The 2002-03 season is history but The WB is riding high again with another year of ratings gains. The network had year-to-year gains in many demographics, including some - total viewers and 18-49s - where the network doesn't compete. The network earned double-digit increases in adults 18-34 (2.1/6, up 17%), men 18-34 (1.5/5, up 15%) and women 18-34 (2.6/7, up 13%). During the May sweeps, The WB had two of the top five and seven of the top 20 dramas in the 12-34 demographic and four of the top 20 in adults 18-34. Jordan Levin, the network's president of entertainment, told reporters last week that The WB's season was strong across the board and didn't rely on stunts to get ratings. "It gives us the sense of comfort about stability and our ongoing strength," said Levin. The WB has seen success with its several shows, including sophomore drama Smallville, as well as Gilmore Girls, Charmed, Seventh Heaven and a drama new this past year, Everwood. All those shows will return along with Angel, The Jamie Kennedy Experiment, What I Like About You, Reba and Grounded For Life (which moved from Fox to The WB earlier this year). This season spelled the last for one of The WB's highest-rated and long-running dramas, Dawson's Creek. Its May 14 performance broke several records at The WB, including adults 18-34 (6.6/18) and women 18-34 (9.1/21). It was The WB's highest ratings on Wednesdays in other demographics, too. Levin said that he's encouraged by the development of the eight-year-old network and hopes the momentum continues. "It shows what The WB is capable of," he said. At the upfront earlier this month, The WB unveiled several new comedies and dramas and shifted Smallville to Wednesdays to replace Dawson Creek. Smallville, which has been a runaway hit this season, will be replaced by Gilmore Girls, which is moving again. New dramas are Fearless and Tarzan and Jane. New comedies are Run of the House, Like Family, All About the Andersons and an unscripted series, Steve Harvey's Big Time. The WB is also going to continue its so-called Easyview showings of two series between 5-7 p.m., a two-hour extra block on Sunday that the network got last year in trade for Saturdays with its affiliates. The network used that extra time Sunday to run repeats of Smallville and Everwood, which executives have credited with helping boost sampling and ratings on the Mondays and Tuesdays that those shows first ran. In the fall, the shows highlighted will be Everwood and Fearless. The summer will include a mix of new shows and repeats for The WB, including a sitcom called The O'Keefes that began last week. An unscripted series, Boarding House: North Shore, will begin June 18. And the network will shortly kick off a summerlong promotion with Pepsi that will result in two WB shows, including a weekly music series called Pepsi Smash. That show, being run by the producer of the MTV Video and Movie Awards, is being billed as a reinvention of the music chart show that will feature some of today's hottest acts. The other program, a two-hour special called Pepsi Play for a Billion, will be the culmination of a summerlong campaign that began in stores this month. Hosted by Drew Carey, the show will feature people competing for the chance to win a billion dollars and one out of 1,000 consumers playing will win $1 million. Levin said the summer is a good time for the sampling of its scripted assets and because The WB does so many scripted shows, it's got to run them as repeats in the summer. "We do a couple of things, we look at the schedule and are able to move the pieces into place so that we can train an audience so hopefully by fall" they'll start watching it regularly, Levin said. He said The WB picks a series or two to get behind to gain more eyeballs, and it's worked last year with The Jamie Kennedy Experiment and in the past with Smallville and Seventh Heaven.
When Mediamark Research unveiled its spring 2003 magazine-readership data last week, one figure immediately jumped off the screen: the "Six Sisters" magazines had tumbled nearly eight percent in total readers compared with the same period in 2002. Publishers of the six venerable titles - Better Homes and Gardens, Family Circle, Good Housekeeping, Ladies' Home Journal, Redbook and Woman's Day - expressed little concern about the declining readership numbers. "Overall, around 60 percent of all magazines they measured were down - it's not just the women's service category," says Woman's Day publisher and vice president Laura Klein. Adds Better Homes and Gardens publisher Dan Lagani: "To be honest, I'm not sure the [MRI] numbers tell me a whole lot." Still, the numbers don't paint a pretty picture. While circulation at the six titles collectively increased by a negligible 48,000, overall readership dropped to 124.2 million from 133.7 million in spring 2002 - a 7.67 percent tumble. The decline was slightly more pronounced among the Sisters' core woman audience (a drop of just below eight percent). On a readers-per-copy basis, all six titles individually declined both among total adults and women. Family Circle lost the fewest adult readers (only .04 per copy), while Redbook lost the most (.68 per copy). Collectively, adult readership per copy for the six titles declined to 4.51 in spring 2003 from 4.86 at the same time last year; woman readership per copy slumped to 3.93 from 4.25. Of course, any number of factors could have affected the data. For instance, Klein questioned whether a sweeping series of changes at Woman's Day - in March, the magazine upgraded its paper stock, increased its width and overhauled its design - were reflected in the MRI data. "The numbers may not be reflective of the changes, for us and probably for many others," she suggests. Similarly, others wonder whether the "Six Sisters" tag has outlived its usefulness. Any number of titles tread roughly the same ground in terms of subject matter. Were O: The Oprah Magazine or even Real Simple to be formally inducted into the sorority, the category's overall MRI numbers might look considerably rosier. And while it's obvious that the Six Sisters compete for dollars from the same advertisers, other publications are going after those same dollars - meaning that the Sisters might want to broaden their view of potential competitors, if they haven't already. "I consider People just as much of a competitor, if not more, as the other women's-service magazines," Lagani says. As for the rest of 2003 and beyond, Six Sisters publishers are bullish about the category - both collectively and in terms of individual titles - as well as the overall economy. "Business has never been better," says Lagani of BH&G; Klein points to 80 brand-new advertisers in the June issue of Women's Day. If nothing else, the Sisters can take solace in the Publishers Information Bureau's year-to-date figures through April, in which each of the titles is up considerably in both ad pages and ad revenue over 2002 levels. "The category is faring very, very well, both with readers and advertisers," Klein notes. "People want to live easier and more fulfilling lives, and that's what the women's-service magazines are all about."
MTV Networks announced Thursday a new group structure for the company, a week after Comedy Central joined its fold. The announcement, made by Chairman/CEO Tom Freston, expands the roles of Judy McGrath and Herb Scannell. McGrath, who had been president of MTV Networks Music Group, will now become MTV Networks group president. She will be responsible for MTV, MTV2, VH1, CMT and Comedy Central. Larry Divney, president of Comedy Central, will report to McGrath. Scannell had been president of Nickelodeon, TV Land and TNN. He will now become president of MTV Networks Group, responsible for Nickelodeon, Nick at Nite, TV Land, Noggin and TNN. Next month, TNN will become Spike TV and become focused on men. McGrath and Scannell will also become part of a new management group, the MTV Networks Management Committee, that the company said will play the lead role in the management of the expanded MTV networks. The committee also includes MTV Networks President/COO Mark Rosenthal, MTV Networks International President Bill Roedy, and Freston. "This structure places two of our best, most experienced and most successful leaders in expanded roles that position us perfectly as we continue to expand as a company," said Freston. In addition to the recent acquisition of Comedy Central from AOL Time Warner (which, along with Viacom, had a 50% stake in the network), MTV Networks has also grown to include Noggin and the College Television Network. "Judy's accomplishments over the years speak for themselves. She has an unmatched creative vision and a proven ability to build, strengthen and transform powerful brands and I am thrilled to have her take on this added role and new challenge. Herb is a remarkably talented creative executive who has brilliantly led the channels under his leadership from one success to another, dramatically growing their businesses along the way. His skills will serve us well as we launch Spike TV and aggressively grow that brand as the first network for men."
CBS drama CSI and the next-to-last season of Friends were TV's biggest winners in primetime for the year, according to Nielsen Media Research. The figures don't include the year's special programming such as the Super Bowl. Of the top 10 programs in prime households and persons for the year, CBS led with four and NBC and Fox each had three. ABC's first program on the list, Monday Night Football, was 11th. ABC made three more appearances on the list (The Bachelorette, 14th; The Bachelor, 18th; and NFL Monday Night Showcase, 28th) before its first scripted program, NYPD Blue, cracked the list at 34th. Fox's first scripted prorgram was The Simpsons (41st), although Fox's NFL Sunday Bonus was 31st. Joe Millionaire, which had the top single showing beyond this year's Super Bowl with the finale of the Fox phenom, was the third highest-ranking show on the list. Fox has said it would return Joe Millionaire to the air in the new season with a top-secret twist that the network hopes will give the network another big win. That and the runaway successes of American Idol, which was another partial season program, helped Fox score big from January through May. Another partial-season franchise, had two shows in the top 10: Survivor: Thailand and Survivor: Amazon. Law and Order was ranked in the top 10 but its two siblings, Law and Order: SVU and two versions of Law and Order: Criminal Intent, were in the top 25. The top 10 programs for the season through May 25 are: