The headlines all around the internet are spreading word the word that Fox has canceled Dollhouse. To be more specific, Fox has chosen not to order any more episodes beyond the first 13 episodes of Dollhouse’s second season, sealing the fate of the Joss Whedon-helmed show.

Despite being overwhelmed in fan-voting websites by The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Fox went with renewing Dollhouse for a 2nd season, ignoring the cry for more Sarah Connor.  Of course the popular theory is that Fox feared yet another long-term public lashing from how they handled the much superior Firefly space western of Joss’ years prior.

Fox letting go of Dollhouse isn’t a surprise.  The show confused or creeped out fans in the first season with its core premise.  However, when the show runners had a chance to capitalize on the flow of the story in the latter half of the first season, they kicked in the 2nd season with similar, fragmented episodes.

True, they started to dig deep into the inner workings of the characters.  At times the developments were mind-blowing, but this premise of programmable humans just hasn’t caught on. And I’m not sure that you can blame Friday’s in this era of DVR viewing and ratings that account for in the first 7 days that an episode has to impress people.

As it is, I’m guessing Joss wasn’t surprised, but he did express his disappointment in the development. He said the show is getting better with each episode, as will be evidenced with the upcoming episodes that will be airing in December. If you remember, Fox booted Dollhouse off the air during the month of November for what they hope are improved sweeps stats.

At least Joss has time and will take advantage of the knowing about this ahead of time and he’s looking to give the show a proper send off. Joss said that by the end of this ill-fated 2nd season of Dollhouse, we’ll know what he’s up to next.  But until then, he said “I’m off to pursue internet ventures/binge drinking.”

Is anyone out there actually surprised by this development?  I’m not.

Source:  THR (link 1, link 2)

• Dollhouse Season 2 Discussion
• Dollhouse & Sarah Connor Ratings Better Than We Think
• Solved: Dollhouse – The Mystery Of The 13th Episode
• The Friday Night Death Slot: Sarah Connor Chronicles & Dollhouse
• FOX To Air All 13 Episodes of Dollhouse
• TV Renewal And Cancellation Notes To Date

About a month ago I wrote about how the Terminator franchise rights were up for grabs now that the company who owns the rights, Halcyon Co., has filed for bankruptcy. Well, the rights to the beloved sci-fi franchise are now officially on the auction block and we already have a wild opening bid that’s making news.

The man behind the bid? Joss Whedon, creator of Buffy The Vampire Slayer and  Dollhouse.

According to the LA Times, The Halcyon Co. hopes to have the Terminator rights sold off by January, 2o1o, if only to start recouping some of the money they lost on the failed venture that was this summer’s Terminator Salvation (that title suddenly holds a lot of irony, doesn’t it?). There is also the possibility that Halcyon will hop on a “stalking horse,” which is basically a motivated buyer who bids early (and high enough) to have the property put on hold while the buyer then performs full due diligence on said property. To boil it even further down into layman’s terms: If some high-pockets out there thinks there is enough juice left to be squeezed out of the Terminator franchise, they’ll pay to be able to look deeper into just how much money they can make off it.

Sony and Warner Bros. are being floated as the studios circling the property right now, as is independent studio Summit Entertainment (the Twilight guys). But studios are not the only ones interested, apparently; rich guys from the private sector “…have expressed strong interest” said Kevin Shultz, senior managing director of FTI, Halcyon’s hired financial advisors.  Ironically enough, one of those private sector guys making an early bid is none other than Joss Whedon, who in the last 24 hours posted a whopping $10,000 bid for the Terminator rights on fan site whedonesque.com, sparking off rumors galore.

Since that initial “bombshell,” Whedon has explained his out-of-left-field bid to Entertainment Weekly:

“Here’s the thing: It’s not a slam on The Terminator. I love The Terminator. That part’s totally true. I was thinking to myself, ‘Not since they auctioned off frames from The Little Mermaid have I wished I had more money this much. So you know what, never hurts to ask.’ I loved the movies, even the later movies. I loved the mythology. I loved the TV show [The Sarah Connor Chronicles]–like, really loved. Not for pretend. And not just because of [star] Summer [Glau].”

The most surprising thing I read in that quote is that Joss Whedon is actually a fanboy for The Sarah Connor Chronicles – that show certainly didn’t do any favors for the first season of Whedon’s Dollhouse last year!

Needless to say, I’m sure The Halcyon Co. will get a better offer than Whedon’s for the Terminator rights – but wouldn’t be cool if by some chance Joss Whedon became the master of the Terminator universe (or would that be more of a disaster)?  Anyhoo, Halcyon bought the rights for $25 million and now figures their worth – after all the great, great, work they did on Terminator Salvation – to be up around the $60 million range. Whoever nabs said rights gets to call the shots on how any other sequel films or TV spin-offs will go down (hopefully far removed from McG’s terrible plans for T5), and will inherit whatever money can still be squeezed out of Salvation when it hits DVD in December.

Do you have a strategic business plan for who should hold the rights to the Terminator franchise? Should it be a studio or an independent investor who just has that much love for the series?

Sources: LA Times, Entertainment Weekly

• Terminator Franchise Rights Up For Grabs
• The Battle Over The Rights To Terminator 5
• Do Pending Lawsuits Mean No Terminator 5?
• Joss Whedon Gets Control Over His Dollhouse
• Brandon Routh Joins Chuck & Summer Glau Enters The Dollhouse
• Joss Whedon To Direct An Episode of Glee

Joss Whedon has been making the rounds in various media forms and chatting about the upcoming 2nd season of Dollhouse.  I’ll talk touch on some generic issues then a little bit later. Beware, there’s a section marked spoilers, you can pass over that part and onto more good stuff with the skip/jump link I’ve included.

Joss truly didn’t expect to be working on a 2nd season of Dollhouse, but all the non-traditional ratings numbers such as DVR viewing added up and the idea that fans will gravitate to the show in such a way that the revenue stream from DVD sales and such won’t dry up were all factors that nudged Fox towards renewing the show.

Even though some of the writers, Sarah Fain and Elizabeth Craft, that worked on season 1 headed off to work on the show Lie To Me, Joss nabbed the creators of Reaper, Tara Butters and Michelle Fazekas, to join the writing staff as replacements. Despite Reaper being as different as it was, Joss doesn’t think their past will affect the show adversely, but rather will be a boon as they’re very story-driven kind of folk.

As far as how they’ve approached season 2, Joss took note of how the audience responded to the episodes where they showed the inner workings of the Dollhouse and the development of the characters therein.  Hence, we’ll be getting much more of that angle going forwarad.

He also said that even though he’s hard to pin down, we will be seeing Alan Tudyk next season. Sweet!

What Will be Coming Up? (SPOILERS IN THIS SECTION.  Skip Link.)

• We’re going to be getting the dark, noir-ish tone that we had in the pilot.
• Sierra and Victor (Dichen Lachman & Enver Gjokaj) are going to go at it like monkeys.  (Those were Joss’ words!)  The actors are downplaying that much exuberance, but it will be there.
• Paul Ballard (Tahmoh Penikett) is now under an uneasy truce with Adelle DeWitt (Olivia Williams) and is deep in the Dollhouse.  If you can call working for the Dollhouse as deep. He’ll be acting as Echo’s handler.
• Echo (Eliza Dushku) has issues. The mind wipes after each mission aren’t erasing everything anymore.  This will have its own side affects during missions.  Some good and some not so good?
• We’ll get to see just how fearful Adelle DeWitt is of her bosses… the folks above her in the Dollhouse hierarchy.  We’ll see why people are working for the Dollhouse.

End Spoilers

The “More On That Later” Section

First you need to know that I’m jazzed that Joss’ show got renewed.  I’m happy for him, his staff, the actors and the fans. I’ve missed his consistent presence of story telling on the tube.

But I have to be pragmatic about this and wonder out loud how this show got renewed over The Sarah Connor Chronicles.

In various, impromtu polls around the web, Sarah Connor seemed very popular with the masses, versus Dollhouse which didn’t fare so well.

In addition to budgetary concerns with the higher costs of producing TSCC, I think Fox feared the retribution if they cut another Whedon project off at the knees like they did with Firefly and totally ignored what looked like a massive wave of fan desire to have TSCC come back for a 3rd season.

Will this be a mistake? Probably not. Whedon fans like you and me will make up for it in the short and long run, I’m sure.

In the meantime, Whedon fans win while TSCC fans wander the endless wasteland of wishing and missing their show. Are there any TSCC fans out there that converted over to Dollhouse?

Dollhouse premieres Friday, September 25th.

Sources:  IF Magazine, Sci Fi Wire

• Fox Is Letting Dollhouse Go
• TV Renewal And Cancellation Notes To Date
• Joss Whedon: Dollhouse & Thoughts On The New Buffy Project
• The Friday Night Death Slot: Sarah Connor Chronicles & Dollhouse
• Solved: Dollhouse – The Mystery Of The 13th Episode
• Dollhouse & Sarah Connor Ratings Better Than We Think

This year, Bravo’s Television Without Pity, Access Hollywood, TV Guide and MediaWeek joined forces and had a massive fan vote session called the Tubey Awards and they’ve recently announced their Tubey Award winners! The system works where fans vote on different categories of things that are television related and from what I understand, the votes were in the millions.

It’s rather telling, and yet not very surprising, what people are trying to tell the networks. Below are the top category winners from the 2008-09 season that folks voted on for the annual Tubey Awards.

Best Programming Trend:  Single camera sitcoms.

Here’s one we’ll love:

The Worst Programming Trend: “Too many non-scripted series.”  (Can you say Reality TV?  I knew you could!)  Another surprise top placer in this category was “Networks not aggressively programming Saturdays.”

Worst Renewals: According to Jim, Wife Swap and Scrubs were the top 3.

Best Programming Move: Holding back Lost (ABC) and 24 (Fox) and others until midseason.

Worst Programming Move: “ABC giving up on Pushing Daisies and Dirty Sexy Money”

Best Drama: was The Sarah Connor Chronicles. (Good move Fox.)  It looks like The Sarah Connor Chronicles won multiple categories!

There are a ton of other categories, too many to list here.  If you’re interested, check out Television Without Pity for a comprehensive listing of different categories.

Come back and let us know what you think!

Source: Media Week, Television Without Pity

• TV Renewal And Cancellation Notes To Date
• Neil Patrick Harris Returns Emmys To Glory
• 2009 Scream Award Nominations
• Weekly TV Wrap Up – June 11, 2009
• Weekly TV Update – March 27th, 2009
• The Dark Knight Tops 2009 DVD Critics Awards

The nominees have been announced for the fourth annual Scream Awards, held every year by Spike TV. The decisively more “fan-friendly” award ceremony (compared to the Oscars) honors films from the sci-fi, fantasy, horror and comic-book genres of movies, TV shows and comic books. The awards are described as, “the first and only global event of its kind,” to honor those genres.

The Scream 2009 nominees were chosen by the Advisory Board of Hollywood and Genre Leaders, a list which this year includes the likes of Wes Craven, Roland Emmerich, Neil Gaiman, Frank Miller, Eli Roth and Zack Snyder, plus many more. The event will be taped on Saturday, October 17th this year at The Greek Theater in Los Angeles, and will air on Spike TV ten days later on Tuesday, October 27th (check for local times).

Along with the awards, the show will also be airing some exclusive, world premiere of footage of some of the most anticipated movies of 2010! Presenters and musicians for the event are to be announced shortly.

Below is the list of a selection of the 32 categories from this year’s Scream nominations. For those of you (all of you?) who want to have YOUR say on which film should win, you’re in luck!  Public voting for the awards has opened already and will run right up to October 17th. But before you head off to vote, here are some of the nominees:

BEST FANTASY MOVIE

“Coraline”

“Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince”

“Twilight”

“Up”

“Watchmen”

“X-Men Origins: Wolverine”

BEST HORROR MOVIE

“Dead Snow”

“Drag Me to Hell”

“Friday the 13th”

“Let the Right One In”

“My Bloody Valentine 3D”

“Splinter”

BEST COMIC BOOK MOVIE

“Dragonball Evolution”

“Punisher: War Zone”

“The Spirit”

“Watchmen”

“X-Men Origins: Wolverine”

BEST VILLAIN

Eric Bana as Nero; “Star Trek”

Cam Gigandet as James; “Twilight”

Lorna Raver as Mrs. Ganush; rag Me to Hell”

Liev Schrieber as Victor Creed/Sabretooth; “X-Men”

Alexander Skarsgård as Eric Northman; “True Blood”

BEST DIRECTOR

J.J. Abrams; “Star Trek”

Tomas Alfredson; “Let the Right One In”

Michael Bay; “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen”

Pete Doctor & Bob Peterson; “Up”

Duncan Jones; “Moon”

Sam Raimi; “Drag Me to Hell”

BEST TV SHOW

Battlestar Galactica

Dexter

Fringe

Lost

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles

True Blood

BEST ACTOR IN A FANTASY MOVIE OR TV SHOW

Ed Asner, “Up”

Hugh Jackman, “X-Men Origins: Wolverine”

Robert Pattinson, “Twilight”

Brad Pitt, “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”

Daniel Radcliffe, “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince”

Michael Sheen, “Underworld: Rise of the Lycans”

BEST ACTRESS IN A FANTASY MOVIE OR TV SHOW

Scarlett Johansson, “The Spirit”

Jamie King, “The Spirit”

Rhona Mitra, “Underworld: Rise of the Lycans”

Kristen Stewart, “Twilight”

Emma Watson, “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince”

For the rest of the nominees you can head over to Spike.com, where you can also cast your votes.

Although some of the awards are truly suspect (how the hell The Spirit got nominated for ANYTHING is beyond me), I still like the overall celebration of the type of sci-fi, fantasy, comic book and horror films we here at Screen Rant revel in Although I won’t go into a specific rundown of who I think should win, I’d like to throw my opinion in the ring for a few of them:

Lost should win Best TV Show (I love Dexter, but it’s no Lost); Best Horror Movie should go to Let The Right One In (I would say Drag Me To Hell, but since that’s a comedy too, Let The Right One takes it for me); Best Actor in a Fantasy Movie Or TV Show should go to Brad Pitt for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button; and Best Comic Book Movie should (EASILY) go to Watchmen.

But enough from me, what and who will YOU vote for? As stated, you can cast your votes over at Spike.com, and you can see if the winners match your picks when the Scream Awards 2009 air on October 27th this year on Spike TV.

• New Harry Potter and The Half-Blood Prince International Trailer
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• Four New TV Spots for Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

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

Click to continue ‘Weekly TV Wrap Up – June 11th 2009′

• Weekly TV Wrap Up – August 6th, 2009
• Weekly TV Wrap Up – June 18, 2009
• Weekly TV Wrap Up – July 2nd 2009
• Ratings For The Week Ending September 13
• Weekly TV Wrap Up – July 23rd, 2009
• Friday Night Ratings: Dollhouse & Smallville

Yesterday (Monday, the 19th) Fox announced it’s upcoming Fall lineup today and we will be seeing some of Screen Rant’s favorites like House, Lie To Me, Bones, Fringe & Dollhouse return this fall.  These are the shows we here at Screen Rant are more focused on.

The news in and about the industry this last weekend was swirling in a dance on what was being renewed and canceled.  Specifically, some were focused on the fates of Dollhouse and The Sarah Connor Chronicles and why one show was given the axe, and the other given a reprieve.

For the upcoming Fall season House and Lie To Me will be on Mondays.  Bones leads into Fringe on Thursday nights.  Dollhouse stays on Friday with two 30-minute comedies as lead-ins.

At the mid-season point in the schedule, 24 will show up on Mondays following House.

Human Target starts in January on Wednesdays.

PS:  I’ve picked up some noise that 24 will take place in New York City next season.

Fringe Moving To Thursday Nights

Olivia?  Are we really moving to Thursdays?

If you don’t look at the other network schedules, I’m thinking that Fox is pitching two popular shows on one night.  Seems good, but if you dwell on the issue at hand, it seems that they might as well put Fringe on Friday nights with Dollhouse.

I say that because as it currently stands Thursday nights are dominated on other networks by The Office, 30 Rock, Grey’s Anatomy and CSI.

If you look at these shows on the other networks, in regards to viewers there is some serious competition on these other networks for Bones and Fringe.  Numbers from last weeks ratings:

• The Office had 7.8 milion viewers;
• 30 Rock – 6.1 mil;
• Grey’s Anatomy – 15.5 mil;
• CSI – 14.9 mil.

Meanwhile, Bones brought in 8.8 mil and Fringe 9.2 million viewers.

What happens when you pitch Fringe and Bones up against Grey’s and CSI?  To me it sounds like a bit of a slaughter and possibly an excuse to cancel one or the other.  Fox may be trying to compete for Thursday nights, but I’m not sure this is their best way of doing it.  It almost seems like they’re setting up some shows to be the fall guy.

The guys at Fox seem to think that CSI had a decline in ratings and, I presume, they are thinking it is vulnerable to a new competing show.  Of course, last week Grey’s Anatomy was 6th and CSI was 7th in the top 10 of all shows, and 3rd and 4th respectively amongst scripted dramas.

Who is this “decline” statement aimed at?  Mutants from a planet with no TV?  Despite this “toe the company line” stance, Reilly still managed, with a straight face, to toss out statements like “Thursday night, … the door’s more open on this night than it’s been in a long, long time.”

Regardless, this placement to Thursdays for Fringe concerns this writer.  The only potential saving grace is that we don’t know for sure if the regular line up from Thursdays will still exist on the other networks this fall. We only have to wait a day or two to find out.

On The Dollhouse Renewal

I have to kick butt next season.  You with me?

Despite fan-polls on the internet showing a massive popularity draw to Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Fox renewed Dollhouse.

(continued…)

• Are Smallville And Supernatural Ending Next Season?
• Fox Fall TV Premiere Dates & Times
• The Friday Night Death Slot: Sarah Connor Chronicles & Dollhouse
• TV Renewal And Cancellation Notes To Date
• Dollhouse & Sarah Connor Ratings Better Than We Think
• Friday Night Ratings: Dollhouse & Smallville

Though the networks are making official statements in the coming week, news is coming out slowly but surely on what is going to happen with shows like Dollhouse, Chuck, The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Scrubs among others.

Here’s the news that’s come out of this weekend about some of our favorite shows…  after the break.

Dollhouse

As we reported Friday night, Dollhouse is renewed on a limited budget, for 13 episodes.

Chuck

Chuck has been picked up for at least 13 episodes.  Yet, there is a “but” in that good news.

There will be budget concessions involved.  It includes cutting back on the episodes and supporting cast members, possibly eliminating one actor altogether and it looks like two of its staff writers will be let go.

Terminator:  The Sarah Connor Chronicles

Sadly, The Sarah Connor Chronicles is being reported as being officially canceled. On top of that, Warner Brothers isn’t even trying to shop it out to any other network.  SyFy?  Time to step up and show you do care about sci-fi fans.  (Is that a crazy thought?)

Scrubs

ABC is picking up Scrubs for a 9th season of the funny medical show.

Bones

Bones has been given the green light for a fifth season and sixth season.

Medium

No news yet, but if Medium gets bumped by NBC, CBS may pick it up.  It is produced by CBS Paramount Television, so that might make sense.  And it would be a smart move to buy a show that already has an installed fan base.

The Unusuals

The new show on ABC called The Unusuals, will not be back. That doesn’t surprise me.  The actors didn’t really seem to match up to their roles and nothing compelled me to want to watch the show.

Other shows getting renewed are:

Cold Case on CBS.
Castle on ABC.

Shows not looking good for renewal:

Without A Trace is probably going away.
It’s being said that the crew from Eleventh Hour are looking for work.

As we find out more, we’ll keep you up to date.

Sources:  E Online, Whedonesque, E Online, EW, EW

• Weekly TV Wrap Up – May 7th 2009
• Fox Announces Fall TV Lineup & Squirms On Sarah Connor
• Brandon Routh Joins Chuck & Summer Glau Enters The Dollhouse
• Dollhouse & Sarah Connor Ratings Better Than We Think
• Fox Is Letting Dollhouse Go
• Solved: Dollhouse – The Mystery Of The 13th Episode

This is the weekly TV update coming at you yet again.  Today I chat about how Numbers has survived on Friday nights, I share my suspicions on what will happen with Chuck on NBC and I celebrate a bit about Fringe on Fox.

I’ll also touch on how the new Wolverine movie has already had its TV rights secured while I tell you about a couple of upcoming Sci-Fi Channel marathons, and then I’ll close with some depressing inclinations about Dollhouse and Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles.  At the very bottom, past my ratings chart, I actually make a suggestion about an episode of Criminal Minds that I suggest hunting down to watch.  (Yes, I make a recommendation.)

Let’s get on with it, shall we?

Numbers Survives On Fridays

Even though the viewing audience does not like programmable personalities, they sure do seem to like Numbers on CBS because it keeps trudging along despite airing on Fridays.

The show is about solving the crime of the week using mathematical calculations and you wouldn’t think a concept like that would jive with viewers who slurp up reality TV.  Heck, it’s a great surprise to me that Numbers has survived this long.

In reaching it’s 100th episode milestone, CBS is leaving the show in its present Friday night time-slot because it has a loyal following and they don’t want to upset the applecart.  FOX…  helloooooo?  Applecart?  Dollhouse?  Oh, Nevermind.

Source: Variety

Did I Hear Someone Asking About Chuck On NBC?

Chuck got 25% of the votes from an E Online survey about rescuing shows and there’s a lot going on right now to help Chuck survive.  But I have a bad feeling something is amiss.

Maybe it’s my natural distrust of the system but I think we’ve seen an interesting and probably honest mistake by the keepers of the web over on NBC. Check out the screen captures below of the Chuck website.

If you look real close that the middle of the right side, there’s the next on block…  here, let me zoom in for you:

Yes… it said at one point SERIES FINALE for Chuck.

The wording has since been changed but is this a taste of things to come?  Was NBC referring to the last episode of Chuck because that’s their intent and they’re just placating the fans by not making any decisions right away?  Or was that just an honest mistake?

The sharp guys over on TV by The Numbers thinks it was a screw up.  Color me suspicious, but I think the non-messages are adding up, hate it as I may to say that.

If Chuck does come back it will probably be on a different night because it looks like they will be pairing up Heroes with the new comedy, Parenthood.  Crickets…  What an odd combination of shows.  Which one are they trying to kill off?

Come on NBC, surprise me and renew Chuck!

Sources:  TV By The Numbers, THR Feed, EW

Fringe Gets Renewed

Didn’t I say last week that Fringe will probably be renewed? Fringe has been the number one performing (scripted) drama of the season for Fox and they’ve ordered a full 22 episodes for season 2.  After what Sci-Fi did to Battlestar Galactica, I’m always nervous to reference 22 episodes as a whole season.  Thanks Sci-Fi!  (No, I’m not bitter.)

Also – Keep your eyes out for Leonard Nimoy in the May 12th season finale of Fringe.

Side note:  Is that a Slusho in Walter’s hand?  Yes… and if you look carefully at any of J.J. Abrams other shows, you’ll see it pop up in the most surprising moments.  (I think I might do a report on that unnatural phenomenon.  What do you think?)

Source:  Sci Fi Wire

FX Network Is Getting Aggressive And Has Bucks To Spend

The TV guy gets to talk about movies for a change.  Cool!

Even though X-Men Origins: Wolverine has only been out for less than a week, FX smells a good thing when they see one and went on a spending spree.

The FX cable network has bought the network rights to broadcast Wolverine.  In fact, this isn’t the only movie they’ve snagged up.  In a massively expensive deal they’ve also acquired the network rights to Taken, Marley and Me, The Wrestler, the wonderfully stoic (read: boring) remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still, Bride Wars, 12 Rounds and Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li.

This is a big package deal and it can only be seen as an investment.

These latest acquisitions can be added to the network rights they’ve previously acquired for Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Baby Mama, Iron Man, Tropic Thunder, Hancock and DreamWorks Animation’s Kung Fu Panda.

DVR, meet FX.  FX, meet my DVR.

Source: Variety

Family Guy Spin-off, Cleveland:  Already Renewed! (Weird)

If you order a show and it does well enough in the ratings, you order a 2nd season.  Right?  Well, in my world that’s how it’s done but what do I know?  (You don’t have to answer that.)

Fox ordered this spinoff from Family Guy called Cleveland.  The folks at Fox have gotten so excited about the show that they’ve already ordered a 2nd season… and it has yet to even premiere.  Yep, you read that right.  It hasn’t even aired yet.

First it was a 13 episode order, then they ordered more, making it a 22 episode order.  Then they got even more excited and ordered more, making it a 35 episode order.

From the looks of things Fox is locking up it’s animated talent so they don’t drift off to other network.  Or, the guys at Fox just have  a ton of faith in Seth MacFarlane at this point.

Cleveland is the product of Seth MacFarlane, Rich Appel and Mike Henry with MacFarlane and Henry also doing some of the voice talent for the show.

Source:  The Hollywood Reporter

Sci-Fi Channel Marathons

Over on the Sci-Fi Channel, we have a couple of all-day marathons coming at us.

If you’ve gotten this far in the article, and you’re a Star Trek fan, the Sci-Fi Channel is having a Star Trek marathon on Friday, May 8th.  It’s Star Trek: Enterprise, but at the end of the day, Star Trek: First Contact will air.  I’m guessing they’re trying to capitalize on the opening day hype of J.J. Abrams Star Trek.

If there are any Eureka fans in the crowd here, there will be a Eureka marathon on May 10th.

Source:  The Sci Fi Channel

Dollhouse and Sarah Connor

Dollhouse may have a faithful following, but the ratings aren’t reflecting that there are enough of the faithful tuning in.  Last weeks episode drew it’s worse estimated overnight ratings to date, with a 1.9 / 3 share.  (Huh?  I like using millions because it’s much easier to digest without having to consult my higher reasoning.  A rating point represents approximately 1 million viewers.  The share # is the % of TV’s that were turned on and tuned into the program.  I know it’s not hard, but I like the big numbers.)

The Sarah Connor Chronicles has an even stronger following than Dollhouse and yet Fox is silent about their plans on the show.

Over on E Online they had a “save the show” kind of poll and after all was said and done, TSCC had 53% of the vote.  It sounds impressive but that only accounts for 150k+ potential viewers.  That’s not millions, so I’m guessing Fox or the advertisers probably don’t care.

Josh Friendman, the show runner, hasn’t even heard from Fox so he’s in the dark as much as we are.

Sources:  Airlock Alpha, E Online

TV Ratings from April 27th to May 3rd

The Ratings for the last week had it’s usual ups and downs while Fox held on to the top spots with American Idol.  I have to say, if Adam doesn’t win this season, the voting process needs to change big time.  He is a true talent in the scheme of things.

Of the top 5 shows, 2 were scripted dramas.  Go NCIS and The Mentalist!  The Mentalist gained ~ 5 million viewers from the week before and jumped into the 4th slot.

Though 24 is getting better with each week, it oddly slipped from 16th to 22nd but the number of viewers remained the same. 

Fringe dropped 11 spots (dOh!) to 29th while retaining the number of viewers.

NBC’s newest hot show Southland (so they say) dropped 14 spots to 48th while losing 2 million viewers.

The Unusuals continued its downward slide by 9 spots to be 63rd of 90 shows, losing an additional million viewers in the process.

Bruce’s Closing Thought

Did anyone catch the April 29th Criminal Minds episode titled “Big Wheel”, where Alex O’Loughlin guest starred?  I have never seen an actor transform so differently between television roles like Alex did for this one.  In fact I watched the episode and it wasn’t until the teaser opener was done that I recognized his eyes.  And if I didn’t know at some point he was guest starring, I’d never have caught it.  He changed his looks, his voice and mannerisms to the point of being this character.

Aside from O’Loughlin guest starring, for the first time in my life, I felt truly bad for the murderer.  O’Loughlin pulled this off in a way I never expected and if you are even a partial fan of either the franchise or the actor, TRACK IT DOWN. That’s my recommendation for the week.

After seeing that, I truly am looking forward to his new pilot on CBS, a medical drama called Three Rivers.

• Weekly TV Wrap Up – July 30th, 2009
• Weekly TV Wrap Up – April 30th, 2009
• Weekly TV Wrap Up – February 26th, 2009
• TV Renewal And Cancellation Notes To Date
• Weekly TV Wrap Up – May 21st, 2009
• Fox Announces Fall TV Lineup & Squirms On Sarah Connor

After its season (series?) finale, The Sarah Connor Chronicles seems to be in a gray area. The ratings for the April 10th finale brought in only 3.6 million viewers. That’s a far cry from its premiere episode that attracted almost 19 million sets of eyeballs. After a lot of conjecture, mostly from watching the ratings drop over the last two years, most feel that the show is looking at its demise.

For reasons that are beyond our own logic, even though TSCC was bringing in an average of over 11 million viewers on Mondays, Fox pretty much set the fate of the show when they moved it to Friday nights. There, in its 2nd season it received an average of 4.7 million viewers.

The above numbers seem to reference all viewers and are from ABC Medianet.  When I look at specific numbers from overnight reports through last season, I saw the following interesting trend:

AVERAGE VIEWERS – When TSCC was on

• Monday nights: 5.4 million
• Friday nights: 3.5 million

The show had potential. They were filling in blanks in the mythos that hadn’t been otherwise covered. Sure, many viewers didn’t wrap their minds around the idea of the young Thomas Dekker playing John Connor. It didn’t settle well with me either, but I tried to wrap my mind around it for the sake of the story. If you think about it, John Connor was a little boy at some point in time so I went with that. It worked for me for the most part – and over the course of the show Dekker/Connor DID evolve and grow.

But was the doom of the series that it went down the wrong path? Or was it the movie to Friday nights that doomed it?

As it stands, we have two sides to the developments of whether the show is coming back or not. USA Today says that both Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles and Dollhouse have a “thumbs down” for renewal.

He Said, They Said

Though Fox is technically not declaring the show dead, Michael Ausiello from Entertainment Weekly is saying that his sources are telling him that the show is gone and will not be renewed.

TSCC writer Ashley Edward Miller is backing the possible return of Sarah Connor Chronicles by contesting Ausiello’s report. He’s reminding everyone from his Twitter account that Michael said similar things during season one and at one point Ausiello apparently had also reported that the sets were destroyed.

In an interview, Brian Austin Green had let out a bit of what they were looking at for a 3rd season if it does happen. He indicated that season 3 would deal with a bit of an alternate future, where John Connor never existed and Derek was alive. Additionally, Allison (the person Cameron is based on) is still alive.

This worried me. It feels like if they get a 3rd season, they’ve written themselves into a bit of a corner. An alternate time line of an existing franchise that has the momentum it presently does veers the show away from where the movie franchise is. If season 3 does happen, it might be interesting, but I’m thinking that premise WOULD be the end of it.

He also touched on the fact that his taking a role in another show’s pilot episode doesn’t spell doom for TSCC. But I think he’s just being a good company man and putting on a good front.

From what I’ve personally seen when the show runners talked about a season three at Wonder-Con, I didn’t see any energy there. When I add that to the statements I’ve been seeing in the media, I think the show is going down the drain with the Coriolis effect. I may be filling in between the lines here, but no one is saying “it looks good,” or “we are in talks,” or “Fox is changing up our outline.” Any of these would be good clues there’s a shot. But no, I don’t see that.

So I’m predicting that we’ve seen the last of TSCC… and that’s a bummer.

Dollhouse

Keeping with a theme I’ve noticed, it seems that whenever TSCC is mentioned, Dollhouse is dragged into the conversation as well. I can’t let everyone else have all the fun. Literally, if you look at the numbers, they’re in the same boat called Friday Nights on Fox.

The fate of Dollhouse looks similar to that of TSCC but for slightly different reasons.

TSCC started strong and faded hard. Dollhouse started with a mediocre squeak of just under 5 million viewers. It’s been treading water ever since with its odd premise of “actives” and “dolls.” I’m not sure this may be working with the average viewer. Yet Whedon fans are enjoying it mostly because it’s Whedon.

Last week Dollhouse brought in 3.4 million viewers. Is it a victim of Friday nights, subject matter, or having a poor lead-in show that’s already sinking, taking Dollhouse with it? I think it all adds up to a really bad set of circumstances.

Normally, having 3 to 4 million viewers is sub par, but having been relegated to Fridays to keep TSCC company in the dark zone of ratings wasn’t deemed that bad for a Friday night. There’s also the debate about how much Fox changed Dollhouse to make it what they wanted for the first few episodes. The debate goes back and forth.

The important issue is: With the ratings as they are, does Fox give Whedon a second season? Considering they moved them from a prime market night (Mondays) to Friday, I think they owe them that. They owe both shows that – to give them a fighting chance.

As Whedon put it recently:

“Obviously our numbers are pretty soft, and there it is, but we live in hope.”

Can Either Show Improve?

I have to wonder. When we previously reported that Dollhouse and TSCC had better time shifted ratings, it seemed like a hopeful glimmer of continuance. But is it really?

Ratings increased for the delayed viewings by over 30%. That’s a great increase in delayed viewing for a Friday night show. I have to seriously wonder if that is not an unofficial indicator that on any other night, the ratings would be better?

Adding a 30% increase to their latest numbers of viewers would have given TSCC almost 5 million viewers. How would Fox look at the show then if it was bringing in 5 million viewers a night? If we were to “hope” this idea into reality, both shows would jump up to around 60th in my weekly wrap up ratings section. They presently sit at 77th and 78th out of 90 shows. Not a massive improvement, but nonetheless, improvement.

Fox’s Plans (Or Agenda)

I have to wonder if Fox ever “strapped on a pair” and moved Dollhouse and/or The Sarah Connor Chronicles to another night, just how much better it might do?

Well whoever has it out for these two sci-fi based dramas over at Fox would never do that. Plain and simple – as evidenced with how they’ve handled these shows to date.

The bottom line is that Fox will be announcing their new schedule on May 18th and all will be made clear by then, if not earlier. Me, I’m hoping I “guilt” them into renewing both shows.

As if I have to ask, but I’d love to hear your conjectures on the issue of one or both of these shows? DO my ideas spark a different thought for you, or are you pretty sure things are what they are?

Sources: WikiPedia, EW, USA Today, io9, Sci-Fi Wire

• Dollhouse & Sarah Connor Ratings Better Than We Think
• Fox Announces Fall TV Lineup & Squirms On Sarah Connor
• TV Renewal And Cancellation Notes To Date
• Solved: Dollhouse – The Mystery Of The 13th Episode
• How Are Smallville & Dollhouse Doing On Friday Nights?
• Dollhouse Season 2 Discussion

In January, we found out officially that there was going to be a reboot of the classic horror series, A Nightmare on Elm Street. Since then, we’ve heard some updates regarding the plot of the film and in recent weeks, we’ve been seeing steady news about casting decisions.

The major casting news came just over a week ago when it was confirmed that Watchmen star Jackie Earle Haley will be playing the infamous Freddy Krueger in the remake. Adding to the cast, Thomas Dekker who plays John Connor in Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, is reportedly in final negotiations to play the role of Jesse in A Nightmare on Elm Street.

According to ShockTillYouDrop! who broke the news, the Jesse character is “a jock on the swim team.” Dekker would be the second young TV actor added to the cast which already includes Kyle Gallner. Gallner’s had many small roles on popular television programs including Smallville (where he played Bart Allen), The Shield and CSI:NY.

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles just aired its final season 2 episode and it seems Brian Austin Green isn’t the only actor from the Terminator series quickly making a movie to partake in a major feature film. Green is campaigning to play Hal Jordan in the upcoming DC superhero film, The Green Lantern.

What do you think of the cast that’s being put together for the horror reboot?

A Nightmare on Elm Street will be directed by Samuel Bayer and produced by Michael Bay’s Platinum Dunes. It is set for release April 16, 2010.

Source: ShockTillYouDrop!

• Brian Austin Green Campaigns To Be The Green Lantern
• TV Renewal And Cancellation Notes To Date
• Katie Cassidy Next To Join ‘Elm Street’ Remake
• Weekly TV Wrap Up – March 12th, 2009
• Nightmare On Elm Street Remake Has Its Nancy!
• First Official Look At Elm Street’s New Freddy Krueger

Brian Austin Green, who plays Derek Reese in Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, wants to play Hal Jordan in the upcoming DC superhero movie and he wants you thoughts on the matter.

Green is most famous for his role on Beverly Hills 90210 but more recently made a splash with his kick-ass role in the Terminator television series. With the second season of the show finishing up this week and no third season announced, the actor is trying to push his way into the movie business with a major role in the next potential DC franchise, The Green Lantern.

Comic Book Resources (CBR) News got a chance to speak with Brian about the role and released the first part of their interview. The conversation opens with CBR asking Brian what’s going on with him and The Green Lantern movie.

“Well, nothing’s going on right now. I’ve been sort of throwing myself into the mix and trying to get in to sit down with the producers and see what’s going on. I mean, from what I’ve heard and the response so far from what most people have heard, they’re planning on skewing younger with the character. I’ve heard somewhere in like the mid-twenties, which, being a Green Lantern fan, I don’t necessarily agree with. I’ve always kind of felt that Hal Jordan needs to be a man. He needs to be somebody who lives a little and experienced a lot. So right now I’m just sort of trying to throw my name in and make it something that they might consider. That’s about what I got.”

Brian then moves on to reveal that he’s not yet read the script or met in person with the producers, but his agent and manager have been communicating with them. He also talks about how this would be his first time in the type of role that would bring people into the theaters and that because of that, he’s a tough sell, not having movie fame and that large fan following.

CBR later asked about the risk of an actor throwing himself out there for the role and subjecting himself to what the fans think of him.

“You know, it’s the first time I’ve ever done it. It’s the first time I’ve ever really pushed for something the way I’m pushing for this. It’s odd, I was talking with someone about the way this all came down for me and it wasn’t something that was necessarily on my mind at the time. I didn’t even completely know that the film was in the process and that they were getting it together. A friend of mine just randomly sent me a text message and he was like, “Dude, I just saw a picture of you as the Green Lantern online and it was awesome.” I was like, “What are you talking about?” He sent me the link, I went on and some kid had just put my face on a classic Green Lantern shot, the one of him standing, making the fist with the ring on the finger.

It was funny because I saw it and I thought that it was pretty cool. At the same time, I’ve been playing a lot of “Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe ” and Green Lantern is one of my favorite characters. Then Megan [Fox] and I were sitting talking about it and it just kind of clicked. It made sense and I found it odd that somebody had mentioned it to begin with.”

I like what Green is saying, especially about the age. For me, Brian Austin Green was the best part of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles and I like that he’s gunning for this role, demonstrating that he truly wants it. I was in support of the Chris Pine as The Green Lantern rumor but the more I think about it, I believe Brian Austin’s a better fit than the Star Trek lead actor and I also like that he’s a bit older.

Artwork by Jamie Tyndall

When asked about how he’d play the role of Hal Jordan, Green made the comparison to Iron Man (the producers said back in March that Green Lantern would have an Iron Man vibe) and he likes the idea of the hero with “internal struggle”.

Green’s final thoughts on the subject:

“I’m just intrigued and curious to see what the fans think. Ultimately, fans of the comic and the history should decide. If I’m not the right guy then I shouldn’t be playing the character but if people think that there’s something there, then let’s see where it can go.”

To see the full interview head over to Comic Book Resources.

I love the idea. Brian is relatively unknown for the movie business and I think that’s the type of actor they should choose for the lead role in this superhero flick – He has my support.

Green is currently keeping himself busy with producing his girlfriend’s upcoming comic book movie, Fathom. In the interview, that topic was also discussed and he said that the script is being written by the writer of Prince of Persia, Jordan Mechner, and the first draft is due in a few weeks.

Do you think Brian Austin Green could play a good Hal Jordan? He’d like to know.

The Green Lantern is scheduled to open December 17, 2010.

Artwork Source: Jamie Tyndall

• Another Green Lantern Rumor: Shawn Roberts
• Latest Green Lantern Rumor: Bradley Cooper As Hal Jordan?
• Young John Connor To Take On Freddy Krueger?
• Green Lantern Screenwriter Talks Script, Cast & New Characters
• Captain Kirk May Be The Green Lantern
• Green Lantern Screenwriter Updates Movie Progress

So… what, exactly, is the deal with Joss Whedon’s Dollhouse?

Thursday and Friday, the Internet went nuts with worry that the number of episodes the Fox Television Network is said to be airing for Dollhouse was being short changed. The info distilled into a hyperbole of rumors saying Dollhouse was canceled because the season was being cut short. The truth of the matter is that Fox paid for 13 episodes, but only planned on airing 12.

Which makes us wonder: What’s up with that?

The Dollhouse History

June 4th 2008, Screen Rant reported that Fox was going to give Whedon a 7 episode run of Dollhouse, without airing a pilot for the show. They also gave it a Monday time slot, being the lead-in show for 24.

June 15th 2008, we reported that Fox “asked” for the first episode of Dollhouse to be reshot. It’s here that we felt something was up.

Late July of 2008, fans were starting “Save Dollhouse” websites (before the show even started airing). Joss addressed the re-shoot at Comic-Con, saying that the show jumped right into the story line and reshooting Dollhouse created more background to understand, emphasizing that nothing was removed from the show, just rearranged.

He also noted that they had 13 webisodes planned to accent all the network episodes.

September of ‘08, the production for Dollhouse was shutdown. They said that Joss had to take a break from production and get back into writing the show. Joss himself said he asked for the stall.

November 8th, 2008 it was announced that Dollhouse was being moved to Friday nights. It went from a lead-in for a popular show to a Friday night slot following a show that already had ratings issues. November 8th is thereabouts when the fanbase of Whedon went into a tizzy of sorts, and I was right there with you.

The move to Fridays left Whedon feeling mixed, as he said “I’ve had a bad experience on a Friday; you may have heard about it.” (Referring to the prior cancellation of Firefly) But he also expressed supportive thoughts on the issue, like being paired with The Sarah Connor Chronicles was good.

As the series premiere approached air time, we started seeing something we’re not used to seeing from Whedon: Sex-laced ads and then episodes that weren’t what I felt were Whedon creations. Despite his saying at one point that he wanted to go in a different direction with this show, I’ve never seen any of his work demonstrate such an overt air of suggestive sexuality from women in any of his shows. He writes strong, commanding female roles, not objects.

Present Day

Starting back on March 20th and April 3rd, the show started representing a stronger vision of what Whedon considers Dollhouse to be about. It comes back to the first 5 episodes being altered by Fox. Why, I don’t know. This stronger vision is what I presume to be more of how Whedon envisioned the flow of the story.

We were apprehensive when Dollhouse got stuffed into Friday nights with an already ratings-weak show in The Sarah Connor Chronicles. Hence why we feel like Dollhouse is an endangered species.

Or more to the point, the show looks like it was handled exactly as Fox has handled Joss Whedon franchises before – with curious and interesting logic (for lack of a more polite way to say it).

The ratings have been dwindling from week to week, despite strong DVR numbers.  That’s not the key demographic to getting a show a repeat season.

So What Is Up?

So is Fox shorting us an episode? It would seem so, but it’s not. Fox ordered 13 episodes, but is only airing 12. One of the 13 episodes was considered to be un-airable by Fox execs, and the season was subsequently planned out with 12 episodes.

But when Felicia Day tweeted that her episode, the 13th episode, wasn’t going to air, folks went nuts. At this point not too many people had seen the TV By The Numbers info or our own info yet, so the Internet did what it does best, and most expeditiously: It lashed out at Fox.

What we were missing was that the 13 episodes ordered also included that un-airable pilot episode. That’s the episode that had been shot, “reconceived,” and was still never was considered for airing.

The last two episodes that are scheduled to air are a two-part closure to the season. The two episodes together were created as the season finale. They answer a number of questions about the Dollhouse and the actives. Though it’s not being treated as a cliffhanger, it will raise some questions that can lead us into that potential second season, should that happen.

So there you have it as far as the conspiracy issues that were ablaze over the last few days.

It still falls back on how Fox has handled Dollhouse and this furor is just something they only have themselves to blame. All the while, Minear and Whedon had to continually step in to defend the network’s behavior.

I get Fox being worried about creating a viable product. But I also think they needed to trust Whedon to create a decent product and treat the product in the way he envisioned it.

I’m not defending Fox in any way. Trust me. Yes, this is not the first time a Dollhouse scenario had to be explained away by its creators. Sure, moving the show to Fridays seemed self destructive on Fox’s side. Sure, rearranging episode order was an unpopular management choice.  So no, I’m not defending them. But I think this was just a simple misunderstanding and the misguided beast called Fox gets to skate this once… again.

I’m sure we don’t have to wait long to find another mishap on the horizon. Though I’d love to see Dollhouse pop back in for a 2nd season on a night that might carry it further, I’m not holding my breath on whatever decision Fox makes. Heck, at this point, I’d suggest Whedon take it to a cable network or even go viral and turn to the faithful medium that’s always here for him. The Internet.

Amongst The Despair, Good News

Me, I’m still waiting for Universal to exercise the rights they bought to Whedon’s Goners, if that’s ever going to happen. That and the other good news we can focus on is that Joss Whedon has come up with a title for the 2nd installment in the tale of Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog. And yes, as Nathan Fillion says, “Color me in!”

Sources: E Online, HitFix, TV Squad,

• Fox Is Letting Dollhouse Go
• Joss Whedon To Direct An Episode of Glee
• The Friday Night Death Slot: Sarah Connor Chronicles & Dollhouse
• Fox Announces Fall TV Lineup & Squirms On Sarah Connor
• FOX To Air All 13 Episodes of Dollhouse
• Joss Whedon Gets Control Over His Dollhouse

Due to technical difficulties beyond my control, the digital dog ate my homework. Or, I had to write this article twice! The digital dog just sounds more light-hearted than what the second line implies. Enough about my woes with technological gremlins.

There wasn’t a ton of news to report or snark on this week, so I had to dig up enough to make this yet another interesting read. Well, at least I think it is! I do have a few snippets that might be spoilers for The Office (Guest appearance) and Lost (Possible finale shoot notes).

Shall we get on with it?

Big Reminder:

The DVD movie, Stargate Ark of Truth will be on Friday night on The Sci-Fi Channel!  Don’t forget!

Viewer Numbers From Last Week

As of Wednesday, these are some of the viewer estimates from some shows we like, and some we think you may follow.

The top performing show of the week was Wednesday’s American Idol which brought in just over 23 million viewers. After that, are some of the shows we’d be more interested in how they’re doing.

Show (Network): Number of viewers in the millions

• 60 Minutes (CBS): 17.04 (Would you look at that! People like the news!)
• NCIS (CBS): 15.84
• The Mentalist (CBS): 15.49
• Desperate Housewives (ABC): 14.75
• Grey’s Anatomy (ABC): 14.61
  
• Two and a Half Men (CBS): 14.12
• Criminal Minds (CBS): 13.74
• CSI: Miami (CBS): 13.61
• House (Fox): 13.13
• CSI: NY (CBS): 12.79
• Without a Trace (CBS): 11.87
• Rules of Engagement (CBS): 11.42
• Cold Case (CBS): 11.41
• 24 (Fox): 11.36
• Castle (ABC): 10.97
• Law & Order: SVU (NBC): 10.74
• Bones (Fox): 10.52
• Lie to Me (Fox): 10.26
• Brothers & Sisters (ABC): 10.15
• The Big Bang Theory (CBS): 9.69
• ER (NBC): 9.47
• Lost (ABC): 8.82
• The Office (NBC): 7.95
• Burn Notice (USA): 7.31
• 30 Rock (NBC): 7.02
• Ugly Betty (CBS): 7
• Heroes (NBC): 6.48
• My Name Is Earl (NBC): 6.42
• Better Off Ted (ABC): 5.50
• Kings (NBC): 4.60
• Dollhouse (Fox): 4.14
• Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (Fox): 3.65
• Smallville (CW): 3.29
• Supernatural (CW): 3.15
• Battlestar Galactica (SciFi): 2.4

Better Off Ted

As you can see the premiere of Better Off Ted wasn’t as big as ABC might have hoped for. Maybe things will pick up after basketball.

Some Of Our Faves

Though the Fox network had its usual low set of numbers for a Friday with Dollhouse and The Sarah Connor Chronicles, both shows had a small improvement from the week before. Supernatural also had some increase in viewers but Smallville had a slight drop.

Word on the street is that despite the numbers, Dollhouse may return next season. No promises Though.

Battlestar Galactice Finale

The highly debated two-hour series-finale of Battlestar Galactica brought in 2.4 million viewers last Friday. No, not big on the numbers compared to network, but good enough for cable networks. That number made it the most-watched episode since Jan. 6, 2006 and it outperformed the season three-finale by 56%.

Burn Notice

The second season-finale of the USA drama Burn Notice hit a record 7.31 million viewers in its Friday 10 p.m. time slot. Go Michael Westin!!

Sources: Media Week, TV By The Numbers, TV Guide

Nothing Says Canceled Like…

This is pure conjecture on my part, but from what I’m seeing, I feel that The Sarah Connor Chronicles is not coming back next season. I say that because Stephanie Jacobsen, (Jesse from The Sarah Connor Chronicles), has joined the cast of the Melrose Place pilot in the role of Lauren. Lauren is a med student who is a high-end call girl by night. (Now let’s see if you can get her accent out of your head now!)

On top of that, Brian Austin Green, is being reported as lining up a role in another CW pilot called Body Politic.

Granted, these two are not main characters and these shows are only pilots, but I’m guessing some contracts either allow for this, or have ended on TSCC. My feel is that the execs at FOX aren’t holding their breath for an additional season and specific characters are not going to be needed. I actually got that feel from the panel at WonderCon in ‘Frisco anyway.

TSCC did get their 2nd season from the advertisers, and again – my conjecture – because of the upcoming Terminator Salvation movie. With that movie fast approaching release date, the curiosity seekers have dwindled and the tie-ins that could be, are no longer.

Last weeks episode carried quite a bit of drama with it and I am enjoying it. Yet there’s only so far they can go with it.

In case you have the hots for additional news on the desperate reboot attempt of Melrose Place, other cast members reporting in are Colin Egglesfield, (All My Children), Michael Rady (Greek), Katie Cassidy (Supernatural), Ashlee Simpson (7th Heaven) and Jessica Lucas (90210).

Source: TV Guide

Speaking of Brian Austin Green

Brian Austin Green’s role as Derek Reese on TSCC may not be the only thing he’s possibly leaving behind! This is just shameless gossip, and a great excuse to add a nice picture to my post, but it’s been reported that Megan Fox moved out of the house she was sharing with Brian.

You know those moments that we look back on and reference about the “One that got away”? I think Green just took the cake on this one!

Guys, the line forms to the right!

Source: E Online

The Sopranos Creator Returns To HBO

David Chase, the creator behind The Sopranos, is coming back to HBO with a new idea in mind.

A Ribbon of Dreams is a mini-series that is set in 1913 and follows two very different men — one a college-educated mechanical engineer and the other, a cowboy with a violent past.

They form a partnership and become motion picture pioneers. Their journey is followed as the Hollywood film industry evolves from silent westerns to talking pictures and into the studio system of present day.

The premise initially seems kind of ‘meh’, but if you dwell on this, it may have a ton of potential with the various eras and lots of different people that may come and go through the series.

Source: TV Guide

No Heather Locklear Here

Even though the CW landed many of the veteran stars back on set for the 90210 reboot, they are having no luck getting Heather Locklear for their new version of Melrose Place. I think it might have been a matter of who is employed and who is not. Locklear has a few projects in the making.

The CW has tried to cover their tracks with this thinly disguised cop out press release:

“There wasn’t a way to bring her back that made sense.”

Riiight. I love PR. But some days it seems like it really is their job to get blood out of a turnip. (Have you figured out this was just another excuse to post a pretty face?)

Source: EW

Back Gets More Cast

CBS has two more stars for their new pilot titled Back. The CBS pilot will star Skeet Ulrich (Jericho) and the two new cast members are Sherry Stringfield (ER) and D.B. Woodside (24).

Back is about a man (Skeet Ulrich) who returns home after eight years. The catch? Everyone thought he died in the 9/11 tragedies, so he was reported as missing.

Sherry Stringfield is Ulrich’s wife. Upon his return, he discovers she’s moved on with a new hubby, which is classic Cast Away. (Man I hurt for him when Hanks returned home to find his wife off with a new hubby and kids.) With Ulrich’s return to this depressing scenario, he’s going to need a shrink. That’s where Woodside comes in. He will be playing that shrink.

Dang, I’m depressed for him already!

PS: Before you ask, no, I don’t know why he went away.

Source: TV Guide

The Office Guest Star

(Mild actor / story line Spoiler)

If I’m not mistaken, Idris Elba (The Wire, Rocknrolla), has started his 6 week guest stint on The Office.

Amy Ryan (The Wire, Gone Baby Gone), is also scheduled to show up as the H.R. goddess Holly Flax for the final episode of the season.

Source: E Online

Lost Season Finale Conjecture

(May be a mild finale spoiler)

It seems that ABC was advertising or seeking extras in Hawaii to play the parts of guests at a wedding on Lost. The timing of such an inquiry is not lost on a few. If schedules are on track, this is the time frame that they would be shooting the season-finale.

Now what would a wedding pertain to? Who knows. It could be a past wedding, or a future wedding. Or a future wedding from their past that is really the present yesterday? I think I just hurt my brain.

Eh, just thought I’d toss this snippet out.

Source: E Online

SOME FUN STUFF:

Next Top Model Gone Bad

Last week 4 people were injured and 2 hospitalized after a stampede of high heel cuties erupted in New York during a casting call for America’s Next Top Model.

At first I thought there was an impromptu makeup sale on the street corner.

It turned out that while hundreds of fashion model wannabe’s were lingering around in line to audition for the show, an argument had ensued. During or after the spat, a BMW either drove by or broke down near the mascara smeared mob and when it spewed some smoke, someone in the automotive-challenged hoard had yelled bomb, and the surge for pseudo safety was on!

The three that were arguing were arrested.

I really enjoyed the reference to this whole thing from the source article over on E Online:

“Fashion Week meets Thunderdome.”

I can’t imagine what a herd of spiked heels running might sound like.

Universal Pictures Has Some !!!!’s

The Advertising Standards Authority, (ASA) a London-based watchdog group, is asking British broadcasters to not air a commercial regarding the DVD release of the 2008 Angelina Jolie flick, Wanted. They’re saying that the movie glorifies and glamorizes gun violence.

Being that the ASA doesn’t get that people are not that stupid, Clearcast, the approving agencies for TV advertisements feels confident that viewers just might be able to distinguish the difference between the fantasy shooting action in Wanted vs. real life. What? You can’t curve bullets? Crap.

Per BBC News, Universal Pictures has replied with the most humorous statement:

“Maybe the ASA, which also banned the ‘Wanted’ posters last year, objects to a female lead handling the big guns, rather than the guns themselves.”

Though I have a hard time believing that was their official company line on the issue, I think Universal Pictures just made a fan out of me anyway.

Source: E Online

• The Friday Night Death Slot: Sarah Connor Chronicles & Dollhouse
• TV Renewal And Cancellation Notes To Date
• Weekly TV Wrap Up – March 12th, 2009
• Are Smallville And Supernatural Ending Next Season?
• Dollhouse & Sarah Connor Ratings Better Than We Think
• Solved: Dollhouse – The Mystery Of The 13th Episode

So what’s happening this week with some of our favorite television shows? I’ll fill you in on the vaporizing ratings for Dollhouse, The Sarah Connor Chronicles and others. I touch on some Supernatural & NCIS casting news and a season ending story development. I then sprinkle some CSI:NY bits and round it out with some Lily cast updates.

Let’s check it out.

Ratings Notes

A sad ratings note: The completely non-advertising supported set of repeats of Jericho on The CW scored a 0 in ratings. A zero. Of course they are Nielsen families, so that means none of them made any sense of it the first time around and they don’t want to deal with it a 2nd time.

Though it hasn’t been officially announced, inside sources are saying Heroes will be renewed for another 18-20 episodes next season.

Knight Rider, on the other hand, has been parked and done. The season finale had a 21% drop off in ratings from its premiere. Sorry to say for the KR fans out there. I guess it’s time to snatch up the DVD when or if that ever comes out.

Dollhouse fell below 4 million viewers last week, snagging only 3.5 million viewers during the airtime. This is Echo, looking for viewers in the audience!

The Sarah Connor Chronicles viewers dwindled to below 3 million viewers. Friday may be bad, but this is really bad. Maybe as they quit focusing on Sarah’s “3 dot pursuit” and more on Cameron, we might wake up on Fridays once again.

Sources: E Online, TV Guide, TV Guide

V Snags A Firefly Alum

ABC’s reboot of V has landed Morena Baccarin (aka Firefly’s Inara and Stargate SG-1’s Adria) has been cast as Anna, whose referred to as the “frontwoman” for the alien visitors who come to Earth.

Source: TV Guide

Supernatural

Now that Supernatural has found itself renewed for a 5th season, we will be seeing more of Misha Collins, who plays the angel Castiel. Collins will become a series regular next season. Misha says that with his extended stay, he’ll be doing some butt whooping.

Source: SciFi Wire

NCIS

The news on the street is that NCIS is going to focus heavily on Tony (Michael Weatherly) and Ziva (Cote de Pablo) in the last 4 episodes of the season. But with their complicated love triangle involving Michael Rifkin (Merik Tadros), they have planned a pretty explosive ending lined up for the viewers.

Source: Entertainment Weekly

CSI: NY

Winding up to the season finale of CSI: NY, big things are going to happen. The team loses one of their own, Ed Asner will be making an appearance and Craig T. Nelson winds up his story arc. I dare not say anymore!

Source: Entertainment Weekly

Lily

The Gossip Girl spin off tentatively titled Lily is starting to line up some cast.

The CW is in advanced talks with Cynthia Watros (Lost) and Andrew McCarthy (Lipstick Jungle) to come onboard. Watros and McCarthy would play play CeCe and Rick Rhodes, Lily’s parents and Serena’s grandparents. (Caroline Lagerfelt plays CeCe on the current series.)

The “backdoor pilot” episode is slated to air May 11.

Source: E Online

A Quick Rant

As anyone seen the latest COMCAST commercial where they have this sing-song monotone chant / rap throughout the ad while real people exist in some cartoonish world? Is it just me, or do you want to throw your TV out the window when that ad comes on? Ack!

A Question To Our Readers:

Do we have any Gossip Girl fans hanging out around here? Let me know.

Additionally, if there’s anything you have a hankering for, ask away in the comments section and I’ll scour the news for these requests. All you have to do is ask. I’ll be watching for your comments.

• TV Renewal And Cancellation Notes To Date
• Weekly TV Wrap Up – February 26th, 2009
• The Friday Night Death Slot: Sarah Connor Chronicles & Dollhouse
• Weekly TV Wrap Up – May 21st, 2009
• TV Ratings: ‘V’ Down 27% In Second Week
• Are Smallville And Supernatural Ending Next Season?

When we all heard that FOX was going to put The Sarah Connor Chronicles and Dollhouse on Friday nights, we all went ballistic. We know that Friday nights are a death knoll for a show. It’s hard to ignore the fact that when your favorite gets to replace reality skeins Cops, or My Dad Is Better Than Your Dad, it just ain’t good news. Just start saving up for that single season DVD pack. Right?

Well hold your horses on this one folks. There may be a glint of light at the end of the usually very short Friday night tunnel, or is there?

Despite ratings not looking so hot for either The Sarah Connor Chronicles (TSCC) or Dollhouse for Friday nights, the time shifted viewing numbers are giving the shows some serious bump!

The premiere of Dollhouse saw an increase of viewers by 30% with time shifted viewing.

The Sarah Connor Chronicles increased by 36% from that same night.

For a Friday night show being viewed via time shifting, these are huge numbers. It even beats out the most popular Friday night show, Ghost Whisperer.

So what does this mean for the survival of either show? I don’t know. It’s hard to read the mind of single cell entities in the programming departments!

This tells the studios that yes, we are indeed watching and they need to pay attention to us. But while we are showing up in strong time shifted viewer numbers, this doesn’t do the pocketbook sources, the advertisers, any good. The only people that this kind of number is good for is the DVR equipment makers and the remote control manufacturers as we wear out our FF buttons or trash on our DVR’s hard drive making it skip all the useless noise of commercials.

Commercials are becoming a thing of the past folks! Those Nielsen families need to start using DVR’s full time and get off the live viewing schedules… oh wait, those Nielsen families need to actually start watching sci-fi shows.

Our beloved shows need to start figuring out how to get their advertisers some numbers. Plain and simple. That’s how they’re going to keep advertisers around paying the bills and keeping shows we love on the air. Otherwise, our own viewing behavior where we skip commercials and don’t end up buying their products is killing the shows we love. Ironic, ain’t it? I hate it.

So these new numbers sort of make things look a little better for TSSC and Dollhouse, that’s for sure. Even though the TSSC exec was very optimistic at the WonderCon panel I attended last weekend, you can read between the lines the way Josh Friedman was answering the questions about future seasons. He had hope, but there was no tangible hope to offer. The same can probably be said for Dollhouse. Yet it is Friday night, and these days, Friday night is a little harder to get booted from because of its lessened expectations these days. Not impossible, but harder!

Source: THR Feed

• The Friday Night Death Slot: Sarah Connor Chronicles & Dollhouse
• How Are Smallville & Dollhouse Doing On Friday Nights?
• TV Renewal And Cancellation Notes To Date
• Fox Announces Fall TV Lineup & Squirms On Sarah Connor
• Solved: Dollhouse – The Mystery Of The 13th Episode
• Fox Is Letting Dollhouse Go

The Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles panel had Josh Friedman, Summer Glau and Shirley Manson in attendance.

The panel started with a preview of upcoming scenes from the rest of the season.  First, we watched Catherine Weavers daughter skipping down a typical hall in her mom’s big company.  She accidentally finds John Henry.  John Henry asks her if she wants to play hide and seek.  The door shuts behind the little girl, but John Henry is across the room and it seemed obvious the little girl didn’t shut it.  Creepy imagery.

A few of the other scenes we’ve already seen on TV, but there was a new scene where John is laying on top of Cameron, sort of breathing hard… no, no…  fully clothed… but still.  I think it’s a misdirect cause I can’t wrap my mind around that one yet.  This isn’t Westworld!

So let’s do a quick rundown on moderator questions:

On the three dots that Sarah has been chasing, Josh Friedman said all will be revealed.

Will we ever see Shirley and Summer fight?  Well, besides in the green room, no.  Besides, he thinks Shirley would kick Cameron’s ass anyway.

He was asked why have we not seen so much Cameron recently.  Friedman said that he’s been focusing on Sarah for the last few episodes (yeah, we noticed).  The challenge with Cameron, he added, is that there are alpha issues between the two.  Obviously Sarah’s in charge, but Cameron is the kick butt machine.  But never fear, the last six episodes will have a lot of Cameron in them.

On a machine trying to be a mother:  Shirley finds she likes the challenge of the subtleties there.  It’s a machine, but it’s trying to mimic motherhood, trying to make nice with the child.

After seeing her own scenes where she destroyed the warehouse in the desert, Shirley said she was thrilled to do it and after watching it, she felt that she was “scary bad ass.”

Friedman was asked if they will push forward to meet with the movie mythos.  He said no.

He added that he likes moving his story along slowly.  Moving things too fast makes it a soap opera of sorts.  He wants to see his characters actually earn their developments, their changes.  Though he does recognize that commercially speaking, that isn’t always the best approach.  But when all is said and done, it is Terminator.

As far as whether he’s heard anything about a third season, he said there’s no news.  Every time he goes on set, he sees the 250 people looking at him, wondering if they have a job next week.

There are six episodes left and there will be lots of action with many questions getting answered in these episodes.  He said he was surprised at the number of reveals that they pulled off in the last six episodes.  And he said we will be at last seeing Shirley and Summer in a scene together.

The fans started to ask questions at this point and here’s what came from that part of the session:

Shirley said that going to a TV series is surreal for her.  She’s been making music since she was 15 and and she gets confused by lingo like “we’re gonna force you tonight,” and she left us with a confused, yet deadpan expression on that one.  The audience found themselves eliciting a chuckle out of that one.

Summer explained that after a 12 hour day, it’s overtime.  If you do that, and then they bring you back without a 12 hour break, it’s referred to as “forcing” you.  Dang, I had a sense the audience was hoping for more than that.

As far as bringing any more Terminator mythos characters into the show, Friedman said no.  He likes the cast family he has.

Friedman did toss out that he has a plan and is continuing with that story plan.  This 2nd season finale encompasses 20 episodes of buildup and it does pay off.  Yet he’s also opened more doors with more questions for a third season if they do get renewed.  He added that he doesn’t want to end the show with all the questions answered and no new questions.  He doesn’t want FOX to think he has no new questions.  He doesn’t want them to think he’s done.

Someone asked a Firefly reference of Summer.  In the outtakes of Firefly, they wanted to know why when the cast goofs their lines, they yell out Summer’s name!  She said that during a scene prior to that, she was playing with a rubber ball and the toy distracted her while filming a scene and she missed her line.  The director yelled SUMMER!! … and it sort of stuck.

As for whether there’s any more music in Shirley’s future, she replied “I hope so!”  She wants to continue to make music the rest of her life.  Of late though, she’s been pretty busy with the show so she hasn’t had the time right now.

Someone asked Friedman about Shirley’s character intro scene into the show and how they came about using Shirley’s music.  Basically, Friedman didn’t want someone else to do her intro music and then feel stupid about it if he didn’t ask her… So he did, she said yes.

And no, there will be no effort to create any continuity ties to the new movie, Terminator: Salvation.

The last question came at Summer, asking her if she liked where Cameron was by the end of this season and Summer seemed confused.  She wasn’t sure what to say and looked at Friedman, and then she sort of held her head and just said she is both happy and sad about the end of the season and where it finds Cameron.

I’ve have to say, everyone on the panel was rather engaging.  Friedman seemed to speak from the heart, Manson was at ease on the panel and this is the first time I have ever seen Summer with emotion.  All I’ve ever seen of her was playing her emotionless or crazy roles.  This was a fun panel.

• WonderCon 2009 – ‘Chuck’ Panel
• Dollhouse Comic-Con 2009 Panel
• Fox Is Letting Dollhouse Go
• Smallville Comic-Con 2009 Panel
• TV Renewal And Cancellation Notes To Date
• WonderCon 2009 – Terminator Salvation Panel

Early Ratings For Dollhouse On Fox:
So as Vic said in his review of the premiere, the premise of Dollhouse is a bit creepy, but I thought the story line involving the clients wasn’t too bad.  Oh great, a he said – he said article!

At first glance, the ratings for the show are just not that impressive and if the networks are consistent in their responses to the antiquated ratings system, both Dollhouse and The Sarah Connor Chronicles seem lacking, though some call Dollhouse’s ratings a success.

The early numbers for Joss Whedon’s Dollhouse premiere had an estimated 4.7 million viewers.  These numbers are a lot higher than I expected, I’m glad it at least brought that many viewers in.  On the somber side, FOX usually brings in 5.5 million viewers on Friday nights.

Despite this apparent disconnect in numbers, FOX was still 2nd on Friday night in adults 18-34 and first place across key male demographics.  Which isn’t surprising, considering the amount of skin and suggestive “Active’s” assignments they’re taking with the show.

The real mind bender comes from the network insiders who say that these kind of numbers on any other night would mean certain doom by the third episode of any show.  But being on Friday nights actually gives it a fighting chance since Fridays are notorious for weak numbers to begin with.  Go figure.  So for now, all of us in the Whedon-sphere have to somehow convince all of our friends and neighbors that they want to watch this show!

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles Ratings:
It looks like the Friday night curse did bite The Sarah Connor Chronicles.

Chronicles was the lead-in for Dollhouse and it’s numbers weren’t too hot.  It brought in only 3.7 million viewers.  The previous week, Cops brought in 4 million viewers.  Ouch.

For now, Chronicles will air its final and probably last episodes in this time slot and once done, Prison Break will take its place to run out its final six episodes.

But I would be remiss to not mention something that is on my mind about this latest episode of Chronicles.  I don’t know about you, but just what the heck was all that noise in the mid-season finale about UFO’s and taking liberties with a modified version of the California Drone?  Sarah saw a UFO coming down on her when she was shot, and then suddenly Sarah wakes up in a hospital?  They completely skipped the UFO we saw.  If they continue with those kind of disconnects in their stories, this show is going to hurt, and hurt bad.

OK… I got that off my chest.

Upcoming Scenes from Dollhouse and The Sarah Connor Chronicles:

Echo (Eliza Dushku, R) is sent on an engagement as an outdoorsman’s (Matt Keeslar, L) dream date in the Dollhouse episode “The Target”

Echo (Eliza Dushku) is sent on an engagement as a back-up singer assigned to protect a pop star from an obsessed fan in the Dollhouse episode “Stage Fright”

Derek Reese (Brian Austin Green, second from L) and Sarah (Lena Headey, third from L) are in search for answers at a funeral in the Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles episode “Desert Cantos”

John (Thomas Dekker) sneaks into the sleep clinic where his mother is staying in the Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles episode “Some Must Watch, While Some Must Sleep”

Sources:  Fox Publicity, EW.com, E Online

• The Friday Night Death Slot: Sarah Connor Chronicles & Dollhouse
• Dollhouse & Sarah Connor Ratings Better Than We Think
• Fox Announces Fall TV Lineup & Squirms On Sarah Connor
• Dollhouse Season 2 Premiere – Ratings & Discussion
• Fox Is Letting Dollhouse Go
• Dollhouse Season 2 Discussion

This week, we chat about Caprica, Supernatural, the NCIS spin-off, a new vampire pilot from The CW, Criminal Minds, Ghost Whisperer, Bones, Grey’s Anatomy and some bits about ABC renewing some shows. Also, since we reported that Dave Letterman was announcing the 2009 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit cover model last week, it’s only right that we finish what we started with a little something at the bottom of this post. Shall we get on with it? I knew you’d say that.

But before I say anything else, I would be remiss to not remind you that Joss Whedon’s Dollhouse and Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles are coming to your TV this Friday night!

Caprica, the prequel to Battlestar Galactica:
The two-hour prequel of Caprica is not due to air until the series launches in 2010. That isn’t all that far away but if you can’t handle the wait, you can actually buy it earlier than that on DVD or digital download beginning April 21st.

Caprica will be starring Eric Stoltz, Esai Morales, Paula Malcolmson and Polly Walker. Also Joss Whedon fans are spinning in joy because Caprica is being executive produced by noted Buffy The Vampire Slayer and BSG alumni Jane Espenson.

Stoltz, in his ever dead pan sort of approach said:

“I’m very excited about it. We’re all sort of surprised that something with this kind of rich interesting content is actually going forward.“

Hopefully it’s not too deep of a content filled show to drag it down. We all know how intellectual story lines can kill a show these days with our much valued Nielsen families! Source: E Online,

A Supernatural Brother Is Cast!
It’s finally happened! The CW cast the third Winchester brother for Supernatural! Jake Abel (Threshold) has been tapped to step into this critical role as the third Winchester brother, an 18-year-old named Adam Milligan. He will be joining Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles in the April 23rd episode.

Adam is the product of an affair that John Winchester had while he was off on one of his demon squashing trips. And John knew about him.

He’ll only be in one episode and the episode has got some surprises for us. Hmm.. What do you think girls? Source: E Online.

The NCIS spin-off is getting its cast:
The NCIS spin-off is staffing up nicely. Chris O’Donnell has been tapped to play Callen, a character who changes personalities often! And the other cool cat looking at a role in the show is LL Cool J, who was reported to be in final talks to play the role of Sam Hanna, an ex-Navy SEAL.

CBS still has four other roles to fill and the new team will have their spin-off introduced as an episode of NCIS to air later this season before getting their own show slot. Source: EW.com.

The CW Jumps On the Vampire Bandwagon:
Before the much vaunted series of Twilight books, there was a four-book series called Vampire Diaries written by L.J. Smith. With Twilight having gone all agog, the publisher has released the books again.

At first I thought they were only trying to cash in on the vampire craze, but the books have hit the NY Times best seller list and three more books have been ordered.

Now The CW has ordered a pilot based on the 1993 book series. They’ll be bringing together Kevin Williamson (Scream, I Know What You Did Last Summer) and Julie Plec (Kyle XY) to both executive produce and write the pilot.

It will be about a young woman who’s torn between two vampire brothers. There is a good brother and an evil brother and they’re battling for the souls of the young woman, her buddies, her family and the small town where they live in. Sounds like a Mongolian barbecue run to me! Source: Variety

Criminal Minds Guest Star
If you’re an Alex McLoughlin fan, and a Criminal Minds fan, go crazy if you want! McLoughlin will be guest starring in an episode of Criminal Minds where he will be playing the role of a serial killer. Dang, if you think about his demeanor, that just sounds perfect now, doesn’t it?

The episode is going to be unique attempt at seeing things from the killers Point of view.

It’s also been hinted at that we’ll be seeing more of Loughlin on CBS soon. No more details were available. No, don’t get your hopes that high. I doubt it’s Moonlight, but heck, that sure would be nice though, wouldn’t it? Source: EW.com.

Ghost Whisperer
It’s about frackin’ time! Melinda will be finally telling the new Sam about her abilities and she’s going to be letting him in on his own secret issues in the March 6th episode. Now, let’s see how he handles that one!!! Melinda will also be encountering some ghost hunters. LOL… Too bad it’s CBS. NBC could have brought Ghost Hunters International across the set for one episode. Now that would have been an awesome cross-over! Source: CBS Press

Bones News:
Any Bones fans out there? Just a tiny tidbit: Booth and Brennan will be getting “together” before seasons’ end. Something to look forward to… I guess. Source: EW.com.

ABC Will Be Renewing Some Shows
Despite not willing to announce the pickups, it’s being reported that ABC is renewing the following shows:
Ugly Betty,
Grey’s Anatomy,
Desperate Housewives,
Brothers & Sisters,
Extreme Makeover: Home Edition,
America’s Funniest Home Videos, and
The Bachelor.

Speaking of Grey’s Anatomy
During an interview, James Pickens Jr. who plays Dr. Richard Webber gave up the ghost and revealed that Katherine Heigl and T.K. Knight are both leaving the show. This news has been floating around as rumors since July on Knight and December on Heigl. I won’t miss Heigl, but it’s a shame about Knight. Source: Us Magazine.

And Finally, The 2009 Sports Illustrated Cover Girl!
How do I put this? Leonardo DiCaprio is one lucky ****. Her name is Bar Refaeli. There ya have it!

You’re welcome!

• CBS Plans ‘Criminal Minds’ Spinoff
• Weekly TV Wrap Up – May 21st, 2009
• Upcoming 2009 TV Season Finales
• Weekly TV Wrap Up – March 12th, 2009
• Weekly TV Wrap Up – August 6th, 2009
• Weekly TV Wrap Up – March 19th, 2009

How do you spell butt-kicking, bombshell babes?  D-O-L-L-H-O-U-S-E.  I’ve been excited by this show for a while.  I’ve always found Eliza Dushku to be endlessly attractive and am a big fan of Joss Whedon, but until now, I wasn’t sure if the general pace and personality of the show would be directed towards me.

Especially considering the fact that Dollhouse is set to air Friday nights after Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronocles…  A time slot that is usually the slow death of a show.  This, combined with Dollhouse’s general lack of solid television promos, had me fearing the worst: A swift death at the hand of lofty viewers.

But then I saw the light.  Actually, I saw the recently released grindhouse-themed Dollhouse promo and it’s given me all the hope in the world that this show will be as awesome as I’d anticipated.  It’s clever, funny and totally edgy.  One of the things that makes it stick out is the fact that both shows are being billed as a double feature.

The promo is definitely awesome, and hits their target but this does not necessarily mean an overall victory for the shows. TVSquad commented:

“Granted, this does not mean that the shows are going to win in the ratings (which is unlikely due to their schedule placement), but it does at least appear that Fox is more aware of its target audience. This is a point Joss Whedon has made in a couple of interviews.”

I guess we’ll all have to wait and see what the overall result for the shows ends up being, but in the short term, I’ve gotten a glimpse of the awesome potential of Dollhouse and it’s characters and I cannot wait for more.  Then again, if it’s terrible it won’t be the first time I have been duped into caring about a show that ends up being terrible.

Dollhouse premieres Friday, February 13th and Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles returns on the same night.

• Dollhouse & Sarah Connor Ratings Better Than We Think
• Fox Announces Fall TV Lineup & Squirms On Sarah Connor
• Fox Is Letting Dollhouse Go
• TV Renewal And Cancellation Notes To Date
• The Friday Night Death Slot: Sarah Connor Chronicles & Dollhouse
• Dollhouse Season 2 Discussion