Upfront Notebook
It's Official: Veronica Mars Renewed

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.
Wow, really pulled that one out of the hat.

They need to figure out a way to get people watching this puppy. Perhaps paired with Gilmore Girls will help.

How about a marathon this summer? Run through seasons 1 & 2 with a daily showing.... (for Denver: preferably on the new CW Channel which is Hi-Def).

PS: I'm glad Brian is renewed - I enjoy it (and, wow the women on that show are HOT). But, will it survive?

I don't know what the affiliate agreements for the WB and UPN stations call for, but I am sure the new CW stations could run such marathons if they wished.

Let's wait until we see the total CW schedule tomorrow to find out what is planned.

Upfront Notebook
CBS brings out big guns

New Sunday sked includes 'Trace,' 'Race'
By Denise Martin Variety.com May 17, 2006

With the axing of its longrunning Sunday movie franchise, CBS is coming after the night in a big way, arming it with established heavy hitters "Without a Trace" and "The Amazing Race."

Speaking to reporters Wednesday morning from the Eye's New York offices, CBS Corp. prexy-CEO Leslie Moonves said he expects the newly stocked Sunday night would provide an overall ratings boost to the network. Decision to drop the movie franchise had been anticipated since late last year and confirmed earlier this week (Daily Variety, May 15).

Network's fall line-up includes just three new dramas and one laffer. "Shark," "Smith" and "Jericho" made the cut on the drama front, while "The Class" will serve as CBS's sole effort in comedy.

Eye has slated "Race," which moves out of Wednesday, at 8 while "Trace" will hold down the 10 hour - making for a night produced entirely by Jerry Bruckheimer (with the obvious exception of "60 Minutes" at 7 pm).

Relocation of "Trace" also shakes up Thursday, which will introduce Brian Grazer-produced courtroom drama "Shark" in "Trace's" 10 pm slot. "Survivor" and "C.S.I." will remain at at 8 and 9.

Monday will feature new ensemble comedy "The Class," from "Friends" co-creator David Crane, at 8:30, hammocked by "How I Met Your Mother" at 8 and "Two and a Half Men" at 9. "The New Adventures of Old Christine" and "CSI: Miami" round out the rest of the night.

John Wells' heist thriller "Smith" will air Tuesday at 10, following two-hour drama block "NCIS" and "The Unit."

"Jericho," the apocalyptic drama from Jon Turteltraub and starring Skeet Ulrich, is slated for Wednesday nights at 8, replacing "Race" and leading into procedural mainstays "Criminal Minds" and "CSI: NY."

Upfront Notebook
Who will blink first?

So, before we even hear from Fox and the CW tomorrow, we know what the other three networks are planning for 9 PM (ET/PT) on Thursdays in the fall:

CBS: CSI
ABC: Grey’s Anatomy
NBC: Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip

Given NBC’s weak ratings (and bargaining) position, can anyone believe it won’t move its most talked-about new program out of that particular murderous slot?

Or, given the disastrous decisions made under the Zucker regime, can anyone believe it will move Studio 60?

Personally, I am betting that Studio 60 has a new slot in the schedule within two weeks. Favorite timing: NBC makes a quiet announcement next Friday – as the long Memorial Day weekend begins and TV critics begin their own summer hiatuses.

But that is just me. Do any of you expect to see Studio 60 take on CSI and Grey’s Anatomy?

I think there's a typo:

They are not on at 8 PM (ET/PT), but at 9 PM (ET/PT) !

Thanks for catching it, Dmon4u.

Upfront Notebook
CBS Adds Only Four New Shows

The ratings leader can afford to be conservative
By Matea Gold Los Angeles Times Staff Writer May 17, 2006

NEW YORK — It doesn't bother CBS Corp. President Leslie Moonves that the other guys get all the attention - that much.

"We are the most stable network," he told reporters at an early morning press conference at the network's Midtown headquarters today. "I know it doesn't quite get the buzz. It's good to have a couple grand slam home runs; we've got a lot of doubles. And you score more runs with doubles than home runs, as long as you have enough of them - and we do."

To that end, CBS moved conservatively in designing next fall's schedule, retaining 18 shows and adding just four new programs to the mix. (Three other new shows were tapped as midseason replacements.)

The move leaves the network chock-a-block with crime procedurals such as the "CSI" franchise that has helped make CBS the top-rated network among total viewers, even if they lack the wattage of programs such as ABC's "Lost" and Fox's "American Idol."

"People may want to knock our procedurals all they want, but they repeat great," Moonves said. "We do great week after week. We don't have huge highs and huge lows. We are not the manic-depressive network."

That said, he admitted that network officials hope that next season's slate of programming will draw more notice to CBS. "There was an attitude, 'OK, we don't get as much noise as everybody else,' " Moonves said. "And we're human; we like getting the buzz - although I like winning more."

Still, the network recognized "that you want to see something different from us," he added, "and I think you will this year." To that end, CBS deviated a bit from its usual fare in picking its new programs. There are no new crime procedurals, for one thing, but a trio of character-driven dramas.

"Smith" stars Ray Liotta as the head of a crew of career criminals seeking their final heist. In "Jericho," a small Kansas town struggles to cope when it is plunged into isolation by a nuclear mushroom cloud.

"Shark," CBS' highest-testing pilot, features James Woods as a former defense attorney who grows disenchanted with his work and switches to the prosecutor's office.

CBS' only new comedy on the schedule, "The Class," comes from "Friends" creator David Crane and hinges on the reunion of a group of twentysomethings who were in the same third grade class.

The new shows have been sprinkled throughout the week and paired with long-standing hits in an effort to draw the biggest audiences.

"We felt that we're taking some swings, but we're taking swings within an environment of strength," Moonves said. In one of its biggest moves, the network is switching ratings winner "Without a Trace" from 10 p.m. Thursday to the same time slot on Sundays. Moonves said CBS decided to make the change even before producers knew that ABC was shuttling its hit show "Grey's Anatomy" from 10 p.m. on Sundays to 9 p.m. on Thursdays.

By scrapping the CBS Sunday night movie and adding "Amazing Race" to the Sunday night lineup, network officials believe "it's going to be a night where we're going to be up considerably," he said. "You're going to see a vast improvement."

"Obviously, ABC is not going to be as strong as they were without 'Grey's Anatomy' there," Moonves added. The CBS chief called ABC's decision to move its top show "a big" and "bold move," but said that he nevertheless is confident that "Grey's Anatomy" will not significantly erode "CSI," its new competition on Thursdays.

"Network television has proven, when you have two great hit shows on in the same time period, they don't cannibalize each other; television grows," adding that he expects NBC to be the network to back down from that time period.

Earlier in the week, NBC announced that it would air its much-buzzed-about "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip" at 9 p.m. on Thursdays.

"If I were Aaron Sorkin, I wouldn't be very happy this morning," Moonves said of the show's creator.

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/tv/la-et-cbs18may18,1,4736105.story?coll=la-entnews-tv

Critic’s Notebook
Call me heartless: 'Grey's' finale falls flat

By Maureen Ryan in the Chicago Tribune TV blog May 17, 2006
For what I'm about to say, you might consider me heartless.

I didn't care much for the "Grey’s Anatomy" finale. And mainly that's because the "Grey’s" writers dragged the Denny story line out way too far. Does he get a heart, does he not get a heart, blah blah blah. Whatever. The Tin Man-esque saga just got old after a while. I get that Izzie has a thing for hopeless, unrealistic romances, but there’s already plenty of that via House and Cameron on “House.” And the Denny thing was just too drawn out.

Sure, there were some good moments in the final three hours, but overall, the whole thing just fell a little flat. I think they went too big. It wasn’t just the padded drama regarding Denny’s heart, but no, Burke was shot too! And there was a prom! And … a dog died!

Actually, the scene of Doc’s death was the one moment of emotion I responded to in the whole “Grey’s” finale frenzy. It wasn’t a huge deal, but it was handled delicately.

Unlike much of the rest of the episodes, which left me feeling like I’d had a close encounter with blunt-force trauma.

Regarding the shenanigans that Izzie got up to with Denny – are you telling me that no nurses would have come in his room to check up on him during that whole time? Izzie and the other interns were there for a long time, and in my experience of hospitals, someone barges in to your room approximately every 4 minutes. I know “Grey’s” isn’t a documentary, but all the overwrought Denny stuff just got on my nerves and what went down in his room wasn’t even remotely close to realistic.

I’ve also got a big problem with how they’ve written Callie – or rather, underwritten her. I think she was meant to be a fiery rebel, someone who would make George re-examine himself and would challenge the cool-girls clique run by Meredith, Izzie and Cristina.

That was an excellent idea, but they never fleshed Callie out enough. She charged in, started dating George and then did that weird thing where she peed naked in front of Meredith and Izzie. Ick! That turned her from the intriguing, thought-provoking rebel to the freaky chick that the other women didn’t have to take seriously.

As for Callie telling George she loved him – that just came out of the blue. They’ve barely given this couple any screen time, except when Callie’s criticized George for not standing up for her more. Check out the season finale of “The Office” for an “I love you” scene that was completely earned and utterly, jaw-droppingly amazing.

I frankly don’t buy the underdeveloped Callie-George relationship and the actors, let’s face it, despite their best efforts, don’t have much chemistry between them. That affair started out promisingly but now I’m just waiting for it to be over.

And, by the way, do the wardrobe people at “Grey’s” really dislike Sara Ramirez, who plays Callie? Her prom dress was all wrong for her. She’s got a great, curvy figure, but that dress with tiny straps made her look like a linebacker in drag.

Oh, and that prom. Please. The whole thing was just so obvious and silly. Again, I know that “Grey’s” is a frothy soap and not a heavily realistic drama, but no hospital would shut a huge part of itself down on short notice for a teenage prom that half the employees also attend.

OK, as far as TV logic goes, I guess it barely makes sense. But I have a question as to why Webber’s niece was in the hospital at all. She passed out during sex, from what I understand. I can’t understand why Seattle General had to have a prom for her – presumably she attended her prom, then had sex with her boyfriend. Do the kids these days really do things in the opposite order (if they do those things at all)?

(But hey, on the plus side, “Grey’s” did have some “Veronica Mars” alumni in the cast of the three final episodes, including Tessa Thompson (Jackie Cook on “Mars”) as Webber’s niece, Ken Marino (the delightfully sleazy Vinnie Van Lowe) as the jerky restaurant manager and Sidney Tamiia Poitier (Mallory Dent) as an angry fiancé. So that was cool.)

All things considered, I’ll certainly be tuning in to “Grey’s” when it returns on Thursdays next year. The show’s ambition, its storytelling and its refreshingly non-condescending attitude toward its complicated female characters are all to be respected. And the show can do big things well -- the post-Super Bowl episodes were terrific.

But next year, I hope they dial it down a bit and focus on the characters. Except for sweeps, when I’m resigned to the fact that they’ll dial things back up again. Not too much, I hope.

The most unintentionally funny moment was when Bailey confronted the gang of interns in Denny’s room.

“You fools better have a good explanation for this,” she fumed.

I shouted at the TV, “Of course there’s an explanation, Dr. Bailey -- it’s May sweeps!”

http://featuresblogs.chicagotribune.com/entertainment_tv/2006/05/call_me_heartle.html#more

Upfront Notebook
CBS Rolls Out the New Shows

By Kevin D. Thompson Palm Beach Post Television Writer

Pretend with me for a minute: If you were a single network looking to get married, CBS would make a great suitor. First of all, it’s an older, more experienced network. Translation: it knows what it’s doing. No other network is as stable.

That stability was reflected in CBS’ new fall sked announced this morning. Four fall shows from last season’s class (Criminal Minds, Ghost Whisperer, Close to Home, How I Met Your Mother) are returning as are two midseason shows (The Unit and The New Adventures of Old Christine). That’s more than any other network.

See what I mean about stability? That’s an excellent trait in any potential spouse.

Good calls, CBS. I love both the rah-rah, flag-waving macho studs on The Unit as well as Julia Louis-Dreyfus’ zany single mom comedy.

With so many shows returning, CBS is only adding four new series (three dramas, one comedy) -- much unlike ABC which rolled out about, oh, 800 new shows on Tuesday. Some of the names you’ll see on CBS this fall include Ray Liotta, James Woods and Virginia Madsen.

CBS’ Sunday night will look a little different. The Amazing Race shifts to that night at 8 p.m., followed by Cold Case at 9 and Without A Trace at 10.

As for the new shows, they are…

• The Class (Mondays, 8:30 p.m.): A comedy about a bunch of twentysomethings who have been bound together since the third grade. Sounds like The Big Chill. Except no one dies. And there's no Motown music. I think.

• Smith (Tuesdays, 10 p.m.): Liotta stars as a criminal mastermind who plots high-stakes heists around the country with his partners in crime while the FBI tries catching him. Another heist drama, eh? Uh, I dunno. Look what happened to Thief on FX and Heist on NBC. What happened, you ask? No one watched, that's what. The plodding Thief I could understand. But the snappy Heist was fun.

• Jericho (Wednesdays, 8 p.m.): A nuclear mushroom cloud suddenly appears. Now the residents of a small Kansas town wonder if they’re the only people alive on the planet. Sounds like Lost. Only it’s not in the jungle. And there’s probably no hatch or black smoke monsters. I think.

• Shark (Thursdays, 10 p.m.): Woods plays a sleazy defense attorney (boy CBS get the right actor for the part!) who after a personal epiphany becomes a prosecutor. But he’s still kinda sleazy. So I guess the epiphany wasn’t that big of a deal.

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/blogs/content/shared-blogs/palmbeach/thompson/entries/2006/05/cbs_rolls_out_n.html

Upfront Notebook
Prime Time Showdown

(Broadcasting & Cable, 5/17/2006)
With three of the Big Four networks having unveiled their prime time lineups for 2006-07, here is a look at the daily competitive schedule for ABC, CBS and NBC.

Fox will announce its lineup on Thursday.

Sunday
7 PM ET/PT
ABC: America's Funniest Home Videos
CBS: 60 Minutes
NBC: Football Night in America
8 PM ET/PT
ABC: Extreme Makeover: Home Edition
CBS: The Amazing Race
NBC: NFL Sunday Night Football/Post-NFL season: America's Got Talent
9 PM ET/PT
ABC: Desperate Housewives
CBS: Cold Case
NBC: NFL Sunday Night Football/Post-NFL season: The Apprentice
10 PM ET/PT
ABC: Brothers and Sisters
CBS: Without a Trace
NBC: NFL Sunday Night Football: Post-NFL season: Raines

Monday
8 PM ET/PT
ABC: Wife Swap
CBS: How I Met Your Mother/8:30 The Class
NBC: Deal or No Deal
9 PM ET/PT
ABC: The Bachelor/9:30 Supernanny
CBS: Two and a Half Men/9:30: The New Adventures of Old Christine
NBC: Heroes
10 PM ET/PT
ABC: What About Brian
CBS: CSI: Miami
NBC: Medium

Tuesday
8 PM ET/PT
ABC: Dancing With the Stars/Midseason: Set for the Rest of Your Life
CBS: NCIS
NBC: Friday Night Lights
9 PM ET/PT
ABC: Let's Rob.../8:30: Help Me Help You
CBS: The Unit
NBC: Kidnapped
10 PM ET/PT
ABC: Boston Legal
CBS: Smith
NBC: Law & Order: SVU

Wednesday
8 PM ET/PT
ABC: Dancing With the Stars/Midseason: George Lopez/According to Jim
CBS: Jericho
NBC: The Biggest Loser
9 PM ET/PT
ABC: Lost
CBS: Criminal Minds
NBC: Twenty Good Years/30 Rock
10 PM ET/PT
ABC: The Nine
CBS: CSI: NY
NBC: Law & Order

Thursday
8 PM ET/PT
ABC: Big Day/Notes From the Underbelly
CBS: Survivor
NBC: My Name Is Earl/The Office
9 PM ET/PT
ABC: Grey's Anatomy
CBS: CSI: Crime Scene Investigation
NBC: Studio 60
10 PM ET/PT
ABC: Six Degrees
CBS: Shark
NBC: ER/Midseason: The Black Donnellys

Friday
8 PM ET/PT
ABC: Betty the Ugly
CBS: Ghost Whisperer
NBC: Deal or No Deal
9 PM ET/PT
ABC: Men in Trees
CBS: Close to Home
NBC: Las Vegas
10 PM ET/PT
ABC:/20/20
CBS: Numb3rs
NBC: Law & Order: Criminal Intent

Saturday
8 PM ET/PT
ABC: ABC Saturday Night College Football
CBS: Crimetime Saturday
NBC: Dateline NBC
9 PM ET/PT
ABC: ABC Saturday Night College Football
CBS: Crimetime Saturday
NBC: Drama Encore
10 PM ET/PT
ABC: ABC Saturday Night College Football
CBS: 48 Hours Mystery
NBC: Dateline NBC

For a fall schedule grid, please check here:
http://www.metacritic.com/tv/seasons/2006fall/networks.shtml

Wow, really pulled that one out of the hat.

They need to figure out a way to get people watching this puppy. Perhaps paired with Gilmore Girls will help.

How about a marathon this summer? Run through seasons 1 & 2 with a daily showing.... (for Denver: preferably on the new CW Channel which is Hi-Def).

PS: I'm glad Brian is renewed - I enjoy it (and, wow the women on that show are HOT). But, will it survive?

I don't know about a marathon, but there are re-running all of Season 2, episode 1 started last night. They're pairing it up with this past season of Top Model. When the Top Model episodes end (like 10 shows total), VM will get 2 episodes a night.

The Business of TV
Dish, DirecTV Add Local HDTV Markets

By Linda Moss & David Cohen Multichannel.com 5/17/2006

EchoStar Communications Corp.’s Dish Network and DirecTV Inc. are ramping up their local-HD offerings.

Dish launched local-HD channels in 11 cities Wednesday: Dallas; Houston; Miami; Phoenix; Portland, Ore.; San Diego, San Francisco and Sacramento, Calif.; San Antonio; and Seattle and Spokane, Wash.

EchoStar said Dish now offers local-HD services in 24 cities.

And DirecTV added local HDTV channels in Milwaukee, Phoenix, Salt Lake City and St. Louis Wednesday.

The nation’s largest direct-broadcast satellite provider is engaged in a nationwide expansion of HDTV programming -- one that will give it the ability to deliver more than 1,500 local HDTV channels and more than 150 national HDTV networks by 2007.

DirecTV now offers local HDTV broadcast channels in 24 cities, with plans to launch in an additional 26 cities later this year.

I don't know about a marathon, but there are re-running all of Season 2, episode 1 started last night. They're pairing it up with this past season of Top Model. When the Top Model episodes end (like 10 shows total), VM will get 2 episodes a night.

The problem is -- running a marathon now -- four months before season three starts -- just doesn't help much.

CW Stations need to run such marathons within a couple of weeks of the new season or viewers will forget and momentum will be lost.

Remember that what is necessary is to get new viewers (and lots of them!) interested in Veronica Mars. Just the same folks tuning in will not be anywhere near enough.

The problem is -- running a marathon now -- four months before season three starts -- just doesn't help much.

It would for me. I don't watch shows in mid-run but if they start from 1x01 over the Summer before the original airs I would watch next season.

With VM, every new viewer helps, VisionOn!

Did you start with episode one last night?

First, I must say that I finished watching the Grey's season finale last night. The writing is outstanding. The last 30 minutes of the season finale was somewhat of not good, but overall I liked he finale.

On Grey's moving to Thursdays: The only problem I see is that ABC has essentially left Grey's out on a island surrounded by new shows that no one knows about. Could pose a problem. No strong lead in as of yet. The DH (Desperate Housewives)/Grey's combo was the perfect marriage. DH and the Brothers and Sisters(?) should work well together.

On The Amazing Race moving to Sundays: CBS with their timeslot shifting of this show better hope that they haven't permenantly caused harm to the show by making it hard for people to find. I'll still record it, but everyone doesn't have a DVR, at least not yet.

Finally, Sunday nights will have a lot more compelling shows this coming fall. I don't think I have enough Tivos to record the shows that I watch. UPN doing comedy on Sunday nights, DH and B&S on ABC, NBC and Football and CBS with Amazing Race, Without a Trace and Cold Case. I don't watch Sunday night football so that is of a lesser concern to me, but Girlfriends, AR, DH and B&S, Without a Trace and Cold Case are shows that I currently watch or would be interested in watching if they conflict with each other time wise.

Oh yeah, big shoutout to you Fredfa. I said it last year and I'll say it again this year, you do an outstanding job keeping up with the news coming out of the Upfronts and I commend you for that. There's a lot of info out there and you seem to be able to bring us all of the various news pieces, webblogs and other musings.

It would for me. I don't watch shows in mid-run but if they start from 1x01 over the Summer before the original airs I would watch next season.

That's why I think they should go back to 1x01. Freda might be right and they can time it such that they finish around the start of the new season.

I wonder if there's any restriction on re-airing season 1 with the DVD set out.

Thanks for the kind words, Antonio. :)

Upfront Notebook
CBS' Fall Lineup

By Scott Collins Los Angeles Times Staff Writer in his Channel Island TV Industry blog

CBS' fall lineup, announced Wednesday morning in New York by network chief Leslie Moonves, follows. No major scheduling shockers, but a few items of note:

• The Sunday movie is dead, making CBS the last network to kill off its weekly made-for-TV movie franchise (other nets still air occasional "event" movies). CBS said for years that it would stick with original movies despite typically low ratings, but the network in recent years had increasing trouble competing with similar fare on cable and, especially, with ABC's "Desperate Housewives."

• Starting its fifth season, "Without a Trace" will move from 10 p.m. Thursdays to 10 p.m. Sunday, to help fill that vacated movie slot. ABC will have a female-skewing drama, "Brothers & Sisters," in that slot, presumably leaving plenty of viewers for both. However, "Trace" could have some problems with NBC's football matchups in the fall. "Cold Case" will move one hour later, to 9 p.m., in the unforgiving slot opposite "Housewives." Expect fans to follow, but this is clearly not a growth opportunity. "The Amazing Race" will continue its scheduling rambles, this time moving to 8 p.m. Sundays, after "60 Minutes."

• Writer-producer David Crane's comedy "The Class," perhaps CBS' most-anticipated new show, will get an 8:30 p.m. Monday berth between "How I Met Your Mother" and "Two and a Half Men." As a "hammock" strategy — putting a new show between two stronger ones to build awareness — this doesn't quite work. The "Men" lead-out will help, but "Mother" has been struggling this season. NBC is going to peel off a lot of casual viewers during the 8 p.m. hour with "Deal or No Deal," and ABC hits the female demos with "Wife Swap." All that's going to give CBS a battle in getting viewers to sample "Class." But if the show's as terrific as CBS says it is, people will eventually find it.

• The plum 10 p.m. Thursday slot after "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" goes to "Shark," a new legal drama starring James Woods. This is a time period most drama producers would kill for, so the show better deliver the goods. Obviously, the lead-in couldn't be better, and "Shark" will also face off against weakened competition from NBC's aging "ER." ABC, which has never had much luck on the night, has another female-skewing drama, "Six Degrees."

http://hollywoodhotline.typepad.com/watcher/

With VM, every new viewer helps, VisionOn!

Did you start with episode one last night?


Dammit! You're kidding I hope? I would have watched it but Tuesday is jammed with shows as it is and I didn't pay attention, especially since I only just found out it will come back next year.

Now I really need them to start over again with a bit of fanfare, with all the current finales out of the way so I have time to watch it.

Oh yeah, big shoutout to you Fredfa. I said it last year and I'll say it again this year, you do an outstanding job keeping up with the news coming out of the Upfronts and I commend you for that. There's a lot of info out there and you seem to be able to bring us all of the various news pieces, webblogs and other musings.

I'll second that. It's the first places I check for TV news. This thread is one of the best kept secrets on the internet.

<insert round of applause here>

Dammit! You're kidding I hope? I would have watched it but Tuesday is jammed with shows as it is and I didn't pay attention, especially since I only just found out it will come back next year.

Now I really need them to start over again with a bit of fanfare, with all the current finales out of the way so I have time to watch it.

The first episode will air again sometime - check your guide - within the next week. In my market it airs again Sunday night at midnight (00:00 Monday morning). Set your Tivo to find it. Or do a search on TitanTV.com.

Most UPN affilliates re-air the regularly scheduled showing again later in the week. The episode title is "Normal is the Watchword."

VisionOn: It is being repeated Sunday at 7 PM on Channel 28.

VisionOn: It is being repeated Sunday at 7 PM on Channel 28.

Perfect, thanks.

If you enjoy "Grey's Anatomy" and haven't found the blog posted each week by the writers, you are missing a fun read.

The link is at the bottom, as usual.

So here is the latest, posted today:

Grey’s Anatomy Notebook
“Grey’s Anatomy” Creator Shonda Rhimes Explains

(All About Monday’s finale – she wrote the final hour)

So Denny Duquette died at 7:42 Monday evening.

Actually, he died once on the East coast and once again on the West coast and I’m pretty sure he’s going to die many more times on many more continents pretty damned soon.

I cried. When Denny died, I cried. I cried when I wrote the script page where Denny dies. I cried when we had the read through and the cast found out that Denny dies. I cried when Mark Tinker filmed Denny dying. I cried when Ed Ornelas edited Denny’s death. I cried watching them mix the song playing during Denny’s death. I’m a freaking crybaby when it comes to Denny.

I choose to blame editor Ed Ornelas for Denny’s death. Like I had nothing to do with it. Like I was an innocent bystander in the whole thing. Like it wasn’t me wrote it. I’d sit behind him in the editing room and sob into a tissue while saying kindly, supportive things to the back of Ed’s head. Things like “Denny Murderer! Dog Killer!!! DENNY-MURDERING-DOG-KILLER!!!”

I didn’t kill Denny. Ed did.

Right.

Look, I honestly have nothing to say for myself. No words in my own defense. Except I told you guys that the characters have to do what the characters have to do. I mean, I love Denny. Really love him. He was my “you jump, I jump” guy. He was my imaginary future husband. He was the guy I was dating in my head. HE WAS ALL I HAD. And now he’s dead. God, I feel so Izzie in this moment.

But the point is, Denny was always going to die. His character was created to die. I knew it. Jeffrey Dean Morgan knew it. And as much as I wanted Denny NOT to die when the time came, as much Jeffrey Dean Morgan wanted to NOT die when the time came, as much as Channing Dungey (our super cool studio executive ) begged me to not to hurt her Denny…

…it was his time. He had a stroke. He died. I had nothing to do with it. It was his time.

People die. Suddenly. Without warning. When you least expect it. People die. And it’s horrible and painful and utterly shocking but…it happens. And I wanted to present that on the show.

The good thing is – and you’re all yelling “GOOD THING? GOOD THING?!!!” – but, yes, there is a good thing in all of this. And that good thing is what Camille says to Richard. “I’ve been loved. I’ve been loved. That’s something everyone should feel once in their life.” Denny has been loved. And he dies knowing he was loved. And knowing that he loved back.

I named this episode “Losing My Religion” because, to me, that is what happens to each intern in this episode. Each intern lets go of the things they’ve held onto all season. George lets go of loving Meredith. Cristina lets go of her well-checked emotions. Izzie is forced to let go of her idealism. And that leads to her letting go of medicine. Alex lets go of his rage against Izzie. And Meredith…well, Meredith just lets go.

I don’t want to talk too much about the Mer/Der of it all because we are clearly hanging on a cliff here and anything I say may tell you what’s on the other side. And you know I hate spoilers. But I do feel like we’ve tried to make their relationship complex. Derek’s flawed and sometime you hate him. Meredith’s flawed and sometimes you hate her. And you can’t help but root for Addison to be happy. And you like Finn cause he births ponies and he has plans. And clearly poor Doc was a metaphor for the Mer/Der relationship and when Doc’s put down, it feels like a horrible, painful but necessary ending. But still…when Derek grabs Meredith and kisses her…it’s such a relief. You want them to figure this thing out.

I do want to talk about the costumes (done beautifully by Mimi the costume goddess). Everyone dresses up for the prom. But then we lose Denny. And here’s something you maybe don’t notice until all our interns are gathered in the room with Izzie who lies on the bed with Denny’s body: the prom clothes are actually mourning clothes. Funeral clothes. Suddenly, you see that Meredith and George and Cristina and Callie and Alex are all dressed, not for a prom, but for a funeral. Everyone in dark colors, everyone dressed somberly. As if they were in mourning. Only Izzie is in happy pink. Only Izzie looks like she didn’t know this was coming. In the last scene, Mark Tinker shot this gorgeous shot of Izzie walking down the stairs, Alex and George behind her. I love that shot. Izzie has this fallen queen thing going on that I just adore.

Speaking of the prom…dudes, I so wanted this prom. I’ve wanted this prom since the beginning of the season. We’d been planning for it and obsessing about it. Because, first of all, I like seeing men in suits. Second, these interns and their lives remind me so much of high school in all the best ways. I hope you’ve noticed that. I hope you got the Breakfast Club of it all when they give their speeches to the Chief. Cause I’m an 80’s girl and I needed my prom.

Burktina: this episode is one of my favorites for both Burke and Cristina. If you look at where they began at the beginning of Season Two and how far they’ve come…. You just hate Cristina. You hate her when she walks away from Burke after seeing that he know has a hand tremor. And then you see her give that speech to the Chief (which by the way, Sandra Oh did brilliantly and perfectly EVERY SINGLE TAKE) and you see the struggle. Her struggle to suppress all of her humanity in pursuit of perfection. And in my mind, what we realize is that she is not cold. She is terrified. Scared that if she lets her emotions out, they will overtake her and she will be hurt. And you can’t hate her. Because it’s so incredibly human and understandable. There’s that moment when Burke tells Cristina that he won’t bear a grudge and it’s so sad because he means it. He doesn’t believe she has it in her to stay by his side. And then Denny dies and Cristina watches Izzie grieving and realizes that she has no other option but to go to Burke and cover his hand with her own. Because you can lose someone if you’re not careful.

There’s more to say but I know y’all are itching for me to post this blog. So I’ll do another one later in the week. Because we still have to talk about the Chief and about Burke’s tremors and George and Callie’s thing and so much more…

One last thing: Thank you so much for watching the show. I’ve been in New York for the network upfronts and it’s been amazing to hear from fans how much they enjoy the show. It means a lot to me and all of us who work on Grey’s. You may have heard we are moving to Thursday night. I’m thrilled because Thursday is a big day for TV and I love a challenge and I’ve got my fingers and toes crossed that you’ll follow us to our new night.

http://www.greyswriters.com/

Upfront Notebook
Virginia Heffernan at the Television Upfronts

By Virginia Heffernan The New York Times TV Critic in the Times upfront blog

CBS | 05.17 5:16 P.M.
Tough Guys

Jimmy Woods is up pushing "Shark," and telling his life's centerpiece story: that he turned down a scholarship to MIT to be an actor. But he adds this time that he went to acting school with Les Moonves, and that Moonves "still can't act." Why are these guys all so hard on each other? I like the gentler bobos-in-paradise guys over at ABC — the ones who pride themselves on crying at "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition."

In short, ABC is vital and growing, NBC is lost, and CBS is still morbidly powerful.

Onto Fox and the CW tomorrow.

CBS | 05.17 5:11 P.M.
Make It Happen

It's Mariah! We'd been told that the big musical act this year would be "better than Aretha" (who played last year's upfront) and "not as good as the Who" (who played the year before). But Mariah's the best yet — golden, slim, in great voice.

Mariah, who's singing "We Belong Together" in the same kittenish way that Katie did her spiel, is a perfect match for CBS. The pop star and the network are both easy to make fun of, and not cool, but, man, do they make money. And they don't quit.

CBS | 05.17 5:03 P.M.
Web Work

For digital, CBS has two clear ideas: a Mark Burnett online reality show that draws clues from CBS's shows and ads, demanding that both be watched closely. It's called "Gold Rush."

Second, "Jericho" — which might lend itself best to online cultification — is going to have a "d" plotline, which will be broadcast only on the web. This might or might not work, but at least it's a clear concept.

CBS | 05.17 5:00 P.M.
Strong Stuff

When CBS plays to its strengths, or its strength — meaning, yup, crime — their sangfroid pays off. "Smith," a heist drama with Ray Liotta and Amy Smart, looks strong. "Jericho," an eerie small-town show set in Kansas, also seems intriguing. At aloof CBS, the highest praise a new show gets is: "chilling."

CBS | 05.17 4:55 P.M.
Not Funny

I don't know what to say about CBS comedies, since "Two and a Half Men" sets the standard at the network. Nina Tassler, the president of CBS Entertainment, jokes about Charlie Sheen's tabloid covers, but come on. His reputation for abject dissipation has got to cut into his appeal on a family show a LITTLE.

"The Class" looks OK, not funny. "The New Adventures of Old Christine" has been half-good. But Julia Louis-Dreyfus appears here, and even SHE seems venal in the CBS way. Impossible — they sucked the cuteness out of Katie AND Elaine. That evil eye can do anything.

CBS | 05.17 4:48 P.M.
Crime Time

"How do you get to Carnegie Hall?" Katie Cou[/FONT][/COLOR]ric asked earlier. "Negotiate, negotiate, negotiate."

Well, that was a soulful greeting. What is it about CBS that turns its people into heartless, clinical operators?

CBS just played a fake brand extension: Mandy Patinkin singing standards with "Criminal Minds" lyrics, like "blood-drops keep falling on my head." People winced. It's depressing to remember that a TV lineup with a lot of "crime" is also a lineup with a lot of murders.

Do jokes about strangling and body bags really play with seniors? Or anyone but cold-blooded TV executives?

CBS | 05.17 4:42 P.M.
Sail On

Please bring out Katie. We're dying to see a woman out here. "We're all ready and pumped," she says, to work together and create news and etc. With CBS.

"A ship is safe in the harbor, but that's not what ships are for," she tells us, explaining her decision to leave NBC. Whoa — a quick, slightly coquettish speech, which she gave while shifting her weight like a teenager.

CBS | 05.17 4:39 P.M.
Ready for Some Football

Someone from the sports division just predicted the Giants and the Colts in the Super Bowl this year. Two brothers, one named Eli, come to the stage. Oh, I see: one plays for the Colts and one for the Giants. And they were already scheduled to come on stage, so the prediction probably doesn't mean much. So much for breaking sports news.

Moonves says, when the Manning (aha!) brothers exit: "Just what we need. More tall gentiles."

CBS | 05.17 4:13 P.M.
Safe at Home

It's about safety and trust, and who cares about being cool — that's the Moonves line.

Compare this to warmth and beefcake at ABC, and grim striving at NBC. No one cares about being cool anymore, that's the truth. Leave that sucker's game to the CW.

CBS | 05.17 3:48 P.M.
That's Entertainment!

Oh whoops, the Jersey Boys are hugely famous, nominated for a billion Tonys for something . . . on Broadway. . .

I've got to go to see one play one day.

Les Moonves showed a still, not (blessedly) a clip, of himself and "CBS Evening News" Bob Schieffer dressed as the "Brokeback Mountain" men. Oog.

CBS | 05.17 3:40 P.M.
Combo Platter

Jeez, they're not kidding. Ed Sullivan just introduced — via an old clip — an all-boy coverband in matching glittery suits. A real, unknown (to me) combo emerges. Four-part harmony, and a MEDLEY, just like grandpa used to listen to. This is better than CBS trying to be cool, but this cartoon of squareness might be going too far.

CBS | 05.17 3:34 P.M.
Memories....

The CBS eye logo was introduced in 1951, I learned from the monotonous quiz on the screen. 1962. 1951. These years are apparently the mid-90s — the good years — for the CBS demo.

The network "that makes you think and feel and remember." Remember! Forget Vh1 and loving the 80s, THIS is the nostalgia network, and it's embracing its AARP side.

CBS | 05.17 3:23 P.M.
'MASH' Note

Carnegie Hall. A version of Screen Scramblers is playing on the big screen, with those unfailingly creepy CBS eyes projected all around it. Quiz questions come up, like: When did the upfronts start? "1962," says the handsome, white-haired executive next to me. "Before I got into the business." His first year, he says, was the one where CBS introduced "MASH." "Did you buy time on it?" I ask him. "I don't remember," he says. "But I remember I didn't think "MASH" the movie could work on television."

"The upfronts are an amusing anachronism," he says, looking amused. He explains what he's doing here this year — overseeing ad buyers, maybe? — but I don't really understand it. Come to think of it, are the people around me — the brush-cut and gel-headed men and the flat-haired women with big engagement rings — actual deciders? I suspect they're mostly here for the after-parties and a glimpse of Jeff Probst. Good for them.

CBS | 05.17 9:21 A.M.
On With the Shows

This is an extremely geeky crowd. Like truly wonk questions about affiliates and their time zones and, heh heh, "Threshold" and "Love Monkey."

But Les is trying to throw off the geekiness by minimizing the digital stuff, the new platforms. Everyone has learned from Jeff Zucker's stultifying tech presentation at NBC: Don't talk about digital. Stick to the shows, characters, stars. I bet at the CBS upfront later today it'll be presented as even more of a footnote than it was yesterday at ABC.

Breakfast over. We geeks have had our eggs and doughnuts and Moonves time. And Ben-Gurion would have loved "The Unit"!

That's got to count as breaking news to someone.

CBS | 05.17 9:11 A.M.
A New Mood, a New Les

Les Moonves is not a warrior anymore. "I had to be a counterpuncher," he says, when the network was in last place. "The troops" were out there, fighting the other schedules. "Now it's more of a game," he says.

"This is a kinder, gentler Les Moonves," he says. "I love everybody! I love everybody!"

CBS | 05.17 9:06 A.M.
The Answer

David Ben Gurion's favorite show on CBS would have been "The Unit"!

"Remember," Les tells me. "He was a warrior."

CBS | 05.17 9:04 A.M.
The Last Picture Show

Movies of the week are over!

CBS, the last holdout for Sunday original movies, has dropped them.

It was the genre, says Moonves. And they're keeping the Hallmark Hall of Fame movies. Great. Maybe "Riding the Bus With My Sister" can get a sequel?

CBS | 05.17 8:57 A.M.
Hit and Run

Moonves, who just knocked the red states by accident (confusing Utah and Kansas and then shrugging the whole thing off saying "I'm a New York guy"), refers to the lead of "Shark" as "Jimmy Woods," and he's forever emphasizing how thick he is with the jocky, prizefighter men of America.

"You score more runs with doubles than with homeruns," Moonves says, excusing the low buzz of what is still the Depends undergarments network.

CBS | 05.17 8:46 A.M.
Top O' the Morn

Black Rock. CBS press breakfast. Leslie Moonves, calling himself a "hotdog," admits that as president and CEO he should no longer be doing this Ross-Perot-unveil-the-colored-charts shtick anymore. But he clearly can't resist. "This is not your old CBS," Moonves says, surprisingly, since he's always crowed about the old CBS. What he means is that the network is now offering "action/adventure," including the heist drama "Smith." He also plugs CBS's Tuesday night - with "NCIS" and "The Unit" - as "the most patriotic night on television."

I'm dying to ask him what show on the CBS schedule would have been the favorite of his great uncle, David Ben-Gurion.

http://www.nytimes.com/ref/arts/television/tv-upfronts.html

I've never seen an upfront presentation leaked to the internet.

But we can always hope for a first!

Check it out here (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVGLTfgUBtk)

You have to wait a couple of minutes for the dream segment to start.

Check it out here (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVGLTfgUBtk)

You have to wait a couple of minutes for the dream segment to start.THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! As predicted, my wife loved it!

Xesdeeni

Hilarious clip.

Now that was worth waiting for.
Thanks so much, FSugino!

Upfront Notebook
Couric helps out CBS

The network's incoming anchor breaks NBC's no-publicity deal.
By Matea Gold Los Angeles Times Staff Writer May 18, 2006

NEW YORK — The network upfronts are known for their stunts and surprises, and CBS managed to pull off one particularly unexpected appearance Wednesday during its presentation at Carnegie Hall.

About half an hour into the show, soon-to-be CBS News anchor Katie Couric came out to greet the crowd of advertisers, two weeks before her 15-year run at NBC's "Today" concludes.

Couric was introduced by CBS Corp. President Leslie Moonves and came out on stage to applause and some whistles. In brief remarks, Couric said she was "thrilled to be joining a remarkable team of journalists," adding that "when it comes to intelligence, commitment and integrity, they are top-notch."

She thanked outgoing anchor Bob Schieffer for his support and said that she hoped to "develop a broadcast that is relevant, accessible, compelling and human." After a gratifying career at NBC, Couric added that she was "so honored CBS is giving me the opportunity to give this my best shot."

While some in the audience may not have been surprised to see CBS trotting out its arguably biggest new star of next season, Couric wasn't originally going to make an appearance at the upfront out of deference to her current employer.

Earlier in the year, when it was clear the longtime "Today" co-anchor was itching for a new challenge, NBC officials agreed to let her begin negotiations early with CBS as long as she did not do publicity for her new job until after her contract at NBC ends on May 31.

Extracting that agreement proved to be a particularly deft move by NBC. In April, Couric announced on "Today" that she was leaving the show to become the next anchor of the "CBS Evening News" — her only public statement so far about the move.

NBC followed her announcement with its own the next day when officials broke the news that Meredith Vieira of ABC's "The View" would be replacing Couric at "Today." (ABC didn't seem to mind letting Vieira make an appearance at NBC headquarters that day to discuss her new role, or being spotlighted at NBC's upfront earlier this week.)

Meanwhile, CBS officials were privately irked that they weren't going to get to show off Couric at the network's presentation, especially since she's just two weeks away from becoming a CBS employee.

Moonves joked with reporters Wednesday morning that he offered to let Julie Chen, "The Early Show" co-anchor — and Moonves' wife — attend the NBC upfront in exchange, "but they rejected that."

The situation created a dilemma for Couric, who, grateful for NBC's graciousness about her decision to move on, has sought to balance the competing interests of her current and future employers. Ultimately, she concluded she should be at the CBS upfront and told NBC officials in a note earlier this week.

"Katie thought it would be odd to not make a brief appearance," said her spokesman, Matthew Hiltzik. "NBC was informed of her intentions, and she did not receive any objection."

NBC officials declined to comment, but indicated that the move raised some eyebrows.

"The feeling on this end was a little surprise that she would go ahead and do it," said one executive who did not want to be named to avoid exacerbating the matter. "But no one is going to lose sleep over it."

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/tv/la-wk-couric18may18,1,2330915.story?coll=la-entnews-tv

Upfront Notebook
Inherited shows fill CW lineup

From Los Angeles Times staff reports May 18, 2006

With an eye on its targeted 18- to 34-year-old audience, the CW is bringing back a full slate of UPN and WB shows for its September launch as well as ordering two new dramas and a comedy spinoff series.

The network will fill its Monday lineup with a block of African American comedies, with Chris Rock's "Everybody Hates Chris" moving from its Thursday spot to start the night off at 8 p.m. "All About Us" and "Girlfriends" will keep their 8:30 and 9 p.m. slots, to be followed by the "Girlfriends" spinoff "The Game."

Also returning will be "America's Next Top Model," "Beauty and the Geek," "Gilmore Girls," "WWE: Smackdown!" "Smallville," "One Tree Hill," "7th Heaven," "Veronica Mars" and "Supernatural."

The network's two new dramas will be "Runaway," about a family that goes on the lam after its patriarch is convicted of murder, and "Palm Springs," a prime-time soap opera with Sharon Lawrence.

Meanwhile, Fox today will be picking up four new dramas and three comedies:

"Primary" — a drama about two hostage negotiators, a man and a woman, who have the added tension of being attracted to each other.

"Vanished" — a broad political conspiracy surrounds the mysterious disappearance of a senator's wife.

"American Crime" — a drama starring Victor Garber that follows attorneys who take high-profile cases.

"The Wedding Album" — an anthology series starring Bruno Campos about a wedding photographer and the woman he works with.

"Happy Hour" — a buddy comedy about two noncomplementary men in Chicago. One's been damaged by love, the other's been blinded by it.

"Til Death" — Joely Fisher comedy about two couples at different stages of their marriages.

"The Winner" — a successful man in his 40s looks back at his life as a neurotic 32-year-old who still lived with his parents.

Leaving the Fox lineup will be "Killer Instinct," "Malcolm in the Middle," "Reunion" and "That '70s Show."

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/tv/la-wk-preview18may18,1,2895397.story?coll=la-entnews-tv

Upfront Notebook
Fox Schedule Sticks With Tried and True Successes

By Bill Carter The New York Times May 18, 2006

With another edition of "American Idol" in the works for next season, the Fox network doesn't need much else to remain a powerhouse in the ratings. Still, Fox has ordered four new dramas and three new comedies to augment its prime-time schedule next season.

Fox has always relied less heavily on stars than other networks, and next season will be no exception, though Fox is bringing on shows with some familiar names, including Brad Garrett, Victor Garber and Rob Corddry of "The Daily Show."

Mr. Garrett will star in what is by far the most talked-about new entry going into Fox's presentation to advertisers today in Manhattan. Mr. Garrett, who played Robert for the entire run of the hit CBS comedy "Everybody Loves Raymond" (and was for a time expected to continue as that character in a sequel on that network), will play half of a couple whose long, fractious marriage stands in stark contrast to the starry-eyed newlyweds next door. The new comedy is called " 'Til Death," and Joely Fisher (most recently in "Desperate Housewives") plays Mr. Garrett's wife.

As with the other networks, Fox is not making an extensive commitment to comedy though it has ordered two other sitcoms. One is called "The Winner," which stars Mr. Corddry as a man hitting his 40's who looks back fondly on the year 1994, when life seemed more exciting. The show was written by Seth MacFarlane, who created the hit "Family Guy" for Fox.

The other new comedy will be "Happy Hour," about two roommates in Chicago, in which one tries to bring the other out of his depression after a relationship goes bad.

No new network schedule would be complete without a serialized thriller, and Fox has one called "Vanished." It traces, throughout the season, the mysterious disappearance of the young wife of a United States senator. The usual conspiracies abound. Gale Harold of "Queer as Folk" is one of the stars.

Weddings seems to be a recurring theme on the new network lineups, and Fox has a drama, "The Wedding Album," about a wedding planner who directs a high-profile New York wedding in each episode aided by a young woman, the photographer.

"Primary" is another new Fox drama about a pair of F.B.I. hostage negotiators who become linked romantically and are allowed to keep working as a team because they are so good at their jobs. Ron Livingston is one of the stars.

Like the other networks, Fox keeps trying to find police procedurals, and it will bring in one from the most successful producers in that genre, Jerry Bruckheimer. His new show, "American Crime," focuses more on the legal system and a dream team of defense lawyers, headed by Victor Garber.

CW's First Schedule

The new CW network unveils its first schedule tomorrow, and it will be heavily populated by holdover shows from the WB and UPN networks.

The CW will add just one new drama in the fall, while also ordering one for the midseason. The network is also adding just one new comedy.

The new drama is "Runaway," yet another serialized thriller and yet another spin on "The Fugitive." This time an entire family goes on the run after the father is falsely accused of murder, and, yes, the usual conspiracies will abound. Donnie Wahlberg, who was in the "Saw" movies and the NBC series "Boomtown," is the star.

The new comedy is "The Game," and it is a spinoff the UPN comedy "Girlfriends." The show follows the lives of a group of women involved with professional football players.

The CW is also ordering a show called "Hidden Palms" from Kevin Williamson, the creator of the series "Dawson's Creek." It is a soap opera about a troubled teen-ager who moves to Palm Springs. The cast includes two alumna from "NYPD Blue," Gail O'Grady and Sharon Lawrence.

The CW will also bring back its highest-rated incumbent series, "7th Heaven," which was said to have concluded on Monday. "One Tree Hill" from the WB also made the cut, as did "Veronica Mars" from UPN. "Everwood" from the WB did not.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/18/arts/television/18fox.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&pagewanted=print

Upfront Notebook
CBS: "Out of Practice" fans, you're out of luck

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

Curious. Nobody really rallies to save CBS series. In fact, I can't recall the last time I received any notice of any "Save Our Show" campaigns focused on the network's series.

I guess that's a positive sign -- most of what you see on CBS is working, and the stuff that isn't is so clearly not worth saving that it disappears with little notice.

The exception, I suppose, is "Out of Practice," whose fans e-mailed me regularly after the series disappeared from the air in January, and then later, when it was weighted down by the horrific "Courting Alex" and left to sink in a poisonous Wednesday night timeslot.

To those people I send my sympathies, and some advice: Next time you fall in love with a show, tell the network about it. Not me! I can't do diddly to save your series. Moreover, get people to watch it. That's what really counts.

Joining "OOP" (unfortunate acronym, huh?) in the refuse bin are "Alex," "Love Monkey," "Threshold," "Still Standing" and "Yes, Dear."

http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/print.asp?entryID=103561

Upfront Notebook
TV’s Promiscuous Bitches

The creator of “Grey’s Anatomy” on women, sex and her hit show
By Nikki Finke LA Weekly

The creator of Grey’s Anatomy on women, sex and her hit show Up-front week is when the networks unveil their fall TV schedules to advertisers at fancy New York City venues, then attempt to mask the stink of failure at even more lavish parties in even fancier venues. In other words, it’s all a big con. The alphabets pretend that they still have an audience, and advertisers feign that they don’t have other media options. Meanwhile, a new poll finds that almost 80 percent of 16- to 18-year-olds can’t name the big-four broadcasters and prefer the Web to TV anyway.

The biggest news from this week’s up-front (if you don’t count the inexplicable trend of casting geriatric actors like John Lithgow and James Woods in picked-up, picked-over pilots) is ABC’s big gamble: yanking Grey’s Anatomy out of its Desperate Housewives–protected Sunday-night time slot and moving it to Thursday nights at 9 p.m. That means CBS’s CSI juggernaut and NBC’s “Mustn’t See” comedy block will do battle on what may soon be regarded as the bloodiest night of TV week. But to understand how truly screwed up the network development process is, chew on this: Megahit Grey’s Anatomy almost didn’t make it on air. Creator–executive producer–head writer Shonda Rhimes told me in a recent interview that she and parent company Disney and Disney’s Touchstone TV arm “had some hard times. I’m not even going to pretend that we didn’t. There was a while when we didn’t have a time slot. There was a while when we didn’t know when we were going to air. We were making shows in a void because we were a midseason replacement.”

The main sticking point to putting G.A. on the schedule was Rhimes’ promiscuous bitches. Because if Desperate Housewives is a TV phenomenon, then Grey’s Anatomy is a TV freak of nature due to its woman characters. They’re bad, bad female brainiac surgeons who do bad, bad things to the people around them, especially to men who thrill at the way these women’s wardrobe malfunctions steam up hospital supply closets — the FCC’s decency hang-ups be damned.

“In the beginning, even before we made the pilot, some executive would write this sentence in the script every once in a while: ‘Can the women be nicer?’ Those people aren’t at the network now,” recalls Rhimes, a Chicago native and single mom in her early 30s who graduated from USC film school. “My answer was always, ‘No, that’s who they are.’”

L.A. WEEKLY:What do you think is the show’s most controversial opinion or attitude?

SHONDA RHIMES: It’s interesting to write a show where our lead character unapologetically has sex however and whenever and with whomever she wants it. And it’s been interesting to have a lead character whose method of dealing with having a bad day is to go into a bar, get drunk, pick up a gorgeous guy, bring him home and then throw him out in the morning. That feels like women I know. It feels like the world that we live in. And yet I’m constantly being asked the question, “Why is she so promiscuous?” We started our pilot out that way, and I remember being asked, “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.

Do you worry when you’re writing sex scenes about the FCC’s decency crackdown?

No. I was a huge fan of Sex and the City and Six Feet Under. But we are on network television. There are standards and practices. What’s fun is finding a way to tell the same story that we want to tell without being indecent, and yet still being indecent. It forces you to be more creative.

Why is it so important that women on TV be “nice”?

I think there’s a fear of not-nice women. I think our characters are always very nice and they’re all caring. But they’re also selfish and they’re also competitive and they also have bad days and they also do bad things and they’re also all flawed. What I like about that is it gives you some place to go. It’s very hard to deal with somebody who’s nothing but nice.

Would the world be a better place if women didn’t have this pressure to be nice?

Being liked and being nice and being non-threatening seem to be the three most important qualities for women. If we just got over it and let the men be threatened and see that we weren’t nice and experience that we weren’t necessarily all likable, I don’t think we would be worried about a woman’s place in the world the way we are.

You’re raising a girl. What kind of values or attitudes do you want to instill in her about being a woman?

To grow up fearless. No, I think it’s to grow up unapologetic. Like there’s no reason to apologize for being a woman in this world — for either its best parts or its worst parts. You don’t apologize for loving shoes, you don’t apologize for crying when you’re mad, you don’t apologize for being tough, you don’t apologize for beating someone out in a competition. Just being unapologetic.

Are you the first African-American woman to run a prime-time network series?

We think so, but we don’t know. I’m pretty sure about this: We’re the only network drama that has a writing staff that is more than 50 percent women.

How do men write women?

I do think you watch TV and you feel like the women are written as a man would like them to be, as opposed to how they are. That sometimes there can be a lack of complexity: Either you’re a saint or you’re a whore, either you’re good or you’re bad, as opposed to getting to be extremely competitive and extremely selfish, but also extraordinarily kind. That’s what I don’t see very often with a lot of woman characters. You’re either just the love interest that somebody’s pining for, or you’re the villain who’s making someone’s life a living hell. But honestly, on our show the men are written as how I’d like them to be as opposed to how they are, and I’m perfectly happy with that.

What were you looking for when you chose the writers?

I wanted to read their original writing samples as opposed to their spec writing samples. And then, really, it was about hiring people who I liked. You want people who 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.

You’ve talked before about the mantra in the writers’ room being no characters who do personal confessions.

I say “no hugging, no crying, no secret pain.” What’s funny now is, literally, we have “approved” crying. People come and say, “I really need this character to cry. Is it okay?”

What’s the difference between your show and ER?

Our show is retro the way it works. Our show is how our doctors feel about the patients. And, frankly, not even about the patients, but how the doctors feel about their own things while stuff is happening to the patients. I always say this is not a medical show. This is a relationship show with some surgeries thrown in for good fun.

You never had to live in your car. You had success almost from the start, didn’t you?

It always sounds easier than it was, probably. No, I would probably be the first to admit that I did not struggle. I don’t know why that is. Part of it is that I am extremely naive. Which means, in a weird way, that I just blindly pushed forward despite any obstacles that were put in my way. I just thought, “What’s the worst that can happen?” I believe things generally tend to work out. If you are looking for problems, they generally appear. Whereas if you’re not looking for them, you might trip over them and keep on going.

Do you have an example of you being über-naive?

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 like that. I went, “Really? We can fire them?” It seemed shocking to me.

http://www.laweekly.com/general/deadline-hollywood/tvs-promiscuous-bitches/13521/

Upfront Notebook
CBS plans few changes for fall lineup

By Charlie McCollum San Jose Mercury News Wed, May. 17, 2006

If you liked what you saw on CBS this past season, you're going to like what you'll see when the network launches its ``new'' schedule come September.

The network announced Wednesday that it has renewed a whopping 17 current series for next season with an 18th -- ``King of Queens'' returning for its ninth and final year in January. That is believed to be a record in TV world for keeping a program lineup intact.

As a result, CBS will add just four new shows and the biggest news coming out of its schedule announcement was a revamped Sunday lineup featuring its Thursday hit, ``Without A Trace,'' and the Emmy-winning ``The Amazing Race'' moving to that night.

To create space for the ``Trace'' and ``Race,'' it ended its 20-year-old ``CBS Sunday Night Movie'' franchise, eliminating the last remaining weekly vehicle for original TV films and miniseries on network television. With ABC and NBC already all but out of the made-for-TV movie game, the end of ``CBS Sunday Night Movie'' means the networks have now officially ceded that programming genre to such cable channels as HBO, TNT, Sci Fi and Hallmark.

A quick breakdown of what CBS will have for the fall, by day:

Sunday

In an effort to battle the ABC lineup anchored by ``Desperate Housewives'' and NBC's new ``Sunday Night Football,'' CBS brings in ``Race'' at 8 p.m. following the long-running and still-popular ``60 Minutes.'' The reality show stumbled this past season creatively and in the ratings but still has a loyal audience.

``Cold Case,'' which may be the most-watched and best-made show on TV that gets almost no publicity, moves to 9 p.m., pairing with ``Trace'' which has been averaging 18.7 million viewers per week this season.

Monday

CBS executives must have been breathing a sigh of relief when ABC decided to move Sunday ratings juggernaut ``Grey's Anatomy'' to Thursday, rather than Monday as originally expected. The network's Monday comedy lineup has had a downturn in viewership since the end of ``Everybody Loves Raymond'' and might have taken a real hit from ``Grey's.''

Come the fall, ``How I Met Your Mother'' will move to the 8 p.m. slot while ``Two And A Half Men'' and ``The New Adventures of Old Christine'' will remain at 9 and 9:30. (``CSI: Miami'' will continue to hold down the 10 p.m. hour.)

The one newcomer -- ``The Class'' from David Crane of ``Friends'' -- was considered such a sure thing that CBS outbid NBC and ABC for it and guaranteed it a slot based solely on one script. Starring Jason Ritter (``Joan of Arcadia'') and Lizzy Caplan (``Related''), the comedy focuses on a group of 20-somethings who reunite after being best friends way back in the third grade.

Tuesday

Having done well in the ratings this past season even against ``American Idol,'' the network's two military dramas -- ``NCIS'' and ``The Unit'' -- will stay together starting at 8 p.m.

At 10 p.m., CBS adds ``Smith,'' a serialized drama from John Wells (``The West Wing,'' ``ER'') with an A-list cast headed by Ray Liotta (``Goodfellas''), Virginia Madsen (``Sideways''), Simon Baker (``The Guardian''), Jonny Lee Miller (``Transpotting'') and Amy Smart (``Felicity''). Liotta plays a sophisticated thief trying to pull off a few last lucrative jobs before retiring with his wife (Madsen).

Wednesday

Having bombed out with one sci fi drama, ``Threshold,'' last year, CBS tries to get it right this time with the new ``Jericho,'' a show about the residents of a small Kansas town who are the only survivors of a nuclear holocaust. Created by Jon Turteltaub (``National Treasure''), the series stars Skeet Ulrich (``Scream''), veteran TV actor Gerald McRaney and Ashley Scott (one of the short-lived ``Birds of Prey'').

``Jericho'' slides into the lineup ahead of ``Criminal Minds'' -- one of last season's surprise hits -- at 9 p.m. and ``CSI: NY'' at 10.

Thursday

CBS is finally going to get some competition on Thursdays as ABC brings in ``Grey's Anatomy'' and NBC debuts its most-talked-about new show, ``Studio 60 On the Sunset Strip.''

The theory on the part of the other networks is that while ``Survivor'' (at 8 p.m.) and ``CSI: Crime Scene Investigation'' (at 9) are still big hits -- in the case of ``CSI,'' a very big hit -- they are starting to show signs of age with eroding viewership. Well, it's only a theory and CBS certainly begs to differ.

Replacing ``Trace'' at 10 p.m. is what CBS executives think is their strongest new show: ``Shark,'' a legal drama starring Oscar nominee James Woods and Jeri Ryan (``Boston Public,'' ``The O.C.'') and produced by Brian Grazer (``A Beautiful Mind'') among others. Spike Lee directed the pilot for this show about a ruthless defense attorney (Woods) who has an epiphany and joins the prosecutor's office.

Friday and Saturday

The lineup of ``Ghost Whisperer,'' ``Close to Home'' and ``Numbers'' returns for a second season after scoring decent viewership on Fridays last year.

As for Saturday, it's the same old, same old with repeats of ``CSI'' and ``Without A Trace'' and ``48 Hours Mystery'' at 10 p.m. as the only original programming.

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/entertainment/television/14601588.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp

Upfront Notebook
Fox won't mess with success

Net upfront about its primetime stability
By Josef Adalian Variety.com

Poised to win its second consecutive ratings title, Fox today will unveil a fall schedule that stresses stability over sizzle.

Net plans to introduce four hours of new programming -- three dramas and two sitcoms -- on its 15-hour sked. Frosh fare featuring stars such as Brad Garrett and Victor Garber will be spread over four nights, with Fox keeping at least one hour of returning programming on every night of the week.

Only uncertainty is whether Fox plans to move "American Idol" from its current Tuesday-Wednesday air pattern to a Wednesday-Thursday sked when the show returns for a sixth season in January. While there's been no buzz about such a move, it's always an option in Fox's arsenal.

Other Fox sked moves are easier to read given the net's already confirmed pickups and the fact that it heads into the 2006-07 season a relative bastion of stability and strength. Having proven they can launch new dramas in the fall, Fox Entertainment prexy Peter Liguori and his team seem to have finally broken the fall baseball playoffs curse that has plagued the net for years.

Fox's biggest play is on Thursdays, where it seems ready to go after the traditional comedy audience NBC is abandoning.

Net is expected to pair Garrett starrer " 'Til Death" at 8 p.m. with ensemble laffer "Happy Hour" at 8:30. Both shows are traditional four-camera laffers with potentially broad appeal, in contrast to the single-camera comedies NBC and ABC are programming on the night.

Look for "The OC," minus series star Mischa Barton, to return at 9 p.m.

Elsewhere, industry observers predict Fox will keep its three fall drama tentpoles where they are.

"Prison Break" will likely return in August or early September on Monday nights, paired with new missing persons drama "Vanished." Only question outstanding is whether "Break" stays at 8 or airs in the 9 p.m. slot it occupied in the fall.

On Tuesdays, white-hot medical hour "House" should stay planted at 9 p.m., with crisis negotiation drama "Standoff" (formerly known as "Primary") airing at 8.

"Bones" returns for its second season on Wednesdays, probably at 8 p.m. It'll likely be followed at 9 by the Jerry Bruckheimer-produced Garber starrer "Justice." Latter skein had been known as "American Crime," but that title would have given Fox -- home of "American Idol" and "American Dad" -- a bit too much patriotism.

This year is the second Bruckheimer has landed a show at a net with the working title "American Crime." CBS' "Close to Home" was developed with that title last year.

On Fridays, look for some combo of Fox reality skeins such as "Nanny 911" and "Trading Spouses" in the fall -- or perhaps the net's new Endemol gameshow "Show Me the Money." Retooled dramedy "Wedding Album" could land on the night sometime during the season.

"Cops" and "America's Most Wanted" will stay anchored on Saturdays.

With other networks making major changes on Sunday, it seems logical Fox will play a pat hand. Football and various animated repeats will fill 7-8 p.m. in the fall, with "King of the Hill" returning in January post-football.

"The Simpsons" will begin its march toward its 400th episode by remaining Sundays at 8, with "American Dad" expected to get a new timeslot at 8:30. "Family Guy" is likely to stay at 9, followed by "The War at Home" at a new time.

Not returning next fall: "The Bernie Mac Show," "That '70s Show," "Malcolm in the Middle," "Arrested Development," "Kitchen Confidential," "Free Ride," "Reunion," "Killer Instinct," "Stacked" and "Head Cases."

Fox declined to comment on its plans in advance of today's press conference unveiling its schedule. As always, it's possible the net could make a last-minute change to its sked.

Thursday’s Season Finales

"Will & Grace," 8, NBC (Series finale)

"That '70s Show," 8, Fox (Series finale)

"CSI," 9, CBS

"The O.C.," 9, Fox

"Without a Trace," 10, CBS

"ER," 10, NBC

Upfront Notebook
Here comes the new-in-name-only CW

By Gary Levin USA Today

CW will launch as a brand-new network in mid-September, but its schedule will look awfully familiar to fans of WB and UPN.

The network, which replaces both and is jointly owned by CBS Corp. and Warner Bros., is adding just one new comedy and one new drama for fall.

Most of its schedule, which is being announced to advertisers today, will consist of shows already airing on WB and UPN, and most of them are expected to continue airing in their current time slots.

So WB's Gilmore Girls will be paired with UPN's Veronica Mars on Tuesdays, and UPN's top series, America's Next Top Model, will lead into WB's One Tree Hill on Wednesday. UPN's wrestling will remain on Fridays.

And WB's resurrected 7th Heaven, which was pronounced dead last month after a 10-season run, will return in its longtime Monday home.

UPN's Monday block of urban comedies will shift to Sundays, led by Everybody Hates Chris, the sitcom from Chris Rock inspired by his Brooklyn childhood.

New series are Runaway, a drama produced by Darren Star (Sex and the City) about a family on the lam after dad (Donnie Wahlberg) is wrongly convicted of murder, as they try to prove his innocence; and The Game, a Girlfriends comedy spinoff about women attached to pro football players.

Another drama, due in midseason, is Palm Springs, a soap about a troubled teen who moves with his family to the California enclave, from Dawson's Creek creator Kevin Williamson. Gail O'Grady (NYPD Blue, American Dreams) is among the stars.

Left in the dust are WB's Everwood, Pepper Dennis, Modern Men, Bedford Diaries, What I Like About You, Twins, Living with Fran and Related, and UPN's Eve, One on One, Half and Half, Cuts and Love, Inc. (UPN had seven comedies with largely black casts at the start of this season; CW will now have only four.)

And the fate of the comedy Reba is now unclear: It was promised a two-year renewal last spring, but CW is now balking at paying for a year's worth of unproduced episodes and may decide to keep the show for midseason.

Lots of familiar faces for debut season

For the debut season of the CW network, which takes the place of WB and UPN, Beauty and the Geek will replace America?s Next Top Model at midseason. Here’s the tentative fall schedule, to be announced Thursday:

The CW Primetime Schedule

Monday
8:00 7th Heaven
9:00 Runaway (new show)

Tuesday
8:00 Gilmore Girls
9:00 Veronica Mars

Wednesday
8:00 America's Next Top Model
9:00 One Tree Hill

Thursday
8:00 Smallville
9:00 Supernatural

Friday
8:00 WWE Friday Night Smackdown

Sunday
7:00 Everybody Hates Chris
7:30 All of Us
8:00 Girlfriends
8:30 The Game (new show)
9:00 America’s Next Top Model (Repeat)

Upfront Notebook
Fox schedule

By Rich Heldenfels in his Akron Beacon Journal TV blog
Here's what Fox has in mind for the coming season, pasted from the announcement. It's in two pieces, fall and January, since Fox prepares formal plans for January based on the return of ''American Idol.'' New shows are in bold type.

Fox: Fall
(All Times ET/PT)

MONDAY
8 PRISPrison Break
9 Vanished

TUESDAY
8 Standoff
9 House

WEDNESDAY
8 Bones
9 Justice

THURSDAY
8 ‘Til Death
8:30 Happy Hour
9 The O.C..

FRIDAY
8 NANNY 911
9 TRADING SPOUSESMEET YOUR NEW MOMMY
SATURDAY
8 Cops
8:30 Cops
9 America’s Most WantedAmerica Strikes Back
11 PM MADtv
Midnight TALK Talk Show with Spike Ferensten

SUNDAY
7 Football Overrun (Comedy Encores)
7:30 Football Overrun (Comedy Encores)
8 The Simpsons
8:30 American Dad
9 Family Guy
9:30 The War At Home

Fox: January, 2007
(All Times ET/PT)

MONDAY
8 Standoff
9 24

TUESDAY
8 American Idol Performance Show
9 House

WEDNESDAY
8 Justice
9 American Idol Results Show
9:30 The Loop

THURSDAY
8 ‘Til Death
8:30 Happy Hour
9 The O.C..

FRIDAY
8 Bones
9 The Wedding Album

SATURDAY
8 Cops
8:30 Cops
9 America’s Most WantedAmerica Strikes Back
11 PM MADtv
MIDNIGHT TALK Talk Show with Spike Ferensten

SUNDAY
7 Comedy Repeats
7:30 King of the Hill
8 The Simpsons
8:30 American Dad
9 Family Guy
9:30 The War At Home

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

Upfront Notebook
Fox Goes for Stability With New Schedule

Network Adds Latenight Saturday Show
From TVWeek.com May 18, 2006

In an attempt to provide viewers with more stability in its schedule than it has in the past, Fox will debut three new dramas and two new comedies in fall 2006. The network also plans to keep most returning shows in their existing time periods.

Fox's President of Entertainment Peter Liguori said he expects his selection of shows to appeal "to our young adult base while appealing to a broader audience," he said.

His announcement represents the second time in two days that a top network executive preached the virtues of not fixing what isn't broken. CBS Corp. President and CEO Leslie Moonves called CBS, which is introducing four new shows this fall, the "most stable" network Wednesday.

Fox plans to launch its new season several weeks before its baseball coverage disrupts the prime-time lineup, a move that paid off last year with the debut of such shows as "Prison Break" and "Bones."

Fox's new and returning series will premiere in "mid to late August" in order to get five to seven episodes of the series on the air before being preempted by Fox's annual carriage of post season Major League Baseball playoffs. This allows viewers time to invest in the programming so that they will more likely follow the shows when they come back on the air.

The teen drama "The O.C." will not premiere until after post season baseball wraps up in October.

"We'll have more original episodes in more contiguous blocks," Mr. Liguori said of "The O.C."

The new drama "Vanished" will run with "limited interruptions" in fourth quarter 2006, Mr. Liguori said.

Despite changes in the schedule driven by the midseason series "24" and "American Idol," Fox is keeping its core dramas in the same time periods for fall.

"Prison Break" will remain on Mondays at 8p.m. (ET), "House" stays at 9 p.m. on Tuesdays and "Bones" sticks with 8 p.m. Wednesdays.

The 20th Century Fox FBI pilot formerly known as "Primary" has been renamed "Standoff," while the Warner Bros./Jerry Bruckheimer legal drama "American Crime" is changing its name to "Justice."

http://www.tvweek.com/news.cms?newsId=10030

Upfront Notebook
CBS deals from its strength, taking few risks with new shows

By Tim Goodman San Francisco Chronicle Thursday, May 18, 2006

If announcing your new fall schedule -- which all the broadcast networks are doing in New York this week -- is a parade of hopes and dreams (which it is), then CBS is the kind of network that brings rain on everybody else.

On Wednesday, CBS basically announced that it didn't need hope. It had numbers.

A day after ABC -- no slouch in the race toward No. 1 -- trumpeted 15 new series, CBS strolled into Manhattan as the most watched network overall and No. 1 in 25- to 54-year-olds, then casually announced, as an afterthought, that it had four new shows to add to the schedule.

Four.

That's kind of like walking on stage, rolling up your sleeve, showing off a massive bicep, then leaving out the side door.

For midseason, CBS did announce three additional series (again, not much) and the return of "The King of Queens," which will likely be its farewell tour. The biggest news from CBS was that it was abandoning the idea of the Sunday Night Movie, the last broadcast network to actively produce made-for-TV movies in bunches. Instead, it will be moving "The Amazing Race" and "Without a Trace" to Sunday, which should bolster a very competitive night among network rivals.

If there was any risk at all on the CBS schedule, it was an attempt to build a "young" comedy block on Mondays and stand behind fading star "Survivor" at 8 p.m., which isn't much of a risk given that the series has always been a hit. There's not much reason to believe it won't continue that streak, but the recently concluded version seemed tired and boring and NBC will go after stray viewers with a head-to-head match-up of its best comedy block, "My Name Is Earl" and "The Office."

Not surprisingly, CBS didn't flinch. It's dealing from a position of strength and has a stellar streak of making just the right programming decisions.

Canceled series include the dramas "Love Monkey" and "Threshold" and the comedies "Courting Alex," "Out of Practice," "Still Standing" and the previously announced "Yes, Dear."

Here's a look at the CBS schedule and shows:

• Monday: Believing that freshman hit "How I Met Your Mother" will be strong enough to kick off the night and attract younger viewers, the network then added a new sitcom at 8:30 p.m. from "Friends" co-creator David Crane called "The Class." It's about a group of twentysomethings -- of course -- who were all in the same third grade class. For some reason only a television writer could come up with, they reunite and then their lives and stories are hashed out. Jason Ritter is the main star. "Two and a Half Men," "The New Adventures of Old Christine" and "CSI: Miami" return to close out the night.

• Tuesday: The potent combo of "NCIS" and "The Unit" stay put from 8 to 10 p.m. and then new drama, "Smith," gets a shot, with its all-star cast. The series is yet another heist drama that both networks and cable channels have flipped for of late. This one stars Ray Liotta as the mastermind behind a group of "career criminals who plot and execute intricate and ingenious high-stakes heists across the country." Liotta is looking for one or two more scores and then he wants to go legit. The series also stars Virginia Madsen, Simon Baker, Frankie G and Amy Smart.

• Wednesday: Though CBS hasn't had a whole lot of luck departing from its crime-and-punishment series, the network is opting to start this night with a new drama, "Jericho," about a small Kansas town that has a nuclear mushroom cloud "appear on the horizon," thus isolating the town. In a kind of "Twilight Zone" approach, the town's residents go crazy with paranoia and fear, revealing their hidden secrets and cracking their calm exteriors. It stars Skeet Ulrich and Gerald McRaney. "Criminal Minds" and "CSI: NY" stay put at 9 and 10 p.m.

• Thursday: Stalwart hits "Survivor" and "CSI" remain in their 8 and 9 p.m. time slots, leading into new legal drama, "Shark," starring James Woods as a celebrity defense lawyer known for never losing but not exactly fighting cleanly. But he does lose and, according to CBS, has an epiphany and switches sides to become a prosecutor. Jeri Ryan co-stars and, in something of a surprise, Spike Lee directs the pilot.

• Friday: The same line-up of "Ghost Whisperer," "Close to Home" and "Numb3rs" returns intact.

• Saturday: The network will continue a tradition of rerunning crime dramas from the week in a two-hour "Crimetime Saturday" block from 8 to 10 p.m., then closing the night with "48 Hours: Mystery."

• Sunday: Venerable "60 Minutes" stays put at 7 p.m., followed by "The Amazing Race" at 8 on its new night, "Cold Case" in a new time at 9 p.m. and "Without A Trace" closing the week on its new night.

• Midseason series for CBS include "3 LBS," a medical drama about New York neurosurgeons starring Stanley Tucci; "Waterfront," a drama starring Joe Pantoliano as the mayor of Providence, R.I., who has some ethical issues but is trying to keep it clean; and the comedy "Rules of Engagement," starring Patrick Warburton and centered around two couples and a fifth-wheel single guy. It's from Adam Sandler's production company.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/05/18/DDGSFISRUR1.DTL&type=printable

Upfront Notebook
Broadcasting is breadwinner

By Phil Rosenthal Chicago Tribune Media Columnist May 18, 2006

NEW YORK -- For all the discussions of digital platforms, possibilities and opportunities, broadcasting remains the TV networks' bread. Broadband and the like are still just butter.

Enticing and probably needed, but not too good all alone.

"Obviously advertisers are looking for ways of combining traditional with new," CBS Corp. CEO Leslie Moonves told reporters Wednesday morning, standing next to the fall TV slates announced so far by CBS, ABC and NBC, with Fox and Moonves' new venture with Time Warner, The CW, set to present theirs Thursday.

"At the end of the day, let's remember something: 95-plus percent of your money [as a network] is going to come from that schedule," Moonves said, noting that he could see the growing digital market "exploding in the future."

Make no mistake, CBS and its rivals are taking care this week to ensure that the Madison Avenue crowd knows they're keeping pace with one another. They're all touting digital complements to the 2006-07 prime-time schedules they're unveiling in their annual series of glitzy Manhattan presentations designed to shake loose upfront ad commitments and billions in cash well before the fall season begins.

CBS' presentation at Carnegie Hall included a largely unchanged prime-time schedule for TV's most watched network that introduces three dramas, and a comedy from one of the creators of "Friends." CBS also becomes the last network to eliminate its Sunday movie franchise.

What Moonves, like his network rivals, is pushing first and foremost is the value of network television, even as the Internet and other new media distractions threaten to lure viewers and ad dollars.

"Wireless is useless if you're hitless," Moonves said.

ABC Entertainment boss Steve McPherson, whose network set off the digital gold rush with its deal last fall to sell shows on Apple's iTunes site, had said virtually the same thing the day before when asked about Webcasts, mobisodes, iPods or some such thing.

At ABC's Lincoln Center sales pitch for the network of "Lost," "Desperate Housewives" and "Grey's Anatomy," Anne Sweeney, co-chair of the Disney Media Networks and president of the Disney-ABC Television Group, touted a supposedly cutting edge gadget with unmatched reach. "Ladies and gentlemen, I give you TV!" she said to the strains of the theme from "2001: A Space Odyssey."

Roger Ailes and the folks at News Corp. behind My Network TV, a new outfit supplying nightly soap operas to stations in around 90 percent of the country beginning this fall, borrowed concepts from corporate cousin MySpace.com.

The My Network online presence will offer viewers a venue to congregate in addition to being able to buy products, get advice and view and share video clips.

NBC Universal Television Group CEO Jeff Zucker told the advertisers at Radio City Music Hall on Monday at length about a "360-degree approach to programming on air, online and on the go." They're even launching Web sites so viewers can preview shows.

Every little bit helps in an increasingly fragmented TV environment in which, according to CBS research guru David Poltrack, the average new fall network show is sampled by less than 15 percent of all viewers by November, compared to 50 percent in the 1980s.

That's where CBS benefits from its relative stability. By returning six of the series it introduced this season, it needs only to introduce four shows in the fall, compared to nine for ABC and six for NBC.

With "King of Queens" on the shelf until midseason, CBS is taking a stab at a heist series with Ray Liotta and Virginia Madsen in "Smith," presenting an apocalyptic drama in "Jericho," serving James Woods as a hotshot defense attorney guilted into becoming a prosecutor in "Shark," and offering "The Class," a comedy about third-grade classmates reunited in their 20s. "The Amazing Race" and "Without a Trace" move to Sundays.

Helping sell the network were incoming "CBS Evening News" anchor Katie Couric ("How do you get to Carnegie Hall? Negotiate, negotiate, negotiate," she said), outbound anchor Bob Schieffer, who is coming off a week in which CBS' newscast pulled ahead of normally second-place ABC, and Mariah Carey.

But the real eye opener was supposed to be the idea of network television to ad buyers who may be questioning it. Moonves cited the impact of CBS, Fox and ABC in the recent earnings reports for CBS Corp., News Corp. and the Walt Disney Co. as a sign of their vitality.

"Everyone, including us, is talking about all the exciting new content and platforms out there," Moonves said.

"But it's quite clear that nothing else compares anywhere on any other medium. ... Network television is incredibly strong," he said.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/columnists/chi-0605180197may18,0,2841075.column

(From Marc Berman’s Thursday, May 18, 2006, Programming Insider column at Mediaweek.com )
Fox in 2006-07winner

5 New Series this Fall, Changes on 6 Nights of the Week

Fox, the No. 1 network among adults 18-49, has unveiled its new fall 2006 and January 2007 primetime line-ups. Unlike prior years when you needed a roadmap to follow Fox’s schedule, the emphasis next season is on strength on stability. The network will introduce five new shows this fall (three dramas, two sitcoms), with changes on six nights of the week. Saturday’s perennial combination of Cops and America’s Most Wanted will remain intact, while American Dad and The War at Home will flip time periods. The network will introduce another drama, The Wedding Album, on Friday in January, and three additional series – dramas Standoff, Justice and the returning Bones – will shift into new time periods. House, as rumored, is not moving to Sunday.

American Idol, 24, King of the Hill and The Loop, which are not on the fall line-up, will all return in January. A new four-week reality/competition from Simon Cowell called Duets will air in September on Thursday and Friday (in undisclosed time periods) prior to the Major League Baseball playoffs, while the previously announced reality entry from Mark Burnett and Steven Spielberg, On the Lot, is slated for next spring. Also debuting in midseason is sitcom The Winner, about a 43-year-old man who looks back at his life in 1994.

Fox has also announced a new late night series, Talk Show With Spike Feresten, which debuts on Saturday, Sept. 16 at 12 a.m. out of the returning MADtv. The fast-fast paced half-hour hosted by the former writer of Seinfeld and The Late Show with David Letterman will combine traditional elements of the late night format with comedy sketches.

Not returning to Fox next season are sitcoms Arrested Development, Bernie Mac, Free Ride, Kitchen Confidential and Stacked.


New Program Descriptions:

COMEDIES

HAPPY HOUR
Set in Chicago, this buddy comedy features two young guys – one damaged by love and the other blinded by it. The cast includes Brooke D'Orsay, Jamie Denbo, Nat Faxon, Beth Lacke, Lux Medlin, and John Sloan.

‘TIL DEATH
Former Everybody Loves Raymond star Brad Garrett returns to his sitcom roots in this story of two passionate and idealistic newlyweds who move next door to a cynical middle-aged couple. Joely Fisher, Eddie Kaye Thomas, and Kat Foster co-star.

THE WINNER
A successful man in his 40s (Lenny Clarke) looks back at his life in 1994 when he was a neurotic 32-year-old who still lived with his parents. The cast includes Rob Corddry, Ken Gilchrist, Julie Hagerty, and Erinn Carter Hayes.

DRAMAS

JUSTICE
A dream team of four lawyers join forces to tackle the most controversial and newsworthy cases in this new Jerry Bruckheimer legal drama. The ensemble cast includes former Alias star Victor Garber, Rebecca Mader, Kerr Smith, and Eamonn Walker.

STANDOFF
After the sexual relationship of two highly trained hostage negotiation experts who work together in the FBI’s Crisis Negotiation Unit is revealed, it begins to complicate their assignments with the FBI. Ron Livingston (Sex and the City) and Emily Lehman (Cinderella Man) star.

VANISHED
The investigation of the missing wife of a powerful U.S. Senator from Georgia uncovers numerous mysteries and unknown conspiracies. The cast includes Gale Harold, John Patrick Amedori, Chris Egan, Rebecca Gayheart, Joanne Kelly, and John Allen Nelson.

THE WEDDING ALBUM (midseason)
A photographer and his female assistant work at a different wedding each week in this new ensemble drama. The cast includes Ashlie Atkinson, Jayce Bartok, Bruno Campos, Tony LoBianco, America’s Next Top model winner Eva Pigford, Ptolemy Slocum, Connie Stevens, and Tara Summers.

NON-SCRIPTED

DUETS (Thursday and Friday in September, time periods TBD)
Established singing stars are paired with celebrities outside of the music industry to compete for charity in this new Simon Cowell non-scripted series.

ON THE LOT (midseason)
A group of undiscovered potential filmmakers compete to win a DreamWorks studio development deal in this reality/competition from Mark Burnett and famed Academy Award winning director Steven Spielberg.


Upfront Week: Programming Notes of Interest

Just For Laughs on ABC:
ABC has picked up six episodes of Just For Laughs, a half-hour hidden camera comedy based on the Canadian series for midseason. This will be the first ever made-for Canadian television series to be broadcast on a major U.S. network.

http://www.mediaweek.com/mw/newsletters/proginsider/index.jsp

Upfront Notebook
Prior hits fall into place for CBS

By David Bianculli New York Daily News TV Critic Thursday, May 18th, 2006

Revealing its fall schedule plans yesterday, CBS demonstrated its overall stability by announcing only four new series - for a total of 3-1/2 hours - in its prime-time lineup.

By contrast, ABC and NBC, the only other broadcast networks to program 22 prime-time hours weekly, are introducing 10 new hours each.

CBS, which finished the season first in total viewers and third with the advertiser-desired viewers between the ages of 18 and 49, enjoyed more success with program development than its major rivals.

It has already renewed four of six fall series ("How I Met Your Mother," "Close to Home," "Ghost Whisperer" and "Criminal Minds"), and scored midseason hits with "The Unit" and "The New Adventures of Old Christine."

Failures were few, but no-shows for fall 2006 include "Out of Practice," "Threshold," "Love Monkey" and "Courting Alex."

The new series include only one comedy, "The Class," about twentysomethings who reunite on the 20th anniversary of their third-grade class (Jason Ritter from "Joan of Arcadia" is one of the stars). CBS is adding the show to its Monday schedule - the only night where it has any sitcoms next season.

"It's the best comedy block on television," CBS President Leslie Moonves boasted to reporters yesterday.

"Frankly," he added jokingly, "it's the only comedy block on television."

CBS will have only four sitcoms this fall, its fewest since 1999. Drama, though, continues to grow.

Its new series are "Shark," starring James Woods as a loose-cannon district attorney in a show directed by Spike Lee; "Jericho," a "Lost"-like fantasy thriller about a town in Kansas suddenly isolated after a nuclear disaster; and "Smith," starring Ray Liotta as a professional thief planning a few last big scores before retiring.

The four new shows are spread out over as many nights, leaving only two nights untouched.

On Sundays, three returning series from executive producer Jerry Bruckheimer - "The Amazing Race," "Cold Case" and "Without a Trace" - will be strung together on what Moonves called "all-Bruckheimer Sunday: 'Race' to 'Case' to 'Trace.'"

"60 Minutes," the oldest current series in prime time, will see a change, Moonves said, with the contributions of Katie Couric, Anderson Cooper and Lara Logan.

"It's not your mother's '60 Minutes,'" Moonves said. Then, joking about the aggregate age of its correspondents, he added, "We've reduced the age from 85 to 82."

http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/col/dbianculli/v-pfriendly/story/418607p-353525c.html

Upfront Notebook
Fox plays ball with new shows
By Gary Levin USA Today

NEW YORK — Fox, which will win its second consecutive season next week among young-adult viewers, hopes to build on big hits American Idol, 24 and House by adding two new comedies and four dramas to its fall schedule.

Idol and 24 won't return until January, but freshman success Prison Break, along with a few new series, will begin in late August so they can be established ahead of Fox's customary October break for postseason baseball.

A tentative fall schedule, to be announced today to advertisers in New York, has new dramas paired with Prison Break, House and Bones on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, respectively.

The OC is expected to remain on Thursday, joined by two comedies. Nanny 911 and Trading Spouses are Friday contenders. Fox's reliable lineup of Cops and America's Most Wanted is a sure thing for Saturday. And Sunday's mostly animation block will remain largely intact, with freshman comedy The War at Home possibly moving to 9:30, trading places with American Dad. Spring tryout The Loop will be back at midseason.

Free Ride and Bernie Mac have been canceled, and Malcolm in the Middle and That '70s Show already have ended their long runs. They join other casualties Arrested Development, Kitchen Confidential, Reunion, Stacked, Killer Instinct and Head Cases.

•New dramas: Vanished, a serialized thriller about the missing wife of a Georgia senator who may be part of a larger conspiracy, probably will take 24's Monday time slot behind Prison Break during fall months; Standoff, about FBI hostage negotiators who also are a couple, may be paired with House; Justice, starring Victor Garber (Alias) in a Jerry Bruckheimer series about high-powered lawyers, may go with Bones. The Wedding Album, an anthology series about nuptials seen through the eyes of a photographer (Bruno Campos, Nip/Tuck), is set for midseason.

•New comedies: 'Til Death, starring Brad Garrett (Everybody Loves Raymond) and Joely Fisher as a long-married couple annoyed by their newlywed neighbors; Happy Hour, a brash, Fox-style buddy comedy from the producers of That '70s Show, about unlikely Chicago roommates; The Winner (midseason), starring Rob Corddry (The Daily Show) as a successful 43-year-old who looks back to 1994 when he was a slacker living with his parents.

http://www.usatoday.com/life/television/news/2006-05-17-fox-preview_x.htm

Upfront Notebook
“Reba” Reprieve

Nellie Andreeva of The Hollywood Reporter is reporting this morning that “…In a surprising move, (The CW) Wednesday night gave an eleventh-hour 13-episode order to the WB comedy ‘Reba’….

‘Reba’ is the second long-running WB series to get a 13-episode reprieve from the CW after being canceled. Also Wednesday, the network finalized deals with the core cast of ‘7th Heaven,’ clearing the path for the drama to continue beyond the series finale last month.

Canceling ‘Reba,’ which was in the middle of a two-year contract between WB and 20th Century Fox TV, would have been costly for the CW, with sources pegging the penalty at about $20 million, including compensating the studio for lost syndication revenue from the sixth-season episodes that would have not been produced…."

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr/television/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1002538523

Upfront Notebook
In 'CSI,' network can get away with hit and rerun

By Marisa Guthrie The New York Daily News Staff Writer Thursday, May 18th, 2006

CBS chief Leslie Moonves couldn't resist a shot at the competition yesterday, pointing out that ABC's "Desperate Housewives" may get all the attention but "CSI" is still "a far more profitable show than 'Desperate Housewives.'"

"CSI" is also the No. 1 scripted show on television in total viewers.

"We don't get as much noise as everybody else," said Moonves at a press conference yesterday where the network's fall lineup was announced, "and we're human, we like getting the buzz, although I like winning more."

Part of the reason "CSI" is so successful, said Moonves, is because it holds up over repeated airings.

"'Desperate Housewives' does not repeat well," said Moonves. "People may want to knock our procedurals all they want. ... We are not the manic-depressive network."

Because it has so many shows with a good shelf life - the "CSI" procedurals, "Cold Case," "Without a Trace" and "Criminal Minds" - CBS is likely to be the top-rated network again this season.

Reruns have become an issue for broadcast networks this season as they struggle to stop viewers from defecting during dry periods.

ABC entertainment head Stephen McPherson acknowledged that "Lost" fans are fed up with so many reruns of the serialized drama.

"They absolutely get furious when there's a repeat," he said earlier this week.

So the network will attempt to stem viewer fury by launching "Lost" next fall with seven straight new episodes, then leave the air to make room for the new drama "Day Break," starring Taye Diggs as a cop caught in a time warp.

When "Lost" returns to the schedule in January or February, it will finish its third season uninterrupted by reruns.

NBC is taking a similar tact with "ER" and "The Black Donnellys," Oscar winner Paul Haggis' organized crime drama.

"ER," which also suffers significant viewer defection in reruns, will kick off in September with 13 weeks of new episodes. It will give way to "The Black Donnellys" in January before returning in April.

And while McPherson admitted that "Housewives" stumbled creatively in the beginning of the season, he said employing the same strategy with that show was not a consideration.

"'Desperate,'" he said, "repeats much better than 'Lost' does."

http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/ent_radio/v-pfriendly/story/418591p-353526c.html

Upfront Notebook
Will NBC Move Sorkin's 'Studio 60?'

By Scott Collins Los Angeles Times Staff Writer in his Channel Island TV Industry blog May 18, 2006

Almost as soon as ABC announced its surprise move for the smash hit "Grey's Anatomy," to 9 p.m. Thursdays this fall, industry veterans speculated that NBC would be forced to hustle Aaron Sorkin's new showbiz satire "Studio 60 from the Sunset Strip" out of that slot to a more hospitable, if you will, region.

But where? And what could take its place?

So far the network isn't talking, but one scenario being buzzed about has "Studio 60" transferring to Mondays, with the Thursday 9 p.m. spot going to "Scrubs" and another yet-unknown sitcom. (NBC executives said earlier this week that "Scrubs" would be held until later in the season.)

Of course, "Scrubs'" ratings would not likely improve opposite "Grey's" and "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation." But NBC would probably prefer that option over turning their top new drama into cannon fodder.

http://hollywoodhotline.typepad.com/watcher/

The Business of TV
TV Trend Triggers Concerns

Writers find allies in questioning the growing use of paid `product integration' in shows.
By Meg James Los Angeles Times Staff Writer May 18, 2006

NEW YORK — Some of television's top creative talents urged networks and studios Wednesday to give writers a greater say when products are woven into the story lines.

John Wells of "ER" and Marc Cherry of "Desperate Housewives" joined Writers Guild of America officials at a hotel news conference to criticize the encroachment of products into scripts.

The WGA timed the event to coincide with the networks' "upfronts," when thousands of advertisers converge in Manhattan for the unveiling of fall schedules.

"By the time we realize that we've gone too far we will have chased away some of the elusive audience that we worked so hard to get," Wells said.

Wells gave an example of a meeting he attended by the makers of presidential limousines at which it was suggested that an entire episode of his recently ended show "The West Wing" be built around their product.

"It was very, very uncomfortable to say that while I admired the construction of their limousine, the viewers of 'The West Wing' would probably not respond well to an entire episode about the car," Wells said.

At a breakfast with reporters, CBS Corp. Chief Executive Leslie Moonves said he was somewhat sympathetic.

"There's no question that it's important that these discussions be appropriately held with our creative people," Moonves said. "That's what we are doing, what we are trying to do and will continue that."

The Writers Guild event drew a muted response from J. Nicholas Counter, president of the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers.

"There is a mechanism for dealing with this and we would welcome a meeting on the subject," Counter said.

Patric Verrone, president of the Writers Guild of America, West, said writers were becoming increasingly concerned as the lines between advertising content and story lines blur. At the behest of broadcast and cable networks, product integration has expanded from reality shows to scripted fare.

In addition to Wells and Cherry, Verone was joined by Neal Baer of NBC's "Law & Order: SVU" and Dave Rupel of Bravo's "The Real Housewives of Orange County."

The use of paid "product integration" has become prevalent in television as advertisers grapple for ways to ensure that more people see their commercial messages rather than zip through them using digital video recorders such as TiVo.

Cherry said he's been able to say no to products that don't feel right for his show, but less successful writers and producers might not have the clout to do so.

"Ultimately, the writer is the gatekeeper of the quality, and Lord knows it's not the network or the studio or the advertisers," he said. "We're the ones who take care of the baby."

http://www.calendarlive.com/tv/cl-fi-wga18may18,0,3040884,print.story?coll=cl-tvent

Upfront Notebook
For Fox, it's a most dramatic autumn

Three new dramas for three critical nights, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday
By Toni Fitzgerald MediaLifeMagazine.com staff writer May 18, 2006

For years, Fox all but wrote off the fall to baseball, sliding into midseason behind in ratings and hoping its new shows would gain it some ground. Then came "American Idol," which gave it such a boost last spring and this that it was able to win the season.

This fall is different. Fox is putting its all into its fall schedule, aiming to build yet more depth into its primetime lineup, and on three critical nights, Monday Tuesday and Wednesday.

Introducing its 2006-‘07 schedule this morning, Fox rolled out new dramas on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday nights. Those will be launched with returning shows that have been nurtured into hits by airing alongside “Idol” and “24” in the spring.

With just two weeks to go, Fox is poised for its second straight season win among adults 18-49s after lagging far behind in December. And based on a strong "Idol," it is in better shape than it was last year at this time.

The strategy behind its new fall lineup is to ensure that come midseason, it won't have to play catchup again. It will be that much stronger, powered by its new dramas.

With “House,” “Prison Break” and “Bones,” the returning dramas being used to launch the new ones, Fox for the first time has enough returning hits to build a strong fall schedule. In past years, its only healthy night before “Idol” returned was Sunday. Now, with those shows, Fox can actually get a foothold before taking a one-month break for baseball in October.

Otherwise, there are no big changes on Fox's fall schedule like the ones NBC, ABC and CBS have announced. Sixteen of the network’s shows return on the same night as last year, counting midseason programs.

In addition to the three new dramas, Fox is launching two new fall sitcoms, as well as two dramas and a sitcom at midseason.

Mondays will lead off with “Prison Break,” which will once again run without repeats from September to January. That’s followed by “Vanished,” a new drama about the disappearance of a senator’s wife.

New drama “Standoff,” about crisis negotiators, leads off Tuesday at 8, followed by “House.” Second-year drama “Bones” remains Wednesday at 8, followed by the Jerry Bruckheimer legal drama “Justice.”

On Thursday, the highly touted Brad Garrett comedy “’Til Death” leads off the night at 8, followed by another new sitcom, “Happy Hour.” “The O.C.” will remain at 9 despite big ratings declines.

Fox entertainment president Peter Liguori said the network briefly considered moving the show when ABC said it was switching “Grey’s Anatomy” to the same timeslot but scuttled the idea. Still, it could see a change at midseason.

Fridays will include “Nanny 911” and “Trading Spouses,” while Saturdays stay the same with “Cops” and “America’s Most Wanted.”

Sunday sees one switch, with 9:30 p.m.’s “American Dad” swapping with 8:30 p.m.’s “War at Home” to create a 90-minute animation block with “The Simpsons” and “Family Guy.”

At midseason, “Justice” will move to Wednesday at 8 and “Bones” will switch to Fridays, leading into new drama “Wedding Album.” “Standoff” takes the 8 p.m. Monday slot, and “The Loop” returns for a second season Wednesday at 9:30 after “Idol.” Sitcom “The Winner” does not have a timeslot yet but will air at midseason.

Fox will introduce a new Saturday late-night show, “Talk Show with Spike Feresten,” in September. Also in September, Simon Cowell’s celebrity talent show “Duets” will air Thursdays and Fridays until baseball.

And the Steven Spielberg reality show “On the Lot” will debut next spring. Liguori said the network plans to start its summer 2007 schedule quite early and may draw out some of its show finales past May.

http://www.medialifemagazine.com/artman/publish/article_4821.asp

The CW Primetime Schedule

Thursday
8:00 Smallville
9:00 SupernaturalDAMNIT! Let's see, Thursday night at 9:00pm (8:00pm Central):
ABC CBS FOX NBC CW
Grey's Anatomy CSI The O.C. Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip SupernaturalDoes Supernatural have a prayer against any of that? Well, let's see, we figured CSI would be there again, which (as they say) skews to male viewers. (Allegedly the "pretty boys" in Supernatural are aimed at young females, present company, and extended family who I've gotten hooked, apparently ignored.) So it might have been a reasonable guess that this would be good counterprogramming. But along comes Grey's Anatomy, which is produced, written, and stars women! Then there's one of the SNL behind-the-scenes on NBC, and the young skewing The O.C.

I realize it's probably seen as weakness, but you are the new kid on the block, CW. I'd recommend re-thinking your schedule. Just don't put Veronica Mars on Thursday at 9:00 either. It's both a detective show and aimed at young females!

Maybe swap Wednesday and Thursday?

Xesdeeni

I don't think you'll see Studio 60 staying in that murderous time slot.

But the points you make are very valid.

We'll see what the CW does in the months ahead. Obviously the shows nthey had in development must have been truly awful.

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

Network Fall Schedules

Sunday
7 p.m.
ABC America's Funniest Home Videos
CBS 60 Minutes
NBC Football Night in America
Fox Football Overrun/Comedy Repeats
8 PM ET/PT
ABC Extreme MakeoverHome Edition
CBS The Amazing Race
NBC NFL Sunday Night Football
Fox Simpsons/American Dad
9 PM ET/PT
ABC Desperate Housewives
CBS Cold Case
NBC NFL Sunday Night Football
Fox Family Guy/The War At Home
10 PM ET/PT
ABC Brothers and Sisters
CBS Without a Trace
NBC NFL Sunday Night Football

Monday
8 PM ET/PT
ABC Wife Swap
CBS How I Met Your Mother/8:30 The Class
NBC Deal or No Deal
Fox Prison Break
9 PM ET/PT
ABC The Bachelor/ Supernanny
CBS Two and a Half Men/9:30The New Adventures of Old Christine
NBC Heroes
Fox Vanished
10 PM ET/PT
ABC What About Brian
CBS CSI:Miami
NBC Medium

Tuesday
8 PM ET/PT
ABC Dancing With the Stars/MidseasonSet for the Rest of Your Life
CBS NCIS
NBC Friday Night Lights
Fox Standoff
9 PM ET/PT
ABC Let's Rob.../8:30Help Me Help You
CBS The Unit
NBC Kidnapped
Fox House
10 PM ET/PT
ABC Boston Legal
CBS Smith
NBC Law & OrderSVU

Wednesday
8 PM ET/PT
ABC Dancing With the Stars
CBS Jericho
NBC The Biggest Loser
Fox Bones
9 PM ET/PT
ABC Lost
CBS Criminal Minds
NBC Twenty Good Years/30 Rock
Fox Justice
10 PM ET/PT
ABC The Nine
CBS CSI:NY
NBC Law & Order

Thursday
8 PM ET/PT
ABC Big Day/Notes From the Underbelly
CBS Survivor
NBC My Name Is Earl/The Office
Fox ‘Til Death/Happy Hour
9 PM ET/PT
ABC Grey's Anatomy
CBS CSICrime Scene Investigation
NBC Studio 60
Fox The O.C.
10 PM ET/PT
ABC Six Degrees
CBS Shark
NBC ER/MidseasonThe Black Donnellys

Friday
8 PM ET/PT
ABC Betty the Ugly
CBS Ghost Whisperer
NBC Deal or No Deal
Fox Nanny 911
9 PM ET/PT
ABC Men in Trees
CBS Close to Home
NBC Las Vegas
Fox Trading Spouses/ Meet Your New Mommy
10 PM ET/PT
ABC /20/20
CBS Numb3rs
NBC Law & OrderCriminal Intent

Saturday
8 PM ET/PT
ABC ABC Saturday Night College Football
CBS Crimetime Saturday
NBC Dateline NBC
Fox Cops/ Cops
9 PM ET/PT
ABC ABC Saturday Night College Football
CBS Crimetime Saturday
NBC Drama Encore
Fox America’s Most Wanted America Fights Back
10 PM ET/PT
ABC ABC Saturday Night College Football
CBS 48 Hours Mystery
NBC Dateline NBC

For a full fall schedule grid, please check here:
http://www.metacritic.com/tv/seasons/2006fall/networks.shtml

Overnights in the 18-49 Demo
One last swift kicker for 'Law & Order'

Aging NBC franchise pulls a 4.5 in 18-49s
By Toni Fitzgerald MediaLifeMagazine.com staff writer May 18, 2006

It’s been a rough year for “Law & Order.” The show has finished behind CBS’s “CSI: NY” in its timeslot, and even got booted briefly to 9 p.m. during a disastrous two weeks where its ratings sank to record lows.

But for last night’s season finale, amid rumors of yet another cast shakeup, “L&O” perked up. It actually finished ahead of “CSI: NY” by 0.1 rating points, averaging a 4.5 overnight rating and taking first in the timeslot.

Granted, that’s well behind where the 16-year-old show was in past years. And “CSI: NY” was off, too, down half a rating point week to week to a 4.4. “CSI: NY” had more of a lead-in to build on than “L&O” as well, 3.4 to a 3.1, making the jump more impressive.

Last week “L&O” averaged a 4.2 for its penultimate episode. NBC said during this week’s upfront presentation that next season’s “L&O” cast would likely be different, which has been a defining quality of the show with the rotating cast over the years.
Meanwhile, Fox was first for the night among 18-49s with a 6.8 rating and 18 share, followed by NBC with 3.9/10. ABC and CBS tied for third with 3.7/10, followed by UPN with 1.8/5, Univision with 1.5/4 and WB with 1.0/3.

NBC started the night in the lead with a 4.1 for “Deal or No Deal.” CBS was second with a 3.3 for the first hour of the finale of “Amazing Race,” Fox third with a 3.1 for the “Bones” finale, UPN fourth with a 2.8 for the finale of “America’s Next Top Model,” ABC fifth with a 1.8 for “Alias,” Univision sixth with a 1.5 for “La Fea Mas Bella,” and WB seventh with a 1.0 for the movie “Final Destination 2.”

At 9 p.m., Fox took over the lead with a 10.5 for “American Idol.” A distant second was ABC’s 5.9 for “Lost,” third was CBS’s 3.4 for another hour of the “Race” finale,” fourth was NBC’s 3.1 for “Dateline,” fifth was Univision’s 1.7 for “”Barrera de Amor,” sixth was WB’s 1.0 for the second hour of “Destination,” and seventh was UPN’s 0.9 for repeats of “Half and Half.”

At 10 p.m., NBC led with a 4.5 for the finale of “Law & Order.” CBS was second with a 4.4 for “CSI: NY” and ABC third with a 3.3 for the series finale of “Invasion.”

Among households, Fox won the night with a 11.2/17, followed by NBC with 8.0/13, CBS with 6.4/10, ABC with 5.9/9, UPN with 2.6/4, Univision with 1.9/3 and WB with 1.4/2.

http://www.medialifemagazine.com/artman/publish/article_4842.asp

(Once again, thanks to By Rich Heldenfels and his Akron Beacon Journal TV blog)
Upfront Notebook
And The CW..
Goodbye, ''Everwood.'' Can't stop ''7th Heaven.'' Here's the CW's lineup for the fall:
SUNDAY
7:00 Everybody Hates Chris
7:30 All Of Us
8:00 Girlfriends
8:30 The Game (New Series)
9:00 America’s Next Top Model (Repeat)

MONDAY
8:00 7TH Heaven
9:00 Runaway (New Series)

TUESDAY
8:00 Gilmore Girls
9:00 Veronica Mars

WEDNESDAY
8:00 America’s Next Top Model
9:00 One Tree Hill

THURSDAY
8:00 Smallville
9:00 Supernatural

FRIDAY
8:00 Friday Night Smackdown!

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

I noticed something strange during the CW upfront. Every show that airs in HD, they showed the clips in widescreen, and at the end, showed a CW in High Definition logo. Of course, Top Model had it's clips in 4x3, without the HD logo.

The strange thing was, when they showed clips of Smackdown!, all of it's clips were in widescreen, as well as shots of fans outside an arena (and it didn't look matted). But they didn't show the HD logo at the end.

Maybe Vince is playing around with some new gear?

btw, Chris Rock dropped the MF-bomb during his speech, it was pretty funny, and took a lot of people off-guard.

Final Upfront Network Fall Schedules

Sunday
7 p.m.
ABC America's Funniest Home Videos
CBS 60 Minutes
NBC Football Night in America HD
Fox Football Overrun HD / Comedy Repeats
CW Everybody Hates Chris HD / All Of Us
8 PM ET/PT
ABC Extreme Makeover: Home Edition
CBS The Amazing Race
NBC NFL Sunday Night Football HD
Fox Simpsons / American Dad
CW Girlfriends HD / The Game HD
9 PM ET/PT
ABC Desperate Housewives HD
CBS Cold Case HD
NBC NFL Sunday Night Football HD
Fox Family Guy / The War At Home HD
CW America’s Next Top Model (Repeat)
10 PM ET/PT
ABC Brothers and Sisters HD
CBS Without a Trace HD
NBC NFL Sunday Night Football HD

Monday
8 PM ET/PT
ABC Wife Swap
CBS How I Met Your Mother HD / The Class HD
NBC Deal or No Deal
Fox Prison Break HD
CW 7th Heaven HD
MNTV Table For Three HD
9 PM ET/PT
ABC The Bachelor / Supernanny
CBS Two and a Half Men HD / The New Adventures of Old Christine HD
NBC Heroes HD
Fox Vanished HD
CW Runaway HD
MNTV Fashion House HD
10 PM ET/PT
ABC What About Brian HD
CBS CSI: Miami HD
NBC Medium HD

Tuesday
8 PM ET/PT
ABC Dancing With the Stars
CBS NCIS HD
NBC Friday Night Lights HD
Fox Standoff HD
CW Gilmore Girls HD
MNTV Table For Three HD
9 PM ET/PT
ABC Let's Rob... HD / Help Me Help You HD
CBS The Unit HD
NBC Kidnapped HD
Fox House HD
CW Veronica Mars HD
MNTV Fashion House HD
10 PM ET/PT
ABC Boston Legal HD
CBS Smith HD
NBC Law & Order: SVU HD

Wednesday
8 PM ET/PT
ABC Dancing With the Stars
CBS Jericho HD
NBC The Biggest Loser
Fox Bones HD
CW America’s Next Top Model
MNTV Table For Three HD
9 PM ET/PT
ABC Lost HD
CBS Criminal Minds HD
NBC Twenty Good Years HD / 30 Rock HD
Fox Justice HD
CW One Tree Hill HD
MNTV Fashion House HD
10 PM ET/PT
ABC The Nine HD
CBS CSI: NY HD
NBC Law & Order HD

Thursday
8 PM ET/PT
ABC Big Day/Notes From the Underbelly HD
CBS Survivor
NBC My Name Is Earl HD / The Office HD
Fox ‘Til Death HD /Happy Hour HD
CW Smallville HD
MNTV Table For Three HD
9 PM ET/PT
ABC Grey's Anatomy HD
CBS CSI: Crime Scene Investigation HD
NBC Studio 60 HD
Fox The O.C. HD
CW Supernatural HD
MNTV Fashion House HD
10 PM ET/PT
ABC Six Degrees HD
CBS Shark HD
NBC ER HD

Friday
8 PM ET/PT
ABC Betty the Ugly HD
CBS Ghost Whisperer HD
NBC Deal or No Deal
Fox Nanny 911
CW Friday Night Smackdown!
MNTV Table For Three HD
9 PM ET/PT
ABC Men in Trees HD
CBS Close to Home HD
NBC Las Vegas HD
Fox Trading Spouses HD / Meet Your New Mommy HD
MNTV Fashion House HD
10 PM ET/PT
ABC /20/20
CBS Numb3rs HD
NBC Law & Order: Criminal Intent HD

Saturday
8 PM ET/PT
ABC ABC Saturday Night College Football
CBS Crimetime Saturday HD
NBC Dateline NBC
Fox Cops / Cops
MNTV Table For Three (Compilation Show) HD
9 PM ET/PT
ABC ABC Saturday Night College Football HD
CBS Crimetime Saturday HD
NBC Drama Encore HD
Fox America’s Most Wanted America Fights Back
MNTV Fashion House (Compilation Show) HD
10 PM ET/PT
ABC ABC Saturday Night College Football HD
CBS 48 Hours Mystery
NBC Dateline NBC

For a full fall schedule grid, please check here:
http://www.metacritic.com/tv/seasons/2006fall/networks.shtml

[QUOTE=fredfa]Upfront Notebook
Fox won't mess with success

Look for "The OC," minus series star Mischa Barton, to return at 9 p.m.


Guess we know who dies today then... :mad:

Upfront Notebook
Fox stands by favorites

Net touts a solid 16 returning series to lineup
By Denise Martin Variety.com

Fox will anchor every night with at least one established hit - most staying in their existing time slots -- to add stability to its fall lineup, which will feature three dramas and two new comedies.

Net entertainment chief Peter Liguori emphasized that consistency in a press conference with reporters Thursday morning, touting a solid 16 returning series to the lineup.

Exec said Fox would be presenting "the most stable schedule we've ever had" providing strong launchpads for the new shows. Net will once again get a jump-start on the fall, premiering virtually all of its shows before the official start of the broadcast season in February, most before the Major League Baseball playoffs.

In that pre-baseball pack is "Duets," a four-week performance series from Simon Cowell. Skein will air this summer on Thursdays and Fridays prior to playoffs.

Fox will take its biggest gamble on Thursdays, where it has lined up a pair of new comedies - Brad Garrett starrer "'Til Death" and "Happy Hour" - leading into the fourth season of "The O.C."

Liguori said he only briefly considered moving the teen sudser out of the "Grey's Anatomy"/"C.S.I." time period, before deciding to stick with last season's Thursdays at 9 time period.

" 'The O.C.' has a incredibly loyal audience, and it's a younger show," he said. "It's also different from 'Grey's Anatomy' and "C.S.I.""

On Mondays this fall, "Prison Break" will stay planted at 8 pm, followed by "Vanished," about the disappearance of a Georgia senator's wife. In January, "24" will fill in for "Prison Break" Mondays at 9. To help appease fans, Liguori noted that this season, the story arcs in "Prison Break" would be designed specifically around the anticipated hiatus. Crisis negotiator drama "Standoff" will kick off Tuesdays, followed by "House."

"Bones" will hold down its Wednesdays at the 8 slot, leading into "Justice," starring Victor Garber as an aggressive attorney, at 9.

"Nanny 911" will move to Fridays at 8 (replacing "Bernie Mac") and "Trading Spouses: Meet Your New Mommy" will continue airing at 9.

Sunday will feature a lineup of "The Simpsons," followed by "American Dad," "Family Guy" and "The War at Home."

In the spring, "American Idol" will continue to in its regular timeslots on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. When the show hits the sked, "Justice will be bumped up to 8 while "Bones" will move to Fridays. Return of workplace laffer "The Loop," will follow the Wednesday "Idol" results show at 9:30.

Steven Spielberg/Mark Burnett-produced filmmaker search "On the Lot" is also slated for a spring debut, and will begin accepting entries from aspiring directors Thursday via www.TheLot.com.

Fox's fourth new drama "The Wedding Album," will launch in January on Fridays following "Bones." "The Winner," a comedy from "Family Guy" creator Seth MacFarlane and Ricky Blitt, is also slated for mid-season.

In addition, Fox announced its first latenight in sometime, "Talk Show with Spike Feresten," which the net greenlit in January (Daily Variety, Jan. 24). Talker bows Sept. 16 at midnight, following Saturday perennials "Cops," "America's Most Wanted" and "MADtv."

The TV Mailbag

`Supernatural,' `Grey's,' `Weeds' is Morgan, who is a busy actor

By R.D. Heldenfels Akron Beacon Journal television writer May. 18, 2006

If it's Thursday, this must be the TV mailbag...

Q: I know that Jeffrey Dean Morgan played Denny on ``Grey's Anatomy.'' I thought it was Robert Downey, Jr.! (So did my husband.) Was that actor really someone named Jeffrey Dean Morgan, or was it really Robert Downey, Jr.? I am usually very good about knowing when someone is or isn't so-and-so, and this one just has me totally flummoxed.

R.D. HELDENFELS: I can see the resemblance between Morgan and Downey, and online message boards have also made the comparison. But Morgan and Downey are different people -- although Morgan is busy enough for two, having had recurring roles on Grey's, Supernatural and Weeds of late.

Q: What happened to Alexis Glick of the ``Today'' show? Haven't seen her for a while.

R.D. HELDENFELS: She has left the show. Insiders say that her contract was not renewed as the show underwent some restructuring. Glick may pop up in another part of NBC News.

Q: I have watched ``CSI: Miami'' a few times and would watch it more except for one thing. The lead character, David Caruso I believe, flops his head over on his right shoulder every time he is talking with someone or staring at something like a dead body. Does he have a cervical spine problem or does some strange director tell him to do it?

R.D. HELDENFELS: Nothing that fancy. It's just part of Caruso's acting style, however eccentric it may be.

Q: My family (and friends) love to watch History Channel all the time. But we have to change channels when Mr. Ermey of ``Mail Call'' appears because of his yelling. We find this irritating. Why does he have to yell?

R.D. HELDENFELS: Although R. Lee Ermey has played a variety of roles in 25 years as an actor, he is probably best known for playing military guys who yell. His breakthrough role was as a tough sergeant in Full Metal Jacket, and he came to the part with real credentials. He spent 11 years in the Marines, including two as a drill instructor.

Q: Has ``In Justice'' been canceled? It is one of my very favorite shows on TV. It is the ONLY show I watched on Fridays.

R.D. HELDENFELS: I am sorry to tell you that it is canceled.

Q: What happened to NBC's ``E-Ring''?

R.D. HELDENFELS: The network decided not to renew the drama starring Benjamin Bratt and Dennis Hopper for next season. The ratings just weren't good enough, said NBC Entertainment President Kevin Reilly. There are some unaired episodes that NBC will probably show this summer.

Q: I have tried unsuccessfully to find out what happened to Linda Vester of Fox News. Can you enlighten me?

R.D. HELDENFELS: In July 2005, she took a year-long maternity leave. In her online ``Vesterblog,'' she wrote, ``As much as I will miss my FOX family and all of you, deep in my heart, I know I'm doing the right thing for my children. But it's only a year, and I'm sure the time will fly by.''

Q: Do you know if ``Commander in Chief''will be back?

R.D. HELDENFELS: ABC did not pick up the show for next season. The Geena Davis drama had problems behind the scenes -- going through three different show-runners, for example -- and many viewers lost interest. The return on Thursday nights was so low-rated, ABC pulled the show faster than listings services could keep up with.

Still, ABC Entertainment President Stephen McPherson said recently that the network is considering a two-hour Commander in Chief movie, to be written by series creator Rod Lurie.

http://www.ohio.com/mld/ohio/entertainment/television/14607792.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp

Upfront Notebook
Fox Holds

The network is retaining much of its current schedule, adding just five new programs in the fall. "American Idol" will return in January.
By Matea Gold and Maria Elena Fernandez Los Angeles Times Staff Writers May 18, 2006

NEW YORK — Poised to beat out the competition in the prized 18- to 49-year-old demographic for the second year in a row, Fox is retaining much of its schedule next season, adding just five new programs in the fall.

"We're really able to build a schedule that shows strength and incredible stability across the board, across every night of the week," Peter Liguori, president of entertainment for the Fox Broadcasting Co., told reporters in a morning conference call today.

He noted that 16 of the network's returning shows will be in the same time period or on the same night next season. Four freshman programs — "Prison Break," "The Loop," "The War at Home" and "Bones" — have been renewed.

"American Idol," the juggernaut singing competition, will return in January in its current time slot, and teen favorite "The O.C." will remain at 9 p.m. on Thursdays throughout the year. Liguori said network executives briefly contemplated moving "The O.C" after ABC announced it was putting "Grey's Anatomy" in the same time slot, but concluded that the show's "incredibly loyal audience" would not be lured away.

For seven of the last eight years, Fox has attracted the largest number of 18- to 34-year-old viewers, and the network tried to reinforce its appeal to that demographic in its selection of new shows for next season.

"There's no question we feel that we are the network of choice for young viewers," said Liguori, adding that the new programs speak "directly to our young adult base, while still appealing to a broad audience."

Because its fall schedule is interrupted by the baseball season, Liguori said the network is going to launch its slate of programs even earlier in August in order to get viewers hooked, and then extend its spring season later into the year. After wrestling in past seasons with how to best air programs around the night-time games, the entertainment president said he feels comfortable that "we've solved how to manage baseball."

Following the trend of conspiracy-themed action dramas, Fox picked up "Vanished," the story of the search for the missing young wife of a prominent senator. The show, which will air at 9 p.m. Mondays, is "more 'Da Vinci Code-esque' than 'Mission Impossible,' " Liguori said.

The program will follow "Prison Break" in the fall, which will be replaced by "24" in January, followed by the return of "Prison Break" later in the spring, making Monday nights a "nonstop, high octane kind of franchise for us all year long," he added.

At 8 p.m. Tuesdays will be "Standoff," a drama about an elite pair of FBI crisis negotiators who are romantically involved. The network's third new drama, "Justice," airing at 9 p.m. Wednesdays, is a procedural show from powerhouse producer Jerry Bruckheimer about a team of lawyers who handle high-profile cases under the media glare.

Serialized shows have seen a resurgence this year as networks try to capitalize on the success of programs such as "24" and "Lost." Liguori said that while the network has embraced the genre, it has sought a balance between those kind of programs and "closed-ended" dramas that can be shown in repeats and are therefore more lucrative when selling to advertisers.

Fox has a reputation for provocative, irreverent comedies, but the network made relatively safe choices in that area this time. The network picked up "'Til Death," the story of two married couples in different stages of their relationship, starring "Everybody Loves Raymond's" Brad Garrett, and "Happy Hour," a sitcom about two bachelor roommates with very different styles.

Fox also tapped a new reality show for this fall. "Duets" — a singing competition produced by Simon Cowell — pairs professional singers with non-singing celebrities. In the spring, the network will air "On the Lot," a filmmaking talent competition being produced by Mark Burnett and Steven Spielberg.

Later in the season, the network plans to air the new drama "The Wedding Album," as well as the comedy "The Winner."

Nine shows are not returning in the fall, including "Bernie Mac." Liguori noted that "the overwhelming majority of those shows haven't been on our air since January."

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/tv/la-upfrontsfox18may18,1,2731177,print.story?coll=la-entnews-tv

Congress Watch
Stevens Announces Revised Video Franchising Legislation

Bill to Be Unveiled June 5 for a June 13 Commerce Committee Hearing
By Doug Halonen TVWeek.com May 18, 2006

Under the gun from Democrats, Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, announced Thursday that he plans to unveil on June 5 a revised version of his legislation to make it easier for phone companies to get into the pay cable TV business.

Sen. Stevens said the Senate Commerce Committee would hold a hearing on the revised bill June 13. In addition, he said a committee vote on the measure would be held June 20.

During Senate hearings on the lawmaker's bill, Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., and other Democrats made clear that they didn't believe that one key provision in the bill went far enough to prevent telephone and cable TV companies from abusing their power over their broadband networks to discriminate against Internet content providers.

Sen. Stevens said he planned to work on his bill with Sen. Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, to consider revisions that would give local governments a larger role in cable TV regulation than the bill-which turns much of the regulatory authority that local governments now have over cable to the Federal Communications Commission-would currently allow.

During an impromptu press briefing after the hearing, Sen. Stevens said he had yet to decide what revisions to include in the bill. He predicted that the measure would win Senate approval this year.

http://www.tvweek.com/news.cms?newsId=10034

Research
As to worries over ad-skipping, skip it

By Heidi Dawley MediaLifeMagazine.com staff writer May 18, 2006, 01:15

At the broadcast network upfront presentations this week, media buyers are hearing the big sell on the coming fall schedules, especially the new dramas, but the lingering worry remains: Will viewers also be seeing the ads that run with them?
Probably more than they have been led to think, suggests a new British study.

Researchers learned two interesting things about TV watchers, their digital video recorders, and time-shifted viewing.

First, TV watchers say they time-shift way more than they actually do.

Second, while viewers in fact do fast-forward through many ads in the programs they do time-shift, they still continue to pay a high degree of visual attention to commericials, even stopping to watch ones that appeal to them.

“The research suggests that the impact of DVRs on viewing of commercials may not be as extreme as some had previously thought,” says Mark Bunting, strategy manager at the British TV regulator Ofcom, one of the groups involved in the study. The others were ACB, a research group, the London Business School, Initiative Media, and British broadcasters ITV, Channel 4 and Five TV.

The study involved actually watching the participants as they interacted with their TVs by using a combination of in-home cameras and microphones. All the participants had been using DVRs for at least a year.

The participants, 23 people in eight homes, were asked how they used their DVRs before the study began, and then interviewed again after the study about their behavior.

It's one of the first times that actual behavior with DVRs has been monitored in this way, believes Sue Moseley, managing director for Futures at Initiative.

While the full results will not be released until next month, the early findings showed that a majority of programming in DVR households (just over 6 percent of households now have DVRs in the UK) is actually watched live and is not time shifted.

While the exact percentage has not been released yet, Moseley says that it is in line with the 13 percent figure that she has found in her analysis of recent data from BARB, a key provider of TV audience measurement figures in Britain. BARB initiated coverage of DVR households in March.

The study found that while most commercials in time-shifted viewing are fast forwarded, viewers are still watching them, and in no small part because they must do so in order to stop fast forwarding when the programming returns.

But also, reports Moseley, the filmed footage of the way the participants behaved shows viewers even stop the fast forward function to watch commercials they are interested in. Sometimes viewers will even watch a popular commercial more than once.

“It is acting like a filter,” says Moseley, of the DVR. “People chop out irrelevancy.”

The tendency to watch ads in a fast-forward mode is something that Todd Chanko, an analyst at JupiterResearch, has also commented on in a recent report. It is inevitable, he believes, that the viewer still has to pay attention to the ad in order to determine when the programming restarts.

“So what I argue for in my report is that everybody is all freaked out that people are fast forwarding the ads. But I say, ‘wait a minute’,” says Chanko. “This is a great advertising opportunity. Just create different kinds of ads that work in a real-time environment and can still get the message across in a fast forward environment.”

Another media expert, Graham Lovelace of Lovelace Consulting, a convergence media specialist, believes that this study demonstrates that there is still a lot of mileage in the broadcast model. This latest study, he believes, suggests that so far “the effect of the DVR may have been exaggerated.”

However, his view is that the TV landscape will ultimately be transformed by such new media tools.

“The DVR is not sounding the death knell for broadcast TV, but it is the first step in changing to a world where the TV shows are watched when viewers want them, not when schedulers dictate,” he says. “The advertiser has to get in the mindset of a very different form of behavior.”

http://www.medialifemagazine.com/artman/publish/printer_4818.asp

Upfront Notebook
Virginia Heffernan at the Television Upfronts

By Virginia Heffernan The New York Times TV Critic in the Times upfront blog

CW | 05.18 1:00 P.M.
Press Break
No one wears stockings anymore. I know they're now seen as hiding--you're supposed to have tan legs from the sun or from fake tanning --but it's still weird to see Dawn Ostroff sitting between two guys in suits on a director's chair at the press conference with bare legs. They seem so vulnerable and even childlike.
She's getting questions about "Seventh Heaven" and "Everwood." Critics are typically pro "Everwood" and anti "Seventh Heaven," and make a point of noting their very different religious vibes. But no one gets into the shows' sensibility or ideology here. They sound like sports reporters, and they want to know numbers, what's winning, counterprogramming strategies, product integration, etc.
A reporter asks about how UPN and the WB are getting along, if there have been any culture clashes in the merger. "Honestly," comes the reply, "it couldn't be smoother."
Why do people even go to press conferences?

CW | 05.18 12:20 P.M.
Everybody Does Love Chris!
"Tutors are expensive," says Chris's dad on "Everybody Hates Chris."
"We can barely afford kids. We can't afford stupid kids."
The audience laughs. And the laughter rises, just as it did last year, as Chris Rock more or less harangues everyone about being white. He says the network's going to cast a white girl as Chris this year, and make the "girlfriends" white. He uses swear words.
The well-behaved upfronts crowd, which looks like it could be at the Garden for a big evangelical faith rally, loves Chris Rock.
Wow--it's over! How quick and fun.

CW | 05.18 12:15 P.M.
Tech High Point
Finally! A lively digital presentation. No Zucker raving and pacing as he reels off arid jargon. No Anne Sweeney speeding through it, as if reading the "some restrictions may apply" clause to a radio contest.
Instead, the CW has produced a video that incorporates the sinuous logo, and demonstrates the way the network's content can wend its way through various media and screens. It all seems organic and unforced, pitched to an audience that finds technology easy, sexy, smooth, natural.

CW | 05.18 12:10 P.M.
Tell Me Why
Tyra likes the CW logo, and so do I.
The once-good "One Tree Hill" is back--that bloated teen Cinnabon of a show. Why are the "OTH" clips, and the show's airhead stars, so uniquely unsatisfying? And why did the network keep this and not "Everwood"?

CW | 05.18 12:08 P.M.
Highlights Reel
"Runaway" looks like that great River Phoenix movie "Running on Empty." I can't wait. And clips from "Gilmore Girls" and "Veronica Mars," now back-to-back on Tuesday night, are good reminders of how smart and irresistible those shows are.
This is a very good upfront. Ostroff is suggesting ways for advertisers to do non-traditional advertising: mini-shows thick with branding and product placement opps that air in commercial slots and progress as the show goes on. People might actually watch these, like they--I--watch the Cover Girl top model updates, against their (my) better judgment, on "America's Next Top Model."
And on that note: Tyra's here, and she slipped like Jennifer Garner at the Oscars, which makes Dawn Ostroff's strut in her heels all the more impressive.

CW | 05.18 12:06 P.M.
Viewer Finder
The
CW, if the network's short documentary about the typical viewer is right, is for white girls and African-American boys. The typical girl's hobby is "shopping." The typical boy's is "kicking it old school." Verbatim.
They've got some decent ideas about incorporating viewers into online fan geegaws, and letting advertisers sponsor fan-generated video. Digital brand extension makes most sense here on the CW, where the shows attract superempowered fans, and where the demo is accustomed to multi-screen entertainment.

CW | 05.18 11:46 A.M.
How Cool?
The
CW, the new network made up of the old UPN and WB, has an outtasight disco logo, and among its slogans is "Free to Be Cool," so--here at Madison Square Garden--I guess we're finally going to see how network executives conceive of cool, 2006 edition. The channel claims to "break the mold"-- and we'll see.
Leslie Moonves, the president of CBS (which controlled UPN), and Barry Meyer, the chairman of Warner Bros. (which controlled WB), have taken the stage at opposing podiums to announce their joint project. But the podium is the message: these guys are so far apart on stage, so not joined, they could be Hillary Clinton and John McCain at a presidential debate.
Fergie and the Black-Eyed Peas, who will seemingly perform anywhere, are now bringing youthness to the Garden.
Fergie introduced Dawn Ostroff, the CW president of entertainment, who struts out on stage on syringe-high heels, with runway confidence. Nice. Was she trained by Miss Jay?

http://www.nytimes.com/ref/arts/television/tv-upfronts.html

Upfront Notebook
Virginia Heffernan at the Television Upfronts

By Virginia Heffernan The New York Times TV Critic in the Times upfront blog

CW | 05.18 1:00 P.M.
Press Break
No one wears stockings anymore. I know they're now seen as hiding--you're supposed to have tan legs from the sun or from fake tanning --but it's still weird to see Dawn Ostroff sitting between two guys in suits on a director's chair at the press conference with bare legs. They seem so vulnerable and even childlike.
She's getting questions about "Seventh Heaven" and "Everwood." Critics are typically pro "Everwood" and anti "Seventh Heaven," and make a point of noting their very different religious vibes. But no one gets into the shows' sensibility or ideology here. They sound like sports reporters, and they want to know numbers, what's winning, counterprogramming strategies, product integration, etc.
A reporter asks about how UPN and the WB are getting along, if there have been any culture clashes in the merger. "Honestly," comes the reply, "it couldn't be smoother."
Why do people even go to press conferences?

CW | 05.18 12:20 P.M.
Everybody Does Love Chris!
"Tutors are expensive," says Chris's dad on "Everybody Hates Chris."
"We can barely afford kids. We can't afford stupid kids."
The audience laughs. And the laughter rises, just as it did last year, as Chris Rock more or less harangues everyone about being white. He says the network's going to cast a white girl as Chris this year, and make the "girlfriends" white. He uses swear words.
The well-behaved upfronts crowd, which looks like it could be at the Garden for a big evangelical faith rally, loves Chris Rock.
Wow--it's over! How quick and fun.

CW | 05.18 12:15 P.M.
Tech High Point
Finally! A lively digital presentation. No Zucker raving and pacing as he reels off arid jargon. No Anne Sweeney speeding through it, as if reading the "some restrictions may apply" clause to a radio contest.
Instead, the CW has produced a video that incorporates the sinuous logo, and demonstrates the way the network's content can wend its way through various media and screens. It all seems organic and unforced, pitched to an audience that finds technology easy, sexy, smooth, natural.

CW | 05.18 12:10 P.M.
Tell Me Why
Tyra likes the CW logo, and so do I.
The once-good "One Tree Hill" is back--that bloated teen Cinnabon of a show. Why are the "OTH" clips, and the show's airhead stars, so uniquely unsatisfying? And why did the network keep this and not "Everwood"?

CW | 05.18 12:08 P.M.
Highlights Reel
"Runaway" looks like that great River Phoenix movie "Running on Empty." I can't wait. And clips from "Gilmore Girls" and "Veronica Mars," now back-to-back on Tuesday night, are good reminders of how smart and irresistible those shows are.
This is a very good upfront. Ostroff is suggesting ways for advertisers to do non-traditional advertising: mini-shows thick with branding and product placement opps that air in commercial slots and progress as the show goes on. People might actually watch these, like they--I--watch the Cover Girl top model updates, against their (my) better judgment, on "America's Next Top Model."
And on that note: Tyra's here, and she slipped like Jennifer Garner at the Oscars, which makes Dawn Ostroff's strut in her heels all the more impressive.

CW | 05.18 12:06 P.M.
Viewer Finder
The
CW, if the network's short documentary about the typical viewer is right, is for white girls and African-American boys. The typical girl's hobby is "shopping." The typical boy's is "kicking it old school." Verbatim.
They've got some decent ideas about incorporating viewers into online fan geegaws, and letting advertisers sponsor fan-generated video. Digital brand extension makes most sense here on the CW, where the shows attract superempowered fans, and where the demo is accustomed to multi-screen entertainment.

CW | 05.18 11:46 A.M.
How Cool?
The
CW, the new network made up of the old UPN and WB, has an outtasight disco logo, and among its slogans is "Free to Be Cool," so--here at Madison Square Garden--I guess we're finally going to see how network executives conceive of cool, 2006 edition. The channel claims to "break the mold"-- and we'll see.
Leslie Moonves, the president of CBS (which controlled UPN), and Barry Meyer, the chairman of Warner Bros. (which controlled WB), have taken the stage at opposing podiums to announce their joint project. But the podium is the message: these guys are so far apart on stage, so not joined, they could be Hillary Clinton and John McCain at a presidential debate.
Fergie and the Black-Eyed Peas, who will seemingly perform anywhere, are now bringing youthness to the Garden.
Fergie introduced Dawn Ostroff, the CW president of entertainment, who struts out on stage on syringe-high heels, with runway confidence. Nice. Was she trained by Miss Jay?

http://www.nytimes.com/ref/arts/television/tv-upfronts.html

Silly me! I just came to realization that I have to read the Virginia Heffernan pieces from the bottom up. :D

Xendie, sorry about the misspelling, was right about Thursday night. I record Grey's, The O.C. and CSI. There is no way that I'll be able to record three in hd. One is going to get the SD treatment on the other dvr. Probably the O.C. b/c it's has the worst quality hd among the three.

Antonio: the first Heffernan piece I posted I edited to allow you to read from top on down. But it took too much time.
So now I just do minor typographical edits and post this way.
Sorry for the confusion.

DAMNIT! Let's see, Thursday night at 9:00pm (8:00pm Central):
ABC CBS FOX NBC CW
Grey's Anatomy CSI The O.C. Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip SupernaturalDoes Supernatural have a prayer against any of that? Well, let's see, we figured CSI would be there again, which (as they say) skews to male viewers. (Allegedly the "pretty boys" in Supernatural are aimed at young females, present company, and extended family who I've gotten hooked, apparently ignored.) So it might have been a reasonable guess that this would be good counterprogramming. But along comes Grey's Anatomy, which is produced, written, and stars women! Then there's one of the SNL behind-the-scenes on NBC, and the young skewing The O.C.

I realize it's probably seen as weakness, but you are the new kid on the block, CW. I'd recommend re-thinking your schedule. Just don't put Veronica Mars on Thursday at 9:00 either. It's both a detective show and aimed at young females!

Maybe swap Wednesday and Thursday?

Xesdeeni

Now when people ask why I have a High-Def TiVo and a 622 I can say Thursday's 9PM!

Upfront Notebook
CW Feeds Viewers 'Content Wraps'

By Scott Collins Los Angeles Times Staff Writer in his Channel Island TV Industry blog

"You better spend some mother (expletive deleted) money!" Chris Rock bellowed at media buyers Thursday, during the CW's fall lineup presentation at Madison Square Garden.

Of course, that's what this week of glorified sales meetings in New York is ultimately about — the almighty dollar. CW entertainment president Dawn Ostroff got right down to business, offering advertisers a chance to buy into "content wraps" during shows like "Gilmore Girls," just one of the former WB and UPN series that will air on the new network this fall.

And what, pray tell, are "content wraps?" They are "advertising-friendly TV shows that run during commercial breaks," according to a promotional reel. In other words, they are ... commercials.

This is an idea only an ad sales department could cook up: Brief "stories" — for example, a couple going out on a date — that will feature a tie-in with this or that product and air in several chapters throughout a show, in addition to the more conventional 30-second spots.

It's obvious network execs are doing whatever they can to grab increasingly elusive ad dollars. Television series are increasingly bursting with all sorts of product placements, especially in the unscripted arena, but content wraps are exactly what viewers don't need. In addition to 15 minutes per hour or so of commercials and promos, everyone will now be assaulted by a new ad scheme that will only further distract from the program. Yes, the shows have to be paid for, but there must be better ways than this.

But of course, as Rock said, it's all about the mother (expletive deleted) money.

http://hollywoodhotline.typepad.com/watcher/2006/05/upfronts_cw_fee.html

Critic’s Notebook
What to watch Thursday

By Robert Bianco USA Today

It's the last Thursday night of the 2005 TV season, so brace yourself for a gaggle of finales:

• The parade begins with the series finale of That '70s Show (Fox, 8 ET/PT), which wraps up the farewell celebration from last week. We'll see whether more people care this week.

• Unlike '70s, Fox's The OC (9 ET/PT) will return next season, but it may not be back with all the cast members you'll see at tonight's graduation party. Actually, a little cast-cleansing might not be a bad idea, considering that some of the actors seem to have already checked out.

• Last week, in one of the worst-kept secrets of all time, Brass was shot on CSI (CBS, 9 ET/PT). On tonight's season finale of TV's most popular scripted show, he fights for life, a battle in which Gil plays a part.

• Regulars also are at risk on Without a Trace (CBS, 10 ET/PT), as a guy with a gun shoots up the FBI office. What's happening on ER (NBC, 10 ET/PT)? You guessed it: Guys with guns blast away in the hospital. We know, all these different show runners are coming up with these ideas by themselves; it's not their fault everyone else is doing the same thing. Sorry, but one more shoot-'em-up finale, and we're taking all their toy guns away — and bombs, too, in case someone's tempted.

http://www.usatoday.com/life/columnist/criticscorner/column.htm

That's what DVRs are for!

This may have been posted too long ago - and gotten lost in all the upfront postings.
So, just in case, here it is again:

Thursday’s Season Finales

"Will & Grace," 8, NBC (Series finale)

"That '70s Show," 8, Fox (Series finale)

"CSI," 9, CBS

"The O.C.," 9, Fox

"Without a Trace," 10, CBS

"ER," 10, NBC

Sadly sweeps call for two -- and sometimes more -- DVRs.

Upfront Notebook
CW to Offer Advertisers Unique Commercial pods

By John Consoli MediaWeek.com MAY 18, 2006 -

CW will offer advertisers the opportunity to buy Content Wraps, a new, innovative way to advertise exclusively in commercial pods within its shows for next season.

Each Content Wrap will consist of one two-minute commercial pod that will contain a portion of short story. The vignette would be structured as a 15-second advertiser-sponsored lead-in, product integration within the story, possibly an advertiser screen crawl during the story, and an advertiser lead-out.

Within a night's two-hour programming block, three, two-minute Content Wraps would run for the same advertiser and story. The stories themselves would be created with advertiser participation. "It will be a collaborative effort," said Bill Morningstar, head of sales for the CW. "We would come up with stories that have both entertainment value for the viewers and something that can meet advertiser brand objectives.

An example shown during the CW's upfront presentation, was a story about a couple set to be matched up, undergo a makeover before meeting each other. Such a story can include product placement for a beauty product advertiser or any advertiser with a product that fits in with the makeovers.

"The advertiser would own the commercial pods and we would work with them to create the content," Morningstar said. The network could benefit if, because the pods would be in different shows for the same story, the viewers stayed with the network for each show to find out how the short stories are resolved.

Morningstar said his staff has been pitching media agencies on the concept for the past few months and said some deals could be finalized shortly. He said the formats are flexible. "We are trying to find ways to help advertisers break out of the clutter," Morningstar said. "We can't add another commercial pod, so these pods will replace an existing traditional pod that would contain only 30-second spots."

http://www.mediaweek.com/mw/news/recent_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1002538807

Obituary
Lew Anderson, 84

Jazz Performer, Bandleader Was Clarabell the Clown in `The Howdy Doody Show.'
By Valerie J. Nelson Los Angeles Times Staff Writer May 18, 2006

Lew Anderson, whose antics as Clarabell the Clown alongside Buffalo Bob Smith and Howdy Doody on one of television's first children's shows made an indelible impression on baby boomers, has died. He was 84.

Anderson, a musician and bandleader who regularly played in New York clubs, died Sunday of complications of prostate cancer at a hospice in Hawthorne, N.Y., said his son, Chris Anderson.

In the final moments of "The Howdy Doody Show" on Sept. 24, 1960, Anderson as the long-mute clown broke Clarabell's silence by turning to the camera with a tear in his eye and saying, "Goodbye, kids."

His first and last words on the show became a staple of television highlight reels.

Children related to the mischievous, seltzer-squirting clown with the Harpo Marx bent — he communicated by honking a horn — because "he got away with things they couldn't," Anderson told the Westchester County Journal News in 2000.

Though Anderson's six years as Smith's sidekick were an interlude to his long career as a jazz musician, the TV role brought him years of enjoyment and enduring fame.

"It was one of those seminal moments that carried into the rest of his life. There are pictures of him still in the costume in his late '70s when he appeared at autograph shows," his son told The Times. "He really dug it."

Although Anderson was the third actor to portray Clarabell, he was the best, Smith recalled in his 1990 memoir "Howdy and Me."

Bob Keeshan, who became famous as TV's Captain Kangaroo, originated the role of the prank-pulling clown in 1947 when the show was called "Puppet Playhouse." The second, Bobby Nicholson, decided to play another character on the show: J. Cornelius Cobb.

Producers were looking for someone who shared Smith's Midwestern sense of humor when they met Anderson, his son recalled.

"Do you juggle?" the show's producers inquired. "No," Anderson answered. "Dance?" "No." "Magic tricks?" "No."

"What can you do?" they asked. "Nothing," he said.

"Perfect. You start tomorrow," they replied.

He had never worn greasepaint or seen the show, but he knew how to make the character his own.

"Clarabell wasn't really a clown," Anderson said in 2000, but "a prankster and trickster. He was made for TV."

At the start of each episode, Smith would shout to the Peanut Gallery of 30 to 50 children, "Say, kids, what time is it?"

"It's Howdy Doody time!" they gleefully replied. Another episode would be off and running in Doodyville, with a cast populated by its namesake marionette, a baggy-suited Clarabell and such friends as Princess Summerfallwinterspring and Chief Thunderthud.

It was the first nationally broadcast weekday children's show, and an estimated 15 million preschoolers tuned in on their tiny, black-and-white television sets. Anderson often recalled that it seemed everyone had seen it.

"They come up and say, 'You don't know what it meant to us to grow up with you,' " he said.

The show, which ran for 13 years, became NBC's first regularly scheduled show broadcast in color and the first to last more than 1,000 episodes with a tally of more than 2,200.

When the show was canceled, Anderson said, it was "tough" to say goodbye but he was ready to return to his music.

Born May 7, 1922, in Kirkman, Iowa, Anderson was the son of a railroad telegrapher and a homemaker.

Like clowning, music fell into his life — when he picked up his sister's abandoned clarinet. By high school, he had his own dance band.

For two years, he attended Drake University in Des Moines on a music scholarship but dropped out to become a professional musician. By then an alto saxophonist, he joined Lee Barron's band, toured the West in a series of mostly one-nighters and refined his music-arranging skills.

When a colleague asked where he had studied arranging, Anderson answered: "On the bandstand, watching and listening."

During World War II, he served in the Navy on a submarine tender and put together a big band that performed in the Pacific theater. After leaving the service, he played in a series of bands that toured the Midwest.

In the late 1940s, he joined a singing group out of Chicago called the Honey Dreamers that appeared on radio and early television programs such as "The Ed Sullivan Show." Through that group, he crossed paths with Howdy Doody in 1954.

The popularity of the show surprised him, and he told of being mobbed by children while making personal appearances in the 1950s.

After the program ended, he spent the 1960s composing and arranging advertising jingles. He also played in Broadway orchestras and recording sessions.

Missing the music he grew up with, he formed the All-American Big Band, a well-reviewed group filled with musicians from recording studios and Broadway shows who played a book of 300 songs, a quarter of which Anderson had written.

The band had two successive, long-term gigs in New York City, including playing Friday nights at Birdland since the late 1990s.

In addition to his son, Chris, Anderson is survived by his wife, Peggy of South Salem, N.Y.; another son, Lewis Jr.; a stepdaughter, Lorie George; and five grandchildren.

Since Smith died in 1998, Anderson had mostly put away his striped Clarabell costume with the floppy shoes.

"Howdy Doody" had been Smith's "whole world," Anderson once said.

Anderson considered himself lucky to have had something else.

http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-anderson18may18,0,45279,print.story?coll=la-home-obituaries

Upfront Notebook
NBC Lags, ABC Leads Upfronts: Merrill

By Holly M. Sanders The New York Post

May 18, 2006 -- This year's television "upfront," when the networks unveil their new fall shows to advertisers, is looking like a repeat.

The six broadcast networks will sell about $9.1 billion in primetime advertising, unchanged from the 2005 upfront, according to Merrill Lynch estimates.

None of the networks had game-changing shows this season like ABC did two years ago when it debuted "Desperate Housewives," "Lost" and "Grey's Anatomy."

Every year advertisers and their media buyers descend here to preview the new fall shows before committing billions of dollars to the coming television season.

This year is different in that all the networks have rolled out a number of new "digital" offerings, leaving advertisers to figure out how to spread their dollars across television, the Internet and even cellphones.

Analysts and ad buyers said the new options are likely to drag out the upfront negotiations, which in years past would often wrap up before Memorial Day.

NBC, whose ratings dropped 14 percent this year, is expected to be down again in the upfront, offsetting gains at ABC, CBS and Fox, Merrill analyst Jessica Reif Cohen wrote in a report.

NBC will drop 3 percent this year, to $1.84 billion, after suffering a 33 percent decline last year. Media buyers said its saving grace is the addition of a new Sunday night football package.

Cohen said NBC is likely to sell more inventory in this year's upfront - rather than reduce prices - after "one of the worst upfront experiences in recent memory."

ABC pleased advertisers last year with modest price increases despite resurgent ratings and is expected to take the lead again this year. Ad sales are estimated to rise 7 percent, to $2.23 billion.

Meanwhile, CBS with the most stable lineup, will see a slight increase of 1 percent, to $2.63 billion, according to Cohen.

She predicts the biggest gainer will be Fox, moving up 12 percent to $1.78 billion. Fox and MyNetwork TV, a new network, are owned by News Corp., which also owns The Post.

Fox, riding high on the success of "American Idol," is considered the most likely beneficiary of the ad dollars directed at young audiences that once flowed to the WB and UPN.

http://www.nypost.com/php/pfriendly/print.php?url=http://www.nypost.com/business/661

Upfront Notebook
Fox falls for dramatic series

The Hollywood Reporter Staff report May 19, 2006

Fox is getting dramatic next fall with three new series joining its Monday-Wednesday drama block and a new comedy strategy on Thursdays.

Fox will open the week with the sophomore year of "Prison Break" followed by new conspiracy-thriller drama "Vanished," about the disappearance of a U.S. senator's beautiful young wife.

New drama "Standoff," about male and female hostage negotiators who are romantically linked, holds the 8 p.m. lead off slot on Tuesdays, followed the return of red-hot medical drama "House."

The sophomore season of forensic-detective drama "Bones" opens Wednesday nights in tandem with a new Jerry Bruckheimer TV drama "Justice," about prominent lawyers handling high-profile media-frenzy cases.

On Thursdays Fox is trying comedies from 8-9 p.m., leading with two freshmen: Brad Garrett domestic comedy "'Til Death" and buddy-guy comedy "Happy Hour."

Fridays will be all unscripted with "Nanny 911" leading into "Trading Spouses: Meet Your New Mommy." The law remains laid down on Saturdays with a double-dose of "Cops" followed by "America's Most Wanted: America Fight's Back."

The Sunday 7-8 p.m. hour is a swing slot that often absorbs football overruns. "The Simpsons" returns as always at 8 p.m., followed by animated "American Dad," which is moving up an hour from the 9:30 p.m. slot it had this season. "Family Guy" is back at 9 p.m. followed by the sophomore season of live-action family comedy "The War at Home."

Fox schedule will undergo significant shifts in January when "American Idol" returns with an hourlong Tuesday 8 p.m. performance show and half-hour 9 p.m. Wednesday results show. "24" will return to Monday 9 p.m. for another marathon run through the rest of the season. It'll be paired at 8 p.m. with "Standoff."

Following the "Idol" results show on Wednesdays will be the return of comedy "The Loop." Fridays will shift to scripted drama in January with "Bones" moving to 8 p.m. and newcomer "The Wedding Album," about a wedding photographer," at 9 p.m.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr/television/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1002538752

Sadly sweeps call for two -- and sometimes more -- DVRs.

Anything less than 3 per home is sacrilege!

Upfront Notebook
The CW

"Veronica Mars," "Girlfriends" are in, "Everwood" is out
By Melanie McFarland Seattle Post-Intelligencer TV Critic in her TV blog

Perhaps that headline isn't news to most viewers; rumors about The CW's schedule have been floating around since last week. Still, it's nice to get official confirmation that our favorite teen detective and Monday night posse will still be there for us in the fall.

Naturally there are caveats to the news that "Veronica Mars" and "Girlfriends" are going to show up on The CW when it launches in the fall. "Mars" is getting a full season order of 22 episodes, but if the ratings don't pick up, it could be reduced to 13.

Now, if CBS Corp. wants to say it gave the series every chance possible, it'll run the second season on the main network over the summer -- and not just for a couple of episodes, either. Give people at least half a season to get hooked on the mysteries, and they'll come back for more in the fall, not to mention snag the DVD set when it is released.

As for our "Girlfriends," it represents the tentpole in The CW's urban (read: African American-targeted) comedy block. The fact that it preserved UPN's mission to court black viewers is fantastic. What might not be so great is that it moved the block from Mondays to Sundays, putting "Everybody Hates Chris," its highest-rated comedy, on at 7 p.m. -- when nobody's watching.

http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/tv/archives/103574.asp#extended

Anything less than 3 per home is sacrilege!

I've got 3 HD Tivos, but the problem is location. Shows the whole family watch need to be recorded in the Family Room or I have to try and pile three teenagers into our bedroom to watch. Thursdays are a bear (I think 8pm also).

Upfront Notebook
Goodbye, "Everwood"

By Hal Boedeker Orlando Sentinel Television Critic in the Sentinel’s TV blog May 18, 2006

The CW ditched "Everwood" but salvaged "One Tree Hill" and revived "7th Heaven," which is a rather strange way to start a network. "Everwood," starring Treat Williams (left), still had life in it while the other two WB dramas deserved to rest in peace. The WB had said farewell to "7th Heaven" this month after an impressive 10-year run. The show needs an 11th season? Come on.

The CW will add just two new series -- a comedy and a drama -- in the fall while mixing the survivors from the fading UPN and WB.

The CW said that "Reba" will return at midseason. The cancellations from UPN include "One on One," "Half & Half," "Love, Inc., " "Eve" and "Cuts." From the WB, the goners include "Pepper Dennis," "Related," "Twins" and "The Bedford Diaries."

Here's the fall schedule:

Sunday: "Everybody Hates Chris" at 7; "All of Us" at 7:30; "Girlfriends" at 8; "The Game" at 8:30; a repeat of "America's Next Top Model" at 9. "The Game" is a "Girlfriends" spinoff about a pro football player (Aldis Hodge) and his savvy girlfriend (Tia Mowry).

Mondays: "7th Heaven" at 8; "Runaway" at 9. The dramatic "Runaway" plays like a family version of "The Fugitive." A father (Donnie Wahlberg) is wrongly accused of a killing; he goes on the run with his wife and three children. The series comes from Darren Star of "Melrose Place" and "Sex and the City."

Tuesdays: "Gilmore Girls" at 8; "Veronica Mars" at 9.

Wednesdays: "America's Next Top Model" at 8; "One Tree Hill" at 9. "Top Model" will rotate in the time slot with "Beauty and the Geek."

Thursdays: "Smallville" at 8; "Supernatural" at 9.

Fridays: "Friday Night Smackdown!" at 8.

For midseason, the CW has lined up "Hidden Palms" about a 15-year-old who finds relocation to Palm Springs to be disorienting. The show comes from Kevin Williamson of "Dawson's Creek."

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

Upfront Notebook
Virginia Heffernan at the Television Upfronts

By Virginia Heffernan The New York Times TV Critic in the Times upfront blog

FOX | 05.18 5:24 P.M.
Dark and Desperate
"Til Death," a marriage comedy starring Brad Garrett from "Everybody Loves Raymond," is never going to last. CBS is going to be happy to have lost him.
Now Garrett's doing stand-up. He's joking about Paula Abdul being a mental patient. Then he says he's having sex with Ryan Seacrest. It's dark and desperate and people inexplicably are going for it.
Upfront to upfront, this audience seems to change personalities. Or maybe different factions dominate the laughter, depending on the presentation.
"Happy Hour," a comedy about a single guy having sex, looks dreadful, too.

FOX | 05.18 5:10 P.M.
Even in Tokyo
Peter Liguori, Fox’s president for entertainment, still sounds like Alan Alda, but less so than last year. Lower voice, more allergic-sounding. He’s relaxed and normal, a soft-seller, even as he talks about how scrappy and aggressive Fox is.
Fox's numbers are hard to ignore. And, unlike ABC, it's got a range of powerhouse shows. For what it's worth, too, Fox shows — specifically "24" and "Prison Break" — are the only American shows that were super-visible in Tokyo, where I was last week. They were everywhere. Fox’s shows generate that adrenaline high that plays across cultures and works in translation.

FOX | 05.18 4:57 P.M.
Reaching Out
You can "sponsor a fan's ability to stream '24','' says Fox's head of interactive. It sounds like sponsoring a Cambodian child, except that it also sounds insane. But such are the offers being made to advertisers.
I should have said earlier that News Corporation's acquisition of MySpace means that Fox.com can now claim the "second most page views on the web." Wow. Is that after Yahoo? That's genuinely impressive.

FOX | 05.18 4:50 P.M.
Drone, Drone
Shazam, pow, crack, pop! The assault of Fox's violent self-concept begins with a deafening montage of clips from "American Idol,'' "24,'' "Family Guy,'' "Prison Break,'' "House'' and "The OC.''
Into this cacophony comes John Nesvig, Fox's president of sales , who is a huge droner. He must be the most downbeat salesman in the business. I can't remember what he said, but now we're into tech, and - though Fox has plenty to boast about in its partnerships with the Websites MySpace and Rotten Tomatoes - the presentation is whatever bar graphs and boresville blah. Only the CW seems to have done this part right.

FOX | 05.18 4:39 P.M.
Feeding the Rich
It occurs to me that there's definitely a slot for "rich" as an overt sensibility within the networks. Fox is bound to stick with its rambunctious, bullying Simon Cowell thing. ABC has its from-the-heart we-care approach. The CW has seized young and cool, while CBS stays blue-chip and risk-averse. Men, women, young, old - they're covered. But rich: this year, with everyone "upscale"-averse (that gruesome word's been sidelined this year), the poor rich are underserved!
NBC’s only hope is to do all the rich stuff (along with football, of course). Or aspirational stuff, or both. Charlie Rose-style news, “Rome”-style epics, shows with English and Canadian actors, “Project Runway”-style stuff, “House”-style drama, presidential debates and Bush parody, “The Colbert Report”-style comedy, cooking and restaurant and home-oriented programs. That would give context to “The Office” (it’s satire of the middle class!) and “Earl” (it’s satire of the poor!), while creating an engine for flattering limousine liberals, God love them, with their lifestyle preoccupations.
Such a network would be, as they say, extremely attractive to advertisers.
Oh, but that’s for NBC. I’m at Fox and there’s Paula Abdul and it’s time to forget the rich.

FOX | 05.18 4:22 P.M.
Security Thugs
Worst upfront: Fox. True, it hasn't started but it's at the Armory, and it's never at the same place year to year, and getting in was a disorganized mob scene with hand stamps on top of tickets and photo I.D.'s and security thugs. Does Fox use the same heavies that Fox News does? Bill O'Reilly's security?
Anyway, we're in shabby little temporary fair-ground seats that seem unsteady. Seat-saving jerks have managed to get a single suit jacket from Syms to dominate four places. Fox is already seeming blockheaded and pushy, and the upfront hasn't started yet.

http://www.nytimes.com/ref/arts/television/tv-upfronts.html

Upfront Notebook
Veronica Mars Gets A Third Season

By Kevin D. Thompson Palm Beach Post Television Writer

While I’m still bummed that Everwood is no more, I got a little pick-me-up when The CW -- I swear that sounds more like a fancy European car than a fledgling network -- announced it was renewing Veronica Mars.

Mars is one of those shows that’ll never become a huge hit (hey, it was on UPN, after all), but will continue to boast a small, but rabid following.

On the surface, Mars sounds like a teen version of Nancy Drew. But the series is much deeper than that as evidenced by the recently concluded, season-long bus crash mystery.

Like The Wire or Lost, if ya blink when you watch Mars, you missed something. So many characters. So many motives. So much going on. So much to look forward to next season.

Mars remains out of this world -- and thankfully still on TV.

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/blogs/content/shared-blogs/palmbeach/thompson/entries/2006/05/veronica_mars_g.html

I've got 3 HD Tivos, but the problem is location. Shows the whole family watch need to be recorded in the Family Room or I have to try and pile three teenagers into our bedroom to watch. Thursdays are a bear (I think 8pm also).

There's always the D* TivoToGo SneakerNet. I've used this method several times to watch a show in a particular room when I didn't record it there. It's slow, but sure. Just handle with care. I usually do it when no one is looking so I don't get questions about what I'm doing.

How does Fox Network stay profitable with only 2 hrs a night of prime time shows ( 3 hrs on Sun)?

Why don't they just add 10:00 prime time programming?

TV Review
Earthquake's main fault? Stupidity

By Diane Werts Newsday Staff Writer May 19, 2006

And you thought Jack Bauer was having a bad day. The "24" operative has nothing on the folks of NBC's miniseries sequel "10.5: Apocalypse," (Sunday and Tuesday 9-11 PM ET/PT).

Oops. The title's kind of a giveaway, isn't it?

A dead giveaway. Dead, as in the teens tumbling off a ski lift, the motorists consumed by a sinkhole, the gamblers squished like their wallets when the glitz of Las Vegas gets what's coming to it.

Or have I said too much? No, guess not. You've seen the title.

It ups the ante from NBC's 2004 disaster-mini titled simply "10.5," in which geologic scientists Kim Delaney and David Cubitt sat around offices and watched numbers on computer screens climb as earthquakes built up steam in a swath down the West Coast. Our heroes also raced into the field to take measurements, watch things fall and talk on cell phones a lot.

They do that again here, when "quake swarms" rampage their way east from the coast, across the mountains and into the plains, threatening not just the likes of Hoover Dam and Mount Rushmore but more importantly Delaney's daddy and the daughter of the president of the United States!

Yes, this miniseries has its priorities. Those include heart-tugging chats between people we barely know and couldn't care less about, and wannabe stirring dialogue of this ilk: "It's a losing battle, Mr. President." "Only if you give up."

Back behind the scenes is the creative team from the more sober original, led by writer-director John Lafia ("The Dead Zone"). But their new "Apocalypse" feels forced, frantic and continually preposterous. Especially since it's more of the same, taking place just 93 hours, we're told, since the original Seattle "event" started those West Coast skyscrapers falling. Even Hawaii gets hit, 2,500 miles away, in a "tidal wave" that swallows up a cruise ship (right) before blasting into Waikiki at a seeming height of 200 feet (sure).

It's hard to decide which is more absurd - the huge horrors, frenziedly rendered on a TV budget, or the tacky human melodramas for which they provide obliteration backdrop. Garcelle Beauvais-Nilon plays a once-bitten disaster worker sent to help manage the crisis. Will she act twice-shy?

Dean Cain and Oliver Hudson are paired as fire-fighting brothers saving lives in the rubble as they wrangle over their rivalry. Meanwhile, Hudson's peeved wife Carly Pope pouts on her own over in Vegas. That's where we also find Frank Langella, the discredited geology genius who saw it all coming, was roundly ridiculed, and thus quit the government to go play poker instead. (This isn't just a disaster flick. It's a trend spotter!) Can he swallow his pride to help his daughter (Delaney) solve this puzzle of "magmatic activity"? Or will the earth swallow him first?

We're asked to swallow plenty ourselves. The action hops from location to location with little indication, though the second night calms down a bit. Too bad it takes so long to feel anchored that our minds can't stop wandering, wondering whether Delaney is pregnant or just puffy and why the president (Beau Bridges) always seems to be sitting by himself in a dark cubbyhole someplace as the mega-crisis rages on.

The president's behavior doesn't make sense on "24," either, but Fox's crisply delivered cliffhanger thrills us right through its illogic and incongruities. No such mojo here - not even in casting "24" agent Carlos Bernard as a field doctor/mentor to Tamara Hope's presidential daughter trying to prove herself.

NBC's miniseries attempts to stoke tension by jacking up the music and jerking the camera around, which comes off less as cinema-verite immediate than desperation inept. If the lens can't sit still for this nonsense, why should we?

http://www.newsday.com/entertainment/tv/ny-ettel4745496may19,0,3382882,print.story?coll=ny-television-headlines

The ABC News Decision
Tracy or Hepburn?

(OK, Maybe Not, But How About Gibson or Sawyer?)
By Michael Starr The New York Post

May 18, 2006 -- Like the tortured Hamlet, ABC can't seem to decide who's taking over the "World News Tonight."

There are only two candidates for the job: "Good Morning America" co-hosts Diane Sawyer and Charlie Gibson.

And the pressure to come up with a new, semi-permanent anchor for the evening news is builiding fast. Last week, for the first time in five years, ABC slipped into third place in the ratings race - behind NBC and CBS.

ABC's hemming and hawing over the "WNT" situation has the industry buzzing, especially with the current anchor, Elizabeth Vargas, taking maternity leave in three months.

Many thought that ABC would announce its new anchor this week during the annual upfronts, when the networks unveil their fall schedules to affiliates and advertisers.

"We heard they were going to make a decision by the upfronts and affiliates meeting," says one network news source. "There are certain benchmarks a network goes through in making a decision, particularly in wanting their advertisers and affiliates to know what they're doing.

"And now it's really strange that neither has happened there."

Sources tell The Post that Gibson will likely occupy the "WNT" anchor chair once Vargas takes her maternity leave - with Sawyer remaining on "GMA" at least through next year.

"They don't want to take both Charlie and Diane off 'GMA,'" says one source. "They want to keep 'GMA' strong."

Gibson and Sawyer both subbed for the ailing Peter Jennings last year and were considered the frontrunners to replace him after his death.

Both were said to be disappointed when Vargas and Bob Woodruff were named the newscast's co-anchors.

Gibson's name resurfaced after Woodruff was seriously injured in Iraq last January, and ABC reportedly came thisclose to naming him "temporary permanent replacement" while Woodruff recovers from his injuries.

While that never happened, Gibson has now gotten the OK to take over "WNT" in Vargas' absence once a new contract is ironed out, sources say.

"I think at some point Charlie will leave 'GMA' altogether," says one insider. "They'll probably start him off doing both 'GMA' and 'WNT' as he did before, then have him work with Vargas and transition him in to 'WNT' when she's on maternity leave."

"Nothing has been decided, and when a decision is made it will be announced to everyone," said an ABC News source.

"You have two great broadcasts in 'GMA' and 'World News Tonight.' We want to make a strategic move that benefits both shows."

http://www.nypost.com/php/pfriendly/print.php?url=http://www.nypost.com/entertainment/68733.htm

Upfront Notebook
Virginia Heffernan at the Television Upfronts

By Virginia Heffernan The New York Times TV Critic in the Times upfront blog

FOX | 05.18 6:20 P.M.
Morning in America, Again
Hugh Laurie, the dashing Dr. House of "House, M.D.'', says he knows we're hoping this day will never end. How true that is. Actually, how genuinely true it genuinely is. I love the upfronts. They're perfect for spring, and they convey so much optimism and hope. You also get a sense of how these major media monsters are reading America — what each network thinks we want. Are we feeling irreverent, contented, fearful, exhausted, lonely? Do we want comfort, laughter, suspense? Each upfront has given different answers.
The networks really humble themselves before us each season, doing their latest acts like amateurs — like "American Idol'' contestants - nervously hoping we'll like their best efforts. And we will like some of them.
And next year at the upfronts the networks will take all that into account, along with everything else they think they've learned about America, and they'll try once again to produce the perfect television schedule. I can't wait.

FOX | 05.18 6:05 P.M.
A Real Presence
Kiefer Sutherland is on stage. Nice dark suit. H's become an eminence somehow: He's now got his father's gravitas and, later, if he gets a movie career (back), you can see him at the Oscars getting the Clooney/Beatty treatment.
"24," he says, is going to have its formula upended next season. Of course he doesn't say how.

FOX | 05.18 6:00 P.M.
Winner, Loser
"The Winner," a "Raymond" plus "Two and a Half Men" sitcom, looks like a bust. Rob Corddry stars. One of those previews that leads you to believe there really can never, ever be a good sitcom again if something like this is getting greenlighted.
Now Garrett's doing stand-up. He's joking about Paula Abdul being a mental patient. Then he says he's having sex with Ryan Seacrest. It's dark and desperate and people inexplicably are going for it.
"Vanished," by contrast, looks OK. It gets "Prison Break" as a lead-in on Monday night, and the block might work. Moonves is right: we're in the golden age of television drama.

FOX | 05.18 5:54 P.M.
So Down Under
David Hill, chairman and CEO of Fox sports, is Australian. It’s just wrong to hear him talk about American football and brands like Tostitos, which — it turns out — he can’t pronounce. It becomes a recurring joke in a grueling shtick about Fox sports that is actually the first presentation all week to fully bomb — like crickets, silence, comic death, blunders, dry mouth. It’s nerve-wracking and indescribably bad, and people even leave during it. Does something like this cost David Hill his job?

FOX | 05.18 5:49 P.M.
Not Funny
Was Hollywood always so fascinated by weddings? We’ve had a decade of movies about them, and now two TV shows: “Big Day” on ABC, and “The Wedding Album” on Fox. Something’s wrong with me after this long week, maybe, but I thought “The Wedding Album” looked kind of fun. Weddings are apparently funnier than marriage, or at least marriage to Brad Garrett.
Spike Feresten, who has a talk show next season called “Talkshow,” just told us that Peter Liguori gets called “Peter Li-gorgeous” by the women at the network. Spike is maybe very not funny. He wrote the Seinfeld “Soup Nazi” episode but is new to performing. You can tell.

http://www.nytimes.com/ref/arts/television/tv-upfronts.html

Upfront Notebook
CW orders a combination plate

The new network picks up young-skewing hits from defunct columns A (the WB) and B (UPN).
By Maria Elena Fernandez and Scott Martelle[B] Los Angeles Times Staff Writers May 19, 2006

NEW YORK — For fans of programs on the soon-to-die WB and UPN networks, Thursday's announcement of their offspring's inaugural fall season looked a little like a reality-show knockoff: "Survivor: The CW Version."

Picking mostly top-rated shows among 18-to-34-year-olds from the WB and UPN, the new CW is going with themed nights and combining former competitors "Top Model" and "One Tree Hill" into what the network hopes will be a strong one-two punch on Wednesdays.

Tuesday will be a Girls' Night, with the WB's "The Gilmore Girls," about a single mother and her daughter, at 8 p.m. followed at 9 by UPN's "Veronica Mars," about a single father and his daughter. Thursday's focus on science fiction and the occult would seem to make it Boys' Night, with "Smallville," about Superman's early days on Earth, at 8 p.m. followed by "Supernatural," about two brothers seeking the demon that killed their mother, at 9. Both shows are now on the WB.

As executives wrestled with the programming lineup for the new network they were heavily lobbied by fans of WB and UPN shows, including banner-toting airplanes over Burbank and special-delivery gifts.

For some fans, the news was good. Fan favorite "7th Heaven" found new life for an 11th season, airing Mondays at 8 p.m., and "Reba" returns as a midseason replacement.

But the WB's "Everwood," a critical favorite that drew older viewers, didn't live up to its name — the show is gone as the CW targets the coveted youth demographic, which has been flocking to Fox shows seven of the last eight seasons. About one-third of those viewers are minorities, according to the CW's audience research.

"Picking our schedule was a scheduler's dream," said Dawn Ostroff, CW's president of entertainment. "It was like playing fantasy football but with TV shows."

Only two new shows made the fall cut: "The Game," a comedy about pro football players' wives and girlfriends, and "Runaway," a new Darren Star drama following a family on the run as the father tries to clear himself of false murder charges.

Another new show, "Hidden Palms," about dark secrets in placid Palm Springs, made the cut for midseason.

One notable shift in the fall lineup: "Everybody Hates Chris" goes from 8 p.m. Thursdays on UPN to 7 p.m. Sundays (not Mondays as was previously suggested), against the NFL and "60 Minutes."

CW executives hope the show, followed by UPN's "All of Us" at 7:30, will draw families leading into the network's only night of comedies.

"It will give them an opportunity to find new audiences, and it's early enough in the night that you can watch those with your kids," Ostroff said.

While the CW touted the diversity of its programming, most of the shows on the new lineup feature white casts — a development not lost on Chris Rock, who was part of CW's presentation to media and advertisers at Madison Square Garden.

"Buy more ads because Chris next year is going to be played by a white girl," Rock said, referring to his childhood self on "Everybody Hates Chris." "And the girls on 'Girlfriends' are going to be white girls. We will see more white people. Some are just going to walk through and wave. They're not even going to have lines or anything."

Ostroff dismissed suggestions that the network was moving away from the minority-heavy programming on UPN in particular.

"This is a new network that will honor diversity in front and behind the camera," Ostroff said. "There's no other network that has as much diversity as we do."

The CW's offensive extends beyond television itself. It plans interactive features on its website, including the "CW Lab," allowing viewers to post videos of themselves in hopes of getting them on the air, and the "CW Lounge," devoted to chat rooms and Myspace.com-style personal Web pages.

And network officials hope new "content wraps" will ignite interest among advertisers. The concept centers on creating short, self-contained stories incorporating product placement that will play out over the course of an evening.

For example, contestants selected from an online dating game show would be followed by a camera crew on their date, which would then be edited into ad-length shorts that, over the course of a night's programming, would complete a narrative.

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/tv/la-et-cw19may19,1,3666902,print.story?coll=la-entnews-tv

Upfront Notebook
Live From the Upfronts

Los Angeles Times staff writers Maria Elena Fernandez and Matea Gold report from New York

'American Idol' judges give Liguori a once-over
Thursday, 3:19 p.m.

Always one of the most gracious and grateful actors on TV, Kiefer Sutherland appeared on stage to thank advertisers for supporting "24."

Sutherland, who also produces the action-packed thriller, said that the production team is so energized by the show's growth this year that they agreed not to take other jobs this year to get ahead of next season. To that end, they already have the first four scripts written.

"This is the most incredible opportunity I've had as an actor ... If I could buy you all a drink, but Peter's (Liguori) already taken care of that."

Then the "American Idol" judging trio showed up on stage sitting behind their judging desk. Each critiqued Liguori, Fox's president of entertainment.

Randy Jackson asked him what look he was going for.

Paula Abdul told him he seems like a real nice guy but his eyebrows could use tweezing.

And Simon Cowell spoke up for the masses: "This is the most bored audience I've ever seen in my life."

At Cowell's blunt assessment, the crowd applauded and cheered.

Minutes later, Liguori thanked Cowell for "embarassing me" in front of the audience and his family.

Quite a few people were seen trickling out of the building early.
________________________________________


Garrett's stand-up routine leaves some buyers rattled
Thursday, 2:23 p.m.

The Fox upfront kicked off with an old-fashioned Radio City style song-and-dance number featuring "Family Guy" creator Seth MacFarlane and Alex Borstein, who provides te voice for the wife on the animated show, dressed in gold sequined suits and singing "come to Fox and buy" as Rockette-type dancers and men in white tails swirled around them.

Then, as booming music filled the cavernous room, a parade of Fox stars marched down the aisles onto the stage. Hugh Laurie and Kiefer Sutherland sparked swells of cheers from the crowd.

But it was a stand-up routine by Brad Garrett, star of Fox's new show "'Til Death," that seemed to startle even the most seasoned ad buyers.

He started off with: "It's just great to stand on a stage where I don't have to kiss Ray Romano's ass."

Then he took a dig at the acting chops of Leslie Moonves, his last boss, at CBS. He followed that by noting that Paula Abdul was in attendance. "It's nice to know Bellevue has a shuttle bus. " As murmurs spread through crowd, Garrett asked bluntly, "You think Ryan Seacrest is gay?"

Some murmurs turned into gasps.

The comic actor concluded by showing a clip of the infamous kiss Pamela Anderson planted on Fox Entertainment President Peter Liguori at last year's upfront presentation.

As Garrett exited the stage, Liguori took the microphone over, saying "It's going to be a long night."
________________________________________


Fox draws a huge street crowd to Midtown
Thursday, 1:46 p.m.

The network was forced to delay its upfront presentation at least 20 minutes this afternoon when the doors opened late and invited guests struggled to make their way into the Armory for the show, while hundreds of fans amassed around them hoping to spot a few celebrities.

The crowd extended a full city block north from the Armory entrance, which in itself posed something of a challenge for ad buyers in suits and heels, with its long staircase leading inside.

As buyers trudged up the stairs of the 1912 building, Hollywood agents were sneaking by, throwing a few elbows left and right, and crazed fans tried to get a sneak peak of anyone they might recognize as a television star – Hugh Laurie? Kiefer Sutherland?

One man, apparently homeless, yelled out to anyone listening that he was kicked out and that he was going to sue.

Inside, early arrivals were treated to hip hop music and found themselves a bit mesmerized by the twinkly lights dotting the walls, for the most part unaware of the chaos outside.

Fox sales chief Jon Nesvig apologized to the crowd “for the delays at the door.”
________________________________________


Fans swarm the boys with squeals
Thursday, 12:38 p.m.

More than 40 fans, mostly women in the 18- to 34- age demographic, were cordoned off behind metal barricades waiting for CW stars to make their entrances at the party.

When "Smallville" star Tom Welling was leaving, the squealing began, prompting Welling to strike his GQ pose and smile for the clicking cell phone cameras.

Papparrazi photographers yelled "Tom, you're the man!" At which point "Supernatural" star Jared Padalecki walked up to enjoy his own moment of glory. This CW hottie took the time to pose for pictures with the ladies.
________________________________________


The CW serves up sexy men and salmon in Bryant Park
Thursday, 11:38 a.m.

The CW knows what young people like: network execs threw their first-ever after-upfront gathering at Bryant Park Grill right next to Bryant Park in Manhattan. The open-space outdoor area served as a sexy lounge where beautiful people like the boys from "Smallville" and "Supernatural" could eat and be merry while regular folks admired them from the grass.

After many days of rain in NYC, Thursday turned out to be a glorious day to launch a new network. And the CW did it right, with a superb buffet that included salmon, macaroni and cheese and an open bar.

The only thing missing from the party, according to Steven Zeidenfeld of Imperia Vodka is, well, his vodka. "It's not Russian, nor is it the No.1 luxury Vodka of Russia," he said of the brand being poured at the open bar. His good stuff, it turns out, was only available to the special people allowed inside the restaurant during the party.

As it turned out, Zeidenfeld didn't even know what the CW was. But then, he's well past the 18- to 34-demographic advertisers want, so who cares?

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/tv/la-upfronts-dispatches-sp,1,897358.special?coll=la-entnews-tv

Upfront Notebook
The viewer is secondary in TV land

By Rick Kushman Sacramento Bee TV Columnist

Not so long ago, like Monday, we were saying how TV is really aimed at advertisers, not viewers.

And so far this week, as the major networks have been announcing their new fall lineups, they’ve been saying it over and over, too: “Viewers: Like we care.”

That point is getting made loudestmost loudly in the coming battle over the 9 p.m. Thursday time slot. ABC said Tuesday that it will move “Grey’s Anatomy,” its most popular show and TV’s second-hottest scripted series, to that spot.

That means it will compete against CBS’ “CSI,” TV’s No. 1 scripted show, and NBC’s “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip,” the drama from “Sports Night” and “The West Wing” creator Aaron Sorkin that’s the highest-profile new show this fall.

(That’s nationally. In Sacramento, where Channel 13 runs its annoying early CBS prime time, instead of “CSI,” the 9 p.m. slot will feature “Without a Trace,” which is a top-five show and no slouch, either.)

Who’s got the recording capacity to catch all three? Whatever. This move is first about advertising dollars. Every move the networks make is first about advertising dollars, though to be fair, that’s not unreasonable since those ad dollars pay for, you know, most of television. Still, you’d like someone to pretend viewers matter.

Thursday nights are extremely valuable territory when it comes to those dollars. Viewership is Viewing levels are high, and more importantly, advertising rates are even higher. Lots of big-bucks advertisers, including movie studios and car companies, want to make their pitch before the weekend blockbuster openings or blockbuster sales.

For years, NBC ruled Thursdays with its hit comedies, such as “The Cosby Show,” “Cheers,” “Seinfeld,” and “Friends,” and with its 10 p.m. dramas, including “Hill Street Blues,” “L.A. Law” and “ER” But last fall, NBC’s starting Thursday lineup featured “Joey,” “The Apprentice” and an aging “ER” CBS won the night handily all season. The other nets saw dollar signs.

So we’ve got a wild scramble that’s sure to drive viewers crazy. But don’t fret, in a couple years, we’ll be ordering shows on demand, and for a small premium, buying shows without advertising. Then we’ll be in charge. Of course, it’ll cost us a lot more, but don’t bother me with details.

There was, however, one advance on the pro-viewer front Tuesday. ABC Entertainment President Stephen McPherson said that next season, there will be no repeats of “Lost.” Zero. Except maybe in other time slots, but that’s a pesky detail again.

He told advertisers, media buyers and reporters in New York that “Lost” will start the fall with seven new episodes, then take a break and return in January with fresh episodes airing straight through to the end of the season.

McPherson said he understands that viewers were getting “furious” with the stop-and-start nature of the series this season, so ABC will bridge the two parts of “Lost’s” season with fresh episodes of a new show called “Day Break.”

“Day Break” stars Taye Diggs as a cop who’s been framed for murder, and who keeps waking up to find he’s starting the same day over and over. If he figures out the mystery and the conspiracy, then he gets a new morning. It’s “Groundhog Day” meets “The Fugitive,” but without the cute little critter.

McPherson said it’s more expensive to have a schedule with fewer reruns – repeats help amortize the cost of making a show – but, he told reporters, “I think that giving the audience what they want is something we’re charged with doing.”

See. There’s a guy who can pretend like viewers matter.

________________________________________

Thursday night, with a highlight show (at 8 PM ET/PT) and a one-hour finale (at 9), NBC’s “Will & Grace” leaves the air, and your first instinct is to say that it’s about time.

The comedy is 70th in the ratings, and there’s a reason for that. It’s devolved into a predictable, cartoonish little show while its stunt casting has grown increasingly irritating – guests have included everyone from Madonna to Britney Spears. On Thursday, it’s Kevin Bacon, which, actually, is not so bad because he connects to all the others in three moves.

In “Will & Grace’s” first seasons, starting in 1998, it was a razor-sharp, high-speed, kinetic comedy of manners and intelligence. It won the best comedy Emmy in its second year and deserved it.

“Will & Grace” also broke down doors for gay characters on TV. Half the cast played gay characters. One of them – Will (Eric McCormack) – was the normal person on the series. Most of the stories involved romance. It helped make at least some parts of America more comfortable with the notion that gay men are, for better or worse, really just men.

So when “Will & Grace” signs off tonight, expect some standard overstrained emotion and maybe a glimpse or two of what it once was, but probably not much else. But it still deserves a nod because even just a couple years of quality TV is a rare thing.

http://www.sacbee.com/content/lifestyle/columns/kushman/v-print/story/14256227p-15071280c.html

The 2005-2006 Season
Dearly Departed

Here are the Network TV series which won’t be returning next year:
Alias ABC
The Apprentice: Martha Stewart NBC
Arrested Development FOX
The Bedford Diaries WB
Blue Collar TV WB
Book of Daniel NBC
Celebrity Cooking Showdown NBC
Charmed NBC
Commander-in-Chief ABC
Conviction NBC
Crumbs ABC
Cuts UPN
Emily's Reasons Why Not ABC
E-Ring NBC
Eve UPN
Everwood WB
The Evidence ABC
Fear Factor NBC
Four Kings NBC
Freddie ABC
Free Ride FOX
Get This Party Started UPN
Half & Half UPN
Head Cases FOX
Heist NBC
Hope & Faith ABC
Hot Properties ABC
Inconceivable NBC
In Justice ABC
Invasion ABC
Jake In Progress ABC
Joey NBC
Just Legal WB
Killer Instinct FOX
Kitchen Confidential FOX
Less Than Perfect ABC
Living With Fran WB
Love Inc. UPN
Love Monkey CBS
Malcolm in the Middle FOX
Miracle Workers ABC
Modern Men WB
Monday Night Football ABC
Most Outrageous Moments NBC
The Night Stalker ABC
One on One UPN
Out of Practice CBS
Pepper Dennis WB
Related WB
Reunion FOX
Rodney ABC
Sex Love and Secrets UPN
Sons & Daughters ABC
South Beach UPN
Stacked FOX
Still Standing CBS
Surface NBC
Survival of the Richest WB
Teachers NBC
That '70s Show FOX
Three Wishes NBC
Threshold CBS
Twins WB
The West Wing NBC
What I Like About You WB
Will & Grace NBC
Yes Dear CBS

^^ Monday Night Football is returning to ESPN.

Good point.
But these are network TV shows which are not returning, George.

MNF is going from a free network to a pay channel. :(

Upfront Notebook
More on NBC's 'Studio 60' Problem

By Scott Collins Los Angeles Times Staff Writer in his Channel Island TV Industry blog

NBC's "Studio 60 from the Sunset Strip," the new showbiz satire with Amanda Peet and Matthew Perry, is already turning into a headache.

Ad buyers and agents agree the network needs to move the much-heralded show from its planned 9 p.m. Thursday berth to avoid competing with ABC's "Grey's Anatomy" and CBS' "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," two of TV's biggest hits.

But the network -- which apparently did not expect ABC to announce "Grey's" move to the time period -- was banking on selling expensive Thursday ad time to help offset the high costs of its deal with Warner Bros. Television, which will make the show.

If NBC reschedules the series to another night, the network will likely have to adjust ad prices accordingly, one agent notes. But if it leaves the Thursday schedule intact, "Studio 60" may end up failing to deliver promised ratings and NBC could be forced to offer "make-good" ads to cover the shortfall.

This one's a major dilemma for NBC entertainment president Kevin Reilly and his bosses. Stay tuned.

http://hollywoodhotline.typepad.com/watcher/

Since the season finale of Law & Order has aired, I just want to put my 3 1/2 cents (2 cents adjusted for inflation) in, regarding the final appearance of Annie Parisse (ADA Alexandra Borgia).

I have to say I was a bit saddened on how her character was removed from the L&O universe. Bound and gagged, beaten, bloodied and left to choke on her own vomit in the trunk of a beatup abandoned car until she died.

Jack McCoy, is (probably) still brooding about Claire Kincaid's death some, what, 10 years ago. Claire's death was an accident (a run in with some drunk driver while ferrying a soused Lennie home), but this was as horrific an end for a character as there could be.

He's now gone thru five (yes, five!) assistants in his tenure. Claire Kincaid (who he inherited from Ben Stone), Jamie Ross, Abby Carmichael, Serena Southerlyn and Ms Borgia. At least Jamie, Abby and Serena were able to walk away (although in Serena's case, it wasn't by choice).

Now I wonder how Jack will be portrayed once the new season rolls around in October. He was always so serious, more so after CK's passing, but he'll be even more somber now. He was even pulled off the case by the Governor...what's he to do now, sit and stew in his office, scotch bottle in hand, looking forlornly at his office, now minus his assistant?

Yes, I know it's "only a TV show", but once you put in 16 years of watching it, you kind of feel for the characters.

Dick Wolf, please be sure to take care of this the right way...and see to it those two scuz buckets get the punishment they rightly deserve!!

Upfront Notebook
Veronica Mars Gets A Third Season

By Kevin D. Thompson Palm Beach Post Television Writer

While I’m still bummed that Everwood is no more, I got a little pick-me-up when The CW -- I swear that sounds more like a fancy European car than a fledgling network -- announced it was renewing Veronica Mars.

Mars is one of those shows that’ll never become a huge hit (hey, it was on UPN, after all), but will continue to boast a small, but rabid following.

On the surface, Mars sounds like a teen version of Nancy Drew. But the series is much deeper than that as evidenced by the recently concluded, season-long bus crash mystery.

Like The Wire or Lost, if ya blink when you watch Mars, you missed something. So many characters. So many motives. So much going on. So much to look forward to next season.

Mars remains out of this world -- and thankfully still on TV.

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/blogs/content/shared-blogs/palmbeach/thompson/entries/2006/05/veronica_mars_g.html
Everwood, gone? Someone better tell The CW (http://www.cwtv.com/cw-everwood.html).

Hell, someone should probably go ahead and inform them that Aquaman (http://www.cwtv.com/cw-aquaman.html) wasn't picked up either.

;)

Great catch, Russ.

I guess there were some last minute decisions made by the CW folks -- and somehow they didn't get transmitted to the computer people.

Since the season finale of Law & Order has aired, I just want to put my 3 1/2 cents (2 cents adjusted for inflation) in, regarding the final appearance of Annie Parisse (ADA Alexandra Borgia).

I have to say I was a bit saddened on how her character was removed from the L&O universe. Bound and gagged, beaten, bloodied and left to choke on her own vomit in the trunk of a beatup abandoned car until she died.

Jack McCoy, is (probably) still brooding about Claire Kincaid's death some, what, 10 years ago. Claire's death was an accident (a run in with some drunk driver while ferrying a soused Lennie home), but this was as horrific an end for a character as there could be.

He's now gone thru five (yes, five!) assistants in his tenure. Claire Kincaid (who he inherited from Ben Stone), Jamie Ross, Abby Carmichael, Serena Southerlyn and Ms Borgia. At least Jamie, Abby and Serena were able to walk away (although in Serena's case, it wasn't by choice).

Now I wonder how Jack will be portrayed once the new season rolls around in October. He was always so serious, more so after CK's passing, but he'll be even more somber now. He was even pulled off the case by the Governor...what's he to do now, sit and stew in his office, scotch bottle in hand, looking forlornly at his office, now minus his assistant?

Yes, I know it's "only a TV show", but once you put in 16 years of watching it, you kind of feel for the characters.

Dick Wolf, please be sure to take care of this the right way...and see to it those two scuz buckets get the punishment they rightly deserve!!



There are some major cast changes in store for the L&O mother ship.

For me, the loss of Jerry Ohrbach was a major turning point.

I think Dennis Farina has done as good a job as anyone could expect. But there was something about Ohrbach that hasn't been replaced.

Maybe wholesale cast changes will reinvigorate the program. We can only hope.

I thought Aquaman was considered a lock :/

Upfront Analysis
White-knuckle time for nets

Dramatic gambles on fall skeds
By Cynthia Littleton The Hollywood Reporter May 19, 2006

Get set for another season of disasters, kidnappings, homicides, time travel, fugitives on the lam, conspiracies and conversations with the dead.

The broadcast networks are loading up again on mostly intense, heavily serialized franchise dramas. Laughs are few and far between compared with the primetime lineups of 10 or 20 years ago. The plethora of white-knuckle thrillers, hard-boiled procedurals, graphic medical melodramas and roller-coaster relationship dramas are a perfect metaphor for what's going on behind the scenes in network television.

The schedules the major broadcast networks unveiled this week reflect a higher than usual volume of programming changes and strategy shifts at NBC, ABC and, to a lesser degree, Fox and CBS. Much has been made during the season that wraps next week about the digital media revolution and its impact on old-fashioned broadcasting, but the truth is that network TV remains very much in the same snap-judgment dilemma as the movie business.

In the court of pop-culture opinion, it's all about how you open and how many come back to the premiere telecasts in subsequent weeks, no matter how many new options viewers have for watching shows whenever and wherever they please.

Moreover, as the overall network playing field slims down by one from the cold fusion of WB Network and UPN into the CW, the pressure is on Dawn Ostroff and company to prove that CW will be stronger overall for having cherry-picked the prime assets of its predecessors. CW should have good ammo in having well-established 8 p.m. anchors in place Monday-Thursday.

Based on the fall primetime lineups announced this week, which are surely subject to change before the September kickoff, big-time shuffles are in store for more than one network on Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.

And there are a number of all-or-nothing bets being taken with shows and scheduling maneuvers that seem like they'll either be big hits or big misses, ratings-wise, with no middle ground for face-saving. Exhibit A is "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip," NBC's hot Thursday 9 p.m. prospect from Aaron Sorkin and Thomas Schlamme. The peacock was ready to counterprogram CBS' formidable "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" with the inside showbiz-y "Studio 60," but it's likely NBC brass were spitballing new time slots for the show by sunup Tuesday after ABC confirmed that its Sunday dynamo "Grey's Anatomy" was bound for the same time slot.

And after surrendering Saturday to repeats and low-visibility newsmagazines, networks other than CBS thankfully seem to be making an effort to keep Friday from slipping into Nielsen hash-mark territory with a few interesting plays on the night.

Monday seems to be the least rattled night. NBC is asking a lot at 9 p.m. from its well-received new drama "Heroes" against CBS' comedies, "Two and a Half Men" and "The New Adventures of Old Christine," but at least it can (probably) count on a welcome from "Deal or No Deal" as its 8 p.m. lead-in. The absence of ABC's "Monday Night Football" on the night for the first time in 36 years should give a break on the male-demo side to CBS' comedies and "CSI: Miami" as well as NBC's "Medium."

Tuesday is an extreme makeover for NBC and ABC. ABC is shifting from this season's initial strategy of fielding an hour of comedies, a lighter drama ("Commander in Chief") and David E. Kelley-quirky ("Boston Legal") on the night in favor of clean-cut reality at 8 p.m. with "Dancing With the Stars" leading into two new single-camera comedies, "Let's Rob ..." and "Help Me Help You," into "Boston Legal" next season. With "Dancing" as an engine, ABC's fortunes should improve, though it's surprising that "Let's Rob ..." with Donal Logue landed the neighboring 9 p.m. slot to "Dancing" instead of the more recognizable Ted Danson in "Help Me."

ABC no doubt paid attention to how NBC, even in its handicapped state, was able to successfully launch two single-cam comedies -- "My Name Is Earl" and "The Office" -- in that hour last season before they marched them over to Thursday in January. Next time out, NBC is going for a suspense thriller at 9 p.m., "Kidnapped," sandwiched at 8 p.m. by a feel-good drama about high school football, "Friday Night Lights," and the familiar ching-ching of 10 p.m.'s "Law & Order: SVU."

CBS is sticking with its high-octane mix that it solidified this season with "NCIS" and the midseason success of "The Unit" (proving that America just loves watching Dennis Haysbert get in and out of trouble). CBS went for femmes at 10 p.m. in fall 2005 with the suburban-mom prosecutor drama "Close to Home" before that show had a successful change of venue to Friday. But with the bad boys of "NCIS" and "The Unit" on deck, CBS is going for Ray Liotta and Virginia Madsen in the con artists crime drama "Smith." The presence of Fox's "House," which only grew stronger in its second season, promises to make Tuesday a challenging night for everyone but Fox even before "American Idol" touches down again in January.

NBC is all over the map on Wednesday: "The Biggest Loser" meets two new, disparate comedy series meets the original ching-ching, "Law & Order." The 9-10 p.m. entries, the John Lithgow-Jeffrey Tambor buddy comedy "20 Good Years" and Tina Fey's "30 Rock," both have good creative buzz, making the decision to schedule them together in that hour all the more puzzling. Also a big question mark is whether post-nuclear-apocalypse mayhem in Kansas will play at 8 p.m. for CBS with the new drama "Jericho."

ABC can certainly do no harm to Wednesday anchor "Lost" in its junior year by pairing its Emmy-winning 9 p.m. hit with an elongated "Dancing" results show at 8 p.m. "Lost" also will get a boost from the bifurcated scheduling strategy of running seven consecutive fresh episodes in the fall before the show takes a break for a trial run of new drama "Day Break," followed by a straight shot of "Lost" originals until season's end. And after trying to mate "Lost" with an equally white-knuckle thriller, "Invasion," this season, ABC programrs have been candid about questioning whether that might have been too much nail-biting for one night. So this time out, the plum post-"Lost" berth is going to the moody character piece, "The Nine."

The focus on Thursday will be the shootout between CBS' "CSI: Miami" and ABC's "Grey's" at 9 p.m., but there are other intriguing moves on the night as well. Fox and ABC are risking comedies in the lead-off hour where only UPN has had much luck with half-hours even after the departure of NBC's "Friends" two seasons ago. Fox is banking on the comedy star power of Brad Garrett in " 'Til Death"; ABC seems focused on the younger end of the 18-49 continuum with two coming-of-adulthood shows about impending marriage ("Big Day") and impending parenthood ("Notes From the Underbelly"). NBC is sliding its combo of "Earl" and "Office" to the opening hour, but that might change if "Studio 60" vacates the 9 p.m. slot.

On Friday, ABC is taking a noticeable detour from its competition with two new light hourlong vehicles, "Betty the Ugly" and "Men in Trees" -- which, if well-executed, could hit the right note for many working-mom types at the end of a long week. NBC undoubtedly will do itself some good on Friday by starting off with "Deal" and closing with "Law & Order: Criminal Intent" in the 10 p.m. slot, where "Law & Order: SVU" thrived in its early seasons.

With a host of changes coming to Sunday, CBS is one to watch, though ABC and NBC will duke it out for overall ratings dominance between the heft of ABC's "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" and "Desperate Housewives" and NBC's new football block. If the stars align for CBS, it could rev up considerably with the move of the family-friendly reality show "The Amazing Race" to 8 p.m. followed by two sturdy dramas in "Cold Case" and "Without a Trace" in the 9-11 p.m. berth that has been home to made-for and theatrical movies for 20 years.

CW's biggest gamble of the season is whether the audience that was devoted to UPN's Monday comedy block will reorient themselves to a Sunday comedy block, especially one that begins at 7 p.m. Look for anchor show "Everybody Hates Chris" to get an even bigger promotional campaign in the summer than it did for the series launch on Thursday last year.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr/television/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1002539235

The 2006-2007 Season
Wisteria Lane's new landscape

By William Keck USA Today

UNIVERSAL CITY, Calif. — Southern California's heavy April rains fell hard on Wisteria Lane, but the residual effects are pleasing to the eye. The trees are full, and the thick green grass in front of the Desperate Housewives homes on the Universal Studios backlot is almost crying out for a good mow from lawn boy John Rowland (Jesse Metcalfe), who (contracts permitting) will return in Season 3.

Likewise, this past season's general sense of discontent — on and off the set — with Housewives' story lines, plus a slippage in the ratings from the stratospheric levels of the first year, have planted seeds of change for the 2006-07 season. Though Housewives remains ABC's top show with an average 22.1 million viewers, last year at this time, 25 million were watching. The show has lost younger viewers, and ABC's increasingly popular Grey's Anatomy is threatening to take over the top spot.

A tease of what's to come next season is offered in Sunday's two-hour finale (9 p.m. ET/PT), which will be the swan song for at least six characters and feature the returns (via flashback) of three favorite faces from the past.

The theme of the episode, says show creator Marc Cherry, is Moving Day. "All of these women will be leaving certain parts of their life behind and moving on," says Cherry, believing it made sense to "juxtapose that (through flashbacks) to the time when they moved onto Wisteria Lane with all their hopes and expectations for their future."

Felicity Huffman (who plays ambitious working mom Lynette) says the flashback sequences are a great device for viewers "to experience the history and see what these characters were like before we first met them." Not to mention what they were like before Season 2 spun the women off into disconnected side stories.

Back to the future

But this early May day on Wisteria Lane feels just like old times as Teri Hatcher (the accident-prone Susan), Marcia Cross (uptight widow Bree) and Brenda Strong (future suicide victim Mary Alice) film a 1998 flashback to their characters' first meeting with new neighbors Lynette and Tom (Huffman and Doug Savant).

Work-focused Lynette has just learned she is pregnant with twins and is none too pleased. For fun, Huffman (wearing long hair extensions) screams expletives at Savant that she knows will never make it past ABC censors. "You're playing Russian roulette with my ovaries!" she yells at Tom in front of their horrified new neighbors, who have come bearing welcome gifts.

Dissatisfaction also has troubled the Housewives cast behind the scenes this season as the show weathered last year's departure of executive producer Michael Edelstein and this month's exit of executive producer Tom Spezialy, both over creative differences. Everyone on the show agrees Season 2 was a letdown from the breakout success of the series' freshman year.

Cross, back in October 2004 when Housewives was just becoming a phenomenon, said that the minute she had a problem with her character's story line, she would "be in the writers' office begging for a change." This season, she has exercised that option on several occasions. "I love this part and what they have me do, but I've been at Marc's door plenty of times going, 'You've got to be kidding,' " she says.

Other cast members point to specific problems in Season 2.

"The cast got a little thick," says James Denton, whose character, Mike the plumber, had virtually nothing to do this season. "We had 19 regulars this year, even more than Lost, so there were a lot of characters to service."

Denton was so frustrated that at one point he went to his producers to discuss his future. "I had conversations about what their plan was for Mike to give them an out," says Denton, who is now in Santa Fe filming a zombie Western movie, Wanted Undead or Alive, with Chris Kattan. "I told them I'd be happy to go explore other things if they really weren't sure what to do with Mike."

Part of the character explosion was a new family with a new mystery, the Applewhites, and viewers had trouble warming up to them, Denton says. "Viewers were pretty vocal about what they liked and what they didn't — like bringing in a new family with no connection to the neighborhood."

Denton also says Season 2 lacked the "sweet romance" of the first year. His Season 1 love interest, Hatcher's Susan, had the least-defined story arc of all the housewives. While the others faced alcoholism, work crises and miscarriage, Susan just sort of went on some bad dates.

Asked what Susan's arc has been, Hatcher says: "She hasn't had one. Marc has said it has been a giant problem from the beginning. They've sort of thrown some things up against the wall and tried to see if they'd stick, and they haven't. It is hard to invest in the arc of what you are trying to do with your work when you literally show up and there's no script to shoot. That's kind of the way this year has gone."

Cherry remembers Hatcher coming to him, begging, "Let me sleep with someone!" He jokes that she is "always complaining that she doesn't have a boyfriend in real life, so I think she pushes me to have her date on the show because it's the only action she gets."

Hatcher, resting her head on Cross' shoulder in between takes, tries to stay optimistic, stressing, "I love Susan more than anything. When they write her well, there is nothing more fun. And I really would love to do this show for as many years as it runs, so I have no interest in anything but this show being as good as it can be. That all said, I have nothing to do with the writing."

The man who does is Cherry. When he arrives on the set in a golf cart, he's greeted with cheers. "Here's the king!" Huffman proclaims.

Though Cherry acknowledges that mistakes were made, he also says, "I see some other shows on TV and think, even the most boring episode of Desperate Housewives still has more twists and turns in it than your average hour of TV."

He has laid out a plan to recapture the first-season magic. "We're going to focus on domestic drama at home," Cherry says. "And I'm going to work much harder to criss-cross all the women's stories so that their lives bump up against each other."

Susan's new directions

To help make that possible, Lynette will eventually end up back home, a change that makes Huffman happy. "I loved being at work, but maybe it was time to work my way out of the office," she says. "But I can't just go back to being a stay-at-home mom, because we've seen that done and after a while it's not that fun to watch."

Although he's still formulating a Season 3 story line for Susan, Cherry says the character will be dealing with her daughter, Julie, growing up and beginning to date. And Andrea Bowen, who plays Julie, says she's more than ready. "It's time for something a little more spicy," she says. "Julie's just so good."

As for romance, all Denton will say is, "I have a lot to do in the finale" — Mike and Susan "sure are cozy." But everyone is keeping mum about whether that might continue in Season 3. "I have no idea where Mike ends up," he says.

There will be another big mystery in Season 3, but unlike the Applewhite story, Denton says, it "involves a number of people in the neighborhood that you already care about."

One thing that won't change: Mary Alice as narrator. Cherry says he was pitched the idea of having a new "dead" character narrate the show each year, and he briefly considered Steven Culp (killed off as Rex in last year's finale) as a replacement. But he opted to stay with the familiar and will use Mary Alice's voice-over to move the story forward six months into the future at the start of Season 3. ("A smart move," says Huffman, who, like many, felt that Season 2 lagged in getting off the ground.)

About 15 minutes of the season premiere will catch viewers up on the missing months: "A whole lot will have happened," Cherry says. "We come into their lives at breaking points."

"The writers are bringing the future into the present," Strong explains. "This finale builds to a much stronger season with a much clearer arc."

And next season, Savant hopes, "will be back to being audacious — stuff you can't see anywhere else on television."

http://www.usatoday.com/life/television/news/2006-05-18-housewives-main_x.htm

I thought Aquaman was considered a lock :/


Many did think it was a lock until the last week or two.

Great catch, Russ.

I guess there were some last minute decisions made by the CW folks -- and somehow they didn't get transmitted to the computer people.If you look at the SHOWS link on their website, there is no mention of Everwood on any night. If you go directly to the Home page (cwtv.com), there is also no mention of Everwood or any link to it. The only link is the one posted and I suspect that may be to an old page that was designed before the decision was made not to pick Everwood up. Either that or there really is still hope. :)

Now when people ask why I have a High-Def TiVo and a 622 I can say Thursday's 9PM!I have a Fusion and MyHD card in my HTPC. But given that I want CSI, Grey's Anatomy, as well as Supernatural, I'm at least one recorder down.

Xesdeeni

The 2006-2007 Season
'Housewives' casts Applewhites aside

By William Keck USA Today

Mehcad Brooks is sitting alone in the nearly cleared-out Applewhite living room. It is his last day as part of the Desperate Housewives cast.

Just a year ago, he won the role of Alfre Woodard's son on TV's hottest show, with much hype surrounding his character and the top-secret mystery that was supposed to be pivotal to Season 2.

In the season premiere, we met a woman (Woodard) with son Matthew (Brooks), whom some speculated might really be her secret lover, and another young man locked away in their basement (first Page Kennedy, who was fired over misconduct and replaced with NaShawn Kearse). But the son turned out to be just her son, and the other young man was a second son who had murdered the first son's girlfriend. Not so much a mystery as back story.

"It's been frustrating," says Brooks, his head in his hands. "I had a really rough personal year. The relationship that I was in was completely butting heads with my work. And I lost sleep over a stalker. He found me and gave me a script to read."

At work, Brooks became increasingly disappointed with how the Applewhite story developed, or, more accurately, did not. "It didn't pan out," he says, noting love scenes he shot with Joy Lauren (Danielle) never made it on air. "The show is called Desperate Housewives; it's not called The Applewhites, and Betty Applewhite (Alfre Woodard) wasn't quite incorporated. There was seniority and priority, and we were marginalized and completely segregated from every family except the Van De Kamps."

As for Woodard, who declined to talk for this story, Brooks says, "You have one of the greatest actresses of our time. ... I don't want to say that her talent was squandered, but a lot of people expected a lot more. And I'm one of those people."

But Brooks says the Applewhites get a big sendoff in the finale that involves a flashback to their life in Chicago. "It's a completely unexpected shocker that will satisfy a lot of people," Brooks says.

Adds creator Marc Cherry: "They're going out with a bang."

http://www.usatoday.com/life/television/news/2006-05-18-housewives-applewhites_x.htm

The 2006-2007 Season
Wisteria flashbacks are hair apparent

By William Keck USA Today

Sunday's Desperate Housewives season finale (9 p.m. ET/PT) will take the women and men back in time to their first meetings with Mary Alice Young on Wisteria Lane.

Mary Alice (Brenda Strong) welcomes each of the families to the neighborhood, beginning in 1994 with the arrival of Susan, then-husband Karl and their 2-year-old daughter, Julie. The following year welcomes Bree, Rex and 6-year-old Andrew. A 2002 flashback sees frisky newlyweds Gabrielle and Carlos moving to Fairview.

This required the show's hair and makeup wizards to make the mostly fortysomething actors appear younger. To pull off the time warps, less makeup was applied, and all the flashbacks were shot through filters to soften facial lines and look vintage.

Key hairstylist Gabor Heiligenberg used hairpieces on male cast members Richard Burgi (Karl) and returning actor Steven Culp (Rex). "Small little custom-made hairpieces blended and glued down to their hairlines undoes the progression of male hair loss by bringing their hairlines forward," Heiligenberg explains. "It's a subtle process that shaves 10 years off." Shades of gray were dyed away.

Doug Savant's (Tom) hair — still full — was styled differently, with "a real conservative side-part hairstyle, a little darker, neater and more corporate-looking," he says.

As for the women, Heiligenberg says, "Gabrielle (Eva Longoria) is coming fresh off the runway in New York, so we reflect that in her hairstyle, much more coiffed with more volume. Big, glamorous hair."

Marcia Cross' style, he says, "reflects a much more relaxed Bree. It's not that tight flip that you're used to seeing on her. She's not as wound-up yet."

Heiligenberg used extensions on Teri Hatcher (Susan) and Felicity Huffman (Lynette). "The first time we meet Felicity, she is wearing a custom-made bang piece, a wig that you glue down to the front of her hairline to give her bangs." Huffman says her hair has never been that long in real life.

For one of Susan's flashbacks, Hatcher came up with her own look by sleeping overnight in 40 tiny pink sponge rollers for a wet-set style she describes as "Adrienne Barbeau in Swamp Thing meets Barbra Streisand in A Star Is Born meets Jennifer Beals in Flashdance."

http://www.usatoday.com/life/television/news/2006-05-18-housewives-hair_x.htm

TV Review
World ends: Originality hardest hit

By Robert Bianco USA Today

Even badly recycled garbage has its uses.

Have no doubt about it —10.5: Apocalypse (9 PM ET/PT Sunday and Tuesday, NBC) is trash, and stolen trash at that. Yet the sheer brazenness of its borrowed trashiness makes it oddly watchable.

In concocting this sequel to his 2004 hit, 10.5, writer/director John Lafia has patched together scenes from almost every disaster movie known to man. You name it, you'll find it here: Volcano, Earthquake, Towering Inferno, even this season's previous disaster clunker, Category 7: The End of the World.

Of course, "borrowing" is TV's default position. What makes 10.5 an unexpected if tiny pleasure is Lafia's decision to transport The Poseidon Adventure en masse — not to a ship, but to a Las Vegas casino that tumbles into a sink hole. Yes, my friends, they have to go up to go out.

The other upside to this 10.5 is that it knows we're more interested in apocalypse than plot, and it gets right to it. Almost immediately, ships are sinking (another obvious Poseidon salute), volcanoes are blowing and national monuments are on their way out.

Ah, if only 10.5 were all crumbling buildings and badly done special effects. Alas, a story must be told, and it turns out to be pretty much the same story Lafia told in the first film. Last time around, Kim Delaney was a discredited scientist who was proven right by disaster. Now she's credited — so the film brings in Frank Langella as her father, a discredited scientist who's about to follow in his daughter's redemption footsteps.

You can't blame people for being unhappy with Daddy's theory, which basically says the continents have decided to reunite. Unfortunately for North Americans, only the coasts are invited to the party.

The president (Beau Bridges) is determined to stop this from happening. But to do so, he has to get Daddy out of that sunken casino, with the help of two hothead brothers (Dean Cain and Oliver Hudson, who seem to be competing to give the movie's worst performance).

Sadly, 10.5 eventually borrows from one film too many, entering the Brave New World territory of The Day After Tomorrow and upping the disaster ante a step too far. It's all well and good for a cautionary tale or a horror film to have a downbeat ending. But for a disaster movie to be entertaining, there's got to be a morning after.

You'd think somebody stealing from The Poseidon Adventure would have figured that out.

http://www.usatoday.com/life/television/reviews/2006-05-18-apocalypse_x.htm

Surprised to hear about some of those shows that aren't coming back.

Has there been any mention on time scheduling getting better next season? I am REALLY sick of shows beginning early or ending late. Its a real pain in the a$$.

The 2006-2007 Season
Shock and aww: Fox and CW's fall

By Melanie McFarland Seattle Post-Intelligencer TV Critic Friday, May 19, 2006

Surprise and disappointment. Those were the themes Thursday as Fox and The CW released their fall schedules, although it was mainly The CW that elicited those reactions.

Surprise: The urban comedy block lives on!

Disappointment: It has moved to Sundays.

Less of a surprise: "Veronica Mars" made the cut.

More of a disappointment: The CW dumped "Everwood," while keeping "7th Heaven" and "One Tree Hill."

And, surprise: Fox kept "The Loop" alive!

Disppointment: Fox kept "The Loop" alive!

Reports from New York Thursday included many mentions of "stability" and "safety" when referring to the two networks' plans. In Fox's case, they're meant as compliments. Last year, "American Idol," "24" and "House" were the only hours that were working. The addition of "Prison Break" and "Bones" gives it a more solid footing outside the talent show, and now it can look at fall as a serious launch pad instead of the period of struggle preceding January.

To this lineup comes three new dramas and two comedies that resemble genres that have succeeded on other networks -- with a Fox twist. Two shows are about FBI agents, but one trades in sexy, "Moonlighting"-style banter, and the other sounds a bit like NBC's "Kidnapped."

Oh, but they're entirely different series, I'm sure.

In the comedy department, the network snagged Brad Garrett for a comedy about a grizzled middle-age man, probably aimed at luring in some of those "Everybody Loves Raymond" fans.

The more interesting-sounding sitcom, "The Winner," won't come until midseason. Unfortunately it'll take Rob Corddry away from "The Daily Show." Fake news fans will feel that loss acutely. (Speaking of loss and worry, "King of the Hill" fans, don't fret -- the beloved animated series returns to the schedule Sundays in January.)

Fox is also stepping into the late-night talk game, premiering "Talk Show With Spike Feresten" Saturday, Sept. 16 at 12:30 a.m. following MADtv.

In the unscripted area, the network is giving "Duets" a go for four weeks. This is another Simon Cowell production, pairing singing pros with stars not known for their musical talents. It runs before baseball.

Veering from solid to unadventurous, the much-anticipated CW schedule gave us a shining example of what happens when you shuffle two struggling networks together -- a few dreamy teamups, but all in all, a low-risk lineup that will debut Sept. 18.

Granted, most of it makes terrific sense. We bet The CW's 18-to-34 year old target demographic will dig the "Gilmore Girls" coupled with "Veronica Mars." "Smallville" and "Supernatural" are a powerful pair -- and better, I think, than the much-whispered-about "Aquaman" would have been.

Notice, by the way, that the pilot didn't get picked up for fall, although it could pop up for midseason along with the drama "Hidden Palms." Do we smell weakness in The CW's development slate? Possibly. For whatever reason, sticking with the familiar was the order of the day, so the new network launches with five WB shows and six from UPN, joined by two completely new series.

Another WB reality series, "Beauty and the Geek," will run Wednesdays when "America's Next Top Model" is between cycles.

Missing in action: "Reba," which has yet to find a home but received a 13-episode order, presumably to save the fledgling network the $20 million it would cost to break the two-year contract still held over from The WB.

But we have to ask, will moving "Girlfriends" and the rest of the black comedies to Sundays grant it greater exposure or bury it? Is moving UPN's strongest comedy, "Everybody Hates Chris" to the 7 p.m Sunday slot smart?

Its strongest entertainment competition will be comedy repeats on Fox and "America's Funniest Home Videos," which may give it a chance. Except when you realize that the reason no other network wastes fresh content on that hour is because anyone who isn't watching "60 Minutes" in that time slot probably isn't watching network television.

And that Tuesday night combination may not work to the best advantage of "Veronica Mars" unless the corporation grants the underappreciated detective show some promotional heft over the summer. "Gilmore Girls" may have been one of The WB's strongest assets, but without Amy Sherman-Palladino on deck next year, there's a high chance that its final season will suck some serious gas.

Even so, the two make a better match than "7th Heaven," divine Cheez Whiz, with "Runaway," an untested thriller starring Donnie Wahlberg.

The new series -- The CW

"Runaway" -- A seemingly normal family, the Raders, actually is hiding from the law and criminals because dad was accused of a terrible crime he didn't commit. Cast includes Wahlberg and Leslie Hope; executive produced by Darren Star and Ed Zuckerman.

"The Game" -- In this new comedy from the executive producers of "Girlfriends," the girlfriend of a professional football player finds out about the power moves and politics going on behind the scenes. Cast includes Tia Mowry and Aldis Hodge; Mara Brock-Akil and Kelsey Grammer executive produce.

The new series -- Fox

"Vanished" -- When the young wife of a prominent senator goes missing, the FBI team assigned to the case realizes that her disappearance may be part of a larger conspiracy. Created by Josh Berman (of "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation"), the cast includes Ming-Na, Rebecca Gayheart and Gale Harold.

"Standoff" -- A dramedy about two FBI crisis negotiators who are the best at what they do and happen to be doing each other, a workplace no-no. Cast includes Ron Livingston, Rosemarie DeWitt and Gina Torres.

"Justice" -- Because television needs another legal drama like the world needs to hear Brandon Davis go off on Lindsay Lohan, Fox gives us a law firm that takes on high-profile, controversial cases. Cast includes Victor Garber, Kerr Smith, Eamonn Walker and Rebecca Mader.

" 'Til Death" -- A bickering, middle-age, long-married couple makes the newlyweds next door fear for the future. Cast includes Brad Garrett, Joely Fisher, Eddie Kaye Thomas and Kat Foster.

"Happy Hour" -- Henry is a straight-laced guy who has it made in his small town before he moves to Chicago, where his girlfriend quickly dumps him, he is fired and kicked out on the street. At this low point, he meets Larry, a smooth operator who takes the poor schmoe under his wing and resolves to teach him how to be a successful (and no doubt sleazy) single. Cast includes a bunch of actors most people have never heard of.

Midseason spackle

"The Wedding Album" -- A gyno-friendly drama about a sexy wedding photographer and resolved bachelor who falls in with a bunch of cute girls, including one with a sassy British accent. Cast included Bruno Campos (last seen lacking genitalia on "Nip/Tuck"), Tara Summers and one-time Top Model Eva Pigford.

"The Winner" -- A 43-year-old narrator recounts how he got on the path to becoming a rich and powerful man, which began at the age of 32. At that point, he was still living with his parents and pining away for the only girl he'd ever kissed. But when she comes into his life again, he decides to go through puberty at long last. Cast includes Rob Corddry and Lenny Clarke.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/printer2/index.asp?ploc=t&refer=http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/tv/270797_tv19.html

Upfront Notebook
Moonves Blinks: 20th's Reba Coming Back

By Nikki Finke deadlinehollywooddaily.com May 18, 2006

I've just been told Les Moonves blinked after The CW's anemic upfront presentation today and finally made a deal to bring back the highest-rated sitcom on The WB.

But Reba won't air until CW's 2007 midseason schedule.

You may remember that, back on April 30th, I wrote that Les had manhandled 20th Century Fox's show. I was told 20th was shocked to hear the CW didn't want the sitcom even though, last year, Reba was picked up by the WB for two years.

When news broke about the WB/UPN merging to form CW, Reba's executive producers informed the cast and crew that Moonves had sent word that he expected the new netlet would honor that deal.

So the series' shooting ended on March 14th with everyone expecting to be back in the fall.

Then, in mid-April, the CW execs told 20th they wanted out of the WB deal -- the reason being that Moonves didn't think the show attracted "the desired demographic" the new network wants tuning in. (Translation: no Country-Western yahoos.)

Fox said no way, and reneging on that WB deal was going to cost the new CW a mint. At the time, some people believed this might be a negotiating ploy by Moonves to lower Reba's license fee and other costs.

But the cast was devastated, and the crew had been told to grab any other work that's offered.

What I hear happened is that even after The CW told advertisers today it was only targeting the 18-to-34 demographic, the netlet clinched the deal for Reba, starring the 51-year-old singer/actress.

Meanwhile, Reba McEntire hosts the Academy of Country Music Awards live on CW-partner CBS May 23rd.

http://www.deadlinehollywooddaily.com/

Upfront Notebook
The end of 'Everwood'

By Maureen Ryan in the Chicago Tribune TV blog May 18, 2006

In a brief e-mail, "Everwood" creator Greg Berlanti had this to say about the end of "Everwood" (and by the way, I'd asked him if he'd shop the show elsewhere, but that doesn't sound like it's going to happen. What follows is the entirety of Berlanti's e-mail):

"We're all profoundly sad... but at the same time amazingly grateful we got to be a part of something so special. I would personally like to thank all of the amazing fans and critics that have supported the show (yes, I'm talking about you, Television Without Pity) and connected with it the same way we did. You guys were the reason we were on so long to begin with. Andy Brown, Ephram, Delia, the Abbotts, Nina, Edna, Irv and all the other folks of Everwood that we got to watch grow and change, suffer and soar -- they're not characters, they're us. And they will live on in our hearts and in syndication forever. I can only hope in my lifetime I get to be a part of something again that touches people in the same way. Until then... enjoy the last few episodes. And thank you guys so much for spending four years in Everwood."

Executive producer Rina Mimoun had this to say:

"It's been a very sad week for all of us Everwoodians. While we all knew this was possible, it still felt surprising when it actually happened. I guess crossing all your fingers and toes for 30 days straight doesn't do that much after all. :)

"But all I can say is we had a lovely run, and it was the best four years I've ever spent in television. Hopefully the fans will enjoy our finale and keep us in their hearts."

http://tempo.typepad.com/entertainment_tv/

Upfront Notebook
Fallout of 6 becoming 5

By Nellie Andreeva and Cynthia Littleton The Hollywood Reporter May 19, 2006

The numbers tell the tale. The shrinking of the broadcast network playing field from six to five, as WB Network and UPN morph into CW in the fall, inevitably has led to a reduction in the overall number of new and returning primetime series orders logged for the first time in years.

By the end of upfront week Thursday, the five largest suppliers of series programming had orders for 93 series, compared with 111 last year (those figures include some double-counted shows because of co-productions). In its transitional season, CW went particularly light on development and has so far only picked up three new shows.

Warner Bros. Television remains the largest studio supplier of shows to the major networks for the fourth consecutive year with 26, including 11 new shows spread among each of the Big Four networks, plus the returning reality show "The Bachelor" from its newly launched Warner Horizon TV unit.

20th Century Fox TV tallied 19 series, including six new shows spread between Fox and CBS, plus CW's returning "Beauty and the Geek" from its Fox 21 unit. CBS Paramount Network TV fielded 18 series, followed by NBC Universal TV Studio and Touchstone Television with 14 apiece.

Sony Pictures TV had a strong selling season this year with five new shows picked up, compared with one last year. Lionsgate TV has earned its first broadcast network pickup with a midseason order from CW for the Kevin Williamson drama "Hidden Palms."

WBTV in recent years has produced numerous shows for WB and to a lesser extent UPN. WBTV president Peter Roth said the streamlining of the two nets into one would not cause for the studio to scale back its development spending.

"As long as we maintain the (industry) position that we have, the only thing we need to do is to is be as calculated as we can about where we want to bring our (shows)," Roth said. "Developing with target (network) specificity is the stuff of smart investments."

Indeed, Roth said the studio's strategy of aiming high with high-profile projects and A-list talent had paid off with orders for the much-anticipated new Aaron Sorkin-Thomas Schlamme drama "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip" at NBC, as well as new projects from John Wells (CBS' "Smith"), Jerry Bruckheimer TV (Fox's "Justice") and "Friends" co-creator David Crane (CBS' "The Class"). WBTV also is home to the newly launched Werner-Gold-Miller production banner, an overachiever in its first development season with new comedies picked up by NBC ("20 Good Years") and Fox ("Happy Hour").

Eric Gold, partner in the company with Tom Werner and Jimmy Miller, said the partners were gratified at having bucked the trend of single-camera comedy development with two traditional sitcom efforts. Gold also had kind words for NBC Entertainment president Kevin Reilly for looking beyond the usual focus on youthful stars and concept behind buddy-comedy "20 Good Years," featuring John Lithgow and Jeffrey Tambor.

"He totally understood what we were trying to do -- these are two guys in their 50s who are acting like they're in college," Gold said.

For 20th Century Fox TV, the real victories this year came in securing sophomore-season orders for six of this season's freshmen shows: NBC's "My Name Is Earl," CBS' "The Unit" and "How I Met Your Mother" and Fox's "Prison Break," "Bones" and "The Loop." 20th and Imagine TV also fielded one of the most high-profile series of the new season, CBS' legal drama "Shark" starring James Woods.

"It's hard not to feel great about the potential of all those shows," 20th TV president Dana Walden said.

Like most of their major counterparts, 20th TV had better luck with drama than with comedy this past development season with two half-hours, "The Singles Tables" and "The Winner," receiving midseason orders at NBC and Fox, respectively. But 20th TV president Gary Newman was quick to point out how well Fox's Sunday animation lineup has done for the network.

"Comedy may be a challenging form in the live-action arena but has flourished on the animated side," Newman said.

CBS Paramount Network TV has four new series -- three at CBS and one at CW.

"We did a lot of development knowing that (CBS and CW) did not have much shelf space and went for interesting, provocative shows," CBS Par Network TV president David Stapf said, citing the studio's new drama series for CBS, the post-nuclear-disaster-themed "Jericho" and medical show "3 Lbs." starring Stanley Tucci.

"It's a great season for drama," said Angela Bromstad, president of NBC Universal TV Studio, the studio behind hot newcomers "Friday Night Lights" and "Heroes" as well as Tina Fey's comedy "30 Rock."

But Bromstad said she was surprised by how few comedy series made it to the network's schedules.

"I think that it's a mistake the networks sometimes make when they go far in one direction and leave out a portion that makes a balanced schedule," she said. "Comedy is difficult, but I believe very much in the genre, and we will continue to develop comedies."

Touchstone Television president Mark Pedowitz came away from the upfronts with high hopes for the studio's prospects in the coming season. The studio placed six new series on the schedule for next season, including buzzworthy comedy "Let's Rob ...," star-studded drama "Brothers & Sisters" and the J.J. Abrams-produced drama "Six Degrees," all for ABC.

"I thought our development was better this year than it was last year," Pedowitz said. "I hope that the new shows (at ABC) will complement the shows we already have on the schedule."

Sony Pictures TV made a comeback onto the primetime field with a new series on each of the five networks: "Big Day" at ABC, "Rules of Engagement" at CBS, " 'Til Death" at Fox, "Kidnapped" at NBC and "Runaway" at CW.

Under new co-presidents of programming and production Zack Van Amburg and Jamie Erlicht, the company scored five new series and six total, including veteran comedy "The King of Queens" -- three times its volume of last year and the most shows for the studio has on the air since Sony trimmed down its TV operations in 2001.

"We're creating a family at Sony," Van Amburg said, "and as (our creators) are beginning to see success, we're proud to be a part of the process."

Sony is the studio home of showrunners Cathy Yuspa and Josh Goldsmith, who scored two comedies on the fall schedule: " 'Til Death" and "Big Day," which will compete against each other in the Thursday 8 p.m. slot.

Lionsgate Television notched its network series order milestone on the strength of the "Hidden Palms" spec script that the company went after aggressively when scribe Williamson was shopping around for a production partner.

"For us, we're not about being in the network game for the sake of being in that game," Lionsgate Television president Kevin Beggs said. "We're looking for brands and franchises that we can grow beyond just television, and Kevin Williamson has proven that he creates lasting brands."

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr/television/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1002539245

Surprised to hear about some of those shows that aren't coming back.

Has there been any mention on time scheduling getting better next season? I am REALLY sick of shows beginning early or ending late. Its a real pain in the a$$.

I suspect there will be even more strange scheduling next season. The suits at the networks believe that keeps vciewers locked in (if a show runs a minute or two long) and discourages viewers from switching to a show which has already started.

As the DVR explosion hits I can't really understand that thinking, but they make the rules, I just watch the shows.

TV Review
10.5: Apocalypse 5

9-11 PM ET/PT Sunday, May 21 and Tuesday, May 23 NBC

By Barry Garron The Hollywood Reporter May 19, 2006

Oops, they did it again. In two mini-series in 2004, NBC destroyed Chicago, St. Louis, Seattle and a lot of the West Coast. That was just a warm-up for "10.5: Apocalypse," a miniseries that accomplishes what many believed to be impossible. It makes the previous ones look good by comparison.

Just how awful is "10.5"? Chances are, the title came from testing in which viewers were asked to rate this miniseries on a scale of 1-10, with 10 being the absolute worst.

The four-hour project was written and directed by John Lafia, who managed to find new and creative ways to turn every scene into a cliche and get a cringe from every line of dialogue. The only bright spot in all of this is the special effects, and even that becomes tiresome and repetitive after a while.

In the opening scenes, Los Angeles is leveled by an earthquake. The idea is to grab your attention from the very beginning, though, curiously, no one in the miniseries seems terribly concerned about the loss of America's second-largest metropolis.

In short order, the Hoover Dam bursts, Las Vegas is decimated by an earthquake, and scenic national monuments are destroyed. Despite all of this, President Hollings (Beau Bridges) waits four whole days to address the nation and then does so only when the red states of Texas, Oklahoma, Ne¬braska, North Dakota and South Dakota are threatened. Hollings' political party isn't stated, but you can guess.

Kim Delaney plays Dr. Samantha "Sam" Hill, an earthquake expert called on to stop the geological forces that are killing millions and literally tearing the nation apart. But even with devices that provide video and data from every square inch of the country, she's stymied. "It's a losing battle," she tells the president. "Only if you give up hope," he replies.

That's when things get worse. In the second half, a fault opens up roughly parallel to and west of Interstate 35. If something isn't done fast, a lot of Midwesterners soon will be trading their farms for beachfront property.

The only one with even a clue about how to prevent this is Dr. Earl Hill, Sam's father, a seismologist. He was eased out of government service for his loony theories about accelerated collisions of Earth's tectonic plates. Well, guess who's laughing now. After being rescued from a collapsed Las Vegas casino, the senior Hill is flown to command central. "Let's see what we can do about this little problem of ours, shall we?" he says. The rest of the movie is a collection of banal story lines, including the ever-popular one in which a pregnant woman is trapped by debris.

It's my job to watch the entire miniseries. I get paid to do it. The rest of you, unless you know someone involved in this project, have a choice. Make it wisely. Just say no.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr/reviews/review_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1002539008

Thank you for the feedback and information. I fear that you are correct. One can still dream.

The suits at the networks believe that keeps vciewers locked in (if a show runs a minute or two long) and discourages viewers from switching to a show which has already started.

There is another possible explanation.

When Lost took five minutes from Invasion, the actual show times were 43 and 39 minutes. Using the norm of 42 minutes, that means Lost added one minute of show and four minutes of (expensive) ads. Invasion lost three minutes of show and two minutes of (cheaper) ads.

An old saying is "follow the money".

FONT=Arial Black,]The TV Column[/fONT]
On the CW, the Eighth Ring of 'Heaven'

By Lisa de Moraes The Washington Post Staff Writer Friday, May 19, 2006; C07

NEW YORK

A mess of WB shows and a smattering of UPN shows look nice and fresh when wrapped up in a spanking new candy-apple green "Free to be (you fill in the blank)" marketing campaign, ad execs learned yesterday during the new CW network's first prime-time schedule presentation.

You know, "Free to be bold," "Free to be romantic," even "Free to be bald," all of which were splashed across the Jumbo screen at Madison Square Garden.

"Free to be cynical," it said on the lanyard attached to the ID tag we received from the network, which debuts in September.

Really? Great! Here goes:

The CW miraculously found a way to revive "7th Heaven," which the WB had been forced to cancel, citing skyrocketing costs. Turns out, you can't kill this show with a stick if the production company and the new network are both owned by CBS Corp., so the company is negotiating with itself.

CW programming chief Dawn Ostroff said the network found a way to bring it back because the minister-and-his-brood soap was just the perfect lead-in for the new Darren Star drama "Runaway," about a guy on the run with his angsty teenagers and his 8-year-old after being framed for a murder.

Though it was Ostroff's first announcement to advertisers during Upfront Week in her new capacity as CW programming chief, no one from the cast came onstage to do the "we're-so-happy-to-be-here" blah, bah, blah, and we saw only Stephen Collins and one other cast member onstage during the end-of-presentation pretty-people-pose -- a WB upfront presentation tradition that the CW apparently intends to keep. During a post-presentation news conference, Ostroff was asked how many "7H" cast members had been signed to come back; she dodged the question, saying she wasn't sure, but many of them.

Just warming up:

Though the network's programming chief really wanted to hang on to WB's "Everwood," ultimately the CW did not pick it up because there just weren't enough time slots available where the series would work. And yet, the CW has room for a one-hour "America's Next Top Model" rerun every week. Not to mention "Smackdown!," which is so spot-on with the hip, young, sophisticated thing the CW has goin' on. And "One Tree Hill" is on the schedule because it's so compatible with "America's Next Top Model."

Like that? How about this:

Though "Veronica Mars" has been given every advantage, including a plum post-"America's Next Top Model" time slot on UPN and even several broadcasts on CBS, it failed to hang on to viewers in any great number. Even so, the CW has saved that show and paired it with "Gilmore Girls" on Tuesday nights, where you can expect it to be the next "Pepper Dennis" -- ratings starved.

But that doesn't matter because "Veronica Mars" and "Gilmore Girls" are totally compatible because in both shows the hot young chick is dating a guy named Logan.

Here's more:

The WB's highly hyped new series "Aquaman" is still in contention for midseason. And the WB's "Reba" is still "a possibility" for the CW lineup, Ostroff said, for "several reasons" that she declined to discuss. There actually may be about 20 million reasons; that's reportedly what it was going to cost the CW to kill the show because the producers had already sealed a deal with the WB to bring back the show when the brain trust at Time Warner negotiated with CBS Corp. to kill its WB and merge the assets with CBS's UPN network.

The WB's teen-angst Superman drama "Smallville" will be followed by the WB's teen-angst paranormal drama "Supernatural" on Thursday nights. "Smallville" star Tom Welling, looking like he spent hours in front of the mirror, came onstage with the two guy leads from "Supernatural" to entertain the several hundred ad execs with his clever banter about how the "Supernatural" guys always are also behind him on the golf course. Okay, that one wasn't cynical; that was just snark.

Critical darling "Everybody Hates Chris" has been sent to the CW's worst time slot -- Sundays at 7 p.m., along with what remains of UPN's "urban" comedies, which is to say African American casts.

As well, all of UPN's surviving black-cast sitcoms that aired Monday night are being shipped off to Sunday, where they will face stiff competition from NBC's NFL football, ABC's "America's Funniest Home Videos," "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" and "Desperate Housewives," and CBS's "60 Minutes," "Amazing Race" and "Cold Case."

We're not going to attempt cynicism about this transfer of "Chris," which is exec-produced by -- and loosely based on the childhood of -- Chris Rock, as well as "All of Us," "Girlfriends" and new black-cast sitcom "The Game" because Rock took the stage and did a much better job than we ever could.

Chris on the new CW:

They have a new slogan -- The New CW: We're not [horseradish].

Chris is now going to be played by a white girl.

See more white people on CW than ever before. . . . Sometimes they'll just walk through and wave!

I had another kid picked out to play Chris, but [CBS CEO] Les Moonves said, "'I know how to pick black kids ."

"Thanks, Chris, for entertaining everyone," Ostroff said as she returned to the stage. The Reporters Who Cover Television asked her about Rock's comments at the Q&A session afterward. She responded that she had not heard his comments because she was back stage.

Sorry, can't top that one.

In the fall, Fox will air a new drama series Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday nights, plus two new sitcoms on Thursdays and a new late-night show on Saturdays after "Mad TV."

Fox also announced a new schedule for the first quarter, when it returns "American Idol" and "24." But if there's one thing of which you can be certain, whatever Fox announces will be its first-quarter lineup, will most definitely not be Fox's first-quarter lineup.

The only first-quarter information you probably can bank on is that "24" is returning Mondays at 9, and "Idol" will be back Tuesdays at 8 and Wednesdays at 9.

In the fall, Mondays at 9 (after "Prison Break"), Fox will debut "Vanished," another serialized drama -- this one involving the beautiful wife of a prominent Georgia senator.

Tuesdays at 8, before "House," Fox has scheduled "Standoff," with Ron Livingston as a negotiator in the FBI's Crisis Negotiation Unit who is shacking up with another member of the unit -- hilarious drama ensues, or dramatic hilarity, we're not sure which.

And Wednesdays at 9 (after "Bones") is new "Justice," from Jerry Bruckheimer, a behind-the-scenes look at how high-profile cases are tried in the media age. The "dream team" of four lawyers includes Victor Garber.

New Thursday sitcoms are " 'Til Death," starring Brad Garrett of "Everybody Loves Raymond" fame as half of a jaded middle-aged couple living next door to adorable newlyweds. I hate it already.

Plus, there's "Happy Hour," about this by-the-books guy who moves to Chicago to work in the business of his fiancee's family, only she dumps him and he gets sacked and tossed out of his apartment, so he winds up with a roomie who is -- and I know you see this coming, because it's a Fox sitcom -- a vain, flashy, lovable rogue named Larry who is looking for a new protege to teach his bag of tricks. There is also Larry's childhood friend Amanda, a beautiful mess who's trying unsuccessfully to emulate her perfect ideal of womanhood, Kelly Ripa.

Also in the fall, tiding over Thursday and Friday nights from September until Fox's prime-time schedule gets messed up by baseball, is a new reality series from Simon Cowell called "Duets." Established singers will be paired with non-singing celebs to perform duets for charity. Fox programming chief Peter Liguori dropped names such as Smokey Robinson, Cyndi Lauper, Michael Bolton and Chaka Khan at a morning news conference call, but it's unclear whether they've been signed. Viewers get to vote on their fave, just like on "Idol."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/18/AR2006051802262_pf.html

TV Notebook
A 'Grace'-ful exit?

By Rob Owen Pittsburgh Post-Gazette TV Editor in his “Tuned In” blog Friday, May 19, 2006

Not all series finales can be as creative as "Newhart" or as controversial as "St. Elsewhere," but is it asking too much for these swan songs to be a little bit memorable? "The West Wing" offered a decent, semi-sentimental send-off that I enjoyed but it wasn't one of those great finales people will be talking about for years to come.

The finale of "Will & Grace" last night was even less remarkable. It showed the lead characters in the future: Will & Grace bickered after not speaking for two years and then their children grew up to go to college together and later get married, reuniting Will and Grace in the process. Jack and Karen end up living together even as Karen stubbornly refuses to show any signs of aging. But then they sang "Unforgettable," a self-indulgent segment that padded time in the one-hour finale.

Series creators Max Mutchnick and David Kohan deserve credit for getting extraneous characters (Leo, Vince, Beverly Leslie) out of the way in the first half-hour, leaving the spotlight on the show's quartet, a feat even the last "Frasier" was unable to accomplish. But once they had the spotlight, there wasn't much to do with them other than show everyone in old age makeup, cracking the same old jokes.

'Idol' chatter: It's down to two (Taylor Hicks and Katharine McPhee) as "American Idol" nears the end of its season. Oddmakers at PinnacleSports.com give Hicks the edge in the finale with odds of winning at 1-2 vs. 9-5 for McPhee.

This week's bootee, Elliott Yamin, was gracious and upbeat in a conference call with reporters yesterday. He said when the close vote was shown on screens Wednesday night, he knew his name would be attached to the lowest number.

"I was prepared for it," he said, a noticeably different reaction from a week ago when rocker Chris Daugherty was shocked to get his "Idol" walking papers.

If only he'd lasted another week: Pittsburgh-based Eat'n Park is offering a $100,000 recording contract to the show's first runner-up to sing a new jingle the chain is planning to roll out this summer. They'll also throw in a "lifetime supply of Smiley cookies."

Yamin had nothing but kind words for the "Idol" judges, explaining that when they're looking down, they're not ignoring the singers.

"There's a monitor in the table in front of each judge," he said. "What appears in the monitor is what appears on TV. They're watching what America is watching. [Judge] Simon [Cowell] is infamous for looking down a lot. He wants to see how we're being portrayed on TV."

Yamin had nothing but kind words for judge Paul Abdul, one of his most enthusiastic (and emotional) supporters.

"She's just a sweetheart, man," he said. "She's just a joy to be around. We've had some good talks after the show."

Careful there, Elliott. Abdul isn't supposed to be fraternizing with the contestants. That got her in trouble once already.

http://www.post-gazette.com/tv/tunedin/

TV Notebook
The CW: Stands for Consumers' Wallets

By James Poniewozik Time Magazine television critic

At Madison Square Garden (Thursday) morning, the brand-new CW network unveiled it's slogan, Free to Be... Around half the actors and producers at The WB and UPN are Free to Be this morning, after their shows were canceled in the merge: Free to Be updating their resumes, getting new head shots, organizing their sock drawers.

The CW only announced two new shows, so the big buzz was which old shows would die. Surviving: America's Next Top Model, Smallville, Supernatural, Gilmore Girls (Mispelled as Girlmore Girls on The CW's own graphics), Everybody Hates Chris, One Tree Hill, Veronica Mars, Girlfriends, Beauty and the Geek, Smackdown, All of Us. Dead: Everwood, the rest of of The WB and UPN's comedies, including Reba and Cuts. Dead, Then Weirdly Resurrected: 7th Heaven, which actually already aired a series finale episode. The animated corpse of the family-values drama will enter its 11th season next fall, dragging chains and trailing grave dirt behind it.

Another thing that is not new at The CW is the name, sadly for those who thought the ungainly abbreviation (a combination of CBS and Warner Bros., the corporate parents) was just a placeholder. The CW's logo, on giant monitors onstage, has at least been upgraded, from the blue-and-white rectangle that looked like the title bar on someone's Blogspot page to a green-and-white, curvy, seventies-futuristic thingy that looks like an MTV 10 Spot logo from two years ago.

The CW's one new drama is Runaway, from Darren Star (Sex and the City), about a family that goes on the lam when Dad (Donnie Wahlberg, in standard pained-soulful mode) is falsely accused of murder. The sole comedy is The Game, a spinoff of Girlfriends, about the wives and girlfriends of football players.

The departing UPN sitcoms, like Eve and Cuts, take with them a substantial chunk of network TV's African American actors and writers, which Chris Rock alluded to on stage: "We want you to buy a lot more ads, because Chris [in Everybody Hates Chris] is now going to be played by a white girl! You're going to see way more white people than ever before at The CW--sometimes, they're just going to walk through and wave!" The audience of suits, mainly upscale white folks, who love to be made fun of for being white and privileged (it's funny because it's true!) ate it up.

Actually, the most interesting new programming--if not artistically--was something pitched to the advertisers as "Content Wraps." These 30-second "shows within shows" run within commercial breaks and are surrounded by one sponsor's ads; for instance, a mini dating show in which a couple get makeovers and go on a date, all in interstitial segments over the course of a night. Per the name, Content Wraps promise to deliver commercial-skipping TiVo users like the tasty chicken filling bundled in a spinach tortilla.

What else is new at The CW? The audience, perpetually. Like its two forebears, it stressed its Gen X and Y target audience to advertisers, bolstered with a lot of specious-sounding psychographics about what young people want. For instance: "fame and fortune." Um, yeah -- and a TV network is going to provide that how, exactly? It won't, of course, but it can offer the illusion. The fame part, for instance, is simulated by the new CW website, which will allow fans to upload their own pictures--pretty much like they already can at MySpace.

And the fortune part, as in the rest of the consumer world, can be pantomimed by going into debt. The most creepy--and probably effective--part of the sales pitch was a mini-documentary about the interests of three young people: a 19-year-old student, distressed that her favorite jeans have been discontinued; a 24-year-old geriatric-care-worker, who talks about how his work makes him feel good, and so does his Xbox; and a 32-year-old stay-at-home mom, raiding a Lowe's home-improvement store with her husband and a long "honey-do" list for him.

Buying a bunch of crap: It will make you Free. Even if the advertisers' products aren't.

http://time.blogs.com/tuned_in/2006/05/the_cw_stands_f.html

TV Notebook
Fox Hits Middle Age, Loudly?

By James Poniewozik Time Magazine television critic

Everyone, if they live long enough, becomes their parents. For Fox, that moment came (Thursday), at its upfront at the Armory in Manhattan. It unveiled a schedule that promised stability and consistency, replacing only a few shows. It previewed two traditional sitcoms, one starring Brad Garrett, and boasted a Jerry Bruckheimer procedural. Look in the mirror, Fox: You have become CBS.

Fox likes to cast itself as the Bart Simpson rebel against the old-network fuddy-duddies, but the stodgification of Fox has been a few years in the making. Fox, today, is all about American Idol, a something-for-all-ages variety show, the most popular series on TV and probably the most mainstream non-sports entertainment in existence. Fox can no longer pretend to think outside the box. It is the box.

That said, rebel swagger is still part of the Fox pitch. "We'll begin the season once again viewing ourselves as the young scrappy outsider that has to prove itself again," said Peter Liguori, Fox's programming chief. Liguori, formerly of FX, is a respected show-picker, but not nearly as mediagenic as CBS's Les Moonves or ABC's twinkle-toed Steve McPherson, and he was hampered by some truly lousy lines on the teleprompter. At one point, he said the new programs were "drenched in Fox DNA," which conjures a more intimate image of Rupert Murdoch than I ever want to imagine.

Like a 40-year-old jumping into the mosh pit, Fox still gives the loudest of all the upfronts: The White Stripes' Blue Orchid pounded out of the speakers more than once, and the clips of adrenaline-heavy shows like 24 felt like they would tear your head off. But the opening act was quaint: Family Guy animator/writer/voice actor Seth MacFarlane, in a gold lame top hat and tails, singing the praises of Fox backed by chorus girls, a la the Family Guy title sequence, in the voices of Peter and Stewie Griffin: "Even if half of this crap gets canceled / It's still a pretty good buy!"

Fox made an especially aggressive pitch for online advertising, in a week that's been dominated by them, and it actually had something to brag about, having acquired the phenomenon MySpace, which, execs noted, has "as many people as California, Texas and New York combined." Which means, come 2008, Hillary Clinton and John McCain should start posting party photos online if they want a shot at its 158 electoral votes.

The only vote that mattered here, though, ejected Elliott Yamin last night, and Fox flogged Idol constantly, bringing out the judges for a labored skit with Liguori and hosting a performance by last year's winner, Carrie Underwood. But we didn't get the traditional lagniappe, a song by the two finalists: instead, Ryan Seacrest did a satellite interview with Taylor Hicks and Katharine McPhee in which he creepily asked them whether anyone had hooked up during the weeks of competition. They denied it, Katharine smiling an uncomfortable pageanty smile, Taylor guffawing and slapping his knee so hard that mine hurt.

Somewhere in all this were Fox's new shows. The two fall comedies are 'Til Death, with Brad Garrett and sitcom perennial Joely Fisher as a squabbling long-married couple living next door to newlyweds, a concept so CBS I expected Kevin James to walk onscreen. (Garrett broke his Robert Barone mold, though, to came on stage for a few minutes of raunchy standup. In one of the more printable jokes, he welcomed Paula Abdul: "It's good to know Bellevue has a shuttle bus.") Happy Hour, about young Chicago singles, seemed like a weak version of The Loop (which was, surprisingly, renewed).

None of the dramas looked like a 24-style formbreaker, though Standoff, about a pair of hostage negotiators who are sleeping together, was an idea with potential: a drama about talking, heavy on the sex-charged banter, it'll live or die on the writing. Vanished, a drama about the disappearance of a senator's wife, which reveals a "DaVinci-code-style mystery" (Liguori's words, not mine, if Fox publicity is thinking about blurbing this), seemed to have possibilities, if I could figure out what the hell it was about.

And then there was Justice, the Jerry Bruckheimer show starring Alias' Victor Garber as a high-priced defense mouthpiece. Its original title was American Crime, which was also the original title of Close to Home, Bruckheimer's legal procedural for CBS last year. Most people would take that as evidence that they were repeating themselves. They might be slightly embarrassed by it. Jerry Bruckheimer would not. And that is why he has far more money than you ever will.

None of the Fox previews wowed the audience of advertisers, but to be fair, they came at the end of a long week, during a bloated, two and a half hour presentation (and Fox doesn't even program at 10 p.m.!) in a sweltering former military building. When Hugh Laurie of House joked, "I know you're all hoping the day will never end," he got the heartiest applause of the evening.

And yet it's always sad when an upfront ends. TV is an annual cycle, like school, and hearing about the new shows is like getting your homeroom assignment and breaking out your new pencils on the first day of class. Dread it though you might, it's also full of potential and ridiculous promise: that this could be the year you make the team, ace your classes, get that girl to go to homecoming with you.

The optimism lingered for a moment more. Then the executives left the hall to get hammered at the Fox after party, and the new-pencil smell faded into the rainy May air.

http://time.blogs.com/tuned_in/

TV Notebook
`Historic' CW steeped in TV plenty have seen

By Phil Rosenthal Chicago Tribune Media Columnist May 19, 2006

NEW YORK -- It is winners, we are told, who get to write history.

Maybe that's why the term "historic" was tossed around so liberally at The CW's introduction of its first fall schedule to advertisers Thursday at The Theater at Madison Square Garden.

CBS and Warner Bros., each having traded a money-bleeding mini-network for the fresh ledger of a joint TV venture, wish to be seen less as former combatants who both lost in an expensive 11-year war than as a triumphant new alliance with an arsenal of battle-tested programs.

So that's how they sold themselves.

"This is indeed an historical day that we are part of, the first time in over a decade that a new network has been born," CBS Corp. CEO Leslie Moonves told the crowd.

Yet, for something new, it will seem awfully familiar.

Because The CW cherry-picked the schedules of UPN and The WB, from whose ashes it was created, its first fall slate introduces only two new shows, accounting for just 90 minutes of a six-night, 13-hour prime-time week, and one of those new shows is a spinoff.

Even the new network's logo--a curvy variation on the logo of its Time Warner corporate cousin CNN--its "Free to be ..." branding and the Black Eyed Peas' adaptation of "Get Ready" that will serve as The CW's theme song have a retro feel, taking the oldest of its 18-to-34 target audience back to their earliest childhood and the youngest, well, to the history books.

Shrugged off was the fact that two days earlier News Corp. presented advertisers the schedule for My Network TV, its solution for stations that had been aligned with UPN or The WB and found themselves without a schedule.

Asked later by a reporter, CW execs compared My Network, which will offer its stations a pair of soap operas six nights a week, to a syndication package, not a network with different programs nearly every hour.

"Their business model is completely different," said Bill Morningstar, senior vice president for The CW's national sales.

Tribune Co., owner of the Chicago Tribune, had an equity stake in The WB and provided a core group of 16 stations for The CW, including Chicago's WGN-Ch. 9, New York's WPIX and Los Angeles' KTLA. Tribune Co. also has My Network TV affiliates in Atlanta, Philadelphia and Seattle because CBS laid claim to The CW in those markets.

One of The CW's returning shows, "7th Heaven," had been canceled by The WB, which deemed the series too expensive to continue even though it was WB's highest-rated show.

But as "Heaven," TV's longest running family drama, was airing its "series finale," negotiations to bring it back were under way, if only to help The CW launch "Runaway," a drama from Darren Star ("Sex and the City," "Melrose Place") about a family on the lam because the father is wrongly accused of murder.

The retention of UPN's "Veronica Mars," paired this fall with The WB's "Gilmore Girls," received enthusiastic cheers from advertisers. The response was more tepid for The WB's surviving "One Tree Hill."

One byproduct of combining the two networks' schedules was that UPN's two nights of African-American comedies were distilled to one, on Sundays, with "Girlfriends" and its spinoff, "The Game," Will Smith-produced "All of Us" and Chris Rock-produced "Everybody Hates Chris."

"You're going to see more white people this year than you have ever seen before," Rock joked for the crowd.

"Beauty and the Geek" will return at midseason, filling in between cycles of "Top Model." Still clinging to life is Reba McEntire's sitcom, "Reba," at least partly because The WB's deal for the show will pay millions next season whether it airs or not.

Dawn Ostroff, who is in charge of The CW schedule, said one of her toughest calls was The WB's critically beloved "Everwood." Alas, it's history.

Last but not least: News Corp.'s Fox, which will be the 18-to-49 demographic champ for a second successive year when this TV season ends next week, closed out the week of network presentations with a typically complex set of schedules to accommodate post-season baseball in October and the 2007 return of megahit "American Idol."

That said, Fox showed surprising stability, promising to return 16 series to the same nights on which they aired this season; only two of those shows move into new time slots. Cancellations include "The Bernie Mac Show."

The network also intends to begin its fall season, which includes three new dramas and two new comedies, in August.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/columnists/chi-0605190232may19,0,7367652.column

Congress Watch
Senate OKs Higher Fines for Indecency on Television

By Jim Puzzanghera Los Angeles Times Staff Writer May 19, 2006

WASHINGTON — Crossing the line on TV may soon cost a lot more.

The Senate late Thursday unanimously approved a tenfold increase in broadcast indecency fines — boosting the maximum penalty to $325,000 per violation.

The Broadcast Decency Enforcement Act, sponsored by Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.), passed with little notice in a nearly empty chamber after an unusual parliamentary maneuver by Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) that assured approval unless any senator objected.

Frist's procedural tactic broke a months-long logjam. Brownback's bill must be reconciled with a House measure before heading to the White House, where President Bush has vowed to sign legislation cracking down on indecent programming.

"It's time that broadcast indecency fines represent a real economic penalty and not just a slap on the wrist," Brownback said. "Radio and television waves are public property, and the companies who profit from using the public airwaves should face meaningful fines for broadcasting indecent material."

Bipartisan support for significantly increasing indecency fines has been growing since one of singer Janet Jackson's breasts was exposed during the halftime show of the 2004 Super Bowl.

The House of Representatives voted 389 to 38 in early 2005 to dramatically increase fines. But that legislation differs significantly from the Senate's: the maximum fine for each violation would be $500,000, and the Federal Communications Commission would be required to hold a license revocation hearing after three offenses by a broadcaster.

One of the main sponsors of the House bill, Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.), said he was confident that a deal could be struck this year.

"We'll work together, and I don't think anything necessarily is a deal-stopper," Upton said. "I think the prospects are very good that we end up with something that both sides can support."

Broadcasters oppose any increases in penalties for violations of indecency standards.

"In areas of programming content, we believe responsible self-regulation by all media companies is preferable to government regulation," said Dennis Wharton of the National Assn. of Broadcasters.

In March, the FCC fined 111 stations $32,500 — the current maximum — for a simulated orgy scene on the CBS series "Without a Trace." The total $3.6-million fine was a record. It has since been cut to $3.3 million. Under the Senate legislation, the total fines could have been as much as $36 million.

In June 2004, the Senate passed a similar Brownback proposal by 99 to 1 as part of a defense bill. But it was later dropped from that legislation. Brownback reintroduced his bill in January 2005, with seven Democrats joining 20 Republicans in co-sponsoring it.

Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) blocked the legislation. He preferred that parents use filtering technology such as the V-chip to prevent children from viewing objectionable material. Stevens said he wanted to see the results of a $300-million advertising campaign to promote the V-chip and other blocking technology.

Brownback's bill normally would be required to go through Stevens' committee. But Frist on Wednesday "hotlined" the bill, which meant it would be unanimously approved by the full Senate unless anyone objected before adjournment Thursday.

http://www.calendarlive.com/tv/cl-fi-indecent19may19,0,190597.story?coll=cl-tv-features

The 2006-2007 Season
It's a Fox double header

By David Bianculli New York Daily News TV Critic Friday, May 19th, 2006

The Fox network next year will essentially have two seasons - one that starts before the Major League Baseball playoffs and one that starts after.

Having struggled for years at launching the fall season amid baseball playoff disruptions, Fox Entertainment president Peter Liguori said yesterday said the fall season will start early, in August, and have a second wave in winter.

"We want to extend both ends of our season," Liguori told reporters yesterday.

Building on the success of holding "American Idol" and "24" until January and running them straight through, and televising such shows as "Prison Break" in two giant blocks, separated by a break for other programs, Fox plans to repeat those strategies this year.

The goal, Liguori said, is to start the fall season early and "get five to seven episodes on" before postseason baseball forces pre-emptions in October. (Last year, Fox started its season in early September.)

In January, a new schedule will kick in, bringing "24" and "Idol" as well as the returning shows "King of the Hill" and "The Loop," along with the new series "The Wedding Album."

For fall 2006, Fox is introducing five new shows that will replace four hours of programming. It's keeping three of the seven series introduced last fall ("Bones," "Prison Break" and "The War at Home"), and only one from midseason ("The Loop").

Liguori added, however, that the relative ratings success of "Unan1mous" made it possible, if not probable, that the network would reprise that reality series in some form.

The three new Fox dramas for fall are "Vanished," with Ming-Na and Rebecca Gayheart, about a mysterious woman being sought by several factions on both sides of the law; "Standoff," starring Ron Livingston and Gina Torres, about FBI hostage negotiators with intertwined private lives, and "Justice," a new Jerry Bruckheimer show, starring Victor Garber and Eamonn Walker, about a high-profile legal "dream team."

The two new comedies are "'Til Death," starring Brad Garrett and Joely Fisher as a veteran married couple living next-door to newlyweds, and "Happy Hour," a show about a young man going through hard times and being counseled on remaking his life by a modern-day Rat Pack wanna-be.

For the 2005-06 TV season, Fox was fourth in overall TV households and third in viewers, but was No. 1 with the groups most sought by advertisers: 18-to-34-year-olds and 18-to-49-year-olds.

A lot of that success was fueled by "American Idol," which is why, beginning in January, the format for that series will remain untouched: performance shows on Tuesdays, results shows on Wednesdays.

Among the many shows stranded by Fox for the new fall season are "Reunion" (a serial mystery that never came close to its conclusion), "Arrested Development," "The Bernie Mac Show," "Stacked," "Free Ride," "Head Cases," "Killer Instinct," "Kitchen Confidential" and two shows that ended their runs with finales, "Malcolm in the Middle" and "That '70s Show."

http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/col/dbianculli/v-pfriendly/story/419075p-353835c.html

I thought Aquaman was considered a lock :/

Here's hoping that it could debut as a midseason replacement next year...For the curious, heres the trailer:

http://www.fileden.com/files/25551/Aquaman%20-%20Trailer.mov

As best I can tell, the CW has passed on "Aquaman" -- for the fall or a midseason start.

The studio can try to sell it elsewhere, but the chances for a pickup on one of the five networks is almost non-existent.

And its production costs probably make it prohibitively expensive for a cable network.

The 2005-2006 Season
Fridays’ Season Finales

"America's Funniest Home Videos," 8 PM ET/PT, ABC
"Close to Home," 9 PM ET/PT, CBS
"Numb3rs," 10 PM ET/PT, CBS

I have a prediction:

The MyNetworkTV compilation shows on Saturday night will draw more than any other night against repeats, and will get the other networks' attention when they realize there are some with young families who actually stay home and watch TV on Saturday night (and spend money, too).

Non-repeats with knowns stars (Sean Young, Bo Derek, Maria Conchita Alonso, etc.) and mildly compelling storylines, even if they are soap operas, will mean some interest: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.

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).

Xesdeeni

The 2006-2007 Season
Fox building on baseball, `Idol' again

AS WB, UPN BECOME ONE, SOME GOOD, BAD SURPRISES
By Charlie McCollum San Jose Mercury News Fri, May. 19, 2006

Stability and the Fox television network have never exactly been synonymous, but the network probably came as close as it could with the season lineup announced Thursday.

As has been the case in recent years, there actually are two schedules: a fall one that has to work around Fox's commitment to the major league baseball playoffs and World Series, and a January version anchored by ``American Idol.''

Both bring back a number of popular shows in addition to ``Idol.'' The overall lineup includes the intact return of Fox's Sunday night comedy block headed by ``The Simpsons.'' There also will be new seasons of such hits as ``House,'' ``24,'' ``Prison Break'' and ``Bones.'' The network is adding four new dramas and two new comedies, including `` 'Til Death'' starring Emmy winner Brad Garrett of ``Everybody Loves Raymond.''

Meanwhile, the new CW -- the shotgun marriage of the WB and UPN, onetime rivals -- announced its first schedule on Thursday, one that includes several surprises, both pleasant and unpleasant.

``Veronica Mars,'' the often brilliant but ratings-impaired UPN drama, once again has survived the grim ratings reaper and will live into a third season (where it will get a plush time period behind the WB hit ``Gilmore Girls'' on Tuesdays). ``One Tree Hill,'' a former WB show believed to be headed for permanent hiatus, also was re-upped.

Fans of ``7th Heaven,'' which had its ``series finale'' earlier this month, got a surprise: The family drama is being brought back for an 11th season (though no one is quite sure which cast members will return). But ``Everwood'' -- television's best family drama -- got the ax, along with a good chunk of UPN's block of African-American comedies.

In fact, diversity in the comedy genre took a real whack this week from the networks. In addition to the CW's dropping ``Eve,'' ``One on One'' and ``Half and Half,'' Fox on Thursday dropped ``The Bernie Mac Show,'' its only African-American sitcom. Earlier in the week, ABC said one of its two comedies with Hispanic leads (``Freddie'') would not be renewed, and the other (``George Lopez'') would not return until midseason.

While Fox clearly went with what worked this past season, it did add some intriguing new shows to its new schedule.

``Vanished,'' which will air Mondays at 9 in the fall, is a serialized drama a la ``Prison Break.'' In this one, the young wife of a prominent politician goes missing. The story, created by Josh Berman of ``CSI,'' is followed from multiple viewpoints, including those of two FBI agents -- Gale Harold (``Queer As Folk'') and Ming-Na (``ER'') -- and a reporter (Rebecca Gayheart from ``Nip/Tuck'').

The new Fox drama with the best pedigree is ``Justice'' (Wednesdays at 9), created by former attorney and journalist Jonathan Shapiro, whose last series, ``Just Legal,'' deserved a better fate than its quick cancellation last fall. ``Justice'' is about a law firm that tackles only high-profile cases. The cast includes Victor Garber (``Alias'') and Eamonn Walker (``Oz'' and the film ``Duma'').

The new ``Standoff,'' scheduled for Tuesdays at 8 before moving to Mondays in January, focuses on a couple -- Ron Livingston (``Sex and the City'') and Rosemarie DeWitt (``Cinderella Man'') -- who happen to be the FBI's top crisis negotiators. ``The Wedding Album,'' slated to debut in January on Fridays at 9, is a comedy-drama about a wedding photographer (Bruno Campos from ``Nip/Tuck'') who has his problems with love and commitment.

`` `Til Death'' (8 p.m. Thursdays) stars Garrett and Joely Fisher (``Desperate Housewives'') as a long-married couple giving advice to some marriage newbies who move in next door. The other new Fox comedy, ``Happy Hour'' (8:30 Thursdays), tracks the life of a straight-arrow guy (John Sloan in his first lead role) who finds himself having to move in with a latter-day Dean Martin who wants to teach him all the moves.

Meanwhile, the first schedule for the CW -- which will air in the Bay Area on Ch. 44, the old UPN station -- looks like the product of a fairly tortured merger.

Given all the turmoil surrounding its creation, it's not surprising that it signed up only three new shows: the drama ``Runaway'' (Mondays at 9), ``The Game'' (8:30 Sundays) and midseason replacement ``Hidden Palms,'' a teen soap from Kevin Williamson of ``Dawson's Creek.''

Notably missing from the schedule is ``Aquaman,'' a series from the creators of ``Smallville'' that, before the merger, was being touted as the next big WB show.

The returning African-American comedies from UPN -- ``Everybody Hates Chris,'' the Will Smith-produced ``All Of Us,'' and ``Girlfriends'' -- will form a Sunday early evening sitcom block with ``The Game.'' On Mondays, what's left of ``7th Heaven'' will match up with ``Runaway,'' which has strong leads in Donnie Wahlberg (``Boomtown'') as a man on the run and Leslie Hope (``24'') as his wife.

In dream pairings, at least for some viewers, ``Gilmore Girls'' and ``Veronica Mars'' will share Tuesdays as noted, while the WB's ``Smallville'' and ``Supernatural'' will hold down Thursdays. ``America's Next Top Model,'' UPN's biggest hit, will lead into ``One Tree Hill'' on Wednesdays.

The WWE's ``Friday Night Smackdown,'' still a magnet for young male viewers, will continue in its two-hour Friday slot.

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/entertainment/television/14618245.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp

Sports On TV
Fox's last season?

By Jay Posner San Diego Union-Tribune

Fox Sports President Ed Goren said his network remains in negotiations with Major League Baseball to extend its contract, which expires after the World Series. But Fox's exclusive negotiating window has passed, and Goren expects MLB to speak with other networks (ABC would seem to be the most likely alternative). Fox is believed to be offering an increase over the $417 million it's currently paying annually, but obviously not enough to satisfy MLB.

“We love the product. We love the game of baseball,” Goren said. “But there's only one issue and that's just the economics and we're trying to work those out.”

http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20060519/news_1s19media.html

Sports On TV
Fox's last season?

Infection knocks Piniella out of booth for Fox's opener
By Michael Hiestand USA Today

Fox's baseball coverage opens Saturday with a key rookie out of the lineup: Lou Piniella.

The veteran manager was supposed to begin his debut season as a full-time Fox analyst by joining Thom Brennaman to call Chicago's White Sox-Cubs game, airing in 30% of the USA.

Instead, Piniella will be sidelined with conjunctivitis, an eye infection that has spread to both his eyes. Thursday he suggested he's in no shape to wield a telestrator: "My vision is very blurry. There's not much you can do for this, just take some drops."

Still, Fox Sports President Ed Goren expects Piniella, being replaced by Darrin Jackson on Saturday, to be in the lineup for the May 27 New York Mets-Florida Marlins game.

"We've placed Lou on the 15-day DL, retroactive to May 11," Goren said.

Fox starts the season in an odd position: It may be a lame duck. Its five-year MLB deal, in which it pays an average annual rights fee of $417 million, expires after the season. Although Fox Sports officials have said they'd like to keep the sport, they're obviously not willing to keep it at any price.

Saturday's top game will be New York's Mets-Yankees matchup, which will be called by Joe Buck and Tim McCarver and air in 50% of the USA. The remaining 20% of the U.S. households will get Los Angeles' Angels-Dodgers game or the San Francisco Giants-Oakland Athletics — where a certain Giants slugger will undoubtedly get plenty of attention.

Fox's Buck suggests media attention isn't necessarily driven by consumer demand: "I really don't feel ... like there's a gigantic buzz around the country going, 'Give me more Barry Bonds.' "

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/columnist/hiestand-tv/2006-05-19-weekend_x.htm

TV Notebook
Ask Matt

(from the Ask (TV Critic) Matt (Roush) column at TVGuide.com
By Matt Roush TVGuide.com TV Critic
Question: A lot of us Deadwood fans — make that all of them — were shocked to read that HBO had released the actors, portending doom for the show after just three seasons. What is going on? A few months ago, the talk was that they were ready to greenlight a fourth season before the third even aired, and just a couple of weeks ago David Milch was at MIT discussing how he planned a four-season arc for the show and how the third season's plot developments were taking longer than expected. Losing The Sopranos next spring is hard enough. Losing Deadwood so abruptly after this summer will hurt much worse. — Mack
Matt Roush: In a busy week full of season/series finales and upfront presentations, the last thing any of us needed was this unhappy distraction. I'm so irked that we can't just enjoy the third season of Deadwood when it premieres June 11 without fretting that there almost certainly won't be more of the story to follow. I got lots of angry mail on this (with most of the Swearengen-style profanity bleeped, thankfully), which made me wish I could stay ignorant about this.

While there are lots of conflicting theories and opinions about what's up here, the bottom line appears to be that with David Milch developing several new projects for HBO, the network (weighing the allotment of its budgetary resources, or some such) gave Milch the option of going forward with his new business while doing a shortened six-episode fourth season of Deadwood, which Milch appears to have declined to do. (The real issue is why HBO wouldn't commit full resources to a full fourth season of Deadwood while going forward with new seasons of more uneven shows like Big Love and Rome, the latter a personal fave of mine.)

I am also mystified about why all of this had to happen before the fourth (and presumably final) season of Deadwood was put into play, but I suppose that's the way it is. I've been told that there may well be a "punctuation mark" at the end of this upcoming season, so we won't be left hanging as in a regular series. But I won't truly believe that there won't be any more Deadwood until I hear they've torn down the remarkable sets (which I visited last summer). Realistically, though, my advice is to enjoy these next 12 hours and just be glad we got this many. (I just got the first five hours of the new season for review, and I can't wait for the network season to end so I have time to watch.)

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Question: I just read that ABC is scheduling Grey's Anatomy on Thursdays next fall, opposite CBS' original CSI and NBC's new Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. I was annoyed when I read about NBC's decision and now I'm just plain hopping mad about ABC's. Why, why, why do the networks have to put all the best shows on at the same time on the same day of the week? Meanwhile the rest of the week ends up sorely lacking! These are three shows that I either watch religiously now or was really looking forward to watching. Now it seems I have to choose between them. So now, instead of all three networks getting my undivided attention at least once a week, two of them aren't going to get anything from me. Maybe I'll just boycott all the networks and wait for the DVDs. That way I won't have to suffer through the insane amount of commercials that TV shows now have. (I lost count during last night's episode of 24). — Lisa

Matt Roush: I filed a Dispatch on this very topic Tuesday morning, as soon as ABC's move of Grey's to Thursdays at 9 pm/ET was confirmed. I could live with Grey's moving against CSI, I suppose. Wherever Grey's goes, I will follow, and that will always have priority over a procedural like CSI, which I can catch up with later. Both will likely do fine, although the numbers for both will be down from what they could accomplish against lesser competition.

But to add a sophisticated newbie like Studio 60 into the mix is just a disaster. As I noted in my blog, I can't help but think NBC will have to blink. At press time, that had not yet happened. (If NBC is interested in counterprogramming, they could always go back to a two-hour comedy block. Scrubs, for one, is waiting in the wings.) But the issue here is the ad money at stake on Thursdays. Everyone wants a piece of it, and every network wants to better itself on that night. That's going to keep creating impossible logjams with some inevitable losers. I simply can't imagine NBC will subject Aaron Sorkin's new show to that fate before it even gets sampled.

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Question: Thanks for your support of Invasion this season. I was a little sad but not surprised to see that it had been canceled. I consider it a fascinating experiment that yielded some wonderful results, like Shaun Cassidy's other series, American Gothic, although it certainly wasn't for all tastes. Best of all, it brought the talents of William Fichtner, who was able to simultaneously convey both menacing and sympathetic qualities, to my attention. I will miss Sheriff Underlay most of all. I don't consider it a "waste of time" to have taken a chance on a series that had a high chance of failure. It was worth it to see something interesting and a little different. So tell us what you think now that the decision's in. What do you think about Invasion and about investing time and love in low-chance shows? — Mary

Matt Roush: I couldn't agree more with the praise for William Fichtner, one of the more original villains-turned-heros I've ever witnessed. I liked Invasion when it was too slow for many, and I liked it once it really picked up steam. I'm glad I got a full season to enjoy it, and no, I don't consider it a waste of time any more than I felt I wasted my time when shows like Freaks and Geeks, Sons & Daughters or My So-Called Life (the list is too long) were cut off prematurely.

More to the point, I wish ABC, Shaun Cassidy et al had worked out an arrangement to tell Invasion's story within a single season once it was clear that there wasn't enough of a public appetite to merit a second year. Every time I watch a pilot and recognize a potential lost cause, my impulse is not to give up or to stop watching but to rally behind it, savoring each episode while extolling its virtues as loudly as I can. It's part of what keeps the job interesting and satisfying, no matter how often we're disappointed in the outcome. I have no regrets for watching Invasion, that's for sure. (Now — having stuck with Surface to the end because of the mail it generated, that's another story. Won't miss that one at all.)

From Nick: "It's sad, pathetic and desperate of me, but I have to ask: Any chance of an Invasion movie, à la those (admittedly wretched) Pretender movies a while back on TNT? Or, since DVD wasn't around back then, how about a direct-to-DVD something-or-other for the five to six million fans the show still pulled in by the end? I know it's not going to happen, but say something nice to me to make my week a little better."

"Something nice to me." (Sorry, old joke.) Haven't heard anything about an Invasion sequel. The odds probably aren't in its favor. But given that there was some preliminary talk about moving the show to CW (due to the Warner Bros. studio connection), you never know. Just don't count on it. (Guess that wasn't "something nice" after all, was it?)

________________________________________

Question: Oh, my goodness, I can't get over the horrible news that Everwood is ending and One Tree Hill and 7th Heaven are staying. I can't say that it was totally unexpected, but I still feel shocked. This great show has a way of breaking your heart most episodes with its realistic characters and situations, but this is just awful. I am writing to you because I know you feel my pain and I need someone to grieve with. RIP to the great and very underappreciated Everwood. — Stephanie

Matt Roush: Well, you certainly found a sympathetic shoulder. This sucks in so many ways. This is one of the baldest, bleakest instances of the TV business rearing its ugly head. It is not about creativity and quality, that's for sure, not on this poor excuse for a cobbled-together network. 7th Heaven is corny treacle, One Tree Hill is pandering teen trash. Everwood transcended genre more often than not, and told its moving stories with humor and a touch of grace. (I'll miss the Abbotts — Harold, Rose, Bright and even Amy — most of all.) All I can say is CW's programming choices have just freed up a lot of time so I can stay focused on the important networks of the Big Four. This might as well be bad, negligible cable.

I got lots of impassioned mail after this sad news broke, but I've only got room for now to share one. Here's this from Kelly C.: "I don't know what to say, except that I am thoroughly disappointed. I simply don't understand how a show as poignant and well-acted as Everwood can be canceled, yet the ridiculous 7th Heaven is renewed. I can't tell you how happy I was to say goodbye and good riddance to the Camdens. Apparently most of WB's audience preferred to believe that the insipid lives of the Camdens are more interesting than the real-life, often controversial, topics that Everwood dared to cover. Although I think WB did a disservice to Everwood with the scheduling this year, I think the real shame is that more people didn't tune out the schmaltz and tune into a show with real heart. Canceling Everwood was like a knife to the gut, and subjecting us to another season of 7th Heaven is like giving the knife a good twist."

________________________________________

Question: I was just wondering what your take on the West Wing finale was. I thought it was really well done. It tied up loose strings, but not tight enough that I wasn't left wondering what will become of the WWers. I will probably always wonder what a Santos presidency would bring! I also loved that Mallory brought Jed the napkin that Leo had kept for all these years. And was that Aaron Sorkin I saw during the inauguration? — Stacy

Matt Roush: Yes, that was the show's creator, in a wordless cameo among the crowd witnessing the swearing-in. I filed a Dispatch on this and other finales earlier in the week, so keep checking that space for more updates. I felt The West Wing gave us a classy and satisfying, if rather uneventful, final hour. A good close to a surprisingly good final season. And I've been amused at the polarized reaction to NBC's decision to play the show's pilot episode in front of the series finale. Here are two thoughtful views, presented without further comment. (Myself, I was just glad to have an extra hour before the finale to catch up on other TV. I didn't feel a special need to watch the pilot again. Been there, already enjoyed that.)

From Dawn D.: "NBC's decision to run The West Wing's premiere episode just before airing its finale was both brilliant and moronic. Playing its first episode was a much more fitting tribute than a retrospective featuring clips and members of the cast waxing nostalgic. It was a reminder that The West Wing once was one of the greatest hours of television each week. But then again, it was a reminder that The West Wing used to be one of the greatest hours of television each week. The final episode so paled in comparison that I wish I had stopped watching after the final scene of the premiere, when President Bartlet first inspired us with his eloquence and passion."

From Ashley: "I know that you've received mail from fans angry that there wasn't a West Wing retrospective, but I'd like to weigh in on the other side. Instead of having talking heads tell us how different and special the show was when it started, we got to see again for ourselves just how brilliant this show was. We didn't just see clips of the fast-paced, rapid-fire dialogue, we got to see that first hour of it that initially caught our attention. We didn't just hear commentators tell us that this show used real political issues, we got to see how perfectly it moved from the humor of the president's bike crash and Sam's escort snafu to discussion of issues like Cuban refugees and gun control. I, for one, am glad that we got to see the show (and the Bartlet administration) in its early days just before watching it all draw to a close."

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Question: Why is Lost trying to mimic 24 and kill off main characters every five minutes? I think it's stupid on 24, and I think it's even stupider on Lost. I find it insulting that shows think the only way we'll watch them is if they have huge explosions and sad deaths every episode. Then they have to outdo themselves and have two big explosions and three sad deaths. I like shows that are about the characters, like Lost. With them continually killing those characters off, I think that takes away from the show. We've lost four characters in only two seasons, and I wouldn't be surprised if they killed off a few more in the next episodes. I hope they'll take it easy for a while, and I hope the actors will be sure not to get in trouble with the law. ;) — Julie

Matt Roush: Sigh. This time I couldn't disagree more. On shows like 24 and Lost, the very fact that almost every character is potentially expendable ratchets up the dramatic stakes and intensity. If you look at every character death as a cheap-shock plot twist, that's your problem, not the show's. It's certainly not stupid, although I will admit to being a bit weary of watching characters get shot during these May sweeps. Still, it's in the DNA of serialized adventures and thrillers, at least the good ones, to put major characters in peril. If everyone in these shows was invincible, where's the suspense? That said, the writers do need to try to make each death count — which isn't to say, especially on 24, that we or the characters need to dwell on each loss. But there should be a sense of loss, or what's the point?

On a similar topic, this from Lyle: "I was thinking about your comments about the latest episodes of Lost, and realized I only half agree with you. I, like you, was not overly shocked by the death of Ana Lucia, since, as you said, she has had a target on her since killing Shannon. But I have to disagree with you on the killing of Libby. Yes, she was underwritten, but that is the reason her death bothered me. She was the only underwritten character on Lost, and it almost felt like bad writing to kill her off before we even got a chance to know her. I keep thinking about the potential in her character that is now, well, lost, and think about the many mysteries that will never be discovered about her, the biggest being why she was in Hurley's mental asylum. At least after the deaths of Boone, Shannon and even Ana Lucia, I felt a sense that we saw everything about them. I have a sneaking suspicion that we have not seen the last of Libby in some form or another, and that this underwritten feeling is part of some bigger plan."

It's already been discussed in other forums and interviews that Cynthia Watros will still be reoccurring in Hurley's flashbacks, so you're right on that count. She may not have had enough backstory to merit her staying as a full-fledged regular, but I'm betting before we're through with Hurley, we'll know a lot more about Libby. And chances are, we'll feel the impact of her death a lot more at that point than we do right now.

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Question: I'm a bit confused. Everyone's predicting that Lost's Terry O'Quinn (John Locke) will get an Emmy nomination for outstanding supporting actor. Are they all watching the same show I am? John Locke has been the most important character this season, from his discovery of the hatch to his tragic backstory to his loss of faith. Plus, he's appeared in every episode (a feat for Lost, considering its enormous cast), save for the amazing "Other 48 Days" episode. In what world is this a "supporting" role? Do you know whether or not he'll be submitting himself in the lead or supporting categories? And if he doesn't submit himself as a lead actor, what gives? — Marcus D.

Matt Roush: Lost is such a true ensemble series that it makes sense to me for nearly everyone in the cast to be considered a supporting player. (Matthew Fox, as the symbolic doctor/leader of the group, is exempt from this, I guess, though I'm not convinced he should be.) Terry O'Quinn was nominated in the supporting category last year, and that's where I imagine he would go again this year. I don't understand the fuss. The only problem is accommodating all the other great actors on this show, especially when the even hotter Grey's Anatomy is going to be vying for slots. (As long as Chandra Wilson and T.R. Knight make the cut, I'll be satisfied. They're the heart of that show.)

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Question: I am probably Commander in Chief's biggest fan! What is the status of it? And when are they going to air the remaining episodes of the season? — Samantha

Matt Roush: Officially, Commander in Chief is over as a series for now. It is not on next fall's schedule. But the show's creator, Rod Lurie, has been talking to the network and studio about revisiting the characters and the premise of the first female president in a two-hour movie. If that's successful, you never know whether more stories may be able to be told, in series or some other form. But for now, it's off the schedule. The remaining episodes will begin showing up shortly after the official TV season is over. I have the Chief finale tentatively penciled in for Wednesday, June 14.

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Question: I was looking over the fall schedule for NBC and I happened to notice there is no time slot for Crossing Jordan. Am I to assume the worst? The season finale left us all hanging, and I certainly would like some answers. Is that going to happen, or should I just get ready for the disappointment now? — Tiffani

Matt Roush: Relax. Crossing Jordan will return with a full season's worth of episodes. Just not right away. It's being held in reserve and will be back on the schedule when a slot opens up. NBC regards Jordan as a "utility player," which will draw its loyal audience to any night or time period, and the network is probably right on that count.

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Question: Who is in charge of deciding what the target markets are? I'm 26 years old, and I can guarantee I spend a whole lot more now than I did 10 years ago. Shouldn't companies be trying to get me to watch? Or do they realize I'm not as impressionable, so they use this youth tactic to "get 'em young"? — Mark

Matt Roush: For crying out loud, what's your complaint? You are exactly in the sweet spot for TV advertisers. For one thing, you're male. That's a bonus. (It's hard to get many young men to sit still for TV shows in this computer and video-game age.) And the advertisers, to the dismay of many boomers such as yours truly, are obsessed with the 18-34 and 18-49 demographic. Whichever way you look at, they care about you. The real question is why the advertisers seem to have so little use for viewers in the 50-plus demo, who have lots of money to spend and who may have settled down in their lives enough to actually find time for TV shows once in a while.

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

The Business of TV
Better story for the Hispanic networks

By Kevin Downey MediaLifeMagazine.com staff writer May 19, 2006

Spanish-language television is going through a period of dramatic change that will forever alter the way media buyers evaluate these networks, but it isn’t dampening the bright outlook for ad spending in the upfront.

Forecasters and media buyers agree that ad spending will grow about 10 percent over last year, to perhaps $1.4 billion, with Univision and its two other networks--TeleFutura and cable outlet Galavision--claiming the lion’s share.

NBC Universal’s ratings-charged Telemundo will steal some share away from Univision, while smaller networks will make inroads. Says Teddy Hayes, vice president of media services at La Agencia de Orci in Los Angeles: “We are expecting it to be pretty strong.”

Negotiations are expected to begin within days now that Univision had its upfront presentation on Wednesday. Telemundo had its presentation on Tuesday.

Most of the anticipated spending increase will come from first-time advertisers, perhaps a dozen or more, as it has in years past. Price increases will be less pronounced, also as they have been in the past. That's because just under half of the top 300 advertisers still aren’t using Spanish-language TV. As a result, inventory is somewhat easier to come by than it is on other networks, and that holds prices down.

Media buyers say average prices in primetime remain 20 percent to 30 percent lower than rates charged by English-language networks. Prices are nearing parity in other dayparts.

Forecasters say it's those new advertisers that will push spending increases above those for English-language TV. Miller Tabak analyst David Joyce, for instance, is projecting a 10.2 percent increase, to $1.4 billion, compared to 2.6 percent for English-language broadcast networks and 5.9 percent for cable.

Negotiations in this year’s Spanish-language upfront will be heated, however. The networks have been arguing for prices to be based on new Spanish-language ratings from Nielsen Media Research’s National People Meter rather than the Nielsen Hispanic Television Index, which has measured these networks separately from English-language broadcasters since 1992. Nielsen earlier this year began measuring the Spanish-language networks in its general-market survey. Buyers can now evaluate Univision, TeleFutura and Telemundo alongside networks like ABC and CBS.

“You now have the comparison of Univision to ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox, which has really opened the eyes of a lot of people,” says Rosa Serrano, senior vice president and group account director of the multicultural division at Initiative. “When you compare this audience to the total market and see they can be No. 1 in adults 18-34 and have a lot of strength in 18-49s, it’s really impressive.”

Orci’s Hayes agrees. “These ratings will give Hispanic programming a higher profile within agencies, which will probably bode well in the long term.”

The new ratings are also generally a bit higher than those measured by NHTI, which Nielsen plans to discontinue in September 2007.

If prices were based on this new data the networks would possibly see an incremental bump in revenue. Media buyers, who are generally eager to use new data, say it’s too early to incorporate these ratings into upfront negotiations.

In the end, Univision will likely claim 71 percent of upfront revenue, or $1 billion, slightly up when not including commercials booked last year for this summer’s World Cup soccer tournament. Telemundo is expected to see expenditures rise to $400 million, from $370 million last year.

But, unlike in the past, the Spanish-language upfront is no longer limited to these longtime rivals. The marketplace has expanded, with Azteca America now measured by Nielsen while several other networks like Fox Sports en Espanol are also growing and becoming bigger players in the upfront.

Based on adults 18-49, Univision this season through April 30 ranks No. 1 in primetime with an average 1.9 million viewers, down 7 percent from the same time last year, based on NHTI. Telemundo has 650,000 viewers, up 21 percent. TeleFutura has 316,000 viewers, down nearly 20 percent. And Azteca America has 142,000 viewers, up 84 percent.

Meanwhile, buyers do not expect Univision to suffer or benefit from its potential sale. The network has been exploring strategic options, including a sale, since February. Suitors are expected to bid $12 billion or more for the network.

“The investment that someone is going to make in Univision, if the sale goes through, is going to be so significant that they’re going to do very little to make changes that would impact the network in a negative way,” says Serrano. “The amount of investment warrants getting a return, so you have to maintain or grow Univision.”

http://www.medialifemagazine.com/artman/publish/printer_4848.asp

any websites listing all the upfronts like last season? or is it too early for that?

Note: I realize this is a local issue in Los Angeles, but it has national implications, especially with the (in my mind, at least) short-sighted TV policy oif the NHL. If you doubt that, take a look at the final two paragraphs of the story and see how the NHL’s TV viewership has all but disappeared with the OLN contract this year. It is sad.

Sports On TV
Ducks Fans Take a Dim View of This

OLN's 49% availability in area cable homes means many can't watch team's playoff games on TV
By Larry Stewart Los Angeles Times Staff Writer May 19, 2006

The Mighty Ducks take on the Edmonton Oilers in the Western Conference finals beginning tonight, but some local Ducks fans won't be watching it on television.

They can't — unless they get OLN.

The cable network, whose contract with the NHL gives it exclusive broadcasting rights throughout this best-of-seven series, reaches only 49% of the cable TV households in the greater Los Angeles market, which includes Orange County.

Bill Padian of Torrance is among the disgruntled fans.

"You believe this is a way to market a product that is already the most ignored sport in the U.S.?" he said in an e-mail that he also sent to the Ducks. "If this was the Lakers, Laker fans would go berserk and the team and the league would both be in court facing an injunction."

How many fans might be left in the dark isn't certain.

OLN is available with DirecTV and can be purchased by Dish Network customers as part of a premium package. The cable giant Comcast, which owns OLN, and Time Warner make the network available to most of their customers as part of a basic package. But other companies — Adelphia, Charter and Cox among them — generally offer OLN only on a digital tier for a higher monthly fee. For example, if a Cox subscriber upgrades to digital, the additional cost is $9.50 a month.

Ducks senior vice president Bob Wagner isn't happy about this.

"We support the NHL and its broadcast effort, but this is frustrating for us and our fans and we are sorry for the inconvenience," he said. "Our goal is to expose this franchise to the entire market."

If the Ducks advance, OLN again has exclusive rights to broadcast the first two games of the Stanley Cup finals. The remaining games will be televised by NBC. For this upcoming round, NBC has rights only to Saturday's Game 1 of the Eastern Conference series between the Buffalo Sabres and the Carolina Hurricanes.

Yet in Buffalo, which faced the same OLN predicament, Adelphia on Thursday agreed to move OLN from a digital tier to a package available to all customers. According to SportsBusiness Daily, Adelphia estimates that only 10% of its roughly 300,000 customers there subscribe to its digital tier.

Gavin Harvey, president of OLN, defends the network's right to exclusive telecasts.

"Exclusivity helps build the value of the network," Harvey said. "We want to grow right along with the NHL, and the league understands what we're trying to do. We are committed to hockey, and for our rookie season I think we have shown progress.

"We are available, it's just that for some subscribers it means upgrading to digital."

According to Harvey, OLN has grown by 6 million subscribers since the start of the NHL season and is closing in on 70 million. A breakdown of the number of OLN subscribers in the greater Los Angeles market was not immediately available.

Another 6 million is good news to OLN, given that it was launched in 1994 as the Outdoor Life Network, became best known for televising the Tour de France, changed its name to OLN last July and will change it again in September to Versus.

Meanwhile, FSN West or FSN Prime Ticket, which have much wider distribution in the Los Angeles market than OLN and broadcast most of the Ducks' regular-season games, will provide postgame shows throughout the Ducks-Oilers series.

Doug Perlman, the NHL's senior vice president in charge of television and new media, points out that, in the past, the national cable carrier also had exclusivity during the conference finals and Stanley Cup finals.

But that carrier was ESPN, which is available in almost all of the Los Angeles market's 4 million cable/satellite households. FSN West boasts the same number. Overall, the market has 5.5 million TV households, with 56% wired for cable and 25% having satellite service. Some homes have both.

Perlman, in defending OLN's exclusivity, said the league must respect its television partner's wishes because, as with any cable network, exclusivity not only increases the number of viewers but also drives distribution.

"You have to look at the deal in its entirety," he said. "OLN is establishing itself as the home base for hockey and is offering six hours of coverage a night."

Exposure is what the NHL needs more than anything after the lockout that wiped out last season. ESPN at one point was willing to give the NHL the exposure it needed, but offered a rights fee of only about $40 million a year after passing on an option to renew at $60 million a year.

OLN, seeking to broaden its sports identity, offered more money.

A deal was reached last August in which parent company Comcast agreed to pay a rights fee of $65 million for this season and $70 million for next season. If the number of OLN subscribers passes 80 million nationally — it now stands at 63.4 million — the rights fee would increase by $15 million. A third season, which would be at OLN's option, calls for a rights fee of at least $72.5 million.

In dealing with the exclusivity issue during the playoffs, the NHL might have taken a cue from the NFL. When the NFL first ventured into cable television, making a deal with ESPN in 1987, league officials wanted to ensure maximum exposure in the cities of the participating teams. They insisted a game on ESPN be available via over-the-air television in the visiting team's market and in the home team's market if the game was sold out 72 hours in advance.

Such a stipulation is still in place, even though cable and satellite television now is in about 90% of U.S. television households, compared to less than 50% in 1987.

Of course, exclusivity is not the only issue facing OLN. Its NHL ratings are far below what ESPN posted for the 2003-04 season. OLN's national telecasts averaged only a 0.2 during the regular season, and are averaging a 0.4 during the playoffs, which translates to only 246,000 homes. For the playoffs in 2004, ESPN was averaging a 0.7 (580,000 homes) going into the conference finals.

OLN's ratings in L.A. during the regular season were more dismal, averaging a minuscule 0.02, which represents 1,306 homes. And 42 of the 57 OLN regular-season telecasts got a 0.0 in L.A.

http://www.calendarlive.com/tv/cl-sp-oln19may19,0,3088048,print.story?coll=cl-tv-features

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

TV Notebook
TV Q&A with Rob Owen

By Rob Owen Pittsburgh Post-Gazette TV editor Friday, May 19, 2006

This week's TV Q&A responds to questions about "Law & Order: Criminal Intent," sitcom directors and the inanity of local news.

________________________________________

• Q: I was impressed to hear that every episode of "That '70s Show" was directed by the same person, David Trainer. Is there any other show in history for which every episode was directed by the same person?

-- Rich, Castle Shannon

Rob: Yep. Trainer directed every "That '70s Show," except the pilot, but Jimmy Burrows directed every episode of "Will & Grace" ever made. It tends to be the exception, not the rule, that sitcoms have an in-house director. Most multi-camera sitcoms have a roster of directors, not just one.

________________________________________

• Q:Just watched the season finale of "Law & Order: Criminal Intent." Why is Jamey Sheridan leaving the program? If you've answered this question before, I'm sorry, but haven't noticed anything and last night was a surprise. Really liked him on the program.

-- Rita, Brookline

Rob: According to a publicist for the series, "Jamey Sheridan has been bi-coastal for the past five years while filming 'Law & Order: Criminal Intent.' He wanted to spend more time with his family and asked that this be his last season so that he could move permanently back to Los Angeles."

________________________________________

• Q:As the networks announce their fall lineups, why is it that they have been giving new shows very little time to prove themselves? It seems like if they are not smash hits like "Desperate" or "Grey's," they get dumped. Not every show is going to garner 18 million viewers. I wish ABC would stick with "Commander in Chief" and "What about Brian."

-- Dave, Washington

Rob: It's a combination of things: Networks have less patience, true. But that's especially true of shows that they have no confidence in. Remember, network executives see episodes long before the public, and they can get a sense if a show is trending poorly when it comes to its substance (they call it "the creative"). That's why ABC yanked "Emily's Reasons Why Not" after one episode.

In the case of "Brian," ABC renewed the show this week, despite low ratings, because they believed in the strength of the creative. "Commander" was a debacle whose failure would make a great book. There's plenty of blame to go around: The creator, the studio, the network, the second show-runner, viewers who abandoned it, etc.

________________________________________

• Q:My daughter wants to know what happened to the mother on the Disney Channel show "That's So Raven."

-- Bill, Carrick

Rob: According to a Disney Channel publicist, the character, Tanya Baxter, is pursuing a law degree in the U.K.

"The actress who played her for three seasons, T'Keyah Crystal Keymah, elected to not return for the fourth season of the series," the Disney Channel spokeswoman said. "Many of those episodes are rolling out now on Disney Channel."

________________________________________

• Q:Well, they did it, Rob. ABC canceled "Invasion," when it was their own fault for only scheduling it intermittently. I thought it had a decent enough audience in its first few weeks, but only lost the audience when the powers that be at ABC decided to invade our minds and only schedule it when they wanted to. How in the world could it build an audience then?

Poor executive producer Shaun Cassidy. "American Gothic" was a decent show of his that suffered the same fate as his "Invasion."

I'm going to Sci Fi to beg them to pick it up.

-- Frank, Greensburg

Rob: Gotta disagree. If anyone is to blame for the failure of "Invasion," it's Cassidy. Though the series had a promising premise, it squandered that after the pilot by not putting its best foot forward. Actually, it put no foot forward -- nothing happened on that show for far too long. After a big opening, millions of viewers who felt the same way I did quit watching.

ABC brass actually like the series and supported it far longer than it deserved to be supported. If I ran the network, I would have canceled it 4 months ago.

As for Sci Fi picking it up, I don't think there's much chance that will happen. It's too expensive for basic cable.

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06139/691281-238.stm

Overnights in the 18-49 Demo
Huge sendoff for NBC's 'Will & Grace'
By Toni Fitzgerald MediaLifeMagazine.com staff writer May 19, 2006

“Will & Grace” had its worst season ever, ratings-wise and, many might argue, creatively, but the show went out on a very high note. Will and Grace found love, and the show rediscovered its audience.

The hour-long series finale of “W&G” last night averaged a strong 8.1 adults 18-49 overnight rating at 9 p.m., nearly edging CBS’s competing “CSI” (8.2) in the demographic and more than doubling the 3.7 it averaged for its penultimate episode last week.

“W&G” bettered its season average of 3.3 by 145 percent, and it boosted NBC to a rare victory on the night it once dominated. The network averaged a 6.8 rating and 19 share compared with CBS’s 5.9/16, its first win against CBS originals in months. It also goosed the finale of “ER,” which averaged a 7.2 and finished ahead of an original “Without a Trace” on CBS for the first time in weeks.

The “W&G” retrospective that aired at 8 p.m. also did quite well, topping the series finale of “That ‘70s Show” by 1.2 rating points with a 5.3.

“W&G” peaked with a 9.4 average during the 2000-2001 season, and it has been falling ever since Thursday anchor “Friends” left in the 2004 season.
Last night’s finale also drew 18.1 million total viewers, its best showing in at least two years.

Meanwhile, Fox finished third on the night with a 3.6/10, ABC fourth with a 2.1/6, Univision fifth with a 1.5/4, WB sixth with a 0.9/2 and UPN seventh with a 0.7/2.

NBC started the night in the lead at 8 p.m. with a 5.1 for the “W&G” retrospective. Fox was second with a 4.3 for “That ‘70s Show,” CBS third with a 3.7 for a “CSI” repeat, ABC fourth with a 1.7 for an “American Inventor” repeat and Univision fifth with a 1.5 for “La Fea Mas Bella.” WB and UPN tied at sixth with a 0.8, the former for the first hour of the movie “Drumline,” the latter for repeats of “Everybody Hates Chris” (1.0) and “Love, Inc” (0.6).

At 9, CBS edged NBC for the lead with an 8.2 for the finale of “CSI” to the latter’s 8.1. Fox was third with a 2.9 for “The O.C.,” ABC fourth with a 2.4 for “American Inventor’s” finale, Univision fifth with a 1.7 for “Barrera de Amor,” WB sixth with a 0.9 for the second hour of “Drumline,” and UPN seventh with a 0.6 for repeats of now-canceled “Eve” (0.7) and “Cuts” (0.6).

At 10, NBC regained the lead with a 7.2 for the “ER” finale, followed by CBS with a 6.0 for the finale of “Without A Trace” and ABC with a 2.3 for “Primetime.”

CBS took the win among households with a 12.6/20, followed by NBC with a 10.3/17, Fox with a 4.7/8 and ABC with a 3.9/6. Univision was fifth with a 1.9/3, WB sixth with a 1.7/3 and UPN seventh with a 1.3/2.

http://www.medialifemagazine.com/artman/publish/printer_4871.asp

(From Marc Berman’s Friday, May 19, 2006, Programming Insider column at Mediaweek.com )
May 2006 Sweep Ratings Update:

CBS and Fox Dominate After Three Weeks

Three weeks into the May 2006 sweep, and the results mirror the last five months. CBS leads in total viewers, with a hefty advantage of 2.13 million over Fox, which ranks second. Fox is first among adults 18-49, with a 16 percent lead over second-place CBS. With the two-hour season finale of American Idol next Wednesday, Fox will narrow the gap in viewers and extend its lead among adults 18-49. Comparatively, CBS is down by margins of 10 to 14 percent in the two surveyed categories year-to-year, while Fox is up as much as 6 percent.

Tied for the No. 3 and 4 spots are ABC and NBC, with NBC third in total viewers (up 1 percent from one year earlier) and ABC third among adults 18-49 (down 8 percent). Double-digit losses for the WB and UPN, meanwhile, could be concerning for upcoming the CW.

What follows are the rating results from April 27 through May 17, 2006 (with change versus the comparable year-ago period in parentheses):

Total Viewers:
CBS: 12.68 million (-10)
Fox: 10.55 (+ 6)
NBC: 9.32 (+ 1)
ABC: 8.99 (- 7)
WB: 2.86 (-19)
UPN: 2.82 (-22)

Adults 18-49:
Fox: 4.3 rating/12 share (+ 2)
CBS: 3.7/10 (-14)
ABC: 3.4/ 9 (- 8)
NBC: 3.1/ 9 (- 3)
WB: 1.2/ 3 (-20)
UPN: 1.2/ 3 (-25)

• Source: Nielsen Media Research data

http://www.mediaweek.com/mw/newsletters/proginsider/index.jsp

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.

(From Marc Berman’s Friday, May 19, 2006, Programming Insider column at Mediaweek.com )
The CW in 2006-07:

11 Returning UPN/WB Series, 2 New Series

Debuting network the CW, which will combine the best programming on UPN and the WB, has announced its inaugural fall 2006 primetime line-up. In addition to the return of UPN’s America’s Next Top Model, Veronica Mars, Friday Night Smackdown!, Everybody Hates Chris, All of Us and Girlfriends; and the WB’s 7th Heaven, One Tree Hill, Smallville, Supernatural and Beauty and the Geek, the network will add two new series -- sitcom The Game, a spin-off from Girlfriends, and drama Runaway. The return of 7th Heaven, a last-minute pick-up, has sent the perennial Monday night UPN comedies packing to Sunday, a move reminiscent of the WB’s once moderately successful Sunday night comedy block in the 1990s. 7th Heaven on Monday will be paired with Runaway, the story of a father, wrongfully accused of murder, who is on the run with his wife and kids.

Tuesday will be anchored by Gilmore Girls, which is expected to end next spring, and the surprise return of the critically acclaimed, but ratings-challenged Veronica Mars. America’s Next Top Model, which will anchor Wednesday, will share the 8 p.m. hour with Beauty and the Geek in between cycles seven and eight of Top Model. Thursday will feature the compatibly paired Smallville and Supernatural, while Friday will be anchored by the reliable male-driven Friday Night Smackdown! Everybody Hates Chris will anchor the network’s new Sunday comedy block at 7 p.m., leading into All of Us, Girlfriends and The Game. Repeats of America’s Next Top Model, which is not the rating s success the network would leave you to believe, will cap off Sunday at 9 p.m.

Upcoming in midseason is drama is drama Hidden Palms, The O.C.-like tale of the screwed up lives of the residents of picturesque Palm Springs. Former WB hit Reba is also in contention to return.

New Program Descriptions:

COMEDIES

THE GAME
This spin-off from Girlfriends will focus on a group of females and their relationships with professional football players. The cast includes Coby Bell, Hosea Chanchez, Aldis Hodge, Tia Mowry (Sister, Sister), and Wendy Raquel Robinson.


DRAMAS

RUNAWAY
After a man (Donny Wahlberg) is falsely convicted of murder, he and his family change identities and go on the run in the hopes of proving his innocence. Leslie Hope (24) also stars.

HIDDEN PALMS (midseason)
After a troubled teen (is there any other kind?) moves to Palm Springs in search of a better life, he finds life not as peaceful as he thought. The cast includes Gail O’Grady (American Dreams), Ellary Hume Porterfield, Michael Cassidy, Amber Heard, Sharon Lawrence (NYPD Blue), and Taylor Handley.

http://www.mediaweek.com/mw/newslet...sider/index.jsp

Senate Passes Indecency Bill

By Ted Hearn 5/19/2006 11:14:00 AM

The Senate late Thursday unanimously approved a bill that would increase Federal Communications Commission radio- and television-indecency fines tenfold, from $32,500 to $325,000 per offense.

The bill (S. 193) is different from a House-passed bill, which would raise the maximum fine to $500,000, make it easier for the FCC to impose fines on shock jocks for willful violations and allow the FCC to commence a license-revocation hearing after the third indecency penalty within an eight-year license term.

“I am glad the Senate took action and increased fines for broadcasters that show indecent material,” Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.), the bill’s sponsor, said after passage. “It’s time that broadcast-indecency fines represent a real economic penalty and not just a slap on the wrist.”

Brownback’s bill, which also applies to obscene and profane material, would cap an FCC fine at $3 million for "any single act or failure to act."

Neither the Senate nor House bill permits the FCC to regulate indecent content carried by cable- and satellite-TV operators.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) pushed for Senate passage of the bill Wednesday after failing to round up support to pass the House bill a few weeks ago.

“The Senate took a great step forward tonight to protect children and families from offensive images broadcast directly into their living rooms. Parents should be able to watch television with their children without worrying about exposing them to unsuitable content,” Frist said in a prepared statement.

The FCC bans indecent broadcasts from 6 a.m.-10 p.m. -- hours when children are expected to comprise a substantial portion of the audience.

The FCC defines indecent as “language or material that, in context, depicts or describes, in terms patently offensive as measured by contemporary community standards for the broadcast medium, sexual or excretory organs or activities.”

Singer Janet Jackson’s breast exposure during the 2004 Super Bowl halftime show, aired nationally by CBS, infuriated family and parental organizations. The FCC fined CBS Corp.-owned stations $550,000 but not the network’s independent affiliates.

“Broadcasters must be held accountable for streaming smutty material into our homes. Their disregard for the well-being of our families is evident in their lack of discretion in what they choose to air. Maybe now that they’re going to have to shell out a few more dollars, they’ll show a little more consideration and class,” said Lanier Swann, director of government relations for Concerned Women for America, in a prepared statement.

"In issues related to programming content, NAB believes responsible self-regulation is preferable to government regulation. If there is regulation, it should be applied equally to cable and satellite TV and satellite radio," National Association of Broadcasters spokesman Dennis Wharton said.

http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6336175.html?display=Breaking+News

any websites listing all the upfronts like last season? or is it too early for that?

Zap2It has grids for each network and more:


http://www.zap2it.com/tv/news/zap-nbcupfrontsroundup,0,3340341.story

i was pleased with the winners of AMAzing race. anyone else?

i was pleased with the winners of AMAzing race. anyone else?

Most deserving winners ever - rooting for them the whole way.

Hopefully it will build its audience on Sundays next year.

any websites listing all the upfronts like last season? or is it too early for that?

• For a full network grid, (which was updated this week after each network schedule was announced) check here:
http://www.tvpicks.net/fallpreviews/2006-grid.html

thxs. exactly what i was looking for.

Zap2It has grids for each network and more:


http://www.zap2it.com/tv/news/zap-nbcupfrontsroundup,0,3340341.story

Welcome back, slocko -- I hadn't noticed you posting for a while.

It is always nice to hear from you.

Upfront Notebook
The Fox Presentation

By Aaron Barnhart Kansas City Star in his blog “TV Barn”

This program contains intense sweating, unrelieved tedium and violence
to the buttocks and lower back.

Previously at the upfronts:

ME: Wow, what a spectacular venue. (cut to:) Well, that was an
efficient upfront -- an hour and 45 minutes. (cut to various scenes of
laughter and applause) (cut to:) Could someone turn down the A/C in
here? I'm freezing!

(fade to black)

The following takes place between 4 p.m. and 7 p.m.

So Fox decided to hold its upfront this year at the New York Armory.
It appears to be a working military facility, but with the deficit what
it is I'm not surprised that they rent it out. We file in -- slowly --
to this big barn with a high arching roof and a flat, wide floor where
thousands of bleachers seats have been laid out. I sit toward the back
with some other scribes whom I'll not name for reasons that will become
obvious.

The first thing I notice is that I can't see the stage. For some
reason Fox has chosen a venue that is not a theater, with the sloping
theater-style seating. There is an enormous screen above the stage,
and two on stadium supports on either side. With all of us sitting
there looking at the screen, I'm reminded a little of the Ridley Scott
"1984" ad for Apple.

The second thing I notice is that my feet don't touch the floor. The
guy to my right is at least six feet tall, and the seat height is
perfect for him. I spend the next two and a half hours working my
gluteus maximus muscles and ankle joints so that my keyboard doesn't
slide off my lap rest and into the abyss.

While I'm still trying to get comfortable -- a task that will
ultimately prove futile -- the show starts, and it's Seth McFarlane up
on stage, way up there, in a gold sequinned tux and top hat, along with
Alex Borstein, singing the "Family Guy" theme song in their Peter and
Lois voices, with a chorus line backing them up. The song has been
altered with potshots at other competitors. I didn't get much of it
down:
"NBC ... Will and Grace over, it's dead as can be..." Anyway, the
refrain is "Come! To! Fox! And! Buyyy!" It looks like they rehearsed
it pretty well, though it leads to the first of many muted reactions
from the crowd.

Now it's time for the stars of Fox to do their annual perp walk. Hugh
Laurie gets the biggest hand ... until Kiefer Sutherland comes out.

Then time for Jon Nesvig, Fox head of sales, to speak. "I know it's
been a long week and i apologize for the delays at the door, but when
we're done I'm sure you'll agree we've saved the best for last."

By now we're all feeling very, very warm. There's not a hint or a
rumor of air conditioning above us, and given that there about 3,000
souls here on the floor, that's gonna be a problem.

"We've had a terrific yr this yr theres just no doubt about it ....
Because of your support even in this highly compet brave new media
world Fox has had its best sales year ever." A
chart here a chart there. "Shows representing seventy five percent of
our schedule had double digit increases." And no sooner do I think,
"Yeah, well that would be 50 percent of a real network's schedule,"
Nesvig adds, "Our reach is up (to 61% of viewers) and is the equal of
the twenty two hour networks."

"We've established relationships with technology companies ... Here to
fill you in more is Ross Levinsohn, President of Fox interactive
media."

Out comes Ross, who mumbles over the applause, "That's like following
Babe Ruth, but not on steroids." No reaction. "A year ago, Rupert
Murdoch and Peter Chernin said get us into the internet big and we did.
Now we can offer you what no other network can ... a network of sites
approaching the biggest on the web." Second, in fact, in total page
views to Yahoo, more than Google or MSN. "More than seventy five
million people came to visit our sites ... looked at more than thirty
billion pages .... streamed more than two hundred fifty million videos
... that's reach, that's frequency." Yeah -- that's MySpace, mostly.
"Myspace is the size of California, New York and Texas combined." And
so was Friendster, wasn't it, until it died?

After some clips and charts, out comes Peter Liguori to walk us through
the lineup. He makes some comment about his head of publicity being
"our most Type A guy," turns around and reveals a large feather boa
coming out of his pants. He removes it and throws it backstage ...
while 3,000 people who haven't a clue what the hell THAT was about look
on silently.

This season, he says, "We knew we had a target on our back ... Well,
next week Fox will finish as the top network in adults 18-49 for the
second year in a row ... Without the Super Bowl ... Without a highly
rated Yankees-Red Sox series," but instead with a lineup "drenched in
Fox DNA."

I'm drenched, too. Everyone in my row has taken off their jacket and
rolled up their sleeves. The room feels sleepy.

"I know you're tired," Liguori incisively ad-libs before returning to
his scripted review of numbers and more numbers. (Did you know
"Unan1mous" was "the number one new show" on TV this year?)

About the CW, he says, "I want to assure you that Fox, which has ten of
the top twelve 18-34 year old shows ... would still deliver more of
this audience by more than a third" than the WB and UPN if they were
combined.

"As far as we're concerned," though, "in August this race starts over
... The young scrappy network that has to prove itself all over again."

And Fox will do it on a three-part platform of stability (16 of 16
shows returning on the same night), managing baseball and "taking
advantage of January." Liguori again takes credit for the "strategy" of
running "Idol" only once a year, even though Bill Carter has just
reported that it wasn't Fox's idea at all.

Now he steps up to the podium to go through the night by night. I
notice he is now triple-miked: a headset, a lapel mike and a podium
mike. Belt suspenders and garter.

We see a preview for the Brad Garrett comedy TIL DEATH. Then out comes
Brad to entertain the crowd. He bombs.

"I'm just glad to be out on a stage where I don't need to kiss Ray
Romano's ass ... I hear the pilot tested really well, which I guess
means I'll be renegotiating my contract on Monday ... (He kids. He's
actually much happier working for Liguori than Leslie Moonves.) ...
Face it, this guy's carrer peaked as bad guy number two on 'The Six
Million Dollar Man.' .... Good to see Paula Abdul here today. I'm glad
to see that Bellevue has a shuttle bus ..."

Then he shows a clip of Peter Liguori at last year's upfront, getting a
huge kiss from Pam Anderson while Mrs. Liguori looks on nervously.
"Guys," says Brad, "don't be envious. We've all been on the internet i
think we hall know where Pam Anderson's lips have been. ...

"You think Ryan Seacrest is gay? (pause) It doesn't matter -- I'm
(bleepin') him anyway." You've been a great crowd! (He didn't say
that.) Exit Brad.

We see previews of other shows. (I'll be reviewing them all late
Friday.)

Now we turn to Saturday nights. "This network has wanted to get back
into the late night game for years," says Liguori, who introduces Spike
Feresten, the ex-"Seinfeld"-Letterman writer who'll have a post-"MADtv"
show in the fall. Comparisons are made to another writer-turned-host
now employed at NBC.

Spike Feresten comes out. He not only bombs, he implodes. By the end
of his standup routine he has turned into dark matter, which every
advertiser in the room will probably avoid going near for fear of their
lives.

"Isn't he doing a terrific job?" he opens. "Lets give him a round of
applause. I know you're all thinking it, so I'll say it out loud:
Peter Liguori is HOT. Romance novel hot. ... Some backstage gossip I
just heard? Ladies at the network refer to him as Peter Li-gorgeous."
Spike encourages us to call Peter that at the post-party. Silence.

Noting the fact he's in the Armory, he says, "Nothing says irreverent
comedy like an aging miliary facility." About these presentations, he
makes a Seinfeldian observation, "One word that doesn't pop into my
head is UP-FRONT," which gets the only genuine laugh of the routine.
But then he tries to work it. "Where I come from, upfront means
straightfoward. Honest. Not trying to conceal or manipulate
information." We get it! Move it along!

But he doesn't. The routine doesn't end until the last remaining
molecules of oxygen have been sucked out of the Armory. There was a
clip, too. It was one of several "test episodes" that Liguori says
were made of the Spike show. Keep testing, guys ...

As it turns out, though, Feresten is just the lead-in to the deadliest
10 minutes, or is 20 minutes, of the afternoon, when David Hill and Ed
Goren, the co-chiefs of Fox Sports, come out. And put the pedal to the
metal and drive right off the cliff.

They talk about the NFL a bit, then switch to the BCS college football
championship series, which Fox is airing for the first time in 2007.
Two of the bowls are sponsored by Tostitos, but David Hill pronounces
it "TostEEStos." More than once. Finally Goren jumps in and
pronounces it correctly. Goren and Hill laugh and clown around with
"Tostitos" for a while. The crowd is now murmuring. This is really
bad.

Back to the NFL and the postgame show. It got renamed "The OT." Hill:
"We renamed the postgame show, well we didn't want to but Chernin
threatneed to fire us if we didn't (ha ha), so it's the O-T. (Pause.)
The o-TAY? (giggles)" Goren: "Tostitos!"

The crowd is catatonic.

They show a clip of Terry, Howie and Jimmy in L.A. behind the Fox NFL
desk. They clown around some more. Howie makes an untimely reference
to there not being "enough alcohol in the State of California for Ed to
drink." Terry's last words as the tape fades out: "Who's Peter
Liguori?"

Two words for Fox: Brent Musberger.

Hill boldly predicts that even with NBC's "Sunday Night Football,"
Fox's NFL broadcasts will again be the highest rated games on TV.
Well, sure -- airing against paid programming and half the time without
opposition even from the NFL on CBS, Fox has less competition on Sunday
afternoons than NBC will in prime. How hard a prediction is that?

At some point Hill and Goren clear out and it's back to the night by
night review. Eventually Kiefer comes out to address the crowd, and
gets a nice hand. He's very appreciative and all that, but he doesn't
have a script, and he goes on too long, and it's still too much.
Although at least we do learn that after a short break, everyone is
going to jump into season six of "24," that four scripts are already
written, and that we'll see glimpses of what's ahead in the two-part
finale next week. "We've never been this far ahead," he says.

And then he says, "It's raining outside. I hope you all brought an
umbrella."

Everyone groans. It's official -- this upfront is the perfect storm. A
reporter next to me cries out, "It's the icing on the cake!"

Hugh Laurie comes out shortly after and keeps his remarks a little
shorter and quippier ("We're all looking forward to next season. Why
we're looking forward to it I don't know; for all i know we're all
going to be wiped out in a typhoid epidemic in episode one."). Even
then the crowd doesn't stir much.

Finally, the "Idol" segment. A panel swings around, "Match Game"
style, and there are Paula, Randy and Simon behind a desk. Liguori goes
over to banter with them.

Simon says, "Let me sum this all up for you, Peter. This is the most
bored audience I've seen in my life!"

And gets a huge hand.

http://groups.google.com/group/tvbarn2/browse_thread/thread/be3736088b45ea98/c5596e679b339c09#c5596e679b339

Critic’s Notebook
"Grey's Anatomy":

The Newark Star-Ledger’s Alan Sepinwall in his TV blog

This three-hour finale illustrated everything I love about this show and everything about it that drives me absolutely freaking nuts. On the one hand, you have scenes like Cristina choking on her big moment during Burke's surgery, or the "Breakfast Club"-inspired series of This Is Who I Am monologues during the inquisition, or Alex finally displaying some humanity after Denny dies. On the other, you have Katherine Heigl being asked to cry -- twice -- and Callie being transformed from a cool, tough woman into quivering mess, and Meredith and McDreamy doing a note-for-note recreation of that painful "Sex and the City" arc where Carrie was cheating on Aidan with Big, and Shonda going so far in trying to exorcise her high school demons (as she admits on her blog) that she has all the characters go to prom, and...

Why must you be so good some of the time, "Grey's Anatomy," and so cringe-inducing the rest?

Here's the thing: Shonda's repeated defense of Meredith is that she wanted to be able to write female characters who are deeply flawed, who are allowed to do the same awful things that male drama characters like Doug Ross or Tony Soprano or Vic Mackey get away with all the time without outraged cries from the audience. And while I do think there's a certain double standard about what people will accept from a woman versus a man, those guys I mentioned are interesting and charismatic and likable enough when they're not breaking hearts and decapitating corpses and killing cops that you're willing to follow them week after week even when they're doing the bad stuff. On those occasions when Meredith's not involved in a plot about her love life (either dealing with her mom or helping out one of the other interns), I do kind of like her, but those moments are so infrequent compared to her constant angsting over McDreamy -- not to mention all those seemingly unrelated storylines that always turn into a metaphor for that relationship -- that I really, really can't stand her. Or him, for that matter. Either be with your wife or don't, dude. Waffling and sneaking off for a quickie with your ex while you're out on a date with the missus is not cool on pretty much any level. And Meredith wins the "You stay classy, San Diego" award for doing the same with McDreamy about 30 seconds after her boyfriend professed that he had finally gotten over the death of his wife thanks to her.

And the notion that Izzie might have gotten off thanks to the interns' "I am Spartacus" tactics just makes my blood boil. If you're going to have one of your characters do something as insane and dangerous as that, you have to have the show treat it as something that insane and dangerous -- you have to be willing to go all the way and either destroy her career or take down all her accomplices in the process. Instead, Webber let himself be bamboozled, and then Izzie took everyone off the hook with her confession.

Again, Shonda has that David E. Kelley thing where the good moments are just so damn good that I'm willing to suffer through the bad ones for a while, but my patience for Kelley usually gets tried by season three. As I said the last time, I get that Shonda is head over heels in love with all her characters and that that devotion no doubt is responsible for how popular the show is right now. But in the long haul, a creator needs some kind of emotional distance from the people they write about, or else things will go sour and self-indulgent in a hurry.

http://sepinwall.blogspot.com/

Critic’s Notebook
A tribute to Mike Wallace

By Diane Holloway Austin American-Statesman TV Writer Friday, May 19, 2006

In a week frantic with fall schedule announcements and season finales, let’s take a moment to pay tribute to Mike Wallace, the 88-year-old “60 Minutes” reporter who became famous for ambushing corrupt corporate and government executives.

After 38 years and more than 800 stories, Wallace steps down Sunday night as a regular contributor to the broadcast. A fascinating retrospective, “I’m Mike Wallace: A ‘60 Minutes’ Tribute,” airs 6 p.m. Sunday on CBS, KEYE Channel 42.

Whether you’re old or young, like or don’t like Wallace, this is don’t-miss-TV. The history of his broadcast career, which spans six decades, is pretty much the history of broadcast journalism.

Wallace is not, however, leaving the venerable CBS newsmagazine altogether. He recently signed a new four-year contract that dubs him “correspondent emeritus” and allows him to scale back to only a few reports a year.

If the end of the new contract is actually the end of Wallace’s career, he’ll be 92 years old when he finally leaves Black Rock.

Wallace is legendary for leaping out from behind potted plants, a cameraman in tow, and demanding answers from people who previously insisted they had “no comment.” He makes people squirm and spill the beans, and he does it with a combination of tough talk (“Oh, come on!”) and seductive pleading (“Forgive me, but I have to ask … “).

In the retrospective, Wallace wanders through the many aspects of his career, guided by “60 Minutes” colleagues Ed Bradley, Morley Safer, Steve Kroft and Lesley Stahl at his elbow. There are clips from Wallace’s hundreds of interviews, including the Ayatollah Khomeini, Johnny Carson, Ronald Reagan, Yasir Arafat, Jack Kevorkian, Vladimir Putin, Janis Joplin, Manuel Noriega and Vladimir Horowitz. To name a few.

In one memorable clip, the essence of Wallace’s acerbic wit and dogged determination are evident in the opening segment of a classic sit-down with Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan:

“You don’t trust the media; you’ve said so,” Wallace says, about six inches from Farrakhan’s face. “You don’t trust whites; you’ve said so. You don’t trust Jews; you’ve said so. Well, here I am!’’

Wallace has talked about battling depression for years, but in Sunday’s retrospective, he admits for the first time, to a question from Safer, that he tried to commit suicide 20 years ago.

Like others who participated in the birth of TV news, Wallace started out in entertainment, hosting a late-night talk in New York in the ’50s. A few years later, he got serious about news, and in 1968 he and co-host Harry Reasoner launched “60 Minutes.”

The show wasn’t popular in its original Tuesday time slot, but after it moved to Sunday nights in ‘72, it became an institution.

“60 Minutes” will go on without Wallace’s tough questions and dulcet baritone, but it won’t be the same.

http://www.austin360.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/austin/tvblog/

Upfront Notebook
Upfronts Wrap-Up: Scared Networks = Better Shows?

By James Poniewozik Time Magazine television critic Friday, May. 19, 2006

The upfronts are over, the stars are jetting back to L.A., and the ad executives are dry-cleaning the spilled Campari off their party suits. The fall schedule annoucements found 5 or 6 networks—depending whom you count—in wildly different situations: NBC flailing, ABC feeling good but filling a lot of holes, Fox and CBS standing mostly pat, The CW figuring out what exactly it is. I won't see the full shows for a few weeks, but in general it looks like desperation breeds ingenuity: most of the pilots I'm most curious to see (30 Rock, Friday Night Lights, Let's Rob... and Six Degrees, to name a few) are at NBC and ABC—partly, perhaps, because they simply announced the most new shows.

But in a lot of ways, the networks are more alike than different. There are always inexplicable mini-trends in a new season—this year, wedding and football shows, for instance. But these look like the mega-trends that will most affect what you see on (and off) TV in 2006-07.

* Nobody Knows How to Make Money in TV Anymore. OK, to be fair, this is true of the whole media world, including magazines (and excepting porn). But the old advertising model is under assault on multiple fronts: TiVo, the Internet, audience fragmentation, cable and so on. Even the traditional secondary sources of revenue, like syndication sales, are having problems. (No new hit sitcoms means no new sitcoms to rerun.) So the networks will try anything: product placements, sponsored mini-shows during commercials, and, especially...

* TV That's Not on TV. "Interactivity," "multiplatforming" -- choose your buzzword, every network has new-media spinoffs to sell: online-only series on their websites, video-on-demand, "mobisodes" on cell phones, Internet games, community sites like MySpace and so on. If young people don't want to watch TV anymore, the message is, fine with us: we'll make TV stop being TV.

* Eat Your Serial! The conventional wisdom a few years ago was that viewers didn't have the time, patience, or, frankly, brains to follow series that told multi-part stories that played out over months or years: hence, the explosion of CSI clones. That changed with 24, Prison Break, Lost, Desperate Housewives and Grey's Anatomy. How much it changed is open for debate--several Lost ripoffs failed this season--but the serial is now TV's preferred way of swinging for the fences: get a successful one and you get obsessed fans coming back week after week, and good DVD sales too. Every network has at least one serial drama, but the latest twist is the serial comedy, building off the success of The Office: sitcoms like Big Day, Betty the Ugly and Let's Rob... will tell single stories over the course of a season or more.

If there's a big theme uniting all these trends, it's that media is changing fast, executives are scared and thus, they're contemplating the unthinkable: taking risks. Whether this actually makes for good shows I'll see in a few weeks. But at least the era of boring network TV is suspended, however briefly. Enjoy that—or not—while it lasts.

http://time.blogs.com/tuned_in/

TV Notebook
O'Brien to host 58th Emmy show

The Hollywood Reporter

Conan O'Brien has signed up for his second tour of duty as host of the Primetime Emmy Awards.

O'Brien will handle emcee duties on the 58th annual Primetime Emmy ceremony, to be held Aug. 27 at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles and telecast live on NBC.

O'Brien drew raves from critics for his deft handling of hosting duties at the 2002 ceremony, the last time the awards show aired on NBC.

Jeff Ross, executive producer of NBC's "Late Night With Conan O'Brien," and awards show veteran Ken Ehrlich have been tapped as executive producers of this year's Emmy telecast.

"Conan has proven to be a perfect Emmy host. He loves TV and is very funny and unpredictable," said Rick Ludwin, NBC's executive vp latenight and primetime series.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr/television/brief_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1002539533

The 2005-2006 Season
Fridays’ Season Finales

"America's Funniest Home Videos," 8 PM ET/PT, ABC
"Close to Home," 9 PM ET/PT, CBS
"Numb3rs," 10 PM ET/PT, CBS

"Conviction" 9 PM ET/PT, NBC

Conviction was not renewed.

Yup, series finales are also included in the listings, Russ.

The TV Watch
Goodbye Already: The Art of the Television Finale

By Alessandra Stanley The New York Times May 19, 2006

Finales are like allergies: they come at the same time every year, and for some they are a severe irritant. Each show strains feverishly to outshine the others, but this is the season when "The West Wing" and "Will & Grace" finally end, and "Lost" keeps going. Even more than usual, this May is packed with maudlin closure and extreme cliffhangers.

Series finales can't lose or win. They draw in lots of viewers and yet are almost always a letdown. Even the more memorable ones, like the group hug that ushered out "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" or the Korean War armistice that shut down "M*A*S*H," were not the best episodes, just the inevitable ones. Virtue is in the timing as much as the writing or execution: the best series come to a close before they start to decline. "Seinfeld," for example, ended after nine seasons while it was still a huge hit. "Alias," on the other hand, on its way out with its final episode on Monday, still has the courage of its implausibility, but the ABC spy drama was tapped out long before it reached its fifth and final season.

"Will & Grace" has so overextended its stay on NBC that even its creators make fun of it. In previews for last night's closing episode, Karen asks Jack if he too finds Will and Grace exhausting, and he wearily replies, "I always have."

Season finales aren't final, and are easier to pull off. Cliffhangers don't have to tie up loose ends so much as dangle new material. "Dallas," of course, set the stakes high with its "Who Shot J. R.?" in 1980. Since then many — including "The O.C." — have tried to match that water-cooler suspense; and while the hype over season enders keeps getting noisier, this year only "Lost" gets close.

That ABC drama, about plane-wreck survivors marooned on a mysteriously inhabited island, carries the highest expectations, with the lowest risk of failure. All it has to do in its season-ending episode scheduled for Wednesday is give its devotees a taste of resolution, without actually providing an answer. "Lost" is the sudoku of network television, a brainteaser that puzzles but does not enlighten.

Other series weave fantasy fulfillment into their big finish. "Grey's Anatomy" is a hit ABC drama with a loyal teenage following. For its season finale Monday the series found a way to put Izzie in a shiny prom dress for a deathbed love scene. That took some effort: the writers concocted a subplot that required the interns to organize a high school prom in the surgical wing, a setting so romantic (at least to adolescent girls) that it drove Meredith to have sex with her married McDreamy, Dr. Derek Shepherd.

"ER," which staggered through its 12th season on NBC, might have had in mind the wishful thinking of older, more exasperated fans: previews for the finale last night promised a bloody "Scarface"-like hostage-taking in the emergency room.

Romantic cliffhangers are the key to series that cater primarily to women. "Grey's Anatomy" ended with a triangle, leaving Meredith on the brink of choosing between two lovers. Even "Desperate Housewives," a series with a far more satirical tone, is pumping up the suspense about sex and adultery. Sexual betrayal is rampant: viewers were left with Lorelai of "Gilmore Girls" on WB in bed not with her fiancé, Luke, but with Christopher, the man who fathered her daughter Rory but didn't stick around.

For men, violence is more of a sure thing. "Prison Break," on Fox, did not disappoint: in the season finale, one of the escapees, Abruzzi, frees Michael from being handcuffed to T-Bag by raising an ax and chopping off T-Bag's hand. The finale lived up to its premise: the season ended with Michael, his brother Lincoln and their gang out of the joint and on the run, setting up the next season as a latter-day "Fugitive." And in a nod to that series, T-Bag is now like the one-armed man, clutching his bleeding stump to his chest as he runs for his life.

Sentimentality tends to choke the spirit out of most series finales. It was inevitable that "The West Wing" would end on a pious note, but the mawkish fillips were disappointing if only because in the final season the plot shifted to a new president and a new White House staff that breathed new life and political machinations into the series. The finale turned the spotlight back to Josiah Bartlet, and seven seasons had already sucked all the poignancy from his presidency. There were no real surprises: White House workaholics at last found time for love, President Matt Santos was sworn in — by a female chief justice — and President Bartlet went home to New Hampshire.

Mostly, the final episode sought backstage catharsis by bringing the series's defectors back for a victory lap: Sam, played by Rob Lowe, came back late in the season to work in the Santos administration. In the inauguration scene, the camera panned the audience and stopped briefly on the face of the show's creator, Aaron Sorkin, who quit in 2003.

Comedies rise and fall on the continuity of cozily familiar characters, which makes their final episodes particularly problematic. Different networks have different ways of dealing with the death of a sitcom.

NBC wallows in sorrow and self-pity. The network handled the final episode of "Friends" like the state funeral of a beloved leader. And this season the network is losing more than "The West Wing" and "Will & Grace." Katie Couric is leaving the "Today" show after 15 years to become the first woman solo anchor of "CBS Evening News," and on NBC, that real-life ending at times overshadows all the others.

Her farewell on May 31 has been stretched over several days: every morning on "Today," different celebrities pay loving homage in taped messages, including Rudolph W. Giuliani, Jon Bon Jovi and George Clooney. (The long goodbye is not all hearts and flowers, however. The morning show also sneaks in clips of CBS's new anchor in her more clownish moments on "Today," including the time she hung from a wire in Rockefeller Plaza in a Peter Pan costume.)

Fox abhors sentiment. "That 70's Show," which ended on New Year's Eve of 1979, brought back its former stars, Topher Grace and Ashton Kutcher, but kept their return, and the show's demise, low key and almost matter of fact. "Malcolm in the Middle," a sitcom that lasted too long, made a point of ending without tears, but padded the finale with a long, silly joke about excrement that was just as painful.

All shows come to an end, but not every end is worth a showing.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/19/arts/television/19fina.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&pagewanted=print

TV Notebook
Mike Wallace grilled about his favorite interviews

By Peter Johnson USA Today

Sunday at 7 p.m. ET/PT, Mike Wallace, 88, talks about his long reporting career in I'm Mike Wallace, a 60 Minutes special that includes professional highlights and missteps.

Wallace tells Morley Safer his clinical depression was at times worse than he let on: He once tried to kill himself using pills but was saved by his wife, Mary.

Lesley Stahl prods Wallace into acknowledging, 15 years after the interview, that he was too rough on Barbra Streisand. "That was mean. It was mean," a stern Stahl charges. "Yes, it was," says Wallace, who apologizes on-camera to Streisand.

USA Today asked Wallace to pick his top five stories over the years:

Roger Clemens April 8, 2001

"I had forgotten how much I liked him," Wallace says of the controversial pitcher known as The Rocket for his fastballs and inside pitches. But in this interview, one of the few times Clemens opened up to a reporter, the baseball great showed himself to be not only a devoted family man but also a hard-driving athlete who "broke his tail working" at his sport, Wallace says.

Jack Kevorkian Nov. 22, 1998

"He's a decent and compassionate man who tried to help people get out of the suffering of their lives," says Wallace, whose interview showed Kevorkian ending a patient's life. That piece was used as evidence that sent Kevorkian to jail. Prison officials have refused to allow Wallace to see Kevorkian; Wallace says Kevorkian's incarceration amounts to "cruel and unusual punishment."

Nigerian scams Dec. 11, 1994

To this day, more than a decade after Wallace's report on financial scams based in Nigeria, they are still thriving. "Corruption flourishes everywhere," Wallace says, "but they (Nigeria) have it down to a fine art." Con artists and crooks have always been a staple at 60 Minutes, and Wallace had interviewed his share. Why? "They are always inevitably fascinating characters."

Johnny Carson April 29, 1979

The king of late-night television was at the height of his fame when Wallace's interview aired, and the reclusive Carson opened up, admitting problems with alcohol. "I think for the first time he decided that he was going to be honest about himself, talking about his troubles with booze," Wallace says. "I really loved the man. He was a gentle, decent, genuinely funny and genuinely smart guy."

Vladimir Horowitz Dec. 26, 1977

"He was a kid. There was something adolescent about him," says Wallace of the interview with the maestro, then 74 years old — the interview he ranks as his favorite. Horowitz, who had played The Stars and Stripes Forever to a crowd in New York's Central Park in celebration of the end of World War II in 1945, was cajoled by his wife, Wanda, to play it again for Wallace. "I don't remember," Horowitz protested at his piano, then played it flawlessly. "There was a wonderful innocence about him, particularly because he had never done anything like that (a TV interview) before, and all of a sudden he was exposed to an audience that probably didn't realize who he was at the beginning of the program," Wallace says.

http://www.usatoday.com/life/television/news/2006-05-18-wallace_x.htm

Yup, series finales are also included in the listings, Russ.When the "Comviction" finale was created, the cast and crew probably did not know it was the series finale instead of the season finale.

I understand it was the last show killed by NBC.

Last Friday's ratings reportedly were the coup de grace.

I understand it was the last show killed by NBC.

Last Friday's ratings reportedly were the coup de grace.

I am sorry to see it go and not sure why maybe it was some of the eye candy. It was a show that kind of grew on me over time and really not sure why.

I'm not sure either. :) I rarely (as in almost never) give up on a show once I've gone past the first episode, but I did with Conviction. Maybe it was just too much of the same thing, it just didn't grab my attention. I DVR'd it, but too often deleted it without watching it, and finally gave up altogether.

I was sorry to see it go, too.

But I was even sorrier to see last year's "L&O: Trial By Jury" get whacked so quickly.

It was very strange show and in a way reminded me of friends in that it was bunch of 30 year olds trying to find there way in life. I won't miss it that much just have to find someting to replace it with on my Tivo.

Sports On TV
ABC Saturday Night Football

By Scott D. Pierce Salt Lake City Deseret Morning News May 19, 2006

The smartest move made in TV sports this week came from ABC, which announced that it will air college football in prime time on Saturday nights this fall. That's smart because:

First, not much of anybody watches much of anything on any broadcast network on Saturday nights. (That's why ABC, CBS and NBC tend to load the night with repeats.)

Second, ABC and its ESPN sister networks already have contracts with the Big Ten, the Pac 10, the ACC and the Big 12, so it's not going to have to shell out any more bucks for the programming. (And one would think that the schools who end up in prime time on ABC would be thrilled with the exposure.)

Third, the four Saturday-night games that ABC aired last fall did, on average, about 30 percent better in the ratings than the network's non-college football programming in the time period.

And, fourth, I'm pretty much in favor of as many choices as possible when it comes to watching college football games.

The big question is — this seems to make so much sense, why didn't anybody at ABC think of it sooner?

http://www.desnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,635208706,00.html

TV Notebook
'Deadwood's' vital signs start to fade

By Rick Kushman Sacramento Bee TV Columnist Friday, May 19, 2006

HBO's "Deadwood" starts its third season in a few weeks, and the Season 2 DVD comes out Tuesday. All that should be good news.

However, that may be the last of it.

In April, the show's talented writer and creator, David Milch, said he wasn't planning to take the series past Season 4. But last week, word came out of HBO that it had let the contracts lapse for the actors, meaning they're free to make other deals and that "Deadwood" could end after the 12-week season that starts June 11.

HBO said Milch is working on another project for the pay cable network, which it calls a "surf noir" series set in the 1960s, and that he is too busy to focus on "Deadwood."

However, reports from Hollywood have been saying that Milch still wants "Deadwood" to run through Season 4. So, more likely, this confusion is a result of failed contract negotiations between HBO and Paramount Network Television, which produces the series. ("Deadwood" has a town-size set and a large cast, and is a very expensive show.)

Meanwhile, HBO has said it has not closed the door on a fourth season and that conversations continue. But that means "Deadwood" would continue with whatever cast members haven't signed somewhere else -- and it's hard to imagine the series surviving without its two central figures, Al Swearengen (played by the terrific Ian McShane) and Seth Bullock (the nearly-as-terrific Timothy Olyphant).

It may be some time before we learn "Deadwood's" fate, or figure out what's behind it. But this all sounds like the kind of plotting that went on in Swearengen's bar in 1877 Deadwood.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Not sure if this one is good or bad news, but it's another sign -- like we need them -- that times are a-changing. As ever.

Advertising Age reports that a survey by Bolt Media, which runs the Web site www.bolt.com, found that only one in four 12- to 34-year-olds could identify the four biggest broadcast networks.

That age group, by the way, is the exact bunch most TV networks want to attract. Bolt execs told Advertising Age that they understand their study might be a bit skewed, since it was taken online and is not a scientific poll, but they believe it is representative of the age group.

The favorite networks, according to the 400 people in the survey, are Fox, Comedy Central, ABC, MTV and the Cartoon Network. (For the record, the four biggies are ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox. But you knew that.)

The survey also asked people how they spend their free time. The results: 86 percent said by surfing the Internet, 76 percent said by hanging out with friends, and 71 percent said by watching movies. TV was fourth, with 69 percent.

Not to defend TV viewing, but the time spent watching TV might be higher because the set is often turned on when people do other things, like surf the Net and hang with friends, and because many people -- including TV critics -- don't like to admit they watch as much television as they really do. Me? Couple hours a week.

http://www.sacbee.com/content/lifestyle/columns/kushman/v-print/story/14256860p-15071718c.html

Upfront Notebook
Networks debut new lineups

By Manuel Mendoza The Dallas Morning News May 19, 2006

NEW YORK – "I have no reason to trust you," a newly hired writer tells a network executive in the upcoming NBC series Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. "You work in television."

The scene was part of NBC's sometimes self-deprecating pitch to advertisers Monday, kicking off the so-called "upfronts," when broadcast networks hawk their new wares to the people who pay the bills.

"It's overwhelming," Rob Donnell of Brand Arc, a Los Angeles product-placement company, said at the NBC after-party under the skating rink at Rockefeller Center. "By the time the week is over, you don't remember what you've seen. At some point, it all starts to blend together."

ABC follows with the unveiling of its fall prime-time schedule Tuesday while CBS, Fox and the newly created CW trot out their dog-and-pony presentations later in the week. Name stars make jokes at the networks' expense, extended clips roll on giant video screens, and network executives tout the new product. But can they be trusted?

Early advertising commitments are expected to be down, thanks to falling ratings and a wait-and-see attitude by media buyers, who now have more options with the spread of Internet-based entertainment for computers and handheld devices.

"You're starting to see a lot more integration across platforms," says a media supervisor for a Las Vegas ad agency who attended the NBC upfront and didn't want to be quoted by name. "The advertising community is pushing networks to think outside of the box."

"It's all about how to get the most bang for your buck," Mr. Donnell says. "It's not just about television ads."

That wasn't lost on NBC. Its show of shows played out in the cavernous Radio City Music Hall, where NBC Universal executive Jeff Zucker talked about the company's expanding initiatives for the Web. But before the network got down to business, it tried to wow the crowd.

John Lithgow and Jeffrey Tambor, starring in an Odd Couple-style comedy called 20 Good Years, zoomed onto the stage on motorcycles. Later, Jerome Bettis and Cris Collingsworth tossed footballs into the balcony – and to Regis Philbin and Donald Trump down front – to promote the network's acquisition of Sunday night NFL games.

Matthew Perry, Bradley Whitford and the other stars of Studio 60, West Wing wunderkind Aaron Sorkin's highly anticipated comedy about the backstage doings at a Saturday Night Live-type show, kidded that the series probably would fail.

Writer-producer Paul Haggis (Crash, Million Dollar Baby), whose Irish-gangster series The Black Donnellys is on the midseason schedule, also gave fourth-place NBC the what-for. "You win a couple Oscars and you think you'd be on the No. 1 network," he said.

When entertainment president Kevin Reilly was introduced at the start, Rainn Wilson, one of the stars of The Office –a rare bright spot for NBC – came out and began pleading for money, like it was a telethon. Mr. Reilly interrupted with the admission that NBC has been experiencing some hard times.

The No. 1 network with younger viewers for years, NBC fell to No. 4 during the 2004-05 season and stayed there. Another star of The Office , B.J. Novak, made a joke at Mr. Reilly's expense. "I might be the highest-paid temp on television," he said, "except for maybe Kevin Reilly."

Ouch.

But it's true: In a volatile business with billions of dollars at stake, entertainment presidents come and go, and the upfronts are one place where they take a stand. As other network executives will do all week, Mr. Reilly also spun a more positive message, much like the way he's trying to turn around NBC's fortunes.

Torturing his metaphors, he said that the network needs "rocket fuel" for its schedule and a "bumper crop" of successful shows. "I'm ready," he confessed, "for this season to be over."

Each fall in network television, hope for hits springs eternal.

http://www.guidelive.com/sharedcontent/dws/ent/television/stories/051606glupfronts.128b4848.html

TV on DVD
May TV on DVD Releases

May 2
I Love Lucy - Sixth Season
Red Dwarf - Eighth Season
Leave It to Beaver - Second Season
The Nanny - Second Season
King of the Hill - Sixth Season
3rd Rock From The Sun - Fourth Season

May 9
The West Wing - Sixth Season
Rescue Me - Second Season
Scrubs - Third Season
Everybody Loves Raymond - Sixth Season
That 70's Show - Fourth Season
The Facts of Life - First & Second Seasons
The Golden Girls - Fifth Season
The Andy Griffith Show - Sixth Season
Northern Exposure - First & Second Seasons
Dr. Katz - First Season
Life Goes On - First Season

May 16
Hill Street Blues - Second Season
That Girl - First Season
Monarch of the Glen - Fourth Season
Grounded For Life - Second Season

May 23
Deadwood - Second Season
High School Musical
Boston Legal - First Season
The 4400 - Second Season
Wings - First & Second Seasons
The Closer - First Season
Little Britain - Second Season
Will & Grace - Series Finale

May 30
Queer as Folk - Fifth Season
Numb3rs - First Season
Dukes of Hazzard - Sixth Season
Alf - Third Season
A Different World - Second Season
Joey - First Season

I'm not sure either. :) I rarely (as in almost never) give up on a show once I've gone past the first episode, but I did with Conviction. Maybe it was just too much of the same thing, it just didn't grab my attention. I DVR'd it, but too often deleted it without watching it, and finally gave up altogether.

I started doing the same thing about 3 weeks ago. I Tivo'd it and I just got to the point where I just decided to watch other compelling things that I had recorded. As a result, I just deleted Conviction without watching it.

TV Notebook
Garner(ing) no #s

By Michael Starr The New York Post May 19, 2006 --

The penultimate episode of Jennifer Garner's ABC series, "Alias," snared only only only 5.4 million viewers (8-9 p.m.) Wednesday - cable numbers. It just goes to show that ABC made the right decision in axing the show after five seasons (the "Alias" finale airs Monday).

Fans of "Alias" can natter on all they want about the nerve of ABC cancelling their show, but TV is a business. If no one's watching - and a network can't command premium ad rates and, hence, can't make money - what's the point of its keeping an expensive show like "Alias" on the air?

Let's face it: a prime-time show averaging 5.4 million viewers, on a major network, doesn't cut it.

http://www.nypost.com/entertainment/68788.htm

Critic’s Notebook
Finale Fever

By Maureen Ryan in the Chicago Tribune TV blog

A graceful exit

The “Will & Grace” finale was fine, if a little tame; I laughed a lot more during the “Say Goodnight Gracie” special that aired before the finale.

It stands to reason -- though the usual “I’m going to miss all my friends” reflections of the cast were predictable, the many clips of the show’s funniest moments were a stitch.

I confess freely to giggling uncontrollably during a sequence of clips of Jack in action, doing jazz hands and dancing and doing other random Jack stuff. The whole cast was actually terrific at physical comedy, and the sequence of snippets of the characters slapping each other was hilarious as well.

What really induced a snort of laughter -- unintentional laughter, that is -- was Matt Lauer talking about his guest shot on the show and “the honor of being asked.” Wasn’t everyone single person in the Screen Actor’s Guild asked to be a guest star on “Will & Grace” at one point or another? Crikey.

As for the finale itself, when will these shocking May sweeps deaths end! I mean, “Will & Grace” killed off Beverly Leslie. Don’t everybody reach for a hankie at once.

Seriously, though, I really dug that silly Leslie character. His barbed interactions with Jack and Karen were often the high point of the later, weaker episodes.

Other good finale moments: Jack’s terrifying mega-tan in the first scenes, the “Unforgettable” duet between Jack and Karen, Will and Grace marrying their respective kids off to each other. What a way to go.

________________________________________

'O.C.' you later

Too bad the finale of “The O.C.” was so long.

True, it only lasted an hour, but it felt like longer. Is it me or did it take Marissa forever to die?

I thought the car crash in the final minutes of the show had killed her off instantly. But no. This season “The O.C.” has dragged out everything painfully, especially where Marissa is concerned.

So Marissa mumbled, the car burned, Ryan was sad. And on and on it went.

The whole time I was thinking, “Good heavens, pull out your cell phone and call for help, you ninny!” I ground my molars down to dust waiting for Ryan to do that. Aaaarggggh.

Well, goodbye, Marissa, we won’t miss ya. At least actress Mischa Barton tried to demonstrate a variety of facial expressions and show a little energy in the finale. But still, all I can say is, thank goodness they well and truly killed her character off so that she can’t come back for any very special episodes. The very thought makes me shudder.

There was one funny line in the show, though, when Ryan and Marissa were reminiscing about their past few years as friends and more. He said something like, “I don’t regret anything. Except Oliver.” Hee.

I’m not especially optimistic about the big changes that are promised for Season 4. Regardless of whether the show picks up its energy level, Adam Brody and Benjamin McKenzie look more than ready to leave this soap. And the new characters, Kaitlin and Taylor, are irritating. They bug me. If it weren’t for Julie Cooper-Nichol and Sandy Cohen, there would be few reasons to tune in any more. Unless they gave Capt. Oats a bigger part?

By the way, here’s one bit of trivia from the “O.C.” finale: One of the names called during the graduation ceremony, Alex Patsavas, is the name of the show’s music supervisor.

http://tempo.typepad.com/entertainment_tv/

With the Upfront presentations complete, what did we learn about the state of television in 2006?
Who knows.
For a bit of perspective, take a look back at Aaron Barnhart’s report on the upfronts of just two years ago (although the 2004-2005 season seems like a lot longer ago than that!)

Critic’s Notebook
The 2004 Upfronts

The real world of prime time TV

• What did we learn from this week’s upfronts? Well, we learned that the letter B stood for boxing — uhhh, when it didn’t stand for billionaire.
• It’s a reality world for fall TV
• Every network will be counting on unscripted fare and fewer comedies
By AARON BARNHART The Kansas City Star May 22, 2004

NEW YORK—Two dozen young men have shown up at the Trinity Boxing Club in Manhattan’s financial district, lured by the $1 million prize being offered to the winner of “The Contender,” a new reality TV show from Mark Burnett, the man responsible for “Survivor” and “The Apprentice.”

But on this morning, you’re more likely to bump into a publicist than a pugilist. Today is media day, and the Trinity gym is packed with press who are here for the two big names who have agreed to appear each week on “The Contender”: actor Sylvester Stallone of “Rocky” fame and former middleweight champion Sugar Ray Leonard.

“This show,” Burnett says, “will reinvent the heart and soul of boxing.”

That statement, typical in its complete lack of modesty, may or may not be proven correct. But one thing is indisputable: Burnett has already helped reinvent what we watch at night.

With this week’s fall season previews in New York by the six broadcast networks — ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC, UPN and the WB — it’s now clear that reality TV, once viewed as a fad, has become the center of attention in prime time.

Twelve of the top 20 shows on network television this season were unscripted shows, including the No. 1 and No. 2-rated programs (both editions of “American Idol” on Fox). And there are more — many, many more — on the way. Burnett alone will have five shows on four networks next season.

NBC president Jeff Zucker put it simply on Monday: “This,” he told advertisers, referring to reality TV, “is no passing fancy.”

That’s one trend we’ll be watching in the coming months. Here are others:

• My TV empire is bigger than your TV empire. For the first time, the two biggest names in prime time — “CSI” and “Law & Order” — will go head-to-head next season when CBS launches “CSI: NY” on Wednesday nights, opposite NBC’s “Law & Order.” “L&O” is losing Jerry Orbach, who is heading to yet another “L&O” spinoff, the midseason show “Trial by Jury.”

• A year has 52 weeks? Really? Led by Fox, several networks this week formally abandoned the traditional “premiere week” in September and will launch new series all year long.

Fox’s new season starts in just three weeks. And not just with cheap reality fillers, either:

“The Jury,” from “Oz” and “Homicide” producers Tom Fontana and Barry Levinson, is a scripted drama inspired by behind-closed-doors jury deliberations. Based on the five-minute trailer, it looks terrific, the best show I saw this week. It starts June 8.

“Quintuplets” is a promising if oddball sitcom starring straight-faced Andy Richter as the father of five 15-year-olds who — and I think this is part of the joke — don’t look like they’re related. (For that matter, Andy doesn’t look old enough to be their dad.) It starts June 16.

ABC is rolling out “The Days,” a family drama written by Kansas City’s John Scott Shepherd, in July, and NBC plans to launch four nights of its schedule Aug. 31, after the Olympics.

All networks promised to air fewer reruns, using new short-run series to plug the gaps. And some returning shows, including Fox’s “24” and ABC’s “Alias,” won’t start new seasons until January so they can air nonstop through May without repeats.

While all this means more choice for viewers, it also means more confusion in the TV listings as programs disappear and reappear seemingly randomly. But that has been true of cable shows for years: ask any “Sopranos” fan.

• The B word. With “The Apprentice” propelling Donald Trump back to pop-culture-hero status, two new shows will be set around celebrity moguls who seem to have a lot of time on their hands. In “The Benefactor” (fall, ABC), dot-commer Mark Cuban, best known as the loudmouthed owner of the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks, will give away $1 million from his personal fortune to one deserving stranger — a supersized “Queen for a Day.”

“The Billionaire: Branson’s Quest for the Best” (November, Fox) features Richard Branson, adventurer and founder of Britain’s Virgin brand, taking a group of budding entrepreneurs around the world while paring their ranks down to one future Virgin executive. (To promote his show, which hasn’t begun taping, Branson was lowered in full parachute onto the stage of the Fox upfront.)

• Still milking that cow. The networks aren’t giving up completely on their bread and butter, the medical and legal shows that used to dominate prime time:

“Dr. Vegas” (fall, CBS) stars Rob Lowe as the in-house physician at a casino in TV’s favorite new town, Las Vegas. Joe Pantoliano, who’s no doubt hoping his third CBS show is the charm, co-stars as Lowe’s employer and buddy. This looks like a winner, if only CBS can convince people to tune in on Fridays.

“Kevin Hill” (fall, UPN) stars Taye Diggs as a drop-dead-handsome attorney whose life changes when his cousin passes away, leaving Kevin to take care of a cute 6-month-old girl. It impressed the Washington Post’s hard-to-please critic Lisa de Moraes, who gushed, “All this show needs is a hungry, sad-eyed puppy and it would hit the Chick-Magnet Trifecta.”

• Comedy isn’t dead; it’s just not breathing too well. With the exception of “Quintuplets” and “Joey,” the “Friends” spinoff starring Matt LeBlanc, the woeful state of the sitcom was in evidence all week.

“The Sketch Show” (January, Fox) stars Kelsey Grammer (doesn’t it seem like we said goodbye to him only yesterday?) in an American adaptation of the rapid-fire British comedy hit. We were told it was a lot like “Laugh-In,” and I agree: All the gags appear to have been written around 1968.

“The Office” (midseason, NBC) is another British comedy hit being Americanized by NBC. Because that worked so well with “Coupling.”

“Listen Up” (fall, CBS) is based on the columns of Washington Post funnyman Tony Kornheiser. The nicest thing I can say about the teaser I saw is it has two outstanding leads in Jason Alexander and Malcolm-Jamal Warner, and nowhere to go but up.

Perhaps the most welcome news this week about comedy was that two Fox shows once given up for dead are still alive. The audience at the network’s upfront broke into cheers when Fox entertainment chief Gail Berman announced “Arrested Development” would be back in the fall, and again when she said “Family Guy,” the zany cartoon from Seth MacFarlane, will return in the summer of 2005 — three years after Fox canceled it — because it sold so well on DVD.

• Paradise found. Owing to the surprise success of Fox’s “The O.C.,” three more scripted shows set at the beach have washed up, including “North Shore” (June, Fox) and “Summerland” (June, WB).

“Hawaii” (August, NBC) mixes bikini-clad tourists and pistol-packing cops in a show that looks like “Baywatch” with car chases and shootouts — in other words, a mess.

Meanwhile, in one of the boldest gambles announced this week, Fox is moving “The O.C.” to 7 p.m. Thursdays in November where it will air opposite “Survivor.” Both shows are wildly popular with younger viewers. If forced to choose, which will they pick?

• It’s Mark Burnett’s world; we just watch it. Reality TV’s most successful producer is arguably its busiest, too:

“The Casino” (June, Fox), like “The Restaurant,” finds Burnett’s nosy camera crews wandering around a sexy, high-pressure business, this time the Golden Nugget Casino in Las Vegas. Among the scenes in the preview were a card cheat being physically ejected from the tables and hotel guests carping about the view from their room (“it’s like a graveyard!”). It was mesmerizing, but Burnett promos are always mesmerizing, even the one for “The Contender” … and he hasn’t even shot that show.

“The Contender,” however, may have its thunder stolen by a second boxing show, “The Next Great Champ” (November, Fox), which premieres two months earlier. Both shows appear to combine the brutality of boxing with the inspiring stories of the palookas who dream of being the main event. “Champ” has signed its own charismatic big-time boxer, Oscar de la Hoya.

Burnett is also working on three shows for the WB, including a sitcom with Gerald “Major Dad” McRaney that made me think Burnett might want to content himself with making great reality shows.

http://www.icriticus.com/archives/023540.php

Critic’s Notebook
Backlogged

By Rich Heldenfels in his Akron Beacon Journal TV blog

I've been spending a fair amount of time on the new-season announcements, ''American Idol'' and some family business, so I haven't been blogging as much about shows as I would like. Here's some catching up.

''Lost'' on Wednesday was another disappointment. I don't want to get into too many details because some folks are still in the cone of silence about it (including my bride), but anyone who has watched the show regularly could have figured out everything it revealed -- either from analyzing Michael's behavior or reviewing what we already know about the Others. And it was badly stretched out, since we could have gotten its thin revelations in about five minutes instead of in an episode that ran past the hour mark.

''The West Wing'' bid farewell on Sunday, and even the bride, who hasn't been a fan of late, was drawn into it. I wish it had had more to offer. As leery as I am of grand statements in finales, this almost begged for one -- some kind of validation of all that Bartlet had done, maybe in Santos's inauguration speech?

And it should have closed the circle with the season opener, where we saw the gang gathered at the opening of the Bartlet library. Even if they had just reused the scene from the earlier episode, it would have helped viewers; I've heard from several who either missed the opener or, with the passage of time, had forgotten the details. In fact, looking back now, it would have been better for the show to have saved the library sequence for the series finale. Knowing what we did from it, some of the recent plot developments were no surprise.

On the plus side was last Sunday's episode of ''The Sopranos,'' another really good one, which has me already feeling the pain over the show's looming hiatus. Johnny Sack has become a genuinely sad figure, and his wife Ginny a tragic one as she suffers because of the lone flaw of loving Johnny. I know, he's a mobster, and he's responsible for a lot of deaths. But his steady humiliation at the hands of the feds -- and his colleagues, including Tony -- should generate sympathy pangs in anyone who has ever unsuccessfully battled a merciless bureaucracy. Then, in contrast to the consequences of Johnny's way of life, we have Vito, who loves the action (and hates regular work) so much that he can't help going back to the life, even if it could mean his death. Great contrast, well done, and on top of it, Janice's crying scene.

I haven't gotten to the season finale of ''The O.C.'' yet, but I plan to. As Johnny Cash might say, ''I want to see 'The O.C.' just to watch her die.'' And by now you know who ''her'' is, since Mischa Barton blabbed that her character was dying before the death had aired. Granted that Fox was promoting that someone on the show would die, and that Barton has long been reported to want out, and that the death of a series regular is pretty commonplace on TV shows these days. It was still a big spoiler for her to let that out. I have to think she was pretty unhappy with the show to give away that development. But, since she was just about the worst actress on ''The O.C.,'' I don't regret her demise.

More once I clean some other things out of the DVR -- although the cleaning is going to have to fit around the Cavs-Pistons tonight.

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

For those of you who are interested, the FCC released its Report on Informal Consumer Inquiries and Complaints (http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-265441A1.pdf) (click for a .pdf link) for the first quarter of 2006.

One sure sign of trouble ahead: The indecency complainers are flooding the commission, filing a whopping 141,994 complaints in the quarter, primarily in February. That's way up from the 44,287 filed in the fourth quarter of '05.

Complaints increased slightly in the Cable and Satellite Services sector as well, from 225 in the fourth quarter of '05 to 290 in first quarter '06.

Source: fcc.gov.

Thanks, dline.

It would be interesting to know how many of those complaints are identical emails.

I hate to admit it, but as much as I miss NYPD Blue, I don't miss Dennis' naked keester. :)

With the increased fines and a greater propensity to levy them, I'm afraid there will be no more ground-breaking ala Blue. For all I care, every network program could switch to a cable/sat channel, do it ala Blue, and I'd be a happy camper. The key to Blue, and good programming IMO, is realism (notice I didn't say believability :) ), and Blue came as close as any network program is ever likely to get again. It's a sad day when parents in this country can't control their TV's.

Oh, I know they can't control the Janet Jackson fiasco's and I support heavy fines for that, though the wrong people (as in NOT Janet) were fined IMHO. But, how often does that happen and how likely is it to happen if the actual perpetrator were the one fined?

Current censorship procedures can validate the expected content in a given program and if that offends your senses, don't watch it. Everyone was warned what Blue was like, just as they are warned what The Sopranos, Deadwood, et al, are like. It should be a no-brainer to assign the rating and turn on Parental Controls. The rest of us should not have to be subjected to milk-toast drivel just because vewers are too lazy to use the capabilities they have been given. I guess every network will now become just like PAX.

I understand your points, Dave, but the legislation, as I understand it, would only apply to OTA (government-licensed) channels/networks, and not to cable/satellite channels.

So there is no threat to Sopranos, Deadwood, etc.

TV Notebook
Finding His Purpose

Harold Perrineau on His Character's 'Lost' Cause
By Amy Amatangelo Special to The Washington Post Sunday, May 21, 2006; Y05

Devoted fans know "Lost" is always full of surprises. Passengers of Oceanic Flight 815 die without warning. Those oh-so-creepy "Others" are always lurking somewhere. The cryptic clues of the Dharma Initiative are interwoven throughout the episodes. And seemingly good characters do very bad things.

But nothing prepared viewers for the jaw-dropping conclusion to the May 3 episode. In the nail-biting final seconds, a recently returned and visibly shaken Michael (Harold Perrineau) callously shot and killed Ana Lucia (Michelle Rodriguez) and Libby (Cynthia Watros).

"Even though it's not real, it still feels like you did something terrible to two people that you really care about," Perrineau said. "I have an eerie feeling every time I go into the hatch now. I don't like going in there."

Perrineau had been missing from the series for nine episodes after his character marched into the jungle to search for his kidnapped son. An imposed hiatus is a scary prospect for any actor, but particularly for an actor on "Lost," a series not known for its job security.

"I was a little nervous about it," Perrineau said. "But we have really great writers, so I just sort of trusted in that and thought that my return would be really something interesting. And now that I'm back, it has been."

Interesting, yes. But how did Perrineau adjust to his character's astonishing transformation?

"The thing I have come to realize about Michael is that he's just a guy. He's not a killer or a con man or ex-drug addict," Perrineau said. "He's just a guy struggling to be. . . . How far those struggles will push him -- and who he becomes because of those things -- are really interesting."

Executive producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse, who co-wrote this week's season finale, knew this was the journey Michael would have to take.

"As soon as Michael had the opportunity, we knew he would go searching for his son, and there wasn't anybody that would be able to stop him from doing that," Lindelof said.

Yet it was a risky decision to have the heretofore likable Michael go in such a dark and duplicitous direction.

"The character has evolved tremendously," Cuse said. "We've seen him evolve into being a guy who will literally do anything for his son and is willing to make tremendous personal sacrifices in order to get [him] back. His son moves from something that is a burden to being the absolute central most important thing in his life. Along with that kind of comes a sense of responsibility that this character didn't have at the beginning.

"Ultimately he's put into a horrible 'Sophie's Choice' kind of dilemma in terms of what he has to do in order to get Walt back," Cuse said.

Both executive producers said they think audiences will sympathize with Michael's cause by the finale.

"It's our expectation that the audience may not forgive him for murdering Ana Lucia and Libby, but that they will say, 'I would have done the same thing in his shoes,'" Lindelof said.

Meanwhile, Perrineau has cultivated his own hypothesis about exactly what the deal is with the mysterious island.

"I have a really slight theory," he said. "Lately, I'm thinking the Dharma Initiative reminds me of those guys who got together and all decided to start [their own] religions. Somehow, they've been creating some kind of experiment to create some sort of religion based on what humans do.

. . . It really is just this test of the human spirit, and how we make new rules."

And Perrineau warned that Wednesday's finale is going to be a doozy. "It's as shocking as last season, if not more."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/16/AR2006051601451_pf.html

Upfront Notebook
This time, networks vow, they got it right

By Mark McGuire Albany Times Union staff writer Friday, May 19, 2006

When a network decides to schedule a pilot, it's called a "piickup" It's the perfect term: No long-range commitment is implied.

This is the time of year that the shows the networks gushed about in May 2005 get canned, often without ceremony or even announcement, as the broadcasters move on to promise that their next great drama, comedy, reality show or scheduling brainstorm will hit big.

"Out of Practice" is out. Nothing lasts for "Everwood." "Invasion" has been repelled. Fox whacked "Bernie Mac" and "Stacked." (Do you want me to continue? Neither do I.)

This past week, regular series were concluding their seasons, or merely concluding. Meanwhile, the 2006-07 broadcast television season unofficially began with the upfronts, in which broadcast networks appear in New York City before potential advertisers and reveal their fall schedules.

It's a time of promise, outrage and bewilderment -- canceling "Everwood" in favor of "One Tree Hill"? -- and the most important week of the TV year. These are the decisions that can resurrect or bury a network, all in the space of year.

These are only the first moves in what is often called a chess game. Expect the networks to shuffle schedules and shows before premiere dates, finding a balance between "protecting" newer offerings and challenging the competition.

In the meantime, here's a day-by-day look at the week that was:

Monday

Even in an industry where there's more spins than you'll find in most Laundromats, NBC Entertainment President Kevin Reilly knew that he wouldn't get away with whitewashing the once-proud network's abysmal season.

"Coming off another tough season, I have to tell you," Reilly told reporters in a conference call. "I'm not sure what I would do if I had to sit here and do a shuck and jive with you."

Reilly quickly disimpaled himself from his sword. "I just have to tell you with all candor it's been a banner year for NBC development. We hit the gold mine."

NBC will have not one but two programs set behind the scenes at "Saturday Night Live"-style shows: "30 Rock" comes from "SNL" vet Tina Fey; "Studio 60 on Sunset Strip" is Aaron Sorkin's first series since "The West Wing."

"Studio 60" may be generating more buzz than any show slated to debut this fall, but the advertisers' response was said to be underwhelming. At least it has a good time slot: At 9 p.m. Thursday, it will face competition from "CSI," but it's not like ABC will have anything to counter. Right?

Tuesday

Whoops! That sound you hear is Reilly banging his head against the wall.

ABC is moving its mega hit "Grey's Anatomy" from Sundays to 9 p.m. Thursdays. It's a risky but smart move; ABC needs to branch out and establish other nights.

That's because ABC's success has been, as Monty Python might put it, wafer-thin.

Take away "Desperate Housewives," "Grey's," "Lost" and "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition," and the network doesn't have any full-season hits. ("Dancing with the Stars" is a short-run reality show.) Case in point: The tepid "What About Brian" is the only rookie scripted show from 2005 that's returning. ABC will try to introduce an unwieldy 15 new shows this coming season -- 11 this fall alone.

Some other notes:

"Invasion" dies, but "According to Jim" lives for another season. The television industry is indeed the belly of the beast. (Not to be confused with the new ABC comedy "Notes from the Underbelly.")

"Sons & Daughters," arguably the best new comedy last year, disappears. But ABC brings in "Brothers & Sisters," a one-hour Calista Flockhart drama? What's waiting for midseason, "Aunts & Uncles"? "Nieces & Nephews"? "Third Cousins on Your Mother's Side & Step-Grandchildren Once Removed"?

While Fox is the only network to embrace Saturday night, ABC is very wise to schedule college football -- especially after losing the "Monday Night Football" franchise.

Seriously, ABC, with all your new shows you couldn't find anything better than "According to Jim"? That's just pathetic.

My Network TV, a consortium (not network) of UPN and WB orphans, announced its fall schedule: two soaps airing six nights a week. Good luck with that.

Wednesday

In a testament to its success, CBS will debut all of four new shows this fall -- shockingly, none are set in a police station. Unlike ABC or NBC, CBS hit gold last year with its rookie shows; six are returning.

The big news is that the Sunday movie has been jettisoned in favor of the transplanted "The Amazing Race," "Cold Case" and "Without a Trace." "King of Queens" is returning, albeit at midseason.

Thursday

Although The WB and UPN will limp along the next few months, this is the day the networks died. The hybrid CW has arrived.

Blending two mediocre lineups into one solid one will be The CW's strength: seven shows from UPN, five from The WB and two new offerings. Strange, though, that they couldn't find a spot for "Everwood," one of TV's best unsung dramas.

Meanwhile, Fox -- immature, schizophrenic, and known for bringing the best and the basest to TV -- is all grown up. A stunning 16 shows are returning to their same night, most to the same time slot. "Our strategy for next season," Fox Entertainment President Peter Liguori said in a Thursday conference call, "is based on stability."

Strange world, television.

Yes, for now these are the days of hope. But in the coming weeks, television critics will get the full pilots of these new shows.

Then the real taunting will begin.

http://timesunion.com/AspStories/storyprint.asp?StoryID=483624

I understand your points, Dave, but the legislation, as I understand it, would only apply to OTA (government-licensed) channels/networks, and not to cable/satellite channels.

So there is no threat to Sopranos, Deadwood, etc.Sorry, Fredfa, I didn't mean to imply that there was. That's why I said all network shows could go to cable and I'd be happy. On cable they can do things with more realism. Don't get me wrong, I don't advocate gratuitous stuff, but I also don't like tippy-toes. :)

Deadwood would be just another western if it were on network TV and no one would watch it. IMHO, namby-pamby productions give us the unrealistic Leave It To Beaver view of life and in some small way has led to our disappointments when we grow up and find things are not really like that. Compare any CSI to NYPD Blue and the realism is like night and day, and I'm not talking about body parts, etc. NYPD was filled with cops I'd expect to meet in any NY precinct whereas I doubt any Miami cop comes close to Horatio. I like them both, but one feels a lot more real than the other. Butthen, maybe that's my distorted view of "real". :)

I don't think we fundamentally disagree, Dave.

(But even if we do, there is no reason to be sorry!) :)

BTW. Great job keeping us updated on the Up Fronts. I wasn't part of this thread last spring, so that was a new experience for me.

Thanks. I am delighted you've enjoyed the posts this week!

But I've got to find a way to get more people interested.

The only payback I get is watching the number of views rise. While they are substantially higher than last year, I still think they should be far, far higher yet.

I know this is about as complete and as speedy a single source for TV news as there is on the net. I wish more folks knew about it.

OK, Dave, end of my own pity party.

Thanks again for the kind words!

Upfront Notebook
An outrageous stand-up act

By Scott Collins Los Angeles Times Staff Writer May 20, 2006

There's nothing wrong with a comic working some insult jokes and blue material into the act. But it's probably not a good idea to try it at an afternoon sales meeting with a thousand or so attendees who just spent the previous 20 minutes looking at slides of Nielsen ratings data.

To say that Brad Garrett bombed at Fox's "upfront" presentation to advertising buyers in New York on Thursday is not accurate. Spike Feresten, who hosts a new late-night talk show for Fox, bombed, and bombed in the conventional way of the audience responding with utter silence as he told jokes. It was pathetic and painful. (Some of the clips from his show, however, looked quite funny, even inspired, and that's what matters, right?)

Garrett, star of Fox's new fall sitcom " 'Til Death," did something else entirely, and I'm still not sure if it was wonderful or foolish. He scandalized the people Fox is asking to pay for his show.

Garrett came onstage in the sweltering Armory near Gramercy Park and did a few minutes of aggressively obnoxious insult material that would fit in fine at the Friars Club but left the poor ad buyers quaking in their chalk-stripe suits. Large swaths of the crowd were — I'm not exaggerating here — gasping. I even heard one disgusted "Jesus!" come from a man in a seat behind me.

I was present when Gilbert Gottfried told the notoriously filthy "Aristocrats" joke at Comedy Central's Hugh Hefner roast just days after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, when New Yorkers had barely begun to grieve, and believe me, this reaction was worse. A lot worse.

It wasn't that Garrett ridiculed the buyers; most of his material was directed at Fox, its executives and stars, although he started with a dig at Ray Romano. Remarking on Paula Abdul's attendance, he quipped: "It's nice to know Bellevue has a shuttle bus." He played a videotape of Fox Entertainment President Peter Liguori kissing one of his sitcom stars last year and then feigned disgust, saying: "I think we all know where Pamela Anderson's mouth has been." Garrett asked the crowd if they believed Ryan Seacrest is gay.

But content alone can't account for such a visceral crowd reaction. What sparked the outrage was Garrett's posture, the abrasive gravel in his baritone. He wanted to be off-putting and hostile, and he succeeded. After a week of listening to ratings spin and ingratiating double-talk from network executives, as well as canned "Thank you for your support!" speeches from frozen-smiled stars, hearing Garrett's nasty stand-up routine was like having someone race up to you on the street, grab open your waistband and pour ice water down your pants. It's outrageous, it's uncomfortable, and you'll never forget it.

Some people — even showbiz people, for heaven's sake — just aren't used to being talked to like that. As Feresten remarked during his own ill-fated monologue, what we call the "upfront" is anything but.

http://www.calendarlive.com/tv/cl-et-channel20may20,0,3218146,print.story?coll=cl-tvent

For a bit of perspective, take a look back at Aaron Barnhart’s report on the upfronts of just two years ago (although the 2004-2005 season seems like a lot longer ago than that!)

Critic’s Notebook
The 2004 Upfronts
By AARON BARNHART The Kansas City Star May 22, 2004

“The Office” (midseason, NBC) is another British comedy hit being Americanized by NBC. Because that worked so well with “Coupling.”



This part amused me.

PASS THE POPCORN
from the Houston Chronicle Friday, May 19, 2006

The most popular night of TV?
Most people know it's Sunday. More people are watching that night than any other. So what's the second-most popular night of TV?

Thursday's a good guess -- it's the proverbial "must-see" night, the one the movie companies throw money at to advertise their weekend releases.

But the answer, according to data from Nielsen Media Research, is Monday. Makes sense. We stay at home on Monday nights.


Sunday's audience:
128.2 million
Monday's audience:
119.7 million
Thursday's audience:
117.4 million
Tuesday's audience:
117.0 million

Thanks. I am delighted you've enjoyed the posts this week!

But I've got to find a way to get more people interested.

The only payback I get is watching the number of views rise. While they are substantially higher than last year, I still think they should be far, far higher yet.

I know this is about as complete and as speedy a single source for TV news as there is on the net. I wish more folks knew about it.

OK, Dave, end of my own pity party.

Thanks again for the kind words!

Fred;

I read your thread every day. Just as I do the local and national newspapers. When the occasion should arise, I'm quick to point others to your thread and this forum. As this forum has grown (I've been here since '03) so will your thread. Quality and substance has it's way of not only being known but sought. How long did it take for USA Today to really become our national newspaper? Be patient, remain deligent AND confident. Your work is appreciated by all just as it is by me, that I'm sure.

Fred,

I also want to say thank you this is a great thread and I thank you for all your hard work. I agree it is to bad more people don't read it or for that matter know that it is even here.

Keep up the great work it is much appreciated.

Thanks, Carl and steve.

TV Review
NBC's 'Apocalypse 10.5': Let's Get Ready to Crumble!

In Miniseries, the End of Kitschy Action Is Never Near
Apocalypse 10.5 (four hours): Part 1 airs Sunday at 9 ET/PT on NBC; Part 2 airs Tuesday night at 9
By Tom Shales The Washington Post TV Critic Sunday, May 21, 2006

Less than two weeks after ABC's bird-flu epidemic wiped out millions around the globe, about 10 days since "Poseidon" sailed into financial disaster at the box office, and two years since the bombastic miniseries "10.5" sawed off a large portion of Southern California and sent it out to sea, well, guess what?

Starting at 9 ET/PT Sunday on NBC, Hawaii is swooshed by a tsunami, George Washington's face falls off Mount Rushmore, Mount St. Helens spews anew, Las Vegas sinks into the sand and a giant fault line stretching from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico threatens to divide the nation -- indeed, all of North America. Literally.

Goodness gracious, leapin' lizards, hoochie mama and Land of Goshen! It's getting to the point where a person fears opening the front door -- or rather, clicking on one's wonderful magical picture box. Having somehow concluded that its apocalyptic "10.5" -- which aired for the May Sweeps of 2004 -- wasn't apocalyptic enough, NBC has cooked up a still corkier corker for the May Sweeps of 2006 and called it "Apocalypse 10.5," just so no one can possibly miss the apoca-point. (As with the original, the film is divided into two parts, the second half airing Tuesday night -- same time, same station, pretty much same everything.)

How goes the apocalypse? It's no Tupperware party on the patio. NBC has ratcheted up, amped up and hokied up the dire circumstances to eye-bulging, jaw-dropping and, mostly, rib-tickling extremes. Earthquake here, flash flood there, cars vanishing into sinkholes down yonder and, it reasonably can be surmised, a veritable pandemic in tension headaches from sea to shining sea. They are still shining, aren't they?

Through it all, no matter how seemingly hopeless, or numerous, the catastrophes, Kim Delaney, returning in the superwoman seismologist role of Dr. Samantha Hill that she played in "10.5," rolls up her sleeves, undoes a button or two of her blouse and starts barking orders faster than an auctioneer hawking pork bellies. Not only does her team spring into action in record spring time, but the folks at FEMA also perform magnificently, supplemented in their epic endeavors by an array of newly formed volunteer rescue teams.

Those teams might be wet behind the ears, but they're still, uhhhh, tall in the saddle? Dry in the saddle? Sorry -- all the screaming, shouting and camera-jiggling tends to boggle the brain. Or maybe just numb it into a sort of satiated sleep-state. Actually, the calamities and catastrophes occur with such frequency and ferocity that, yes, indeed, "Apocalypse 10.5" suffers the curse of being unintentionally funny -- even hilarious -- no matter how guilty one might feel about laughing even as hordes of extras are being turned into Kentucky Fried People.

The script is credited to director John Lafia. It plays more like a team effort, and it's easy to imagine such a team sitting or pacing around a room and roaring with laughter as it tosses out wild ideas -- how about, Niagara Falls catching fire, or the St. Louis Gateway Arch breaking loose and rolling all the way to Milwaukee? Those things don't happen in the film, but they might as well. Roll that clip, Hal!

First rescue worker: "Bald Mountain? That's an extinct volcano."

Second rescue worker: "Not anymore!"

Bald Mountain itself: "Rumble-rumble-rumble, gurgle-gurgle-gurgle."

In addition to membership in the league of tacky disaster films, "Apocalypse 10.5" is also what might be called a Meanwhile Movie. Waikiki is girding for the wave to end all waves, citizens panicking and authorities cautioning calm, when, meanwhile, in Sun Valley, Idaho, skiers on a lift quiver and shiver as the earth below them suffers the geological equivalent of terminal burping. Meanwhile, in the Southwest's Monument Valley, a Native American unloading bales of hay finds it a trifle unnerving when his horsie goes cuckoo and heads for the hills and, meanwhile, the desert sand beneath the Indian's feet suddenly turns soppy.

There are more disasters in the first five minutes -- many reprised from the first film -- than in a half-dozen normal disaster movies. But quality trumps quantity even in goofy disaster movies. More genuine dread and suspense is generated in the first five minutes of "The Day After Tomorrow," a truly great nightmare movie that pops up on pay-cable channels, than in "10.5" and "Apocalypse 10.5" put together. And multiplied times 10.5.

It might be safe to assume that the film's creators had no intention of anyone but the most wildly gullible viewers taking it seriously. Beau Bridges, for instance, returning in the role of the president of the United States, is so achingly earnest -- such a pained and pudgy pillar of cornball concern -- that he gets more ludicrous with each aggravated appearance. The role is a lazy actor's dream; he gets to spend nearly the whole miniseries in one room, the movie's version of Camp David, fielding reports from hither and yon. One of the yons happens to be Barstow, Calif., once the brunt of gibes from Johnny Carson. At regular intervals, Bridges emotes soulfully into the telephone: "I need to know we're doing everything in our power to help those survivors!"

When Las Vegas sinks into the sand -- for reasons not thoroughly explained -- one of the casinos takes Dr. Hill's cantankerous father, Dr. (of course) Earl Hill, with it. Papa, whose relationship with his daughter is rocky -- do you suppose they will reconcile tearfully by the end of the film? -- is played by Frank Langella in a performance that he can only hope is the absolute nadir of his career -- unless he gets so desperate that he accepts a part as, say, talking toilet paper in a Charmin commercial.

Papa Hill, incidentally, is supposed to be the world's greatest expert on the "accelerated state of geologic activity" that's going on. Papa Doc even wrote the book on it: "Chaos Theory and Seismic Anomalies." Thus, it seems somewhat odd that after learning of the recent collapse of Hoover Dam and the subsequent inevitable flooding, he repairs to a casino bar to dawdle over a leisurely cocktail and is surprised to feel a certain rumbling underfoot.

Dr. Hill: "Did you feel that?"

Bartender: "Feel what?"

Dr. Hill: "Oh, probably nothing."

Probably nothing? Hoover Dam is only about 35 miles from Las Vegas. But the genius goes back to his booze.

Expecting credulity from a movie this absurd is itself absurd. Lafia, who also directed the film, must have decided as he sat to write the script that it would contain not one sentence of dialogue that viewers -- at least of this kind of movie -- hadn't heard before. Little of it is spoken, of course; most of it is shouted, a la "Gotta get it on; let's go!" and "Where the hell's the backup?!" and "Something's definitely not right here!" and "I don't like the sound of that!" and "John, get out of there!" and "Come on, let's get out of here!" and "Let's get the hell out of here!" and, from one fireman to another: "Come on, man, gimme a kiss. Gimme a big, big kiss."

Oh, about that last one -- Brokeback Mountain is not the site of any catastrophes. The request for a kiss is made jokingly by Oliver Hudson as fireman Will Malloy to Dean Cain as his brother, fireman Brad Malloy. Hence, later, as a sunken casino is searched for survivors: "My brother's still down there! Brad! Brad! Brad!!!"

Voice from tumbling rubble below, presumably Brad's: "Eeeeyahhhhhhh!!!"

One has to wonder, considering the number of actual and devastating natural disasters that have battered Mother Earth during the past few years, why such films as "10.5" hold appeal for any viewers, much less the 10 million or 20 million -- depending on various circumstances -- likely to tune in (the film's first half, airing tonight, has considerably more special-effects footage than Part 2, which is essentially "Poseidon" with a sunken casino replacing an overturned ocean liner). Perhaps the phoniness of faux disasters provides relief from the terrible grimness of the real ones.

And in the "10.5" movies, FEMA, other federal agencies and, generally, all those holding political office or otherwise in charge, perform not just competently but valiantly. Their dedication to duty is exceeded only by their tireless inventive skill. Any resemblance between that and the real world, one assumes, is entirely unintentional. Even though millions die and the configuration of the continental United States is drastically altered, "Apocalypse 10.5" still manages to ring a chime of hope.

So while one could feel thoroughly confident in calling the film preposterous, ridiculous, even laughably nonsensical, you'd be on shaky ground calling it boring. It isn't, and it isn't depressing. That's two big points in its favor right there.

As for the ringing of the chime, it needs no defense. Since one hears the sound so seldom from television, it scarcely matters that it's as false as the virtual Vegas or the bogus Barstow.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/19/AR2006051900336_pf.html

TV Notebook
On TV: It's hard to tell who'll survive the fall

By Melanie McFarland Seattle Post-Intelligencer TV Critic Saturday, May 20, 2006

No one needs to advise the seasoned television viewer not to get their hopes up about fall.

Only a few advertisers and critics have any clue as to whether it'll amount to anything, having gotten glimpses of the shows in this week's network sessions. Even so, those of you who don't even watch TV know the majority of them won't be around for long. Take a few candidates from this week's announcements for starters. ABC introduced some 14 series last year, and ended up keeping two. Two!

"My Name Is Earl" is the lone scripted-program survivor. "Deal or No Deal" -- a December space filler and game show that revolves around asking car-show models to open suitcases -- became the network's sleeper hit. No one saw that coming.

Long story short, it's foolish to predict which of the new series will amount to anything in the fall without having seen the pilots or heard from the creators. It's like picking out Mr. Perfect in a bar. Impossible without a conversation.

Bar fights, though, you can see coming from the moment you set foot across the threshold. Any atmosphere clouded with smoke, bad breath and dulcet tones of Ratt's "Round and Round" is ripe for a fight.

And that's the most entertaining way to look at three time slots on the new fall schedule, time slots that are simmering with triumph, loss and bloody noses.

Keep in mind, these are guesses. Changing seasons brings the potential of a boost or slide in any program's quality, and all the television schedules this week are completely malleable.

But if we're going to indulge in this foolishness, let's start with the obvious.

9 p.m. Thursday

Sunday may be the night when the largest number of televisions are on, but in terms of courting advertisers, the smart network programmers jockey for attention on Thursdays. That's the night on which couples turn to each other and ask, "So, whaddya wanna do this weekend?" The answer usually involves movies, researching large purchases such as cars and appliances or a trip to the mall. The idea is to persuade you to spend money while your brain's all soft and susceptible to influence after an hour of "CSI."

That is why ABC finally decided to go all in for the first time since the dawn of "Must-See TV" and CBS's powerful block, moving "Grey's Anatomy" to Thursdays at 9.

"Grey's" is going to take a hit. "CSI" may be aging, but it's still the top-rated drama on television and doesn't look like it's showing much weakness.

Still, when given the choice of taking in the latest seedy tale of a murdered showgirl and figuring out what's going to happen between Yang and Burke, plenty of people are going to choose ABC's soapy doc drama. More, we think, than NBC's "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip," which has the dual problem of sounding too much like another series already on the network and of taking itself too seriously. (Post-screening buzz says the Matthew Perry/Brad Whitford vehicle does not live up to the hype.)

A bigger loser may be "Supernatural" on The WB, which gunned its way to cult success on the strength of its female viewership. "Grey's" is likely to siphon off a significant number of those ladies.

Forget about: "The O.C.," which killed off one of the only reasons to watch, Marissa Cooper (not because we liked her, but because Mischa Barton was too awful to believe), is hinting at significant cast changes and lost its creative edge this season.

10 p.m. Sunday

When "Grey's" abandoned the post-"Desperate" slot, CBS took advantage of the gap by sliding "Without a Trace," its strongest non-franchise drama, into that time period. With that, ABC should prepare to kiss its Sunday night dominance goodbye.

"Trace" viewers will easily follow the series from Thursday to Sunday, and its success isn't dependent on having "CSI" as a lead-in.

ABC can't be counted out quite yet. "Brothers & Sisters," starring Calista Flockhart, takes "Grey's" spot, and between her name and Rachel Griffiths', one can expect a significant number of viewers will tune in out of curiosity. Be honest, many of us are curious to see if Flockhart can be more than "Ally McBeal's" ingenue turned twit or to watch Griffiths move on from "Six Feet Under's" Brenda.

But the idea of a family with dark secrets has been done to death, particularly at 9 p.m. on Wisteria Lane. The writers had better bring it. Even if they do, it's going to take a miracle to cut into that 18 million-strong viewership making "Trace" a top-10 hit this season.

Forget about: "Brothers & Sisters" benefiting from a "Desperate Housewives" lead-in; many series have tried, and failed, to sail in its wake. Ask the producers of "What About Brian" if you don't believe me.

8 and 9 p.m. Friday

Hard to believe that only two seasons ago, Friday prime time was considered as much of a lost cause as Saturday. This season it's a smoking battleground with Jennifer Love-Hewitt serving as CBS's standard bearer. NBC decided to get serious, too, moving "Las Vegas" over from Mondays and leading into it with "Deal or No Deal." ABC wants a piece of that, too, though it's hard to say if its tactic will work.

We haven't seen "Betty the Ugly," and we wonder if the success of "Betty La Fea," the Colombian tour de force upon which it is based, will translate. To take on "Ghost Whisperer," though, one has to go after women with claw-swinging fury. "Betty's" sly commentary on the vacuous magazine industry through the eyes of a plain-Jane hero (played by the charismatic America Ferrara) could work. Following that is Anne Heche giving the "Northern Exposure" bit a chick-lit turn in "Men in Trees," which has to be considered a serious contender if only because it shouldn't take much to topple or tie "Las Vegas" or "Close to Home."

Forget about: Fridays on Fox. When the only thing it has to offer is "Nanny 911" and "Trading Spouses," it becomes clear Fox doesn't intend to waste much effort on attempting to compete. Yet.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/printer2/index.asp?ploc=t&refer=http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/tv/270922_tv20.html

TV Notebook
That "Desperate" feeling

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

Yep, the sophomore slump struck again. "Desperate Housewives" hasn't been nearly as good this season as it was in its astounding first year. Don't you hate to see good shows go mediocre? In season two, the suburban serial has been worth following mainly for Marcia Cross (left), who remains fascinating as Bree. She's so good you can't give up on the show -- yet.

And the writers seem to recognize they have a problem, which is the first step to correcting the problem. So the two-hour season finale, starting at 9 p.m. Sunday on ABC, deserves a look because it could signal a long-needed overhaul.

The finale will explain how the women of Wisteria Lane came to know one another many bad hairdos ago. And there's more juicy stuff ...

According to USA Today, the season finale will drop six characters from the cast. Those ejectees evidently include the mysterious Applewhite family, newcomers who were never worked into the plot in a satisfactory way. The show's biggest sin this season was hiring Alfre Woodard and giving her blah material. You don't treat one of America's best actresses that way.

If "Desperate Housewives" can't pull it together next season, viewers need not despair. They can turn to "Cold Case," which CBS will move to 9 p.m. Sundays. "Cold Case" is my choice for most underrated series in prime time. This crime drama tells stories in imaginative, heartfelt ways. I like it that "Cold Case" never loses sight of the victims. The show also uses popular music with pizazz, a lyrical style that heightens the dramatic payoff.

I'll be watching the "Desperate Housewives" season finale closely because it's going to determine how much time I'll be spending on Wisteria Lane.

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

TV Notebook
TV News Notes: "Everwood,'' "Reba,'' "The O.C.,'' "7th Heaven,'' "Studio 60''

By Charlie McCollum San Jose Mercury News

Some notes for the world of TV from a week of network schedule announcements and big finales:

This won't be very much comfort to fans of "Everwood,'' right, but as late as earlier this week, the show was on the CW schedule for the fall. The series that knocked it out of the lineup: "7th Heaven,'' which was brought back from the dead after it scored big ratings for its "series finale.''

The other issue: the CW brass didn't think "Everwood'' matched up in tone with any of the network's other shows. been what doomed it. "When we looked at shows that we were bringing back and what went with
what, 'Everwood' was the hardest show to fit into the equation,'' admitted Dawn Ostroff, the CW's president of entertainment.

By the way, "7th Heaven'' is not the first prominent show to air a series finale and then rise from the dead. Most prominent previous example: Tom Selleck's "Magnum P.I.'' which staged a spectacularly surreal series finale in the spring of 1987 -- Magnum was killed and went to heaven -- and then got brought back for one more season. At least, the "7th Heaven'' won't have to bring someone back from the dead.

One current show that went totally missing during last week's schedule announcements was "Reba,'' once the WB's big hope for a successful sitcom. It didn't make the fall lineup for the new CW but it wasn't cancelled either. Word is the CW will bring it back for 13 episodes at mid-season to avoid paying a $20 million penalty to the producers for cancelling it outright.

NBC got totally blindsided by ABC's decision to move "Grey's Anatomy'' (and its big viewership) to 9 p.m. Thursdays next fall. As a result, say insiders, the network is almost certain to move its most buzz-heavy new series -- Aaron Sorkin's new "Studio 60 On the Sunset Strip'' -- out of that time period to a safer spot. (For one thing, "Grey's'' pulls the same kind of sophisticated, upscale audience that "Studio 60'' is likely to attract.)

One possible NBC alternative: Bring back "Scrubs'' (now slotted for mid-season) early and pair it up with a new sitcom as a replacement block for "Studio 60.'' It would certainly be consistent with NBC's treatment of "Scrubs'' over the years that it would ask it to take on "Grey's'' and "CSI.''

The worst buzz of any new show: ABC's "Brothers and Sisters,'' which is getting the primo spot behind "Desperate Housewives'' on Sunday nights. That may explain why the pilot is being totally reshot.

And on the finale front: The big emotional season finale of "The O.C.'' climaxed with one of the worst death scenes I've ever seen on television or film. Mischa Burton (as Marissa Cooper) was a bad actress right to the bitter end, Ben McKenzie (Ryan Atwood) looked embarrassed and we ought to put a permanent ban on the use of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah'' for Big TV Moments. Great song that's been integrated well into scenes on such shows as "The West Wing'' but it's become way overused.

http://blogs.mercurynews.com/aei/charlie_mccollum/index.html

TV Notebook
McPhee Apologizes

By Walt Belcher Tampa Tribune in the Tribune’s TV blog

"American Idol” finalist Katharine McPhee said Friday it was ridiculous that anyone would get upset over her being happy that she had made it to the final two.

“I guess I have to apologize for looking happy,’’ she said in a national news conference in Los Angeles.

McPhee was reacting to a question about criticism from some Elliott Yamin fans who said she celebrated too much when it was announced Wednesday that Yamin was the low vote getter.

She said she was not aware of the criticism and she did feel sympathy for Yamin. But at the same time, she was excited that she had made it to the final two.

McPhee goes up against favorite Taylor Hicks next week.

McPhee was not allowed to say what she will sing, but she gets to pick the songs. Two of them have to be previously performed numbers.

McPhee also talked about her efforts to be an actress over the past two years. The 22-year-old Sherman Oaks, Calif., resident said she was cast in a TV pilot that didn’t make it.

She said she keeps in shape by taking dance classes, working out there three times a week when possible.

While auditioning for TV shows and movies, she landed a role in a pop rock musical and people told her she should audition for “Idol.”

Her mother, Peisha, is a noted Los Angeles-area cabaret singer and musical theater actress, and her sister Adriana is an award-winning singer-actress.

McPhee said that she has tried to remain calm under the extreme pressure of the competition but there have been times when she cried and felt like she wasn’t going to make it, especially after harsh criticism from the judges.

Just before the news conference ended, Hicks, who was to be interviewed next, slipped up and gave her a kiss.

http://entertainment.tboblogs.com/index.php/entertainment/related/C281/

PASS THE POPCORN
from the Houston Chronicle Friday, May 19, 2006

The most popular night of TV?
Most people know it's Sunday. More people are watching that night than any other. So what's the second-most popular night of TV?

Thursday's a good guess -- it's the proverbial "must-see" night, the one the movie companies throw money at to advertise their weekend releases.

But the answer, according to data from Nielsen Media Research, is Monday. Makes sense. We stay at home on Monday nights.


Sunday's audience:
128.2 million
Monday's audience:
119.7 million
Thursday's audience:
117.4 million
Tuesday's audience:
117.0 million

Very interesting. I've always wondered what night attracted the largest audience. So one question though, how large of a dropoff is there on Friday nights (the supposed show killer night)?

Thanks for that RussB. Oh and Fred, I echo what others have said about your contributions to this thread. You do an amazing job of gathering all these articles and keeping us all informed about the goings on in TV world. I extend my thanks to you as well. :)

Just a thought, but I don't think it's the numbers that sell Thursdays. I think it's the proximity to weekend shopping and nights out.

Just a thought, but I don't think it's the numbers that sell Thursdays. I think it's the proximity to weekend shopping and nights out.
Yeah, actually Fred has suggested earlier it's 1) the last night to catch the 18-49 crowd before the weekend (while ads are fresh in their minds) and 2) Car ads are at a premium because of the heavy car shopping done over the weekend.

Sorry, Fred, I must have missed that comment. :o

TV Notebook
Abrams Is Anything but 'Lost'

By Ben Grossman Broadcasting & Cable 5/22/2006

JJ Abrams is one of the busiest—and most sought-after—writer/producer/directors in Hollywood. He just finished promoting the opening of his Mission Impossible III and preparing the Alias series finale. Now he turns his sights to the three other shows he created for television: the returning Lost and What About Brian, as well as the new Six Degrees. He is also beginning work on the next movie in the Star Trek franchise, which he will produce and direct. Abrams spoke with B&C's Ben Grossman about changing up Lost, balancing so many projects and whether Sydney Bristow is really going away for good.

One of ABC's big moves is the decision to air Lost in the early fall and then in midseason with no repeats. Whose idea was this?

It was what we all wanted to do given the frustrations of viewers we heard anecdotally. It's just too hard to sustain ratings when the show is there one week and not the next. We went to them and said, 'This is what we need to do to make this show work the way we want it to.' I'm very surprised and incredibly impressed they went with it. It's a bold move for them, but I think it will pay off in the long run.

What exactly is your new show, Six Degrees, about? It sounds like the Kevin Bacon game.

Yeah, it's a show about how people affect your lives and are part of your lives without your knowledge. It's very funny, and it just feels like nothing else that I have seen on television.

How hands-on will you actually be on Six Degrees?

I'm going to be more involved this year than last because of Mission Impossible. We are just crewing up for the new show, but my involvement is as much as necessary, and I just have to surround myself with good people.

Is there a shift taking place in drama development to more character-driven ideas rather than focusing on formats?

My guess is, any show you've ever seen that you love is rooted in character, so it doesn't seem surprising to me it's going this way. It's refreshing because if it works, more people respond to it.

Six Degrees is very much a character show. It's got its own structure, but to me the characters speak to the unique voice of the series.

With three television shows and another movie in the hopper, how can you balance this and still produce high-quality content?

I'm still learning with every project how to do my job better. I think you need to make sure that people are doing for you what you want to do for people. My goal is to be creatively and fiscally responsible and do my job, and I want to make sure that everyone from actors to writers to composers is doing the same. I will get the credit or the blame; my goal is to help the showrunners that I work with do their best work. If you are puppeteering every move they make, it won't work.

Do you think a lot of people were surprised ABC brought back What About Brian?

Even I was very surprised that they chose to bring it back, because I felt there were some other shows they would go for. I guess they see the potential in the show. We are going to rework some things and try to make it a better show. We have a rare second chance.

Is Alias signing off the end of the franchise, or will Sydney Bristow live again?

I think the show had its beginning, its middle and end. If the show comes back in some form, it would be great, but it is not in the works.

Another note of thanks to fredfa for keeping us current. I feel I don't even need my season passes on TiVo. I know when there's going to be any change in the schedule or when a returning show is going to air because of this thread.

Tonight’s Season Finale

MADtv Fox 11 PM ET/PT

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

Tonight’s Season Finale

MADtv Fox 11 PM ET/PT


Already? I think we've watched the first two episodes and the rest are sitting on TiVo. Time to get cracking.

TV On DVD
Vintage comedy in 'Bilko,' 'That Girl'


By Susan King Los Angeles Times Staff Writer May 21, 2006

Sgt. Bilko — The Phil Silvers Show 50th Anniversary Edition
(Paramount, $40)

Along with "I Love Lucy" and "The Honeymooners," Phil Silvers' sitcom is one of the quintessential comedy series of the 1950s. The Emmy-winning show, which ran on CBS from 1955 to 1959, made a TV superstar out of Silvers, who had worked in vaudeville, in features and on Broadway before turning to the small screen. He was perfectly cast as the ultimate hustler — Sgt. Ernie Bilko, who ran a motor pool at the mythical Army station of Fort Baxter in Roseville, Kan.

Bilko was always coming up with ingenious con games to make money for himself, including poker games and various gambling competitions. Loud, brash and the fastest talker this side of the Mississippi, Bilko relished pulling the wool over the eyes of his superior Commander Hall (the great Paul Ford).

The series originally was titled "You'll Never Get Rich" but was quickly renamed "The Phil Silvers Show." It was best known, though, simply as "Sgt. Bilko."

Though "Bilko" was Silvers' show, he surrounded himself with a remarkable supporting cast that included Harvey Lembeck as Cpl. Rocco Barbella, Maurice Gosfiel as Pvt. Duane Doberman, Allan Melvin as Cpl. Henshaw and Mickey Freeman as Pvt. Zimmerman. Dick Van Dyke was one of the up-and-comers who appeared on the show.

This six-disc set includes several episodes from each year of the series, introduced by Melvin.

Extras: The "lost" audition show — a pilot that was shot live and featured Jack Warden as one of Bilko's cronies — the original opening titles, promos, commercials, excerpts from the Emmy Awards in 1956 and '57, Dick Cavett interviewing Silvers and Jack Benny in the early 1970s, and a promo for the short-lived 1963 CBS series, "The New Phil Silvers Show." There's also an excerpt from the CBS special "Phil Silvers on Broadway," which features a "Bilko" sketch; a sequence from "The Ed Sullivan Show," which previews the series with a special sketch; Silvers' final TV appearance, with Sonny Fox, from the early 1980s; promos that aired on Nick at Nite for the poorly received 1996 "Sgt. Bilko" feature with Steve Martin; and a commentary track with Freeman and Larry Storch (who had guest starred on the show)

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

That Girl — Season One
(Shout Factory, $40)

The CBS 1970 sitcom "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" featured a thirtysomething single heroine, Mary Richards, who decided to break up with her boyfriend of four years and start life anew in Minneapolis. But Mary wasn't the first contemporary single career woman on TV.

Four years before Mary managed to "turn the world on with her smile," ABC premiered "That Girl." Marlo Thomas starred as Ann Marie, a college graduate who leaves home to seek fame and fortune in New York City as an actress. Though she had a boyfriend — the practical Donald (Ted Bessell) — she wasn't eager to get married and put her acting career on the back burner. Ann also had to deal with her loving but overprotective parents (radiantly brought to life by Lew Parker and Rosemary DeCamp). The series, created by Bill Persky and Sam Denoff, ran until 1971.

Extras: The five-disc set includes the original pilot episode, which featured Harold Gould as Ann's father and Bessell as her boyfriend along with agent Donald Blue Sky (his father was a native American). In addition, there's a sweet "making of" featurette with Thomas, original promos, outtakes from when the series shot exteriors in New York City with commentary with Thomas and Persky, and their pleasant commentary on an early episode.

Very interesting. I've always wondered what night attracted the largest audience. So one question though, how large of a dropoff is there on Friday nights (the supposed show killer night)?

Thanks for that RussB. Oh and Fred, I echo what others have said about your contributions to this thread. You do an amazing job of gathering all these articles and keeping us all informed about the goings on in TV world. I extend my thanks to you as well. :)
The Houston Chronicle article is the only information I could find about how many people are watching TV on a specific night of the week. It would be interesting to see how many people watch on Saturday night, too.

Thanks Fred for all the effort you put into this thread.

Upfront Analysis
Fall Drama

ABC's Anatomy move makes Thursday a battleground
By Jim Benson Broadcasting & Cable 5/22/2006

ABC shook up the upfront presentations in New York last week by shifting Sunday-night juggernaut Grey's Anatomy—which follows Desperate Housewives—to Thursdays in September.

The audacious action, which separates two hit shows, sets the stage for a fall showdown with TV's top-rated drama, CBS' CSI, on Thursday, television's biggest revenue night, when movie companies and other advertisers try to hammer their messages home to viewers before the weekend.

The Grey's move also proved a spoiler for NBC's highly anticipated new drama Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip from West Wing creator Aaron Sorkin, scheduled for that same killer time slot. Now some say it's likely to move to either 9 p.m. or 10 pm on Monday. “We can't let this telescope too far from here,” says NBC Entertainment President Kevin Reilly, acknowledging that a schedule change for Studio 60 could happen as early as this week but declining to be more specific.

ABC Entertainment President Steve McPherson, who did a spirited Dancing With the Stars-inspired cha-cha during his presentation, and CBS boss Leslie Moonves, who stuck with standup-comedy lines at his, agreed that two hit shows can work in the same time period without cannibalizing each other. Moonves pointed out that Friends and Survivor once thrived at the same time. When Fox saw Grey's Anatomy going to Thursday instead of the rumored Monday, it flipped Prison Break and Vanished.

Besides the smackdown planned for Thursday night, the fall schedule will be noticeably shaped by an abundance of dramas and a continued dearth of comedies. ABC's five new comedies account for half of the 10 the networks will launch in total, which is actually up from the six new comedies that were on the fall schedule last season. The four networks will roll out 14 dramas this year, compared with 13 last fall. That's not totally surprising following a season in which the scripted-hour form thrived while sitcoms limped along, with only a few achieving even moderate success.

“I don't think there has ever been a day when there are more great dramas on television in the history of the medium,” Moonves says. “This is the golden age of drama on every network, including cable.”

The new fall lineups also reflect the growing trend toward year-round development. Notably, such mega-hits as ER and Lost, will run original episodes consecutively, instead of interspersing reruns. Indeed, American Idol has divided the season into two for Fox, which uses the phenomenon along with midseason hits like 24 to promote and launch its spring lineup. All the networks are reacting, placing either their most valued shows in the fall or, from January to May, on nights when they won't run against Idol. This year, more networks may follow Fox's lead and launch a handful of their fall series early in August to give them a jump on the competition.

Overall, CBS has four new fall series on the way, and Fox has five. And they should have an easier time promoting their respective lineups than either ABC (nine) or NBC (seven), especially at a time when viewers have more programming choices than ever.

Though the only network to improve year-to-year in the 18-49 demo, ABC had a poor batting average with new series this past season, which forced an increase in development. Now it must divvy up its promotional dollars among a total of 15 new shows for the entire year, including six for midseason.

Fourth-place NBC, while benefiting from its new Sunday-night football promotional platform this fall, will have to figure out how to spread its dollars among its new and returning shows, as well as at least three new midseason series.

The CW, meanwhile, announced its initial fall schedule, which was fairly evenly divided between UPN and The WB series, with little new fare. And Fox's MyNetworkTV tried to convince advertisers that it is more than just another syndication play with a splashy upfront presentation touting its telenovela programming strategy.

For all the networks, hope springs eternal in the upfront season.

Upfront Analysis
ABC: Extreme Fall Makeover

By John M. Higgins Broadcasting & Cable 5/22/2006

ABC ordered more new series for the fall than any of its rivals, largely because last fall's lineup collapsed. Just one of the 12 series ordered at this time last year survived, leaving President Steve McPherson with a lot of holes to fill on his schedule. Still, the network owns the most buzzworthy shows, Lost and Grey's Anatomy.

Moving Grey's to Thursdays is a bold effort by the network to become a player on that night for the first time in years. Other than a couple of reality-show successes, ABC has barely attempted to take on shows like NBC's Friends and CBS' Survivor and CSI on Thursdays, the favorite night of the week for many advertisers.

Grey's was a surprise hit that initially aired as a midseason show last year after ABC's biggest hit, Desperate Housewives. This season, Grey's surprised even ABC executives and started beating Housewives in the Nielsens some weeks. That helped convince McPherson that the show didn't need the strong lead-in and could be used to anchor another night.

ABC ordered 15 new series, slating nine for the fall season and six as replacements. The tally comprises six comedies, six dramas and three reality series.

In trying to build Thursdays, ABC is surrounding hit Grey's Anatomy with rookie shows. Opening the night are two “moment in the life of…” comedies, Big Day (a young couple's wedding day) and Notes From the Underbelly (a couple expecting a baby). Following Grey's is Six Degrees, a complex ensemble drama of six strangers living in Manhattan who unknowingly intermix, drawn together by a mysterious force; McPherson describes the show as “Lost, but the island has 3 million people on it.”

ABC's other big moves: filling the hole left by Monday Night Football, which moved to ESPN, with two hours of reality (Wife Swap and The Bachelor) plus this year's midseason replacement What About Brian. Tuesday night is overhauled with a short, eight-week run of hit Dancing With the Stars plus new sitcoms Let's Rob… and Help Me Help You.

BOLDEST MOVE: Using Grey's Anatomy to take on CBS' CSI and establish a beachhead on Thursday night.

BEST BET: Brothers & Sisters. McPherson shows supreme confidence by nestling the Calista Flockhart-starring drama in the best slot he has, leading out of Desperate Housewives.

BIGGEST RISK: The battle for Thursday. If it fizzles, McPherson will be castigated for not moving Grey's Anatomy to another barren night—Monday—where success would have been fairly certain.

ON THE BUBBLE: Invasion, Freddie are out.

The New Class:

Betty the Ugly: A chunky secretary in the anorexic world of New York fashion. Hour-long comedy based on a popular South American novela. Touchstone Television

Big Day: Sitcom touted as “24 marries Father of the Bride,” each episode will follow an hour of a couple's wedding day. Sony Pictures Television

Brothers & Sisters: Happy family becomes less happy after dark secrets start emerging. Calista Flockhart (Ally McBeal) leads this drama. Touchstone Television

Help Me Help You: Ted Danson is a doctor/self-help author leading a therapy group, but he's crazier than his patients. Regency Television

Let's Rob...: Misfits spend an entire season trying to rob Mick Jagger. Touchstone Television

Men in Trees: Hot relationship self-help author's (Anne Heche) own relationship collapses, and she retreats to an Alaskan village starved for women.

Notes From the Underbelly: Andrew and Lauren are having a baby, and they are overwhelmed by the politics of parenthood, including advice from friends and family. Warner Bros. Television

Six Degrees: Mysterious web links the lives of six New Yorkers and draws the strangers ever closer together. Touchstone Television

The Nine: Survivors of a violent bank robbery find their lives forever changed and intertwined. Warner Bros. Television

For Midseason: :

Day Break: Think of an ultra-tense Groundhog Day, with Taye Diggs being framed for murder over and over. Touchstone Television

Greg Behrendt's Wake-Up Call: Reality show, with real-life self-help author Greg Behrendt (He's Just Not That Into You) counseling troubled couples

In Case of Emergency: Several years after graduation, a group of high school pals discovers no one's life went according to plan. The financial whiz is indicted for fraud; the valedictorian becomes an erotic masseuse. Touchstone Television

Just for Laughs: Candid Camera lives. Short-run series

Set for the Rest of Your Life: Game show

Traveler: A new take on The Fugitive: two 20ish pals are framed for a terrorist bombing by their best friend. Warner Bros. Television

Critic’s Notebook
`Desperate' Respite

By Roger Catlin Hartford Courant TV Critic May 20, 2006

It's amazing that after two full seasons of ABC's "Desperate Housewives," the character who died in the very first episode is very much a part of the show. Mary Alice Young (Brenda Strong) has continued in the weekly soap, mostly as the wry narrator.

Sunday's two-hour "Desperate Housewives" finale flashes back to when the circle of friends moved to the cul de sac.

There are some contemporary story lines to tie up or leave hanging for next year, too, so Bree (Marcia Cross) gets some frightening news, Susan (Teri Hatcher) moves into a trailer, Lynette (Felicity Huffman) discovers the secret of Tom (Doug Savant) and Gabriel (Eve Longoria) and Carlos (Ricardo Antonio Chavira) are still battling over something or other.

Very interesting. I've always wondered what night attracted the largest audience. So one question though, how large of a dropoff is there on Friday nights (the supposed show killer night)?

Thanks for that RussB. Oh and Fred, I echo what others have said about your contributions to this thread. You do an amazing job of gathering all these articles and keeping us all informed about the goings on in TV world. I extend my thanks to you as well. :)


Russ, I'll try to get the numbers from Nielsen for you on Monday.

But the pure numbers aren't the only factor: advertising agencies are convinced their precious younger viewers aren't watching on Friday (or Saturday) nights.

Upfront Analysis
CBS Orders Just Four Series

By Jim Benson Broadcasting & Cable 5/22/2006

When CBS announced a fall schedule lacking procedural dramas for the first time in recent years, to some it seemed the world had come to an end. So it was appropriate that its new lead show on Wednesday nights is apocalyptic series Jericho.

Confident in its existing shows, CBS introduced just four series—three dramas and a comedy—to its fall schedule on four nights while retaining 18. Still, the network sought to take more chances with its series picks to generate buzz.

“There was an attitude that, okay, we don't get as much noise as everybody else,” CBS Corp. President/CEO Leslie Moonves acknowledged to reporters before his network's presentation. “We like getting the buzz, though I like winning more. But you want to see something different from us, and I think you will this year.”

With just a few spots to fill, CBS moved out of its comfort zone of some crime procedurals and greenlighted the new James Woods attorney series Shark for 10 p.m. Thursdays; Smith, the Ray Liotta Goodfellas-like heist series, for Tuesdays at 10; and Jericho at 8 on Wednesdays.

Smith and Jericho will have serialized elements. But Moonves says CBS will be “real careful that people can tune in” at any time: “Let's not forget that CSI is a far more profitable show than Desperate Housewives. Our prime time is the most profitable because our shows repeat great.”

Beyond passing on the crime procedurals it had in development, the new CBS schedule deviated in other ways. After experimenting the past few seasons with different action-oriented, male-skewing formats to counter Housewives, the network finally became the last holdout to scrap its TV-movie franchise—moving the procedurals Cold Case and Without a Trace into the 9-11 p.m. ET Sunday-night slot to compete against football on NBC and an ABC lineup without Grey's Anatomy.

In comedy, it introduced The Class to run in the protected 8:30 p.m. Monday hammock between How I Met Your Mother and Two and a Half Men.

BOLDEST MOVE: Axing the weak-link Sunday movie and moving to an all Jerry Bruckheimer- produced Sunday-night schedule. Bruckheimer's reality entry, Amazing Race, will move to 8 p.m. following 60 Minutes. An infusion of younger faces like Katie Couric and Anderson Cooper on 60 Minutes should help lower its median age (“from 85 to 82,” Moonves quips).

BEST BET: Shark, which generated the most talk among CBS' new-season class at the upfronts and was CBS' highest-testing pilot. With Woods' strong performance and Imagine Entertainment's Brian Grazer behind it, the show could give CBS the buzz it has been craving.

BIGGEST RISK: Thursday nights, where even Moonves admits Grey's Anatomy could “ding” CSI, the top-rated network drama. But CBS executives say it could have been much worse if ABC had moved Grey's to Mondays against its comedy anchor Men and the aspiring The New Adventures of Old Christine.

ON THE BUBBLE: Out of Practice is just plain out.

The New Class:

The Class: A comedy about relationships formed during a third-grade class reunion of twentysomethings. Warner Bros. TV

Smith: Drama with a criminal mastermind who leads career crooks as they plot and execute intricate and high-stakes heists across the country. Warner Bros. TV

Jericho: Tale of the chaotic fallout in a small Kansas town after a mushroom cloud appears on the horizon. CBS Paramount Network Television in association with Junction Entertainment

Shark: An unscrupulous defense attorney switches sides and brings his win-at-all-cost tactics to the D.A.'s office. Imagine Entertainment in association with 20th Century Fox Television

For Midseason: :

The King of Queens: Aging Sony Pictures TV comedy returns for its swan song.

3 Lbs.: Stanley Tucci in a medical drama about New York neurosurgeons. CBS Paramount

Waterfront: Drama about a real-life colorful mayor in Providence, R.I., with Joe Pantoliano. Warner Bros. TV

Rules of Engagement: Comedy starring Patrick Warburton (Seinfeld) that follows two couples and a single guy through dating, engagement and marriage. Adam Sandler and Sony/CBS Paramount

Upfront Analysis
Can Fox Go Beyond 'Idol' Worship?

By Ben Grossman Broadcasting & Cable 5/22/2006

Selling itself as more than the American Idol network, Fox unveiled a fall schedule with returning hits that reflects a level of stability that the network hasn't enjoyed for years.

Following a season in which it is on track to win its second straight ratings crown, Fox's strength now includes its ability to bring back at least one hour of programming from last season every night of the week.

The network will again separate itself into two schedules, one for the fall built around the baseball playoffs, and then a midseason lineup that features Idol and the return of the still-vibrant 24.

The network will debut three dramas, two comedies, and a Saturday late-night series this fall. Fox will add yet another interesting storyline to Thursday nights when it debuts two traditional comedies in an 8 p.m. ET block.

Married-couple comedy 'Til Death, starring Brad Garrett, and odd-couple sitcom Happy Hour give Fox a block of multicamera comedies in an hour when NBC has stuck with its single-camera, quirky look.

The network will use solid sophomores Prison Break and Bones to launch dramas on Monday and Wednesday, respectively, but has left rising star House in its Tuesday at 9 slot, opting instead to introduce drama Standoff at 8.

In early January, Fox will also have a strong male-oriented promotional tool, like baseball in the fall, when it takes over the rights to college football's Bowl Championship Series and then again in February when it grabs the Daytona 500 on an annual basis.

But midseason is all about American Idol, which Fox once again says it will leave on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Mondays will also turn over after the break, when Prison Break and rookie Vanished will give way to Standoff at 8 followed by the sixth really bad day for Jack Bauer on 24. Prison Break will return later in the spring and run into the summer.

Bones will shift to Friday at 8 as the lead-in to new drama The Wedding Album.

BOLDEST MOVE: Fox is slating two four-camera sitcoms in the 8 p.m. hour, looking to attract the traditional comedy audience that no longer gets serviced on Thursday nights.

BEST BET: Leave Idol on once per year, leave it on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, back up the Brinks truck. Rinse and repeat.

BIGGEST RISK: Leaving The O.C. on Thursdays at 9 against Grey's Anatomy may be a prescription for angst for the teen drama. Fox Entertainment President Peter Liguori says he took a step back after ABC's announcement but decided to stand pat: “We had a very brief discussion about moving it.”

ON THE BUBBLE: The Loop and The War at Home return, Bernie Mac doesn't.

The New Class:

Vanished: Serialized drama focuses on the disappearance of a senator's wife. 20th Century Fox Television

Standoff: Drama centered on a couple, both of whom are hostage negotiators. 20th Century Fox Television

Justice: Victor Garber (Alias) stars in a drama about a group of Los Angeles-based defense lawyers. Warner Bros. and Jerry Bruckheimer Television

'Til Death: Brad Garrett (Everybody Loves Raymond) stars in a comedy about two married couples, one young and one old. Sony Pictures Television

Happy Hour: Comedy following a pair of very different roommates. Warner Bros. and Werner-Gold-Miller

Duets: Simon Cowell is behind this four-week alternative special pairing singing stars with celebs in a competition for charity. Simco and Fox Television Studios

Talk Show With Spike Feresten: Half-hour late-night comedy/talk show featuring a former writer from Seinfeld and The Late Show With David Letterman. Fox Television Studios

For Midseason: :

The Wedding Album: Drama focuses on the travails of a wedding photographer and his assistant. Fox Television Studios and 20th Century Fox Television

The Winner: The first live-action comedy from Family Guy's Seth MacFarlane and Ricky Blitt has a successful fortysomething man looking back at his less-productive thirties. 20th Century Fox Television

On the Lot: Aspiring moviemakers compete for a studio development deal at DreamWorks. Mark Burnett Productions, DreamWorks Television and Amblin Television

Upfront Analysis
NBC: Not a Lot Of Laughs

By Ben Grossman Broadcasting & Cable 5/22/2006

With just two new comedies on the fall schedule, NBC is hoping a new batch of dramas and NFL football will help turn around its struggling prime time lineup. Counting on Sunday Night Football to deliver an audience that will stay during the week, the network will focus marketing efforts on new series at 9 p.m. Monday-Thursday.

After dominating network TV's coveted 18-49 demographic for years with its Must-See TV lineup of hits from Friends to The West Wing, NBC has fallen into fourth place the past two seasons. The new drama-heavy slate is the network's latest attempt to revive, and the stakes are high. The most notable change in NBC's upfront presentation was the dismantling of its Thursday-night comedy block, although that could change if Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip moves to another night.

NBC will look to get back in the game on Thursday nights with its only two returning comedies, My Name Is Earl and The Office, in a block at 8 p.m. ET, followed by the highly anticipated Studio 60 at 9. At 10, the network will air new episodes of ER in the fall and spring, resting it in favor of rookie The Black Donnellys for 13 weeks beginning in January.

Entertainment President Kevin Reilly has said previously he would like to get back to two hours of comedy on Thursday night but wasn't ready to do so this fall. “It felt vulnerable to go with a four-comedy strategy on Thursday night,” he says.

NBC will launch its only new comedies, Twenty Good Years and 30 Rock, Wednesdays at 9.

The network is hoping Studio 60, along with new dramas Heroes on Mondays and Kidnapped on Tuesdays, will give it “tent poles” in the schedule at 9 p.m.

Hoping, too, to play to the football audience it will have on Sundays, it is also adding Friday Night Lights, a football-centric show based on the movie of the same name, Tuesdays at 8.

Popular game show Deal or No Deal will kick off both Mondays and Fridays in the fall after resting over the summer.

Since NBC was the first to announce its fall schedule, Reilly admits that he may do some tinkering before fall: “We're going to really look at it this year.”

BOLDEST MOVE: Plunking Studio 60 on Thursdays at 9 was a strong play until ABC moved Grey's Anatomy into that time slot. With CBS's CSI also in the time period, NBC should consider reshuffling its deck before the fall.

BEST BET: With The West Wing's Aaron Sorkin and Thomas Schlamme behind it and an all-star cast on-screen, Studio 60 is NBC's best chance at the big drama it desperately needs.

BIGGEST RISK: A show taking place behind the scenes of a TV show may not play in the heartland, so scheduling two—on consecutive nights—may be tough to pull off.

ON THE BUBBLE: Scrubs is in; Conviction and Fear Factor are out.

The New Class:

Heroes: Five ordinary people discover that they have superpowers and go out to save the world. NBC Universal Television Studio (NUTS).

Friday Night Lights: A high school drama set in a football-crazed town in Texas, based on the film of the same name. Imagine, NUTS and Film 44.

Kidnapped: An entire season plays out around the kidnapping of the son of a wealthy Manhattan family. Sony Pictures Television and 25C Productions.

20 Good Years: John Lithgow (3rd Rock From the Sun) and Jeffrey Tambor (Arrested Development) star as an aging odd couple. Warner Bros.

30 Rock: Saturday Night Live star Tina Fey and recurring host Alec Baldwin star in a comedy set behind the scenes of a TV variety show. Broadway Video Television and NUTS.

Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip: The creative team behind The West Wing takes on the back-stage drama of a Saturday Night Live-type show. Strong ensemble cast includes Bradley Whitford (The West Wing) and Matthew Perry (Friends). Warner Bros.

The Black Donnellys: The Academy Award-winning creative team behind Crash is driving this look at four Irish brothers involved in organized crime in New York City. NUTS and Blackfriars Bridge Television.

For Midseason: :

Raines: Jeff Goldblum (Independence Day) stars as a detective who talks to dead crime victims. NUTS.

Andy Barker P.I.: Conan O'Brien and former sidekick Andy Richter reunite behind the camera in a comedy starring Richter as an accountant. NUTS and Conaco.

The Singles Table: Ensemble comedy based on five young singles who meet at a wedding. 20th Century Fox Television.

Upfront Analysis
MyNetworkTV Debut Heats Up

By Allison Romano Broadcasting & Cable 5/22/2006

In its inaugural upfront, Fox's MyNetworkTV (MNT) faces a bigger challenge than its rivals: selling advertisers on both a brand-new network and untested programming. But, MNT execs say, the sixth broadcast network must break the mold to attract viewers and ad dollars.

“We had to look at things differently to give you a much better chance of winning,” Roger Ailes, chairman of Fox Television Stations and Fox News, said at the network's upfront presentation. “What makes MyNetworkTV different is scheduling and programming.”

MNT debuts Sept. 5 with just two shows—steamy English-language telenovelas billed as short dramatic series—running five nights a week for 13 weeks, with weekend recaps. At 8 p.m. ET will be Desire: Table for Three, about two feuding brothers and the woman they both want, followed by Secret Obsessions: Fashion House, starring Bo Derek as a fashion maven scheming in her business and family. When the 65-episode telenovelas conclude (assuming both stay on the air for their entire run), a new duo of dramas will take their place, also named Desire and Secret Obsessions but with completely different casts and stories. A third set of shows will follow in the second quarter.

Fox TV Stations group and Twentieth Television, co-operating the network, are pushing MNT as alternative TV with broadcast-quality reach and appeal. Says Stations CEO Jack Abernethy, “These are gripping stories” that will “provide a sense of urgency for viewers.”

To sweeten the pitch, advertisers will be able to sponsor shows and place products prominently in dramas and on MNT's online and mobile companions.

The network's Web site, mynetworktv.com, will feature 3,000 original video clips tied to the dramas, such as actors, in character, giving backstory on plotlines. Borrowing a page from sister News Corp. company MySpace.com, MNT's site will enable users to share video clips and participate in blogs and community pages.

Since unveiling the network in February, MNT has signed up affiliates in 82% of the country and 26 of the top 30 markets. The network says it will reach 90% of U.S. homes by launch.

BOLDEST MOVE: Bucking the status quo of checkerboard scheduling by gambling on two series, five nights a week.

BEST BET: With 10 of its owned-and-operated stations carrying MNT and its own studio producing the programming, Fox has a strong incentive to make the network successful. Coordinating with popular community site MySpace.com will provide a window to younger viewers.

BIGGEST RISK: International audiences may be addicted to telenovelas, but some media buyers express concern that viewers will not tune in consistently. If the audience bails on the 8 p.m. show, will enough viewers return to a similar show at 9 p.m.?

The New Class:

Desire: Table for Three: Two brothers—one scrupulous, the other devious—duel for the same woman. Twentieth Television.

Secret Obsessions: Fashion House: Bo Derek stars as a fashion mogul out to dominate the industry and her family. Twentieth Television

Desire: Art of Betrayal: (first quarter 2007) A scorned woman seeks revenge on her ex-husband by having their sons seduce his stepdaughters. Twentieth Television.

Secret Obsessions: Watch Over Me: (first quarter '07) A security guard falls in love with his beautiful charge, who has a ruthless fiancé. Twentieth Television

Desire: Rules of Deception: (second quarter '07) A beautiful, devious woman plots to steal her best friend's husband. Twentieth Television

Secret Obsessions: A Dangerous Love: (second quarter '07): Modern take on the Romeo and Juliet love drama. Twentieth Television

Upfront Analysis
Hispanic Upfronts: ¡Caliente!

By Anne Becker Broadcasting & Cable 5/22/2006

The Hispanic upfronts were hotter than ever this year, buzzing with news of new growth, new media, and possibly a new owner for dominant Spanish- language network Univision.

Univision, expected to take in $1.1 billion in this upfront to Telemundo's $400 million, focused on new novelas and reality series, declining to acknowledge the elephant in the room: that the network is up for sale.

The company, watched as closely by advertisers as by investors these days, announced a new season and a spinoff of its dancing reality hit Bailando Por Un Sueño (Dancing for a Dream), along with several telenovelas, a reality series about a beauty pageant, a sitcom, a game show, and other programming for Univision and its sister networks Telefutura and Galavisión.

“The sale has nothing to do with what's on the air,” said Univision Communications President/COO Ray Rodriguez in response to a question about how the impending sale affected advertisers' desire to buy ads during Univision programming.

Telemundo, the NBC Universal-owned network that places a distant second to Univision, touted digital offerings, playing to the “TV 360” upfront branding of parent NBC and drawing attention to the fact that it owns its content and can more easily facilitate distribution on multiple platforms.

The network—between the Telemundo channel, its youth-targeted cable network mun2 and Yahoo! Telemundo—is offering advertisers 24 opportunities to put content on digital platforms, according to Steve Mandala, senior VP, sales and marketing, Telemundo and NBC Universal Networks.

The network also unveiled novelas of its own, in addition to a Saturday variety show to rival Univision's long-running juggernaut Sábado Gigante. Telemundo, as always, stressed that it produces its own content.

“None of these [digital offerings] would be possible unless we developed and created our own content,” Mandala said.

Spending on U.S. Hispanic network TV is projected to grow by 10.4% in 2006, almost twice the 5.4% growth projected for all U.S. media, according to TNS Media Intelligence.

Univision, which has had flat-to-down ratings over the past year, is projected to grow its upfront take by 10% this year, according to a Merrill Lynch report. With increased ratings and new digital offerings, Telemundo is projected to grow by 25%. Both networks pushed product integration as one opportunity for advertisers.

Univision is preparing for what could be a heated bidding war in which analysts predict the company could go for $12 billion. Grupo Televisa, the Mexican programmer that supplies more than three-quarters of its prime time novelas and owns 11% of the company, has partnered with private-equity groups—including Bill Gates' firm Cascade Investment—to bid.

This year, the Hispanic networks began to be rated on the Nielsen Television Index (NTI), the national sample that tracks the English-language broadcast networks, rather than on a separate Nielsen Hispanic Television Index. NTI ratings helped bring attention to the Hispanic networks. Since joining the NTI sample in December, Univision says, the network beat ABC, CBS, NBC or Fox in the 18-34 demo one out of every two nights.

Bailando, in which celebrities dance with average Joes who need a cash prize to make a dream come true, outranked both NBC and CBS in adults 18-34 for its 8-11 p.m. finale in February, making the Hispanic network third in the demo for the night. The show will be back for a second season, along with Cantando por un Sueño, which puts singing into the same format.

Upfront Notebook
A change is coming

By Hal Boedeker Orlando Sentinel Television Critic in the Sentinel’s TV blog May 20, 2006

Did you see the fall lineups last week?

Don't get too used to one of them.

It's almost certain that NBC will revise its Thursday night after ABC moved "Grey's Anatomy" opposite CBS' "CSI."

NBC had announced it would put one of its best new hopes -- Aaron Sorkin's "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip" starring Matthew Perry (left) -- in the same time slot at 9 p.m. Thursdays. But to protect this expensive new entry, NBC will have to move it elsewhere.

What will it do?

NBC must find a less-congested time slot. Could we suggest 10 p.m. Mondays? There "Studio 60" would have a far easier time against CBS' "CSI: Miami" and ABC's weak "What About Brian."

NBC has "Medium" in that slot for now, but the Patricia Arquette drama has sagged in the ratings since its debut. NBC could use its new Sunday night football to promote "Studio 60" heavily.

Then what would happen?

NBC would have more firepower at 9 p.m. Thursdays if it shifted the Friday edition of "Deal or No Deal" there. And "Medium" could move to 8 p.m. Fridays to blunt CBS' similiarly themed "Ghost Whisperer."

Or here's another possibility: Move "Studio 60" to 10 p.m. Mondays.

Shift "Medium" to 8 p.m. Wednesdays.

Move "The Biggest Loser" to 9 p.m. Thursdays, and just stand back as CBS and ABC go at it. But "Deal or No Deal" would be a stronger contender at 9 p.m. Thursdays -- and a sign that NBC hadn't given up on the night.

NBC do something to nurture "Studio 60." Bet on it.
http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/entertainment_tv_tvblog/2006/05/a_change_is_com.html

Upfront Notebook
Networks aren’t afraid to copy each other

FAST FORWARD TO FALL TV
New schedule will be a killer for serials

By Aaron Barnhart Kansas City Star Saturday, May 20, 2006

NEW YORK - So what did we learn this week from the people responsible for putting TV’s most-watched programs on the air? And NBC?

Well, one lesson from the fall season previews in New York is that if an idea is worth doing, it’s worth doing at least twice. The five major broadcast networks will combine to give us two shows about wedding days, two serial dramas about abductions and two shows about bandits at work (to go with the two that aired earlier this year).

Then there’s fourth-place NBC, which green-lighted two programs for the fall about the goings-on backstage at a show bearing an uncanny resemblance to “Saturday Night Live.” Imitation is not just the sincerest form of television; these days, it’s the most lucrative kind as well.

We learned that networks are being more patient with shows, with many low-rated series getting renewed instead of canceled. “7th Heaven” taped a “series finale,” then was asked back to help launch the new CW network. “What About Brian,” “The Loop,” “The O.C.,” “Veronica Mars,” “The King of Queens” and “According to Jim” were all bubble shows that didn’t pop, though some will return for only half a season.

Above all, we learned that the fall prime-time schedule will be lousy with serialized dramas and comedies. At least 10 shows previewed this week are the kind where one shoe drops in September and the idea is to keep viewers hanging on until the other falls off during the May sweeps.

Why the deluge? Mostly because a few serials have broken through, in a big way: “Desperate Housewives,” “Grey’s Anatomy” and “Lost” on ABC and “Prison Break” and “24” on Fox all have large and devoted followings. And because the public’s appetite for self-contained crime procedurals seems just about sated.

You can’t talk about serial TV without giving credit to “reality” TV, which revived the demand for shows that spill over from one week to the next. Reality shows also proved that through selective editing, you could create situations using ordinary people that were funnier than most sitcoms and more compelling than many dramas.

This, by the way, is being offered as a theory for why you see so few sitcoms in prime time anymore. CBS chairman Leslie Moonves noted Wednesday that dramas have become more realistic looking, while sitcoms, with their more rigid structure, haven’t.

“Comedy’s a tougher nut to crack,” Moonves said.

ABC ordered both “Big Day” and “Notes From the Underbelly,” serials about getting married and having a baby, and Fox picked up “The Wedding Album” for 2007. But it was only a matter of time before someone noticed that cable has a ton of reality shows about marriages and carriages.

Nor is it surprising that NBC’s “Friday Night Lights” should look like an ESPN sports documentary. Or that NBC should think that viewers are so interested in the mechanics of making a live TV show that they might watch both “30 Rock” and “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip.”

http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/entertainment/columnists/aaron_barnhart/14621794.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp

Upfront Notebook
The best of the new season

ABC trio, NBC’s ‘30 Rock’ stand out

By Aaron Barnhart Kansas City Star Saturday, May 20, 2006

From the three dozen previews I saw this week, I’m already making plans to watch these in the fall:

“Big Day,” “Betty the Ugly” and “Let’s Rob” are all new from ABC, all comedies, all with season-long storylines. “Big Day” and “Let’s Rob” revolve around zany ensembles (one planning a wedding, one planning a crime). “Betty” is adapted from a popular Spanish-language soap about a young woman with big dreams. ABC is taking the biggest risk of any network because these three shows are unlike any on TV right now.

“Runaway” on the new CW network looked better than I thought it would. Donnie Wahlberg takes his whole family on the lam when he’s framed for murder. The show will turn on his relationship with wife Leslie Hope, but she’s a proven performer under adversity (she was Mrs. Jack Bauer from the first season of “24”).

“Shark” on CBS: Jimmy Woods in a courtroom, how can you not watch? But I’ll also be keeping an eye on “Jericho,” the CBS serial about post-apocalyptic America where a small town in Kansas learns that you don’t need to be stranded on an island to feel “lost.”

At the post-upfront parties where critics and ad buyers schmooze and exchange notes, I couldn’t find anyone besides me who liked “30 Rock,” the new comedy with “SNL’s” Tina Fey sort of playing “SNL’s” Tina Fey; or Fox’s “Justice,” about an all-star defense team that uses forensics to get acquittals for their possibly guilty clients.

But I must admit I was charmed by both. “30 Rock” because it looks like “The Larry Sanders Show,” female version, and “Justice” because it looks like a stylish twist on “The Staircase,” that spellbinding Sundance documentary that was my No. 1 show in 2004. One ad buyer called it “weird” and predicted that viewers would reject any show featuring such unsympathetic characters as the Scott Peterson-like defendant in the “Justice” pilot.

Weird and unsympathetic. They said that about Dr. House, too, didn’t they?

http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/entertainment/columnists/aaron_barnhart/14621805.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp

A Reminder
“Free” HD Showtime and HBO on DirecTV

If you have missed this news in other threads, DirecTV is in the midst of a free HD weekend of HBO and Showtime.

So, if you are a DirecTV subscriber -- and can find something you’d like to catch -- enjoy.

TV Notebook
Clock ticks, yet time stands still

'60 Minutes' man Mike Wallace is putting retirement on hold and reducing his workload - or so he says
By Verne Gay Newsday Staff Writer May 21, 2006

One can't help but notice that the toes - yes, the toes - are perfectly straight. And the smile? The big, broad smile across the face of Mike Wallace, who is reclining, shoes off, feet propped on the desk in his office nine stories over 57th Street, is not the smile of a corpse. He's got a nice tan (but then he always does) and to observe that Wallace looks far younger than his 88 years is to not only state the obvious but also the observation of a hundred (or a thousand) others.

So, we've established that Wallace looks good and is, in fact, alive. But what's new here?

Under the circumstances, that's a reasonable question and the answer - as correspondent voiceovers have teased in all those "60 Minutes" stories over the years - just might surprise you.

Saying goodbye?

In March, Wallace, co-creator of "60 Minutes" and arguably American TV's premiere interlocutor of the past half-century, announced his retirement to considerable fanfare and, at least for those who have known him well, considerable confusion. In one of his stock comments over the years, Wallace has often joked that he would leave his job and office at "60 Minutes" only after his "toes curled up," or after rigor mortis had set in.

The message was clear: He wasn't going anywhere. Ever.

And then, the surprising news in March, which was then followed by CBS' decision to produce a retrospective on his career, Sunday's "I'm Mike Wallace: A 60 Minutes Tribute" (Ch. 2 at 7 p.m.).

"As I approach my 88th birthday," he said in a statement at the time (he turned 88 May 9) "it's become apparent to me that my eyes and ears, among other appurtenances, aren't quite what they used to be [and] the prospect of long flights to wherever in search of whatever are not quite as appealing."

Back in March, Wallace had insisted in a battery of interviews that he was not being "pushed" out, as some suspected. He further insisted that the time had come. It was over. Period. Fifty-plus years in television. His founding role in "60 Minutes," without whom this show would not exist. Thousands of interviews including presidents dating back to JFK. Eight hundred or so stories for "60." All in the past.

But that was then. This is now: He's not going anywhere, and the "retirement" has been postponed indefinitely.

New "mother church" contract

In an interview a couple of weeks ago, Wallace confirmed that CBS has signed him to a new four-year contract: "I'm still happily with the mother church [CBS] and they have been generous," he said. "My so-called retirement is in abeyance, if you will, and I'm happy about that, and I'm involved with the stuff that's going to be happening come fall."

Indeed he is. Wallace has sent a note to new White House press secretary, Tony Snow, requesting an interview with President George W. Bush, the only POTUS since Kennedy he has not debriefed. Wallace is working on landing another big interview, too (he doesn't say with whom). And while Wallace has ruled out travel for the most part, he says this doesn't mean that interview subjects won't be welcome to come to him.

Yes, there will be changes, including a key symbolic one. His face, which has graced the opening of "60 Minutes" since its premiere in 1968, will no longer appear with the other correspondents. He will now be an "emeritus" correspondent, and, yes, he plans to slow down, too. He won't (he says) do anywhere near the 11 pieces he had on the air last year. While it's instructive to note that Wallace has said he'll slow down before, this time (he says) he means it.

Even so, when Ed Bradley announces at the beginning of Sunday's program that this is Wallace's "last regular program," you're encouraged to assume the posture that Wallace has assumed so well over many years - that of skeptic.

While Wallace declines to comment on his or CBS' change of heart, one person familiar with Wallace's situation says that last winter he was in fact gently asked to step aside. It came as a surprise to the newsman who had been offered assurances by CBS chief executive Leslie Moonves that the network wanted him to stay. Wallace won't talk about what happened, but there was speculation CBS wanted to make room for Katie Couric, or strike a more "youthful" balance on the broadcast or, perhaps, both. Some believe Wallace readily agreed to depart because he too came to the realization that at 88 he couldn't keep up his old pace.

Nevertheless, Wallace now confirms he never wanted to retire, and in an exchange that appears in Sunday's broadcast, he explains why. Morley Safer asks Wallace, "Are you scared about what's ahead?" to which Wallace responds "Yeah, I am. You're 13 years younger ... and I've always thought what the Dickens would I do. You paint. You write. You do all kinds of things. I don't. I work."

NBC enters the picture

But this exchange was apparently taped before Wallace got a call from Steve Capus, president of NBC News, who asked if he'd join NBC. (Wallace had first met Capus through the NBC VIP's wife, "Dateline NBC" special segment producer Sophia Faskianos, who had worked on a piece reported by Couric about Wallace's recently published memoir.) Wallace told his superiors at CBS about the offer. They countered with their own.

Jeff Fager, "60 Minutes" executive producer, says, "I don't want him to let go. I don't want him to leave his office. He's such a great force to have on this floor."

The new arrangement "is a lifetime deal in recognition of a guy who made such an impact here. We probably wouldn't be here without him and Don [Hewitt, Fager's predecessor and "60" founding producer] and we all know that. Why shouldn't he have the security of [this] role? He's still part of '60 Minutes' and still the heart and soul of the place."

To anyone reading this and wondering why any fuss should be made over someone long past what is normally considered retirement age, it might help to watch Sunday's broadcast. With the exception of Walter Cronkite, there may be no one who has had more impact on the institution of network broadcast journalism over the past 50 years than Wallace. As Bradley says in the opening piece, "You can take any historical moment in recent decades, and - like Woody Allen's Zelig or Forrest Gump - you'll usually find Mike."

Wallace's influence stretches all the way back to the '50s, when he was avatar of the hard news interview on a brand-new medium that seemed more content to entertain and sell stuff (and yes, he was a pitchman, too). His "Night Beat" for ABC in the '50s would one day inspire "Nightline" while a veritable laundry list of innovations at "60 Minutes" - most famously the "ambush" and hard news investigations - would be copied as well. Wallace would be a driving force of each, and as "60 Minutes" became the most successful show on prime-time television, one face above all would come to symbolize that longevity and cultural resonance - his own.

Sunday's broadcast makes those accomplishments clear, but doesn't shirk some of the hard truths either: That Wallace could be harsh or cruel, or that he was at the center of some of the biggest controversies in CBS News history, such as the 1980s libel suit filed by Gen. William Westmoreland.

But "60 Minutes" without Wallace? "I've been asked to say something about Mike \ but it's probably nothing CBS wants to hear," says Andy Rooney, the show's veteran commentator/humorist. "'60 Minutes' won't be as good because Mike won't be here.'"

Not to worry, Andy. Mike's not going anywhere after all.

http://www.newsday.com/entertainment/tv/ny-fftv4745533may21,0,6660798,print.story?coll=ny-television-headlines

TV Notebook
'Dancing' Star Stacy Keibler Suffers a Minor Seizure

Leggy lovely is fine... docs call it a fluke
By TMZ.COM STAFF

Gorgeous 'Dancing with the Stars' finalist Stacy Keibler had a few scary moments in NY on Tuesday night when she suffered a minor seizure.

According to Keibler's publicist, Stacy was in her hotel room when it happened. She has never had a seizure before, said her rep, and she did not collapse. She was taken to the hospital in an ambulance and underwent all necessary tests. She checked out absolutely fine and was told by doctors that she was fine, to go on with life and this was a "fluke occurrence."

Doctors say that 7 out of every 1000 people have a seizure at least once in their lifetime.

http://tmz.aol.com/article2/_a/dancing-star-stacy-keibler-suffers-a/20060519150609990001

Looking Back at the 2005-2006 Season
Year's bows that wowed

'Stars,' 'Deal' hit the ground running
By Rick Kissell Variety.com May 21, 2006

HOLLYWOOD -- There was no game-changer among this season's most impressive rookies, but a pair of surprisingly successful unscripted skeins top the list.

With an honorable mention to Fox's "Unanimous," which did well enough behind "American Idol," here are the year's top 10 newbies:

10) "Supernatural" (WB) -- In an otherwise bleak final year of development for the Frog, this spooky hour averaged a 1.6 rating in adults 18-49 and a 1.7 in adults 18-34. It got better mileage when skedded behind the more similarly themed "Smallville" on Thursday, a combo that will continue on the new CW.

9) "Everybody Hates Chris" (UPN) -- This likable laffer based on the childhood of Chris Rock opened very well (3.2 rating in week 1) but began performing more like typical UPN laffers near the end of the season. Still, its 1.7 rating in 18-49 opposite tough competish on Thursday made it a keeper.

8) "Bones" (Fox) -- On a net with serialized dramas, it helps to have a procedural like this forensics hour that repeats well. Skewing fairly young (a 9 share in 18-34 as well as 18-49 and 25-54), it proved a solid addition to the lineup, playing well in several slots.

7) "Prison Break" (Fox) -- A serialized tale of one brother trying to bust out another from prison became the No. 1 new drama of the season among adults 18-34 (4.4/12) and averaged a good 4.1/10 in 18-49. Alongside "24" down the stretch, it made for one of the most thrilling drama pairings in memory.

6) "The Unit" (CBS) -- This midseason military action series from David Mamet and "The Shield's" Shawn Ryan was a perfect fit with "NCIS," giving CBS a viable alternative to Fox on Tuesday.

Key to its success was attracting a large 35-plus male aud that doesn't watch much series television. It ends the season as the No. 1 new drama in both 25-54 (5.8/13) and total viewers (15.5 million).

5) "Ghost Whisperer" (CBS) -- This cross between "Medium" and "Touched by an Angel" attracted a large female audience as well as a fair-sized family crowd. It helped make the Eye's Friday the most improved night on television for any network.

The Jennifer Love Hewitt starrer averaged a 10 share in 18-49, a 12 share in 25-54 and a 14 share in women 25-54 -- the latter delivery the best for any new drama this season.

4) "Criminal Minds" (CBS) -- Critics weren't thrilled when the Eye rolled out yet another crime procedural last fall, but this whydunit proved a solid alternative to ABC's "Lost."

Overall, it averaged a 3.7/9 in 18-49 and a 4.9/11 in adults 25-54, ranking second in the latter among all new dramas.

3) "My Name Is Earl" (NBC) -- This Jason Lee skein got off to a hot start last fall and may have ranked No. 1 if not for a softening down the stretch. Still, it finishes as the No. 2 comedy in 18-49 (4.9/12) and the No. 1 new scripted program in 18-34 (4.6/13).

2) "Deal or No Deal" (NBC) -- Who would have thought Howie Mandel imploring models to "open the case" would be the hottest thing going on the Peacock? While the rest of the NBC sked pulled less than a 9 share in 18-49, the nearly 40 hours of this oddly appealing show did a 13.

Net is resting "Deal" in the summer, but expect to see a lot of it next fall.

1) "Dancing With the Stars" (ABC) -- After launching to good numbers last summer, this skein's second edition scored impressive averages on Thursday opposite "Survivor" and "CSI" (a 5.0/13 in 18-49).

It finished as the season's highest-rated newbie in women 25-54 (8.6/18), with its concluding episode drawing the largest overall aud for a reality show finale (except "American Idol") in two years (27.1 million).

And a new generation was ready to rumba.

TV Notebook
Young Male Viewers Lift Ratings for 'Smallville'

By Kate Aurthur The New York Times May 20, 2006

The season finale of "Smallville" last week ended with Clark Kent and his compatriots in dire circumstances. Lois Lane and Clark's mother had been kidnapped by the archvillain Brainiac; his friend Chloe was surrounded by a mob; and Clark himself was zapped into a space purgatory called the Phantom Zone. Meanwhile, Clark's enemy Lex Luthor and Clark's bitter ex-girlfriend, Lana Lang, calmly watched Metropolis consume itself in rioting and fiery chaos.

Miles Millar and Alfred Gough, the "Smallville" creators and executive producers, say they have no idea how they will resolve these problems when Season 6 begins in the fall. In an interview in Los Angeles Mr. Millar — British and tempered in speech — grimaced and said, "Getting out of the finales is always tricky." Mr. Gough, the more exuberant of the two, laughed and said, "We always go, 'Well, that's a problem for June.' "

A year ago Mr. Millar and Mr. Gough did not think that conceiving a sixth season of their young Superman series was a problem they would face. When WB announced its fall schedule in May 2005, "Smallville" had been moved from Wednesdays at 8 p.m., Eastern and Pacific times and 7 p.m., Central time, to Thursdays at the same hour. As far as the producers were concerned, the move was a death sentence for the show.

Mr. Gough said, "Looking at what we were up against on that night — 'The O.C.' and 'Alias' and 'Survivor' — it was like, 'Oh, my God.' "

But rather than being crushed by those three shows, which directly compete for a similar group of young adult viewers, "Smallville" experienced a resurgence. For the season it was No. 1 in its time period among men 18 to 34, a hard-to-reach audience that would often rather play video games than watch television. (Over all it averaged 5.3 million viewers for new episodes, a slight increase over last year.) In the middle of the season Fox moved the "O.C." time slot back an hour; ABC's "Alias" moved to Wednesdays.

When the sixth season of "Smallville" begins in September, it will be on the new CW network, created by the merger of UPN and WB. Laura Caraccioli-Davis, executive vice president of Starcom Entertainment, who advises companies on product placement, said "Smallville" was one of CW's most valuable shows.

"To get young men to the screen, it takes a lot," she said. As for why "Smallville" experienced a ratings renaissance and caused its competitors to move, she said: "You just go back to the tortoise and the hare story. It's been a really strong, solid property that had good characters, good narrative."

Dawn Ostroff is now the president of entertainment at CW and held the same position at UPN. On Thursday at the fledgling network's first "upfront" presentation to advertisers, she announced the schedule, and "Smallville" is to stay on Thursdays at 8 p.m. In a telephone interview Ms. Ostroff said, "It would be hard to mess with that success." She added: "Creatively, the show had one of its strongest seasons. There's nothing better than word of mouth and the buzz factor for our young audience."

Looking back on the past season, Mr. Gough called the assumption that "Smallville" would soon be canceled "freeing."

He said: "We figured: 'We have nothing to lose. We have these arrows in our quiver. What are we waiting for?' "

Mr. Millar said that other strictures were lifted in Season 5 because the characters were older. DC Comics, the publisher of the "Superman" comics, is old-fashioned, and Clark's sex life on "Smallville" had been quite restricted. "We waited five years for him to lose his virginity," Mr. Millar said. "Most shows do it in Episode 12."

Mr. Gough added: "How many shows have to wait five seasons before they can play their key love triangle, which is Clark, Lana and Lex? We had to wait, quite frankly, until everybody was legal."

In writing Superman's back story, they had always been miserly in introducing the significant landmarks of Clark's evolution as a superhero. Last summer Mr. Millar and Mr. Gough flew to Australia to meet with Bryan Singer, the film director, on the set of his "Superman Returns," which is to be released next month. "What we were trying to avoid were egregious mythology clashes," Mr. Gough said.

With Mr. Singer's blessing, over the course of the season they wrote milestones that would be familiar even to casual fans of Superman. The Daily Planet newspaper became Clark's home base; Jonathan Kent, his adoptive father, died; and Clark began visiting the Fortress of Solitude, the ornamental ice structure where he can communicate with the spirit of Jor-El, his Kryptonian biological father.

An October episode introduced the character Aquaman, and was the season's most-watched episode, with 6.4 million viewers. It was meant to be a one-off goof on the HBO comedy "Entourage," in which the lead character got the part of a superhero swimmer in a movie called "Aquaman." But because the ratings were so high, Mr. Gough and Mr. Millar quickly developed an Aquaman series idea for WB.

When the announcement of the creation of CW was made in January, Mr. Gough said, "It was like switching schools in the middle of the school year." The "Aquaman" pilot production continued, but it was not on the schedule that Ms. Ostroff announced on Thursday. (CW picked up only three new series for next season, which were all under development under Ms. Ostroff at UPN.)

Mr. Millar and Mr. Gough said they thought "Smallville" would run for two more years — if it continues to do well — as the actors are signed through seven seasons. Mr. Gough said, "After that is when 'Smallville' and 'Superman' will sync up."

And how will it end? "Badly!" Mr. Gough said cheerfully. "It's a tragedy — he doesn't end up with Lana, and he and Lex are mortal enemies. How is that good?"

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/20/arts/television/20smal.html?pagewanted=print

Tonight’s Finales

"60 Minutes," 7 PT/ET, CBS
"Extreme Makeover: Home Edition," 7 ET/PT, ABC (two hours)
"The Simpsons," 8 ET/PT, Fox
"Charmed," 8 ET/PT, WB (Series Finale)
"Family Guy," 8:30 ET/PT, Fox
"Desperate Housewives," 9 ET/PT, ABC (two hours)

Critic’s Notebook
“24”: Call It A Day

By Mark Dawidziak Cleveland Plain Dealer Television Critic Sunday, May 21, 2006

What a great day it has been. I'm talking about the pulse-pound ing, nerve-jangling, heart-stop ping fifth season of Fox's "24," with each episode representing a suspenseful hour in another one of those save-the-world days for ace anti-terrorist agent Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland).

But all good things must come to an end, and the thrilling fifth season of Fox's "24" reaches it's two-hour finale at 8 PM ET/PT Monday on Fox.

Did I say good? Scratch that. This has been the best season yet for "24."

Sure, the stylish action drama made a few stops in Sillyville this year, and I still haven't quite forgiven them for killing off lovable lunk Edgar Stiles (Louis Lombardi). Yet the high points and mesmerizing performances of this roller-coaster fifth season have been off the chart.

It even must be conceded that the gassing of Edgar scored a strong dramatic point for a show that so craftily relies on the element of surprise.

"It renewed the audience's understanding that this is a dangerous thing we're up against," executive pro ducer Howard Gordon said during a tele phone interview. "People we care about can die and do die, and it sort of reiterated the importance and validity of the threat. It also reminded the audience of what the show promises; that anything can happen, and that includes that anyone at any time can be killed off."

But Edgar? Poor Edgar? Was that going too far?

"You know, I stand by it," Gordon said. "I have to say, we miss him, having him at CTU . . . but the measure of outrage I think was a measure of the success of that character. . . . I think it's just what the show needed at that midpoint to keep people talking."

As for the logic lapses, well, hey, Jack Bauer is about to wrap up his fifth day of saving the world. If you're going to jump on the "24" roller coaster, you can't enjoy the ride by stopping to scrutinize a preposterous plot point here and there.

"With the audience that we've had from the beginning, there is a very odd kind of understanding," Sutherland said.

"We're going to require them to take a bit of a leap of faith - not a bit of a leap of faith, but quite a big leap of faith with us, and they have done that. And we reply on that with them."

This is an action fantasy built on style, suspense and surprise. Each of these elements could be found in great abundance this season, starting with the slam-bang January opening and the assassination of David Palmer (Dennis Haysbert).

The tricky twists and turns kept coming as Jack returned to tackle Russian separatists planning a widespread release of lethal nerve gas. And no twist was more intriguing than the transition of President Logan (Gregory Itzin) from nervous-Nellie politician to full-fledged villain.

Julian Sands was evil enough as nattily dressed billionaire villain Vladimir Bierko. Then Logan started smelling as bad as a case of Sentox nerve gas.

Gordon and his team of producers did not start the season thinking Logan would be a baddie of the first magnitude.

They began considering "President Logan as actually being the willful villain, rather than sort of just the weak-willed guy, kind of around episode four or five," Gordon said. "We would debate and argue it. Will viewers want to see a willfully bad president?"

So, more than anything else, Monday's finale builds to a fiery confrontation between Jack and Logan. For the producers, the challenge is to put a fitting exclamation point on this season.

"Obviously, we squared off Jack Bauer with the president of the United States, and he's never had a more formidable opponent," Gordon said of the finale. "It's a great matchup, and I think the conclusion is pretty satisfying."

Consider for a second just some of the things that happened on the way to this showdown. First, the Day Five body count has been staggering. In addition to Palmer and Stiles, we lost Tony Almeida (Carlos Bernard), Michelle Dessler (Reiko Aylesworth) and new CTU boss Lynn McGill (Sean Astin).

It also has been a season of memorable performances: Sands as the suave and scary Bierko; Peter Weller as Jack's mysterious former mentor, Christopher Henderson; Jean Smart (give her an Emmy) as Martha Logan, the unpredictable first lady; Akron native Ray Wise as Hal Gardner, a vice president with murky motives; JoBeth Williams as Henderson's wife; Jayne Atkinson as the Homeland Security official taking charge of CTU.

And the producers believe they have a fitting finale. The best yet?

"It's big," Gordon said. "I have to say, it's a pretty epic showdown. Beyond that, it has been brewing. I think you get the sense with this last bunch of episodes that there's really a gathering storm. And there's a sense of dread happening on all sides."

You can expect the main story to be resolved in an emotionally satisfying manner. Questions will be answered, but the finale also will serve up a stunning moment to keep fans guessing until the sixth season.

One thing isn't in doubt. Jack will be back to infuse "24" with another dose of Bauer power. Sutherland recently signed to stay with the Fox series for three more seasons.

Gordon said that the producers never know exactly how each save-the-world scenario will play out episode to episode. This process has led "24" to wander in the middle of previous seasons.

This season, though, has been more focused.

"Last year, it was kind of a real improvisation," Gordon said. "We zigged and zagged a lot. . . . This one feels like it's really of a piece. I'm as surprised as anyone at how well it seems to be turning out."

Well, as we said, surprise is an essential part of the mix.

http://www.cleveland.com/entertainment/plaindealer/mark_dawidziak/index.ssf?/base/entertainment/1148114078243910.xml&coll=2

TV Notebook
Aaron Brown on his life after CNN

Six months since leaving the anchor chair, the Minnesota native talks about living life without the daily pressures -- and the glasses
By Neal Justin Minneapolis Star Tribune

Aaron Brown's younger brother has just walked into the WCCO Radio lobby, which is a little weird because I'm here to take Aaron to lunch.

Maybe the whole family -- wait, it is the former CNN anchor, looking a full decade younger than his 57 years, thanks to laser eye surgery and the fact that he no longer seems to be carrying the weight of the world news on his shoulders.

The Hopkins native, who left the cable network in November after being replaced by two-decades-younger Anderson Cooper, doesn't have a "mad as heck, not going to take it anymore" attitude, despite the fact that he was dumped for a hipper model. Instead, he seems at peace, an approach that should serve him well when he begins teaching at Arizona State University next spring.

Brown can't talk about CNN until his contract expires in 2007, but he did open up about his new approach to life and his new look.

QUESTION: Why the eye surgery?

AARON BROWN: I just got tired of wearing glasses, and, all of a sudden, I had the time and the freedom to do it. Peter [Jennings] used to say, "You look stupid without glasses." OK, so maybe it's not a great career move, but the TV Aaron wore glasses, and, maybe, at some level, the TV Aaron was in conflict with the other Aaron.

QUESTION: What do you mean?

AARON BROWN: The TV Aaron was public and I'm very shy. My wife and I would go to a party and we'd have to take separate cars because there would always be a point where I'd get really anxious and have to leave early. I need to feel really comfortable with people. But I could put on the uniform and do the job of a reporter.

QUESTION: Peter Jennings was your mentor at ABC. Why did you two hit it off?

AARON BROWN: I was never afraid of him. Peter could come out and say, "We need to do a story about monkeys driving the subway" and people would launch and I would look at him and say, "Come here a sec." We'd go into his office and I'd say, "That's really stupid." I was just this yokel who came in from Seattle. I didn't get that he was this anchor god, and I think Peter loved that give and take.

I understood it when I became the anchor. I was amazed how few people would come to me -- and my door was always open -- and say something was stupid.

QUESTION: How did his death affect you?

AARON BROWN: It had a profound effect. I started thinking less and less about what I was accomplishing and more and more about what I'm missing. What had I sacrificed to become me? I had absolutely decided that once my CNN contract expired in 2007, I was going to do something else. To be honest, I wanted to walk away on my own terms, but when it went down, I was the calmest guy in the room.

I'm at peace now with all of it. I'm proud of what I've done and I'm content that I'll always be seen professionally in a certain way. You're taught along the way to never do anything to screw up the first line in your obituary, and mine is still going to say, "Aaron Brown, one of the anchors who helped the country through difficult days after 9/11. ... " That's not a bad ending. Dan [Rather] is really the sad character right now. His obituary is going to say, "Dan Rather, who was forced to resign. ... " That's a bad ending.

QUESTION: You had lunch with Rather shortly after leaving CNN. What did you two talk about?

AARON BROWN: I took a lot of lunches with Dan. He's been a great supporter of mine, in good times and bad. Incredibly gracious. When I got the job, the first thing he said to me was, "You need to learn to say no. People are going to be pulling at you, every Bemidji radio station, and your inclination is going to be to want to do it all."

QUESTION: The funny thing is that was probably Rather's Achilles heel. He wanted to do it all. A I was going to say, I'm not sure Dan could ever say no. I did tell him at lunch that the only thing I was worried about was: What's it going to feel like the day the first big story goes down? We were talking post-Katrina, which was the first major story since we were both gone.

QUESTION: And Rather would have loved that story.

AARON BROWN: That was particularly cruel.

QUESTION: What do you think about CBS hiring Katie Couric?

AARON BROWN: What CBS was able to buy in Katie was name recognition. People may like her, they may not like her, but they know her. Morning TV is morning TV, so she did a lot of sit-ups and cooked a lot of tamales, but she's also done some very good hard-nosed interviews. I think the world of her. I think all the new guys are capable, but at some point they are going to get tested with a 9/11 moment. Day to day, it's not that big a deal. But it's a huge deal when the president is assassinated. That's when you earn it.

QUESTION: What do you want to do next?

AARON BROWN: I've been talking to some people about doing an interview program and maybe a couple of documentaries a year. I've pretty much set up an office at Grand Central Station. If you want to talk to me, we sit in one of three restaurants there and do business. That way, I don't have to pay rent. No one is paying any attention to us because we're lost in the crowd, and I can get the train and be home in 32 minutes.

QUESTION: What kind of documentary would you like to do?

AARON BROWN: I'd cover five kids back from Iraqand spend six months with them as they try to re-acclimate to civilian life. I would try to connect their injuries to certain decisions they made before going over. Whether or not the war was right, I know those kids were sent in without the kind of gear that would have saved lives and limbs.

http://www.startribune.com/459/story/441452.html

TV Notebook
Ads bring viewers into the action

By Tom Maurstad /The Dallas Morning News Sunday, May 21, 2006

You're watching a show, a commercial break comes and, next thing you know, you're dropped into a signature scene from a familiar movie. There's Ben Stein droning on to his catatonic class in Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Bill Paxton racing a tornado in his pickup truck in Twister or Mini-Me squaring off against the fat, Shrek-talking bad guy in Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me.

Like a classic song playing when you turn on the radio, these scenes instantly pull you in – you can't help singing along. And then it happens. Ben or Bill or Mini-Me suddenly looks into the camera and starts talking to you, out of character, out of the movie. Just like that, a scene from a movie you know so well has become a commercial you've never seen before.

You've just been punked by DirecTV.

"We call it the Fourth Wall Campaign," says Jon Geiselman, senior vice president of advertising and public relations for DirecTV, using the showbiz expression for entertainment that breaks down the invisible wall between performers and audience. "We wanted to create that kind of moment that's harder and harder to create: something you've never seen before."

The most obvious effect of the campaign is to jolt viewers who think themselves unjoltable. But in repurposing familiar movie clips, the company has also introduced a new form of media marketing: retroactive product placement. Imagine the possibilities.

"These spots take the equity from these iconic movie moments and use it to communicate our message," says Mr. Geiselman.

The hard sell to convince studios and actors to go along has segued, now that the first spots are out they're spreading jolt fever: "Our phones are ringing, people are calling us wanting to participate." So get ready for more movie-moment spots and, perhaps, some TV-themed jolts as well.

The only question remaining is: How do they do it? Some computer-generated trickery, no doubt. Get the actors to read the new lines and then, somehow, morph that into the scene by, um ...

"People keep asking me; it's just too interesting," Mr. Geiselman says. "I'm not going to tell the secret until someone figures it out."

http://www.guidelive.com/sharedcontent/dws/ent/television/stories/DN-outtake_tvads_0521gl.ART.State.Bulldog.8c19862.html

TV Review
Check your brain at the door if you watch '10.5: Apocalypse'

By Susan Young Oakland Tribune

My colleague Candace Murphy asked if she could do a column on how TV had become too much work.

She was sick of having to keep up with all the Web sites, the insider information and books on shows from "Lost" to "American Idol."

Although she bagged the idea, I couldn't help but think how much she would love something like "10.5: Apocalypse" (9-11 PM ET/PT Sunday and Tuesday nights, NBC) because it takes no brain cells whatsoever to follow.

I panned the first "10.5" mini-series when it aired last year because it was so ridiculously bad. Come on, people. There was a guy on a bicycle trying to outrun large, rolling concrete balls as the earth split apart. What's not to hate about that?

Apparently, quite a lot. The earthquake flick turned out to be a major success, with viewers unable to tear their eyes away from the gigantic spectacle of Nevada becoming a seaside community.

So guess what? Now you get even more shakin' and quakin' — and that's just the TV critics writhing around on the floor wondering what they did to deserve this pain.

Kim Delaney, Beau Bridges and David Cubitt reprise their roles. Delaney turns it on as Dr. Samantha Hill, the beleaguered scientist trying to save the world, or at least the United States, from falling into the ocean after the Big One hits. She's aided by fellow scientists and all-around cute guy Dr. Jordan Fisher (Cubitt).

Bridges plays President Hollister to the hokey hilt. His wife is played by Melissa Sue Anderson, the older sister on "Little House on the Prairie." Anderson somehow decided this was the ultimate way to return to television after a decades-long hiatus.

Filling out the large cast are Dean Cain, Oliver Hudson, Carlos Bernard, Garcelle Beauvais-Nilon and Frank Langella.

Executive producer Gary Pearl sent a little letter to critics to gently prod them into understanding that he means these movies to be silly with crazy dumb dialogue and great special effects.

"I really enjoy these films personally, even from childhood, buying popcorn and a soft drink at the theater and being involved in the thrill ride as our heroes save the day against impossible odds," writes Pearl.

And that's not even adding the burden of quick cuts and bad lines. We think the actors are intentionally goofing on the lines, but we could be wrong about that.

"Lost" demands your attention to detail. Did you notice the Dharma initiative on the shark in the water? Did you even know what the Dharma initiative was? And do you have to know in order to enjoy the series?

With "10.5," you can go to the kitchen, make a snack and check your e-mail and still not miss a major plot point.

But you might miss a really cool special effect such as the sink hole that swallows a freeway full of cars, the volcanic eruption that wipes out young people on a ski lift or the helicopter crushed in cascading water.

And just a note about that last little trick. Just how stupid do you have to be to hover right next to the Hoover Dam when it's obviously hit critical mass and about to blow?

As we said, brains optional.

http://www.insidebayarea.com/portlet/article/html/fragments/print_article.jsp?article=3849132

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

TV Reviews
New King is OK, but latest 'Apocalypse' is abominable

Ron Perlman is a fine villain in 'Desperation.'
Cheesy effects will have '10.5' viewers fleeing.
By Hal Boedeker Orlando Sentinel Television Critic May 21, 2006

As the TV season staggers to its end, some networks are banking on nightmares to counter tough competition. On Tuesday, ABC will toss Stephen King's Desperation against the American Idol finalists on Fox. Tonight, NBC will hurl 10.5: Apocalypse against the Desperate Housewives season finale on ABC.

These nightmares should carry the same warning: not as frightening as intended.

King draws the tougher competition and produces more scares. He has adapted Desperation, his 1996 novel about a besieged mining town, into a three-hour movie. The result is so-so King for television: neither a thrill machine like Storm of the Century nor a botch like Kingdom Hospital.

A wicked force is devastating Desperation, Nev. The animals are bewitched, and dozens of corpses remain where they fell. A deranged lawman (Ron Perlman) terrorizes tourists by jailing them and killing their loved ones.

The early scenes establish a horrifying tone, and Perlman offers an energetic portrait of pure nastiness. King generates suspense by depicting how the tourists pull together and fight back. They include a big-time writer (Tom Skerritt) and a perceptive boy (Shane Haboucha).

Desperation hits an annoying lull when the tourists break for a history lesson on the town. King also explores ecological and spiritual themes, but can't make them compelling or fresh. Fortunately, the pace quickens when the characters step up the battle against the eerie meanness.

King writes snappy dialogue and inserts catchy pop-culture references, from Disneyland to The Lord of the Rings. Skerritt's writer sounds off about a bad review he received from Norman Mailer, fuming, "I hate critics."

Well, all right. Desperation benefits from a one-night time slot and impassioned performances from Haboucha, Skerritt and Steven Weber as the writer's assistant.

For years, King's works have produced big ratings for ABC. He probably can't repeat that feat opposite Fox's warbling Idol finalists, but it's nice to see King back in sharper form, no matter what he says about critics.

'10.5: Apocalypse'

And now from NBC . . . a sequel of stunning stupidity. Two years ago, 10.5 was a ludicrous miniseries that scored high ratings. NBC reaches a new low with 10.5: Apocalypse.

The sheer cheesiness of it all is astounding, and it's bad cheese, not the campy variety that can offer guilty pleasures.

The sequel, starting tonight and concluding Tuesday, picks up after the first miniseries pulverized the U.S. West Coast. To deliver on its title, Apocalypse imagines more widespread damage from earthquakes, volcanoes and sinkholes.

The film's unconvincing special effects target Sun Valley, Monument Valley, the Hoover Dam and Las Vegas in the first half. The second half pummels Mount Rushmore, Houston and large sections of the Midwest.

Returning are Beau Bridges as the U.S. president and Kim Delaney as an earthquake expert. Others swept up in this disaster include Dean Cain, Carlos Bernard and Frank Langella. The actors are saddled with meager roles and trite personal dramas, which seem insignificant when North America is falling apart.

NBC is billing Apocalypse as popcorn entertainment, but it's hard to swallow this science fantasy. For NBC, the real nightmare could be when it sees the ratings.

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/entertainment/tv/orl-haltv052106may21,0,4809761,print.story?coll=orl-caltvtop

Upfront Notebook
Battle in offing for fall viewers

By Joanne Ostrow Denver Post TV Critic May 21, 2006

Thursday will bring an ABC-CBS ratings smackdown this fall: "Grey's Anatomy" goes head to head with "CSI" on television's most profitable night of the week.

That's the headline from a first look at the broadcast networks' primetime slates, unveiled in New York last week.

Industry optimists say "Grey's" and "CSI" may not steal viewers from each other so much as inflate the night's already heavy viewing levels. In any case, "must see" NBC is a distant memory, like the Sunday night movie, finally killed by "Desperate Housewives."

Come fall, CBS is banking on James Woods, NBC is counting on Aaron Sorkin, ABC is invested in Mick Jagger and J.J. Abrams, and Fox is trusting to Brad Garrett.

Additionally, the CW's first primetime schedule includes "7th Heaven," a new Darren Star drama starring Donnie Wahlberg, an "urban comedy" block on Sundays, and "Veronica Mars" and "Gilmore Girls," on Tuesdays.

The networks trumpeted their 2006-07 schedules to the advertising community and advertisers ponied up an estimated $9 billion in advance commitments, consistent with last year's sales. The Internet may be making inroads, iPods and cellphones may be generating buzz, but TV commercials remain the main draw for Madison Avenue's big bucks.

DVDs of the new primetime contenders are winging to critics in advance of presentations in Los Angeles in July, as another cycle begins. Remember, 80 percent of all the TV pilots hailed in shiny DVD form now will be serving as cocktail coasters in six months.

The single biggest winner of the week: creator-producer J.J. Abrams. Abrams - the wunderkind behind "Lost," "Felicity," "Alias" and "Mission: Impossible III" - didn't just win the post-"Grey's Anatomy" timeslot for his new series, "Six Degrees" on ABC. But his ratings-weak "What About Brian" got a reprieve and returns on ABC in the fall. Just as CBS has an all-Jerry Bruckheimer lineup on Sundays ("Without a Trace," "Amazing Race," "Cold Case"), ABC is looking like J.J. World ("Lost," "Six Degrees" and "What About Brian.")

Dispelling fears that African-American programming would be overlooked, the newly constituted CW, a merger of WB and UPN, announced its first primetime schedule would include an "urban comedy block" on Sundays, including "Everybody Hates Chris," "All of Us," "Girlfriends," "The Game" (about the wives/girlfriends of NFL athletes).

There's no lack of season-long serial dramas patterned after "24": "Kidnapped" on NBC follows one case all season; "The Nine" on ABC chronicles a 52-hour hostage crisis. "Vanished," on Fox, delves into the mystery of a U.S. senator's missing wife; it's described as a blend of "CSI" and "24."

The serial idea is even spreading to comedy. ABC has "Big Day," described as a cross between "24" and the feature film "Father of the Bride," and "Let's Rob ..." about a group of misfits who intend to rob the New York City apartment of Mick Jagger, who is an executive producer of the show and has taped a cameo appearance.

NBC will keep "ER" on Thursdays in the fall, then at midseason give the time slot to the new drama "The Black Donnellys." "ER" then returns in the spring. Aaron Sorkin's soap-drama "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip," starring Matthew Perry, is the lead-in at 8 p.m. Thursday. Tina Fey's "30 Rock" mows the same turf in half-hour form.

The most intriguing reality concept, at least on paper, is the collaboration between Mark Burnett, Steven Spielberg, Fox, and DreamWorks Television: "On the Lot" features aspiring filmmakers competing for a job.

Top-ranked CBS, boasting stability, will add only four new series (three dramas, one comedy). Ray Liotta and Virginia Madsen headline a John Wells heist thriller, "Smith." Skeet Urich stars in "Jericho," an apocalyptic thriller. And James Woods is the legal "Shark" in a courtroom drama. The comedy is an ensemble piece, "The Class," from David Crane, co-creator of "Friends."

While comedy is in short supply, among the most anticipated is Brad Garrett in Fox's "Til Death," about a bickering married couple and the lovey-dovey newlyweds next door.

http://www.denverpost.com/portlet/article/html/fragments/print_article.jsp?article=3840150

I forgot tonight's '60 Minutes" finale -- a tribute to 88-year-old Mike Wallace.
So here is the corrected finale list:

Tonight’s Finales

"60 Minutes," 7 PT/ET, CBS
"Extreme Makeover: Home Edition," 7 ET/PT, ABC (two hours)
"The Simpsons," 8 ET/PT, Fox
"Charmed," 8 ET/PT, WB (Series Finale)
"Family Guy," 8:30 ET/PT, Fox
"Cold Case," 9 PM ET/PT, CBS
"Desperate Housewives," 9 ET/PT, ABC (two hours)

"Cold Case" has it's season finale tonight as well.

Thanks, Jim.

Correction made.

Upfront Notebook
The latest game plan for network victory

Humor-tinged dramas, lengthy story lines and huge casts.
And if that doesn't work, how about a wedding?
By Greg Braxton Los Angeles Times Staff Writer May 22, 2006
(Times staff writers Matea Gold and Maria Elena Fernandez contributed to this article.)

Brides and grooms are in, stand-up comedians are out.

New dramas this fall are more of a laughing matter. New comedies are packed with characters — the more the merrier.

And producers want more than just a casual tune-in "date" from viewers, seeking a steady commitment by offering a single compelling story that will unravel over a series' season — in comedies as well as dramas.

Those are a few of the key themes unveiled last week during the TV upfronts as the five networks previewed dramas and comedies that will premiere in the fall and early next year. In searching for the next "Lost" or "Desperate Housewives," network honchos are tweaking established TV genres (cop shows, medical shows, lawyer shows), recruiting film stars (Ray Liotta, James Woods) and bringing back favorite TV alumni (producer Aaron Sorkin, Calista Flockhart).

And although there was no heavy-duty buzz around a single show like last year, when advertisers and industry insiders eagerly speculated about the prospects of the Chris Rock comedy "Everybody Hates Chris," several new shows, such as NBC's "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip" and "Friday Night Lights" and ABC's "Betty the Ugly" generated positive word of mouth.

"There's nothing that looks like a blockbuster right now, but this is usually the case," said Steve Sternberg, executive vice president of audience analysis for Magna Global, a media-buying firm. "No one thought that 'Friends' or 'ER' looked like they would be huge hits. On this schedule, there seems to be a lot of shows that could break out."

What is clear to Sternberg and industry honchos is that the dramas are doing better than comedies and that some dramatic creators are taking advantage of that slump by putting humorous elements in their shows.

It's an approach that is paying off for such current shows as "Grey's Anatomy" and "Boston Legal" and will be attempted by some new ones: "Studio 60," from Sorkin, which features an all-star cast and takes a behind-the-scenes look at a late-night sketch comedy show; ABC's "Brothers and Sisters," which looks at the love and friction of a large family; and "Raines" on NBC, which stars Jeff Goldblum as a quirky LAPD detective who can communicate with murder victims to help solve their slayings.

NBC Entertainment President Kevin Reilly agreed that comedy is a challenged genre: "The audience right now is not particularly patient with comedies. It's harder to get them to stick with comedies right now."

And they don't lend themselves to new takes on traditional formulas, added CBS Corp. President Leslie Moonves. "In drama, you've seen with the advent of 'CSI,' '24,' shows taking existing genres and expanding them, going different ways with them. And I think that's harder to do in comedy. It's just a tougher nut to crack."

To battle the trend, studios and networks are no longer relying on stand-up comedians. None of the new network prime-time sitcoms revolves around a comic. And with the departure of Ray Romano and the cancellation of "The Bernie Mac Show," ABC's "George Lopez" is the only comedian-driven series on the fall schedule.

Instead, most of the new comedies will go the "Friends" route, relying on ensemble casts to allow for more interplay among characters. CBS' "The Class," NBC's "30 Rock," ABC's "Big Day," "Help Me Help You" and "Let's Rob ..." all have large casts of performers yelling out their punch lines.

Weddings and honeymoons are the key to several series. ABC's "Big Day" follows the hours leading to the wedding ceremony, while newlyweds befriend a long-married couple in the new Brad Garrett comedy, Fox's " 'Til Death." "The Wedding Album," premiering midseason on Fox, follows a top wedding photographer.

Other new series pivot on mismatched odd couples: male ("Happy Hour," "Twenty Good Years," "The Winner") and male-female ("Standoff").

Adapting the tactics of their dramatic counterparts, producers also have a new subgenre: the serialized comedy. "Big Day" and "Let's Rob ..." will both focus on a single event that unravels through the season. In the case of "Big Day," it's the hours leading to the ceremony. With "Let's Rob ..." it's the ripping-off of rock star Mick Jagger by a gang of inept thieves.

The single-event serial form, considered key to shows such as "24" and "Prison Break," is being employed in several new dramas as well, including "Kidnapped," and "Vanished."

Other layered unfolding dramas with large casts demand viewer loyalty by using the "Lost" device of bonding large groups of strangers in extraordinary circumstances, including "The Nine," "Heroes," "Traveler," "Six Degrees," "Runaway" and "Jericho."

When asked if there were too many serialized dramas on the fall schedule, NBC's Reilly said: "A couple years ago, everyone was saying, 'Wow, there's an awful lot of close-ended procedurals. Are people going to get bored of them?' It's really about the show. The good ones are going to work and the bad ones aren't.

"I don't think viewers ... ever analyze it as, 'Oh, a close-ended, a procedural' or 'This seems like a serial.' I think viewers come to it and say, 'Give me the good shows.' Serials require a little more of your time and attention, but they're willing to give it when you get them."

http://www.calendarlive.com/tv/la-et-upfrontwrap22may22,0,1023417,print.story?coll=cl-tv-top-right

TV Notebook
'Alias' crew guarding the finale from spies

By Jonathan Storm Philadelphia Inquirer Television Critic May 21, 2006

They like their TV secrets on the staff of Alias.

There's no talking about developments on the previous night's hot TV show because somebody might not have seen it yet, executive producer and show runner Jeff Pinkner explained over breakfast at the Disney Studios commissary here late last month.

"Among us writers, there's a cone of silence... . But there is a statute of limitations. After a week, you're allowed to talk about it. If somebody hasn't caught up by then, too bad."

The crew is hoping silence will be maintained about the two-hour Alias finale, airing at 9 PM ET/PT Monday on ABC. The spy show starring Jennifer Garner as Sydney Bristow is ending, promising answers to all the major head-scratchers, and there are some doozies, posed over five years.

It's just the kind of thing that excites know-it-alls. There is even a Web site, SpoilerFix.com, devoted to revealing TV show action before it happens. Those tidbits have been labeled "spoilers," even by the folks who trade in them, because they do spoil the show for people who want to be surprised.

"The viewing experience is that much better if you don't know what the twist or the secret's going to be," Pinkner said. "So we're hoping that people will practice some sort of radio silence."

Nine-year-old Rachel G. Fox, granddaughter of Victor and Rosemarie Kovacs of Voorhees, is one of those people. In the finale, she plays super spy Sydney as a child.

"It's all about who Jennifer Garner became, and why she's like that," Rachel said in a phone interview, "but we're not saying why. You have to wait and see.

"They made me swear not to tell," she said. "I sweared, and my fingers were not crossed."

Well, that's all fine, but couldn't a bad kid working on the show swear with her fingers crossed, and then run out and spill the secrets?

"Boy, I sure hope not," said Rachel, whose budding TV career includes stints on the Disney Channel's That's So Raven and Hannah Montana. "But I'm not a bad kid. I'm a good kid."

Sadly, Rachel, there have been blabbermouths associated with the show, a complex spy thriller in which Sydney and her pals and her father, played by Victor Garber, race hither and yon to try to foil villains intent, basically, on ruling the world. (Fun fact: Though the show has portrayed exotic locales from Bhutan to Brussels, it has been shot entirely within a 30-mile radius of Burbank, except for one trip - why not? - to Las Vegas.)

Said Pinkner: "Not this year, but in the past, we were subject to a lot of leaks, and we did an investigation and narrowed it down. We never confronted the person, but made it clear that we knew who it was. And it stopped."

The story of the investigation sounds almost like a plotline on Alias, never a huge hit, but popular with younger folks, whom advertisers love, and one of the few bright spots on ABC's schedule when it began in 2001.

To verify authenticity, the show hired a CIA consultant, who turned out to be unauthorized to comment on real operations at the secret agency. But one Alias staffer had a brother who was a spy buff.

"He managed to learn things about the CIA guy that were closely held secrets," Pinkner said. " 'So, when you were the station chief in Berlin in '93,' he'd say, and the CIA guy was, like, 'I wasn't the station chief, and how did you know that?' "

The real spy got the boot. The brother got hired. He eventually joined the writing staff, and, said Pinkner, "in a very Alias-like fashion, identified the leak."

It doesn't take a show regular to spill the beans. Extras, mailroom people, caterers - there's a vast world of potential spoiler-mongers.

"We've never filmed a trick scene" to throw real spies off guard, Pinkner says. "It's too expensive."

But the producers have distributed scripts by hand and published ones with fake pages, giving the real thing to actors and directors only on the day of shooting. Other shows, including Lost, which, like Alias, was created by J.J. Abrams, have done that, too. Producers communicate orally with the executives who need to know about what's really going on.

Maybe.

Pinkner told an ER tale: "When Julianna Margulies went back to North Carolina, and George Clooney was waiting for her, somehow, they managed to keep it secret from the studio and the network. They were furious, because they would have wanted to promote George Clooney's return. Our twists aren't quite that big."

Still, just before breakfast, Pinkner spent 10 minutes in a deep huddle with an ABC publicist trying to ensure that the network would not give away the farm in promoting the Alias finale. The resulting press release is somewhat obscure, but it does reveal some plot details and talks about a "deadly plan," hatched by characters who will remain anonymous here.

To avoid the American Idol season-ender, Alias, which has aired Wednesdays throughout its run, goes out on a Monday, opposite another tough customer, the season finale of TV's biggest spy thriller, 24.

"Our audiences have a huge overlap," says Pinkner. "Most of them are the sort of people who know how to work their VCRs and TiVo, thank God."

Rachel probably will be watching, said her mother, Victoria Bush, even though the show's on a little late for her. But what she sees won't be a complete surprise.

"We saw some pictures on the Internet of some of my scenes," the little girl explained.

http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/entertainment/television//14619434.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp

Upfront Notebook
Upfront hype is thick, but where's the buzz?

By Andrew Wallenstein The Hollywood Reporter May 22, 2006

NEW YORK -- Somewhere over the heartland of this country on the flight back from Upfrontland, N.Y., to Los Angeles, the hype wore off.

At an altitude well above the clouds, a clarity sets in that is impossible to achieve amid a sea of sizzle reels and pie charts. And then it hit me: Where was the buzz?

It was self-evident last week in Manhattan that there was no one or two pilots that really drew buzz in New York the way UPN's "Everybody Hates Chris" did last year.

Does buzz matter? For all of CBS' impressive numbers, even CBS Corp. chief Leslie Moonves acknowledged in a news conference that the network lacked an attribute advertisers want, even if it can't be quantified.

"There was an attitude that we don't get as much noise as everybody else," he admitted.

CBS has a brick wall of a schedule, but you can tell Moonves is trying to swing for the fences in 2006-07. For the first time in five years, CBS wisely elected not to add yet another purely procedural drama, making such unconventional choices as "Smith" and "Jericho."

ABC has buzz by the boatload, with such bona fide phenomena as "Lost" and "Grey's Anatomy." But ABC also has a schedule riddled with holes. Not a single series introduced in the fall is back, while CBS returned four of its fall shows and two midseason entries.

Plus, ABC lacks a single good comedy. Still, ABC had the most promising development slate -- at least two new dramas have hit potential ("The Nine" intrigued me more than any other). But if they don't work out, they'll be in Fox's rearview mirror once that burst of nitrous they call "American Idol" revs its ratings engine in January.

Fox is fearsome, but what does its future hold if Major League Baseball doesn't return to its air? The growth of its entertainment assets this year may render the question moot.

As for NBC, prayer might help. Unless at least one of its new series is an instant hit, the struggle will continue.

The low point of last week's upfronts came when NBC Universal made attendees squirm in their seats with a 20-minute recitation of a laundry list of every conceivable digital extension its broadcast and cable brands had to offer. It came across as nothing more than a ploy to perhaps bury in our brains the inarguable softness of NBC's schedule under a ton of mind-numbing minutiae.

MyNetworkTV came with plenty of bells and whistles, too. Maybe I'm a snooty, ink-stained elitist, but I found its English-language telenovelas to be a cultural travesty. They come off like late-night Cinemax movies, only with the soft-core porn edited for the sake of broadcast standards.

There was a seductive lure to MyNetworkTV's logic: Telenovelas are the biggest thing on TV in countries around the world, so isn't their conquest of the U.S. inevitable? But then I started thinking of all the international phenomena that swept continents but evaporated at our borders: Soccer. Hitler. Hopefully avian flu. And yet I can't discount MyNetTV if only because Fox Television Stations chief Roger Ailes is behind it.

Which leaves the CW. The network is taking too few chances, relying instead on series that have no growth prospects beyond what they demonstrated in past seasons. The CW tried to come across as the best of the WB and UPN, but it felt more like 1+1=1.3.

Had CW president of entertainment Dawn Ostroff known she was merging networks while back at UPN this time last year, she would no doubt have sat "Everybody Hates Chris" on the bench for a season and let its buzz fuel this new venture. Instead, fast-forward a year later and "Chris" finds itself in a dungeon of a Sunday 7 p.m. slot, where the well-executed sitcom that emerged last year will wither away. It's a timely reminder that what earns buzz one day could be gone not long after.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr/columns/tv_reporter_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1002539698

The 2006-2007 Season
Schedule is shifting at NBC

By Gary Levin, USA Today

When fourth-place NBC was the first to unveil its fall schedule last week, entertainment chief Kevin Reilly said, "We're not locked into this forever."

He wasn't kidding. The network early this week is expected to revise its lineup, dropping plans to air its most highly touted new series, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, in the plum Thursday 9 ET/PT slot.

The reason: Just a day after making its announcement, ABC confirmed plans to move Grey's Anatomy to the same spot, where it will go head-to-head with CBS' CSI.

Hit shows can comfortably co-exist: CSI and The Apprentice, at its peak, were formidable Thursday competitors. But analysts say pitting a new drama against two top-five series is suicidal.

Lagging NBC can't afford to take that chance. Studio 60, which goes behind the scenes at a Saturday Night Live-type show, stars Matthew Perry, Amanda Peet and West Wing's Bradley Whitford, and marks the return of Wing creator Aaron Sorkin to television after a three-year absence.

The show will now move to another home — likely Monday, where NBC had scheduled Deal or No Deal, new drama Heroes and returning Medium. But any move requires other shifts. So NBC is expected to move three or four shows, affecting two or three nights. It could even give Scrubs an earlier start than planned; the show was benched till midseason.

http://www.usatoday.com/life/television/news/2006-05-21-nbc-sched-change_x.htm

Upfront Analysis
Charting Broadcast Upfronts

Schedule Changes, Digital Discussions Make for a Very Different Network Landscape
By Christopher Lisotta TVWeek.com May 22, 2006

For the broadcast television industry it was the week that manifested a year of seismic change.

Advertising buyers made the annual trek to TV networks' upfront sales presentations, where new technologies and new networks competed for attention with the usual rollout of new shows.

As in past years, networks jostled schedules to get an edge on one another. They were joined by The CW and MyNetworkTV, new competitors on the broadcast scene. Spanish-language networks Univision and Telemundo made their first upfront pitches as members of the same ratings system that measures CBS, Fox, ABC and NBC.

One theme stood out: Television networks embraced all the new ways of watching TV and made them part of sales pitches to advertisers. The upfront presentations highlighted network shows and promotions on the Web, cellphones and other gadgets. Television executives may not yet have figured out how to make money distributing shows in new ways, but they're not waiting around for someone else to figure it out.

For all the changes, network chiefs staked their businesses on what they know best: seeking shows that appeal to audiences and getting advertisers to bite.

"Wireless is useless if you're hitless," CBS Corp. Chairman and CEO Leslie Moonves said at his network's presentation in New York.

The shifts in the industry seemed to encourage a mood of détente that in recent years has emerged among network executives who face similar challenges as the TV landscape changes.

Mr. Moonves this year made a point of defending the viability of the business model underpinning network television, noting in his presentation to advertisers that broadcasters are bolstering profit at the media companies that own them.

Jon Nesvig, president of sales for Fox Broadcasting, reminded advertisers that TV is the best place to create awareness, build brands and persuade consumers to buy.

It's a message networks must continue to reinforce as they struggle to stem the migration of advertising money to new media.

For 2006-2007 Network Schedules Grid:
http://www.tvweek.com/docs/docs/tw21p40.pdf


http://www.tvweek.com/article.cms?articleId=29881

Upfront Analysis
ABC

By Christopher Lisotta TVWeek.com May 22, 2006

The schedule: ABC is adding five new dramas, four new comedies and a night of college football to its fall lineup. The network plans to roll out 11 new and returning series for midseason, an increase of four shows over its backup roster from last year.

"It's a more expensive schedule, but the audience is more demanding now," said ABC Entertainment President Stephen McPherson.

ABC's scheduling is more aggressive this year than last as the network transplants its hit medical drama "Grey's Anatomy" to Thursday nights, where it will take on CBS's "CSI," the highest-rated show on Thursday. Shifting "Grey's" strengthens ABC's pitch to advertisers, who prize Thursdays as a chance to reach weekend consumers.

ABC will try to use "Desperate Housewives" on Sundays at 9 p.m. and "Grey's" on Thursdays to leverage new shows, Mr. McPherson said.

ABC is replacing Thursday 10 p.m. newsmagazine "Primetime" with the new drama "Six Degrees" from "Lost" executive producer J.J. Abrams. "Primetime" is not currently scheduled and will be used to "fill holes throughout the season," Mr. McPherson said.

Debuting drama "Brothers & Sisters" will follow "Desperate Housewives" on Sundays.

The network will not air repeats of Wednesday performer "Lost" during the new TV season. "Lost" will run for seven episodes in the fall before taking a break to make room on the schedule for drama "Day Break." "Lost" will return in late January or early February and will run original episodes for the rest of the season.

The pitch: In two years ABC has increased its ratings 25 percent among viewers 18 to 49, said Mike Shaw, the network's president of sales and marketing. ABC is also the No. 1 network among wealthier viewers, he said.

Successful series have underpinned ABC's revival, Mr. McPherson said. "Appointment television is becoming synonymous with ABC," he said.

Digital demo: Anne Sweeney, co-chair of Disney Media Networks and president of Disney-ABC Television Group, opened ABC's presentation by staking claim to a leadership position in the digital age, calling ABC the most "innovative brand" in TV.

She kicked off her talk by reminding the audience that Steve Jobs, co-founder and CEO of iTunes owner Apple Computer, is on the board of ABC parent The Walt Disney Co. Because of ABC's special relationship with the Apple boss, the network has access to all the latest gadgets for viewing TV programs, she said.

Ms. Sweeney stood next to a cloth-covered object that she introduced as the "next generation of personal viewing technology." The device she was about to reveal, she said, will be able to capitalize on the social networking craze taking place on the Web and be used in the home or the office. She pulled off the cloth, unveiling an old television.

"'Lost' is only possible on iTunes because of its popularity on TV," Ms. Sweeney said. Then she announced ABC is expanding to other platforms-beyond iPods and the Web-with an original series for cellphones called "Lost Diaries."

Ms. Sweeney also mentioned in her digital discussion that ABC.com has received more than 2 million hits in the two and a half weeks since it started offering free, ad-supported streaming of some shows. In addition, 87 percent of users remembered the advertisers associated with the programs, she said.

Best showbiz moments: There were several, from Mary J. Blige performing U2's "One," to William Shatner singing a "Beautiful Boys" parody, during which the network trotted out all its male stars.

ABC also screened a "Grey's Anatomy" spoof that featured series regulars Patrick Dempsey, Isaiah Washington and James Pickens Jr. seductively showering one another for co-star Chandra Wilson. The biggest surprise was Mr. McPherson gamely doing the cha-cha with Anna Trebunskaya, one of the professional dancers from "Dancing With the Stars." The dance got a standing ovation.

http://www.tvweek.com/article.cms?articleId=29881

Upfront Analysis
CBS

By Christopher Lisotta TVWeek.com May 22, 2006

The schedule: CBS plans to premiere four new shows in fall 2006, a relatively low number that reflects the strength of last year's six debuting fall series.

The network will launch the new programs in "protected" time periods to give them the best shot at success, CBS Corp. President and CEO Leslie Moonves said. In unveiling the new schedule to reporters last Wednesday, Mr. Moonves called CBS the "most stable" network.

While competitors saw the bulk of their rookie shows fail this season, most of CBS's first-season programs, including fall debuts "How I Met Your Mother," "Criminal Minds," "Close to Home" and "Ghost Whisperer," plus midseason's "The New Adventures of Old Christine" and "The Unit," will be back for 2006-07.

In what is the end of a programming era, CBS is replacing its "Sunday Night Movie" with some of its stronger series, including the veteran procedural dramas "Cold Case" and "Without a Trace," to challenge ABC's dominance of the night among 18- to 49-year-old viewers. ABC's decision to move "Grey's Anatomy" from Sunday to Thursday and NBC's strategy to pull series from its Sunday schedule to make way for NFL football will benefit CBS, Mr. Moonves said.

The network will pick up four shows for midseason, including sitcom "King of Queens," which was given a full 22-episode order. CBS ordered two new dramas and one new comedy for midseason runs.

The pitch: "Think CBS First." Sure, ABC and Fox run some flashy shows, but "to get the maximum reach, you buy over a whole schedule," Mr. Moonves said. "You want to buy CBS first."

CBS borrowed Allstate's motto and pitchman Dennis Haysbert, who also stars in CBS drama "The Unit," to make its point. In a filmed commercial spoof showing harried ad sales executives making the wrong choices with their buys, Mr. Haysbert assured them, "You're in good hands with CBS."

Digital demo: "If you're looking for the ultimate media platform, think CBS first." In a video montage, CBS argued its foundation of CBS-themed Web sites and its deals with companies like Comcast, Google and Verizon put it on "the forefront of every model." But what makes CBS's digital strategy work is programming. "Wireless is useless if you're hitless," Mr. Moonves said. The network also touted its success this year with webcasts of the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament, which made headlines in March when economists worried that fans watching at work would cost U.S. companies $3.8 billion in productivity. "If they want to give us $3.8 billion, we'd cancel the whole tournament, Mr. Moonves said.

Taunts: CBS Entertainment President Nina Tassler poked fun at the fuss her competitors have been making about digital extensions of their brands and the market's interest in the telenovela format. She introduced a video spoof featuring "Criminal Minds"-branded ringtones (a scream, literally) and a musical recording by series star Mandy Patinkin singing murderous takes on classics, such as "Stranglers in the Night." She also promised "CSI: Ay: Ay," a soapy, Spanish-language edition of the CBS franchise. Ms. Tassler made a point of saying that those were, of course, just jokes.

Best performances: A tie. The leads of the Broadway show "Jersey Boys" performed at the CBS upfront-which was held at Carnegie Hall-during the intermission of their show's matinee. As soon as they finished, the actors rushed back to their theater five blocks away in time to perform in the second act of their show. Mariah Carey brought the house down singing her hit "We Belong Together."

http://www.tvweek.com/article.cms?articleId=29881

Upfront Analysis
The CW

By Christopher Lisotta TVWeek.com May 22, 2006

The schedule: The CW's inaugural lineup is made up almost entirely of programming from the soon-to-be-expired broadcasters UPN and The WB. Just one new drama and one new comedy will be on the fall schedule.

The network is anchoring each night with at least one UPN or WB program that is already the No. 1 or No. 2 show in its time period among men 18 to 34 and/or women 18 to 34, said Dawn Ostroff, The CW's president of entertainment.

The WB's Tuesday 8 p.m. comedic drama "Gilmore Girls" and UPN's Wednesday 8 p.m. reality franchise "America's Next Top Model" are remaining in their respective time periods next season. The CW is also keeping intact The WB's Thursday night of dramas "Smallville" and "Supernatural" and UPN's Friday night pro wrestling block.

The WB's veteran show "7th Heaven," which was assumed to be going out of production, is being resurrected for an 11th season on Mondays at 8 p.m., as previously reported (TelevisionWeek, May 15). Former WB time period competitor "One Tree Hill" is now the lead-out for "Top Model" on Wednesdays.

The biggest change is The CW's Sunday night schedule, which creates one night of African American-themed sitcoms from UPN's current Monday and Thursday lineups. Leading off the night at 7 p.m. is the critically acclaimed comedy "Everybody Hates Chris" from creator Chris Rock.

The WB's reality series "Beauty and The Geek" will act as midseason bridge programming between the two installments of "Top Model."

The CW's sole new midseason pickup is Lions Gate TV's first foray into broadcast series television, the soapy drama "Hidden Palms" (formerly known as "Palm Springs") from "Dawson's Creek" creator Kevin Williamson. Although it was not mentioned during The CW's upfront presentation, 20th Century Fox announced last Thursday the comedy "Reba" is getting a 13-episode pickup from The CW.

The pitch: The CW will be for viewers, by viewers and about viewers, Ms. Ostroff said. The network is focusing on adults 18 to 34, a demographic she defined as a racially diverse group that wants to be known, wants to be unique, but also wants to be part of a community. To better reach the audience, each night The CW will employ "content wraps," or mini TV shows within shows that run during commercials.

The closed-ended short reality series, which will be broken into three segments, give advertisers product placement opportunities. The new network is "reinventing the commercial break," Ms. Ostroff said.

The network will also allow viewers to create network spots, as previously reported (TelevisionWeek, May 1). Viewers will be able to go to The CW's Web site and use their own photos to create the 15-second spots, called "Famous for 15."

Digital demo: Digital brand extensions will be show-specific and built out from all of The CW's programming.

In a move to personalize the network, former "Top Model" winner Yoanna House is joining The CW as a platform-crossing "host," serving as an on-air personality and an online presence who will be the new face of the network, Ms. Ostroff said.

Taunts: Perhaps because she had so much to cover in The CW's first upfront, Ms. Ostroff didn't spend any time during her presentation cutting down her competitors.

Best performances: The Black Eyed Peas opened the upfront, while Chris Rock promised in a brief stand-up routine that "The CW" was the network's permanent moniker.

"We're never going to change the name ever again," he said. He also said his show "Chris" would up its visibility because for the new season the title character "is going to be played by a white girl."

Mr. Rock suggested the network's motto be "The new CW-We ain't bulls**t," before giving the most direct upfront plea to advertisers in television history: "You better spend some motherf***ing money."

http://www.tvweek.com/article.cms?articleId=29881

Upfront Analysis
Fox

By Christopher Lisotta TVWeek.com May 22, 2006

The schedule: Fox plans to debut three new dramas and two new comedies in the fall, keeping most returning series in their current positions to promote stability in its schedule and maintain audience loyalty.

The new shows are designed to hold onto the younger viewers who favor the network while also appealing to a broader audience, said Fox President of Entertainment Peter Liguori.

Fox, which is owned by News Corp., plans to repeat its strategy of launching the new season several weeks before baseball broadcasts start. Last year that move paid off, with shows including "Prison Break" and "Bones" performing well.

Fall series will premiere in mid- to late August to fit in five to seven episodes before the baseball playoffs, Mr. Liguori said. Fox hopes the first block of episodes will interest viewers enough that they'll tune in after baseball ends in October.

In January Fox will use its special sports programming, including the college football Bowl Championship Series, to help launch its midseason powerhouses "American Idol" and "24."

In May, Fox plans to debut its summer programming directly behind its season finales.

The new thriller drama "Vanished" will run with "limited interruptions" in the fourth quarter of 2006, he said.

Among Fox's returning shows is "The OC," which will premiere in its Thursday 9 p.m. time slot after baseball ends.

"We'll have more original episodes in more contiguous blocks," Mr. Liguori said of the teen drama.

"Duets," a music reality competition from "American Idol's" Simon Cowell in which established singers are paired with unknowns, will air for four weeks in "The OC's" time slot and on Fridays before the Major League Baseball playoffs start.

This fall also will mark the debut of Fox's new Saturday late-night talk show, "Talk Show With Spike Feresten," which premieres Sept. 16 at midnight, after "MadTV."

The pitch: For the second year in a row, Fox will be No. 1 for the season in adults 18 to 49, and for the seventh season out of eight, the network is No. 1 in adults 18 to 34. For the current season, the network is accomplishing this feat without the Super Bowl or a high-rated World Series.

Veteran series "Idol," "House," "24" and "Family Guy" all have seen double-digit growth this season in the sought-after 18 to 49 demographic.

Next season Fox will return more series to its schedule than at any time in its history, but Mr. Liguori said the network is not sitting on its laurels.

"We're driven, we're competitive and we're ready," he said.

Digital demo: Just a year after News Corp. bosses gave the company the mandate to increase its Web presence, the company already surpasses its biggest competitors, according to Ross Levinsohn, president of Fox Interactive Media.

Aside from the Fox network sites, the social networking site MySpace.com, the gaming site IGN.com and film site RottenTomatoes.com are all available to advertisers for one-stop shopping through the company's integrated marketing unit.

Fox's Web page views per month are more than double its closest media competitor, Disney, and even surpassed the page views per month of Microsoft, AOL and Google. Mr. Levinsohn said that 75 million people visited the company's sites in April and that News Corp.'s sites reach almost 50 percent of 18- to 49-year-olds.

"Our sites are where your most prized viewers create, consume and share content," he said.

Taunts: "Family Guy" star Alex Borstein and the show's creator Seth MacFarlane ribbed the other networks during an opening Las Vegas-like dance number. "'Til Death" star Brad Garrett did some pointed stand-up, saying the vibe was different than upfronts with CBS's Leslie Moonves, who he noted saw his career peak on "The Six Million Dollar Man." Mr. Garrett also said that the presence of "Idol" host Paula Abdul at the upfront meant "Bellevue [Hospital] has a shuttle bus."

Ms. Abdul's fellow judge Mr. Cowell told Mr. Liguori he was lucky the upfront audience was "not voting" on Fox's stuffy, marathon upfront presentation.

Best showbiz moments: Reigning "American Idol" Carrie Underwood performed and the Rutgers University marching band helped introduce Fox's top sports executives.

http://www.tvweek.com/article.cms?articleId=29881

Upfront Analysis
MyNetworkTV

By Christopher Lisotta TVWeek.com May 22, 2006

The schedule: MyNetworkTV, which News Corp. put together after the announcement of The CW earlier this year, is betting the farm on evening soap operas.

A 52-week schedule of English-language telenovelas with no repeats is intended to keep audiences hooked and distinguish MyTV from the competition.

"No other broadcaster or cable network can make that claim," said Bob Cesa, executive VP of advertising sales for News Corp.'s Twentieth Television, which is producing all of MyTV's programming.

As previously announced, the entire 8 to 10 p.m. Monday through Saturday MyTV schedule will be programmed with 13-week-long serials.

That strategy will test U.S. audiences' taste for the telenovela format that has propelled Spanish-language networks for years. The network plans to run its telenovelas under two banners: "Desire" and "Secret Obsessions."

Starting Sept. 5, MyNetworkTV will launch "Desire" at 8 p.m. with the program "Table for Three," followed by the debut of "Secret Obsessions" at 9 p.m. with "Fashion House," starring Bo Derek.

"Three" and "Fashion" will run all original episodes uninterrupted for the first 13 weeks of the season.

MyTV executives didn't discuss any other programming formats planned for the 2006-07 season.

The pitch: MyTV sought to assure advertisers that production values on the evening soap operas will be high and that the network will reach 90 percent of U.S. viewers by its debut.

Because MyTV's programming will be produced by Twentieth, there will be no "third-party" interference when it comes to product placement, Mr. Cesa said.

Digital demo: MyTV will tap into alliances with the News Corp.-owned social networking Web site MySpace.com and provide users with what the network called thousands of original content sequences.

MyTV's Web site, which will be available through local stations' sites, will try to drum up interest in the telenovelas by hosting an online casting call. Users also will be able drag and drop video clips from the network into e-mails and cellphones.

Taunt: A timeline that began with the Feb. 22 announcement of the new network featured a reference to "aspiring actor" Leslie Moonves, who was said to be starring in an upcoming MyTV telenovela. Mr. Moonves' status was listed as "still negotiating" with the network.

Best showbiz moment: Singer Sheryl Crow, whose song "Always on Your Side" will be used as a theme for "Desire," closed the presentation with a three-song set. Ms. Crow sang a revised version of her song "A Change Will Do You Good" by adding the line "I want MyNetworkTV."

http://www.tvweek.com/article.cms?articleId=29881

Upfront Analysis
NBC

By Christopher Lisotta TVWeek.com May 22, 2006

The schedule: NBC picked up 10 new series-six dramas and four comedies. Four of the dramas and two of the comedies are scheduled to premiere in the fall.

That's the same number of new series NBC introduced last fall, but an additional drama and an additional comedy have replaced fall 2005's two reality debuts. While NBC is not debuting any new reality series on the fall schedule, NBC Entertainment President Kevin Reilly said the company has some "secret" reality show concepts under way.

The biggest change in NBC's schedule is the network's debut of NFL football on Sunday nights. Football pre-show "Football Night in America" will displace the 7 p.m. (ET) Sunday edition of newsmagazine "Dateline," which moves to Saturday at 8 p.m.

Coverage of the game itself replaces the canceled "The West Wing," "Law & Order: Criminal Intent" and "Crossing Jordan." "Criminal Intent" moves to Fridays at 10 p.m., while "Jordan" is held for midseason.

Calling comedy a "challenged genre," Mr. Reilly stuck to the same strategy he used last season, putting only four comedies on the fall schedule. NBC is moving up its Thursday 9 p.m. comedy block of "My Name Is Earl" and "The Office" to 8 p.m., while introducing a new comedy block on Wednesdays at 9 p.m.

Aside from Wednesdays, NBC is launching new shows at 9 p.m. Monday through Thursday, with its 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. hours staying mostly intact.

"The heavy lifting in our marketing efforts is going to be at 9 o'clock," Mr. Reilly said.

The pitch: Self-awareness. NBC executives understand that some of the network's franchise shows have faltered and its lineup "lacks breadth," Mr. Reilly said.

With Sunday dedicated to football, NBC will focus on Monday through Friday programming with its marketing for the new season, he said.

Digital demo: Jeff Zucker, CEO of NBC Universal Television Group, took over the upfront reins from Mr. Reilly to deliver a pitch for the company's TV 360 initiative, which will link Web and cellphone features to every show.

NBC plans to launch broadband channel DotComedy.com this summer. That project will feature user-generated material, classic TV comedies and clips from NBC's prime-time and late-night programming, including the early years of "Late Show With David Letterman."

NBC Universal will launch FirstLook.com, which will focus on NBC and its cable networks USA, Sci Fi and Bravo. Those networks will debut online up to four episodes of their series each year.

NBC has already come up with ideas to put its shows on digital platforms and directed advertisers to NBCUMarketplace.com, Mr. Zucker said. Examples include an online series about cars with "Tonight Show" host Jay Leno, a Web-based "Deal or No Deal" model search and animated comic strip clips based on the characters from new drama "Heroes."

Taunts: The jibes at NBC's presentation were mostly self-deprecating. "Deal or No Deal" host Howie Mandel joked that the network may have overprogrammed failed reality series "Celebrity Cooking Challenge." Series regular B.J. Novak of "The Office" noted he was the highest-paid temp in television "except for Kevin Reilly."

Best sports moment: NBC's new NFL football sportscaster team, including former Oakland Raiders coach John Madden, came onstage at New York's Radio City Music Hall brandishing autographed footballs. Former Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Cris Collinsworth and former Pittsburgh Steeler Jerome Bettis each bet the other $100 he could throw a football into the huge theater's first balcony. Mr. Bettis made it on his first throw, Mr. Collinsworth on his second.

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Upfront Analysis
Telemundo

By Jay Sherman TVWeek.com May 22, 2006

The schedule: Telemundo, the Spanish-language network owned by NBC Universal, plans to stick with its weeknight prime-time staple of telenovelas. On weekends, the network is taking aim at rival Univision's prime-time lineup by premiering three series, including a variety show and a Spanish-language version of NBC hit "Deal or No Deal."

"On Saturday we sensed a weakness," said Ramon Escobar, Telemundo's executive VP of network entertainment. He described Univision's long-running Saturday variety show "Sabado Gigante" as "a tired show" and said, "Every show has its run."

"We need to be very aggressive on Saturday and Sunday," Mr. Escobar said. "We didn't have the horses and the architecture in place a year ago, but now we do."

In a bid to knock Univision's weekend lineup off its perch, Telemundo will air its own variety show, called "El Gran Show," Saturdays 7-9 p.m. (ET).

On Sundays, Telemundo will air "Vas o No Vas," the Spanish-language version of "Deal or No Deal." It will run Sundays from 7 to 9:30 p.m., followed by the half-hour comedy "Seguro y Urgente," which tells the story of a messenger who gets emotionally involved in the lives of the people to whom he delivers packages.

Among the telenovelas slated for prime time is "La Viuda de Blanco," about a woman trying to clear her name after a stint in prison, scheduled to air 7 p.m. Monday through Friday. Novela "Dame Chocolate," which chronicles the life of an unattractive woman whose life changes after she inherits a fortune, airs at 8 p.m. weeknights; and "Madre Luna," the story of a woman who falls in love with a man half her age, follows at 9 p.m.

Other telenovelas slated to air on the network sometime during the season include "Marina," about a young woman who finds herself among the wealthy in Acapulco, Mexico, and discovers love; and "Zorro: La Espada y la Rosa," a series about the masked hero that's jointly produced with Sony Pictures Television International and Zorro Productions.

Meanwhile, mun2, Telemundo's cable network aimed at English-speaking Hispanics, said last Tuesday it will debut three programs during the 2006-07 season, including "The Chica Project," a half-hour reality series aimed at young Hispanic females; and "Have U Cine," a monthly movie series that will feature commentary from big-name Spanish-language entertainers. "Hecho en Heaven" is a dating show in which six men and six woman use astrology, pickup lines and powers of seduction to land dates.

The pitch: After years of losing ratings and promising last year to turn things around, Telemundo President Don Browne told his upfront audience that the network is roaring back with TV shows that were created specifically for Hispanic audiences in the United States. (Rival Univision buys TV shows that were originally intended for audiences in Mexico or Venezuela).

Because Telemundo owns the shows it airs, it has greater flexibility to develop new revenue opportunities, such as delivering shows to iPods and cellphones.

"I promised last year that we would perform, and we have delivered on that promise," Mr. Browne told the crowd, citing year-to-year ratings increases in key demographics.

Digital demo: Like its English-language sibling NBC, Telemundo is embracing the digital age as part of NBCU's TV 360 initiative to tie the Internet and cellphones with the networks' TV shows.

Earlier this month Telemundo announced a partnership with Yahoo to create YahooTelemundo.com, a Web site designed to be a main destination for Spanish-language Internet surfers. The new site will look to combine video and other information from Telemundo with Internet features from Yahoo, such as Internet search and e-mail.

Network officials said they have 24 marketing platforms in the works for advertisers that will tap into Telemundo, mun2 and the new Web alliance with Yahoo.

Taunts: Mr. Escobar, donning a top hat and tails and surrounded by dancers, sang his own version of the "Chicago" tune "All That Jazz," swapping the lyrics of the original to take pot shots at Univision's legal troubles with TV show supplier Grupo Televisa and Univision's parent company being put up for sale. Among the lyrics: "We won't fail; we're not for sale. We're made for you," and "Not to be too rude, but we're not being sued. We're made for you."

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Upfront Analysis
Univision

By Jay Sherman TVWeek.com May 22, 2006

The schedule: Univision is standing by its customary practice of introducing a new crop of telenovelas to fill the Monday through Friday prime-time block, and the No. 1 Spanish-language broadcaster plans to add five new weekly series to its schedule.

Among the new shows coming this fall: A singing competition show spun off from the popular dancing competition series "Bailando por un Sue%F1;o," a game show that pits five families against each other; and a sitcom about a homemaker husband.

"We are proud of our leadership position," Alina Falcon, executive VP and operating manager of Univision Television Network, told a packed room of advertisers.

In a bid to capitalize on the ratings success of "Bailando," Univision will air "Cantado por un Sue%F1;o," which will feature regular people teaming with famous singers to win the chance to grant a noble wish to someone. The show airs Sundays 8-11 p.m. (ET).

Airing before "Cantado" will be "Belleza Latina" at 7-9 p.m., a show featuring Latina women competing in a beauty pageant that features twists and competitions. The show appears to borrow from a range of reality shows, from "Survivor" to "Fear Factor."

On Fridays at 10 p.m. is "¡Que Madre, Tan Padre!" a half-hour sitcom about the chaos that ensues after a father loses his job and becomes a homemaker while his wife goes to work.

Among the new prime-time telenovelas scheduled to air next season is "Heridas de Amor," a story about love emerging amid rivalries and family strife; "Duelo de Pasiones," a love story set on a coffee plantation in Mexico; "La Verdad Oculta," a story about an ex-convict looking to settle scores; and "La Fea Mas Bella," a story about an unattractive woman who transforms into a beauty.

Meanwhile, Univision's second broadcast network, TeleFutura, said last Tuesday that it will launch two new telenovelas this fall: "Por Amor" and "La Marca Del Deseo"-as well as the new game show "¿Que Dice La Gente?," a Spanish version of the United States' "Family Feud."

Galavision, the company's Spanish-language cable network, said Tuesday it will debut five new series this fall, including "Mision: Reportar," a reality show competition to find Univision's next on-air entertainment reporter; "Un Destino," which showcases exotic world locales; "Notas de Estilo," a home-makeover show; "Delicioso," a cooking show hosted by chef Ingrid Hoffmann; and "Tercer Grado," a talk show featuring journalists and newsmakers.

The pitch: Given its ability to bag 3.9 million viewers on average-four times more than its nearest Spanish-language competitor-Univision's challenge is less about convincing advertisers that the network has a winning strategy than it is about convincing them of the value of the Hispanic audience.

Univision's argument has been bolstered by the network's inclusion in Nielsen Media Research's National Television Index, where it regularly ranks among the top four networks.

Univision President Ray Rodriguez in his upfront presentation stressed that the U.S. Hispanic audience is younger and has more of a connection with advertisers than its English-language counterparts.

"This business is young and growing," Mr. Rodriguez said. "We know how to connect with the Hispanic audience."

Digital demo: Univision executives talked little about advertising opportunities on digital platforms, arguing that the television business still has lots of room for growth before the broadcaster has to give much thought to the Web or iPods.

However, the topic might be somewhat moot: Univision buys about half of the TV series it airs from Grupo Televisa of Mexico and Venevision of Venezuela, and Univision is currently locked in a legal battle with Televisa over royalty payments for some of those shows and is reportedly feuding over Internet rights as well.

Taunts: While Univision officials talked little about their competition, Mr. Rodriguez took a shot at Telemundo's strategy to air only content that it owns. "Our audiences don't care who the producer [of a show] is," he said. "It's meaningless."

Best showbiz moment: Actors Pablo Montero and Sergio Goyri, stars of "Duelo de Pasiones," staged a mock armed duel and accidentally shoot Ms. Falcon.

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TV Notebook
For Bill Maher on Amazon: Sell, Sell, Sell and No Politics? Maybe


By Sharon Waxman The New York Times May 22, 2006

LOS ANGELES, May 21 — No one would accuse Bill Maher of selling out. Maybe just of taking a vacation.

This acid-tongued comedian, who since losing his "Politically Incorrect" perch on ABC in the wake of 9/11, has been reborn on HBO as one of the establishment's most entertaining critics, will begin a new talk show on June 1 on Amazon.com, whose purpose is to steer clear of controversy and sell books and music for the Web site.

On HBO's "Real Time With Bill Maher" he is usually busy excoriating the former FEMA chief Michael Brown, mocking the former ExxonMobil chairman Lee R. Raymond, scolding President Bush over the course of the Iraq war and accusing big drug companies of poisoning Americans.

This will be a lighter moment.

Mr. Maher, 50, insists that for him it's about trying out untraditional media, even if he only recently came around to that newfangled thing called e-mail. "I've been late to the party, but I know the party's going on," he said over lunch at the Four Seasons Hotel here, where he — a notorious late riser — is ordering breakfast. "I like being on the cutting edge of technology. We all know that television and computers are merging. Amazon has 50 million loyal fans who are similar to my fans — they're older, they're erudite."

In other words it's a good fit, audience-wise. Whether it's a good fit temperament-wise is another question.

In announcing the show in January, Amazon said that Mr. Maher had been asked to steer clear of politics. "What we're entirely focused on is delighting customers and getting good feedback," said Chris Bruzzo, Amazon's vice president for strategic initiatives, in an interview last week. Among the guests on the first show will be Dean Koontz, the author, and the musical group the Dixie Chicks, both of whom have projects about to be released.

But Mr. Maher said that avoiding politics completely would be difficult, especially since the half-hour show would start with a monologue similar to the one on "Real Time." "I can't help but be who I am," Mr. Maher said. "It comes out. Some of these people are political, and I am."

Amazon, rather than Mr. Maher or his producer, will choose the guests for each episode: an author, a filmmaker and a musical act. And as the show, called "Amazon Fishbowl With Bill Maher," streams live over the Internet on Thursday evenings, windows will continually pop up to allow viewers to buy the book, DVD or CD being discussed.

"When people see an artist on television," Mr. Bruzzo said, "they have to work pretty hard to act on their interest." With the show there will be "no separation between the artist discovery experience and the follow-up purchase opportunity," he added. "It's seamless. And that's good for customers."

Asked whether any of these elements might cramp his style, Mr. Maher confessed to being unaware of most of them. "I don't picture stuff circling around my head," he said, though after being read an Amazon press release he conceded that might be possible.

"One of the first things we talked about was that they would not impose direct shilling on me," he said, suddenly more alert. As to the floating "buy" buttons, "I can't control that," he said. "I hope it doesn't make me look bad. If it does, I'll stop doing it." Part of the appeal of "Amazon Fishbowl" (12 episodes are planned) was Mr. Maher's desire to take a break from the hard-edged political humor of his HBO show, he said.

While "Real Time" has entertainers like Jason Alexander or Ian McKellen on its panel, serious guests like Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr., Democrat of Delaware, or former Prime Minister Kim Campbell of Canada have made it a forum for real political discourse. And that show's lack of inside-the-Beltway deference, along with its left-leaning bent, can make it hard to find right-wing guests willing to risk a razzing. So far, for example, Mr. Maher has been unable to lure Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, the likely presidential contender.

The Amazon show was a chance to take a bit of a breather from all that. "I've never done a traditional talk show," Mr. Maher said. "I can do that kind of show. I want to show that I can do that."

So, has Mr. Maher ever ordered on Amazon? He shakes his head: no.

Mmmm. Does Mr. Maher read books? He laughs, with a mouthful of vitamins he has pulled out of his bag. "Ha, ha, ha," he said. "What am I? David Frost?" Then he added, "This is turning into a depressing lunch."

But seriously, everybody needs to lighten up. It's a June to August gig, and by September Mr. Maher will be back to writing his trademark "new rules" for his favored political targets on his HBO show. "I'm not going to leave my brain at home just because it's summer," he said, if a touch defensively. "Fans of 'Real Time' won't be appalled that I've sold out."

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/22/arts/television/22mahe.html?pagewanted=print

TV Notebook
'American Idol': No. 1 with a bullet

IN ITS FIFTH SEASON, TV'S BIGGEST SERIES IS HOTTER THAN EVER
By Charlie McCollum San Jose Mercury News

They may feel as if they can't do much about gas prices or immigration reform or myriad other issues.

But for millions of Americans, there is one thing they can have a direct impact on: who wins ``American Idol.'' This week, they will be poised to vote for one of two previously unknown singers, Taylor Hicks or Katharine McPhee, knowing that -- if they get past the busy signals -- they have the power to grant the winner a slice of the American Dream.

That sense of audience empowerment goes a long way toward explaining why, in its fifth season, ``American Idol'' has confounded conventional TV wisdom with its biggest year ever. At a point in its lifespan when most hit series start to erode -- losing viewers and their hold on the nation's collective consciousness -- ``Idol'' has become even more of a cultural juggernaut.

``When we came back on this year, everyone was predicting we would drop . . . because all shows drop in Season 3, let alone Season 5,'' said ``Idol'' executive producer Ken Warwick. ``We were defying gravity. The viewership was way too high, and it had to come down with a thump.''

Instead, since January, ``American Idol'' has drawn an audience of more than 30 million per episode. That's its largest audience ever -- up more than 13 percent from Season 4 -- and what will probably be its two most-watched episodes come this week, including the season finale on Wednesday when either the soul singer Hicks or the pop belter McPhee will be crowned.

According to Nielsen Media Research, the last time a series averaged 30 million for the entire season was in 1997-98 when ``Seinfeld'' and ``ER'' did it on NBC.

``That's what's remarkable about it,'' said Brad Adgate, a media analyst with the advertising-buying firm Horizon Media. ``After five seasons, it's still on the upswing, and viewers find it just as fresh as they ever did.''

Along the way, the series has laid waste to its network competition, often drawing more viewers than the other five broadcast networks combined. In February, it easily beat NBC's usually ratings-dominant coverage of the Winter Olympics on five nights, doubling the audience for skating and skiing on Feb. 22.

Musical artists who guest-star on the show -- Rod Stewart, Queen, Stevie Wonder, Barry Manilow -- have seen their album sales skyrocket in the week after their appearances. The most stunning example: sales of Shakira's ``Oral Fixation, Vol. 2'' went from 11,000 units in a week to 81,000, an increase of 636 percent.

In fact, you don't even have to appear on the show to get a hit. When ``Idol'' started using largely unknown Canadian artist Daniel Powter's ``Bad Day'' as an exit song for those who had been voted off, the single became the most downloaded song in America. Powter's new CD debuted recently in Billboard's Top 10.

Lauren Zalaznick, president of the cable channel Bravo, recently suggested in the Los Angeles Times that the show is ``a true phenomenon -- meaning that it is not reproducible. It speaks to the quirkiness of consumers and the unknowability of the alchemy of a hit.''

Warwick, who has been with ``Idol'' since it first became a hit in Britain, said the appeal begins with the contestants.

``The difference between seasons is who walks through the doors to audition,'' he said. ``The thing this year is that the talent is extremely good.''

Sally Bensen, a 42-year-old San Jose mother of two who became a convert to ``Idol'' in 2003's Season 2, said this year's ``group is just so talented and so different in the way they do their music. It's so hard to know who to cheer for. I just want all of them to win.''

But, of course, most viewers do pick favorites and many make the effort to vote. (As of last week, 515 million votes have been cast this season, a record for the show. In comparison, 122.3 million ballots were cast in the 2004 presidential election.)

In a sense, the show is a serialized drama -- punctuated by the eccentricities of judges Simon Cowell, Paula Abdul and Randy Jackson -- where one of the main characters gets ``killed off'' every week. The viewers have the power to pick who survives.

As a result, the ``Idol'' audience gets passionate about the fate of the young singers.

Take the uproar that followed the exit of rocker Chris Daughtry two weeks ago. The vote by the American public that sent Daughtry packing was greeted with thunderous boos by the studio audience, generated millions of postings on ``Idol'' Web sites and even warranted an Op-Ed piece in the New York Times.

``I cannot believe that Chris lost,'' said Tim Baldwin, a 21-year-old Sunnyvale college student, in one e-mail to the Mercury News. ``He was the real thing, a real rock singer, and he'll be remembered long after those other guys are gone.''

None of the furor surprised Warwick, who said the appeal of the show lies in ``both the talent and personality.

``If it wasn't for the fact that we get into the reality side of it where we find out about the kids -- what Chris was really like, that Kellie's dad was in jail -- then they just become singers on a stage. But if you know their backgrounds, you become emotionally attached to them in more ways than just them standing there and singing a song.''

Elliott Yamin, who was voted out of the competition last week, acknowledged afterward that public perception of him as a ``lovable underdog'' -- he is 90 percent deaf in one ear and has diabetes -- kept him on ``Idol'' to the final three.

``Maybe I was viewed as a kid that came from nowhere,'' he said. ``People know my story and know that I've beaten a few odds here and there. People can identify with that.''

Viewers, in turn, feel a vested interest in helping the singers become pop stars. In a recent survey by Pursuant, a Washington-based public opinion firm, 35 percent of those who have picked up the phone to vote believe their ``Idol'' votes matter as much or more so than the ballots they cast in the last presidential election.

Melissa Marcello, president of Pursuant, said the audience has ``constructed some sort of reality that they are the producer helping to discover the next Kelly Clarkson,'' who was the first and most commercially successful ``Idol'' winner.

``I know I probably shouldn't get as caught up in a TV show as I do,'' said Bensen, who plans to vote for Hicks this week. ``But it makes you feel like you're doing something for someone who deserves it.''

And in the end, said cultural historian and ``Idol'' fan Neal Gabler, ``the show makes us the ones who are ultimately responsible'' for the singers' success.

``It says to the whole entertainment industry, `You are not in control. We are.' ''

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