BURBANK, Calif., Aug. 13 (UPI) -- NBC may have found a way to get some promotional advantage out of a CBS press release boasting of CBS' performance in the summer ratings.
The CBS announcement Thursday said: "CBS Unilaterally Declares: The Summer is Over! And We Win!"
In a bit of gamesmanship, Jeff Zucker, president of NBC Universal Television Group, congratulated CBS on its ratings success and endorsed what he called CBS' proposal that the start of the 2004-05 prime time season be moved up to Friday.
That, of course, is the first day of the network's Athens Olympics coverage.
"We will continue to abide by the official season start date as established by Nielsen Media Research in cooperation with all the major networks, as we always have," said Zucker. "But we can see advantages to CBS' declaration ... If Nielsen and the other networks agree to this new start date, NBC is behind it 100 percent."
The networks had agreed to a Sept. 20 start date for the upcoming prime time season. NBC will begin its premieres three weeks earlier, after its Olympics coverage ends Aug. 29.
