Abc

Valentine's Day will be a downer for the folks at ABC's "Cupid. " The network has halted production on the new Nielsens-starved show and will take it off the air following the Feb. 11 telecast. The show will have taped just 14 shows of 22 that were ordered. "Cupid" stars Jeremy Piven as a man claiming to be Cupid, the Roman god of love. Paula Marshall stars as his psychiatrist. The show usually finished near or in the ratings basement. "'Cupid' has been a labor of love for everyone at ABC from the very start," said ABC spokeswoman Susan Sewell.

ABC won last week's rating race, is going for the gold in the February "sweeps" and may push CBS into third place for an entire season for the first time in television history. The Olympics have made the difference. For the week that ended Feb. 21, ABC led with a 19.4 rating and a 30 percent audience share. NBC was second with a 15.0/23 and CBS last with a 12.8/20. ABC says that 19.4 is the highest weekly rating for any network since Nov. 2, 1986. In addition, the 4.4 margin was ABC's largest win since the week ending Oct. 27, 1985, during World Series telecasts.

ABC struggled nobly through the first weekend of the Winter Olympic Games, in which Americans suffered repeatedly through the agony of defeat, while not once enjoying the thrill of victory. Overnight Nielsen ratings for the first of three weekends of the 15th Winter Games were not sensational, and when complete national ratings are released today, they probably will be lower than ABC would have liked. That's because it got only a third of what it wanted. What it got that it liked was harsh weekend weather in the major television markets in the East and Midwest.

Steven Bochco, whose innovative "Hill Street Blues" marked a turning point in NBC's fortunes, has agreed to work his magic exclusively for rival network ABC. ABC Entertainment President Brandon Stoddard said Bochco, an eight-time Emmy award winner and arguably the hottest television producer in Hollywood, has signed an exclusive contract to produce 10 new TV series for ABC during the next six years. A network spokesman said Bochco's contract with ABC would go into effect July 1, 1988, presumably forcing him to cancel his ongoing involvement with the production of "L.A.

No more Monday Night Football? It's possible. ABC has lost around $30 million on its football coverage, according to Dennis Swanson, president of the network's sports division. Swanson isn't telling exactly how much the network is in the hole for, but he mentioned recently that the three networks together lost $75 million broadcasting football glames in 1986. The problem: The cost of the multiyear pact the networks signed with the NFL is outdistancing advertising revenues.

You know, the words "star-studded extravaganza" don't get bandied about nearly enough anymore. There was a time when any kid who watched TV knew what a "star-studded extravaganza" was. It usually meant that at some point, Joey Heatherton or Jaye P. Morgan was going to writhe around on a stage while a band played ersatz rock music and a bunch of dancers gyrated in formation. Over the years, the viewing public kind of got extravanganzaed out. Which is why you don't see those kinds of specials anymore.

John Madden may eventually end up in ABC's Monday Night Football booth, but he said yesterday that reports that a deal had already been completed were not accurate. "I haven't decided on anything, and I won't until after the season," Madden said from his apartment in New York. "This is the fun part of the season and I want to enjoy it. " The New York Post reported that Madden's arrival at ABC was a "mere formality," and USA Today said that Madden had recently agreed to a $2.5 million-a-year deal with ABC after rejecting a $4 million offer from Fox. "I haven't heard those numbers from anybody, so that tells me the source for these stories is an outsider who doesn't really know what is going on," Madden said.

OK, so I watched the whole Monica show. All two hours. But I hated myself in the morning. There was Monica, Monica, Monica. Engaging and narcissistic. Uncowed and unrepentant. Adventurous and willful. Open and stubborn. One minute, I was impressed by her refusal to rewrite her feelings to fit anyone else's sexual judgment. The dance of flirtation? "I was enamored with him. I was excited and I was enjoying it. " The next minute, I was appalled at her lack of self-reflection.

The Saturday-night shootout between East Germany's Katarina Witt and America's Debi Thomas for the Olympic gold medal in women's figure-skating drew almost as many television viewers as the last Super Bowl. For the half-hour from 10:30 until 11 p.m., when Witt was grabbing the gold while Thomas had to settle for the third-place bronze medal, the A. C. Nielsen Co. reported an overnight rating of 40.2, with a 62 percent audience share. Super Bowl XXII last month scored a national rating of 41.9, also with a share of 62. The figures aren't exactly comparable, because an overnight rating is based on 15 large cities, while the national rating covers the whole country.

A Philadelphia-born Catholic priest is the inspiration for a made-for-TV movie that will air in prime time this season on ABC-TV. The Rev. Ellwood Kieser provides both spiritual inspiration and financial support as executive producer of "We Are The Children," a movie about the Ethiopian famine with Ally Sheedy ("The Breakfast Club, "St. Elmo's Fire") and Ted Danson ("Cheers"). Filming in northern Kenya is scheduled to finish on September 25 for this Paulist Pictures production.

After more than 36 years, Rob Jennings is retiring from 6ABC at the end of July, closing out a broadcasting career of more than four decades. He joined Action News in July 1977, starting as an announcer and director, before moving on to produce Action News Crime Fighters for 16 years. It profiled criminals, leading to the arrest of nearly 200 suspects. Jennings was inducted into the Philadelphia Broadcast Pioneers Hall of Fame in 2003.   Dancing queen   Kellie Pickler was the winner on Tuesday's Dancing With the Stars . The 26-year-old country singer and her professional partner, Derek Hough , finished ahead of Teen Disney Channel star Zendaya , football pro Jacoby Jones , and gymnast Aly Raisman .   Very funny Carol Burnett has been named the winner of the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor - the nation's highest humor prize.

LONGTIME weekend anchor Rob Jennings is retiring from 6abc after 36 years at the station. His last newscast is scheduled for July 31. Jennings said he and his wife, Karen , a former news anchor herself, wanted to retire to their home in southwest Florida while they still had time to enjoy it. "I love what I do, I love telling stories and anchoring," Jennings told me. "I've been blessed with that ability since I was 5 and my kindergarten...

JENKINTOWN'S Adam F. Goldberg ("Breaking In," "Fanboys") is bringing his wonder years to ABC this fall. His autobiographical new sitcom, "The Goldbergs," was one of a dozen new scripted series that ABC presented to advertisers in New York yesterday afternoon, and it's the one that ABC Entertainment Group president Paul Lee singled out more than once in a conference call with reporters. "I really adore this show," Lee said, and he's planning to promote it, along with its fanboy-friendly lead-in, "Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.," from Joss Whedon ("Buffy the Vampire Slayer," "The Avengers")

While the other networks are splashing around in the kiddie pool, ABC jumped into the shark tank at its upfront presentation Tuesday at New York's Avery Fisher Hall. The network will launch eight prime-time series, an even split of dramas and sitcoms, in the fall. It also made some major programming moves, including an all-new Tuesday night lineup, and a significant revision of Dancing With the Stars . As ABC president Paul Lee said, "We are taking some big swings . . . this season.

BOMBS HAD JUST exploded near the finish line of the Boston Marathon. The large flat-screen TV on the conference room wall at 6ABC showed images of chaos, bloodshed and strangers helping strangers. Cecily Tynan, Action News' weeknight meteorologist, walked in. She looked at the screen and was visibly moved. "Who would do this?" she asked. "It's just terrible. " Tynan, 44, a married mother of a 7-year-old boy and 5-year-old girl, is a serious runner. She's a four-time sub-3-hour marathoner and top 10 age group finisher at the 2003 Ironman World Championship in Kona, Hawaii.

ABC's sultry prime-time hit Scandal is a quick-paced drama starring Kerry Washington as high-powered crisis manager Olivia Pope. Pope, a no-nonsense-yet-emotionally vulnerable black woman, is having a steamy affair with the white Republican president of the United States, Fitzgerald "Fitz" Grant, played by the guy you'll remember as the baddie from Ghost, Tony Goldwyn. It's crazy, it's dizzying, and we love it. Scandal's success this season - it ranks a strong second in its 10 p.m. time slot in total viewers ages 18 to 49 - is more than confirmation that America loves a good nighttime soap.

MY SON is 8 years old, and in all the years I've known him, he's never expressed a rooting interest in a sports team. He'd rather play than watch, and I respect that. Still, there are certain responsibilities I have as a Philadelphia father. One of them is to teach my son the rules of Philly sports culture. They're simple: You cheer for the home team, no matter what. You can be angry. You can be disappointed. But you never give your allegiance to another team. This is especially true for football fans.

YOU DON'T SEE people like Carita Hernandez when TV breaks on the news. But they're there. In fact, without them there wouldn't be a broadcast at all. "You may have never seen her face on 'Action News,' but you saw her work, and, as such, a part of her spirit," said Brian Taff, a news anchor at 6 ABC. Carita, who worked at the station for 32 years, was the woman in the van whose job was to take the video footage shot at the scene, edit it...

HOW DO WE prevent 1 million heart attacks and strokes in the next five years? The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services launched the Million Hearts initiative in 2012 to answer this question. And it's as simple as the ABC'S: A spirin for risk reduction. B lood-pressure control. C holesterol-lowering. S moking cessation. Since February is Heart Month, this is a great time for Philadelphia to start working on its share of the goal - preventing 5,000 heart attacks and strokes among city residents by 2017.

*  ZERO HOUR. 8 p.m. Thursday, 6 ABC. ANTHONY Edwards has already had his dream trip around the world. Starting Thursday, he'll be crisscrossing the planet on a journey dreamed up by "Prison Break" creator Paul Scheuring in pursuit of mysterious bad guys in ABC's "Zero Hour. " More than a decade after he left "ER" - where Edwards, now 50, earned enough millions to make spending more time with the family an activity that at one point involved traveling the world for a year with his wife, their four children and a couple of teachers - the actor's back on television.