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Sunday, November 4, 2007
11/4: The Zone opens Stats restaurant
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
790/The Zone has spent more than four years trying to put together a restaurant. The management has gotten a space, set to open November 12 with a pre-opening party this past Friday.
Stats is located about two blocks from the Omni Hotel and CNN Center at 330 Marietta St., an area that didn’t have much of anything but is now a hot development area.
By its very name, it sounds like a sports bar and restaurant and in some ways, it is. The 15,000 square-foot space boasts 70 flat-screen TVs, exposed brick and cool personal beer taps that charge by the ounce. They say they are one of the only places in the country that has these taps. The restaurant just measures the amount of beer that has been consumed and charge you accordingly.
It even has a ground-floor radio studio with a two-way glass window overlooking Marietta St. which the Zone will use several times a week. (Think “Good Morning America” or “The Today Show” in New York City.) The studio should be ready by next week, according to Steak Shapiro (above), the station’s resident hypester who truly follows the edict “Always Be Selling.”
Parts of Stats exudes a Midtown nightclub/lounge feel with mood lighting, leather seats, private VIP rooms, wood floors galore and an outdoor bar area with a retractable roof. There’s even a separate room that will be used for private parties and comedy nights. Plus, Bob Amick’s Concentrics Restaurant Group (which also includes Trois, One Midtown Kitchen and Two Urban Licks) is involved and provides the food that’s a wee bit more sophisticated and a wee bit pricier than, say, Jocks and Jills over at CNN Center. There’s a crabcake BLT ($15), a short-rib pot pie ($22) and cheese fondue ($13).
The restaurant hopes to draw convention traffic as well as pre and post-game sports fans for the Hawks, Falcons and Thrashers. Here’s the Web site..
ABOVE: Sandra Golden, producer for the Zone’s morning show, Hawks broadcaster and former NBA player Dennis Scott and Cody Hicks, the Zone’s marketing man.
Among the notables who popped by the opening party after Friday’s Hawks opening victory: chef Kevin Rathbun, former Lieutenant Governor Mark Taylor, CEO of the Atlanta Spirit Bernie Mullen, Hawks NBA Hall of Famer Dominique Wilkins, Astros shortstop Adam Everett and several current Hawks players including Solomon Jones, Tyrone Lue and head Zaza Pachulia.
Radio folks were there, too, including most of the the Zone personalities, Star 94 afternoon team Cindy Simmons and Ray Mariner, 95.5/The Beat’s Crystal “C.J.” Simpson (above),Q100 morning co-host Bert Weiss and WGST’s sports guy MItch Evans.
Bert (above, with admirers) as of Friday night said he didn’t know if the station had reached its goal of 375,000 letters for all oversease military for Thanksgiving. He’ll know by Monday morning.
ABOVE: The Zone’s Chris Dimino with Astros shortstop Adam Everett
ABOVE: Zone’s Mike Bell (left) with CNN correspondent Mike Brooks CREDIT: Rodney Ho
Also, fellow AJC writer Drew Jubera, one of our best scribes, did a profile on 790/The Zone’s morning co-host Mike Bell in Sunday’s Living section. No news peg per se but Drew just felt he was worth profiling given the fact he’s 39 going on 10 and the most purely entertaining part of “Mayhem in the AM.” Check it out here.. It’s a fun read.
11/4: No more Dog the Bounty Hunter will hurt A&E
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Sorry, last week got sort of crazy with Steve & Vikki so I’m posting the weekly ratings a bit late.
Fox and ABC were the big winners with local TV viewers last week.
The local affiliates dominated the top 10, including Fox’s “House” turning in its best performance of the year, pulling in 563,000 Atlanta viewers.
The top-ranked CBS show locally was “CSI: Miami” last Monday at No. 14, with 276,000 viewers. For NBC, “Heroes” was the most popular show at 18th, with 259,000 viewers.
And if you are a fan of “Dog the Bounty Hunter,” Duane Chapman’s leaked racial slurgs forced A&E to drop not only production but all airings of its popular show. During the week of October, the network aired the show a whopping 29 times over 14.5 hours, drawing a total of 24.6 million viewers. (Many are likely repeat viewers so it’s not necessarily 24.6 million discrete people.)
WINNERS:
ABC’s “Samantha Who?” — This fall’s biggest new hit starring Christina Applegate has given a full-season order this week after three strong showings. Locally, it ranked 10th; nationally, 18th.
ABC’s “Dancing With the Stars — This show hit a season high October 29 the day before “Cheetah Girl” Sabrina Bryan was surprisingly ousted, finishing at about 21.4 million viewers. This show also fueled “Boston Legal” to its series high of 11.4 million viewers Tuesday.
CBS’s “Two and a Half Men” and “CSI: Miami” — Both middle-aged shows hit series highs this past Monday, 14.1 million for Charlie Sheen and 15.7 million for David Caruso.
WSB-TV’s “Georgia’s Water Crisis” — WSB-TV, the ABC affiliate, bumped “Cavemen” and “Carpoolers” Oct. 23 for this second special on the drought and clearly Atlantans had a thirst for it. It ranked 12th overall, bringing in 283,000 Atlantans.
Comedy Central’s “South Park” — More than a decade and many deaths of Kenny later and this animated series is showing incredible resilience. It is pulling in some of its best numbers in at least three years, averaging 3.6 million viewers a week.
LOSERS
Bravo’s “Queer Eye” — Once a buzz-worthy show dubbed “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy,” this show isin its final season is going away quietly. It’s averaging only 490,000 viewers nationwide vs. 1.7 million its first season. It drew only 384,000 October 23.
HBO’s “Curb Your Enthusiasm” — Larry David, who recently divorced in real life and separated with his fictional wife, keeps losing viewers too. In its sixth and final season, the show’s original airings are averaging just 1.13 million viewers so far, down from 4.5 million its peak year in 2002 (then fueled by “Sex & the City” and “The Sopranos”)
NBC’s Monday night lineup — All three shows hit series lows October 29. First, “Chuck”, a new series about a lovable semi-loser who has the government’s secrets imbedded in his head, finished with just 7 million viewers. “Heroes,” which may be hitting a sophomore slump, dropped to 10.5 milliion the same night. And likely-to-be-canned “Journeyman” dropped to 5.8 million.
LOCAL RATINGS
Program Network Date Viewers national rank
“House” Fox Oct. 23 563,000 5
“Dancing With the Stars” ABC Oct. 22 467,000 1
“Grey’s Anatomy” ABC Oct. 25 386,000 4
“Desperate Housewives” ABC Oct. 28 363,000 3
“Extreme Makeover: ABC Oct. 28 325,000 13 Home Edition”
“Fox News at 10” Fox Oct. 23 324,000 n/a
“Bones” Fox Oct. 22 309,000 41
World Series, Game 4 Fox Oct. 28 301,000 2
“Dancing With the Stars ABC Oct. 23 295,000 6 (results)”
“Samantha Who?” ABC Oct. 22 293,000 18
Source: Nielsen Media Research
