Ratings
see publication for the following listings:Demographic ratings: Broadcast Prime Time, SyndicationNight-by-night Nielsen Prime-time ratings for the week of Feb. 25-March 3Ratings for the week of Feb. 25-March 3
In Depth
Quick Takes: Whether or not David Letterman goes to ABC, it appears the network wants to replace `Nightline’ with entertainment programming. Is that a bad thing?
“I understand why Disney wants Letterman, but it would be a shame to lose the only broadcast program doing news-and doing it especially well-at that hour. Remember, Houston has a less than 60 percent cable penetration.”Mike McDaniel, television critic, Houston…
Stations not ready for DTV
In a setback for digital TV’s rollout, more than half the nation’s commercial TV stations told the Federal Communications Commission last week that they won’t be able to meet the agency’s deadline for launching digital TV operations this year.Under a…
Duopoly dilemma: two stations, two unions
While the ability to merge two TV stations’ news operations-and thus save money-has been a driving factor behind duopolies, some markets are running into a big hurdle: labor unions.Fox Station Group duopolies in Los Angeles and New York have yet…
Morris holding line at 5
Striking at one of the most sensitive issues of the talent business as the pilot season goes into production, The Walt Disney’s Co.’s ABC/Touchstone Television production unit has been pushing to reduce William Morris’ standard 5 percent commission structure for…
EchoStar, DirecTV have room to wiggle
EchoStar CEO Charlie Ergen and DirecTV CEO Eddy Hartenstein have been making lots of promises lately to convince government regulators to approve the planned merger of their companies.But upon closer inspection, their sweeping pledges have lots of wiggle room. Take…
Syndication projects taking shape for 2003
With six months to go before the new fall season begins, syndicators are cleaning up details on upcoming fall series and are already butting heads for projects targeting the 2003 season.Already out of the gate for 2003-04 is a court…
Come together
In the giant slalom at the Winter Olympics, U.S. skier Bode Miller was bested by Austria’s Stephan Eberharter and lost the gold because he was 0.91 seconds behind.NBC viewers-most of whom couldn’t imagine what a difference of less than one…
Local Listings
News personalities on the moveTalent was hopping last week in major markets. In Los Angeles, KABC-TV’s sardonic sportscaster Bill Weir will leave the much-coveted job. He told Electronic Media he is “absolutely not” going to stay after his contract is…
Syndication Ratings: Court, news strips not snowed by Olympics
As expected, the Olympics continued to drive down overall ratings for syndicated fare during the February sweeps. However, many programs held up better than some analysts expected, particularly court shows and newsmagazines.For the sweeps period through Feb. 24, weekly series…