It’s Thursday. That means another round of news from the TV landscape. This week, I’ve got some conjecture and observations with the occasional possible SPOILER in place.

There are some new shows coming up this weekend, some Dollhouse noise, Law and Order cast updates, Dr. Who tidbits and observations or questions about Life On Mars, ER and other shows. And FYI, my ratings aren’t missing: I’ve moved the ratings section down towards the bottom of the post, right before my zany entries of the week!

Primeval

Primeval is starting up this Friday night on the Sci-Fi Channel. The ads look interesting enough. Anybody seen it? Anything you want to say about it? Without spoilers of course!

Sanctuary

For the Sanctuary fan, season 2 of Sanctuary has started filming, according to the Sci-Fi press release!

Fringe (SPOILERS Where Noted!)

Fringe returned this past Tuesday, and is sticking around for 6 straight episodes. Anyone been noticing “The Observer” making rounds on different shows? I’ve seen him on the NASCAR telecast in Jimmie Johnson’s pit, and on American Idol. I’m sure he’s in other shows, but those are where I’ve seen him so far. Have you spotted him anywhere?

Cast SPOILER Warning:

It’s been reported that Leanord Nimoy will be making a guest appearance on the finale of Fringe as the infamous William Bell, Walter’s science partner from back in the day!

Story Outline SPOILER

Upcoming eps of Fringe will be answering some questions, like what were the experiments on Olivia as a child; Peter’s “medical condition” and what the pattern means for Olivia and the Bishops on a personal level.

Sweet. A show that says it will answer questions, and then does. Can’t beat that!

Source: E Online

Dollhouse

Ratings for Dollhouse are slipping, slowly but surely, and that bites for Joss Whedon fans because the show finally feels like it’s starting to get it’s legs under it.  Well, to be more precise, it’s starting to feel like a product Whedon himself would put out, as opposed to the Fox network controlled issues we’ve seen so far.

Here are the official ratings for Dollhouse thusfar:

• Ep 1 – Ghost: 4.76m,
• Ep 2 – Target: 4.25m,
• Ep 3 – Stage Fright: 4.18m,
• Ep 4 – Gray Hour: 3.57m,
• Ep 5 – True Believer: 4.26m,
• Ep 6 – Man on the Street : 4.1m,
• Ep 7 – Echoes : 3.87m,
• Ep 8 – Needs: 3.49m

A sliding scale, yet I enjoy what the LA Times had to say about the treatment of the show by Fox and its subsequent ratings slide:

We blame Fox for the misstep, and for burying it on a Friday. It’s a real pity viewers haven’t had the patience to keep up.

Another oddity about Dollhouse is that TV By The Numbers was looking up some data for Dollhouse and they’ve noticed that Fox listed the May 8th episode of Dollhouse as the season finale. This is only the 12th episode aired. Admittedly, it’s more than the original 7 episodes that Fox initially agreed to way back when.  Yet earlier, Fox had stated that they would be airing all 13 episodes filmed.  I’m starting to want to type bad words at this point, so that’s all I’m going to say about this.

Sources: Whedonesque, LA Times, TV By The Numbers

Law & Order Cast And Cash Problems

Rumors were abound when I wrote that there’s a possibility that Mariska Hargitay and Chris Meloni on Law & Order: SVU, may find themselves replaced.

The show has been renewed for an 11th season, but the two are banding together to ask for more money. Beside the $350k per episode wage they get, they’re also asking for back-end profits. Dudes, don’t go the Friends route!

While many don’t think NBC would dare retool their No. 1 scripted show (now that ER is done), Dick Wolf just says that he hopes they return next season.

This economy is not the best time to be pushing for more money when other networks are cutting costs, including actor salaries. Then again, Hargitay and Meloni definitely have NBC over a barrel. This should be interesting.  They better hope some of the newer shows replacing ER don’t pull their weight, or their bargaining chips are going to be thin.  Real thin.

Source: EW

Dr. Who

For the consummate Dr. Who fan, there will be a Dr. Who Season 3 marathon this Friday on The Sci-Fi Channel!

The fun starts at 8 AM with Smith and Jones, then followed by The Shakespeare Code, Gridlock, Daleks In Manhattan – pt1, Evolution Of The Daleks – pt 2, Human Nature – pt 1, The Family Of Blood – pt 2 and finishing up at 3 PM with Blink.

Source: SciFi.com

Lost (Slight Time-Shifted SPOILER)

So far on Lost, there’s a lot of “The island controls your life” chatter going on.  Last night, Ben confronted the smoke monster.  Smokey showed Ben his own demons and gave him a new set of running orders.

Though it hasn’t been explained, I’m starting to think I know what the smoke monster is, and for that matter, what the island is.

Does anyone else have any thoughts about the underlying premise of the island?  Or is it just a vengeful version of Gilligan’s Island?

Jay Leno Is Not Wanted?

We have one of TV’s talk show icons ready to air their new show on your network, in your region. Wouldn’t you think that Jay Leno just might rank as a watchable show? For some, no question. For others, it’s “eh?.”

The Boston NBC affiliates think it’s “eh,” apparently. WHDH-TV is opting to air their 10 O’Clock newscast instead of the Jay Leno’s new talk show! They don’t feel Leno is going to be effective in prime time and say it will hurt their 11 O’Clock hour to air Leno.

NBC itself has said that this move is in violation of the affiliate’s agreement with NBC. If WHDH persists, they are going to have their NBC affiliation pulled. Ouch!! And they thought running the show was going to hurt!?

WHDH-TV has until September to change their mind. That’s when the new Leno show will air.

As far as his show goes, Leno says he hopes everything will work out in the end!

About his new show, Leno added:

We will probably lose the couch and the desk and just do more things. We’ll still have celebrities. There will still be a monologue, the stuff that works, headlines, and Jaywalking.

He can probably do his own headline about the NBC affiliate!

Source: TV Guide, Boston.com

Life On Mars (Incredibly mild, alluded SPOILER)

For those of you who watched it, did the Life On Mars finale work for you? Some things made more sense finally, and I can’t say it was a let down, but I didn’t have a great revelation either.

At least the title now makes sense!

ER

The ER finale hit it out of the park, as far as finale ratings go!

ER brought in just over 16 million viewers which is the largest number of viewers for any drama series finale since the Murder She Wrote finale in 1996.

I didn’t find the episode too incredible, but it was on par with what they usually produce. I enjoyed the closing scene when they panned back so we could see the panorama of the entrance, now that was pretty cool.

Source: NBC Press Release

Mekhi Phifer Fans

Mekhi Phifer (Dr. Pratt, ER) has booked a multi-episode story on Lie To Me. He’ll be playing FBI agent Ben Reynolds.

I really liked Phifer and was bummed to see him leave ER so early on in the closing season.

Source: TV Guide

ABC Using Saturday Nights To Close Out Some Shows

ABC is using Saturday nights to close out the random collection of shows they’ve preempted this season for other ventures.

These shows are Pushing Daisies, Eli Stone and Dirty Sexy Money.

Pushing Daisies will resume Saturday, May 30, at 10 pm/ET. After that, Eli Stone will air on Saturdays at 10 pm from June 20 through July 11. Starting July 18, Dirty Sexy Money will air until the August 8th finale and the reveal of Dutch George’s killer.

Source: TV Guide

Ratings From The Week Of March 30th to April 5th

Up until now, I’ve been pulling numbers from various locations and squishing them together in one place. I found a spot, a single spot, with all the numbers we are interested in. I am going to start compiling those statistics here, but this week we are going to have a little bit of an overlap because of the way they track them. Starting next week, we’ll have new numbers for you. There’s still some new stuff in this list this week, and the list has grown a wee bit.  Oh, you’ll be proud of me.  I finally got Lost in there!

The strongest scripted show in the list is NCIS, coming in 4th overall.  ER & CSI also made it into the top 10.  NCAA Basketball only took one top 10 spot, and of course, American Idol ruled the roost, followed by Dancing With The Stars and those tight, minuscule dancing outfits.

Source: TV By The Numbers

The “YOU’VE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!?” Section

Every week something comes along that makes my jaw drop and wonder just what were they thinking.

Octomom

G4 TV is reporting that the Octomom, Nadya Suleman, the mom who can’t seem to get enough of children, and who originally said that putting her kids on TV would be exploitation, is well in the works for a reality television show.

They’re going to follow her around with her 14-strong brood, chronicling her attempts at finding “love.”  The count is 14 because she already had 6 when she went for her procedure to have another baby, which ended in 8.

The TV Network picking this up is “undisclosed” at the moment. Hmm. Are we betting people? Fox? Sci-Fi? MTV?

Source: G4

Fox Hits A New Tasteless High

Someone’s Gotta Go is a reality / contest show where people get laid off. Fox reps say they were inspired by the recession for this idea! Can you believe this crap?

It’s about real businesses struggling to make ends meet. The only twist is that co-workers will vote the laid-off person out. Can we say The Apprentice?

Regardless, give me a f@#$ing break! Do you (Fox) have no better sense of empathy for folks suffering through this economy than to mock them like this!? To make an entertainment venue out of misfortune? The title sucks, the inspiration sucks and well, you, the reader, can fill in the blanks, ’cause I’m done with this one.

Source: TV Guide

Let us know what’s on your mind or if you have any questions about shows you would like us to look up, leave us a spoiler / spam free comment and we’ll see what we can do!

Until next week!

• Weekly TV Wrap Up – April 30th, 2009
• Fox Fall TV Premiere Dates & Times
• FOX To Air All 13 Episodes of Dollhouse
• Friday Night Ratings: Dollhouse & Smallville
• NBC 2009 Fall Premiere Dates Announced
• Weekly TV Wrap Up – March 19th, 2009

It was a busy news week for some big shows and some other shows that aren’t so big… so let’s get on with the tidbits of news!

NBC’s Day One

NBC is pulling together a post-apocalyptic drama called Day One. It’s about a group of neighbors from an apartment complex after a catastrophic event. The cast includes David Lyons, Carly Pope, Adam Campbell and Thekla Reuten.

So will NBC give this a chance? They’ve nabbed Heroes ex-writer Jesse Alexander for the task of creating this little mini Jericho. Why do I call it that? It’s about a small band of survivors who strive to rebuild society and unravel the mysteries of the disaster than took place to force them into this situation.

Sources: Sci-Fi Wire, Hollywood Reporter

The Bachelor Turns Fans Off

Jason Mesnick outdid anything any other bachelor may have, or will ever do. At the end of the season, he picked his girl and asked her to marry him. Melissa was a happy ex-cheerleader from the Dallas Cowboys. He later dumped Melissa and went for plan B, Molly. Molly is the girl he dumped in favor of Melissa on the last day of the season of The Bachelor.

According to various polls, this move didn’t go over so well and people think he’s a stinker. (Different words used to protect the eyes of any youngsters reading!) But don’t worry, Melissa has already hooked up with a guy she’s been seeing on and off for the last two years.

Source: E Online

Fringe

FOX is not committing to anything yet as people are starting to wonder if FOX will renew Fringe for another season. They say they want to wait and see how it does after its April 7th return to the air. Come on people. Do it. You know you’re going to.

Source: TV Guide

Prison Break

FOX is putting together those extra two hours of Prison Break in the form a two-hour movie. It’s a self contained adventure and it takes place a few days after the events of the season (and series) finale.

Why? I have no clue. But that woman we all love to hate, Gretchen, is in it. Grr. I hope it finally happens to her!

Source: E Online

Knight Rider

In case you’re wondering, Knight Rider’s last episode aired last night. The organized fan clubs are trying to rally to let NBC know that they want to see it return. They even admit that the show is completely different than it was when the season began and they say that it’s finally getting its legs under it. The cast has been trimmed and they stopped figting the terrorist of the week. Just like it used to be in the original series. No news is good news, but in this case, no good news is probably just that, no good news. We’ll see what they have in store.

Life On Mars

I hope you weren’t a Life On Mars fan. If you are, you’re in for some real disappointment as your reality crashes back to Earth. ABC canceled Life On Mars. They are going to let it run its course of 17 episodes and they’re done with it.

At least the fans of this show can get themselves some closure as the exec producers have been told with enough time to put together a decent series finale. Unlike the way ABC unceremoniously dumped Pushing Daisies, Dirty Sexy Money and Eli Stone.

At least you’ll get an answer to the obvious question everyone has: Is Sam Tyler in a coma or been smacked back in time by the car accident!

Source: Variety

Survivor

Knowing how all of our readers are such big reality TV fans… crickets… I just had to warn you that CBS has ordered two more editions of the Gilligans Island mockumentary of sorts. At least that’s what I like to call it.

These two new “editions” will air in the 2009-2010 season. This will put the show into it’s 20th season, edition or whatever the h**l you want to call it and will officially make it the longest running reality TV show ever. Oh goody. I get quality time with my wife who happens to like this show.

Source: CBS Press

Jerry Seinfeld Returns!

Jerry Seinfeld is joining forces with NBC for a new reality series. Yes, another one… but this one sounds like it could get interesting. Bear with me here! The show is tentatively titled The Marriage Ref and will feature celebrities, athletes and comedians, who will judge couples in marital disputes and recommend resolutions to their problems.

LOL… this sounds like a can of worms. Comedians tossing out advice to sparring wedded couples? Heck, cops don’t even like dealing with domestic disputes. This could be funny… and that is exactly how Seinfeld is playing it out… as a comedy.

Six one-hour episodes have been ordered and are expected to premiere in the fall.

Source: TV Guide

Burn Notice

Finally! After two seasons of Burn Notice where we’ve been learning how to be an operative on the lamb and getting the job done taking down bad guys, Michel Westin is going to come face to face with the person who had him burned in the first place. This is going to happen in tonights season finale.

Along with that event, Michael and Carla are putting each other in the crosshairs too. It should be an exciting episode.

Season 3 will be about Michael and Fiona still trying to not be together and Michael dealing with things from his past and his career choice.

With the guy who burned him outed, I hope they can continue to make this interesting. It’s been great having this subplot always in the background generating that little extra intensity to each episode.

Source: TV Guide

V

Scott Wolf has joined the cast of V. Wolf will play Chad Decker, the reporter tapped by the visitors to distribute their propoganda.

Source: EW.com

The Simpsons

FOX has renewed The Simpsons for two additional seasons. That will bring the longest-running series in prime-time television history through its 22nd season. Zoinks!

Source: Sci-Fi Wire

That’s it for this week!

• Weekly TV Wrap Up – April 30th, 2009
• Weekly TV Wrap Up – March 19th, 2009
• Weekly TV Wrap Up – July 23rd, 2009
• Weekly TV Wrap Up – March 12th, 2009
• Weekly TV Wrap Up – April 9th, 2009
• Weekly TV Wrap Up – August 13th, 2009

Yes, they found glaciers on Mars that might contain genetic fragments of past microbial life and possible air samples from it’s past.  That’s cool to me.  But that’s not this site.  Sorry.  If you’re looking for the scientific stuff, check it out on Reuters.

But if you’re a TV fan then you may know (or not) that Pushing Daisies, Eli Stone and Dirty Sexy Money have gone before the ratings executioner and lost.  After their initial order of 13 episodes are aired, the shows are done.

On the other hand, Life On Mars, starring Jason O’Mara has moved forward with an extra four episodes getting ordered and is sliding in behind Lost on Wednesday nights starting January 28th.  This looks to be a strong combination of shows for the evening.  Right now it follows Grey’s Anatomy, but isn’t doing as excellent as they think it should.  So they’re slapping Private Practice in behind Grey’s, and putting Life on Mars behind Lost.

How fitting.  Two twisted-plots-of-time shows together while the two emotionally overfilled medical shows fill out a shift of time.  This should either do well for everyone involved, or just plain implode.

Life on Mars had it’s final episode for the season last week, and like all the shows we seem to all like, it’s getting a two month hiatus.  Almost everyone to a tee, no matter what show you watch, is fairly frustrated with this time lapse.

BTW: Life On Mars is up for a People’s Choice Award for “Favorite New TV Show.”.

In case you didn’t know, Life on Mars is an adaptation or remake of the BBC show of the same title starring John Simm and Philip Glenister and ABC’s is described as:

It’s 1973.  NYPD Detective Sam Tyler (Jason O’Mara) finds himself in the cultural hotbed of New York City in the tumultuous times of the Vietnam War, Watergate, women’s lib and the civil and gay rights movements – without a cell phone, computer, PDA or MP3 player — suddenly hurtled back in time when he’s ripped from 2008 after being hit by a car while chasing down a criminal. He’s trying mightily to understand what has just happened to him and how he can get back “home.”

That would drive me absolutely crazy to have to depend on pay phones again.  And have to read newspapers?  Egads…  how’d they survive through it all?  Well, the 2nd time through, I’d know where to slap my money in the stock market!!!

Source:  Zap2It, ABC, BBC

• Weekly TV Wrap Up – March 5th, 2009
• Weekly TV Wrap Up – April 9th, 2009
• Dominic Monaghan Back For Final Season of Lost?
• Teaser for Tennant’s Last Doctor Who: The End of Time
• Samuel L. Jackson & The Rock In ‘The Other Guys’
• TNT Picks Up ‘Southland’