It’s Thursday and I hope that April 15th didn’t treat you too harshly yesterday. Whether it did or not, I’m still here to razz or rant on some stuff that’s happening in and around the tube.
Stargate Universe
As if this is a surprise to Stargate fans, but Stargate Universe will be having a few notable guest stars in the form of a few veterans reprising their Stargate SG-1 roles.
Yep, you read that right.
We’ll be seeing Richard Dean Anderson, Amanda Tapping, Michael Shanks and Gary Jones reprising their roles we’ve come to love over the years. Additonally, we’re going to see Christopher McDonald (U.S. senator Alan Armstrong), Janelle Monáe (plays herself. She and her band will perform) and Carlo Rota (Carl Strom, head of the International Oversight Advisory) will also make an appearance.
If this is anything like the way Stargate Atlantis started, we’ll see them in one quick scene, making it an official Stargate send off. I can’t imagine anything else, unless there’s a holodeck on the Ancient’s ship.
Stargate Universe stars Robert Carlyle, Lou Diamond Phillips and Ming-Na and is set to premiere on SCI FI in October with a special two-hour episode.
Source: SciFi Wire
Southland
Southland is a new crime drama show that takes the place of ER on Thursdays. It came in pretty strong with just under 10 million viewers for it’s premiere episode last week. I think this show may just play well into this time slot. I plan on watching it some more because I found it compelling. Did you?
24
Not to give much away for the time-shifted viewers but I thought the last episode of 24 brought some emotion to Jack’s life and a real twister of an ending. What a mind blowing twist of scenes.
If anyone saw it and wants to express their thoughts, try not to leave any spoilers please. (It’s hard, I know.)
The Sarah Connor Chronicles
Normally, this is where I might speak about the last episode of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, since they had their season finale. But we need more space to touch on some issues, so stay tuned and keep your eyes peeled for my upcoming article on the show. I’ll just say this for now: The season finale drew in approximately 3.6 million viewers.
I apologize for the tease.
Harper’s Island
Harper’s Island is a murder mystery drama and that reference isn’t the best draw for some folks. Yet being brought to us by Jerry Turtletaub (Jericho) not only gives it some merit, I believe it’s evident in the show. There’s great character interaction and mystery upon mystery leveled at us like layers of an onion.
With that noted, Harper’s Island premiered 20th on our charts with just over 10 million viewers clocking in to watch it. I found it entertaining enough that the hour flew by for me pretty fast and I was surprised it went so fast.
Did Anyone else catch this show? Have any thoughts?
Damages
Dang. I just got around to watching the last 2 episodes of Damages.
The flash forwards and flash backs throughout the season set me up for some premises I thought I had. Yet they artfully sidestepped everything and took us down a very entertaining path. That last episode moved at a pace that was complimentary to the writing throughout the season. It was one surprise after the other.
Another season, well done for Damages. I am hoping they return for another season.
Smallville
In case you’re wondering where new episodes of Smallville are, well, you’ve come to the right place.
It’s just taking a break and new episodes will be returning on April 23rd.
Leno on NBC in Boston
Remember that NBC Affiliate that said it wasn’t going to air the new Jay Leno primetime show because it was going to be “adverse to their finances?”
After NBC made a statement about pulling their affiliation from the station, they’ve had a change of heart.
WHDH-TV owner Ed Ansin said recently that “upon further consideration,” they will air Jay Leno’s program at 10 pm/ET beginning in September.
Well, that didn’t last long.
Source: THR
Friday Night Lights
Time Shitfted Viewing Light Spoilers.
Friday Night Lights came to season close last week. Man, I think coach got the shaft from the rich brat dad using his influence to get what he wants or that he was getting revenge for getting turned in to child protective services. It’s killing me.
Now, as you can see, Coach is going to have his job cut out for him. What a drastic change of venue. I’m betting this new job only has one football from the looks of that tattered field.
Trust Me
If you were a Trust Me fan, I hope you weren’t too hooked on it.
Despite TNT confusing me and calling it a “creative success,” TNT pulled the plug on the show last Friday.
Trust Me starred Eric McCormack and Tom Cavanagh as creative executives at the imaginary agency and it just didn’t catch on, averaging only 1.4 million viewers per episode.
I so did not want to tell me wife this news. She’s a big Cavanagh fan.
Source: NY Times
Ratings
Below are network ratings from the week of April 6th to April 12th:
As you can see, American idol dominated. What’s new? NCIS performed consistently with just over 17 million viewers and CSI did well with just over 16 million viewers. The action adventure platform known as 24 pulled in just over 10 million viewers.
The most viewed premiere of the week was Surviving Suburbia with 11+ million viewers, then Harper’s Island with just over 10 million pairs of eyeballs. Southland premiered 3rd amongst premieres with just under 10 million viewers, but I feel like it’s capable of more and will probably do more. We’re still in withdrawal from ER.
NBC’s Parks and Recreation premiered in the middle of the pack as did The Unusuals, both with around 6.8 million viewers.
For me, I tried watching The Unusuals premiere episode. It just didn’t draw me in. In fact I had just watched Southland and I turned of The Unusuals about 20 minutes in. I gave it a 2nd try last night. I didn’t turn it off, but it just felt lacking to me. I might gel with other folks but I just don’t see Amber Tamblyn (Joan Of Arcadia) as a cop. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg on this one, so I’ll be nice and say no more.
| Rank – Show (Network) -Viewers In The Millions |
| 1 - American Idol-Wednesday (FOX) – 22.976 |
| 2 - American Idol-Tuesday (FOX) – 22.813 |
| 3 - Dancing With The Stars (ABC) – 19.883 |
| 4 - NCIS (CBS) – 17.807 |
| 5 - NCAA Championships (CBS) – 17.649 |
| 6 - The Mentalist (CBS) – 16.921 |
| 7 - CSI (CBS) – 16.625 |
| 8 - Dancing W/Stars Results (ABC) – 14.561 |
| 9 - Criminal Minds (CBS) – 13.606 |
| 10 – House (FOX) – 13.294 |
| 11 – 60 Minutes (CBS) – 12.825 |
| 12 – CSI: NY (CBS) – 12.504 |
| 13 – Without A Trace (CBS) – 12.154 |
| 14 – Prelude To A Championship (CBS) – 12.152 |
| 15 – Surviving Suburbia (ABC) – 11.249 PREMIERE |
| 16 – Survivor: Tocantins (CBS) – 11.238 |
| 17 – 24 (FOX) – 10.958 |
| 18 – Amazing Race 14 (CBS) – 10.572 S |
| 19 – Cold Case (CBS) – 10.559 S |
| 20 – Harper’s Island (CBS) – 10.21 PREMIERE |
| 21 – Ghost Whisperer (CBS) – 10.084 |
| 22 – Fringe (FOX) – 9.883 |
| 23 – Southland (NBC) – 9.864 PREMIERE |
| 24 – Numb3rs (CBS) – 9.803 |
| 25 – Flashpoint (CBS) – 9.768 |
| 26 – Extreme Makeover:Home Ed (ABC) – 9.554 |
| 27 – Law And Order:SVU (NBC) – 9.264 |
| 28 – The Unit (CBS) – 9.054 S |
| 29 – Castle (ABC) – 9.029 |
| 30 – Bones (FOX) – 9.007 |
| 31 – Lost (ABC) – 8.565 |
| 32 – Lie To Me (FOX) – 8.563 |
| 33 – Biggest Loser 7 (NBC) – 8.096 |
| 34 – Apprentice 8 (NBC) – 8.07 |
| 35 – Office (NBC) – 8.018 |
| 36 – Hell’s Kitchen (FOX) – 7.538 |
| 38 – Gary Unmarried (CBS) – 7.242 |
| 39 – Medium (NBC) – 7.173 |
| 40 – Old Christine (CBS) – 7.172 |
| 41 – The Big Bang Theory (CBS) – 6.94 REPEAT |
| 42 – Parks And Recreation (NBC) – 6.878 PREMIERE |
| 43 – The Unusuals (ABC) – 6.825 PREMIERE |
| 44 – 30 Rock (NBC) – 6.811 |
| 46 – Dateline Sun (NBC) – 6.45 |
| 48 – Heroes (NBC) – 6.109 |
| 49 – Chuck (NBC) – 6.096 |
| 50 – 20/20-Fri (ABC) – 5.905 |
| 51 – Cupid (ABC) – 5.708 |
| 52 – Law & Order-Wed (NBC) – 5.439 |
| 53 – Family Guy (FOX) – 5.324 |
| 54 – Supernanny (ABC) – 5.281 |
| 55 – Law And Order-Sat (NBC) – 5.21 REPEAT |
| 56 – Grey’s Anatomy-Thu (ABC) – 5.124 REPEAT |
| 58 – Cops 2 (FOX) – 4.906 |
| 59 – Dateline Fri (NBC) – 4.836 |
| 60 – Samantha Who? (ABC) – 4.829 |
| 61 – Simpsons (FOX) – 4.748 REPEAT |
| 62 – Law And Order (NBC) – 4.644 REPEAT |
| 63 – Life (NBC) – 4.601 |
| 64 – Scrubs-Wed (ABC) – 4.557 |
| 65 – In The Motherhood (ABC) – 4.506 |
| 66 – American Dad (FOX) – 4.5 REPEAT |
| 67 – Wife Swap (ABC) – 4.416 REPEAT |
| 68 – Desperate Housewives (ABC) – 4.364 REPEAT |
| 69 – Charlie Brown Special (ABC) – 4.358 REPEAT |
| 70 – Private Practice (ABC) – 4.22 REPEAT |
| 71 – King Of Hill (FOX) – 4.212 REPEAT |
| 72 – Cops (FOX) – 4.09 REPEAT |
| 73 – Friday Night Lights (NBC)- 4.08 FINALE |
| 74 – Howie Do It 8P (NBC) – 3.768 |
| 75 – Howie Do It 8:30 (NBC) – 3.722 |
| 76 – America’s Top Model – 6 (CW) – 3.686 |
| 77 – Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (FOX) – 3.587 FINALE |
| 78 – Dollhouse (FOX) – 3.503 |
| 80 – Reaper (CW) – 2.112 |
| 81 – Supernatural (CW) – 2.054 REPEAT |
| 82 – Smallville (CW) – 1.971 REPEAT |
| 84 – 90210 (CW) – 1.959 |
| 86 – CW Sunday Movie-Easter(S) (CW) – 1.405 S |
| 87 – Everybody Hates Chris (CW) – 1.342 REPEAT |
| 88 – The Game (CW) – 1.189 REPEAT |
| 90 – One Tree Hill-Mon (CW) – 1.093 REPEAT |
| 91 – Gossip Girl-Mon (CW) – 1.078 REPEAT |
| 92 – Jericho (CW) – 0.579 REPEAT |
Rating Numbers via TV By The Numbers.
![Fall TV 2013: 10 Best New Shows [Trailers]](http://static.srcdn.com/slir/w87-h65-c1.33:1/http://screenrant.com/wp-content/uploads/abc-fall-previews-shield.jpg)
‘Pacific Rim’ Featurette Explores ‘Drift Space’; First TV Spot Offers More Action 
AMC Says ‘The Walking Dead’ Will Still Be Around in 2022 
‘Man of Steel’ Star Wants A Batman/Superman Teamup Movie 
Fall TV 2013: The 10 Best New Shows [Trailers] 
Bruce,
I don’t know why Fox axed Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. I should re-phase that. I do know why (because Fox is horrible) but I’m pissed. I’m surprised more people don’t watch it. The finale was one of the best finales I have seen of any show in a long time.
rephrase that is.
About Stargate Universe… where’s Teal’c?? I read in a few places about Walter, O’Neill, Carter, Jackson, and all of those people showing up, but Christopher Judge’s Teal’c is never in any of those… WTF?? It won’t be the same without the big UM football player with the symbol on his forehead… Wait, was it UM? I forgot now, lol.
Looking at the ratings, they are still showing Flashpoint? I was excited to see the premier when it started, but after watching the first 5 or 6 episodes, I lost interest. It was way too much sympathizing with the bad guy, and that “new guy” character was too annoying to take seriously. If they would keep it more realistic where the bad guy was just some doped up coke head that tried to rob a store but cops showed up, or someone fleeing from a chase ran into an occupied house and took hostages. Every episode it’s some boohoo story of some crazy extenuating circumstance that you almost never see. They should keep those for the finale’s or maybe at certain points in the season while the majority of them are straight forward cops versus bad guy cases.
Ken J,
Christopher Judge did a guest spot on Stargate Atlantis
about a year ago.
I thought Southland was good. I’ll keep watching it even though it’s only got something like 7 episodes total and may not be back again because of Jay Leno.
24 is my favorite show on tv and I agree that it’s hard to say anything about the last episode without giving stuff away. I’ll just say I didn’t see it coming.
I’d like to see more of TSCC, but with the ending to the season finale. I was kind of confused.
I watched Harper’s Island after ya’ll had reported that it wasn’t going to be a reality show. It wasn’t too shaby. I was a little disappointed they got rid of the big name star so soon though. I thought for sure that character would at least get some from the blond hottie first lol.
I’m not surprised that Boston station reevaluated their position on Jay Leno’s show. It’s not worth losing their affiliation over. Although I still hope Leno’s show fails hard. I consider his average fan as one who he would find “Jaywalking” lol.
I’m glad they are bringing FNL’s back for another two seasons at least. It will be weird to see new cast members though. I hope they’re as good as the others were. I knew that rich guy was going to be trouble. They’ll regret their decision to go with a new coach soon enough I figure.
I’ve been enjoying Chuck. I think these last few eps leading up to the finale have been excellent.
So glad to see other Friday night lights fans that show is great.
Was there a review for the movie Adventureland here in Screenrant? I just saw it yesterday in a doubleheader at a Drive-in along with Fast and Furious.
It’s a teen movie that takes place in the 80′s. I thought it was hillarious cause I could soo relate to it…LOL. It’s a comedy with some serious issues in it.
What did you guys think of it?
Good for SouthLAnd, Ryan–or the guy who plays Ryan from OC–is a really good actor.
Bruce, I wouldn’t say that SouthLAnd was compelling, because the gritty cop-drama is always a recipe for strong television but it did hold my interest.
You’ve taken a look at The Unsuals as well? From the previews I saw before it seemed more like a comedic twist on the whole cop-drama, I would say something like Arrested Development meets NYPD Blue. Then I catched last Wed’s episode, my first viewing, seems they are trying to balance ‘out-there’ comedy with serious drama. Not right there but I am willing to tag along cause it’s got two guys from Oz, so gotta support the homies. They have the formula but are not there yet, like to hear more of what you thought didn’t work?
Lastly, it is sad when American Idol beats the NCAA Championships. Ah, sign-of-the-times.
@Manowar
I didn’t make it to that one to review it.
Vic
“If this is anything like the way Stargate Atlantis started, we’ll see them in one quick scene, making it an official Stargate send off. ”
Untrue.
Richard Dean will appear in the 5th episode:
source: http://www.geos.tv/index.php/news?sid=193&nid=2883
ZoRAXE
I really love Southland. I think that there is no way the series isn’t going to continue, unless there’s another strike of some kind. The Unusuals, on the other hand is missing the mark with me. It’s not quite funny enough or enthralling enough, but maybe I comparing it to Southland.
I love these Weekly TV Wrap Ups. Keep up the good work, guys. It’d be useful though if you had an image to identify it quickly on the home page.
5 nights a week of Leno in Primetime? Oh boy. NBC must REALLY be hurting for original programming. Don’t get me wrong, I watch Jay occasionally, but 5 nights in a row? I think this is going to fail miserably for NBC. Then we’ll end up getting a string of reality shows crammed down our throats while they try to find a suitable show to replace the 10pm showing of Law & Order, ER, etc.
More people watch The Biggest Loser than most of those shows? What is the world coming to