Your local television editor comes to you hat in hand, head drooped in shame today.
I made some errors in Wednesday's story about the local numbers in the May ratings sweeps at the expense of Ch. 2.By far the most serious was a misinterpretation of the numbers for the local newscasts. In Wednesday's column, I wrote, "Both Nielsen and Arbitron have Ch. 2 in third place in early evening news, and Arbitron also has KUTV third at 10 p.m."
Not true. Not true. Not true.
A.C. Nielsen did indeed show KUTV's 6 p.m. news well behind KTVX's 5:30 p.m. news. But in Arbitron, the two newscasts tied for second behind first-place KSL.
Ch. 2 and Ch. 4 each garnered 8 ratings in Arbitron. Ch. 4 drew a 21 share and Ch. 2 pulled a 17, but because the two newscasts do not compete head-to-head the shares should not have been used for comparisons.
A share measures the percentage of households actually watching television that are tuned into a particular show. What Arbitron's numbers really mean is that the same number of households watched both KUTV's and KTVX's early newscast, but there were more people watching television (all channels) at 6 p.m. than there were at 5:30 p.m.
This was a very stupid error on your television editor's part.
At 10 p.m., as reported, Nielsen showed KSL was a strong No. 1 and KUTV was well ahead of KTVX. However, the Arbitron numbers were incorrect.
The actual 10 p.m. Arbitron figures showed KSL attracting approximately 106,000 homes, KUTV drawing about 67,000 homes and KTVX about 63,000.
Meaning Ch. 2 was No. 2 in both books.
The folks at Ch. 2, who are understandably and justifiably unhappy with your local television editor, also want you to know that, overall, they're finishing second on the weekends as well.
According to Arbitron, Ch. 4 does finish ahead of Ch. 2 in early news competition on Saturdays. But Arbitron shows KUTV ahead in late news Saturday and both early and late news on Sunday.
And Nielsen put Ch. 2 ahead on all four newscasts.
Once again, I apologize to both Ch. 2 and Deseret News readers for the errors.STRONG NO. 3: The above corrections mean that KUTV did better than reported on Wednesday, but don't mean that KTVX did badly.
Ch. 4's numbers are still very good, particularly for the 5:30 p.m. newscast. And KTVX is becoming increasingly competitive at 10 p.m.
In eight years, the station's newscasts have gone from being a joke in the local market to a strong overall No. 3. And, in some specific time periods in one ratings book or the other, even No. 2.ADVERTISER'S PICKS: According to Madison Avenue, "Home Improvement," "Step By Step" and "The Royal Family" will be the big new hits this fall.
Hmmm. I've seen the pilots for all three shows and, well, I'm rather skeptical.
- "Home Improvement" is an OK-but-nothing-special sitcom in which comic Tim Allen plays the host of a home-improvement show who's not particularly handy at home. (Where a wife and three sitcom kids wait for him.) It will air Tuesdays at 7:30 p.m. on ABC, after a moved "Full House." If "House" succeeds in its new time slot, then "Home" might, too.
- "Step By Step" probably will be a hit - it's going to air Fridays at 7:30 p.m. after "Family Matters." Not that "Step" deserves to be a hit. It's a dreadful cross between "The Brady Bunch" and "Full House" (which is produced by the same company as "Step"). Patrick Duffy ("Dallas") is woefully miscast as a divorced father of three who marries a widowed mother of three, played by Suzanne Somers.
You know you're in trouble when Somers is the better of a series' two leads.
- "The Royal Family," on the other hand, is a surprisingly good sitcom starring Redd Foxx and Della Reese as a pair of grandparents whose lives are turned upside down when their soon-to-be divorced daughter moves back in with her three kids. Foxx and Reese are very funny.
But it's going to air Wednesdays at 7 p.m. on CBS, opposite "Dinosaurs" and "Unsolved Mysteries." That's pretty tough competition.BYE, BYE BILL: I'll withhold judgment on Bill Cosby's plans to become the Groucho Marx of the '90s by reviving "You Bet Your Life" until we have a chance to see the Cos in action as a game-show host.
But the news that Cosby is planning to host "You Bet" beginning in the fall of '93 is good news - because it means the end is finally really in sight for "The Cosby Show" - which ran out of creative energy, if not ratings punch, years ago.ARCHIE'S A HIT: A 20-year-old sitcom is the ratings surprise of the summer - "All In the Family" is doing very well on CBS on Sunday nights - considerably better than Norman Lear's new sitcom, "Sunday Dinner"
As a matter of fact, in the most recent Nielsen rankings "Family" finished 23rd and "Dinner" 47th.
CBS has even decided to flop the two shows, so for the next couple of weeks "All In the Family" will move to 7 p.m. on Sundays and "Sunday Dinner" slides back to 7:30 p.m.
The success of "Family," along with the big ratings CBS drew in February for retrospectives of that series, "Mary Tyler Moore" and "Ed Sullivan" has the network thinking nostalgically these days. Peter Tortorici, CBS' senior vice president of program planning, told the Los Angeles Times the Big Eye is seriously considering using other such programming.
Another "Ed Sullivan" special is a sure thing. And the network is considering retrospectives of "M.A.S.H.," "The Bob Newhart Show" and "The Carol Burnett Show," which, oddly enough, is returning to CBS in the fall.
The network looks upon this as almost perfect programming - it gets great ratings and it's extremely cheap (by television standards, that is).CRYSTAL'S SERIES: Billy Crystal, who went from television success on "Soap" and "Saturday Night Live" to movie success in "When Harry Met Sally . . . " and "City Slickers," is returning to TV.
But not as an actor and not on a broadcast network.
Crystal has created and will be co-executive producer and co-writer of "Sessions," a comedy on Home Box Office set to debut later this year.
"Sessions" will feature Michael McKean (Lenny on "Laverne & Shirley") as Dan, a man in the midst of a midlife crisis, and Elliott Gould as his psychiatrist. Linda Kelsey ("Lou Grant") will play Dan's wife, and Crystal's real-life daughter, Jennifer, will play Dan's daughter.
No further details are forthcoming at this time, but because it's on HBO you can bet that it'll be an "adult" comedy.