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In Depth

At Press Time

UPN orders pilotsLos Angeles-UPN has ordered three drama pilots: “Kamelot,” a futuristic version of the King Arthur legend with Arthur as a hip, young revolutionary, from Miramax Television & Abandon Entertainment; “The Edge,” about two young FBI graduates and an…

The Insider

Between managing Dan Rather’s public life and her avocation as a flamenco dancer, Kim Akhtar assembled a jaw-dropping cross-section of New York media folk to salute Bob Schieffer’s “This Just In: What I Couldn’t Tell You on TV,” his entertaining…

Profile: Deborah Reichig

Title: Senior VP, sales strategy, Court TVRecent interesting deal: “This past December, Court TV ran its second original movie, `The Interrogation of Michael Crowe,’ and General Motors was a premiere sponsor. As part of their package, they sponsored a commercial…

Falco takes perch atop NBC group

The management picture at NBC was further defined last week with the promotion of Randy Falco to NBC Television Network Group president. While NBC Entertainment President Jeff Zucker drives programming across NBC’s growing number of broadcast and non-news cable platforms,…

Ratings

see publication for the following charts:Demographic ratings: broadcast prime time, syndicationNight by night nielsen prime time ratings for the week of Jan. 20-26Ratings for the week of Jan. 20-26

Senators prod FCC on ownership issue

Senate antitrust subcommittee leaders last week urged the Federal Communications Commission to halt plans to ax or relax agency rules that limit how many media properties a company can own.“We urge you to support the public interest in diverse media…

Close-up: Lisa Hackner

Universal Domestic Television has named Lisa Hackner executive VP, development. In this newly created post Ms. Hackner will develop first-run programming for UDT. Ms. Hackner was previously with Telepictures Productions, where she developed and launched such shows as “Change of…

Profile: Gareth Cooper

A cynic, or a bitter media planner, might suggest that the reason so relatively little is written about Super Bowl advertising after the event is that too many clients and their agencies discover $2.1 million is too much to pay…

Guest Commentary: NATPE letdown

“Why is it like this?” asked Matthias Kremin of Germany’s WDR, who was attending his first National Association of Television Program Executives convention. I asked every buyer I met, “What do you think of the convention?” but Kremin’s words crystallized…

Putting some English on `The Osbournes’

When is a ratings drop not a ratings drop?Just ask the folks at MTV who are now making the same argument about “The Osbournes” that E! Entertainment recently made for “The Anna Nicole Show,” namely that overall household ratings might…