THIS WEEK IN XENA NEWS....
TWXN 45
11/14/96

Brought to you by Xena: Media Review (XMR):
http://www.teleport.com/~gater/IAXS/IAXS.html

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 IS STANDING ON THE TABLE AND DANCING!!!
   XWP took 1st place in action hours for RETURN OF
CALLISTO (#29). It is just as I predicted!!! At the end
of the last season I predicted that XWP would take a
top honor during a first run episode early in the
season. My next prediction is that as the season warms
up and gets up to speed, XWP will be turning in 6.x
rating regularly (The top rating XWP has ever earned
was a 6.1 for the first showing of ATHENS CITY in
January 1996. It is also to date the only rating the
XWP has earned in the 6's). You just wait and see! Mark
my words!!!
   WHOOSH #3 will be released November 17, 1996. WHOOSH
has a complete spoiler-enriched episode guide current
through INTIMATE STRANGER, on-line, waiting for you!
   I am about half way through XMR #19.  There is a
good chance it will be out before December 1, 1996.
   Again, thanks to everyone for their patience.
   And, I almost forgot, I got permission from my
family to go stag to the Xena/Hercules Convention in
January in Burbank. See you there!!!
--Kym



[   ] 11-10-96
   USA WEEKEND. Friday. Page 02. 1162 words. "Who's
News" By Lorrie Lynch
   COMMENTARY: Q&A mentioning Lucy Lawless as a tall
actress.
   EXCERPT:
   ...Q. There are so many female stars of the small
screen, but I've been wondering: Who are some of the
tallest in current shows? 
   Darrin Hill, Highland Park, Mich.
   Suddenly Susan star Brooke Shields, a former fashion
model, and 3rd Rock From the Sun's Kristen Johnston are
tops: Both stand 6 feet tall. Lucy Lawless, popular
star of the syndicated action show Xena: Warrior
Princess (who recently broke her pelvis while preparing
a comedy bit with Jay Leno), is just shy of 6 feet.
Christine Lahti of Chicago Hope is 5-foot-10. Friends'
Lisa Kudrow is 5-foot-7. Three of the four players on
Cybill are tall: Cybill Shepherd is 5-foot-9, sidekick
Christine Baranski is 5-foot-8, and Alicia Witt
(daughter Zoey) is somewhere in between....


[   bo] 11-10-96
   THE PROVIDENCE JOURNAL-BULLETIN. Sunday. Page 6T/
532 words. "Question & Answers"
   COMMENTARY: After over a month after Ms. Lawless'
injury, it is still being reported.
   EXCERPT:
   I've heard reports of Lucy Lawless being injured in
some kind of accident. What's the story? 
   D.D.
   The star of the syndicated hit Xena: Warrior
Princess was thrown from a horse last month while
waiting to enter the Tonight Show sound stage for a
comedy stunt. She is working with a physical therapist
and her trainer so that she can return to work on her
action series which is filmed in New Zealand....


[   ] 11-10-96
   THE OBSERVER. Sunday. Page 20. 1941 words.
"Pendennis" By Tom Hibbert
   COMMENTARY: What will be playing in London and the
rest of the United Kingdom on Christmas day? HTLJ and
XWP in a special double bill. You know you have made it
when you are considered THE Christmas show for an
entire nation. No doubt, the episodes shown will be the
Christmas episodes we have heard so much about.
   EXCERPT:
   ...The advent of Hercules
   Pendennis is a teeny bit troubled about Rupert
Murdoch, supreme ruler of the universe if you don't
count Ted Turner. Or Tony Blair. I thought he was
supposed to be a 'Born Again' Christian. There is
little inkling of this in the Sky TV Advent Calendar
which has just fallen on to my desk by mistake. Okay, I
cheated. I opened all the little windows way ahead of
the appropriate time, which is sometimes called the
'festive season'. With mounting excitement I ripped off
the door marked 25 December and what did I find there?
Three Wise Men? The baby Jesus and his donkeys? Nothing
of the sort. What you get is a reminder of what you can
see on Sky that day if you are foolish enough to own a
decoder and dish. And there's nothing 'Holy' at all. At
3: 05 pm, Hercules teams up with Xena, Warrior
Princess, for a special double bill....


[   ] 11-12-96
   THE BALTIMORE SUN. Tuesday. Page 1A. 1481 words.
"Homework: TV violence; Watching: Maryland's attorney
general joins his counterparts in urging that parents
rate television programs and report their impressions
to broadcasters" By Marego Athans
   COMMENTARY: Last addressed when the V-Chip was being
discussed (and XWP was put through a V-Chip test and
found that it wasn't blocked! -- see XMR198, 03-12-96.
THE TORONTO STAR, page A1, "TV device a dunce at
zapping violence" by Antonia Zerbisias), the violence
of XWP hit the news again. This time it was part of a
Parent's Diary project in Maryland to educate parents
as to what their children were watching on television.
   EXCERPT:
   Assignment for parents, from Maryland's top law
enforcement officer: Spend a week with Xena the Warrior
Princess, the X-Men, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers --
the images that beam from the TV screen to the most
impressionable brains in your home.
   Take a pen and a copy of the newly printed Parent's
Diary now on its way to the state's elementary schools,
and rate each show for violent content. Then tell the
broadcasters what you think.
   The nationwide campaign to be announced today is
called "Tune Out the Violence," launched by state
Attorney General J. Joseph Curran Jr. and others who
say televised violence fuels violent juvenile crime.
Maryland posted the nation's fourth-highest rate of
juvenile murders in 1994....


[   ] 11-14-96
   THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER. 674 words. "Thu, Nov 14,
1996" 
   COMMENTARY: Notice about what Digital Sound &
Picture is currently doing or just finished. Digital
Sound & Picture is a contractor for XWP.
   EXCERPT:
   ...TechBriefs: Los Angeles audio postprod house
Digital Sound & Picture has completed work on David
Lynch's ''Lost Highway'' and continues work on TV
series ''Xena: Warrior Princess'' and ''Hercules: The
Legendary Journeys,'' with upcoming feature film jobs
to include ''Washington Square'' and ''Hoods''...


   COMMENTARY:  XWP is currently at 5.5 (no. 13 of all
syndicated shows), HTLJ at 5.2 (no. 15), and STAR TREK
at 5.0 (no. 16). The shows covering the first half of
the November sweeps were RETURN OF CALLISTO (#29) and
WARRIOR...PRINCESS...TRAMP (#30).


[    ]
   NOTE: It's official!!! XWP has trounced HTLJ and
ST:DS9 during the first half of the November sweeps!!!
   RETURN OF CALLISTO (#29), 1st release, 10/28/96.
Ranked as the 1st action hour with a 5.5 rating.
(Second time it has hit 1st spot in 1996; first time
for the 2nd season, and first time for a first run
episode).
   The first time XWP hit the number one action hour
spot was December 1995 with a rerun of PATH NOT TAKEN
(#5) (everyone else was in reruns too!). XWP hit the
number place again in August 1996 with a rerun of TIES
THAT BIND (#20). Again, XWP was competing against other
re-runs.
   Here it is only FIVE episodes into the season and
XWP has taken the number one spot against first runs!
Not only is this telling of XWP's growing popularity,
but it is also happening during the first week of the
November sweeps. 
   The standings for action-hours were as follows:
   1. XWP with 5.5
   2. HTLJ with 5.2
   3. ST:DS9 with 5.0
   4. SINBAD/FX with 2.9
   5. CAPE with 2.7


