Tonys Register Lackluster Ratings

TELEVISION

Even “The Producers” couldn’t produce a ratings winner for the Tonys. Sunday’s two-hour awards show on CBS continued its tradition of anemic Nielsens, despite enormous interest in the smash Broadway musical “The Producers,” which was nominated for a record-breaking 15 awards and won a record 12 during the evening. CBS’ telecast averaged about 9.1 million viewers, based on preliminary estimates available Monday. If that number holds up when final ratings are issued today, it will represent a 7% increase over last year’s Tonys, about on par with 1999 viewing levels. Both ABC, with “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire” and “The Practice,” and NBC, with basketball playoffs and “Weakest Link,” beat CBS.

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Fox Hunts for Summer Audience

Fox has announced a revised summer lineup that includes two new series and the move of “Dark Angel” and “Titus” into the time slots they are scheduled to occupy in the fall. “Night Visions,” a macabre anthology series that was initially penciled in for last fall, will air Thursdays beginning July 12, with the show to follow “Guinness World Records: Primetime” after a two-hour premiere. The network will also launch an unscripted mystery series, “Murder in Small Town X”--with contestants trying to solve a fictional murder--on Tuesdays the following week. “Titus” and “Dark Angel” move to Tuesdays and Fridays, respectively, in mid-July, with the former to be followed by original episodes of the animated comedy “Family Guy,” which will be shifting to Thursday nights in the fall.

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‘Gilligan’s Island’ Revisited

Three members of the original cast of the 1960s sitcom “Gilligan’s Island”--Bob Denver (Gilligan), Dawn Wells (Mary Ann) and Russell Johnson (the professor)--are reuniting for a TV movie, “Surviving Gilligan’s Island: The Incredibly True Story of the Longest Three-Hour Tour in History.” CBS describes the movie as a “re-creation of pivotal events that took place during production of the series.”

POP / ROCK

Ike Turner Hopes for Comeback

Ike Turner hopes his new album, “Here and Now,” will once again popularize the kind of rhythm and blues music he grew up on. “What you call R&B; music of today, that’s one kind of R&B;, but that’s not the R&B; of my era,” said the musician, who’s best known as half of the legendary duo Ike & Tina Turner. “If you go across the radio real slow, you will not find a station that’s playing R&B; music unless you find a station that’s oldies but goodies. In other words, it’s like everything stopped.” “Here and Now” is Turner’s first record in 23 years. Turner said it took him so long to make it because he was afraid to perform solo after Tina Turner left him. Turner is now on a nationwide tour.

THE ARTS

Young Opera Singers Win Awards

The 10 finalists for the annual Loren L. Zachary Society National Vocal Competition for Young Opera Singers were awarded cash prizes totaling more than $42,000 at the Wilshire-Ebell Theatre in Los Angeles on Sunday. New York tenor John Matz won the top prize of $12,000, and soprano Julie Makerov of Los Angeles took second place for $9,000. Garrett Sorenson, a tenor from Texas, won the third-place prize of $5,000. Mark McCrory, a bass-baritone from Chicago, was awarded $5,000; Burak Bilgili, a bass from Philadelphia, won $3,000, and soprano Mirjam Tola received $2,000. Each of the four remaining finalists took home $1,000 apiece.

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Van Cliburn Piano Finalists Named

The six finalists in the 11th Van Cliburn International Piano Competition have been named. Following the final round of the competition, beginning Wednesday, the winners will be announced Sunday at the awards ceremony. Competing in the finals are pianists Stanislav Ioudenitch of Uzbekistan, Olga Kern of Russia, Oleksiy Koltatov of Ukraine, Maxim Philippov of Russia, Antonio Pompa-Baldi of Italy and Wang Xiaohan of China. The three top medalists will receive cash awards of $20,000 and a commercial recording from Harmonia Mundi, U.S.A. The other three will be awarded $10,000 each.

QUICK TAKES

Timothy Busfield, who plays a reporter on “The West Wing,” has joined Judge Reinhold and Penelope Ann Miller in the TBS original movie “Dead in a Heartbeat,” which will air in the first part of 2002. . . . Actor-director Billy Bob Thornton will release a country music album titled “Private Radio” this September. Some songs are dedicated to his wife, Angelina Jolie. . . . Michael J. Fox, who left the ABC sitcom “Spin City” last year for health reasons, will make a guest appearance next season. . . . NBC says it will be the first network to broadcast its entire daytime schedule with closed-captioned translations in Spanish on July 9.