Media Networks - Broadcast Networks

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ABC Television Network ABC retains its outstanding performance in the 2000-2001 season. In primetime, a number of popular returning programs are helping to maintain ABC's strong position among the highly coveted sales demographic of adults 18-49 as well as total viewers.

These include Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, The Drew Carey Show, The Practice, Once and Again, Whose Line Is It Anyway, Spin City, Norm, The Wonderful World of Disney and NYPD Blue. In addition, promising new series such as The Geena Davis Show and Gideon's Crossing point toward continued success in the future.

ABC News ABC 2000, the news division's extraordinary and unprecedented millennium special, featured a team of ABC News anchors and correspondents covering millennium celebrations around the globe. The 24-hour broadcast became a major television event and was watched by more than 175 million people. ABC News also won significantly more Emmys than its competitors in the 1999 News & Documentary Emmy Awards. The 11 Emmy Awards (with 21 nominations) were presented to Nightline, which won five awards, including two for Brave New World; ABC 2000, which won two awards; The Century, which won two awards; World News Tonight - Weekend, which received one award; and 20/20, which received one award. ABC News continues to lead the way in political coverage. The network's primetime specials on the Republican and Democratic national conventions were watched by more people than the coverage of any other broadcast network and had a larger audience than the three cable news networks combined.

Consistent with the news division's commitment to report on issues of spirituality and religion, the network broadcast Peter Jennings Reporting: In Search of Jesus in June. The special was a critical success and garnered more viewers than any news program on a broadcast or cable network during the year. ABC News also aired Hopkins 24/7, a powerful six-hour documentary about the medical world. This new series brought viewers behind the scenes of The Johns Hopkins Hospital, showing doctors in rare moments of candor and vulnerability.

ABC Sports

ABC Sports continued its tradition of excellence, with dramatic and memorable moments such as Super Bowl XXXIV, the Bowl Championship Series and Tiger Woods' historic victory at the British Open. Monday Night Football ushered in a new era in its 31st year with a new broadcast team of Al Michaels, Dennis Miller and Dan Fouts.

As the broadcast home of college football, ABC Sports also is televising the best games from all the top conferences, culminating with the FedEx Orange Bowl. In addition, ABC Sports will continue to broadcast the Indianapolis 500, the World and U.S. Figure Skating Championships, the British Open and the NHL Stanley Cup Finals.

ABC Daytime

For the 24th straight year, ABC Daytime dominated the ratings among the key demographic of women 18-49. Among total women 18 and older, The View has proven to be the strongest performer in its time period in nine years. General Hospital set a new standard and made Emmy Award history with a record seventh win as "Outstanding Drama Series," marking the show's fifth win in six years. The Fifth Annual Super Soap Weekend at Disney-MGM Studios on November 11-12, 2000, remained the premier interactive fan event, showcasing ABC Daytime's most popular stars in the spectacular theme park arena.

ABC Children's

ABC's award-winning Saturday morning children's programming continues to perform well. Disney's One Saturday Morning lineup attracts more than 1 million kids each Saturday.

In addition to their strong performance, ABC's Saturday morning programs received numerous honors for their commitment to quality. Disney's Doug was named the Most Outstanding Educational Program on a Broadcast Network for 1999-2000 by the Annenberg School of Public Policy. Also, Disney's Pepper Ann, Disney's Recess and Squigglevision received Parents' Choice Award commendations.

ABC Entertainment Television Group

Encompassing ABC Entertainment and Touchstone Television, this division develops and produces shows for network TV.

Last season, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire quickly became part of American culture and helped catapult ABC to number one in both total viewers and adults 18-49. Bolstered by the addition of this programming sensation to an already strong schedule, ABC Entertainment premiered four new series in the fall, thereby allowing the network to strategically target and maximize its development, marketing and advertising resources. Building upon this stability, the network plans to spotlight the premieres of its high-profile mid-season shows My Wife and Kids, Leary and The Joan Cusack Show throughout the year. It also has several marquee reality projects in production, including The Mole and the new Ben Affleck/Matt Damon series The Runner, which may premiere during the season.

Along with its successful series programming, ABC has a slate of high-profile movies and miniseries in store for the 2000-2001 season. These include the Carrie Fisher/Elaine Pope telefilm These Old Broads, starring Shirley MacLaine, Debbie Reynolds, Joan Collins and Elizabeth Taylor; and Me and My Shadows: Life with Judy Garland, a story based on Lorna Luft's best-selling memoir, which stars Judy Davis as the legendary singer/actress. And following in the rich tradition of Annie and Rogers and Hammerstein's Cinderella, the network will air a new version of the classic musical South Pacific, starring Glenn Close and Harry Connick, Jr.

The merger of ABC Entertainment and Touchstone Television more than a year ago has been very successful. The restructuring has allowed Touchstone Television to successfully develop many high-profile new series for ABC, including The Geena Davis Show and Gideon's Crossing, while continuing to sell original programming, such as Felicity, Popular and Daddio to other networks. For mid-season, the studio is also producing the half-hour comedies Go Fish for NBC, and My Wife and Kids and Leary for ABC, as well as the reality series Race Around the World for CBS. To ensure that this level of development continues, the studio also formed strategic talent alliances with some of the best and brightest creative professionals in the television industry.

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