CBS WAITING AT THE K-K-K-KITCHEN DOORCBS is likely to announce this week or next that it has reached an agreement with Katie Couric to anchor the CBS Evening News and join the regular contributors to 60 Minutes, Television Weekreported over the weekend. Although Couric’s contract with NBC is not due to expire until the end of May, it was widely reported that the network had released her from her obligation not to negotiate with another network until then so that it could move forward with plans for the Todayshow before pitching it to advertisers during the mid-May “upfronts.” This week might appear to be an awkward choice for CBS’s announcement. On Wednesday, NBC plans to air a video tribute to Couric to mark her 15th anniversary as cohost of Today.
MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY
NEWS BROADCASTERS SLAM NEW NFL POLICY
The Radio and Television News Directors Assn. (RTNDA) has accused the National Football League of “subverting the American tradition of a free press” by barring local TV news cameras from the sidelines of its games. In a letter to NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue, RTNDA President Barbara Cochran called the NFL’s ban “discriminatory and unprecedented” and taken “without announcement, consultation or consideration of the broader impact on public interest.” Noting that most games are played in publicly owned stadiums, Cochran said, “When electronic journalists are denied the ability to report on a news event with their own microphones, cameras and production crews, it allows newsmakers to determine the content of the news, a result that is inconsistent with our society’s democratic values.” But in an interview with Daily Variety,a league spokesman said that the footage often ends up portraying the NFL unfavorably. “We’re just imposing tighter guidelines,” the spokesman said, noting that other sports leagues similarly bar camera crews from games except networks or stations with signed deals.
GMA WEEKEND PRODUCER SUSPENDED
Good Morning Americaweekend producer John Green has been suspended by ABC News for one month without pay following the release of years-old emails that he sent in which he remarked that President Bush “makes me sick” and that former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright “has Jew shame.” After the emails were posted on the Drudge Report, Green promptly apologized, saying in a message to ABC News staff, “I want all of you to know how much I regret the embarrassment this story causes ABC. It was an inappropriate thing to say and I’m deeply sorry.” The Washington Postreported on Saturday that it was “widely believed at ABC News that the emails were leaked by a former employee who has a vendetta against Green.” The newspaper’s observation appeared to be confirmed by one message writer on the TVNewser website, who wrote: “I work at weekend GMA at ABC. I am very upset about the John Green situation. I worked with the leaker, and when fired, he threatened to destroy John and our senior producers.”
HOUSEWIVES, ANATOMY OVERWHELM RIVALS
ABC’s one-two punch of Desperate Housewives and Grey’s Anatomy easily gave the network another victory Sunday night. Housewivesscored a 13.7 rating and a 21 share, routing the competition at 9:00 p.m. Anatomyproved to be even stronger, scoring the night’s biggest ratings with a 14.0/22. Earlier in the evening, CBS’s 60 Minuteswon the 7:00 p.m. hour, posting a 7.7/14, while the network’s Cold Caseat 8:00 p.m. expanded the ratings to an 8.0/13. Overall, ABC averaged a 10.0/16 for the night, followed by CBS with a 6.9/11. NBC placed third with a 4.8/8, while Fox trailed with a 3.3/5.
NBC TO RETURN LAW & ORDER TO FORMER TIME SLOT
THEATER PATRONS HAVE A COW DURING TRAILERS
Many moviegoers attending the screening of 20th Century Fox’s Ice Age: The Meltdown were surprised and delighted to see a 20-second trailer for The Simpsons: The Movie preceding the feature. Many cheered. The trailer announced that the long-awaited film will open theatrically on July 27, 2007. “Uh, oh,” says Homer in the clip. “We better get started.” Within hours several websites had the trailer up and running. They included: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Roj6U79xuH2 and http://movies.monstersandcritics.com/archive/moviearchive.php/The_Simpsons_Movie/3528/videos. The trailer also aired on Sunday night’s episode of The Simpsons. Fox is expected to make a formal announcement of the movie today (Monday). In an interview with USA TodaySimpsons creator Matt Groening remarked that the producers had “been working to get a script that would be worthy of people actually paying to see the Simpsons. … We felt the time was right for a movie … and for Milhouse to win an Oscar.”
NEW MOVIES AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOADING – AT A PRICE
In their latest experiment in making movies available over the Internet, several studios today (Monday) will be using such sites as Movielink and CinemaNow to provide top-drawer films on a download-to-own basis. They include Brokeback Mountain, King Kong and Pride and Prejudice.Today’s Los Angeles Timesobserved that the downloaded films could cost as much as twice what the DVD versions do, can only play on a personal computer, and cannot be “burned” to disc. The newspaper commented, “As they experiment with offering online video on demand, studios are keeping prices high and restrictions tough so they don’t alienate retailers, whose DVD sales still provide the vast majority of revenue.”
THEATER YANKS TRAILER FOR 9/11 FILM
A New York City movie theater pulled the trailer for the upcoming movie United 93, about the flight that crashed in Pennsylvania following the terrorist plot of Sept. 11, 2001, after several theater patrons complained, according to Newsweekmagazine. Kevin Adjodha, a theater manager at the AMC Loews Lincoln Square 12 theater, told the magazine that one lady was crying and saying that the theater should not have played the trailer. “I don’t think people are ready for this,” he said. Newsweekalso said that in Los Angeles, some in the audience at the Grauman’s Chinese Theatre shouted “Too Soon!” when the trailer appeared. But Carole O’Hare, whose mother died on the flight, voiced support of the film, which is scheduled for release on April 28. (It is due to open the Tribeca film Festival three days earlier.) “This story has to be told to honor the passengers and crew for what they did,” she said. “But more than that, it raises awareness. Our ports aren’t secure. Our airlines still aren’t secure, and this is what happens when you’re not secure. That’s the message I want people to hear.”
