THIS WEEK IN XENA NEWS... TWXN 89 07/21/97 Monday The advance sheet of XENA MEDIA REVIEW (XMR): http://xenafan.com/xmr Excerpts from the following cites will appear in future issues of XMR. From the editor: 1. This is the beginning of a big week for California Xenafans. We got Fests in the north and south this coming weekend and it's the 2nd release of what may be the most popular XWP episode amongst fans...yup, A DAY IN THE LIFE. For being in the midst of the summer dolldrums, it's a pretty good week. 2. Hitting 7.8 is an amazing thing. TWXN re-lives XWP's greatest moment of glory in the ratings game during the 2nd season. A NECESSARY EVIL broke all RP (Renaissance Pictures) records in one intense two week period. Coming off the heals of THE QUEST's 7.7 the previous week, it looked like XWP could do no wrong. And it couldn't. It took the show 6 episodes before it got back to scores under 5.5 (and that included plowing through a 3rd release and three 2nd releases)! That was one of the best shirt-tails to ride on in all of syndicated TV's history. 3. Taken as a whole, THE QUEST and A NECESSARY EVIL contained the best that XWP had to offer. They touched upon the devotion and intensity of the X&G relationship, on Xena's never-ending quest for personal redemption, non-stop fight scenes, enough pyrotechnics to last a season, tons of Amazons (and Amazons FLYING ACROSS THE SCREEN!!!!), Autolycus, a new and fascinating nemesis, Xena saving Gabrielle, Gabrielle saving Xena, Gabrielle reaching new heights of being "a really good person", and did I fail to mention, Callisto, Xena's trusty and dependable arch-enemy par excellence? Is it any wonder why these episodes shot off the roof, rating wise? Is it any wonder that the rumors have it that the infamous rift episodes will have the Amazons (perhaps more flying across the screen?), Callisto, and an even newer nemesis in it, and appear magically during the November sweeps? At last a rumor that makes sense! 4. On Wednesday, we will re-visit the ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY feature on XWP. And now the excerpts covering the print media reaction to A NECESSARY EVIL's acomplishment: [ a] 03-06-97 REUTERS NORTH AMERICAN WIRE. Thursday. 896 words. COMMENTARY: A NECESSARY EVIL (#38), 1st release ratings. The story hits Reuters! EXCERPT: ...'Xena' Hits Season Zenith "Xena: Warrior Princess" is becoming the latest syndication phenomenon. The show hit a record high for the second week in a row for the period ending Feb. 23, crushing all opponents and recording the highest rating for an action hour all season. Xena upticked one-tenth of a point to a 7.8, marking its fifth weekly rise in a row and a 56 percent improvement over its rating five weeks ago. For the first time, it tied for the top season-to-date spot among weeklies with "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" and "Hercules." Compared to the same week last season, "Xena" is up 37 percent.... [ b] 03-06-97 DAILY VARIETY. Thursday. Page 7. 558 words. "'Xena' hits a season zenith, tops all syndie action hours" By Jenny Hontz COMMENTARY: XWP gets her own article in Variety! EXCERPT: Universal Domestic TV's "Xena: Warrior Princess" is quickly becoming the latest syndication phenomenon. The weekly action hour hit a new all-time high for the second straight week for the period ending Feb. 23, crushing all opponents and recording the highest rating for an action hour all season. In the latest outing, "Xena" upticked another 1% to a 7.8, which marked its fifth straight weekly increase and a 56% improvement over its rating just five weeks ago. For the first time ever, the showed tied for the top season-to-date spot among weeklies with Paramount Domestic TV's "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" and Universal's "Hercules." Compared to the same week last season, "Xena" is up 37%. Despite increases, "Xena's" top weekly competitors lagged far behind on the latest national chart for the third full sweeps week. "Hercules" gained 1% to a 7.0, which was 4% ahead of last year's level and also a season high. "Star Trek" gained 12% to 6.7, which was off 8% from last year.... [ d] 03-07-97 DAILY NEWS (New York). Friday. Page 109. 778 words. "Scud Stud Movie to Focus on Globetrotting & War with NBC" COMMENTARY: An example of how local papers used the story off the newslines. EXCERPT: ...'Xena' real strong "Xena: Warrior Princess," which stars Lucy Lawless in the title role, is riding roughshod over the competition. In the week ending Feb. 23, the syndicated program had its highest ratings ever, according to Nielsen.In fact, the show set a high mark for any of the syndicated action-adventure hours this season. The program averaged a 7.8 rating (percentage of the nation's 97 million TV homes), notching its fifth straight weekly increase. Not only that, the hot show is up 56% over just five weeks ago (and 37% over the same week a year ago). Also, with its hot week, "Xena" tied "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" and "Hercules" for the top spot in the season-to-date ratings for syndicated weekly dramas. Richard Huff... ...GRAPHIC: 'XENA' RULES: Lucy Lawless [ f] 03-10-97 VARIETY. Page 39. 183 words. "Nielsen Syndication Ratings" COMMENTARY: How XWP fared with all the competition! It was #7 of ALL syndicated TV shows. REPRINT: For week ended February 23, 1997 Stations/ Rank Program % coverage AA% GAA % 1 Wheel of Fortune 230/99 12.7 -- 2 Home Improvement 232/98 10.5 12.5 2 Jeopardy! 225/99 10.5 -- 4 Oprah Winfrey Show 235/99 9.2 9.3 5 Seinfeld 227/98 8.3 -- 6 Portfolio XV 194/96 7.9 8.2 7 Xena 224/97 7.8 8.6 8 Simpsons 206/96 7.1 8.5 9 Journeys of Hercules 234/98 7.0 7.8 10 Wheel of Fortune-Wknd. 182/84 6.9 -- 11 Entertainment Tonight 190/96 6.8 6.9 12 Star Trek: Deep Space Nine 238/98 6.7 7.3 13 WCW Wrestling 173/92 6.5 10.3 14 Inside Edition 155/91 5.5 5.6 15 Rosie O'Donnell Show 223/99 5.4 5.4 16 Jenny Jones 186/94 4.8 5.1 17 Mad About You 215/96 4.7 4.9 17 Montel Williams 194/96 4.7 4.7 17 Sally Jessy Raphael 173/94 4.7 4.8 20 Home Improvement-Wknd. 216/93 4.6 -- AA average refers to nonduplicated viewing for multiple airings of the same show. GAA average encompasses duplicated viewing. GAA average does not apply when there is only one run of a show. [ k] 03-10-97 MEDIAWEEK. 945 words. "$ 450-$ 500 Million Take Seen For Harte-Hanks Properties" COMMENTARY: Example of how the trade papers covered the news. EXCERPT: ...Xena' and Hercules' Heroic For Universal in Feb. Sweeps Universal Television Enterprises reported last week that Xena: Warrior Princess and Hercules: The Legendary Journeys earned their best-ever ratings during the February sweeps. Xena scored the highest weekly rating of any syndicated action-adventure this season, with an 8.7 average Nielsen rating for the week of Feb. 10-16. Xena's season-to-date 6.3 rating has put the show ahead of Paramount's Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (6.2) in the action-adventure race. The second half of Universal's two-hour "Action Pack" block, Hercules, also reached season-high ratings in February. Since its debut in January 1995, Hercules has bulked up its ratings by 30 percent. Ned Nalle, executive vp of first-run programming for Universal, attributed the consistent growth to "exceedingly excellent" writing, producing and directing from the series' executive producers, Sam Raimi and Rob Tappert, as well as the acting of Lucy Lawless (Xena) and Kevin Sorbo (Hercules). Nalle also credited client stations, particularly the Tribune group, for extensive on-air promotions of the block.... [ l] 03-12-97 AUSTIN AMERICAN-STATESMAN. Page D10. 402 words. "Curry named news anchor for Today'" By Richard Huff and Liz Boas COMMENTARY: A little local blurb for ROC fans. EXCERPT: ...Xena: Warrior Princess,'' which stars Lucy Lawless in the title role and former Austinite Renee O'Connor as her sidekick, is riding roughshod over the competition. Last month, the syndicated program had its highest ratings ever, according to Nielsen. In fact, the show set a high mark for any of the syndicated action-adventure hours this season. The program averaged a 7.8 rating (percentage of the nation's 97 million TV homes) in the third week of Februrary. Not only that, the hot show is up 37 percent over the same week a year ago. Also, with its hot week, Xena'' tied Star Trek: Deep Space Nine'' and Hercules'' for the top spot in the season-to-date ratings for syndicated weekly dramas. Xena'' airs at 7 p.m. Saturdays on KNVA Channel 54.... Notices: All back issues of XMR and TWXN are available at (http://xenafan.com/xmr). We herein give praise and thanks to Tom Simpson for the space he has graciously donated from his spectacular, TOM'S XENA PAGE (http://xenafan.com). If you have never been there, you are **not** a xenafan! TWXN is the advance sheet for XMR, an annotated world press review of reports regarding the internationally syndicated television show XENA: WARRIOR PRINCESS (1995 - 2000+?) and the castmembers, Lucy Lawless and Renee O'Connor. TWXN is not available for subscription, however it is posted Monday, Wednesday, and Friday on the XenaVerse, Hercules-Xena, and Chakram Mailing Lists (thank you Lucia! I am greatly indebt to you), the MCA NetForum, the Xenite Message Center, and alt.tv.xena. I also would like to thank sirvin@law.wfu.edu for assitance in collecting the newstories. For a free e-mail subscription to XMR subscribe by e-mail to ktaborn@lightspeed.net by stating somewhere in the subject or text "sub xmr".