Studio Briefing

COLLEGE FOOTBALL THROWN FOR A BIG (RATINGS) LOSS

admin — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 19:10:13 +0000

The season debut of Saturday Night College Football on ABC produced ratings results no better than those for any of the regular throw-away shows that the networks tend to slough off to Saturday nights nowadays. According to overnight ratings, the game between LSU and North Carolina averaged just 4.21 million viewers, down 41 percent from last year’s season debut when 7.08 million tuned in to the Alabama vs. Virginia Tech contest. (Ratings for Saturday’s game are likely to rise slightly when final results are announced later today or tomorrow.) Some analysts commented that the results should not be interpreted as representing a diminished interest in college football. They noted that several of North Carolina’s top players were sidelined following revelations that some of them may have been receiving undisclosed “benefits” from sports agents and that others were receiving inappropriate help from tutors on papers that they were writing for class. The game also competed against the TCU-Oregon St. game on ABC’s sibling cable network, ESPN.

SCANDAL HITS BRITISH SCANDAL SHEET

admin — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 19:07:14 +0000

Revelations that Andy Coulson, British Prime Minister David Cameron’s chief spokesman, was allegedly aware of widespread illegal wiretapping being conducted by Britain’s News of the World when he edited the tabloid and that London police failed to investigate the wiretapping thoroughly in order to protect their relationship with the paper have begun to shake Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp empire. The revelations, appearing in the New York Times and Britain’s Guardian newspaper over the weekend, were “emphatically denied” by Coulson, a spokesperson said, but London police disclosed that they were studying them, particularly those of a former News of the World reporter, Sean Hoare, who claimed that Coulson had asked him to listen in on wiretapped conversations with celebrities and politicians. On Sunday, the News of the World claimed that the New York Times’s account was “motivated by commercial rivalry.” With calls for an official investigation growing louder in Parliament, questions were being raised about the extent of knowledge about the wiretapping within the News Corp empire: If it is determined that Coulson was in fact aware of it, did he inform higher-ups, and did they, in turn, inform Murdoch?

MADDOW: WHEN ANCHORS TRAVEL, THEIR RATINGS SHRINK

admin — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 19:01:47 +0000

Despite the widespread perception that TV news organizations send their top anchors to scenes of major events in order to boost their ratings, the opposite may be the result. Appearing on Jimmy Fallon’s late-night talk show on NBC, MSNBC host Rachel Maddow conceded that her on-the-scene reports about the pullout of the last combat troops from Iraq last month produced a small decline in her ratings. “It is sort of an acknowledged truth in the news business that whenever you leave the studio, your ratings go down — no matter where you’re going, even if you go somewhere to cover something very exciting, your ratings go down.” She thanked the network for making “this big sacrifice” in allowing her to travel to such places so that she could improve her understanding of the events she’s talking about. “I do feel I learn so much, so I think it’s cool that the company lets me go, because ratings go down every time you do it.” For CBS’s Katie Couric, her trip to Afghanistan last month became a ratings disaster. Each of her broadcasts from the country produced the lowest ratings in the history of the CBS Evening News. Likewise, Anderson Cooper’s reports from Haiti and the Gulf were down nearly 30 percent from his studio reports a year ago.

CLERIC BLASTS BBC FOR ANTI-CHRISTIAN BIAS

admin — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 18:56:09 +0000

Scotland’s highest-ranking Catholic clergyman, Cardinal Keith O’Brien, has accused the BBC of “a consistent anti-Christian institutional bias.” O’Brien, the archbishop of Edinburgh, said in an interview with the London Sunday Telegraph that the BBC is planning to air a documentary, Benedict — Trials of a Pope, that is intended to “humiliate the Pontiff on the eve of his visit to Britain.” He called the documentary, which deals with the child sex abuse scandal within the church, “a hatchet job.” Produced and narrated by Mark Dowd, a gay former Catholic priest, the documentary includes an interview with the Pope’s brother, Georg Ratzinger, who, a BBC press release states, “tells the BBC how his brother has been affected by recent scandals.” The BBC is planning to air hours of live and taped coverage of the Pope’s visit to Britain beginning September 15.

3D SAVES BOX OFFICE

admin — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 18:53:07 +0000

If it hadn’t been for 3D, the summer box office would have seen the worst returns in 13 years, figures released on Friday indicated. Ticket sales fell to 552 million, the fewest since 1997, although total receipts rose to a record $4.35 billion — up 2 percent from last summer. The results appeared to validate theater owners’ decision to install expensive 3D digital projectors and IMAX-dedicated auditoriums. But the Los Angeles Times observed on Saturday that the 3D phenomenon may be coming to an end. “Many in Hollywood concede that the public’s appetite for paying extra to put on glasses and see images leap out of the screen may already be reaching a limit,” the newspaper observed, noting that several recent 3D movies have bombed, including Cats and Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore, Step Up 3-D, and Piranha 3-D.

NEW TECHNOLOGY TRUMPS IN-ROOM HOTEL ENTERTAINMENT

admin — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 18:50:05 +0000

More and more travelers are taking their rented movies on the road with them to play on laptop computers or accessing them over the Internet via Netflix and other streaming services, resulting in the virtual destruction of in-room movie-rental services and impacting hotel revenue, the Los Angeles Times reported on Saturday. It noted that Sioux Falls-based Lodgenet saw its revenue drop 9.3 percent in 2009 to $484.5 million, then plummet this year when it reported a second-quarter loss of $3.1 million. Some hotel operators have given up hope of ever seeing a boost in the future for in-room entertainment. “That revenue is gone,” Matt Greene, general manager of the Hard Rock Hotel in San Diego, told the Times. “It’s nonexistent.”

THE AMERICAN CLAIMS VICTORY ON LABOR DAY WEEKEND

admin — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 22:58:27 +0000

Although Fox’s Machete took an early lead at the box office on Friday, Focus Features’s The American cut it down on Saturday and Sunday to wind up as the weekend winner, according to studio estimates. The results for The American were nothing to hoist a flag over, however. The film earned just about $12.3 million for the first three days of the Labor Day holiday, according to the estimates, and should end up at around $15 million for the four days. Machete, the latest from director Robert Rodriguez, was close behind with $12.3 million and should also wind up with around $15 million. Sony’s Takers, which took the box office championship last week, slipped to third place with $11.4 million, well ahead of The Last Exorcism, which dropped to fourth place with $7.7 million. Warner Bros.’ Going the Distance, starring Drew Barrymore, rounded out the top five with $7.1 million.

The top ten films for the weekend, according to studio estimates compiled by Box Office Mojo:
1. The American, $12.9 million; 2. Machete, $12.3 million; 3. Takers, $11.4 million; 4. The Last Exorcism, $7.7 million; 5. Going the Distance, $7.1 million; 6. The Expendables, $7 million; 7. The Other Guys, $5.1 million; 8. Eat Pray Love, $4.8 million; 9. Inception, $4.7 million; 10. Nanny McPhee Returns, $3.8 million.

TONIGHT‘S RATING DROP TO HISTORIC LOW

admin — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 18:39:56 +0000

Ratings for The Tonight Show over the summer have fallen to their lowest level in history, published reports observed today (Friday), citing Nielsen figures. Among 18-49 year olds, they’re 23 percent lower than they were last year when Conan O’Brien hosted the show (although they’re up 12 percent among total viewers). Nevertheless, the Jay Leno-hosted talk show continues to beat David Letterman by 22 percent, as Letterman’s ratings remain virtually unchanged from last year. Both shows have faced intense competition from ABC’s Nightline, which beat both of them last week. (The Tonight Show was in reruns.) Nightline averaged 3.33 million viewers versus 3.14 million for Leno’s The Tonight Show and 3.11 million for Letterman’s Late Show. Nightline also was No. 1 among viewers 25-54 and 18-49. Ratings for all three shows will be impacted by competition from TBS’s Conan beginning in November.

POLL: TV NO LONGER REGARDED AS NECESSITY

admin — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 18:38:41 +0000

Only two years ago, Americans considered the television set just below the automobile and the land-line telephone as a necessity in their lives. But according to a new survey from the Pew Research Center’s Social and Demographic Trends project, the percentage has dropped from 64 percent in 2006 to 42 percent this year. Last year it stood at 52 percent. Besides the car and phone, Americans regard the clothes dryer, air conditioner, PC, cell phone, and microwave as greater necessities. Among Americans 18-29, only 29 percent say they consider the television set a necessity of life. The study observed that the results represent a “confusing picture,” noting that “even as fewer Americans say they consider the TV set to be a necessity of life, more Americans than ever are stocking up on them.”

CBS NEWS HITS ALLEGATIONS THAT IT’S COLLAPSING

admin — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 18:37:16 +0000

Allegations appearing Thursday in Tina Brown’s TheDailyBeast.com that CBS News was in a virtual state of collapse as a result of massive cutbacks were later branded as “outright fabrications and distortions” by a CBS News spokesperson. Speaking to the Mediaite.com website, the spokesperson took aim at two assertions in the article that CBS News staffers were unable to get business cards because the person assigned to ordering them had “vanished” and that cell phone services had been blocked on BlackBerry devices issued to producers. The spokesperson called the allegations “nonsense,” adding, “I have no idea who [the writer] thinks vanished, but I can tell you there’s been no interruption in ordering business cards.” The spokesperson added that CBS News provides both cell phones and BlackBerrys to producers. “It costs more, but there has never even been consideration of cutting back on any of that.”