(Reuters) – The big winner of this year’s upfront TV advertising sales season was an old favorite: the sitcom.
By the time the curtain came down on the network previews on Thursday, 16 of the 36 new scripted shows added to the programming lineups of the big four broadcast networks – CBS Corp, Walt Disney Co’s ABC, News Corp’s Fox and Comcast Corp’s NBC – were comedies.
Upfront week is the television industry’s annual rite at which networks preview upcoming shows for advertisers and media buyers in hopes of persuading them to buy commercial time in advance.
Broadcast networks invested heavily in original scripted programming, as opposed to reality shows. Much of the investment went toward the venerable situation comedy as networks sought to justify the hefty fees they charge advertisers in a world where viewers’ time is increasingly fragmented by online video and social media. The big four networks plus Univision and CW are expected to collect about $9.2 billion from this year’s upfronts, an increase of 3 percent over last year.
The heavy bet on original scripted shows also has residual benefits thanks to insurgent companies like Netflix Inc, which have shown an appetite not only to compete, but to pay top dollar for the syndication rights to such programming.
“We’re seeing a lot of comedy added and a lot less new reality shows,” said Needham analyst Laura Martin. “This is good for the TV ecosystem because TV has to have good syndication windows to sell on shows to other networks. Reality has no library value,” she said, referring to the reluctance of broadcasters to pay big bucks for reality shows that are several years old.
In an effort to shake off their ratings cobwebs, ABC and NBC, which have long ranked third and fourth in the ratings, respectively, made the most significant revamps to their schedules.
ABC is adding 10 new shows to its schedule including six dramas and four comedies. Two of the network’s new dramas, “666 Park Avenue” and “The Last Resort,” received positive buzz from media buyers who attended ABC’s upfront presentation.
NBC – which most needs a hit – unsurprisingly added 16 new shows to its lineup, the largest number of any network. Among the highlights was “Animal Practice,” a sitcom set in a veterinary clinic. NBC sought to generate buzz for the show by bringing one of the stars – a monkey named Crystal – to its upfront presentation Monday.
Indeed, NBC is making the biggest bet of any network on comedies, scheduling sitcoms on four out of five week nights next season.
Media buyers also had high hopes for J.J. Abrams’ science-fiction drama “Revolution,” though the networks have tried and failed over the last few years to replicate the magic of “Lost,” the other Abrams-produced show that launched TV’s science-fiction fascination.
BRITNEY, BACON, QUAID
In contrast to NBC, CBS Corp’s eponymous network, the top-rated network in terms of total viewers, has the strongest returning lineup and is therefore least in need of new shows. It added only four – three dramas and one comedy – to its schedule for the new season, the fewest new shows of any network.
The best-received of its shows were “Vegas,” a new period drama starring Dennis Quaid in 1960s-era Las Vegas, and “Partners,” its lone new sitcom from the original creators of hit comedy “Will Grace” which also has a similar straight/gay buddy relationship as its theme.
Already featuring a strong comedy lineup with “Two and a Half Men,” “Big Bang Theory” and “Mike and Molly,” CBS boss Les Moonves decided against adding more comedies to his schedule despite the fact that they can help bring younger viewers to the network. CBS’ audience is the oldest on TV, with an average age of more than 55 years old.
“We looked at going to eight comedies but felt we already had a great schedule,” Moonves said.
Bernstein analyst Todd Juenger said CBS’ incumbency advantage is starker than ever.
“For CBS, there was no need to take notes; we can name all four new shows and their time slots from memory,” said Juenger.
“Imagine how much easier it is for CBS to drive awareness and interest in four new shows, compared to the other networks trying to launch six or 10 – or even 14 new shows.”
For its part, Fox, which trails CBS in overall viewership, added three sitcoms and two dramas.
But the biggest news from Fox did not involve new shows, but a new judge. “X-Factor” producer Simon Cowell appeared on stage Tuesday to announce that Britney Spears and Demi Lovato, who appeared alongside Cowell, had signed on as judges for next season after weeks of speculation in the news media.
Fox also drew applause from advertisers for luring veteran Hollywood star Kevin Bacon to TV for the first time ever for its new serial-killer drama “The Following.”
“Our audience has consistently asked, ‘Where’s the next “24″‘? I think we found it,” said Fox Entertainment President Kevin Reilly.
The addition of movie stars like Bacon, Quaid, and Lucy Liu, who will star in a new CBS show called “Elementary,” is viewed as significant for the broadcast networks since the perception is that they have been losing buzz and mind share to much smaller networks like AMC, home to award-winning shows such as “Mad Men” and “Breaking Bad.”
And then there are insurgent newcomers like Hulu, Google Inc’s YouTube and Yahoo Inc, which are luring stars like Tom Hanks and Katie Couric to digital video by investing heavily in original content creation.
“This isn’t new to this year, the networks understand that there’s all this development on the other side,” said Mediacom Chicago managing director Matt Schwach.
LOSERS
With so many holes to fill, NBC and ABC inevitably had some losers at this week’s upfronts, with many of their new shows and schedule changes falling flat with critics and other media-watchers.
Horizon Media analyst Brad Adgate said NBC’s move to extend its hit talent show “The Voice” by an hour on Tuesday nights might be 60 minutes too much for audiences to bear.
“I think they’re going to kill ‘The Voice’ with over-exposure,” said Adgate.
Adgate also was not a fan of ABC’s new sitcom “The Neighbors,” about an alien family living among humans, which the network plans to air after its hit “Modern Family” on Wednesday nights.
But from the TV industry’s point of view one person was a bigger loser than any show previewed during the upfronts: Charlie Ergen, chairman of DISH Network Corp. Network executives are hopping mad over Ergen’s launch of a DVR called the “Hopper” which allows viewers to completely skip over commercials rather than fast-forward through them.
The industry was collectively appalled that Ergen would attempt to undermine their key source of revenue – advertising.
“I do find it surprising that they’re going to do that to their largest content provider. I mean, more broadcast is watched on their service than anywhere else, and this is how the shows are paid for,” said Peter Rice, chairman of Fox Entertainment.
CBS’ Moonves was even more emphatic. “It’s preposterous, they can’t do this,” he said. “How does Charlie (Ergen) expect us to pay for the programming?”
(Reporting By Yinka Adegoke and Liana B. Baker in New York; Editing by Peter Lauria, M.D. Golan and Matthew Lewis)
NEW YORK |
NEW YORK (Reuters) – China’s biggest political scandal in two decades is likely to have dashed playwright David Henry Hwang’s hopes of bringing his Broadway play “Chinglish” to mainland China anytime soon.
In a case of life imitating art, the comedy has so many similarities to events surrounding deposed Chinese politician Bo Xilai that Hwang says he doesn’t believe it would be acceptable to the authorities to allow a production to be mounted.
In the play, which premiered in Chicago last year before the Bo scandal erupted, an American businessman has an extramarital affair with a sexy Chinese female official and her boss is arrested on corruption charges.
There is also a British consultant “fixer” who arranges for the son of a Chinese official to go to a school in the UK. Beneath it all lies a power struggle, and there are many funny linguistic misunderstandings along the way.
In the real-life scandal, there are allegations of corruption surrounding Bo and his beautiful wife Gu Kailai, now a suspect in the murder of a British businessman, Neil Heywood. He had been a former family friend who had among other things arranged for Bo’s son to attend an exclusive school in the UK.
There is an elusive French architect who appears to have shared both an affectionate and close business relationship with Gu. And beneath it all, a power struggle, with the ambitious Bo climbing his way toward the pinnacle of the Communist Party.
“It has always been my dream that the play could be done in China proper,” Hwang, a 54-year-old Los Angeles-born Chinese-American writer, said in an interview.
“However, the Bo Xilai case and the fact there are these similarities probably makes it less likely that the play could be performed in China, at least in the near future.”
He said the play could be mistaken for criticism from overseas. “The Chinese don’t like to feel an outsider is criticizing them – it’s ok if they are criticizing themselves.”
CRACKDOWN
Still, Hwang says he does expect the play to be produced in Hong Kong in the next 6-12 months, though even that might be a test of the territory’s more liberal environment.
There is now little hope of a theater production on the mainland for at least four or five years, he said.
“There are still pretty firm freedoms of civil liberties and freedoms of expression in Hong Kong, but the question is whether the play could ever be done in China,” he said. “Right now given the high profile of the Bo Xilai case, it is probably unlikely.”
He once had hopes of taking his Tony Award-winning play “M. Butterfly”, which was turned into a movie by David Cronenberg, to China but the Tiananmen Square crackdown in 1989 stopped that plan, Hwang said. It still cannot be produced on the mainland.
Some Chinese may get the chance to catch a movie version of “Chinglish”, with plans for it to be directed by Taiwanese-American Justin Lin. But they are more likely to eventually see the film online than in Chinese cinemas, which are subject to tight restrictions on the number and type of foreign movies.
CULTURAL CONFUSION
Hwang received a barrage of excited emails from theater lovers struck by the similarities between his play, which debuted on Broadway in October, and the Bo scandal.
Fans have approached the dramatist and observed, “Wow, the Bo Xilai case really reminds me of your play,” Hwang said.
More broadly, he said, the play and the real-life case of Bo showed that Westerners were no longer such rare or respected characters in Chinese life.
“A Western businessman going into China now, A, is only one fish in a pond with a lot of other Western fish and B, doesn’t command the same kind of authority and respect that he or she would have 20 or 30 years ago,” he said.
However, Chinese art and life remain culturally far removed from Western ideals, he added. “Yes, China is changing and is becoming more like the West but that doesn’t mean it is like the West – that is an important distinction.”
(Reporting By Christine Kearney; Editing by Martin Howell and Mark Bendeich)
NEW YORK |
NEW YORK (Reuters) – He brought the “American Idol” judges to their feet, but Joshua Ledet couldn’t win over fans and was sent home from the top-rated TV talent show on Thursday, leaving Jessica Sanchez and Phillip Phillips to battle for the crown on next week’s finale.
The elimination of Ledet – through audience voting and not by the judges – sets up a final showdown between Sanchez and Phillips to determine who will be named the next “American Idol,” a distinction that has belonged to hitmakers such as Kelly Clarkson and Carrie Underwood, among others.
Sanchez has impressed the judges from the beginning of the current season with her technical mastery of music, despite being the youngest contestant at age 16. Singer-songwriter Phillips has won plaudits for bringing his own distinctive style of guitar playing music to other artists’ songs.
The finale will consist of a two-hour performance episode on Tuesday, May 22, followed by a results episode on Wednesday, May 23. The winner will receive a recording contract.
Ledet was gracious in defeat. He closed the singing contest Thursday with his rendition of “It’s a Man’s World,” replicating one of his most popular performances of the season.
Audience voting was based on Wednesday episode that included three performance rounds of contestants singing songs chosen by the judges, then picking their own songs and finally belting out a tune chosen by mentor Jimmy Iovine for the third round.
Judges Steven Tyler, Jennifer Lopez, and Randy Jackson chose Etta James’ “I’d Rather Go Blind” for Ledet’s first performance.
In his feedback, Tyler predicted Ledet would win the show, but his later responses to Ledet’s other songs was not as enthusiastic.
Though Lopez praised him for communicating the meaning of the lyrics in John Lennon’s “Imagine,” Iovine thought he went a bit too far, describing his performance as “slightly overblown and over-emotional.”
Iovine then took some responsibility for what he thought was Ledet’s less-than-stellar performance of Mary J. Blige’s “No More Drama,” saying that he should have chosen a song with more melody.
For her Wednesday routine, Sanchez sang Aerosmith’s “I Don’t Want To Miss a Thing,” and Tyler, the rock band’s lead singer, told her “you just took a great song and made it greater.” And Iovine said it was worthy of singing at the Grammys.
Phillips’s songs included “We’ve Got Tonight,” with Iovine and Jackson agreed it was his best performance to date.
Thursday’s results show included performances from two artists with new albums out this week – Lisa Marie Presley and “Idol” season 8 runner-up Adam Lambert. Presley sang “You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet,” off her album “Storm and Grace,” and Lambert did “Never Close Our Eyes” from sophomore album, “Trespassing.”
Now in its eleventh season, “Idol” continues to be the most-watched reality show in the United States. Audiences vote for their favorite performers by phone and text message each week as contestants are challenged by a variety of musical styles.
(Reporting By Andrea Burzynski; Editing by Bob Tourtellotte)
NEW YORK |
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Screenwriter Aaron Sorkin hasn’t yet figured out how to put the life of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs on the silver screen, but he is certain it’s not going to be a straightforward biography.
Sorkin, who won an Oscar for his screenplay of Facebook film “The Social Network” and created TV drama “The West Wing”, said on Thursday he would be looking for an element of tension or an obstacle in Job’s life on which to hang the movie.
Movie studio Sony Pictures announced on Tuesday that Sorkin would adapt Walter Isaacson’s best-selling biography of the enigmatic genius behind the iPod and the iPhone. Jobs, 56, died in October after a long struggle with pancreatic cancer.
“I know so little about what I am going to write. I know what I am not going to write. It can’t be a straight ahead biography because it’s very difficult to shake the cradle-to-grave structure of a biography, ” Sorkin told reporters at a news conference for his upcoming HBO drama “The Newsroom.”
Sorkin noted that “The Social Network” saw the Facebook story through the lens of an acrimonious lawsuit that pitted CEO Mark Zuckerberg against his Harvard friends over the creation of the social media network.
“Drama is tension versus obstacle. Someone wants something, something is standing in their way of getting it. They want the money, they want the girl, they want to get to Philadelphia – doesn’t matter … And I need to find that event and I will. I just don’t know what it is,” Sorkin said.
Sorkin said he would turn his full attention to the Jobs film in late June, once he has launched “The Newsroom”, which is set behind the scenes at a television network.
He said that Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak has been hired by the film studio as a “tutor” on all the technical aspects of computers and on Jobs himself.
Wozniak and Jobs founded Apple from a garage in 1976. Wozniak stopped working for the company in 1987 but kept in touch with Jobs until his death.
(Reporting by Christine Kearney, Writing by Jill Serjeant; Editing by Bob Tourtellotte)
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SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Armando Rodriguez was warned several times to continue taking his tuberculosis medicine.
At one point, authorities said, he told his case officer he stopped the treatment out of concern for his liver while binging on alcohol and methamphetamine.
So on Tuesday, authorities took the unusual step of arresting Rodriguez and charging him with refusing to comply with a tuberculosis order to be at home at certain times and make appointments to take his medication.
It’s a move that divides public health officials.
“I think it’s an error to confine someone in the criminal justice system for a public health crime,” said Lawrence Gostin, a Georgetown University public health law professor who drafted a model law adopted by several states struggling with the issue. “The whole intention is to protect the public’s health. It’s not to lay blame on someone.”
Health officials say Rodriguez, 34, of Stockton has active pulmonary tuberculosis, which can include coughing up blood or phlegm and can spread through the air.
Rodriguez has been noncompliant with his treatment and could become contagious as a result, Ginger Wick, nursing director for San Joaquin County, said in a letter requesting a warrant for Rodriguez’s arrest.
After failing one time to give himself the drugs, Rodriguez told a nurse he had gone on an alcohol binge and taken methamphetamine and didn’t want to hurt his liver, Wick said in her letter.
Rodriguez was arrested Tuesday and is expected to be arraigned Thursday on two misdemeanor counts.
He will likely be appointed a public defender.
Tuberculosis is a bacterial infection that usually attacks the lungs. Many people have a latent form, and the active form usually only affects adults whose immune systems are compromised, which can happen from drug use.
Public health experts are divided on the issue of mandatory treatment and criminal charges for patients who don’t comply with treatment orders.
Many of those who do support criminal prosecution in the rarest of cases when public health is in jeopardy oppose the jailing of patients.
Implementing mandatory treatment should be a last resort, and prosecuting someone for disobeying a public health order is unhelpful and sends the wrong message if protecting public health is the intent, Georgetown’s Gostin said.
Instead, the afflicted should be given assistance such as transportation to and from treatments rather than punishment as an incentive to take their medicine, he said.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said laws to control the spread of tuberculosis have been in use for more than a century, though regulations differ in each state.
As many as 12,000 new cases of tuberculosis are reported in the country each year, the CDC reported. California recorded 2,317 new cases in 2011, a low since records have been kept.
Nonetheless, officials throughout the nation continue to struggle to stop the spread of tuberculosis, with several drug-resistant strains emerging in recent years.
Federal and state officials don’t keep records of the number of people prosecuted for refusing to take their medicines. But some say it’s exceedingly rare to file criminal charges in such cases.
San Joaquin County has had more than 30 tuberculosis prosecutions since 1984, prosecutor Stephen Taylor said, noting the county is more aggressive than other jurisdictions in prosecuting patients to get them to take their medication.
“The criminal cases we’re dealing with generally involve drug users who are harder to treat and manage because the TB medicines conflict with street drugs,” he said. “We have to throw these people in jail and treat them as in-patients. They don’t cooperate as out-patients.”
Karen Furst, San Joaquin County public health officer, said the county arranges transportation and other services to help patients stick to their drug regimen and turns to the legal system only as a last resort.
“I have to make sure that if I’m aware that somebody is in a position that could possibly be spreading a disease to another person, that I take steps that are necessary to prevent that from happening,” she said.
Rodriguez was discharged in March from San Joaquin General Hospital with four medications for active tuberculosis and agreed to take the drugs under observation by a county health official on weekdays and on his own on weekends, authorities said.
He allegedly refused to take the drugs on another day and then was not at home on three occasions and missed an appointment.
Each charge against Rodriguez carries a maximum penalty of a year behind bars. In her letter, Wick said Rodriguez would need nine months of treatment.
_____
Associated Press writer Paul Elias in San Francisco contributed to this report.
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WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration is asking a presidential commission to help decide an ethical quandary: Should the anthrax vaccine and other treatments being stockpiled in case of a bioterror attack be tested in children?
“We can’t just assume that what we have for adults works for children,” Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius told the panel Thursday.
Controversy over whether to open pediatric studies of the anthrax vaccine led Sebelius to ask the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues to tackle the question. The commission began its deliberations Thursday; recommendations are expected by year’s end.
Sebelius made clear that the question is far broader than anthrax.
“There are serious ethical issues around the development of medical countermeasures for children” in general, she said.
Developing protections for youngsters is critically important, but in a way that puts “our children’s safety as our highest priority,” Sebelius said.
A decade after the anthrax attacks in the United States, the government has a multibillion-dollar stockpile of tools to fight back against some of the threats that worry defense experts. Notably missing is information on how to treat children in various emergencies — whether the same drugs their parents will get will work or be safe for them, and even what dose youngsters should receive.
Thus the debate on whether to conduct studies now, before millions of children might need to try an untested product in an emergency. Even if those studies were offered, there’s no way to know how many parents would agree to enroll their children.
Testing medications in children always requires extra safeguards. It’s fairly straightforward to test a potential treatment for cancer or some other childhood disease. But if a child won’t receive a direct medical benefit, federal regulations say studies are allowed only if testing adults can’t provide the answers and if the risks to participating children are minimal.
Anyone exposed during an anthrax attack would require 60 days of powerful antibiotics, or antibiotics until a vaccine could kick in. Last fall, the National Biodefense Safety Board, which advises the government, recommended child testing of the anthrax vaccine, but only if outside ethical experts agreed such studies could be done appropriately.
The shots have been widely used in adults, including U.S. troops, and are considered safe for them, said the board chairman, Dr. John Parker, a retired Army major general who has been vaccinated.
Side effects include shot-site soreness and redness, muscle aches, fatigue and headache. Rare but serious allergic reactions have been reported.
The bioethics commission wrestled with how to define “minimal risk” when there is no imminent emergency, and the chairwoman, Dr. Amy Gutmann, wondered whether people urging such testing would enroll their own children.
Parker responded that he’s discussed that with first-responders and some in the military. “There are groups out there that would want their families protected as much as they are protected as they do their job, in fear of bringing something home,” he said.
Other doctors told the panel that 60 days of antibiotics can cause bad side effects for children, including diarrhea, other infections and dangerous allergic reactions. Plus there’s concern that many people wouldn’t take the full course, Parker said.
___
Online:
Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues: http://www.bioethics.gov
National Biodefense Safety Board: http://tinyurl.com/7c79bbd
MELBOURNE |
MELBOURNE (Reuters) – Greg, Jeff and Murray – who along with Anthony are better known by millions of children around the world as The Wiggles – will hand over their colorful tops to younger replacements, including a woman, the group announced on Thursday.
After a final tour with the current line-up of the children’s entertainment group, Anthony Field will continue on stage as the blue Wiggle alongside the three new performers, the Group said on their web site.
“We’ve been entertaining children around the world for 21 years and it’s important that we plan for the future so that The Wiggles can keep wiggling in the years to come,” said Murray Cook, the red Wiggle, in a statement on the website.
The Wiggles, who perform live for around a million people every year, announced a final tour starting at the end of the month, including shows in Singapore, Britain, the United States, Canada and New Zealand.
Since 1991, the group has sold 23 million DVDs and seven million CDs, according to their website. They are frequently at the top of lists of Australia’s highest-earning entertainers.
“We have been so lucky to do something that we love for so long,” said Greg Page, the yellow Wiggle.
Cook met Field and Page at university where they were studying to become pre-school teachers.
Emma Watkins will become the yellow Wiggle, while Lachlan Gillespie and Simon Pryce, will become the purple and red Wiggles.
The three have already played other parts on the show such as Dorothy the Dinosaur, Captain Feathersword and Wags the Dog.
Jeff Fatt, the purple Wiggle, Cook and Page will take on backstage creative roles.
“We want to thank all our Wiggly fans – it’s been a great ride in our big red car,” said Fatt.
(Reporting by Miranda Maxwell; editing by Elaine Lies and Paul Casciato)
LONDON |
LONDON (Reuters) – British singer Adele won two Ivor Novello awards for songwriting on Thursday, adding to a lengthening list of musical accolades, but she lost out in the best album and song categories.
The 24-year-old chart queen picked up two coveted Ivor Novello prizes for the most performed song of 2011 (“Rolling in the Deep”) and songwriter of the year.
She was also nominated for best song musically and lyrically (Rolling in the Deep) but was beaten by Ed Sheeran’s “The A Team”, and in the album category Adele’s record-breaking “21″ was shortlisted but lost out to PJ Harvey’s “Let England Shake”.
In a year dominated by female artists, it was little surprise to see rising U.S. star Lana Del Rey win the best contemporary song award for “Video Games”, co-written by Briton Justin Parker.
The best television soundtrack was Martin Phipps’ composition for “The Shadow Line”, and Alex Heffes won the best film score with “The First Grader”.
Gary Kemp of Spandau Ballet fame picked up a prize for outstanding song collection, Siouxsie Sioux won the Ivor “inspiration” award and Dire Straits frontman and songwriter Mark Knopfler received a lifetime achievement honor.
Former boy band Take That won a prize for their outstanding contribution to British music.
(Reporting by Mike Collett-White, editing by Paul Casciato)
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