UPN orders pilots
Los 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 undercover DEA agent as they solve crimes in a beach town, from 20th Century Fox Television; and “Vegas Dick,” about a former con man who becomes the house detective at a hip Las Vegas casino, from Original Television and 20th Century Fox.
`20/20′ Jackson edition
Los Angeles-ABC has scheduled a two-hour “20/20” edition about pop star Michael Jackson for Friday, Feb. 7, from 9 p.m. to 11 p.m. (ET). The show will be anchored by Barbara Walters and feature a Granada-produced documentary, “Living With Michael Jackson,” which includes an interview with Mr. Jackson. NBC already had scheduled a “Dateline” special detailing Mr. Jackson’s changing face for 10 days later on Monday Feb. 17 from 10 p.m. to 11 p.m., and the network has no plans to change the date of its special, sources said.
Web tops TV
Los Angeles-The Internet now exceeds television, radio and magazines in importance among online users, as determined by UCLA’s third annual nationwide telephone survey of 2,000 households. About 61 percent of Internet users surveyed find the Net “very” or “extremely” important as an information source. By comparison, 50 percent of the Internet users find television important, 40 percent think that of radio and 29 percent think magazines are important. Books carried weight with 60 percent, and 58 percent thought newspapers were important. The margin for error in the survey, conducted from April to June, was plus or minus 3 percentage points.