Wednesday, February 16, 2000
'Oprah' slips in Tristate ratings
BY JOHN KIESEWETTER
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Has the bubble burst for Oprah Winfrey?
The nation's No. 1 talk show is struggling for Tristate ratings midway through the four-week February sweeps. Oprah is third at 4 p.m. behind Channel 12's top-rated local news and Inside Edition, and Channel 5's Judge Judy and Judge Joe Brown.
In January, the judges tied Oprah for second for the hour.
Oprah had been No. 1 in the time period since the show jumped from mornings on Channel 12 to 4 p.m. on Channel 9 in fall of 1987. The first evidence of Oprah losing steam came in November, when Channel 12 nearly tied Oprah at 4 p.m., and won the 5 p.m. news ratings for the first time.
Channel 5's afternoon lineup will be bolstered in September when the Rosie O'Donnell show moves from Channel 9 to the NBC affiliate.
Rosie O'Donnell will air this fall at 3 p.m. on Channel 5, between soaps and the judge shows, says Rabun Matthews, Channel 5 general manager. Montel Williams will move to 10 a.m., replacing Donny & Marie this fall, he says.
ENQUIRERING MIND: Enquirering minds want to know: Where is Jerry Thomas? Why has he been absent from his WKRC-AM (500) morning show for three weeks? Is he sick? On strike? Been fired? Or off somewhere with G. Gordon Liddy?
Nope, none of the above. He's taking a one-month vacation.
“We really didn't want to publicize it,” says Tony Bender, WKRC-AM program director.
WKRC-AM has declared it “sister station” week, with Clear Channel personalities sitting in with Craig Kopp on the show. WLW-AM's Mike McConnell visited 8-9 a.m. Monday. WLW-AM's Andy Furman sits in today, followed by John Phillips (Thursday) and Rich Walburg (Friday). Mr. Thomas rejoins Mr. Kopp Feb. 28.
KIESE-WATCHING: No, WLWT didn't send news anchor Dave Wager to Lithuania for “The Nazi Secret” sweeps investigative story which aired at 11 p.m. Monday. But Channel 5 did send him to Cleveland.
Video of Mr. Wagner tracking a suspected Nazi war criminal in Lithuania came from an old story he did for WTSP-TV in Tampa-St. Petersburg last year, before he was hired by Channel 5 on Sept. 10.
“He's spent a lot of the last three years working on that story,” says Ken Jobe, Channel 5 news director.
While Channel 5 didn't spring for a trip to Europe, the station did send Mr. Wagner, an Ohio native, to Cleveland for some new interviews with suspected Nazi death camp officers, and to tape a stand-up in front of Cleveland's federal courthouse.
“The Nazi Secret” revealed how suspected war criminals kicked out of the U.S., continue to receive Social Security checks overseas totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars.
SNYDER RETURNS: Tom Snyder, who retired from CBS last March, returns to sub for David Letterman on Late Show Backstage (11:35 p.m. today, Channels 12, 7). He chats with Don Rickles and Norm Macdonald today about their visits to the Late Show with David Letterman, and with Mike Myers for Backstage Thursday.
Backstage ratings last week in the 47 metered markets (including Cincinnati) were the third-highest for the Late Show this TV season, says Kim Izzo, Late Show publicist.
Mr. Letterman, who had emergency heart surgery Jan. 14, returns to host Monday and next Wednesday.
NO CHANGE: Channel 5 will remain on Time Warner Cable here through March 2 at least. Hearst-Argyle Television, which owns the station, has granted a two-week “retransmission” extension to Time Warner for carrying the signal. Hearst-Argyle, a part owner of Lifetime, wants the cable company to pay three times as much for Lifetime in exchange for using Channel 5's signal.
SWEEPS UPDATE: Bad news for Freaks & Geeks and Sports Night fans. NBC has pulled the high school drama (No. 103 of 154 shows) from 8 p.m. Monday and plugged in the Twenty One game show through the end of sweeps.
ABC has dumped Sports Night (No. 45) at 9:30 p.m. Tuesday for the next two weeks in favor of Drew Carey reruns. NBC has just moved Just Shoot Me into that time period.
ABC also had added a second NYPD Blue next week, at 10 p.m. Wednesday, against the Grammy Awards. Henry Simmons (Another World) joins the cast Tuesday as Detective Baldwin Jones, an African-American who clashes with Detective Andy Sipowicz (Dennis Franz).
GIL GONE: Gil Bellows, who has played the ex-boyfriend on Ally McBeal for three seasons, will leave this Fox show in May, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports. A Fox publicist says he may be a recurring character next season.
AROUND THE DIAL: Chris Rock narrates What Happened to Michael Ray? (10 p.m. today, TNT), a documentary about the former NBA star Michael Ray Richardson, who was banned from the league for drug abuse in 1986.
The three-part A Personal Journey with Martin Scorsese Through American Movies concludes today (8 p.m., Turner Classic Movies), followed by Wild Boys of the Road (9:30 p.m.) and Hell's Highway (10:45 p.m.).
MTV's Diary premieres with a behind-the-scenes look at singer Celine Dion (10:30 p.m., MTV).
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