This year’s World Series battle between the valiant Philadelphia Phillies and the evil empire of the New York Yankees (oh, did I mention I’m from the Philadelphia area?) drew an average 19.4 million viewers and a 6.2 Nielsen rating, according to THR.

Remember the muttering about how the country wanted an LA/NY World Series?  Didn’t seem to keep people from tuning in anyway.

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Probably THE spectacle movie of 2009 is going to end up being Roland Emmerich’s latest big-budget disaster flick, 2012, which focuses on the Mayan prophecy that the world will end in December of the year 2012. The $200 million, special-effects laden, film stars the likes of John Cusack, Amanda Peet, Woody Harrelson, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Thandie Newton and Danny Glover, and is set to crash into theaters in a week’s time.

However, with a film of this size, you know the buck rarely stops at one. In this case, Emmerich is already looking ahead at making more out of his latest disaster tale. Recently news surfaced that there was a 2012 sequel spin-off  TV series in the works (yes, they’re thinking about furthering this seemingly finite disaster story). But wait, how can there be a sequel, in any form, of 2012… isn’t it supposed to be about the end of the world? That’s what I thought, but apparently that’s not exactly the case. Thanks to Cinemablend we have some info on what the spin-off show might take:

[SPOILERS ahead]

Hankering for some Captain N? In need of the Superhuman Samurai Cybersquad? Been wondering what Penny, Brain and Inspector Gadget are up to? Well, we’ve got just what you need as The Cookie Jar Company has just launched Jaroo.com, a Hulu-esque video site with full-length episodes of over 50 television series that anyone who remembers when Saturday morning was “Saturday morning” will enjoy.

Jaroo.com launches today with one of the largest selections of full-length episodes of popular kids television programming and movies, both current and classic. The new free premium video destination for kids of all ages will initially offer over 50 popular TV series with more than 500 episodes available on-demand, any time, making entertaining your child or inner-child just a simple click away. Full episodes of such longtime favorites as “Inspector Gadget”, “Johnny Test”, “Super Mario Bros.”, “Zelda”, “The Adventures of Paddington Bear” and “Madeline” as well as the exclusive U.S. premiere of “Mona the Vampire” are available on Jaroo.com.

Additional shows include “Ripley’s Believe It or Not!”, “Horseland”, “Liberty’s Kids” and live-action favorite, “Cake”, plus many more. New episodes and shows will be added daily, with over 2,000 episodes offered over the next three months to ensure Jaroo.com will always remain fresh.

Screen Rant - Television

When Arthur Nielsen first started metering television with his Audimeter, there were only 200 TV sets in use world wide. Originally, the Nielsen system was meant to measure brand advertising analysis for radio in the 30’s. When the Nielsen system established itself in 1950, the average home had 1 television and received three networks.  I’m betting someone back then probably was saying “With all these channels, and there’s still nothing on!”

As a society, we’ve grown beyond the constraints of the television itself.  We now watch our favorite shows not only when we want, but where and how we want. We have shows streaming on the internet to our laptops, desktops, phones and even streaming into our televisions now!  Who knows what else will come up.

Modern times are starting to tear apart that standard system of what time a show airs and what day. As this methodology of watching shows develops, I predict that the Friday night time slots will no longer be the death knell it’s known for but just a quaint myth.

The original V series that aired back in the 80s was basically about the threat of Communism and Soviet Russia, so I anticipated that ABC’s remake would have some sort of political undertone as well. What suprised me in the pilot was the apparent target of the show’s political undertone: President Barack Obama.

The episode opens with the standard TV pilot mechanism of briefly showing us a a minute or so of each of the characters we’ll come to know over the course of the series. We have the handsome newscaster who is not taken seriously and wants to get ahead, the single mom FBI agent, a priest and a man with an obviously shadowy background trying to make a fresh start in life.

[WARNING: READ AT YOUR OWN RISK!!!]

Last week the Paley Center for Media hosted an “Inside the Writers Room” for the hit HBO vampire series, True Blood. Before the event started, the folks over at Sci-Fi Wire caught up with writer/producers Alan Ball, Alexander Woo and Raelle Tucker, to ask them what kind of things we can expect to see in Season 3.  It appears that the showrunners may still be under demon-god Maryann’s spell as they have no inhibitions about revealing anything and everything about the third season.

Readers beware, WHAT LIES BELOW IS NOTHING BUT SPOILERS!!! So, if you’re the type that doesn’t want things ruined for you, turn back now. But, if you’re like me and can’t bear to wait until June 2010 for the next season, then enjoy.

It’s Wednesday again, time for our regularly scheduled open discussion post.

As usual – talk about whatever you like as long as it’s related to movies, TV or Screen Rant itself – just remember to play nice.

Oh BTW, on a side note: Screen Rant has just passed the 100,000 comment barrier. W00t!

While making the rounds for his hit ABC show Castle, Nathan Fillion spoke with MTV News about all things Hammer and divulged some new information about the highly anticipated sequel to last year’s Emmy award-winning web musical, Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along-Blog.

While we’ve previously announced that they’ve been talking about the sequel, everything has been pretty much in the air, but now Fillion sheds some light on the title and some songs. Unfortunately, Fillion stops short of saying exactly what said title would be.

“There are plans. The media for the sequel has not yet been decided, but there is a title.”

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

With November sweeps and the World Series both starting last week, it causes a strange effect in television ratings. While November sweeps is supposed to bring in high ratings, the World Series always cuts into their usual audience as we’re seeing with ABC’s much touted drama, FlashForward. The new series created by David S. Goyer and Brannon Braga saw its lowest ratings last week and conversly, this past week Smallville saw their highest ratings since the ninth season began.

Still, can the World Series really account for all these ratings fluctuations? As a fan of Smallville, I make sure to always tune in, but even with the show being able to pull in 2.6 million viewers; it’s still down over 1 million viewers from last season. When Smallville made the move to Friday night, The CW was putting their veteran series up against the powerhouse that is CBS’s Friday night line-up. Since the Kryptonian visitor has been able to hold its own on the toughest night of the week, I have a feeling that Mr. Kent may receive another season order.

Happy Friday everyone! For our last Friday of October 2009, Halloween weekend! And you know what that means… we’ve again gathered the latest posters to come out for this week’s poster round-up.

Screen Rant’s wall this week now includes new one-sheets for Sherlock Holmes, The Box, How To Train You Dragon, Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief, The Fourth Kind, The Graves, Psychosis, Old Dogs, The Blackout, Smallville, Cracks, V.A.m.L. and Altitude.

In addition to that, we have some hints as to the meaning of the Lost poster from two weeks back and a little bonus for Tron Legacy.

Let’s get to it.

UPDATE: Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin have been confirmed as the duo of hosts for the Academy Awards in 2010. Click here for details.

If you’re like me and very much enjoyed the job Hugh Jackman did hosting the Oscars last year, you’ll maybe be a bit disappointed to learn that he probably won’t be hosting the ceremony when that time rolls around again early next year. /Film reports that sources are saying that although he’s not ruling out hosting the Oscars in future years to come, he doesn’t want to do it two years in a row.

Personally, I don’t really see the issue there – Jackman did a great job and whether he repeats that success a few years down the line or the year after doesn’t really matter (Billy Crystal did it four years in a row from ‘89-’92). But that’s just me.

Employees of Orange Orange and the Buy More can sleep a little easier at night because, for the time being, it appears that their jobs are safe as NBC has decided to order six more episodes of our favorite undercover underachiever, Chuck.

As good news comes, so must the bad. In this case the bad news is NBC will be canceling their low-rated freshman paramedic series Trauma after just five episodes.  Although, I have a feeling that fans of Chuck won’t be too dejected by this news.

Still, fans of Trauma deserve their moment to grieve and NBC has decided to give them that moment, as they’re committed to airing the remaining seven episodes of Trauma. While it’s only prolonging the inevitable, it’s more than Southland received. (I won’t even bring you up, FOX, and that whole Firefly debacle.)

We all got a shot of worry last week when a story broke that popular TV/Movie streaming site, Hulu would start charging users for its services, starting in 2010. The dastardly claim originated from the mouth of News Corp. Deputy Chairman Chase Carey, who stated that Hulu’s current business model – free streaming content supported by ads – was inadequate for companies who truly want to turn a profit from online content. Carey’s solution? Charge users membership fees for using Hulu.

As soon as we posted that news, many of you chimed in with an almost universal reaction that basically boiled down to “So long, Hulu, been nice knowing you.” Well, either Carey was jumping the gun or the backlash from his statement was big enough to scare the News Corp. bean counters, because Entertainment Weekly is claiming that they have it from a reliable source close to the Hulu camp that users can breathe easy: Hulu won’t be trying to dip into your wallet anytime soon.

Shortly after 9-11, there was a television series that took viewers on a weekly terrorist-fueled adventure. It was based “in real-time,” covering 24 consecutive hours each season with a cast that has made impressions of all kinds over the last eight years. Taking a “day at a time” had a completely new meaning. Whether they’ve weathered kidnappings, terrorist incursions, caravan ambushes or deadly nerve gas, we’ve all come to love the cast of “24″ for one reason or another.

Fox has released the new trailer for season 8 and after taking a gander, I have to say I am impressed. I’ve been marveling at the cast additions that have sprung up over the last several months and as usual, their shooting schedule is raucous as ever.

Friday nights used to be the graveyard for television programs. If you were scheduled to air on Friday night, you were doomed.

Though that might still generally be the case, modern times are changing perspectives on how ratings are looked at by the advertisers. Now-a-days, ratings are considered by many to be the live viewing plus 7 days to be a growing statistic, and if you really think about it, it might even go longer.

But ads have a certain amount of relevant, useful time to their message. So for now, we’re sticking to 7 days. With that said, it’s interesting to see that of the top 5 shows in the top of the DVR tables, 3 of them are Friday night shows.

Despite all the hoopla and what appeared to be NBC directives of enforced support for The Jay Leno Show, and pulling scripted dramas en masse, The Jay Leno Show is not faring as well as could be expected.

NBC made a reasonable pitch, declaring how different the show would be… if you count pulling the desk off the set and rearranging the same routines as different, then fine, it’s different. Otherwise, I’m not sure what the change is. And to boot, viewers aren’t impressed.

At least it doesn’t look good from last Monday night where The Jay Leno Show pulled in 4.6 million viewers…  and was bested by everything on the air except One Tree Hill on The CW, Gossip Girl, again from The CW and, well… huh. That’s it.

Um, remember when ABC announced an ambitious plan for airplanes to be decorating the skies above major landmarks with giant red “V”s to market the upcoming mini-series V?

In case you haven’t figured it out, and way after the fact, it’s being reported that it just isn’t happening.

“Why not?”, I hear you asking.

It seems this promotional effort would pollute the air and since Disney, who owns ABC, declared that they would cut fuel emissions by 2012, this marketing plan didn’t gel with that environmental ideology.

Syfy had themselves a record-setting month in October.

The 5th season of Ghost Hunters is averaging 3 million viewers.

The much debated Stargate Universe is averaging 2.85 million viewers, and doing much better than the last season of Stargate Atlantis. SGU is currently bringing in 36% more total viewers than SGA, but then again, it’s early in the season, so I’m not holding my breath on any numbers holding up for the entire season.

Destination Truth’s 3rd season is averaging 2.2 million viewers.

Scare Tactics, though only averaging 1.56 million viewers in the Fall 2009 season, it’s up 42% from the 2008 season.

It’s Wednesday again, time for our regularly scheduled open discussion post.

As usual – talk about whatever you like as long as it’s related to movies, TV or Screen Rant itself – just remember to play nice.

If you’re reading this as a Lost fan I’m sorry to bring you some disappointing – some would say outright BAD – news about the much-anticipated sixth and final season. IGN (from Abramsology) reports that the last season of Lost will be broken up into two-parts because of, wait for it… the Winter Olympics.

I know, I wish I was joking, too…

This past weekend the creator of Arrested Develoment, Mitchell Hurtwitz, attended the Austin Film Festival and was the focal point of two panels, “The Art of Storytelling” and a “Conversation With Mitchell Hurwitz.” During both panels the “Mrs. Featherbottom” architect discussed our favorite criminally-challenged family and their venture to the big screen with the Arrested Development film.

In “The Art of Storytelling” Hurwitz was accompanied by fellow Arrested Development producers Steven Zaillan and Ron Howard. The trio discussed the origins of the documentary style and how they sought to avoid the comparison to the original British version of The Office which was gaining momentum at the same time of Arrested Development’s development. (Say that three times… Arrested Development’s develop… I can’t even type it.)

Battlestar Galactica: The Plan is coming out on DVD and our friends at UGO.com are giving you the opportunity to sit down to dinner with the king of gravitas, Edward James Olmos – who plays Admiral Adama in the BSG universe.

Here’s what they’re offering if you have what it takes to win:

ABC has made available the first 9 1/2 minutes of V and we have it for you here at Screen Rant.

In the video they try to tie into the emotions one might have felt when JFK was shot or on September 11th.  They ask you where were you when these events happened – and where were you this morning.  Meaning, the morning that the visitors arrive.

If you live in California, you might have an issue or two as the ground shakes with the arrival of the ship.  The first of 29 ships that arrive on Earth.

Check it out after the break and let us know what you think!

Oh Internet, say it ain’t so!

Hulu – my utopia of free TV online – may soon become another run-of-the-buck paid subscription site (see header image)! (Sigh) It was only a matter of time, really…

Broadcasting & Cable brings us this chilling news, which supposedly originated from the mouth of News Corp. Deputy Chairman Chase Carey, who said during the Onscreen Media Summit that:

In a couple of weeks ABC Television will air its remake of the 80s sci-fi hit V. Audiences are all crossing their fingers and hoping that this remake is much better than the past couple of attempts by television studios (Knight Rider, Bionic Woman). Right now, all hopes of success are resting on the shoulders of one vaguely known actress: Morena Baccarin. If you look at all of the marketing leading up to the November 3rd premiere one face sticks out looking down on the city on the bottom of a huge inter-galactic spaceship and it’s Anna (Baccarin).

Any dolls out there looking to have a “treatment” anytime soon had better make haste – that, or risk being stuck with a Swedish accent and the ability to put together an Erector Set blindfolded. Why? FOX has decided to pull Dollhouse off the schedule and put it in the attic. For the month of November anyway.

Sources in the know have stated that the month-long removal is because of November sweeps. The show will return to its Friday night time slot in December with back-to-back episodes.

Fans of the Gallifreyan traveler can add one more thing to the long list of changes we can expect on the new series of Doctor Who premiering in 2010, as one surreptitious fan caught a glimpse of the TARDIS on location in a churchyard. And while it doesn’t appear to actually be bigger on the inside, there’s something different about our favorite time-traveling police box. Luckily, the furtive fan also brought along a camera so I don’t have to describe it (because I’m horrible at descriptions).

“There are lights and stairs.”

See!

This past Saturday, October 17th, I attended my second year of Spike TV’s annual Scream Awards. Not only did I attend, but I had been hand-picked by the casting director to sit front row center for the show! As a fan-focused awards show, it’s much more enjoyable being seated amongst JJ Abrams, Karl Urban, Elijah Wood and Woody Harrelson. My favorite personal surprise of the evening came when the Best Science Fiction Actress nominees were being announced. I cheered (maybe a little too loudly for my girlfriend’s tastes) for Eliza Dushku when her name was announced, only to discover she was sitting right in front of me. She turned around and flashed me her lovely smile. Good thing my girlfriend isn’t the overly-jealous type.

As for the show itself, it seems as though the winners have already been leaked online, and the best surprises have been revealed, even on Spike’s own website. So keep in mind there be spoilers here.

ABC’s new Lost-esque mystery TV series, FlashForward – about a global blackout lasting 2 minutes and 17 seconds, in which time the entire human race gets a vision of their future six months ahead – has been impressive so far. The initial high concept is a whopper, enough (evidently) to bring in 12.4 million viewers for its pilot last month. And ABC is obviously confident in the series with the recent news that it has (thankfully) been picked up for a full first season.

Oh, if only things were as rosy as the ratings make them look… But don’t worry, FlashFoward hasn’t been suddenly canceled or anything of that sort! Put those pitch forks away, people! The Hollywood Reporter is reporting that one of FlashForward’s main players – co-showrunner and executive producer Marc Guggenheim (Eli Stone) – is stepping away from the series, leaving the job solely to the show’s other showrunner and executive producer, David S. Goyer.