Daily Marauder

BROADCAST/CABLE

You won’t have to wait until January 2009 for your next Jack Bauer fix - rather a 2 hour prequel is being developed to air in the fall, reports THR.  The prequel will bridge the previous season with the new upcoming season.  24 is produced by Imagine TV and 20th Century Fox TV.

CBS will premiere its two new dramas this summer: Swingtown on May 29 at 10p and Flashpoint will debut in July with a specific date announced later.

In the new VH1 series I Know My Kid’s A Star, Danny Bonaduce and Hollywood casting director and manager Marki Costello will find the next big child star. I Know My Kid’s A Star will premiere March 20 at 9p with a sneak peak of the first episode available via VH1.com on March 13. The eight, one-hour episodes will feature ten parent/child teams who will live together in a Los Angeles house, willing to do whatever it takes for the child to become famous.

VH1 also opens a new season of Celebrity Fit Club: Boot Camp on March 13 at 9p with several former Fit Club veterans returning to lose the last 10-20 pounds along with new recruits.

NBC is reportedly planning to renew the critically acclaimed but low-rated “Friday Night Lights” for a third season by partnering with Liberty Media’s DirecTV to share costs. Both NBC and DirecTV will air “Friday Night Lights” across multipurpose platforms.  (http://www.deadlinehollywooddaily.com/nbc-picking-up-friday-night-lights-after-partnering-on-it-with-directv/ 3/5)

Monday night’s season opener of Little People, Big World on TLC (8p) drew in 2.7 million total viewers and 1.3 million A25-54 viewers. In addition, the second new episode at 830p delivered even higher numbers as 3.5 million total viewers and 1.8 million A25-54 viewers tuned in.

Preview of Little People, Big World

TLC and Real Simple are teaming to develop multi-media lifestyle content for various platforms including television, print, radio, online and in-store events. Set to launch this August, TLC ordered 15 episodes of a primetime TV series based on the Real Simple brand and at the same time Real Simple will begin interactive digital content personalized for the consumer in addition to content in the magazine.   Mediaweek (3/5)

FX’s second season debut of Dirt starring Courteney Cox on Sunday (10p) averaged 1.7 million total viewers which is 54% less than the 3.7 million viewers who watched the series opener in January 2007. Production of the show was affected by the writer’s strike, as FX did not extend its order beyond the seven already completed episodes.

The final episode of The Millionaire Matchmaker on Bravo (10p) had 679,000 A18-49 viewers along with 938,000 total viewers. Afterward, the premiere of The Real Housewives of New York City (11p) attracted 659,000 A18-49 viewers and 824,000 total viewers.

Tivo reported a narrower net loss for Q4 on revenue of $74.1 million, down 3.5% from Q4 2006. The DVR maker is counting on partnerships with MSOs such as Cox and Comcast to increase its subscriber base. (No word on ad revenue, or whether or not DirecTV’s new owners are interested in renewing its past relationship with Tivo.) The company also added 109,000 Tivo-owned subscribers, bringing the total owned base to 1.75 million. Meanwhile Omnicon Media Group became the latest subscriber to the Stop||Watch DVR research service. 

North American cable companies saw revenues rise more than 13%, to $17.3 billion, in the fourth quarter of 2007, according to a new report from market-research company Ovum. Comcast, the largest cable provider in the U.S., led all cable MSOs in capex spending, the study added. (CED Magazine 3/5)

NFL  Commissioner Roger Goodell, locked in a bitter dispute with cable companies over the placement of his league’s NFL Network, told lawmakers that the FCC should crack down on cable companies. But a  Comcast spokesman, John Demming, said that putting the channel on its specialized sports tier was “the best and fairest way to provide their expensive programming to customers.”  (Yahoo!/Reuters  3/5)   

Verizon has acknowledged that a number of customers who signed up for a FiOS TV promotion to get a free Sharp HD set have not yet received them because of higher demand than expected for the offer. Verizon sent letters to consumers saying they would receive their gifts in 10 to 15 weeks. Alternatively, they could accept one of two offers: take a similar-model set from Magnavox or a $200 gift card from Best Buy. (The Wall Street Journal (free content)/Dow Jones Newswires 3/5, WCVB-TV (Boston) 3/5)