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Weekly TV Wrap Up – July 2nd 2009

Bruce Simmons — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 17:39:19 +0000

Today we’re going to talk a little bit about House’s next season, plus casting news about Gossip Girl and Ugly Betty.

We’ve got contract news on Law and Order:SVU, insight into Wentworth Miller’s (Prison Break) next role, and some bits about Sons of Anarchy and Nip/Tuck.

We’ve also got some late-breaking bits we’ve added this afternoon with regards to the creator of My Name Is Earl, and the final season of Lost.

We have the usual weekly recap of ratings from the previous week, but it’s not the usual list. The source is having issues distributing the information, so I’ve done the best I can this week.

And of course we wrap up with the ratings from last week.

A Thought About House’s Upcoming Season

With the new season of House coming up, we all know that House has committed himself.

But have you thought about how things will be once he’s out and back at work?

Neither did I, but according to executive producer Katie Jacobs, we should be prepared for the hospital to be working differently.

“A doctor can’t check into a mental institution and just walk back into his job like nothing happened. We will not start forsaking reality. This [story] will have consequences.”

Source: EW

Lost Gets One More Hour

The mythos of ABC’s Lost is so big that the last season of the show couldn’t contain the entire story. At least that’s one take on why ABC has added an extra hour to the next season.

Now, instead of 17 hours, you’ll have 18 hours of getting Lost.

No facts are concrete, but rumors say they’ve added an additional storyline to the season.

Not to be a horrid tease, but with all the supposition about Charlie, I have to wonder if that’s the extra storyline?

Source: THRFeed

Gossip Girl Casting News

Hillary Duff will be joining the cast of Gossip Girl for a guest appearance in a multi-episode story arc.

She’ll be playing a movie star (shocking) named Olivia Burke who ends up rooming with Vanessa (Jessica Szohr).

Duff’s first episode will air on October 5th.

Source: EW

Ugly Betty Cast Update

If anyone is wondering about Daniel Eric Gold’s status on Ugly Betty, wonder no more.

Gold is returning to the show and he’s becoming a full-time series regular.

Source: EW

Greg Garcia Heads To Fox

It was a sad day earlier this week as production staff cleared out the facility that was being used as the set location for My Name Is Earl. With the show gone, folks are looking for work and the creator / executive producer of Earl, Greg Garcia, was one of them.

News is that he’s landed a gig over on Fox developing a new pilot for the network.

This new pilot is about “a 25-year-old who winds up having to raise an infant with the help of his quirky family. The kid was the result of a one-night stand with a woman who ended up on death row for murder.”

If you feel like it sounds familiar, even Garcia admits that this comes from the kind of world that Earl inhabited. At least he’s honest.

Source: Variety

Law And Order:SVU Contract Renewals

Mariska Hargitay and Christopher Meloni have successfully extended their contracts for 2 more years.

Unconfirmed sources say that the pair will be making roughly $325k per episode, or $6.5 million a year, each. I’m wondering if they’d pay me to be in just one episode. I’m not greedy!

Source: E Online

Where Will Wentworth Miller Show Up Next?

After playing a felon on the run in Prison Break, Wentworth Miller will next appear in a guest role on Law and Order: SVU’s season premiere episode, and this time he’ll be on the other side of the badge.

He’ll be playing a member of the NYPD Blue named Nate Kendal who ends up saving a rape victim.

Wentworth fans, set your DVR’s. The episode will air September 23rd.

Source: TV Guide

FX Programming Reminders

Sons of Anarchy returns to the cable network with fresh episodes beginning on September 8th and Nip/Tuck returns in October.

Ratings

Either my source or Nielsen are having issues with the data, so I’ve only got the top 20 ranked shows from last week to share with you.

As you can see, America’s Got Talent dominated while a repeat of NCIS takes the title of highest-rated scripted drama. Considering all the fanfare going on, I’m a bit surprised that the Michael Jackson special on CBS was only at 13th on the list. A pleasant surprise is that The Philanthropist landed in the top 20, settling in at 16th. I’m glad it ranked where it did and considering the quality of its story, I hope it improves. You can check out my quick review of The Philanthropist to see what myself and others thought of the show.

Rank, Show Title, (Repeat, Premiere, Special), Network, Viewers in the Millions

1. America’s Got Talent-Tue (P) NBC – 11.5 < NBC’s best performer
2. NCIS (R) CBS – 11.1 < CBS’s Best performer
3. America’s Got Talent – Wed (P) NBC – 10.4
4. The Mentalist – Tue (R) CBS – 9.1
5. 60 Minutes (R) CBS – 8.8
6. CSI (R) CBS – 8.7
7. Two And A Half Men (R) CBS – 8.7
8. 20/20 Special Edition on 6/25 (S) ABC – 8.2 < ABC’s best performer
9. CSI: Miami (R) CBS – 8.0
10. Wipeout ABC – 7.8
11. So You Think You Can Dance – Wed Fox – 7.6 < Fox’s best performer
12. Criminal Minds (R) CBS – 7.6
13. CBS News: Michael Jackson (S) CBS – 7.5
14. CSI: NY (R) CBS – 7.4
15. The Big Bang Theory (R) CBS – 7.2
16. Philanthropist (P) NBC – 7.1
17. 48 Hours Mystery Tuesday (R) CBS – 7.0
18. So You Think You Can Dance – Thurs Fox – 6.9
19. The Bachelorette ABC – 6.8
20. Dateline Friday NBC – 6.7

Selected Top Cable Shows

As you can see, break-ups help reality TV as Jon & Kate ratings spiked, marking another good week for TLC with The Closer, Royal Pains, Burn Notice and NCIS snagging spots in the top-20 cable slots for their respective networks.

1. BET Awards Show, BET – 10.7
2. Jon & Kate Plus 8, TLC – 10.6
4. WWE Entertainment, USA – 7.3
5. The Closer, TNT – 6.4
8. Royal Pains, USA – 5.9
9. Sprint Cup Racing/Loudon, TNT – 5.6
12. Burn Notice, USA – 5.3
17. NCIS, USA – 4.2
20. Confed. Cup Soccer, ESPN – 3.9

I’m looking forward to how they mix up the chemistry of House with the new equation of his having been committed and it’s good to see that Law and Order: SVU will retain the steadfast cast that’s been in place since 1999. I was a bit worried, considering how the network had renewed the show before the two lead actors were resigned. For you Gossip Girl fans (who ask me to cover news on the show), I’m wondering if you feel like having big-name stars come and go on the show is great to see or just distracting? Do you think it’s only a ruse to boost ratings?

As always, questions and comments are welcome here on Screen Rant.

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Weekly TV Wrap Up – June 18, 2009

Bruce Simmons — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 14:52:44 +0000

Welcome to Thursday’s Weekly TV Wrap Up. Today we have a chunk of news to chat about.

I want to touch a bit on the television broadcast digital conversion and how well it went, or maybe not so well for some. Then we’ll touch on some True Blood ratings news, Heroes casting info, Bones renewal info and some Lie To Me news. We’ll then toss in some info on Patrick Swayze’s The Beast, My Name Is Earl and some Law And Order: SVU cast news.

Of course, I wrap it up with TV and cable ratings from last week.

Let’s get on with it, shall we?

Digital Transition Not So Smooth

As the television world went digital last Friday, for many it was a flawless event. For some, not so flawless.

One experience noted was that of a consumer who bought a digital TV, and later, a “digital” antenna to prepare for the transition – yet when the switch happened, they lost their local ABC and CBS stations.

They had issues because when the digital switch happened, stations went from the UHF to the VHF band and the antenna this consumer bought was designed only for digital UHF stations. So much for the digital sales pitch on the product. Hence, consumer beware.

There are digital receivers on the market that receive both bands. Be aware of that.

Nearly all stations that changed were using the UHF band until the change last Friday and now they’re almost all on VHF.

If perchance you or someone you know are still having problems, try this:

Force the converter box or digital TV to rescan for channels that moved to the new frequencies on Friday.

If that doesn’t work, try a technique called double rescanning.

What that entails is disconnecting the antenna from your TV or digital converter box. Then rescan again. Turn off your TV or box. Then turn it / them back on. Connect the antenna and scan one more time.

This procedure helps clear saved channels from your TV or box memory.

Source: DTV.gov, DTV.gov

True Blood Explodes On Cable

With the 2nd season premiere of True Blood kicking in at HBO, the ratings reflected viewers approval of the show.

The episode averaged 3.7 million viewers, which made it the most watched episode in two years for HBO, since The Sopranos.

source: EW

Heroes Might Be Adding A Cylon

Rick Worthy, who played the Simon model Cylon from Battlestar Galactica, is in negotiations to join the cast of Heroes.

The role will be a recurring role as Matt Parkman’s (Greg Grunberg) new partner.

Worthy brings a wealth of experience with him. He’s been in various shows prior to BSG like CSI, Fallen and Enterprise just to name a few.

They’re talking about this as if it’s a done deal but they did note they are still in negotiations. Do you think he’ll be added to the list of new Heroes cast, along with Robert Knepper and Madelina Zima?

Source: Superhero Hype

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Weekly TV Wrap Up – June 11, 2009

Bruce Simmons — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 15:42:46 +0000

Today in Screen Rant’s weekly TV Wrap Up, we have some great casting news for 24, we’ll be talking about David Carradine’s appearance in Fox’s new show Mental and we also have some Heroes casting news, the possibility that My Name Is Earl may be getting new legs, some news on Ghost Whisperer, The Sarah Connor Chronicles coming to DVD and a bit about Futurama’s, err, future.

We’ll wrap it up with ratings from last week. This week in the ratings section, I thought I’d try something new and toss in some cable viewer numbers.

24 Gets More Cast Members

I’ve previously reported that Freddie Prinze Jr. had joined 24 and now Fox has added more cast members to the popular action series.

The actress I’m most excited about seeing come on board is Katee Sackhoff. Sackhoff played the tough-luck viper pilot Kara Thrace / Starbuck on Ronald D. Moore’s Battlestar Galactica and did a believably depressing characterization of Kara Thrace.

Sackhoff will be playing expert CTU data analyst Dana Walsh and I can’t wait to see what she brings to 24.

Also on board are Mykelti Williamson (Forest Gump) as the man in charge of CTU, Brian Hastings. John Boyd will play CTU analyst Arlo Glass, Chris Diamantopoulos and Jennifer Westfeldt (Grey’s Anatomy) is an ambitious journalist with ties to the situation as it unfolds.

The Emmy Award-winning drama starring Kiefer Sutherland returns for its next day with a two-night, four-hour premiere beginning Sunday, Jan. 17th, 2010 (9:00-11:00 PM ET/PT) on FOX.

I can’t wait.

Source: FOX

Fox Will Still Air Their David Carradine Episode

Despite the sadness surrounding the events of recent time with David Carradine passing on, Fox is still planning to air the episode of their new show, Mental in which Carradine appears.

Mental is Fox’s newest House-like medical drama.

Carradine will play a famous professor, author and philosopher named Gideon Graham. Graham lapses into a non-responsive catatonic state after he gets struck by lightning.

It will be an odd and sad episode indeed. I’m not sure how I feel about this, but I am sure that with recent events, the episode will probably net higher than expected viewer numbers.

Source: The Washington Post

Heroes

Earlier this month, a fellow Screen Rant scribe wrote about Robert Knepper and Madeline Zima joining the cast of Heroes. We can now add a few more names to that list.

Ray Park (who played Darth Maul in Star Wars: Episode 1 and is in the new upcoming G.I. Joe movie) and Deanne Bray have also signed on the dotted line to appear in multiple episodes.

The word is that Park will be playing the role of a knife thrower while Bray will be the deaf love interest of one of the main characters.

Speaking of Heroes, NBC announced on June 4th the release of The Heroes Comic Reader for the iPhone.

The NBC press release states:

“Fans can pick up where the on-air story leaves off with original graphic novels that extend and deepen stories and characters.”

If that’s your thing, then this is a neat add-on for franchise for fans.

Source: NBC, Entertainment Weekly

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NBC Announces 2009 TV Schedule

Bruce Simmons — Tue, 19 May 2009 21:40:15 +0000

Today NBC announced their 2009 Fall and mid-season television schedules. As you will see, there are some new shows, some old shows, and you might notice there are a couple of shows that are missing from the roster.

We’ll touch on the missing shows in a moment – and in the case of some of them, the situation may not be as bad as it looks. Here are the 2009 NBC Fall and mid-season schedules, as they stand today:

NBC FALL 2009 SCHEDULE
*New programs in UPPER CASE

MONDAY
8-9 p.m. – “Heroes”
9-10 p.m. – “TRAUMA”
10-11 p.m. – “THE JAY LENO SHOW”

TUESDAY
8-10 p.m. – “The Biggest Loser” (two-hour edition)
10-11 p.m. – “THE JAY LENO SHOW”

WEDNESDAY
8-9 p.m. – “PARENTHOOD”
9-10 p.m. – “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit”
10-11 p.m. – “THE JAY LENO SHOW”

THURSDAY
8- 8:30 p.m. – “SNL WEEKEND UPDATE THURSDAY” (multi-episode run)
8:30-9 p.m. – “Parks and Recreation”
9- 9:30 p.m. – “The Office”
9:30-10 p.m. – “COMMUNITY” (moves to Thursdays 8-8:30 p.m. when “30 Rock” returns)
10-11 p.m. – “THE JAY LENO SHOW”

FRIDAY
8-9 p.m. – “Law & Order”
9-10 p.m. – “Southland”
10-11 p.m. – “THE JAY LENO SHOW”

SATURDAY
8-9 p.m. – “Dateline NBC”
9-10 p.m. – “TRAUMA” (encore broadcast)
10-11 p.m. – “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” (encore broadcast)

SUNDAY
7- 8:20 p.m. “Football Night in America”
8:20-11 p.m. “NBC Sunday Night Football”

NBC MID-SEASON 2010 SCHEDULE
(2010 Winter Olympics will preempt regularly scheduled programming from February 12-28, 2010)

*New programs in UPPER CASE

MONDAY
8-9 p.m. – “Chuck” (season premiere)
9-10 p.m. – “DAY ONE”
10-11 p.m. – “THE JAY LENO SHOW”

TUESDAY
8-9:30 p.m. – “The Biggest Loser” (90-minute edition)
9:30-10 p.m. – “100 QUESTIONS”
10-11 p.m. – “THE JAY LENO SHOW”

WEDNESDAY
8-9 p.m. – “MERCY”
9-10 p.m. – “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit”
10-11 p.m. – “THE JAY LENO SHOW”

THURSDAY
8- 8:30 p.m. – “COMMUNITY”
8:30-9 p.m. – “Parks and Recreation”
9- 9:30 p.m. – “The Office”
9:30-10 p.m. – “30 Rock”
10-11 p.m. – “THE JAY LENO SHOW”

FRIDAY
8-9 p.m. – “Law & Order”
9-10 p.m. – “Southland”
10-11 p.m. – “THE JAY LENO SHOW”

SATURDAY
8-9 p.m. – “Dateline NBC”
9-10 p.m. – “Southland” (encore broadcast)
10-11 p.m. – “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” (encore broadcast)

SUNDAY
7-8 p.m. – “Dateline NBC”
8-9 p.m. – “THE MARRIAGE REF”
9-11 p.m. – “The Celebrity Apprentice” (season premiere; two-hour edition)

Observations

As you can see, the fan-driven efforts to save Chuck appear to have worked. The Jay Leno Show pretty much wiped the 10 p.m. slot for the week. I sure hope it was worth it to NBC, alienating the fans of the shows that were in that time slot.

A nice bit to note is that reality shows will not make up the bulk of NBC’s programming. And aside from The Celebrity Apprentice, The Biggest Loser does send a fantastic message and teaches the viewer about great dietary practices. Practices I really need to work on myself.

As for MIA shows on the schedule you’ll notice that the following have been canceled:

Kath & Kim,
Life,
Lipstick Jungle,
Medium,
My Name Is Earl

Yes, Medium and My Name Is Earl are MIA on the NBC schedule but don’t attack the messenger! Personally, I found Life a fascinating take on the zen of police work, but that’s just me. Bummer.

NO PROMISES, but rumor on the street says Medium will probably move to CBS (the network already produces it) and My Name is Earl will probably get picked up by Fox or ABC. I think Earl would fit in good with the Fox shows, but then they’d probably just move it to Friday. (Dang, the Joss Whedon fan in me just can’t let go of this Dollhouse fiasco. Sorry.)

Source: NBC

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Weekly TV Wrap Up – January 22, 2009

Bruce Simmons — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 06:25:20 +0000

Here’s the second post of our new regular feature: The Weekly TV Wrap Up.

The 2nd half of the 08-09 season is officially underway and I am pretty busy trying to watch so many of the new shows that have come out that my recorder is starting to smoke. This morning it said “EAS” and I had to reboot it. (I have no clue what EAS means.) I don’t think my recorder likes me anymore.

But with all the new shows coming up, there’s still news and events to report on. So let’s get this show on the road and get you caught up on some of the things going on behind the veil of our television glass.

Reminders:
1. The resident private eye / vampire, Mick St. John is back in repeats of Moonlight. Moonlight stars Alex O’Loughlin, Sophia Myles & Jason Dohring and will air on The Sci-Fi Channel, starting this Friday night, January 23rd.

2. Do you remember when aliens were taking people over and the infiltration was an insidious process that drove you nuts? If you’re thinking about the 2005 series, Invasion, yes, that’s what I mean. It too is going to get some air time in repeats on The Sci-Fi Channel starting this Friday, January 23rd. I liked the show when it was on. It starred William Fichtner, Eddie Cibrian, Mari Matchett and Lisa Sheridan (Whom I really enjoy watching!).

3. It never goes well when you ask your rag-tag fleet of surviving humans to accept an alliance with Cylons. And that is exactly what Admiral Adama is going to be finding out tomorrow night on Battlestar Galactica, in the episode titled “A Disquiet Follows My Soul”. Source: SciFi.com

News Tidbits:
4. Speaking of Battlestar Galactica, last Friday nights premiere episode did very well for NBC’s Sci-Fi Channel. At least as well as a sci fi show on Friday night is concerned. It brought in a total of 2.1 million total viewers. It ranked first in men 18-49 and men 25-54. Source: Media Week

5. CBS president Nina Tassler tossed out a few bones last week while talking to reporters that a pilot for the NCIS spinoff is happening. It will air as an episode of NCIS. That seems cost effective! Source: Variety.com

6. In that same chat, from item No. 5, Nina Tassler pointed out that though Eleventh Hour isn’t doing so good in the ratings department, they’re not ready to drop it yet. Rightfully so!

If you remember back in August we reported that Eleventh Hour was one of the most expensive shows ever made. $4 mil for the pilot and $2 mil per episode and they were committed up to at least 13 episodes. That’s why they aren’t throwing the towel in! It was a pricey gamble on an adaptation of a British mini-series. Source: Variety.com

7. If you’re a fan of NBC’s Chuck and Chevy Chase, you’ll be in heaven. Chevy Chase is guest starring in 3 episodes as a mega-billionaire tech mogul who is accused of stealing Chuck’s fathers ideas. Source: Hollywood Reporter

8. Speaking of Chuck, Scott Bakula has found himself a spot back on TV. He’ll be playing Zachary Levi’s dad in Chuck. His stint is scheduled to kick off for a few episodes in April. Source: EW.com,

9. The cast of Stargate: Universe continues to grow! They’ve added Justin Louis (Hidden Hills) to play Colonel Everett Young, the experienced Stargate team leader. Jamil Walker Smith (Hey Arnold) will play Sr. Sgt. Ronald Greer, a Marine with a temper. David Blue (Ugly Bette, Moonlight) will play Eli Wallace, a slacker genius. And finally, Brian J. Smith () will play Lt. Matthew Scott, the junior member of the Stargate team. Filming will start in the Spring with a targeted Fall 2009 launch. Source: SciFi Wire

10. NBC announced this last week the renewals for The Office, 30 Rock and The Biggest Loser for the 2009-2010 season. (How on this green Earth did Joelle actually end up staying. Egads!!!) Source: NBC

11. You keep asking about My Name Is Earl and at the moment, I’m thinking that no news good news? There has yet (At the time of my writing this article) to be any news as to NBC’s plans to renew My name Is Earl. As soon as I hear anything, you will know it. I can’t imagine they wouldn’t. Would they?

12. How bad is it when you get replaced by a cooking competition show? Ouch.

When Knight Rider closes out its ordered number of episodes, the reality cooking show Chopping Block will be taking its place. It will debut on Wednesday, March 11th at 8 p.m.. Talk about adding insult to injury. Source: Media Week

14. Bob May, the man who wore the “Robot” suit in the 1960’s sci fi show, Lost In Space, passed away last weekend. Our condolences to his family and friends. Incidentally, he was not the voice of Robot. May was just the power behind the flailing arms while Dick Tufeld voiced the Robot. In particular, one infamous phrase we all know and love, “Danger, Will Robinson! Danger, Will Robinson!” while May did all the flailing of his arms around! Source: Sci Fi Wire

15. As it stands, almost 7% of U.S. households will see “snow” when the “Digital Transition” kicks in on February 17th. Right now, there might be a delay in the transition, but as of right now, they seem to be moving along on schedule. Source: Media Week

Double-Talk Of The Week:
16. When asked about the dropped shows Pushing Daisies, Eli Stone and Dirty Sexy Money, ABC’s President Steve McPherson says that they would have liked to air the end of those shows but “… because of the way the timing worked out, we weren’t able to“.

He said he wished they could have given the producers enough notice to write up finales. McPherson added that “For us, it was a frustration that we couldn’t find a larger audience – or that Nielsen couldn’t find a larger audience. I really love those shows. They delivered what they promised.”

Interestingly, it is being pointed out that the network did have sufficient time to give the show runners a heads up on making show ending episodes. If I were a guessing man, I’d say these shows probably aren’t coming back, even if they do have unaired episodes still sitting in the can. Source: EW.com

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