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Networks place big-money bet$

So now it's official: ABC will do anything to squeeze cash flow out of "Millionaire." That includes making Regis Philbin work all summer, retarding program development and ticking off ABC station managers, who must be asking themselves whether the words "late local news" will ever be heard again at an ABC upfront.

Some people say that ABC is foolish to put all of its eggs in one basket. But as ABC's Stu Bloomberg pithily put it when he stood on the stage of Radio City Music Hall and justified adding a fourth night of "Millionaire": "Like you wouldn't."

The fact is, if you look carefully at the announced fall lineups, you'll see other networks making even riskier schedule moves than ABC. And unlike with "Millionaire," they're rolling the dice on totally unproven shows.

(continued)

The 1999-2000 season: How they ranked

The three regularly-scheduled nights of "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" finished as the Nos. 1, 2 and 3 shows of the 1999-2000 season, according to the final tally just out from Nielsen Media Research.

For the season, ABC had five of the 10 most-watched shows. Besides three hours of Regis, they included perennial favorite "Monday Night Football" and "The Practice," which got a lift from "Millionaire" on Sundays.

And despite NBC's decision to list its 9:30 p.m. Thursday "Frasier" repeat as a separate program — making it perhaps the first rerun in history to finish in Nielsen's top 10 — CBS still managed to carve out a top-10 finish for "60 Minutes," the 23rd straight year the newsmagazine has done so.

Had "Millionaire" and "Frasier 9:30" not been included, your top 10 would've also included "Touched by an Angel," "Law & Order," "Raymond" and (skipping over the "Monday Night Football" pre-game show) "Jesse," which has been cancelled, as was NBC's original 9:30 p.m. Thursday show, "Stark Raving Mad" (18th).

View the full 1999-2000 season ratings and rankings

Pick to click

The summer TV season gets into full swing tonight with an unusually long list of choices, including the debut of the desert-island game show "Survivor" (8 p.m., CBS) and a Carlos Santana performance on Fox.

  • EARLIER: Local man booted off "Survivor"

    • The only certifiable do-not-miss program, for those who can stomach it, is "The Tulsa Lynching of 1921: A Hidden Story" (6:30 p.m., Cinemax). This documentary sheds light on the long-obscured race riot that is now considered the country's most shameful act of terrorism. As many as 300 African-Americans died, and the city's entire middle-class black neighborhood was destroyed by white men then looted by white women. A commission is still sorting through the evidence, but you can see it for yourself in this searing film which includes photographs and first-hand accounts.

    Also tonight, the animated version of "Clerks" debuts on ABC, with much the same frenetic pacing, pop culture-referencing and political incorrectness as Seth MacFarlane's "Family Guy" (recently departed from Fox). Highlights of the first couple of episodes I watched include a brilliant parody of Japanese anime and a scene so heavily recycled that you completely forget its original context. The actors from the Kevin Smith movie of the same name reprise their roles in Smith's long-awaited Disney 'toon: Brian O'Halloran as convenience-store clerk Dante; Jeff Anderson as video-store clerk Randal; and Jason Mewes and Smith as the duo of Jay and Silent Bob, who hang out in front of the stores.

  • Smith on ABC's scheduling: We're screwed

    • On this date...

    in 1938, "Spelling Bee" makes its debut on the BBC as television's first-ever game show. -- Tom Heald

    Previously at TV Barn:

    On the wires:

     

    Copyright © 1999-2001 Aaron Barnhart | Back to TV Barn home