Overnight Data on Hold Due to Digital Transition

THE PROGRAMMING INSIDERWednesday, February 18, 2009 Ratings Box:What’s Hot/What’s Not On the Air Tonight:Prime-Time Programming Options TV Tidbits:Notes of Interest TV Trivia Time: Quoting Sgt. Schultz ______________________________________________________________________ Note: All overnight data for Tuesday, Feb. 17, Wednesday, Feb. 18, and Thursday, Feb. 19 will be held by Nielsen until Friday due to stations making the digital transition. Although a small percentage of stations transitioned yesterday, the purpose of the three-day hold is to ensure that all necessary changes have been made in Nielsen’s internal systems to properly credit the stations that transition. Overnight data for Tuesday through Thursday is expected to be released on Friday morning. Make sure you go to PIFeedback.com at approximately 12 p.m. ET, however, for a look at the fast affiliate results. ______________________________________________________________________ Ratings Box:What’s Hot/What’s Not -Mixed Start for Fox’s Dollhouse:Fox drama Dollhouse, from Buffy, the Vampire Slayer Joss Whedon, opened with 4.76 million viewers and a 2.0 rating/ 6 share among adults 18-49 in the Friday 9 p.m. hour on Feb. 13. Comparably, that placed it third in the time period in total viewers (behind CBS’ Flashpoint and ABC’s Supernanny) and second among adults 18-49 (behind Supernanny). While that may not sound impressive, it did manage to build from relocated lead-in Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (Viewers: 3.71 million; A18-49: 1.4/ 5 at 8 p.m.) by 1.05 million viewers and 43 percent in the demo. My prediction is a loss of 10 to 15 percent in week two. Stay tuned. -Season High The Bachelor on ABC:ABC’s veteran The Bachelor, which is enjoying its highest-rated season in five years, rose to a season high performance in both total viewers (12.5 million) and adults 18-49 (4.4 rating/10 share) on Feb. 16. Comparably, The Bachelor built over the prior week’s telecast for the sixth consecutive week, with a first-place finish overall for the night among women 18-34 (6.1/15), women 18-49 (6.6/15) and women 25-54 (6.9/14). -Taken In Broad Daylight Scores on LMN:Original made-for Taken In Broad Daylight debuted on Lifetime Movie Network (LMN) on Sunday, Feb. 15 with a 2.2 household rating and 1.9 million total viewers. Comparably, that makes it the third highest rated film in the history of LMN among women 18-49 (515,000) and women 25-54 (597,000). -iCarly Scores With iMeet Fred:The Monday, Feb. 16 installment of Nickelodeon’s iCarly (“iMeet Fred”) rose to 5.1 million total viewers, 2.8 million kids 2-11, and 2.1 million kids 6-11 and tweens 9-14 at 7:30 p.m. Comparably, that beat the closest competitor in the time period by as much as 23 percent among tweens 9-14. -Dadnapped Dominates on Disney Channel:The premiere of Dadnapped, Disney Channel’s 74th original movie, launched on Monday, Feb. 16 with a hefty 4.6 million viewers, 2.1 million kids 6-11 and 1.8 million tweens 9-14. Comparably, this beat Nickelodeon’s competing movie Spectacular by 1.3 million total viewers (4.6 vs. 3.3 million), 62 percent in kids 6-11 (2.1 vs. 1.3 million) and 38 percent in tweens 9-14 (1.8 vs. 1.3 million). And it built from the year-ago time period average by as much as 134 percent among kids 6-11. Source: Nielsen Media Research data_______________________________________________________________________________ On the Air Tonight:Prime-Time Programming Options Wednesday 2/18/09 ABC: 8:00 p.m. Lost (R) 9:00 p.m. Lost10:00 p.m. Life on Mars CBS: 8:00 p.m. The New Adventures of Old Christine 8:30 p.m. Gary Unmarried 9:00 p.m. Criminal Minds 10:00 p.m. CSI: NY NBC: 8:00 p.m. Knight Rider 9:00 p.m. Life 10:00 p.m. Law & Order Fox: 8:00 p.m. American Idol (two hours) CW: 8:00 p.m. Privileged (R) 9:00 p.m. 90210 (R) MTNV 8:00 p.m. World’s Funniest Moments (R) 9:00 p.m. Under One Roof (R) 9:30 p.m. Under One Roof (R) ________________________________________________________________________ TV Tidbits:Notes of Interest -Breaking Bad – The Minisode:Can’t wait until the second season-premiere of AMC drama Breaking Bad on Sunday, March 8? Then check out the first of five original minisodes, each three to five minutes in length, which launched yesterday at www.amctv.com. -Handicapping American Idol:Unfortunately, the overnight results for Tuesday, Feb. 17 were not available at press time. But that won’t stop me from predicting which three contestants from the first set of 12 will move forward. And they are: Anoop Desai, Danny Gokey and the infamous Tatiana Del Toro (who was actually not bad last night). The potential wild card: Michael Sarver. As good as Alexis Grace was, I just don’t think she is a fan favorite. -A Singing Jerry Springer:No, there will not be a musical edition of syndicated talker The Jerry Springer Show. But the former host of America’s Got Talent will perform in the musical Chicago in London for six weeks beginning in June. He will play slimy lawyer Billy Flynn. -USA Announces New Sunday:USA Network will revamp its Sunday night line-up effective on April 19 with new seasons of Law & Order: Criminal Intent, now featuring Jeff Goldblum, and sophomore drama In Plain Sight. Law & Order: Criminal Intent will air at 9 p.m. ET, followed by In Plain Sight at 10 p.m. ET. -Golden Girls Marathon:The Golden Girls will join Hallmark Channel’s line-up on Saturday, March 1 with an 18-hour marathon beginning at 8:30 a.m. ET. To whet your appetite, here are 20 interesting facts about the classic sitcom you may or may not have known: The Golden Girls debuted on NBC Saturday, Sept. 14, 1985.Five other freshman series on NBC -- Amazing Stories, the remake of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Hell Town, Misfits of Science and sitcom 227 -- also premiered that fall.Although anthology Amazing Stories was from producer Steven Spielberg, the industry buzz was on the Golden Girls.Of those six new series only three -- The Golden Girls, Amazing Stories and 227 -- made it into a second season.At seven years (not including spin-off The Golden Palace), The Golden Girls lasted two years longer than 227.Insiders referred to The Golden Girls as one of the funniest sitcom pilots ever in the history of television.In the pilot there was fifth character, gay housekeeper Coco (played by Charles Levin from Alice fame) who also lived in the household. But given the focus was on the four women, the character of Coco was immediately dropped.Set in Miami and featuring four women over age 50, The Golden Girls was nicknamed Miami Nice due to the then popularity of crime drama Miami Vice.Airing Saturday at 9 p.m. (and leading into 227), The Golden Girls whipped the ratings tar out of CBS’s competing Saturday Night Movie and short-lived ABC drama Lime Street .Due to the immediate popularity of The Golden Girls, CBS introduced Designing Women, a comedy about four Southern women in the fall of 1986.Some insiders referred to The Golden Girls as a senior version of The Facts of Life.In the final episode of season two, a potential spin-off pilot titled Empty Nests featured Rita Moreno as next door neighbor Renee who is down in the dumps because her kids are gone and her husband is busy with his medical practice.Although NBC passed on the pilot, a retooled sitcom with Richard Mulligan as Dr. Harry Weston, Dinah Manoff and Kristy McNichol as his daughters, David Leisure as slimy neighbor Charley and Park Overall as his sassy nurse was ordered by NBC and positioned after The Golden Girls in the fall of 1988.Given that no one from the cast of Empty Nest was on The Golden Girls prior to the show’s premiere, Empty Nest is not an official spin-off of The Golden Girls.Although there was eventual character interaction between The Golden Girls, Empty Nest and the 1991-92 debuting Nurses (all Will-Thomas-Harris series), Nurses was also not an official Golden Girls spin-off.On a Nov. 9, 1991 sweeps stunt, a tornado hit Miami and a crossover story line was featured on The Golden Girls, Empty Nest and Nurses.In its seven season run, The Golden Girls was always regularly scheduled on Saturday.For six years it aired in the Saturday 9 p.m. time period, with a move to 8 p.m. in its final season.Other long-running prime-time series that aired on only one night include The Bob Newhart Show (Saturday), The Brady Bunch (Friday), Cheers (Thursday), The Cosby Show (Thursday), The Dukes of Hazzard (Friday), The Ed Sullivan Show (Sunday), Emergency (Saturday), Empty Nest (Saturday), Here’s Lucy (Monday), Lassie (Sunday), The Lucy Show (Monday), Knots Landing (Thursday), The Virginian (Wednesday), The Waltons (Thursday) and soon-to-conclude ER (Thursday).Emmy wins for Bea Arthur, Rue McClanahan, Betty White and Estelle Getty makes The Golden Girls the third sitcom historically to have all the primary actors win the golden statuette. The others were All in the Family and Will & Grace. _________________________________________________________________________ TV Trivia Time:Quoting Sgt. Schultz What was goofball Sgt. Schultz’ catch-phrase on sitcom Hogan’s Heroes? "D'oh!""God will get you for that"“How rude”“I know nothing”“You look mahvelous!" The answer to yesterday’s question… Which one of the following rural sitcoms aired the longest? The Andy Griffith ShowThe Beverly HillbilliesGreen AcresPetticoat JunctionThe Real McCoys Is: b) The Beverly Hillbillies, which aired on CBS from 1962-1971. As for the rest: The Andy Griffith Show (CBS): 1960-68Green Acres (CBS): 1965-71Petticoat Junction (CBS): 1963-79The Real McCoys (ABC): 1957-62, CBS: 1962-63 All together now… Come and listen to a story about a man named Jed A poor mountaineer, barely kept his family fed, Then one day he was shootin’ at some food, And up through the ground came a bubblin’ crude. Oil that is, black gold, Texas tea. Well the first thing you know ol’ Jed's a millionaire, Kinfolk said "Jed move away from there" Said "Californy is the place you ought to be" So they loaded up the truck and moved to Beverly. Hills, that is. Swimmin’ pools, movie stars. Well now its time to say good by to Jed and all his kin. And they would like to thank you folks fer kindly droppin in. You're all invited back a gain to this locality To have a heapin’ helpin’ of their hospitality Hillbilly that is. Set a spell, Take your shoes off. Y'all come back now, y'hear?. -Current kudos goes to:Michelle Yarborough-Bauer, Lillian Buchman, Paul Certo, Larry Collins, Tom Condosta, Harold Cooper, Annie Courtney, Julie Friedlander, Jerry Gibbons, Maureen Goldman, Bill Graff, Carolyn Becker Hayes, Bob Ingersoll, David Jackino, Rick Locke, Tom Kilgallon, Mary Kinoshita, Howard Lieboff, Tony Naldrett, Alan Perris, Greg Phelan, Gordon Purcell, Bob Rall, James Romonovich, David Shearer, Trenna Underhill, John Wordin

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Overnight Data on Hold Due to Digital Transition

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