CBS Fall Premiere Schedule | Zucker Promotes Katie, the Brand | Nexstar Partners with ABC

CBS will open the 2011-2012 season on Monday, Sept. 19, highlighted by the special series debut of its new comedy, 2 Broke Girls, which premieres at a special time behind the season premiere of Two and a Half Men. CBS will launch the majority of its new and returning programming during premiere week (Sept. 19-25). Survivor premieres one week earlier (Wednesday, Sept. 14) for the ninth time in the past 10 seasons, and the comedies Mike & Molly (Monday, Sept. 26) and How to be a Gentleman (Thursday, Sept. 29) will debut one week later, reports TVbytheNumbers.

Jeff Zucker, former NBC Universal president and CEO, shed light on the in-the-works Katie Couric daytime program he's helping produce for ABC, saying the syndicated show will feature “the effervescent Today-era Couric and the hard news-minded anchor of more recent vintage,” reports Broadcasting & Cable. Zucker said Couric possesses one of the great brands in television - the rare individual who's identified by a first name alone.

Nexstar Broadcasting Group has entered into a long-term agreement with the ABC Television Network for nine of its owned or operated stations. The Nexstar owned ABC affiliated stations include KMID in Odessa-Midland, Texas; KSVI in Billings, Montana; WDHN in Dothan, Alabama; WJET in Erie, Pennsylvania; and KQTV in St. Joseph, Missouri. In addition to WFXW, the stations to which Nexstar provides services to include KAMC in Lubbock, Texas; WTVO in Rockford, Illinois; WUTR in Utica, New York; and KODE in Joplin, Missouri. As part of the agreement, Nexstar also announced that WFXW-TV in Terre Haute, Indiana will become that market’s ABC affiliate, launching as WAWV-TV on September 1, 2011.

Univision said that its Spanish-language coverage of Saturday night’s USA vs. Mexico final match – part of the 2011 CONCACAF Copa Oro (Gold Cup) – has broken records as the highest-rated primetime sports broadcast ever on Univision across all key demographics. Additionally, it was the top-rated Copa Oro tournament broadcast in the network’s history with approximately 20 million unduplicated viewers tuning in to some or all of Univision’s Copa Oro 2011 coverage through the semifinal game.

Three percent of pay-to-view customers report having "cut the cord" and canceling their television service in favor of other viewing options, according to the J.D. Power and Associates 2011 U.S. Residential Pay-to-View Study released today. While a minority of customers overall have canceled their cable television service, rates of cord-cutting vary significantly by generation, for example, 6% of Generation Y customers (ages 17-34) say they no longer subscribe to a residential television service, compared with only 2% of Baby Boomers (ages 47-65). 

Verizon FiOS and Music Choice announced that SWRV — an interactive music video network — has launched in all FiOS TV markets. The SWRV channel is available to FiOS TV Extreme HD and Ultimate HD customers nationwide on channel 1799. SWRV is currently available through providers including Cox Communications and AT& T U-verse.