It is Thursday yet again. How’s your week been so far? We’re doing good here at Screen Rant.
Today we’re chatting a little about CBS’s season finales, also A Game Of Thrones, Supernatural, Fringe, Burn Notice, BSG, Dexter, Kings, and a bit on Ugly Betty. We’ve also got a video preview of True Blood season two, and a few other bits and pieces. Oh, and of course, I touch on some ratings from the week that was.
Game Of Thrones
The HBO pilot for George R. R. Martin’s A Game Of Thrones will begin filming in Northern Ireland in the 3rd quarter of 2009.
Economically speaking, Northern Ireland is excited about the production coming their way. Emotionally speaking, this is great news for the fans of the book series.
The First Minister Peter D. Robinson said: “This is the first time that a TV production of such vast size and scale has been filmed in Northern Ireland.”
Source: Northern Ireland Executive
Supernatural
Supernatural is all new this week. With the new set of episodes comes the much-heralded meeting between Dean, Sam and their younger brother! Yep. The younger winchester brother I hinted at way back in February, will be played by Jake Abel (Threshold).
And for one more detail to keep in mind, the season finale of Supernatural takes place on May 14th!
Fringe
Everyone is presuming that Fringe will be getting a second season even though it hasn’t been officially announced yet. With that second season will come an interesting move of filming locations.
Fringe has been filming in New York City, but due to something or other about poor tax breaks for television productions, they’re moving to Vancouver.
So the big question is, can they make Vancouver look anything like Boston? I presume so. I’m betting if they actually said they were in New York City, things might have been different, being how cities love to be talked about. They claim it draws tourism.
Source: TV Guide
Prison Break
Prison Break kicked it back in gear last week. Was it me, or did it just not pull you in? I guess it could be that it’s been so long since Fox actually gave up on showed it that I forgot everything. It pulled me back in at about the halfway mark.
But that still doesn’t detract from the 32% ratings drop in viewers on… oh, wait, another show slapped into Friday night! I’m shocked. The show pulled in only 3.3 million viewers. Fox must not care since it’s ending in a few weeks.
The finale is scheduled for a double-episode that airs on May 8th. As far as that stand-alone, 2-hour episode that’s been filmed, no one knows what Fox plans to do with it yet. If it doesn’t air, it better be on the DVD.
The 2-hour movie takes place in a 4-year flash-forward.
Burn Notice
Here’s a confusing note: Burn Notice is going to have a guest star in a season 3 episode.
The actor guest starring will be Michael Weston, from House and Six Feet Under. Weston (The actor) will play a character named Spencer who’s a little imbalanced.
He’s an MIT grad who uncovers a plan to sell the names of spies. Aside from the seriousness of the issue, he believes aliens are behind it. Hmm, they do say imbalanced.
Source: EW.com
Battlestar Galactica
If you’ve been waiting for the chance to purchase season 4.5 of Battlestar Galactica on DVD or Blu-ray, it became available for pre-order. It will be shipping on July 28th.
Source: Universal Studios Home Entertainment
Dexter
Since I’m chatting up DVD’s, let’s talk Dexter. Season 3 of Dexter is available for pre-order, but oddly, no date has been set yet for its delivery. Thought you’d like to know.
Kings
We were asked by a reader if we knew anything about NBC’s Kings. Well, of course we do!
Kings had started out to what NBC considered to be dismal ratings, despite the hoopla they tried to generate about the show. Of course, being originally scheduled for Thursdays, then airing on Sunday’s didn’t help. Then moving it to Saturday, where in theory it was going to do better amongst the world of repeats on Saturday’s, it still didn’t seem to take with the hoped-for audience.
If you were wondering what’s up about the season being finished out, NBC is going to do just that. They’re looking to finish the rest of the season of Kings Starting Saturday, June 13th and running on through to July 25th.
Source: THR
True Blood
For the upcoming second season of HBO’s True Blood, Evan Rachel Wood has been cast as the Louisiana vampire Queen, Sophie-Ann. She’ll be in two episodes near the end of season two and if they go to a third season, she should have a more prevalent role.
Below is a preview of the upcoming 2nd season of True Blood. We already talked a little bit about True Blood’s 2nd season, now let’s show you something about it.
Source: EW.com
CBS Season Finales
The following are season finale dates announced by CBS
| Sunday, May 10 | The Amazing Race |
| Sunday, May 3 & 10 | Cold Case (Two parter) |
| Sunday, May 10 | The Unit |
| Thursday, May 14 | CSI |
| Friday, May 15 | Ghost Whisperer |
| Friday, May 15 | Numb3rs |
| Sunday, May 17 | Survivor Tocantis |
| Monday, May 18 | CSI Miami |
| Tuesday, May 19 | NCIS |
| Tuesday, May 19 | The Mentalist |
| Tuesday, May 19 | Without A Trace |
| Wednesday, May 20 | Criminal Minds |
| Wednesday, May 20 | CSI NY |
Ugly Betty
The season finale of Ugly Betty is due to air on May 21st. Guest stars lined up are Joy Behar and Elisabeth Hasselbeck. They’ll be playing themselves, as View hosts when Daniel is a guest of the show (in the show, not for real. I think I just hurt my brain). I’m sure you’ve heard of the View. It’s the show where the hostess’s get into big rip roaring arguments every 3 to 4 weeks to generate media, and try to pump up their ratings.
One other note: Ugly Betty is coming back on April 30th. That’s one week earlier than it was originally scheduled.
Source: EW.com
Last Week’s Ratings:
I hate repeating myself, so I won’t. When you get to the chart, you’ll see who dominated the top 2 spots. CSI moved into 4th with their Science Fiction Convention-based episode, where we saw some guest appearances by several Battlestar Galactica alumni. Did you catch everyone that was on the show? There were more than just Moore…
From Last Week
CSI had fewer viewers, but moved up from 7th to 4th. Mathematically, that confuses me. Fringe moves up 1 spot to 21st, while the ratings got murdered on Harper’s Island, and it tumbled from 20th to 34th on the list. Meanwhile, Heroes pushed up from 48th to 43rd as it approached its season finale. I included Miss USA 2009… having to be as thorough as I can, and, um, checking the quality of the programming content for our viewers. Yeah, that’s it. Coming in 64th on the list isn’t surprising considering how mundane = the outline they presently have is. Of course, this year, Ms. California seems to have generated the most notoriety I’ve ever seen for a runner-up (1st loser). Dudette, move on already.
We had one premiere, Sit Down Shut up, on Fox that debuted in 60th. Meanwhile, repeat episodes like the perennial performer NCIS still kept the top-20 mixed up. NCIS just hits all the right buttons. The appeal of the police drama, combined with the mystery of the top-secret world of the military and the mix of cast / characters is just the perfect hit for viewers. Good job CBS.
Best Performing Show For Each Network
Fox had American Idol as their bread winner, while ABC’s Dancing with the Stars was their best hit of the week. Considering the eye-candy, I’m not surprised. (I’ve been told one of the dancers, LT’s partner, Edyta Sliwinska, looks like my wife.) CBS hit 4th on the chart with their best performing show, CSI. NBC’s best hit, (on this list) is Southland, hitting 25th on the charts. The CW shows up near the bottom with their best performer, America’s Next Top Model.
Considering how much we love Smallville and Supernatural, I’m surprised at the numbers of these shows. Thank god they’re on the CW. Fox would have taken out their shovel and put them on Friday nights and buried them. Oops, did I just say that? Damn keyboard malfunctions all the time.
| Rank – Show (Network) -Viewers In The Millions |
| 1 - American Idol on Tues (FOX) – 24.378 |
| 2 - American Idol on Wed (FOX) – 24.114 |
| 3 - Dancing With The Stars (ABC) – 19.463 |
| 4 - CSI (CBS) – 15.717 |
| 5 - Dancing W With The Stars Results (ABC) – 15.239 |
| 6 - Two And A Half Men (CBS) – 15.027 |
| 7 - Desperate Housewives (ABC) – 13.851 |
| 8 - NCIS (CBS) – 13.559 (Repeat) |
| 9 - CSI Miami (CBS) – 13.385 |
| 10 – Without A Trace (CBS) – 13.227 |
| 11 – House (FOX) – 12.19 |
| 12 – The Mentalist (CBS) – 12.183 (Repeat) |
| 13 – CSI NY (CBS) – 12.141 |
| 15 – Survivor Tocantins (CBS) – 11.644 |
| 17 – Bones (FOX) – 11.006 |
| 18 – 24 (FOX ) – 10.864 |
| 19 – Criminal Minds (CBS) – 10.577 (Repeat) |
| 20 – Amazing Race 14 (CBS) – 10.305 |
| 21 – Fringe (FOX) – 10.15 |
| 24 – Surviving Suburbia (ABC) – 9.711 |
| 25 – Southland (NBC) – 9.606 |
| 26 – How I Met Your Mother (CBS) – 9.596 |
| 27 – Brothers & Sisters (ABC) – 9.458 |
| 28 – Lost (ABC) – 9.234 |
| 29 – Biggest Loser 7 (NBC) – 9.111 |
| 31 – Apprentice 8 (NBC) – 8.411 |
| 32 – Office (NBC) – 8.37 |
| 34 – Harper’s Island (CBS) – 7.818 |
| 35 – Medium (NBC) – 7.65 |
| 39 – 30 Rock (NBC) – 7.324 |
| 40 – Castle (ABC) – 7.279 |
| 43 – Heroes (NBC) – 6.828 |
| 44 – Numb3rs (CBS ) – 6.754 (Repeat) |
| 45 – Simpsons (FOX) – 6.58 |
| 46 – Ghost Whisperer R (CBS) – 6.525 (Repeat) |
| 47 – Law And Order SVU (NBC) – 6.494 (Repeat) |
| 48 – Flashpoint (CBS ) – 6.358 (Repeat) |
| 49 – Chuck (NBC) – 6.212 |
| 51 – Parks And Recreation (NBC) – 6.015 |
| 52 – The Unusuals (ABC) – 6.013 |
| 53 – NASCAR Sprint Cup (FOX) – 5.984 |
| 54 – Law And Order (NBC) – 5.975 (Repeat) |
| 57 – My Name Is Earl (NBC) – 5.355 |
| 60 – Sit Down Shut Up (FOX) – 5.188 (PREMIERE) |
| 62 – Scrubs on Wed 8pm (ABC) – 5.06 |
| 63 – Grey’s Anatomy (ABC) – 5.059 (Repeat) |
| 64 – Miss Usa 2009 (NBC) – 4.997 |
| 66 – Better Off Ted (ABC) – 4.624 |
| 67 – In The Motherhood (ABC) – 4.618 |
| 70 – NASCAR Pre-Race Show (FOX) – 4.176 |
| 72 – America’s Next Top Model – 6 (CW) – 3.776 |
| 76 – Prison Break (FOX) – 3.335 |
| 80 – 90210 (CW) – 2.133 |
| 81 – Reaper (CW) – 2.052 |
| 82 – Supernatural (CW) – 1.85 (Repeat) |
| 83 – Smallville (CW) – 1.786 (Repeat) |
| 85 – The Game (CW) – 1.245 (Repeat) |
| 88 – One Tree Hill (CW) – 0.91 (Repeat) |
| 89 – Gossip Girl (CW) – 0.904 (Repeat) |
This is a selected 60 out 92 shows rated.
The “I Hope You Haven’t Eaten Yet” Section
I was entertaining the idea of adding ratings from cable networks to accent my basic network table, but after seeing what constituted the top-10 shows on the cable networks, I don’t think I want to irritate myself:
| Show | Net | Day | Viewers, (Millions) | |
| 1 | WWE Entertainment | USA | Mon | 6.0 |
| 2 | SpongeBob | NICK | Fri | 5.8 |
| 5 | In Plain Sight | USA | Sun | 5.1 |
| 6 | Penguins Of Madagascar | NICK | Sat | 5.9 |
| 9 | Hannah Montana | DSNY | Sun | 4.8 |
Just in case you really don’t know, WWE is “wrestling”. I’m not showing spots 3, 4, 7, 8 or 10 because they’re different episodes or air dates of the same things already noted. I’m not sure what to say about SpongeBob giving WWE a run for its money in spots 1-4. I can only root for the sea-faring sponge. Go Bob! Go! Huh, I’ve never rooted for a sponge before.
I think I will digress on the issue and not pursue this!
Personal Thought
I’m straying off the beaten path of my known realm of TV but I have to say that after I saw the short film that the upcoming Tim Burton-produced film, 9, is based on, I was moved at how much could be conveyed in a 10-minute, silent animated short. We are shown back story, present plight and future hopes all in 10 minutes.
I think 9 creator Shane Acker is abso-freakin-lutely genius and I can’t wait for more from him.
If you haven’t checked it out, this link will show you Kofi and Ross’s articles written about 9. Even if you don’t think that silent animated skits are your thing, maybe you can join the “Totally Surprised” section I’m sitting in right now.
I’m Done, I’m Shutting Up
If anyone has anything to add, help or have questions – you can leave a comment and we’ll do our best to answer them in the subsequent weekly article.
Thanks for coming by.
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