AVENUE Q & WCBS-TV team up for AVENUE Q/CBS2 promos

WCBS-TV and the Tony Award-winning musical AVENUE Q have teamed up to create a series of three promotional spots that highlight the addition of veteran New York news anchor Jim Ryan to the station's "CBS 2 News This Morning," with the promos airing beginning Sept. 12, 2005.

CBS 2 and the smash hit musical previously collaborated on promotional spots last year -- coining the phrase "Avenue 2" -- after AVENUE Q won three 2004 Tony Awards, including Best Musical. That unprecedented collaboration represented the first time that a local station and a Broadway musical joined forces to create a thoroughly original promotional spot for television news.

The latest promotional spots, which set new lyrics to the AVENUE Q theme song, feature a mix of the CBS 2 News anchors Crew Mario Bosquez, Shon Gables, Dave Price and Jim Ryan, as well as their puppet likenesses, along with the puppet characters Kate Monster, Nicky and Rod from the hit Broadway musical AVENUE Q.

Jim Ryan, a mainstay on Channel 5's "Good Day New York" morning newscast for several years, left the Fox station in May, and begins his full time assignment on WCBS-TV starting Sept. 19. "CBS 2 News This Morning" airs weekdays from 5 to 7 a.m.

AVENUE Q recently began its third year on Broadway at the Golden Theatre. A second production of the musical opened Sept. 8, 2005 at WYNN LAS VEGAS. AVENUE Q has music and lyrics by Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx, book by Jeff Whitty, and is directed by Jason Moore. Its puppet characters, as well as the puppet likenesses of the CBS 2 News Crew, were designed and built by Rick Lyon.

WCBS-TV is part of the Viacom Television Stations Group, which consists of 21 CBS, 16 UPN, one WB and two stations not affiliated with major networks.

For more information about AVENUE Q in New York and Las Vegas, log on to www.avenueq.com