Some networks have more reason to be legitimately positive about their place in the world than others, CBS topmost among them. The Eye only has four new primetime series premiering this fall, one of them — “NCIS: Los Angeles” — that’s expected to be a slam dunk. “NCIS” is headed into its seventh season bigger than it has ever been, with summer repeats clobbering every show that goes up against them. Best of all, now that NBC is playing possum running Leno five nights a week at 10 p.m., CBS has even less competition to worry about — and it’s confident that its 10 o’clock success will only do great things for David Letterman.
President of entertainment Nina Tassler, however, captured the day by reveling in NBC’s recent ouster of former entertainment head Ben Silverman, who famously insulted her in an Esquire article. When someone asked her to comment on how Silverman’s departure affected CBS –purely in business terms, of course — she quipped, “Well, you know, I’m really just a ‘D girl,’ so…” She shoots, she scores.
Highlights from CBS’s day include:
– Sara Sidle (Jorja Fox) will appear in the first five episodes of “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation,” which may not be enough to repair the steep audience erosion that occurred following William Petersen’s departure last season. On that front, Tassler stated that their understanding of the problem was that fans wanted new castmember Laurence Fishburne to have more of a take-charge presence in the series. This season will feature him in more of a leadership capacity, she said, and with a better wardrobe (thank goodness). Additionally, Catherine (Marg Helgenberger) is going to grant Nick (George Eads) a promotion.
– “Let’s Make a Deal,” hosted by Wayne Brady, will be replacing “Guiding Light” in daytime beginning in October.
– “Flashpoint” has been cleared for nine more episodes, but CBS has no plans to make more after that.
– “The Good Wife’s” star Julianna Margulies explained that her role explores the bravery and intelligence lying beneath the surface of disgraced politicians’ wives, referring to Elizabeth Edwards, Hillary Clinton and Silda Spitzer.
Then someone asked Margulies if she included Patti Blagojevich in that company. “I don’t consider her a wife of scandal like this. He (Rod Blagojevich) didn’t cheat on her. He cheated on everyone else, right? And then she went on some reality show, didn’t she?” (Yes, she did.) ” I mean, God.”
– Craig Ferguson, host of “The Late Late Show,” on how he keeps his head about him in Hollywood: “I don’t want to be poor. I don’t want to be rich to the extent that all I care about is keeping my job. I don’t care enough about keeping my job right now. That’s good. That makes me effective at what I do…I don’t want to be frightened of getting fired. So, to that end, I suppose my ambitions are that I spend less than I earn, because, look, the truth is we are all in a precarious business. . I don’t want to be frightened. So I don’t want to have the ambition of a time slot or a number of dollars. Do I want to make a lot of money? F*** yeah. But I don’t want to make it at the expense of — look, I’ve met a lot of rich people who are douche bags.”
Other than the condom-filled candy bowl delivered to our tables preceding the panel for “Accidentally on Purpose” and a contentious Emmys panel we plan to discuss later, that was CBS’s TCA Day in a nutshell.
UPDATE: After a few days of this, one’s brain morphs into Swiss cheese…so shame on me for forgetting to share that “Medium” will have a pre-Halloween episode in which “Night of the Living Dead” will serve as one of Allison’s dreamscapes. Producer Glenn Gordon Caron says they have permission to use “Night of the Living Dead,” so producers will digitally insert Patricia Arquette into actual footage.
This info and so much more is available on IMDbTV’s “Twitter” feed.
Quick Shots of False Hope: CBS Takes a Day
Some networks have more reason to be legitimately positive about their place in the world than others, CBS topmost among them. The Eye only has four new primetime series premiering this fall, one of them — “NCIS: Los Angeles” — that’s expected to be a slam dunk. “NCIS” is headed into its seventh season bigger than it has ever been, with summer repeats clobbering every show that goes up against them. Best of all, now that NBC is playing possum running Leno five nights a week at 10 p.m., CBS has even less competition to worry about — and it’s confident that its 10 o’clock success will only do great things for David Letterman.
President of entertainment Nina Tassler, however, captured the day by reveling in NBC’s recent ouster of former entertainment head Ben Silverman, who famously insulted her in an Esquire article. When someone asked her to comment on how Silverman’s departure affected CBS –purely in business terms, of course — she quipped, “Well, you know, I’m really just a ‘D girl,’ so…” She shoots, she scores.
Highlights from CBS’s day include:
– “Let’s Make a Deal,” hosted by Wayne Brady, will be replacing “Guiding Light” in daytime beginning in October.
– “Flashpoint” has been cleared for nine more episodes, but CBS has no plans to make more after that.
– “The Good Wife’s” star Julianna Margulies explained that her role explores the bravery and intelligence lying beneath the surface of disgraced politicians’ wives, referring to Elizabeth Edwards, Hillary Clinton and Silda Spitzer.
Then someone asked Margulies if she included Patti Blagojevich in that company. “I don’t consider her a wife of scandal like this. He (Rod Blagojevich) didn’t cheat on her. He cheated on everyone else, right? And then she went on some reality show, didn’t she?” (Yes, she did.) ” I mean, God.”
– Craig Ferguson, host of “The Late Late Show,” on how he keeps his head about him in Hollywood: “I don’t want to be poor. I don’t want to be rich to the extent that all I care about is keeping my job. I don’t care enough about keeping my job right now. That’s good. That makes me effective at what I do…I don’t want to be frightened of getting fired. So, to that end, I suppose my ambitions are that I spend less than I earn, because, look, the truth is we are all in a precarious business. . I don’t want to be frightened. So I don’t want to have the ambition of a time slot or a number of dollars. Do I want to make a lot of money? F*** yeah. But I don’t want to make it at the expense of — look, I’ve met a lot of rich people who are douche bags.”
Other than the condom-filled candy bowl delivered to our tables preceding the panel for “Accidentally on Purpose” and a contentious Emmys panel we plan to discuss later, that was CBS’s TCA Day in a nutshell.
UPDATE: After a few days of this, one’s brain morphs into Swiss cheese…so shame on me for forgetting to share that “Medium” will have a pre-Halloween episode in which “Night of the Living Dead” will serve as one of Allison’s dreamscapes. Producer Glenn Gordon Caron says they have permission to use “Night of the Living Dead,” so producers will digitally insert Patricia Arquette into actual footage.
This info and so much more is available on IMDbTV’s “Twitter” feed.
This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 4th, 2009, 7:20 pm and is filed under Commentary, TCA Summer Press Tour 2009, TV News, Tune In Info. You can follow any responses to this entry through RSS 2.0. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.