THIS WEEK IN THE XENA NEWS.... TWXN #19 08/20/96 Brought to you by Xena: Media Review (XMR) XMR is a periodic annotated world press review of reports regarding the internationally syndicated television show XENA: Warrior Princess (1995 - ) and the castmembers, Lucy Lawless and Renee O'Connor. For a free e-mail subscription send "subscribe XMR" to ktaborn@lightspeed.net. Excerpts from the following cites will appear in future issues of XMR. Editor Rant: Hello again. Just a little update. I am about 29 articles away from reviewing all the articles up to August 18th. I will troll for more articles later today or tomorrow and if all things go well, I can start on XMR #17 with a clear conscience. I may postpose a lengthy editorial in order just to get it out. [Tentative 338g] 07-29-96 ELECTRONIC MEDIA. Page 6. 320 words. "USA Gets Rights To Four Series" COMMENTARY: Article about USA Network's acquired rights to HTLJ, XWP, Top Cops, and America's Most Wanted: Final Justuce. Reported that HTLJ and XWP sold for $300,000 per episode for 85 and 72 hours of HTLJ and XWP, respectively. Also announced that USA will begin airing the shows in September 1998. It was further stated that, "MCA opted to sell the shows to cable because of the difficulties in selling one-hour strips in syndication. They will continue in first-run syndication as weekly shows. 'Right now the market is just glutted...It is hard to find shelf hours,' said a spokesperson for MCA Worldwide Television Distribution, adding that it was a 'strong deal, as far as money is concerned.'" [Tentative 338h] 07-31-96 THE DES MOINES REGISTER. Wednesday. Page 4. 387 words. "TV Prime Time. Here's the scoop on ice cream" By Jan Currie. COMMENTARY: Yet another blurb about the USA Network acquisition which included a barb towards ST: Deep Space Nine's falling ratings. [Tentative 338i] 08-02-96 STAR TRIBUNE. Page 18E. 547 words. "Beam him up: Doohan treks to new UPN show" COMMENTARY: Two sentence blurb on the USA Network's acquisition of XWP reruns. [ ] 07-29-96 VARIETY. Page 28. 185 words. "Nielsen Syndication Ratings" COMMENTARY: Prometheus (episode #8), 3rd release. (1st release: 11/06/95, #17 at 5.4, tied for 3rd place in action hours; 2nd release: 03/11/96, #14 at 5.2, 3rd place). 07/08/96, tied at #12 at 4.9, 2nd place. HTLJ, #8 at 5.6, 1st; ST:DS9, tied at #14 at 4.5, 3rd place. No other action hours made it onto the top twenty. [ ] 07-29-96 ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH. Monday. Page 4. 338 words. "Two Administrators Appointed" COMMENTARY: In a photo-promo for the 1992 movie, "Buffy the Vampire Slayer", the caption read in part, "a not-serious 1992 movie about a high school cheerleader who becomes sort of a Xena-level warrior in the never-ending war on vampires." [ ] 07-31-96 DAILY VARIETY. Page 1. 756 words. "Titanic Teutonic TV; Dual Deals with Kirch, RTL worth $ 2.5 bil to MCA" By Elizabeth Guider and Erik Kirschbaum COMMENTARY: Brief mention of XWP in article regarding the latest deal between MCA and and two German TV distributors which were worth $2.5 billion dollars. XWP broadcast rights were included in a free TV output arrangement called RTL which broadcasts in all German-speaking areas. [ ] 07-31-96 CAPITAL TIMES. Wednesday. Page 1C. 768 words. "Getting Tots to Tune in to 'Good' TV the Problem (First Edition) TV; Execs Don't like Mandates from D.C. (Second Edition)" By Mike Ivey COMMENTARY: In a critique on the lack of proper programing for children, Mr. Ivey quoted Jill Sommers, the program director at WISC-TV/Channel 3, who used XWP as an example of what kids were watching instead of educational shows. "'There are plenty of educational shows out there but kids aren't watching them,' says Sommers. To make a point, she ticked off the four most popular shows among young viewers -- 'Fresh Prince of Bel-Air,' 'Home Improvement,' 'Xena: Warrior Princess' and 'Hercules: The Legendary Journeys.''" [ ] 08-01-96 THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER. 161 words. "Hercules' Outruns Rivals" COMMENTARY: Ratings for Chariots of War, 3rd release (episode #2), 07/15/96, 3rd action hour with 5.0 share. [1st release, 09/11/95, #20, 3rd place action hour, 4.4 rating; 2nd release, 12/04/96, 5.4 rating). [ ] 08-01-96 DAILY VARIETY. Thursday. Page 12. 6138 words. "Production Chart Key" COMMENTARY: Production chart for LA area: HTLJ and XWP. [ ] 08-02-96 PRESS ASSOCIATION NEWSFILE. Friday. 421 words. "Buckle Your Swash, Here Comes Xena." By Jackie Burdon. COMMENTARY: Press release for XWP's debut on British channel Sky Two in September 1996. Head of Programmes, David Elstein, weas quoted as saying "They are great fun, tongue-in-cheek adventure action series [XWP with HTLJ] which I think the kid-dult audience will really enjoy." [ ] 08-02-96 PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE. Friday. Sports. Page BB-2. 617 words. "City Firm Captions the Action" By Chuck Finder COMMENTARY: XWP made a rare Sports page appearance in Pittsburgh. In an article about VITAC, the company which did close-captioning for the Olympics, Mr. Finder mentioned that VITAC also captioned XWP. He also added tongue-in-cheek that "Believe me, Xena would rule Olympic fencing." [ ] 08-02-96 DAILY VARIETY. Friday. Page 1. 433 words. "CTTD's 'Walker' hits 80% clearance rate" By Jenny Hontz COMMENTARY: In an article about Columbia TriStar Television Distribution having sold off-net rights to Chuck Norris' action hour "Walker, Texas Ranger" to 175 stations, covering 80% of the country, Ms. Hontz noted that CTTD hadn't closed a deal in No. 1 market New York. Ms. Hontz then cited a NY station manager who "said the weekend hour drama and action field is very crowded right now with "Hercules: The Legendary Journeys" and "Xena: Warrior Princess,""Star Trek: Deep Space Nine," newcomers "Sinbad" and "Tarzan, the Epic Adventures," and with off-net "NYPD Blue,""The X-Files" and "ER."" Until next time, ciao!