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EARLY RISERS:Joe Krebs, Eun Yang on “News4 Today at 4:30.”
Local news you use and lose
T
he May ratings sweep numbers are in, and do you know what we don’t like as much as we used to around here? News at 11 o’clock. Washington’s 11 p.m. local
newscasts (and the 10 o’clock news on Fox station WTTG) are all down, compared to last year’s May sweep. Tens of thousands of us are just saying no to 11 o’clock newscasts, according to new Nielsen ratings.
On the other hand, we do seem to like local news at 4:30 a.m. I know, it boggles the mind. May is the first full sweep in which Washington’s TV stations had local 4:30 a.m. newscasts (except ABC stationWJLA). CBS stationWUSA, for instance, last May aired CBS network programming in the time slot and averaged 9,500 viewers at that ungodly hour. This May, the station aired a local newscast and snagged 26,700 viewers. NBC’s WRC attracted 29,000
viewers to its 4:30 a.m. local newscast this May, compared to the 20,000 it was attracting in the time slot one year ago. A year ago, WTTG copped 21,500 people with “Cops” reruns at 4:30 in the morning. Really? “Cops”? That’s how you want to start your day, or end it, as the case may be? But this May, it scored an average of 22,500 viewers with local news. While we’re not yet ready to
say 4:30 is the new 11, I think we can see where this trend is heading. Hey — you know what we do
like at 11 at night? Comedy. Last May, CW stationWDCW snared an average of 26,500 viewers with reruns of “Family Guy” at 11. This past May, “Family Guy” reruns averaged nearly 41,000 viewers. We rest our case.
And, do you know what we really loved in May? The “Lost” series finale. We did ourselves proud,
ranking No. 2 among all of the country’s so-called metered markets when it came to “Lost” finale viewing. We came in behind only New York and Milwaukee, which were tied for No. 1. In each of those markets, 11.7 percent of TV homes were tuned in to the tangled web of a series as it bid us adieu. Yes, Milwaukee. In Washington, 11.6 percent were tuned in. In Miami, on the other hand, a measly 4.6 percent of households watched the so-long episode. Washington was No. 6 among
THE TV COLUMN
Lisa de Moraes
cities saying sayonara to Jack Bauer and “24.” Nearly 9 percent of our TV homes caught that mop-up. (Can someone explain why the Greensboro/ Winston-Salem/High Point market was No. 1, with more than 11 percent of its TV homes tuned in?) Sadly, we were kind of
slackards this year when it came to the “American Idol” finale. Yes, more than 12 percent of local TV homes were watching Wednesday night, a bigger crowd than watched the fat lady sing on either “Lost” or “24.” But there were about 50 cities more rabid than us “Idol”-wise, starting with No. 1-ranked Columbus, Ohio, where about 1 in 4 households watched their native Crystal Bowersox get robbed of the “Idol” crown by yet another scruffy super-safe rocker dude with soulful eyes and a guitar; this one goes by the name of Lee DeWyze.
‘Idol’ eyes
Nationwide, about 24 million people watched Simon Cowell’s swan song on “American Idol” Wednesday night, according to early stats. “Idol’s” Wednesday and
Tuesday broadcasts were already secure of their status as the No. 1 and No. 2 shows of the TV season, respectively, going into this week’s finale. But Wednesday’s broadcast
attracted the show’s smallest audience since the franchise’s very first season — the summer of 2002. That year, when Kelly
Clarkson was named American Idol, 23 million watched. And, there’s no saying how many people tuned in to the show on Wednesday, not because they particularly cared whether Bowersox or DeWyze won the competition, but to see how the show would say farewell to Cowell — the only judge worth listening to on the program. This year’s finale audience is nearly 5 million people shy of last year’s, when Kris Allen was named Ford Motor Co.’s new “Idol” ad spokesman, er, the 2009 American Idol. It’s also about 6 million short of the 30 million bright-eyed fans who’d tuned in, optimistically, to watch the first episode of this season.
demoraesl@washpost.com
the title role.) For some reason, Morgan and company feel they have one more story to tell, although “The Spe- cial Relationship” really belabors (pun intended) the point and our patience. And I can’t avoid the in- evitable anymore: Dennis Quaid is truly awful in the role of Presi- dent BillClinton, the other half of “The Special Relationship’s” spe- cial relationship. It’s so bad that I insist everyone inside the Belt- way watch it at least twice. Fortunately, in the same
breath, there is some good news: Hope Davis as Hillary Clinton. Wearing a set of buckteeth and displaying a masterful command of that quintessential Hillary people repellent, Davis shows a capability that surpasses Quaid’s surprising ineptitude. This cre- ates an eerie parallel to what the world has longed perceived as the prime dynamic in the Clin- tons’ marriage, as the two must act out one of the decade’s grisli- est moments in public/private shame: the night Bill confesses to Hillary that he did, in fact, have sexual relations with that wom- an, Miss Lewinsky. The rage with which Davis glowers at Quaid! Is it acting, or is she really peeved at Quaid, thinking to herself, Here I am
nailing the part of Hillary and you’re over there doing what — Foghorn Leghorn?
There are museum animatron- ics doing better presidential imi- tations than Quaid. If I had been in director Richard Loncraine’s shoes, a couple of days into film- ing, I would have gone on eBay and purchased one of those card- board, life-size Bill Clinton cut- outs and had Quaid carry that around in front of him while the cameras continued to roll and I frantically waited for “Saturday Night Live’s” Darrell Hammond to return my phone calls. Caked in makeup and search- ing for the accent and manner- isms, Quaid’s Clinton is a con- stant distraction to “The Special Relationship” — so much so that it became difficult to figure out what sort of movie Morgan, Lon- craine and the cast set out to make here. Is it a foreign-policy drama? Is it pure Blair hagiogra- phy? Is it an imagined tale, built
KLMNO
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‘Relationship’ didn’t end soon enough
NICOLA DOVE/HBO
FINGER-POINTING:Michael Sheen is a fine Tony Blair, but Dennis Quaid’s Bill Clinton distracts.
from fact and/or gossip, about two men who pretended to love one another and yet, perhaps, privately discovered a mutual loathing? Is it a British comment on how disgusting Washington is?
Right, it’s about the tenuous
but ever-present “special rela- tionship,” as Churchill coined it, between the United States and Britain — and seen through a British prism. This special rela- tionship is personified and solidi- fied every so often between its elected leaders. Churchill and FDR had it, as did Reagan and Thatcher. Blair and Clinton found themselves — after Clin- ton’s second inauguration and Blair’s landslide election in 1997 — in what looked like a match made in moderate-progressive heaven. Clinton, seen here as a man drenched in hubris, slavish to the task of buttressing his own his- torical legacy, proposes to Blair that they can form a transatlan- tic, lefty juggernaut. “We could put right-wing politics out of business for the next generation,” Quaid drawls. “Hell, maybe for- ever!”
Oh well. The underlying dis- dain for politics and political cul-
ture in “The Special Relation- ship” is to be expected. Has any- one in the last 20 years, save perhaps Aaron Sorkin, ever made a film or television show that made politics or public service look like something to aspire to? (On a related note, are the ’90s as politically interesting as some of us recall them being?) The cartoonishness with which the Clintons are rendered in Morgan’s screenplay is occa- sionally enjoyable as light com- edy — especially in the forced chumminess between the men and their wives on formal and so- cial occasions. But “The Special Relationship” feels more like a B- roll clip job from a news archive, shelved and labeled Blair, Clin-
ton, Kosovo, Lewinsky, Florida recount, large cellphones, etc.,
1997-2000. It’s possibly too soon to exhume this material and ex- pect it to have fresh flair as a movie plot. It’s a shame, because Sheen is as enthusiastic a Blair as he’s been in the previous two films; Helen McCrory, as a whip-smart and canny Cherie Blair, steals ev- ery scene she’s in, especially as Cherie hectors her husband over his fawning humility in Bill Clin- ton’s presence. “Clinton hair,
Clinton tie, everything except the tarty girlfriend,” she jests, as her husband frets about what to wear and how to look, and as he falls for the Clintonesque obsession with his own place in history. And it’s odd how flatly the
Clinton sex scandal plays for even the most addicted of us po- litical junkies, other than as a way for “The Special Relation- ship” to underline Blair’s knack for saying just the right thing to the press at a moment of stren- uous delicacy. The same aide from “The Queen” rushes into Blair’s hotel room the same way he did in “The Queen” waving “all the papers” with “all the head- lines” that praise and elevate Blair. Years too early, “The Spe- cial Relationship” is nostalgic for a feeling it can’t quite express.
stueverh@washpost.com
The Special Relationship
(two hours) premieres at 9 p.m. Saturday on HBO.
ON WASHINGTONPOST.COM To
watch a sneak peek of “The
Special Relationship,” visit
washingtonpost.com/tv.
Dennis Quaid is truly awful in the role of President Bill Clinton. It’s so bad that I insist everyone inside the Beltway watch it at least twice.
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HIGHLIGHTS
» RETURNING SERIES: “Past
Life” (Fox at 8) This reincarnation crime-solving drama was swiftly canceled after three episodes because of terrible ratings this spring, but the network burns off the last four episodes on the next four Friday nights. In this first of the episodes, Kate (Kelli Giddish, who luckily found work on NBC’s new drama “Chase”) and her partner Price (Nicholas Bishop) help a young girl who is experiencing a past-life crisis, and they discover she holds a connection to a serial killer case.
“Good Morning America” (ABC
at 7 a.m.) features country duo Sugarland as the next band in its summer concert series. Gearing up for the Season 3 premiere next Friday, “Whale
Wars: The Aftermath” (Animal
Planet at 3 p.m.) airs a marathon throughout the day. Matt and Riggins go on a hunting trip to escape the drama
on “Friday Night Lights” (NBC at
8), as Tami faces the boosters, and Jess is involved in a love triangle with Landry and Vince. Newsweek editor Jon
Meacham talks about the meaning of Memorial Day on
“Need to Know” (WETA at 9,
MPT at 10:30); other topics include financial reform in the United States, Europe’s financial situation and an interview with former U.S. Supreme Court
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justice Sandra Day O’Connor. E! network celebrates its 20th
birthday, starting with “E!
Celebrates 20 Years of the Celebrity Revolution” (at 9),
which looks at the craziest pop culture stories over the past two decades; afterward, Joel McHale takes on his employer with “The
Soup Presents: 20 Years of Takin’
Some E!” (at 10), with clips from bizarre celebrity anecdotes.
“Real Time With Bill Maher”
(HBO at 10) talks to journalist Jonathan Alter, political strategist Patrick Ruffini and academic Cornel West, and interviews conservationist Philippe Cousteau Jr. and author Scott Turow.
Eric Richardson, director of
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Plotkin” (NewsChannel 8 at 11), and other guests include Del. Gerron Levi (D-Md.) and Virginia House Democratic Caucus Chairman Ken Plum. Actor Colin Farrell is a guest
on “The Tonight Show With Jay
Leno” (NBC at 11:35), along with actress Elisabeth Moss and band leader Kevin Eubanks.
“Late Late Show With Craig
Ferguson” (CBS at 12:35) hosts comedian and author Jeffrey Ross, singer Shirley Manson and music by the National.
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