So Fox News is still way, way in front of MSNBC and CNN in total viewership, but a significant milestone this month: MSN passed up CNN for second place in both viewers and demographics for the entire month of March. CNN is barely holding on in weekends, but that will be next to go. And "Morning Joe" is doing better than whatever CNN's idea of an AM show is these days.
Once again in its long history, CNN was unable to retain the audience it built up during a hot-news period. And it ain't hard to figure out why. Cable news is only sometimes about the news. The rest of the time it's about talk, and CNN has never done that very well. Even that warhorse Larry King is getting his suspenders snapped by Rachel Maddow most every night, as you'll read below in the NBC PR.
Expect MSNBC to continue baiting Fox News, and Fox News to continue taking the bait, and the vicious circle to go unbroken.
This also means that, despite what MSNBC president Phil Griffin said this week, he will eventually need to replace that "Countdown" repeat at 10 p.m. if he's to continue his channel's amazing growth. (My guess is he's thinking younger than I am.)
I've been knocking my head against a wall trying to think of an interesting and compelling feature to do for videos. That way I'll do more of them. So I came upon this idea: Ask you what you'd like to see me review. Then I'll have to do the videos, because I wouldn't want to let you down!
So we're going to put the focus for this poll on shows that I have previously reviewed but which I currently have no plans to re-review. In other words, pick something you think deserves another look. We'll keep this open a few days.
Discovery's got a new series coming out later this month called "The Pitchmen," and -- aptly enough -- they've pitched Billy Mays to me for an interview tomorrow. Any non-obvious questions I should be asking him? I do want to know how he scored this hilarious cameo on "The Tonight Show":
Wanted to let you know that a local Kansas City couple will be featured in an upcoming episode of the hit WE tv series The Locator, airing Saturday, April 4 at 9pm CT.
In this emotional episode, Kansas City newlyweds Amy and Chris contact professional locator Troy Dunn to help Chris find his biological father. Since Chris’ mother committed suicide when he was only two years old, he has had little information about his father other than his name. When Troy finds that Chris’ father passed away several years ago, he isn’t sure how Chris will respond but is excited to instead introduce him to his biological uncles, cousins and half-brother and –sister, both Wilkes-Barre residents.
The first season of The Locator, which premiered in September 2008, turned out to be WE tv’s most-watched show ever and the second season (which premiered March 21) is on track to be even better.
Here's a pretty good test of whether you live in a good PBS market or not -- is your station carrying "Recycle," the absorbing slice-of-life film about life in a Jordanian household?
It's airing 9 p.m. locally on KCPT as part of the PBS documentary series "Independent Lens." Check your local listings for it.
Here's my review. Scroll down further for a video interview with the director.
Last year, I saw two films at the Sundance Film Festival that examined Islamic extremism.
One was a cartoonish vehicle for “Super Size Me” star Morgan Spurlock called “Where in the World Is Osama bin Laden?” There was a long line at the press screening, and a publicist handed out milk cartons with the al-Qaida leader’s face printed on the side.
The film was held together with visual gimmicks and Spurlock’s inescapable narration as he and his crew traveled the globe, ostensibly looking for bin Laden. The film should’ve been called “Where in the World Is Morgan Spurlock?”
And then there was “Recycle.” Going into this film’s sparsely attended screening, I’d been told only that it was a documentary about a scrap collector who lived in the same neighborhood in Zarqa, Jordan, that produced Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the infamous Iraqi insurgent.
Chip Franklin also had a question I should ask Bill Maher later today when I interview him, and some more stuff. We talked today on KOGO Radio in San Diego. (d/l)
The reason you haven't seen me writing about the phenomenon of "cordcutting" -- ending one's cable subscription and watching all TV shows online -- is that I hadn't seen much more than anecdotal evidence of it happening, often in the household of the journalist writing the story. (Cordcutting was the Twitter story before Twitter.)
Indeed, fourth quarter data cited by Cable Tech Talk shows the number of video subscriptions going up, not down -- it's just that people are switching to alternative providers like AT&T and Verizon for their multichannel needs.
But even if cordcutting started to happen on a significant scale, I assumed cable operators would simply yank the free content off their websites. Now Brian Stelter has confirmed my suspicions with this story in today's Times.
This tactic of requiring online viewers of cable shows to subscribe, in one form or another, has been under discussion for a while inside the industry. Here's an article from November by Will Richmond that details why the cable operators are closing ranks, and why they might succeed in preserving the golden goose of subscriptions.
Cable operators, as Richmond points out, have distinct advantages over newspapers, even though both have business models based on bundling.
“My Boys,” the soapy Chicago dramedy starring Jordana Spiro, returns for nine new episodes starting 9:30 p.m. CT on TBS. When we last left P.J., her longtime beau Bobby (Kyle Howard) had confessed his feelings for her -- which was unfortunate because he was going to the altar with somebody else. Awk-wrrrrd!
So I guess that means he's off the market and the show will completely reboot with all new love interests this week.
I love "60 Minutes," but sometimes it just makes you scratch your head. Isn't anyone working there who has any sophistication when it comes to technology? Lesley Stahl just finished a 15-minute freakout on the dangers of the Conficker virus, dangers which many information experts say have been blown way out of proportion ... especially by reports like the one that just aired on "60 Minutes." The segment producer would have done well to read the much less hysterical Conficker FAQ from CNet ... that's now appearing on the "60 Minutes" Conficker's story page. (CBS owns CNet.)
I'll leave it to the interwebs' approximately 10 million computer experts to dissect Stahl's script line by line (as Paul Harris pointed out a while ago, she is the queen of the obvious). But as a media guy, I couldn't help but notice that CBS has had millions of dollars thrown at it by Microsoft Windows for a new ad campaign running during the NCAA tournament. And yet, I waited in vain for any mention in the "60 Minutes" story of the fact that the only computers capable of being infected by the dreaded Conficker virus were PCs running Windows.
Just to amuse myself, I started doing a variation on the old fortune-cookie game -- you know, where you tack on "...in bed" at the end of random sentences, usually after having one too many drinks? Tonight, I hit the pause button on the TiVo and finished Stahl's sentences with "... on a PC." Even Mrs. TVB thought it was kinda funny. (For a while. Then, annoying.)
Hey, I don't want to totally discount the idea that CBS is doing a public service here. Maybe tonight, a lot of 50-plussers will update their security software or lock up that wi-fi they've been sharing with the neighborhood. I suppose that's all for the good. Still, I wonder if anyone bothered to inform Lauren, the 30-trying-to-look-like-22-year-old featured in those Windows ads, that her $700 Windows box could get infected with Conficker -- but a Mac, or a PC with non-MS-manufactured Linux as the operating system, can't?
AUDIO: Chip Franklin and I talked about the story this morning on KOGO Radio in San Diego.
Before we count the ways “The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency” makes me delighted that I can still afford HBO, a confession: I had a qualm or two about lavishing so much praise on this series, adapted from the wildly popular mysteries by Scottish author Alexander McCall Smith.
Hey, great news - Damon Romine, a onetime FX publicist and part of the GLAAD team in recent years, is on board at the Screen Actors Guild as its new director of communications.
With Alan Rosenberg neutralized and SAG fighting to get its mojo back -- as I may have mentioned before, almost all of this spring's pilot action is going to rival union AFTRA -- the actors' union is in desperate need of some smart message management. Damon will be a big help.
Below, my review from the Kansas City Star on Thursday of the two new shows ABC is unveiling this week and next. "In the Motherhood" joined Mizzou and Villanova in scoring an upset last night, knocking off NBC's "My Name Is Earl" in both Total Viewers (6.7 million vs. 5.9 million) and Adults 18-49 (2.1/6 vs. 2.0/6). Good for it. As you'll read, I certainly didn't hate "In the Motherhood" ....
They seemed like such a cute couple, "Cupid" and ABC. But they didn't last long. They broke up in 1999 -- one decade, several desperate housewives, 400 episodes of "Who Wants to Be A Millionaire" and 5,000 shocking twists on "Lost" ago.
Co-stars Jeremy Piven and Paula Marshall went their separate ways, and show creator Rob Thomas went off to polish another little gem called "Veronica Mars."
And now, remarkably, ABC is bringing it back. With the help of Thomas, "Cupid" is returning next week with Bobby Cannavale as the matchmaker who's convinced he is actually the timeless god of Eros and Sarah Paulson as the shrink who plays Scully to his Mulder.
The local sfx ace Bruce Branit, whom I recently profiled, informs me via Facebook that he's just been signed by ICM to develop a feature film out of his viral video extraordinaire, "World Builder," which you can read all about in my story.
He cautions, though, that "aside from bunch of meetings where I am offered more water bottles than I can possibly drink, probably nothing too noteworthy (will happen) for several months."
Still, it's a lot more attention than "World Builder" got the past two years.
Here's a story that's typical of the crazy media business I now find myself in. Recently I visited the Crossroads loft of Bruce Branit, a local visual-effects artist, to see some of the amazing work he's been doing for TV.
After the interview, I put in a request with ABC to let me use the stills on this page, so you could see how Branit's computer wizards created a scene for this year's season of "Lost.”
While I waited for ABC to clear the photos, a funny thing happened. A film short called "World Builder" that Branit had posted on the Web months ago -- and had never come up in our interview -- suddenly went viral. As in, two million views in two weeks viral.
For a few days there, Branit was the owner of the most widely-shared video in the world that didn't have a Hollywood studio's marketing department behind it.
Of course, he wasn't making a dime off of "World Builder," so there was no point paying someone to promote it. Soon enough, though, he was swimming in free publicity for his video effects company, as news sources from Salon.com to CGChannel called to interview him about "World Builder."
Branit VFX -- the four-person visual effects firm he started in 2004 -- has been creating a lot of PR for itself with its work on a wide range of network shows, from "Lost" to "Brothers and Sisters," "Pushing Daisies" to "Californication" and, of late, a certain top-secret network pilot.
Branit also worked on the new Imax film, "We the People," from West Bottoms filmmakers Aimee Larrabee and John Altman, and has a full plate of commercial clients who may be less sexy than network TV producers, but whose checks clear all the same.
"My goal in coming back here was to get us up to where we were able to do this kind of work, and as of last September we've been there," said Branit.
After 10 years in L.A., Branit -- a Shawnee Mission East graduate -- returned to his hometown determined to have a friendly, low-stress, affordable place to raise his family. Armed with a list of contacts that included colleagues from three different "Star Trek" series and other projects he'd worked on, Branit began building his business.
In 2007, he hired his first two employees, Nickolas Stevens and Sean Joseph, Both came from the DAVE School (for Digital Animation and Visual Effects) founded by Jeff and Anne Scheetz. Branit and Jeff Scheetz were roommates in Lawrence 20 years ago when they taught themselves one of the first video tools developed for personal computers, Video Toaster, from a company then based in Topeka.
The “World Builder” odyssey also began in 2007. Branit learned that a local soundstage had been temporarily painted green -- perfect for fashioning a virtual environment -- so he quickly called in favors from friends and shot the raw footage for "World Builder" in a single 16-hour session for next to nothing. He then spent months finishing it in his spare time.
The result was a dazzling and poignant effects-laden tale of a man who creates a dream world for his beloved. "World Builder" was screened in Kansas City and at a few other film festivals. Branit took some meetings in L.A. to discuss making it into a feature, all for naught. So he decided to post it online. He expected nothing, but he wasn't shocked when it took off. After all, Branit co-created another little viral video you may have seen, "405," way back in 2000.
Now, with "World Builder" finally getting some notice, he's going back to L.A. this week to take more meetings.
Among his 2008 highlights was a job for "Pushing Daisies" that produced one of the most visually stunning scenes in the short-lived history of that series. It was in the "bee lady" episode, and if you're squirming already, you know what I'm talking about -- the spectacular "bee beard" worn by a villain on the episode, every individual bee hand-created in Kansas City.
"There's something thrilling about television," Branit said. "Every time you finish one thing, there's something right behind it. But it's getting more demanding. The expectation now is feature-film quality on television's budgets and deadlines." The new digs on Wyandotte Street include a shower and cot for those rush jobs when "you know you're about to get no sleep."
Some assignments can be daunting even to a veteran of the industry. Last year "Lost" came to him with a need: Seems that John Locke (Terry O'Quinn) was about to be lurched back in time to relive the crash of the Nigerian heroin plane from season two. Unfortunately, the scene couldn't be re-filmed, because the Beechcraft had been torched back then, and no one was sure how to rebuild such a complex scene so quickly with effects.
Branit's newest hire, Eric Bacus, was the one who came up with a solution. Using a program called RealFlow that simulated fluid objects, he created a series of intricate, spindly tubes that could be fashioned into an almost perfect knockoff of a Banyan tree trunk.
A few more hours creating each leaf by hand and wedging the Beechcraft into the tree (a nice touch: the propellor was still spinning) and Branit VFX had pulled off another everyday miracle.
We went down to the basement to admire the "render farm" that made it possible for Branit to leave L.A. Computer-generated effects are highly processor-intensive. To save time, most design programs use a 3-D modeling environment. Artists create effects in the abstract, then they take a break while the computer "renders" the finished effect. Each frame takes anywhere from five minutes to four hours to render.
If you were relying on a single computer, rendering even the shortest sequence could take days. But these days, cheap technology makes it possible for anyone to assemble a rack of two dozen networked PCs, each of which can build two frames at once. When all the processors are in use, this farm can render nearly 50 frames an hour, or one and two-thirds seconds' worth of high-definition video.
One perk of working on TV's most suspenseful show is that Branit knows a lot of story twists before anyone else. At the end of March 2008, for instance, he got a call from his contact at "Lost" asking how he might make, oh, an entire island disappear.
"So two months out, I knew that was going to happen," he said.
But not every secret gets revealed, even with all the confidentiality agreements Branit must sign. Take the time when he was assigned a crucial effect showing Smokey -- a murderous phantasm made entirely of smoke -- as he crawled out of the woods to claim a victim.
"For us to make improvements on Smokey, I said that it would help us greatly to know who he is," Branit recalled. "And the effects supervisor had to tell us, 'I don't know.'"
Branit noticed a decal for Ajira Airways on my notepad. The producers of "Lost" had given them out to critics at a preview screening the week before as a bit of a tease, and I'd unconsciously peeled it off and stuck it there.
But hey, as long as he brought it up, I thought I'd ask. "Off the record," I said, "what's Ajira Airways?"
"I don't know!" said Branit.
So there we were, two dudes in media, not knowing what surprises would be revealed next.
So you may have read that attendance at Tuesday's presidential news conference was down to only 40 million, the first presser having averaged nearly 50 million viewers. Well, here's some good news if you're NBC: Obama basically turned last week's late-night ratings race into a rout.
First, the headline:
PRESIDENT OBAMA'S GUEST APPEARANCE ON 'TONIGHT' DELIVERS 14.6 MILLION VIEWERS, JAY'S BIGGEST AUDIENCE IN NEARLY 11 YEARS, AND A 3.8 IN 18-49, JAY'S HIGHEST RATING IN MORE THAN FOUR YEARS
Now the jump. That 14.6 million audience figure is so outsized -- Jay only averages 5 million viewers a night -- that it had a disproportionate effect on the weekly ratings, including the numbers of Leno's leadout, "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon," which on paper appeared to trounce Craig Ferguson. (Ferguson was in repeats two of those nights because of basketball. NBC, in compiling the numbers you see below, graciously omitted the Ferguson numbers for those repeats but did *not* exclude the wildly inflated number from the night the National Broadcasting Company was juiced by Obama.)
Here's some funky sitcom-real world harmonic convergence for you: On the day that Kobe Bryant's ex-housekeeper sues him and his wife for abuse and nonpayment, I get word that Susanna Velasquez, the Kansas City native and beauty queen who had a four-year stint on "General Hospital," now has a recurring role as Raquel Robinson's housekeeper on the pro-athlete comedy "The Game." She'll be on Friday's episode, hopefully not having to stick her hand in a bag of dog poop.
Earlier, I profiled "Game" creator (also KC native) Mara Brock Akil and had drinks with star Hosea Chanchez.
Now this is something I have been waiting to get the confirmation on for months. Remember when the Kansas City Public Library hosted a "conversation with Tom Pendergast," the historic local ward boss portrayed by living history performer Bill Worley? And then televised it under the program title "Meet the Past"?
Well, at long last it's now a series with a 12-episode order, and is going into production next month, and you can be in the audience. You won't want to miss the premiere, which features one of the finest actors I've seen in this genre of bringing historical figures to life.
At left (click to enlarge) is an actual letter sent to a TVB reader from the U.S. government as part of the converter box coupon redemption program.
As you will read, his household was rejected for a coupon because, according to the coupon department's official government files, his household had already reached its limit of two coupons.
Just a minute of your time and you'll learn why TVB is the one media site you'll want to bookmark. Watch the video.
What's working for me this week
Waiting for NBC to be sold. Preferably to someone who knows how to run a network.
The audacity to remake. Over three nights beginning Sunday, AMC is airing a new take on the 1960s boggler “The Prisoner,” a task not for timid cable channels. See my review in Sunday's A&E.
"Andy Barker, P.I." on DVD. With the release earlier this year of “Andy Richter Controls the Universe,” our collection of the funniest sitcoms nobody watched is now complete.
... AND WHAT'S NOT
Writing ill of the dead. Richard Schickel gratuitously roasted the new Robert Altman biography (author Mitchell Zuckoff is at the Plaza Branch on Monday), calling the director an angry, drug-addled auteur of "historical curiosities."
Rupert Murdoch's war on fair use. The Fox chieftain doesn't believe anyone should be allowed to quote or mashup his content without paying for it. Sadly for him, recent court rulings have all gone the opposite direction.
Waiting nine months for "Mad Men" season four to start.
