Filed under: BROADCAST/CABLE
NBC is hoping that corporate synergy will help it to weather the ongoing strike by television writers. The network will begin broadcasting episodes of “Monk” and “Psych,” two popular series from its sister USA cable network. Both programs are produced by Universal Media Studios. (http://tvdecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/12/18/nbc-to-repurpose-usas-monk-and-psych 12/18)
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“Jimmy Kimmel Live,”‘ the late- night talk show on ABC, will produce new episodes in January without writers, following NBC’s decision to bring back “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.” New episodes of “Jimmy Kimmel Live” will begin airing Jan. 2. (http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601204&sid=aXxeN0ifL7Po 12/18)
The Hollywood writers strike is so far having virtually no impact on the broadcast networks outside of late night. Ratings are in fact down but not because of the strike. Driving the declines are factors such as increased DVR recording and normal audience erosion. (http://www.medialifemagazine.com/artman2/publish/Television_44/So_far_strike_hasn_t_hurt_the_networks.asp 12/18)
Cooking phenomenon Rachael Ray of The Food Network will debut a prime-time series Jan. 12 titled “Rachael’s Vacation,” in which she delves into culinary treasures around the world. The network also announced that it would produce 60 new episodes of “30 Minute Meals,” Ray’s daytime show. (Google/Associated Press 12/18)
USA got a strong performance from its “WWE Raw” wrestling series Dec. 10 to finish first in last week’s prime-time race among basic-cable channels. USA averaged a 1.2 during the week, according to Nielsen Media Research, and was closely followed by ABC Family and the Disney Channel, both of which averaged a 1.1 rating in prime time. (Multichannel News 12/18)
Showtime’s “Dexter,” one of the hottest shows on TV this season, attracted 1.4 million total viewers to the 9 p.m. showing of its season-two finale Dec. 10. A follow-up televising at 10 p.m. brought in an additional 382,000 viewers. (Yahoo!/Reuters/Hollywood Reporter 12/19)
VH1′s Monday night season finale of I Love New York 2 (9p) delivered 3.6 million A18-49 viewers, earning a 3.2 A18-49 rating. The final episode also drew in 5.4 million total viewers.
Highlights From the Finale
Just 28% of DVR users account for 72% of the time-shifting that is going on in TV land, according to a new study from Interpublic’s Magna Global. The finding suggests that most people with DVRs usually watch shows in real time and are not recording programs for later viewing. (MediaPost Communications 12/18)
Tribune Entertainment has closed its syndication distribution unit, though it will continue with its ad sales services, per Variety. For the shows the distribution arm had been handling including American Idol Rewind, the Dreamworks movie package, Ag Day and Soul Train, new distributors will be named for each of these shows. Earlier this year, Family Feud was moved to Debmar-Mercury.
The U.S. Federal Communications Commission is approving rules that allow publishers to own both newspapers and broadcast stations in the biggest U.S. cities and that limit growth for cable-television companies. The media marketplace is now “considerably different,” says chief Kevin Martin. (http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601204&sid=a9yU_ngJaKH8 12/18)
TVN Entertainment Corp. and Illusion TV formed a new multiyear, multiplatform partnership to launch and distribute Illusion On-Demand. TVN will distribute the free VOD network to 22 partner outlets including AT&T U-verse, RCN and Verizon. Programming on Illusion On-Demand consists of action series, news, talk, anime and movies in the sci-fi, fantasy and comic book genres.
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