Hot Off The Press: The Latest TV News and Information - Page 2267

Nielsen Overnights
Wednesday Final Ratings (Cable)
From Marc Berman's AdWeek.com Blog (Posted by Douglas) - May 5th, 2011

NBA Playoffs: Hawks @ Bulls, Game 2 (TNT, 8:00pm, 165 minutes)
3.3 HH, Viewers: 5.211 million, 2.2 A18-49

NBA Playoffs: Mavericks @ Lakers, Game 2 (TNT, 10:45pm, 151 minutes)
4.5 HH, Viewers: 7.036 million, 3.2 A18-49
* Most-watched & highest HH/A18-49 rated program in cable primetime

NHL Playoffs: Flyers @ Bruins, Game 3 (VERSUS, 7:00pm, 159 minutes)
0.8 HH, Viewers: 1.234 million, 0.5 A18-49

NHL Playoffs: Sharks @ Red Wings, Game 3 [joined in progress] (VERSUS, 9:39pm, 94 minutes)
0.5 HH, Viewers: 0.786 million, 0.4 A18-49

Top Chef Masters (BRAVO, 10pm)
0.8 HH, Viewers: 1.114 million, 0.6 A18-49

South Park (CMDY, 10pm)
1.8 HH, Viewers: 2.591 million, 1.5 A18-49, 2.9 M18-34

Workaholics (CMDY, 10:30pm)
1.0 HH, Viewers: 1.458 million, 0.8 A18-49, 1.9 M18-34

Daily Show with Jon Stewart (CMDY, 11pm)
1.4 HH, Viewers: 2.102 million, 1.0 A18-49, 1.6 M18-34, 0.8 A25-54

Colbert Report (CMDY, 11:31pm)
1.0 HH, Viewers: 1.468 million, 0.7 A18-49, 1.1 M18-34, 0.6 A25-54

Mythbusters (DISC, 9pm)
0.9 HH, Viewers: 1.372 million, 0.5 A18-49

Justified (FX, 10pm, 63 minutes)
1.6 HH, Viewers: 2.676 million, 0.9 A18-49

Justified (r) (FX, 11:03pm)
0.6 HH, Viewers: 0.966 million, 0.3 A18-49

Justified (r) (FX, 12:05am)
0.3 HH, Viewers: 0.505 million, 0.1 A18-49

Justified (r) (FX, 1:05am)
0.3 HH, Viewers: 0.372 million, 0.1 A18-49

Real World Las Vegas (MTV, 10pm)
1.7 HH, Viewers: 2.269 million, 1.3 A18-49, 3.0 F18-34, 1.7 T12-17
* Highest F18-34 rated program in cable primetime

The Electric Barbarellas (MTV, 11pm)
0.6 HH, Viewers: 0.821 million, 0.4 A18-49, 0.9 W18-34, 0.9 T12-17

Real World Las Vegas (r) (MTV, 11:30pm)
0.7 HH, Viewers: 0.817 million, 0.4 A18-49, 0.9 W18-34, 0.8 T12-17

The Ultimate Fighter (SPIKE)
0.7 HH, Viewers: 1.212 million, 0.7 A18-49

House of Payne (TBS, 10pm)
1.1 HH, Viewers: 1.773 million, 0.7 A18-49

House of Payne (TBS, 10:30pm)
1.1 HH, Viewers: 1.940 million, 0.8 A18-49

Extreme Couponing (TLC, 9:30pm)
1.1 HH, Viewers: 1.874 million, 0.9 A18-49

Operation Repo (TRU, 9pm)
0.7 HH, Viewers: 1.042 million, 0.4 A18-49

Operation Repo (TRU, 9:30pm)
0.7 HH, Viewers: 1.110 million, 0.5 A18-49

Operation Repo (TRU, 10pm)
0.8 HH, Viewers: 1.249 million, 0.5 A18-49

Operation Repo (TRU, 10:30pm)
0.7 HH, Viewers: 1.056 million, 0.4 A18-49

Source: Nielsen Media Research

http://pifeedback.com/eve/forums/a/t...8963#744108963

Critic's Notes
Contract Killings on the Sets of Soaps and Sitcoms
By Eric Felten, Wall Street Journal - May 6th, 2011

Nicollette Sheridan, who played Edie Britt on the ABC dramedy "Desperate Housewives" from 2004 to 2009, is accusing the network and the show's producer of murder—the murder of her character, that is. She claims that after she had a spat with the show's creator and honcho, Marc Cherry, he wrote her character into a fatal car crash. Talk about being terminated. And so last year Ms. Sheridan sued. A judge ruled this week that the question of whether Edie was lawfully killed can go to trial before a jury.

What did Ms. Sheridan expect in the world of soap opera—even if the soap in question is a prime-time one? Soaps are notorious for contriving the demise of any character played by an actor who displeases. And that displeasure can take many forms. The most obvious is a dispute over pay. Soap actress Tina Sloan recounts in her memoir, "Changing Shoes," that back in her "Search for Tomorrow" days there was an episode in which the script called for her and her "daughter" to kill some poor sap. She can't remember the details of the storyline, but she knows what was driving the plot: "Most likely the someone we were murdering was asking for too much money in his contract."

Of course, death is a little dark for situation comedy, and so when Suzanne Somers demanded a huge hike in her "Three's Company" compensation, the writers got her off the set by having her character move to Fresno, Calif. (Insert your own joke here.)

Salary isn't the only motive for the untimely demise of players. In 1972, death started stalking character Liz Stewart on the set of "As the World Turns." Legend has it that the prim soap-opera impresario Irna Phillips was outraged that Jane House, who portrayed Liz, was also appearing on Broadway as the stripper-wife of Lenny Bruce. For that breach of propriety, Miss Phillips sharpened her pencil and signed Liz's death warrant.

Such shenanigans aren't limited to television's realm. Consider the fate of "Peter Clemenza" in "The Godfather Part II." Richard Castellano, who played Clemenza in the original film, insisted on veto power over his dialogue in the sequel. So Francis Ford Coppola had Clemenza sleep with the fishes, ridding himself of a production headache.

It's hardly a new phenomenon. There's reason to believe that no less a dramatist than Shakespeare knew how to write inconvenient actors off the stage. The star comedian of Shakespeare's troupe was Will Kemp, whose quick-witted buffoonery was as famous as his rowdy dancing. It was Kemp who introduced audiences to John Falstaff, and those audiences clamored for more of the scoundrel.

Maybe the success went to Kemp's head, but he seems to have had a falling out with the man penning his lines. No one quite knows why Kemp left the company, but the comedian was later known to gripe bitterly about "Shakerags." Shakespeare scholar James Shapiro argues that this "points to a rift between the company's most popular performer and its talented playwright." At the end of the "Henry IV" plays, Kemp had taken the stage and in an epilogue proclaimed "our humble author will continue the story, with Sir John in it." But come "Henry V," Falstaff is nowhere to be seen, and we hear about how he has died, a death that, conveniently, takes place offstage.

I suspect authors have been offing characters played by troublesome actors as long as there have been troublesome actors (which is to say, actors). My guess is that whoever was playing Clytemnestra in the Oresteia trilogy was asking for a bigger piece of the gate or started telling Aeschylus how to write dialogue.

Authors give their characters life, and have long been willing to take it away for reasons having nothing to do with plot. Anthony Trollope was working on a novel in a library one morning when he overheard two clergymen grumbling about how Trollope was always reintroducing the same tired old characters into his books. They were particularly annoyed by the ever-recurring Mrs. Proudie. Trollope swallowed his pride and walked over to the men. Introducing himself, he promised "I will go home and kill her before the week is over." And so poor old Mrs. Proudie met her end.

But are we now going to litigate disputes over plotlines and characterizations we don't like? Ms. Sheridan isn't claiming she had a contractual right to determine Edie's fate. And so, in a way, she's asking a jury to assume the mantle of Annie Wilkes, the mad fan in Stephen King's "Misery" who punished an author who dared to deep-six her favorite character.

Not that there isn't some appeal to the idea of taking wayward directors and producers to court. They could be sued for killing off good characters, and for penning bad ones too. Why should dramatists be able to collect good money for bad scripts? Audiences might well launch a class-action suit against George Lucas for the whole "Star Wars" prequel business (and I suspect that any right-thinking judge would take one look at Jar Jar Binks and award punitive damages).

Still, it's all an awful idea. There are enough fictional claims made in courts these days that we don't need to add disputes over fiction itself.

Eric Felten is the author of the new book "Loyalty: The Vexing Virtue."

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...estyleArtEnt_4

TV Notes
‘Smallville’ Tom Welling on saying goodbye to Superman
By Geoff Boucher, Los Angeles Times' 'Hero Complex' Blog - May 5th, 2011

Tom Welling has a new office on the Warner Bros. lot and there’s an empty parking spot right out front — it’s marked “C. SHEEN” — which reminds him how quickly things can change in television and how lucky he’s been to be one of television’s steadiest stars, with a decade logged on the now-ending “Smallville.”

“It can all go away and can go fast,” said the 34-year-old, whose new digs still had unpacked boxes and bare walls when he sat down last week to talk about the final flight of “Smallville,” which airs its two-part series finale beginning May 13 on the CW. “I feel so grateful. But I also know it’s time to move on.”

Welling leaves the show with mixed feelings, and that’s entirely appropriate for a man who spent 10 seasons as a Clark Kent who was perpetually denied the chance to be Superman — the show, for the uninitiated, follows the odyssey of Superman’s alter ego in his formative years and the title is the name of the little rural town where the future superhero grew up with his human adoptive family.

The New York native didn’t want the role — his headshot was plucked out of a stack by producer Alfred Gough, who asked why the handsome, towering actor wasn’t among the hundreds of hopefuls who sought an audition in “a massive manhunt” to find the star in 2000.

The simple reason was that red-and-blue costume, the same one that brought success to actors such as Christopher Reeve and George Reeves in previous decades but came with a smothering career cost — after they flew across the sky in the public imagination they were locked into the image. When Welling found out the new show had the motto of “no tights, no flights,” he was far more intrigued.

“He brought an openness and warmth to the role,” Gough said. “He’s also incredibly good-looking and somehow is more good-looking in person, if that’s possible.”

During the fourth season of the show, Welling had learned so much on the set that he got a new ambition — directing. He did just that in the fifth season. Even before Welling was directing, he was “a leader” on the set, Gough said, and certainly he was qualified — no other cast member appears in every episode and only two crew members have stayed on for the entire run.

Welling isn’t certain about his next move. There was a fan movement to get him the lead role in the new Superman film that will begin shooting next year with Henry Cavill in the tights (and there was a similar campaign for the 2006 movie “Superman Returns” that took flight with Brandon Routh), but “Smallville” has created such a wide, deep thicket of its own mythology that it seemed unlikely that a reboot of the hero would take him on if it were seeking a true fresh start.

Welling seems OK with that. The conventional view that a film franchise is better than TV in every way misses the emotional factor of persistence, he said; he came into the homes of fans again and again for a decade, and that’s a potent relationship. “Besides,” he said, “I’m busy.”

Last year, Welling pushed in a new direction as the executive producer of “Hellcats,” the CW series that is a comedy-drama adaptation of the book “Cheer: Inside the Secret World of College Cheerleaders.” The show is slick and frothy at the same time, and Welling is pleased with the show and the ensemble cast — he says that after holding up a show, it’s engaging to be part of “a team with a great spirit.”

“Smallville” had plenty of bumps in its flight since its first episode in October 2001. The show went from the WB to the CW in 2006 and the tone of the show changed through the years, with some of the visiting superheroes bringing a campy aura at times. The show enjoyed a surge in credibility and ratings in recent years, but it was running out of room — how long could Kent go into manhood without donning the suit?

“Each time we got picked up we had to push that finish line further away, and I think we had some low moments when we got too far-fetched,” he said. “If you look at the series, the first five years were one show and the next five were a different show.

“We could have called it ‘Metropolis,’ in a way … there were a few times when heroes come in where we allowed ourselves to get lighter. But that’s breaking things up. I don’t think anyone goes out and tries to make mistakes.”

SMALLVILLE
Friday at 8PM on The CW.

http://herocomplex.latimes.com/2011/...e-to-superman/

As a recent subscriber (finally!) to Netflix, I have to say that I hope they keep their DVD/BD rental business going indefinitely. Blu-rays are infinitely superior to the bit-starved, rate-shaped, half-assed excuse for HD my cable company (TWC) is delivering, moreso now that I've got a 55" display (and streaming isn't much better w/ limited choices). And my pathological period of "collecting" shiny disks is thankfully long over. Netflix is fast, reliable, and a great value IMO.

Business Notes
Lacking Blockbuster, News Corp. Falls Short
By Brian Stelter, The New York Times - May 5th, 2011

Not every fiscal quarter can have an Avatar.

That seemed to be Rupert Murdoch's message on Wednesday as his sprawling media company, the News Corporation, reported earnings that largely fell short of most analysts' expectations. The company's total revenue for the quarter that ended in March, $8.26 billion, was down 6 percent from the same quarter last year, when ticket sales for the blockbuster film Avatar greatly increased revenue.

Avatar became the highest-grossing film in history (not adjusted for inflation), but with that title came one downside for the News Corporation: challenging comparisons, as Mr. Murdoch put it in a statement, between this year and last year's earnings. The company's net income for the quarter, $639 million, or 24 cents a share, was down 24 percent from the same quarter last year, when the net income was $839 million, or 32 cents a share.

Ticket sales for Black Swan, a film released last December that scored a best actress Oscar for Natalie Portman, led the film division's revenue in the most recent quarter. Citing the new animated film Rio, which was released three weeks ago but has already earned more than Black Swan, Mr. Murdoch said the difficult comparisons in this segment over the past nine months are now behind us.

Cable channels like FX and the Fox News Channel remained by far the biggest contributors to the News Corporation's bottom line, accounting for more than 60 percent of profit. Like other major media companies, the News Corporation enjoyed significant gains in cable advertising revenue over the same time last year in its case, up 14 percent in the United States and up an average of 18 percent in other countries.

Fox News, which is the most-watched cable news channel in the United States, continues to be a profit center for the company. In the most recent quarter, Fox News recorded its highest-ever operating profit margin, David DeVoe, the company's chief financial officer, said in a conference call with analysts Wednesday.

The company's local and national broadcast television division also showed strong results, having mounted a recovery from the recession. It helped that Fox had the rights to the Super Bowl this year and that the eight-year-old American Idol franchise has, as Mr. DeVoe asserted, found a second life with new, nicer judges.

But attention lately has been focused not on the News Corporation's television assets, but on underperforming digital pieces of the company. Since last year, it has been attempting to sell Myspace, the ghost of a social network that suffered increased losses in the most recent quarter. Chase Carey, the News Corporation chief operating officer, said Wednesday that an unspecified Myspace transaction is on course.

The company is also trying to spin off IGN.com, a portfolio of video game news Web sites, according to AllThingsD, which reported the plan earlier this week.

In its publishing division, the News Corporation is trying to market the tablet newspaper, The Daily, that it introduced on the iPad in February. Mr. Carey said that the company lost about $10 million on The Daily in the quarter and emphasized that it's very early days. He did not share any data about the number of subscribers to the newspaper, but a News Corporation employee was overheard on the conference call saying that the app that delivers the newspaper has been downloaded 800,000 times.

The publishing division posted a steep decline in net income in the quarter because of a $125 million charge related to a legal settlement at News America Marketing, its coupons and consumer marketing outfit. Excluding that charge, the company over all posted earnings of 26 cents a share.

Analysts pressed News Corporation executives on Wednesday on the status of its attempted acquisition of the 61 percent of British Sky Broadcasting, or BSkyB, that it does not yet own. The company is awaiting final approval of the deal by the British government.

If the approval comes and by most accounts it will come soon the News Corporation may have to pay more than the $12.4 billion it has already committed. Mr. Carey had little new to say about it, but he reiterated his hope for a reasonable deal.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/05/bu..._r=1&ref=media

TV Notes
Best tube bets this weekend
By Louisa Ada Seltzer, Media Life Magazine - May 6th, 2011

FRIDAY

Best bet on broadcast: CBS, “Flashpoint,” 8 p.m. Season premiere. While on the job, Ed hears his wife is on her way to the hospital with complications from her pregnancy.

Best bet on cable: Disney Channel, “ANT Farm,” 8:40 p.m. Series premiere. Should perform well following the "Suite Life" series finale.

Top sporting event: ESPN, “NBA Playoffs,” 9:30 p.m. The Lakers take a 0-2 deficit to Dallas for game three. End of an era?

SATURDAY

Best bet on broadcast: NBC, “Saturday Night Live,” 11:30 p.m. "SNL" alum Tina Fey hosts, with music from Ellie Goulding.

Best bet on cable: HBO, “Lady Gaga Presents the Monster Ball Tour,” 9 p.m. A 10-piece band and 10 dancers back the pop star in a performance at New York's Madison Square Garden.

Top sporting event: NBC, “Kentucky Derby,” 5 p.m. Even if you're not into the race, it'll be fun to hear the announce utter names such as Mucho Macho Man and Pants On Fire.

SUNDAY

Best bet on broadcast: ABC, “Brothers & Sisters,” 10 p.m. Season finale. Could also be the series finale.

Best bet on cable: Food Network, “Best in Smoke,” 10 p.m. Series premiere. Six barbecue chefs compete for $50,000.

Top sporting event: NBC, “NHL Playoffs: Boston Bruins at Philadelphia Flyers,” 3 p.m. Boston carried a 3-0 lead into Friday's game, so unless the Flyers woke up, this game may not take place.

http://www.medialifemagazine.com/art...kend-may-6.asp

I haven't found this news on any english media, but seems Eugenio Derbez will replace Sheen on Two and a Half Men?

It's all over the news in Mexico..

Well at least their last names rhyme... (Derbez/Estevez)

She selected "Flashpoint" instead of the season finale of "Fringe"?

Obituary
Sada Thompson, Actress Known for Maternal Roles, Dies at 83
By Bruce Weber, The New York Times - May 6th, 2011


Sada Thompson, center, with the cast
of the show Family. (Everett Collection)

Sada Thompson, a Tony- and Emmy-winning actress known for her portrayals of archetypal mothers, from the loving family caretaker and the world-weary, had-it-with-the-kids older woman to the brutalizing harridan and mythical adulteress and murderess, died Wednesday in Danbury, Conn. She was 83.

The cause was lung disease, said her daughter, Liza Sguaglia.

Ms. Thompson had an unusual stage career in that she became a star in New York but was not often on Broadway. She made her name in the 1950s as Off Broadway came to prominence, in plays like The Misanthrope and Chekhov's Ivanov, and throughout her career she performed in regional theater productions.

But when she was on Broadway, she made an impression. She won a Tony in 1972 for playing four separate parts three daughters and their aged mother in the four vignettes that constitute George Furth's Twigs, directed by Michael Bennett. Her tour de force performance was widely praised, but Ms. Thompson returned to Broadway only twice more, in short-lived shows.

By then she had established herself as one of the American theater's finest actresses, as Walter Kerr described her in The New York Times. She had distinguished herself on Broadway in Edward Albee's sardonic American Dream, in which she played Mommy, the cartoonishly overwhelming wife of a spineless husband, and in Samuel Beckett's bitterly comic Happy Days. Here she played Winnie, a woman facing inevitable doom she spends the first act buried up to her waist and the second act up to her neck with determined good cheer.

Yet beneath these bright superficials, Clive Barnes wrote in The Times, Miss Thompson was able to suggest something a good deal deeper, every so often permitting the enamel to crack, the brightness to darken, and letting us glimpse the piteous fears of mortality in Winnie's heart.

Away from Broadway, her repertory expanded and her reputation grew. In 1970, in what was probably her star-making performance, she opened Off Broadway in The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds, Paul Zindel's melodrama about a slatternly, self-deluding and tormenting mother of two troubled daughters and the elderly boarder she cares for to pay the rent.

In the summer of 1971 she appeared at the American Shakespeare Festival Theater in Stratford. Conn., as Christine Mannon, the Civil War-era equivalent of the vengeful Clytemnestra, in Mourning Becomes Electra by Eugene O'Neill.

After Twigs, Ms. Thompson spent much of her time working in movies and especially on television. She played Mrs. Gibbs in the 1977 television film of Thornton Wilder's Our Town, with Hal Holbrook as the stage manager.

Most notably, from 1976 to 1980 she starred as Kate Lawrence, the matriarch of an upper-middle-class family in Pasadena, Calif., in a landmark show, created by Jay Presson Allen, who had adapted The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie for the stage, and produced by Mike Nichols. Its title Family announced its intention: to be a simple presentation of the fundamental unit of American life. It largely succeeded, melding ordinary daily conflicts with the heightened drama necessary for television entertainment.

Family dealt straightforwardly with issues like the marital problems of the Lawrences' eldest daughter (played at the time by Meredith Baxter Birney); the discovery by the teenage son (Gary Frank) that his long-time best friend was gay; and the distress of the youngest daughter (Kristy McNichol) on overhearing her mother saying that she sometimes wished she hadn't had her.

Family' represents an extremely difficult television project in that it is trying to salvage the familiar stuff of soap opera for the less superficial probings of the contemporary drama, John J. O'Connor wrote in The Times during its first season, adding that Ms. Thompson and James Broderick, who played her husband, achieved a remarkable combination of low-keyed intensity and powerful impact.

Ms. Thompson was nominated for an Emmy four times in the show's five seasons, winning in 1978.

Sada Carolyn Thompson was born in Des Moines on Sept. 27, 1927. When she was a girl, her family moved to Fanwood, N.J., where her father, Hugh, became an editor of Turkey World and other farm journals. Sada discovered the power of storytelling when her mother, Corlyss, took her to the movie The Man Who Played God, and she was turned toward acting when her parents took her to the Cole Porter musical Red, Hot and Blue.

That was it, Ms. Thompson recalled in 1971. To me it was total enchantment. I had to be part of it.

She graduated with a drama degree from the Carnegie Institute of Technology in Pittsburgh (now Carnegie Mellon University), and she and some fellow students started a summer stock company in Mashpee, Mass. Eventually she and Donald Stewart, whom she met at school and married, moved to New York, where her first professional credit was in 1953, in the original reading of Under Milkwood, Dylan Thomas's poetic rendering of life in a Welsh town, directed by Thomas himself.

His idea of rehearsals was to hear one reading and say, Perfect, let's go out for a beer,' but he was a kind, courteous gentleman, she once said.

Ms. Thompson lived in Southbury, Conn. In addition to her daughter, of Burbank, Calif., her survivors include her husband, a former executive for Pan American Airlines, and a brother, David, of Gloversville, N.Y.

Her career was peppered with performances in classic works in far-flung theaters. She starred with Elizabeth Taylor in Lillian Hellman's Little Foxes in London, toured Scandinavia with the Scandinavian Theater Company in Wilder's Skin of Our Teeth and played Lady Macbeth at the Old Globe Theater in San Diego.

I'd miss not being able to tell a story every night, she once said, describing why she was loath to give up the stage or the screen. That really thrills me, that is the greatest! Thousands of years ago, when some caveman told his family about the fight he had that day with a dinosaur, and, in the telling, became the dinosaur, and became himself in the fight well, there's your first actor.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/06/ar...3.html?_r=1&hp

HE is a SHE (Louisa Ada) and, going by audience measurements (which is what Media Life Magazine is mostly devoted to), "Flashpoint" will be a lot more watched on Friday night than "Fringe." Or maybe she just prefers a procedural over a serialized sci-fi show; she's as entitled to her opinion as you are to yours.

Yes, I changed it about 5 minutes after posting. I'll have to be quicker when dealing with the Hot Off the Press crew!

Your point is noted, that in this stage of the game, any channel surfer would be thoroughly confused. I, for one, can't wait for tonight's episode!

Awesome. Good to see you, fred.

Nielsen Overnights (18-49)
Fox wins second Thursday of sweeps
Averages a 4.7 in 18-49s, well above No. 2 CBS
By Toni Fitzgerald, Media Life Magazine - May 6th, 2011

"American Idol" saw a bump while "The Office" slid after last week's exit of Steve Carell on the second Thursday of the May sweeps last night.

"Idol" averaged a 6.1 adults 18-49 rating at 8 p.m., according to Nielsen overnights, up 7 percent from last week and leading Fox to an easy victory on the night, 88 percent ahead of second-place CBS.

"Idol's" jump came a night after the performance show declined versus the prior week. Last night the finalists were winnowed to four, leading up to the May 25 season 10 finale.

Also last night, the first episode of "The Office" without Carell saw an expected slide, following the hype over his exit last week, when the show hit a three-month high with a 4.2. But it still drew solid numbers.

"Office" averaged a 3.5 rating and finished first in the 9 p.m. timeslot with a very slight edge over ABC's "Grey's Anatomy" and Fox's "Bones," both of which notched a 3.4.

Fox led the night among 18-49s with a 4.7 average overnight rating and a 14 share. CBS was second at 2.5/7, ABC third at 2.4/7, NBC fourth at 2.0/6, Univision fifth at 1.4/4, CW sixth at 1.0/3 and Telemundo seventh at 0.7/2.

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. Forty-one percent of Nielsen households have DVRs.

Fox started the night in the lead with a 6.1 at 8 p.m. for "Idol," followed by CBS with a 2.6 for "The Big Bang Theory" (3.1) and "Rules of Engagement" (2.2). ABC was third with a 1.4 for "Wipeout," NBC fourth with a 1.3 for "Community" (1.4) and a repeat of "Office" (1.1), CW fifth with a 1.2 for "The Vampire Diaries," Univision sixth with a 1.1 for "Teresa" and Telemundo seventh with a 0.4 for "Aurora."

At 9 p.m. ABC took the lead with a 3.5 for "Grey's," while Fox slipped to second with a 3.3 for "Bones." NBC was third with a 3.0 for a new "Office" (3.5) and "Parks and Recreation" (2.6), CBS fourth with a series-low 2.2 for "CSI," Univision fifth with a 1.5 for more "Teresa," CW sixth a 0.8 for "Nikita" (up from a 0.6 last week), and Telemundo seventh with a 0.4 for "Los Herederos del Monte."

CBS was first at 10 p.m. with a 2.6 for "The Mentalist," with ABC second with a 2.3 for "Private Practice." NBC was third with a 1.8 for "30 Rock's" season finale (2.1) and "Outsourced" (1.5). Univision and Telemundo tied for fourth at 1.4, Univision for "Triunfo del Amor" and Telemundo for "La Reina del Sur."

Among households, Fox was first for the night with a 9.3 average overnight rating and a 15 share. CBS was second at 7.0/11, ABC third at 4.9/8, NBC fourth at 2.6/4, Univision fifth at 1.8/3, CW sixth at 1.5/2 and Telemundo seventh at 0.8/1.

http://www.medialifemagazine.com/art...-of-sweeps.asp

I've got 8 of them on the DVR and tonight will make 9, I'll tear into them soon enough. I've also got 9 Stargate: Universes saved up, waiting on Monday to complete the set and then I'll get into that one.

Business Notes
Christina Norman To Exit OWN, Peter Liguori To Take Over As Interim CEO
By Nellie Andreeva, Deadline.com - May 6th, 2011

After a little over than 2 years on the job, Christina Norman is leaving as CEO of OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network. Peter Liguori, COO of Discovery Communications, who has been hands-on involved in the fledgling network, a co-venture between Discovery and Winfrey's Harpo, will serve as interim CEO while continuing in his Discovery role.

Discovery and Harpo had been quietly searching for a replacement for Norman for the past couple of months, with CBS syndication executive Terry Wood rumored for the job at one point. Then speculation heated up yesterday that Judy McGrath, who stepped down as chairman and CEO of MTV Networks, may be a prime contender. She was originally approached for the top OWN job in 2008. Word is that no decision will be made for a few months and that the new person may jointly oversee OWN with Liguori.

After a solid launch in January, OWN has failed to generate strong ratings and has been trending just above its predecessor Discovery Health, something Winfrey and Discovery Communications David Zaslav have been unhappy about. Here is the release announcing the change [CLICK LINK BELOW]:

http://www.deadline.com/2011/05/chri...s-interim-ceo/

Doesn't mean her opinion is highly flawed.

Critic's Notes
Five Not Very Good Ideas In Television
By Tim Goodman, The Hollywood Reporter's 'Bastard Machine' Blog - May 6th, 2011

There are always bad ideas in television. There are always lessons that go unlearned. That's why the bulk of my job is focused on "failure analysis." Recently, a handful of bad ideas that I thought might be reconsidered have not been. In fact, they are heating up. So let's dip our toes in the milk of human dumbness.

1. Trying to reboot Two And A Half Men Without Charlie Sheen.

Say what you want about Sheen, but he’s right on this one. He was the show. The audience completely bought into his character, which made even the lamest of the better jokes work.

Is television a writer’s medium? You bet it is. But in Two And A Half Men, Sheen proved that when the writers get lazy, stumble or just aren’t that funny, an actor can make all the difference.

What Chuck Lorre, who has every right to be offended by Sheen’s incendiary riffs on his character and talent, needs to understand is that there’s not a whole lot of funny anywhere else in the show. And beyond the notion of an ill-advised reboot, which would be hard enough to do if an actor left for the movies or simply wasn’t re-upped, the Implosion of Charlie Sheen is pretty much world news. He did not go quietly. And no matter how weirdly insane the whole thing seems, Sheen has proven that he’s pretty damned funny when he’s uncaged. In fact, far funnier than he’s ever been on the show. You can’t fill a void that big. It wouldn’t be fair to anyone you put in the role and would, sad to say, point out how weak the surrounding characters really are.

2. Giving Katie Couric a daytime talk show.

Let’s see – ABC may give a $20 million deal to someone who failed to ignite an audience in the most high profile chair in all of the news world? Really? Say what you will about her “perky” days as a morning show host, but that was a long time ago. A morning show host needs to have no baggage, to be liked by all. In our partisan world, being the poster anchor for the CBS Evening News is going to get you branded, so part of that audience is out. Add to that the Sarah Palin memories. So you're already trying to rebuild a brand -- Couric -- who has already been judged by a chunk of the available audience.

And Couric hardly seems as chipper and chatty as she was back in the day. What people seem to want in a daytime host is Ellen or Oprah. Couric seems to have lost her charm as she’s had to outfit herself with armor against her detractors. The smile seems a little more pinched. And if you ever believed the sincerity, it seems a bit less second nature these days.

But maybe if ABC lands her, they’ll have her do something more? What, exactly, escapes the mind. If you let her do a news special or any kind of reporting, you back-slide on the character reinvention that’s needed to make her likable to everybody. So, what, she’s just going to have a talk show? That's it? For $20 million? Listen, ABC, there’s a reason that CBS passed. And though it may be impolitic to reach out to a competitor, somebody should call Leslie Moonves’ cell phone for a 20 minute chat. It might save you a million dollars a minute.

3. Going forward with The Office, sans Steve Carell.

What happens if you combine going without Sheen in a reboot of his comedy and giving an expensive redo to Couric? You still come up way short of the egregious mistake that is The Office going on without Carell. Come on. Stop milking this thing. The sitcom has had a creatively rocky past two seasons and has mined pretty much all it can from the original premise of awkward moments in the workplace. Any more is just strip-mining and that’s just bad for the environment (and your credibility). Knowing when to let go is hard. Mean people might imply that you should have let go two seasons ago. (Hi. Good to see you again.) Nicer people will say this season was completely unnecessary. There’s a very good chance that everyone will shake their heads in disapproval for next season’s comeback.

Could a revamp shake things up, creatively? Maybe, if it was done right. A celebrity replacement isn’t the answer. Retooling the concept entirely might be more effective. But there’s no reason to be the final season of Scrubs. Nobody needs to be that. Come on. The money’s been mined. Syndication is in place. Opt for dignity. Think about the legacy.

4. Rebooting Law & Order: Los Angeles.

Do you sense a trend here? Have you heard the old story about the guy responsible for undoing the tether that keeps the blimp grounded? Once it goes up – and it can go up in a hurry – if he holds on (and that’s instinctual), he needs to make a quick decision about letting go. Do it fast and you survive, with some bruises. Think about it longer and, well, it ends badly. If hanging on and ending badly, even embarrassingly, is the theme of the first three, then this is the opposite. What the hell is there to hang onto? Law & Order: Los Angeles was bad from the pilot forward. Junking it and changing roles and feeding it back to viewers is an idea that only Dick “Print Me More Money” Wolf could love.

Yes, Wolf practically invented the idea that you can dump your lead actors and kick-start a flagging series with new blood, but he’s not Dr. Frankenstein. LOLA, as it known, was DOA. You can’t sew new heads on the characters and make it work. It’s a bad idea. But obviously, given the instances above, not an idea anyone in the industry has learned a lesson from.

5. Launching gender-specific channels.

Hello women of Poland. Prepare yourself for something uniquely, well, you. It’s called Blink! (from Viacom) and it will target you precisely because you’re female. After you decide to watch something only because it has women in it – like Hot In Cleveland – or because it caters to your “lifestyle,” then women from all around Europe will also get Blink! as well. If you sign up now, you might get a t-shirt you can wear to yoga. The target audience for Blink! is women 16-49 (doesn’t that rule out the cast of Hot In Cleveland?), because everybody knows that women in that demographic like the same things. Why Blink!, ladies? Because OWN and Oxygen and Lifetime and The CW and, well, pretty much the vast majority of channels and shows on television, is clearly not enough for you. Who doesn’t want more options?

While it might be true that women will watch certain programming and men another kind (hence All Things Oprah, Spike, ESPN etc.), it certainly seems that the bases are already covered several times over for females.

And beyond that, isn’t it insulting?

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/bas...d-ideas-186220

I thought SG:U was done months ago. I know they cancelled it. Have they aired new episodes I'm not aware of?

There have been several. I enjoyed it quite a bit...

xnappo

Even if cable passes through the native bit-rate they receive (and they often do), it would still pale in comparison to BD's 36+ Mbps. And beside the higher bit-rate, BDs often use MPEG-4 AVC encoding. Comparing this with OTA or cable/DBS is apples-oranges.

^^^ Yep, and, going by the skyrocketing percentage of people signing up for streaming services, 95% of Americans prefer the fruit that you and I didn't choose.

Syfy announced they were canceling "SG:U" back in December. This was in-between the 20-episode order for Season 2 (10 episodes in 2010, 10 in 2011) which is now airing as a final season (of sorts).

Business Notes
Winfrey and Discovery need to learn a little patience with OWN
By Joe Flint, Los Angeles Times' 'Company Town' Blog - May 6th, 2011

Just 10 days before the Jan. 1 launch of OWN, the cable network co-owned by Discovery Communications and Oprah Winfrey, Discovery Chief Executive David Zaslav told the Los Angeles Times he knew the network would not be a hit from Day One.

"We recognize it's going to take awhile to find a voice," Zaslav said, stressing the need for patience with the cable network.

Apparently "take awhile" meant five months.

On Friday, Discovery and Winfrey announced that Christina Norman was out as chief executive of OWN. The former president of MTV, Norman was brought in by Winfrey and Zaslav to OWN in 2009 to figure out just what the Winfrey voice was. She replaced Robin Schwartz, the first head of OWN, who was shown the door when she too apparently couldn't find Winfrey's voice.

To be sure, the ratings for OWN are pretty dismal. The network's first day drew lots of curious people, but they soon went back to their old viewing habits. The only show to really click at all with viewers is a behind-the-scenes look at Winfrey's last season as a daytime talk show host. Overall, the network is averaging about 300,000 viewers in prime time and 150,000 in total day.

That was to be expected. A channel is not going to be a huge success out of the gate no matter whose name is on it. Winfrey of all people should know this given how long it took Oxygen, another cable network she was involved in, to find its footing.

The challenge for Winfrey and Discovery is they want to provide inspiration to a cable television audience that thrives on desperation. For example, this Saturday OWN is launching "Extraordinary Moms," which the channel's website said, "explores the power of mothers, featuring courageous, brilliant and awe-inspiring women who share a powerful connection: the love they have for their children combined with a fierce desire to protect the future of all children."

It sounds nice, but there is probably a lot more action in an episode of "Jersey Shore." Also premiering soon is "Becoming Chaz," a documentary about Chaz Bono, the offspring of Sonny and Cher who had a sex change operation and is now a man. Again, uplifting and politically correct, but unlikely to bring in millions of viewers.

To get the numbers Discovery and Winfrey want, they are going to have to get dirty. It worked for Bravo. A channel that was once about high art and culture now gets rich off of pathetic housewives. History Network long abandoned history in favor of ice road truckers, whatever they are.

If that is not what Winfrey and Discovery want, then OWN should stick to the high road of feel-good programming with a liberal bent and recognize it will take more than a few months to build a loyal following.

The rub though is that Discovery and Winfrey want the channel to be a huge financial success. Discovery has pumped north of $200 million into OWN and it is charging many distributors north of 20 cents per subscriber, per month to carry the network. Those distributors are not going to be happy paying that much for a channel struggling to outperform C-SPAN.

Christina Norman is taking the fall for OWN's early stumbles. If she was not the right person for the job, Discovery and Winfrey had almost two years before the channel's launch to come to that realization.If they believed in her lineup, then they should have stuck with her and figured out how the channel can bring in more viewers who are tired of the reality sleaze that fills most cable networks. There must be a few million folks out there somewhere who would like that.

Now in the OWN hot seat is Peter Liguori, Discovery's chief operating officer. He will serve as interim chief executive during the search for a permanent replacement. Liguori has a strong track record of success. He played a key role in overhauling News Corp.'s FX, which now has a reputation for cutting-edge programs. From there he went to Fox Broadcasting, where he also delivered until he was squeezed out in a power shift at the company.

A charmer, Liguori knows how to schmooze talent. He managed to keep Paula Abdul happy and functioning on "American Idol" for years, which is no small task. He'll need those skills to balance the needs of Winfrey with those of his bosses at Discovery.

It won't be pretty.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/ente...-with-own.html

TV Sports
Position wanted? Brett Favre interested in TV job
By Michael McCarthy, USA Today - May 6th, 2011

Let the next round of Brett Favre speculation begin: which TV network will hire the now retired NFL quarterback as a TV analyst for the 2011 NFL season, if there is an NFL season.

The 41-year Favre said in an interview he's interested in possibly becoming a TV analyst or coach -- although he has no plans to enter either field any time soon.

The 3-time MVP, whose image was tarnished by a sexting scandal involving New York Jets TV personality Jenn Sterger, told WDAM-TV in Hattiesburg, Miss., he's "starting a new career." Favre gave the interview at a local football camp.

http://content.usatoday.com/communit...ed-in-tv-gig/1

Business Notes
'The Dark Tower' Staff Put On Hiatus As Filmmakers, Studio Address Budget Problems
By Mike Fleming, Deadline.com - May 6th, 2011

Universal Pictures has put pre-production staff on hiatus as they discuss ways to bring down the budget of the ambitious adaptation of the Stephen King novel series The Dark Tower. Talks are ongoing between studio brass, director Ron Howard and his Imagine Entertainment, and writer/producer Akiva Goldsman about how they will proceed. The plan was to make three movies that would star Javier Bardem, with TV miniseries in between each film. The plan was as ambitious as New Line's gamble on The Lord of the Rings years ago.

One thing for sure, even though staffers have been told there's a chance they will return, the plan to start production in September is scratched. If Universal decides the proposition is too rich for its blood -- it recently halted At the Mountains of Madness because it was an R-rated $150 million film -- then the next move would be to bring it to Warner Bros, where Goldsman's Weed Road has its deal. Word that Universal would put the project in turnaround began circulating last night, but both the studio and Imagine denied it. They're still denying it. We've held our tongue until now, when staffers have been told to stop working.

http://www.deadline.com/2011/05/dark...ddress-budget/

Obituary
Marian Mercer, Actress With Zany Streak, Is Dead at 75
By Dennis Hevesi, The New York Times - May 6th, 2011


Marian Mercer with Jerry Orbach in
"Promises, Promises," in 1969.
(Photo: Leo Friedman)

Marian Mercer, a willowy actress with a comedic flair who won a Tony Award in 1969 for her performance in the hit musical “Promises, Promises,” died on April 27 in Newbury Park, Calif. She was 75 and lived in Agoura Hills, Calif.

The cause was complications of Alzheimer’s disease, her husband, Patrick Hogan, said.

Ms. Mercer, a 5-foot-9 blonde with green eyes and, when necessary, a sultry voice, won the Tony for best featured actress in a musical for her portrayal of Marge MacDougall, a pickup girl at Clancy’s Lounge.

“She’s giving one of the most delicious performances on Broadway, a B-girl who would rather die than have you think she’s cheap, as she deftly maneuvers herself into Jerry Orbach’s apartment, looking forward to bed,” The New York Times said.

But Ms. Mercer could handle more weighty characters. Among dozens of roles in repertory theaters around the country, she was Olivia in “Twelfth Night,” Helena in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” and Blanche in “A Streetcar Named Desire.”

In the 1978 Broadway production of “Stop the World — I Want to Get Off ,” Ms. Mercer starred with Sammy Davis Jr., playing the four different women in his life with a mix of song, comedy and even mime.

Ms. Mercer’s zany streak led to frequent television appearances with the likes of Johnny Carson, Jonathan Winters and Dom DeLuise. She was seen on “Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman,” “St. Elsewhere,” “Archie Bunker’s Place” and “The Golden Girls,” among many other shows. And on ABC from 1980 through 1982 (and later in syndication) she played the humorless hostess, Nancy Beebe, on “It’s a Living,” a sitcom that followed the lives of waitresses working in an expensive restaurant atop a hotel in Los Angeles.

Marian Ethel Mercer was born in Akron, Ohio, on Nov. 26, 1935, one of five children of Samuel and Nellie Mercer.

Besides her husband of 31 years, she is survived by her sister, Marjorie Keith, and a daughter, Deidre Whitaker. Her first marriage, to Martin Cassidy, an actor she met soon after coming to New York in 1957, ended in divorce.

She was 8 when she began singing lessons, a passion she pursued at the University of Michigan. There she also began acting, taking roles in summer stock theater. She moved to New York in 1957 and, after stints as a model, a hostess at Schrafft’s restaurant and a file clerk, was cast in the choruses of “Greenwillow” and “Fiorello!”

Her big break came in 1961 when she took over the title role in Rick Besoyan‘s Off Broadway hit “Little Mary Sunshine,” a spoof of old-fashioned operettas and musicals.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/05/th...t-75.html?_r=3

TV Notes
Jillian Michaels Joins 'The Doctors' as Co-Host
By Lesley Goldberg, The Hollywood Reporter - May 6th, 2011

Jillian Michaels has signed a multiyear deal that will see The Biggest Loser trainer join The Doctors as a co-host next season.

In addition, Michaels will become a special correspondent on Dr. Phil, which like Doctors, is produced by CBS TV Distribution.

She has appeared several times on Dr. Phil spinoff The Doctors, which is hosted by Drs. Travis Stork, Jim Sears, Lisa Masterson and Drew Ordon.

“This is literally the most informative show in daytime, and it allows me to continue to educate people on how to make powerful health choices enabling them to take control of not only their physical well-being, but every facet of their lives," Michaels said. "I have thoroughly enjoyed the time I have spent as a guest on the show and becoming a permanent member of the team makes today one of the best yet.”

Michaels will focus on wellness, prevention and lifestyle dynamics in addition to other health-related issues, producers said.

Michaels announced in December that she'd be leaving The Biggest Loser at the end of Season 11 to take a year off and focus on becoming a mom and doing more charity work.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/new...tors-as-186235

Somehow I just don't picture Jillian getting through med school.