President Obama in Primetime for Tucson Memorial

THE PROGRAMMING INSIDERThursday, January 13, 2011 LIVE FROM THE TCA WINTER PRESS TOUR IN PASADENA Winter Press Tour Update: TCA Day Prime-Time Metered Market Wednesday Ratings:Networks Preempt Regularly Scheduled Programming for President Obama Ratings Box:What’s Hot/What’s Not On the Air Tonight:Prime-Time Programming Options TV Tidbits:Notes of Interest TV Trivia Time:Radar’s Home_______________________________________________________________________ Winter Press Tour Update: TCA Day It was set visit day yesterday, with a group excursion to the sets of Lopez Tonight, Conan, Cougar Town, Parks and Recreation and Criminal Minds spin-off Criminal Minds. The morning began on the Warner Bros. lot set of Lopez Tonight with George Lopez and new executive producer Bob Morton, who had the following to say about season two:” “I think when the show started, it was approached more as a talk show, and we basically said we wanted to do comedy, especially with Conan coming on. So we pretty much just refocused everything. The comedy pieces we’ve made, I think, are a lot stronger, a lot quicker-paced, as is the overall pace of the show. Before I was here they were going a little longer. And the one thing I learned — one of many things that I learned from David Letterman – was these things have to have a sense of urgency. And that feeling of the live show just creates an energy that you can’t get any way else.” Next up was Conan’s new talker, with Conan O’Brien and executive producer Jeff Ross. Said Conan about working for TBS: “I came to this show thinking I just want to go for it in every single way creatively, and I don’t want to over-think things. If someone has an idea and it sounds like, gee, I haven’t seen that before, we try it. And what’s nice is we are partnered with people who have encouraged us since day one. The people at TBS have made it very clear that we want you to do what you think is funny and what you enjoy doing, and I think that’s led to a feeling here of experimentation in silliness. The crew, the staff, a lot of the people in their early twenties who are working on the show, we’ve all been through something in the last year, and so there’s sort of a spirit. There’s a little pirate-ship feeling to this show, which I love. Everybody has it because we all went through it. None of us knew what was going to happen, were we going to get other jobs, how were we going to make it through this thing. We stuck together. We did. And that creates a real strong dynamic here at the show that I think is coming through on television.” After a short bus trip to the Twentieth Century Fox lot, there were two sessions: Funny Women session with Julie Bowen, Alyson Hannigan, Jane Lynch, Lea Michele, Martha Plimpton, Cobie Smulders and Sofia Vergara; and Funny Men session with Ty Burrell, Chris Colfer, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Neil Patrick Harris, Matthew Morrison, Eric Stonestreet, Ed O’Neill, Josh Radnor, Jason Segal and Lucas Neff. And set visits to Cougar Town, Parks and Recreation and Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior capped off the day. Presenting at The Winter Tour Today: NBC. ______________________________________________________________________ Prime-Time Metered Market Wednesday Ratings:Networks Preempt Regularly Scheduled Programming for President Obama Wednesday 1/12/11Note: The overnight data now includes DVR playback until 3 a.m. local time. One year earlier it was based on Live data only. HH Rtg/Shr ABC 6.3/10CBS 4.6/ 7NBC 4.1/ 6Fox 1.8/ 3CW 1.2/ 2 ---------- -Note: The year-to-year overnight comparisons are not available today. ---------- -Ratings Breakdown:Note: Due to live coverage of President Obama’s speech in Tucson last night about the shooting victims from approximately 8:38-9:19 p.m. ET, program results for the evening are approximate. Of note was the series-premiere of ABC drama Off the Map at a second-place 5.5 rating/9 share at 10 p.m. Comparably, that dipped by 21 percent from a repeat of Modern Family at 9:30 p.m. (7.0/11). And week two of Live to Dance on CBS finished second in the 8 p.m. hour with a 4.5/ 7 -- 22 percent below one week earlier (5.8/ 9 on January 5). Since it is impossible to do an adequate analysis of the overnights, please go to PIFeedback by noon today for the fast affiliate results by half-hour. Source: Nielsen Media Research data (R = repeat) Ratings Box:What’s Hot/What’s Not -Modest Start for Lights Out on FX:New FX drama Lights Out debuted on Tuesday with 1.5 million viewers, 793,000 adults 18-49, and 530,000 men 18-49. Combined with two encore airings (11 p.m. and 1 a.m.), Lights Out was sampled by a gross audience of 2.4 million viewers, 1.3 million adults 18-49 and 862,000 men 18-49. While the adult 18-49 audience was stronger than recent entry Terriers on FX (659,000), Justified on the cable net got off to a notably stronger start in the demo with 2.04 million viewers. -National Ratings in Syndication – Week of January 3:What follows are the top 20 rated programs in syndication (first-run and off-network) for the week of December 27, 2010 broken out by AA (average audience) households: Wheel of Fortune (CBS Television Distribution): 6.9 rating, Jeopardy (CBS): 5.7, Two and a Half Men (Warner Bros.): 5.5, Oprah (CBS): 4.4, Judge Judy (CBS): 4.3, Entertainment Tonight (CBS): 4.0, Family Guy (Twentieth Television): 3.6, Two and a Half Men – Weekend B (Warner Bros.): 3.5, Wheel of Fortune – Weekend (CBS): 3.1, Criminal Minds (CBS), Everybody Loves Raymond (CBS), My Wife and Kids (Disney-ABC) and Two and a Half Men – Weekend A (Warner Bros.): 3.0 each, Live with Regis & Kelly (Disney-ABC) and Law & Order: Criminal Intent – Weekend (NBC Universal): 2.9 each, Inside Edition (CBS) and Seinfeld – Weekend (Sony Pictures Television): 2.8 each, Dr. Oz (SPT): 2.6, Dr. Phil (CBS) and Seinfeld (SPT): 2.5 each Of Note:-Entertainment Tonight posted the largest week-to-week gains in the magazine genre, with an increase of 18 percent.-Swift Justice with Nancy Grace from CBS Television Distribution topped the rookie first-run strips for the 15th week in a row, with a 1.4 rating in households. -NBC Universal’s Maury rose to a season-high 2.3 rating in households -- up 10 percent from one week earlier. Results among women 18-49 (1.6) was Maury’s best since the week of May 17, 2010. Source: Nielsen Media Research data____________________________________________________________________________ On the Air Tonight:Prime-Time Programming Options Thursday 1/13/11 ABC: 8:00 p.m. Wipeout 9:00 p.m. Grey’s Anatomy10:00 p.m. Private Practice CBS: 8:00 p.m. The Big Bang Theory (R) 8:30 p.m. $#*! My Dad Says 9:00 p.m. CSI (R) 10:00 p.m. The Mentalist (R) NBC: 8:00 p.m. Community (R) 8:30 p.m. Community (R) 9:00 p.m. The Office (R) 9:30 p.m. The Office (R)10:00 p.m. 30 Rock (R)10:30 p.m. 30 Rock (R) Fox: 8:00 p.m. Million Dollar Money Drop 9:00 p.m. Bones (R) CW: 8:00 p.m. The Vampire Diaries (R) 9:00 p.m. Nikita (R) _____________________________________________________________________ TV Tidbits:Notes of Interest -The Jeremy Kyle Show a Firm Go for 2011-12:Debmar-Mercury has announced upcoming first-run talker The Jeremy Kyle Show as a firm “go” for fall 2011, with clearances in approximately 70 percent of the country. Nine of the top 10 markets are confirmed, including Fox stations in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago. Theone-hour daily talk show is an original American version of Kyle’s No. 1-rated daytime talk show in the U.K, and station groups include CBS, Fox, Hearst, Newport and CW Plus. -More The Big Bang Theory:CBS and Warner Bros. Television have announced the renewal of sitcom The Big Bang Theory, taking it through the 2013-14 season (No. 7). Season to-date, The Big Bang Theory is the dominant force in its new Thursday 8 p.m. half-hour, with 13.89 million viewers (+ 7 percent from former time period occupant Survivor one year earlier), a 4.7 rating/14 share in adults 18-49 (+15 percent) and a 5.9/16 among adults 25-54 (+16 percent). -Two Familiar Faces Return to Survivor:Former Survivor contestants Russell Hantz and “Boston” Rob Mariano will compete on the upcoming season of Survivor: Redemption Island. The season begins on Wednesday, February 16 at 8 p.m. ET, -Executive Shuffle:USA Network has named Andrea Epstein and Kristin Schulman vice president, publicity and talent relations at USA Network. Based in Los Angeles, Epstein joined USA in July 2000 as a publicist; and Schulman in New York as a senior publicist in August 2001. Together, Epstein and Schulman have partnered on the majority of the USA’s launches since 2001, including The Dead Zone, The 4400, The Starter Wife, In Plain Sight, White Collar and Covert Affairs. -Sad News:David Nelson, the last surviving member of the Nelson TV family, died Tuesday from complications of colon cancer at his home in Los Angeles. He was 74. Nelson, of course, was an integral part of classic sitcom The Adventures of Ozzie & Harriet, which aired on ABC from 1952 to 1966 and remains the longest-running live action comedy in the history of television. His film credits include Peyton Place, The Remarkable Mr. Pennypacker, The Big Circus, Day of the Outlaw and Love and Kisses. And his on-screen TV credits include The Love Boat and a Family for Joe. Nelson is survived by his wife; four sons and one daughter; and seven grandchildren.______________________________________________________________________ TV Trivia Time:Radar’s Home What state was Walter “Radar” O’Reilly from on longp-running comedy MASH? a) Iowab) Kansasc) Missourid) Montanae) West Virginia The answer to yesterday’s question… Four of the following five sitcoms were actually spun-off from another series. Which one wasn’t?a) Checking Inb) The King of Queens c) A Man Called Hawkd) The Parkers e) Pete and Gladys Is: b) The King of Queens. While many think The King of Queens came from Everybody Loves Raymond, the characters of Doug and Carrie Heffernan were introduced on The King of Queens (with crossover episodes between the two shows at a later time). Kevin James did appear on Raymond prior to that, but not as Doug. As for the others: Checking In (from The Jeffersons)A Man Called Hawk (Spenser: For Hire)The Parkers (Moesha)Pete and Gladys (December Bride) All together now…My eyes are getting wearyMy back is getting tightI'm sitting here in traffic on the Queensborough bridge tonightBut, I don't care 'cause all I want to do...is cash my check and drive right home to you'cause Baby, all my lifeI will be driving home to you -Current kudos goes to:Steve Albright, Gerry Bixenspan, Paul Certo, Larry Collins, Tom Condosta, Harold Cooper, Mark Cosenza, Audrey Davis, John Ferlazzo, Maureen Goldman, Michelle Harrington, Melissa Hodgdon, Ken Hommel, Bob Ingersoll, Ken Jobe, Deb Kainer, Tom Kilgallon, Synda Kollman, Michael Murphy, Aaron Paquette, Alan Perris, Alex Petrilli, Jr., Gordon Purcell, Russell Schwartz, Colleen Roth, David Shearer, Kurt Weil

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President Obama in Primetime for Tucson Memorial

Marc Berman

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