour finale of Fox reality hit “Joe Millionaire” the same night.
   The "Dateline" segment is not to be confused with the Fox Jackson special, set to air on Thursday, in which the ex- king of pop attempts to rebut the Brit Bashir's characterization of Jackson as a likely, and somewhat wacky, pedophile by airing clips of Bashir praising the singer's parenting skills.
   NBC had bid for the rebuttal and was so sure it had won the auction that it began running promos for its airing, only to learn that Fox had agreed to more money, topping its $5 million offer.
   For ABC to re-air the Bashir documentary, it had to pay another $500,000 to the documentary’s British production company, Granada Television, after paying $6 million to get the rights in the first place.
   In the meantime Granada had sold rebroadcast rights to VH1, which will air “Living With” five times this weekend.
   So ABC essentially had to buy them back, and to do so in a way that would appease VH1. The network agreed not to promote the re-airing until after Sunday night.
   Lest you think CBS has stood above the fray, “60 Minutes” is trying desperately to get an interview with Jackson. One seemed in the works over the weekend, when Ed Bradley showed up at Jacko’s Neverland compound, but he ultimately was turned away.
   It’s been a long time since public interest in Jackson was in his singing ability and not his eccentricities. The erstwhile king of pop sold just 2 million and 2.5 million copies of his past two albums, compared to 26 million for 1982’s “Thriller.”
   But network specials on the freak behind the man always draw an audience. CBS aired a Jackson concert special in November 2001 that drew 26 million viewers.
    His 1993 ABC interview with Oprah Winfrey scored 62 million viewers, and 38 million watched Jackson and “wife” Lisa Marie Presley talk to Diane Sawyer in 1995.

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