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Jan 20, 2003  •  Post A Comment

Posted Monday, Jan. 20.

Cable wins big at Golden Globes

Cable was the big winner at the Golden Globes last night, taking home all but one of the television trophies.

HBO won seven awards; FX won two; and USA and NBC each took home one. FX’s “The Shield” took best drama TV series honors, while HBO’s “Curb Your Enthusiasm” won best comedy series. Jennifer Aniston won best actress in a TV comedy for NBC’s “Friends,” which turned out to be broadcast TV’s sole nod. In an upset win, Tony Shalhoub was named best actor in a comedy for USA’s “Monk.” Edie Falco won best actress in a drama for HBO’s “The Sopranos,” and Michael Chiklis repeated his Emmy victory with a win in the best actor in a drama category for “The Shield.”

HBO cleaned up in the miniseries and made-for-TV movie categories. “The Gathering Storm” was named best miniseries or made-for-TV movie. Uma Thurman won best actress in a miniseries or made-for-TV movie for “Hysterical Blindness” and Albert Finney won best actor in a miniseries or made-for-TV movie for “The Gathering Storm.”

Best actress in a supporting role in a series, miniseries or made-for-TV movie went to Kim Cattrall for “Sex and the City,” and Donald Sutherland won best actor in a supporting role in a series, miniseries or made-for-TV movie for “Path to War.”

NATPE commits to Las Vegas for 2004 and beyond: As scores of attendees continue to roll into New Orleans for NATPE 2003, the National Association of Television Program Executives has announced that the organization has signed a deal with the Venetian Hotel and Sands Expo Center in Las Vegas to host the annual market in the years ahead.

Under the terms of the multiyear agreement, NATPE 2004 will be held Jan. 13-16 at the Las Vegas complex, completing a long-term shift for the organization to Sin City in an effort to keep costs down for distributors and for NATPE itself.

“We are very pleased to have concluded this arrangement with the Venetian Hotel and Sands Expo Center, which is best suited to hold the annual NATPE conference and exhibition,” said Bruce Johansen, president and CEO of NATPE. “Along with the worldwide television industry, our association is implementing a number of changes that are geared to satisfy the needs of our membership and companies from around the world that exhibit and attend NATPE.”

Fox bets on pair of ‘Joes’ for sweeps: Fox Broadcasting’s decision to double pump “Joe Millionaire” with 8 p.m. Thursday repeats of the Monday night originals through the February sweeps makes sense to Fox affiliates.

Last week’s “Joe Millionaire” repeat registered an 8 share, up from the 5 and 6 shares the network has been seeing in the 8 o’clock hour, Fox Network Groups President Tony Vinciquerra said.

John Tupper, chairman of the Fox affiliates board, said wryly that if Fox is going to insist on repurposing its programming, the “Millionire” ploy is preferable.

Fox affiliates have chafed at the network’s decision to repurpose “24,” the network’s only recent hit drama, on Fox’s FX cable channel.

The subject of repurposing is expected to remain a touchy subject this spring as the board and the network work out a new agreement for sharing the cost of Fox’s NFL programming. Repurposing limits and tradeoffs are part of the Fox-affiliates NFL agreement that expires in June.

The meeting was, said Mr. Vinciquerra and Mr. Tupper, focused mostly on what were described as operational issues and programming news. Among them: continuing support of local use of Fox’s “plug-in-and-play” graphics package to promote brand identity, and Fox’s commitment since November to telecasting one fully produced major sports event per week in the wide-screen digital format it is supporting with Philips.

The target audience is not the limited digital TV viewers at home, said Mr. Vinciquerra, it is the shopper who can compare analog and digital signals side-by-side.

“The audience is at the stores,” said Mr. Vinciquerra. “If you are going to sell television sets, you have got to put quality on the air.”