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‘Crossing Over’ to air on broadcast first

Aug 26, 2002  •  Post A Comment

Universal Domestic Television’s “Crossing Over With John Edward” is seeing new visions of a “softer” daytime look and a new first broadcast window.
Steve Rosenberg, president of Universal Domestic Television, said that “Crossing Over,” as the first syndicated daytime talk show to share telecast platforms with a cable network, will flip-flop windows to give broadcasters the first primary airplays starting with its season opener Sept. 3, leaving the Sci-Fi Channel with the secondary window.
“If anything, the dual platforming was always about taking advantage of the initial exposures on Sci-Fi, but then it really started building on it in broadcast,” Mr. Rosenberg said. “We really felt we had something in broadcast with a larger audience and reach and thought our client stations did a great job supporting it promotionally, to substantiate doing the first window in broadcast.”
The concluding first season’s broadcast run of “Crossing Over,” which featured a three-week delay after Sci-Fi’s initial telecasts, established it as the highest-rated freshman talk show in syndication at a 1.6 rating in the core women 18 to 49 demographic, according to Nielsen Media Research. Mr. Edward’s psychic reach to the women 25 to 54 demographic also posted a slightly higher 1.7 rating average nationally last season.
But taking into account the show’s heavy composition of daytime and early-fringe clearances on stations and the now secondary plays on Sci-Fi, Mr. Rosenberg said a new set and overall graphics changes to “Crossing Over” are intended to give it a more “daytime-centric look and appeal.”
Mr. Rosenberg said the new set will allow Mr. Edward to bring more studio audience members up for their own psychic readings, giving the show “even more of a personal connection” with the viewers. There will also be more psychic readings of celebrities, with such stars as rapper Coolio, Brian Littrell and A.J. McLean of the Backstreet Boys and Jenny McCarthy.