Archive for category TV News
TCA Awards: Where Yo Gabba Gabba! Meets Tom Hanks
Posted by Melanie McFarland in Commentary, TCA Summer Press Tour 2010, TV News on August 1st, 2010
The joke about the Television Critics Association’s annual award ceremony is that if you’re a star and you receive an invitation, you’ve won.
You may not know what you’ve won, mind you, but what does it matter? It’s an open bar function with dim sum and pizza, followed by tiny desserts when the show’s over. Most attractive to the stars and producers who show up? No red carpet. The fun part for the critics is casually mingling with the people who make shows we like so much that we voted to have them here. In a sense, the TCA Awards are the small way we try to make up for the grave omissions made by Emmy and the Golden Globes each year.
But last night’s awards ceremony, the 26th in the organization’s history, was particularly special for a number of reasons.
It marked the first time that Dax Shepard hosted an awards ceremony, an honor he handled with aplomb and no shortage of nervousness — which is to say he went off script quite a few times and had the room in stitches.
It also marked the last time Damon Lindelof would appear for “Lost,” and he entertained the room by reading a number of the angry tweets he received following the finale. For the record, it looked like Lindelof also teared up when he accepted his award; he explained that it meant a lot because TV critics were the first supporters of “Lost” and in most cases, stuck with the series through its bittersweet end.
TCA awards night happened to coincide with “Modern Family” star Rico Rodriguez’s 12th birthday, and a room full of critics sang “Happy Birthday” to him along with the casts of “Breaking Bad,” “Glee,” and Tom Hanks, who gracefully showed up to accept an award for Outstanding Achievement in Movies, Miniseries & Specials for “The Pacific.”
In fact, Hanks even stuck around afterwards to chat with critics and take a few pictures with “Yo Gabba Gabba’s!” stars Foofa, Plex, Toodee, Muno and Brobee, who made a surprise appearance to accept their second TCA award for Outstanding Children’s programming. Say what you will about the overall cultural impact of this organization’s small slabs of Lucite — you won’t see anything that cool at the Emmys.
Here is the full list of 2010′s TCA Award recipients, taken from the press release:
• PROGRAM OF THE YEAR: “Glee” (FOX)
• OUTSTANDING NEW PROGRAM: “Glee” (FOX)
• INDIVIDUAL ACHIEVEMENT IN COMEDY: Jane Lynch, “Glee” (FOX)
• OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN COMEDY: “Modern Family” (ABC)
• OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN DRAMA: TIE – “Lost” (ABC) and “Breaking
Bad” (AMC)
• INDIVIDUAL ACHIEVEMENT IN DRAMA: Julianna Margulies, “The Good Wife”
(CBS)
• OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN NEWS & INFORMATION: “Life”
(Discovery)
• OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN YOUTH PROGRAMMING: “Yo Gabba
Gabba” (NICK JR.)
• OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN MOVIES, MINISERIES & SPECIALS: “The
Pacific” (HBO)
• HERITAGE AWARD: “M*A*S*H*” (CBS)
• CAREER ACHIEVEMENT: James Garner
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Day 3: NBC Wants You Back!
Posted by Melanie McFarland in Commentary, TCA Summer Press Tour 2010, TV News on July 31st, 2010
“Everything on television is born under a death sentence, they just don’t tell you when the execution date is.” – Dick Wolf, creator and executive producer of the “Law & Order” franchise
It has been a long time since anyone who cares about TV took NBC very seriously. From the top down, the network spent more than a decade making a hobby of ruining its brand and trashing its relationship with viewers.
But what’s done is done…we hope.
On Friday, network executives Angela Bromstad and Jeff Gaspin humbly expressed their hope that viewers are willing to get over the multiple betrayals and move forward. Join us, they said in so many words, won’t you?
This fall NBC has a couple of decent shows — and the guts to let “30 Rock” air a live episode on October 14 — so they’re not completely blowing smoke. That said, none of the critics here seem particularly excited about NBC’s new crop. The J.J. Abrams-created romantic spy dramedy “Undercovers” is a bit of an exception; most poeple seem to like it, but even that excitement is slightly muted.
Instead, as we watched most the new candidates make their cases onstage, we couldn’t help thinking of Dick Wolf’s fresh quote on a TV show’s life expectancy. Among the seven new series NBC showcased, only “Undercovers” has a pilot indicating the show could have the goods to make it to a May finale. Another, “The Event,” is already pleading for your faith that it knows where it’s going, and a third, “Outlaw,” is banking on the audience’s decades-long love affair with Jimmy Smits. The L.A. version of “Law & Order” is still casting and, according to Wolf, still figuring out what it’s going to look and feel like.
Then there’s “Outsourced” and “Chase“…we’ll rip into those in a bit.
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Emmy Noms: Did They Do Right By Us This Time?
Posted by Melanie McFarland in Commentary, Emmy Awards, TV News on July 8th, 2010
The morning of the Emmy nominations usually plays out like a summertime version of the Festivus traditional Airing of Grievances.
This year, however, there was more cheering than griping. Some would say this is not necessarily a “new” idea, since the tides seemed to turn our way last year — meaning, the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences voters’ tastes may have at long last aligned with critics and the public’s. Let’s give an example: A few years ago, most people would have expected Emmy voters to snub “Lost” in its final season. Perhaps the thought would be that it was too complex for its own good or, having won the Emmy for Outstanding Drama in 2005, that its moment had already been acknowledged.
But “Lost” will get its shot in the category once again, alongside CBS’s deserving new series “The Good Wife,” HBO’s fan favorite “True Blood” (which began to soar, creatively speaking, in its second season), Showtime’s “Dexter,” and AMC’s “Breaking Bad” and “Mad Men,” a two-time winner already.
Nominees for Best Actress in a Drama include the usual suspects ( as in “The Closer’s” Kyra Sedgwick, “Damages’” Glenn Close, and “Law & Order: SVU’s” Mariska Hargitay), the easily predictable but deserving nomination for “The Good Wife’s” Julianna Margulies…and hello, January Jones! “Man Men’s” Betty Draper showed a variety of colors last year, and Jones took the storyline and ran away with it.
Our next gift-wrapped present: Fox’s “Glee,” a welcome addition to the Outstanding Comedy mix (just one of its 19 nominations) and another one of those no-brainers that probably would have come up empty on past nomination rounds. ABC’s “Modern Family,” on the other hand, was a shoo-in, and joins past winners “30 Rock” and “The Office,” both on NBC, as well as Showtime’s dark half-hour “Nurse Jackie” and HBO’s “Curb Your Enthusiasm.”
Among “Glee’s” nominations were individual nods for Lea Michele and Matthew Morrison in actress and actor categories.
Also very much expected was the nominations avalanche for HBO’s “The Pacific.” The premium cable channel’s latest World War II epic racked up 24 nods, nearly a quarter of HBO’s total of 101. That also means that for a straight decade, HBO has led in total nominations. (Since HBO has had a pretty good year, we’re not yawning this time.)
A complete list of Emmy nominees is, of course, available here.
This is not to imply that everything’s rosy in TV Land today. The voters are getting more things right these days, but Emmy being Emmy, there are enough snubs each year to make TV fans groan loudly and painfully. Here are but a few.
Katey Sagal in "Sons of Anarchy"
1. No Best Actress in a Drama nod for “Sons of Anarchy’s” Katey Sagal. Now, while this shouldn’t come as much of a surprise to anyone familiar with Emmy’s habits — we’ll elaborate in a moment — Sagal gave a beautifully multifaceted performance as SAMCRO’s matriarch Gemma Teller Morrow. We won’t spoil it for anyone who hasn’t seen the second season yet, but Sagal took an incredibly difficult plot twist and a controversial treatment of its aftermath, and handled it with dignity, fragility and in the final moments of the season, a sense of controlled power.
The problem is that the second season opener of FX’s “Sons” was overwhelmingly difficult to watch, even for diehard fans, because of what happened to Sagal’s character. The way she dealt with it in subsequent episodes may have rubbed people the wrong way. Emmy voters tend to behave more cautiously than the average viewer. In other words, Katey probably knew she would be sleeping in this morning.
2. No nomination for “Modern Family’s” Ed O’Neill. Given the above snub, we’re wary about mentioning some alleged “Married with Children” curse, but someone should give this kind of omission an official name. How about, the Eva Longoria Parker Snub? As in, the kind of snub where everyone else in the cast gets nominated, but you come up empty?
Not that we’re quibbling with the nods for Ty Burrell, Julie Bowen, Eric Stonestreet and Jesse Tyler Ferguson. Plus, whenever Sofia Vergara says “cop-cake,” this writer giggles. (I am not the giggling type, so that has to be worth something.) But honestly — why not show Ed some love? We all love Duckie, but did Jon Cryer really need to get nominated again? Discuss.
3. “Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains” — denied! “Survivor” is another past winner and frequent nominee in the reality competition category, but this season was arguably one of the best in the show’s history. Even if you want to debate that point, one thing you’d be hard-pressed to defend is Emmy’s choice of “Project Runway” over “Survivor.” Did “Project Runway” ever deserve an Emmy? Of course. Does the most recent season deserve it? Uh…no.
4. No love for any of the leads from “The Pacific.” Yes, the miniseries led HBO’s pack in terms of total nominations. Yes, the odds that viewers watching the Emmys telecast will get the chance to see Jon Seda, James Badge Dale and Joseph Mazzello on the stage at some point are rather high. That does not lessen the sting for anyone who watched these men make us gasp and tear up for 10 episodes. Additionally, while it’s hard to feign surprise that Rami Malek was left out of the supporting actor mix, we sure think he deserved to be acknowledged.
5. Ditto for anyone from the cast of “True Blood.” Again, Emmy voters, thanks for acknowledging the show. But maybe next year you’ll have seen enough to realize that what makes it so addictive are stellar performances from the likes of Alexander Skarsgård and Nelsan Ellis. That’s OK, we’ll wait.
But let’s give credit where credit is due. There are some snubs that we’re completely fine with.
Thank you, Emmy, for leaving Katherine Heigl out this time around, giving someone who actually appreciates having a job on a good TV show a shot at some hardware.
Bless you, Emmy, for giving the Heisman hand to Jay Leno in favor of a nod to “The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien.” Surely that scored big points with Team Coco.
We are also completely fine with you denying major category recognition to Charlie Sheen, “24“, “Grey’s Anatomy,” “Family Guy” and, although it seems odd to credit you for doing so, “Jersey Shore.” Admit it, voters. You know you thought about pandering to the kids.
Your turn: Were you satisfied with this round of Emmy nominations?
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The Official CW Fall 2010 Schedule
Posted by Melanie McFarland in Commentary, TV News, The Pick-Up Game, Tune In Info on May 21st, 2010
Aly Michalka, Robbie Jones and Ashley Tisdale star in "Hellcats"
As promised, here is the official schedule The CW released yesterday. We made a few predictions as to how it would shake out on Wednesday, and it looks like a couple of our wild guesses actually came to pass.
The development I am the most curious to discuss with fellow viewers is The CW’s decision to move “Supernatural” to Fridays. “Smallville” seemed to do OK there during the ’09-10 season, so it’s not the worst thing to happen…still, this Winchester fan is a tad concerned. (Not to mention a bit miffed to have to sacrifice her Friday nights due to her allegiance to Sam and Dean…darn.)
All times are ET/PT. New series are in bold. Descriptions taken from the network press release follow.
MONDAY
8 PM “90210″
9 PM “Gossip Girl”
TUESDAY
8 PM “One Tree Hill”
9 PM “Life Unexpected”
WEDNESDAY
8 PM “America’s Next Top Model”
9 PM “Hellcats”
THURSDAY
8 PM “The Vampire Diaries”
9 PM “Nikita”
FRIDAY
8 PM “Smallville”
9 PM “Supernatural”
New series descriptions
“HELLCATS” is a coming-of-age story about Marti Perkins, a young, pre-law student at Lancer University in Memphis, Tennessee. Marti is cool, hip and alt, but her world flips upside down, literally and figuratively, when she loses her scholarship, and realizes the only way she can stay in school is by reigniting her dormant teen gymnastic skills to win a place on Lancer’s legendary cheerleading team, The Hellcats. Against her every instinct, Marti goes for it and makes the squad, and is thrust into a world of camaraderie, backstabbing and the intersection of sports, backroom academia and big money. Marti’s new roommate, Savannah Monroe, a petite, peppy Texan, is among the diverse cast of athletes, undergrads, family and friends, all set on the sprawling campus of a powerhouse college football program in the deep South.
“NIKITA” When she was a deeply troubled teenager, Nikita was rescued from death row by a secret U.S. agency known only as Division, who faked her execution and told her she was being given a second chance to start a new life and serve her country. What they didn’t tell her was that she was being trained as a spy and assassin. Ultimately, Nikita was betrayed and her dreams shattered by the only people she thought she could trust. Now, after three years in hiding, Nikita is seeking retribution and making it clear to her former bosses that she will stop at nothing to expose and destroy their covert operation. For the time being, however, Division continues to recruit and train other young people, erasing all evidence of their former lives and turning them into cold and efficient killers. One of these new recruits, Alex, is just beginning to understand what lies ahead for her and why the legendary Nikita made the desperate decision to run.
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CBS Announces Its Fall 2010 Schedule
Posted by Melanie McFarland in Cancellations, TV News, The Pick-Up Game, Tune In Info on May 19th, 2010
William Shatner stars in the new comedy "$#*! My Dad Says."
Guess what’s no longer fashionable this year among CBS’s programming executives? Stability.
Year after year, CBS touted the potency of its schedule, explaining that its across-the-board strength made it unnecessary to make any drastic changes. There is something to be said for that, even in the new world of shifted viewing. People create habits around their weekly TV consumption, and the last thing a successful network wants to do is make it hard for audiences to find their favorite shows.
On the other hand, in any cutthroat business, one would be stupid not to leap into an opening when one sees it. CBS’s decision to move top-rated comedy “The Big Bang Theory” from Monday nights at 9:30 to Thursdays at 8 just makes sense. CBS’s Monday night block remains solid, and with NBC trying to maintain its Thursday night comedy perch with series that receive much higher critical praise than ratings, why not trump the Peacock by offering a comedy that’s set to finish the 2009-2010 season firmly in the Nielsen top 20 as competition?
The hope is that “Big Bang” will serve as a potent lead-in to “$#*! My Dad Says,” a new comedy from “Will & Grace” executive producers David Kohan and Max Mutchnick, starring William Shatner. “$#*!” has already gotten a great deal of attention thanks to the Twitter feed that inspired it, in which struggling writer Justin Halpern logs the colorful observations made by his 74-year-father.
“Big Bang” isn’t the only major move from Monday nights. “CSI: Miami,” currently airing Mondays at 10, moves to Sundays in the same timeslot. Wednesday night’s “CSI: NY” moves to 9 p.m. Fridays, bumping “Medium” up to 8 o’clock…and “Ghost Whisperer” into Cancellation Land. Reality stalwart “Survivor” is moving up from Thursday nights to Wednesdays at 8. In fact, the only lineup that remains unchanged is Tuesday’s.
New dramas include “Hawaii Five-O,” “The Defenders” and “Blue Bloods,” all of which are being tested in 10 p.m. slots. Meanwhile Chuck Lorre, the executive producer behind “Big Bang” and “Two and a Half Men,” is becoming to CBS what Seth MacFarlane is to Fox, introducing yet another comedy, “Mike & Molly,” to Monday nights. The previously announced “Criminal Minds” spinoff, starring Forest Whitaker, is on deck for midseason.
Earlier this week CBS cleaned house, slicing a number of underperformers from its schedule including “Accidentally On Purpose,” “Gary Unmarried,” “Ghost Whisperer,” “Cold Case,” “The New Adventures of Old Christine,” “Numb3rs,” and late season entry “Miami Medical” from the schedule. (“Three Rivers,” which premiered last fall, dried up a long time ago.)
CBS’s fall schedule is below, with new series highlighted in bold. All times are ET/PT.
MONDAY
8 PM “How I Met Your Mother”
8:30 PM “Rules of Engagement”
9 PM “Two and a Half Men”
9:30 PM “Mike & Molly”
10 PM “Hawaii Five-O”
TUESDAY
8 PM “NCIS”
9 PM “NCIS: Los Angeles”
10 PM “The Good Wife”
WEDNESDAY
8 PM “Survivor”
9 PM “Criminal Minds”
10 PM “The Defenders”
THURSDAY
8 PM “The Big Bang Theory”
8:30 PM “$#*! My Dad Says”
9 PM “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation”
10 PM “The Mentalist”
FRIDAY
8 PM “Medium”
9 PM “CSI: NY”
10 PM “Blue Bloods”
SATURDAY
8-10 PM “Crimetime Saturday” (aka procedural repeats)
10 PM “48 Hours Mystery”
SUNDAY
7 PM “60 Minutes”
8 PM “The Amazing Race”
9 PM ” Undercover Boss”
10 PM “CSI: Miami”
Keep reading after the jump for descriptions of the new series, taken from the press release.
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ABC Announces Its Fall 2010 Schedule.
Posted by Melanie McFarland in Cancellations, TV News, The Pick-Up Game, Tune In Info on May 18th, 2010
Julie Benz and Michael Chiklis star in the new series "No Ordinary Family." Photo by Eric McCandless, courtesy of ABC.
With a few exceptions, ABC generally has no problem shuffling its schedule around each fall. Unless we’re talking about a series that serves as an important tentpole such as “Grey’s Anatomy,” “Desperate Housewives,” or “Dancing with the Stars,” no show is too good to escape a few timeslot swaps.
This is particularly true when you also consider the network’s fondness for gorging on pick-ups. The 2010-2011 season, for example, will see ten new ABC shows premiere. Ten.
Yet the schedule for the coming season also shows plenty of evidence of stability. If it ain’t broke, ABC sure as heck isn’t going to fix it. And unlike past seasons, if a program clearly isn’t working, it’s not on the schedule. Nobody should be shocked to notice the absence of “Scrubs” from the fall schedule, for example. Ditto for the sadly performing “Happy Town” or the late spring entry “Romantically Challenged. ” The cancellation of “FlashForward” must be a downer for a number of fans, but honestly, ABC gave it a shot. As much as we loved “Ugly Betty,” we love the idea of series regular Vanessa Williams joining the cast of “Desperate Housewives” even more. And yes, we adored comedy underdog “Better Off Ted.” Instead of watching it continue to fade into oblivion, however, let’s consider ourselves to be better off with fond memories of its short-lived brilliance.
But let’s look at what is working for the Alphabet…
Wednesday nights. At long last, ABC has a comedy block worth cherishing, which is why “Modern Family” and “Cougar Town” are staying right where they are, at 9 and 9:30p.m. “The Middle” made less noise on Wednesdays, but performed well enough to remain in play, while new series “Better Together” (description below) is hammocked between it and “Modern” at 8:30. New legal drama “The Whole Truth” follows at 10.
“Castle” on Mondays. The 10 o’clock slot is a tough one on most nights of the week, but until “Castle” came along none of the other networks could find anything to go up against “CSI: Miami.” Nathan Fillion’s vehicle sputtered at first, but toward the end of the season it managed to crack the Nielsen top 20 a few times. More importantly, “Castle’s” ratings gains gave ABC its first successful crime procedural in several seasons.
Thursdays and Sundays. The Shonda Rhimes one-two punch of “Grey’s Anatomy” and “Private Practice” remain in place at 9 and 10p.m., with new drama “My Generation” kicking off the night at 8. The network’s Sunday lineup of “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition,” “Desperate Housewives” and “Brothers & Sisters” remains intact.
This leaves Tuesdays and Fridays as ABC’s 2010-2011 experiments. Of the two nights Tuesdays is the higher stakes enterprise, highlighted by “No Ordinary Family,” probably best described as a live-action version of The Incredibles. “Dancing’s” results show follows at 9 with the faux-documentary style police drama “Detroit 1-8-7″ at 10.
“V,” by the way, has been pushed back to midseason, the same time of year we’ll see new shows starring Elisha Cuthbert (“Happy Endings”), Matthew Perry (“Mr. Sunshine”), and a new medical drama from Shonda Rhimes (“Off the Map”) about sexy doctors in the jungle. We suspect a few of them will be forced to go shirtless from time to time. This is only a guess.
The Friday night lineup and the rest of the schedule follows. New series are in bold. (And yes, Friday’s new entry “Secret Millionaire” is the same series that ran during the 2008 holiday season on Fox.)
MONDAY
8p.m. “Dancing with the Stars”
10p.m. “Castle”
TUESDAY
8p.m. “No Ordinary Family”
9p.m. “Dancing with the Stars: Results Show”
10p.m. “Detroit 1-8-7”
WEDNESDAY
8p.m. “The Middle”
8:30p.m. “Better Together”
9p.m. “Modern Family”
9:30p.m. “Cougar Town”
10p.m. “The Whole Truth”
THURSDAY
8p.m. “My Generation”
9p.m. “Grey’s Anatomy”
10 p.m. “Private Practice”
FRIDAY
8p.m. “Secret Millionaire”
9p.m. “Body of Proof”
10p.m. “20/20”
SATURDAY
8p.m. “Saturday Night College Football”
SUNDAY
7p.m. “America’s Funniest Home Videos”
8p.m. “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition”
9p.m. “Desperate Housewives”
10p.m. “Brothers & Sisters”
Descriptions of the new series, taken from the network press release, come after the jump. (Please note: if a show is not listed on the above schedule, it is set to premiere during midseason.)
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Fox Announces Its 2010 Schedule
Posted by Melanie McFarland in Cancellations, TV News, The Pick-Up Game, Tune In Info on May 17th, 2010
Will Arnett and Keri Russell star in "Running Wilde."
In years past, Fox had a habit of sending a slew of non-starters out for the fall season, along with “House,” its undisputed scripted hit, and “Bones,” which in recent seasons has become a strong performer. As a result, it was hard to take most of what Fox had to say about its fall season seriously at the upfronts because it was generally accepted that most of the new shows wouldn’t make it past the holidays. Fox didn’t truly enter the game until midseason, when “American Idol” and “24″ began their premiered.
This started to change last year once “Bones” began holding its own on Thursdays. Paired with the struggling but creatively solid “Fringe,” the dramas gave the network its most solid toehold outside of “Idol.” Then “Glee” came along with its critical acclaim, awards and coolness factor. Suddenly Fox has no reason to wait for January, and its four new comedies and three dramas sound like real contenders.
Out of these seven new series, three (drama “Lonestar” and comedies “Raising Hope” and “Running Wilde”) premiere in the fall. The comedy entries are worth noting because along with “Glee,” which airs at 8 p.m. Tuesdays with the new series at 9 and 9:30, they represent Fox’s attempt to build a lighter weeknight block to rival what ABC has created on Wednesdays with “Modern Family,” “The Middle” and “Cougar Town.” Naturally Fox is not crazy enough to put these comedies directly against ABC’s Wednesday night tent; not only are they untested, but Fox hasn’t launched a successful half-hour comedy that isn’t a cartoon since…can you remember? We can’t.
One move on the schedule may worry fans a bit, and for good reason: “Human Target” now airs on Friday at 8p.m. with “The Good Guys,” which gets its first run this summer, following at 9p.m. Tonally speaking, these two series go together quite well. The problem is that on Fox’s schedule, the Friday night slot is still the place where series go to die. (Remember “Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles”? “Dollhouse”?)
Viewers will also notice that “American Idol’s” results show is now only half an hour long. Perhaps Fox is preparing for the inevitable day when “Idol” will — shock — no longer be the powerhouse on its schedule. And perhaps that day is closer than we imagine, with Simon Cowell soon to exit the series.
But, back to the new blood. Fox’s third addition for fall is “Lonestar,” a primetime soap with Texas oil as a backdrop. That airs on 9p.m. Mondays following “House.”
The rest of the new series, including executive producer Shawn Ryan’s (‘The Shield”) new series “Ride-Along,” will premiere in midseason. (Premiere date and timeslot for “Terra Nova” is TBD.)
Fans are in the process of bidding farewell to “24,” and you won’t see “Past Life” or “Sons of Tucscon” return to the fall 2010 schedule. Word is that the ax also has fallen on “The Wanda Sykes Show.”
Here is the schedule as listed on the Fox press release. All times are ET/PT, and new series are in bold.
MONDAY
8PM “House”
9PM “Lonestar”
TUESDAY
8PM “Glee
9PM “Raising Hope”
9:30PM “Running Wilde”
WEDNESDAY
8PM “Lie to Me”
9PM “Hell’s Kitchen”
THURSDAY
8PM “Bones”
9PM “Fringe”
FRIDAY
8PM “Human Target”
9PM “The Good Guys”
SATURDAY
8PM “Cops”
8PM “Cops”
9PM “America’s Most Wanted”
SUNDAY
7PM “The OT’
8PM “The Simpsons”
8PM “The Cleveland Show’
9PM “Family Guy”
9PM “American Dad”
MIDSEASON:
MONDAY
8PM “House”
9PM “Lonestar/ “Ride-Along”
TUESDAY
8PM “American Idol”
9:30PM “Running Wilde”/ “Mixed Signals”
WEDNESDAY
8PM “Raising Hope”
8:30PM “American Idol: Results”
9PM “Glee”
THURSDAY
8PM “Bones”
9PM “Fringe”
FRIDAY
8PM “Human Target”
9PM “Kitchen Nightmares”
SATURDAY
8PM “Cops”
8:30PM “Cops”
9PM “America’s Most Wanted”
SUNDAY
7PM “The Simpsons” (repeats)
7:30PM “American Dad”
8PM “The Simpsons”
8:30PM “Bob’s Burgers”
9PM “Family Guy”
9:30PM “The Cleveland Show”
Read descriptions of the new series, taken from the network’s press release, after the jump.
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NBC Announces Its Fall 2010 Schedule
Posted by Melanie McFarland in Cancellations, TV News, The Pick-Up Game, Tune In Info on May 17th, 2010
Editor’s note: This week brings the network upfronts, which take place in New York. The upfronts are a traditional industry practice in which networks unveil their fall schedules to advertisers, hoping to get them to commit ad dollars to blocks of programming ahead of their premiere. To regular viewers, however, this is the week during which we find out whether our favorite programs will be coming back in the fall.
IMDb’s TV blog will be regularly updated with information on the day the networks unveil their schedules. NBC and Fox are up first.
Although NBC officially presented its fall schedule to advertisers on Monday, the big news already hit the airwaves last Friday when various industry news outlets reported that long-running series “Law & Order” was getting the ax. While this was not surprising from a ratings standpoint (viewership for first-run episodes has been feeble this season, to put it kindly) it was a shock to those who believed NBC would at least let Dick Wolf achieve his goal of breaking the record set by “Gunsmoke,” which ran for 20 seasons. Alas, “Law & Order” will only tie that record, leaving “The Simpsons” as the only series to go beyond that mark.
Shocking news, yes; whether it is good or bad is a matter of personal opinion. Same goes for the cancellations of “Trauma,” “Mercy” and “Heroes,” all of which had their share of die-hard fans…just not enough of them. The light in all of this darkness, however, is that NBC seems confident that it has a strong schedule for the fall — and for the first time in a long time, that declaration does not on the face of it seem laughable.
Better still is the news that cult-fave spy comedy “Chuck” has a place on that schedule, remaining on Mondays at 8 p.m.
NBC is serious about strengthening its Thursday comedy presence, keeping its block largely intact save for the addition of new comedy “Outsourced.” According to reports “Parks & Recreation,” which vastly improved in it second year, is set to return in midseason. (Or sooner, if “Outsourced” doesn’t work.) Additionally, the network is maintaning the evening’s tone at 10p.m. with the introduction of the hour-long comedy “Love Bites,” starring Becki Newton (of “Ugly Betty”) and Jordana Spiro (of “My Boys”) as two of the last remaining single girls in their group of friends.
More excitement is brewing about the new J.J. Abrams action series “Undercovers,” starring Boris Kodjoe and Gugu Mbatha-Raw as ex-spies pulled back into the game when a friend disappears. That leads in to the still-potent “Law & Order: SVU,” which will be followed by Dick Wolf’s latest entry in to the franchise, “Law & Order: Los Angeles,” which sounds like the same formula on a different coast.
Here’s NBC’s Fall 2010 schedule and short descriptions of its new series, taken from the network’s press release. All times listed are ET/PT and new series are in bold. As always, feel free to share your take on NBC’s new schedule in the comments area.
MONDAY
8-9 p.m. - “Chuck”
9-10 p.m. – “The Event”
10-11 p.m. - “Chase”
TUESDAY
8-10 p.m. – “The Biggest Loser”
10-11 p.m. – “Parenthood”
WEDNESDAY
8-9 p.m. – “Undercovers”
9-10 p.m. – “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit”
10-11 p.m. – “Law & Order: Los Angeles”
THURSDAY
8- 8:30 p.m. – “Community”
8:30-9 p.m. – “30 Rock”
9-9:30 p.m. - “The Office”
9:30-10 p.m. - “Outsourced”
10-11 p.m. - “Love Bites”
FRIDAY
8-9 p.m. – “Who Do You Think You Are?”/”School Pride”
9-10 p.m. – “Dateline NBC”
10-11 p.m. – “Outlaw”
SATURDAY
Encore programming
SUNDAY
7- 8:15 p.m. — “Football Night in America”
8:15-11:30 p.m. — “NBC Sunday Night Football”
SUNDAY MIDSEASON (beginning March 2011)
7-8 p.m. – “Dateline NBC”
8-9 p.m. – “Minute to Win It”
9-11 p.m. – “The Celebrity Apprentice”
Descriptions of the new series are after the jump.
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Fox Sets Its Summer Schedule
Posted by Melanie McFarland in TV News, The Pick-Up Game, Tune In Info on March 9th, 2010
Bradley Whitford and Colin Hanks in "The Good Guys"
On Tuesday morning Fox released its summer line-up, and it includes a few mixed blessings.
First things first: among the announcements was news that “Glee’s” season finale will air on June 8 at 9PM ET/PT — a great way to kick off the summer, don’t you think? “Glee” will air in repeats at 8 PM Wednesdays starting on June 16.
Summer stalwart “So You Think You Can Dance” returns to the schedule with a two-hour premiere on May 27, and “Hell Kitchen” begins its off-season cycle with a two-hour premiere on June 10.
Here’s where things get interesting. Remember when Fox confused viewers with its wan commitment to “Lie to Me” by ordering more episodes right before disappearing it from the midseason schedule? The network was saving it for a summertime run, it seems. “Lie to Me” will be paired with the new hour-long comedy from “Burn Notice” creator Matt Nix, “The Good Guys,” on Mondays starting June 7.
Audiences will have an opportunity to see a preview of “The Good Guys” (formerly known as “Code 58“) on Wednesday, May 19, which is smack dab in the middle of sweeps and the final rounds of “American Idol.” You may recall that Fox reaped huge rewards by using the same strategy to introduce us to “Glee.”
But this is why we mentioned “mixed blessings” in that first paragraph — that preview is in the 8 o’clock slot, which means it won’t be getting any benefit of an “Idol” lead-in. (Not that having “Idol” as a lead-in guarantees success anyway; it worked for “Glee,” a musical comedy, for obvious reasons. It has not worked for a number of canceled Fox experiments, including this one. )
That means “The Good Guys” and “Lie to Me” must succeed or fail pretty much on their own, which is a difficult enough task during the regular season. During the summer, when viewership is lower?…Well, we’re just glad Shawn Ryan, “Lie to Me’s” incredibly talented showrunner (who previously executive produced “The Shield” and “The Unit“) has another cop series in the pipeline called “Ridealong.”
On paper, summertime has the benefit of lower competition. Reality series thrive during the warmest months, largely due to their relatively lower production costs. But it’s still a tough place for scripted programs to find a foothold. Even if networks and audiences are changing their attitudes about summer scheduling, it is still the season for burning off episodes of series that didn’t work during the regular season. That’s why a handful of “Past Life” episodes are being dumped on to Fridays starting May 28.
Keep reading for the full schedule, as listed on the official press release.
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Emmys Afterglow: First timers, Streakers…and Bucky Gunts!
Posted by Melanie McFarland in Commentary, Emmy Awards, TV News, Tune In Info on August 30th, 2010
But last night’s broadcast of the 62nd Primetime Emmy Awards satisfied on nearly all fronts…unless you happen to be a Lostie or a Gleek. Fans of other great TV shows – and George Clooney, who unexpectedly showed up in a filmed comedy bit as well as to accept the Bob Hope Humanitarian Award – had a lot to be excited about. Best of all, people who love awards shows of all stripes were likely thrilled by Jimmy Fallon‘s tremendous hosting skills, starting with his performance the cheerful, hilarious “Glee”-themed cold open, set to Bruce Springsteen’s “Born to Run.”
Let’s break it down.
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