This week’s weekly TV report from April 30th, 2009 chats a little about Chuck’s sandwich run, the probable return of Fringe, a new character for Burn Notice and how Harper’s Island is not only sinking, but moving – much like the island on Lost!  We’ve also got some syndication news on My Own Worst Enemy, Knight Rider and Dollhouse.  Yep, syndication news on Dollhouse.  That can’t be good.  Read on folks!

Chuck Takes Fans To Subway

Though they feel they’re currently on the good side of the ratings / cancel bubble, the cast of Chuck are still trying to take care of their sponsors.

While the cast was attending a Starfury convention T1 event in Birmingham, U.K., a fan suggested they try to help the show by supporting a sponsor, in this case, Subway. Zachary Levi and Adam Baldwin (who else would have done this?) then asked those in attendance if they’d follow them to a local Subway. Sure enough, they ended up leading about 400 convention attendees to the poor beleaguered sandwich shop. That would have sucked to be the guy behind the counter when this unruly gang showed up!

Zachary even got behind the counter and helped out until the very last customer was taken care of. Some headlines said they treated the fans, but I think they meant treated fans to their company.  Not treated as in buying them sandwiches.

Now we wait and see if Chuck gets renewed. But we need to keep something in mind: because NBC is cutting hours out of the prime-time schedule to make room for Jay Leno’s show, it’s hard to say what show is safe and not safe.  We can only hope for Chuck to make the grade.

Source: End Of Show

Fringe Will Probably Be Back

If J.J. Abrams has anything to say about it, Fringe will be back for a second season. In fact he said so! No, there’s no official word, but he’s talking as if he knows something, so there’s that. As it stands, he says they have some pretty dynamic stuff in store for a second season.

On an interesting note, Abrams admitted that he has very little to do ABC’s Lost at this point in time and that it’s all Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse and Jack Bender who are doing a spectacular job.

Sidenote: Though Fox will air 22 episodes of Fringe, they’ve shot 23, because Fox originally bought 23 episodes. We can expect the see the 23rd episode next season.  Does this almost sound familiar or what (the mysterious Dollhouse 13th episode)?

Fringe season 1 finale is on May 12th.

Source: Sci Fi WIre

Dollhouse, Knight Rider and My Own Worst Enemy to Sci-Fi

It’s being reported that Dollhouse, Knight Rider and My Own Worst Enemy are all headed to syndication mode over on the Sci-Fi Channel.  But before anyone gets their hopes up, it’s the Sci-Fi in the UK, so UK readers rejoice.

To be honest, when Sci-Fi picks up another network show, that is because it has usually gone into repeat mode and it won’t have any new episodes.

I wonder if Fox letting Sci-Fi get the rights for UK distribution of Dollhouse is some kind of death knell for the Joss Whedon project?  Typical… welcome to Friday, say goodnight Gracie.

Source:  Digital Spy, Digital Spy,

Burn Notice Gets A New Character

The cast of Burn Notice got a new character whose name is Tom Strickler. He’s a smooth talking freelance spy broker who says he has the ability to cancel Michael’s burn notice.

Strickler will be played by Ben Shenkman and is slated for at least 4 episodes and he will show up in mid-season.

Burn Notice is slated to return for its 3rd season in mid-June.

PS: Don’t forget, not only are we getting a 3rd season, but USA Network (NBC Owned) had renewed the show for 2 seasons, so we have a 4th season coming next year!

Source: Entertainment Weekly

Harper’s Island Moved to Saturday Nights

Ratings aren’t backing up the weekly escapades of a frenzied mystery killer on Harper’s Island. Because no one is buying into it, the show is getting pushed to the second-worst night of the week and that’s Saturday (seeing as how Fox has Friday night all squared away and all).

But CBS is quick to point out that the 7-day playback ratings are good outside Harper’s Island’s Thursday night air time. Are those studio execs good at attempted spin, or what? The last pick-up truck I rolled and destroyed, the radio still worked!  See?  I could work for CBS.

Starting May 2nd, Harper’s Island will be on at 9PM and will be the lead-in for 48 Hours Mystery on CBS.

Source: CBS Press

ABC’s Renewed Shows

ABC has announced their list of shows that are coming back next year. To be thorough, I’m adding everything, though I cringe at some of it.

The shows renewed for the 2009 – 2010 season are:

Lost, Ugly Betty and others. Oh… I said thorough, didn’t I? They’ll also be bringing back America’s Funniest Home Videos, The Bachelor, (Because on-air break ups are all the rage these days.) Brothers & Sisters, Dancing with the Stars, Desperate Housewives, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, Grey’s Anatomy, Private Practice, Supernanny, and Wife Swap. (I can’t help but think interesting thoughts with that last show title. Sorry.)

Source: ABC

Is Fox Making A Political Statement?

On Wednesday, Fox Broadcasting Company did not air President Obama’s Wednesday nights news conference. They’re opted to air Lie To Me and their bread winning reality show, the results episode of American Idol.

It was an interesting bit of gamble and social statement and sadly, the social statement was surprising as ratings between the shows were comparably even.

Wow – reality TV trumps the President.  But then, it is Fox.  (Note: The CW never breaks for presidential telecasts.)

Source: TV Guide, E Online

Weekly Ratings Reported

The usual shows sat in the top 10 slots yet again. CSI stayed strong. Last week the repeat (R) of Criminal Minds sat in 19th and the new episode popped into 6th.

NCIS held on to a top 10 spot, though this week’s the episode introduced it’s cast / team for it’s new spin-off show. Did anyone catch it? What did you think. I’m betting it’s in the top 5 in next week’s chart.

Lost lost it and dropped to 43rd from last week’s 28th spot. I think people are getting tired of non-linear stories.  But this weeks episode was pretty decent in my opinion…  oh, they stayed fairly linear this week.  Sort of.

Castle popped up 8 spots to 32nd while Southland surprisingly faded from 25 to 34th. Harper’s Island keeps sliding down the chart, now sitting in 41st, while Heroes slid down to 49th. What is up with that?

Chuck held steady, while Smallville moved up from 83rd to 75th. Supernatural held fast while Dollhouse and Prison Break are still suffering the Friday night slot.

Look for your favorite show in the list below and tell us your thoughts on the different issues at hand here this week!

• TV Renewal And Cancellation Notes To Date
• Weekly TV Wrap Up – June 25, 2009
• Weekly TV Wrap Up – May 21st, 2009
• Weekly TV Wrap Up – May 7th 2009
• Weekly TV Wrap Up – March 19th, 2009
• Weekly TV Update – April 23rd, 2009

It’s Thursday and I hope that April 15th didn’t treat you too harshly yesterday. Whether it did or not, I’m still here to razz or rant on some stuff that’s happening in and around the tube.

Stargate Universe

As if this is a surprise to Stargate fans, but Stargate Universe will be having a few notable guest stars in the form of a few veterans reprising their Stargate SG-1 roles.

Yep, you read that right.

We’ll be seeing Richard Dean Anderson, Amanda Tapping, Michael Shanks and Gary Jones reprising their roles we’ve come to love over the years. Additonally, we’re going to see Christopher McDonald (U.S. senator Alan Armstrong), Janelle Monáe (plays herself. She and her band will perform) and Carlo Rota (Carl Strom, head of the International Oversight Advisory) will also make an appearance.

If this is anything like the way Stargate Atlantis started, we’ll see them in one quick scene, making it an official Stargate send off. I can’t imagine anything else, unless there’s a holodeck on the Ancient’s ship.

Stargate Universe stars Robert Carlyle, Lou Diamond Phillips and Ming-Na and is set to premiere on SCI FI in October with a special two-hour episode.

Source: SciFi Wire

Southland

Southland is a new crime drama show that takes the place of ER on Thursdays. It came in pretty strong with just under 10 million viewers for it’s premiere episode last week. I think this show may just play well into this time slot. I plan on watching it some more because I found it compelling. Did you?

24

Not to give much away for the time-shifted viewers but I thought the last episode of 24 brought some emotion to Jack’s life and a real twister of an ending. What a mind blowing twist of scenes.

If anyone saw it and wants to express their thoughts, try not to leave any spoilers please. (It’s hard, I know.)

The Sarah Connor Chronicles

Normally, this is where I might speak about the last episode of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, since they had their season finale. But we need more space to touch on some issues, so stay tuned and keep your eyes peeled for my upcoming article on the show. I’ll just say this for now: The season finale drew in approximately 3.6 million viewers.

I apologize for the tease.

Harper’s Island

Harper’s Island is a murder mystery drama and that reference isn’t the best draw for some folks. Yet being brought to us by Jerry Turtletaub (Jericho) not only gives it some merit, I believe it’s evident in the show. There’s great character interaction and mystery upon mystery leveled at us like layers of an onion.

With that noted, Harper’s Island premiered 20th on our charts with just over 10 million viewers clocking in to watch it. I found it entertaining enough that the hour flew by for me pretty fast and I was surprised it went so fast.

Did Anyone else catch this show? Have any thoughts?

Damages

Dang. I just got around to watching the last 2 episodes of Damages.

The flash forwards and flash backs throughout the season set me up for some premises I thought I had. Yet they artfully sidestepped everything and took us down a very entertaining path. That last episode moved at a pace that was complimentary to the writing throughout the season. It was one surprise after the other.

Another season, well done for Damages. I am hoping they return for another season.

Smallville

In case you’re wondering where new episodes of Smallville are, well, you’ve come to the right place.

It’s just taking a break and new episodes will be returning on April 23rd.

Leno on NBC in Boston

Remember that NBC Affiliate that said it wasn’t going to air the new Jay Leno primetime show because it was going to be “adverse to their finances?”

After NBC made a statement about pulling their affiliation from the station, they’ve had a change of heart.

WHDH-TV owner Ed Ansin said recently that “upon further consideration,” they will air Jay Leno’s program at 10 pm/ET beginning in September.

Well, that didn’t last long.

Source: THR

Friday Night Lights

Time Shitfted Viewing Light Spoilers.

Friday Night Lights came to season close last week.  Man, I think coach got the shaft from the rich brat dad using his influence to get what he wants or that he was getting revenge for getting turned in to child protective services.  It’s killing me.

Now, as you can see, Coach is going to have his job cut out for him.  What a drastic change of venue.  I’m betting this new job only has one football from the looks of that tattered field.

Trust Me

If you were a Trust Me fan, I hope you weren’t too hooked on it.

Despite TNT confusing me and calling it a “creative success,” TNT pulled the plug on the show last Friday.

Trust Me starred Eric McCormack and Tom Cavanagh as creative executives at the imaginary agency and it just didn’t catch on, averaging only 1.4 million viewers per episode.

I so did not want to tell me wife this news. She’s a big Cavanagh fan.

Source: NY Times

Ratings

Below are network ratings from the week of April 6th to April 12th:

As you can see, American idol dominated. What’s new? NCIS performed consistently with just over 17 million viewers and CSI did well with just over 16 million viewers. The action adventure platform known as 24 pulled in just over 10 million viewers.

The most viewed premiere of the week was Surviving Suburbia with 11+ million viewers, then Harper’s Island with just over 10 million pairs of eyeballs. Southland premiered 3rd amongst premieres with just under 10 million viewers, but I feel like it’s capable of more and will probably do more. We’re still in withdrawal from ER.

NBC’s Parks and Recreation premiered in the middle of the pack as did The Unusuals, both with around 6.8 million viewers.

For me, I tried watching The Unusuals premiere episode. It just didn’t draw me in. In fact I had just watched Southland and I turned of The Unusuals about 20 minutes in. I gave it a 2nd try last night. I didn’t turn it off, but it just felt lacking to me. I might gel with other folks but I just don’t see Amber Tamblyn (Joan Of Arcadia) as a cop. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg on this one, so I’ll be nice and say no more.

Rating Numbers via TV By The Numbers.

• Stargate Universe Premiere Overnight Rating Numbers
• Stargate Universe 2nd Episode Ratings Improve
• Weekly TV Wrap Up – April 30th, 2009
• Weekly TV Wrap Up – May 21st, 2009
• Ratings: ‘Smallville’ Flying High, ‘FlashForward’ Losing Viewers
• Weekly TV Wrap Up – April 2nd, 2009

You get a wedding invite and decide to go and partake in the festivities and food. What could go wrong?

Bad question, especially if you’re going to Harper’s Island.

Jon Turtletaub (Jericho) is behind the project and that gives it a bit of hope. I’ve seen the first episode and I didn’t go “bleh!” It was put together well and had fantastic amount of eye candy. It kept me curious.

The pitch for the show is “Harper’s Island: 13 Weeks. 25 Suspects. 1 Killer.”

There is a youthful air to the cast: Elaine Cassidy, Christopher Gorham, Katie Cassidy (The first Ruby from Supernatual), Cameron Richardson and C.J. Thomason just to name a few. I was pleasantly surprised to see Harry Hamlin, Richard Burgi and Jim Beaver (Bobby from Supernatural) in it also.

As it goes, in each of the 13 weeks someone croaks is murdered by someone else’s hand. It’s a murder mystery set to keep you guessing! I am looking forward to it and maybe we can get some debate going on who we think did it.

I’m taking the first punch at it and saying the butler did it! Come on. He takes everyone’s crap. It must be building to the point of going postal. I really have no clue, but I figured someone was going to say that. It might as well be me.

They also have an interactive site called Harper’s Globe. Harper’s Globe has videos, photos and blogs that are setup on a social network where you can chat with the hapless victims characters and partake in the story.  CBS has also set up some guessing games on the website for the show.

Harper’s Island premieres Thursday, April 9th, 10/9c on CBS.

• WonderCon 2009 – Harper’s Island Panel Preview
• Weekly TV Wrap Up – April 30th, 2009
• Weekly TV Wrap Up – April 16th, 2009
• 2009 CBS Fall TV Line Up: No ‘Eleventh Hour’
• Heroes Lite: Less Viewers Means Fewer Episodes
• Status Update: Facebook Movie Gets the Green Light

When I first heard of Harper’s Island, I didn’t give it much thought. In fact I might have dissed it in a previous post on the TV seasons. Yet let’s take a look at the minds behind the show: Executive producer Jeffrey Bell (Angel, The X Files) and co-exec producers Dan Shotz and Karim Zreik (Jericho).  I have to give pause one moment and wonder anew about this show. Some of the cast includes Katie Cassidy (Supernatural), Christopher Gorham (Jake 2.0, Ugly Betty) and Elaine Cassidy. I was also surprised to see Harry Hamlin and Richard Burgi in it. Oh, and Jim Beaver plays the town sheriff. That’s Bobby Singer from Supernatural!

The show doesn’t air until April 9th and runs through to July 2nd, but last Sunday we were treated to the entire first episode of Harper’s Island and I have to say I was actually engaged by the opening set up for the show.

It’s about a wedding party between the awesome hot rich girl Trish Wellington (Katie Cassidy) and a regular Joe kind of guy, Henry (Christopher Gorham). The party is loading up on a boat in Seattle headed to Harper’s Island. From a guys point of view, the show is loaded with some pretty nice eye candy. I think CBS is playing to its older audience.

In the episode, we aren’t that far along when the first murder takes place.

A party goer drops their empty beer bottle into the water. We follow the bottle down and we find ourselves looking at a man tied to the propeller shaft of the boat. He’s been given scuba gear so he can experience this moment, which I find to be a lot of work to kill someone, and yet, it appeals to a certain part of me. Poor guy. Gets himself a role on a new show, and only lasts about a minute!

Anyway, the boat shoves off and no one notices the splotch of red water behind the boat and victim No. 1 is down for the count.

It’s a 13 week series and we’re told that people drop like flies except for the main characters. By the end of the 13 weeks, only a few are left. Meanwhile, we have to ponder who in the wedding party or which island local is the murderer.  From the boat murder, I’d think it was a party goer.  But that’s just my first wild stab at this.

Despite my original aversion, I want to look at this as a possible mystery show that will keep us guessing about who the killer is and if possible, will keep us interested in the outcome with tangible clues and misdirects. We know we love misdirects. It keeps us on our toes.

Unfortunately, yours truly had to run to catch a train and I missed the panel with Katie Cassidy. Trust me, I’m real unhappy about that, but it was a real surprise treasure of an intro episode. Now we get to start a ‘who’s the murder suspect‘ post!

Note: In my limited exposure to the panel, I did not see mention of Jon Turtletaub (Jericho) at WonderCon, but the CBS website has a video of him extolling the virtues of the show and they have him labeled as the Executive Producer of Harper’s Island.  You do the math.  This could be cool.

• Harper’s Island: Interesting Concept, But Will It Work?
• Weekly TV Wrap Up – April 16th, 2009
• Weekly TV Wrap Up – April 30th, 2009
• Fox’s ‘Human Target’ – Trailer And Discussion
• WonderCon 2009 – Star Trek Panel
• Comic-Con Schedule For Sunday, July 26th