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August 2007
8/31: TNT sticks with L&O repeats w/Thompson
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Actor and former Tennessee Senator Fred Thompson has declared his intention of running for president, but Atlanta’s TNT has decided to stick with “Law & Order” episodes in which he is included.
“TNT has no plans to alter its programming schedule,” a spokesperson for the cable network told the Hollywood Reporter.
The Federal Communications Commission mandates that broadcast TV stations must give “equal time” to presidential opponents beyond news events. But the FCC has not yet enforced this rule on cable networks. Cable networks have in the past voluntarily stopped playing films featuring actors who became political candidates such as Ronald Reagan and Arnold Schwarzenegger.
NBC has already said it would stop airing “Law & Order” reruns after Sept. 1 with Thompson if he said he’d run. Thompson played District Attorney Arthur Branch on the show until he bowed out this spring. According to imdb.com, he has been on 116 episodes since 2002.
TNT airs the show frequently. Last week, “Law & Order” was on 28 times, representing one-sixth of the schedule.
Sam Waterston will take over as DA with his character Jack McCoy.
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8/31: Miss the Office?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
For those of you who miss “The Office,” here’s a little teaser of what the characters of the show did over the summer.. Andy, played by Westminster grad Ed Helms, did inner tubing. Steve Carrell’s character Michael noted that Jan moved in with him and he caught Ratatouille, didn’t get it, and left. Pam (Jenna Fischer has largely recovered from falling down the stairs) has let her hair down - literally. Oddly, Jan was not interviewed. Season four begins Sept. 27.
I finally caught up with the Sunday finale of “Big Love” on HBO. The show has improved markedly from season one, although how Bill manages to keep his Home Depot-like business going with the leaks of his polygamy getting out there is beyond me. And it’s amazing the neighbors haven’t figured it out yet and that Barb had to tell one of them forthright. But I love Margene; she has definitely grown as a character as she pushes the limits of her position as the “third” wife. I’m looking forward to season three in 2008.
And the New York Times finally gets around to reviewing BET’s “We Got To Do Better” AKA Hot Ghetto Mess. As is typical of the paper when it comes to reviews, the Times doesn’t totally slam the show but isn’t terribly complimentary either. And I tend to agree. The show is not horrible and not overly offensive but hardly must-see TV.
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8/30: Dragoncon TV guests
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Atlanta’s Dragoncon isn’t nearly as big as ComicCon in San Diego and doesn’t bring in the caliber of stars given the geographic distance from Los Angeles. And the timing makes it all but impossible to get actors from shows in production such as “Lost” and “Heroes.” But it still draws tens of thousands of scifi/fantasy fans at the Hyatt/Marriott/Hilton downtown every Labor Day wekeend. There’s a fair share of TV stars, or at least former TV stars, including a few with little to no link to scifi itself but fall under the broader rubric of “pop culture.” Here’s a sampling:
Erik Estrada - As I noted, the former CHIPS star is one of those non-scifi folks.
Feedback - the earnest winner of last year’s SciFi Channel’s “Who Wants To Be a Superhero?” (Major Victory and Fat Mama will be around, too)
Gil Gerard and Erin Gray - The sexy stars from that 1979 sci-fi show “Buck Rogers in the 25th Century.”
Louis Gossett Jr. — Academy Award winner for “The Officer and a Gentleman”
William Katt — Three words: “Greatest American Hero.”
Michael Shanks - Daniel Jackson on “Stargate SG-1”
James Marsters - Spike on “Buffy”
Lori Petty - Known at conventions as “Tank Girl”
David Prowse — Yes, he was Darth Vader
Frank Stallone - Sly’s brother and actor/singer who had a top 20 hit 24 years ago called “Far From Over”
Michael Winslow — The dude who made the sound effect noises in the “Police Academy” films
Gates McFadden - Dr. Beverly Crusher on “Star Trek: The Next Generation”
Brent Spiner - Data on “Star Trek: The Next Generation”
Elisabeth Rohm - She was one of many assistant DAs on “Law & Order.”
Kevin Sorbo - He was “Hercules” in the successful syndicated drama from the 1990s.
Jamie Bamber — Plays Apollo on SciFi’s “Battlestar Galactica”
Richard Hatch - The orignal Apollo on “Battlestar Galactica” from the late 1970s and not the “Survivor” winner caught for tax evasion.
Grant Imahara - He’s on Discovery Channel’s successful show “Mythbusters”
8/29: Eric Von Haessler update
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Eric Von Haessler, now nearly 11 months removed from Clear Channel nixing the Regular Guys, said he is planning to take them to arbitration for about six months of pay. For him, it’s not about the money, it’s the principle of being cut for no good reason.
If you recall, Larry Wachs taped Yogi & Panda while they were in the bathroom, aired it and mocked them. Yogi & Panda in a lawsuit complained, and Larry & Eric were canned. The boss in charge at the time, Chris Williams, got a week’s suspension but stayed gainfull employed and ultimately got to change 96rock to Project 9-6-1.
Von Haessler felt at the time he got shafted by Clear Channel and that attitude hasn’t changed. Here’s part of an email he sent me today:
“After months of back and forth negotiations between my lawyers and their lawyers it became obvious to me that we have to take them to arbitration. Their monetary offers are a joke and seem designed to insult. I suspect they think I’m some kind of hard luck case that doesn’t have the resources to fight. They’re wrong and the truth is that if I accepted what they’re offering me I’d never be able to look at myself in the mirror again.”
Unfortunately, most in my position choose to settle with them, take a little money, and then agree to never speak publicly about the details of the settlement. That may help out a struggling broadcaster who needs the money but it only serves to allow them to continue to treat their on-air talent in such a contemptible way.
The truth is that I don’t need the money. But I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if I didn’t stand up to the bullying tactics they’ve employed against me.
He has started a daily online “news jog,” which is his take on the news of the day. Here’s the link.
He is also planning to start a podcast with fellow unemployed jock Jimmy Baron to see if the two have chemistry.
8/29: TMZ’s DWTS cast leak about half right
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
TMZ.com on Monday came out with a “leaked” list of who will perform on ABC’s “Dancing With the Stars” next month. In the end, the Web site got eight right, six wrong. The show debuts Sept. 24.
The eight they got correct were entrepreneur and Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, Vegas entertainer Wayne Newton, boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr., “Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman” Jane Seymour, “Scary Spice” Mel B, “Cheetah Girl” Sabrina Bryan, Indie car driver Helio Castroneves and “Beverly Hills 90210” alum Jennie Garth (above, from her last show on the WB “What I Like About You.”)
Other joining the show are model-actress Josie Maran (who?), “All My Children” star Cameron Mathison, actress/singer Marie Osmond and model Albert Reed (who?)
Other names tmz.com provided — Tori Spelling, Lou Ferrigno, Richard Quest, Gisselle Bundchen, Nia Peeples and Aaron Carter — were incorrect.
8/29: Army Wives hits ratings high
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
TV RATINGS WINNERS
Lifetime’s “Army Wives” — This network’s biggest series, shot in neighboring South Carolina, ended with a big first-season flourish Sunday, bringing in a record 4.1 million viewers.
NBC’s “Last Comic Standing” — With Fox’s “So You Think You Can Dance” no longer airing on Fox, this aging reality show was able to rebound a bit, hitting a season high of 7.3 million August 22, up from a season low the week earlier of 5.7 million. Ralph Harris, one of the final five, is going to be at the Punchline this weekend, Friday through Sunday. More details here.. Matt Kershon, the young-looking Brit who made the final 10 but is now eliminated, will be at the Funny Farm Sept. 13 through 16..
TBS’s “House of Payne” — This Atlanta-created sitcom August 22 pulled in its best numbers since its huge debut in June, averaging 3.8 million over two episodes, an increase of more than 50 percent over recent weeks. A TBS spokeswoman said the only thing she could think of was the fact TBS aired “Diary of a Mad Black Woman” that previous Sunday, providing a nice reminder for folks to watch the Tyler Perry sitcom.
VH’s “Rock of Love” — Bret Michaels isn’t quite Flavor Flav but VH1 celebreality fans are enjoying the show. In its sixth outing, this umpteenth “Bachelor” ripoff hit a series high, bringing in 2.2 million people Sunday. And the quirky “Scott Baio is 45… and Single” brought in a respectable 1.6 million later that night in its first-season finale, meriting a season two renewal.
“CNN Presents: God’s Warriors” — The three-part series about extremists in world religions hosted by Christiane Amanpour brought in a solid audience last week, averaging about 2.1 milion viewers over three nights, better numbers than the show it preempted “Larry King Live” typically gets.
LOSERS
TBS’s’ My Boys” — This comedy about a female sportswriter in Chicago in its second season is losing its mojo. Opening at a modest 1.6 million July 30, the show has shed audience every week since, falling to 1.04 million August 20.
CMT’s “Celebrity Bull Riding” — This reality show is yet another loser for CMT, which has been groping for a hit lately and failing. “Bull Riding,” which features folks like Vanilla Ice and “Survivor” finalist Jonny “Fairplay” drew just 357,000 viewers Friday. At least 10 repeats of “Dukes of Hazzard” did better than that on CMT last week.
USA’s “The 4400” — This once-huge scifi show is in big trouble as it hit yet another series low August 16, falling to just 1.7 million.
ABC Family’s “Slacker Cats” - ABC Family’s first attempt at animation was more slack than slick. On August 20, it drew just 453,000 viewers.
Fox’s “Teen Choice Awards” — Although this awards show came in second among teens last week after airing Sunday, it did poorly among anybody older, bringing in fewer than 4 million viewers total.
8/28: WSB-AM charity event raises $1.2 million
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
WSB-AM and its generous listeners pulled in nearly as much money as last year, when the station brought in $1.27 million in pledges for Aflac Cancer Center & Blood Disorders Service of Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta.
This year, the total was $1,240,627 as of last Friday. (In 2005, WSB-AM attracted just over $1 million.)
A few highlights from the 37-hour broadcast:
Over $266,000 was pledged by listeners in the Care-a-Thon’s final hour, and that amount was generously matched by Aflac.
Atlanta Braves pitcher Tim Hudson and wife Kim and Atlanta Brave Jeff Francoeur and his fiancée Catie McCoy all participated in the broadcast. Special call-ins included U.S. Senator Johnny Isakson who generously auctioned a lunch date with himself.
Francoeur sold seats to a private lunch for $1,000 per couple. The lunch will take place at Maggiano’s and include Jeff and other Atlanta Braves guests.
U.S. Air Force Maj. David Hyre sold over 50 American flags flown during military missions in Iraq for $1,000 each.
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8/28: South Park, Scott Baio renewed
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Comedy Central has extended “South Park” at least through 2011, which would make it an impressive 15-year run. They are also launching a South Park Web site The deal is worth $75 million.
“Three more years of South Park gives us the opportunity to offend that many more people. And since Trey and I are in charge of the digital side of South Park for the first time, now we can offend people on their cell phones, game consoles, and computers too. It’s all very exciting for us.”
- Matt Stone, August 27, 2007
And VH1’s “Scott Baio is 45… and Single” will be back. In the final moments of Sunday’s finale, he asked his girlfriend Renee his hand in marriage. Then she dropped the bombshell that she’s pregnant. The second season, to be taped this fall, will be how he handles these changes. The first season, which debuted July 15, averaged a respectable 1.3 million viewers. And of those 1.3 million, 1 million were in that advertiser-friendly 18-to-49 demo. Sure, the show is completely contrived and possibly staged to the nth degree, but who cares?
Plus, that interview Tom Joyner was supposed to have this morning with Michael Vick didn’t happen. Joyner said Vick’s advisors told him not to do it.
8/27: Anchorwoman gone, DWTS cast leaked
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Less than 24 hours after the nasty Fox reality show “Anchorwoman” aired last Wednesday to a measly 2.7 million viewers, Fox killed it, thank goodness. For those who are, fox.com will air the remaining episodes. I won’t be watching.
And if you want to know the C-listers who joined the fifth edition of “Dancing With the Stars” set to debut Sept. 24 on ABC, TMZ.com has leaked the names, including a couple of substitutes. I’m not sure which ones are the subs. It’s the usual mix of has beens and random “who is that again?” folks. The hunk factor seems to be a wee bit low.
Aaron Carter — the requisite teen heartthrob
Wayne Newton — the resident “older dude” along the lines of Jerry Springer and George Hamilton
Mark Cuban — a man better known as an Internet entrepreneur who now owns the Mavericks
Jane Seymour — ahh… Dr. Quinn hitting the dance floor! Excellent!
Mel B (not dancing, but playing a role on the show) — Isn’t she busy touring with the Spice Girls or something?
Jennie Garth — Well, Ian Ziering from “Beverly Hills 90210” and “DWTS 4” must have convinced her to do this!
Tori Spelling — Awww… could this be a “90210” reunion?
Floyd Mayweather, Jr. — He’s a pro boxer, the third following Laila Ali and Evander Holyfield.
Lou Ferrigno — Talk about a man who does not have a dancer’s figure! But he should be entertaining and hopefully better than say, Master P.
Nia Peeples — The former “Fame” gal and R&B singer recently joined the cast of “The Young & the Restless.”
Richard Quest — He’s the requisite journalist on the show but not terribly well known. He works for CNN International out of London.
Giselle Bundchen — It never hurts to have a hot model or two on the show and Giselle is a yummy addition.
Helio Castroneves — He’s an Indy driver. I know nothing else. Talk about obscure!
Sabrina Bryan — She’s part of the “Cheetah Girls.”
8/26: We’re No. 8!
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
In Nielsen rankings based on population, Atlanta has edged up to No. 8 starting September 22 from No. 9, jumping past Washington D.C., according to broadcast news info site newsblues.com. It’s the only change in the top 10 this year.
The top 10 TV markets are 1. New York 2. Los Angeles 3. Chicago 4. Philadelphia 5. Dallas-Ft. Worth 6. San Francisco 7. Boston 8. Atlanta 9 Washington D.C. 10. Houston
Atlanta has 2,310,490 households, up from 2,205,510 a year ago.
Arbitron ranks the radio markets differently. As of spring 2007, Atlanta remains at No. 9 but is closing in on No. 8. There’s less than 100,000 difference between the two cities and Atlanta is growing faster than D.C.
The top 10 radio markets are 1. New York 2. Los Angeles 3. Chicago 4. San Francisco 5. Dallas-Ft. Worth 6. Houston-Galveston 7. Philadelphia 8. Washington D.C. 9. Atlanta 10. Detroit
Arbitron measures the population, ages 12 plus. Atlanta has 4,085,000 people in that age range.
Boston, ranked 7 in TV, is only No. 11 in radio.
8/25: Duluth teen & Nick star in promo mode
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Devon Werkheiser (above) signed posters for his film “Shredderman Rules” for mostly pre-teen kids and their parents at Family Fun Day at Centennial Olympic Park which also featured Nickelodeon’s “Slime Mobile.” Lines were long and he as congenial, personalizing each poster. If you’ve seen him on TV, he possesses an every-teen quality about him, very approachable, very natural. He made his name on “Ned’s DeClassified,” a hit show on Nick that he finished shooting in mid-2006 after three seasons. Nick aired the final new episode of “Ned” in June 2007 but continues to keep it on the schedule since it repeats well.
Sample clips of the show are online on nick.com.
“I watch you every day,” said Jamal Hilaire, 6, of Atlanta, a first grader, to Devon. His favorite “Ned” episode is called “Embarrassment” in which Ned has a problem with flatulence. CREDIT: Rodney Ho/Staff
I wrote the following for Saturday’s paper in advance of his two public appearances in Atlanta:
Part-time Duluth resident Devon Werkheiser is a Tom Hanks-style- star in the narrow world of tweendom thanks to his leading role as nice-guy Ned in the just-concluded Nickelodeon’s hyperkinetic hit show “Ned’s Declassified School Survival Guide.”
Outside of that world? Not so much.
“I have parents come up to me and say, ‘I don’t know who you are, but my kid wants his picture taken with you,’ ” said Devon, 16, who is set to hang today at Nickelodeon’s “Slime Mobile” at Centennial Olympic Park, followed by a signing at a Marietta Wal-Mart for the DVD release of his film “Shredderman Rules.”
On “Ned’s” minor cult following with college students: “I get 20-year-olds who say, ‘Dude! I love your show!’ It’s so random!”
On the made-for-TV movie “Shredderman,” which stars Devon as dorky Nolan Byrd, who uses his secret alter ego Shredderman to take down a bully: “It did well [about 4 million viewers in June]. Nickelodeon wasn’t upset. They’re talking about a sequel.”
On rival Disney’s much bigger hit “High School Musical”: “The music is great. Those songs are catchy, man!” (Devon spent the summer working on his own CD.)
On his friend and “HSM” star Corbin Bleu: “We had lunch recently. He was just mobbed. I feel bad for him. It’s got to be draining to get that all the time.”
On not being mobbed like Corbin Bleu: ” ‘Ned’ has totally flown under the radar in terms of press, although we got great ratings. … But I’m not stuck as Ned. I can make a name for myself, not my character.”
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8/25: The Kid Nation contract
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Smoking Gun procured the 22-page document parents had to sign to get their kids on CBS’s “Kid Nation.” Seven families from Georgia signed this, including the ones that complained to New Mexico officials that thes how exploited the kids.
The contract clears CBS of virtually all liability. Parents of the minors participating on the show couldn’t sue the network or producers if the kids died, were severely injured or even contracted a sexually transmitted disease. CBS and its production partners could also make medical decisions without parental consent without guarantees of the “qualifications or credentials” of those medical pros. The participants have no privacy except in the bathroom when the child is actually “in the process of showering, bathing, urinating, or defecating.”
If the parents or minor break confidentiality provisions, they could be sued by CBS for $5 million.
TSG received the contract from the New Mexico attorney general’s office in response to an open records request.
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8/24: Steve Harvey in town
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Grown Folks 102.5’s syndicated morning host Steve Harvey’s in town again, primarily for the Ebony Black Family Reunion tour at Cascade Field on Saturday with old-school hip-hop acts such as MC Lyte, Whodini and Doug E. Fresh. And how about this for strange? They are going to try to break some record for most people line dancing.
Harvey works with two major Atlanta corporate sponsors: Home Depot and Coke. And on behalf of the new World of Coke museum, he joined Coke’s first African-American model from the 1950s Mary Alexander, for a ceremony Thursday night. On a special montage Coke showed the media and officials, Harvey bookended a series of shots of Mary, followed by past Coke sponsors Gladys Knight & the Pips, Ray Charles, Mean Joe Greene, Bill Cosby, an ’80s era Whitney Houston and Michael Jordan, to name a few.
Here are some photos I took from the event:
Above: Steve with Mary and Coke official.
The Coke mascot bear blinks, nods its head jauntily and opens its mouth and grins.
8/24: Kid Nation controversy keeps brewing
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
CBS courted and even expected controversy over its new reality show “Kid Nation,” in which 40 kids create a “society” in a New Mexico “ghost town” without parents. It’s very much “Survivor” with kids, ages 8 to 15. But the heat has probably been a bit more than CBS truly anticipated. New Mexico officials Thursday said they are reopening an investigation over whether CBS broke child labor laws.
The show is set to debut Sept. 19.
A Fayetteville, GA parent Janis Miles started the ball rolling in June when she wrote a letter to a Georgia sheriff complaining about the show on behalf of her daughter Divad, who got burned by grease while cooking potatoes on a wood stove.. (Seven Georgia kids were among the 40 who participated.) She said at least four kids were injured after accidentally ingesting bleach.
Tom Forman, the show’s executive producer, confirmed with the Associated Press the grease-spattering and bleach-sipping incidents, but called them the kinds of accidents that can happen “in any kitchen, in any school, in any home, in any camp” and said that the children immediately got medical attention.
Forman said adults were present at all times during the production, ready to step in.
Miles’ complaint was sent to Santa Fe County Sheriff Greg Solano, who on July 20 posted an item on his department blog revealing Miles’ claims and stating he had found no criminal wrongdoing related to the production. The New York Times broke the story on Saturday and noted on Thursday that the contract parents signed gave CBS required kids do whatever producers said 24 hours a day over more than a month’s time.
The children in the show, ages 8-15, hauled water, prepared meals, elected a government and passed laws
None of the other parents have complained, but they are under major confidentiality constraints given the contracts they signed with CBS. CBS could sue them for $5 million for talking out of line. And though CBS let some parents speak last week, they aren’t allowing Miles to talk. (I spoke with one parent last week and she wasn’t willing to say anything negative about the show at all.)
According to the New York Times,, officials at two agencies — the New Mexico Children, Youth and Families Department and the Department of Workforce Solutions — said that state law required that the show be reviewed and licensed but that CBS never contacted those departments before filming. During production, New Mexico officials inspected the set but didn’t act at the time.
The Los Angeles Times Thursday reported that the New Mexico attorney general’s office said Thursday that it is starting a new investigation into whether CBS and the producers of “Kid Nation” broke state laws while the controversial reality show was filmed near Santa Fe this spring.
Parents and children were guaranteed $5,000 stipends with potential to win $20,000 daily prizes. Children were allowed to leave anytime they wanted to and some did, though CBS won’t say how many.
Chris Ender, a spokesman for CBS, declined to comment to the New York Times on the reopening of the investigation and referred to a previous CBS statement saying “the series was filmed responsibly and within all applicable laws in the state of New Mexico at the time of the production.”
8/23: More on 99X
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Someone has actually started an online petition to bring back Steve Craig’s noontime nostalgia hour the Retroplex, which disappeared Monday after 13 years on 99X.. The person who started it, who identified herself as Rebekka, wrote the following:
We the citizens of the city of Atlanta, concerned former listeners of 99x, petition the station to bring the Retroplex back to our weekday lunch hour! The Retroplex was more than the last great show on Atlanta radio, it is an Atlanta staple- known and loved worldwide, and to cancel it is to destroy history. We, the undersigned, stand in support of retaining music history, and against 99x without the Retroplex!
Craig earlier this week said the listeners wanted to listen to at least some new music all the time and many cuts from the Retroplex will be scattered throughout his show from 10 to 3.
Also given the negative ratings trendlines of the morning show since its launch in October 2006, I asked Cumulus vice president of programming John Dickey this week about 99X. He used the “Arbitron isn’t accurate” gambit, along with the fact the “cumulative” audience for the new Morning X (at about 170K) has been steady the past year. Time spent listening has been the problem. Arbitron has had trouble getting enough people in the target 18 to 44 age range to provide paper diaries, creating more accuracy uncertainty.
Dickey said he fully supports the new Morning X and the station as as whole, despite the ratings problems.
“I think the morning show is doing a good job,” Dickey said. “I think the morning show is fine. One year is nothing in the lifespan of morning radio. We’re tracking fine. We love the [alternative rock] format. We love the results the format gets. In terms of listeners and what we do for the advertisers, the music and product has been great.”
He said the station plans to put advertiser testimonials on the Web site to show that the station has a positive impact.
8/23: Talk with Design Star’s Christina Ray
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Christina Ray, the sweet-as-pecan-pie interior designer from Canton, was abruptly ousted in Sunday’s episode on HGTV’s popular reality show “Design Star” without even a judge involved.
Instead, a couple about to get married deemed her wedding reception presentation too feminine, even for the bride’s taste. She also left out the red color the guy wanted because she felt it clashed with the lavender the wife wanted.
“It was fairly shocking she was gone,” Atlanta interior designer and judge Vern Yip said to me this week. “She is a very talented designer. She has an innate sense of certain design principles.” He said he honestly thought she’d go further. (She was one of two people eliminated Sunday. Four contestants remain.)
Ray, immediately after she was ousted, was heartbroken. “I feel like a failure,” she said on the show.
But months later, she was back to her chipper self. “I don’t have any regrets of the design plan I chose,” she said.
Ray, 30, who is married with two young children, said Christina Ray Designs business has blown up since the series launched last month. “I’m getting a lot more commercial work,” she said. “Clubhouses for apartment complexes. Model apartments for display. Office space. I’m getting calls from all over America!”
Although it’s clear HGTV has upped the budget for the show after last year’s successful first season, but the network has kpet the number of episodes to eight (not counting the single casting episode.). For three episodes in a row, “Design Star” has eliminated two people at a time and swiftly went from 10 to 4. While most broadcast TV networks stretch their shows out (see “So You Think You Can Dance” or “America’s Got Talent”), “Design Star” has been swift to the point of almost too fast. At least with Bravo’s highly entertaining “Top Chef,” you can get to know the contestants more over a longer period fo time.
8/23: Cable dominates summer over broadcast
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Cable networks continue to nibble away at broadcast TV, especially during the summer. In fact, this summer was a truly watershed year for cable with record overall viewership.
Turner Broadcasting research held a press conference Wednesday reviewing Arbitron numbers. And Turner has plenty to crow about itself thanks to Adult Swim, TNT’s “Saving Grace” and “The Closer,” plus TBS’s sitcoms “House of Payne” and “Bill Engvall Show.”
Broadcast networks (ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, CW, MyNetwork) have lost 1.8 million households this year vs. a year ago. Every single network lost viewers. Most of those people went to cable. Broadcast has basically given up on new scripted shows over the summer, pumping out a surfeit of reality TV while cable has pumped out more than 15 scripted shows. Nonetheless, broadcast did introduce 18 new shows this summer, doubling a year ago. The problem: this didn’t exactly help viewership and 65 percent of shows remain repeats among the big four networks.
ABC was by far the most aggressive, introducing a whopping 11 new shows but ended up with zero hits and one viable keeper in “Just For Laughs.” CBS garnered one new keeper: “Power of 10” to accompany its steady performer “Big Brother.” NBC has one big hit “America’s Got Talent” and one semi-new hit “The Singing Bee.” Fox continues to thrive with two solid shows “Hell’s Kitchen” and “So You Think You Can Dance,” plus a decent performance with “Don’t Forget the Lyrics.”
Cable hit home runs all over the place. Lifetime got record numbers with “Army Wives.” TBS did the same with “The Closer.” History Channel hit the jackpot with “Ice Road Truckers” (see below.). USA brought in relatively huge numbers from “Monk,” “Psych” and “Burn Notice.” Discovery Channel also impressed with “Deadliest Catch.” And VH1, Bravo, Food Network and HGTV did well with reality shows (“Charm School,” “Top Chef,” “The Next Food Network Star” and “Design Star,” respectively.)
There’s a lingering perception that summer viewing is way down from the regular season. That’s not the case anymore. Back in 1975, viewership was down 15 percent vs. the rest of the year. But this year, the gap is just 3 percent. The average number of minutes a household watches TV a week is 57 hours and 39 minutes. That’s up from 43 hours and 42 minutes in 1975 and 52 hours and 35 minutes in 2000. and Ad-supported cable now covers 62.8 percent of summer viewing vs. 27.7 percent for broadcast cable. (The rest includes pay cable and public broadcast TV.)
Meanwhile, let’s look at the past week. We know about Disney’s “High School Musical 2,” which broke all sorts of basic cable records with its 17.24 million viewers. The second and third showings Saturday and Sunday brought in another 15 million for a whopping 32 million for the three showings.
Disney owned 11 of the top 12 shows on cable last week, with only TNT’s “The Closer” breaking the monotony with 7.4 million viewers, ranked 8th for the week. (Normally, that would merit the top spot.)
But Disney wasn’t the only winner last week.
WINNERS
History Channel’s “Ice Road Truckers” - Going macho (and basically copying the DIscovery Channel formula) worked for the History Channel thanks to this provocative reality show chronicling the lives of truckers racing against time and Mother Nature to ship equipment over the (briefly) frozen lakes in the Canadian tundra. The show finale pulled in more than 4.8 million viewers, a record for the network.
MTV’s “The Hills” -; While “Real World” pulls in blah numbers, “The Hills” (thanks to Heidi and Lauren” opened big with 3.8 millino viewers.
NBC’s “America’s Got Talent” - Terry Fater, the amazing singing ventriloquist, deservedlly won the second season and $1 million and the show brought in a series high 13.9 million viewers Tuesday, up 15 percent from the finale a year ago.
Showtime’s “Californication” — This David Duchovny series with plenty of skin saw a big increase its second weekend, up 24 percent to 684,000 viewers this past Monday.
HBO’s “Flight of the Conchords” and “Entourage” — “Entourage,” not surprisingly, got a renewal, averaging about 3 million viewers every Sunday. Surprisingly, HBO also gave the nod to “Flight,” which is only bringing in about 1 million viewers. But a renewal is a win no matter what.
LOSERS
NBC’s “Last Comic Standing” - This search for the best standup comic, in its fifth incarnation, isn’t bringing in the house, much less bringing down the house. It’s averaging only about 6.5 million viewers compared to closer to 8 million a year ago.
SciFi’s “Flash Gordon” - SciFi looks like it has another loser on its hands. After the cheesy opening episode drew a respectable 2.1 million last week, nearly half the curiosity seekers left in a flash. The show only drew 1.14 million last Friday.
AMC’s “Mad Men”— Despite good critical buzz and a certain level of charm, this show about ad execs circa 1960 dipped to its series low August 17 in its fifth outing, bringing in just 754,000 compared to its 1.64 million opening and 849,000 a week earlier.
**TNT’s “The Company” — Despite the scope and breadth of this miniseries about the Cold War, its ratings performance has been a disappointment for TNT, falling from a relatively modest 2.9 million August 5 to 1.9 million this past Sunday.
Fox’s “On the Lot” — You have to give Fox props for running this reality show to its bitter completion despite abysmal numbers from beginning to end, averaging barely 2 million viewers a week. For a broadcast network, that’s horrid. The finale Tuesday drew 2.5 million and the winner Will Bigham finally got to meet executive producer Steven Spielberg. Comically, Spielberg avoided this turd til the final moments of the show but he didn’t even bother deign show up to the set. He had Bigham come to him at Dreamworks, where he said a couple of kind words in front of the cameras and the show faded to black — forever.
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8/23: Stations with loyal listeners
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Radio stations love loyal listeners and so do advertisers.
Here are the percentages, from highest to lowest, of Atlanta listeners who ID that radio station as their “first preference,” based on the spring Arbitron ratings. This indicates a deeper well of loyal listening and stations with specific niches tend to do better. And this only measures folks who are 18 and older so stations that cater to a younger crowd may suffer.
WSB-AM (49.6%)
Praise 97.5 (46.8%)
El Patron (45.4%)
Viva (45.25)
680/The Fan (40.6%)
Kiss 104.1 (40.2%) 7. Fish (39.8%) 8. V-103 (39.2%) 9. Q100 (38.5%) 10. B98.5 (36.6%) 11. The River (35.7%) 12. Kicks 101.5 (35.6%) 13. Project 9-6-1 (35.6%) 14. Jazz 107.5 (32.5%) 15. Dave FM (32.4%) 16. Eagle 106.7 (29.9%) 17. Hot 107.9 (29.8%) 18. Star 94 (29.7%) 19. Grown Folks (26.7%) 20. 790/The Fan (26.6%) 21. WGST (25.8%) 22. 99X (24.7%) 23. 95.5/The Beat (24.2%) 24. 94.9/The Bull (22.6%) 25. WAOK-AM (20.4%)
Stations that saw major percentage point increases from the fall of 2004 include WAOK-AM, 680/The Fan and Q100.
Those stations which suffered dropoffs include WGST, Hot 107.9, Kicks (which faced new competition in 2007), 99X (getting hurt by Project), Viva (which has El Patron to deal with now) , Star 94 and Eagle (see Kicks).
Rank them by total number of loyal listeners and the pattern is more like the regular rankings with WSB-AM, V-103 and Kiss the top three, with the River, B98.5 and Praise not far behind.
8/22: Anchorwoman on Fox—stay away!
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
There is plenty of drivel on TV all the time and among reality shows, this summer, I thought “Hey Paula” on Bravo was by far the worst — until now. Fox’s “Anchorwoman” is a painfully contrived reality show in which a Tyler, Texas TV station hires a former WWE wrestler and model Lauren Jones as an anchorwoman for a month. The whole thing is so blatantly a stunt that even the supposed “outrage” feels manufactured. And the show itself is so dull and predictable, you are wishing you were watching the film “Anchorman” instead. In fact, please watch that instead and avoid this loser. The show debuts tonight at 9.
8/22: Stations with richest listeners
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Here are spring Arbitron rankings based on most listeners with household incomes of $75K and those with the highest percentage of listeners with $75K-plus incomes. The source is a Research Director Inc. analysis book commissioned for CBS Radio from Arbitron, spring 2007.
First, based purely on total numbers of $75K-plus, which Cox Radio should be thrilled since they have the top three stations in terms of total listeners. The 680/The Fan listeners are far more affluent on average than those of 790/The Zone.
An exec at a local radio station said this data is cross-referenced from research done last summer, so the numbers for El Patron, The Bull and Project may not be accurate and reflective of the prior formats.
1- WSB-AM
B98.5
97.1 The River
V-103
Kicks 101.5
Star 94 7. Dave FM 8. 104.7/The Fish 9. Kiss 104.1 10. Jazz 107.5 11. (tie) Project 9-6-1, 94.9/The Bull 13.680/The Fan 14. Q100 15. 640/WGST 16. Grown Folks 102.5 17. (tie) Praise 97.5/ Hot 107.9 19. (tie) 95.5/The Beat, 99X 21. 790/The Zone 22. Eagle 106.7 23. Viva 24. WAOK-Am 25. El Patron
Here are the stations with the highest percentage of richer folks listening in (this is percentage of listening done by people with household incomes of $75K plus).
680/The Fan (72.8%)
Dave FM (66.7%)
790/The Zone (63%)
WGST (54.4%)
Star 94 (52.6%)
Q100 (50.9%) 7. 97.1/The River (49.8%) 8. Project 9-6-1 (49.6%) 9. WSB-AM (48.7%) 10.(tie) 104./The Fish and 99X (47.3%) 12. 94.9/The Bull (44.4%) 13. B98.5 (43.2%) 14. Kicks 101.5 (37.1%) 15. Grown Folks 102.5 (34.2%) 16. WAOK-AM (31.3%) 17. Eagle 106.7 (30.8%) 18. Jazz 107.5 (29.4%) 19. 95.5/The Beat (23.5%) 20. Hot 107.9 (22.4%) 21. V-103 (21.5%) 22. Kiss 104.1 (20.1%) 23. Praise 97.5 (16.2%) 24. Viva 105.7 (12.4%) 25. El Patron (3.7%)
Compared to numbers in fall 2004, with inflation, most stations saw higher percentages of $75K-plus listeners. Stations which showed exceptional growth included Grown Folks, WAOK-AM, The Fan, the Fish and B98.5. The only station who saw a major drop was Jazz 107.5.
8/21: On Entourage, Biggest Loser, Emmys, Kristen Bell
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
HBO has greenlit a fifth season for its current biggest hit “Entourage,” which usually brings in about 3 million viewers Sunday nights. Surprisingly, it also gave a thumbs up to “Flight of the Conchords,” which averages only about 1 million viewers after “Entourage.” “Conchords” is quite different in tone from “Entourage,” and is so cultish strange, it has no prayer of becoming a mainstream hit despite some funny moments.
NBC’s “The Biggest Loser,” season four, features a metro Atlantan, Bryan Washington, 29, of Riverdale, Georgia. The network, which isn’t making him available for interviews, has offered no details on who he is or what he does or how much he weighed when the show started. The show debuts Sept. 11 and will air Tuesdays at 8 p.m.
And the TV Guide Channel apparently is the place for former “Dancing With the Stars” stars. Joan and Melissa Rivers were dumped for red-carpet coverage. Now the channel is using Lisa Rinna and Joey Fatone, both “Dancing” alums. Joey, who is also hosting NBC’s “The Singing Bee” is getting a lot of work, isn’t he?
In casting news, “Veronica Mars” fans should rejoice: Kristen Bell is joining “Heroes” for 13 episodes. And she actually turned down “Lost.” Check out TV Guide’s Q&A with her..
Janeane Garofalo joins “24” as a U.S. government agent investigating whatever crisis Jack Bauer & Co. face. Hopefully, she’ll butt heads with Chloe.
Oh, and K-Fed is guesting on the CW’s “One Tree Hill.” The less said about that the better.
8/21: 99X Retroplex torn down
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
After 13 years on 99X, Steve Craig’s signature “Retroplex” nostalgia lunch hour today has been dismantled, replaced by something called 99X-press lunch.”
The show in the 1990s was a historical look at the 1980s with a bit of new wave, a bit of old-school punk and other classic alternative. He would regularly do something called “The Wheel of Ramones” in which he’d pick a Ramones song from a “wheel” that said “gabba gabba gabba.” A few years ago, Steve began peppering in early 1990s cuts as well. But it’s time apparently has passed.
“Over the last year or so, we were getting more and more asking for the regular 99X alternative format,” Craig said.
99X’s replacement is indeed the same 99X playlist, just 13 songs in a row commercial free. Today, the hour included current cuts by the Smashing Pumpkins (“That’s the Way My Love Is’) and Interpol (“Heinrich Maneuver”) and a few older ones (The Clash’s “Rock the Casbah” and Cure’s “Pictures of You”). In other words, it’s pretty much the normal playlist.
Craig, despite how long he helmed the show, said he’s not sad about its departure. “There will always be room for the Pixies, Social Distortion, the Ramones in the mix,” he said. “Do I have emotional ties to Duran Duran? No.”
The final Retroplex Monday featured Dada’s “Dizz Knee Land,” Morrissey’s “Tomorrow,” Bad Religion’s “Infected,” Madness’ “Our House” and Romeo Void’s “Never Say Never.” The second-to-last tune was the Ramones’ “Blitzkrieg Bop.” The final Retroplex song was Green Day’s “Good Riddance (Time of Your Life).” Craig said that wasn’t necessarily done on purpose.
8/21: Atlantan on new “Survivor: China”
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
For the first time in several years, a metro Atlantan is on CBS’s most popular reality show “Survivor.” Sherea Lloyd is a 26-year-old elementary school teacher with a twin sister who has moved around but now lives in Atlanta. This 15th version of “Survivor” will be based in China for the first time and episodes start Sept. 20.
Jeff Probst in the latest TV Guide said the following about her: “Sherea is a fish out of water here, but she’s a fighter. She is another person who will tell you what she’s thinking. Sherea and a few others made me see the beauty and power of announcing who you are and being that person, because that makes you identifiable.”
Sherea received a bachelors degree at Florida A&M and a masters degree at Florida State University. She’s also part of the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority. She told “Survivor” that she’s sassy, outspoken and caring.
The last notable metro Atlantan on the show that I can recall was lovable Thomaston Superior Court judge Paschal “Pappy” English in 2002 during “Survivor: Marquesas.” He warmed the hearts of millions of viewers with his kind personality and gentle game play. He made it to fourth place and could have gotten further except he had to participate in a tiebreaker that involved no skill, just luck, and ended up with the “purple stone of death.” Prior to him was flight attendant Teresa Cooper of Jackson, GA, who came in fifth during the third edition of “Survivor” in Africa.
“Survivor” has seen ratings slide the past couple of years from an average of about 21 million in the spring of 2005 to just 15 million this past spring. But the show is an historical mile marker, arriving with a splash in 2000, the first bonafide broadcast “reality” show hit. It remains a major entry point for CBS on Thursday nights. To this day, although “American Idol” now supersedes it in terms of buzz, many fans are still charmed by the show’s consistency and how it cemented terms such as “tribal council,” “reward challenge” and “alliance” into the pop-culture lexicon.
According to TV Guide, the show has been granted unprecedented access to the Shaolin Temple and the Great Wall. The first episode will feature a Buddhist ceremony, a 100-foot-tall replica of an historic temple was built for the tribal council set and each player received Sun Tzu’s sixth-century military strategy treatise “The Art of War,” a useful book for any “Survivor” player.
Do you know Sherea? Email me at rho@ajc.com if you do and I’d love to interview you. Here’s more bio info and video with Sherea, as provided by CBS..
8/21: Median ages of radio listeners
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
According to spring Arbitron numbers, Jazz 107.5 has the oldest listeners in town while Hot 107.9 has the youngest.
The median Atlanta radio listener is about 40 years old, which hasn’t changed much in recent years. That means half the listeners are over 40, half under.
Here are the median ages from youngest to oldest. (The number in parenthetical was the median age backin the fall of 2004 for stations that haven’t changed format).
Praise, Kiss, Jazz, Eagle, WAOK-AM, Dave FM, 99X and Q100 have all gotten significantly older. Grown Folks, since going to a talk/music blend, has gotten younger. The two new Hispanic stations, which skew very young, helped bring the median age down. And Project 9-6-1, as a new active rock station, now draws an audience 10 years younger than the old 96rock.
Hot 107.9: 23.5 (24.9)
95.5/The Beat: 23.8 (22.7)
105.3/El Patron: 26.1
Viva 105.7: 28.7
Q100: 29.6 (26.4)
Project 9-6-1: 29.7
99X: 30.5 (26.3)
V-103: 32.4 (31)
Star 94: 36 (35.8)
Kicks 101.5: 39.2 (38.3)
790/The Zone: 39.2 (37.9)
Grown Folks 102.5: 39.5 (42.5 when it was a pure music station)
680/The Fan: 41.9 (43.4)
104.7/The Fish: 42.1 (41.4)
Dave FM: 42.3 (37.3)
97.1/The River: 44.7
94.9/The Bull: 45.2
Praise 97.5: 45.5 (42.7)
B98.5: 46.2 (45.8)
Kiss 104.1: 46.7 (42.7)
Eagle 106.7: 50.3 (47.7)
WAOK-AM: 53.5 (47.5)
WSB-AM: 53.7 (53.2)
WGST-AM: 54.4 (52.9)
Jazz 107.5: 48.6 (55.2)
8/20: Larry King guesting on The Closer
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Call this Turner Broadcasting synergy: CNN’s Larry King will be a guest on season finale of “The Closer” Sept. 10 playing himself.
The episode will also feature Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez of California, as well as author and Court TV personality Dominick Dunne and Court TV legal analyst Rikki Klieman.
King, Sanchez, Dunne and Klieman are scheduled to appear in part two of the season finale. Kyra Sedgwick’s Deputy Police Chief Brenda Leigh Johnson investigates a high-profile murder in which her investigation seems to strengthen the prime suspect’s defense. She is eventually called to testify in the high-profile court case that follows. King will appear in the show as himself on the set of Larry King Live, interviewing Sanchez about the case. Klieman and Dunne will give commentary on the steps of the courthouse as part of a legal analysis of the case for Court TV.
King loves doing cameos on TV shows and movies as himself. Here’s a sampling from imdb.com:
Shark, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, Boston Legal, Law & Order; Trial By Jury, Mr. 3000, Stepford Wives, Arli$$, the Practice, Everybody Loves Raymond, John Q, Enemy of the State, Bulworth, Primary Colors, Frasier, the Jackal, Mad City, Contact and Murphy Brown.
8/20: Who’s listening to Atlanta radio
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Last week, I attended the bi-annual CBS Radio ratings luncheon at Maggiano’s, where they have a consultant from Research Director Inc. parse out the Arbitron ratings.
What’s great for me is the treasure trove of data the company hands out. I’ll post some of the latest info from the spring Arbitron book throughout the next couple of weeks.
Arbitron received 3,831 surveys from metro Atlanta over the spring, each survey covering a week. Each survey represents about 1,066 people.
The average Atlantan listens to 18 hours and 32 minutes of radio per week, which is about par with the rest of the country. That is about 2 hours and 39 minutes a day. About 95 percent of Atlantans tune into the radio (be it Internet, satellite, AM or FM) in a given week for at least 15 minutes. About 5 to 6 percent of diaries reference satellite radio listening and fewer than that even mention the Internet.
Teenagers listen to radio less (13 hours, 46 minutes). Hispanics (21 hours 33 minutes) and blacks (21 hours and 50 minutes) listen to radio on average more.
The current archaic diary system, in which people are solicited by phone, then sent weekly paper diaries, is in effect at least through next summer. Then Arbitron goes to the people meter, in which people will have little pagers to track what they are actually listening to. Based on early results from the first test markets in Houston and Philadelphia, people listen to more different stations but don’t listen to the radio as much. Rock stations also appear to benefit while African-American stations suffer.
Arbitron can’t reach the increasing numbers of people who only have cel phones and have ditched land lines. And of the people who they do reach, fewer and fewer are willing to do the survey. Response rate is down to 26 percent. This gives radio stations even more reason to gripe about accuracy. Arbitron has major problems reaching younger people and Hispanics. Men 18 to 44 and women 18 to 34 were way under-represented in the latest survey.
As expected, people spend more time listening to the radio in the mornings (6 to 10 a.m.) than any other time, followed closely by 3 to 7 p.m., the mid-days.
Next up: median ages of listeners at each radio station.
8/19: HSM 2 breaks ratings records
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
With the astounding success of Disney Channel’s “High School Musical,” the sequel blew several basic cable records Friday night when 17.2 million viewers caught the first viewing.
That is by far the biggest viewership of any telecast this summer. The second most popular show this summer has been “America’s Got Talent,” which drew 13 million June 5, its second-season debut. Cable networks is always handicapped by the fact 15 percent of the population doesn’t subscribe to either cable or satellite, making that 17.2 million even more astounding.
The movie beat the previous record in basic cable of 16.8 million, the NAFTA debate on CNN back in 1993 and 16 million, an NFL game on ESPN last September. And it beat the most viewers for a basic cable movie, previously held by TNT’s 2001 film “Crossfire Trail.”
It’s the most watched TV telecast ever for kids 6 to 11 (6.1 million) and the most watched entertainment TV show in Nielsen tracking history (only behind the Super Bowl 2004) for tweens 9 to 14 at 5.9 million.
And it was the highest rated show on a Friday night (including broadcast TV) in five years.
Disney’s new show preview of “Phineas and Ferb” following “HSM 2” drew 10.8 million viewers. A fresh episode of “Hannah Montana” brought in 10.7 million, the most for any basic cable series telecast (note the modifiers here), beating TNT’s “The Closer,” which opened season three at 8.3 million June 12.
How did you like (or dislike) HSM 2? I enjoyed the first one, which provided catchy tunes and an innocent charm. The second one didn’t really work for me. The plotline felt a bit forced and that wonderful burgeoning relationship between the athlete and the smart gal was absent.
8/19: Larry Wachs has a new job?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Former Regular Guy Larry Wachs, who has been unemployed for about 10 months, wrote in his blog that he’s got employment.
Here’s his brief comment:
Oh, I got a new job, too.
No, not with The Pogues.
I called him and he said he can’t say yet what it is except it’s in media. He hopes to get back to me in a week or two.
Speaking of odd new jobs, former WSB-TV morning anchor Collins Spencer, let go earlier this year after only about 18 months on the job, is now Michael Vick’s spokesman.
8/18: E!/Forbes Hip Hop Cash Kings special tonight
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Nine hip-hop stars who either live in Atlanta or have strong Atlanta ties are on the top 20 Forbes magazine “Hip Hop Cash Kings” special at 6 p.m. tonight on E!
Check out Sonia Murray’s story about it..
None of the stars she spoke to would own up whether the estimates Forbes makes in income are remotely close to reality.
8/18: Dog the Bounty Hunter in ATL Sat. evening
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Duane “Dog the Bounty Hunter” Chapman ironically ended up in jail himself last year for allegedly breaking Mexican law by hunting down a fugitive over the border. At the moment, he’s free and the case is on appeal.
“I thought [going over the border] was a misdemeanor, but they charged me with felony kidnapping and conspiracy,” said Chapman, who will be at a book signing at the Borders at Stonecrest Mall in Lithonia at 6 p.m. tonight for his new autobiograpy “You Can Run, But You Can’t Hide.” (Saturday/RH). He is also scoping out Atlanta for potential cases for season five of his popular A&E reality show.
“There aren’t enough warrants in Hawaii now,” he said, referencing his home base. “So we’re checking out different parts of the country.”
Chapman said his book delves frankly into his multiple marriages, his days of drug addiction, his time in jail for an alleged murder he said he didn’t commit and his Christian faith. “If you knew what I used to be, you might not love me,” he said.
Season five, he said, will feature more of his family members, especially his 20-year-old daughter who goes by Baby Lyssa. “She wants to do what I do and that’s fine with me,” he said, despite the inherent dangers.
8/17: CBS’s Kid Nation has 7 Georgians
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Georgia is going to be well represented on one of the most controversial reality shows in recent times, “Kid Nation” on CBS, which begins Sept. 19 and features 40 children ages 8 to 15 who take over a New Mexico “ghost town” and run it for more than a month without parental supervision or modern accoutrements.
Based on the mini-biographies released by CBS this week, seven of the children are from Georgia.
During the taping, the parents were not allowed to talk to the kids, who had to set up their own government and laws. Creator Tom Forman told the L.A. Times that the goal was for “kids to succeed where parents have failed.”
Tina Robinson of McDonough said she was intrigued by the show concept when it was pitched to her for her 11-year-old daughter and actress Jasmine. But she didn’t realize until she visited the set at the end of the taping in early May how spare and low-tech the place really was. “It was like a kids’ version of ‘Survivor,’ “ she said, referencing the grand-daddy of primetime reality shows, which is still a popular series on CBS.
Robinson said her husband Craig wasn’t too keen on the idea and “was worried sick” the entire time Jasmine was away. She did hear some children left voluntarily before the end of taping. She also said she wasn’t aware until after the taping that there was any potential $20,000 prize beyond the $5,000 stipend each child received.
Jasmine, Robinson noted, said she made great friends on the set and would do it again with the same group. Robinson has yet to see any episodes but didn’t get the impression Jasmine was exploited in any way, though TV Week last month reported that the New Mexico Department of Labor believed the kids were taken advantage of and worked as many as 14 hours a day.
Forman told TV critics last month at a press conference that for the kids, this wasn’t work but rather like “going to summer camp.”
Here are the seven kids and some quotes CBS released. (For privacy reasons, CBS did not give out last names though Tina Robinson was okay with releasing her daughter’s last name.)
HUNTER
Age: 12
Hometown: Martinez, Ga.
Interests and hobbies: “Basketball, biking, water sports, golf, fly fishing, hunting and reading.”
Goals and aspirations: “I would like to go to college and be in one of the branches of the armed forces.”
DIVAD
Age: 11
Hometown: Fayetteville, Ga.
Personality traits: “Kind, helpful, honest — I am a great leader and I like to make others laugh.”
If I could write one law: “If I could write a law, I would make it illegal to charge medical care to someone who can’t afford it.”
CAMPBELL
Age: 10
Hometown: Thomasville, Ga.
What I want to be when I grow up: “I would like to be a political person because good government is important and I could help the economy.”
If I could switch places with someone: “I would like to switch places with the President of the United States so that I could perform the daily duties and protect the wildlife.”
JARED
Age: 11
Hometown: Dunwoody, Ga.
If I could hold a political position: “I would be Speaker of the House.”
If I could write one law: “I would write a law that required specific requirements for animal refuge centers.”
JASMINE Robinson
Age: 11
Hometown: Atlanta
Goals and aspirations: “When I grow up I would like to have my own television show, an artist development company or a School of Performing Arts.
If I could switch places with someone: “No one, because I love the people in my life and I would not want to change that.”
MARKELLE
Age: 12
Hometown: Marietta, Ga.
When I grow up I want to be: “An entertainer.”
Quote: “If I could change one thing in the world, I would make sure that all kids with single parents have good role models and mentors to make sure that they have the same amount of opportunities and love and grow up to be happy.”
TAYLOR
Age: 10
Hometown: Sylvester, Ga.
When I grow up I want to be: “A paleontologist because I love science.”
Miscellaneous: “I am passionate about pageants because I want to be Miss America or Miss USA one day. Also, I enjoy hunting for arrowheads with my family. I have over 2,000 arrowheads in my collection.”
8/17: Judge Greg Mathis at Stonecrest Mall today
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Check out inspirational tough-love Judge Greg Mathis today at Stonecrest Mall in Lithonia for his “Youth and Education Expo,” which he first created in Detroit but is now doing in 12 different cities including Atlanta. He will be at the mall from 4 to 9 p.m.
Exhibitors will include groups that provide afterschool programs, tutoring, job traininng and counseling for “families and youth who need to be uplifted rom poverty and substandard education,” he said. “I decided to use my celebrity status for this platform.”
His show “Judge Mathis” is seen weekdays at 5 p.m. on WUPA-TV. He’s entering his ninth season on the air and he’s done quite well.
8/17: Meet Monk & Kelly
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
J93.3, the contemporary Christian station, recently brought in a married couple as the new morning show team, Jonathan Monk and Dianna Kelly.
Hopefully, they’ll have better success than Gene & Julie, the married morning team at the now defunct Lite 94.9 from 2003 to 2005 or so.
Of course, being on a signal that doesn’t quite reach the entire market, Monk & Kelly don’t have nearly as much pressure to haul in huge numbers.
This is the couple’s first effort on a Christian station after stints all over the country in markets such as Las Vegas, Kansas City, Jacksonville and Grand Rapids, Mich. They met a couple decades ago in Rhode Island and have been a married radio team for 18 years. They now live in Tyrone.
After talking briefly to them by phone, it’s clear they portray themselves as living “the typical American life,” as Dianna calls it, with two kids (11 year old Austin and 9 year old Janina) and three terrier dogs.
They say their show is a “clean, family” show while Gene & Julie were more a “couples” show. “If we have an argument, it comes out on air,” said Jonathan, mostly about finances and priorities on that front. But overall, “we don’t do mean radio.”
They enjoy working for a mom and pop radio company as opposed to CBS or Clear Channel though they admit they aren’t being paid massive amounts of bucks. He says at least J93.3 encourages community service. And they like to talk about their religion openly, something they couldn’t do on secular radio.
Don Anthony, an Atlanta resident who consults with many a morning show and knows Monk and Kelly, said there are a handful of successful married couples in radio in smaller markets but it’s tough to pull off because someone has to be able to be with the other person nearly 24/7.
8/16: SciFi cancels two shows
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
TV RATING HIGHLIGHTS FOR THE WEEK
The SciFi Channel has been struggling recently seeking a new hit. Two new shows “The Dresden Files” and “Painkiller Jane” have both been cancelled after just one season each. And two of its sophomore shows have regressed.
“Painkiller Jane” opened at an okay 1.55 million in April but by episode 16 on August 3, the show about a female DEA agent who can recover from injuries had fallen to just 645,000 viewers. Its finale is slated for Sept. 21.
Cutting “The Dresden Files,” a drama about a wizard who plays work-a-day private detective, was a bit more surprising since the show opened at 1.73 million in January and finished at about the same number, 1.67 million, in April.
Stan Lee’s goofy “Who Wants To Be a Superhero?” Thursdays has taken a hit its second season, averaging about 900,000 viewers this season vs. more than 1.3 million last year.
Plus, “Eureka” in its second season isn’t quite the gold mine it was a year ago, bringing in 1.8 million August 7 vs. 2.3 million the same week a year ago.
In the meantime, the network’s latest newcomer “Flash Gordon” opened last Friday at a promising 2.1 million last Friday despite reviews that were less than flashy.
And the intriguing “Mind Control with Derren Brown” isn’t mesmerizing enough viewers. On August 8, the show drew just 613,000 viewers, though that isn’t far from its debut July 26 of 618,000.
WINNERS
Comedy Central’s “Roast of Flavor Flav” — Of the five most recent roasts Comedy Central has held, this one about the former rapper-turned-VH1 superstar came in third this past Sunday, behind Jeff Foxworthy and Pamela Anderson but ahead of William Shatner and Denis Leary. It drew 3.76 million viewers, with a heavy 18-to-34 male number.
CBS’s “PGA Championship” — About 10 million golf fans watched Tiger Woods win again this past Sunday, slightly less than last year but still an above-par performance.
History Channel’s “Ice Road Truckers” — The race to deliver mine equipment over the dangerous ice roads in Canadian Northwest Territories has become the hottest property on the network, bringing in 3.9 million Sunday night, History Channel’s top telecast of all time for 25 to 54 year olds and 18 to 49 year olds.
Fox’s “Hell’s Kitchen” — Bravo to Rock for winning and 9.8 million ate it up, a series high. The show also brought in the most viewers among 18 to 49 year olds.
Bravo’s “Top Chef” — This reality show, which airs new episodes each Wednesday, has shown an incredible consistency a McDonald’s would appreciate. The past four original episodes have brought in 2.05 to 2.08 million viewers.
HGTV’s “Design Star” — While Bravo’s “Top Design” struggled in the ratings, this network’s similar show is doing far better, with Atlanta judge Verne Yip part of the panel. The show’s third competitive episode brought in 2.7 million viewers Sunday, up from 1.9 million two weeks earlier, a sign of good word of mouth.
LOSERS
MTV’s “Real World 19: Sydney” - Going down under (and featuring Blue Ridge’s Cohutta Grindstaff) didn’t exactly bring viewership up. Compared to Real World 18, which opened at nearly 3 milliion viewers, the trip to Sydney debuted with just 1.6 million viewers August 8.
ABC’s “The Nine” and “Knights of Prosperity” — Clearly, bringing back already canceled shows is not exactly a strategy for big ratings. ABC inexplicably began airing the leftover episodes of “The Nine,” which was last seen in November after a failed fall. It proceeded to tank even worse. In its second episode back August 8, the show drew a microscopic 1.9 million viewers, one of the worst ratings ever on the network. So ABC pulled the show this week at the last second. Ditto with “Knights of Prosperity,” another disappointment for ABC. The show drew just 2.3 million viewers last week over two episodes.
A&E’s “The Two Coreys” — Do people still care about Corey Haim and Corey Feldman? Well, 1.3 million caught the debut July 29, followed by 1.2 million in week two but the show took a sharp nosedive this past Sunday, when only 871,000 checked out this semi-reality show, which the Coreys later said is partly scripted.
*VH1’s “Pickup Artist” * — A dude who goes by Mystery helps supposed losers pick up women. But the debut August 6 only picked up 673,000 viewers.
8/14: Miss America goes to TLC & other news
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
It’s been awhile since I’ve done a TV roundup. Here’s the most notable news of the past few days:
Ratings-challenged “Miss America,” bumped from ABC to CMT for two years, is now moving to TLC. TLC wil air the pageant January 26, 2008 with a reality show about the contestants leading up to it. The show’s final year on ABC drew 9.6 million in 2004. On CMT, the pageant brought in 3.1 million in 2005, then fell to 2.4 million in 2006.
Joe Mantegna is replacing Mandy Patinkin on “Criminal Minds.” Patinkin will show up on the Sept. 26 premiere to explain his departure.
HBO canceled David Milch’s perplexing dark drama “John From Cincinnati” after one unsuccessful season.
8/13: Ryan Cameron leaving “Atlanta & Co.”
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
V-103 afternoon host Ryan Cameron has spent the past two years doing TV for housewives, the WXIA-TV entertainment/infomercial hybrid “Atlanta & Company” with Dave FM’s Holly Firfer.
But according to WXIA-TV’s general manager Bob Walker, Cameron has put in his notice and will be leaving next month. “Ryan has told us he’s feeling he has a lot on his plate,” Walker said. “He feels he wants ot slow down. His intention is to back down and spend more time with family.” Cameron’s on the air right now so I haven’t had a chance to talk to him about it. I’ll update this post when I get his response.
This move will have no impact on his work at V-103 since those jobs were separate.
“Atlanta & Company” has lasted two years and will be starting a third next month despite relatively modest ratings, often in fourth place behind ABC’s “The View,” CBS’s “The Price is Right” and the judge shows on Fox 5. The show doesn’t appear to cost much to operate and brings in extra cash from sponsors willing to pay for a few minutes of airtime with Holly and/or Ryan.
8/13: WTBS to become Peachtree TV
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The local station WTBS-TV has more or less mirrored national TBS for years. But starting October 1, 2007, changes are afoot.
While a handful of the shows will be the same, the schedule will not ape TBS national.
Peachtree TV’s line-up will feature a movie every night. The station’s daytime line-up will feature a stable of sitcom hits, including the Atlanta syndication premieres of “Family Guy” and “Still Standing.” Other shows include “The King of Queens,” “The Cosby Show,” “Seinfeld,” “The Steve Harvey Show,” “Friends” and “Frasier.” “Tyler Payne’s House of Payne” will air, too.
On cable, the regular TBS feed will debut at a new location, its dial position different depending on what service you have.
And starting in 2008, as previously reported, national TBS will no longer air Braves games, ending its decades long run as what Ted Turner dubbed “America’s team.” Peachtree TV will air 45 regular season games featuring Skip Caray, Chip Caray and Joe Simpson.
Montel Williams is being picked up by Peachtree TV at some point and loses his great spot at 10 a.m. on WSB-TV though I’m still checking to find out when.
I’ll post a new blog entry soon with a more specific schedule and will repeat this news again in late September as a reminder.
8/11: B98.5 brings back the themes
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
B98.5 went years without doing any themed weekends, sticking religiously to that 300-song playlist. But after doing No. 1 songs from the ’70s, ’80s and ’90s on July 4, they’ve come back with a “fun summer music” theme this weekend (at least when Delilah isn’t on.).
Among the songs they’ve already sampled that aren’t on the station’s normal rotation:
Mungo Jerry’s “In the Summertime,” The Stray Cats’ “Rock This Town,” Stevie Wonder’s “Sir Duke,” Styx’s “Mr. Roboto,” Technotronic’s “Pump Up the Jam,” Baltimora’s “Tarzan Boy,” Was (Not Was) “Walk the Dinosaur,” Cyndi Lauper’s “She Bop,” Spice Girls’ “Wannabe,” Bay City Rollers’ “Saturday Night,” Lipps, Inc. “Funkytown,” Los Del Rio’s “Macarena,” Taco’s “Puttin On the Ritz,” Marky Mark’s “Good Vibrations,” Frank Sinatra’s “New York New York,” Hot Chocolate’s “You Sexy Thing,” and Olivia Newton-John’s “Physical.”
Enjoy!
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8/10: “30 Rock” star at the Punchline
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Judah Friedlander, who plays scruffy sketch comedy writer Frank on NBC’s critically acclaimed sitcom “30 Rock,” is a regular on the show but didn’t get nearly as much airtime the first season as bigshots Alec Baldwin, Tina Fey or Tracy Morgan, much less newcomer and former Conyers resident Jack McBrayer.
But he isn’t complaining. “It’s out of my hands,” he told me today by phone. He’s in town at the Punchline for a series of comedy shows. You can get more info here.. “I don’t make any push for [more airtime.] I have fun and do the best that I can.”
Friedlander, known for always wearing trucker hats, said he has to fend off accusations that he’s copying Ashton Kutcher. In fact, he’s been wearing them since the late ’80s. “Before they became popular, people would say I was racist for wearing these hats because they associate them with rednecks,” he said. “Once they became trendy, those same people would say, ‘Where can I get one?’ “
On the show, Friedlander purposely wears hats with different sayings in each episode and he tries to tie the sayings to something on the show.
One episode, his character misspelled the word “vagina” in a fictional script so he wore a hat with the words “Kung Fu Beech,” with beach purposely misspelled.
Unfortunately, he said, they cut the “vagina” reference out of the show so all that was left was a now inscrutable hat message.
He almost got a role on the other NBC show about a sketch comedy show, “Studio 60.” But he preferred “30 Rock” partly because it’s shot in Queens, where he lives. That ultimately worked out best for him because “Studio 60” was cancelled while “30 Rock” was renewed.
The first sit-down read through for the second season of “30 Rock” starts Tuesday so unfortunately, he has no spoilers at hand and he has no clue what his character will be doing or whether he’ll have a more prominent role the second season.
You can sample clips from his standup show at www.judahfriedlander.com. His shows tonight are at 8 and 10 and 7, 9 and 11 tomorrow night as well as a Sunday show at 8.
8/9: Vick-inspired Sick Puppies benefit
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Sure, the Vick story is kind of played out but 99X is holding a morning beneift August 14 to raise awareness of “the inhumane practice of dog fighting” at Smith’s Olde Bar featuring the Australian band Sick Puppies. according to the press release. The concert is $5 and all proceeds go to the Atlanta Humane Society.
There will be free breakfast, coffee and a 99X dog collar for folks who stop by.
Sean Demery, morning co-host, told me the band is in town for a Roxy show that night and “they’re good friends of the station. When they came in awhile ago, they offered to do anything if we needed it.” He said this is more awareness than fundraising given the modest entry fee but “every little toothpick strapped together makes a log.”
THE NEW MORNING X - SICK PUPPIES BENEFIT
For The Atlanta Humane Society
Tuesday, August 14th, 2007
Smith’s Olde Bar
6am - 10am
SICK PUPPIES performance to begin approximately 8:30am
www.smithsoldebar.com
1578 Piedmont Ave NE
Atlanta, GA 30324
(404) 875-1522
8/9: Weekly TV ratings
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
USA has another hit in its back pocket with lighthearted spy drama “Burn Notice,” which has just been rewarded a second season of 13 episodes.
The delightfully frothy show fits USA’s “characters welcome” slogan perfectly thanks to Jeffrey Donovan’s wry take on a spy who’s forced to live in Miami with his annoying mom nearby and two ex-spy buddies to help him make some cash while he tries to figure out why he’s been “burned.”
“Burn” has given USA an entry into Thursday nights, averaging 3.7 million viewers after six episodes with a series high 4.4 million August 2. While not quite as big as stalwarts “Monk” and “Psych” on Fridays, “Burn” is doing better than fellow FX shows “The 4400” (losing steam on Sunday nights after huge numbers a couple years ago) and the aging “Dead Zone.” Both are averaging 2.2 million viewers after seven episodes.
It’s also bringing home more viewers than FX’s “Rescue Me” (2.3 million this season after seven episodes) and “Damages” (3.3 million after two episodes).
WINNERS
CBS’s “Big Brother” - This guilty pleasure of a reality show is pulling in comparable numbers to the all-star version last year at this point and hit a season high of 8 million viewers Sunday.
Fox News bridge collapse coverage - During primetime August 1 after the Minneapolis bridge collapse, Fox News beat its three major competitors. At 8 p.m., a special Fox report attracted 3.7 mil to lame duck Paula Zahn’s CNN at just 1.6 mil. At 9 p.m. Larry King closed the gap against Hannity & Colmes, 3.3 million to 3.1 million. And at 10 p.m. Greta edged out Anderson Cooper 2.8 mil to 2.6 million. MSNBC averaged about 980K that night while Headline News took in about 570K.
ESPN’s Mets/Cubs game - This past Sunday, former Brave and current Met Tom Glavine won his 300th game before 3.8 million viewers.
NBC’s “Age of Love” - Fueled partly by a special episode of “Singing Bee” at 8, this past Monday’s finale of this “Bachelor” ripoff ended predictably with Mark Phillipoussis picking the 26 year old over the 48 year old. And the show finished at a series high 7 million viewers.
CBS’s “Power of 10” - Affable Drew Carey really makes this game show tick and it didn’t hurt that the first contestant won $1 million. About 9.3 million caught the show Monday and brought in strong numbers among younger viewers.
ON THE FENCE
MTV’s “Cribs” - The season debut of “Cribs” last Thursday featured Atlanta’s Dallas Austin and a modest 1.2 million checked his home out.
Food Network’s “Feasting on Asphalt 2” - Atlanta’s Alton Brown began biking his way up the Mississippi River sampling home-grown fare in the second season debut August 4. For a Saturday night, the show’s 864,000 viewers wasn’t half bad though it was down from first-season average of 943,000.
LOSERS
ABC’s “Fat March” - This reality show brought in lard-like ratings of 4.4 milion. The premise is certainly intriguing: 12 obese men and women march from Boston to D.C. over 70 days and hopefully lose weight while potentially winning $100,000 each. Duluth resident Kim Kearney, a former rap singer who went by the name Tempest, quit halfway through the first episode August 6 after whining constantly about having to camp outside and how much she hurt. “She couldn’t relinquish control to me,” said a frustrated trainer Steve Pfiester to me last week. ABC said Kearney wasn’t available for comment. Kim was the biggest loser, indeed. She cost herself $100,000 and $10,000 for everybody else.
ABC’s “American Inventor” - The finale featured the heartwarming story of a firefighter winning $1 million thanks to his “guardian angel” Christmas tree fire prevention device. Atlanta’s “Spanx” inventor Sara Blakely joined as a judge this second season but the show failed to click with viewers as it hit a season low of 5.3 million versus 7.9 million when it opened earlier in the summer.
Fox’s “On the Lot” — Just so we’re not just beating up on poor ABC, Fox’s Hollywood director competition “On the Lot” is the certifiably lowest-rated broadcast TV show this summer. It brought in just 2 million viewers this past Monday, comparable to Bravo’s “Top Chef.” Of course, for Bravo, 2 million viewers is a hit. For Fox, it’s a loser. And executive producer Steven Spielberg still hasn’t shown up on screen. At least the theme music is good (and got an Emmy nomination.)
The top-rated show last week was NBC’s “America’s Got Talent” with 10.7 million viewers. My top three favorite contestants remain likable singer Cas Haley, who resembles John Popper from Blues Traveler; the sweet-as-pie 14 year old Julienne Irwin; and the amazing singing ventriloquist Terry Fator. I have also enjoyed Butterscotch, who has shown surprising versatility along with her sometimes annoying beat boxing.
Among the eight finalists, seven are singers in some way, shape or form. The only remaining act that does not warble is Side Swipe, the Chicago karate dance troupe who pandered to the crowd by bringing on young kids last week but redeemed themselves with a highly entertaining pirate bit Tuesday night. My hope is that boring but handsome country singer Jason Pritchett goes home next week, along with Robert Hatcher, a decent but ultimately unremarkable R&B singer. I suspect Julienne might be in trouble, though. It’s fairly clear a young precocious girl won’t be winning the competition this year like Bianca Ryan a year ago.
8/8: TNT’s Saving Grace renewed
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
TNT drama “Saving Grace” has only aired three episodes, but the network has already bestowed the Holly Hunter vehicle 15 more next year.
The drama focuses on Hunter’s morally questionable, hard-drinking cop character who is sleeping with a married man but is grappling with salvation courtesy of a quirky guardian angel. The show opened at about 6.4 million viewers two weeks ago, fell to 5.4 million last week, then slipped a bit more to about 4.8 million this past Monday.
Retention from “The Closer” has fallen from 90% week one to 70% week two to 64% week three. If it steadies out at about 5 million viewers, TNT should be extremely happy because that’s far better than last year’s “Saved” or the other TNT drama “Heartland.”
During this summer of strong women, do you like “Grace” more or less than, say, “Damages,” “The Closer” or “Army Wives”?
8/8: Boortz on presidential debate
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
This past Sunday, during the GOP presidential debate, a couple of candidates gabbed about Neal Boortz’s No. 1 bestseller “The Fair Tax Book.”
Candidate Tom Tancredo (R-CO) said the tax reform book should be required reading for all candidates. He also suggested to current Republican frontrunner Rudy Giuliani, who said he had, in fact, read Boortz’s book, that Giuliani should “read it again.”
The crux of the book is overhauling the IRS by dumping the income tax and instituting a flat tax on goods and services as a replacement.
8/7: Wheel/Jeopardy moving
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The two most popular syndicated game shows for the past couple of decades, “Wheel of Fortune” and “Jeopardy” are finding new homes starting Sept. 10 on WATL-TV (My ATL TV)
Currently, “Jeopardy” is on at 4:30 p.m. on WXIA-TV and “Wheel” is on at 7:30 p.m. on the same station. Starting Sept. 10, “Wheel” will be on WATL at 7 followed by “Jeopardy” at 7:30.
For “Jeopardy” fans who work 9 to 5, this is great news. The show used to be paired with “Wheel” on WXIA but when WXIA added a 7 p.m. local newscast four years ago, “Jeopardy” got bumped to 4:30. “Jeopardy” ratings have been relatively poor in that time slot, a distant third this past May behind WSB-TV’s “Oprah” and WAGA-TV’s “Divorce Court.”
“Wheel” has done well at 7:30 p.m., finishing a solid second behind WSB-TV’s “Entertainment Tonight.”
This move helps pair the two game shows back to back again, which is common across the nation. And there are more eyeballs at 7 to 8 p.m. than 4 to 5 p.m.
The two stations are both owned by Gannett so this is not a case of poaching. In fact, it’s more a case of Gannett trying to help out WATL, which had been one of the most popular WB affiliates in the country until the WB merged with UPN a year ago to become the CW. Locally, the UPN affiliate grabbed the new network, home to “The Gilmore Girls” and “America’s Next Top Model,” and left WATL without a primetime schedule.
When Fox offered up its “My Network TV” packed with telenovelas, WATL grabbed it more out of default than anything else, but for the past year, ratings have been abysmal. This fall, My Network is mixing reality shows with ultimate fighting and movies.
In other changes at the two networks next month:
Entertainment news show “The Insider” will move to the 7:30 p.m. slot on WXIA-TV, competing head to head with WSB’s “Entertainment Tonight.”
WATL has been airing a double helping of “The Simpsons” at 7, but starting Sept. 10, those episodes will move to 11 p.m., bumping back “Friends” and “Everybody Loves Raymond” to after midnight.
On WXIA-TV, there are several other changes in the offing. A fourth hour of the “Today” show at 10 a.m. weekdays bumps “Martha Stewart” to 2 p.m. “Passions” will no longer air on the NBC affiliate. “Millionaire” will now get a double shot at 4 and 4:30 p.m. and at 12:30 p.m., Merv Griffin’s new “Crosswords” game will debut.
WATL has been airing the cancelled “The Greg Behrendt Show” at 2 p.m. But next month, Greg will be replaced by Jerry Springer’s security officer Steve Wilkos. That is not a typo.
I’ll post upcoming changes later on WAGA-TV and WGCL-TV and the new WPCH-TV, which is effectively replacing WTBS-TV (a separate TBS channel will pop up if you have a cable or satellite service.).
8/7: An hour with Randy & Spiff
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
For 17 years, Randy & Spiff worked music radio, first two oldies station (Fox and Cool) followed by a brief stint at Lite 94.9. All three stations died but the pair have survived. Their peak popularity coincided with Fox’s reign as the oldies station in the early 1990s when that format was most commercially viable.
A few months ago, the pair segued to news/talk on 640/WGST-AM, a very different medium. I listened to an hour this morning for those of you who have yet to discover them on the AM dial to give you a taste of what it’s like. The audience’s expectations are far different and they don’t have Beatles and Supremes songs as cushions as they did on the other stations.
While Spiff is the quipmaster as always and Randy remains the man who controls the clock, the focus is on news, with four traffic/weather breaks per hour. Between 7:40 and 9 a.m., they squeezed in six different interviews talking about airlines, the Braves, taxes, politics, Barry Bonds and movies. It’s quite packed. They also had 22 ads (not counting WGST promos) over the specific hour I tracked but most were 30 seconds or less. I’d say they had about 15 to 17 minutes of paid ads during the hour, which isn’t that bad for news/talk.
Here’s a breakdown of what happened between 7:49 a.m. and 8:49 a.m. today
7:49 a.m. Mitch Evans with sports including a clip of Jim Brown commenting on Vick
7:51 a.m. Car Donation Charity, Braves promo
7:52 a.m. Skip Caray interview in advance of the Braves/Mets series tonight
7:54 a.m. York Air Conditioning, Scott Antique Market, Office Depot, Georgia Baptist Convention, nonprofit GST promo for backpack program for military children
7:58 a.m. Back to school promo, promo for John Linder interview
8 a.m. Fox News with Dave Anthony (coal miners, Minneapolis bridge, terror suspects in Britain)
8:02 a.m. Andy Rose and local news
8:04 a.m.: The Real Estate People
8:05 a.m.: Art “Madman” Mehring’s traffic, Jeff Hill’s weather
8:06 a.m. Philly Connection, Direct Insurance, Walgreen
8:07 a.m. John Linder interview on the fair tax.
8:12 a.m. Robert Novak, political journalist, promoting his book “The Prince of Darkness.” (Novak notes that over 50 years, Jimmy Carter was the worst president and frequently lied.)
8:17 a.m.: Randy notes that it’s “hard talking to someone with 50 years of experience. You can’t even scratch the service.” They note that he said in his book that he underestimated George W. Bush when he first met him. Spiff noted that while he appears to be “bumbling Bush” in press conferences, he’s quite articulate one on one.
8:18 a.m. Traffic, weather
8:19 a.m. Georgia cruise card ad
8:20 a.m. Mitch Evans and sports.
8:22 a.m. Nissan service & parts
8:23 a.m. Wall Street Journal report
8:24 a.m. Original Mattress Factory, Real Estate People, promo for Rush
8:26 a.m.: Entertainment report (There’s some giggly comments opening the segment about how white men can’t dance but since we can’t see what they are doing in the studio, it’s hard to say what was going on.)
8:30 a.m. Fox News with Andy Rhodes
8:33 a.m. Home Depot, Braves promo
8:34 a.m. Traffic, weather
8:35 a.m. Smoky Mountain water park, Dr. Roof, Las Vegas Tahiti Village, Dave Ramsey promo
8:37 a.m. Weather with Randy, noting how hot it will be. “It’s pretty oppressive,” Spiff said. “Sixty degrees warmer than in the studio, as Mitch said.” Then they joked about Mitch wearing “layers.”
8:38 a.m.: Jon Heyman from Sports Illustrated interview with Mitch, Randy & Spiff to gab about Barry Bonds. As Randy noted, they schedule somebody every day in case he breaks the record. They ended up talking mostly about Bud Selig’s lukewarm reaction to the tie over the weekend and whether that was good or bad.
8:44 a.m. Randy & Spiff observed that Bonds makes Alex Rodriguez and Hank Aaron look great.
8:45 a.m. Traffic, weather (While Randy was talking about the 100-plus heat index, Spiff groaned and Randy cracked, “Spiff just sat on something vinyl.”)
8:46 a.m. CBS 46’s promo for “Power of 10,” Georgia Dept. of Agriculture, NAPA batteries, Just Brakes, Wal-Mart
8:49 a.m. Sports
8/6: Summer isn’t all reruns anymore
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Considering summer time is supposed to be the dead zone for TV, cable TV is helping to change that perception thanks to a raft of new original programming, much of it arguably better than what the big four feed us during the regular season.
There are the ambitious miniseries (ESPN’s “Bronx is Burning,” TNT’s “The Company,” USA’s frothy “The Starter Wife”), top-notch reality shows (Bravo’s “Top Chef,” HGTV’s “Design Star”) and a huge amount of scripted fare (e.g. USA’s “Burn Notice,” “Monk,” “Pysch,” “The 4400” and “Dead Zone,” TBS’s trio of “House of Payne,” “My Boys” and “The Bill Engvall Show,” AMC’s “Mad Men,” SciFi’s “Painkiller Jane,” HBO’s “Entourage” and “Big Love,” FX’s “Rescue Me” and “Damages” and TNT’s “The Closer” and “Saving Grace”).
Sadly, the broadcast networks have pretty much fed us reality and game shows and not much more, though I’m thoroughly enjoying the two karaoke shows “Don’t Forget the Lyrics” on Fox and “Singing Bee” on NBC. No wonder cable now takes in 63% of the viewing this summer.
What have you glommed on to this summer so far? Has anything new caught your eye?
8/3: Kicks rebounds in ratings
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The arrival of the third major metro country station 94.9/The Bull appeared to hurt Kicks 101.5 during the winter but Kicks kicked back in the springtime, pulling in numbers comparable to what the station was getting before the Bull’s arrival.
The station ranked 5th among 18 to 34 year olds, up from 16th in the winter. 5th among 25 to 54 year olds, up from 14th and fourth among all 12-plus listeners, up from 10th.
The Bull, which continued TV advertising in the spring touting “real comfortable country,” built some audience in the spring after a relatively soft open in the winter. The station ranked 14th overall, up from 19th in its debut. Average number of listeners per week (called in the business “cume”) built from 349,200 to 405,000. The Braves were a major part of that build. Since most nights in the spring featured baseball, the average number of weekly listeners and total listening nearly doubled from the winter at night. (It didn’t appear to help their morning numbers, which were flat.)
Eagle, ranked 19th, did about the same as it has in the recent past.
So the Bull, at least in the spring book, didn’t hurt the two other stations, which are both owned by Citadel.
Kiss 104.1 also had a great spring, ranking second among 25 to 54 year olds behind V-103 (which led in most major demos as usual). WSB-AM usually comes in second in that demographic but fell to third because of its Cox sister station.
The first full book for Randy & Spiff on WGST-AM showed some promise. On average, 94,300 people caught the show every week, the highest for the station’s morning time slot in at least a year. (The station ranked 22nd.)
Meanwhile, WSB-AM had a relatively weak spring, though it appears mostly on the younger end. The station ranked 2nd overall and third among 25 to 54 year olds but just 17th among 18 to 34 year olds. (That isn’t really WSB’s demo but the station ranked 12th a year ago in that age group and in an anomaly, 5th last summer.) WSB-AM’s strongest dayparts are in the morning.
The absence of Lite 94.9 has helped B98.5, the only non-Christian soft rock station in town. The station is now ranked 4th among 25-54, up from 9th a year ago.
Rock stations (including the River, 99X, Project and Dave) had a tough book. Their ratings were flat or falling. And notably, the “new” Morning X, which debuted last October, is not clicking in the ratings. It has fallen sharply since the fall, from a tie for 7th among 18 to 34 year olds to a tie for 11th in the winter to just 16th place this spring.
CJ’s arrival on the morning show at the Beat didn’t appear to have any impact early on. The show ranked 12th among 18 to 34 year olds compared to 11th a year ago and 7th in the winter (although the actual ratings drop was modest.)
Osei the Dark Secret’s final ratings quarter in mid-days on V-103 went just fine. He was No. 1 25-54 an 18-34 and actually outperformed both Frank & Wanda and Ryan Cameron. It’ll be interesting to see how his replacement Porsche Foxx does over the summer.
And looking at Cindy & Ray’s numbers on Star 94, it’s clear why they recently got a contract extension: they have consistently beaten the station as a whole the past year, ranking a tie for sixth among 18 to 34 year olds while the station overall ranked 10th. The show over the past year has performed better than morning cohorts Steve & Vikki.
The Fan had its best ratings book ever, according to president David Dickey. Typically the station lags the Zone in time spent listening while having a 50 percent lead (around 180,000 vs. 120,000) in overall listeners in a given week. Both the Rude Awakening and Buck & Kincade beat their Zone rivals, ranking fourth among men 25 to 54.
Here are the top 5 morning shows:
For 25-54:
Spring rank. Show. Station. Format. (Winter rank)
Frank & Wanda, V-103, R&B/hip-hop (2)
Scott Slade, 750/WSB-AM, news/talk (1)
Tom Joyner, Kiss 104.1, R&B (3)
Steve Harvey, Grown Folks 102.5, R&B (4)
Kelly & Alpha, B98.5, soft rock (5)
For 18-34
Frank & Wanda, V-103, R&B/hip hop (1)
The “A” Team, Hot 107.9, R&B/hip hop (2)
Bert Show, Q100, Top 40 (2)
Rosy and El Tigre, 105.3/El Patron, regional Mexican (3)
Steve Harvey, Grown Folks 102.5, R&B (16)
8/2: High ratings fuel ‘Closer’ renewal
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
For a year, my boss let me indulge my love for numbers and ratings by writing a weekly Nielsen ratings “winners and losers” story in the paper. But in our current reorganization, the emphasis in print is on local and unfortunately, Nielsen ratings didn’t fall under the new definition. But I’ll continue to do a modified version here in the blog. (There was a glitch in the software here and while I was traveling Wednesday, an unfinished version of this entry posted. I’m sorry about that.)
Last week was clearly sluggish for TV viewing, especially on the broadcast side where not a single show even broke 10 million viewers. In fact, the top basic cable show “The Closer” on TNT, with 7.2 million viewers, would have finished in the top 20 on broadcast TV (which is available to at least 15 million more households that don’t pay for cable or satellite TV.)
And to make things even more joyful for Kyra Sedgwick and company, TNT announced Wednesday that the show has been renewed for a fourth season next year, with a 15-episode run.
WINNERS
FX’s “Damages” — This Glenn Close legal drama opened virtually the same as two other original FX series, “Dirt” and “The Riches,” with 3.7 million July 24. For FX, that’s a solid number. The other two shows fell off sharply afterwards but got renewals.
MTV’s “Making the Band 4” — MTV hasn’t had a major hit in awhile and this is closest to one on the current lineup, finishing July 23 at nearly 3 million viewers.
ON THE FENCE
Comedy Central’s “Lil Bush” — This cartoon about Bush as if he were a child finished the season at 1.4 million viewers July 25 and averaged 1.6 million, a so-so performance that places it firmly on the fence in terms of a second-season renewal.
NBC’s “The Singing Bee” — This fast-paced karaoke fill-in-the-lyrics show, after a promising opening, has been losing steam quickly. After opening at 13.3 million viewers last month, it was down to 9.5 million by week three (July 24). Fortunately for host Joey Fatone & NBC, the show stabilized at about 9.8 million Tuesday night.
LOSERS
AMC’s “Mad Men” — After a passable 1.6 million sampled this drama about Madison Ave. ad men circa 1960 July 19, an alarming 37 percent fewer viewers checked in on July 26.
ABC’s “Six Degrees of Martina McBride” — Sure, Martina McBride is a popular country singer but this bizarre talent contest that began and ended in two hours turned off most viewers this past Monday. It drew just 4.3 million viewers with pitiful 18-49 numbers. That’s worse than that throwaway Victoria Beckham one-hour “special” last week.
ABC’s “Set For Life” — ABC was going to air this during the regular season but decided to dump this into the summer — for good reason. Sure, Jimmy Kimmel is riding high with his steadily rising late-night show (and his arrival in Atlanta), but this Friday night game show is DOA. Its second week dropped off to a relatively microscopic 3.7 million, already down from 4.1 million opening week.
ABC’s “Shaq’s Big Challenge” — Okay, I feel like I’m ragging on ABC but, well, things aren’t going so well for the network this summer — again. The closest thing they have to a “hit” is “Just for Laughs,” which is bringing in about 7 million viewers a night. This disappointing series about Shaquille O’Neal trying to get some fat kids to slim down finished at 5.5 million this past Tuesday. Watch for another obesity-themed reality show on August 10 called “Fat March.”
8/2: Kicks, Hot change slogans
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Kicks recently modified their slogan on the air, now calling themselves Kicks “Big” 101.5. Obviously, Kicks is trying to convey that they are “bigger” than new competitior the Bull. “We’ve been biggest hits, biggest stars” since last October. This is just a segue into that,” said GM Victor Sansone. “We should remind people we’re the big dog.” (The on-air change has not been reflected yet on the Kicks Web site.)
The Bull started the station in December with a similar slogan “the biggest hits, the biggest stars,” but in the springtime switched to “real comfortable country.”
Eagle hasn’t veered from its “country favorites and the best of today.”
Hot 107.9 this week began pushing the multimedia front, calling itself “digital hip hop,” with live online feeds, text messaging and IMing DJs. “We are evolving. We’re broadcasting in HD. We’re taking people to the Web site,” said general manager Wayne Brown. Previously, it had been using “supa station.”
Dave FM for the past few months has been using “music matters here,” probably because they don’t have a personality-based morning show (as of now.).
Project 9-6-1 since it opened in November has used “Play Hard, Live Loud.” That seems to fit the music and the tenor of the station.
99X for at least two years has been using “Everything Alternative.” There’s a perpetual debate over what “alternative” means and does being “everything” alternative truly resonate with the listeners?
Q100 is using a temporary “#1 summer” bit along with its “10 songs in a row, every hour” mantra.
Rival Star has been using thes same slogan for ages: “Always No. 1 for Today’s Music.”
And speaking of same slogan, 104.7 The Fish is sticking with “safe for the whole family,” implying that everything else on the AM/FM dial is unsafe at any speed.
And V-103 has been using “The People’s Station” for as long as I’ve been in town. It solidifies their role as the place to go for African Americans.
WGST has been using “Atlanta. Talk. Radio.” for quite awhile, trying to add drama with those period between the words.
WSB-AM too has kept the same one since 1991: “Atlanta news weather and traffic station. Depend on it.” It’s basic and descriptive.
680 the Fan has kept “Atlanta’s sports station” for years, also basic and descriptive.
The Zone uses “we know what guys want,” which the station launched about 18 months ago. This replaced “First for sports, first for fun” and “Atlanta’s sports leader.” ” ‘We know what guys want’ has broader appeal,” said Zone promotions manager Leslie Smith.
Smooth Jazz has a temporary “trip-a-day giveaway” slogan right now. And Praise has kept the same, steady “Atlanta’s inspiration station’ which has the benefit of rhyming. And 102.5 has the descriptor right in its name “Grown Folks Radio 102.5.” 97.1 The River is simply “classic hits.’
And last but not least, we can always make fun of B98.5’s “voted #1 again for most music while you work.” It’s a slogan Cox Radio uses at many of its AC stations across the country and is essentially disingenuous because nobody votes and nobody votes “again.”
Which are your favorite or most hated slogans in town?
8/1: Top songs in Atlanta
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
I’m going to be out of pocket most of today traveling to a convention in Miami. My postings will likely be a bit more sporadic the next few days.
In the interim, here are the most played songs on various Atlanta radio stations which play new songs for the week ending July 28, courtesy of Mediabase 24/7. As you can see, grammar and spelling and song titles don’t exactly go hand in hand:
95.5/The Beat: Rihanna “Umbrella” 98 spins; Plies “Shawty” 97 spins; T-Pain “Buy U a Drank” 96 spins
Hot 107.9: Soulja Boy “Crank That,” 67 spins; T.I. “Big Things Poppin’” 64 spins; Gucci Mane “Freaky Gurl” 62 spins
Kicks 101.5: Kenny Chesney “Never Wanted Nothing More,” 45 spins; Jason Aldean “Johnny Cash,” 42 spins, Keith Urban “I Told You So” 42 spins
Project 9-6-1 Disturbed “Stricken” 48 spins, Korn “Coming Undone” 46 spins: Nickelback “Animals” 46 spins
99X: White Stripes “Icky Thump” 46 spins; Smashing Pumpkins “Tarantula” 35 spins; Linkin Park “What I’ve Done” 35 spins
Star 94: Maroon 5 “Makes Me Wonder” 75 spins; Fergie “Big Girls Don’t Cry” 73 spins; Daughtry “Home” 73 spins; Plian White T’s “Hey There Delilah” 73 spins
94.9/The Bull: Kenny Chesney “Never Wanted Nothing More” 35 spins; George Strait “Wrapped” 33 spins; Sugarland “Everyday America” 33 spins
V-103: J. Holiday “Bed” 54 spins; Plies “Shawty” 45 spins; Fabolous “Make Me Better” 43 spins; R. Kelly “Same Girl” 43 spins
Q100: Sean Kingston “Beautiful Girls” 80 spins; Fergie “Big Girls Don’t Cry” 77 spins; Maroon 5 “Makes Me Wonder” 77 spins
Eagle 106.7: Jason Aldean “Johnny Cash” 32 spins; Taylor Swift “Teardrops on my Guitar” 31 spins; Kenny Chesney “Never Wanted Nothing More” 31 spins
92.9 Dave FM: Wilco “What Light” 19 spins; Amy Winehouse “You Know I’m No Good” 17 spins; March Broussard “Love and Happiness” 16 spins (Interestingly, the station has not added a new song onto its regular rotation since Gomez’s “Samoa Beach” on June 3.)
Smooth Jazz 107.5: Walter Beasley “Ready for Love” 28 spins; Paul Brown “The Rhythm Method” 28 spins; Brian Bromberg “Cantaloupe Island” 27 spins
105.3/The Fish: Lincoln Brewster “Love the Lord” 38 spins; Daughtry “Home” Jeremy Camp “Give You Glory” 35 spins; Rush of Fools “Undo” 35 spins
