Cable Nets Head to TCA Tour

The TV writers' strike

is
putting a cloud of uncertainty over the Television Critics Association tour next month, which can be an important time for broadcast and cable networks to get coverage of their upcoming shows. But as of press time Friday, cable planned to proceed anyway with a four-day schedule of show and tell before TV critics.

The final schedule for the cable TCA Tour was a work in progress even late last week. That's because some cable programmers were saying privately that they were waiting to see if the strike was settled before making a final decision on whether to present at the tour in Universal City, Calif., Jan. 8 to 11.

Several cable programmers have already pulled out of the winter TCA. Turner Broadcasting System — parent of CNN, TNT, TBS and Court TV, among others — will not be part of the tour. Turner's decision not to participate was based on a combination of the strike and the entertainment networks not having any major new scripted shows until the summer.

Disney Channel has opted out of the January TCA, as well. But that decision was based on a scheduling conflict with talent. The musical group the Jonas Brothers would not be able to attend, and Disney had wanted to showcase the new show that they star in, J.O.N.A.S.

Showtime is now scheduled to be part of parent CBS's TCA day, Jan. 18.

At one point, there was talk about trimming the cable portion of the TCA tour to three days, but now it's back to four days.

Early last week CTAM issued a tentative — with the emphasis on tentative — TCA cable schedule, with some new faces [Retirement Living TV, Reelz] in the mix and along with old faithfuls like HBO, which is now down for a three-hour presentation.

On the tentative lineup, NBC Universal Cable was set to kick off the tour Jan. 8, followed that day by GSN, HDNet, BET and Hallmark Channel, with The Travel Channel hosting an evening event.

Cable's tentative TCA lineup also includes FX, National Geographic Channel, Starz, Discovery Networks, MTV Networks, AMC/WE TV, BBC America, A&E Network, Sundance Channel, TV One and Lifetime. Food Network was slated to end the cable portion with an evening event.

And Comcast Networks — including E! and Style — are said to have scrapped a planned evening event.

Roaring Week For Speed Chief

Cable companies in September endure “Hell Week” — a very unofficial but lingering description of the packed schedules surrounding the Walter Kaitz Foundation dinner in New York City. Well, auto racers, of all people, have something similar in the Big Apple in late November. It's called “Champions Week.” And as Speed Channel president Hunter Nickell told The Wire last week, it's exhausting.

“It's crazy, but it's cool,” he said.

The NASCAR season is all about endurance: it basically runs for 40-plus weeks, between Daytona in February and Homestead, Fla., in November. “Some weekends it hailed. We had tornadoes,” Nickell said. “We had blistering 100-plus heat on some weekends” and others were frosty.

The weather in New York, fortunately, was delightful, suited to events like the “Victory Lap” of NASCAR Nextel Cup top 10 racers through Times Square on Wednesday. The week wraps with an awards banquet Friday night at the Waldorf-Astoria.

Nickell had to leave before then, but gave a thumbs up to 2007's Champions Week. “I think it was the best so far,” he said.

See you next year, Hunter.

Return to '1968' For Online Fun

Confession time: The Wire's new favorite time-waster is the set of promotional microsites developed by The History Channel for its upcoming 1968 With Tom Brokaw
.

The multiple sites, targeted to consumers, affiliates and ad sales clients, have content that mirrors one another.

The sites feature a 1960's photo upload area (embarrass your friends in those cat's-eye glasses and fringe!). There's a music widget (what, no “Budweiser” song? We guess that came later). And there's an opportunity to dig into a virtual closet and dress your photo in '60s clothes.

Bonus for anyone who can guess which ID on the leader board of the You Don't Know Jack-style '60s trivia game belongs to The Wire.

The site is live now at www.powerof68.com, www.powerof68.com/affiliate and www.powerof68.com/adsales.

WE Drives Vote With Celeb Power

WE TV last Wednesday kicked off its “WE Vote '08” voter-registration drive with help from Geraldine Ferraro, the first female vice presidential nominee on a major-party ticket. She described the upcoming election as one of the most important of her lifetime, one that will affect generations to come.

Kim Martin — her voice restored after the cold that cramped her style at another kickoff event, the Women in Cable Telecommunications gala in Washington, D.C., a couple weeks ago — made her pitch to get 1 million women to register to vote.

Actress Kerry Washington (The Last King of Scotland), a celebrity spokeswoman for the campaign, also pitched in, and public service announcements featuring herself, Kelly Ripa and LeAnn Rimes were screened. The red carpet also drew Ally Sheedy, Christopher Knight (Peter of The Brady Bunch) and Susan Sarandon.