Tuning into 2010

By Cassaundra Brooks

MOVIES

February
12 The Wolfman Anthony Hopkins, Benicio Del Toro, Emily Blunt
Valentine’s Day Ashton Kutcher, Julia Roberts, Anne Hathaway (and a whole host of A-listers!)
Yellow Handkerchief William Hurt, Maria Bello, Eddie Redmayne
19 Shutter Island Leonardo DiCaprio, Mark Ruffalo, Sir Ben Kingsley
26 A Couple of Cops Bruce Willis, William Scott, Adam Brody
Takers Idris Elba, Matt Dillon, Paul Walker

March
5 Alice in Wonderland Johnny Depp, Anne Hathaway, Crispin Glover
12 Green Zone Matt Damon, Amy Ryan, Greg Kinnear
Our Family Wedding Forest Whitaker, America Ferrera, Regina King
Remember Me Robert Pattinson, Pierce Brosnan, Emilie de Raven
16 The Back-Up Plan Jennifer Lopez, Alex O’Loughlin, Michaela Watkins
19 The Bounty Hunter Jennifer Aniston, Gerard Butler, Jason Sudeikis
26 Clash of the Titans Sam Worthington, Gemma Arterton, Liam Neeson

TV FUN FACTS

Foreigners invade U.S. television. There are a number of foreigners with delightful accents—particularly the British, Canadians, and Australians—who lend their talents to adopting flawless American accents for our U.S. shows, and we blindly accept these actors as our own. One of the best examples is Limey character-actor Hugh Laurie, who so brilliantly assumes all of the challenging aspects of his character Dr. Gregory House that we forget he sheds his lovely British accent in favor of a Yankee one. His fellow countrymen (and women) Chuck Bass (Gossip Girl), Johnny Lee Miller (Eli Stone), Gabrielle Anwar (Burn Notice), Lena Headly (Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles), Minnie Driver (The Riches) and Marianne Jean-Baptiste (Without a Trace) are some of the other Brits masquerading as Americans on the silver screen. Canadians Joshua Jackson (Fringe), Tamara Taylor (Bones), Nathan Fillion and Stana Katic (Castle), Eric McCormack (Will & Grace), Erica Durance (Smallville), Evangeline Lilly (Lost), Kim Cattrall (Sex and the City), Kristen Kreuk (Smallville), and Sarah Chalke (Scrubs) are among the invaders from the North who likely find it a little easier to settle into their American roles. But Aussies like John Noble and Anna Torv (Fringe), Simon Baker (The Mentalist), Yvonne Strahovski (Chuck), Rachel Griffiths (Brothers & Sisters), Rose Byrne (Damages), and Anthony LaPaglia and Poppy Montgomery (Without a Trace) ditch heavier accents in order to fool us properly.

What’s with TV ratings? Television is a business, and commentators and other television pundits are ever talking about ratings. What about ratings? Advertising drives media, TV included, so the commercials or subtle (and sometimes not so subtle) product placements are what keep a show on the air. If no one watches the show, no one sees the commercials, which means that fewer people buy the advertised products—and that means those companies have fewer funds for advertising…it’s a cycle. Ratings help networks gauge the size and demographics of their audience. Nielsen Media Research created the most prominent audience measurement systems, which not only measure the percentage of all television households tuning in to a particular program (ratings points) and the percentage of televisions actually in use that are tuned into a particular program (share), but also the average age, gender, race, economic class, and location of those tuning in. Hours after a program concludes its latest time-zone run, online articles spring up depicting early Nielsen ratings numbers. You may have seen them. For example, in the number construction 7.3/11, the numerals represent ratings points/share. The numeral before the slash indicates that 7.3 percent of the nearly 115 million television households in this country tuned into the show in question (let’s say it’s Lost). The latter number states that 11 percent of the televisions in use during Lost’s time slot were tuned into Lost. Make sense? Now, these percentages correspond to a large number of television sets. But Nielsen also records the number of people per television. How? Select households, assessed and chosen to represent the country at large, have TV set meters and people meters. Individuals punch in pertinent information with each program they watch—the number of people watching and their ages and genders, for example. The most coveted audience is the 18–49 age range, so shows that attract that group generally last longer. Others, despite large audiences, may get the ax if they fail to appeal to that group. There are flaws in the system, of course, and Nielsen is beginning to measure DVR and TiVo numbers and the like. With the increase in online viewing, additional changes will likely have to be made.

MUSIC

February
2 Toni Braxton – Pulse
Lifehouse – Smoke & Mirrors
9 Massive Attack – Heligoland
Monica – Still Standing
23 Michelle Branch – Everything Comes and Goes

March
2 Jamie Foxx – Body
Natalie Merchant – Leave Your Sleep
Usher – Raymond v. Raymond
9 Alberta Cross – Broken Side of Time
23 Jane Krakowski – Live at Feinstein’s at The Regency