NBC Shares NTI Demos of last week's Prime

NBC PRIMETIME RESULTS FOR THE WEEK OF SEPT. 21-27

'NBC SUNDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL' IS THE #1 PROGRAM OF THE WEEK IN ADULTS 18-49

NBC SPORTS' COLTS-CARDINALS TELECAST PROPELS THE NETWORK TO A SUNDAY PRIMETIME WIN IN 18-49, TOTAL VIEWERS AND OTHER KEY MEASURES

ON TUESDAY, 'THE BIGGEST LOSER' POSTS YEAR-OVER-YEAR GAINS IN 18-49 AND TOTAL VIEWERS, DESPITE FIERCE PREMIERE-WEEK COMPETITION

ON WEDNESDAY, THE SERIES DEBUT OF 'MERCY' IS UP 44 PERCENT IN 18-49 VS. NBC'S 2008-09 REGULAR-SEASON AVERAGE IN THE SLOT, AND 'LAW & ORDER: SVU' IS UP 47 PERCENT

FRIDAY'S 'LAW & ORDER' SEASON DEBUT CAPTURES NBC'S BIGGEST OVERALL AUDIENCE IN THE SLOT SINCE JANUARY

UNIVERSAL CITY, Calif. September 29, 2009 Paced by "NBC Sunday Night Football," which was the #1 primetime telecast of the week in adults 18-49, NBC averaged a 2.7 rating, 8 share in 18-49 and 7.7 million viewers overall for the week of September 21-27, according to in-home viewing figures from Nielsen Media Research.

NBC Sports' "Sunday Night Football" telecast of the Indianapolis Colts versus the Arizona Cardinals topped the weekly primetime rankings in the key demographic of adults 18-49. "Sunday Night Football" also ranked #1 among all primetime programs in adults 25-54, men 18-49 and men 25-54. In total viewers, "SNF" ranked #4 among all telecasts this week.

Primetime averages for the week of September 21-27 in adults 18-49 were ABC (3.3/9), CBS (3.2/9), Fox (3.1/9), NBC (2.7/8) and CW (1.0/3). In overall total viewers the weekly averages were CBS (11.8 million), ABC (11.0 million), NBC (7.7 million), Fox (7.4 million) and CW (2.2 million).

NBC highlights for the week of September 21-27:

* NBC Sports' "Sunday Night Football" telecast of the Indianapolis Colts at the Arizona Cardinals propelled NBC to a convincing primetime win on Sunday night. NBC's margin of victory over the #2 network was 71 percent in adults 18-49 and 28 percent in total viewers.

* On Friday, the 20th season debut of "Law & Order" apprehended NBC's biggest overall audience in its time period since January 9.

* On Thursday, "The Office" ranked #1 in its highly competitive time period in men 18-34 and men 18-49 and #2 in adults 18-34, against such competition as the season premieres of ABC's "Grey's Anatomy" and CBS's "CSI." Also on Thursday, "Community" ranked #1 in its slot among the major networks in men 18-34 and #2 in adults 18-34.

* On Wednesday, the series debut of "Mercy" delivered a 44 percent increase in adults 18-49 and a 46 percent gain in total viewers versus NBC's average for the time period during the regular 2008-09 season. "Mercy" ranked #2 among the major networks in the hour in adults 25-54 and total viewers.

* Also on Wednesday, the 11th season premiere of "Law & Order: SVU" locked up gains of 47 percent in adults 18-49 and 43 percent in total viewers versus NBC's average in the slot last year during the traditional September-May season.

* On Tuesday, "The Biggest Loser" gained 21 percent in 18-49 rating and 27 percent or more than 1.8 million persons in total viewers from its first half-hour to its fourth, despite time-period competition that included a two-hour edition of "Dancing With the Stars" on ABC, a two-hour "Hell's Kitchen" on Fox, and the season debut of "NCIS" followed by the series debut of "NCIS: Los Angeles" on CBS. Versus the same night last year, "Loser" was up 3 percent in both 18-49 and total viewers

* Also on Tuesday, "The Jay Leno Show" ranked #1 among the major networks in its time period in adults 18-34, topping the series premieres of CBS's "The Good Wife" and ABC's "The Forgotten" in that valuable demographic.

* On Monday, the fourth-season premiere of "Heroes" averaged a 2.8 rating in adults 18-49 in a highly competitive time period that included Fox's season premiere of "House," ABC's season debut of "Dancing With the Stars" and the season premiere of CBS's Monday comedy block. The 2.8 rating for "Heroes" compares to the 2.7 rating in 18-49 that NBC averaged in this slot last season.

Ratings reflect "live plus same day" data unless otherwise noted. Season-to-date figures are averages of "live plus seven day" data except for the two most recent weeks, which are "live plus same day."

Additional NBC highlights for the week of September 21-27:

On Monday, September 21, from 8-10:01 p.m. ET, the fourth-season premiere of "Heroes" averaged a 2.8 rating, 7 share in adults 18-49 and 6.1 million viewers overall in a highly competitive time period that included Fox's two-hour season premiere of "House," ABC's two-hour season debut of "Dancing With the Stars" and the season premiere of CBS's two-hour Monday comedy block. The 2.8 rating for "Heroes" is comparable to the 2.7 rating in 18-49 that NBC averaged in this slot last season.

It is worth noting that "Heroes" has been one of the most time-shifted programs on network television, last season adding an average of 24 percent to its "live plus same day" rating in adults 18-49 when "live plus seven day" results were calculated.

Monday from 10:01-11 p.m. ET, "The Jay Leno Show" averaged a 1.8/5 in adults 18-49, a 2.2/5 in adults 25-54 and 5.8 million viewers overall. Time-period competition included the season debuts of CBS's "CSI: Miami" and ABC's "Castle."

Versus Jay Leno's 2008-09 average at 11:35 p.m. ET on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno," Monday's telecast was up in adults 18-49 (1.8 vs. 1.4), adults 25-54 (2.2 vs. 1.8) and total viewers (5.8 million vs. 5.1 million). Comparisons to NBC's Monday-through-Friday 10-11 p.m. ET non-sports average over the prior 52 weeks were: in adults 18-49 (1.8 vs. 2.2), adults 25-54 (2.2 vs. 2.7) and total viewers (5.8 million vs. 6.9 million).

On Tuesday, September 22 from 8-10:01 p.m. ET, "The Biggest Loser" averaged a 3.1/8 in adults 18-49 and 7.6 million viewers overall. Versus "The Biggest Loser's" results on the same night last year, last week's telecast was up 3 percent in both 18-49 (3.1 vs. 3.0) and total viewers (7.6 million vs. 7.4 million).

From its first half-hour to its fourth, "Loser" increased by 21 percent in 18-49 rating (to a 3.4/9 from a 2.8/8) and by 27 percent or more than 1.8 million persons in total viewers (to 8.5 million from 6.7 million), despite time-period competition that included a two-hour edition of "Dancing with the Stars" on ABC, a two-hour "Hell's Kitchen" on Fox and the season debut of "NCIS" followed by the series debut of "NCIS: Los Angeles" on CBS.

Tuesday from 10:01-11 p.m. ET, "The Jay Leno Show" averaged a 2.5/7 in adults 18-49, a 2.8/7 in adults 25-54 and 6.9 million viewers overall, versus time-period competition that included the series debuts "The Good Wife" on CBS and "The Forgotten" on ABC. "The Jay Leno Show" ranked #1 among the major networks in the hour in adults 18-34.

Versus Jay Leno's 2008-09 average at 11:35 p.m. ET on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno," Tuesday's telecast was up in adults 18-49 (2.5 vs. 1.4), adults 25-54 (2.8 vs. 1.8) and total viewers (6.9 million vs. 5.1 million). Versus NBC's Monday-through-Friday 10-11 p.m. ET non-sports average over the prior 52 weeks, Tuesday's telecast was comparable in adults 18-49 (2.5 vs. 2.2), adults 25-54 (2.8 vs. 2.7) and total viewers (6.9 million vs. 6.9 million).

On Wednesday, September 23 from 8-9 p.m. ET, the series premiere of "Mercy" (2.3/7 in 18-49, 8.4 million viewers overall) ranked #2 among the major networks in adults 25-54 and total viewers. Versus NBC's average in this time period during the regular 2008-09 season, "Mercy" was up 44 percent in 18-49 rating (2.3 vs. 1.6) and 46 percent or more than 2.6 million persons in total viewers (8.4 million vs. 5.7 million). From half-hour to half-hour, "Mercy" increased in adults 18-49 (to a 2.4 from a 2.3), adults 25-54 (to 2.9 from 2.8) and adults 18-34 (to 1.7 from 1.5).

Wednesday from 9-10 p.m. ET, the 11th season premiere of "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" averaged a 2.5/7 in adults 18-49 and 8.4 million viewers overall. This marks NBC's top 18-49 and total-viewer results in this time period during the traditional September-May season since October 29, 2008. Versus NBC's average in this time period during the regular 2008-09 season, "SVU" was up 47 percent in 18-49 rating (2.5 vs. 1.7) and 43 percent or 2.5 million persons in total viewers (8.4 million vs. 5.9 million). From its first half-hour to its second, "SVU" grew by 13 percent in adults 18-49 (to a 2.7/7 from a 2.4/6) and by 11 percent in total viewers (to 8.8 million from 8.0 million).

Wednesday from 10:01-11 p.m. ET, "The Jay Leno Show" averaged a 2.0/5 in adults 18-49, a 2.3/6 in adults 25-54 and 6.4 million viewers overall. Wednesday's time-period competition included the season premiere of CBS's "CSI: NY" and the series premiere of ABC's "Eastwick."

Versus Jay Leno's 2008-09 average at 11:35 p.m. ET on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno," Wednesday's telecast was up in adults 18-49 (2.0 vs. 1.4), adults 25-54 (2.3 vs. 1.8) and total viewers (6.4 million vs. 5.1 million). Comparisons to NBC's Monday-through-Friday 10-11 p.m. ET non-sports average over the prior 52 weeks were: in adults 18-49 (2.0 vs. 2.2), adults 25-54 (2.3 vs. 2.7) and total viewers (6.4 million vs. 6.9 million).

On Thursday, September 24 from 8-8:30 p.m. ET, "Saturday Night Live Weekend Update Thursday" averaged a 1.7/5 in adults 18-49 and 4.5 million viewers overall. At 8:30 p.m., "Parks and Recreation" (1.8/5 in 18-49, 4.1 million viewers overall) built on its 18-49 lead-in by 6 percent in adults 18-49 and by 33 percent in adults 18-34 (to a 2.0 from a 1.5).

Thursday from 9-9:31 p.m. ET, "The Office" (3.9/10 in 18-49, 7.5 million viewers overall) ranked #1 in its highly competitive time period in men 18-34 and men 18-49 and #2 in adults 18-34, against competition that included the season premieres of ABC's "Grey's Anatomy" and CBS's "CSI."

Thursday from 9:31-10:01 p.m., "Community" (2.7/7 in 18-49, 5.4 million viewers overall) ranked #1 among the major networks in the half-hour in men 18-34 and #2 in adults 18-34.

Thursday from 10:01-11 p.m. ET, "The Jay Leno Show" averaged a 1.7/5 in adults 18-49, a 2.1/5 in adults 25-54 and 5.1 million viewers overall. Thursday's time-period competition included the season premiere of CBS's "The Mentalist" and the concluding hour of the season premiere of ABC's "Grey's Anatomy."

Versus Jay Leno's 2008-09 average at 11:35 p.m. ET on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno," Thursday's telecast was up in adults 18-49 (1.7 vs. 1.4) and adults 25-54 (2.1 vs. 1.8) and comparable in total viewers (5.1 million vs. 5.1 million). Comparisons to NBC's Monday-through-Friday 10-11 p.m. ET non-sports average over the prior 52 weeks were: in adults 18-49 (1.7 vs. 2.2), adults 25-54 (2.1 vs. 2.7) and total viewers (5.1 million vs. 6.9 million).

On Friday, September 25 from 8-9 p.m. ET, the 20th season premiere of "Law & Order" averaged a 1.2/4 in 18-49 and 6.2 million viewers overall. "Law & Order" apprehended NBC's biggest overall audience in the time period since January 9, ranking #2 in the slot among the major networks in total viewers. From its first half-hour to its second, "Law & Order" increased by 18 percent in adult 18-49 rating (to a 1.3 from a 1.1) and 13 percent in 25-54 rating (1.7 vs. 1.5).

Friday from 9-10:01 p.m. ET, "Dateline NBC" (1.5/5 in 18-49, 6.0 million viewers overall) tied for #2 among the major networks in adults 18-49 and ranked #2 outright in total viewers, adults, men and women 25-54 and women 18-49.

Friday from 10:01-11 p.m. ET, "The Jay Leno Show" averaged a 1.6/5 in adults 18-49, a 2.0/6 in adults 25-54 and 5.8 million viewers overall. Friday's time-period competition included the season premiere of CBS's "Numb3rs" and ABC's "20/20." In the time slot, "The Jay Leno Show" ranked #2 among the major networks in adults 18-34 and tied for #1 in men 18-34.

Versus Jay Leno's 2008-09 average at 11:35 p.m. ET on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno," Friday's telecast was up in adults 18-49 (1.6 vs. 1.4), in adults 25-54 (2.0 vs. 1.8) and in total viewers (5.8 million vs. 5.1 million). Comparisons to NBC's Monday-through-Friday 10-11 p.m. ET non-sports average over the prior 52 weeks were: in adults 18-49 (1.6 vs. 2.2), adults 25-54 (2.0 vs. 2.7) and total viewers (5.8 million vs. 6.9 million).

On Saturday, September 26 from 8-8:30 p.m. ET, an encore telecast of "Law & Order" averaged a 0.6/2 in 18-49 and 3.3 million viewers overall. At 9 p.m., a rebroadcast of "Mercy" (0.9/3 in 18-49, 3.9 million viewers overall) built on its lead-in from the previous hour by 50 percent in adults 18-49.

Saturday at 10 p.m. ET, an encore telecast of "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" (1.3/4 in 18-49, 5.1 million viewers overall) built on its lead-in from the previous hour by 44 percent in 18-49 rating. "SVU" was the #1 non-sports choice in the hour among the major networks in adults, men and women 18-34.

On Sunday, Sept. 27, the "NBC Sunday Night Football" telecast of the Indianapolis Colts at the Arizona Cardinals propelled NBC to a convincing Sunday win in total viewers, adults 18-34, adults 18-49, adults 25-54 and all key adult-male demos. For its full duration, the Colts-Cardinals game averaged a 6.8/17 in adults 18-49, 17.5 million viewers overall and a 10.7/17 household rating/share from 8:31-11:13 p.m. ET.

For the night (from 7:30-11 p.m. ET), NBC averaged a 5.8/16 in adults 18-49 and 15.2 million viewers overall. NBC's margin of victory over the #2 network in adults 18-49 was 71 percent (5.8 vs. a 3.4 for Fox) and in total viewers it was 28 percent, or 3.3 million persons in total viewers (15.2 million vs. 11.9 million for CBS).

Also on Sunday, "Football Night in America 2" from 7:30-7:56 p.m. ET averaged a 2.7/9 in 18-49, 6.8 million viewers overall and a 4.3/8 household rating/share. "Football Night in America 3" from 7:56-8:22 p.m. delivered a 3.7/11 in 18-49, 9.6 million viewers overall and a 6.0/10 in households. From 8:22-8:31 p.m., "NBC Sunday Night Football Pre Kickoff" averaged a 4.9/14 in 18-49, 13.3 million viewers overall and an 8.2/14 in households. Note: "Football Night in America" from 7-7:30 p.m. ET was sustaining programming and does not figure in the nightly or weekly primetime averages.

Sports Specials Changes This Fall

NBC has just announced a series of ISU Skating Grand Prix events from all over the world, and my clients all have new inventory and estimates in Winter Sports. They've also moved a couple of other sports specials on the calendar.

Please take a look at the very solid delivery of 18-49 and 25-54 Women in these skating specials, timed perfectly for Christmas advertisements.

Oh, and APT will be shutting down over the weekend. They claimed they were going to make lots of improvements, but from what I can tell, it will bring APT up to.. 1992.

Brian Williams Adds Audience in Past Season

from Lloyd Siegel.. a real gentleman @ NBC

"NBC NIGHTLY NEWS WITH BRIAN WILLIAMS" WINS THE 2008-09 SEASON IN ALL CATEGORIES

"NBC Nightly News" is The Only Evening News Broadcast to Add Total Viewers for the Season

'World News' and 'Evening News' Post Their Lowest-Ever Total Viewer Delivery For A Season

For the week of Sept. 14, "Nightly" Tops the Competition with a 717K Lead Over ABC

NEW YORK - September 22, 2009 - "NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams" was the most-watched evening news broadcast of the 2008-09 season, according to Nielsen Media Research data. For the season, "NBC Nightly News" averaged 8.609 million total viewers, a +10% advantage (+791,000) over ABC "World News'" 7.818 million, and +42% more (+2.556 million) than "CBS Evening News'" 6.053 million total viewers. "Nightly" increased its total viewer advantage over "World News" to +791,000 total viewers, versus a +340,000 lead during the 2007-08 season. "Nightly" had its best total viewer delivery and best total viewer advantage over "World News" since the 2005-06 season, and the best total viewer advantage over "Evening News" since the 1994-95 season. "Nightly" has now won 13 consecutive seasons in total viewers.

Versus the 2007-08 season, "Nightly" was the only newscast to show year-to-year growth. "Nightly" added +88,000 viewers this season, while "World News" dropped by -363,000 viewers and "Evening News" lost -103,000 viewers. Both ABC and CBS had their lowest-ever total viewer season deliveries since at least the start of the People Meters.

In homes for the 2008-09 season, "Nightly" averaged a 5.7 rating and a 12 share, +8% more than "World News'" 5.3/11 rating, and a +39% lead over "Evening News'" 4.1/8 rating. This is the 13th consecutive season win for "NBC Nightly News" in homes (including one tie).

Among the key demographic adults 25-54, "Nightly News" delivered a 2.1 rating for the season topping "World News'" 1.9 rating by +11%, and "Evening News'" 1.5 rating by +40%. "Nightly" beat ABC by +320,000 and CBS by +853,000 viewers in the key A25-54 demo for the season. This represents "Nightly's" 13th consecutive season win in rating adults 25-54 (including 1 tie) and its best adults 25-54 (000) advantage over both "World News" and "Evening News" since the 2002-03 season. "World News" had its lowest-ever rating adults 25-54 season delivery since at least the start of the People Meters.

"NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams" also won the week of September 14-20, 2009 delivering 8.152 million total viewers, +717,000 more than ABC "World News'" 7.435 million, and +2.929 million more than CBS "Evening News'" 5.223 million. CBS "Evening News" is based on a four-day average with Monday excluded. "Nightly" has now won 48 of the past 49 weeks.

Among the key demographic adults 25-54 for the week, "Nightly News" delivered a 1.9 rating, ahead of ABC's 1.7 rating and CBS' 1.2 rating. In homes, "Nightly News" won by increasing to a 5.5 rating and a 12 share. In second place, ABC drew a 5.0/10 rating, and CBS posted a 3.6/8 rating.

On its digital platforms, "NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams" continued its strong performance with more than 3.3 million online streams for the week ending September 19, 2009.

Friday Night's Dateline: Jacko's Rabbi's Tapes

September 23, 2009
HEAR THE KING OF POP IN HIS OWN WORDS THIS FRIDAY, SEPT. 25 IN "THE MICHAEL JACKSON TAPES: A 'DATELINE' EXCLUSIVE"

Meredith Vieira Interviews Rabbi Shmuley Boteach About His Recordings With Jackson Being Made Public for the First Time

Rabbi Shmuley Boteach to Appear Live on "Today" on Friday, Sept. 25 and Tuesday, Sept. 29


(NEW YORK) - September 23, 2009 - As investigations into the death of Michael Jackson continue to take center stage, viewers will have a rare chance to hear the King of Pop in his own words this Friday, Sept. 25 in a "Dateline" exclusive, reported by Meredith Vieira. From 1999 to 2001, Jackson was a friend of Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, and he often confided in him. And now, recordings of those conversations -- made with Jackson's permission -- will be made public for the first time.

In the tapes, Jackson comes out from behind his mask to reveal a man who in spite of all his fame, success and musical talent, was desperately lonely. He dishes about celebrities like Madonna and Brooke Shields, but also talks openly about his love of children, the torment of his childhood and his deepest fears. For the one hour special, Vieira interviews Rabbi Boteach, who calls himself "America's Rabbi," about their conversations, detailed in his new book, The Michael Jackson Tapes: A Tragic Icon Reveals His Soul in Intimate Conversation. Rabbi Boteach will also appear live on "Today," Friday, Sept. 25 and Tuesday, Sept. 29.

In my professional opinion, this Dateline will deliver higher demographics in LPM and National Peoplemeter markets than the average 2 hour Friday night Dateline. Now, pardon me, but after I add this special to my client inventories, I'm gonna have to take a shower.

Thursday Night's Ratings for NBC Prime

NBC PRIMETIME RATINGS RESULTS FOR SEPT. 17, 2009

UNIVERSAL CITY, Calif. September 18, 2009 The following are NBC primetime ratings results for September 17.

From 8-8:30 p.m. ET, NBC's "Saturday Night Live Weekend Update Thursday" averaged a 2.0/7 in adults 18-49 and 5.7 million viewers overall. "Saturday Night Live Weekend Update Thursday" matched NBC's highest non-sports 18-49 rating in the slot since April 30 and attracted NBC's biggest non-sports overall audience in the time period since April. 9.

From 8:30-9 p.m. ET, the second season premiere of "Parks and Recreation" delivered a 2.1/6 in adults 18-49 and 5.0 million viewers overall, improving on its 18-49 lead-in from "Saturday Night Live Weekend Update Thursday" by 5 percent in adults 18-49 and 18 percent in adults 18-34 (2.0 vs. 1.7).

From 9-9:30 p.m. ET, the sixth season premiere of "The Office" averaged a 4.0/11 in adults 18-49 and 8.1 million viewers overall, making "The Office" the #1 telecast of the night in 18-49. In the time period, "The Office" was #1 among the major networks in every key demographic.

From 9:30-10 p.m. ET, the series premiere of "Community" delivered a 3.7/10 in adults 18-49 and 7.7 million viewers overall, retaining 93 percent of its 18-49 lead-in from "The Office." That's NBC's highest retention to date of an original "Office" lead-in in this time period. "Community" scored NBC's highest non-sports 18-49 rating and biggest non-sports overall audience in the time period since April 2, the night of the "ER" finale. "Community" won the time period in adults, men and women 18-34; adults, men and women 18-49; and adults and women 25-54.

From 10-11 p.m. ET, "The Jay Leno Show" averaged a 2.7 rating, 8 share in adults 18-49, a 3.3/9 in adults 25-54 and 8.5 million viewers overall.

"The Jay Leno Show" ranked #1 among the major networks in the time period in adults 18-49, #1 in adults 25-54 (the key demographic for late local news) and #2 in total viewers. Last night's time-period competition included CBS's "Mentalist" encore and ABC's "Private Practice" rebroadcasgt.

"The Jay Leno Show" delivered NBC's highest non-sports 18-49 rating in the time period since April 9 and biggest non-sports overall audience since April 16.

Versus Jay Leno's 2008-09 average at 11:35 p.m. ET on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno," last night's telecast was up substantially in adults 18-49 (2.7 vs. 1.4), adults 25-54 (3.3 vs. 1.8) and total viewers (8.5 million vs. 5.1 million). Versus NBC's Monday-through-Friday 10-11 p.m. ET non-sports average over the prior 52 weeks, last night's telecast was also up substantially in adults 18-49 (2.7 vs. 2.2), adults 25-54 (3.3 vs. 2.7) and total viewers (8.5 million vs. 6.9 million).

NBC is #1 among the major networks for the night in adults, men and women 18-34 and men 18-49 (tie).

Preliminary 18-49 averages for Wednesday night are: Fox, 3.0/9; NBC, 2.9/8; CBS, 2.5/7; CW, 1.4.4; and ABC, 1.3/4. In overall total viewers, September 17 preliminary results are: CBS, 9.7 million; Fox, 9.0 million; NBC, 7.3 million; ABC, 4.4 million; and CW, 3.3 million.

Note that all national ratings are "live plus same day" unless otherwise indicated.

Mountain Time Zone Clients

I can access Wyoming and Montana. However, we still have issues with the Idaho server running in Pocatello. More info to come.. 30 hours later, I can now access Idaho. Changes being made for my Fox and NBC clients there.

New York Times Examines Leno Premiere Ratings

September 15, 2009, 11:45 am
Leno Ratings Exceed Expectations
By Bill Carter
Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images Jay Leno

NBC succeeded in creating a television event with the premiere of Jay Leno’s new prime time hour as almost 18 million viewers showed up. Mr. Leno’s audience was almost NFL sized - two games on NBC last week reached just over 20 million and were the most watched sports events since the Super Bowl.

For NBC the other good news was how broad the interest was in Mr Leno’s return. He scored a hit rating of 5.1 in the age group NBC most prizes - viewers between 18 and 49 (about 6.7 million viewers) - but he was even bigger with older groups, hitting a 6.2 rating among viewers 25 to 54 and a huge 10.8 rating among viewers over 50.

The show held viewers well through the hour, losing about 800,000 for the 10:30 half hour but it added younger viewers in that half hour.

NBC gave Mr. Leno the best lead-in it could with the finale of its hit summer talent series “America’s Got Talent,” which had a last half hour audience of 15.2 million. But Mr. Leno immediately improved on that, climbing to 18.1 million for his first half hour back on television after a three month absence.

NBC got a similar great start for Conan O’Brien in his first “Tonight Show” appearance as Mr. Leno’s replacmenrlt: He reached 9.2 million his first night. He’s levelled off since and NBC expects Mr. Leno to do the same. But for a first night his results exceeded most expectations.

NBC Football Kickoff Ratings from Sept 10th

[09.11.09 - 08:51 AM]
NBC SPORTS SCORES BEST NFL KICKOFF IN 7 YEARS
Released by NBC
[NOTE: The following article is a press release issued by the aforementioned network and/or company. Any errors, typos, etc. are attributed to the original author. The release is reproduced solely for the dissemination of the enclosed information.] Thanks, FutonCritic.

NBC SPORTS SCORES BEST NFL KICKOFF IN 7 YEARS

Best Overnight Sports Rating Since Super Bowl XLIII; Best Overnight Primetime Rating Since American Idol Finale

NBC Dominates Competition in Primetime Beating Second Place CBS by 144 %

NEW YORK - Sept. 11, 2009 - Last night's Titans-Steelers game on NBC Sports was the highest rated NFL Kickoff in seven years, had the best overnight sports rating since Super Bowl XLIII, the best overnight primetime rating since the American Idol finale and dominated the other networks according to data released today by Nielsen Media Research.

The game won by the Steelers 13-10 in overtime, scored a 13.8 overnight rating/23 share (8:45-11:45 p.m. ET), the highest rating for the Thursday NFL Kickoff since the inaugural game on network television (14.5/23 on ABC in 2003).

- BEST SINCE SUPER BOWL: Last night's game had the best overnight rating for any sporting event since Super Bowl XLIII, which was the most watched broadcast in U.S. television history. The Titans-Steelers game also generated the highest overnight rating for any primetime show on any broadcast network since the American Idol finale (15.3/25 on 5/20/09).

- DOMINATED PRIMETIME: NBC dominated primetime (8-11 p.m.) with a 12.2/20 average in the metered markets, establishing a 144 percent margin of victory over CBS's second-place 5.0/8 and more than quadrupling each of the other broadcast networks -- CW, 2.7/4; ABC, 2.6/4; Fox, 2.6/4.

- UP 37% OVER LAST YEAR: Last night's game was up 37 percent from the 2008 NFL Kickoff (Giants-Redskins, 10.1/17), which started early to allow coverage of the Republican National Convention, up six percent from the 2007 NFL Kickoff (Colts-Saints, 13.0/21) and up two percent from the 2006 NFL Kickoff (Dolphins-Steelers, 13.5/22).

- The rating peaked during the overtime period at a 15.0/29 from 11:30-11:45 p.m. ET.

TOP RATED SPORTS PROGRAMS SINCE SUPER BOWL XLIII
*Based on overnight ratings
1. NFL Kickoff (Titans-Steelers) 13.8/23 NBC
2. NCAA Championship (Mich. St-UNC) 11.9/19 CBS
3. NBA Finals, Gm. 4 (Lakers-Magic) 10.9/19 ABC
4. MLB All-Star Game 10.4/18 Fox
5. Kentucky Derby 10.2/22 NBC
6. NBA Finals, Gm. 3 10.1/17 ABC
7. NBA Finals, Gm. 2 9.9/17 ABC
8. NBA Finals, Gm. 5 9.4/16 ABC
9. NCAA Semifinal (Villanova-UNC) 9.3/17 CBS
10. NBA Finals, Gm. 1 8.9/15 ABC

NFL KICKOFF - THURSDAY NIGHT SEASON OPENERS OVERNIGHT RATINGS:
2009: NBC 13.8/23 (Pittsburgh 13 - Tennessee 10)
2008: NBC 10.1/17 (NY Giants 16 - Washington 7)
2007: NBC 13.0/21 (Indianapolis 41 - New Orleans 10)
2006: NBC 13.5/22 (Pittsburgh 28 - Miami 17)
2005: ABC 13.1/22 (New England 30 - Oakland 20)
2004: ABC 12.6/20 (New England 27 - Indianapolis 24)
2003: ABC 14.5/23 (Washington 16 - NY Jets 13)
*2002 ESPN 7.6/13 (Houston 19 - Dallas 10)
*U.S. HH Rating: overnight rating not available

TOP 10 METERED MARKETS FOR LAST NIGHT'S GAME
1. Pittsburgh, 49.6/70
2. Nashville, 40.1/56
3. Baltimore, 20.5/33
4. Las Vegas, 20.0/32
5. New Orleans, 18.8/27
6. Cleveland, 18.7/30
7. Memphis, 18.2/25
8. Knoxville, 18.0/27
9. Washington D.C., 17.3/29
10. Norfolk, 16.9/27

Holiday Weekend? Not for NBC Changes.....

Check this out...

Posted: 09/04/2009 06:39:48 PM
Air Date: 12/05/2009 Saturday
Start Time: 02:00:00 PM [ET]
Show Name: NBC SPORTS SPECIALS
Duration: 01:00:00
Type: Program Deletion
Message: Program Deletion: Baja 1000

And 8 other sports changes posted to APT after 5pm on Friday on Labor Day Weekend.

See what I mean about Friday afternoons in New York City?

NBC Carries Obama Live in Prime Next Wednesday

Eastern and Central Time Zones will have their first hour of prime replaced with President Obama's Address to Congress about Health Care. Here's a surprise... Fox hasn't announced their plans to carry this address.

Why is it so many Americans can't understand this is simply an extension of Medicare or VA Health Care type services and not the end of private choice? Last I checked, there are no "death panels" at VA Hospitals. And my parents seem to get by with Medicare.

Winter Holiday Specials Announced..

Plus, NBC replaces Office and Community Saturday encores with Law & Order encores beginning September 26th.

Clients will see these changes later today, or as late as tomorrow morning... ODI's proprietary support network used to access my clients will undergo an upgrade in our Birmingham offices later this evening, so my usual evening work hours will be impacted.

Sunday Night Football Ratings from Last Night

"NBC SUNDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL" SCORES BEST NFL PRESEASON OVERNIGHT IN 5 YEARS

Sunday Night Football Dominates the Night, Delivering Peacock's Best Sunday Night Performance Since Super Bowl

NEW YORK August 31, 2009 NBC Sports' "Sunday Night Football" preseason game last night delivered the best overnight rating for any NFL preseason game on any network in five years. The 7.3 overnight rating and 12 share (8-11 p.m. ET) for the Chicago Bears-Denver Broncos preseason contest was the best since the 8.2/13 for the Titans-Cowboys preseason game on August 30, 2004.

Sunday Night Football was the No. 1 telecast of the night in the metered markets and dominated its time period, more than doubling second-place CBS in the time slot (7.3 vs. 3.4). NBC averaged a 6.4/11 from 7-11 p.m. ET, representing the network's highest Sunday primetime average in the metered markets since Super Bowl XLIII on Feb. 1.

The broadcast, which featured Bears QB Jay Cutler's return to Denver after his off-season trade from the Broncos to the Bears, peaked at an 8.2/14 from 9-9:30 p.m. ET. The preseason game was won by the Bears 27-17.

Top 10 Metered Markets:
1. Denver, 25.9/45
2. Chicago, 22.6/36
3. Las Vegas, 12.1/19
4. Milwaukee, 11.0/18
5. Albuquerque, 10.7/17
6. Nashville, 10.6/16
7. Jacksonville, 10.4/16
8. Oklahoma City, 10.1/15
9. New Orleans, 9.1/13
10. Indianapolis, 8.8/14

NBC Colors Peacock; Proud of Press Coverage

ATTENTION NBC AFFILIATE BOARD, GENERAL MANAGERS AND CORPORATE EXECS

On Friday (8/28) you all received a notice from Jean Dietze and I about the New Fall Branding initiative and the information regarding program formats, etc. Below you will see an article that will come out online this evening (Sunday - 8/30) and in printed form in Monday morning's Variety (and a few other outlets) discussing the NBC brand.

We wanted you to have the article ASAP.

Be on the lookout in the next several days with more information about this and other matters on the 2009 Fall Launch and The Jay Leno Show.

-Scot


Colorful new peacock for NBC
Network's old icon is new again
By Michael Schneider

NBC is about to get a little "more colorful."
As part of a major branding makeover, the Peacock will unveil a new slogan for the net, as well as a new on-air look, on Sept. 14 -- the night that "The Jay Leno Show" debuts.
The tagline "more colorful" will begin popping up in NBC promos at that time as text onscreen -- but never actually voiced on-air.
The phrase is a conscious throwback to both the net's famous colorful peacock icon, as well as the announcement regularly heard on the net at the dawn of color TV: "The following program is brought to you in living color on NBC."
"Sometimes the most powerful ideas are the ones staring at you in the face," said NBC Entertainment marketing prexy Adam Stotsky. "The NBC peacock is 53 years old but has incredible heritage and brand equity. We've seen research that suggests an incredible unaided awareness that the icon means NBC."
NBC will introduce "more colorful" to promos and campaigns supporting Peacock programming rather than introducing spots that just focus on the network.
"Color," Stotsky added, "is also what we strive to do in our programming."
The on-air makeover comes as NBC's programming and marketing teams pore over data from an internal study over what the Peacock brand is and what it should be.
"Our brand is significantly defined by the shows we put on," said NBC Universal TV Group chief marketing officer John Miller. "Part of that effort we went through... was the idea of our internal brand guidelines, to recapture the heritage of NBC."
NBC began the exercise late last year, tapping global marketing firm Naked Communications to help reposition the net's once-storied brand.
The Peacock's Nielsen woes, coupled with its unprecedented decision to move Jay Leno into the 10 p.m. slot five nights a week this fall, gave the execs reason to start thinking how to reposition the network.
"NBC has admittedly not been as strong over the last five years," Miller said. "But the things that never wavered were those icons and people's memories of NBC... Something that connects and is a part of our legacy is a natural. Our goal now is to make sure we have shows that people will want to watch."
Execs declined to elaborate on the brand study's internal findings and how the net's programming team may adjust their thinking on what NBC should be developing.
"We need to prove our chops first," Miller said.

Senator Edward Kennedy Funeral Sat AM

Live for about two hours tomorrow, beginning at 10am EDT.

Since each station's last minute traffic scramble will be different, and air date is tomorrow morning, my coming up with an audience estimate for an event without spots is fairly useless. However, if you want estimates, just let me know.

July Installs Complete

Very early this morning, I finished the last four of my clients' July installs. Everyone has a new JULYES Selling Book, using JULY 09 PVT levels and JULY 09 PAV shares whenever possible. In addition, I've updated sports to reflect higher July 09 PVT levels than JULY 08 previously used in SPORTES selling books.

The July book is commonly thought of as a throw-away at local stations.. it shows local TV and network at their worst performance of the year, and plays right into the hands of basic cable who treats it as their perfect opportunity.

In addition, most agencies try to ignore the July books unless in negotiations, so it's understandable why stations largely ignore this data.

What a shame. For the next five weeks, local TV salespeople have, without question, the most detailed, accurate, trusted, most recent and expensive in-depth survey possible; a huge sample of your advertisers' potential and returning customers personal, private behavior done behind closed doors in the last 7 weeks, during this "one of a kind Summer of Recession" (I also write Lexus ads).

In smaller markets, where the July book is often totally ignored, the sample size in diaries divided by DMA household is simply staggering. But.. I'm beating a dead horse. Use the July book for local, direct sales with business decision makers who are actively seeking a way to survive this summer, ok?

Southland Premiere Delayed 4 Weeks

Dateline will fill the second hour of prime on Fridays until 10/16.

I'll begin updating my clients as soon as I finish installing the July data on the Sunbelt servers now they can be reached.

Ted Kennedy Coverage Limited By NBC

IMO, NBC is treating the passing of Senator Ted Kennedy with dignity and without rating-grabbing, exploitative programming.

The half hour NBC Nightly newscast scheduled for this evening will be optionally extended by half an hour, which should not impact anyone's prime advertising campaigns.

Figure Skating Special added for January 23rd Prime

Figure skating delivers female demos with a certainty unlike any other programming on NBC. In addition to daytime broadcasts (in HD, of course) of US Figure Skating Championships on Saturday and Sunday in late January, NBC will "also air" (aka encore)in Prime on Saturday night.

Once I get everyone settled with July based selling books, I'll be adding this special to both sports and specials calendars and selling books.

Jackson has July 09 Based Estimates

As do my clients in Alabama and Florida.

Same day service for all of my clients thus far.

Data may be available for my Mountain Time Zone clients, but I can't get to their servers to find out. Birmingham has been asked to contact Las Vegas again in the morning.

Chattanooga Has July Data & New Selling Books

And they are already being reviewed by Ralph Flynn.

Now, I'm working on Jackson, MS.

I also see the KVBC Server is having difficulties... and I can't connect to my clients in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming.

Waiting for July Sweeps Data? Read this...

The July data is looking very interesting... I'm seeing pretty broad viewing level increases versus last summer, and summer broadcast TV shares seem to be on the rebound. At this point, I've only done new JULYES Selling Book estimates with LPM data for an ABC and diary data for a Fox, so I don't have a sense how NBC is looking yet.

Chattanooga, the Nielsen DVDs with your data are *due* to be given to Fedex on Monday for delivery to Birmingham Tuesday morning. By lunchtime your time, you'll be able to see the data and by the end of the day, you'll have an updated JULYES Selling Book, with specials and sports updated to reflect the latest shares.

But... it's possible Nielsen may ship early... as soon as tonight. If that happens, the data will be available on Monday morning. If this was a major sweep book, I would be pestering my co-workers in Birmingham to come in on their weekend off to load the hard copy DVD onto our servers, then transfer the data to yours, allowing me to work over the weekend on your data instead of beginning Monday. It's the way I am.. and I constantly apologize for my um, zeal to Alex Lacy, the master of data at ODI.

My clients in Idaho, Florida, Mississippi, Wyoming, Alabama and Montana should have data delivered in the middle to end of next week. I don't expect to see any Sunbelt or Raycom data until at least Wednesday.

However, this is Nielsen's LAST round EVER of sending out physical DVD copies to processors like OneDomain; beginning with November 09 Sweep data, it will all be sent digitally, through the internet, directly to our servers, then installed on your machines the SAME DAY.

No more Fedex roulette... it's not like Fedex doesn't already have challenges in the week before Christmas, but asking them to hand-deliver hard copies of incredibly expensive, perishable and competitively critical information in the middle of the Christmas season and holiday traffic/travel has always been problematic.

More AGT Encores for Wednesdays in September

"Placeholder" programming Most Outrageous Videos of All Time, Parts 1 and 2 will be sacrificed in the name of more America's Got Talent repeats during the first hour of Wednesday prime during the first two weeks of September.

I just checked, and at 2:43p PDT today, APT shows nothing... but Maria tells me otherwise. :) My clients already have had their inventory updated.

Remember, each time you see a new programming change listed here, you will NOT see it in your MediaOffice system until you close the program, then re-open it. Only then will you see the changes made since the last time you opened the program.

NBC Extends Sunday Night Football Through 2013

Dear NBC Affiliate General Managers,

I am pleased to tell you that we have extended our deal with the NFL for 2 years, through the 2013 season. As with the original agreement, NBC will continue to broadcast 16 regular season “Sunday Night Football” games, each season’s “NFL Opening Kickoff” Thursday night primetime game, both Wild Card Saturday games and preseason games in primetime. The NFL will continue to provide flexible game scheduling over the final seven weeks of the regular season to ensure quality matchups and games with playoff implications.

We are thrilled that NBC will continue to feature the biggest games on the biggest NFL night through the 2013 football season.

I sincerely appreciate all that you do to make Sunday Night Football a tremendous success for NBC and wish you good luck for 2009 NFL season.

Best Regards,

Dick Ebersol

USOC: Postpones Own TV Network Competing Against NBC

August 16, 2009
USOC Backs Off Disputed Olympic Network Plans
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS from NYTimes.com

Filed at 12:30 p.m. ET

BERLIN (AP) -- The U.S. Olympic Committee postponed plans for its own television network after objections from international Olympic officials.

USOC chairman Larry Probst said Sunday he has decided to delay development of the TV project until all issues have been resolved with the International Olympic Committee.

The announcement came a day after Probst met in Berlin with IOC president Jacques Rogge to discuss the dispute over the U.S. Olympic Network.

''I think we're moving in a positive direction,'' Probst told reporters. ''We want to try to get to the point where we've addressed all their issues and concerns as quickly as possible.''

The IOC criticized the USOC last month for ''unilaterally'' announcing the launch of the TV network on July 8, saying it raised complex legal questions and could jeopardize relations with Olympic broadcaster NBC.

Probst was surprised by the backlash.

''There is no question that we underestimated the intensity of the reaction that we got from multiple constituents,'' Probst said. ''I won't talk about what was going on behind the scenes, who said what or who did what, but obviously there was a more intense reaction than we anticipated.

''We anticipated a reaction that would've been neutral to positive and that didn't happen. It was a miscalculation on our part. The execution on this could've been better.''

The IOC welcomed the decision.

''It was a good, positive and productive meeting,'' IOC spokesman Mark Adams said. ''We look forward to having more detailed information on their proposal.''

Probst said he and Rogge agreed to meet soon.

The decision is a major boost for Chicago's bid for the 2016 Olympics. Had the USOC pushed ahead with the TV plans, it could have hurt Chicago's chances in the IOC vote on Oct. 2 vote in Copenhagen. The other bid cities are Rio de Janeiro, Madrid and Tokyo.

''The USOC wants to do everything it can to help support the Chicago bid,'' Probst said. ''We want to see Chicago win the bid. Anything we can do to help to support them, we're going to do that.''

Patrick Ryan, the chairman and CEO of Chicago 2016, said he appreciated the USOC's decision.

''We applaud Larry Probst and the USOC for making a strong statement of partnership by stating that the USOC would secure the full support and cooperation of the IOC before moving forward with the Olympic Network,'' Ryan said in a statement. ''It is important not only for the USOC and IOC relationship, but also for the USOC's role within the Olympic movement.''

The IOC and USOC have had tense relations in recent years, particularly over the contentious issue of the USOC's share of Olympic revenues.

The IOC accused the USOC of acting hastily by announcing plans for the network, which was scheduled to go on air next year after the Vancouver Winter Olympics with Comcast as broadcast partner.

NBC holds the U.S. broadcast rights through the 2012 London Olympics. The network acquired the rights to the Vancouver and London Games in 2003 in a deal worth $2.2 billion. NBC has said it plans to be among the U.S. networks bidding for rights to the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi and 2016 Summer Olympics.

The USOC has said the network was a way to keep Olympic sports in front of viewers beyond the games. The project was intended benefit smaller sports that struggle to find air time outside of the Olympics.

Probst still feels it's a viable concept.

''I think it can be good for athletes. I think it can be good for the federations. I think it could be good for sponsors. I think it can be good for the Olympic movement overall,'' Probst said. ''But I think it's got to be properly orchestrated and properly timed. Part of that orchestration is making sure that the IOC and other constituencies are fully bought in and supportive.''

------

AP Sports Writer Stephen Wilson in London contributed to this report

First 10 NHL Games on NBC in 2010 Set

Sundays January through April, noonish to 3pm EDT.

Clients will see these changes Wednesday.

AGT Encore Replaces "Most Outrageous" Wednesdays

For the next three weeks, beginning Wednesday August 11th, NBC has yanked their hour-long video clip shows and has replaced them with encore airings of America's Got Talent for the first hour of prime.

NBC Sports Specials for First Quarter 2010

Late last night, APT posted the infamously mysterious NBC Sports Specials for 1st Quarter 2010. The usual suspects of PBR, Ice Skating, Adventure Sports and Gymnastics are sprinkled on either side of Winter Olympics.

I'm starting updates now.

Chicago Tribune Coverage of NBC @ TCA

August 05, 2009
'I'm an Executive, Get Me Out of Here': Notes on the NBC session at press tour

The Watcher Blog: Maureen Ryan of the Chicago Tribune

Wednesday's NBC executive session, which kicked off the network's day at the Television Critics Association press tour in Pasadena, was both entertaining and immensely irritating.

Entertaining if you enjoy the sheer comedy of evasion and executive doublespeak in the wake of consistent failure. It was hard not to cackle -- and many in the room did -- when NBC primetime president Angela Bromstad said that it was "always the plan" for Ben Silverman to have a short tenure at NBC.

We can only presume it was part of the plan for him to leave a string of schlocky, low-rated shows in his wake. But, to paraphrase Spencer Pratt, that network was devaluing Ben's fame, right?

Despite the unintentional comedy, the session was also quite irritating, and in the end somewhat contentious, because Bromstad consistently acted shocked -- shocked! -- that this room full of pesky journalists wanted answers about NBC's direction and plans in the wake of Silverman's recent departure (Jeff Gaspin, who is actually the top executive at NBC, was a no-show at the panel, which didn't help the situation. Bromstad was joined by NBC reality chief Paul Telegdy).

Nbcu By the end, this grim session might as well have been called, "I'm an NBC Executive, Get Me Out of Here!"

What ratings does NBC want for Jay Leno's primetime show? Bromstad said the success or failure of Leno's show has to be determined over the course of the program's first year, not over the course of its first five days. If we wanted anything more specific, we should ask the late-night executives who would be part of a Leno panel later on Wednesday. (The specifics of Bromstad's Leno and Conan O'Brien dodges are laid out by Alan Sepinwall here.)

Perhaps the most dispiriting part of the panel was the confusion over what, if anything, NBC stands for. Bromstad talked about some recent shows not being "on brand" for NBC.

Well, what's NBC's brand? She cited "30 Rock," "Law & Order: SVU," "The Office" and "Heroes," as well as "The Biggest Loser" and "The Apprentice," all shows that were developed well before the Silverman era.

She also said something about shows having to be "relatable" and about "real people." Part of the problem with "Kings" is that it was "a little bit too highbrow and a little bit too difficult to sell in a 30-second spot."

"Knight Rider" didn't have that problem, and it did great, didn't it? (And if NBC wants advice on how to be "on brand," or how to even have a brand, I'm sure the folks from USA are still somewhere in the building today. With the success of their shows, they're schooling the mothership on a consistent basis.)

Seriously, despite the annual TCA blather about NBC reclaiming the Peacock's quality crown, I'm not going to get my hopes up. The network has booted "Friday Night Lights" to the summer of 2010, it completely mishandled "Kings," and it may well be dumbing down "Southland."

"I think they tried to do too much in those six episodes" of "Southland," Bromstad said. Instead of, in effect, making six versions of the pilot (she actually called it "re-piloting the pilot"), "it became very serialized, and they were a large, large ensemble. So it’s really going to focus on [the characters played by] Regina King and Ben McKenzie ... the two sets of officers and detectives and sort of focus on, you know, crimes and how they come together."

Great. Because if its one thing we need on TV, it's another show about cops and crime.

Time critic James Poniewozik said that critics are unusually hard on NBC, and maybe that's true. Perhaps there is lot of pent-up resentment when it comes to the once-proud peacock network..

What's happened to NBC over the past decade hasn't been easy to watch. If the network's executives could at least be candid and forthright, it would certainly be a step in the right direction.

Some news bits from the executive panel and from the "Community" panel that followed:

* As mentioned above, "Friday Night Lights" won't return on NBC until the summer of 2010. However the show's fourth season will premiere Oct. 28 on DirecTV's 101 Network.
* The plan is still to bring back "Chuck" in March, but Bromstad said she feels it can "move around" and discussions about whether to bring it back earlier and increase its episode order beyond the 13 episodes that have been ordered are "continuing."
* Though much of the primetime NBC schedule is now taken up with Sunday football and Leno's show, the development budget for the network has not been cut.
* NBC sees "Day One" as a one-season show, though if it's a hit, it could come back.
* John Oliver from "The Daily Show" is very good in the somewhat uneven pilot for "Community," NBC's fall comedy. However he'll only be in two of the first 12 episodes, which is a bit of a drag, given that he and star Joel McHale are so good in their scenes together.
* Ken Jeong ("The Hangover") has joined "Community" as a Spanish teacher.

http://featuresblogs.chicagotribune.com/entertainment_tv/

First Quarter 2010 Golf Announced

As the Olympics fill up most of February, all but one golf event in next year's first quarter run in March of 2010.

Heck, even beginners can get these estimates correct this time.. four of the events actually ran same day/time in the March 2009 book. I'll bet even WideOrbit could handle this one. (I just can't help it.)

Bayou Classic & Army All American Football Returns

For some reason, NBC loves holding these games back for posting on APT until very late summer, but with all of the other changes in subsidized sports NBC is going through, I didn't include these non-franchise games in your inventory until NBC made a commitment (and the sale?)

Bayou Classic does best in the South among my clients on the Saturday after Thanksgiving. All-American game leads into NFL Playoffs in January. RDRx clients, look for both games today in your Football folder.

Reuters: Bromstad about NBC's Future

August 5, 2009
Struggling NBC Looks to Quality Shows, Cost Control
By REUTERS

Filed at 3:45 p.m. ET

PASADENA, California (Reuters) - Executives at struggling NBC said on Wednesday they were focused on top-quality scripted programs and better cost control to lift the network out of its current bottom place among the leading four U.S. TV networks.

Defining NBC as the broadcaster which airs shows that are human, deal with real people, and are fundamentally positive, executives pointed to Emmy-award comedy "30 Rock," "The Office" and drama "Heroes" as the way forward for the network.

"We have a strong foundation and some of the best shows on television and I think we have to build on that," Angela Bromstad, president of primetime entertainment, told TV critics gathered here for an annual showcase of upcoming programs.

"I think we have fallen short in the past couple of years and it is our goal to bring back those high quality sophisticated dramas and comedies and a brand of alternative programing," she said.

Bromstad said the departure last month of NBC Entertainment Co-Chairman Ben Silverman after two years at the network was not unexpected and would not bring many changes because NBC was already moving in the right direction.

"It has always been Ben's plan to transition back to his entrepreneurial roots," she said.

Silverman brought shows like "The Office" to NBC but struggled to develop major primetime audience hits that would lift it out of its last place in the TV ratings behind CBS Corp's CBS, News Corp's Fox, and Walt Disney's ABC. NBC is owned by partnership of General Electric Co and Vivendi.

Silverman also oversaw the upcoming move of late night talk show host Jay Leno to primetime five nights a week in what was seen as a bid to cut costs of expensive scripted dramas that dominate the 10 pm hour when Leno's new program will air.

"We have just allowed shows to get way too expensive and it has gotten out of control. I think we have to find a way to bring those costs down," Bromstad said.

However, she said there had been no cost-cutting in the network's development budget which fuels new programing.

Bromstad declined to define a viewership target for the new Leno show, which will premiere in September, saying the success of the move would be measured in months rather than days.

NBC's new shows for the new 2009-10 season that begins in September include two medical dramas and a comedy based around a community college starring Joel McHale, host of the satirical pop culture news show "The Soup" on the E! cable network.

The network's most-anticipated new family drama, "Parenthood," was shifted to the spring season after its star Maura Tierney took time off because of breast cancer.

(Reporting by Jill Serjeant; Editing by Bob Tourtellotte and Richard Chang)

New Offices, New Attitude & NBC Changes September Prime

With almost zero downtime, my hard-working associates in Birmingham, Alabama have moved across town to a new lakeside location. Friday afternoon, everything got shut down but already today, Monday August 3rd, we're back to business as usual.

Here in Las Vegas, I'm now just finishing my massive office upgrade.. I'll be sending some photos out to those who are interested.. as well as my co-workers. I may not have a lakeside view, but they don't have water-cooled, 142% overclocked 8 core CPUs with 12 gigs of RAM, SSD drives and both Quad SLI AND SLI video(yes, six GPUs) going in the same computer and displayed on monitors 6 feet, 4 inches wide. And that's just one of, ahem, 6 computers in this room.

I have access to all of my clients today, and it's a good thing, as NBC has shuffled Parks and Rec repeats as well as added a two hour Dateline to Jay Leno's first Friday night. I'll start work on these this afternoon.

Wow.. the IT guys in Birmingham are GOOD!!

Less than four hours after pulling the plug in their old offices, the guys and gals at OneDomain have their email and CRM servers up!

Should you need to reach me this weekend, my OneDomain email is working.

Friday, July 31.. Moving Day in Birmingham!

My hard-working co-workers in Alabama are getting a significant upgrade in their offices this weekend, as they move to a larger, more modern building a few miles away. As all but my Raycom stations are accessed through ODI's Bomgar service, it will be down for portions of the weekend beginning Friday. Of course, you can still reach me in the office here in Las Vegas.. I'm not moving, but have just completed a major upgrade in my computing power, plus purchasing civilized furniture replacing (ahem) a card table and a plastic rolling cart.

Do you know how much heat an overclocked PC with 6 video cards gives off? Whew. And it's 103.6 degrees outside my window right now.

New Year's Eve Announced; "Jeep" Jettisoned

Carson Daly will provide the last hour of prime on Dec 31 from NYC, then follow up with an hour from 11:30p-12:30a in all time zones.

There seems to be more conflict between NBC and some of the Sports Specials producers; latest indication is the name "Jeep" has been stripped from the Adventure Sports series. There are also some interesting stories about NBC's dealings with off-road and womens golf programming sources involving time period purchases and billings. I'll pull them up in the next few days.. this might help explain why NBC doesn't do much to promote the NBC Sports Specials, either on-air or with marketing tools for local stations.

Finally, there are some minor changes to winter sports in December. Clients are being updated today.

Friday Night Lights Theatrical Airs Sunday, Sept 6th

A 90 minute Dateline will lead into the 2004 movie, the original Texas high school football source for NBC's own Friday Night Lights series.

There's no NFL that night, with the last of the pre-season games airing August 30th and the first Sunday Football Night In America on September 13th.

RDRx NBC clients will see this entered today.

Ben Silverman Out; Gaspin In

The King of Reality is free to go back to his creative endeavors.

UNIVERSAL CITY, CA - July 27, 2009 - Jeff Gaspin has been named Chairman, NBC Universal Television Entertainment, effective immediately. This move expands his role to now include oversight of NBC Entertainment and Universal Media Studios, in addition to all of his current duties. This new structure will consolidate all of the company's television entertainment assets, both broadcast and cable, English and Spanish, under one roof and will better allow the company to leverage its content across all of those properties.
Gaspin already has management responsibility for the company's portfolio of entertainment cable networks, including USA, SyFy, Bravo, Oxygen, Universal HD, Sleuth, and Chiller, as well as its interests in the A&E and History networks. In addition, Gaspin oversees the company's television distribution, including linear, digital and wireless, off-net syndication and first-run efforts, as well as the Telemundo broadcast network and its owned stations.
Ben Silverman, who has been Co-Chairman, NBC Entertainment and Universal Media Studios, has announced that he is returning to his entrepreneurial roots to form a new venture. He will remain in his current role for several weeks to assist in the launch of NBC's fall schedule. Marc Graboff, who has also been Co-Chairman, will continue as Chairman, NBC Entertainment and Universal Media Studios, reporting to Gaspin.
These announcements were made today by Jeff Zucker, President and CEO, NBC Universal, to whom Gaspin reports.
Said Zucker: "Jeff Gaspin is an extraordinary media professional who has had an incredible record of success in his 25 years in the business. He's a strong creative executive who also has the business acumen necessary to succeed in today's media environment. This new structure helps us align all of our television entertainment assets under one veteran executive at a time when continued innovation is essential."
Zucker added: “Ben Silverman has many exciting things he wants to accomplish and we applaud him as he sets off on his new endeavors. Ben brought us tremendous new thinking in this changing media age, and we're grateful for that. Now, we look forward to working with him in his new venture."

Whew.. No changes announced on Friday

I tease NBC NYC about issuing major programming change notifications late on Fridays.. after all, they give me something to do during the weekend.

However, for those stations without someone as, um, devoted as I am, the timing of such announcements means the instant AEs walk in the door on Monday, their MediaOffice inventory and estimates are already wrong.

If you are curious about our services for NBC TV stations, take a look at the profile here for links to OneDomain.

"The Wanted" Moves Time Period on Mon, July 27th

NBC is shifting The Wanted an hour earlier, with Dateline following as lead-in to local news.. guess the lead-in on Monday wasn't what they hoped.

Also, they've added another new L&O:CI on Monday, August 31st before the season finale.

I'm starting client updates now.

Eastern/Central Wed AGT Encore Bumped By Obama

[07.20.09 - 04:39 PM]
BIG THREE TO COVER OBAMA NEWS CONFERENCE
By The Futon Critic Staff (TFC)

LOS ANGELES (thefutoncritic.com) -- ABC, CBS and NBC have all signed on to carry President Obama's latest news conference this Wednesday at 8:00/7:00c.

FOX will once again be the only major network not to carry the event, instead opting to stick with its two-hour edition of "So You Think You Can Dance." FOX also chose not to air Obama's previous news conference on April 29.

As for the other networks, CBS agreed this morning to turn over the hour of its lineup, which was already devoted to repeat programming.

ABC and NBC subsequently signed on after the White House shifted the planned hour-long broadcast from 9:00/8:00c to 8:00/7:00c.

To accommodate said coverage, the Alphabet will slide "Wipeout" and "I Survived a Japanese Game Show" back an hour to 9:00/8:00c and 10:00/9:00c, respectively. "Over a Barrel: The Truth about Oil," originally set for 10:00/9:00c, will instead air on Friday, July 24 at 10:00/9:00c as a special edition of "20/20."

The Peacock then will simply drop its 8:00/7:00c encore of "America's Got Talent."

Ratings Info about AGT and Conan From NBC

•AMERICA'S GOT TALENT generated the #1 results of the night in 18-49 and total viewers, out-delivering "So You Think You Can Dance" head-to-head and in full-duration averages. AMERICA'S GOT TALENT also outscored "Wipeout" and all other primetime programs on the broadcast networks last night. From its first half-hour to its second, AMERICA'S GOT TALENT increased by 15 percent in 18-49 rating and by 12 percent or more than 1.3 million persons in total viewers.

•The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien has delivered a decisive win for the week of July 6-10 in late-night's key demographic of adults 18-49, beating CBS's LATE SHOW on five of five nights. Conan also more than doubled Letterman in the younger half of the key demo, adults 18-34. For the week, Conan delivered bigger audiences than LATE SHOW in adults, men and women 18-34; adults, men and women 18-49; and adults and men 25-54. The median age of Conan’s audience last week was 46.7, more than 10 years younger than Letterman’s 57.3.

NHL on NBC Extended through 2011

NHL & NBC ANNOUNCE MULTIYEAR EXTENSION
July 15, 2009

NEW YORK - July 15, 2009 - The National Hockey League and NBC Sports today announced an extension through the 2010-11 season of their successful revenue-sharing partnership -- one that has achieved viewership milestones, programming and production innovations, awards and critical acclaim. The joint announcement was made by NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman and Ken Schanzer, President, NBC Sports.

"The NHL/NBC partnership has been terrific. Our association has led to such technical innovations as the 'Inside the Glass' reporting and to such programming advancements as the extremely popular Winter Classic," NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman said. "Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final was broadcast television's most-watched hockey game in 36 years, which makes clear the NHL and NBC are building an audience, are building momentum and are perfectly positioned to continue growing the game."

Schanzer said: "We're thrilled to be able to continue our relationship with the NHL and build on all the positive momentum on and off the ice. Together, we have attained viewership milestones not seen in more than three decades. And the Winter Classic, in just two years, has become one of the highlights of the sports calendar. We strongly believe this is a league that is poised for continued growth."

RECORD VIEWERSHIP: NBC Sports has achieved a number of ratings milestones including broadcasting the most-watched regular season game in 34 years (2009 Winter Classic) and the most-viewed NHL game overall in 36 years (Game 7 of the 2009 Stanley Cup Final).

INNOVATIVE PRODUCTION: NBC Sports and the NHL have introduced many innovations to help grow the game, including the "Inside the Glass" analyst position, which has revolutionized the way hockey is covered and of which USA Today said "is as close to the action as TV gets."

AWARDS: NBC Sports received a Sports Emmy Award for its promotion of the 2009 Winter Classic and the inaugural event garnered a Sports Business Journal Sport Business Award as Event of the Year.

ACCOLADES: NBC's NHL production has received critical acclaim, earning praise for innovations such as "Inside the Glass," a reporter position between the teams' benches first introduced by NBC hockey producer Sam Flood. The Toronto Star called "Inside the Glass" invaluable. ESPN.com said of NBC's hockey coverage, "the NHL has never looked or sounded better in its free, on-the-air history." The Hockey News called "Inside the Glass," "the biggest innovation to hit televised hockey in recent years." " Hockey has found a network that will let the sport be the sport," said the San Jose Mercury News.

NBC Sports' 2010 NHL coverage begins on New Year's Day with the third annual NHL Winter Classic.

NBC Sports will also continue to broadcast games throughout the Stanley Cup Playoffs and up to five Stanley Cup Final games.

NHL & NBC: The successful partnership, which was announced in May 2004, launched in January 2006 and previously extended in 2007 and 2008, has been highlighted by innovations, awards and ratings milestones. NBC Sports' NHL coverage is produced by Sam Flood, the originator of the Inside the Glass position. Emmy award nominee "Doc" Emrick, Eddie Olczyk (analyst), Pierre McGuire (Inside the Glass analyst) and Mike Milbury comprise NBC's NHL broadcast team.

Listener Silenced; Weekend Road Trip Cancelled

L&O repeats replace Listener in Thursday prime starting 7/30, while Dateline fills in for Road Trip encores Sundays ASAP.

Add a couple of two hour Merlins and a repeat of the SNL Presidential Bash from last November.. you'll find them in MediaOffice inventory now.

Parenthood On Sick Leave... Mercy Starts September

Start of production on NBC Universal’s new series “Parenthood” has been postponed for eight weeks due to medical evaluation that valued cast member Maura Tierney is undergoing. The top priority for NBC, Universal Media Studios and Imagine Television is the well-being of Ms. Tierney. We are unable to release further details and ask that you respect her privacy at this time.

Due to these circumstances, NBC's new drama series “Mercy” will premiere in the fall. Details on changes to NBC's fall premiere dates will be forthcoming.

7/13 Nightly News Gets U of Phoenix Sponsorship

Attention Stations: On 7/13/09, NBC Nightly News is scheduled to be broadcast with single sponsorship (University of Phoenix) and limited commercial interruption. The promo swap position that is normally in position 3 within Nightly News will now follow the news tag and precede the terminal NI swap position (the two promo swaps will run back to back). Due to this special limited interruption sponsorship of NBC Nightly News by the University of Phoenix, stations are requested not to schedule any local commercials of direct competitors during the station break.

Zucker says "We have seen a bottom"

Zucker Says Marketplace Has Reached Bottom

NBCU Chief says local station business showing signs of improvement

By Ben Grossman -- Broadcasting & Cable, 7/9/2009

NBC Universal chief Jeff Zucker said Thursday that while the overall marketplace is still challenged, he thinks it may have bottomed out.

“It’s still quite uncertain and we don’t really see the full recovery we are all hoping for,” he said. “It’s still tough out there, but I think we have seen a bottom.”

Zucker added that while the overall marketplace remains very challenged, he is seeing some improvement in the station business.

“Our local television stations seem to be improving,” Zucker told CNBC’s Erin Burnett in an interview conducted in Sun Valley, Idaho, though he did not offer any specifics.

Zucker also predicted no major deals in the media space through the end of the year.

“I think this is a year about getting your house in order. I think we’ll see nothing in the media space for the rest of the year.”

Zucker also acknowledged with the upfront marketplace normally done by July 4, this year’s delayed dealings show the conversations with buyers, “are much more difficult this year.”

“I think the key word is flexibility. Both sides want flexibility and we’ll just have to see who gives,” he said.

He added that while NBC U is making money on the web, the revenues [for the media business] are “not where we expected to be today.”

No Olympic Zone Program in Feb 2010

Unlike previous Olympics, NBC will not be providing the hybrid network/local daily half hour format. Those clients who had requested inventory and estimates for this program will find it removed today, but at most clients, I didn't include it in expected programming, so it doesn't have to be removed.

Road Trip Detoured To Monday Nights: AGT Encore Fills Pothole

America's Got Talent repeats start Tuesday, July 14th @ 8/7p
Great American Road Trip slides to Monday 8/7p starting July 13th

September encore and weekend changes are also part of this announcement.

Tuesday Days Of Our Lives Jacked

NBC News will provide live coverage of the Michael Jackson Memorial on Tues July 7th beginning at 1p ET-live to all time zones, duration and operating conditions will be issued Monday, July 6th.

No Days of Our Lives anywhere.

And Still More Jackson Preemptions

Tuesday night's L&O:SVU is now toast, as we spend yet another hour on Michael Jackson, this time, a Dateline coverage of the "memorial service."

New York Times Talks Tonight Demos

July 6, 2009

‘Tonight Show’ Audience a Decade Younger

By BILL CARTER

One of the big questions facing Conan O’Brien was this: How can he succeed with the older “Tonight Show” viewers? The answer: by making them younger.

In Mr. O’Brien’s first month as host, the median age of “Tonight Show” viewers has fallen by a decade — to 45 from 55, a startling shift in such a short time. This audience composition means advertisers can now address almost exclusively young viewers on “Tonight,” and NBC is already contemplating a shift in how it sells the show.

In network television, where audiences tend to age up consistently, this is an eye-popping development. But the shift is not all good news for NBC. One way Mr. O’Brien has lowered the age is by losing many older viewers.

“The Late Show With David Letterman” has already posted one week in which it drew more viewers than Mr. O’Brien, who reached the smallest audience in “Tonight” show history, just 3.3 million viewers, about two million fewer than Jay Leno’s average as host.

(The next week Mr. O’Brien bounced back and edged past Mr. Letterman in total viewers, 3.7 million to 3.5 million. It was an unusual week as the death of Michael Jackson elevated a third competitor, “Nightline” on ABC, to most-watched status with 3.9 million viewers for its half-hour.)

The numbers in late night have been tossed around with unusual aggression as NBC and CBS jockey for the spin’s high ground. If cash follows youth, as it often does in television, NBC may not care much.

“Conan’s performance is, honestly, extraordinary,” said Alan Wurtzel, the president for research at NBC, adding that the show had overwhelming strength in the youngest demographic, viewers 18 to 34. “These kinds of transitions are hard, especially with an iconic program like the ‘Tonight Show.’ ”

For its part, CBS argues that NBC’s claims about demographic superiority are strained, pointing to several weeks of declines for Mr. O’Brien in many audience groups. “Conan’s strength is almost entirely in men between 18 and 34,” said David F. Poltrack, the president for research at CBS. “We’re gaining in other categories.” Mr. Letterman, for example, is up more than 50 percent among viewers over 50.

On the sidelines, advertising executives are taking a skeptical approach. Generally they concede that dominance in younger viewers remains a big advantage, while also questioning whether “Tonight,” always the “big tent” in late night, risks becoming too much a niche show, as Mr. O’Brien seemingly thins the herd of older viewers.

“The idea of buying network TV was to get those big boxcar ratings,” said Steven J. Farella, the president of the media buying agency TargetCast TCM. “They don’t usually get boxcar numbers anymore, but we don’t need minivan numbers.”

The argument in marketing offices is likely to continue. “We really don’t know anything yet,” said Shari Anne Brill, the senior vice president and programming director for Carat USA. She said the preseason ad sales period, known as the upfront, had not yet taken place; and, she said, there is the unresolved question of how Mr. Leno will fare when he moves into the weeknight 10 p.m. period for NBC.

“He could potentially eat some of Mr. O’Brien’s young,” she said.

John Rash, senior vice president of the Campbell-Mithun agency, said, “All audiences have value, but the 18-to-49 audience has more value. You will make higher profits if you win with that audience.” He added, “You can still say you’re the No. 1 show if you are more profitable.”

That is exactly what NBC is doing. After one week the network sent out a hyperventilating press release declaring Mr. O’Brien the “new king of late night.”

Mr. Poltrack scoffed that the claim was preposterously premature, pointing to falloffs in succeeding weeks among groups like women 18 to 49. In his first week, Mr. O’Brien was up in that group from Mr. Leno’s performance by 32 percent; by the third week, he was down 28 percent.

Mr. Poltrack said the gap had especially narrowed among viewers 35 to 54. “I think eventually we will win that category,” he said.

One NBC executive, who asked not to be identified when citing what is usually confidential information, said the show had been selling about 65 percent of the commercials during “Tonight” on its 18-to-49 rating, and 23 percent on viewers 25 to 54, and only 12 percent on the youngest category, viewers 18 to 34.

But Mr. O’Brien has been so overpowering in that last group that NBC can still be expected to shift more money toward that demographic — and to try to charge advertisers a premium for it, the executive said.

That may meet with resistance. Several ad agency executives said that young men could be reached more readily than in the past on Web sites and cable channels like Comedy Central and Spike, so networks deserve less of a premium for attracting them.

Some of that is probably negotiating talk. But Mr. Farella said he would worry about making “Tonight” look like a cable show.

“I don’t think that’s O.K.,” he said. “The goal of a broadcaster is still to be exactly that.”

Mr. Rash said the changes in the “Tonight” audience were to be expected. “Jay Leno was younger than Johnny Carson, but he was from the same modern comedian construct, whereas Conan O’Brien is perfectly postmodern in his approach,” he said. “That may be alienating to older viewers. But he has to play to his strengths. Television and politics are the same: it’s a mistake to ignore your base.”

Mr. Wurtzel argued that Mr. O’Brien had no intention of turning “Tonight” into a niche show.

“I think we’re going to see growth,” he said. “The show has to calibrate. Conan is reshaping the profile of the show’s audience. It’s going according to plan.”

Both he and Mr. Poltrack offered one consistent analysis using exactly the same words: “Let’s see where we are in September.”

Wanted Starts in 3 Weeks on Monday Night

And NBC has just moved around a bunch of sports specials. Changes on client servers begin now.

Has NBC Had Enough Change? At SVU, Yes!

Hargitay, Meloni returning to 'SVU'

Stars ink new deals for procedural's 11th season

By Nellie Andreeva

June 29, 2009, 05:38 PM ET

from hollywoodreporter.com

After on-again, off-again negotiations, Mariska Hargitay and Christopher Meloni have inked new deals to continue on the crime procedural, which is coming back in the fall for its 11th season.

Additionally, Christine Lahti has signed on to play the assistant district attorney on the veteran series for the first four episodes. Stephanie March will return after that to reprise her role as ADA Alexandra Cabot.

Sources said Hargitay and Meloni, who regularly negotiate their contracts together, have inked one-year deals with an option for a second year.

Despite the conglomerates and particularly NBC Universal being in cost-cutting mode, Hargitay and Meloni are said to have boosted their most recent salaries of about $385,000 an episode. In a rare feat for show talent, they have been able to negotiate a piece of "SVU's" lucrative back end, sources said.

Taking all into account, Hargitay's and Meloni's paychecks are expected to grow to more than $400,000 an episode, solidifying Hargitay's position as the highest-paid woman in television and Meloni as one of the top male earners.

All parties involved declined Monday to comment on the terms of the agreement.

Hargitay and Meloni's deals come more than a month after NBC closed a deal with Wolf Films for "SVU's" renewal. At the time, NBC brass said the show would return with or without its stars as the networks and reps for the actors had reached an impasse.

The two sides resumed talks at the beginning of June and, after a series of sessions, the deals were finalized last week.

Crime procedurals are more resilient than character dramas in replacing leads, but losing both Hargitay and Meloni, considered the heart of the show, was a potential big blow to "SVU."

Hargitay is repped by Paradigm. Meloni is repped by Gersh.

The Last Jackson Themed Hour

Dateline: the final hour of prime tonight, Monday the 29th.

This will add a certain bitter after-taste to all of the sweet memories offered since Thursday, as it's the infamous interview by Martin Bashir from 2003.

Yep, Tonight has Changed

Now, Farrah moves to first two hours, an hour obit Dateline for Jacko in the last hour, and Chopping Block has been extended to July 24th.

About Friday Night's Prime...

Based on APT at this moment, NBC is still planning to run Farrah's Story in the last two hours of prime Friday night, the 26th of June. Ratings for this special are pure from the first run of Farrah's Story just a month ago.

Sunbelt and MediaGeneral stations have this special in Inventory, plus the Premieres and other summer changes in Specials with customized audience estimates. Use the SpecialES Selling Book if it runs only once and isn't sports.

Michael Jackson Obit Hour Tonight at 9p/8p

Oh my.

Farrah Fawcett Specials Tonight & Friday

The Listener has been yanked off tonight's schedule. An hour-long Dateline will replace.

Tomorrow night's last two hours of prime will be the rebroadcast of "Farrah's Story" replacing the normal 2 hour Dateline.

NBC Summer Changes Plus Fall Premiere Dates

And it's not even Friday afternoon!

I'll begin working on my clients now. I'll indicate here when the job has been completed.

US Open Challenge Rescheduled for July 4th

It moves between 5 hours of Wimbledon airing in the morning and early afternoon and AMA Motocross after. This 90 minute special was originally scheduled for yesterday, but was preempted due to rain delays.

All stations will have their inventory and estimate updated by first thing Tuesday morning.

Back in the office a day early.....

I flew down to Birmingham on Thursday and had great, but really brief, meetings will all the sales reps who handle my clients. I also was able to listen to a fascinating presentation by ODI's contact @ Nielsen Media.

Seems Nielsen is moving into the 21st Century this winter, no longer recording electronic versions of your data on individual DVDs and then FedExing them to Birmingham but instead will provide ODI (and the companies who do similar things with their data) with an online download as soon as the data is available. Why do you care? Most of my clients will get data at least one day sooner. And for several stations that currently have to wait until Saturday for data will now get information on Friday. (For many years, seven of my Sunbelt clients got their November Sweeps data on Christmas Eve. Guess what I would do all Christmas Day?)

Also, next year there will be Program Titles available for use in CABLE, so if your client thinks they are buying a specific program but they are actually getting a tight time period daypart rotation, you'll be able to show the ratings for both the actual show and the broader daypart. Great competitive stuff.

Nielsen is also going to be making changes to reporting thresholds, much like their "fatal flaw" in the old STAR software. You might pull a report and instead of getting numbers, you'll get a text comment about not enough intab for that demo and daypart. Smaller markets are going to be pounded by this, so it's going to mean more work for me, or people at stations who do what I do.

I had to return a day early... Karen came down with something on Thursday and I came back to care for her. As I told the guys in Birmingham, I only have two interests: taking care of Karen, and taking care of you, my clients.

Jackson Has Estimates....

All of my current NBC stations now have May 09 data installed, Program Average titles assigned for when you have to make a "pure book", and I've totally hand-built 4 new selling books for each.

Master Planners covering all non-sports programming airing between now and the end of March 2010 have been sent out. Go to Open Avails, check the box View Public Area and look for the planner there. I've also activated MAYES estimates for schedules airing in 2010; I keep those hidden until there's far less chance of confusion about which May you're looking for.

In general, NBC seems to have lost large chunks of younger demos in this May book. I'm going to go back to each station and review estimates to see if blending the March 2009 PAVs can help mitigate some of the pain caused by May results.

Jackson Arrives!

And I'm already in the thick of it.

Folks in MS should have a Master Planner in the next 3 hours.

KTVH, KPVI and KCWY Ready!

With a busy summer and fall schedule, NBC stations take about twice the amount of man-hours to custom install this May book compared to my Fox clients this sweep.

So I'm delighted to finish all three Sunbelt NBC stations this evening. Inventories have been published. Each station's GM/GSM has a Master Planner containing all non-sports inventory and estimates through March 2010.

These first planners, aside from Prime, are almost all pure May 2009 pure PAVs projected to future viewing levels. As you'll see, some dayparts beg for multiple-book averaging which I'll address with each of you. Prime and Specials are almost always a blend of PAVs , but have been updated to use May 09 data whenever possible.

I'll try to polish off KFXP now... but that's not NBC!

The Sunbelt LAN is back up...

So, I'll begin again on the work that should have been done by now.

On the other hand, I'm reminded how fortunate I am and have been since 2007.

Sunbelt Stations..

My Sunbelt clients may have to wait a while for their data and estimates; although I easily access their primary server through ODI's normal methods, the internal LAN Sunbelt IT maintains (and ODI servers use) has been down since last evening, from the many times I've checked since. Since I can't access the servers in Montana, Idaho or Wyoming where the data is kept, I'm pretty well SOL.

I've sent emails to my clients at each station, but as you might imagine, their email is on the same Sunbelt intraLAN, so this blog may be the only way they'll find out about it before Monday morning.

My Sunbelt clients have been using my program average-based estimates for nearly a decade. They've also had to deal with frequent IT outages. Heck, that's why I learned to build my own computers in 2001. Today, all 5 of the computers (except my laptop) I use in my business were custom built by me, and I'm a Microsoft Registered Partner. While waiting for the Sunbelt LAN to live again, and having to check frequently, I'll be installing Windows 7 on yet another PC I built from parts I purchased online.

Yet another weekend spent waiting for the IT crew... ahh, it brings back memories. Bad memories.

Pocatello, Casper and Helena Data Arrives....

Something was going on with Sunbelt's primary server earlier today... I just now got the email sent by the server itself indicating data arrived and was ready for installation. Hmm...

Four of my client stations are in these markets, so I'll be busy all weekend, and I'll post when all are completed by Sunday night.

Everyone is updated...

with the exception of Fresno whose server has been unavailable this week.
I'm contacting ODI Support to see what's going on.

There are still 3 hours left till 5pm in Manhattan, so there still may be changes made.

NBC Changes Next Two Monday Nights...

Yep, it's Friday afternoon @ 30 Rock.

Law & Order: Criminal Intent, scheduled for the 2nd hour of prime on Monday, June 15th and 22nd, is replaced with a second hour of GetMeOutOfHere, extended from just one hour.

I'll pause the May 09 book install in TN to update all my NBC clients right now. Restart MediaOffice to see the updated inventory... I'll post here when all clients have been updated.

"We realize this is a genre change and very late." LOL

Chattanooga and Fresno Data Arrives..

Both stations will get their May 09 books installed today!

NHL: Game 7 Airs for sure Friday Night

Stanley Cup action ends this Friday night, preventing the encore version of The Listener from airing during the first hour of prime.

Wednesday, look for Olympic scheduling, as APT hints of details pending.

Fort Wayne May Data arrives!

I'm on the MediaOffice server now, assigning May 09 PAV titles to inventory lines, plus creating 4 new quarterly selling books based on May shares.

Based on information I've gotten from New York, most NBC stations will not be happy with May 09 Prime shares. For my clients, that's not a problem, as I can buffer the impact of a "less than optimal sweep" by averaging in other appropriate and ethical program averages from recent books.

Bye Bye, Howie..... Hello, Encore Listener

If the Penguins win tomorrow night's Game 6 of the Stanley Cup, there will be a Game 7 on Friday night.. but if there is no game on Friday night, previously scheduled for the first hour, Howie has been replaced by an encore episode of The Listener. Of course, both options will be listed in your MediaOffice inventory until Wednesday morning.. or Tuesday night depending on how late I stay up. :)

Ok... it's Friday Afternoon @ 5pm in NYC....

It's a summer weekend.. Manhattan must be emptying out right about now.

This means NBC must have JUST sent out an email changing next week's prime, right?

Yep.. now there's a two hour GetMeOut on Wednesday, nuking yet another Wolfe rerun.

Didn't they think of this ahead of time? Hey.. I shouldn't complain. This kind of scheduling keeps me in business.

Have a free Donut...

KrispyKreme is giving away a free donut today.
Dunkin' Donuts is, as well, but you have to buy a cup of coffee to get it.

LaMars? LOL.

Stanley Cup Game 6 This Coming Tuesday

If you were wondering where NBC was going to get the extra hour of GetMeOutOfHere running on Monday night, next Tuesday evening edition has been preempted by Game 6 of NHL. Encore L&O:SVUs get bumped on the 9th as well.

The Stanley Cup game is already in your NHL/Winter folder... I'll be putting next Tuesday Prime on hiatus just for safety reasons... you don't want to be selling Wolfe reruns for that night, do you?

Prime Changes for next Mon, Sat and Sunday

Oh man... would you believe they've changed Saturday night rerun lineups for the summer again?
Yep.. more sliding of Dick Wolfe tiles starting the 13th.

Plus, they've shortened the 2 two hour 10.5 Apocalypse into 1 THREE hour movie to air on Sunday, June 14th if they don't have Game 7 of the Stanley Cup. NBC didn't have much of a choice with 10.5, as an early start to Stanley Cup made previous plans a bit ungainly.

Next Monday's GetMeOutOfHere has been extended to two hours, nuking L&O:CI.

And, presumably, on the 12th, there will be a two hour Dateline after Howie's last airing. But heck... who knows? At least if there's a change, you'll read about it here within minutes.

Yep, This Friday Has Changed.....

Isn't it nice NBC has given you a full 52 hour notice about Brian Williams' White House special being repeated in a two hour block this Friday?

Howie Doesn't air this Friday.. so the last gasp for the OCD comic will be June 12th.

More Changes to Summer Wednesdays

Law & Order episodes scheduled for the first hour of Wednesdays in July have been replaced by more America's Got Talent.

Leno's Hour Begins September 14th

This probably means premiere week will also be that week.

August Wednesday Prime Changes Again

First hour of prime from August 5th through September 9th is now either TV's Catch Phrases or Most Outrageous Moments. Today's announcement replaces information sent out by NBC on Friday... since I worked all weekend, I previously typed "yesterday".

All my clients have been updated. Inventory and estimates for the SNL Specials replaced have been removed, as well.

Summer Prime Update Complete...

All of my clients had newly updated inventory and selling book estimates for Prime when they came into work this morning... I had a busy weekend.

Here's an article from the New York Times about NBC's Leno move:

June 1, 2009

A Revolution in Prime Time, but Will It Work?

By BILL CARTER and BRIAN STELTER

LOS ANGELES — On Monday night, when Conan O’Brien officially takes over “The Tonight Show” from Jay Leno, it will mark an unusually peaceful transition of power in Hollywood.

Then comes the revolution.

NBC’s decision to move Mr. Leno to his own talk show at 10 p.m. in September is not only the signature television event of this season, it may be among the most pivotal changes since the network evening newscasts were expanded to 30 minutes, from 15, in 1963.

If successful, “The Jay Leno Show” at 10 p.m. could reshape prime time by leading other networks to move to less expensive shows, pushing more programming to cable and rewriting the financial underpinnings of entertainment production.

If it fails — as skeptics, including many rival network executives, predict — then NBC will be left scrambling to find fill five prime-time hours a week.

Prime time has “looked pretty much the same” for decades, said Robert Thompson, a professor of television at Syracuse University. Pitting a low-cost talk format like Mr. Leno’s show against the typically expensive dramas at 10 p.m., he said, “is the biggest sign yet that we’re really, finally entering a whole new ballgame.”

Those with stakes in Mr. Leno’s success or failure go well beyond NBC executives and Mr. Leno himself. They include the Hollywood production studios; the writers, directors and actors who keep the entertainment engine humming; the image makers who place stars on talk shows; the owners of local stations across the country who depend on inheriting audiences from 10 p.m. shows; and even perhaps the anchors of the ABC news program “Nightline.”

Already, NBC’s competitors have built their new season schedules with Mr. Leno in mind. Leslie Moonves, the chief executive of CBS, called the 10 p.m. talk show “a real sea change” for the industry when he unveiled his network’s schedule in New York last month. Seeing an opening to gain audiences at 10 p.m., CBS said it would move its hit “The Mentalist” to Thursdays at 10 p.m. to compete with Mr. Leno.

NBC’s move has also caused planning battles inside ABC, whose 10 p.m. hours have been a string of disappointments in recent years. Although ABC will again fill 10 p.m. with new dramas this fall including “Eastwick” and “The Forgotten,” one ABC employee acknowledged that “Nightline,” the late-night ABC News show, has been talked about as a future 10 p.m. possibility.

Such a move could save money across several days a week and also free ABC to move its own late-night star, Jimmy Kimmel, up to 11:35 to challenge Conan O’Brien on “The Tonight Show” head to head.

At the same time, many TV executives doubt that “The Jay Leno Show” will work. A chorus of entertainment industry executives interviewed in the last two weeks was all but unanimous in predicting NBC’s experiment is wrong-headed and doomed to failure.

“One thing you never do in television is cede territory,” said a senior executive with long experience developing programs for both production companies and networks.

The executive, who asked not to be identified because of continuing business with NBC, said the scripted shows arrayed against Mr. Leno — including “CSI: Miami” on CBS and repeats of “The Closer” on TNT — would all benefit greatly from the move. “If I’m a producer of a scripted show, I would rather be up against Leno than any other form of competition — now and always. It’s like getting a bye in a tennis tournament,” he said.

But that is rooting interest talking. For its part, NBC has marshaled research that shows viewers expressing high interest in seeing Mr. Leno earlier in the evening. Because Mr. Leno’s show will cost less than an equivalent hourlong drama — one-fifth as much, according to the host — it can afford to receive lower ratings, too.

At a 1.8 rating among the young adult viewers that NBC seeks — a prescription for cancellation for a network drama — Mr. Leno “would be a home run,” said Jeff Zucker, the NBC Universal chief executive who engineered the Leno move.

Mr. Leno had been averaging about a 1.3 rating at the 11:30 time slot, when there are fewer viewers to compete for. Scripted dramas that are successful at 10 p.m. tend to average a 2.5 rating or better for first-run episodes, or they do not stay on the air for long.

Both Mr. Zucker and Mr. Leno said in interviews that success will have to be graded over 52 weeks because Mr. Leno will have many more nights of original shows than his competitors.

Mr. Zucker pointed to evidence showing that the most-watched show at 10 p.m. is TiVo, reflecting the number of people who play back shows using digital video recorders. With so many people in playback mode at 10 p.m., NBC suggests topical comedy, delivered fresh every night, would be an attractive alternative.

Beyond the cross-predictions lies a basic truth: the move has grabbed the full attention of the television industry.

“Anytime you lose potential real estate, it isn’t good,” said David Nevins, the president of Imagine Television, one of the business’s most highly regarded production companies, with shows like “24” and “Friday Night Lights.” Like other companies that supply shows to all the networks, Imagine has to be concerned about any shrinking of the network landscape, though Mr. Nevins added, “if by doing this it strengthens their network, then it makes sense for NBC.”

Like NBC, CBS has commissioned research about the move, but it found the results unreliable because, CBS executives said, people cannot be expected to predict accurately how they will react to a still-theoretical program.

Executives in Hollywood are reacting nonetheless. Foremost in the minds of many are concerns about the cultural impact of the reduction in network time available for scripted shows. NBC’s 10 p.m. hour, after all, gave life to “Hill Street Blues,” “St. Elsewhere” and “ER.”

Depending on Mr. Leno’s performance, other prime-time shuffles may follow. Mr. Thompson at Syracuse said it was likely that if Mr. Leno was “even the least bit successful,” the other networks would consider replacing scripted shows with some form of less expensive programming in the hour.

Cable channels, too, are feeling the ripple effects of Mr. Leno’s move. Executives at Turner Broadcasting, the owner of TNT and TBS, are hoping that Mr. Leno’s arrival in prime time will accelerate the long, steady shift of viewers to cable from broadcast channels and enhance cable’s image as a home for high-quality programs.

The company is predicting that up to 10 percent of 18- to 34-year-olds will migrate to cable this year. Michael Wright, a programmer for Turner, said TNT and TBS “hope to be a safe harbor” for writers and actors.

Already, viewers have heard one small indication of how Mr. Leno thinks things might go. As he joked recently, “The new movie ‘Star Trek’ takes place so far in the future, Conan O’Brien is doing a 10 o’clock show.”