October 01, 2002 |
RATINGS SHMATINGS
The first week of the new fall season is history, and the big winners were CBS, NBC and the WB. CBS — buoyed by strong starts for CSI, CSI: Miami and Everybody Loves Raymond — was tops in households and total viewers. NBC, which had the week's most-watched show with Friends (33 million viewers), was No. 1 in all key demos. (NBC also scored with the Sunday premiere of American Dreams, which won its timeslot with 13.3 million viewers.) But the big story remains the huge year-to-year increases posted by the little Frog network that could. Compared to last fall, the WB is up 69 percent among young adults. "They can thank 7th Heaven, Everwood, The Gilmore Girls, Smallville, Reba and Charmed for this outstanding start," says Mediaweek's Marc Berman. ABC and UPN, meanwhile, were down dramatically. |
MAKE LOVE, NOT WAR
Courtney Love and Universal Music Group have finally buried the hatchet: The two sides announced Monday that they have settled their lawsuits against each other. Love, the widow of Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain, was released from her Universal contract. In exchange, Universal won the right to release new Nirvana material, including a compilation album with a never-before-released track, a box set, and a rarities album. |
OH, BEHAVE!
Val Kilmer is breaking into the adult film biz. The actor has been cast as late porn king John Holmes in Wonderland, a movie that depicts Holmes's involvement in an early '80s quadruple homicide, Variety reports. Also in talks to join the cast are Lisa Kudrow, Christina Applegate and Kate Bosworth. |
MARK BURNETT'S ANGRY
CBS is hoping to thwart ABC's attempt to stage its own version of celebrity Survivor. The Eye Network and the producers of Survivor are threatening legal action against ABC if it moves forward with plans for a U.S. version of the hit British series I'm a Celebrity ... Get Me Out of Here!, which drops a bunch of B-list celebs in the middle of nowhere and forces them to fend for themselves. |
SECOND TIME'S THE CHARM
No Doubt singer Gwen Stefani and Bush frontman Gavin Rossdale tied the knot again on Saturday in Los Angeles surrounded by celeb pals such as Courteney Cox Arquette and Ben Stiller. The couple already exchanged vows last month in a small London ceremony. |
ON THE MEND
Oscar-winning thesp George Kennedy (Cool Hand Luke) was released from an Idaho hospital on Monday following heart bypass and hip replacement surgery. The 77-year-old's condition reportedly is improving steadily. |
SOUL SEARCHING
Boris Kadjoe — star of Showtime's Soul Food — is quitting the show after this season. "I'm moving on," he tells TV Guide Online. "There are many other things that have opened up for me that I want to do." |
FAREWELL
Walter H. Annenberg, the founder of TV Guide magazine who later served as ambassador to Great Britain, died today at his home in Wynnewood, Pa., of complications from pneumonia. He was 94. Annenberg, the son of publisher Moses Annenberg, inherited The Philadelphia Inquirer and two racing publications from his father and went on to build Triangle Publications, the first home of TV Guide magazine, into a multibillion-dollar business. He gave billions of dollars to charity and endowed the communication schools at the universities of Pennsylvania and Southern California. |
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