Filed under: BROADCAST/CABLE | Tags: Arts, Bob, Bob Weinstein, Harvey Weinstein, Make Me A Supermodel, Miramax, Miramax Films, The Weinstein Company
Bravo’s Thursday night finale of Make Me A Supermodel drew in 899,000 A18-49 viewers and 1.3 million total viewers. Then Bravo’s series premiere of Step It Up & Dance (11p) had 574,000 A18-49 viewers as well as 826,000 total viewers. (Cynopsis 4/7)
Make Me a Supermodel
Film distributors Bob and Harvey Weinstein, who turned Miramax into a major critical and financial success story, are getting into the TV-distribution business. First up will be “The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency,” which HBO is developing into a series. (C21 Media 4/7)
“Dance on Sunset,” a new show on Nickelodeon, is trying to stop couch potato syndrome, one choreographed step at a time. A central part of the show, which runs Sundays at 8:30 p.m., is that it encourages home viewers to get up and strut their stuff, just like in the old days on participatory shows such as “American Bandstand” and “Soul Train.” (The New York Times 4/5)
The choreographer Tony Testa, center, with the Nick 6 dancers from Nickelodeon’s new show “Dance on Sunset.”
On Friday, the Justice Department filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia against eight FOX-owned or affiliated stations to collect indecency fines totaling $56,000 associated with a 2003 airing of Married by America. (Cynopsis 4/7, http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/080405/fox_indecency.html 4/5)
Spike TV’s series premiere of DEA last Wednesday (11p) posted a 1.2 rating with 679,000 viewers among M-18-49 and a 1.2 rating with 341,000 viewers among M18-34. Elsewhere at Spike, the network has picked up the off-net series Married … with Children, distributed by Sony Pictures TV. The sitcom will join the schedule this fall. According to Variety, the deal will cost Spike $12 million for its 5-year license to air all 257 episodes. And finally, in the re-edited and updated version of Unsolved Mysteries distributed by HBO and set to air on Spike beginning in October, Dennis Farina has been engaged to host. (Cynopsis 4/7)
A study of big media companies from 2003 to 2007 suggests that they will end up smaller and that shrinkage may be here to stay. Behemoth Time Warner, from a combined market cap of $280 billion in 2000, has fallen to a meager $52 billion today and is under pressure to sell off assets. (Iwantmedia 4/7, http://publications.mediapost.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=Articles.showArticleHomePage&art_aid=80026 4/7)
Chief Sumner Redstone’s frayed relationship with his daughter, Shari, who is nonexecutive vice chairman of both Viacom and CBS, makes the issue of who will succeed him as controlling shareholder much more difficult. Shari was once regarded as the clear successor. (Iwantmedia 4/7, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/07/business/media/07redstone.html?_r=1&oref=slogin 4/7) 
Sumner Redstone and his daughter Shari have had a falling out, but she remains vice chairwoman of Viacom and CBS.
The DVR and other such devices have revolutionized the way people watch TV in a way that challenges the common assumptions about viewing habits, according to one observer who considers the implications of a media-saturated society in which watching television has morphed from a shared ritual into an increasingly individual experience. (The Wall Street Journal (free content) 4/7)
The cable TV industry in Tennessee has come to terms with AT&T on rules that will enable the telecom to offer video services in the state. The agreement details the number of customers that AT&T must serve and includes a minimum standard for low-income homes. (The Tennessean (Nashville) 4/7)
AZN Television will officially go off the air at noon Wednesday. The Comcast-owned operation is geared toward Asian-Americans and, in a statement, AZN officials expressed hope that other media companies could foster and develop Asian-American talent. (The Hollywood Reporter 4/6)
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