Category Archives: Television

ABC picks up Lost writers’ ‘Once Upon a Time’ tale

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Rumor had it that former Lost writers Adam Horowitz and Edward Kitsis were shopping around their next TV project to former Lost home ABC.  That proved to be true.  According to Variety, ABC has picked up their “top secret fairy-tale-themed drama series” and now it has a title: Once Upon a Time.  How fitting.  Technically speaking, ABC is only picked up a pilot episode; but with Team Horowitz/Kitsis and Lost co-creator Damon Lindelof signed on as show consultant, I have little doubt the pilot pickup will manifest itself into a 13-episode (or potentially full season) order.  Now it’s time to see who they choose as the female lead…

[Via Variety]

TV Reminder: ‘The Walking Dead’ premieres tonight! [Update: the ratings are in…]

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After many years of anticipation, tonight zombies will invade our living rooms like never before.  The Walking Dead, a comic book series created by Robert Kirkman and adapted for television by Frank Darabont, follows a group of survivors dealing with a world overrun by zombies.  The collaboration between Kirkman, Darabont, producer Gale Anne Hurd, and makeup effects artist Greg Nicotero promises to result in a frightening drama about the human psyche featuring the best looking and most convincing zombies made for television.  The 6-episode season one arc begins tonight at 10PM on AMC.  The series premiere runs an hour and a half in length, so set your DVRs accordingly.  And if you plan on celebrating Halloween night outside the home, don’t forget to record it!  Happy Halloween!

Look in the gallery below for character profiles and spooky stills from the premiere.

Update: The Walking Dead premiere was a record-smashing success!  The 10PM showing attracted 5.3 million viewers–the largest audience for an AMC original series ever.  Want another record-breaking stat?  In the 18-49 demo, the show netted 3.6 million viewers making it the highest rated cable series debut in 2010.  The adults 25-54 and 18-34 demos netted 3.1 million and 2.1 million viewers, respectively.  AMC aired the premiere two more time during the night (at 11PM and again at 1AM), so if you take those showings into account, the premiere garnered a grand total of 8.1 million viewers.  Says Charlie Collier, AMC president: “It’s a good day to be dead.  We are so proud of this series, its depth of storytelling and the remarkable talent attached.  As the network dedicated to bringing viewers the best stories on television, we are so pleased to have the opportunity with The Walking Dead to raise the bar within this popular genre and continue our commitment to being the home of premium television on basic cable.”  So Mr. Collier, how about renewing this flipping success for a second season, hm?

[Images via IGN; Deadline; EW]


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HBO’s ‘Bored to Death’ & ‘Eastbound & Down’ coming back for third season

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HBO’s current Sunday night lineup is safe.  Boardwalk Empire was picked up for a second season a month ago, and today HBO ordered additional seasons of comedies Bored to Death (starring Jason Schwartzman, Zach Galifianakis, and Ted Danson) and Danny McBride’s Eastbound & Down.  The former averaged 1 million viewers this past Sunday and the latter 1.44 million.  This is great new for fans of funny things.

[Via Deadline]

Prepare for the ‘Walking Dead’ zombie invasion, coming to a city near you! [Update: video compilation]

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Can you believe it!?  The highly anticipated TV adaptation of Robert Kirkman’s comic book The Walking Dead is set to premiere this weekend!  To promote the upcoming series premiere, AMC and Fox International Channels have teamed up to stage real live “zombie attacks” in 26 cities around the world over a 24-hour period.  Inspired by the show’s makeup artist Greg Nicotero, hundreds of undead extras will begin the invasion tomorrow, October 26 at daybreak in Taipei and Hong Kong.  After speading the outbreak to major landmarks including the Brooklyn Bridge in New York City, the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C., Big Ben in London, the Prado Museum in Madrid, the Bosphorus Bridge in Istanbul, and the Acropolis in Athens, the zombies will end their spree in Los Angeles, just in time for the big LA premiere event.  Look after the break for a full listing of the promotional zombie tour stops.

The Walking Dead premieres this Sunday, October 31 at 9PM on AMC.

Update: Jump after the break to watch an “Invasion Compilation” of the day’s events.  Hundreds of zombies literally roamed cities all around the globe–and they looked very convincing!  Unfortunately no one was harmed in the filming.  Want to see more?  Head over to the FICTheWalkingDead YouTube channel to watch more footage categorized by city and time of day.

[Via THR; IGN] Continue reading Prepare for the ‘Walking Dead’ zombie invasion, coming to a city near you! [Update: video compilation] →

ABC picks up ‘No Ordinary Family’ & ‘Better With You’

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Another network drama and comedy can breathe a sigh of relief.  ABC has decided to grant full season orders to No Ordinary Family and Better With You.  Michael Chiklis, Julie Benz, and the rest of the Powell gang  average 9.5 million viewers per week and Better gets 7.3 million viewers.  The latter show remains the lowest rated comedy in ABC’s comedy Wednesday block (no surprise there with powerhouse Modern Family plus The Middle and Cougar Town drawing in larger audiences).  ABC has picked up five additional scripts for the cop drama Detroit 1-8-7 and four for returning drama Brothers & Sisters (rounding out the episode total to 22).  No word on the fate of The Whole Truth, starring Rob Morrow and Maura Tierney; the freshman legal drama is receiving a dismal average of 5.3 million viewers per week.  Truth will likely join ABC’s ill-fated My Generation in the cancellation bucket.

Update: Well that was quick.  Shortly after announcing the back nine for Ordinary and Better, ABC axed The Whole Truth.  A producer shared the somber news via Twitter and reports that they will only produce 13 episodes and then close up shop.

[Via EW, here & here; THR]

The CW wants more ‘Hellcats’ & ‘Nikita’

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The CW is following in its sister network’s footsteps (that’s CBS) by ordering full seasons of all their freshman series.  All two of them: Hellcats and Nikita.  The cheerleading drama averages 2.5 million viewers per week, and the Maggie Q-starrer sees 3.6 million viewers.  Also veteran One Tree Hill, which started its eighth season this year, has also been given the back nine.  No word on a Life Unexpected pickup, though two additional scripts have been ordered.

Michalka fans–this is a time of celebration, is it not?

[Via Deadline]

All 5 CBS freshman series get the full season order treatment

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Today CBS followed direct competitor NBC in announcing which of their new fall shows will tack on an additional nine episodes.  Spilling the news was easy and why?  CBS has granted all five CBS freshman series a full season order.  Hawaii Five-O, The Defenders, Blue Bloods, Mike and Molly, and $#*! My Dad Says are safe and won’t have to worry about cancellation for the remainder of the ’10-’11 TV season.  Deadline reports some fascinating figures.  These five shows are the five most watched new shows on TV right now and Hawaii, Mike & Molly and $#*! claim to be the top three new series in the adults 18-49 demographic.  And here’s some hard data for ya.  Hawaii averages 14.2 million viewers per episode and happens to be DVR king raking in an additional 3.4 million viewers in recordings.  Defenders averages 11.3 million viewers;  Blue Bloods 12.7 million; Mike & Molly 12.3 million; and $#*! 11.3 million.  CBS is America’s most watched network and now you know why.  Crime prodedurals draw huge audiences and people are really digging all this new programming.  Hawaii Five-O is my favorite new fall series, just sayin’.

Says CBS Entertainment prez Nina Tassler: “Everything has clicked so far this year–from development in January, to scheduling in May, to production over the summer, to marketing and publicity in the fall.  It’s all testimony to the executives in our halls who remain restless for more success, and the amazing creative talent on our sets who continue to deliver the goods.”

[Via Deadline]

Network TV says HALT! to Google TV

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Didcha get yourself a new Sony Internet TV or Blu-ray player or are you thinking about impulse buying the Logitech Revue powered by Google TV?  If you’re contemplating such a purchase did you think you’d have the ability to watch network TV content off their respective websites using the built-in Chrome browser?  Well you thought wrong, unfortunately.  Today the Wall Street Journal confirms that CBS, NBC, and ABC have blocked TV programming on their websites from being accessed on the Google TV platform.  NBC and ABC are allowing select promotional content to be viewed, but if you attempt to stream a full episode of The Office you will fail miserably.  And to top all this off, Hulu is blocked too; and not because it’s Flash-based–Chrome runs Flash content just fine–it’s the networks’ fault.  So what’s Google going to do about this?  In a word, nothing.  In more words: “Google TV enables access to all the Web content you already get today on your phone and PC, but it is ultimately the content owners’ choice to restrict their fans from accessing their content on the platform,” said a Google spokeswoman.  News Corp., for the time being, has not opted to block FOX content.

Why is this happening, you ask?  Well in the end it all comes down to making money.  And networks know TV ads bring in a whole lot more cashola than Internet-based ads.  Right now we’re stuck in this weird transition state where TV has snuck into bed with the Internet and just doesn’t know what to do next.  Here’s to hoping that something is figured out real soon.  Because I want my on-demand teevee streaming content this very second.  Boxee, good luck.

[Via WSJ]

24 Hour Coco Cam is LIVE right now!

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On October 20th at 1PM EST/10AM PST Conan’s HQ in Los Angeles started broadcasting LIVE to the Internet!  They shoved a camera in the stairwell of their “comedy bunker” and you don’t want to miss all the crazy shenanigans that’s going down right now.  The camera will remain on for a whole 24 hours.  So far you’ve missed dancing tacos and a dude in a dog suit playing poker and drinking a water bottle through his eye hole.  Watching the live stream is quite mesmerizing in the strangest way possible.  Click here to access the stream.  And if you’re on Twitter, go on and request the production crew/interns that pass by to do something crazy; don’t forget to hashtag your tweet with #LiveCocoCam.  Right now it’s 4:30AM EST on the 21st, and there’s a late-night party going down, so whatcha waitin’ for?

Update: It’s over, folks.  Head over to Team Coco to watch highlights from the 24 hour cam.  Every wonderful shenanigan has been saved for posterity in video and still image formats.  Fun fact: according to early estimates, some 660,000 people tuned into the live stream at some point during the 24 hour period.  As Deadline so emphatically points out, that is the average audience TBS gets in the 11PM hour with George Lopez!  Get ready America, Coco is coming.

[Via TeamCoco]

Conan’s band gets named, fans “voting” for first guest

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Conan’s late night house band has gone through a couple names in recent years.  The Max Weinberg 7 stuck for a whole 16 years during Conan’s tenure at Late Night with Conan O’Brien.  The Tonight Show Band didn’t last nearly as long for reasons you should be aware of.  And it then changed to The Legally Prohibited Band this year when Conan brought the band with him on The Legally Prohibited from Being Funny on Television Tour.  Today the house band gets a brand new name that will hopefully stick for years to come: The Basic Cable Band.  It’s got a nice ring to it, huh?  As we already know, drummer Max Weinberg has left the band and guitarist Jimmy Vivino will take over as band leader.  He will be joined by returning band members Scott Healy (keyboards), Mike Merritt (bass), Mark Pender (trumpet), Richie “LaBamba” Rosenberg (trombone), Jerry Vivino (saxophone, woodwinds, and vocals), and James Wormworth (drums).

Yesterday it was announced on the TeamCoCo blog that the fans will have the power to decide the TBS late night show’s very first guest.  Potential guests include Tom from MySpace, Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber, Jack Nicholson, Pope Bendict XVI, Vladimir Putin, REO Speedwagon, Hassanal Bolkiah (The Sultan of Brunei), Thomas Pynchon, Gerhard Ertl, Arlene Wagner, and the full cast of the live-action “Fat Albert” movie (not including Kenan Thompson).  Click here and get your vote on!  You are restricted to one vote per day, but you can vote as many times as you want and for how ever many people you want.  Take heed of this disclaimer, though: “None of these people have actually been booked on our show. For one reason or another, we haven’t contacted any of these people – In fact, we’re kind of hoping that, if someone on this poll starts getting a lot of votes, these folks will actually feel a bit guilty and will agree to be our first guest!!”

Conan premieres November 8 at 11PM on TBS.

[Via Deadline; TeamCoCo]

NBC grants ‘The Event’, ‘Law & Order: Los Angeles’ & ‘Outsourced’ full season orders [Update: ‘Chase’ & ‘Chuck’ picked up, ‘Undercovers’ gets 4 additional scripts]

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Happy times at the Peacock today.  NBC just picked up full season orders for freshman dramas The Event and Law & Order: Los Angeles and the controversial comedy Outsourced.  According to Deadline, the three NBC shows have averaged 9.1 million, 8.7 million viewers, and 6.3 million viewers overall, respectively.  It’s mentioned that although The Event continues to dip in viewership each week since its strong premiere, it has remained a “solid DVR performer” for the network.  So Jason Ritter (above), you can relax a bit; your stay at NBC just got longer.  Legal drama Outlaw is the sole NBC cancellation.

NBC President Angela Bromstad: “We are pleased with the quality of The Event, Law & Order: Los Angeles and Outsourced, and feel they are an important part of helping to re-build our schedule and our studio pipeline.  We believe in these new series and the creative auspices behind them.”

No word on the back nine episode order for other NBC dramas Chase and Undercovers.  Deadline reports that Chase is expected to get it, and Undercovers recently received an order for 6 additional scripts.  That’s a very good sign, Abrams fans.  In addition, Ausiello reports that NBC is about to order more episodes of the fan-favorite Chuck…

Update: NBC has picked up Chase and Chuck for full season orders.  Chuck will receive an additional 11 episodes instead of the standard back nine (so it will air 24 episodes in total).  The network still hasn’t decided the fate of the J.J. Abrams spy series Undercovers, but things are looking up since they’ve ordered 4 more scripts to be penned.

[Via Deadline, here & here; thanks AndrewSeely for image help]

ABC delays ‘V’ season 2 premiere to January [Update: Episode order cut from 13 to 10]

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Missing ABC’s hit sci-fi series V?  Me too.  I hate to say it but we are going to have to wait an extra two months longer to find out what the heck is up with that red sky.  Though ABC initially announced a November return, they have since pushed the premiere to January 4, 2011.  ABC’s other sci-fi show No Ordinary Family will move from Tuesday at 9PM to 8PM from November 30 until January 4; following the return of V it will move back to its 8PM time slot and serve as an appropriate lead-in to the show.  What’s going to take up Ordinary‘s slot when it moves?  Skating with the Stars.  Ugh, I know.

Update: More bad news.  According to Deadline, ABC is prepared to cut the V season 2 episode order from 13 to 10 episodes.  Why the slight but noticable trim?  It’s due to “scheduling reasons” revolving around ABC’s reality programming.  When V was delayed to the January 4 premiere date, it gave the sci-fi series room for a 12 week run precisely until March 29 when the spring season of Dancing with the Stars is set to premiere.  This period between early January and late March is expected to include 2 preemptions, leveling the total number of V episodes to 10.  A sprinkle of good news?  V season 2 is still in production, so the creative staff will have ample to time to adjust the storyline to make it fit in this tighter schedule.  Allow me to fume for a moment.  I can’t stand that network TV has to bow down to mindless reality programming, giving shows like Dancing/Skating with the Stars precedence over stimulating, creative powerhouses such as V.  I understand where is ABC is coming from; Stars is a ratings champ and V certainly does not attract as many eyeballs (though it should).  But STILL.

[Via Deadline, here & here]