Hot Off The Press: The Latest TV News and Information - Page 2458

We've watched it from day 1, greatly enjoyed S1 and S2 but it should have ended after last season. Way past its prime.

TV Notes
Wednesday’s Highlights: 'South Park' on Comedy Central
By Los Angeles Times' 'Show Tracker' Blog - November 8th, 2011

[ALL TIMES LISTED ARE PACIFIC TIME]

THANKFUL: The kids learn the real story of Thanksgiving in a new episode of the animated series “South Park,” at 10 p.m. on Comedy Central.

SERIES

Up All Night: While Chris and Reagan (Will Arnett, Christina Applegate) go out for a romantic evening, Ava (Maya Rudolph) takes care of Amy in this new episode (8 p.m. NBC).

Harry’s Law: Harry and Oliver (Kathy Bates, Mark Valley) take on the mayor (George Wendt) of a small town where Harry’s Mercedes is impounded for violating the local “Buy American” law in this new episode (9 p.m. NBC).

Nova: “The Fabric of the Cosmos” continues with “The Illusion of Time,” in which physicist Brian Greene reveals a new way of thinking about time, in which moments past, present and future exist all at once (9 p.m. KOCE). In a second new episode at 10, subtitled “The Elegant Universe,” Greene explores string theory.

Work of Art: The Next Great Artist: The artists visit a major newspaper’s offices, where they’re challenged to find a headline that resonates with them and create a work of art based on the story (9 p.m. Bravo).

Vietnam in HD: The new episode recalls the massive Tet offensive, which caught the Americans by surprise and led to the political unrest and social turmoil of 1968 that helped Nixon win the presidency (9 p.m. History).

Psych: The manager of Santa Barbara’s minor league baseball team hires Shawn and Gus (James Roday, Dule Hill) to investigate the mysterious death of the team’s hitting coach. Wade Boggs and Danny Glover guest star in this new episode (10 p.m. USA).

SPECIALS

Your Money, Your Vote: The Republican Presidential Debate: Candidates discuss jobs, taxes, the deficit and the health of the U.S. economy (5 and 8 p.m. CNBC).

The 45th Annual CMA Awards: Topping the list of nominees are four artists with five nominations each — Jason Aldean, Brad Paisley, Blake Shelton and Taylor Swift — in this new special featuring performances by Aldean, the Band Perry, Shelton, Lionel Richie, Little Big Town, Rascal Flatts, Darius Rucker, Swift and Keith Urban. Co-hosts Paisley and Carrie Underwood will sing their duet “Remind Me (8 p.m. ABC).

SPORTS

Hockey: The Nashville Predators visit the Ducks (7 p.m. FS Prime).

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/show...y-central.html

Are you talking syndicated re-runs of the original or are you referring to TNG and DS9?

If the latter, remember that those were new episodes in syndication, not simply re-runs like Chuck would be. Those shows were never on any particular network.

Further, I'm pretty sure the Star Trek franchise has a few more fans than Chuck does.

TV Notes
CBS To Reboot Western ‘The Rifleman’ With Laeta Kalogridis, Chris Columbus And Carol Mendelsohn
By Nellie Andreeva, Deadline.com - November 8th, 2011

CBS has closed deals for The Rifleman, a drama project based on the 1958 Western series about a 1880s widower with a rapid-fire Winchester rifle living on a ranch with his son. Laeta Kalogridis (Shutter Island) and Patrick Lussier will write and Chris Columbus is set to direct the reboot, which, like the original, centers on Civil war hero, Lucas McCain, an unparalleled sharpshooter with a haunted past, who moves to the uncharted New Mexico territory to raise his son Mark. There, he joins forces with the Sheriff to protect his new town and become its unofficial guardian. CBS TV Studios and Carol Mendelsohn Prods. are producing.

The original series, whose pilot aired on CBS as part of Dick Powell’s Zane Grey Theater before the series had a five-season run on ABC, was created by Sam Peckinpah and starred Chuck Connors as McCain. It was produced by Jules V. Levy, Arthur Gardner and Arnold Laven’s Levy-Gardner-Laven Prods. The only surviving member of the trio, who met while serving together in Air Force’s First Motion Picture Unit during World War II, 101-year-old Arthur Gardner, is executive producing The Rifleman reboot with his son, Steven Gardner, and Jules Levy’s son Robert. Also executive producing are Kalogridis, Lussier, Columbus, Carol Mendelsohn and her Julie Weitz.

Harry Potter And The Sorcerer’s Stone director Columbus has a 3-for-1 deal with CBS, under which one of 3 projects he develops though CBS TV Studios and his 1492 Pictures is assured to go to pilot, which he will direct and executive produce. This marks the seventh sale for Carol Mendelsohn Prods. in the first full development cycle since Mendelsohn brought in Weitz as president of her CBS TV Studios-based production company. The deal for The Rifleman was brokered by WME and Dan Black.

This is the latest period Western put in development at the broadcast networks this season. Fox has a Wyatt Earp Western penned by John Hlavin, NBC has an untitled Kerry Ehrin project set in the 1880s, ABC has Ron Moore’s Hangtown, set in the early 1900 and David Zabel’s Gunslinger. Additionally, TNT recently gave a pilot order to Bruce C. McKenna and Danny Cannon’s Gateway, set in the 1880s, and the AMC series Hell On Wheels just premiered to strong ratings.

Here is the famous opening sequence and some stills from the original Black & White Rifleman series [CLICK LINK BELOW]:

http://www.deadline.com/2011/11/cbs-...ol-mendelsohn/

And will still be a colossal waste of time and money even at that. In what circumstance would this ever get used, short of a full-blown nuke strike where it wouldn't matter anyway? The news would be all over anything else way before the gov't reacted, 9/11 is a perfect example.

Great article from the Pitt reporter posted here, hit nail on head.

I've always thought that way and now even more so in this era of significantly increased ways to communicate. This might have had merit in the days of just a few broadcast stations prior to cable, the internet or mobile phones, but now it's completely useless. All it does is interrupt people's shows when they test it, then sits idle when events happen that it was intended for. Further, it creates more work for all the stations having to relay the tests.

If congress is looking for line items to cut, this should be at the top of the list.

Maybe if this test is a miserable failure, they'll consider it.

Nielsen Notes (Broadcast)
CBS and Fox tie for first, with CBS gaining
Averaging 3.5 in adults 18-49 for the new season
By Toni Fitzgerald, Media Life Magazine - November 9th, 2011

After weeks of trading leadership among adults 18-49, CBS and Fox have settled into a tie for first place.

The two networks are knotted at a 3.5 adults 18-49 rating apiece, though Fox has a slightly higher share, a 10, than CBS, at 9.

ABC is third at 2.8/8, followed by NBC in fourth at 2.6/7.

Momentum seems to be on the side of CBS this week. For nearly two months, Fox has been the only network seeing gains over last year.

But now CBS has pulled ahead of last fall's average, too, after winning the most recent week of the season by a large margin over its rival.

CBS averaged a 3.4 rating and 9 share last week, the week ended Nov. 6, according to Nielsen, with Fox in second with a 3.0/8.

CBS is now 3 percent ahead of last season's 3.4/9 average to this point in the season. Fox is pacing 17 percent ahead of last year's 3.0/8.

Again it's been sports that have made the big difference this fall.

CBS surged into the tie for first after trailing for two weeks while Fox was buoyed by World Series baseball coverage.

What lifted CBS this past week was the highly anticipated college football game between No. 1 LSU and No. 2 Alabama.

The game averaged a 7.2 in 18-49s, or roughly seven times CBS's usual Saturday night average, and became the network's top-rated regular-season game in two decades.

Having a strong presence on Saturday night, which is usually dominated by low-rated reruns, gives any network a huge boost.

It seems CBS and Fox could continue to exchange the lead until the latter's "American Idol" returns in January.

While the season finale of "The X Factor" will draw solid numbers in a few weeks, the show will then be off the schedule, significantly weakening Fox's average on Wednesday and Thursday nights.

That could give CBS an opening to pull ahead in December, though it will surely cede that lead back to Fox come January, when "Idol" airs its 11th season premiere.

Fox has finished first among 18-49s for eight straight seasons on the strength of "Idol."

* * * *

In broadcast ratings for the week ended Nov. 6:

Among adults 18-49, CBS was first for the week with a 3.4 average rating and a 9 share, followed by Fox at 3.0/8, NBC at 2.4/7, ABC at 2.2/6, Univision at 1.4/4, CW at 0.7/2, Telemundo at 0.5/1, ION at 0.3/1, 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" 8.8; 2. CBS's "College Football" 7.2; 3. Fox's "The OT" 6.1; 4. ABC's "Modern Family" 5.7; 5. CBS's "The Big Bang Theory" 5.4.

Top five English-language Big Five shows (total viewers): 1. NBC's "Sunday Night Football" 22.12 million; 2. CBS's "College Football" 20.01 million; 3. CBS's "NCIS" 19.71 million; 4. ABC's "Dancing with the Stars" 16.23 million; 5. CBS's "The Big Bang Theory" 15.98 million.

Top five time-shifted English-language Big Five shows (18-49s, by Live+SD versus Live+7 playback, week ended Oct. 23): 1. ABC's "Modern Family" 2.3 increase (up 40.4 percent); 2. CBS's "Two and a Half Men" 1.7 increase (up 32.1 percent); 3. ABC's "Grey's Anatomy" 1.5 increase (up 44.4 percent); 4. Fox's "House" 1.5 increase (up 48.4 percent); 5. CBS's "The Big Bang Theory" 1.4 increase (up 27.5 percent).

Show on the rise: CBS's "The Mentalist," Thursday 10 p.m. The procedural averaged a 2.9 among 18-49s, up 16 percent from the previous weeks 2.5.

Show on the decline: NBC's "Grimm," Friday 9 p.m. In its second outing the drama averaged a 1.8 among 18-49s, down 14 percent from the 2.1 its premiere averaged the previous week.

http://www.medialifemagazine.com/art...S-gaining-.asp

Nielsen Notes (Cable)
'Real Housewives': As for real as ever
By Toni Fitzgerald, Media Life Magazine - November 2nd, 2011

Despite all the turmoil that has surrounded Bravo's "Real Housewives" over the past year, from the suicide of one cast member to the first-ever series cancellation, the franchise clearly is not played out.

On Sunday night "The Real Housewives of Atlanta" aired the most-watched season premiere for any "Housewives" program in history, going back five years.

"Atlanta" averaged 2.9 million total viewers and 1.9 million adults 18-49 in the 9 p.m. timeslot, according to Nielsen, up 20 percent and 10 percent, respectively, over the season three premiere.

"Housewives" was the No. 1 reality show on cable Sunday in 18-49s and drew another 1.7 million viewers for a repeat of the premiere episode that aired at 10.

The strong numbers may be a bit of a surprise to anyone who's followed the "Housewives" franchise recently. It's certainly been a rocky year.

After the estranged husband of "Real Housewives of Beverly Hills" cast member Taylor Armstrong committed suicide over the summer, there were serious questions about the propriety of continuing to air the series.

Bravo was heavily criticized when it decided to go forward with the second season of "Hills," which began just weeks after Russell Armstrong's funeral. His family has blamed the reality show for his depression and subsequent suicide.

Armstrong's death came months after Bravo axed "The Real Housewives of D.C.," the first and only of the seven "Housewives" chapters to be canceled.

The trouble with that show, it seemed, was that it simply wasn't interesting enough. Political intrigue doesn't fascinate people outside the Beltway, and most of the drama related to politics.

By contrast, the Atlanta housewives have never had any trouble generating drama, which probably explains their continued popularity.

NeNe and Sheree had a verbal confrontation in the season premiere, Phaedra got a weird new hobby, and Kim and Kroy's future was thrown into doubt.

* * * *

In cable ratings for the week ended Nov. 6:

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

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

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" (Tuesday, 8 p.m.); 4. Fox News Channel's "The O'Reilly Factor" (Friday, 8 p.m.); 5. Fox News Channel's "The O'Reilly Factor" (Monday, 8 p.m.)

Top movie (18-49s): ABC Family's "Aladdin" (Sunday, 7:30 p.m.) 1.44 million.

Top sporting event (total viewers): ESPN's "Monday Night Football: Chargers/Chiefs" (Monday, 8:30 p.m.) 12.03 million.

Shows making the top 10 among 18-34s, 18-49s and 25-54s: ESPN's "Monday Night Football: Chargers/Chiefs" (Monday, 7:30 p.m.); AMC's "The Walking Dead" (Sunday, 9 p.m.); FX's "Sons of Anarchy" (Tuesday, 10 p.m.).

Show on the rise: Discovery Channel's "Gold Rush Alaska" Friday, 9 p.m. The reality show averaged 2.18 million viewers 25-54, up 20 percent week-to-week from 1.82 million.

Show on the decline: MTV's "Beavis & Butt-Head," Thursday, 10 p.m. In its second episode back the animated comedy averaged 1.46 million 18-49s, down 37 percent from 2.33 million the previous week.

http://www.medialifemagazine.com/art...al-as-ever.asp

TV Notes
Kelly Ripa re-ups as host on 'Live!'
By Lynette Rice, EW.com's 'Inside TV' Blog - November 8th, 2011

As Live! prepares for Regis Philbin's last days as host, the syndicated show has lined up its ducks when it comes to Kelly Ripa. Disney-ABC Domestic TV has signed the popular host to a new deal that will keep her in daytime through 2017. She's already been on the daytime talker for 10 years.

Once Philbin departs on Nov. 18, the show will go by the temporary name of Live! With Kelly until a replacement for the Reeg can be found. It has already been announced that Jerry Seinfeld will guest host on Nov. 21-23.

In the meantime, Live! has announced the line-up for Philbin's final week. Funnymen Jimmy Fallon and Don Rickles will kick off the week of musical tributes and more and theme packages will air throughout the week to cover the past 28 seasons of Live!, including Philbin's top moments and favorite memories.

http://insidetv.ew.com/2011/11/09/ke...-host-on-live/

If live Nielson numbers don't matter at HBO, I don't see why they do at Starz. And Boss airs on Friday nights. For all the talk of Friday being a ghost town where dying shows go to be buried, you'd think the author would realize that, if Starz originally slated the show for Friday nights, it doesn't care what the ratings are--only what the buzz is.

I've watched all three episodes via VOD and wouldn't have it any other way. I do the same for all of HBO's shows that I watch. The only premium channel shows I watch live are Dexter and Homeland, mostly because Sunday night is one of the few nights where live TV is possible for me--and that way I can speed through commercials on The Walking Dead and Hell on Wheels.

TV/Business Notes
What Busy Moms Sneak In...TV Time
Nickelodeon Adds Shows for Women from 9 p.m. to 1 a.m.; Depriving 11 Families of Mom for Research
By Lauren A.E. Schuker, Wall Street Journal - November 9th, 2011

Who knew moms were staying up so late?

After months of research, the cable-TV network Nickelodeon has concluded that 9 p.m. to 1 a.m. are magical hours for moms, the time when they unwind after a long day of texting, chauffeuring, managing schedules and being emotionally supportive.

Now, spotlighting a shift in how women watch TV, Nick is betting it can tap that market with new prime-time programming created by, about and for moms.

Called "NickMom," it is the cable channel's effort to attract more of an audience segment that is looking pretty hot to advertisers these days.

U.S. moms, in their dual roles as breadwinners and caregivers, spend an estimated $2.1 trillion a yearÂup 24% since 1999Âaccording to the Mom Complex, a think tank at advertising firm the Martin Agency. And their spending is becoming especially apparent as a result of their avid use of social media.

Nick is catering to an audience of women aged 40 and under, especially mothers who watched the channel when they were children. About 25% of mothers today watched Nick when they were kids, according to Nielsen.

The cable channel is launching a website next week, where moms can interact. Programming in the works and set to start airing next fall may include a "Real Mom" reality show Ã* la "Real Housewives," and a show called "Double Mom," where a comedian takes a mother's place for a day.

Another idea is to air old episodes of "The Brady Brunch" with pop-up bubbles showing what Carol Brady and other characters were really thinking. The idea is to create content that "appeals to the sense of humor that mothers share," says Cyma Zarghami, president of Nickelodeon Networks.

After decades in which TV programmers targeted mothers during the day, Nickelodeon's night-time strategy recognizes that many moms now work during the day and have leisure time late at night.

Especially after Oprah Winfrey's syndicated daytime talk show ended earlier this year, the NickMom effort highlights how women's daytime viewing habits have changed, with many mothers watching recorded prime-time shows during the day.

Nickelodeon says the current generation of mothers consumes more media, including TV, movies and online content, than previous generations.

"If you're the mother of a 2-year-old or a 17-year-old, you belong to an instant community. We thought we could tap into that," says Ms. Zarghami.

Ms. Zarghami started at Nickelodeon in the mid-1980s as a clerk inputting data into program logs. She worked her way up and was named president in 2006.

In that role, she stretched the Nickelodeon brand beyond its origins in programming for kids ages 2 to 11 by relaunching the "Nick Jr." channel for preschoolers and "TeenNick" for teens, and by partnering with Sony Music to create shows, like "Victorious," with musical content.

"We don't want just to show cute babies in diapers, but rather capture those truly funny moments of motherhood," says Ms. Zarghami, who recalls how she tried putting Cheerios in the toilet to help potty train her sons.

"When you're a mom, you set the bar very high and when you realize that other people are screwing up, too, it's such a relief," says Allison Pearson, author of the best-selling novel about mothering called "I Don't Know How She Does It," who is developing a feature for the "NickMom" website.

In all, there are more than 30 NickMom projects in development, including talk shows, stand-up comedy, a game show called "Mom vs. Grandma," and a "Daily Show"Â-type news show anchored by comedian Annabelle Gurwitch.

Five advertisers including General Mills and Reckitt Benckiser intend to spend a total of $25 million to advertise during the first NickMom season.

"There is definitely an open space on television right now for programming featuring moms talking directly to other moms," says Mark Addicks, chief marketing officer for General Mills.

Ms. Zarghami, having given birth to three boys during her career at Nickelodeon, perceived the opportunity to cater to moms. She laid the groundwork by interviewing more than 100 mothers around the country.

For a "deprivation study" called "Un-Mommed" that started this past summer, Nickelodeon paid 11 moms about $1,500 and put them up in a hotel for two nights while observing the effects on them and their families.

The company set up cameras in the hotel and the families' houses, and it fitted each family with biometric bands to test stress levels. All contact between mother and family, whether by phone, email, text or Facebook, was forbidden.

This turned out to be very difficult for most moms, and was in some cases a dealbreakerÂto the point where Nickelodeon had trouble filling the 11 slots.

Among the study's preliminary findings were that mothers see their roles inside and outside the home as fluid; they "do not recognize a 'non-mom' part of their identities," the study found.

Another finding was that for both mothers and fathers, home life tends to cause more stress than work life; "the stakes are higher, so the stress is greater," the study found. It also revealed that mothers struggled to be "truly present" and to live in the moment.

"NickMom" arrives in a marketplace where female-focused cable channels already crowd the dial. Women made up 70% of the prime-time audiences of for cable channels Bravo, E!, Lifetime, the Hallmark Channel, and TLC.

Moms ages 18 to 49 also are the fuel for much of the big broadcast networks' prime-time fare, whether it's "American Idol," "2 Broke Girls" or "Dancing With the Stars."

Among mothers between the ages of 18 and 49, Nickelodeon ranks as the most-watched cable channel.

One advantage Nickelodeon has is current viewing patterns, where mothers (and fathers) tend to watch TV with their children.

"Co-viewing," as the industry calls it, rates on Nick Jr. have grown to 61% this year from 55% of its programming in 2009, according to Nielsen data provided by the network.

Moreover, Nick Jr.'s total audience has grown by 23% since 2009, while the audience for NickelodeonÂwhich airs the hit franchises "SpongeBob" and "iCarly," has remained mostly flat. "NickMom" programming won't be profitable the first year, Ms. Zarghami says.

The newest generation of mothers is older, more diverse, tech-savvy and tech-dependent, and TV executives are racing to tailor programming to their tastes.

Advertiser spending on TV and across other media aimed at mothers reaches into the billions of dollars a year, according to the Mom Complex think tank.

Marketers have even begun referring to the "mommy tsunami."

"A lot of companies have suddenly woken up over the past couple of years and realized how much money moms are responsible for spending," says Stephanie Azzarone, president of Child's Play Communications, which helps connect marketers of products and services with mothers.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...sonaljournal_0

TV Notes
Nathan Fillion, a pop culture king beyond Castle'
By Geoff Boucher, Los Angeles Times' 'Hero Complex' Blog - November 8th, 2011

If you settle for 20th century definitions, Nathan Fillion is a prime-time television star - after all, his Monday night series Castle is cruising through its fourth sly season on ABC with more than 13 million viewers a week. But in this pop-culture era of digital tribes it's really not fair to limit his celebrity with that sort of remote-control thinking.

These are the days of compartmentalized fame and there are few better examples than Fillion, who is able to able to anchor a popular network series even as he puts together a dynamic resume of cult-audience projects, be they beautiful misfires (Joss Whedon's Firefly), bold misfits (James Gunn's Super), experimental farce (Whedon's Dr. Horrible's Sing-a-Long Blog) or cosmic cartoons (he returns to the role of Green Lantern in the upcoming animated movie Justice League: Doom).

When I go to a sci-fi convention, oh God, it's the closest thing to being a rock star I will ever know in this life, Fillion said over a coffee with an expression of rapturous deadpan. I want to be a rock star, don't you? It's a good thing to be, a rock star.

When you have won over cults as diverse as Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Desperate Housewives fans, for instance, you walk away with a special sort of celebrity. More than a million people follow Fillion on Twitter, and this past Valentine's Day, readers of Entertainment Weekly voted his character, the charming boor Richard Castle, as the TV male they would most like to date.

It all adds up to a curious career odyssey for Fillion, who was raised by two English teachers in Canada and was himself on a path to become a high school teacher when his Edmonton theater work led in 1994 to a role on the soap opera One Life to Live. After a Daytime Emmy nomination, the soap job led to Los Angeles sitcom work on Two Guys, a Girl and a Pizza Place (which starred Ryan Reynolds, that other Canadian who wears a Green Lantern ring) and a brief but memorable role in Steven Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan (playing a namesake for Matt Damon's title character).

Fillion also landed the role of Caleb on the final season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, a key early moment in his collaboration with Whedon. Fillion was Whedon's leading man in the star-crossed sci-fi western series Firefly in 2002-03 and its feature-film sequel, Serenity, in 2005, and every few months there's an industry rumor or a fan campaign calling for the franchise to saddle up again.

To the constituencies of Comic-Con International, Fillion feels like a homegrown superstar and he is acutely aware of his need to foster that part of his career. Last month, a Castle graphic novel (written by fan favorite Brian Michael Bendis) hit stores and also popped up as a carefully placed prop in a recent episode of the series. Fillion knows that Castle viewers who tune in to watch him and co-star Stana Katic solve murders represent a very different demographic than Comic-Con, but he says the line between mainstream sensibilities and genre tastes is narrowing.

It's so great in Hollywood now, he said. You have people past 40 sitting and talking about serious stuff, writing and making movies and TV, but there's laser pistols and superheroes and alien monsters involved. It's viable and mainstream. There's a treasure trove of story, and film and television are dying for story, and comic books are like storyboards, and with special effect what can't you do now?

The 40-year-old Fillion longs to be in a big-budget sci-fi or superhero feature film but by no means is he overlooking the value of Castle, which started off as a big-city send-up of Murder, She Wrote and has morphed into a Moonlighting informed by Law & Order and Bones. The show is enjoying its best numbers ever right now.

Like Hugh Laurie on House, Fillion clearly adores the cranky possibilities of playing a self-possessed scoundrel.

I read him and immediately thought, What a great time this would be to play him because he's a kind of a jackass,' Fillion said. He's doing his own thing, he's selfish, he's vain, he's got all these character flaws. All of that I knew right away. What I didn't know was how the mother and daughter relationship would humanize him. He's not in control there, he doesn't know how to be a dad and he gets humiliated a lot that reduces him to something very basic that people can sympathize with.

Fillion is never shy about mocking himself and that, according to Whedon, is the secret of his success.

Nathan is a dork, Whedon said. He's handsome, hilarious, a classic raconteur and a caring, considerate guy. But it's his dorkiness, and his delight in it, that make it all more than charm. No one is more ready to poke fun at Nathan than Nathan. Except me.

What's next? Fillion is back with Whedon for the role of Dogberry in Much Ado About Nothing, a modern adaptation of the Shakespeare shot in black-and-white over 12 days in Santa Monica that earned cast members hilariously miniature paychecks, according to the press release. The film will be ready for the festival circuit on the other side of spring. It's just another cult moment in a career oddly defined by fandom and fizzles.

There were so many projects that I just loved and that a lot of people loved but they didn't fly, Fillion said. You're doing so many projects and then one makes it. And then you sit back and look at it and try to figure out why. Was it the timing or the mood? Is this what people were ready for at that moment? So many projects I've done fell short that I didn't even imagine what it would be like to have a show reach Season Four. I've had the greatest time with the failures but this is OK, too.

http://herocomplex.latimes.com/2011/...ond-castle/#/0

Given proper behavior by the broadcaster and the receiving TV set, 1080p content is broadcast OTA all the time. Film-sourced content uses a framerate of 24 fps (full frames, not interlaced). With proper 3:2 pull down a broadcaster that uses 1080i (60 interlaced fields per second) standard will display on at TV as 1080p at 24 fps (full frames).

This might be what oink was trying to say... I wasn't sure and just trying to clarify.

Business Notes
Political Ad Spending Spurs Local TV Mergers
By Brian Stelter, The New York Times - November 9th, 2011

A period of consolidation is under way in local television and with it, a renewed debate about the implications of merger and acquisition activity on the industry.

A torrent of deals began in September when the Sinclair Broadcast Group bought seven local stations from the Four Points Media Group for $200 million, and it continued in October when the E. W. Scripps Company bought nine stations from McGraw-Hill for $212 million.

Last week, in the single biggest television station acquisition in four years, Sinclair bought eight stations owned by Freedom Communications for $385 million.

Other groups of stations are believed to be on the market now, further signifying that the broadcast business is becoming more attractive to buyers after several painful years. Analysts say private equity firms that bought into the business years ago like Cerberus Capital Management, which founded the holding company Four Points in 2007 are ready to sell.

We really took it on the chin as an industry during the great recession, said David Amy, the chief financial officer for Sinclair, referring to steep declines in advertising revenue. But what the economy took away, politics may help restore. Television stations are among the biggest beneficiaries of political ad spending one of the primary reasons for the increase in sales activity. The election cycle of 2012 is expected to be exceptionally lucrative for stations in competitive states.

Political hot spots have become a key criteria in the selection of acquisition targeting, said Steve Ridge, the president of the media strategy group at Frank N. Magid Associates, an adviser to local stations. In some medium-size markets like Des Moines, where the first caucus will be held in January the infusion literally changes the balance sheet, he said.

Sinclair, which became one of the biggest station operators in the United States through its recent acquisitions, says it is contemplating more purchases. Generally speaking, the industry needs consolidation, Mr. Amy said, to better compete against cable companies that sell ads and wireless companies that want broadcast spectrum.

Public interest groups, on the other hand, say that consolidation can be detrimental to local communities because new owners sometimes make cutbacks to station staff and expect the remaining staff members to do more with less.

The Sinclair deal last week shows that local TV consolidation is alive and well, said Corie Wright, the policy counsel for Free Press, a nonprofit group that ordinarily opposes such deals. Absent meaningful government oversight, local communities will have fewer and fewer competing and independent local news voices, and more absentee owners programming from afar, she said.

Groups like Free Press say that quality and diversity on local TV stations matters because the newscasts by those stations are the biggest sources of news for most Americans.

A report by the market research firm SNL Kagan said that the third quarter of the year brought a huge increase in television station deal volume, more than the two previous quarters combined. The report noted, however, that there were still some troubled and failing station groups. One such group of four stations, Roberts Broadcasting, filed for bankruptcy last month.

Broadly speaking, stations are worth about half as much as they were a decade ago, when prices peaked, estimated Robin Flynn, a senior analyst for SNL Kagan, who said there was a pent-up supply of stations for sale.

Along with the help from political ads, stations are also becoming more attractive to buyers because they are raising money, in the form of retransmission payments, from the cable and satellite distributors that retransmit their signals to subscribers. Mr. Amy of Sinclair said that owning more stations was advantageous in the negotiations with distributors. Acquisitions of stations are regulated by the Federal Communications Commission, which is completing a review of its broadcast ownership rules. Such reviews are supposed to take place every four years.

The review proposes to keep in place some of the rules that make it difficult to own both a daily newspaper and a radio or TV station in the same market, according to an F.C.C. official who has seen a draft of the revised rules. But it will remove the restrictions on cross-ownership of radio and television stations, so it may become much easier for one person to own both in the same market.

The F.C.C. official, who insisted on anonymity because the revisions had not been voted on, cautioned that the draft was subject to change. An F.C.C. spokeswoman reiterated that point and declined to comment further.

Station operators say that the F.C.C. rules make it more difficult to do business; Mr. Amy said the regulations have hampered the industry.

The F.C.C. commissioner who has been the most critical of media mergers, Michael J. Copps, said last week that he expected many more deals as the economy improves and station groups continue the quest for all those elusive efficiencies to satisfy the investors.

The bottom line, he said, is fewer voices, less news and a diminished civic dialogue.

Critics of consolidation say that some station owners sidestep the F.C.C. media ownership rules by outsourcing news production to others, especially in smaller markets what Ms. Wright of Free Press calls covert consolidation.

The arrangements, sometimes called shared services agreements, often end up reducing the number of reporters and producers in a given community. Ms. Wright's group recently produced an advocacy video that shows two newscasts on two different stations in Charleston, S.C., that have some of the same news scripts, anchors and reporters, through a sharing agreement between two owners.

These deals are often the precursors to mergers, Ms. Wright said. In fact, as soon as Sinclair obtains antitrust approval to buy Freedom Communications' eight stations, but before the stations actually change hands, Sinclair will start to operate the eight stations under one such agreement.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/09/bu..._r=1&ref=media

I'm not jwebb1970, so I'll apologize in advance for speaking for him, but I'm pretty sure he was referring to the original series in syndication, which did exactly what you had suggested could (but probably won't) happen for Chuck. During it's original network run, Star Trek, like Chuck, was constantly low-rated, and teetering on the edge of cancellation. But after it was cancelled, it went into syndication, and exploded. It was hugely popular, and if it wasn't for that, the film series and sequel tv shows would never have happened, and Star Trek would just be another footnote in TV history.

Business Notes
Peter Liguori to Depart as Discovery Communications COO at Year's End
By Georg Szalai, The Hollywood Reporter - November 9th, 2011

NEW YORK - Discovery Communications COO Peter Liguori, who has focused on strengthening the cable network company's OWN and other joint venture channels, will leave the company after two years as its no. 2 executive.

Discovery made the departure of the former News Corp. top executive, who reported to president and CEO David Zaslav, official in a statement on Wednesday. The company didn't give a reason for his exit, but observers have in the past suggested that Liguori could look at new opportunities in the fiction/scripted TV space.

The company said it will eliminate the COO position and distribute its responsibilities among the company's senior management team.

Liguori, who formerly ran Fox and FX, joined Discovery in January 2010 and is expected to leave at the end of the year.

Respected Discovery CFO Bradley Singer earlier this year also announced that he would leave the company in March.

At Discovery Communications, Liguori oversaw the launches of joint venture networks The Hub, OWN and 3net.

Pete's leadership, enthusiasm and creative vision have brought a fresh and important perspective to Discovery," said Zaslav. "Around the world, our programming, marketing and promotional efforts have greatly benefited from his energy, experience and creative eye." He added: "Pete is just a terrific guy and talented executive, and I want to thank him for the many significant contributions he has made at all levels of Discovery Communications.

Said Liguori: "My time at Discovery has been incredibly rewarding. Every day I was inspired to work alongside highly talented and hard-working staff who never ceased to surprise with their passion, expertise and commitment. It has been a privilege to have contributed to Discovery's mission and to have helped so many networks and brands grow their ambition and accelerate their creative momentum."

He added "aspecial word of gratitude to David Zaslav for his partnership and friendship and for giving me the opportunity to stretch new creative muscles in the nonfiction space."

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/new...scovery-259310

Nielsen Notes (Cable)
Is Rosie's magic gone? New show tanking
By Bill Cromwell, Media Life Magazine - November 9th, 2011

Rosie O'Donnell helped "The View" to record ratings and deafening buzz during a one-year stint five years ago, but she's not having the same effect for the Oprah Winfrey Network.

Ratings for O'Donnell's new talk show have fallen each week since her debut last month, and last week she hit a new low.

Five episodes of "The Rosie Show," airing weeknights at 7 p.m., averaged 185,000 viewers for the week ended Nov. 6, according to Nielsen.

That was down 22 percent from the previous week, when "Rosie" averaged 223,000 viewers.

"Rosie" averaged 321,000 in her first week, including 497,000 for her very first show, but since then viewership has tanked.

There are likely many reasons for the declines. Undoubtedly many people tuned in simply out of curiosity to that first episode and had no intention of sticking around for subsequent episodes.

Others may not have liked what they saw.

While O'Donnell did not shy away from controversy on "The View," which was part of her appeal, she's not as focused on political topics this go-round, and that may be hurting her appeal among marginal fans.

Finally, people may have simply tired of O'Donnell after so many years in the spotlight. Her first talk show, the Emmy-winning "Rosie," aired for six years, from 1996 to 2002, and her one-year stint on "View" packed in as much controversy as many hosts have over a decade.

In fact, a recent poll by SodaHead, an online opinion site, found that 61 percent of respondents consider O'Donnell the worst talk show host ever.

She was the overwhelming top pick.

Tied at No. 2, with 11 percent apiece, were Jerry Springer and Star Jones, the woman O'Donnell replaced on "View."

http://www.medialifemagazine.com/art...w-tanking-.asp

Anybody see Monday's Hawaii Five-O episode? As soon as they had the credit with Greg Grunberg's name on it, I wondered - would they do it?

And about half-way in, yep they did it. 'It' being - a Heroes reunion between Greg and Masi Oka (the ME on the show) with a nice tag line from Masi: Don't I know you? Haven't we met?

It would have been nice to see Sylar there too, but he's too busy making new Star Trek movies now.

Oh, BTW, more fun for Steve McGarrett, now that Danny's got a new dog (courtesy of their latest murder victim) who likes to leave little (and they're not that little) "presents" all over Steve's office.

In fairness, there is speculation that ratings were even less accurate back then than they are today. Just from the viewer mil they got, assuming even half the viewers bothered to write in, the ratings should have been better.

No doubt, "Lost in Space" was getting a lot of eyeballs, but the ratings methods were still new and unfamiliar territory. There's plenty of reason to believe the ratings aren't accurately measuring people even now. Imagine what it was like in those early years.

On the other hand, Chuck is a show where they know a lot of viewers watch via time shifting or via alternate means. Further, Star Trek picked up a lot of people who never saw the show in its original run when it hit syndication many years later. I doubt there will be the same delay to garner a new audience for Chuck.

Yes, I saw that too, and was waiting for that moment. It lasted a little too long, but it was funny none-the-less.

That's four LOST alumni that have made appearances on H5-0. (At least, by my count)

By Ryan Lawler Nov. 8, 2011, 10:31am PT 19 Comments

A weak economy is putting pressure on the pay TV industry, as it struggles to get new users to sign up for cable, IPTV and satellite services. But the short-term issue around the affordability of cable is hiding a bigger trend of young people who are choosing not to pay for TV. The latest evidence of this comes from statements made by Dish Network Chairman Charlie Ergen, who's trying to figure out how to keep pay TV subscribers who are increasingly watching over-the-top video.

While there's still some debate over how many users are ditching pay TV in lieu of cheaper online options, Ergen said on Monday's earnings call that there's a bigger macro trend developing, with young people choosing to forgo pay TV subscriptions altogether:

Young people who move to an apartment or get a house for the first time don't subscribe to any MVPD (multichannel video programming distributor) and they just get their network programming from Hulu and they get Netflix As an industry where people pay between $70 and $92 a month, that's a lot of money to a young person today who is getting their first job when they can go out and watch Hulu for free and Netflix for $7.99. So it's a threat.

We've written about this phenomenon before, as operators must convince these so-called cord nevers recent college and high school grads moving into their first homes and paying their own bills for the first time that subscribing to pay TV services is worth it. For many of these users, who likely grew up watching content online on mobile devices and on their own time the concept of paying close to a hundred dollars for access to linear programming might not be a winning formula.
Pay TV is not giving up on young people

But pay TV providers are going to great lengths to win over this demographic. That means lower-priced packages of content, and in many cases, it can involve pitching broadband services ahead of TV. Take Comcast, for instance: In meetings at Comcast headquarters in Philadelphia last week, execs said the company has benefited from a number of marketing programs aimed at college students and recent grads that push data-first packages. Other cable providers, like Time Warner Cable, are also focusing on broadband as their core selling point.

That's fine for cable and IPTV providers, which have the infrastructure to roll out broadband Internet offerings, but for a satellite provider like Dish Network, the lack of an Internet offering of its own can be a roadblock to acquiring customers that way.
Premium services take a bigger hit

While Netflix and Hulu are eating into potential new customers in the younger segment of the market, they're also decreasing revenues that Dish gets for premium channels like HBO and Showtime. Online services are largely still seen as complementary to pay TV services for most consumers, except when it comes to paying more for premium packages of TV content.

One reason our premium business is down is when someone can buy Netflix for $7.99, do they really want to pay $14.99 for HBO? And so when people look at their pocketbooks, obviously, every time somebody subscribes to Netflix, it's probably 1/2 of a customer that our industry loses from a premium perspective, Ergen said. He also noted that about 20 percent of Dish subscribers also pay for Netflix, which cuts into its potential premium network revenues.

That said, there's the possibility that the streaming business model might not hold up, particularly as broadband service providers move to more usage-based pricing models. Ergen noted that a $7.99 subscription to Netflix might not be as attractive if the cost of broadband increases. If broadband goes up $20, that's the equivalent of a $27.99 service, he argued, which is something streaming video providers can't control.

http://gigaom.com/video/cord-nevers-dish/

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

A week ago today "Law & Order: SVU" also did the same thing (variations of 'haven't we met before?') when guest star Andre Braugher's attorney walked into the Manhattan SVU squad and was met by Richard Belzer's Det. Munch. Somewhere in TV land dozens of diehard "Homicide: Life on the Street" must have been smiling at the thought that Pembleton and Munch didn't recognize one another.

I was one of those diehards! Their on-screen exchange was a bit off though, with Munch "welcoming" Braugher's character(cop welcomes defense lawyer), so it was a sort of "shout out" to Homicide.

Well, NBC 30 here in CT had their test go without a hitch.

Channel 8 seemed to be stuck on the graphic for a good 3 minutes. Maybe they didn't get the memo about it being shortened....

I didn't get a chance to turn on anybody else to see how they fared.

Here it was
NBC 1 min
Fox 2 min
CBS 2.5 min

I watched all five networks, we were the only one to run the test. Something went terribly wrong.

We monitor 3 or 4 stations for incoming EAS signals, and only received it from 1 of them.

I predict massive failure.

WXYZ-TV (ABC) here had a jumbled mess of several repeated messages running sumultaneously. Tones on top of tones on top of the voice message. Awful.

XM, at least on the channel my wife has on (jazz) did nothing.

Brighthouse Cable on the channels I checked (CNN, HLN, FNC) did nothing.

My own station (and I'm not saying this to brag) ran flawlessly. But a) our engineers are sticklers for this sort of thing and b) we just installed all new EAS gear about a month ago. I'm not surprised

Bet we get a few more of these until the thing works.




EAS Reporting thread: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...8#post21190308

Masi Oka and Greg Grunberg are from Heroes, Terry O'Quinn and Daniel Dae Kim are from Lost. It was funny to see and a nice inside joke for us Heroes-watchers who also like this show.