Hot Off The Press: The Latest TV News and Information - Page 1930

Interesting. I'll check this out.
I typically don't like all the normal 9/11 programs. They're too sad.

^^^ Here's a New York Times review of it (too busy at work to post it in "HOTP" today): http://tv.nytimes.com/2010/09/07/art...ref=television.

And the Los Angeles Times' take on it: http://www.latimes.com/entertainment...0,800337.story.

BTW....I said #24 in preseason poll....preseason....preseason.

http://espn.go.com/college-football/rankings/_/week/1

And... If you don't like the Top 25, there's always...

THE. BOTTOM. 10.

http://sports.espn.go.com/dallas/new...=ncf/preview10

Obituary
'Bonanza' creator dies at 93
David Dortort's series was the most-watched from 1964-67
By Mike Barnes, The Hollywood Reporter - September 7th, 2010

David Dortort, who created "Bonanza," the top-rated Western that aired for 14 years on NBC with family values as its centerpiece, died Sept. 5 in his apartment in Westwood. He was 93.

"Bonanza" ran from 1959-73, was the most-watched show on television from 1964-67 and maintained a place in the ratings top 10 for a decade. Dortort also created "The High Chaparral," which originally followed "Bonanza" on Sunday nights on NBC and ran for three seasons.

In 1959, Dortort pitched his show to RCA subsidiary NBC. "Bonanza" would be filmed in color in gorgeous Lake Tahoe, Nev. -- to help promote the sale of RCA's color TVs -- and feature a cast of relative unknowns (Michael Landon, Lorne Greene, Dan Blocker and Pernell Roberts) as members of the Cartwright family.

Dortort went away from the typical Western formula of focusing on lone drifters, choosing to focus on a family of three boys and a father living on the Ponderosa Ranch.

"Our scripts delve into character and deal with human relationships, which is where the best stories are. And we try to teach something about human values like faith and hope," the Brooklyn native told Look magazine in 1965.

Bonanza premiered at 7:30 p.m. on a Saturday in September 1959 and failed to attract an audience going up against "Perry Mason" on CBS. But in fall 1961, NBC shifted the show to 9 p.m. Sundays, and it became a huge success.

"Bonanza" was canceled in 1973, a year after the beloved Blocker, who played Eric "Hoss" Cartwright, died unexpectedly after complications from gall bladder surgery. Dortort went on to produce several "Bonanza" spinoffs including "Bonanza: The Next Generation" (1988), a prequel for Pax TV and other Old West-based projects.

Before "Bonanza," Dortort wrote episodes for such series as "Lassie," "The Restless Gun," "Climax!" and "Waterfront" and contributed to the screenplay for the 1952 Nicholas Ray film "The Lusty Men."

A three-time Emmy nominee, he got his start as a producer on "Restless Gun." Dortort served as president of the Producers Guild of America and was president of the Television-Radio branch of the WGA.

Survivors include daughter Wendy, son Fred, brother Elliot and granddaughter Tracy.

A service will be held at 1 p.m. Sunday at Mount Sinai Memorial Parks and Mortuaries in Los Angeles. In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be made to the Writers Guild Foundation and the Venice Family Clinic.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/...e3a27266aaef7a

TV Notes
Fox Orders a Second Helping of 'Masterchef'
By Hunter Walker, TheWrap.com - September 7th, 2010

Fox ordered a second helping of Gordon Ramsay's cooking competition "Masterchef."

Mike Darnell, Fox's president of alternative entertainment, announced the network's decision to renew the show for a second season Tuesday.

Gordon Ramsay is an incredible talent and the biggest culinary star on television today, so we're very happy to have Gordon and 'Masterchef' back for another season on FOX. 'Masterchef' has resonated with viewers this summer, and we look forward to seeing where Gordon takes the show in Season Two, Darnell said.

Ramsay's two Fox reality shows-- "Masterchef" and "Hell's Kitchen" have been ratings hits for Fox this summer. The two shows combined to give the network over a month of Tuesday night primetime ratings wins and the season one premiere of "Masterchef" July 28 was this summer's most-watched series debut.

Since its premiere, "Masterchef" has emerged as the highest-rated new summer show among the key adults 18-49 demographic, outperforming its nearest competitor (ABC's "Bachelor Pad") by 14 percent.

"Masterchef" is produced by Reveille, Elizabeth Murdoch's Shine TV and Ramsay's company One Potato Two Potato, which was recently purchased by U.K. production giant ALL3Media.

http://www.thewrap.com/television/co...sterchef-20653

Q&A
Interview: 'Terriers' stars Donal Logue & Michael Raymond-James
By Alan Sepinwall, HitFlix.com

FX's new detective drama "Terriers" (which debuts Wednesday at 10) is a buddy show produced by buddies, starring buddies. Earlier I posted my interview with two of the show's chief creative forces, Ted Griffin and Shawn Ryan (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...6#post19149916), and you could see the kind of chemistry they have together. Shortly after I talked to those two at press tour, I sat down with actors Donal Logue and Michael Raymond-James. The two met when Raymond-James was guest-starring on a season two episode of NBC's "Life," where Logue played Captain Kevin Tidwell, and they bonded over Logue's copy of Jack Kerouac's "Big Sur."

The two guys talk about how living together during production only added to their chemistry, Logue's sister Karina being hired to play his character's sister, and the dark places you can wind up in when you're living on the road, and a whole lot more...

After you guys had met on "Life," how tight were you before you came into this?

Logue: We were tight, but tight the way guys get tight where, "I don’t know what adventure you’re about to go off on, but when I see you wherever and whenever that may be, we’ll just pick up where we left off," you know what I mean?

Raymond-James: Yeah. It was one of those things where it was like whether it was said or not said, as soon as I met Donal, I knew that this is somebody who at some point in my life we were going to be really close, you know? This is somebody that I know that is going to be a friend of mine and now he’s just ****ed because he’s just stuck with me forever.

Logue: Yeah, ****ed. He’s ****ed. We were lucky to have each other and I hope that leads into the show. Actors, generally speaking, maybe I’m full of **** but they’re of the personality type that wants to be able to break down boundaries with people quickly because it’s very difficult to work otherwise, you know? But there are people like that that are *******s and they put up walls. And in this situation, what we did the show would have been impossible to show up every day and have to go through that ****ing tortuous process with another human being.

Raymond-James: Yeah, with the workload that we had it would have been nearly impossible for me to have gone through it unscathed without having a buddy to lean on and you know somebody who knew what was happening.

Logue: Personally and professionally, you know?

Raymond-James: Yeah, it was great.

That’s interesting, because you’re playing friends with your friend. Your sister is playing your sister so it’s just like…

Logue: It’s great. First of all, both of them are two of the best actors I’ve ever worked with. It wasn't like they made my sister an actor and put her in this thing...

Raymond-James: She earned it. It had nothing to do with being his sister.

Logue: Yeah, she won the part because she worked for Shawn (on an episode of "The Unit") before I did.

Raymond-James: Yeah, she’s brilliant, man.

Logue: But it provoked in me an emotional response that Hank is not going to have with other people.

Raymond-James: It can’t be re-created like that.

Logue: And I wouldn’t have bought into that necessarily before because I feel like I could deal with a piece of tape on a c-stand sometimes more than I can with someone who’s a ****ing weirdo.

Donal, you were attached to the show first. Did you know (Michael) was coming in for it?

Logue: No, not at all. I read with everybody who was on the show. I auditioned with everybody many, many times, which was very helpful for me. And Michael was the first person who came in.

Raymond-James: When I got the script I was told that Donal was attached to it and I was like, "****in' perfect."

Logue: What was weird, though, is that in all honesty originally Hank was a bit older than I am and Britt was younger than Michael is, and so it was a process of convincing them to wrap their mind because Michael as a man has a shitload of weight to him. It didn’t have that kind of "Harold and Maude" sensation that was in the script.

Raymond-James: My hair was also longer approaching his length too and so we sort of looked similar.

Logue: There was a similar vibe to us, and they wanted to try to make us distinguish ourselves from each other a little bit more as it started. Then by the end of the show it was back to where it started.

What do you remember about the first time you read together for this?

Logue: it was great.

Raymond-James: It was great. It was like we were saying before: it was just sort of like, "You know, here we are. Let’s pick up where we left off as people."

Logue: It was actually so helpful because I knew him and because we’d hung out, he’s the kind of dude he can look at me and make me laugh because of whatever. I know I’m reading some weird text behind the eyeballs and that’s what those scenes really required, and with someone you don’t know at all, you can play it but it’s ringing this little bell of falseness. And an audience member might not even be able to read it necessarily, but to me it was just like, "Thank God this is so comfortable and easy." And the easier it is, the better the work.

Raymond-James: Yeah, and I thought, "Hopefully this works out, because it would be great for us to be able to hang out and work together and all that," and thankfully it did.

And then you rented a house together, so basically you didn’t spend very much time apart over the shoot.

Logue: We had breaks. We were so busy at work, though. It was really intense and overwhelming and then the weekends were very short. Sometimes you get done at 5 or 6 in the morning on Saturdays. And so your Saturday’s already shot. You have Sunday—Saturday night and Sunday—then you have Monday you’re up at 5:00 or whatever, but I’d roll up to L.A. to see my kids.

Raymond-James: Or they’d come hang with us.

Logue: They’d come hang with us or his fiancée. But it was fine.

Raymond-James: It also benefited the work - aside for our personal journey, which would lead into the characters - but just in terms of the day-to-day preparation. With a work load that’s so heavy that at the end of the day, we’d grab a call-sheet for tomorrow and go home and run lines together.

Logue: We were prepared. We were kind of a machine at some point and maybe a little bit intimidating because it’s like the speed of the game. The speed of the game isn’t real high when you’re in it all the time. You’re so used to this kind of weird insane thing that you’re doing. And someone rolls in and they say, "Whoa, what the ****’s going on in here?" It’s like, "Yeah, dude. The game’s fast. You get up to speed right now mother****er. You don’t come in unprepared."

Raymond-James: Our tolerance for that kind of thing dwindles really quickly.

Logue: But it was weird because sometimes people would float in. Not everybody, but every once in awhile and they’re just causal about it and they’re not prepared. It’s like, "I’ve been here since 5:00 this morning, dude. Now it’s 5:00 pm and you show up. You’ve had a ****ing week with this stuff and you don’t even know it." What is that? We’re serious about what we’re doing here. We’re grateful that we have this opportunity, that a really good network has put in the time, effort and money to create a universe that we get to run around inside of, you know? And we have this one opportunity and when people really take an opportunity and hit it out of the park, it resonates. And it resonates in our business worldwide. It affects people everywhere you go, you know? And on a few good things I’ve worked on before - like in Israel, if someone’s seen "Grounded for Life" or "Life" - that day that we spent doing that scene there, someone across the world saw and remembers it. And you have a straight-up responsibility to them and to yourself. So I think both of us honestly are pretty good representatives of the school of don’t take yourself too seriously, but take what you do really seriously and appreciate it and respect it.

It’s interesting seeing you guys talk because sometimes I’ve interviewed acting spouses and they’ll admit they don’t like working together because they feel like they need to hold back a little bit of their relationship from what’s on-screen.

Logue: Our first connection was intellectual creative and it’s something about Michael. Michael is a fantastic actor who treats it like you’ve got to be doing this thing - like you need to do it to breathe. This is how I ****ing express myself. The way there are a few people with guitars or anything else and I was like, "I want to really explore that part of my life when I felt like that." And I don’t feel like I have ever been lazy in my approach to it, but I needed to be with someone who was asking, "Why are we doing this thing that we do?" And I think a couple of years ago - and it might have been part of the middle-age crisis or weird fear of death or something that happened to me - but what I do with work took on a greater urgency. I don’t know if I have just another couple of decades of movies and shows. I don’t know what’s coming around the corner. This is what’s important because it’s here right now. And so because our initial connection was mutual creative respect, I think that doesn’t enter into that weird uncomfortable thing. Because I see how that happens with your spouses and stuff like that, you know? And all their shared experience doesn’t necessarily enhance the situation they’re in creatively.

Hank takes advantage of Britt a fair amount at least in the episodes I’ve seen. And Britt allows him to because he’s getting a lot out of the friendship. How much of that is reflected in your dynamic in real life?

Logue: Tons, man. (laughter) "Do it, bitch!" (laughter) You know what’s weird is Michael and I are both the kind of like person where we’ll take a hit long before we’ll let someone else take a hit. There’s a really shared Irish-style ethic, like, "I just cashed my check from working in the hotel but I’m going to buy rounds for everybody until I’ve got zero left," you know? And so it was odd actually sharing space with someone who was as brutally "I will stab my own self in the balls" generous as maybe I’ve been to a fault in my life with people.

Raymond-James: Yeah, that’s not at all part of our friendship. That’s the writing. Donal is the first guy where, if he’s got $5.00 in his pocket then you have $5.00 in your pocket.

Logue: That’s Michael, though.

Raymond-James: That’s both of us, you know? The only times it got weird was when we were both trying to give each other $5.00. But yeah, I wouldn’t say that that’s it, at all.

Co-stars do fight sometimes. So no tensions at any point between the two of you?

Raymond-James: Never. Not for me anyway. It was…

Logue: What was nice too is that all within the self-contained crazy self-absorbed world of doing a show, there’s times when you have to make a little bit of a stand or something has to go beyond it. We could share that responsibility. We didn’t have to do like good cop/bad cop. We could switch off with good cops and bad cops.

Raymond-James: We were on tantrum patrol for each other. And there’s also something that was built into our relationship without requiring either one of us laying a single brick which was, we could say to each other, "Listen dude, you’re my friend and as my friend if you quarterback something you make a play, I’m going to back you up. And we’ll just ****ing figure out the rest of it later."

Logue: Yeah. And what’s weird, too is on the road it’s hard. I have kids and stuff, and I get into weird spaces when I travel and I’m away from my children and I feel guilty about that. And if I had lived alone, I think I would have been really prone to get into a pretty dark ****ing hole. And then I actually broke my shoulder on the show, and we kind of dealt with it in the writing a little bit, but it was a personal ****ing challenge because I couldn’t fix it until now. So I was kind of walking around with this broken shoulder for months and it ****ed with me. And if I didn’t have him there kind of on my back literally helping me put shirts on and **** like that... It was actually super-helpful to have a friend covering my ass and probably vice versa with Michael.

Raymond-James: Yeah, sure. Being isolated and on-location can be helpful in terms of being completely dedicated to the work, but somebody like me can also be dangerous in terms of this intense sort of void that you kind of potentially fall into.

Logue: And we know that about each other. We both can go into some black holes, so we’ll keep an eye out for each other and if we’re going to err on the side of something, let’s err on the side of positive stuff as opposed to self-destructive behavior.

Raymond-James: Because it’s not kid-stuff anymore. There’s just too much at stake. It was great having Donal there when I would start to get a little bit weird. And this is a guy who is the least judgmental person on the planet and always there to listen and give ****ing sound advice as a really close friend. And that kind of stuff can pull you back from the brink a little bit when you start to feel like, "Man, I’m getting really close to a freak out here."

Logue: I’m excited about the show like I’m psyched for people to share the ride that we went on and the show that Shawn and Tim (Minear) and Ted wrote, but most importantly I have a friend for life from this experience. And whatever happens with the show, that’s up in a lot of other people’s hands now. We did what we did, but for me the journey most importantly was sharing this ride with this dude and then the people we made it with. Because more than your family or anyone, you’re spending 16 ****ing hours a day with these people and it’s the kind of circus environment. And most of them were, like, within three hours talking about, "Well, my mom died of cancer 2 months ago" or whatever. You’re breaking down these ****ing weird barriers instantaneously.

Raymond-James: It's really intimate.

Logue: It was heavy. It was good that way. And I have this weird suspicion that if a lot of that good energy that comes from that can find itself into work, which I believe it can, that this will be a hopefully a confirmation of that. If people respond in a way that I think that they might to the chemistry we have, that’s just testament to the humanity that we found in each other. I hear stories about things that were kind of successful between people who couldn’t even talk to each other and had all this ******** going on and I don’t quite buy that it chimes the same way. Even "Moonlighting" (where Bruce Willis and Cybill Shepherd famously hated each other) or something. Yeah, there was witty banter, but it feels like an acting exercise because someone’s being weird. And I think you can see through it ultimately.

http://www.hitfix.com/blogs/whats-al...-raymond-james

Proofreading is dead. Who starts out a list of items to watch for during the fall TV season with a spring TV show?

The title is the "2010-2011 Season Notes". Where did you get the idea it's the "Fall" Schedule?

The big blue subtitle underneath the title that says "What You Should Know About the Fall TV Season "

He must be doing good....a tv show & he already has a stadium in Tampa named after him.

Critic's Notes
At ABC News After Westin, Risk and Opportunity
By Bill Carter, The New York Times - September 8th, 2010

David Westin’s resignation as president of ABC News represents, in the words of one long-time television news executive, “an inflection point” for an industry still trying to figure out how to survive.

Andrew Heyward, a former president of news at CBS, said on Tuesday that whoever succeeded Mr. Westin at ABC News had “a real opportunity to not be beholden to the traditions of television news,” but instead to seek ways “to create value through aggressive innovation.”

The company could move in many different directions, Mr. Heyward and several other analysts said. ABC could merge its news operations with a cable television channel like one that Bloomberg L.P. owns, for example. Or it could take a more experimental approach based on the notion that the broadcast model for news was dead and needed to be reinvented as something radically different, like video file sharing among Facebook-style friends.

Or, Mr. Heyward said, ABC could embark on an even harsher regime of corporate-ordered cost cuts. Mr. Westin oversaw a 25 percent reduction of ABC’s news staff this year, and some employees fear that the company will move to shrink the division further in an effort to maintain profitability.

The thing to watch is who ABC appoints as Mr. Westin’s successor, Mr. Heyward said. (No names have yet emerged as serious contenders). Someone with formal corporate training, like a person from ABC’s stations division, would most likely forecast a decision to manage costs in the short term, he said. Someone with a digital background, like a former Google executive, could signal a radical and more long-term approach.

“I think you’ll either see someone from Harvard Business School or a Harvard dropout,” Mr. Heyward said.

Mr. Westin, who announced his resignation Monday night, spent almost 14 years running ABC News, a unit that achieved consistent, but relative, success. ABC News never really escaped its second-rank status behind NBC News, even as it never was in any real danger of falling to third place, occupied by CBS News.

That certainly could have been part of the problem. Andrew Lack, who once ran NBC News and is now chief executive of Bloomberg’s multimedia group, said he could imagine the marching orders to a new president of news beginning with a question: “If ‘Good Morning America’ is No. 2, why isn’t it No. 1?’ ”

NBC News is dominant in ratings and cash flow, and “if you’re No. 1 you are still going to make money,” Mr. Lack said.

He and others say NBC has an advantage in owning a cable news channel, MSNBC, which not only adds revenue and helps spread costs but also serves as a training ground for new talent.

The news divisions of ABC and CBS do not have a cable channel to fall back on, which is why stories continue to circulate about possible mergers with CNN or Bloomberg.

Mr. Lack said Bloomberg had explored a merger with Mr. Westin. “We looked for a partnership,” he said, adding that “the conversations didn’t go anywhere. But particularly with David, I felt we had substantial interest in getting together.”

Many executives inside and outside the network news divisions of ABC and CBS have said that mergers offer the only path to survival, but no deals have emerged. The stated reasons have been tied to problems related to union employees and management conflicts. But some analysts have suggested that the networks simply fear that they may lose their identities by getting involved with cable.

Andrew Tyndall, who publishes The Tyndall Report, which follows the network newscasts, said that situation might change if ABC’s parent company, Walt Disney, followed the pattern it established in sports.

ABC Sports was once the dominant TV unit. “But Disney moved it all over to cable, and made ESPN into the most powerful channel on cable,” he said. “Maybe Disney will see a way to do the same thing with news.”

Mr. Tyndall argued for a radical approach to changing network newscasts, assuming that ABC and others decided to stay in broadcasting at all. If they do, he said, they could not abandon their news operations. Part of a network’s obligation to its affiliated stations is to provide news.

The broadcasting element has diminishing relevance, Mr. Tyndall said, adding that what will continue to be valuable is high-quality news video.

“The video is not going to be distributed by stations,” he said. “It’s going to be done by the audience, sharing it and embedding it and virally communicating it and putting it on Facebook. The new network is not a broadcast network; it’s a social network.”

Robert J. Thompson, professor of television at Syracuse University, said all the predictions about shrinking network news operations sounded no different from forecasts about the demise of network soap operas.

“And that’s scary. This isn’t soap operas, this is serious business, especially when you look at what’s happening in the newspaper industry,” he said.

“I’m very alarmed when I see these institutions that we depend upon for coverage of things like the civil rights movement and the Vietnam War, institutions that totally changed the way things happened in this country, being run by people who seem to be in this state of total uncertainty about what to do,” he added.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/08/bu...c.html?_r=1&hp

Anything CBS puts on Sunday night (8 & 9 pm CT) is like a trip to death row, since CBS NEVER schedules enough time for NFL football. Football always runs over at least 25-55 min. Look what happened to "The Unit" & "Cold Case".

^^^ Exactly!

Technology Notes
Google TV to Roll Out World-Wide Next Year
By Christopher Lawton, Wall Street Journal - September 8th, 2010

BERLIN—Google Inc. Chief Executive Eric Schmidt said the Internet giant plans to launch its Google TV platform globally next year, in the company's latest move to expand its reach outside its core U.S. market.

Google used Mr. Schmidt's closing keynote speech at the IFA technology trade fair in Berlin to present Google TV, which projects a search bar onto the top of the television screen and allows users to search and surf the Internet, as well as live TV listings. The service is scheduled to make its debut in the U.S. this fall.

Google says it is currently working with content providers to bring entertainment options to Google TV. The company added that it plans to launch support for applications on the service next year.

Soon users will be able to change the channel using their voice through Google speech-recognition technology, Brittany Bohnet, a Google product marketing manager, said at the trade fair.

"The Internet is creating a great Internet disruption and that disruption is changing so many things," Mr. Schmidt said during his speech.

The company also presented a new translation feature, available in a few months, for smartphones that use Google's Android operating system. Users will be able to speak into the phone in one language, and have the phone read back the translation aloud in another language.

Google used the Berlin stage to show off a new mobile version of its Street View mapping service for Android smartphones.

Mr. Schmidt referenced the privacy debate that recently erupted in Germany over Street View, which lets users see detailed photographs of streets, including residential neighborhoods. He called the discussion "healthy" and said Google is prepared to participate.

"These are new ideas and new issues, and society hasn't really decided what to do about some of these things," he said.

Google's plan to begin offering the Street View service for German cities by the end of the year has met with stiff resistance from privacy-rights advocates in Germany.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...542863096.html

TV Review
FX goes a little bit lighter with 'Terriers'
By Tim Goodman, San Francisco Chronicle

It might take an episode or two before you stop waiting for something outrageously awful to happen in FX's winning new series, "Terriers." After all, the series about two slacker (and unlicensed) private investigators is on a channel that has never made a series - not even an animated one - that isn't rated for mature adults. And executive producer Shawn Ryan is the man who created "The Shield," which featured some of the most brutal and harrowing scenes ever filmed for basic cable.

And yet, "Terriers" is only a little bit dark, a whole bunch of intriguing and plenty funny. It even - gasp - seems familiar in a breezy, light, buddy film kind of way.

Credit for that goes to Ted Griffin, who created the series after writing "Ocean's Eleven" and co-writing (with his brother, Nick) the wonderful, underappreciated gem "Matchstick Men." Griffin has a knack for smart and snappy dialogue and knows how to craft a complicated mystery. Those elements are at the heart of "Terriers," where we meet disgraced ex-cop Hank Dolworth (Donal Logue), who drank himself off the job and out of a marriage. He teams up with a low-level thief named Britt Pollack (Michael Raymond-James), and the two take on just about any case in tiny Ocean Beach, California, so they can get enough food to eat and money to make rent.

Good team
They are, it's quite clear, the bottom rung - one step up from beach bums. But they also have a nice combination of skills. Hank was always a good detective. Now sober, he's able to keep one step ahead of the Ocean Beach police department. And Britt's combination of break-in skills and "screw it, let's do it" fearlessness mean the duo aren't afraid to get into situations they probably shouldn't.

On the surface, "Terriers" (the name is a slow joke that comes out as the episodes progress) is a comedy-drama-mystery, with the kind of banter-heavy riffing that made "Ocean's Eleven" so appealing. If you saw "Matchstick Men," you know that Griffin can subvert convention quite effectively when it comes to creating a mystery. But the series also has, as the episodes unfold, a lot more meat on the bones than you first expect. (And watching the first couple of them, you just can't get over the fact that FX has made a buddy comedy where nobody's face is pushed into a burning stovetop.)

Two things make "Terriers" worth glomming onto: Logue and Raymond-James are, straight out of the gate, the two most believable and funny buddies you'll see on the screen. Both engaging actors, you'll come to enjoy hanging out with them each week. Secondly, just when you think "Terriers" might be the best remake of "Rockford Files" that's not really "Rockford Files," Griffin, Ryan and the writers add a little more gravitas each episode to illuminate why they took the show to FX in the first place.

Terriers: Drama, 10 p.m Wednesdays on FX.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...DDHS1F8TLF.DTL

Nielsen Notes
A TV summer when comfort ruled
Viewers chose the familiar, and ratings reflected that
By Toni Fitzgerald, Media Life Magazine - September 8th, 2010

Judging by the list of TV winners and losers this summer, the country is still in the mood to be comforted.

The summer's big winners shared the theme of familiarity. From the top new shows on broadcast and cable to aging shows that saw ratings resurgences, everything that was old was new again on television.

On the flip side, shows that tried to break new ground or pull viewers out of their comfort zones didn't do nearly as well, and it's probably not a big reach to tie these trends to the recession.

With the uncertainty of the economy hanging over them in their real lives, viewers like the comfort of escaping into something they already know and understand rather than investing time in something unfamiliar that could be a disappointment.

Here's a look at this summer's broadcast and cable TV winners and losers:

Winners

Aging reality shows on broadcast: "The Bachelorette," "Hell's Kitchen" and "Big Brother 12" all had strong seasons, with "Bachelorette" and "Brother" hitting their highest ratings in years. It continues a trend of strong reality show results during the regular season for familiar shows like "The Bachelor" and "Dancing With the Stars."

"Jersey Shore" and "Real Housewives of New Jersey:" Both shows hit series highs in recent weeks, proving once again that cattiness, backstabbing and jealous rages never go out of style on reality TV.

"True Blood:" People love vampires. If "Blood" is exhibit A, then "Twilight" and "The Vampire Diaries" are exhibits B and C.

"Rizzoli & Isles:" Who says procedurals are over and done with? By putting a slightly different spin on a tired genre, in pairing a woman detective and a woman medical examiner, TNT got the biggest new hit of the summer.

Preseason NFL football: Ratings hit their highest levels in years, suggesting it will be another huge year for pigskin.

Fox's "MasterChef:" Yet another cooking show with Gordon Ramsey was the summer's top new broadcast show.

Univision's "Soy Tu Duena:" Univision's top telenovela helped the network to second place in adults 18-34 this summer.

USA: With 17 straight quarterly wins in primetime to its credit, it added another hit show about odd characters, "Covert Affairs," while hits like "Royal Pains," "White Collar" and "Burn Notice" kept humming along.

Disney Channel's "Camp Rock 2: The Final Jam:" A sequel to the 2008 film "Camp Rock," "Jam" became the most-watched movie on cable this year with 8 million viewers.

Nick Cannon: The "America's Got Talent" host presides over the summer's most-watched show and his wife, Mariah Carey, is rumored to be pregnant.

Losers

Scripted series on broadcast: From "The Gates" to "The Bridge" to "The Good Guys," they still aren't working. Maybe viewers couldn't tell them apart because of those similar "The" titles.

ABC's "Downfall:" Note to broadcast programmers: Watching cash and prizes crash sadly to the grown via a conveyer belt is not good entertainment during a recession.

CW's "18 To Life:" Apparently Canadian drama translates well to U.S. audiences (see "Flashpoint" and "Rookie Blue"). Comedy, not so much.

Beauty pageants: Months after TLC evicted the Miss America pageant, Miss Universe hit an all-time low on NBC.

CNN: August was its least-watched month since May 2000 in primetime, with soon-to-exit "Larry King Live" off 50 percent from last year.

Viewer IQs: Sensational reality shows "Jersey Shore," "RHONJ" and "Keeping Up With the Kardashians" all drew more viewers than three-time Emmy best drama winner "Mad Men."

"American Idol" judge wannabes: We're at summer's end and the three empty seats still aren't filled.

http://www.medialifemagazine.com/art...fort-ruled.asp

TV Sports
Fox Sports plans extra duty for NFL studio analysts
By Michael Hiestand, USA Today - September 8th, 2010

Fox this season plans to sometimes have NFL game analysts that won't go anywhere near games.
Fox will formally announce Wednesday that it will allow its Los Angeles-based NFL studio analysts Terry Bradshaw, Jimmy Johnson, Howie Long and Michael Strahan to chime in on live NFL game coverage as if they were alongside the regular Fox announcers in stadium TV booths.

Calling games without being at games is hardly unprecedented. Announcers often call international sports action off TV monitors rather than traveling to overseas events. And announcers at stadiums often largely focus on what they see off their own TV monitors to make sure they talk about what viewers are seeing and avoid what they aren't. And sometimes studio types such as Cris Collinsworth when he was a studio analyst at NBC have had audio cameos on game coverage.

But the idea of regularly using a sort of virtual three-man booth, where studio-bound analysts watching TV are mixed in with various on-site voices, will be a new wrinkle for NFL TV coverage.

Fox Sports President Eric Shanks suggests there's more involved than just improving the studio crew's productivity: "This is definitely not meant to be an interview segment dropped into a game. It's meant to get a different analyst's perspective."

Initially, Fox will schedule at least one drop-in each week "although ideally, you'd like to be able to take any of the guys into games at any time," Shanks says and will start Sunday with Johnson focusing on the San Francisco 49ers-Seattle Seahawks game and joining the broadcast in the second half. How long Johnson will stay with the regular game broadcast, Shanks says, "is going to be a feel thing."

The big idea, Shanks says, is for studio analysts to be able to disagree on-air with the regular game analysts or point out something the game-callers are missing. And it will come as Fox had already announced it would tinker with standard game coverage by having ex-NFL officiating supervisor Mike Pereira dropping into game broadcasts when needed to explain rules.

So while Fox game announcers won't literally have anybody looking over their shoulders, it will probably feel like it.

Spice rack: Dick Enberg, leaving CBS to call San Diego Padres local TV games, left the first-place club to moonlight on CBS' U.S. Open coverage and the Padres lost 10 consecutive games. On CBS' tennis Monday, Enberg said he was wearing a lucky tie, warning: "Watch out Dodgers today!" The Padres ended the slide. Who knew ties settled ballgames? Kurt Warner, in his first year out of the NFL, is becoming a brand, this season calling Fox NFL games, hoofing on ABC's Dancing With the Stars and debuting Wednesday night as an NFL Network studio analyst (7 ET). Join MLB Hall of Famer Dennis Eckersley, calling TBS' New York Yankees-Texas Rangers game Sunday (3 p.m. ET), for a live USATODAY.com online chat at 12:30 p.m. ET Wednesday.

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/colum...analysts_N.htm

Nielsen Notes (Sports)
College football kicks off strong for ESPN
Boise State-Virginia Tech game averages a 6.8 rating
By Louisa Ada Seltzer, Media Life Magazine - September 8th, 2010

Boise State got off to a strong start to the college football season, and so did ESPN.

ESPN's coverage of the much-hyped Boise State-Virginia Tech game in primetime Monday drew strong ratings, suggesting a big year on tap for college football.

The contest, played at FedEx Field in Maryland, posted a 6.8 household rating from 8 to 11:45 p.m., according to Nielsen overnights, 21 percent better than the equivalent game last year, Miami-Florida State, which averaged a 5.6.

It marked ESPN's best Labor Day college football game rating in 20 years (though that only includes six primetime games).

And it lifted ESPN to first place among all networks, broadcast or cable, albeit against very light competition.

It's a good sign for the college football season, which kicked off last week. Third-ranked Boise State proved its mettle against 10th-ranked Virginia Tech, which will give the pundits something to talk about for weeks.

Though it's not uncommon for top-25 teams to match up during the first weeks of the season, to have a game with this high of stakes in the very first weekend is unusual. Yet for the Broncos, every game this season is a must-win for a shot at No. 1.

Boise State hails from the WAC, which is not one of the six so-called BCS conferences, the ones that earn automatic BCS bowl bids, and so many believe the squad must go undefeated this season to earn a berth in the season-ending championship game.

http://www.medialifemagazine.com/art...g-for-ESPN.asp

TV Reviews
'Hellcats' and 'Nikita' on the CW
Cheerleaders and government assassins, respectively, flex their muscles in familiar story lines in these new series on the CW. 'Hellcats' is aimed at younger audiences while 'Nikita' seeks more mature viewers.
By Mary McNamara, Los Angeles Times - September 8th, 2010

Having wrung what girl power can be gained from psycho-sexual manipulations ("Gossip Girl," "90210") and monster love ("Vampire Diaries"), the CW is getting physical. Though aimed at slightly different demographics, "Hellcats" and "Nikita" both celebrate long-limbed, well-toned females vigorously kicking butt.

Starring Disney alums Alyson Michalka and Ashley Tisdale, "Hellcats," which premieres on Wednesday, is an energetic and occasionally sophisticated fish-out-of-water mash-up of "Glee" and "Bring It On" with top notes of "Flashdance," aimed squarely at audiences perhaps too young for "Gossip Girl" but seriously too old for " Hannah Montana."

Michalka, late of "Cow Belles" and the tween pop duo Aly and A.J., stars as Memphis law student Marti, a girl so sassy and independent she is not afraid to combine pre-Raphaelite hair and bicycle gloves or to trash talk cheerleaders while wearing a T-shirt cut so high above the midriff that it must have required an act of Congress, not to mention a lot of toupee tape, to keep it in place. Just imagine Marti's inner turmoil when, after losing her scholarship due to hazily explained budget cuts, she must audition for that very same cheerleading squad, the Hellcats, to realize her dream of becoming a lawyer.

This requires several scenes so reminiscent of "Flashdance" Marti may stop short of being a welder but she is to classical cheer what the film's also ringleted Alex was to classical dance that one hopes future episodes include a role for Jennifer Beals (although she might want her hair back.)

Despite this silly and derivative setup, the pilot is actually a lot of fun. The performances are uniformly good and there are moments of promising depth to balance all the peppy hair-swinging, abs-flexing dance numbers. Yes, Marti finds herself in tedious mean-girl conflict with the girl she replaces (Heather Hemmens), and then there's that requisite romantic triangle involving Marti's longtime male best friend (played by Matt Barr and named, apparently, for famous pacer horse Dan Patch) and Lewis (Robbie Jones), her new hot cheer partner.

But she also has a surprisingly complicated, co-dependent relationship with her mother ( Gail O'Grady), who has a drinking problem, and Marti's new Cheertown roommate Savannah (Tisdale) may be predictably perky and A-type, but she also actually seems to understand the requirements of teamwork. I must admit I'm intrigued by any show that showcases teamwork's necessary companions patience and forbearance while also evoking "Flashdance."

HELLCATS - Wednesdays at 9PM on The CW.

* * * * * * * *

Teamwork is also the theme of "Nikita," which premieres Thursday night, although a slightly more fatal, and PG-13, variety. Yet another retelling of the sex-equals-death story of a gorgeous but troubled girl turned deadly assassin against her will a narrative that endlessly fascinates film and television executives for reasons that don't bear discussing.

But this "Nikita" takes things one step further. The pilot follows the now familiar trope of a young woman, played by Lyndsy Fonseca, being "saved" from life in jail after a (possibly trumped up) murder conviction by Michael ("ER's" Shane West) who informs her that she is now officially dead but can find a second more meaningful life through a shadowy agency called Division. There she, and a surprisingly large number of good-looking and similarly resuscitated recruits, are taught to be well-dressed, well-mannered, merciless government killers.

But this is Alex, not Nikita, because Nikita ( Maggie Q) is on the other side of her own narrative. She has escaped the clutches of Division, which murdered her boyfriend when he became more than just a cover, and has now become vengeance with her shining sword (or high-caliber pistol and really good martial arts training) out to avenge her lover's death and put an end to this whole gorgeous-assassin factory.

If, after two feature films and a TV series, we must give the Nikita tale another try, it's not a bad twist and it may follow quickly enough on the heels of the somewhat similarly themed "Salt" to benefit from Angelina Jolie pixie dust. But the track records of recent manipulated-fight-girl shows "Dollhouse" and "Bionic Woman" come to mind are not promising.

Q, a Jackie Chan acolyte who does her own stunts, provides some sizzle, but her emotions run that famous distance from A to B, as do virtually everyone else's. This is the intrinsic problem with shows revolving around characters stripped of all emotion; it's difficult to make cold-blooded and calculating people interesting and empathetic, and yet it must be done. Because fight scenes will take you only so far.

Especially when there are no big dance numbers.

NIKITA - Thursdays at 9PM on The CW.

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment...,7824241.story

TV Review
Hellcats on The CW
By Randee Dawn, The Hollywood Reporter

The cheerleader's reputation on American television is lousy: They're insular and stuck up at best; slutty and the meanest of mean girls at worst. But with "Heroes" and "Glee" putting a new spin on the old (dance) routine, the pom-pom faction has begun to take back the fight.

Enter the CW's "Hellcats," a surprisingly sweet look the Lancer University cheerleading squad, which has just been invaded by sneering outsider Marti Perkins (Alyson Michalka). Marti calls them "happy little cult members" -- her buddy Dan (Matt Barr) adds, "I don't trust any culture that builds pyramids" -- but cheerleading is the only thing that can save her scholarship once her original funds get canceled. A few viewings of "Bring It On" later, and she's not only wowing the judges at tryouts, at her first practice, she's schooling the girls.

Yes, audiences should beware not to let their eyes roll too far back in their heads at the fantasy concept of a) swapping scholarships midsemester and b) a protagonist who wows everyone in sight (known as the "Mary Sue" character in fan fiction parlance). But once the concept is firmly established, "Hellcats" makes a graceful backflip, with multilayered characters that defy expectations. Marti's new compatriots include admiring male cheerleader Lewis (Robbie Jones), who is flirtatious but kind, and Savannah (Ashley Tisdale), who gives a blistering defense of cheerleading as a sport to Marti but also is honest about wanting her to do well on the team.

"Don't drift," Dan cautions Marti once she seems to accept that there's more to these "cult" members than she thought, but of course she will. There's a certain thrill in watching the outsider taken in and made a part of the family, rather than converting everyone else to her cause, and "Hellcats" promises plenty of creative push-pull in episodes to come. It would have been easy to turn this show into a hair-pulling, claws-out bitch fest -- heck, with that title, it's almost false advertising not to. But while there's plenty of meanness, soap opera antics and titillation (plus lingering camera shots of Marti's smokin' bod) going on, "Hellcats" stacks up well against expectations. Three cheers.

Bottom Line: They might not save the world, but these cheerleaders are complex characters worth rooting for.
Airdate: 9-10 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 8 (the CW)

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/...04113106.story

Nielsen Overnights (18-49)
NBC's 'Talent' climbs heading into finale
Averages 3.2 in 18-49s, best rating in eight weeks
By Toni Fitzgerald, Media Life Magazine - September 8th, 2010

The final 10 acts performed on "America's Got Talent" last night, competing for one of the four finalists slots that will be awarded on tonight's results episode. The suspense boosted "Talent" to its best rating in eight weeks.

The two-hour NBC reality show averaged a 3.2 adults 18-49 rating at 9 p.m., according to Nielsen overnights, its best rating since July 13.

It was up 7 percent over last week's 3.0. "Talent" also drew its biggest audience among total viewers, 12.3 million, since June.

The big numbers boosted NBC to an easy victory on the night among 18-49s with a 2.7 average rating and an 8 share. ABC was second at 2.0/6, Univision third at 1.9/5, Fox fourth at 1.5/5, CBS fifth at 1.3/4 and CW sixth at 0.3/1.

As a reminder, all ratings are based on live-plus-same-day DVR playback. Seven-day DVR data won't be available for several weeks. Thirty-seven percent of Nielsen households have DVRs.

At 8 p.m. ABC was first with a 2.7 for "Wipeout," followed by Univision with a 2.1 for "Soy Tu Dueña," airing an hour early to make way for a soccer game. NBC was third with a 1.7 for "Minute to Win It," CBS and Fox tied for fourth at 1.5, CBS for a repeat of "NCIS" and Fox for a "Glee" rerun, and CW was sixth with a 0.3 for a repeat of "One Tree Hill."

NBC took the lead at 9 p.m. with a 3.1 for "Talent," while ABC slipped to second with a 2.2 for a "Wipeout" rerun. Univision was third with a 1.7 for "Aqui y Ahora" and the first half hour of a soccer match between Mexico and Colombia, with Fox fourth with a 1.6 for more "Glee," CBS fifth with a 1.4 for a repeat of "NCIS: Los Angeles" and CW sixth with a 0.3 for a "Life Unexpected" rerun.

At 10 p.m. NBC was first again with a 3.4 for more "Talent," with Univision second with a 1.8 for more soccer. ABC was third with a 1.1 for "NightlinePrime" and CBS fourth with a 0.9 for a repeat of "The Good Wife."

NBC also led the night among households with a 6.1 average overnight rating and a 10 share. CBS was second at 5.2/9, ABC third at 3.3/5, Fox fourth at 2.8/5, Univision fifth at 1.9/3 and CW sixth at 0.5/1.

http://www.medialifemagazine.com/art...nto-finale.asp