The Los Angeles Times from Los Angeles, California • Page 56

CALENDAR E13 LOSANGELESTIMES TELEVISION RADIO that has surprised even the folks at sponsor, Nike, which designed the bracelets and at the foundationin Austin, Texas, which stands to reap about $10 million from their sale. Armstrong had advanced testicular cancer eight years ago and went on to have three children and win six Tour de France races. Kerry had surgery for prostate cancer in 2003 and went on to run for president. So wearing the bracelet, for Kerry, was not necessarily a political statement. But this being an election year, some in the media turned it into one.

They phoned the White House to find out if President Bush, too, owns ayellow plastic bracelet. Of course he does, they were told. Not only that, Armstrong sits on the cancer panel. Such celebrities as Bono, Bruce Willis, Robin Williams, Matt Damon and Ben Stiller have been seen sporting the bracelet, says Armstrong Foundation spokeswoman Michelle Milford. But the millions of anonymous, mostly young wearers who make it a tribute not just to Armstrong and better nature, but also to the marketing genius of Nike.

The silicone bracelets were introduced just before the Tour de France as a way to raise funds for the star charitable foundation. Almost instantly, the gender-neutral bracelets supplanted lapel ribbons as a way for young people, especially, to show support for a cause. Jessica Brown, 15, of Santa Clarita, says never seen the bracelets until she went to the YMCA camp on Catalina Island in July as a junior counselor. directors, the counselors, the staff, even the kids there were wearing She decided she wanted one too. Why? show support for a good cause.

To help people with cancer. great when kids get involved with something like this, because kids can really make a difference in the But so far, Jessica says, she found a bracelet. all sold out everywhere I On Friday, the morning after big night, the Sportmart store on Victory Boulevard in Canoga Park had just received its first order of wristbands, after customers had been asking for them for weeks. An hour after the store opened, Eric Thoma, 22, of West Hills, was wearing two bands, side by side on his wrist. aunt just got diagnosed about a month ago with Stage 4 Thoma said.

going through a new kind of treatment, and I got these to show support for her fight against cancer, and to support Armstrong, survived to become one of the greatest athletes of all Don Carlos De Rush, 27, a clerk at a downtown Los Angeles law firm, says a friend of his bought bunch of them to support the cause. He gave me one, told me what it was about, and I started wearing it three days ago. On Sunday, I went surfing at Huntington Beach and I saw people wearing them there. popping up all Octavio Zavala, 31, of Los Angeles, wears his with a special sense of pride. He coordinates the Teen Impact program, a support group for adolescents with cancer, at Childrens Hospital Los Angeles.

Last year the group applied for and received funding from the Armstrong Foundation, allows us to do some wonderful things for the Zavala was 12 when he was diagnosed with leukemia, he says, and 16 I completed three years and four months of The treatment forever barred him from the active healthy lifestyle I had planned for myself. The chemo weakened my But not his spirit, he says. To him, the yellow wristbands are a of victory, of strength and endurance all necessary to survive cancer. Not just to come out alive, but to come out as a whole person. People think cancer is mostly a disease of older people.

But I think the wristband symbolizes youth. It makes people think of young people with cancer. More and more of these children will survive. We need to improve their quality of Dr. Lawrence Einhorn, oncologist and medical professor at Indiana University, is one of the doctors who treated Armstrong.

He says the foundation is doing essential that is based on the own experience. testicular cancer was particularly aggressive, Einhorn says, a form of the disease that is most common in males ages 15 to 35. But an age when people feel invincible. They see symptoms and ignore them, understand what they mean. Lance would be the first to admit he ignored signs for at least six before he sought medical help.

was 25. He thought the enlarging mass in his testicle was related to his By the time he sought help, the cancer had already spread to his abdomen, lungs and brain. In 1997, he started the foundation, undoubtedly in response to the terrors he had faced in finding the right doctors, the right treatment andthe courage and optimism to survive the ordeal. And to live strong. Associated Press ON THE TEAM: Wristband-wearing Americans cheer Lance sixth Tour de France victory in Paris last month.

Armstrong wristbands go faster than cyclist Armstrong, from Page E1 Robbin Goddard Los Angeles Times IN DEMAND: The silicone band says Associated Press CHAMP: Lance Armstrong celebrates his latest Tour de France win wearing two wristbands. He started his foundation in 1997. look at preemption as an opportunity rather than a On Aug. 16, ABC will air a soap-themed special instead of the popular daytime talk show, which will offer summaries of best soap stories this year as well as plans for the fall. For the last eight weeks, has beaten of Our among women 18 to 49, and ABC plans to take advantage of that boost with plot turns that include the murder of two characters, you will find out who the murderer is and the people really stay Frons said.

For its part, CBS said it too will try to take advantage of soap hiatus but divulge how, said publicist Beth Haiken. be courting those viewers as well, but in ways that we want to talk about just she said. new or you watched for a while, it will be easy for you to get caught up, but why would we tell anyone what doing weeks ahead of no secret that one potent (if old-fashioned) CBS weapon is Price Is the longest running game show in broadcast history, which reached its episode this season. Bob Barker, the first and only host, has guided the program to a consistent No. 1 ranking among daytime shows.

is the original reality said the 80-year-old Barker, whose program has invited contestants to on for 32 years. Price Is is so old- school that human beings not machines still move the sets around in between games. In that same vein, CBS soap operas have tried to keep to their course, staying close to the tried and tested angst of its characters. which started on the radio 67 years ago, and the 48-year-old the World are the longest- running programs in broadcast history and still average more than 3 million viewers a day. sets CBS daytime apart is that they tell stories about families, family values and love Bell said.

do devil possessions and serial killers In this day and age, with all these computers, the soaps are a connection to your heartstrings and provides an emotional release and connection that is even on tradition-minded CBS soaps, family values can get a little complicated. Take Young and the character Nikki Newman, played by Melody Thomas Scott for 25 years. Nikki has been married nine times daytime pie these days. All nine network daytime dramas have seen their ratings dwindle by as much as two-thirds in recent years. Since 1990, the median age for viewers of daytime dramas has gone up by an average of seven years, making them less attractive to advertisers targeting 18-to-34-year-olds.

In the past, soaps were a reliable for advertisers to reach young women. But with more women working and more programming choices as a result of cable, fewer viewers are tuning into soaps. are No. 1 in a smaller says Barbara Bloom, senior vice president of daytime programming for CBS. Mary Alice Dwyer-Dobbin, executive in charge of productions at Procter Gamble Productions, which produces and the World understands the pressures.

not like it was 52 years ago, when women sat in front of the television and watched an entire she said. if a woman is free during the day, there are so many different things she can do with her Unable to meet expectations, soaps have received less money from the networks and have trimmed casts and asked actors to take pay cuts while still producing 260 episodes a year. This year, Young and the and Bold and the pared their casts but labored to keep favorites. Some characters on of Our and Life to so lucky: The producers used serial-killer plots to kill off main characters, including perennial Maggie Horton, played by Suzanne Rogers for 30 years. (Some of the actors will now have recurring roles, since in a typical plot twist their murdered characters have turned out to be alive after all.) Intent on not losing ground during the Olympics, ABC and CBS are counter-programming coverage with stunts and specials.

NBC seem too worried. While lagging behind its rivals in total viewership, its of Our remains the top soap among women ages 18 to 34 and women 18-49, the two groups most targeted by advertisers on soaps. The network says it will temporarily end both and with cliffhanger episodes that executives say will guarantee return on Aug. 30, after the Olympics end. In fact, Sheraton Kalouria, senior vice president of daytime programs, is banking on stealing viewers from ABC and CBS soaps with the Olympics.

the Olympics present is real-life drama and suspense that provides an attractive alternative across the TV Kalouria says. know that my audience going to miss one day of our storytelling if they watch the games. ABC and CBS say Fans of will be rewarded with a significant revelation on Aug. 13: The child Eve and Julian had longer than 20 years ago is identified, it will be a big Kalouria says. revealed in May that 11 of its characters were not murdered, as it had been presumed in the fall, but are in fact being held captive on an island with their alleged murderer, also presumed dead.

Before goes on hiatus for the Olympics, the people of Salem will learn where their missing friends are and will launch rescue missions. And other characters previously written off the show will be discovered on the island as well. decided to pace our stories to have shot J.R.?’ final cliffhangers on that final day before the Kalouria said. the other shows try to take advantage, be Taking advantage is exactly what ABC hopes to do. ABC, second to CBS in overall daytime viewers, has announced a special, Wide World of hosted by Bob Guiney, from the unscripted hit Guiney will offer Olympic-style reporting about the lives of daytime characters.

soap stars will help Guiney spoof the Olympic games as well as discuss the lives of their characters. Among his many duties, Guiney will host a freestyle six-pack competition involving hottest male stars and will be featured in promos that remind viewers that soaps are more important than, say, shotputting. is all very tongue-in- said ABC Daytime President Brian Frons. basically want to tell people that on and not and this is a fun place to watch soaps. Today there are so many networks and so much coverage of the Olympics that to say what will exactly happen? We decided to (three times alone to her current husband, Victor Newman) and has become a successful businesswoman despite almost being raped by her father, whom she hit over the head and killed, which in turn prompted her to become a stripper and a member of a cult.

That was until she met Victor, the dashing man she loves but cannot keep. show has been known for family, love and personal Scott said. deal with the true emotions that people experience every day. I think love and conflict is something we all have in Conflict is something Kim Zimmer knows well after playing Reva Lewis for 21 years (with a five-year hiatus when she moved to Los Angeles). Reva, married eight times, was the first clone in daytime television.

To bring her back in 1995, writers created a story arc that involved Reva floating in the Gulf of Mexico for five years, washing up on an island and marrying a prince only to be thrown back into the water by her wicked brother-in-law and landing in Amish Country, where someone from her previous life recognized her. continuing daytime drama with a little Zimmer said. want to feel comfortable and know that they can turn on the television at 2p.m. It becomes like take me Networks face Olympics challenge Price Is Right 8.9 6.8 Young and the 11.0 5.7 Price Is Right 7.3 5.6 Bold and the 7.5 4.3 the World 8.1 3.6 7.5 3.1 July 19, 2004 (In millions of viewers) Los Angeles Times Daytime dominance Source: Nielsen EDI Inc. This week, CBS celebrates the 800th consecutive week that its daytime bloc has been No.

1. A look at the viewership the five shows had when the streak began in 1989 and for the week of July 19, 2004 (800th week): Price Is is a one-hour show that is sold in two halves to advertisers, so each half is listed separately. March 6, 1989 (In millions of viewers) KEY Soaps, from Page E1 Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (July 26-Aug. 1) 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. ages2 and older. Viewership is listed in millions. Program Network View- ersProgram Network Viewers 1 CSICBS13.47 2 CSI: MiamiCBS11.88 3 60 MinutesCBS10.87 4Cold CaseCBS10.32 5 --------------------------------------------6 Amazing Race: 5CBS10.05 7 Two and a Half Men (Mon.) CBS9.58 8 Trading SpousesFOX9.26 9 Everybody Loves Raymond CBS9.20 10 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (Sun.) ABC9.08 --------------------------------------------11 Big Brother 5 12 Big Brother 5 13 Law Order: SVUNBC8.48 14 Navy NCISCBS7.91 15 Law Order: Criminal Intent NBC7.87 --------------------------------------------16 Cold Case (10 p.m.)CBS7.77 17 Two and a Half Men (Wed.) CBS7.75 18 60 Minutes IICBS7.65 19 Law Order (9 p.m.)NBC7.64 20 Simple Life 2FOX7.59 --------------------------------------------21 Funniest Home Videos (8 p.m.) ABC7.55 22 Crossing JordanNBC7.54 23 Last Comic Standing 2 9 p.m.) NBC7.33 24 25 King of QueensCBS6.94 --------------------------------------------26 Trading Spouses 27 Big Brother 5 28 Most WantedFOX6.24 29 Fear FactorNBC6.18 30 Cops (8:30 p.m.)FOX6.10 --------------------------------------------31 The DaysABC6.03 32 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (Tue.) ABC5.88 33 Funniest Home Videos ABC5.84 34 Last Comic Standing 2 (Thu.) NBC5.79 35 According to JimABC5.65 --------------------------------------------36 Las Vegas 37 My Wife and KidsABC5.61 38 2004: Democratic (Thu.) CBS5.55 Dateline: NBC 40 CopsFOX5.50 --------------------------------------------41 According to Jim 42 NYPD 43 The SimpsonsFOX5.39 Blue Collar TVWB5.39 45 Amish in the CityUPN5.38 --------------------------------------------46 For Love or Money 4NBC5.37 47 That Show 48 That Show 49 Method and RedFOX5.13 50 George LopezABC5.11 JAGCBS5.11 52 Dateline: NBC 53 Quintuplets 54 Will GraceNBC5.00 55 WWE --------------------------------------------56 My Wife Kids 8 Simple RulesABC4.91 58 Hope Faith 59 Nutty Professor 60 48 Hours InvestigatesCBS4.76 --------------------------------------------61 Hope FaithABC4.71 Last Comic Standing 2 8 p.m.) NBC4.71 63 George Lopez 64 ScrubsNBC4.60 65 Less Than PerfectABC4.58 --------------------------------------------66 2004: Democratic (Mon.) CBS4.55 67 Democratic (Mon.) NBC4.53 68 CasinoFOX4.50 69 2004: Democratic (Mon.) ABC4.40 70 Quintuplets --------------------------------------------71 Reba 72 Democratic NBC4.15 73 Simple Life 2 74 Extreme Makeover 75 Joan of ArcadiaCBS4.06 2004: Democratic (Wed.) ABC4.06 77 Life With BonnieABC4.00 78 SummerlandWB3.95 79 80 2004: Democratic (Wed.) CBS3.85 --------------------------------------------81 Talented Mr. 82 The Drew Carey Show (9 p.m.) ABC3.81 83 Whose Line Is It Anyway? 10 p.m.) ABC3.71 84 Whose Line Is It Anyway? 8:30 p.m.) ABC3.70 85 Arrested DevelopmentFOX3.67 --------------------------------------------86 Malcolm in the MiddleFOX3.61 87 Whose Line Is It Anyway? 8 p.m.) ABC3.60 88King of the HillFOX3.58 89 Amazing Race 5 90 The Drew Carey Show (9:30 p.m.) ABC3.43 --------------------------------------------91 Next Action StarNBC3.40 92 Quintuplets 93 RebaWB3.14 94 Whose Line Is It Anyway? 10 p.m.) ABC3.04 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 CBS7.8212.08 NBC5.4510.12 ABC5.148.30 FOX5.038.75 UPN3.413.22 WB2.483.35 Perhaps it was the absence of organized protests from outraged rednecks that allowed the Jeff Foxworthy series Collar on Thursday to edge out controversial in the Wednesday night as the top series debut last week. Even so, those shows were only the 44th and 45th most- watched shows of the week ending Sunday, according to data released Tuesday by Nielsen Media Research. They even match the 5.4 million tally that USA on Friday. CBS once again dominated the week in total viewers, with the top seven shows. Both versions of topped the list.

CBS was also helped by an original episode of the venerable on Sunday and the surging popularity of the unscripted Race Fox celebrated the success of its new unscripted show Spouses: Meet Your New which improved on its first-week numbers to finish as the No. 8 program, attracting more than 9 million viewers. nearly 2 million more than watched the premiere. and did even better among viewers 18to49 years old, the most coveteddemographic group. But in that grouptoo, Crime Scene was the most popular show.

The original series and Dead finished second through fourthamong cable series. broadcast of NAS- Nextel Cup Racing on Sunday was once again most popular telecast, with more than 5.7 million viewers. Taylor Investigating with and Prime-Time TV Rankings ShowNetworkViewers 1. Price Is Right CBS 6.2 million -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------2. Young and the CBS 5.7 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------3.

Price Is Right CBS 5.1 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------4. Bold and the CBS 4.3 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------5. of Our NBC 4.1 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------6. ABC 4.1 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------7. the World CBS 3.7 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------8.

My ABC 3.7 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------9. Life to ABC 3.6 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------10. ABC 3.1 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------11. CBS 3.1 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------12. NBC 2.6 Source: Nielsen Media Research Daytime TV Rankings Here are season-to-date rankings in daytime programming at CBS, ABC and NBC (Sept.

22, 2003, through July 25, 2004)..