The Los Angeles Times from Los Angeles, California • Page 158

2003:09:04:15:23:56 E26 CALENDAR LOSANGELESTIMES TELEVISION RADIO Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (Aug. 25-31) as compiled by Nielsen Media Research. They are based on the average number of people who watched a program from start to finish. Nielsen estimates there are 272.04 million potential viewers in the U.S. age 2 and older.

Viewership is listed in millions. Program Network View- ersProgram Network Viewers 1 Everybody Loves Raymond CBS11.99 2 CSICBS11.70 3 CSI: MiamiCBS11.48 4 Exhibition Pro FootballABC11.17 5 Law Order 10 p.m.) NBC11.16 --------------------------------------------6 King of QueensCBS11.13 7 Without a TraceCBS10.61 8 Big Brother 4 9 60 Minutes IICBS10.20 10 For Love or Money 2NBC10.02 --------------------------------------------11 Law Order: Criminal Intent NBC9.71 12 Law Order 13 CSI (8 p.m.)CBS9.29 14 Law Order: SVUNBC9.07 15 Fear FactorNBC9.04 --------------------------------------------16 Still StandingCBS9.03 17 Big Brother 4CBS8.73 18 O.C.FOX8.65 19 60 MinutesCBS8.64 20 --------------------------------------------21 George Lopez (8 p.m.)ABC8.40 22 George LopezABC8.08 Funniest Home Videos ABC8.08 Yes, DearCBS8.08 --------------------------------------------26 According to Jim (9 p.m.)ABC8.07 27 Without a Trace 28 The Drew Carey ShowABC7.84 29 48 Hours Investigates (Wed.) CBS7.83 30 8 Simple Rules --------------------------------------------31 The West WingNBC7.67 32 Most WantedFOX7.47 33 Big Brother 4 34 Dateline NBC 35 Meet My FolksNBC7.22 --------------------------------------------36 Law Order 8 p.m.) NBC7.19 37 Less Than PerfectABC7.17 38 Life With BonnieABC7.09 39 My Wife and KidsABC7.05 40 Dateline NBC --------------------------------------------41 CupidCBS6.96 42 As 43 44 FriendsNBC6.54 45 Cops (8:30 p.m.)FOX6.50 --------------------------------------------46 CSI: Miami 47 Paradise Hotel 48 The SimpsonsFOX6.30 49 Will GraceNBC6.22 50 King of the HillFOX6.16 --------------------------------------------51 Dog Eat Dog (9 p.m.)NBC6.00 52 Paradise Hotel 53 NYPD BlueABC5.85 54 That ShowFOX5.77 55 Dog Eat DogNBC5.72 --------------------------------------------56 The Simpsons 57 Must Be Traded ABC5.59 58 Law Order 59 The DistrictCBS5.48 60 JAGCBS5.38 --------------------------------------------61 CopsFOX5.37 62 Football, Washington at Ohio State ABC5.25 63 BoomtownNBC5.20 64 Malcolm in the MiddleFOX5.09 Extreme Makeover --------------------------------------------66 ScrubsNBC4.97 67 Judging AmyCBS4.91 68 Chitty Bang ABC4.88 69 Malcolm in the Middle (9:30 p.m.) FOX4.85 70 ER NBC4.72 --------------------------------------------71 American DreamsNBC4.61 72 Shirley Together ABC4.51 73 Funniest Outtakes NBC4.50 74 The FamilyABC4.34 75 Whose Line Is It Anyway? (9:30 p.m.) ABC4.25 --------------------------------------------76 O.C. 77 Stupid Behavior; Caught on Tape FOX3.98 78 Temptation Island 3FOX3.83 79 Peter Jennings ReportingABC3.70 80 Race to the AltarNBC3.63 --------------------------------------------81 WWE 82 HackCBS3.58 83 FuturamaFOX3.56 84 7th HeavenWB3.55 85 Reba (8:30 p.m.)WB3.20 --------------------------------------------86 Bernie Mack ShowFOX3.10 87 The PracticeABC3.06 88 RebaWB2.97 89 Wanda at LargeFOX2.90 90 AliasABC2.89 --------------------------------------------91 Anything for LoveFOX2.85 92 Smallville 93 Boston PublicFOX2.80 94 Grounded for Life (9:30 p.m.) WB2.78 95 Half and HalfUPN2.73 --------------------------------------------96 Charmed (9 p.m.)WB2.71 97 Grounded for Life (9 p.m.) WB2.70 98 Girlfriends (9 p.m.)UPN2.67 99 Gilmore GirlsWB2.60 100 Girlfriends (8:30 p.m.)UPN2.59 --------------------------------------------101 The ParkersUPN2.57 102 Jamie KennedyWB2.27 103 SmallvilleWB2.19 104 CharmedWB2.05 105 What I Like About You (9:30 p.m.) WB2.01 AbbyUPN2.01 107 What I Like About You (9 p.m.) WB2.00 108 EnterpriseUPN1.93 109 AngelWB1.89 One On OneUPN1.89 --------------------------------------------111 Enterprise (9 p.m.)UPN1.78 112 Friendly 113 Buffy the Vampire SlayerUPN1.75 114 Gilmore Girls: BeginningsWB1.53 115 in the Fox Box FOX1.50 --------------------------------------------116 Network averages Here is the number of viewers (in millions) that each network averaged per hour of prime time, for last week and for the season. Network Last week Season to date CBS8.0211.26 NBC6.9910.50 ABC6.328.82 FOX5.208.79 WB2.403.63 UPN2.183.33 Prime-Time TV Rankings The summer wound up with hot ratings for some unscripted series, several CBS comedies and the successful franchise, according to national Nielsen ratings released Thursday. CBS repeated last feat of landing seven series in the top 10 among total viewers, with Loves winding up as the top-rated series.

Night and Love or Money were the only programs from other networks to crack the top 10. is another reality show success story, while other unscripted shows, including and scored less- than-sparkling numbers. continued to increase its audience, giving the network its first dramatic hit since In other ratings news, KTLA was celebrating the viewership for its live Wednesday broadcast of the debate featuring several of the candidates in the gubernatorial recall. The station (owned by Tribune, the ownerof the Los Angeles Times)tied viewership for newscast at 4 p.m.and outperformed other newscasts on KABC Channel 7 and KCBS Channel 2. Braxton CBS retains its comedic muscle By Mark Sachs Times Staff Writer 1 a.m., the surfboard has been waxed, the new wheels are on the skateboard and Mom and Dad are deep into their REMs.

time to commandeer the TV remote and relax. But what to watch? Conan and Kimmel are winding down, seen that episode of at least a dozen times, and besides, kind of in the mood for some music videos. MTV? Get real the chances of flipping over there and coming across an actual video are about as good as your wandering in and offering to take the parental block off the Playboy Channel. a young insomniac to do? With this target demographic squarely in its cross hairs, the WB is rolling out another option tonight with an hourlong show packed with all the goodies the youth market supposedly holds dear to its collective heart. Hot music videos, split-screen extreme-sports action, spokesmodels, surfing footage like something built from a generational checklist.

The show, which has had a couple of previous airings in other time slots but tonight gets its official debut on KTLAChan- nel 5 and a network of West Coast WB stations, is hosted by Hoyt Christopher (E! Entertainment), who has only the most modest duties beyond introducing the videos. And probably a good thing, because he displays only the faintest glimmers of anything resembling charisma. His brief banterings with the rotating spokesmodels are largely charmless exercises, but he seems to be having a good time, and after a while almost contagious. But what saves from being merely a bloodlessly generic pushing of hot buttons is the inspired selection of music videos. Like FM stations that blithely spun records by Tom Jones, Jimi Hendrix and the Archies back-to-back-to- back, the show mixes genres like mad, and because all top or at least interesting choices, it works.

Hip-hop, alt-rock, emo, a heady brew. TUNED IN KTLA hopes never too late to be HOST: Hoyt Christopher with guest model Berglind Iceyon airing on KTLA. NEW YORK Jon Stewart especially tall, which is appropriate, since he seems to find himself on short list. As host of Comedy critically lauded Daily with its dead-on satire of TV news, Stewart has managed to become a key late-night figure whose name is periodically bandied about as an eventual successor to those on the major network programs. Perhaps only Conan gets mentioned more as a potential replacement for Jay Leno, David Letterman or Jimmy Kimmel, or as centerpiece of a new syndicated show.

Still, from the 54th Street offices in a seedy part of Manhattan, Stewart feels far removed from hustle and bustle. And having once hosted a syndicated talk show that was quickly canceled, in no hurry to contemplate a return to those wars. really not a whole lot of time to speculate in these gigs, or plot the Stewart said. looking ahead, looking ahead to the coming walk around here, it feel like show Stewart succeeded Craig Kilborn in 1999, who had replaced Tom Snyder on Late The move was surprising only because Stewart had looked ripe for a network showcase, only to pass on and then sign a deal with CBS that yield a series. Since then, Daily has earned a prestigious Peabody Award for its coverage of the 2000 presidential election, emerging as both a media favorite and cultural touchstone.

After the election, said Jeff Ross, executive producer Night With Conan new darling became the political Even so, Stewart has found a home at Comedy Central, at least for now. field lend itself to grander ambitions than producing a good show every he said. a pretty consuming task, and the chips fall where they Lowry seemed forever poised over his lanky, 6-foot, 4-inch frame. With preparing for his 90-minute, 10th anniversary show in prime time on Sept. 14, still easy to marvel over his graduation from ing bag to late-night institution positioned to play a major role when the next seismic shift takes place.

has been happy to reminisce about being Conan the Survivor as he promotes the latest milestone, taking time to talk after a recent show in his disheveled office the couch blanketed with junk that was placed there when a rat was sighted nearby. Exhibiting a fondness for baseball metaphors, the 40-year-old host said he would be the last rookie thrust into such a job, with cable having established a farm system to groom talent that exist when Letterman dropped his going to bombshell. living in a different era said who, stripped of makeup, looks every bit as pale as he frequently jokes about being. I left today, very easy to replace me, because there are so many people doing this now that NBC could announce a name and people be shocked and He rattles off a list that includes Daily Jon Stewart and Tom Green. I was killed in a ballooning accident tomorrow, say one of these nine names, and people would say, There be a What? What are you talking about? This is has persevered to become a proven veteran whose options could become interesting again in a few years, what with Letterman and Tonight Jay Leno both in their 50s and young males (encompassing those just old enough to shave and those in their mid-30s) representing the coin of the late-night-TV realm.

Although reluctant to discuss the future, acknowledged being flattered when Fox came courting a few years ago, before NBC signed him to a long- term deal in February 2002, reportedly worth about $8 million ayear. Fox people are said. are smart, and they said all the right things, and I believed them that if anyone could make that work, they could. They had charts and graphs and puzzles and recipes, and when it came down to it, it just feel right to me. I feel like my job here at NBC at 12:30 Fox almost certainly be the only suitor the next time around, which is only a source of wonder when you reconsider history.

Although names such as Garry Shandling were mentioned to fill shoes, Night producer Lorne Michaels ultimately convinced the network to take a chance on then 29, whose primary credits included writing for Night and The pivotal moment, perhaps appropriately, occurred on old set in Burbank, where auditioned before a crowd packed with his friends. Jason Alexander and Mimi Rogers took part in the mock show, and was especially good with the latter, ad-libbing to her mention of atasteful Playboy photo spread, mean wearing a top hat and reading the New the key to these shows to come up with funny lines under said Rick Ludwin, senior vice president of late-night and prime- time series, who cited the axiom that TV creates stars and noted that was who had nothing to Off on the wrong foot HE audition helped sell a network with plenty to lose, caught in the midst of a media firestorm. remembers being told that Bob Wright (then president, now chairman, of NBC) loved the tape and not knowing who that was. The performance, he said, was as good as he could have been at that stage better, in fact, than he was for the first year on air, which he subsequently described as a premature baby in an Critics certainly agreed. Initial reviews were brutal, softened only perhaps by the drubbing Chevy Chase received for his short-lived Fox program that premiered a few days earlier as the Los Angeles Howard Rosenberg put it then, not everyone can host a talk Among the most memorable broadsides at was an Associated Press article that concluded he already be as host, based on accounts from dress rehearsals before the show made its debut.

That AP article still rankles some of the insiders; asked recently about it, executive producer Jeff Ross produced a copy from his desk, saying that potshot flipped me is philosophical now about his baptism by fire as well as the vagaries that go into hosting a late-night show. think any other way to really learn how to do this other than to do he said. like how do people learn how to high dive. At some point, they step off a50-foot diving board and aim their skull at some water and hope it works out. what these shows added that he is constantly by the syndication business, where luminaries from one sphere or another from Ellen DeGeneres to Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York transformed into talk- show bait to entice TV stations.

Even comics such as Chris Rock and Jerry Seinfeld have told him how mystified they are by the daily grind and how he endures it. The key, he said, is that he really do anything else and know any better. one can succeed at this already been famous doing something said. hour every night is really hard. The reason you can make it work is got to be the best thing ever come your One of six children in a family in Brookline, graduated from Harvard with a reverence for Letterman and an inkling that he should be a performer.

He was rejected by Second City while a senior in college and later joined the Groundlings improv troupe upon moving to Los Angeles a relatively bleak period in which he took odd jobs to get by. (A few years ago he told graduates at commencement ceremonies, you have a Harvard degree and working at House of Suede and Leather, you are haunted by the ghostly images of your classmates who chose graduate school at you as you stack suede shirts no man, in good conscience, would ever just knew that I need to be performing, but I know what it is I he said. lot of it was process of elimination. I took some acting classes but I thought I have any passion for interest What did interest him was a stage show he mounted with Bob Odenkirk(from and writing partner Robert Smigel, whose includes Triumph the Insult Comic Dog as well as the moving lipsof many a newsmakerson what has come to be called segments. NBC initially wanted him to be a producer on the revamped but put himself forward as a host candidate, correctly guessing the network brass might consider a fresh face, with Michaels touting the need for a of on-air talent.

Of course, such arguments barely kept the network at bay in those days when it seemed as if would surely get the boot, with Greg Kinnear hosting program at 1:35 a.m. positioned to supplant him. Greg show had been popularly received, be a trivia said. that was the plan, and West Coast Presi- Don Ohlmeyer, to his credit, said in a bad situation right now that might get better, why would we replace it with another bad situation, and do another Gradually, the critics began to turn. In 1996, the Washington Tom Shales who flayed at the start credited him with of the most amazing transformations in television history: from annoying nuisance to prize Perhaps most notably, as late-night shows proliferated, looked better both creatively and competitively.

When CBS introduced Tom Snyder after Letterman in 1995, ratings held up. a context for a good 12:30 said. minute CBS put a show against me it was like, wait, Conan the idiot is winning. But I thought that show Ludwin saw taking root based on the audience response, as the college-age crowd chanted at sidekick Andy Richter before tapings began. Trusting the LEARLY, was strongly influenced by Letterman and is driven by the same perfectionist impulses.

a guy who always wants it to be Ross said. never good enough, and the problem with these shows is you make it good enough, because you have the time. a flawed concept doing this every day, in a in the volume business. You be perfect every Yet if that sense of purpose helped make his predecessor a success, it has also by all accounts plagued Letterman, who has largely shunned the media in recent years. With and his wife, their first child next month, mindful of trying to achieve a balance.

think a bell said. down on yourself thinking you could have done a better job, usually spurring yourself to be better. on the left-hand side going up the bell curve. If you just keep flagellating yourself and obsessing about it, going to slide down the other side. I try not to overdo also maintains that the business has changed that hosts can no longer be all things to all people the way Carson was, but rather serve niches.

a point echoed by Stewart, whose topical Daily joins first-time nominee in the Emmy variety series field this year, along with and Night ago, you had phenomena you had Milton Berle talking to of the audience, and it was a cultural sense of community that this Stewart said. the focus is on the individuality of the consumer. Everybody has something they can go to, and lost in that is that sense of a shared experience, other than with the other people in the chat room at the recently watched a tape from Tonight the night Leno introduced him to the country in 1993. look at that tape now, and I cannot in words describe how hard worked the last 10 years, and how much of myself put into this he said. As for how his show will be thought of when his picture is on the wall next to and he added, like being part of the continuum.

very proud of the fact a line in Where the line leads might be next chapter. he said. little voice inside me has said, left, now go has not let me down yet, so just going to have to trust Bruce Gilbert For The Times HIGH HOPES: Conan says people learning to high dive can relate to his work: step off a 50-foot diving board and aim their skull at some water and hope it works hard at work from Page E1 Stewart: A name on short lists Frank Micelotta Getty Images COMFY: For now at least, host Jon Stewart is at home at Comedy Central..