Remaining Highlights from The Winter Press Tour

THE PROGRAMMING INSIDERTuesday, January 19, 2010 Prime-Time Metered Market Monday Ratings:CBS Wins; Solid Results for ABC and Fox Winter Press Tour:Remaining Items of Note from Pasadena Ratings Box:What's Hot/What's Not On the Air Tonight:Prime-Time Programming Options TV Tidbits:Notes of Interest TV Trivia Time:A Small Screen Hot Rod____________________________________________________________________________ Prime-Time Metered Market Monday Ratings:CBS Wins; Solid Results for ABC and Fox Monday 1/18/10 HH Rtg/Shr CBS 8.3/12Fox 7.7/11ABC 6.8/10NBC 3.8/ 6CW 1.9/ 3 ---------- -Note: Comparisons to the year-ago evening were not available today. ---------- -Yesterday’s Winners: How I Met Your Mother (CBS), Two and a Half Men (CBS), The Bachelor: On the Wings of Love (ABC), 24 (Fox), The Big Bang Theory (CBS), CSI: Miami (CBS), Castle (ABC) -Yesterday’s Losers (excluding repeats):Heroes (NBC), The Jay Leno Show (NBC) ---------- Note: The fast affiliate results for Monday will be posted at PIFeedback by 12 p.m. ET. Go to the website, click on Ratings Box (the first category), then Last Night’s Results, and Monday, January 18, 2010. ---------- -Ratings Breakdown: CBS opened the week on a typically winning overnight note with its combination of sitcoms How I Met Your Mother (#2: 6.7 rating/10 share), Accidentally on Purpose (#4: 6.0/ 9), Two and a Half Men (#1: 10.3/15), The Big Bang Theory (#1: 9.8/14) and veteran CSI: Miami (#2: 8.7/14). Given the expected strength among adults 18-49, consider this a “winning” performance for How I Met Your Mother. Also anticipate more growth in the demo for The Big Bang Theory out of Two and a Half Men. Emmy voters…did you happen to catch Jim Parsons’ performance last night? In series-premiere news, CW drama Life Unexpected finished last in the 9 p.m. hour, with a 2.1/ 3 in the overnights. While that may not sound like much, it did built from the second half of lead-in One Tree Hill (#5: 1.7/ 2 at 8:30 p.m.) by 24 percent, which is an improvement over regularly scheduled occupant Gossip Girl. Let’s wait and see what the young female demos look like. Overall, One Tree Hill finished a typically distant fifth at 8 p.m. with a 1.8/ 3. A two-hour edition of Fox’s 24 was on the map, with a solid 7.7/11 in the overnights from 8-10 p.m. Comparably, 24 was up in the vicinity of 15 percent from its year-ago overnight average. Here is the half-hour breakdown: 24 (Fox)8:00 p.m.: 7.5/11 (#1)8:30 p.m.: 7.7/11 (#1)9:00 p.m.: 7.8/11 (#2)9:30 p.m.: 7.8/11 (#2) Over at ABC, the news remains positive for the new season of silly The Bachelor, which averaged a healthy 6.9/10 in the overnights from 8-10 p.m. (which will certainly resonate among the target female audience). That led into compatible Castle at a second-place 6.6/11 at 10 p.m. Sophomore Castle is, no doubt, one of the quieter success stories this season. Take a look at the half-hour breakdown for The Bachelor: The Bachelor: On the Wings of Love (ABC)8:00 p.m.: 6.5/ 9 (#3)8:30 p.m.: 6.8/10 (#2)9:00 p.m.: 7.1/10 (#3)9:30 p.m.: 7.3.10 (#3) Over at NBC, and despite the ample promotion, season three of Chuck remains a modest performer at a fourth-place 4.8/ 7 in the overnights from 8-9 p.m. Chuck’s expected mid-2 rating among adults 18-49 is nothing to boast about. Next on the troubled Peacock net was fading Heroes (#4: 3.2/ 5 at 9 p.m.), which should be concluding shortly, followed by canceled The Jay Leno Show at a last-place 3.5/ 6. Source: Nielsen Media Research data____________________________________________________________________________ Ratings Box:What's Hot/What's Not -Above Average Golden Globe Awards:Based on the fast affiliate rating results for Sunday, January 17, The 67th Annual Golden Globe Awards on NBC rose to the network’s most-watched non-sports performance in the Sunday 9-11 p.m. time period (16.9 million) since the 2004 Golden Globes Award telecast, and highest rated among adults 18-49 (5.4 rating) in any time period since the ER finale last April. Compared to one year earlier, The Golden Globes were up by 2 million viewers and 10 percent among adults 18-49. -Speaking of The Golden Globe Awards – And the TV Winner’s Were:Well, I did not get to see the whole event live because I was en route back from The Winter Press Tour. But I will say this…host Ricky Gervais added absolutely nothing to the festivities. The whole bit with The Office at the beginning was not funny and ending with a promotional push for his next project instead of addressing the current happenings in Haiti was just plain tacky. Please, Hollywood Foreign Press…keep overrated Gervais away next year. Here were the winner’s in television: -Best Television Series – Drama: Mad Men (AMC)-Best Television Series – Comedy or Musical: Glee (Fox)-Best Actor in a Television Series – Drama: Michael C. Hall (Dexter)-Best Actor in a Television Comedy or Musical: Alec Baldwin (30 Rock, NBC)-Best Actress in a Television Series – Drama: Julianna Margulies (The Good Wife, CBS)-Best Actress in a Television Comedy or Musical: Toni Collette (The United States of Tara, Showtime)-Best Miniseries or Motion Picture Made for Television: Grey Gardens (HBO)-Best Actor in a Miniseries or Motion Picture Made-For Television: Kevin Bacon (Taking Chance, HBO-Best Actress in a Miniseries or Motion Picture Made-For Television: Drew Barrymore (Grey Gardens, HBO)-Best Supporting Actor in a Series, Miniseries or Motion Picture Made-for Television: John Lithgow (Dexter, Showtime)-Best Supporting Actress in a Series, Miniseries or Motion Picture Made-for Television: Chloe Sevigny (Big Love, HBO) ---------- -Respectable Sampling for FX’s Archer:The series-premiere of animated FX comedy Archer opened with 1.8 million viewers, 1.2 million adults 18-49 and 786,000 adults 18-34 in the Thursday 10 p.m. half-hour on Jan. 14. Comparably, this was FX’s highest rated comedy series premiere in the delivery of adults 18-34, surpassing former leader Lucky (771,000) in the demo. Source: Nielsen Media Research data ________________________________________________________________________________ On the Air Tonight:Prime-Time Programming Options Tuesday 1/19/10 ABC: 8:00 p.m. Scrubs (R) 8:30 p.m. Better Off Ted (R) 9:00 p.m. Scrubs 9:30 p.m. Better Off Ted 10:00 p.m. The Forgotten (R) CBS: 8:00 p.m. NCIS (R) 9:00 p.m. NCIS: Los Angeles (R)10:00 p.m. The Good Wife (R) NBC: 8:00 p.m. The Biggest Loser (two hours)10:00 p.m. The Jay Leno Show Fox: 8:00 p.m. American Idol 9:00 p.m. Human Target (R) CW: 8:00 p.m. 90210 (R) 9:00 p.m. Melrose Place (R) ________________________________________________________________________ TV Tidbits:Notes of Interest -The Networks Respond to the Earthquake in Haiti:Hope for Haiti, a two-hour global telethon created in response to the devastating earthquake in Haiti, will air commercial-free on ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, The CW, HBO, CNN, BET, CMT, MTV, VH1 and CMT on Friday, Jan. 22 beginning at 8 p.m. ET. Broadcast live from New York City and Los Angeles, Hope for Haiti will be produced by Joel Gallen, Tenth Planet Productions, in collaboration with MTV Networks and George Clooney, who will lead the charge in Los Angeles. All proceeds received will be split between five relief organizations currently operating in Haiti: Oxfam America, Partners in Health, the Red Cross, UNICEF and Yele Haiti Foundation. Facebook and MySpace will also participate to help drive donations. -Book ‘Em, Dano:CBS is producing a pilot for a new version of classic crime drama Hawaii Five-O, which centers on Steve McGarrett, who heads a division of the Hawaii State Police. But can anyone really replace Jack Lord? __________________________________________________________________________ Winter Press Tour:Remaining Items of Note from Pasadena MTV Networks Similar to Discovery Networks, MTV featured a potpourri of panels from MTV, Nickelodeon, VH1, Logo and Spike TV. Here are some of the highlights: -MTV will premiere two new original scripted comedies: The Hard Times of R.J. Berger and Warren the Ape in June. The Hard Times of RJ Berger is the story of an unpopular 15 year-old boy and his sex-obsessed best friend, while Warren the Ape is a parody of the trials and tribulations of a D-grade celebrity puppet who is attempting to clean up his act. Twelve initial episodes have been ordered for each series. -Coming this summer at MTV is The World of Jenks, a docu-drama that follows documentary filmmaker Andrew Jenks as he shadows a complete stranger in every episode. -Nickelodeon will debut a new live action comedy series called Victorious, which will open with the first of 20 initial episodes on Saturday, March 27 at 9:30 p.m. ET. Created by mega-successful kids producer Dan Schneider, Victorious follows a musically talented teenage girl as she unexpectedly finds herself navigating life at an elite performing arts high school. -Speaking of Dan Schneider:Apparently I am not the only one who misses those great classic TV theme songs. According to Dan Schneider, who talked about doing the theme song for Victorious: “I hate that the primetime networks have gone away from theme songs because to me Mary Tyler Moore without that song, Cheers without that song, MASH without that song takes the soul of a show away. Can you imagine The Brady Bunch or Gilligan’s Island without their theme songs? And so theme songs are a real big deal to me, as they should for everyone else.” You forgot a few, Dan. How about All in the Family, The Jeffersons, Dallas, Hawaii Five-O, Three’s Company, Happy Days, Laverne & Shirley, The Golden Girls and Friends? The list goes on and on. -Logo will introduce a comedy-driven reality series called The Robert Verdi Show Starring Robert Verdi, which follows the daily antics of the celebrity stylist. It premieres on Wednesday, Feb. 10 at 10 p.m. ET. Personally speaking, do we really need Robert’s name twice in the title? -Upcoming on VH1 will be Jessica Simpson’s The Price of Beauty, a docu-series following Simpson as she travels across the globe examining local fashions, dietary fads and beauty regimes. It premieres on Monday, March 15 at 10 p.m. ET. -------------------- -Virgin Galactic on National Geographic Channel:The highlight of note at the National Geographic sessions was upcoming four-part series Virgin Galactic, which documents the launch of the first commercial space airline by entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson and aeronautical engineer Burt Rutan. Premiering in the spring, Virgin Galactic will focus on the efforts of creating a business that hopes to send about 50,000 people into space for over the next decade. The down-payment for this projected 3-hour journey per person is a whopping $200,000. Said Sir Richard Branson: “It’s the most exciting thing that I’ve ever been involved with. I am old enough to have watched the moon landing, and I hope to have been to space years ago. NASA has not thought of you or me going to space. They thought of space exploration by extremely qualified astronauts. And yet, there are literally millions of people out there who would love the opportunity to go into space and explore it. And this is just the first step. Initially it will be quite expensive, but a lot less than it’s been in the past with the Russians. But in time, I think we can fulfill our dream of making space affordable for many, many, many people. And in the same way that commercial aviation travel was expensive in the ’20’s, a similar sort of prorated price to what space travel is today.” --------------- -Rosie Slams Jay Leno:Never shy Rosie O’Donnell, who was at The Winter Tour with son Parker to discuss upcoming HBO special A Family Is a Family is a Family, had this to say about the whole NBC late night brouhaha: “I am a huge fan of Conan O’Brien and that’s a franchise that has been 60 years with NBC. And if you’re privileged enough to ask to drive the bus, you should say “thank you” and drive it to the best of your ability. And when it’s time for them to hire a new driver, you should say “Thank you for allowing me to drive this for as long as I did” and pass the keys to the new guy with red hair and try not to flatten his tires before he even gets going.” --------------- AMC Update: Cable net AMC, who was at The Winter Tour on Saturday for a panel on drama Breaking Bad, made the following announcements: -Breaking Bad will return for season three on Sunday, March 21 at 10 p.m. ET. To promote the season, AMC is launching a six-week national mobile tour co-sponsored by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment and DirecTV beginning on Saturday, Feb. 6. It begins in Miami, travels through Daytona, Dallas, Albuquerque, Denver and Los Angeles, concluding in New York City.-Life Coach, a web-based sitcom, will kick-off with short segments within AMC’s Monday Night Movie on Feb. 15. Life Coach features former SNL star Cheri Oteri as an unpredictable, insightful therapist. It will be available online at www.amctv.com.-Academy Award winner Kevin Costner will participate in an AMC Celebrates special on Saturday, Feb. 6 at 8 p.m. ET, which will commemorate the 20th anniversary of modern classic Dancing with Wolves. -The network will develop Black Gold: The Teapot Dome Scandal, a miniseries set in the roaring 20s and chronicling the infamous event. ________________________________________________________________________________ TV Trivia Time:A Small Screen Hot Rod What kind of car did Tod Stiles and Buzz Murdock drive around in on 1960s drama Route 66? CorvetteFerrariLamborghiniMustangPorsche The answer to the last question… Four of the following five options were the first names of Maude Findlay’s various husbands on sitcom Maude. Which one wasn’t? a) Albertb) Barneyc) Chesterd) Georgee) Walter Is: d) George. Maude’s first husband Barney died shortly after they were married. Next was Carol’s father Albert, then Chester, who she both divorced. And then came Walter, lucky No. 4! All together now: Lady Godiva was a freedom rider She didn’t care if the whole world looked. Joan of Arc with the Lord to guide her She was a sister who really cooked. Isadora was the first bra burner And you're glad she showed up. (Oh yeah) And when the country was falling apart Betsy Ross got it all sewed up. And then there's Maude. And then there's Maude. And then there's Maude. And then there's Maude. And then there's Maude. And then there's Maude. And then there's That old compromisin', enterprisin', anything but tranquilizing, Right on Maude. -Current kudos goes to:Julie Bestry, Barbara Bloomfield, Tom Condosta, Arleen Fong, Maureen Goldman, bob Ingersoll, Deb Kainer, Synda Kollman, Jim Moore, Gordon Purcell, Colleen Roth, Maxine Schulman, Mark Simmons

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Remaining Highlights from The Winter Press Tour

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