Olympic Spirit Sinks in Orlando

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NBC’s ratings woes from its Torino Olympics coverage have been well-documented already. The ratings are expected to pick up this week with the figure skating competition, but will that be enough to ignite Olympics TV fever in Orlando?

So far, through Tuesday night’s Olympics programming, WESH-Channel 2 is getting some of the worst ratings in the state for the Torino Games. According to NBC, Orlando also ranks 37th among Nielsen’s 55 metered markets for Olympics ratings, with WESH averaging a 12.6 and 19 share.

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Fox Builds New Net With O-Town’s 65

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Orlando’s former UPN 65 is getting a new name and a new network. Get ready for My TV 65.

News Corp. announced plans Wednesday to create a new network for its Fox-owned stations that are losing UPN affiliation when that network shuts down this fall. News Corp. will launch My Network TV on Sept. 5, and WRBW will be among the O&O stations that will make up the new netlet.

According to Broadcasting and Cable, My Network TV will consist of 12 hours of original programming each week, with shows airing at 8-10 p.m. Monday through Saturday. It will launch with two hour-long dramas, English-language telenovelas from News Corp.-owned Twentieth Television. Desires will focus on two brothers on the run from the mob, while Secrets will be set in the fashion industry. Each of the soaps will run five nights a week.

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The Golden Age of MySpace.com

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Following up on the item about the two WKMG reporters who posted on MySpace.com, listing themselves as 15 year olds …

Heard from several people, including one person who said he was a friend of the women, who explained this is a common practice on the MySpace site to keep some privacy.

Another agreed, "The only way to hide your profile is to change your birthday to 14 or 15. The police actually encourage it in order to protect your information. If you list your age over that then anyone can read your profile, stories, and see your friends! Most users are listed this way … duh!"

Duh, indeed! That was news to me. Anytime I see adults posing as 15 year olds, I get suspicious. But apparently that suspicion was misplaced.

Meanwhile, the MySpace pages for Jessica D’Onofrio and Jessica Sanchez now list their real ages.

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Jurkowski Returning to WKMG

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Former Local 6 reporter Todd Jurkowski has been hired as Channel 6′s new weekend anchor. Jurkowski currently is the 4 p.m. anchor/reporter for his hometown NBC affiliate, WBBH in Fort Myers. He’s a Lee County native and worked at the station before he came to Orlando the first time, then returned to the station after he left O-Town.

"It’s a bit melancholy leaving the hometown, having grown up here," Jurkowski told the Fort Myers News-Press. "My long-term goal was to be the main anchor here. I couldn’t get a guarantee of that, so I had to go with something rock solid."

Jurkowski’s last day hasn’t been settled yet. In Orlando, he’ll replace Gerald Reznick, who left the anchor desk because of a vision disorder.

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Prank or Sweeps Story in the Making?

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I received an e-mail late last week saying to check out two postings on the popular site MySpace.com.

The first link was to a 15-year-old girl named Jessica (top left) who lives in Orlando. The second link was to another girl named "Lady J" (top right), this one saying she is 15, lives in Orlando and "If it weren’t for Myspace I’d have no friends."

What’s interesting is the "girls" in the photos look very, very similar to WKMG reporters Jessica D’Onofrio (bottom left) and Jessica Sanchez (bottom right).

So, is this a hoax, a prank … or possibly part of a Local 6 sweeps story trying to find out if anyone will attempt to pick up these "underage" girls? You decide.

I’m totally in favor of getting scuzzballs off the street, but this sure seems to raise a lot of ethical questions about doing

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First on Fox! Super Sweeps Exaggeration

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Sweeps are a time when some stations try to grab viewers by, well, stretching the truth a bit to pass off old news as "breaking news" or by labeling widely reported stories as "exclusives." Some like, Fox 35, try both — to con viewers into thinking they’re breaking an exclusive story that "you have to see!"

Monday night during 24, WOFL aired a promo for its 10 p.m. news. Anchor Shelly Ribando breathless reported, "Fox 35 makes an alarming discovery! Foreign companies taking charge of security in our nation’s ports! Tonight, on Fox 35 News at 10." Same tease with same wording ran later during Fox 35′s newscast. Remember, this is Fox 35 saying it’s making this "alarming discovery."

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