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TV Notes
Wednesday's Highlights: 'Penn & Teller Tell a Lie' on Discovery
By Los Angeles Times' 'Show Tracker' Blog - October 4th, 2011

[ALL TIMES LISTED ARE PACIFIC TIME]

FACT OR FICTION?: In the new series “Penn & Teller Tell a Lie,” illusionists Penn Jillette and Teller tell several stories, one is false, the rest true, premiering Wednesday at 10 p.m. on Discovery.

SERIES

Up All Night: Reagan (Christina Applegate) comes to grips with the idea of giving up her convertible in favor of a safer, more practical family car in this new episode (8 p.m. NBC).

Suburgatory: In this new episode, Tessa (Jane Levy) is shocked to realize she's attracted to her neighbor Ryan (Parker Young), a jock who's her exact opposite in every way (8:30 p.m. ABC).

Harry's Law: As the “trial of the year” gets underway, Adam (Nate Corddry) prepares Eric's (Alfred Molina) daughter to take the stand, while Harry (Kathy Bates) frets about Cassie's (Karen Olivo) cross-examination of an important witness (9 p.m. NBC).

America's Next Top Model: In this new episode, the girls audition for a role on “CSI” in front of series creator Anthony Zuiker (9 p.m. KTLA).

MythBusters: Adam and Jamie attempt to build a supersized Newton's Cradle in this new episode (9 p.m. Discovery).

Top Chef: Just Desserts: In this new episode, the quick-fire challenge has the chefs choosing the perfect coffee-and-doughnut combinations (10 p.m. Bravo).

American Horror Story: In this new series, a therapist moves his family across the country to escape their troubled past, but quickly discovers their new home comes with its own baggage and a few surprises (10 p.m. FX).

Dance Moms: Abby's dancers are cast to perform in a music video in the season finale (10 p.m. Lifetime).

MOVIES

George Harrison: Living in the Material World: This new two-part documentary from filmmaker Martin Scorsese focuses on the musical and spiritual voyage of the late George Harrison, from his musical beginnings in Liverpool, England, through his life as a musician, seeker, philanthropist and filmmaker. It's told through interviews with Harrison and his closest friends, including former Beatles band mates Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr. Part 2 airs Thursday (9 p.m. HBO).

SPORTS

Baseball: MLB playoffs (3 and 6:30 p.m. TBS).

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/show...discovery.html

Obituary
A.C. Nielsen Jr., Who Built Ratings Firm, Dies at 92
By Bill Carter, The New York Times - October 5th, 2011

Arthur C. Nielsen Jr., who transformed the company his father founded in 1923 into an international leader in market research, helping to make its name synonymous with television ratings, died on Monday in Winnetka, Ill., where he lived most of his life. He was 92.

He had Parkinson's disease, family members said in announcing his death.

The son of Arthur C. Nielsen, Mr. Nielsen became president of the A. C. Nielsen Company in 1957 and its chairman in 1975. He presided over the company's growth from a modest operation, generating less than $4 million a year in revenue, to one with revenue of more than $680 million.

He worked for the company his entire adult life, joining in 1945 after serving four years in World War II as a major in the Corps of Engineers. One part of his wartime experience gave him insight into the potential importance of computers. He was assigned to construct a building to house a machine that would create elaborate tables to calculate the metrics for firing big artillery guns accurately.

Mr. Nielsen recognized the potential to use such calculations in the family business, which at that point had gained most of its profit from an index that measured and tracked sales of items in food and drug stores. The company, one of the first ever to offer market research, also began to measure radio stations' audience size in 1936. But even after expanding to a national service in 1942, the radio arm of the business was not profitable.

In 1948, at Mr. Nielsen's urging, the company invested $150,000 in building the first general-purpose computer, the Univac.

His father remained the entrepreneur of the company and led the way to creation of the first television audience measurement system in 1950. The younger Mr. Nielsen, who was known more for institutionalizing his father's innovations, moved the company into new areas, like the creation of a clearinghouse for coupons, a service that had become a business generating more than $90 million in sales by the time the younger Mr. Nielsen retired.

He also led the company into tracking subscription data for magazines and even tracking oil and gas wells in the United States and Canada. And as chairman he presided over the development of scanning technology in its early days, allowing the company to collect information on consumer purchases of all kinds. The most visible expansion of the Nielsen business took place in the media measurement division. Nielsen fought to retain its place critics have long labeled it a monopoly over the measurement of television ratings, beating back the challenges of several potential rivals. As cable television began vastly expanding the number of networks needing national measurement, Nielsen was positioned to provide the numbers each of those channels needed to sell time to advertisers.

Arthur Charles Nielsen Jr. was born in Winnetka on April 8, 1919, the oldest of five children of Arthur C. and Gertrude Nielsen. While an Army engineer he met Patricia McKnew and soon married her. He was a graduate of the University of Wisconsin.

An avid athlete, Mr. Nielsen played competitive tennis until he was in his 80s and had the distinction of winning the United States Father-Son Doubles Championships with his father in 1946 and 1948. He later represented the United States in senior tennis tournaments. He also won Midwest-based father-son doubles championships with two sons, Arthur III and Chris.

Patricia Nielsen died in 2005. Mr. Nielsen is survived by his sons as well as a daughter, Elizabeth Cocciarelli; a brother, Philip; two sisters, Margaret Stiegele and the Rev. Barbara Nielsen; and seven grandchildren. His father died in 1980.

Mr. Nielsen served on the boards of more than 20 companies, including Dun & Bradstreet, Walgreen, Marsh & McLennan and Motorola, and advised three presidents.

He also appeared as a mystery guest on the postwar TV show What's My Line? and was questioned about his line of work by the panelists Arlene Francis, Bennett Cerf and others.

Accepting the company's strict retirement policy, Mr. Nielsen stepped down from active leadership in 1983 and became chairman emeritus. The following year he engineered the sale of A. C. Nielsen to the Dun & Bradstreet Corporation for $1.3 billion in stock.

The company has since been acquired by the Dutch publishing company VNU. But it has retained the name Nielsen, largely based on brand recognition. In many circles of the television business, ratings are still frequently referred to simply as the Nielsens.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/05/bu...t-92.html?_r=2

TV Notes
Creepy, sexy 'Horror Story' on FX
By Jonathan Storm, Philadelphia Enquirer - October 4th, 2011

You've never seen anything like American Horror Story on TV before. And you may not want to see it now.

But fans of the horror genre - not the splatter trash of the Saw or Chainsaw Massacre series, but the creepy, psychological, and, yes, sexy, gory stuff of classics like Rosemary's Baby or The Shining - won't be disappointed.

FX, still No. 1 on basic cable for challenging, edgy material, has teamed up again with Nip/Tuck's Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuck on Horror Story, which premieres Wednesday at 10 p.m.

The pair, also responsible for Fox's Glee, have a tendency to start strongly and then get a little lost, but that needn't concern us here, since we're at the beginning, and Horror Story is as gripping as anything on TV.

You may find yourself looking for something to grip when the doll (or are they real?) baby heads start spinning or some unsuspecting ninny starts down the basement stairs. There are almost as many grim specimens preserved down there as there are in the Mütter Museum, and way more murderous evil spirits, some of whom may also manifest themselves upstairs as plain old human beings.

Or maybe not so plain. One appears to be a deeply troubled teenager who becomes the patient of the house's new owner, psychiatrist Ben Harmon (Dylan McDermott).

Another is the strangest maid, Moira O'Hara, who appears to be worse-for-wear Tony-award winner and Six Feet Under matriarch Frances Conroy, 57, except when seen through Harmon's eyes. Then, she's sex-crazed, 31-year-old Alexandra Breckenridge. This can be somewhat embarrassing for Harmon when his teenage daughter sees him all glassy-eyed as the old lady gropes him.

Next-door neighbor Constance, who has a daughter with Down syndrome and an unhealthy interest in the house, might be the most dangerous of them all. "I'd move if I were you," she warns Moira. "Don't make me kill you again."

Jessica Lange, in her first regular TV series role, is having the time of her life as a faded Southern beauty who acknowledges to Harmon and his wife, Vivien, that she was doing pretty well until "the Mongoloid" came along.

When we first meet the kid, in 1978, she's a little thing chanting, "You're gonna regret it," as a pair of strange-looking twins go into the house bent on vandalism.

They do regret it.

We know the age-old story, which is that no one in their right mind should go into places like this, but, of course, they do.

In this case, Ben and Vivien can't resist a bargain, even if the last residents, a gay couple, died in an apparent murder-suicide, but, of course, we know better about that, too. The second episode starts with a grim murder in 1968, followed by the revelation that the house is on a present-day Los Angeles murder tour, which you'd think potential buyers would know all about, but, of course, they never do.

Since the show is full of surprises, I thought I'd slip one in, too, waiting all this time before telling you that Vivien is played by Connie Britton, so marvelous in Friday Night Lights, and a key piece of casting here, too. Murphy said he wrote the part with her in mind.

Vivien is the strong, reasonable spouse in the marriage. Ben is a sleazy dog whom she walked in on back in Boston as he was bedding one of his students.

They sold everything and moved west with daughter Violette seeking a new start. But it just may be the end of them, especially when Vivien gets pregnant after a very hot session with Ben dressed in one of those kinky latex sex suits.

We know it's not Ben, but, of course, she doesn't. We know whatever's growing inside her is the last thing that will save their marriage, but, of course, they don't.

And so it goes in a show that's a homage to all the '70s psycho-horror films, none, perhaps, as much as Don't Look Now, a juicy 1973 British entry starring Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie.

The film isn't as famous here as some of its American cousins, but, in part because of its fantastic editing and use of the supernatural to examine the inner workings of a marriage torn apart not by infidelity but by grief, it was slotted at No. 8 in a British Film Institute poll of the top British films of the 20th Century.

American Horror Story may not rank that high on a TV list, but fans of this kind of thing will want to chop themselves in half, strangle in a bathtub, and slit their throats - just to name a few of the things that happen in the first two episodes - if they miss it.

AMERICAN HORROR STORY
10 p.m. Wednesday on FX

http://articles.philly.com/2011-10-0...ylan-mcdermott

TV Notes
'George Harrison: Living in the Material World'
Martin Scorsese's documentary shows a man more complex than the 'Quiet Beatle' label suggests
By Mary McNamara, Los Angeles Times - October 5th, 2011

"George Harrison: Living in the Material World," which premieres Wednesday and Thursday on HBO, is a long, lovely meditation on the Beatle sometimes called the Quiet One and the quiet one sometimes called a Beatle. Directed by Martin Scorsese at the invitation of widow Olivia Harrison, it is not especially informative in the way documentaries usually strive to be, a cataloging of causes and effects and significant facts and figures; nor has it been made as a brief for George's unsung genius. In fact, it leaves a lot out and doesn't always explain what it puts in. But it is not really so much a film about a career as it is about a life and not so much about a life of events as of spiritual progress a portrait of character more than of "a character."

Any new Beatles-related documentary is going to need to find a different way through familiar material, a way made more difficult by the group's own enormous 1995 "Anthology" (more than 11 hours in the DVD cut). Certainly some well-trod ground is trod here again, but Scorsese generally stays off the beaten path. Coming 10 years after Harrison's death from cancer at 58, "Living in the Material World" draws heavily on the singer's own collection of photographs, films, recordings and documents. There are letters read by his son, Dhani ("Don't think I've gone off my rocker because I haven't," he wrote home from India), self-portraits in a fisheye lens, a tape of his first sitar lesson with Ravi Shankar "the first person to impress me," among the impressive people the Beatles met, "because he didn't try to impress me."

Broadly speaking, it's Scorsese's follow-up to "No Direction Home," his 2005 PBS film about Bob Dylan, also made to run over two nights. This may be the better work, for its depth of feeling and its relatively more forthcoming and knowable subject. Scorsese, with editor David Tedeschi (who also cut the Dylan documentary), arranges his elements musically, beginning and ending with an image of George playing peek-a-boo behind a bed of tulips, as voices speak of his death, his absence and his presence-in-absence. The rhythms of the film seem to be purposely abrupt, cutting in and out of songs and between scenes of sound and silence, pressure and release, public and private space, as if to underscore Harrison's own dual nature, much remarked upon here. (Ringo Starr notes his "love, bag-of-beads personality and also the bag of anger.")

We see George as the meditating Beatle, the skeptical Beatle, the movie-producing ex-Beatle, the ex-Beatle whose first wife, Patti Boyd, leaves him for Eric Clapton. (Clapton and Boyd have radically different memories of this episode.) We hear from the expected quarters (Paul McCartney, overestimating the world's underestimation of George and Ringo; Ringo, his usual sweet self), the less expected (a pre-incarcerated Phil Spector, looking like something out of David Lynch) and the unexpected (Jackie Stewart, the race-car driver). We see him, distressingly close-up, on a 1974 solo tour, during which he sounded bad and looked worse, and learn that there were times when he did a lot of cocaine and slept with women not his wife. Having got a whiff of this, the National Enquirer declared, "Shocking new doc rips the lid off the Quiet Beatle." But that is hardly the effect of this film a love letter, warts and all.

The youngest of the Fab Four a "cocky little guy," as McCartney recalls him in their shared school days but perhaps the oldest soul, George was only 27 when the group split up. His early death notwithstanding, he had a lot of living to do, and though it accounts only for the last third of the film, it's where the drama subtly starts to gather. Olivia Harrison narrates, in terrifying detail, the 1999 in-home attack that left her husband with multiple knife wounds and a collapsed lung.

But light and dark alternate until the end, with light getting the last word. His last records are among his best, and life in the end came down to ukuleles and gardening, the sky and sea, and an evidently satisfying sense of his own temporality. (Scorsese's film, which takes its name from one Harrison song, might as easily have taken it from another: "All Things Must Pass.") Which, all this considered, is nice work if you can get it, in the immaterial material world.

GEORGE HARRISON: LIVING IN THE MATERIAL WORLD
Wednesday and Thursday at 9PM on HBO

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment...,1470665.story

Critic's Notes
Four Ways Steven Spielberg TV Shows Feel Like Bad Spielberg Knockoffs
By Bilge Ebiri, New York Magazine's 'Vulture' Blog - October 4th, 2011

Steven Spielberg is known for revisiting similar themes in his films (families divided and reunited, small bands against giant threats, etc.), but his big-screen work usually transcends the vaguely sanitized, family friendly clichés many associate with his brand. Even when you look at his earliest films, you see that they're much more complicated than the stereotypes imply: E.T. is a lot darker than you remember; Close Encounters of the Third Kind is mysteriously open-ended; and even Raiders of the Lost Ark, while willfully old-fashioned, could still give the best horror movie a run for its money in the gore and shock department. And yet, when it comes to his TV fantasy-action series Seaquest DSV, Falling Skies, and now Terra Nova the filmmaker's tropes can conform to the worst generalizations of his work. You feel like you're watching the result of an executive yelling at some TV journeyman, "Gimme something that feels like Spielberg!" except that the executive in this case is Spielberg himself.

Here are four major Spielberg go-to themes, and an examination of how nuanced they are in his films, as compared to the two-dimensional TV variations.

Keeping the Family Together

This is, of course, the Great Spielberg Theme, and as presented in his films (for the most part), it's quite compelling. There's E.T.'s iconic, weighty vision of a suburban single-mom-and-three-kids family that sticks together. You really do hope that this family will make it, and the way that E.T. helps make their lives whole again has a power that still resonates to this day. But Spielberg can also complicate this vision of family. Think of how one family (Melinda Dillon's) tries desperately to reunite itself in Close Encounters, while another one (Richard Dreyfuss's) is split apart. Or the way that the robot boy David in A.I. becomes attached to his family even as they begin to consider discarding him. Or consider the looming figure of John Adams, who haunts the epic final speech given by John Quincy Adams in Amistad.

And now, look at the TV shows. Terra Nova is just two episodes old, and we can already see how this is going to go. The Shannons are the Family That Must Not Be Separated, no matter what, and the only reason they were separated in the first place was because they ran afoul of evil futuristic population control laws by having a third child in other words, they had too much family! Their survival as a family already feels like a given; we're rooting for them not because we particularly like them, but rather because we have to. In Seaquest DSV, Roy Scheider's Captain Bridger actually lost his family years ago, and as a result wound up forging a familial bond with the crew, particularly with young Lucas Wolenczak (Jonathan Brandis) and Dr. Kristin Westphalen (Stephanie Beacham), and later Dr. Wendy Smith (Rosalind Allen). It was like a big underwater Christmas card. And Falling Skies is all about Tom Mason's (Noah Wyle) dedication to keeping his family together at the expense of pretty much everything else. It makes us think: If Close Encounters were a Spielberg TV show, Richard Dreyfuss would basically see those UFOs flying over him and say, Huh, interesting. Some single guy should probably investigate that, I've gotta get home for the barbecue!

The Search for the Lost Child

This variation on the keeping-the-family-together theme gains thematic resonance all its own in Spielberg's films. Consider the chilling moment near the end of A.I. when William Hurt's Professor Hobby is revealed to have created the robot David in his own dead son's image. Even the disappearance of the children in Hook (one of Spielberg's least-liked films) is given a terrifying dramatic urgency just by virtue of the way it's shot: The camera and the parents follow a deep groove torn into the wall by the Captain's hook, leading up the stairs to the children's empty bedroom as if a terrifying fairy tale has suddenly become all too real. The entire dramatic arc of Saving Private Ryan with its mission to save the last surviving Ryan brother is basically just an entire nation/family trying to redeem its last innocent.

In the TV shows, the search for the lost child loses most of its depth. In Falling Skies, Tom Mason's attempts to retrieve his son Ben from his alien captors and reintegrate him into human society are just a hook to keep us watching; plotwise, he could just as well be searching for an antidote or an anti-alien ray gun or some E.T.-B-GONE spray. And when an authority figure has a lost child on these shows it rarely feels real, because they eventually turn up just about every time. We're told Seaquest's Bridger lost a son in combat but he's later revealed to be alive. Falling Skies' Captain Dan Weaver (Will Patton) lost his family during the alien invasion; it is later revealed that they may be alive. Terra Nova's Nathan Taylor (Stephen Lang) lost a son in an earlier settlement, and all indications at the end of episode one are that he is still alive. Boy, the parents of Rosie Larsen on The Killing probably wish their show had been produced by Spielberg.

Science vs. Authority

Spielberg's films are often full of heroic scientists and doctors who have to contend with military and/or police and/or other types of authoritarian figures. But it's never so simple. For example, the scientist in Close Encounters, even though he's played by Francois Truffaut, is kind of an ambivalent figure. (You'd think Spielberg would have cast the auteur as a hero, right?) The scientists and G-men in E.T. are working in cahoots and as such are ambivalent and unfeeling toward our characters. Meanwhile, the scientists in Minority Report turn out to be far more evil than the cops, who are just the unthinking arms of a police state founded on science.

The TV shows, however, stick to the formula that scientists are the forces for good while the cops or military leaders are the stubborn dopes who need to be convinced not to just hit things with a stick or the firearm equivalent thereof. Dr. Westphalen and Dr. Smith in Seaquest were kind, pretty, and dutifully presented the scientific side in debates with the uptight Commander Ford (Don Franklin). In Falling Skies, Dr. Anne Glass (Moon Bloodgood) must make doe eyes at Tom Mason while dutifully presenting the civilian side in debates with the militaristic Captain Weaver. Terra Nova has it both ways: The scientist and her hero, tough-guy husband are on the side of good; however, there's also the gruff Commander (Stephen Lang) who seems to have a nefarious secret. Hit him with a test tube bottle!

Kids on Their Own

With broken families come children who have to fend for themselves. Sometimes they're just spiritual orphans: From the resourceful Jim (Christian Bale) in Empire of the Sun who has to survive the invasion of Shanghai and a Japanese internment camp during WWII, or Catch Me If You Can's Frank Abagnale (Leonardo DiCaprio) who flees home and strikes up a lucrative career as a con man (all in an effort to somehow reunite his broken family, of course). Sometimes they're orphan orphans: The Lost Boys in Hook, or the precog Agatha in Minority Report; in all these cases, though, there's a real sense of tragic incompleteness which Spielberg uses to give his stories a kind of moral force.

On the TV shows, however, being an orphan, much like having lost a child, is used either as a simple plot contrivance or as instant, just-add-water character development. In Seaquest, there was a lame episode in which the crew encountered a ship full of orphans and had to well, not exactly do battle with them, but just kind of convince them not to resist too much. In Falling Skies, the teen orphans Karen Nadler (Jessy Schram) and Lourdes (Seychelle Gabriel) gravitate to the Mason family: Friends 4-eva! And in Terra Nova, we can already sense that the beautiful teenage loner Skye (Allison Miller) is going to become a love interest to the brother and a big sister figure to the girls in the family. Will the show be able to do more with this character? We hope so, but if history has proven anything, it won't. And her parents will probably turn out to be alive, too.

http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment...elberg_tv.html

Business Notes
Analyst: Fox Could Get Around $750 Million in New Syndication Revenue After 'Simpsons' Cancellation
By Georg Szalai, The Hollywood Reporter - October 4th, 2011

NEW YORK - Ironically, a potential cancellation of animated hit show The Simpsons could open up additional revenue to the tune of around $750 million for News Corp. and its Fox unit, RBC Capital Markets analyst David Bank said late Tuesday. Plus, it could add to the company's stock price by boosting financials, he said.

"The original syndication deal (struck about 17 years ago) prevented Fox from selling the show into any other distribution mechanism but local broadcast," he wrote in a research note entitled "D'oh! Possible Cancellation Of The Simpsons Could Result In Windfall For News Corp."

"Ironically, the cancellation of the show would allow News Corp. to finally sell off-network syndication rights into cable channels (and potentially to online distributors)," he explained, calling the potential windfall for Fox "massive."

After all, cable was "relatively insignificant" in terms of off-network syndication at the time of the original deal, Bank said. "But over the ensuing years, cable grew to be as big an opportunity as (if not bigger than) local broadcast."

Fox's TV studio had said earlier on Tuesday that the financial model of the Simpsons wasn't sustainable anymore. A report said the studio was looking to cut voice actors' salaries by 45 percent.

Canceling The Simpsons could allow Fox to "essentially abrogate" the original syndication agreement, "potentially allowing for about $750 million of incremental content monetization," Bank said.

He estimated that cable syndication and maybe online distributors could fetch $1 million-$2 million per episode in what is a library of 506 episodes.

"We believe Fox would probably only have the rights for about 15-17 seasons initially (with the rest tied-up in the original broadcast syndication cycle) and we'd imagine Fox would spread the delivery of episodes across a number of years," Bank suggested.

Overall, this could create 10 cents per share-plus in stock value for News Corp. shareholders when assuming $1.5 million per episode and 60 percent profit margins, according to the analyst. A lack of a positive resolution of a labor dispute between Simpsons cast members and the Fox TV studio and a potential resulting cancellation of the show "could be more positive for News Corp. stock than one might think," Bank concluded.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/new...ication-243776

Exactly. Her character ruins the show. It's supposed to be about the couple, not her and the couple. The couple is almost an afterthought at times.

Nielsen Notes (Broadcast)
CBS's Andy Rooney goes out with a bang
Sunday's '60 Minutes' farewell averages 17 million viewers
By Toni Fitzgerald, Media Life Magazine - October 5th, 2011

Anyone who thought that Andy Rooney, at 92 years old, had become a cultural afterthought might be surprised by the numbers for his farewell appearance on "60 Minutes."

Rooney's much-hyped final episode drew "60 Minutes'" biggest audience in months on Sunday night, when the newsmagazine aired the longtime contributor's last essay along with a retrospective on his career.

"Minutes" averaged 17.1 million total viewers on Sunday from 7:23 p.m. to 8:23 p.m., up 39 percent over last week's season premiere, according to Nielsen data, and the show's biggest October audience in four years.

The show averaged a 3.5 in adults 18-49, up 52 percent over last week, and a 5.0 in 25-54s, a 47 percent bump.

Certainly part of that bump was due to the huge lead-in from NFL football, which "Minutes" did not have last week.

But Rooney's exit, announced just a few days before Sunday's show, also drove viewership, as online evidence suggests.

"Andy Rooney" was the top search term on Google for much of Sunday night and Monday morning, after his final "Minutes" piece aired.

Social media references to "Minutes" were way up over the previous week, with the show going from the 46th most-mentioned TV program on Sept. 25 to the 29th most mentioned on Sunday, according to SocialGuide, a social media measuring company.

Comments about the show shot up 61 percent from the prior week, and unique commenters were up 62 percent.

And as of yesterday, the story about Rooney that ran just before his final commentary was still the No. 2 most-watched video on the CBS News web site.

* * * *

In broadcast ratings for the week ended Oct. 2:

Among adults 18-49, CBS was first for the week with a 3.2 average rating and a 9 share, followed by Fox at 2.8/8, NBC at 2.4/7, ABC at 2.4/6, Univision 1.7/5, CW at 0.8/2, Telemundo at 0.5/1, ION and TeleFutura at 0.2/1, and Azteca and Estrella at 0.1/0.

Top five English-language Big Five shows (18-49s): 1. NBC's "Sunday Night Football" 7.7; 2. CBS's "Two and a Half Men" 7.4; 3. ABC's "Modern Family" 5.7; 4. CBS's "The Big Bang Theory" 4.9; 5. CBS's "Mike & Molly" 4.8.

Top five English-language Big Five shows (total viewers): 1 CBS's "Two and a Half Men" 20.53 million; 2. CBS's "NCIS" 19.51 million; 3. NBC's "Sunday Night Football" 18.90 million; 4. CBS's "60 Minutes" 17.11; 5. CBS's "NCIS: Los Angeles" 16.27 million.

Show on the rise: CBS's "The Amazing Race," Sunday 8:23 p.m. The reality competition was a rare show to show gains in its second week of the season, going from a 3.0 18-49 rating to a 3.2.

Show on the decline: NBC's "Free Agents," Wednesday 8:30 p.m. The comedy posted a 1.0 among 18-49s, down 23 percent from an already-low 1.3 the previous week.

http://www.medialifemagazine.com/art...ith-a-bang.asp

Nielsen Notes (Cable)
For Showtime, a Sunday to buzz about
Hefty debuts for 'Dexter' and the new 'Homeland'
By Toni Fitzgerald, Media Life Magazine - October 5th, 2011

The most important thing for pay cable networks like Showtime, HBO and Starz is to draw buzz for their new shows, which prompts people to subscribe to the channels.

Critical acclaim is one way to generate that buzz, and so is big viewership. Showtime's new Sunday lineup seems to have both.

The sixth-season debut of serial killer drama "Dexter" and the premiere of the new terrorism drama "Homeland" both drew strong numbers this weekend.

"Dexter" averaged 2.2 million total viewers at 9 p.m., according to Nielsen, up 24 percent over last year's debut. It marked the best bow for any Showtime series, drama or comedy, since "Stargate" in 1997.

Lead-out "Homeland" lost half that audience at 10 p.m., but it still drew enough viewers, 1.1 million, to become Showtime's most-watched premiere in eight years, since the short-lived show "Dead Like Me."

The debuts are all the more impressive considering the broadcast competition. Both shows aired against NBC's "Sunday Night Football," the highest-rated program on TV last season, and "Dexter" was in the same hour as "Desperate Housewives" and "Family Guy."

But both shows drew enough pre-premiere buzz to attract strong audiences. "Dexter," a longtime critical darling, was featured in dozens of newspapers and magazines leading up to the debut, in part because of yet another high-profile guest star, Edward James Olmos.

Past long-term guest stars include Julia Stiles, John Lithgow and Jimmy Smits, all of whom have acted as Dexter's killing protégés or muses, bringing a new dimension to the show each season, and Olmos should do the same as a charismatic religion professor.

"Homeland," meanwhile, marked the return of "My So-Called Life's" Claire Daines to series television. Though "Life" lasted just one season, Daines has been a cult figure ever since, and that undoubtedly drew in curious viewers for the show, which got great reviews.

"Claire Danes' volatile facial expressions were perfect for the sensitive adolescent girl she played in 'My So-Called Life' and although they now make her a bit too intense for many adult roles, they're perfect for Carrie," writes Media Life TV critic Tom Conroy in a recent review of "Homeland."

If viewership remains strong for the shows, this could be Showtime's first pairing of formidable dramas in years.

The network has been better known for its dark, acclaimed comedies in recent years, including "Weeds," "The Big C" and "Nurse Jackie."

* * * *

In cable ratings for the week ended Oct. 2:

Top five networks in primetime (18-49s): ESPN, TBS, USA, FX, MTV.

Top five networks in primetime (total viewers): ESPN, USA, Disney Channel, TBS, Fox News Channel.

Top five cable news networks in primetime (25-54): Fox News Channel, MSNBC, CNN, HLN, CNBC.

Top five cable news programs (total viewers): 1. Fox News Channel's "The O'Reilly Factor" (Thursday, 8 p.m.); 2. Fox News Channel's "The O'Reilly Factor" (Wednesday, 8 p.m.); 3. Fox News Channel's "The O'Reilly Factor" (Monday, 8 p.m.); 4. Fox News Channel's "The O'Reilly Factor" (Tuesday, 8 p.m.); 5. Fox News Channel's "The O'Reilly Factor" (Friday, 8 p.m.)

Top movie (18-49s): No movie during the week made the top 50 among 18-49s.

Top sporting event (total viewers): ESPN's "Monday Night Football: Redskins/Cowboys" (Monday, 8:30 p.m.) 17.10 million.

Shows making the top 10 among 18-34s, 18-49s and 25-54s: MTV's "Jersey Shore" (Thursday, 10 p.m.); ESPN's "Monday Night Football: Redskins/Cowboys" (Monday, 7:30 p.m.); ESPN's "SportsCenter" (Monday, 11:46 p.m.); ESPN's "Yankees/Tampa Bay" (Wednesday, 12:05 a.m.)

Show on the rise: ESPN's "Monday Night Football" Monday, 7:30 p.m. The teams involves definitely makes a difference for "MNF"--last week's game between the Cowboys an Redskins averaged 17.10 million total viewers, up 43 percent from the previous week's game between the Rams and Giants.

Show on the decline: Comedy Central's "Workaholics," Tuesday, 10:30 p.m. The comedy averaged 1.04 million viewers 18-34, off 29 percent from 1.46 million the previous week.

http://www.medialifemagazine.com/art...buzz-about.asp

TV Review
'George Harrison: Living in the Material World': Scorsese's documentary feels less than fun
By David Hinckley, New York Daily News - October 5th, 2011

You'd like to think that being one of the Beatles had to be more fun than this long and surprisingly dry Martin Scorsese documentary makes it seem.

But "George Harrison," which premieres Wednesday night and Thursday night at 9 on HBO, makes the life of the "quiet Beatle" look like a homework assignment - something to be navigated more than savored.

The low level of joy and exhilaration seems more perplexing as the documentary rolls on, because Scorsese knows rock 'n' roll, he's got plenty of time to tell this tale, and he talks to all the right people.

Surviving Beatles Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr reminisce at length about George, who died of lung cancer in November 2001.

His wife, Olivia, remembers all their years. Scorsese coaxes memories from people like Neil Aspinall, the long-time Beatles aide and insider who almost never talks to anyone. Eric Clapton describes wooing away George's first wife, Patty. Phil Spector even chimes in.

Yet in the end, we learn little beyond the standard biography that has circulated for years: that George sometimes felt like a junior Beatle, that he involved himself deeply in spiritual pursuits, that he was happiest in his later years when he disappeared into his country estate and tended his gardens while mulling the eternal.

There's clearly a lot of truth to that general outline, and perhaps at this point there are no significant new dimensions or perspectives anyone could add.

But the polite, sometimes circumspect language from almost every interviewee creates the collective sense that they're still respecting George's wishes to keep part of himself private.

He clearly had little use for the media, surfacing only when something like his Bangladesh concert needed promotion. Even then, he was elusive about himself, and the celebrity and credibility of Scorsese can't pry much more out of those who knew him best.

In contrast to Scorsese's other work, like his Bob Dylan documentary and "The Last Waltz," "George Harrison" feels like it doesn't get far below the surface.

In the process, it makes Harrison's life look surprisingly unsatisfying. He comes across as someone who didn't particularly enjoy his success and who found constant annoyance in the encounters of life, from the taxman to the flower children of Haight-Ashbury, who he said just looked like "bums" and "addicts."

A number of interviewees comment on how much George enjoyed music, and how hard he worked to play it well. Yet out of that we rarely feel any real sense of joy, any sense of how much he loved Carl Perkins and Eddie Cochran records, any sense that being a Beatle and later a successful solo artist gave him as much pleasure as it gave people listening.

Part of it had to be fun. If it never was, then this documentary isn't just frustrating. It's heartbreaking.

'GEORGE HARRISON: LIVING IN THE MATERIAL WORLD'
Wednesday and Thursday at 9PM on HBO
Rating: ★★★ (out of five)

http://www.nydailynews.com/entertain...ry_feels_.html

(International) TV Sports/Business Notes
Ruling Upends Soccer Rights
EU Court Says Premier League Can't Prevent Re-Broadcasting Into Other Nation
By Paul Sonne and Frances Robinson, Wall Street Journal - October 5th, 2011

Europe's highest court ruled that the way England's main soccer league distributes TV rights in the European Union violates single-market rules, a decision that could jeopardize the lucrative relationships sports leagues have built with pay-TV broadcasters across the continent.

In a ruling Tuesday, the European Court of Justice said England's Premier League is free to sell rights to broadcasters on a country-by-country basis in the EUbut can't prevent a broadcaster in any one EU country from selling the content in another member state.

That may pave the way for customers in Britain to buy cheaper feeds of matches from satellite-TV operators in other European countries, rather than buying expensive subscriptions from British Sky Broadcasting Group PLC, the dominant Premier League rights holder in the U.K. The ruling is especiallysignificant for U.K. pubs, which have chafed at paying BSkyB thousands of pounds per year to show matches in their establishments.

"This is a significant blow for the Premier League after a long-running battle," Ian Giles, a London-based antitrust lawyer at Norton Rose LLP, said Tuesday. "For Sky, ESPN and other rights holders, suddenly they have paid a lot of money for U.K. exclusivity which is not enforceable."

The ruling could affect the value of the Premier League rights in the next round of bidding or spark an overhaul in the way rights are distributed, including a potential move to pan-European deals.

At stake is a multibillion-dollar business that the Premier League has built over two decades in conjunction with BSkyB. In 2009, BSkyB paid £1.6 billion ($2.48 billion) for the U.K. rights to 115 Premier League games a year from 2010 until 2013. Walt Disney Co.'s ESPN bought the remaining U.K. rights to 23 games a year for an undisclosed sum, estimated to be roughly £200 million.

Tuesday's ruling potentially poses a challenge to other sports leagues in Europe and possibly other industries that rely on country-by-country rights deals.

The Premier League, which includes famous soccer clubs such as Chelsea, Manchester United and Arsenal, said it is looking at how the ruling might affect the future sale of rights.

"The areas of law involved are complicated and necessarily we will take our time to digest and understand the full meaning of the judgment," the league said in a prepared statement.

A BSkyB spokesman said the ruling would have "implications for how rights are sold across Europe." The pay-TV broadcaster is considering those implications, he said.

News Corp., which owns The Wall Street Journal, holds a 39.1% stake in BSkyB.

The court case, which dates back to 2006, involves English pub owner Karen Murphy, who bought a decoder from Greece thatwhen inserted into a set-top boxallowed her pub to receive Premier League satellite broadcasts from the Greek pay-TV provider NOVA.

The Greek decoder cost Ms. Murphy significantly less than a Sky Sports subscription from BSkyB, according to her lawyer, Paul Dixon. A Sky subscription that includes Premier League soccer costs £12,000 a year on average for a commercial venue.

Media Protection Services Ltd., the company the Premier League instructs to prosecute rights violators, targeted Ms. Murphy for her use of the Greek decoder. Ms. Murphy was convicted but appealed to the U.K. High Court, which referred the matter to the European Court of Justice for clarification, Mr. Dixon said.

Media Protection Services declined to comment.

Now, the matter goes back to the U.K. High Court, which must interpret the European Court of Justice's ruling and decide whether to overturn Ms. Murphy's conviction. The U.K. High Court is expected to consider the matter in the next few months.

Ms. Murphy's criminal case is grouped with a parallel civil case that the Premier League has brought against QC Leisure, the company that sold Ms. Murphy the Greek decoder.

Complicating Tuesday's ruling, the European court said the Premier League's music, as well as its recorded highlights and graphics, are protected under copyright; matches themselves are not. That potentially means a pub in the U.K. could air a Greek broadcast of a game but not the bits that fall under U.K. copyright or even the sound.

The Premier League sees that part of the ruling as positive. "We are pleased that the judgment makes it clear that the screening in a pub of football-match broadcasts containing protected works requires the Premier League's authorisation," the league said in a statement.

British pubs welcomed the ruling Tuesday. "Perhaps now, football will become more affordable for pubs," said Brigid Simmonds, head of the British Beer & Pub Association.

Some parts of the European Parliament hailed it as a victory for consumers, while others said it threatened sports funding across Europe.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...275047440.html

TV Review
'American Horror Story': Scarily scatterbrained
By David Hinckley, New York Daily News - October 5th, 2011

Look on the bright side: At least this time, you can't say you weren't warned.

Indeed, if nothing else, viewers should be grateful to Ryan Murphy for skipping a step. With his last FX series, Nip/Tuck, and his current Fox series, Glee which, like Horror, he co-created with Brad Falchuk Murphy's pattern was to start off just weird enough to suck you in and then go wild enough to drive you away. No such worries here: American Horror Story is already completely, unabashedly nuts.

No, that doesn't mean it can't get even crazier. But when a show is this far off the rails in its opening episode, it's pretty much telling you what kind of ride you're in for. This is, after all, the kind of story where the next-door neighbor Constance (a completely fabulous Jessica Lange having a romping good time) can tell someone, "Don't make me kill you again," without anyone blinking an eye.

INTERACTIVE: Fall TV calendar
If only Horror spent all its time with the characters doing the frightening, including a humorously unhinged Denis O'Hare as a burn victim who slaughtered his entire family but now has musical comedy aspirations. But eventually attention turns to the family being frightened and a duller, denser, more unpleasant clan has never stumbled its way through a haunted house.

The home's latest residents are psychiatrist Ben (Dylan McDermott), his wounded wife, Vivien (Connie Britton), and their troubled daughter, Violet (Taissa Farmiga). On the run from his infidelity and her miscarriage-inspired Boston breakdown, Ben and Viv buy a deserted Los Angeles mansion, despite being warned that the last residents died in a murder/suicide and without doing the even tiniest bit of research that would have told them people have been killing people in that house since the 1920s, and an astounding number of those victims refuse to leave.

Before you can say "boo," the Harmons are being startled by Constance's daughter with Down syndrome (Jamie Brewer, whose use borders on exploitative) and having oddly sex-charged supernatural run-ins. Ben sees the housekeeper not as a middle-aged woman (Frances Conroy) but as her younger self (Alexandra Breckenridge); Viv gets visited by a lover encased in black latex (which explains the hideous poster art, for those of you who have seen it and wondered).

As with so many stories that are held at a constant rolling boil, the excess quickly becomes funny rather than frightening. By the time mom is serving tea to ghosts and dad is digging soon-to-be-needed graves, you're likely to dismiss it as just another normal day at home with the Harmons.

If only we cared what happened to them. Britton looks dazed and disconnected, as if she wished she could trade in her new Wednesday night frights for her old Friday Night Lights. And McDermott seems to have lost all track of his normal tone of voice everything comes out either in monotone or as a full-on, hysterical scream.

Forewarned, as they say.

AMERICAN HORROR STORY
FX, Wednesday, 10 p.m. ET/PT
Rating: ★★ (out of four)

http://www.usatoday.com/life/televis...-fx/50661924/1

Talk about having a bad week!

TV Notes
Playboy Club' actor Ed Cibrian injured at West Side studio
By Stella Foster, Chicago Sun Times - October 5th, 2011

Actor Ed Cibrian was injured Tuesday night while filming a television episode of The Playboy Club at a West Side studio, a source said.

Cibrian injured his right heel while running down an alley on the show's set at Cinespace Studios, 2558 West 16th. The actor received a deep gash on his heel after it caught underneath a 200-pound steel door, the source said.

Cibrian, who is married to country-pop singer LeAnn Rimes, was taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital.

Though the NBC show was cancelled after the third episode aired Monday night, the show's production company had plans to continue filming in Chicago until Oct. 10 with the hopes of eventually shopping the series to another network.

On Monday, a suspected drunk driver crashed into Cibrian's California home, according to news reports.

http://www.suntimes.com/news/foster/...de-studio.html

I would bet much of that was from people like me who DVRed the show, only to have it cut off right at the beginning of the retrospective segment due to the game running over.

At least CBS has a decent site to watch on - a stark contrast to the awful experience of trying to watch anything on the CW site.

Let's see:

- Pretty much out of a job due to series cancellation.
- Injured on the job of shooting scenes from cancelled series that no one may ever see.
- House gets crashed into by a drunk driver.

Add to that the last series he was on (Chase) failed, I think he should consider hiding out in a bunker for a while. His luck seems to have taken a turn for the worse.

Dont we all know that especially when its a CBS doubleheader weekend (even singleheader it can happen too) all CBS shows that night should be timepadded.

Or, as Ed Cibrian's ex Brandi Glanville would call it, karma.


But only 40% of Americans (at most) have access to DVR's. The rest have to tune in and see their shows real-time, which means a lot of them either tune out or sit around waiting for their show/segment to come around. Sucks, but viewers of CBS shows on Sundays are used to this by now.

Thankfully, after decades of indifference, CBS has finally started running "**** will start at hh:mm pm" banners at the top of the hour, no more guessing from the 60 minutes stopwatch.

Nielsen Overnights (18-49)
Fox wins third straight Tuesday night
Averages a 3.6 adults 18-49 rating to No. 2 CBS's 3.3
By Toni Fitzgerald, Media Life Magazine - October 5th, 2011

Three weeks into the new season, Fox is officially the network to beat on Tuesdays.

The network won its third straight Tuesday last night, with new comedy "New Girl" once again finishing as the night's top program.

"Girl" averaged a 4.3 adults 18-49 rating at 9 p.m., according to Nielsen, down just a tick from last week's 4.4.

"Girl" has fallen only 10 percent since its surprisingly strong 4.8 debut two weeks ago, a good sign for any new show.

It also continued to grow out of lead-in "Glee," which averaged a 3.5 in the 8 p.m. timeslot.

Most shows on broadcast saw week-to-week declines last night, with ABC's "Body of Proof" the exception. It was up 11 percent from last week's 1.9 to a 2.1 last night.

New CBS drama "Unforgettable" began to stabilize, seeing a smaller week-to-week decline. It averaged a 2.4, winning the 10 p.m. timeslot and off only 4 percent from the previous week.

NBC's "The Biggest Loser" continues to struggle from 8 to 10 p.m. The aging reality show slid 13 percent from last week, to a 2.0.

Meanwhile, Fox finished first for the night among 18-49s with a 3.6 average overnight rating and a 9 share. CBS was second at 3.3/9, ABC third at 2.2/6, NBC fourth at 2.0/5, Univision fifth at 1.5/4, CW sixth at 0.6/2 and Telemundo seventh at 0.5/1.

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. Forty-two percent of Nielsen households have DVRs.

At 8 p.m. CBS began the night in the lead with a 4.1 for "NCIS," followed by Fox with a 3.5 for "Glee." NBC was third with a 1.9 for "Loser," ABC fourth with a 1.7 for "Dancing with the Stars: The Encore Performance," Univision fifth with a 1.6 for the premiere of "Una Familia con Suerte," CW sixth with a 0.6 for "90210" and Telemundo seventh with a 0.4 for "Mi Corazon Insiste."

Fox took the lead at 9 p.m. with a 3.6 for "Girl" (4.3) and "Raising Hope" (2.9), while CBS slipped to second with a 3.4 for "NCIS: Los Angeles." ABC was third with a 2.8 for "Dancing with the Stars Results," NBC fourth with a 2.1 for more "Loser," Univision fifth with a 1.5 for "La Fuerza del Destino," CW sixth with a 0.6 for "Ringer" and Telemundo seventh with a 0.5 for "Flor Salvaje."

CBS moved back to first at 10 p.m. with a 2.4 for "Unforgettable," with ABC second with a 2.1 for "Proof." NBC was third with a 2.0 for "Parenthood," Univision fourth with a 1.2 for "Aqui y Ahora" and Telemundo fifth with a 0.6 for "La Casa de al Lado."

CBS led the night among households with a 9.4 average overnight rating and a 15 share. ABC was second at 7.6/12, Fox third at 4.6/7, NBC fourth at 3.5/5, Univision fifth at 1.9/3, CW sixth at 1.0/1 and Telemundo seventh at 0.7/1.

http://www.medialifemagazine.com/art...sday-night.asp

Well let's see cheat on your wife with Leanne Rimes who was cheating on her husband. I call it karma.

I've been signed up for email notification from CBS for a couple of years. Check out http://www.cbs.com/eye-lerts/

TUESDAY's fast affiliate overnight prime-time ratings -and what they mean- have been posted on Analyst Marc Berman's Media INsight's Blog.

Next thing you know Cibrian will have a dark cloud raining over his head inside his hospital room that's constantly throwing lightning bolts at him... guy just can't catch a break!

TV Notes
'Hey Dude' returns to TeenNick, '90s block moves to primetime
By Lynette Rice, EW.com's 'Inside TV' Blog - October 5th, 2011

TeenNick’s ’90s block is just too crazy popular to air at midnight, so the cable net has decided to move it where even more 20-something can appreciate a good rerun when they see one. Beginning this Friday, The ’90s Are All That will move up two hours to 10 p.m., where the rotating block of beloved Nick shows will now air seven days a week.

That’s not all: Hey Dude will now have a much-coveted spot in the lineup, alongside All That, Kenan & Kel and Doug. And Stick Stickly – aka the famous popsicle stick from the ’90s — who make a triumphant return to host a new interactive segment called “UPick with Stick.” Every Friday night, Stick (voiced by Paul Christie, who first originated the role for Nick) will highlight ’90s Nickelodeon episodes chosen by viewers via Facebook and www.90sAreAllThat.com.

Still like the idea of watching Kenan and Co. at midnight? Have no fear: TeenNick still plans to replay the block from 12 to 2 a.m. (At 10, the block will replace back-to-back repeats of Malcolm in the Middle and What I Like About You).

For those who forgot about the goofy conceit behind Hey Dude, here’s a quick reminder: The live-action series was one of Nickelodeon’s first that aired from 1989 to 1991. Shot on location in Tucson, Ariz., the laugher centered on a wacky group of teenagers working at the Bar None western dude ranch and starred David Brisbin (Mr. Ernst), David Lascher (Ted), Christine Taylor (Melody), Kelly Brown (Brad), and Joe Torres (Danny).

TeenNick says The ‘90s Are All That has scored huge gains for the net, posting double-digit increases over last year (50%) among adults 18-34 in the time period. The reruns are a throw back to Nick’s roots in 1991, when it first expanded into original programming with Ren & Stimpy, Doug and Rugrats.

http://insidetv.ew.com/2011/10/05/he...ick-90s-block/

TV/Business Notes
Univision to distribute its top programs online through Hulu
By Dawn C. Chmielewski, Los Angeles Times' 'Company Town' Blog - October 5th, 2011

For the first time, Univision will make its popular Spanish-language novelas, variety shows and reality series available online, through Internet television provider Hulu.

The deal represents a milestone for Univision, the fifth-largest television network in the U.S., whose popular programming dominates the Spanish-language market.

Starting later this year, Univision said, it will make some of its prime-time shows available on the free, ad-supported Hulu.com site a day after an episode's initial airing. A more extensive collection of the current season's shows and past series can be found on Hulu Plus, the subscription service that charges $7.99 a month.

"The deal is significant, not just for Univision and Hulu, but for individual [viewers] as well," said Tonia O'Connor, Univision Communications' president of distribution and sales. "This is the first time we are making this content available online."

Univision did not identify which of its shows it planned to offer for free online viewing, and which would require a paid subscription. Its partership with Mexico City-based television giant Grupo Televisa enables Univision to draw from a trove of low-cost Televisa-produced telenovelas, which fuel its prime-time ratings.

Last week, Univision accounted for the top 10 programs among Latino viewers, according to Nielsen ratings.

Andy Forssell, Hulu's senior vice president of content acquisition, said the partnership with Univision would enable the online video service to reach a population of 50 million Latino people in the United States -- a group advertisers are eager to reach.

"It's young, it's active, it's upwardly mobile and it's hard to get to," Forssell said. "It's exactly the audience you'd expect to be online in force, but they haven't been. There has not been any significant amount of long-form Spanish-language content online."

Forssell said the Univision deal will break down the barriers to online viewing of these shows.

Univision tapped into demand for online Spanish-language content when it streamed World Cup soccer matches in June 2010. When it allowed viewers to watch full episodes of one of its novelas, "Eva Luna," the network discovered the online offering fueled television viewing. The show's finale in April drew 9.5 million viewers, making it the highest-rated domestically produced novela in history.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/ente...ms-online.html

Just as I suspected. Thanks.

I record the 8 and 9 PM Central CBS shows and have solved the game length problem by simply extending the 9 PM recording by an hour. So far this has been enough padding.

Much less of a problem when you consider only Central/Eastern viewers are affected by NFL overrun. Last Sunday's CBS lineup started at regular times for Western/Mountain viewers.

Since it's been years since the last time I watched anything on CBS Sundays, no I didn't think about it. I recorded it just to see what they did with his last regular segment, since I used to watch the show years ago.

I wasn't alone since some the comments on the CBS site mentioned other people had the same issue. A lot of people who aren't regular viewers, but were curious about it, recorded it to watch later.

Not all of us watch football or give a damn about it to remember it can't actually end on time. Some of us wonder what the point of having a clock at all is if they keep stopping it. We're also the ones who would love to see every bit of sports go to a paid tier so it doesn't mess with regularly scheduled shows.