ABC Sets 'Lost' Return Date
"Lost" is coming back after its hiatus, and we now know when. The same can't be said for "Extreme Makeover," whose return to ABC turned out to be extremely brief.
The network has yanked the better-living-through-surgery show after just one airing last Friday, in which it pulled down fairly weak ratings. Reruns of "Grey's Anatomy," which had been airing in the timeslot, will move back there staring Friday, Nov. 3 (the Halloween special "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" fills the hour this week).
ABC made a couple other scheduling moves Tuesday, setting a February return date for "Lost" -- which will then run uninterrupted through the end of the season -- and giving "Boston Legal" a one-time-only airing in its old Sunday timeslot next month.
"Lost" will return to the schedule on Wednesday, Feb. 7, almost exactly three months after its final fall episode airs Nov. 8. The scheduling strategy is an effort by ABC to avoid repeats of the heavily serialized show; it has three more episodes to go in its initial run this fall and will have 16 weeks of uninterrupted episodes when it returns.
Another serial drama, "Day Break," will take its place starting Nov. 15.
"Boston Legal," meanwhile, will get the post-"Desperate Housewives" berth -- where it began its life in 2004 -- for the first half of a two-part episode on Sunday, Nov. 26. The episode will find Alan Shore (James Spader) helping his friend Jerry Espenson (Christian Clemenson) argue a murder case and Shirley Schmidt (Candice Bergen) in jeopardy. The second half of the story will air in the show's regular Tuesday timeslot on Nov. 28.
As for "Extreme Makeover," the show drew only 4.8 million viewers to its premiere Friday and an equally small 1.5 rating among adults 18-49. The "Grey's" repeats, while hardly world-beaters, have drawn about 900,000 more viewers and averaged a 1.9 in the 18-49 demographic so far this year. They've also been a better lead-in for the dramedy "Men in Trees," which fell more than a million viewers below its season average last week.
Kurt Dethrones Elvis
Elvis Presley is no longer the King of Dead Celebrities.
The pelvis-swiveling crooner was dethroned from his perch atop Forbes.com's annual roundup of top-earning deceased celebrities by the late Kurt Cobain, who made his first appearance on the list in its six years of publication.
The former Nirvana frontman, who committed suicide in 1994, earned $50 million between October 2005 and October 2006, according to the site.
Presley landed in the number two slot, with earnings of $42 million for the same time period, down from $45 million in the year before.
The earnings are based on licensing deals for the deceased celebrities' work or images. Presley has consistently been the top-earning dead star since the list's inception until this year.
Cobain's surge in wealth was due to his widow Courtney Love's sale of one-quarter of the Nirvana song catalogue to New York music publisher PrimeWave.
Coming in at third place, with $35 million was Peanuts creator Charles Schulz, followed in fourth by John Lennon with $24 million. (Lennon's fellow dead Beatle George Harrison ranked 12th with $7 million.)
Albert Einstein rounded out the top five with earnings of $20 million, thanks in large part to the licensing of Disney's hit Baby Einstein video series.
The only woman to rank in the top 13 was Marilyn Monroe. The actress, who died of an overdose in 1962, pulled in $8 million, good for ninth place.
Here's a rundown of the top 10 (the complete list is online at Forbes.com):
1. Kurt Cobain, $50 million
2. Elvis Presley, $42 million
3. Charles Schulz, $35 million
4. John Lennon, $24 million
5. Albert Einstein, $20 million
6. Andy Warhol, $19 million
7. Dr. Seuss (Theodor Geisel), $10 million
8. Ray Charles, $10 million
9. Marilyn Monroe, $8 million
10. Johnny Cash, $8 million
Hacker unlocks Apple music download protection
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A hacker who as a teen cracked the encryption on DVDs has found a way to unlock the code that prevents iPod users from playing songs from download music stores other than Apple Computer Inc.'s iTunes, his company said on Tuesday.
Jon Lech Johansen, a 22-year-old Norway native who lives in San Francisco, cracked Apple's FairPlay copy-protection technology, said Monique Farantzos, managing director at DoubleTwist, the company that plans to license the code to businesses.
"What he did was basically reverse-engineer FairPlay," she said. "This allows other companies to offer content for the iPod."
At the moment, Apple aims to keep music bought from its iTunes online music store only available for Apple products, while songs bought from other online stores typically do not work on iPods.
But Johansen's technology could help rivals sell competing products that play music from iTunes and offer songs for download that work on iPods as they seek to take a bite out of Apple's dominance of digital music.
ITunes commands an 88 percent share of legal song downloads in the United States, while the iPod dominates digital music player sales with more than 60 percent of the market.
Cupertino, California-based Apple, whose profits have soared in recent years on the strength of the iPod, declined to comment.
Johansen, known as DVD Jon, gained fame when at the age of 15 he wrote and distributed a program that cracked the encryption codes on DVDs. This allowed DVDs to be copied and played back on any device.
His latest feat could help companies such as Microsoft Corp., Nokia, Sony Ericsson and Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., which have all announced plans over the past few months for music download services combined with new devices to challenge Apple.
Major record label moves the 'demo tape' online
The days of the traditional demo tape may be numbered.
U.K. recording label EMI has set up a new, online system to accept music files and allow aspiring stars to tell if their work has been reviewed.
The London-based group's Parlophone label has adopted a new software, called A&R Tools, which was created by ex-musician turned IT consultant Nigel Rees and the software group Senica.
Parlophone is considering phasing out acceptance of demo tapes and CDs sent by mail in favour of the online system.
Prospective musicians already send MP3 files, web addresses and links to personal sites such as MySpace, where demos can be placed online.
But, until recently, recording studios had a tough time keeping track of online demos.
The new software provides a more viable system to receive and rate these recordings.
Musicians and musical groups can upload their recording and photos to the Parlophone website.
The artist and repertoire (A&R) team at the recording studio can then rate the material, group it with other work from the same artist and, if it seems promising, forward it up the hierarchy in the company.
Artists are notified when their work has been seen and reviewed.
The software system is already in use at some independent labels and Parlophone tried it out for three months this summer before deciding to run with it.
"One of our top priorities is to keep our talent-spotting process as efficient and up to date as possible," Parlophone's Nigel Coxon said in a statement.
"This new system allows us to do just that, while at the same time, helping us stay committed to giving anyone the opportunity to be heard."
In addition to Parlophone, whose artists include Paul McCartney, Radiohead and Norah Jones, EMI has other major recording labels, such as EMI Records and Virgin Records.
It has not announced plans to take online demos at these labels.