TV Notebook
When the networks unveil fall lineups, it’s the opening hand in a nerve-racking game of high-stakes poker

By Tim Goodman San Francisco Chronicle Friday, May 12, 2006

To fully appreciate what's going to happen at next week's "upfronts" in New York -- where networks unveil their fall schedules to advertisers and the press -- you need to follow the emotional journey of three disparate but entwined groups.

The people who create shows. The people who run the networks. And the people who already have a show on the air. Starting Monday in Manhattan, they're going to play musical chairs.

And there are not nearly enough chairs.

You would think that network programmers might know exactly what they were going to do to the schedule when, say, it's their turn to walk up onstage and announce the schedule. Normally they do, but there's nothing normal about the TV business, and last-second shuffling is often part of the "plan."

That makes the people with new shows and old shows awfully frightened. And for good reason. For example, NBC is going to start things off on Monday. Now, when NBC was more of a powerhouse and less of a Palace of Mediocrity, other networks would sometimes rejigger their schedule a day later based upon where NBC moved shows. It's called counter-programming. And some people in the industry believe Xanax was created for that reason.

Normally, a weakened NBC would be in no shape to set in motion a chain of events that makes other networks panic and scramble. But when the Hollywood Reporter ran a story suggesting that NBC was going to move "ER" off of Thursday nights, the erasers came out. And here's why -- all the other networks planned for "ER" to be the 10 p.m. Thursday competition. If it's gone, everything changes. More important, Thursday is the biggest money-making night on television. Advertising often runs then for movies opening the next day. If one network dominates Thursdays, it's a windfall of cash. The Hollywood Reporter suggested that Aaron Sorkin's new series, "Studio 60 on Sunset Strip," will get the "ER" slot.

"Studio 60" is probably the most anticipated pilot of the fall (which means nothing now, other than it's already picked up and the Champagne has been popped and drunk). How do you counter a buzz show created by a hit-maker? Who knows, but if you're another network, NBC has your attention.

Guess who else is interested in that news? Tina Fey, the head writer (and "Weekend Update" anchor) on "Saturday Night Live." Oh, and Lorne Michaels, creator of "SNL." Why? Because Sorkin's series spoofs a show very much like "Saturday Night Live." Which is one thing -- but Fey and Michaels happen to have an untitled project that also spoofs a show very much like "SNL." And that's quite another thing. Two parodies? Of essentially the same thing? On the same network? Oh, and Fey's show hasn't been picked up yet.

But it's not only the Big Four who are plotting last minute.

Trade magazine Broadcasting & Cable reported that the CW, which will replace the departing WB and UPN networks, had decided to eat about $20 million by canceling "Reba," a show the WB had already renewed before it imploded. Now, why would a new network (run by CBS Corp. and Warner Bros. television) in desperate need of making cash do such a thing, when everybody already had penciled in "Reba" on the new CW lineup? Because "Reba" is an older, unhip show, and the CW wants to sell ads to young, hip viewers. The people who buy those ads are in New York. At the upfronts.

Now, if you're the producers of "Reba," you're going to get paid anyway. But only once more and with no future. Even when you're safe, you're not safe.

It's a long journey to decision time for new series. Pilot season starts essentially at the end of May. Yes -- right after the upfronts. Nothing like planning ahead to have it all collapse a year later.

Scripts are written from the summer through the fall, turned into the networks by, say, November. If the script is well received, the network green-lights development (filming), and the pilot gets shot and tweaked until it's, ahem, perfect, by March or April. The networks take all the pilots, watch them, and make their decisions -- possibly in a Lincoln Town Car on the way to the upfronts.

People like Fey are not the only ones whose nerves are wrecked. Imagine the people behind CBS' lame sitcom "Out of Practice," or ABC's paranormal series "Invasion," or NBC's paranormal series "Surface." Or Fox's abnormally awful sitcom "The War at Home." All of these shows are "on the bubble." Meaning, they could live or die. And their creators honestly don't know which.

Newbie network the CW has created all kinds of panic. Who will make the cut in what essentially is a merger between UPN and WB -- with at least 10 hours of programming vanishing -- is speculation central. Is UPN's "Veronica Mars" alive? Paired with the WB's "Gilmore Girls"? Was the "Gilmore Girls" season and finale so awful it can't be fixed next season? What about UPN's African American programming -- are "Girlfriends" and "Everybody Hates Chris" compatible? Do they have to be?

Even the smallest maneuvers set in motion possible countermoves. For example, "Monday Night Football" is leaving ABC, freeing up space, but NBC got rights to NFL games for Sunday nights, which shakes things up on that network. There are rumors abounding about shifts on Sunday in response to football. Ah, but there's always a rumor.

And there is always, without fail, something that surprises. If you're making a new show or nurturing an existing show, surprises are bad. If you're a network making choices, well, you might find yourself surprised by another network when you least expect it. Like, say, less than 24 hours before you present your schedule.

These simultaneous states of fear and anticipation are just part of what will make next week so interesting.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/05/12/DDGDMIPLKN17.DTL&type=printable

Logo kicks off Fox's BCS coverage s

:D I read that and thought the first BCS game was going to be on LOGO. :D

The 2006-2007 Season
For NBC, it's all about Thursday night

By Toni Fitzgerald MediaLifeMagazine.com staff writer May 12, 2006

Buyers left last year’s upfront presentations frustrated that NBC had done nothing to overhaul its sliding Thursday night.

One year later the night has been overhauled, but ratings are still dipping, and now NBC must once again radically revamp the night.

Just how it plans to do so media buyers will learn on Monday, when NBC reveals its fall schedule at the first of the broadcast upfront presentations. What the network comes up with could go a long way toward assuring media buyers that NBC is at last back on its way up.

Of all the broadcast networks, NBC will do the most radical surgery on its lineup, with changes expected for every night. But Thursday night, which it long dominated, is key. It must reverse the slide.

The question is whether to move “ER,” the medical drama heading into its 13th season, to another night. The show is down 27 percent year to year in adults 18-49, from a 7.2 to a 5.2, and network is reportedly considering the move.

Media buyers think it could be a smart one, as the show has fallen off even more steeply in recent weeks.

That would free the lucrative 10 p.m. slot for Aaron Sorkin’s new drama “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip,” which has received very positive early buzz from buyers. If NBC decides to keep “ER” Thursday at 10, “Strip” could air at 9 p.m., against CBS’s still-potent “CSI,” or perhaps on Monday.

“Whether it moves depends on how confident they are with their drama development. ‘ER’ has lost quite a bit of ground opposite CBS’s ‘Without a Trace,’” says one media researcher.

“If NBC is thinking of moving ‘ER,’ they should put it on Wednesday nights at 10, where it would most like air opposite ‘CSI: NY.’ That one isn't as strong as the other ‘CSIs,’ and NBC could move ‘Law and Order’ to 9 p.m. instead of 10 where it now airs.”

The network could move Thursday’s current 9 p.m. occupants, “My Name is Earl” and “The Office,” to 8 p.m. to make way for “Strip.” It could also keep its 9 and 10 hours intact and try out new comedies at 8 p.m.

NBC has picked up two new comedies, “The Singles Table,” about people seated together at a wedding, and the "Odd Couple"-esque "20 Good Years" with Jeffrey Tambor and John Lithgow.

The network is also eyeing Tina Fey’s untitled show about life behind the scenes at a TV variety show and “Community Service,” either of which could join Thursday's lineup.

If “Scrubs” is renewed, it may also land here, though another midseason return seems more likely, given its slumping ratings.

Every single night of NBC’s schedule will see major changes. In fact, some will have only one show returning from last year.

“An argument could be made for up to 12 hours of new programming. But no network could launch so many new shows with success,” says a development report from MediaVest. “When NBC’s schedule is announced it’s unlikely any night will come back intact unless the 2006 development roster is very poor.”

Sundays will be filled by “Sunday Night Football” in the fall. “Crossing Jordan” may return at midseason to its old Sunday 10 p.m. slot after football is done.

On Monday, the Paul Haggis drama “Black Donnellys” is one contender, along with “Strip.” NBC may also put new dramas “Friday Night Lights” or “Raines” here, shipping “Medium” off to Friday night at 10 after a season when ratings declined.

“Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” will remain Tuesday at 10 p.m. It’s possible that “L&O: Criminal Intent,” which has been renewed but is losing its Sunday slot, could land at 9, but it could also be part of a revamped Friday schedule that will also include “Las Vegas.”

Other Tuesday possibilities include the quirky drama “Heroes,” about people with special powers, and either “Lights” or “Raines.”

Midseason game show standout “Deal or No Deal” should keep the Wednesday 8 p.m. slot followed by new drama “Kidnapped,” or, should “ER” move, “L&O,” which could also stay at 10.

“Las Vegas” and “Medium” are likely Friday shows, and Saturday will be repeats.

“The Apprentice,” with ratings in a big fade from last year, may be benched until midseason.

http://www.medialifemagazine.com/artman/publish/printer_4693.asp

Fred:

Can you keep an eye on Monday's scheduling since Bush is requesting an 8pm time slot for an address on immigration (arghhhh). I think we may have a lot of Tivo juggling to do.

Isn't there a law against Presidential addresses during sweeps?

The 2006-2007 Season
This upfront, cable faces a harder sell

By Kevin Downey MediaLifeMagazine.com staff writer May 12, 2006

The cable networks are losing some of their luster going into the upcoming upfront ad market. Cable television will once again do well, generating hundreds of millions of dollars more than last year and stealing some share away from the broadcast networks.

But where cable TV has been the hot medium for the past two decades, it’s now one that’s losing considerable buzz to newer outlets, including the internet but also cell phones, video-on-demand, other programming platforms like Apple’s iPod, and even product placement.

Media analysts and buyers say cable also now faces challenges that in recent years have almost exclusively affected the broadcast networks.

Penetration levels, including cable networks distributed by satellite providers, are flattening out at just over 85 percent of households, meaning cable TV can no longer rely on new subscribers to generate ratings and, by extension, advertising revenue.

More troubling, cable ratings are no longer showing great gains at the expense of the broadcast networks, as they did so predictably for so many years.

In fact, cable’s share of households in primetime in recent weeks has been slightly down from the year-earlier period, while the broadcast networks have been posting modest gains, fueled in large part by ABC’s continuing rebound. For the week of April 10, that share was actually down 1 percent, to 53.8 percent, while the Big Four broadcast networks were slightly up at 39.1 percent.

Media buyers say these factors will lead to slower growth for cable this year and potentially modest growth if not flat upfronts within the next few years.

“Will there be a further shift from network to cable? I could see a little bit,” says Ed Gentner, senior vice president and group director of video investment and activation at MediaVest. “Network is not eroding the way it was a couple of years ago. We’ve actually seen some growth in the recent past. If there is no shift and no ratings increase, there has to be incremental money coming in from somewhere.”

Gentner, like other buyers, says he has not seen significant advertiser demand in the cable scatter market, when advertisers throughout the year buy whatever inventory remains after the upfront.

“I don’t see a huge increase in demand, so I have trouble seeing where an enormous amount of dollars will come into the cable area,” he says.

Sean Cunningham, president and CEO of the Cabletelevision Advertising Bureau, is understandably a bit more optimistic. He is projecting a dollar increase of $500 million to $750 million, or a bump of 7.7 percent to 11.5 percent growth in cable this upfront.

Cunningham tells Media Life Magazine that the shift from network to cable from the recent past will continue, while newer media this year will snag perhaps 1 percent to 2 percent of total upfront spending.

That figure will reach$20.8 billion, predicts David Joyce, a media analyst with investment firm Miller Tabak. Joyce is forecasting a 5.9 percent increase in spending on cable networks, pushing upfront expenditures to $7.2 billion. By comparison, he expects the broadcast networks to be up 2.6 percent, to just under $9.3 billion. Media analyst Jack Myers expects cable to be up 7 percent to 9 percent, while projecting a flat or slightly down upfront for the broadcast networks.

Meanwhile, media buyers and analysts almost all agree that prices in this year’s upfront will be up in low-single-digit percentages. Most expect the broadcast networks to post price increases of perhaps 3 percent while cable will fare a bit better, perhaps up an average 5 percent. One analyst says cable’s prices going forward will grow at a comparable rate to broadcast, saying that any price advantage it has historically had is fast disappearing.

http://www.medialifemagazine.com/artman/publish/printer_4695.asp

Fred:

Can you keep an eye on Monday's scheduling since Bush is requesting an 8pm time slot for an address on immigration (arghhhh). I think we may have a lot of Tivo juggling to do.

Isn't there a law against Presidential addresses during sweeps?

I'll keep posting Monday scheduling updates over the weekend as they become available.

:D I read that and thought the first BCS game was going to be on LOGO. :D


Good point.

I've edited the USA Today headline to perhaps solve that problem.

The series finales scheduled for (early) Monday PM are Prison Break at 8 PM ET and How I Met Your Mother at 8:30 PM.

(If the President speaks for less than 30 minutes, I would assume each network would simply push its schedule forward by 30 minutes.)

TV Notebook
CBS, Comcast Ink General Motors Deal to Run Survivor Finale Free on VOD

By John Consoli MediaWeek.com May 12, 2006

CBS and Comcast have done a deal with General Motors which will allow next-day viewing of the May 14 Survivor Finale and Survivor Reunion show for free in selected markets on Comcast's digital cable video-on-demand service, rather than charging the usual 99 cents per show. Comcast subscribers in Baltimore, Chicago, Detroit and Philadelphia will be able to view the shows on VOD through August 31.

The VOD programs will contain three brief General Motors commercial messages, one before, one at midpoint, and one at the conclusion of each show. The commercials will direct viewers to the GM Showroom, which will be able to be accessed through Comcast's On Demand menu by selecting "Searchlight" and then choosing the "Automotive" category.

Comcast Searchlight is an advertiser-supported On Demand destination where customers can find information on a variety of products and services. The GM Showroom provides long-form videos with detailed information and demonstrations of various GM vehicles.

"Technology continues to allow us to partner with our clients in new and exciting ways," said Jo Ann Ross, president of sales, for CBS Television Network. "We are pleased that through this GM sponsorship, we are able to expand our partnership with Comcast to offer free VOD content to their subscribers in these markets."

CBS said this is the next step in its partnership with Comcast that began earlier this year, when CBS owned-and-operated TV stations began offering episodes of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, NCIS, Survivor, and The Amazing Race on Comcast On Demand for 99 cents per title.

"Comcast is changing the way people watch TV with VOD, and now we're offering advertisers new ways to reach very targeted and engaged audiences," said Charlie Thurston, president of Comcast Spotlight.

Besty Lazar, executive director, media and advertising operations for GM, said, "GM has a long history with Survivor, and this move will strengthen our relationship with them and at the same time, provide us with a new way to encourage Survivor viewers to visit us in the GM Showcase as On Demand users."

http://www.mediaweek.com/mw/news/recent_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1002501803

Is the cancellation of "Conviction" on NBC pretty much inevitable at this point? Lots of talk about the Friday night schedule above with no mention of the show. It also hasn't been mentioned for any other nights. It also looks like Sunday Night Football isn't helping Conviction's cause much either.

Isn't there a law against Presidential addresses during sweeps?

[Censored][Censored][Censored][Censored] distraction [Censored][Censored]
[Censored][Censored][Censored] phone calls.

Thursday’s prime-time ratings – and Media Week Analyst Marc Berman’s view of what they mean -- have been posted at the top of Prime Time Ratings the first post in this thread.

Overnights in the 18-49 Demo
Bad omen: 'Survivor' ratings flagging

By Toni Fitzgerald MediaLifeMagazine.com staff writer May 12, 2006

Ratings for CBS’s “Survivor: Exile Island” have been eroding all season, and with the final episode just days away, they are not getting any better.

Last night’s penultimate episode averaged a 5.7 overnight rating among adults 18-49. While that was well ahead of the second-place finisher, NBC’s sitcoms, it was down 17 percent from the same night last year, when the second-to-last episode earned a 6.9.

In addition, it was off 0.1 rating point from the previous week. That suggests that Sunday’s season finale, which will air opposite ABC’s highly rated “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” and “Desperate Housewives,” could be much lower than last year. Last year’s spring finale averaged a 7.6, but even that was down 24 percent from the previous year.

“Survivor” may simply be showing natural signs of age. The reality show is in its 10th season, and many reality programs don’t make it past three or four.

It’s possible that CBS, in anticipation of greater falloff, will move “Survivor” to a different night this fall, but that seems like a drastic move despite the show’s declines. It’s still a top program among 18-49s, and as long as the competition remains weak at 8 p.m., even a weakened “Survivor” will continue to dominate.

Meanwhile, CBS won the night among 18-49s with a 6.6 rating and 18 share. NBC was second with a 4.4/12, Fox third with a 3.6/10, ABC fourth with a 2.3/6, WB fifth with a 1.6/4, Univision sixth with a 1.5/4 and UPN seventh with a 0.9/3.

CBS finished first every hour, starting at 8 p.m. with a 5.7 for “Survivor” followed by NBC with a 3.7 for “Will & Grace” (3.4) and “Earl” (3.9). Estimates for NBC’s three shows from 8 to 10 p.m. are approximate, as they were supersized to 40 minutes each.

Fox was third with a 3.3 for “That 70s Show” (3.0) and the beginning of “That 70s Show Retrospective” (3.5). WB was fourth with a 2.0 for “Smallville,” ABC fifth with a 1.6 for “American Inventor Countdown to the Finale,” Univision sixth with a 1.5 for “La Fea Mas Bella” and UPN seventh with a 1.1 for the finale of “Everybody Hates Chris” (1.3) and “Love, Inc.” (0.8).

At 9 p.m., CBS led with an 8.2 for “CSI,” followed by NBC with a 4.0 for “My Name is Earl” (4.3) and “The Office” (3.8), and Fox with a 3.9 for “That 70s Show Retrospective.” ABC was fourth with a 2.6 for the finale of “Inventor,” Univision fifth with a 1.7 for “Barrera de Amor,” WB sixth with a 1.1 for a repeat of “Smallville” and UPN seventh with a 0.8 for “Eve” (0.8) and “Cuts” (0.8).

At 10 p.m., CBS completed its sweep with a 5.8 for “Without a Trace.” NBC was second with a 5.5 for “ER,” ABC third with a 2.8 for “Primetime,” and Univision fourth with a 1.3 for “Aqui y Ahora.”

CBS also led the night among households with a 13.2 rating and 21 share. NBC was a distant second with a 6.7/11, Fox third with a 4.8/8, ABC fourth with a 4.2/7, WB fifth with a 2.3/4, Univision sixth with a 1.9/3 and UPN seventh with a 1.5/2.

http://www.medialifemagazine.com/artman/publish/printer_4722.asp

I haven't seen this posted before, but I just came across it today in IBM Systems Magazine
http://ibmsystemsmag.com/ME2/Audiences/dirmod.asp?sid=&nm=&type=news&mod=News&mid=9A02E3B96F2A415ABC72CB5F516B4C10&AudID=1CE1C4C1B85E4DBD88C47DD63CCCB59C&tier=3&nid=E159A0BEAE4741318929D6C61A903435

Fox Broadcasting Company and IBM Expand First Open Architecture High Definition Archive Solution

NFL, MLB, NASCAR and "American Idol" High Definition Broadcasts on FOX to Utilize IBM Open Standards-Based Technology Solution
(4/27/2006)


ARMONK, NY and LOS ANGELES, CA - 25 Apr 2006: Fox Broadcasting Company today announced that it is expanding its high definition (HD) digital archive system co-designed with IBM to include the 2006 and 2007 NFL, MLB, NASCAR and "American Idol" seasons on FOX. The solution will enable content from FOX's most valuable properties to be available on demand for re-purposing and further distribution.

The FOX digital archive solution combines traditional broadcast format and encoding standards, such as ASI and MPEG, with industry standard technology to give FOX the ability to easily and transparently transmit digitally compressed HD NFL, MLB, NASCAR and "American Idol" broadcasts straight from its live, on-site mobile facilities directly into a production archive at its Los Angeles studio headquarters. The solution will also be used for some of FOX's upcoming high-profile exclusive events including the "American Idol" finale, all NCAA Bowl Championship Series games broadcast on FOX, NFL Football, the MLB playoffs and more.

"The use of this technology with NFL content last year has already allowed FOX to better manage content in HD and give our audience a better viewing experience," said Andrew G. Setos, President of Engineering for the Fox Group. "Innovative solutions like this one with IBM will allow us to continue to deliver high-quality content, while expanding the benefits of an on-demand environment to our most high-value programs on FOX."

Building on IBM's expertise in broadcast technology and business consulting for the media and entertainment industry, FOX worked with IBM and IBM business partner Sirius Computer Solutions to design and implement a digital video storage system that allows FOX to manage, store and retrieve broadcast content faster and easier than with conventional production systems and traditional broadcast videotape infrastructure. The FOX digital archive solution is among the first to integrate with the High Definition ASI (Asynchronous Serial Interface) standard, which is a Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB) standard-based technology used widely in broadcasting for transporting High Definition streams.

"The FOX digital solution is a great example of the flexibility, scalability and cost advantages that can be achieved by integrating standards-based technology with traditional production systems," said Steve Canepa, vice president, IBM Media & Entertainment. "FOX continues to look for ways to leverage this new platform -- expanding the solution to work with some of their most valuable brands."

The FOX digital archive solution features IBM TotalStorage Linear Tape Open (LTO) Ultrium storage technology connected to industry standard IBM eServer xSeries systems running Linux that will allow the transfer of large volumes of data and information faster than in a traditional broadcast system. For example, a typical HD sports broadcast requires 115 GB of storage. The FOX digital solution will support 270 Mb/s ASI data stream with an aggregate payload of up to 213 Mb/s. One 400 GB IBM LTO tape solution can easily accommodate three HD NFL, MLB or NASCAR game broadcasts or 9 hours of "American Idol" of suitable quality for further editorial use. In addition, the solution includes IBM DB2 software for database and information management; IBM WebSphere middleware software and IBM Tivoli Storage Manager to help manage the archived content and information.

About IBM
With 80 years of leadership in helping businesses innovate, IBM is the world's largest information technology company. Over the past 45 years, IBM has extended its business solutions into entertainment and professional sports by combining real-time scoring, digital asset management, virtualization, and autonomic computing technologies with the expertise of the world's largest IT consulting services organization. In 2005, IBM received an Emmy award for technical achievement in broadcasting. For more information on IBM, please visit: http://www.ibm.com.

About FOX
Fox Broadcasting Company (FOX) is a unit of News Corporation. FOX finished the 2004-2005 season as the No. 1 network for the first time among Adult 18-49 viewers, while continuing to dominate all network competition in the more targeted Adults 18-34 and Teen demographics. FOX airs 15 hours of primetime programming a week as well as late night entertainment programming, major sports and Sunday morning news. News Corporation (NYSE: NWS) (NYSE: NWS.A) (ASX: NWS) (ASX: NWSLV) had total assets as of December 31, 2005 of approximately US$55 billion and total annual revenues of approximately US$24 billion. News Corporation is a diversified international media and entertainment company with operations in eight industry segments: filmed entertainment; television; cable network programming; direct broadcast satellite television; magazines and inserts; newspapers; book publishing; and other. The activities of News Corporation are conducted principally in the United States, Continental Europe, the United Kingdom, Australia, Asia and the Pacific Basin.

About Sirius
Sirius is a national IBM Premier Business Partner and the largest IBM Solution Provider. Sirius provides IBM solutions to leading companies of all sizes and industries. Sirius' certified and experienced sales and technical teams work with IBM U.S. clients to design, integrate, and deliver innovative IT solutions to make businesses more competitive. For more information about Sirius, visit www.siriuscom.com.

The 2006-2007 Season
New shows get OK early

By Gary Levin, USA Today

The networks won't announce their new fall schedules until next week, but in unusually early moves, they've already committed to more than a dozen new shows.

Each year, one or two series are given an early greenlight — Fox's Prison Break got one last spring — but the pace of early series pickups this year is unprecedented.

The logic: Jumping the gun gives networks advance buzz on Madison Avenue and the ability to hire writers ahead of other shows. Fox wants an early start so new series can be ready for late-summer premieres. Emerging trends: more legal dramas, serialized action thrillers (some involving hostages) and comedies about reunited pals; fewer cop series and soaps.

ABC, responding to a falloff in Lost ratings, is likely to delay its start to reduce long stretches of repeats. Expect Grey's Anatomy and Without a Trace to find new homes — perhaps on Monday and Sunday, respectively — allowing ABC and CBS to launch new series behind them. And CBS will drop its low-rated Sunday movie.

New shows:

•NBC.

The network, up first on Monday, has confirmed three dramas: Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, which goes behind the scenes at a Saturday Night Live-ish show, from Aaron Sorkin (The West Wing) and starring Matthew Perry; The Black Donnellys (four Irish gangster brothers); and Kidnapped (the rescue effort for the abducted son of a wealthy couple).

Other newcomers: dramas Heroes (ordinary people discover superpowers) and Raines (Jeff Goldblum as an eccentric cop); a remake of Friday Night Lights; comedies The Singles Table (strangers bond at a wedding) and 20 Good Years (John Lithgow and Jeffrey Tambor as an Odd Couple); and a third from SNL's Tina Fey about sketch-comedy writers, starring Alec Baldwin.

•ABC.

The network has picked up six new series, including Help Me Help You, a comedy starring Ted Danson as a shrink; Day Break, a thriller starring Taye Diggs as a cop framed for murder; In Case of Emergency, about reunited high school buddies; and Six Degrees, a soap from Lost producer J.J. Abrams about the intertwined lives of New York strangers.

The network won't confirm plans until Tuesday.

•CBS.

The similarly close-mouthed top-rated network Wednesday will almost certainly schedule The Class, a comedy from Friends co-creator David Crane about eight third-grade classmates who reconnect as adults, and is keen on a legal drama from CSI producer Carol Mendelsohn.

•Fox.

Presenting its lineup Thursday, Fox has firmed plans for 'Til Death, a comedy starring Everybody Loves Raymond's Brad Garrett, and three dramas: Vanished, a thriller about the disappearance of a senator's wife; Primary, about a hostage negotiator couple; and American Crime, a Jerry Bruckheimer series about L.A. defense lawyers, with Victor Garber.

•CW.

The new network, unveiling Thursday, is big on Runaway, a Fugitive-like series about a family on the lam after Dad is wrongly convicted of murder. But prospects for the Smallville team's Aquaman are now dicey.

http://www.usatoday.com/life/television/news/2006-05-11-new-shows_x.htm

The 2005-2006 Season
Tonight’s Season Finale

Las Vegas, NBC, 9 PM ET/PT

Overnights in the 18-49 Demo
Bad omen: 'Survivor' ratings flagging

By Toni Fitzgerald MediaLifeMagazine.com staff writer May 12, 2006

Ratings for CBS’s “Survivor: Exile Island” have been eroding all season, and with the final episode just days away, they are not getting any better.

http://www.medialifemagazine.com/artman/publish/printer_4722.asp

They lost me when I purchased my HDTV. This is a show that screams to be in HD. HD production might give it a couple more seasons. But it IS tired.

The 2006-2007 Season
Next Week’s Upfront Announcements

The TV networks announce their fall prime-time schedules next week in elaborate presentations to advertisers and the press called the upfront.

I’ll be posting lots of coverage of those announcements.

There will be plenty of preview materials throughout the weekend, so even if you don’t normally check in on Saturday or Sunday, you might want to peek a couple of times.

NBC will announce its fall schedule on Monday.
ABC will announce its fall schedule on Tuesday.
CBS will announce its fall schedule on Wednesday.
Fox will announce its fall schedule on Thursday.
The new CW will also announce its fall schedule on Thursday.

What those announcements are, how they impacyt your favirte programs, and what it all might mean will be covered here extensively for the next week – or more.

Enjoy!

The Business of TV
Time Warner Buys Liberty's Stake In Court TV for $735 Million

By Matthew Karnitsching The Wall Street Journal KARNITSCHNIG May 12, 2006

Time Warner Inc. agreed to purchase the 50% of the Court TV cable channel it doesn't own from Liberty Media Corp. for $735 million.

The acquisition means that for the first time since the channel started in 1991, it will have a single owner, allowing Time Warner to puts its own stamp on the channel. The media concern plans to fold the channel into its cable network arm, Turner Broadcasting, whose other channels include TNT, TBS, CNN and Cartoon Network.

Confirmation of the long-rumored deal comes as Time Warner and Liberty are pursuing a separate transaction to swap some of Liberty's 4% stake in Time Warner for the media giant's Atlanta Braves baseball team. Liberty's stake is worth about $3 billion, much more than the team, which analysts expect to fetch up to $450 million. At the same time, however, Time Warner will also buy some of Liberty's stake back for cash as part of a broader stock buyback program underway.

Court TV reaches about 85 million viewers. The channel was started as a partnership between Time Warner, Cablevision Systems Corp. and General Electric Co.'s NBC Cable unit. Liberty bought a stake soon after launch.

Subscribers to the Wall Street Journal’s website can read the whole story here:

http://online.wsj.com/article_print/SB114745432580251476.html

Critic’s Notebook
Out of 'West Wing,' and into 'The Office'


With Sunday's farewell to one NBC series, viewers may find oddly related vibes in another
By Paul Brownfield Los Angeles Times TV critic May 12, 2006

A certain class of viewer, the data always showed, watched "The West Wing" in droves. They watched even after series creator Aaron Sorkin left and the show's viewership dwindled.

In wonky ratings-speak, they are adults 18 to 49 living in homes with incomes of $75,000-plus. Advertisers like them for obvious reasons. TV executives call these people "upscale," conjuring a constituency with leased Audis and Paul Smith designer belts and subscriptions to the New Yorker piling up on the Crate & Barrel sea grass rug, next to the Mission-style chair found in the La Brea boutique.

Like-minded limousine liberals, no doubt. "West Wing" was a show by, for and about the people, but also undeniably wish-fulfillment (Democrats functioning, Democrats owning the courage of their convictions) brought to you by what the right still gets mileage out of calling "the Hollywood crowd."

That "West Wing," which ends its seven-year run Sunday, did well among the upscalers helped more than it hurt, particularly as the show dropped off other radars, like Emmys and total audience and general believability.

Sorkin's departure (along with collaborator Thomas Schlamme) coincided with the fourth-season-ending cliffhanger in which President Bartlet's daughter was kidnapped by terrorists and Speaker of the House John Goodman took over as president.

"West Wing," it seemed, had gone around the bend, wandering into a Harrison Ford movie.

The production, under John Wells, seemed to have found itself again this season in an election year face-off between two mavericks, Democrat Matt Santos (Jimmy Smits) and moderate Republican Arnie Vinick (Alan Alda), vying to succeed President Josiah Bartlet (Martin Sheen). The resolution? Bipartisan wish-fulfillment, Santos asking Vinick to become his secretary of state after the live televised debate in which they — oh, come on — debated.

It's been fun to watch, but without Sorkin "West Wing" seemed doomed only ever to echo his renaissance interests and beliefs, personal peccadilloes and passions.

Sorkin's process, on the lot (all-nighters, Shakespearian aspirations) and off (palliative trip to Vegas with potpourri of controlled substances), delayed filming, caused headaches and drove up costs, but Warner Bros. and NBC were getting his unvarnished TV truth — what sounded like somebody's writing, as opposed to the usual, more streamlined process that grinds it down to nobody's writing at all.

For NBC, which used to claim something of a standing reservation among the upscale, the heir apparent to "West Wing" is not a workplace drama but a workplace comedy, "The Office." It too has trended well among people with Mission-style furniture, and it too is a left-alone show about a fictional administration — in this case, the Scranton, Pa., office of the paper company Dunder-Mifflin run by regional manager Michael Scott (Steve Carell).

"The Office" is a punch-drunk "West Wing" for these punch-drunk times, the characters, instead of walking and talking, sitting and staring at their states of nothingness. You can see why a "West Wing" lover would find psychic refuge in "The Office": Here the leader is not so much Camelot-ish and flawed as sociopathic and entitled, governing his drones with a belief in nothing so much as his own immutability as boss, no matter what reality is saying about his performance.

"Conflict Resolution" was the name of last week's episode, in which Michael resolves a simmering dispute between two employees by suggesting a cage match. "Cage matches? Yeah, they work, how could they not work?" he says to the camera. It's "The Office's" version of the Bush/Rumsfeld certainty about democracy in the Middle East: Freedom? How could freedom not work?

On "West Wing," a fantasy atmosphere of debate and inclusiveness crackled in the souls of men and in the hallways. Everybody on the show had a serious case of the smarts, from President Bartlet on down to the assistant to the deputy chief of staff; in this way, Sorkin's White House, as much as anything, was about an all-access pass to a culture of brainiac misfits who just happened to have the fate of the free world in their hands, and who compensated with gallows humor. President If Only.

"We are just a little rococo, aren't we?" Deputy Chief of Staff Josh Lyman (Bradley Whitford) says to his assistant Donna (Janel Moloney) in an episode from the third season in which Donna questions the relevance of a presidential proclamation "to modify the quantitative limitations applicable to the imports of wheat gluten."

In the same episode, deputy communications director Sam Seaborn (Rob Lowe) walks the halls making an impassioned case for why sumo wrestlers would make good hockey goalies.

There is something at once lively and passive aggressive in this hyper-articulate approach, the you-go/now-I-go rhythmic banter, which Sorkin grafted onto his first attempt at a TV show, ABC's "Sportsnight," and which will no doubt characterize his upcoming NBC series "Studio 60," set behind the scenes of a "Saturday Night Live"-type show.

It could all make "West Wing" as exciting as a symphony, clever asides made on different points of the musical scale, from Toby Ziegler (Richard Schiff) to Charlie Young (Dulé Hill) to Leo McGarry (the late John Spencer).

They were all, of course, harried (the most relatable aspect of "West Wing" was feeling the pressure of the place), but the only one I'll seriously miss is C.J. Cregg (Allison Janney), mostly for the way she condescended to the White House press corps at the daily briefings known as gaggles, blithely spinning the room while winking at our knowingness, though never so much as to completely disrespect the traditional role of the media as conduit to the public's right to know.

The character was apparently based loosely on former Clinton spokesperson and "West Wing" consultant Dee Dee Myers, among those who migrated from the Hill to Burbank for a fictional do-over (Lawrence O'Donnell Jr., current executive producer, was formerly an advisor to Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan).

Like everybody on the show, C.J. had a tendency to break protocol and wax eloquently — as when, just after hearing of a fire in which 17 Saudi Arabian schoolgirls perished, she's asked if she's outraged.

"Seventeen schoolgirls were forced to burn alive because they weren't wearing the proper clothing. Am I outraged? No, Steve, no Chris, no Mark. That is Saudi Arabia. Our partners in peace."

It doesn't go this way on C-SPAN, where it's usually much quieter and less revealing. "West Wing" spoke in a language both of confrontation and bitter irony about what was happening in the world and within its own halls of power.

Now NBC's "The Office" takes the 18 to 49, $75K-and-up baton, bringing its own kind of irony, this one much more downbeat, about a culture of avoidance, where mostly it's just you staring at a computer.

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-et-westwing12may12,1,1904424,print.story?coll=la-headlines-entnews

Upfront Notebook
Surprise: 7th Heaven Returns for 11th Season on CW

By John Consoli MediaWeek.com MAY 12, 2006 -

7th Heaven, the longest-running family drama in television history, in a surprising move, will return for its 11th season on the new CW network this fall. Mediaweek has learned that a deal has been reached to bring the show back for at least 13 episodes. CW officials refused comment.

It was announced last November by then WB entertainment president David Janollari that the show would not be renewed. While no reason was given, it was believed that it was due to cost concerns. The show was thought to be too expensive to bring back. And a big send-off party was held at the conclusion of the shooting of the last episode about a month ago.

But with the merging of the WB with UPN, and an influx of corporate cash in the new partnership of CBS and Warner Brothers, a decision was made to bring back the WB's most-watched show on the new CW.

7th Heaven this season has averaged 5.2 million viewers per show. While the show drew 1.4 million viewers less than last season, it was clearly still one of the most popular shows on the network.

Historically, 7th Heaven delivered 19 of the Top 20 all-time totals in viewers for shows on the WB, and within the 18-49 demo, it produced 17 of the Top 20 show performances of all-time.

The show's stars Stephen Collins, Catharine Hicks, Beverly Mitchell, Mackenzie Rosman, David Gallagher and George Stults are all expected to return.

The CW, like all the broadcast networks, are in the process of putting together their prime-time schedules for next season, in preparation for their upfront presentations next week. The CW is expected to officially announce where on the schedule 7th Heaven will be at its upfront session on Thursay (May 18). 7th Heaven aired in the Monday at 8 p.m. time period this season, and in all likelihood will remain in that time period next season.

http://www.mediaweek.com/mw/news/recent_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1002501927

Upfront Notebook
2006 UPFRONTS SCHEDULE OF EVENTS
(All times are Eastern)

MONDAY, MAY 15
3:00 PM NBC Announcement
Radio City Music Hall

TUESDAY, MAY 16
9:30 AM The MyNetworkTV Upfront Presentation
The Hilton Theatre

4:00 PM ABC Announcement
Avery Fisher Hall, Lincoln Center

WEDNESDAY, MAY 17
3:00 PM CBS Announcement
Carnegie Hall

THURSDAY, MAY 18
10:30 AM CW Announcement
The Theatre Madison Square Garden

4:00 PM Fox Announcement
26th St and Lexington Ave

http://www.deadlinehollywooddaily.com/

The 2006-2007 Season
ABC Picks Up Four More Series

Includes Calista Flockhart Drama
By Christopher Lisotta TVWeek.com May 12, 2006

Just days after giving series orders to six pilots for the 2006-07 season, ABC picked up an additional four series, including a drama that marks former "Ally McBeal" star Calista Flockhart's return to series television.

ABC picked up the Touchstone Television drama "Brothers & Sisters," which stars Ms. Flockhart, former "Six Feet Under" series regular Rachel Griffiths, Balthazar Getty ("Alias") and Patricia Wettig ("Prison Break") in a family soap that focuses on adult siblings. Ms. Wettig's husband, Ken Olin ("thirtysomething"), executive produced and directed the pilot.

The network also picked up another drama from its sister studio Touchstone: "Ugly Betty," the U.S. adaptation of the popular Latin American telenovela that follows the life of a plain but lovable woman working in the fashion industry. Reveille ("The Office," "Deal or No Deal") and Salma Hayek's Ventanarosa Productions are also producing "Betty."

Warner Bros. Television had two of its drama pilots picked up by ABC: "Men in Trees," which stars Anne Heche as a Manhattan shrink who flees big city life for Alaska; and "Traveler," a conspiracy thriller about three Ivy Leaguers who get caught up in a national security emergency.

http://www.tvweek.com/news.cms?newsId=9991

Happy Mother’s Day?
Sonny Dearest

By Rita Zekas The New York Post May 12, 2006 -- EXCLUSIVE

Shawn Pyfrom is a naughty, naughty, boy.

At least his character, Andrew Van De Kamp, on "Desperate Housewives" is.

When last we saw him, Andrew had been dumped in the middle of nowhere - not unlike David Lynch country, where you expect a crazed loony lurking - by his mom Bree (Marcia Cross). That was after Bree caught him in bed with her latest beau, a recovering sex addict.

The episode closed with Bree sobbing as she watched his lone figure in her rear-view mirror.

"I win," he told her before she accelerated. "When I told you I was gay, you stopped loving me."

That was harsh.

"That was my last grasp at her," explains Pyfrom (the name is Welsh) from his apartment in Los Angeles, where he is awaiting his buddies to go and work out. The show wrapped shooting last week and is on a six-week hiatus.

"Andrew always feels he can't be beat. When his mom gives up and leaves him in the middle of nowhere, she beat him. He thought it might happen; he thought she'd stop loving him. He decided to stop loving her first. This was his validation. He was hurt."

Would he describe Andrew as sullen and nasty? Don't tell us he is just misunderstood.

"I would say he is very troubled," he says. "I think he has deep-rooted issues he can't come to terms with and he takes it out mostly on his mother. He is self-indulgent and narcissistic."

Andrew was playing the gay card, but Pyfrom says it's not about his sexual orientation.

"I think he is into both sexes," Pyfrom says. "He is so narcissistic, it's all about what makes him feel great. I don't want to call him soulless. He is capable of caring, but he is very much into himself.

"Andrew is definitely a Leo. (As is Pyfrom, who turns 20 on Aug. 16) I can relate to him on a much smaller scale, that's why I can play him. It's a great character to play - a character with so many levels."

Pyfrom was born in Florida but has been living in California since he was 7. He got into the biz at the age of 4, starting off in commercials.

"My parents said I was always dressed as a clown, entertaining at birthday parties. I am a Leo, I need to be the center of attention."

His credits include "Eight Simple Rules," "Nip/Tuck," "Malcolm in the Middle," "Reba," "Touched by an Angel," "7th Heaven," "Drew Carey" and "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," in which he played a demon. "I turn into this huge, garish monster."

His film work includes "Shaggy Dog" and "Pay It Forward."

On hiatus, he is reading scripts (and spending time with his girlfriend of 2 1/2 years, a former actor). He would love to do more film.

"I'd love to do really great solid films, films that aren't typical teen or horror films. I'd like a career like Russell Crowe's (presumably without the phone tossing)."

If he could write his own storyline for Andrew, Pyfrom said he'd make him perhaps a little softer.

Or not.

"The fact that he's so mean makes him so interesting," he muses. "I think the writers are doing a great job."

In fact, it's all warm and fuzzy on Wisteria Lane. No catfights between the leading ladies.

"It's calm and peaceful on the set," Pyfrom insists. "It's pretty cool. There is no hair-pulling."

And what feedback does he get about Andrew?

"I play a character people love to hate. People come up to me and say, 'You need to be nicer to your mother.'"

Especially since Sunday is Mother's Day.

http://www.nypost.com/php/pfriendly/print.php?url=http://www.nypost.com/entertainment/68421.htm

TV Notebook
Networks grapple with presidential speech timing

By Paul J. Gough The Hollywood Reporter May 13, 2006

NEW YORK -- At least two of the Big Four broadcast networks will carry President Bush's address to the nation on immigration Monday night.

As of late Friday, NBC and Fox said they would carry the president's speech from 8 p.m. to 8:20 p.m. EDT.

Both ABC and CBS deferred the decision on whether to carry until sometime Monday.

Some of the networks were said to be annoyed that the White House had timed the Oval Office address during the May Sweeps, that critical time in the broadcast year when the networks and their affiliates fight for ratings.

At least one show, Fox's "Prison Break," was scheduled to have its season finale at 8 p.m. Monday.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr/television/brief_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1002502182

I think Melanie gets a little over excited here, but, you have been warned.

TV Notebook
Holy crap! "7th Heaven" rises from the dead for an 11th season

By Melanie McFarland Seattle Post-Intelligencer TV Critic in her TV blog

Yea, though they walked through the valley of the shadow of cancellation, the Camdens must have feared no evil. For the programming executives of The CW were with them; the series' high ratings and its staff, led by Brenda Hampton, they comforted them.

Or something to that effect.

Anyhoo, four days after what was supposed to have been "7th Heaven's" series finale, industry trades are reporting that the longest running family drama in U.S. history will join The CW in the fall. CW executives didn't confirm this, but that rumor has been floating around since the announcement that CBS Corp. and Warner Bros. Entertainment intended to merge UPN with The WB.

The news shouldn't come as that much of a surprise; "7th Heaven" is The WB's highest rated series. The only reason The WB was letting it go is because it could no longer afford it. CBS Corp. can -- so, yea! The drama will ascend to The CW, and be seated at the right (or left) hand of a show to be named at some point next week.

For those keeping track of holy miracles, that means "7th Heaven" ties Lazarus for second speediest resurrection on record; the top slot still belongs to Jesus Christ, who arose after three days.

http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/tv/archives/103462.asp

TV Notebook
Do you know where "24" is?

By Hal Boedeker Orlando Sentinel Television Critic in the Sentinel’s TV blog

Viewer alert: President Bush’s speech to the nation at 8 PM ET Monday will rearrange the schedule on some channels. A few broadcasters hadn’t decided late Friday whether to carry the address. But PBS, Fox and NBC will make time for Bush.

So if you plan to record Fox’s "24" or the season finale of "Prison Break," realize that they will start at least 20 minutes later (at least in the Eastern and Central time zones).. As for other networks ...

If CBS and ABC decide to carry Bush, those schedules will be transformed, too. A change would be critical to fans of "Grey's Anatomy," which will offer its two-hour season finale Monday.

If ABC doesn't take Bush, the hospital drama will run from 9 to 11 p.m. If ABC does go with Bush, "Grey's Anatomy" probably won't start before 9:20.

http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/entertainment_tv_tvblog/2006/05/do_you_know_whe.html

Critic’s Notebook
“SNL” and “Grey’s Anatomy”

By Rich Heldenfels in his Akron Beacon Journal TV blog

I've been meaning to write something based on last week's ''Saturday Night Live'' (with Tom Hanks hosting) and ''Grey's Anatomy.'' This is it:

About a week ago I wrote a column about how important writers and directors can be for actors -- how, as a recent PBS documentary pointed out, John Wayne was made better by working with John Ford. In the piece, I also noted that Patrick Dempsey, for one, experienced a career revival because Shonda Rhimes has done such a great job making ''Grey's.''

But watching those two shows over the weekend reminded me that the collaboration cuts the other way, too. That, if you're ''Grey's,'' you want to keep casting good actors, even in guest roles, to help sell the material -- so you get someone like Frances Fisher for a relatively small part because it will make the show better.

On the other hand, a not so good actor can drag you down. Dempsey did well last week, but Ellen Pompeo -- who plays Meredith -- did not make as much of the ''You don't get to call me a whore'' speech as was possible. It was especially noticeable when I watched the scene a second time; the first time, the writing carried her through.

And what does this have to do with Tom Hanks? Well, for one thing, he is a great host for ''SNL" because he is fearless in what he will do, and how silly he will be. Screaming ''Ma!'' over and over, he forces a laugh out of you because he just won't let up -- and even makes ''Ma!'' sound different from yell to yell.

At the same time, he is so good that he makes it all the more evident how lame the writing was on ''SNL'' -- because, with Hanks there, it should have been a lot funnier.

http://blogs.ohio.com/beacon_tv/

Especially for CPanther95:

TV Notebook
Fox’s Monday prime-time plans

(From a Fox news release via the Kansas City Star’s Aaron Barnhart and his tv.barn website)

“Prison Break” and ”24” will air in their entirety Monday night following live FOX News coverage of President Bush’s address to the nation (8:00-8:20 PM ET/7:00-7:20 PM CT/6:00-6:20 PM MT/5:00-5:20 PM PT) on the FOX network.

In the Eastern and Central time zones, the season finale of Prison Break and the season’s penultimate episode of 24 each will air 20 minutes later than previously announced.

There are no changes to the previously announced primetime schedule in Mountain Time and Pacific Time, since primetime in those time zones is not impacted by the President’s speech.

http://blogs.kansascity.com/tvbarn/2006/05/two_reasons_to_.html#more

Especially for CPanther95 (II)

TV Notebook
NBC’s Monday prime-time plans

(NBC Press Release)

NBC-PRIMETIME-SCHEDULE
CHANGES/ADDITIONS TO THE NBC PRIMETIME SCHEDULE FOR MONDAY, MAY 15 2006
(ALL TIMES EASTERN)

Monday, May 15 2006
.
(X)POLITICAL PROGRAMMING --(8:00PM-8:25PM)
.
"Presidential Address, May 15".
.
(X)DEAL OR NO DEAL --(8:25PM-10:00PM) --(TV-PG)
.
"Episode No.35"
.
SPECIAL TWO-HOUR EPISODE; REGIS PHILBIN MAKES A GUEST APPEARANCE-- In a special two-hour edition, surprises include some friendly banter with Regis Philbin ("Live with Regis and Kelly") and host Howie Mandel when Miami, Florida native Lauren Potter is asked for her "final answer." In addition, contestant Renee Stokes of La Costa, California receives the surprise of a lifetime when she is connected via satellite to her husband, who is a U.S. marine stationed in Fallujah, Iraq. Also, Jim Moniz of Honolulu, Hawaii tries his Hawaiian luck when he plays for the top prize of $1 million in this high-energy match of nerves, instincts and raw intuition. The episode also features Howie surprising former contestant Sheetal Shetty at home with her $375,000 check, Erin Birch donating a portion of her $167,000 prize money to the Special Olympics, and a chance for audiences to meet some of the past $10,000 "Lucky Case Game" winners. In tonight's special episode, viewers at home can also watch and play the "Lucky Case Game" for a chance to win $20,000.

The 2006-2007 Season
CW resurrects '7th Heaven'

Unclear which cast members will return
By Michael Schneider, Josef Adalian Variety.com May 12, 2006

Turns out "7th Heaven" has nine lives, while Andy Richter is headed back to NBC.

The long-running WB family drama, which aired its series finale on Monday, has been resurrected and will return for an 11th season next year. Fledgling net the CW, where the show will migrate, declined comment - but sources said a deal was in place.

It's unlear whether the entire current cast of "7th Heaven" will return next year. "7th Heaven" was the longest-running show on the Frog, as well as the longest-running family drama in TV history.

Brenda Hampton created "7th Heaven" and exec produces with Aaron Spelling and E. Duke Vincent. CBS Paramount Network TV declined comment on the pickup.

Meanwhile, reversing earlier buzz to the contrary, NBC has ordered six episodes of the Andy Richter laffer "Andy Barker, P.I." for midseason. Half-hour comedy comes from NBC Universal TV Studio and Conaco Prods., and stars Richter as an accountant who stumbles into a gig as a private investigator.

Conan O'Brien, Jeff Ross, Jonathan Groff and David Kissinger exec produce.

The 2006-2007 Season
New shows get OK early
•ABC.

The network has picked up six new series, including Help Me Help You, a comedy starring Ted Danson as a shrink; Day Break, a thriller starring Taye Diggs as a cop framed for murder; In Case of Emergency, about reunited high school buddies; and Six Degrees, a soap from Lost producer J.J. Abrams about the intertwined lives of New York strangers.

The network won't confirm plans until Tuesday.
Man, Abrams really has a lot on his plate recently hasn't he? That show seems like it'll have a similar approach to What about Brian, so I doubt WaB will be coming back.

I wouldn't be surprised if they pair that show with Grey's and it succeeds (which is probably what would have happened if the same was done with Grey's and WaB).

Oh well. I'm still hoping, but I won't get my hopes up.

Or "Grey's" and "Karen Sisco" or "Grey's" and just about anything. :)

But I think you are right that WAB is ********.

Too bad, I thought it had some potential.

"The only reason The WB was letting it go is because it could no longer afford it. CBS Corp. can -- so, yea! The drama will ascend to The CW, and be seated at the right (or left) hand of a show to be named at some point next week."

Maybe they can also finally afford HD.

TV Notebook
Networks grapple with presidential speech timing

By Paul J. Gough The Hollywood Reporter May 13, 2006

NEW YORK -- At least two of the Big Four broadcast networks will carry President Bush's address to the nation on immigration Monday night.

As of late Friday, NBC and Fox said they would carry the president's speech from 8 p.m. to 8:20 p.m. EDT.

Both ABC and CBS deferred the decision on whether to carry until sometime Monday.



http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr/television/brief_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1002502182


Has a major network ever not carried a speech from the President?

The 2006-2007 Season
Rites of Spring

Commentary By J. Max Robins Broadcasting & Cable 5/15/2006

Ah, spring. A time when networks set their fall prime time schedules and advertisers turn on the spigot from which billions of dollars flow into those networks' coffers. It's also the time when studio executives, producers, agents and development types pretend to understand the alchemical process that makes one show soar while another crashes and burns.

Of course, each upfront season has its own distinctive qualities, and this year looks to be about gutlessness. One thing I keep hearing is that network brass are listening to the audience feedback from pilot testing more than ever before. With budgets tighter, a producer's passion just won't cut it.

“Everybody will tell you, 'Oh, we go with our guts,'” says one senior network exec. “But don't believe them. In the end, they're listening much too closely to the research guys.”

So when you're screening pilots later this month and you find yourself scratching your head about how some abom¬ination made it on the prime time grid, you'll know why.

And don't be surprised if a pilot with a marquee name gets picked up after scoring high with test audiences, just as recent vehicles for Whoopie Goldberg, Ellen DeGeneres and Bette Midler did before they flamed out in the Nielsens.

Never mind that some of the most successful series of all time—Seinfeld and All in the Family, most famously—tested horribly and would never have made the schedule if research had been taken to heart.

The same play-it-safe ethos is to blame when you see creative- and ratings-challenged series inexplicably picked up for another season. Nothing says your development has left you wanting like keeping a lackluster veteran on the grid.

If that's not the case, chances are the network owns the series and wants to bank enough episodes to sell into syndication and squeeze out some backend cash. (Did someone say Crossing Jordan?)

This is the time of year when everyone's got a theory about what's going to be hot and what's not come fall. But when everyone starts lavishing praise on a pilot, you've got to wonder what's in it for them.

Think about the shows that got early pickup, such as Aaron Sorkin's Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, Crash writer/director Paul Haggis' The Black Donnellys and the star-laden Kidnapped. All were picked up by NBC, which, of course, explains that it's all about quality and getting a jump on the new season.

Sure, Sorkin and Haggis are buzzworthy, but NBC's rivals suggest that the network's bullishness is thin bravado. With the 8% shrinkage of its target 18-49 audience this year, they say, NBC needs to make an early show of confidence about its new slate so as to avoid a replay of last year's upfront, when ad revenue was off $1.1 billion.

To a large degree, the networks will bluster on about quality programming this week—scripted dramas and comedies—because that's what advertisers want to hear. What you're unlikely to see touted—except, of course, for such blue-chip properties as American Idol and Survivor—are any reality shows.

“Amazingly, most advertisers still view most reality shows as slumming,” says one prominent agent. “This time of year what advertisers want to hear about is what's going to be the next hit drama or sitcom. Then, when most of that stuff tanks, midseason we roll out the next Deal or No Deal, and we save everybody's ass.”

http://www.broadcastingcable.com/index.asp?layout=articlePrint&articleID=CA6334590

Commentary
A Brilliant Campaign ring

How 'The West Wing' Was Politics Unusual
By Robert J. Thompson (Special to The Washington Post) Sunday, May 14, 2006
(Robert J. Thompson is a professor of television and popular culture at Syracuse University.)

Stories about kings, and all the kings' men, have been around for centuries. But when it comes to our king (the president), our palace (the White House) and our modern storytelling medium (television), the record has been mostly silent. Doctors, lawyers and police officers have always outnumbered and outlasted political leaders on TV. Then came "The West Wing."

The series that showcased Jed Bartlet's presidency ends Sunday after seven seasons and two dozen Emmys, a long reign for a show about politics.

So why did "The West Wing" succeed? For one thing, entertainment TV had been timid about the subject of politics for most of its history, fearful of offending audiences. When political settings were used for a TV series, the subject matter was softened, if not neutralized. Nearly all of the series about the White House, for example, have been comedies -- including a 1992 series, "Capitol Critters," that featured talking mice -- and most of the political dramas were only slight variations of the nonpartisan movie fantasy "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington." These series were stripped of what could have made them most interesting: the processes of politics.

"The West Wing" took a different ap-proach. While it certainly featured comic elements, its focus was politics, and it didn't shy away from assigning its characters to a specific political party.

"The West Wing" recognized that modern government is mostly about hot air. The essence of Washington is talk, and the essence of the series was its dialogue -- conversation as a spectator sport.

This new style of fictional TV politics was the vision of Aaron Sorkin. He created "The West Wing" and presided over the first four -- and many say best -- of its seven seasons. He also wrote or co-wrote all but three of the 88 episodes he produced. Besides winning a record-breaking nine Emmy Awards in its first year, "The West Wing" took the Emmy for Best Drama for all four years of Sorkin's tenure.

The weapons of choice most often on display in Sorkin's White House were rhetoric, oratory and a general running-off-at-the-mouth by people who obviously had done very well on the verbal portion of their SATs. The rapid fire of syllables proved more exciting than that of missiles. The show's words spoke louder than its actions and, though meticulously directed, this is one of the few dramatic programs on television that actually could have worked on radio.

As a writer, Sorkin is a man of many words: many, many words. "West Wing" screenplays ran up to 20 pages longer than other hour-long dramas on television.

"Growing up in my house," Sorkin said recently, "anybody who used one word when they could have used 10 just wasn't trying." His New York childhood included frequent trips to the theater: He saw plays by the likes of Edward Albee, Shakespeare and David Mamet before he was a teenager.

"I had no idea at all what was going on up there," he said, "but I loved the sound of the dialogue, and I wanted to write dialogue that sounded like what I'd heard."

Not since "Moonlighting," or until "Deadwood," had any new series paid such careful attention to language. Two books of selected scripts from the show have been published, a distinction earned so far by only a handful of TV series.

In the end, however, "The West Wing" was not very realistic. For that, we'd do better with HBO's short-lived "Tanner '88" or "K Street."

If only people on both sides of Washington's political spectrum acted with the soaring vision and spoke in the baroque linguistic fugues heard on "The West Wing." But that, alas, is as much a fantasy as the talking White House rodents on "Capitol Critters."

THE WEST WING: Retrospective Sunday at 7 PM ET/PT on NBC; series finale at 8 PM.

Best of the 'West'

Robert J. Thompson picks some "West Wing" episodes that stand out because of substance or style. All are available on DVD.

• Pilot (Season 1): The show's maiden voyage featured comedy (Sam accidentally dates a prostitute), politics (Josh gets in trouble with the religious right) and a rousing final-act entrance by the president.

• Let Bartlet Be Bartlet (Season 1): A model episode that touched on gays in the military, campaign finance reform and sagging presidential approval ratings.

• The Midterms (Season 2): This episode about the three months leading up to midterm elections aired just weeks before the real, and highly contested, presidential election of 2000.

• In This White House (Season 2): Ainsley Hayes proved that Republicans can talk as well -- and as fast -- as Democrats.

• Two Cathedrals (Season 2): As a freak storm raged through the nation's capital, the president saw visions of his childhood, had a conversation with a ghost and talked to God. The striking directing of Thomas Schlamme, the visual soul of the series, was in evidence here.

• Isaac and Ishmael (Season 3): A stand-alone episode made as a response to the terrorist attacks. It aired less than four weeks after Sept. 11, 2001.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/09/AR2006050901256.html

Critic’s Notebook
On TV: Moldy old sitcoms finally get tossed


By Melanie McFarland Seattle Post-Intelligencer TV Critic Saturday, May 13, 2006

Not all consumables have expiration dates printed on them, not even the fresh ones. Instead, there's the understanding that we should be able to tell when something goes bad, and when it does, discard it for something bold and new.

But that doesn't always happen. Take the three veteran comedies ending their runs next week as an example: Once upon a time, "Malcolm in the Middle," "That '70s Show" and "Will & Grace" provided cool, satisfying prime-time refreshment, week in and week out.

Sadly, they stuck around long past their expiration dates, and now they're cottage cheese in a carton that has "whole milk" printed on it.

Granted, many viewers have turned their backs on them, perhaps hoping they'd transform, like some refrigerator science experiment, into ambulatory slime and quietly go away. But enough of us kept right on chewing, so they remained on our schedules long past their sell-by dates.

Due to their unnatural longevity, we're not compelled to celebrate their loss. However, each used to be good enough that they deserve one last examination, albeit at arm's length, with noses pinched.

MALCOLM IN THE MIDDLE

Finale: 8:30 PM ET/PT, Sunday, Fox

When this family comedy premiered in 2000, it signaled a different direction for Fox. Before Malcolm, Reese, Dewey, Francis, Lois and Hal Last Name Unknown came around, the closest the network had gotten to an all-ages family-friendly comedy was "The Simpsons." Here it gave us a boy genius saddled with an explosive, demanding mother, a feckless dad and barbaric siblings, living in a disaster of a house with a perpetually dead lawn. OK, so maybe that does sound a lot like "The Simpsons," but, hey, Malcolm's family wasn't animated.

Why it was fresh: Creator Linwood Boomer proved that family comedy doesn't have to be cloying or simple. At times, Malcolm's family life took some dark twists, usually smoothed over with slapstick humor. Because of this, many a parent could relate to poor Lois, the family general (beautifully played by Jane Kaczmarek) who, along with Hal (Bryan Cranston), was the target of her sons' myriad schemes.

Best if used by: The point at which the darling kids were no longer darling, nor kids. Frankie Muniz, aka Malcolm, got engaged last year, for heaven's sake. Little Dewey's (Erik Per Sullivan) voice is changing, and he sounds like the producers make him inhale helium before he says each line.

One last spoonful? In the first 10 minutes of the finale, it doesn't look like it, but Lois saves the day when she delivers a wonderful outburst explaining why she has ridden Malcolm so hard all these years. In that moment, Kaczmarek gives us both a genuinely touching demonstration of maternal love and a somewhat pointed political statement.

THAT '70S SHOW

Finale: 8 PM ET/PT, Thursday, Fox

Already a syndication staple, "That '70s Show" is a workhorse comedy, one of those good times people don't appreciate enough. Nothing fancy about it, and certainly very little in the way of intellectual cleverness, but you can rely on those old episodes for a good laugh.

Why it was fresh: Although this comedy is pegged to one decade, the cast's easy chemistry and the show's lighthearted glimpse into the aimlessness of high school life made it timeless. (It also gave us The Circle, a cheeky spinning of camera angles that acknowledges its characters are smoking pot without actually showing them doing the deed.) And, admit it, even if you sniffed at the sheer stupidity of life in Point Place, Wis., teens current and former probably recognize something of themselves or their friends in Forman, Kelso, Hyde, Donna, Jackie and Fez, and see their parents in Kitty and Red Forman. That goes double for those of us who experienced a Midwestern adolescence.

Best if used by: For a hefty slice of America, "That '70s Show" never should have left the shelf. But even those of us who watched it from time to time, we noticed the series deflate when Ashton Kutcher started taking himself too seriously and turned Kelso from a fun-loving himbo into a sleepwalker. Once he and Topher Grace (who played Eric Forman) announced they were leaving, the series should have ended.

One last spoonful? If you must see how it all turns out, OK. But it's not crucial, unless you're dying to see A) Kutcher reprise his role; B) who Jackie (Mila Kunis) ends up with; C) whether they ever reveal Fez's (Wilmer Valderrama) last name and country of origin; or D) another surprise appearance that isn't really that much of a surprise if you really think about it. After that, count on seeing Grace in movies, Kutcher in tabloids and Valderrama on MTV, where he hosts "Yo Momma."

WILL & GRACE

Finale: 9 p.m. Thursday, PM ET/PT, NBC, (a 60-minute episode preceded by a 60-minute retrospective at 8)

While not the first comedy with a gay lead -- that would be "Ellen" -- it was out from the start.

Why it was fresh: For a time, "Will & Grace" was the most wicked, funny half-hour on television, owing its best laughs to the better half of the ensemble: Jack McFarland (Sean Hayes) and Karen Walker (Megan Mullally). Where Will (Eric McCormack) and Grace (Debra Messing) gave the series emotional warmth by putting their friendship's growing pains on display, Jack and Karen kept it light with their unapologetic displays of hedonism and by ragging on Will and Grace's bond, which Jack accurately referred to as a sexless marriage.

Best if used by: The exit of "Friends" meant "Will & Grace" lost the tent pole holding up its ratings. Those who witnessed the show's slow but steady decline from the third season on might opine that the series went soft long before that point. Take your pick of its miseries. It became "The Jack and Karen Show," and Jack and Karen became greater caricatures than they already were. Will and Grace's annoying co-dependence kept other romances at bay. Will didn't get to kiss anyone -- seriously -- until this season. Grace moved out and moved back one too many times. Celebrity guest stars piled on in a blatant attempt to mask the flat jokes, topped by Thursday's pointless promotional appearance by rising beefcake Josh Lucas, who showed up to banter with Jack and boost his latest movie, "Poseidon."

One last spoonful? If you're dying to see whether Will ends up raising Grace's baby with her or to finally meet Karen's Stan, perhaps. Maybe Kevin Bacon will dance again. That's worth it, no? No. Oh, well, we'll always have reruns.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/tv/270024_tv13.html

The 2006-2007 Season
Nikki Finke: "Invasion" Cancelled


LA Weekly columnist Nikki Finke reports on her deadlinehollywooddaily.com site that ABC has cancelled "Invasion".

http://www.deadlinehollywooddaily.com/

The 2006-2007 Season
WEEKEND UPDATE! Primetime Pilot Panic:


By Nikki Finke deadlinehollywooddaily.com

ABC/12, NBC/9, Fox/6, CBS/0, CW/0
Below is latest info network by network as of 10 PM Pacific Time Friday night. Will be updated...

Fox just picked up The Wedding Album, deciding between The Winner and Big Handsome Guy, and renewed The OC...

ABC today has picked up Men in Trees, Ugly Betty, Brothers & Sisters, Traveler, A Day in the Life, Untitled Burnett/Beckerman, cancelled Invasion, renewed According to Jim and George Lopez...

NBC wants Tina Fey show pending finalization of Alex Baldwin deal...

http://www.deadlinehollywooddaily.com/

The 2006-2007 Season
Nikki Finke: "Invasion" Cancelled


LA Weekly columnist Nikki Finke reports on her deadlinehollywooddaily.com site that ABC has cancelled "Invasion".

http://www.deadlinehollywooddaily.com/


Let's hope CW steps up to the plate.

The 2006-2007 Season
Up in the air

It’s high drama and camp in New York as the networks set fall schedule

By Aaron Barnhart Kansas City Star May 13, 2006

Next week the five leading television networks will each put on a show unlike any you’ll see on TV.

It combines the pageantry of a mandatory corporate retreat with the excitement of a PowerPoint presentation. With a few celebrity cameos thrown in.

It’s upfronts week in New York City, where NBC, ABC, CBS, Fox and the new network amalgam known as “the CW” will present their fall schedules to advertisers in advance of selling them billions of dollars of commercial time for the 2006-07 TV season.

And if I appear to exaggerate the boredom level of these spectacles — somewhat — let me add that at some point during the four-day marathon, something invariably breaks through the monotony and makes the whole heavily scripted charade worth seeing in person.

I started attending upfronts in my third year at The Star, in 1999, so I wasn’t on hand when Johnny Carson stepped to the stage of Carnegie Hall in 1991 and announced that he would be leaving the “Tonight Show” in one year — bombshell news that left everyone, including NBC executives, shaken. (Almost as shaken as you are, realizing that TV has been Carson-free for 14 years now.)

But I was there in 2004 when thousands of ad buyers, media and ABC station executives were treated to the riveting preview of a new adventure series called “Lost.” We weren’t sure what the heck it was about — some of us still aren’t — but we all made sure to tune in.

I was there a few years earlier, when Mandy Patinkin, having shown up to promote what was billed as the “new and improved” relaunch of his failing hospital drama “Chicago Hope,” dropped his trousers on stage, then spoke for four minutes in his boxers while CBS president Leslie Moonves, unsmiling, looked on. It was clear Moonves wished a trap door would open under Patinkin’s feet.

And I was eyewitness to last year’s show-stopping performance by Marc Cherry, the man responsible for “Desperate Housewives,” at Lincoln Center.

Decked out in tux, tails and top hat, Cherry belted out the Sondheim standard “Beautiful Girls” before a chorus line. At the end of the number the “Housewives” joined him on stage as the crowd cheered.

The upfronts, in short, serve as a milepost for every show on network television. For some, it is the beginning of the journey to fame and fortune; for others, it is a final farewell to the audience that keeps the money rolling in. For still others, it is a chance to celebrate stellar Nielsen ratings and urge sponsors to keep the love coming.

All of which makes the week much more than an industry event. It forms part of the narrative of show business that Americans seem to grow more interested in every year, whether they are going online to play the new “Lost” computer game, listening to commentary tracks on the “Arrested Development” DVDs or searching for the latest gossip about the “West Wing” retrospective that was supposed to air Sunday (it was cancelled, according to Variety, because the cast wanted too much money).

Bill Carter, who covers television for the New York Times, has been attending upfronts for the last quarter-century. He wrote the best-seller The Late Shift in 1993, about the Jay Leno-David Letterman battle to succeed Carson on NBC.

His new book, a page-turner called Desperate Networks, tells the fascinating backstories of TV’s biggest hits, like “American Idol,” as they barely scraped their way onto the prime-time schedule.

Both of Carter’s books open at a network upfront: The Late Shift at Carson’s dramatic walk-on in 1991, Desperate Networks at Cherry’s triumphant song-and-dance last year.

Carter says that the upfronts are inherently dramatic because they are “a new start for each television network, where they (have to) present themselves with their best foot forward. They’ve gotta get these advertisers to cough up money to buy shows even when they’re not doing well. There’s a begging aspect to it that’s interesting to watch.”

The upfronts are also the time of reckoning for a handful of shows.

As I write this, for example, programs like ABC’s “Invasion,” NBC’s “Surface,” CBS’ “The King of Queens,” and UPN’s “Veronica Mars” have been neither canceled nor renewed, officially. No news will be bad news for these shows when the network schedules are revealed.

For other series like WB’s “Reba,” ABC’s “Commander in Chief” and Fox’s “Bernie Mac Show,” I’ll spare you the suspense: They’re history. But what will take their place? We’ll find that out next week, too.

Critics will get a first glimpse at the new shows that have survived the gauntlet known as development season, when hundreds of prospective scripts are whittled down to a few dozen pilots, of which only a half-dozen or so are picked up by each network and put on the fall schedule.

We’ll see previews of each pilot, for an early sense of what next seasons’ breakout hits will be. Last year, “Commander in Chief” and NBC’s “My Name Is Earl” wowed the upfronts. They would ride that hype into the fall and draw large crowds for their debuts. Twelve months later, though, only “Earl” is still standing, and on somewhat wobbly legs at that.

The week will begin, as it always does, at NBC’s upfront presentation, scheduled this year for Radio City Music Hall, next to the network’s offices at Rockefeller Center.

There’s little suspense left at the fourth-place network. NBC has already announced it will be adding NFL football to Sunday nights, and three new series including “Studio 60,” a new effort from Aaron Sorkin, creator of “The West Wing,” based loosely on the early years of “Saturday Night Live” and starring Matthew Perry.

ABC will take the stage Tuesday at Lincoln Center. Carter says third-place ABC will have the most to prove to advertisers, because “not one of its scripted shows” this season made a dent in the ratings — quite a turnabout considering that ABC put on TV’s three hottest shows the previous season in “Lost,” “Housewives” and “Grey’s Anatomy.”

Moonves will hold court at Carnegie on Wednesday for CBS (ranked second among young viewers coveted by advertisers) and again at Madison Square Garden on Thursday morning as he introduces the new CW network, which will cherry-pick some shows from the soon-to-be-defunct WB and UPN networks.

Upfronts week will wrap up that afternoon when the top-rated Fox network takes over the New York Armory with a presentation that is likely to feature a performance (via satellite from L.A.) by the two “American Idol” finalists, who will have been determined the night before.

Look for my reports every day from upfronts in FYI and more news on my blog at TVBarn.com.

http://blogs.kansascity.com/tvbarn/2006/05/the_town_so_nic.html#more

Attention RussTC3: (Note final paragraph)

The 2006-2007 Season
More ABC orders; '7th Heaven' saved

The Hollywood Reporter May 13, 2006

Despite all the talk of farewells and finales this week, the long-running WB drama "7th Heaven" is now expected to make the move to the new CW network for an 11th season this fall, industry sources said late Friday.

Meanwhile, ABC continued to hand out series orders Friday, to family soap "Brothers & Sisters," telenovela-inspired "Ugly Betty," thriller "Traveler" and Anne Heche drama "Men in Trees."

On the comedy side, ABC picked up "Big Day," formerly known as "A Day in the Life," about a couple's wedding day seen from various participants' points of view and the untitled Burnett/Beckermen heist comedy starring Donal Logue and Mick Jagger.

The network also gave a vote of confidence to its month-old midseason drama "What About Brian" with a renewal for next season. Those pickups join six other new series that earned a green light from ABC on Thursday.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr/television/brief_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1002502400

Friday’s network prime-time ratings are now at the top of Prime Time Ratings (the first post in this thread).

The Business of TV
Cable taking control of Street

Momentum shift from satellite in Q1
By Lora Kolodny and Georg Szalai The Hollywood Reporter May 13, 2006

NEW YORK -- Stronger-than-expected basic-subscriber additions for cable operators and weaker customer growth for satellite TV providers were a key theme during this first-quarter earnings season, leading Wall Street observers to discuss a possible turning point in competitive momentum among U.S. video distributors.

To be sure, satellite TV continues to win more users than basic cable. However, with the satellite business maturing, new competitors have begun to enter the video market in the form of wireless and regional phone companies along with such new cable offers as triple play, high definition and video-on-demand programming, which are more competitive as well. Cable firms believe they will finally see sustainable growth along with continued basic customer gains.


When News Corp.-controlled DirecTV Group reported weaker-than-thought first-quarter net subscriber additions this month, management revised its guidance, saying the satellite operator might add fewer than 1 million subscribers this year rather than slightly more. Wall Street took note.

"DirecTV is on the verge of seeing slowing subscriber growth as a result of cable becoming more effective due to increased availability of triple-play bundled offers, video-on-demand and digital-video recorders," Credit Suisse analyst Bryan Kraft wrote. "In addition, we believe that (telecom) entry into video will put further pressure on satellite churn and gross additions."

EchoStar Communications' report last week included net subscriber additions that also underwhelmed many on Wall Street, serving as a confirmation of the trend.

"We would not be surprised if DirecTV pulls back as well on the concern that EchoStar's mixed results were further evidence that satellite TV's competitive challenges have increased," Oppenheimer & Co. analyst Thomas Eagan said.

Bear Stearns analyst Robert Peck said reasons for EchoStar's higher-than-expected churn, or customer turnover, in the latest quarter were not just trend-based, but company specific.

"Increased competition, channel takedowns due to disputes and higher-than-expected disconnects following the February 2006 (monthly) price hike" all were on his list.

EchoStar's Dish Network added 225,000 net subscribers in the quarter. That lagged DirecTV's numbers -- the U.S. satellite competitor added 255,000. Both satellite firms' net additions outpaced basic video subscriber gains at Comcast, Charter, Mediacom and Time Warner Cable. But a look at cable operators' gains in digital-video subscribers told a story favoring land-based cable.

Comcast added 340,000, Time Warner Cable 241,000, Charter 69,800 and even Mediacom (which lost 39,000 basic subscribers) added 67,000 digital-video subscribers in the period ending March 31.

Of course, some caution that investors will have to see subscriber growth numbers for several quarters into the future to know if the trend of strengthening cable and weakening satellite user gains will stick.

Cable executives have all but asserted their dominance over the once-threatening satellite providers. TWC chief operating officer Landel Hobbs said last week that features "satellite just can't offer" -- namely Internet high-speed data and VOD products -- now drive his firm's growth.

"Our sustained growth depends on our ability to innovate when and where it counts," he added.

Analysts and investors will keep close tabs on subscriber momentum for the rest of the year. They might ask industry veterans for advice as one investor did with cable pioneer and Liberty Media chairman John Malone on the sidelines of his firm's annual investor meeting Thursday.

Said Malone about the current competitive situation between cable and satellite TV: "I still think cable has an awfully strong hand in the U.S.," especially given the recent success of bundled services.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr/television/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1002502409

The 2005-2006 TV Season
Ask Matt

(from the Ask (TV Critic) Matt (Roush) column at TVGuide.com
By Matt Roush TVGuide.com TV Critic

Question: Will the intellectual drama die? Last week's episode of The West Wing (the C.J.-centric "Institutional Memory") was not just a testimony to the quality of what was, but, more importantly, what could be. I find those "suck in your breath" moments on these recent episodes of West Wing to be a testimony to the brilliance of these final hours. It also makes me question if I see life for this series. I have to admit that I thought this series was dead, but the brilliance they are bringing to this close has me questioning whether this should be the end, since I could continue to watch this series in its current form for a long time. — John

Matt Roush: As we approach the final curtain of The West Wing this Sunday, I figured I'd lead with the positive, since there's so much negative to come. While I also have liked these last episodes a great deal, let's get some perspective here. This final season has been so memorable because the election and the transition are momentous events. If the show had continued, I wonder if once the dust settled and the new administration got itself situated, whether the series could sustain its recent heights. I tend to doubt it, which is why I continue to subscribe to my notion that we should be glad the show is going out on such a high. The fact that it's leaving anyone wanting more is actually something of a triumph, a bit of positive spin in light of the show's dismaying ratings of late.

Naturally, most of the West Wing mail I got this week (a ton of it) expressed anger over NBC scrapping a retrospective tribute in order to replay the series pilot as the finale's lead-in. A typical rant went like this, from Lauren: "What the hell is NBC thinking? Who thought it would be a good idea to show the pilot of The West Wing instead of a retrospective? Are there people who will be confused without a back-to-the-beginning? I don't think so. This is just yet another slap in the face in a long line of sucker punches handed out by NBC. Have you ever seen a series finale preceded by the pilot? No! You need/want memories, retrospection, discussion of what it meant to the actors, viewers, TV environment. I know you are a fan of the show and appreciate the way it is going out 'on top' creatively. But you cannot think this is a smart or even decent thing to do to a show that has done nothing but try to stay afloat while the network does its best to drown it. Please don't let NBC and TPTB keep this schedule change. Or at the absolute least, they should explain themselves. It is absurd and downright ignorant. They already moved it to Sundays after never giving it a lead-in and rarely promoting it the last several years. Utterly despicable. Help send one of my favorite shows out with some dignity! Multiple Emmy-winning show, in case they forgot. Will & Grace gets the praise. Doesn't West Wing deserve at least equal treatment for going out stronger and in a far more troubling time slot? Your thoughts and help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!"

Well, there's not much I can do, except empathize. The call has been made, and it seems to be as much about money as anything. According to trade and other reports, the actors balked at participating in a tribute show without proper compensation. Which prompted rants like this from Michael W.: "I just read that many of the stars of The West Wing would not participate in a retrospective of their award-winning series unless NBC paid them! How selfish and greedy can these people be? Most have won Emmys and great acclaim from this show. Let's face it: Who except Martin Sheen and Rob Lowe even had careers seven years ago, and theirs weren't all that great. And shouldn't the cast be receiving syndication money for many years to come? I think it is incredibly sad that longtime fans of this show won't have a look back this Sunday because of such overwhelming greed."

Again, I empathize, but having sat through many of these self-congratulatory, pandering tribute specials in the past (I'm personally dreading the Will & Grace send-off), I'm not entirely bereft at the thought of letting the final episode speak for itself. I'm sure budget had a lot to do with this decision, and also the fact that the ratings have been so pathetic on Sundays that the network and studio couldn't justify the expense of an extra low-rated hour to send off a lame-duck show (in everything but quality) that most everyone had already said goodbye to. I'm not saying I agree with the call, but I pragmatically accept it. TV is an ugly business, and as we noted at the beginning of this long segment, I prefer to be thankful that West Wing loyalists are at least mostly satisfied with the show itself these days.

________________________________________

Question: I love that 24's Jack Bauer is smarter than I am and knows a million things that I couldn't even hope to imagine. (who knew you could steer a plane from some cables in the cargo hold?) So why, after retrieving a recording that led to the murder of several friends and the near-fatal shooting of his lover, and that necessitated the hijacking and crash-landing of a freakin' plane, did he not tell CTU to make a copy of the darn thing? It seemed like such the obvious move to make and yet it never occurred to him — or anyone else — to do it? This is the first time I can remember that I felt like I was seeing the plot instead of the story — as if the only reason they didn't copy the tape was so Miles could betray Karen, keep the president from taking the cowardly way out and give Paul McCrane some more creepy scenes to play. It just didn't feel — and I can't believe that I'm about to use this word in the context of 24 — real. I usually love to sit back (well, on the edge of my seat) and enjoy the wild ride of 24, but I think this might have been stretching the suspension of disbelief a little too far. What do you think? — Hilary

Matt Roush: As I've long established, I'm not one for nitpicking shows like this to death, but I've had this very same conversation with friends and fans since this week's episode aired, so I'll reluctantly agree. This snafu with the tape was so clearly a twist added just to keep the story going a little longer. It was such a "d'oh" Homer moment. But I've got stretch marks from suspending disbelief while watching this show, so I'll forgive it. Besides, how freaking fabulous was that whole plane incident? Better than a movie.

________________________________________

Question: You may not publish this since it is more of a vent than a question. The question is pretty much pointless since you would have to be a moronic network executive with no discernable brain cells to answer it (which you're not), but hey, what the heck. Why in god's name is ABC opting to run the finale of Grey's Anatomy on a Monday? Hello? The show has aired on Sundays for a season and a half. It's hugely popular. I love Grey's, but I watch 24 and Medium on Mondays, and I don't want to tape things because something that doesn't belong on that night suddenly thinks it should air its biggest episode of the season on the wrong day! I will, of course, but what gives? Why do networks insist on pulling this crap? If it is just a matter of allowing both Grey's and Desperate Housewives to have finale "events," I'd rather have Grey's take a week off. Am I the only one continually outraged by this kind of thing? — Kristen

Matt Roush: I'm not crazy about this either, but that's what happens during a bloodthirsty-for-ratings month like the May sweeps. Many analysts see Grey's Monday finale as a way to test the waters for either this show or Desperate Housewives to take the leap to Mondays next season. (Without Monday Night Football, ABC has to put something hot on this competitive night.) But also, this two-night finale was forced to an extent by the fact that ABC is making so many of its finales two-hour "events." (Doing the math, Grey's could have aired one fewer repeat last month, and presented the three-hour finale over two Sundays, finishing this week, leaving the last Sunday of the season, May 21, for the two-hour finales of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition and Housewives.) But I know for a fact you're not the only one freaked out about having to make room for the Grey's finale this Monday. (And during network-upfront week, no less. I'm exhausted just thinking about it.)

________________________________________

Question: Bear with me while I badly paraphrase Jason Bateman. He said in an interview a few months ago that he wanted critics to stop saying that Arrested Development was for smart, cool people in the know, because it was off-putting for potential viewers and made AD seem like homework, or something like that. I feel like the same could apply to your adulation of The Sopranos, and I love The Sopranos, but if other people don't like the more existential, less action-packed season, that's OK. It doesn't mean they aren't intelligent enough to understand what's going on, or that they need you to explain it to them. It just means that they don't like this particular season. Fair enough, yes? — Sarah

Matt Roush: Fair enough, but maybe I've just read a few too many commentaries bitching about the show this season, especially in recent weeks, so I feel compelled to keep articulating why I find this particular season to be so special, even remarkable. The strengths of The Sopranos are peculiar to this show. It doesn't unfold like a regular TV series, and the fact that what I find engrossing seems to bore many others is worth continuing to explore. I don't mean to belittle those who dismiss this season, but when Dr. Melfi asked Tony if he was bored in last Sunday's episode, I couldn't help but think of all those disgruntled fans who want The Sopranos to be something it isn't. When I think of these last few Sundays, moving from Sopranos to Grey's Anatomy and finding such pleasure in both, it's like savoring a piece of great literature, then wallowing in the best beach read ever. Nothing wrong with either.

________________________________________

Question: OK, please tell me what the new CW is thinking. I just read in the news section that the CW announced they will not be picking up Reba for next season. Yet when they first announced the merger, they listed Reba as an asset. Do they really have enough quality comedies in the works that they can afford to dump WB's No. 1 comedy? Is there any hope of Reba being picked up by another network? I am a huge Reba McEntire fan (both of her acting and singing). How can they treat this wonderful woman like yesterday's garbage? — Matthew

Matt Roush: All I can say is that CW must really not want this show on its schedule, because according to what the trades say, the network may have to pay a steep penalty to cancel Reba, which still had a year to go on its current WB contract (although in the long run, it may be cheaper not to produce a full season of episodes — don't ask me). To be honest, I was always puzzled about why Reba was on WB instead of on a more mainstream network like CBS, where she would be an amazing fit. Reba is at least as good as — and much better than, actually — run-of-the-mill CBS fare like Still Standing or Yes, Dear (to resurrect a couple of reliable punching bags). But I could never reconcile Reba with the rest of WB's youth-oriented programming. Which may explain why CW is apparently dropping it. The network is going to have enough of an identity crisis merging the various preexisting elements of the WB and UPN lineups as it is. Reba would again be an odd bird out, although as Matthew says, it's hard to imagine CW having many comedies that are much more promising. But will any other network pick it up? As usual, the answer is: Highly, almost certainly, doubtful.

________________________________________

Question: As the finale of Bravo's Top Chef draws nearer, I've gotten to thinking about how it hasn't received much attention. I've enjoyed it, even though it's a bit harder to experience than Project Runway, since you can't taste the final dishes, whereas you can see the final designs. I heard that Top Chef has gotten a Season 2 pickup, so why is there nothing in the media about this show? — Diana

Matt Roush: Top Chef has the disadvantage of airing at a time of the season when the focus is almost 100 percent on network, not cable. I've been converted to Top Chef on the strengths of its personalities and the variety of the challenges (really liked them finally getting to cook real food for real chefs on the outing to Napa), but it does pale next to Project Runway, because as Diana noted, it is easier to judge fashion on TV than food you can neither taste nor smell. I find Top Chef a relaxing, guilty-pleasure respite from the intense march-to-the-season-finales I'm getting on just about every other front. But recapping or extolling it just doesn't make sense, when there's so much else to write about. It's not a reflection on the show's quality or lack thereof. It's simply news judgment.

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Question: I know that by now you're sick and tired of hearing and reading negative comments about how this season of the Gilmore Girls absolutely stank. Unfortunately, I just watched the season-finale episode, and seeing how the show went down when Lorelai pushed Luke into eloping with her, Luke fought that ultimatum by wanting to wait to get married, and Lorelai just walked away and ended up in bed with her ex-boyfriend/Rory's father. I just felt very jilted and very sick to my stomach. Why would Lorelai do a stupid thing like that just because she felt too impatient and wanted to pressure Luke into eloping with her? Couldn't she have just waited until the day after she went to her parents' house to ask Luke to elope with her, and to talk through their problems before going to elope to the Hamptons? Then the show could have ended on a good note, with them before they went to the Hamptons and took the plunge. It's just a shame that this season had to go out on a sour note, with a pathetic cliff-hanger that will probably cause it to be even worse next season than this season. Do you think that there is no hope for Luke and Lorelai to live happily ever after now that Lorelai has just sabotaged her relationship? What's your take on this whole situation, Matt? — Chris

Matt Roush: I weighed in on my Roush Dispatches blog, so check that out. But basically, I agree with the overall feeling of dismay where this season finale was concerned, which was reflected in most of my mail that came immediately after. I'm still reasonably hopeful that there will be reconciliation and a happy ending for Luke and Lorelai, but honestly, I'd like Lorelai to have a Dallas moment and wake up, having had this all be nothing but a bad, sour dream.

But taking an alternative view, there's this from Janna: "I wrote a few months back to complain about the appearance of April on Gilmore Girls. I feared that it was going to drive a wedge between Luke and Lorelai. After the last few episodes of the season, however, I feel otherwise: It's Luke I'm angry at. He has been making things hard, pushing Lorelai out of his life. After last night's speech, he didn't even try to follow her! I, for one, am glad she wound up with Christopher. My question is this: Do you think that, although it may have been the Palladinos' idea to have L&L wind up together and live happily ever after in Stars Hollow, maybe that isn't the best destiny for our favorite TV mom?"

My take: I honestly cannot imagine that the endgame of this series is for Lorelai and nice but bland Christopher to end up together. I just don't see the fireworks.

And finally (for now) on the Gilmore front, this provocative question from Jackie: "How can I say this without making everyone out there mad at me? Will it really make that big of a difference without the Sherman-Palladino writing team on Gilmore Girls? Honestly! How many of our favorite shows over the years have switched writers, producers and directors without us knowing, but yet we all go on enjoying them without batting an eye? If it wasn't for the Internet, entertainment shows, etc., we would not know the difference, and we'd all tune in next season and enjoy ourselves nonetheless. Now everyone will be looking for flaws and ready to give up on the last season. I have been a huge GG fan since the beginning and I plan to continue to be one, no matter who is writing the episodes. I just don't get the big deal."

A fair point, but there are certain shows that have such a distinctive voice and personal vision — West Wing was another, which took a big hit when Aaron Sorkin stopped writing it (though it also went way downhill during his last season) — that the hand-wringing and concern are understandable. It's very possible we won't notice much of a difference, and as we've discussed before, new blood running things could be just what the show needs to snap out of this recent malaise. And Jackie does make a good point that almost no show's reputation can survive living under such intense media scrutiny. I would hope we can ease up a little when the show returns next season. But as they say, the genie's out of the bottle. I can't see fans becoming less obsessive, can you?

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Question: I know you read no end of armchair network programming, but I'd love to see ABC let Commander in Chief get an actual second shot. As moved around and suspended as this show was, I don't think people lost interest so much as they just forgot it existed. I think if they allowed the DVD to find a bit of an audience, and paired it with Grey's Anatomy on Mondays, it would flourish. And better to work with a show that is already in production than to play the lottery on a new one, don't you think? I know it's a long shot. I just think this was the little series that should have, if only it didn't keep having the rug yanked out. — John B.

Matt Roush: I agree that this all represents a lost opportunity for a show that was flawed, though hardly fatally, but I'm enough of a realist to know ABC isn't going to squander a lead-in like Grey's Anatomy (if indeed it moves to Mondays at 9 pm/ET) on a show they've basically already given up on. It's very true that Commander needed to be nurtured. The best thing ABC could have done was to keep it off the air after its mid-season hiatus and not bring it back until next fall, refreshed and retooled. Dumping it on Thursdays was akin to assassination.

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Question: I thoroughly enjoy your column, and most times I even agree with you. But can you please explain to me what happened to Ghost Whisperer? I love the show and never miss an episode, but it's getting to be too much like Tru Calling now — moving to the good-vs.-evil battle. There are always souls to help cross over without having to go in that direction. I'm also appalled that they "killed off" Melinda's antique-store partner, Andrea! What were they thinking? — Ada

Matt Roush: I haven't really kept up with this show, but according to Ask Ausiello, just because Andrea (Aisha Tyler) is dead, that doesn't mean that's the last you'll see or hear of her. This is, after all, Ghost Whisperer. As for the darker direction the show may be taking, I imagine the producers are trying to vary the tone so it doesn't always come off so much like Touched by a Medium. Overarching conflicts and intrigues help fuel a show for the long run. But I would be surprised if it got too dark. Look what happened to Joan of Arcadia in its second season. I'm going to try to catch up on some key episodes of this over the summer, at which time I'll be more confident swapping opinions on a show that, like so much else on Fridays, flew mostly under my radar.

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Question: Do you think that online activity (image searches, blog postings, downloads, etc.) is a predictor of elimination order on a reality show such as American Idol? Is there a virtual equivalent of ballot-box stuffing going on? Disclaimer: I am with Screensavers.com, which provides screensavers of Idol participants, and we see a correlation between the popularity of a contestant and his or her elimination order. Wondered if this was true in other net areas. — Martha

Matt Roush: This is nothing on which I'm an expert, but I've heard that one reliable way of handicapping who's staying or going on Idol is to track each contestant's Internet/Google traffic. I would imagine other cultural indicators in the Internet world could also help gauge each singer's popularity. Makes sense to me. Personally, I just go with my gut. Who sang best last deserves to stay. So far, I'm reasonably happy with this final group.

http://tvguide.com/tv/roush/askmatt/

The 2006-2007 Season
Networks set to unveil fall lineups starting early Monday

By Charlie McCollum San Jose Mercury News

Starting Monday, the TV networks -- ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC and the new CW -- will announce their fall schedules, ending weeks of high anxiety over what current shows will stay and what new series will get the greenlight.

We'll cover the announcements early each morning, beginning with the NBC unveiling on Monday. ABC does its thing on Tuesday, followed by CBS on Wednesday and Fox and the CW on Thursday.

There are already a few things that are known about the lineups, although changes are made right up to the last moment. (Last year, ABC flew the cast and creators of a new comedy to New York for the big announcement -- only to tell them, ``never mind,'' and send them back to L.A.) In the case of at least one network -- CBS -- any thoughts on what its schedule might look like is pure speculation because the suits keep a very tight lid on things.

It's widely expected, though, that a few much-watched series will shift time periods, notably ABC's ``Grey's Anatomy'' (to Mondays), CBS's ``Without A Trace'' (to Sundays) and NBC's ``ER'' (possibly to Wednesday after years in its 10 p.m. Thursday slot.) The future of several popular series are still in the air -- ``Everwood'' and cult favorite ``Veronica Mars'' on the CW, Fox's ``Bernie Mac,'' CBS's ``Close to Home'' -- although it now appears the once-threatened ``Scrubs'' will be back for another cycle on NBC.

As for new shows, there are already a few making noise:

• NBC's ``Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip'' is the new comedy-drama from Aaron Sorkin of ``The West Wing'' and is hot enough that it may push ``ER'' out of its 10 p.m. Thursday slot. ``The Black Donnellys'' from Paul Haggis (the Oscar-winning ``Crash'') is another sure thing, although the blue collar drama could be a tough sell.

• CBS's ``Shark'' is a legal drama starring James Woods and has an opening episode directed by Spike Lee. It could get the network's 10 p.m. Thursday period when (and, maybe, if) ``Without A Trace'' jumps to Sunday. Another sure thing: ``The Class,'' a half-hour comedy from David Crane of ``Friends'' that CBS committed to before seeing a single frame of footage. (The CBS suits breathed a sigh of relief recently when the pilot turned out to be as good as Crane's original script.)

• ABC is very big on ``Six Degrees,'' a new ensemble drama from J.J. Abrams (``Lost,'' ``Felicity'') about six strangers whose lives intersect in New York, and ``Secrets Of A Small Town,'' a prime-time soap starring Angie Harmon, that get the coveted hour behind ``Desperate Housewives'' on Sundays.

• Fox has much of its lineup in place (hello, ``American Idol'') but ``The Winner'' -- with Rob Corddry of ``The Daily Show'' -- looks like it will get a spot. And there is some support inside the network for ``Julie Reno, Bounty Hunter,'' starring Erin Daniels of ``The L Word'' and the always-watchable Annie Potts.

• And finally, we have the CW which -- at the moment -- is focused more on what series to keep than on what new shows make the lineup. Already, it's dumped ``Reba'' (reportedly at a cost of $20 million) from the old WB lineup and most of UPN's African-American comedies (``Everybody Hates Chris'' is the one sure thing). Plus it's got those bubble shows like ``Veronica Mars.'' An interesting development in recent days: Rumors that ``Invasion,'' the spooky sci-fi series, could end up on the CW if ABC drops it and that the new network is interested in ``Ultra,'' a series based on a popular graphic novel, that was originally done for CBS but probably won't make the fall lineup.

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/entertainment/television/14565985.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp

The 2006-2007 Season
Newsmags enter a whole new reality

As viewers clamor for crime dramas and `gotcha' fare, the onetime staple of prime time retools
By Matea Gold Los Angeles Times Staff Writer May 14, 2006

Susan Zirinsky, executive producer of CBS' "48 Hours Mystery," always feels some trepidation this time of year, but in recent years, mid-May has been more stressful than ever.

Monday kicks off the annual rite known as the "upfront," a week when the broadcast networks put on a series of lavish presentations here for advertisers touting their fall schedules, hoping to get them to commit a substantial share of their advertising dollars before the season begins.

It's also often the first time most shows get an inkling of whether they've made the cut for next year. For network newsmagazine producers such as Zirinsky, the waiting game has become more anxiety producing.

"We know our lives are on the line," she said. "It's Darwinian, survival of the fittest."

In all likelihood, "48 Hours Mystery" — one of the few newsmagazines to see an uptick in viewers this season — will be back this fall. But this is not the fittest of times for the genre as a whole. A decade ago, the long-form news programs were the mainstay of the network's prime-time schedules, garnering huge audiences and spawning multiple editions on different nights of the week.

A crowded field

As dramas and reality shows have taken off in recent years, however, newsmagazines have found themselves with an increasingly smaller share of airtime — and viewers.

Jeff Fager, executive producer of CBS' "60 Minutes," said the diminished popularity of the shows was inevitable: "There were too many. How many newsmagazines can you have on the air?"

Some view the genre's decline partially as the result of a changing public sensibility. The "retells" that were so popular a decade ago, when correspondents would prompt people to recall details of an incident, now seem staid compared with the ever-more-intimate narratives that dominate television.

Newsmagazines garnered big ratings in the 1990s because "people felt they were getting a slice of something they didn't know about that took a story from a human point of view," Zirinsky said.

"And then 'Nanny 911,' 'Amazing Race,' 'Survivor' all took an enormous bite out of our rear end. The audience has their human drama, irregardless of the fact that it has been manipulated."

"The dilemma became, 'This is an incredible art form and a solid journalistic tool that you don't want to go away,' " she added. "So how do you adapt?"

To survive, many newsmagazines are pursuing new forms of compelling — and sometimes controversial — storytelling. In a much-talked-about "Dateline" series, suspected Internet predators are lured to a house and then confronted on-camera. Although the investigation has drawn praise from child welfare organizations, some journalism ethics experts have questioned NBC's collaboration with an Internet watchdog group that arranges to have police outside to arrest the men when they leave. ABC's "Primetime," meanwhile, recently fielded the opposite criticism — that it had done too little — after the show aired footage of a man punching his daughter during a piece on dysfunctional stepfamilies.

"This is the problem with hidden-camera 'gotcha' journalism: You're either going to be acting as a proxy for the authorities, or you're not and you're going to look negligent," said Judy Muller, a former ABC correspondent who teaches journalism at USC. "It's a very narrow ethical line, and more and more I see it being used gratuitously for ratings."

Aside from a few exceptions, the newsmagazine audience has continued to shrink this season. Even the venerable "60 Minutes," which pioneered the format and continues to draw a hefty 13.8 million viewers a week on average, is down 2.6% compared with last year, according to Nielsen Media Research.

Last year, CBS canceled its spinoff, "60 Minutes Wednesday," citing low viewership. It remains to be seen whether others will fall by the wayside this year. ABC officials are weighing the merit of keeping "Primetime" on next year's schedule. "Dateline" — which once aired five nights a week but is now down to two regular time slots — will temporarily lose its Sunday edition to make way for the network's football broadcasts this fall.

"This is really the golden era of drama and reality shows, and I think those two things have squeezed out the newsmagazines," said Jeff Zucker, chief executive officer of the NBC Universal Television Group.

That's not to say that they'll be disappearing completely. "They're not what they were a decade ago, but they're still an important part of every network's schedule," Zucker added.

Newsmagazines remain substantially more affordable to produce than scripted series — costing around one-third to one-half the price — and can be counted on to deliver a consistent, if older, audience despite their smaller numbers. They serve as platforms for some of the network's big stars, such as Diane Sawyer and Katie Couric. And when big stories break, the programs can be quickly turned into crash instant-news specials, buttressing the network's journalistic resources.

"You need to have that avenue to tell a longer story," said Chris Vlasto, senior investigative producer for "Primetime." "Otherwise, it's just going to be talking heads on cable television."

But to compete with the slick production of procedural dramas and the eyebrow-raising stunts of reality programs, newsmagazine producers have had to become increasingly inventive.

"The programs have diverged somewhat from what they were," said David Corvo, executive producer of "Dateline." "Because of improved technology, our stories tend to happen before your eyes. They play out in an experiential way; they're present tense."

This month, "Dateline" is running four new installments of its series on Internet predators. Corvo, who called the show's approach "socially responsible," said the pieces have garnered an overwhelming e-mail response from viewers.

"Dateline" is now working on investigations into other issues such as counterfeit prescription drugs and adoption scams that use similar hidden-camera techniques. "You're watching the reporter on the show learn as it goes along, and I think it immerses the viewer a little bit more," he said.

Reality raises the bar

The television audience — conditioned by the dramatic "reveals" of reality television — now expects more of a payoff from every show, Zirinsky noted.

In the case of "48 Hours," CBS decided to retool the program to focus exclusively on crime-and-punishment tales, told in the form of a one-hour documentary, much like a real-world version of "Without a Trace." Although some of the shows explore well-known mysteries such as the disappearance of high school student Natalee Holloway in Aruba, most are focused on the stories of the less-famous: a murdered New York dancer, a missing Louisiana college professor. So far, it seems to be working; ratings are up 7% this season.

"We consider ourselves a reality genre that's a newsmagazine if events warrant," Zirinsky said, noting that this is the fifth incarnation of the program she's overseen in the last 10 years. "Everything we do is rooted in journalism. That doesn't mean that the show cannot be cinematically shot."

Vlasto said the sophistication of viewers has pushed "Primetime" to search for a blend of stories that will keep them engaged.

"You can't be a drama and you can't be a reality show," he said. "You have to be something in between."

"Primetime," with ratings up 3.2% this season, devotes about a third of its time to investigations, a third to crime stories and another third to hidden-camera "reality" stories, Vlasto said.

Some segments can feel a little too real. A recent show that featured footage of a father punching his teenage daughter, caught on tape as part of a story on stepfamilies in crisis, drew sharp criticism from many viewers who said ABC should have alerted authorities to the abuse. (The network noted that by the time producers viewed the tape, the girl had moved out of the house and the family had already sought counseling.)

Vlasto rejected the notion that such pieces veer into the tabloid, arguing that the show pursues topical, popular stories.

"If you say we're going to be 'Frontline' and do stories on Africa and starving, unfortunately, viewers aren't really turning on to that," he said.

"I'd love to do stories about that, but it's about what the viewers want. Otherwise, we won't be on the air."

http://www.calendarlive.com/tv/cl-ca-newsmags14may14,0,4587569,print.story?coll=cl-tvent

The Upfront
Six Lessons for the Upfront

Last year’s results are driving this season’s decisions
By Ben Grossman BroadcastingCable.com 5/15/2006

Across New York City this week, the network executives who pick TV shows will become thespians for a day. They will stroll confidently on stage and try to convince advertisers that their new schedule is a sure thing.

They will quote research and testing, trot out well-known movie actors, tout writers with “fresh voices,” and introduce “groundbreaking” formats. But like the advertisers, they know very well that most of these new shows won’t make it.

“You just don’t know what’s going to connect or why,” says Touchstone Television President Mark Pedowitz, “so you put your chips out, and then you get surprised.”

In the absence of a crystal ball, the networks cobble together whatever resources they can. And one of the most useful textbooks is the season they have just programmed: a blueprint of what hit and what bombed in 2005-06. So as the networks try to imitate their successes and learn from their mistakes, B&C looks at six lessons the networks are using to program the 2006-07 season.

1. Imitation Is the Sincerest Form of Failure

Networks fall into the trap of chasing whatever is working, and imitation usually produces failure.

“No one will admit to chasing a genre,” says NBC Entertainment President Kevin Reilly, “but we all know what has been working out there.”

So, year after year, the networks try to grab their piece of something that already has traction. Last fall, a group of science-fiction–themed shows tried to capitalize on the Lost success. None were hits.

“Networks like to jump on the ship and not think about why things work,” says one network programming executive who asked not to be identified. “Two things that have to be reassessed are single-camera comedy and highly serialized high-concept shows. Both of those are high-stakes, high-odds shows, and they clearly weren’t the ones that jumped out in the late season.”

One bit of genre-chasing that may have already come and gone is the stripped telenovela. At the Television Critics Association press tour in January, the networks were buzzing about having them ready for the summer. Outside of My Network TV, none have any scheduled.

And while Deal or No Deal’s success has everyone racing back into the game-show genre, anyone with a sense of history wonders if one is enough. “When you look at the era of [Who Wants To Be a] Millionaire, there wasn’t anything else that stood out,” says The CW Entertainment President Dawn Ostroff. “I don’t know if there is room for another game show.”

2. iTunes Makes Headlines. Television Makes Money

The next time you hear the phrase “multiplatform,” consider this sobering fact: Of the roughly $9 billion in TV advertising committed in the annual upfront market, only about $100 million to $300 million will be spent on so-called new media.

The networks are constantly experimenting in the new-media space, whether moving current shows onto iTunes, as Fox did last week with such titles as 24 and Prison Break, or launching entire broadband networks, as CBS did recently with its Innertube. They’re all betting on future revenues, which they acknowledge are only a trickle now. Executives such as NBC Universal Television Group President Jeff Zucker and Disney-ABC Networks chief Anne Sweeney are expected to take the stage this week to tout the importance of delivering content to the latest new gizmos.

This week, the networks will boast of all the places besides a TV screen that you can see their programming, but network chiefs know that a potential show’s new-media applications have zero to do with whether it makes the fall schedule.

“The tail shouldn’t be wagging the dog here,” says Fox Entertainment President Peter Liguori. “Create a hit on TV, and you will have a hit on many platforms.”

CW’s Ostroff agrees: “Certainly, the multiplatform strategy is a part of any kind of pickup decision, though it is not what drives it,”

3. Schedules Still Rule

New-media advocates may think a network’s linear schedule will be obsolete in a matter of years, but building nights and audience flow are still crucial to the scheduling process.

If ABC shifts Desperate Housewives or Grey’s Anatomy, which now run consecutively, to Mondays at 9 p.m. ET as expected, it will have three big draws (including Lost) behind which to launch shows.

Lacking such hits, NBC will have a much more difficult time turning around its performance. “Scheduling and flow are still crucial,” says Reilly. “We need tent poles we can launch shows out of; that is what we didn’t have this year.”

This season also demonstrated the importance of nurturing a promising sophomore. The gleaming example was ABC’s scheduling of Grey’s Anatomy in the vaunted post-Super Bowl slot this year and Entertainment President Steve McPherson’s decision not to move the show out of its post-Desperate 10 p.m. time slot.

CBS Entertainment President Nina Tassler considers grooming her sophomores as important as looking after the rookies. “For shows like Ghost Whisperer and How I Met Your Mother,” she says, “we want to treat them as carefully as we will the new shows on the schedule.”

Still, the shows have to make sense back-to-back. If ABC brings back ratings-challenged thriller Invasion, McPherson may move it out of its Lost lead-in. “Some feel the Lost hour is so intense,” he says, “that they want something lighter after.”

And while reality continues to serve as a cost- effective scheduling piece, networks are learning that, in most cases, running a reality series just once per year might be the right move. Fox’s restraint with American Idol is the model, but ABC’s re-energized The Bachelor also showed that absence makes the unscripted heart grow fonder.

4. Fewer Cameras Don’t Equal More Laughs

Many of the latest efforts to save the comedy on TV came from the single-camera genre—like My Name Is Earl and Everybody Hates Chris—but many network executives agree that the form is secondary to just being funny.

“If you’re not laughing it doesn’t matter if it’s a 3D hologram dancing around your living room,” says Chuck Lorre, who created the traditionally shot Two and a Half Men and has another four-camera pilot in contention at CBS.

Touchstone’s Pedowitz says viewers just want comedies that have characters with whom they can connect and, when the next big hot comedy comes, it will dictate where the genre goes. “If it is a multicamera show,” he says, “it will swing back that way, “and if it is single-camera, there will be many more of those.”

But others believe the form does matter. One of those is producer Gavin Polone, who has comedy pilots in contention at ABC and Fox, both of which have single-camera components. “The tastes of the audience have changed, and I think it’s changing in the direction of single-camera,” he says. “When people watch shows like My Name Is Earl and The Office, you get used to a certain tone and feel. It may redirect back the other way at some point.”

5. Know Your Audience— And Don’t Go Changing

The few new shows that did break out this season, such as Fox’s Prison Break and CBS’ The Unit, showed the importance of developing programming that caters to a network’s core audience.

“Each network has a very specific identity that a consumer expects to find when they turn on that channel,” says producer John Wells, who has drama pilot Smith in contention at CBS. “All the network successes have been specifically within the brand they have been known for.”

From a promotional standpoint, Fox was able to tour Prison Break to its baseball audience, and CBS was able to push The Unit in its gritty dramas.

Fox, which traditionally appeals to a predominantly male audience, will look to broaden its reach this season, picking up ’Til Death, the Brad Garrett sitcom about two married couples. The move makes some sense especially after New Year’s, when the testosterone-heavy network can promote to more females through American Idol.

6. Trust Your Gut

The slow build-up of The Office reminded the industry that a show can still gain traction after a modest start—if it is given a chance to build audience. Fortunately for star Steve Carrell and the rest of the cast, it was NBC’s struggles that let the network give the show some time to grow.

“That actually works to our advantage,” NBC’s Reilly says of his network’s prime time challenges. “We are in a position where we could look at something like The Office, know it is a good show, and stick with it.”

Conversely, ABC showed this season that, if you don’t believe in a show, get it off the air immediately. The network yanked its heavily hyped Emily’s Reasons Why Not after just one airing when it didn’t like the look of the next batch of episodes. The network had waited to begin production on the midseason replacement and had already started the hype machine when it realized the show wasn’t working. ABC won’t make the same mistake again.

Says ABC’s McPherson, “Anything we pick up this season we will get into production right away so we can get a sense of how it is going.”


Steve Sternberg, executive VP of audience analysis at Magna Global, sees a parallel between NBC now and ABC immediately before its resurgence last year. In a tight demo race among the networks, he says, NBC is only “one or two successes away from recapturing the lead.”

The Upfront
GRADING ON A CURVE

By Ben Grossman BroadcastingCable.com

Ad buyers will start issuing report cards this week in the form of upfront advertising commitments, in effect grading the performances of the networks on this past season. CBS and Fox are in the best shape, with ABC still benefiting from last year’s darlings and NBC looking to the future.

Entering the upfronts, CBS can boast of stability—renewing 14 series early—as well as bringing back rookies like Ghost Whisperer, How I Met Your Mother, Criminal Minds and, quite likely, The Unit.

A resurgent American Idol and 24 provided momentum for Fox, which also gained from breakout freshman Prison Break and solid performers House and Bones. Developing more series compatible with baseball and allowing them to build a fan base prior to the championship series last fall also helped.

Although he gives the network high marks, Fox Entertainment chief Peter Liguori sees room for improvement. “We need to get another big hit on this network, a game-changer. We definitely walk the high-wire when we do serialized shows, and we need to balance our slate a little better.”

After striking out with this season’s new comedies and dramas, ABC saw declines on several nights due to erosion of some of its returning programs, like According to Jim, and increased critical scrutiny of Desperate Housewives. Still, the network’s ratings are up for a second year, and producer John Wells thinks ABC’s “period of good fortune” from sophomores Grey’s Anatomy, Housewives and Lost “will give them a halo for at least another year.”

ABC Entertainment President Stephen McPherson is happy with the network’s handling of Grey’s and Dancing With the Stars but acknowledges being “frustrated with shows like Commander in Chief, which for a number of reasons we didn’t execute the way we wanted.”

McPherson says it was “hard to measure up” to the previous season, yet he remains philosophical. “All the stuff we didn’t do as well as we could, it just builds character. It’s good for everyone to take a few lumps along the way. It just makes you better at your job.”

Troubled NBC, with ratings down and audience growing older, has become adept at taking lumps. The network leaned heavily on My Name Is Earl and The Office, although their critics’ buzz seemed to surpass their ratings. NBC also seized on the moderate success of Deal or No Deal, running the game as many as three times a week—a tactic some fear could lead to an early burnout.

Asked to grade himself, NBC Entertainment President Kevin Reilly says, “If you look at Johnny’s score at the top of the page, he might have the lowest score in the class. But it helps when you look down and see some good work and that he got A’s in some categories.”

Steve Sternberg, executive VP of audience analysis at Magna Global, sees a parallel between NBC now and ABC immediately before its resurgence last year. In a tight demo race among the networks, he says, NBC is only “one or two successes away from recapturing the lead.”

The Upfront
WHAT THE NETWORKS NEED

By Ben Grossman BroadcastingCable.com

ABC: Life After Football

After punting Monday Night Football to corporate cousin ESPN, ABC will be starting from scratch in the fall on Monday night.

“There is no question having a full night to program is a challenge,” says ABC Entertainment President Steve McPherson. “But financially, obviously, it is a windfall since football was such a money loser, so it kind of balances out.”

ABC is widely expected to move one of its hit Sunday-night dramas, either Grey’s Anatomy or Desperate Housewives, to Mondays at 9 p.m. ET. The network could lead in with either Supernanny or Wife Swap and then use 10 p.m. to launch a drama behind the established hit. The Bachelor would also make sense Mondays when ABC brings it back.

The network is extremely thin in the comedy genre, so ABC had 17 pilots on its slate. “ABC made so many pilots, they probably have something good in there,” says producer Gavin Polone, who has pilots being considered by CBS and Fox.

McPherson also says the network is pondering strategies to run Lost straight through, as opposed to this season, when several repeats made it tough on some viewers to keep up.

CBS: Support for Men

Although Two and a Half Men is an anchor and How I Met Your Mother had a solid freshman year, CBS still has some shoring up to do in its normally potent Monday-night comedy lineup. King of Queens is a question mark to return, and the network hasn’t yet said for sure whether rookie New Adventures of Old Christine is a keeper.

With that in mind, CBS developed 12 comedies, and Entertainment President Nina Tassler believes she can find a player for 9:30 if Christine doesn’t make it or ends up elsewhere on the schedule. “I believe we have it in our slate,” she says of another Monday-night comedy hit.

CW: A Pal for Chris

The CW will be starting with plenty of assets from the soon-to-be-defunct WB and UPN, except for a strong companion comedy for UPN’s Everybody Hates Chris, one of the best-received comedies this season.

And it may be a while before The CW can put a strong companion on-air. None of the three comedy pilots developed for the fall were specifically developed for The CW; they were all picked before the shake-up.

But The CW Entertainment President Dawn Ostroff does have one show she says could be a partner for Chris, the single-camera Aliens in America, which will begin shooting after the upfronts. The comedy focuses on a dorky teenager and a Muslim exchange student who comes to live with his family.

Fox: Mainstream Laughs

Fox has become a destination network for strong, high-intensity dramas, but outside of Paula Abdul’s particularly incoherent nights, there just isn’t a lot for a mass audience to laugh at on its schedule.

Fox does a solid business with its Sunday-night half-hours targeted to young males, but Entertainment President Peter Liguori wants something that will have broader appeal.

“We need a comedy hit,” he says, “and we are committed to it.”

Fox gave an early pickup to ’Til Death, a comedy starring Everybody Loves Raymond alum Brad Garrett. The show centers on a young newlywed couple who moves in next to an older married couple (played by Garrett and Joely Fisher).

NBC: Building Blocks

Entertainment President Kevin Reilly is hoping this slate will finally give him a few bricks with which to rebuild prime time. While Deal or No Deal was a nice stopgap, NBC needs some hour-long assets to build around.

“We need a big signature drama,” Reilly says.

With that in mind, he gave early pickups to The Black Donnellys and Kidnapped last month, then added Aaron Sorkin’s Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip the first week in May.

But comedy is a sore spot for the network. Reilly still wants a two-hour block of sitcoms on Thursday if he can find the right pieces. He says he is torn on whether to keep Earl and The Office paired up or split them to launch new shows.

Army Officials Won't Attend Screening of HBO Documentary on Baghdad Hospital

By EDWARD WYATT


Senior Army officials have scaled back their planned participation in an advance screening of a coming HBO documentary about an Army Combat Support Hospital in Baghdad because of fears that the graphic footage could demoralize soldiers and their families and negatively affect public opinion about the war, Army officials said Friday.

Two senior Army officers, who were granted anonymity to discuss the private deliberations of Army leaders, said that Secretary of the Army Francis J. Harvey has declined to attend the screening, scheduled for Monday night at the National Museum of American History in Washington.

Other high-ranking officers, including Gen. Peter J. Schoomaker, the Army chief of staff, and Army Surgeon General Kevin C. Kiley, had been expected to attend the screening but now will not, according to people involved in preparations for the event.

The documentary, titled “Baghdad E.R.,” chronicles two months at the 86th Combat Support Hospital, where the filmmakers were given broad access to follow doctors, nurses, medics and others as they treated soldiers wounded by roadside bombs and in combat. As one nurse, Specialist Saidet Lanier, says in the film: “This is hard-core, raw, uncut trauma. Day after day, every day.”

The Army officials said that concerns about the content of the film, which includes footage of wounded soldiers undergoing surgery, an amputation and in some cases dying, have also been raised by the wives of top Army officers who saw the documentary.

“Given the subject matter, it’s not something you’re going to cheer at the end,” said one senior Army official. Richard L. Plepler, an executive vice president at HBO, said that the screening will take place as planned on Monday but that he expected far fewer people in attendance than the 300 or so people that Army officials told him to expect after they first saw the film this spring at a screening at the Pentagon.

“We had discussed a larger degree of participation from senior members of the Army when we first visited the Pentagon in March,” Mr. Plepler said. “I don’t really know why that participation has been mitigated.”

Paul Boyce, a public affairs specialist at the Pentagon, said the screening on Monday was planned as a tribute to the medical personnel featured in the film and therefore did not require the participation of senior Army officials. Several of the doctors who are featured in the film from the 86th Combat Support Hospital, based at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, are planning to attend, Mr. Boyce said. Another screening has been scheduled at Fort Campbell, and the film has been sent to medical teams at about 20 other bases for screenings.

HBO has been promoting the film, which was directed by Jon Alpert and Matthew O’Neill and will first be shown on HBO on May 21, as a tribute to the heroism of the soldiers and medical personnel who are shown working under severe stress. But the film’s producers acknowledge that its harrowing scenes could be interpreted differently.

“Anything showing the grim realities of war is, in a sense, anti-war,” said Sheila Nevins, president of HBO’s documentary and family unit. “In that way, the film is a sort of Rorschach test. You see in it what you bring to it.”


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Could this get the "Dixie Chicks" treatment?

Critic’s Notebook
Malcolm graduates to sitcom heaven

By Diane Werts Newsday Staff Writer

Where have I been? Why haven't I been paying attention to "Malcolm in the Middle"? Has it regularly been as delightfully fun/smart/clever as Sunday's series finale?

Ah, deep questions. To which probably only brainiac Malcolm has the answers.

The Fox sitcom that made smarts and family torture cool back at its sleeper premiere in 2000 now leaves the air with a concluding episode just as peculiarly charming.

It's only the standard half-hour long, yet it manages to resolve all the big issues of this five-boy family, their country and maybe the universe as we know it - all without breaking form or getting needlessly mushy.

Mushy?! Not "Malcolm"! None of that fancy-schmancy sentimental stuff for series creator Linwood Boomer. His sitcom family loved each other madly, but they showed it through yelling, scheming, tormenting, misleading and outright lying to each other. No "very special moments" here. And not at Sunday's end, either.

It's time for Frankie Muniz's gifted, twisted Malcolm to graduate from high school and give the valedictorian's address. But not before brother Reese (Justin Berfield) schemes to get his dream job as school janitor by creating "a 30-day mess." And mom Lois (Jane Kaczmarek) screams at eldest son Francis (Chris Masterson) over his perpetual joblessness. And Dewey (Erik Per Sullivan) devises a way to re-create the brother bond he's had with his departing elders. And devious Grandma (Cloris Leachman) stubs out a couple more cigs, as desperate Hal (Bryan Cranston) turns to a loan shark to finance Malcolm's Harvard education.

Everything happens here. The -- hits the fan, as it always does for this scrappy family - though not so figuratively this time. We discover the fate of the boys down the road, and their parents in the months ahead, with a couple of nice dovetail twists to make Sunday's finale one of the most satisfying wraps you'll ever see.

The ratings haven't been great of late, which means I'm not the only one who lost touch with "Malcolm" as star Frankie Muniz aged from precocious preteen whiz to gangly college dude. Some of the charm felt outgrown whenever I did check in, but maybe that's because I didn't evolve gradually along with the characters from week to week.

My bad. "Malcolm in the Middle" retains a sort of invigorating spunk - "Mary Tyler Moore" can't co-opt such a useful word to mean mere cuteness - which sets it apart from other family sitcoms and gives it that zany, live-action-cartoon quality that lets it get away with murder. And let's not forget that the one-camera comedy was deader than the Western until "Malcolm" dumped the studio audience in favor of exterior locations and fourth-wall-breaking narration. Its quick-hit gags got aped, too, leading the way to form-breaking today in "My Name Is Earl," "The Office" and especially "Everybody Hates Chris."

Maybe it's too soon to judge how classic "Malcolm in the Middle" may end up being. But its timeless tone and zesty wit should wear well in the decades ahead on Nick at Nite and other vintage showcases. Even if time wasn't kind over the past few years, it should serve the show well in its afterlife. This Sunday certainly offers a glimpse of sitcom heaven.

http://www.newsday.com/entertainment/tv/ny-etmalc4737079may12,0,3334594,print.story?coll=ny-television-headlines

Attention RussTC3: (Note final paragraph)
The network also gave a vote of confidence to its month-old midseason drama "What About Brian" with a renewal for next season. Those pickups join six other new series that earned a green light from ABC on Thursday.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr/television/brief_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1002502400
Ah man! Best news I heard all day (well, not really, but still). :D

Great news. Thanks for the report fredfa!

Critic’s Notebook
Long live the 'King'

On Sunday, Fox's animated series airs its 200th episode
By Scott D. Pierce Salt Lake City Deseret Morning News May 13, 2006

Were it not for a certain other animated show on Fox, "King of the Hill" would be in an astonishing position.

After 9 1/2 seasons on the air, "King" airs its 200th episode on Sunday (6:30 p.m., Ch. 13). No other prime-time animated series is even in that league except for the one show that exceeds it — "The Simpsons" (16 1/2 seasons and 377 episodes as of Sunday).

"King of the Hill" goes about its business without all the hype, quietly becoming one of the most successful series in TV history. Which is more than creator/executive producer Mike Judge (who also does the voices of Hank Hill and Boomhauer) ever expected.

"I don't dream big," Judge said. "If I were to have my wish granted back then, I probably wouldn't have wanted to go 200 episodes, because I kind of take the alcoholic's view — not one day at a time but one season at a time, one episode at a time. Because if you think of 200 that's just too daunting."

And, over those 200 episodes, there haven't been a lot of changes. Hank, Peggy, Bobby, Luanne, Dale and Bill are still pretty much the same people they were when the show started.

"At one point there was a note from a (Fox) executive, who's not there anymore, that we need more life-changing episodes" aimed at "constantly shocking the audience and having crazy things happen," Judge said. "I think you do that too much and then you don't have anything left. I think part of the strength of the show is that we haven't changed that much. . . . It's usually putting Hank up against something really annoying and ridiculous in the modern world."

There is, however, a bit of a life-changing event in the 200th episode — Lucky plans to propose to Luanne (and Luanne has a reason to accept).

The episode was going to be the second-to-last in the series' run. Fox programmers essentially canceled "King" more than a year ago. Months later, they changed their minds and ordered another season.

"It was a little weird. . . . People moved out of their offices and animators got other jobs, and several months later there was kind of some rumors about them picking it up, but I didn't really believe it," Judge said. "And then suddenly they wanted it back. So it was a little bit of a scramble to get people back.

"Right now it feels good, though."

And they've still got that final episode, which is penciled in for the end of next season.

But it's only in pencil, not in permanent ink.

http://www.desnews.com/dn/print/1,1442,635206823,00.html

TV Notebook
'Veronica Mars' Fans Have So Many Ways To Say They Love Her


But Even Begging and Bribing May Not Win Show a Slot On the New CW Network
By Brooks Barnes The Wall Street Journal May 13, 2006; Page A1

The top executives of major television networks don't usually get to know the rank-and-file fans of their shows. But Dawn Ostroff, president of the soon-to-launch CW network, is now very familiar with Matthew Mueller.

From his apartment in Naperville, Ill., Mr. Mueller has recently written 98 letters to Ms. Ostroff begging her to save the family drama "Everwood" from cancellation. The 34-year-old software trainer has also lavished on her about $1,000 in gifts, including an $80 gold chain adorned with semiprecious stones and a $50 Crabtree & Evelyn gift basket filled with lotion and exfoliating body polish.

"I didn't want to be subtle because this is a crisis," Mr. Mueller says. Does he think he has gone a bit too far? "It's not like I hired a private investigator to follow her family or anything," he says.

Ms. Ostroff faces a surge of begging and bribing as she decides which of 18 currently running shows will get a slot on her prime-time schedule. They were left in limbo when CBS Corp. and Time Warner Inc. decided in January to close the UPN and WB networks and together launch a new one called the CW as a joint venture. (Contrary to popular belief, the name combines the first letters of CBS and Warner Bros., not "Country Western.")

Fans have always fought to save shows, but they used to be easier to ignore. Now, TV executives say text messaging, cellphones and the rise of fan Web sites have given rabid viewers an unprecedented ability to organize. There are at least 250 sites and Web logs devoted solely to saving the teen soap "Veronica Mars."

"This has never happened before to so many viable shows," says TV historian and author Tim Brooks. "It's the free-for-all to end all free-for-alls."

Indeed, for the first time in decades, the prime-time programming offered by broadcast networks is shrinking not expanding: With the extinction of UPN and the WB in September there will be five primary broadcast networks scheduling prime-time dramas and comedies instead of six. And because the CW will program about a third fewer hours than a big network such as CBS does, Ms. Ostroff has only 13 hours to fill. While producers and studios often give networks the hard sell to pick up shows this time of year, this rare contraction in the broadcast business has turned a normally nutty world into a three-ring circus.

So Ms. Ostroff's office is overflowing with Mrs. Fields mini muffins and jars of hot fudge (a nod to "Everwood," about a small Utah town in which a character works at a bakery). Wine, dozens of bouquets of flowers and fruit baskets have been arriving in support of "Veronica Mars." Fans of the sitcom "Reba" starring country singer Reba McEntire are organizing to send frozen chicken-fried steaks. There's also $7,500 in donations to the National Breast Cancer Foundation (a tie-in to the teen drama "One Tree Hill," on which a girl's mother died of breast cancer).

More than 10,000 letters and petitions have arrived, trying to save shows such as "7th Heaven," about a minister and his seven kids, and the sitcom "All of Us." People have been sending dozens of store-bought "Smallville" DVDs in a bid to acquaint Ms. Ostroff with the show's early seasons. Metallica cassettes have arrived to support the spooky drama "Supernatural" -- a reference to a plotline in which a character takes on the alias of the band's lead singer. And a group in Los Angeles shelled out $4,000 to hire a plane to fly over Ms. Ostroff's office and home last week, dragging banners with various pleas. ("DON'T BE A DOPE: RENEW VERONICA MARS!!!")

Producers and studios are also lobbying network executives even more than usual. "Les Moonves is a genius," gushes Rina Mimoun, an executive producer of "Everwood," referring to the chief executive of CBS and Ms. Ostroff's boss. "I know he will see the value of our show." Joe Davola, an executive producer for "One Tree Hill" and "Smallville," says he recently spent an hour in Ms. Ostroff's office importuning her. "It's no guts, no glory time," he says.

Ms. Ostroff and her team must make decisions by Thursday, when she will present the CW's inaugural schedule to advertisers. She says she's genuinely touched by all the gifts but has one request: no more chocolate. "My diet is totally blown," she says.

Ms. Ostroff, who is 45 years old, started her career as a secretary for Mr. Moonves and worked her way up, eventually running programming at the Lifetime cable channel. Mr. Moonves hired her to run UPN in 2002.

More than anything else, ratings will determine scheduling decisions. But fans aren't being overlooked, she says. "I certainly am going to think about this passion when it comes down to the wire."

Some fan campaigns have worked in the past. In 1983, a Michigan housewife named Dorothy Swanson famously helped save the fledgling cop drama "Cagney & Lacey" from cancellation after organizing a letter-writing campaign. The series ran on CBS for five more seasons. More recently, the science-fiction series "Roswell," about teens descended from hot-sauce-guzzling aliens, got another chance after fans deluged the WB with 3,000 bottles of Tabasco sauce.

As for the gifts, many of them never make it to the intended recipient. Ms. Ostroff's assistants intercept most items and will eventually send them off to charities. Flowers have been sent to Los Angeles area hospitals. Kevin McElroy, one of Ms. Ostroff's helpers, says managing the mail has added two hours to his average work day. And things have gotten so bad that Ms. Ostroff has started using an alternate email address because her inbox has been flooded with pleas from desperate fans.

Did that Los Angeles plane pulling banners have an impact? Sorry, not on Ms. Ostroff. She had long since departed for New York to plan her presentation to advertisers.

A tip to fans: Don't send the marketing department letters accusing the network of bungling the marketing for a show. "Dawn, please look past the ratings to the quality of 'Everwood' and realize that the WB has not treated the show fairly or marketed it properly," read one letter that came with a box of cookies in April.

In an internal email, Senior Vice President of Communications Paul McGuire responded to a few colleagues: "Not marketed properly?! Who are these cretins?! Burn the cookies."

Mr. Mueller, the software trainer from Illinois, says he has never fought to save a show before. He says he connects with "Everwood," about a single dad and his teenage son, because of its unflinching depiction of family strife. He got moral support from various show-saving sites and blogs such as SaveMyShow.com and TelevisionWithoutPity.com. He raised the $1,000 from other fans he met in cyberspace.

About 10 people from around the country contributed money. The show, he says, "deserves another chance. I don't think the WB marketed it well at all."

(Contrary to popular belief, the name combines the first letters of CBS and Warner Bros., not "Country Western.")The author's kidding, right? Sarcasm doesn't always come through in plain-text.

Apparently a lot of people (in flyover country) think that CW stands for "Country-Western", Adam.

Of course the NY-Hollywood suits who came up with the name never even considered that.

Upfront Notebook
Black TV shows on shaky ground

Network merger could lead to demise of many sitcoms
By David Zurawik Baltimore Sun Television Critic

As the new CW network prepares to unveil its fall lineup next week, the way that African-Americans are portrayed on TV hangs in the balance.

The fledgling network, formed by the merger of the struggling WB and UPN broadcast operations, is expected to announce a fall season aimed at young viewers and anchored by series such as WB's Gilmore Girls and UPN's Veronica Mars.

Unlikely to be on the roster, industry insiders say, are several of UPN's eight African-American-themed sitcoms, including shows such as One on One and Half & Half, which now dominate the network's prime-time viewing hours on Monday and Thursday evenings.

Executives at CW declined to comment except to say that their fall schedule will be revealed to advertisers May 18 in New York.

The new lineup will include the shows that exhibit the widest appeal among young viewers and thus command top advertising dollars. None of the eight UPN shows under review, though popular with African-American viewers, has achieved the kind of crossover hit status that ensures high ad rates.

"The only one we're sure of [finding a home on CW] is Everybody Hates Chris," said Rose Catherine Pinkney, executive vice president for programming at TV One, a cable channel targeting African-American viewers that is negotiating for the right to air reruns of some of the canceled shows in the fall.

Pinkney, whose cable channel is seen in 30.1 million homes, said, "One or two other [African-American-themed] sitcoms might get picked up [by CW], but most of them probably won't, and it's definitely going to make a difference for African-Americans onscreen and off."

Although series such as UPN's One on One, starring Flex Alexander as a Baltimore sportscaster and single father, and Half & Half, featuring Rachel True and Essence Atkins as half-sisters in their 20s, never achieved overall hit status, they found a loyal following among millions of African-Americans.

The numbers are revealing: Although UPN's One on One is the 170th-most-popular show among all network television viewers, it is tied for 11th among black viewers.

Half & Half is ranked 167th among weekly series in overall network viewership and is the seventh-most-popular show with black viewers. The season finales airing this week and next are likely to offer the last chance for viewers to see the shows except in reruns.

"One on One - that's my show," said Shadae Swan, a 19-year-old communications major at Goucher College. "They can't take it off! UPN and WB are the only two channels showing multiple African-American programs that have a new season each year. I don't think I will be watching the new CW if they cancel my shows."

In the past decade, UPN has been praised and criticized for presenting entire evenings of shows featuring predominantly black casts and aimed primarily at black viewers. Depending on one's point of view, such scheduling created programming ghettos or provided much-needed diversity to the overwhelmingly white prime-time network landscape.

"For the black audience, something will be missing with the cancellation of such shows," said Donald Bogle, a New York University professor and author of Primetime Blues: African Americans on Network Television.

"Even with the distortion in some of these sitcoms, audiences could still go and see some semblance of an African-American community, as well as African-American cultural references. And that would be terrible if it just goes away."

African-American industry executives and members of the Hollywood creative community call the new network a sound business move but express concern that the merger might mean fewer opportunities for young African-American professionals hoping to break into television.

(The CW network will be carried on 16 Tribune Broadcasting stations. The Tribune Co. also owns The Sun.)

Actors and comedians including Jamie Foxx, Brandy, Steve Harvey and Baltimore native Mo'Nique, and writers and producers including Jacque Edmonds (Moesha) and Eunetta T. Boone (The Parkers), jump-started their careers on the WB and UPN.

"If the world were an equal place, and all these writers, actors, directors and interns would be considered equally for all the other opportunities that might abound, then it would fine," said Pinkney, who helped nurture several of the endangered UPN sitcoms in her previous job as senior vice president of comedy development at Paramount Network Television. "But history has shown that's not always the way it works in Hollywood."

UPN's current Monday night lineup includes, in addition to Half & Half and One on One, Girlfriends, a sitcom about four professional women, and All of Us, a series inspired by the home life of Will and Jada Pinkett Smith and produced by the Smiths.

On Thursday nights, UPN offers Cuts, a comedic look at a fictional Baltimore barbershop, and Eve, a sitcom named after the hip-hop artist who stars in it as a young fashion designer.

The evening's lineup also includes Love, Inc. a comedy starring Holly Robinson Peete as the head of a dating agency, and Chris Rock's Everybody Hates Chris, an ode to the popular comedian's childhood that is the network's most successful crossover sitcom, finishing 146th overall and fifth among African-American households in its first season.

Beyond Chris, which is considered a shoo-in for CW's lineup, Hollywood insiders point to two long shots among the eight sitcoms: All of Us and Girlfriends.

The former has a chance because CBS and Warner Brothers, which share ownership of CW, would like to avoid alienating the superstar Smiths. The latter is given an outside chance of renewal because, though ranked 165th overall, its audience is primarily young and female. (Supermodel Tyra Banks' reality show, America's Next Top Model, is also likely to make the cut.)

To minimize the potential public relations fallout, CW could renew one or both of the sitcoms but sign on for a "short order" of six episodes. Such a move would allow for a quiet cancellation in November or December, analysts said.

Though next week's merger shines a spotlight on CW, the need for greater diversity on television is widespread, despite repeated promises in recent years from all the networks to remedy the situation.

"A lot of attention is being paid to one network and handful of shows, but there are some industrywide issues still to be addressed," said Emerson Coleman, vice president of programming for Hearst-Argyle Broadcasting (owner of WBAL-TV in Baltimore) and co-chair of the National Association of Program Executives.

Another series in jeopardy of being canceled next week is Fox's Bernie Mac, one of the few network shows beyond UPN that deal with black family life. (Fox is scheduled to announce its fall lineup May 19.)

"The shows are visible to everyone, and there's always a reaction when a favorite show goes away. But you won't find better representation on the screen until there's better representation behind the screen," Coleman said.

The 2006 Diversity Report by the Directors Guild of America offers a glimpse into the state of ethnic representation at the networks. After examining all episodes of last season's top 40 network dramas and sitcoms, the guild found that 83 percent of the shows were directed by white men, 10 percent by white women, 5 percent by minority men and 2 percent by minority women.

"For the fifth year in a row, the report reveals that producers and networks have made little or no change in their hiring of women and minority directors," Michael Apted, president of the Directors Guild, said in a statement issued with the report last month.

For two decades, Charles Dutton, an Emmy-Award-winning actor and director, has worked to make network television more representative of American life. From 1991 to 1994, he created, starred in and was executive producer of Roc, a critically acclaimed Fox sitcom about a Baltimore sanitation worker.

In 2000, he directed the Peabody-Award-winning HBO miniseries The Corner, which told the story of a Baltimore family's struggle to escape the world of drugs.

"Some of those studios, you walk through and you think you're in 1955 South Africa," Dutton said of Hollywood today. "Some of them you walk through - I won't name them - and you say, 'Well, damn. ...'"

Though not a fan of many of UPN's sitcoms, Dutton says canceling so much of the programming aimed at African-Americans - without offering the audience an improved alternative - is problematic.

Describing some of the UPN shows as "just bad," he said they are based on an "an old-fashioned sitcom style ... that served a certain market, in my opinion, in a very kind of lowbrow way."

Nonetheless, he said, "if you are going to clean house with these shows and wipe out all the on-screen time and job opportunities, then you find new, fresh, black writers and producers and urge them to come up with something that's exciting, different, bold, daring adventurous - even on the edge."

Were that to happen, the loss of UPN's shows might become a catalyst for significant change, Pinkney suggested.

"As wonderful as it was to have a place where you could go and find a lot of African-American programming, UPN often took the other networks off the hook. When you looked at the numbers [on minority representation] from the Directors Guild or the Screen Actors Guild, they looked OK," she said.

"But when you took UPN and its shows out of the numbers, they didn't look so good at all. And that's what we're starting to see. Things are changing throughout the television industry, and, unfortunately, one of the big changes is the loss of a lot of African-American programs that a lot of people depended on. That's very sad."

http://www.baltimoresun.com/entertainment/tv/bal-te.to.tv10may10,1,923568,print.story?coll=bal-tv-utility

Apparently a lot of people (in flyover country) think that CW stands for "Country-Western", Adam.

Of course the NY-Hollywood suits who came up with the name never even considered that.
They need to change that name, CW will forever mean Country-Western or Conventional Wisdom to me, and that whole "the" thing is ridiculous as well.

They need to change that name, CW will forever mean Country-Western or Conventional Wisdom to me, and that whole "the" thing is ridiculous as well.

It certainly doesn't mean "CBS+Warner Brothers" to anyone not in the employ of those companies.

Upfront Notebook
Black sitcoms may lose home

UPN-WB merger puts shows in jeopardy
By Suzanne C. Ryan Boston Globe Staff

Next Thursday, the new broadcast television network known as the CW will unveil its first fall lineup.

The news will be huge for UPN and WB fans because a number of programs on those networks are not expected to survive after the networks merge to create the CW.

But for viewers like Dorchester resident Louis Eaton, something bigger than just a TV show is at stake.

UPN is the home of eight sitcoms with predominantly African-American casts, more than any other network on television. Overnight, the CW may potentially wipe out that window into the black community, which would be a blow to African-Americans like Eaton, a52-year-old who watches ''Girl-friends" and ''Half & Half."

''I just don't see the black experience reflected much on any other networks," he said.

Although CW officials aren't talking yet about their 2006-07 schedule, it has been widely predicted that Chris Rock's sitcom ''Everybody Hates Chris" and the Tyra Banks reality show ''America's Next Top Model" will survive, along with ''Veronica Mars," ''Smallville," ''Beauty and the Geek," ''Gilmore Girls," and WWE's ''Smackdown."

Seven African-American-focused programs on UPN may be destined for the history books: ''One on One," ''All of Us," ''Cuts," ''Eve," Half & Half," ''Love, Inc.," and ''Girlfriends."

Jannette Dates, dean of the School of Communications at Howard University, called the potential cancellations a ''travesty" because the black middle class already isn't represented much on television, she said.

''Sure, some of those shows were silly sitcom fare, but at least they tried to dive into issues that other shows never touched. 'All of Us' just had a [black] male character confronted with the fact that his son wanted to use the 'n' word. They explored why that was such a moment of tension for everybody."

J. Anthony Brown is a Los Angeles-based comedian who has appeared in a number of sitcoms featuring all-black casts in recent years, including ''Like Family," ''Martin," ''The Hughleys," and ''The Parkers." All of them have been canceled. He called the future ''bleak" for black actors striving to make it on sitcoms.

''Many of these UPN shows have all black actors, black writers, black producers, black camera people. If those shows are canceled, where are those people going to go?" he said.

On TV, ratings -- not race -- are the bottom line, and the reality is that both UPN and the WB, which launched one week apart in 1995, have struggled to create hits.

Last fall, UPN heavily marketed ''Everybody Hates Chris," but the show has averaged about 4.3 million viewers this season. Those are good numbers by UPN standards but not enough to save the network. Likewise, the WB -- which was once a hot spot for teens who watched ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and ''Dawson's Creek" -- has averaged 4.7 million viewers for ''Smallville" and 4.6 million viewers for ''Gilmore Girls."

CBS Corp., which owns UPN, announced in January that it was joining forces with Warner Bros. Entertainment, which owns the WB, to create the CW. By combining their most popular shows on the same channel and launching new series, they hope to create a stronger network.

If the CW does walk away from African-American-themed programming, it won't be the first network to do so. Both Fox and the WB also embraced those types of shows in the '90s when they were young networks (Fox had ''Martin" and ''In Living Color," the WB had ''The Parent 'Hood" and ''Sister, Sister"). Eventually, they moved on to series with broader appeal.

Beginning in 1996, UPN began filling that niche with shows like ''Moesha" and later ''Malcolm & Eddie." The network's current lineup includes ''Girlfriends," a show about the lives of four professional African-American women; ''Eve," which stars the Grammy Award-winning hip-hop artist as a fashion designer whose love life needs work; and ''All of Us," which is inspired by the life of actor Will Smith and his wife, Jada Pinkett Smith.

BET, the cable network dedicated to African-Americans, is a logical place to expect development going forward. Reginald Hudlin, the newly installed head of programming at BET, said he will be ''ecstatic" if UPN abandons its sitcoms.

''If I was still a producer, I would be frustrated," he said. ''Now that I'm a programmer, I say thank you. I will gladly take that audience. They will free up millions of eyeballs to watch BET."

BET, however, has no plans to produce traditional sitcoms in the immediate future. Instead, the network is producing celebrity-based reality shows, talk shows, and some animated programming.

Robert Thompson, the director of the Center for the Study of Popular Television at Syracuse University, said at least one show -- ''Everybody Hates Chris" -- may benefit from being recast on a higher-profile network.

''I think the CW will bring it a much larger audience," he said. ''If it became a real hit, who knows? It could inspire more shows. Before that happens, though, we're faced with the annihilation of an entire programming type.

''They may not have been the greatest shows ever made," he added. ''But at least they covered different territory than all those interchangeable sitcoms on the big networks."

For Eaton, Monday nights won't be the same without his beloved ''Girlfriends" and ''Half & Half."

''I probably won't watch TV," he said.

http://www.boston.com/ae/tv/articles/2006/05/10/black_sitcoms_may_lose_home?mode=PF

Army Officials Won't Attend Screening of HBO Documentary on Baghdad Hospital

By EDWARD WYATT


Senior Army officials have scaled back their planned participation in an advance screening of a coming HBO documentary about an Army Combat Support Hospital in Baghdad because of fears that the graphic footage could demoralize soldiers and their families and negatively affect public opinion about the war, Army officials said Friday.


Right, just lie to us and keep the truth from us, that's always a good thing...


(Fred, I just couldn't let that one go by without comment...sorry)

To be honest, I winced -- a little -- when I saw harley's post.

It is more than a little off topic.

But then, who am I to complain about being off topic? :)

Critic’s Notebook
Unlikely pairing: WB, UPN tie knot

By Chuck Barney Contra Costa Times TV critic Sat, May. 13, 2006

The arranged marriage between UPN and The WB, which will result in one strangely named network -- The CW -- next fall, throws together a pair of oddly disparate mates who otherwise never would have been caught dead together.

For more than a decade, the two so-called "netlets" not only were vicious rivals, but they also ran in totally different social circles. The WB was the knockout babe -- or hot hunk -- everyone wanted to be seen with at parties. Meanwhile, UPN was the bumbling little geek who kept finding ways to embarrass himself in public.

Yes, that's a broad generalization (there were times when UPN outshone its rival), but reputations have a way of sticking. The WB, after all, spawned "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Dawson's Creek," and was a major force in shaping America's youth culture. And while UPN did earn kudos for catering to African-American audiences, it largely will be remembered as a wildly spastic entity that gave the world cheesy "Star Trek" makeovers, bogus wrestling and a freak show called "Chains of Love."

In the end, though, both part-time networks shared a fatal flaw: Try as they might, they couldn't consistently generate profits, much less big-league ratings. And so, it seems, they really do need each other.

By combining forces, their backers hope to form a major network that will stand tall in a crowded TV universe. The first step in that quest comes on Thursday when CW bigwigs present their new fall schedule to advertisers in New York. The lineup is expected to feature a blend of the most popular holdouts from The WB and UPN (think "Gilmore Girls" paired with "Veronica Mars"), as well as a few fresh offerings that will be targeted at teens and young adults.

But there's also a downside to the consolidation: A number of established shows won't make the cut, and consequently, certain viewers -- mainly African-Americans -- will lose out. Currently, UPN airs eight sitcoms largely made up of black actors, more than any other network. Speculation has it that seven of those shows -- "One on One," "All of Us," "Cuts," "Eve," Half & Half," "Love, Inc." and "Girlfriends" -- are considered to be on the "bubble." The lone exception is Chris Rock's comedy, "Everybody Hates Chris."

A trip back in time reveals that both The WB and UPN initially embraced minorities in an attempt to find their niche. Following the early playbook of Fox, The WB offered shows such as "The Parent 'Hood" and "Sister, Sister" and introduced America to Jamie Foxx and Steve Harvey. Among UPN's early crops were "Moesha" and the infamous "Homeboys in Outer Space."

But just as Fox did, The WB eventually moved toward shows with broader appeal among young audiences. By the 1998-99 season, the achingly overwrought melodrama "Dawson's Creek" was a sensation among the teen viewers coveted by advertisers, as was the offbeat "Buffy" and the piercing freshman drama "Felicity."

In addition, The WB was proving, with the robust hit "7th Heaven," that there still was a market for wholesome family programming. Suddenly The WB was being perceived as the hip destination, despite a dubious decision to deploy a frog from a 1956 cartoon as its mascot.

Meanwhile, despite early success with "Star Trek: Voyager," UPN didn't seem to know what it wanted to be. At one point, it dropped its full-family ambitions in favor of a narrower young-male audience, while simultaneously trying to court minority viewers.

That move paid off in "WWF Smackdown!" a weekly dose of pro wrestling that instantly became UPN's top-ranked program even as it was being thrashed by cultural watchdogs for its toxic brew of violence and vulgarity. So desperate was UPN that it was willing to sell its soul for a sniff of ratings success.

But occasionally the odor was horrendous. The fall of '99 delivered "Shasta McNasty," a downright dreadful sitcom about a hip-hop group. And later came the bizarre reality series "Chains of Love," which attempted to mix romance with incarceration by literally shackling a group of potential mates together. Critics and viewers alike were appalled.

Things got so bad for UPN that detractors gleefully searched for new ways to deride its call letters. The network became known as the "Utterly Pointless Network" or the "Used Parts Network" -- the latter a reference to UPN's penchant for latching onto hand-me-down programs ("Buffy," "Roswell," "The Hughleys") from other networks when its own cupboard ran bare.

But few public relations blunders could top "The Secret Diary of Desmond Pfeiffer," a 1998 UPN sitcom about the fictional black butler of Abraham Lincoln. Tasteless and bawdy, the show drew the wrath of the NAACP and, mercifully, was axed in less than a month.

"Pfeiffer" proved to be a low point in UPN's up-and-down relations with black audiences. The network, over the years, has received justifiable praise for featuring black actors more prominently than any other broadcaster (see: "Girlfriends," "Everybody Hates Chris" and "Eve"). But critics, including "Boondocks" creator Aaron McGruder, also have taken UPN to task for a preponderance of low-rent sitcoms that dabble in broad humor and racial stereotypes.

Not that The WB could boast of a great track record when it came to diversity. In its relentless quest for youth cred, the network stocked its shows -- especially the dramas -- to the brim with young and gorgeous people, turning them into instant heartthrobs. Trouble was, The WB's idea of beauty seldom extended to minorities. The slight, in effect, closed the doors to a large chunk of America.

In recent years, fewer people have bothered to knock on The WB's doors anyway. America's youth, it turns out, are a fickle bunch, and the network's formula for drama success (brooding self-absorbed hotties + coming-of-age angst = Nielsen success) apparently has worn thin. Not since "Gilmore Girls" (2000) and "Smallville" (2001) has The WB produced a truly buzz-laden drama. As for WB sitcoms, well, don't make us laugh.

In television, such mediocrity will quickly get you fired, and so it wasn't all that surprising last year when The WB took an ax to its poor, strung-out frog -- as if that would suddenly alter the karma. In his defense, it should be pointed out that the frog was in no way responsible for "Living With Fran."

Surprisingly, it's UPN -- with no amphibious mascot to speak of -- that has developed more traction in recent years. Shows such as "Everyone Hates Chris" and "Veronica Mars" have been embraced by critics, and the reality franchise "America's Next Top Model" is a legitimate phenomenon. Still, it's not enough to bolster an entire network. And it's not enough to dislodge a long-entrenched inferiority complex. That's why UPN and The WB are tying the knot.

'Til death -- and/or really bad programming -- do them part.

http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/entertainment/columnists/chuck_barney/14565431.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp

TV Notebook
Taking 'Wing'

Just before ''The West Wing'' ends its seven-year run, series creator Aaron Sorkin tells Lynette Rice of EW.com about how it started

Before it airs the final episode of The West Wing this Sunday, NBC will celebrate the drama's seven-year run by first airing the pilot episode introducing the men and women who made up the Bartlet Administration. (A few fun facts from that inaugural hour: Martin Sheen's Jed Bartlet wasn't introduced until the last few minutes of the episode, and Janel Moloney's Donna Moss was never meant to be more than just a small, recurring character.) In preparation for this Sunday's two-hour event, we asked Wing creator Aaron Sorkin to reflect on the show's humble beginnings.

''The idea for The West Wing happened very much by accident. It never occurred to me to try to write a TV show. I had nothing against it — I just didn't know anything about it. I watched as much TV as anybody else, but I just didn't know anything about the world of making TV shows. My agent nonetheless wanted me to meet with John Wells, which I was happy to do because John was an important producer who had done ER and China Beach.

''The night before this meeting with John, some friends came to my house for dinner, including Akiva Goldsmith, who won an Oscar for directing A Beautiful Mind. I happened to mention I was having the meeting the next day with Wells, but said we were just having lunch to talk; I wasn't thinking about TV. At some point Akiva and I wandered into a little office I had, and the poster for The American President [which Sorkin wrote] was up on the wall. And he said, 'You know what would make an interesting TV series? That. Forget about the romance between the president and the lobbyist, and just sort of write it about the senior staffers.' I said, 'Akiva, that's a good idea, but I'm not doing a TV show. I'm just having this lunch with John.'

''So I showed up to the lunch the next day and I clearly misunderstood what the lunch was supposed to be about, because I walked into the restaurant and saw that it was John, three guys from CAA, and people from Warner Bros. who were expecting me to pitch an idea. Rather than say, 'Um, you know, I think there has been a misunderstanding' and say I didn't have any ideas to pitch, I said, 'I want to do a TV show about senior staffers at the White House.'

''There weren't a lot of questions because I was kind of spitballing, making it up as I went along. I didn't have a pitch prepared. What I did have was some tiny moments and little shards of stories I had to cut from the screenplay of The American President, or little stories I heard at the White House while researching the movie. Warner Bros. didn't ask for much in terms of 'Will it be this or that' — they just let me go away and write, which is always a really nice thing to do. Most of my time spent writing something is spent walking around the room not writing. Once I have an idea to start, it will start going very fast. The typing of the script I probably did in about five days, but there were a couple of months of not writing it, and just being scared of it. I beat Akiva up. I couldn't believe what he got me into.

'[Director and fellow executive producer] Tommy Schlamme was able to recognize right away that what I write, nothing is blowing up. Basically what I write are people in a room talking — but we are doing this in a visual medium. Tommy brought in the more talked-about visual elements of the show, like Steadicams and the walk-and-talks, which some people call pedi-conferencing. Tommy put a lot of glass on the set. In real life, the Roosevelt room doesn't have glass in the doors; it's a room with walls. But Tommy put it in glass right in middle of things, across from the communications bullpen where Toby and Sam worked, which is also enclosed in glass, so you can have a scene going on in Leo McGarry's office, and if the door is open, Tommy's camera can see out in the corridor, out into the Roosevelt room, across to the other corridor into bullpen, where all this kind of life is going on, while Leo and Josh are talking about soybean exports. It gave the show an extremely exciting look despite the fact that nobody was shooting at anybody.

''I didn't allow myself to think it would have the kind of success that it enjoyed over the last seven years, critically and publicly. I think the thoughts going through my head were the thoughts that always go through the head, which is I try to write something that I like that I think my friends are going to like, and then I cross my fingers and hope enough other people were going to like it so I'll earn a living from it. And I don't think that far beyond that.

''I remember at the first Television Critics Association press conference — and at this point critics had seen the pilot — I was getting questions like, 'Do you think this is too smart for network TV?' I'm not capable of writing something that is too smart for other people to understand. I felt like these were fun stories. I didn't have a political agenda, it wasn't meant to be angry in any way, and I didn't ever think of it as political. I thought of it as a workplace drama in an extremely exciting and interesting workplace. There was glamour — this was a place you could tell a lot of different stories.

''For thousands of years, people have been writing stories about kings and their palaces. Let's just do one that is our modern-day equivalent. Finally, the thing that appealed to me was that in popular culture, by and large, our leaders are portrayed as Machiavellian or dolts. I like to write idealistically and romantically. I thought, Let's write about government leaders who are extremely capable, who are trying to do the right thing but who fail sometimes. People who are flawed, but whose hearts are always in the right place. And let's make them all funny.

''As a matter of course, they don't tell you you are picked up until 24, maybe 48 hours before the upfront presentation [where the networks unveil their fall schedules to advertisers] in New York City in May. When I heard that West Wing got a pickup, there was no question that 99.9 percent of me was jumping for joy, but that one-tenth of 1 percent was saying, 'I have no ideas for episode 2 and I have to write another one now. This is going to be a catastrophe.'

''I remember the first time we screened it for the cast — there was a feeling of, 'Well, we did a great pilot, but we're not going to be able to do this every week. What will become of the show now?' There was a sense of pride that a great pilot had been made, but isn't it a shame that now it's going to turn into a bad TV show. And yet these guys all came back every week determined to make every episode as good as our best episode. And they kept it up for seven years.''

http://www.ew.com/ew/report/0,6115,1193722_3_0_,00.html

Critic’s Notebook
Nothing middling about 'Malcolm' season finale

By David Kronke Los Angeles Daily News Television Critic

NBC declined to provide the "West Wing" finale for preview, but just as "Malcolm" fans will always have syndication, I have one last chance to appreciate the show, since Fox did provide a screener.

Tonight, Malcolm (Frankie Muniz, a long way from the little cherub that began the series) is preparing to go to Harvard — "my dream school," he explains; "it's 2,000 miles away from Mom." Finding the cash to pay his tuition, however, is another story, as is the stress of composing his valedictory speech.

Meanwhile, Reese (Justin Berfield) actually looks forward to becoming an assistant janitor at the high school from which he's about to graduate. But since his job security is tenuous, at best, he plots to create a horrific mess that'll prove his mettle with his employers.

This results, naturally, in one of those spectacular gross-out gags that "Malcolm" creator Linwood Boomer was so adept at devising, almost Rube Goldberg-like. It comes a little too early in the episode, leaving a swatch at episode's end for a little sentimentality — but not too much, of course, since any family with parents like Lois (Kaczmarek) and Hal (Bryan Cranston) has little use for treacle.

Malcolm discovers tonight that his family expects nothing less from him than his becoming President. But

here's expecting something much better than that in the future from the sundry talents who made "Malcolm" such an enduringly wacky kick.

http://www.dailynews.com/entertainment/ci_3821720

TV Notebook
Sunday’s season finales

7:30 PM ET/PT
'King of the Hill' (FOX)

8 PM ET/PT
'Survivor: Exile Island' (CBS)
'The West Wing' (NBC)

8:30 PM ET/PT
'Malcolm in the Middle' (FOX)

9 PM ET/PT
'Law & Order: Criminal Intent' (NBC)
'The Surreal Life' (VH1)

9:30 PM ET/PT
'American Dad' (FOX)

10 PM ET/PT
'Grey's Anatomy,' Part I (ABC) (Concludes with a two-hour special tomorrow night at 9 PM ET/PT)
'So NoTORIous' (VH1)

Critic’s Notebook
Farewell to the 'Wing'

NBC's political drama bows out after seven seasons
By Alan Sepinwall Newark Star-Ledger Sunday, May 14, 2006

"The West Wing" (Tonight at 8 PM ET/PT NBC) On Inauguration Day, Bartlet says goodbye and Santos says hello to the Oval Office in the series finale.

It'll never work, they said. No one wants to watch a political drama, they said. And even if they do, they added, you'll have to make every issue so simplified and middle-of-the-road to avoid baffling half the audience and offending the other half. Seriously, why bother?

The "they" in question weren't just the NBC executives who sat on Aaron Sorkin's "West Wing" pilot script for two years, convinced it would never fly. No, they included every cynic in the TV business who had shot down political series ideas in the past, and who all thought NBC was making a colossal mistake when they finally scheduled "West Wing" in the fall of 1999.

Whoops.

While the series that's ending tonight at 8 is a shell of its former self, for a few glorious years there at the turn of the millennium, it suggested the start of a New Frontier in television, an age when the best and the brightest could not only get on the air, but find a huge, adoring audience.

Much of the credit for that goes to Sorkin, a veteran playwright who had already warmed up for the material with his script for the Michael Douglas movie "The American President."

The year before, Sorkin had broken into TV with "Sports Night," a dramedy set behind the scenes at an ESPN-style cable network. Directed by Sorkin's future "Wing" man Tommy Schlamme, "Sports Night" featured many of the elements that would become familiar staples on the NBC show: warp speed banter being delivered on the move, flowery monologues and a sense of boundless optimism about what humans can accomplish when they give their best effort.

But the 30-minute quasi-sitcom format felt restrictive for both Sorkin and Schlamme. Just as each episode seemed to be building a head of steam, it was time for the closing credits. And while Schlamme's camera glided through the "Sports Night" set, the confined setting (characters were rarely seen outside the office) didn't let him really show off his visual sense.

That all changed with "The West Wing," which was twice as long and 10 times as ambitious. Sorkin brought his theatrical flair and Schlamme a cinematic eye to create a grand entertainment.

Consider the pilot episode, which NBC is rerunning tonight at 7 (and which will no doubt make the finale suffer badly in comparison). For the first three quarters of the hour, Sheen's President Bartlet is nowhere to be seen, referred to mostly in jokes about how he just crashed his bicycle into a tree. Then, as the hour is winding down, we see two top advisors, Richard Schiff's Toby and Bradley Whitford's Josh, in a shouting match with a group of fundamentalist Christians, including but not limited to a debate over the order of the Ten Commandments. When one of the fundamentalists asks what the First Commandment actually says, a door opens and in limps Bartlet, his voice booming, "I am the Lord your God. Thou shalt worship no other God before me." Then he flashes a grin and says, "Boy, those were the days, huh?"

Entrance lines don't get much better than that, do they?

The Bartlet-as-God theme popped up again in the series' tour de force episode, Season Two's finale "Two Cathedrals." Bartlet's beloved assistant Mrs. Landingham has died in a car crash after purchasing the first new car of her long life, and Bartlet -- already in a lather about a deadly storm and the public revelation that he had covered up his Multiple Sclerosis -- orders the National Cathedral cleared and locked so he can have a few choice words with the Almightly, including "feckless thug" and "son of a bitch." After some more angry ranting (much of it in Latin), he smokes a cigarette and grinds it into the floor of the cathedral out of spite. As the man vs. deity match ends with Bartlet's exit, Schlamme's camera soars up to the stained-glass window, which looks at that moment like the eye of God passing silent judgment on his most powerful subject.

The show didn't reach those Shakespearean heights on a weekly basis, but in the first couple of years, Sorkin, Schlamme and company elevated both the scope of what you could accomplish in a network drama and the level of political discourse on television.

In an early episode, "Mr. Willis of Ohio," speechwriter Sam (Rob Lowe) tutors press secretary C.J. (Janney) on the finer details of the census, while Josh and his assistant Donna (Janel Maloney) argue about what the government should do with a budget surplus; Josh wants to reinvest it in federal programs, while Donna wants a tax refund so she can buy a DVD player.

In discussing those issues, Sorkin found a way to lay them out in plain English without condescending to the audience, and did a more thorough job of explaining them than TV news had when the real White House dealt with each one. The episode's popularity emboldened Sorkin, who had his characters debate increasingly complex issues of the day while challenging the audience to keep up.

The Sorkin years had a clear left-wing slant, and there were times when he leaned too far. The fundamentalists from the pilot were cartoons, and as Bartlet's simple-minded re-election opponent, James Brolin was playing a straw man version of George W. Bush. But if conservatives couldn't stand the show, the fantasy of a Democratic leader with Bill Clinton's political savvy and Jimmy Carter's brains and ethics was so intoxicating to liberals that it didn't matter. The show's big early ratings proved that you could, in fact, alienate half the audience and still do well.

In those years, Sorkin was either writing or rewriting every episode, and the strain started to show. The MS storyline began as a throwaway excuse for a scene he wanted to write with Bartlet watching a daytime soap. When someone pointed out after the fact that a sitting president hiding a serious medical condition would be kind of a big deal, Sorkin turned it into a Monica-gate allegory that dragged the show down for most of its third season.

The positive press about the show as weekly civics lesson got to Sorkin's head when he wrote season four's "Isaac and Ishmael," a clumsy instant response to 9/11 that may as well have been called "Please, Why Do They Hate Us, Mr. Sorkin?"

Sorkin eventually got so far behind in delivering finished scripts that NBC and producer John Wells, trying to control the budget, pushed him out the door at the end of the fourth season (Schlamme quit in solidarity). So he left them a nasty parting gift: a season finale that ended with Bartlet's daughter kidnapped by terrorists, Bartlet recusing himself from office and the Republican Speaker of the House in charge of the country.

Sorkin had so thoroughly painted the show into a corner that it took Wells months to find his way out. Where Sorkin refused to listen to NBC execs' pleas for more political balance, Wells was all too eager to try, though this usually meant having the main characters snapping at each other (or, in one particularly low moment, a drunk Josh yelling "You want a piece of me?" at the Capitol building) and the Republican-controlled Congress defeating one administration initiative after another. The Sorkin years may have been too much of a fantasy, but this was too depressingly real.

But near the end of his first season at the helm, Wells hit upon a new fantasy -- a bipartisan one.

In "The Supremes," a Supreme Court justice dies suddenly, and team Bartlet realizes the only candidate who will get approved in this antagonistic climate will be a bland moderate with no convictions of any kind. While taking token meetings with a liberal judge (Glenn Close) with a long paper trail of pro-choice rulings and a conservative (William Fichtner) with well-articulated legal reasons for disagreeing with all of Close's positions, Josh decides he'd rather have two intelligent extremes than one inoffensive blank, so he hatches a crazy scheme. The administration talks the liberal-but-senile Chief Justice into retiring, then convinces the Republicans to accept a package deal: Close as the new Chief, but Fichtner, too.

It was even more implausible than almost anything in the Sorkin years, but the idea behind it was appealing: What would government be like if we could strip away all the cheap shots, all the ideological gamesmanship and angry rhetoric, and just debate the issues in a smart, respectful fashion?

With an eye on continuing the series past the end of the Bartlet administration, Wells introduced two presidential candidates: Jimmy Smits as Matt Santos, a hawkish congressman with a military background and devout Catholic (read: pro-life) beliefs; and Alan Alda as Arnold Vinick, a pro-choice, agnostic senior senator. The twist was that Santos was the Democrat, Vinick the Republican.

In the real world, neither would get within spitting distance of their party's nomination, but Wells and his writers made smart use of the role reversal, particularly using the fiscally conservative, socially moderate Vinick as a kind of anti-Bush. (Pundits joked he was a Republican only Democrats could love.) After Santos won the election, he even made Vinick his Secretary of State to keep Wells' bipartisan dream alive.

The rocky start to the Wells era chased away a good chunk of the audience, and this year's move to Sundays got rid of almost everyone else in the process. "K Street," HBO's cinema verite series about Washington lobbyists, came and went in an eyeblink. And ABC's own presidential fantasy, the Geena Davis drama "Commander in Chief," opened strongly this fall before Sorkin-esque backstage turmoil and ham-fisted writing sent the show into Nielsen free-fall.

But in keeping with the spirit of hope that buoyed the first few seasons, don't assume that their success was an aberration, that the public at large has no interest in fictional politicians. Instead, choose to think that any concept, if told with the artistry and brains of the Sorkin/Schlamme years, could find an audience. To paraphrase one of the show's inspirations, it's the writing, stupid.

http://www.nj.com/printer/printer.ssf?/base/columns-0/1147581096316100.xml&coll=1

Critic’s Notebook
Remembering the best of the 'West'

By Alan Sepinwall Newark Star-Ledger Sunday, May 14, 2006

Ten (give or take a few) classic "West Wing" episodes, in chronological order:

• "Pilot": While President Bartlet (Martin Sheen) gets the best introduction, the entire hour is a perfect warp-speed immersion into a world the audience barely understood but would grow to love.

• "The Crackpots and These Women": It's time for Big Block of Cheese Day, when Leo (John Spencer), aping Andrew Jackson's practice of opening the White House to the public once a month, orders the senior staff to take meetings with anyone who wants one, including a UFO nut and a group of conservationists who want to build an 1,800-mile-long roadway for wolves. One of the show's most populist (and amusing) running gags.

• "In Excelsis Deo," "Noel" and "Bartlet for America": Yes, I'm cheating. Sue me. These three are all of a piece as part of Sorkin's tradition of tailoring the Christmas episode to one of his supporting actors, winning the guy an Emmy in the process. In the first, Toby (Richard Schiff) tries to arrange a military funeral for a homeless veteran who died while wearing one of Toby's old coats. In the second, Josh (Bradley Whitford) has to see a shrink when the shooting from the Season One finale leaves him with a bad case of PTSD. In the third, Leo flashes back to how he recruited Bartlet to run for president, and to a fall off the wagon he suffered during the campaign. Three great actors with great showcases.

• "Take This Sabbath Day": On the eve of the first execution of a federal prisoner in decades, Bartlet tries to balance his Catholic beliefs with his responsibility as president. Aside from "Two Cathedrals," it's arguably Sheen's best performance.

• "In the Shadow of Two Gunmen, Parts One and Two": The shooting of Josh and Bartlet at the end of Season One was the first of several jarringly sensational missteps (see also Mark Harmon's doomed Secret Service agent in season three), but the flashbacks to how Bartlet's inner circle came together on the campaign trail are wonderful. If Rob Lowe had added nothing else to the series, his presence would have been worth it for the inspired look on his face as Sam literally walks out on his corporate law partners to join the campaign.

• "And It's Surely to Their Credit": In one of Sorkin's few attempts to humanize the opposition, feisty Republican lawyer Ainsley Hayes (Emily Procter) suffers a day of hazing as she joins the White House counsel's office -- and finds that her own workspace is in something called "the steam pipe trunk distribution venue." A very funny episode and a good outsider's view of the world the audience knew so well.

• "The Stackhouse Filibuster": For mysterious reasons, an elderly senator stages a prolonged filibuster to block a seemingly innocuous administration bill. When the staff discovers the very personal reason the senator has for the stunt -- and realizes he's on the verge of collapse -- they call in chits from senators on both sides of the aisle to keep the filibuster going long enough to get the bill changed to everyone's liking. Sorkin never hid his love of Frank Capra, but this is the most obvious, best homage.

• "17 People": Toby figures out that the president is hiding something, and when Leo tells him about the MS cover-up, Toby guilts the president into coming up with a plan to reveal the secret. The opening scene, with Toby doing nothing but bouncing a rubber ball against the wall in his office, "Great Escape"-style, is a rare example of a TV show just stopping to watch someone think.

• "Two Cathedrals": The scene everyone remembers is Bartlet's verbal smackdown of God, but the entire episode is a masterpiece of writing, acting, directing, editing, even music (the final scene, with Bartlet traveling through a storm to publicly confess his sins, is scored beautifully to Dire Straits' "Brothers in Arms"). As epic an hour of drama as network television has ever seen.

• "2162 Votes": With three candidates splitting the votes too evenly for any of them to get the nomination -- and with a fourth candidate swooping in and trying to get nominated from the floor -- the Democratic National Convention descends into chaos. Asked to bow out for the good of the party, Santos (Jimmy Smits) delivers a concession speech so eloquent and moving that Bartlet goes to bat for him, getting Santos the nod -- with Leo a surprise choice to run for VP. Along with "The Supremes," the highlight of the Wells era.

http://www.nj.com/printer/printer.ssf?/base/columns-0/1147581096316100.xml&coll=1

Critic’s Notebook
Who is Frank Tripp, really?

By Kevin D. Thompson Palm Beach Post Television Writer Sunday, May 14, 2006

Rex Linn may play a tough crime scene investigator on CSI: Miami, but he could never be one in real life.

"We romanticize the job a lot on the show," says Linn, who plays sarcastic detective Frank Tripp. "But it's tricky work. And it's gross. I couldn't handle it. The good thing for me is that I get to play the smart-aleck cop. I don't have to (deal with) much DNA, saliva or blood."

But in one episode in the second season, Linn did have to deal with the bullet-riddled body of a 17-year-old boy found at a cemetery.

It wasn't pretty.

"The kid had maggots all over his face and mouth and ears," Linn drawls in a Texas twang as thick as A-1 steak sauce. "Real ones, too. That was the grossest thing I've seen on the show and I couldn't get my lines out. I just burst into laughter. (Star) David (Caruso) goes, 'Do you find maggots on someone's head humorous?' And this poor kid, he wasn't digging the whole thing with the maggots. We did about seven or eight takes."

Viewers know very little about Tripp. Neither does Linn, who was originally hired for one episode in the first season but who wound up becoming a series regular this year. Two seasons ago we learned Tripp's marriage was on the rocks when his wife hired some hussy to pick him up at a bar. (Tripp didn't go for it, though.) Since then Linn has taken that small story thread a bit further.

He stopped wearing his wedding ring on the show.

"I decided I'm divorced," he says.

OK, the problem is, Linn didn't tell anyone about his decision — including the writers. "One of our producers said, 'Where's your ring,' " Linn recalls, smiling devilishly. "I said, 'I'm divorced.' And she goes, 'You're what?' I said, 'My wife hired someone (to pick me up) and that's unacceptable, so I moved out and got an apartment.' Nothing was ever said after that."

Caruso, however, had a lot to say in keeping the veteran character actor who has appeared in such films as Cliffhanger, Rush Hour and Clear and Present Danger, on the show.

"David was a big supporter of mine," says Linn. "Our chemistry is really good. We're pretty opposite, but whatever's happening, I think it works."

So, does Linn ever wonder what Horatio and Tripp do after work?

"They dine out," he reasons. "They love eating. They eat a big steak dinner and talk shop."

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/tv/content/entertainment/arts_entertainment/epaper/2006/05/14/a4j_TRIPP_0514.html

Critic’s Notebook
President's hold on network TV may be slipping

Commentary By Phil Rosenthal Chicago Tribune Media Columnist Published May 14, 2006

White House advisers long have comforted themselves knowing mankind's greatest sales tool was theirs for the asking.

A president requests TV time from the networks and--voila--direct access to the nation's living rooms.

But as TVs have spread to other parts of the house, the White House's grip on the networks, like the networks' hold on viewers, is loosening.

CBS and ABC said Friday they would not decide until sometime Monday whether to interrupt their scheduled prime-time lineups that night to present live coverage of President Bush's 7 p.m. Oval Office speech.

Bush ostensibly wants to use the TV time to further his push for immigration reforms. If it happens to get people to stop talking about the government's burgeoning telephone database, that might be OK, too.

NBC and Fox plan to air the speech in traditional fashion. It's the president. The speech isn't long. Programs can be shuffled. No biggie.

Even though this is the critical May ratings period, which helps establish ad rates, ABC (which has "Oprah Winfrey's Legends Ball" on tap) and CBS probably will fall in line as well.

But what if they didn't?

We've come close before, until the networks' resolve frayed one by one, and it now seems virtually certain that, at some point, some network is going to balk when a president asks for airtime unless it's absolutely clear that real news is going to be made.

With so many other outlets carrying the speech over the air, on cable and online, it's tough to argue viewers who wanted to hear Bush make his case would be unable to do so.

It's not as though every radio station carries every Saturday presidential address and, as viewing choices multiply and audiences splinter, TV is becoming more like radio every day.

Stations are still required to serve the public interest, but does the public want more viewing choices or less? All the other longstanding traditions of broadcasting are falling by the wayside. This one will too.

It will start with a network leaving the decision to run a presidential address at the discretion of local management, making the speech available while airing its regular shows nationally. The speech can run on a station's Web site and, when digital TV makes it possible, on a secondary channel.

It might not happen this week or even with this president, but a network someday will hold its ground--and its airtime--taking short-term criticism until everyone shrugs and accepts it, forcing leaders of the future to come up with new ways to convey agendas.

Maybe they'll try telemarketing. They've reportedly got the numbers.

Dead wood:

When I heard about the bagel ban, I'll admit I snickered a little.

When I heard about "Deadwood," suddenly it wasn't so funny.

It's OK if HBO wants to discontinue free Friday bagels at its Manhattan offices because it breaches the network's newly enforced catering limits, as revealed in a memo on Gawker.com.

But man does not live on bread alone, and the Shakespeare-Mamet mash that is David Milch's brilliant "Deadwood" is this man's meat and potatoes. So HBO's confirmation it has let the contracts of the show's cast lapse, imperiling a fourth season even as we await the June 11 debut of its third, is tough to swallow.

Here is HBO, long said to be one of the most profitable units of financially challenged Time Warner, suddenly nickel-and-diming.

To quote "Deadwood" saloon-keeper Al Swearengen ... well, I can't quote Al Swearengen here, but he'd be upset.

An HBO spokeswoman said the network has not ruled out a fourth season and conversations continue but conceded the need to re-sign the cast would make it difficult.

She said creator Milch is focusing more on another HBO series, the surfing show "John From Cincinnati," though Milch gave no indication of this in a recent Boston Globe story in which he said he would like to leave "Deadwood" after its fourth season.

The audience for "Deadwood" isn't big, but it's been loyal, and affinity has always counted as much as popularity in keeping subscribers happy.

Maybe Time Warner isn't that different from Tony Soprano. No matter how much is in the envelopes, the boss wants more, which is why HBO is now reining in workplace catering--staffers now must pony up for their own birthday cakes--and setting up the loss of one of its greatest assets.

Guess it's not TV. It's like your office.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/columnists/chi-0605130265may14,0,5663711.column

Critic’s Notebook
Networks jam May sweeps with beloved series' finales

Mark Dawidziak Cleveland Plain Dealer Television Critic Sunday, May 14, 2006

I was getting a tad worried about Hollywood couple Jane Kaczmarek and Bradley Whitford. Think of the income hit this household is taking.

The farewell episode of Kazcmarek's Fox comedy, "Malcolm in the Middle," airs at 8:30 tonight on WJW Channel 8. Her husband's NBC drama, "The West Wing," has its series finale at 8 p.m. on WKYC Channel 3.

Both shows are calling it quits after seven seasons. But I felt a trifle better when I learned Whitford has a key role in "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip," a backstage television drama from "West Wing" executive producers Aaron Sorkin and Thomas Schlamme.

NBC reveals its fall lineup Monday, but network programmers already have announced that "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip" will be on it. Also in the cast are "Friends" star Matthew Perry, Amanda Peet, Sarah Paulson, D.L. Hughley, Timothy Busfield, Steven Weber and Evan Handler.

Still, before Whitford moves from "The West Wing" to that new "Sunset Strip" address, there's the little matter of saying goodbye to his acclaimed White House drama and his wife's maniacally mirthful series. Sounds like a plan? Well, you're going to need a plan to make this double date with Kaczmarek and Whitford.

If you hadn't noticed, the "Malcolm in the Middle" finale airs against the second half of the "West Wing" farewell, so viewers might feel as if they're the ones in the middle. They are.

Like Kaczmarek and Whitford, they are in the middle of the May sweeps war. This is when ratings determine how much local stations can charge for advertising. This is when the networks make their last and loudest bids to rack up ratings before the TV season reaches its official conclusion.

And some of the biggest guns get rolled out tonight. Tough choices? The "Malcolm" vs. "The West Wing" matchup is only one intriguing aspect of this prime-time battle royale.

Whitford's wily Josh Lyman and Kaczmarek's notoriously outspoken Lois don't like to lose, and the same can be said of their networks. Sure, it would be nice if one of these networks made allowances for seven seasons of valiant service by two likable, dependable, talented players who, by the way, are married. It would be nice if one of them adjusted the schedule ever so slightly, just to avoid "Malcolm" taking its last bow at the same time as "The West Wing."

But these guys aren't in the business of being nice. Sentiment doesn't go out the window during the May sweeps - it was never in the room.

So this will be the most hotly contested night of the May sweeps. Although the season still has another week and a half to go, you won't find another logjam quite as impressive as this one.

From 7 to 8 p.m., NBC will set up the final episode of "The West Wing" by rebroadcasting the show's very first episode. Fox counters at 7:30 p.m. with the 10th-season finale for "King of the Hill." Tom Petty provides a guest voice for the episode about Peggy helping Lucky study for the high school equivalency certificate test.

At 8 p.m. on WOIO Channel 19, CBS enters the fray with the two-hour season finale of "Survivor: Panama - Exile Island." It will be followed by the inevitable reunion show at 10 p.m.

The Fox competition at 8 p.m. is an episode of "The Simpsons," with Larry Hagman providing the voice of a lawyer pouring kerosene over fiery arguments about creationism and evolution. So Martin Sheen's outgoing "West Wing" president, Jed Bartlet, will be caught between "Survivor" host Jeff Probst and J.R. Ewing. More good news for Jed: There's a new episode of ABC's powerful "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" at 8 p.m. on WEWS Channel 5.

The 9 to 10 p.m. clash is even more intense. There's a new episode of ABC's "Desperate Housewives" on Channel 5. There's the season finale of NBC's "Law & Order: Criminal Intent" on Channel 3 (It signs off with back-to-back episodes). There's the Fox animation block of "Family Guy" and, at 9:30 p.m., the season finale of "American Dad" on Channel 8. There's the winner being revealed in the second hour of that "Survivor" finale on Channel 19. And, just to make matters more interesting, there's a new episode of HBO's "The Sopranos."

At 10 p.m., ABC airs the first hour of a two-part season finale for "Grey's Anatomy." The concluding two hours air at 9 p.m. Monday on Channel 5.

Created by Emmy-winning writer Linwood Boomer, the wildly unpredictable "Malcolm in the Middle" has looked at suburban family life through the eyes of a genius (Frankie Muniz) in the middle of a magnificently eccentric family. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that tonight's "Malcolm" finale will have a tough time standing out in the May sweeps crowd.

There won't be a retrospective show for "Malcolm in the Middle" - no cast reunion, no interviews, no parade of clips from best-loved episodes. This is when May can be the cruelest month for aging series.

"Malcolm" deserves a better send-off, no doubt. But, remember, it's the May sweeps, and sentiment was never in the room.

http://www.cleveland.com/printer/printer.ssf?/base/entertainment/1147509784181800.xml&coll=2

The Business Of Television
Webs can't agree: Who's on first?

Ad buyers says net ratings claims no longer have the cachet of the past
By Josef Adalian Variety.com

It's the most dreaded word in the network business: parity.

At the TV upfronts, being "No. 1" usually translates into ad dollars, but this week none of the networks can make that claim in its entirety.

It's a big change from five years ago when NBC towered above its rivals and a first-place finish translated into hundreds of millions in extra ad coin.

Now, three of the Big Four nets -- ABC, CBS and Fox -- are separated by just three-tenths of a Nielsen ratings point. And each net can lay claim to some No. 1 stat: Fox has the young demos. CBS boasts the most viewers. ABC is tops among upscale auds.

"They're all going to have a good story, but nobody's going to have a dominant story," says one former webhead.

Last year, Fox won the season in adults 18-49, but NBC -- despite coming in fourth -- maintained the highest ad rates (even though it took a big hit from previous years). CBS, a close No. 2 in 18-49 (and No. 1 with regular programming) billed the most dollars per hour of primetime, edging out Fox, which programs seven fewer hours than the other nets.

All of this suggests that being No. 1 isn't necessarily something that a network can sell to advertisers.

"Your goal is to be No. 1, but that's just about competitive spirit," says ABC Entertainment prez Steve McPherson. "It isn't even a factor in terms of our financial bottom line."

Scott Gross, senior VP of national broadcast TV for ad buyer Initiative, agrees. He says he and his peers have become numb to network claims of supremacy.

"There's such parity in terms of adults 18-49 ratings, everyone's going in saying they're No. 1 in something," he says. "But it's not about buying a network. It's about buying programs."

During the mid-1990s and early 2000s, when NBC dominated, the Peacock consistently grabbed a premium for its first-place status. In fact, the only year it didn't lead the overall upfront tally was in 2000, when ABC was able to claim first in demos thanks to the short-lived phenom called "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire."

Now, the race is so tight that blockbuster sports events can alter how a net ends the season.

Fox wouldn't have won the 2004-05 campaign sans Super Bowl. Likewise, ABC challenged Fox for the lead this year mostly because it had both the pro and college pigskin championships.

One former Peacock suit says the big difference between now and his net's glory days is the fact that NBC didn't just finish first. Most years, it crushed the competition.

"We were hitting it in absolute ratings, in adults 18-49, in upscale urban audience," the exec says. "And we also had all the awards -- the Emmys, the Peabodys, the Golden Globes. The chance to be associated with all that provided us with a reason to charge a premium."

Even then, NBC's sales advantage had a lot to do with its vast number of hits, from "The Cosby Show" and "Cheers" to "Seinfeld" and "ER."

No modern network has such a cachet -- not even the "American Idol"-fueled Fox. That doesn't mean Fox won't try to position itself as TV's all-around leader, milking its second consecutive victory in viewers 18-49 for all it's worth.

"It's like chicken soup. How can it hurt you to be the No. 1 network?" asks Fox program planning chief Preston Beckman.

He says that nets "do get a premium for being No. 1, especially in our case, where we're going to be No. 1 for two years.

"There's a perception around being in first that benefits you," he says, arguing that network rivals who claim otherwise are simply spinning.

"Everyone who does these jobs does these jobs for one reason, and one reason only: To be the best," Beckman says. "I don't think there's anyone else at any network who's going to feel any differently, no matter what they say."

While a Nielsen crown might not be worth as much coin as it once was, it still does wonders for egos.

There's a reason CBS' on-air promos, for example, label virtually every one of its shows a "hit" or "No. 1"

"At the end of the day, it matters, because not being No. 1 doesn't feel as good as being No. 1," Beckman says.

Critic’s Notebook
That's a wrap: It's that time again.

(Note: All times are Eastern)
Our favorite shows are saying goodbye for the summer. Some are ending forever. We'll miss some; not others
By R.D. Heldenfels Akron Beacon Journal television writer

When a television show says goodbye, it has three basic options.

Life has changed.

Life goes on.

We've learned a big lesson from life (or at least from watching).

Now, shows can combine those three in different ways, but they're all going to hit one of those bullet points.

You can see that for yourself tonight and in the days ahead as a bunch of new series make their final bow. Not the shows that have been dropped by their networks, sometimes before they aired all the episodes they made. We're talking about shows that get to choose how they end.

On that list: NBC's The West Wing and Fox's Malcolm in the Middle wind up tonight. That '70s Show ends on Thursday, as does NBC's Will & Grace. On May 21, Charmed completes its run on The WB, and ABC's Alias probably has its last blaze of gunfire on May 22.

There's no one big finale on a par with Seinfeld, Friends or M*A*S*H. I wouldn't be surprised if the season finale of American Idol attracts more viewers than any of these series finales. (Of course, an Idol season is almost like a series' end, since the next season will bring a large new cast.)

But the devotees of the departing shows will still feel regret.

I'll probably miss The West Wing the most of the shows taking their last bow. (A note: The only finales I have actually seen at this point are of Malcolm in the Middle and That '70s Show.)

Although the show's quality was inconsistent, and it mishandled the death of Leo (the late John Spencer), I found myself watching very often this year, and would like to see where it would go in the new Santos administration. In addition, it did some fine work over the years -- work you can happily revisit, commercial-free, on DVD.

Malcolm, Will & Grace and That '70s Show also did some very good work over the years. Malcolm was one of my favorites in its early years, and the finale is well written. But Malcolm's actors have gotten too old. That '70s Show is down to pothead jokes (even though they can still be funny) and the occasional riff from Red (Kurtwood Smith, also still funny). Will & Grace has just gotten tired, with even the Britney Spears episode feeling uninspired.

As for Alias, I've watched it occasionally but usually get off the bus early in a season, once the action and plot get amped up to ridiculous levels. (That's the same reason I'm hit-or-miss with 24 and Prison Break.)

Although I have climbed back on for the last of this season, since I know it has to resolve something, I start looking at my watch whenever the name Rambaldi comes up.

And I have no feelings one way or the other about Charmed, since I was never attracted enough to its witchy tales to view it with any regularity.

Still, even after you've done season after season of a series, saying goodbye can be tricky, especially if there are hopes for reunion movies or some other continuation of the story.

When it wrapped up on May 8, 7th Heaven left things open-ended -- with three sets of twins on the way to various Camdens. That may have been a result of talk that the show would end up doing one more season, when the new CW network is built from remains of The WB and UPN. (The broadcast networks begin announcing their fall 2006 schedules on Monday.)

But the finale was ultimately presented as the last episode ever, which did not please some viewers, based on their comments to my blog at www.ohio.com.

``The way the finale ended confused me,'' said one. ``It was great, but I want to see more.''

``I felt as if it left us hanging,'' said another.

Shows must wind up eventually. As I said, actors get too old, and writers burn out. Contracts also end, ratings decline and network priorities change.

And when that happens, you get the big three.

Life has changed. War ends (M*A*S*H), Friends move out.

On tonight's Malcolm (8:30 p.m., Fox), young Malcolm is graduating from high school and getting ready to go off to college. The West Wing (8 p.m., NBC) has reached the end of the Bartlet administration -- and will underscore the long journey by rerunning the series premiere at 7 tonight.

That '70s Show (8 p.m. Thursday, with two episodes) not only has Red and Kitty planning to move to Florida, it goes to the literal end of the '70s -- Dec. 31, 1979. For Will & Grace (9 p.m. Thursday, one-hour telecast preceded by an hour-long retrospective at 8 p.m.), NBC is asking, ``Will Will (Eric McCormack) and Grace (Debra Messing) raise a child together and find ultimate happiness?'' And the next to last episode tried to build suspense about the answer to that question -- with Will's relationship broken over his commitment to the pregnant Grace, while Grace was in hot pursuit of her ex.

Life goes on. 7th Heaven certainly made this point with that batch of new babies. Everybody Loves Raymond was also a keen example, ending with an episode that could easily have aired in another part of the season. The show did not try for grand statements. It just wanted to be funny.

Seinfeld took a somewhat similar approach. Yes, it bloated up the finale with guest stars, but at the end, the gang was bickering much as it always had. That '70s Show has a sense of continuity in its finale, too, and I've mentioned that 7th Heaven left itself a future.

Big lessons. M*A*S*H hammered at its war-is-bad theme one last time in its finale, and Seinfeld made explicit once again how mean and self-centered its core characters were.

Even before the finale, The West Wing has been pushing its if-only-democracy-was-really-like-this view of the world. Malcolm has a scene where Malcolm's mother, Lois, lays out her vision of Malcolm's future, and it offers us a fresh view of why he has been brought up in a certain way.

Not that any, or all, of these approaches will guarantee something good. Indeed, the urge to end in a grand way can make for a forced, excessive, atypical finish. I'd happily sacrifice the big ideas, if the result is a show that reminds me of why I stayed with a series during its entire run.

http://www.ohio.com/mld/ohio/entertainment/television/14571153.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp

Saturday’s network prime-time ratings are now at the top of Prime Time Ratings (the first post in this thread).

Critic’s Notebook
A fitting finale for `West Wing'

By Charlie McCollum San Jose Mercury News

On tonight's episode of ``The West Wing,'' there will be a change of government. The two-term administration of Josiah Bartlet (Martin Sheen) will come to an end; Matt Santos (Jimmy Smits) will be sworn in as the new president of the United States.

That, says executive producer John Wells, is how the White House drama should conclude and depart, after seven seasons.

``From the beginning, the series has celebrated the remarkable strength of American democracy, and one of the things that's most dramatic about American democracy is the peaceful passing of power from one leader to another,'' says Wells. ``We thought that was a really wonderful, totally appropriate way to end.''

In other words, the last installment (8 p.m., Chs. 8, 11) is one final fantasy in the politics-and-government-as-we'd-like-them-to-be world of ``The West Wing.''

When the series made its debut in the fall of 1999, few people thought it would work for more than a handful of episodes. ``We all felt going in that we had something very special,'' says Sheen. ``The only real doubt we had was whether or not it would work on network television. It was a political show. There were no car chases or fires or special effects. The action was in the words.''

But the show did work, with critics and, for much of its run, with viewers. At its high point, it was one of the most-watched and certainly most-discussed shows on television. It has been nominated for 89 Emmys, winning 24 including four straight (2000-2003) for best drama. It leaves the air with its place in TV history assured.

While the trappings of the show were an extremely accurate reflection of the real White House -- particularly in comparison with such ``West Wing'' pretenders as ``Commander in Chief'' -- much of the show's appeal came from its portrayal of flawed politicians and public servants who, despite their shortcomings, most often tried to do the right things for the right reasons.

In a second-season episode, conservative Republican Ainsley Hayes (Emily Procter, now on ``CSI: Miami'') is offered a job by the Bartlet administration. When her friends dis the president and his advisers, Hayes snaps back, ``Say they're smug and superior, say their approach to public policy makes you want to tear your hair out. Say they like high taxes and spending your money. Say they want to take your guns and open your borders. But don't call them worthless.

``The people that I have met have been extraordinarily qualified. Their intent is good. Their commitment is true, they are righteous, and they are patriots.''

That was the underlying belief that Aaron Sorkin, the show's creator and the man most responsible for the show's triumphs (and occasional failures), brought to the series. In a comparison often used by both those who loved ``West Wing'' and those who hated it, Sorkin brought the same view of the American way of life to the drama that director Frank Capra brought to such films as ``Meet John Doe'' and ``Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.''

``Capra evoked the mythic image of America as a `lighthouse of freedom' in a darkening world,'' wrote television and film historians John E. O'Connor and Peter C. Rollins in 2003.

``In our time, it seems clear that the fundamental attraction of `The West Wing' for Americans is its promise that, despite our failings and lapses, our system is still such a lighthouse.''

Even those involved in the series acknowledge that, like Capra's best films, the series is set in a world that doesn't exist, reflective of but divorced from today's often poisonous political atmosphere.

``We were a fantasy, there's no question,'' says Sheen. ``We were like a novel, and the real world was like reality.''

Wells adds, ``We always try not to take ourselves too seriously because that can be very dangerous when you're trying to entertain people. But people have connected to the idea of what the White House could be, even though they know we made it up and they know it's idealized.''

Of course, the ideal expressed in ``The West Wing'' didn't connect with everybody. The Bartlet administration was Democratic and the show wore its blue state liberalism with pride. Even conservative Republicans -- notably Arnold Vinick (Alan Alda), the GOP presidential candidate who lost to Santos -- were filtered through that prism.

That led some commentators, like John Podhoretz in the Weekly Standard, to view ``The West Wing'' as ``political pornography for liberals.''

As a piece of television entertainment, ``The West Wing'' had two very different periods: the one from the fall of 1999 to the spring of 2003 when Sorkin did almost all of the writing and the three seasons following his departure.

The early period was its heyday, with a string of superb episodes mixing rapid-fire dialogue that wouldn't have been out of place in a 1930s screwball comedy, discussions of ideas ranging from the politics of the census to the federal deficit and some of the most memorable characters in recent television history.

It made stars and Emmy winners out of such unknown actors as Allison Janney (press secretary C.J. Cregg) and Bradley Whitford (aide Josh Lyman) and gave veteran actors Sheen and the late John Spencer (Leo McGarry) defining roles. A string of excellent actors -- Stockard Channing, Mary-Louise Parker, John Amos, Marlee Matlin -- took on small recurring roles just for the chance to be on the show.

``It's a pinnacle for an actor because the writing is so fantastic,'' says Annabeth Gish, who played Elizabeth, Bartlet's oldest daughter. ``In my career, I was the most nervous guest-starring on that show because you have to speak politically, you have to speak eloquently and you have to speak rapidly.''

Problems with the show and its direction began to crop up following the election of President Bush and the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. ``The West Wing'' was set firmly in a world where Bill Clinton had been president, and the Bush election shifted reality to a different place.

The overriding issues of the war on terrorism further complicated matters, with Sorkin finding it harder and harder to set a consistent tone in his writing.

``We had a parallel universe to reality, and it changed drastically when the Bush administration came and then 9/11 happened,'' says Sheen. ``The country moved much further away from the center, and we felt that we were dead in the center.''

Beset by some personal demons -- drug abuse, a failing marriage -- Sorkin struggled to produce scripts on time, and his disputes with Warner Bros. led to his exit with Wells taking over as the show's executive producer.

The fifth season of ``The West Wing'' was a mess as Wells and a new set of writers tried to replace Sorkin, and the viewership began to drop. The series made a significant comeback after that, though even in its worst days, it was still smarter than just about anything else on network TV.

But it soon was clear that when the Bartlet administration came to an end, so would the series. The death in December of Spencer -- the heart and soul of the cast and the series -- removed any thoughts of continuing into the Santos years.

``We honestly thought we wouldn't get past a couple of years with this subject matter. But we've gone seven years and gone through the entire Bartlet administration,'' says Wells. ``It's so infrequent in a series' life that you actually have a chance to decide when it's going to end. That's usually decided for you.''

There is no question ``The West Wing'' will leave a gap. As such other series as ``Commander in Chief'' have proved, it's difficult to intelligently mix politics, ideas and entertainment.

``The networks really should take a lesson from `The West Wing' that this stuff can work,'' says Lawrence O'Donnell, a former political consultant who became a long-time writer and producer on the series. ``I hope the business takes it as a lesson rather than an exception.

``My fear is that they will take it as an exception and no one will even try to make another `West Wing.' ''

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/entertainment/television/14577717.htm

Critic’s Notebook
The pluck stops here: 'West Wing' ends an era

Mark Dawidziak Cleveland Plain Dealer Television Critic Sunday, May 14, 2006

When "The West Wing" aired its inaugural episode in 1999, NBC was the network of "ER," "Friends" and "Frasier."

Those weren't only NBC's three highest-rated shows; they were the nation's three highest-rated shows. Indeed, NBC was the undisputed heavyweight-champion network with an amazing nine of the top 20 programs.

Even in this heady company, "The West Wing" stood head and shoulders above the rest. It was smart. It was provocative. And it moved at a breathless pace through the corridors of power and political intrigue.

Many wondered at the time how it could keep going at that pace. Well, it couldn't. "The West Wing," truth be told, hasn't been at the top of its game for the last three seasons.

Like many presidential administrations, it began with an era of warm, hopeful feelings. It began with a sense of purpose, energy and optimism.

Still, even if "The West Wing" never quite regained its top form, it also never completely lost its sense of purpose and optimism. And, wonderfully enough, it experienced a renaissance of sorts in this final season, which ends with the episode airing at 8 tonight on WKYC Channel 3.

There has been a late surge of excellence from this White House drama about President Josiah Bartlet (Dayton native Martin Sheen) and his Oval Office team. There were some silly turns and clumsy missteps, to be sure, yet "The West Wing" recaptured much of the old magic in the Santos-vs.-Vinick campaign to decide Bartlet's successor.

So having steadily declined in the ratings over the last few seasons, the once-mighty drama leaves the prime-time scene bloodied but unbowed. It ends tonight with Santos (Jimmy Smits), having asked Vinick (Alan Alda) to be his secretary of state, being sworn in as president.

Bartlet's presidency is officially over, and we are the poorer for it.

"We all felt going in that we had something very special," Sheen said. "The only real doubt we had was whether or not it would work on network television. It was a political show. There were no car chases or special effects. The action was in the word."

But while "The West Wing" has returned to its classy roots this season, the same cannot be said for NBC. So perhaps this is the right time for the thoughtful series to call it quits. I mean, look at what's happened to the neighborhood.

Over the seven seasons "The West Wing" was on the air, NBC has gone from being the network of "Friends" and "Frasier" to being the network of "The Apprentice" and "Fear Factor." During the 1999-2000 season, "The West Wing" was NBC's finest show, and that was saying a great deal. During the 2005-06 season, it is again NBC's finest show, and that falls somewhere between faint praise and hollow victory.

NBC all but confirmed that it has no desire to embrace the legacy of "The West Wing." It did so with the last-minute decision to pull an hour "West Wing" retrospective that was to air at 7 tonight.

The reason? It seems NBC executives didn't want to pony up the money for an hour celebrating a show they're all too eager to see depart. So instead of a well-deserved round of "Hail to the Chief," we get the wail of the cheap.

"The series has celebrated, from the beginning, the remarkable strength of American democracy," executive producer John Wells said. "And one of the things that's most dramatic about American democracy is the peaceful passing of power from one leader to another. We thought that was a really wonderful way to end the series."

It is the right decision. It is the wise decision. It is the kind of decision we expect from a show that has displayed as much dignity and intelligence as "The West Wing."

http://www.cleveland.com/printer/printer.ssf?/base/entertainment/1147509254181801.xml&coll=2

Critic’s Notebook
Winners and losers of 2005-06 TV season

The 2005-06 season wraps up with some unexpected results.
By Neal Justin Minneapolis Star Tribune

If Nostradamus were predicting TV hits and misses these days, he'd be out of work by November sweeps. Forecasting prime-time television is even harder than trying to figure out what'll happen next to the "Lost" castaways, which is why we're much better at evaluating what worked and what didn't as the 2005-06 season comes to an end. Here's a rundown of what you loved and loathed.

Reality TV

Winner: By all practical measures, "American Idol" should be as passé as Paula Abdul's singing career. But the modern-day version of Ted Mack's "Amateur Hour" has never been hotter, leading Fox to its second overall victory in the much coveted 18-49 demographic, and doing it without the help of the Super Bowl this year. Anyone who thinks the show is losing heat should go back and read the 5,921 articles the Star Tribune did on Paris Bennett, who hasn't lived in Minnesota for more than a year and didn't even make it to the final four.

Loser: The obvious choice would be Martha Stewart, but I'm picking her short-term boss, Donald Trump, who lambasted her "Apprentice" spinoff the minute viewers decided that it wasn't a good thing, while driving the NBC flagship program into the ground with his incessant pimping of corporate products. Forget about a new haircut. What the Donald really needs is a slap to the head.

Medical

Winners: It's hard to be healthier than "Grey's Anatomy" (ABC) and "House" (Fox). Like "Desperate Housewives,"Grey's" has gotten sillier every week, but while the Wisteria Lane gang's shtick has gone as flat as an overcooked soufflé, the Seattle staff is increasingly endearing. It helps that none of the cast has been caught necking with Ryan Seacrest. "House" may churn out the same episode over and over again -- docs misdiagnose case; patient almost dies; House shocks everyone with biting insult, then saves patient at the last millisecond -- it retains 90 percent of the viewers from its lead-in show, "American Idol," which is an honest-to-goodness miracle.

Loser: "Inconceivable" (NBC) lived up to its title. What's still hard to believe is that a drama set in a fertility clinic actually got two episodes on the air.

Sci-fi

Winner: Jennifer Love Hewitt should be headlining a cute-and-frisky sitcom, not a dark thriller about a woman who sees dead people. Despite the miscasting -- or perhaps because of it -- "The Ghost Whisperer" (CBS) has risen from the Friday-night graveyard.

Loser: "Ghost" companion piece "Threshold" (CBS) wasn't the lowest-rated sci-fi attempt, but it was the best of a crowded field. Despite an all-star cast, including Carla Gugino and Peter Dinklage, and some truly frightening aliens, it couldn't scare up viewers.

Familiar faces

Winner: The "Seinfeld" curse has been lifted, thanks to Julia-Louis Dreyfus and her sharp new sitcom, "The New Adventures of Old Christine" (CBS).

Loser: It wasn't a bad idea to produce a "Friends" spinoff. But NBC should have passed on "Joey" and invested instead in a minor character we didn't know much about. "Janice" has a nice ring to it.

Politics

Winner: NBC's "The Office," which tracks the mundane intricacies of workplace politics, started off as a dark-horse candidate for hitdom, but star Steve Carell's budding movie career and a clever iPod campaign put the sitcom on the fast track.

Loser: ABC's "Commander in Chief" seemed like a sure thing with 16 million people tuning in for the pilot and a Golden Globe win for star Geena Davis. But behind-the-scenes problems led to one of the most dramatic turnabouts since Howard Dean's meltdown.

Serials

Winner: The best ripoff -- er, homage -- to "24" was Fox's "Prison Break," a season-long escape drama with logistical holes that a chain gang could jump through. Still, the good-looking leading men and more than a few wild twists kept us enraptured.

Loser: Fox's "Reunion," which each week examined a year in the life of longtime friends, was so awful it made you never want to attend an alumni dinner again. In this case, a good-looking cast wasn't nearly enough.

Blood 'n' guts

Winner: I've been waiting for a drama from playwright David Mamet for years. Apparently, a lot of other people were, as well. "The Unit" (CBS) is a bona fide success, with the kind of tough-guy dialogue missing from other crime dramas.

Loser: "Killer Instinct" (Fox), which is exactly what we felt after watching one episode.

Novelty numbers

Winner: Just when Howie Mandel should be making balloon animals at children's parties, he winds up emceeing "Deal or No Deal" (NBC), an unbelievably silly game show that's as filling and addictive as Gummi Bears.

Loser: The problem with NBC's weeklong experiment "Celebrity Cooking Showdown" wasn't the concept. It was the cast. Where's Janice Dickinson when you need her?

http://www.startribune.com/1706/story/427059.html

Critic’s Notebook
We're smarter, thanks to 'West Wing'

By Mark McGuire Albany Times Union staff writer Sunday, May 14, 2006

Television partied in 1999.

That January, "The Sopranos" debuted on HBO. The summer brought ABC's "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire," which jumped-started the reality TV era.

Then came the fall, which gave us "Judging Amy" (CBS), "Third Watch" and "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" (NBC) and "Angel" (WB). Even UPN had a good year, debuting "The Parkers" and "WWF (now WWE) Smackdown!"

Then there was the best new broadcast show of that season, the one that would go on to slay "The Sopranos" at the 2000 Emmys. But the mob drama will survive its rival: "The West Wing" (8 PM ET/PT Sunday, NBC) wraps up its historic seven-season run this week; it departs among the all-time great dramas.

Smart shows are rare enough; it's even more rare when a drama makes its viewers smarter. The highly lauded drama -- which in recent seasons has faced charges of creative exhaustion -- has the hardware to prove it: 89 Emmy nominations and 24 wins, with one more awards cycle to go.

Martin Sheen was initially supposed to make a mere cameo appearance -- the President wasn't envisioned as a major character; the original "star" was Rob Lowe. Instead, "The West Wing" built the strongest ensemble cast on television, again proven out by Emmys: Allison Janney, John Spencer, Stockard Channing, Bradley Whitford and Richard Schiff all took home statuettes during the run.

The writing, initially penned to the word by creator Aaron Sorkin, featured smart people saying smart things while walking through narrow hallways. Such scenes, dubbed "the walk and talk," became the series' signature.

It used to be a TV rule: Shows set in the White House were comedies, and not very good ones. "The Powers That Be," "The Farmer's Daughter," "Mr. President" and even the epically bad "The Secret Diary of Desmond Pfeiffer" were just some of the forgettable benchmarks.

Sorkin's creation brought us inside the White House, the most important home office in the world. Turns out its just that: an office, with the same personality clashes that affect us schmoes in the more mundane 9-to-5 world.

But "The West Wing" did something else: It made smart television watchable.

Jason Whitlock, the fine sports columnist for The Kansas City Star, recently penned an ESPN.com column voicing disenchantment with "The Sopranos." "The problem now is I don't want to think this hard to enjoy a television show," he wrote.

"I have to think on my job. ... Doing the work necessary to keep up with 'The Sopranos' isn't real high on a normal man's priority list."

So we should be watching "Yes, Dear" and "According to Jim" and "Ghost Whisperer"? Remove your brain, place on coffee table, sit back and enjoy.

There's a place for mindless TV. There's nothing evil about occasionally zoning out to a "Friends" rerun. (But not "Full House." Never "Full House.")

Still, television isn't merely the "vast wasteland" FCC Chairman Newton Minow described in the early 1960s. (Trivia: He is the inspiration for the name of Gilligan's boat.) It's equally OK, and necessary in some spots, for television to make you think, to make you work, to challenge your beliefs and biases, to make you actually think about your worldview.

"The West Wing" did that. Unfairly dismissed by some as "The Left Wing," the series was able to examine serious issues in a serious manner while retaining its entertainment value.

It also wrapped public service with an ideal of duty -- not a bad idea in a democracy when various institutions are continuously under attack from the left and right.

In defense of Whitlock, here's what I wrote way back in 1999: "Doing an entertainment show on politics, especially a drama, is dicey for another reason: You are going to tick off half the population, or more, based on how you portray the protagonists. A liberal as hero? Same ol' commie Hollywood. A conservative as the ideal? Hand me the remote; let's see what's on PBS. Entertainment is supposed to take our minds off the real world of taxes and economics and Democrats and Republicans and the rest, not get us angrier."

Some shows are the exception. "The West Wing" was exceptional.

http://timesunion.com/AspStories/storyprint.asp?StoryID=481115

TV Notebook
You Never Know About TV….

Here is how the Associated Press reported the season finale of “7th Heaven” on Monday night:

“NEW YORK – Did Simon and Rose tie the knot?
Was Rose pregnant?
Did “7th Heaven” really sing its swan song Monday night?
Stop reading if you don't want to know.
Now for the answers. No (though the upshot of the wedding wasn't divulged until the show's closing moments). No (though we had feared she was). And yes, it really was the last episode (however much its fans hoped the series would get a reprieve).
After 10 seasons of the gentle family drama about the Rev. Eric Camden, wife Annie and a passel of kids growing up before our eyes, “7th Heaven” said goodbye for good….”

----------------------------

Well, that goodbye lasted for just a few days.

Friday it was announced that the new CW network will pick up 7th Heaven for its 11th season.

Critic’s Notebook
It's easy to forget about 'Malcolm'

By Jay Cridlin tampabay.com

There was once a time, believe it or not, when Malcolm in the Middle was cool.

It seems forever ago, given the show's slide into relative irrelevance. But Malcolm in the Middle, which wraps its seven-year run with a simple, 30-minute finale on Sunday (5/14) on Fox, was once one of critics', and viewers', favorite sitcoms. It was sharp, groundbreaking and even a little edgy.

The single-camera sitcom about a boy genius stuck in a dysfunctional working class family debuted in 14th place in 2000 (higher than Everybody Loves Raymond).

TV today is full of single-camera sitcoms: Scrubs, The Office, My Name Is Earl, The Bernie Mac Show and Everybody Hates Chris.

But Malcolm wasn't just a single-camera sitcom. It was a sitcom whose star, a child, spoke directly into the camera while his nude, hirsute father got his back shaved at the breakfast table. It was a sitcom smart enough to find poignancy in a fight scene between boys and clowns, set outside a batting cage to the music of Kenny Rogers.

The show managed to blend silly, slapstick humor with the sort of genuine angst that emerges when a family has more troublesome boys than resources to control them.

Malcolm won a Peabody Award and six Emmys (if you count one for guest Cloris Leachman). Frankie Muniz (Malcolm), Jane Kaczmarek (Lois) and Bryan Cranston (Hal) received nine nominations total.

But it's easy - oh, man, is it ever easy - to forget how fun Malcolm in the Middle once was. The show's audience is a third of the 12.1-million who tuned in for Episode 1. With Malcolm airing in syndication five nights a week, one could be forgiven for thinking the show had already bitten the dust.

In Sunday's final episode, Graduation, Malcolm's heading off to Harvard, but first he must deliver a valedictory address to his school. Hal and Lois wonder how they'll pay for Malcolm's tuition, while Reese (Justin Berfield) tries to land a job as his high school's janitor. And the boys reveal the worst stunt they ever pulled, the so-called "nuclear option." There are also jokes involving cancer, pregnancy and an exploding barrel of you-can't-imagine-what.

You'll probably laugh watching it. And you'll wonder how Malcolm ever fell so far off your radar.

http://www.tbt.com/entertainment/news/article22375.ece?print

Critic’s Notebook
'The West Wing' exits with renewed respect

By Gail Pennington St. Louis Post-Dispatch Television Critic 05/14/2006

Seven springs ago, in a pile of preview cassettes for series now mostly forgotten, one stood out so remarkably that trumpets should have played a fanfare when the box was opened.

"The West Wing," which had just earned a spot on NBC's 1999 fall schedule, was funny - and deeply serious. It was cynical - and inspirational. Its characters were like none on TV - and yet, they immediately felt like good friends.

In short, the drama about the president of the United States and his brilliant, oddball staff was perfect. Perfectly involving. Perfectly entertaining. Perfect television.

Now, after seven seasons, 154 episodes and some bumps in the road toward TV immortality, "The West Wing" prepares to end its run, maybe not as the greatest TV series ever but certainly in the upper echelon
Aaron Sorkin, then just 38, had already written "A Few Good Men" (both the play and its film adaptation) and the movie "The American President." He was writing the ABC comedy "Sports Night" when he and John Wells arm-twisted NBC into giving "The West Wing" a try.

Conventional wisdom was that a show about politics would never play in prime time. But Sorkin envisioned "The West Wing" as "a valentine to public service." While some predictably knocked the liberal Democratic spin, he pointed out that the show had "no gratuitous violence, no gratuitous sex. It celebrates our institutions (and) has featured the president of the United States kneeling in the Oval Office and praying."

Television doesn't get better than the first season of "The West Wing," beginning with the unseen president's bicycling accident (his "sudden arboreal stop," after hitting a tree, introduced viewers to Sorkin's affinity for word play) and continuing until shots were fired in the cliffhanger season finale.

"The West Wing" was built on words, lots and lots of words, brilliantly strung together. Sorkin and director Tommy Schlamme introduced the walk-and-talk for characters too busy to stop and chat. Together, the intelligent dialogue and elegant imagery made much of the rest of prime time look and sound shabby by comparison.

But "The West Wing" has always offered substance as well as style. Sorkin had a knack for taking the dullest issues - in one memorable episode, the franking privilege - and presenting them in intriguing, even riveting ways.

Early highlights included the first-season episode "Celestial Navigation," in which assistant chief of staff Josh Lyman (Bradley Whitford) tells a group of visitors about a typical day at the White House; and "In Excelsis Deo," the first Christmas episode, in which communications director Toby Ziegler (Richard Schiff) fought to bury a homeless veteran found with Toby's business card in his pocket.

A bit of a backlash struck "The West Wing" as early as that first-season finale, when an assassination attempt on President Josiah Bartlet (Martin Sheen) seemed melodramatic to some. Then Sorkin suffered personal problems, including a drug arrest. But the series didn't really begin to falter until Season 3, when the outside world intruded on the drama's parallel universe.

The September 2001 terrorist attacks shook America to its roots. When the show's season finally started, after an awkward "special episode" scripted by Sorkin and dealing with ancient Mideast conflicts, "The West Wing" struggled to find the right tone. Viewers, it seemed, weren't much in the mood to follow fictional world conflicts when actual threats loomed so alarmingly.

In two seasons of ups and downs, "The West Wing" remained one of the best shows on network TV. But after Sorkin's departure in the spring of 2003, the drama was never its old self; even die-hard fans drifted away. A move from Wednesday to Sunday for the seventh season last fall was a blow from which the series never recovered. NBC announced in January, a month after original cast member John Spencer (chief of staff Leo McGarry) died of a heart attack, that the series finale would air in May.

Ironically, once the end was near, "The West Wing" rebounded to become must-see TV again. The campaign to replace Bartlet, pitting Texas Rep. Matt Santos (Jimmy Smits), a Democrat, against California Sen. Arnold Vinick (Alan Alda), a Republican, made riveting, exhilarating television.

On Sunday, Santos will be sworn in as president, with Vinick serving as his secretary of state. It's a thrilling scenario, one that has many one-time fans, now back on board, contemplating what a terrific series "The West Wing" could be with this new team in place.

That won't happen, of course. NBC has so completely lost interest in a show that was once its point of greatest pride that a retrospective scheduled for Sunday was summarily canceled when the actors insisted on reasonable paychecks. Instead, the original pilot will be repeated, allowing viewers to contemplate just how much we've all aged.

But for fans who stayed loyal or rediscovered "The West Wing" this year, its departure seems both sad and somehow premature.

All together: "Four more years! Four more years!"

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/entertainment/stories.nsf/tvradio/story/23BE93006E4F0D358625716C00318BC9?OpenDocument

Upfront Notebook
NBC's Kidnapped Could Get Summer Launch

By Jim Benson Broadcasting & Cable 5/14/2006

The speculation intensified Sunday leading into this week’s network upfronts, with sources saying NBC may give an early summer launch to Kidnapped, the Sony drama starring Jeremy Sisto and Dana Delaney.

There was also considerable speculation that NBC was considering putting its heavily hyped new Warner Bros. drama Friday Night Lights at 10 p.m. Monday in place of Medium. Another scenario had it moving to 10 p.m. Thursday, the long-time home of Warner Bros. aging ER, considered a more compatible slot if NBC decides to keep My Name is Earl and The Office during the preceding hour.

The fate of an untitled Tina Fey project could reportedly hinge on a deal being finalized with Alec Baldwin. NBC declined to comment on schedule-related matters Sunday.

The CW, meanwhile, declined to comment on reports that Warner Bros.’ Invasion, canceled by ABC, would move to the new network that it co-owns with CBS. Among other shows axed by ABC are the comedies Hope & Faith and Freddie.

Aaron Spelling’s 7th Heaven will be given a reprieve for an 11th season if higher-paid cast members agree to take a salary cut. And ABC, which has had little luck with freshman series this past season, is bringing at least one back, the month-old What About Brian.

Of the new pilot offerings, ABC has given commitments to Big Day, formerly A Day in the Life, about the various viewpoints of those taking part in a wedding, and an untitled heist comedy with Donal Logue and Mick Jagger from Burnett/Beckermen. They join 10 other series picked up by the network last week.

Additionally, Fox Friday handed out an order for Fox Television Studios’ Wedding Album, about a New York photographer and his assistant, and a six-episode comedy order to Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane for s show titled The Winner. It centers on a 40-year-old guy (Rob Corddry of The Daily Show) who, after attaining success, looks back on his years as a slacker.

Fox also provided a 13-episode renewal order for midseason comedy The Loop, renewed The War at Home for its sophomore season and provided a commitment for another year of The O.C.

Upfront Notebook
Pickup Plaudits

By John Eggerton at bcbeat.com 5/14/2006

ABC has given the green light to more What About Brian, while Fox has picked up 13 more episodes of The Loop.

I say "good on you" for both. Brian, which is Thirtysomething meets Relativity, is not targeted to me, a fortysomething guy, and I probably shouldn't be watching it, but I have been.

It's kind of like thumbing through the Weekly World News at the checkout counter. You don't want to admit you do it, but you do it just the same. Bat Boy is a true American hero, by the way.

The Loop has always been a kick in a Slap Maxwellian sort of way. I'm not sure it can last more than a couple of seasons, but I like the edge to it. It reminds me a little of that Chris Mohr Fox comedy about Hollywood whose name escapes me, the one where Mohr tries to use the threat of a strategically placed soccer trophy on an unproductive script writer.

But I digress.

http://www.bcbeat.com/

The fight over a la carte
FCC’s Marx: Let Viewers Pick

By Ted Hearn Multichannel.com 5/15/2006

Washington— Parents should have the right to buy only those cable channels they deem appropriate for their families in an a la carte selection process that would promote consumer choice and competition among pay TV distributors, a Federal Communications Commission official appointed by chairman Kevin Martin said last Wednesday.

“Why should you have to pay for channels that you are blocking?” FCC chief economist Leslie Marx said in remarks here at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank. “The FCC has looked into the issue of providing consumers with more choice and has found that a la carte and other means for increasing consumer choice could benefit consumers.”

Marx — addressing a small audience on TV indecency with former Motion Picture Association of America president Jack Valenti — said the a la carte sale of cable networks is a market reality in several mature economies around the globe.

'WOULD BE SUCCESSFUL’

She cited Hong Kong, where the introduction of a la carte in recent years by one telephone-based video provider, PCCW Ltd. [NOW TV], has forced incumbent cable provider I-Cable Communications Ltd. to respond competitively by slashing tier prices. Hong Kong consumers who take the a la carte option pay 50% less than those who buy programming tiers, she said.

“All programming competes in the free market, and diverse programming selections have remained,” Marx added. “There is every reason to believe that a la carte offerings would be equally, if not more, successful here in the United States.”

At least twice, Marx suggested that “the FCC” has endorsed cable a la carte. In fact, the agency under Martin issued a report in February saying that a la carte could lower cable bills under certain scenarios, but the report was not endorsed by an FCC majority.

The Martin report, largely drafted by Marx, reversed findings of a November 2004 a la carte study released by the FCC, which was then under former chairman Michael Powell. That report was not blessed by an FCC majority, either.

“She did not tell you that in the previous FCC administration under Michael Powell, an economic survey was done that said a la carte would be too expensive,” Valenti said. “In other words, if you don’t like what one doctor tells you, heck, go to another one, you might get a better deal.”

Marx, saying she had an appointment, left the dais after refusing to take questions from the audience, which also included Powell’s former Media Bureau chief, Ken Ferree, who supervised the FCC study that dismissed the notion of a la carte as a cable consumer panacea.

Marx, an economist on leave from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business, joined the FCC last August. Her unvarnished support for a la carte went well beyond Martin’s personal observations on the subject, which are usually tied to parental empowerment over cable channels that include indecent content.

Martin has said that a la carte is one of several options. Cable operators could roll out family tiers, as major cable companies are currently doing, or ensure that programming tiers do not include indecent content between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m. — the “safe harbor” hours when indecency is banned on radio and broadcast television.

“The cable industry has already begun. Comcast [Corp.], Time Warner [Cable] have family tiers out there now. You may object to it,” Valenti said, motioning to Marx.

A Comcast spokeswoman said family tiers are available in mostly all of its digital-capable markets. A Time Warner spokesman said they are available throughout the operator’s divisions, but it was too early to offer subscriber counts.

CITES CONSUMER CHOICE

In her comments, Marx took strong issue with the cable industry’s tradition of selling dozens of channels in tiers and requiring parents to rely on digital set-top boxes to interdict programming they don’t want their children to view.

“The FCC agrees that parental choice and control is critically important, but to really give parents the choice and control they need, allow them to purchase only those channels they regard as appropriate for their families,” Marx said. “Allow consumer choice to be the factor that regulates programming content in the cable industry.”

Some cable operators, including Cablevision Systems Corp., have advocated an a la carte model. But Cablevision won’t offer its affiliated channels a la carte, claiming that it wants to wait for the entire industry to embrace the concept.

The National Cable & Telecommunications Association has argued that government-mandated a la carte would raise monthly prices and diminish choice by killing off lightly viewed niche channels — a conclusion shared in the FCC report under Powell.

ABC's World News Tonight just reported that the network will carry the Presidential address Monday night at 8pm Eastern.

The grid on abc.com has not been changed to reflect what this will do to primetime. Oprah Winfrey's Legends Ball and a two-hour Grey's Anatomy finale had been scheduled for Monday from 8-11 pm Eastern.

Be warned if you're planning to record anything that night for later viewing ...

Thanks for the update dline.

I would be shocked if CBS doesn't fall in line also.

I think the safest bet for Monday night would be to begin recording at 8:15 ET and end 45 minutes later than scheduled.

(Or live in the Mountain or Pacific time zones.)

Upfront Notebook
SUNDAY UPDATE!
Primetime Pilot Panic: ABC/12, NBC/9, Fox/6, CBS/0, CW/0

By Nikki Finke deadlinehollywooddaily.com

Below is latest info network by network as of 3 PM Pacific Time Sunday. Will be updated...

NBC finally confirms its pick-up of Untitled Tina Fey show, new show Friday Night Lights looks good for Monday 8 PM, Earl, 20 Good Years, Office and Studio 60 set for Thursday night.

Fox picked up The Wedding Album, deciding between The Winner and Big Handsome Guy, and renewed The OC...

ABC just canceled Hope and Faith, picked up pilots Men in Trees, Ugly Betty, Brothers & Sisters, Traveler, A Day in the Life, Untitled Burnett/Beckerman, cancelled Invasion, renewed According to Jim and George Lopez...

Rumor has CW renewing Seventh Heaven

http://www.deadlinehollywooddaily.com/

I have a dumb question about the ratings. When they say Fox/ABC/CBS are close, do they normalize for Fox's only two hours of programming during prime time? And why doesn't Fox
do three hours like the others?

The 10pm local news slot is very lucrative for the affiliates - changing it would be unlikely. Now that FOX has My Network TV, expect any extra good fortune to be funneled over there to get that off the ground.

No, they average out all network hours: 22 for the big three, 15 for Fox.

When Fox began -- with a core of the old Metromedia stations in major markets -- it already had (as CP95 noted) lucrative 10 PM newscasts in many of the top markets. So it just programmed its 15 hours.

But you have a valid point, grittree: when Fox claims it "wins" a ratings race, its numbers only account for 15 hours while the others program almost 50% more hours of prime time each week.

Upfront Notebook
“Conviction” Axed

“Variety” reports that for the second straight year NBC has cancelled a Dick Wolf mid-season replacement show.

This time “Conviction” was axed. It's terrible ratings, which seemingly headed farther south each week, sealed its fate. Until the last week or so NBC execs had hoped to be able to save the series.

Last year's Wolf victim was “Law and Order: Trial By Jury”.

Upfront Notebook
NBC puzzles over schedule pieces

By Cynthia Littleton and Nellie Andreeva The Hollywood Reporter May 15, 2006

Tina Fey and Andy Richter are bound for NBC's primetime schedule next season.

Exactly where on the schedule their new comedy series will land was anyone's guess as of Sunday. NBC has kept a tight lid on the specifics of its 2006-07 season lineup, which the peacock will unveil today as the first of this week's parade of fall schedule presentations from the major broadcast networks.

The untitled Tina Fey comedy, featuring the "Saturday Night Live" head writer and star, sealed its pickup during the weekend after a last-minute scramble to finalize a deal for co-star Alec Baldwin.

On Friday, NBC gave a six-episode midseason order to "Andy Barker, P.I.," a comedy from Conan O'Brien's Conaco production banner starring his former late-night sidekick Richter as an accountant who unexpectedly becomes a private investigator.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr/television/brief_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1002502477

Upfront Notebook
No. 4 NBC launches 10 shows

By Gary Levin USA Today

NEW YORK — NBC, struggling to pull itself out of fourth place, has ordered 10 new series to be sprinkled throughout next season. Highest hopes in a schedule to be unveiled to advertisers Monday rest on Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, marking the TV return of West Wing creator Aaron Sorkin and Friends star Matthew Perry.

The show goes behind the scenes at a Saturday Night Live-type show, where chaos forces the network president, played by Amanda Peet, to bring in two hotshot writers (Perry and Wing's Bradley Whitford).

Among returning shows, Law & Order: Criminal Intent or Crossing Jordan will be benched until January for NBC's new Sunday Night Football, which begins Sept. 10. Midseason drama Heist is a goner and Conviction likely so, but look for Scrubs to return for a sixth season — possibly early next year — after a last-minute weekend deal. It will join just two other returning comedies: My Name Is Earl and The Office. Aside from Earl, all of last fall's new series are long gone.

Deal or No Deal, now NBC's top-rated series, returns on two nights after a summer break along with The Biggest Loser, but The Apprentice will take a breather.

Newcomers:

• Dramas. Friday Night Lights is a remake of the movie about a high school football coach and his team, with Kyle Chandler in the Billy Bob Thornton role; Heroes, a thriller about a group of strangers who discover odd superpowers and use them to save others; Kidnapped, starring Jeremy Sisto (Six Feet Under) as a hostage rescuer trying to solve the abduction of a wealthy couple's teenager over the course of a season; Raines, starring Jeff Goldblum as an eccentric cop whose murder victims help him solve their cases; and The Black Donnellys, about four Irish brothers who become gangsters.

• Comedies. In another SNL-inspired series, head writer and Weekend Update anchor Tina Fey is behind 30 Rock, in which she stars as Liz Lemon, the head writer on fictional Girly Show, who must keep actors — and the network — happy (Alec Baldwin, Rachel Dratch and Tracy Morgan also star); The Singles Table, about five unattached friends who meet while seated together at a wedding; 20 Good Years, matching John Lithgow and Jeffrey Tambor as fiftysomethings in an Odd Couple-like friendship; and midseason series Andy Barker P.I., starring Andy Richter as an accountant-turned-investigator (produced by his former boss, Conan O'Brien).

http://www.usatoday.com/life/television/news/2006-05-14-nbc-fall-shows_x.htm

No, they average out all network hours: 22 for the big three, 15 for Fox.

When Fox began -- with a core of the old Metromedia stations in major markets -- it already had (as CP95 noted) lucrative 10 PM newscasts in many of the top markets. So it just programmed its 15 hours.

But you have a valid point, grittree: when Fox claims it "wins" a ratings race, its numbers only account for 15 hours while the others program almost 50% more hours of prime time each week.

Why doesn't Fox try to progam the 7pm hour on weekdays?

It took Fox years to become competitive with programming just 15 hours, George.

Adding seven more would be a real (and very expensive) hassle.

And additionally, the Fox O&Os make far more money with syndicated shows in fringe time than they (and the network) would with network programming.

I understand that HEIST on NBC is a goner. Are there any additional episodes left "in the can" that might yet air?

As I recall, mikey, (and I'll try to look it up in the morning) there was just one unaired episode. Six were shot in all.

Upfront Notebook
NBC's New Season Lineup Leans Heavily on Drama

By Bill Carter and Jacques Steinberg The New York Times May 15, 2006

Looking to find the shows that will lead the network out of its unaccustomed position in the ratings basement, NBC is expected to announce a fall schedule today that will include a new drama from Aaron Sorkin, the creator of "The West Wing"; a new comedy from the head writer and star of "Saturday Night Live," Tina Fey; and a series adaptation of the book and movie "Friday Night Lights."

New NBC shows are expected to star familiar names like Matthew Perry, Amanda Peet, John Lithgow, Jeff Goldblum and Alec Baldwin.

NBC is presenting its new schedule to advertisers this afternoon at Radio City Music Hall, the first of the annual "upfront presentations" made by the networks each spring.

In an unusual commitment to adding new drama to its schedule, NBC ordered six series out of the seven drama pilots it made during this development season. The network had already announced it would bring back several that had been considered on the fence for renewal, including "Las Vegas," "Crossing Jordan" and "Medium," and the six new hours will tip the network heavily in drama's direction.

With the addition of Sunday night N.F.L. football games, which will fill all four prime-time hours on Sundays through January, NBC will have fewer time slots than ever next fall for comedy series, which have been the backbone of NBC schedules for years.

Beyond Ms. Fey's new comedy, NBC has ordered just two other new comedy series and has given a limited order to a third. But NBC, which regularly had 10 comedies or more on its schedule in the past, may start the season with just four, the same number it had last September.

NBC executives have said in recent weeks that they were pleased with the quality of the series they had developed for the coming season, a critical one for the network because it is under extreme pressure to rejuvenate a schedule that has the fewest shows in television's top 20-rated series of any network. So NBC needs to find hits among the shows it will introduce in September.

The network is pinning much of its hopes on two familiar, highly regarded creative talents, Mr. Sorkin and Ms. Fey. Both their new series impressed NBC's executives, even though they seem to be different versions of the same premise.

Mr. Sorkin, who won multiple Emmy Awards for "The West Wing," has created a new series tentatively titled "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip." It examines the backstage drama at a late-night sketch comedy show much like "Saturday Night Live." With the show struggling, two hot writers, played by Mr. Perry, who starred in "Friends," and Bradley Whitford of "The West Wing" are asked to save it by a high-intensity program executive, played by Ms. Peet (currently finishing up a run in "Barefoot in the Park" on Broadway.)

Ms. Fey, who knows plenty about shows like "Saturday Night Live," has built her sitcom around the backstage conflicts at a network prime-time comedy series called "The Girly Show." She plays the head writer (true typecasting) who has to deal with one star with a bad stomach (Rachel Dratch), another with paranoia (Tracy Morgan) and, yes, a high-intensity network boss, played by Mr. Baldwin. All those performers have been associated with "Saturday Night Live."

Like the other networks, in the new lineups they will announce this week, NBC is joining the trend toward serialized thrillers (like "24" on Fox) with at least two new entries.

"Kidnapped" will follow the complicated plot behind the kidnapping of the teenage son of a wealthy New York couple, played by Timothy Hutton and Dana Delany. "Heroes" will emulate the ABC hit "Lost," adding a few science-fiction touches. A group of young people discover they have sudden, unusual powers — an office worker can teleport at will to any location; a cop can hear other people's thoughts — just as a menacing force seems to be threatening the world.

NBC also has a detective series, "Raines," with Mr. Goldblum playing a highly eccentric policeman who communicates — psychologically, not supernaturally — with murder victims, enlisting them as partners of a sort as he pursues their killers.

The creative pedigree behind another drama NBC has ordered, "The Black Donnellys," could hardly be better. Paul Haggis, who wrote and directed the Oscar-winning film "Crash," came up with the series, which examines the turbulent lives of four Irish-American brothers involved, reluctantly but brutally, with violent crime in today's Hell's Kitchen in New York.

In "Friday Night Lights," a tale of big-time Texas high school football, NBC has a youth-based drama somewhat reminiscent of the glory days of the now-defunct WB network and its shows like "Dawson's Creek." It is based on the celebrated book by H. G. Bissinger. Kyle Chandler stars as the new coach of a team whose town lives and dies with football.

In comedy NBC has also picked up a series called "20 Good Years," about old friends of around 60 who decide to do everything they can to enjoy the last healthy decades of their lives. Mr. Lithgow, who starred in "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels" on Broadway and "Third Rock From the Sun" for NBC, stars with Jeffrey Tambor of "The Larry Sanders Show" and "Arrested Development" as a kind of "Odd Couple" facing mortality.

On the other end of the age spectrum, NBC will try a series called "The Singles Table" about five 20-somethings who meet as strangers at a wedding when they are stuck at the same table at the reception. Then they become a group of intertwined friends, a formula NBC knows well.

NBC has also given a more tentative green light to a comedy called "Andy Barker, P. I.," which stars Andy Richter as an accountant who is mistaken for a private detective and winds up with a new career. Conan O'Brien, who has had plenty of experience in comedy with his former sidekick, Mr. Richter, is one of the writers on the pilot. NBC ordered six episodes of the show and is likely to withhold it until January or later.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/15/arts/television/15nbc.html?pagewanted=print

Nielsen Notebook
Tony Soprano Adds Stress to Life on Wisteria Lane

By Bill Carter The New York Times May 15, 2006

There was trepidation at HBO in March, when the new season of "The Sopranos" kicked off to a noticeable drop-off in viewers: 9.5 million vs. the 12.1 million that had tuned in to the previous "Sopranos" season premiere two years earlier.

The numbers seemed to confirm how much tougher it was going to be for cable television's biggest hit series to compete at 9 p.m. Eastern time on Sunday because of the flashy new occupant in that neighborhood, "Desperate Housewives" on ABC, a division of the Walt Disney Company.

But if "The Sopranos" took a popularity hit from those housewives, it has lately been returning the fire. As "Desperate Housewives" winds up its second season, its ratings are displaying a truly sharp falloff — a trend that is not at all typical in hit dramas, most of which improve in their sophomore year.

Some critics have pinned the blame on what they have called a lackluster plot line this season, in contrast to the zinger of a story that carried "Desperate Housewives" through its first phenomenal season.

The quality certainly may be part of the story — the series had been down even before Tony and his crew showed up on HBO, a unit of Time Warner Inc. But it's clear that going against "The Sopranos" has proved to be no picnic on Wisteria Lane.

Since March 12, when the new season of "The Sopranos" began, "Desperate Housewives" has averaged just more than 21 million viewers (still outstanding by any television measure) for its new episodes. That is down from more than 25 million for the same weeks a year earlier.

That decline, about 16 percent, is bad enough, but among the viewers ABC most cares about, those between 18 and 49 years old, the slump is worse, about 22 percent. "Desperate Housewives" was attracting 14.4 million viewers in that age group a year earlier. Since "The Sopranos" came on, its average is 11.2 million.

Viewership for "The Sopranos," meanwhile, has leveled off with just under nine million viewers for each new episode on Sunday night at 9. (Each episode plays numerous times later in the week.) That is down less than a million viewers from the 9.8 million the show averaged for its Sunday run two years ago.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/15/business/media/15ratings.html

Critic’s Notebook
The cure for bromidic TV: 'Grey's Anatomy,' 'House'

By Robert Bianco USA Today

Doctors are in.

In one of those odd TV coincidences, May's two hottest scripted shows are two second-season medical dramas: ABC's Grey's Anatomy, which exits Monday with a two-episode special (9 ET/PT), and Fox's House, which concludes May 23 (9 ET/PT). Each is more focused on doctors than patients, and each is an out-of-the-ballpark hit by heretofore unsung creators: Shonda Rhimes at Grey's, David Shore at House. And to judge from the previews, each is planning one of those "big event" finales that involve guns and screams and regulars at risk.

They have something else important in common, beyond airing behind other successful series (Desperate Housewives and American Idol). Grey's and House are hits for the reason all the best shows are hits: strong actors, terrific scripts, and smart producers and directors.

Yet despite their similarities, they are in essence very different shows. House is a medical-mystery variant on the currently popular procedural formula. Think of it as an incredibly clever marriage of CSI and Marcus Welby — if Marcus were witty, acerbic and misanthropic.

Grey's, on the other hand, owes as much to Once and Again as it does to any hospital drama. Despite its medical trappings, Grey's is a "relationship show," a title we bestow on dramas that are too well written, well acted and true to the human condition to be called "soaps." It's one of the funniest, sexiest shows on television. But the humor, like the sex, is inherent in the characters, not imposed upon them.

The shows also differ in structure. While House has an incredibly solid supporting cast (with standout performances this season from Lisa Edelstein, Robert Sean Leonard and Omar Epps), it is a star vehicle. The focus never strays far from Hugh Laurie, and no one on TV is more deserving of the attention.

Grey's, on the other hand, is much more of an ensemble. The stories are seen through the eyes of Meredith Grey (played by Ellen Pompeo, who doesn't get enough credit for tying the show together). But plots and screen time are distributed much more evenly in Grey's than in House, which may be why so many of Grey's characters have their own devoted fan following.

Indeed, Grey's could be a nightmare for Emmy voters, who could fill their ballots with the show's stars alone. I'd save a special place for Patrick Dempsey, for the seemingly effortless way he humanizes Derek's "dreamy" appeal with ego and vanity, and to Chandra Wilson, for adding warmth and humor to Bailey without making her go all squishy. But you could nominate anyone on Grey's —or House for that matter —and get no complaints from me.

With assets like that, it's no wonder both shows are "in." Let's hope there's never a TV era when shows this good are out.

http://www.usatoday.com/life/television/news/2006-05-14-greys-house_x.htm

I would be shocked if CBS doesn't fall in line also [re: the presidential address].

I think the safest bet for Monday night would be to begin recording at 8:15 ET and end 45 minutes later than scheduled.

(Or live in the Mountain or Pacific time zones.)
There's another update:

ABC, and its affiliate here, both report that the network is going to delay Oprah Winfrey's Legends Ball for a week to accomodate President Bush's address.

Also, CBS News Up To The Minute reports that CBS, too, will have live coverage of the Bush address at 8pm Eastern.

Yes, I saw the Oprah's Ball promo (for May 22nd) in "Grey's Anatomy" last night.

The TV Column
Shows and Shrimp, Fresh and Not So

By Lisa de Moraes The Washington Post Staff Writer Monday, May 15, 2006; C01

It's Upfront Week -- the annual four-day orgy of rumor- mongering (Hollywood agents/the Reporters Who Cover Television), P.T. Barnum-ing (broadcast network programming executives) and heinie kissing (kissers: network sales departments; heinies: Madison Avenue suits) in the course of which the prime-time lineups for next season are revealed.

Each network takes its turn putting on a big production to pitch its new lineup to advertisers and reporters in New York, at halls like Carnegie, Radio City Music and Avery Fisher.

Monday through Thursday, anyone who's anyone in the TV business gets out of bed brimming with bucked-up-ness about that day's presentations -- some days two networks, other days just one.

At each presentation, boffo opening acts are presented (past years included Lenny Kravitz, the cast of "Hairspray," "Desperate Housewives" creator Marc Cherry in top hat and tails performing the 1930s tune "Beautiful Girl" with his cast for ABC at Lincoln Center, the "Avenue Q" cast performing "It Sucks to Be [Disney chief] Bob Iger" for CBS at Carnegie Hall).

Stars are trotted out to pontificate about that network's deep commitment to their particular new series. Speeches are read off teleprompters promising advertisers only the youngest, most upscale and best-looking viewers. After which thousands of shrimp are sacrificed at parties thrown at hot and not spots such as Tavern on the Green, Buddha Lounge, the Garden at Rockefeller Center, Four Seasons Restaurant and Pink Elephant.

A good time is had by all. Excepting, of course, the shrimp.

And, of course, the cast and producers of those lower-rated or older-skewing series that had been on the prime-time slate until the previous day, when word got out they had been killed off to make room for the next generation of potential hits. Ah, the Circle of Life.

Oh, and those stars and producers who had their bags all packed to get on a plane to New York so they could be trotted onstage to pontificate about that network's deep commitment to their particular new series but who had received a phone call the day before letting them know they need not get on the plane after all because the network had decided to go "in a different direction." They know how the shrimp feel.

NBC is the first network at bat. NBC has gone first since way back when it was the cocky, No. 1-ranked network; and it went first because it didn't care what the other networks had planned for Tuesdays at 8, it was going with two comedies -- and did ABC, CBS or Fox wanna make something of it?

NBC has taken some of the suspense out of this year's schedule unveiling by announcing early that it has picked up a mess of new shows.

They include:

• A comedy called "20 Good Years," starring John Lithgow and Jeffrey Tambor as two fifty-something guys determined to change their lives and make the most of the next two decades. We're thinking "The Odd Couple," which sounds like an odd choice for a network that doesn't even report ratings for any viewer older than 49. On the other hand, "The Golden Girls" used to do a good number among young viewers, and that was just a bunch of old dames sitting around kvetching.

• More like NBC is a sitcom about five disparate types who hang out together after meeting at a wedding, where they've been put at "The Singles Table." Like "Four Kings," if it had been guys and chicks. And funny.

Drama-wise, NBC spread sunshine and light, picking up virtually every pilot it made:

• Imagine eccentric Jeff Goldblum playing an eccentric but brilliant cop who sees dead people who help him solve crimes, and you have NBC's new "Raines."

• "Heroes," about average Joes who discover they have superpowers.

• "Friday Night Lights," based on the Billy Bob Thornton flick of the same name, only this time starring Kyle Chandler as the coach of a small-town high school football team.

• "The Black Donnellys," about Irish brothers involved with the mob in New York's Hell's Kitchen.

• The serialized drama "Kidnapped," starring Jeremy Sisto as a private kidnapping/retrieval expert. Each season -- assuming the show lasts more than one -- "Kidnapped" will follow his efforts to rescue a different kidnapping victim. First up: a teenage son of a rich New York couple, played by Timothy Hutton and Dana Delany.

• And Aaron Sorkin's much-ballyhooed "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip," looking behind the scenes at a long-running sketch comedy series.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/14/AR2006051401193_pf.html

TV Notebook
'Deadwood' may live on, despite decision on cast pacts So

By Gail Shister Philadelphia Inquirer Columnist May 15, 2005

Deadwood may not be dead, after all.

HBO says we should hold up on last rites for David Milch's profanity-laced western, despite the network's decision not to pick up the contract options for the sterling ensemble cast.

Huh?

The cast deals are set to expire June 11, the same date as the Season 3 debut. Twelve episodes are ordered, already in the can.

At that point, stars Ian McShane, who plays nasty Al Swearengen, Timothy Olyphant (good guy Seth Bullock), and Molly Parker (widow Alma Garret); and the rest of the players are free to pursue other gigs.

But if HBO switches gears and orders a fourth season, the acclaimed Deadwood would return - most likely populated by new faces and with cast members who struck out elsewhere or didn't bother looking.

"Conversations are ongoing," says HBO spokeswoman Tobe Becker. "It's possible there will be a fourth season, but we may not have 100 percent of the cast back. Some will be available."

Meanwhile, mad genius Milch is heavy into development of another project for HBO.

Titled John From Cincinnati, it's what he calls "surf noir." (The '60s were good for all of us, dude.)

"David is focusing his attention on other programming," HBO's Becker says. "We know it's going to take a lot of his time and energy. We're allowing him to do that."

Deadwood is set in an outlaw mining camp in the Dakotas in the late 1870s. The real camp averaged a murder a day and burned down after four years, in 1879.

Milch couldn't be reached for comment. He recently told the Boston Globe that his master plan calls for Deadwood to run four seasons, with each season representing a year in the camp.

"I can't speak for anyone else, but that's where I'm getting off the bus," he said.

Deadwood, which does decent numbers for HBO, won five Emmys in September and has a prestigious Peabody Award to its credit.

Fox tales.

The season finale of Fox's Prison Break and penultimate episode of 24 will run in their entirety tonight following live coverage of President Bush's address to the nation about immigration.

Prison, with the long-awaited escape finally in motion, is scheduled for 8:20 to 9:20 p.m.; 24 from 9:20 to 10:20.

Will Fox's Ten O'Clock News run an abbreviated version? Channel 29 news czarina Holly Gauntt was too busy to return our calls.

Another term.

Good news, Geena Davis fans.

The three remaining original episodes of ABC's shabbily treated Commander in Chief will air May 31, June 7 and June 14, all at 10 p.m., the network says.

Following their broadcast run, the episodes will be streamed on the Internet, according to ABC.

Ironically, the title of the season finale is "Unfinished Business."

That's CIC, no doubt. After launching in the fall with great buzz and strong numbers, the drama about the first female U.S. president went through its own series of dramas.

Behind the scenes, executive producer Rod Lurie was replaced by Steven Bochco. Then came two extended schedule breaks and a move from Tuesdays to Thursdays.

Not surprising, ratings tanked.

CIC averaged just 7.5 million voters, er, viewers in three Thursday shots. ABC gave it the hook May 2.

R.I.P.

A&E is developing two new reality projects that will find a home in the lineup... or die trying.

Both pilots focus on how people confront the end of their own lives. (Now that's cheery.)

Last Requests profiles those looking for emotional closure before they die. In Six Months, souls with only six months to live will try to maximize their remaining time.

No word on who or how the network will recruit subjects.

http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/entertainment/television//14580443.htm

The 2006-2007 Season
NBC’s Primetime Schedule

(NBC Press Release)Published: May 15, 2006
'FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS,' 'HEROES,' 'STUDIO 60 ON THE SUNSET STRIP' AND 'KIDNAPPED' BECOME NEW FALL DRAMAS; '20 GOOD YEARS' AND '30 ROCK' JOIN FALL COMEDY LINEUP

ADDITIONAL SERIES PICKUPS INCLUDE DRAMAS 'THE BLACK DONNELLYS'
AND 'RAINES' PLUS COMEDIES 'THE SINGLES TABLE' AND 'ANDY BARKER, P.I.'

NEW YORK -- May 15, 2006 -- NBC is loading its new 2006-07 primetime schedule with six new dramas and four new comedies that accentuate distinctive talent, quality concepts and cornerstone dramas that will allow the network to play offense -- especially with its new weekend showpiece in "Sunday Night Football."

The annual program announcement was made today by Kevin Reilly, President, NBC Entertainment, before the advertising community, affiliate stations and press at Radio City Music Hall.

"The face of NBC is changing," said Reilly. "We took the first step this season with Thursday hits 'My Name Is Earl' and 'The Office.' Next season we'll add momentum and excitement with the addition of 'Sunday Night Football' and establish a foundation of quality across the week by standing behind shows that each say something about who we are."

Highlights of the Fall 2006-07 season include two previously announced new dramas: "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip" (Thursdays, 9-10 p.m. ET), Emmy Award winner Aaron Sorkin's (NBC's "The West Wing") riveting insider's take on the backstage drama of a late-night comedy sketch show, with an all-star cast that includes Matthew Perry ("Friends"), Amanda Peet ("Syriana") and Bradley Whitford ("The West Wing"); and "Kidnapped" (Tuesdays, 9-10 p.m. ET), a high-stakes, serialized thriller about a teenaged boy's kidnapping, starring Jeremy Sisto ("Six Feet Under") and Delroy Lindo ("The Core").

Also new to Fall are the dramas "Friday Night Lights" (Tuesdays, 8-9 p.m. ET) -- inspired by the hit feature film that conveys the passion and sky-high expectations of a small Texas town for its top-ranked football team and stars Kyle Chandler ("King Kong") -- as well as "Heroes" (Mondays, 9-10 p.m. ET), an epic drama centering on the radically changed lives of several ordinary people who find they possess extraordinary powers.

The two new comedies to arrive in the Fall are "20 Good Years" Wednesdays, (9-9:30 p.m. ET) and "30 Rock" (Wednesdays, 9:30-10 p.m. ET). "20 Good Years" is a high-energy romp starring Emmy winner John Lithgow ("3rd Rock from the Sun") and Jeffrey Tambor ("Arrested Development") as mismatched buddies who realize that life doesn't last forever. "30 Rock" stars Emmy winner Tina Fey (NBC's "Saturday Night Live," "Mean Girls") as the head writer of a frenetic late-night television variety show (Fey is also the writer and an executive producer with Lorne Michaels). Alec Baldwin ("The Aviator," The Cooler") and Tracy Morgan (NBC's "Saturday Night Live") also star.

NBC's autumn lineup is buoyed by the return of the National Football League to NBC with "Sunday Night Football" (8-11 p.m. ET), anchored by Al Michaels and John Madden, and preceded by "Football Night in America" (7-8 p.m. ET), network television's first hour-long primetime pre-game show.

Consistent with NBC's ongoing strategy of introducing new series all season long, January will see the arrival of the previously announced drama "The Black Donnellys" -- from Oscar winners Paul Haggis ("Crash") and Bobby Moresco ("Crash"). The series is a gritty saga about four working-class Irish brothers' exploits in organized crime. It will debut on Thursdays (10-11 p.m. ET) and continue with consecutive original episodes. As a result, "ER" will premiere in its 13th season this Fall on Thursdays (10-11 p.m. ET) and will run with virtually continuous original episodes until its cliffhanger in December. The Emmy-winning series will resume after "The Black Donnellys" completes its first season.

After the NFL season concludes in January 2007, NBC will return to entertainment programs as it introduces a new Sunday-night lineup featuring "America's Got Talent" (8-9 p.m. ET) with newly announced host Regis Philbin presiding over a wide-open national talent contest produced by Simon Cowell ("American Idol"). "The Apprentice" (9-10 p.m. ET), with business titan Donald Trump, returns with a new edition based in Los Angeles. The reality series is followed by the new drama "Raines," starring Jeff Goldblum ("The Lost World: Jurassic Park") as an eccentric police detective in an inventive crime drama from Emmy-winning writer-producer Graham Yost ("Band of Brothers") and director-writer-producer Frank Darabont ("The Shawshank Redemption").

Also for mid-season, NBC can draw upon such new comedies as "The Singles Table," depicting a group of witty and single strangers who meet, console and befriend each other at a wedding, and "Andy Barker, P.I.," starring Andy Richter, who re-teams with co-writer and executive producer Conan O'Brien (NBC's "Late Night with Conan O'Brien") as an earnest CPA who embraces the unlikely chance to become a private detective.

Fan favorites "Crossing Jordan" and "Scrubs" will return to the NBC schedule at some point later in the season.

Additional Fall schedule changes include the move of "Law & Order: Criminal Intent" from Sundays (9-10 p.m. ET) -- due to the premiere of "Sunday Night Football" -- to Fridays (10-11 p.m. ET). Likewise, "My Name Is Earl" (8-8:30 p.m. ET) and "The Office" (8:30-9 p.m. ET) each move up one hour on Thursday nights.

Following is NBC's primetime series schedule for Fall 2006-07. Nightly strategy and show descriptions follow (all times are Eastern).

NBC PRIMETIME SCHEDULE FOR FALL 2006-07

*New programs in CAPS (with the exception of "ER")

MONDAY
8-9 p.m. "Deal or No Deal"
9-10 p.m. "HEROES"
10-11 p.m. "Medium"

TUESDAY
8-9 p.m. "FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS"
9-10 p.m. "KIDNAPPED"
10-11 p.m. "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit"

WEDNESDAY
8-9 p.m. "The Biggest Loser"
9-9:30 p.m. "20 GOOD YEARS"
9:30-10 p.m. "30 ROCK"
10-11 p.m. "Law & Order"

THURSDAY
8-8:30 p.m. "My Name Is Earl" (new time)
8:30-9 p.m. "The Office" (new time)
9-10 p.m. "STUDIO 60 ON THE SUNSET STRIP"
10-11 p.m. "ER"/("THE BLACK DONNELLYS" in January 2007)

FRIDAY
8-9 p.m. "Deal or No Deal"
9-10 p.m. "Las Vegas"
10-11 p.m. "Law & Order: Criminal Intent" (new day and time)

SATURDAY
8-9 p.m. "Dateline Saturday"
9-11 p.m. Drama Series Encores

SUNDAY
7-8 p.m. "FOOTBALL NIGHT IN AMERICA"
8-11 p.m. "SUNDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL"

NIGHT-BY-NIGHT PRIMETIME STRATEGY

MONDAY
Monday should remain strong for NBC, especially with the huge new promotional platform of "Sunday Night Football." Opening at 8 p.m., "Deal or No Deal" wins the time period with broad appeal and should drive viewers into the night's new tent-pole series "Heroes," a stylish drama with strong breakout potential. The new show should prove to be highly compatible with the suspenseful series "Medium" at 10:00 p.m.

TUESDAY
NBC kicks off at 8 p.m. with "Friday Night Lights," a new drama that transcends sports and should be ideal for families to view together. NBC follows this with another new drama, "Kidnapped," a tense serial thriller that should team well with the 10:00 p.m. incumbent "Law & Order: SVU," which continues to dominate despite soft lead-ins this past season. Film star Connie Nielsen ("Gladiator") joins the "SVU" cast for six episodes early in the season while series star Mariska Hargitay is on maternity leave.

WEDNESDAY
"The Biggest Loser" proved to be a refreshing success story last year at 8 p.m., and it ended its second cycle with record numbers, boosting NBC to its biggest non-Olympics Tuesday in five years. It will be used to combine with the evergreen "Law & Order" at 10:00 p.m. to hammock two new comedies. At 9 p.m., Emmy winner John Lithgow and Jeffrey Tambor are set to win over audiences with their masterful chemistry in "20 Good Years." That leads into the 9:30 p.m. time period premiere of "30 Rock," starring Emmy winner Tina Fey, Alec Baldwin and Tracy Morgan. Then Dick Wolf's "Law & Order" will return re-invigorated by exciting cast changes aimed at keeping the show fresh and competitive.

THURSDAY
NBC's traditional flagship night starts with two of television's most popular new series in "My Name Is Earl" and "The Office." Expect renewed vitality on the night with the arrival of the much-anticipated "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip" in the vital 9 p.m. hour followed by "ER" -- the series that has defined Thursdays (10-11 p.m. ET) for a dozen years. However, the medical drama will have a decided edge this year with all original telecasts leading to a cliffhanger in December. Additionally, John Stamos joins the regular cast as he reprises his role as Tony Gates, a charming Gulf War vet working through medical school as a paramedic. In January, "The Black Donnellys," from Oscar winners Paul Haggis and Bobby Moresco (both for "Crash"), will premiere in the time period. "ER" will complete its season in the time slot following the run of "The Black Donnellys."

FRIDAY
NBC will stick with stability with time-period champ "Deal or No Deal" at 8 p.m. followed by "Las Vegas" and its loyal audience at 9:00 p.m. Closing out Fridays at 10:00 p.m. will be "Law & Order: Criminal Intent," which re-locates from Sundays due to the NFL, after having performed solidly against intense competition on the night.

SATURDAY
"Dateline Saturday" will continue at 8 p.m. and encore telecasts of NBC dramas will run at 9 p.m. and 10 p.m.

SUNDAY
In addition to delivering a powerful night of television, "Sunday Night Football" will greatly increase NBC's promotional platforms leading into each Fall week. This four-hour package also allows NBC to reach an elusive young male demographic. When series programming returns in January, "America's Got Talent" with host Regis Philbin will take over the 8 p.m. hour. "The Apprentice" follows at 9:00 p.m., creating a strong unscripted block. At 10:00 p.m., "Raines" is a quirky police drama that stars the appealing Jeff Goldblum.

Upfront Notebook
For ABC, it's time to spread the wealth

By Toni Fitzgerald MediaLifeMagazine.com staff writer May 15, 2006

ABC has established a dominant Sunday night, but the rest of its schedule is considerably weaker.

When the network announces its fall schedule at tomorrow’s upfront presentation, it’s expected to split its two strongest shows, “Desperate Housewives” and “Grey’s Anatomy,” onto Sunday and Monday nights in order to launch new programs and bolster its overall ratings.

“Grey’s” will most likely move to Monday at 9 p.m. Since February it has been the stronger of the two programs and thus the one viewers are more likely to follow, especially to a Monday timeslot that will be considerably weaker than past falls.

CBS’s 9 p.m. comedy lineup is down, and Fox’s “24” will likely be on hiatus until January, while NBC is launching the new show "Heroes" there.

ABC desperately needs a successful Monday lineup to maintain the ratings gains it made this year, which included good viewership for “Monday Night Football.” With “MNF” now on ESPN, fall Mondays are open for regular programming for the first time in more than 30 years.

Buyers say ABC will attempt to launch a new drama out of “Grey’s” at 10 p.m., while trying the same thing Sundays at 10 after “Housewives.”

Possible new Sunday and Monday dramas include “Lost” creator J.J. Abrams’ “Six Degrees,” about New Yorkers who are tied to each other in unexpected ways, Calista Flockhart's soap "Brothers & Sisters" and “Secrets of a Small Town,” with a Wisteria Lane-like mystery. All have received orders.

As for the rest of ABC’s lineup, though it was the only network to improve over last year this season among adults 18-49, it will still have a lot of new shows. That’s because most of its programs are either mega-hits like “Lost” and “Housewives” or flops, like “Invasion,” “Hope & Faith” and “American Inventor.”

It has very few solid performers, and so every night will likely see at least one change.

“Only seven of 22 hours of primetime programming looks solid at this point for ABC. Monday will likely be reworked around ‘Grey’s.’ Tuesday only has 10 p.m. drama 'Boston Legal' with any rationale for renewal,” a MediaVest report forecasts. “On Sunday ABC will be able to use the 10 p.m. time period, following ‘Housewives,’ to launch a new program.”

The network has ordered five new comedies: David Arquette’s ensemble “In Case of Emergency,” wedding laugher "Big Day," an untitled project about robbing Mick Jagger, the Ted Danson show “Help Me Help You” and pregnancy sitcom “Notes from the Underbelly.”

That suggests it will stick with sitcoms on Tuesday from 8 to 10 and Wednesday at 8. Veterans “According to Jim” and “George Lopez” will return, mixed with the new shows in those slots.

“Boston Legal” will be back Tuesday at 10. A new drama seems likely at 9, perhaps Taye Diggs’ “Day Break,” about a cop looking for the person who framed him, which has already received an order. Dramas “The Nine,” about a group of hostages in a bank robbery, or "Ugly Betty," which may launch this summer, would also be good fits, or the network could try "What About Brian," which got a surprise renewal after a decent finale, in the slot.

“Invasion” probably won’t return on Wednesday and could reportedly jump to the CW. That frees up the valuable post-“Lost” slot for another drama. ABC has greenlit seven total, also including Anne Heche's "Men in Trees" about a divorcee.

Thursdays will likely see the return of hit “Dancing with the Stars,” along with either a new comedy or drama and workhorse “Primetime” at 10.

Monday’s “Wife Swap” and/or “Supernanny” will likely move to Friday, where “20/20” will continue to air at 10. “Wonderful World of Disney” should be back on Saturday, and the only change Sunday will be replacing “Grey’s” at 10 p.m.

http://www.medialifemagazine.com/artman/publish/printer_4727.asp

Upfront Notebook
Broadcast Chess Game: Tight Ratings Race Forces Nets to Consider Rivals' Schedules

By John Consoli MediaWeek.com May 15, 2006 -

As the broadcast network programming teams huddled in their war rooms late last week putting the finishing touches on their prime-time schedules for the 2006-07 season, it was clear that because of the closeness of this season’s ratings race, each network was taking particular care in considering rivals’ potential schedules before finalizing their own.

“I feel like there are more moving pieces this year,” said one network programmer, who did not want to speak for attribution. “I bet after the schedules are announced, gradually over the summer you will see much more shifting and moves back and forth by every network before the start of next season.”

At week’s end, all the network slates were still in a state of flux. For example, Fox was watching to see if ABC moved Grey’s Anatomy from Sunday to another night. If that happens, Fox is said to be ready to move its Tuesday medical drama, House, to Sunday. Also, CBS may scrap its Sunday Night Movie, and move its 10 p.m. Thursday hit, Without a Trace, to Sundays at 10 if ABC moves Grey’s Anatomy.

ABC Entertainment president Steve McPherson said late last Friday that a decision on whether to move Grey’s Anatomy had not been made. But ABC did schedule two episodes of the show for May 15—possibly as a trial balloon—the day before ABC unveils its schedule for next season. McPherson did say that if any of the network’s hit shows are moved, it may not be until mid-season.

One prime-time scheduling move that has been locked in, Mediaweek has learned, takes place on Saturday, lately a programming graveyard for all nets. ABC, in an agreement with sister cable network ESPN, will begin airing college football games on Saturdays this fall on a regular basis, and then carry NASCAR Busch Series races next spring. McPherson declined to comment, but sources familiar with the deal confirmed that it is a go.

On Fridays, with CBS said to be planning to return its older skewing dramas, and NBC possibly moving Medium to that night to join Las Vegas, ABC is considering putting younger-skewing romantic dramas and dramedies to counterprogram its competitors’ crime-heavy slates.

As far as watching other networks before locking in schedules, McPherson said, “We haven’t changed our schedule from the one we announced during the two years I’ve been in this job, and we don’t want to be shifting a lot. But if we have to, we will.”

“We’re not playing a defensive game,” added Preston Beckman, executive vp for strategic program planning at Fox, “even though we announce our schedule last.” Fox does its upfront presentation on May 18 at 4 p.m. “We don’t want to only be reacting to what the other networks do, but we do have to consider what they do and then do what’s in our best interest.”

By presenting its schedule first during upfront week, NBC exposes its scheduling plans, allowing competitors to make last-minute adjustments before their presentations. Jeff Zucker, president of NBCU’s TV Group, has in the past said he is not concerned about altering the schedule at a later date if need be.

With Fox, ABC and CBS all expected to finish within one-tenth of a rating point apart from each other in this season’s adults 18-49 demo race, it’s no surprise each network is carefully watching what the others do. There is nearly $9 billion in total riding on these schedules. “There are plenty of holes in every network’s schedule,” said Lyle Schwartz, director of research and marketplace analysis at Mediaedge:cia. “CBS has the most stable schedule, but many of its shows have been on for a long time and it may need to freshen things up. ABC has a couple of hot shows, but it has a lot of holes. And Fox has more solid shows than it has had in a while, but it still depends too much for its [gross rating points] on American Idol. And NBC needs help on almost every night.”

Beckman took issue that Fox is a “one-trick pony” with Idol. “We have more potential building blocks on our schedule than we’ve had in a long time,” he said, adding that the network plans to use those shows next season to help launch new ones. Among the new Fox shows will be dramas American Crime, Primary and Vanished, and sitcom Til Death, which will in all likelihood be paired with freshman Sunday sitcom The War at Home, which is expected to be renewed.

Beckman said Fox is planning to introduce most of its fall schedule in August and early September, prior to the official start of the season in late September.

NBC is expected to have new dramas The Black Donnellys, Kidnapped, Friday Night Lights, Heroes and Studio 60 on its fall schedule, as well as sitcom Community Service. Other sitcoms it has picked up are The Singles Table and Twenty Good Years.

ABC plans to incorporate dramas Six Degrees, Brothers and Sisters, Men in Trees, Day Break and Nine Lives to its schedule either for fall or mid-season. Sitcoms ABC is picking up include In Case of Emergency, Help Me Help You and Notes from the Underbelly, and possibly the hour-long Ugly Betty.

As usual, CBS and half-sibling the CW have kept the most mum, and have not announced any new show pickups, although Mediaweek learned late last week that CW, in a surprise move, had decided to bring back 7th Heaven after the WB announced the show would not return after 10 seasons. New shows expected to make the CBS schedule are drama Shark and sitcom Class.

http://www.mediaweek.com/mw/news/recent_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1002502186

Upfront Notebook
NBC remakes Thursday with 'Studio 60'

By Toni Fitzgerald MediaLifeMagazine.com staff writer May 15, 2006, 13:08

Last year media buyers were furious that NBC did nothing to revamp its flagging Thursday night schedule, which dipped even more come fall and underwent big changes at midseason.

This year NBC is making major fixes on the night, including putting the most-buzzed-about new show of the year in the competitive 9 p.m. slot opposite CBS’s “CSI,” in a bid to regain footing on the most lucrative night of the week.

Also, “ER” will stay at 10 p.m. but will run in two separate 13-episode chunks, opening the slot at midseason for the new drama “The Black Donnellys.” Fox has used a similar no-repeats strategy for “24,” which boosted ratings.

NBC entertainment president Kevin Reilly previewed the network’s 2006-‘07 schedule to reporters this morning, in advance of this afternoon’s upfront presentation to advertisers.

He led with Thursday, which will be the most important night as NBC attempts to end a two-season slide among adults 18-49s.

Aaron Sorkin’s drama “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip,” starring Matthew Perry, will air at 9 p.m. Thursday, pushing former occupants “My Name is Earl” and “The Office” to 8 p.m.

That’s a much stronger lineup than NBC had last fall, when it began with “Will & Grace,” “Joey” and “The Apprentice” in that two-hour block. None of those shows made this fall’s schedule, with Donald Trump’s wilting “Apprentice” being bumped to midseason, when it will air on Sundays.

NBC’s 9 p.m. shows are entirely new Monday through Thursday, and it is introducing only two new comedies along with six new dramas. The comedy “Scrubs” did get renewed for a sixth season but will once again stay off the air until at least January.

“Deal or No Deal” returns Monday at 8 p.m., followed by new drama “Heroes,” about people who discover they have special powers, at 9 and “Medium” staying at 10.

Tuesday sees big changes, with “Friday Night Lights,” based on the movie, taking the 8 p.m. slot. Reilly said the network hopes to draw in viewers of “Sunday Night Football” to the show, which will be promoted heavily Sundays.

At 9, the new drama “Kidnapped” airs, followed by longtime 10 p.m. occupant “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.”

Wednesday also gets a makeover, with “Biggest Loser” moving into the 8 p.m. slot followed by two new comedies: “20 Good Years,” what Reilly described as a broad with John Lithgow and Jeffrey Tambor in an “Odd Couple”-like friendship, and Tina Fey’s “30 Rock,” which like “Strip” goes behind the scenes at a TV show.

There were rumors that the network would only pick up one of the behind-the-scenes shows, but Reilly insisted the similar subject matter would not confuse viewers. “Law & Order” stays at 10 p.m. Wednesday.

Thursday once again eschews the four-comedy, one drama Must See TV mold that NBC had long used until “Apprentice” became a smash two years ago, and in fact the network promised just months ago a return to that model when “Earl” and “Office” moved from Tuesday at midseason. But Reilly said “Strip” was the best show in development and thus deserved the high-profile spot. It’s a good time for a show to launch there, with “CSI” slipping.

NBC may have kept “ER” at 10 in part because of rumors that CBS will be launching a new show there, which will be easier competition than current occupant “Without a Trace.”

“Donnellys” will launch at midseason after 13 full weeks of “ER.” “ER” will return in the spring after “Donnellys” finishes its run, with neither show airing repeats.

Friday’s schedule includes “Deal” at 8, “Las Vegas” at 9 and “Law & Order: Criminal Intent,” bumped from Sunday by football, at 10. NBC has struggled there recently, and “CI” may be a good fit.

Saturday will be “Dateline” at 8 and crime drama repeats at 9 and 10. “Sunday Night Football” and the pregame show fill all of Sunday, where “Apprentice” and “Crossing Jordan,” as well as the new Jeff Goldblum drama “Raines,” will air at midseason, after the NFL season ends.

http://www.medialifemagazine.com/artman/publish/printer_4752.asp

Upfront Notebook
Live—No, Taped—from New York (and Los Angeles), It's...

By James Poniewozik Time Magazine television critic Monday, May. 15, 2006

You're a once-powerful, now struggling TV network, one of whose many, many problems is a late-night comedy show, still pulling in viewers but widely regarded as mediocre for most of the past decade or two. What's the solution? More of it! Twice--no, three times as much!

To be fair, Saturday Night Live is still capable of creating watercooler moments. There was the much-forwarded "Lazy Sunday" video. Just this weekend, there was Al Gore's surprise what-if presidential address from an administration in which the Iraq war never happened, global warming ended and Michael Moore was named to the Supreme Court. (The steroid scandal still happened--"But I have faith in Baseball Commissioner George W. Bush when he says, 'We will find the steroid users if we have to tap every phone in America.'")

Good old Al--from Letterman to SNL, so much better in late night than he ever was in prime time. But it's become an ever-longer slog to wait for the good stuff, and the appeal of waiting to find out what was funny and watching the snippets the next day is ever stronger. SNL has become the best advertising YouTube could ever hope for.

Still, when NBC announced its plans for the fall in an official press release this morning, it was no surprise that cash cow SNL is coming back. Nor was it a surprise that Aaron Sorkin (The West Wing) would write a drama based on the behind-the-scenes squabbles at SNL, titled Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip: NBC ordered several of its fall shows early and made the Studio 60 pickup days ago.

What is surprising is that the network will also air 30 Rock, a sitcom created by and starring Tina Fey, one of the few silver linings on the leaden cloud that is SNL--about the behind-the-scenes struggles of, yes, a sketch comedy show. Every fall, the networks remind us that the TV idea pool is a tiny and limited ecosystem by airing remarkably similar ideas; it just doesn't usually happen at the same network.

To be fair, the shows are not exactly the same. Fey's puts women front and center (herself and SNL colleague Rachel Dratch); Sorkin's ensemble focuses on two male writers (Friends' Matthew Perry and The West Wing's Bradley Whitford). Also, one is twice as long as the other, which NBC has addressed with the useful mnemonic of calling the hourlong show Studio 60 and the half-hour 30 Rock. TV really is educational!

I don't know if NBC seriously believes both shows can flourish together. But it has so many holes to fill and the success rate for new shows is so low, that it may as well try both and see which sticks. SNL has been coasting on its formulas and catchphrases for years. The only question is whether viewers find all this funny or sad. Next fall, NBC will be covered either way.

Other highlights on the NBC schedule: a midseason comedy from Andy Richter and Conan O'Brien; new dramas The Black Donnellys and Kidnapped, already sent to critics; superhero drama Heroes and football drama Friday Night Lights; fall football on Sunday nights; the exile of Scrubs and Crossing Jordan to returning-at-some-point-in-the-season limbo; the banishment of The Apprentice to January after football; and the dispatch of Dick Wolf's lawyer drama Conviction to the great hung jury in the sky.

http://time.blogs.com/tuned_in/

TV Notebook
Syndication Ratings Report for 2005-06 Season

By Marc Berman MediaWeek.com MAY 15, 2006 -

The third of Mediaweek's three-part yearly syndication ratings summary falls on the eve of the upfront selling season--just the tool needed to determine if the advertising marketplace warrants the projected 5.1 percent revenue increase.

According to PQ Media, which publishes research covering the advertising and marketing industry, spending in syndication in 2006 is projected to top $2.954 billion compared to $2.810 billion in 2005 (including upfront and scatter dollars). And that number is estimated to increase to $3.082 billion in 2007.

“The inherent advantage of syndication is the familiarity of the established product,” says Dr. Leo Kivijarv, PQ Media’s vp and head of research. “First-run strips like Oprah, Wheel of Fortune and Entertainment Tonight can last for decades because viewers embrace the personalities and the concepts.”

Waiting in the wings for fall 2006 are talk shows hosted by Rachael Ray (King World Productions), Megan Mullally (NBC Universal), Dr. Keith Ablow (Warner Bros.) and Greg Behrendt (Sony Pictures Television), which is not unusual given that 70 first-run talkers have been launched since 1994-95. (Four out of five new shows in this category never make it to a second season).

And, following the marginal success of recent entry Judge Alex from Twentieth TV, two new court strips will roll out—Cristina’s Court from Twentieth, and Judge Maria Lopez from Sony. Desire, a series of U.S.-made telenovelas that was also slated for syndication, has been moved over to MyNetworkTV, while rumors of a Patricia Heaton talker from Buena Vista TV have not been confirmed by the syndicator.

One recent announcement that could potentially shake up the tired weekend mix (which is excluded from our rating results given the lack of movement) is the 10-market test run this spring of first-run sitcom House of Payne from Debmar-Mercury. Plans are to take it national in fall 2007. “Once a staple in the marketplace, the first-run comedy has all but evaporated,” notes Brad Adgate, Horizon Media senior vp of corporate research. “But if House of Payne clicks, the mentality of imitation could rejuvenate a once-prosperous category.”

Our ratings summary provides season-to-date ratings in households and two target demographics (with change versus the comparable year-ago period in parentheses for all established series). And we use Nielsen Media Research average audience data comparing Sept. 5, 2005–April 30, 2006 to Sept. 6, 2004–May 1, 2005.

For the complete MediaWeek syndication report go here:

http://www.mediaweek.com/mediaweek/images/pdf/syn.pdf

The 2006-2007 Season
NBC shakes up each night of primetime

By Andrew Wallenstein The Hollywood Reporter May 15, 2006

NEW YORK -- Looking to get back into competitive position in primetime, NBC is shaking up every night of the week in the fall with a new primetime schedule that includes four new dramas and two comedies.

"We have hit a gold mine in terms of drama development," NBC Entertainment president Kevin Reilly told reporters during a conference call this morning in advance of NBC's formal 3 p.m. presentation today at Radio City Music Hall. "This year we had more good pilots than we had time slots to move them in."

The peacock's Monday night slate will continue to lead off with game show "Deal or No Deal" in the 8 p.m. hour, followed by new drama "Heroes," about a group of people who discover they have super powers, and the returning 10 p.m. drama "Medium."

Tuesday will open with two new dramas, 8 p.m.'s "Friday Night Lights" revolving around a high school football team in Texas, and the 9 p.m. serial thriller "Kidnapped," revolving around the abduction of the teenage son of a rich New York family. "Law & Order: SVU" remains status quo at 10 p.m.

Weight-loss reality show "The Biggest Loser" will return to the 8 p.m. Wednesday berth, followed by two new comedies, the John Lithgow-Jeffrey Tambor buddy vehicle "20 Good Years" and "30 Rock," starring "Saturday Night Live's" Tina Fey as the writer of a latenight television series. "Law & Order" is laid down as always in the 10 p.m. hour.

NBC's plans for Thursday in the fall had been the subject of much speculation during the past few weeks. The peacock opted to move its comedy duo "My Name Is Earl" and "The Office" an hour earlier to the 8-9 p.m. block to make room at 9 p.m. for drama "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip," another show-within-a-show about a latenight sketch comedy series, this time from "The West Wing" creator Aaron Sorkin. "ER" stays rooted in the 10 p.m. slot, though NBC said it planned to give "ER" a rest from repeats in the winter and early spring in favor of slotting another new drama, "The Black Donnellys," from Oscar-winner Paul Haggis, in the "ER" slot starting in January, after which "ER" will resume for the rest of the season.

A second shot of game show "Deal" will hold down the Friday 8 p.m. slot, followed by the return of drama "Las Vegas" and the relocation of "Law & Order: Criminal Intent" at 10 p.m.

The only trace of the once-mighty newsmagazine "Dateline NBC" will be found in the low-rated Saturday 8 p.m. berth, followed by a block of drama series repeats.

In the fourth quarter, NBC will be all about football on Sunday with a pregame show hosted by Bob Costas and Cris Collingsworth from 7-8 p.m. (ET) and the new "Sunday Night Football" showcase from 8-11 p.m. (ET).

Once football concludes its run in January, NBC plans to counterprogram its rivals on Sunday with the talent show "America's Got Talent," hosted by Regis Philbin, followed by the return of Donald Trump's "The Apprentice" and at 10 p.m. the new drama "Raines," starring Jeff Goldblum as a cop who talks to dead victims.

On deck for unspecified midseason premieres are the returning drama "Crossing Jordan" and comedy "Scrubs" and new comedies "The Singles Table" and "Andy Barker, P.I."

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr/television/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1002502477

The 2006-2007 Season
NBC unveils fall sked

New offerings include 'Studio 60,' '20 Years' and '30 Rock'
By Denise Martin Variety.com May 15, 2006

Kicking off upfront week, NBC on Monday morning took the wraps off a 9 p.m. tentpole strategy in which the network will bow several of its new offerings including the Aaron Sorkin drama "Studio 60" and laffers "20 Years," starring John Lithgow and Jeffrey Tambor, and Tina Fey-scripted "30 Rock."

NBC entertainment prexy Kevin Reilly said the "heavy lifting" and marketing efforts will be directed at the 9 p.m. hour. Exec noted that comedy "is a challenged genre," explaining his decision to launch just two in the fall, while banking another pair for later in the season.

Peacock will sked "Studio 60" Thursdays at 9 p.m., putting on hold its traditional four-comedy series block. "My Name is Earl" and "The Office" will move up to the 8-9 hour, while "E.R." will remain at 10 for the fall.

Thirteen episodes of "The Black Donnellys," Paul Haggis' rookie family crime drama, will move into the 10 o'clock timeslot in January.

Mondays at 9, Peacock introduce "Heroes," about ordinary folk-turned-superheroes (benching "The Appren-tice" until next year). "Deal or No Deal" and "Medium" will remain at 8 and 10, respectively.

NBC on Tuesdays will bow a pair of frosh dramas: Looking to get a boost from the NFL football games on Sunday night will be high school football skein "Friday Night Lights" at 8, followed by Sony's "Kidnapped" at 9. "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" will continue to anchor 10, while "Scrubs" will return later in the season.

Wednesdays at 9 will feature a new comedy block containing "20 years" and "30 Rock." Return of "The Biggest Loser" at 8 will lead into the new shows, and "Law & Order" will stay put at 10. Reilly said creator-exec producer Dick Wolf would be making several changes to the show, including new cast members who would be announced shortly.

A second play of "Deal" will anchor Fridays at 8, followed by a new season of "Las Vegas" and "Law & Order: Criminal Intent," which relocates from Sunday night.

Saturday will continue to feature "Dateline" and reruns of drama series.

Sundays will host NFL football in the fall. In January, Jeff Goldblum starrer "Raines" will take over the 10 p.m. slot. "Dateline" will kick off the night at 7, followed by the second installment of summer series "America's Got Talent" and a new season of "The Apprentice," which will take place in Los Angeles.

NBC has a packed bench, including new comedies "Single's Table" and "Andy Barker, P.I." starring Andy Richter and returning skein "Crossing Jordan."

Officially getting the axe are "Joey," "Surface," "Four Kings," "Fathom," "E-Ring" "Conviction" and "Teachers."

Sunday’s network prime-time ratings are now at the top of Prime Time Ratings (the first post in this thread).

Officially getting the axe are "Joey," "Surface," "Four Kings," "Fathom," "E-Ring" "Conviction" and "Teachers."

Fathom is the original name for Surface. Someone is confused. :)

Upfront Notebook
Doing what it takes to steady their grip

Slumping or soaring, TV networks wrestle with different sets of circumstances in building their lineups for next season.
By Maria Elena Fernandez Los Angeles Times Staff Writer May 15, 2006

For a decade, NBC was the market leader, pulling in hundreds of millions of dollars more than its rivals and commanding the highest rates in the television industry. But the network went from first place to fourth in the race for 18- to 49-year-old viewers last year — a standing it will keep this year — and wound up with less than $2 billion in prime-time advertising commitments.

By contrast, ABC ended a four-year sales slump last spring and has grown its audience of 18- to 49-year-olds by 8% over last season; Fox could beat its competitors in the race for 18- to 49-year-old viewers for the second consecutive year; and CBS has the most stable schedule of all, with a record 16 returning shows. So how do the networks plan to improve or hold on to their positions?

This year, NBC has produced eight comedy and seven drama pilots, fewer than usual because the network is now developing series year-round, Entertainment President Kevin Reilly said.

As a result, Reilly started picking up new series before anyone, announcing two high-profile shows in March, one from Oscar winners Paul Haggis and Bobby Moresco and the other from Jason Smilovic ("Lucky Number Slevin"). Two weeks ago, he went for a trifecta with Aaron Sorkin's new drama, "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip," starring Matthew Perry, Amanda Peet and Bradley Whitford.

"Somebody said to me once, 'You can't rebuild when the house is on fire,' " Reilly said. 'It feels like all of that is behind us now. We have no shortage of holes on our schedules. We want to come out and make a big statement this year for the audience and the advertisers. This is going to be a big drama year for us."

ABC, already in the business of successful dramas, is desperately looking for a half-hour comedy. The success of "Lost" and "Desperate Housewives" last year allowed the network to raise its rates and land $500 million more in sales for a total of $2.1 billion. Add "Grey's Anatomy," "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition," and "Dancing With the Stars" to that mix and ABC's upfront prospects look even better this year, especially since it has surpassed NBC in the race for top-rated shows among upscale viewers (18- to 49-year-olds who make $100,000 or more). ABC produced the most pilots of all the networks, with 16 dramas and 17 comedies.

"We have a very broad palette of programming, and that's something that is important to advertisers," said ABC Executive Vice President of Entertainment Jeff Bader. "We don't have seven procedurals on our air. At ABC, it's all about the characters, and you're going to see more of that this season."

Fox, which takes in less revenue because it programs just 15 hours a week in prime time compared with 22 hours on ABC, CBS and NBC, garnered $1.6 billion in upfront commitments last year and could pull in even more this year with its monster hit "American Idol," as well as the strong "24," "Prison Break" and "House." The network made history last year, beating all competitors in the race for 18- to 49-year-old viewers, and has a shot to do so again this year.

The network also finally caught a break, thanks to its favorite prisoners, in programming around major league baseball. By launching in August, "Prison Break" established a following before the October hiatus that returned to the show after baseball.

Fox President of Entertainment Peter Liguori said advertisers can expect early premieres again this year. He also expects the launching of the CW, the new youth-oriented network that is replacing the WB and UPN, to have an effect on Fox coffers.

"In my mind, the collapse of the WB and UPN presents a tremendous upside when you realize that the one network is no longer there and it probably means there's a couple hundred million dollars available in the marketplace," Liguori said.

CBS, which sold more advertising than its rivals with $2.5 billion last year, can expect to do well again this year, thanks to its stable schedule. The network may not have the industry's biggest show (Fox's "American Idol") or the most buzz (ABC's "Grey's Anatomy" and "Lost"), but it can boast of a record 16 returning shows. CBS President of Entertainment Nina Tassler announced 14 of those renewals two months early because the benefit of beefing up the returning shows months ahead of competitors outweighed the strategic advantage of keeping mum.

"We've been able to bring back our writing staffs, hire the best directors, make any early casting changes … to really shore up the creative teams for next year," she said.

CBS shot 12 comedy and 11 drama pilots, including shows produced by veterans Brian Grazer, John Wells and David Crane and starring such well-known actors as James Woods and Ray Liotta.

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/tv/la-et-upfrontstakes15may15,1,7510606,print.story

Upfront Notebook
NBC Focuses on 9 p.m. for New Fall Schedule

Network Will Keep 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. Blocks Stable
By Christopher Lisotta TVWeek.com May 15, 2006

NBC announced its fall 2006 schedule Monday, keeping its 8 p.m. (ET) and 10 p.m. hour blocks relatively stable in order to focus on new series at the 9 p.m. hour and give itself a boost from its debuting prime time football run on Sundays.

"The heavy lifting in our marketing efforts is going to be nine o'clock," Kevin Reilly, president of NBC Entertainment said in a 9 a.m. (ET) conference call from New York with reporters. From Monday to Thursday, the network is launching new dramas at 9 p.m. Calling comedy a "challenged genre," Mr. Reilly kept the same strategy he used this past season by putting only four comedies on the fall schedule.

On Monday, NBC is starting with its returning game show performer "Deal or No Deal" at 8 p.m., followed by NBC Universal Television Studios' super hero drama "Heroes" and "Medium," which stays put in its time period.

Tuesday kicks off with the NUTS/Imagine football drama "Friday Night Lights" at 8 p.m., and Sony's "Kidnapped" at 9p.m. "Law & Order: SVU" remains at 10 p.m.

On Wednesday the third installment of "The Biggest Loser" replaces what has most recently been a third "Deal" time period at 8 p.m. NBC is going with a 9p.m. comedy block of Warner Bros.' "Twenty Good Years," and the NUTS/Broadway Video comedy "30 Rock" written by and starring "Saturday Night Live's" Tina Fey.

Current 9p.m.comedy block "My Name is Earl" and "The Office" moves up an hour to 8 p.m., while Warner Bros.' "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip" debuts at 9 p.m. "ER" stays at 10 p.m. until January, when the NUTS family crime drama "The Black Donnellys" debuts at 10p.m. When "Donnellys" completes its episodes "ER" will return for the remainder of the season, allowing for all originals in the time period for 2006-07.

The network also has several shows as backups. NBC has full season, 22-episode orders for drama "Crossing Jordan" and comedy "Scrubs," plus a 13 episode order for 20th Century Fox's "Single's Table" and a 6 episode order for "Andy Barker, P.I.: from executive producer Conan O'Brien starring Andy Richter.

Sundays in January start with "Dateline" at 7 p.m., the second installment of summer series "America's Got Talent" at 8 p.m. "The Apprentice" is being held for the midseason for what will become a single season event at 9p.m. NUTS's drama "Raines" starring Jeff Goldblum premieres at 10 p.m.

Canceled shows include the second season "Joey," veteran reality series "Fear Factor" and first years "Surface," "E-Ring" "Conviction" and "Teachers." "Fear Factor" will run through this summer but won't return come fall.

http://www.tvweek.com/news.cms?newsId=9998

Upfront Notebook
NBC’s New Schedule

The Newark Star-Ledger’s Alan Sepinwall TV blog

Some quick thoughts before I get to writing the full column:

• They went and they did it: they put both the Tina Fey "SNL" show and the Aaron Sorkin "SNL" show on the fall schedule. I'm guessing they know at least one of them won't work, and if one premiered first and flopped, it would pretty much doom the other.

• Good move not putting "Friday Night Lights" on Monday or Friday, when football fans will be busy watching actual football. (In the early '90s, NBC had a high school football show called "Against the Grain" with a young Ben Affleck, and they killed it with a Friday at 8 timeslot.)

• "The Office" will be hurt by going against the second half of "Survivor," which is always the higher-rated half-hour.

• The idea behind "Heroes" appeals deeply to the comic book geek in me, but the creator is Tim Kring from "Crossing Jordan," who usually underwhelms me.

• Bummed that I'll have to wait until January for "Black Donnellys," which looks like Haggis and Moresco's attempt to redo "EZ Streets" with a more supportive network, but you can't ask for a better timeslot on NBC.

More if I think of it.

http://sepinwall.blogspot.com/

West Wing Goes Out With a Whimper

By Rebecca Stropoli -- Broadcasting & Cable, 5/15/2006 12:54:00 PM

NBC’s The West Wing left office for good on Sunday night, airing the pilot episode at 7 and the show’s final episode at 8, but the TV audience didn’t vote it a ratings winner. The final airing of Wing scored just a 2.8 rating/7 share in the key 18-49 demo, according to Nielsen Fast Affiliate numbers, beating only The WB’s Charmed (1.5/4) in the time slot. Originally, a clip show was going to air in the first hour, but the retrospective was scrapped in favor of the re-airing of the pilot (which earned a 1.7/6), reportedly for financial reasons.

Wing did have some formidable competition in the first hour of the series finale of CBS’ Survivor. The reality show scored a 5.9/15 in the time slot, going up to a 6.3/14 in its second hour. But it was no match for ABC’s Desperate Housewives, which scored an 8.1/18 in the time slot. And the Survivor reunion at 10 was trounced by Grey’s Anatomy (4.9/11 to a 9.6/22).

ABC won for the night with a 6.1/16, and CBS came in second with a 4.9/13.

Fox was third for the night with a 3.1/8 for its lineup of comedies, including the series finale of Malcom in the Middle (3.4/9).


NBC was fourth with a 2.9/7, and The WB brought up the rear with a 1.0/3.

http://broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6334790.html?display=Breaking+News

Upfront Notebook
Veronica Mars Renewed?

By Michael Ausiello TV Guide May 15, 2006

Just received a fresh batch of Upfront intel and the buzz is that CW will order 13 episodes of Veronica Mars next season.

Multiple sources close to the show confirm that this is true, but until CW makes it official on Thursday morning, I'm listing this as just a rumor.

My take? Thirteen episodes is better than zero episodes.

http://community.tvguide.com/forum.jspa?forumID=700000049

The Emperor Has No Clothes

For what reason would NBC put Sorkin's STUDIO 60 right up against
the highest rated show on TV.

What are they thinking.

STUDIO 60 could likely KILL in any other time slot . . .
againt CSI it is likely at best, at BEST, a draw.

To our friends at NBC . . . please don't risk the success of STUDIO 60

Move it to another slot where it can dominate.

Good point, cc (and welcome to the thread!)

But remember a few years ago when CBS made its first tentative steps to dethroning NBC on Thursday with "CSI" and "Without A Trace"?

People thought Moonves was crazy for that strategy, too.

I think that, like the "Law and Order" franchise, perhaps the "CSI"s could be a little vulnerable. Especially the mother ship. And at least "Studio 60" isn't another procedural.

Nonetheless, your point seems well taken.

Upfront Notebook
Premature Debut

By Marc Berman MediaWeek.com MAY 15, 2006 -

One of the more anticipated presentations in this week's upfronts will come courtesy of the CW, which unveils its inaugural lineup Thursday. Another first-time upfront presentation—in the midst of ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox dog-and-pony shows—comes from MyNetworkTV, which was

the result of stations losing their affiliations after the UPN/WB merger. I am making judgments, of course, before I actually see the presentations and hear about the new programming. But my initial concern about MyNetworkTV is its lack of new product. There are only two new shows: scripted telenovelas Desire and Secret Obsessions (which were originally slated for first-run syndication), and they will be stripped in a 13-week, 65-episode story arc. Highlights of each week will be presented on Saturday.

The CW, in contrast, is expected to initially air 12 to 15 different series, including the best of UPN and the WB (think America's Next Top Model, Girlfriends, Everybody Hates Chris, Friday Night Smackdown!, Gilmore Girls, Smallville and Supernatural) plus some new product.

While it's easy to think negatively of the CW as a combination of two disappointing networks (many would call them failures), I understand the premise behind its creation. As ratings for both were declining for years, it made sense to form a 50/50 partnership between CBS and Warner Bros., where Tribune Broadcasting, the WB's station partner, and CBS' UPN affiliates sign separate 10-year affiliation agreements with the network to secure coverage. It creates a stronger platform through which the combination of two struggling networks equals one with promise. It's a risk—a gamble I think is worth taking.

I also understand why Fox—or any broadcaster, in fact—would want to capitalize on the stations suddenly left without a network affiliation. It was an opportunity that was too good to resist, and MyNetworkTV will be anchored by 10 News Corp. stations—nine currently affiliated with UPN and one independent station—plus former affiliates of the WB and UPN not joining CW. At present, MyNetworkTV is cleared in 121 markets, representing 73 percent of the country (CW will launch with about 90 percent coverage).

But if you are going to create a network (and christening yourself MyNetworkTV is kind of odd, don't you think?), you need to do so with an ample slate of programming, not product that was created for another medium. The combination of two weak networks may not necessarily make the CW a bona fide hitmaker, but two scripted telenovelas stripped on a five-night basis on MyNetworkTV has as much chance of finding an audience as Mr. TV giving up watching the small screen.

MyNetworkTV is not going to work, and here's why: In today's 100-plus cable network households, where new technology options allow viewers to watch at anytime and sometimes anywhere, there is little to no chance that a viewer will commit to an unproven scripted drama five nights a week. The Big Three networks, in fact, have all but abandoned the once prosperous miniseries format for this very reason.

Look at what happened to NBC when it recently tried to find an audience for the five-consecutive-night Celebrity Cooking Showdown. After the third telecast, NBC yanked the show and buried the final two episodes that Saturday. It was a colossal failure. I anticipate the same for these 'novelas; particularly the 9 p.m. occupant, which gets no lead-in support.

Serialized stripped dramas work in daytime because many viewers are able to work viewing into a regular schedule. The competition from cable during daytime is not as threatening. Serials face an uphill battle in prime time because the competition is just too fierce to commit to watching something on multiple nights of the week. And, truth be told, the addition of Bo Derek on Secret Obsessions does not make the network-wannabe a "10." Remember how long her last prime-time series, Wind on Water, lasted? Two episodes!

Although the CW has a built-in advantage with proven programs and a stronger station lineup, the chances of MyNetworkTV making an impact, at least initially, are as slim as when Pax arrived filled with promises it never kept.

Sure, there is no guarantee the CW will succeed. Nothing in this business, after all, is a given. But at least you can see the effort that has gone into creating it. I don't see the same long-term commitment with MyNetworkTV, and early expected negative results might be difficult, if not impossible, to overcome.

Upfront Notebook
Exclusive! CBS Pickups & Renewals

By Nikki Finke deadlinehollywooddaily.com

I'm told that CBS, which has shown remarkable close-mouthed discipline, is finally letting some news seep out about its fall season primetime pickups and renewals.

CBS pickups so far are Shark, Smith, Jericho, Waterfront and 3 LBS (the network is still determining whether this latter one will go fall or midseason).

CBS has renewed Close to Home.

More updates as they come in

http://www.deadlinehollywooddaily.com/

I am happy to hear about Close To Home as the show I think has gotten a lot better over time.

Upfront Notebook
Where's Oprah's ball?

By Hal Boedeker Orlando Sentinel Television Critic in the Sentinel’s TV blog May 15, 2006

President Bush's prime-time speech continues to rearrange tonight's schedule. CBS and ABC announced Monday that they will carry the address. Oprah Winfrey fans must wait a week to see her legends ball special, which will air at 8 p.m. May 22.

At 8 tonight instead, ABC will offer the speech, then follow it by joining in progress a repeat of the first hour of the "Grey's Anatomy" from Sunday. That repeat will lead into the medical drama's final two hours for the season from 9 to 11. On CBS ...

the Eye Network will carry Bush, then air its regular, full schedule afterward.

Fox and NBC announced last week that they would carry Bush's address. That means the Fox lineup will start at least 20 minutes later. Fans of "Prison Break" and "24" need to remember the switch.

http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/entertainment_tv_tvblog/2006/05/wheres_oprahs_b.html

Critic’s Notebook
'Wing'ing away:

By Rob Owen Pittsburgh Post-Gazette TV Editor

The final episode of NBC's "The West Wing" was classy and heartfelt, what with Leo posthumously giving Bartlet the framed "Barlet for America" napkin he used to convince Bartlet to run years ago.

Anyone else notice the cameo by series creator Aaron Sorkin? He was the guy in round glasses shown in the grandstand at the Santos inauguration.

I'll miss this show, but it went out in high fashion.

http://www.post-gazette.com/tv/tunedin/

Overnights in the 18-49 Demo
'Survivor' finale sinks to a record low

By Toni Fitzgerald MediaLifeMagazine.com staff writer May 15, 2006

A season of record-low ratings for “Survivor: Exile Island” also led to what will likely be a record low for last night’s finale as well.

From 8 to 10 p.m., it averaged a 6.1 in adults 18-49, according to Nielsen overnights, down 20 percent from last December’s “Survivor: Guatemala’s” 7.6 average. It was also down 18 percent from the previous lowest-rated finale, a 7.4.

That’s still a potent number, but clearly the show is in decline. At 9 p.m., it aired opposite ABC’s “Desperate Housewives,” which averaged an 8.1 to “Survivor’s” 6.3. CBS’s strategy of airing “Survivor’s” finale on Sunday worked better several years ago, when it didn’t have ABC’s powerhouse Sunday lineup to contend with.

At 10 p.m., airing opposite ABC’s “Grey’s Anatomy,” which averaged a 9.6, the “Survivor” reunion averaged just a 4.9.
Elsewhere last night, the series finales of NBC’s “The West Wing” and Fox’s “Malcolm in the Middle” both saw bumps over their regular-season averages, though not huge ones.

“Wing” averaged a 2.8 at 8 p.m., finishing fourth in the timeslott. That’s not even half what the show used to average during its early heyday, but it was 0.5 better than last week.

“Malcolm” averaged a 3.4 at 8:30, moving behind “The Simpsons” for an extra bit of punch. That may be “Malcolm’s” highest-rated episode of the season when final ratings are released.

Meanwhile, ABC won the night among 18-49s with a 6.1 rating and 16 share. CBS was second with a 4.9/13, Fox third with a 3.1/8, NBC fourth with a 2.9/7, Univision fifth with a 1.5/4 and WB sixth with a 1.0/3.

ABC and CBS tied for the lead at 7 p.m. with a 2.5 for “America’s Funniest Home Videos” and “60 Minutes,” respectively. Fox was third with a 2.1 for a “Simpsons” repeat (1.8) and the finale of “King of the Hill” (2.4).

At 8 p.m., CBS moved ahead with a 5.9 for the “Survivor” finale, followed by ABC with a 4.2 for “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” and Fox with a 3.7 for “Simpsons” (3.9) and “Malcolm” (3.4).

At 9 p.m., ABC took over the lead with an 8.1 for “Housewives.” CBS was second with a 6.3 for “Survivor” and Fox third with a 3.5 for “”Family Guy” (3.8) and the finale of “American Dad” (3.1).

At 10 p.m., ABC held on to the lead with a 9.6 for “Grey’s.” CBS’s “Survivor Reunion” was second with a 4.9 followed by NBC with a 3.7 for the finale of “Law & Order: Criminal Intent.”

Among households, ABC won the night with a 9.5 rating and 16 share, followed by CBS with a 8.4/14, NBC with a 6.4/11, Fox with a 3.9/7, Univision with a 1.6/3 and WB with a 1.5/3.

http://www.medialifemagazine.com/artman/publish/printer_4756.asp

I am happy to hear about Close To Home as the show I think has gotten a lot better over time.

Agreed, steve.

Upfront Notebook
Eye adds six pickups to roster

CBS renews 'King of Queens,' 'Close to Home'
By Josef Adalian Variety.com

CBS is joining the pickup parade, adding at least four new dramas and a couple comedies to its roster.

Net's not talking, but insiders Monday said the net gave a thumbs up to dramas "Jericho," "Smith, "Waterfront" and the untitled Peter Ocko project (formerly "3 lbs.")

On the comedy front, "The Class" has been greenlit, while an Adam Sandler-produced half-hour from Tom Hertz has landed a midseason order.

Eye also gave good news to some bubble shows, ordering 13 episodes of "King of Queens" and second seasons of crime drama "Close to Home" and laffer "The New Adventures of Old Christine."

It's likely CBS will pick up a few more shows before its upfront announcement Wednesday.

While "Smith" is a crime drama, rest of Eye's drama pickups are less blood-stained.

"Waterfront" is a family/political sudser starring Joe Pantoliano and William Baldwin. Ocko show is a medical hour, while "Jericho" tells the story of a town that survives an apocalyptic event.

Upfront Notebook
Sorkin comedy-drama, night of football highlight NBC's fall lineup

By Charlie McCollum San Jose Mercury News Mon, May. 15, 2006

Looking to pull itself out of a ratings nose dive, NBC today unveiled a drastically reshaped fall schedule that includes a night devoted entirely to football and a heavy dose of new dramas.

The roster of freshman series is topped by ``Studio 60 On the Sunset Strip,'' a comedy-drama about life behind the scenes of a late night comedy sketch show not unlike NBC's own ``Saturday Night Live.'' Created by Aaron Sorkin of ``The West Wing'' and featuring a cast headed by Matthew Perry (``Friends''), Amanda Peet (``Syriana'') and Bradley Whitford (``West Wing''), it has already generated huge advance buzz and will be asked to take on CBS blockbuster ``CSI'' at 9 p.m. Thursday.

``Studio 60'' is considered so crucial to the success of the network's new schedule that promos for the show began airing Sunday night during the series finale of ``West Wing'' -- four months before its debut.

To accommodate the flood of newcomers and the return of the NFL to the network, several current shows have been pushed off to mid-season including one-time hit ``The Apprentice'' and ``Crossing Jordan.'' At the last moment, NBC renewed medical comedy ``Scrubs'' but in a move sure to pain its rabid cult audience, it will be kept on the back burner until January.

Also scheduled for mid-season is another buzz-heavy drama: ``The Black Donnellys,'' a blue-collar crime drama from Paul Haggis, who directed ``Crash,'' and Bobby Moresco, who wrote the Oscar-winning film. It will split the 10 p.m. Thursday slot with the long-running ``ER.''

In addition to ``Studio 60,'' NBC's fall lineup is loaded with other high-profile, high-concept shows including:

• ``Friday Night Lights,'' a series about high school football written and directed by Peter Berg who made the hit film version of Buzz Bissinger's best-selling novel.

• ``30 Rock,'' another take (this one, a half-hour sitcom) on late night TV from ``SNL'' insider Tina Fey who stars along with Alec Baldwin, a regular host of ``SNL,'' and former cast members Tracy Morgan and Rachel Dratch.

• ``Kidnapped,'' a serialized thriller about . . . as you might guess . . . the kidnapping of the teenage son of a wealthy family. Written by Jason Smilovic (the very good ``Karen Sisco''), it has a huge cast headed by Timothy Hutton (``Kinsey''), Jeremy Sisto (``Six Feet Under''), Delroy Lindo ``Lackawanna Blues''), Dana Delany (``China Beach'') and Mykelti Williamson (``Boomtown'').

• ``20 Good Years,'' an ``Odd Couple''-style sitcom starring two proven scene-stealers: Broadway star John Lithgow (``3rd Rock From the Sun'') and Jeffrey Tambor (``Arrested Development.'')

• ``Heroes,'' a sci-fi drama from Tim Kring (``Crossing Jordan'') involving ordinary people who suddenly discover they have superpowers ranging from the ability to fly to seeing the future.

Perhaps the most important part of the NBC schedule was in place well before network executives presented its new shows to advertisers today.

Over a year ago, NBC agreed to pay the NFL $600 million a year for six years to air games on Sunday nights, as part of a pro-football shuffle that included the venerable ``Monday Night Football'' moving from ABC to ESPN. It then snagged the highly regarded ``MNF'' team of Al Michaels and John Madden (and key members of their production team) to do the games.

The new football package will take over the entire NBC prime-time schedule on Sunday, starting with ``Football Night In America,'' a pre-game show anchored by long-time Olympics host Bob Costas. ``Sunday Night Football'' will begin at 5 p.m. on the West Coast.

The addition of the NFL package -- which also includes playoff games and the Super Bowl on a rotating basis -- not only gives NBC some badly needed ratings punch on Sundays but also a high-profile platform to promote its other shows beginning in September.

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/entertainment/television/14584415.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp

Ok...silly question from someone who just got their HD antenna a few days ago. Any chance the President's address will be in HD? Just curious...thanks

Good question, jrcorwin.

Welcome to the HD club and the thread.

I have no idea....but tonight check between the Big Four networks and PBS.

One -- or more -- may carry the address in HD. The shots are supplied by one of the networks (on a rotation basis) to all as a pool operation.

I don't believe the pool is in HD yet, but I am not sure.

Upfront Notebook
Execs thinking outside the tube

By Maria Elena Fernandez and Matea Gold Los Angeles Times Staff Writers May 15, 2006

Digital Mania has descended.

Sure, there will be plenty of fussing over the return of Matthew Perry and other celebs to television this week, but many of the big splashes at the upfronts will be about techie stuff: digital strategies and new platforms — plans for launching new fall shows with accompanying original content on the Web, cellphones and iPods; streaming video of current episodes online; and new broadband entertainment channels.

"It's much more in the wind now," said NBC Entertainment President Kevin Reilly. "Up until a year or so ago, it was maybe a peripheral conversation at best. It's now a regular part of our daily discussion. We call it '360 development.' Now, we are certainly talking right out of the gate, 'Here's a great show, we love it, what is its digital capability?' With some shows, it just kind of takes very naturally, and those are the ones you know you're going to have a winner."

At the network's presentation today, NBC Universal Television Group Chief Executive Jeff Zucker will announce NBC's digital strategy, including plans to hire separate writing staffs to launch original content on different platforms for new shows.

At the CBS presentation at Carnegie Hall on Wednesday, executives are expected to devote substantial time to innertube, the network's new broadband entertainment channel, said JoAnn Ross, president of network sales. "The clients out there looking for fast reach still believe in broadcast television, but they do want to have a toe in the water in this new space," Ross said. "Some of them want big ideas. Some of them want to do tests. Some want to do one [platform] versus another."

ABC, already a leader in original show-related content for the Web, will probably spotlight its current project to stream video of shows such as "Lost" and "Desperate Housewives" on its site the day after episodes air.

"In our experience, the best shows still drive the platform," said Albert Cheng, executive vice president of digital media for Disney-ABC Television Group. "People come to you because they know 'Desperate,' they know 'Lost.' That is the base that we build on and then expand."

At the end of this month, Fox will end its fourth consecutive season in first place among 18- to 34-year-old viewers, and the network plans to stress to advertisers its ability to reach that demographic not just on television but also online. For the first time at the upfronts, Ross Levinsohn, president of Fox Interactive Media, will be giving a presentation to emphasize the vast reach of the company's websites (Americanidol.com and MySpace.com) among young people.

"The reality of the business is that certainly the core demographic of 18- to 34-year-olds are multi-tasking all the time now," Levinsohn said. "They're experiencing media and not just on television. I think it's important for us as a company to be in all those places."

But network presidents agree that quality content yields multi-platform opportunities and not vice versa. They also know that even with the touting of loads of digital product, advertisers are sure to keep mainly to the traditional route.

"The traditional method of using a 30-second spot is very alive and well, and will continue to be for some time," said Shari Anne Brill, program director for the media-buying firm Carat USA. Advertisers will be looking for networks to detail the demographics they can reach through the digital media, Brill added.

"These platforms and technology are terrific, but they're additive and they're all small at this point," said Steve McPherson, ABC's president of prime-time entertainment. "We're going to see a lot of them fail and a lot of them work in certain ways but not necessarily the way everyone thinks they will. The bottom line is that content is still driving all these decisions."

Before advertisers are wooed by technology, they must first be fans of the programming, Brill agreed. "It doesn't matter if I can get NBC content in all these places," she said. "I need to first hear that the NBC content is going to be good."

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/tv/la-et-upfrontdigital15may15,1,3938303,print.story?coll=la-entnews-tv

Upfront Notebook
NBC Upfront: Unveils DotComedy.com

John Consoli and Marc Berman mediaweek.com MAY 15, 2006 -

NBC Universal will launch a new broadband comedy channel called DotComedy.com which will offer some of NBC's classic comedies and content from the network's late-night programming lineup of Saturday Night Live, The Tonight Show, Late Night with Conan O'Brien and the first 10 years of Late Night with David Letterman. The channel will also offer encore episodes of The Office, Last Comic Standing, Dream On, Coach, Leave it to Beaver and The Munsters, among others.

Dotcomedy.com will also feature original content produced exclusively for the site, including blogs and podcasts.

The launch is part of a new NBC Universal initiative announced today called TV 360, that will also offer Web tie-in and extras for several of NBC's new fall shows.

Under this initiative, NBCU will also launch a FirstLook.com franchise for each of its online properties (NBCFirstlook,com, SciFiFirsLook.com, USAFirstLook,com, BravoFirstLook.com). Each site will premiere up to four episodes of their respective networks' series in their entirety, each year, before they appear on the broadcast or cable networks.

NBC also announced today that it has completed the acquisition of iVillage, a popular Web destination for women. This December, NBC will launch iVillage Live, a one-hour program that will be streamed on iVillage.com and will also air onf NBC Universal owned and operated TV stations. The show will be dedicated to delivering information and advice on parenting, pregnancy, and health and beauty.

This month all of the NBC Universal Web properties will be premiering a newly-developed media player that will feature a technology that makes additional downloads for consumers unnecessary. Because the player will be uniform across all NBC Universal Web sites, advertisers will be able to buy ads across all.

Other TV 360 components include: 30 standalone webisodes of The Office, the first 10 which will begin streaming this summer; a new interactive component to the NBC series Law & Order: Criminal Intent; additional online content to coincide with the freshman fall premiere of NBC drama Heroes; a weekly online webisode of Friday Night Lights, another new NBC fall drama; an extension of the comedy sketches from NBC's new fall show 30 Rock which appear only as a brief segment in the on air show; an exclusive online component for the summer reality show Treature Hunters; a new online-only Daytime soap opera called The Cove.

Jeff Zucker, CEO, NBC Universal Television Group, said TV 360 will show "the power of the web to capture viewers, extend the television experience, and buid communities and a level of engagement like nothing else out there."

http://www.mediaweek.com/mw/news/recent_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1002502554

Upfront Notebook
NBC : The Curtain Raises

By Virginia Heffernan The New York Times in the Times upfront blog

Madonna’s loud at Radio City Music Hall: time goes by so slowly. Must be the upfronts.

Why can’t I be blase about these things? Once again, I’m not appropriately unexcited at the thought of a week of manic come-ons by the networks, as they pitch their fall schedules to would-be advertisers as if they were the rapture. For months the flaks have been on their Treos around the clock, intoxicated with power: Will “ER” change its timeslot? Will NBC pick up not one but two shows about another of its shows, “Saturday Night Live”? Will the fragile new CW network choke? Is ABC really going to renew “What About Brian”?

Here in Radio City, as the pre-show music switches to something not Madonna, people look highlighted, flat-ironed, and anxious. It’s NBC, after all. The fourth-rated network, television’s biggest loser.

And yet no one quite seems eager for a comeback. It’s just not time. We’re all still hurt by how smug Jeff Zucker and Co. used to be. Still are?

I predict one more year of humility -- starting now -- before they’ll come across like that good kind of underdog, the one you root for. Not the one you, in spite of yourself, just want to kick again.

Curtain. More soon.

http://www.nytimes.com/ref/arts/television/tv-upfronts.html

Upfront Notebook
NBC : The Curtain Raises II

By Virginia Heffernan The New York Times in the Times upfront blog

Crazy Talk

Crazy Billy from ”Six Feet Under” and Delroy Lindo flog "Kidnapped," which I’ve heard from credible sources is terrific. What’s CrazyB’s real name? He plays a guy who gets kidnapped people back -- a kidnap-retrieval expert or something. It does look good, sweeping and suspenseful. The first season chronicles one kidnapping -- the son of rich, suspicious Manhattan parents.

Oh yeah: Jeremy Sisto. Will he be the first HBO alumnus to have a network hit?

Funny — and Not

I totally misread the mood in here. Not going to lie. People are roaring at these trailers--even the one for "30 Rock," the comedy about an “SNL”-like show that got picked up in a nail-biter. Alec Baldwin deserves a network comedy, and Rachel Dratch is the most game, loose, consistently pitch-perfect lady comic on TV -- they both look great in the trailer.

Ugh, though -- “The Black Donnellys.” OK, the “Crash” guy is behind it, and it’s got that Irishy mournful "Mystic River" spirit to it. People think it’s TV gold. But “Crash” was trite and preachy. Aha -- and so is this.

Not So Super

"Heroes" looks weird -- like, full of howlers. It’s another supernatural show, this one about ordinary people, like Jess from “Gilmore Girls,” who get superpowers. There’s lots of jumping off high buildings and surviving. A scene of one of the stars resetting a hideously dislocated arm seems like a spoof of something else that a kid might post on YouTube.

Satire, Sorkin Style

Now the moment we’ve all been waiting for: Aaron Sorkin’s "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip." It appears to take an almost morbidly serious, self-important approach -- say, a "West Wing" approach -- to the making of a comedy show. Yes, it’s “SNL” again. But instead of the new “SNL”--the one Tina Fey both writes for and now sends up on "30 Rock" -- "Studio 60" dramatizes something that looks more like the old ”SNL,” the one that allegedly heroically did hard-hitting political satire (“I’m a bee. Buzz buzz.”) So that’s how Sorkin gets to stay serious: his show’s about free speech, and bracing satire, and moral high ground. Matthew Perry in the lead. Looks like a bust.

Oh, P.S.: Matthew Perry told the audience that expectations for Studio 60" were too high. He begged advertisers not to get their hopes up, and instead see the Sorkin drama as "the little show that could." That’s the network’s best hope, too -- to be seen that way.

And Jeff Zucker, who’s now on stage, seems to get that: he has muted the posturing and hype almost entirely, and is giving a wonky presentation about webisodes of ”The Office” and snoozey "digital platforms." So chastened, this guy. You almost want him to win…

Or, nah. Not yet.

http://www.nytimes.com/ref/arts/television/tv-upfronts.html

Upfront Notebook
NBC : The Curtain Raises III

By Virginia Heffernan The New York TimesTV Critic in the Times upfront blog

Roll Call

Keith Turner, the president of sales and marketing for NBC Universal, shows up in pinstripes, a three-piece suit. Jokes about how hot Amanda Peet is. His smile is predatory. Time goes by so slowly.

Now we get a review session: Jeff Goldblum as a wacko detective on "Raines," Howie Mandel and the embarrassing success of “Deal or No Deal,” overhyped ”Studio 60,” actual passion for ”The Black Donnellys,” promising ”Kidnapped,” scary old-man comedy "20 Good Years."

And Regis hosting Simon Cowell’s gong show, ”America’s Got Talent.”

John Lithgow, Regis, Jeff Goldblum, Trump, Jeffrey Tambor. To say nothing of John Madden. Man, there are a lot of geezers on NBC. And this is the network that bought ivillage?

Digital Download

Zucker is talking about redesigned Web sites and online tech reviews on scifi.com. Apparently one ad campaign on the web raised brand awareness of Maybelline. Jeff, what happened? Doing these little management chores when you, in your nature, should be swaggering?

Still number four. Losing Katie. I swear there’s a tear in his eye. He looks by turns exhausted, robotic, and grieving. His big news: NBC has acquired ivillage. And nbc.com has a new video player. He’s really trying to act high on digital. He’s even picked up the futuristic and withering name for regular television: "linear" broadcasting.

The “Today” show people are on stage promoting NBC’s news, but no Meredith Vieira. Hmm. Barbara won’t let her out yet?

Oh no -- sorry. Meredith is here in a silvery suit, trying to demonstrate chemistry with Matt. She’s making lesbian jokes about “The View,” and she’s pleasant, and she’s in her 50's, and maybe it’s all going to be OK.

Overtime

Football. Not "Friday Night Lights," the weepy high school football show they previewed earlier, but the real thing. NBC won the rights to broadcast the NFL: Sunday Night Football. Bob Costas and John Madden and other foghorn-voiced football people are on stage carrying footballs. They’re talking about throwing them into the audience. Oh god please don’t throw them at me

Pass Perfect

Nope. Up in the balcony. Crowd loves it. It’s actually thrilling. Excellent low-low-tech stunt. Like football on television

http://www.nytimes.com/ref/arts/television/tv-upfronts.html

Upfront Notebook
On NBC in the fall

By Melanie McFarland Seattle Post-Intelligencer TV Critic in her TV blog
For the few people who still get anxious over the stuff that's running on NBC, the wait for the new schedule is over.

The good news: "Scrubs" lives on for another year. Yes!

The not so good news: It won't be back until midseason. Damn!

The bad news: Well, not bad for me, but I'm sure there are some people out there who watched and liked "Joey," "Teachers," "E-Ring," "Surface," "Four Kings," "Most Outrageous Moments," "Conviction," "Heist," "The Book of Daniel," "Three Wishes" and "Inconceivable." Sorry, but none of those series is coming back.

In their place are 10 new series -- four dramas and two comedies premiering in the fall, with two dramas and two more comedies coming in midseason.

You'll also notice that every night has been tweaked, except for Saturday, which is still considered to be a lost cause. "Law & Order: Criminal Intent" has been moved off of Sundays in order to make room for football. It'll now air Fridays at 10, which either will work or be the end of it. Two other scheduling shifts aren't nearly as surprising: "My Name Is Earl" and "The Office" are set to lead off Thursday nights, which NBC still hopes to sell as a comedy destination although the "Must-See TV" concept is deader than "Joey."

http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/print.asp?entryID=103497

Upfront Notebook
NBC adds six shows, scraps many for fall season

By Diane Holloway Austin American-Statesman TV Writer in her TV blog May 15, 2006

First out of the gate with its fall schedule announcements, NBC trumpeted the addition of four new dramas and two new sitcoms.

These so-called “upfront” presentations to advertisers always make a big deal of new shows but never mention cancellations. So, here you go:

Among last fall’s newcomers, “Surface,” “E-Ring,” “Three Wishes” and “Inconceivable” are gone. So is “Joey,” the “Friends” spinoff that never caught on because it was just so awful. Also missing is the spring replacement series “Conviction,” from the churn-‘em-out studios of Dick Wolf.

No surprise: “The West Wing” and “Will & Grace” have ended their long runs, and “Dateline NBC” will be seen on Saturday nights only.

“Scrubs” will return “at a later date,” according to NBC, along with “Crossing Jordan.” And just in case you thought you had gotten rid of Donald Trump once and for all, NBC assures us that “The Apprentice” will return in January, after NBC’s “Sunday Night Football” ends.

So, what’s new?

“Friday Night Lights,” Peter Berg’s Austin-filmed series inspired by the book and feature film of the same name. Kyle Chandler stars as the high-school football coach, Connie Britton plays his wife and a host of new talent co-stars as players and gal pals.

“Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip,” Aaron Sorkin’s new drama about the behind-the-scenes goings on at a late-night sketch comedy show that sounds oh-so-much like “Saturday Night Live.” The star-studded cast includes Matthew Perry, Bradley Whitford, Amanda Peet, Sarah Paulson, D.L. Hughley, Timothy Busfield and Steven Weber.

“Heroes,” described as “an epic drama about ordinary people with extraordinary abilities.” Adrian Pasdar plays a politician in a cast of largely unknown actors.

“Kidnapped,” a serialized thriller about a wealthy teen who is kidnapped. The cast includes Timothy Hutton, Dana Delany and Jeremy Sisto.

The new comedies are: “30 Rock,” yet another show about behind-the-scenes activities at a show very muck like “SNL” (the half-hour comedy stars Tina Fey, Tracy Morgan and Alec Baldwin); and “20 Good Years,” with John Lithgow and Jeffrey Tambor as aging pals desperate to live life to the fullest.

http://www.austin360.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/austin/tvblog/

HD Notebook
Voom Launches Treasure HD

Partnering With The Forbes Collector to Deliver Cross-Platform Content
By James Hibberd TV Week May 15, 2006

Rainbow Media announced an addition to its Voom high-definition suite Monday-Treasure HD. The channel is funded by a partnership between Voom and The Forbes Collector, a subsidiary Forbes Magazine that helps collectors improve their acquisition skills.

"Treasure HD looks forward to working with Forbes and continuing to deliver a valuable, story-driven, entertaining television experience for the collecting community," said George Lansbury, executive producer of Treasure HD.

The partnership will include the channel, as well as cross-promotional content available online and in the magazine.

Rainbow's Voom suite is carried nationally by Dish Network.

http://www.tvweek.com/news.cms?newsId=10005

Critic’s Notebook
"West Wing" finale an emotional goodbye

By Barry Garron The Hollywood Reporter

LOS ANGELES - It came on with a bang seven seasons ago, startling viewers who could scarcely believe a TV series could be so smart, thought-provoking, beautifully written and well-acted, all at the same time.

And with the final episode of "The West Wing" on Sunday, it seems a safe bet that it will be a long time, if ever, before TV again tackles profound topics like politics as policy with as much dramatic mettle.

The series, a contemporary video version of President Kennedy's Camelot conceived by Aaron Sorkin and upheld by John Wells, went out with its head held high. Instead of tackling thorny issues with compelling explosive story lines, the finale was a long goodbye, filled with emotional moments that evoked the richness of the show's past. These included references to Leo McGarry, the character played by late actor John Spencer. His death in December seemed to foretell the lowering of the curtain on this much-honored yet oddly underappreciated series.

Clinging to tradition, "West Wing" imparted yet another important civics lesson before leaving the stage for good. This time, it demonstrated the efficient and orderly way power is transferred from one administration to the next. Perfect timing, considering it was broadcast on the eve of the "upfronts," the annual week of TV transition.

http://channels.netscape.com/news/story.jsp?idq=/ff/story/0002/20060515/1843075925.htm

Critic’s Notebook
ABC's 'Anatomy' lesson

Commentary By Verne Gay Newsday Staff Writer May 15, 2006

On some imaginary laundry list of things that must really bug a top-rated hit - right below tepid promotion, network indifference or outrageous cast salary demands - is the dreaded moment when you are no longer "top-rated" but "second banana." This watershed event then creates a golden opportunity for the whole world - or at least critics, bloggers, obsessed fans and other people without lives - to jabber about What's Wrong With You.

Not that people have necessarily needed an excuse like falling numbers to carve into "Desperate Housewives." The show has been hounded by nattering naysayers since nearly the season premiere when critics began to lament some general creative decline, as if "Housewives" were Shakespeare in the first season but had become merely Spelling by the second. (Call that the sophomore jinx - defined as the shocking realization some people come to after having ridiculously over-praised the show during its freshman year.)

Like all well-produced prime-time soaps - the highest compliment that "Housewives" probably deserves - this show has still managed to keep core viewers coming back week after week (22 million of them on average) but gradually - in fact, glacially - "Housewives" has now become second banana to top banana "Grey's Anatomy."

When and why did this happen? February's a good place to start, when 100 million drive-by viewers got a quick glance at "Grey's" following ABC's broadcast of the Super Bowl; some actually stuck around. "Grey's" prevailed over "Housewives" a few times during the next couple of months, but "Housewives" always quickly regained alpha female status by toppling "Grey's." Back and forth they went until this month when "Grey's" toppled "DH" two weeks in a row. (Most recently, 22 million viewers to "Housewives'" 21 million.)

After part two of "Grey's" two-part finale airs tonight (9:20p.m. on Ch. 7), the show will likely be ABC's most viewed show of the season. ("Desperate Housewives" wraps Sunday at 9 p.m.) Meanwhile, "Grey's" will end up 2million viewers ahead of last season while "Housewives" will be down a million.

For all practical purposes, a scorecard like this doesn't make a huge difference in the lives and fortunes of network TV programs. Both of these remain twin engines fueling ABC's resurgence the past couple of seasons, and both are owned by parent company, Disney, which has a vested interest in making sure both remain vital for years to come. In fact, ABC will likely shift "Housewives" to Monday nights in the fall, filling the considerable void left by "Monday Night Football." ABC would hardly deploy an ailing show as part of its most important strategic prime-time initiative in a decade.

But still, that doesn't mean nothing is wrong with "Housewives." This season, "Housewives" felt like a show in search of an all-encompassing, all-meaning story that gave meaning or context to the dozen little narratives that were threaded through each episode. The Betty Applewhite (Alfre Woodard) storyline never filled the void left by the resolution of the Mary Alice story last year (That would be the season-ending shocker when it was finally revealed that Mary Alice had killed Dierdre to keep her from taking back Zach).

And while it might be a stretch to say "Housewives" had an emotional wallop last season, it would not be a stretch to say that it has had none this season. Gabrielle's (Eva Longoria) effort to have a baby with Carlos has become comic relief - like the miscommunication with housekeeper Xiao Mei over whether she should be the baby's surrogate mother. Susan's (Teri Hatcher) on-again-off-again affair with Karl (Richard Burgi) may give Edie (Nicollette Sheridan) a reason to burn down her house, but hardly any reason for viewers to care whether she does or not. Bree (Marcia Cross) kicks her son out of her house for having sex with her boyfriend, but who are we supposed to feel sorry for, mother or son? Or neither?

The most "relatable" pair of season one - we speak, naturally, of baby-overwhelmed Lynette and Tom Scavo (Felicity Huffman and Doug Savant, respectively) - have become almost unrecognizable (Tom, in particular), and almost unbearable.

"Grey's," meanwhile, has become a better show - better than it was last season, and better, quantifiably so, than "Housewives." Not that it, too, isn't cluttered with story lines, all unresolved, but they mostly remain in service of the show's greater theme: That strong women, no matter how valiant their intentions, will always be sideswiped by weak men or by their own inner, unshakable demons. Or, as Meredith (Ellen Pompeo) mused recently, "The problem is trying to control the damage that we've done or that's been done to us."

"Grey's" producers have also had the wisdom to retain the central animating story - Dr. Derek "McDreamy" Shepherd (Patrick Dempsey) versus Meredith. That's why this show is now working while "Housewives" is not: There's never been a mystery, per se, or bones buried in the swimming pool, or sons locked in cellars, but only this brittle, bitter, unresolved and irresolvable relationship (among many) that brings viewers back for more.

It's all as simple as ABC, and right now, "Grey's" knows its alphabet better than "Desperate Housewives."

http://www.newsday.com/entertainment/tv/ny-etoff4742559may15,0,2540099,print.column?coll=ny-television-headlines

Presidential Pre-Emption Notebook
Bush boots Oprah

By Bruce Schwartz USA Today

President Bush will knock Oprah Winfrey off the air tonight (Monday). Winfrey's Oprah's Legends Ball special is being booted by Bush's last-minute scheduling of a speech about immigration issues at 8 p.m. ET. The talk show host's hour-long extravaganza is rescheduled for next Monday at 8.

In its place, on the East Coast, ABC will join a repeat of last night's Grey's Anatomy in progress following the Bush speech (which is expected to last 20 minutes); it will air in its entirety in the West. ABC will air a 30-second recap of the Grey's Anatomy episode from last night, and then join the show in progress in the East.

All four networks have now committed to airing the speech. CBS and Fox will slide their schedules back 20 minutes will NBC will collapse Deal or No Deal to fill 95 minutes.

So to reset your TiVos:

• On Fox, Prison Break's finale will begin at 8:20 ET/8 p.m. PT; 24, at 9:20 ET/9 PT.

• On NBC, Deal or No Deal will air 8:25 ET/8 PT; The Apprentice, 10 ET/PT

• On ABC, Grey's Anatomy rerun will air 8:20 ET/8 PT; Grey's finale, 9 ET/PT

• On CBS, The King Of Queens will air 8:20 ET/8 PT; How I Met Your Mother's finale, 8:50 ET/8:30 PT; Two and a Half Men, 9:20 ET/9 PT; Old Christine, 9:50 ET/9:30 PT; and CSI: Miami, 10:20 ET/10 PT

“Legends” features footage from Oprah's personal 2005 event that brought together 25 black women for a three-day celebration at her California estate as a tribute to their lives and their work. Among those honored at the gathering: Rosa Parks, Maya Angelou, Coretta Scott King, Aretha Franklin, Toni Morrison and Ruby Dee.

http://www.usatoday.com/life/television/news/2006-05-15-bush-oprah_x.htm

^ Very good article. I agree with most of what was said about Grey's Anatomy. It's just a better show, and amazingly keeps getting better and better.

I will say this though about Desperate Housewives, while the 2nd season has been somewhat of a letdown, a lot of that I think can safely be attributed to the killing off of Rex and the stupid George/Bree storyline, I've really enjoyed the last few weeks. I think it's on an upturn in quality, and am looking forward to whats to come. Storylines have become more "desperate" and deserving of the show's original premise.

But at the same time, I can understand why some people have decided to stop watching the show.

Upfront Notebook
NBC Laughers

By Ben Grossman at bcbeat.com

Here are some of the top one-liners from the NBC Self-Deprecation Tour, better known as the NBC upfront presentation in New York Monday at Radio City Music Hall.

"Every Year an idea comes along so unique that NBC only has two of them."--Alec Baldwin on the two behind-the-scenes shows on the sked, Studio 60 and 30 Rock. (Editor's note: Hmm, 60's and 30's. Sounds like an ad-friendly schedule from here).

"It was 'take this job or become a lesbian'...and Rosie took my job."--Meredith Vieira on working with four women for so long on ABC's the view. Vieira is moving to NBC's Today show.

"I may be the highest paid temp on TV, except for [NBC Entertainment President] Kevin Reilly."-- The Office's B. J. Novak.

"You win a couple Oscars and you think you'd be on the number one television network."--Paul Haggis, who was behind Oscar-winning theatrical, Crash, but is co-creator of new NBC series, The Black Donnelly's.

"It's been almost 24 hours since I starred in a show on NBC."--Bradley Whitford, Whose Aaron Sorkin drama, West Wing wrapped Sunday night, and whose new Aaron Sorkin drama, Studio 60, was unveiled Monday.

"It's Les Moonves."--Howie Mandel on who the banker is on Deal or No Deal. Moonves runs CBS

http://www.bcbeat.com/

Upfront Notebook
Matthew Perry, Regis to Join NBC's Primetime Lineup

(From Extra) May 15, 2006

Matthew Perry is making a triumphant return to primetime as a TV writer in "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip."

But don't expect the "Friend" we all known and love. Matthew will star with "The West Wing's" Bradley Whitford in a drama that goes behind the scenes of a "Saturday Night Live" type of comedy show.

"He's a rather messy, screwed up, kind of genuis writer," Perry said of his character who is the opposite of beloved Chandler.

Alec Baldwin is also busting into NBC's primetime lineup in "SNL" funny woman Tina Fey's new show, "30 Rock." The comedy co-stars "SNL" alums Tracy Morgan and Rachel Dratch.

NBC announced that John Lithgow will pair with Jeffrey Tambor as two baby boomers in "20 Good Years." Meanwhile, Dana Delany, Timothy Hutton and "Six Feet Under's" Jeremy Sisto will team up for the drama "Kidnapped," which follows an investigation after a wealthy family's 15-year-old son is abducted.

NBC Entertainment President Kevin Riley also pumped up Simon Cowell's next big hit, "America's Got Talent," which Regis Philbin is set to host.

"You can't beat Regis," Riley said. "And Simon gives it a little edge." If you liked the book and movie, "Friday Night Lights" is now headed to the small screen. "Early Edition's" Kyle Chandler will star as the coach of a high school football team in a small Texas town.

Jeff Goldblum is headed to the NBC lineup in "Raines," playing an eccentric Los Angeles police officer who solves murders with the help of the victims. Returning in the fall are three shows that we all know and love: "My Name is Earl," "The Office" and "Law & Order: Criminal Intent." "Deal or No Deal" will also return, airing on Monday and Friday nights.

Donald Trump's "The Apprentice" will take a break until midseason, in addition to "Crossing Jordan" and "Scrubs." "The Biggest Loser" will be back on Wednesday nights.

Rumors have swirled that "ER" would move to another night, but NBC put those headlines to rest. The drama will return to its Thursday night spot at 10 p.m. This year marked the last season for "The West Wing" and "Will & Grace." Also not returning to NBC this fall are "Joey," "Conviction," "E-Ring" and "Three Wishes."

http://extratv.warnerbros.com/v2/news/0506/15/3/text.html

Upfront Notebook
New Network finds itself in spotlight

Everyone wants to know what the CW will keep from UPN and the WB in its first season
By Maria Elena Fernandez Los Angeles Times Staff Writer May 15, 2006

CW President of Entertainment Dawn Ostroff never imagined such anticipation over her new little network. For months, fans have campaigned for their favorite UPN or WB shows by flooding her office with flowers and gifts. And the press has been relentlessly digging for confirmation of her first prime-time schedule.

On Thursday, Ostroff, formerly UPN's network chief, will take the stage at Madison Square Garden and answer those million-dollar questions: Will "Veronica Mars" return? Did "Everwood" make the cut? Are we saying goodbye to Chad Michael Murray and the "One Tree Hill" gang?

"Everybody's got shows they're invested in, and we do have a lot of choices," Ostroff said. "And that's what's exciting to us. But how the pieces fall together, you'll have to wait and see."

The CW has just 13 1/2 hours of programming, and network sources confirm six shows covering 6 1/2 hours are definitely on the schedule: "America's Next Top Model," "Beauty and the Geek," "Everybody Hates Chris," "Gilmore Girls," "Smallville" and "WWE: Smackdown!" But the network also has seven pilots to choose from, and Ostroff says she is likely to air "a few" of them.

"It's pilot season, which is very stressful and very hard, and then, oh, by the way, we're launching a new network on top of it," Ostroff said, adding that the network is gearing its programming to a specific audience.

That audience is the 18-to-34-year-old demographic that UPN and the WB used to fight for, and Fox has managed to win over four seasons in a row. Last year, the WB sold $675 million in advertising commitments while UPN sold $300 million; Fox executives say they are vying for a piece of that pie as well.

"We're very knowledgeable about our demographic: who they are, where they are and what their needs are," Ostroff said. "Our programming is going to resonate with them. They are going to watch this network and see their own lives up on this network. The characters are going to resonate with them, the stories are going to resonate with them, and the franchise shows they've come to know and love will be here."

One thing Ostroff can say for certain: There will be no snakes. Last year, Britney Spears was a no-show for her reality show's presentation at the UPN session for which she was supposed to carry a snake around her neck. Ostroff had to take her place, "with my heels, walking down the stairs and that 80-pound snake wrapped around my neck. It was heavy. I am telling you, I was having a heart attack carrying it."

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/tv/la-et-upfrontcw15may15,1,4929464,print.story?coll=la-entnews-tv

Upfront Notebook
The LATimes Upfront blog -- Monday

Digital Diary
Monday, 3:55 p.m.

The airing of the pilot for "Heroes" is almost four months away, but already a fan site has cropped up for the show. www.heroesmedia.com includes photos of the cast, news updates and anything else these rabid fans can get their virtual hands on.

The Banker on "Deal or No Deal" has been writing a blog since mid March, per request of "the geniuses at NBC." From his first 3/17 post at www.blogs.nbc.com/dealornodeal: "Yes, I am single, and no, working with 26 beautiful women isn't all it's cracked up to be."
— Maria Elena Fernandez
________________________________________


Buyer Buzz
Monday, 3:15 p.m.

Brad Adgate, corporate research director, Horizon Media said he thought NBC's presentation "seemed a lot better than last year."

The show he liked most? "30 Rock -- it got the most buzz."

As for "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip," "I think they're hoping it's going to be the West Wing for television," Adgate said. "It's hard to gauge. It certainly has star power. It's going up againt 'CSI.' But it's got as good a shot as any. "
— Matea Gold
________________________________________


Costas and the gang toss a few around
Monday, 3:15 p.m.

The Sunday night team (Costas et al) came onstage with footballs to tout their new program, “Football Night in America.”

Costas said they want the Sunday night show to be more than a pregame show but “the football show of record.”

In the most amusing and lively bit of the afternoon, analyst and former Steeler Jerome Bettis and co-host Cris Collinsworth faced off to see who could get a pass all the way from the stage to the balcony. Bettis went first, casting a neat spiral that landed cleanly in the first row of the balcony, causing a commotion usually found in stadiums. One man dove for the ball, only to have it hit him and bounce back into the crowd as he fell over.

Collinsworth nervously went next, casting a wobbly pass that only made it to the back of the orchestra section. Costas quipped that it was like a “wounded duck.”

Undaunted, Collinsworth grabbed another ball and tried again. This time, he threw a neat spiral that landed further back on the balcony than Bettis'.

The rest of the team then tossed their balls into the front of the audience. Costas threw his to Regis Philbin, who caught it neatly and then went on to snag two more.
— Matea Gold
________________________________________


No glitz, but NBC draws some laughs
Monday, 2:55 p.m.

NBC opened its afternoon presentation in a decidedly straightforward tone, without the usual glitz or production numbers. But there were some funny bits from actors introducing video clips.

Actors from the network’s two Thursday hits, “My Name Is Earl” and “The Office,” took turns quipping about what it's like to be on a sleepy NBC night.

“I may be the highest paid temp in television,” said B.J. Novak (“The Office”), “except for “Kevin Reilly.”

More than 2000 advertising execs packed into Radio City Music Hall responded with strong applause to NBC's new schedule, with especially loud clapping for “Heroes,” “Friday Night Lights,” “The Black Donnellys” and “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip.”

The first glimpse of 30 Rock also seemed to impress the buyers, who gave the comedy loud laughs.

The cast of “Studio 60” acknowledged how much is riding on their show. “What we need to do is lower expectations,” said Matthew Perry, standing on stage with the rest of the actors.

“When you think about it,” Steven Weber said facetiously, “our show doesn't have much going for it at all.”

Oh sure. NBC Entertainment President Kevin Reilly just happened to mention how blown away he and other network executives were by the show. The network aired the first promotional spot for "Studio 60" during Sunday’s finale of “The West Wing.”
— Maria Elena Fernandez and Matea Gold
________________________________________


NBC looks behind the scenes -- twice
Monday, 12:05 p.m.

One of the few comedy pilots to get the nod for a series from NBC was “30 Rock,” a satire of a late-night television comedy show starring “Saturday Night Live’s” Tina Fey that will air Wednesdays at 9:30 p.m.

While admitting that it was “somewhat of a strange coincidence” that the Aaron Sorkin drama “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip,” also set behind the scenes at a television show,” and “30 Rock” have similar themes, NBC President of Entertainment Kevin Reilly insisted that both programs are very different.

“You’re going to see Tina’s end up being a wacky office comedy and Aaron’s being kind of an incisive, sexy serial,” he said. “I think they’re going to end up being apples and oranges. If they were two cop shows, no one would waste a minute of breath on it.”
— Matea Gold
—
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/tv/la-upfronts-dispatches-sp,1,897358.special?coll=la-entnews-tv

^ Very good article. I agree with most of what was said about Grey's Anatomy. It's just a better show, and amazingly keeps getting better and better.

I will say this though about Desperate Housewives, while the 2nd season has been somewhat of a letdown, a lot of that I think can safely be attributed to the killing off of Rex and the stupid George/Bree storyline, I've really enjoyed the last few weeks. I think it's on an upturn in quality, and am looking forward to whats to come. Storylines have become more "desperate" and deserving of the show's original premise.

But at the same time, I can understand why some people have decided to stop watching the show.

I agree completely. I have really enjoyed DH over the past couple weeks. It has gotten better. The critics have really been beating on DH and I don't know if a couple of good weeks will stop the flogging. I think the article above about Grey's and DH made a good point: DH appears to have retained it's core viewers and there are still 22 million people who watch the show. Now the 22% slide year over year in the 18 to 49 demo, according to a article Fredfa posted a page or two ago, should be of concern but I wouldn't panic if I were the producers or ABC.

The first half..maybe even more...of the DH season was pretty grim.

But I agree, Antonio, it has rebounded sharply the past couple of months.

I suspect one of its biggest problems is the show which follows it -- which is far sharper and better written, IMO.

But next season, when presumably they are on different nights, the differences might not be quite as obvious.

The 2006-2007 Season
'Prison' inmates headed to Dallas

Fox series to film second season in Dallas
By Ed Bark The Dallas Morning News May 15, 2006

North Texas suddenly is a hotbed for network television production, with Fox set to announce today that the entire second season of its Prison Break series will be filmed in the Dallas area.

Prison Break producer Garry Brown confirms that the show soon will open a production office in downtown Dallas, with filming scheduled to begin on June 15.

The new season will have its inmates on the lam after they busted out of jail last Monday. Various area locations, as well as the city itself, initially will be cast as "Anywhere USA" as part of Prison Break's evolving "road show," he says.

"It's a big deal to land it, especially since it's already such a hot show," says Dallas Film Commission director Janis Burklund. "It's a huge surprise. All of a sudden we've got so much coming up, it's insane. Which is a good problem to have."

She estimates that the nine- to 10-month Prison Break shoot will be "as big or bigger" than Walker, Texas Ranger, which pumped an estimated $54 million into the area economy in its last season (2000-01) on CBS.

Mr. Brown, who worked for six seasons on Walker and has a home in Dallas, says Prison Break scouted locations in Arizona, New Mexico, Louisiana and Florida before choosing the Dallas area over Austin.

Prison Break, which had two Golden Globe nominations and won a People's Choice Award as favorite new drama series, essentially will become a latter-day version of The Fugitive when the second season kicks off in the fall or late summer.

Its featured inmates, led by brothers Michael Scofield (frequent magazine cover boy Wentworth Miller) and Lincoln Burrows (Dominic Purcell), escaped last week from the fictional Fox River State Penitentiary. Michael had himself incarcerated in the show's first episode as a means of springing Lincoln, who had been framed for murder.

"My experiences in the Dallas area really led us all to believe that what our story calls for next season could be obtained very efficiently here," Mr. Brown says. "It just made sense. You can pretty much, within a 30-mile radius, find a multitude of looks and about 10 to 12 towns, not to mention the city of Dallas."

The show's season one finale, slotted at 7 tonight on KDFW-TV (Channel 4) locally, will be delayed about 20 minutes by a presidential address on immigration reform that is scheduled for the same hour.

Prison Break's actors are accustomed to working on location. This season's 22 episodes were filmed in the Chicago area, with an abandoned prison in nearby Joliet anchoring the action. But finding suitable get-out-of-jail venues for a second season "just became too big a logistical challenge for us," Mr. Brown says.

"We found we had to go anywhere from an hour to two hours outside of Chicago to find locations that were rural enough," she says.

The Film Commission's Ms. Burklund, who's still trying to lure a planned Dallas feature film to the city, is happy to be juggling a wealth of new business that materialized in recent weeks.

The pilot for 12 Miles of Bad Road, a possible HBO comedy series about a wealthy Dallas matriarchy, will be filmed at least partly in the city this summer. A House Divided, a potential ABC series starring Dylan McDermott of The Practice, recently completed production on its first episode in Dallas. The show could return to the city full time if it makes the network's fall lineup, to be announced Tuesday.

Dallas also has landed Inspector Mom, a series of whodunits being made for cable's Lifetime Movie Network by local production company Fireside Entertainment.

Ms. Burklund says she also is increasingly confident that the announced big-screen version of Dallas, starring John Travolta as J.R. Ewing, will be a significant presence in the city later this year.

The film's recently named new director, Gurinder Chadha (Bend It Like Beckham), likely will be visiting Dallas within the next few weeks, Ms. Burklund says.

"I'm pretty sure we're going to end up getting more of the movie than we initially thought we would," she says. "And that's without any help from the state, which is very disappointing."

Rival states such as Louisiana and Florida have been luring movie and TV productions with major taxpayer-funded incentives. But North Texas so far has managed to stay competitive without any financial aid from state or local government.

"We've had to scrape and claw to get these things," Ms. Burklund says of Prison Break and other recent breakthroughs. "If we had incentives, we'd probably be flooded."

http://www.dallasnews.com/cgi-bin/bi/gold_print.cgi

The 2005-2006 TV Season
Ask Matt

(from the Ask (TV Critic) Matt (Roush) column at TVGuide.com
By Matt Roush TVGuide.com TV Critic

Question: I am amazed at the new Lost-related websites springing up. The Oceanic site last year was cool, and then the Hanso site, but now there is a site for the Valenzetti Foundation, which is somehow related to the new book Bad Twin and the site for Windmore Laboratories, the makers of the Dharma food and Sun's pregnancy test. Oh, and let's not forget the new Hanso phone number (which, I admit, I did call). How involved are Lost's creators in the info going up on these sites, and is it necessary for the avid Lost fan to scour these sites for a fuller appreciation of the show? — Brooke

Matt Roush: From what I gather, the producers are very involved in these offshoots, all of which sounds like a great deal of fun for anyone with the time to indulge their Lost obsession. It reminds me of my early days on the TV beat, back in the low-tech pre-Internet days, when the legendary Twin Peaks issued a number of products, including the late Laura Palmer's diary, to tease the audience into trying to solve the mystery. You didn't have to do the extra homework back then to appreciate the show, and the same applies now. I personally haven't had the time to go to any of these Lost sites (except, between the first and second seasons, the Oceanic site, out of curiosity), and I don't honestly feel I'm missing anything. But I envy the true obsessives who are soaking all of it up, because I'm betting it's a blast to play along.

On another Lost front, Jorge asks: "From the comments that I've read in your column throughout this season, it would appear that your interest in Lost has fluctuated somewhat. It was strong at first, and then somewhere in the middle of the season, you talked about the show being fantastic still, but said you were thinking it maybe wasn't going to be part of your "Best Shows" lineup at the end of the year. With these last few episodes, the questions you've answered related to the show have been increasingly positive, with the last episode that aired (the one with that shocking finale) even getting its own Dispatch. So how about now? What's your opinion on the show for this (almost wrapped) season? Did it deliver, improve, not live up to its freshman year? Which episodes did you like the most and which ones did you think were bad? That's a lot of questions, but I enjoy reading your opinion on the shows that I like. Keep up the fantastic work!"

If memory serves, I only noted that because there was a period of time when Lost was out of sight/out of mind, it might not end up at the top of my top-10 list as the No. 1 show as it has the last two years. That still might be the case, but mainly because I feel The Sopranos has been so remarkable and challenging. There's no way Lost isn't on my personal top-10 list. The second season may not have exceeded the novelty of the first, but with of all the twists involving the hatch, the tailies, the Others, Henry Gale, etc, I have never lost my love for Lost. I'm not going to single out "bad" episodes, because I've either forgotten them or there haven't been any. But off the top of my head, my favorite episodes to date have included the backstory of Bernard and Rose; anything involving Sun and Jin (including her supposed kidnapping); the first Mr. Eko flashback; "The Other 48 Days," recapping the first months of the tailies' life on the island; and the "Lockdown" episode, in which Locke and Henry Gale were trapped in the hatch.

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Question: I am all a-twitter over last week's finale of The Office! I have the same butterflies that I had when Ross and Rachel shared their first kiss. Instead of feeling like they jumped the gun and brought Jim and Pam together too quickly in the show's run, I feel lots of anticipation about the consequences of Jim's declaration and kiss. And, might I add, Steve Carell did a brilliant job of writing the episode! What did you think of the finale, and are you already looking forward to next season already? — Katherine

Matt Roush: Since the Jim-and-Pam relationship is by far my favorite element of The Office, I was floored by Jim opening up to her, her awkward response, his tearful departure and then his coming back while she was on the phone, opening up to her mom, for the climactic kiss. Superb. I didn't see it coming, because I figured she might still be nursing her wounded pride from the week before (when it was revealed Jim had complained about her making her wedding arrangements so public, prompting him to look into a job transfer). Also enjoyed the episode itself a great deal. The more the series uses everyone in the office to score comic points, the better off it is. (The more Michael, and especially Dwight, take too much of the spotlight, the worse it becomes.) Michael's hatred of Toby slays me. ("Why are you the way that you are?" Michael says when Toby harshes his buzz. "I hate so much about the things that you choose to be." Hilarious!) And then Toby creams him on the first hand, calling his stupid poker bluff. Also brilliantly done: Jan's self-loathing at actually accepting Michael's invitation to the party, then actually being upset that it didn't turn into a sleep-over. She had good reason to be jealous. The real-estate lady is Steve Carell's real-life wife, Nancy Walls. And how inspired was the tape of Kevin's retro cover band Scrantonicity? Given how I felt about the show a year ago after its underwhelming midseason run, I have done a near-total about face on The Office. I look very forward to next season. The Jim-Pam office romance will just be icing on the cake.

________________________________________

Question: I have loved Grey's Anatomy since the first episode, and it continues to be the show to which I most look forward every week. However, over the past two episodes I have watched entire segments with the mute button on as I read the dialogue via CC. The reason? Though some of the montages can be very effective, the music is distractingly bad. The May 7 episode featured two full-length songs with vocalists whose "instruments" were akin to fingernails on a chalkboard. Grey's is one of the few shows that can fully absorb my attention, but it's disappointing when these songs take me out of my television nirvana. I'm just wondering if you had any thoughts on the subject. Thank you, and keep up the great column! — Abby

Matt Roush: There is no question that Grey's is a serious case study of overdoing the underscoring. This is a complaint I hear a lot, including from people in the industry who otherwise admire the show. The music often overwhelms the action and the dialogue, but this is such a pervasive trend (especially in final-act montages of so many dramas) that I guess I've grown mostly numb to it. Grey's also tends to overdo the cutesy incidental music to lighten the tone of the more romantic scenes. But none of this gets in the way of my enjoyment, or prompts me to mute the dialogue spoken by these wonderful actors. I beg you to reconsider.

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Question: OK, now that 7th Heaven is over, people are starting to wonder: Is there going to be a spin-off with one of the Camden children? Or do you think this show is dead? — Mikey

Matt Roush: I guess we'll know for sure when CW announces its first schedule this Thursday morning and the executives answer questions like this. There had been talk of some sort of spin-off during the show's last months of production, but that talk appears to have cooled. Even if nothing's announced for the fall, I wouldn't be surprised if it isn't resurrected at some point.

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Question: What's the deal with Thief? I thought it was fantastic. But I heard that it got terrible ratings and probably won't be coming back. Is this true? — Dan

Matt Roush: The unofficial word is: Don't count on it being renewed. The ratings were lousy — no big surprise, given the time of year this limited-run series premiered. But besides welcoming back Andre Braugher to TV, there wasn't much buzz around the show, one way or the other. (And that's the real kiss of death for an FX show.)

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Question: Why did the idiots at ABC decide to move the Alias finale to Monday? Not even Alias can compete with 24, but I wanted to see them both! I have faithfully seen every 24 and Alias episode since Day 1. ABC is a loser. Can you give me a solution? — Jackie

Matt Roush: It is kind of ironic that Alias is signing off against 24, given that both shows premiered the same season to great critical fanfare. As always where Alias is concerned, my refrain remains: Just be glad ABC gave the show an actual final season. All things considered, that wasn't a slam dunk. Given that ABC is inordinately fond of two-hour finales this month, there weren't many nights available for Alias, since the last Wednesday of the season was always going to pit Lost against American Idol. You could second-guess ABC's programming strategy forever, but the real problem here is that two shows with such similar appeal are going head-to-head. My game plan on May 22 is probably to watch 24 in real time, and start playing back the Alias finale immediately afterwards. For those without multiple TVs or recorders, or (in my case) a DVR that records while you watch on another channel, I don't have any solution other than to beg a friend to tape what you can't watch, and play it back as soon as humanly possible.

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Question: Here's a non-Desperate Housewives/Arrested Development/Scrubs/24/Lost/Alias/Grey's Anatomy-related question for ya: What do you think of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit? I know you've spoken of it in your column a few times in the past, but I thought I'd add my own commentary. Of the three L&Os on air right now, SVU is far and away the best of the bunch. True, the formula is unchanged since the show's inception: Solve crime, catch the perpetrator. But the cast, particularly Christopher Meloni as Det. Eliot Stabler and Mariska Hargitay as Det. Olivia Benson, have a dynamic chemistry. The stories, while often uncomfortable or just downright disturbing, galvanize the actors into churning out some fine performances. They also help to provide insight into the detectives' motivations, something the original Law & Order has mainly shied away from during its 16-year history. Whether it's Eliot's struggles with his emotions (a running plot since almost the very beginning) and his fractured home life, or Olivia's need to help the victims of sex-based crimes stemming from her own intense history, the show has given some much-needed depths to its characters. That's just my opinion and there's too much more to say, but I thought I'd close here. Thoughts? — Jose D.

Matt Roush: No argument. I've often said SVU is my favorite of the Law & Order dramas. That's been the case for the last few seasons at least (let's say, since Jill Hennessy left the original L&O), and your reasons are as good as any for continuing to back that opinion.

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Question: I'd just like to thank you for acknowledging that Desperate Housewives has to maintain a difficult balance between mystery, comedy and soap. I think people often forget that. It's not like Grey's Anatomy, which can spend an hour on a medical crisis and give us snippets of the leads' stories moving forward, or Lost, which can throw in a romp through the jungle or some mysterious something or other to whet fans' appetites. I, too, have been disappointed by this season. But I still watch, I'm still getting something out of it, and I'm not the type who continues to watch a show I have no use for. So anyway, thanks for being one of the few critics who wants the show to get better and hasn't given up on it. — Darnell

Matt Roush: And thank you for cutting me some slack for being both critical of the show while remaining hopeful that its creative slide isn't yet irreversible.

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Question: I am very excited about the new Caprica pilot in development as a prequel to television's most engrossing drama, Battlestar Galactica. I was wondering, with all the network synergy that continues to exist, if NBC could air first-run episodes of Caprica with encores in the usual Sci Fi Friday time slot. NBC needs some kind of high-concept series, and it may be a potential hit if they pick up Heroes, but Caprica already has a built-in audience. By airing on NBC, Caprica will attract Galactica fans while also attracting new audiences who may not necssarily be familiar with Galactica if NBC promotes it properly. In turn, new people will be brought to Galactica on Sci Fi. — Jeff

Matt Roush: The way synergy tends to work is that NBC is more likely to replay Heroes on Sci Fi (much as Surface did during its run) than for NBC to put a Sci Fi show onto its much higher-profile real estate. There are exceptions. NBC has given exposure to Battlestar Galactica on Saturday, but there's little precedent to suggest this would provide much of a ratings bump. I'm excited about the idea of Caprica, too, but I think you may be overestimating the size and commercial appeal of Galactica's "built-in" audience. It works perfectly for Sci Fi's needs, but on NBC, it wouldn't exactly scream "hit."

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Question: Does it seem to you, like it does to me, that many viewers can't wait for a favorite show to deteriorate? You seem to get a lot of questions from people worrying about a show deteriorating in Season 3 or Season 4. I never even consider that. I just watch it and if I like it , I like it; if I don't, I don't. I don't sit there wondering if next season will be as good or not. Lost has been incredible for two seasons, 24 for pretty much its whole run (and this season somehow topped last season, which was great). But I'm not wondering, "Gee, will next year be as good, or will it stink?" Seriously, it seems like some folks almost want a favorite show to fail. By the way, toward the end of the season I started watching Freddie. While it's not Frasier, I did find it amusing and not a bad sitcom. I will say that Brian Austin Green really was the actor who made the show, though Freddie Prinze Jr. is fine. — John D.

Matt Roush: Whoa, non sequitur whiplash there. I'll take your word on Freddie, which I caught a couple of times and which made no lasting impression on me beyond generalized anesthesia. But to your larger point, I couldn't agree with you more. The reason there's a tendency to fret about a show's future is the institutional memory longtime TV viewers carry with them. They know that almost no terrific show sustains its high quality indefinitely, and then there's that hateful "jump the shark" mentality fed by instant Internet feedback to certain shows' (inevitable) ups and downs, which makes you wonder if some "fans" can ever be truly satisfied. I'm with you that as long as a show is hitting its mark, why worry about the day when it may begin to falter? Let nature take its course, but savor greatness while it lasts. (Something tells me we won't be having this discussion about Freddie, but that's just me.)

http://tvguide.com/tv/roush/askmatt/

Upfront Notebook
No joke: NBC tweaks Thursday

Meanwhile, fall sked drama-heavy, light on laughs
By Andrew Wallenstein The Hollywood Reporter May 16, 2006
(Paul J. Gough contributed to this report.)

NEW YORK -- With football set for Sunday night, NBC put the rest of its primetime backfield in motion at its upfront presentation Monday at Radio City Music Hall.

While the addition of the NFL has NBC focusing on just five nights of entertainment, those nights were shaken up -- especially Thursday, the network's flagship night.

"The last couple of seasons have not been much fun," NBC Entertainment president Kevin Reilly said of the network's ratings struggles. "We've come through it. We have a new focus."

After holding firm on its Thursday schedule last season only to watch its lineup crumble, NBC displayed a newfound willingness to experiment this time out. Returning comedies "My Name Is Earl" and "The Office" will slide back an hour to 8-9 p.m. The network also is retreating from the all-comedy schedule it introduced midseason by launching a new drama at 9 p.m., "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip," from "The West Wing" creator Aaron Sorkin. In addition, NBC's weakening stalwart "ER" is slated to take a breather in January for the first time to make room for a new series, "The Black Donnellys."

Just as it did last year, NBC will introduce six new series to the schedule in the fall and hold four more for slots to be scheduled in 2007. NBC's fall schedule is heavy on drama, limiting primetime to just two comedy blocks on Wednesday and Thursday.

Reilly chalked up his minimal use of half-hours to the fragile state of the comedy genre as well as the strength he perceived in his drama development. In contrast to NBC's strategy last year -- which focused on rebuilding a base at 8 p.m. -- the 2006-07 strategy is to schedule and promote the "spine at nine," as Reilly put it. Five of the six new series being introduced in the fall will start the season at 9 p.m. Monday-Thursday.

"This year, we had more good pilots than we had time slots to move them in," Reilly said at a news conference preceding the upfront.

On Monday, "Deal or No Deal" and "Medium" stay in their original slots, but a new entry at 9 p.m. is the superhero drama "Heroes." Tuesday will feature two new launches, with the football drama "Friday Night Lights" leading into the serialized saga "Kidnapped" from 8-10 p.m. Reilly described the teenage-friendly "Lights" as " 'The O.C.' with guts and authenticity."

Reilly said "Heroes" could be a difficult launch if ABC makes good on speculation to move powerhouse "Grey's Anatomy" to 9 p.m. Monday.

" 'Grey's' is one of the tougher challenges," Reilly said. "But big successes can coexist in the same time slot."

On Wednesday, "The Biggest Loser" will have the assignment of leading in to the pairing of two new sitcoms, "20 Good Years," with John Lithgow and Jeffrey Tambor, and "30 Rock" with Tina Fey. Saturday will be home to newsmagazine "Dateline Saturday," followed by drama reruns.

Last season, NBC saw its Thursday schedule decline after keeping such struggling series as "Joey" and "The Apprentice" in place. The network changed course midseason by moving "Earl" and "Office" to Thursday as a return to the four-comedy strategy NBC had relied on since the 1980s.

But with ratings shortfalls to plug throughout its schedule, NBC was forced to retreat from that strategy, Reilly said, as rivals like ABC have moved into the night with powerhouses like "Dancing With the Stars."

"We had comedies we like," Reilly said. "But to be honest with you, with a challenged genre and the fact we would have to add two comedies to the mix, it felt vulnerable to go with a four-comedy strategy right now given our competitors have been going after us on the night."

NBC is placing a big bet on "Studio," which Reilly grew confident in after reviewing five episode scripts in addition to the pilot. The series will face off against CBS powerhouse "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation." Reilly praised Sorkin for recapturing the magic he conjured for "The West Wing."

"When you see this show, you'll see he's done it again," Reilly said. "It's going to be the kind of show you talk about the next day."

Reilly went as far as to liken "Studio" to ABC's "Desperate Housewives," which has blurred the comedy and drama genres. "Some people may end up looking at 'Studio 60' as comedy," Reilly said, noting its casting of former "Friends" star Matthew Perry.

However, Reilly also indicated that NBC hasn't entirely abandoned the four-comedy strategy and eventually could move back to such a lineup. He also noted that NBC could end up shuffling the schedule announced Monday to counter moves the other broadcasters make in the coming days.

"ER" will remain in the 10 p.m. Thursday slot it has occupied for more than a decade but will air 13 episodes rerun-free until January, when "Donnellys" takes over its time slot. "ER" will return in April.

NBC Universal TV Group CEO Jeff Zucker said at the pre-upfront news conference that NBC can absorb the financial hit of not airing reruns -- which help a network amortize license-fee costs -- by giving advertisers a more valuable night featuring all original episodes. "The nature of staying original in the time period makes it more beneficial," Zucker said.

The addition of the NFL on Sunday nights took some pressure off NBC, which could concentrate on just five nights of original programming. Football also will give NBC a promotional base to introduce the new series, which are clustered on nights earlier in the week to enable to feed off of the Sunday platform.

Reilly also said that he kept new series launches off of Friday because it is a difficult night. Last season, NBC saw two new series wither on Fridays in the fall: "Three Wishes" and "Inconceivable."

Instead, NBC is moving "Law & Order: Criminal Intent" from Sundays, where it was paired with "Crossing Jordan," to the 10 p.m. Friday slot where its sibling, "Law & Order: SVU," thrived from 2000-02.

"Jordan" is being held for a midseason time slot, a position it has excelled in past seasons, as has another holdover that came off the bench strong last year, "Scrubs." New series orders also awaiting midseason time slots include new comedies "The Singles Table" and "Andy Barker, P.I."

With football off NBC's schedule in January, the network has a new block ready to take over the night, starting with "Dateline NBC" at 7 p.m., followed by the returning reality series "America's Got Talent" (which NBC will launch in the summer), "The Apprentice" and "Raines," a new detective drama starring Jeff Goldblum.

NBC's presentation had its moments of levity. The cast of "The Office" took jabs at Reilly, with the presentation starting with actor Rainn Wilson introducing himself as Reilly imploring advertisers to open their checkbooks. Another "Office" actor, B.J. Novak, introduced himself as "the highest-paid temp on television -- except for Kevin Reilly," alluding to the programming chief's rumored proximity to the chopping block.

Buyers were on the whole impressed with what they saw from NBC, though they cautioned that it was important to watch pilots and make sure the development of each show remains strong.

"I think they have momentum. They definitely have some quality productions," said Donna Speciale, a top executive at New York-based media buyer MediaVest. "They stabilized this year."

She said it was a brilliant scheduling move to put "The Black Donnellys" on at 10 p.m. after the initial run of "ER." She said that its lead-in, 9 p.m.'s "Studio 60," had a lot of great talent in front of and behind the camera but was in a challenging time period against "CSI."

"I hope there's not too much hype," she said of "Studio 60."

John Rash of media buying firm Campbell Mithun said that some of the shows display the same tonality of "Earl" and "The Office."

"They were also quick to acknowledge that this may not be a schedule that moves them out of fourth and into first place but it's a schedule that can give them building blocks for the future," Rash said.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr/television/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1002503139

Upfront Notebook
NBC Looks Beyond TV for a Prime-Time Revival

The New York Times May 16, 2006

NBC, eager to improve its ratings and advertising sales, is counting on digital media as much as television for a comeback in the 2006-7 season.

In a two-hour presentation yesterday to advertisers and agencies at Radio City Music Hall, executives at NBC, which is finishing fourth again in ratings for the 2005-6 season, emphasized the breadth and depth of their digital offerings as they talked up the prospects of their new dramas and sitcoms.

The NBC presentation kicked off what is called the upfront week, when the big broadcasters offer previews of their prime-time lineups ahead of the fall season.

"No longer is content just for the television screen," said Jeff Zucker, chief executive at the NBC Universal Television Group, part of the NBC Universal unit of General Electric.

"We have put a ton of thought and a ton of effort into the digital world," Mr. Zucker told a theater filled with marketers and advertising agency employees and executives. "We want to be your digital partner."

Analysts are calling this upfront week a watershed because the broadcast networks are significantly expanding their presence in the new media, whether through Webisodes, video downloads, podcasts or mini- series created for cellphones.

Commercial time is being sold for much of the additional content, which Mr. Zucker acknowledged by telling the agencies and advertisers, "We want to make it easy for you to solve your needs using our content."

So lengthy was the list of new-media opportunities described — "we have more than 100 ideas, ready to go," Mr. Zucker said — that some members of the audience grew restive, wondering when Kevin Reilly, president at NBC Entertainment, would return to discuss the prime-time schedule.

These are some of the initiatives outlined by Mr. Zucker, all intended to complement the new and returning series on the schedule:

• A broadband comedy channel (dotcomedy.com), offering computer users archives of shows like "Leave It to Beaver" and a chance to create their own content to podcasts. The Web site will also help promote sitcoms like "My Name Is Earl" and "The Office" as well as "Saturday Night Live" and NBC's late-night lineup.

• A broadband preview channel (nbcfirstlook.com), where episodes of new series will make their debuts before they arrive on NBC.

• Thirty Webisodes of the returning sitcom "The Office" that will appear beginning in the summer on the NBC Web site (nbc.com).

• An online contest, also on nbc.com, for viewers of the returning drama "Law & Order: Criminal Intent," who can study clues about the murder in each episode before the episode appears on TV. The contest prize will be "determined by whoever would like to sponsor it," Mr. Zucker said, drawing laughter.

• An animated digital comic book based on characters and plot lines from "Heroes," a drama series being scheduled for 9 p.m. Mondays.

"Heroes," featuring young actors like Ali Larter and Milo Ventimiglia, is one of six dramas that NBC will add to its prime-time lineup for 2006-7. The others are "The Black Donnellys," "Friday Night Lights," "Kidnapped," "Raines" and "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip."

The dramas will be "the cornerstones of the new fall schedule," Mr. Reilly said.

For two decades, NBC was known for its sitcoms like "Cheers," "Frasier" and "Friends." But the recent precipitous decline in ratings and ad sales is leading the network to try Plan B, the dramatic genre. NBC tried a smaller-scale version of the strategy for 2005-6, but those dramas failed to catch on.

The new dramas "are much better than what they've had," said Shari Anne Brill, a vice president and programming director at Carat USA in New York, a media agency that is part of the Carat unit of the Aegis Group. She singled out "Friday Night Lights," based on the book and movie of the same name, with Kyle Chandler ("Homefront," "Early Edition") as a high school football coach in a Texas town.

NBC is adding four sitcoms: "Andy Barker, P.I.," "The Singles Table," "30 Rock" and "20 Good Years."

The similarity in subject matter between "Studio 60" and "30 Rock" — both are about a TV series strongly evocative of NBC's own "Saturday Night Live" — made for some good-natured ribbing.

"Every year, an idea comes along that is so unique, NBC has only two of them," said Alec Baldwin, a cast member of "30 Rock."

Here is a look at some of the other highlights, lowlights and sidelights of the opening day of the upfront week.

A TIVO VOTE

For the first time during an upfront week, a large agency company has made a deal with TiVo, the digital video recorder company. Interpublic Media, a division of the Interpublic Group of Companies, announced an agreement to buy advertising on behalf of clients of its media agencies like Initiative and Universal McCann.

The agreement is "a seven-figure deal," said Mark Rosenthal, chairman of the Interpublic Media in New York, declining to be more specific. It offers "an opportunity for all our agencies' clients, and several have signed on already," he added, again declining to provide details.

The deal, which includes TiVo features like interactive commercials, is indicative of the increasing interest among advertisers in expanding beyond traditional media like broadcast television to digital venues like D.V.R.'s, Web sites, iPods and cellphones. The deal with TiVo, Mr. Rosenthal said, is the first of several to come between Interpublic Media and "other providers of new marketing solutions."

GEE WHIZ? NO, G4

Each year during the upfront week, which is devoted to elaborate presentations by the broadcast networks, some cable networks seek to take advantage of the attention that Madison Avenue gives to television. Yesterday, it was G4, a cable network owned by the cable giant Comcast, which sought to capture the eyes of media executives with an elaborate stunt.

The stunt involved a flatbed truck that drove around Manhattan, outside the offices of media agencies like OMD, part of the Omnicom Group. Four young men were duct-taped to the truck, meant to demonstrate the "stickiness" of G4's programming for the elusive younger-male viewer.

"Two of them had video iPods," said Neal Tiles, president at G4, who is based in Santa Monica, Calif., to make the point that "six of our shows are in the top 25 in iTunes."

BYE-BYE, UPFRONT?

Even as the upfront week for the 2006-7 broadcast season got under way, a group of major advertisers began exploring an alternative to the upfront.

The advertisers, all members of the Association of National Advertisers, an industry trade organization, are developing a pilot project for an electronic marketplace that would handle the buying and selling of commercial time. The advertisers exploring the auction model include giants like Hewlett-Packard, the Masterfoods division of Mars, Microsoft, the Lexus division of Toyota Motor Sales USA and Wal-Mart Stores.

Robert D. Liodice, president and chief executive of the advertiser association, said it would work with the member group to consider developing a system to be called the Online Media Exchange.

"We need to see if there's consensus among advertisers that implementing a digital exchange will indeed benefit the industry as a whole," Mr. Liodice said. The trade publication Advertising Age, which reported the formation of the member group last week, said that major marketers like Kellogg and Procter & Gamble opposed the idea.

The leader of the exploration into an upfront alternative is Julie Roehm, senior vice president for marketing communications at Wal-Mart, who has long advocated a stock exchange model for buying and selling commercial time. Ms. Roehm is asking 10 members of the advertiser association to contribute $50 million to study an auction-type online trading system.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/16/business/media/16adco.html?pagewanted=print

Upfront Notebook
ABC performs sked surgery

'Grey's' takes Thursday shift
By Josef Adalian, Michael Schneider Variety.com May 16, 2006

McDreamy and Meredith are on the move.

In what will likely be the boldest move of upfront week, ABC is today expected to announce plans to move megahit "Grey's Anatomy" to Thursday nights in the fall.

Shift immediately shakes up the established order on a night coveted by networks because of the huge ad coin movie studios spend. Over the past 15 years, only NBC and CBS have been serious long-term players on Thursday, with the Eye now the dominant force.

If "Grey's" puts ABC in the game on Thursdays, net stands to reap tens if not hundreds of millions in added revenue over the long haul.

That ABC is moving "Grey's Anatomy" isn't itself a surprise, as there's been speculation about a shift for months. The stunner is the Alphabet's decision to go for the brass ring and move its hottest skein to Thursday.

Most industry speculation had been focused on Monday nights, particularly after the net decided to air the show's second-season finale on the night.

Not immediately clear late Monday was whether "Grey's" will air at 9 or 10 p.m. on Thursday. ABC was keeping a tight lid on its schedule and refused to confirm or deny any moves.

However, there was word late Monday that "Commander in Chief" -- presumed to be dead -- may yet have a pulse. ABC is talking to some of the show's creative team and studio Touchstone Television about a way to keep it alive in some form.

As for "Grey's Anatomy," slotting the show at 10 p.m. would be the safest choice. NBC's "ER" is fading, while there's been buzz that "Without a Trace" could switch nights, perhaps to 9 p.m. Sundays. There's also no chance of Fox throwing a spoiler like "American Idol" or "House" into the mix, and sheer ratings would likely be higher at 10.

Under such a scenario, ABC could air a 90-minute version of variety hit "Dancing With the Stars" from 8-9:30 p.m., a new comedy at 9:30 and "Grey's" at 10.

Airing "Grey's Anatomy" at 9 p.m., meanwhile, would follow the CBS model for Thursday night.

Net changed the night forever in 2001 when it moved budding frosh hit "CSI" to 9 and aired the second season of reality smash "Survivor" at 8. It then slowly grew "Without a Trace" into a hit at 10.

ABC could keep "Dancing With the Stars" at 8 p.m. and slot a hot newcomer at 10. However, that move would mean pitting "Grey's Anatomy" against CBS' still-strong "CSI," perhaps reducing ratings for both.

Most radical scenario imaginable would have ABC shifting "Desperate Housewives" to Thursdays as well, essentially moving the bulk of its Sunday powerhouse lineup to a more lucrative night.

Net also could shift "Lost" to Thursdays, though such a move would mean giving the show its third timeslot in as many seasons.

Wherever "Lost" ends up, insiders indicate the network plans to answer fans' prayers by radically revamping the show's air pattern. Skein is expected to air in two big chunks of originals -- one in the fall and one in the spring. ABC then could launch a new show in the "Lost" timeslot come January.

ABC also plans to take a different approach to Saturday nights, at least in the fall. Net's struck a deal to air college football games on Saturdays.

As for the rest of the Alphabet sked, net has plenty to play with.

ABC has already ordered a whopping seven dramas and five comedies. New dramas include the family sudser "Brothers & Sisters," the cop-on-the-run thriller "Day Break," the Alaska-set romantic comedy "Men in Trees," bank robbery entry "The Nine," the ensemble soap "Six Degrees," the terrorism whodunit "Traveler" and the telenovela adaptation "Ugly Betty."

"Betty" and "The Nine" seem good bets for fall, with "Betty" a possible 8 or 9 p.m. player. "The Nine" performed particularly well with test auds and could be a contender for a slot behind "Grey's Anatomy" if the latter skein settles in at 9 p.m.

On the comedy side, the Alphabet has in its arsenal the wedding-day snapshot "Big Day," therapy laffer "Help Me Help You," the thirtysomething friends entry "In Case of Emergency," the offbeat Mick Jagger caper from Burnett/Beckerman and the babycentric "Notes From the Underbelly."

"What About Brian" also will be back next season, as will "Dancing With the Stars" and reality shows "The Bachelor," "Supernanny" and "Wife Swap." "The Bachelor," which had a successful winter relaunch this year, will be back on the net's fall sked, perhaps on Mondays.

Also returning for the fall: newsmags "20/20" and "Primetime."

For the first time in more than 30 years, Alphabet will have to start a fall season with scripted skeins on Mondays, since "Monday Night Football" will move to ESPN. It seems likely net will keep a femme focus on the night. "Supernanny" and "Wife Swap" were sleeper successes on Mondays in the spring, so ABC may play a pat hand and bring one or both back on the night.

While "Dancing" may keep its Thursday/Friday air pattern, there's been buzz that ABC could try a Wednesday/Thursday sked for the skein.

As for the "Grey's Anatomy" shift, nets rarely go for the gusto and make major game-changing moves like the "Grey's" Thursday shuffle -- but in many cases, the press frenzy that follows the shift helps ensure its success.

Take Fox's gutsy 1990 decision to shift "The Simpsons" head on against NBC's "The Cosby Show." "Cosby" had been fading, and the upstart network detected an opening for younger auds. But Fox was still considered a wannabe net at that point -- and media outlets couldn't resist the David vs. Goliath battle that ensued.

Shift worked and was the first major scheduling move that turned Fox into one of the big boys.

More recently, CBS finally got into the Thursday game, after a decade as an also-ran on the night, by sensing a similar vulnerability on NBC in January 2001. Eye finally had the goods -- "Survivor" and "CSI" -- and in one swift move managed to alter the balance of power on the night.

"Survivor" and "CSI" didn't immediately win the night for CBS, but it helped crumble NBC's lock on Thursday. Eventually, the Eye pulled off a feat once thought impossible: winning Thursday night in the youthful 18-49 demo.

ABC has taken several stabs through the years at finally making some noise on Thursday. Net briefly broke through on the night at the start of this decade thanks to the "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" phenom. But that streak was short-lived.

Alphabet really hasn't had a consistent Thursday night since the late 1970s, when shows like "Mork & Mindy" gave the net a strong showing. But in a case of making a game-changing move that didn't work out, Alphabet shifted that Robin Williams show to Sunday, where it tanked. ABC quickly moved it back, but the damage was done. It's those kinds of risks in moving established hits that make network execs lose sleep.

Upfront Notebook
In Sorkin's talent they trust

By Scott Collins Los Angeles Times Staff Writer May 16, 2006

NBC rolled out its 2006-07 fall season schedule with a Monday morning news conference in New York. Most of the new shows pop up in critical 9 p.m. time slots. Here are a few details:

NBC Entertainment President Kevin Reilly expressed great enthusiasm for "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip" and, in an effort to silence questions about drug abuse and erratic work habits in creator Aaron Sorkin's past, said the writer had already finished five scripts.

"He's back, he's in good health and he's one of a kind," Reilly said.

NBC confirmed that "Fear Factor" is dead. Likewise "Conviction," producer Dick Wolf's youth-skewing legal drama.

"Crossing Jordan" and "Scrubs" are being held for later in the season, as is "The Apprentice," which Reilly said diplomatically has "just settled in from being a phenomenon to being a success."

Who let him in?

As usual, UTA — the now-acronymic United Talent Agency — kicked off the upfronts week with its traditional party Sunday night — cosponsored by Amazon.com — this time at a Chelsea nightclub called Marquee. I'm not a cool guy, but this seemed like a cool party, so someone obviously made a mistake with my name on the guest list. But I turned that to my advantage and had a good time; there was plenty o' free booze, guests packed so tight they recalled Rob Reiner's lubricant joke from "Postcards From the Edge" (it's a funny scene, rent it) and, around 11, two young women actually danced on a table.

This last part frightened me, but before I fled I saw a whole bunch of industry bigs coursing through the packed, bass-shaking room, including Walt Disney Co. TV czarina Anne Sweeney, "Desperate Housewives" creator Marc Cherry, CBS scheduling guru Kelly Kahl and Marc Graboff, NBC Universal TV's West Coast president.

'Survivor' drop

Sunday's two-hour "Survivor: Panama" finale on CBS predictably dominated its first hour, at 8 p.m., but still wound up the lowest-rated wrap-up in the series' history. The special averaged 17 million viewers, with a 6.1 rating/15 share among 18- to 49-year-olds, according to figures from Nielsen Media Research. The finale shed more than one-fifth of its young-adult audience compared with last year's "Survivor: Palau" closer and also last fall's "Survivor: Guatemala."

Watch CBS' schedule closely when it's announced Wednesday. "Survivor" still does well in its time slots, but don't be surprised to see the network reduce the frequency of the show.

The series finale of "The West Wing" rounded up 9.9 million viewers, with a 2.8 rating/7 share among 18- to 49-year-olds.

All in all, it was a hard-fought night, but ABC's combo of "Desperate Housewives" and "Grey's Anatomy" ultimately held the line. "Housewives" gathered 20.8 million viewers (8.1 rating/18 share in demo), although it's been losing steam during this May sweep. "Grey's" was the most-watched program, with 22.3 million viewers, 9.6 rating/22 share in the demo.

http://www.calendarlive.com/tv/cl-et-channel16may16,0,657651,print.story?coll=cl-tvent

The 2006-2007 Season
11 new series, fewer 'Lost' repeats on ABC


By Gary Levin USA TODAY

ABC will unveil 11 new series to advertisers Tuesday as it seeks to rebuild its comedy lineup and expand its stable of hit dramas Desperate Housewives, Grey's Anatomy and Lost.

Biggest change for viewers: Anatomy's move to a new night (possibly Thursday) so it can be used to launch a new series.

Lost fans will find fewer repeats interrupting its intricate mystery: Original episodes will be clustered in longer chunks after an October start. Housewives remains on Sundays at 9, and Dancing with the Stars gets its first fall berth but will also switch nights.

Yet none of the new scripted series introduced last fall will be back, including Commander in Chief, Invasion and Freddie. Hope & Faith is also a goner, leaving According to Jim and George Lopez as the network's only returning comedies.

Spring tryout What About Brian, from Lost producer J.J. Abrams, will return, and the Mission: Impossible III director has a third show in the lineup: Six Degrees, about interconnected lives of New Yorkers.

In contrast with past years, when the focus has been on fall schedules, ABC — like NBC — is unveiling most of next year's new shows at once, and will gradually sprinkle them over the course of the season.

ABC also needs more programming come September after the loss of Monday Night Football.

•Dramas. In addition to Degrees, ABC has Brothers & Sisters, a family soap starring Ally McBeal's Calista Flockhart and Rachel Griffiths (Six Feet Under); Men in Trees, starring Anne Heche as a shrink who moves to Alaska, where she's surrounded by eligible men; The Traveler, a thriller about two grad students framed as terrorists in a national security emergency; Ugly Betty, about a homely girl hired at a fashion magazine; The Nine, about another group of strangers — freed bank-robbery hostages — from Without a Trace creator Hank Steinberg; and Day Break, an action thriller starring Taye Diggs as a cop on the lam who is framed for murder.

•Comedies. Let's Rob ... stars Donal Logue as leader of a group of blue-collar guys who try to rob Mick Jagger, who will occasionally appear; Big Day, a series built entirely around a young couple's wedding day; Notes from the Underbelly, centering on expectant parents; In Case of Emergency, with four high school pals who unexpectedly reunite as each faces a crossroads; and Help Me Help You, starring Cheers' Ted Danson as a group-therapy shrink.

http://www.usatoday.com/life/television/news/2006-05-15-abc-rollout_x.htm

Upfront Notebook
ABC working extra hours

7 dramas among dozen new shows in contention
By Nellie Andreeva The Hollywood Reporter May 16, 2006
(Cynthia Littleton contributed to this report.)

Oh, the dramas. ABC is poised to unveil Tuesday a primetime lineup for the 2006-07 season that will incorporate an eclectic mix of seven new drama series, ranging from thrillers to family soaps to a telenovela-inspired workplace vehicle set at a fashion magazine.

The big question marks for ABC were how significantly it would shake up its powerhouse Sunday combo of "Desperate Housewives" and "Grey's Anatomy" and what the network would do on Monday in its first fall launch without "Monday Night Football" in 36 years. ABC, like its fellow Big Three networks, would not comment on scheduling matters in advance of its upfront presentation today at Lincoln Center's Avery Fisher Hall.

Conventional wisdom had red-hot medical drama "Grey's" moving to the Monday 9 p.m. slot, to be paired with a new drama at 10 p.m. The top candidate for that plum lead-out slot was thought to be the ensemble soap "Six Degrees," or possibly "Men in Trees," starring Anne Heche as a woman who relocates to Alaska after experiencing marriage troubles. The network also is known to have high hopes for the telenovela-inspired "Ugly Betty" -- about an unattractive woman, played by America Ferrera, who works at a fashion magazine -- but that show is expected to have a lighter touch and land an 8 or 9 p.m. slot.

Also high on ABC's hot list is the thriller "Traveler," about three graduate students who become wrapped up in a national security investigation, and "The Nine," a character ensemble about a nine strangers whose lives are affected by a hostage situation during a bank robbery. Both of those shows were believed to be in the running for a time slot behind "Lost."

ABC's Emmy-winning desert island drama is expected to stay put at 9 p.m. Wednesday, though there has been speculation that ABC would alternate another show in the "Lost" time slot at some point during the season with the goal of cutting down the in-season repeat load. "Traveler" and another new drama, "Day Break," could be good high-octane matches for the "Lost" crowd.

ABC is expected to stick with comedies on Tuesday, but the scheduling picture was unclear among its new orders. ABC's half-hour picks include the offbeat untitled Burnett/Beckerman project, starring Donal Logue as the leader of a group of guys conspiring to rob Mick Jagger, and "Help Me Help You," starring Ted Danson as the leader of group therapy sessions. It also has two youthful ensembles on tap with "In Case of Emergency," about a group of friends who reunite after high school, and "Notes From the Underbelly," about an expectant couple and their friends.

The reality-competition series "Dancing With the Stars" is expected to make ABC's fall slate, possibly in a Wednesday-Thursday scheduling pattern instead of the Thursday-Friday run it had this season. Putting the half-hour results show on Thursday would allow the network to use it as a launching pad for a half-hour series on that night.

ABC is understood to have planned for a full season of the newsmagazines "Primetime" and "20/20." Primetime prognosticators had both shows staying in their 10 p.m. slots on Thursday and Friday, respectively, but with so many dramas on tap for next season and declining ratings for newsmagazines as a rule, "20/20" and "Primetime" may be on the move.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr/television/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1002503250

The TV Column
NBC Promises No Musty TV This Fall

By Lisa de Moraes The Washington Post Staff Writer Tuesday, May 16, 2006; C01
NEW YORK, May 15

Explosive!

Banner year!

We hit the gold mine!

No shuck and jive!

Not the same old, same old!

Heavy lifting at 9 o'clock!

That's NBC entertainment chief Kevin Reilly describing to reporters his new fall prime-time lineup -- a drama-laden roster that includes two new series, airing on consecutive nights, both of which riff on NBC's own "Saturday Night Live."

Sometimes there comes along a concept "so unique NBC only has two of them," Alec Baldwin cracked onstage Monday at Radio City Music Hall during NBC's afternoon dog-and-pony show for advertisers.

Baldwin plays the new, arrogant head of television and microwave programming at NBC/GE/Universal/Kmart in Tina Fey's homage to Tina Fey, "30 Rock." (That's also NBC's address in Manhattan, 30 Rockefeller Plaza, FYI.)

It's a new Wednesday sitcom about the female head writer of a show that bears an uncanny resemblance to "SNL" (on which Tina Fey is head writer). In "30 Rock," the Tina Fey character is played by -- who else? -- Tina Fey.

Turns out, it's hard to play yourself on TV, even when you write your own lines. In the clips shown to advertisers, she's a little stiff, but Baldwin and Tracy Morgan killed in clips shown to advertisers, and in person onstage.

Not so NBC's other "SNL"-ish series, Aaron Sorkin's "Studio 60 at Sunset Strip," which is getting the Thursday 9 p.m. hour, opposite CBS's "CSI."

The show's clips did not go over well. When the A-list ensemble cast took the stage, they died, too, right from the start, when "West Wing" alum Bradley Whitford joked, "It's been almost 24 hours since I starred on an NBC series," and Matthew Perry said they all were there to lower people's expectations about the show. Which was, of course, supposed to be a joke, only they did.

Sorkin's new show bumps "My Name Is Earl" and "The Office" to the Thursday 8 p.m. hour, replacing "Joey," which has been canceled.

According to Reilly, who for sentimental reasons still refers to Thursday as NBC's "flagship" night, network suits mulled another four-comedy-into-"ER" format on Thursday, but decided against it because "I think our competitors would look and say: 'They've got four comedies there; let's go after them.' "

Which was funny, because that happened early in this millennium.

Besides, Reilly noted, some people will wind up calling "Studio 60" a comedy, in much the same way people call "Desperate Housewives" a comedy, at least at Golden Globe and Emmy time.

Hey, works for us.

Aaron Sorkin and executive producer-director Tommy Schlamme "have put together a piece of work here that really makes you proud to be in television," Reilly told the press, who reacted with dreamy "if only I had a buck for every time a network suit said that" looks.

One reporter wondered how NBC planned to deal with Sorkin's widely covered issues with deadlines and controlled substances. Sorkin has already delivered five scripts, Reilly responded.

"He's back, he's in good health and he's one of a kind," Reilly said.

Another big Thursday change: "ER" will tag-team its time slot with a new drama. That's so the medical drama will not repeat next season; NBC will instead broadcast 13 originals in a row, take the show off the air and fill the 10 p.m. hour with a new mob drama from Paul Haggis called "The Black Donnellys." When that's run its course, original "ER" episodes will return in the spring.

In its 12th season, "ER" is still holding its own when original episodes air, but it goes into cardiac arrest in reruns.

Former Thursday resident The Donald and his "Apprentice" move to Sunday, but will be shelved until the wrap of NBC's new Sunday night football franchise.

NBC's only other new sitcom on its fall schedule is a buddy comedy, "Twenty Good Years," which stars John Lithgow and Jeffrey Tambor. It promises to be an exercise in competitive scenery-chewing, based on the clips. Reilly called it "a big broad comedy, and nobody does broad like John Lithgow."

NBC's small-screen adaptation of the football-as-religion flick "Friday Night Lights" kicks off Tuesdays at 8. Reilly called it " 'The OC' with guts" -- "guts" being a euphemism for "jocks."

At 9 that night, "Kidnapped" is NBC's stab at the very hot serialized-drama genre; each season, star Jeremy Sisto will attempt to rescue a kidnap victim. Reilly noted that NBC does not have the luxury of running this show without repeats, in response to a reporter's question about viewers' impatience with reruns of serialized dramas.

There were few surprises in the Friday, Saturday and Sunday lineups. Though, after football wraps, Sunday night will kick off at 7 with "Dateline," followed by Simon Cowell's next reality series, "America's Got Talent," which marks the return of the variety show to prime time. Regis Philbin hosts the show, after which "The Apprentice" is going to Los Angeles. At 10 p.m. Sundays, Jeff Goldblum stars as a cop who sees dead people in "Raines."

Once again, "Scrubs" waits on the bench for midseason, as does "Crossing Jordan" and two new sitcoms. "The Singles Table" is about a two guys and two chicks who meet at a singles table at a wedding; the other, "Andy Barker, PI," stars Andy Richter as a private eye.

This is probably a good point to tell you that NBC's new fall lineup will, in all likelihood, have changed by the end of the week.

NBC is traditionally the first broadcast network to unveil its fall prime-time plans to advertisers in Manhattan during what's called Upfront Week, because advertisers use the information to buy time in programs up front.

Like many things that now seem arbitrary and capricious -- why do they slice most of the ears off of Doberman pinschers? -- the NBC-first tradition made good common sense long, long ago. Once upon a time, boys and girls, NBC was king of the hill and the other networks waited until Tuesday through Thursday to unveil their new slates, so as to have time to scramble and adjust those slates to get fragile new series out of the way of NBC's ratings behemoths.

These days, as it hovers in fourth place, it is NBC that will make adjustments -- like to its new Monday lineup should ABC announce Tuesday that it is going to move the Sunday hit "Grey's Anatomy" to Monday at 9, as expected.

But for one day, at least, the new drama "Heroes" will have had NBC's Monday 9 p.m. hour.

"Heroes" chronicles the lives of ordinary people who, during a total eclipse, discover they have super powers -- the young dreamer who can fly, the young man who can make time stop, the convict who wakes up outside his prison cell. And, of course, the high school cheerleader who is totally indestructible. Which, oddly, was a recurring dream I had in high school.

A good chunk of NBC's dog-and-pony show was devoted to its TV360 digital components for the fall schedule, part of what NBC/Universal TV CEO Jeff Zucker called the company's "360-degree approach to programming on air, online and on the go."

Advertisers are keen to follow consumers to the Web, particularly since the encroachment of digital video recorders throws into question the value of the ads in television programming.

To that end, NBC is launching a new broadband comedy channel, dotcomedy.com, featuring content from NBC's late-night shows, including the first 10 years of "Late Night With David Letterman" -- "the good years," Zucker quipped -- as well as content from "The Office, " "Dream On, " "Coach," "Leave It to Beaver" and "The Munsters."

NBC will also launch a firstlook.com franchise for its various networks, including NBC, USA, Sci Fi and Bravo, on which up to four episodes of that network's series will debut prior to its telecast on the linear network.

Also on NBC.com will be actual sketches from Tina Fey's new faux sketch comedy show featured in her new sitcom "30 Rock." On the broadcast, viewers will see the sketches only briefly.

Imagine if when you watched the old "Dick Van Dyke Show," you had been able to go online and see episodes of the show Rob Petrie worked on, Zucker explained.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/15/AR2006051501793_pf.html

I'm surprised no one mentioned this in regards to Law&Order cast changes.

We know than Annie Parisse is leaving L&O (the mother ship)...

No one mentioned that Jamey Sheridan (Deakins) has left L&O:CI - his last appearance was in Sunday night's finale episodes (related to the Logan shooting of another cop where the cop (undercover) failed to identify himself as such).

Upfront Notebook
NBC's Reilly Hopes 'the Worst Is Behind Us'

By Maria Elena Fernandez Los Angeles Times Staff Writer May 16, 2006

NEW YORK — For two years, the television industry has wondered when NBC President of Entertainment Kevin Reilly's darkly comedic outlook would enliven his network's prime-time lineup.

He's even taking some heat from his own team. NBC opened its presentation of its new fall lineup to advertising buyers here on Monday with several actors taking turns quipping about what it's like to be on a Thursday-night show at the network. B.J. Novak, of the hit comedy "The Office," said, "I may be the highest-paid temp in television. Except for Kevin Reilly."

But Reilly is done with the self-deprecation tour of last year, when he shrugged away the network's fourth-place standing. He's ready for a victory lap.

Remember, this is the man who had a hand in creating some of television's recent spate of memorably flawed men: Tony Soprano, Vic Mackey and doctors Sean McNamara and Christian Troy.

That's right, the same man who premiered "Father of the Pride" in his first season at NBC, who is watching as his network lags behind once again helped to develop "The Sopranos" (insofar as David Chase will let anyone near his masterpiece) when he was president of Brad Grey Television; and later, as head of FX's programming, turned that basic cable network from the home of NASCAR to HBO's fiercest rival in terms of groundbreaking original series.

It was Reilly who allowed for unknown writer Shawn Ryan to create a cop drama ("The Shield") in which its lead police detective (Mackey) kills another cop at the end of the pilot, and for FX to launch a drama about sexy Miami plastic surgeons (McNamara and Troy) who feed a man to alligators in the Everglades at the end of the "Nip/Tuck" pilot.

"I like flawed, complicated men and the women who are drawn to them," Reilly half-joked.

So what gives? How does a viewer reconcile that stellar water-cooler track record with this season's safe and fruitless bounty, such as "E-Ring" and "Four Kings"?

"This is the first season where our team really came together," Reilly said. "Success got in the way of the network and I think everyone kind of needed to clear it out, everyone had to clean the pipes in a way and reset and refocus."

To be fair, Reilly walked into his big Burbank office in the spring of 2004 just as "Friends" and "Frasier" were bidding adieu, NBC's other strongholds were aging, and his predecessor, NBC Universal Television Group Chief Executive Jeff Zucker, had been counting on just the Donald and his apprentices to keep the network on top. But that was two years ago, and this season, with a schedule chosen by Reilly, NBC will wind up in fourth place again among 18- to 49-year-old viewers, an audience it dominated for a decade mostly due to its Thursday "Must-See" lineup.

As a result, rumors that Reilly would be fired have been as rampant as the speculation that Zucker is still calling the shots.

"It was either that I was leaving or being asked to leave," Reilly said. "One of the most difficult things was talking a lot about the past. It was a lot about diminished shows or shows that were on their way out. Now, I'm excited about talking about the future…. I've been waiting patiently and working diligently to be able to say the worst is behind us," Reilly said.

Those words could easily come out of any network president at this time of year, as they all fight for a piece of the big Madison Avenue advertising pie, but NBC seems to be getting back its mojo. The network can claim the only true comedy successes of the season with the pairing of "My Name Is Earl" and "The Office" — sitcoms that center, again, on imperfect but appealing men — on Thursday nights and has found an unexpected hit in the game show "Deal or No Deal," which took a big bite out of CBS' critical darling "How I Met Your Mother."

Focusing his attention on dramas this development cycle, Reilly is launching several shows whose star-studded casts and producing pedigree take a back seat to the fresh narratives they spin. "The Black Donnellys," about Irish gangsters on its surface, is a story of brotherly love told by an unexpected narrator. "Kidnapped," a high-stakes thriller about the kidnapping of a teenage boy, examines deceit and the need to keep up appearances. "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip" goes behind the scenes of a late-night sketch show.

"It's really fun watching people who are seemingly bad struggle to be good and people who are good trying to prevent themselves from having lapses of morality," Reilly said. "You're going to see it from the characters who are at the center of 'Studio 60.' Matthew Perry and Bradley Whitford struggling with their addictions. I think that's a fascinating aspect that's been really underrepresented on television, the idea of addiction with two guys who are both lovable and sweet and funny and yet have had issues and are a support network for one another."

NBC banks on a drastic revamp

NBC officials laid out a new fall schedule Monday that heavily emphasizes dramas, pledging that the slate of new programming is going to usher in a fresh chapter for the beleaguered network.

In a morning news conference at NBC's Rockefeller Center headquarters, visibly relieved network executives touted half a dozen new dramas and several new comedies as the kind of quality programming that once made NBC the top-rated network.

"I think it's been a banner year for NBC development," said Kevin Reilly, president of NBC Entertainment. "We've hit the gold mine here."

The network is drastically remaking its schedule, scrapping nearly every new show that it launched last season except for the quirky hit "My Name Is Earl." (Game show "Deal or No Deal" is also returning twice a week.)

"Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip" will anchor this fall's Thursday night, a lineup that represents a change for NBC, which powered its decade-long running streak largely on its Thursday-night comedy schedule. But this year, the network has decided to go with just two Thursday comedies, "My Name Is Earl" and "The Office."

Thursday will see the return of "ER," which will air for 13 straight episodes, and then be replaced after the winter holidays with "The Black Donnellys."

Meanwhile, Reilly said that "Law & Order," one of the cornerstones of the NBC lineup, would get something of a face-lift next season.

"You're going to see some changes coming," he said. "Dick Wolf is going to reinvigorate it again. Several cast changes in the works, those will happen over the next month or so. A few offers may go out as early as this week."

The network is holding on to half a dozen shows as backup for the season, including "Crossing Jordan," "Scrubs" and two new comedies: "The Singles Table" and "Andy Barker, P.I."

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-et-upfronts16may16,1,4128064,print.story?coll=la-headlines-entnews

Upfront Notebook
ABC Fills Out Its Lineup With Slate of New Shows

By Bill Carter The New York Times May 16, 2006

ABC, a network with some of television's biggest hits, as well as a lot of misses, will announce a new prime-time schedule today populated with a raft of new series.

It has ordered 12 new scripted series, the most of any network this season, clearly searching for some shows that will be able to match its existing hits, like "Desperate Housewives," "Lost" and "Grey's Anatomy."

The network's five new comedies and seven new dramas will be headlined by a range of familiar stars, including Calista Flockhart, Ted Danson, Taye Diggs, Anne Heche, Chi McBride, David Arquette and, in a regular cameo role sure to be among the most talked-about of the new television season, Mick Jagger.

Mr. Jagger will take part in a new comedy from Rob Burnett and Jon Beckerman, former writers for David Letterman who also created the series "Ed." The title is still unsettled, but it will not include Mr. Jagger's name, though he will play himself as the target of a season-long burglary attempt by a gang of misfit thieves, led by Donal Logue.

ABC will emphasize comedy more than any of its network competitors because it does not have an existing comedy hit on its schedule. The network will bring back "According to Jim" and "George Lopez,"but is canceling its other comedies, including the first-year shows "Freddie" and "Sons & Daughters."

Mr. Danson will play a self-obsessed psychiatrist with a string of self-help best sellers in the comedy "Help Me Help You," which will concentrate on one therapy group.

Another new ABC comedy, "A Day in the Life," will borrow a little from the Fox hit "24." It will devote all 22 episodes to the events of a single wedding day of a young couple, complete with the usual disasters involving catering and photography. The show will star Marla Sokoloff (familiar as the annoying receptionist from "The Practice") and Wendie Malick of "Just Shoot Me" and many other comedies.

A host of familiar names will populate another comedy called "In Case of Emergency," in which four friends wind up in the emergency room on the same day and realize that they have traveled an unusual path since their friendship began in the late 1980's. The stars are Jonathan Silverman of "The Single Guy," Mr. Arquette of the "Scream" movies, Greg Germann of "Ally McBeal" and Lori Loughlin of "Full House."

The fifth new ABC comedy is "Notes From the Underbelly," based on a novel by Risa Green about a young wife dealing with a pregnancy she never wanted because of her job working with obnoxious children at a prep school. It stars Jennifer Westfeldt, who played Jessica Stein in "Kissing Jessica Stein."

Ms. Flockhart will return to television for the first time since "Ally McBeal" in one of ABC's seven new dramas. "Brothers and Sisters" is a family saga about the March family, whose siblings, led by Ms. Flockhart, are forced to take over the family business after the death of their father. Rachel Griffiths of "Six Feet Under" plays one sister.

The series will have soap opera elements, as will at least two other new ABC shows. "Six Degrees" will chronicle six strangers in New York, whose lives intersect through coincidences that may not be happenstance. The cast is mostly young newcomers to television.

"Ugly Betty" is overtly based on one of the most famous of the Spanish-language telenovelas, about a woman who is hired to work as the assistant to the son of the publisher of a flashy fashion magazine primarily because no one thinks she looks good enough for the son to chase her romantically. Salma Hayek is a producer of the show and will make occasional appearances.

Another relationship-based show is a drama called "Men in Trees," which stars Ms. Heche as an author who quits a speaking engagement in Alaska after being dumped by her fiancé and finds herself happy to be stuck in a snowstorm with lots of available men.

In the thriller genre, ABC has three shows with unusual premises. "Nine Lives" begins with nine people forced to endure a two-day standoff as hostages in a bank robbery that goes wrong. The live-changing experience haunts them and bonds them.

"Traveler" begins with a spectacular bang, as two friends decide on a lark to skate their way through a museum in New York, and then are suspected when the building is bombed by terrorists. The series follows them on the run.

ABC's other serialized thriller is "Day Break," which combines elements of "The Fugitive" and "Groundhog Day." Mr. Diggs of "Kevin Hill" plays a detective falsely accused of shooting a prosecutor. He goes on the run and tries to learn who is framing him, abetted by the sudden development that every day he wakes to the same day — and he remembers the incidents of the previous same day.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/16/arts/television/16abc.html?pagewanted=print

Upfront Notebook
Sorkin comedy among new NBC offerings

By Ellen Gray Philadelphia Daily News May 16, 2006

Aaron Sorkin, Emmy-winning creator of "The West Wing," returned to the show in Sunday's finale as an extra seated on the dais during the inauguration of President Matthew Santos (Jimmy Smits).

This fall, three years after he left "Wing" amid problems with late scripts and production cost overruns and after a considerable amount of publicity about his earlier drug problems, Sorkin will return to TV - and to a much-needier NBC - as the creator of "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip," a show about the backstage goings-on of a late-night sketch comedy series with a couple of brilliant show-runners (Bradley Whitford and Matthew Perry), one of whom happens to have a drug history.

But then, hey, NBC happens to have a late-night sketch comedy show of its own, one with its own venerable drug history.

And it's not likely anyone watching NBC next season will be able to forget about "Saturday Night Live," because "SNL"-er - and Upper Darby native - Tina Fey will also have her own behind-the-scenes-at-"SNL" series, a sitcom dubbed "30 Rock" (named for the midtown Manhattan building that "SNL" and NBC call home).

"We don't have three doctor shows and four lawyer shows," NBC entertainment president Kevin Reilly told reporters yesterday morning as he discussed the 2006-07 schedule he was about to present to advertisers in New York.

No, he has two "SNL" shows instead. And if that works, can a horde of crime-solving sketch comedians be far behind?

And though Reilly said viewers might come to see the hourlong "Studio 60" as a comedy, much as Emmy voters did "Desperate Housewives," it's Fey's show, a half-hour comedy, that once would have been considered more typical of NBC programming. Now it's one of just two new sitcoms NBC's launching this fall.

But the network that coined the term "must-see TV" about an ever-changing quartet of Thursday night sitcoms leading in to "ER" plans to pile on the hour shows next season, stationing "Studio 60" at 9 p.m. Thursdays, after "My Name Is Earl" and "The Office."

Reilly's also adding three more hourlong shows, "Heroes," "Friday Night Lights" and "Kidnapped," to Monday and Tuesdays, hoping to get a promotional boost from the network's new Sunday night football franchise in the first half of the season, he said.

"We needed to bulk up the schedule. We had quite a few holes to fill. Even if we had that many comedies, it's hard to launch that many shows," Reilly said.

"Friday Night Lights," loosely based on the film and book by former Inquirer reporter H.G. "Buzz" Bissinger, will move into the 8 p.m. Tuesday slot that, come January, will probably once again be owned by Fox's "American Idol." But Reilly said NBC hopes to "get the hooks in" to viewers before "Idol" returns.

"Heroes," which will precede "Medium" at 9 p.m. Mondays, is about regular people who discover they have super powers - powers they may be required to use to defeat "Grey's Anatomy," should ABC, as rumored, move it there next season.

"Kidnapped," scheduled for 9 p.m. Tuesdays, will focus an entire season on the abduction of a teenage boy from a wealthy Manhattan family and stars Jeremy Sisto, Delroy Lindo, Dana Delany and Timothy Hutton. Subsequent seasons would focus on other abduction cases - putting Delany and Hutton out of work, said Reilly, who insisted that writer Jason Smilovic not only knew the arc of the entire first season but had pitched plot lines for four more.

Other highlights from NBC's announcement:

• "Scrubs" will return at midseason, with a full-season order, meaning it may once again be aired back to back. "Crossing Jordan" will also return at some point.

• "Fear Factor" is finally canceled, along with "Joey," "Teachers" and "Conviction." And no, "E-Ring" and "Surface" won't be back, either.

• "ER" will air without reruns until December, be replaced in January by 13 episodes of "The Black Donnellys," a crime drama from Paul Haggis ("Million Dollar Baby," "Crash"), then return in the spring.

• Also waiting in the wings for midseason are: "Andy Barker, P.I.," a sitcom from Andy Richter; "The Singles Table," an ensemble sitcom about a group of people who meet at a wedding and become friends; and "Raines," a police drama starring Jeff Goldblum.

• John Lithgow and Jeffrey Tambor will star in NBC's other fall sitcom, "20 Good Years," as odd-couple buddies who "vow to live each day as if it were their last."

Always good advice on television.

http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/entertainment/television//14588928.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp

Upfront Notebook
ABC’s 2006-07 PRIMETIME SCHEDULE

(ABC Press Release) May 16, 2006

Six New Comedies, Six New Dramas and Three New Alternative Series Will Join a Slate of Returning Shows

“Grey’s Anatomy” Moves to Thursday

“ABC Saturday Night College Football” Also Joins Fall Primetime Lineup

Stephen McPherson, president, ABC Entertainment, today outlined ABC’s plans for next season and unveiled the network’s 2006-07 fall schedule before a crowd of ABC affiliates and representatives of the advertising and media communities at Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Hall.

Scheduled to debut next season are six new comedy series -- “Betty the Ugly,” “Big Day,” “Help Me Help You,“ “In Case of Emergency,” “Let’s Rob…” and “Notes From the Underbelly,” along with six new drama series -- “Brothers & Sisters,” “Day Break,” “Men in Trees,” “The Nine,” “Six Degrees” and “Traveler.” Alternative series debuts will include “Set for the Rest of Your Life,” “Just for Laughs” and “Greg Behrendt’s Wake-Up Call.”

In addition to the new series, ABC has ordered season renewals for “Grey’s Anatomy,” “Lost,” “Desperate Housewives,” “Boston Legal,” “Dancing with the Stars,” “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition,” “George Lopez,” “Supernanny,” “What About Brian,” “According to Jim,” “America’s Funniest Home Videos,” “American Inventor,” “The Bachelor” and “Wife Swap.”

“Our success has been driven by great storytelling and memorable characters that audiences have fallen in love with,” said Mr. McPherson. “We set out to develop a diverse group of shows that will continue in that vein and also to grow our audience. We want viewers making appointments with ABC Television every night of the week.”

During the 2005-06 TV Season, ABC is up more in ratings than any other broadcaster in Adults 18-49 (+8%) and Total Viewers (+8%). It is the only network to grow its audience in the key demographic of Adults 18-49 from the same point a year ago. In just two years, since the end of the 2003-04 TV Season, ABC’s primetime delivery has surged by 25% in Adults 18-49 and 21% in Total Viewers. The network is delivering its most-watched season and the highest-rated among Adults 18-49 in five years – since the same point in the 2000-01 TV Season.

Also joining the fall schedule is “ABC Saturday Night College Football.” Beginning SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 2006 (8:00 p.m., ET), ABC Sports will televise 12 games, concluding with the
Dr. Pepper Big 12 Championship game on SATURDAY, DECEMBER 2 (8:00 p.m., ET).

ABC also announced the new Bachelor, Prince Lorenzo Borghese, a handsome 33-year-old cosmetics entrepreneur. Prince Borghese has been selected to star in the ninth edition of “The Bachelor,” ABC’s popular romance reality series, which returns to the network this fall. Once again the series will be set outside the United States in one of the most glamorous, romantic capitals of the world – Rome!

Hosted by Chris Harrison, “The Bachelor” is produced by Next Entertainment in Association with Warner Horizon Television. Mike Fleiss and Lisa Levenson are the executive producers. David Bohnert is the co-executive producer.

ABC’s complete 22-hour fall primetime schedule is as follows (all times listed are Eastern, with new shows in bold):

MONDAY:
8:00 p.m. “Wife Swap”
9:00 p.m. “The Bachelor”/”Supernanny”
10:00 p.m. “What About Brian”

TUESDAY:
8:00 p.m. “Dancing with the Stars” (new night)/”Set for the Rest of Your Life” (new alternative series)
9:00 p.m. “Let’s Rob…” (new comedy series)
9:30 p.m. “Help Me Help You” (new comedy series)
10:00 p.m. “Boston Legal”

WEDNESDAY:
8:00 p.m. “Dancing with the Stars” (new night)/”George Lopez”/
“According to Jim” (new night)
9:00 p.m. “Lost”
10:00 p.m. “The Nine” (new drama series)

THURSDAY:
8:00 p.m. “Big Day” (new comedy series)
8:30 p.m. “Notes from the Underbelly” (new comedy series)
9:00 p.m. “Grey’s Anatomy” (new night and time)
10:00 p.m. “Six Degrees” (new drama series)

FRIDAY:
8:00 p.m. “Betty the Ugly” (new comedy series)
9:00 p.m. “Men in Trees” (new drama series)
10:00 p.m. “20/20”

SATURDAY:
8:00 p.m. “ABC Saturday Night College Football”

SUNDAY:
7:00 p.m. “America’s Funniest Home Videos”
8:00 p.m. “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition”
9:00 p.m. “Desperate Housewives”
10:00 p.m. “Brothers & Sisters” (new drama series)

Upfront Notebook
ABC schedule

By Rich Heldenfels in his Akron Beacon Journal TV blog

ABC announced its new lineup today. If you care about returning shows, for fall or mid-season the network has renewed ''Grey's Anatomy'' (which is moving to Thursday nights), ''Lost,'' ''Desperate Housewives,'' ''Boston Legal,'' ''Dancing With the Stars,'' ''Extreme Makeover: Home Edition,'' ''George Lopez,'' ''Supernanny,'' ''What About Brian,'' ''According to Jim,'' ''America's Funniest Home Videos,'' ''American Inventor,'' ''The Bachelor'' and ''Wife Swap.''

In other words, ''In Justice'' and ''The Evidence'' are done, as is ''Invasion,'' which a top ABC executive still calls ''a great show,'' but not successful enough to keep on the air. ''Commander in Chief'' is done as a series, but there may be a two-hour TV-movie with the characters.

http://blogs.ohio.com/beacon_tv/

Finale Notebook
On 'NCIS,' an ender veiled in mystery

By Jae-Ha Kim MediaLifeMagazine.com May 16, 2006

It looks like the "NCIS" producers are ready to get rid of another character on tonight's season finale. Last year, a sniper picked off Agent Caitlin Todd (Sasha Alexander). Promos for tonight's episode promise that another series regular will be leaving the show.

Not that that's a bad thing. Ratings have been consistently strong since Caitlin's death. The show got a lot of publicity and ratings climbed during summer reruns.

While ABC, UPN and NBC have unsuccessfully pitted their own offerings against Fox's "American Idol," with show after show cycling through the timeslot, the CBS drama has fared well against the singing contest. It pulls in an average 3.1 adults 18-49 rating, making it No. 2 in its time slot behind "Idol."

Characters who could leave the show tonight include Tony (Michael Weatherly) and Abby (Pauley Perrette). We assume CBS would never be stupid enough to kill off series star Mark Harmon, who plays hard-nosed Leroy Gibbs, who is already suffering memory loss after a recent explosion.

"NCIS" series creator Don Bellisario is playing coy about the season finale, which airs at 8 tonight. "I'm not saying I am going to kill someone off," he tells TV Guide. "I'm saying someone is leaving."

Just remember, leaving is the operative word.

http://www.medialifemagazine.com/artman/publish/printer_4757.asp

Upfront Notebook
Peacock network's fall newbies packing star power at least

By Tim Goodman San Francisco Chronicle Tuesday, May 16, 2006

NBC, in desperate need of revamping its schedule but also in the familiar and unenviable position of having to stick with long-standing series with decent ratings, straddled the line between adventurous and safe on Monday when it announced its forthcoming fall season.

The network picked up six new dramas and four new sitcoms and, with any luck, the best of those will deliver on the promise they have on paper. NBC gets points for good producers (Aaron Sorkin, "The West Wing," Paul Haggis, "Crash," Frank Darabont, "The Shawshank Redemption") and lots of star appeal (John Lithgow, Jeffrey Tambor, Matthew Perry, Alec Baldwin, Andy Richter, Delroy Lindo, etc.).

NBC's biggest news was that it picked up two series that essentially spoof the same show -- "Saturday Night Live" or a variation thereof. The network had already given the green light to Sorkin's "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip," which will be an hourlong dramedy in the vein of his late, lamented "Sports Night." And Tina Fey got her parody, "30 Rock," on the schedule, deflating rumors that at best it would air at midseason. Other notable pickups include the sitcom "20 Good Years," which pairs Lithgow with Tambor; "The Black Donnellys," an Irish mob drama from Haggis, which should excite fans of his short-lived "EZ Streets" series; and the comedy "Andy Barker, P.I.," starring Richter.

The rumored shift of "ER" off Thursday nights never happened, but NBC did shift "My Name Is Earl" to 8 p.m., followed by "The Office" and then Sorkin's new show, which will lead into "ER." Because NBC is going to air NFL football on Sundays throughout the fall, the network shifted "Law & Order: Criminal Intent" to Friday nights at 9 p.m. Both "Crossing Jordan" and "Scrubs" were renewed but -- like "Scrubs" last season -- were not given an announced return date.

Canceled series in addition to those previously announced include "Conviction," "Surface," "Joey," "Teachers," "E-Ring" and "Three Wishes."

Here's a look at NBC's schedule and shows:

• Monday: Unfortunately NBC is still relying on "Deal or No Deal," letting it kick off the week and again on Fridays. A double run of any reality series other than "American Idol" usually leads to viewer burnout. At 9 p.m., there's a new drama, "Heroes," about ordinary people who wake up after an eclipse to find they have super powers. This is yet another "paranormal" genre series rising out of the "Lost" fumes. Returning series "Medium" closes the night at 10 p.m.

• Tuesday: Two new dramas land here, with small-screen adaptions/continuations of the film (and book) "Friday Night Lights," about small-town Texas football. It stars Kyle Chandler and includes some heavyweight producers such as Brian Grazer ("A Beautiful Mind," "Cinderella Man"), David Nevins ("Arrested Development") and actor-director Peter Berg, who wrote the pilot. Their involvement should ensure some quality. At 9 p.m., "Kidnapped" is a seasonlong thriller a la "Prison Break," where the story follows the kidnapping of a rich teenager in New York and how all the parties involved -- the family, the FBI, the kidnappers, etc. -- eventually play out over a season. "Law & Order: SVU" closes the night at 10 p.m.

• Wednesday: On this night, NBC bookends two comedies with retread reality series "The Biggest Loser" at 8 p.m. and aging "Law & Order" at 10 p.m. But the comedies certainly have promise. The first is "20 Good Years," a kind of modern "Odd Couple" with Lithgow and Tambor as two polar opposite, wife-less friends who vow to make good on what's left of their lives. The second, at 9:30 p.m., is Fey's (and Lorne Michaels') parody, "30 Rock," a behind-the-scenes look at a variety series that stars Alec Baldwin, Tracy Morgan and Rachel Dratch.

• Thursday: With "Earl" and "The Office" shifting up to make room for Sorkin's much-anticipated "Studio 60" at 9 p.m., this becomes a very competitive night. "Studio 60" looks behind the scenes at a very "SNL"-like comedy series. It stars Perry, Bradley Whitford, Amanda Peet, D.L. Hughley, Timothy Busfield and Steven Weber, among others. This series has all the early buzz. "ER" closes out the night in its usual 10 p.m. slot. But that series will take a break at midseason for Haggis' Irish Mob series, "The Black Donnellys," which stars a cast of relative unknowns but has Haggis' hit-movie pedigree to push it, and also fond memories of his lost cult series, "EZ Streets."

• Friday: "Deal or No Deal" gets a second shot here at 8 p.m., followed by veterans "Las Vegas" at 9 and "Law & Order: CI" at 10 p.m.

• Saturday: NBC is opting for "Dateline Saturday" to kick-start the night and then will air repeats of its dramas here.

• Sunday: Here's an all-pigskin night with the hourlong studio pregame show, "Football Night In America" at 4 p.m. leading into "Sunday Night Football" at 5 p.m. with Al Michaels and John Madden calling the game. On the West Coast, there will probably be padding after the game.

Midseason series include the post-football season reality series on Sunday called "America's Got Talent," from Simon Cowell of "American Idol" fame. The show will be hosted by Regis Philin and air at 8 p.m. "The Apprentice," clearly on its last legs, will get the 9 p.m. slot, followed by "Raines," called a "quirky police drama" by NBC and starring Jeff Goldblum. The good news -- it comes from writer-producer Graham Yost ("Boomtown," "Band of Brothers"). The quirky part comes from Goldblum's character talking to dead people -- all victims of a crime.

On Richter's newest sitcom, he gets to rejoin Conan O'Brien (co-writer, executive producer) and play a nerdy accountant whose business fails -- but a new one emerges when he's mistaken for the private investigator who used to rent his office. Tony Hale from "Arrested Development" co-stars.

The other NBC comedy, "The Singles Table," looks to be another "Friends" attempt, this time combining a group of singles who get isolated at a wedding table and grow to become, uh, friends. NBC says they're "witty."

You'll be the judge of that.

Most networks have a schedule full of newbies that look good on paper, but at least in NBC's case, there appears to be some early reason for optimism.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/05/16/DDGDQIR5FA1.DTL&type=printable

Critic’s Notebook
''Grey's Anatomy,'' ''How I Met Your Mother''

By Rich Heldenfels in his Akron Beacon Journal TV blog

When the makers of television are looking at the arc of a season, I think they should come up with the biggest, wildest idea they can for a season finale -- then do it in the middle of the season. That way, if the idea is bad, we'll have a bunch of new episodes after it to remind us why we like the show -- and we'll end the season on a steady note that will carry us into the next.

I thought about this a couple of times tonight, once when dealing with ''How I Met Your Mother,'' which seems to be going in a direction at odds with where it started (Ted even more with Robin, Marshall and Lily no longer engaged) and one that leans so heavily on drama, you long even more for Barney to come in and brighten the scene.

But it was even more in my mind during three hours of ''Grey's,'' two tonight and one last night, where the pursuit of a big finish sent the show careening into a kind of madness even more pronounced than Izzie's onscreen meltdown. Not only did we have her action with Denny last night, we had the continuation tonight, which by all rights should have ended with Izzie, George, Cristina and Meredith booted out of the hospital entirely, until their bosses and the hospital lawyers could sort out the liability; and we shouldn't even have gotten to that point, because one of the other three should have reported Izzie's folly the moment they discovered it.

Also, I hated seeing Meredith and McDreamy back together, even if it was just for some slap and tickle, to set up that whom-will-she-choose ending. But that's me.

Getting back to the larger point, I stopped believing in the show. I know it's a fantasy in a lot of ways -- think of some of the turns in the hospital-bomb story -- but I have to believe the characters are acting in a plausible manner, as their characters I defined, that I won't look at it and think, oh, they would never do that. And these last three hours have been laced with they-wouldn't-do-that. I hope over the summer, someone takes a close look at the show and the characters and reconsiders the most recent path. It's fixable.

On the plus side, James Pickens, Jr., certainly had some good business tonight, and he took full advantage of the opportunity. Flawed as the Chief is, he is still one of the stabilizing forces in the hospital (sometimes the only one), and was really the guy to watch during the interrogation scenes. He says nothing -- but in doing so talks very loud.

http://blogs.ohio.com/beacon_tv/

Upfront Notebook
ABC Unveils Schedule

By John Eggerton Broadcasting & Cable, 5/16/2006

ABC has released its new fall schedule, which includes five comedies and four dramas, as well as a Saturday night college football game. It's six dramas and six comedies when midseason shows are factored in.

As expected, veteran news magazine Prime Time Live is not on the schedule. Grey's Anatomy moves to Thursday night at 9 p.m. as a lead-in to new relationship drama Six Degrees about an island with three million survivors: Manhattan.

Thursday has been problematic for the network. After having barely showed a pulse there,reality competition Dancing With the Stars gave them some strong nights. But its replacement, American Inventor, failed to hold that audience.

From Tuesday through Saturday, only three shows--Boston Legal, Lost, and 20/20 are the same from last season, with the rest either new shows or returning shows on new days or in new time periods.

Of the frustrations of last season, including the tanking of critically acclaimed Commander in Chief, McPherson said "we'll take our lumps and move on." McPherson said there could yet be a two-hour Chief movie in the offing

McPherson said the network would be patient with What About Brian, which only aired a few times at the end of the season, saying he feels it is headed in the right direction.

Shows renewed for fall are Grey’s Anatomy, Lost, Desperate Housewives, Boston Legal, Dancing with the Stars, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, George Lopez, Supernanny, What About Brian, According to Jim, America’s Funniest Home Videos, American Inventor, The Bachelor, and Wife Swap.

ABC Entertainment President Stephen McPherson said that while there has been a lot of talk about multiplatform at this upfront, the bottom line is the content rather than the delivery.

McPherson said shows will not roll out all in the fall. For example, he said, Lost will launch with seven episodes, then take a break, then come back in January or early February and run straight through.

Upfront Notebook
NBC's fall gets a big overhaul

By David Bianculli New York Daily News TV Critic Tuesday, May 16th, 2006

NBC Entertainment president Kevin Reilly said yesterday he's ready to talk about the future.

No wonder. The network is coming off a dismal season in the Nielsen department, so it's understandable he wouldn't want to go back.

Adding to his desire to look ahead is the network's new fall lineup, which includes four new dramas and a pair of comedies.

"It's been a banner year for NBC development," Reilly told reporters yesterday.

Coming from that development push are two of the most buzzed-about programs so far: "30 Rock" from Tina Fey of "Saturday Night Live," and "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip" from Aaron Sorkin of "The West Wing." Both programs are behind-the-scenes looks at TV sketch shows.

Conversely, gone from the fall lineup are such shows as "Fear Factor," "E-Ring," "Conviction," "Surface" and "Joey."

Counting "The Black Donnellys," a new drama from Paul Haggis that will show up in January when "ER" takes a rest, NBC is presenting nine new shows, and a total of 10 new hours of programs, in its 22-hour weekly schedule - a risky amount of untested shows.

Four of those hours, though, are devoted to NBC's new Sunday sports franchise: the scene setter, "Football Night in America," and "Sunday Night Football," reteaming John Madden and Al Michaels in the broadcast booth.

Sorkin's one-hour comedy-drama and Fey's sitcom count for another 90 minutes, and NBC makes room for only one other new comedy: "20 Good Years," starring John Lithgow and Jeffrey Tambor as odd-couple buddies with similar past-midlife crises.

The remaining four new hours are dramas: a superhero fantasy called "Heroes"; a serialized crime story called "Kidnapped"; a high-school football drama, "Friday Night Lights," based on the book and movie, and the aforementioned crime series "The Black Donnellys."

The only unchanged night for NBC this fall is Saturday, which is relegated to "Dateline NBC" and crime show reruns.

The only show to return from last fall's crop of new series is "My Name Is Earl," a huge critical success that will be paired with "The Office" to lead off NBC's Must-See Thursday block.

And with those shows followed by Sorkin's new series, and eventually by Haggis' new one, Must-See TV may indeed return to NBC on Thursdays.

Midseason development also yielded the network's biggest success of the year in "Deal or No Deal," which will return in the fall with two, rather than three, weekly installments.

"Scrubs" was renewed, and will return at midseason again. "Crossing Jordan" also will be back at midseason.

http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/col/dbianculli/v-pfriendly/story/418209p-353088c.html

Upfront Notebook
NBC upfront, from the sixth row

By Aaron Barnhart Kansas City Star in his blog “TV Barn”

Got unusually good seats at Radio City today. So I watched the NBC
Got unusually good seats at Radio City today. So I watched the NBC upfront in sensurround and had the amusing task, at times throughout
the show, of having to turn around to look at various NBC dignitaries
being introduced from the stage (Donald Trump and Regis Philbin took a
bow, and so did Bob and Suzanne Wright, among others), since I was
actually in front of the VIP section.

You read about how networks are becoming more conscientious of their
sophomore shows, not just their new shows, and nowhere was this more
evident than the opening of the NBC upfront, which featured Dwight from
"The Office" doing his Dwight thing, yelling at us cluelessly to try to
rev us up for Kevin Reilly, NBC entertainment honcho (no Jeff Zucker;
he doesn't show up until two-thirds of the way through, for reasons the
trades have intrigued over for weeks now).

And after some talk from Reilly, out come the casts of "The Office" and
"My Name Is Earl," two I guess you'd call them EMERGING comedies, to do
some scripted speaking, not unlike an awards show where the audience is
addressed. Jason Lee opens, introducing himself and saying what a
thrill the last year has been, including losing the Golden Globe award
to Steve Carell. Next is Steve, who begins by saying, "Hi, I'm Golden
Globe winner Steve Carell..." He gets an even bigger laugh with an
inside joke about the way NBC runs its upfront presentation (usually
horridly corporate, but this year, it turns out, the show is fairly
tolerable).

Anyway, it goes down the line like that. The highlight is probably
Jamie Pressly saying, in her dumb-girl voice, how as the star of an NBC
program she expected to get discounts on GE products. Then, addressing
Bob Wright in his seat, she says she tried to get 20% off a GE
appliance and had to pay full price instead. "Full price, Bob --
that's bullshit. Straight up bullshit, Bob." Big laughs. Say this for
Jamie: she can sell a joke.

Then, Reilly unveils the clips for each of his new shows. One right
after the other. It's all very theatrical, with the stars of each
coming out to say a few scripted words before the trailer. As I say,
it felt like the NBC Awards, but I think the appraoch was effective --
there was no need to bore the advertisers with PowerPoint charts this
year, because they all show NBC in fourth place. So hit 'em with
powerful looking content and sell based on that.

I'll be summarizing a lot of the trailers in my Star piece tomorrow,
but suffice it to say "Studio 60" has earned its buzz. And there isn't
an "LAX" or "Hawaii" in the bunch. Everything looked good, though a
couple of shows, I thought, were inappropriate for NBC ("20 Good
Years," about guys in their 50s -- hello? Nielsen 18-to-49 demo
anyone?).

Zucker came out afterward to yammer about NBC digital efforts, which
look impressive -- 300 "SNL" clips, 200 NBC late night clips including
webisodes (or mobisodes, I forget which) not seen on TV, including a
bizarre looking cartoon featuring "Pale Man" with the voice of Jim
Gaffigan as an extremely white superhero. Also the launch of various
new NBC portals including iVillage and Dot Comedy Dot Com.

Next up, the men and women of NBC News. Brian talks a little, then
Matt talks a little and then he introduces Meredith Vieria who comes
strolling out and says, seemingly unscripted, why she decided to leave
"The View" and come to the "Today" show: "After nine years with four
other women, I figured it was take this job or become a lesbian!"
Laughs. Then: "And Rosie took my job....." Crowd groans. Meredith, who
apparently never had these lines stress-tested for unfortunate
juxtaposition, gallantly recovered and moved on. She appears to be the
smallest member of NBC News: on stage she looked shorter than Al, Matt,
Brian, Lester, Campbell, Ann and Seigenthaler.

Then the new NBC Sunday Night Football crew came out. So that the
metaphor was perfectly clear, all the men came out clutching game
balls. As it turns out, after Cris Collinsworth, Bob Costas, Al
Michaels, John Madden, Jerome Bettis and Sterling Sharpe finished
kidding and promoting each other, they demonstrated why they'd brought
the balls out. Apparently during rehearsals the night before, Costas
lost a $100 bet that he could hurl a ball from the proscenium of Radio
City into the first level balcony seats -- a distance of he thought
45-50 yards but, on further reflection (and his losing the bet) more
like 60 yards. So now everyone's going to give it a try, right?
Bettis goes first -- and wings a hard strike right at a guy in the
first balcony. Collinsworth goes next. He spends about a minute
telling everyone how bad this is going to suck, and then lobs a wounded
duck that, nonetheless, almost makes it there. Inspired, he
immediately tries again ... and throws a beautiful spiral right into
the first balcony. Everyone else decides it's game set match -- so
they all fling their footballs at Regis, who's about 15 rows back. He
catches three and turns and throws two even further back. Philbin, of
course, is a Notre Dame nut, but I notice that he instinctively knows
how to steal the show, and for how long, and what to do with it.

http://groups.google.com/group/tvbarn2/browse_thread/thread/d21749f90a9d45fe/eed7a87720c8555e#eed7a87720c8555e

Upfront Notebook
NBC's fuse is burning

Network hopes its fall lineup will wind up being `explosive'-- but in a good way
By Phil Rosenthal Chicago Tribune Media Columnist Published May 16, 2006

NEW YORK -- Those sounds you're hearing? Things blowing up.

TV as a medium, the way the industry does business, the way networks develop shows--the whole shooting match appeared up for grabs Monday as NBC, the once-perennial ratings leader now in fourth place, kicked off the major broadcast networks' annual weeklong spring ritual of unveiling their fall schedules in an attempt to secure ad money months in advance.

Maybe that's why Kevin Reilly, who runs NBC Entertainment, kept dropping the word "explosive" into series descriptions while briefing reporters before his Radio City Music Hall presentation of NBC's fall schedule for ad buyers. It was a subconscious concession that the fuse had been lit although, ironically, this might not be a boom time.

The concern is these "upfronts," a lavish series of awardsless award shows, might be becoming less seductive to advertisers who, while continuing to value network TV, are weighing whether they really need to nail down time the way they have for decades when everything else in the media business is in flux.

So NBC, as other networks plan to do, is expanding its sales pitch to include complementary program content in digital media such as the Internet to hold onto TV ad dollars that might go elsewhere. And the beleaguered network blew up its development process, too, trying to cook up ideas year-round while ending the longtime tug between the network's East Coast business and West Coast creative departments.

"If we didn't examine ourselves over the last couple of seasons, I think we would have been nuts," Reilly said, calling the resulting lineup "not the same old, same old. We don't have three doctor shows and four lawyer shows."

Reilly nonetheless does have two shows set backstage at "Saturday Night Live"-like programs--Aaron Sorkin's "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip" and Tina Fey's "30 Rock"--joining a 2006-07 lineup that still will include three versions of "Law & Order," along with "ER" and the midseason return of "Scrubs."

"It was something of a coincidence that they had similar concepts, but you're going to see Tina's end up being a wacky office comedy and Aaron's kind of being an incisive, sexy serial," Reilly said.

NBC has a Tuesday night series version of the high school football movie "Friday Night Lights" and Sunday night pro football. It also seeks to wow viewers and marketers with a comedy featuring John Lithgow, 60, and Jeffrey Tambor, 61.

Noting "Deal or No Deal," NBC's gussied-up version of "Guess How Many Fingers I'm Holding Behind My Back" that's set to run twice weekly in the fall, "is on fire," Reilly described "Heroes," a new show about people with superpowers, as "potentially explosive." He described "Kidnapped," a serialized drama about an abducted teen from a wealthy New York family, as "another explosive drama ... a high-octane thriller that's going to blast right through the air."

What might not be so hot, the usual upfront smoke and mirrors notwithstanding, is the market.

As much as 80 percent of the available network ad time has, in the past, been locked up in the weeks following these glitzy Manhattan presentations. New media have complicated matters, clouding forecasts.

"The prime-time ad market, it looks OK. It doesn't look terribly robust," said Randy Falco, president and chief operating officer of the NBC Universal Television Group. "A lot of our clients are talking about holding money back for good digital ideas later on in the year, so in that respect, I'm not sure that you can make a lot of judgments about the marketplace based on the upfront this year."

Sponsors such as Johnson & Johnson, who have decided to sit out the traditional upfront spree, may buy time later in the scatter market, when it's clearer what's working on the air.

There's merit in that thinking in that only one of the new scripted fall shows unveiled by NBC a year ago, "My Name is Earl," survived. Shows such as "Surface," "Inconceivable," "Four Kings," "Conviction" and "Heist" got the ax.

Like "Scrubs," "The Apprentice" and "Crossing Jordan" are being held for midseason, along with additional runs of "Dateline." New offerings still awaiting slots include a "Gong Show"/"American Idol" mix from producer Simon Cowell, the Regis Philbin-hosted "America's Got Talent," and a pair of new comedies, "Andy Barker, P.I." with Andy Richter and "The Singles Table" about unmarried people.

On the drama side there's the "Medium"-esque "Raines" with Jeff Goldblum as a cop who talks to homicide victims and "The Black Donnellys," a show about working-class Irish brothers involved in organized crime from Oscar winners Paul Haggis and Bobby Moresco.

"I've been talking about the past since [getting] the job here--all the great shows that used to have been, all the great shows that are going away," Reilly said. "I am really ready to start talking about the future."

Kaboom.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/columnists/chi-0605160194may16,0,219628.column

The Business of TV
DirecTV, Cox Top Satisfaction Survey

By Linda Haugsted Multichannel.com 5/16/2006

Customers expressed an increased level of satisfaction with their cable- and satellite-service providers in the first quarter of this year, according to the quarterly American Customer Satisfaction Index, which is a first for the category since it was added among the industries ranked by the survey.

The report, from the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business, indicated that product bundling and new product offerings such as digital-video recorders are improving the perception of benefit from providers. Subscribers are reacting positively to price savings and the convenience of a single bill.

Overall, DirecTV Inc. was the highest-ranked provider. Cox Communications Inc. was the highest-ranked cable provider.

The ASCI is complied by asking consumers questions about the perceived value and quality of product or services of a target company. These responses are measured against customer complaints and customer loyalty to come up with scores, 0-100, for providers in categories from airlines to utilities.

In the cable/satellite category, both DirecTV and EchoStar Communications Corp. scored higher than cable and higher than the average satisfaction score established for the category. Cox equaled the average satisfaction score, as did Time Warner Cable. Comcast Corp. increased its satisfaction rate more than 3% but was still not as beloved by its customers as Cox or Time Warner. Charter Communications Inc.’s score declined 1.8% compared with the previous quarter.

The Business of TV
American Customer Satisfaction Index Scores

The scores:
DirecTV 71 (+6.0% over last year)
Dish 68 (-4.2%)
Cox 63 (no change)
Time Warner 61 (no change)
Comcast 60 (+3.4%)
Charter 55 (11.8%)
All cable and satellite 63 (+3.3%)

http://www.theacsi.org/first_quarter.htm

Critic’s Notebook
Grey's Producer Had Disney "Hard Times"

By Nikki Finke deadlinehollywooddaily.com

Since it's upfront week and ABC unveiled its fall TV schedule today, if you want to know how screwed-up the network development process is, just listen to the woman behind the huge hit show Grey's Anatomy which had its season finale last night.

Creator, executive producer and head writer Shonda Rhimes told me in a recent interview for Elle magazine that she and ABC (owned by Disney) and Touchstone (the Disney TV division that produces the show) "had some hard times. I'm not even going to pretend that we didn’t. There was awhile when we didn’t have a time slot. There was awhile when we didn’t know when we were going to air."

But even before Rhimes made the pilot, she said, every once in a while some exec "would say, 'Can the women be nicer?' Those people aren’t at the network now. My answer was always no, because that’s who they are." The suits also expressed concern that the women on the show would be seen as promiscuous.

"It’s interesting to write a show where our lead character unapologetically has sex however and whenever and with whomever she wants it," Rhimes told me. "We started our pilot out with a girl bringing a guy home and throwing him out the next morning. And I remember being asked the questions, 'Are you sure you want to do that? Is that the kind of thing a woman would do? Other women aren’t going to like that.' But women actually found it very empowering to watch this woman throw this very gorgeous guy out of her house in the morning."

Even Rhimes isn't sure if she's the first time African-American woman to exec produce a primetime network series.

"But I’m pretty sure about this: we’re the only network drama that has a writing staff that is more than 50% women."

About the writers, Rhimes says she wanted to read their original writing samples as opposed to their spec scripts.

"I looked for people who have interesting voices. And then, really, it was about hiring people who I found were interesting enough to want to sit in the room with and debate the fate of these 10 characters on our show for a year, at the very least."

Oh, and here's the best nugget of all: "I did not even realize for the first six months of the entire show that I could fire any of my writers if I didn’t like them. Honestly. I liked them tremendously so it never would have occurred to me. I just thought they were all family and were going to be with us for the duration. But then somebody asked me how everyone was working out. I went, 'Really? We can fire them?' It seemed shocking to me." Ah, if only every boss had an attitude like that.

http://www.deadlinehollywooddaily.com/

TV Notebook
For Richard Hatch, fame has been the real test of survival

By Joanna Weiss Boston Globe Staff May 16, 2006

It's no stretch, not even a small one, to suggest that fame sank Richard Hatch.

Reality TV's most celebrated snake, who will be sentenced today for failing to pay taxes on the $1 million prize he won on the first ''Survivor" series, might never have been targeted at all had he not been sure to generate a certain kind of attention.

''Your odds of being prosecuted criminally for tax evasion are so low as to be almost nonexistent," says Peter Henning, a former prosecutor and current professor at Michigan's Wayne State University Law School. The federal government is resource-strapped and tends to choose plaintiffs who will earn the most attention.

Even before he won ''Survivor," Hatch emerged as one of the show's most distinct characters, known for his Machiavellian tendencies, his skill at catching fish, and his penchant for walking around the island naked. His victory was seen as a triumph for connivers; fans debated whether he should be admired or despised.

News of his comeuppance reached far beyond the financial pages, fueling gossip columns and late-night monologues. ''The media can make you a star," Henning says, ''enough for the IRS."

Still, six years after ''Survivor I," it's worth considering why America took the news so gleefully. For reality stars, Hatch offers a special cautionary tale -- about the danger of a TV persona that sticks, and the public's capacity to hold a quasi-fictional grudge. If the aftermath of reality TV is hard to bear, the aftermath of the aftermath can be wicked.

''We don't really like to see the scoundrel win and then gloat, which is basically what Hatch did. It offends our naive sense of justice," says University of Iowa professor Mark Andrejevic, the author of ''Reality TV: The Work of Being Watched." ''We live in a world where lots of people who are kind of jerks do end up winning and gloating. Maybe TV is one of those places where we like to see them get punished."

Whether Hatch, 44, is actually a scoundrel has been a matter of debate. From the start, since he took the ''Survivor" prize, Hatch has insisted his ''character" was a calculated shtick, created by TV producers and his own sense of competition.

Hatch, convicted in January on three counts of tax evasion and deemed a flight risk, has spent the last few months in jail awaiting sentencing. He faces a maximum of 13 years in prison and a fine of $600,000.

His lawyer, Michael Minns, wouldn't comment for this story or facilitate an interview with his client. Hatch's manager, Alan David, declined an interview request, and several ''Survivor" alumni did not return requests for comment. But some who knew him when fame struck say Hatch seemed to understand the balance between milking his TV character and presenting a more rounded image.

Within days of winning, he had signed on with the top-dog Creative Artists Agency. Within months, he was presenting at the MTV Video Music Awards. Annie Leibovitz shot his photo for Vanity Fair. Time named him one of the most important people of 2000. Talk shows put him up in fancy hotels and fed him free meals. He booked a stint on ''Hollywood Squares" and a gig on Boston radio. He was plucked to headline a nudist cruise. He had endorsement discussions with Reebok and talks to host a version of ''The Weakest Link."

Through the initial flurry, Hatch was savvy and grounded, with an edgy sense of humor, says Amanda Horton, his publicist for six months after ''Survivor." ''I don't think he had any illusions about what [fame] was going to bring," she says; his attitude was, ''Let's take advantage of the fact I've been put in the limelight."

He also seemed magnanimous about his former life. Early on, Hatch publicly thanked his former high school teacher, Paul Mello, for supporting him as a troubled kid. ''He was very gracious," Mello said by phone from his home in South Wakefield, R.I. ''I think he was using it to thank me for what he maybe didn't thank me enough for at the time."

And Hatch seemed committed to his early pledge to use his winnings for good. With Mello's permission and advice, he resurrected ''Horizon Bound," an outdoor program for troubled youth that Mello had run when Hatch was a teenager. Reporters began to gush about Hatch's soft-and-gentle side.

Still, the bad press was concurrent, and often reported with a wouldn't-you-know-it wink. Days after he returned to Rhode Island from the ''Survivor" filming, Hatch was arrested for child abuse after yanking the ear of his 9-year-old son. The charges were later dropped. The following fall, a judge found him guilty of assault after a scuffle with an ex-boyfriend. The conviction was overturned on appeal.

Still, the images stuck. And as showbiz demands slowed to a trickle -- by 2004, Hatch seemed to mainly get gigs on reality spinoff shows, such as ''Survivor: All Stars" and ''Battle of the Network Reality Stars" -- the bad news seemed to take precedence. Hatch, accused tax cheat, was a storyline that seemed to resonate. ''Hatch Can't Outwit Tax Man," read one headline last September, when he was indicted for tax, mail, and wire fraud.

The trial itself played out as a sort of battle over Hatch's personality. Prosecutors tried to paint him as the artful schemer the country had seen on ''Survivor." His lawyer described him as the ''world's worst bookkeeper:" smart about TV, perhaps, but not about accounting.

Mello, who testified on Hatch's behalf, said he believes Hatch wasn't trying to cheat. Ever since high school, Mello says, Hatch ''would make up his mind as to the way he sees things are, and he definitely will stick with that. I don't see him as evil, as some people have portrayed him."

In January, Hatch was convicted of three counts of tax evasion, for failing to pay taxes on his ''Survivor" winnings and the money he earned on Boston radio. He was acquitted of bank, mail, and wire fraud charges, related to charges that he had misappropriated funds for ''Horizon Bound."

He's almost certain to get jail time, says Henning, the law professor. Most likely, he'll wind up in a minimum-security federal prison or a prison camp, where the living is dormitory-style.

But TV experts know, by now, that fame gives Hatch a clear advantage over fellow cons. ''If he plays his cards right," Andrejevic says, ''He'll get another reality show out of this."

http://www.boston.com/ae/celebrity/articles/2006/05/16/for_hatch_fame_has_been_the_real_test_of_survival?mode=PF

(From Marc Berman’s Tuesday, May 16, 2006, Programming Insider column at Mediaweek.com )
ABC in 2006-07

Fifteen New Series in Total, Changes on Six Nights of the Week

In a schedule encompassing changes on six nights of the week (excluding Monday and including the unprecedented move of Grey’s Anatomy to Thursday at 9 p.m.), ABC will introduce 10 new series this fall, with five more waiting in the wings for midseason. The network, in total, has announced 15 new series for 2006-07, including six comedies, six dramas, and three non-scripted hours. Included are the returns of Dancing With the Stars, which will anchor Tuesday and Wednesday; new time periods for According To Jim (which will be paired with George Lopez in midseason) and the aforementioned Grey’s Anatomy; the arrival of College Football on Saturday; and the notable absence of veteran newsmagazine Primetime Live.

Also not returning on ABC are sitcoms Hope & Faith, Freddie, Less Than Perfect, Rodney and Sons & Daughters; dramas Commander in Chief, Invasion, In Justice and The Evidence; and docudrama Miracle Workers. American Inventor, which concludes season one this week, has been picked-up for midseason.

Arguably the boldest move of the season, Grey’s Anatomy will face CBS’ dominant CSI and NBC’s upcoming Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip on Thursday. The CW is expected to keep Supernatural in the hour. Grey’s Anatomy will lead into new drama Six Degrees, the story of six strangers in New York City who meet under an unusual web of circumstances, while new family drama Brothers & Sisters will inherit the protected Desperate Housewives Sunday 10 p.m. lead-out slot. Leading out of Lost on Wednesday at 10 p.m. is The Nine, the story of nine people who face an unexpected twist of faith after they are all held hostage in a 52-hour standoff during a botched bank robbery attempt

Particularly surprising on ABC was the return of ratings-challenged Monday drama what About Brian, and the arrival of College Football as an original alternative for viewers on programming starved Saturday. Sharing time periods will be The Bachelor and Supernanny in the Monday 9 p.m. hour; Dancing With the Stars and new game show Set For the Rest of Your Life at 8 p.m. on Tuesday; and returnees George Lopez and According To Jim in the Wednesday 8 p.m. hour once Dancing With the Stars concludes.


New Program Descriptions

Dramas

BROTHERS & SISTERS
After the patriarch of a large but scattered family dies unexpectedly, the children must work to balance their personal lives with family business, including the trials of raising an autistic child. Former Ally McBeal star Calista Flockhart leads an ensemble cast that includes Dave Annable, Betty Buckley (Eight is Enough), John Pyper Ferguson, Balthazar Getty, Gage Golightly, Rachel Griffiths (Six Feet Under), Jonathan LaPaglia, Sarah Jane Morris, Jimmy Pinchak, Ron Rifkin, and thirtysomething Emmy winner Patricia Wettig

DAY BREAK (midseason)
A police detective accused of shooting the state attorney tries to prove his innocence after being framed for a crime he did not commit. Taye Diggs (Kevin Hill), Adam Baldwin, Meta Golding, Moon Goodblood, Victoria Pratt, and Ramon Rodriguez star.

MEN IN TREES
During a speaking engagement in Alaska, a relationship coach and successful author (Anne Heche) discovers that her fiancé is cheating on her. After canceling the wedding, and getting caught in an Alaskan snowstorm, she begins to enjoy her new surroundings and decides to stay there. Abraham Benrubi (ER), Suleka Mathews, Derek Richardson, James Tupper, and former Good Times dad John Amos co-star.

THE NINE
Nine people face an unexpected twist of faith after they are all held hostage in a 52-hour standoff during a botched bank robbery attempt. Chi McBride (Boston Public), Timothy Daly (Wing), and Scott Wolf (Everwood, Party of Five) lead the ensemble cast.

SIX DEGREES
Six strangers living in New York City become friends after eventually meeting again through a mysterious web of happenstance and coincidence. The cast includes Erika Christensen, Hope Davis, Jay Hernandez, Dorian Missick, Bridget Moynihan, and Campbell Scott. Lost and Alias creator J.J. Abrams in an executive producer.

TRAVELER (midseason)
After two well-educated friends pull a stunt by rollerblading at a famous New York museum, they are accused of being terrorists when the museum is bombed. Matt Bomer, Steven Culp (Desperate Housewives), Viola Davis, Logan Marshall-Green, and Aaron Stanford star.

Comedies

BETTY THE UGLY
An oversized square peg is hired as the assistant for the new head of a top fashion magazine because she is one of the few women he will probably not hit on. Repulsed at first, Betty will win him over with her intelligence and efficiency. The cast includes Alan Dale, America Ferrera, Mark Indelicato, Ashley Jensen, Eric Mabius, Becki Newton, Ana Ortiz, Tony Plana, and recent South Beach star Vanessa L Williams

BIG DAY
The meticulous planning of the wedding of a young couple is broken down in 22 episodes (or less, of course, if there is no audience). Josh Cooke, Kurt Fuller, former Just Shoot Me star Wendie Malick, Steve Rannazzisi, Miriam Shor, Marla Sokoloff, and Stephnie Weir star.

HELP ME HELP YOU
Former Cheers/Becker Ted Danson heads back to the world of sitcoms in this single camera, half-hour comedy about people in the same therapy group. Jere Burns (Dear John), Charlie Finn, Suzy Nakamura, Darlene Hunt and Jim Rash co-star.

IN CASE OF EMERGENCY (midseason)
Four friends in theirs 30s, who have not seen each other since their high school days, are reunited for different reasons in a hospital emergency room. The cast includes former Full House/Summerland star Lori Loughlin, Jonathon Silverman, David Arquette, Greg Germann, Kelly Hu, and Nicholas Roget-King.

LET’S ROB…
In the wake of a co-worker’s death, an aging janitor (Donal Logue) recruits a group of misfits for a heist to finance his dreams of opening a bar. The cast also includes Josh Grisetti, Maz Jobrani, Koji Kataoka, Kevin Michael Richardson, Lenny Venito, and Sofia Vergara. Mick Jagger guest stars in the pilot.

NOTES FROM THE UNDERBELLY
After a woman who is dead-set on not having children finds out she is expecting, she and her husband try to keep it a secret from their friends. Jennifer Westfeldt, Peter Cambor, Rachel Harris, and Michael Weaver star.

Non-Scripted

GREG BEHRENDT’S WAKE-UP CALL (midseason)
The acclaimed author and upcoming syndicated talk show host will address one couple’s major issues and use his knowledge of relationships to give them the tools to fix theirs.

JUST FOR LAUGHS (midseason)
Practical jokes, hidden cameras and a few unsuspecting victims will be the focus of this Candid Camera like comedy/reality series.

SET FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE (midseason)
In this game show with a relationship twist, contestants play for the opportunity to receive a monthly check in an undisclosed amount for the rest of his or her lives.

http://www.mediaweek.com/mw/newsletters/proginsider/index.jsp

Upfront Notebook
ABC paints Thursdays 'Grey's' against CBS' 'CSI'

By Andrew Wallenstein The Hollywood Reporter May 17, 2006

NEW YORK -- ABC is taking the bold step of moving its hottest show into the toughest night on TV next season with plans to shift medical drama "Grey's Anatomy" to Thursday against CBS' "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation."

"We feel it's a show that deserves the 9 o'clock time period (on Thursday). It deserves to be on the mantle of great shows on television," ABC Entertainment president Stephen McPherson said of the move Tuesday as he outlined the network's revamped 2006-07 lineup in advance of the network's formal schedule unveiling later Tuesday at Lincoln Center's Avery Fisher Hall.

ABC's new Thursday slate will open with two new comedies, "Big Day," about a couple's wedding day, and "Notes From the Underbelly," an ensemble comedy about an expectant couple and their friends. For its third season, "Grey's" moves to the 9 p.m. slot followed by new ensemble drama "Six Degrees."

"With comedies leading into it, it establishes another strong place for us on the schedule," McPherson said of the Thursday shuffle.

ABC will open the week on Mondays without pro football for the first time in 36 years. The 8 p.m. hour leads off with returning reality series "Wife Swap," followed by a rotating combo of "The Bachelor" and "Supernanny" capped by the 10 p.m. return of ensemble drama "What About Brian," which had a brief midseason run earlier this spring.

Tuesday will open with the relocated "Dancing With the Stars," followed by two new comedies, "Let's Rob ...," starring Donal Logue as the leader of a group of guys who conspire to rob Mick Jagger; and "Help Me Help You," starring Ted Danson as a group therapy leader. The David E. Kelley drama "Boston Legal" returns for its third season at 10 p.m.

The "Dancing" results show will hold down the Wednesday 8 p.m. slot, The 9 p.m. berth remains the home of "Lost" in its third season , followed by taut new drama "The Nine," about a group of strangers whose lives are changed after being held hostage in a bank robbery.

ABC will try two lighter dramas on Fridays, opening with the telenovela-inspired "Betty the Ugly," about an unattractive woman who works at a fashion magazine, and "Men in Trees," starring Anne Heche as a woman who moves to Alaska after her marriage crumbles.

Saturday nights in the fourth quarter will be devoted to a college football showcase. Sunday remains status quo from 7-10 p.m. with "America's Funniest Home Videos," "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" and "Desperate Housewives." New family soap "Brothers & Sisters," starring Calista Flockhart and Rachel Griffiths, moves into the 10 p.m. slot vacated by "Grey's Anatomy."

"You have to be aggressive," McPherson said of the planned shakeup for the coming season. "You have to play the cards you're dealt, and we've got some good cards."

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr/television/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1002503395

Upfront Notebook
ABC Upfront: Unwraps Six Degrees, The Nine; Shifts Grey's to Thursdays

By Marc Berman MediaWeek.com MAY 16, 2006 -

In a schedule encompassing changes on six nights of the week (excluding Monday and including the unprecedented move of Grey's Anatomy to Thursday at 9 p.m.), ABC will introduce 10 new series this fall, with five more waiting in the wings for midseason.

The network, in total, has announced 15 new series for 2006-07, including six comedies, six dramas, and three non-scripted hours.

Included are the returns of Dancing With the Stars, which will anchor Tuesday and Wednesday; new time periods for According To Jim (which will be paired with George Lopez in midseason) and the aforementioned Grey’s Anatomy; the arrival of College Football on Saturday; and the notable absence of veteran newsmagazine Primetime Live.

Also not returning on ABC are sitcoms Hope & Faith, Freddie, Less Than Perfect, Rodney and Sons & Daughters; dramas Commander in Chief, Invasion, In Justice and The Evidence; and docudrama Miracle Workers. American Inventor, which concludes season one this week, has been picked-up for midseason.

Arguably the boldest move of the season, Grey’s Anatomy will face CBS’ dominant CSI and NBC’s upcoming Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip on Thursday. The CW is expected to keep Supernatural in the hour. Grey’s Anatomy will lead into new drama Six Degrees, the story of six strangers in New York City who meet under an unusual web of circumstances, while new family drama Brothers & Sisters will inherit the protected Desperate Housewives Sunday 10 p.m. lead-out slot.

Leading out of Lost on Wednesday at 10 p.m. is The Nine, the story of nine people who face an unexpected twist of faith after they are all held hostage in a 52-hour standoff during a bank robbery attempt

Particularly surprising on ABC was the return of ratings-challenged Monday drama what About Brian, and the arrival of College Football as an original alternative for viewers on programming starved Saturday.

Sharing time periods will be The Bachelor and Supernanny in the Monday 9 p.m. hour; Dancing With the Stars and new game show Set For the Rest of Your Life at 8 p.m. on Tuesday; and returnees George Lopez and According To Jim in the Wednesday 8 p.m. hour once Dancing With the Stars concludes.

http://www.mediaweek.com/mw/news/recent_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1002503319

By Rich Heldenfels in his Akron Beacon Journal TV blog

Getting back to the larger point, I stopped believing in the show. I know it's a fantasy in a lot of ways -- think of some of the turns in the hospital-bomb story -- but I have to believe the characters are acting in a plausible manner, as their characters I defined, that I won't look at it and think, oh, they would never do that. And these last three hours have been laced with they-wouldn't-do-that. I hope over the summer, someone takes a close look at the show and the characters and reconsiders the most recent path. It's fixable.
I agree 100%. I found the final 3 hours ridiculous. Completely over the top.
5 Interns commit a horrible, illegal, immoral act.... Steal a heart. Kill a potential recipient. And the penalty is.... Throw a Prom? :confused:

Normally, I really enjoy this show, but last night I could barely stomach it.

Sure hope they fix it next year.

TV Notebook
Why Did 'Deadwood' Really Die?

By Scott Collins Los Angeles Times Staff Writer in his Channel Island TV Industry blog

The strange fate of "Deadwood" just gets curiouser and curiouser. As you may recall, HBO last week said it was letting the options lapse for cast members' contracts, which essentially spells the end for the acclaimed series just one month before the start of its third season.

The cable network said creator David Milch is too busy working on his next HBO pilot, a surfing drama, to devote time to the western starring Ian McShane as a hyperviolent, foul-mouthed saloon owner and Timothy Olyphant as his morally conflicted lawman nemesis.

But the situation may be considerably more complicated than first appears. "Deadwood" is produced by Paramount Network Television, raising the possibility that the studio and HBO, which is owned by Time Warner, could not agree on terms for continuing the series after this summer.

Whatever the case, Milch is said to be unhappy with the way the situation was resolved but was unable to save the show, according to one talent representative familiar with the situation. Milch's agent declined to comment last week and could not immediately be reached over the weekend.

Stay tuned — I'll bet we haven't heard the last of this one.

http://hollywoodhotline.typepad.com/watcher/2006/05/why_did_deadwoo.html

Monday’s network prime-time ratings are now at the top of Prime Time Ratings (the first post in this thread).

Overnights in the 18-49 Demo
A sockeroo finale for 'Grey's Anatomy'

Pulls a 9.7 in 18-49s, doubling timeslot average
By Toni Fitzgerald MediaLifeMagazine.com staff writer May 16, 2006

ABC won’t be moving “Grey’s Anatomy” to Monday, as was widely expected, but last night’s season finale proved that no matter where it goes, “Grey’s” can draw an audience.

The final two hours of a three-part season ender averaged an impressive 9.7 overnight rating among adults 18-49 from 9 to 11 p.m., pulverizing the competition on CBS and NBC.

That was more than double what ABC usually averages in the timeslot with “Supernanny” and “What About Brian,” and it lifted ABC to a rare Monday night win as the network struggles to improve its third-place May sweeps standing.

“Grey’s” peaked with a 10.5 average in its final hour at 10 p.m. It knocked usual timeslot winner “CSI: Miami” on CBS down to a 5.1, while NBC’s “The Apprentice” could only muster a 3.2.

The two-hour finale was about on par with Sunday’s part one of the finale, and it continued a trend of rising ratings for the show in the second half of the season. Since its February post-Super Bowl airing, “Grey’s” season average has improved by several tenths of a point, and it has often been the No. 3 show on television behind Fox’s two “American Idol” editions.

ABC announced this morning that “Grey’s” will move to Thursday nights at 9 this fall, vacating its Sunday 10 p.m. slot. Media people had thought the show would move to Monday, and many considered last night’s finale a test run.

ABC finished with a 7.5 rating and 18 share for the night, well ahead of NBC’s 4.3/10, Fox’s 4.1/10, CBS’s rare fourth-place 3.8/9, UPN’s 1.2/3 and the WB’s 1.1/3.

The night began with the presidential address on all four networks, which lasted until approximately 8:20 and pushed most of the networks’ programs back to odd start times. NBC led with a 4.0 for the president and “Deal or No Deal,” followed by Fox at 3.7 with the president and “Prison Break,” and ABC at 2.9 for the president and part of a “Grey’s” rerun.

At 9, ABC pulled well ahead with a 9.0 for “Grey’s,” followed by NBC’s “Deal or No Deal” at 5.5 and Fox’s “Prison Break” and “24” at 5.2.

At 10, ABC led with “Grey’s” 10.5, followed by “CSI: Miami” at 5.1 and “Apprentice” at 3.3.

Among households, ABC also led with an 11.4/7, followed by NBC at 8.4/13, CBS at 7.6/11, Fox at 6.2/9, UPN at 1.9/3 and the WB at 1.8/3.

http://www.medialifemagazine.com/artman/publish/article_4784.asp

Upfront Notebook
ABC's new, bold strategy: Thursdays

Pulls a 9.7 in 18-49s, doubling timeslot average
By Toni Fitzgerald MediaLifeMagazine.com staff writer May 16, 2006

With NBC down and CBS slipping, ABC is taking solid aim at Thursday night, where it has long struggled.

This morning the network confirmed during its upfront schedule announcement that “Grey’s Anatomy” was, as widely speculated, moving. But instead of jumping to Monday, as media people expected, the hit drama is moving to Thursday at 9 p.m., opposite CBS’s “CSI” and NBC’s highly touted new drama “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip.”

“Grey’s” will anchor ABC’s most aggressive Thursday slate in years, with three new shows launching on the night and longtime 10 p.m. stalwart “Primetime” gone. At 8 p.m., wedding sitcom “Big Day” leads off, with pregnancy comedy “Notes from the Underbelly” at 8:30.

“Grey’s” leads into the drama “Six Degrees,” produced by “Lost’s” J.J. Abrams, about a group of people whose lives intersect by chance.

ABC showed earlier this season that it could program successfully on Thursday, with “Dancing With the Stars” becoming its first Thursday hit in years. Now the network seems determined to get a bigger piece of the most lucrative night of the week.

“There’s certainly not a better show on television [than "Grey’s"]. We feel that it’s a show that deserves a 9 o’clock time period. Thursday is such a classic time for it. There’s a lot of big shows going against each other, and we think there’s room for them all,” ABC entertainment president Steve McPherson said, noting that “Lost” and “American Idol” had proven that two hits can co-exist in the same timeslot.

ABC’s new schedule focuses on Thursday to the detriment of Monday, which stays the same as this spring with “Wife Swap,” “Supernanny” and “What About Brian.” The trio earned the network a consistent fourth place on the night.

ABC will introduce six new dramas and six comedies, as well as three reality series.

Tuesday features the return of “Dancing With the Stars” at 8 p.m., followed by the comedy “Let’s Rob…” and “Help Me Help You,” both new. “Boston Legal” remains at 10.

On Wednesday, the “Stars” results show airs at 8, followed by “According to Jim” at 8:30 and “Lost” at 9 p.m. “The Nine,” a drama about bank robbery victims, airs at 10.

McPherson said “Lost” will air its season in two chunks, one with seven episodes in fall and then an extended run from late January through the end of the season, meaning no repeats. New Taye Diggs drama “Daybreak” will air in the 9 p.m. slot while it’s gone.

The telenovela remake “Betty the Ugly” airs Friday at 8 p.m., followed by Anne Heche drama “Men in Trees” and “20/20” at 10.

Saturdays will be “Saturday Night College Football.”

On Sunday, the first three hours remain the same, with “America’s Funniest Home Videos,” “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” and “Desperate Housewives.” The Calista Flockhart drama “Brothers & Sisters” gets the coveted post-“Housewives” slot.

None of ABC’s new shows from this season made the schedule, with “Freddie,” “Commander in Chief” and “Invasion” all gone.

“George Lopez” will return at midseason in the Wednesday 8 p.m. slot.

Also set for midseason: new drama “Traveler,” comedy “In Case of Emergency” and reality shows “Greg Behrendt’s Wakeup Call” and “Set for the Rest of Your Life.”

http://www.medialifemagazine.com/artman/publish/printer_4761.asp

Upfront Notebook
MNT Pitches Novelas and New Platforms

By Allison Romano Broadcasting & Cable 5/16/2006

In its inaugural pitch to advertisers, Fox’s startup MyNetworkTV (MNT) pushed its year-round slate of English-language telenovelas—dubbed “short dramatic series”—and original content for the Internet and mobile phones.

“If you want to be successful, you need to find a way to be new and different,” Roger Ailes, chairman of Fox Television Stations, said at the network’s upfront presentation Tuesday in New York. What makes MNT different, he said, is its programming and scheduling tactics. With its dramas, MNT is importing the short-run, serialized novela format that is popular internationally but relatively unproven in network prime time. It will run the shows as five-night-per-week strips with a weekend recap for 13 weeks.

Said Fox Television Stations CEO Jack Abernethy, “This is not unlike the last programming phenomenon to come from overseas: reality.”

Fox and Twentieth Television executives provided a glimpse of the upcoming dramas, three under the banner of Desire and three more as Secret Obsessions. All are original Twentieth Productions, providing advertisers with easy opportunities for product placement and brand integration, MNT execs said. For example, in one drama, the vixen pulls up in a Lexus and the camera lingers on the brand’s emblem on the car grill. In a more obvious plug, an actress sidles up to a bar and orders a Smirnoff Ice.

Taking a page from sister News Corp. company MySpace.com, MNT execs say they are building an interactive and video-heavy Web site. On mynetworktv.com, the network plans to feature 3,000 original video clips related to its dramas, as well as related content such as fashion tips from a fashion-themed drama and recipes from a novela star who is a chef. Also on its Web site, MNT execs say there will be ample opportunities for sponsorships and advertisements. Users will be able to send clips by e-mail and to mobile phones, and participate in blogs and online viewing parties.

Since unveiling the network in February, MNT has signed up affiliates in 82% of the country and 26 of the top 30 markets. By launch, the network says it will reach 90% of U.S. homes.

I agree 100%. I found the final 3 hours ridiculous. Completely over the top.
5 Interns commit a horrible, illegal, immoral act.... Steal a heart. Kill a potential recipient. And the penalty is.... Throw a Prom? :confused:

Normally, I really enjoy this show, but last night I could barely stomach it.

Sure hope they fix it next year.
Different strokes for different folks.

I thought it was excellent, and every bit as good as any other episode the show has churned out over the past 2 seasons.

The situations may have felt a bit weird, but the show has been doing things like this since the very beginning. It's part of what makes it so fun to watch.

CBS Evening News Bests ABC's World News Tonight

By Allison Romano -- Broadcasting & Cable, 5/16/2006 12:51:00 PM

For the first time in nearly five years, The CBS Evening News attracted a larger audience than ABC’s World News Tonight in the weekly ratings race. For the week of May 8, Evening News averaged 7.39 million viewers, edging out World News Tonight's 7.31 million viewers.

ABC, however, still has a slight advantage in the key news demographic, adults 25 to 54, posting a 2.1 rating to CBS’ 1.9.

NBC remains the leader in all categories, attracting a 2.2 rating in 25 to 54s, and 8.41 million viewers.

With Bob Schieffer in the anchor chair and a new executive team at CBS News, Evening News has been steadily growing its ratings in recent months. “I continue to stress with our team that, if you put on a better show day in and day out, our ratings will increase,” Sean McManus, president, CBS News and Sports, said in a statement. “That is what I believe is happening here.”

http://broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6335288.html?display=Breaking+News

Oops.

That will make it harder for Katie to claim credit, won't it?

(But congratulations to Bob Schieffer, a consummate professional.)

Last week’s complete network average prime-time results (with demographic averages) are now at the top of Prime Time Ratings the first post in this thread.

Last week’s top 10 prime-time program ratings are now at the top of Prime Time Ratings -- the first post in this thread.

Tonight’s Season Finales

"NCIS," 8 PM ET/PT, CBS

"Boston Legal” 9 PM ET/PT, ABC

"The Unit," 9 PM ET/PT, CBS

"Scrubs," 9 PM ET/PT, NBC

"Law & Order: Special Victims Unit," 10 PM ET/PT, ABC

Upfront Notebook
MyNetworkTV to Offer Desire, Secret Obsessions Six Nights

By Marc Berman MediaWeek.com MAY 16, 2006 -

MyNetworkTV, a new venture from Fox Television Stations, Inc. and Twentieth Television, gave advertisers a sneak peak of its upcoming Desire and Secret Obsessions programming franchises.

Slated to launch on Sept. 5 with U.S. coverage at a promised 90+ percent, the initiative of the new network is a six-night, 8-10 p.m. programming block populated with two original stripped scripted telenovelas (which were originally slated for first-run syndication), structured in a 13-week, 65-episode story arc. Highlights of each franchise will be offered every Saturday.

In addition to building its station lineup (which is currently cleared at 82 percent of the country), the specific goals of MyNetworkTV are quality-stripped programming, addictive stories, daily Web content, and 52 weeks of original programming. The Desire franchise will open the evening at 8 p.m., followed by Secret Obsessions at 9 p.m., and the four confirmed series in each umbrella title are as follows:

DESIRE

TABLE FOR THREE (4th Quarter 2006)
Two brothers (Nate Haden and Zack Silva) on the run from the mob head from New Jersey to Los Angeles, where they both fall passionately in love with the same woman (Michelle Belegrin). When one brother is believed to be murdered by the mob, only to resurface later, the other brother seeks comfort with the woman they both competed for.

ART OF BETRAYAL (1st Quarter 2007)
After the ex-wife (Sean Young) of a successful and heartless businessman attempts to destroy her former lover’s career, she sets up a scheme to have her two sons seduce his daughters, marry them, and take their money.

RULE OF DECEPTION (2nd Quarter 2007)
Two best friends (Annalynne McCord and Rachelle Woods) who hail from entirely different worlds find their relationship shattered after they meet a handsome and dashing engineer (Dylan Bruce) who seduces both women…one for love, and one for money.

FRIENDS & ENEMIES (3rd Quarter 2007)
A woman who pretends to be a psychiatrist falls in love with her patient and begins a hot and heavy affair with him, until his family reveals the other life she lives.

SECRET OBSESSIONS

FASHION HOUSE (4th Quarter 2006)
Set in the competitive fashion world, former “10” Bo Derek plays a powerful fashion icon who will stop at nothing to destroy the woman (Natalie Martinez) who tries to romance her son (Taylor Kinney).

WATCH OVER ME (1st Quarter 2007)
Julia (Dayannara Torres) and her fiancé Sebastian were meant to have a perfect marriage, but the dangerous world they inhabit makes it necessary for a third party to enter their relationship--Jack, a bodyguard hired to protect them. Unfortunately, Jack's arrival is the catalyst for an intense love triangle that may destroy them all.

A DANGEROUS LOVE (2nd Quarter 2007)
Two very different families – the Olivera and the Mazzoni clans – struggle with a bitter feud that has plagued them for years. Maria Conchita Alonso stars.

TO LOVE & DIE (3rd Quarter 2007)
After a plane crash, an heiress falls in love with the pilot against the wishes of her family.

http://www.mediaweek.com/mw/news/recent_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1002503467

Upfront Notebook
ABC may elect to shoot 'Commander In Chief' telefilm

By Paul J. Gough The Hollywood Reporter

NEW YORK -- "Commander in Chief" wasn't picked up for next season but ABC may give it a brief revival in the form of a two-hour movie.

The one-hour drama about the nation's first female president (Geena Davis) didn't catch on in the ratings, having been pulled off Tuesdays earlier in the season and failing to get traction Thursdays at 10 p.m. It was yanked off the schedule weeks ago and wasn't on the ABC 2006-07 primetime schedule announced early Tuesday.

But ABC Entertainment president Steve McPherson said at a meeting with reporters that "Commander in Chief" wasn't completely retired yet. McPherson said he had been pitched an idea for a two-hour movie by creator and former executive producer Rod Lurie, and was considering it.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr/television/brief_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1002503447

Upfront Notebook
Next time on "Grey's Anatomy": a Thursday night timeslot!!!!


By Melanie McFarland Seattle Post-Intelligencer TV Critic in her TV blog

ABC unleashed its primetime schedule this morning, and topping the news was this bold headline: "Grey's Anatomy," a Sunday primetime giant that may end up being ABC's highest rated drama this season, will be moving to Thursdays at 9 in the fall.

That puts it in the ring against "CSI" and "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip," and announces that ABC is ready to be taken seriously on the most lucrative night of the week. Advertisers tend to bank on Thursdays, and why should NBC and CBS have the playing field to themselves?

On paper, it's a sensible risk. Still, for some viewers, the two-hour Sunday night block of "Desperate" and "Grey's" is the weekend nightcap they've come to expect. We'll just have to see how many of you "Grey's" viewers follow the docs to a timeslot later in the week.

http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/print.asp?entryID=103519

Upfront Notebook
MNT Ribs Head Honchos

By Allison Romano at bcbeat.com

Fox’s startup MyNetworkTV (MNT) may be the underdog in this broadcast upfront – a new brand, a risky schedule of English-language novelas stripped in prime, and a distribution system of former UPN, WB and digital affiliates -- but Fox executives still took the opportunity at MNT’s upfront Tuesday to swipe at a few of the big guys.

In an opening clip teasing its novela (or “short dramatic series,” in MNT-speak) Secret Obsessions, a picture of CBS Corp honcho Leslie Moonves flashes on the screen. “Les Moonves agrees to star as himself in Secret Obsessions” the announcer intones, while a graphic reads “Still Negotiating.”

Later, when Fox Television Stations Chairman Roger Ailes took the stage, he spread the love to NBC. “If anything goes wrong today,” he said, “We’ll blame [NBC Entertainment President] Kevin Reilly. NBC’s been doing that for years.”

http://www.bcbeat.com/

ABC unwraps fall lineup; plans to move `Grey's Anatomy'

SHUFFLE SETS UP THURSDAY-NIGHT SHOWDOWN
By Charlie McCollum San Jose Mercury News May 16, 2006

In an unexpected and high risk schedule change, ABC will move ``Grey's Anatomy'' -- its blockbuster Sunday medical drama -- to Thursdays in the fall.

Unless someone blinks between now and September, the shift will trigger a ratings-rattling showndown at 9 p.m. Thursday involving ``Grey's,'' currently the most-watched show on Sunday; CBS's ``CSI: Crime Scene Investigation,'' TV's most popular scripted series; and NBC's heavily touted new comedy-drama, ``Studio 60 On the Sunset Strip.''

Reacting to complaints from devoted fans of ``Lost,'' its complex Wednesday drama, the network also announced today that the series will air without repeats next season. ABC Entertainment President Stephen McPherson said the show will run seven episodes in the fall and then turn over its time slot to the new ``Day Break'' starring Taye Diggs before returning in February to finish out the season.

The moves are just the most notable parts of an aggressive makeover of the ABC schedule that also includes the addition of 15 new shows and Saturday night college football games, the dismantling of the network's current comedy lineup and the cancellation of high-profile dramas ``Commander In Chief'' and ``Invasion.''

Just two of ABC's current sitcoms made the cut for next season -- ``According to Jim'' and ``George Lopez'' -- and they won't return until mid-season. Given the ax were ``Hope & Faith,'' ``Sons and Daughters,'' ``Freddie'' and ``Rodney.'' In a major surprise, the network will bring back ``What About Brian,'' a drama savaged by the critics and ignored by viewers when it debuted in the spring.

``Primetime,'' the network's Thursday news magazine, will not have a regular spot on the schedule for the first time since 1989 but will be used to ``fill holes'' throughout the season.

Among the more notable new series added to the ABC lineup for the fall:

• ``Brothers & Sisters'' from Jon Robin Baitz (``The Substance of Fire'') gets the coveted 10 p.m. Sunday slot behind ``Desperate Housewives'' as a replacement for ``Grey's.'' A drama about siblings forced to take over the family business after the death of their father, it stars Calista Flockhart (in her first TV role since ``Ally McBeal'') and Rachel Griffiths (``Six Feet Under.'')

• A drama from Hank Steinberg (creator of ``Without A Trace''), ``The Nine'' will try to do what ``Invasion'' couldn't do this season: Hold on to a significant chunk of big Wednesday audience for ``Lost.'' After they're held hostage in a bank robbery, nine strangers -- played by, among others, Chi McBride (``Boston Public''), Tim Daly (``Eyes'') and Kim Raver (``24'') -- find themselves inextricably linked.

• Co-created by J.J. Abrams (``Lost,'' ``Alias''), high-concept relationship drama ``Six Degrees'' gets the time period behind ``Grey's'' on Thursday. It follows six New Yorkers who don't know each other (yet) but are changing each other's lives. The cast includes Jay Hernandez (``Friday Night Lights''), Bridget Moynahan (``I, Robot'') and Hope Davis (``Proof'').

• ``Let's Rob . . .,'' a comedy from Rob Burnett and Jon Beckerman (``Ed''), is likely to attract a lot of attention because it involves a gang of thieves headed by Donal Logue (``Grounded for Life'') trying to burglarize the apartment of Mick Jagger. Although Jagger is not a series regular, he will appear in the show.

• ``Big Day'' is an intriguing ``24''-style comedy, taking place entirely on one couple's wedding day. Among the stars: Marla Sokoloff (``The Practice'') and Josh Cooke (``Four Kings'') as the beleaguered couple and Wendie Malick (``Just Shoot Me'') and Miriam Shor (``Hedwig and the Angry Inch'') as members of the wedding party.

• ``Betty the Ugly'' is an English version of one of Spanish-language TV's most popular telenovelas, with America Ferrera (``The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants'') as a plain young woman trying to make it in the world of fashion. It's followed on Fridays by ``Men in Trees,'' which stars Anne Heche (``Nip/Tuck'') as a relationship coach stuck in a small Alaska town by a snowstorm. It's written by Jenny Bicks of ``Sex and the City'' and directed by James Mangold (``Walk the Line.'')

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/entertainment/television/14592421.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp

Upfront Notebook
Virginia Heffernan at the Television Upfronts

By Virginia Heffernan The New York Times TV Critic in the Times upfront blog

ABC | 05.16 5:35 P.M.
Dance Fever

"Welcome to the 2006 ABC upfront," Jimmy Kimmel is saying. "Which is also the 2007 Fox upfront." It’s a bit of an old joke – Fox's rip-off heyday is behind it, while in fact everyone’s still scrambling to clone "American Idol" -- but everyone went for it. I don't know why he's welcoming us, since this should be almost over.

I forgot to say that NBC's superword from last year ("upscale") is now ABC's.

Holy -- hold the phone. Steve McPherson is dancing, "Dancing With the Stars"-style, with an ultratan pro in a white-and-silver glitz ensemble. Steve is all in black, and he's taking his moves seriously, and the music is "You Shook Me All Night Long."

It's a smash. I'm in a forest of standing ovation. A moving montage of ABC's heartstrings reality programming plays, and it's all winning. ABC: knocking us out with those American thighs.

ABC | 05.16 5:24 P.M.
Crowd Pleasers

Oh no -- two jokes about "Cat Fancy" magazine in two different previews. OK, the second was "Dog Fancy," but someone should watch out for these things. Fortunately, both shows look auspicious — "Help Me Help You" and "Betty the Ugly." These previews are kind of madcap and disarming, and like ABC itself they seem hopeful. Wow, and now people are howling at the Mick Jagger kook heist show, which also could be funny. It’s called "Let's Rob. . ."

ABC | 05.16 5:18 P.M.
Stage Craft

Mary J. Blige just sang that U2 song "One" -- she was seriously under-introduced, but never mind -- as a highlight reel of poignant moments from "Desperate Housewives," "Lost" and "Grey's Anatomy" played. Why did Meredith sleep with George?! Stephen McPherson, the ABC capo, just asked this, and other fan-style questions about all his network’s hits. Good move. He's emphasizing characters and stories, and the snoozeville digital snuff is behind us. In its place is. . . William Shatner of "Boston Legal." Singing "Beautiful Boys," a ladies’-hour twist on "Desperate Housewives" creator Marc Cherry’s "Beautiful Girls" last year. It's breathtaking. And the McDreamy men of "Grey’s Anatomy" parade across the stage. Hurley from "Lost" gets cat calls. This is a happy network.

ABC | 05.16 4:35 P.M.
No Shows

After a cocky corporate movie that made as much of Disney's deals as it did of the inventiveness of "Grey's Anatomy," pretty Anne Sweeney steps forward with a presentation on the primacy of television, even as Digital Platforms are -- whatever they are. Around.

Now she’s boringly talking about "mobisodes." Help. Where is ABC's programming? Where's Terry O'Quinn ("Lost")? Where's Sandra Oh ("Grey's Anatomy")?

ABC | 05.16 4:13 P.M.
View Finder

Hi, Jimmy Kimmel. His krazy kamera is sweeping the seats, zeroing in on Blackberrys and showing them on the Monstertron screen and legitimately making us look like idiots. We’re at Avery Fisher Hall, at Lincoln Center, which is somehow a more exclusive or smaller venue than the other upfront places, and ABC is very stingy with seats. You have to beg, or you land at the simulcast, which might not be so bad. Probably no Kimmel kamera.

ABC | 05.16 2:18 P.M.
Royal Reality

Also, if anyone but me still watches reality TV on the networks*, here's the next ABC Bachelor: http://www.getroyaltreatment.com/about.htm

* "American Idol" doesn't count.

ABC | 05.16 2 P.M.
'Grey's' Day

ABC's "Grey's Anatomy" on Th-thursdays?! That's right. A television show that used to be one on night is going to be on a different night. Take a deep, cleansing breath. The upfronts can be upsetting, startling, emotional.

A call-in press conference this morning confirmed that ABC — the boom-bust, "Lost"/"Invasion" network — is moving its girl doctor soap front and center, which is to say to Thursdays at 9, which is where, according to legend, the big people compete. In that timeslot are big goons: the revered classic "CSI" on CBS and the hypeforce-9 "Studio 60 on Sunset Strip" on NBC. SO WHO WILL WIN?! Scary scary, but time will tell. Today at 3 ABC begins its jamboree at Lincoln Center. Fifteen new shows, with too many names to remember. The Mick Jagger burglary one, at least, is still untitled. And the Ted Danson therapy one doesn't have a forgettable air title like most sitcoms ("Here We Are," "Being Together," "Fun Family") but a great one: "Help Me Help You." So that's two.

ABC had a ratings surge last year, but all its eggs were in three baskets, "Lost," "Desperate Housewives" and "Grey's Anatomy." What if one of those shows — say, one set in the suburbs — lost its creative moorings and tipped and even wrecked? Then eggs would be in two baskets. So welcome, you 15 new shows. Please be weird or funny or at least have short previews.

http://www.nytimes.com/ref/arts/television/tv-upfronts.html

Upfront Notebook
'Grey's Anatomy' airs on a new night

ABC also responds to fans and will air next season's "Lost" without repeats
By Maria Elena Fernandez Los Angeles Times Staff Writer May 16, 2006

NEW YORK — Did you feel the earth moving as Steve McPherson announced to the television world this morning that Dr. McDreamy and company are moving to Thursday nights next fall? Then, as if that bit of news for "Grey's Anatomy" die-hards wasn't enough, McPherson, ABC's president of prime-time entertainment, laid one out for the "Lost" legion: No more repeats.

A slew of characters in 12 new shows will grace the ABC schedule next year, which is why "Grey's Anatomy" is being moved, so ABC can use it to launch "Six Degrees," a new drama by J.J. Abrams and his company, Bad Robot - about six New Yorkers who go about their lives without realizing the impact they will have on one another.

"If anybody has seen ["Grey's"] lately, and if you saw it last night, there's certainly not a better show on television," McPherson said. " We feel that it is a show that deserves a 9 p.m. time period. We feel it deserves to be on the mantle of the great shows on television."

Thursday nights have long been a challenge for ABC, except for its recent success with "Dancing With the Stars," which is moving to Tuesdays and Wednesdays in the fall to give its results show a better platform than what Fridays offered. Since NBC's "must-see" Thursdays went down the tube, the night has belonged to CBS' "CSI," a constant juggernaut, which McPherson developed in a previous job.

NBC announced its own plans Monday to reignite Thursdays with a fall lineup that includes its two hit comedies, "My Name Is Earl" and "The Office," the much-buzzed-about "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip" and "ER." Could big dramas like "CSI," "Grey's Anatomy," and Aaron Sorkin's new baby, "Studio 60," co-exist and thrive in the same time slot?

NBC President of Entertainment Kevin Reilly was sweating it out Monday night as rumors swirled at the NBC party that "Grey's Anatomy" might be closing in on what he is banking will be his network's biggest night. Today, one of Reilly's closest friends, McPherson, made light of the network rivalry.

"It's good for television that they have some great shows on and we have some great shows on," McPherson said. "Kevin and I never talk about the competitive side of the thing. We talk about perspective. One of us is getting overwhelmed and one of us will say, 'Hey, you know what, go spend time with your kids.' That's the great thing about having that friendship. There's a balance in our lives. It's never about the work, it's about how you get through the work."

When it comes to "Lost," it's all about listening to the fans, McPherson said. The drama series about marooned passengers on a mysterious island will return in the fall in its current Wednesday time slot with seven original episodes, and then go on hiatus until January or February, when it will return to the Wednesday night schedule with original episodes until May.

During "Lost's" hiatus, ABC will launch "Day Break," starring Taye Diggs as a detective who literally lives the same day over and over -- and it's a bad one -- for 13 weeks.

"'Lost' is a show people really love. They make an appointment for [it]," McPherson said. "They absolutely just get furious when it's in repeat. So we want to be able to say to the audience, it's going to be on for this block here -- then bring it back and it will run straight through."

The show's executive producers, Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof, said today that they're excited about the new schedule and will design the third season around the new airtime order.

"Our audience was incredibly frustrated with repeats," Cuse wrote in an e-mail. "Now when 'Lost' is on, it's on. And, the audience doesn't have to wait all the way until the spring for the show to return, which given the cliffhanger nature of our finale would be too long."

The new non-repeat schedule "allows us to really keep the momentum of our particular type of storytelling," he added.

NBC announced Monday that it is handling "ER" the same way -- all original episodes until January, when it premieres "The Black Donnellys" in its place. "24" on Fox has grown in its fourth and fifth seasons by launching in January with only original episodes.

"It's a more expensive schedule, but I think the audience is more demanding right now," McPherson said. "The audience has so much choice, it's so sophisticated and it's so demanding now, that we have to work in our schedules more and more original programming."

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/tv/la-et-upfronts17may17,1,7154118.story?coll=la-entnews-tv

Upfront Notebook
It's Official: Veronica Mars Renewed
And Everwood is Dead

By Michael Ausiello TV Guide

Straight from the horse's mouth, Rob Thomas just e-mailed me to confirm that Veronica Mars has been renewed for a third season. The show got a 22-episode order that, depending on ratings, can be reduced to 13.

Very reliable sources, meanwhile, are also telling me that One Tree Hill will be back and that Everwood is, in fact, dead. Talk about injustice.

http://community.tvguide.com/thread.jspa?threadID=700002002

Upfront Notebook
Alphabet shifting 'Anatomy'

ABC pits medical drama against 'CSI,' 'Studio 60'
By Josef Adalian and Denise Martin Variety.com
(Michael Learmonth contributed to this report.)

Nobody can ever accuse Steve McPherson of being risk-averse.

After coming achingly close to a first place finish this season, the ABC Entertainment prexy has decided to give his net's primetime lineup a radical makeover by adding at least one new hour of programming every night of the week but Monday.

A whopping nine shows are slated to bow in the fourth quarter, with no less than 15 skeins on deck for the full season. That's more than chief rivals CBS and Fox are expected to order combined.

Strategy is designed to spread the net's success from Sunday to other nights of the week, first and foremost by shifting monster hit "Grey's Anatomy" to Thursday nights at 9 (Daily Variety, May 16).

It's a major roll of the dice, especially for a net that on the surface seemed just a hit away from a first place finish. McPherson, however, said a strong development season convinced him now was the time to make changes.

"I think you have to be aggressive and you have to play the cards you're dealt," McPherson told reporters at a Tuesday ayem press conference. "We have good cards right now."

As if to underscore the gamble, McPherson stopped the show at ABC's Tuesday Lincoln Center upfront with a potentially embarassing ballroom dancing number choreographed to "You Shook Me All Night Long." He pulled it off without a hitch, earning a standing ovation from the Madison Avenue crowd.

"What the hell was that?" he quipped.

As for the "Grey's" scheduling, ABC's move could have an immediate impact on rivals, particularly NBC. Peacock just announced its intention to slot Aaron Sorkin's "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip" Thursdays at 9. Keeping the show there now that "Grey's" will be in the slot seems a suicide mission.

Peacock rep didn't respond to a request for comment.

Medical drama could put a dent in CBS' "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," but the latter skein should still do fine. In a way, CBS dodged a bullet: A rumored shift of "Grey's" to 9 p.m. Mondays could have been fatal to the Eye's comedy lineup.

McPherson said separating Sunday sensations "Grey's" and "Desperate Housewives" was an acknowlegement that "Grey's" has come into its own.

"We feel like it's a show that deserves its own night," McPherson said. "I think there is plenty of room for both ("Grey's" and "C.S.I.")...It establishes another strong place on the schedule for us."

There'd been industry buzz for months that "Grey's" was headed for Mondays. But McPherson said he liked the way the net's current mix of reality shows and drama "What About Brian" had worked out.

"Our Monday is strong in (viewers) 18 to 34. We've found a great replacement for football," he said.

And while movie ad coin is important, "This wasn't just about movie money."

Surrounding "Grey's" on Thursday will be a pair of new comedies in the 8 o'clock hour, while the post- "Grey's" 10 p.m. slot has J.J. Abrams drama "Six Degrees" competing against "ER" and whatever CBS ends up slotting there.

Alphabet's vaunted hype machine has already started touting "Six Degrees," with ABC airing a promo for the show during Monday's second season finale of "Grey's." While nets have touted fall shows in May before, it's the first time in memory that a net has promoted a new show before its upfront presentation.

Not on ABC's Thursday sked: Long-running newsmag "PrimeTime." ABC has ordered a full season of the show, and will use it as a midseason replacement -- perhaps in multiepisode, single-topic arcs.

"We'll use them to fill holes throughout the season," he said.

Move is another blow to the struggling newsmag genre, with NBC this week cutting back "Dateline" to one lone Saturday airing. CBS will announce tomorrow whether "48 Hours" will join "60 Minutes" on its sked.

With "Grey's" ankling Sunday, ABC will fill the plum post-"Desperate Housewives" Sunday timeslot with family drama "Brothers and Sisters."

Mondays will continue as a female-driven destination with new seasons of "Wife Swap" at 8 pm, followed by "The Bachelor" (this time from Rome) and renewed drama "What About Brian." "Supernanny" will take over the 9 pm timeslot of "The Bachelor" later in the season.

"Dancing with the Stars" will kick off Tuesday nights, leading into 9 pm rookie laffers "Let's Rob..." and Ted Danson starrer "Help Me Help You," revolving around the problems of a therapist played by Ted Danson. "Boston Legal" will remain at 10 pm. Post- "Dancing," ABC will rotate in the new Endemol USA game show "Set For the Rest of Your Life."

"Lost" will continue to anchor Wednesdays at 9 pm, followed by new hour "The Nine," from "Without a Trace" creator Hank Steinberg. The results show for "Dancing" will lead Wednesdays at 8 pm., with "George Lopez" and "According to Jim" taking over the slot midseason.

As expected, McPherson said ABC will roll out "Lost" in two big chunks. Seven consecutive episodes of the show will air in the fall, with thriller "Day Break," starring Taye Diggs, taking over in the early winter. "Lost" will then return for an uninterrupted run in January or early February.

Not airing reruns of "Lost" means a hit to ABC's bottom line, but McPherson thinks the move is needed.

"It's a more expensive schedule, but I think the audience is more demanding now," McPherson said. "The audience has so much more choice, we have to work more originals into our schedule...Giving the audience what they want is something we're charged with doing."

Ben Silverman and Salma Hayek's telenovela adaptation "Betty the Ugly" will kick off Friday at 8 pm, leading into Alaska-set romantic comedy "Men in Trees." "20/20" will stay put at 10 pm. ABC will introduce a new 12-week college football franchise on Saturdays.

McPherson also confirmed "Commander in Chief" might still have life, saying ABC execs were debating the merits of a potential two-hour movie from creator Rod Lurie (Daily Variety, May 16). Pic in theory could serve as a backdoor pilot to revive the series, but no agreements are yet in place.

ABC chief admitted disappointment with what happened to "Chief" over its first season.

"Creatively, the show didn't build to where it needs to be," McPherson said. "It's a frustration when the show isn't executed up to the level of the pilot."

Like NBC, ABC is bringing back just two shows launched last season: "Dancing with the Stars" and "What About Brian." Also of note: All of Alphabet's fall laffers are single-camera comedies, a departure for a net historically known for multicamera hits such from "Roseanne" to "Home Improvement."

On the bench are whodunit "Traveler," and alternative skeins including "Greg Behrendt's Wake-Up Call," in which the author will dole out relationship advice, and "Just for Laughs," a six-episode hidden-camera series. "American Inventor" will also be back for another round.

McPherson added a note of realism to this week's blizzard of hype surrounding new platforms and technologies, noting that while ABC remains "at the forefront" of such experiments, it's not his priority.

"I spend most of my time worrying about the content," he said. "At the end of the day, that's what drives everything else."

McPherson's boss, Disney ABC TV Group topper Anne Sweeney, underscored that message at the net's upfront. She teased the audience into believing she was about to unveil the "ultimate" media viewing device, hinting it was a new iPod. Instead, she took the wraps off a 1970s model television.

"No many platforms emerge, the ABC television network will always be our primary platform," she said.

Brad Adgate, research director, Horizon Media, seemed a bit surprised by the depth of changes in ABC's sked.

"For a broadcast net that is very close to winning adults 18-49, they are being very aggressive in moving 'Grey' Anatomy'and putting on new shows," he said.

Alphabet casualties include "Freddie," "Invasion," "The Evidence," "Emily's Reasons Why Not," "Rodney," "Jake in Progress," "Hope & Faith," "Sons and Daughters," "Less than Perfect," "Hot Properties," "Night Stalker," "In Justice" and "Miracle Workers."

Nonetheless, he said the net has nowhere to go but up on Thursdays.

"ABC has on Thursday been nothing short of a disaster for the last 20 years. They have no tradition there," he said. "Clearly they feel GA has a loyal following of tens of millions of viewers that will follow it wherever."

Fred, your activity in this thread is very much appreciated, but particularly during weeks like this one...when the TV industry news is fast and furious.

Upfront Notebook
Virginia Heffernan at the Television Upfronts

By Virginia Heffernan The New York Times TV Critic in the Times upfront blog

ABC | 05.16 6 P.M.
Where the Boys Are

So in addition to u-n-i-t-y, the theme that's getting pushed here is "It's Raining Men." First the parade of heartthrobs at the top of the hour -- then a shower scene shot with the "Grey's" guys -- and now "Men in Trees," with Anne Heche as a single woman surrounded by men. I love Anne Heche, but this looks like a lemon.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ABC | 05.16 5:55 P.M.
Anatomy, Noted

Let's say it again: "Grey’s Anatomy" star Ellen Pompeo is, as our tabloid friends say, scary skinny. Like Calista Flockhart on "Ally McBeal"?

And speaking of Flockhart, her new ABC show -- a drama about an overachieving family with secrets, called "Brothers and Sisters" -- looks like something I could become obsessed with.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ABC | 05.16 5:40 P.M.
Story Time

ABC, in consolidating its comeback, is wisely playing up its talent for uniting red and blue state themes; admitting that the digital stuff is boring but necessary; and giving big love to Shonda Rhimes, creator of "Grey's Anatomy." It's not subdividing the television audience, but claiming the universal high ground of character, story, and emotion. Though I haven't seen a new show that's an absolute sure thing, it looks like it'll be another boom year for ABC.

http://www.nytimes.com/ref/arts/tel...v-upfronts.html

TV Notebook
Harsh sentence for Richard Hatch

By JACK PERRY projo.com staff Tuesday, May 16, 2006
-- With reports from Journal staff writer Richard Salit

PROVIDENCE -- Survivor star Richard Hatch's duplicitous ways may have made him a reality TV show winner. But today they earned him extra time in prison, as a federal judge sentenced him to 51 months for tax evasion and lying during his trial.

Hatch, 45, was ordered to serve the prison sentence after U.S. District Chief Judge Ernest C. Torres concluded that he had lied on the witness stand and also lied to probation officials.

Torres said Hatch had obstructed justice with his dishonesty, and he penalized him with a harsher sentence. "Mr. Hatch lied in his testimony to this court and did so repeatedly," the judge said.

Hatch, who has already spent more than three months behind bars, was escorted into the courtroom with his hands cuffed behind his back and wearing orange scrubs and leg shackles.

"I believe I've been completely truthful and completely forthcoming throughout the entire process," Hatch told Torres during a sentencing hearing that lasted more than two hours.

Torres also ordered that Hatch serve three years of probation after his release and that he undergo counseling. The judge said Hatch seems to be "in denial."

"I can't tell whether you've convinced yourself that some of these things are true that you've fabricated," Torres said.

Michael Minns, one of Hatch's attorneys, said they have already filed an appeal.

The Newport resident who gained fame for his cunning ability to stay on the island during Survivor's first season seemed unfazed by the time he's already served or the sentence.

He greeted his mother and sister when he entered the courtroom, smiled after hearing his sentence, and then appeared to try to comfort his relatives.

Hatch had been convicted Jan. 25 of two counts of tax evasion and one count of filing a false income tax return. Federal guidelines had called for a sentence ranging from 33 to 41 months on those charges.

After an eight-day trial, a federal jury concluded that Hatch had failed to report multiple sources of income, including the Pontiac Aztec and $1 million he won on Survivor, the $320,000 he received for cohosting a Boston radio program and $27,000 he collected in rent.

Trial testimony showed that Hatch had two accountants prepare year 2000 tax returns that included his Survivor income. The first return, by Richard Plotkin, concluded that Hatch owed $374,000. The second return, completed by Jodi Rodrigues Wallace, concluded that he owed less money, $234,000, because Hatch didn't tell Wallace about all of his income.

Hatch didn't file either return.

Instead, he later asked Wallace to complete another return without the Survivor winnings for "informational" purposes. That return, which claimed a $4,000 refund, is the one that Hatch filed, although Wallace testified that she required Hatch to sign a document saying, "This return is not to be filed."

Hatch claimed during the trial Wallace "did not tell me not to file that return. She told me she couldn't be associated with that return."

Torres cited Hatch's testimony about the tax returns among the several examples that led him to conclude that Hatch had lied. Torres noted that Plotkin and Wallace both testified that they had told Hatch that his Survivor income had to be included in his 2000 return, but Hatch denied that on the stand.

Prosecutor Andrew Reich, an assistant U.S. attorney, asked Torres to impose a harsh sentence, saying there were several aggravating factors.

He said Hatch first went to Plotkin and then Wallace in an attempt to "manipulate other people" to get the return he wanted. And then at trial he blamed them.

"He ended up basically pointing the finger at other people, putting the blame on other people," Reich said. "This was all very well thought out."

Reich also noted that Hatch neglected to tell probation officials about property he owns in Canada and Michigan, which Torres concluded was an attempt by Hatch to obstruct justice.

Minns asked for a lesser sentence, saying Hatch had a troubled childhood. He said Hatch has a good military record and has served on the board of directors for an adoption agency. He also asked Torres not to impose a fine, saying Hatch faces a big IRS bill.

Torres did not fine Hatch. He did order Hatch to pay the taxes he owes for 2000 and 2001, a figure the IRS calculates at $474,971 plus interest and penalties.

After the sentencing, Eileen J. O'Connor, assistant attorney eneral of the Justice Department's Tax Division, said in a statement:

“Our nation’s federal tax system is not a reality show to be outwitted, it is a reality, period. The Department of Justice is working vigorously to vindicate the interests of law-abiding taxpayers: tax cheats will be found out, prosecuted, and punished."

Standing on the courthouse steps afterward, the U.S. attorney for Rhode Island, Robert Clark Corrente said, "Everybody has to pay their taxes. Nobody is special."

It was not clear today whether Hatch would be returned to the Plymouth County, Mass., facility where he been held or sent to another prison.

http://www.projo.com/cgi-bin/bi/gold_print.cgi

Upfront Notebook
Upfronts: Quickie Sked Analysis

By Scott Collins Los Angeles Times Staff Writer in his Channel Island TV Industry blog

It's still early in the upfront presentation derby (only NBC and ABC have gone so far; CBS unveils its fall lineup Wednesday and Fox Thursday), but here are a few quick notes on how the network scheduling races are shaping up for the 2006-07 TV season:

• Thursdays at 9 p.m. will remain a programming battle zone. ABC is moving its megahit "Grey's Anatomy" to the slot, which is also where NBC has put its most highly anticipated new drama, Aaron Sorkin's show-biz drama "Studio 60 from the Sunset Strip." And it's a foregone conclusion that CBS will keep "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" in that time period.

All this could mean very tough sledding for NBC. The "Grey's" audience skews heavily female, while "CSI" is more man-friendly, so both established hits can probably thrive in the slot (however, ABC is asking "Grey's" to do an awful lot of work on a tough night, with new shows both in front of and behind it). Unfortunately for NBC, though, that won't leave a lot of eyeballs left to sample "Studio 60." What's more, Hollywood satires have a poor track record on TV, and "Studio 60" got a surprisingly flat reaction from media buyers during NBC's presentation Monday. But if anyone can pull it off, it's Sorkin.

• In its first season without "Monday Night Football" in 36 years, ABC decided to punt, pardon the expression, on Mondays, returning such familiar and not especially high-rated reality fare as "Wife Swap" and "Supernanny." That must be a relief to CBS, which now has the way clear to reinvigorate its comedy lineup for that night, and also NBC, which is trying the new drama "Heroes" at 9 p.m.

• With TV comedy in desperate straits now, both ABC and NBC are betting heavily on the single-camera format, which eschews the multiple-camera, stagebound, laugh track-sweetened setups common to most TV sitcoms in favor of a more cinematic approach, a la HBO's "Sex and the City." ABC's single-camera efforts include "Let's Rob ..." and "Help Me Help You" with Ted Danson, while NBC has "30 Rock" from Tina Fey and the midseason "Andy Barker P.I." with Andy Richter.

The only problem? Mainstream audiences haven't seemed to warm to the single-camera format yet. "Arrested Development" never grew beyond a cult hit on Fox, and "The Office" is still trying to build an audience on NBC. Indeed, the most successful examples of single-camera shows reside on HBO - for example, "Curb Your Enthusiasm."

• The new CW Network will announce its fall lineup on Thursday, but early gossip already has executives pulling the plug on "Everwood," the acclaimed WB Network show that was earlier expected to make the switch. If true, the show will have lasted four seasons and produced 89 episodes.

http://hollywoodhotline.typepad.com/watcher/

Upfront Notebook
News Magazines Return, but . . .

ABC announces the renewal of "20/20" and "Primetime," but questions remain.
By Matea Gold Los Angeles Times Staff Writer May 16, 2006
(Times staff writer Maria Elena Fernandez contributed to this report.)

The good news for ABC News: both its prime-time newsmagazines have been renewed for next season.

The bad news: while "20/20" will remain on Fridays, "Primetime" hasn't been given a regular time slot.

The hour-long program, co-anchored by Diane Sawyer, Cynthia McFadden, Chris Cuomo and John Quinones, will lose its spot at 10 p.m. on Thursdays in September to make room for a new drama, "Six Degrees."

While ABC News executives expect "Primetime" to get a regular time slot later in the season, ABC Entertainment President Steven McPherson said the program will be used "throughout the year to fill holes when we need them," often as a "limited series."

The move comes as prime time newsmagazines, once major part of the broadcast network's schedules, have declined in popularity in the last decade. "Primetime" is actually one of the few that have enjoyed a growth in viewership this season.

In a memo to staff, ABC News President David Westin tried to put a positive cast on the change, saying the plan "provides us an opportunity to draw upon 'Primetime's' unique innovation, creativity, and skill in jumping on a big story."

Westin stressed that both newsmagazines will be asked to produce at least 48 hours of news programming next season. Even though it doesn't immediately have a regular time slot, "Primetime" could actually air more than once a week as a "special edition," he said.

"We will be looking for special stories and groups of stories that we can program together as limited series that draw special attention," he wrote. "If anything, we may see more hours of Primetime this fall than before - with special hours during the week."

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/tv/la-et-upfrontnews16may16,0,7952214,print.story?coll=la-home-headlines

Upfront Notebook
Shuffle, shuffle, shuffle

The Newark Star-Ledger’s Alan Sepinwall TV blog

Upfront Week, day two! Can you feel the excitement? No? Well, what about the confusion? Yeah, me too.

There's some TV conventional wisdom that a successful network doesn't make many changes to its schedule, season-to-season. So how do you explain ABC, at or near the top in most attractive demographic categories, unveiling a schedule with nine new fall shows and four veteran series -- including the network's most popular property -- changing nights?

What we've got here is an illustration of exactly how fragile ABC's success the last two years has been. Basically, the network was carried to the top entirely on the backs of four shows: "Grey's," "Housewives," "Lost" and "Home Edition." Everything else is a total crapshoot. "Dancing" has a big audience but skews really old, and the network can't air it twice a season like CBS can with "Survivor." There are a few singles hitters ("Boston Legal," "20/20," the Monday reality shows), but to stick with the baseball metaphor, the rest of the lineup for the last few years hasn't even been at replacement level.

There's room for a lot of growth here, but there's no realistic way a network -- even one with the great promotional platforms of the Big Four -- can launch this many new shows or let people know about this many scheduling moves. Better to keep suffering with the likes of "Hope & Faith" and "Invasion" for at least a few months into the fall, then do staggered launches of most of the new stuff.

I do like the "Grey's" move. Whatever creative issues I may have had with the latter third of this season (and, again, Cone of Silence on the finale until I see it), it's the strongest thing ABC has, and it's the thematic opposite of "CSI" in virtually every way: young, female, soapy, focused on relationships over procedure, etc., etc. Two shows can co-exist in that timeslot. "CSI" and "The Apprentice" both did great back when "The Apprentice" was still good (i.e., the first season), as did "CSI" and "Will & Grace" back in the day. If both shows have audiences and are different enough stylistically, the "if you build it, they will come" theory works. (Though ABC sure could have helped matters by giving "Grey's" an actual lead-in, like maybe moving the "Dancing" results show to Thursday.)

I also like that McPherson is smart enough to get rid of the "Lost" rerun problem. (Seven originals will air in the fall, followed by Taye Diggs in "Day Break" for the rest of '06, followed by "Lost" originals straight through the rest of the season.) The "24" solution of just delaying the season until January so you can go straight through without a break is probably better, but I also think fans would scream bloody murder if they had to wait that long to resolve whatever the latest cliffhanger will be.

Until I watch the new shows, I don't want to comment too much, but I like the idea and creative pedigree of "Let's Rob Mick Jagger," or whatever they wind up calling it. On the other hand, was anybody screaming for the return of Calista Flockhart to the public eye?

One of the more curious moves is the return of "What About Brian." I have the last three episodes sitting on my TiVo and had been preparing to delete them, since I don't really have the time to keep up with a doomed relationship show. But I like it enough that I'll find the time to watch those three at some point soon. One of my friends who's the head of scheduling at another network has this theory that a show with a small audience can grow, but that once you start to lose a sizable part of your audience, they're never coming back. Something like "In Justice" opened well, then went off the table. "Brian" never really opened, not even with the Sunday preview, so there's still room for growth. (On the other hand, if you're being cynical, this is just a Suck Up to J.J. move.)

In general, I wouldn't get too attached to most of these new shows. "Brian" and "Dancing" are the only new shows ABC introduced this season that survived ("Commander in Chief" may get a two-hour wrap-up movie), and that was a more stable schedule than this one.

http://sepinwall.blogspot.com/2006/05/shuffle-shuffle-shuffle.html

TV Notebook
Hail (and farewell) to the chiefs — on TV dramas

By Maria Elena Fernandez Los Angeles Times Staff Writer May 17, 2006

This has not been a good year for the president of the United States. As portrayed on television anyway.

Take President David Palmer (Dennis Haysbert) on Fox's "24." He was shot dead by an assassin in the first episode of the season.

We don't know how things will turn out exactly for his successor, President Charles Logan (Gregory Itzin), but last we saw of him in the season finale previews he was staring down the barrel of a gun held by a yelling Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland). Jack was very, very mad, and we all know what happens when Jack is ticked off.

On Sunday, the nation said goodbye to one of its most beloved television leaders, President Josiah "Jed" Bartlet (Martin Sheen), as his second term came to a close and "The West Wing" came to an end.

Then on the season finale of "Prison Break" on Monday, in a Machiavellian bid for career enhancement, the vice president of the United States (Patricia Wettig) poisoned the president. Even sadder is that we never even knew his name.

On Tuesday, ABC announced that "Commander in Chief" has been canceled. But it wasn't President Mackenzie Allen's (Geena Davis) fault. The producers just couldn't get it together. They might try for a two-hour movie, said Steve McPherson, ABC president of prime-time entertainment, but as a series, it's over.

So, sure, President Matthew Santos (Jimmy Smits) is recently inaugurated. He should be counting his lucky "West Wing" stars. But he'll serve his term without a viewing audience.

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/tv/la-et-tvprez17may17,1,1928524.story?coll=la-entnews-tv

Upfront Notebook
Live From the Upfronts

From The Los Angeles Times

Buyer Buzz
Tuesday, 4:57 p.m.

Shari Anne Brill, director of programming, Carat USA, says she understands why ABC decided to move "Grey's Anatomy" to Thursday, but warned that it may be risky.

"I understand why they made the decision -- everyone wants the retail dollars from Thursday nights -- but the connective shows around it doesn't seem to hold together for me. And I think it's going to be at the expense of their other nights."
— Matea Gold
________________________________________


Stargazing in Manhattan
Tuesday, 4:41 p.m.

The network's post-upfront bash, held in a tent outside Lincoln Center, teemed with young ad buyers, eagerly queuing up to get Polaroids taken with the ABC stars.

Predictably, the casts of "Lost," "Desperate Housewives" and "Grey's Anatomy" were mobbed. Music pulsated through the tent as the youthful buyers munched on shrimp cocktail, grilled vegetables and crab cakes.

But nowhere in sight (at least from our vantage point) was the dancer Steve McPherson. Too bad, because there was an empty dance floor in the middle of the room.
— Matea Gold and Maria Elena Fernandez
________________________________________


Telemundo focuses on originality
Tuesday, 4:33 p.m.

The verdict is in: Original programming produced in the United States for Latinos who live in the country will continue to be the cornerstone of Telemundo’s programming, according to executives who spoke to reporters Tuesday, hours before the Spanish-language network presented next fall’s schedule to advertisers at Lincoln Center in Manhattan.

“We had made a big bet and investment on original programming,” said Don Brown, Telemundo’s president. “But at this point last year, ratings were heading in the wrong direction. . . . We’ve stayed absolutely on focus with our strategy.”

Reporting ratings growth in all key areas — prime time, daytime and weekend — the network’s senior vice president of entertainment, Ramon Escobar, outlined his fall schedule and announced five new telenovelas. One of them is a first-time production with Sony Pictures Television International to adapt Isabel Allende’s retelling of the Zorro legend, “El Zorro,” into “Zorro: La Espada y la Rosa” (“Zorro: The Sword and the Rose”).

Written by Kiko Olivieri, creator of one of the network’s current hits, “La Tormenta,.” the series will be produced in Colombia, one of the few not made in the U.S.

“We’re very excited about that and I think it’s something everyone will be wowed about,” Escobar said of the show.”

Escobar also announced “Vas o No Vas,” its version of “Deal or No Deal,” which is already very popular in Mexico.

For the first time, the network will air an original telenovela during the afternoon at 1 p.m. “Cuatro Rosas” (“Four Roses”) is the story of four women who live in a neighborhood, share secrets and are in relationships, for better or worse. The network, part of the NBC Universal family, isn’t making any connections between it and “Desperate Housewives,” but the Wisteria Lane familiarity is undeniable.
— Maria Elena Fernandez
________________________________________


A 'Grey's Anatomy' twist
Tuesday, 2:25 p.m.

Spoofing its most popular TV series, ABC brought out the cast of “Grey’s Anatomy,” with Chandra Wilson (“Dr. Bailey”) telling the audience how unruly the Seattle Grace Hospital crew really is.

"If I was really in charge, I'd clean the place up," she says.

Then, cut to a clip. It looks like a replay of George's dream of him and the girls in the shower. But in this fantasy, it’s Dr. McDreamy, Burke and Dr. Webber (“Chief”) getting into close quarters. Bailey appears and they all reveal how much they love her. She gets in shower with them.

Suddenly, she’s falling out of bed onto the floor.

"Oh, Hell no."
— Maria Elena Fernandez
________________________________________


Dancing with the boys
Tuesday, 2:08 p.m.

Last year Marc Cherry and the Wisteria girls danced on stage while he belted "Beautiful Girls." This year, William Shatner appeared in a tux and top hat, declaring "This year I am here to even the score!"

Shatner belted his own version of "Beautiful Boys." Soon he was joined by the leading men of ABC -- leading the pack in a tuxedo was Patrick Dempsey and Matthew Fox in a suit. The list went on and on: Doug Savant, Terry O'Quinn, Daniel Dae Kim, James Pickens Jr.

Then another voice was heard from balcony and it was Cherry finishing the song ... "The things I'll do to keep my show on Sunday nights."

And if that wasn't enough to get ad buyers in a jovial mood, Steve McPherson, emerged to do the cha cha cha with Edyta Sliwinska from "Dancing With the Stars" to the tune of "Shook Me All Night Long."

He got a standing ovation.

For McPherson, it must have felt well worth the practice -- and the 2o pounds he dropped during eight weeks of training.
— Maria Elena Fernandez
________________________________________


ABC's new discovery
Tuesday, 1:24.m.

Anne Sweeney opened ABC’s presentation by citing all the latest developments in new media. But the network has hit on another new-fangled gizmo, she said, as two men wheeled out something hidden behind a dark sheet.

This invention promises unparalleled reach, she added.

The theme song from "2001 Space Odyssey" filled the room. "Ladies and gentlemen, I give you TV!" Sweeney said dramatically, as the men pulled back the cloth to reveal an old-model television.
— Matea Gold
________________________________________


Jimmy Kimmel at play
Tuesday, 1:01 p.m.

As advertisers strolled into Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center, Jimmy Kimmel's Kimmel-Cam caught all sorts of offensive behavior: Blackberry messages, cell phone conversations and one guy reading a magazine.

Kimmel playfully picked on all of them and also reminded the crowd of ad buyers to stop by at the ABCstore on their way out. "'Commander in Chief' handtowels are 6o percent off," he said.

At one point, he called out a seat number out and told its designee that she had won an "Emily's Reasons Why Not" book bag.
— Maria Elena Fernandez
________________________________________


Coming to your portal soon: Webbie fashion tips
Tuesday, 12:11.m.

Taking a page from its sister News Corp. company MySpace, My Network TV is launching a website that promises more than outtakes from the show. Instead, it's a virtual lifestyle portal.

On www.mynetworktv.com, characters will talk about their clothes and offer fashion advice for different body types (attention advertisers: sponsorship opportunities galore). A therapist will examine behavior on the shows and give relationship advice based on what the characters are doing. There will also be recipes, based on food in the series. All the video clips can be easily emailed and uploaded to handheld devices.
— Matea Gold
________________________________________


As the world turns
Tuesday, 11:47 a.m.

Overhead on the subway, two ad buyers leaving the My Network TV upfront presentation:

Buyer 1: "So whadya think?" Buyer 2: "It is what is -- beautiful people in soap operas."
— Matea Gold
________________________________________


'Primetime' floats on ABC's schedule
Tuesday, 10:53 a.m.

The good news for ABC News: both its prime-time newsmagazines have been renewed for next season.

The bad news: while “20/20” will remain on Fridays, “Primetime” hasn’t been given a regular time slot.

The hour-long program, co-anchored by Diane Sawyer, Cynthia McFadden, Chris Cuomo and John Quinones, will lose its spot at 10 p.m. on Thursdays in September to make room for a new drama, “Six Degrees.”

While ABC News executives expect “Primetime” to get a regular time slot later in the season, ABC Entertainment President Steven McPherson said the program will be used “throughout the year to fill holes when we need them,” often as a “limited series.”

The move comes as newsmagazines, once major part of the broadcast network’s schedules, have declined in popularity in the last decade. “Primetime” is actually one of the few that have enjoyed a growth in viewership this season.

In a memo to staff, ABC News President David Westin tried to put a positive cast on the change, saying the plan “provides us an opportunity to draw upon ‘Primetime’s’ unique innovation, creativity, and skill in jumping on a big story.”

Westin stressed that both newsmagazines will be asked to produce at least 48 hours of news programming next season. Even though it won't immediately have a regular time slot, “Primetime” could actually air more than once a week as a “special edition,” he said.

“We will be looking for special stories and groups of stories that we can program together as limited series that draw special attention,” he wrote. “If anything, we may see more hours of Primetime this fall than before -- with special hours during the week.”
— Matea Gold and Maria Elena Fernandez

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/tv/la-upfronts-dispatches-sp,1,897358.special?coll=la-

Nielsen Notebook
'House' raises its numbers

By Bill KeveneyUSA Today

• Medical benefits. House attracted its second-highest audience ever, 24.3 million, trailing only the two American Idol broadcasts and CSI for the week.

• Farewell to the chief. The West Wing attracted constituents for its finale, eclipsing the 10-million-viewer mark (10.1 million) for the first time this season. The audience topped the weak final-season average by more than 2 million.

• Fox finales. Other long-in-the-tooth shows also received audience bumps for their series finales but fell far short of their ratings heydays. Malcolm in the Middle (7.4 million) doubled its viewer average for the season, while That '70s Show drew 6.2 million, a modest increase over its final-season average.

• Seasonal sendoffs. Gilmore Girls' season finale was up over its previous six broadcasts and beat its season average. Other season finales fell short of their season averages, although many shows lose viewers as daylight expands. A supersized My Name Is Earl was down more than 10% from its season average, while an expanded version of The Office dropped by a smaller percentage. Everybody Hates Chris continued its late-season slump, off by more than 20%

• Surviving. Survivor: Panama recorded the island series's lowest finale audience (17.1 million), but it beat all competitors in its two-hour time slot except for Desperate Housewives (21 million).

• Glub, glub, glub. The heavily hyped David Blaine: Drowned Alive tanked, finishing fourth in viewers in its two-hour time slot.

• No truth in advertising. Keith Barry: Extraordinary wasn't. This illusionist could only make viewers disappear, ranking 73rd out of 108 programs (5.7 million).

• Not contagious. Who would have guessed a movie about deadly avian flu wouldn't wow viewers? Fatal Contact: Bird Flu in America was itself a casualty (5.3 million).

• Heaven can wait. 7th Heaven attracted its largest audience (7.6 million) since Jan. 24, 2005, in what had been billed as the series' finale. With the family drama now due back on the new CW network, maybe every episode should be billed as the finale.

http://www.usatoday.com/life/television/news/2006-05-16-nielsen-analysis_x.htm

Upfront Notebook
MyNet debuts, upfront and personal

By Paul J. Gough The Hollywood Reporter May 17, 2006

NEW YORK -- MyNetworkTV met Madison Avenue for the first time Tuesday, wrapping its concept of sexy, action-packed telenovelas into an advertiser-friendly, multiplatform package that it said would offer a new type of TV sensation. MyNet also said it will use News Corp. sibling MySpace to drive viewership.

The network released a few details about two new 13-week telenovelas under the "Desire" and "Secret Obsessions" brands. "Friends & Enemies" centers on a woman who pretends to be a psychologist then falls in love with one of her patients, while trying to put a sister through school. "To Love and Die," based on "The Heiress," pairs a pilot and an heiress who fall in love after a plane crash.

Casting details weren't available. Both are scheduled to run in third-quarter 2007.

MySpace will take on a role in the promotion and continued buzz surrounding MyNetworkTV: The social networking site and its sensibility will infuse MyNetworkTV's strategy on broadband and mobile. This season there will be 3,000 pieces of original video segments for broadband and mobile, including episode recaps, extra video and tips on cooking (from the cast of "Three's a Crowd") and fashion (from the cast of "Fashion House").

MyNet fans will be able to send the content to others' e-mail or mobile phones. Another feature, "Casting Call," will allow would-be actors and actress post their video auditions to the Web, and Internet users will be able to vote on who would get a part.

Sales chief Bob Cesa said that because MyNet will produce and distribute its own content, it can provide deep branded integration, product placement and visual imaging for the shows. It displayed clips from Lexus, Apple and others showing the branded integration examples.

It also promised that by the time the network goes online Sept. 5, it will be cleared in 90% of the U.S. with a two-hour primetime strip Monday-Saturday. The 13-week arcs of each one-hour show -- "Desire" and "Secret Obsessions" -- were discussed, and advertisers got their first big-screen looks at the first three sets of series that will take MyNet to the second quarter of 2007.

Opening the upfront presentation with a slap at CBS chief Leslie Moonves and NBC's Kevin Reilly, MyNet said it was leading a new way in the network TV business that has been doing the same thing for years.

"If you want to be successful, you have to find a way to be new and different," MyNet chairman Roger Ailes said.

The network closed the roughly hourlong upfront presentation with a three-song set by Sheryl Crow. She told the audience at the Hilton Theatre that it was her first performance since being treated for breast cancer and stopped one song, "Soak Up the Sun," a few seconds in to start again.

"This is the first time I've been back, the first time I've played in ages," she told the audience. "I'm just happy to be here." She also performed "All I Wanna Do" and "A Change Would Do You Good" and inserted "I want MyNetworkTV" into that song.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr/television/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1002503748

Upfront Notebook
CBS Plans to Add 5 Dramas and 2 Comedies in the Fall

By Bill Carter The New York Times May 17, 2006

CBS has programmed more successful prime-time shows than any other network over the last several years, and it will try to augment that success next fall with a roster of seven new scripted series.

Reflecting what has become a general network trend away from comedy, CBS is heavily emphasizing the one-hour drama, ordering five new shows in that genre and just two comedies, one of which is receiving a limited order of only six episodes.

As it generally does, CBS has stocked its new shows with familiar stars. Among those top-billed in the new CBS series are James Woods, Jeri Ryan, Ray Liotta, Virginia Madsen, Stanley Tucci and Joe Pantoliano.

CBS has scored its greatest successes in recent years with police procedural shows, but for next season it has moved away from that genre somewhat, though it does still have several new series with themes touching on crime. Mr. Woods, an Emmy-winning actor, will star in "Shark," about a onetime celebrity defense lawyer who has an epiphany about his role in the justice system and becomes a prosecutor, relying on all the tricks he previously employed to help clients escape justice.

The show also stars Ms. Ryan, best known for her role in "Star Trek: Voyager."

The criminals are the protagonists in "Smith," about a gang of thieves who stage elaborate heists in search of a big score that will allow all of them to go straight. Mr. Liotta and Ms. Masden are the stars, supported by Simon Baker, who previously starred for CBS in "The Guardian." The show was created by John Wells, of "ER" and "The West Wing."

CBS also will venture into the thriller genre with "Jericho," a show about some mysterious events in a small town in Kansas, which finds itself apparently on the edge of the apocalypse. Skeet Ulrich, who was in the mini-series "Into the West," is the star.

In addition, CBS will reach into a couple of new areas for drama: one show is about a brain surgeon who is dealing with his own deteriorating mind. That stars Mr. Tucci.

Another is "Waterfront," a show about the mayor of Providence, R.I., where the drama is built on political infighting and intrigue. Mr. Pantoliano, who, along with his memorable turn on "The Sopranos," has had several previous shows on CBS without success, is the star, along with Mary Stuart Masterson, who was a regular last season on "Law & Order: SVU."

CBS has placed one large bet on comedy, the first new effort from one of the two creators of "Friends," David Crane. His new series is "The Class," about a group of 20-something friends, who met in the third grade and reunite at a party. The show will trace their different paths to where they now are in life. The large ensemble cast is led by Jason Ritter, who was a regular on "Joan of Arcadia."

CBS has also ordered six episodes of a comedy called "Rules of Engagement," which examines the romantic entanglements of a group of New Yorkers. (All the other shows got orders of 13 episodes.) Patrick Warburton, once Puddy on "Seinfeld," heads the cast.

The last network to rely on made-for television movies on Sunday nights, CBS is expected to drop that two-hour block in favor of dramas.

ABC's Move Makes Waves

The scheduling strategies for CBS, as well as NBC, were certainly affected by ABC's decision to move one of its strongest series, "Grey's Anatomy," to Thursday nights next fall. That bold move was the centerpiece of a new ABC lineup that includes nine new series and changes on every night of the week except Monday.

Stephen McPherson, the president of ABC Entertainment, outlined the schedule yesterday; it has been set up to take as much advantage as possible of the network's three enormous hourlong hits: "Grey's Anatomy," "Desperate Housewives" and "Lost." All three series will now play at 9 p.m., leading into new shows that ABC hopes will become additional hits.

"You have to be aggressive," Mr. McPherson said in explaining the moves. "You play the cards you are dealt, and we have some very good cards."

"Grey's Anatomy," which had benefited for two seasons from being placed behind "Housewives" on Sunday nights, will anchor a Thursday otherwise made up of new shows. But that medical drama has such a loyal following, especially of female viewers, that it may force NBC to rethink its plans for Thursday, which include Aaron Sorkin's new drama "Studio 60" at 9 p.m. If left there, that show would now have to face both "Grey's Anatomy" and CBS's strongest series, "CSI."

NBC executives said earlier this week that to protect their new entries from being overwhelmed by competition on other networks, they would revise the schedule they had announced. NBC could rearrange its schedule any time over the next month or so.

Mr. McPherson also announced that ABC intended to program "Lost" this season so that the yearlong story line is not interrupted by repeats. He said the show would open with about seven straight original episodes and then take a break for several months, while ABC introduces a new series called "Day Break" on Wednesdays at 9 p.m. Then "Lost" will return in January or February with more new episodes.

ABC will call its new series about thieves trying to burgle an apartment owned by Mick Jagger "Let's Rob. ..." ABC also renewed two struggling comedies, "According to Jim" and "George Lopez," but dropped all its other comedies, including "Freddie," "Hope and Faith" and "Sons and Daughters."

Among the dramas canceled were "Invasion" and "Commander in Chief," though Mr. McPherson said he was considering commissioning a two-hour movie version of the "Commander."

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/17/arts/television/17cbs.html?pagewanted=print

Upfront Notebook
Master and 'Commander'

By Rob Owen Pittsburgh Post-Gazette TV Editor in his “Tuned In” blog Wednesday, May 17, 2006

The bizarre saga of ABC's "Commander in Chief" continued yesterday, the day most expected the show would fade into TV history as a promising series derailed by behind-the-scenes battles and mismanagement. Instead, ABC Entertainment president Stephen McPherson said the network is considering making a two-hour "Commander" movie, an odd announcement considering the show's low ratings (ABC will burn off remaining episodes at 10 p.m. Wednesday beginning May 31).

In January, then-show runner Stephen Bochco (No. 2 of 3) discussed a plot involving first son Horace getting a girl pregnant. It seemed out of character for Horace, and after Bochco left, third show runner Dee Johnson cut those scenes and dropped the plot altogether, a highly unusual move. I'd love to read a book about the unmaking of this hit one day.

'Boston' finale: Much as I enjoy the humor in ABC's "Boston Legal," particularly the political commentary and self-referential gags (even some of William Shatner's mugging), the slow motion, cartoonish chases involving Denise (Julie Bowen) and Marlene (Parker Posey) were straight out of "Ally McBeal," as is Marlene (AKA "The Squid"), a rip-off of Nelle Porter (Portia de Rossi). I'm a little nervous about the future of this show.

Executive producer David E. Kelley has a reputation for turning out two good years of every show he's done and then they begin to fall apart. We've reached the end of year two. Already he's fallen back on the lazy habit of making clients relatives of the firm's lawyers, a trick he milked way too often on "The Practice."

That said, hopefully Kelley will return in the fall re-energized. But will Denise be back or will she have left to be with Michael J. Fox? We'll find out.

Concerns aside, I particularly enjoyed last night's meta moments: Denny (Shatner) trying to convince Shirley (Candice Bergen) to kiss him, saying, "It's a sweeps episode." Then there was this episode-ending exchange: Alan (James Spader), toasting: To next season, my friend. Denny: Same night? Alan: God, I hope. No worries, fellas, ABC picked up "Boston Legal" for another year and kept it at 10 p.m. Tuesday.

Only next year it will probably only have 22 episodes instead of the 27 this year (there were five unaired from last season that allowed for fewer reruns).

http://www.post-gazette.com/tv/tunedin/

Sports On TV
TNT Expands PGA Coverage

By John Eggerton –Broadcasting & Cable 5/16/2006

TNT says it will add an hour of weekend coverage to its airing of the first two rounds and first parts of the final two rounds of the PGA championship (Aug. 17-20 at the Medinah, Ill.Country Club.

It will be the 15th year it has covered part of the tournament, but the first in which it will remove the half-hour bumper between its coverage and that of CBS on the weekend (accounting for the extra hour), creating a "seamless" bridge between the two networks.

Turner Sports President David Levy said throwing it "to our friends at CBS seems like as close to a gimme as you’ll get in sports television.”

Upfront Notebook
ABC's 'Six Degrees' Of Calculation

By Lisa de Moraes The Washington Post Staff Writer Wednesday, May 17, 2006; C01

NEW YORK, May 16---For one brief shining moment it looked like NBC would use Aaron Sorkin's next drama series -- which it won in a bidding war for the hefty sum of nearly $3 million per episode -- to restore some luster to its tarnished Thursday Must See TV lineup.

Then ABC entertainment chief Steve McPherson announces he's moving his Sunday hit "Grey's Anatomy" to the same time slot, and all bets are off.

And because the only reason to move Doctor McDreamy and his hospital helpers from Sunday to Thursday at 9 (besides the obvious fun of messing with NBC and with CBS's "CSI") is to deliver his tens of millions of viewers to a new series airing at 10 that night, newsmag "Primetime" falls off the prime-time landscape for the first time since it landed there in 1989.

Buh-bye "Primetime," hello "Six Degrees" -- that's the latest is-there-a-greater-force-at-work-here series from the church of J.J. Abrams, the "Lost" and "Alias" exec producer.

"They say that anyone on the planet can be connected to any other person through a chain of six people," ABC says by way of explaining Abrams's latest concoction.

Actually, we thought it was just celebrities who were connected and they were all six degrees of separation from Kevin Bacon. Did we miss a memo?

McPherson told the Reporters Who Cover Television at a news conference yesterday morning he doesn't see any problem stacking "Grey's Anatomy" against "CSI," explaining that "there's been a lot of history of big shows going up against each other and there's plenty of room for both."

Because that's what the TV industry is all about: sharing.

The Church of J.J. is very prolific and the ABC programming suits are very devout -- the deflated box office receipts of the Abrams-directed "Mission: Impossible III" notwithstanding -- the only scripted series ABC developed last season that has made it to next season is ratings-starved "What About Brian," from -- guess who -- J.J. Abrams.

"I don't think it's a show that explodes out of the box," McPherson told the reporters, adding that a) ABC really loves "Brian," b) with a better, "Bachelor" lead-in, ABC thinks the show can do a better number, and c) ABC wants to be patient with programs, unless it's "Emily's Reasons Why Not," which got pulled after one episode because it was "not there creatively."

Then, because "Grey's" move to Thursday leaves a big ol' hole in the Sunday lineup, Calista Flockhart's new dysfunctional-family drama "Brothers & Sisters" will follow "Desperate Housewives" Sunday nights.

Because ABC apparently heard from boatloads of Church of J.J. disciples, they will not have to suffer "Lost" repeats in the show's regular Wednesday 9 p.m. time period next season.

Instead, ABC will air seven consecutive original episodes, then rest it and air a new Taye Diggs drama called "Day Break" in the slot before returning "Lost" in the spring.

As for "Day Break," think "Groundhog Day" only not funny, with Diggs playing a detective who's been framed for killing a DA and must relive that awful day over and over again until he gets it right.

This is not to be confused with "The Nine," which is getting the plum post-"Lost" time slot. Also not a J.J. Abrams drama, "The Nine" is a where-does-the-greater-force-come-off series about nine people caught in a bank robbery gone bad and an ensuing 52-hour hostage standoff.

Then there's "Men in Trees," a why-is-a-greater-force-inflicting-Anne-Heche-on-us series in which Heche plays a "relationship coach" (insert your own snarky joke here) who discovers her fiance is cheating on her while on a flight to a speaking engagement in Alaska. Where she stays.

If only.

McPherson told reporters the pilot episode was Heche's performance of a lifetime, having forgotten her career-defining 2001 performance on his network's "20/20" in which she told Barbara Walters that the reason she had to be hospitalized the year before, after telling deputies she was God and had come to take them all back to heaven, could be easily explained:

She believed she was from another planet, on which her close friends call her Celestia.

The Church of J.J. has not branched out into comedy -- yet. McPherson has nonetheless added five new ones to his lineup.

Getting the biggest rise out of advertisers was "Let's Rob . . . ," about a motley crew that plots to burglarize Mick Jagger's Manhattan digs.

It's followed by "Help Me Help You," starring Ted Danson as a therapist who's actually very messed up, which never happens in real life.

McPherson described Thursday's "Big Day" as "24" meets "Father of the Bride" because the show's whole first season will play out the day of a couple's wedding.

It's followed by "Notes From the Underbelly," a title they should seriously reconsider, about a couple that's going to have a baby.

Then there's "Betty the Ugly," in which America Ferrara is made to look as frumpy as possible in order to play a sweet, unattractive woman who works in the mean old fashion industry.

It's based on a popular telenovela, "Betty La Fea."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/16/AR2006051601926_pf.html

Upfront Notebook
One Liners: ABC Upfront

By Ben Grossman at bcbeat.com

While Steve McPherson stole the show at the ABC upfront Tuesday at Lincoln Center, the presentation was not short on yuks, especially from Jimmy Kimmel, who always seems funnier away from his late night show for some reason. Among the keepers:

“Crying during Home Makeover does not make you less of a man.” – McPherson on his Sunday reality hit.

“The things I’ll do to keep my show on Sunday nights.” – Desperate Housewives creator Marc Cherry, making a singing cameo at the show.

“Welcome to the 2006 ABC upfront, also knows as the 2007 Fox upfront.” – Jimmy Kimmel.

“Are you ready for no football?” – Kimmel, lampooning the theme song for Monday Night Football, which ABC dumped this year.

“We’re thinking about using actual stars.” – Kimmel, on a new direction this season for Dancing with the Stars.

http://www.bcbeat.com/

Wednesday’s Finales

"The Amazing Race," 8 PM ET/PT CBS

"Bones," 8 PM ET/PT Fox

"America's Next Top Model," 8 PM ET/PT UPN

"Invasion," 10:01 PM ET/PT ABC (Series finale)

"Law & Order," 10 PM ET/PT NBC

"CSI: NY," 10 PM ET/PT CBS

Upfront Notebook
ABC plan: 'Grey's' vs. 'CSI'

By Jonathan Storm Philadelphia Inquirer Television Critic May 17, 2006

Now, here's the real battle of the network stars. And the losers are... the viewers.

ABC yesterday announced that Grey's Anatomy, the third most popular scripted show on television, will move next fall to Thursdays at 9 p.m., opposite CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, the most popular series.

"There's certainly not a better show on television," ABC president Stephen McPherson said about Grey's at a New York news conference yesterday, before the network formally announced its fall schedule.

ABC is the second network to present to advertisers during what is called Upfront Week, where hyperbole is king.

McPherson parried competition concerns: "There's a history of big shows going up against each other, and there's plenty of room for both." When CBS's No. 1-rated Survivor moved opposite Friends in 2001, the popular NBC sitcom maintained its No. 5 overall ranking, losing less than a million viewers.

The bombshell announcement was part of an ABC schedule that will see eight new shows packed with familiar stars and all seven TV nights different from what they were last fall.

The move is the linchpin for an entirely new Thursday, the big-money advertising night where ABC has languished in the ratings since the late '70s.

ABC surged in the ratings last year behind Grey's, Desperate Housewives and Lost, but still finished fourth in the ratings race, averaging 9 million viewers to No. 1 CBS's 13.1 million.

Lost will run seven consecutive new episodes in the fall, give way to framed cop-on-the-run saga Daybreak, starring Taye Diggs (Kevin Hill), and pick up in winter, going straight on to the finish.

Some of the new series seem surefire, but from the sound of two or three of them, the audience will be demanding quick cancellations.

ABC's new fall shows:

Brothers & Sisters. It's all relative at ABC. Comedy Sons & Daughters didn't work. Now comes complex sibling drama. If anybody can pull it off, it's these folks: Calista Flockhart (Ally McBeal), Ron Rifkin and Balthazar Getty (Alias), Rachel Griffiths (Six Feet Under), and Patricia Wettig (thirtysomething, Prison Break). The creative team: playwright Jon Robin Baitz, executive producer Marti Noxon (Buffy the Vampire Slayer), and executive producer-director Ken Olin (Alias, The West Wing, Felicity).

Men in Trees. Like so many in TV, "relationship coach" Anne Heche (Nip/Tuck, Ally McBeal) cancels the wedding when she learns her fiance is cheating. She follows in the urban-outsider snowshoe tracks of Northern Exposure's Dr. Fleischman when her plane is grounded in small-town Alaska, with a boy-girl ratio of, like, 20-1. Sex and the City head writer Jenny Bicks holds the reins.

Betty the Ugly. Based on what McPherson called "the most successful" Spanish-language telenovela of the same name, and executive-produced by Salma Hayek, it's the story of a plain Jane in the glamorous world of fashion. The beautiful America Ferrera (The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, Hallmark Hall of Fame's Plainsong) will need every bit of her considerable acting talent to play ugly.

The Nine. Taken hostage, nine people get 10 minutes of bank robbery, 30 minutes of character-development flashback, and the requisite 20 minutes of advertising every week. Surprise! They have more in common than they knew. Tim Daly (Wings), Chi McBride (Boston Public), and Scott Wolf (Everwood) star.

Six Degrees. Trapped in a bank vault... No, sorry, that's the other one. Mysterious coincidence draws six strangers ever closer. You'd write it off if Lost creator J.J. Abrams weren't involved.

Let's Rob... Mick Jagger! Donal Logue (Grounded for Life) leads a lovable gang that plots to burglarize Mr. Brown Sugar's deluxe apartment in the sky. Rolling Stones fans might not find much satisfaction. Mick gets an executive-producer credit, but will do only a cameo on screen.

Big Day. Sometimes, a network publicist hits a grand slam. "If 24 married Father of the Bride, their child would be Big Day," reads the ABC press release. Each episode represents an hour in the wedding day of Marla Sokoloff (The Practice). Wendie Malick (Just Shoot Me) costars.

Help Me Help You. No longer a self-absorbed bartender (Cheers) or narcissistic physician (Becker), Ted Danson plays an egotistical shrink in a show that's supposed to examine the hilarious side of group therapy.

Notes From the Underbelly. Oh, the belly laughs in pregnancy, childbirth and parenthood. ABC hopes it will be a little bundle of joy.

http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/entertainment/television//14595726.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp

Upfront Notebook
CBS may part powerful pair

'Trace' eyes Sunday slot
By Josef Adalian, Michael Schneider Variety.com

CBS is mulling a fall sked that shakes up its mighty Thursday lineup for the first time since 2002.

Meanwhile, Fox is putting the final touches on a lineup expected to emphasize stability and consistency -- along with the return of "American Idol."

As always with CBS, any speculation about a sked is just that. Net keeps a tight lid on its moves and firmly declined Tuesday to confirm or deny any speculation about its sked, set to be unveiled today at an 8 a.m. press conference in Gotham.

But odds seem to be that Jerry Bruckheimer-produced crime drama "Without a Trace" will vacate its Thursday 10 p.m. slot after four years to help the Eye launch a drama-driven Sunday lineup.

It's likely that "60 Minutes" will continue to air at 7 p.m., with the CBS Sunday Movie going away (Daily Variety, May 15). "Cold Case" seems likely to stay at 8.

Eye likes to hammock new dramas between established hits when possible, which would suggest "Trace" landing at 10 p.m. and a new hour at 9.

With ABC keeping "Grey's Anatomy" off Monday nights, Eye execs were able to breathe a sigh of relief. While still solid, net's comedy lineup has been looking a bit weak in recent months.

Most insiders expect CBS to keep "Two and a Half Men," "How I Met Your Mother" and "The New Adventures of Old Christine" on the night, with newcomer "The Class" joining. Net may take a gamble and put the buzzworthy "Class" in an 8 p.m. lead-off slot, though history suggests the show will air at 8:30.

Eye could also play a relatively pat hand on Tuesdays, where "NCIS" and "The Unit" are doing nicely from 8-10 p.m. Net could shift "The Unit" to 10 p.m. to make room for a new drama at 9 or once again attempt to compete with "Law & Order: SVU" with a new hour.

On Wednesdays, sudsy hour "Jericho" would seem to be a good fit at 8 p.m., the same timeslot that ABC used to launch "Lost" two years ago. "Criminal Minds" and "CSI: NY" could stay at 9 and 10 p.m., respectively.

Look for "Survivor" and "CSI" to stay on Thursdays, with CBS slotting a new hour at 10 p.m. Look for the Eye's Friday and Saturday night lineups to remain the same. Only question mark is whether "48 Hours" will be back.

Three new dramas competing for a slot on the Eye fall sked are legal hour "Shark," small-town sudser "Waterfront" and John Wells-produced crime drama "Smith."

Given the weekend wrangling with producer 20th Century Fox TV over "Shark," Eye may be mulling the show for its best timeslot -- 10 p.m. Thursday, where NBC's "L.A. Law" thrived for years. Eye wanted CBS Par to get a piece of the show but 20th resisted.

"Smith" may be a good fit with "Cold Case" and "Trace" Sundays at 9 or 10 p.m., while femme-friendly "Waterfront" could suds things up Tuesdays at 10. Peter Ocko medical hour appears poised for midseason, as does new comedy "Rules of Engagement." Latter skein is now a co-production between Sony and CBS Par Network TV.

Among the shows not expected to return to the Eye lineup: "Love Monkey," "Courting Alex," "Threshold" and "Out of Practice." Joe Keenan, co-creator of "Out of Practice," is talking to Touchstone Television about joining the writing staff of ABC's "Desperate Housewives."

In other upfront buzz, over at Fox, early sked rumors -- net announces its plans Thursday -- have Brad Garrett starrer "Til Death" in line for an 8 p.m. Thursday slot. That would pit it against ABC's "Big Day."

Interestingly, and perhaps problematically, both shows are from exec producers Josh Goldsmith and Cathy Yuspa. It's unclear how the duo would produce both, though it's not impossible (ask David E. Kelley).

"The War at Home" might be a good fit Thursday at 8:30 p.m., with "The OC" possibly staying at 9 to do battle with "Grey's Anatomy."

Fox is retooling Fox TV Studios-produced dramedy "The Wedding Album," with 20th Century Fox TV joining as a co-producer. Lead role, played by Bruno Campos in the pilot, is being recast, which will necessitate reshooting parts of the pilot with an eye on a Friday bow. A reality show such as "Nanny 911" could also air on the night.

Saturdays will remain stable, with one comedy (perhaps "Happy Hour") likely to join Fox's Sunday sked. There's been buzz about "House" moving to 9 p.m. Sunday, though that wouldn't help Fox's attempt to appear stable.

"Prison Break" could return on Monday nights as early as August, possibly paired with new drama "Vanished."

If "House" and "Bones" remain anchored on Tuesday and Wednesday, new dramas "Primary" and "American Crime" would make solid companions.

Fox declined comment.

Upfront Notebook
Programming can be a brutal sport, and ABC has just challenged its rivals to a smackdown

By Tim Goodman San Francisco Chronicle Wednesday, May 17, 2006
When ABC announced its new fall schedule Tuesday, it made a statement. And that statement is this:

Let's get ready to rumble.

The network took one of television's most popular shows, "Grey's Anatomy," off Sunday nights and plopped it down on Thursdays, one of the most bitterly fought battles for ad dollars and eyeballs on the schedule. With "Grey's Anatomy" at 9 p.m., it will be going up against the CBS franchise hit "CSI" and NBC's highly anticipated Aaron Sorkin series, "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip."

The move immediately presents two problems for ABC's rivals. First, if CBS sticks with the weakening "Survivor" at 8 p.m., it may lose viewers to "My Name Is Earl" and "The Office," which NBC shifted into the 8-9 p.m. slot, when the network announced its schedule Monday. And with "Grey's Anatomy" as the undisputed hospital hit on prime time, it may put a dent in "ER," which airs on NBC after "Grey's" is over.

Translation: This fight is on.

ABC certainly wasn't shy in making substantial changes, announcing 15 new series Tuesday. There are six comedies, six dramas and three reality series. In addition, the network put a little twist on the normally rerun-heavy Saturday night dead zone by scheduling college football in prime time (except on the West Coast, where it will air at 5 p.m., or be tape delayed).

ABC stuck with the serialized format it loves so much, offering shows that will play out over a full season. There's an emphasis on characters and relationships, an ABC strong suit (think: "Grey's Anatomy"). And in a move that will surely please disgruntled "Lost" fans, the network has figured out a way to keep annoying reruns out of the mix. The first seven episodes of "Lost" will run without interruption, then the series will go off the air until midseason and return with all new episodes that run straight to the end of the season without reruns.

There weren't many surprises on ABC's canceled list, though it won't come as good news to fans of "Commander in Chief," "Invasion" and "Sons & Daughters," though each was expected. Other cancellations include dramas "In Justice" and "The Evidence," and sitcoms "Hope & Faith," "Freddie," "Less Than Perfect" and "Rodney." The newsmagazine "Primetime Live" has also gone missing. Held for midseason in a sign that this is probably the end are sitcoms "George Lopez" and "According to Jim."

In something of a minor surprise, midseason (and mediocre) series "What About Brian" was renewed.

Here's a look at ABC's schedule and shows:

• Monday: Now that "Monday Night Football" has gone to ESPN, women will be the prime targets on this night, with returning series "Wife Swap" at 8 p.m., "The Bachelor" at 9 and "What About Brian" at 10. At midseason, "Supernanny" will take over for "The Bachelor."

• Tuesday: "Dancing With the Stars" returns on this new night, at 8 p.m., followed by two new comedies. "Let's Rob ..." revolves around a group of "affable, new-age Robin Hoods" led by Donal Logue, whose dream has always been to open a bar, but his janitor's job has him barely surviving. So along with his hapless pals, who have never broken the law in their lives, they plot to rob Mick Jagger's apartment to finance the bar purchase. This comes from Rob Burnett and Jon Beckerman, the duo behind "Ed." At 9 p.m., the second sitcom is "Help Me Help You," starring Ted Danson as group therapy leader Dr. Bill, author of some super successful self-help books, but a man in desperate need of his own advice. If you're thinking Dr. Phil, that might be the point. "Boston Legal" closes the night at 10 p.m.

After "Dancing" ends, a new reality series will get the midseason 8 p.m. slot. It's called "Set for the Rest of Your Life" and involves two people in a relationship hoping to get a monthly check for -- you guessed it. Check size and results may vary, of course.

• Wednesday: The "Dancing With the Stars" results show kicks things off at 8 p.m., followed by "Lost" at 9 and new drama "The Nine" at 10. "The Nine" continues ABC's fascination with serialized dramas and borrows the flashback element of "Lost" in the process. "The Nine" is about nine strangers held hostage for 52 hours when a bank robbery fails. What happened that day links their lives forever, and what they endured is told in 10-minute flashbacks. Starring Chi McBride, Tim Daly and Scott Wolf.

At midseason, "George Lopez" and "According to Jim" will get the "Dancing" slot.

• Thursday: ABC's radically altered night starts with two half-hour sitcoms. The first, "Big Day," yet another serialized concept, uses 22 episodes to track the progress of two people preparing for their wedding. Billed as "Father of the Bride meets 24," it comes from the team that wrote "What Women Want" and "13 Going on 30." The second sitcom, at 8:30 p.m., is "Notes From the Underbelly," a story about a couple who get pregnant and how that news affects their families and friends, from two writers on "Two and a Half Men."

With "Grey's Anatomy" anchoring 9 p.m., ABC then rolls into the newest venture from J.J. Abrams ("Lost") called "Six Degrees," which explores the theory of six degrees of separation, and applies that to six New Yorkers who start out as strangers but have their lives intersect through various story arcs that will be serialized through the season. Anchored by Hope Davis and Campbell Scott, ABC says of the six: "Is it happenstance? Fate? Is there a greater force at work in our world, guiding us along and connecting our lives?" Which sounds a lot like "Lost."

• Friday: An hourlong comedy, "Betty the Ugly" -- the American version of the Spanish language hit -- gets the 8 p.m. slot. Executive-produced by Salma Hayek, it tells the story of Betty (America Ferrera), who's hired as an assistant to Daniel (Eric Mabius), who just took over his dad's fashion magazine. Dad hires Betty because, yep, she's just ugly enough or not perfect enough for Daniel, so he'll stay focused. At 9 p.m., new drama "Men in Trees" stars Anne Heche as a relationship "coach" who finds out on a trip to Alaska that her fiance cheated on her, so she stays in Alaska and changes her life. From Jenny Bicks, head writer on "Sex and the City," plus "Walk the Line" director James Mangold. "20/20" closes the night at 10 p.m.

• Saturday: ABC will use college football to do something different on this night.

• Sunday: "America's Funniest Home Videos," "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" and "Desperate Housewives" keep their slots, with new drama "Brothers & Sisters," taking the "Grey's" hour. The show, from actor-director-producer Ken Olin, Broadway playwright Jon Robin Baitz and Marti Noxon ("Buffy the Vampire Slayer"), tell the intertwined stories of a fully grown family. It stars Calista Flockhart, Rachel Griffiths, Ron Rifkin, Balthazar Getty and Patricia Wettig.

Other ABC midseason programming includes "Day Break," a thriller starring Taye Diggs as a police detective framed for murder who lives the same day over and over again, a la "Groundhog Day." And "Traveler," another serialized thriller about three friends being framed as terrorists.

Director and executive producer Jon Favreau adds the comedy "In Case of Emergency," about four high school friends who grow up, find that life has let them down and end up reunited in the emergency room -- starring Jonathan Silverman, David Arquette, Greg Germann and Kelly Hu.

Lastly, ABC has two nonscripted series for midseason, including a relationship show from former San Francisco comic and author Greg Behrendt and a "Candid Camera"-style series called "Just for Laughs."

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/05/17/DDG66ISNVQ30.DTL&type=printable

Upfront Notebook
Networks target key time slot

Thursdays at 9 could be a slugfest between 'CSI,' 'Grey's Anatomy' and possibly 'Studio 60.'
By Scott Collins Los Angeles Times Staff Writer in his Channel Island TV Industry blog May 17, 2006

It's still early in the upfront presentation derby (only NBC and ABC have gone so far; CBS unveils its fall lineup today and the new CW on Thursday), but it already appears that the hottest network scheduling battle for the 2006-07 TV season will take place on Thursdays at 9 p.m. Here's how it's playing out:

• ABC is moving its megahit "Grey's Anatomy" to the slot, which is also where NBC has for now put its most highly anticipated new drama, Aaron Sorkin's show-biz saga "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip." And it's a foregone conclusion that CBS will keep "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" in that time period.

All this could mean very tough sledding for NBC. The "Grey's" audience skews heavily female, while "CSI" is more man-friendly, so both established hits can probably thrive in the slot (however, ABC is asking "Grey's" to do an awful lot on a tough night, with new shows both in front of and behind it). Unfortunately for NBC, that won't leave a lot of eyeballs left to sample "Studio 60." (The network may be rethinking its positioning of the show.) What's more, Hollywood satires have a poor track record on TV, and "Studio 60" got a surprisingly flat reaction from media buyers during NBC's presentation Monday. But if anyone can pull it off, it's Sorkin.

• Early gossip about the new CW lineup has executives pulling the plug on "Everwood," the respected WB Network show that was earlier expected to make the switch. If true, the show will have lasted four seasons and produced 89 episodes. Looking good for pickup by CW: "Gilmore Girls," "Smallville," "All of Us," "Veronica Mars," "One Tree Hill," "Supernatural," "Seventh Heaven."

• In its first season without "Monday Night Football" in 36 years, ABC decided to punt, pardon the expression, on Mondays, returning such familiar and not especially high-rated reality fare as "Wife Swap" and "Supernanny." That must be a relief to CBS, which now has the way clear to reinvigorate its comedy lineup for that night, and also to NBC, which is trying the new drama "Heroes" at 9 p.m.

• With TV comedy in desperate straits now, both ABC and NBC are betting heavily on the single-camera format, which eschews the multiple-camera, stage-bound, laugh track-sweetened setups common to most TV sitcoms in favor of a more cinematic approach, à la HBO's "Sex and the City." ABC's single-camera efforts include "Let's Rob … " and "Help Me Help You" with Ted Danson, while NBC has "30 Rock" from Tina Fey and the midseason "Andy Barker P.I." with Andy Richter.

The only problem? Mainstream audiences haven't warmed to the single-camera format. "Arrested Development" never grew beyond a cult hit on Fox, and "The Office" is still trying to build an audience on NBC. Indeed, the most successful examples of single-camera shows tend to reside on HBO — for example, "Curb Your Enthusiasm."

MyNetworkTV gets the bed bug

Here's what people aren't buzzing about at the upfronts: MyNetworkTV, the new network launching in September from News Corp., the same Rupert Murdoch-controlled enterprise whose Fox Broadcasting brought you "Celebrity Boxing" and revived Paula Abdul's career. Well, folks are not talking about it yet, maybe, but they will after they see what Fox Television Stations chief Roger Ailes and his merry band have in store: English-language telenovelas!

Did I say telenovelas? That's a bad word. I meant to say: short dramatic series, which is how they described them at Tuesday morning's presentation in New York. Somehow that term doesn't capture all the sizzle in these shows, however, which are six-day-a-week, one-hour "strips" (it's TV lingo for a daily syndicated show — work with me here) full of good-looking people falling into bed, climbing out of swimming pools wearing skimpy bikinis, falling into bed, blowing up cars, shooting at each other, swapping catty insults, falling into bed, firing automatic weapons, jumping into the pool again, falling into bed … you get the idea. And they've got stars, too, like Bo Derek, Sean Young and Maria Conchita Alonso! What's not to like?

One of the series is called "Desire," the other "Secret Obsessions," and each will have a dramatic arc (more TV lingo for you), with a new cast and story line, that will run for 13 weeks. Each arc has its own subtitle, such as "Table for Three" (romantic triangle!), "Art of Betrayal" (uh, betrayal!) or "A Dangerous Love" (don't fall into bed too hard!). MyNetworkTV will have a hefty Internet component (one that might conjoin nicely with MySpace, another News Corp. property), but I think it would be buzz-y to let viewers create their own MyNetwork telenovela Short Dramatic Series by interchanging various words used in the existing arc titles.

Ready to play? OK! Here are the words you can use:

Table/Art/Betrayal/Rules/ Deception

Friends/Enemies/Fashion/House

Dangerous/Love/Watch/Me/Love/Die

Other Words: Of/And/Over/For/To

I'll get us started:

"Watch Me Die"

"Table of Dangerous Love & Betrayal"

"Enemies of Art & Fashion"

See how fun and easy this is? See? People will be buzzing!

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/tv/la-et-channel17may17,1,94684,print.story?coll=la-entnews-tv



http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/tv/la-et-channel17may17,1,7969223.story?coll=la-entnews-tv

TV Notebook
Ratings Give CBS News a Sign of Hope

By Jacques Steinberg The New York Times May 17, 2006

For the first time in nearly five years, the "CBS Evening News" climbed out of third place last week to finish second in the television ratings race, drawing more viewers in a week than "World News Tonight" on ABC, according to figures from Nielsen Media Research.

While "NBC Nightly News With Brian Williams" easily won the week, beating both the CBS and ABC broadcasts by more than a million viewers, the second-place showing by CBS — especially in a sweeps week — could foreshadow a trend if replicated on a sustained basis. "CBS Evening News," with 7.39 million viewers last week, beat ABC by about 80,000 viewers, although since September ABC has led CBS by an average of about a million viewers; NBC has in turn led ABC by about a million.

Already, CBS has sought to seize on the tightening race as a means of providing momentum to Katie Couric, who will replace Bob Schieffer as anchor of the "CBS Evening News" in September.

At least as of yesterday afternoon, ABC said it could not say who it expected to slide behind its anchor desk in early September to go up against Ms. Couric and Mr. Williams.

The release of the Nielsen figures coincided with another moment of uncertainty for ABC News. When Stephen McPherson, president of ABC Entertainment, announced the network's fall prime-time schedule yesterday morning, one ABC newsmagazine, "20/20," was on it, but another one, "Prime Time," was not. Mr. McPherson said that the network had ordered a full season's worth of episodes for "Prime Time," but he said he did not yet know when the program would return, or if it would have a regular time slot.

But a more pressing priority, as the network addressed its advertisers in New York and prepared for a regular meeting today with its affiliate stations, was to provide reassurance that it would field a competitive evening news broadcast come September. Elizabeth Vargas, who has mostly led "World News Tonight" alone since her co-anchor, Bob Woodruff, was seriously wounded in Iraq in January, is due to give birth to her second child in mid-August. ABC has not announced how much maternity leave she expects to take, or who might fill in for her.

Under one scenario being given serious consideration within the executive suite of ABC News, Charles Gibson, the longtime anchor of "Good Morning America," would leave that program permanently to become a full-time co-anchor of "World News Tonight," said one person who has been directly apprised of the plan but was not authorized to disclose it. Ms. Vargas, under that proposal, would rejoin Mr. Gibson after her leave, and Mr. Woodruff, whose recovery is slow but progressing, would begin to contribute to the program as his health improves, eventually, perhaps, as a third co-anchor.

But moving Mr. Gibson out of "Good Morning America" could hurt that program as it prepares to mount another run at the longtime ratings leader, "Today" on NBC, which is replacing Ms. Couric with Meredith Vieira of "The View," the ABC talk show. If Mr. Gibson were to leave, the person with knowledge of the plan said, it is not clear how long Diane Sawyer, one of his two co-hosts on "Good Morning America," would remain on the program. Another option — moving Ms. Sawyer to the evening news and leaving Mr. Gibson behind — would also leave the morning show short-handed.

In an interview yesterday, Jon Banner, executive producer of "World News," would not discuss any contingencies other than to say that "those decisions are being dealt with." Of yesterday's ratings report, Mr. Banner said: "We obviously would like to be doing better. We should be doing better."

Still, CBS has been gaining on ABC in a year of extraordinary upheaval, including the death in August of Peter Jennings, the anchor of "World News." Meanwhile, within the Nielsen data are trends that could also give some pause to NBC and CBS. Since September, NBC, like ABC, has been losing viewers. And while CBS has actually gained nearly 300,000 viewers over that period, it has done so with Mr. Schieffer as anchor, and he will be leaving soon.

"From our perspective, it is just one week," said Sean McManus, who became president of CBS News in November. "But it is very satisfying."

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/17/arts/television/17evening.html?pagewanted=print

Upfront Notebook
ON CW, YEAR 1

USA Today

Veronica Mars, One Tree Hill, Supernatural and Girlfriends will join the new CW network replacing UPN and WB this fall, but Reba and Everwood are gone.

Top-rated 7th Heaven has been revived for an 11th season, despite last week's "series finale."

CW has ordered just three new series: dramas Runaway, starring Donnie Wahlberg as a dad on the lam with the family, and Palm Springs, an ensemble teen soap from Kevin Williamson; and comedy The Game, a Girlfriends spinoff likely to join Everybody Hates Chris, Girlfriends and All of Us on Sundays.

http://www.usatoday.com/life/television/news/2006-05-16-cbs-lineup_x.htm

Upfront Notebook
Live From the Upfronts

From The Los Angeles Times

A 'Grey's Anatomy' twist
Tuesday, 2:25 p.m.

Spoofing its most popular TV series, ABC brought out the cast of “Grey’s Anatomy,” with Chandra Wilson (“Dr. Bailey”) telling the audience how unruly the Seattle Grace Hospital crew really is.

"If I was really in charge, I'd clean the place up," she says.

Then, cut to a clip. It looks like a replay of George's dream of him and the girls in the shower. But in this fantasy, it’s Dr. McDreamy, Burke and Dr. Webber (“Chief”) getting into close quarters. Bailey appears and they all reveal how much they love her. She gets in shower with them.

Suddenly, she’s falling out of bed onto the floor.

"Oh, Hell no."
— Maria Elena Fernandez(I assume this was what they showed at the Upfronts, not fiction from the Times.) My wife would seriously get a kick out of this. I wonder if it's been leaked to the Internet anywhere?

Xesdeeni

As we wait for Les Moonves to tell us what the CBS schedule will be, here is another guess:

Upfront Notebook
Not much is shaken up in No. 1 CBS' schedule


By Gary Levin USA Today

NEW YORK — CBS, bringing six freshman shows back for second seasons, will add just one new comedy and three dramas to a fall schedule that is far more stable than those of major competitors.

The network, which presents the fall lineup to advertisers today, will finish its fourth consecutive season as No. 1 among total viewers, thanks to a lineup long on procedural crime dramas, including three versions of CSI.

After Threshold failed last fall, CBS will try to broaden its palette with another sci-fi-tinged thriller and legal and medical dramas.

CBS' Sunday movie — the last network movie slot and a staple since 1986 — is canceled, making room for two dramas. Without a Trace, which regularly beats ER on Thursdays, could move to Sunday nights at 9, which would allow CBS to launch new shows behind that series, The Unit and CSI.

Returning freshman shows are The Unit, Criminal Minds, How I Met Your Mother, Close to Home and Ghost Whisperer, and midseason comedy The New Adventures of Old Christine will return to its Monday 9:30 p.m. ET/PT slot.

Comedies Courting Alex and Out of Practice are goners. (Practice co-creator Joe Keenan, a former Frasier producer, may move to Desperate Housewives.)

The King of Queens returns for a ninth season. But it will not air until January at the earliest and is expected to be paired with new comedy Rules of Engagement, about a single guy, his engaged friends and a married couple. How I Met YourMother is expected to fill King's Monday 8 p.m. ET/PT slot, followed by new comedy The Class, about a group of third-grade classmates reunited as adults. Class will mark Friends' co-creator David Crane's TV return. Jason Ritter (Joan of Arcadia) stars.

Like NBC and ABC, CBS is putting an emphasis on dramas as the networks continue to struggle to develop hit comedies.

New fall dramas: Shark, starring James Woods as a celebrity defense lawyer who becomes an L.A. prosecutor; Jericho, about the aftermath of a nuclear mushroom cloud in a Kansas town; and Smith, about career criminals plotting heists and starring Ray Liotta, Virginia Madsen and Simon Baker.

Midseason dramas include Waterfront, starring Joe Pantoliano as a corrupt mayor of Providence, and 3 Lbs., about a gifted brain surgeon, starring Stanley Tucci in a retooled version of a series rejected last spring with Dylan McDermott.

http://www.usatoday.com/life/television/news/2006-05-16-cbs-lineup_x.htm

Upfront Notebook
A Note of Caution:

It occurs to me that many of the same dismissive comments being used to describe MytNetworkTV have a familiar ring to them.

They hark back a decade and were used to describe NewsCorp, Rupert Murdoch and especially Roger Ailes as they prepared to launch Fox News Channel.

Now many of us may not have any interest in what MyNetworkTV brings to the table.

My caution here is to simply look at the track record of NewsCorp, Murdoch, and especially Roger Ailes.

Bet against Roger Ailes if you like.

But be prepared to pay up.

(I assume this was what they showed at the Upfronts, not fiction from the Times.) My wife would seriously get a kick out of this. I wonder if it's been leaked to the Internet anywhere?

Xesdeeni

I've never seen an upfront presentation leaked to the internet.

But we can always hope for a first!

Upfront Notebook
All Just May Be Possible for Abrams With Disney

The decision by ABC to put three of his shows in its fall TV lineup may be a precursor to an extensive partnership.
By Meg James and Claudia Eller Los Angeles Times Staff Writers May 17, 2006
(James reported from New York and Eller from Los Angeles)

NEW YORK — When ABC announced Tuesday that its fall slate would include three series created by star television writer-producer J.J. Abrams, Hollywood insiders suspected that there was a bit more behind Abrams' trifecta than the success of his hit show "Lost."

For weeks, Abrams' representatives have been floating a proposal to ABC's corporate parent, Walt Disney Co., and to several other entertainment companies that have expressed a keen interest in being in the J.J. Abrams business.

Even before Abrams' film directorial debut, "Mission: Impossible 3," opened in theaters May 5, his agent and lawyers had been offering studios the chance to bankroll a new "creative collective" — a major stand-alone label that would employ many co-creators, story editors, staff writers and producers with whom Abrams has worked for many years.

So Abrams' three-show score, unveiled by ABC Entertainment President Stephen McPherson at the network's annual upfront presentation for advertisers, prompted many of the executives gathered here — especially those from rival studios — to muse about Disney's motives.

Renewing "Lost," which Abrams co-created, was a no-brainer, they said, and his pilot, "Six Degrees," had promise. But several industry veterans saw only one explanation for why ABC opted to stick by Abrams' drama "What About Brian?" which until last week had lower ratings than "Invasion," which ABC canceled: Wooing TV's 39-year-old golden boy.

"We really love that show," said McPherson, adding that he believed that "What About Brian?" which revolves around young married couples in their 30s, was just starting to find its audience. "And J.J.'s involvement is a big thing for us."

Disney Chief Executive Bob Iger has declared himself an Abrams fan. In a meeting last month, Iger told Abrams he believed that the young filmmaker would bring the same kind of passion and vision to live action that John Lasseter brings to animation, according to three people who were there.

Lasseter, of course, is the director of such hits as the "Toy Story" films and is the pioneering creative guru behind Pixar Animation Studios, which Disney recently bought.

Iger was not available for comment. Abrams neither confirmed nor denied that Iger had compared him to Lasseter, though he said any such comparison would be very flattering.

Although Abrams has based his TV production outfit at Disney's Touchstone TV for the last seven years (the deal expires in July), it is unclear how far Iger will go to ensure that Disney becomes Abrams' home for both television and movie production.

According to people who have been briefed on Abrams' proposal, the dollar figures being sought are huge, even by Hollywood standards. In addition to $5 million a year in overhead, sources confirm that Abrams is seeking a $10-million signing bonus, major back-end participation (40% for any TV show he creates to be shared with his co-creators) and bigger-than-usual advances.

For directing feature films, sources say, Abrams is seeking $10 million against 10% of first dollar gross; writing fees of $3 million at the minimum and up to $5 million if he receives sole credit; producing fees of $2.5 million against 5% of first dollar gross, escalating up to 12.5%; and 35% of home video revenue.

Overall, the proposed deal would cost a studio about $100 million over five years — a sum that made all potential bidders balk.

"It's the most aggressive deal I've ever seen," said one person who was pitched the proposal.

Abrams' agent, David Lonner of William Morris Agency, said Tuesday that the proposal was simply meant to provide a jumping-off point.

"We laid out the talking points as a starter," he said.

Studio executives were asked to come to Lonner's Beverly Hills offices. When they arrived, they were greeted by posters of Abrams' past hits — among them, TV's "Felicity" — and were handed a piece of paper outlining the terms of the proposed deal. They were allowed to take notes on the proposal, but not to leave with a copy of it.

Lonner said his client's track record merited such a sales job.

"When you look at how much 'Felicity' helped brand the WB, how 'Alias' and 'Lost' helped rejuvenate the fortunes and perception of ABC, and you consider his ability to take on the size and scale of 'Mission: Impossible,' I think that means something," he said.

Initially, it appeared that Abrams would land at Paramount Pictures, since he had enjoyed working with studio chief Brad Grey and his team on "Mission" and recently signed a deal to try to revitalize the studio's "Star Trek" movie series.

But while Grey remains interested in signing Abrams to an overall deal, so far he has been unwilling to meet the financial demands being proposed.

Grey declined to comment.

According to Lonner, he currently has "four interested parties" at the bargaining table. He said he and Abrams planned to evaluate their counterproposals this week.

Lonner declined to identify which studios were suitors, though sources confirmed that they were Disney/ABC, Paramount, Sony Pictures Entertainment and Fox.

Will Abrams end up at Disney? Certainly his desire to expand his Bad Robot production boutique into a major creator of not just new TV shows and feature films but also video games and other new media seems to jibe nicely with Iger's oft-stated goal of pushing Disney to become a purveyor of entertainment across multiple platforms.

Touchstone Television president Mark Pedowitz stressed that ABC's decision to pick up three Abrams series was "made on the merit of the pilot and the shows" — and nothing else.

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/tv/la-fi-abcmay17,1,2773483.story?coll=la-entnews-tv

Upfront Notebook
ABC dances into fall with nifty moves

The Disney-owned network unveils 15 new series for next season.
By Hal Boedeker Orlando Sentinel Television Critic May 17, 2006

ABC on Tuesday unveiled an aggressive fall schedule that shifts Grey's Anatomy to Thursdays, transfers Dancing With the Stars to new nights and protects Lost from audience-depleting repeats.

The Disney-owned network announced that it will offer 15 new series next season: six comedies, six dramas and three reality series. The schedule presents Mick Jagger as a sitcom performer and brings back Calista Flockhart, Ted Danson and Tim Daly.

ABC is enjoying an 8 percent increase in the 18-to-49 age group prized by advertisers. But the network fumbled in replenishing its schedule. No new series from last fall survived, and only two midseason offerings will return: What About Brian and American Inventor.

Commander in Chief leads the cancellations, although ABC Entertainment President Steve McPherson said the network might extend the White House drama in a movie. Other axed series include Hope & Faith, Invasion, Freddie, Sons & Daughters, Crumbs, The Evidence and In Justice. Returning later will be According to Jim, George Lopez and Supernanny.

ABC will fortify Tuesday and Wednesday by starting with Dancing With the Stars.

To hold Lost viewers, ABC will offer seven new episodes in the fall, rest the show and return with fresh installments at midseason, McPherson said. Day Break, a new thriller with Taye Diggs, will take over the Lost slot during the break.

In moving Grey's Anatomy to 9 p.m. Thursday, ABC is taking on CBS' CSI, television's most-watched drama. The luckiest new ABC series is Brothers & Sisters, which inherits the Grey's slot at 10 p.m. Sundays. In the new show, siblings wrangle over a family business. Flockhart of Ally McBeal acts with Rachel Griffiths of Six Feet Under, Patricia Wettig of thirtysomething and Ron Rifkin of Alias.

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/entertainment/tv/orl-abc06may17,0,1552495,print.story?coll=orl-caltvtop

The 2006-2007 Season
The CBS Primetime Schedule

Monday:
8 p.m.: How I Met Your Mother
8:30 p.m.: The Class (new)
9 p.m.: Two and a Half Men
9:30: The New Adventures of Old Christine
10 p.m.: CSI: Miami

Tuesday:
8 p.m.: NCIS
9 p.m.: The Unit
10 p.m. Smith (new)

Wednesday:
8 p.m.: Jericho (new)
9 p.m.: Criminal Minds
10 p.m. CSI: NY

Thursday:
8 p.m.: Survivor: Cook Islands
9 p.m.: CSI
10 p.m.: Shark (new)

Friday:
8 p.m.: Ghost Whisperer
9 p.m.: Close to Home
10 p.m.: Numb3rs

Saturday:
8 p.m.: Crimetime Saturday
9 p.m.: Crimetime Saturday
10 p.m.: 48 Hours Mystery

Sunday:
7 p.m.: 60 Minutes
8 p.m.: The Amazing Race
9 p.m.: Cold Case
10 p.m. Without a Trace

Upfront Notebook
The CBS Schedule

By Rich Heldenfels in his Akron Beacon Journal TV blog

'King of Queens,'' though not on CBS's fall schedule, has been renewed as a backup show.

Couple of surprises, to me at least, on the new lineup.

''The Amazing Race'' going to Sunday is one. I'm already worried that I will forget it's there, much the way I would forget ''West Wing'' is on Sunday.

And shifting ''Without a Trace'' to Sunday feels risky; it's done very well on Thursdays at 10 -- although the network may grab the drama crowd, since NBC will have football at that time and ABC has moved ''Grey's Anatomy'' to Thursdays in order to try out a new drama at 10 p.m. Sundays.
Getting back to CBS's announcement, here are descriptions of the new series:
The new comedy is:

THE CLASS (Monday, 8:30-9:00 PM, ET/PT), from Emmy Award winner David Crane ("Friends") and Emmy Award nominee Jeffrey Klarik ("Mad About You"), is a comedy about the lives of a group of 20-somethings who are inextricably bound together having shared the same third grade class. Now face to face at an impromptu reunion to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the day they met, they wonder if they'll have anything in common besides vague memories of playground kisses and underwear sightings on the monkey bars. Turns out they do. After two decades apart for most of them, some are eager to show off, some want to rekindle old crushes and others just want to satisfy their curiosity. Whatever the case, their lives will intersect from this point forward, sharing childhood memories and dealing with adult issues -- career, relationships and the general direction or misdirection life will take them. Jason Ritter ("Joan of Arcadia"), Heather Goldenhersh ("The Merchant of Venice"), Lizzy Caplan ("Related"), Jon Bernthal ("Revenge of the Middle-Aged Woman"), Sean Maguire ("Eve"), Jesse Tyler Ferguson ("Putnam County Spelling Bee"), Lucy Punch ("Ella Enchanted") and Andrea Anders ("Joey") also star. Multiple Emmy Award winner James Burrows directs. Crane, Klarik and Burrows are executive producers for Warner Bros. Television.
The new dramas are:

SMITH (Tuesday, 10:00-11:00 PM, ET/PT) stars Emmy Award winner Ray Liotta ("ER," "Goodfellas,") as a criminal mastermind in a drama about a close-knit crew of career criminals who plot and execute intricate and ingenious high-stakes heists across the country. Though Bobby Stevens (Liotta) appears to be a regular family man with a nine-to-five job, he's actually an expert thief who is seeking just two or three more big jobs so he can finally leave the business for a comfortable, lawful lifestyle with his wife, Hope (Academy Award nominee Virginia Madsen, "Sideways"). Bobby's second family, his core band of partners, each bring their own areas of expertise to pulling off the biggest and most sophisticated armed robberies. The FBI is determined to catch the team but is most interested in capturing "Smith," the crew's mysterious leader and the brains behind the entire operation. It remains to be seen whether Bobby will be able to extricate himself in time from the scores that give him such a rush, or if his retirement will be a forced one -- behind bars. Jonny Lee Miller ("Trainspotting"), Franky G ("Saw II"), Simon Baker ("The Guardian") and Amy Smart ("Felicity") also star. Emmy Award winner John Wells ("ER," "The West Wing") is the executive producer for Warner Bros. Television.

JERICHO (Wednesday, 8:00-9:00 PM, ET/PT) is a drama about what happens when a nuclear mushroom cloud suddenly appears on the horizon, plunging the residents of a small, peaceful Kansas town into chaos, leaving them completely isolated and wondering if they're the only Americans left alive. Fear of the unknown propels Jericho into social, psychological and physical mayhem when all communication and power is shut down. The town starts to come apart at the seams as terror, anger and confusion bring out the very worst in some residents. But in this time of crisis, as sensible people become paranoid, personal agendas take over and well-kept secrets threaten to be revealed, some people will find an inner strength they never knew they had and the most unlikely heroes will emerge. Skeet Ulrich ("Scream"), Gerald McRaney ("Ike: Countdown to D-Day"), Ashley Scott ("Dark Angel"), Pamela Reed ("Proof of Life"), Kenneth Mitchell ("The Recruit"), Lennie James ("Sahara"), Sprague Grayden ("Six Feet Under"), Michael Gaston ("Prison Break") and Erik Knudsen ("Saw II") star. Jon Turteltaub ("National Treasure"), Stephen Chbosky ("Rent") and Carol Barbee ("Judging Amy") are executive producers for CBS Paramount Network Television, in association with Junction Entertainment.

SHARK (Thursday, 10:00-11:00 PM, ET/PT) stars multiple Academy Award nominee and Emmy Award winner James Woods ("Ghosts of Mississippi," "ER") as Sebastian Stark, a charismatic, supremely self-confident defense attorney who, after a shocking outcome in one of his cases and a personal epiphany, brings his cutthroat tactics to the prosecutor's office. As the head of the Los Angeles District Attorney's High Profile Crime Unit, Stark works for Jessica Devlin, (Jeri Ryan, "The O.C."), the ambitious and accomplished D.A. who despises his ruthless strategies. Devlin teams him with a group of young prosecutors who are about to have the learning experience of a lifetime because, though Stark is seeking to redeem himself, he has no intention of cooling his underhanded approach to cases just because he's now working for the "good guys." Sam Page ("American Dreams"), Alexis Cruz ("American Family"), Sarah Carter ("Numb3rs"), Danielle Panabaker ("Mom at Sixteen"), Romy Rosemont ("CSI: Crime Scene Investigation") and Sophina Brown ("Without a Trace") also star. Academy Award nominee Spike Lee directs. Academy Award winner Brian Grazer ("A Beautiful Mind," "24"), (David Nevins ("Arrested Development"), Ian Biederman ("Crossing Jordan") and Ed Redlich ("Without A Trace") are executive producers for Imagine Entertainment, in association with Twentieth Century Fox Television.

http://blogs.ohio.com/beacon_tv/

Upfront Notebook
Big ABC puzzler: 'What About Brian?'

By Toni Fitzgerald MediaLifeMagazine.com staff writer May 17, 2006, 01:15

Each season there’s a first-year show that everyone assumes is a goner that instead receives a last-minute renewal, much to the shock of even the show’s producers. A few years ago, it was NBC’s cop drama “Boomtown.” Last year it was NBC’s quirky workplace comedy “The Office.”

This year it’s ABC’s relationship drama “What About Brian,” which was picked up for a second season yesterday for the Monday 10 p.m. slot, despite middling ratings and very little critical buzz.

The question now is whether “Brian” will follow the path of “Office,” which nearly doubled its adults 18-49 average in season two. Or will it follow “Boomtown,” which was yanked after just three episodes with disappointing ratings?

It's anyone's guess, of course, all things being equal, and they are. ABC isn’t making any changes on Monday, so it won’t get a better lead-in. And the competition will remain the same, NBC’s “Medium” and CBS’s “CSI: Miami,” though both are sliding in the ratings.

But there are several reasons why ABC decided to renew the show.

First and most important, last week’s season finale received a nice bump over previous weeks. Second, the network wants to maintain a good relationship with “Brian” producer and “Lost” creator J.J. Abrams. And third, its drama development may not have been as strong as originally hoped, leaving room for mediocre shows to stay on the schedule.

“Brian’s” finale averaged a 3.2 rating, up 14 percent over the previous week and its best of the season in the timeslot. ABC had two bubble dramas, “Brian” and “Invasion.” While “Invasion’s” ratings have been dropping almost since its debut, “Brian” proved with its finale that it did have room to grow, which is what ABC wanted in whichever drama it decided to keep.

The network also wanted to maintain its growing relationship with Abrams, who also created “Alias.” The network has another Abrams show scheduled for fall, the drama “Six Degrees,” and clearly believes in the “Mission: Impossible III” director.

By keeping on “Brian,” which was Abrams’ first show to receive less-than-glowing reviews, the network clearly feels that Abrams can help put a creative spark into the show. It did set up an interesting situation for next season: In the finale, the titular character’s best friend discovered that Brian has a thing for the best friend’s fiancé.

“I am surprised that they picked it up. It has not performed up to their expectations,” says Stacey Shepatin, a buyer at Hill Holiday in Boston. “I suspect that they must have seen an interesting storyline for them to have renewed it for another season.”

Finally and perhaps most importantly, ABC’s drama development slate is not as strong as two years ago, which brought “Desperate Housewives,” “Lost” and “Grey’s Anatomy,” all of them huge hits.

The network wouldn’t want to dump even a moderate performer among 18-49s for a less-promising unknown. That was clear when it picked up “Brothers & Sisters,” a drama that in recent weeks had seen its buzz drop amid rumors that test audiences did not like “Ally McBeal” star Calista Flockhart in her supporting role.

Even this renewal doesn’t guarantee “Brian” will be around too long next fall. Poor comedy development is also what led ABC to renew “Jake in Progress” last year, and that show was killed off after just one week. If “Brian” doesn’t perk up creatively or in the ratings quite early come fall, it may suffer the same fate as “Boomtown.”

http://www.medialifemagazine.com/artman/publish/printer_4790.asp

Upfront Notebook
CBS replaces 'Sunday Movie' with Series

'Most Stable' Network to Debut Just Four New Shows in Fall
By Christopher Lisotta TVWeek.com May 17, 2006

CBS is doing away with its long running Sunday night movie franchise for the 2006-07 season, making room for some of its top-rated returning series, CBS Corp. President and CEO Leslie Moonves said Wednesday morning at a press conference in the network's New York headquarters.

Mr. Moonves forecasted CBS will be "up considerably" in the ratings for the night as a result of the altered Sunday schedule.

He called the movie CBS's "weakest link," and reminded reporters that the network was the "last holdout" for movies. The other networks already have done away with their movie nights in the past.

CBS tried to counter-program against competitor ABC's Sunday night show "Desperate Housewives" with action-oriented, male-targeted movies in the "CBS Sunday Night Movie" slot. But ultimately the effort wasn't as successful as the network execs hoped, Mr. Moonves said.

Current Sunday 8 p.m. (ET) crime drama "Cold Case" is moving to 9 p.m. to make room for reality veteran "The Amazing Race" at 8 p.m. Sundays. At 10 p.m., Thursday night F.B.I. drama "Without a Trace" is transitioning to Sundays. Venerable newsmagazine "60 Minutes" remains at 7 p.m. Sundays.

Mr. Moonves said Sunday competition is likely to be weaker on the night with ABC's top rated medical drama "Grey's Anatomy" moving to Thursdays, and NBC moving its crime procedurals "Crossing Jordan" and "Law & Order: Criminal Intent" off of Sundays to make room for NFL football.

CBS plans to premiere only four new shows in fall 2006, in what Mr. Moonves called "protected" time periods.

"We are taking some swings within an environment of strength," he added.

http://www.tvweek.com/news.cms?newsId=10024

(From Marc Berman’s Wednesday, May 17, 2006, Programming Insider column at Mediaweek.com )
CBS in 2006-07:

Four New Series; The Amazing Race and Without A Trace Move to Sunday

CBS, the most watched network, will introduce just four new series (three dramas and one comedy), with changes on five nights of the week. Friday and Saturday will remain intact. For the first time in 21 years, CBS will open the season without a Sunday Night Movie, which will be replaced by relocated dramas Cold Case and Without A Trace from 9-11 p.m. The Amazing Race, which lost its way this season, will shift to Sunday at 8 p.m. (out of 60 Minutes, and opposite Extreme Makeover: Home Edition on ABC, and Sunday Night Football on NBC). Stepping into Without A Trace’s current Thursday 10 p.m. time period is new drama Shark, featuring James Woods as a defense attorney.

The King of Queens, which is not on the fall schedule, will return for its ninth, and final, year in midseason. Also slated for midseason is sitcom The Rules of Engagement, and dramas Three Pounds and Waterfront. The network will also air three new Hallmark Hall of Fame made-for movies. Missing from the CBS fall line-up are comedies Courting Alex, Out of Practice, Still Standing and Yes, Dear; and dramas Love Monkey and Threshold.

-New Program Descriptions:

Comedy

THE CLASS
A group of people in their 20s who were in the same third grade class, and have not seen each other since, are reunited at a surprise party. The cast includes Jason Ritter (Joan or Arcadia), Andrea Anders, Lizzy Caplan, Heather Goldenhersh, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Sean Maguire, and Lucy Punch.

Dramas

JERICHO
After a mysterious mushroom suddenly appears in Jericho, Kansas, fear of an apocalypse prevails when the town becomes isolated with no help from the outside world. The ensemble cast includes Alicia Coppola, Michael Gaston, Sprague Graydon, Lennie James, Eric Knudsen, Gerald McRaney (Simon & Simon), Kenneth Mitchell, Pamela Reed, Ashley Scott, and Skeet Ulrich.

SHARK
A high powered, celebrity defense attorney in Los Angeles (James Woods) switches gears and becomes a prosecuting attorney for a squad of inexperienced lawyers at the District Attorney’s office. Jeri Ryan, Alexis Crus, Romy Rosemont, and Lynn Whitfield co-star.

SMITH
Told from the criminal point of view, a diverse group of criminals plan to carry out high-stake robberies across the country. The ensemble cast includes Ray Liotta, Virginia Madsen, Simon Baker (The Guardian), Chris Bauer, Frankie G., Michelle Hurd, Johnny Lee Miller, and Amy Smart.

THREE POUNDS (midseason)
An arrogant but talented brain surgeon (Stanley Tucci) has to cope with his demanding professional life and a deteriorating mind. Also starring Reiko Aylesworth, Mark Feuerstein, Armando Riesco, Tamara Taylor, Lorraine Toussaint (Any Day Now), and Indira Varma.

WATERFRONT (midseason)
The charismatic, but ethically challenged, mayor of Providence, Rhode Island (Joe “Joey Pants” Pantoliano) tries to distance himself from municipal corruption while maintaining policies that got him elected.

http://www.mediaweek.com/mw/newsletters/proginsider/index.jsp

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Upfront Notebook
CBS's Sunday ploy: 'Without a Trace'

Daring move to 10 p.m. from Thursday
By Toni Fitzgerald MediaLifeMagazine.com staff writer May 17, 2006

The most conservative broadcast network is making one of the new season’s most radical moves in an effort to rise to No. 1 among adults 18-49 next season.

CBS released its 2006-‘07 fall schedule this morning in advance of this afternoon’s upfront presentation to advertisers, and noticeably absent is the “Sunday Night Movie,” an old-skewing, longtime staple on the network.

Instead, it will move Thursday hit “Without a Trace” to Sunday night at 10 p.m. as part of a revamped night that aims much younger than CBS has in the past.

“Trace,” which this year will finish ahead of NBC’s “ER” among adults 18-49 for the first time in their four-year timeslot battle, will lead out of “Cold Case,” which moves to 9 p.m. The night will still lead off with “60 Minutes,” followed by the relocated “Amazing Race.”

CBS’s strategy signals not just that it is aiming for a season win among 18-49s, hoping to use “Trace’s” old spot to launch another successful new drama opposite fading "ER." It also signals that it considers ABC, which has dominated Sunday night the past two seasons, vulnerable. ABC said yesterday that it will move 10 p.m. smash “Grey’s Anatomy” to Thursday, where it will challenge CBS’s “CSI.” “Desperate Housewives” has already been declining on the night.

The CBS fall schedule includes just four new shows: sitcom “The Class” and new dramas “Jericho,” “Smith” and “The Shark,” the James Woods drama that lucked into “Trace’s” old spot.

Mondays remain mostly intact. Second-year show “How I Met Your Mother” replaces “King of Queens” at 8 p.m., though “Queens” will return at midseason. “The Class,” about a group of former third-grade classmates, takes the 8:30 slot, followed by “Two and a Half Men,” “The New Adventures of Old Christine” and “CSI: Miami” at 10 p.m.

Tuesdays remain partly the same, with “NCIS” and “The Unit” both returning to start the night. In the 10 p.m. slot, where CBS has struggled mightily with three new shows burning out this season, the network will launch “Smith,” with Ray Liotta as a master criminal.

New drama “Jericho,” a post-apocalypse drama with Gerald McRaney (“Major Dad”) leads off Wednesday night, followed by returners “Criminal Minds” and “CSI: NY.”

“Survivor” stays Thursday at 8, followed by “CSI.” “Shark” takes over at 10, with Woods as a defense attorney turned prosecutor.

Friday is the only weeknight without any changes, with “Ghost Whisperer,” “Close to Home” and “Numb3rs” returning. Saturday will be crime drama reruns from 8 to 10, followed by “48 Hours Mystery.”

CBS returns six new series from last year, a stark contrast to NBC and ABC, which returned just three between them. Gone are sitcoms “Out of Practice” and “Courting Alex.”

CBS will introduce three other shows with “Queens” at midseason: comedy “The Rules of Engagement,” drama “Three Pounds” and Joe Pantoliano’s “Waterfront.”

The network, which will likely finish third this year among 18-49s, has a good shot at No. 1 next year, when it will carry the Super Bowl.

http://www.medialifemagazine.com/artman/publish/article_4791.asp

Upfront Notebook
The new CBS schedule

(CBS Press Release)

CBS ANNOUNCES 2006-2007 PRIMETIME SCHEDULE

CBS announced today the addition of four new series to its 2006-2007 primetime line-up, enhancing a line-up that will return 18 shows from last year's schedule, including six from last season's freshman class. The line-up, which includes three new dramas and one new comedy, was unveiled this morning by CBS Entertainment President Nina Tassler.

The four new shows feature a roster of award-winning actors and executive producers and a unique mix of concepts and genres. The freshman series include a young and sexy ensemble comedy, THE CLASS, from "Friends" co-creator David Crane; SMITH, a high octane heist thriller from "ER's" John Wells starring Ray Liotta and Virginia Madsen; the apocalyptic drama JERICHO, from the producer of "National Treasure," Jon Turteltaub, starring Skeet Ulrich ("Scream"); and SHARK, a glossy, high-stakes courtroom drama from Brian Grazer ("The DaVinci Code," "A Beautiful Mind"), starring James Woods.

Those shows will join a line-up that features more time period winning series and more top 20 hits than any other network as well as a leadership position in nearly every program genre: CBS will return television's Number One drama, CSI: CRIME SCENE INVESTIGATION; the Number One returning comedy, TWO AND A HALF MEN; the Number One and Number Two freshman dramas, THE UNIT and CRIMINAL MINDS; the Number One new comedy, THE NEW ADVENTURES OF OLD CHRISTINE; the Number One news magazine, 60 MINUTES; and the premiere reality series SURVIVOR and the three-time Emmy Award-winning THE AMAZING RACE.

In an impressive achievement, CBS is returning six of its freshman series, which strengthened four nights of the schedule, for their sophomore seasons, including HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER, CRIMINAL MINDS, GHOST WHISPERER and CLOSE TO HOME as well as THE UNIT and OLD CHRISTINE. They are part of the overall 18 series that return to the CBS primetime schedule, along with TWO AND A HALF MEN, CSI: MIAMI, NCIS, CSI: NY, SURVIVOR, CSI: CRIME SCENE INVESTIGATION, NUMB3RS, THE AMAZING RACE, COLD CASE, WITHOUT A TRACE as well as 60 MINUTES, 48 HOURS: MYSTERY and CRIMETIME SATURDAY.

As a result, CBS will win the 2005-2006 season in viewers and adults 25-54, continuing its multi-year winning streak.

The new 2006-2007 schedule:

On Mondays, CBS adds one new series to its winning comedy line-up. HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER, a show that captures a young and loyal audience, moves to 8:00 PM, followed by the new ensemble comedy THE CLASS at 8:30 PM, forming a fresh, sophisticated young adult comedy block. At 9:00 PM, CBS returns television's Number One comedy TWO AND A HALF MEN, followed by the Number One new comedy THE NEW ADVENTURES OF OLD CHRISTINE at 9:30 PM. CSI: MIAMI, the night's Number One show, caps the line-up at 10:00 PM.

On Tuesdays, CBS adds an exciting new series to a night that already features a potent and growing 8:00-10:00 PM block of drama. NCIS, which continues to grow its audience, begins the night at 8:00 PM, followed by CBS's mid-season hit THE UNIT. Both shows will serve as a launching pad for the new 10:00 PM dramatic thriller SMITH, a slick, insider's take on a group of professional thieves planning their next score.

Likewise, on Wednesday, CBS adds a new series, JERICHO, to a line-up that already boasts a dynamic block of dramas -- the rookie sensation CRIMINAL MINDS at 9:00 PM and the time-period winning CSI: NY at 10:00 PM. JERICHO, an explosive new drama that follows the aftermath of a nuclear explosion, will kick off the night at 8:00 PM.

On Thursday, CBS returns its powerful 8:00-10:00 PM programming duo of SURVIVOR and CSI: CRIME SCENE INVESTIGATION. The network will use CSI, television's Number One drama, as a launching pad for its new James Woods legal thriller SHARK, at 10:00 PM.

And CBS will keep its winning Friday night intact, programming the two freshman successes GHOST WHISPERER at 8:00 PM and CLOSE TO HOME at 9:00 PM, followed by the unsung hit NUMB3RS at 10:00 PM. CBS wins every half hour of this night in viewers, adults 25-54 and adults 18-49.

Saturdays will feature CBS's popular CRIMETIME programming from 8:00-10:00 PM, followed by 48 HOURS: MYSTERY.

And on Sundays, CBS is making key scheduling moves designed to capitalize on the changing competitive landscape of the night. The Number One and most-honored news magazine 60 MINUTES starts the night at 7:00 PM, followed by the Emmy Award-winning reality series THE AMAZING RACE, which moves to 8:00 PM. And from 9:00-11:00 PM, CBS is using two of its most successful and compelling crime series, COLD CASE and WITHOUT A TRACE, to build a seamless block of drama. COLD CASE will air at 9:00 PM, followed at 10:00 PM by WITHOUT A TRACE, one of television's highest-rated series.

Additionally, the network announced the pick-up of four shows for mid-season, including the Monday night stalwart THE KING OF QUEENS as well as two new dramas and one new comedy. They include 3 LBS, starring Stanley Tucci in a medical drama about New York neurosurgeons; WATERFRONT, a drama about a colorful mayor in Providence, R.I. starring Joe Pantoliano; and RULES OF ENGAGEMENT, a comedy starring Patrick Warburton ("Seinfeld") from Adam Sandler's production company that follows two couples and a single guy as they navigate the jungles of dating, engagement and marriage.

The new comedy is:

THE CLASS (Monday, 8:30-9:00 PM, ET/PT), from Emmy Award winner David Crane ("Friends") and Emmy Award nominee Jeffrey Klarik ("Mad About You"), is a comedy about the lives of a group of 20-somethings who are inextricably bound together having shared the same third grade class. Now face to face at an impromptu reunion to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the day they met, they wonder if they'll have anything in common besides vague memories of playground kisses and underwear sightings on the monkey bars. Turns out they do. After two decades apart for most of them, some are eager to show off, some want to rekindle old crushes and others just want to satisfy their curiosity. Whatever the case, their lives will intersect from this point forward, sharing childhood memories and dealing with adult issues -- career, relationships and the general direction or misdirection life will take them. Jason Ritter ("Joan of Arcadia"), Heather Goldenhersh ("The Merchant of Venice"), Lizzy Caplan ("Related"), Jon Bernthal ("Revenge of the Middle-Aged Woman"), Sean Maguire ("Eve"), Jesse Tyler Ferguson ("Putnam County Spelling Bee"), Lucy Punch ("Ella Enchanted") and Andrea Anders ("Joey") also star. Multiple Emmy Award winner James Burrows directs. Crane, Klarik and Burrows are executive producers for Warner Bros. Television.

The new dramas are:

SMITH (Tuesday, 10:00-11:00 PM, ET/PT) stars Emmy Award winner Ray Liotta ("ER," "Goodfellas,") as a criminal mastermind in a drama about a close-knit crew of career criminals who plot and execute intricate and ingenious high-stakes heists across the country. Though Bobby Stevens (Liotta) appears to be a regular family man with a nine-to-five job, he's actually an expert thief who is seeking just two or three more big jobs so he can finally leave the business for a comfortable, lawful lifestyle with his wife, Hope (Academy Award nominee Virginia Madsen, "Sideways"). Bobby's second family, his core band of partners, each bring their own areas of expertise to pulling off the biggest and most sophisticated armed robberies. The FBI is determined to catch the team but is most interested in capturing "Smith," the crew's mysterious leader and the brains behind the entire operation. It remains to be seen whether Bobby will be able to extricate himself in time from the scores that give him such a rush, or if his retirement will be a forced one -- behind bars. Jonny Lee Miller ("Trainspotting"), Franky G ("Saw II"), Simon Baker ("The Guardian") and Amy Smart ("Felicity") also star. Emmy Award winner John Wells ("ER," "The West Wing") is the executive producer for Warner Bros. Television.

JERICHO (Wednesday, 8:00-9:00 PM, ET/PT) is a drama about what happens when a nuclear mushroom cloud suddenly appears on the horizon, plunging the residents of a small, peaceful Kansas town into chaos, leaving them completely isolated and wondering if they're the only Americans left alive. Fear of the unknown propels Jericho into social, psychological and physical mayhem when all communication and power is shut down. The town starts to come apart at the seams as terror, anger and confusion bring out the very worst in some residents. But in this time of crisis, as sensible people become paranoid, personal agendas take over and well-kept secrets threaten to be revealed, some people will find an inner strength they never knew they had and the most unlikely heroes will emerge. Skeet Ulrich ("Scream"), Gerald McRaney ("Ike: Countdown to D-Day"), Ashley Scott ("Dark Angel"), Pamela Reed ("Proof of Life"), Kenneth Mitchell ("The Recruit"), Lennie James ("Sahara"), Sprague Grayden ("Six Feet Under"), Michael Gaston ("Prison Break") and Erik Knudsen ("Saw II") star. Jon Turteltaub ("National Treasure"), Stephen Chbosky ("Rent") and Carol Barbee ("Judging Amy") are executive producers for CBS Paramount Network Television, in association with Junction Entertainment.

SHARK (Thursday, 10:00-11:00 PM, ET/PT) stars multiple Academy Award nominee and Emmy Award winner James Woods ("Ghosts of Mississippi," "ER") as Sebastian Stark, a charismatic, supremely self-confident defense attorney who, after a shocking outcome in one of his cases and a personal epiphany, brings his cutthroat tactics to the prosecutor's office. As the head of the Los Angeles District Attorney's High Profile Crime Unit, Stark works for Jessica Devlin, (Jeri Ryan, "The O.C."), the ambitious and accomplished D.A. who despises his ruthless strategies. Devlin teams him with a group of young prosecutors who are about to have the learning experience of a lifetime because, though Stark is seeking to redeem himself, he has no intention of cooling his underhanded approach to cases just because he's now working for the "good guys." Sam Page ("American Dreams"), Alexis Cruz ("American Family"), Sarah Carter ("Numb3rs"), Danielle Panabaker ("Mom at Sixteen"), Romy Rosemont ("CSI: Crime Scene Investigation") and Sophina Brown ("Without a Trace") also star. Academy Award nominee Spike Lee directs. Academy Award winner Brian Grazer ("A Beautiful Mind," "24"), (David Nevins ("Arrested Development"), Ian Biederman ("Crossing Jordan") and Ed Redlich ("Without A Trace") are executive producers for Imagine Entertainment, in association with Twentieth Century Fox Television.

The following is the 2006-2007 CBS Television Network primetime schedule:

(N=New, NT=New Time, all times ET/PT)

MONDAY
8:00-8:30 PM HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER (NT)
8:30-9:00 PM THE CLASS (N)
9:00-9:30 PM TWO AND A HALF MEN
9:30-10:00 PM THE NEW ADVENTURES OF OLD CHRISTINE
10:00-11:00 PM CSI: MIAMI

TUESDAY
8:00-9:00 PM NCIS
9:00-10:00 PM THE UNIT
10:00-11:00 PM SMITH (N)

WEDNESDAY
8:00-9:00 PM JERICHO (N)
9:00-10:00 PM CRIMINAL MINDS
10:00-11:00 PM CSI: NY

THURSDAY
8:00-9:00 PM SURVIVOR
9:00-10:00 PM CSI: CRIME SCENE INVESTIGATION
10:00-11:00 PM SHARK (N)

FRIDAY
8:00-9:00 PM GHOST WHISPERER
9:00-10:00 PM CLOSE TO HOME
10:00-11:00 PM NUMB3RS

SATURDAY
8:00-9:00 PM CRIMETIME SATURDAY
9:00-10:00 PM CRIMETIME SATURDAY
10:00-11:00 PM 48 HOURS: MYSTERY

SUNDAY
7:00-8:00 PM 60 MINUTES
8:00-9:00 PM THE AMAZING RACE (NT)
9:00-10:00 PM COLD CASE (NT)
10:00-11:00 PM WITHOUT A TRACE (NT)

Obituary
Frankie Thomas, 85; Starred in TV's 'Tom Corbett, Space Cadet'

By Dennis McLellan Los Angeles Times Staff Writer May 17, 2006

Frankie Thomas, a popular stage and screen juvenile actor in the 1930s who gained widespread fame on TV in the early 1950s as the star of "Tom Corbett, Space Cadet," has died. He was 85.

Thomas, who later became a leading recreational bridge instructor and an author, died Thursday of respiratory failure at Sherman Oaks Hospital, said his stepdaughter, Julie Alexander.

The Manhattan-born son of actors Frank M. Thomas and Mona Bruns, Thomas established himself on Broadway in the early 1930s.

After appearing in the drama "Wednesday's Child," the teenage Thomas came to Hollywood to appear in the 1934 film version at RKO.

Over the next few years, he shuttled back and forth between Hollywood and New York, appearing in plays such as "Remember the Day," "Seen but Not Heard" and "Your Loving Son" and in films such as "A Dog of Flanders," "Boys Town" and "The Major and the Minor."

The curly-haired Thomas also starred in "Tim Tyler's Luck," a 1937 adventure serial. And he played Nancy Drew's droll boyfriend, Ted Nickerson, in four of the teenage sleuth films starring Bonita Granville in 1938 and 1939.

After serving in the Navy and the Coast Guard during World War II, Thomas moved back to New York and worked frequently in radio and early television, including the soap opera "A Woman to Remember." In 1950, he was cast in the title role of Tom Corbett, a Space Academy cadet in training to become a member of the elite Solar Guard, 400 years in the future.

In landing the title role in the children's adventure show, Thomas beat out a number of young actors, including Jack Lemmon.

"Frankie looked like the all-American boy," said Jan Merlin, who played the wisecracking cadet Roger Manning ("So what happens now, space heroes?").

"There was a style of acting that kids in those days had, particularly Hollywood kids," Merlin told The Times. "If you were playing the all-American boy, you talked a certain way, you tensed your jaw in a certain way, and he fitted it.

"Everyone in the room knew immediately this was the guy we were going to get."

"Tom Corbett, Space Cadet" debuted in October 1950 as a 15-minute, three-nights-a-week series on CBS. The show later expanded to 30 minutes and aired variously on ABC, NBC and the DuMont networks. There also was a radio version.

In that pre-Sputnik era, the adventures of Tom Corbett and his fellow space travelers quickly caught on with viewers, who included a surprising number of adults.

"The disc jockeys all picked up our lingo: 'Blast your jets,' 'Don't fuse your tubes, 'Spaceman's luck,' " Thomas recalled in a 2005 interview with Starlog magazine. "We were hearing all of this and we said, 'Hey, if they're saying it, they're watching it.' "

Eventually, Thomas told the Asbury Park Press in 2000, "there were 135 different products bearing the name of 'Tom Corbett.' Kellogg's, which was a wonderful sponsor, renamed their second-biggest seller, Kellogg's Pep, the 'Solar Cereal.' They had my picture on the box."

Because the show aired live, it was prone to occasional flubs.

"Frank had a wonderful retentive memory, and frequently if an actor went up with his lines, Frankie would pop in and say the guy's lines for him," Merlin said.

On one occasion, Merlin recalled, "a fella was so nervous he began with Frank's line. So Frank answered with his line, and they did that through the entire scene. At the end of the scene, the director came out of the booth and said how wonderful they were and didn't realize they had changed lines.

"Frank was delighted with that; he had a marvelous sense of humor."

After the TV series ended in 1955, Thomas gave up acting and wrote for television and radio for a time. He then played on the bridge circuit with master players and taught recreational bridge for many years. He also was the longtime editor of the American Bridge Teachers' Assn. Quarterly Magazine and served as president of the organization.

Thomas also wrote a string of mystery novels, including "Sherlock Holmes and the Masquerade Murders," featuring Arthur Conan Doyle's famous character.

Thomas' wife, Virginia, died in 1997. In addition to his stepdaughter, he is survived by his stepson, James Aicholtz, and a step-grandson.

At his request, Thomas was buried Tuesday in his "Tom Corbett, Space Cadet" costume.

http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-thomas17may17,1,1997345.story?coll=la-news-obituaries