NEW YORK (AP) – With any luck, the National Football League has gotten this year’sSuper Bowl halftime show controversy out of the way early. Faced with an embarrassing story that the dancers it was seeking as extras for the Rolling Stones performance couldn’t be older than 45, the NFL reversed field and opened it up to everyone. Mick Jagger, 62, may now be able to see wrinkles as he looks out over his audience. It may seem incidental to the main event, but the halftime show has caused plenty of headaches for the NFL. The booking of rock royalty like the Stones – who turned down the gig several times before agreeing this year – is an indication of its importance. The Feb. 5 show on ABC is being overseen by NFL executive Charles Coplin. He’s a former ABC Sports producer who joined the league’s front office in 2001 and took over the entertainment staff immediately after the 2004 “wardrobe malfunction.” That incident, after the NFL had largely handed over production of the show to MTV, persuaded the league to take a tighter grip on the plans, Coplin said. “The guiding philosophy is to be unique, entertaining and appropriate, to cast entertainment that serves as wide a group as possible – from grandparents to grandkids,” he said. For several years, halftime entertainment was an afterthought: the Florida A&M University marching band has not one, but two, Super Bowl performances on its resume. Key years in making it more of an event were Michael Jackson performing with 3,500 children (1993) and U2’s Bono opening his jacket to reveal an American flag stitched in, a few months after the terrorist attacks.The halftime show was another opportunity to make money, too. Sprint paid the NFL a record $12 million to be sponsor of this year’s halftime show, and is running a contest to fly the winners to Detroit to see the Stones up close. Each year’s TV audience generally approaches 90 million people. Usually only the Academy Awards comes anywhere close in pulling that many people together. But is a football league the right entity to put on such an important entertainment show? Coplin said that’s a subjective question. The NFL turns to others – this year veteran awards show and special events producer Don Mischer – to help run things. “We’re not so myopic to think that we can’t seek outside help,” he said. “And that’s what we do.” Some people in Detroit were unhappy this year’s show overlooks the area’s musical history – from Motown to Madonna to Eminem. The NFL has booked Stevie Wonder to play before the game and has done halftime tributes to Motown twice in the past 25 years. More often than not, like with Paul McCartney last year, the show has no geographical references. Aaron Neville, whose home was damaged by Hurricane Katrina, was selected to perform the national anthem in Detroit. It’s still not certain what the Stones will perform during their 12 minutes onstage, Coplin said. He’s in a delicate position – not wanting to seem like he’s ordering rock legends around, yet also intent on protecting the show’s family-friendly image. “We have a lot of conversations with them,” he said. “We try and convince them to perform in a way that will make them look great and appreciate the fact that the audience is so large.” He’s convinced that “they get it,” however. The stakes are high for the band, too. Sales of McCartney’s catalogue went up 250 percent the week after his Super Bowl show, and U2’s most recent album jumped from No. 108 to No. 8 on the Billboard chart after their gig.
Wow.
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) – Let's get "Lost" – that's what 20 million fans did Wednesday night as ABC served up its first fresh episode of the drama series since November 30. "Lost" pulled in 20.5 million viewers and an 8.4 rating/20 share in the adults 18-49 demographic at 9 p.m., according to preliminary esti-mates from Nielsen Media Research. At 8 p.m., a "Lost" clip special dubbed "Lost: Revelation" garnered a healthy 13.5 million viewers. ABC's momentum ebbed at 10 p.m., however, as rookie drama "Invasion" (9.6 million, 3.8/10) plunged from its "Lost" lead-in. CBS' "Criminal Minds" (15.8 million, 4.8/11) performed well against "Lost" in the 9 p.m. hour and posted a growth spurt from its 8:30 p.m. lead-in, comedy "Yes, Dear" (9.1 million, 3.2/8). At 10 p.m., it was a tighter race between CBS' "CSI: NY" (13.1 million, 4.3/11) and NBC's "Law & Order" (12.9 million, 4.0/10), which spiked from its 9 p.m. lead-in, "The Biggest Loser" (6.6 million, 2.7/6). Fox was barely on the radar with its repeat of "That '70s Show" (5.2 million, 2.5/7), a fresh episode of "Stacked" (4.4 million, 2.0/5) and 9 p.m.'s "Nanny 911" (5.3 million, 2.2/5). For the night, ABC led with an aver-age of 14.5 million viewers and 5.8/14 in adults 18-49. CBS was No. 2 with 12.7 million viewers and 4.1/10.
MONTEREY PARK, Calif. (AP) – George Walsh, a longtime newsman and announcer for the "Gunsmoke" radio and television programs, died Dec. 5 of congestive heart failure. He was 88. He became the "Gunsmoke" announcer in 1952, introducing the live, weekly radio series with the following words: "Around Dodge City and in the territory out West, there's just one way to handle the killers and the spoilers, and that's with a U.S. marshal and the smell of 'Gunsmoke.'" He remained the announcer when the show moved to television in 1955. In the Los Angeles area, Walsh was a longtime fixture at KNX-AM radio, serving as an interviewer, sports reporter, newscaster and announcer from 1952 to 1986. His voice also was used in the Smokey Bear forest fire prevention campaign and on the now-closed Disneyland rides Flight to the Moon and Mission to Mars.
(AP) – Prime-time viewership numbers compiled by Nielsen Media Research for Jan. 2-8. Listings include the week's ranking, with viewership for the week and season-to-date rankings in parentheses. An "X" in parentheses denotes a one-time-only presentation.
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Michael Eisner, loved and loathed as former chief executive of Walt Disney Co., will begin the next chapter of his career in the entertainment industry, this time as a talk show host for business news channel CNBC. Eisner, credited with steering Disney through a period of extraordinary growth and criticized later for his management style, will host a bimonthly, one-hour show called "Conversations With Michael Eisner." The program's premiere date has yet to be announced. The network said the program will focus on the importance of creativity and innovation in business, politics, entertainment and other subjects. In October, Eisner was tapped as a guest host for PBS's Charlie Rose, when he interviewed InterActiveCorp. CEO Barry Diller and actor John Travolta. Eisner joins a number of executives who have parlayed careers into television talk show hosts, including advertising executive Donny Deutsch and former hedge fund owner Jim Kramer. And real estate magnate Donald Trump scored a major hit with NBC's "The Apprentice," albeit in a different format from TV talk shows.
DETROIT (AP) – “Desperate Housewives" actress Eva Longoria was on hand Sunday to help Chrysler Group executives show off their latest concept cars, including a sleek sedan with a sumptuous interior based on the popular 300C. She sauntered across the stage as DaimlerChrysler AG Chief Executive Of-ficer Dieter Zetsche and Tom LaSorda, who replaced Zetsche as president and CEO of Chrysler, warmed up the crowd of journalists. And she rolled up with LaSorda as they brought the Imperial concept, which sported the look of a highly refined 300C, on stage for a second showing. "I'm desperate for one of these cars," she quipped. Chrysler also showed its Dodge Challenger concept, which was inspired by the 1970 version but updated with a 6.1-liter, 425-horsepower Hemi engine.
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (The Birmingham News) – Kathy Sagan wrote to tell about her recent experience aboard the Disney Magic which sails from Port Canaveral. "I recently took a Disney cruise on the Magic with my twin 7-year-olds," she reported. "We had a terrific time. They loved the kids' club, the shows, the characters, the computer lab, the Pirates' night – everything," she wrote before ending with her reason for writing. "But proba-bly most of all," she noted, "they loved the chocolate chip cookies that they serve every day.” During a typical cruise, the ship's pastry chefs (18 in all) use 620 pounds of chocolate and serve 720 cakes in 85 flavors. Guests eat the most cookies – oatmeal, sugar and chocolate chip – on the day that the ship docks at Disney's private island in the Bahamas. It's there that guests have an entire day for sun, surf, feeding stingrays, para-sailing – and food, including hot dogs, hamburgers and chicken. The chocolate chip cookies are "definitely the most popular cookie," said Herbert Lindner, an Australian who works as the ship's pastry chef. Cookie-baking starts daily at 2 a.m., with enough oven space to allow as many as 300 cookies to bake at one time.