The Los Angeles Times from Los Angeles, California • Page 47

E12 CALENDAR LOSANGELESTIMES TELEVISION RADIO For convenient home delivery, visit myaccount.latimes.com or call 1-800-LA TIMES Read all about it Thursday in Calendar Weekend Join Calendar Weekend for a look at the Los Angeles Film Festival. Pass the popcorn www.deankoontz.com Wherever books are sold Bantam The 1 New York Times Bestseller No.1 author of thrillers Moves like a roller coaster without One of his finest Post tle. Beautifully shot at the Mary- inskyTheatre in St. Petersburg, Russia, the performance is continually marginalized by voiceover commentaries as if the very dancers repeatedly told are unique and spectacular hold the attention by themselves. Some of the talk does explain onscreen, but mostly it gets in the way of the experience the dance wants to convey.

Similarly, the dare simply to show us archival footage of now legendary interpretation of solo No, we have to hear people yammering about how wonderful she is while dancing. trust us to know a great performance when we see one? Since nearly everyone loves the Ailey company, you can understand the enthusiasm of producer-director Phil Bertelsen, but that excuse all the and misinformation he includes. For starters, alot of nonsense about how this modern dance troupe does (or can do) classical ballet. Some of the steps, sure: the ones that jazz dancers everywhere also execute. But ballet starts by remaking the body, and dancing has its technical base in awhole different movement system.

Better to celebrate that If the telecast frequently crosses the line between documentary and infomercial, there are saving graces the most impressive being Clifton By Lewis Segal Times Staff Writer Awash in superficiality, the wants to cram everything anyone ever wanted to know about the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater into one hourlong episode of the PBS series, to- nightat 8 on KCET-TV. There are capsule biographies, replete with clips, of Ailey and current company artistic director Judith Jamison. also find interviews about the evolution, why its dancers dance and how they deal with injuries, plus footage of the troupe moving into its spacious new home in New York City and making tours of Russia all in no particular order. Punctuating these sequences are dismembered chunks of a three-part ensemble showpiece choreographed in 2004by Jamison, Rennie Harrisand Robert Bat- opening solo in Exciting onstage, this superbly refined performance gains even more from the intimacy of the camerawork. And, for once, the talk stops long enough to let us fully enjoy a mastery.

in America: Beyond the Steps: Alvin Ailey American Dance Where: KCET When: 8 tonight Rating: TV-PG (may be unsuitable for young children) TELEVISION REVIEW Quit yakking, let us enjoy the dance the has much to say about the Alvin Ailey dancers too much sometimes. Paul Kolnik IN STEP: Artistic director Judith Jamison, front, and troupe members are featured. By Scott Collins Times Staff Writer Back in the day when he ran CNN, Ted Turner resorted to a motto to explain why the network avoided high-priced anchors and other showbiz trappings. Turner would say, the News may still be a star at CNN today, but guessing it might be on the verge of throwing a tantrum about the reduced size of its dressing room. And who can blame news, with bigger stars like Angelina Jolie flitting around, sucking up all the attention with her tousled hair and beauteous bee-stung lips? As a star-dazzled Anderson Cooper wrote Monday on his CNN blog, say I was impressed would be an In case machine somehow missed your house, Jolie was the centerpiece and my stars, what an unspeakably gorgeous centerpiece she is! of Tuesday two-hour derson Cooper The promos for the show (which aired after deadline) promised a 360-degree view of thoughts on humanitarian crises, although Darfur-news junkies should beware that 5 or 10 degrees or so might be devoted to her thoughts about her Namibian-born baby daughter, Shiloh Jolie-Pitt.

Based on the excerpts of the interview available on website, Jolie will offer such penetrating insights into crisesas: Some of happening there is awful. And this: We must do more. Some not me, of course might accuse Cooper of doing a 180 on real news coverage with such acelebrity interview. bona fides as goodwill ambassador aside, is she really the most knowledgeable expert on Africa? You can say that celebrities help raise awareness of issues, but that the same thing we were told 20 years ago with Are the The Jolie interview does seem awatershed moment in the history of CNN, though, or maybe in the history of celebrity journalism. For years the network was derided as stodgy and outofit, as video wire service.

The Anderson-Angelina meeting of minds does seem to whisper goodbye to all that. This is like ABC making Barbara Walters co-anchor in the 1970s, or CBS launching the yuppie newsmag a deliberate break with the past. But Cooper seem too concerned with that. He seems mostly angry about Internet haters who claim some sort of shadowy deal between his show and People purchase of Shiloh baby photos. did not pay anything directly or indirectly to get Angelina Jolie to sit down for an he wrote on his blog.

Is he protesting too much? Or upset about the wrong thing? One clear. After the interview runs, Jolie will still be big. the news networks that got small. CHANNEL ISLAND CNN gets less stodgy, less newsy CNN ON AFRICA: Angelina Jolie sits down with Anderson Cooper. The interview was featured in a two-hour episode of his show.

Who needs substance when you (or rather, Anderson Cooper) can chat up Angelina Jolie? Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (June 12-18) 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 277.93 million potential viewers in the U.S. ages 2 and older. Viewership is listed in millions.

Program Network View- ersProgram Network Viewers 1 2 CSI: MiamiCBS13.49 3 4 5 CSICBS11.17 --------------------------------------------6 Without a TraceCBS10.59 7 So You Think You Can Dance (Wed.) FOX9.94 8 Two and a Half MenCBS9.87 9 Law Order: SVU 10 Women --------------------------------------------11 NCISCBS9.19 12 60 MinutesCBS9.11 13 Last Comic Standing 4NBC9.01 14 Dateline: NBC 15 Cold CaseCBS8.42 --------------------------------------------16 100 Years 100 CBS8.28 17 Old ChristineCBS8.18 18 So You Think You Can Dance (Thu.) FOX8.16 19 House (9 p.m.)FOX7.89 20 Windfall --------------------------------------------21 Kitchen (9 p.m.)FOX7.54 22 23 The UnitCBS7.45 24 Numb3rsCBS7.18 25 --------------------------------------------26 Fear FactorNBC6.82 27 48 Hours MysteryCBS6.73 28 King of QueensCBS6.64 29 Gameshow MarathonCBS6.63 SupernannyABC6.63 --------------------------------------------31 Close to HomeCBS6.56 32 How I Met Your MotherCBS6.45 33 House (8 p.m.)FOX6.25 34 Wife SwapABC6.11 35 The Simpsons (8:30 p.m.) FOX6.04 --------------------------------------------36 Kitchen (8 p.m.)FOX5.89 37 Family GuyFOX5.84 38 Funniest Home Videos (Fri.) ABC5.78 39 Commander in ChiefABC5.53 40 My Name Is EarlNBC5.46 --------------------------------------------41 Law Order: SVU 42 Most WantedFOX5.30 43 Dateline: NBC 44 The Simpsons (8 p.m.)FOX5.22 45 Crimetime SaturdayCBS5.20 --------------------------------------------46 Dateline: NBC 47 Tuesday Night Book ClubCBS5.07 48 Ghost WhispererCBS5.00 49 OfficeNBC4.98 50 Fea Bella --------------------------------------------51 Wonderful World of Disney ABC4.87 52 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition ABC4.81 53 54 Cops (8:30 p.m.)FOX4.63 55 According to JimABC4.62 --------------------------------------------56 57 Fea Bella 58 George LopezABC4.40 59 Funniest Home Videos (Thu.) ABC4.39 60 Fea Bella --------------------------------------------61 That Show (8:30 p.m.) FOX4.33 62 How to Get the GuyABC4.25 63 Fea Bella 64 Barrera de Amor --------------------------------------------66 FreddieABC4.05 67 The EvidenceABC4.02 68 Cops (8 p.m.)FOX3.97 69 Windfall 70 Hope Faith (9 p.m.)ABC3.89 --------------------------------------------Barrera de Amor 72 Stanley Cup (Wed.) NBC3.85 Barrera de Amor 74 Barrera de Amor 75 Hope Faith (9:30 p.m.)ABC3.77 --------------------------------------------76 Fea Bella 77 Always Sunny in Philadelphia(Sun.) FOX3.54 78 Windfall 79 CristinaUNI3.46 80 LostABC3.42 --------------------------------------------81 Barrera de Amor 82 WWE 83 King of the HillFOX3.26 84 That Show (8 p.m.)FOX3.25 85 Peregrina Stanley Cup (Mon.) NBC3.13 87 Peregrina 88 Don Francisco PresentaUNI3.06 89 Peregrina 90 Stanley Cup (Sat.) NBC2.92 --------------------------------------------91 Peregrina 92 Peregrina 93 Aqui Ahora 94 Malcolm in the MiddleFOX2.68 95 --------------------------------------------96 Everybody Hates ChrisUPN2.58 97 Blue Collar TV (8:30 p.m.) WB2.47 98 All of UsUPN2.46 99 Blue Collar (8 p.m.)WB2.45 100 Que Madre Tan Padre UNI2.43 --------------------------------------------101 Cantando por un UNI2.42 102 24 (8 p.m.)FOX2.38 103 Casos VidaUNI2.37 104 24 (9 p.m.)FOX2.36 105 Reba 7:30 p.m.)WB2.26 --------------------------------------------106 GirlfriendsUPN2.17 107 Sabado GiganteUNI2.13 108 Half and HalfUPN2.10 109 One on OneUPN2.09 110 Reba --------------------------------------------111 7th Heaven (9 p.m.)WB1.94 112 SmallvilleWB1.91 113 VecinosUNI1.90 114 Reba 7 p.m.)WB1.86 115 7th Heaven (8 p.m.)WB1.85 --------------------------------------------116 Gilmore GirlsWB1.73 Charmed (8 p.m.)WB1.73 118 Living With FranWB1.71 119 Charmed (9 p.m.)WB1.70 120 Hora PicoUNI1.66 --------------------------------------------121 SupernaturalWB1.64 122 Love Inc.UPN1.60 123 Next Top Model 6 UPN1.57 124 Pepper DennisWB1.55 What I Like About YouWB1.55 --------------------------------------------126 TwinsWB1.33 127 Tormenta One Tree HillWB1.29 129 CutsUPN1.26 130 EveUPN1.24 --------------------------------------------131 Decisiones PartidoTEL1.19 133 Casos FamiliaUNI1.17 Veronica MarsUPN1.17 135 Tierra de Pasiones --------------------------------------------136 Decisiones 137 Tormenta Tormenta 139 Amores de Mercado (Wed.) TEL1.01 Tierra de Pasiones --------------------------------------------141 Partido 142 Tierra de Pasiones 143 Tormenta 144 Cinemundo PremierTEL0.90 Tormenta --------------------------------------------146 Amores de Mercado (Thu.) TEL0.89 Tierra de Pasiones 148 Decisiones 149 Decisiones 150 Tierra de Pasiones --------------------------------------------151 Amores de Mercado 152 Cinemundo del SabadoTEL0.62 153 ExtremaTEL0.51 154 Sin FronterasTEL0.39 155 --------------------------------------------156 Corriendo GrabandoTEL0.33 157 Just for LaughsTEL0.30 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 CBS8.0812.16 ABC6.7710.33 FOX5.829.70 NBC5.289.37 UNI3.193.70 UPN2.233.02 WB1.783.00 TEL0.860.91 From City News Service No new hits have emerged three weeks into summer season, with viewers preferring reruns and sports to three series premieres last week, according to figures released Tuesday by Nielsen Media Research. coverage of the Miami 101-100 overtime victory over the Dallas Mavericks in Game 5 of the NBA Finals on Sunday was the most-watched program between June 12 and Sunday, averaging 14.32 million viewers. Through five games, viewer- ship for the NBA Finals is up nationally over last series between the Detroit Pistons and San Antonio Spurs. premiere of the NBC competition series was third in its 810 p.m.

period with 6.87 million viewers, and 25th for the week. The premiere of the ABC dating series to Get the was second in its 10-11 p.m. slot June 12 with 4.25 million viewers, 59th for the week. unscripted series Night Book was third from 10 to 11 p.m. June 13 with 5.07 million viewers, 47th for the week.

Viewership for the second episode of the NBC drama dropped from its premiere to 7.79 million, again finishing third in its time period behind NBA Finals telecast (12.09 million viewers) and a rerun of a on CBS (10.59 million). The second-season premiere of the TNT police drama was the most- watched cable program with 8.28million viewers, a record for abasic cable scripted series. It would have tied for 16th among the programs on the six major broadcast networks. Prime-Time TV Rankings Mario Perez NBC The Fogals Brad, left, Kayte and Margie are on the NBC show, which was third in its time slot. NBA Finals hot for ABC as premieres get cold shoulder.