Category Archives: Television

TV trailer: Jeff Daniels in Aaron Sorkin’s ‘The Newsroom’ for HBO

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From the mind of Aaron Sorkin, creator of The West Wing and screenwriter of The Social Network and Moneyball,  comes The Newsroom,  a behind-the-scenes look at the people who make a nightly cable-news program. Focusing on a network anchor (played by Jeff Daniels), his new executive producer (Emily Mortimer), the newsroom staff (John Gallagher, Jr., Alison Pill, Thomas Sadoski, Olivia Munn, Dev Patel) and their boss (Sam Waterston), the series tracks their quixotic mission to do the news well in the face of corporate and commercial obstacles-not to mention their own personal entanglements.

The Newsroom is a drama you clearly do not want to miss out on: stellar acting mixed with smart writing and compelling stories make up the agenda of this upcoming political drama with humor. Watch the buzzy trailer above and anticipate the season premiere that lands on Sunday June 24 on HBO.

TV reminder: ‘Game of Thrones’ returns tonight at 9PM on HBO [Update: record ratings]

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Ten months, five trailers, numerous posters, and one 22-minute featurette later, HBO’s wildly popular fantasy series Game of Thrones is finally back. War is coming, friends, and the battle for the Iron Throne is already in progress. We return to the Starks and the Lannisters breathing down each other’s necks, Jon Snow leading the Night’s Watch beyond the Wall into supernatural territory, and Daenerys training her dragons. The season 2 opener is titled “The North Remembers” and it starts precisely tonight (4/1) at 9PM on HBO.

The gallery below contains some new posters hyping tonight’s must-see event. Warning: one contains a major season 1 spoiler, so if you haven’t caught up yet (what are you waiting for?!) don’t go digging just yet.

Update:  The ratings are in and boy are they spectacular. So many more people tuned into the second season premiere of Game of Thrones compared to the first season. Here are the record-setting facts. A grand total of 3.9 million viewers tuned into “The North Remembers” at the 9PM hour; that’s up a significant 74 percent from the first season premiere. This is also the most watched episode of Thrones to date; it beat out the previous record holder, the season one finale “Fire and Blood” (that episode clocked in just over 3 million viewers). When you factor in all three airings from Sunday night, a grand total of 6.3 million viewers took in the premiere. HBO greenlighting season 3? Now it’s only a matter of time.

New featured player Kate McKinnon joins ‘SNL’ next week

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Well that was fast. In under two months Saturday Night Live honcho Lorne Michaels has found a replacement feature player for NBC’s late night sketch comedy show. One Kate McKinnon will be filling the void that Paul Britten left vacant when he rather abruptly left the show in early February. An active member at New York City’s Upright Citizens Brigade theatre since 2008, McKinnon for her time spent playing Fitzwilliam, a young British boy who wishes to be a girl on the LOGO program The Big Gay Sketch Show. She also has experience voicing animated characters on shows like Venture Brothers and Robotomy on Cartoon Network and Ugly Americans on Comedy Central. Interestingly, McKinnon will become SNL‘s first openly gay cast member since Terry Sweeney in 1985. The plan is for McKinnon to make her debut next weekend when Modern Family‘s Sofia Vergara has hosting duties on April 7.

[Via Deadline; UCB]

HBO’s ‘Game of Thrones’ returns in one week; here’s a 22-minute refresher course

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HBO has put together an extensive featurette that serves as a refresher course for potential and returning fans of the cable network’s highly rated fantasy series Game of Thrones. The video titled “You Win or You Die”, which clocks in at just over 22 minutes, tells the grand tale that was Thrones season 1 and it even journeys into season 2 territory to whet the appetite for those who just can’t wait any longer. Thankfully, this meaty overview and teaser should subside eager fans’ eager collective longing for Westeros. In the featurette you’ll hear from series showrunners David Benioff and D. B. Weiss, as well as many of the actors including a naturally brunette (and still stunning) Emilia Clarke who plays Daenerys.

Game of Thrones returns in one week: April 1 at 9PM on HBO.

TV reminder: ‘Mad Men’ returns tonight at 9PM on AMC [Update: record ratings]

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Tonight marks the season 5 premiere of AMC’s breakout drama Mad Men. Can you even recall the last time you watched an original episode on TV? To refresh your memory, the date was October 17, 2010. Those were the days…

I hope you’re excited to be reacquainted with the likes of Sterling Cooper Draper Price because tonight’s (3/25) premiere is extra long maxing out at two hours. It all starts at 9PM on AMC. Check out some cool stills in the gallery below, and watch a promo after the break.

Update: Last night’s Mad Men season 5 opener brought about record ratings for the period drama. 3.5 million total viewers tuned in to the two-hour premiere (that’s up a significant 21% from season four debut), crowning this episode the series’ most watched episode to date. And so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the important demo numbers are way up, too: in adults 18-49 the show drew 1.6 million viewers (an increase of 30% from the season four debut) and in adults 25-54 it attracted 1.7 million viewers (up 17%). Here’s one more tally for you to nod your head in amazement at: if you include the encore airing of the premiere, a total of 4.4 million people watched last night’s episode. These ratings can’t touch AMC’s other staple The Walking Dead but still I say, hot damn. AMC president Charlie Collier says, “Almost five years ago, with a focus on distinction and quality, AMC launched Mad Men as the first series in its commitment to original scripted dramatic television. Mad Men set the bar high and we are incredibly proud that it continues to engage audiences looking for unexpected, unconventional and uncompromising television.”

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NBC renews ‘Smash’ for a second season

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Unlike CBS, NBC is taking their time when it comes to announcing their program renewals. On Thursday March 22 the peacock network granted the Broadway musical drama Smash a deserved second season. Though the scale seemed to tip the other way during its run thus far (with so-so ratings and high production value meaning it’s likely expensive to produce), NBC ultimately decided to keep the flashy drama on its radar at least for another year. Though the show’s ratings are not extraordinary (it averages  7.7 million total viewers and a 2.6 demo rating in adults 18-49), Smash does rank as the network’s highest rated drama this season in those aforementioned categories. Season 2 will consist of 15 episodes (that’s up from this season’s 13) and Smash‘s creator/showrunner/executive producer Theresa Rebeck will be returning in a lesser capacity. Deadline reports that she will keep her executive producer title and might write a few episodes, but she will no longer be involved in the oversight of everything else. It still hasn’t been determined who will step in to take over the reigns from Rebeck. Before the news of renewal, Rebeck shared with the press that Smash season 1 would “take Marilyn to an out-of-town tryout, her first really public presentation,” and that a potential (and now set in stone) season 2 would tackle the question “how does Marilyn fare in New York?”

Also renewed at NBC? The Friday night sci-fier Grimm.

[Via Deadline 1, 2; TVLine]

‘FRINGE’ video: The best Walter Bishop one-liners are “Walterisms”

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Fringe returns from its winter hiatus tonight, and to celebrate I highly recommend you watch this brilliant compilation of Walter Bishop’s best one-liners now known as “Walterisms.” John Noble is arguably the best part of the sci-fi cult series due to his impressive range of skills; he can play the neurotic, lovable Walter as well as the conniving Walternate. With so many alternate universes and timelines involved, Noble manages to swiftly play very different versions of Walter without faltering a single beat. What has stayed true to the show all this time, though, has been the quirky Walterisms that help sprinkle some lighthearted laughs in a show that is intrinsically foreboding and morbid. Watch  as Walter runs his mouth covering a wide gamut of topics including urine, drugs, and of course, food.

While you’re here, I’ll remind you tonight’s episode of Fringe is the first of eight episodes that will run uninterrupted leading to the season four finale that’s scheduled to air May 11. It is called “A Short Story About Love” and it’s a special one because it marks the directorial debut of Fringe‘s co-showrunner J.H. Wyman. In February Wyman set it up like this: “It’s an episode that’s really close to me. It’s about love and all the great things that we talk about on Fringe. To us, it’s the perfect version of what a Fringe [episode] is because it has a great, terrifying element to it that is very Fringe-y. At the same time it has this incredible love story aspect with things that people are going to be very excited for, we believe, as far as the relationships on the show.” Jump after the break to watch a one minute teaser video titled “Love Hurts.”

Fringe airs Friday nights at 9PM on FOX. Tune in and tell your friends; renewal time is coming up and this is one show that wholeheartedly deserves to see at least another season so as to satisfy fans who’ve stuck with it from the start. #WhereYouBelong Continue reading ‘FRINGE’ video: The best Walter Bishop one-liners are “Walterisms” →

TV reminder: ‘Touch’ premieres tonight at 9PM on FOX [Update: The ratings are in…]

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If you were touched by the one hour “preview event” that FOX aired of the Tim Kring (Heroes) / Kiefer Sutherland (24) drama in January, then let this be a friendly reminder that the story of interconnectedness continues tonight (3/22) with the “world premiere” of Touch. Last week the network re-aired the emotional and highly rated pilot episode, and tonight things continue where they were left off in the second episode titled “1+1=3.” FOX will air the 13-episode season uninterrupted through May and if the ratings remain strong throughout then you can expect a second season order shortly thereafter.

Touch airs Thursday nights at 9PM on FOX. Follow the journey leading up to the premiere right here.

Update: The ratings are in, and even though they aren’t as high as the numbers from January’s preview episode, they are impressive nonetheless. 11.7 million total viewers tuned into last night’s episode (down 3% from the pilot which clocked in 11.9 million viewers) and scored a 3.2/9 among adults 18-49 (that’s down 18% from the pilot which logged a 3.9/10 in the demo). Paired with American Idol, Touch helped FOX dominate the night in total viewers and the 18-49 demo. All told, Touch is still primed to be a breakout drama for the network. Let’s hope ratings stabilize around these numbers (or better yet–grow!) so that FOX won’t have to sweat it out when it comes time to announce its plans for the 2012-13 TV season.

TV reminder: ‘Community’ returns tonight to NBC! [Update: solid ratings]

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Human Beings, rejoice! After an extended and dreadful three month hiatus, Community is back.

The 2+ minute trailer embedded above shouts “One community will rise again and everything we know will Chang.” It also previews what’s in store for the second half of the cult comedy’s third season: so much funny.

Hailed as “the entertainment event of the year” by the deep-voiced trailer narrator, Community makes it big comeback tonight (3/15) at 8PM on NBC. For the sake of all that is good in this world, do tune in, tell your friends, and make an effort to support a season renewal of this smart and refreshingly unique sitcom.

Update: The Community comeback episode was up a solid 47% in the ratings from its last original airing on December 7 in the all-important 18-49 demo (2.2/7); that’s a season high. 4.9 million total viewers were accounted for, and that’s up 36% from the last episode. A couple of accolades have been awarded to last night’s airing: it’s been crowned the #1 program in adults 18-34 and men 18-34 during its 8-8:30PM timeslot among the other big networks, beating out FOX’s juggernaut American Idol. Keep in mind, however, that all this went down when CBS aired March Madness in place of their own ratings monster The Big Bang Theory. Still, if Community stabilizes around these numbers and doesn’t drop too far from here a season renewal might be in the comedy’s future.

CBS renews 18 shows including freshman drama ‘Person of Interest’ & comedy ‘2 Broke Girls’

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Today CBS became the first network out of the gate to reveal the fate of the bulk of its primetime programming. So let’s get right to it, shall we? The following shows have been renewed and will return in the 2012-13 TV season:

9 DRAMAS: Person of Interest, Blue Bloods, Criminal Minds, CSI, The Good Wife, Hawaii Five-0, The Mentalist, NCIS, NCIS: Los Angeles

4 COMEDIES: 2 Broke Girls, Mike & Molly, The Big Bang Theory, How I Met Your Mother

3 REALITY SHOWS: Amazing Race, Survivor, Undercover Boss

2 NEWSMAGAZINES: 48 Hours Mystery, 60 Minutes

CBS Entertainment president Nina Tassler on all these pickups: “This large-scale renewal is testimony to the strength, stability and success of a deep and diverse roster of top-rated programming. It positions us for continued success next season and certainly creates an environment that will give our new shows the best possible chance to succeed.”

The fates of CSI: NY, CSI: Miami, Unforgettable, and A Gifted Man are still up in the air. And as for the network’s once-staple comedy Two and a Half Men–CBS says “preliminary discussions” are being had. The issue here is that Ashton Kutcher’s deal has to be extended; once that happens (and it will) you can expect CBS to flaunt the long-running comedy’s renewal (and perhaps a multi-year pickup at that). Stay tuned.

[Via EW; Deadline]

TV reminder: ‘South Park’ season 16 premieres tonight!

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They’ve made it this far. South Park creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker have completed (or are probably still in the process of completing) the 224th episode of the crude animated series to air on Comedy Central. The episode to kick off season 16 is titled “Reverse Cowgirl” and the log line goes something like this:

After a South Park citizen meets with an unfortunate accident, the TSA steps in to prevent it from happening again… One of the boys had been told time and time again about leaving the toilet seat up after he goes to the bathroom, but he didnt listen. His actions have consequences and ultimately result in an unimaginable catastrophe.

Embedded above is a thirty second preview featuring the one and only Randy Marsh. Might this be a Randy-centric episode? If so, it’s got classic South Park written all over it.

South Park premieres tonight (3/14) at 10PM on Comedy Central. The show will continue to air Wednesday nights at 10 for an additional six weeks, and then take its usual extended hiatus and return with the second half of the season in October.