Tag Archives: season premiere

2013 Fall TV Schedule: ABC

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Much like NBC, the Alphabet network is premiering most of its shows during the official premiere week of September 23. A few shows enter the ring before that week: Reality series Dancing with the Stars kicks off Monday, September 16 and on Friday the 20th Tim Allen’s Last Man Standing returns along with The Neighbors and Shark Tank. Enter premiere week: Tuesday the 24th introduces four brand new shows–sitcoms The Goldbergs and Trophy Wife sandwiched between buzzy drama Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Lucky 7; Wednesday the 25th is home to The Middle, new Bad News Bears inspired sitcom Back in the Game with James Caan and Maggie Lawson, the one-hour season premiere of Modern Family, and Nashville. ABC’s sudsy Sunday night lineup premieres the following week on September 29 with Once Upon A Time, Revenge, and new marital drama Betrayal. Three shows won’t make their mark until October: the new Rebel Wilson half-hour Super Fun Night (Wednesday, October 2), Shonda Rhimes’ red-hot Scandal (Thursday, October 3), and the spinoff Once Upon A Time In Wonderland (Thursday, October 10).

Click here to preview the new shows. Browse the gallery below for key art.

Jump after the break to view the full fall schedule.

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2013 Fall TV Schedule: CBS

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Not including Survivor (returning Wednesday, September 18 at 8), almost every show on CBS will start on premiere week. On Monday, September 23 buzzy drama Hostages headlined by Dylan McDermott and Toni Collette premieres along with Chuck Lorre’s latest sitcom Moms, 2 Broke Girls, and How I Met Your Mother (the final season kicks off with a one-hour premiere). Person of Interest gets comfortable in its new timeslot on Tuesday the 24th at 10PM following the NCIS‘. On Thursday the 26th buzzy new comedy The Crazy Ones with Robin Williams and Sarah Michelle Gellar is bolstered by two new back-to-back episodes of The Big Bang Theory; Two and a Half Men and Elementary enter the fold that night as well. Hawaii Five-0 airs on Fridays this season starting Sept. the 27th and on Sunday the 29th The Amazing Race, The Good Wife, and The Mentalist return. New sitcoms We Are Men starring Tony Shalhoub, Kal Penn, and Jerry O’Connell and The Millers starring Will Arnett and Margo Martindale come to the sked Monday, September 30 and Thursday, October 3, respectively. Sci-fi action drama Intelligence with Josh Holloway and Marg Helgenberger is being held until Monday, February 24 when it will replace Hostages in the 10PM slot.

Click here to preview the new shows. Browse the gallery below for key art.

Jump after the break to view the full fall schedule.

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2013 Fall TV Schedule: The CW

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Just like last year, The CW is letting the big four networks premiere their fall lineups ahead of its own October debuts. CBS’ sister network begins the fall season on Thursday, October 3 by airing The Vampire Diaries and that show’s spinoff The Originals back-to-back from 8-10PM (The Originals moves to its regular Tuesday at 8 timeslot on October 8). The week of October 7 sees the premieres of new series like The Tomorrow People and Reign.

Click here to preview the new shows. Browse the gallery below for key art.

Jump after the break to view the full fall schedule.

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TV reminder: ‘The Newsroom’ returns Sunday, July 14 at 10PM on HBO

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Will McAvoy and his team of reporters at ACN return to our airwaves this Sunday night at 10PM on HBO in the season 2 premiere of The Newsroom. Together Aaron Sorkin’s creations stand alone in the season 2 key art posted above, and quite literally in the character stills packed in the gallery below. Are you ready for some more fast talking, fast walking, and fast talking and walking? This season will cover major news such as “the Tea Party/American Taliban, the general election including the primaries and conventions, Trayvon Martin, the Affordable Care Act, and drones” and will span August 23, 2011 to Election Day 2012.

TV reminder: ‘Wilfred’ returns June 20 on FX (also: status update on ABC’s ‘Zero Hour’ & ‘666 Park Ave.’)

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Everyone’s favorite talking dog Wilfred (Jason Gann) returns for more adventures with his easily persuaded neighbor Ryan (Elijah Wood) on Thursday, June 20 at 10PM on FX. FYI, the 13-episode third season will air two episodes a week. Previously on Wilfred, Ryan made an intriguing discovery that he had actually drawn a family picture–Wilfred included–when he was just a boy. What does that mean? Who-slash-what is Wilfred? Will we finally find out this season?! If you’re not watching Wilfred, you’re missing out on what has to be the most hilarious, dark and deep existential dramedy on television. It makes you laugh, it makes you think, and most of all, it keeps you guessing at its true intent.

On a totally unrelated note… it’s summer time and most fall/midseason shows have come to their conclusions. A couple that were cancelled are getting their time in the sun to finish out their respective runs. ABC’s conspiracy thriller Zero Hour returns tonight at 8PM with two new back-to-back episodes. It will continue to air Saturdays at 8 until its two-hour series finale which lands on August 3. Supernatural series 666 Park Avenue has four episodes left in its run, and it will begin its final rollout next Saturday, June 22 at 9PM leading out of a new installment of Zero Hour. 666‘s one-hour finale falls on July 13. So there you have it.

‘Mad Men’ receives a return date

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Mad Men returns Sunday, April 7. There it is. The sixth season premiere is two hours in length, written by series creator Matthew Weiner and directed by executive producer Scott Hornbacher. The two-hour “movie” airs at 9PM on AMC. Also made public is that the second episode, which will air in Mad Men‘s regular 10PM slot, is written by Weiner and Matthew Igla and directed by star John Hamm. This marks Hamm’s second time helming an episode; he previously served double-duty on season five’s “Tea Leaves.”

In an interview with EW, Weiner briefly spoke about the highly anticipated premiere: “If you like the show, there’s a good chance you’ll like the premiere…It is different than last year’s in a sense that it was my idea and I was just trying to give bang for a buck to an audience that I didn’t want to lose because we’d been away for so long. This year it’s really constructed like a film. It is its own story and hopefully it foreshadows the rest of the season.”

When asked when exactly the new season will pick up following Don’s apparent flirtation with deviating outside his marriage, Weiner was typically coy with the NYT: “It will advance in time, as it does. I can’t say how much or how little. We’re coming off a period in Don’s life where he’s trying to normalize, and trying to have this relationship – a real relationship with this woman that he fell in love with. She expressed her desires, and that was a surprise for him. On this show, it’s a very rich, full orchestra, and we like to follow what is the next stage in these people’s lives.”

Check out new season 6 cast photos provided by AMC in the gallery below.

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.

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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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.

TV Reminder: Childrens Hospital returns tonight at midnight on Adult Swim

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The hilarious web series turned TV show Childrens Hospital returns tonight for its third season. And the whole gang of idiots is back! Creator Rob Corrdry reprises his role as Dr. Blake Downs, a clown who believes in the healing power of laughter. But as we learned last season, Childrens Hospital is in fact a show within a show, so these characters are actually playing “doctors” on the show. So for instance, Corrdry’s Dr. Blake Downs is really a man named Cutter Spindell. The same goes for the rest of the all-star cast: Ingrid Hagerstown is Dr. Valerie Flame (Malin Akerman), Dixie Peters is Dr. Cat Black (Lake Bell), Lynn Williams is Dr. Lola Spratt (Erinn Hayes), Just Falcon is Dr. Glenn Richie (Ken Marino), Rob Huebel is Dr. Owen Maestro (Rob Huebel), Lady Jane Bentick-Smith is Chief (Megan Mullally); and Fred Nunley is hospital administrator Sy Mittleman (Henry Winkler).

This series is more than a parody of Grey’s Anatomy-type shows. It completely does away with episode continuity and this makes for an off-the-walls, truly organic laugh-fest every week. In an interview with IGN, Erinn Hayes explains it. “We don’t have any regard for episode to episode continuity,” she says. “There’s a chart somewhere in the production offices that shows who is having a relationship with who in a particular episode so they don’t have too many of the same pairings. They don’t want repeats.” Co-star Rob Huebel adds, “We have no continuity. One episode I’m dating one girl and the next episode I’m married to someone else. There’s no continuity at all so we don’t care about that. The only thing we really care about is that it’s funny.” And forget about medical training. Hayes continues, “This season there have been two scenes where we have to actually look like we’re trying to save someone’s life and we just have no idea what to do. There’s not even a hint of reality. All we knew how to do was check his pulse and say ‘we’re losing him.'”

The 14-episode third season of Childrens Hospital premieres tonight at midnight on Adult Swim. The uninterrupted 15 minute episode is titled “Run, Dr. Lola Spratt, Run” and is about a kid getting stuck in quicksand; watch out for guest stars Jon Hamm (Mad Men) and Lisa Edelstein (House). See images from the ep below, and watch a preview after the break. New episodes will air every Thursday at midnight. And if you missed the first two seasons, they’re now available on DVD.

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TV Reminder: South Parks returns tonight at 10PM on Comedy Central

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HUMANCENTiPAD

The boys of South Park return tonight! For the season fifteen premiere, Trey Parker and Matt Stone have something quite disturbing in store for us. What do you get when you bring together Apple’s iPad and the Dutch horror film The Human Centipede. Well, um, the “HUMANCENTiPAD” of course! And that is the title of tonight’s episode. It’s bound to be a riot. Watch a cartoony Steve Jobs introduce the revolutionary new product in the preview above and tune into Comedy Central at precisely 10PM for the goods.

TV Reminder: ‘Parks & Recreation’ returns tonight at 9:30PM on NBC

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Finally, finally!  The Pawnee gang led by the one and only Leslie Knope returns tonight!  In the season 3 premiere “Go Big or Go Home” Leslie is trying to convince newcomers Chris and Ben (Rob Lowe and Adam Scott) to give the Parks Department more money.  Prepare for the premiere by watching this informative and hilarious preview, and look in the gallery below for character profiles.

BONUS! Hop after the break to watch Rob Lowe flip out at the cast of Parks and Rec, presented by Funny or Die. NSFW warning is in full effect (language).

Update: Parks and Rec hit a series-high rating–6.2 million people tuned into the season 3 premiere.  That’s up 52% from its fall season premiere in 2009.  The Office lead-in helped; Parks retained 71% of its viewers.

[Images via IGN; Deadline; TVLine]

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