Barca end the year on a high as Real lose
MADRID (Reuters) - Unbeaten La Liga leaders Barcelona ended 2012 on a high when Lionel Messi struck his 91st goal of the year in a 3-1 win at Real Valladolid while their arch-rivals Real Madrid slumped to a 3-2 defeat at Malaga.
It was the perfect tonic for Barca following the news that coach Tito Vilanova had to have throat surgery last Thursday.
The 44-year-old was released from hospital earlier on Saturday and was absent from Valladolid's Jose Zorrilla stadium as Barca racked up a record 16th win in 17 games this season.
Real's woes deepened after the stuttering champions suffered a second consecutive setback following last weekend's 2-2 draw at home to Espanyol.
Coach Jose Mourinho sprung a surprise by leaving captain and goalkeeper Iker Casillas on the bench and the defeat left Real 16 points adrift of Barca.
They are seven behind second-placed Atletico Madrid, who won 1-0 at home to Celta Vigo on Friday, and their lead over Malaga in fourth was cut to two points.
Mourinho told a post-match news conference Real were "facing an insurmountable gap" but dismissed a question about whether he feared for his job.
"Football is football, why should I fear for my job?" the Portuguese said.
"We coaches know perfectly well that football has no memory. The titles you have won don't count, the work you have done doesn't count.
"Losing always hurts but it hurts me more when you don't give what you are able to give.
"In the brief chat I had with the players I told them they can go home sad at losing but in the knowledge that they did their job to the best of their ability."
Barca have 49 points from 17 matches, a record for this stage of a La Liga campaign, and the only match they failed to win was a 2-2 draw at home to Real in October.
Atletico, resurgent under Argentine coach Diego Simeone, have 40, with Real on 33 and Malaga, who are coached by Mourinho's predecessor at Real, Manuel Pellegrini, on 31.
TRADEMARK RUN
Valladolid kept a dominant Barca at bay until two minutes before halftime when Messi, who earlier shook the frame of the goal with a free kick, played Jordi Alba through on the left and Xavi turned his low cross into the net.
Messi uncharacteristically fluffed a simple chance early in the second half but the Argentine World Player of the Year doubled Barca's lead in the 59th minute with a trademark run and finish.
Xavi's clever back heel set the Argentine on his way and Messi dinked the ball between a defender's legs before firing a low shot into the far corner.
It was his 26th La Liga goal of the campaign and his 91st of 2012, extending the calendar year record he broke earlier this month when he overhauled Gerd Mueller's 40-year-old mark of 85.
Javi Guerra pulled a goal back for Valladolid in the 89th minute before Cristian Tello added a third for Barca in added time moments after coming off the bench.
Barcelona's assistant coach Jordi Roura has taken charge on a temporary basis until Vilanova, who is starting a course of chemo- and radiotherapy, is well enough to return.
"We are on a good run and we had to make a final effort for the year to dedicate the win to Tito," Xavi told reporters.
"We should have killed off the game earlier by taking a three-goal lead so as not to suffer but they made it 2-1 in one of their few attacks," added the Spain midfielder.
Malaga goalkeeper Willy Caballero palmed a swerving Cristiano Ronaldo free kick onto the crossbar early in the match at the Rosaleda before Isco fired the home side ahead with a low shot from the edge of the area four minutes after the break.
A Sergio Sanchez own goal in the 66th minute brought Real level but two goals in quick succession from substitute Roque Santa Cruz left the visitors reeling.
Mesut Ozil made the most of a stray pass to set up Karim Benzema for Real's second eight minutes from time but Malaga held on for their first home win against the Madrid club in almost 30 years.
Real Betis, who are fifth, slipped three points behind Andalusian rivals Malaga with a 2-1 defeat at home to Real Mallorca.
Mallorca ended a run of nine defeats and three draws stretching back to the beginning of October and are 16th on 16 points.
Athletic Bilbao's erratic form continued when they lost 2-0 at home to Real Zaragoza, leaving last season's Europa League finalists in 13th on 21 points, a point behind Zaragoza in 12th.
The Kraken wakes: first images of giant squid filmed in deep ocean
TOKYO (Reuters) - A Japanese-led team of scientists has captured on film the world's first live images of a giant squid, journeying to the depths of the ocean in search of the mysterious creature thought to have inspired the myth of the "kraken", a tentacled monster.
The images of the silvery, three-metre (10 feet) long cephalopod, looming out of the darkness nearly 1 km below the surface, were taken last July near the Ogasawara islands, 1,000 km (620 miles) south of Tokyo.
Though the beast was small by giant squid standards - the largest ever caught stretched 18 metres long, tentacles and all - filming it secretly in its natural habitat was a key step towards understanding the animal, researchers said.
"Many people have tried to capture an image of a giant squid alive in its natural habitat, whether researchers or film crews. But they all failed," said Tsunemi Kubodera, a zoologist at Japan's National Museum of Nature and Science, who led the team.
"These are the first ever images of a real live giant squid," Kubodera said of the footage, shot by Japanese national broadcaster NHK and the Discovery Channel.
The key to their success, said Kubodera, was a small submersible rigged with lights invisible to both human and cephalopod eyes.
He, a cameraman and the submersible's pilot drifted silently down to 630 metres and released a one-metre-long squid as bait. In all, they descended around 100 times.
"If you try and approach making a load of noise, using a bright white light, then the squid won't come anywhere near you. That was our basic thinking," Kubodera said.
"So we sat there in the pitch black, using a near-infrared light invisible even to the human eye, waiting for the giant squid to approach."
As the squid neared they began to film, following it into the depths to around 900 metres.
"I've seen a lot of giant squid specimens in my time, but mainly those hauled out of the ocean. This was the first time for me to see with my own eyes a giant squid swimming," he said. "It was stunning, I couldn't have dreamt that it would be so beautiful. It was such a wonderful creature."
Until recently, little was known about the creature believed to be the real face of the mythical kraken, a sea-monster blamed by sailors for sinking ships off Norway in the 18th century.
But for Kubodera, the animal held no such terror.
"A giant squid essentially lives a solitary existence, swimming about all alone in the deep sea. It doesn't live in a group," he said. "So when I saw it, well, it looked to me like it was rather lonely."
With Kimmel move, ABC aims to copy morning success late at night
REUTERS - After toppling NBC's "Today" show in the morning show ratings for overall viewers for the first time in 16 years, ABC is now taking aim at NBC's iconic "Tonight Show" franchise.
The network, owned by the Walt Disney Co , launches on Tuesday evening its most ambitious - and riskiest - effort to grab a slice of television's late-night audience, moving "Jimmy Kimmel Live" to the 11:35 p.m. time slot and displacing the hour's top-rated show, news program "Nightline."
Pushing Kimmel's show to 11:35 p.m. from its usual midnight airing puts the popular and pudgy young host in direct competition with Jay Leno's "Tonight Show" on NBC and "The Late Show with David Letterman" on CBS Corp , not to mention Comedy Central's "The Colbert Report," hosted by Stephen Colbert.
Moving "Kimmel" earlier may help ABC capitalize on both advertiser demand for entertainment programming and provide a boost to its prime time schedule. Late-night shows, like morning news programs, are among the most profitable for networks because they cost less to produce. Their ratings are also steadier than prime time shows because there are fewer repeats.
The network calculus goes like this: Advertisers will pay higher rates for entertainment shows at that hour compared with news programs. Plus, more regular "Kimmel" viewers means more people will see promotions for ABC's prime time slate, driving a bigger audience there and potentially boosting the network's overall financial performance.
According to Jason Maltby, lead TV ad buyer at media buying firm Mindshare, late-night is one of "two areas where (ABC) can make more money." The other is early morning, where its "Good Morning America" usurped NBC's "Today" show in ratings.
"The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" currently leads the late-night broadcast comedy race with 3.4 million viewers on average, according to Nielsen. "The Late Show with David Letterman" pulls in 3.0 million, while "Jimmy Kimmel Live" grabs 1.9 million.
In 2011, companies spent $425.8 million to advertise during Leno, Letterman or Kimmel, according to the most recent yearly data from Kantar Media. Leno's show led the pack, grabbing $160.8 million. Letterman brought in $157.4 million, while Kimmel earned $107.7 million. "The Colbert Report," which runs for 30 minutes starting at 11:30 p.m., collected $41 million.
"Nightline," the 33-year-old newscast that began as a daily update during the 1980 Iran hostage crisis, actually draws more viewers than all of its entertainment-focused late-night competition, averaging 3.9 million viewers nightly. The 30-minute "Nightline" will move to 12:35 a.m. and also will air in a new one-hour prime time slot on Fridays.
Although "Nightline" attracts more viewers than "Kimmel," ABC says switching the two shows will allow it to secure higher ad rates, known as cost-per-thousand viewers or CPMs, because advertisers prefer an entertainment audience over a news audience at 11:35 p.m.
YOUNGER AUDIENCE
At 45, Kimmel is two decades younger than Leno, 62, and Letterman, 65. ABC believes that fact coupled with his younger, tech-savvy audience will make his show more appealing to advertisers. The network's marketing blitz features ads with the tagline: "Younger. Smarter. Funnier. Earlier." Kimmel has been making the media interview rounds and exposed his butt crack for a Rolling Stone magazine cover story.
"Jimmy attracts a really fantastic demo," ABC Entertainment President Paul Lee said in an interview. "He will start to make the audience younger and, because it is entertainment, he will bring in higher CPMs."
Maltby agrees, saying Kimmel's show gives ABC "the opportunity to get a larger audience, which means more revenue."
Kimmel is kicking off the time shift with big-name guests, including Jennifer Aniston and Ryan Gosling. The comedian said he will continue to experiment with new segments on his show, but he does not plan any changes based on the earlier start.
"It will pretty much be the same show that we've been doing," he told reporters during a December 19 conference call.
Advertisers will watch Kimmel's ratings over the next few weeks to see if the initial audience sampling generated from the hype leads to viewers sticking with the show, said Jackie Kulesza, video activation director for Starcom USA.
NBC executives expected initial interest in Kimmel's move to impact Leno's ratings, although they declined to be specific.
"The reason we're not that concerned is because of Jay's legacy all these years," NBC Entertainment Chairman Robert Greenblatt said at a Television Critics Association meeting.
With the "Nightline" move, "there's going to be some viewers freed up and I'm not sure they're going to go to Jimmy Kimmel necessarily."
ABC OVERALL
As it shuffles the late-night schedule, ABC is experiencing mixed results in other time periods. "Good Morning America," the network's marquee morning show, knocked NBC's "Today" show from the top ratings spot it held for 16 years. In 2012's fourth quarter, "Good Morning America" ranked No. 1 with an average of 5.1 million viewers, ahead of the 4.6 million for "Today," according to ABC.
It is unclear how the ratings victory has impacted the "Today" show's historic lead in the race for morning-show ad dollars. The first two hours of "Today," from 7 a.m. to 9 a.m., collected $278 million in ad revenue in the first half of 2012, according to Kantar Media. "GMA" took in $167 million during that time period. Full 2012 data is not yet available.
In prime time, ABC is staring at a year-over-year ratings decline that also hit rivals CBS and Fox in the fall.
ABC's prime time lineup fell 6 percent among viewers 18 to 49, the age group prized by advertisers, according to Nielsen measurements of viewing on the day a show airs. CBS dropped 13 percent and Fox slumped 23 percent. NBC, boosted by "Sunday Night Football" and singing competition "The Voice," gained 22 percent.
From the start of the fall season through the end of 2012, ABC and Fox were roughly tied for third place among broadcasters, with an average of 3 million viewers each based on same-day viewing.
During the fall, ABC canceled new dramas "666 Park Avenue" and "Last Resort." The network ordered full seasons of alien comedy "The Neighbors" and musical drama "Nashville."
Lee noted that ABC finished first among 18- to 49-year-olds for non-sports programming on a ratings measurement known as C3, which captures viewers who watch a recorded show and its commercials within three days. C3 is the metric advertisers use when they buy and sell commercial time.
"We did what we were trying to do," Lee said. "We were number one in C3 for entertainment."
This week, ABC will highlight upcoming mid-season shows in front of reporters at a Television Critics Association meeting. They include drama "Zero Hour" starring Anthony Edwards and "Red Widow," about a woman who hunts for the truth behind her husband's death. (Reporting By Lisa Richwine in Los Angeles and Liana Baker in New York; Editing by Peter Lauria and Andre Grenon)