I'm sorry to learn that CBS has yanked The Ex List (pictured) from its schedule after just four airings, since I like star Elizabeth Reaser and since the show was, according to EW critic Gillian Flynn's review, worthy of a B+ grade. Of course, I have to go by Gillian's review because I never got around to watching the show, and apparently, neither did too many other people. You'd think there would be an audience for a romantic dramedy like this, but you'd be wrong, and CBS should have known that, given the sad history of similar programs.
TV critics, advertisers, and network executives will all tell you that TV is a female-friendly medium (especially when compared to, say, mainstream Hollywood movies). It presents women with images of themselves that are, collectively at least, more well-rounded, diverse, and fully developed than the arm-candy female characters on the big screen, which is why Holly Hunter, Kyra Sedgwick, and Glenn Close are all small-screen stars now. And yet these hour-long dramedies with romance-themed plots haven't drawn an audience since Ally McBeal; The Ex List follows such shows as Men in Trees and Miss Match to the TV scrap heap. It can't help that all three of these programs aired on Friday nights, when young women craving romance are more likely to be out on the town than staying home to watch TV.
Aside from a better timeslot, then, what will it take for TV to create a smart, female-friendly, romance-driven series that lasts? Any suggestions, PopWatchers?
Welcome back to PopWatch's Winner of the Week feature, where we honor the entertainer who enjoyed the most noteworthy success during the past seven days. This week was a dismal one, especially on network TV, where shows that hadn't been seen for nearly a year because of the writers' strike limped back onto the air, only to find dwindling audiences. But one network bucked the trend: CBS. The Eye network's procedural dramas Criminal Minds (pictured, left), NCIS (right), CSI:NY, and Without a Trace have all seen big ratings jumps this fall. So has returning comedy How I Met Your Mother. New crime drama The Mentalist is doing well, even against ABC's Dancing With the Stars and Fox's new Fringe. (And judging by the many pro-Mentalist comments on this post, a lot of you are fans of the new Simon Baker series as well.)
And so, last week's champ, Tina Fey, hands over the tiara to CBS, the new Winner of the Week. Congratulations, CBS! And PopWatchers, please feel free to nominate your own winners of the week, either for the past seven days or the week to come, in the comments below.
Last fall, A&E indefinitely suspended production of Dog the Bounty Hunter after a recording surfaced of its star, Duane "Dog" Chapman (pictured), spewing racist insults. Good call. (The extremely NSFW clip in question is here.) But hey, turns out by "indefinitely suspended" they meant "a few months' vacation and then we're back," because A&E just confirmed that they're airing a new season of Dog's reality show this summer. Excuse me, what?
Look, I get that Dog apologized. Maybe he's even telling the truth when he says he's a really nice, tolerant guy who just happened to use a vile slur on tape that one time. But does he really deserve to stay on the air after making that kind of mistake? Couldn't A&E find any telegenic bail bondspeople who don't say disgustingly hateful things in their free time? (Because, y'know, they couldn't do without a bounty hunting show for long — A&E stands for "Arts & Entertainment & Also Some Bounty Hunting," after all.) Meanwhile, I hope this flack's boss gave him a healthy bonus for making it through this quote with a straight face: "Said A&E spokesman Michael Feeney, 'It's not about ratings.... We know his heart. We know him and know he's not a racist.'" You tell me. Is there any conceivable reason other than ratings that could have inspired the network to hold on to Dog?
The Hollywood Reporter is officially calling the midseason a "muddle" for the broadcast networks. Most of the 10 comedies and dramas launched in the past month, including Internet pick-up quarterlife and Canterbury's Law, failed to gain traction with viewers (quarterlife was yanked after a single episode after garnering some of the worst ratings NBC had seen in almost two decades).
But the network with the best and the worst track record is Fox. Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles is the highest-rated of the midseason scripted offerings with an average of 10.8 million viewers, but most of the other new shows are doing poorly: Parker Posey vehicle The Return of Jezebel James was pulled after attracting a paltry 3.2 million viewers; Canterbury's, at 6.7 million, was moved from Monday to Friday after two eps; and Unhitched (pictured; 4.7 million viewers) is flagging.
Personally, I can't say I'm terribly invested in any of the new shows, although as a fan of Jezebel's Posey and Lauren Ambrose, I'm bummed that the show was such a mess. Perhaps that's why the networks are having problems: With ratings powerhouse Idol taking the pressure off of the performance, Fox doesn't need to worry about nurturing new scripted shows. The article also makes the point (via a quote from Fox exec VP Preston Beckman) that the glut of reality programming currently on the air has cultivated a different sort of audience — the kind that might not watch scripted shows in the first place.
What do you think, PopWatchers? Are you invested in any of the new scripted shows, or even prepping a bag of peanuts? Do you think the networks should allow more time for shows to gain fans before yanking them? Or is what happened to, say, Jezebel James, a mercy killing?
Score one for Brian Williams (sort of). As network news broadcasts hemorrhage viewers, the anchor got a little bit of good news this week. With an average 9.2 million viewers tuning in, his NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams beat ABC's World News with Charles Gibson and CBS' Evening News with Katie Couric in the November ratings race. Nielsen also reports that Williams is tops (albeit barely—Gibson lagged by only one tenth of a ratings point) with the ever-desirable 25-54 demographic.
Pop-culture junkies might think that Williams’ surprisingly funny Nov. 3 stint hosting Saturday Night Live is what pushed him into first place (it certainly won me over, and here I'd written him off as insufferable soon after he inherited Brokaw’s chair). That said, the numbers show that Williams actually lost total viewers in the year since the sweeps period of November 2006.
Now, here's the thing: Do you know anyone who tunes in, with any regularity, to the evening news to catch up on current events? I don’t. Who can wait till dinnertime to digest the news of the day? That's what bookmarks on your browser are for! Which makes me wonder: How long before network news broadcasts can no longer measure viewership in the millions and decide to just throw in the towel (to the mournful wails of traditionalist news junkies)?
And far be it from me to be glib about the format's grim future (much respect, ghost of Edward R. Murrow), but Williams really should keep those comedy chops honed. You never know when an Anchorman sequel will start shooting—could there be any more perfect casting than NBC's newsman as Will Ferrell's next gravitas-gifted nemesis?
Weep not for Kevin Reilly, the NBC entertainment chief ousted a few weeks ago, just after unveiling the struggling network's fall schedule. He's just landed an equivalent job as entertainment president at Fox, where he'll be reunited with his former boss Peter Liguori (the two worked together at Fox's sister cable channel FX, where Reilly helped develop such smart and successful shows as The Shield and Nip/Tuck); Liguori, in turn, is being promoted to Fox entertainment chairman.
Reilly's new post comes with one big plus and minus: American Idol. On the one hand, AI makes the network all but invulnerable from January through May: on the other hand, the series started to show its age this season, and it doesn't help Fox much during the other seven months of the year. But Reilly won't be able to do much with Fox's fall slate, at least not this year, when the autumn 2007 shows are already bought and paid for. But he can make his impact felt starting in midseason, which is where you come in, PopWatchers.
If I could make one suggestion to Reilly about fixing Fox's winter shows, it'd be this: 24 needs help, stat! Everyone agrees the 2007 season was a letdown, full of recycled storylines, suspense-free plotting, and characters that went nowhere. Clearly, the show needs a reboot, but some of the ideas that have been floated in recent news articles — an aborted effort to shoot episodes in Africa, a plotline that would have Jack going rogue from CTU — suggest a show that's flailing in search of a new direction. Hey, here's a thought that would please fans: how about more Chloe (Mary Lynn Rajskub, pictured)? Give her something to do besides mope about the men in her life (and the life in her men). Of course, I'm sure you all have even better ideas for how to fix 24 and how to help Fox with the rest of its lineup, so let's fill Reilly's suggestion box below.
I'm almost sorry we're still talking about this, but then again, Sunday's Sopranos finale drew almost 12 million viewers, making it the second most watched show on broadcast or cable last week (behind only America's Got Talent). Anyway, while viewers continue to rewind their DVRs in search of clues, we can put a few burning questions to rest, now that series creator David Chase has briefly broken his silence, and now that Adriana herself has spoken to EW.com.
"Anybody who wants to watch it, it's all there," said Chase — who's granted one and only one post-finale interview, to Alan Sepinwall, TV critic at New Jersey's own Star-Ledger newspaper — about possible clues in the finale. He insisted that the purpose of the blackout was not to frustrate viewers or to leave the door open for a Sopranos movie, a project he said he doubts he will ever be inspired to write. Beyond that, he said he wants the episode's content to speak for itself. "I have no interest in explaining, defending, reinterpreting, or adding to what is there."
Congratulations, you nut-lovin' Jericho fans! Now that your deluge of legumes may have convinced CBS to bring your favorite show back from the dead, there are still some questions. First, is it really happening? (UPDATE: Yes, it is!) Second, will seven episodes be enough to tie up all the plot's loose ends, or is there another nut-shipping campaign in CBS's future? If I were a CBS exec, I'd be asking: Where was all this fan enthusiasm when the show was struggling in the ratings? Did we underestimate the support because we haven't yet figured out a reliable way to count those who DVR'd the show or watched it online? And how can we translate those viewings, which don't help our advertisers much, into the kind of revenue stream that justifies bringing this show back to life?
What say you, PopWatchers? Do you have the patience to wait until 2008 for more Jericho? Or are you burned out on this and other serial dramas that require you to invest a lot of time and emotion in return for gratification that may not come for years, or at all?
As a professional TV pundit, I guess I'm supposed to join my colleagues in wringing my hands over the turmoil in NBC's executive suite and to profess shock that entertainment chief Kevin Reilly was fired so soon after presenting his handcrafted fall schedule. Yet I think would have been a shock if the network hadn't fired him, given NBC's basement-dwelling ratings over the last couple of years.
Similarly, I can't get agitated over his replacement by hotshot producer Ben Silverman; in terms of taste, they're really not that different. Reilly is known for greenlighting quality scripted shows (such as The Office, Heroes, and My Name Is Earl) and lowbrow unscripted fare (Deal or No Deal), while Silverman's company Reveille is known for producing quality scripted shows (The Office, Ugly Betty, The Tudors) and lowbrow unscripted fare (The Biggest Loser). Plus, things won't be changing much under Silverman, at least not at first; before his ouster, Reilly committed NBC to second seasons of such struggling shows as 30 Rock and Friday Night Lights (shown), so Silverman won't have a lot of room to make radical shifts in direction.
Surprise! A plurality of viewers in America watch American Idol, then lather, rinse, repeat. See the entire list of primetime ratings here. I adore the comprehensiveness this list. It's really no fun when the list stops at the top 20. You do a double-take seeing Two and a Half Men there and that's the biggest thrill of the experience. But this way, you get to scan through every title of the season past and learn that Sandy Cohen (a.k.a. Peter Gallagher, left) and his bagel slicer came in at a definitely-not-last-place No. 123. Take that, Celebrity Duets!
Some slight oddities. Shark (No. 24) outranked 24 (No. 27), and LaToya Jackson's foray into law enforcement — axed after only four episodes — tied with Friday Night Lights (and four other shows) at No. 95. Did you find any surprises on the list? And is anyone else wondering why the CW doesn't just cancel all their shows?
Earlier this week on Late Night, John Stamos, Tom Selleck, and yes, even Conan performed a little striptease after Stamos confessed to having a navel that looked like a nose. I love Selleck's high-pitched giggle fit at the end. Way to keep it real, everyone!
In seemingly unrelated news, Nielsen Media Research is considering adopting a "live plus three" rule for the 2007-8 season — instead of basing ratings on real-time performance, they'd leave a three-day window so that DVR users who don't watch things right away could be counted, too. Last year, a week-long window was proposed and nixed, so the "three" is a compromise. But is three days enough?
As a die-hard DVR/life partner owner (I wear the pants), I often don't watch shows until at least a week after they've aired. I took in practically the entire Grey's Anatomy season this past Sunday. Then there's all the watching we do online. The Conan thing happened Tuesday night, but I'm only watching it today. Clearly, it'll take a more complicated equation to calculate just how much life energy we bestow on TV-related nonsense in 2008. What do you think? Is three days enough? Should they stop trying to track us altogether? I mean, sometimes I'm catching up with YouTube in my sleep. Yeah, Nielsen. Measure that.
Bad news: The CW has canceled Veronica Mars. And despite widespread rumors, there's not going to be a spinoff. Star Kristen Bell (pictured, with Chris Lowell, left, and Jason Dohring) is slated to narrate this fall's new CW series, Gossip Girl. I'll admit I don't know much about VM, but I do know how committed its fans are, so I'm sure a "voice of Kevin Arnold"-like gig feels to you all like a huge slap in the face.
Let's send off this show in the only way PopWatch knows how:
One night I tuned in Your best friend really slept with Harry Hamlin? Huh?
So, PopWatchers, I hate to point this out to you, but NBC has made an outrageous decision. No, they have NOT canceled Friday Night Lights, but they have changed its timeslot to Friday nights at 10 p.m. I am bewildered; the folks at NBC don't see a good thing when they've got it. They are setting the show up to fail! To add insult to injury, Deal or No Deal will be airing during not one, but TWO primetime slots during the week! It's Howie Mandel for goodness' sake — who wants to watch his sorry cueball!? Okay, that was a little rude. But I'm upset! This fall our social lives may be at risk. I've personally got some big decisions to make. Or perhaps I will just break down and throw more money to the hand that feeds and get a DVR.
To commemorate the series finale of Gilmore Girlstonight (as well as what may prove to be the penultimate Veronica Mars), my friend Cynthia has a suggestion she'd like to share with anyone out there who works in TV development:
Count me in with those who like Logan and who feel that he got the shaft with his treatment in the most recent Gilmore episode. If Veronica Mars gets canceled, I think there should be a new show on in the fall called Logan's Crossing, with the Logans from each show (Gilmore's Matt Czuchry, left, and Veronica's Jason Dohring, right). They don't have to interact: Each guy could get half an hour and at some point they can cross paths and it would switch to the other Logan's story. In my mind, when they cross and the narrative changes from one Logan to the other, it's a Touched By an Angel sort of moment. Like, they would have some subliminal awareness of it.
If we could get Della Reese involved, I think it's network gold.
C'mon, PopWatchers! Who's ready to rally behind this idea? And since it's upfront season, does anyone have another pitch they'd like to share?
Ask not for whom the cha-chung! tolls; it tolls for thee. We keep hearing that NBC may finally cancel the venerable Law & Order: Original Flava due to its continued ratings slide unless drastic changes are made at the franchise flagship. One move might be to reduce costs by laying off some of the cops and lawyers (Law & Side Order?). Another, more novel idea might be to move the show over to TNT, where they already air four hours of L&O reruns a day. There, the show could continue at a reduced fee, with full 22-episode seasons and a built-in deal for the reruns. Such a deal would probably mark a first for a broadcast-to-cable series.
But I have an even more radical suggestion: let it die. I mean, would anybody miss it? The reruns are ubiquitous, and there are 17 years worth of them (about 400 episodes). The other two L&O shows are still doing fine in first run, and there's no reason folks like S. Epatha Merkerson and Sam Waterston can't do guest spots on Criminal Intent or Special Victims Unit. Besides, the show's just not what it was before it lost Jerry Orbach — the jaded older cop/restless younger cop dynamic doesn't work when senior partner Jesse L. Martin (pictured) is still a fairly young guy; the new assistant D.A. lady is the most personality-free yet; and Fred Thompson would probably rather be running for president than dispensing Southern-fried bon mots from the D.A.'s chair. Really, the only reason to keep it alive seems to be to satisfy producer Dick Wolf's desire to break Gunsmoke's 20-season record as the longest-lived primetime drama series.
Is that really a good enough reason to keep Law & Order going? Would you still watch first-run episodes if they trimmed the cast or moved the show to basic cable? Do you have another idea for how to save the series, or is it time to just let it go?
A fond PopWatch shout-out to Bob Vila, who, it seems, may be riding off into this old house in the sky (or at least into rerun heaven). The 60-year-old home improvement guru's eponymous CBS show was just canceled due, apparently, to a piddling 0.8 rating, leaving Vila without a broadcast home for the first time in 28 years. Boo!
I mean, what a guy. I remember when we were growing up how my brother was just addicted to Vila's programs, starting with This Old House, which ran from 1979 to 1988. I swear, bro couldn't get enough of watching the master work his magic with crown molding and toilets. I guess I never really appreciated Vila until more recently -- now that I live on my own and have a power drill, I realize I owe so much of what I know to him. And, of course, he gets credit for popularizing the whole TV fix-it genre which now sports countless shows, including the greatest program in the 500-channel universe, TLC's Flip That House (which totally rocks A&E's Flip This House's world). Ah, I'll miss him. You, too, huh?
Imagine the excitement around the EW offices today when the news came down that NBC's low-rated (just 5.8 million viewers on average) 30 Rock was renewed for next season. Nearly everyone here — at least the RIGHT-thinking staffers — loves Tina Fey's hilarious and increasingly absurd (in the best possible way) sitcom, and we've incessantly advocated it in our pages. The lower the ratings sink, the harder we push. We know what's right for you readers in the same way that the seatbelt alarm in your car knows what's best for you: we don't care how annoying we are, we won't stop making noise until you buckle up for entertainment. (That said, I alone at EW would rather go through a windshield than read anything else about American Idol. Complex in my trend-bucking, aren't I?)
NBC entertainment president Kevin Reilly says he's planning on rerunning the sitcom over the summer, hoping potential fans will discover it in the slow months, and then make it a hit in season 2, much like what happened with The Office. And we're right there behind him on this quest: we won't rest until you've sat down, enjoyed it, and made it a smash like it so rightly deserves.
And yet, what if you don't? At what point should we finally shut up?
Ratings come and go, but megalomania and self-delusion are forever. Last night on The Apprentice, which you're probably not watching anymore, Donald Trump was giving his wannabes their latest assignment at Grauman's Chinese Theater in Hollywood. "They should put my footprints outside," he told the troops. "I'm a bigger star than anybody. I have the No. 1 show on television." (His declaration inspired EW.com's Apprentice TV Watch columnist Whitney Pastorek to anoint herself the "No. 1 Writer on the Internets.") For the record, The Apprentice came in 44th out of 97 network broadcasts monitored by Nielsen last week; it's ranked 89th out of 197 series so far this season. These days, if The Donald wants to draw a crowd outside Grauman's, he'll probably have to offer to leave his hairprint.
Attention, TV lovers: The dreaded "bubble season" is upon us, and networks are scrutinizing their lineups, trying to decide which existing series to pick up for the fall season, and which to bag up and toss in the dumpster. A story in today's Variety notes that the following series are still awaiting their fates, and that ratings from the coming weeks could be a deciding factor: ABC's Men in Trees, Six Degrees, What About Brian (UGH! Cancel it!),The Knights of Prosperity, According to Jim, and George Lopez; CBS' Jericho, The Class, The New Adventures of Old Christine, Close to Home, and Rules of Engagement; Fox's The War at Home, 'Til Death, Standoff, and newcomers The Winner and The Wedding Bells; the CW's Veronica Mars, All of Us, and 7th Heaven; and NBC's 30 Rock, Friday Night Lights, Medium, Crossing Jordan, Law & Order, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, and Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. (I'd count Scrubs, too, but if NBC doesn't pick it up for the 2007-2008 season, it appears ABC will.)
There are at least four or five series on the list that are currently on my DVR rotation, but I thought it would be fun to force myself (and all of you) to use this blog item to argue for the renewal of one show — and one show only. So with apologies to Tina Fey and Anne Heche, here goes my pitch:
It's now a month past that ill-conceived Aqua Teen Hunger Force (pictured) marketing ploy-slash-terrorism hoax in Boston, and the ratings are in. ATHF's home base, the Cartoon Network's Adult Swim broke all sorts of cable records in February among young and male viewers. Moreover, it extended its streak as the top cable channel among men aged 18-24 to 23 months — yep, more cereal-eating, pot-smoking, dorm-living homebodies watch Adult Swim than tune in to outlets like ESPN or MTV. Dude!
Man. Oh, man. The spin machine would have you believe that this achievement is largely the product of Family Guy and Futurama marathons and of Nielsen Media Research's recent decision to include college students in its count. But is that all there is to it? Isn't it possible that the ATHF stunt sparked interest in a show and network that many people hadn't heard about? (I admit to having been one of them — it's been years since I didn't inhale/was in college/had no life).
To be fair and fully disclose: Turner Broadcasting, which owns the Cartoon Network (and is a part of EW.com parent Time Warner), paid a $2 million fine of sorts, and the channel's honcho resigned. But does all this still leave a bad taste in your mouth? And what do the higher ratings mean for the marketing mavens of the future, who may be looking at the Boston thing with a certain twisted admiration?
Have you heard? NBC is pinning its hopes on this new lofty, ambitious show created by a Hollywood Golden Boy. They've been hyping it with millions of commercials and previews (to the point of irritating saturation), all of which promise that the show will bring intellectual, gritty topics back to television. To prove this is indeed a Serious Television Show, most of its scenes will be shot in deep shadow and sepia tones. And of course, NBC is hoping — praying — that this new show will pull the network out of the ratings doldrums.
Sound familiar? Whether you're hearing this story in the present tense or if it takes you back to warmer days in early September, the parallels between new show The Black Donnellys and Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip seem uncanny. Both have big-name creators (Paul Haggis and Aaron Sorkin, respectively), both address serious topics (violence and religion), and both share a timeslot: Mondays at 10 p.m. (The Black Donnellys began squatting in Sorkin's timeslot last night, bumping Studio 60 into the bleak land of "indefinite hiatus.")
Since further comparisons between the two are inevitable, how do the pilots match up head-to-head? Let us compare and contrast:
Poor, adorable Abigail Breslin. She was the belle of the ball on Oscar night, even though she didn't win a trophy. So many people were rooting for her — but not her Little Miss Sunshine costar Alan Arkin, the cranky mofo. Didja hear what the Best Supporting Actor winner told Access Hollywood on the red carpet? He said he was hoping the pint-sized starlet would lose. Scandal! But, wait, wait. You know, maybe he actually had a point. Winning an Academy Award at such a young age can kill a kid's childhood and cause all sorts of damage. Just look at Tatum O'Neal. I mean, owning one of those little gold guys isn't as potentially problematic as, say, drug abuse, but it's still worth considering: Maybe Abigail Breslin was better off going home empty handed.
That's just one of the thoughts still floating through this hazy brain of mine, 37 hours after the end of the seemingly interminable big show. Here are a few more; weigh in at will:
• How does The Departed measure up against other Best Picture winners, and will it stand the test of time? I, for one, believe that it's one of the best Best Pictures we've had in a while — in fact, it's my first favorite-movie-of-the-year to win the top award since, like, The Silence of the Lambs. And this L.A. Times column makes a good case that genre flicks resonate best as the years go on.
• Ellen was great, but Jerry Seinfeld killed! Maybe he should host next year?
• Viewership for the telecast (39.9 million people) was up slightly over last year (38.9 million), probably because at least one box office hit (The Departed) was nominated this time around. Still, ratings are awfully crappy compared to several times in the past decade when 10 million or 15 million more folks tuned in (especially when blockbusters like Titanic and Return of the King were contenders). Why is this happening? Awards fatigue? The 500-channel universe? No Billy Crystal? Dare I suggest that if this weekend's box office winner, Ghost Rider, which has already earned more dough than all but one of the Best Picture nominees, is tapped next year, then more people will watch? (It won't happen, of course, but still.)
Is Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip back at death's door? For a while, it appeared the show had been saved from cancellation, thanks to NBC's order for a full season's worth of episodes, a slight uptick in the ratings, and Aaron Sorkin's apparent recognition that his Monday night dramedy needed a change in direction. But this afternoon, there comes a press release from NBC that, if you read between the lines, suggests the series may be gone for good by the end of the month.
The press release announces the March 5 debut of the drama The Black Donnellys in Studio 60's timeslot. Now, that alone doesn't mean that Studio 60 is never coming back. But the same press release also notes that 30 Rock is giving up its space in March to Andy Richter's new comedy, Andy Barker, P.I., but is returning after just one month, on April 19. There's no fixed date for Studio 60 to resume; the release says merely that it "will return later this season on a date to be determined." Well, maybe it will, or maybe it'll come back in the summer to burn off the remaining episodes—or maybe NBC will air them only over the Internet.
Studio 60 gets a lot of flak on EW.com, including some from me in my TV Watch column, prompting some readers to ask why I write about the show every week if I hate it so much. I don't hate it, but I find it incredibly frustrating. All that talent—Sorkin, the blue-chip cast (led by Matthew Perry, pictured)—and all those lofty aspirations, marred by weak execution, lazy writing, dramatic issues that are hard to care about, and a lack of verisimilitude (these characters are comedy professionals, so where's the funny?). There are occasional laughs, and occasional moments of brilliance, but apparently not enough of them to keep people watching. Still, I (and many of you, I'm sure) keep tuning in every week, hoping that this will be the week the show finally lives up to its potential for greatness. Better hurry up, Studio 60; you may have only four more weeks to dazzle us.
Perhaps Law & Order's classic "chung chung" should be changed to "ka-ching!" SVU stars Mariska Hargitay and Chris Meloni have just re-upped their contracts -- after a long negotiation with NBC brass -- for at least another two seasons at the rate of $330,000 per episode, or roughly $6.5 million each. Though it's paltry compared to Friends/Frasier/Raymond moolah, the new deal is enough to make new mom Hargitay (pictured) the highest-paid actress on television, topping The Closer star Kyra Sedgwick. (Meloni still trails Charlie Sheen, who gets paid approximately $350,000 an episode for Two and a Half Men.)
Apparently, TPTB briefly flirted with the idea of replacing the two increasing expensive stars, so I'm just glad NBC came to their senses and ponied up the cash. Benson and Stabler ARE SVU -- unlike the original L&O, the Special Victims crew always get way too emotionally invested in their cases and thus, we become way too invested in their (sigh, fictional) lives. Plus, Hargitay and Meloni (heck, the entire SVU cast) attend EW's Oscar Party in Manhattan every year and play nice, so kudos to them.
But this is all coming from a die-hard SVU fan who can watch re-runs on the USA network all day. Given how small NBC's average audience is these days, do you think Hargitay and Meloni are worth their new salaries? And who else is deserving (or undeserving) of their current TV deals?
Okay, so now we know who'll be walking the red carpet outside the Kodak Theatre on Feb. 25. Yay. But a bigger -- and, for the folks at the Academy and ABC, truly troubling -- question looms: Will anybody be watching them strut their stuff?
Thanks to a bleak, simmering brew of low-buzz indie-film nominees, sluggish box office revenues, a zillion cable channels, and general apathy, viewer interest in the Oscars has waned in the years since 55.2 million people in the U.S. watched Titanic's 1998 sweep. In fact, since 2000, no Academy Awards telecast has come within 10 million viewers of that sum; last year's 38.9 million was the second-lowest total of the past decade. And that was with the perennially-popular Jon Stewart hosting. The Academy and ABC have taken the hint, amping up their advertising efforts to elevate interest, reports The New York Times. Seems they've finally learned that the Oscar brand isn't enough to get people to watch the show -- we homebodies have to be convinced.
Poor Day Break. Wait, you didn't hear? It got canceled, which to many is not very surprising (though I was riveted by the first three episodes), but Taye Diggs (pictured) is probably bummed. Also, that William Shatner game show was killed as well. Blah.
TVSeriesFinale.com is a site that keeps track of how various TV shows have ended -- from cancellations to season finales to searies finales. The site's still pretty new (there are lots of links to nothing more than press releases), but its mini-series on The Golden Girls is pretty cool. Also great is the page of Gilligan's Islandvideo clips. (Was this REALLY the show's first theme song?)
For all four dozen of you who've been watching CBS's new brain-surgery drama (starring Stanley Tucci), I regret to inform you, it's gone the way of previous time-slot occupant, Smith. In other words, it's fini, kaput, dunzo. Personally, I couldn't bring myself to watch 3 Lbs. I made it through the first 90 seconds of an episode last week, but quickly began to experience numbness in my arms, legs, and soul. (It didn't get the heart of EW's TV critic racing, either.) Did I miss out on a never-to-be-discovered gem, PopWatchers? Or did I make the right decision to shut it off and go purge my closet of dreaded wire hangers? All must be revealed in the comments section below.
If there’s such a disease as triskaidekaphobia (the fear of the number 13), ER seems to have discovered a cure: John Stamos (pictured, right, with costar Mekhi Phifer). NBC’s decision to cast the heartthrob as cocky med stud Tony Gates has injected so much new life into the drama, now in its 13th season, that speculation is swirling about a -- gulp! -- 15th go-around for the series. (The current deal expires in spring 2008; a new pact would add an extra year.) While NBC Entertainment president Kevin Reilly says official talks haven’t begun, he’s reveling in ER’s ratings (at 13.9 million viewers, the show is up slightly from last year and is winning its time slot over Shark and Six Degrees). "It warms my heart that ER is once again a part of our circle of good news," says Reilly. "It doesn’t feel like a vestige of the show like it once was."
The first step in securing ER for a 15th season would be to renegotiate with the series regulars -- most of whom have deals that expire in May of ’07. Stamos is game should ER go the distance. "I’ve never gotten this kind of writing," beams the Full House alum. "It’s so good!" (Don’t let the Olsen twins hear you say that!)
PopWatchers, how many of you are still checking into ER on Thursdays? Is the former Uncle Jesse the draw for you? Or is Grey's Anatomy at 9 whetting your appetite for a second hour of hospital theatrics, led by another (Mc)Dreamy medic?
Sometimes, I feel like a bad news bear, incessantly discussing a steady stream of cancellations of quality programs. So long, Smith! Adieu, Arrested! Someday, we'll meet in the afterlife, Valerie Cherish! (I need to see that!)
Today, however, is a different kind of day. Sort of an oh-happy-day, if you will. That's because The CW just dropped us a note letting us know it's picked up Veronica Mars (pictured) -- ordering an additional seven episodes to finish out the show's third season. Sure, that's not the standard nine fan-boys and -girls were probably hoping for, but at least TV's favorite teen sleuth will be working her magic through the spring. And seeing that the series is up 7 percent in the 18-34 demographic, is there any reason she shouldn't be?
And so, the great EW debate of 2006 may now end: NBC has given Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip a full season pick up. What we don't know: whether the show will stay in its Monday at 10 p.m. timeslot when the network announces its midseason lineup next week. What we do know: Apparently, Studio 60 has TV's highest concentration of viewers with a household income of more than $75,000. (We presume that's because all of Hollywood is watching.) Will those upscale viewers draw deeper-pocketed advertisers, enough to make up for the show's low ratings?
Also receiving a full season pick up: Men in Trees, which will move to Thursdays at 10 p.m. on Nov. 30. (Sorry, Six Degrees.) And receiving orders for more scripts (not an official renewal but always a good sign): NBC's Friday Night Lights and 30 Rock and The CW's Veronica Mars and One Tree Hill.
In other TV news, it's getting harder to put off adding Showtime to your cable: Michael C. Hall's Dexter has already been granted a Season 2, and now Variety reports that David Duchovny will start in an untitled drama pilot about a charming character named Hank Moody, "a novelist trying to raise a kid on his own while battling an addiction to sex and drugs." (If only Charlie Sheen didn't have Two and a Half Men...)
I'm sorry to hear that ABC has pulledSix Degrees from its schedule through December (and maybe longer?). It's a show that's probably too nice for its own good; no wonder it's getting eaten by CBS' Shark every week. Its plotting is still scattershot, as it tries to force serendipitous connections among its six protagonists. Still, its dreamy depiction of a multi-ethnic New York, where city dwellers cross lines of race, class, and gender to help each other, makes it a nice Thursday companion piece to the network's Ugly Betty. Plus, any project that gives jobs to Campbell Scott and Hope Davis is a good thing. Let's hope ABC finds a way to bring it back after the New Year, when the primetime schedule is likely to become even more competitive.
Even though NBC has ordered 3 more episodes of the struggling series, that seems to be more of a peace offering/contractual obligation to Aaron Sorkin than a vote of confidence, given the god-awful ratings and continued barrage of criticism leveled against the show since its inception. The sad truth is that NBC can make more money by slapping on another Deal or No Deal than it can by trying to salvage Studio 60, and because networks only make decisions from a fiscal standpoint these days (unlike, you know, a creative one), you can pretty much kiss today goodbye, and point me to tomorrow.
I'm pretty heartbroken about this, to be honest; as one of the staunchest Sorkin apologists you'll ever meet -- as well as the type of person inclined to go off on rants about how society today is a commercially-driven cesspool of short attention spans and mindless drivel, with entertainment the bloated lowest-common-denominator rat swirling in its brackish depths -- I hate the thought that I may never know how Bernard does as the show's other black staff member, or if Tom's brother survives AFGHANISTAN, or exactly what purpose Bradley Whitford was on the show to serve. Still, I guess it's better to just set the cast and crew loose so they may find their way to higher ground, and I'm not gonna complain about having an extra hour of free time in my week.
psst. hey popwatchers. shhhh... be quiet so no one notices this post, cause i didn't run it by my editor before i wrote it: did you know that this week's monday night football was the highest-rated cable show of all time? yep, with 12.8 million viewers, it broke an old record set by an al gore/ross perot debate (???) and pretty much confirmed that abc's gamble to move the football off the main network is paying off. although, to be fair, wife swap, the bachelor, and what about brian are kind of getting the snot slapped out of them in its place.
so are you guys enjoying the football on the espn (pronounced "espin," fyi)? please to advise.
UPDATE, VERY LOUD, WHERE MY EDITOR CAN SEE: Okay, turns out this best-ratings-ever claim has been debunked by the Washington Post (ironically, the employer of MNF's Tony Kornheiser). Seems ESPN was counting households, not people, and the Gore/Perot debate (again, I say ???) remains king after all. Sniff. Hate to see a great run like that brought back because of a holding call.
It's a beautiful day for a ballgame... let's play two! Tonight, the Fall Classic moves to St. Louis with the series tied 1-1, and so many questions abound...
-Will Fox's ratings continue to disappoint? The ratings average is down about half a million viewers from last year's Series (between the White Sox and the Greatest Team Of All Time, The Houston Astros, In Their First Ever World Series)... and the bad news for Fox is that last year's Series was the worst-rated of all time. All hope is not lost -- Game 2 on Sunday night garnered a respectable 18.2 million viewers, up from 12.8 on Saturday, when, clearly, everyone watched at a bar -- but the net heads have to be praying for this series to go 6 or 7 games to make up for all the lost time.
-Will Fox find more ways to make people change the channel? Frankly, they deserve all the mediocre ratings they can get, so long as their broadcast team includes the semi-literate Tim McCarver and they see the games more as a way to jack up the ratings for Justice than, you know, the WORLD SERIES. (Sure, they got rid of Scooter, the Talking Baseball, but he never should have existed in the first place.) And now, with their decision to renew their broadcast contract through 2013, they've announced their intention to extend the length of commercial breaks between innings.
-Could the commercials that fill those breaks make me less inclined to continue breathing? So far, it's been an incessant cycle of promos for Fox's fall shows (no, I'm still not going to watch Justice), Ron Livingston inexplicably shilling for Sprint (although you should all be watching Standoff), and Jay-Z making us beg him to return to retirement. But no commercial has gotten under my skin more than John Cougar Mellencamp's "This Is Our Country" spot for Chevrolet, a commercial so horrid that it's already spawned a parody and plunged me into existential dread because I do not have room in my apartment for a Chevy Silverado and thus have begun to question if I do, in fact, still live in America or not. (Perhaps the one bright spot in Mellencamp's patri-erotic ubiquity? We have yet to see a Toby Keith Amerigasm Ford commercial.)
I'm trusting at least some of you care about this, so -- what's to be done? How could Fox make its sports coverage somehow more palatable? How many of you are forced to watch baseball with the sound off at home, or spend way too much money on beer down at the sports bar just to escape? And is Joe Theismann's yapping on Monday Night Football better than/worse than/exactly as horrific as McCarver's? Discuss.
On Thursday, NBC Universal announced a few cost-cutting measures, one of which was programming the 8 p.m. hour with reality/game shows, which are cheaper to produce than scripted series. This raises a few obvious questions: Who exactly pays the prizes on Deal or No Deal (pictured)? Who came up with name NBCU 2.0 for this initiative? And what's going to happen to The Office and My Name is Earl?
We can't answer the first two questions, but NBC Entertainment president Kevin Reilly has already said that The Office and Earl will likely stay in their early timeslots. (Love that resolve, NBC.) At least NBCU 2.0 may explain why Friday Night Lights is getting a test run in Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip's 10 p.m. slot on Monday, Oct. 30. (That was scheduled to be a Studio repeat, Sorkin fans, so the end is not immediately nigh.) And maybe why the network ordered additional episodes of the Bob Saget-hosted1 vs. 100 after it debuted to decent numbers a week ago.
Is this the right move for the Peacock, which still trails behind CBS and ABC in total viewers? And more to the point: Are we willing to sacrifice scripted series so Carrot Top can host a game show? (You know he's next... and yes, I'd be wiliing to sacrifice a scripted show for a Carrot Top-hosted game show. Sadly.)
Thursday's night faceoff between CSI and Grey's Anatomy isn't the only ''What do I watch?'' quandary anymore. This Wednesday, Lost finished first in its 9 p.m. slot, but edged out second-place Criminal Minds (wha?) by only 200,000 viewers -- which in the ratings universe translates to practically nothing. Lost's numbers are also way down from last season: between 4 and 5 million more people got revved up for season 2's first few episodes than season 3's.
So what's going on? Is Criminal Minds that amazing, or is Lost losing some of its juice? I don't want to suggest the show has (don't say it... don't say it...) maybe jumped the Dharma Initiative-logo-imprinted shark, but there has to be some reason for the dip in ratings. Is it that the slew of Others (like Elizabeth Mitchell, pictured with Matthew Fox) aren't as compelling right off the bat as some of the more beloved but (so far this season) forgotten original survivors? Is it that viewers know they can watch the shows online? Or is the ratings scare a Dharma conspiracy intended to measure our reaction? Come on, lab rats, turn the TV back on. There's a nice fish biscuit in it for you...
They're dropping like flies I tell ya! And by ''they,'' of course, I'm referring to the fall crop of freshman series that are being shot down, one by one, by the network execs who treat them like little more than skeet whizzing through the airwaves. It's enough to make a blogger want to cry. Or at least my colleague Gary Susman and me. Check out our IM conversation/therapy session from this afternoon.
Slezak (4:42:34 PM): So did you hear, it looks like NBC is pulling the plug on Kidnapped and burning off the remaining episodes on Saturday nights. I'm so glad I emotionally disengaged when the pilot episode tanked in the ratings Susman (4:43:42 PM): I wonder if that's why so many fall shows, especially serial dramas like Smith and Studio 60, are having trouble: People don't want to commit, lest they get burned again. Slezak (4:44:30 PM): Wait, Smith? Smith is in trouble? Susman (4:44:51 PM): Yeah, CBS is yanking it and airing reruns of CSI and Criminal Minds starting Tuesday. Slezak (4:45:09 PM): NOOOO! I already gave Smith my heart! DAMMIT! Susman (4:46:04 PM): You going to be okay? Slezak (4:46:21 PM): I don't know. It's like when you start dating someone really great, and then suddenly they don't return your calls. Do you think Studio 60 is setting you up to break your heart? It's been bleeding viewers over its first three weeks. Susman (4:46:54 PM): I'm worried! I already have such mixed feelings about the show. I can't decide if I'll be disappointed that audiences didn't stick with it, or that Aaron Sorkin didn't have time to figure out how to make the comedy parts work. Slezak (4:47:18 PM): I hear you...I've watched the first three episodes, and while the show is flawed, it's 1,000 times better than CSI: Miami. Susman (4:47:40 PM): Then again, maybe I'll just be relieved that I can free up my Monday nights. Though I'm having fun writing about it in my TV Watches. Slezak (4:47:36 PM): That's the thing, my DVR is so packed, something has to give at some point. Susman (4:47:55 PM): If only it had been unambiguously good, it might have been a hit.
Hiatus: It’s the kinder, gentler cancellation. It is the undiscovered country, from whose bourn few TV shows return. It is where Fox’s Happy Hour has gone. It’s where Fox’s Justice is going. Is it the shape of things to come?
Both Happy Hour (starring Lex Medlin and John Sloan, pictured) and Justice were about 35 percent off their pilot numbers, but the ratings gloom is hardly restricted to Murdochland. Across the tube-iverse, the outlook is the same: No breakout hits. Sure, there are plenty more frosh hopefuls still-to-matriculate (the promising-looking Heroes, Tina Fey’s 30 Rock), but you can bet that last week saw a lot of network nails chewed down to the second knuckle. There’s no glimmer of the next Housewives, the next Earl, the next out-of-the-gate contender. (Sorry, Studio 60.)
Fox has the rest of baseball season to figure out how to stop the bleeding, but maybe you can save them (and the other networks) some time: What have you liked so far? What deserves to stay on the air? What’s the next brilliant-but-cancelled series? Who’ll get the first high-profile letter-writing campaign? Who’s most likely to perish, only to get a Family Guy resurrection? And, most important, where can I buy bootlegs of Costello?
First things first, I'm not the only one who, every time he hears the title of ABC's new Sunday-night drama, Brothers & Sisters, wants to shout, ''Brothers and sisters! Pump up the volume!'', am I? Okay, good. Glad we got that out of the way. Anyhow, because I'm not the only one who tuned in for the series premiere last night (according to the overnights, I'm one of 16.1 million, in fact), let's discuss.
Things I liked: Rachel Griffiths' textured performance. I especially loved seeing Griffiths (pictured, with new TV sib Dave Annable) dress down Ron Rifkin's scary Uncle Saul, while trying to suppress a case of the nervous trembles. I also liked seeing all those Alias alumni (Rifkin, Balthazar Getty, Patricia Wettig), though it's no surprise since Ken Olin is the show's executive producer. And I enjoyed the fairly intriguing setup that's killed off the family patriarch (Kelly's mom's favorite, Tom Skerritt) before anyone could find out why he's tapped the pension plans of the family business. (Ohnohemostcertainlydidn't!)
Things I disliked: The wonky interaction between Calista Flockhart and Sally Field (because we all know talk-radio hosts are meek little mice who don't speak their minds…wha?); a decided lack of glamour (this is a nighttime soap, is it not? so bring on the shoulder pads and sequins!); and a general disjointedness that'll hopefully subside once the show's creative team puts early unrest to rest.
Bottom line: I'm intrigued enough to check out a second episode next week. How bout you, PopWatchers?
NBC apparently doesn't mind that stepchild Bravo is rooting for all the broadcast network's new fall shows to fail. Bravo's BrilliantButCancelled website is running DeathWatch - Fall '06, an ongoing pool where participants guess which new shows will get yanked, and in which order. They're pretty serious about this: Each week's winner gets a video iPod, and the grand prize is a 37-inch flat screen HDTV. Right now, the site's oddsmakers say Fox's Happy Hour and ABC's Men in Trees are the two shows most likely to be axed, which I think is about right. CBS' Shark, the James Woods legal drama that will follow CSI on Thursdays, is deemed the show most likely to last, which I think depends on one's tolerance for the entertaining but abrasive Woods.
Unfortunately, ABC's fine Ugly Betty (starring America Ferrara, pictured) is right near the top of the death list. C'mon, it's based on a show that's been a hit around the world, and ABC thinks highly enough of it to schedule it on Thursdays at 8 opposite Survivor (CBS) and The Office and My Name Is Earl (NBC). Plus, I've seen the pilot, and it's really good. So go to DeathWatch (and to ABC on Thursdays) and vote for some other show to die.
I've been staring all morning at the Hollywood Reporter's complete ranking of primetime network TV shows for the 2005-2006 season, because, well, ratings fascinate me. And also, because I'm still trying to make sense of Arrested Development's cancellation. Anyhow, here's five tidbits that surprised the heck out of me:
1. ABC's Desperate Housewives (22.2 million) has almost twice as many average viewers as NBC's Medium (11.2 million), which has twice as many viewers as Fox's The O.C. (5.6 million), which has twice as many viewers as The CW's recently renewed One Tree Hill (2.8 million).
2. I can finally come out about my secret-yet-cancelled pleasure, Crumbs, since apparently, an additional 10,799,999 folks liked it too.
3. Did anyone ever hear of Survival of the Richest? Me neither, but it still managed to outrank series from tabloid staples like ''actress'' Denise Richards and Laguna Beach ''star'' Kristin Cavallari; their respective series, Sex Love and Secrets and Get the Party Started, ranked 155 and 156 out of, yep, 156 shows.
4. CBS' cancelled Courting Alex (11.2 million) actually drew a larger total audience than NBC's freshman hit My Name Is Earl (10.9 million). Sounds like Jason Lee needs to make amends to Jenna Elfman.
5. With an average 15.5 million viewers, CBS' The Unit (pictured) tied for No. 14 with -- drum roll, please -- ABC's Lost. In other words, The Unit is huge. (Insert Beavis and Butthead snickering here.)
On last night's episode of The New Adventures of Old Christine, Julia Louis-Dreyfus' title divorcée resisted being set up on a blind date by her friend Barb (the invaluable Wanda Sykes) because she didn't want to try to find chemistry with someone new in an artificial and awkward situation; she wanted it to happen naturally and spontaneously. (Of course, she ended up going the blind-date route anyway, with mixed results.)
It was a good metaphor for the show itself. After the Seinfeld gang broke up, Louis-Dreyfus sought chemistry and spontaneity with an audience via 2002's experimental Watching Ellie, but that Seinfeld magic is hard to find twice. (Thus the ''Seinfeld curse'' that seemed to befall the cast's repeatedly failed attempts at solo sitcom stardom since their seminal show's signoff eight years ago.) So Louis-Dreyfus has settled for a set-up: a conventional sitcom about a divorced mom juggling family, career, and romance.
And whaddya know? It's working out. Not only have the reviews been kind, but the audience has actually grown since last week's debut, CBS says. Monday's episode drew an estimated 15.3 million (not bad against Fox's 24), just 1.6 million fewer than its lead-in, top sitcom Two and a Half Men.
I hope the show continues to do well, not just so we can stop hearing about the Seinfeld curse, but because the show really does play to Louis-Dreyfus' comic strengths, and it can only get better and sharper.
Not that anyone expected Sunday's Sopranos premiere to knock Desperate Housewives off its perch, but they did some damage to each other. Sopranos has never had much competition before in its 9 p.m. Sunday slot, but this year, it debuted with an estimated 9.5 million, down about 25 percent from the Season 5 premiere two years ago. In the other corner, Housewives drew 22.2 million, its smallest audience in more than a year, and about a million less than the last new episode three weeks ago. The real winner Sunday was Housewives' follow-up, Grey's Anatomy, which drew 22.5 million. It's been outdrawing its lead-in for a few weeks now. Tail is now officially wagging dog.
According to Nielsen, you were probably watching ABC's Dancing With the Stars finale/Grey's Anatomy combo last night; it ski-jumped over the Olympics' closing ceremonies on NBC, which had half as many viewers. So you probably missed the Fellini-esque circus that marked the end of the games. For those of you who didn't TiVo it (or who did but don't have the patience to sit through all four hours of surreal fun), here's a quick visual summary. Yes, that's an Alice in Wonderland-style pack of living playing cards, probably marching to cut off Bode Miller's head. Ye
I'm sorry to learn that CBS has yanked The Ex List (pictured) from its schedule after just four airings, since I like star Elizabeth Reaser and since the show was, according to EW critic Gillian Flynn's review, worthy of a B+ grade. Of course, I have to go by Gillian's review because I never got around to watching the show, and apparently, neither did too many other people. You'd think there would be an audience for a romantic dramedy like this, but you'd be wrong, and CBS should have known that, given the sad history of similar programs.
Welcome back to PopWatch's Winner of the Week feature, where we honor the entertainer who enjoyed the most noteworthy success during the past seven days. This week was a dismal one, especially on network TV, where 
Last fall, A&E 
The Hollywood Reporter is officially 
Score one for Brian Williams (sort of). As network news broadcasts hemorrhage viewers, the anchor got a little bit of good news this week. With an average 9.2 million viewers tuning in, his NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams beat ABC's World News with Charles Gibson and CBS' Evening News with Katie Couric in the November ratings race. Nielsen also reports that Williams is tops (albeit barely—Gibson lagged by only one tenth of a ratings point) with the ever-desirable 25-54 demographic. 
The 
Weep not for Kevin Reilly, the NBC entertainment chief 
I'm almost sorry we're still talking about this, but then again, Sunday's Sopranos finale drew almost 12 million viewers, making it the second most watched show on broadcast or cable last week (behind only America's Got Talent). Anyway, while viewers continue to rewind their DVRs in search of clues, we can put a few 
Congratulations, you nut-lovin' Jericho fans! Now that 
As a professional TV pundit, I guess I'm supposed to join my colleagues in wringing my hands over the turmoil in NBC's executive suite and to profess shock that entertainment chief Kevin Reilly was fired so soon after presenting his handcrafted fall schedule. Yet I think would have been a shock if the network hadn't fired him, given NBC's 
Surprise! A plurality of viewers in America watch American Idol, then lather, rinse, repeat. See the entire list of primetime ratings 
Bad news: 
So, PopWatchers, I hate to point this out to you, but NBC has made an outrageous decision. No, they have NOT canceled Friday Night Lights, but they have changed its timeslot to 
To commemorate the series finale of 
Ask not for whom the cha-chung! tolls; it tolls for thee. We keep hearing that NBC may finally cancel the venerable Law & Order: Original Flava due to its continued ratings slide unless drastic changes are made at the franchise flagship. One move might be to reduce costs by laying off some of the cops and lawyers (Law & Side Order?). Another, more novel idea might be 
A fond PopWatch shout-out to Bob Vila, who, it seems, 
Imagine the excitement around the EW offices today when the news came down that NBC's low-rated (just 5.8 million viewers on average) 
Attention, TV lovers: The dreaded "bubble season" is upon us, and networks are scrutinizing their lineups, trying to decide which existing series to pick up for the fall season, and which to bag up and toss in the dumpster. 
It's now a month past that ill-conceived Aqua Teen Hunger Force (pictured) 
Poor, adorable Abigail Breslin. She was the belle of the ball on Oscar night, even though she didn't win a trophy. So many people were rooting for her — but not her Little Miss Sunshine costar Alan Arkin, the cranky mofo. Didja hear what the Best Supporting Actor winner told Access Hollywood on the red carpet? He said 
Is Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip back at death's door? For a while, it appeared the show had been saved from cancellation, thanks to NBC's order for a full season's worth of episodes, a slight uptick in the ratings, and Aaron Sorkin's apparent recognition that his Monday night dramedy needed a change in direction. But this afternoon, there comes a press release from NBC that, if you read between the lines, suggests the series may be gone for good by the end of the month.
Perhaps Law & Order's classic "chung chung" should be changed to "ka-ching!" SVU stars 
Okay, so now we know who'll be walking the red carpet outside the Kodak Theatre on Feb. 25. Yay. But a bigger -- and, for the folks at the Academy and ABC, truly troubling -- question looms: Will anybody be watching them strut their stuff?
Poor Day Break. Wait, you didn't hear? It got 
If there’s such a disease as triskaidekaphobia (the fear of the number 13), ER seems to have discovered a cure: John Stamos (pictured, right, with costar Mekhi Phifer). NBC’s decision to cast the heartthrob as cocky med stud Tony Gates has injected so much new life into the drama, now in its 13th season, that speculation is swirling about a -- gulp! -- 15th go-around for the series. (The current deal expires in spring 2008; a new pact would add an extra year.) While NBC Entertainment president Kevin Reilly says official talks haven’t begun, he’s reveling in ER’s ratings (at 13.9 million viewers, the show is up slightly from last year and is winning its time slot over Shark and Six Degrees). "It warms my heart that ER is once again a part of our circle of good news," says Reilly. "It doesn’t feel like a vestige of the show like it once was."
Sometimes, I feel like a bad news bear, incessantly discussing a steady stream of cancellations of quality programs. So long, Smith! Adieu, Arrested! Someday, we'll meet in the afterlife, Valerie Cherish! (
On Thursday, NBC Universal announced a few 
Thursday's night faceoff between CSI and Grey's Anatomy isn't the only ''What do I watch?'' quandary anymore. This Wednesday, Lost finished first in its 9 p.m. slot, but edged out second-place Criminal Minds (wha?) by only 200,000 viewers -- which in the ratings universe translates to practically nothing. Lost's numbers are also 
Hiatus: It’s the kinder, gentler cancellation. It is the undiscovered country, from whose bourn few TV shows return. It is where Fox’s 
First things first, I'm not the only one who, every time he hears the title of ABC's new Sunday-night drama, Brothers & Sisters, wants to shout, ''
NBC 
I've been staring all morning at the Hollywood Reporter's 
On last night's episode of The New Adventures of Old Christine, Julia Louis-Dreyfus' title divorcée resisted being set up on a blind date by her friend Barb (the invaluable Wanda Sykes) because she didn't want to try to find chemistry with someone new in an artificial and awkward situation; she wanted it to happen naturally and spontaneously. (Of course, she ended up going the blind-date route anyway, with mixed results.)