Daily Variety's Front Page: November 27

HOLLYWOOD (Variety) - Daily Variety's front page - November 27:

Headlines:

FERGIE EYES A DAY JOB AS TV TALKER

NBC CLAIMS SWEEPS CROWN

DISNEY'S LAMA TRAUMA: CHINA SYNDROME FEARED

PEARSON BUYS MCA'S PUTNAM

DISNEY ACCOUNTS FOR 68% REVENUES BOOST

BOOST FOR MUSICLAND

----- ----- ----- ----- ----- -----

FERGIE EYES A DAY JOB AS TV TALKER

By Jenny Hontz

HOLLYWOOD (Variety) - Oprah Winfrey soon may have some real royal competition for her title as Queen of Daytime Talk. The Duchess of York, Sarah Ferguson, is planning to meet with several Hollywood studios to discuss the possibility of her hosting a daily daytime talkshow for 1997. Several syndicators, including News Corp's Twentieth TV and Disney's Buena Vista TV, have expressed serious interest in such a talkshow with Ferguson. Sources say Disney-owned ABC also is considering the idea as a possible replacement for its struggling talker Caryl & Marilyn.

----- ----- ----- ----- ----- -----

NBC CLAIMS SWEEPS CROWN

By Joe Flint

HOLLYWOOD (Variety) - With the November sweeps approaching the finish line, NBC is declaring victory in all the key battlegrounds, but there are races going on for second place in several categories that won't be determined until next week. While NBC has reason to cheer its eighth straight sweeps win, the Big 3 once again are facing declines in households against basic cable. Nielsen has ABC, CBS and NBC averaging a 31.6 rating and 50 share in households the November 1996 sweeps through this Monday, off from a 33.2 rating and 53 share for the comparable period in the November 1995 sweeps.

----- ----- ----- ----- ----- -----

DISNEY'S LAMA TRAUMA: CHINA SYNDROME FEARED

By Anita M. Busch

HOLLYWOOD (Variety) - The Walt Disney Co. is forging ahead with its plans to distribute Martin Scorsese's Kundun domestically, despite potential problems with the government in China, where Disney has been focusing its expansion plans. Disney has domestic and U.K. rights and will likely distribute the epic through its Miramax Films label. The studio sold the remainder of the worldwide rights on the pic to UGC this year at the Cannes Film Festival.

----- ----- ----- ----- ----- -----

PEARSON BUYS MCA'S PUTNAM

By Martin Peers

NEW YORK (Variety) - Seagram Co.'s MCA Inc. completed negotiations to sell its book publishing unit Putnam Berkley Group to international media group Pearson for $336 million, Seagram and Pearson said Tuesday. By combining Putnam with its existing Penguin publishing unit, Pearson emerges as the second-biggest English-language trade book publisher in the world, and the third-largest in the U.S. The deal also brings such high-powered authors as Tom Clancy and Patricia Cornwell under the Penguin fold.

----- ----- ----- ----- ----- -----

DISNEY ACCOUNTS FOR 68% REV BOOST

By Martin Peers

NEW YORK (Variety) - A better performance from Walt Disney Co.'s studio and an accounting maneuver at ABC overcame the network's ratings malaise in the fourth quarter, which ended Sept. 30, enabling the Mouse House to report 27% higher profit of $336 million on 68% higher revenues of $5.27 billion. The quarterly result reflected the costs of buying ABC in February, showing sharply higher interest and goodwill charges. But Disney also reported profit and revenue figures recalculated as if it owned ABC last year, showing a much healthier 60% increase in net profit of $354 million.

----- ----- ----- ----- ----- -----

BOOST FOR MUSICLAND

HOLLYWOOD (Variety) - Execs at the Big Six record distributors are betting millions of dollars that Musicland can weather its current financial storm and not file for bankruptcy protection. Faced with the daunting prospect of losing the revenues generated by Musicland, the industry's biggest record retailer, the chiefs of distributors MCA's Uni, EMI's EMD, Polygram's PGD, Warner's WEA, Sony and BMG have separately agreed to extend extremely favorable credit terms to the chain and to stop collection on past-due invoices.

Reuters/Variety