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Tuesday, September 16, 2008
9/17: Jeff Foxworthy plans an animated NASCAR comedy
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Alpharetta’s Jeff Foxworthy is gunning for more work, though this time in animated form.
Foxworthy, host of “Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?”, has signed a deal with Fox to do an animated pilot program about a dysfunctional family set in the world of NASCAR, according to Variety magazine.
Nancy Hower and John Lehr, producers of Atlanta-based TNT’s “10 Items or Less,” will be helping out Foxworthy in this yet untitled show.
Fox is seeking a new generation of animated shows as its lineup has aged e.g. “King of the Hill” has been on 13 seasons. Foxworthy will provide his voice to the animated show. He has done voices before in film such as “Racing Stripes” and “The Fox and the Hound 2.”
Does this sound like a good concept?
Foxworthy is also going to host the syndicated version of “Are You Smarter” starting next fall.
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9/16: TNT renews “Saving Grace” and “Raising the Bar”
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Atlanta-based TNT has renewed both “Saving Grace” for a third season and “Raising the Bar” for a second season.
The “Raising the Bar” renewal is especially curious given the direction of the ratings after the first three episodes.
The show, which stars Mark-Paul Gosselaar and Jane Kaczmarek in a law drama produced by “NYPD Blue” creator Steve Bochco, opened Labor Day to a huge 7.7 million viewers, the biggest debut in basic cable history.
But the drama slipped to 5 million viewers week two and 4.5 million Monday night. That’s a 40%-plus dropoff in two weeks. Not even the brighest-eyed optimist can take that as good news. Critics and viewers have complained that the show feels pedestrian and lacks the edge that has kept “The Closer” so popular.
In its opening week, the show held nearly the entire “Closer” audience an hour earlier. But last week, it held only about 70% and retention fell to about 60% this time around. It’ll be interesting to see how the show does once all the broadcast networks start their fresh episodes and the show no longer has “The Closer” as its lead in. (Last night was the last time “Bar” had that benefit.)
UPDATE: Steve Koonan, president of Turner Networks, got on the phone with me after I posted this and said besides losing Houston (which isn’t being rated right now for obvious reasons), there was some extra competition last night: a massive ESPN “Monday Night Football” game between the Eagles and Cowboys that broke basic cable records with 18.6 million viewers.
Koonan said the show far exceeded expectations Labor Day and he knew it wouldn’t stay at that level. He’s hoping to see “Raising the Bar” settle in its current range. He said TNT will bring back the show in late spring, early summer. He also likes how “Saving Grace” has grown and matured. He said the key way to attract talent such as Bochco is to espouse patience and not pull things reactively.
“Saving Grace,” starring Holly Hunter, has averaged 4.4 million viewers its second season so far, down about 10% percent from last year but still very respectable. It’s a more demanding, more complex show than either “The Closer” or “Raising the Bar,” but Hunter makes it eminently watchable.
Meanwhile, over at sister station TBS, conventional but amusing sitcom “The Bill Engvall Show” was rewarded a third season after averaging about 2.4 million viewers, down slightly from last year but a solid second on the network behind “Tyler Payne’s House of Payne” among its original comedies.
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9/16: Sunday Paper love, Georgia Radio Hall of Fame dinner
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Thanks to The Sunday Paper for making me part of their “SP100” along with the likes of Dagmar Midcap of WGCL-TV and English Nick of Rock 100.5. I appreciate the plug!
The second annual Georgia Radio Hall of Fame dinner is set for October 4 at the Marietta Conference Center & Resort but it’s already sold out. For you historical radio fans, check out their Web site.
The emcee is CBS Radio president Dan Mason with presenters such as Rhubarb Jones, Gary McKee and Ludlow Porch. Z93 alums are scheduled to show up and reminisce.
Here are the candidates to win induction for the career achievement award. The organization won’t announce most of the winners until the dinner, which have already been selected. Eight will get in. The group decided, in the wake of Skip Caray’s death, to announce his entry with Ernie Johnson and Pete Van Wieren. (They count as one inductee.)
-Bill Bowick, who worked at stations in Columbus and Albany.
-‘77 Braves announcers (as a team) : the late great Skip Caray*-Ernie Johnson-Pete Van Wieren
-Gary Corry - A former program director and promotions director for WQXI-AM, he helped put together the infamous “Quixie Ramblin’ Raft Race.” He also helped with the Gary McKee morning show and Rhubarb’s morning show.
-Capt. Herb Emory — He is a true traffic legend, working on various Georgia radio stations, including WQXI-AM, Star 94 and WSB-AM.
-Red Jones — He did mornings for WQXI-AM during its heyday and now works at WKNG in Tallapoosa.
-Jack Lenz — He was long-time sales guy at WSB-AM from 1963 to 1980.
-Kelly McCoy — He has been the afternoon man at B98.5 since 1985.
-Steve McCoy — He has been a successful morning man at Z93 when it was a top 40 station, Star 94 for 17 years, and now at B98.5.
-Aubrey Morris — He was Atlanta’s first radio newsman at WSB-AM and spent more than 30 years there until 1987.
-Scott Slade — He has been hosting WSB-AM’s morning show since 1991.
-Tony Taylor — He spent eight years at WQXI-AM as a promotions man and has done plenty of voice and ad agency work locally until he retired in 2006.
-Del Ward - The only female in the inductee pool. The Web site has an audio interview with her but I can’t hear the audio.
Oddly, no induction representation from WAOK-AM or V-103. John Long, who runs the group, noted in an email that a couple of African Americans were inducted last year, Zilla Mays and William Perryman. But he said he’s disappointed no African Americans were nominated this year. Though he reached out to some for help, he is befuddled by the lack of response. So V-103/WAOK vets, membership is available at www.grhof.com.
—- The ratings for the “Saturday Night Live” were the highest since 2002 and the biggest opener since the post 9/11 episode in 2001, based on major markets measured by Nielsen. In Atlanta, the show didn’t do as well as it did in other markets in terms of ratings but still drew a respectable 180,000 viewers. Here’s the Sarah Palin/Hillary Clinton bit that everyone has probably already seen by now:
—- MTV is retiring “Total Request Live” after 10 years. Ratings are way down from the years when Carson Daly hosted ‘N Sync and Britney Spears. The network’s focus lately has been more on shows such as “The Hills” anyway.
—- I hear Scotty O’Brien, a night-time Kicks jock, is going to the Party in Nashville.
—- There’s been this big brouhaha between two fired pilots for Atlanta comic Ron White, who helped get him arrested for pot possession. White admitted to the pot but didn’t particularly like other insinuations made by the pilots. He opened up to the Regular Guys this morning.
